Humanities 220

Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies note organizer and study questions

The motivation for Christine's work has been echoed by many writers throughout history: how does one distinguish between what women really are and what they are claimed to be? Her response to misogynistic writers is personally felt, for she was criticized as a woman for her negative reactions to the poem, The Romance of the Rose, in an on-going critical debate.

Christine's book is a material reminder of women's accomplishments and capacity to act morally and prudently. It is a direct response to the overwhelming accounts about women that she has read that cast doubt on women's intellectual abilities, their chastity, and their faith in God. But without erasing the focus in Christine's book, we can also see a fundamental philosophical question in her approach to her subject matter: how do we know the truth of anything? How do we distinguish essence from -- as Plato would say -- opinions about it?

Christine's answer curiously anticipates the empirical epistemological searches of sixteenth-century Protestantism and seventeenth-century New Science: search for truth by collecting data. She is not, of course, exhaustive in her search. But there is reason to believe that her educational debt to her father, a physician/astrologer in the French court, gave her this sort of scientific impetus.

Her examples of accomplished and admirable women typify what E. J. Richards calls "medieval notions of universal history" (BCL, 264, n. II.22.2). Christine mixes together figures from recent history, ancient history, mythology, the Bible, and fictional accounts, as well as contemporary women. Fictional or factual, all her examples take on a "mythic" value, defying other authors' claims of women's inferiority. She sustains her pro-female position within Christianity, claiming that Christian writing, which includes the adoration of the Virgin Mary and female saints, also stands against misogyny.

The triple woman framework of The Book of the City of Ladies invokes the Trinity, of course. Reason, Rectitude, and Justice, Christine's three architects, also demonstrate what values and capacities are inherently human, what tie human beings to God, and what are inherently divine.

Questions on the book's organization:

1. How does Christine's opening paragraph contrast with the opening stanzas of Dante's Inferno?
2. What other ways is Christine like or unlike Dante?
3. As a literary or rhetorical strategy, how is Christine's "city" like or unlike the city invented by Socrates?

1. What stories from the Bible, or what advice from the apostle Paul, could be interpreted as anti-female?
2. From Christine's perspective, which has a greater effect on women's lives, gender or class? (see I.1.1). Why?
3. What does Christine's lament (I.1.2) suggest she believes about how God feels about women? Does she amend this view after talking with Lady Reason? (see I.48.1)
4. Why does Lady Reason compare Christine with Moses? (I.3.3)
5. Is misogyny natural or unnatural? (I.8.3) What are the misogynists' logical fallacies?
6. Does Christine's condemnation of misogynistic men make her blind to the faults of women? For example?
7. What, according to Lady Reason, motivates misogynistic men? (I.8.4-10)

1. What has interfered with women's advancement in science? (I.27.1)
2. What are Proba (I.29.1) and Sappho (I.30.1) praised for?
3. Why does Christine (the writer, rather than Christine, the builder) see Circe as a "queen," not a sorceress? (I.32.2) Why does she de-goddess Carmentis (I.33.2 & I.37.1) and Minerva? (I.34.1) What important traits does she emphasize for these women?
4. Why should Lady Reason's examples make misogynists quiet? (I.38.4, 5) What have women taught men? What is the significance of their comparison with Aristotle? (I.38.5)
5. How persuasive is the argument that Jesus was a model of respect for women? (I.39.3)
6. Christine wants to know if intellectual women are also prudent (i.e., have "natural sense" about morals and conduct). Are they? How does Lady Reason distinguish between "acquired learning" and "natural sense"? (I.43.1) Which is ultimately more important? Do you agree?
7. Christine includes the story of Gaia Cirilla, whom Livy referred to as "Tanaquil" (I.45.1). How do their accounts differ?

1. What are the misogynists' views of marriage? (II.13.1)
2. What have women done to demonstrate their devotion to their husbands? (II.14.1-II.24.1)
3. Why is it important for Christine to provide examples of women who are both discreet and wise in giving advice? (II.25.1-II.29.1)
4. Do the stories of Biblical women, Mary, Judith, and Esther, suggest that women can make important contributions, or do they suggest that their contributions are absolutely necessary? (II.30.1-II.32.1) Why?
5. What is the overall effect of the multiple stories of women who preserve their chastity at all costs? (II.37.1, ff.) Do you remember the story of Sarah and Abraham a little differently from Christine?
6. What is the moral Christine draws from the end of the story of the rape of Lucretia? (II.44.1) How close is she to the point Livy makes through this story in the History of Rome?

1. Why are so many female martyrs tortured in an explicitly sexual manner? (see III.3.2, ff.) The examples are in the book, but the answer to this question is not.
2. Christine's contemporary readers would be aware of stories of men who also suffered and died for their faith, so she is not claiming that Lady Justice's martyrs are unique because of their gender. But is she suggesting that women have a particular "cross to bear"? Does the misogyny Christine bemoans at the beginning of The Book of the City of Ladies affect these female saints?
3. What does Barbara's self-baptism suggest about women's abilities? (III.9.2)
4. Why do many men (frequently the fathers of future martyrs) consider women's refusals of marriage (except to Jesus Christ--III.9.3) threatening?
5. How many of Saint Christine's tortures (III.10.1) sound like the torments of the damned in Dante's Inferno?
6. How does the story of Marina's "gender bending" fit into Christine's examination in this book? (III.12.1)
7. What advice does Christine address to women across classes in the conclusion to the book? (III.19.6)