Thesis abstract:

«p»My thesis is provisionally titled 'The Emotions of Female Friendship in Early Modern Italy' and finds its centre with Isabella d'Este (1474-1539), the marchesa of Mantua, and her besties Elisabetta Gonzaga (1471-1526), the duchess of Urbino, Margherita Cantelma (d. 1532), the duchess of Sora, Costanza d'Avalos (1460-1541), the duchess of Francavilla, and Eleonora Orsini del Balzo, the marchesa of Crotone. In early modern Italy, ideal friendship, or amicizia, was posited as a virtuous relationship that implicitly or, at times, explicitly excluded female participation on grounds of their essential imperfection. This thesis, therefore, seeks to demonstrate how elite women developed a repertoire of methods to nurture their friendships; methods that were necessarily distinct from the deeply male paradigms of friendship. This thesis is also concerned with the feeling of friendship and if, and how, these feelings were gendered. I will demonstrate that friendship was an intensely physical experience: holding the letter of a friend, eating the food that was sent along with it, and all the emotions elicited along the way. But the overarching goal of this thesis is to provide an intimate and compassionate reading of their lives, looking at these women through the eyes of their friends. «/p»