ABSTRACT
Renaissance ideas regarding the nature of woman were grounded both in scripture and in the writings of ancient physicians and philosophers. Foremost among the latter was Aristotle, whose theory of the processes through which human life is generated encompassed not only the creation of biological males and females, but also a defined and largely immutable constellation of behavioral and dispositional characteristics arising from the very substance of maleness and femaleness. Although best known to modern readers for his collection of bawdy tales told by young aristocrats in the Decameron, Boccaccio wrote four Latin summae in the 1350s and 1360s that established his reputation for scholarship among humanist intellectuals throughout the Renaissance. The burgeoning of interest in classical arts and letters known as humanism, of which Boccaccio and Petrarch were early proponents, brought to the Italian intelligentsia the awareness of an ancient cultural heritage which was fervently admired and, in many respects, consciously emulated.
