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The Treasure of the City of Ladies, or The Book of Three Virtues
â If she wants to win, she must adopt a man’s heart (in other words, constant, strong and wise) to consider and to pursue the best course of action’
Written by Europe’s first professional woman writer, The Treasure of the City of Ladies offers advice and guidance to women of all ages and from all levels of medieval society, from royal courtiers to prostitutes. It paints an intricate picture of daily life in the courts and streets of fifteenth-century France and gives a fascinating glimpse into the practical considerations of running a household, dressing appropriately and maintaining a reputation in all circumstances. Christine de Pizan’s book provides a valuable counterbalance to male accounts of life in the middle ages and demonstrates, often with dry humour, how a woman’s position in society could be made less precarious by following the correct etiquette.
This revised edition of Sarah Lawson’s landmark translation contains an introduction covering the life and work of Christine de Pizan and an overview of the recent scholarly reappraisal of her writing. Also included are new explanatory notes on the text, a bibliography and a glossary of names.
Revised edition of a landmark translation Introduction and bibliography have been updated Includes a new note on translation and recent scholarship, explanatory notes, and a glossary of names
Written by Europe’s first professional woman writer, The Treasure of the City of Ladies offers advice and guidance to women of all ages and from all levels of medieval society, from royal courtiers to prostitutes. It paints an intricate picture of daily life in the courts and streets of fifteenth-century France and gives a fascinating glimpse into the practical considerations of running a household, dressing appropriately and maintaining a reputation in all circumstances. Christine de Pizan’s book provides a valuable counterbalance to male accounts of life in the middle ages and demonstrates, often with dry humour, how a woman’s position in society could be made less precarious by following the correct etiquette.
This revised edition of Sarah Lawson’s landmark translation contains an introduction covering the life and work of Christine de Pizan and an overview of the recent scholarly reappraisal of her writing. Also included are new explanatory notes on the text, a bibliography and a glossary of names.
Revised edition of a landmark translation Introduction and bibliography have been updated Includes a new note on translation and recent scholarship, explanatory notes, and a glossary of names
180 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1405
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2148 people want to read
About the author
Christine de Pizan
125 books206 followersChristine de Pizan (also seen as de Pisan) (1363–c.1434) was a writer and analyst of the medieval era who strongly challenged misogyny and stereotypes that were prevalent in the male-dominated realm of the arts. De Pizan completed forty-one pieces during her thirty-year career (1399–1429). She earned her accolade as Europe’s first professional woman writer (Redfern 74). Her success stems from a wide range of innovative writing and rhetorical techniques that critically challenged renowned male writers such as Jean de Meun who, to Pizan’s dismay, incorporated misogynist beliefs within their literary works.
In recent decades, de Pizan's work has been returned to prominence by the efforts of scholars such as Charity Cannon Willard and Earl Jeffrey Richards. Certain scholars have argued that she should be seen as an early feminist who efficiently used language to convey that women could play an important role within society, although this characterisation has been challenged by other critics who claim either that it is an anachronistic use of the word, or that her beliefs were not progressive enough to merit such a designation
In recent decades, de Pizan's work has been returned to prominence by the efforts of scholars such as Charity Cannon Willard and Earl Jeffrey Richards. Certain scholars have argued that she should be seen as an early feminist who efficiently used language to convey that women could play an important role within society, although this characterisation has been challenged by other critics who claim either that it is an anachronistic use of the word, or that her beliefs were not progressive enough to merit such a designation
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November 3, 2018Introduction
Christine De Pisan's Treasure of the City of Ladies is a lively compendium of advice on how to live for medieval women of all social classes arranged by social order from the highest to lowest.
The conceit of the work is that the three Ladies of Virtue: Reason, Rectitude and Justice, descend and dictate the work to de Pisan before disappearing leaving her "almost exhausted from writing so long, but very happy, looking at the beautiful work of their worthy lessons" (p180).
