Maddalena Casulana

Music Advocating for Women in Early Modern Italy

Catherine Deutsch

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009569170
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Maddalena Casulana (ca. 1535–ca. 1590) was the first woman to publish music under her own name and one of the first women to speak out publicly against the misogyny in sixteenth-century Italy. This book is the first comprehensive study dedicated to her and provides the first in-depth exploration of her life, work and music. Situating Casulana's pioneering contributions within the broader context of Renaissance music and gender history, the book reveals her as a key figure at the intersection of proto-feminist thought and early modern music. Through reconstructed madrigals, new archival research, and interdisciplinary analysis, this work will appeal to scholars of musicology, gender studies, and Renaissance history, as well as performers interested in reviving historically overlooked musical voices. Casulana's legacy speaks to both academic and contemporary audiences, making her an essential figure in the history of women in music.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Imprints page
• Epigraph
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Music Examples
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Note on Musical Prints and Italian Poetic Texts
• Introduction
• 1 Maddalena Mezari detta Casulana Vicentina: Who’s Who?
• 2 Casulana and Vicentino: The Intersecting Itineraries of Two Vicentine Musicians
• 3 ‘‘To the Illustrious and Most Excellent Signora Donna Isabella’’: Entering the Querelle des femmes
• 4 Lucrezia and the Wildflower: The Multiple Personae of Casulana
• 5 ‘‘The High Gifts of Intellect’’: Casulana at Work
• 6 An Exemplary Woman
• Appendix Dedications Signed by or Addressed to Maddalena Casulana
• Bibliography
• Index