As if holding a diamond in the twilight, Eisenbichler examines each facet of [these women's] lives, including intellectual friendships, heresy, political intrigue, and even a lesbian romance. . . . The Sword and the Pen is a major contribution to our understanding of female poets in the Renaissance and the glittering cultural climate of a proud but doomed city. -Renaissance Quarterly
Eisenbichler not only provides an analysis of the poetry of these women [Aurelia Petrucci, Laudomia Forteguerri, and Virginia Salvi] but also book dedications to them, revealing an intersection of poetry, politics, and sexuality. He has rescued their poetry from the narrow confines of interpretation . . . [and] contributed greatly to our knowledge of women's thinking and writing. -Magistra
Eisenbichler brings to his study of Aurelia Petrucci, Laudomia Forteguerri, and Virginia Martini Salvi the deep understanding of Renaissance culture, the confident mastery of archival and manuscript material, the keen eye for revelatory detail, and the lucid expository style that have distinguished his many previous publications. The result is a book that both increases the reader's knowledge of particular writers in a particular time and place and shows how such particularities can be used to advance understanding of an entire society and its literary culture. -Choice
This book is an excellent combination of historical and literary analysis. Confronted with a frustrating dearth of information on these women, The Sword and the Pen combines painstaking archival research, a careful analysis of biographical material, and a consideration of the women's own works to sketch their family ties, their intellectual networks, and the details of their lives. -Sixteenth Century Journal
Our knowledge of how gender functions on many levels during the Renaissance has been greatly enhanced by Eisenbichler's work. The inclusion of sonnets and poems composed by several other Sienese women, and their excellent translations, raises many more questions than it answers on the history of gender in Italy-which is Eisenbichler's goal. A job well done. -Renaissance and Reformation
Eisenbichler makes a compelling case for the unique aspects of women's participation in sixteenth-century Siena's literary networks. His book offers an enticing panorama of literary culture, where men and women of noble families wrote to each other, provoked one another, and built up each other's reputations in the final years of the Republic of Siena. -European History Quarterly
. . . Eisenbichler has authored a book which breaks new ground, suggests new readings of texts and places a number of Italian language texts into the hands of English language readers for the first time. . . . The book is well worth the read and the academic community will be well served through this important contribution. -Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Painstakingly researched and well-argued throughout, The Sword and the Pen offers us case studies centered on Siena, showing that the silence enjoined on early modern women was a fiction for at least a literate subset of the population, who wrote not only about love but on politics. . . . this volume will become necessary reading for any scholar working on Italian early modernity, women writers, and cultural history. -Early Modern Women Journal
Through nuanced renderings and interpretations of their poetry, poems written about them, and works dedicated to them, as well as biographical reconstructions drawn from his meticulous archival research, Eisenbichler fills lacunae, corrects errors, and uncovers his protagonists' roles in and commentary upon their afflicted city and era . . . . This engagingly written and primary-source-rich study offers much to readers interested in Renaissance studies, Italian literature, and women's and gender history. -The Historian
Konrad Eisenbichler presents a sustained investigation of key female protagonists in sixteenth-century Siena's literary culture. A key strength of this work is its careful analysis of three Sienese [women:] Aurelia Petrucci, Laudomia Forteguerri, and Virginia Martini Salvi. . . . Fine translations are followed by the original citations and Eisenbichler contextualizes his literary analysis with an impressive range of archival research. -Parergon
