Vida Scudder’s selection of the letters of Caterina Benincasa, the dyer’s daughter of Siena who became a counsellor to popes. She writes to her mother and brothers, to Sienese noblewomen, to Pope Gregory XI urging his return from Avignon, to the Queen of Naples, to Florence and even to the mercenary captain John Hawkwood, with an introduction and chronology of her life.
Passionate, direct and politically bold, these letters reveal one of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages. Download the free EPUB.