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4. The Book of the City of Ladies.
When the evil Julian heard this voice, he reproached the torturers for not
having removed enough of Christine’s tongue, telling them to cut it so close
that she would be unable to converse with her lord Jesus. They cut off the
whole of her tongue, right down to the root, but she spat out these remains in
the tyrant’s face and blinded him in one eye. Speaking just as easily as ever,
she exclaimed, ‘Tyrant, what was the point of your removing my tongue so that
I couldn’t praise God when my spirit will praise Him for evermore whilst yours
is damned for all eternity? It’s only fitting that my tongue should have
blinded you, since you didn’t believe my words in the first place.’
The Book of the City of Ladies begins with its
author, Christine de Pizan, working in her study, and suddenly overwhelmed by
the misogyny of so many of the great books surrounding her. She is visited by
three women—personifications of Reason, Rectitude, and Justice—who instruct
her to build a city, and offer her biographies of all the illustrious women
who will live in (and therefore be ) the city. Suzanne and Chris explore
this classic medieval anthology: the ways in which women have made themselves
heard; the physical effort of creating both cities and manuscripts; and the
echoes Christine’s book has both with other great books and with our own
experiences today.
Show Notes.
The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de
Pizan, as translated by Rosalind Brown-Grant.
[Bookshop.]
More info (and images!) about the
manuscript of The Book of the City of Ladies that
Christine supervised herself.
“In the fifteenth century, men read Christine de
Pizan…”
A
banner,
unfurled at Columbia University during a protest in
1989,
included Christine as one of seven great female authors that should be part of
the canon.
Next episode: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
View all episodes
By Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Chris Piuma
4.8
3030 ratings
When the evil Julian heard this voice, he reproached the torturers for not
having removed enough of Christine’s tongue, telling them to cut it so close
that she would be unable to converse with her lord Jesus. They cut off the
whole of her tongue, right down to the root, but she spat out these remains in
the tyrant’s face and blinded him in one eye. Speaking just as easily as ever,
she exclaimed, ‘Tyrant, what was the point of your removing my tongue so that
I couldn’t praise God when my spirit will praise Him for evermore whilst yours
is damned for all eternity? It’s only fitting that my tongue should have
blinded you, since you didn’t believe my words in the first place.’
The Book of the City of Ladies begins with its
author, Christine de Pizan, working in her study, and suddenly overwhelmed by
the misogyny of so many of the great books surrounding her. She is visited by
three women—personifications of Reason, Rectitude, and Justice—who instruct
her to build a city, and offer her biographies of all the illustrious women
who will live in (and therefore be ) the city. Suzanne and Chris explore
this classic medieval anthology: the ways in which women have made themselves
heard; the physical effort of creating both cities and manuscripts; and the
echoes Christine’s book has both with other great books and with our own
experiences today.
Show Notes.
The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de
Pizan, as translated by Rosalind Brown-Grant.
[Bookshop.]
More info (and images!) about the
manuscript of The Book of the City of Ladies that
Christine supervised herself.
“In the fifteenth century, men read Christine de
Pizan…”
A
banner,
unfurled at Columbia University during a protest in
1989,
included Christine as one of seven great female authors that should be part of
the canon.
Next episode: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
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