The Divine Feminine in the writings of Christine de Pizan

Author John Noyce, a scalar in all things divine and spiritual, author of many books, gives us this passage.

Chapter 7 of Visions of the Divine Feminine in medieval Europe (2018)

Christine de Pizan (1364-c.1430) is regarded as the first professional woman writer in French
literature.

Her father taught astrology at the University of Bologna, and then became an advisor to the
Republic of Venice, where Christine was born. In 1368 the family moved to Paris where
Tommaso da Pizzano became Thomas de Pizan, and entered the French royal court as physician
(scientist-advisor) to King Charles V. In 1379 Christine married a young member of the royal
court. By 1389 Thomas had died, leaving many debts, and her husband had succumbed to an
epidemic. Christine was now a young widow with three children, her mother, and a niece, to
support.
Reading all available works in history and philosophy that were available to her from friends
and patrons (see Green 2010), Christine excelled as a writer in a variety of genres, from courtly
lyric to political treatises and religious works. She ‘published’ her own works in high-quality
illuminated manuscripts dedicated to wealthy and generous patrons amongst the French royal
family. (Dulac 2004)

The feminist theologian Bonnie A. Birk (2005) has proposed that biblical feminine Wisdom,
particularly as found in the Wisdom of Solomon, can be identified throughout Christine de
Pizan’s literary work as a variety of feminine figures:
as Othea in L’epistre Othea (c.1400) (Birk 2005 ch.3; Hindman 1986)
as Sapience, Dame Philosophie, and Dame Sainte Theologie in Le Livre de l’advision Christine
(the Book of Christine’s Visions) (1405), which draws heavily on Boethius’ De Consolatione
Philosophiae. (Birk 2005 ch.4)
and as Raison, Droitture, and Justice in Le livre de la cite des dames (the Book of the City of
Ladies) (1405). (Birk 2005 ch.5; Quilligan 1991 esp ch.3)
Birk proposes that Christine may have seen feminine Wisdom in the form of Sapience as an
autonomous (“real”) divine being. (Birk: 2005:161-3)

In her Livre de la mutacion de fortune (The Book of the Transformation of Fortune) (1403),
modelled on Boethius, Christine describes her mother, but this is no ordinary mother:
My mother who was great and grand and more valorous than Penthesilea (God had made her
well!) surpassed my father in knowledge, power, and value, despite the fact that he had
learned so much. She was a crowned queen from the moment that she was born. Everyone
knows of her power and strength. It is clear that she is never idle, and, without being
overbearing, she is always occupied with many, diverse tasks: her impressive works are
found everywhere; every day she creates many beautiful ones. Whoever wanted to count all
that she has done and continues to do would never finish. She is old without being aged, and
her life cannot end before Judgement Day. God gave her the task of maintaining and
increasing the world as He had made it, in order to sustain human life: she is called Lady

Nature. She is the mother of every person: God thus calls us all brothers and sisters. (Selected
Writings: 93-94)
In this description Christine juxtaposes the description of her father, clearly her natural father,
with the description of her mother, clearly her Divine Mother.