Excerpts from the Works of Christine de Pizan

From http://home.infi.net/~ddisse/christin.html#anchor95654

Christine de Pisan (or Pizan) (~1363-1430)

A French poetess and historiographer, born at Venice, 1363; died in France, 1430. Although an Italian by birth, she was French at heart as well as in education and fame. When she was five years old she went to Paris with her father, Thomas de Pisan, who had been appointed astrologer and secretary to King Charles V. She was reared at the court, and educated in the ancient languages and literatures. At the age of fourteen she married a nobleman from Picardy, Etienne du Castel. When her husband died she was only twenty-five years old. Her father and her protector, King Charles, having died several years before, she found herself in straitened circumstances, with three children to provide for. Henry IV, King of England, and Galeazzo Visconti, Tyrant of Milan, each invited her to come and live at his court, but she refused to leave France, where she had been so well treated, and resolved to making a living with her pen. Her writings in prose and verse soon gained her great renown. Her contemporaries compared her eloquence with that of Cicero and her wisdom with that of Cato. Prompted by necessity she wrote incessantly. She declares herself that, "in the short space of six years, between 1397 and 1403, she wrote fifteen important books, without mentioning minor essays, which, compiled, make seventy large copy-books." Among her works in prose we may cite: Le Livre des Faitz et bonnes Moeurs du Saige Roy Charles (see The Book of the Deeds and Good Manners of the Wise King Charles V below), an elaborate biography, written at the solicitation of Philip of Burgundy, who was rearing her eldest son as his own child; this book is full of moral lessons, but its merit is somewhat impaired by a useless display of erudition and a diffuse style; Le Livre de Paix, a treatise dealing with the education of princes, who, according to the author, should be trained in honesty Trésor de la Cité des Dames (see The Treasure of the City of Ladies : Or the Book of the Three Virtues below) and Lettre à Isabeau de Bavière, in which she endeavours to rehabilitate the character of a woman who had been defamed by the Roman de la Rose.

Her poetical works consist mostly of long poems, such as Le Livre des Mutations de Fortune (see The Changes of Fortune below), Le Chemin de Longue Etude (see The Road of Long Study below), Le Livre des cent Histoires de Troie, etc. These are ambitious and heavy compositions. Her ballades, rondeaux, and lesser poems are more commendable; they are clear and graceful. As a complete edition of Christine's works is being made, her talent will no longer be judged from extracts and separate poems. Though she is by no means a great poetess, she is mentioned with praise eighty years after the death by Marot. She is superior to Eustache Deschamps, her master.

Her works were well-received and soon she was able to support her family. Christine de Pisan became popular and her work was later supported by many lords and ladies of medieval Europe, including Berry, Brabant and Limburg,the Dukes of Burgundy, King Charles VI, and his wife Queen Isabella of Bavaria. Much of her work contains a great deal of autobiographical information, which was unusual for writers of that time. Some of her works are: The Changes of Fortune, a long poem containing examples from her life and of other famous people, The Epistles of Othea, a collection of ninety-nine allegorical tales, and The Road of Long Study. In 1404, she was commissioned by the duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, to write a biography of his deceased brother, King Charles V. She wrote a very flattering first-hand account of the king and his court in The Book of the Deeds and Good Manners of the Wise King Charles V.

An autobiographical Vision of Christine was written in 1405. This volume was written partly to silence her critics in a somewhat heated literary debate on the subject of women. She followed this up with The Book of the City of the Ladies in 1405, a collection of stories about heroines of the past, and The Treasure of the City of Ladies : Or the Book of the Three Virtues in 1406. Christine de Pisan was very devoted to France and was horrified by the civil strife that erupted after the assassination of Louis of Orleans. In 1410, she wrote Lamentations on the Civil War, and then The Book of Feats of Arms and Chivalry, which was one of the first books to be translated later into English. She was devastated by the hostilities with England and the Hundred Years' War and, in 1418, she retired to live in a convent. Encouraged by the early successes of Joan of Arc, she dedicated her last known poem Hymn to Joan of Arc to Joan in 1429. [Adapted from Catholic Encyclopedia (1908) and Danuta Bois ]

