EXTENDING NEW NARRATIVES
  • Home
  • About
    • Project Description
    • Team
    • Postdoctoral Fellows >
      • 2025-26 Post-Doc Ad
    • Governance
    • New Narratives PDG (2015-19)
  • Building Resources
    • ENN Collaborator Publications
    • Digital >
      • Project Vox
      • Bibliography of Works by Early Modern Women Philosophers
      • Digital Collections
      • Multimedia >
        • Podcast
        • Youtube Channel
    • Print
  • Developing Research
    • Conferences
    • Seminars
    • Workshops
    • Works-in-Progress Seminars
    • Reading Groups
    • ENN Blog
    • Other Events
  • News
    • Announcements
    • Media Mentions
    • Publications
  • Related projects
    • Columbia Center for New Narratives in Philosophy
    • In Parenthesis Project
    • Querelle
    • Archeology of the Female Intellectual Identity (AFII)
    • Brazilian Network of Women in Philosophy
    • Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists
    • Histories of philosophy in a Global Perspective
  • Accueil
  • À Propos
    • Description du projet
    • Chercheurs postdoctoraux, chercheuses postdoctorales >
      • 2025-26 Appel Post-Doc
    • Équipe
    • Direction
  • Construire des ressources
    • ENN Collaborator Publications
    • Ressources numériques >
      • Project Vox
      • Bibliographie d’œuvres de femmes philosophes du passé
      • Collections numériques
      • Multimédia
    • Ressources papier
  • Développer la recherche
    • Conférences FR
    • Seminars FR
    • Workshops FR
    • Séminaires de travaux en cours
    • Groupes de lecture
    • D'Autres Évènements
  • Nouvelles
    • Annonces
  • Projets liés
  • Other Events

ENN Blog

Marinella on Aristotle’s forms, Platonism, and the Superior Beauty of Women

1/13/2022

1 Comment

 
In reading chapter III of The Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects and Vices of Men, I am most interested in Marinella’s appeal to the philosophies of Aristotle and Plato in establishing her bold feminism. Marinella argues that the natural beauty of women reveals the divine excellence of their souls. She writes:
Picture


​So if women are more beautiful than men, who, as can be seen, are generally coarse and ill-formed, who can deny that they are more remarkable? Nobody, in my opinion. Thus it can be said that beauty in a woman is a marvelous spectacle and a miracle worthy of respect, though it is never fully honored and respected by men. 
 
But I wish to go further and show that men are obliged and forced to love women, and that women are not obliged to love them back, except merely from courtesy. I also wish to demonstrate that the beauty of women is the way by which men, who are moderate creatures, are able to raise themselves to the knowledge and contemplation of the divine essence. (62)

Marinella first argues that women’s being naturally more beautiful than men reveals the superiority of their souls. She writes, “The greater nobility and worthiness of a woman’s body is shown by its delicacy, its complexion, and its temperate nature, as well as by its beauty, which is a grace or splendor proceeding from the soul as well as from the body” (57). In order to argue that one’s bodily appearance mirrors the state of one’s soul, Marinella appeals to the idea of the hylomorphism found in Aristotle where the soul is the form of the body and body is the matter of the soul. She asks, “What is the form of the body if not the soul? The greatest poets teach us clearly that the soul shines out of the body as the rays of sun shine through transparent glass” (57). The soul, acting as the form of the body, serves as a template for the appearance of the body and, in its bodily existence, reveals the true nature of the being. The more beautiful a woman’s body is, then, according to Marinella, the more beautiful her soul will be. In comparison to women, however, “all men are ugly” and therefore, inferior in their souls (63).

With Platonism in mind, Marinella argues that the origin and cause of the external beauty of women is God. God uses the forms, such as beauty, to fashion the external world in the most perfect way. Marinella describes God as “the minister who takes [beauty] … from every other source of perfection and excellence” in order “to create this rich and esteemed treasure house of beauty” (62). Corporeal beauty, then, is personally bestowed by God onto only the worthy creatures of the world (59). Great beauty, like that seen in the bodies of women, reveals a divine nobility and excellence in the being. She writes, “Each writer, Platonist, and poet affirms that beauty comes from God… Divine beauty is, therefore, the first and principal cause of women’s beauty, after which come the stars, heavens, nature, love, and the elements” (60). Like other beauties in the external world, the beauty of women stems from God. Men, however, do not have this beauty. This disparity, according to Marinella, shows that men are less worthy beings than women who are chosen to embody a divine form such as beauty. 

​Most interestingly, Marinella concludes that if women are more beautiful than men, and if this beauty originates in God, then men are obligated to love and contemplate the beauty of women because it will lead them to knowledge of God. She asks, “What poet is there, however coarse, who does not state openly that beauty is the path that guides us directly to the contemplation of divine wisdom…beauty, not being earthly but divine and celestial, always raises us toward God, from whom it is derived” (66). Marinella’s argument here positions women as invaluable gateways to God and beauty itself. In this way, women, by their very nature, demand worship and love while men do not. Nodding to Homer, Marinella describes this phenomena as a “golden chain” (66). Similar to Diotima’s Ladder of Love, found in Plato’s Symposium, Marinella describes our love for physical beauty as a way of ascension to higher forms of beauty. First, we see “corporeal beauty” which is “gazed at and considered by the mind, through the means of the outer eye” (66). In admiration of this beauty, we “ascend” and look “with the internal eye at the soul that, adorned with celestial excellence, gives form to the beautiful body” (66). In contemplation of the soul, we consider the “angelic spirits” and “this contemplative mind seats itself within great light… of the one who supports the chain” (66). In appreciating corporeal beauty, we are led to “delight in Him” and are “made happy and blessed” (66). Men, then are obligated to contemplate the beauty of women because they will be naturally led to a contemplation of the divine. Marinella defends the superiority of women with an appeal to Aristotle’s hylomorphism, Plato’s forms, and by arguing that their bodily beauty reflects their beautiful souls which lead men to knowledge of God. 
​--MP
Text source: The Nobility and Excellence of Women, and the Defects and Vices of Men. Edited and translated by Anne Dunhill, The University of Chicago Press, 1999. 
 
