Women's Historiography in Late Medieval European Literature: Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Christine de Pizan

Women’s Historiography in Late Medieval European Literature: Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Christine de Pizan considers the ways in which the textual generation of women’s historiography correlated with women’s social access in late medieval Europe, 1361-1405. I examine Boccaccio's authoritative and Latin Famous Women (1361) and its reworkings in Chaucer’s The Legend of Good Women (1386-1394) and Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies (1405). I argue that Chaucer’s and de Pizan’s vernacular versions revise Boccaccio’s exclusive Latin, which demonstrates a correlation between the consistent documentation of women and possibilities for women’s social opportunities. Moreover, de Pizan’s participation in the production of women’s historiography demonstrates the ways in which the possession of a documented past promotes the recognition of female social contributions and counters perspectives in previous, male authored accounts. Although divisions of periodization and national literatures have separated de Pizan from Boccaccio and Chaucer, this project employs literary and historiographic analyses in order to allow de Pizan’s accomplishments to stand beside those of her male contemporaries. Such a pairing not only confronts disciplinary inaccuracies, but also seeks to advance studies of women's historiographies, to appropriate de Pizan's accomplishments for women today and to further an understanding of the ways in which the politics of language affect socio-political gains, especially for women.


INTRODUCTION
Although authors Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and France's first professional woman of letters, Christine de Pizan, all share biographical and textual overlaps, traditional scholarship separates all three authors by language and generation. Vittore Branca's extensive work on Boccaccio set the stage for later scholars such as David Wallace, Piero Boitani, and others to draw shared connections between Boccaccio and Chaucer. 1 Christine de Pizan studies draw attention to her use of Boccaccio as a source and the fact that she and Chaucer participated in some of the same social circles, but these studies still hold Chaucer as de Pizan's predecessor rather than her contemporary. 2 Recently, however, Teresa Coletti's "Paths of Long Study': Reading Chaucer and Christine de Pizan in Tandem" (2006) considers Chaucer and Christine de Pizan as contemporaries. There is no concrete evidence that Chaucer knew of de Pizan, or vice versa, but the two shared many courtly and literary ties. For example, the French poet Eustache Deschamps wrote poems celebrating the literary prowess of both Chaucer and de Pizan. 3 Following these common ties, Coletti's article points out that "The texts and careers of Geoffrey Chaucer and Christine de Pizan crisscross each other with dizzying complexity" and her article provides a "provisional map" of these crisscrosses (2). My study seeks to expand Coletti's map by adding the Boccaccian element in order to yield further studies. More specifically, this project, Women's Historiography in Late Medieval European Literature: Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Christine de Pizan, focuses on women's historiographic literature and the ways in which each author's version of such historiography highlights a correlation between women's social access and women's historiographic literature.
For late medieval Europe, historiographies, or historiographic literature, provided information about past people, places, or events. The specific genre that engaged the textual documentation of women was the encyclopedic compendium. 4 The encyclopedic compendium genre provides a collection of narratives from mythology or history and biographies of exemplary people in one thematically driven volume. Such collections defined patterns regarding the people or events that formulated a social history. As I use it here, the term "women's historiographic literature" refers to collections that provide tales or biographies focused on the lives of women throughout time. Within forty-four years, conceivably one person's lifetime, (251)(252). 4 The term encyclopedia in the Middle Ages covers a large body of works, primarily any work that has to do with education. Giuseppe Mazzotta, in a lecture series entitled Dante in Translation, explains the implications of Dante's Commedia being an encyclopedia, as he states, "the aim of the encyclopedia is really to educate the reader" ("Introduction"). In fact, the Middle English Dictionary reflects that the verb, compilen, in its second and third definitions refers to the act of compiling sources for the purposes of education. These definitions are, "To collect and present information from authentic sources, as in an encyclopedia or a comprehensive treatise; compile; ~ togeder; (b) to codify (statutes)" and "(a) To tell or state (sth.), as in a story or chronicle; (b) ~ lif, to tell or write the history of (a saint's) life; (c) to foretell or prophesy (sth.)" ("Compilen," 2 and 3). Both definitions bear connection to the use of encyclopedic compendia for educational purposes and as a means to compile and document history. Later uses of the term encyclopedia, as reflected in the Oxford English Dictionary, also carry education within the definition as early as 1531, which states, "The circle of learning; a general course of instruction" ("Encyclopedia," 1). each of these three authors produced such a women's historiography: Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris (Famous Women) (1361-1362), Chaucer's Legend of Good Women (1386-1394, and Christine de Pizan's Le livre de la cité des dames (1405). 5 This project focuses on the textual overlaps among these three volumes of women's historiography. Focusing upon this forty-four year period, I assess the ways each author communicates women's historiography in order to consider the correlation between their tactics and women's social access. More specifically, I seek to consider the ways in which Christine de Pizan, as the only woman in this group, participates in the literary documentation of women's historiography.
A major focus of this project is a study of the ways that encyclopedic compendia, particularly historiographies of women, served late medieval European society. In Chapter Two, I argue that encyclopedic compendia contributed to the formation and maintenance of public memory. The contributions of books, such as encyclopedic compendia and other forms of documentation, allowed the documented past to inform the present. As tangible documentation of the past, books formed a public memory by communicating what the public, as in anyone who could read the books, should know about the past. As important means of informing the public about the past, books also served as a rubric to assess the present and future. As a result of 5 For Boccaccio, these dates come from Virginia Brown's Introduction to Famous Women (xi Pizan: Her Life and Works,135. such assessment, books provided a way to shape present and future social norms, ideals, or values. With very few books devoted to women and their historical existence, textual documentation of women's social contributions were minimal in comparison to those of men. As a result, women did not have much of a place within public memory to inform either their present or their future. Boccaccio addresses the limits of women's place in public memory in the Preface to Famous Women, the work that begins the forty-four year literary history under study here. He calls attention to the lack of historical or literary works on women and claims to be first to provide women with a history in the Latin, encyclopedic compendium form. 6 Boccaccio states that his work is necessary in order to remedy this lack by "venit in animum ex his quas memoria referet in glorie sue decus in unum deducere (honoring their [women's] glory by assembling in a single volume the biographies of women whose memory is still green)" (9). 7 Although women have been part of societies since the beginning of time, Boccaccio's call not only identifies a lack of women's historiographic literature, but also identifies a lack of public memory regarding women's social contribution and aptitude.
The lack of public memory for women also correlates with the lack of genealogical, as in ancestral, documentation for women. The work of Christiane Klapisch-Zuber demonstrates that women were omitted from family trees, or 6 In Boccaccio: The Man and His Work, Vittore Branca notes that Boccaccio began the De mulieribus a few years after 1355 (109). Plutarch did write Mulierum virtutes (120 AD), but both Stephen Kolsky and Margaret Franklin, in their studies on De mulieribus claris, argue that Boccaccio did not know of the work. See Franklin, Boccaccio's Heroines, 1,n.2; Kolsky, The Genealogy of Women, 42. Following encyclopedic form, Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris contains 104 biographies of primarily classical and pagan women (Brown xi). Despite the fact that the contents lists 106 biographies, Brown notes that chapters XI-XII and XIX-XX are combined despite the individual numbering of each legend in the Table of Contents, which results in the number 104 rather than 106 (xxiii). 7 All translations from the Latin of De mulieribus claris (Famous Women) are from Virginia Brown. genealogies, in late medieval Europe, particularly in Italy where both Boccaccio and de Pizan were born. 8 Such a focus on men in family genealogies is similar to the focus on the men in literature that constitutes the majority of public memory. Both points demonstrate a maintenance of patriarchical order. As a result, a body of traditional scholarship assumes that women were illiterate and relegated only to domestic realms of late medieval society simply because women were not documented. Conversely, recent literary and historiographic studies claim, as do Laurie Churchill, Phyllis Brown, and Jane Jeffery do in Women Writing Latin (2002), that more women than previously assumed were Latin literate (1-2). 9 Such recent assumptions find support in Robert Black's Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Tradition and Innovation in Latin Schools from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century (2001), which claims that scholars find high percentages of Latin literacy rates in medieval and renaissance Italian societies (3). Black's work, however, displays the problem regarding women's silence because there is little to no mention of women throughout his work (16). The male focus of Latin curricula, despite the findings that women were more literate than previously thought, demonstrates the ways in which language, specifically Latin, served to maintain patriarchical order and targeted male audiences. Such findings raise questions with regard to women's silence and their limited space within late medieval Europe's public memory. 10 These questions not Petrarchan ideals significantly influenced the continuation of this genre, as well as the ways in which the language of historiographic literature contributed to public memory and ultimately helped to shape social structure.
The divide between Latin and the vernacular created a divide in the presentation of women's historiography and the legitimacy of each version.
Determination of such legitimacy, to some degree, remains within the author's work.
