DIAtOGVE 
 OF THE BE AVTY 
 OF WOMEN 
 
 
 GNOLO F1RENZVOLA 
 


 
OF THE BEAVTY OF WOMEN 
 
 DIALOGVE BY MESSER 
 AGNOLO FIRENZVOLA 
 FLORENTINE 
 
 TRANSLATED 
 FROM THE ITALIAN 
 BY CLARA BELL WITH AN 
 INTRODUCTION BY THEODORE CHILD 
 
 Q. M. 
 
JAMES R. OSGOOD, 
 M2ILVAINE and CO., 
 
 45 
 
 Albemarle Street 
 London. 
 
 1892 
 
DIALOGUE BY MES- 
 SER AGNOLO FIREN- 
 ZVOLA FLORENTINE 
 OF THE BEAVTY 
 OF WOMEN 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/ofbeautyofwomend00fire_0 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IS little volume appeals neither 
 to the erudite alone, nor to the 
 general public, but to all those 
 who love refinement and pursue 
 beauty. It is a book for women and a book 
 for men, inasmuch as it treats of the beauty 
 of women, which is one of the chief est joys 
 of men. 
 
 The author, Agnolo Firenpuola, was 
 born in 1493 at Florence, where he died 
 about 1946. His life, it appears, was not 
 peculiarly exemplary, although he was a 
 churchman ; his writings, too, are not all 
 
 a 
 
11 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of an edifying nature , any more than those 
 of Boccaccio ; but in the age of Leo X. 
 there was a separation between religion 
 and morality; while , in literature, ex- 
 quisite style and the manifestation op 
 citlture were thought to cover a multitude 
 of sins. Firenpuola was a poet and a 
 literary man of very great talent, and the 
 extreme perfection of his Tuscan style 
 was such that his free translation of the 
 “ Golden Ass ” of Apuleius was eulogized 
 as being the most perfect piece of Italian 
 prose ever written. 
 
 Firenyuola’s “ Dialogue on the Beauty 
 of Women,” which is here presented for 
 the first time in the English tongue, seems 
 to us worthy of the honours of translation 
 and of perusal for other reasons than those 
 of mere antiquarian curiosity. Our ideal op 
 feminine beauty is doubtless different from 
 that of Botticelli, Perugino, Antonio Bapyi, 
 Bellini, Leonardo or Titian ; and yet, by 
 the ardent and continual contemplation op 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ill 
 
 the masterpieces of these and other painters , 
 we certainly influence our modern ideal in 
 some subtle and unanalysable way. The 
 lipe op great works of art is eternal. In 
 each succeeding age they acquire new 
 eloquence and impart fresh lessons to those 
 who study them. They retain an inex- 
 haustible power of suggestion and bound- 
 less capacity of interpretation. It is in 
 the interpretation of the painting of the 
 Italian Renaissance that the Dialogue of 
 Firenyuola seems to us to be op singular 
 interest, and above all in its suggestive- 
 ness to modern women, and in its implied 
 doctrine that beauty is to be pursued, and, 
 within certain limits, to be attained even 
 by those whom Nature has not lavishly 
 favoured. 
 
 It is superfluous to ask whether the 
 Italians of the Golden Age of Art had any 
 theoretical plastic ideal. On what subject 
 did not the contemporaries of Pico della 
 Mirandola theorize? What questions did 
 a 2 
 
iv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 they not discuss in their Platonic or Cicero~ 
 nian dialogues ? What detail of refined 
 life and culture have they not touched upon 
 in their tales, their treatises and their 
 elegant epistles ? How many expositions 
 of ideals of good breeding could we men- 
 tion in the literature of the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries ? 
 
 As regards the particular point of the 
 beauty of women, we should have no diffi- 
 culty in finding authors who have written 
 about feminine charms in an abstract 
 manner ; but we have preferred Firenpuola 
 because he is not so much a philosopher or 
 a lheori{er, as a man of the wcrrld and a 
 lover of woman. We can imagine that 
 Firen^uola would have willingly approved 
 La Bruy'ere’s saying that a beautiful face 
 is the most beautiful of all spectacles, and 
 that the sweetest harmony is the sound of 
 the loved one’s voice. But at the same 
 time we feel that Firen^uola was wanting 
 in that tender sentiment which the severe 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 V 
 
 La Bruyere suggests in the latter part op 
 the above sentence. The Florentine was 
 curious perhaps rather than sentimental; 
 his analysis of the beauty of women is 
 strictly cesthetical; his admiration active 
 and impressionist, so to speak, rather than 
 contemplative. Had he lived in our times 
 he would have noted with incomparably 
 delicate touch the familiar gestures which 
 contemporary costume involves, and all the 
 pretty movements that accompany the raising 
 of a veil, the arrangement of the hair im- 
 perceptibly ruffed by the indiscreet breeze, 
 the coquettish effort made in taking off 
 gloves and adjusting rings and bracelets, 
 the furtive application of the powder puff 
 and of the precious unguent that imparts 
 intensity to roseate lips. At the same time 
 he would have paid little attention to the 
 naivete of the eye and the gravity of the 
 heart. The beauty of women which Firen- 
 quola admires and analyses is exterior, 
 plastic and material. Like Theophile Gau- 
 
vi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tier, he would doubtless dispense readily 
 with intelligence and soul in a woman who 
 possessed beauty, and say with the French- 
 man : “ Pour moi une femme qui est belle 
 a toujour s de V esprit ; elle a l’ esprit d’etre 
 belle, etje ne sais pas lequel vaut celui-la.” 
 After the fashion of the times, Firen- 
 qiiola introduces real people in his dialogue, 
 and his principal interlocutors are half a 
 doqen of Florentine ladies, each having a 
 different type of beauty and special per- 
 fections, the discussion of which helps in 
 determining the ideal of perfect beauty. 
 In conformity with the Socratic method, 
 Firenquola seeks first of all to define 
 beauty ; and, having done so, he explains 
 his programme, which will be to speak 
 principally of such parts of the body as are 
 exposed to view, and then to set forth the 
 signification of certain terms that are used 
 in connection with feminine beauty by the 
 Italian poets and prose-writers, and by the 
 common people too, namely, leggiadria, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 vii 
 
 vaghezza, grazia, venusta, aria and 
 maesta. This exposition forms the sub- 
 stance of the first Discourse. 
 
 In the second Discourse, Firenguola 
 returns to points of detail and speaks 
 minutely about the eyes, the eyebrows, the 
 eyelashes, the ears, the neck and bosom, 
 the shoulders and arms, and the chin. 
 The teeth, the gums, and even the tip of 
 the tongue are discussed in an elegant page 
 devoted to the mouth, which our author 
 requires to be small rather than large, and 
 which he ingeniously qualifies as the foun- 
 tain of all the sweets of love, fontana di 
 tutte le amorose dolcezze. His remarks 
 on the foi'ehead are interesting in con- 
 nection with that fashion of the fifteenth 
 century which demanded foreheads so high 
 that the ladies pulled their hair out by the 
 roots in order to acquire the dome-like 
 expanse of serene brow that strikes us as 
 being so strange in the pictures of Piero 
 della Francesca, for instance, notably in 
 
Vlll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the portrait of Battista Sforqa, Duchess of 
 Urbino, in the National Gallery at London. 
 Firenquola would have the forehead ample, 
 broad, high, white and calm. The height 
 of the fcrrehead is to be calculated from the 
 beginning of the parting of the hair to the 
 meeting of the eyebrows and nose. “ And 
 many,” adds Firenqtiola, ” wish the height 
 of the forehead to be equivalent to one-third 
 of the face; the other two-thirds being 
 measured from the meeting of the eyebrows 
 to the upper lip, and from the upper lip to 
 the tip of the chin.” The foi'ehead must, 
 furthermore, be twice as broad as it is 
 high, and it must be of a glossy whiteness 
 and “ shining almost like a mirror.” 
 
 Many of Firenqiiola’s remarks may seem 
 perhaps a little vague and general, but they 
 become less so when we read them in con- 
 nection with the monuments of plastic art 
 contemporaneous with the life of the writer. 
 In the figures of the frescoes of Ghirlan- 
 dafo, of Piero della Francesca, of Antonio 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IX 
 
 Ba%(i, and more particularly in the mar- 
 vellous women that we admire in the 
 frescoes and, pictures of the Florentine 
 Botticelli ', we recognise those refinements 
 of hearing and expression of which Firen- 
 yuola speaks ; we divine an ideal of 
 feminine beauty corresponding with his; 
 and we realise the charm of those high and 
 pure foi'eheads “shining almost like a 
 mirror.” Botticelli’s figures of women 
 have the proportions mentioned by Firen- 
 yuola, the forehead occupying one-third of 
 the face, even when the thick, wavy, blond 
 hair, “resplendent, abundant and long,” 
 hangs in clustered locks around the face 
 and is not brushed back or artificially 
 diminished. 
 
 Some may ask what is the use of un- 
 earthing this frivolous “Dialogue of the 
 Beauty of Women” from the oblivion 
 into which it has fallen ? 7 he erudite, the 
 specialists, the students of the life, the art 
 and the literature of the Renaissance, are 
 
X 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 familiar with it. Of what interest can it 
 he to the modern reader ? 
 
 These objections we have already an- 
 swered in announcing that our intention 
 is not to appeal to the general public, hut 
 only to the lovers of heauty who are justly 
 indifferent to utility. Beauty has nothing 
 in common with utility ; it is an end in 
 itself. Yet we venture to argue against 
 the adversary that Firengiiola’s Dialogue 
 has usefulness in that it may he found 
 suggestive to those who are pursuing 
 heauty, that is to say to all women in 
 whom the instinct of heauty has not been 
 annihilated, and to all men who are 
 susceptible of feeling the joy that heauty 
 procures. The modern woman is neither 
 Eve nor Helen, neither the woman of the 
 fifteenth century nor the woman of the 
 eighteenth, hut the resultant of all anterior 
 women, as their form, their hearing and 
 their physiognomies have been moulded and 
 modified by ages of civilisation and in- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XI 
 
 numerable epochs of fashion. Thanks to 
 mysterious influences , historical, social and 
 artistic, the type of supreme feminine 
 elegance has been resumed at various times 
 in various centres. The focus of fashion 
 since the world began has been successively 
 Babylon, Miletus, Athens, Alexandria, 
 Rome, Constantinople, Florence, Venice 
 and Paris. In these cities have been 
 realised prodigies of refinement and deli- 
 cate invention, which have extended their 
 prestige over the whole earth. In these 
 cities have lived women whose beauty and 
 luxury have charmed their contemporaries ; 
 whose originality of feature, of gesture, 
 and of bearing have been imitated by the 
 elite of the world ; and whose innovations 
 in vesture and ornament have gradually 
 transformed the aspect of feminine hu- 
 manity. In these cities have lived the great 
 princesses who have held the sceptre and 
 controlled the destinies of fashion. 
 
 It is easy to say that all is vanity. 
 
xii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Doubtless , the doctrine of Ecclesiastes is 
 irrefutable ; but human life is at an end 
 the moment that man has been convinced of 
 the nothingness of everything. The Chris- 
 tianity of the early centuries of our era, 
 too exclusively moral, too absolutely ascetic, 
 too disdainful of beauty, was quite incom- 
 patible with luxury and worldly life. And 
 yet, in the eyes of a complete philosophy, 
 beauty, far from being a temptation of 
 Satan, a superficial advantage and a 
 danger, may be looked upon as a gift of 
 God, just as virtue itself. As the great 
 modern artist in ideas, Ernest Renan, has 
 proclaimed in his book on Marcus Aurelius, 
 beauty is as good as virtue ; the beautiful 
 woman expresses one phase of the divine 
 end quite as much as the man of genius 
 or the virtuous woman who may not 
 be gifted with beauty. “ The beautiful 
 woman,” says the philosopher, “ feels her 
 beauty, and hence her pi'ide. She feels 
 instinctively the infinite treasure that she 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xiii 
 
 has in her body ; she knows that without 
 intelligence , without talent , without great 
 virtue , she still counts amongst the first 
 manifestations of God. And why prohibit 
 her from taking advantage of the gift that 
 has been made to her, of setting appro- 
 priately the precious diamond that has 
 fallen to her lot ? A woman in adorning 
 herself accomplishes a duty ; she practises 
 an art, an exquisite and, in a sense, the 
 most charming of the arts. The palm of 
 genius is conceded to the Greek artist who 
 resolved the most delicate of pi'oblems, that 
 of adorning the human body, that is to say 
 of adorning perfection itself ; and yet, 
 people would have us believe that the 
 attempt to co-operate in the finest work of 
 Nature, namely the beauty of woman, is 
 merely a matter of patchwork, une affaire 
 de chiffons. Woman’s dress, with all its 
 refinements, is great art in its way. The 
 ages and countries which excel in this art 
 are the greatest ages and the greatest 
 
XIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 countries.” Let us then respect Tertullian 
 and Hernias and the good ascetic fathers 
 of the Church; but let us congratulate 
 ourselves at the same time upon the 
 successful revolt of the worldlings , and 
 upon the eloquence of the siren voices that 
 have rehabilitated the exquisite things 
 which Clement of Alexandria declared to 
 be dangerous and even positively sinful. 
 
 So then we return to the question of 
 modern woman and her beauty. The 
 modern woman is clothed; it is thus that 
 we love her and prefer her to all the 
 divine Artemises of old who wore no 
 clothes. IVith the delicate poet Ephraim 
 Mikhael we proclaim our faith : 
 
 f aime les yeux rieurs et les voiletles fines , 
 
 Les contours estompes par la poudre de riz. 
 fiaime Pambre et le muse plus que Pantique 
 myrrhe ; 
 
 Pour mot la nudite des nymphes ne vaut pas 
 Une robe moulant un beau corps ; et j’ admire 
 Les chers souliers nerveux qui font de petits pas. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XV 
 
 The modern woman seeks consciously or 
 unconsciously to realise an ideal which is 
 the result of centuries of civilisation that 
 have transfigured her mind, and of 
 centuries of corset-wearing that have 
 transformed her body into something very 
 different from the torso of the Venus of 
 Milo — an ideal which has been evolved 
 from innumerable material, moral and 
 social phenomena, nourished by the foster- 
 ing thoughts and evocative images of 
 countless poets, idealised by the brushes 
 of many painters, and materialised by the 
 genius of a few dress-makers and milliners 
 of extraordinary creative talent. Firen- 
 Suola’s Dialogue is of interest inasmuch as 
 it records the progress achieved during one 
 very important stage in the evolution of 
 modern feminine elegance; it is useful 
 inasmuch as it calls attention to details of 
 beauty and encourages the conscious pursuit 
 and acquirement of beauty. 
 
 The gown, the coiffure and above all 
 
xvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 things the will of the wearer, contribute 
 greatly to enhancing the beauty of woman, 
 and even to creating beauty when Nature 
 forgets to furnish that precious gift. For, 
 after all, the truly beautiful women are 
 rare, and yet for the pleasure of our eyes 
 they appear to be legion. What is the 
 explanation op this phenomenon? Is it 
 not because women by force of will and 
 by the constant action of creative genius 
 are able to transform their bodies and 
 make themselves beautiful? The body and 
 the soul that a woman receives at her birth 
 are, so to speak, simple materials which 
 she utilises well or ill. By the obstinate 
 desire of beauty she may render her body 
 beautiful, while by persistent neglect she 
 may leave it shapeless, undeveloped, un- 
 conscious. As for her soul, she may train 
 and perfect it by a love of order and 
 rhythm which produces grace of all kinds, 
 and even virtue. In the matter of physical 
 beauty, as in that of moral beauty, there is 
 
INTRODUCTION. XVli 
 
 truly much profit in example and con- 
 tinuous effort. Firenpuola’s ingenious 
 analyses, particularly if they are supple- 
 mented by the attentive and sympathetic 
 examination of the masterpieces op painting 
 of the Florentine and also of the early 
 Venetian schools, will, we imagine, not 
 fail to leave in the fair reader’s mind 
 some active or latent germ of elegance, 
 some hints for gesture or expression, some 
 suggestions that will be efficacious in the 
 future composition of her material per- 
 sonality, or, in other words, her outward 
 beauty, the outward beauty that pleases the 
 eye, the beauty of which Michael Angelo 
 speaks, il bel del fuor che agli occhi 
 p'iace. 
 
 THEODORE CHILD . 
 
 b 
 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE. 
 
 GNOLO FIRENZUOLA’S 
 
 DIALOGO DELLE BELLEZZE 
 
 delle donne was published 
 for the first time, without 
 name of place or printer, in 1548, in 
 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 It was reprinted in the first complete 
 edition of the prose di m. agnolo firen- 
 zuola fiorentino by Bern, di Giunta, 
 1 vol. 8vo, Florence, 1 548 ; in the second 
 complete edition of the prose by Lorenzo 
 Torrentino, 1 vol. 8vo, 1552 ; and in the 
 same year at Venice by Gio. Griffio, / vol. 
 
XX 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE. 
 
 i2ino, 1552. The dialogo was again 
 reprinted, together with Lodovico Dolce’s 
 
 DIALOGO DELLA INSTITUTION DELLE DONNE, 
 
 in a volume entitled le bellezze, le lodi, 
 
 GLI AMORI ET I COSTUMI DELLE DONNE, COn 
 
 lo discacciamento delle lettere di Agnolo 
 Firenzuola, e di Alessandro Piccolomini, 
 si giuntovi i saggi ammaestramenti che 
 appartengono alia honorevole e virtuosa 
 vita virginale, maritale e vedovile, di 
 Lod. Dolce, Venetia, Bar ergo Bareli, 
 1622, 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 The text of the last mentioned edition 
 has been followed in the present trans- 
 lation. 
 
 A French translation of the dialogo has 
 been published under the title : discours 
 
 DE LA BEAUTE DES DAMES, pi'inS de 1’Ita- 
 lien du Seigneur Ange Firenzuola, par 
 J. Pallet. Paris, Abel TAngelier, 1 vol. 
 8 vo, 1578. 
 
FIRENZUOLA, FLORENTINE. 
 
 To the high-bom and fair Ladies of Prato, 
 
 Greeting. 
 
 AVING been many times 
 bidden by persons who at 
 all times have a right to 
 command me, to set forth 
 in print a little dialogue of mine, which 
 was written in times past by the desire 
 of one most dear to me, treating of the 
 perfection of beauty in a woman, I believe. 
 I shall be without great difficulty excused 
 though I have proved stubborn or tardy 
 
2 
 
 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 in obeying them ; inasmuch as many of 
 those who required this of me know full 
 well how blameworthy, nay, how evil a 
 thing it is not to lock up new writings, 
 and, as it were, keep our maidens in the 
 inner chambers, at least till such time as 
 that, being allowed to come forth, they 
 may, like true eaglets, endure the light 
 of the sun ; and till the natural affection 
 shall have waned which every man must 
 feel towards that which is his own, and 
 he know them only as aliens, seeing and 
 regarding their shortcomings not as a 
 pitying father but as a severe censor. 
 
 1 was, moreover, diverted from such a 
 purpose by having heard that certain 
 over-subtle wits among you — so subtle 
 that they turn to smoke — would en- 
 deavour to interpret the names which 1 
 have studiously concealed, and in this 
 one or that discern a lady ; and would 
 say : Know you not that this man says 
 you paint your face, and hath called you 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 3 
 
 Madonna Ciona or Madonna Bettola? 
 And one even was not ashamed to say 
 that this was meant for one of the fair 
 damsels of Prato, modest and virtuous 
 as she is, nay, a most precious Mar- 
 guerite — she, let us say, who is attired 
 in black satin — thus departing as far from 
 the truth as they draw near to a swift 
 judgment for their iniquities. 
 
 My intent, fair maids of Prato, was not 
 to point out this one or that one ; but 
 whereas, to my mind, the nature and 
 adornment of a Dialogue demand such 
 flowers of speech as shall set the matter 
 before the reader by examples, as is 
 customary in daily discourse, I have 
 feigned names, now of this one and 
 now of that one, as the matter of the 
 treatise required, without thinking any 
 more of Madonna Pasquina than of Ma- 
 donna Salvestra. Thus, my fair ladies, 
 when such malignants, being your 
 enemies as much as mine, say that I 
 b 2 
 
4 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 have spoken ill of you, answer them 
 boldly with what I am wont to say every 
 day : That he who in deed, word or 
 thought, is apt to offend in the least, the 
 least of women, is not a man, but rather 
 an animal without reason, that is a brute. 
 And when such an one speaketh evil 
 now of this one and now of that, answer 
 him, if not in the words at least to the 
 effect that he doeth not the act of a true 
 man ; since one who shall speak evil in 
 the absence of another, in whose face he 
 would smile if he were present, is him- 
 self a deceiver. And say no more ; for 
 this reply, being true, will pierce him 
 through. And when they say: This is 
 this one, this other is that one, 1 tell you 
 again that they depart from the truth, 
 and that these names and cognomina are 
 chosen by chance, especially of those 
 who are taken for examples of ugliness. 
 True indeed, some of those which are 
 examples of beauty, together with the 
 four ladies who discourse with Celso, 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 5 
 
 dwell in my imagination, and I know 
 them in my thoughts ; and in their 
 teigned names he who shall unfold them 
 carefully will find the true names under 
 a thin disguise. 
 
