France in The Book of the Body Politic of Christine de Pizan: Sovereign, Subject, and Country

Abstract

Christine de Pizan, born in Venice in 1367 and spent her life in France, is considered to be the first professional female writer of the Middle Ages. Thanks to the connections bequeathed to her by her father, Thomas of Pisa, who served as the court astrologer of the King of France, and her husband, Etienne, the royal secretary of Charles V, she gained a certain reputation as a court writer and commissioned by aristocratic families. However, apart from copying and writing commissioned books, she also left many both verse and prose works behind. Christine, who stood out in the fight against misogyny in medieval social gender, left a well-deserved mark on European history with her struggle and work on this issue. Although she came to France from Venice at a young age, Christine felt connected to France and to the kingdom, which in her mind meant France during her time, and wrote down her views on politics. The subject of this study is the ideas of Christine de Pizan, a versatile writer who left her mark on the intellectual infrastructure of the transition from the Late Medieval Ages to the Renaissance, in her work Livre du corps de policie [The Book of the Body Politic] about the sovereign, subject and the relations between them. The fact that “France”, which is at the centre of these relations, is handled by Christine as a concept that is the source of national identity rather than being a space will be evaluated in the axis of the meaning she attributes to it. The study will also focus on the main lines of Christine’s own life, which was the source and shape of the development of political theory, and the political climate in which she lived.

Keywords

• Christine de Pizan
• The Book of the Body Politic
• France
• political theory

Pisalı Christine’nin Siyasî Beden’inde Fransa: Hükümdar, Tebaa ve Ülke

Abstract

1367 yılında Venedik’te dünyaya gelen ve hayatını Fransa’da geçiren Pisalı Christine, Orta Çağ’ın ilk profesyonel kadın yazarı olarak kabul edilir. Fransa kralının saray astroloğu olarak görev yapmış bulunan babası Pisalı Thomas ve V. Charles’ın kraliyet sekreterliği makamında bulunmuş eşi Etienne’nin kendisine miras bıraktığı bağlantılar sayesinde, aristokrat aileler tarafından görevlendirilen bir saray yazarı olarak belirli bir üne kavuşmuştur. Ancak kendisine ısmarlanan kitap kopyalama ve yazma işlerinin dışında da gerek nazım gerek nesir türünde pek çok eser yazmıştır. Orta Çağ toplumsal cinsiyetinde kadın düşmanlığı ile mücadelede öne çıkan Christine, bu konudaki mücadele ve çalışmalarıyla Avrupa tarihinde haklı bir iz bırakmıştır. Fransa’ya küçük yaşta Venedik’ten gelmiş olmasına rağmen kendisini Fransa’ya ve yaşadığı dönemde, onun zihin dünyasında Fransa demek olan kraliyete bağlı hisseden Christine, siyaset üzerine görüşlerini de kaleme almıştır. Bu çalışmanın konusu Geç Orta Çağ’dan Rönesans’a geçiş sürecinin düşünsel altyapısında iz bırakmış çok yönlü bir yazar olan Pisalı Christine’nin Livre du corps de policie [Siyasî Beden] adlı eserindeki hükümdar, tebaa ve ikisi arasındaki ilişkilere dair fikirleridir. Bu ilişkilerin odağında yer alan “Fransa”nın Christine tarafından bir mekân olmaktan ziyade ulus kimliğine kaynaklık eden bir kavram olarak ele alınışı, ona yüklediği anlam ekseninde değerlendirilecektir. Çalışmada ayrıca Christine’nin siyaset teorisinin gelişimine kaynaklık eden ve onu şekillendiren kendi hayatı ve bu hayatın içinde geçtiği siyasî iklimin ana hatları üzerinde durulacaktır.

