This essay summarizes the state of research on the women artists of early modern Bologna, also touching on a few related topics. It considers the enormous increase, over the past half-century, in the number of Bolognese women artists who are now known by name– a remarkable sixty-eight – and the implications for this expanded corpus of identifiable figures for our understanding of their artistic contributions, also commenting on their greater diversity of specializations. In addition to such art historical topics, the essay discusses selected aspects of financial realities for women (particularly dowries and charitable institutions), the impact of Bologna’s university on the unusual proliferation of women artists, the flourishing group of local women writers, and the critical role of Bologna’s prominent male writers in promulgating the fame of the city’s accomplished women. Combined with some women’s practice of frequently signing their paintings, the detailed attention of Count Carlo Cesare Malvasia and his compatriots to the works of Elisabetta Sirani (1638–1665) and Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614) resulted in much larger extant oeuvres today than are known for most other women artists of the early modern period. Although many other Bolognese women artists are nevertheless no longer known in identifiable works, a larger percentage of them are represented by extant works than is true for women artists in other Italian cities. The essay concludes with comments on the particular nature of archival research for women artists in early modern Italy.