Translation of Christine's autobiographical "Vision", both dealing with her own life and career, and offering a possible solution to the troubled state of France at the time.
Christine de Pizan, France's first woman of letters, is widely known for her classic Book of the City of Ladies (Persea, 1982), but very few of her many other distinguished works have been translated into English. The Writings of Christine de Pizan offers lengthy excerpts of nearly all of Christine's works, in authoritative and gracious translations. Among the writings are Christine's autobiography; lyric and allegorical poetry; the official biography of King Charles V; writings on women, warfare, politics, love, and the human condition; writings from the famous Quarrel of the Rose; The Book of the City of Ladies; The Treasury of the City of Ladies; The Book of the Duke of True Lovers; and Christine's triumphant poem on Joan of Arc. Edited and with an introduction by the foremost authority on Christine's work, Charity Cannon Willard, who sets the writings in historical, biographical, and literary context.
Contains selections from eighteen major works by Christine de Pizan, Europe's first professional woman writer, presented in contemporary translation with annotations, and includes an introduction, and seven critical analyses.
Christine de Pizan (c.1364-1430) was France's first professional woman of letters. Her pioneering Book of the City of Ladies begins when, feeling frustrated and miserable after reading a male writer's tirade against women, Christine has a dreamlike vision where three virtues - Reason, Rectitude and Justice - appear to correct this view. They instruct her to build an allegorical city in which womankind can be defended against slander, its walls and towers constructed from examples of female achievement both from her own day and the past: ranging from warriors, inventors and scholars to prophetesses, artists and saints. Christine de Pizan's spirited defence of her sex was unique for its direct confrontation of the misogyny of her day, and offers a telling insight into the position of women in medieval culture. THE CITY OF LADIES provides positive images of women, ranging from warriors and inventors, scholars to prophetesses, and artists to saints. The book also offers a fascinating insight into the debates and controversies about the position of women in medieval culture.
Fresh, accurate, and engaging, this new translation of the Book of the City of Ladies helps us to understand what made Christine de Pizan so popular with her fifteenth-century contemporaries. The editors provide a rich historical and philosophical context that will be very useful to both students and scholars of the history of political ideas. The translations themselves gracefully navigate the fine line between accuracy and readability with considerable charm. Rounding out this portrait of the turmoil of fifteenth-century France, the volume is enriched by excerpts from other works, Christine's Vision, the Book of the Body Politic, and the Lamentation on France’s Ills." —Kate Forhan, Emeritus, Siena College CONTENTS:IntroductionA Note on Translating the Book of the City of LadiesChristine de Pizan: Her works, Her TimesSuggestions for Further ReadingFrom Christine's Vision (1405)The Book of the City of Ladies (1404–1405)From The Book of the Body Politic (1404–1407)From Lamentation on France's Ills (1410)Index
Christine de Pizan was born in Venice and raised in Paris at the court of Charles V of France. Widowed at the age of twenty-five, she turned to writing as a source of comfort and income, and went on to produce a remarkable series of books, including poetry, politics, chivalry, warfare, religion and philosophy. She is considered to be France's first female professional writer. This was the first translation into modern English of Christine de Pizan's major political work, The Book of the Body Politic. Written during the Hundred Years' War, it discusses the education and behaviour appropriate for princes, nobility and common people, so that all classes can understand their responsibilities towards society as a whole. A product of a time of civil unrest, The Book of the Body Politic offers a medieval political theory of interdependence and social responsibility from the perspective of an educated woman.
Christine de Pizan's Epistre Au Dieu D'Amours and Dit de la Rose, Thomas Hoccleve's The Letter of Cupid ; Editions and Translations with George Sewell's The Proclamation of Cupid
Christine de Pizan's Epistre Au Dieu D'Amours and Dit de la Rose, Thomas Hoccleve's The Letter of Cupid ; Editions and Translations with George Sewell's The Proclamation of Cupid
The lightheartedness of these works both masks and enhances their engagement with provocative issues of continuing interest today: conduct in society, literary practice and moral praxis, relations between men and women, the value of received wisdom. This volume offers texts of two medieval French poems by Christine de Pizan: the "Epistre au dieu d'amours" and "Dit de la Rose," together with the first translation of these poems into modern English. The medieval English adaptation of Christine's "Epistre," Thomas Hoccleve's "The Letter of Cupid," is likewise presented here, and provided with a modern English translation. Finally, an eighteenth-century version of Hoccleve's poem, George Sewell's "The Proclamation of Cupid," is edited here for the first time. The editions of these poems by Christine, last edited a century ago, are based on the most recent scholarly findings. The edition of Hoccleve's poem reproduces its authorial punctuation from manuscript for the first time, and thus sheds light on the vexed question of fifteenth- century English metrics. The lively modern English translations of both can be used by students, scholars, and the general reader.
Originally published in 1984, the three epistolary works of Christine de Pizan, alongside their translation. They are all personal documents from a woman who gave spiritual advice as well as an insight into the real workings of her society.
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