It is divided into three unequal parts, the first of advice to 'princesses' or women of the highest social statuses, the second advises women in service to the princesses and the wives of barons, the distinction here between the first two groups is that de Pisan expects these women will be left to head their households while their husbands are away in service to the magnates and kings. In the third part there is advice to women of the remaining levels of society from the wives of merchants, tradesmen and craftsmen, down through servants, prostitutes (here the advice in brief is to give up this trade in favour of becoming a laundress or a child minder instead) to peasant women and women living in poverty.
Holding Up A Mirror to Society
Naturally the fun of this book is that de Pisan is condemning and advising women against either carrying out or turning a blind eye towards the kinds of things they actually were doing. For example pocketing the difference between what you paid for produce in the market and what you tell your mistress that it actually had cost, building your house out of wood taken from other people's forests, stealing other peoples fruit, having a good long sleep under a tree when you are being paid to work, telling your master that his sheep died and showing him false hides when you have actually stolen or eaten them yourself (see in particular pp176-177). As such the treatise is indirectly a catalogue of medieval French sharp practises.
While much of the advice is about how to behave appropriately at court so as not to give rise to rumour or tittle tattle, not to slander people yourself and how to protect your mistress from behaving badly, de Pisan also advises women to have a firm command of the requirements of their husbands roles in life to a surprising extent. For instance de Pisan expects that the wife of baron should be able to conduct and lead offensive or defensive military undertakings while her husband is away (presumably fighting the Hundred Years War in another part of the kingdom of France). De Pisan has no doubt, or at least entertains no doubt, that wives can (and need to be able to do) whatever their husbands are called upon to do in their stations in life.
Holding Up A Mirror to the Social Position of Men and Women
I hesitate to say that Christine is sly, or even that her writing has a subtext when her style is vigorous and direct as this might be taken to suggest that she is somehow being underhand, but the clear implication of her writing is that although in her society men were in charge this was not in her opinion on account of any innate or acquired superiority. Quite on the contrary, the social position of women means that women's lives are clearly in her opinion a form of the imitation of Christ. Women will be unjustly persecuted and will needlessly suffer because men spread slanders about their behaviour (a serious business since at the time adultery could be punished by being burnt alive), men are rash which is a risk in business and politics, and husbands can be churlish, ignorant, extremely perverse, rude, and unloving, as well as warlike, greedy, and grasping. De Pisan would approve of the Griselda story in The Decameron, not because she approved of the persecution of women, but because she felt that restraint in the face of injustice was the correct course of action.
Here de Pisan is consciously writing a polemic. This book is the sequel to The book of the City of Ladies which was written as a counterpoint to St.Augustine's The City of God in order to assert the place and value of women in society.
The implication of what de Pisan says is that women are the moderating, restraining and reconsidering principle both constitutionally and socially. As such when the Duke levies unjust taxes, the people make representations to his wife or when the craftsman wants to sign up to an over ambitious deal it is the wife who stops him. In this de Pisan plays within a very traditional view of men and women, yet it seems to me comes up with a striking conclusion: it is the proper duty of the wise queen and princess: to be the means of peace and concord, to work for the avoidance of war because of the trouble that can come of it. Ladies in particular ought to attend to this business, for men are by nature more courageous and more hot-headed, and the great desire they have to avenge themselves prevents their considering either the perils or the evils that can result from war. But women are by nature more timid and also of a sweeter disposition, and for this reason, if they are wise and if they wish to, they can be the best means of pacifying men...how many great blessings in the world have often been caused by queens and princesses making peace between enemies, between princes and barons and between the rebellious people and their lords! (p51). Perhaps this is sly on de Pisan's part, because of a sudden courage is bad while timidity has become a social virtue .
However the role of the woman even as the wife of a magnate is more of a figurehead, de Pisan imagines that women receiving the complaints of the people about unjust taxes for example will be advised by men, but presumably ones unlike their courageous husbands .
