THE PORTRAIT OF PROBA THE POET IN THE WORKS OF GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO AND CHRISTINE DE PIZAN

• Grant number: 24/12867-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Classical Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Talita Janine Juliani
• Grantee: Giulia dos Santos Geovanini
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In the 4th century, Faltonia Betitia Proba wrote the Cento vergilianus de laudibus Christi (The Christian Virgilian Cento), an epic poem composed of a selection of verses from the works of Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 B.C.E), in which she recounts passages from the Old and New Testaments. Her adaptation of Virgilian texts to the Christian values earned her considerable prestige in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, which led to her being portrayed by authors from these contexts. Therefore, the main aim of this research project is to study the representation of this Latin poet in two texts in particular, namely the biographical catalogue De mulieribus claris (1355-1360), by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), and the Livre de la cité des dames (1405), written by Christine de Pizan (1364-1431). Specifically, our research aims to understand how the image of a woman of letters is shaped for Boccaccio and De Pizan, considering, above all, their perspectives on the ideas of female genius and gender.