Hi all, I was wondering if anyone knew of any research on the use of ‘homo’ instead of ‘vir’ for ‘man’ (as opposed to woman) in the early Renaissance. This usage appears throughout a text I’m currently working on which was written in early 15th century Italy. As the text deals with gender quite extensively, knowing the precise usage of ‘homo’ would be very useful. In Classical Latin, the use of homo for ‘man’ (not woman) is certainly very rare (found in Plautus and a few other authors but generally avoided according to the L&S and the OLD), but I am unsure whether this is a normal usage for the early Renaissance?
Just so you know that you are not being ignored, I searched for this in JSTOR and found no articles related to the subject (well, sort of an article in Italian, but I don’t think it actually addresses this particular issue).