This work is a revealing combination of biographies and topical essays that describe the often-overlooked contributions of women to the science, politics, and culture of the Renaissance. The extraordinary number of letters written by Renaissance women (over 10,000 exist from England alone) reveals the often subtle ways women of the period influenced their world. But a surprising number of women required no subtlety at all for their presence to be felt, taking their place beside men at court and making invaluable contributions to science, medicine, philosophy, art, music, and more. "Women in the Renaissance: A Historical Encyclopedia" is the first comprehensive reference devoted exclusively to the contributions of women to the defining cultural movements in Europe in the period between 1350 and 1700. Spanning the breadth of Europe, with a concentration on England, France, and Italy, it offers over 160 biographies of the extraordinary women of those times. Women in the Renaissance provides vivid portraits of well-known women such as Catherine of Siena, Elizabeth I, and Christine de Pizan (who wrote at the time about the important role of women). Also included are less well-known but equally fascinating women including Jane Lumley, an acclaimed translator of Euripides, or Louise Boursier, Marie de Medicis' midwife. Based on the latest research and enhanced with thematic essays (on witchcraft, women writers and salons, masculinity, women and power, and more), this groundbreaking work casts our understanding of women's lives and roles in Renaissance culture in a provocative new light.
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