This volume offers a comprehensive historical account of writing by women in Italy. Covering writing from the Middle Ages to the present day, it moves away from narrow definitions of literature, and brings to light other forms of expression such as letter writing, religious and devotional writing, travel writing, and journalism. Contributors point to the considerable practical, social and ideological difficulties faced by women in writing and presenting their work to a wider reading public, but also highlight the determination of women through the centuries in making their voices heard.

An impressive collection of 29 essays by British, American and Italian scholars on important historical, artistic, cultural, social, legal, literary and theatrical aspects of women's contributions to the Italian Renaissance, in its broadest sense. Many contributions are the result of first-hand archival research and are illustrated with numerous unpublished or little-known reproductions of original material. The contributors are: on women and the court, Dilwyn Knox, Evelyn S. Welch, Francine Daenens and Diego Zancani; on women and the church, Gabriella Zarri, Victoria Primhak, Kate Lowe, Francesca Medioli and Ruth Chavasse; on legal constraints and ethical precepts, Marina Graziosi, Christine Meek, Brian Richardson, Jane Bridgeman and Daniela De Bellis; on female models of comportment, Marta Ajmar, Paola Tinagli and Sara F. Matthews Grieco; on women and the stage, Richard Andrews, Maggie Gunsberg, Rosemary E. Bancroft-Marcus; and on women and letters, Diana Robin, Virginia Cox, Pamela J. Benson, Judy Rawson, Conor Fahy, Giovanni Aquilecchia, Adriana Chemello, Giovanna Rabitti and Nadia Cannata Salamone.

This volume offers a comprehensive historical account of writing by women in Italy. Covering writing from the Middle Ages to the present day, it moves away from narrow definitions of literature, and brings to light other forms of expression such as letter writing, religious and devotional writing, travel writing, and journalism. Contributors point to the considerable practical, social and ideological difficulties faced by women in writing and presenting their work to a wider reading public, but also highlight the determination of women through the centuries in making their voices heard.

Petrarch was Italy's second most famous writer (after Dante), and indeed from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries he was much better known and more influential in English literature than Dante. His Italian love lyrics constituted the major influence on European love poetry for at least two centuries from 1400 to 1600, and in Britain he was imitated by Chaucer, the Elizabethans, and other lyric poets up until the end of the eighteenth century. With Romanticism Dante ousted Petrarch from his pre-eminent position, but in our post-Romantic age, attention has now started to swing back to Petrarch.
This volume is the most comprehensive and up to date survey of Petrarch's literary legacy in Britain. Starting with his own views of those whom he called the "barbari Britanni," the volume then explores a number of key topics: Petrarch's analysis of the self; his dialogue with other classical and Italian authors; Petrarchism and anti-Petrarchism in Renaissance Italy; Petrarchism in England and Scotland; and Petrarch's modern legacy in both Italy and Britain. Many important texts and poets are considered, including Giordano Bruno, Leopardi, Foscolo, Ascham, Sidney, Spenser, and Walter Savage Landor.
The twenty chapters collected here are written by major scholars of Petrarch in the UK and Italy and will be essential reading for scholars and students of both Italian and British literature, as well as comparative literature.