The Book of the City of Ladies

Christine de Pizan

(c.1364-1430)

Malaspina Great Books

Life• Born Venice c. 1363• Moved to Paris at age 5 with father Thomas de Pisan• Father was astrologer and secretary to King Charles V• Married at 14 to Etienne du Castel• Widowed at 25• Earned living by writing• Compared (in her day) to Cicero & Cato• Instructional: Wrote Le Livre de Paix, a treatise dealing with the education of princes

(note: de Officiis & The Prince)• Poetry & Music: Le Livre des Mutations de Fortune; Le Chemin de Longue Etude; Le

Livre des cent Histoires de Troie: Hymn to Joan of Arc (last known work); collection of shorter Ballades and Rondeaux – several set to music later by 3rd parties

• Biography: The Book of the Deeds and Good Manners of the Wise King Charles V • Autobiography: Vision of Christine (approx. 75 years after Dante’s Comedy)• Prose: The Book of the City of the Ladies; The Treasure of the City of Ladies;

Lamentations on the Civil War; The Book of Feats of Arms and Chivalry; Livre du corps de policie

Preface (a letter from Christine)• The Romance of the Rose (Jean de Meun)• Letter from Royal Secretary Master Gontier Col, Secretary of the King our Lord who

criticized Pizan’s objections to The Romance of the Rose:

• “....Thus you accuse me, a woman, of folly and presumption in daring to correct and reproach a teacher as exalted, well-qualified, and worthy as you claim the author of that book to be. Hence, you earnestly exhort me to recant and repent....”

• “And if you despise my reasons so much because of the inadequacy of my faculties, which you criticize by your words, "a woman impassioned," etc., rest assured that I do not feel any sting in such criticism, thanks to the comfort I find in the knowledge that there are, and have been, vast numbers of excellent, praiseworthy women, schooled in all the virtues---which I would rather resemble than to be enriched with all the goods of fortune.”

• “But, further, if you seek in every way to minimize my firm beliefs by your anti-feminist attacks, please recall that a small dagger or knife point can pierce a great, bulging sack and that a small fly can attack a great lion and speedily put him to flight. ”

Another Letter• This to Pierre Col – another royal secretary

• “....And since you are angry at me without reason, you attack me harshly with, "Oh outrageous presumption! Oh excessively foolish pride! Oh opinion uttered too quickly and thoughtlessly by the mouth of a woman! A woman who condemns a man of high understanding and dedicated study, a man who, by great labor and mature deliberation, has made the very noble book of the Rose, which surpasses all others that were ever written in French. When you have read this book a hundred times, provided you have understood the greater part of it, you will discover that you could never have put your time and intellect to better use!“

• “My answer: Oh man deceived by willful opinion! I could assuredly answer but I prefer not to do it with insult, although, groundlessly, you yourself slander me with ugly accusations. Oh darkened understanding! Oh perverted knowledge.... A simple little housewife sustained by the doctrine of Holy Church could criticize your error!”

L'Avision-Christine (1405)• An allegorical dream vision in which Christine learns about the history of

France, its present problems, and the meaning of her own life

• “I was already midway through the journey of my pilgrimage when one day at eventide, I found myself fatigued by the long road and desirous of shelter. Since I had arrived here through a desire for sleep, after I said grace and taken and received the nourishment necessary for human life, I recommended myself to the author of all things and betook myself to a bed of troubled rest.”

• “Soon thereafter, my senses bound by the weight of sleep, an amazing vision overcame me as a strange, prophetic sign. Even though I am hardly Nebuchadnezzar, Scipio, or Joseph, the secrets of the Almighty are not denied to the more unsophisticated.”

• “I wish to reveal everything to you.”

L'Avision-Christine (1405)• A crowned lady, whom Christine's preface has identified as at once the

earth, the human soul and France, appeared and gave Christine a task:

• "Friend, to whom God and Nature have conceded the gift of a love of study far beyond the common lot of women, prepare parchment, quill, and ink, and write the words issuing from my breast; for I wish to reveal everything to you."

• ...[W]hen I was at the two fonts of Philosophy themselves---those noble fountains so bright and wholesome---I, like a young and pampered fool, took not my fill of them, even though the beautiful water pleased me; rather, just like the simpleton who sees the bright sun shining and considers not the rain but thinks it will last forever, I neglected those things and thought to recover my loss in time....

