Ars apodemica gendered: female advice for travels

In early modern European culture, debates on the place of women are extensive; however, it was widely agreed that this place is not on the road. From biblical exegesis through mythological examples to physiological considerations, many fields of knowledge were mobilized to argue this point. The important proto-feminist figure, Arcangela Tarabotti, who was forced into a convent and powerfully protested against it, commented on the spectacular male misappropriation of a rape story to justify women’s restriction to the domestic or monastic sphere. Ars apodemica is a form of normative discourse aimed at creating a secular, regulated form of travel; particularly during its early period in the sixteenth century, it was defined in direct opposition to pilgrimage. Within this corpus, the condemnation of female travel appeared more or less immediately. Female participation in the genre of ars apodemica pre-dates the appearance of instructions for female mobility