Christine de Pizan

French poet and writer

• Born: c. 1365
• Birthplace: Venice (now in Italy)
• Died: c. 1430
• Place of death: Probably at the Convent of Poissy, near Versailles, France

The first woman of letters in France and the first woman in Europe known to have earned her living by writing, Christine was a prolific, versatile, and acclaimed lyric poet, didactic writer, and Humanist scholar; she was a precursor to the femmes savantes of the Renaissance and to nineteenth and twentieth century feminists.

Early Life

Shortly after Christine de Pizan (krees-teen duh pee-zah) was born, her father, Tommaso di Benvenuto da Pizzano, who held a chair in astrology at the University of Bologna (where he had also studied medicine and astrology), was offered two attractive invitations to go to Hungary to the court of Louis I or to Paris to the court of Charles V. Although he was reluctant to leave his family (the invitations were for him alone), Tommaso found the offer to go to the city of the celebrated University of Paris particularly attractive, and he agreed to go to the French court for one year. The king, pleased with the counsels of Thomas de Pizan (as his name was gallicized) in medical, scientific, and political matters, persuaded him to stay as the royal astrologer, alchemist, and physician; in 1368, Thomas sent for his wife and young daughter.

Thus Christine was reared in the stimulating environment of the court of Charles V, known as “the Wise,” an intellectual and progressive monarch. Under his patronage, Thomas prospered and acquired property the feudal estate of Orsonville and Christine was reared in a literate and cultured home frequented by leading intellectuals. She studied the liberal arts under the tutelage of her father, whose intelligence and knowledge she admired despite the fact that her mother disapproved of academic learning for girls. Later, Christine would complain that her education had been restricted on account of her gender, but she was able to learn to read and write, opportunities usually reserved for very high-ranking women.

At about the age of fifteen, Christine married Étienne du Castel, a twenty-four-year-old graduate scholar born of a noble, though not wealthy, family in Picardy, who became a court notary and secretary. Christine had known Étienne since infancy, and he was well regarded by her father. Étienne promised that they would be “true friends” when they married, and he seems to have kept his promise: The period of her marriage was a very happy one. The two had three children: a daughter, born in 1381, who later became a nun at the Poissy convent; a son who died in infancy; and a second son, Jean, born in 1385, who as a youth was reared in England by Christine's patron, the earl of Salisbury, and later joined the household of the dukes of Burgundy.

After 1380, when Charles V died, Christine's father began to lose his prestige and was eventually dismissed from his court appointment. Within a few years, he became ill and died, disillusioned and poor. A greater sorrow followed: In 1389, while accompanying Charles VI to Beauvais on matters of state, Étienne fell victim to the plague and died, at the age of thirty-four. Within two years, Christine had lost both father and husband, the two people to whom she was closest and who had also been her mentors.

Life's Work

Her husband's unexpected and premature death precipitated an abrupt turning point in Christine's life, which she later referred to as her “mutacion de fortune” in a book of that name. At twenty-five, she was forced into “the role of a man,” responsible for providing for her children and herself. She had no income or means of support and, in order to recover a small inheritance from her husband, had to engage in protracted and frustrating legal proceedings for the next ten years. Yet she determined to support herself rather than remarry; in a famous ballade, written shortly after her husband's death, she declared, “Seulete suy et seulete vueil estre” (I am alone and I want to be alone).

Christine's initial lyrics, considered to be some of her finest work, focus on her love for her husband and her grief over his death. Nevertheless, she soon turned to themes of chivalry and courtly love, more suited to the nobles who became her patrons. Immediately successful, she wrote prolifically on these topics for the next decade in lyric poems, short narratives, and didactic works. There is some evidence to suggest that she worked also as a manuscript copyist during these years to supplement her income from writing.

In 1398, Christine embarked on a rigorous, interdisciplinary program of study (including history, science, religion, philosophy, and literature, both classical and contemporary) and soon began to write her first mature works, Le Livre de la mutacion de fortune (1400-1403; the book of changes in fortune) and Le Livre du chemin de long éstude (1402-1403; the book of the road of long study). By this point, she had stopped writing about chivalry and courtly love, whose antimarriage and pro-infidelity themes she in fact rejected, suggesting in subsequent writings that the courtly love ethic was devised by men for men and had no redeeming value for women. In Le Livre de la mutacion de fortune, a scholarly, allegorical, seven-part poem, she initially recounts her own encounter with the Roman goddess of fortune, whose capriciousness Christine blames for the death of her husband and for transforming her into a man though at the same time she acknowledges that without the necessity of having to support herself, she would never have become a scholar and writer. The remainder of the encyclopedic, philosophical work presents an account of fortune's influence in specific moments in world history. (The wheel of fortune was a common motif in medieval culture and was used to explain apparently arbitrary vicissitudes of human experience.)

