Christine de Pizan

Com o intuito de contribuir com os estudos acerca da escrita didática de Christine de Pizan (1365 – c. 1430) em suas obras, pretendemos apresentar nosso projeto de pesquisa de mestrado iniciado em 2019, onde propomos uma análise do Livre des faits d’armes et de chevalerie (1410). Examinando, do ponto de vista historiográfico, os indícios da escrita didática christiniana, para entender sua função nos conselhos que a autora dirigia à sociedade guerreira francesa do início do século XV, àqueles que poderiam ler ou ouvir ler sua obra.

Christine de Pizan (c. 1365 – c. 1430), uma das primeiras escritoras na Idade Média a se sustentarem de seu ofício, era lida e conhecida por seus contemporâneos e hoje sua vida e obras são objetos muitos estudos. Contudo, ainda há pouca pesquisa acerca de um de seus trabalhos mais conhecidos na época, o Livre des fais d’armes et de chevalerie (1410) – que é a fonte deste trabalho. Através de uma análise hermenêutica desta fonte, o presente trabalho procura entender o que motivou Pizan a escrever sua obra, como ela foi escrita e qual era seu público alvo, de modo a compreender e definir, de modo geral, o perfil ideal dos guerreiros franceses do período, de acordo com o ponto de vista da autora nesta obra. Para isso foi necessário considerarmos a didática christiniana no Fais d’armes, os índices de oralidades presentes na mesma e a leitura no medievo. Concluímos que Pizan vai além do que lhe foi encarregado por seu mecenas e escreve uma obra para aconselhar a todos os guerreiros não apenas sobre estratégias militares, mas também conselhos morais de como ser um melhor combatente.

https://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/179715

While some scholars have seen the political theory of Christine de Pizan as being very like that of her sources in its presentation of hierarchy as the basis of rightful order, others have stressed the originality of her thought and have judged her conception of society to be more inclusive and egalitarian than that found in traditional conceptions of the body politic. Part I of this article argues that while Christine stressed the importance of reciprocity and mutuality within the political community, she also emphasised the need for hierarchy and deference and that, even by medieval standards, she was profoundly suspicious of popular involvement in political life. Part II of this article argues that this political theory was simply one expression of a much broader social outlook, one which relied on the Aristotelian notion of “distributive justice” in order to reconcile the ideals of hierarchy and obedience with the achievement of justice and equity.  Christine's defence of women, the aspect of her work for which she is perhaps now most famous, should be understood in the context of this wider social perspective.

Conhecida sobretudo por seu protagonismo em uma das mais notórias querelas literárias do medievo, a Querelle de la Rose, Christine de Pizan (1365 - c. 1430) integra a lista dos principais intelectuais franceses e pensadores políticos de seu tempo. Autora de vinte e cinco composições em verso e dezesseis obras em prosa, Pizan desenvolveu um estilo de escrita peculiar, que era capaz de transmitir sua visão intelectual e espiritual, de maneira agradável e acessível, sem perder a persuasão de seus argumentos. Este seu estilo ganhou público, influenciou diversos autores e poetas na época e rendeu várias edições de suas obras feitas posteriores a sua morte, inclusive traduções para o inglês médio, alto-alemão médio e português médio.