 And this was one of the chief reasons 
 wherefor I was fain to let these writings 
 grow old in dust ; all the more since, 
 besides these, there were some who re- 
 ported that certain ladies were wrath that 
 I should speak of them at all, whether 
 well or ill. Certain others grieved that 
 I should have held them of such small 
 account that I had not given them 
 a place among the four, deeming that 
 they deserved it ; as in truth they did, 
 if merit could be ascribed to them in 
 these my poor unprofitable papers, more 
 fit to be cast out than to do honour to 
 their bright fame. And to these — since 
 I am compelled to put forth this little 
 book — answering a few words in self- 
 defence, I would say that the former are 
 in the wrong, inasmuch as that my style 
 
6 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 is lowly, its eloquence small, its powers 
 of wit feeble, its elegance none ; yet 
 they should accept my goodwill, albeit 
 my work is not altogether such as cer- 
 tain great and illustrious signors and 
 ingenious gentlewomen of this our land 
 of Italy would fain have read and 
 esteemed, and have held the writer 
 dear. But this 1 may and will boast: 
 That the judicious ear of Clement the 
 Seventh (to whose due praises no skilled 
 pen may ever attain) remained open for 
 many hours in the presence of the most 
 illustrious wits of Italy, listening with 
 great attention to the sound of his own 
 voice while he read the dissertation 
 entitled Discacciamento ' and the first part 
 of the Discourses I had dedicated to the 
 illustrious Lady Catherina Cibo, the noble 
 Duchess of Camerino — and not without 
 marks of satisfaction, and praise of me. 
 
 1 “ Discacciamento delle nuove lettere inutil- 
 mente aggiunte ne la lingua Toscana.” Roma, 
 1524. 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 ; 
 
 And even if this were not true — * 
 and it is most true — I might call to 
 witness the great Bishop Giovio. Doth 
 not Marcus Tullius , 2 who was as the 
 right eye of the Latin tongue, write to 
 L. Lucceius these express words: “l 
 burn with an indescribable desire to be 
 made famous by your writings ” ? If, 
 then, the prince of Latin writers held it 
 so dear that he burned with desire to be 
 celebrated by one so inferior to himself, 
 entreating him with such vehemence to 
 write concerning him, why should you 
 scorn to be named by me, and written of 
 in this my little dialogue ? If I indeed am 
 not Lucceius — and peradventure I am — 
 you are not Helen nor Venus. And this 
 I say, not of all, but only of some who, 
 unless they have turned deaf within a 
 few days, will hear me, I know. 
 
 Yet .it may well be that one or another 
 thus excuseth herself out of good-breed- 
 ing, or, I would say, humility ; that is 
 2 Cicero, Ad. Att. iv. ep. vi. 
 
8 
 
 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 as not seeing anything in herself which 
 should render her worthy of this honour; 
 and these, if there be such, I gladly for- 
 give many things, nay, and I hold them 
 excused ; and I address myself to those 
 others who show that they hold this my 
 hapless book in such high esteem that 
 they threaten me with unremitting hatred 
 because I have not put them into it. To 
 these 1 say, as my most true and just 
 excuse, that the fear 1 was in of the 
 former hindered me from writing of 
 these latter, doubting whether they would 
 owe me a grudge for it, like those others. 
 Nevertheless 1 thank all who show so 
 great an esteem for my writings ; and 
 whether they hate me, or hate me not, I 
 am equally their debtor, and some day 
 may haply prove it to them in a more 
 particular way. 
 
 And another thing hath been whispered 
 in my ear, which is no light matter. 
 That is, that she who is the lady and 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 9 
 
 mistress of my heart, born to be the 
 mainstay of my age, and chosen to be 
 the repose of my labours, complains 
 that she is not to be found therein. In 
 the first place this is no small error, 
 inasmuch as I know not that any lady 
 knoweth herself to be she for whom I 
 pine ; since 1 have not hitherto had the 
 opportunity to tell her so, nor have I 
 known how to act so that she should 
 discover it from signs. Yet, if any one, 
 without my consent, hath told her this 
 from me, let him take this further 
 message, with my consent : That she 
 look very diligently, and she will find 
 herself herein, for that she is one of the 
 four, and by seeking she will find 
 herself. And if, after all, she deem 
 that she is not there, or not as she 
 would have herself, and does not know 
 herself by countersigns, — which indeed 
 I have concealed as best I might, to give 
 no handle to the vulgar — bid her search 
 
10 
 
 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 my heart from side to side, and if she 
 find herself not there she may speak ill 
 of me. And let that suffice her, that 
 she be not bitter against me ; but for 
 the love of God bid her tell no one 
 or she will be my ruin. 
 
 Moreover there are certain hypocrites 
 — the daughter of Madonna Biursa of 
 the Image is one of them — who say that 
 because I am ill-favoured, my other half 
 must need be uncomely and clumsy as 
 lam. To this 1 must make some reply, 
 not to be altogether cast away. Fair 
 ladies, when I was born I was not so 
 old as I am now, nor was I so bearded 
 nor so ill-favoured as now ; but the 
 fairies spoiled me on the way, and 
 whereas 1 have wandered much, and 
 have been much in the sun, I have 
 been burned and seem to be black. 
 Yet, under my doublet I am not so 
 black as I am above, especially on a 
 Sunday morning when I have changed 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. I l 
 
 my shirt. And, as my mother hath 
 told me, my nurse pulled my nose a 
 little too long. But when my mistress 
 and 1 parted we were both equally 
 handsome, only I have been some- 
 what marred since by lack of ease, 
 and she hath preserved herself by much 
 ease. 
 
 And there are some who say that by 
 writing this book I shall have lost more 
 than I can gain, for that excepting those 
 four (or rather three, since one of them 
 owes me a grudge for bringing her 
 there, and has bid me to know that 
 she neither blesses nor thanks me), all 
 the rest have banned me with bell, 
 book and candle. But what odds can 
 that make? If I die by their hands I 
 shall not die by the hands of the Turks 
 or the Moors ; and I shall die happy 
 since I have given them no just cause, 
 and truly do not so now. And at all 
 times, whether they regard or remember 
 
12 
 
 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 me with kindness or disfavour, yet 
 shall I ever love all worthy ladies. 
 
 Again, 1 have heard one say, who 
 thought herself wise, nay, and is so, 
 that 1 myself am Celso, and that for 
 lack of good neighbours I must be 
 praising myself. But to her, and to 
 any others who say as much and who 
 smile at my doings : If they had read 
 more and knew what method there 
 must be in the making of a dialogue, 
 they would not have said so witless a 
 thing ; yet, even if it were so, and if 
 1 had been minded to appear myself in 
 the person of Celso, what praise have 
 1 bestowed on myself? 1 have said that 
 he was a man of good letters ; and it is 
 plain that if I had not studied and had 
 thereby gotten some scholarship, I could 
 but ill have wrought out this dialogue 
 to that perfection which is now to be 
 found in it ; and as to whether I have 
 or have not skill in letters, henceforth 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 1} 
 
 I desire no other witness than this little 
 work. If I were not courteous, and 
 had not yielded to the bidding of 
 friends, I should not now be in this 
 labyrinth. If I feign that he has set his 
 heart high, and lives with purity and 
 holiness, on the foundations of virtue 
 (and in this, indeed, I confess I desired 
 to depict myself), I have written the 
 truth, and I ask no other testimony 
 than the innocency and purity of my 
 conscience, and to all who know any 
 sin in me 1 give full license to declare 
 it and prove me a liar. 
 
 But now behold whence these have 
 it : There be some who say that at my 
 age, and in my profession, 3 a man is not 
 expected to write such works, but of 
 grave and severe matters ; and to them 
 
 3 Firenzuola was born in 1493. The first 
 edition of the Dialogo was published in 1548, 
 when the author, who had been a lawyer, had 
 entered the monastery of Vallombrosa. 
 
14 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 I will only reply that 1 have ever held 
 all doleful hypocrites and malignant and 
 ignorant persons of small account, and 
 that they who say such things are of 
 that breed and I regard them not at all. 
 Nay, I grieve that so worthy a man as 
 Boccaccio should have vouchsafed to 
 answer them ; it was showing too 
 great concern for them. 
 
 There is another point which must 
 be considered, and that is : Whatever I 
 may have written 1 have not been wont 
 to take any great care, nor do 1 now, as 
 to the minute observance of the rules of 
 the Tuscan tongue, but have sought to 
 copy the manner of everyday use, not 
 that of Petrarca and Boccaccio ; but 
 bearing in mind a saying of Favorino, 
 I have ever used those words and modes 
 of speech which change from day to 
 day, the coin, as Horatius hath it, which 
 is now current, and not worn money, 
 nor any scarce coinage. 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. I 5 
 
 One thing is certain : Many of those 
 who profess composition will sound the 
 alarm over sundry things which do not 
 accord with their style ; but in their 
 despite, that which 1 have done I did 
 because it seemed right in my eyes; and 
 if I deserve reproof, reprove me ; 1 will 
 be patient. If they desire to put me to 
 shame, behold I turn red ; nevertheless, 
 that I may not seem so shamefaced a 
 wight, as soon as 1 shall have put forth 
 a translation of the Ars Poeticus of Hora- 
 tius, somewhat paraphrased (which will 
 be in this next summer), I will briefly 
 reply to their corrections. 
 
 Meanwhile have me in your protection, 
 both as to this Dialogue and as to that 
 little book wherein the foxes and crows 
 are made to speak, 4 sent forth by me not 
 long since, as you know, to be judged 
 of my friends. 
 
 Behold now in what a labyrinth I am, 
 4 Discorsi degli animali. 
 
1 6 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 in what a dilemma I find myself, from 
 having hearkened to the arguments of 
 others. And nevertheless I have so 
 much spirit and so great strength, that 
 I shall overcome all these difficulties, 
 like another Hercules all those monsters; 
 and the courteous entreaties of those I 
 love work in me more powerfully than 
 all the unreasonable objections which 
 evil tongues may raise. 
 
 Therefore I have written it all out once 
 more and determined to give it forth, 
 having already shown it to my friends 
 and my enemies, to whom I will recall 
 the ancient saw which saith that a dead 
 lion may not be shorn of his beard. 
 
 Written in Prato on the i8tb day of 
 January, 1541, in the reign of the 
 Most Illustrious and Excellent 
 Cosmo, Duke of 
 Florence. 
 
rono .<*A«cvfe» 
 
 DIALOGUE BY FIRENZUOLA, 
 
 FLORENTINE, ON THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN, 
 ENTITLED CELSO. 
 
 3First Discourse, 
 
 SELVAGGIO is a great 
 nd of mine, and so much 
 my service that I make 
 d to say he is in truth as 
 my second self. Hence, when I now set 
 forth these his discourses, albeit indeed he 
 hath forbidden it, he will have patience 
 with me, inasmuch as that the love he 
 bears me constrains him to make my will 
 his own, and all the more, since that which 
 
 c 
 
1 8 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 constraineth him constraineth me. Now 
 he, besides being a man skilled in learn- 
 ing, is of no small judgment, and great 
 courtesy, and highly accommodating to 
 the desires of his friends ; and for all 
 these reasons, being assured that he will 
 make no difficulties, 1 have set them 
 forth, as you see. 
 
 He found himself last summer in the 
 garden of the Abbey of Grignano, kept 
 at that time by Vanozzo de’ Rochi, 
 whither several youths and maidens had 
 betaken themselves for air, ladies distin- 
 guished no less for their beauty and high 
 degree than for their many virtues — 
 among them Madonna Lampiada, Ma- 
 donna Amororrisca, Selvaggia and Ver- 
 despina. They had withdrawn to the 
 summit of a hillock in the midst of that 
 garden, overgrown with cypress and 
 laurel, where they tarried, disputing of 
 Madonna Amelia della Torrenuova, who 
 likewise was in the pleasaunce ; and this 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 1 9 
 
 one would have it that she was of the 
 greatest beauty, and that other that she 
 was not even well-favoured, when Celso 
 came up the mount with certain other 
 youths of Prato, the kindred of these 
 ladies. And they being thus taken by 
 surprise, were silent on a sudden. 
 Then Celso, making excuse for having 
 done them such discourtesy, the ladies 
 graciously replied that their coming 
 hither was most pleasing to them, and 
 they bid these gentlemen be seated on a 
 bank over against them ; yet were they 
 again silent. 
 
 Whereupon Celso spoke, saying: “Fair 
 ladies, either proceed in your discourse, 
 or dismiss us from your company, to 
 the end that we may not disturb your 
 sport, but hit the ball as it bounds.” 
 
 Then said Madonna Lampiada : “ Mes- 
 ser Celso, our discourse was of women, 
 wherefor it did not appear to us to be 
 seemly to continue it in your presence, 
 c 2 
 
20 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 This one said that Amelia is not comely ; 
 
 I say that she is ; thus were we disputing 
 after the manner of ladies.” 
 
 To whom Celso replied: “Madonna 
 Selvaggia is in error, but indeed she 
 loves her not. In truth that lady must 
 ever be accounted fair by all, nay, and 
 most beautiful ; and if she is not to be 
 deemed beautiful, I cannot see one in 
 Prato who may be called fair.” 
 
 On this Selvaggia, somewhat wrath 
 rather than pleased, replied: “Small 
 judgment is needed in such a matter, since 
 each is of a different mind, and a brown 
 skin is pleasing to one and a white skin 
 to another ; and it is with us women as 
 in a draper’s shop, where cloth from the 
 Romagnuola finds a purchaser no less 
 than satin from Banello.” 
 
 “ Well and good,” quoth Celso, “ but 
 when we speak of a beautiful woman 
 we mean one whom all alike admire, 
 and not this one or that one only ; thus 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 21 
 
 Nora, so ill-favoured as she is, appears 
 most pleasing in the sight of her Tomaso, 
 albeit she is as uncomely as she possibly 
 can be ; and my gossip, who was 
 passing fair, her husband could not 
 suffer. Peradventure it is that certain 
 complexions suit or suit not ; but a lady 
 fair in all points, like yourself, must 
 necessarily be pleasing to all, as you are ; 
 albeit few are pleasing to you, as I know 
 full well. It is indeed the truth that to 
 be of perfect beauty many things are 
 needed, so that one is rarely found who 
 possesseth the half of them.” 
 
 Selvaggia then said: “There are 
 
 some among you men whom the world 
 itself would not satisfy. And I once 
 heard it said that one Momus, unable 
 to find any fault in the beauty of Venus, 
 blamed some trifle in the fashion of her 
 sandals.” 
 
 Then said Verdespina : “Thus you 
 see how he beheld her.” 
 
22 
 
 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 And Celso, laughing, went on : “ Again 
 Stesichoros, a most noble poet of Sicily, 
 spoke evil of that Helen who, by her 
 exceeding great beauty, moved a thou- 
 sand Greek ships to go forth against 
 the great kingdom of Troy.” 
 
 Then said Madonna Lampiada in 
 haste : “ Aye, truly, but you know 
 that he thereupon lost his sight, and 
 had it not again till he denied his 
 words.” 
 
 “And so had his desert,” added 
 Celso, “inasmuch as that beauty and 
 fair women, and fair women and beauty, 
 ought to be lauded and held precious 
 by all ; seeing that a fair woman is the 
 fairest object that may be seen, and 
 beauty the highest gift bestowed by 
 God on mankind ; since its virtue is to 
 invite the soul to contemplation, and 
 through contemplation to the desire of 
 heavenly things. Hence it hath been 
 given us as a foretaste and as an 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 23 
 
 earnest ; and it is of such power and 
 worth that it hath been accounted by 
 sages as the first and most excellent of 
 all things to be loved ; nay, they have 
 called it the very seat, the nest, the 
 abode of love : of love, I say, which is 
 the source and fount of all human joys. 
 For it we see a man forget himself ; and 
 on beholding a face graced with this 
 celestial gift, his limbs will quake, his 
 hair stand on end, and he will sweat 
 and shiver at the same time ; just as 
 one who, seeing on a sudden some 
 heavenly vision, is possessed by the 
 divine frenzy ; and when he is come 
 to himself worships it in his thoughts 
 and bows down to it in his heart, and 
 acknowledging it as it were a god, 
 gives himself up as a victim and a 
 sacrifice on the altar of that fair lady’s 
 heart.” 
 
 Whereupon said Madonna Lampiada : 
 “Ah, Messer Celso, if it shall not weary 
 
24 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 you, do us a pleasure ; tell us somewhat 
 of this beauty, and what should be the 
 form of such a fair woman ; whereas 
 these damsels have for some time urged 
 me to entreat this of you and 1 have 
 delayed to do it. But since you, of 
 your own motion, have begun to dis- 
 course of it, having increased my desire, 
 you likewise have raised my courage ; 
 all the more since it has been told me 
 that during the evening assembly held 
 by my sister last Carnival season, you 
 spoke of the matter with those ladies 
 at such length that Madonna Agnoletta 
 could talk of nothing else for many 
 days. So we pray you do us this 
 favour, for we have nought else to be 
 busy about ; and in this light wind the 
 heat of the day will be more delight- 
 fully spent by us than by those below 
 who are sporting or walking in the 
 pleasaunce.” 
 
 Then answered Celso: “Aye! To 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 2 5 
 
 the end that Selvaggia, if she hear aught 
 said which is not to her mind, or if I 
 omit aught, may cry out that I am 
 speaking ill of women ; in which 1 
 never take so great pleasure as 1 do in 
 praising them, as she has often known 
 by experience, and yet hath never 
 thanked me for it. But, God wot! 
 the smoke shall one day change her 
 white flesh.” 
 
 Then said Madonna Lampiada : “Fear 
 not ; she will say nothing. Do us, we 
 entreat you, this favour.” 
 
 Thus, finding them so set upon it, 
 not to be wanting to his gentle nature, 
 he spoke after the manner which by 
 reading you shall understand. For not 
 many days since I made him repeat to 
 me all that had been said, and set it 
 down in writing as best I knew or 
 could ; albeit you may well believe 
 that many things are lacking of what 
 was spoken, no less by the ladies than 
 
2 6 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 by him, who, after some little excuse, 
 began thus : 
 
 Celso. 1 was never entreated by any 
 lady to do that which in all honour 1 
 might do, and denied her ; nor shall 
 1 begin now. Let us then discourse 
 boldly of beauty with these four most 
 fair ladies. And the first thing we 
 must consider is wherein this beauty in 
 general consists. The second shall be 
 the perfection, or use, or purpose of 
 each member in particular ; that is to 
 say of such as are to be seen. Inas- 
 much as Nature (as Marcus Tullius saith) 
 provides with mysterious skill that those 
 parts by whose virtue beauty is best 
 displayed are in an honourable promi- 
 nence, to the end that they may be 
 the better seen by all, she likewise, by 
 tacit persuasion, leads both men and 
 women to wear the upper parts un- 
 covered and the lower parts clothed, 
 so that the former, being the proper 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 27 
 
 seat of beauty, are to be seen, which is 
 not necessary for the others, since they 
 are but a pedestal or a base for the 
 upper portions. 
 
 M. Amororrisca. Then those preachers 
 do well who reprove such as cover their 
 face with a mask, since, as you say, 
 that is the seat of beauty ? 
 
 Celso. Yes, if they reproved only 
 those who are fair to look upon, and 
 who would in truth sin greatly in 
 hiding so much beauty ; but whereas 
 they no less reprove the ill-favoured, 
 who would do well at all times to wear 
 masks, meseemeth that they do not 
 altogether well. And you may discern 
 for yourselves how greatly displeasing 
 the ill-favoured are, when Signor Alberto 
 de’ Bardi da Vernia, a man whose 
 excellent judgment we all know, says 
 that if at a high festival, he sees 
 Madonna Cione, who goes to them all 
 in her black satin, the joy he has in all 
 
28 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 the other fair ones doth not make up to 
 him for his displeasure at that one ill- 
 favoured dame. 
 
