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- Title
LOUISE DE KERALIO READS THE BIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES V WRITTEN BY CHRISTINE DE PIZAN: A COMPARISON OF TWO FEMALE INTELLECTUALS WHO LIVED FOUR CENTURIES APART.
- Authors
MUZZARELLI, MARIA GIUSEPPINA
- Abstract
A few years before the French Revolution, Louise de Keralio (1758-1822) set to work on the challenging task of compiling a collection of the best French writings by women. A great deal of space in the collection was devoted to Christine de Pizan (1365-1431) the first lay female professional intellectual. This essay will focus on Louise's assessment of Christine's historical work in her biography of Charles V (Le Livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V). In her assessment, Louise argues that historical work is a particularly difficult genre and she describes Christine's writing style as effective and pleasant but criticises her omissions and inaccuracies. Louise recognises that Christine has been much used as a source, often as a primary source, and has frequently not been cited as such. She does not ignore the difficulties which Christine encountered as a woman in her scholarly work but appears to attach little importance to these. Louise argues that Christine could have done better, even in the specific and difficult field of historical study. Important here is the fact that such a major work, carried out at the request of the king's brother with the intention of preserving his memory for posterity, had been commissioned from a woman. This alone should have acted as a brake on Louise's criticisms but despite this, she does not hesitate to find Christine lacking in aspects of her work which would have been unthinkable at the time even for a man.
- Subjects
FRENCH literature; LITERARY criticism; LITERATURE; WOMEN authors; DE Keralio, Louise; CHRISTINE, de Pisan, ca. 1364-ca. 1431; FRENCH Revolution, 1789-1799; FRENCH revolutionary literature; CHARLES V, King of France, 1338-1380
- Publication
Imago Temporis. Medium Aevum, 2011, Vol 5, p101
- ISSN
1888-3931
- Publication type
Article