For instance, Dante names himself the sixth of the great authors ranging from antiquity to his present. 15 Dante's claim demonstrates the ways in which authors inscribed themselves within public memory. As a result, these inscriptions create a genealogy of literary masters, in both Latin and the vernacular. Although Dante's work is in the vernacular and more accessible to all people, his genealogy of literary masters, similar to the creation of familial genealogies and public memory, excludes women. Such exclusion of women upholds the ways in which literature supported the maintenance of patriarchal social structures, regardless of language. Ultimately, this project considers the ways in which historiographic literature, particularly women's historiographies, follow and adhere to the structures of familial genealogies in order to maintain patriarchal social structures. 15 In Canto XXX of Purgatorio, Beatrice appears and Virgil no longer guides Dante. After Virgil disappears, Dante weeps; in response Beatrice states, "Dante, perche Virgilio se ne vada,/ non pianger anco, non piangere ancora;/ che pianger ti conven per altra spada [Dante, because Virgil leaves you, do not weep yet, do not weep yet, for you must weep for another sword]" (55-57, translation by Charles Singleton). In his commentary on Purgatorio, Charles Singleton notes that this passage is the only place in the entire Commedia that Dante names himself (742, n 55). Scholars have investigated Dante's use of his own name and the ways in which Dante names himself as one of the great authors. For further reading on recent studies see Marks, Levenstein, and Nohrnberg. Scholars also connect Dante's use of naming and literary genealogies to the works of Chaucer and Christine de Pizan. For Chaucer, see Boitani With a focus on men, even within women's historiographic literature, I suggest that historiographic content creates bonds between men to maintain patriarchal social structure. As a result, such maintenance requires men to bond with other men in order to maintain the status quo. This status quo not only appears within the literary tradition, as mentioned above regarding Dante's inscription of himself among the great male authors, but also within the genealogies that documented only the males within each family. Furthermore, the domestic focus on men also existed within European social institutions that excluded women, such as education and government.
Since historiographic literature contributes to public memory, the paucity of women's historiography reinforced exclusive social practices and set a standard for male Europe. Such exploitation and neglect only promoted the social subjugation of women and, as this project will explore, also highlights the relationship between social access, education, and textual/historiographic representation that is still relevant for minoritized groups today.
While Boccaccio provides a foundation for women's historiographic literature Copeland's work explores the ways in which vernacular authors, specifically Chaucer, used translation to usurp or challenge the information provided in prior, Latin works.
Since both Chaucer and de Pizan use translation to trump Boccaccio's Latin, my project engages the ways in which each version of women's historiography tells or translates the same story differently. As Boccaccio's Preface indicates, historiography, or a literary past, has the ability to communicate overarching social structures. Such communication is dependent upon audience in order to fill public memory. As mentioned earlier, Latin, the ecclesiastical and legal language of late medieval Europe, addressed a more exclusive, but often more privileged audience. As I will discuss in Chapter 1 and throughout the project, Boccaccio's use of Latin targets a male audience in order to reinforce the aptitude of men rather than women and his own authorial accomplishment. Each vernacular version addresses a larger audience and engages the content of Boccaccio's version in different ways. As a result of these differences, the 17  content of each version bears different points of focus, which serve to make different contributions to public memory. Each chapter of this study considers the ways in which each author uses translation in order to target an audience and shape public memory. For de Pizan, this engagement and participation documents women in a way that works with the overarching patriarchal social structures while at the same time earning women more space within public memory.
The overlap between the three authors is not only textual, but, as mentioned earlier, biographical. In Boccaccio: The Man and His Work, Vittore Branca asserts the possibility that Chaucer not only heard of Boccaccio, but also possibly attended one of Boccaccio's public lectures on Dante, and had access to libraries that would possess Boccaccian work during the years 1373-1374 (184). 18 The Riverside Chaucer (1987) supports Branca's assertions, noting that Chaucer served as a king's esquire from 1367-1374 and traveled to France and to Italy. Scholars believe that these trips may have allowed Chaucer to visit Genoa and Florence, and attend the wedding of Prince Lionel to Philippa Visconti, daughter of Galeazzo Visconti of Milan (Crow and Leland xviii -xix). 19 These trips and Italian connections provide the possibility for Chaucer's access to manuscripts of works by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio; furthermore, they provide the possibility for Chaucer's familiarity with the Italian Trecento while both Petrarch and Boccaccio were still alive. Such possibilities provide a strong foundation 18 Many of the sources for major Chaucerian works, such as several of The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde, comes from Boccaccio's Teseida; other tales also pull from Boccaccio's Filocolo. "The Knight's Tale," and various other tales from The Canterbury Tales can be traced back to Boccaccio's Decameron. For the emergence of such studies, see: Boitani,Ginsburg,Wallace,Thompson,Hagedorn,Frese,and Calabrese. 19 Chaucer may have made a trip to Italy in 1368 in order to serve as a messenger for Prince Lionel and his marriage to Philippa Visconti, daughter of Galeazzo Visconti of Milan (Crow and Leland xviii). However, Crow and Leland note in "Chaucer's Life" that this 1368 trip may "have gone no farther than France or Flanders" (xix).
for Chaucer's familiarity with Boccaccio, the Italian language, Italian culture, and the literature of the Italian Trecento, which substantiate connections between the works of both authors.
Just as textual and biographical connections exist between Boccaccio and Chaucer, there are similar connections between both male authors and Christine de Pizan. To start, de Pizan was born in Venice in 1363/4, and was the daughter of a doctor/astrologer who gave her access to an education many women of her time could not have . In Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works (1984), Charity  . Unfortunately, de Pizan was widowed after ten years of marriage when her husband suddenly died in the fall of 1390 (Willard 39).
Widowhood, for de Pizan and some widows of her time, led to economic hardship, which required de Pizan to find work as a writer and scribe, a difficult task for women in late medieval Europe . 20 Ultimately, de Pizan's work earned her 20 Much of de Pizan's work describes her experience as a widow who suffered financial losses as a result of being excluded from financial and legal affairs. Willard discusses this in "The Wheel of Fortune Turns" in Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works,[39][40]. Christine de Pizan also notes this hardship in Le livre de trois virtus (1405) and Le livre du corps de policie (1407). With regard to writing for a living, Willard states, "Even writers as relatively successful as Chaucer or Eustache Deschamps were unable to support themselves by writings alone. Those who were not members of religious orders were usually employed in some sort of government service or attached to the court of a prince. Careers such as these, however, were simply not available to women at the beginning of the fifteenth century" (44  (2006). In Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Work, Charity Canon Willard also notes the general status of education for de Pizan's time as she states, "By the second part of the fourteenth century, more girls were literate than had be the case earlier, especially young noblewomen and also the wives and daughters of Italian merchants, who were frequently taught to read and write so that they could assist the men of their families with bookkeeping and correspondence" (33). For a general standing of the mercantile society, see Goldthwaite, The Economy of Renaissance Florence (2011). Although this source specifically looks at the economic growth of the Florentine merchants, the scholarship demonstrates the privilege within the mercantile class and mercantilism.
which limited them in terms of labor, finances, ownership, and matters of the law.
Since de Pizan is the final author within this chronological study and the only woman, her participation serves as an example of the ways in which the possession of a documented past correlates to opportunities of social privilege and access. Using Boccaccio's model for providing women with a history, de Pizan not only earns more space for women within public memory, but she also becomes a part of it as one of the few female medieval authors and the first professional female author. Such existence within public memory both documents and communicates the aptitude of women of the present and future. Boccaccio's social inferiority, Andrea, as a woman, bore a lower social status. 24 I could not find an exact date of birth or death for Andrea Acciaiuoli, which might result from the lack of information on women in the late medieval period, see the analysis of Klapisch-Zuber above.
Many of the records and information from the Kingdom of Naples was also destroyed during World War II and since Andrea, Niccolò's sister, was a member of Joanna's court, it is likely that her information was destroyed. Furthermore, Andrea had a cousin also named Andrea (the cousin bore the nickname Andreola), daughter of Jacopo di Donato Acciaiuoli whose second husband was Mainardo di Cavalcanti (the man to whom Boccaccio dedicates De casibus virorum illustrium). For information on Andrea Acciaiuoli, Niccolò's and Andrea's cousin, see Heller. See also Tocco who writes that Jacopo di Donato Acciaiuoli was Niccolò's cousin, which makes Donato a brother to Acciaiuolo, Niccolò's and Andrea's father (8). Niccolò lived from 1310 -1365. 25 The Angevin court at Naples is also known as the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. The kingdom began with Normans, Roger I (Count of Sicily) and his son, Roger II (the first king of Sicily) in the 12 th century. From 1266-1285, Charles I of Anjou was king of Sicily and Naples, which begins the Angevin rule under which both Boccaccio and Acciaiuoli lived and worked (Setton 35 and 753). Additionally, despite the term "Kingdom of Sicily," the island of Sicily was not always part of the kingdom and slipped back and forth between the Angevins and the Aragons. For further reading, see Setton, Wieruszowski, and Croce. Christiane Klapisch-Zuber's Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy (1985) explores the status of medieval women in fourteenth-century Italy and provides historical evidence of women as "passing guests" within male genealogies or lineages.