published in:
in: Mondes animaliers au Moyen Âge et à la Renaissance / Tierische Welten im Mittelalter und in der Renaissance, ed. D. Buschinger et al., Amiens, Presses du "Centre d'Études Médiévales de Picardie, 2016, pp. 327-337.
Christine de Pizan refers to animals less frequently than do her Middle French contemporaries, many of whom she knew personally such as Évrart de Conty and Jean Gerson. For example, in a corpus of over 600,000 words, Gerson refers to dogs 86 times, Christine in a corpus of over a million words only 49 times. Her prose writings are, in general, political treatises dealing with issues of female regency, peace theory or military tactics, so that one would not immediately expect to find many animal images here. Most of the animals she refers to show up either in her lyrical works or in the Epistre Othea. Nonetheless, animal imagery holds a key for understanding how she creates referentiality for her writings. In order to how she creates referentiality, it is necessary first to establish benchmarks for literary fauna in medieval French. These benchmarks reveal a lexical superstructure inherent in medieval French because writers in all genres tend to refer to the same eleven animals (lions, horses, dogs, serpents, sheep, and so on) with more or less the same frequency. Second, one needs to move from the omnipresence of these eleven animals to the fortune of the lonely nightingale; here we will witness the instability of linguistic referentiality in animal images. Third, it is useful to compare how Christine de Pizan and Jean Gerson treat the meaning of serpent in their works: Christine follows a rigid hierarchy in assigning meaning, whereas Jean Gerson avoids polyvalence by immediately supplying a cultural context that supplies meaning in the first place. Benchmarks for Literary Fauna and Lexical Frequency of Animal Names in Évrart de Conty, Christine de Pizan and Jean Gerson In order to understand Christine's use of animal imagery, we first need to establish a rough norm for what could be termed the medieval French " animal imaginary. " In order to create rough benchmarks for " literary fauna, " I analyze examples taken from Godefroy, Tobler-Lommatzsch, the online Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (now over seven million words) and examples found in a private (because of copyright issues) searchable database created over the last five years by myself and David Wrisley (now NYU/Abu Dhabi).

The present study revises some of the most important interventions of the female writers who, since the beginning of the long “Querelle des femmes”, discuss about the question of female education, one of whose most evident references is the knowledge of the classical languages (particularly Latin). Although it is considered that the French Revolution settles the question, the survival of the topic of women exclusion of the learning of Latin in women writers such as George Eliot, Virginia Woolf and Margaret Atwood shows the “querelle” is still on.

During the fifteenth century the organic body politic metaphor was gradually associated or superseded by a physiological paradigm built on the ancient humoral theory. The new body politic, based on humours rather than on organs, eventually became a dynamic and fluid entity. Authors such as Nicole Oresme or Jean Gerson alleged that the etiology of humoral imbalance had its origins in growing social inequalities; Claude de Seyssel subsequently urged that the cure to restore the humoral balance should focus on creating new hope and bridges for the gifted. Seyssel was able to draw up his pioneering manifesto for social mobility thanks to the new physiological image of the civic body. The present study argues that such a physiological conception transformed anxiety about motion and disarray into a belief that social fluidity was indispensable to the well-being and health of the whole body, but the idea that (social) order and movements are not conflicting, was soon eradicated by new perspectives on nobility constructed on race and blood.

an analysis of the phrase "Je, Christine" in the writings of Christine de Pizan / un examen de l'usage de la phrase "Je, Christine" chez Christine de Pizan, publié dans: Ceci n'est pas une chanson d'amour: les multiples visages de la poésie didactique (Actes du Colloque international des 14, 15 et 16 Mars 2017, (Maison de la Culture d'Amiens), publiés par les soins de Danielle Buschinger et al., Amiens, Presses du "Centre d'Études Médiévales de Picardie", 2017, p. 191-202.

Christine de Pizan's Livre de la Cité des Dames (1405) is justly renowned for its full-scale assault on the misogynist stereotypes which dominated the culture of the Middle Ages. Rosalind Brown-Grant locates the Cité in the context of Christine's defence of women as it developed over a number of years and through a range of different texts. Arguing that Christine tailored her critique of misogyny according to the genre in which she was writing and the audience whom she was addressing, this study shows that Christine's case for women nonetheless had an underlying unity in its insistence on the moral, if not the social, equality of the sexes. Whilst Christine may not have been a radical in modern feminist terms, she was able to draw upon the cultural resources of her day in order to construct an intellectual authority for herself that challenged the prevailing orthodoxy of the medieval period.

