Christine de Pizan
Answer the authorities with reason, history and experience.
Christine de Pizan was a Venetian-born writer at the French royal court who, widowed at twenty-five, made her living by her pen and supervised the copying of her own manuscripts. In poetry, allegory, history and political treatises she contested learned misogyny, argued for the education of women and advised princes on just rule during a civil war.
On what evidence do we judge what women can do?
Biography
Christine de Pizan was a Venetian-born writer at the French royal court who, widowed at twenty-five, made her living by her pen and supervised the copying of her own manuscripts. In poetry, allegory, history and political treatises she contested learned misogyny, argued for the education of women and advised princes on just rule during a civil war.
02 /Philosophy
Christine weighs the testimony of books against what she knows of real women, treating learned consensus as an argument to be examined rather than a verdict.
03 /Reading guides
Original introductions to enter the works, discover their central questions and take the reflection further.
04 /Bibliography
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
A first reading.
Building the city
Follow how Reason, Rectitude and Justice turn examples of women into an argument against learned misogyny.
The Book of the City of LadiesPrudence for every estate
Compare the counsel given to princesses, estate managers, townswomen and poor women in the Book of the Three Virtues.
The Book of the Three VirtuesThe head and the members
Examine how the Book of the Body Politic binds prince, nobles and people through reciprocal duties.
The Book of the Body Politic