Description
Women's vibrant presence in the Italian Renaissance has long been overlooked, with attention focused mainly on the artistic and intellectual achievements of their male counterparts. During this period, however, Italian women excelled especially as writers, and nowhere were they more expressive than in their letters. In A Corresponding Renaissance: Letters Written by Italian Women, 1375-1650 Lisa Kaborycha considers the lives and cultural contributions revealed by these women in their own words, through their correspondence. By turns highly personal, didactic, or devotional, these letters expose the daily realities of women's lives, their feelings, ideas, and reactions to the complex world in which they lived. Through their letters women emerge not merely as bystanders, but as true cultural protagonists in the Italian Renaissance. A Corresponding Renaissance is divided into eight thematic chapters, featuring fifty-five letters that are newly translated into English-many for the first time ever. Each of the letters is annotated and includes a brief biographical introduction and bibliographic references. The women come from all walks of life -- saints, poets, courtesans and countesses -- and from every geographic area of Italy; chronologically they span the entire Renaissance, with the majority representing the sixteenth century. Approximately one third of the selections are well-known letters, such as those of Catherine of Siena, Veronica Franco, and Isabella d'Este; the rest are lesser known, previously un-translated, or otherwise inaccessible.
About the Author
Lisa Kaborycha received a B.A. in Comparative Literature, an M.A. in Italian Studies, and a Ph.D. in Medieval and Early Modern European History. She has taught history at the University of California, Berkeley and at Menlo College. Currently, she lives in Florence, Italy, where she teaches courses on Renaissance history at the University of California, Florence Study Center and works as a Senior Research Fellow at the Medici Archive Project. She is the author of A Short History of Renaissance Italy (2010).
Reviews
Kaborycha's selections are more than socio-economically and geographically diverse (the letter-writers include saints, heretics and whores, actresses and duchesses from Milan to Naples); they are creative. Kaborycha strikes a graceful balance between canonicity and anonymity. * Alana Janoff, The Times Literary Supplement *
This marvellous collection of 55 letters by Renaissance Italian women of every social status -- including painters, duchesses, courtesans, and apothecaries' wives -- keeps you reading to the last page. Lisa Kaborycha is to be congratulated for her lively translations and engaging introductions. What a treat to have so many compelling voices -- some familiar, some introduced here in English for the first time-brought together in a single volume. A Corresponding Renaissance proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Italian women were remarkable writers, and that their letters are invaluable entry points into the dynamics of patronage, family, religion and politics during one of the most exciting periods of Italian history. * Jane Tylus, New York University *
With this collection, a virtual catalogue of illustrious women, Lisa Kaborycha has provided researchers, students, and general readers alike a wide selection of letters written by Italian women during the Renaissance and beyond, many of them for the first time in English. We can read and hear their voices as they recount snippets from their lives -- their choices, negotiations, preoccupations, social relations within and outside the family, artistic concerns, objects, and opportunities. Arranged thematically, Kaborycha's creative choices and up-to-date bibliographical recommendations, prefaced by an introduction to the practice of letter writing in general, and specifically as regards women, makes this text eminently useful in the classroom for courses in Italian Renaissance history, women's history, Italian literature, or gender studies in early modernity, but also offers an entertaining and informative voyage for the curious reader. * Julia Hairston, University of California, Rome Study Center *
There is no doubt that the selection of letters translated in A Corresponding Renaissance will spur students and scholars alike to a renewed examination of these early modern women and of the Renaissance art of epistolography. * Meredith Ray, University of Delaware *
Letters are key to our understanding of Renaissance society and culture. This volume is one of the best collections available both for classrooms and for the general reader. That this wonderful edition presents all women writers makes it even more welcome. The translations are clear and readable; the introductory materials are superb, with just the right balance of biographical detail and historical context to bring these remarkable women to life. The topics range from domestic and personal to scholarly and political, and from the very brief and particular to the substantial and literary. This collection offers a vibrant introduction to the world of Renaissance Italy, and especially to the women and their lives. * Ann E. Moyer, University of Pennsylvania *
The voices of Renaissance women come alive in Lisa Kaborycha's intelligent and vivid translations. Whether mothers or daughters, widows or wives, poets, lovers, or women of God, the authors featured in these pages could rarely speak in public, but entrusted their thoughts to private letters instead. Their words -- made newly accessible in this handsome collection -- offer fascinating glimpses into the inner lives of Italian Renaissance women, their secret loves, their intellectual triumphs, their dizzying moments of religious ecstasy and doubt. Kaborycha's translations are clear and engaging, her commentary precise, and the collection superbly assembled. This is a marvelous new resource for scholars and students alike. * Margaret Meserve, University of Notre Dame *
one of the most vivid, informative, and touching pictures of the Italian Renaissance and its seventeenth-century aftermath that I have ever had the pleasure to read. * Judith Rice Henderson, The Sixteenth Century Journal *
Book Information
ISBN 9780199342433
Author Lisa Kaborycha
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 408g
Dimensions(mm) 155mm * 231mm * 23mm
About the Author
Lisa Kaborycha received a B.A. in Comparative Literature, an M.A. in Italian Studies, and a Ph.D. in Medieval and Early Modern European History. She has taught history at the University of California, Berkeley and at Menlo College. Currently, she lives in Florence, Italy, where she teaches courses on Renaissance history at the University of California, Florence Study Center and works as a Senior Research Fellow at the Medici Archive Project. She is the author of A Short History of Renaissance Italy (2010).
