Between the convent and the court: Isabella d'Este and female community in the Renaissance

This dissertation explores mixed communities of religious and laywomen in early modern Italy through an examination of the correspondence between Isabella d'Este, Marchesa of Mantua (1474--1539), and religious women in Ferrara and Mantua. By examining community formation and the influence of religious institutions on gendered identity, this study demonstrates how regular interaction between lay and religious women impacted the shape of northern Italian courts, the concept of feminine virtue, and emerging notions of female behavior much discussed in Renaissance humanist treatises. It challenges the separation of the secular and religious spheres in the lives of women by uncovering the overlap of networks and alliances in women's relations and interactions with one another, thus enriching our understanding of how communities form outside---and between---institutions. Isabella d'Este's correspondence with religious women in Mantua and Ferrara discloses the composition of some of these communities. These letters reveal the roles women played for each other, the issues they deemed important, and the impact mixed communities of religious- and laywomen had on self-formation outside of the convent. Themes of virtue, piety, and friendship run throughout the correspondence, confirming that this female community provided just as much support, consolation, and praise as Isabella's most learned and distinguished correspondents. The correspondence thus reveals not only an essential aspect of Isabella's life and identity largely neglected by scholars, but also the ways in which the norms of monastic piety and spiritual friendship influenced her performance of and reputation for courtly virtue. Thus, this dissertation argues that Isabella's reputation as the quintessential Renaissance woman lies in her ability to combine the secular and sacred spheres---long integrated in the lives of women---into a model of learned and virtuous female authority at court.