The Book of the City of Ladies Resources

WEBSITES

Christine de Pizan at lordsandladies.org…which is a hilarious name for a site.

Here's where you'll find all the best vital stats on Christine de Pizan.

De Pizan at Mount St. Mary's

Ok, the site is a little dated (look at those roses!) but this info on de Pizan is awesomesauce.

Christine de Pizan goes to King's College

Here you'll find one or two historical nuggets of info that just might make more sense of de Pizan's work.

ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS

Christine de Pizan in her Study

Check out this awesome article on how you might picture Christine in her study at the beginning of The Book of the City of Ladies.

Christine de Pizan: An Illuminated Voice

This article gives us all kinds of insight into the tension that de Pizan felt between challenging her society's views and trying to keep her status in it.

Christine de Pizan at King's College

This article is more general than the others, but it gives some great notes on how de Pizan supported her family through her writing after her husband passed away.

VIDEO

Plot Summary for The City of Ladies

If you're tired of reading, this video will give you a nice ten-minute plot summary to help you remember the gist of The Book of the City of Ladies. There audio sounds at times like you're listening in an echo chamber, but the content is A+.

Fearless Females Lecture

This university professor gives a great hour-long lecture on the impact that Christine de Pizan had on the culture of her time.

AUDIO

Whisper Project Reading of De Pizan

This person knows that medieval literature puts most people to sleep. So she decided to roll with it and read City of Ladies as quietly as possible to put you to sleep even more quickly than usual. We're not being sarcastic here, guys: this is seriously the project on this recording. Sweet, (feminist) dreams!

IMAGES

De Pizan Engraving

Sorry, but there weren't exactly a bunch of photos of Christine kicking around in 1405.

De Pizan Portrait

This painting might give a slightly better idea of what Christine de Pizan looked like: steely-eyed.

De Pizan in Her Study

This drawing gives us a good look at what Christine is doing in the opening lines of City of Ladies.