Medieval and Renaissance Italian Women

Article focusing on Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Avila, two women mystics and writers who were declared doctors of the (Roman Catholic) church.

Clare of Assisi, a saint of the Roman Catholic church, founded the Poor Clares, a Franciscan order for women.

From "Joan of Arc" by Francis C. Lowell, published 1896 by Houghton, Mifflin and Company.

Isabella d'Este biography - a profile of Isabella d'Este, part of the Italian Renaissance nobility and arts world.

A picture gallery of portraits and paintings of Isabella d'Este, Renaissance noblewoman and art collector.

Marozia was trained by her mother Theodora to be a major player in papal politics. Marozia was allegedly the mistress of one Pope, mother of another and grandmother of yet another.

Theodora wielded power in a period of notable corruption in Rome. Allegedly the lover of Pope John X, Theodora was more certainly the grandmother of Pope John XI and great-grandmother of Pope John XII.