Christine de Pizan or Pisan ( Middle born Cristina da Pizzano; September 1364 – c. 1430), was a Venetian-born French court writer for King Charles VI of France and several French royal dukes, in both prose and poetry. She wrote in French, having been raised in France to parents who came from Bologna. Her father was invited to the French court in 1368, when Christine was only four years old, to serve as a doctor and astrologer. He insisted that his daughter learn philosophy, Latin, Italian, French, history, literature, and science, which was very unusual for the time.
Early life and family (1364–1389)
Christine de Pizan 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".
Writing career (1389–1405)
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 financially and became associated with the royal court and the different factions of the royal family – the Burgundy, Orleans and Berry – each having their own respective courts. Throughout her career Christine undertook concurrent paid projects for individual patrons and subsequently published these works for dissemination among the nobility of France.
Works
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 1402 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.
At the height of the exchange Christine published Querelle du Roman de la Rose (Letters on the Debate of the Rose). In this particular apologetic response, Christine belittles her own writing style, employing a rhetorical strategy by writing against the grain of her meaning, also known as antiphrasis. By 1405, Christine had completed her most famous literary works, The Book of the City of Ladies (Le Livre de la cité des dames) and The Treasure of the City of Ladies (Le Livre des trois vertus). 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.