• For with my present desires, if I had such clarity at my side now, being completely devoted to study and wearied of all other useless occupations and pastimes, I would replenish myself from those fountains so exceedingly and thoroughly that no woman born for a long time would surpass me.

L'Avision-Christine (1405)

• Then Nature ordered Christine to write

• She told me, "Take the tools and strike the anvil. The material I will give you is so durable that neither iron or fire nor anything else will be able to destroy it. So forge pleasing things.”

• "When you carried children in your womb, you experienced great pain in order to give birth. Now I want books brought forth from you which will present your memory before the worldly princes in the future and keep it always and everywhere bright; these you will deliver from your memory in joy and pleasure notwithstanding the pain and labor."  

Ditié de Jehanne d'Arc • (1.XXII) Blessed be He who created you, Joan, who were born at a

propitious hour! Maiden sent from God, into whom the Holy Spirit poured His great grace, in whom there was and is an abundance of noblegifts, never did Providence refuse you any request. Who can ever begin to repay you?

• (1.XXVIII) I have heard of Esther, Judith and Deborah, who were women of great worth, through whom God delivered is people from oppression, and I have heard of many other worthy women as well, champions every one, through them He performed many miracles, but He has accomplished more through this Maid.

• (1.XXXIV) Oh! What honour for the female sex! It is perfectly obvious that God has special regard for it when all these wretched people who destroyed the whole Kingdom - now recovered and made safe by a woman, something that 5000 men could not have done - and the traitors [have been] exterminated. Before the event they would scarcely have believed this possible.

Ballade

Severe or slight, my heart has felt no woundFrom Love’s sharp arrows that they say make warIn many of us folk, I’ve not been boundGod be thanked, by prison or snares, what’s more,Of the god of Love.Nothing I ask, nothing I seek to move,Without him I live in joy and sunlight:I love no lover: I want no love’s delight. I’m not afraid either of being enslavedBy a glance or a gift or a long pursuit,Nor of drowning deep in flattery’s wave,For my heart there’s no man would suit:Let none call aboveFor succour from me, I’d reject his loveImmediately, and tell him outright:I love no lover: I want no love’s delight. 

Ballade (Continued)

I laugh indeed at a woman who’s bound:In such danger, she’d surely be better To seize any sword or dagger aroundAnd kill herself, having lost her honour.And therefore I chooseTo pass my days in this state and muse:Saying to all who would love me quite:I love no lover, I want no love’s delight. Lord of Love, what use at your court am I?I love no lover, I want no love’s delight.

ValentineNot long ago, in the early morning,The white sun, bearing his candle-shine,Into my close chamber came stealingIn secret: the day was Saint Valentine’s. All the brightness he had broughtWakened me from the sleep of Care,In which I’d passed the whole night there,On the harsh bed of Wearied Thought. On that day too all the birds came flockingTo share what they had of Love’s treasure,Aloud in their own sweet Latin calling,Demanding Nature grant equal measureAll She ordained for them they sought:A mate that is, as each might select.Their noise was such none could have sleptOn the harsh bed of Wearied Thought.

Valentine (continued)Then drenching my pillow with my tears,I lamented my cruel destiny,Saying: ‘You birds can have never a fearOf finding the joy and pleasure you seek:Each one an agreeable mate has caughtWhile I have none, for Death has betrayed me,Taken my mate, so I languish grieving,On the harsh bed of Wearied Thought. Let them choose a Valentine as they oughtThose men and women of Love’s party,This year I’m alone, no comfort for me,On the harsh bed of Wearied Thought.

Grief and Care and Melancholy Off with you now, away, away,Grief and Care and Melancholy!Think you to take control of meAll my life, like yesterday? I promise you, no, never, I say:Reason shall have the mastery.Off with you now, away, away,Grief and Care and Melancholy! If you ever come back this wayYou and your whole, company,May God curse you, all you three,And whatever brought you, I pray:Off with you now, away, away,Grief and Care and Melancholy!

OF ALL THE LILIES OF THE FIELD ...

