Christine de Pizan (ca. 1364-ca. 1421) is Europe’s first professional woman writer. She wrote an astonishing body of work in many genres, including lyric poetry, allegorical dream visions, history, political treatises, and biography.



This Norton Critical Edition presents selections from eighteen of Christine’s major works in fresh, contemporary translations. Each text is fully annotated and is accompanied by an introduction placing it in the context of Christine’s oeuvre and tracing the literary developments and the historical situation of the period. The Book of Fortune’s Transformation and The Book of the City of Ladies include manuscript illuminations.

"Criticism" collects seven important interpretations of the literary and historical aspects of Christine’s work, by Jacqueline Cerquiglini, Beatrice Gottlieb, Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Sheila Delany, Patricia A. Phillippy, Joel Blanchard, and Kevin Brownlee. A Selected Bibliography is included.