Saints' Lives and Bible Stories for the Stage: A Bilingual Edition

Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index Translation of the Month, December 2011

"This fresh translation of five plays securely authored by Antonia Pulci—one of the first published women writers in Renaissance Florence—reveals this gifted dramatist at her finest. Intended primarily for a convent audience, Pulci's plays give us a fascinating glimpse into how theatrical expressions of female religiosity were animated by both exemplary female saints' lives and contemporary debates over marriage and virginity. There is much to recommend in this new bilingual presentation. The translations sparkle; and Weaver's elegant, erudite introduction and her publication of new archival materials not only enrich the historical record concerning Pulci's life and works but also set it straight."

-Sharon Strocchia, Professor of History, Emory University

"Weaver's new edition of the Italian texts together with James Wyatt Cook's revised English translations provide access for the first time into the Florentine world of Antonia Pulci's sacre rappresentazioni. Pulci, Weaver argues, may have been the first woman to see her works through the printing press, in a time when other women circulated their devotional works privately among their peers. Here, then, we have the work of a woman who uses her plays to give voices to women of various conditions, and who wants their voices—and her own—to be heard."

-Nerida Newbigin, Professor of Italian Studies, Emerita, University of Sydney, Australia

ELISSA B. WEAVER is Professor of Italian, Emerita, University of Chicago.

JAMES WYATT COOK is Lagbo Trustees' Professor Emeritus of English, Albion College.

REVIEWS
Annali d’Italianistica 31 (2013): 631–633. Reviewed by Gianni Cicali.
Forum Italicum 45.2 (2011): 503–504. Reviewed by Federica Signoriello.
Journal of Ecclesiastical History 63.3 (2012): 614. Reviewed by Clare Copeland.
Renaissance Quarterly 64.3 (2011): 946–948. Reviewed by Patrizia Bettella.
The Sixteenth Century Journal 43.2 (2012): 545–546. Reviewed by Michael A. Cramer.