“Although modern-day scholars continue to debate whether she can be called a “feminist” when the concept did not exist in her lifetime, there is no denying that she embodied the values and principles of feminism, specifically that women were the equals of men in every regard and should be accorded the same rights, opportunities, and respect as any male. Her works would influence later writers, male and female, through the early era of the Renaissance after which they fell out of favor and were only rediscovered in the late 19th century CE.”

Mark, Joshua. “Christine de Pizan.” World History, 26 Mar. 2019, http://www.worldhistory.org/Christine_de_Pizan.

View her digitized manuscripts at the British Library.

Christine de Pizan and the Book of the City of Ladies

Listen to this episode from Stuff You Missed in History Class on Spotify. Christine de Pizan is often described as a late-Medieval writer. But just “writer” does not really sum up everything she did. She wrote verse, military manuals, and treatises on war, peace and the just governance of a nation.