 M. Amororrisca. Then neither the 
 feet, nor the arms, nor the limbs which 
 we are wont to cover with clothing, 
 harbour beauty, as your discourse would 
 seem to say. And yet we say Mona 
 Bartolomea hath a fine leg, Appollonia a 
 fine foot, Gemmetta a fine hip. 
 
 Celso. Nay, more ; Plato denies that 
 beauty can reside in a single member, 
 and saith that it requires the union of 
 many, as we shall presently learn ; yet, 
 when we say of any single member that 
 it is beautiful, by that we mean that it 
 is of good proportions and proper in 
 itself and to its purpose ; thus, of a 
 finger : it should be shapely and white ; 
 and the finger that is thus we call a 
 beautiful finger, if not of that universal 
 beauty which philosophers insist on, 
 yet of a proper and individual beauty. 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 29 
 
 Nevertheless, as to the disposition of 
 that beauty which, with its divine 
 semblance, ravishes the sense of sight 
 to contemplate it, and through the eyes 
 constrains the mind to desire it ; which, 
 beginning at the bosom, ends in the 
 perfections of the face — the lower mem- 
 bers have no part in it ; yet they have 
 some part in the shapeliness or beauty 
 of the whole body. But when clad 
 and covered as much as when naked ; 
 nay, more so, inasmuch as by being 
 fitly clothed they gain the greater grace. 
 Therefore we will discourse chiefly of 
 those parts which are seen, and of those 
 which are covered only as in the second 
 place ; and then we will consider what 
 comeliness is, and what we mean by 
 charm, what we understand by grace, 
 and what by elegance, and what it is to 
 have, or not to have, an air ; what is 
 meant by that v/hich the common 
 call majesty in you ladies, albeit not 
 
30 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 in the true sense of the word. And 
 as Homer first said, and after him the 
 Carthaginian to Hannibal : The Gods 
 have not given all things to all men, 
 but to one wit and to another beauty ; 
 strength to many and grace to few, 
 and virtue to scarcely any ; so we will 
 take you four ladies, and imitate Zeuxis, 
 who, when he was to paint Helen for 
 the citizens of Crotona, chose five of 
 their fairest maidens, and copying from 
 each her chief beauty composed his 
 Helen, who thus was so perfectly 
 beautiful that nothing else was talked 
 of throughout Greece. By this example 
 likewise (or perhaps by that of Lucian, 
 who also composed his beauty from 
 many beauties, which he borrowed from 
 the admirable statues of the most famous 
 sculptors who had lived before his day) 
 Messer Gio. Giorgio Trissino learned his 
 method of portraiture ; and we in like 
 manner will try if we may not, from 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 3 I 
 
 these four fair ones, compose one who 
 shall be perfect. So now let us proceed 
 to a definition of beauty and to its true 
 and principal signs. 
 
 Cicero, in the Tusculan Disputations, 
 tells us that beauty lies in the seemly 
 shape of the several members, with a 
 certain softness of colouring. Others, 
 and among them Aristotle, have said 
 that it dwells in a certain fit proportion, 
 arising from the adjustment of the 
 various parts to each other. Ficino, the 
 Platonist, On Feasting, in his second 
 oration, saith that beauty is a certain 
 grace, which has its origin in the ordering 
 of the various members ; and he says 
 ordering, by reason that this word im- 
 plies a certain sweet regularity, full of 
 comeliness, as it might be a subtle 
 conjunction. 
 
 Dante, in his Cole^ione (which, in 
 comparison with Plato’s Banquet, needs 
 a draught of good wine), tells us that 
 
}2 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 beauty is a harmony. We, not in any hope 
 of doing better than these, but because 
 in speaking to ladies it is well to make 
 matters plain ; and not so much to 
 define beauty, as rather to explain our- 
 selves, will say that it is nothing less 
 than a well-ordered concord, and so to 
 speak, a harmony, which is the occult 
 result of the composition, union, and 
 commixture of many diverse parts ; 
 differing in themselves, and well pro- 
 portioned according to their proper 
 nature and need, and in a certain sense 
 beautiful ; yet, before their union in one 
 person, dissimilar and discrepant. And 
 1 say a concord, a harmony, as a figure 
 of speech ; since, in the art of music, a 
 concord of the high and the bass notes 
 with divers others, produces the beauty 
 of vocal harmony, so a stout limb and a 
 slender one, a white feature and a black 
 one, a straight one and a curved one, a 
 small and a large one, when composed 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. }} 
 
 and united by Nature in incomprehen- 
 sible proportions, produce that pleasing 
 whole, that propriety, that fine tempera- 
 ment which we call beauty. And I say 
 the occult result, inasmuch as we can 
 give no reason why that white chin, 
 those red lips, those black eyes, that 
 round hip, that small foot should create, 
 or produce, or result in beauty; and yet, 
 we see, thus it is. If a woman were 
 hairy, she would be ill-favoured ; if a 
 horse were bare of hair he would be a 
 monster. To a camel a hump is an 
 adornment, to a woman a misfortune. 
 This can only come of an occult ordi- 
 nance of Nature, which, in my judgment, 
 no arrow from the bow of human wit 
 can hit. But the eye, which by Nature 
 herself hath been constituted the judge 
 in this case, esteeming that it is so, 
 compels us to accept its sentence with- 
 out appeal. Again, I say discrepant, 
 inasmuch as that beauty being harmony 
 
 o 
 
34 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 (as we have seen) and the union of 
 diverse things — -just as the hand of the 
 player, and the will moving the hand, and 
 the bow, the viol and the strings, are all 
 diverse things — so the face, which differs 
 from the bosom, and the bosom from 
 the throat, and the arms from the legs, 
 being brought together and united in one 
 person by the occult purpose of Nature, 
 result, as it were of necessity, in beauty. 
 That which Cicero saith of colour 1 deem 
 superfluous ; whenever the several parts 
 which combine to produce the beauty 
 herein described shall be beautiful in 
 themselves, well formed and ordered, 
 composed and proportioned to perfection, 
 they will of necessity overcast the body 
 they compose with that sweetness of 
 colouring which is needful for the true 
 perfection of beauty. For, as in a well- 
 tempered body, in w'hich the humours 
 and elements duly mingle, we find 
 health, and health gives a clear and 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 35 
 
 lively colouring and so reveals outwardly 
 its inward presence, so the several per- 
 fect members united in a single person 
 will give it the colouring necessary to 
 the perfect unity and harmonious beauty 
 of the whole. 
 
 Plutarch writes that Alexander the 
 Great diffused from his limbs a most 
 sweet odour, and he ascribes this to 
 nothing else than the fine, nay perfect 
 tempering of the humours and of his 
 whole complexion. Thus, to return to 
 our matter : it is fitting that the cheeks 
 should be fair ; and such fairness is in 
 things which, beside whiteness, have a 
 certain glow, like ivory ; but whiteness 
 is that which hath no such glow, as 
 snow. And whereas the cheeks to be 
 beautiful must be of this fairness, the 
 bosom must be white ; and whereas, to 
 produce beauty in the whole person each 
 part severally must be beautiful, it is no 
 less needful that each should have its 
 
 d 2 
 
36 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 due colour, that which is proper to its 
 particular beauty or essence ; and so 
 having it separately they will likewise 
 have it in their union ; and if they have 
 it they will of necessity diffuse that 
 sweetness of colour which is needed. 
 And this colour must not result from 
 various colours compounded in one and 
 the same part, but be different in dif- 
 ferent parts, according to the diversity 
 and needs of the several members ; here 
 white, as in the hands, there fair and 
 rosy, as in the cheeks ; black in the 
 eyebrows, red in the lips, yellow in the 
 hair. And this, my ladies, is not the 
 definition, but an exposition of the 
 definition of beauty. 
 
 Madonna Latnpiada. Forgive me, I 
 beseech you, if now and again I break 
 the thread of your discourse by asking 
 questions, inasmuch as I am one of 
 those who, knowing that they are 
 ignorant, would be right glad to learn 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 57 
 
 when the opportunity is offered them. 
 When you speak of beauty in general, 
 do you speak of that of men, or of that 
 of women, or of both alike? 
 
 Celso. It is a great sign of knowledge 
 to begin to discern that we know not, 
 and to desire to know. Thus Socrates, 
 who was judged a sage by the oracle of 
 Apollo, after all his labours and all his 
 pains, declared that he had learnt only 
 this : to know that he knew nothing. 
 And you say so, not that you truly know 
 nothing, but from your natural modesty; 
 and you inquire, not that I may teach 
 you who know more than I, but for 
 these other ladies, who, being somewhat 
 younger, have less experience than you. 
 I say, therefore, in answer to your ques- 
 tion, that if you had read Aristophanes’ 
 oration, which he spoke at Plato’s 
 banquet, there would be no need that 
 1 should explain this matter to you ; or 
 if perchance you had read certain fine 
 
38 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 stanzas by Monsignore Bembo, written 
 in his youth. Nay, I should feel moved 
 to rehearse to you the matter of his 
 verse but that it is long, and I shall 
 therefore keep it till another day. 
 
 M. Lampiada. I beseech you tell us 
 now, while we have time. Another 
 day it may be lacking. 
 
 Celso. If you will have it so I can 
 but relate it, yet as briefly as 1 may ; if 
 1 should tell it you exactly as it is writ- 
 ten we should tarry the whole evening. 
 
 When Jove created the first men and 
 the first women he gave them twice the 
 number of parts they now have, that is 
 to say, four arms and four legs and two 
 heads ; and hence, having double parts, 
 they had double powers ; and they were 
 of three sexes : some male in both 
 halves, others female, but these were 
 few ; and the rest, who were the 
 greater number, were one half male and 
 the other half female. As it fell these 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN, 39 
 
 last, not considering the mercies they 
 had received from Jove, took thought 
 together to overthrow him from heaven. 
 And he, being warned of the matter, 
 setting aside all other counsel and not 
 willing to destroy the whole human 
 race lest there should be none to adore 
 him, determined to divide them all 
 severally into two, and so to secure 
 his estate, deeming that by this division 
 he should sever force from boldness. 
 And this he forthwith put into effect, 
 and thus the matter ended, leaving us 
 as you see us to this very day. And 
 Mercury was the sawyer and Esculapius 
 the master to mend us and salve the 
 breast, which was the part that suffered 
 most (albeit yours, Selvaggia, hath healed 
 all too well), and to cure all the other 
 parts which the saw had hurt. And 
 thus, as you see, everyone thenceforth 
 was male or female, save a certain small 
 number who escaped, but who by too 
 
40 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 much running wasted themselves away 
 and were of no more use. These were 
 named Hermaphrodites, which signifies 
 fugitives from Hernias, that is Mercury. 
 Some, which were, or had descended 
 from, males in both halves, desiring to 
 return to their former state, seek their 
 other half, which is a male, and contem- 
 plate each other’s beauty. Some in all 
 virtue, as Socrates' love for the beautiful 
 Alcibiades, Achilles’ for Patroclus, and 
 Nisus’ for Euryalus ; some in dishonour, 
 as certain vile souls, more unworthy of 
 any name or fame than he who to 
 become famous set fire to the temple 
 of the Ephesian goddess. And all such 
 as these, whether virtuous or vile, flee 
 for the most part from consorting with 
 you ladies, and of such I am sure that 
 at this very day you likewise know of 
 more than one. Those which had been 
 female in both halves, or are descended 
 from such, love each other’s beauty, 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 4 1 
 
 some in purity and holiness, as the fair 
 Laodamia Forteguerra loved the illus- 
 trious Margaret of Austria ; others foully, 
 as Sappho the Lesbian among the an- 
 cients, and, in our own time, the great 
 courtezan Cicilia Vinitiana at Rome. 
 These by nature scorn marriage, and 
 flee from converse with men. And of 
 these we may suppose are they who of 
 their own will become nuns, and of 
 their own will remain so ; and they are 
 few. The third kind, who were both 
 male and female, and the most in 
 number, were those from whom you 
 are descended, who have husbands and 
 hold them dear, like Alcestis, the wife 
 of King Admetus, and others who have 
 not refused to die for the good of their 
 husbands ; and, in short, all of you 
 who are fain to see the face of man in 
 all modesty, as the holy laws allow. 
 So, likewise, such of us men as either 
 have or seek wives, and, finally, all of 
 
4 2 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 those who have no greater pleasure than 
 to look upon the fair faces of you sweet 
 ladies. These, to be reunited to their 
 other half and rejoice in its beauties, 
 would fear no danger, as Orpheus for his 
 dear Euridice, and Caius Gracchus, the 
 noble Roman, for his beloved Cornelia; 
 and as I would do for that cruel fair one 
 who, not willing to discern that she is 
 my other half and 1 hers, flies from me 
 as though I were some strange creature. 
 
 Ver despina. 1 may tell you, you suffer 
 this love of yours to be so little under- 
 stood that it is no wonder if she whom 
 you love and call your other half — since 
 other half there is — know not of it, and 
 so show you not such honest favour as a 
 gentle lady should show to so ingenious 
 a gentleman. And, nevertheless, there 
 is no one in Prato but believes that you 
 are in love ; and a few days since 1 
 heard one enquiring of it with great 
 insistence, and all said that they believed 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 43 
 
 it, but knew not with whom. And 
 when I ponder those words you are 
 sometimes wont to speak: “She who 
 hath me knows it not, and she who 
 knows she hath me, hath me not,” I 
 am confirmed in my first thought that 
 she whom you love knows it not, and 
 she whom you love not believes that 
 you love her. Notwithstanding, you 
 do all so secretly that it is not easy to 
 tell which is she to whom you are 
 feigning, and to which you do true 
 duty. 
 
 Celso. Gentle Verdespina, can you 
 believe that I am so base of soul and 
 so forgetful of myself as to have locked 
 up my heart safe from all Love's darts ? 
 1 too am a man, I too seek my other 
 half, I too crave to rejoice in the beauty 
 of her who hath been set before me as 
 a radiant sight for my adventurous eyes 
 and for the consolation of my intellect, 
 but I enjoy it in silence and in my soul ; 
 
44 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 inasmuch as that the end of my love, 
 which is pure and chaste, having its 
 roots in the well-tilled soil of virtue, is 
 contentment in itself with the sight of 
 that lady, of which it cannot be deprived 
 by any accident ; since, when she is 
 hidden from my bodily eye she is visible 
 to the eye of the spirit. Therefore let 
 my mistress hide herself as she will, 
 1 behold her ever, 1 ever contemplate 
 her and rejoice in her, and am happy. 
 And when 1 complain of her it is in 
 sport, seeing that in truth I have no 
 cause at all for complaint, not desiring 
 of her aught that I cannot have, much 
 less in her despite ; and perchance we 
 may be united on a day which she who 
 hath me knows, and she who hath me 
 not shall know. 
 
 And now let us return to the severed 
 men and divided women ; for we have 
 wandered too far from home. 1 say 
 then that there is no need to discourse 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 45 
 
 of the first kind, nor of the second, 
 since they but contemplate the beauty 
 of their own kind, whether divinely and 
 virtuously, or vilely and viciously ; and 
 after the first manner we cannot speak, 
 inasmuch as that our spirit while it is 
 in this prison is little apt for divine 
 things ; and as for the vile and wicked, 
 God forbid that in the company of 
 chaste and virtuous ladies such as you, 
 1 should speak of such evil folk. Thus 
 we must proceed to discourse of you 
 and of ourselves, that is to say, of men 
 who love women, and of women who 
 love men, but in all honour and purity, 
 being inflamed and illuminated by a 
 virtuous ray, as I have many times 
 said. But methinks that Selvaggia is 
 laughing us to scorn. 
 
 Selvaggia. 1 do not laugh ; 1 do but 
 look to see to what issue you will come. 
 
 Celso. 1 desire to come to this : 
 That whereas each one of us craves by 
 
46 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 natural instinct to meet and be reunited 
 to that other half, and be complete 
 again, it is needful that it should seem 
 beautiful, and seeming beautiful we are 
 constrained to love it, forasmuch as true 
 love, as the school of Plato affirmeth, is 
 nought else than a craving after beauty. 
 So that loving it we are constrained to 
 seek it, and seeking it to find it, — who 
 can hide aught from the eye of a true 
 lover? — and finding it to contemplate it, 
 and contemplating it to joy in it, and 
 rejoicing in it to find incomprehensible 
 delight. Delight is the end of every 
 human act, nay, it is the sovereign good 
 sought for by the philosophers ; and to 
 my judgment, to speak but of earthly 
 things, it is nowhere else to be found. 
 Hence it can seem no strange thing that 
 a gentle lady and a gallant gentleman 
 fired by the rays of Love (the only light 
 which through our eyes openeth the 
 mind, showing us our other half), 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 47 
 
 should move us to every labour and 
 expose us to every peril if we may but 
 find ourself in another, and another in 
 ourself. And to conclude, and keep 
 you waiting no longer, it must be said 
 that it is fitting for a lady to ponder on 
 the beauty of a man, and for a man to 
 contemplate that of a lady. Therefore 
 when we speak of beauty in general 
 we mean both yours and ours. Never- 
 theless, whereas a more delicate and 
 particular beauty dwells in you, is more 
 diffused in you, and more discernible 
 in you, your complexion being much 
 more subtle and tender than ours, and 
 (as many sages truly declare) made by 
 Nature so gentle, so soft, so sweet, so 
 loveable, so desirable, so admirable, and 
 so delightful, to the end that it should 
 be a rest and a refreshment, nay, a 
 harbour and goal, and the end of all 
 human weariness, I shall at this present 
 altogether set aside any discourse of the 
 
48 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 beauty of men. All my speech and 
 discourse, and all my thoughts turn on 
 the beauty of you ladies, and let those 
 who will blame me. For I dare affirm, 
 not of myself, but of the judgment both 
 of those learned in nature and of certain 
 theologians, that your beauty is an 
 earnest of heavenly things, an image 
 and simulacrum of the joys of Heaven. 
 How should man on earth ever convince 
 his mind that our future bliss, which 
 shall chiefly consist in contemplating for 
 ever the omnipotent essence of God and 
 rejoicing in His divine presence, could 
 be joy for ever without a thought of 
 weariness, were it not that to gaze on 
 the graces of a fair woman, to rejoice 
 in her charm and feast the eyes on her 
 gracious person, are an incomprehen- 
 sible delight, a supreme beatitude, a joy 
 which when it is over we long for 
 again, which makes a man so happy 
 that he forgets himself entirely? And 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 49 
 
 therefore, my dear friends of Prato, if I 
 sometimes gaze somewhat too long at 
 these ladies of yours, take it not amiss. 
 Know you not what Petrarca said to 
 Madonna Laura : 
 
 “ Were you less fair I should not be so bold.” 
 
 Do you believe that by contemplating 
 them I shall carry them off? Have no 
 such fear ; I will do them no harm. I 
 do it but that I may learn to enjoy the 
 bliss of Heaven ; inasmuch as that my 
 life is not so evil as that 1 dare not hope 
 to go thither. So, not to go up there 
 and seem like a rustic when first he 
 seeth a town, and not to have then 
 to learn the contemplation of things 
 beautiful, I exercise myself here as best 
 1 may, by gazing on these fair faces ; 
 and if anyone shall blame me for this, 
 let him know that 1 forgive him, for 
 meseems it is very fine revenge that I 
 cannot be justly blamed ; for he who 
 
 E 
 
50 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 hath a foul stomach cannot but betray 
 it in his breath. But see how far my 
 just wrath hath carried me. 
 
 M. Aimrorrisca. Well, well ; no 
 more of this, Messer Celso ; for albeit 
 an honest wrath is not unseemly in a 
 noble soul, to be too greatly moved by 
 it is neither seemly nor courteous. 
 
 Celso. My wrath indeed is great, 
 chiefly by reason of one who without 
 any reason was stirred up against me ; 
 but the cause was you, ladies ; since I, 
 being ready to talk of you, to praise 
 you, to defend you against the barking 
 of those fools who, while they speak ill 
 of you, would fain be your accepted 
 lovers, to write in your honour and 
 make myself your advocate, they say 
 the vilest things against me. But, fair 
 ladies, let them say what they will, I 
 still shall gaze on you, love you, speak 
 of you, write of you, serve you, and 
 revere you, and show you, dear ladies, 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 5 1 
 
 that what I have promised you in words 
 I will achieve in deeds. 
 
