The fourth in a special seminar series co-organized by Charlotte Denoël (Bibliothèque nationale de France) & Nancy Thebaut (Oxford)

Christine de Pizan & Gender in the Late Middle Ages

This interdisciplinary seminar will be an interactive forum for thinking about the work of the French author Christine de Pizan (d. 1429/30) in anticipation of a forthcoming exhibition at the Bibliothèque nationale de France to commemorate the 600th anniversary of her death. Speakers will give short presentations followed by group discussion. Please see next page for abstracts & readings.

MT 2026 / / Wednesdays, 2 - 4:45 pm, Horton Room, Weston Library

***note that attendees will require a Bodleian card to access the Horton Room and that space is limited: please sign up via Eventbrite for each session**

Seminar 4: Wednesday, Dec 2 (week 8) : L’Epîtsre d’Othéa & La Ditié de Jehanne d’arc

*Prof. Gervase Rosser (Oxford), “Beyond words: page layout and the generation of meaning in the Epistre d’Othéa”

*Prof. Hannah Skoda (Oxford), “Christine de Pisan’s Ditie de Jehanne d'Arc. What would Jehanne have thought?”

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RECOMMENDED READINGS

Seminar 4: Wednesday, Dec 2 (week 8) L’Epîstre d’Othéa & La Ditié de Jehanne d’arc

*Prof. Gervase Rosser (Oxford), “Beyond words: page layout and the generation of meaning in the Epistre d’Othéa”

In the work she composed c.1400, Christine de Pizan was experimenting boldly with the potential of the manuscript page, not to relay information or to unfold an argument, but to use the juxtaposition of diverse visual and textual stimuli as a means to catalyse thought and reflection.

Christine shared with Boccaccio and other late-medieval writers the conviction that history – including the myths of Antiquity – contained poetic truths, discernible to the wise. Her composition of the Epistre d’Othéa was designed to assist the reader to perceive these truths, and to be morally improved by them.

This seminar discussion will focus (with the aid of photographs) on a copy of the text produced in the 1450s by Jean Miélot, who made many books for the duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good. Miélot appreciated the spiritual aspiration of Christine’s retelling of classical stories, and he emulated and refined her complex page layout.

In the event, these experiments with the manuscript page were marginalised by the triumph of a different standard format, that most familiar today, in which a single block of text delivers an argument sequentially across multiple pages. This model, already becoming dominant in the fifteenth century and consolidated by the emergent technology of print, has tended to occlude other possibilities. To reconsider the Epistre d’Othéa is to problematise this chapter in the history of the book, and to envisage different modes of knowledge production.

*Prof. Hannah Skoda (Oxford), “Christine de Pisan’s Ditie de Jehanne d'Arc. What would Jehanne have thought?”

In Christine de Pisan's Ditie de Jehanne d'Arc, she celebrates French victories, the possibility of peace, and - most importantly - the channeling of divine will and military victory through a woman. Joan herself remains voiceless throughout - all whilst the poem makes claims about women in the very grandest terms: not only are women superior to men, chosen by God, knowledge itself is claimed as female. I'll explore the implications of Joan's voiceless violence alongside the elevation of 'the female sex'.

Required reading:

Kennedy, A. J., & Varty, K. (1975). CHRISTINE DE PISAN'S "DITIE DE JEHANNE D'ARC". PART I (C15th French edition), PART II (English translation). Nottingham Mediaeval Studies, 19, 53. (available via SOLO)

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A special seminar series co-organized by Charlotte Denoël (Bibliothèque nationale de France) & Nancy Thebaut (Oxford) // generously supported by TORCH

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Description supplied by the event organiser.