La elocuencia de la mujer romana: Sempronia en el De las mujeres illustres en romance

Abstract

Boccaccio’s influence on Western literature can be traced in the numerous translations of his latin work De mulieribus claris into Romance languages, including De las mujeres illustres in romance (1494), edited by Pablo Hurus and printed in Zaragoza. The volume’s wide circulation gave it a major role in Europe’s literary tradition, where it ended up establishing a new genre: the compendium of women’s biographies. The noticeable modernity in his description of the mulieres clarae is particularly remarkable in chapter LXXIX, where the Certaldo author offers unprecedented praise for Sempronia and celebrates her great intellect. The only previous approach to this Roman woman’s life had been the harsh criticism exercised by Sallust.