Rui Goncalves

citing Solomon in the Book of Proverbs and then says specifically of women: Sendo esta virtude tam eminente foy ho genero feminino dotado della em tanta maneira, que pode seguramente competir com ho masculino, affirmando que ouve tam doctas mulheres e mais que os homens, como foy Abigail de Nabal, a qual com saber e prudencia amansou a David, e livrou seu marido de morte. (This virtue being so eminent, the female gender was so endowed with it in so many ways that she can surely compete with men, affirming that there have been many or more learned women men, e.g., Abigail, wife of Nabal, who with learning and prudence conquered David, and saved her husband from death.) He lists other Biblical learned women, Greek women like Sappho and Lesbia, and seventy-seven other doctissimas que referem os doctores e historiadores aalem das dez Sibillas que conta Joan de Mena na trova (very learned women noted by wise men and historians in addition to the ten Sibyls who Joan de Mena records in his verse). Goncalves completes his catalogue of learned women by bringing it down to his own era, but this time with a critical comment about women's education: Sendo ... ho genero feminino tao sufficiente letras e todas sciencias, com muyta razam se pode estranhar esta hidade, na qual nao se aplicam aas letras e sciencias, como faziam antigas Romanas e Gregas, e todas outras nacoes, tendo tam perfectos engenhos, tanta sufficiencia e habilidade como os homens poderem aprender e antigamente eram doctrinadas na gramatica e nas mais artes liberais, e da.hi naceo serem ellas que achara casi todas artes. (The female gender being so fit for letters and all learning, one can well wonder about this present period in which women do not study letters and science did the ancient Romans and Greeks and all others, having great intelligence, ability and capacity men for learning and in the past they were learned in grammar and the liberal arts, and for that reason they were the ones who found almost all the arts.) Goncalves proceeds in this fashion with each of the virtudes noting in particular women's superiority in the areas of religion, mercy and clemency, and chastity. He concludes Part I asserting that a case for women's superiThis content downloaded from 157.55.39.124 on Wed, 20 Jul 2016 05:15:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 350 ALICE R. CLEMENTE ority could be made without going beyond Genesis on the grounds that Adam was created out of clay and only then placed in Paradise, while Eve, fashioned from Adam's rib while he slept in Paradise, was created of better stuff and in a more noble place. Part I of Goncalves' book fits clearly, then, in the genre of late Medieval and Renaissance texts commonly known defenses of women, books like those of Boccaccio (De Claris Mulieribus, 1355-59) and Sir Thomas Elyot (Defence of Good Women, 1540). Part II is the legal treatise proper which Goncalves, conscious of his many roles, promises to write falando como jurista, e nam como theologo (speaking a jurist and not a theologian). He will, he tells us, list women's rights and privileges in alphabetical order according to the appropriate Latin nomenclature pera se poderem leer e achar com mais facilidade e menos confusao (so that they can be read and found with greater facility and less confusion). He lists a total of one hundred and six rights and privileges that cover the full range of woman'sjuridical being from laws regulating criminal proceedings to those affecting her domestic status. A first difference in the treatment of men and women in criminal suits is the age at which each becomes legally accountable: Posto que ho homem possa ser citado de pois que he de quatorze annos, a femea tanto que he de doze ha de ser citada por suas causas, por que naquella hidade he dejuyzo tam perfecto & mais que ho macho de quatorze annos. (Men may be cited only after the age of fourteen but women should be liable for citation by the age of twelve for cause, since at that age she is mature or more than the male at the age of fourteen.) Women may have to appear before ajudge at an earlier age, but the place where this might occur is restricted. Honestas 8 honradas molheres (Decent and honorable women) can only be asked to appear in a convent or some other lugar (decent place). The word honesto in its many permutations appears with some frequency in these regulations, or at least in Goncalves' account of them, and here lies another major difference in the treatment of men and women. In a section entitled Carcerari, for example, he indicates that as honradas & que vivem honestamente (honorable women who live decently) cannot be arrested for certain kinds of civil debt. Esta prerogativa 8 privilegio pertence aa quando he honesta, & continente 8 vive pudica, & castamente porque se for & viver desonestamente em tal caso sera presa por divida civel sem gozar do beneficio do genero feminino segundo afirmam os doctores comumente. (This prerogative and privilege belongs to women if they are decent and continent and live chastely because if they are indecent then they will be apprehended for civil debts without having the privilege of the female gender learned men affirm.) If that molher inhonesta (indecent woman) is married, however, she is treated like a honesta (decent woman). Goncalves indicates that this law is in the process of being revised. A finding dated May 1533, would grant the married deshonesta this privilege only for up to two years in the absence of her husband. After that she becomes fully deshonesta; the privilege that This content downloaded from 157.55.39.124 on Wed, 20 Jul 2016 05:15:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

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