Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Italian Renaissance takes readers on a journey through early modern Italy that places women at the heart of the artistic and cultural developments of this transformative era. Highlighted here are figures like Caterina Sforza, who defended her city against an invading army; Veronica Franco, the Venetian courtesan whose erotic verse enthralled Europe; Sofonisba Anguissola, acclaimed for her arresting portraits; Isabella Andreini, the original "prima donna" of Italian theater; and Margherita Sarrocchi, the epic poet and mathematics prodigy who corresponded with Galileo Galilei.
Though many of their names have been neglected by history, the artists, writers, performers, leaders, and feminists of Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Italian Renaissance overcame daunting obstacles to find their own voices. Excluded from the educational opportunities granted to men, often compelled into arranged marriages or confined to the convent, and subject to ingrained hostility toward female sexuality, each dared to challenge entrenched ideas about what a woman should or could do or be. Springing from a range of backgrounds and circumstances, these women defied conventions about the "proper" place of their sex to make their own mark on the Renaissance.
The perfect resource for anyone wishing to broaden their understanding of the Renaissance and early modern women.
Introduction: Hidden Histories
Part One: Politics and Power Brokers
1. Lucrezia Tornabuoni (1427-1482): Medici Matriarch
2. Caterina Sforza (c. 1463–1509): Countess, Warrior, Alchemist
3. Isabella d’Este (1474-1539): Diplomat and Tastemaker
4. Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519): Entrepreneur from Italy’s Most Controversial Family
5. Bona Sforza (1494-1557): Italian Queen of Poland
Part Two: Poets, Reformers, and Courtesans
6. Vittoria Colonna (1490?–1547): Divine Poet, Michelangelo’s Mentor
7 Lucrezia Gonzaga (1522–1576): Epistolary Icon and Religious Dissident
8 Olimpia Morata (1526–1555): Humanist and Heretic
9 Laura Terracina (1519–c.1577): Bestselling Author, Defender of Women
10. Veronica Franco (1546-1591): Celebrity Courtesan
Part Three: Musicians, Composers, and Performers
11. Gaspara Stampa (1523-1544): Renaissance Sappho
12. Tarquinia Molza (1542-1617): Virtuosa and Philosopher
13. Isabella Andreini (1562-1604): Diva of Stage and Page
14. Francesca Caccini (1587–post-1641): Opera’s Star at the Medici Court
15. Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677): Trailblazing Composer
Part Four: Artists and Scientists
16. Sofonisba Anguissola (c.1532-1625): Portraitist to Kings
17. Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614): Pioneering Professional Artist
18. Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1656?): Fearless Painter, Feminist Icon
19 Camilla Erculiani (d. post-1584):Pharmacist-Philosopher
20 Margherita Sarrocchi (c. 1560–1617): Reader of the Stars, Galileo’s Correspondent
Part Five: Renaissance Feminists
21 Laudomia Forteguerri (1515–1555?): Queer Poet, Civic Hero
22. Moderata Fonte (1555-1592): Visionary of Equality for Women
23 Lucrezia Marinella (1571?–1653): Champion of Women’s History
24 Sarra Copia Sulam (1592–1641): Poet and Polemicist in Venice’s Jewish Ghetto
25. Arcangela Tarabotti (1604-1652): Radical Nun, Feminist Force
Notes and Further Reading
Dates of Reign
Acknowledgments
Index
Biography
Meredith K. Ray is the Elias Ahuja Professor of Italian in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Delaware, USA. Her books include Writing Gender in Women’s Letter Collections of the Italian Renaissance (2009), Daughters of Alchemy: Women and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy (2015), and Margherita Sarrocchi’s Letters to Galileo: Astronomy, Astrology, and Poetics in Seventeenth-Century Italy (2016).
'“I, though female, have abandoned female things.” So says one of the fascinating twenty-five Italian Renaissance women brought to life thanks to Meredith Ray’s authoritative research. Nobles, writers, painters, musicians, religious rebels, even courtesans, many of whom were relegated to the cracks of history, are now revealed as extraordinary players in their own right. Brought together in one book, the history of the Italian renaissance is infinitely richer for their place in it.'
Sarah Dunant, Novelist, broadcaster, and critic
'This is a rich and compelling introduction to the extraordinary women in Italy who lived and fought and loved and wrote during the Italian Renaissance, and whose voices have so often been neglected. In her lucid introduction and twenty-five varied and engaging short biographies, Meredith Ray widens our perspective on one of the most important periods in European history.'
Ramie Targoff, Brandeis University, USA
'This pithy and thoroughly engaging volume belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in early-modern European history and culture – full stop, no exceptions. Meredith Ray’s expertise in early-modern Italian literature across genres as well as in women’s writing enriches every chapter, as does her careful attention to historical context for each of these twenty-five riveting protagonists.'
Sarah Gwyneth Ross, Boston College, USA
'Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Italian Renaissance provides a marvelously accessible introduction to the versatile and talented women of Renaissance Italy. Female painters, musicians, actresses, poets, philosophers, nuns, Jews, and heretics all come to life in Ray’s account of their lives.'
Paula Findlen, Stanford University, USA
'Meredith Ray’s authoritative, engaging, and lucid study makes bold claims for women’s impact on the Italian Renaissance. She persuasively describes these women’s influence not only as individuals but as a collectivity. The easy flow of Ray’s prose belies the labor involved in compressing vast amounts of research on these figures into one succinct volume. And yet this book is much more than a synthesis. Rather, it calls for a reevaluation not only of women’s role in the Renaissance, but of the typically selective, exclusionary practice of history-writing itself.'
Shannon McHugh, University of Massachusetts, USA
'Ray is the rare Renaissance scholar who writes with both erudition and charm for a general audience; the book is as engaging as a highbrow novel. Her 25 crisply written biographies reveal the creativity, ingenuity, and determination of women who were underestimated or unrecognized during their lifetimes.'
Norman Weinstein, The Christian Science Monitor, https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2024/0307/Women-of-the-Italian-Renaissance-held-their-ground