Thus they carried the reputations of their families without benefiting from them (118)  Sedgwick observes that the distributions of power within these erotic triangles depend upon male homosocial relations, which not only illustrate a social design, but also, as Sedgwick suggests, "a special relationship between male homosocial (including office. The collection, Women Writing Latin from Roman Antiquity to Early Modern Europe asserts that many more women were literate, particularly in Latin, than what previous studies claim. The editors Churchill, Brown, and Jeffrey note, however, that despite those higher literacy levels, cultural barriers still existed to restrict women socially (2). 33 Sedgwick borrows the erotic triangle from René Girard and she notes that Girard's use of the triangle depends upon Freud's Oedipal triangle (22). Sedgwick also further notes that neither Girard, nor Freud, note changes within power distributions and treat the triangular distributions of power as symmetrical (23). Sedgwick notes that both Girard's and Freud's treatment of symmetry with regard to these triangles demonstrate both a bravery, "but a historical blindness as well" (24). 34 To explain this, Sedgwick discusses Lacan and his identification of "power, language, and the Law itself with the phallus and the 'name of the father" (24). Sedgwick asserts that Lacan's identification of the phallus, or maleness, with power allows "a space in which anatomic sex and cultural gender may be distinguished from one another and in which the different paths of men's relations to male power might be explored…In addition, it suggests ways of talking about the relation between the individual male and the cultural institutions of masculine domination that fall usefully under the rubric of representation" (24). Sedgwick's use of Lacan allows her to use the erotic triangle in order to assess patriarchical power structures and the difference of power distributions according to gender. Historians also report male sexual bonding, particularly in medieval Florence, see Rocke homosexual) desire and the structures for maintaining and transmitting patriarchical power" (25). As a result, the erotic triangle and the location of power within male homosocial bonds always imply that there is a desire for the maintenance of patriarchy in order to benefit the men at the base of the triangle. Such abundance of power also reinforces and maintains male-to-male genealogical progressions not only within genealogical lines, but also in social practices that govern the production of historiographic literature. Throughout the production of these works, Boccaccio remained an avid translator and worked with different vernacular forms that encompassed not only Italian, but also Latin (in the sense that it was a vernacular in ancient Rome), Greek, and French . With access to King Robert I's library in Naples, Boccaccio had access to a wealth of literature  Although Dante never finished De vulgari, he returned to the same argument and claims the vernacular as a civic responsibility in Il convivio (1304-1307), a treatise defense of the vernacular in the vernacular. Dante begins the work with a reference from Aristotle's Metaphysics and states, "tutti gli uomini naturalmente desiderano di sapere (all men by nature desire to know)," which emphasizes an imperative that language and knowledge should be accessible to all (4/3). 43 In "Translation as rhetorical invention: Chaucer and Gower," Copeland argues that Dante, in Il convivio, "rehabilitates" a rhetorical function with his use of the vernacular, which breaks the exclusivity of academic culture and allows the transmission of knowledge a wider scope, or audience (182). 44 The structure of Il convivio completes this mission: the work consists of four tractates, with the first part introducing the entire work, and the remaining three parts bearing canzoni and commentary of the canzoni. Not only does Dante declare his mission, per Aristotle, but he also exemplifies the completion of his 42 In De vulgari, Dante explains the invention of Latin as, "Hec cum de comuni consensus multarum gentium fuerit regulata, nulli singulari arbitrio videtur obnoxia, et per consequens nec varibilis esse potest (Its rules having been formulated with the common consent of many people, it can be subject to no individual will; and, as a result, it cannot change)" (20-23). As a result of its constancy, Latin connects the many vernaculars of the world. Dante's distinction in De vulgari, between the vernacular and Latin, indicates that both languages are necessary to humanity. However, Latin's ability to connect vernaculars, as a separate and artificial language that requires education, provides Latin with precedence over the vernacular. The necessity of education in order to use Latin results in restrictions of social use, which withholds the language from the uneducated. In Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle Ages, Rita Copeland argues that Dante's definition of Latin restricts his argument for the nobility of the vernacular as she states, "But in attempting to theorize a place for the vernacular in a hierarchy of languages, Dante seems to accept rather than challenge the given terms of that hierarchy" (180-181). 43 All translations of Il convivio come from Richard Lansing. 44 This analysis comes from a subsection of the essay entitled "Dante's Vernacular Hermeneutics and the Rehabilitation of Rhetoric," 180-186. Copeland states, "In the Convivio, the job of rhetoric is to break down the exclusiveness of academic culture and give the widest possible access to an enabling body of knowledge. In this venture, the tool of rhetoric is the vernacular" (182)(183). Latin rather than the vernacular in two of his letters, within Rerum familiarium libri 45 Copeland states, "Real power lies, not in status, but in effective, persuasive communication, and here the vernacular is clearly in charge…In the Convivio, the vernacular is the medium of public enlightenment, which is constructed as the highest good. The job of realizing this highest good is given over to rhetoric, as teaching is accomplished through the office of persuasive eloquence, embodied here in the charm or winning eloquence of Dante's own canzoni" (183)(184). 46 Many critics note Amorosa visione as a mediocre poem due to its forced terza rima structure and heavy-handed focus on Dantean ideals. See Wallace, "Accommodating Dante: The Amorosa Visione and The House of Fame," in Chaucer and the Early Writings of Boccaccio (1985), 6 n.9. Wallace provides a record of the Amorosa's major critiques. In the Introduction to Hollander's translation of the Amorosa Visione (1986), Vittore Branca states that, "the reader may often have a feeling that the artist has failed to define and design the moral sense of his work carefully enough from the outset" (xviii  49 Tocco states, "L'ascesa ai vertici economico-politici della città fu lenta e si concretizzò definitivamente a partire dall'ultimo ventennio dell XIII secolo, nel contesto dell'esautorazione progressiva delle famiglie magnatizie con la riforma istituzionale che vide l'istituzione dei sei priori, e del rafforzamento del legame tra gli Angioini e gli ambienti guelfi fiorentini, con la consequente diffusione della societas Acciaiuolorum in tutta Europa e, in particolare nel meridione d'Italia e nel Mediterraneo orientale." (5). 50 See Renouard on Florentine Merchants. 51 Branca notes that the exact date of Boccaccio's birth is not known and he surmises that Boccaccio was born in June or July (5). children (Tocco 17;Branca 9 and 23). After his childhood move from Florence to Naples in 1327, Boccaccio served as an apprentice in banking and merchandising at the Bardi Bank, while Niccolò also fulfilled his apprenticeship at the same place and time Tocco 19). Although both men had much in common, specifically being illegitimate children, Boccaccio remained the socially inferior of the two simply due to the fact that his father did not own a bank.
After serving apprenticeships, Boccaccio learned that he was not interested in business and changed the focus of his studies to Latin (Branca 31 who was on a quick rise in rank, were also depicted as such (65, xii). As the Amorosa's plot features a dreamer searching for true love, an anonymous female guide leads the narrator to see people that appear within Boccaccio's biographical life.
Discussion of the Acciaiuoli, specifically Andrea, occurs as the narrator recounts visions of women whose reputations were marred by their families' avaricious aspirations. The narrator states, Riguardando oltre, con sembianza umile venia colei che nacque di coloro li quai, tal fiata con materia vile agguzzando l'ingegno al lor lavoro, fer nobile colore ad uopo altrui, 54 Branca notes that Boccaccio held out hope through 1347 and Boccaccio "claimed that he was persecuted by misfortune" (72). moltiplicando con famiglia in oro.  70 Branca also notes that the popularity of Genealogia lasted well into the nineteenth century, "Indeed it [Genealogia] was so comprehensive that it constituted one of the most famous reference works down to the nineteenth century, and it was reprinted continually and translated into all of the languages of civilized Europe" (109). Solomon remarks in his "Introduction" to Genealogy of the Pagan Gods, was the leading resource for mythology until the nineteenth century (x-xii). Boccaccio's De mulieribus was also popular as Virginia Brown notes, in the Introduction to Famous Women that more than one hundred manuscripts of the work exist, which demonstrates that "it was among the most popular works in the last age of the manuscript book" (xii). 71 While there is no direct proof that Chaucer read the works of Boccaccio, both De mulieribus and remembrance, as demonstrated within the Boccaccian encyclopedic compendia, is a concern expressed in both versions of Chaucer's Prologue, F and G. The F Prologue demonstrates the limitations imposed by language, while the G Prologue shows the limitations of the literary tradition. Overall, both Prologues demonstrate how a reliance upon memory, or remembrance, produces inconsistent historiographic information that limits social knowledge of women.
