Italian professor wins translation prize from Society for the Study of Early Modern Women

Deanna Shemek, UCI professor of Italian, has won the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women’s prize for best translation of a woman’s work. Her edition of Isabella d’Este: Selected Letters (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Publications, 2017) is the first translation into English of more than 16,000 letters written by the influential Italian baroness on a broad range of topics. The 830 letters included in the book convey a sense of life in Renaissance Europe and also address issues of interest to scholars who study women and gender, violence against women, reproduction, sexuality and marriage. “The Renaissance is widely known as a time that produced multifaceted men of many talents,” Shemek said. “It’s important to me to reveal the fact that there were also remarkable women in this period, and Isabella d’Este was surely one of them. The SSEMW is dedicated to increasing our knowledge about women around the world roughly during 1400 to 1700, so this prize is an especially meaningful honor.” Shemek co-directs the IDEA: Isabella d’Este Archive, which offers students and researchers new ways to explore the culture of early modern Italy through digitally available materials.