Who Is Christine De Pizan?

Christine de Pizan was a versatile writer/poet. She was born September 11, 1364. In her writings, she advocated for women's rights and equality. Pizan was one of the first women to have her writings read because back then people didn’t pay attention to women’s writing. People paid attention especially because of her writing about Joan of Arc. Christine de Pizan was very important to women in medieval times because of she fought for her education, how she provided for her family at a young age and her thoughts and writings on feminism.
Pizan was born September 11 1364 in Italy. Her father was Thomas de Pizan who was an astrologer for King Charles V. After a few years Pizan moved to France, they moved to France because her father thought the
Although Their marriage was arranged they were very happy together and loved each other. Castel was very supportive to Pizan about her passions. At the age of 20 they had 3 children together. They had perfect life but sadly a tragedy in Pizan’s life occurred. Pastel had passed from being ill after 10 years of marriage. Before her father had passed shortly after he lost his position at the court after Charles V’s death. Pizan was left alone to support her mother and 3 small children by herself. To add onto supporting her family, Pizan also had all the financial debts of her husband to take care of as well. After her father’s death, she had severed ties to the new French monarch King Charles VI so she had a little family support. Losing the people that she loved took a toll on her life so much it got to the point where she didn’t even want to live anymore. But as motivation, Pizan persevered and turned to writing to help support her family. Writing helped Pizan mourn the death of her loved ones. From her experience in French court, she was offered a position in court by English monarch Henry IV and Milanese ruler Galeazzo Visconti. Pizan didn’t want to leave her family in France so she relied on her writing to support her family and to become one of France’s first professional
To make profit with her writings, Pizan would write her poetry and send it to numerous members of the court for money in return. She would write and make various copies and send them to people. Thus, people started commissioning works from her and as product she could pull herself out of debt. As her life progressed she started to write directly about women in her writings. Pizan had many famous works, her most famous writings were The Book of the City of Ladies, and The Treasure of the City of Ladies. Le Livre de la cite des dames (the Book of the City of Ladies) was written in 1405 and is most known for its heroism and virtue. The Book of the City of Ladies was written to combat the current ideas that existed about women’s nature. The book was written as a dialogue between a student and master, it was an implied response to St. Augustine’s City of God. The Treasure of the City of Ladies highlights the persuasive effect of women’s speech and actions in everyday life. In the writing Pizan argues that women recognize and promote their ability to make peace between people. This taught woman to mediate between their husband and subjects. Other than those famous works Pizan had many others. In 1399 Pizan wrote the L Epistre au Dieu d amours (Letter to the God of Loves) in which she defended women against the satire of Jean de Meun in the Roman de la Rose. Another one of her works was Le Livre des trois vertus (Book of 3 virtues)