Christine de Pizan

Lore & Background

Christine de Pizan was born in 1364 in the Republic of Venice, Italy. She was the daughter of Tommaso di Benvenuto da Pizzano. Her father became known as Thomas de Pizan, named for the family's origins in the village of Pizzano, southeast of Bologna. Her father worked as a physician, court astrologer and Councillor of the Republic of Venice. Thomas de Pizan accepted an appointment to the court of Charles V of France as the king's astrologer and in 1368 Christine moved to Paris. In 1379 Christine de Pizan married the notary and royal secretary Etienne du Castel. She had three children. Her daughter became a nun at the Dominican convent of Poissy in 1397 as a companion to the King's daughter Marie. Christine's husband died of the plague in 1389, a year after her father had died. On 4 June 1389, in a judgment concerning a lawsuit filed against her by the archbishop of Sens and François Chanteprime, councillors of the King, Christine was called 'damoiselle' and 'widow of Estienne du Castel'. After her husband Etienne died, Christine was left to support her mother and her children. When she tried to collect money from her husband's estate, she faced complicated lawsuits regarding the recovery of salaries still owed to her husband. Through this, Christine became a court writer. By 1393, she was writing love ballads, which caught the attention of wealthy patrons within the court. Christine became a prolific writer. Her involvement in the production of her books and her skillful use of patronage in turbulent political times has earned her the title of the first professional woman of letters in Europe. Although Venetian by birth, Christine expressed a fervent nationalism for France. Affectively and financially she became attached to the French royal family, donating or dedicating her early ballads to its members, including Isabeau of Bavaria, Louis I, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Berry. Patronage changed in the late Middle Ages. Texts were still produced and circulated as continuous roll manuscripts, but were increasingly replaced by the bound codex. Members of the royal family became patrons of writers by commissioning books. As materials became cheaper a book trade developed, so writers and bookmakers produced books for the French nobility, who could afford to establish their own libraries. Christine thus had no single patron who consistently supported her financi

Reader's Guide

Christine de Pizan’s writings, considered among the earliest feminist works, span novels, poetry, biography, and literary, historical, philosophical, political, and religious analyses. Her best-known prose works, *The Book of the City of Ladies* and *The Treasure of the City of Ladies*, were composed while she served John the Fearless of Burgundy. Her advice manuals for princesses, princes, and knights remained in circulation into the sixteenth century. Christine’s career was shaped by the turbulent politics of late medieval France, where King Charles VI suffered repeated mental breakdowns after 1392, leaving governance to Queen Isabeau and a divided royal council. Christine published works on women’s virtues dedicated to Queen Isabeau, referencing the stabilizing role of earlier regent Blanche of Castile. She expressed fervent French nationalism, believing France was founded by Trojan descendants and governed according to Aristotelian ideals. Her 1400 work *L'Épistre de Othéa a Hector* tutored Hector of Troy in statecraft and political virtues through the goddess Othéa; she produced richly illustrated luxury editions and rededicated copies for patrons including Louis I of Orléans, Philip the Bold, Jean of Berry, and Henry IV of England. Christine employed leading Parisian manuscript illuminators, including the Master of the Epître d’Othéa. She had no single patron, instead working concurrently for different royal factions—Burgundy, Orléans, and Berry—while publishing works for the broader French nobility. Her skillful use of patronage and involvement in book production earned her recognition as Europe’s first professional woman of letters.

Did You Know?

• Christine de Pizan was born in 1364 in the Republic of Venice, Italy.
• Her husband Etienne du Castel died of the plague in 1389.
• She is considered the first professional woman of letters in Europe.
• Her work L'Épistre de Othéa a Hector was first published in 1400 and dedicated to Louis of Orléans.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Christine de Pizan or Christine de Pisan (11 September 1364 – c. 1430) was a Venetian-born French poet and proto-feminist philosopher, sometimes said to be Europe’s first female professional writer." — Christine de Pizan "Car en mon cuer porte couvertementLe dueil qui soit qui plus me puet desplaire,Et si me fault, pour les gens faire taire,Rire en plorant et très amerementDe triste cuer chanter joyeusement." — Christine de Pizan "For what would I be otherwise but sport,In love with one who does not care for me?I will hide pain in smiles, sooner than beThe common talk.

It is a bitter art To sing a happy song with a sad heart." — Christine de Pizan "Rondeau "De triste cuer chanter joyeusement", line 8; Maurice Roy (ed.) Œuvres Poétiques de Christine de Pisan (1886) vol. 1, p. 154, as translated by by Sheenagh Pugh." — Christine de Pizan