This all seems to me to fall down around education. Possibly de Pisan assumes that some socially beneficial qualities are innate to women, but equally much of the text is clear that the women requires specialist knowledge: about ploughing, the right depth to plant seeds, animal husbandry, how to practise a craft, how to manage a vineyard, how to run an estate. Yet at most de Pisan recommends that girls should be taught how to read and given a religious education. Perhaps by implication de Pisan's medieval women are a quick witted lot who will learn on the job or that they will have absorbed what is necessary for a person of their class to know while growing up from their parents, but there is no mention of any need to provide any formal education despite the range of competencies that de Pisan expects women to have. The Goodman of Paris makes an interesting comparison here, the purpose of that book is to teach the skills a young newly married woman needed to know to run a household. Curiously de Pisan writing perhaps a little later doesn't see any need to explain the need for any technical education for girls, even though she advises women to exercise technical skills.
Final Remarks
Rather to my surprise not all of de Pisan's works are in print, still less translated into English. After the death of her husband de Pisan, apparently successfully, raised a young family earning money through writing prolifically. She had a grasp of the value of social networking and so she would present the Duke of Berry with her latest book as a New Year's gift. This is literature as a vocation in the context of elite courtly culture in which women must not go about with their heads raised like wild deer (p75) but might in private pen a quick work on the heroism of Joan of Arc.
De Pisan is very aware of how publicly life is led, there is a stress on how courtly life has to be arranged to make the right impression down to having poor people arranged to be at the church door for the noble woman to display charity towards once the service has finished (p60).
Christine De Pisan's Treasure of the City of Ladies is a lively compendium of advice on how to live for medieval women of all social classes arranged by social order from the highest to lowest.
The conceit of the work is that the three Ladies of Virtue: Reason, Rectitude and Justice, descend and dictate the work to de Pisan before disappearing leaving her "almost exhausted from writing so long, but very happy, looking at the beautiful work of their worthy lessons" (p180).
It is divided into three unequal parts, the first of advice to 'princesses' or women of the highest social statuses, the second advises women in service to the princesses and the wives of barons, the distinction here between the first two groups is that de Pisan expects these women will be left to head their households while their husbands are away in service to the magnates and kings. In the third part there is advice to women of the remaining levels of society from the wives of merchants, tradesmen and craftsmen, down through servants, prostitutes (here the advice in brief is to give up this trade in favour of becoming a laundress or a child minder instead) to peasant women and women living in poverty.
Holding Up A Mirror to Society
Naturally the fun of this book is that de Pisan is condemning and advising women against either carrying out or turning a blind eye towards the kinds of things they actually were doing. For example pocketing the difference between what you paid for produce in the market and what you tell your mistress that it actually had cost, building your house out of wood taken from other people's forests, stealing other peoples fruit, having a good long sleep under a tree when you are being paid to work, telling your master that his sheep died and showing him false hides when you have actually stolen or eaten them yourself (see in particular pp176-177). As such the treatise is indirectly a catalogue of medieval French sharp practises.
While much of the advice is about how to behave appropriately at court so as not to give rise to rumour or tittle tattle, not to slander people yourself and how to protect your mistress from behaving badly, de Pisan also advises women to have a firm command of the requirements of their husbands roles in life to a surprising extent. For instance de Pisan expects that the wife of baron should be able to conduct and lead offensive or defensive military undertakings while her husband is away (presumably fighting the Hundred Years War in another part of the kingdom of France). De Pisan has no doubt, or at least entertains no doubt, that wives can (and need to be able to do) whatever their husbands are called upon to do in their stations in life.