Keywords

• Pisalı Christine
• Siyasî Beden
• Fransa
• Siyaset teorisi

References

1. Ackerman Smoller, Laura. History, Prophecy, and the Stars, The Christian Astrology of Pierre d’Ailly, 1350-1420, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994.
2. Adams, Tracy. Christine de Pizan and the Fight for France, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2014.
3. Alkan, Halit. “Kişileştirme ve Didaktik Yaklaşım: Gülün Romansı,” Artuklu İnsan ve Toplum Bilim Dergisi 6, S.2, (2021):32-53.
4. Bloch, Marc. Feodal Toplum, çev. Mehmet Ali Kılıçbay, Ankara: Savaş Yayınları, 1982.
5. Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Renate. “Enemies Within/Enemies Without: Threats to the Body Politic in Christine de Pizan.” içinde Civil Strife and National Identity in The Middle Ages, ed. Paul Maurice Clogan, Maryland: Rowman&Littlefield Publishers, 1999.
6. Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Renate. Poets, Saints, and Visionaries of the Great Schism, 1378-1417, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006.
7. Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Renate. “The Conseptualization and Imagery of the Great Schism.” içinde A Companion to The Great Western Schism (1378-1417), ed. Joëlle Rollo-Koster, Thomas M. Izbicki, Leiden: Brill, 2009.
8. Broad, Jacqueline, Karen Green. A History of Women’s Political Thought in Europe, 1400-1700. Cambrigde, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

