Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xv
Introduction
1. The Other Voice 1
2. The Life of Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi: The Intersection of
Private and Public Domains 6
3. Alessandra and the Genre of the Familiar Letter 16
4. Writing as a Mother 18
5. The Afterlife of the Letters 23
6. A Note on the Translation and Edition 25
Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi: Letters to Her Sons 29
Abbreviations 245
Weights and Measures 246
Currency 247
Times of Day 248
Florentine Dating 248
Bibliography 249
Index 269

About the Author

Judith Bryce is Emeritus Professor of Italian at the University of Bristol, UK. She has published on mid-sixteenth-century Florentine cultural history (including a monograph on Cosimo Bartoli), and on modern Italian literature (for instance, Dacia Maraini). Her more recent focus has, however, been on aspects of gender and culture in mid-to-late fifteenth-century Florence. Her publications in this area include studies of Antonia Pulci, Ginevra de’ Benci, Dada degli Adimari, and Lorenzo de’ Medici’s relations with Ippolita Sforza. She is a former editor of Italian Studies and a former chair of the Society for Renaissance Studies.

Reviews

At long last, this treasure trove of seventy-three letters written by Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi to her exiled sons is now fully available to Anglophone readers. Scholars of Renaissance Italy and early modern women have long recognized the importance of Strozzi’s letters, but until now only selections have been published in translation. Given the growing interest in women’s epistolary practices as well as the continuing fascination with Renaissance Florence, this translation makes an especially welcome contribution to the Other Voice series, and will almost certainly enlarge Strozzi’s historical footprint for students and scholars alike. 

Sharon Strocchia
Professor, Department of History, Emory College of Arts and Sciences

"At long last, this treasure trove of seventy-three letters written by Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi to her exiled sons is now fully available to Anglophone readers. Scholars of Renaissance Italy and early modern women have long recognized the importance of Strozzi’s letters, but until now only selections have been published in translation. Given the growing interest in women’s epistolary practices as well as the continuing fascination with Renaissance Florence, this translation makes an especially welcome contribution to the Other Voice series, and will almost certainly enlarge Strozzi’s historical footprint for students and scholars alike."
 
*Sharon Strocchia, Emory College of Arts and Sciences*