Virtue Ethics for Women 1250-1500

Karen Green is a philosopher and the author of many articles in philosophy and the history of women's ideas, including The Woman of Reason (1995) and with Jacqueline Broad, A History of Women's Political Thought in Europe, 1400-1700 (2009). Constant J. Mews is a medievalist and specialist in the ideas of Abelard and Eloise. He has published many works including Abelard, and The Lost Love Letters of Abelard and Eloise. Together they published Healing the Body Politic: the political thought of Christine de Pizan (2005). Jointly with Janice Pinder their translation of Christine de Pizan’s Livre de Paix won the MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for an Outstanding Translation of a Scholarly Study of Literature in 2009.

List of Illustrations.- Acknowledgements.- Notes on contributors.- Abbreviations. Introduction.- 1. Does Virtue Recognise Gender? Christine de Pizan’s City of Ladies in the Light of Scholastic Debate; István P. Bejczy.- 2. The Speculum dominarum (Miroir des dames) and Transformations of the Literature of Instruction for Women in the Early Fourteenth Century; Constant J. Mews.- 3. A Mirror of Queenship: The Speculum dominarum and the Demands of Justice; Rina Lahav.- 4. A Lady’s Guide to Salvation: the Miroir des dames Compilation; Janice Pinder.- 5. Charles V’s Visual Definition of the Queen’s Virtues; Cécile Quentel-Touche.- 6. Jean Gerson’s Writings to his Sisters and Christine de Pizan’s Livre des trois vertus: an Intellectual Dialogue Culminating in Friendship; Earl Jeffrey Richards.- 7. From Le Miroir des dames to Le Livre des trois vertus; Karen Green.- 8. Appearing Virtuous: Christine de Pizan’s Le Livre des trois vertus and Anne de France’s Les Enseignements d’Anne de France; Tracy Adams.- 9. Weaving Virtue: Laura Cereta as a New Penelope; Natasha Amendola.- 10. Margherita Cantelmo and the Worth of Women in Renaissance Italy; Carolyn James.- 11. Like Mother Like Daughter: Moral and Literary Virtues in French Renaissance Women’s Writings; Catherine Müller.- 12. Joanna of Castile’s Entry into Brussels: Viragos, Wise and Virtuous Women; Anne-Marie Legaré.- Bibliography.- Index of manuscripts cited.- General index.