The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 8, Number 2, Winter 2019 | Page 57

es of Quattrocento Venice:
arola’s Humanist Career
5
Christine de Pizan (1365-1431)
was a Venetian who moved to France
and became an author who rejected
the gender polarity of Aristotle. She received
a humanist education from her
father, who was a physician to King
Charles V of France. Although she was
not a nun, she wrote numerous works
combined with a theological dimension.
That allowed her to successfully
write about the “woman question” and
argue that the inferior treatment of
women by men had to stop.
Similar to Hildegard, Christine
also used the biblical figure of Wisdom
to challenge the misogynist attitudes
toward her gender, justifying the idea
that women and men were equal. She
also used the Holy Trinity as female
figures in her works, such as L’epistre
Othea (1400), in which Christine promoted
women’s wisdom and intellect.
Christine received opposition for her
works, but she was also supported by
theologians for writing about feminine
topics in a religious way. She effectively
affirmed women’s worth, heralded female
achievements, and argued for the
equal treatment of women to men, all
the while proving that she was a learned
lady. Therefore, it can be concluded
from the experiences of Hildegard and
Christine that any woman who wrote
about secular topics and the “woman
question” was never condemned by society,
if her works were combined with
wisdom from the Bible, figuratively or
literally. Based on the opposition she
received between 1436 and 1439, Isotta
had to choose between marrying or
entering a convent, if she wanted to be
a learned lady, study humanism, and