Tag Archives: public women

Sarah Ross for the SSEMW Blog

Early-modern women moved. Even if much prescriptive literature consigned women to domestic drudgery in fixed abodes, their lived experiences often evinced considerable mobility artistically, spiritually, intellectually, and physically — as readers of this blog series are now well aware. Joining the conversation, I would like to (re)introduce to readers two fascinating women who crossed multiple borders, in multiple senses: Isabella Andreini (c.1562-1604) and Esther Inglis (c.1571-1624). Andreini and Inglis had a great deal in common, even if at first glance they seem to have inhabited very different worlds. The Italian Andreini earned accolades as a poet, as the author of a wildly popular pastoral drama titled Mirtilla (The Blueberry, in its tenth edition by 1616), and as a commedia dell’arte performer. Inglis, French by birth and Scottish by marriage, devoted her life to work as a calligrapher and Christian humanist Continue reading →