Christine de Pizan: Medieval Philosopher

129 Pages·2017·1.035 MB·English

by  Vickie Mann

CHRISTINE DE PIZAN: MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHER

Vickie Mann

Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree Master of Interdisciplinary Studies Indiana University Southeast

May 2017
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Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Masters in Liberal Studies

Thesis Committee
Charles, Pooser, Ph.D.

Christa Zorn, Ph.D.

Sara C. Hare, Ph.D.

Date of Oral Defense
(April 13, 2017)
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To: Charles Pooser
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Acknowledgements
I want to thank my thesis committee for their patience as I drafted my paper for their
review and suggestions.
I would especially like to thank my mentor, my professor, and my friend, Charles Pooser
for his unfailing commitment to my progress. This paper would never have existed had it not
been for his encouragement and perseverance with my writing process. I am eternally grateful
for his intelligent insight as well as his knowledge of medieval material and unsurpassed writing
skills that helped me to construct my thesis.
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Preface
I began reading Christine de Pizan in French literature class as an undergraduate student.
Her writings captivated me because I could relate to her on so many levels. She was a single
woman with familial responsibilities, living in a society that made it difficult for her to fulfill
those commitments. She saw her world much the same way I see mine, recognizing the reality of
its problems but embracing the hope for change that is born of community involvement. I
realized that she had also faced numerous obstacles during the time in which she lived that had
prevented other women from living the lives they might have wished. I believe it was her basic
positioning as a moral philosopher that enabled her to overcome those obstacles and live the life
she came to embrace. During her lifetime, she attracted many to the ideas exposed within her
works. Christine was first a philosopher, then an author and finally a human being who just
happened to be female. My desire is to reveal more fully the role of moral philosopher that she
assumed so ably for the generations who would come to read her well beyond the span of her
brief life.
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Vickie Mann
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN: MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHER
Christine de Pizan was a moralistic philosopher who was born in 1364 and died in 1431;
she intended to display and teach a lifestyle that future generations would find appealing and
fulfilling. I will show how her philosophical approach paralleled in many ways one embraced by
others living in her time. That philosophy enabled Christine to survive life- changing events and
to produce a body of works that enriched the fifteenth- century scholarship she was a part of and
is still relevant to medieval research today. I assert that Christine was not unlike other medieval
philosophers in that she lived the philosophy she proposed, wrote about it in many works, and
engaged in public debates. I propose to reveal the philosophical stance she created using a
combination of autobiographical memory, the philosophical characteristics of her
contemporaries, and the religious trappings common to medieval philosophers. Notably,
contemporary events inspired her to sometimes think out of the confines of the societal norms of
her day. I maintain that although Christine’s gender prohibited her from fulfilling fifteenth
century requirements for philosophic standing in the way medieval society mandated, she
nevertheless succeeded in measuring up to these criteria by circumventing cultural obstacles.
Those impediments included misogyny, religious tests for heresy, the stigmatism of poverty and
widowhood, educational deficiency, and lack of formal collegiate training. I argue that being
strongly motivated by the desire to communicate her ideas to future generations, Christine de
Pizan created a philosophical persona, an epitaph, lived the lifestyle defined by that persona, and
wrote the works that identify her as the moral philosopher she was.
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Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Christine de Pizan: Moral Philosopher 13
Definition of the Medieval Moral Philosopher 13
Anti-Christian Influence 14
Philosophy and Religion 16
Pre-humanistic Thought 17
Secular Thought 18
Humanism 19
Modernity 23
Late Medieval Humanism 25
Effects on Researchers of Humanistic Study of Ancient Greek Texts 27
Humanistic Outlook and Natural Philosophy 27
The Debate on The romance and the rose 29
Christian Moral Philosophy and the Cult of the Virgin 30
Virtue 30
Fourteenth Century Culture 32
Cardinal Virtues 33
Late Medieval Morality and Virtue 50
Terminology 51
The Moral Compass 56
Religion, Philosophy and Astrology 61
The Signification of Fortune’s Impact on Christine de Pizan’s Philosophy 67
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Communicating her Morality 69
Authoritative Scholarship 71
Perseverance 74
Fifteenth Century Philosophy 76
Christian Philosophy 77
Christine the Philosopher 79
Comparisons 81
Humanistic Leanings 84
Stoic Influence 86
Literary Limitations 88
Champion of Women 92
Prudence for a Female Philosopher 94
Conclusion: The Lessons of Christine de Pizan 96
Glossary 102
Works Cited 103
CV
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Figures
1. Othea 48
2. Justice 50
3. The Three Sibyls 52
4. Rectitude 57
5. Christine’s Annual Honor Gala 58
6. Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons 59
7. Wheel of Fortune in Boccaccio 76
8. The Long Path of Learning 81
9. XP 82
10. Xpine de Christine 82
11. Temperance’s clock 93
12. Christine’s Study 100