Saints, Women and Humanists in Renaissance Venice

This volume brings together the published academic essays of the Renaissance historian Patricia Hochschild Labalme (1927-2002). Appearing between 1955 and 1999, they deal with the intellectual, social and religious life of Venice in the 15th-16th centuries. An important focus is the exploration of the careers, milieu and writings of cultural and literary women of early modern Venice, a field to which the author made a particular contribution.

Contents: Introduction; Bibliography of Patricia Hochschild Labalme, 1955-2008; Identification and translation of a letter of Guarino Guarini of Verona; The last will of a Venetian patrician (1489); Nobile e donna: Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia; Women's roles in early modern Venice: an exceptional case; Venetian women on women: three early modern feminists; Personality and politics in Venice: Pietro Aretino; Sodomy and Venetian justice in the Renaissance; No man but an angel: early efforts to canonize Lorenzo Giustiniani (1381-1456); Religious devotion and civic division in Renaissance Venice: the case of Lorenzo Giustiniani; Holy patronage, holy promotion: the cult of saints in 15th-century Venice; Secular and sacred heroes: Ermolao Barbaro on worldly honor; How to (and how not to) get married in 16th-century Venice (selections from the diaries of Marin Sanudo). Index.

Patricia H. Labalme (1927-2002), edited by Benjamin G. Kohl, Emeritus Professor of History, Vassar College, USA