Christine de Pizan and the Book of the City of Ladies
Speaker: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank
A professional author
Christine de Pizan was the first professional female author in Europe, as far as we know. This video examines her life and work. Widowed in her twenties with a family to support, she turned to writing to earn a living, something almost unheard of for a woman around 1400. She became a powerful voice in the "woman question," a heated debate about women's nature and place in society. In this video, we look at an illumination or image from her most famous book, The Book of the City of Ladies (c. 1404–05). Christine is shown holding a trowel, building a symbolic city for worthy women with the help of three crowned virtues: Reason, Rectitude, and Justice.
Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies, c. 1407–09, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Français 607. Photo © Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank
Video chapters
0:00 The first professional author 1:29 The "woman question" debate 2:07 The Book of the City of Ladies 3:00 Portraits of Christine with Reason, Rectitude, and Justice 4:15 Building the city
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