Representing Gender in Court: Juridical Women in the Time of Boccaccio’s Madonna Filippa (Decameron 6.7)

Boccaccio’s character Madonna Filippa brilliantly defends herself in court against an adultery charge—and dodges a cruel capital punishment. Readers have long assumed that since medieval Italian women had no place in court, Filippa’s story must be an ironic parody. This presentation inserts Boccaccio’s heroine into her historical context of medieval northern Italy, where several women jurists rose to prominence in legal studia and yeshivas. The rich lore surrounding 14th c. Novella d’Andrea and her peers overlapped with ancient narratives that inspired Boccaccio, like Valerius Maximus’ account of the oratrix Hortensia. Modern readers have yet to fully appreciate Boccaccio’s deep interest in women’s voices at law, but one prominent medieval reader, Christine de Pizan, recognized Boccaccio’s engagement with the real and pressing issue of women’s participation in the discourses of justice.