By Luz Santodomingo & Samuel Yelton Catherine of Aragon (Spain, 1485-England, 1536) Born December 16, 1485, she was the daughter of Isabella, Queen of Castile, and Ferdinand II of Aragon.[1] Catherine was the youngest of four daughters. Her sisters were Isabella, Queen of Portugal; Juana, Queen of Castile; and Maria, Queen of Portugal.[2] Compared to the traditional education…
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Mary of Ágreda
by Juliana Ossa Martinez Maria Coronel y Arena (1602-65) born in the village of Ágreda in northern Spain on April 2, 1602. She was the third child of Don Francisco Coronel and Catherine d’Arena.[1] Motivated by a divine revelation, her parents founded a convent in their own house on January 19, 1619.[2] Mary assumed the nun’s…
Cassandra Fedele
By Juliana Ossa Martinez Cassandra Fedele (1465-1558) Fedele was a renowned Italian scholar. Born in 1465, she was the daughter of Barbara Leoni and Angelo Fedele. Her father was learned in Greek and Latin, and was respected among the aristocracy.[1] He trained his daughter in Greek and Latin, and by the age of twelve…
Anne Oldfield
by Lindsay Smith Anne Oldfield (1683-1730) Oldfield, commonly known as “Nance,” was born to Anne Gourlaw and William Oldfield in Pall-Mall, London, c. 1683.[1] Her father was likely a soldier but he died while she was young, leaving Oldfield and her mother in a difficult financial state.[2] Oldfield labored as a seamstress until around the…
Jeanne d’Albret
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By Elizabeth Pearce Jeanne d’Albret (1528-72) Jeanne d’Albret, later Queen Jeanne of Navarre, was born on November 16, 1528, at St Germain-en-Laye, in France.[1] She was the daughter of Henri d’Albret, King of Navarre, and of Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre, and niece to King Francis I of France. Little is known about…
Margaret Beaufort
By Lindsay Smith Margaret Beaufort (1443[1]-1509) Born in Bedfordshire, England, Beaufort was the daughter of Margaret Beauchamp and John Beaufort, first Duke of Somerset. At her father’s death, possibly a suicide after being accused of treason, she became the heir to his fortune.[2] When Beaufort was six years old she was married to John de…
Bianca Capello
By Lindsay Smith, Troy O’Neill, and Piera Carroli Bianca Capello (c. 1548-87) was born to Pellegrina Morosini and Bartolomeo Capello, who were members of the wealthy Capelli nobility in Venice, Italy.[1] Not much is known about her childhood, but by the time she reached adolescence, she was known for her great beauty, with reddish blond…
Margaret More Roper
by Koren Whipp Margaret More Roper (1505-44), the eldest daughter of Thomas More, lord chancellor of England, and Joanna Colt, often called ‘Jane’ by modern writers, was born at home in late summer or early autumn of 1505 in Bucklersbury, London, five hundred yards north of the Thames.[1] The More children, Margaret, Elizabeth More Dancy,…
Tarquinia Molza
by Penelope Whitworth Tarquinia Molza (1542-1617) Italian virtuosa singer who was a notable courtier, celebrated musician and acclaimed intellectual of her time. In addition to performing, she was probably an instructor and advisor to the concerto delle donne of the court of Ferrara where she was a lady-in-waiting to the Duchess, Margherita Gonzaga-Este.[1] In 1589…
Elisabetta Gonzaga
By Koren Whipp Elisabetta Gonzaga (1471-1526) an Italian noblewoman, leader and salonnière of Urbino, Italy. Born in Mantua, she was the fourth child of Federico I Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua, and Margherita of Bavaria (Margaret of Wittelsbach). Well-educated, Elisabetta also sang and played music. She married Guidobaldoin 1488. Soon after, it became clear that her husband was…
Isabella Losa
by Koren Whipp Isabella Losa de Cardona (1491-1564) was born in Cardona, a town north of Barcelona, Spain. After the death of her husband in 1539, she became a Clarissan abbess and moved to Vercelli in Piedmont in 1553, where she founded an orphanage, Santa Maria di Loreto.[1] Losa is said to have mastered Latin,…
Lucrezia Marinella