Le Livre du chemin de long éstude , an allegorical voyage analogous to Dante's La divina commedia (c. 1320; The Divine Comedy, 1802), concerns the evils of the world and how to remedy them; Christine dedicated the work to the young Charles VI. On the basis of the renown she achieved from these two works, Christine was commissioned to write a biography of the late Charles V, Le Livre des fais et bonnes mœurs du sage roi Charles V (1404; the book of the deeds and virtues of the wise King Charles V), a monarch whose reign she considered exemplary.

During the years Christine was writing Le Livre de la mutacion de fortune, Le Livre du chemin de long éstude, and Le Livre des fais et bonnes mœurs du sage roi Charles V, she concurrently became an important spokesperson in la querelle des femmes (the women's quarrel), a debate among intellectuals in response to Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung' Le Roman de la rose (thirteenth century; The Romance of the Rose, 1900). Proponents of The Romance of the Rose's broad social satire saw its authors, especially Meung, as advocates of progress; its opponents censured the work for subverting public morality. Christine, whose reputation as a scholar was being established, was moved to attack the cynical satire against women in The Romance of the Rose and also the tradition of misogynist literature. She presented her arguments in four works: L’Épistre au dieu d’Amours (1399; The Letter of Cupid, 1721), her first feminist work, in which Cupid, who has received complaints from women about deceitful and disloyal men, issues a decree ousting slanderers of women from his court; Le Dit de la Rose (1402; the tale of the rose), a poem in which the goddess Loyalty founds an Order of the Rose, inducting chivalrous knights who promise to uphold the honor of women and speak no ill of them; Les Épistres sur “Le Roman de la Rose” (1401-1402; epistles on The Romance of the Rose), the collected correspondence that came out of the debate; and Le Livre de la cité des dames (1405; The Book of the City of Ladies, 1521), her most famous feminist work.

As The Book of the City of Ladies begins, Christine, in her study, ponders the work of Matheolus, a malicious thirteenth century misogynist. Her reading leads her to wonder why, historically, so many philosophers, clerics, poets, and rhetoricians have slandered women: Misogyny has a long and authoritative tradition. Although her own experiences with women cause her to conclude that these authorities are wrong, she nevertheless becomes discouraged and begins to doubt her own judgment. Then, in a dream vision, three crowned ladies, Reason, Righteousness, and Justice, appear to help Christine in her philosophical quest. Lady Reason carries a mirror that shows everything in its true proportions and qualities; she asserts the superiority of experience over authority. The three crowned ladies then announce to Christine that she has been given the prerogative among women to establish and build a city of ladies.

Before Christine's work, written between December, 1404, and April, 1405, the only literary work treating famous women was Giovanni Boccaccio's quasi-satirical De mulieribus claris (c. 1361-1375; Concerning Famous Women, 1943). Boccaccio wrote about famous women, both illustrious and notorious, regardless of their moral stature. He excluded Christian women, except Eve, saying that in following religious precepts, the actions of Christian women are in fact contrary to human nature thus, they do not really qualify as exempla of woman. In addition, he wrote about only the women mentioned by the Latin auctores, thereby excluding contemporary women, saying that illustrious contemporary women were too few to mention.

Christine used Boccaccio's work as a major source for The Book of the City of Ladies; literary critics who compared the two works as recently as 1974 (such as Gianni Mombello) cited Christine's work as derivative and lacking in originality, saying that she was primarily a compiler of received ideas. Since then, literary critics (for example, Marina Warner) have noted that The Book of the City of Ladies is a universal history of women, much broader in scope than Boccaccio's work, because it includes both pagan and Christian women up to the time of Christine. Furthermore, in reorganizing and reconstructing the material of her sources, Christine develops original perspectives and new ideas. In The Book of the City of Ladies, Lady Reason suggests that “historical tradition” has in fact been shaped by the motives and biases of its writers and that Christine's interpretation of historical reality has equal epistemological validity with any other. Thus Christine takes it on herself to rewrite history, restoring the lives of virtuous women neglected by history and vindicating the reputations of women maligned.

Throughout the work Christine intersperses observations on her own society's attitudes toward women. Controlled indignation underlies a courteous manner as she discusses such topics as the disappointment women feel at the birth of a daughter; the double standard by which men rape women, then blame women for allowing them to do so; and the lack of access women have to education despite their natural affinity for learning.

