ABSTRACT
‘The Lady, shall we venture to say, turns out to be merely a wife,’ states Ruth Kelso in the introduction to her well-documented study, Doctrine for the Lady of the Renaissance. 1 Indeed, Renaissance restrictions on women cut across all social classes. The curbing on speech and public appearance, for example, applied, with some modifications, as much to a countess as to any woman lower down the social scale. So a noblewoman wishing to publish a work of literature was not free to do so on account of her title and education.
