Introduction

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 womenThe 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 Cimbrian
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 Archived 2018-08-16 at the Wayback Machine 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

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

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On Famous Women Giovanni Boccaccio

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