In order to think through medieval conceptions of memory, I consult Mary Carruthers's Book of Memory (2008)  The popularity of the encyclopedic compendium style in late fourteenthcentury Europe concerns the work of Petrarch, who, according to many scholars, reshaped the genre and tradition. 72 Petrarch's celebration of the Roman past set a Genealogia were very popular, as stated above. Several of The Canterbury Tales, such as "The Knight's Tale," can be found in Boccaccio's vernacular masterpiece, Decameron (1349-1351). Furthermore, Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (written after 1380, but before 1388, see Riverside Chaucer, 471) follows Boccaccio's Filostrato (1339). Although these strong similarities exist, it is not certain that Chaucer read Boccaccio, but it is very possible that Chaucer heard of Boccaccio, possibly even attended one of Boccaccio's public lectures on Dante, and worked with access to libraries that would possess Boccaccian works. Branca provides the possibility of such occurrences during the years 1373-1374 (184). For other studies that provide information on the pairing of Chaucer and Boccaccio, see Wallace, Chaucer and  Full of examples from the past, the fourteenth-century encyclopedic compendium served to document the people and events that preceded and produced fourteenth-century Europe. Such documentation helped inform the people of Europe, at least those who could read it, and inspire them to achieve the greatness of the past.
Ultimately, these compendia served as thematically driven history books. In The Book of Memory (2008), Mary Carruthers provides a detailed study on the processes of memory in late medieval Europe and how the practice of memory governed the literary processes of reading and writing. Carruthers reports that memory and memorization practices, were a part of the medieval reading process. As a result, memorization practices required a good reader to internalize texts, which not only served as a foundation for reading, but also as a foundation for the stages of early composition and writing. 77 Carruthers reports that two memory processes were required in the production of an authoritative text. She states, "the first is the individual process of authoring or composing, and the second is the matter of authorizing, which is a social and communal activity. In the context of memory, the first belongs to the domain of an individual's memory, the second to what we might 76 For studies on Alceste and studies on wives in Chaucer, see Galway,Kiser,Laird,and Frese. 77 See Carruthers, The Book of Memory,Chapter 5, "Memory and the Ethics of Reading" and Chapter 6 "Memory and Authority." Carruthers states, "For composition in the Middle Ages is not particularly an act of writing. It is a rumination, cognition, dictation, a listening and a dialogue, a gathering (collectio) of voices from their several places in memory" (244). Such practices of memory match monastic studies of liturgical literature, see Smalley. conveniently think of as public memory" (234). Ultimately, memory and memorial practices inherent within medieval reading and writing served a social goal: the formation of a public memory.
Although there were many contributors to public memory, one of the concrete and tangible ways to shape public memory was through the production of books.
Carruthers claims that book production "supports memoria [medieval memory practices and memory cultivation] because it serves its requirements, some of which History for the Greeks and Romans is essentially heroic, a way of measuring man's capacities against those of the universe. As the record produced results in a definite domain are we able, with their help, to classify it to a certain extent...Legend arranges its material in a simple and straightforward way; it detaches it from its contemporary historical context, so that the latter will not confuse it" (16). History, on the other hand, is always pointed to fit within the Biblical structure, which requires manipulation of content in moral and religious ways. In Past as Text, Spiegel deals with medieval historiography and its contribution to Christianity (89-93). 80 This essay appears as Chapter Five of Spiegel's book Past As Text: The Theory and Practice of Medieval Historiography (1997). 81 Spiegel, however, looks more deeply at the functioning of this Ciceronian concept of history to find that it is functionally tied to rhetoric (87-88). The connection between history and rhetoric solidifies the moral responsibilities of the historical content to persuade men of the present, or future, to behave according to the precepts set in the past, regardless of how legendary or historical. Such a practice allows newer versions, or revisions, of older tales to take precedence which scholarship was conducted during this period" (198). 87 Carruthers discusses this process in terms of Petrarch's study,or reading,.
She analyzes an excerpt from Petrarch's Secretum in which he writes of a conversation with St. Augustine. Within this excerpt Augustine informs Petrarch of his reading practices and how reading should be done. Ultimately, Carruthers analyzes this process and states that the act of reading "is, to make something familiar by making part of your own experience. This adaptation process allows for a tampering with the original text that a modern scholar would (and does) find quite intolerable" (204-205). Smalley's work regarding the way the monks read the bible bears similarities to Petrarch's process. 88 In the "Introduction" to Canzoniere, Mark Musa also comments on Petrarch's revision practices as he states, "the Canzoniere was anything but casually put together. It came into being as a carefully wrought collection of lyric poems…The poems themselves had been written over many decades, then revised, polished, and gathered by Petrarch from time to time into manuscripts which he sent out to patrons and friends" (xi). In the "Introduction" to Letters of Old Age, Aldo S. Bernardo indicates that Petrarch carefully chose and compiled all of his letters. Bernardo states, "Although Petrarch included 128 letters in the Seniles, it is certain that he wrote many more. In Sen. XVI, 3, written in 1372, he states that he has collected more than four hundred letters in two thick volumes, discarding a thousand others for lack of space" (xviii). 89 This passage correlates strongly with Carruthers in the chapter entitled "Memory and the Ethics of Reading" in The Book of Memory, in which the metaphor of the bee gathering honey stands for the act of reading. Carruthers states, 'Reading is to be digested, to be ruminated, like a cow chewing her cud, or like a bee making honey from the nectar of flowers" (205). Wel ought us thane honouren and beleve Wel oughte us thane on olde bokes leve, These bokes, there we han noon other preve. There as there is non other assay by preve.
(F 25-28) (G 25-28) 92 The Prologues begin with the narrator's profession of love for books, which he foregoes in May for the springing flowers (F 29-39; G29-39). However, out of all these springing flowers, only one daisy, a "floure's flour," catches his attention and not only rises each day, but enters the narrator's dream and rises to transform into Alceste, Chaucer's guide and defender (F 54; G55). Chaucer's discussion of the daisy's daily bloom in both Prologues fuses Alceste's resurrection with "olde stories" by other "autors," which keeps his introductory comments regarding the formation of history and its truth present throughout the Prologues' events (F98; G80). In Chaucer's Legendary Good Women, Florence Percival notes that the daisy and author connection connects both the tradition of French marguerite poetry, and the daisy's ability to resurrect also emphasizes the Christian content of these poems (51 Prologues. In the G version, use of the terms "leve" and "assay by preve" emphasize an official or authoritative quality to the historiographic content within books. While "preve" appears in both versions, the accompaniment of "leve" and "assay" provides an official, authoritative, or religious connotation to the G version. 93 Overall, the dependence on old books in both versions stress the ways in which the past, through documented memories, forms a public memory, to which both Carruthers's and Spiegel's work speaks. Since books relay historiographic information, the hypothetical situation of lacking such books presents a problem within the formation of public memory because the information within books supports specific groups, genealogies or social trajectories. As a result, the narrator notes the selectivity of public memory, which also allows for a lack of remembrance. Despite the narrator's dependence upon books, he does not initially remember Alceste and she remains an anonymous figure until a book, or another source, recalls and reports her history. 93 According to the Middle English Dictionary (MED), the word, "leve," comes in three forms. The first two definitions, religious faith and (official) permission or authorization, most directly address the context of this passage, as old books faithfully permit, or authorize, knowledge of the past ("Leve," n. 1 and 2). "Assay by preve" indicates that there is no other way to test the quality, accuracy, or effectiveness of "preve," which means either obscured or recorded evidence and documentation of truth ("Assaien" and "Preve").
After considering the origins of historiographic information, each version of the Prologue elaborates on a different limitation to historical accuracy as the narrator describes the daisy. In the F version, the narrator states, "Allas, that I ne had Englyssh, ryme or prose, / Suffisant this flour to preyse aright!" (66-67). The narrator admits that English, in this instance, limits a full communication of the content. In the G version, however, the narrator states, "For this werk is al of another tonne, / Of olde story, er swich strif was begonne" (79-80). This statement locates limitation not in the language, as the F version does, but in the literary tradition. The narrator claims that this version, or revision, differs from the tones of prior, or older, versions of the same story. Such an assertion calls attention to traditions and practices of revision and imitation employed within the compendia of authors such as Petrarch and Boccaccio.
These traditions and practices also correlate with Copeland's assertions regarding secondary translation and vernacular ascendancy, which allows the vernacular English to take the place of an academic discourse. 94 The focus on limitations of language persists throughout the F version, and the focus on limitations of the literary tradition remains throughout the G version, which also accords with Copeland's findings.
Although these limitations are different in nature, the implication for the remembrance of Alceste, I suggest, is the same. 94 Four lines later in this passage the narrator states, "For myn entente is, or I fro yow fare,/ The naked text in English to declare / Of many a story, elles of many a geste, / As autours seyn; leveth hem if yow leste" (G 85-88). Many scholars use this passage to push their arguments. Copeland argues that it is an example of secondary translation that speaks to the responsibilities of authors and translators (192)(193). In Chaucer's Sexual Poetics (1989), Carolyn Dinshaw's second chapter, "The Naked Text in English to Declare': The Legend of Good Women," refers to this passage to argue that a good woman is a boring one -often a dead one -which eliminates problems of female agency in a patriarchical society or text. The line also appears in the title of Sheila Delany's The Naked Text: Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, which assesses the ways that Chaucer's Legend speaks of the poetic process and the treatment of women from a feminist perspective and for feminist ends. While Delany's work has been a foundation to medieval scholarship, her work is feminist focused and she studies Chaucer's work in conjunction with later works, such as those of Virginia Woolf.  practices of reading and imitation, which allows work read to be internalized, then recapitulated or imitated as one's own work. Such practices occur within Boccaccio's compendia too, and these compendia inconsistently remember to include Alceste.
