Christine de Pizan, the first professional woman writer in Europe, was born in Venice around 1364. Her father, Thomas of Pizan, came originally from Pizzano, a small town near BolognaJ He was a well-known physician and astrologer whose fame caused him to be appointed to the court of the French king Charles V. He left Italy when Christine was still an infant, and his family followed him in 1368. In her Vision of 1405 the adult Christine describes how they arrived in Paris in their elaborate Italian clothes, how welcome everyone made them feel, and how privileged they felt. The fortunes of Christine's family depended on the benevolence of the king who was a patron of the arts and fostered an intense intellectual life at his court.

List of Illustrations

Introduction

The Selected Writings of Christine de Pizan

  From One Hundred Ballads and Other Ballads

  The God of Love's Letter

  From The Letter from Othea

  From The Debate on the Romance of the Rose

  From The Tale of the Shepherdess

  From The Path of Long Study

  From The Book of Fortune's Transformation

 A Letter to Eustache Morel (February lo, 14o4)

  Morel's Answer

  From The Book of the Deeds and Good Conduct of the Wise

King Charles V

 From The Book of the City of Ladies

 From The Book of the Three Virtues

 From Christine's Vision

 From The Book of the Body Politic

 From One Hundred Ballads of a Lover and a Lady

 The Lamentation on the Evils That Have Befallen France

 From The Book of Peace

 From The Letter on the Prison of Human Life

 The Tale of Joan of Arc

Criticism

 Jacqueline Cerquiglini · The Stranger

 Beatrice Gottlieb · The Problem of Feminism in the Fifteenth

Century

  Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski · Christine de Pizan and the

Misogynistic Tradition

  Sheila Delany · "Mothers to Think Back Through": Who Are

They? The Ambiguous Example of Christine de Pizan

  Patricia A. Phillippy · Establishing Authority': Boccaccio's De

Claris Mulieribus and Christine de Pizan's Le livre de la cite

des dames

 Joel Blanchard · "Vox poetica, vox politica": The Poet's Entry-

into the Political Arena in the Fifteenth Century.

 Kevin Brown]ee · Structures of Authority in Christine de

Pizan's Ditie de ]ehanne d'Arc

Selected Bibliography