Letters

Isabella Andreini (1562–1604) was an Italian actress and writer. Paola De Santo is assistant professor of Italian at the University of Georgia. Caterina Mongiat Farina is associate professor of Italian at DePaul University.

• Acknowledgments Illustrations Introduction The Other Voice Life, Works, and Authorship Isabella Andreini and Women’s Writing in Early Modern Italy The Question of Genre: Pushing the Boundaries of the Letterbook Summary and Analysis of the Letters Love as the Beginning, Middle, and End of the Letters A Discordant Harmony: Paired and Thematically Grouped Letters The Actress as Writer: Thematic and Stylistic Aspects of the Letters Rhetoric and the questione della donna in the Letters Reception and Afterlife Translators’ Note Letters of Isabella Andreini Permission Dedicatory Letter Encomiastic Verses and Anagrams Table of All the Letters Contained in the Work Letters AppendixComparative Table of the Letters’ Summaries: 1607 Edition and This Edition Gender Designations of Letter Writers and Recipients Bibliography Index

"Paola De Santo and Caterina Mongiat Farina’s critical edition and translation of Isabella Andreini’s Letters (1607) is a long-awaited resource for English readers and scholars of Renaissance and early modern studies. This monumental volume showcases De Santo and Mongiat Farina’s strong translation skills, as well as their deep knowledge of Andreini’s work and the rich trove of classical and Renaissance sources from which she drew her copious allusions. Their erudite notes contextualize the letters well for the modern reader. On the whole, the volume provides an eminently readable and enjoyable translation of this work that found enduring fame in Italy and abroad during the seventeenth century."