Christine de Pizan Writes Her Way Into A Job
Christine de Pizan (1364-1430) was born to a well-to-do family and might have lived an unremarkable privileged life, but circumstances forced her to pick up her pen to make a living. By doing so, she became the first woman in Europe to have a job as a professional writer.
She was born in Venice, but her father soon got a sweet new job as an astrologer for King Charles V of France, so the family moved to Paris. Christine received a top education and read extensively. She was married at age 15 and then had three children. By the time she was 25, everything looked like the smooth sailing of a typical aristocratic life.
But the Wheel of Fortune turned, and tragedy struck. Her husband died of plague in 1389, leaving her a widow with children to support. She should have been able to fall back on her family’s wealth, but corrupt officials swindled it away. She would pursue lawsuits for the next ten years to win back what was rightfully hers. Alas, then as now, only the lawyers made any money from the fight.
This was not a time when a woman had many options to support herself financially, so Christine forged her own path and became a professional writer. To be a professional, she had to get paid, so she found patrons at court in Paris. Her clients commissioned her to compose troubadour poems of courtly love about them, sticking closely to the traditions of the day.
Having established herself as a writer at court, in 1399, she published Letter of Othea to Hector, a book where the legendary hero of Troy gets advice from a Greek goddess on how to be a perfect French knight. The Renaissance was just getting started, and this book rode the wave of interest in the ancient world. The book was a bestseller and it raised Christine’s profile.
You might be shocked to hear that men and women were not considered equals in the year 1400. A popular poem at the time was The Romance of the Rose, which was misogynistic and characterized women as evil. In 1402, Christine de Pizan published Tale of the Rose as a critique of The Romance of the Rose, making a name for herself as a proto-feminist.
She expanded on her radical ideas that women were not inherently wicked in The Book of the City of Ladies in 1405. Written as an allegorical dream, three characters (Lady Reason, Lady Rectitude, and Lady Justice) help Christine construct a city built of materials that represent the virtues of women. That’s her in the blue dress and white hat building the city in the picture above.
Christine lived her entire life during the Hundred Year's War between England and France, and her later works focused on military matters. In 1410, she was commissioned to write The Book of Feats of Arms and of Chivalry. After the French lost the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, she was dismayed and retired to a convent. Christine’s last published work was The Tale of Joan of Arc, written in 1429 while France was celebrating Joan’s victory at the Siege of Orleans. Christine de Pizan died in early 1430, just before Joan of Arc was captured and executed.
Christine de Pizan's works were revolutionary in their time, popular works written by a woman in an era where women were expected to conform to a narrow set of expectations. But she broke the mold, set her own path, and wrote her way into history.
If you’re lucky, one day you’ll have enough savings to retire. You won’t have to go to work anymore, and you can spend your days however you please. But the Wheel of Fortune might turn. The markets could tank. Your 401k might be all company stock and the new CEO is a crook. Fires or floods consume your rental properties. The world is full of calamities, and financial misfortune might find you. So, you’ll have to go back to work.
Maybe you go back to your old company and focus on the parts that you like the most. Maybe you join a former competitor where it always seemed like they were having more fun. Maybe you try a new career, something you were always interested in but thought the pay was too low. Your retirement might be over, at least for now, so take a minute to consider what might make you happiest and still help pay the bills.
Christine de Pizan had a fabulous career as a writer, which was only possible because she was forced into it. Had she remained financially secure, she might never have picked up her pen to create her oeuvre. You can’t turn back the clock and sell your crypto empire when the markets are irrationally exuberant, but you can always reset your outlook to be positive. Or at least more positive. Okay, just not dismal. Now get back to work.
