This reverses the sequence from fr. 12420. There the preface is introduced with the miniature of Boccaccio lecturing and the prologue shows the presentation of the text to Andrea Acciaiouli.

Compare the floral decoration of this page to Ars. 5058, f. 300r.

Fr. 598 has Hypermnestra and Linus crowned. They would only become king and queen after the death of Danaus.

Both fr. 598 and fr. 12420 conflate the two scenes of the saving of her father and the saving of her children and herself. Fr. 12420 is more accurate with showing the two boys referred to in the text (deux filz). Fr. 598 shows two girls instead.

British library copy shows the two boys on the boat

Both fr. 12420 and fr. 598 visualize the scene in the same way by converting it into a medieval joust. They do not show the story of Hercules. The emphasis in the images is on their prowess and not illustrating a specific episode.

Fr. 598 includes crowns on the two queens. These are not found in fr. 12420.

Both images show Perseus riding Pegasus rather than as "emblem" for the ship as called for in the text.

Both images put Medusa in a romantic context with having seated on the ground.

Note roman numeral 22 in margin as guided to the rubricator.

f. 32v: CW

f. 38v: CW

The scribal break appears at the beginning of a new paragraph in the Nicostrata story.

The running titles appear to be by Scribe A, but the foliation is by a different scribe.

The miniatures of both fr. 12420 and fr. 598 combine both the temptation of Procris and the slaying of Procris. Both artist emphasize the wilderness context of the slaying.

Rubric appears to be by Scribe A.

The inscription on Cassandra's banderoll reads: hort het wort ("hear the word"). The Germanic dialect has been used as evidence to support the Netherlandish origin of the artist.

Fr. 598 illustrates the scene more effectively. It uses iconography regularly found in prophet images to support Cassandra's identity as a prophetess. The figure of Agamemnon in heaven turning away from Cassandra is more accurate to the text. He rejected his words and then was killed by Clytaemnestra. Only afterward was Cassandra killed. The king in the fr. 12420 image does not make sense.

f. 56r: Camilla (noble camille royne des volquiens)("When she reached a stronger age, Camilla began to cover her body with the skins of animals, to hurl the spear, use a sling, carry a quiver, stretch the bow, chase and catch the fleeing deer and wild goats, and disdain all womanly work."

f. 62v: CW:

f. 70v

f. 70v: CW

10 (71-78) 8

f. 72v: Lucretia (femme de collatin) (Not many days later, spurred on by his madness, Sextus secretly left the camp at night and went to Collatia. Since he was her husband's relative, Lucretia received him hospitably and welcomed him. But when he saw that the whole house was silent, thinking that everyone was asleep, Sextus entered Lucretia's bedroom with drawn sword. He made himself known to her and threatened to kill her if she cried out or did not give in to his desire. Because she refused his wishes and did notfear death, he stooped to a damnable trick. He said that he would slay one of her manservants next to her and tell everybody the he had killed them after having found them together in adultery. When she heard this, the trembling woman stood still, frightened by such a wicked disgrace. Fearing that if she died there would be no one to avenge her innocence, she unwillingly gave her body to the adulterer. Sextus satisfied his wicked desire and left like a conqueror, as he thought.

As soon as day broke, Lucretia, suffering from this wicked crime, sent for her father, Tricipitinus, Collatinus' relative Brutus, who up to that day had been considered mad, and other relatives by blood, in addition to her husband. When they came to her, she told them tearfully in order what Sextus had done in the dead of night. As her relatives consoled her while she cried wretchedly, she took out a knife that she had under her dress and said: "Although I absolve myself of the sin, I do not free myself from the punishment, and in the future no woman will live dishonorably because of Lucretia's example." Having said these words, she drove the knife into her innocent breast, fell wounded and dying in the presence of her husband and her father, and soon poured out her soul together with her blood."

f. 78r: Athaliah(royne de iherusalem) (When Ahaziah died of an arrow wound, this fierce woman, burning with the desire to rule, thought of a memorable plan and steeled herself to put it in action. Casting aside feminine pity, not only did she fail to mourn her son, but gave reason for more tears, if she had had a woman's heart. While the earth was still wet with her son's blood, she drew sword against all the descendants of David's lineage. She persecuted them until no male member of that family was left alive. Only the little boy Jehoash, King Ahaziah's son. who was taken away without her knowledge, escaped her cruelty. For Athaliah's daughter Jehosheba, who was Ahaziah's sister, secretly took away the boy and brought him to the house of her husband, the high priest Jehoiada, to be brought up in safety. And so reckless Athaliah wickedly dared to seat herself upon the royal throne over the blood of so many dead, since through her handiwork there were no claimants left, and to rule the affairs of the kingdom....