Nevertheless, while Christine spent her entire career defending women's causes, her position as a feminist always remained moderate. Coming from a medieval, orthodox Catholic vantage, her concerns were with improving the conditions of women within the existing social order. She sought more equitable treatment for women but never expected total equality with men. A humanist committed to the common good, she encouraged women to seek fulfillment within the few roles open to them marriage, family, and service to the community; she also urged society to acknowledge women's labor and to recognize their contributions.

Yet while basically accepting the hierarchical gender status quo based on the Christian tradition of the Fall, Christine also invokes Christian tradition in support of her arguments for educational and social advances for women. Referring to Genesis 1:27, she argues that woman, like man, was made in God's image and consequently was endowed by the Creator with the same moral, intellectual, and spiritual aptitude; hence, men and women are equally educable. Suggesting that Christian marriage is based on the model of Christ's caring for his church, the Bride of Christ, Christine argues that Christian marriage calls for the highest degree of moral commitment between a man and woman, and she does not condone or permit institutionalized domination. Finally, although Christine accepts medieval class/gender hierarchy, she argues that every woman has the potential for true nobility; according to Christine, the term “lady” refers to nobility of the soul rather than nobility of blood. “City of ladies” is a direct allusion to Saint Augustine's De civitate Dei (413-427; The City of God, 1610), suggesting that Christine saw her vision as part of the Christian tradition of political philosophy.

Christine's second major feminist work, Le Livre des trois vertus (1405; The Book of the Three Virtues, 1985), a companion volume to The Book of the City of Ladies, is a didactic work providing guidelines for women aspiring to achieve the “nobility” of the city; it is one of the first didactic works in European literature written by a woman for women. Dedicated to Marguerite of Burgundy on the occasion of her marriage to the French dauphin, Louis of Guienne, the work is nevertheless intended for women of all ages, circumstances, and social classes. The reader encounters Reason, Righteousness, and Justice again, together with Wisdom; the four provide women with instruction in moral precepts as well as in practical matters with specific counsels according to their social class, marital status, and role in life. The work provides an interesting view of a cross section of fifteenth century medieval society the royalty, nobility, bourgeoisie, and poor.

Christine's interests in women’s issues never diminished, but in the later years of her writing career, in such works as L’Avision-Christíne (1405; Christine's Vision, 1993), Épistre à Isabeau de Bavière (1405; epistle to Isabelle of Bavaria), Le Livre du corps de policie (1406-1407; The Body of Polyce, 1521), La Lamentation sur les maux de la guerre civile (1410; Lament on the Evils of the Civil War, 1984), and Le Livre de la paix (1412-1413; the book of peace), she focused her attention on political problems in France in the tradition made popular by the Italian Humanists. In her lifetime, Christine saw France suffer humiliating defeats in the Hundred Years’ War with England, three popular uprisings culminating in the Cabochien revolt in 1413, the Great Schism within the Church, and the bitter Burgundian-Orléanist (later Armagnac) rivalry over the domination of the French regency. The latter began after the death of Charles V in 1380 and led to the murder of Louis d’Orléans in 1407; civil war followed, culminating in the slaying of Jean sans Peur, duke of Burgundy, in 1419. Meanwhile, widespread anarchy in France (and superior military tactics) permitted Henry V of England to defeat the French at Agincourt in 1415. In 1418, the Burgundians massacred a number of Parisians, and many, including Christine, fled the city and went into exile.

Christine, an ardent French patriot who believed in a divine-right, hereditary monarchy, wrote passionately about the necessity of restoring peace and stability in the kingdom. She appealed to rulers, political leaders, and the common people to stop the violence of civil war. As early as 1405, she accurately predicted the events at Agincourt when she warned about the dangers of foreign invaders attacking a weakened country. Undoubtedly Christine was able through her writings to impress influential figures, yet it is not clear that as an individual author she was able to influence in any immediate way the seemingly unstoppable course of events to which she was a witness.

Christine's last known work, Le Ditié de Jeanne d’Arc (1429; The Tale of Joan of Arc, 1977), a patriotic, narrative account of Joan of Arc, celebrates Joan of Arc's role in liberating Orléans and in leading the dauphin, Charles VII , to his coronation at Reims. News of the occasion reached Christine at the Poissy convent (where her daughter was a nun), to which she had retreated a decade earlier to escape the bloody civil war in Paris. In The Tale of Joan of Arc, she rejoices both at the event itself, the reinstatement of the legitimate monarchy, and at the fact that it had been brought about by a woman. It seemed as if, in these related events, the wheel of fortune were turning favorably, as the principal political and social themes of Christine's writings were realized. While the exact date of her death is not known, it is believed that Christine died soon afterward, in 1430 at about age sixty-five, at the Convent of Poissy.

