Annotated bibliography of readings related to Shakespeare's Sisters

The following list is not meant to be comprehensive but to provide at least one modern edition and one fairly recent biography for each author, when such is available. In many cases, modern editions of the works contain good biographical introductions. Though there are many excellent works in other languages, this list focuses on books in English for purposes of accessibility.

Sources related to individual women

Tullia d'Aragona (ca. 1510-1556)

Sweet Fire: Tullia D'Aragona's Poetry of Dialogue and Selected Prose, trans. and ed., Elizabeth A. Pallitto (Braziller, 2006)

Folger Call Number: PQ4562. A9 A2 2006

Mary Astell (1666-1731)

Serious Proposal to the Ladies: Parts I and II, ed. Patricia Springborg (Broadview Press, 2002)

Folger Call Number: HQ1596 .A87 2002

Perry, Ruth. The Celebrated Mary Astell: an Early English Feminist (U of Chicago Press, 1986)

Folger Call Number: HQ1595.A7 P4

Laura Battiferri (1523-1589)

Laura Battiferri and Her Literary Circle, ed. and trans. Victoria Kirkham (University of Chicago Press, 2006)

Folger Call Number: PQ4607.B6 A24 2006

Aphra Behn (1640-1689)

Oroonoko, the Rover, and Other Works, ed. Janet Todd (Penguin Classics 1992)

Folger Call Number: PR3317 .A13 1992

Todd, Janet. The Secret Life of Aphra Behn (Andre Deutsch, 1996)

Folger Call Number: PR3317.Z5 T63 1996

Lady Elizabeth Cary (1585-1693)

Life and Letters, ed. Heather Wolfe (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001)

Folger Call Number: PR2499.F3 Z48 2001

Tragedy of Mariam: the fair queen of Jewry, ed. Karin Britland (Methuen, 2010)

Folger Call Number: PR2499.F3 T7 2010

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1624?-1674)

Convent of Pleasure and other Plays, ed. Anne Shaver (Johns Hopkins UP, 1999)

Folger Call Number: PR3605.N2 A6 1999

Paper Bodies: a Margaret Cavendish Reader, ed. Sylvia Bowerbank and Sara Mendelson (Broadview, 2000)

Folger Call Number: PR3605.N2 A6 2000

Political Writings, ed. Susan James (Cambridge UP, 2003)

Folger Call Number: PR3605.N2 A6 2003

Whitaker, Katie. Mad Madge; the extraordinary life of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, the first woman to live by her pen (Basic Books, 2002)

Folger Call Number: PR3605.N2 Z95 2002

Susannah Centlivre (1667?-1723)

Miscellaneous Plays, intro. Stephanie Hodgson-Wright (Ashgate, 2000)

Folger Call Number: PR1127 .E37 2001 pt.1, v.7

The Basset Table, :ed. Jane Milling (Broadview Press, 2009)

Folger Call Number: PR3339.C6 B38 2009

Lady Anne Clifford (1590-1676)

Memoir of 1603 and The Diary of 1616-1619, ed. Katherine Acheson (Broadview Editions, 2007)

Folger Call Number: DA378.P4 A3 2007

Spence, Richard T. Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery (1590-1676) (Sutton, 1997)

Folger Call Number: DA378.P4 S64 1997

Victoria Colonna (1492-1547)

Sonnets for Michelangelo: a bilingual edition, ed. and trans. Abigail Brundin (U of Chicago Press, 2005)

Folger Call Number: PQ4620 .A24 2005

Brundin, Abigail. Vittoria Colonna and the Spiritual Poetics of the Italian Reformation (Ashgate, 2008)

Folger Call Number: PQ4620 .B78 2008

Madeleine (1520-1587) and Catherine Des Roches (1542-1587)

From Mother and Daughter: Poems, dialogues, and Letters of Les Dames Des Roches, ed. and trans. Anne R. Larsen (U of Chicago Press, 2006)

Folger Call Number: PQ1609.D49 A6 2006

Tarte, Kendall B. Writing Places: Sixteenth-Century City Culture and the Des Roches Salon (U of Delaware Press, 2007)

Folger Call Number: PQ1609.D49 T37 2007

Eleanor Davies Douglas (1590-1652)

Eleanor Davies, writings 1641-1646, selected and introduced by Teresa Feroli (Ashgate, 2001)

