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Galilæana. Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Science

Focus

Vol. 22 No. 2 (2025)

Voices from the margin. Italian Renaissance paratexts and women’s knowledge production

DOI
https://doi.org/10.57617/gal-87
Submitted
17 May 2025
Published
2025-10-31

Abstract

This article investigates the role of Renaissance paratextual sources – particularly dedicatory epistles authored by women – as a key space for understanding female contributions to knowledge production in the early modern period. Focusing on Italian works from the late sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century, it analyses how female authors, within contexts such as the querelle des femmes, epistolary practices, scientific dialogues, and poetry, used these marginal spaces to negotiate gender roles, claim authority, and position themselves within the circulation of knowledge. Approaching these texts through the lens of privacy studies and the history of emotions, and applying a slow close-reading methodology, the article reveals how dedicatory epistles served both as self-defense and as a declaration of intellectual agency in the Italian Renaissance.

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