Letters to Agnese Part One
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 first part of three installments we glimpse the first trimester of this pregnancy.
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.
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Slides on the project
The letters and sources in an easy to read format |
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Sources
(Updated 2/2025
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.
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/.
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
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
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.
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
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.
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.
“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
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
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
(Updated 2/2025
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.
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/.
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
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
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.
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
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.
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.
“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
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
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