Image info: The title page of Lucrezia Marinella's La nobilita, et l’eccellenza delle donne. Published in Venice 1601.
Source: http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/s/184k1c
1 Comment
Davy link
11/26/2023 03:16:01 pm

Men's faces are old, ugly, hirsute with big coarse bone structure made of big coarse bones with sharp angular shape, rough skin texture with big disgusting coarse beards made of stiff facial hair, pores, acne, wrinkles and low luminance contrast. The ugly sex.

Women's faces are neotenous, young, beautiful with soft delicate bone structure made of soft delicate small bones, soft subcutaneous fat layer with round shape, curved lines, smooth refined skin texture, hair-less skin with high luminance contrast (more colorful). The fair sex.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Authors

    ​Jacinta Shrimpton is a PhD student in Philosophy at the University of Sydney. She is co-producer of the ENN New Voices podcast

    Nan Lin is a PhD student in Philosophy at the University of Paris Nanterre. She is co-producer of the ENN New Voices podcast

    Olivia Branscum is a PhD student in Philosophy at Columbia University. She was previously a co-producer of the ENN New Voices podcast


    Haley Brennan is a PhD student in Philosophy at Princeton University. She was previously co-producer of the ENN New Voices podcast

    ​
    Matheus Mazzochi is an undergraduate Philosophy major at Simon Fraser University. His posts are signed MM.

    Mary Purcell is an MA student at Simon Fraser University. Her posts are signed MP.

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    January 2025
    November 2024
    October 2024
    August 2024
    May 2024
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    June 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021

    Categories

    All
    16th Century Women
    17th Century Women
    18th Century Women
    19th Century Women
    Abolitionism
    Ada Lovelace
    Aesthetics
    Africana Philosophy
    American Women Philosophers
    Andean Philosophy
    Angela Foligno
    Animal Rights
    Anna Julia Cooper
    Anti Oppression
    Anti-oppression
    Anti Slavery
    Arcangela Tarabotti
    Attention
    Audre Lorde
    Beauty
    Black Women Philosophers
    Brazilian Women
    Canadian Women Philosophers
    Catherine Of Siena
    Claudia Jones
    Contemplative Tradtion
    Decolonization
    Early 20th Century Women
    Education
    Edward Blyden
    Emile Du Chatelet
    English Women
    Environmental Ethics
    Equality
    Eternity
    Feminism
    Frances Power Cobbe
    Frederick Douglass
    Free Will
    French Women
    Germaine De Staël
    German Women
    Hadewijch
    Harriet Martineau
    Hildegard Von Bingen
    Idealism
    Identity
    Indigenous Peoples
    Indigenous Philosophy
    Intersectionality
    Italian Women
    Julian Of Norwich
    Karoline Von Günderrode
    Labour Movements
    Language
    Laura Bassi
    Lorraine Hansberry
    Love
    Lucrezia Marinelli
    Margaret Ebner
    Maria Stewart
    Marriage
    Mary Ann Shadd Cary
    Medieval Women
    Metaphysics
    Mind And Body
    Moderata Fonte
    Moral Education
    Natural Philosophy
    Nísia Floresta
    Phenomenology
    Phillis Wheatley
    Philosophy Of Mind
    Philosophy Of Science
    Podcast
    Political Philosophy
    Public Philosophy
    Research Methods
    Rosa Luxemburg
    Sexuality
    Simone De Beauvoir
    Simon Weil
    Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz
    Venetian Women
    Veronica Franco
    Virtue
    W.E.B Du Bois
    Wisdom
    Women's Rights

    RSS Feed

  • Home
  • About
    • Project Description
    • Team
    • Postdoctoral Fellows >
      • 2025-26 Post-Doc Ad
    • Governance
    • New Narratives PDG (2015-19)
  • Building Resources
    • ENN Collaborator Publications
    • Digital >
      • Project Vox
      • Bibliography of Works by Early Modern Women Philosophers
      • Digital Collections
      • Multimedia >
        • Podcast
        • Youtube Channel
    • Print
  • Developing Research
    • Conferences
    • Seminars
    • Workshops
    • Works-in-Progress Seminars
    • Reading Groups
    • ENN Blog
    • Other Events
  • News
    • Announcements
    • Media Mentions
    • Publications
  • Related projects
    • Columbia Center for New Narratives in Philosophy
    • In Parenthesis Project
    • Querelle
    • Archeology of the Female Intellectual Identity (AFII)
    • Brazilian Network of Women in Philosophy
    • Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists
    • Histories of philosophy in a Global Perspective
  • Accueil
  • À Propos
    • Description du projet
    • Chercheurs postdoctoraux, chercheuses postdoctorales >
      • 2025-26 Appel Post-Doc
    • Équipe
    • Direction
  • Construire des ressources
    • ENN Collaborator Publications
    • Ressources numériques >
      • Project Vox
      • Bibliographie d’œuvres de femmes philosophes du passé
      • Collections numériques
      • Multimédia
    • Ressources papier
  • Développer la recherche
    • Conférences FR
    • Seminars FR
    • Workshops FR
    • Séminaires de travaux en cours
    • Groupes de lecture
    • D'Autres Évènements
  • Nouvelles
    • Annonces
  • Projets liés
  • Other Events