Letters to Agnese Part Three
The Final Trimester
Content Warning- Discusses Infant mortality, premature birth
Researching what pregnancy in 1562 Calais would be like for my persona and creating period letters as a way to convey the research. In this third part of three installments we glimpse the final trimester of this pregnancy. Pregnancy was and still is a a dangerous time for mother and child. These final letters document a mother's fears and thena pre term birth. Baptism, burial and the aftermath are discussed in period terms.
These letters were wordsmithed using extant letters from women to women, daughters and mothers with tone, small everyday conversation and details in mind. The were designed as a way to convey research in an easy to consume manner. Videos enable a viewer to rest their eyes and take a virtual class.
Sources for the project (updated)
Barker, Sheila. “The Contributions of Medici Women to Medicine in Grand Ducal Tuscany and Beyond.” The Grand Ducal Medici and Their Archive (1537–1743), Ed. Alessio Assonitis and Brian Sandberg (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers), 31 Jan. 2025, www.academia.edu/36072522/The_Contributions_of_Medici_Women_to_Medicine_in_Grand_Ducal_Tuscany_and_Beyond.
Baumgartel, Kelley L, et al. “From Royal Wet Nurses to Facebook: The Evolution of Breastmilk Sharing.” Breastfeeding Review : Professional Publication of the Nursing Mothers’ Association of Australia, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Nov. 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5603296/.
Bednarski, Steven, and Andrée Courtemanche. “‘Sadly and with a Bitter Heart’: What the caesarean section meant in the Middle Ages.” Florilegium, vol. 29, Jan. 2011, pp. 2–2, https://doi.org/10.3138/flor.28.2.
Bini, Matteo, et al. “Modern Double Burial in Central Italy: Funerary Chamber of the Buondelmonti Family in the Basilica of Santa Maria Dell’impruneta (Florence).” Medicina Historica, mattioli1885journals.com/index.php/MedHistor/article/view/11494. Accessed 8 Sept. 2025.
Brody, M. J. (2018). Religious subjects on sixteenth-century Deruta Piatti da Pompa. Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy, 187–219. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004375871_010
Brévart, F. B. (2008). Between medicine, magic, and religion: Wonder drugs in German medico-pharmaceutical treatises of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Speculum, 83(1), 1–57. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0038713400012410
“Calais Port and Citadel – Historical Facts.” Travel France Online, 1 July 2024, www.travelfranceonline.com/calais-port-and-citadel-history/.
Christiansen, Keith, et al. The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512-1570. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2021.
Christopoulos, J. (2012). Abortion and the confessional in Counter-Reformation italy. Renaissance Quarterly, 65(2), 443–484. https://doi.org/10.1086/667257
Cooper, I. G. (2018). Investigating the ‘case’ of the agnus dei in sixteenth-century Italian homes. Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy, 220–243. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004375871_011
Cogliati Arano, Luisa, et al. The Medieval Health Handbook: “Tacuinum Sanitatis.” G. Braziller, 1992.
Corry, M. (2018). Delight in painted companions: Shaping the soul from birth in early modern italy. Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy, 310–341. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004375871_015
Craig-Atkins, Elizabeth. “Eavesdropping on short lives:” Medieval Childhood, 31 Aug. 2014, pp. 95–113, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1drt6.10.
Crow, Madison, et al. “Doctrinal and physical marginality in christian death: The burial of unbaptized infants in medieval Italy.” Religions, vol. 11, no. 12, 17 Dec. 2020, p. 678, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11120678.
DePrano, M. (2010b). At home with the dead: The posthumous remembrance of women in the domestic interior in Renaissance Florence. Source: Notes in the History of Art, 29(4), 21–28. https://doi.org/10.1086/sou.29.4.23208975
“The Eight Wars of Religion (1562-1598).” – Musée Protestant, museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-eight-wars-of-religion-1562-1598/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
Fee, Elizabeth, et al. “Early Modern Childbirth.” American Journal of Public Health, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Mar. 2003, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1449803/.
