Christine de Pizan, the first professional woman writer in Europe, was born in Venice around 1364. Her father, Thomas of Pizan, came originally from Pizzano, a small town near BolognaJ He was a well-known physician and astrologer whose fame caused him to be appointed to the court of the French king Charles V. He left Italy when Christine was still an infant, and his family followed him in 1368. In her Vision of 1405 the adult Christine describes how they arrived in Paris in their elaborate Italian clothes, how welcome everyone made them feel, and how privileged they felt. The fortunes of Christine's family depended on the benevolence of the king who was a patron of the arts and fostered an intense intellectual life at his court.
List of Illustrations
Introduction
The Selected Writings of Christine de Pizan
From One Hundred Ballads and Other Ballads
The God of Love's Letter
From The Letter from Othea
From The Debate on the Romance of the Rose
From The Tale of the Shepherdess
From The Path of Long Study
From The Book of Fortune's Transformation
A Letter to Eustache Morel (February lo, 14o4)
Morel's Answer
From The Book of the Deeds and Good Conduct of the Wise
King Charles V
From The Book of the City of Ladies
From The Book of the Three Virtues
From Christine's Vision
From The Book of the Body Politic
From One Hundred Ballads of a Lover and a Lady
The Lamentation on the Evils That Have Befallen France
From The Book of Peace
From The Letter on the Prison of Human Life
The Tale of Joan of Arc
Criticism
Jacqueline Cerquiglini · The Stranger
Beatrice Gottlieb · The Problem of Feminism in the Fifteenth
Century
Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski · Christine de Pizan and the
Misogynistic Tradition
Sheila Delany · "Mothers to Think Back Through": Who Are
They? The Ambiguous Example of Christine de Pizan
Patricia A. Phillippy · Establishing Authority': Boccaccio's De
Claris Mulieribus and Christine de Pizan's Le livre de la cite
des dames
Joel Blanchard · "Vox poetica, vox politica": The Poet's Entry-
into the Political Arena in the Fifteenth Century.
Kevin Brown]ee · Structures of Authority in Christine de
Pizan's Ditie de ]ehanne d'Arc
Selected Bibliography