Renaissance Woman

de Gaia Servadio

The Renaissance created a new vision of womanhood and indeed a 'New Woman,' proposes Gaia Servadio in this rich feast of a book. She dates the birth of this revolutionary movement not to the traditionally quoted year of 1492 but to the invention of the printing press in 1456, which made books - hence education - available to women. Central to her story are the lives of such women as Vittoria Colonna, whose extraordinary mutual love with Michelangelo is told here, Tullia d'Aragona, poet and the best known courtesan of her age, and French poet Louise Labé, who fought in battle in male clothes. They are placed centre stage to the Renaissance's power plays, paintings and architecture, coutesans and popes, music and manners, fashion, food, cosmetics, changing societies and the language of poetry and symbols. -- from back cover.