The Book of the City of Ladies, or Le Livre de la Cité des Dames, is a book written by Christine de Pizan believed to have been finished by 1405. Perhaps Pizan's most famous literary work, it is her second work of lengthy prose. Pizan uses the vernacular French language to compose the book, but she often uses Latin-style syntax and conventions within her French prose.Forhan, Kate Langdon. The Political Theory of Christine Pizan. Burlington: Ashgate: 2002. Print. Women and Gender in the Early Mod. World. The book serves as her formal response to Jean de Meun's popular Roman de la Rose. Pizan combats Meun's statements about women by creating an allegorical city of ladies. She defends women by collecting a wide array of famous women throughout history. These women are "housed" in the City of Ladies, which is actually the book. As Pizan builds her city, she uses each famous woman as a building block for not only the walls and houses of the city, but also as building blocks for her thesis. Each woman introduced to the city adds to Pizan's argument towards women as valued participants in society. She also advocates in favour of education for women.
Christine de Pizan also finished by 1405 The Treasure of the City of Ladies (Le tresor de la cité des dames de degré en degré, also known as The Book of the Three Virtues), a manual of education, dedicated to Princess Margaret of Burgundy. This aims to educate women of all estates, the latter telling women who have husbands: "If she wants to act prudently and have the praise of both the world and her husband, she will be cheerful to him all the time".Cantor, Norman. The Medieval Reader. p. 230 Her Book and Treasure are her two best-known works, along with the poem Ditie de Jehanne D'Arc.
Summary
Part I Part I opens with Christine reading from Matheolus's Lamentations, a work from the thirteenth century that addresses marriage and argues that women make men's lives miserable.*Brown-Grant, Rosalind. Introduction. The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine Pizan. 1405. Trans. Rosalind Brown-Grant. London: Penguin, 1999. xvi-xxxv. Print. Upon reading these words, Christine becomes upset and feels ashamed to be a woman: "This thought inspired such a great sense of disgust and sadness in me that I began to despise myself and the whole of my sex as an aberration in nature".*De Pizan, Christine. The Book of the City of Ladies. 1405. Trans. Rosalind Brown-Grant. London: Penguin, 1999. Print. The three Virtues then appear to Christine, and each lady tells Christine what her role will be in helping her build the City of Ladies. Lady Reason, a virtue developed by Christine for the purpose of her book, is the first to join Christine and helps her build the external walls of the city. She answers Christine's questions about why some men slander women, helping Christine to prepare the ground on which the city will be built. She tells Christine to "take the spade of [her] intelligence and dig deep to make a trench all around [the city] … [and Reason will] help to carry away the hods of earth on [her] shoulders." These "hods of earth" are the past beliefs Christine has held. Christine, in the beginning of the text, believed that women must truly be bad because she "could scarcely find a moral work by any author which didn't devote some chapter or paragraph to attacking the female sex. [Therefore she] had to accept [these authors] unfavourable opinion[s] of women since it was unlikely that so many learned men, who seemed to be endowed with such great intelligence and insight into all things, could possibly have lied on so many different occasions." Christine is not using reason to discover the merits of women. She believes all that she reads instead of putting her mind to listing all the great deeds women have accomplished. To help Christine see reason, Lady Reason comes and teaches Christine. She helps Christine dispel her own self-consciousness and the negative thoughts of past writers. By creating Lady Reason, Christine not only teaches her own allegorical self, but also her readers. She gives not only herself reason, but also gives readers, and women, reason to believe that women are not evil or useless creatures but instead have a significant place within society.
Women discussed The following 36 women are discussed in Part I of the Book of the City of Ladies.Table of Contents
Mary Magdalene Queen of Sheba Fredegund Blanche of Castile Jeanne d'Évreux Blanche of France Marie of Blois, Duchess of Anjou Semiramis Amazons: Thamiris, Menalippe, Hippolyta, Penthesilea, Synoppe, Lampheto, Marpesia, Orithyia Zenobia Artemisia II of Caria Lilia, mother of Theodoric Camilla Laodice of Cappadocia Cloelia Cornificia Faltonia Betitia Proba Sappho Manto Medea Circe Carmenta Minerva Ceres Isis Arachne Pamphile Thamaris Irene Iaia Sempronia Woman of Valor Gaia Cirilla (also known as Tanaquil) Dido Ops Lavinia
Part II
In Part II, Lady Rectitude says she will help Christine "construct the houses and buildings inside the walls of the City of Ladies" and fill it with inhabitants who are "valiant ladies of great renown". As they build, Lady Rectitude informs Christine with examples and "stories of pagan, Hebrew, and Christian ladies" who possessed the gift of prophecy, chastity, or devotion to their families and others. Christine and Lady Rectitude also discuss the institution of marriage, addressing Christine's questions regarding men's claims about the bad qualities women bring to marriage. Lady Rectitude corrects these misconceptions with examples of women who loved their husbands and acted virtuously, noting that those women who are evil toward their husbands are "like creatures who go totally against their nature". Lady Rectitude also refutes allegations that women are unchaste, inconstant, unfaithful, and mean by nature through her stories. This part ends with Christine addressing women and asking them to pray for her as she continues her work with Lady Justice to complete the city.
Women discussed The following 92 women are discussed in Part II of the Book of the City of Ladies.
