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by women, artificers, prentices, journeymen, serving-men of the rank of yeomen or under, husbandmen, and laborers"; repealed in 1547 (xi-xii)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)