On Famous Women

...compelled them by human endurance. Imitating both the commands and the footsteps of the sacred preceptors original: "praeceptorum." Boccaccio refers to the holy teachers or Church Fathers who provided moral guidance., where they—either by some gift or instinct of nature, or rather by the desire for this transient brilliance original: "moritanei fulgoris." This refers to worldly fame, which Boccaccio views as flickering and mortal compared to the steady light of the divine.—endured at times the most grievous trials, whether by the impulse of Venus Referring to the trials of love or lust. or wandering Fortune, though not without a sharp strength of mind.

Moreover, those true women, who shine even as the light of this world fails, live most brightly in unconquered eternity; this is due to their virginity, chastity, holiness, and virtue, and their invincible constancy in overcoming both the desires of the flesh and the tortures of tyrants. Because their merits demanded it, we know they have been described in individual volumes by men of old, renowned for their sacred writings and venerable majesty.

However, since their merits Referring to the famous women of antiquity who are the subject of this book. have been demonstrated by no one else in a special volume of this kind, I shall describe them here as has already been stated.