Daughters of alchemy : women and scientific culture in early modern Italy
Meredith K. Ray (Author)
Many women were at the vanguard in the era of the scientific revolution, deeply invested in empirical culture, yet their names are largely unknown. Ray's study begins with Caterina Sforza's alchemical recipes; examines the sixteenth-century vogue for "books of secrets"; and looks at narratives of science in works by Moderata Fonte and Lucrezia Marinella. It concludes with Camilla Erculiani's letters on natural philosophy and, finally, Margherita Sarrocchi's defense of Galileo's "Medicean" stars. Her book rethinks early modern science, properly reintroducing the integral and essential work of women
eBook, English, 2015
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2015