The Medici Women: Gender and Power in Renaissance Florence (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World)

This title presents a study of the women of the famous Medici family of republican Florence in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Natalie Tomas critically examines 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 contributes to our historical understanding of how women were able to wield power in 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. Keeping the historiography to a minimum and explaining all unfamiliar Italian terms, Tomas makes her narrative clear and accessible to non-specialists; thus this book should appeal to scholars of women's studies across disciplines and geographical boundaries.