Tradizione, novità e fortuna in età moderna del De mulierum virtutibus di Plutarco

Abstract

Plutarch’s idea of women is different from the one of the Greek misogynist writers. In De mulierum virtutibus Plutarch collected twenty-seven exemples of women who exhibited virtuous behaviours. The great variety of feminine virtues (άρεταί) which Plutarch included in his work can explain the great fortune of the essay in Modem Age. The essay could be interpreted in a conservative or revolutionary way, therefore it could be used either to defend women or to denigrate them. In this paper I deal with also an edition of Plutarch’s De mulierum virtutibus (published in Piacenza in 1794) on which it has never been done a research up to now. It is an abridged version of the original essay written by Plutarch containing only twelve exemples of virtuous behaviours.