Her Immaculate Hand: Selected Works by and About the Women Humanists of Quattrocento Italy

by Margaret L. King (Editor), Albert Rabil Jr. (Editor)

Twenty-four letters, orations, and encomia by and to Renaissance women, translated from Latin. Quattrocento Italy produced a number of such learned women; though they were granted neither great status in the world of humanism nor recognition of intellectual parity with men, they surpassed their medieval forebears and most of their contemporaries in other parts of Europe, and they transmitted to following centuries the important notion that women could participate as creative intellectuals in the shaping of culture.

173 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 1983

Reviews

[Hannah Trower · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of writings (mostly short) by or about female humanist scholars in the 15th century (a few were written later, but by those educated in the 1400s). Some things are outdated because scholarship has learned more in the four decades since, like learning about female Pythagoreans like Plato's mom, or discovering the arsenic poisoning of Poliziano. Interesting observation that humanist education was valued in *girls*, increasing their value as political marriage tools, showcasing the pride of the family, etc, but devalued/seen as concerning/threatening female chastity and virtue in *women*.