Letters Familiar and Formal

Meredith K. Ray is associate professor of Italian at the University of Delaware. She is the author of Writing Gender in Women’s Letter Collections of the Italian Renaissance (University of Toronto Press, 2009). Lynn Lara Westwater is assistant professor of Italian at The George Washington University. She has published extensively on women’s writing in early modern Venice.

• Acknowledgments xiIntroductionArcangela Tarabotti: A Life of Letters 1A Note on the Translation 41Abbreviations 44Map of Seventeenth-Century Venice including the Convent of Sant’Anna 45Letters Familiar and Formal Presented by Arcangela Tarabotti to Her Most Illustrious and Esteemed Patron Giovan Francesco Loredano 47The Tears of Arcangela Tarabotti upon the Death of the Most Illustrious Signora Regina Donati 285Bibliography 297Index 309

"After their Italian edition of Tarabotti’s Lettere, Meredith Ray and Lynn Westwater have now produced the definitive English translation of this remarkable text: clear, accurate and lively -- a delight to read. Their introduction sets the historical and cultural context, while meticulous notes fully explain each letter. Altogether, compelling reading that brings the extraordinary story told by Tarabotti's Letters to English-speaking audience for the first time."