Finally, so that the wicked woman would not remain unpunished for the blood she had shed, after she had reigned seven years, she saw her grandchild Jehoash, whom she thought had been killed with the others, made king through the help of the high priest Jehoiada, and she herself was forced from the royal throne, While the people shouted against her, she was shamefully dragged to the carriage entrance by her servants and ruffians, while she shouted and threatened in vain.

fr. 598 repeats the figure of Athaliah twice showing two episodes: 1) slaying the descendants of David; 2) her expulsion. Fr. 12420 only shows Athaliah once with her being dragged off. On the right side of the miniature soldiers slaughter the descendents of David. By repeating the figure of Athaliah, the planner of fr. 598 makes it clear that the miniature shows two episodes.

BR 9509 repeats the figure of Athaliah twice with the slaughtering of the descendents of David on the left and her stoning on the right. Stoning is not referred to in the text.

f. 78v: cw

(no decoration)

f. 82v: Veturie (rommaine matrone) (Veturia, when already old, by a praiseworthy deed gave her years perpetual freshness....Complete despair had already entered the souls of the Romans, when many women went in tears to Coriolanus' mother Veturia and his wife Volumnia. They prevailed on Veturia to undertake the great journey to the enemy's camp together with his wife to calm her son with prayers and tears, since men and arms seemed unable to defend the Republic. Many other women went with her....

With Coriolanus wife on one side and his children on the other, Veturia cast aside motherly love and became angry as soon as she saw her son.

The fr. 598 and BR 9509 miniatures are much more accurate than fr. 12420. In fr. 12420 men accompany Veturia- these are not accounted for in the text. Veturia is not depicted as old. The wife and children of Coriolanus are not clearly depicted. But most importantly the gesture of Veturia with hands up suggests she is listening while Coriolanus' gesture is of ticking off points with his fingers suggests that Coriolanus is making a speech which contradicts the text.

The age of Veturia is indicated in fr. 598 and fr. 12420 by her wearing a wimple.

The British Library copies are more consistent with fr. 598.

f. 86v: Arthemese (royne de care) (Artemisia, the queen of Caria....She was the wife of Mausolus, the powerful king of Caria....During her widowhood she performed great deeds....Mausolus' tomb would be a worthy symbol of her love [Boccaccio provides an extended description of the Mausoleum and its sculpture]....

Artemisia's virtue cannot be extolled with only this praise, for she was worthy for her vigor, daring, and military leadership, and she adorned the majesty of her name with triumphs. Although at other times she had often taken up arms, I have read that after her husband's death, when time had soothed her grief, she took them up twice, once to defend the welfare of the country, and the second time to maintain faith with her allies at their request.

All the miniatures visualize the scene in the same way with the crowned and victorious Artemisia standing in the center holding a sword in one hand and a scepter in the other. At her feet are a pile of bodies, and behind her is her army.

The illustrations diverge from the text since the text focuses on sea battles. Also the text provides an extensive account of the Mausoleum which is not included in the illustration.

f. 86v: cw:

12 (87-94) 8

f. 90r: Virginee (vierge fille de virgine) (Verginia was a Roman virgin in name and in fact, and she should be reverently remembered. She was of marvelous beauty and was the daughter of the plebian but honorable Aulius Verginius. Although she was of excellent character, she is not so famous for her constancy as for her lover's wickedness and the act of her overly severe father, from which Roman liberty ensued....

[Verginia was unfairly charged and her father defends her honor the only way he could]

When Marcus wanted to take her away and Verginius had attacked Appius in vain, he obtained permission from the furious man to speak briefly with the girl and her nurse, so that he could find out the truth of the matter and give the girl over to him more willingly. Having gone out opposite the court itself near the Cloatine shops, Verginius seized a butcher knife and said, "Dear daughter, I defend your liberty the only way I can." He then stabbed his daughter in the breast, to the great grief of those who were watching. In their presence the wretched girl fell to the ground as her blood and life left her. Thus the vile hopes of lustful Appius came to naught because of the innocent girl's death.

f. 92v: Leonce /Leontium (femme grelze) (According to the testimony of the ancients, she was such a scholar that she dared write against and criticize Theophrastus, a famous philosopher of that period....