Fildes, Valerie A. Wet Nursing: A History from Antiquity to the Present. Basil Blackwell, 1988.
Fissell, M. E. (2008). Introduction: Women, health, and healing in early modern europe. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 82(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1353/bhm.2008.0024
Giuffra, Valentina, et al. “Autoptic practices in 16th–18th century Florence: Skeletal evidences from the Medici family.” International Journal of Paleopathology, vol. 15, Dec. 2016, pp. 21–30, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2016.09.004.
Hotsalo, Kateryna. “‘Recognizable Textiles in Daily Practices of the 16th-Century Florence.” Text and Image: Essential Problems in Art History, txim.history.knu.ua/article/view/89. Accessed 17 May 2025.
Hausmair, Barbara. “Topographies of the afterlife: Reconsidering infant burials in medieval mortuary space.” Journal of Social Archaeology, vol. 17, no. 2, 24 Apr. 2017, pp. 210–236, https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605317704347.
Juárez-Almendros, E. (2017). The Disabling of Aging Female Bodies: Midwives, Procuresses, Witches and the Monstrous Mother. In Disabled Bodies in Early Modern Spanish Literature: Prostitutes, Aging Women and Saints (pp. 83–115). Liverpool University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1ps32vm.7
Kuehn, T. (1992). Law, death, and heirs in the renaissance: Repudiation of inheritance in Florence. Renaissance Quarterly, 45(3), 484–516. https://doi.org/10.2307/2862670
Luini, B. (n.d.). Virgin and child with the infant Saint John the Baptist. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/luini-bernardino/virgin-and-child-infant-saint-john-baptist
Matchette, A. (2008). Women, objects, and exchange in early modern Florence. Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 3, 245–251. https://doi.org/10.1086/emw23541538
Moran, M. (2011). Female letter writing and the preservation of family memory in early modern italy. Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 6, 195–201. https://doi.org/10.1086/emw23617336
Morel, Marie-France. “Wet Nurses at Court in Xviith Century France.” Avisos de Viena, journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/adv/article/view/6187. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
Names from Sixteenth Century Venice, www.s-gabriel.org/names/juliana/16thcvenice.html. Accessed 8 Sept. 2024.
Partiot, Caroline, et al. “First bioarchaeological evidence of the familial practice of embalming of infant and adult relatives in early modern France.” Scientific Reports, vol. 14, no. 1, 14 Nov. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-78258-w.
“Pediatrics of the Past(from Original Incipit Practica Puerorum Passions Puerorum Adhuc in Cunabulis Iacentium, Published in 15th Century).” Google Books, Google, www.google.com/books/edition/Pediatrics_of_the_Past/7c0fAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA1&printsec=frontcover. Accessed 17 May 2025.
Plate. – Works – The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. (n.d.). https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/22869/plate
“Portrait of a Pregnant Woman, Possibly a Self-Portrait: Master Paintings Part II: Old Master Paintings.” Sotheby’s, Sotheby’s, www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2024/master-paintings-part-ii/portrait-of-a-pregnant-woman-probably-a-self. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
“Portrait of a Woman ('La Gravida’) by Raphael.” Uffizi Galleries, 15 Jan. 2024, www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/ritratto-femminile-detto-la-gravida.
Powell, H. “The ‘miracle of childbirth’: The portrayal of parturient women in medieval miracle narratives.” Social History of Medicine, vol. 25, no. 4, 23 Apr. 2012, pp. 795–811, https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hks019.
“Pregnancy Calculator with Benchmarks.” Calculator.Net, www.calculator.net/pregnancy-calculator.html?ccalcmethod=last%2Bperiod&dueDateDay=09%2F14%2F2025&cLastPeriodDay=04%2F07%2F2024&cCycleLength=28&cConceptionDay=12%2F22%2F2024&cUltrasoundDate=05%2F17%2F2025&cUltrasoundWeek=22&cUltrasoundDay=6&cIVFDay=12%2F13%2F2024&civfage=5&printit=0&x=Calculate. Accessed 17 May 2025.
