Springer Virtue Ethics for Women 1250-1500: 69 (The New Synthese Historical Library, 69)

This book examines the virtues and the way women were represented and represented themselves as capable of exercising virtue in the late medieval and early renaissance period. It reveals the complexity and diversity of medieval attitudes to female virtue. From the Back Cover 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.  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. About the Author Karen Green is a philosopher and the author of many articles in philosophy and the history of women's ideas, including The Woman of Reason (1995) and with Jacqueline Broad, A History of Women's Political Thought in Europe, 1400-1700 (2009). 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.