Christine de Pizan

Who/What: Christine de Pizan was a female writer in the Middle Ages who "celebrated womanhood" (Hunt 449). She wrote a book titles The City of Ladies in 1405. In this work she populated her city with exratordinary females form the past, present, and future. She finished this work by saying:

"My most honored ladies, may G-d be praised, for now our City is entirely finished and completed, where all of you who love glory, virtue, and praise may be lodged in great honor...for it has been built and established for every honorable lady."

She was patronized by wealthy females within French royalty. Having been widowed in her early life, she made a living by writings that called commonly held conceptions about women into question. She is considered a proto-feminist, working to defend women from misogyny, but she still incorporated some misogynistic ideas into her work. Other literature she wrote includes Letter from the God of Love; a work about Cupid’s response to women’s complaint of men’s slander.

When: 1364-1430

Where: Born in Venice, Italy; but she soon moved to France as her father accpeted an appointment to the court of Charles V.

Significance: Christine countered male misogynistic concepts and literary works targeting women. She was innovative in arguing that women were not inferior; and demonstrated the independence some women could attain, which was not possible in later centuries. She reminded men that the women they defame are their mothers and sisters.