CHRISTINE DE PIZAN AS TEACHER

In recent years there has been a considerable amount of attention devoted to the feminism of Christine de Pizan, frequently referred to as “France’s first woman of letters.” Appealing as this is to modern feminists, it has unfortunately obscured some other significant aspects of Christine de Pizan’s writing, especially the great variety it represents and the interesting way in which certain ideas develop across her career as a writer. When one reflects on this achievement as a whole, one cannot avoid the conclusion that if Christine lived today she would make her mark in the world either as a journalist or an educator. Her interest in educating the young of both sexes, quite advanced for its day, deserves more comment than it has had so far. This aspect of her writing covers a period of some twenty years and extends from her own family to the French crown. Especially interesting is the fact that it is slightly in advance of the new educational ideals which were being formulated in Italy, as represented by the writings of Dominici and Vergerius.^[1]

To be sure, Christine herself was Italian by birth, and always spoke with respect and gratitude of her debt to her father, Tommaso da Pizzano, a graduate of the University of Bologna, as was her maternal grandfather, Tommaso Mondino de Forlì. Unfortunately, we know nothing of their pre-university education, nor indeed, of Christine’s early instruction, beyond the fact that she early showed an aptitude for learning, and that her father thought that young women would benefit from education. We may perhaps assume that she shared some early schooling with her two brothers, although this could not have lasted very long, for at the age of fifteen she was married to Etienne Du Castel, a young notary who was obviously an educated man, for in the year of their marriage he was appointed a royal secretary. After her early widowhood, about ten years later, she returned to study for consolation, and thereafter she spoke repeatedly of her pleasure in the life of the mind.^[2] This was, of course, the foundation of her life as a writer.

As for her interest in educating others, it undoubtedly started with her son, although it could not have been entirely unrelated to the fact that through both her father and her husband she was associated with the group at the French court which produced the first humanists, secretaries and advisers surrounding the royal courts and city governments in France as well as Italy.^[3] As Professor Paul Oskar Kristeller has pointed out, many of these were essentially teachers whose moral thought was centered on the education of the young.^[4]What is certain is that as a widow with young children, Christine was understandably concerned for their education. In 1397 her daughter was given the opportunity to enter the royal Dominican Abbey of Poissy in the company of the royal princess, Marie, who was dedicated to a life of religion in the hope that it would alleviate her father’s madness, which had declared itself the year this child was born. On this occasion, the king provided the rather large dowries required to enter the Order for a number of other girls from good families, and Christine must have felt gratified to have provided so well for her daughter.

The problem of educating her son, Jean, was more complicated. In the fall of 1398, however, the English nobleman, Sir John Montagu, earl of Salisbury, was in Paris on a diplomatic mission for his friend, King Richard II. A poet himself, Salisbury admired Christine’s poetry and offered to take Jean into his household as a companion for his own son, who was about the same age. However, this excellent opportunity turned into misfortune when Salisbury was killed at the beginning of 1400 defending Richard’s right to the crown. Although Henry IV took Jean under his protection, and even invited Christine to his court, she spared no effort to get her son back to France. Thus the problem of his education remained, although it was eventually resolved by an appointment to the Duke of Burgundy’s household. Around 1409 Jean, in his turn, became a royal secretary.

It was for her son that Christine wrote Enseignemens moraux^[5] which begin:

Filz, je n’ay mie grant tresor

Pour t’enrichir, pour ce trés or

Aucuns enseignemens noter

Te vueil, si les vueilles noter.

Son, I have no great treasure

To make you rich, but a measure

Of good advice which you may need;

I give it hoping you’ll take heed.

This series of quatrains was undoubtedly written before her first collection of poetry was put together in 1402, but it is in the manuscript prepared for the queen of France several years later that there is a delightful miniature of Christine instructing her son.^[6] Although these quatrains were inspired by her son, they show a concern for virtuous behavior suitable for young men who would become rulers, soldiers, churchmen or merchants. Particularly significant is her recommendation for cultivating the mind:

Lis voulentiers belles hystoires

Quant tu porras, car les nottoires

Exemples sont souvent valables

Et font gent devenir savables.

Read willingly fine books of tales

As much as you can, for it never fails

That examples which such books comprise

Can help you to become more wise.

It is amusing, at the same time, to find that she warns specifically against reading the Roman de la rose and Ovid’s Ars amatoria, as she had already done in her Epître au dieu d’amour, written in 1399.^[7] She particularly disapproved of the wide-spread use of Ovid as a school text.

