Today I got this question stuck in my head – how did ladies back in Renaissance times actually shake things up? Like for real? Grabbed my laptop and dove into a research rabbit hole.
Starting Point Total Confusion
Honestly first few sources I checked? Kinda useless. Mostly just listed queens everyone already knows about, big names like Catherine de Medici or Elizabeth I. Felt frustrated. Kept thinking, okay cool queens ruled stuff... but what about the regular women? The artists, the business owners, the thinkers?
Pulled up a bunch more tabs. JSTOR articles were too dense. Scrolled past like five scholarly papers feeling lost. Needed something meatier than Wikipedia but less textbook-y.
The Goldmine Moment
Finally stumbled across this online archive scan of merchant guild records from Florence. Started skimming. Bingo! Saw names like Giovanna listed as textile workshop owners. Then found letters between women arguing about art commissions. This changed the game.
- Business Owners: Realized women weren't just sitting around doing embroidery – they ran huge silk and wool shops handling serious money. Found court docs showing them suing dudes who owed them cash.
- Behind-the-Scenes Art: Kept seeing names like Sofonisba Anguissolla popping up. Dug deeper. Turns out loads of women painted professionally! But guess what? Their dads or husbands often signed the work. Sneaky.
- Book Smarts: Read this wild diary extract from a female tutor. Women tutoring sons of noblemen? Teaching philosophy and Greek? Mind blown. Then discovered Venetian nuns printing banned books. Risk takers.
- Medical Stuff: Almost missed this. Midwife records from Bologna detailed using herbs and techniques way ahead of their time. Men physicians straight up plagiarized their notes later. Classic.
Putting the Puzzle Together
Took forever cross-referencing sources. Church records contradicted tax logs. Artist diaries conflicted with official guild entries. Got messy with piles of notes spread everywhere.
Biggest shock? Nobody wrote it down straight. History recorded by dudes meant women’s impact got hidden under layers of "she helped her husband" or just erased. Like reconstructing a smashed vase.
My conclusion after hours of digging? Renaissance exploded because women were everywhere making things happen – they just rarely got the microphone. They funded art through workshops, pushed science as healers, ran cities financially while titled lords got credit. Sneaky brilliant legacy.
Would I do this deep dive again? Totally. Wanna see what else we missed?
