ABSTRACT
Boccaccio opens the body of Famous Women with a pair of biographies that alert the reader to the dangerous consequences of illegitimate female ambition. Beginning with Eve, he warns against females who seek exaltation through a self-serving path unsanctioned by patriarchal authority. Far from offering role models for women who aspire to unconventional accomplishment in the public sphere, Boccaccio's treatment of women who seek political power depicts them as a hazard society cannot afford to countenance. Boccaccio seldom fails to employ sexual profiles of women in his shaping of their lives for moral instruction. Boccaccio's invitation to Naples in 1362 resulted in his gathering together, under a dedication to Andrea Acciaiuoli, the chapters he had written up to that point. The dedication paid homage to Queen Joanna, and Boccaccio's interest in courting the favor of this monarch is evident in the second new biography, that of Camiola.