 I say that the reasoning here set forth, 
 which showeth that we are the halves of 
 each other, is an irresistible argument to 
 prove that you ladies are not less noble 
 than we men, that you are as wise, as 
 apt for things learned, moral and specula- 
 tive, as ingenious in mechanical acts and 
 knowledge as we ; and that the same 
 powers and essential habits dwell in 
 your minds as in ours ; seeing that 
 when the double whole was equally 
 divided into two equal parts, of necessity 
 one part was as good as the other, 
 and as fair as the other. Hence by 
 this argument and this conclusion 1 
 will make bold to say to those mine 
 enemies and yours, who in your pre- 
 sence seem to die for you, and behind 
 your back speak evil of you, that you 
 are in all things and at all times our 
 equals ; and albeit it may not appear 
 
 E 2 
 
S2 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 universally in every act, yet doth it in 
 regard of those domestic duties which, 
 through modesty, you have taken into 
 your care. And in the same way we 
 see that there is the greatest diversity in 
 the operations of the mind as between 
 the philosopher and the craftsman, the 
 doctor and the merchant. But we are 
 wandering over far from our matter. 
 Yet there is one thing whereof I fain 
 would warn you ; if any man should 
 say to you that this fable of the dividing 
 is but an old wife’s tale, you shall 
 answer him that Plato hath it so, and 
 that it is an apologue spoken by a sage 
 philosopher in a Dialogue of Plato. If 
 they be men of wit this reply shall 
 overthrow them, and if they be ignorant 
 they must be ill-disposed, and you may 
 hold them as of no account, inasmuch 
 as the evil-minded are incapable of 
 wisdom. To say that it is a fable of 
 Plato is to say that it is full of high and 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 53 
 
 divine mysteries, and that it signifieth 
 that which I have declared to you : to 
 wit, that we are one and the same, and 
 of equal perfection ; and that you have 
 to seek us and love us, and that we 
 have to seek you and love you ; our 
 completeness is in you, and yours in 
 us, not to speak of a thousand other 
 beauteous mysteries which at present it 
 profiteth not to declare. Forget not, 
 therefore, to say that it is of Plato ; 
 bind that well in your mind. 
 
 Now that I have shown so far as in 
 me lieth what is to be deemed beauty in 
 general, it remains to me, according to 
 my promise, to set forth that of the 
 various parts in particular and their 
 perfections, whereby, as hath already 
 been said, God, by His very marvellous 
 ordering, hath insured the preservation 
 of the whole, one member helping the 
 other, one using the virtue of another. 
 And first, meseemeth, 1 should speak of 
 
54 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 the stature or true form of the whole 
 person, which God created most well ; 
 inasmuch as it was to be the end and 
 crown of His work. And to contem- 
 plate the heavenly harmony He turned 
 and uplifted it towards the sky ; having 
 that superiority over other animals, which, 
 for the convenience of man or to beautify 
 and adorn the universe, were made 
 inclined towards the earth, in such a 
 manner as that they should ever gaze on 
 it as their sole end, and go prostrate 
 and on all fours. Thus He gave man 
 an upright stature that he might lift his 
 eyes to heaven, and ever fix them on 
 those celestial glories which, when this 
 prison-house shall be opened, shall, by 
 God’s grace, be our guerdon, our refuge 
 and our rest after human labours. Albeit, 
 as 1 have said, in the course of this 
 earthly travel man oftentimes recreates, 
 and rests, and refreshes, and comforts 
 himself, fair ladies, by your sweet 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. ^ 
 
 graces ; as doth the weary pilgrim in 
 his inn until he shall have reached the 
 goal of his desire. 
 
 The stature or form of a man may 
 be contained in a square, inasmuch as 
 that a man standing with his arms 
 
 extended cross-wise measures the same 
 from the tip of the 
 middle finger of 
 one hand to the 
 tip of the middle 
 finger of the other, 
 as from the lowest 
 part of the sole 
 of his foot to the 
 top or crown of his head, or, as it 
 
 is vulgarly called, his pate ; and this 
 
 figure should be at the least nine heads 
 high, that is to say nine times as much 
 as from the bottom of the chin to the 
 top of the head. Others have shown 
 it as contained within a perfect circle, 
 drawing the lines to the circumference 
 
56 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 from the fork of the legs, which they 
 take as the centre, as you see here. 
 
 M. Lampiada. Come hither, some- 
 what nearer to us, where the ground is 
 more even and you can draw the bet- 
 ter. And, I pray you, now you have 
 done so, draw that square containing 
 
 contained in a circle, since you do it so 
 well. 
 
 Celso. It is done, for I can deny you 
 nothing. You see the line is at an 
 equal distance everywhere from the 
 centre, as we said. 
 
 We now come to the head, which I 
 will draw for you as best I mav, foras- 
 
 the figure, showing 
 the length and the 
 breadth of it. 
 
 Celso. It is done 
 thus. 
 
 M. Selvaggia. 
 Then show us also 
 the plan of a figure 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 57 
 
 much as drawing is not my business, 
 albeit it would do no discredit to the 
 loftiest mind, but rather great credit ; 
 and among the Greeks painting was 
 accounted as one of the liberal arts. 
 
 Note then, that to take perfect measure 
 of the height of the head — and 1 call the 
 head all that portion 
 which is above the 
 throat — you shall draw 
 a right line which shall 
 rest on another right 
 line proceeding from 
 the lowest part of the 
 chin, and shall join another right line 
 proceeding from the top of the head ; 
 and so long as that line may be, nine 
 times that length should be the measure 
 of a man formed in due proportion, both 
 for height and for breadth ; and what is 
 said of a man is likewise to be under- 
 stood of a woman in this, and in all 
 other measurements. Yet have there 
 
58 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 been many wise and worthy men who 
 have written that women for the most 
 part do not exceed seven heads, and 
 others who say that to be well propor- 
 tioned they should not exceed seven 
 and a half. And this, meseemeth, 
 finds support in the common use of 
 nature. Thus you see that the measure 
 of the whole person is taken from the 
 head, and that of the head from the 
 whole person. And inasmuch as that a 
 figure of goodly stature, more especially 
 that of a woman, should not be greater 
 than seven and a half spans (the span 
 being of nine fingers’ breadth, and the 
 span and the fingers those of a well-pro- 
 portioned hand), then the head, if in good 
 and convenient proportion, will be seven 
 and a half finger-breadths high. And 
 since 1 have begun by drawing, 1 will 
 now show you how painters reduce the 
 perfect profile into a triangle ; yet, bear 
 in mind that very few women are 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 59 
 
 perfect in the profile. And one of the 
 most perfect which I mind me to have 
 seen in Prato is that of the fair peasant- 
 maid dwelling by the three conduits ; 
 but she of the market-place, who among 
 many ill-favoured faces is so well- 
 favoured, and has so fine an air, and 
 plays the country maiden so pleasantly, 
 that all Prato justly esteems her as most 
 fair, yet hath an imperfect profile through 
 a small defect in the measure of her 
 face, which, however, few would discern, 
 since (as the proverb saith) : Not every 
 ox can read. Yet has she a sweet girl’s 
 face. And the triangle is drawn thus. 
 These painters will have us draw a 
 right line from the angle, of equal 
 length with the lines of the triangle, 
 and from the end of this line upwards 
 the nose is drawn ; and at a finger’s 
 breadth and a half from the angle, or 
 rather more, on this same line they place 
 the ear ; leaving below the line, the tip, 
 
6o OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 which, narrowing in the shape of a 
 small balass ruby, so gracefully finishes 
 the lower end of the ear. Moreover, 
 they carry from the upper angle another 
 right line of equal length with the 
 middle line, from which they draw a 
 curve, bending gently down to the top 
 of the nose, which must be over against 
 the inner corner of the 
 eye, making the arch of 
 the head to the forehead, 
 and from the forehead to 
 the top of the nose and 
 to the little hollow which 
 lies between the one and 
 the other eyebrow. From the lower angle 
 there comes a right line ending exactly 
 beneath the ear, and from the fourth part 
 of it, where you see the letter v, a line 
 is drawn, as it were a semicircle, one 
 end of it lying a little higher up where 
 you may see the sign 7. Here the chin 
 ends, and the other end of this line 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 6 1 
 
 meets the beginning of the throat. 
 Thus we see that the chin should have 
 a little fatness, as hath that of Amelia’s 
 fair cousin, which lends great grace to 
 her charming little face. And there 
 must be the same distance from the tip 
 of the nose to where it begins to be 
 straight, which is at the base of the 
 forehead, as there is between the end of 
 the chin and the top of the upper lip ; 
 and the same length from the end of the 
 upper lip to the base of the nose as from 
 the inner corner of each eye to the 
 middle of the bridge of the nose. And 
 the breadth of the nose at the base 
 must be equal to its length, and the 
 hollow of the eye from the part below 
 the eyebrow to that by the cheek must 
 be equal with the space from where the 
 cheek joins the nose to where it meets 
 the ear. There are many other measure- 
 ments which, however, are of no im- 
 portance, and as Nature even rarely 
 
6.2 
 
 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 conforms to them, we will leave them 
 to the painters who, with a stroke of 
 the brush more or less, may lengthen 
 or shorten them as seemeth good to 
 them. 
 
 M. Amoi'orrisca. Alack, you have 
 frightened me with telling me of so 
 many measurements. So when we 
 have children, male or female, we must 
 provide ourselves with rule and com- 
 passes. To tell you the truth, if I ever 
 believed myself fair (as many times I 
 have been told I am ; nay, and looking 
 at myself in the glass, to confess the 
 truth, I have been fain to believe it) now 
 1 declare to you that henceforth I shall 
 deem myself deformed. Dear Heaven ! 
 Alas, I misdoubt that I should be found 
 wanting by any of these measures, and 
 may go hide myself. 
 
 Celso. There is no need to be in 
 such haste to hide ; albeit you may not 
 have all the complete parts of perfect 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 63 
 
 and measured beauty, it is enough that 
 you have such as, in the opinion of 
 others, earn you the place of fairest of 
 the fair. And if even the concord of 
 parts in you do not result in the very 
 pink of perfect harmony, it is enough 
 that it gives rise to so much grace and 
 charm that you have no cause to hide 
 yourself, but rather to show yourself 
 more than you do. And those handsome 
 sons and graceful daughters having your 
 image stamped upon them shall bear 
 witness to all who are not born in time 
 to see you. 
 
 M. Amororrisca. Well-a-day! Where 
 Nature may have failed in some little 
 particular you so amply supply the lack 
 with words, that I shall easily return 
 to my former belief. Yet, let us 
 waste no more time in such prating. 
 Proceed, I entreat you, with your dis- 
 course. 
 
 Celso. Since it is your pleasure, so 
 
64 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 be it. Let me then go on to expound 
 the more particular beauties of the face, 
 and then by degrees we will speak of 
 the other members. 
 
 And first of the eyes, wherein the 
 noblest and most perfect of the senses 
 dwells, through which our intellect 
 apprehends, as through windows of 
 transparent glass, all things visible, and 
 through which, moreover, the greatest 
 resolves of the soul are expressed, rather 
 than through any other sense; whence 
 we might conclude that Nature had made 
 them with special mastery. Wherefore, 
 as looking forth on the universe, she 
 placed them in the highest part of the 
 body, to the end that they may the 
 more conveniently fulfil their office ; 
 she made them round, inasmuch as 
 that having that shape which is the 
 most comprehensive, the sight should 
 the more largely take in the objects 
 which are offered to it ; in which Nature 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 65 
 
 discerned another conveniency, namely : 
 that this spherical form, not being 
 hindered by any kind of corner, can 
 turn on all sides far more quickly than 
 any other, this ease being further aided 
 by that pure liquid wherewith the eyes 
 are constantly kept wet ; for you know 
 full well that smoothness comes of 
 moisture, and that all things move 
 much more easily, and roll, and turn, 
 and glide in moisture than in drouth. 
 In the centre of each, like two sparks of 
 fire, she hath placed the pupils with the 
 gift of sight, which dwelling here, seizes 
 on the objects which come before it. 
 We need not dispute here as to whether 
 it is the eye that seeketh the object or 
 the object the eye, inasmuch as this 
 question pertaineth not to our present 
 matter. 
 
 Now through this sphere, I say, the 
 soul is compelled sometimes to betray 
 the secret thoughts of the breast, and 
 
 F 
 
66 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 often we may read in the eyes that 
 which is written in the heart. The 
 sight of both eyes combines in such 
 a manner that, without hindering each 
 other, they can gaze at one and the 
 same object both at the same time ; 
 so that when the right eye seeth an 
 object the left seeth not another. 
 
 And to the end that they may be pro- 
 vided and protected from all peril, from 
 what might fall from the forehead, such 
 as sweat, and all other accident, they are 
 under shelter of the hairs of the eye- 
 brows, as it were two ramparts to keep 
 off intruders, and covered by two move- 
 able eyelids, easy to be opened and 
 closed, and moreover, armed with hairs 
 to keep out that which might rashly 
 dare to enter. And their swift motion 
 falling and rising with incredible rapidity 
 doth not only never hinder the sense of 
 sight, but strengthens it and gives it 
 rest, and when they are weary they 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 67 
 
 close and hide the eyes in peaceful 
 sleep, to the great soothing and wonder- 
 ful comfort of all the other members. 
 The keenness of the eye, lodged as it 
 were in a transparent parchment skin, 
 is preserved and maintained in all its 
 clearness by that fluid whereof I spoke, 
 as we know by experience ; for you 
 know that if by any accident the eye 
 should become dry, it forthwith loses 
 the sense of sight. 
 
 The nose takes its rise from near the 
 brows and ends above the mouth, filling 
 the space described above, and by rising 
 slightly it seems to fix a bastion between 
 the two eyes. The cheeks likewise, 
 one on this side and one on that, rising 
 with a soft swell, appear to be placed 
 in defence of the eyes. 
 
 But to return to the nose, I say that 
 the upper part is composed of solid 
 matter, and the lower part of a cartilage 
 so soft and flexible that it can be the 
 
68 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 better handled and kept clear, and if it 
 be hit, as may easily happen, it suffers 
 no great hurt, yielding to the blow. 
 And this member, though it may seem 
 of no great importance, fulfils three 
 necessary offices : breathing, smelling, 
 and clearing the brain through its two 
 cavities. And the Great Artificer, framing 
 it for these useful needs, placed it in 
 such a fashion as that it should appear 
 to be made for beauty and to adorn the 
 face rather than for such uses. 
 
 Below the nose is placed the mouth, 
 with two functions: one being to speak, 
 and the other to convey food whither it 
 is needed. And being cut across the 
 face it was next hemmed round by 
 Nature with those two lips of finest 
 coral, in the image of the margin of a 
 fair fountain. It was dedicated by the 
 ancients to Venus, for here is the seat 
 of tender kisses, apt to draw two souls 
 in exchange out of one body into the 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 69 
 
 other. And therefore when we gaze on 
 them intently, filled with extremest joy, 
 it seems to us as though our soul were 
 on the point of flying forth, happy to go 
 and settle there. 
 
 Of the palate and the tongue we need 
 not speak, since they are not visible ; 
 but of the teeth I may say that besides 
 their use in chewing food and so effect- 
 ing its first digestion in the mouth, 
 helping it to pass the more readily into 
 the stomach, they add so much beauty, 
 and graciousness, and brightness to a 
 charming face that without them it 
 would seem that beauty is loth to 
 inhabit there. 
 
 And yet more, if the teeth are not 
 good, the laugh cannot be frank ; and 
 the laugh, if it be used at the right time, 
 and with modesty, maketh of the mouth 
 a paradise ; and is moreover a most 
 sweet messenger of the peace and con- 
 tentment of the heart. Indeed, the 
 
70 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 sages have said that the laugh was 
 nothing less than the radiance from the 
 serenity of the soul, and thus it is most 
 seemly in a noble and gentle lady (if we 
 may believe Plato in his “ Republic,” as 
 I do for my part), as a manifestation of 
 her happiness, to laugh with modesty, 
 severity and candour, without much 
 motion of her body, in a low tone, and 
 rarely rather than often. As doth that 
 cousin of Selvaggia’s, of whom you 
 were disputing but just now. 
 
 Verdespina. But your gossip, who 
 often laughed, was praised for her laugh 
 as much as for any other charm ; and 
 she had so many that in Prato she 
 deservedly held the highest place above 
 all other beauties. 
 
 Celso. My gossip was so full of grace 
 that if she had forever laughed she would 
 forever have pleased. But this is not 
 the case with all. Your Amaretta, who 
 wrinkles her face when she laughs, if 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 7 1 
 
 she laughed so often would not please 
 so well, albeit she has the finest teeth. 
 But there are certain graces which 
 Heaven rarely vouchsafes here below 
 and which fall on few. Hence laughter 
 should be rare, for too much laughter is 
 a sign of too great mirth, and a discreet 
 lady cannot be too mirthful. 
 
 Now Nature, knowing how much 
 grace it would lend if she gave the bare 
 teeth a little border about the roots, and 
 how much charm if she parted them by 
 narrow and equal intervals, hath bound 
 them together by the gums as by a little 
 ribbon, and parted them by such spaces, 
 measured by that Mistress Nature, in 
 such a guise that, besides their utility, 
 they have that charm which you and I 
 have a thousand times enjoyed, and 
 shall again enjoy if Mona Amororrisca 
 will vouchsafe to show us hers. 
 
 Selvaggia. Aye, indeed, Madonna, 
 do not hide them, for on feast days 
 
72 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 beautiful things are displayed, and not 
 concealed. 
 
 M. Amororrisca. You are all agreed 
 to make game of me. You know what 
 Selvaggia is to everyone ; but I pray you 
 proceed. 
 
 Celso. From the cheeks, in a gentle 
 line, the chin begins, and ends in two 
 full curves, between which lieth, as it 
 were, a sweet dimple, as we see in 
 Appollonia, who, as you said the other 
 day, appeared so passing fair in San 
 Domenico on Corpus Christi day. And 
 if 1 may speak my mind concerning her 
 she is a most fair and gracious maiden, 
 and hath few peers in these parts ; a 
 rare jewel in a base ring. God be with 
 her. 
 
 The ears stand open in the highest part 
 of the body, to the end that they may 
 the more easily receive sounds as they 
 fall through the air which they pierce 
 and rend ; and they are uncovered to 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 73 
 
 the end that sounds may penetrate them 
 the more readily ; they have such tor- 
 tuous convolutions that the sound, 
 having once entered, cannot return back 
 by reason of the difficulties of the way. 
 And they are made in the likeness of 
 that little instrument which is called 
 an alembic, which, collecting and con- 
 densing a fluid, carries it into a larger 
 vessel in such a way as that none is spilt ; 
 so the ear collects dispersed sounds and 
 diffuses them through a narrow channel 
 into the large vessel of the brain, to the 
 care of memory, which dwells in the 
 occiput above the nape of the neck. 
 They are not made of soft or thin or 
 loose skin, as we see in many other 
 animals, for imagination will tell you 
 that this would have been most un- 
 seemly ; nor are they composed of hard 
 and solid bone, since that would have 
 made the use of hearing far more 
 difficult, and besides v/ould have hin- 
 
74 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 dered the repose of the whole body ; 
 since for the hardness and stiffness of 
 those bones we could not have laid the 
 head down in the stillness of sleep, or 
 of rest from our fatigues, as we often 
 do. Hence they were moulded of a 
 material which is somewhat supple and 
 yet not soft, so that they should be no 
 hindrance to rest, and should be apt to 
 receive sounds ; wherein, apart from 
 utility, and with regard to beauty and 
 comeliness, how beautiful is the semi- 
 circle or rose-tinted hem ; and the pen- 
 dant drop, likened to a pale ruby, how 
 exquisite and graceful ; so that when, 
 as the custom is in many parts of Italy, 
 some precious gem is hung in it, the 
 ear not only loses no beauty by com- 
 parison, but gains it, with loss to the 
 jewel. 
 
 And the passage within the ear 
 which carries in the voice, has certain 
 turns and sinuosities, and a winding 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 75 
 
 way, as has been said, to the end that 
 the voice, penetrating more slowly, 
 gives to the sense of hearing more time 
 to present it to the common sense. 
 Moreover this is an hindrance to the 
 entrance of many insects which might 
 otherwise fly in. And if perchance one 
 should enter there, there is a certain 
 glutinous wax which stops it that it 
 may not go so far in as to hinder the 
 use of hearing. Moreover these tortuous 
 passages and, as it were, little caverns, 
 serve to magnify the sounds which 
 enter, as do the convolutions of a sea 
 shell or of a twisted trumpet, and as we 
 find that it does in hollows and caves 
 and deep valleys in the country, where 
 the voice, being entangled, is doubled 
 and re-echoed. 
 
