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Over the last 15 years, the idea that the classical and humanist canon of friendship writings explicitly excludes women has shaped scholarship around that absence. Friendship before the late 17th century was masculine, ethical, and public; from the 18th century forward, it was female, inconsequential, and private. Recent studies argue for the presence of early modern women’s friendship in relations of utility, marriage, and homoeroticism. In addition, I argue, we should recognize Renaissance women’s claims to humanist friendship, or amicitia, as an intervention in political discourse through an appropriation of public rhetoric.

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