In this chapter the authors analyze how unjust, biased, interested, and malevolent results topos “quid est mulier [what is a woman]?”. The authors study how, before the topos of the evil woman took shape, there already existed the topos of the learned and polyglot women. One of the first cases: princess Berta in Girart de Roussillon (ca. 1136-1180). After the topos, the authors study real, papal, and royal women who demonstrate it is false. The samples developed are women with power and knowledge from the lineages, close related with the Crown of Aragon, of the Borgia, and Aragon of Naples: Lucrecia Borgia, Isabella d'Este, Antonia del Balzo, Costanza d'Avalos, Vittoria Colonna, and Isabella of Aragon
TopBefore The Topos Of The Evil Woman Took Shape, There Already Existed The Topos Of The Learned And Polyglot Women. One Of The First Cases: Princess Berta In Girart De Roussillon.
Before Beauvais gave written shape to the topos of the evilness of women, women were also represented as a treasure of graces and gifts. One of the first occasions–in fact the first—that in a Romance language–Occitan, the language of the troubadors—there is a praising description of the intellectual qualities of a woman is in the Roman de Girart de Roussillon. The work written between 1136 and 1180 is paramount because in it the narrative of military deeds is motivated, originated and conditioned by love feelings. It is not the epic of violence but the complexity of feelings (unrequited love) what conditions the plot. The female characters adopt in this work a great relevance and initiative for the first time in Romance literature. In addition, it is the first time that the topos of the Catholic West´s help to Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire against the Turks appears in literature and thus it is a precedent of what we will find later so marvelously treated in Joanot Martorell´s great novel Tirant lo Blanch. When the protagonist of the Roman de Girart de Roussillon arrives in Constantinople and the emperor receives him with great honors, he introduces him to his two daughters, Berta and Elisenda. The princesses are presented and offered by the emperor as guarantee of good will to signal an alliance between the Greek and Carolingian empires, the latter represented by Girart. This practise is an example of the cosification of women and it was rather habitual in the political arena of nations across the board. About one of them, Elisenda, the narrator tells us, continuing with the topos of feminine beauty:
[laisse] XX
[…] Ella té un cos encisador i tot virginal i un posat tan digne que els més savis resten silenciosos, meravellats per la seua bellesa.
[She has an enchanting and virginal body and a posture so dignified that the wisest remain silent, amazed by her beauty.]
Nevertheless, what calls our attention and is one of the interesting elements of this work is that when expressing the qualities of his daughter Berta, his father, the Greek emperor, highlights her intelligence and deep preparation, indicating that she is a polyglot –the summum of intelligence—:
[laisse] XIX
[…] l'emperador fa portar les seves filles. Primer, Berta, amb el rostre clar i l'esguard dolç. El seu pare li ha fet aprendre les arts, sap traduir en romanç el caldeu i el grec i coneix a fons el llatí i l'hebreu. Pel seu coneixement, la seua bellesa i seua la parla gentil, ningú no podria trobar al món la seua parella.
[the emperor brings his daughters. First, Berta, with the clear face and the sweet look. His father has taught him the arts, he knows how to translate Chaldean and Greek into Romance, and he knows thoroughly Latin and Hebrew. Because of her knowledge, her beauty and her gentle speech, no one could find her match in the world.]
It will be this Berta that the protagonist will marry.