11/28/2023 0 Comments Famous illuminated manuscripts![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() At the start of this project, I worried that this piece would just be three women sitting at desks. Maybe something like Botticelli’s Primavera, with Muses and nymphs dancing. With just three women in this piece, I pictured something like the double panel for Circe: Sappho with her harp in one panel, her lover resting on her shoulder, and florid vegetation unfurling into the other. 7 According to Christine, when women desire jewels and clothing, they are just trying to ensure the financial future for themselves and their families in the only way they can. Christine says it makes sense that women “guard the little they can have, knowing they can recover this only with the greatest pain.” 6 Keep in mind that every part of a medieval outfit would be made by hand, from spinning to weaving to dyeing to sewing, and the expense would be similar to buying a car today. Boccaccio frequently complains about women’s desire for luxurious jewelry and clothing in Famous Women, but Christine notes that this is a natural response when women are financially suppressed. Women in Christine’s time would have had control over their personal property like clothes and jewelry, but little power over anything else. Busa’s inheritance was legally hers, as was Marguerite’s gold chaplet. While Boccaccio sees Busa as an exception, Christine uses Busa and Marguerite to show that women can give generously when given any financial freedom to do so. ![]()
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