The Enseignemens were obviously popular, for twenty manuscript copies still exist. Christine was quite evidently showing her understanding of the learning process when she put her advice into quatrains as an aid to memory. The same device was later used by many books for the young, notably the New England Primer which taught so many of our ancestors to read.

The same principle undoubtedly inspired the Proverbes Moraux, probably written slightly later. These take the form of couplets, very possibly inspired by the Distics of Cato, a widely used text-book throughout the Middle Ages. Although not as many copies of this text have survived, it was translated into English by Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, who was a son of the Duke of Bedford’s widow, Jacquette of Luxembourg, and was also Edward IV’s brother-in-law and governor of the royal princes. This translation was printed by Caxton in 1478, reprinted by Pynson in 1526 and, rather surprisingly, reprinted another three times in the early part of the nineteenth century.

Quatrains also formed the basis for Christine’s first long mythological work, the Epître d’Othéa à Hector, composed around 1400. Based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, these quatrains were accompanied and interpreted by moral and biblical commentaries in prose combined to outline a suitable moral education for a young knight. Although Sandra Hindman^[8] has recently suggested that the illustrations of certain manuscripts had a political intent, it seems fairly evident that the work was understood throughout the fifteenth century as having to do with education, a “little Bible of Knighthood” as it was called by an English translator, Anthony Babington.^[9] Indeed, it was translated into English and printed three times, this in addition to four French imprints in the early sixteenth century and some forty-five manuscript copies made throughout the fifteenth century. Although it is not readily understood by modern readers, it would appear to have been one of the most popular of Christine’s writings, and one must conclude that over such a long period her pedagogical recommendations would have been more important than her views on French Politics during the first decade of the fifteenth century.

Christine’s next venture in prose was the biography of the late king, Charles V, near whose court Christine had spent her early years.^[10] Although this was a sort of “official” biography commissioned by the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, the modern editor, Suzanne Solente, was of the opinion that the duke had in mind something which would serve as a model of kingship for the dauphin, Louis of Guyenne, who was betrothed to his own granddaughter, Marguerite of Nevers. This biography would certainly fit into the category of “mirrors for princes” which were so popular throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. Louis of Guyenne most certainly had need of a better model than his insane father, but Christine was probably also inspired by the huma-nistic ideal of preserving the late king’s memory for posterity. Modern critics who have found fault with Christine’s biography of Charles V as being unduly idealized, have obviously not understood either of her probable motives in writing it.

This contact with Philip the Bold and his son, John the Fearless, who paid for the biography after his father’s unexpected death, may well have had something to do with Christine’s next educational treatise, dedicated to Marguerite of Nevers, now married to the dauphin. This was the Livre des trois vertus, devoted to the education of women and their proper place in society.^[11]The Burgundian dukes showed a constant interest in the education of their children. The women of their family generally had a more important role in their undertakings than was true of women in the French royal family. As there was every reason to suppose that Marguerite would one day be queen of France, half of the Livre des trois vertus is devoted to the education of queens and princesses; the other half, however, concerns itself with women of other social classes, from ladies at court to prostitutes, by way of ladies who might be called on to manage the family estate when their husbands were absent and wives of merchants who would supervise the work of apprentices and oversee the children’s education. Calling on these women to learn at the school of Worldly Prudence, Christine sets forth a remarkably lively picture of the lives and problems of fifteenth century women.

In her discussions of early education, Christine recom-mends kindness and making use of children’s natural curiosity, an innovative idea in her day. She suggests that the governess of a young princess, for instance, should play games with the child and sometimes give her small, amusing trinkets in order to win her confidence and affection, so that it would be possible to correct her behavior gently, without inspiring rebellion. Although Christine’s book is not unique in offering advice on the instruction of women, such books had, in the past, been primarily devoted to spiritual guidance. Hers was the first written by a woman to teach other women how to live successfully in worldly society.

It was read by women for more than a hundred years. In addition to numerous manuscripts there were three early printed editions in France, in 1497, 1503 and 1536.^[12] These printed versions are dedicated to Anne of Brittany, by then queen of France, although she had apparently owned a manuscript copy when she was young.^[13] The influence of this book on the first generation of Renaissance women must have been significant, for it is still possible to identify copies that belonged to Louis XI’s daughter, Anne of France, Louise of Savoy, Diane of Poitiers, Margaret of Austria and Mary of Hungary. It was undoubtedly through the influence of Isabel of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy, that a copy was sent to Portugal. This was one of the first books to be printed there, through the efforts of queen Leonor in 1518.^[14]

It was perhaps the success of the Livre des trois vertus which inspired Christine to write a comparable book for young men, especially Louis of Guyenne. This was the Livre du corps de policie, completed before the end of 1407.^[15] It was, in essence, another “mirror for princes,” although it took into account other sectors of society as well.

