FPUL Small Talk with Renate Kosinski: “Christine de Pizan from Venice to Paris to Princeton: The Trajectory of a Medieval Writer and Entrepreneur”
On Wednesday, September 18, the Friends of PUL’s own Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski will reveal the story of Venice-born French writer Christine de Pizan (c. 1364-c. 1430). Raised in an intellectual milieu – her father was the court physician of the French King Charles V – she became a scholar interested in ancient and contemporary history and politics, the role of women in society, as well as in some religious topics. De Pizan was one of the most productive and versatile writers of the late Middle Ages. She wrote her own manuscripts and also directed a busy manuscript workshop in Paris. She was the first (and for a long time the only) woman writer to live from her writing by seeking commissions and cultivating wealthy patrons.
De Pizan’s corpus of around 40 works comprises poems about love and widowhood, political allegories, a royal biography, polemics in defense of women's intellectual and moral worth, didactic and devotional works, and – as her last achievement – a famous poem about Joan of Arc, her contemporary. The rediscovery of de Pizan through the 1982 English translation of “The Book of the City of Ladies” (1405) by Earl Jeffrey Richards, during his time as a Princeton Ph.D. student, changed the field of medieval and feminist studies in the U.S.
Current Friends of PUL members are invited to attend in person. Registration is required.
The presentation will also be available by Zoom for non-members.
Please select the appropriate registration type below. Due to limited capacity, membership status will be checked after registration.
- Date:
- Wednesday, September 18, 2024
- Time:
- 4:00pm - 5:00pm
- Location:
- Center for Modern Aging (formerly PSRC), 101 Poor Farm Road, Princeton, NJ 08540
- Audience:
- Friends of Princeton University Library Student Friends of Princeton University Library
- Categories:
- Events Friends of the Princeton University Library Event
Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski's work encompasses medieval French literature and religious history. Blumenfeld-Kosinski received her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures at Princeton University. As a specialist in medieval French literature, she has varied research interests: the history of cesarean birth for “Not of Woman Born” (1990); saints lives and particularly on holy women in the later middle ages; and the literature surrounding the Great Schism of the Western Church (1378-1417). Other major areas of interest are the role that classical heritage plays in medieval culture and Christine de Pizan (1364-1431), the first professional woman writer in Europe.
Blumenfeld-Kosinski has taught at Columbia University and at the University of Pittsburgh, and was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in 2021. She served as President of the Medieval Academy of America in 2020-21, and has written, edited, and translated many books and articles.
This event is part of the Friends of the Princeton University Library Small Talks Series.
View recordings of previous events.
Join the Friends of the Princeton University Library. Friends receive a newsletter, two issues of the Princeton University Library Chronicle, and are invited to participate in a variety of activities and events, including exhibition openings, lectures and talks, gala dinners, workshops on topics such as preservation, bookbinding, and print collecting.
To request disability-related accommodations for this event, please contact pulcomm@princeton.edu at least 3 working days in advance.