Boccaccio, Giovanni

De claris mulieribus

      Strasbourg: Georg Husner, about 1474-1475. Folio, 11.25 x 8.2 inches. Second edition. 83 of 84 unsigned and unpaginated leaves, lacking only the first blank. ISTC locates six copies in American libraries. This lovely copy is filled with contemporary rubrication and annotation. The margins are very large and crisp. A dampstain affects the top outer corner of the blank margin throughout this copy. The modern binding is tan calfskin with a gilt spine and has been recently rebacked. . OBoccaccioOs Famous Women (De mulieribus claris) is the first collection of biographies in Western literature devoted exclusively to women. The nucleus of this innovative work, consisting in its final form of 104 chapters, was written at Certaldo between the summer of 1361 and the summer of 1362. [E] In the Preface, Boccaccio informs us it was PetratrchOs Lives of Famous Men (De viris illustribus) that prompted him to undertake his own work, for it was through PetrarchOs work that he came to appreciate the need for a similar compilation dealing with famous women. Boccaccio further explains that his purpose in writing the Famous Women is to record for posterity the stories of women who were renowned for any sort of great deed. Inevitably, this means including both good and bad women, but the distaste aroused by recounting the wicked deeds of some protagonists will be offset, he claims, by the exhortations to virtue that have been included. Boccaccio hopes that this mixture of the pleasant and the profitable will make its way into his readerOs mind and function as a spur to virtue and a curb on vice.O#11;OThe biographies of the Famous Women mostly follow the same formal pattern, borrowed from Jerome and Petrarch. Normally the life begins with the name of the woman, her parentage, and her rank. Next the reason for her fame is stated in general terms. Then Boccaccio explains in detail how her fame was acquired, usually in the form of a narrative. He authenticates his accounts by frequent allusions to learned authorities, almost always unspecified. At the conclusion of the biography comes a moral lesson or a moral exhortation or a passage of philosophical reflection. Further moralizing precepts are sometimes scattered throughout the narrative.O (Quoted from Virginia BrownOs preface to the I Tatti edition of De mulieribus claris.)#11;OLong ago there were a few ancient authors who composed biographies of famous men in the form of compendia, and in our day that renowned man and great poet, my teacher Petrarch, is writing a similar work that will be even fuller and more carefully done. This is fitting. For those who gave all their zeal, their fortunes, and (when the occasion required it) their blood and their lives in order to surpass other men in illustrious deeds have certainly earned a right to have their names remembered forever by posterity. What surprises me is how little attention women have attracted from writers of this genre, and the absence of any work devoted especially to their memory, even though lengthier histories show clearly that some women have performed acts requiring vigor and courage.#11;OIf we grant that men deserve praise whenever they perform great deeds with the strength bestowed upon them, how much more should women be extolledNalmost all of whom are endowed by nature with soft, frail bodies and sluggish mindsNwhen they take on a manly spirit, show remarkable intelligence and bravery, and dare to execute deed that would be extremely difficult even for men?O (Quoted from BoccaccioOs Preface.) #11;