Holding Up A Mirror to the Social Position of Men and Women
I hesitate to say that Christine is sly, or even that her writing has a subtext when her style is vigorous and direct as this might be taken to suggest that she is somehow being underhand, but the clear implication of her writing is that although in her society men were in charge this was not in her opinion on account of any innate or acquired superiority. Quite on the contrary, the social position of women means that women's lives are clearly in her opinion a form of the imitation of Christ. Women will be unjustly persecuted and will needlessly suffer because men spread slanders about their behaviour (a serious business since at the time adultery could be punished by being burnt alive), men are rash which is a risk in business and politics, and husbands can be churlish, ignorant, extremely perverse, rude, and unloving, as well as warlike, greedy, and grasping. De Pisan would approve of the Griselda story in The Decameron, not because she approved of the persecution of women, but because she felt that restraint in the face of injustice was the correct course of action.
Here de Pisan is consciously writing a polemic. This book is the sequel to The book of the City of Ladies which was written as a counterpoint to St.Augustine's The City of God in order to assert the place and value of women in society.
The implication of what de Pisan says is that women are the moderating, restraining and reconsidering principle both constitutionally and socially. As such when the Duke levies unjust taxes, the people make representations to his wife or when the craftsman wants to sign up to an over ambitious deal it is the wife who stops him. In this de Pisan plays within a very traditional view of men and women, yet it seems to me comes up with a striking conclusion: it is the proper duty of the wise queen and princess: to be the means of peace and concord, to work for the avoidance of war because of the trouble that can come of it. Ladies in particular ought to attend to this business, for men are by nature more courageous and more hot-headed, and the great desire they have to avenge themselves prevents their considering either the perils or the evils that can result from war. But women are by nature more timid and also of a sweeter disposition, and for this reason, if they are wise and if they wish to, they can be the best means of pacifying men...how many great blessings in the world have often been caused by queens and princesses making peace between enemies, between princes and barons and between the rebellious people and their lords! (p51). Perhaps this is sly on de Pisan's part, because of a sudden courage is bad while timidity has become a social virtue .
However the role of the woman even as the wife of a magnate is more of a figurehead, de Pisan imagines that women receiving the complaints of the people about unjust taxes for example will be advised by men, but presumably ones unlike their courageous husbands .
This all seems to me to fall down around education. Possibly de Pisan assumes that some socially beneficial qualities are innate to women, but equally much of the text is clear that the women requires specialist knowledge: about ploughing, the right depth to plant seeds, animal husbandry, how to practise a craft, how to manage a vineyard, how to run an estate. Yet at most de Pisan recommends that girls should be taught how to read and given a religious education. Perhaps by implication de Pisan's medieval women are a quick witted lot who will learn on the job or that they will have absorbed what is necessary for a person of their class to know while growing up from their parents, but there is no mention of any need to provide any formal education despite the range of competencies that de Pisan expects women to have. The Goodman of Paris makes an interesting comparison here, the purpose of that book is to teach the skills a young newly married woman needed to know to run a household. Curiously de Pisan writing perhaps a little later doesn't see any need to explain the need for any technical education for girls, even though she advises women to exercise technical skills.
Final Remarks
Rather to my surprise not all of de Pisan's works are in print, still less translated into English. After the death of her husband de Pisan, apparently successfully, raised a young family earning money through writing prolifically. She had a grasp of the value of social networking and so she would present the Duke of Berry with her latest book as a New Year's gift. This is literature as a vocation in the context of elite courtly culture in which women must not go about with their heads raised like wild deer (p75) but might in private pen a quick work on the heroism of Joan of Arc.
De Pisan is very aware of how publicly life is led, there is a stress on how courtly life has to be arranged to make the right impression down to having poor people arranged to be at the church door for the noble woman to display charity towards once the service has finished (p60).
January 3, 2021
I can’t help but think of the English queens through the ages and who followed these precepts and who just totally FAILED
April 2, 2019
Men are trash!
June 18, 2024
The best bits are when Pizan dilutes her usual conventional Christian moralism by advising pragmatic shrewdness and dissimulation in the face of power.
May 20, 2015
This is the sequel or companion piece to Pisan’s City of Ladies. This book is about how ladies of various social levels should comport themselves even when their husbands are being jerks. It is a strange combination of feminist work and endorsement of the stereotype. Pisan does get in some nice zingers about men, not only about how they should also follow this advice, but about why they are more warlike than women. In many ways, it is an anti-Prince.