 Next of the throat, which is able to 
 bend with much grace and turn to either 
 side, besides covering and protecting the 
 two vital canals called tubes, by which 
 
76 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 we breathe and by which the food, 
 when ground down, passes to the 
 cooking-pot of the stomach. 
 
 And behind these are the shoulders, 
 whence proceed the arms, with the elbow 
 joint and the marvellous and necessary 
 usefulness of the hands, the potent minis- 
 ters of touch, which, with the concave 
 palm and flexible fingers, are most apt to 
 grasp and hold whatsoever they will ; 
 and it is hard to say whether their use or 
 their beauty is the greater. 
 
 The breadth of the bosom lends great 
 majesty to the whole person ; and there 
 are the breasts, two hills of snow and 
 of roses with two little crowns of fine 
 rubies on their peaks, as it were the 
 spouts of those fair and useful vessels, 
 which, besides their service in distilling 
 nourishment for little infants, have a 
 particular beauty of such new charm 
 that our eye will dwell on them even 
 against our will, and indeed with great 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 77 
 
 delight, as do mine, gazing on the white 
 bosom of one of you — But lo ! the 
 beauties are hidden ! If you do not 
 withdraw that veil as it was before, I 
 proceed no further. 
 
 M. Lampiada. Nay, remove it, Sel- 
 vaggia, for you have done us an ill turn. 
 Ah ! you do well to lay it aside. Yes, 
 that is well. Now, Messer Celso, pro- 
 ceed with the sermon, since the relics 
 are unveiled. 
 
 Celso. Of the other parts of the body, 
 down to the legs (inasmuch as they are 
 clothed, and, as I have said, they add 
 nothing to our beauty, excepting as a 
 whole) it is seemly to keep silence. 1 
 will speak only of the legs, by whose 
 movement we pass from place to place, 
 bending the knees, which are attached 
 to the tendons from the hip to the heel, 
 and thus are bound together with the 
 support of the whole person, namely 
 the foot. 
 
78 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 The foot, being the beginning and, as 
 it were, the base of all the other limbs, is 
 most sightly and of great importance to 
 the general beauty of the person. For 
 whenever the eye is weary, or rather is 
 overcome and amazed by the supreme 
 and incomprehensible sweetness that it 
 hath derived from the contemplation of 
 the eyes, the cheeks, the lips and other 
 parts, restraining the act of sight it 
 drops, as it were in fear, and it rests 
 upon the foot just as a weary head rests 
 upon a pillow. And so, sweet ladies, 
 be not so chary of showing yours from 
 time to time. Take example by the 
 Romans, who cherished the foot no less 
 than the face. And thus far have 1 
 spoken enough of the beauty, use, pur- 
 pose, form and proportion of all the 
 limbs in general ; and when we come 
 to the composition of a beautiful woman 
 we shall discourse more particularly from 
 the example of yourselves. 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 79 
 
 Ver despina. If Madonna Diambra were 
 here, who, had she no other beauty — 
 though indeed she has every beauty — 
 than the brightness of her hair, would 
 seem a second Helen, and if she had 
 heard your discourse, I can tell you she 
 would swell with rage, since she is 
 wont to say that however well-favoured 
 a lady may be, if she have not fine hair 
 her beauty is despoiled of all charm and 
 glory ; and you have not mentioned it. 
 
 Celso. She is in the right, and you 
 did well to remind me, for I had for- 
 gotten it, and indeed with good reason, 
 since meseems, you hold it of small 
 account. You cover it till you are 
 brides, and thenceforth I do not see you 
 spread it to the winds ; and this is ill 
 done, forasmuch as it is the greatest 
 adornment to beauty and created by 
 Nature for the dispersion of the super- 
 fluous humours of the brain and the 
 other parts of the head. Forasmuch as 
 
8o 
 
 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 that the hairs, albeit they are very fine, 
 are hollow tubes, to the end that these 
 superfluous humours may be exhaled. 
 And of this particular beauty, and of 
 what Apuleius saith in describing Pbotis, 
 1 shall speak further when I come to the 
 composition of a fair woman which we 
 shall presently invent. 
 
 Now, having discoursed thus far, 
 which shall suffice, of beauty, it remains 
 for me to keep my promise to declare 
 what is Charm. 
 
 Charm, as some will have it, and 
 according to the sense of the word 1 is 
 nought else than the observance of an 
 unspoken law given and promulgated 
 by Nature to you ladies for the move- 
 ment and carriage of the whole person 
 as of the particular members, with grace, 
 with modesty, with gentleness, with 
 measure and dignity, in such a manner 
 
 1 In Italian Leggiadria, 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 8 1 
 
 as that no motion nor act shall lack rule, 
 and method, and measure, and purpose ; 
 but be rather, as this tacit law requires, 
 studied, composed, regular and gracious. 
 And 1 call it a tacit law, since it is no- 
 where written save in a certain natural 
 judgment, which itself can know nor 
 tell nothing of it but that Nature will 
 have it so. And whereas this law may 
 not be taught by books, nor shown in 
 practice, it is not to be seen in all fair 
 ladies alike ; rather do we every day see 
 some of them who are so ungainly and 
 foolish that it is a weariness to behold 
 them. And the gentle Lucrezia, who 
 dwelleth there by San Domenico, by 
 reason that she faithfully observes this 
 law and hath all the parts which we 
 seek for in true charm, pleases all who 
 know her. And if her features may 
 perchance be faulty in some small 
 matter, according to the standard of 
 certain very accurate limners, neverthe- 
 
 G 
 
82 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 less, when she laughs she pleases, when 
 she speaks she delights us, when she is 
 silent she fills everyone with admiration ; 
 if she walks, it is with grace ; if she sits 
 down, it is with elegance ; if she sings, 
 'tis sweetly ; if she dances, Venus is 
 her guide ; if she discourses, the Muses 
 teach her. In short, whatever she doth 
 is a marvel. 
 
 M. Lampiada. You can never have 
 seen how well that maiden pleases me, 
 not only in that she has indeed so choice 
 a spirit, as you know, but that to my 
 mind she is likewise fair. Hence I 
 rejoice that we are of the same opinion. 
 
 Celso. She is in truth most pleasing; 
 but I would have you to know of 
 another who hath ever appeared to me 
 to be a gentle maiden and filled with so 
 much charm and grace that, if I had to 
 paint a Venus, 1 know not that 1 would 
 take the portrait of any other lady than 
 she. And do not think that I say this 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 8 } 
 
 by reason of those marvellous gifts and 
 a grand manner that she hath, since 
 to-day it is not my purpose to discourse 
 of the beauties of the mind ; I speak 
 only of the beauties of the body. 
 
 Selvaggia. Who then is it ? God 
 save you from all ill that may befall 
 you. 
 
 Celso. God save me then from your 
 piercing looks, and I will tell you that 
 Qjiadrabianca Buonvisa seems to me a 
 charming and a gracious damsel, and 
 full of great attractions. 
 
 Selvaggia. Thank God, who grants 
 high destinies to few ! And indeed 
 what you say is true. 
 
 Celso. Aye, but you are among those 
 few. Yet is Grace another matter, 
 whereof I will now speak. 
 
 Now of this Grace, — that is the grace 
 which is a part of beauty, and not one 
 of those who were handmaidens to 
 Venus; these, mystically speaking, sig- 
 G 2 
 
84 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 nify nought else than a guerdon abun- 
 dantly bestowed by grateful persons in 
 return for benefits received ; and whereas 
 in the acts and traffic of love many 
 benefits accrue mutually between lovers, 
 and they are ever giving guerdons one 
 to another all the day, therefore the 
 Graces were appointed to attend Venus. 
 And setting aside the other two we will 
 take Aglaia, which signifies lustre, and 
 which has much bearing on our matter, 
 inasmuch as it is our opinion that grace 
 is nothing else than a lustre produced 
 in some occult way by a certain par- 
 ticular union of some limbs or features, 
 of which we cannot say that they are 
 these or those, joined and met together 
 with consummate beauty and true per- 
 fection. And this lustre strikes our eye 
 with such instancy, and so great satis- 
 faction to our heart and joy to our 
 mind, that forthwith it is this grace 
 which delights us more even than 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 85 
 
 beauty, and silently compels our desire 
 to dwell on that sweet lustre. 
 
 Thus, as was said before, we very 
 often behold a face which has not features 
 according to the perfect measure of 
 beauty, yet which, nevertheless, diffuses 
 this lustre of grace of which we are 
 speaking, as in Madonna Modestina, who 
 is neither tall nor well proportioned as 
 we have described a beauty, and not- 
 withstanding has in that little face of 
 hers a wondrous grace, so that it is 
 pleasing to all. Whereas you will see 
 another with well-proportioned features 
 who may be deservedly esteemed beauti- 
 ful by all, and who nevertheless has not 
 a certain witchery, as we see in Mona 
 Ancilia’s sister. Thus we are fain to 
 believe that this lustre is the result of an 
 occult proportion and measure which is 
 not to be found in our books, which is 
 unknown to us, nay, and not to be 
 imagined, but is, as we say of things 
 
86 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 we cannot express: We know not what. 
 To say that it is a beam of love and 
 other quintessences, though it were 
 learned, subtle and ingenious, would 
 have no foundation in truth. It is called 
 grace by reason that she in whom that 
 lustre and that occult proportion is 
 diffused is made gracious and dear, as 
 moreover gratitude for benefits received 
 makes him gracious and dear who feels 
 it. And this is all I can or will say of it 
 at this present ; and if you would know 
 more of it, gaze into the eyes of that 
 bright luminary, whose beautiful eyes 
 give light to every pilgrim soul which 
 is in search of the truth. 
 
 To demonstrate what Wantonness is, 
 it is needful that you should know that 
 this word wanton or frolicsome sig- 
 nifies three things: Firstly, a motion 
 from place to place. As Petrarca hath 
 it: 
 
 “ My wanton thoughts brought to a better place.” 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 87 
 
 Secondly: Desire, as we read in the 
 same : 
 
 “ I am so wanton gazing on that face.” 
 
 And Boccaccio, in his Fiammetta : 
 “ Whereby they grew wanton.” 
 
 Thirdly : Fair or well-favoured. Again 
 Petrarca: “With wanton airs and an- 
 gelical manners.” And Boccaccio, in 
 the same place: “A party of wanton 
 youths.” 
 
 From the first meaning : of move- 
 ment, we have (in the Italian, vago) the 
 word vagabond, and from that meaning 
 we have the second meaning : of desire. 
 Since an object which is in motion and 
 wantons now here now there rouses, it 
 would seem, a more ardent desire in 
 another than one which stands still, as 
 we may observe at our leisure. And 
 whereas it seems inevitable that we 
 should love all things we may desire, 
 and whereas we have concluded from 
 
88 
 
 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 what hath been said that we cannot love 
 that which is not (or seems not) beauti- 
 ful, hence the common sense hath come 
 into use of vago — that is wanton for 
 beautiful, and wantonness for beauty. 
 But yet, in this special sense that it 
 signifies that beauty, dwelling in every 
 part, by which every one that gazeth is 
 compelled to become wanton, that is to 
 feel desire, and, feeling desire, to pursue 
 and to enjoy it, his heart is ever in 
 motion, his thoughts wandering, and 
 his mind is a very vagabond. Hence 
 wantonness in this sense is attractive 
 beauty, inducing the desire to gaze upon 
 it and enjoy it. Wherefore we speak of 
 such an one as a little wanton, when 
 she hath a certain wandering and witch- 
 ing air mingled with frankness, and with 
 an inviting way, as hath Fiamminghetta ; 
 and Venus told me this night in a dream 
 that within two years from now a 
 damsel of Pistoia shall come among the 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 89 
 
 flowers of Prato, who shall be named 
 Lena, and who will have this wanton- 
 ness in her eyes ; and there is come 
 now one among you whom I will not 
 name, who, in my judgment, has much 
 of this enticing charm. 
 
 M. Amororrisca. And you do well, 
 lest some emulation should have birth 
 among us, to give occasion to scandal. 
 But albeit you name her not, 1 see 
 carved on your brow her whom you 
 bear in your heart. Yet will 1 say no 
 more, for: whoso should reveal her 
 would spoil her. 
 
 Celso. Others divine in three guesses, 
 but you in only one. But now to quit 
 this matter and return to our promise, 
 according to which I have yet to speak 
 of Seemliness. 
 
 Now note this : Cicero saith that there 
 are two kinds of beauty, of which one 
 consists in seemliness and the other in 
 dignity, and that seemliness is proper to 
 
90 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 women and dignity to men. Hence, 
 according to him — and his authority 
 may weli suffice you — dignity is to a 
 man what seemliness is to a woman. 
 And whereas dignity in a man is nothing 
 else than an aspect full of true nobility, 
 reverence and admiration, so seemliness 
 in a woman will be a chaste, noble and 
 virtuous aspect, reverent and admiring, 
 with every movement full of modest 
 loftiness, as you may see in Gualanda 
 Forella if you contemplate her without 
 envy. And to the end that those who, 
 having little learning, are wont to blame 
 those who labour all day to get know- 
 ledge, in their great presumption might 
 say that the word Venusta, herein called 
 seemliness, is derived from Venus, who 
 is known to all the poets as the mother 
 of lascivious loves, and that it cannot in 
 reason signify aught else than a lascivious 
 kind of beauty, I judge it convenient to 
 deliver you with a few words of reason 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 91 
 
 from this error, if perchance you hold it 
 (but I trow not). And let those blame 
 me for it who will ; there will be many. 
 
 Now take note : According to the 
 ancients two Venuses were lauded ; one 
 the daughter of the earth, whose deeds 
 were of the earth and unseemly, the 
 author of all unseemly acts. The other 
 (said they) the daughter of heaven, 
 whose thoughts, acts, modes, and 
 words are divine, chaste, pure and 
 holy ; and from her proceed this love- 
 liness and all lovely things, and naught 
 which is unseemly. 
 
 Now must we speak of the Air ; and 
 here you must lend the ear of the 
 intellect with the utmost attention. 
 Sweet my ladies, there is a proverb 
 borrowed from the Latins (and of how 
 great authority proverbs were held 
 among the ancients may easily be seen, 
 not only in the writings of these Latins, 
 but in Greek writers, who are full of 
 
92 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 them), and this proverb saith : Con- 
 scientia mille testes, which is as much 
 as to say that a pure and clean con- 
 science is worth a thousand witnesses. 
 Granting then that this proverb is most 
 true, we will say that those women 
 whose conscience is spotted by some 
 foulness which soils and stains the 
 purity and clearness and cleanness of 
 their will, caused by the misuse of their 
 reason, being pierced all day by the 
 remembrance of their guilt and dis- 
 turbed by the evidence of their wounded 
 conscience, fall into a certain fever of 
 the soul which disquiets and perturbs it 
 incessantly. And this perturbation and 
 disquiet lead to such a disposition of the 
 humours (which by their vapours spoil 
 her face, staining the purity thereof, and 
 chiefly of the eyes, which, as hath been 
 said above, are the ministers and messen- 
 gers of the heart) as creates in them a 
 certain countenance, and, as the vulgar 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 93 
 
 say* “ a certain evil air,” revealing the 
 infirmity of the soul ; as the pallor of the 
 cheeks and other features doth show the 
 sickness of the body and the perturba- 
 tion and disorder of its humours. Nor 
 need it seem strange to you that the 
 disorders of the spirit should affect the 
 members of the body, since experience 
 shows it every day in those pangs of 
 mind whence oftentimes proceedeth 
 fever in the body, and sometimes death. 
 And when once you know what the 
 evil air is which indicates and reveals 
 the infection of the sick soul as here 
 described, you shall soon know the 
 good countenance of the healthy soul, 
 since, as Aristotle hath well said in the 
 fifth book of the Ethics, if we have 
 known one contrary habit, need must 
 be that we know the other ; in the same 
 place, further down, he shows this 
 much more clearly, saying that if a good 
 habit of body be revealed by the firm- 
 
94 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 ness and substance of the flesh, need 
 must be that an evil habit of body will 
 be seen in its softness and leanness. 
 By which example you may plainly 
 know that when it is said of a woman 
 that she has an air, or an expression, it 
 is nothing else but that she has certain 
 good signs revealing the health of her 
 soul and the clearness of her conscience ; 
 thus when we say simply “ an air,” by a 
 figure of speech or autonomasia (or as 
 we might say par excellence ), we mean 
 a good air or expression ; and a bad air, 
 or no air, signifies a sign or countenance 
 betraying the disorder of the mind, and 
 the stains of an evil conscience. 
 
 M. Amororrisca. Indeed your explana- 
 tion of this passage is very fine and 
 worthy of great consideration, as being 
 not only true but likewise new ; yet is 
 it much more worthy of your ingenuity 
 than of our understanding, nevertheless 
 you have made it so plain that we have 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 95 
 
 been able to apprehend it. But we will 
 reserve your further praises till another 
 occasion, and now in silence await your 
 discourse on what you name Majesty. 
 
 Celso. I know not what to say of 
 majesty, save that it is a common use of 
 daily speech when a lady is tall and well 
 shaped, carries herself well, sits with a 
 certain grandeur, speaks with gravity, 
 laughs with modesty, and finally diffuses, 
 as it were, an odour of queenliness ; we 
 say that such an one displays majesty, 
 or is majestic ; which is borrowed from 
 the royal throne, where every act and 
 motion should be admirable and re- 
 verend. Thus by majesty we mean 
 nothing else than the movement and 
 carriage of a lady with a certain royal 
 pomp ; of a lady, I say, who is some- 
 what tall and robust. And if you would 
 see an example of this, behold the most 
 illustrious lady the Contessa da Vernia, 
 who, with her queenly presence, acts, 
 
96 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 gestures and speech, will not fail to 
 show those who know it not otherwise 
 that she is the sister of the most magni- 
 ficent Signor Gualterotto de’ Bardi, and 
 the gracious wife of the most honour- 
 able and modest Signor Alberto ; of 
 illustrious birth, and nobly married. 
 
 And this is all I can think of to tell 
 you concerning beauty in general and 
 all its particulars, albeit 1 fear I have not 
 completely satisfied your desires. 
 
 M. Lampiada. Inasmuch as I am the 
 oldest 1 may not be deemed presump- 
 tuous if 1 answer for all ; so I say that 
 you have in truth satisfied us far better 
 than we should have known how to ask 
 you ; albeit in you we might look for 
 great things. Still, we would fain con- 
 firm one apprehension by the example 
 of that Chimera of beauty which you 
 promised to describe. 
 
 Celso. You are indeed very old ! And 
 we see it plainly in your face, which is 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 97 
 
 as fresh and smooth as ever another, 
 with all respect be it said to all the 
 ladies here present. Yet albeit you are 
 not past the flower of youth, you are 
 elder in apprehension and wit, and of so 
 many virtues that it would better beseem 
 me to be silent than to speak too lowly 
 of them. And you can use no better 
 name than that of a Chimera, since just 
 as the Chimera may be imagined but 
 never found, so that fair one whom we 
 will devise may be imagined but never 
 found ; and we shall more easily under- 
 stand what is needed to compose beauty 
 than we shall see beauty ; with no dis- 
 paragement to the beauty of you who 
 are here present, or of others whoever 
 they be, and who, though indeed they 
 have not everything united in their 
 person, have this or that part which 
 suffices to make them admired, nay, 
 and bethought beautiful. Now to come 
 to our Chimera. 
 
 H 
 
98 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 Celso had opened his mouth to begin 
 when there appeared on the mount fair 
 Gemmula dal Pozzonuovo, all modesty 
 and gentleness, and verily a precious 
 pearl ; she, having notice of this little 
 company, like a lady of good wit, was 
 attracted by the odour of this discourse. 
 And she had with her that bright gem 
 which, with its foil of many virtues, 
 lends radiance to the Piazza di San 
 Francisco ; and they had hardly come 
 half-way up the mount when well nigh 
 all the other youths and maidens who 
 were dispersed about the garden, sing- 
 ing and laughing and sporting as is 
 their custom, came to call them ; so 
 that Celso was compelled to give up his 
 purpose and depart with them to a 
 collation which had been made ready by 
 Madonna Simona de’ Benintendi, a wise 
 and reverend Florentine matron, wife of 
 the master of the garden. A lady, she, 
 so worthy, that to write her praises 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN, 99 
 
 would need too great length of words. 
 And the meal being ended, they danced 
 and sang, and did all things 
 suitable to a seemly party 
 of noble and virtuous ladies, 
 and of gentle and well- 
 beloved youths ; and 
 this lasted till it was 
 the hour for each 
 one to return 
 to his own 
 home. 
 
 h 2 
 

OF THE PERFECT BEAUTY 
 OF A LADY, 
 
 BY 
 
 MESSER AGNOLO FIRENZUOLO, FLORENTINE. 
 
