Published in 1405, Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies is considered a landmark text for feminist rights. Structured as an allegory in which three ladies depicting Reason, Justice, and Rectitude call upon the author while in her study, the work is one of many defenses of women composed by de Pizan.
The trope of an author having a conversation with such allegorical characters was a popular one throughout the medieval period and provided a mechanism by which she could most effectively draw upon existing literary texts to refute the traditional portrayal of women in society. Moreover, The Book of the City of Ladies tackles the subject of the historical perception of women by upbraiding the historians whose texts have omitted the contributions of women in society, as well as the long-term effects of women's efforts in taking up important causes.
For most of its publication history, The Book of the City of Ladies was ignored as an important work in the canon of feminist literature because it was often considered to be a rough translation of Boccaccio’s Concerning Famous Women. Closer study has debunked this theory, as Boccaccio introduces women of both admirable and infamous qualities who belong exclusively to pagan literature. For her part, de Pizan expands her work to include Christian figures of moral righteousness and virtue.
