FOURTEENTHCENTURY:BEFOREandAFTER From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, in particular from the thirteenth century to the sixteenth some events held significance for philosophy and guided cultural change: Columbus's discovery of a new world, Copernicus's new theories of the universe, Gutenberg's invention of the press, the Protestant Reformation, and such artistic achievements as those of Dante and Michelangelo. Change fostered both new opportunities for the education of women whose families could afford private tutors and an unfriendly attitude toward educated women. But such women as the French Christine de Pisan (1364-1429) in the Medieval fourteenth century and Marie le Jars de Goumay (1565-1645) in the Renaissance sixteenth century protested against this attitude. While the canon included no philosophy by women, women contributed to philosophy, nonetheless. The rationale for inveighing restrictions on women was that women's reason was weak, so to teach women rhetoric would be dangerous, for it would empower the weak-witted. In addition, for women to speak in public before an audience of men would put women's modesty in jeopardy. Most women scholars confined their scholarly activity to letters and written dialogues. Fifteenth century Isotta Nogarola who addressed students at the University of Padua was one of the exceptions. Laura Cereta listed Nogarola and Cassandra Fedele of her own day among those many who she recalls one after another had provided women with a little acknowledged scholarly heritage. Luisa Sigea of Spain and Portugal, a linguist and political philosopher, and Tullia d' Aragona of Italy wrote philosophical dialogues in the sixteenth century on ethics and on love respectively. Curiosity about the world led philosophers from a search to establish truth by proofs toward skeptical inquiry, and it guided Christian humanists toward classical humanism. Yet mysticism was also given rise. Legitimated in the works of Master Eckhardt, professor in Paris, it gave women a voice in the works of thirteenth and fourteenth century nuns and Beguines. The Beguines, an uncloistered religiously inspired woman's movement began about the year 1210 in Liege, Belgium. Generally the Beguines lived in community or in small cottages behind a wall. At times threatened as heretics, they were finally disbanded by the Reformation.' Beatrice of Nazareth (1200-68), a Cistercian, interpreted the 1 An interesting contrast to Christine de Pi san's allegories are those of the Beguine Marguerite Porete, who was burned at the stake.(1993, Marguerite Porete: The mirror ofsimple souls. Ellen L. Babinsky, tr. and Robert E. Lerner, New York: Pau1ist Press). For background note: Peter Dronke, 1984, Women writers of the middle ages. Cambridge UP; Ernest W. McDonell, 1954, The Beguines and Beghards in medieval culture, New Jersey: Rutgers UP. 74 Fourteenth Century mystical visions of her youth in Holland in contrast to most mystics by focusing on reason rather than on divine love. Mechtild of Magdeburg ( 121 0-97), a Beguine in Saxony before becoming a Benedictine at Gertrude's Helfta, manifested interest in the relation of sensation to cognition in her The Flowing Light of the Godhead. In this work she emphasized transcendence of self through "active seeking of the soul" in a joyous love between her and her creator, defined as a trinity of "power, wisdom and goodness"- a "flowing" love being the source of Mechtild's ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. 2 Hadewych of Antwerp, another early thirteenth century mystic, wrote Visions, and in the twentieth of her Letters, gave a systematic accounting of her mysticism. 3 Her poem "All Things Confine," a translation from the Dutch, a language she cultivated, describes her metaphysical outlook: All things/Have I grasped/ In everlasting time. I After the unshapenl Crowd me in!/ I am so wide! 4 Mysticism continued in the fourteenth century with Birgitta of Sweden ( 1302-73), who developed the earliest Mario logy, one that identified Mary as "Wisdom," as an active rather than passive force. Catherine of Siena (1347-80) developed her philosophy of love of God into a way of life. Anchorite Julian of Norwich's (1342) Book of Showings presented meditations on sixteen encounters in which Julian experienced God as her "Sovereign Teacher" who "wills us to know." One meditation asserts "As truly as God is our Father, so truly is God our Mother," reaffirming the feminine image of Anselm of Canterbury and Bernard of Clairvaux.5 Christine de Pisan, the representative woman philosopher of this period, initiated the vigorous debate, Querelles des Femmes, instigated by remarks about women in the Romance of the Rose, that began in the fourteenth century and continued until the Renaissance. 