On Famous Women

On Famous Women (Latin: "De mulieribus claris") is one of two such collections of biographies of famous people written by Giovanni Boccaccio, the Florentine author from Certaldo. The other work of his is " De Casibus Virorum Illustrium", a collection of 56 biographies "On the Fates of Famous Men."

Overview

The author declares in the preface that this collection of one hundred and six short biographies [Brown, Virginia translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s "Famous Women", page xi; Harvard University Press, 2001; ISBN 0-674-01130-9] (104 chapters) [Brown, op. cit., p. xi and xxii. Biographies 11 - 12 and 19 - 20 are conbined to make 104 chapters, however the biographies are I (1) through CVI (106).] of women is the first example in Western literature [Brown, op. cit., p. xi] devoted solely and exclusively to women. [Brown, op. cit., p.xxxvii.] Some of the lost works of Suetonius "illustrious people" and Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium are a mixture of women and men, where others like Petrarch's De Viris Illustribus and Jerome's De Viris Illustribus are biographies of exclusively men. Boccaccio himself even says this work was inspired [Brown, op. cit., p. 4] and modeled on Petrarch's lives Of Famous Men. [Brown, op. cit., p. xii and p. xv]

Boccaccio's collection of female biographies inspired characters in Christine de Pizan's "The Book of the City of Ladies", Alvaro de Luna's "De las virtuosas y claras mujeres", Thomas Elyot's "Defence of Good Women", Alonso of Cartagena's "De las mujeres ilustres", Giovanni Sabbadino degli Arienti's "Gynevera de la clare donne", Iacopo Filippo Forest's "De plurimis claris selectisque mulierbus", Jean Lemaire's "Couronne margaritique", and various works by Edmund Spencer. It also had influence on Geoffrey Chaucer's "Legend of Good Women" and "The Canterbury Tales". [Boitani, Piero, "The Monk's Tale", pp. 45, 50-69, Medium-Evum (1976)] Boccaccio's work has much respect in the history of Western literature and is a fountainhead for European women biography.

Development

Boccaccio wrote this work in Certaldo probably between the summer of 1361 and the summer of 1362, [Brown, op. cit., p. xi] however could have been as late as December 1362. [Brown, op. cit., p. 256 ] He dedicated his work to Andrea Acciaioli, Countess of Altavilla, in Naples at the end of 1362 even though he continued to revise it up until his death in 1375. She was not his first choice however. He first considered to dedicate his "slim volume" to Joanna, Queen of Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem. He ultimately decided that his work as a "little book" was not worthy a person of such great fame. [Brown, op. cit., p. xiii]

There are over 100 manuscripts in at least nine different stages of this work showing that this was a most popular work in the age of hand written codexes of the Renaissance period. Boccaccio worked on this as a labor of love with several versions, editions, and rearrangements in the last twenty years or so of his life. [Brown, op. cit., p. xv] In the last part of the fourteenth century after Bocciccio died a Donato degli Albanzani had a copy that his friend Boccaccio gave him and translated it from Latin into Italian. In the early part of the fifteenth century Antonio di S. Lupidio made a "volgare" translation and Laurent de Premierfait put it in French while later Heinrich Steinhowel rendered it into German. In the beginning of the sixteenth century a Henry Parker translated about half into English and dedicated it to Henry VIII. This was then followed in the sixteenth century of other Italian translations by Luca Antonio Ridolfi and Giueppe Betussi.

The invention of the printing press brought the first Latin version done by Johan Zainer in Ulm about 1473. The only complete sixteenth century printed Latin version to reach us is from a Mathias Apiarus done around 1539. From that time it wasn't until the middle of the twentieth century until there was another complete printed version done - some 400 years later. [Brown, op. cit., p. xx]

Purpose

Boccaccio says that the purpose he wrote the 106 biographies was for posterity about women who were renowned for any sort of great deed, either good or bad. He explains that by recounting the wicked deeds of certain women that hopefully in the mind of the reader it would be offset by the exhortations to virtue by other respected women. He writes in his presentation of this combination of all types of women that hopefully it would encourage virtue and curb vice. [Brown, op. cit., p. xii]

Content

The 106 "Famous Women" biographies are of mythological and historical women, as well as some of Boccaccio's Renaissance contemporaries. The brief life stories follow the same general exemplary literature patterns used in various versions of De viris illustribus. The biography pattern starts with the name of the person, then the parents or ancestors, then their rank or social position, and last the general reason for their notoriety or fame with associated details. This is sometimes interjected with a philosophical or inspirational lesson at the end.