The concept of the state as a human body was, of course, borrowed from John of Salisbury’s Polycraticus. It had already been used by Egidio Colonna, who cited as his source a supposed letter written by Plutarch to the Emperor Trajan. This had been repeated by Philippe de Mézières in his Songe du vieil pélérin, dedicated to Charles VI when he was young. Dividing her work into three parts, as she had done in the Livre des trois vertus, Christine devoted the first to the education of princes, the second to knights and noblemen, and the third to the rest of the social order—scholars, merchants, artisans and laborers.

While Christine insists on virtue as the essential quality in a ruler, she also recommends some practical training for a prince as he grows up, suggesting early attendance at meetings of the royal council to learn about affairs of state as discussed there. A prince should also learn to appreciate the contributions of other members of the body politic and concern himself with their welfare. This advice gives Christine the opportunity to speak on behalf of the poor and humble, pointing out how disgraceful it is to burden them with heavy taxes. In this connection she speaks out against dishonest tax collectors who enrich themselves at the expense of the poor.

In the second book, devoted to knights and nobles, who represent the arms and the hands of the state, she bases much of her discussion on Roman examples of leadership, illustrated by frequent citations from Valerius Maximus or Livy. The knights should, above all, be devoted to the profession of arms and the defense of the country, cherishing honor above all worldly concerns. For this they should be trained from youth, patterned on the early training provided by the Romans for their children.

The third book has its own interest dealing, as it does, with the third estate. Christine once more makes a point of the importance of all parts of the body functioning harmoniously together. If the rulers should be concerned with the welfare of their subjects, the subjects should be loyal to their rulers. This is a significant observation at a moment when France was living with the continuing threat of civil war.

There are particular comments on the contribution of the University of Paris to the intellectual life of the city, reflecting Christine’s own devotion to learning. Her remarks on the role of the merchants are likewise interesting, for she views the prosperous merchants, many of them Italians of course, as contributing to the stability of society as they underwrite projects of the nobility and even the royalty. She also believes that they exercise a calming influence on the more volatile artisans and laborers.

Speaking of the artisans, she admires their skill, but expresses reservations about their morals, especially their fondness for drinking in taverns. Bohemian life was obviously flourishing in Paris well before the days of François Villon. She honors agricultural workers for the dignity of their labors, reminding her readers that the common ancestors of all were farmers and shepherds.

Along with undertaking to outline an education capable of turning an over-indulged prince into a philosopher-king, Christine is making a point about the need for society to confront its problems as a unified body. Unfortunately, France in her day was not capable of learning that lesson.

Although several manuscripts of this work still exist in both French and English, the work may have had its greatest success in England where as The Body of Polycye it was printed in 1521.^[16]

The second book of the Corps de policie was quite evidently the basis for her next book, the Fais d’armes et de chevalerie, written around 1410.^[17]By this time, the Duke of Burgundy was the most powerful figure in the French government, as well as the only one with successful military experience. At the end of 1409 he had taken official charge of the dauphin’s education. Louis of Guyenne, thirteen and still undisciplined, clearly needed training for future duties as a military leader. He was now at the age when such training was normally initiated. At about this time, Louis was appointed captain of the royal château of Creil in order to give him experience in command and encourage him to engage in physical exercise, for which he had shown little fondness. Christine received payment for a book from the royal treasury in 1411, and it is safe to assume that it was for the Fais d’armes. It is also recorded that by 1412 the dauphin had developed sufficient military skill to accompany the Duke of Burgundy on two successful military forays.^[18] This suggests that Christine’s book had its part in the duke’s strategy. Here, as in the Corps de policie, she advocates early training in arms and in developing physical endurance on the model of Roman training for the young.

Although Christine has been accused of merely pilfering Vegetius in writing this book, that is by no means a fair assessment. Although the first of the four books which comprise the Fais d’armes is to a considerable degree inspired by the Epitoma rei militaris, it is well to remember that Vegetius was cited as a principal military authority from Roman times well into the nineteenth century. At the same time, the first eight chapters of Christine’s work are devoted to the medieval concept of the Just War, in terms not entirely unrelated to the twentieth century concept as understood by the President of the United States.

