Order of Medieval Women
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PictureCompendium of Christine de Pizan’s Works, writing in her library, 1413 CE © British Library, Harley 4431, folio 4
​Christine de Pizan, 1364-1430, daughter of Tommaso di Benvenuto da Pizzano, wife to Etienne du Castel, a notary and royal secretary to king Charles V of France. 

Christine moved from her birthplace of Venice to Paris after her father was recruited by Charles V to be his court astrologer.  She was brought up in the court becoming one of the best-educated women of her time. Widowed at twenty-five with three children and responsible for her recently widowed mother Christine began to compose and circulate poetry both as an expression of her grief of at the loss of her husband as well as a means of acquiring royal or ducal patronage. 

During a thirty year career from 1399-1429 she produced a wide range of text in prose as well as verse for a number of patrons in a variety of genres.  During this time she was also involved in the production of manuscripts of her works, her skillful use of the institutions of patronage and book production have led modern scholars designating her the first professional woman of letters in European history. 

When civil conflict erupted in 1418, Christine had to withdraw to an abbey outside the city for safety which essentially ceased her literary activity.  She strongly opposed stereotyping and misogyny in the male-dominated realm of the arts and through her writings encouraged women to be chaste she provided them with moral instruction and social skills that would enable them to survive as honorable women within communities still pervaded by antifeminist prejudices.  She wrote at least twelve books and ten works in verse including “The Books of the City of Ladies” published about 1415, which combines legend with reality in a sweeping allegory of a city of ladies and is probably the first history of women in the European world.  Christine also wrote “The Book of Three Virtues”  which was one of the first books to offer specific counsel to women of each social class.  Both of these books have been frequently quoted because in them she expressed, as a woman, what she felt should be the rightful place of women within her society, no other medieval woman speaks so strongly for her sex at every level of society. 
Picture
Christine de Pizan presenting her work to Louis of Orléans from 'The Collected Works of Christine de Pizan, Paris c. 1415 CE © British Library, Harley MS 4431, folio 95r.
As one of the most prolific writers of the 15th century and accepting the medieval framework that woman was naturally subject to man she also had a practical realization of the complimentary natures of the two, recognizing the valuable part women actually played in society and the respect and sympathy they deserved. ​

​Christine admired Joan of Arc’s passion and ability, writing it was a young women who had recovered and made safe the kingdom of France, ‘something that 5,000 men could not have done’.  Another famous quote is that of a man who once said to her that educated  women were unattractive because there were so few of them to which she retorted ignorant men were even less attractive because there were so many of them.  She was held in great esteem by her contemporaries and was one of the few true feminists before the modern era.   
​
Map of Paris, France
​References and Further Reading
  • Jackson, Deirdre, Medieval Women, British Library,2015.
  • Labarge, Margaret Wade. A Small Sound of the Trumpet, Women in Medieval Life.  Beacon Press, 1986.
  • Schaus, Margaret, editor.  Women and Gender in Medieval Europe, An Encyclopedia.  Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.
  • Woolgar, C.M.  The Great Household in Late Medieval England.  Yale University Press.  1999.
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  • Home
  • About
    • Mission
    • Membership >
      • Genealogical Sources
  • Women of Consequence
    • Early Middle Ages (500-1000) >
      • St. Adelaide of Burgundy
      • St. Bathilde
      • St. Bertha of Kent
      • St. Clothilde
      • St. Olga of Kiev
      • St. Theophana
    • High Middle Ages (1000-1300) >
      • Adelaide of Turin and Susa
      • St. Adela of Normandy & England
      • Anne of Kiev
      • Berengaria of Castile
      • Blanche of Castile
      • Ela, Countess of Salisbury
      • Eleanor of Aquitaine
      • Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd
      • Margaret de Quincy
      • Matilda, the Empress
      • Matilda (Eadgyth) of Scotland
      • Nicholaa de la Haye
      • Sikelgaita, heiress of Salerno
    • Late Middle Ages (1300-1500) >
      • Caterina Sforza
      • Dorothea of Brandenburg
      • Elizabeth de Clare, 11th Lady of Clare
      • Isabella d’Este
      • Isabella I of Castile
      • Isabella of France
      • Jeanne de Belleville
      • Joanna of Flanders
      • Lucrezia Tornabuoni
      • Margaret Beaufort
      • Philippa of Hainault
  • Roll of Honor
    • Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians
    • Anna Comnena, Princess of Byzantium
    • Beatriz Gallindo, La Latina
    • Christine de Pizan
    • Emma of Normandy
    • St. Hildegard von Bingen
    • Hrotsvit von Gandersheim
    • Jacqueline Felice de Almania
    • St. Joan of Arc
    • Matilda of Tuscany
    • St. Rodegunda (Radegund)
    • St. Theodora, Byzantine Empress
    • Trota of Salerno
  • Connections
  • Genealogical Charts
    • House of Sforza
    • Welsh Ancestry of English Royalty
    • Descendants of Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd
    • Houses of della Rovere and Gonzaga
    • House of Este
    • House of Trastamara
    • Lords of Clisson
    • Descendants of Jeanne la Flamme
    • House of Medici
    • Genealogy of Nicholaa de la Haye
    • Welsh Kings
  • Maps
    • Early Middle Ages >
      • Kingdom of Burgundy
      • Merovingian Kingdoms
      • Kent England
      • Principality of Kiev, Drevlyans
      • Thuringi & Franci, 6th century Europe
      • Quedlinburg, Germany, circa 962 AD
    • High Middle Ages >
      • Turin & Susa, Italy circa 1050 AD
      • Europe circa 1000 AD
      • Spanish Kingdoms 1210 AD
      • France & Burgundy circa 1032 AD
      • England & France 1152-1327 AD
      • Salisbury, England
      • England & France in the Reign of Henry I
      • Wales
      • Lincoln, England
      • Norman Lands in Italy & Sicily
    • Late Middle Ages >
      • Forli, Italy
      • Sweden circa 1658
      • Usk, Wales and Cambridge, England
      • Ferrera & Mantuga, Italy
      • Iberian Peninsula 1257-1492
      • England & France 1152-1327
      • Clisson, Anjou, France
      • Brittany, France
      • Florence, Italy
      • England & Wales circa 1399
      • Hainault
    • Roll of Honor >
      • Kingdom of Mercia and Surrounding Kingdoms
      • Byzantine Empire 1000-1100
      • Iberian Peninsula 1257-1492
      • Paris, France
      • Dominions of Cnut
      • Bingen, Germany circa 962 AD
      • Gandersheim, Germany circa 962 AD
      • Military Campaign of Joan of Arc
      • Canossa & Tuscany, Italy
      • Eastern Roman Empire circa 565 AD
      • Duchy of Salerno
  • Members Only
    • The Board
    • Bylaws
    • Meetings
    • Newsletter
    • Pictures
  • Contact