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Letters Familiar and Formal

Winner of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women's 2013 Scholarly Edition in Translation Award for a work published in 2012

Coerced into taking the veil, Venetian writer Arcangela Tarabotti (1604-1652) spent her life protesting the practice of forcing girls into convents. Her fearless defense of women and attacks on patriarchal Venetian society earned her renown and access to the presses. Her publications, however, invited constant controversy. Tarabotti published her Letters Familiar and Formal to protect and enhance her literary reputation while also chronicling contemporary literary society and material existence in an early modern convent. The Letters flaunted Tarabotti’s literary accomplishments, humiliated her critics, and advertised her powerful network of allies in Northern Italy and France. The Letters document how Tarabotti established herself as one of the most forceful proponents for women’s self determination in early modern Europe.

"After their Italian edition of Tarabotti’s Lettere, Meredith Ray and Lynn Westwater have now produced the definitive English translation of this remarkable text: clear, accurate and lively -- a delight to read. Their introduction sets the historical and cultural context, while meticulous notes fully explain each letter. Altogether, compelling reading that brings the extraordinary story told by Tarabotti's Letters to English-speaking audience for the first time."

-Letizia Panizza, Royal Holloway, University of London

MEREDITH K. RAY is associate professor of Italian at the University of Delaware. She is the author of Writing Gender in Women’s Letter Collections of the Italian Renaissance (University of Toronto Press, 2009).

LYNN LARA WESTWATER is assistant professor of Italian at The George Washington University. She has published extensively on women’s writing in early modern Venice.

MEREDITH K. RAY and LYNN LARA WESTWATER are the co-editors of Arcangela Tarabotti: Lettere familiari e di complimento (Rosenberg & Sellier, 2005).

REVIEWS
Early Modern Women 9.1 (2014): 203–206. Reviewed by Laura Giannetti.
Quaderni d’Italianistica 35.1 (2014): 161–162. Reviewed by Nathalie C. Hester.
Renaissance Quarterly 66.4 (2013): 1488–1490. Reviewed by Saundra Weddle.
The Sixteenth Century Journal 45.2 (2014): pp. 557–558. Reviewed by Barbara Mujica.

Winner of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women's 2013 Scholarly Edition in Translation Award for a work published in 2012

Coerced into taking the veil, Venetian writer Arcangela Tarabotti (1604-1652) spent her life protesting the practice of forcing girls into convents. Her fearless defense of women and attacks on patriarchal Venetian society earned her renown and access to the presses. Her publications, however, invited constant controversy. Tarabotti published her Letters Familiar and Formal to protect and enhance her literary reputation while also chronicling contemporary...

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book Details

  • Page Count:

    320 pages

  • Publication Year:

    2012

  • Publisher:

    Iter Press and the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria University in the University of Toronto
  • Series:

    • The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series 20

Ebook

USD$ 31.95 ISBN 978-0-7727-2133-4 Order Ebook

Print

USD$ 31.95 ISBN 978-0-7727-2132-7 Order Print Book

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