They would never give addresses or write elegant letters; they had no need of Latin, and there was no point in studying the art of making wise choices, because they were unlikely to be able to make many choices at all. Lacking such training, they were excluded from most of what counted as humanitas. Instead, they had the virtues of chastity and modesty to look forward to, and for those one did not need much education. Some of the most vibrant humanist cities, notably Florence, were also the ones where the most pressure was put on women to be invisible.
