Historians dealing with the political and cultural history of the Florentine Commune during the Renaissance have been fortunate in having at their disposal the extensive resources of the local Archivio di Stato. One can find among its riches abundant evidence concerning many facets of private activity and public policy of the Trecento and Quattrocento. The great attention that Florence has received in the historical accounts of the Italian Renaissance reflects not only Florentine erninence during that epoch but also the survival of so much evidence not existing for many other cities. Yet one real difficulty which confronts historians of the early Renaissance has been the lack of extensive sources dealing with individual members of the Florentine society, particularly those who were active and prominent in the agitated arena of communal politics. Some diaries, of course, have survived, but the number is small and more often than not they were penned by men whose detachment from daily involvement in the formulation and implementation of policies allowed them the leisure to maintain a continuing record of their political views and commitments.

Johann Ulrich Surgant (ca. 1450-1503) combined the ideals of medieval Christianity with elements of new learning, as did many of the early transalpine humanists. He belonged to the circle of Alsatian-Swiss ‘eruditi’ which included his one-time teacher and later colleague, Heynlein von Stein, and his friends Sebastian Brant, Jakob Wimpheling, and Johann Amerbach. Surgant was born in Altkirch (Alsace) and received his baccalaureate at the University of Basel in 1466 in the ‘via antiqua.’ From there he went to Paris, but returned to Basel as ‘magister parisiensis’ in 1470 to crown his academic efforts in 1479 when he obtained the degree of doctor of canon law. He was twice dean of the Faculty of Arts (1474 and 1478), thrice dean of the Law Faculty (1483, 1489, and 1496), and four times rector of the University of Basel (1482, 1487, 1494, and 1501). From 1479 until his death (September 20, 1503) he served as curate of St. Theodore.

The theological connotations of Duessa's whoredom with Red Crosse at the fountain and Orgoglio in the castle make it difficult not to see her as a symbolic strumpet in a sixteenth-century Protestant fashion. Stressing her flexible and dynamic traits through a careful modulation of the witch and whore symbols, Spenser consistently shows that she is much more than a one-dimensional symbol, operating in the somewhat static manner of the Renaissance tableau, a characteristic she does undoubtedly partake of in this section of the poem but without losing her inherent dynamism both in the literal story and in the moral and anagogical allegories. The artistic treatment of her role culminates in the dramatic unfolding of Red Crosse's spiritual fornication and its enervating results. As will become clear, there appears to be enough evidence in the poem itself to read ‘physical’ as a symbol of 'spiritual’ fornication.