1361–62 biographies by Giovanni Boccaccio
A miniature depicting a queen with four musicians from a c. 1440 illuminated version of the De Claris Mulieribus held by the British Museum [1] De Mulieribus Claris or De Claris Mulieribus (Latin for "Concerning Famous Women") is a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio , composed in Latin prose in 1361–1362. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in post-ancient Western literature.[2] At the same time as he was writing On Famous Women , Boccaccio also compiled a collection of biographies of famous men, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium (On the Fates of Famous Men ).
The famous women The Banquet of Cleopatra and Antony , a woodcut from a 1479 version of Giovanni Boccaccio 's De Mulieribus Claris published in Ulm, Germany, which also depicts the suicides of Cleopatra and Antony [3] 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 , Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy 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 and lover of Jason in the "Argonautica" 18. Arachne of Colophon 19 and 20. Orithyia 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. Amaltheia 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 of Troy , whose abduction by Paris began the Trojan War 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 (Tanaquil), wife of King Tarquinius Priscus 47. Sappho , poet from the island of Lesbos 48. Lucretia , wife of Collatinus 49. Tamyris , queen of Scythia 50. Leaena , a courtesan who was tortured to death by the dictator Hippias 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. A conflation of Artemisia II and Artemisia I , queens 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 , goddess of flowers and wife of Zephyrus 65. A young Roman woman 66. Marcia , daughter of Varro 67. Sulpicia , wife of Quintus 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 poet 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
References
Citations ^ Royal 16 G V fol. 3v ^ Boccaccio (2003), p. xi ^ Anderson (2003), p. 50.
Bibliography Anderson, Jaynie (2003), Tiepolo's Cleopatra, Melbourne: Macmillan, ISBN 9781876832445 . Boccaccio, Giovanni (2003). Famous Women . I Tatti Renaissance Library. Vol. 1. Translated by Virginia Brown. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-01130-9 .Boitani, Piero (1976). "The Monk's Tale : Dante and Boccaccio". Medium Ævum . 45 (1): 50–69. doi:10.2307/43628171. JSTOR 43628171. Watanabe-O'Kelly, Helen (2010), Beauty Or Beast?: The Woman Warrior in the German Imagination from the Renaissance to the Present , Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199558230
Further reading
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)
Secondary sources Schleich, G. ed., Die mittelenglische Umdichtung 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) Zaccaria, V., ed., De mulieribus claris, Studi sul Boccaccio (Milan , 1963) Müller, Ricarda, Ein Frauenbuch des frühen Humanismus. Untersuchungen zu Boccaccios De mulieribus claris (Stuttgart, 1992), ISBN 978-3-515-06028-8 Kolsky, S. , Ghost of Boccaccio: Writings on Famous Women , (2005) Franklin, M., Boccaccio's Heroines: Power and Virtue in Renaissance Society (2006) Filosa, E., Tre Studi sul De mulieribus claris (2012)
External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to De mulieribus claris .
The Genealogy of Women: Studies in Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris Archived 2008-01-31 at the Wayback Machine The ghost of Boccaccio: writings on famous women in Renaissance Italy Its publishing development history by Guyda Armstrong of Brown University Archived 2018-08-08 at the Wayback Machine