- VII -

The work of Giovanni Boccaccio, Florentine, translated into the vernacular vernacular: "volgare," the common Italian language as opposed to scholarly Latin by Master Donato of Casentino. Eve. I.

Since I must write so that famous women may be known for their virtues, it will not seem an unworthy thing to take the beginning from her who was the mother of all men, Eve, who was without doubt the first mother. She was glorious with magnificent virtues because she was not produced in this laborious valley of miseries in which all we other humans are born with toil A reference to the Garden of Eden as opposed to the fallen world.

The last chapter is CIV 104. It continues concerning the same Queen Joan Queen Joan (Giovanna) I of Naples, to whom Boccaccio dedicated the original work. The author who wrote of these famous women did not reach the end of the life of this most famous and glorious queen during past times; and although he promises in this book to write the histories of those women, nonetheless sometimes—either because he was drawn by the pleasure of offering [kind] words, or because he was moved by a desire to say honorable things (which pleases me more)—he leaves out those things that could be said that were wicked (1) original: "rie"; meaning evil, guilty, or unfavorable actions about her and touches only upon her praises.

It ends: Then she was buried with royal honor in her final burial, and it made manifest that the life...

(1) Vernazza, by omitting the word wicked original: "rie" in his letter to Scioppalalba—a word which is present in the Turin and Florentine codices codices: manuscript volumes—removes the intended meaning from the sentence.