The literature by English and Scots writers of the sixteenth century that had as its purpose the disparagement or the defense of gynecocracy was to a large extent fortuitous. It addressed a situation that, although feared by Henry VIII, was not actually realized until after the death of Edward VI: England's monarch was a woman. The prospect of her government could hardly have been regarded with anything but concern; the anomalous character of a female prince clearly posed a threat to the stability of her rule and hence to the peace of the country as a whole. For, as the subjects of Mary I knew, the nature of woman was complicated by a kind of doubleness; essentially, woman was a persona mixta. As one of God's creatures, she was conceived as equal to man according to her creation in Genesis I, because there both are formed in the image of the deity.

Although the Renaissance poet and humanist Angelo Poliziano (1454-1494) is generally considered a member of Ficino's Platonic Academy, and himself lectured extensively on the Organon of Aristotle at the Florentine Studio, he repeatedly disclaimed any pretension to being a philosopher. It is no great surprise, consequently, to find that the Index to Angeli Politiani Opera, published in Basel in 1553, contains only one reference under the name of Plotinus, the great and difficult philosopher whom Ficino introduced to the Latin West.

One of the many treasures of the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, is the manuscript of the Gospels written in Syriac in the year 945. This rare and beautiful codex was the property of the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, who gave his “most dear and precious” book to Duke August the Younger of Braunschweig-Lüneburg as an ornament for his most famous library. Duke August (1579-1666) was known as a wonder in his age because among pious rulers he was the most learned, and among men of greatest learning, he was the most pious. For thirty years he studied all branches of learning, and his devotion to political life is witnessed by thirty volumes of correspondence. Among his writings were books on the game of chess and on cryptography. Most important for posterity is his library at Wolfenbüttel, which contains one of the largest collections of Bibles in Europe.

Benedetta Carlini, a mystic and visionary who rose from countryside origins to become abbess of the Theatine convent known as Holy Mary of Pescia (Tuscany), was a “lesbian.” For her crimes she was imprisoned for thirty-five years until her death in 1661, at the age of seventy-one. Abbess Benedetta's fascinating story is reconstructed by historian Judith C. Brown in Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985).