October 30, 2015
How to Win Friends and Influence People: For Medieval Ladies! Christine de Pisan wants princesses to be virtuous, chaste, and pious but also to realize their power and influence (i.e., how to get men to do things for you). Was it one of the first feminist texts? Who can say. But it is interesting, even if I find her theology way off base. I like it because it reminds me, Hey, women have always known they were people too! If we just let women write, we’d hear more of this opinion.
April 20, 2021
A window into the late Medieval world in Western Europe, from the perspective of a woman who supported herself and her family with the patronage from her writing—a rarity for the time.
March 6, 2019
This book fascinated me. I mean, it was published in 1405 and is a rare glimpse into the mind of a talented, wise, intelligent medieval woman, writing a guide to life for women of all ages and classes, though particularly royalty and nobility. As an invaluable historical resource, it shows the accepted beliefs and attitudes of that period in France. I was surprised at how much predominance Christine gave to how her readers should live out their love and devotion for God and demonstrate kindness to those around them, especially the poor. She urges the royal and the rich not to be proud and rely on their earthly position, but to remember that living for God is what matters.
Although of course it's mainly a wonderful primary source about life in 13-1400s France, I gleaned a few good lessons from it as well. Here are a couple of striking quotes:
"Which is worth more to you: to live in this world for a little while at your ease and be damned perpetually (but not really at your ease, because the more you involve yourself in the delights of the world and the more you remember various desires--which will torment your heart, because you cannot fulfil them and gain your wishes--the more your heart will never be content), or to refrain from your extravagant pleasures and live in the love and fear of Our Lord and be saved in the Kingdom without end?"
"Besides this virtue of humility, the noble lady will wish to be so patient that although the world delivers a good deal of adversity to great lords and ladies as well as to humble persons, she will not be impatient, regardless of what comes to her. She will take all adversity willingly for the love of Our Lord and will give thanks to Him for it with a good heart."
Although of course it's mainly a wonderful primary source about life in 13-1400s France, I gleaned a few good lessons from it as well. Here are a couple of striking quotes:
"Which is worth more to you: to live in this world for a little while at your ease and be damned perpetually (but not really at your ease, because the more you involve yourself in the delights of the world and the more you remember various desires--which will torment your heart, because you cannot fulfil them and gain your wishes--the more your heart will never be content), or to refrain from your extravagant pleasures and live in the love and fear of Our Lord and be saved in the Kingdom without end?"
"Besides this virtue of humility, the noble lady will wish to be so patient that although the world delivers a good deal of adversity to great lords and ladies as well as to humble persons, she will not be impatient, regardless of what comes to her. She will take all adversity willingly for the love of Our Lord and will give thanks to Him for it with a good heart."
February 21, 2011
Considering this is written in 1405, Miss Christine can be quite savvy and forward-thinking. She often advocates tactics that today can be attributed to modern spin and public relations. This is an advice book for women from the first European professional female writer. It's an revealing window into the world of mostly upper class women in this time period, and things are not cut and dry. One of the strategies most advocated involves striking a happy medium.
Some of the advice, though not intended in this way, is simply precious. One of my favorites: A lady should not "use pilgrimages as an excuse to get away from the town in order to go somewhere to play about or kick up her heels in some merry company.... Nor should she go gadding around the town with young women..." This and other admonitions like it are balanced again strategies that suggest more power and wiggle room than one would think.
It's an informative look at Medieval upper and lower class as well as gender relations, and not always what I expected. She includes advice on how to handle military tactics, when it is okay to lie to your husband, how to keep from being swindled, and how to deal with a morally loose woman (especially when that woman is your lady employer). At times it is surprisingly contemporary. That the author had the conviction and authority to write it is a form of agency in itself.