Alas, what an unworthy crime it is that she could bring Philosophy, the queen of all human pursuits, among panderers, unclean adulterers, and prostitutes, and into brothels, and in these disgraceful chambers smear it with shameful stains, trample it with unchaste feet, and plunge it into filthy sewers --if indeed the splendor of Philosophy can be stained by the infamy of an unchaste heart.

The miniatures show her with the attributes of a scholar while she is being seduced by a suitor.

In fr. 12420 the decorator used a capital "S" instead of the correct capital "L" as found in fr. 598. The guide letters for the two letters could have been confused.

f. 93v

f. 93v: Olympias (royne tresnoble de macedoine) (Olympias, the queen of Macedonia, was famous for many honors....[A]t Philip's death her son Alexander ruled over Macedonia. His deeds were so great that no one born before or since was known to have surpassed him. This added a great deal of glory to Olympias, if it is glorius for mothers to give birth to excellent sons. But this glory could not escape altogether without being blemished at times by marks of infamy, even though this made her more famous, for in her youth she fell prey to the allure of adultery. Hardly anything more shameful could have happened to the queen. Worse than this was the suspicion that Alexander had been born of an adulterous union. This suspicion so troubled Phil that he not only openly said at times that Alexander was not his son, but repudiated Olympias and married Cleopatra, the daughter of Alexander of Epirus....

[She] mader herself famous for various monstrous actions. It was believed that she urged Pausanias, a noble youth born in Orestis, to kill her husband Philip, and that Alexander knew of this. For while Pausanias was hanging on the cross the day afterhe had been crucified for the murder of Philip, he was found with a golden crown on his head, placed there by Olympias. A few days later, at Olympias' orders, his body was placed over the remains of King Philip, and, following the Macedonian rites, he was honorably cremated and buried with funereal pomp....

[She is captured by Cassander] When she had surrendered, the friends of those whom she had treacherously killed demanded that she be executed. Cassander sent his wicked men to kill her in the prison where she was being kept. Realizing that she was to die at the hands of the men who were approaching, Olympias fearlessly got up leaning on two servants, combed her hair, and arranged her clothes so that she would not lie naked when she fell. She did not permit herself to beg for life, nor did she utter any cries or womanly laments, but walked towards the executioners and willingly offered her body to their blows, as if she scorned what even brave men are wont to fear greatly. With that act she showed that she was indeed the mother of so excellent an emperor as Alexander.

f. 94v: CW

f. 95r

Fr. 12420 uses two miniatures to illustrate this scene. In the first it shows the patrician temple with women worshipping an idol on the right side and Verginia being expelled on the left side. The second miniature shows the figure of Verginia worshipping in the temple of Plebeia Pudicitia.

Fr. 598 has only one miniature. On the right Verginia is being expelled from the temple while on the left Verginia is placed on an altar and is being worshipped.

The miniatures show images of prostitution. In fr. 12420 Flora is show seated watching two prostitutes and their clients approach. In fr. 598 two prostitutes and their clients are shown. In the background is a structure with a bed in the interior.

The BL copies show Flora seated greeting a naked couple while musicians play at the bottom right.

The divergence of these scenes could be explained by a lack of specific detail in the instructions for the miniatures. The artists could have been asked to represent images of prostitution.

f. 100v

f. 100v

Fr. 598 shows Sulpicia with a censer worshipping the figure of Venus seated on an altar. The gesture of Venus is the listening gesture suggesting she is responding to the appeals of Sulpicia.

In fr. 12420, Sulpicia has the censer but there is no image on the altar. There is a chalice and a book.

f. 102v

f. 102v: Armonie (...When through a conspiracy and sudden insurrection the people of Syracuse raged against everyone of royal lineage....[T]he mob with naked swords rebelliously assailed Demarata and Heraclea, Hieron's daughters, and Harmonia, the daughter of Gelon. And it happened that, through the shrewdness of Harmonia's nurse, a girl of Harmonia's age dressed in royal robes was gotten ready for the murderers in place of Harmonia. This girl did not oppose in any way the intentions of the person who had planned this, in fact, when she saw the multitude of hostile rebels run agains her with their sharp-pointed swords, she was not frightened, nor did she run away. She did not give away her identity to the men who wounded her, and she did not accuse Harmonia, who was in hiding and whose place she was dying. Silent and motionless, she received the mortal blows and died. She was happy in her death, and Harmonia was unhappy. The former was happy in her faithfulness; the other was sad because she had lost the one who was faithful....

