BOCCACCIO’S HEROINES Women and Gender in the Early Modem World Series Editors: Ally son Poska and Abby Zanger In the past decade, the study of women and gender has offered some of the most vital and innovative challenges to scholarship on the early modem period. Ashgate’s new series of interdisciplinary and comparanti ve studies, ‘Woman and Gender in the Early Modem World’, takes up this challenge, reaching beyond geographical limitations to explore the experiences of early modern women and the nature of gender in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Submissions of single­ author studies and edited collections will be considered. Titles in this series include: Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe Edited by Allison Levy Architecture and the Politics of Gender in Early Modern Europe Edited by Helen Hills Envisioning Gender in Burgundian Devotional Art, 1350-1530 Experience, Authority, Resistance Andrea Pearson The Medici Women Gender and Power in Renaissance Florence Natalie R. Tomas Women, Art and the Politics of Identity in Eighteenth-Century Europe Edited by Melissa Hyde and Jennifer Milam Boccaccio’s Heroines Power and Virtue in Renaissance Society MARGARET FRANKLIN Wayne State University, USA First published 2006 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0X14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright© Margaret Franklin 2006 The author has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Franklin, Margaret Boccaccio’s heroines : power and virtue in Renaissance society. - (Women and gender in the early modem world) 1. Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375. De mulierbus claris 2. Women - Biography 3. Women in literature 4. Women - History - Renaissance, 1450-1600 I. Title 851.1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Franklin, Margaret. Boccaccio’s heroines : power and virtue in Renaissance society / Margaret Franklin. p. cm. — (Women and gender in the early modem world) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7546-5364-1 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375. De mulieribus claris. 2. Women—Biography. 3. Women in literature. 4. Women—History—Renaissance, 1450-1600. I. Title. II. Series. PQ4274.D6F73 2006 851M—dc22 2005011772 ISBN 13: 978(cid:65)0(cid:65)7546(cid:65)5364(cid:65)6 (hbk) Contents List of Figures vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 The Text and its Critics 4 Lauds and Libraries 9 The Art of Virtue 13 1 Authorial Intent 23 Dedication: The Nature of Virtue 23 Preface: A Book for Men about Women 27 2 A Bad Example 31 Overstepping the Boundaries 31 Action/Reaction 41 Dangerous Minds and Bodies 44 Calculated Anomalies 54 3 Famous Women in Renaissance Tuscany 57 Boccaccio’s Heroines 57 A Woman’s Place 67 Daring but Decorous: Donne Illustri in the Art of the Tuscan Republics 85 4 Famous Women and Famous Women: Boccaccio and the Court Consorts 115 Eleonora d’Aragona d’Este 118 Isabella d’Este and Mantegna 148 Conclusion 175 Select Bibliography 177 Index 201 List of Figures 3.1 Andrea del Castagno, Farinata degli Uberti 87 3.2 Andrea del Castagno, Tamyris 88 3.3 Cloelia, anonymous woodcut from De mulieribus claris 101 3.4 School of Pinturicchio, Flight of Cloelia 103 3.5 Guidoccio Cozzarelli, The Legend of Cloelia 108 4.1 Ercole de’Roberti, Portia and Brutus 134 4.2 Portia, anonymous woodcut from De mulieribus claris 137 4.3 Sandro Botticelli, The Tragedy of Lucretia 140 4.4 Ercole de’Roberti, Lucretia, Brutus, and Collatinus 141 4.5 Lucretia, anonymous woodcut from De mulieribus claris 142 4.6 Lucretia, anonymous woodcut from De plurimis selectisque mulieribus 144 4.7 Ercole de’Roberti, The Wife of Hasdrubal and Her Children 146 4.8 Eleonora d’Aragona d’Este, anonymous woodcut from De plurimis selectisque mulieribus 148 4.9 Andrea Mantegna, A Woman Drinking 154 4.10 Marcantonio Raimondi, Death of Dido 165 4.11 Andrea Mantegna, Dido 166 4.12 II Riccio, Death of Dido 167 4.13 Andrea Mantegna, Judith 170 Acknowledgements I am grateful to the Wayne State University Humanities Center, the Wayne State University Research Grant Program, and the Dean’s Creative/Research Grant Program of the Wayne State University College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts for their generous support of this project. I thank Virginia Cox, whose gentle and uniquely informed guidance while I was writing my dissertation at The University of Cambridge helped to lay the groundwork for this book. Pamela Benson was generous with encouragement and constructive criticism; Christiane Joost(cid:65)Gaugier has provided me with years of intellectual and emotional nourishment; and Dane Wittrup and Jean Rhodes contributed their multifaceted talents when they were most needed. I am most thankful for the family that provided the daily context of love, respect, and joy that made the long years of work fun and meaningful: my shining children, Aaron, Charlotte, Noel, and Julia, and my husband, Jamie, whose brilliance and tireless devotion are reflected in every page.