The only sources that Boccaccio specifically says he used is Saint Paul (no. 42), the Bible (no. 43) and Jerome (no. 86). The wording of the biographies themselves, however, show much where he obtained his information. He used the classical authors of Valerius Maximus, Pliny, Livy, Ovid, Suetonius, Statius,Virgil, Lactantius, Orosius, and Justinus. [Brown, op. cit., p.xvi.]

The famous women

*1. Eve, the first woman in the bible
*2. Semiramis, queen of the Assyrians
*3. Opis, wife of Saturn
*4. Juno, goddess of the Kingdoms
*5. Ceres, goddess of the harvest and queen of Sicily
*6. Minerva
*7. Venus, queen of Cyprus
*8. Isis, queen and goddess of Egypt
*9. Europa, queen of Crete
*10. Libya, queen of Libya
*11 and 12. Marpesia and Lampedo, queens of the Amazons
*13. Thisbe, a Babylonian maiden
*14. Hypermnestra, queen of the Argives and priestess of Juno
*15. Niobe, queen of Thebes
*16. Hypsipyle, queen of Lemnos
*17. Medea, queen of Colchis
*18. Arachne of Colophon
*19 and 20. Orithya and Antiope, queens of the Amazons
*21. Erythraea or Heriphile, a Sibyl
*22. Medusa, daughter of Phorcus
*23. Iole, daughter of the king of the Aetolians
*24. Deianira, wife of Hercules
*25. Jocasta, queen of Thebes
*26. Almathea or Deiphebe, a Sibyl
*27. Nicostrata, or Carmenta, daughter of King Ionius
*28. Procris, wife of Cephalus
*29. Argia, wife of Polynices and daughter of King Adrastus
*30. Manto, daughter of Tiresias
*31. The wives of the Minyans
*32. Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons
*33. Polyxena, daughter of King Priam
*34. Hecuba, queen of the Trojans
*35. Cassandra, daughter of King Priam of Troy
*36. Clytemnestra, queen of Mycenae
*37. Helen, wife of King Menelaus
*38. Circe, daughter of the Sun
*39. Camilla, queen of the Volscians
*40. Penelope, wife of Ulysses
*41. Lavinia, queen of Laurentum
*42. Dido, or Elissa, queen of Carthage
*43. Nicaula, queen of Ethiopia
*44. Pamphile, daughter of Platea
*45. Rhea Ilia, a Vestal Virgin
*46. Gaia Cyrilla, wife of King Tarquinius Priscus
*47. Sappho, girl of Lesbos and poetess
*48. Lucretia, wife of Collatinus
*49. Tamyris, queen of Scythia
*50. Leaena, a prostitute
*51. Athaliah, queen of Jerusalem
*52. Cloelia, a Roman maiden
*53. Hippo, a Greek woman
*54. Megullia Dotata
*55. Veturia, a Roman matron
*56. Thamyris, daughter of Micon
*57. Artemisia, queen of Caria
*58. Verginia, virgin and daughter of Virginius
*59. Eirene, daughter of Cratinus
*60. Leontium
*61. Olympias, queen of Macedonia
*62. Claudia, a Vestal Virgin
*63. Virginia, wife of Lucius Volumnius
*64. Flora the prostitute, goddess of flowers and wife of Zephyrus
*65. A young Roman woman
*66. Marcia, daughter of Varro
*67. Sulpicia, wife of Fulvius Flaccus
*68. Harmonia, daughter of Gelon, son of Hiero II of Syracuse
*69. Busa of Canosa di Puglia
*70. Sophonisba, queen of Numidia
*71. Theoxena, daughter of Prince Herodicus
*72. Berenice, queen of Cappadocia
*73. The Wife of Orgiagon the Galatian
*74. Tertia Aemilia, wife of the elder Africanus
*75. Dripetrua, queen of Laodice
*76. Sempronia, daughter of Gracchus
*77. Claudia Quinta, a Roman woman
*78. Hypsicratea, Queen of Pontus
*79. Sempronia, a Roman Woman
*80. The Wives of the Cimbrians
*81. Julia, daughter of the dictator Julius Caesar
*82. Portia, daughter of Cato Uticensis
*83. Curia, wife of Quintus Lucretius
*84. Hortensia, daughter of Quintus Hortensius
*85. Sulpicia, wife of Cruscellio
*86. Cornificia, a poetess
*87. Mariamme, queen of Judaea
*88. Cleopatra, queen of Egypt
*89. Antonia, daughter of Antony
*90. Agrippina, wife of Germanicus
*91. Paulina, a Roman woman
*92. Agrippina, mother of the Emperor Nero
*93. Epicharis, a freedwoman
*94. Pompeia Paulina, wife of Seneca
*95. Poppaea Sabina, wife of Nero
*96. Triaria, wife of Lucius Vitellius
*97. Proba, wife of Adelphus
*98. Faustina Augusta
*99. Symiamira, woman of Emesa
*100. Zenobia, queen of Palmyra
*101. Joan, an Englishwoman and Pope
*102. Irene, Empress of Constantinople
*103. Gualdrada, a Florentine maiden
*104. Constance, Empress of Rome and queen of Sicily
*105. Camiola, a Sienese widow
*106. Joanna, queen of Jerusalem and Sicily