Excerpt from: Livre de la cite des dames (1404-05)

Christine de Pizan

The Book of the City of Ladies, translated by E. J. Richards, Persea Press, New York, 1982. ISBN 0-89255-061-9

From: http://www.dhushara.com/book/renewal/voices2/pizan.htm

36. AGAINST THOSE MEN WHO CLAIM IT IS NOT GOOD FOR WOMEN TO BE EDUCATED.

2.36.1 Following these remarks, 1, Christine, spoke, "My lady, I realize that women have accomplished many good things and that even if evil women have done evil, it seems to me, nevertheless, that the benefits accrued and still accruing because of good women-particularly the wise and literary ones and those educated in the natural sciences whom I mentioned above-outweigh the evil. Therefore, I am amazed by the opinion of some men who claim that they do not want their daughters, wives, or kinswomen to be educated because their mores would be ruined as a result." She responded , Here you can clearly see that not all opinions of men are based on reason and that these men are wrong. For it must not be presumed that mores necessarily grow worse from knowing the moral sciences, which teach the virtues, indeed, there is not the slightest doubt that moral education amends and ennobles them. How could anyone think or believe that whoever follows good teaching or doctrine is the worse for it? Such an opinion cannot be expressed or maintained. I do not mean that it would be good for a man or a woman to study the art of divination or those fields of learning which are forbidden-for the holy Church did not remove them from common use without good reason-but it should not be believed that women are the worse for knowing what is good. "Quintus Hortensius, a great rhetorician and consummately skilled orator in Rome, did not share this opinion. He had a daughter, named Hortensia, whom he greatly loved for the subtlety of her wit. He had her learn letters and study the science of rhetoric, which she mastered so thoroughly that she resembled her father Hortensius not only in wit and lively memory but also in her excellent delivery and order of speech-in fact, he surpassed her in nothing. As for the subject discussed above, concerning the good which comes about through women, the benefits realized by this woman and her teaming were, among others, exceptionally remarkable. That is, during the time when Rome was governed by three men, this Hortensia began to support the cause of women and to undertake what no man dared to under- take. There was a question whether certain taxes should be levied on women and on their jewelry during a needy period in Rome. This woman's eloquence was so compelling that she was listened to, no less readily than her father would have been, and she won her case.

2.36.3 "Similarly, to speak of more recent times, without searching for examples in ancient history, Giovanni Andreae, a solenm law professor in Bologna not quite sixty years ago, was not of the opinion that it was bad for women to be educated. He had a fair and good daughter, named Novella, who was educated in the law to such an advanced degree that when he was occupied by some task and not at leisure to present his lectures to his students, he would send Novella, his daughter, in his place to lecture to the students from his chair. And to prevent her beauty from distracting the concentration of her audience, she had a little curtain drawn in front of her. In this manner she could on occasion supplement and lighten her father's occupation. He loved her so much that, to commemorate her name, he wrote a book of remarkable lectures on the law which he entitled Novella super Decretalium, after his daughter's name.

2.36.4 "Thus, not all men (and especially the wisest) share the opinion that it is bad for women to be educated. But it is very true that many foolish men have claimed this because it displeased them that women knew more than they did. Your father, who was a great scientist and philosopher, did not believe that women were worth less by knowing science; rather, as you know, he took great pleasure from seeing your inclination to learning. The feminine opinion of your mother, however, who wished to keep you busy with spinning and silly girlishness, following the common custom of women, was the major obstacle to your being more involved in the sciences. But just as the proverb already mentioned above says, No one can take away what Nature has given,'your mother could not hinder in you the feeling for the sciences which you, through natural inclination, had nevertheless gathered together in little droplets. I am sure that, on account of these things, you do not think you are worth less but rather that you consider it a great treasure for yourself; and you doubtless have reason to. " And I, Christine, replied to all of this, "Indeed, my lady, what you say is as true as the Lord's Prayer.”