On Famous Women - Tapa blanda

Boccaccio's "On Famous Women" ("De claris mulieribus") is a remarkable work that contains the lives of one hundred and six women in myth and history, ranging from Eve to Boccaccio's contemporary, Queen Giovanna I of Naples. It is the first collection of women's biographies ever written. Boccaccio composed it at Certaldo in 1361/62 and revised it in various stages to the end of his life in 1375. He dedicated it to Andrea Acciaiuoli, countess of Altavilla in the kingdom of Naples and sister of Niccolò Acciaiuoli, the grand seneschal of Queen Giovanna I. In his preface the author states that the biographies of illustrious men had been written often by a number of excellent writers, and he cited his hero Petrarch's "Lives of Famous Men" ("De viris illustribus") as an example. No one, however, had ever done the same for women. Boccaccio therefore presents a wide variety of women from antiquity to his own time, offering their lives as both moral "exempla" and entertaining reading. Boccaccio is best known as the author of the "Decameron" in which he portrayed women among the "lieta brigata" of pleasure-seeking young aristocrats and among the various characters of their tales. But in these biographies we find more serious themes that became standards of the Renaissance: secular and religious life; politics and private life; fame, fortune and earthly power; advantage and adversity; women's character, virtues and vices; their social roles, individual talents and achievements. "On Famous Women" is the earliest source of women's biography in the West and has had a long and distinguished publication career and literary influence. Its impact can be seen in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," in Christine de Pizan's Livre de la cité des dames," and in the work of Spencer, Alonso de Cartagena and Thomas Elyot, among many others. Guido A. Guarino's translation is based on the edition of Mathias Apiarius, printed in Bern in 1539. This new edition includes the original woodcut illustrations of the 1539 Apiarius edition, a new bibliography and bibliographical essay. First English translation. 2nd revised edition. Introduction, new bibliography.  310 pages, 14 illustrations.

Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313, perhaps in Certaldo, the son of an unknown woman and of Boccaccino di Chellino, who married the noble Margherita dei Mardoli the next year. Giovanni was raised in Florence and received a standard urban education. In 1327 his father was appointed head of the Naples branch of the Bardi bank. Rejecting a banking career, Giovanni studied law at the University of Naples. In Naples his father introduced him to the court of King Robert the Wise, and Giovanni soon became familiar with most of its important personalities, including fellow Florentine Niccolò Acciaiuoli and early humanists and friends of Petrarch, such as Cino da Pistoia, Paolo da Perugia, Barbato da Sulmona, Giovanni Barrili and Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro. After moving to Paris in 1332, he began his literary career with poetic works, such as “La caccia di Diana” (1334–37), “Filostrato” (1335?), “Teseida” (1339/40) and Filocolo (1336–39). Boccaccio returned to florence in 1341 and moved to Forlì c.1347 in search of patronage. During the 1340s he produced more verse works, including the “Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine” (1341/42), “Amorosa visione” (1342/43), “Fiammetta” (1343/44) and “Ninfale fiesolano” (1344/45). Following the Black Death in Florence in 1348, Boccaccio began work on the “Decameron” c.1349 and completed it by 1351. In the later 1350s, he became closely involved with humanism and followed the path of many early humanists as a diplomat, serving Florence on wide-ranging missions. After their first meeting in October 1350, Boccaccio became a close friend and disciple of Petrarch, following his lead in the study of Greek and Latin literature, and in 1360 began his “Genealogia deorum gentilium.” Following a failed coup of 1361 Boccaccio left Florence for Certaldo, and in 1363 he experienced some sort of religious conversion. He returned to diplomatic duties for Florence in 1365 with missions to Rome, Venice and Naples, probably completing his Corbaccio that year. Boccaccio’s later works set a more classical standard. They include his “De casibus virorum illustrium” (1363), “De claris mulieribus,” his geographical compendium “De montibus...liber” (1364) and his “Esposizioni sopra la Commedia di Dante” (1373). He retired to Certaldo in 1370 and died there on 21 December 1375.