IDEA: Isabella d’Este Archive is an exciting new scholarly website for study of the Italian Renaissance through the correspondence, music, and collecting of Isabella d’Este (1474-1539), marchesa of Mantua. Daughter of the Este dukes of Ferrara and wife of Francesco II Gonzaga, Isabella d’Este produced a correspondence of over 16,000 letters that remain in copybooks produced by her chancery and held in the Archivio Gonzaga of Mantua. These letters, which address topics ranging from art collecting and fashion to governing and diplomacy, from food and animals to health and travel, are now available for study as scanned, high-resolution images in IDEA: Isabella d’Este Archive. IDEA also features a project on Isabella’s music patronage and performance. In development are projects to display her ceramics collection and to recreate virtually her famed studiolo, the first, signature art collection assembled by a European woman.

Deanna Shemek will offer a brief overview presentation of IDEA (30 minutes). Students and faculty interested in exploring the IDEA manuscript collection and getting hands-on experience with it are invited to attend the workshop that will follow.