Cupid's criticisms in the G version of the literary tradition therefore adhere to the encyclopedic compendium genre and its ability to selectively contribute to and form public memory.
In response to the God of Love's criticism, Alceste (whose identity is still unknown to Chaucer) comes to Chaucer's defense. In both versions, Alceste makes the connection to translation's political impact. Alceste states, Alceste, but also to other women lost in public memory within the few works of women's historiography.
In order to resolve the lack of women's historiography at the end of the Prologues, Alceste provides Chaucer with a penitential sentence that requires him to make a compendium of good women. She states, Thow  Despite already knowing her name because she names herself, the narrator only remembers exactly who Alceste is when the God of Love informs him (F517; G505).
In the G version while holding consistent to his prior remarks, Cupid once again questions Chaucer's literary practices by questioning whether or not he has consulted an appropriate number of sources in order to know of Alceste's tale. Cupid's question calls attention to the necessity for consistent, comprehensive literary practice, especially when compiling works of a historical nature. The identification of Alceste briefly recounts her trip to and from hell, but, as Cupid states, she returns "ageyn to blys" rather than to life or to the mortal world. The phrasing recognizes Alceste's eternal existence within public memory because of the timelessness and adaptability of texts that carry historiographic content. While Alceste's restoration to "blys" refers to her permanent textual existence, the insufficiency in language and the practices of a literary tradition that manipulates historiographic content to fit a trajectory, her remembrance bears an eternal potential for inconsistency. Actual women, who suffered from a sparse or negative historiographic remembrance in fourteenth-century Europe, also suffer a lack of remembrance.
Ultimately, as the Prologues to Chaucer's Legend show, the more Alceste and other good women are consistently remembered, the more language and literary traditions can carry a more complete account of women and their social contributions.
With male authors dominating women's historiographies of late medieval Europe, the two versions of Chaucer's Prologue to his Legend stress the need to remember women within public memory. Since public memory relies on the production of books to inform audiences about the past in order to shape the present and future, limits or lacks in the production of books about women can produce social limits for women, or any minoritized group, in both the present and the future. In turn, the existence of more women's historiographic literature, such as Chaucer's Legend, provides more opportunities for the consistent social remembrance of women, which provides more opportunities for women in the present and the future. The dominance of male authors throughout the encyclopedic compendium genre also stresses the need for female authors to round out historiographic accounts, which finally occurs within the accounts of mythological, classical, and contemporary women in Christine de Pizan's Le livre de la cité des dames (1405).

CHAPTER THREE: 44 YEARS OF MEDEA: BOCCACCIO, CHAUCER, CHRISTINE DE PIZAN, AND THE CORRECTION OF WOMEN'S LITERARY HISTORY
The years between 1361 and 1405 brought forth three different versions of the how medieval texts use genealogy in order to form a history, which Bloch argues also adheres to the linear structure of language (41). In fact, Bloch states, "The history of human language is that of genealogical succession: from the first universal syllable, the name of God, to the most particular patois; and from God the universal father to the last sons of his line" (43). The concept of a line governs genealogy and language through grammar, which prizes "straightness" (52). Bloch notes that grammar, or grammatica, which is also another term for Latin, signifies its fixed structure. 105 Bloch's work reinforces the importance of structure, in which lies a foundation for male bonds in a patriarchy. Furthermore, Bloch's findings recognize a genealogical structure for language, one that mimics the structures for documenting ancestry, which also structures the history communicated within.
The genealogical structure within the literary tradition, particularly Latin literature, focuses only on the bonds between father and son, or just between men. 106 These male connections speak to Christiane Klapisch-Zuber's findings regarding the exclusion of women from Italian genealogies in fourteenth century Italy. The male connections also speak to Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's model of the erotic triangle and male homosocial bonds, as discussed in Chapter One. Ultimately, the genealogical structure of the Latin, literary tradition follows the male, genealogical progression, which means it focuses on men. Similar to the ways in which Boccaccio uses dedication, as also discussed in Chapter One, De mulieribus purports to provide women with a history, but due to its subscription to male genealogical structure, De mulieribus's target audience is primarily male. 107 Ultimately, Boccaccio's provision of because it undercuts his argument for the vernacular throughout De vulgari eloquentia. Dante states, "Hinc moti sunt inventores gramatice facultatis: que quidem gramatica nichil aliud est quam quedam inalterabilis locutionis ydeptitas diversibus temporibus atque locis. Hec cum de comuni consensus multarum gentium fuerit regulata, nulli singulari arbitrio videtur obnoxia, et per consequens nec varibilis esse potest (This was the point from which the inventors of the art of grammar began: for their grammatica is nothing less than a certain immutable identity of language in different times and places. Its rules having been formulated with the common consent of many people, it can be subject to no individual will; and, as a result, it cannot change)" (20-23 italics original; translation by Stephen Botterill  (2003)   Copeland locates the use the vernacular as a means to effectively and responsibly communicate knowledge within Dante's Il convivio (1304-1307) and she assesses how Dante's use of the vernacular works against Latin through the vernacular's occupation of a rhetorical position (183). She argues that the "rhetorical purpose" in Il convivio is a result of its "vernacularity," which requires a larger audience, of men, whom Dante initially addresses (182). Because Il convivio is a defense for the use of the vernacular instead of Latin, Il convivio's purpose is to persuade, which substantiates the work as a rhetorical project. Copeland argues, "By introducing the possibility of extending the academic discourse beyond the protective enclosure of the academy and its Latinity, the Convivio works as a critique of the ideological system that sustains the institutional power of the academic tradition" De vulgari eloquentia (1303-1305), he also states that vernacular language is the language naturally acquired by imitation of "nurses" (I.i). 119 This definition associates the acquisition of vernacular language with women. Dante further elaborates on this association as he describes the history of vernacular language, which comes from Eve, the woman, or human, who spoke the first vernacular utterance to the serpent in Eden (I.ii). 120 This assertion, coupled with Dante's definition of vernacular language acquisition as resulting from imitation of nurses or mothers, ultimately associates vernacular language with women. While Dante stresses that the vernacular's nobility is located in its natural acquisition and that its existence precedes Latin, the origin of the vernacular forges a negative female association, which references the fall from Eden and keeps the vernacular subordinate to Latin. 121 Ultimately, Dante's subscription to the traditional, genealogical literary pattern also excludes women from what he ascribes to them as their natural language.

Empire in the Late Middle Ages
Despite Dante's points of exclusion with regard to the vernacular's social responsibility, Copeland argues that Il convivio paves the way for the use of the vernacular to function in the same ways that Latin does, which, as Copeland's argument shows, exposes Latin's exclusivity and inequity (182). With a critique of the traditionally Latin system, Dante rehabilitates the function of rhetoric through the use of the vernacular (182)(183). Through this rehabilitation of rhetoric, Copeland argues, "Real power lies, not in status, but in effective, persuasive communication," which the vernacular, based on the fact that it reaches more people, naturally does (183).
Copeland labels this process "rhetorical ascendancy." The vernacular's adherence to Latin's genealogical structure, through Copeland's findings in Dante, allows the vernacular to dominate through rhetorical first vernacular utterance and states, "Secundum quidem quod in principo Genesis loquitur, ubi de primordio mundi Sacratissima Scriptura pertractat, mulierem invenitur ante omnes fuisse locutam, scilicet presumptuosissimam Evam, cum dyabolo sciscitanti respondit [According to what it says at the beginning of Genesis, where sacred scripture describes the origin of the world, we find that a woman spoke before anyone else, when the most presumptuous Eve responded thus to the blandishments of the Devil]" (I.iv, 2). 121 Dante's associations between the vernacular and woman also undercut his mission in Il Convivio, which quote Aristotle in order to declare, "tutti li uomini naturalmente desiderano di sapere/all men naturally desire/wish to know," (I.i, 1; English translation is mine The Legend of Good Women constructs its relationship to the auctores out of the conventional postures of exegesis, service to and conservation of the authoritative text; but it also finds a way of stressing or insisting upon its difference from its sources, making that very difference the explicit subject of rhetorical invention. (197) The difference that Chaucer's Legend provides from its sources in both versions demonstrates how vernacular language can imitate the official discourse, or Latin tradition, in order to assume authority. Not only does the translation revise the Latin, but the difference from the original text also trumps the previous version and allows 122 Copeland argues that both versions of the Prologue to Chaucer's Legend of Good Women demonstrate two types of translation. The first type of translation, primary translation, concerns inscription of the content within the structures of the official tradition or discourse. The second type, secondary translation, allows the content, or in this case the vernacular text, to be an "official discourse" (197). 123 Copeland argues that the context for the G version subscribes to translation in a primary fashion, which means that the content adheres to the official tradition or discourse. The F version, according to Copeland, bears a stylistic concern, that of the French marguerite style (190)(191)(192) 124 There are many differences between the F and G Prologues of Chaucer's Legend, many of these differences are discussed more so in Chapter 2. 125 Copeland cites these two examples in a longer close reading in which she argues that the difference in reliance on the tradition locates itself in the God of Love's prior command to "rehearce" (195)(196)(197) These considerations are based on social fears regarding female sexuality and the belief that sex was necessary for men in order to preserve the social order. Such a belief pardoned men for sexual misconduct and allowed women to bear the brunt of acts such as rape and adultery. The fact that men were pardoned for acts of sexual misconduct due to a need for sexual release was furthered by the belief that women naturally possessed a lustful nature, which forced the men to sexual ends. This social belief and the sexual responsibility put on women led to a social blame of women for this lack of male sexual control, which resulted in a fear of female sexuality and its capabilities. For further reading see Brundage (71,462), Rossiaud (29), and Karras (108) greedily learn the sciences and arts in order to be wickedly clever, to focus on Jason, and to commit all the crimes against male genealogical progression, in general. The interruption of the male-to-male genealogical bond, for Boccaccio, is the worst of all.
