The Book of the Body Politic
Angus J Kennedy author Christine de Pizan author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Iter Press
Published:2nd Dec '21
Should be back in stock very soon
The first political treatise written by a woman.
Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the Body Politic is the first political treatise written by a woman. It not only advises the prince, but nobles, knights, and common people as well. It promotes the ideals of interdependence and social responsibility. Rooted in the mindset of medieval Christendom, The Book of the Body Politic heralds the humanism of the Renaissance, highlighting classical culture and Roman civic virtues. This new edition and translation offers a faithful rendering of Christine de Pizan’s writing, as well as a thorough contextualization of her career as a political writer at the end of the Middle Ages in France. The Book of the Body Politic resounds to this day, urging for the need for probity in public life and the importance of responsibilities and rights.
“Kennedy’s new edition and translation of Christine’s Livre du corps de policie offers a copiously annotated introduction which covers Christine as political writer in this and other treatises; her extraordinary career as a woman writer claiming a voice equal to that of her male contemporaries; and the manuscripts of her Book, its dating, its historico-political context, and its sources. The translation, which highlights, in Kennedy’s words, ‘Christine’s uncompromising, labyrinthine, muscular style,’ closely follows the words and the sentence structure of the original. Together, edition and translation provide readers with an entirely reliable text and a meticulous translation of one of the most important works of lay political thought at the end of the Middle Ages in France.”
-- Jane Taylor, Professor, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University
ISBN: 9781649590510
Dimensions: 234mm x 152mm x 14mm
Weight: 380g
242 pages