Carole Levin is Willa Cather Professor of History and Director of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program at the University of Nebraska, USA.Anna Riehl Bertolet is Associate Professor of English at Auburn University, USA.Jo Eldridge Carney is Professor of English at The College of New Jersey, USA.

• LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1. ARTISTS, MUSICIANS, AND ENTERTAINERS Beale, Mary Cradock Beale Horenbout, Susanna Horenbout [Horenbolte] Parker Gilman Inglis, Esther Inglis Kello Jane the Fool Perwich, Susanna Perwich Teerlinc, Levina Benninck Teerlinc Thomasina 2. CRIMINALS Abbott, Elizabeth Abbott Arden, Alice Arden Barnes, Elizabeth Barnes Baynton, Mary Baynton Bridgestone, Ann Bridgestone Brigge, Mabel Brigge Bulmer, Margaret Cheyne Bulmer Caldwell, Elizabeth Caldwell Chamber, Rebecca Chamber Champion, Mary Champion Clarke, Alice Clarke Cowland, Alice Cowland Crofte, Elizabeth Crofte Davis, Alice Davis Davy, Margaret Davy [Davie] Dell, Annis Dell Downes, Katherine Stamfort Downes Drewry, Anne Drewry [Drewie, Calfield] Evans, Elizabeth Evans [Canberry Bess] Ferneseede, Margaret Ferneseede Ferrers, Katherine Ferrers Fanshawe Francis, Katherine Francis Frith, Mary Frith [Moll Cutpurse] Greene, Anne Greene Gunter, Anne Gunter Hamton, Anne Hamton Hattersley, Jane Hattersley Hayward, Petronella Brightred Hayward Helliker, Joan Helliker Howard, Frances Howard Devereux Carr, Countess of Essex and Somerset Hungerford, Agnes Cotell Hungerford Lake, Mary Ryder Lake Osborne, Mary Osborne Page, Eulalia Glanfield Page Pendleton, Ellen Pendleton Floder Phelps, Judith Phelps Rodney, Anne Lake Cecil Rodney, Lady Ros Saunders, Anne Saunders Scambler, Martha Scambler Throckmorton, Frances Brydges Throckmorton Turner, Ann Norton Turner Vincent, Margaret Vincent Wallen, Anne Wallen<

"The encyclopedia is truly a collaborative effort, one that feels momentous: a crystillization of the maturity of the field and the range and extent of its activity [...] In sum, the amazing diversity of women's activities and undertaking documented, in greater or lesser detail, in the Biographical Encyclopedia more than makes up for any inconveniences the volume presents. One cannot help but finish even a perusal of its contents without being struck by the rich world of different presented here. And once striken, one will surely return for more."- Patricia Phillippy, Kingston University London, Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal