The Medici women
Subtitle: gender and power in Renaissance Florence
By: by Natalie R. Tomas.
Series: Women and gender in the early modern world
Publisher: Ashgate
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Aldershot, Hampshire, England; Burlington, Vt
Language: eng
Number of pages: 229
Subjects: Medici, House of.; Nobility -- Italy -- Biography.; Women -- Italy -- Biography.; Florence (Italy) -- History -- 1421-1737.
Genres: Biography.; History
Description: "The Medici Women is a study of the women of the famous Medici family of Florence in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Natalie Tomas here examines critically the changing contribution of the women in the Medici family to the eventual success of the Medici regime and their exercise of power within it; and makes a contribution to our historical understanding of how women were able to wield power in the late medieval and early modern Italy and Europe." "Tomas takes a feminist approach that examines the experience of the Medici women within a critical framework of gender analysis, rather than biography. Using the relationship between gender and power as a vantage point, she analyses the Medici women's uses of power and influence over time. She also analyses the varied contemporary reactions to and representation of that power, and the manner in which the women's actions in the political sphere changed over the course of the century between republican and ducal rule (1434-1537). The narrative focuses especially on how women were able to exercise power, the constraints placed upon them, and how their gender intersected with the exercise of power and influence." "Keeping the historiography to a minimum and explaining all unfamiliar Italian terms, Tomas makes her narrative clear and accessible to non-specialist; thus The Media Women will appeal to scholars of women's studies across disciplines and geographical boundaries."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-212) and index.