The first modern edition of the princeps of the Instituzione d'ogni stato lodevole delle donne cristiane, a collection of conduct treatises for women published in Venice in 1575 by Cardinal Agostino Valier (Venice, 7 April 1531 - Rome, 23 May 1606). This book includes three different texts on, respectively, unmarried women, widows and wives: Modo di vivere proposto alle vergini che si chiamano Demesse, Della vera e perfetta viduità, Instruzione delle donne maritate. This collection had a great editorial success: it was reprinted in 1577, and then republished in 1744 by Gaetano Volpi, who integrated Valier's texts with other similar short treatises. The Instituzione d'ogni stato lodevole delle donne cristiane represents an important exemple of Renaissance conduct literature for and about women.
Contents include: an historical introduction to the author and the text; the Italian text with notes; an index of names cited in the text.
Francesco Lucioli is Research Associate in Italian at the University of Cambridge.
