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[[File:Monument of Matrones.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Title page to the "Second Lampe" of ''The Monument of Matrones'', 1582.]]
'''''The Monument of Matrones''''' (1582) was the first published anthology of English women's writing.<ref name="King">King, John N. (2005), [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=z8Wq-t875_gC&pg=PA216&dq=%E2%80%9CThomas+Bentley%E2%80%99s+Monument+of+Matrons:+The+Earliest+Anthology+of+English+Women%E2%80%99s+Texts.%E2%80%9D&hl=en&ei=xIpnTYaRMNG4hAegkMXtDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false "Thomas Bentley’s Monument of Matrons: The Earliest Anthology of English Women’s Texts."] In ''Strong Voices, Weak History: Early Women Writers and Canons in England, France, and Italy.'' University of Michigan Press, {{ISBN|978-0-472-09881-1}}, p. 216.</ref> A compilation of [[prayer]]s and meditations written largely by and for women published in London, its full title was ''The Monument of Matrones: Conteining Seven Severall Lamps of Virginitie, or Distinct Treatises; Whereof the First Five Concerne Praier and Meditation: the Other Two Last, Precepts and Examples''. The ''Monument'''s seven "Lampes" or books make up 1500 [[quarto]] pages.<ref name="Cambridge">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NB59uc9_ss8C|title=The Cambridge guide to women's writing in English|editors=[[Lorna Sage|Sage, Lorna]]; [[Germaine Greer]]; and [[Elaine Showalter]]|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1999|page=444|accessdate=21 February 2011}}</ref><ref name="Otten">{{cite book|title=English women's voices, 1540-1700|last=Otten|first=Charlotte F.|publisher=University of Florida Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-8130-1099-1 }}</ref>
The ''Monument'' was compiled by Thomas Bentley, then a student of [[Gray's Inn]], in a bid for royal patronage, and issued by the printer [[Henry Denham]] in 1582, just as the cult of [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]] as the Virgin Queen was emerging. The desired patronage was not forthcoming, and Bentley became churchwarden of [[St Andrew, Holborn|St Andrews Holborn]] with the support of [[John Aylmer (bishop)|John Aylmer, Bishop of London]], in 1584.<ref>King (2005), p. 217.</ref>
Described in its Introduction as "diuers verie godlie, learned and diuine treatises, of meditationes and praier, made by sundrie right famous Queenes, noble Ladies, vertuous Virgins, and godlie Gentlewomen of al ages",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?aid=2303648|first1=Colin|last1=Atkinson|first2=Jo B.|last2=Atkinson|year=1991|title=Subordinating Women: Thomas Bentley's Use of Biblical Women in ‘The Monument of Matrones’ (1582)|work=Church History|volume=60|pages=289–300}}</ref> Bentley's compilation provides virtuous examples and precepts for women, as well as prayers and devotional works. The second "Lampe" or treatise collects important works of [[Protestant]] female piety, including [[Marguerite de Navarre|Marguerite of Navarre]]'s ''Miroir de l'âme pécheresse'', a mystical narrative of the soul as a yearning woman translated by Queen Elizabeth as the ''Mirror of the Sinful Soul'', along with prayers and devotional works by [[Anne Askew]]; [[Frances Neville|Frances Neville, Lady Bergavenny]]; Queen [[Catherine Parr]]; [[Lady Jane Grey]]; and Queen Elizabeth herself, to whom the work was dedicated.<ref name="Cambridge" /><ref name="Otten" />
==References==
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