Christine de Pisan

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Christine de Pisan wrote for a living (years before any woman did this in Britain). She is remarkable both as a sophisticated, polished, and versatile writer of poetry in French, and as a proto-feminist. Her works (more than a dozen of them) quickly reached print (still a rarity when she was writing), both in their original French and in English translations: their titles take varying forms.
Illumination from the Queen’s Manuscript, c. 1410–14, with a portrait of Christine de Pisan in her study. She is sitting at a cloth-draped desk writing in a book with a box for writing materials beside her. She is wearing a white hat that appears to be bat ears or a large V on her head. She is wearing a double horned headdress with gauzy white veil and a bright blue dress (both the signs of high birth or status). A small white dog sits at her feet. (It is absent from a closely related picture that giv

Milestones

1364

Christine de Pisan was born in Venice.
Willard, Charity Cannon. Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works. Persea.
16

By 1394

After a course of self-education, Christine de Pisan began writing verse.
Willard, Charity Cannon. Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works. Persea.
43-4
McLeod, Glenda P., and Christine de Pisan. “Introduction”. Christine de Pizan: Christine’s Vision, Garland, p. xi - lv.
xiii

1405

Christine de Pisan wrote Le livre des trois vertus and finished writing Le livre de la cité des dames.
Yenal, Edith. Christine de Pisan: A Bibliography of Writings by Her and about Her. Scarecrow Press.
44-6
McLeod, Glenda P., and Christine de Pisan. “Introduction”. Christine de Pizan: Christine’s Vision, Garland, p. xi - lv.
xvi

31 July 1429

Christine de Pisan finished her Ditié de Jehanne d'Arc, a poem commemorating Joan of Arc 's victory at Orléans that year, and the subsequent coronation of Charles VII .
McLeod, Glenda P., and Christine de Pisan. “Introduction”. Christine de Pizan: Christine’s Vision, Garland, p. xi - lv.
xxi

August 1429

Christine de Pisan was alive in this month (she wrote her last poem on 31 July); but she was not heard from again and the exact date of her death is unknown.
Yenal, Edith. Christine de Pisan: A Bibliography of Writings by Her and about Her. Scarecrow Press.
18
McLeod, Glenda P., and Christine de Pisan. “Introduction”. Christine de Pizan: Christine’s Vision, Garland, p. xi - lv.
xxi
Willard, Charity Cannon. Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works. Persea.
207

Biography

Birth and Background

1364

Christine de Pisan was born in Venice.
Willard, Charity Cannon. Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works. Persea.
16

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