Lesson #4:
A Male on Marriage – Is He Right?
Text: On the Family – Alberti
NOTE: This lesson may take several class periods depending upon students’ prowess in dictionary work and paraphrasing.
1. Divide students into small groups trying to scatter stronger readers among the groups. If you choose to mix gender within the groups, be sure you have at least 2 students of each gender in a group so no one will be hesitant to state his/her views on gender matters. Make sure each group has dictionaries.
2. Read aloud the following information:
The piece you’ll be looking at was written by an Italian man by the name of Leon Battista Alberti. Alberti was a man known for his many talents including painting, scholarship, mathematics, and writing. This piece is part of a larger work entitled Della Famiglia (On the Family) written in the 1430s/1440s. While Alberti is the author of the piece, he has the following passage being spoken by a wealthy merchant who is describing to the men with him what makes an ideal wife. One can assume Alberti’s reading audience was also primarily male.
3. Pass out ON THE FAMILY and ask students to paraphrase Alberti’s words like they’ve seen in previous lessons. Float through the room while they are doing this to help when groups are unable to decipher a passage. Encourage the students to read the piece out loud line by line as they paraphrase – the ear often puts things together better than the eye.
4. Once the students have completed the paraphrasing, conduct a scored discussion with representatives from the groups covering these general questions:
- Is marriage as shown by Alberti’s words a partnership as we know it? What makes you reply as you do?
- What assumptions does the narrator make about the intelligence of women? Does he believe they have the capability to perform the same activities as men?
- The narrator says a woman’s chastity and purity are the most important things she possesses. Twice he warns his wife about problems that will arise if she doesn’t respect her marriage vows. What might you guess is the narrator’s view on women and their ability to control their desires?
- What words would you use to describe the narrator’s ideal woman (chaste, submissive, servile, etc.)
- Do you see any similarities between what Alberti’s piece says about marriage and Niccholes’ piece on marriage? Can you start to see any common ideas that men of this period might have held about marriage?
QUESTION FOR THOUGHT: In order to write history, one must be literate. Before the present day, few people were literate and those who were were usually male. What implications might this have on how we see history?
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