Customer Reviews

Famous Women (The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 1)

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I'm not a classicist, so I'm not really sure why I bought this book, but I am having so much fun with it! It is filled with short biographical blurbs of, you guessed it, famous women. The sexism and religious bigotry is amazingly entertaining, as Boccaccio tries to reconcile ancient goddesses with his Renaissance Christian beliefs. I definately recomend this to anyone interested in women's history (even if they only dabble in it) or anyone interested in religious history.

This paperback edition does *NOT* include side-by-side English-Latin as indicated in the images. Very disappointing. Amazon should make sure they are picturing the proper product on their site. The cover image is correct, but that's it. *Do not* purchase this item if you are looking for English-Latin. I am going to cross my fingers and purchase the hardcover in hopes that it might be accurately represented.

(some reviewers have noted that their edition did not include the Latin text - the hardcover has both Latin and English and the soft cover contains only the English translation)

Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris was the first collection of biographies in Western literature "devoted exclusively to women". Boccaccio (1313-1375) dedicated it to Andrea Acciaiuoli, Countess of Atlavilla, a Tuscan noblewoman. This work was inspired by Petrarch's De viris illustribus. Boccaccio sought to record to posterity the stories of women who were virtuous and did good deeds. However, he includes both good and bad models for women. Boccaccio hoped that by including both models, his work will function as a "spur to virtue and a curb on vice." Boccaccio primarily selects pagan women of Greco-Roman antiquity. He excluded Christian women since they were celebrated in hagiographic literature. Secondly, pagan women who where not inspired by Christian virtue achieved "achieved earthly fame with the help of gifts and instincts they had received from Nature," or through the desire for glory. He believed that even these examples should be emulated by Christian women.

Some of the most interesting chapters in my opinion pertain to women connected to Nero and his reign. Chapter XCII concerns the life of Agrippina, mother of the monstrous Nero. Chapter XCII, tells the tale of Epicharis, a freedwoman, who joined the conspiracy against Nero and committed suicide rather than give the names of the conspirators. Chapter XCIV, recounts how Pompea Paulina wife of Seneca, Nero's tutor, tried to commit suicide with her husband but was rescued by Nero at the last moment. And lastly, Chapter XCV tells the legend of Sabina Poppea, the scheming wife of Nero, who dies ignominiously after being kicked by her husband while pregnant. Some other interesting women in the text include Lesbia, Minerva, and various Queens (Dido, Jacosta, etc).

Boccaccio stresses that women should be learned, loyal, and virtuous. He digresses lengthily on the virtues of Roman conception of marriage and laments how women in his time get married more than once. Likewise, he warns against lust and excessive scheming. Each chapter follows a similar structure. First, he begins with the name of the woman, her parentage, and her rank. Then, an explanation of her fame with allusions to historians and other authorities. Each ends concludes with an often lengthy moralizing precept.

This is an absolutely fascinating text. Often Boccaccio's Decameron overshadows his lesser known works. He also wrote a similar history of famous men which sadly does not have an English translation (an Italian edition exists in print). Virginia Brown provides a wonderful introduction, a source list for each chapter, and a truly beautiful translation which is a joy to read. It is fascinating comparing Boccaccio's account of famous women with Christine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies (considered the first feminist history). A must buy for the lay person and Medieval/Renaissance historian alike.

What a disappointment this will be for all those who enjoyed Boccaccio's Decameron and were looking forward to more of the same ilk!

Legend tells us that Boccaccio, in old age, underwent a kind of religious conversion that led him to denounce the writings for which we admire him. A perusal of his "Famous Women" will convince you of the sad truth of that legend. Gone are the bawdry, the deliciously pointed humor, the sheer merriment and zest for life, the tolerance for (and enjoyment of) human frailty. In their place we find a caricature of the type of person Boccaccio had such fun with in his better days. The author of these synopses has become a dreary moralist, soured and bitter, puritanical, and almost fanatical in his fear and distrust of Woman.

The only women he can now admire may be divided into two categories: (l) the Amazonian warrior-queen type with masculine notions of Honor, Duty and Courage, and the will to carry out such values in endless bloodletting and carnage; and (2) the defenders of their own honor--or that of their husbands--in grand, suicidal acts--running into swords, leaping onto funeral pyres (Dido) or swallowing fire (Portia). Lucretia's suicide was, of course, the only honorable thing to do when one has suffered rape. And the very noblest thing a woman can do is lay down her life for her husband, regardless of how undeserving or unloving he may be.

Boccaccio's women are castigated for such pleasant pastimes as dancing, play-going, and the decoration of their bodies. Female lust is assumed to be rampant, and any expression of it, even in lawful marriage, is lamented. In one instance, the guardians of young girls are advised to consider shutting them up in nunneries where they can do no harm!.

One very interesting theory does emerge from these pages, and that is in the author's assumption that the gods and demi-gods of Greek and Roman mythology were once actual humans with unusual achievements whose actual exploits became embroidered over
time... Aside from that, its only value is as a literary curiosity.

Boccaccio's De Claribus Mulieribus (Of Famous Women) is a wonderful compendium of 100 classical and medieval stories about pagan women (and six about Christian women). you can read about Amazons, courtesans, chaste wives and teacherous ones, Queens and poets. Virginia Brown's translation is excellent, and it is invaluable to have the Latin text on facing pages. (Note: only the hardback edition has the Latin).

This book was awesome and entertaining. It was easy reading. Reading this book I wondered how much was true and how much was based on myth. If these lives were all true, then history should be renamed herstory!