Sibyls: Erythraean Sibyl, Cumaean Sibyl Deborah Elizabeth Anna the Prophetess Queen of Sheba Cassandra Basina of Thuringia Carmenta Theodora Dripetrua Hypsipyle the virgin Claudine (Claudia (vestal)) Roman Charity Griselda Hypsicratea Triaria Artemisia I of Caria Argea Agrippina the Elder Julia Aemilia Tertia Xanthippe Pompeia Paulina Sulpicia (wife of Lentulus Cruscellio) Lacedaemonian women who saved their husbands from execution Porcia (wife of Brutus) Curia Cornelia Metella Andromache Antonina (wife of Belisarius) Stateira II Mary, mother of Jesus Bithia Judith Esther The Rape of the Sabine Women Veturia Clotilde Catulla Saint Genevieve Hortensia Novella d'Andrea Susanna Sarah Rebecca Ruth Penelope Mariamne I Antonia Minor Sulpitia Lucretia Chiomara Hippo Sicambrian women Verginia Claudia Octavia Claudia Antonia Athaliah Jezebel Brunhilda of Austrasia Florence of Rome Wife of Bernabo the Genovan Leaena Dido Medea Thisbe Hero Ghismonda of Salerno Lisabetta of Messina Dame de Fayel Dame de Vergi Iseult Deianira Juno Europa Jocasta Medusa Helen of Troy Polyxena Claudia Quinta Blanche of Castile Busa of Canosa di Puglia Marguerite, Dame de la Riviere Isabeau of Bavaria Joan of Armagnac Valentina Visconti, Duchess of Orléans Margaret of Bavaria Marie, Duchess of Auvergne Margaret of Burgundy, Duchess of Bavaria Isabella of Valois Marie of Savoy, Countess of Saint-Pol Anne de Bourbon
Part III In Part III, Lady Justice joins with Christine to "add the finishing touches" to the city, including bringing a queen to rule the city. Lady Justice tells Christine of female saints who were praised for their martyrdom. At the close of this part, Christine makes another address to all women announcing the completion of the City of Ladies. She beseeches them to defend and protect the city and to follow their queen (the Virgin Mary). She also warns the women against the lies of slanderers, saying, "Drive back these treacherous liars who use nothing but tricks and honeyed words to steal from you that which you should keep safe above all else: your chastity and your glorious good name".
Women discussed The following 37 women are discussed in Part III of the Book of the City of Ladies.
The Virgin Mary The Virgin Mary's sisters and Mary Magdalene Saint Catherine of Alexandria Saint Margaret of Antioch Saint Lucy of Rome Martina of Rome Saint Lucy (different than the Saint Lucy above) Saint Benedicta Saint Fausta Saints Cyprian and Justina Blessed Eulalia Saint Macra Saint Fida Blessed Marciana Saint Euphemia Blessed Theodosina Saint Barbara Saint Dorothy offhanded mention of Saint Cecilia, Saint Agnes of Rome, and Saint Agatha of Sicily Saint Christina of Bolsena Felicitas of Rome Julitta blessed Blandina Marina the Monk Euphrosyne of Alexandria Anastasia of Sirmium and Agape, Chionia, and Irene Blessed Theodota Saint Natalia of Nicomedia Saint Afra Several ladies who served the Apostles: Drusiana, Susanna, Maximilla, Saint Ephigenia, Helena of Adiabene, Saint Plautilla, Saints Julian and Basilissa
Boccaccio's influence Christine's main source for information was Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris (On Famous Women), possibly in the French version, Des Cleres et Nobles Femmes. This text was a biographical treatise on ancient famous women. Christine also cited from Boccaccio's Decameron in the latter stages of The City of Ladies. The tales of Ghismonda and Lisabetta, for example, are cited from Boccaccio's Decameron.
Boccaccio's influence can be seen in Christine's stance on female education. In the tale of Rhea Ilia, Boccaccio advocates for the right of young women to choose a secular or religious life. He states that it is harmful to place young girls into convents while they are "ignorant or too young or under coercion".Boccaccio, Giovanni. Famous women. Ed. by Virginia Brown. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001. Print. Boccaccio states that girls should be "well brought up from childhood in their father's home and taught honesty and virtuous behavior. Then when they are grown and know full well what they are doing" they can choose the life of monasticism. Boccaccio believes that young girls need to be taught about life and virtues before they are consecrated to God.
While he does not say women should have a formal education, he is still advocating for women to have a say in their lives and the right to be well informed about their possible futures. Therefore, Boccaccio's belief in educating young girls about secular and religious life could have acted as a stepping stone for Christine's belief in female education. Boccaccio's outlook was however, according to Margaret King and Albert Rabil, "misogynist, for it singled out for praise those women who possessed the traditional virtues of chastity, silence, and obedience. Women who were active in the public realm... were depicted as suffering terrible punishments for entering into the masculine sphere."King, Margaret, and Albert Rabil. Introduction. "Dialogue on the Infinity of Love." Tullia d'Aragona. 1547. Trans. Rinaldina Russell and Bruce Merry. Chicago: The University of Chicago, 1997. Print.
Boccaccio's text is mainly used for Parts I and II of the book, while Part III is more reliant upon Jean de Vignay's Miroir historical (1333). This text is the French translation of the historical portions of Speculum Maius, an encyclopedia by Vincent of Beauvais that was begun after 1240.
Themes