Healing the Body Politic: The Political Thought of Christine de Pizan

Description

Christine de Pizan (1364-1431) has been recognised as a poet, early humanist and feminist precursor but rarely as political theorist whose works were intended to have a direct impact on the tumultuous politics of her time. The essays in this collection focus on Christine as a political writer and provide an important resource for those wishing to understand her political thought. They locate her political writing in the late medieval tradition, discussing her indebtedness to Aristotle, Aquinas and Augustine as well as her transformations of their thought. They also illuminate Christines political epistemology her understanding of political wisdom as a part of theology, the knowledge of God. New light is thrown on the circumstances which prompted Christine to write on political issues and on her attitude to Isabeau of Bavaria. These essays show that Christines originality consisted in her capacity to modify and feminise the tradition of Christian Aristotelianism through the use of elements of Christian imagery, in particular Mariology, in order to construct an image of the virtuous and prudent monarch which had lost the explicitly manly and warlike character of the Aristotelian phronimos. This reconfigured image of the monarch lent itself to the extension which she developed in her more feminist works, which demonstrated the prudence of women and their capacity, in times of need, to function as authoritative political figures. Abbreviations ix Introduction / KAREN GREEN xi Part I: Imagining the Body Politic The Three Mirrors of Christine de Pizan / BARRY COLLETT 1 The Living Body Politic: The Diversification of Organic Metaphors in Nicole Oresme and Christine de Pizan / CARY J. NEDERMAN 19 Christinian Politics, the Tavern, and Urban Revolt in Late Medieval France / SUSAN J. DUDASH 35 Part II: Prudence and the Art of Government Latin Learning in Christine de Pizan's 'Livre de paix' / CONSTANT J. MEWS 61 Bartolo da Sassaferrato as a Possible Source for Christine de Pizan's 'Livre de paix' / EARL JEFFREY RICHARDS 81 Prudence and Wisdom in Christine de Pizan's 'Le livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V' / MICHAEL RICHARZ 99 On Translating Christine de Pizan as a Philosopher / KAREN GREEN 117 Philosophy, the Liberal Arts, and Theology in 'Le Livre de la mutacion de Fortune' and 'Le Livre de l’advision Cristine' / GLYNNIS M. CROPP 139 Castles in the Air? The Prince as Conceptual Artist / JULIA SIMMS HOLDERNESS 161 Part III: Mediating the Peace 'Moyennerresse de traictié de paix': Christine de Pizan's Mediators / TRACY ADAMS 177 'Petit estat vesval': Christine de Pizan's Grieving Body Politic / LOUISE D’ARCENS 201 Christine de Pizan and the Body Politic / TSAE LAN LEE DOW 227 Bibliography 245 Contributors 255 Index 259