Virtue Ethics for Women 1250-1500

✍ Scribed by István P. Bejczy (auth.), Karen Green, Constant Mews (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 256
• Series: The New Synthese Historical Library 69
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book locates Christine de Pizan's argument that women are virtuous members of the political community within the context of earlier discussions of the relative virtues of men and women. It is the first to explore how women were represented and addressed within medieval discussions of the virtues. It introduces readers to the little studied Speculum Dominarum (Mirror of Ladies), a mirror for a princess, compiled for Jeanne of Navarre, which circulated in the courtly milieu that nurtured Christine. Throwing new light on the way in which Medieval women understood the virtues, and were represented by others as virtuous subjects, it positions the ethical ideas of Anne of France, Laura Cereta, Marguerite of Navarre and the Dames de la Roche within an evolving discourse on the virtues that is marked by the transition from Medieval to Renaissance thought.

Virtue Ethics for Women 1250-1500 will be of interest to those studying virtue ethics, the history of women's ideas and Medieval and Renaissance thought in general.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xxxi
Does Virtue Recognise Gender? Christine de Pizan’s City of Ladies in the Light of Scholastic Debate....Pages 1-11
The Speculum dominarum ( Miroir des dames ) and Transformations of the Literature of Instruction for Women in the Early Fourteenth Century....Pages 13-30
A Mirror of Queenship: The Speculum dominarum and the Demands of Justice....Pages 31-44
A Lady’s Guide to Salvation: The Miroir des dames Compilation....Pages 45-52
Charles V’s Visual Definition of the Queen’s Virtues....Pages 53-80
Jean Gerson’s Writings to His Sisters and Christine de Pizan’s Livre des trois vertus : An Intellectual Dialogue Culminating in Friendship....Pages 81-98
From Le Miroir des dames to Le Livre des trois vertus ....Pages 99-113
Appearing Virtuous: Christine de Pizan’s Le Livre des trois vertus and Anne de France’s Les Enseignements d’Anne de France ....Pages 115-131
Weaving Virtue: Laura Cereta as a New Penelope....Pages 133-143
Margherita Cantelmo and the Worth of Women in Renaissance Italy....Pages 145-163
Like Mother Like Daughter: Moral and Literary Virtues in French Renaissance Women’s Writings....Pages 165-175
Joanna of Castile’s Entry into Brussels: Viragos, Wise and Virtuous Women....Pages 177-186
Back Matter....Pages 187-223

✦ Subjects

Medieval Philosophy; Political Science; Religious Studies; Ethics; History of Philosophy