O loyalty! O ancient faith! Although she had escaped, she showed herself in public, and, calling back the bloody swords, she confessed her nurse's stratagem, the loyalty of the girl who had died, and her own identity. And she voluntarily she her blood as a sacrifice to the dead girl.

f. 102v: cw

f. 105r: Sophonisba (royne de numede) (...Scipia received them in a friendly manner for their great deeds, and then he gently reproached Masinissa for having married a captive of the Roman people. The king withdrew into his tent, where he grieved alonge for a long time with sighs and tears, which were heard by the men nearby. He then sent for his most trusted servant, to whom he had entrusted the poison which he kept for the uncertain exigencies of fortune. Forced by Sophonisba's fate, he ordered the servant to bring it to her diluted in a cup and tell her that he would gladly have kept the pledge which he had willingly sworn to her, if it had been possible. But since his authority was being taken away by those who had the power to do so, he, not without sadness, kept his pledge that she should not fall alive into the hands of the Romans, if she desired to take advantage of it. Nevertheless, she should remember her father, her country, and the two kings whom she had married shortly before, and then take whatever decision seemed proper.

Sophonisba listened to this, and then, with unchanging expression, said, "I willingly accept this wedding gift, and if my husban can give me no other I shall be grateful for this. But tell him that I should have died better, had I not married at the point of death." There was more bitterness in her words that in the way she accepted the cup. Giving no sign of feat whatsoever, she quickly drank it all, and, without inveighing against the death she had sought, fell piteously to the ground.

Fr. 598 and fr. 12420 show the same conception. The figure of Sophonisba is shown twice in both miniatures. In fr. 12420 she is shown receiving the cup from the servant and then she is shown collapsing. In fr. 598, she is shown drinking from the cup. The servant offers the cup to the second figure of Sophonisba. It is unclear whether this figure is collapsing or rejecting the cup.

This might be a good example of a confusion in the instructions with miniatures showing the same number of figures.

f. 110v: Orgiagontes / Drogiagon (des gaulx grecs royne) (...The survivors surrendered and acknowledge Manlius as their conqueror.

f. 112r: Tierce emilie (de scipion premier affrique)

( ...[W]hen he [Scipio, the husband] had become old, he could not pull himself away from the allure of concupiscence. In fact, he fell in love and committed adultery with a little serving girl of his. And since it is almost impossible for these things to escape the notice of honorable love, he could not deceived Tertia, who learned everything as time went by....

But , however difficult it seemed, this glorious woman endured it with such constant courage and hid her husband's fault, of which she was aware, with such silence that not only others but her husband himself did not realize she knew what he was doing [Tertia protects the honor of both her husband and the servant girl]

f. 113v

Both miniatures visualize the scene in the same way with Dripetrua seerving her father at the table. The text just refers to "faithful service". It does not refer to serving him at table.

Fr. 598 visualizes her deformity as two heads and three arms and not two set of teeth. There is no apparent deformity shown in the fr. 12420 miniature.

The periods in both the text and rubric have the distinct flourish characteristic of Scribe C.

The miniatures agree with the details. The image of the goddess is conceived of as a seated woman with a gold halo. The miniatures show Claudie pulling the ship with her girdle.

The BL copy appears to confuse the story. Claudie is shown in the water of the Tiber pulling the boat with her girdle. She has a halo while the woman on the boat does not have a halo.

The miniatures have the same conception with the King and Queen identified. Both show Hypsicratea cutting her hair with scissors. In both miniatures she has a bow and quiver. Neither of them show her holding a shield and lance as referred to in the text.

Was the same visual model used in both miniatures for the man carrying a helmet.

The British Library copies agree with these details as well.

f. 118r

f. 118r: Sempronie (femme rommaine) (She was of such quick and versatile intellect that she immediately understood and carried out by imitation whatever she heard or saw others do. Having learned not only Latin but Greek, she cared, unlike a woman, to compose verses when she felt like it, and she wrote so skillfully that she made all who read them marvel, as they would have been extraordinary and praiseworthy even for a man....And what is more, she was so charming when she spoke that no matter what form of speech she used, she sent it full of wit and elegance to the listener's ears. She also knew how to sing and dance elegantly, and these skill are perhaps the most commendable in a woman, so long as they are used properly.

