Director
The Medici Grand Duchy (1537-1743) coincided with the first professionalization of women artists and musicians, the entrance of women into universities and academies, and the reigns of numerous female regents and queens. Their expanding social roles, their growing economic power, and their advancement of cultural globalism are nevertheless largely underestimated. This is due to historiographic blind spots as well as to the inherent difficulty of tracing women’s lives in archives.
Building upon the achievements of the Jane Fortune Research Program, the Center for Women in Renaissance Archives takes a full-compass approach to the world of early modern women. Its threefold mission is to scour Renaissance archives and libraries for untapped sources on women’s history, to expand the coverage of women in MAP’s online resources, and to carry out research on women that enriches the historiographic metanarratives of our era—serving both academic and public audiences.
THE DIGITAL BRONZINI
Among its current activities, the Center for Women in Renaissance Archives manages the Digital Bronzini project, initiated in 2019 with a grant from the Colgan Foundation. Using HTR technologies, we aim to give greater access to Cristofano Bronzini’s treatise entitled On the Dignity and Nobility of Women, an incomparable resource for recovering the history of women’s contributions to civilization. Comprising 36 tomes, it was written in Florence and largely complete by the year 1622.