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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 author declares in the preface that this collection of one hundred and six short biographies [1] (104 chapters)[2] of women is the first example in Western literature [3] devoted solely and exclusively to women. [4] Some of the lost works of Suetonius "illustrious people" and Boccaccio's De cCasibus 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 [5] and modeled on Petrarch's lives Of Famous Men.[6] The collection influenced Geoffrey Chaucer and inspired Christine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies. It includes mythological and historical women, as well as some of Boccaccio's Renaissance contemporaries.
Boccaccio wrote this work in Certaldo probably between the summer of 1361 and the summer of 1362.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] Andrea Acciaioli was the sister of Niccolò Acciaioli.[10]
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 hopfully 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. [11]
These Boccaccio 106 brief life stories of “Famous Women” 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.[12]
[edit] 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
goddess Venus - 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
maiden Thisbe - 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
Medea - 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
Deianeira + Nessus - 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
Cassandral - 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
;_Joshua_Reynolds.jpg/125px-The_Death_of_Dido_(1781);_Joshua_Reynolds.jpg)
The Death of Dido - 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
Sappo - 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
Helen of Troy - 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
Sophonisba - 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
Claudia Quinta, medieval woodcut - 74. Tertia Aemilia, wife of the elder Africanus
- 75. Dripetrua, queen of Laodice - daughter of Mithridates VI of Pontus
- 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
Cleopatra - 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
Agrippina - 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
Henry VI and Constance - 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
[edit] Sources
- ^ Brown, Virginia translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Famous Women, page xi; Harvard University Press, 2001; ISBN 0-674-01130-9
- ^ 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).
- ^ Brown, op. cit., p. xi
- ^ Brown, op. cit., p.xxxvii.
- ^ Brown, op. cit., p. 4
- ^ Brown, op. cit., p. xii and p. xv
- ^ Brown, op. cit., p. xi
- ^ Brown, op. cit., p. 256
- ^ Brown, op. cit., p. xiii
- ^ Brown, op. cit., p. xii
- ^ Brown, op. cit., p. xii
- ^ Brown, op. cit., p. xvi