Of all the lilies of the field

fairest, worthiest of praise, at my will in all ways, my choice, unparalleled.

Young, beautiful and mild of manner: my courteous prize of all the lilies of the field.

And if I bloom, fulfilled in his love; if he is my all, blame me the less that it was him I chose and held of all the lilies of the field.

Christine to Her Son • I have no great fortune, my son,

To make you rich. In place of one Here are some lessons I have learned--the finest things I've ever earned.Before the world has borne you far, Try to know people as they are. Knowing that will help you take The path that keeps you from mistake.

• Pity anyone who is poor And stands in rags outside your door Help them when you hear them cry! Remember that you, too will die.

• Love those who have love for you And keep your enemy in view: Of allies none can have too many, Small enemies there are not any.

• Never lose what the good Lord gave To this, our world too much enslaved: The foolish rush to end their lives. Only the steadfast soul survives.

Gilles Binchois: Dueil angoisseux (text by Christine de Pisan)

grievous despair, full of madness, endless languor and cursed life, filled with tears, anguish and torment, doleful heart which lives in darkness, ghostly body at the brink of death, I have ceaselessly,continually; and so I can neither be healed nor die. Disdain, harshness without joy, sad thoughts, deep sighs, Great anguish locked in the weary heart. Fierce bitterness borne secretly, mournful expession or without joy, dread which silences all hope, are in me and never leave me; and so I can neither be healed nor die. Cares and concerns which have continued forever, bitter waking, shuddering sleep, pointless labor , with languid expression, doomed to the torment of grief, and all the evils which one could ever tell or think about, without hope of cure, torment me immeasurably; and so I can neither be healed nor die. Envoi: Princes, pray to God that very soonhe will give me death, if he does not wish by any other means to cure the suffering in which I so bitterly anguish and so I can neither be healed nor die.

Seulete sui. . . Alone am I• Alone am I and alone I wish to be,

Alone my gentle friend has left me,Alone am I, with neither master nor companion,Alone am I, in bitterness and in pain,Alone am I in tormented lamentation,Alone am I much more than any wandering soul,Alone am I and without a friend remain.

• Alone am I at door or at the window,Alone am I when huddled in the corner,Alone am I and have shed my fill of tears,Alone am I, whether mourning or consoled,Alone am I,--and nothing suits me so--Alone am I shut up inside my chamber,Alone am I and without a friend remain.

• Alone am I in every place and state,Alone am I, where e'er I go or sit,Alone am I much more than any earthly thing,Alone am I, by one and all forsaken,Alone am I and deeply down am sunk,Alone am I and so often drowned in tears,Alone am I and without a friend remain.

• Prince, now is my pain begun.Alone am I, as every grief afflicts me,Alone am I, by darkness overtaken,Alone am I and without a friend remain.

Feminism

• 1. The belief that women and men are, and have been, treated differently by our society, and that women have frequently and systematically been unable to participate fully in all social arenas and institutions.

• 2. A desire to change that situation. • 3. That this gives a "new" point-of-view on society, when

eliminating old assumptions about why things are the way they are, and looking at it from the perspective that women are not inferior and men are not "the norm."

Pizan’s Internalized Inferiority

• “But just the sight of this book, even though it was of no authority, made me wonder how it happened that so many different men– and learned men among them– have been and are so inclined to express both in speaking and in their treatises and writings so many devilish and wicked thoughts about women and their behavior” (Pizan on Matholeus)

Pizan’s Depression

• And I finally decided that God formed a vile creature when He made woman, and I wondered how such a worthy artisan could have deigned to make such and abominable work…

• great unhappiness welled up in my heart, for I detested myself and the entire feminine sex, as though we were monstrosities in nature.

• I considered myself most unfortunate because God had made me inhabit a female body in this world.

• “Women have been defined out and marginalized in every philosophical system and have therefore had to struggle not only against exclusion, but against a content which defines them as subhuman and deviant” (Gerda Lerner)

Pizan’s Strategy

• Christine acknowledges a pressing need for female dialectic, communication, information flow, and support between women.

