Aside from a few famous queens, warriors and religious leaders, little information is available about the many extraordinary women of the medieval and Renaissance world. This resource brings together engagingly written biographical profiles of 70 women, most of whom are unsung, but all of whom are remarkable for their courage, initiative, and accomplishments in a world where the conventional wisdom was for women to be chaste, silent, and obedient. The women profiled here represent 18 countries and excelled in 19 fields of endeavor. They include artists, builders, mystics, political leaders, religious activists, diarists and dramatists, poets and writers, and scholars.

In a world where women were taught to prefer silence to speech and self-expression, and where an assertive woman was considered an abnormal one, these women did speak out and assert themselves. This often required the courage to refute the moral dictates of the time, to put themselves at risk for their beliefs, or to take political power for themselves. Some women succeeded and some were destroyed in their efforts. These profiles, prepared by specialists in women's history, are based on the latest scholarship and offer a wealth of information not available elsewhere. Each profile features biographical data, an engagingly written biographical essay that discusses the woman's life in the context of her society, and bibliographic sources for further research. This work makes the lives of these extraordinary women accessible to the wide audience of students and interested readers and is ideal for student research.

Carole Levin is professor of history at the University of Nebraska, where her specialties are English history and women's history. Her articles have appeared in such journals as Albion, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Shakespeare Yearbook, and Exemplaria. She is the author of numerous books and essays in edited collections, has held long-term fellowships at the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Newberry Library, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Debra Barrett-Graves is assistant professor of English at the College of Santa Fe where she won the Manuel Lujan Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her articles appear in Shakespeare Yearbook and The Early Drama, Art, and Music Review. She is currently writing a book on servants and service in Shakespearean and Elizabethan drama. She is a member of the Shakespeare Association of America and the North American Branch of the Society for Emblem Studies.

Jo Eldridge Carney is associate professor of English at the College of New Jersey, where she teaches medieval and Renaissance literature. She has published articles in edited collections and journals and is the editor of the biographical dictionary Renaissance and Reformation, 1500-1620 (Greenwood Press, 2000).

W. M. Spellman is professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Asheville where his specialties are English history and European political thought. His articles have appeared in such journals as Anglican and Episcopal History and the Harvard Theological Review. He is the author of numerous books and has held long term fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and from the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah.

Gwynne Kennedy is associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she teaches early modern literature and women's studies courses. She has written several articles on women writers in early modern England and has recently published a book on early modern English women's anger.

Stephanie Witham is completing her PhD in English at the University of Nebraska on the topic of Renaissance women writers. She has taught at the College of St. Mary.