«VII: foetorem in lecto». Una lettura de I donneschi difetti di Giuseppe Passi Ravennate

«VII: foetorem in lecto». A Reading of I donneschi difetti by Giuseppe Passi Ravennate This article analyses the treatise I donneschi difetti, written by the scholar Giuseppe Passi in 1599. The first part of the article presents the architecture of the treatise and the author’s way ofarguing. The second introduces a few examples of female defects related to the sexual sphere and tries to demonstrate how, under the stigmatization of these defects, the author cannot hide his attraction and fear for women. The last part tries to explain the reason for this work, which could be interpreted as a stance by the author himself against the new phenomenon which was taking place at the time in Italian culture: that is, the figure of the female writer.