Had Medea respected the sacred bond between men, rather than interrupt it, she would not have committed the numerous acts of paternal betrayal, which stunts both her father's and Jason's genealogical progression. The focus on Medea's consistent 132 Medea's problem of the eyes can be connected to the visual culture of the Middle Ages. Furthermore, such connections may also point to sexual promiscuity, specifically for women of the late Middle Ages. In "From Prostitutes to Brides of Christ: The Avignonese Repenties in the Late Middle Ages," Joëlle Rollo-Koster states "Beauty was identified with temptation, seduction, and all the danger that women represented" (130). This conception of beauty and the problem of feminine sexuality also taps into late Medieval European views of sexuality, for which the feminine was the cause of male sexual deviance. See Karras and Brundage. interruption of the male to male genealogical progression reinforces the social patriarchical structures that exclude women from participating in social institutions.
Despite Boccaccio's dedication of De mulieribus to women, Medea's tale demonstrates a catering to men, more specifically their concern for the preservation of the traditional male-to-male genealogical line. First, in the Latin, Medea's name appears only three times, while Jason's appears nine times. Counter to Boccaccio's claim that De mulieribus provides women with a history, the repetition of Jason's name keeps him, rather than Medea, the focus of the biography. 133 In "Boccaccio's In-Famous Women" (1987), Constance Jordan finds that De mulieribus seems to honor women, but actually insults them through the use of irony that exposes Boccaccio's interest in a male, rather than a female, audience (26). In The Genealogy of Women (2003), Stephen Kolsky argues that the De mulieribus is essentially directed toward men, more specifically "to grant space to the intervention of humanists' hall of fame, hitherto exclusively the domain of men" (3). This means that the history provided to women within De mulieribus is subordinate to that of men, which sends a social message of female subordination and inferiority. Although Boccaccio claims to dedicate the work to women, Kolsky asserts an underlying concern for men: "It is difficult, if not impossible, for the refined male to live up to traditional expectations of his gender. In these circumstances, exemplary biographies of famous women are a subtle reminder to men of their gender" (116). Ultimately, Koksy argues that De mulieribus serves to remind men to behave as men, which also implies that women are historically and famously imperfect. Such a conclusion can certainly be drawn from  Jason's appears twelve. Not only does Medea's name appear less often than Jason's does, which follows Boccaccio's pattern for naming Jason three times more than Medea, but Jason's story also dominates the beginning of the tale. The narrator states: To Coclos comen is this duc Jasoun, That is of love devourer and dragoun.
As mater apetiteth forme alwey  (1984), however, argues that Chaucer's dependence upon Boccaccio shows an irony in the love of name, which refers to the process by which names, or a consistent naming in literature, leads to historical fame (152). Such consistent naming forms a glory-fortune-death sequence, a pattern of events that allows one to earn glory, fortune, and death. Boitani argues that this pattern forms a conflict between fortune, fame, and Christian ideals (152). Boitani asserts that the sequence presents "two complementary solutions -praise of the divine or saintly glory and condemnation of vain glory" (153). Death follows for those who are innately good, which follows Christian ideology, as martyrs and saints die and go to heaven. In Boccaccio's and Chaucer's versions of Medea, neither Jason nor Medea die, thus proving that they are not divine or saintly. Jason's fame, however, differs from Medea's as he is consistently hailed as a hero throughout historiographic literature, which reveals a disparity within the glory-fortune-death sequence based on gender.
This disparity, for women in the glory-fortune-death sequence, requires death in order to earn positive, historical fame, while for men like Jason, such fame does not  Ovid's order still follows the progression of Jason's wives, Hypsipyle then Medea, but they are not put directly together as in both Boccaccio's and Chaucer's works.
Chaucer's pairing of Hypsipyle and Medea follows Boccaccio's patterning more so than Ovid's, but in contrast to Boccaccio's lack of source credit throughout De mulieribus, Chaucer credits Ovid's "Medea to Jason." 142 Chaucer concludes "The Legend of Medea" with a quote from the Heroides: And therfore in hire letter thus she seyde Fyrst, whan she of his falsnesse hym upbreyde: "Whi lykede me thy yelwe her to se More than the boundes of myn honeste?
Why lykede me thy youthe and thy fayrnesse, And of thy tonge, the infynyt graciousnesse?
O, haddest thow in thy conquest ded ybe, 140 At the start of "The Legend of Hypsipyle," the narrator states, "In Tessalie, as Guido telleth us" which refers to, as the Riverside Chaucer states, Guido delle Collonne (1396). As stated earlier, Federico's observations regarding the tension between Virgil and Guido delle Collonne's versions of Troy show Virgil as the more preferred version and Guido as the less preferred version (xv-xvi). Ultimately, the sources that Chaucer cites throughout "The Legend of Hypsipyle and Medea" seem to be the less preferred ones, or the ones neglected by Petrarch's humanist circles. Copeland asserts that Ovid's Heroides "exerts the strongest and most consistent influence for structure and design" for Chaucer's Legend (187). 141 "Hypsipyle to Jason" is letter VI, while "Medea to Jason" is letter XII. 142 Critics debate whether Ovid's Heroides is truly sympathetic to women or if it is satiric. For further reading on Ovidian female sympathy in conjunction with Boccaccio, Chaucer and Christine de Pizan, see: Calabrese, "Feminism and the Packaging of Boccaccio's Fiammetta" and Chaucer's Ovidian Arts of Love.
Ful mikel untrouthe hadde ther deyd with the! (1670-1677) The narrator indicates that he is quoting the Heroides, and while the Ovidian version does imply Chaucer's content throughout the letter, Chaucer manipulates the contenthe condenses it to fit the overall trajectory of displaying Medea's sacrifice as a result of Jason's appetite. 143 Chaucer's passage focuses on the hurt that Medea suffers as a result of Jason's untruthful tongue. Such a focus, coupled with the focus on Jason throughout the legend, places a good portion of the responsibility for Medea's wrongdoing on Jason, but not all of it. Medea's use of "ful mikel untrouthe" cites not only Jason's untruthfulness but also the untruthful accounts of her life in the future. 144 The use of the hypothetical situation at the end of this excerpt considers all the fallacy 143 It is important to understand that Chaucer's translation could very well be an example of translatio studii et imperii. In the Grant Showerman translation of the Heroides, the letter begins with Medea reminiscing about her offer to help Jason, which leads her to wish things happened differently. Medea concludes this wish and states, "tum potui Medea mori bene! Quidquid ab illo / produxi vitam tempore, poena fuit {Then could Medea have ended well! Whatever life has been lengthened out for me from that time forth has been but punished]" (5-6). She continues to state, "cur mihi plus aequo flavi ;lacuere capilli / et décor et linguae gratia ficta tuae? [Why did I too greatly delight in those golden locks of yours, in your comely ways, and in the false graces of your tongue?]…quantam perfidiae tecum, scelerate, perisset, / dempta forent capiti quam mala multa meo! [How much perfidy, vile wretch, would have perished with you, and how many woes been averted from my head!]" (11-20). In the Harold Isbel translation, the letter states, "And why did I take too much pleasure/ in your golden hair, your fine ways and the lies/ that fell so gracefully from your tongue?...What great treachery, / wretched man, would then have died with you and what/ awful grief would have been turned from me." (106). To address the point regarding Jason taking Medea's virginity/innocence, in Showerman's version Medea states, "virginitas facta est peregrine praeda latronis; [My maidenly innocence has become the spoil of a pirate from overseas]" (111). In the Isbel translation, Medea states, "My girlish innocence belongs now/ to a brigand who came from foreign places" (109). 144 Medea's awareness of her future historical representation bears similarity to that of Chaucer's Criseyde, as described by Carolyn Dinshaw in "Reading Like a Man: The Critics, The Narrator, Troilus, and Pandarus" in Chaucer's Sexual Poetics. Dinshaw references Criseyde's famous lines, "O, rolled shal I ben on many a tongue! / Throughout the world my belle shal be ronge! / And woomen moost wol haten me of alle." (Troilus and Crisedye, V, 1061-1063). Dinshaw argues that Criseyde's statements reports an awareness of her future in which "Male auctores -this narrator included-who write 'thise bokes' present readers with final castigations of Criseyde: literary tradition represents Criseyde as a traitor to be turned away from; and 'wommen' have no access to her other than through this authoritative lens, as Criseyde well knows" (54). Dinshaw's argument applies to Chaucer's account of Medea's letter to Jason as Medea is also cognizant of how the literary tradition will chastise her, rather than Jason, for the tragedies that resulted from their relationship. The omission of these events allows a reader to accept Medea as an example of a good woman. This acceptance is key because like Boccaccio's, Chaucer's version of Medea is part of a larger collection, the Legend of Good Women, bound by a moral trajectory. In the Prologue to the Legend, the narrator's penitentiary sentence, given by Alceste is: "In makyng of a glorious legende / of goode wymmen, maydenes and wyves, / that weren trewe in lovyng al hire lyves" (F 483-485 Pizan: Her Life and Works (1984), notes that education for women grew in 14 th century Europe, particularly for those of nobility or merchant families (33). Luckily, for de Pizan, her father was an academic who supported her education, while her mother "was more conventional in her outlook and believed that her daughter should tend to her spinning" (33). Such an outlook on de Pizan's parents demonstrate the limitations of educational access for women in fourteenth century France.
