Book of the City of Ladies. Christine de Pizan (c. 1405). Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout
We do not know who was the illustrator of Book of the City of Ladies but we know the author: Christine de Pizan (or de Pisan). This miniature portrays her as the woman in a blue dress who is placing a hand on her book and receiving the Lady of Reason (with a mirror), Lady Rectitude (with a ruler), and Lady Justice (with a measuring cup). This is also an allegory of de Pizan setting out to write her book, which is metaphorically imagined as the construction of a wall, using a “spade of intelligence” and a “mortar of ink” in a “field of letters.”
