Dynastic Marriage, Courtly Politics and the State in Renaissance Italy

This project explores dynastic marriage in Renaissance Italy as a means of understanding the important role played by princely consorts in the functioning of government. By bringing together historiographical streams hitherto kept apart - the recent research of gender and literary scholars and a classic tradition of analysis of the Italian Renaissance state - it will suggest that, in crisis-ridden Italy c. 1500, political cooperation between consorts in a courtly atmosphere where public and private were blurred, made a major contribution to contemporary political and literary culture.