This article analyzes in a historical context the earliest evidences of Dante’s influence on Catalan culture during the reigns of Kings Peter IV, John I and Martin of Aragon, until the interregnum (1410-12) and the change of dynasty resulting from the Compromise of Caspe (1412). French courts, Avignon papal curia and the close personal, political and dynastic ties between the kingdoms of Sicily and Aragon constitute the background on which this paper studies the many echoes of Dante —from the Commedia, from the commentaries on Dante and from the so-called silloge boccaccesca— to be found around the chancellery and the court of Aragon: specifically, in Bernat Metge’s Llibre de Fortuna e Prudència (1381) and Lo somni (c. 1398); in Andreu Febrer’s, Gilabert de Pròixida’s and Melcior de Gualbes’ poetry; in one letter from Martin of Aragon (1408), and in Felip de Malla’s early predication (1411, 1413).

Santander: Gobierno de Cantabria-Universidad de Cantabria, 2005.
Catalogue of the exhibition organized by the Aula Interdisciplinar Isabel Torres de Estudios de las Mujeres y del Género to celebrate the 600th anniversary of Christine's  Livre de la cité des dames. It was launched at the Parliament of Cantabria in November-December 2005 and travelled to ten other venues.
There is an interactive e-version available upon request.

“Rejecting Essentialism and Gendered Writing: The Case of Christine de Pizan,” in Gender and Text in the Later Middle Ages, hrsg. Jane Chance (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996), pp. 96-131.

examines the intellectual historical, in particular the theological, context in which Christine rejects essentialism and theories of the "nature" of women.

Partie 1 : les aspects du féminisme de Christine de Pizan
Partie 2 : les études comme pilier de résilience
Partie 3 : un bon dirigeant selon Christine de Pizan

Théorie tirée de La cité des dames, Le chemin de longue étude et Le livre des faits et bonnes moeurs du sage roi Charles V.

This article (co-authors: David J. Wrisley and Liliane Dulac) attempts to identify the different styles employed by Christine de Pizan in all of her works using empirically based stylometric analysis. The results, at once heuristic but also statistically significant, suggest as well that besides Christine de Pizan, other medieval French authors such as Jean de Meun, Froissart and Gerson, have at least two, if not more, stylometric footprints. The methods employed and the ramifications of the results are discussed briefly as well. Résumé Il s'agit d'un essai d'identifier les différents styles employés par Christine de Pizan dans l'ensemble de sa production littéraire à partir d'une analyse stylométrique empirique. Les résultats, à la fois heuristiques mais aussi statistiquement signi-ficatifs, suggèrent aussi qu'en plus de Christine de Pizan, d'autres auteurs fran-çais médiévaux comme Jean de Meun, Froissart et Gerson, possèdent au moins deux « empreintes » stylométrique, sinon encore plus. Les méthodes employées et les ramifications des résultats obtenus sont brièvement discutés.

Este libro es un estudio introductorio, histórico y filosófico sobre la tradición revolucionaria. Su objetivo es explorar y repensar la compleja relación entre la tradición, la memoria y la revolución a partir de examinar las aportaciones de los principales pensadores que han reflexionado sobre la revolución y de analizar cómo se han desarrollado en la práctica las revoluciones del pasado. De este modo, lo que también se aborda en el libro es de qué modo se engarzan pasado, presente y futuro en los acontecimientos revolucionarios. Lejos de ser contradictorias o incompatibles, la revolución y la tradición se han relacionado de múltiples maneras que hasta el día de hoy han sido insuficientemente investigadas.

Link: https://www.documentauniversitaria.com/es/producte/memoria-de-la-revolucion/

Baldassare Castiglione’s 1528 text, The Book of the Courtier,  inform renaissance men—and women—how to behave in medieval European courts. The aim of the text is to teach the customs and manners of an ideal courtier. In this précis, I first offer a summary of the text and a detailed synopsis of key concepts, before ending with a brief evaluation and synthesis of the text with the work of Christine de Pizan and Madeleine de Scudery.

in: Une femme et la guerre à la fin du Moyen Âge. Le “Livre des faits d’armes et de chevalerie” de Christine de Pizan. Études réunies par Dominique Demartini, Claire Le Ninan, Anne Paupert et Michelle Szkilnik, Paris, Champion, 2016, pp. 190-203.