“Public Health & Private Health in Pre-Modern Italy.” The Medici Archive Project, www.medici.org/public-health-private-health-in-pre-modern-italy/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
Religious subjects on sixteenth-century Deruta Piatti da Pompa. (n.d.). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334833061_Religious_Subjects_on_Sixteenth-Century_Deruta_Piatti_da_Pompa
Ruf, Jacob, and Huldrych Martin Koelbing. Ein Schön Lustig Trostbüchle von Den Empfengknussen Und Geburten Der Menschen, Unnd Iren Vilfaltigen Zůfälen Und Verhindernussen ..Extant Copy on Google Books, https://books.google.com/books/about/Ein_sch%C3%B6n_lustig_Trostb%C3%BCchle_von_den_e.html?id=WrFjAAAAcAAJ, 1554.
Salviati de’ Medici, Maria, and Natalie Tomas. Selected Letters, 1514-1543. Iter Press, 2022.
Sandberg, B. (2010). “All the many and varied remedies and secrets”: Sexual practices and reproductive knowledge in the Renaissance. Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 5, 235–242. https://doi.org/10.1086/emw23541517
SM;, Baumgartel KL;Sneeringer L;Cohen. “From Royal Wet Nurses to Facebook: The Evolution of Breastmilk Sharing.” Breastfeeding Review : Professional Publication of the Nursing Mothers’ Association of Australia, U.S. National Library of Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28936030/. Accessed 17 May 2025.
Tycz, K. M. (2018). Material prayers and maternity in early modern italy: Signed, sealed, delivered. Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy, 244–271. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004375871_012
Webb, Kimberly. “Mothers, Children, and Servants: Gender, Social Power, and Domestic Service in Trecento and Quattrocento Tuscany.” CONCEPT, Villanova, concept.journals.villanova.edu/. Accessed 17 May 2025.
Within and without: The Social and Medical Worlds of the Medieval Midwife, 1000–1500 - Proquest, www.proquest.com/openview/a2bb7b1cf8c66ade629ee9e3aa3bdd61/1?cbl=18750&diss=y&pq-origsite=gscholar. Accessed 9 Sept. 2025.
Barker, Sheila. “The Contributions of Medici Women to Medicine in Grand Ducal Tuscany and Beyond.” The Grand Ducal Medici and Their Archive (1537–1743), Ed. Alessio Assonitis and Brian Sandberg (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers), 31 Jan. 2025, www.academia.edu/36072522/The_Contributions_of_Medici_Women_to_Medicine_in_Grand_Ducal_Tuscany_and_Beyond.
Baumgartel, Kelley L, et al. “From Royal Wet Nurses to Facebook: The Evolution of Breastmilk Sharing.” Breastfeeding Review : Professional Publication of the Nursing Mothers’ Association of Australia, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Nov. 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5603296/.
Bednarski, Steven, and Andrée Courtemanche. “‘Sadly and with a Bitter Heart’: What the caesarean section meant in the Middle Ages.” Florilegium, vol. 29, Jan. 2011, pp. 2–2, https://doi.org/10.3138/flor.28.2.
Bini, Matteo, et al. “Modern Double Burial in Central Italy: Funerary Chamber of the Buondelmonti Family in the Basilica of Santa Maria Dell’impruneta (Florence).” Medicina Historica, mattioli1885journals.com/index.php/MedHistor/article/view/11494. Accessed 8 Sept. 2025.
Brody, M. J. (2018). Religious subjects on sixteenth-century Deruta Piatti da Pompa. Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy, 187–219. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004375871_010
Brévart, F. B. (2008). Between medicine, magic, and religion: Wonder drugs in German medico-pharmaceutical treatises of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Speculum, 83(1), 1–57. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0038713400012410
“Calais Port and Citadel – Historical Facts.” Travel France Online, 1 July 2024, www.travelfranceonline.com/calais-port-and-citadel-history/.