Significance

Gifted, intelligent, and strong-willed, Christine overcame personal loss and social prejudice to become the first known woman in Europe to earn her living as a professional writer. She gained the esteem of the aristocracy, many of whom became her patrons, and of the intellectuals of her day, with whom she engaged in philosophical debate. She was recognized as an accomplished lyric poet, and she became a highly respected and widely influential advocate of women's rights and of political theory.

At the time of her death, after a thirty-five-year career, Christine was well known in France; her fame had also spread to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Flanders, and England, where, with the advent of printing, some of her works were translated and published. Her renown continued into the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as evidenced by the number of authors who cite her Matthieu Thomassin, Jean Marot, Clément Marot, Jean Bouchet, and Pierre de Lesnauderie or are influenced by her Alain Chartier, Charles d’Orléans, Olivier de La Marche, Jean Molinet, Jean Meschinot, François Habert, Georges Chastellain, Pierre Gringore, and Christoval Acosta.

As a literary figure, Christine did not receive notice again until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Critical response to her works has been divided: Her detractors argue that she is derivative, pedantic, and arduous to read; her admirers counter that she is versatile and original, intelligent and learned, and stylistically sophisticated. As more and more of her works are coming to print, Christine continues to be reevaluated. She is an important interpreter of her times, and her comments on many issues good and bad rulers, human vice and frailty, women's status in society, and the battle of the sexes seem as relevant in the twenty-first century as they were in the fifteenth.

Major Works by Christine de Pizan

Date

• Work

1399

• L’Épistre au dieu d’Amours (The Letter of Cupid)

1400

• L’Épistre d’Othéa à Hector (The Epistle of Othea to Hector: Or, The Boke of Knyghthode)

1400

• Le Livre du dit de Poissy

1400-1403

• Le Livre de la mutacion de fortune

1401-1402

• Les Épistres sur “Le Roman de la Rose”

1402

• Le Dit de la Rose

1402-1403

• Le Livre du chemin de long éstude

1404

• Le Livre des fais et bonnes moeurs du sage roi Charles V

1405

• Le Livre de la cité des dames (The Book of the City of Ladies)

1405

• L’Avision-Christíne (Christine’s Vision)

1405

• Le Livre des trois vertus (The Book of the Three Virtues)

1406-1407

• Le Livre du corps de policie (The Body of Polycye)

c. 1410

• Cent Ballades d’ amant et de dame

1410

• La Lamentation sur les maux de la guerre civile (Lament on the Evils of the Civil War)

1410

• Le Livre des fais d’ armes et de chevalerie (The Book of Fayttes of Arms and of Chivalry)

1412-1413

• Le Livre de la paix

1416-1418

• L’Épistre de la prison de la vie humaine

1429

• Le Ditié de Jeanne d Arc (The Tale of Joan of Arc)

Bibliography

Altmann, Barbara K., and Deborah L. McGrady, eds. Christine de Pizan: A Casebook. New York: Routledge, 2003. A collection of essays on various aspects of Christine de Pizan, including her role as defender of women, and analyses of various works.

Campbell, John, and Nadia Margolis, eds. Christine de Pizan 2000: Studies on Christine de Pizan in Honour of Angus J. Kennedy. Atlanta: Rodopi, 2000. A collection of papers on Christine de Pizan, focusing on her poetry and her poetic techniques.

Christine de Pizan. Christine de Pisan: Autobiography of a Medieval Woman (1363-1430). Translated and annotated by Anil De Silva-Vigler. London: Minerva, 1996. A biographical treatment of Christine de Pizan translated into English, with annotations. Illustrations.

Forhan, Kate Langdon. The Political Theory of Christine de Pizan. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2002. An analysis of the political and social views of Christine de Pizan. Bibliography and index.

Kennedy, Angus J., et al., eds. Contexts and Continuities: Proceedings of the Fourth International Colloquium on Christine de Pizan, Published in Honour of Liliane Dulac. Glasgow: University of Glasgow Press, 2002. A collection of papers from a conference held in Glasgow in July, 2000, on Christine de Pizan. Bibliography.

Smith, Sydney. The Opposing Voice: Christine de Pisan’s Criticism of Courtly Love. Stanford, Calif.: Humanities Honors Program, Stanford University, 1990. Smith examines the political and social views of Christine de Pizan, in particular her opposition to the idea of courtly love. Bibliography.

Willard, Charity Cannon. Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works. New York: Persea Books, 1984. This is a thorough and scholarly biography, with in-depth analysis of Christine’s works and an extensive bibliography.