The essay revisits the question of the suppression of Christine's name in the eleven mss of Group B which all date from after second half of the 15th century, all from the Court of Burgundy, and a phenomenon of "masculinization" that appears related to the nostalgic forms of courtly ritual there cultivated after the fall of Constantinople and the founding of the Order of the Toison d'Or.

In recent decades, as the attention of medievalists has turned towards considering the details that lie beyond the text, in the body of the physical manuscript itself, studies have increasingly made use of the terms ‘paratext’, ‘peritext’, and ‘epitext’, coined by Gérard Genette in the 1960’s.  These terms are used unquestioningly, and often with little recourse to what Genette’s definitions were getting at; critics have also paid little heed to Genette’s own caution that over different periods, the form and function of the paratext endlessly change.  Although Genette therefore warns us against the direct application of these terms to different periods of literature, we have not considered the implications of this statement, and his warning goes unheeded.  But was Genette right?  Does the paratext appear in the same form, and function in the same way in the medieval period as it does in the modern?  Indeed, is there such a distinction between text and paratext to be made in manuscripts?  Is such a distinction even useful?
This paper explores these questions by discussing examples of two different kinds of what we term “paratext”, aspects of the manuscript that are considered as in some way secondary, or “marginal” to the text proper: prologues, and illuminations.  The examples used are drawn from the author-manuscripts of Christine de Pizan and Guillaume de Machaut, two French writers active in the C.14th and early C.15th.  We shall see that the status of prologues is particularly difficult to determine, as they could be presented as part of the text itself (paratext functioning as text), and in the case of Machaut’s famous prologue, operate as works in their own right (text functioning as paratext).  Whilst the non-textual nature of illuminations and images makes it easier to class such features as paratextual, they can nevertheless enhance and inform our reading, to convey supplementary meaning, or enrich the messages to be drawn from the text.  The inclusion of two representations of the author in one manuscript of Christine’s Epistre Othea serves to illustrate this point.
I end the paper by suggesting that a distinction between text and paratext is useful, but that we need to be mindful of the porousness that exists between the two.  It may be helpful in this respect to distinguish ‘scribal’ paratext from ‘editorial’ paratext.  By stressing this difference, texts whose formatting does not match our modern expectations of printed formats might then be reexamined, and studied in all their paratextual glory.

This article reexamines the intellectual and religious inclinations of Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, or “Bess of Hardwick.” Popular accounts emphasize her wealth, strong-willed character, staunch Protestantism, and dynastic ambitions. This study revises common assumptions about her character using evidence from a set of embroidered wall hangings Bess owned and designed. Their iconography reveals that she studied Boccaccio’s Famous Women, and linked it to other texts in formal comparisons. Bess’s textile furnishings reveal that she was prepared to weigh in on such topics as female virtue and soteriology in ways that were empowering for her as a woman, a scholar, and a Christian. These objects demonstrate Bess’s notational habits, preparatory methods for dialogue, and sophisticated understanding of iconography.
Bess was a product of the same Christian humanist culture as many of her elite contemporaries, and it was her sharp intellect—not her marital pedigree—that
helped her win their praise.

Christine de Pizan is a medieval author who is known to have been actively involved in the production of her manuscripts, and in copying her own texts. Recent Christine scholarship has also credited her with a substantial role in creating the pictures that are found in some of her manuscripts. If the author was involved in designing the iconographic programme of her works, then it follows that their presence and content cannot be inconsequential. The extensive programme of illuminations in certain copies of the Othea, a didactic text that straddles several genres, makes it unique in Christine's manuscript corpus. There must have been a reason for the Othea in particular to be granted such an extensive illustrative programme. However, the illustrative programme in the Othea was not always prominent: in its earliest extant form in Paris, BnF fr. 848, it contained only four grisaille illuminations; around two years later, this had extended to six miniatures; finally, between 1406 and 1410, two manuscripts were produced featuring 101 illuminations. In this essay, I explore the question of why this text was enriched with this cycle of miniatures. I suggest that it was intended to be read in a different way to other didactic manuals, and that these design choices were also influenced by practicalities surrounding composition, such as financial constraints, and the desires of the patron.