For the rest, steeped in evil deeds, she seemed to be very different. For, spurred by too much daring, she sometimes stooped to things which are damnable even in a man. With dancing and singing, which are instruments of sensuality, she turned to wantonness. Burning with lust, she discarded all womanly honor and reputation, and to satisfu that lust she sought men more often than they sought her.

All of the miniatures show musical instruments especially stringed instruments lying one tables. Significantly there is no reference in the text to stringed instruments. The text refers to her mastery of dancing and singing.

In the Cité des dames (I,42.2) Christine discusses Sempronia's mastery: "She sang so melodiously and played all string instruments so skillfully that she won every contest."

Sallust, Catalina XXV: Now among these women was Sempronia, who had often committed many crimes of masculine daring.  In birth and beauty, in her husband also and children, she was abundantly favoured by fortune; well read in the literature of Greece and Rome, able to play the lyre and dance more skilfully than an honest woman need, and having many other accomplishments which minister to voluptuousness.  But there was nothing which she held so cheap as modesty and chastity; you could not easily say whether she was less sparing of her money or her honour; her desires were so ardent that she sought men more often than she was sought by them. 

f. 121v

f. 123v

f. 123v: Curie /Turia (de quint lucrecien femme) (For in the unsettled times when buy order of the triumvirs new lists of proscribed persons were being posted in Rome, her [Turia's] husband Quintus Lucretius was found to have been proscribed along with many others. The others fled swiftly from their fatherland and with difficulty found safe hiding places among the dens of beasts, in lonely moutain regions, or with the enemies of Rome. Only Lucretius, following the advice of his loving wife, hid fearlessly within the walls of Rome in his own house, near his wife in the secrecy of their conjugal chamber, Here he was protected by his wife with such skill, clever care, and the faithfulness that with the exception of a servant girl no one among their friends and relatives suspected it, much less knew it.

We may believe that to cover this fact skillfully Turia often went among the people in humble garments and soiled dress, with sad face, tearful eyes, unkempt hair, not adorned with veils as usual, with painful sighs and pretending a mad senselessness.

Compare the dragon at the top of f. 123v to the one at the top of fr. 2604, f. 1r. See also fr. 598, f. 138v.

Both fr. 12420 and fr. 598 show the scene in similar ways composed of three figures: the husband, Turia, and her servant. The husband is set off in a different chamber while Turia converses with the servant.

f. 124v: detail

f. 126v: cw

f. 126v

f. 127r:

f. 127r: Mariamie (des iuifs royne) (...When she was of marriageable age, she was wedded to Herod, the unfortunate king of the Jews, and to her great misfortune was madly loved by him for her beauty. He gloried in the fact that he alone in the whole world possessed such divine beauty and was so determined that no one else should be equal to him in this that he began to fear that Mariamne would survive him. To prevent this, when he was called to Egypt to explain to Antony the death of Mariamne's brother Aristobulus, whom he had killed, and after Antony's death when he had to go to the Emperor Octavia to excuse himself, if possible for having helpyed the friends of Antony against him, he ordered his mother Cypros and his friends to kill Mariamne immediately if he should die at the hands of Antony, Octavian, or anyone else....

[H] e [Herod] was persuaded to comann that she be killed, condemning her to dies as one who had sought the king's death.

Mariamne summoned her noble courage so that, scorning death, with all the beauty of her fact intact, and not yielding at all in the fashion of women, she listened silently to her mother reprimanding her and with dry eyes looked at the others who were crying. She went to her death not only fearlessly, but with an eager expression as if going to a joyful triumph, and without begging for her life she met her death at the executioner's hands as if it were something for which she longed.

f. 127r

f. 133v

f. 133v: Agripine [de germanite femme] (...Later he [Tiberius] attacked her with many accusations which he brought before the Senate and ordered her to prison, although she was innocent. But the noble woman, knowing that that what the emperor was doing to her was undeserved, planned to escape the petty emperor's persecution by committing suicide. Since other means were not available, with noble courage she decided to seek death by starvation and immediately began to refuse all food.

