On the Political Body (Cambridge History of Political Thought Original Series Facsimile Edition)

Author: (French) Christine de Pizan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-07-01
Features: Christine de Pizan was born in Venice and raised in Paris at the court of Charles V of France. Widowed at the age of twenty-five, she turned to writing as a source of comfort and income, and went on to produce a remarkable series of books on subjects including poetry, chivalry, warfare, religion, and philosophy. She is considered to be France's first female professional writer. This is the first translation into modern English of Christine de Pizan's major political work, The Book of the Body Politic. Written during the Hundred Years' War, it discusses the education and behavior appropriate for princes, nobility, and common people, so that all classes can understand their responsibilities toward society as a whole. A product of a time of civil unrest, The Book of the Body Politic offers a medieval political theory of interdependence and social responsibility from the perspective of an educated woman.
KATE LANGDON FOR HAN is Associate Professor of Political Science at Siena College. She is the author of a number of articles on the development of medieval political thought and, with Cary J. Nederman, of Medieval Political Theory: A Reader – The Quest for the Body Politic, 1100-1400 (1993).