De Mulieribus Claris 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] On Famous Women , Boccaccio also compiled a collection of biographies of famous men, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium (On the Fates of Famous Men ).
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The 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
Bibliography
Anderson, Jaynie (2003), Tiepolo's Cleopatra 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) 
