Thinker · TH-0103
Christine de Pizan
Christine de Pizan was born in Venice and raised at the French royal court in Paris, where her father served Charles V. Widowed young,…
Also known as Christine de Pisan
1364 – c. 1430 · Venice; Paris
Traditions: Medieval Christian
Schools: Feminist philosophy
Christine de Pizan was born in Venice and raised at the French royal court in Paris, where her father served Charles V. Widowed young, she supported her family by writing, becoming one of the first professional writers in Europe. In The Book of the City of Ladies and in the debate over the Romance of the Rose, she answered the authority of misogynist texts with argument and counter-example, and she is often counted among the forerunners of feminist thought.
Key ideas
- Authoritative texts that disparage women should be tested against reason and experience, not simply accepted.
- Women's achievements across history supply counter-examples to claims of their inferiority.
- Women's lack of learning reflects lack of education, not lack of capacity.
- Virtue, not sex, determines a person's worth.
Major works
- Epistre au dieu d'Amours (1399)
- Le Livre de la Cité des Dames (The Book of the City of Ladies, 1405)
- Le Livre des trois vertus (The Treasure of the City of Ladies, 1405)
- Ditié de Jehanne d'Arc (1429)
In the conversation
- Reading group Reading group: Christine de Pizan and Mary Astell, two arguments from reason three centuries apart
On the map
The questions in The Coordinates of Thought where Christine de Pizan takes a place.
- 6.29 Philosophy of Gender What kind of thing is a gender category?