The Book of the City of Ladies

by Christine Pizan

  End of the Third and Final Part of the Book of the City of Ladies.

  NOTES

  Part I

  1. See Deuteronomy 17: 6.

  2. Antiphrasis refers to a rhetorical and polemical practice of reading whereby a text is deliberately interpreted to mean the opposite of what it explicitly seems to say. In the City of Ladies, Christine thus chooses, at times, to read misogynists’ criticisms of women as praise rather than condemnation.

  3. Christine compares her rescue of women from the attacks of misogynist writers to the deliverance of the Jews from the slavery imposed on them by Pharaoh, King of Egypt. See II Kings 17: 7.

  5. The medieval view of woman as a flawed being, a kind of deformed male, was largely derived from Aristotle. In his view, menstruation in particular was a sign that the female sex did not match up to the physiological perfection of the male sex. However, On the Secrets of Women, which Christine quite rightly says was not written by Aristotle, takes these arguments about female physiology to extremes by claiming, amongst other things, that menstrual blood can seep out of the eyes, poison children and induce madness in dogs. See glossary.

  4. Christine here paraphrases Mary’s reply to the Angel of the Annunciation. See Luke 1: 38.

  6. Christine here refers to the medieval theological dispute on the interpretation of Genesis 1: 27, ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them’, and I Corinthians 11: 7, man ‘is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man’.

  7. Christine here wrongly refers to Cato the Elder by the name of his great-grandson.

  8. The denier, or silver penny, was introduced by the Carolingians in the eighth century and became the main unit of currency in medieval western Europe.

  9. See Matthew 18: 2–4, Mark 9: 33–7 and Luke 9: 46–8.

  10. The Latin proverb is ‘fallere, flere, nere, statuit deus in muliere’.

  11. Martha and Mary’s brother was called Lazarus. See John 11: 1–44.

  12. See Luke 7: 12–15.

  13. See Matthew 15: 22–8.

  14. See John 4: 7–29.

  15. See Luke 11: 27.

  16. The seven liberal arts comprised the trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy).

  17. See n. 16.

  18. See Proverbs 31: 10–31.

  PART II

  1. These words are the beginning of Simeon’s prayer to God to let him die in peace now that he has seen the Saviour. See Luke 2: 29.

  2. Christine’s brothers, Paolo and Aghinolfo, returned to Bologna after the deaths of her father and her husband to look after family property there.

  3. In her original text, Christine uses the Old French neologism, ‘Feminie’, meaning land of women, which is derived from femina, the Latin word for woman. This term, used to refer to the land of the Amazons, was coined by Benoit de Sainte-Maure, the twelfth-century French author of the Roman de Troie, a verse narrative about the Trojan war. I have followed Benoit’s lead in translating ‘Feminie’ by an equally made-up word in English which both refers to women and has an ending typical of the name of a country: ‘Femininia’.

  4. The classical theory of dreams was popularized in the Middle Ages by Macrobius’s commentary on Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis, which was written around AD 400. Macrobius divided dreams into five types, three of which are significant and two of which are insignificant. The somnium or enigmatic dream, the visio or prophetic vision, and the oraculum or oracular dream, all have a prophetic value for the dreamer. The insomnium or nightmare, and the visum (also referred to as the phantasma) or apparition, have no prophetic value as they have a purely physiological or psychological origin.

  5. See Luke 6: 41 and Matthew 7: 3.

  6. This is a reference to the wife of Guillaume de Roussillon (Decameron IV, ix).

  7. Charles VI, King of France, was born in 1368 and reigned 1380–1422. He was married to Isabeau of Bavaria in 1385 and later suffered from periodic bouts of madness which eventually led the other royal princes, most notably his brother Louis, Duke of Orleans, and his nephew, John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, to battle for control of the French crown.

  PART III

  1. The calends are calculated as the number of days up to and including the first day of a particular month. The seventh of the calends of July is thus 25 June.

  2. The apostle referred to is Saint Paul. See I Corinthians 11: 15.

  3. In the Middle Ages, the monastic day was divided up into hours at which certain prayers were read, starting in the very early hours of the morning with matins or lauds, then followed by prime, terce, sext, none, vespers and compline. Terce corresponds roughly to 9 a.m. and none to 3 p.m. Saint Fausta was thus tortured for the best part of six hours.

  4. Martyrs, and later monks too, were commonly known as ‘soldiers of Christ’, or milites Christi, for they were deemed to be engaged in the fight against the Devil.