blindness on behalf of the literary tradition that hails Jason a hero and considers Medea a monster.

Conclusion
The While this is only a glimpse at how these three tales overlap, further study will promote the ways we understand medieval historiography and formation of literary histories, especially for women.  (1985) to demonstrate that the bonds formed between men require the traffic of women, which also promotes the exclusion of women from genealogy. In this chapter, I argue that de Pizan's reference to Valentina Visconti allows for the inclusion of women within male genealogical progression because it gives them visibility as connectors between genealogical lines.

WRITING WOMEN INTO MALE GENEALOGICAL PROGRESSION: VALENTINA VISCONTI'S HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE IN CHRISTINE DE PIZAN'S LE LIVRE DE LA CITÉ DES DAMES
Ultimately, with such genealogical presence, Valentina Visconti is not just a pawn between men, but also an important connection between her father's and her husband's genealogies, which produces that of her son.

Medieval Historiography and the Exclusion of Women
As Christiane Klapisch-Zuber shows in Women, Family and Ritual in Renaissance Italy, women of late medieval Europe were "shunted" between the genealogies of their fathers and husbands, which prevented their full membership within genealogical progression in general (285) Quilligan,Forhan,Nowacka,and Holderness. 159 In I.11 of Le livre de la cité des dames, Lady Reason explains that God made men and women to do different jobs, and that legal counsel is a job God designed for men. She states, "Et cela, ils doivent le faire pour maintenir la justice dans ce monde, car si quelqu'un refuse d'obéir à la loi établie, promulguée conformément au droit, il faut le contraindre par la force et la puissance des armes; les femmes seraient incapables de telles voies de contrainte [And for this reason, men with this nature learn the laws -and must do so -in order to keep the world under the rule of justice and, in case anyone does not wish to obey the statutes which have been ordained and established by reason of law, are required to make them obey with physical constraint and force of arms, a task which women could never accomplish]" (62/31). In this instance, Lady Reason argues that women are not to participate in public, legal, or governmental office. This passage has divided Christine de Pizan studies, particularly regarding those who claim feminist arguments against those who claim conservative or religious arguments. Later on in this same passage, Lady Reason argues that although women are completely incapable of serving in public, legal, or governmental office, some do possess a "disposition naturelle pour la politique [a natural sense for politics and government]" (63/32). Some scholars, in particular, Craig Taylor (188)(189). In The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria, Adams also notes that Isabeau's alliance with Louis was strained, if not nonexistent, prior to 1402-03 (9). 169 (2010) argue that an alliance between Louis and Isabeau was necessary in order to govern while Charles VI was indisposed with illness (Gibbons 57; Adams 7). 176 Adams further argues that Isabeau's career is misunderstood and that no "official" evidence of Isabeau's promiscuity exists (xxi). Although this chapter does not explore the ways in which Isabeau may be historically misrepresented, the scholarship presents proof of such falsehoods, which also presents evidence for the ways in which Valentina and other women were historically misrepresented. The Oxford English Dictionary provides two definitions that bear the implication of amorous involvement. The first states "Courtliness or devotion to the female sex, polite or courteous bearing or attention to ladies" ("Gallantry, n" 5a). The second and final definition for the word states, "Amorous intercourse or intrigue" and "An intrigue with one of the opposite sex" ("Gallantry, n" 8a and b). 178 See Chamberlain (179) and  obligated to leave the French court sometime before April 1396, chased out by accusations that she had been bewitching the king" (7). Collas also documents similar accusations that Valentina used sorcery to cause Charles VI's madness, although Collas notes that accusations of sorcery were common in fourteenth century France (190)(191)(192)(193)(194). From Louis's infidelity to rumors of sorcery, the male bonds that surround Valentina encourage negative textual representation, which pose her as a threat to the king and to France.
Monstrelet later documented the prejudice that plagued Valentina as he documents her death. He states, This unfortunate princess, who was subjected to so much obloquy from vulgar predjudces, was one of the most amiable women of her time.
She was loudly accused of having practiced arts learnt in Italy, where the preparation of poison was best understood, and its use most frequently practiced, for the destruction of the king. Witchcraft was also imputed to her, but the only arts she practiced were spells of a gentle and affectionate disposition. (131, n*) Monstrelet's epitaph for Visconti notes the social scorn she received and that such scorn involved accusations of witchcraft, or sorcery. Although Monstrelet regarded Visconti well, his work supports the social assumptions of his time regarding Italians as being well versed in sorcery or witchcraft. Furthermore, Monstrelet does not absolve Valentina Visconti of practicing sorcery or magical arts, but he states that she practiced benevolent arts, rather than the malevolent ones socially attributed to Italians of his time. Ultimately, even Monstrelet's sympathetic entry regarding Valentina Visconti acknowledges her negative historiography, but also bears a negative connection to Italian sorcery and witchcraft.
In addition to accusations of sorcery, Froissart documents another rumor regarding Valentina's harm and ill will toward Charles VI and his son. Froissart states, Valentina duchess of Orleans had a handsome son of the age of the dauphin of France, and while these two children were playing together in the chamber of the duchess, a poisoned apple was thrown on the floor, near the dauphin in hopes he would take it, but, through God's providence, he did not. The son of the duchess thinking, no harm, ran and [ate] it, but he had no sooner put it into his mouth than death followed in spite of every care to prevent it. Those who had the government of the dauphin carried him away, and never allowed him afterward to enter the apartments of the duchess This story caused great murmurings in Paris and elsewhere, and the people were so enraged against her, as to occasion the duke to hear of it: they publicly said in Paris that if she was not prevented from being near the king, they would come and take her away by force and put her to death, for that she intended to poison the king and all his family, having already made him suffer by her enchantments. (245-246) Froissart's account is certainly negative and accuses Visconti of attempting to kill both her nephew and the king with sorcery, or malevolent abilities. Furthermore, the account claims that Visconti killed her own son in the process of plotting against the king. Froissart's account discusses the public opinion of Visconti and that it was socially believed that Visconti was responsible for Charles VI's madness. As a duchess and a mother, the accusations surrounding infanticide and assassination of the king, bore socially damaging repercussions. 179 Most sources speculate that these rumors originate from Isabeau of Bavaria, however, such speculations further negate Isabeau's character and, as discussed earlier, may also be textual misrepresentations or rumors. Ultimately, Valentina Visconti's male-dominated historiography bears a similar pattern of historical misrepresentation as that of her cousin, Isabeau of Bavaria.
As a result of the rumors of sorcery and infanticide, in the Spring of 1396 Chamberlain claims that a mob rushed the House of Orléans to remove Visconti because she was Italian and caused Charles VI's madness (179). 180  Although Visconti was exiled from the Court of Orléans by the time de Pizan frequented it, the connections between the two women were many. Charity Cannon Willard's work certainly substantiates that the women knew each other, if only as acquaintances. Both women were born in Italy and had many common Italian associations, considering that Visconti's father was the first duke of Milan and de Pizan's father and grandfather were both esteemed scholars (Willard 48). By 1399/1400, after Valentina's father, Giangaleazzo Visconti, invited Christine de Pizan to his court as a resident, but such conditions changed after his death in 1402.
