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Manners, Morals, and Misogyny in the Middle Ages
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17390 |
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BOOK WORLD
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1 / 1990 |
5,026 Words |
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Lucy Mazareski
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A MEDIEVAL WOMAN'S MIRROR OF HONOR
The Treasury of the City of Ladies
Christine de Pizan
New York: Bard Hall Press/Persea Books
272 pp., $11.95 paper, $24.95 cloth
The story of Christine de Pizan begins long ago, so long ago it could almost begin, “Once upon a time there lived a young woman at the court of a king." Although at the time princesses and noblewomen did in fact wear the pointed hats and bombard sleeves of fairy tale allure, Christine's story is no fairy tale. Though she lived among princesses, she herself was not one. She did, however, write books for them. And for dukes, duchesses, even the king; Christine de Pizan was not only France's first women of letters, she was probably the first woman since antiquity to earn her living as a writer. And so, a woman's life lived across the haze of six hundred years is vibrantly alive for us, recorded in an astonishing range of books and tracts and poems written in an erudite, lyric, penetrating, witty, and utterly endearing style.
Still other firsts distinguish her career. Because her premier concern was the status of women, Christine became the first woman to stand against prejudicial and acrimonious attacks and attitude in certain works of literature and in society at large, and she was the first woman to write a book in praise of women. That she could take pen in hand and write scholarly defenses of women was no mean feat in an age when women lacked access to education. This lack was one of her greatest sorrows, and a theme to which she repeatedly returned.
“If it were customary to send daughters to school like sons…they would learn as thoroughly and understand the subtleties of all the arts and sciences as well as sons. And by chance there happen to be such women, for…just as women have more delicate bodies than men…so do they have minds that are freer and sharper whenever they apply themselves.”
Christine certainly applied herself. The scholarship and moral and philosophical transcendence of her writings place her among the notables of world literature.
In her lifetime, she was recognized as an accomplished lyric poet, and she was the official biographer of Charles V. Her patrons included John, Duke of Berry, Philip the Bold, John and Fearless, Louis of Orleans and his wife Valentine Visconti, Charles VI and his wife, and Isabella of Bavaria. Her enormous corpus of writings includes various manuals and tracts of political instruction and analysis, a work of military ethics, The Book of Feats of Arms and Chivalry, mythological commentary, a large body of works in verse, including a remarkable essay on universal history many love poems, and the only composition written in French during the lifetime of Joan of Arc in honor of the latter. Central to her writings are the two books of advice to, and defense and praise of, women, The Book of the City of Ladies and A Medieval Woman's Mirror of Honor: The Treasury of the City of Ladies.
It has been said often enough that behind every great man stands a great woman. Oftentimes the reverse is also true. Behind Christine stood her father, to whom she refers as "a great scientist and philosopher,” and whom she warmly lauds and credits
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