Christiansen, Keith, et al. The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512-1570. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2021.
Christopoulos, J. (2012). Abortion and the confessional in Counter-Reformation italy. Renaissance Quarterly, 65(2), 443–484. https://doi.org/10.1086/667257
Cooper, I. G. (2018). Investigating the ‘case’ of the agnus dei in sixteenth-century Italian homes. Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy, 220–243. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004375871_011
Cogliati Arano, Luisa, et al. The Medieval Health Handbook: “Tacuinum Sanitatis.” G. Braziller, 1992.
Corry, M. (2018). Delight in painted companions: Shaping the soul from birth in early modern italy. Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy, 310–341. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004375871_015
Craig-Atkins, Elizabeth. “Eavesdropping on short lives:” Medieval Childhood, 31 Aug. 2014, pp. 95–113, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1drt6.10.
Crow, Madison, et al. “Doctrinal and physical marginality in christian death: The burial of unbaptized infants in medieval Italy.” Religions, vol. 11, no. 12, 17 Dec. 2020, p. 678, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11120678.
DePrano, M. (2010b). At home with the dead: The posthumous remembrance of women in the domestic interior in Renaissance Florence. Source: Notes in the History of Art, 29(4), 21–28. https://doi.org/10.1086/sou.29.4.23208975
“The Eight Wars of Religion (1562-1598).” – Musée Protestant, museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-eight-wars-of-religion-1562-1598/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
Fee, Elizabeth, et al. “Early Modern Childbirth.” American Journal of Public Health, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Mar. 2003, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1449803/.
Fildes, Valerie A. Wet Nursing: A History from Antiquity to the Present. Basil Blackwell, 1988.
Fissell, M. E. (2008). Introduction: Women, health, and healing in early modern europe. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 82(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1353/bhm.2008.0024
Giuffra, Valentina, et al. “Autoptic practices in 16th–18th century Florence: Skeletal evidences from the Medici family.” International Journal of Paleopathology, vol. 15, Dec. 2016, pp. 21–30, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2016.09.004.
Hotsalo, Kateryna. “‘Recognizable Textiles in Daily Practices of the 16th-Century Florence.” Text and Image: Essential Problems in Art History, txim.history.knu.ua/article/view/89. Accessed 17 May 2025.
Hausmair, Barbara. “Topographies of the afterlife: Reconsidering infant burials in medieval mortuary space.” Journal of Social Archaeology, vol. 17, no. 2, 24 Apr. 2017, pp. 210–236, https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605317704347.
Juárez-Almendros, E. (2017). The Disabling of Aging Female Bodies: Midwives, Procuresses, Witches and the Monstrous Mother. In Disabled Bodies in Early Modern Spanish Literature: Prostitutes, Aging Women and Saints (pp. 83–115). Liverpool University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1ps32vm.7
Kuehn, T. (1992). Law, death, and heirs in the renaissance: Repudiation of inheritance in Florence. Renaissance Quarterly, 45(3), 484–516. https://doi.org/10.2307/2862670
Luini, B. (n.d.). Virgin and child with the infant Saint John the Baptist. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/luini-bernardino/virgin-and-child-infant-saint-john-baptist
Matchette, A. (2008). Women, objects, and exchange in early modern Florence. Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 3, 245–251. https://doi.org/10.1086/emw23541538
Moran, M. (2011). Female letter writing and the preservation of family memory in early modern italy. Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 6, 195–201. https://doi.org/10.1086/emw23617336
Morel, Marie-France. “Wet Nurses at Court in Xviith Century France.” Avisos de Viena, journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/adv/article/view/6187. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
Names from Sixteenth Century Venice, www.s-gabriel.org/names/juliana/16thcvenice.html. Accessed 8 Sept. 2024.
