Konrad Eisenbichler has just published The Sword and the Pen: Women, Poetry and Politics in Sixteenth-Century Siena. The book, published by the University of Notre Dame Press (2012), is the fruit of more than fifteen years of research in the archives and libraries of Italy in search of these long-lost writers who were well known in their time but failed to enter the canon of Italian literature and so, over time, disappeared from the radar. The book thus brings back into circulation not only these women’s poetry, but also much rich information about their lives and their contribution to contemporary letters and politics.