Hull 1982

Hull, Suzanne W. Chaste, Silent & Obedient:English Books for Women 1475-1640. San Marino: Huntington Library, 1982.

"The prayer books, practical guides, and popular romances that were printed for English women in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, like the articles in women's magazines in the first half of the twentieth century, mirror the work, the worries, the dreams, the interests, the education, and ultimately the lives of the women who read them. Individually and collectively they are probably as illuminating a guide to women of an age long past as any other evidence surviving today." (ix)

Henry VIII act, "for the advancement of true religion" (1543) -- "forbade the reading of an English Bible by women, artificers, prentices, journeymen, serving-men of the rank of yeomen or under, husbandmen, and laborers"; repealed in 1547 (xi-xii)

An Emerging Female Literature

"In the period from 1475 through 1640 at least 163 books in some 500 editions were specifically directed to or printed for women readers. Eighty-five percent of them were published after 1570. The publication of this many books for women readers is persuasive evidence that a substantial number of women knew how to read English by the end of the sixteenth century, and that their needs and interests were being recognized by both writers and booksellers." (1)

The Pens Excellencie (1618), pages of calligraphic samples -- comparing the "art of the needle" with the "art of the pen" (4)

simple prayerbooks and books of needlework designs to be used by the "barely literate" (6)

"It seems apparent that as the publication of fiction increased in the 1570s, booksellers and authors recognized that may of their readers were women." (8)

"a female literature before the 1570s is not easily identifiable" (9)

"A dedication to a group of women or a title page directing the work to women is the most reliable evidence that a book was intended for women. But not all books that were eventually dedicated or directed to women started that way. There is interesting evidence that authors and booksellers became increasingly conscious of women readers, particularly in the 1570s and 1580s. During this time some books originally addressed to men or not to any special group were rededicated or retitled in later editions to include women." (10)

directed to a female audience: Castiglione's Courtyer (1561), Sidney's Arcadia (1590), Lyly's Euphues and His England (1580), Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590), Rich's Farewell to Militarie Profession (1581), Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essayes (1603), 1636 translation of Ovid's Epistles (14)

"Most of the early books for women were small in size. Of the 163 titles in the Basic List, 69 were, in their first editions, octavos or smaller -- books that could easily be carried in a pocket. Only five were folios. Over half, 89, were the common quarto. Few women's books were printed and bound as elegant gift volumes. In fact, so few copies of many early books for women have survived that it oculd be concluded that women's books were often worn out with practical use, or considered ephemeral or of little value as succeeding generations developed newer guides and literature for women." (16)

"Men wrote almost all the women's books printed before 1640. According to Carroll Camden only 85 books written by women were published in English before 1640, though newer evidence may increase that figure." (16)

"Altogether some 800 different women were the targets of dedications or had books addressed to them in some manner. Most of the women were members of the aristocracy; 225 were nontitled women; another 25 had religious associations (as nuns, prioresses, abbesses, or saints). This number of female dedicatees would seem to indicate broad acceptance of women as patronesses of literature." (21)

"Twenty percent of the early books for women are translations." (25)

"The three earliest English dictionaries were all addressed, at least in part, to women." (27)