Post by Tamrin on Sept 28, 2008 9:11:53 GMT 10
Christine de Pisan (1365-c.1430), practiced Freemasonry in a speculative sense (as a vehicle of moral instruction), in various French courts. Three of her manuscripts, The Order of the Rose, The City of Ladies and The Three Virtues deal with the involvement and suitability of women in Orders like, but preceding, modern, speculative Freemasonry. In The City of Ladies, Christine presents an allegory in which she builds an ideal city, specifically for worthy women, where they may be safe from slander. In doing so, she is assisted by Reason, Rectitude and Justice, personified in the allegory by three queens. Therein (McLeod, p.127), we read:
E. McLeod, 1976, The Order of the Rose: The Life and Ideas of Christine de Pizan, Chatto & Windus, London
C. de Pizan, 1983, The Book of the City of Ladies, Picador, London
C. de Pisan, 1985, The Treasure of the City of Ladies or Book of the Three Virtues, Penguin, London
M. Quilligan, 1991, The Allegory of Female Authority: Christine de Pizan’s Cite des Dames, Cornell University Press, Ithaca
[After she had dug] … a great ditch for the foundations … Reason tells her she must now take her trowel and her plumb and begin to lay the foundation of the walls. The work goes on apace and by the end of the first part of the book the cloister or surrounding wall of the city is built and Rectitude takes over. She shows Christine the beautiful stones she had selected for the masonry of the buildings, tells her to temper her mortar and shows her how to use the rod or line, which is her personal symbol, to help set the rows straight. By the end of the second part all the buildings – palaces, streets and places – are completed, so that all Christine has to do with the help of Justice is to add the high towers and battlements.References:
E. McLeod, 1976, The Order of the Rose: The Life and Ideas of Christine de Pizan, Chatto & Windus, London
C. de Pizan, 1983, The Book of the City of Ladies, Picador, London
C. de Pisan, 1985, The Treasure of the City of Ladies or Book of the Three Virtues, Penguin, London
M. Quilligan, 1991, The Allegory of Female Authority: Christine de Pizan’s Cite des Dames, Cornell University Press, Ithaca
"Masons constructing the city wall" (detail).
Collected Works of Christine de Pisan, MS. Harley 4431, f..290,
French 15th century, British Library, London
Collected Works of Christine de Pisan, MS. Harley 4431, f..290,
French 15th century, British Library, London