Christine de Pizan was the first professional female author that we know of in Europe. 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 with a trowel in hand, building a symbolic city for worthy women with help from three crowned virtues: Reason, Rectitude, and Justice.

Speaker: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank