Expression of the female ideal in 16th Century Italian funerary orations and poems

The study of some short orations and poems printed in Italy during the 16th Century on the death of women of the high nobility is a source of great interest to study the language used to present them as models and reduce their personalities to specific archetypical characteristics deep-rooted in the literary and philosophical tradition, formulated in the behavioural literature for women, which multiplied from the middle of the century onwards. In this paper we outline these characteristics in some works dedicated to the death of three of the great ladies of the time in Italy.