9. Brown-Grant, Rosalinda. Christine de Pizan and The Moral Defence of Women, Reading Beyond Gender, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
10. Christine de Pizan. “Christine de Pizan to Jean de Montreuil 8 June-July 1401.” içinde Debate of the “Romance of the Rose”, ed. ve çev. David F. Hult, Chicago-Londra: The University of Chicago Press, 2010.
11. Christine de Pizan. The Book of the Body Politic, ed. ve çev. Kate Langdon Forhan, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
12. Classen, Albrecht. “What Do They Mean for Us Today? Medieval Literature and Philosophy at the Ende of the Twentieth Century. Boethius, Abelard, John of Salisbury, and Christine de Pizan”, Mediaevistic 12, (1999):185-208.
13. Cobban, A.B. The Medieval Universities, their Development and Organization, Londra: Methuen, 1975.
14. Cohen, Esther. The Crossroads of Justice, Law and Culture in Late Medieval France. Leiden-New York: Brill, 1993.
15. Cooper-Davis, Charlotte. Christine de Pizan, Life, Work, Legacy, Londra: Reaktion Books, 2021.
16. Daileader, Philip. “Local Experiences of the Great Western Schism.” içinde A Companion to The Great Western Schism (1378-1417), ed. Joëlle Rollo-Koster, Thomas M. Izbicki, Leiden: Brill, 2009.
17. Daileader, Philip. Saint Vincent Ferrer, His World and Life, Religion and Society in Late Medieval Europe, Londra: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
18. Delogu, Daisy. Allegorical Bodies: Power and Gender in Late Medieval France, Toronto, Buffalo, Londra: University of Toronto Press, 2015.
19. Delogu, Daisy. “The King’s Two Daughters: Isabelle of France and the University of Paris, Fille du Roy,” Republics of Letters: A Journal for the Study of Knowledge, Politics, and the Arts 3, S. 2, Kasım 15, 2013, http://arcade.stanford.edu/rofl/king%E2%80%99s-two-daughters-isabelle-france-and-university-paris -fille-du-roy-0.
20. Desmond, Marilyn R. “Christine de Pizan,” içinde Women and Gender in Medieval Europe, An Encyclopedia, ed. Margaret Schaus, New York, Londra: Routledge, 2006.
21. Dudash, Susan J. “Christine de Pizan and the ‘Menu peuple’,” Speculum 78, S.3, (2003): 788-831.
22. Ferguson, Margaret W. Dido’s Dauhters, Literacy, Gender, and Empire in Early Modern England and France, Chicago ve Londra: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.
23. Firnhaber-Baker, Justine. The Jacquerie of 1358, A French Peasants Revolt, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
24. Gabriel, Astrik L. “The Educational Ideas of Christine de Pisan”, Journal of History of Ideas 16, S. 1 (Ocak 1955): 3-21.
25. Gibbons, Rachel. “‘The Limbs Fail When the Hear is Removed’: Reactions of the Body Politic of France to the Madness of Charles VI (1380-1422).” içinde The Image and Perception of Monarchy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. Sean McGlynn, Elena Woodcare, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014.
26. Guynn, Noah D. “Authorship and Sexual/Allegorical Violence in Jean de Meun’s “Roman de la rose””, Speculum 79, S.3, (Temmuz 2004): 628-659.
27. Gülcü, Tarık Ziyad. “Ortaçağ’da Hristiyan Felsefesi, Aşk Öğretisi ve Edebiyat: Gülün Romansı”, Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi 55, S.2, (2015): 271-286.
28. Hanley, Sarah. “Mapping Rulership in the French Body Politic: Political Identity, Public Law and the “Kings’s One Body,” Historical Reflections 23, S. 2, (1997): 129-149.
29. Hobbins, Daniel. Authorship and Publicity Before Print, Jean Gerson and the Transformation of Late Medieval Learning, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.
30. Hochner, Nicole. “A Sixteenth-Century Manifesto for Social Mobility or the Body Politic Metaphor in Mutation,” History of Political Thought, 23/4 (2012): 607-626.
31. Hult, David F. “The Roman de la Rose, Christine de Pizan, and the Querelle des Femmes,” içinde The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women’s Writing, ed. Carolyn Dinshaw ve David Wallace, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
32. Hutchison, Emily J. “‘Pour le bien du roy et de son royaume’: Burgundian Propaganda under John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, 1405-1419.” Yayınlanmamış Doktora Tezi., University of York, 2006.
33. Kelly, Joan. “Early Feminist Theory and the ‘Querelle des Femmes’, 1400-1789”, Signs 8, S. 1, (1982): 4-28.
34. Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane. “Kadınları Dahil Etmek,” içinde Kadınların Tarihi, C. II, Ortaçağ’ın Sessizliği, Ed. Georges Duby, Michelle Perrot, Bölüm Editörü: Christiane Klapiscj-Zuber, Çev. Ahmet Fethi, İstanbul, İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2005: 11-19.
35. Krueger, Roberta L. “Female Voices in convents, courts, and households: the French Middle Ages,” A History of Women’s Writing in France, ed. Sonya Stephens, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
