Gea Project

This project makes available information about Sienese women and their families in the period of time (approximately 1450 - 1570) before and after the fall of the Republic of Siena (1555) and its incorporation into the Duchy of Florence and Siena (1559).

The core of GEA is based mostly on unpublished (and in many cases currently unknown) archival documents housed in the Archivio di Stato di Siena.

The goal is to use women as a 'tool' to approach, understand, and describe Sienese society.
We know that women were not allowed to have a public role: but what was their importance in the strategies of their families and kin?

Can we discover family choices, biases, political preferences?

This ongoing project will be hosted on Iter Gateway, a not-for-profit partnership dedicated to the advancement of learning in the study and teaching of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700) through the development and distribution of online resources, located at the University of Toronto.