Made in celebration of Boccaccio’s 700th anniversary for John Rylands University Library.

Minerva, Mantone and Circes, written by Giovanni Boccaccio in around 1361, is printed in this soft bound book as an extract from De Mulieribus Claris. Thought to be the first collection of the biographies of women in Western literature, this extract features the story of three women.

The text, modernised for spelling and punctuation, is illustrated with woodcuts from three different editions held in the John Rylands Library of the University of Manchester. The introduction is written by Guyda Armstrong (Senior Lecturer in Italian at the University of Manchester) and Rhiannon Daniels (Lecturer in Italian at the University of Bristol.) It was printed to commemorate Boccacio’s 700th anniversary in 2013 when an international conference and exhibition Locating Boccaccio was held at John Rylands University and the Town Hall in Manchester.