Boccaccio’s On Famous Women is one of those good books that no one has ever heard of.  It is a collection of short essays on some notable women of history, and the author includes characters both good and bad.  Queens, schemers, seducers, prostitutes, patriots, and rebels all have a place here.

I find these old, forgotten Renaissance works highly enjoyable and instructive, precisely for the reasons that some people do not.  Some people do not like the moralistic, judgmental tone of these old works.  But it is refreshing.  It is good sometimes to judge, and to be judged.

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