Overview
- First study to consider medieval virtue ethics from the perspective of gender
- First publication to discuss the little studied "Mirror of Ladies", widely copied in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
- First study to situate Christine de Pizan and later women writers within a tradition of ethical concern going back to the late thirteenth century
Part of the book series: The New Synthese Historical Library (SYNL, volume 69)
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book locates Christine de Pizan's argument that women are virtuous members of the political community within the context of earlier discussions of the relative virtues of men and women. It is the first to explore how women were represented and addressed within medieval discussions of the virtues. It introduces readers to the little studied Speculum Dominarum (Mirror of Ladies), a mirror for a princess, compiled for Jeanne of Navarre, which circulated in the courtly milieu that nurtured Christine. Throwing new light on the way in which Medieval women understood the virtues, and were represented by others as virtuous subjects, it positions the ethical ideas of Anne of France, Laura Cereta, Marguerite of Navarre and the Dames de la Roche within an evolving discourse on the virtues that is marked by the transition from Medieval to Renaissance thought.Â
Virtue Ethics for Women 1250-1500 will be of interest to those studying virtue ethics, the history of women's ideas and Medieval and Renaissance thought in general.
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
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.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Virtue Ethics for Women 1250-1500
Editors: Karen Green, Constant Mews
Series Title: The New Synthese Historical Library
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0529-6
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Hardcover ISBN: 978-94-007-0528-9Published: 07 April 2011
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-007-3582-8Published: 29 May 2013
eBook ISBN: 978-94-007-0529-6Published: 05 April 2011
Series ISSN: 1879-8578
Series E-ISSN: 2352-2585
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXXII, 224
Topics: Medieval Philosophy, Political Science, Religious Studies, general, Ethics, History of Philosophy