36. Kruegger, Roberta. “Christine’s Anxious Lessons,Gender, Morality, and the Social Order from the Enseignemens to the Avision.” içinde Christine de Pizan and the Categories of Difference, ed. Marilynn Desmond, Minneapolis, Londra: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.
37. Langdon Forhan, Kate. The Political Theory of Christine de Pizan, Londra, New York: Routledge, 2002.
38. Larrington, Carolyne. Women and Writing in Medieval Europe, A Sourcebook, Londra, New York: Routledge, 2005.
39. Luongo, F. Thomas. The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena, Ithaca, Londra: Cornell University Press, 2006.
40. Margolis, Nadia. “Christine de Pizan: The Poetess as Historian.” Journal of History of Ideas 47, S. 3, (1986): 361-375.
41. McWebb, Christine. “Heresy and Debate: Reading the ‘Roman de La Rose’” Aevum, S. 77, (2003): 545-556.
42. Moretti, Franco. Tarih ile Edebiyat Arasında Burjuva. çev. Eren Buğlalılar, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2015.
43. Muir, Lynette R. Literature and Society in Medieval France: The Mirror and the Image, 1100-1500, New York: Macmillan Education, 1985.
44. Murphy, Neil. The Captivity of John II, 1356-60, The Royal Image in Later Medieval England and France, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
45. Nederman, Cary J. Lineages of European Political Thought, Explorations along the Medieval/Modern Divide from John of Salisbury to Hegel, Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009.
46. Pirenne, Henri. Kavimler Göçünden XVI. Yüzyıla Kadar Avrupa Tarihi. çev. Sinan Akbaytürk, İstanbul: Selenge, 2022.
47. Richards, Earl Jeffrey. “Christine de Pizan, Tolerance and the Plea for Equal Protection under the Law: Revisiting the Question of Her Attitudes toward Hierarchical Justice, the Jews, Widows, and the Rape Victims,” Haziran 16, 2023. https://www.academia.edu/9473432/ Christine_de_Pizan_ Tolerance_and_the_Plea_for_Equal_Protection_under_the_Law_Revisiting_the_Question_of_Her_Attitudes_toward_Hierarchical_Justice_the_Jews_Widows_and_Rape_Victims_A_Close_Reading_of_the_Livre_des_fais_et_bonnes_meurs_du_sage_roy_Charles_V_1_23.
48. Richards, Earl Jeffrey. “French Cultural Nationalism and Christian Universalism in the Works of Christine de Pizan.” içinde Politics, Gender and Genre, The Political Thought of Christine de Pizan, ed. Margaret Brabant, New York: Routledge, 2019.
49. Rigby, Stephen H. “Justifying Inequality: Peasants in Medieval Ideology.” içinde Peasants and Lords in The Medieval English Economy, Essays in Honour of Bruce M. S. Campbell, ed. Maryanne Kowaleski vd., Turnhout: Brepols, 2015.
50. Rigby, Stephen H. “The Body Politic in the Social and Political Thought of Christine de Pizan (Abridged Version). Part I: Reciprocity, Hierarchy and Political Authority”, Cahiers de Recherces Médiévales et Humanistes 24, (2013): 462-483.
51. State, Paul F. A Brief History of France, New York: Facts on File Publishing, 2011.
52. Sherman, Claire Richter. Imaging Aristotle, Verbal and Visual Representation in Fourteenth-Century France, Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995.
53. Suzuki, Mihoko. Antigone’s Example, Early Modern Women’s Political Writing in Times of Civil War from Christine de Pizan to Helen Maria Williams, Cham: Palgrave Mcmillan, 2022.
54. Uygun, Oktay. İbn Haldun’un Toplum ve Devlet Kuramı. İstanbul: On İki Levha Yayıncılık, 2008.
55. Vecchio, Silvana. “İyi Karı,” içinde Kadınların Tarihi, C. II, Ortaçağ’ın Sessizliği, Ed. Georges Duby, Michelle Perrot, Bölüm Editörü: Christiane Klapiscj-Zuber, Çev. Ahmet Fethi, İstanbul, İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2005: 106-133.
56. Veenstra, Jan. Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France, Text and Context of Laures Pignon’s Contre les Devineurs (1411), Leiden, New York: Brill, 1998.
57. Waithe, Mary Ellen. “Roswitha of Gandersheim, Christine Pisan, Margaret More Roper and Teresa of Avila.” içinde A History of Women Philosophers, C. II, Medieval, Renaissance and Enlightenment Women Philosophers A.D. 500-1600, ed. Mary Ellen Waithe, Dordecht, Boston, Londra: Kluwer Academic Publications, 1989.
58. Walters, Lori J. “Gerson and Christine, Poets.” içinde Poetry, Knowledge and Community in Late Medieval France, ed. Rebecca Dixon ve Finn E. Sinclair, Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2008.
59. Walters, Lori. “Christine de Pizan, Primat, and the “noble nation françoise””, Cahiers Recherches Médiévales 9, (2002):237-246.
60. Willard, Charity Cannon. “Christine de Pizan on the Art of Warfare.” içinde Christine de Pizan and the Categories of Difference, ed. Marilynn Desmond, Minneapolis, Londra: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.
61. Willard, Charity Cannon. “The Franco-Italian Professional Writer: Christine de Pizan.” içinde Medieval Women Writers, ed. Katharina M. Wilson, Atina: The University of Georgia Press, 1984.