When Tiberius was informed of this, the wicked man realized what the result of her fasting would be. Since neither threats nor floggings were of any avail in making her ear, Tiberius forced her to take food so that she would not escape his abuse so quickly and so surely. For as long as she received nourishment, although she wanted to die, he did not care what means were used to force food into her stomach. By these methods he thought he would not be deprived of the object of his cruelty. But the more Agrippina was provoked by indignities, the firmer did her purpose become. By persevering in what she had begun, in death she overcame the insolence of the infamous emperor....Although she certainly acquired great glory among her people through her death, she nevertheless left much greater opprobrium to Tiberius.

f. 133v detail.

f. 134v: Pauline (femme rommaine) (...Besides her husband, she cared for nothing with special eagerness except to serve and win the favor of Anubis, an Egyptian god whom she worshipped with great veneration. Since beautiful women, especially those who take great care of their chastity, are desired everywhere by young men, a young Roman named Mundus began to court her continuously with glances, gestures, pleasantries, promises, gifts, prayers, and flattery to see if perhaps he could obtain what he so ardently desired. But all this was in vain, for this very chaste woman, devoted only to her husband, ignored all her lover's attempts. He persisted in his efforts, but seeing very clearly that the road was blocked by the woman's constancy, he turned his mind to deception.

Paulina used to visit the temple of Isis every day and worshipped Anubis with continuous sacrifices. When he learned this, the young man, counseled by love, thought of an unheard-of deception. Thinking that the pries of Anubis could be very useful to his desires, he went to them and with great gifts won them to his purpose. And it happened that the one who because of his advanced years was the most venerable among the, instigated by Mundus, gently told Paulina, when she came as usual, that Anubis had come to him at night and ordered him to tell her that he had taken great pleasure in her devotion, and that he wanted to speak to her in the temple while she slept. When Paulina heard this she thought that it had happened because of her holiness. She felt within herself great pride in those words and believed them to be as true as if she had heard them from the god Anubis with her own ears. She told all this to her husband, who, more foolish than his wife, consented to her request to spend the night in the temple. Therefore, a bed worthy of the god was spread in the sacred temple, without the knowledge of anyone except the priests and Pauline.

...[A]fter her prayers and sacrifices she got into bed to wait for the god. When she fell asleep, Mundus was brought in by the priests. Dressed in the regalia of Anubis, he approached and, desiring his beloved, embraced the woman and kissed her. When she awoke in amazement, he told her to be in good spirits for he was Anubis, whom she had honored for such a long time, and that because of her prayers and devotion he had come from heaven to lie with her so that from them would be born a similar god....Hearing this, Paulina happily consented to his request. Mundus entered naked into the bed in Anubis' place and enjoyed the desired embraces and intercourse. When night was already changing into day, he left, saying to the deceived woman that she had conceived a child.

f. 134v: cw

f. 135v: cw

f. 135v

Text ends at the end of a story, and catchword is for the rubric that introduces the next story. This break marks a break in textual units and thus argues for concurrent copying.

The paragraph marks on f. 135 are identifiable as those of the Walters 232 Decorator.

f. 138v

Compare the dragon at the top of fr. 598 f. 123v to the one at the top of fr. 2604, f. 1r. See also fr. 598, f. 138v.

fr. 12420 and fr. 598 both show her being tortured and she pulls a rope around her neck. Both images conflates different moments in the story. According to the story she killed herself while in her sedan chair which is not shown in either image. Her torture was at a different time from her suicide. Fr. 598 shows Nero? watching the suicide.

The BL copies do not show her hanging herself, instead

In the fr. 598 image it looks like Seneca's veins are being opened, while in fr. 12420 Pompeia is having her veins cut, eventhough the text says that she did it herself.

The BL images appear to be more accurate with Pompeia being pulled from the tub while a man opens the veins of the old Seneca.

f. 143v: Probe (femme delphe) (Proba...was a womanb worthy of being remembered for her knowledge of literature....Whoever her teacher may have been, it can easily be seen that she excelled in the liberal arts. Among other studies she became so well informed and familiar with Virgil's poems through continuous devotion to them that she seemed to have them always present in her mind, as is shown in all the works she wrote.