  5. A cubit is between 18 and 22 inches in length. The flames of the furnace into which Euphemia was thrown were thus about 60 feet high.

  6. The term ‘publican’ means tax-gatherer, a profession which, along with that of the prostitute, was particularly despised by the Jews.

  7. ‘Glorious things are spoken of thee, O City of God’ (Psalms 87:3). Christine is probably also alluding here to Saint Augustine’s City of God, a highly influential text in the Middle Ages, which posited the need to found the Heavenly City on earth in the form of the Christian church.

  8. See the Vulgate Old Testament, II Esdras 8: 56–8.

  9. See Psalms 7: 16. The Psalmist himself is traditionally thought to be David.

  10. Christine would seem here to be deliberately parodying Genius in the Romance of the Rose, who actively discourages men from having anything to do with women by comparing the female sex to snakes in the grass: ‘Fly, fly, fly, fly, fly my children, I advise and admonish you frankly and without deceit to fly from such a creature’ (Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, The Romance of the Rose, Frances Horgan, trans. and ed., World’s Classics (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 256, ll.16548–50).

  GLOSSARY

  This glossary is intended to provide a brief guide to the characters, places and books mentioned in the City of Ladies and a reference to the chapters where they appear. It is not an exhaustive index: places and characters which occur frequently and are too well known to need an explanation, such as Greece, Rome and Israel, and God, Jesus Christ and the Devil, have been omitted. Proper names are indexed as follows: in small capitals for the form in which they appear in the text; in small capitals in brackets where Christine herself gives an alternative form; and in upper and lower case in brackets for fuller or more commonly used forms. Given the lack of standardization of Greek and Roman names, I have generally followed the spelling adopted in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd edition. For French and Italian names, where there are no set conventions, I have followed customary usage: thus Philip the Bold, Petrarch, etc., have been anglicized, but Jean de Meun, Giovanni Andrea, etc., have been left in the original. For well-known texts cited directly by Christine, I have also followed customary usage: thus works such as the Decameron or the Letter of the God of Love are referred to by their usual English title, whereas others such as the Miroir historial or the Problemata have been kept in the original. Lesser known texts, whose Latin titles Christine herself translates into French, have been anglicized: for example, On Philosophy. For works not mentioned directly by Christine but on which information is provided in the glossary, titles have been given in the original throughout, accompanied by an anglicized equivalent only in those cases where an English translation of the text is available. Dates are given for historical characters, where known.

  ABRAHAM: first of the Old Testament patriarchs and founder of the Hebrew nation; husband of Sarah. II.38.

  ABSALOM: son of David, King of Israel, who was famed for his
beauty. I.14.

  ABYDOS: town on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont; home of Leander, not Hero as Christine erroneously suggests. II.58.

  ACERBAS SYCHAEA: see SYCHAEUS.

  ACHILLES: Greek hero in the Trojan war who was killed by Paris with the help of the god Apollo. I.19, II.28, II.61.

  ADAM: the first man, from whose rib Eve was created. I.9.

  ADELPHUS (Clodius Celsinus Adelphius): prefect of Rome in AD 351 and husband of Proba. I.29.

  ADRASTUS: king of Argos, a city in the Peloponnese region of Greece; father-in-law of Polynices. II.17.

  ADRIAN (Saint Adrian): (d. ?early 4th century AD) martyred husband of Saint Nathalia, usually believed to have been persecuted by Diocletian, not Maximian as Christine suggests. III.16.

  AEËTES: king of Colchis and father of Medea. I.32.

  AENEAS: son of Anchises and Venus; Trojan prince who abandoned his lover Dido and later married Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus. I.24, I.48, II.3, II.19, II.55.

  AENEID: see VIRGIL.

  AFRA, SAINT: (d. early 4th century AD) repentant prostitute of Augsburg who was martyred by the judge Gaius during the persecution of Diocletian. III.17.

  AGAPE (Saint Agape): (d. early 4th century AD) virgin and martyr, companion of Saint Anastasia; one of three sisters who were killed in Thessalonica during the persecution of Diocletian. III.14.

  AGATHA, SAINT: date uncertain, virgin and martyr who died in Catania, Sicily. III.7, III.9.

  AGENOR: king of Phoenicia and father of Europa and Cadmus; ancestor of Dido’s father. I.46, II.61.

  AGNES, SAINT: (d. early 4th century AD) virgin and martyr killed in Rome. III.9.

