It was one of her most popular works. As the duke was
unwilling to fi nd a place in his household for Christine’s
son, Jean du Castel, after 1404 no further works were
dedicated to him. At about this same time, Christine
was commissioned by the duke of Burgundy, Philip the
Bold, to write a biography of the late king, the Faits et
bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V (1404), her fi rst
work entirely in prose.
Slightly earlier, her views on Jean de Meun and
the Roman de la Rose had involved Christine in a de-
bate with members of the royal chancellery, Jean de
Montreuil and Gontier and Pierre Col, who admired Jean
de Meun’s erudition, whereas she saw his unfortunate
infl uence on society’s attitudes toward women. Chris-
tine did not start the debate, as was formerly thought,
but she moved it from a private theoretical discussion
to a wider audience by giving copies of the letters it
inspired to the queen and the provost of Paris (1402), a
gesture that added to her literary reputation and marked
her fi rst important defense of her sex against traditional
misogynistic literature. It also inspired her to compose
three later works: the Dit de la Rose, a long poem written
in the midst of the debate; the Cité des dames, inspired
largely by Boccaccio’s De claris mulieribus, in a certain
sense a rewriting of it from a feminine point of view;
and the Livre des trois vertus (1405), offering advice to
women of all classes in an interesting commentary on
contemporary French society.
The year 1405 marked a turning point in France’s
affairs, an open break between the political ambitions of
the dukes of Orléans and Burgundy, inspiring Christine
to write a letter to the French queen, Isabeau of Bavaria
(October 5), begging her to act as savior of the country.
The letter had little effect on the queen, but it focused
Christine’s attention on matters of public interest, inspir-
ing the Livre du corps de policie (1407), on the ideal
of the perfect prince, the fi rst of several works directed
to the dauphin Louis of Guyenne. These also included
the Livre des fais d’armes et de chevalerie (ca. 1410),
based on Vegetius and on Honoré Bouvet, outlining the
essentials of military leadership and stressing interna-
tional laws to govern warfare. With affairs in France
steadily worsening, in 1410 she addressed a letter to
the elderly duke of Berry, King Charles VI’s uncle, beg-
ging him to act to save the country. A civil uprising, the
Cabochien revolt, led her to appeal once more to Louis
of Guyenne in the Livre de la paix (1412–14). This
prince appeared to be developing qualities of leader-
ship, but his untimely death (December 1415) added to
France’s chaos following the defeat at Agincourt. This
disaster inspired Christine’s Épistre de la prison de
vie humaine, addressed to Marie de Berry, duchess of
Bourbon, but speaking to all women who had suffered
losses at Agincourt and indeed to widows and bereaved
women of all wars.
As violence in Paris increased, Christine sought ref-
uge in a convent, probably the abbey of Poissy, where
her daughter had been a nun for many years. There, she
wrote the Heures de contemplation de Notre Dame, pos-
sibly at the time of her son’s death in 1425. Her hopes for
France were unexpectedly renewed by the appearance
of Jeanne d’Arc, who inspired her fi nal poem, the Ditié
de Jehanne d’Arc, written shortly after the coronation
of Charles VII at Reims in July 1429.
The date of Christine’s death is unknown, but Guil-
lebert de Mets, writing memories of Paris in 1434, refers
to her in the past tense.
Although not French by birth, Christine wrote many
pages inspired by her concern for France; as the mother
of three children, her views on education of the young
were considerably in advance of her times; as a woman
obliged to make her own way in an unfriendly society,
she courageously raised her voice in protest against
traditional misogyny. She is an unusually interesting
witness of her times. Her works were printed and read
well into the 16th century, providing for her the earthly
fame she, like other early Renaissance writers, so greatly
desired.
See also Boccaccio, Giovanni; Charles V the Wise;
Jeanne d’arc; Jean de MeunFurther Reading
Christine de Pizan. Œuvres poétiques, ed. Maurice Roy. 3 vols.
Paris: Didot, 1886–96.
Bomstein, Diane, ed. Ideals For Women in the Works of Christine
de Pizan. Detroit: Michigan Consortium for Medieval and
Early Modern Studies, 1981.
Kennedy, Angus J. Christine de Pizan: A Bibliographical Guide.
London: Grant and Cutler, 1984.
Richards, J. E. Reinterpreting Christine de Pizan. Athens: Uni-
versity of Georgia Press, 1991.
Solente, Suzanne. “Christine de Pizan.” In Histoire littéraire de
la France. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1974, Vol. 40.
Willard, Charity C. Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works. New
York: Persea, 1984.
Charity Cannon WillardCICONIA, JOHANNES (c. 1370–1412)
Johannes Ciconia, a musician of northern origins, be-
came perhaps the most important fi gure connecting the
ars nova of the Trecento and the Renaissance or proto-
Renaissance styles that emerged in the Quattrocento.
His biography has been a battleground for scholars.
In her exhaustive study of his life and work, Clercx
(1960) constructed an extended chronology according
to which he was born in Liège c. 1335, served the papal
court at Avignon from 1350 on, traveled in Italy during
1358–1363, returned to Liège in 1372, and then fi nally
setded in Padua in 1403, where he remained until his
death in 1412. Later discoveries and reinterpretationsCICONIA, JOHANNES