Compare the use of the word _onore_ in Lorinzino de' Medici's 'Apologia.' With the Italian conception of _Onore_ we may compare their view of _Onesta_ in the female sex.

This is set forth plainly by Piccolomini in _La Bella Creanza delle Donne_.[1] As in the case of _Onore_, we have here to deal, not with an exquisite personal ideal, but with something far more material and external.

The _onesta_ of a married woman is compatible with secret infidelity, provided she does not expose herself to ridicule and censure by letting her amour be known.

Here again, therefore, the proper translation of the word seems to be credit.
Finally, we may allude to the invective against honor which Tasso puts into the mouths of his shepherds in _Aminta_[2] Though at this period the influence of France and Spain had communicated to aristocratic society in Italy an exotic sense of honor, yet a court poet dared to condemn it as unworthy of the _Bell' eta dell' oro_, because it interfered with pleasure and introduced disagreeable duties into life.
Such a tirade would not have been endured in the London of Elizabeth or in the Paris of Louis XIV.

Tasso himself, it may be said in passing, was almost feverishly punctilious in matters that touched his reputation.
[1] _La Raffaella, ovvero Delia bella Creanza delle Donne_ (Milano, Daelli).