Christine de Pizan e la rilettura della tradizione

Le Livre de la Cité des Dames, written in 1405, continue the program of rewriting those books, which Cristine began in the debate on Jean de Meung’s view of women in the Roman de la Rose. In building her city of ladies as a challenge to the book of men, however, Christine turned to the work of a male writer for her source, Boccaccio’s De claris mulieribus. The relationship between the two writers is complicated by Christine paradoxical reliance on Boccaccio’s text, and his authority as a male author, in her attempt to refute the traditional representation of women by male authors and write the history of women from her special and revolutionary perspective as a woman. Thus, while Christine de Pizan uses Boccaccio as a source and refers to him as a witness in support of her claims, at the same time she is involved in a revision and correction of his conception of women’s capabilities. Therefore, she aims to defend the position of women in society, which she believes has been obscured and misrepresented by male tradition. Keywords: women’s history and writing gender – women and power (political, social and economical) - rewriting of the literary tradition Parole chiave: storia delle donne e scrittura di genere – donne e potere (politico, sociale ed economico) – riscrittura della tradizione letterari