Reviews
Kaborycha's selections are more than socio-economically and geographically diverse (the letter-writers include saints, heretics and whores, actresses and duchesses from Milan to Naples); they are creative. Kaborycha strikes a graceful balance between canonicity and anonymity. * Alana Janoff, The Times Literary Supplement *
This marvellous collection of 55 letters by Renaissance Italian women of every social status -- including painters, duchesses, courtesans, and apothecaries' wives -- keeps you reading to the last page. Lisa Kaborycha is to be congratulated for her lively translations and engaging introductions. What a treat to have so many compelling voices -- some familiar, some introduced here in English for the first time-brought together in a single volume. A Corresponding Renaissance proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Italian women were remarkable writers, and that their letters are invaluable entry points into the dynamics of patronage, family, religion and politics during one of the most exciting periods of Italian history. * Jane Tylus, New York University *
With this collection, a virtual catalogue of illustrious women, Lisa Kaborycha has provided researchers, students, and general readers alike a wide selection of letters written by Italian women during the Renaissance and beyond, many of them for the first time in English. We can read and hear their voices as they recount snippets from their lives -- their choices, negotiations, preoccupations, social relations within and outside the family, artistic concerns, objects, and opportunities. Arranged thematically, Kaborycha's creative choices and up-to-date bibliographical recommendations, prefaced by an introduction to the practice of letter writing in general, and specifically as regards women, makes this text eminently useful in the classroom for courses in Italian Renaissance history, women's history, Italian literature, or gender studies in early modernity, but also offers an entertaining and informative voyage for the curious reader. * Julia Hairston, University of California, Rome Study Center *
There is no doubt that the selection of letters translated in A Corresponding Renaissance will spur students and scholars alike to a renewed examination of these early modern women and of the Renaissance art of epistolography. * Meredith Ray, University of Delaware *
Letters are key to our understanding of Renaissance society and culture. This volume is one of the best collections available both for classrooms and for the general reader. That this wonderful edition presents all women writers makes it even more welcome. The translations are clear and readable; the introductory materials are superb, with just the right balance of biographical detail and historical context to bring these remarkable women to life. The topics range from domestic and personal to scholarly and political, and from the very brief and particular to the substantial and literary. This collection offers a vibrant introduction to the world of Renaissance Italy, and especially to the women and their lives. * Ann E. Moyer, University of Pennsylvania *
The voices of Renaissance women come alive in Lisa Kaborycha's intelligent and vivid translations. Whether mothers or daughters, widows or wives, poets, lovers, or women of God, the authors featured in these pages could rarely speak in public, but entrusted their thoughts to private letters instead. Their words -- made newly accessible in this handsome collection -- offer fascinating glimpses into the inner lives of Italian Renaissance women, their secret loves, their intellectual triumphs, their dizzying moments of religious ecstasy and doubt. Kaborycha's translations are clear and engaging, her commentary precise, and the collection superbly assembled. This is a marvelous new resource for scholars and students alike. * Margaret Meserve, University of Notre Dame *
one of the most vivid, informative, and touching pictures of the Italian Renaissance and its seventeenth-century aftermath that I have ever had the pleasure to read. * Judith Rice Henderson, The Sixteenth Century Journal *
Book Information
ISBN 9780199342433
Author Lisa Kaborycha
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 408g
Dimensions(mm) 155mm * 231mm * 23mm
