When Europe broke free of the dreadful clutches of the Middle Ages into the intellectual playground of the Renaissance, an extraordinary thing happened: Cultured women began to take their place as central figures giving harmony to entire social groups. So says author "Christopher Hare," a pseudonym for British writer MARIAN ANDREWS (d. 1929) who is mostly remembered for her historical novels but here turns her keen eye on historical fact. First published in 1904, this charming volume offers sketches of some "typical" cultured women of the Italian Renaissance, including: [ Lucrezia Tornabuoni, wife of Piero dei Medici [ Clarice degli Orsini, wife of Lorenzo dei Medici [ Queen Giovanna I [ Queen Giovanna II [ Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan [ Bianca Maria Sforza, wife of the Emperor Maximilian [ Isabella d'Este, Marchesa of Mantua [ Rene of France, Duchess of Ferrara [ Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara [ and others.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

"Within a span of seven or eight years in the 1550s, the Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola produced more self-portraits than any known painter before her had in a lifetime. She was the first known artist in history to take her parents and siblings as primary subject matter, and may have painted the first group portrait featuring only women. Cole examines Sofonisba's paintings as expressions of her relationships and networks, looking at why Sofonisba was able to become a great woman artist: at her father, who decided to allow her to be educated as a painter; at her teacher, Bernardino Campi; and at her relationships with her students, sisters, and patrons, who included the Queen of Spain. Cole demonstrates that Sofonisba made teaching and education a central theme of her painting. The book also provides the first complete catalogue of all of Sofonisba's known works"--

Giovanni Boccaccio devoted the last decades of his life to compiling encyclopedic works in Latin. Among them is this text, the first collection of biographies in Western literature devoted to women.