Parlour Games and the Public Life of Women in Renaissance Italy

by George W. McClure

Confined by behavioural norms and professional restrictions, women in Renaissance Italy found a welcome escape in an alternative world of play. This book examines the role of games of wit in the social and cultural experience of patrician women from the early sixteenth to the early eighteenth century.

Beneath the frivolous exterior of such games as occasions for idle banter, flirtation, and seduction, there often lay a lively contest for power and agency, and the opportunity for conventional women to demonstrate their intellect, to achieve a public identity, and even to model new behaviour and institutions in the non-ludic world. By tapping into the records and cultural artifacts of these games, George McClure recovers a realm of female fame that has largely escaped the notice of modern historians, and in so doing, reveals a cohort of spirited, intellectual women outside of the courts.

Genres: Italy, History

336 pages, Hardcover

First published June 28, 2013

Reviews

[Melisende · Rating 3 out of 5]

Academic tome that looks at the use of games in Renaissance Italy, particularly by upper-class women, as a means of displaying their intellect, wit, charm, being confined by the social norms from doing so in a more public forum.

Welcome addition for those with an interest in this particular field of study.

(re-read and review updated 2017)