Christine+de+Pizan



Christine de Pizan

France’s first woman of letters, Christine de Pizan is one of the medieval periods most notable women due to her prolific contributions to the fields of poetry and prose. Christine de Pizan used these mediums to express her contentious and progressive views towards gender politics as well as other strong opinions regarding her medieval society. Many of her works can be seen to express early feminist thought and she is often cited as one of history’s first feminists. [1]

Early Life

Christine de Pizan was born in 1363 in Venice, Italy to Tommaso de Benvento da Pizzano, an Italian a strologer and physician in the court of Charles V of France. [2] Christine and her family moved to Paris when she was an infant, which, in time, led to Christine’s great patriotism toward her adopted country of France. [3] At the age of fifteen Christine was married to Etienne de Castel, a young nobleman who would serve as secretary and notary to the king. It was a very happy marriage that ended tragically with Etienne’s death at the age of 34 when Christine was just 25. [4] Christine had given birth to three children only two of whom survived into adulthood. [5]

The traumatic death of her husband acted as a catalyst to the beginnings of Christine’s intellectual journey that inevitably brought her much acclaim and influence within her society as a woman of letters. Not only did this time mark the beginning of Christine’s immersion into self-education, it can also be marked as a time of great proliferation of Christine’s poetic works, an indication of her use of creativity and written expression as a therapeutic medium. [6] Christine’s early works, of which there are twenty recorded //ballades//, were steeped in themes of love, happiness, heartbreak and loss. [7]

Feminist Thought Having grown up as the daughter of an intellectual man, Christine admired her father’s education and desire for learning greatly. Christine resented the lack of education provided to her simply upon the basis of her gender as she was drawn to and believed herself naturally adept at intellectual pursuits. [8] Following the death of her husband, Christine was granted the time and means to begin her desired self-education. This desire for learning despite her gender foreshadows her later expression of feminist agendas and thought. Christine expressed these views most clearly in her book //Le Livre de la Cite des Dames// (The Book of the City of Ladies). [9] Further to this exploration of gender politics, Christine has cited the loss of Etienne as altering herself almost to the state of a male in order to counteract both legal and emotional obstacles that she was presented with during this time. [10] This feeling was defined and explored in her work //Le Livre de la Mutation de Fortune// (The Book of Fortune’s Transformation). [11]

The Debate of the //Roman de la Rose//

The event for which Christine de Pizan is most well known is that of the first literary debate recorded in French history, that of the //Roman de la Rose//. Christine was vocal in her dislike of the poem and was particularly against the miso gynistic themes that she encountered in her reading. [12] Christine’s main criticism of the //Roman de la Rose// is it’s overt acceptance of promiscuity and lack of loyalty shown toward women through marriage being described as an undesirable union. [13]

Notable Works //Verse// L’Epistre au Dieu d’amours (The God of Love’s Letter) [1399] L’Epistre d’Othea (The Letter from Othea) [1399] Le Dit de la Rose (The Tale of the Rose) [1402] Le Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune (The Book of Fortune’s Transformation) [1403] Le Ditie de Jehanne d’Arc (The Tale of Joan of Arc) [1429]

//Prose// Le Livre des Epistres sur le Roman de la Rose (The Debate on the //Romance of the Rose//) [1401] Le Livre des Fais et Bonnes Meurs de Sage roy Charles V (The Book of the Deeds and Good Conduct of the Wise King Charles V) [1404] Le Livre de la Cite des Dames (The Book of the City of Ladies) [1405] Le Livre des Trios Vertus (The Book of the Three Virtues) [1405] L’Avision Christine (Christine’s Vision) [1405] Le Livre du Corps de Policie (The Book of the Body Politic) [1405] Le Livre de la Paix (The Book of Peace) [1413]

[1] Kate Langdon Forhan, //The Political Theory of Christine de Pizan// (Hampshire, England: Ashgate, 2002), 155. [2] Charity Cannon Willard, //Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works// (New York: Persea Books, 1984), 17-21. [3] Enid McLeod, //The Order of the Rose: The Life and Ideas of Christine de Pizan//, (Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield, 1976), 14-15. [4] Willard, //Christine de Pizan//, 39. [5] McLeod, //The Order of the Rose//, 27. [6] Ibid., 39; 43. [7] Ibid., 39. [8] Ibid, 21. [9] Christine de Pizan, “from The Book of the City of Ladies,” in //The Selected Writings of Christine de Pizan: New Translations, Criticism//, trans. and ed. Renate Blumenfield-Kosinski, 116-155 (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997). [10] McLoed, //The Order of the Rose//, 33-35. [11] Christine de Pizan, “from The Book of Fortune’s Transformation,” in //The Selected Writings of Christine de Pizan: New Translations, Criticism//, trans. and ed. Renate Blumenfield-Kosinski, 88-108 (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997). [12] McLeod, //The Order of the Rose//, 45-46. [13] Ibid., 66.