  AGRIPPINA (Vipsania Agrippina): (c. 14 BC–AD 33) Roman noblewoman, daughter of Marcus Agrippa and his first wife Attica; married to Germanicus. II.18.

  AHASUERUS: (5th century BC) king of Persia and husband of Esther. Often identified by modern scholars with Xerxes I. II.32.

  ALBA (Alba Longa): ancient city in the Albian hills in Latium, c. 20 km south-east of Rome. I.48. See ASCANIUS.

  ALBUNEA: see SIBYLS.

  ALEMANNI: confederation of Germanic tribes who attacked the Roman empire from the third century AD onwards. They were defeated by the Frankish king Clovis at the battle of Tolbiac in AD 496. II.35.

  ALEXANDER (Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander): Roman emperor who reigned AD 222–35, thought to have persecuted Saint Martina. III.6.

  ALEXANDER THE GREAT: (356–323 BC) king of Macedon and pupil of Aristotle. Soldier and conqueror of most of the then known world. Married to Barsine (or Stateira), daughter of Darius, king of the Persians. I.14, I.19, II.29, II.66.

  ALEXANDRIA: ancient capital and chief Mediterranean port of Egypt; one of the main centres of the Christian church in the third century AD. II.52, III.3, III.13.

  ALLEFABTER, LAKE: the Dead Sea, known in antiquity as Lake Asphaltites. II.4.

  ALMATHEA: see SIBYLS.

  AMAZONIA: mythical female realm founded by the Amazons in Cappadocia. I.4, I.18, I.19. See also FEMININIA, REALM OF, and SCYTHIA.

  AMAZONS (SCYTHIANS): mythical race of women warriors who were thought to have come from Scythia, in the region of the Caucasus. I.4, I.16, I.17, I.18, I.19, I.20.

  AMBROSE: Lombard merchant (Decameron II, ix). II.52.

  AMBROSE, SAINT: (AD 339–97) bishop of Milan. I.10. See also DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH.

  ANASTASIA: (late 14th to ?early 15th century) Parisian manuscript illuminator known to Christine. I.41.

  ANASTASIA (Saint Anastasia): (d. early 4th century AD) Roman noblewoman who comforted Christian martyrs; killed during the persecution of Diocletian at Sirmium, a city in the Roman province of Pannonia which lay south and west of the Danube. III.14, III.15.

  ANCIENTS: Greek and Roman authors of classical Antiquity. I.30, I.41.

  ANDREA, GIOVANNI: (1275–1347) professor and jurist at the University of Bologna; father of Novella. Author of the Novella super Decretalium, a commentary on canon law. II.36.

  ANDREW, SAINT: (d. c. AD 60) the first apostle, traditionally thought to have proselytized in Greece and to have been crucified in Patras. III.18.

  ANDROMACHE: wife of the Trojan prince Hector. II.28.

  ANGELA: according to Christine, whose source for this information is unknown, the woman after whom England was named. II.61.

  ANJOU, DUCHESS OF (Marie of Châtillon-Blois): (d. 1410) daughter of Jeanne of Brittany and Charles of Blois; married to Louis I, Duke of Anjou, in 1360. I.13.

  ANJOU, DUKE OF (Louis I): (1339–84) son of King John II of France; became king of Sicily in 1380. II.67.

  ANNA: Hebrew prophetess who recognized the infant Christ during the Presentation in the Temple. II.4.

  ANNE (of Bourbon): (d. after 1406) daughter of John I of Bourbon, Count of La Marche; married to Louis of Bavaria in 1402. Her brother, Jacques II of Bourbon, succeeded his father in 1393. II.68.

  ANNUNCIATION, ANGEL OF THE: according to Luke 1:26–38, it is the angel Gabriel who announces to the Virgin Mary that she will conceive of the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Saviour. III.1.

  ANTICHRIST: name given in the Bible to the false prophet who will lead humankind astray with false miracles until defeated by the archangel Michael. Sometimes equated with Satan or one of his angels, or with humans such as the persecuting emperors Nero and Caligula. II.1, II.49.

  ANTIOCH: city in Pisidia, Asia Minor; third biggest city in the Roman empire after Rome and Alexandria. III.4, III.8.

  ANTIOPE: a queen of the Amazons. I.18.

  ANTONIA: (6th century AD) wife of Belisarius, Justinian’s bodyguard. Her correct name, which Christine slightly misspells, is Antonina. II.29.

  ANTONIA: (end 1st century BC) younger daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia; wife of Drusus Tiberius. II.43.