Footnotes

External links

* " [http://science.jrank.org/pages/9691/Humanism-Renaissance-Development-Studia-humanitatis.html Humanism - Renaissance - Development Of The Studia Humanitatis] "
* " [http://www.heliotropia.org/02-02/marafioti.shtml The Genealogy of Women: Studies in Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris] "
* " [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-141645099.html The ghost of Boccaccio : writings on famous women in Renaissance Italy] "
* [http://www.heliotropia.org/01-01/armstrong.pdf Its publishing development history by Guyda Armstrong of Brown University]

References

Primary sources

*Boccaccio, "Poeet ende Philosophe, bescrivende van den doorluchtighen, glorioesten ende edelsten vrouwen (Antwerp, 1525)
*Boccaccio, "Tractado de John Bocacio, de las claras, excellentes y mas famosas y senaladas damas (Zaragoza, 1494)
*Boccaccio, "De la louenge et vertu des nobles et cleres dames (Paris, 1493)
*Boccaccio, "De preclaris mulieribus" (Strassburg, 1475)
*Boccaccio, "De preclaris mulieribus" (Louvain, 1487)
*Boccaccio, "De mulieribus claris" (Bern, 1539)
*Boccaccio, "De mulieribus claris" (Ulm, 1473)
*Boccaccio, "French translation" (Paris, 1405)

econdary sources

*Schleich, G. ed., "Die mittelenglisch Undichtung von Boccaccio De claris mulieribus, nebst der latinischen Vorlage", Palaestra (Leipzig, 1924)
*Wright, H.G., ed., "Translated from Boccaccio's De Claris Mulieribus", Early English Text Society, Original series w/Latin (London, 1943)
*Guarino, G. A., "Boccaccio, Concerning Famous Women" (New Brunswick, N.J., 1963)
*Zaccaria, V., ed., "De mulieribus claris" with Italian translation (Milan, 1967 and 1970)
*Branca, V., ed., "Tutte le opere di Giovani Boccaccio," volume 10 (1967) [http://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedia/101233312 Questia]
*Zaccaria, V., ed., "De mulieribus claris, Studi sul Boccaccio" (Milan, 1963)
*Kolsky, S. , "Ghost of Boccaccio: Writings on Famous Women", (2005)