Claire Litt
Claire Litt is a historian of early modern science and medicine, with a focus on the history of gemology and jewelry. Claire earned her PhD in history from Queen’s University, in Canada, in 2022. Her doctoral research examined the ornamental, medicinal, and cosmetic uses of gemstones by women in the Medici family, rulers of the Florentine Grand Duchy, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
Follow Claire on Instagram at @gemmologiafiorentina
More from Claire Litt
Madame Microwave
Meet Jehane Benoît, Canada’s grande dame of culinary nationalism.
Elisabeth Bakker
A biography of the fictional Elisabeth Bakker highlights the experiences of middle-class women in the history of early chemistry.
Controversy, Control, and Cosmetics in Early Modern Italy
In a society that damned women for both plainness and adornment, wearing makeup became a defiant act of survival.