The Stratagemata of Frontinus is the source for the first part of the second book, with some additional examples drawn from Valerius Maximus. In this part of the book, there is a very interesting discussion of siege warfare, especially important in the Middle Ages. There are detailed directions for preparing both the attack and the defense of a castle or a town, which compare the recommendations of Vegetius with more recent advice given to Christine by a military man of her acquaintance whom she regrettably does not name. The advice was apparently good, for it was copied freely by Jean de Bueil in Le jouvencel written during the early years of Louis XI’s reign.^[19] It was praised more recently by a military historian^[20] who was of the opinion that Christine was probably the first writer to appreciate the full import of the development of artillery on fortifications, and that her book was the most complete work on the art of warfare since Roman times.

Books III and IV are devoted to a discussion of legal questions involving the so-called Laws of War.^[21] Here Christine makes extensive use of Honore Bouvet’s Arbre des batailles, in the form of conversations between Christine and a “wise old man” who appears to her in a dream and invites her to pluck fruit from a tree growing in his garden. The discussions which follow take up such matters as ransoms, the treatment of prisoners and of non-combatants during times of war, as well as safe-conducts, letters of marque and judicial combats (to which Christine was firmly opposed).

Here, as in the earlier chapters on the Just War, both Bouvet and Christine were engaged in popularizing ideas developed by the Italian jurist, Giovanni da Legnano, in his Tractatus de bello.^[22] He and Christine’s father would have been contemporaries at the University of Bologna, and Legnano was, furthermore, connected by marriage to another famous Bolognese law professor, Giovanni Andrea, whose daughter Novella had figured in the Cité des dames. The point Christine dwells on in this part of her book is the significance of written law over customary law as a basis for international law which was being developed.

Taken as a whole, the Fais d’armes represents a rather good basic course in “what any young knight should know.” As she mentions several times, military men are seldom learned, and perhaps not always even literate, for she makes passing reference to those who will hear the book read aloud to them.

It must be assumed that the success of this book was due to Christine’s skill as a teacher, at putting sophi-sticated material into a relatively simple form, rather than to any basic knowledge of military affairs. Nevertheless, its success is undoubted, for along with more than twenty manuscripts which still exist, there was a printed edition by Antoine Vérard in 1488 and another by Philippe LeNoir in 1527. An English translation was published by William Caxton, at Henry VII’s request, in 1489. Not only did Jean de Bueil make use of it writing Le jouvencel, but William of Worcester quoted it in his Boke of Noblesse in 1475. Samuel Pepys had a copy of the Caxton translation in his library. The manuscript of the French text now in Harvard’s Houghton Library bears the signature of General Gaspar Gourjoud, Napoleon’s aide-de-camp.

However, Christine’s text suffered a curious revision. Although the earlier manuscripts name her as the author, in a number of later copies her name is omitted altogether. One supposes that it was considered unsuitable for a woman to have written such a useful military manual. Curiously, Caxton’s translation attributes the authorship to Christine, whereas Vérard makes no mention of her, giving the impression that the revision of Vegetius was his own.

Christine’s final pedagogical work was dedicated directly to Louis of Guyenne. The threat of civil war had been increasing since the summer of 1411, and the two contending parties were both negotiating with the English, providing a pretext for some English troops to arrive in France. Nevertheless, there was also a desire for peace among many Parisians who looked to the dauphin as their last hope for leadership in achieving it. He did, in effect, play a significant role in bringing about the Treaty of Auxerre on August 22, 1411, at least achieving a moment of respite. It was at this point that Christine began to write the Livre de la Paix, although it was interrupted by a popular uprising, the Cabochien Revolt, which broke out at the end of April 1413, and so was not finished until the end of the year. On New Year’s Day, 1414, she presented a copy to the Duke of Berry.^[23]

In exhorting the dauphin to do his utmost to maintain peace, she points out to him that a just prince should see that the wicked are punished, the innocent protected and faithful subjects rewarded according to their merits, reminding him once more of the Roman system of rewarding civic virtue.

She then dwells on the cardinal virtues and their opposing vices, pointing out how a prince should be guided by the virtues, at the same time discreetly indicating some shortcomings the prince still needed to overcome. On this basis, she recommends skill in public speaking, the need to overcome unbridled anger as she praises the virtues of marriage at a time when the prince had all but abandoned his wife in favor of one of his mother’s ladies-in-waiting. She deplores sloth and recommends good communications between a ruler and his subjects. Above all, she warns of the danger of flatterers who inevitably surround princes. In spite of some concluding remarks expressing her good will towards the dauphin, this book reveals Christine’s courage and independence of spirit in daring to reprove a short-tempered and pleasure-loving young man. Her hopes for his future were apparently more important to her than her fear of incurring his displeasure. Unfortunately, he did not live long enough to demonstrate whether or not he was able to profit by her advice.

