The Emblematic Queen Extra-Literary Representations of Early Modern Queenship

Our interdisciplinary collection of essays provides an engaging study of how Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus (1454-1510); Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603); Mary Stuart Queen of Scots (1542-1587); Anne of Denmark (1574-1619); and Spain's María Luisa de Orleáns (1662-1689) either succeeded in promoting authority and inspiring loyalty, or, conversely, had identities shaped for them for various political, religious, or cultural reasons. Knowledge of material culture, and how such objects created specific gender identities, reveals new insights into these queens' lives, as they flourished in court, as members of their communities received them, and as individuals appropriated and shaped their reputations during their lives and after their deaths.

Debra Barrett-Graves is Professor of English at California State University, East Bay, USA. Among her publications are contributions to Extraordinary Women of the Medieval and Renaissance World (2000) and Elizabeth I: Always Her own Free Woman (2003). Her article on 'Edmund Spenser's Use of the Poison-Tipped Tongue in The Faerie Queene' (2005-2006) received the Robert A. Miller Memorial Award.

1. Caterina Cornaro (1454-1510), Queen of Cyprus; Liana De Girolamoi Cheney
2. Bejeweled Majesty: Queen Elizabeth I, Precious Stones, and Statecraft; Cassandra Auble
3. Unveiling Enigma: Elizabeth I, Protestant Emblematics, and the Invocationo of Queenship in The Sackville Pedigree; Brandie R. Siegfried
4. "Bear your body more seeming": The Open-Kneed Queen; Catherine Loomis
5. Sirens, Mermaids, and Mary Queen of Scots: Icons of Wantonness and Pride; Debra Barrett-Graves
6. The Politics of Mourning Mary Stuart: After-Images of a Queen; Marguerite A. Tassi
7. Anne of Denmark and the Court Masque: Displaying and Authoring Queenship; Effie Botonaki
8. "A Lily Among Thorns": The Emblematic Eclipse of Spain's María Luisa de Orleáns in the Hieroglyphs of her Funeral Exequies; John T. Cull and Antonio Bernat Vistarini