Christine de Pizan was born in 1365 in Venice, Italy. Her father, Tommaso de Benevito de Pizan was court astrologer to the French King, Charles V. When Christine was three years old, her family joined her father in Paris, and it was here that she was educated both in scholarly and courtly ways. It was fertile ground for a bright mind and her father encouraged her education though her mother did not.

marriage

At 15 she married Estienne de Castel, a man ten years older, who also encouraged her studies. According to Christine, the marriage was a happy one. Estienne was a Royal Secretary (the intellectual elite of Paris) in the Royal Chancery so her access to royal and scholarly circles was assured.

widowed/single mother

Christine was widowed at 25 when her husband died in the epidemic of 1389. Her father had died a couple of years earlier after which her mother and a niece came to live with Christine's family. So, when Estienne died, Christine was left with more than her children to provide for. Worse yet, her inheritance was tied up in litigation for years. She had two choices - re-marry or enter a convent. She chose neither.

career

She used her unique upbringing to create advantages for herself, and became France's first professional writer. This was no small feat in the 14th century. It was unusual for women to be educated and even more unusual for females to make productive use of higher education. She used hers to address misogyny.

writer/scholar

She, who was not born noble, was enobled by the privileges of her birth. She was able to access the benefits of the French Court - in particular, an education not usually afforded to females, and to few males. Further, since she grew up at court she knew everybody who was anyone. In fact, she ultimately became Charles V's official biographer. She was also recognized as an accomplished lyric poet. A vast corpus of her works is our inheritance.

feminist

History shows that she was a post-modern feminist born half a millenia before the rest of us. Her writings attack misogyny, formulating a decisive deconstruction of patriarchy and a definitive reconstruction of humanity.

philosopher

She was not born noble, but she insisted that a person could be enobled by one's achievements. She took Plato's directive to know thyself, and added to it: correct thyself. Education is the curative, according to Christine.