De claris mulieribus is a collection of biographies of famous women of ancient and medieval times written by Giovanni Boccaccio in 1361. Boccaccio’s first aim was to offer, especially to his female readers, a collection of short and pleasant stories with lovely invitations to virtue and whipping remarks against vice.

The work became very successful between the 14th and the 16th centuries, and was translated and published all around Europe. In some manuscripts the text is accompanied by a series of illustrations.

For this edition, with a selection of thirty biographies of the most famous women from history, mythology and religion, the Ms. Royal 16 G.V. from the British Library in London has been chosen, a French manuscript from the second half of the 15th century, the miniatures of which, of exceptional elegance, set the happenings within the refined atmosphere of the transalpine court.