Furthermore, de Pizan's desires to work within the Court of Orléans in order to secure a post for her son Jean took precedence, and she turned down the offer from Milan . 182 Willard states that de Pizan frequented the Court of Orléans from 1399 to 1404 (52). 183 Since Valentina was exiled in 1396, de Pizan was not directly in Valentina's courtly presence unless de Pizan attended the Court in Beaumont, where Visconti resided post-exile (Collas 227). 184 Nevertheless, Visconti's education and literacy resulted in cultivation in the arts, literature, and culture. Such cultivation, also supported by Louis, allowed the House of Orléans a great library, which included Italian texts, and a consistent presence of poets, such as Eustache Deschamps (Willard and praise of Visconti in Cité counters Visconti's prior historical portrayal. Until 1405, male-authored historical accounts of Visconti have little to do with Visconti herself, but focus on the tensions between her father and his uncle, which also resulted in tension between Isabeau and Valentina. Valentina's male-authored historical definition seems to also rely upon the tyranny of her father, the price of her marriage paid by the citizens of Lombardy, and the infidelities of her husband. Prior to de Pizan's positive reference to Visconti in the Cité des dames, historiography demonstrates the social repercussions of the ways in which male homosocial bonds trafficked women between genealogies, especially within the historiographic inaccuracies that detail Visconti's move from Italy, to France, and into exile.

Historiography
Throughout the second book of Le livre de la cité des dames, the allegorical Lady Rectitude guides Christine de Pizan as they begin to populate the City of Ladies.
With Lady Reason's guidance, de  France did not allow females to inherit the throne, The Kingdom of Naples had their first Queen, Joanna I (1343-1382). Unfortunately, Joanna's reign was a turbulent one that began when she was just a teenager and her grandfather's, King Robert I's, death wish to keep the Neapolitan throne from Hungary (Goldstone 66). These tensions color the events of Joanna's reign: the Neapolitan Financial crisis; a number Papal disputes; the murder of Andrew of Hungary (her first husband); the blame for her husband's murder; Hungarian invasion; Joanna's second marriage to Louis of Taranto; the death of her child; the suspension of her rule; the plague; the death of her second husband; the acquisition and loss of Sicily; the marriage and death of her third husband; constant threats of invasion by France, the Visconti, and Hungary; the marriage of her fourth husband; and it all ends with her assassination in 1382. Although Joanna did much to build Neapolitan Universities, she was unable to produce an heir and her reign was plagued with political trouble that adversely affected the kingdom's safety and economy. All of this turbulence inspired negative accounts of her rule.  's Personal Manuscript (2010). See also Harrison's "Charles d'Orléans and the Renaissance." Most biographies on Charles d'Orléans also discuss the Italian influence of his mother with regard to artistic development. visibility in both of the historiographies, or great genealogies, of France and Italy.
Christine de Pizan's recognition of the fact that Visconti hails from Italy, the same country from which de Pizan immigrated, allows Visconti's foreign status to serve as a benefit to her future male progeny, rather than the quality that helped promote her exile. Despite the fact that de Pizan's support also implies a support for the exclusion of women from royal inheritance and public office, she models how women can be and all classes that God should be praised who upholds them all. May he correct those women with shortcomings! Do not think otherwise, for I assure you of its truth, even if many jealous and slanderous people say the opposite]. (237/214) Book II's conclusion clarifies that the women listed within had been subject to some kind of negative or unjust historiographic account. Furthermore, Lady Rectitude states that the slander results from jealousy, and that those responsible for such slander are envious and fearful of the victims. For Visconti, who suffered exile on the basis of rumors, foreignness, and slander, such is true. Through the provision of the counter arguments, such as Visconti's faithfulness as a wife and a mother, her artistic interests and prudence, de Pizan demonstrates and counters the ways in which the historiographic tradition excludes women and promotes slander. Ultimately, Lady Rectitude's concluding declaration allows Visconti to enjoy a positive historical reference, which also imparts Visconti's genealogical importance. Furthermore, de Pizan demonstrates the openings for positively documenting women in public memory, even within the framework of male, genealogical progression. By neglecting the negative and only recording the positive, de Pizan allows one of her contemporary female leaders, with whom she shares an Italian ethnicity and Italian associations, reprieve from the slander of male-authored, medieval historiography.

Women's Historiography in Late Medieval European Literature considers how
Giovanni Boccaccio's, Geoffrey Chaucer's, and Christine de Pizan's encyclopedic compendia communicate the social struggles embedded within dominant male genealogical progression. Furthermore, this project charts the ways in which the encyclopedic compendium documents and translates the lives of important people in order to communicate social ideals or norms. Each chapter shows that such documentation, translation, and communication, specifically for late medieval Europe, transcended national and linguistic differences. This study thus counters the divides that traditionally separate the three authors in question, and reinforces the need for future comparative studies.
More specifically, this dissertation has focused on the ways that women's historiographic literature identifies a literary past in order to define society, nations, or people. This literary past ultimately contributes to a public memory that justifies social structures, goals, values, and norms, and as several of these chapters demonstrate, not only celebrates past accomplishments, but also sets standards for the present and the future. These standards shape societies and their institutions; more importantly, these standards provide parameters for culture, practices for cultural traditions, and development of cultural attitudes that determine the treatment of men and women.
Boccaccio began the chain of women's historiography, but despite his efforts to provide women with a history, his contributions remain firmly within the boundaries of upholding male genealogical structures and appeasing male homosocial bonds. As Chapters One and Three explore, Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris emphasizes the importance of maintaining the patriarchal status quo more than providing women with a documented past. Such maintenance reinforces the ways in which historiographic literature informs public memory ultimately to shape social practices, such as oppression.
While there were other contributors to the shaping of public memory and its social standards, the encyclopedic works considered within this project articulate the triumphs and pitfalls of the past in order to define the behaviors of men and women within a given society, nation, culture, or group. Ultimately, the encyclopedic compendia provide literary examples in order to encourage people of the present and future, on individual and social levels, to achieve success and to avoid failure. This documentation of the past also serves as justification for the disparities of social privilege. For instance, a lack of exempla or documentation for any given group, results in a lack of social privileges. As many of the chapters above note, the lack of women's historiography in late medieval Europe demonstrates the parallels between a documented past and social privilege: women had limited space within public memory and inconsistent ancestral documentation. Although the degree to which medieval women were socially limited may be contested, the correlating lack of documentation and privilege follows women today as they still face social limitations and oppression.
The works of Geoffrey Chaucer and Christine de Pizan also demonstrate the ways in which public memory relies on language and translation. Although Latin dominated literary contributions to public memory in 1361, Chaucer's and de Pizan's vernacular contributions expand upon this tradition. This expansion, despite its adherence to the male genealogical progression, spurred inclusion not only of past women, but also of contemporary women. While Chapters One, Two, and Three call attention to the ways in which language and translation expose the fixed content of prior women's literary historiography, Chapter Four demonstrates the ways in which de Pizan includes and recognizes women within the male genealogical progression.
Such a change, within just forty-four years, demonstrates historiography's impact within both public memory and society.
Women's Historiography in Late Medieval European Literature also begins to consider the ways in which genealogical study expands both literary and historical investigations. Future, genealogical study might consider the ways in which ancestral genealogies influence philosophical genealogies in order to ultimately form social ideologies. Since genealogy remains a staple in modern society, such studies offer an opportunity to explore the evolution of genealogical structures and how genealogies may still function today.
Ultimately, this dissertation emphasizes the need to consider de Pizan with her male contemporaries, Giovanni Boccaccio and Geoffrey Chaucer. In contrast to prior periodic and national separations, Women's Historiography in Late Medieval European Literature demonstrates that all three authors share many of the same tales and grapple with some of the same issues. As the only woman in the group, de Pizan both speaks out against her social limitations and serves as an example of the ways in which the possession of a historiographic past correlates to social privilege. Such grouping opens up more opportunities for Christine de Pizan studies through a pairing of her work with other male contemporaries throughout late medieval Europe. Furthermore, such pairing offers ways to consider how de Pizan's work contributes to different forms of women's historiographies, which ultimately helped to shape public memory religiously, politically, and legally. Further investigation might consider how de Pizan and other women of her time used the patriarchal structures as an avenue for resistance. Such a line of inquiry might generate information regarding not only the behaviors of late medieval society, but also the degree of impact such historiographic works actually bore upon social structures. These possibilities not only help de Pizan studies move beyond feminist debates, but they also provide opportunities for future inter-disciplinary studies.
Lastly, Women's Historiography in Late Medieval European Literature, as a dissertation project in English, considers the ways that literature serves a vehicle for historiography to communicate information about the past in order to impact nations, societies, and groups of the present and the future. Such impact occurs through literary content, or alterations to that content. It also exposes particular social structures that establish patterns of privilege and oppression by defining groups, such as men and women. De Pizan's work and participation with her male contemporaries demonstrates the ways that the possession of a textual past allows minoritized groups to expose and to document structures of exclusion, both textually and socially. Although this project focuses on three authors from medieval Europe in 1361 to 1405, Women's Historiography in Late Medieval European Literature demonstrates that the need for such exposure through literature and literary historiography still exists today.