The first political treatise written by a woman.
Christine de Pizan's The Book of the Body Politic is the first political treatise written by a woman. It not only advises the prince, but nobles, knights, and common people as well. It promotes the ideals of interdependence and social responsibility. Rooted in the mindset of medieval Christendom, The Book of the Body Politic heralds the humanism of the Renaissance, highlighting classical culture and Roman civic virtues. This new edition and translation offers a faithful rendering of Christine de Pizan's writing, as well as a thorough contextualization of her career as a political writer at the end of the Middle Ages in France. The Book of the Body Politic resounds to this day, urging for the need for probity in public life and the importance of responsibilities and rights.
Christine de Pizan (c. 1364-c. 1430) was an Italian-born poet and author who grew up in France. Angus J. Kennedy is emeritus Stevenson professor of French at the University of Glasgow.
Title: The Book of the Body Politic: Volume 86 (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series)
Author: Kennedy, Angus J.,De Pizan, Christine
ISBN: 9781649590510
Binding:
Publisher: Iter Press
Publication Date: 2021-12-02
Number of Pages: 242
Weight: 0.3811 kg
Kennedy's new edition and translation of Christine's Livre du corps de policie offers a copiously annotated introduction which covers Christine as political writer in this and other treatises; her extraordinary career as a woman writer claiming a voice equal to that of her male contemporaries; and the manuscripts of her Book, its dating, its historico-political context, and its sources. The translation, which highlights, in Kennedy's words, 'Christine's uncompromising, labyrinthine, muscular style,' closely follows the words and the sentence structure of the original. Together, edition and translation provide readers with an entirely reliable text and a meticulous translation of one of the most important works of lay political thought at the end of the Middle Ages in France.
-- Jane Taylor, Professor, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University