Perhaps some time when she was reading these works with more careful attentiveness, the idea came to her that with them one could write the history of the Old and New Testaments in calm, graceful verses full of vigor....

f. 143v: CW

(no decoration)

19 (144-151) 8

(two systems of signature marks appear on f. 146r)

f. 145r: Faustine (auguste) (Faustine Augusta, who later was included among the gods, acquired more glory in life and death through her husband's kindness than through her own deeds....Her world-wide fame was equalled by the infamy of her shamelessness. It was believed that in addition to her husban she was not satisfied with one lover but enjoyed the embraces of many. Disrepute has made known the names of some of them [Boccaccio lists the lovers].... Most shameful of all, it is said that she loved a certain gladiator so much that because of her desire for him she became dangerously ill....

At Marcus Aurelius' request the Senate raised her to a place among the gods, and afterwards she was known as the goddess Faustine. This had never before happened to a Roman woman. Having previously called her Mother of the Camp, Aurelius had a marvelous temple built to her in the place where he had died, and he had a number of remarkable statues placed in it to her glory. He established an order of priestesses in the tmeple and ordered that they be known as Faustinians....)

Fr. 12420 divides the story into two miniatures. In the first she is shown haloed and seated on altar. She is being adored by women. In the second she is shown with an imperial crown being approached by lovers including a cutlery smith /gladiator (see Buettner's discussion). In fr. 598 the single miniatures combines the two parts of the story into one miniature. The miniature does not include the cutlery smith.

The BL copies do not show her as being worshipped as a goddess. Instead she is being approached by suitors. The cutlery smith is shown on the right side of the miniature including the addition of a forge.

There is a faint Roman numeral consistent with the number of the rubric visible in the inside margin adjacent to the rubric in fr. 598.

f. 151v: cw

20 (152-159) 8

f. 152r: yrene (des rommains et constantin noble dame et empereys) (Irene was a very noble Athenian woman, remarkable for her breat beauty. Having called her to Constantinople from her home, the Emperor Constantine [Constantine V, Emperor of the East 741-775] gave her in marriage to his son Leo.... After Constantine's death, she became empress of the Romans and hore her husband a son named Constantine. Finally, when Leo had departed from this earth, she ruled nobly over the empire for ten years with her very young son.

When he grew up, however, her son asserted that he alone had inherited the throne and, according to some, removed Irene from his court for eightr years. That woman, because of her great spirit and thirst for power, quarreled with her son who trusted in his own strength, seized him with womanly cunning, deposed him, and had him imprisoned. She thus ascended alone the throne from which the whole world had once received its laws. Famous beyond other mortals, she ruled as empress for five years with great glory. But it happened that, through the aid of Constantine's friends and the Armenians, Irene was deposed, and Constantine, freed from prison, once again took possession of his father's throne.....

f. 153v: Enguborade (vierge) (When she was attending a festival with many Florentine women in the temple which had once been dedicated to Mars, but which was later consecrated to the true God under the name of Saint Joun the Baptist, the Roman emperor Otho IV, who had just come to Florence to embellish the festival and render it greater with his presence, happened to enter the temple accompanied by many gentlemen. Seated in the highest place, he inspected the ornaments of the temple, the citizens, and the women seated in a circle, and his eyes happened to fix upon Engeldruda. Having first admired for a while and then praised her beauty, her plainness of dress, her dignity and girlish nobility seriousness, he addressed Illitio, a citizen venerable in age and nobility who happened to be standing next to him on duty, and asked, "Who is that girl seated facing us, who in our opinion surpasses all the others in dignity and in the beauty of her face?"

Illitio, laughing, answered with humorous sophistication, "Your Majest, whoever she may be, she will kiss you if you desire it and I so command her." Hearing these words, the girl immediately became indignant and bore ill the fact that her father had such a poor opinion of her constancy and so little concern for her chaste virginity. She could not long endure the insult. The emperor had not yet answered, when she rose blushing, looked at her father and then, lowering her eyes to the ground, said in a steady but humble voice, "Be silent, father, and do not speak, for I swear that without violence no one except the man to whom you will give me in legitimate and sacred marriage will receive what you offer so freely...."

After praising at length her outspoken indignation, the emperor sent for a certain young nobleman named Guido. So that the girl would not lack for long someone whom she could honestly kiss if she so desired, before leaving he gave Engeldruda, who was of marriageable age, to Guido as his wife, in the presence of her father, who thanked him....

f. 16v: Cleres Femmes Scribe A

f. 39r: Cleres femmes B Scribe

f. 126v: Cleres femmes C Scribe

Division of Labor in the decoration of fr. 598

Division of labor in the decoration of fr. 598