Christine de pizan biography examples

In she began writing love poems, songs, and ballads. They were well received and she was encouraged to continue. By the late s she was earning her living as a writer and is the "only known professional author in medieval Europe who was a woman". Christine de Pizan's The City of Ladies was published in It was the first history book written about women from the point of view of a woman.

In the book Christine argues that male historians had given a distorted picture of the role played by women in history. The book attempted to redress the balance by providing a positive view of women's achievements and included a collection of stories about heroines of the past. In the book she advocated the education of girls: "I am amazed by the opinion of some men who claim that they do not want their daughters or wives to be educated because they would be ruined as a result 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 upset them that women knew more than they did. Kirstin Olsen points out that she used women to illustrate her books. People cannot stop talking about her. And I know this from experience, for she has executed several things for me which stand out among the paintings of the great masters.

Christine had now reached the conclusion that the male-dominated society in which she lived made it difficult for women to reach their full potential. Christine's next book, Three Virtues , attempted to deal with this problem. This book gave advice on how women could improve their situation. Most of the book dealt with the lives of rich women. For example, Christine spent some time explaining how women could run their estates while their husbands were away from home.

It has been described as "a manual of instruction for women in all walks of life on how to be virtuous and happy. Christine produced a large number of vernacular works, in both prose and verse. Her works include political treatises, mirrors for princes , epistles, and poetry. Christine's book Le Dit de la Rose The Tale of the Rose was published in as a direct attack on Jean de Meun 's extremely popular book Romance of the Rose which was a continuation of the version by Guillaume de Lorris and characterised women as seducers.

Christine claimed that Meun's views were misogynistic, vulgar, immoral, and slanderous to women. Christine sparked a debate over the literary merits of the work when she confronted the royal secretary, Jean de Montreuil, who had written a short treatise praising the work. The debate continued between Christine and two other male royal secretaries who defended Jean in a heated exchange.

The first of these shows the importance of women's past contributions to society, and the second strives to teach women of all estates how to cultivate useful qualities. In The Book of the City of Ladies Christine created a symbolic city in which women are appreciated and defended. She constructed three allegorical figures — Reason, Justice, and Rectitude — in the common pattern of literature in that era when many books and poetry used stock allegorical figures to express ideas or emotions.

She enters into a dialogue, a movement between question and answer, with these allegorical figures that is from a completely female perspective. Only female voices, examples and opinions provide evidence within this text. Through Lady Reason in particular Christine argues that stereotypes of women can be sustained only if women are prevented from entering into the conversation.

In City of Ladies Christine deliberated on the debate of whether the virtues of men and women differ, a frequently debated topic in late medieval Europe , particularly in the context of Aristotelian virtue ethics and his views on women. Among the inhabitants of the City of Ladies are female saints, women from the Old Testament and virtuous women from the pagan antiquity as portrayed by Giovanni Boccaccio.

Christine de Pizan's Medusa, in stark contrast to the typical portrayal in classical texts, is not a monstrous and deadly creature, but a woman deserving of safety from male harm. De Pizan is the first to provide a feminist revisionist perspective of the ancient myth. In The Treasure of the City of Ladies Christine addressed the "community" of women with the stated objective of instructing them on the means of achieving virtue.

She took the position that all women were capable of humility, diligence and moral rectitude, and that duly educated all women could become worthy residents of the imaginary City of Ladies. Drawing on her own life, Christine advised women on how to navigate the perils of early 15th-century French society. Christine speaks through the allegorical figures of God's daughters — Reason, Rectitude and Justice — who represent the Three Virtues most important to women's success.

Through secular examples of these three virtues, Christine urged women to discover meaning and achieve worthy acts in their lives. Christine argued that women's success depends on their ability to manage and mediate by speaking and writing effectively. Christine specifically sought out other women to collaborate in the creation of her work.

She makes special mention of a manuscript illustrator we know only as Anastasia , whom she described as the most talented of her day. Christine published 41 known pieces of poetry and prose in her lifetime and she gained fame across Europe as the first professional woman writer. She achieved such credibility that royalty commissioned her prose and contemporary intellectuals kept copies of her works in their libraries.

After her death in , Christine's influence was acknowledged by a variety of authors and her writings remained popular. While de Pizan's mixture of classical philosophy and humanistic ideals was in line with the style of other popular authors at the time, her outspoken defence of women was an anomaly. Christine de Pizan was the first professional woman writer in France.

She was born in Venice around Shortly after her birth, in , her family moved to Paris.

Christine de pizan biography examples

She was fluent in French, Italian, as well as some Latin, which she learned while her husband, Etienne de Castel, was the royal secretary to the court. Almost all of her male family had left France and Christine had no relatives in Paris she could turn to him her time of distress. It was through her literacy and writing that she was able to turn her luck around and provide for her family.

She was 65 when she retired from writing and it is not known when exactly she died or where. Around , four years after the death of her husband, Christine began to write poetry. Christine herself speaks of as the gate her literary career began. The Book of The City of Ladies. As Christine peruses books in her own library, she becomes painfully aware of the bad treatment women had experienced at the hands of authors.

She is approached by three allegorical ladies, Reason, Rectitude, and Justice and charged her with establishing a new written tradition of women by building the City of Ladies, where the debris that needs to be cleared from the building site stands for the writing of the anti-feminists and where every stone is a celebrated woman of learned or military achievement and where the inhabitants are women of impeccable virtue.

The Book of the Three Virtues. To find out more about this text, click here. This work is considered the principle source for her biography. Tammy Duckworth. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Betty Friedan. Hillary Clinton. Gloria Steinem. Harriet Tubman. Malala Yousafzai. Queen Rania. The Book of the City of Ladies. Watch Next. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below.

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