The Muscarelle Museum of Art is hosting an exhibit through April that details the life of one of the leading women of the Middle Ages, marking the first time she has received such a treatment in the U.S.
The exhibit, called Matilda of Canossa and the Origins of the Renaissance, explores the life of Countess Matilda. She was instrumental in protesting the feudal system of medieval Europe, paving the way for the Renaissance and reinvigorating study in Roman law, according to a news release from the museum.
Michèle K. Spike, an adjunct professor at the College of William & Mary, curated the exhibit. Spike wrote a biography of the countess in 2004.
The countess founded the first law school of Europe in 1088, reawakening the study of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian’s code of Roman law. That code allowed women to own, manage and inherit property. A building program she started created a network of hospices throughout northern Italy that helped promote pilgrimage and trade.
“The Countess Matilda was an amazing and extremely important person, and we are so pleased to shine a spotlight on her important contributions,” Aaron De Groft, director and CEO of the Muscarelle Museum of Art, said in the release. “Because of her support of literary and legal education by training citizen lawyers, it makes the College of William &Mary — whose School of Law was founded on the same principle — an ideal location for this exhibition.”
The study of Roman law was later revived and became influential on leading thinkers through the centuries, including Thomas Jefferson and George Wythe, who studied it as they created the framework of the American legal code, according to the release.
The exhibition includes items loaned from American and Italian institutions, scholarship and essays from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law, Renaissance law books from Wythe’s library and two original letters written by and to Thomas Jefferson concerning law education.
The exhibit is on display at the Muscarelle through April 19.