 ©art IE, 
 
 W whereas among those 
 damsels who had been pre- 
 sent on the mound during 
 the former discourse, a 
 strong desire remained to learn the 
 composition of that fair one which Celso 
 had promised to describe to them, they 
 entreated Madonna Lampiada that she 
 would name for another day a spot 
 where this their desire might be ful- 
 
102 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 filled ; and she, who hearkened no less 
 willingly than they to the words of 
 Celso, or at least feigned it, caused him 
 to be bidden by her husband, a very 
 ingenious gentleman, to come to his 
 house on the next feast-day with these 
 same ladies, and with others, and 
 youths of their kindred, to spend the 
 evening ; and there, after that Celso had 
 been duly entreated and had modestly 
 excused himself, he began as follows : 
 
 It is a certain truth that Nature is at 
 all times a generous and liberal giver of 
 her favours to the general and common 
 herd of men ; but yet in particular cases 
 it doth not appear that she is so ; nay, 
 we might affirm from daily experience 
 that she is most miserly and avaricious, 
 since, as we saw in our last discourse, 
 she hath no doubt bestowed all things, 
 yet hath not given all to all, but rather 
 one thing to one and one to another, 
 which thing the ancient poets expressed 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. \ 0 } 
 
 by figuring her a woman with many 
 breasts, whence man, being unable to 
 take more than a mouthful at a time, 
 derives but a small part of his nutri- 
 ment. Moreover, if you consider the 
 nature of the breast, you will see that, 
 albeit it is of such fulness and abun- 
 dance as we all know, yet it doth not 
 pour forth milk of itself, but must be 
 sucked. And this is to signify that 
 forasmuch as we need many things, we 
 must toil with art, industry and wit to 
 acquire, or to beautify, or to preserve 
 them. And since the channel out of 
 which the milk flows is small, and 
 hardly a drop comes forth at once, we 
 may consider that this is as much as 
 to say that Nature bestoweth not her 
 favours with a free hand on anyone, but 
 grudgingly, one on each, and one at a 
 time. Whence it comes that few indeed 
 are found of perfect beauty ; that one 
 who has a fine shape has not a delicate 
 
104 OP THE beauty of women. 
 
 face, as Madonna Altea of the three 
 Conduits ; and another who has a deli- 
 cate face is short in stature, like Madonna 
 Fiore dal Campanile ; and she who is 
 adorned with the finest eyes, like Ma- 
 donna Lucida of the Via de’ Sarti, hath 
 not a fine shape ; so that if we would 
 depict one who shall be perfect — if not 
 in all things, yet in most things — it is 
 needful, as I told you in my last dis- 
 course, to cull the excellence in parti- 
 cular beauty from each of you four, and 
 imagine such a fair lady as we desire to 
 see. But before coming to the painting 
 we must grind the colours ; and not 
 merely white and black, which, as the 
 writers tell us, are of the first impor- 
 tance ; but all those others we shall 
 need ; so that we may not have to stop 
 when we are at work. These, then, 
 will be the colours we shall need : A 
 fair yellow and a tawny, black, red, 
 cream, white, vermilion and carnation. 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 105 
 
 Now you must know that a fair 
 yellow is a not very hot yellow nor 
 very pale, but verging on tan, with 
 somewhat more lustre ; and albeit not 
 altogether like gold, yet often likened to 
 it by poets ; since you know that they 
 are wont to say (as Petrarca doth in 
 many places) that a lady’s hair is of fine 
 gold, woven in a crown of bright and 
 crisped gold : “ Her golden hair fluttered 
 in the wind and you know that the 
 true and right colour for hair is a fair 
 yellow. 
 
 Tawny is of two degrees, one verging 
 on yellow, and this is not for us ; the 
 other much darker, which is called tan 
 colour, and two brushfuls will be enough 
 of that. 
 
 Of black I need give no description, 
 since it is known to all, and that Floren- 
 tine lady whom you made so welcome 
 hath her full share of it. And the more 
 dense and dark it is the finer it is. 
 
10 6 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 Red is that fiery hue which we see in 
 cochineal, in coral, in rubies, in the 
 flower of the pomegranate, and the like ; 
 and we find it more or less fiery, and 
 more or less unmingled, as we see in 
 the objects named. 
 
 Vermilion likewise is a kind of red, 
 but less strong ; in short, it is the hue 
 which resembles the cheek of fair Fran- 
 colina di Palazzuolo when she is pro- 
 voked, and this maiden seems to me to 
 bear away the prize for bright carnations 
 in these parts. But to let that pass, and 
 return to the colour of vermilion ; we 
 may see it exactly in the wine which 
 here in Tuscany is called vermiglia. 
 
 Carnation is a white tinted with red, 
 or a red shaded with white, like those 
 roses which we call carmine, or in 
 Italian imbalconate .* 
 
 1 Firenzuola, in the text, gives the following 
 account of the etymology of this word : “ These 
 roses when they were first brought into this 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 107 
 
 Of the difference between fair and 
 white, having spoken at length in my 
 former discourse, I need not return to it 
 now. 
 
 Having ground the colours we shall 
 need, we may now with the greater ease 
 begin, and the first part we will paint 
 shall be the hair, to the end that we 
 may not forget it as we did last time. 
 
 The hair then, according to those who 
 from time to time have written con- 
 cerning it, should be fine and fair, in 
 the similitude now of gold, now of 
 honey, and now of the bright and 
 shining rays of the sun ; waving, thick, 
 abundant and long, as the aforenamed 
 
 country, which is not long since, were held of 
 such great price that he who had but one, in a 
 fine vessel full of water, to the end that it might 
 remain green and fresh, would put it in his 
 balcony to show it to his neighbours as a new 
 rare thing. From which the name of imbal- 
 conata , given to their colour.’’ 
 
108 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 Apuleius hath it in the same book, 
 wherein, speaking of its importance and 
 essential beauty and all its qualities and 
 diversity, he hath these express words, 
 and would that I could repeat them in 
 our tongue as they sound in the Latin, 
 but that is impossible. Yet will 1 try. 
 He says this : 
 
 “If you should remove from the 
 shining head of any well-favoured 
 maiden the glory of the bright light 
 of her fair hair, you would find her 
 bereft of every grace and lacking all 
 charm, even if it were she who was 
 conceived in heaven, born of the sea, 
 and nurtured by the waters, Venus her- 
 self amid the Graces and attended by her 
 loves, girt with the cistus of desire, 
 loaded with charms, overcharged with 
 blandishments, adorned with a thousand 
 sweet and flattering witcheries ; Venus, 
 1 say, the beauteous Venus, who, being 
 judged the fairest of the three fairest 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. IO9 
 
 goddesses, bore off the apple of beauty. 
 And she even, without the glory and 
 ornament of her golden hair, would 
 please no man, nor even her Vulcan, 
 her husband and tender lover. How 
 fair to see is a charming woman, when 
 her thick hair covers her head in dense 
 abundance, or floats over her shoulders 
 in free profusion.” 
 
 Thus, as we learn from this worthy, 
 hair is of so much importance to the 
 perfection of a fair woman, and merits 
 such care, and so great honour is due to 
 it, that, besides what he hath said, Dion, 
 a most illustrious Greek writer, composing 
 his fine oration in its praise, esteems as 
 ignorant and of no account those who 
 fail to attend to the care of it, with 
 bodkins and irons proper for curling it ; 
 and tells us that the ancients, who slept 
 on the ground, supported their heads on 
 pieces of wood for fear of spoiling it, 
 whence we see that they esteemed it so 
 
IIO OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 highly that for its sake they contemned 
 the ease and rest of sweet sleep which is 
 our sole true repose from human toil. 
 Moreover, the Lacedemonians, nurtured 
 under the severe laws of Lycurgus, took 
 such care of their hair that we read of 
 the three hundred who so valiantly 
 fought againt Darius, King of Persia, as 
 the ancient histories proclaim, that while 
 they awaited that bloody battle they did 
 not neglect the care of their hair. The 
 great Homer names as a signal ornament 
 of the beauty of his Achilles the splen- 
 dour of his flowing hair, and when 
 Apuleius, who has been so often men- 
 tioned, sets forth wherein the beauty of 
 ladies consists, he adds these words : 
 ‘ ‘ So great is the dignity of the hair that 
 even if she be most beautiful, and array 
 herself most sumptuously in gold and 
 pearls and rich apparel, and go about 
 adorned in all the fashion and frippery 
 that may be imagined, if she have not 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. I I I 
 
 disposed her hair in a fair order with 
 pleasing skill, never shall it be said that 
 she is beautiful nor elegant.” And now, 
 whereas we know of what importance 
 the hair is, and what its qualities should 
 be, we may conclude that Verdespina’s 
 has them all, and we will take it from 
 her for our picture. 
 
 Selvaggia. Bring hither the scissors, 
 Lena, to cut it off. Yet, how would 
 you have her cut it off? With a razor? 
 
 Celso. I would not have her cut it, 
 neither with the scissors nor with a 
 razor, but with the blade of the ima- 
 gination. Behold how this Selvaggia 
 mocks all I say ! And yet she is in the 
 wrong, for I do not so to her. But 
 patience ; time peradventure will show 
 her her error, since nought else will 
 avail. But to return to the matter : now 
 that we have her hair, fair, fine, soft, 
 waving, abundant, long, shining and in 
 comely order, we must find the person 
 
I 12 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 on whom to place it, to the end that it 
 may not befall us as it did a certain man 
 to whom plants were given which, 
 while he sought a garden wherein to 
 set them, all dried up ; and thus by the 
 ignorance of the possessor the gift was 
 cast away. 
 
 Selvaggia. Well, then, Verdespina, 
 you did well not to cut it off too soon. 
 So dainty as he is, he will perchance be 
 long in seeking the person on whom to 
 place it, since he is not the man to be 
 satisfied with the first to hand ; and in 
 the meanwhile the hair might be spoiled. 
 
 Celso. There is none here present 
 who knows better than you whether 
 indeed 1 am too dainty or easy to 
 please. Yet have I already given you 
 the lie inasmuch I have found her, and 
 of a fair form, that, namely, of Madonna 
 Amororrisca. She is of the very stature 
 which we seek, a little more or less, but 
 sufficient if my eyes, the faithful appraisers 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. I 1 3 
 
 of beauty, deceive me not. The whole 
 person is pleasing when it gives rise to 
 straight and slender limbs at due inter- 
 vals and of due proportion ; but I would 
 not have it over great nor over fat. 
 
 Selvaggia. Yet, albeit Madonna Hiblea 
 Soporella is very fat, she is nevertheless 
 a well-favoured damsel, and carries her- 
 self so well, so uprightly, so nimbly, so 
 gracefully, that in truth it is a pleasure 
 to behold her gait. 
 
 Celso. This is one of those things I 
 have said a thousand times. These are 
 graces which few possess, nor is it thus 
 with all women. This one hath a cer- 
 tain majesty of person ; such seemliness 
 in her looks, such grace in her face, 
 such grandeur in her gait, that it might 
 seem that her fatness had bestowed on 
 her the beauty and the elegance which 
 it is wont to take away. And, not to 
 speak of her graciousness, and manner, 
 and gentleness, and her fine wit and 
 
114 OF THE beauty of women. 
 
 other gifts of mind, I esteem her as one 
 of the fair women of these parts, and I 
 sorrow that she is not here with us 
 to-day. 
 
 M. Lainpiada. I had sent to her, but 
 by reason of the death of her father and 
 the sickness of her husband, she is in 
 much trouble, and, as you know, it would 
 not have been seemly that she should be 
 one of our company. This is a grief to 
 me, for she gladdens everything. 
 
 Celso. To return to the person of our 
 image, 1 say that you, Madonna Amor- 
 orrisca, have a shape between lean and 
 fat, round and juicy and of the right 
 proportions, wherein we see suppleness 
 and dexterity, with somewhat that is 
 right queenly. Your hue is not of that 
 whiteness which verges on pallor, but 
 tinted with blood, after the fashion which 
 the ancients prized. The person of a 
 lady of high degree should move with 
 gravity and after a certain gentle manner 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. I I 5 
 
 which keeps it upright yet not stiff, so 
 that we find in it that majesty whereof 
 I lately spoke. And inasmuch as you 
 have most of all these things, we are 
 bound to give you Verdespina’s hair, 
 and now will seek a forehead. 
 
 The forehead must be spacious, that 
 is wide and high, fair and serene. The 
 height, which is understood to be from 
 where the hair ends down to the con- 
 fines of the eyebrows and the nose, 
 according to many writers should be 
 the third part of the face ; the second 
 part being measured to the upper lip, 
 and the third part all the rest, including 
 the chin ; the height, then, I say, must 
 be equal to half the width, and it will 
 be twice as wide as the height-; so that 
 from the width we estimate the height 
 and the height from the width. And 
 we have said it must be fair, since it 
 must not be of an over dull whiteness, 
 without any lustre, but should shine 
 
1 1 6 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 after the manner of a mirror, not by 
 wetness or by painting, or by foul 
 washes, like that of Bovinetta, which, 
 an it were fish to fry, might be worth a 
 farthing a pound more as not needing to 
 be floured ; howbeit it is not to be sold 
 nor fried. 
 
 The line of the brow should not 
 be all flat, but curved like an arch 
 towards the crown of the head, so 
 gently that it is scarce to be perceived ; 
 but from the boss of the temples it 
 should descend more straightly. Our 
 poets speak of it as serene, and with 
 reason ; since as the sky is serene when 
 we see on it no cloud nor any manner 
 of spot, so the front, when it is clear 
 and open, without furrows or wrinkles 
 or powders, is calm and tranquil, and 
 may be rightly called serene ; and where- 
 as the sky when it is serene engenders 
 a certain contentment in the mind of 
 those who behold it, so the forehead 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. I 1 7 
 
 which we call serene, gives, through the 
 eye, peace to the soul of those who 
 gaze upon it. As it is now with me, 
 gazing on that of Madonna Lampiada, 
 which, having all the qualities I have 
 enumerated, will do well to place 
 beneath Verdespina’s hair. And that 
 serenity of which I speak is the greater 
 for the lustre of the eyes, they being 
 without the confines of the forehead 
 indeed, and yet appearing as the two 
 chief luminaries in the sky ; and we 
 will first speak of the eyebrows. 
 
 Now to speak of these we will take 
 as an example those of Verdespina, who 
 hath them in colour like ebony, fine and 
 of short, soft hairs, as though they were 
 of the finest silk ; and from the middle 
 to the ends they gently diminish, on one 
 side towards the hollow or socket of the 
 eye, by the nose, and on the other 
 towards that part which is near the ear, 
 and where they end. 
 
I 1 8 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 Next we come to the eye, which in 
 every part of the visible globe or eyeball, 
 excepting the pupil, must be white, 
 slightly tinged with the hue of flax, but 
 so little as to be scarce perceptible. The 
 pupil, save only the circle which lies in 
 the centre, should not be perfectly black, 
 albeit all the Greek and Latin poets, and 
 our own likewise, praise black eyes, as 
 with one voice, and all are agreed that 
 the goddess of beauty had them. Never- 
 theless, those are not wanting who praise 
 eyes which are of the colour of the sky, 
 and that Venus had them so is to be 
 found written in certain trustworthy 
 authors. 
 
 Among you there is a lady, reputed 
 exceeding fair by me and by many others, 
 who, having such eyes, gains in grace 
 thereby. Nevertheless, common custom 
 seems to have obtained that dark tan or 
 nut-brown eyes hold the first place 
 among eyes of other colours. Deep 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. I 1 9 
 
 black is not much to be commended, 
 since it tends to a somewhat gloomy and 
 cruel gaze ; and nut-brown, if dark, gives 
 a soft, bright, clear and kindly gaze ; 
 and it lends to the movement of the 
 eyes I know not what alluring charm, 
 frank, attractive and keen, which I can- 
 not better explain than by pointing to 
 those of Madonna Lampiada, to whom 
 none of these qualities are lacking. And 
 besides this that has been said, and again 
 like Madonna Lampiada, the eyes must 
 be large and full, not concave nor 
 hollow, for hollowness makes the gaze 
 over-proud and fulness makes it sweet 
 and modest. So Homer, desiring to 
 praise the eyes of Juno, tells us that they 
 were like those of an ox, meaning there- 
 by that they were round and full and 
 large. Many have said that they should 
 be long, and others that they should be 
 oval, which pleases me very well. 
 
 The eyelids, when they are white with 
 
120 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 certain delicate rosy veins, hardly to be 
 seen, are a great aid to the general 
 beauty of the eye ; and the lashes should 
 be thin and not over long and not white, 
 since, besides being ill-favoured, they 
 impair the sight. Nor would I have 
 them very black, which makes the gaze 
 fierce. The socket which surrounds the 
 eye is not to be very deep, nor too 
 large, nor different in colour from the 
 cheek ; and let ladies who paint be on 
 their guard, those, I would say, who are 
 brown, since this part is very often un- 
 apt to take the paint or the plastering by 
 reason of its hollow shape, or to retain 
 it by reason of the motion of the eye- 
 lashes, and thus makes a division which 
 looks very ill. Madonna Theofila’s neigh- 
 bour often falls into this error. 
 
 The ears, which should be tinted rather 
 of the hue of pale rubies than of red 
 ones, and which we will paint like the 
 balcony rose, and not the damask, I 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 121 
 
 will borrow from you, Selvaggia. For 
 their perfect beauty, as we see in yours, 
 a middle size is to be desired, with the 
 shell finely turned, and of a livelier hue 
 than the flat part ; and the roll which 
 borders them all round must be trans- 
 parent and of a brilliant hue like the seed 
 of the pomegranate. Above all, if they 
 be soft and thin their beauty is spoiled ; 
 hence, as they are seen in her, they 
 should be firm, and well set on. 
 
 Of the temples there is little to be said 
 save that they must be white and flat, not 
 hollow ; not over full and moist, nor so 
 narrow as to seem to press on the brain, 
 which would signify a weakness of the 
 brain. And they are beautiful when 
 they resemble those of Madonna Amor- 
 orrisca. And the manner of laying the 
 hair over them, higher or lower, curled 
 or drawn smooth, thicker or thinner, 
 enlarges or diminishes the temples and 
 makes them wider or narrower, longer 
 
122 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 or shorter, as we may desire, or as a 
 little flower shall confine it. 
 
 M. Lampiada. When I was a girl we 
 did not love to dress our heads as many 
 of our maidens do now-a-days, putting 
 so many flowers and leaves that they 
 often resemble a jar full of gilliflowers 
 or marjoram ; nay, some might be a 
 o 4 uarter of kid on the spit, since they 
 will even wear rosemary, which to me 
 seems the most graceless thing in the 
 world. And you, Messer Celso, how 
 seems it to you ? 
 
 Celso. I like it not, if I am to tell the 
 truth ; and this mistake arises from their 
 not knowing for what reason the ancients 
 would wear a flower above the ear. I 
 speak of gentlewomen, since the peasant 
 women, having no other jewels nor 
 pearls, load themselves, as you know, 
 with flowers, without order, fashion, 
 or number ; and in them this excess 
 becomes beauty. 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 1 2} 
 
 M. Lampiada. Meseems that even 
 gentle ladies may have worn flowers for 
 their more homely adornment instead of 
 pearls and gold ; inasmuch as not all our 
 peers have wherewithal to attire them- 
 selves with the gems of the Orient or 
 the sands of Tagus, and so it was need- 
 ful to use the riches of the gardens of 
 our own land. But each one having 
 tried to out-do the others, they seem 
 sometimes as if they had a garland or 
 quintain about the face. And waters 
 and powders were in those days in- 
 vented to remove pimples and moles 
 and other such stains, but to-day they 
 are used to paint and whiten the whole 
 face, just as lime and plaster cover the 
 face of a wall ; and peradventure those 
 foolish maids believe that men, whom 
 they seek to please, do not discern this 
 foulness, which 1 would have them to 
 know wears them out and makes them 
 grow old before their time, and destroys 
 
124 0F THE BEAUTY of women. 
 
 their teeth, while they seem to be 
 wearing a mask all the year through. 
 Look now at Mona Bettola Gagliani ; 
 what do you think of her? The more 
 she paints and the more she dresses up 
 the older she seems ; nay, she is like a 
 gold ducat that hath lain in aqua-fortis. 
 And it would not be thus if she had not 
 used washes so much when she was 
 young. I, for my part, if I am still well 
 preserved (which indeed I know not, but 
 it shall suffice that others say so) it is 
 from no cause but that water from the 
 well has ever been my wash, and shall 
 be that of my daughter so long as she 
 tarries with me ; afterwards, it must be 
 her husband’s care. 
 
