Christine De Pisans The Book Of The City Of Ladies

The Book of the City of Ladies Begins with “one day, I was sitting in my study surrounded by many books...for it has long been my habit to engage in the pursuit of knowledge” . Christine de Pisans the Book of the City of Ladies is a novel filled with a surplus of knowledge and of immense support for women. The novel, written to support her family, exemplifies the importance that is for women to support themselves. This paper will discuss her strong foundation in rhetoric and the foundation of the city in The Book of the City of Ladies. In The Book of the City of Ladies, De Pisan Builds a city in which women are all powerful, she has Reason Rectitude and Justice, allegorical figures in the novel, to hold control of the city. Throughout the novel, De Pisan has the virtues tell the though provoking stories of women who have

The Oxford English Dictionary describes Justice as the “quality of righteousness” . The allegorical figure of Justice in The Book of the City of Ladies helps Christine build the Torrents and towers in order to protect. In the book these turrets had towers are reserved for those who those who were greatly revered in the world that De Pisan was living in. The people living in these towers were mostly religious figures. Women of the likes of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Saint Catherine and Saint Lucy are all features of this part of the book. The women who appear in this section firmly believe in their God Almighty. For example Saint Christine was not only martyred but also had her tongue cut out for disobeying her male superiors . De Pisan uses Saint Christine because she is a prime example of the dedication and commitment that the ‘city’ needs to be protected with. Christine De Pisans ability to write about such a woman martyr such as Saint Christine aptly shows her attempts to “vanquish the misogynists” so that her novel may became a quiet “justification for revenge”