by Lindsay Smith Lucrezia Marinella (c.1571-1653) also known as Lucrezia Marinelli Vacca, was born in Venice, Italy[1] to the physician and natural philosopher Giovanni Marinelli. Nothing is known of Marinella’s mother; she may have died in childbirth. [2] Giovanni Marinelli wrote several books on natural philosophy, rhetoric, and medicine, including female medicine and beauty. His…
Modesto Pozzo
Modesta Pozzo – Venezia, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana by Koren Whipp Modesto Pozzo -pseudonym Moderata Fonte (1555-92) a Venetian writer and poet. When both parents died of the plague in 1556, when she was just a year old, Pozzo and her older brother Leonardo were placed in the care of their maternal grandmother and her…
Margaret Ascham
by Veronica Cassidy Margaret Ascham (16th C.), née Margaret How, married Roger Ascham in 1555. In 1570 she arranged the publication of two of his books, A Report and Discourse of the Affaires and State of Germany and The Schole-master, to which she attached an open letter dedicating the book to Sir William Cecil ,…
Mary Sidney
by Eliana Greenberg Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621) was born in 1561 in Worcestershire, England, to Sir Henry Sidney and Lady Mary Dudley Sidney. Sir Henry Sidney served as Lord President of the Council in the Marches of Wales from 1559 to 1586, and then as Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1565 to…
Elizabeth Lucar
by Eliana Greenberg Elizabeth Lucar (1510-1537) was born in London in 1510. She was the daughter of Paul Withypoll, who afforded her a liberal education. She was schooled in needlework, mathematics, music, language (including Latin, Italian, and Spanish) and, most importantly, calligraphy. She is credited with writing the first English essay on the subject of…
Marie le Jars de Gournay
by Koren Whipp Marie le Jars de Gournay (1565-1645) French writer, editor, literary critic, translator, novelist, poet, and philosopher. She was born in Paris and raised in Gournay-sur-Aronde. Her father, Guillaume Le Jars was treasurer to King Henri III of France. In 1568 he obtained feudal rights to the Gournay estate in Picardy, and in…
Laura Battiferri Ammannati
by Elizabeth A. Pallitto Laura Battiferri Ammannati (1523-1589) Born in Urbino, the illegitimate child of a nobleman, Giovanni Antonio Battiferri, and a concubine, Maddelena Coccapani of Capri, Laura was nonetheless given a decent education. She married Vittorio Sereni, then, after her died, remarried the Florentine sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati. In 1560 she published Primo libro…
Gaspara Stampa
by Alix Korn Gaspara Stampa was born in Padua in 1523 to her mother Cecelia and father Bartolomeo Stampa, who had been a wealthy jeweler. She had two siblings, Cassandra and Baldassare. After the death of her father in 1530, the family moved to Venice. Stampa was afforded an excellent education at the hand of Fortunio…
Tullia d’Aragona
by Elizabeth Pallitto Tullia d’Aragona (c.1510-1556) was an Italian courtesan, author, and philosopher in Venice. Under her mother’s influence, Tullia had been initiated into the life of a courtesan when very young. She left us three books — her lyric Rime, her philosophical Dialogo, and her epic Il Meschino, and some urban legends. As an…
Isabella Andreini
by Koren Whipp Isabella Andreini 1562–1604, born Isabella Canali and also known as Isabella Da Padova, was an Italian actress, poet, musician and playwright. She was the first European actress to acquire social and cultural respectability and artistic fame.[1] She was a member of the Compagnia dei Comici Gelosi, an important touring theatre company that performed…
Anne Bacon
by Penelope Whitworth Anne, Lady Bacon, [née Cooke] (c. 1528–1610) Probably born at Gidea Hall, Essex, England. Educated in the classical languages and the early church fathers with her brothers and sisters at home by her father Sir Anthony Cooke. Cooke was one of several humanist educators employed by Queen Katherine Parr to tutor Henry VIII’s children…
Anne Askew
by Penelope Whitworth Anne Askew, [married name Kyme] (c. 1521–46), the second daughter of Sir William Askew (1489–1541) and his first wife, Elizabeth Wrottesley who was probably of the Reading Wrottesleys, though some sources say Wrottesley, Staffordshire.[1] Anne Askew is thought to have received a good education, possibly from tutors at home. She was married to…
