Sharon T. StrocchiaProfessor
Sharon Strocchia, Professor (B.A., Stanford University; M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley); social and cultural history of Renaissance Italy; gender and sexuality in early modern Europe; health and medicine in the premodern world. Over the years, my research interests have shifted from the study of Renaissance women and religion to the history of health and healing in the early modern world, especially in relation to gender. This arc is reflected in my monographs and edited volumes, as well as dozens of articles. My first book, Death and Ritual in Renaissance Florence (1992), explored the ways in which Renaissance Italians honored and remembered their dead, and the social uses to which those activities were put. In Nuns and Nunneries in Renaissance Florence (2009), which won the Marraro Prize from the American Catholic Historical Association, I showed how Florentine religious women stood at the center of evolving family strategies and civic discourse during a century of brilliant cultural transformation. My third book, Forgotten Healers: Women and the Pursuit of Health in Late Renaissance Italy (2019), situated a wide array of early modern Italian women, particularly nuns, as accomplished healers and recognized practitioners who made essential contributions to health care and local economies. Forgotten Healers won book prizes from the Society for Italian Historical Studies, the Renaissance Society of America, and the History of Science Society. Two edited volumes trace a similar research trajectory. They include Women and Healthcare in Early Modern Europe (special issue of Renaissance Studies, Vol. 28, no. 4, September 2014), and Gender, Health, and Healing, 1250-1550 (2020), co-edited with Sara Ritchey. The latter was named co-winner of the Collaborative Project Award by the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender. Across my career, various articles have also been recognized by the American Society of Church History, Sixteenth Century Studies Association, and Society for Renaissance Studies.
Currently I am completing a book that examines the commercialization of pharmaceutical remedies on the Italian peninsula between 1550 and 1650 – a time of remarkable medical creativity and change. Set in a globalizing framework and combining medical history, business history, and the history of print culture, this project uses early print and archival sources to explore the process for patenting new remedies, which often involved early clinical trials, as well as branding, medical advertising, and other innovative marketing practices. The book presents a new look at how late Renaissance Italians took their medicine while also speaking to the evolution of modernity in the form of early scientific experimentation, nascent issues of intellectual property, and the creation of the consumer.
Over the years, my research has been generously supported by various agencies. I would like to thank the American Academy in Rome, American Council of Learned Societies, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin, the National Humanities Center, the Renaissance Society of America, and the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Emory for their support. It has been my privilege to give back to the early modern studies community by serving on the advisory board for the Medici Archive Project, as well as the editorial boards of Early Modern Women and Renaissance Studies. In Spring 2022 I was Visiting Professor at the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Villa I Tatti, Florence. The Society for Italian Historical Studies recognized my research achievements and mentoring activities with the 2025 Senior Scholar Citation.
Interests
- Social and cultural history of Renaissance Italy
- Women and gender in early modern Europe
- History of health and medicine in the premodern world