• However, she understands there is a missing feminist consciousness – a lack of female “voice.“ Without knowledge of the past, no group of women could test their own ideas against equals, those who had come out of similar conditions and life experiences. Every thinking woman had to argue with the 'great man' inside her head”

• The actual plot of The Book of the City of Ladies begins when three allegorical goddesses arrive and tell Christine that she must build a city for honorable women of all types. Reason, Rectitude and Justice tell Christine: “We have come to vanquish from the world the same problem upon which you have fallen, so that from now on, ladies and valiant women may have a refuge and a defense against the various assailants”.

• This allegoric need for a space where women can come together points to the key element of feminist history: the formation of group subjectivity and shared consciousness between women of all sorts.

Pizan’s Solutions

• Clearing the Field of Letters

• Building Walls

• Revisionism

Clearing the Field of Letters• Pizan moves away from scholarly “fact” and toward her own

personal experience (the personal as “political”). In addressing the Romance of the Rose and other texts like it that speak poorly of women, Christine’s first response is to debunk their writing on the basis of common-sense logic. “I could not see or realize how their claims could be true when compared to the natural behavior and character of women”. This argument is the first step in her allegorical process of clearing out the field of letters for the foundation of her city: with a literary shovel, Lady Reason helps her debunk this and other miscomprehensions of misogyny.

• The stance that “personal” experience is a valid match for “scholarly evidence” becomes a platform for new histories based in the experiences of groups outside the norm.

Building Walls

• Pizan then appropriates the medieval tradition of exemples: lists of biblical, mythical and historic precedents, to help her argument.

• These serve the dual purpose of defending the sex against anti-feminist rhetoric and of giving women readers an impressive, expansive sense of the many historic role models that are available to them.

• Christine de Pizan offers the idea that women should look to other women for their defense, and that a collective past of women could be a source of energy in their collective struggle for justice.

Revisionism• Finally, Pizan rewrites history in a revisionist

spirit. She reorders these women, excludes all “evil” women, and reinterprets stories of women with bad reputations. (example of Medea where she shifts blame to Jason).

• Pizan’s goal is to “restore women to history, restore history to women”. The foundation that Christine builds for her City of Ladies is to develop an historic base upon which a tradition of feminist thinking, strategizing, and historicizing can begin.

Pizan’s Choices

• Analyze examples under rubric of Clearing the Field of Letters, building of walls and of revisionism

Queen Fredegunde (c.545–597 )

• Frankish queen. The mistress of King Chilperic I of Neustria, she became his wife after inducing him to murder his wife Galswintha (567). Fredegunde and Brunhilda, Galswintha's sister and wife of King Sigebert I of Austrasia, were among the leading figures in the long war (561–613) between the Frankish kingdoms of Neustria and Austrasia. Fredegunde procured the deaths of Sigebert I and of her own stepchildren. After Chilperic's murder (584) she acted as regent for her son Clotaire II. Clotaire had Brunhilda put to the rack and stretched for three days, then chained between four horses and eventually ripped limb from limb.

Pizan’s Account

“… Although the lady was unnaturally cruel for a woman, she nonetheless ruled over the kingdom of France most wisely after her husband’s death…[she] managed to save her son from his enemies. She even brought him up herself and crowned him with her own hands. All this would have been impossible had she been lacking in prudence … (p. 31)”

Semiramis Semi-legendary Assyrian Queen (9th c. BCE)

• King Ninus of Babylon became captivated by her beauty, and after her first husband conveniently committed suicide, he married her.

• Semiramis, now Queen of Babylon, convinced Ninus to make her "Regent for a Day." He did so - and on that day, she had him executed, and she took the throne.

• She is said to have had a long string of one-night-stands with handsome soldiers. So that her power would not be threatened by a man who presumed on their relationship, she had each lover killed after a night of passion.

• There's even one story that her army attacked and killed the sun itself (in the person of the god Er), for the crime of not returning her love. Echoing a similar myth about the goddess Ishtar, she implored the other gods to restore the sun to life.

• Rossini's opera, Semiramide, premiered in 1823.

Pizan’s Account

When Semiramis was quite young it so happened that her husband Ninus was killed by an arrow…Semiramis confronted any type of danger with such courage that she crushed all her enemies … it is true that some authors have criticized Semiramis … for having married her own son … [but] no other man was worthy of her … if she had thought she was doing anything wrong … she would have refrained from doing as she did. (p. 37)

Amazons (legendary?)• The historical factuality of Amazons as a people is still in debate. These

warrior women are described in the Iliad as "antianeirai", meaning: those who go to war like men.

