ABSTRACT
Alongside the cadre of power-hungry, promiscuous, homicidal, and treacherous women Boccaccio condemns, he presents another type of ruler: a queen who, through no fault or design of her own, finds herself in a position of authority. Throughout Famous Women Boccaccio argues for the eternal bond a woman forges when she marries, reflecting not only the author's persistent enthusiasm for chastity in all its manifestations, but also the fundamental anxiety of patriarchal Italy over the depletion of patrimony which occurred when wives remarried and took their dowries with them. If a married or widowed woman is to be praised without reservation for her unconventional acts, there must be no doubt concerning her unswerving fidelity to her husband or his memory. In his dedication, as well as in a number of his lives, Boccaccio makes it clear that he expects women to emulate virtues rather than deeds of his heroines, and to do so within the paradigm dictated by contemporary social customs.