 But tell us, 1 entreat, the reason of 
 wearing flowers, since I indeed have 
 wandered far from home ; yet forgive 
 me, for the hatred I have to these 
 plastered faces. 
 
 Celso. It must be known to you that 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 1 2} 
 
 in general folks sleep rather on the right 
 temple than on the left ; whence it comes 
 that this side, being more pressed and 
 crushed than the other, is more hollow ; 
 as we see that in men the beard, for the 
 same reason, is less thick on the right 
 side than on the left. And therefore, 
 desiring to raise the hollowed part some- 
 what by a little art, gentle ladies were 
 wont to place over it some few flowers, 
 but small ones, which should stand out 
 and raise it a little, yet in such a way as 
 not to make the other side seem too 
 small. And these were of two kinds, 
 but of the same colour, and helped 
 rather than took away from the fresh- 
 ness of the vermilion cheeks and the 
 fairness of the whole face ; this was 
 blue, and they chose certain flowers 
 called hood flowers(chicory), besides blue 
 cornflowers, which had this name by 
 reason of their use. Inasmuch as you 
 must have heard tell that ladies of yore 
 
\l6 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 wore on their heads certain headgear 
 which were called hoods, and whereas 
 these flowers were worn under these 
 hoods they were called hood-flowers 
 ( capucci ), and these served to fill up the 
 hollowed temple of which I spoke! The 
 cornflower, indeed, since it hath a longer 
 stem and stuck out farther towards the 
 face, was called “ flower of the face,” as 
 being seemly to adorn the face withal. 
 And again they were wont to use violets, 
 which for the short time they endure 
 and for their colour and size resemble 
 those other flowers ; and they were 
 called viole mammole, as who should say 
 bosom violets. Politian indeed calls 
 them mammolette verginelle, as meaning 
 that they are flowers or violets for 
 virgin bosoms. 
 
 Those flowers which, for their odour, 
 many call clove-pinks, and roses, and 
 other larger, strongly-smelling flowers 
 they were fain to carry in the hand ; 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 1 27 
 
 and to the end that their too fiery 
 redness should not make the natural 
 hue of the rosy face look pale they 
 placed them not by the cheeks, since 
 you know how ill red beseems the 
 carnations of a fair cheek and the flesh 
 generally of you ladies. Nay, and I 
 should wonder that any would ever 
 wear it, if I did not perceive that every- 
 thing is done as chance directs, and that 
 the art of apparel, and of arraying and 
 adorning ladies, is lost. What foolish- 
 ness it is to see a pair of fur cuffs on the 
 tight sleeves of a gown. Is it not plain 
 that this fur puffs out the cuffs, and that 
 the shoulders are lost, and the arm ap- 
 pears crippled ? A fine thing it is to see 
 the figure bereft of all profile about the 
 neck, and without a curve, but straight 
 down ! Is it the arm alone from below 
 the elbow that is cold and therefore 
 wrapped in fur, and not the whole 
 person ? Oh ! what a monstrosity, 
 
128 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 what a folly, what an ungraceful thing ! 
 and yet it is common, and we see it 
 done by those who find that orange 
 flowers stink . 1 
 
 But to return to our flowers, I say 
 that certain foolish maids, without con- 
 sidering the matter too nicely, seeing 
 that these flowers lent so much grace, 
 argued among themselves after the 
 manner of the Sophists : If one little 
 flower lends such grace, what will not 
 a large one do ? And if one or two, 
 what will not ten, or twelve, or a bunch ? 
 And they began to heap them up, as you 
 see, without considering whether the 
 head were wide, the face long, the 
 temples hollow or full. If the wife of 
 Panfilo took my advice perchance she 
 would not wear so many ; for she, 
 having somewhat hollow temples, by 
 
 1 A proverbial expression, meaning people 
 who are exceedingly nice and fastidious in their 
 tastes. 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 1 29 
 
 the gilliflowers she places on her cheeks, 
 or it may be even lower, not merely 
 takes all the colour out of her face (and 
 she hath none to sell)> but, by filling 
 out her temples more than she need, 
 makes them seem more hollow than in 
 truth they are. And mark this, when 
 you shall see her, and you will discern 
 if 1 do not tell you the truth, and if 1 
 know what I am saying. 
 
 The cheeks again I need not describe, 
 inasmuch as we have the perfect pattern 
 of them in yours, Selvaggia ; and albeit 
 at my words they have gained such 
 a hue that, whereas they lacked not 
 before, they now have too much, I shall 
 take them for my figure of beauty. 
 Nevertheless, to follow the rule I have 
 so far observed, and for your better 
 understanding, I say that the cheeks 
 should be of a softer fairness than the 
 forehead, that is to say less lustrous, 
 and beginning as white as snow, should 
 
 K 
 
13O OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 where the roundness swells, increase in 
 rosiness in the semblance of a little 
 mound whose summit is crowned with 
 that rosy hue which the sun leaves 
 behind when he quits our hemisphere 
 in fair weather ; and this, you know, is 
 a fair colour shaded with vermilion. 
 
 We have now to choose the nose, 
 which is the feature of the greatest 
 importance, whether on the face of a 
 man or of a woman ; whereas, as I 
 told you the other day, she who has not 
 a nose of perfect beauty can never appear 
 beautiful in profile. Thus the wife of 
 Sarto de’ Cavagli, who in front is comely 
 to look at, in profile is but an ill-favoured 
 wench, and, gazing at her one morning 
 hearing Mass in the chapel, side by side 
 with Selvaggia, 1 discovered this defect. 
 But to return to the nose, whereof we 
 saw the due proportion the other day 
 and need not repeat it ; yet if either of 
 you forget or was not present, look at 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 1 3 I 
 
 that of Verdespina and you will remem- 
 ber, since she, like a second Juno, has 
 a perfect nose. For the nose, beside 
 being of a proper size (to follow out 
 rule), must be narrow rather than wide, 
 and taper from the top to the base 
 which is above the mouth ; and at the 
 tip it should turn up a very little, and 
 stand out as it were in relief, coloured 
 but not red ; with an almost invisible 
 line marking the boundary of the two 
 nostrils, which at first must rise and 
 then softly slope away and finally end, 
 diminishing both on the same line. As 
 to the end of the cartilage, if the more 
 solid part of the nose is a very little 
 raised (not aquiline, which is not gene- 
 rally pleasing in a woman), but like the 
 joint of a finger, this will be the very 
 perfection of a nose. The lower portion, 
 that is to say all of the cartilage, should 
 be of the same colour as the ears, but 
 perchance even less rosy, and yet it 
 K 2 
 
132 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 must not be too white as if it were cold. 
 And the nostrils should be dry and 
 sharply cut, albeit many have them 
 somewhat moist, especially by the 
 cheeks, and this is not comely ; besides 
 which the Latins had a proverb signify- 
 ing a man of good judgment : est homo 
 emundis naribus, that is to say, a man 
 with dry nostrils. A nose that turns 
 up much is not beautiful, since, besides 
 that it shows a disposition to wrath, 
 it spoils the profile, as may be seen in 
 the wife of the master who teaches the 
 youth at Pistoia, who but for this is a 
 most comely lady. And not less ill- 
 favoured is a nose dropping, as it were, 
 into the mouth ; but that nose is pleasing 
 which is in proportion in all its parts, 
 like yours, indeed, Verdespina, full of 
 every grace and beauty. 
 
 Now we have come to the mouth, the 
 fountain of all loving sweetness, which 
 should be small rather than large ; and 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 1 33 
 
 it must be neither pouting nor flat ; and 
 when it opens, especially when it opens 
 neither for laughter nor speech, it should 
 not show more than five or six teeth, 
 and those the upper teeth. The lips are 
 not to be too thin, neither very thick, 
 but their vermilion must show distinctly 
 against the rosy hue about them. And 
 when the mouth is closed the lips must 
 meet in such wise that the lower pro- 
 jects no more than the upper, nor the 
 upper than the lower ; and at the corners 
 they must diminish so as to form an 
 obtuse angle ; like this, and not an acute 
 angle, nor like the chin. 
 
 It is very true that if the lower lip 
 swells a little more than the upper, and 
 
134 OF THE beauty of women. 
 
 yet more so when the mouth opens, 
 with a certain dimple which seems to 
 divide it as it were into two parts, this 
 little fulness gives much grace to the 
 whole mouth. Between the upper lip 
 and the median line of the nose there 
 must likewise be a certain mark like a 
 little furrow, somewhat hollow and sown 
 with pale roses. 
 
 Closing the mouth sometimes with a 
 tender air and a certain grace of the 
 right side of the face, while the left side 
 of the mouth parts as with a stolen 
 smile ; or biting the lower lip, not with 
 affectation but as if through inadver- 
 tence, so as not to seem childish nor 
 wanton, and but rarely, with a lan- 
 guishing sweetness and a little modest 
 witchery ; and again, with a certain 
 movement of the eyes which now gaze 
 fixedly before them and anon down on 
 the ground, are gracious things, arts 
 which open or, so to speak, unbar the 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 1 3 5 
 
 garden of delights, and bathe in unutter- 
 able sweetness the soul of him who is 
 gazing with desire. 
 
 But all this is of little avail if the 
 beauty of the teeth do not correspond ; 
 and they should be small, but not too 
 small, square, equal, parted by regular 
 distances, and above all as white as 
 ivory. And the gums should seem 
 borders of rose-red satin rather than 
 crimson velvet, round, close and 
 clinging. 
 
 The tip of the tongue, if peradven- 
 ture it should be seen, which befalls but 
 seldom, will lend beauty while giving 
 desire and consolation, if it be red like 
 scarlet, small, but neither pointed nor 
 square. And Madonna Lampiada has 
 perfect beauty of the whole mouth such 
 as I would have it ; Selvaggia hath 
 indeed marvellously sweet lips, and 
 Madonna Amororrisca fine teeth, and 
 Verdespina such perfect gums and 
 
136 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 tongue, that from you four we may 
 make the fairest mouth that ever was, 
 not merely painted, but imagined ; so 
 each of you lend me her share for the 
 portrait of my chimasra of beauty. 
 
 And the chin I will have from you, 
 Verdespina, since among all I see, and all 
 most fair, yours seems to me the most 
 perfect, inasmuch as it doth not curve 
 up nor is it sharp, but round, and 
 tinged at the boss with a tender rose, 
 and faintly red from the under lip where 
 it ends, to the lower part where it begins, 
 but with great softness, more easily to 
 be seen by considering the chin than to 
 be expressed in words ; and from the 
 lower part, as it ascends towards the 
 lower lip, half of it should lose rather 
 than gain in colour. Thence following 
 its pleasing passage towards the lip, it 
 is its proper and particular beauty to 
 form a little dimple at each corner, as 
 hath been said in our former discourse. 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 1 37 
 
 And this Vallera shows that he knew 
 well when singing of the beauties of his 
 Mistress, where he says: “My Nencia 
 hath a dimple in her chin which lendeth 
 beauty to her whole face ” ; and so like- 
 wise the peasant folk, who are full of 
 natural good judgment, recognize it as 
 the perfection of beauty. If the chin 
 slope away beneath to the throat and 
 join it with a slight fulness it adds 
 greatly to the general beauty of the 
 person, and in those who are fat it is 
 a chief adornment, and a fair addition to 
 the graces of the throat. 
 
 The throat must be long, slender, fair 
 and without a spot ; and in turning, 
 now hither and now thither, it makes 
 certain curves which show first one and 
 then the other of the two cartilages 
 which inclose the vital vessels, with a 
 grace which it is a sweet joy to con- 
 template but hard to describe. In 
 bending down it should make circular 
 
I38 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 furrows, in shape like a necklace, which 
 surround it ; and in straightening again 
 it must be smooth and fair, as it were 
 that of the wooing dove, whose neck is 
 of gold and purple. The throat is most 
 pleasing when its skin is most delicate, 
 when it is slender and long rather than 
 short, showing where it joins the bosom 
 a little valley full of snows ; but above, 
 where it meets the chin, a very little 
 swell, yet not such as men have where 
 they seem to have retained the apple of 
 ill-advised Adam. And inasmuch as I 
 have here described it, word for word, 
 from the ensample of the fair Selvaggia, 
 you shall not marvel if for a while I 
 have gazed so intently on her. Thus 
 we will take her throat as of passing 
 beauty among so many that I have ever 
 seen, and add it to our picture ; and that 
 will be of much more effect than I have 
 known how to give with the rude pencil 
 of my words. 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. I }<) 
 
 And descending from the neck to the 
 shoulders, we will say that when they 
 are somewhat square, like yours, Ma- 
 donna Amororrisca, with a gentle slope, 
 and are broad (for to be narrow mars 
 them), they are in true perfection. 
 
 The back of the neck should be white 
 but slightly rosy, and if not quite flat, 
 at least the shoulders must not be round 
 nor tend in the very least to a hump ; 
 and the hollow which runs from the 
 nape of the neck down towards the loins 
 is not to be over-deep, lest that deformity 
 should make the shoulders appear over- 
 fat, and the shaping of the bodice will 
 be too high, which is uncomely to the 
 eye. And whereas this part is most 
 shapely in Selvaggia and in Madonna 
 Amororrisca, we will take the neck from 
 Selvaggia and the shoulders from you. 
 And studying these ladies, we will say 
 that they should swell a little from the 
 base of the throat, to where the arms 
 
140 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 begin, as giving rise to them, somewhat 
 after the fashion of an ancient vase from 
 the hand of a good master, and thence, 
 with a not too sudden descent join the 
 arms, and make a support, as it were, 
 to hold up the bodice of the garments 
 lest they should fall ; and in this respect 
 again Madonna Amororrisca is most 
 shapely. 
 
 Selvaggia. Well-beloved Messer Celso, 
 I beseech you expound to us how you 
 would have the shoulders and arms 
 formed after the fashion of an antique 
 vase ; since the preachers are wont to 
 teach us poor women by examples, to 
 make us the better able to comprehend 
 them, as is needful for gross wits. 
 
 Celso. It is 1 who should be gross of 
 wit if I held yours to be gross, as though 
 I could lend subtlety to you, who make 
 ours seem grosser than we could wish. 
 But if you crave an example, where 
 shall you find one fairer or more true 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 141 
 
 than that of Madonna Lampiada, who is 
 not alone a vase, but a safe casket of all 
 the virtues which may adorn the spirit 
 of a gentle lady ; yet you may answer 
 me that you seek an ancient and not a 
 modern vase as she is, and I will satisfy 
 you. Here is a drawing of it on this 
 plate. You see that the 
 handles at first rise 
 somewhat and then 
 gently curve down- 
 wards as the arms 
 should do. But from 
 an antique vase (since 
 we have come to draw- 
 ing) I will show you 
 how the throat has its rise from the 
 bosom and back of the neck and shoul- 
 ders, and how the bust rises from the 
 loins, which I believe will not displease 
 you ; nay, it will seem to you that 
 either Nature hath imitated art, or that 
 the art of beauty in you ladies hath been 
 
142 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 derived from those shapely vases. First 1 
 will discourse of the beauty of the bosom. 
 
 The bosom must above all else be 
 white. But why waste time? The 
 bosom must be in all conditions like 
 that of Selvaggia. Look at hers and 
 you shall see every perfection of pro- 
 portion, every grace, every allurement, 
 every charm, in short every beauty. 
 Here are violets at every season, here 
 are roses in January and here snow in 
 August ; here dwell the Charites and 
 the Loves ; here are witcheries, blandish- 
 ments and charms ; here is Venus with 
 all her train, all her celestial gifts, her 
 zone, her veil, her tresses, her knots, in 
 short all her pomp. And not only is 
 nothing lacking ; here is more than 
 desire can hope, than the brain can 
 apprehend, the tongue express, the 
 imagination picture ; hence I forbear to 
 waste more words, and for my part I 
 do not believe that Helen, nor Venus 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 14 } 
 
 the Goddess of Beauty, had a fairer or 
 more admirable bosom. 
 
 Selvaggia. Away with this. Tell us 
 how it should be formed, as you have 
 been wont with other parts, since I 
 would not that by thus feigning to do 
 me such honour, or peradventure to 
 mock me, you should leave us lacking 
 a description of one of the most im- 
 portant features, in my humble judg- 
 ment, which go to the making of a fair 
 woman. 
 
 Celso. At least you will excuse me, 
 since I should fail to say anything which 
 is not very far behind the most beautiful 
 and most ravishing example of yours. 
 
 Selvaggia. Granting that you speak 
 the truth, I nevertheless entreat you to 
 declare its beauties, at least for my sake, 
 who cannot see myself. 
 
 Celso. If only you suffered others to 
 see it! Well then, since I am your 
 prisoner I must need do your bidding. 
 
144 0F THE beauty of women. 
 
 Yet will 1 treat the matter briefly, both 
 for what I have now said, and for that 
 in our last discourse we spoke of it at 
 length. I will say then that the bosom 
 is beautiful when, besides its breadth, 
 which is its chief grace, it is full so that 
 no sign of the bones is seen, and rising 
 softly from the sides swells so gently 
 that the eye can scarce follow it; of a 
 perfect fairness tinged with roses ; and 
 the fresh full breasts heaving as though 
 they were ill at ease from being op- 
 pressed and confined by the raiment, 
 seem eager to be free from prison, rising 
 with a vehemence and energy which 
 compels every eye to gaze at them lest 
 they escape. And you ladies say that 
 they must be well set on, and you 
 admire them small, and yet not so small 
 as to be like the rosettes of the guitar, 
 as a friend of yours said, Madonna 
 Selvaggia, which Davitte carried at the 
 festa of San Felice. 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 1 45 
 
 And now having done the pleasure of 
 Selvaggia, who has not done me the 
 pleasure of a single glance, I will, as 1 
 promised, show you, by the pattern of 
 an ancient vase, how the waist or the 
 bust rises above the hips, and the 
 throat above the bosom and shoulders. 
 Hearken, therefore, and note well these 
 vases. 
 
 Behold how the neck of the first vase 
 rises from the shoulders, and how much 
 grace the slenderness of the neck gives ' 
 to the body of the vase in return for that 
 it receives from it, and how graceful and 
 tall the curvature makes it. Now con- 
 
146 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 sider the second, and note the neck 
 rising from the body of the vase, which 
 is as the bust of a woman rising from her 
 hips ; and the more breadth we find in 
 the hips the more slender and graceful 
 doth the bust appear and the less doth 
 it need to be tightly girt, as we see in 
 the first as concerning the shoulders and 
 the neck. But it is not so in the shape 
 of the third, which, as you may discern, 
 has neither grace nor beauty. And like 
 the first are those ladies who have a long 
 and slender throat and broad comely 
 shoulders ; like the second are those 
 who have fine hips, which are the chief 
 beauty of women who are beautiful 
 when unclothed, and who have a 
 slender, elegant, and well-proportioned 
 bust; like the third are certain lean 
 scarecrows without shape or grace ; and 
 like the fourth are those who were made 
 with a stint of material and left unfinished 
 and botched, wrought with the hatchet. 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 1 47 
 
 without file or chisel. From these 
 examples you may discern that the hips 
 must be very large and the bust rise 
 from them shapely and slender ; and 
 that the shoulders and neck must be the 
 same. And albeit these parts may be 
 improved by padding and by hoops — in 
 a word by the tailor’s arts, nevertheless 
 when Art is not aided by Nature it can 
 do little ; and that little is unsuccessful, 
 and few are they who do not discern it. 
 It is the same with those who strive to 
 look taller by the help of their shoes, 
 which all men can see save only their 
 husband when he goes to bed. And 
 so, to conclude, 1 will say that Nature is 
 the mistress of beauty, and Art is her 
 handmaid ; for our pattern we will take 
 the rounded hips of Madonna Amoror- 
 risca, and proceed to the legs. 
 
 Selvaggia shall lend us her leg; long, 
 slender and shapely in the lower portion, 
 but with calves as large as they need be. 
 
148 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 as white as snow, oval as they should 
 be ; with the shins not too bare of flesh, 
 and the bones visible but well-covered, 
 so that the leg is not over thick. And 
 the heels must not be too high nor yet 
 so flat that they may not be seen. 
 