Partiot, Caroline, et al. “First bioarchaeological evidence of the familial practice of embalming of infant and adult relatives in early modern France.” Scientific Reports, vol. 14, no. 1, 14 Nov. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-78258-w.
“Pediatrics of the Past(from Original Incipit Practica Puerorum Passions Puerorum Adhuc in Cunabulis Iacentium, Published in 15th Century).” Google Books, Google, www.google.com/books/edition/Pediatrics_of_the_Past/7c0fAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA1&printsec=frontcover. Accessed 17 May 2025.
Plate. – Works – The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. (n.d.). https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/22869/plate
“Portrait of a Pregnant Woman, Possibly a Self-Portrait: Master Paintings Part II: Old Master Paintings.” Sotheby’s, Sotheby’s, www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2024/master-paintings-part-ii/portrait-of-a-pregnant-woman-probably-a-self. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
“Portrait of a Woman ('La Gravida’) by Raphael.” Uffizi Galleries, 15 Jan. 2024, www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/ritratto-femminile-detto-la-gravida.
Powell, H. “The ‘miracle of childbirth’: The portrayal of parturient women in medieval miracle narratives.” Social History of Medicine, vol. 25, no. 4, 23 Apr. 2012, pp. 795–811, https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hks019.
“Pregnancy Calculator with Benchmarks.” Calculator.Net, www.calculator.net/pregnancy-calculator.html?ccalcmethod=last%2Bperiod&dueDateDay=09%2F14%2F2025&cLastPeriodDay=04%2F07%2F2024&cCycleLength=28&cConceptionDay=12%2F22%2F2024&cUltrasoundDate=05%2F17%2F2025&cUltrasoundWeek=22&cUltrasoundDay=6&cIVFDay=12%2F13%2F2024&civfage=5&printit=0&x=Calculate. Accessed 17 May 2025.
“Public Health & Private Health in Pre-Modern Italy.” The Medici Archive Project, www.medici.org/public-health-private-health-in-pre-modern-italy/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
Religious subjects on sixteenth-century Deruta Piatti da Pompa. (n.d.). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334833061_Religious_Subjects_on_Sixteenth-Century_Deruta_Piatti_da_Pompa
Ruf, Jacob, and Huldrych Martin Koelbing. Ein Schön Lustig Trostbüchle von Den Empfengknussen Und Geburten Der Menschen, Unnd Iren Vilfaltigen Zůfälen Und Verhindernussen ..Extant Copy on Google Books, https://books.google.com/books/about/Ein_sch%C3%B6n_lustig_Trostb%C3%BCchle_von_den_e.html?id=WrFjAAAAcAAJ, 1554.
Salviati de’ Medici, Maria, and Natalie Tomas. Selected Letters, 1514-1543. Iter Press, 2022.
Sandberg, B. (2010). “All the many and varied remedies and secrets”: Sexual practices and reproductive knowledge in the Renaissance. Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 5, 235–242. https://doi.org/10.1086/emw23541517
SM;, Baumgartel KL;Sneeringer L;Cohen. “From Royal Wet Nurses to Facebook: The Evolution of Breastmilk Sharing.” Breastfeeding Review : Professional Publication of the Nursing Mothers’ Association of Australia, U.S. National Library of Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28936030/. Accessed 17 May 2025.
Tycz, K. M. (2018). Material prayers and maternity in early modern italy: Signed, sealed, delivered. Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy, 244–271. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004375871_012
Webb, Kimberly. “Mothers, Children, and Servants: Gender, Social Power, and Domestic Service in Trecento and Quattrocento Tuscany.” CONCEPT, Villanova, concept.journals.villanova.edu/. Accessed 17 May 2025.
Within and without: The Social and Medical Worlds of the Medieval Midwife, 1000–1500 - Proquest, www.proquest.com/openview/a2bb7b1cf8c66ade629ee9e3aa3bdd61/1?cbl=18750&diss=y&pq-origsite=gscholar. Accessed 9 Sept. 2025.