Christine de Pizan 1364 – 1430

Christine de Pizan was a 14th and 15th-century Italian-French author and one of the earliest professional women writers in European history. Widowed in her mid-twenties, she supported herself, her three children, and her mother by writing prolifically across genres, producing over forty works in poetry, history, biography, and political philosophy. Her 1405 work The Book of the City of Ladies is regarded as one of the foundational texts of European feminist political thought, defending women against the misogynistic attacks of a long male literary tradition through an extended catalogue of historical and mythological female figures of virtue and learning. Her later work The Book of the Three Virtues developed practical advice for women across social classes. Her contemporary Treasure of the City of Ladies remains an important source on late medieval social life.