8/18/2023 0 Comments Illuminated writingThis collection, the private collection of late philanthropists and collectors Elaine and Alexandre P. Was it dreams like these that not only encouraged Epicurus and Metrodorus and Hermarchus to contradict Pythagoras, Plato and Empedocles, but actually emboldened a loose woman like Leontium to write a book refuting Theophrastus? Her style no doubt is the neatest of Attic, but all the same! - such was the license that prevailed in the Garden of Epicurus.On April 23, “one of the most important collections of illuminated manuscripts and early prints to have appeared at auction” will go on sale at Christie’s. The information was sparse: she was involved with the Epicurean school, and she is mentioned in a quote from Cicero: As is common for many of Boccaccio’s famous women, the only image on the Wikipedia page was a miniature from the 1488 French translation of Des Claris et Nobles Femmes. I was intrigued, and did a quick search online. I looked at the text again, and found a very brief entry on a woman named Leontium, “such a great philosopher that she dared, for impartial and serious reasons, to correct and attack the philosopher Theophrastus.” 33 The “impartial and serious reasons” is almost certainly rebuttal to Boccaccio’s claim that Leontinum’s writings on Theophrastus, while excellent, were prompted by envy. Perhaps I could find one more scholar to go in the fourth panel. The similarity of their names made me think I could draw them as twins: which one was Cornificia the poet and which was Cornificius the poet? The Morgan Crusader Bible even had a reference for a bulky over-kirtle worn by both men and women.īut this might be making the point too bluntly, and worse, take attention away from Proba and Sappho. 32 Christine says Cornificia attended school with her brother Cornificiusthrough “deception and trickery,” which to me suggested Cornificia dressing up as a boy. (Christine does call Boccaccio ungrateful for not valuing these contributions, which I will address more in the piece on the goddesses.) Still, his bracing call for women to not waste their abilities is fascinating to read.Ĭhristine’s telling of the story is more positive, but she agrees that that women should have more confidence in their intellectual abilities. In Boccaccio’s usual style of bizarrely backhanded compliments, he says “How glorious it is for a woman to scorn womanish concerns and to turn her mind to the study of the great poets!” 31 This is typical of his attitude throughout Famous Women: he praises women for taking masculine roles, and has little respect for traditionally feminine pursuits like weaving and children. Instead, I could use Christine's lovely imagery of trees and plants to represent the appeal and escape of study.Ī second option would be to give the double panel to Cornificia, who Boccaccio and Christine both use as an example of what women can accomplish if given the same educational opportunities as men. At the start of this project, I worried that this piece would just be three women sitting at desks. Maybe something like Botticelli’s Primavera, with Muses and nymphs dancing. With just three women in this piece, I pictured something like the double panel for Circe: Sappho with her harp in one panel, her lover resting on her shoulder, and florid vegetation unfurling into the other. 7 According to Christine, when women desire jewels and clothing, they are just trying to ensure the financial future for themselves and their families in the only way they can. Christine says it makes sense that women “guard the little they can have, knowing they can recover this only with the greatest pain.” 6 Keep in mind that every part of a medieval outfit would be made by hand, from spinning to weaving to dyeing to sewing, and the expense would be similar to buying a car today. Boccaccio frequently complains about women’s desire for luxurious jewelry and clothing in Famous Women, but Christine notes that this is a natural response when women are financially suppressed. Women in Christine’s time would have had control over their personal property like clothes and jewelry, but little power over anything else. Busa’s inheritance was legally hers, as was Marguerite’s gold chaplet. While Boccaccio sees Busa as an exception, Christine uses Busa and Marguerite to show that women can give generously when given any financial freedom to do so.
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