ABSTRACT
An extensive corpus of translations of Latin and Greek works on friendship constituted one important vector for the dissemination of the classical heritage that informed the early modern rhetoric's and rituals of friendship. This chapter considers a more anomalous situation: Renaissance translations of classical friendship texts that were dedicated to women. The translation of Plato's Lysis by Bonaventure des Priers probably dating to 1541 and published posthumously by Jean de Tournes in 1544, was dedicated to Marguerite de Navarre. De Rozires also based his translation on an earlier Latin version that of Desiderius Erasmus, adapting his models dedication for its new addressee. Marsilio Ficino's translation was first printed in 1480's in his Opera platonis with the title Lysis on Friendship and an accompanying Argumentum, which is referred as a commentary, dedicated to Pietro de Medici. The chapter involves divergence of Des Priers's account of female love and community from the emphasis in Ficino's commentary on a pair of male friends.
