Aemilia Lanyer was the first woman writing in English to produce a substantial volume of poetry designed to be printed and to attract patronage. The volume comprises a series of poems to individual patrons, two short prose dedications, the title poem on Christ's Passion (viewed entirely from a female perspective), and the first country-house poem printed in English, "The Description of Cooke-ham," which precedes the publication of Ben Johnson's "To Penshurst" by five years. Lanyer's poetry shows evidence of a practiced skill. The volume is also arguably the first genuinely feminist publication in England: all of its dedicatees are women, the poem on the Passion specifically argues the virtues of women as opposed to the vices of men, and Lanyer's own authorial voice is assured and unapologetic.

She was baptized Aemilia Bassano on 27 January 1569, daughter of court musician Baptist Bassano, whose will describes him as a "native of...