Some of the advice, though not intended in this way, is simply precious. One of my favorites: A lady should not "use pilgrimages as an excuse to get away from the town in order to go somewhere to play about or kick up her heels in some merry company.... Nor should she go gadding around the town with young women..." This and other admonitions like it are balanced again strategies that suggest more power and wiggle room than one would think.
It's an informative look at Medieval upper and lower class as well as gender relations, and not always what I expected. She includes advice on how to handle military tactics, when it is okay to lie to your husband, how to keep from being swindled, and how to deal with a morally loose woman (especially when that woman is your lady employer). At times it is surprisingly contemporary. That the author had the conviction and authority to write it is a form of agency in itself.
September 25, 2021
Okay, unpopular opinion time. I dnf'd at page 5. That's right. Page 5. Why?
A) the print is TINY
B) My mind kept drifting
C) the writing, for some unknown reason...annoyed me, so that I had (to) put down the book, or...fling it across the room
Readers, I tried, okay? I really tried but I can't with this book. It's going straight to the unhaul.
A) the print is TINY
B) My mind kept drifting
C) the writing, for some unknown reason...annoyed me, so that I had (to) put down the book, or...fling it across the room
Readers, I tried, okay? I really tried but I can't with this book. It's going straight to the unhaul.
did-not-finish
November 7, 2019I really wanted to read this book, but I couldn't seem to get into it. Today, I realized the reason is that the type is so small, my eyes are struggling to really read it. So, I hope to pick up this book in the future, but with larger print.
March 24, 2024
Even the first woman to be a professional writer suffered from the curse of the sequel. This follow-up to The Book of the City of Ladies doesn’t have the allegorical thrill of the original but still shows its author’s crusade against the depictions of women in contemporary chivalric romances.
April 3, 2019
Feminist treatise from the fifteenth century - pretty cool to read!
June 11, 2025
i love how many personal little grievances this diva added to the book.
FEMINIST TBR 1/55
FEMINIST TBR 1/55
December 12, 2017
I can appreciate that Pizan was a rare figure, a woman writing in an era when there were so few female writers or even literate women, but as a modern reader I found myself rolling my eyes at a lot of her ideas, especially the chapter on prostitutes--here she really reveals her privilege and her obliviousness to the way the world worked outside of the court.
July 10, 2019
I read about half, but I didn't finish it. It would have been brilliant advice in the Middle Ages, and some of it is certainly relevant today. It's just a bit too pious for my contemporary reading tastes. But if some savvy business woman were to extract the best bits of advice and turn them into a modern business book, I would read that.
May 2, 2013
Christine de Pizan was the first professional woman writer in Europe and was an Italian that spent most of her time in the French Court. This lovely little gem of a book explains how women of "all" classes are to act in the 1400s. I say "all" with quotations because Christine is mainly focused on wealthy women at court. The whole first section is devoted to princesses, and their "princess powers" as my friend Ben called it. The second section is women at Court, and the third is all about the rest of women. However, the rest of the women are mainly the god-awful merchant wives with a few chapters on the destitute and the prostitutes.
It was a quick read and not at all difficult to understand. There is a lot of emphasis on living for God, controlling pride, remaining a virgin etc. I enjoyed it because it was a woman's studies text of a sort.
It was a quick read and not at all difficult to understand. There is a lot of emphasis on living for God, controlling pride, remaining a virgin etc. I enjoyed it because it was a woman's studies text of a sort.
Read
July 17, 2025I’m doing a feminist analysis of this book and the other City of Ladies book by de Pizan, and I know that in both she is pushing the lines of feminism while still remaining in the bounds of medieval society to avoid being silenced, but obviously from a modern context a lot of this book just does not fit in modern feminism, but I can really appreciate both of the books for what they did at the time.
May 17, 2025
"If she wants to win, she must adopt a man's heart (in other words, constant, strong and wise) to consider and to pursue the best course of action"
DePizan is Europe's first professional woman writer, and this book was written to give advice and guidance for women of all ages and class levels on how to live their 15th century daily life in 15th century France. Of Venetian birth, she was a respected figure in France, even in her widowhood, though she was a long time quite underrated.
