The Love Debate Poems Of Christine De Pizan

This new edition of Christine de Pizan's love debate poems supersedes the only other modern edition (1886) by working from all existing 15th-century versions and by using as a base manuscript the version now generally acknowledged as the definitive copy. The poems, the Livre du Debat de deux amans, the Livre des Trois jugemens, and the Livre du Dit de Poissy are spirited discussions of approximately 2,000 lines, concerning the finer points of late-medieval love doctrine and protocol. Written early in the 15th century, they are significant both because of their contribution to the tradition of debates and dits by such authors as Guillaume de Machaut, Jean Froissart, and Alain Chartier, and because their author is arguably the most important female writer in the West before Austen.

Alongside the texts, Altmann provides the first extended study of these debates in their own right, offering a literary-historical background to the form, analyzing Christine's use of the traditional form and content of the love debate, and providing sections on the codicology and philology of the poems.