• They were also described by Herodotus as "androktones", killers of males. It is believed they resided in Pontus, Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) but there are differing views as to how many nations of Amazons there were.

• Amazons worshiped Artemis the virgin goddess of the hunt, and Ares the god of war. They also took men prisoner in battle, after choosing the most handsome they then used them for their sexual pleasure, and would either kill them or use them as slaves once their usefulness had been expended.

• If they gave birth to a male, they would kill, blind or cripple the infant. If they kept them alive they would then use them when they grew into young men (if they were suitable) as a supply of male seed.

• In medieval times, their kingdom was called 'Femyny'.

Battle of the Amazons - Rubens

Pizan’s Account

• If they gave birth to a male child, they would send them away to be with their fathers …

Queen Penthesilea• Penthesilea was the queen of the Amazons and the daughter of

Ares and Otrere.• Penthesilea accidentally killed an ally Amazon queen (Hippolyte,

Melanippe, or Glauce). To be purified of her crime, Penthesilea went to Priam.

• Apparently in return for Priam's help, Penthesilea, with her Amazons, entered the Trojan War on the side of the Trojans. She entered the war in its 10th and final year, after the death of Hector.

• Achilles defeated Penthesilea, but when he saw her beauty, he fell in love with the brave Amazon and quickly lamented his act.

• Thersites, a Greek, mocked Achilles and removed Penthesilea's eyes with his sword. With a single blow, Achilles killed Thersites.

• Some traditions state that Achilles committed necrophilia with the fallen Penthesilea, and one author even goes so far as to say that the dead Penthesilea bore a son, Caystrius, to Achilles.

Pizan’s Account

• The Queen, distraught over the death of the Trojan Hector (killed by Achilles), seeks out and severely wounds Achilles’ son Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus later returns and after other Greeks tear off her helmet, Pyrrhus splits her skull in two with an axe.

Zenobia, Queen of Palmyria(c. 231--271)

• Many modern historians believe she was descended from Cleopatra VII of Egypt.

• In 269, she crushed an Egyptian who challenged Roman rule and proclaimed herself Queen of Egypt.

• Zenobia was captured and paraded wearing gold chains by the Roman emperor Aurelian. She was granted a villa in Tivoli, Italy, where she spent the rest of her life as a philosopher and socialite.

• It is probable that she treated the Jews in Palmyra with favour; she is referred to in the Talmud, as protecting Jewish rabbis.

Pizan’s Account

The noble Zenobia had an extremely beautiful face and body but she paid no attention to her looks … she consented to intercourse solely for the purpose of having children … She ate off plates decorated with gold and precious stones and dressed in luxurious robes … her greatest accomplishment was her knowledge of the arts … she was well schooled … Her chosen teacher was Longinus the philosopher … she wrote a very elegant abridged history of contemporary events in Latin and Greek … she wanted her children to have an education similar to her own …

Queen Artemesia• (Herodotos) “I consider her to be a particular object of admiration

because she was a woman who played a part in the war against Greece. She took power on the death of her husband, as she had a son who was still a youth. Because of her courage and spirit she went to war although she had no need to do so.”

• “For, according to the story, the king was watching and saw that it was her ship that made the attack. What is more, one of the people with him said, " Master, do you see how well Artemisia is fighting? She has sunk an enemy ship." When the king asked whether it was really Artemisia who had done so, they confirmed it was because they recognised her vessel's flag clearly and assumed that she had sunk an enemy ship. As far as the rest of the story goes, the incident turned out to her advantage because no one from the Calyndian ship survived to bring a charge against her. Xerxes is said to have replied to the news, "My men have become women and my women, men." This, they say, was the king's response. ”

Artemisia - Rembrandt

Pizan’s Account

• In short, she fought so well that she crushed Xerxes as thoroughly on sea as she had done on land. The dishonourable king then took to his heels and fled … (p. 53)

Cloelia

• Modern historians debate whether the story of Cloelia is a genuine historical record or a myth, although the truth of the account was widely upheld by the Romans themselves. According to Roman tradition, Cloelia was one of the young Roman girls given as hostages to Lars Porsenna, king of the Etruscan town of Chiusi. Cloelia, however, escaped her captors, swimming across the river Tiber. She also led many of the other Roman girls to safety. Porsenna was furious when he learned of the escape, but he eventually came to admire Cloelia's courage. He granted her a promise of safety, should she return to his camp, and even swore to return her to her parents when his troops had left Roman territory. In later times of peace, Rome celebrated her courage by building a statue of her on the Via Sacra.

