Juan Luis Vives's Instruction of a, Christen Woman (hereafter ICW), the text Ruth Kelso has described as the most influential conduct book for women of the sixteenth century, was printed and reprinted in English over nine times during the course of the century: in 1529, 1531, 1541, 1547, 1557, and 1567 from the shop of the Erasmian printer Thomas Berthelet, in 1585 by Robert Waldegrave, and in 1592, by John Danter. In addition to the widely recognized significance of the often contradictory views of women expressed in ICW, these English editions are significant as an example of an early modern reconstituting of the historical record. Allusions to Catherine of Aragon within these editions reflect swings in Tudor court politics and trace the privatization of this once seemingly powerful woman as she was removed from court and public life.

It is somewhat surprising, given the nature of royal investment in various forms of political and religious iconography associated with Renaissance portraiture, that the well-known “Rainbow Portrait” (c. 1600-03; fig. 1) of Queen Elizabeth I, held by Robert Cecil, Lord of Salisbury at Hatfield House, but of unknown provenance, has not received sufficient attention to its political allegories. Much has been made of the religious symbolism associated with the portrait, especially by René Graziani, who argues, for example, that “Elizabeth wears the gauntlet on her ruff in right of her title, Fidei Defensor, official champion of the Christian religion” (255), and that the hair style of the Queen with its “Thessalonian bride allusion … [contributes] to the sponsa Dei theme” (259).

The last fifteen to twenty years have witnessed a phenomenal growth in the study of medieval and Renaissance confraternities, those lay religious associations that pervaded the spiritual and social fabric of pre-modern European society. In English-language scholarship, the field was first surveyed by three historians who firmly left their mark on this fertile soil: Brian Pullan examined the place of the Venetian scuole (as local confraternities were called) in the social fabric of the state; Rab Hatfield investigated the social and political influence of the Florentine confraternity of the Magi; and Richard Trexler probed the place of confraternities for youths in Florentine civic ritual.

A sentimental domestic scene, François I and Marguerite of Navarre, was painted in 1804 by the Salon painter Fleury Richard (fig. 1). As he explained, it illustrates an anecdote from the legend of François I. The king's sister, Marguerite de Navarre, is shown discovering on the windowpane a graffito about the inconstancy of women. François — the great royal womanizer — has just scratched it there and looks very pleased with himself.

This painting signals not only the early nineteenth century's fascination with the Renaissance king, but reveals its attitudes about the Renaissance itself. For example, the setting and the costumes betray a confusion about the periodization of Gothic and Renaissance: the room in which the scene takes place is of Gothic revival design, while another room - in neo-classical style - opens beyond; the king's costume is historically correct, but Marguerite could be Maid Marian.