Re-Writing Lucretia: Christine de Pizan's Response to Boccaccio's De Mulieribus Claris

Summary

In writing Le Livre de la Cité des Dames (1404–1407), Christine de Pizan does not present herself to the reader as an auctor, but rather as a compilator. Given that the medieval definition of inventio relies largely on an author's reworking of previously written material, one might legitimately wonder whether the distinction between these two technical terms is of any great importance to a reader; however, the auctor, as the author of new and original works, is both an authority on his subject matter and one morally responsible for the contents of the literary creation. In fact, the auctor gains the status of authenticity only when “later writers used extracts from his works as sententious statements or auctoritates … or employed them as literary models.” In contrast, the compilator is accountable only for the manner in which he or she arranges the statements of other writers, and is not morally answerable for repeating the opinions or revising the stories of the auctor. Thus the compilator enjoys a certain freedom of expression — and release from criticism — that the auctor does not have.

Since the Cité des Dames (1404–1407 — henceforth: Cité) is an anthology of stories about the lives of notable pagan and Christian women framed by an allegorical débat which argues that women are naturally virtuous and intellectually equal to men, Christine's claim to be a simple compilator does not strain credulity.