Find Out More About Cortese

To remember and honour the identities of the women that inspire us and whose stories we wish to celebrate, we have named each piece of jewellery after a female pioneer at the forefront of Italian history.

The Cortese necklace pays homage  to the elusive Italian Renaissance writer and alchemist Isabella Cortese. In 1561 she published her book on alchemy 'The Secrets of Lady Isabella Cortese', which became widely read throughout Europe. She was one of the earliest popular female authors in Italy. Her publication countered the prevailing stigmas surrounding female participation in ‘sciences’, instead it boldly asserted a woman’s participation in discourses on alchemy, natural sciences and experimentation in sixteenth-century Europe.