Of course, the reader should be aware that one should expect Christianity to be part of the book just like it was part of that time's lives; however, it should not prevent even non-believers from benefiting from her tips. This 1985 translation has been revised in 2003, and there's a helpful glossary of some names mentioned at the end of the book. Her well-used quotings show that she was quite well-educated, and she's written other books besides this.
The book is in three parts, covering first the princesses and queens' lives, then noblewomen's, then for all the rest, yet whatever the level is, any level can learn something from others too. She wants women to stick together in helping each other, and do and say only good things of each others. She realisitically tells how men can be, how rough widowhood can be, she's even understanding towards the prostitutes and wants them to find a way to get out. She speaks against spending money too much, speaking badly about each other, behaving badly in other ways too, and being too trusting and loose with men. She offers advice on how to manage the household when men have to be away from it (or have died), how to arrange one's day, even how to leave the court when one can do nothing to make the mistress makes serious mistakes.
I love how the writing flows so surprisingly easily and makes reading very enjoyable. Of course, the author can't go into very detailed points in some parts where certain women's lives are very busy and varied, but I think she expects the women of that time reading it to know what she's talking about. I did feel that sometimes not all women can be so smart and focused that some ideals demand, but great many must've gotten at least remainders of what they could make themselves adopt and do. And I found the religious quotes and such quite supportive. Whatever one thinks, this could be a good adding to many of those 'how to behave and do' guides of that era, and the translation (among other things here) make reading this worth it.
DePizan is Europe's first professional woman writer, and this book was written to give advice and guidance for women of all ages and class levels on how to live their 15th century daily life in 15th century France. Of Venetian birth, she was a respected figure in France, even in her widowhood, though she was a long time quite underrated.
Of course, the reader should be aware that one should expect Christianity to be part of the book just like it was part of that time's lives; however, it should not prevent even non-believers from benefiting from her tips. This 1985 translation has been revised in 2003, and there's a helpful glossary of some names mentioned at the end of the book. Her well-used quotings show that she was quite well-educated, and she's written other books besides this.
The book is in three parts, covering first the princesses and queens' lives, then noblewomen's, then for all the rest, yet whatever the level is, any level can learn something from others too. She wants women to stick together in helping each other, and do and say only good things of each others. She realisitically tells how men can be, how rough widowhood can be, she's even understanding towards the prostitutes and wants them to find a way to get out. She speaks against spending money too much, speaking badly about each other, behaving badly in other ways too, and being too trusting and loose with men. She offers advice on how to manage the household when men have to be away from it (or have died), how to arrange one's day, even how to leave the court when one can do nothing to make the mistress makes serious mistakes.
I love how the writing flows so surprisingly easily and makes reading very enjoyable. Of course, the author can't go into very detailed points in some parts where certain women's lives are very busy and varied, but I think she expects the women of that time reading it to know what she's talking about. I did feel that sometimes not all women can be so smart and focused that some ideals demand, but great many must've gotten at least remainders of what they could make themselves adopt and do. And I found the religious quotes and such quite supportive. Whatever one thinks, this could be a good adding to many of those 'how to behave and do' guides of that era, and the translation (among other things here) make reading this worth it.
