Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works, A Biography by Charity Cannon Willard

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Christine de Pizan:
Her Life and Works
Charity Cannon Willard
New York, Persea Press, 1984

"Little has been done to identify and study scientific texts listed in the royal inventories, the first of which was prepared by Gilles Malet himself, but it has recently been noticed that a number of manuscripts seem to have come from Bologna. This would scarcely be surprising in view of the Italian city's importance as a center of book production, and it also leads to the speculation that Christine's father might have been involved in the selection and acquisition of such books for the library. If he had indeed been a sort of scientific adviser for the library, it would account in large measure for the high regard in which Christine insisted he was held by the king, and it would clarify several little understood aspects of Christine's own career. in particular her relationship with Gilles Malet and her access to the royal library.
It would also account for Christine's connections with the Paris book trade in general, and especially with the workshops where the early translations of Boccaccio, for instance, were reduced. It might even throw welcome light on how she came to know the talented Italian illustrator who has come to be so closely associated with her works that he has been called the Epitre d'Othea Master because of his illustrations of a copy of one of her early works." page 30
"Furthermore, at an early age, Christine has shown an interest and aptitude for intellectual pursuits, and her father, recognizing her ability, was inclined to encourage her. His views on the education of women were notably liberal for his day, believing as he did that women were none the worse for acquiring knowledge. Christine's mother was more conventional in her outlook and believed that her daughter should tend to her spinning. It is evident that her mother won her point because Christine explained that she had been obliged to gather up such crumbs of knowledge as she could from her father's wisdom." page 33
"About twenty-five at the time of his marriage, he was in the same year made a royal secretary, a lifetime appointment. during this period, royal secretaries were the intellectual elite of Paris. Intimately associated with the royal household, they were in a good position to profit from royal favors. They were charged with the preparation of letters and acts emanating directly from the king, and they frequently represented the king on diplomatic missions. Highly successful careers in the royal service were often initiated in the chancellery. The future must indeed have seemed rosy to Etinne and his bride in the early months of 1380.
The marriage turned out to be very happy, and in her writings Christine never failed to speak of her husband with tenderness and affection." page 35
Regarding the reign of Charles VI that followed Charles V's death: "Although France during these years was governed, in theory, by a royal council that still included some of Charles V's most trusted officers, in fact their role was minimal. Almost none of the men who had been favored by the late king continued to prosper, and it is scarcely surprising that Thomas de Pizan's fortunes also waned. He was retained as a member of the king's household, but with a diminished income that was irregularly paid." page 38
Regarding the time following her husband's death: "When she tried to collect money due his estate, she was met by deception and dishonesty and also was burdened by a series of lawsuits. This, as she ruefully acknowledged, was all too often the lot of widows. . . . Later, Christine complained that she had been involved in suits in four Parisian courts at one time. Fourteen years and large sums of money were required to extricate her from her predicament, and even then she was not entirely free from financial troubles.
Writing Le Livre du Corps de Policie (The Book of the Body Politic) some years afterwards, Christine urged princes to have pity on "poor gentlewomen, widows, and orphans." In her time of need, she had found few friends to whom she could turn, a problem or widowhood about which she had more to say in The Book of the Three Virtues. There she explicitly warns widows not to count on friends who might have seemed affectionate and trustworthy during the lifetime of their husbands, and above all, never to become involved in lawsuits, however legitimate the claim, without good legal advice and unlimited resources to pay the costs." pages 39-40
When Christine was widowed, she was left to care for 3 children, her widowed mother, and a niece.
Regarding the English, earl of Salisbury: ". . . Christine did not hesitate to accept his offer to take her son Jean into his household in England as a [end of page 42] companion for his own son, only slightly younger than Jean. It is likely that she believed that she had thus secured her son's future because Salisbury enjoyed an especially favored place at Richard II's court.
There remained the problem of her daughter's future. Christine was certainly unable to provide the dowry she would require for a suitable marriage, but an alternated presented itself, probably also through the influence of powerful friends: in 1937 her daughter was given the opportunity to enter the Dominican convent at Poissy, in the outskirts of Paris." Willard goes on to note that the entry fee was paid for by the king who wanted companions for his daughter whom he had already there. pages 42-43
Her other son died in early childhood.
"Christine herself speaks of 1399 as the date her literary career began." page 44
". . . another woman's voice would not be heard in France for more than a hundred years." page 51
Regarding The Book of the City of Ladies:
Title inspired by Augustine's City of God p. 135
Material, information of women comes from Boccaccio's De Mulieribus Claris (Concerning Famous Women) p. 135
Framework: In a dream vision, Reason, Rectitude, and Justice build a city of ideal women, a utopia for women. Reason provides materials for the foundation, Rectitude helps to build the walls, create the moat, lays out the city, and Justice adds the finishing touches to the high towers and places. p. 137
Christine and Dame Reason discuss motives behind men's misogyny. Reason sets out to prove that many women have made important contributions to civilization by listing many famous women in the domains of law and governance, science, and philosophy. "A pattern is established here that will be repeated in following chapters where parallels are drawn between classical models and more recent examples of comparable virtues, for Christine is clearly unwilling to have feminine virtue relegated to a mythological past." page 139
The foundation being laid, Dame Rectitude takes over and cites many instances of women who had high morals such as filial piety, wifely devotion, integrity, and generosity. Using only the best building materials, Rectitude constructs the city. p. 140-141
Justice now steps in to populate the city with the best of women, beginning with the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalean, and a long list of female saints and martyrs. After wearying of such a long list of deserving women, Justice breaks off and Christine finishes, rejoicing in the many fine women of history and warning women of men's snares. p . 144-145
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