Twenty Five Women Who Shaped the... – serie

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.

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.

Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Ottoman Empire is a tale of how women’s triumphs as well as their failures shaped a global society—not despite, but because of, gender.The Ottoman Empire was among the longest-lived polities in history, stretching between the thirteenth and twentieth centuries across three continents, several seas, and scores of cities, deserts, mountain ranges, rivers, and forests. This volume provides a compendium of idiosyncratic life stories and explores how women from these eras and regions understood the shape of the world in which they lived, and how they brought their consciousness of their gender to their efforts to re-shape it.Among the questions explored in the book are how women have negotiated and constructed the public and private spheres, how to define “women’s speech” in a world mediated by men and male-dominated genres and institutions, and how women experienced their bodies as sites of politically inflected reproduction, death and decay.The book is thus an accessibly offbeat feminist overview of the field of Ottoman History that provides students, scholars, general readers, and non-specialists with insights into the lives and work of both ordinary Ottoman women and celebrated Ottoman women, women who failed despite their best efforts and women who succeeded against all odds—suicides, spies and murderers as well as queens, scientists and poets.

Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Ottoman Empire is a tale of how women’s triumphs as well as their failures shaped a global society—not despite, but because of, gender.The Ottoman Empire was among the longest-lived polities in history, stretching between the thirteenth and twentieth centuries across three continents, several seas, and scores of cities, deserts, mountain ranges, rivers, and forests. This volume provides a compendium of idiosyncratic life stories and explores how women from these eras and regions understood the shape of the world in which they lived, and how they brought their consciousness of their gender to their efforts to re-shape it.Among the questions explored in the book are how women have negotiated and constructed the public and private spheres, how to define “women’s speech” in a world mediated by men and male-dominated genres and institutions, and how women experienced their bodies as sites of politically inflected reproduction, death and decay.The book is thus an accessibly offbeat feminist overview of the field of Ottoman History that provides students, scholars, general readers, and non-specialists with insights into the lives and work of both ordinary Ottoman women and celebrated Ottoman women, women who failed despite their best efforts and women who succeeded against all odds—suicides, spies and murderers as well as queens, scientists and poets.

Challenging the conception that only men shaped the Holy Roman Empire, this book provides students and general readers with biographies of preachers, nuns, princesses, businesswomen, artists, scientists, writers, and social movers who exercised agency in the Holy Roman Empire.Who was Maria Theresia Paradis, and have you ever heard of Empress Eleonora Magdalena? Numerous women achieved prominence or made important contributions to the life of the early modern Holy Roman Empire, but they are only gradually being rediscovered. Generations of historians had assumed that princely women were essentially limited to childbearing, or townswomen to running the household. And although it took a long time for higher education to become attainable to women, they also made their voices heard in the sciences, arts, and religion. Indeed, a closer look reveals that the history of the empire was also a history of the interaction of men and women and a history of women's self-empowerment. This book offers a biographical perspective on that past, as well as a fascinating panorama of women who left their mark on the Holy Roman Empire.This book is the perfect introduction to anyone wishing to broaden their knowledge of women’s history, the Holy Roman Empire, and early modern Europe.

Challenging the conception that only men shaped the Holy Roman Empire, this book provides students and general readers with biographies of preachers, nuns, princesses, businesswomen, artists, scientists, writers, and social movers who exercised agency in the Holy Roman Empire.Who was Maria Theresia Paradis, and have you ever heard of Empress Eleonora Magdalena? Numerous women achieved prominence or made important contributions to the life of the early modern Holy Roman Empire, but they are only gradually being rediscovered. Generations of historians had assumed that princely women were essentially limited to childbearing, or townswomen to running the household. And although it took a long time for higher education to become attainable to women, they also made their voices heard in the sciences, arts, and religion. Indeed, a closer look reveals that the history of the empire was also a history of the interaction of men and women and a history of women's self-empowerment. This book offers a biographical perspective on that past, as well as a fascinating panorama of women who left their mark on the Holy Roman Empire.This book is the perfect introduction to anyone wishing to broaden their knowledge of women’s history, the Holy Roman Empire, and early modern Europe.

Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Celtic World takes readers on a whirlwind journey through over two millennia of sources that provide insight to the lives and lore of remarkable women in the Celtic tradition.From approximately 500 BCE, when the so-called ‘Lady of Vix’ was interred in her Hallstatt-era cart burial in what would become Central France, to the twelfth century when the Irish, Welsh, and Scots navigated the changes brought by Anglo-Norman colonization, women’s stories trace the rise and fall of the Celtic-speaking world. The chapters provide a broad and varied examination of historically attested women as well as the mythological, literary, and legendary women of the medieval tradition. Finally, women of the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century ‘Celtic Revival’ movement demonstrate the continued significance of the ancient and medieval Celtic past into the modern era. While the Celtic past is all too often ignored or fetishized, this book provides readers with a concise yet fully contextualized introduction, valuable to anyone seeking to better their understanding of women’s history and Celtic history.