6 Born in Venice, Christine was raised in Paris at 2 Frances Beer, 89 (1992, Women and mystical experience in the middle ages. Woodbridge, England: Boydell, and Joan Gibson, 124 (Mechtild of Magdeburg, 1989, M.E.Waithe, ed., A history of women philosophers, vol. 3/500-1600, Dordrecht: Kluwer: 115-140). Note: Writing in Low German rather than Latin, Mechtild used the vernacular in advance of Dante and Chaucer. 3 Cornelia Wolfskeel, 155 (Hadewych of Antwerp, 1989, M.E.Waithe, ed. A history of women philosophers, v. 2/500-1600, Dordrecht: Kluwer: 141-165). 4 Marie Cosman, 89 (1989, A medieval woman's mirror, the treasury of the city of ladies. tr. C. C. Willard, New York: Persea). l Elizabeth N. Evasdaughter, 219 (1989, Julian of Norwich, M.E. Waithe. ed. A history of women philosophers, v. 2/500-1600, Dordrecht: Kluwer: 191-222.) • De Pisan began the feminist debate of her century, the "quarrel of the Rose," in 1399 by refuting the debasement of women in the poem The Romance of the Rose in her Letter to the God ofLove. Because one of its authors, Jean de Meun, included the story of Heloise and Abelard (64 lines) to support an argument of the poem, Heloise's story was known to her. Fourteenth Century 75 the court of Charles V. Ironically her mother opposed education for her at a time when Dorothea Bucca and Baptista Malatesta held positions as philosophers at the University of Bologna. Her father, however, ensured Christine a limited education. This was fortunate and doubly ironic, for beginning at age twenty-five de Pisan became the first French woman to make a living by writing. With her husband's death, she was left to raise two children and support her mother and niece. While writing on such subjects as military arms, she managed to publish works on Alluding to St. Augustine's City of God, de Pisan's Book of the City ofLadies fonnulates an feminist epistemology when three ladies: Reason, Rectitude and Justice, build a city for women. Maureen Quilligan notes the inventive means de Pisan employed to give women authority in this allegory, for example, having Reason correct misogynist arguments and her alertness in being the second person to mention Dante in France (1991. 7he allegory offemale authority: Christine de Pizan's Cite des dames. Ithaca, New York: Cornell UP). De Pisan's secular version A Medieval Woman's Mirror (Le livre de trois virtus) develops an ethics that confronts the social realities of women in responsible positions in their attempt to lead virtuous lives. In 7he treasury of the city of ladies by giving advice to women in authority, Jenny A. Redfern claims de Pisan legitimizes "women's words" and "affinns women's worthiness'' 74 (Christine de Pisan and 7he treasure of the city of ladies, 1995. Reclaiming rhetorica: Women in the rhetorical tradition. A.A. Lunsford, ed. University of Pittsburgh Press). Les Ensignments Moraux and Les Proverbs Moraux, ethical advice for her son, were translated and printed by Caxton. Her last work, a poetic tribute to Joan of Arc, was written in 1429 a year before Joan was burned at the stake. Engaging in the wider philosophical issues, de Pisan wrote broadly on John of Salisbury, Pythagoras, the Neo-Platonist's emphasis on cosmology, commented on Aristotle's Book I of the Metaphysics in her Christian vision, and drew on Seneca in 7he treasury and Boethius in her Le chemin de long etude. Other sources researched include: Christine de Pisan. 1977. Ditie de Jehanne D'Arc. A. J. Kennedy and K. Varty, eds., Oxford: Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature. Dahlberg, C. 1971.The debate ofthe romance rose, Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP. Edwards, E. J. 1992 Reinterpreting Christine de Pis an. University of Georgia. Ferrante, J. M. 1975. Woman as image in medieval literature: From the tweljih century to Dante. New York: Columbia UP. Fields, R. J., ed. 1980. Lechevalierauxdames (1477).Paris: A.G. Nizet. Forham, K. L. 1992. Polycracy, obligation, and revolt: The body politic in John of Salisbury and Christine de Pizan: 33-52 (Margaret Brabant, ed. Politics. gender. and genre: 7he political thought of Christine de Pisan. Boulder: Westview). Green, K. 1994, Christine de Pisan and Thomas Hobbes, 7he Philosophical Quarterly (October):456- 75. McLeod, Glenda. 1991. 7he reception of Christine de Pisan from the Jifteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Edwin Mellen Press. McKeon, R.P. 1930. Selections from medieval philosophers. New York: Charles Scribner's. Robbins, H. W. and C.W. Dunn. 1962. 7he romance ofthe rose. New York: E.P. Dutton. Shennan, C.R. 1995. Imaging Aristotle: verbal and visual representation in the fourteenth century France. University of California Press: Berkeley. Warner, M. 1982. 7he Book ofthe city ofladies, tr. Earl Jeffrey Richards. New York: Persea. Willard, C. C. 1984. Christine de Pizan. her life and works. New York: Persea. ___ . 1994 7he Writings ofChristine de Pizan. New York: Persea. Yenal, E. 1982. Christine de Pisan. A bibliography ofwriting by her and about her. Scarecrow. 76 Fourteenth Century feminist philosophy, ethics, epistemology and politics utilizing profound rhetorical inventions.