An Encyclopedia of Women at the Getty
Master of François de Rohan, Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, Dying by Suicide , in Concerning Famous and Noble Women, about 1470 (text) and 1515-1520 (miniatures) . Getty Museum In 2024 the Getty Museum purchased a French Renaissance manuscript combining two key texts on the role of women in late medieval Europe: Giovanni Boccaccio's Concerning Famous and Noble Women and Christine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies . The manuscript has just gone on public view, for the first time at the Getty or anywhere else, in "Beginnings: The Story of Creation in the Middle Ages" (at the Getty Center through Apr. 19, 2026). The manuscript's two authors treat their subject from opposite perspectives. Boccaccio offers mini-biographies of women, ancient and modern (that is, medieval), who succumb to moral failings. Christine's text is a rebuttal faulting Boccaccio's reliance on stereotypes of vain, weak, and scheming women. Christine was perhaps the first professi...
