Two Visions of Womanhood in a Medieval French Manuscript
New to Getty's collection, a luxury French manuscript, created c.1470 and illuminated around forty years later, contains two texts focused on women's narratives.
Boccaccio Writing His Book (1450/1520) by Etienne Colaud and Giovanni BoccaccioThe J. Paul Getty Museum
The first, Concerning Famous and Noble Women, opens with an image of its author, Giovanni Boccaccio, at his desk. One of the great writers of 14th-century Europe, Boccaccio is best known for writing The Decameron. His Latin text was translated to French in the early 1400s.
Boccaccio dedicated this text to Countess Andrea Acciaiuoli of Florence, whom he claims is the most virtuous of women.
Following the dedication are biographies of famous (and infamous) women from antiquity through the Middle Ages, positioned as behavioral models for the countess.
The images accompanying Boccaccio's text emphasize the roles of women as artists, weavers, philosophers, writers...
... musicians, queens, warriors, mistresses, wives and mothers.
Despite this range, Boccaccio’s text is full of sexist tropes and sensational portrayals. In the image of Cleopatra’s suicide, wherein she poisons herself with asps, the artist has dramatized the Egyptian queen’s death with a snake biting her bared breasts.
Christine Writing with Rectitude (about 1450–1475, illumination added 1515–1520) by Etienne Colaud and Christine de PizanThe J. Paul Getty Museum
The manuscript’s second text is The City of Ladies, composed around 1404–5. Its French author, Christine de Pizan, is often regarded as one of the earliest feminist writers. Her works included political treatises, poetry, and narrative prose.
Christine* criticized the misogynistic literature of her day, including The Romance of the Rose, the most popular French work of the Middle Ages. In this emblematic image from a Rose manuscript, the female form is reduced to a torso and legs, an arrow cheekily raised to shoot.
The City of Ladies is, at its core, a defense of women modeled after Boccaccio’s Famous Women. In it, Christine herself is the protagonist, tasked by the personifications of Reason, Rectitude, and Justice to build a City of Ladies to house and protect worthy women.
Table of Contents; Border with the Heraldry of the La Marck Family (1450/1520) by Etienne Colaud and Giovanni BoccaccioThe J. Paul Getty Museum
But who owned and read this rare manuscript? A clue lies on the opening page. Here a frame—added in the 16th century—surrounds the table of contents and points to the La Marck family, who were the dukes of Bouillon and lords of Sedan in northeastern France.
On either side of a red and gold heraldic shield are boars emerging from woodlands; these allude to William de La Marck (1446–85) and his successors by their nickname, the “Wild Boar of the Ardennes.”
Several premier Parisian artists worked on this manuscript, including Étienne Colaud, his workshop, and an unnamed illuminator known as the Master of François de Rohan.
These artists contemporize the stories in Boccaccio and Christine’s works. Warrior women from antiquity become dashing 16th-century knights; statues of goddesses resemble images of Christian saints; and figures wear the latest courtly fashions c. 1515.
They also took advantage of Boccaccio’s description of female artists to reflect on their craft. Images of painters like Tamaris offer a glimpse into the medieval illuminator’s studio, featuring the stone and slab used for grinding and mixing pigments by hand.
Colaud especially capitalized on textual details to create compelling visual narratives, as with the story of the torture of Leaena. Leaena bit out her own tongue, shown falling to the floor in the image, to avoid confessing to any crimes.
Similarly, the opening of The City of Ladies reflects on the world of medieval writers. In this scene, Christine is at her desk, lamenting the great amount of literature dedicated to the faults and vices of women. Yet, just as she wishes to have been a man, three figures appear.
Christine Lamenting at Her Desk with Reason, Rectitude, and Justice (1450/1520) by Etienne Colaud and Giovanni BoccaccioThe J. Paul Getty Museum
These female figures are allegories of Reason, Rectitude, and Justice. Immediately, Reason, adorned in blue and gold, addresses Christine to assure her that the vitriol men have written about women isn’t true.
Armed only with her pen, Christine fashions the City of Ladies—meaning here both the text and the imaginary city—as a haven for women, be they saints or repentant sinners, authors or artists, queens or soldiers, wives or widows, maidens or mothers.
Justice Leading the Virgin and Child and Chosen Women to the City of Ladies (1450/1520) by Etienne Colaud and Christine de PizanThe J. Paul Getty Museum
The final image presents a colorful vision of Christine’s city: Justice leads the virtuous ladies, the Virgin Mary first among them, to its main gate. Although Boccaccio’s text takes up more space within this manuscript, it is Christine who gets the last word.
*Christine de Pizan's name means Christine from Pizzano, with “de Pizan” alluding to Christine’s Italian origins rather than serving as her family name. Therefore, in this presentation, we use her first name.
© 2025 The J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles
This Google Arts & Culture story was created by former Getty Graduate Interns Reed O’Mara (text), Lucia Palmerini (production), and current intern Frankie Weir (design).
For more resources:
You can learn more about this manuscript, including a detailed description of every image, on Getty’s Collections Online pages here.
Aleia McDaniel, Elizabeth Morrison, and Reed O’Mara, “A Medieval Feminist Manuscript Makes Its Getty Museum Debut,” Getty News & Stories (March 26, 2025).
To cite this exhibition, please use: "Two Visions of Womanhood in a Medieval French Manuscript," published online in 2025 via Google Arts & Culture, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
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