 The foot, to please us, must be slender 
 but not bony, and spring neatly from the 
 ankle. 
 
 Homer saith of Thetis that she is silvery 
 footed ; 1 say it should be white like 
 alabaster when it is seen bare ; but I am 
 content to see it covered with a thin, 
 narrow and elegant shoe, skilfully cut in 
 the right fashion, that is to say some- 
 what long in the foot, the slashes across 
 it in the width, as to their direction, 
 straight and small, according to some 
 pattern and device, and ever in new 
 fashions ; the slipper should be short, 
 low and shapely ; but Io! lam usurping 
 the office of that worthy simpleton, 
 Madonna Rafaella. And you, Selvaggia, 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 1 49 
 
 shall give us your most dainty foot for 
 our Chimera. And since we have 
 shown the perfection of a fair lady from 
 the beauties of you four as examples, I 
 would now, for her greater accomplish- 
 ment, bestow upon her grace and charm 
 and all other qualities which beseem 
 the complete perfection of consummate 
 beauty, as we declared it on a former 
 occasion ; and I will then have done, 
 since it is high time. And now tell 
 me truly doth it not seem to you that 
 this our image has come forth in our 
 imagination fairer from you four ladies 
 than Zeuxis’ Helen from the five maidens 
 of Crotona? This is a most strong 
 proof that we in Prato to-day have much 
 fairer ladies than they had in Greece of 
 old. 
 
 Verde spina. And how can this be 
 
 when she has neither arms nor hands ? 
 Think how these should be, else is the 
 image which stands at the foot of the 
 
150 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 stairs in the Court of Justice at Prato, 
 more beautiful than yours since, albeit 
 she hath not arms, she hath instead an 
 iron bar and can hold an iron mace. 
 
 Celso. You are in the right, fair 
 damsel. Wretch that I am, and what 
 have I done? Behold what I had for- 
 gotten. But Selvaggia was the cause, 
 who never doth me aught but mischief ; 
 since if she had been content that her 
 fair bosom should serve for our image 1 
 should not thus have erred. Meanwhile 
 1 will proceed whither Verdespina has 
 bidden me. 
 
 Selvaggia. According to Messer Celso 
 then I am ever the rock of offence ! I 
 shall indeed begin now to believe that 
 you love me not. 
 
 Hereupon a certain old woman who 
 had come to bring I know not which of 
 these damsels home, on a sudden cried 
 out: Marry, my lady, what are you 
 saying? Do you not perceive that he 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. I 5 1 
 
 is jesting with you, simple maid? If 
 my master loved me half as well, should 
 I have to go barefoot all winter for lack 
 of a pair of wooden shoes ? 
 
 Whereat the whole party began to 
 laugh and the old dame betook her to 
 her kitchen again. 
 
 Then Celso, when they had ceased 
 from laughing, went on, saying: Sel- 
 vaggia, I cannot deny that the old 
 woman spoke truly ; but — 
 
 Selvaggia. There is that ‘ but ’ which 
 mars everything. But in Heaven’s name 
 though I be not such a beauty as that 
 nought can improve me, at least I am 
 not such as your fair one, who hath 
 taken two days in the making, and hath 
 neither arms nor hands, comely as she 
 may be ; I at least have them, such as 
 they are, by God’s grace ! 
 
 Celso. You will not have them long, 
 for since you are so wrath, for the love 
 I bear you I will take them from you. 
 
152 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 and place them on my image. If she 
 had no more than your bosom and 
 many other things she has had from 
 you she would be passing fair ; and so 
 whether you will or no we will take 
 your arms. Since they are of that 
 beautifully proportioned length which 
 we set forth the other day in the 
 squaring of the human figure. And 
 besides this they are very white, with a 
 shade of carnation on the raised parts ; 
 and fleshy and muscular, yet with a 
 certain softness, so that they do not 
 seem the arms of Hercules wrestling 
 with Cacus, but those of Pallas when 
 she stood before the Greek shepherd. 
 They are full of a natural moisture 
 which gives them a certain vigour and 
 freshness that generates firmness, so 
 that if the flesh is pressed with a finger, 
 on a sudden it turns white where it is 
 touched, but when the finger is raised 
 the flesh rises again, and the whiteness 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. I 53 
 
 vanishes, giving place to the carnation 
 which reappears. 
 
 The hand, which all declare to be 
 perfect in you (to you I say it, Sel- 
 vaggia, so hide it not), must likewise be 
 white chiefly on the outer side, large 
 enough and somewhat fat, the palm 
 hollow and tinted with rose ; the lines 
 must be clear, few, distinct, firmly 
 drawn, not crossing nor entangled ; the 
 mounts of Jupiter, Venus and Mercury 
 plainly to be seen, yet not over high ; 
 the line of the intellect and wit should 
 be deep and clear and crossed by no 
 other. The hollow that lies between 
 the thumb and middle finger must be 
 shapely, without wrinkles and brightly 
 tinted. The fingers are beautiful when 
 they are long, fine and slender, tapering 
 somewhat towards the tip, yet so little 
 as to be scarce perceptible. The nails 
 transparent, like pale rubies among pink 
 roses and the leaves of the pomegranate 
 
154' of THE beauty of women. 
 
 flower, not long, not round nor alto- 
 gether square, but of a fair shape and 
 with a very little boss, uncovered, clean 
 and well-kept so that at the base the 
 little white crescent is visible. Above, 
 beyond the flesh of the finger, an edge 
 should be seen, as wide as a small knife 
 is thick, without the smallest suspicion 
 of a rim of black at the tip. And the 
 whole hand must be of a tender, firm 
 surface, as though it were of fine silk or 
 the softest cotton. And this is all it 
 occurs to me to say of the arms and 
 hands. Now this image will no longer 
 be like that in the piazza; but behold 
 the thing she was compared with ! 
 You are indeed one of those sharp 
 thorns which get in between the nail 
 and the flesh, and if green of the harder 
 heart ; and it is well for me that I have 
 a good needle to withdraw it withal. 
 
 Selvaggia. Now, meseems, your pic- 
 ture is like those which are wrought by 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. I 55 
 
 the hand of a good master ; and to tell 
 the truth it is a most beautiful thing, so 
 that if I were a man, whereas I am a 
 woman, I should be constrained, like a 
 second Pygmalion, to fall in love with 
 her. And do not think that I call her 
 beautiful only to signify that the parts 
 which we have given her are the occa- 
 sion of it, seeing that the adornments 
 and graces you have bestowed on her 
 might have made even the wife of 
 Jacopo Cavallaccio seem fair. Since I 
 (to speak only of myself), if I had so 
 fair a bosom as you have described, 
 should not yield to Helen nor Venus for 
 beauty. 
 
 Celso. You have it indeed and you 
 know it ; there is no need to make so 
 many words about it. Good luck to 
 you and to him who may some day be 
 worthy to behold it. And of a truth 
 when that friend of mine composed a 
 fine Elegy in its praise, having so fine a 
 
156 OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. 
 
 thread, it was no great marvel that he 
 filled so fair a cloth. But to give our 
 Chimera the crowning perfection that 
 nothing may be lacking to her, you, 
 Madonna Lampiada, will give her that 
 witchery which sparkles in your eyes 
 and that fine air which pervades the 
 perfect proportion of your person ; you, 
 Madonna Amororrisca, will give her the 
 queenly majesty of your person and the 
 cheerfulness of your honest and modest 
 gaze, that serious gait, that dignified 
 countenance and that gentle gracious- 
 ness which delight all who behold them. 
 Selvaggia will lend her a calm seemli- 
 ness, an inviting charm, an honest yet 
 bewitching, a severe yet sweet attrac- 
 tiveness, with that pitying cruelty 
 which all are constrained to praise albeit 
 none desire it. You, Verdespina, shall 
 bestow the grace which makes you so 
 dear; that readiness and sweetness of 
 gay speech, subtle, honest and gracious. 
 
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN. I 57 
 
 Wit and the other gifts and virtues of 
 the mind we do not need, inasmuch as 
 we have described only the beauties of 
 the body and not those of the spirit, for 
 which a better painter than I am is needed, 
 better colours and a better brush than 
 those of my poor wit, albeit your en- 
 sample is no less sufficient for that kind 
 of beauty than for the other. 
 
 And thus, without more words, their 
 discourse ended, and each one returned 
 to his own home. 
 
 THE END. 
 
SUMMARY OF 
 
 A DIALOGUE OF THE 
 BEAUTY OF WOMEN, BY 
 GNOLO FIRENZUOLA, FLORENTINE 
 

 
 
 
 
SUMMARY OF DIALOGUE 
 
 ERTAIN Over- 
 subtle Brains 
 
 The Nature of the 
 Dialogue 
 
 He who offends a woman is 
 as a brute. 
 
 And doeth not the act of a 
 
 Man 
 
 Think well and you will be 
 will thought of 
 
 An Humble Plea 
 
1 62 SUMMARY. 
 
 Clement VII. 
 
 VI 
 
 Catherina Cibo , Duchess of 
 Camerino 
 
 VI 
 
 Giovio 
 
 VII 
 
 Marcus Tullius 
 
 VII 
 
 Of the Humility of Ladies 
 
 VII 
 
 He who loves will never 
 cease to love nor ever forget 
 her whom he loves 
 
 IX 
 
 The author speaks jestingly 
 of his age 
 
 X 
 
 What is said 
 
 XI 
 
 A Proverb 
 
 XI 
 
 The author defendeth himself 
 
 XII 
 
 Of Slanderers 
 
 XIII 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 I63 
 
 A Familiar Style and not 
 that of Petrarca and Boc- 
 caccio 
 
 XIV. 
 
 A Shamefaced Man 
 
 XV. 
 
 A Proverb 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The Abbey of Grignano 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 She is Fair who can Please 
 
 XX. 
 
 Beauty Charmeth All 
 
 XXI. 
 
 The Beauty Venus Slandered 
 by Momus 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Flelcn evil spoken of 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Of Fair Women 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Of Beauty 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Beauty the very Nest of Love 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Of its Effects 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 Of what Beauty is and 
 wherein it consisteth (Marcus 
 Tullius Cicero) 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Masks, and who should wear 
 them 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 Alberto de’ Bardi 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 Plato, his definition of Beauty 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Of a Finger 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Distinctions in this Dialogue 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 Homer 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Zeuxis, and how he painted 
 Helen 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Lucian 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Giorgio Trissino 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Cicero 
 
 XXXI. 
 
SUMMARY. 165 
 
 Aristotle xxxi. 
 
 Marsilio Ficino xxxi. 
 
 Dante xxxi. 
 
 Of Beauty , what it is xxxii. 
 
 A Figure of Speech xxxii. 
 
 The Qualities wherein we seek 
 
 Beauty xxxm. 
 
 Beauty is the Union of Di- 
 verse things xxxm. 
 
 Of Colour and how it is made 
 
 perfect xxxiv. 
 
 Alexander the Great xxxv. 
 
 Of the Cheek xxxv. 
 
 Of the Bosom xxxv. 
 
 Of Knowledge xxxvii. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 1 66 
 
 Of Modesty 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Aristophanes 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Beinbo 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 The fable of Jove and the 
 Creation of Man 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 Mercury the Sawyer 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 Esculapius the Leech 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 Laodamia Forteguerra 
 
 XL. 
 
 Margaret of Austria 
 
 XLI. 
 
 Alcestis and Admetus 
 
 XLI. 
 
 Orpheus and Euridice 
 
 XLII. 
 
 Gracchus and Cornelia 
 
 XLI I. 
 
 Secret Love 
 
 XLIII. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 l 67 
 
 Chaste Love 
 
 XLIV. 
 
 Delight, and wherein it 
 consisieth 
 
 XLVI. 
 
 The Rays of Love 
 
 XLVI. 
 
 Beauty dwelleth in Woman 
 
 XLVII. 
 
 Petrarca, and what he said 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 A Comparison 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 Just Wrath 
 
 L. 
 
 Women are as Ingenious and 
 as Apt as Men 
 
 LI. 
 
 A Noteworthy Saying 
 
 LII. 
 
 Reciprocal Love, how and 
 whereof it cometh 
 
 LIU. 
 
 That our Stature is Upright, 
 and to what end 
 
 LIV. 
 
1 68 SUMMARY. 
 
 Of the Form of Man’s Stature 
 
 LV. 
 
 The Measure of the Well 
 proportioned Stature of a 
 Man or of a Woman 
 
 LV. 
 
 Of the Head , and how it 
 should be drawn 
 
 LV1I. 
 
 A Proverb 
 
 LIX. 
 
 Of Roundness 
 
 LXIV. 
 
 Of the Pupil of the Eye 
 
 LXV. 
 
 Of Vision 
 
 LXVI. 
 
 The Brows a Shelter for the 
 Eyes 
 
 LXVI. 
 
 Of Keenness of Sight 
 
 LXVII. 
 
 Of the Nose and its place 
 
 LXVII. 
 
 Of the Cheeks 
 
 LXVII. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 169 
 
 O f the Nose and its condi- 
 tions and important qualities 
 
 LXVII. 
 
 Of the Mouth and its func- 
 tions 
 
 LXVIII. 
 
 Of Kisses 
 
 LXVIII. 
 
 Of the Teeth and their praises 
 
 LXIX. 
 
 Of the Good Qualities of 
 Laughter 
 
 LXIX. 
 
 Laughter is seemly in beauty 
 
 LXX. 
 
 Of Seemly Laughter 
 
 LXXI. 
 
 Of the Gums 
 
 LXXI. 
 
 The Chin hath its beauty 
 
 LXXII. 
 
 Of the Ears and how they 
 are made 
 
 LXXII. 
 
 Of the Passage of the Ear, 
 and its uses 
 
 LXXIV. 
 
1 70 SUMMARY. 
 
 Of the Throat and its grace 
 
 LXXV. 
 
 Of the Arms and Hands, 
 and their importance 
 
 LXXVI . 
 
 Of the Bosom and that it is 
 a hill of loveliness 
 
 LXXV I. 
 
 Of the Legs 
 
 LXXVII. 
 
 The Knees 
 
 LXXVI I. 
 
 Of the Foot, the base of the 
 whole body 
 
 LXXVIII. 
 
 That the Foot is like unto a 
 Pillow 
 
 LXXVIII. 
 
 Of fine Hair adding to beauty 
 
 LXXIX. 
 
 That the Hairs are hollow 
 tubes 
 
 LXXX. 
 
 Apuleius 
 
 LXXX. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 171 
 
 A Charm, and wherein it 
 consists 
 
 LXXX. 
 
 In Praise of a Certain Lady 
 
 LXXXI. 
 
 Qiiadrahianca Buonvisa 
 
 LXXXIII. 
 
 The Graces attendant on 
 Venus 
 
 LXXXI V. 
 
 Aglaia 
 
 LXXXIV. 
 
 The Praises of Grace 
 
 LXXXI V. 
 
 Witchery, that is Grace 
 
 LXXX V . 
 
 Of Wantonness, and what 
 it is 
 
 LXXXVI. 
 
 Cicero, and what he said of 
 Seemliness 
 
 LXXXIX. 
 
 Dignity in a Man is as 
 Seemliness in a Woman 
 
 XG. 
 
 Seemliness (or venusta) and 
 its meaning 
 
 XG. 
 
I 7 2 SUMMARY. 
 
 The Ear of the Intellect 
 
 XCI. 
 
 A Proverb 
 
 XCI. 
 
 Of a bad Countenance, or 
 Air 
 
 XCII. 
 
 Aristotle 
 
 XCIII. 
 
 Of Habits 
 
 XCIII. 
 
 Of wherein an Air or Ex- 
 pression resides 
 
 XCIV. 
 
 Of Majesty, and wherein it 
 consisted) 
 
 xcv. 
 
 Praises of the Contessa da 
 Hernia 
 
 xcv. 
 
 Of the Chimera, and what 
 it is 
 
 XCVI. 
 
 That Nature is miserly 
 
 CII. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 173 
 
 Of Nature, and how Poets 
 have figured her 
 
 ClI. 
 
 Of the Breast, and its Use 
 and Significance 
 
 cm. 
 
 Of Women, and How Few 
 are Found of Perfect Beauty 
 
 cm. 
 
 Fair Yellow 
 
 cv. 
 
 Tawny 
 
 cv. 
 
 Black 
 
 cv. 
 
 Red 
 
 CVI. 
 
 Vermilion 
 
 CVI. 
 
 Carnation 
 
 CVI. 
 
 Of the Meaning of Imbal- 
 conate 
 
 CVI. 
 
 Of the Hair 
 
 cvn. 
 
174 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 Of Apuleius, and what he 
 saith 
 
 CVIIU 
 
 Venus, and her Beauty 
 
 CVIII. 
 
 The Apple of Beauty 
 
 CIX. 
 
 Dion, a Greek, who highly 
 esteemed fine hair 
 
 CIX. 
 
 Lacedaemonians 
 
 cx. 
 
 Of Achilles and his beauty 
 
 cx. 
 
 A fair woman without hair 
 is not fair 
 
 cx. 
 
 Of the simplicity of a certain 
 man 
 
 CXII. 
 
 Of a Proper Stature in 
 Woman 
 
 CXII. 
 
 Of the Qualities of the Person 
 
 CXIII. 
 
 Of a Gracious Lady and her 
 beauty 
 
 CXIII. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 175 
 
 Of the Shape of the Forehead 
 — Serene — What it is like 
 
 cxv. 
 
 Of the Eyebrows 
 
 cxvn. 
 
 Of the Eye and what its hue 
 should he 
 
 CXVIII. 
 
 Of its Colour, a dark nut 
 brown 
 
 CXVIII. 
 
 Of Juno, and how her Eyes 
 were shaped 
 
 CXIX. 
 
 Of the Eyelids 
 
 CXIX. 
 
 Of the Ears, and their colour 
 
 cxx. 
 
 Of the Temples 
 
 CXXI. 
 
 Of Dressing the Hair 
 
 CXXI. 
 
 The Origin of wearing 
 Flowers 
 
 CXXII. 
 
 Flowers to serve instead of 
 Jewels 
 
 CXXIII. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 176 
 
 That Painting and Washes 
 make one grow old 
 
 CXXIII. 
 
 The True Cosmetic 
 
 CXXIV. 
 
 Of Sleeping on the Right 
 Side, and its effects 
 
 cxxv. 
 
 Of the Sophistry of Ladies, 
 and how they show it 
 
 CXXVIII. 
 
 Of the Cheeks 
 
 CXXIX. 
 
 Of the Nose, and its perfec- 
 tion 
 
 cxxx. 
 
 Of the Mouth 
 
 CXXXII. 
 
 Of the Lips and their Shape 
 
 CXXXIII. 
 
 How the Lips should Close 
 
 CXXXllI. 
 
 Of the Beauty of the Teeth 
 
 cxxxv. 
 
 Of the Chin and its Form 
 
 CXXXVI. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 177 
 
 A Dimple in the Chin is a 
 beauty 
 
 CXXXVI. 
 
 Of the Throat , and its acts 
 and effects 
 
 cxxxvn. 
 
 Of the Beauty of the Throat 
 
 CXXXVIII. 
 
 The Shoulders 
 
 CXXXIX. 
 
 Of the Back of the Neck 
 
 CXXXIX. 
 
 Of the Arms 
 
 CXL. 
 
 A Similitude 
 
 CXL. 
 
 The Praise of the Bosom 
 
 CXLII. 
 
 Of the Beauty of the Bosom 
 
 CXLIV. 
 
 Of the Bust 
 
 CXLV. 
 
 Of the Girdle 
 
 CXLVI. 
 
 Of the Hips 
 
 CXLVI. 
 
 N 
 
1 78 SUMMARY. 
 
 Of the Hips and Bust 
 
 CXLVI. 
 
 Of the Leg 
 
 CXLVII. 
 
 Of the Foot 
 
 CXLVI II. 
 
 Of the Shoe 
 
 CXLVIII. 
 
 Of the Slipper 
 
 CXLVIII. 
 
 The ladies of Prato fairer 
 than those of Crotona 
 
 CXLIX. 
 
 Of the Arms, and their beauty 
 
 CLII. 
 
 Of the Hand, and what 
 maketh its beauty 
 
 CLIIL 
 
 Of the Beauty of the Fingers 
 
 CLIIL 
 
 Of the Nails 
 
 CLIIL 
 
 Pygmalion 
 
 CLV. 
 
 Of the Qualities a fair 
 woman should possess 
 
 CLVL 
 
1% 
 
 LONDON! 
 
 PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LD,, 
 ST. JOHN’S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL- ROAD, E.C. 
 


 

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