Women Artists from the 1300s-1400s - Illuminated Manuscripts Unknown Artist, Marcia Painting Self-Portrait using Mirror (from Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) De claris mulieribus, Anonymous French Translantio, Le livre de femmes nobles et renomees, France c 1440, British Library, Artiste faisant son autoportrait De mulieribus claris (Famous Women or On Famous Women or Of Famous Women) is a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) published in 1374. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature. When creating the female artist character of Marcia for his book, Boccaccio 1313-1375 used as his prototype, the famous female painter of ancient Greece called Iaia of Kyzikos (late 2nd – early 1st century BC; from the city which is currently Cyzicus. [https://bjws.blogspot.nl/2016/04/women-artists-from-1400s-illuminated.html]