  ANTONIA: (6th century AD) former actress who married the Emperor Justinian; sister of Antonia, wife of Belisarius. Christine confuses her name with that of her sister: her correct name is Theodora. II.6.

  APIS: Christine follows classical mythology in conflating two different characters: Osiris, an Egyptian god in the form of a bull who was married to his sister Isis; and Apis, a king of Argos who, according to legend, was the son of Jupiter and Niobe. I.36.

  APOLLO (PHOEBUS): Greek sun-god, also associated with healing, prophecy, poetry and music. I.4, I.30, I.31, II.1, II.3.

  APOSTLES: this term refers both to the twelve disciples whom Christ originally chose to spread his message to the world – which is Christine’s meaning here – and, more generally, to those whom he later appointed to his apostolic mission. I.10, I.29, II.2, II.35, III.2, III.18.

  ARABIA: name given to the whole of the Arabian peninsula in the ancient world; an important part of the trade route to the East. I.12, II.4.

  ARACHNE: girl from Lydia, Asia Minor, who challenged the goddess Athene to a tapestry-weaving contest and was turned into a spider for her presumption. I.39.

  ARCADIA: mountainous region in the central part of the Peloponnese. I.33. See PALLAS

  ARCHELAOS: Macedonian king who reigned 413–399 BC. I.41.

  ARGIA: daughter of Adrastus, King of Argos, and wife of Polynices. According to legend, it was Polynices’s sister Antigone, not Argia as Christine claims, who went to rescue his dead body from the battlefield. II.17.

  ARIARATHES (Ariarathes VI Epiphanes Philopater): (2nd century BC) king of Cappadocia and husband of Berenice. I.25.

  ARISTOBULUS (Aristobulus II): (2nd century BC) king of the Jews and grandfather of Mariamme, not her father as Christine suggests. The correct name of Mariamme’s father is Alexander. II.42.

  ARISTOTLE: (384–322 BC) Greek thinker and pupil of Plato in Athens, where he later set up a school in which he taught philosophy. Regarded as the supreme philosophical authority in the later Middle Ages. I.2, I.9, I.11, I.14, I.30, I.38, I.43.

  — Categories: treatise on logic. I.11.

  — Metaphysics: name given to a series of treatises on the nature of being. I.2.

  — P
roblemata: work on various topics, attributed to Aristotle. I.11.

  ARMENIANS: inhabitants of Armenia, a mountainous region of Asia. I.20.

  ARTEMISIA: Christine follows Boccaccio in conflating two different women of the same name: the early fifth-century BC ruler of Halicarnassus who fought with Xerxes, King of Persia, at the battle of Salamis; and the mid fourth-century BC ruler of Caria who built a monument in memory of her husband Mausolus. I.21, II.16.

  ART OF LOVE: see OVID.

  ASCANIUS: son of Aeneas by Creusa, daughter of Priam; traditionally thought to have founded the ancient city of Alba Longa in Latium, c. 1152 BC. I.48.

  D’ASCOLI, CECCO (Francesco Stabili): (c. 1269–1327) Italian poet, astrologer and alchemist who was burnt at the stake for heresy. I.9.

  ASSYRIA: ancient kingdom situated in the Upper Tigris region of modern Iraq. I.15.

  ATHALIAH: the only queen to rule Judaea, she reigned 843–837 BC after killing off her male rivals. II.49.

  AUCEJAS: of doubtful existence and date unknown. Barbarian king thought to have abducted Saint Lucy and eventually to have been converted by her. III.5.

  AUGUSTINE, SAINT: (AD 354–430) son of a pagan father and a Christian mother (Saint Monica); bishop of Hippo in North Africa. I.2, I.10. See also DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH.

  AVERNUS, LAKE: lake next to the ancient city of Baiae, near Naples; traditionally thought to be the entrance to the underworld. II.3.

  BABYLON: ancient city situated on the River Euphrates in modern Iraq. I.15, I.17, II.1, II.52, II.57.

  BAIAE: see AVERNUS, LAKE.

  BAR, DUKE OF (Robert): (d. 1411) father of Bonne of Bar, Countess of Saint-Pol. II.68.

  BARBARA, SAINT: of doubtful existence and date unknown. According to one version of her legend, she was the daughter of a wealthy man named Dioscorus and was martyred at Nicomedia in Asia Minor by the Roman prefect Martinianus. One of the most popular saints in the Middle Ages. III.9.