[Maryann Corbett]

Wendy Sloan's essay on the Italian Renaissance poet Veronica Franco is the newest entry on the Mezzo Cammin Women Poets Timeline. I've read it, and I'm fascinated by Franco's life and impressed by Wendy's scholarship. I think it'll be especially interesting to translators of Italian.

[Janice D. Soderling]

Such a wonderful enterprise, that timeline. Thanks Wendy for introducing a new woman writer to me.

[Terese Coe]

Your usual conscientious scholarship and articulate feminism, Wendy! I will finish reading this longer version tonight~~looking forward to it!

And thanks to you, Maryann, for posting!

[Wendy Sloan]

Thank you Maryann, Janice, and Terese.

By the way, a second, but very short, entry on another 16th Century courtesan poet is also now up on the Timeline: Tullia di Aragona.

Maryann - I'm delighted that you're "impressed" with my scholarship. Coming from you, that's quite a complement! For those who haven't checked out the Timeline lately: Maryann has contributed masterful essays (including translations) on two complex medieval subjects: Hildegard of Bingen and Christine de Pizan. She has a third essay in the works, by the way, that was discussed at the Timeline Seminar held at the West Chester Conference this summer (2014), at which she made a "virtual" appearance!

Thanks Janice, for your interest. There's actually quite a large group of accomplished 16th Century Italian women poets. I'd never read any of them (except Gaspara Stampa) before I started working with the Timeline Project.

And thanks Terese, for your interest, and support, and kind words, and for your encouragement in prodding me to undertake my own translations.

I also have another work in progress that was discussed at the Timeline Seminar this summer: Isabella di Morra, a Southern Italian baroness murdered by her brothers, allegedly for having exchanged Petrarchan sonnets with a local (married) nobleman. Personally, I think they just wanted to cut her out of her dowry/inheritance; the sonnets were an excuse.

The Timeline Project is, of course, the brilliant conception of Kim Bridgford and has been under the inspirational leadership of Anna Evans since Kim was appointed Director of the Poetry Center & Conference at West Chester in 2010. It's been an honor and a privilege to participate in this ambitious endeavor and to work with the wonderfully talented group of women who've attended the seminars and events these past few years.