Until recently, only two copies of this text were known, neither of which could be identified with Louis of Guyenne’s or the one presented to the Duke of Berry. In 1968 another copy appeared at a sale in Paris, this one having been copied in the middle of the fifteenth century for a Burgundian courtier, Jean V of Créquy, who, although a brave warrior in his youth, was known as a peace-maker in later years.^[24] The influence of the Livre de la paix can also be detected in the Livre d’instruction d’un jeune prince written around the same time by the distinguished diplomat, Guillebert de Lannoy, for the future duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold.^[25]It would thus appear that the work might have had a more extended influence than was earlier supposed.

In any case, several of these educational treatises were read well into the sixteenth century and must have exercised considerable influence until new ideas from Italy led to the conviction that new intellectual worlds had been discovered. Only recently has deserved attention been paid to the contributions of the fifteenth century.

Although Christine did not have the opportunity for an education which would enable her to devise a program of classical readings such as those advocated by later humanists, she nevertheless believed in a moral education for civic responsibility based on the lessons of history and the examples of famous people. She was not unappreciated by her contemporaries, nor by the next generation or two. Perhaps the extent of her contribution deserves more attention than it has been given since then.

^[1]W. H. Woodward, Studies in Education during the Age of the Renaissance, 1400-1600 (Cambridge University, 1906); reprint (Teachers College, Columbia University, 1967).

^[2]See, for instance, M. L. Towner, ed., L’Avision-Christine, (Washington, DC, Catholic University, 1932) 162-163; R. Püschel, ed., Le chemin de Long Estude (Berlin, Hettler, 1887); reprint (Geneva, Slatkine, 1974) 21 (vv. 492-497).

^[3]G. Ouy, “Paris l’un des principaux foyers de l’humanisme en Europe au debut du XV^e siècle,” Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de Paris et de l’Ile de France (1970): 71-91.

^[4]Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought and the Arts (Princeton University, 1990) 26.

^[5]M. Roy, ed., Œuvres poétiques de Christine de Pisan, III. (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1896) 27-44.

^[6]Harley Ms. 4431, fol 26v°, British Library, London.

^[7]T. S. Fenster, M. C. Erler, and E. J. Leiden, eds., Poems of Cupid, God of Love (Brill 1990): 27-44.

^[8]Sandra Hindman, Christine de Pizan’s “Epitre Othea”: Painting and Politics at the Court of Charles VI (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1986).

^[9]J. D. Gordon, ed., The Epistle of Othea to Hector: a ‘Lytel Bibell of Knyghthod,’ (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1942); see also G. Mombello, La tradizione manoscritta dell’Epistre Othea di Christine de Pizan: Prolegomeni all’edizione del testo (Torino: Accademia delle Scienze, 1967).

^[10]S. Solente, ed., Le livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V, 2 vols. (Paris: Champion, 1936-1940).

^[11]C. C. Willard, ed., Le livre des trois vertus (Paris: Champion, 1990).

^[12]Le Trésor de la Cité des dames (as these imprints were entitled) (Paris, Antoine Vérard, 1497; Michel LeNoir, 1503; Denis Janot, 1536).

^[14]0 espelho de Cristina (Lisboa: Hernão Campos, 1518); fac-simile ed. (Lisboa: Biblioteca Nacional, 1987).

^[15]R. H. Lucas, ed., Le Livre du corps de policie (Geneva, Droz, 1967).

^[17]An edition of the French text is in preparation by S. and C. C. Willard. See C. C. Willard, “Christine de Pizan’s Treatise on the Art of Medieval Warfare,” Essays in Honor of Louis Francis Solano, eds. R. Cormier and U. T. Holmes (Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina P, 1970) 179-191.

^[18]R. Vaughan, John the Fearless (London: Longmans, 1966) 81-95.

^[19]G. W. Coopland, “Le jouvencel (revisited),” Symposium 5 (1951): 137-86.

^[20]Quentin Hughes, Military Architecture (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975) 68.

^[21]M. Keen, The Laws of War in the Late Middle Ages (London-Toronto: Routledge and Paul Kegan, 1965).

^[22]T. E. Holland, ed., Tractatus de bello, de represaliis et de duello, trans. J. L. Brierly (Oxford University, 1975).

^[23]C. C. Willard, ed., Le livre de la faix of Christine de Pisan: A Critical Edition with Introduction and Notes (The Hague, Mouton, 1958).

^[24]C. C. Willard, “An Unknown Manuscript of Christine de Pizan’s Livre de la paix,” Studi Francesi 64 (1978): 90-97.

^[25]C. Potvin, ed., Œuvres de Ghillebert de Lannoy, voyageur, diplomate et moraliste (Louvain: Lefener, 1878): 291-431.