Manto

• The daughter of Tiresias of Thebes. After Thebes was taken by the Epigonoi, Manto was brought back to Apollo at Delphi as war prize. Apollo ordered the girl to found a oracle of him in Colophon (Asia Minor). There, she became the mother of the seer Mopsus. According to another tradition, she ended up in Italy where she became by Tiberinus the mother of Ocnus, the founder of Mantua (Mantova) (Virgil X, 199). Other sources mention that the city was named after a different Manto, who was regarded as the daughter of Heracles. Mantua is also connected to Mantus, god of the underworld.

Pizan: “Being gifted and intelligent she acquired a complete knowledge of pyromancy, the art of diving the future from fire.

Medea• Medea was a devotee of the goddess Hecate, and one of the great

sorceresses of the ancient world. She was the daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis, and the granddaughter of Helios, the sun god.

• King Aeetes' most valuable possession was a golden ram's fleece. When Jason and the crew of the Argo arrived at Colchis seeking the Golden Fleece, Aeetes was unwilling to relinquish it and set Jason a series of seemingly impossible tasks as the price of obtaining it. Medea fell in love with Jason and agreed to use her magic to help him, in return for Jason's promise to marry her.

• Medea bore Jason two children before Jason forsook her in order to marry the daughter of Creon, the king of Corinth. Medea got revenge for Jason's desertion by killing the new bride with a poisoned robe and crown which burned the flesh from her body; King Creon died as well when he tried to embrace his dying daughter. Medea fled Corinth in a chariot, drawn by winged dragons, which belonged to her grandfather Helios. She took with her the bodies of her two children, whom she had murdered in order to give Jason further pain.

Medea – Christopher Cairns

Pizan’s Account

Avoids the nasty bits …

Ceres

… she was responsible for inventing both the science and the techniques of agriculture as well as all the necessary tools …

Isis

… she showed the people many different things, including how to create gardens, grow plants and graft cuttings of one species onto another. She also set up a number of fine and decent laws …

Arachne

Arachne was the first person to create the arts of dyeing wool in different colours and of producing what we would call fine tapestries from weaving pictures on cloth to make them look like paintings. There was even a fable about Arachne which tells how she was turned into a spider by the goddess Pallas whom she had dared to challenge.

Pamphile

This lady was highly skilled in various arts and took such delight in experimenting and discovering new things that it was she who first invented the art of creating silk.

Sempronia of Rome

Her phenomenal intelligence meant that there was no discipline, no matter how difficult it was either intellectually or practically, that she couldn’t immediately pick up and master …

Queen Dido

… good sense …

Cassandra

… she was often beaten by her brothers and her father who told her she was mad …

Xanthippe – wife ofSocrates

The honourable lady Xanthippe was a very wise and virtuous woman who married the great philosopher Socrates … the good lady never stopped loving him … never stopped grieving for him …

Sulpicia … she preferred to follow her husband into penury and banishment

Portia – Cato’s daughter

… she went over to the fire and swallowed some live coals …

Judith

In the city lived a noble and valiant lady named Judith, who was a young and lovely woman of exemplary virtue and chastity

Esther The wise and noble Queen Esther

Veturia

… pleaded with her son to cease his siege on Rome … she alone was able to do what Rome’s most prominent citizens were unable to achieve.

Rebecca “The good and honest lady Rebecca…”

Ruth

…this worthy lady was so decent and virtuous that a whole book of the Bible was written about her…

Ruth – David Buckhart

Penelope – Jacobo Bassano

Thisbe – John Waterhouse

Hero & Leander JMW Turner

Ghismonda - Bacchiacca

Afra