On Famous Women

— IX —

The other codex of the Vernacular Translation Volgarizzamento: The historical practice of translating Latin or Greek texts into the common Italian "vulgar" tongue to make them accessible to non-scholars. of the Famous Women produced by Albanzani—which Baron Vernazza describes second, though in chronological order it ought to hold the first place, because it belongs either to the last years of the 14th century or the first years of the 15th, while the one already described certainly belongs to the later part of that century—bears the shelfmark K. IV. 26 and is briefly mentioned by Pasini under number LIII of the second volume of his catalog. The description given by Vernazza in the previously mentioned letter to Scioppalalba is as follows:

"Codex K. IV. 26 is parchment, consisting of 86 leaves, or 172 pages. It is preceded by four pages of the Table [of Contents] to quickly find the histories of the said book. On folio 5. Prologue and beginning of the first history, that of Eve. Eve, the first mother. Since I must write of the virtues by which famous women are known, 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.

• It ends: There follows more of this same chapter and of this woman and of her tragedy and end. The author who wrote of these famous women... and let him be buried. Finished is the book of famous women compiled by Master Giovanni Boccaccio original: "misser zuane bocacio" at the request of the most famous Queen Joanna of Puglia Joanna I, Queen of Naples (1326–1382), often referred to as Queen of Jerusalem and Sicily/Apulia.; later it was translated into the vernacular language original: "indioma uolgar"."