Context

The Book of the Queen is a highly unusual manuscript for the time period it was written, given that the author was a woman. Not only was she a woman, but she was a successful author in her lifetime. The time when this manuscript was written falls towards the end of the Middle Ages, but before the Renaissance period. It was not for many centuries before female authors were published, let alone able to support themselves with their writing. This illustration shows Christine presenting the manuscript to Queen Isabeaux of Bavaria.

"To ensure a collection fit for the Queen, Christine engaged artists of the highest quality. The decoration is lavish; the miniatures, the majority by the Master of the Cité des Dames, are complemented by numerous decorated initials, borders, rubrics and paragraph marks" (British Library).

This is one of the fifty manuscripts of Christine's works that were produced by her Paris scriptorium (basically a production center for manuscripts). These were completed between 1399-1418 and were commissioned by various patrons. Christine's professional and intellectual achievements were extraordinary for her time, as was her awareness of the constructedness of social categories of gender as it applied to her own case (Dinshaw & Wallace, p. 193, 2003).

Highly unusual for her time she believed that women were as capable of learning as men and should be entitled to equal access to education. One of her works in The Book of the Queen is The Book of the City of Ladies. In this book she is a strong advocate for women and provides positive portraits of historical figures.

This work was prompted by her anger at the portrayal of women in a well known poem from the Middle Ages entitled Roman de la Rose. The poem was comprised of 21,000 lines. It was considered a classic work for several hundred years. Also, it was a must to read for any educated person during Christine's time. Guillaume de Lorris was the original author, but after his death it was finished by Jean de Meun. He portrays women as deceivers out to snare men. Her initial attacks on the book were done through a series of poems. As she grew more confident as a writer she wrote the aforementioned book in defense of women.