The Renaissance jurist Alberico Gentili once quipped that, just like comedies, all wars end in a marriage. In medieval and early modern Europe, marriage treaties were a perennial feature of the diplomatic landscape. When one ruler decided to make peace with his enemy, the two parties often sealed their settlement with marriages between their respective families. In After Lavinia, John Watkins traces the history of the practice, focusing on the unusually close relationship between diplomacy and literary production in Western Europe from antiquity through the seventeenth century, when marriage began to lose its effectiveness and prestige as a tool of diplomacy.Watkins begins with Virgil's foundational myth of the marriage between the Trojan hero Aeneas and the Latin princess, an account that formed the basis for numerous medieval and Renaissance celebrations of dynastic marriages by courtly poets and propagandists. In the book's second half, he follows the slow decline of diplomatic marriage as both a tool of statecraft and a literary subject, exploring the skepticism and suspicion with which it was viewed in the works of Spenser and Shakespeare. Watkins argues that the plays of Corneille and Racine signal the passing of an international order that had once accorded women a place of unique dignity and respect.

In "The Aeneid," Vergil's hero fights to claim the king's daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a this novel set in the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills.

Intelligent, educated, and religious, Lavinia Jefferson approaches her thirtieth birthday feeling unfulfilled and frustrated. When her pastor encourages her to put her feelings on paper, the result of her writing finds its way into the hands of a twice-widowed rancher, John Barkley Dawson, in a far-off and unsettled part of the country. Lavinia leaves her secure and civilized life to experience love and adventure with J. B. in the daily challenges of marriage and motherhood. She learns firsthand about the vagaries of weather, hard work, outlaws (and in-laws), Indians, good friends, and bad enemies. She watches the West grow, enjoys innovative inventions, and experiences the joys and sorrows that go hand in hand with births and deaths. Whether it's a sheep drive to Alaska, a land dispute that ends in the Supreme Court, or big business generated by the discovery of extensive coal deposits, Lavinia and J. B. create many happy memories together. Her life touches upon many events and people whose names are well-known today, but Lavinia's focus throughout her life is on family, education, and faith. Most importantly, she's content knowing that she made the right decision in joining that man who whisked her away to a new, exciting life.

Amanda Quick's bestselling trademark is a combination of suspense and passion in historical tales alight with sparkling wit and brimming with dangerous intrigue. Now she serves up the most tantalizing novel of her career as an enterprising woman allies herself with a mysterious spy, only to be caught in a seething brew of treachery — and temptation.... From the moment he burst into her antiquities shop in Rome, Lavinia Lake knew the stranger was nothing but trouble. He said he was in pursuit of a killer. He swore he was only trying to save her. Yet no matter what he claimed, Lavinia was convinced that Mr. Tobias March was bent instead on destroying her. And when the self-described spy hustled her and her niece out of the shop and back to England, Lavinia could only hope that one day she would would find a way to repay Mr. March in full. But Lavinia never imagined the shocking circumstances under which they would meet again ... or that soon he would become more deadly — and more compelling — with each passing day. In the business of making private inquiries, Tobias March had been hired to trade down a powerful villain who even now was intent on assuming control of a vast criminal organization. Yet in his search he had found nothing but one dead end — and one dead body — after another. And then, just as his investigation was heating up once more, he found his mission and his life complicated by the most ungovernable, unpredictable, exasperating woman he had ever met. Faced with a tangled web of deceit and danger, Tobias had no choice but to form a partnership with Lavinia, a lady whose past could only be described as slightly shady. Yet when he persuaded her to become his associate, neither Tobias nor Lavinia realized that their heated disputes would spark a sizzling desire — or that the deeper they kept digging for the truth, the deeper they were digging their own graves....

When eleven-year-old Lavinia Guasca began her new life as a lady-in-waiting at the court of Turin, she brought with her a parting gift from her father Annibal (1540-1619): a detailed guidebook he wrote to help steer her through the many pitfalls of court life. Lavinia had her father's Discourse published in 1586; this English translation is the first version published in any form since that time. The Discourse displays an incredibly far-sighted view of women's education. Annibal thought gifted young girls should develop their talents and apply them to careers outside the home. In the Discourse, he details the unique and extremely rigorous educational program to which he had subjected Lavinia almost from the cradle with this end in mind. To complete Lavinia's education, Annibal filled the Discourse with advice on spirituality and morality, health and beauty, and how to behave at court—everything a well-bred lady-in-waiting would need to know. This edition also includes an appendix that traces the later events of Lavinia's life through excerpts from her father's letters.

From Friends to Lovers When their parents married, James, Earl of Corringham, and Lady Lavinia Stanmore became as close as brother and sister. Now, years later, James has outgrown his rakish ways and is burning with a love for her that he longs to reveal. However, he faces a rival in the mysterious Lord Wincote. Torn between James and the handsome stranger, Lavinia’s feelings are thrown into turmoil. But is this man really what he seems? The more Lord Wincote persists, the more Lavinia wonders if she should be looking for love a little closer to home….