Nikolai WandruszkaChristine de Pizan

About this book deutschenglish

Christine de Pizan (1365–1429) is now world-famous as a medieval poet in Paris. Born in Venice, the family of her father, a renowned astrologer at the French royal court, originally came from Pizzano near Bologna. Christines own family and her family of origin are examined from the perspective of household, family structure and larger kinship groups (clan, lignage).

For this purpose, the methods of historical family research are used, specifically prosopography, genealogy and anthroponymy. The aim is the social classification of the family of origin in medieval society in town and country (Contado) of Bologna. Social and geographic mobility, economic growth of urban centers are illuminated with the development of the de Pizzano "clan" from rural landowners to landed gentry as well as urban burghers who can be described as members of a proto-patriciate. The focus is thus on the inurbamento of rural nobility in the city of Bologna, especially the capitans (capitanei) and their partial integration into new urban elites: from the milites and magnates of the 13th century to the papal patriciate of the 15th/16th centuries.

This allows the relevance of Christine's linguistic, national and social background to parts of her work to be examined. For example, Christine's story of Novella, daughter of a Bolognese professor of law, who is said to have represented her father at his lectures, is checked for reality or fictionality. In addition to the real parts of this story, it also turns out that Christine's father told this story in defense against misogynistic statements. This sheds new light on Christine's struggle against misogyny: she already knew the argument from her childhood home. Her father appears not only as a general promoter of his daughter's education, but also as a man who certainly advocated these new ideas himself and shared them with his daughter.