Folger Call Number: BF1815.D68 F47 2011

Cope, Esther S. Handmaid of the Holy Spirit: Dame Eleanor Davies (U of Michigan Press, 1992)

Folger Call Number DA378.D7 D6

Margaret Fell (1614-1702)

Women’s Speaking Justified (1667), ed. David J. Latt (William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, U of California, 1979)

Folger Call Number: BX7732.A1 L2

Kunze, Bonnely Young. Margaret Fell and the Rise of Quakerism (Stanford U Press, 1994)

Anne Finch, countess of Winchilsea (1661-1720)

The Anne Finch Wellesley Manuscript Poems, ed. Barbara McGovern and Charles H. Hinnant (U of Georgia Press, 1998)

Folger Call Number: PR3765.W57 A6 1998

Selected Poems, ed. Katharine M. Rogers (Ungar, 1979)

Folger Call Number: PR3765.W57 A13 1979

McGovern, Barbara. Anne Finch and her Poetry: a Critical Biography (U of Georgia Press, 1992)

Folger Call Number: PR3765.W57 Y5

Moderata Fonte (1555-1592)

Floridoro: a Chivalric Romance, ed. Valeria Finucci; trans. Julia Kisacky (U of Chicago Press, 2006)

Folger Call Number: PQ4623.F36 F5613 2006

Veronica Franco (1546-1591)

Poems and Selected Letters, ed. and trans. Ann Rosalind Jones and Margaret F. Rosenthal (U of Chicago Press, 1998)

Folger Call Number: PQ4623.F6 A613 1998

Rosenthal, Margaret F. The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice (U of Chicago Press, 1992)

Folger Call Number: PQ4623.F6 Y7

Esther Inglis (1571-1624)

View reproductions of some of her manuscripts on Luna.

Yeo, Elspeth. "Inglis [married name Kello], Esther (1570/1-1624), Calligrapher." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Jan. 2007.

Folger Call Number:

Ziegler, Georgianna. "'More than Feminine Boldness': The Gift Books of Esther Inglis." In Women, Writing, and the Reproduction of Culture in Tudor and Stuart Britain. Ed. Mary E. Burke, Jane Donawerth, Linda L. Dove, and Karen Nelson. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 2000.19-37.

Folger Call Number: PR428.F45 W66 2000

Louise Labé (1526?-1566)

Complete Poetry and Prose: a bilingual edition, ed. and trans. Deborah Lesko Baker, poetry trans. Annie Finch (U of Chicago Press, 2006)

Folger Call Number: PQ1628.L2 A23 2006

Cameron, Keith. Louise Labé: Renaissance Poet and Feminist (St. Martin’s, 1990)

Folger Call Number: PQ1628.L2 Y23

Madame de La Fayette (1634-1693)

Princess of Clèves, ed. and trans. John D. Lyons (W.W. Norton, 1994)

Folger Call Number: PQ1805.L5 A7 1994

The Princesse de Cleves; The Princesse de Montpensier; The Comtesse de Tendre, trans. Terence Cave (Oxford UP, 1992)

Folger Call Number:

Aemilia Lanyer (1569-1645)

Poems of Aemilia Lanyer: Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, ed Susanne Woods (Oxford UP, 1993)

Folger Call Number: PR2296.L15 S3 1993

Aemilia Lanyer: Gender, Genre, and the Canon, ed. Marshall Grossman (U of Kentucky Press, 1998)

Folger Call Number: PR2296.L27 Z56 1998

Hortense Mancini (1646-1699) and Marie Mancini (1639-1715?)

Memoirs: Hortense Mancini and Marie Mancini, ed. Sarah Nelson (U of Chicago Press, 2008)

Folger Call Number:

Mallet-Joris, Françoise. The Uncompromising Heart; a Life of Marie Mancini, Louis XIV’s First Love (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1966)

Folger Call Number:

Rosvall, Toivo David. The Mazarine Legacy: the Life of Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin (Viking Press, 1969)

Folger Call Number:

Delarivière Manley (1663-1724)

Delarivier Manley, selelcted and intro. Stephanie Hodgson-Wright (Ashgate, 2006)

Folger Call Number: PR3545.M8 A6 2006

Carnell, Rachel. A Political Biography of Delarivier Manley (Pickering & Chatto, 2008)

Folger Call Number: PR3545.M8 Z53 2008

Clark, Constance. Three Augustan Women Playwrights (P. Lang, 1986) Source also includes Pix and Trotter.

Folger Call Number: PR714.W6 C5