July 26, 2025
(oops i finished this ages ago but have been forgetting to update my gr)
anyway. read this as the very first stop on a long list of historical feminist works in bookclub. and what a curious book to start with. it's just shocking that a work like this from that time from this perspective exists at all. no matter how "backwards" to us much of what christine promotes is, the reality is that just having these thoughts was revolutionary, not even speaking of the bravery needed to put them on paper. others casting judgement was more than just discomfort for a woman in christine's time, it was full surrender to that eye when you have no rights of your own to fall back on. so it bears no surprise that christine's advice centres around how women can take back power by excelling in the system theyve been born into, exercising influence in more underhanded ways, and above all, maintaining protection for a woman and her family .
loved how specific parts of this book was oh christine i know the gossip sessions in your friend group must have been legendary. gets repetitive though and obviously not exactly a treat to read so just settling right around the middle for rating. really important though and worth a read.
anyway. read this as the very first stop on a long list of historical feminist works in bookclub. and what a curious book to start with. it's just shocking that a work like this from that time from this perspective exists at all. no matter how "backwards" to us much of what christine promotes is, the reality is that just having these thoughts was revolutionary, not even speaking of the bravery needed to put them on paper. others casting judgement was more than just discomfort for a woman in christine's time, it was full surrender to that eye when you have no rights of your own to fall back on. so it bears no surprise that christine's advice centres around how women can take back power by excelling in the system theyve been born into, exercising influence in more underhanded ways, and above all, maintaining protection for a woman and her family .
loved how specific parts of this book was oh christine i know the gossip sessions in your friend group must have been legendary. gets repetitive though and obviously not exactly a treat to read so just settling right around the middle for rating. really important though and worth a read.
December 12, 2018
Translated by Sarah Lawson, this is an advice book written by the first professional woman writer in Europe. Christine of Pisa, Italy, was raised in the court of fifteenth-century France and given access to an education that would rival most men of the day. Multi-lingual, well versed in the art of rhetoric and schooled in philosophy and humanism, her voice is a formidable authority on women in the late Middle Ages. But her advice is not offered as a directive - with a wry humour and wink to the obvious double-standards of the day, Christine demonstrates how etiquette can secure a woman's place in an uncertain society.
April 25, 2022
I really liked this book! I finished it within a short period of time. I had state testing you I wanted to pick a short stand alone book to read after i had finished my test. And this was the book!
I could understand what Christine was saying and enjoyed how she wrote. I loved the 3 ladies (who I forgot, but their names are on the tip of my tongue).
There’s actually some good advice in here that you could still use to this day! Maybe you aren’t a princess, but you can still take the advice to always be generous, etc. that was my favorite part of this book!
I could understand what Christine was saying and enjoyed how she wrote. I loved the 3 ladies (who I forgot, but their names are on the tip of my tongue).
There’s actually some good advice in here that you could still use to this day! Maybe you aren’t a princess, but you can still take the advice to always be generous, etc. that was my favorite part of this book!
October 8, 2022
i had stumbled upon this in some online discussion of "proto-utopia", which is a massive, massive stretch. this is more of an advice manual to medieval women, along the lines of "the prince", so perhaps "the princess" if you will. not just aimed at the ladies of the high court, but also ladies of minor aristocracy and the lower classes, including prostitutes. interesting from a historical perspective even if much of the advice is unsurprising, the author does encourage women of all stations to be actively engaged in their husbands affairs
May 2, 2024
Both loved and hated this book, for the same reason: the insights it gave into early 15C mentalities. It was great to hear Christine's own opinion on so many varied, real-life issues that pertain to both men and women. It was distressing to see such a parade of misogyny, so strong that she even had to celebrate some parts of it as the means to making her own pro-woman points. I'll be digesting this myself for quite some time now...
August 5, 2025
3.5 stars: This was very different in substance from “The Book of the City of Ladies.” I’d never read a medieval manners book before, and I found it to be a good insight to expectations of courtly women of the period. De Pizan did sound like a few older women I know with the advice she gave here.
May 24, 2017
Read this for my history class "The Renaissance"
September 24, 2018
A Medieval Woman's Mirror of Honor: The Treasury of the City of Ladies (Paperback)
by Christine de Pizan
reading library book
by Christine de Pizan
reading library book
April 1, 2021
It's extremely surreal to get good career and networking advice from a woman who lived 700 years ago.
March 16, 2022
2.5 / 5 stars
June 16, 2024
Excellent record of medieval thought.
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