THE MATRIARCH OF THE CONTENT WRITERS

Yes, content writing has a Matriarch. Or a “Foremother”.

We’re in the XIV century. Christine de Pizan, Venetian by birth and French by adoption, is the daughter of an eminent Italian doctor hired by the King of France himself, Charles V “the Wise”, to provide services at Court.

Christine very soon marries (she was 15) the Royal Secretary, who is wealthy and well-respected. They have three kids and are very happy. Christine has free access at the Louvre library (one of the most extensive books collection at the time), where she spends time reading and writing sonnets.

But (you’re expecting a plot twist by this point), the Black Death makes its appearance. And there are no vaccines, no facemasks, no social distancing (probably not even deniers and conspiracists): her husband dies when she’s only 27, and her father a few months later.

Meanwhile, Charles V has also died and the new King, his son, Charles VI “the Mad”, as his nickname suggests, didn’t inherit his dad’s intellectual sophistication.

So, Christine is about to fall into disgrace now. Her husband wasn’t much of a businessman apparently: he had credits all over Paris who are now very hard to collect. Money is tight and she has three kids to raise.

But she has a talent. She is a smart woman and a great writer. A so very good one that even in a closed, patriarchal society as such the Medieval one she will succeed.

Starting with love ballads, very appreciated by the Court ladies, she is now hired by the most prominent Patrons within the aristocracy. She writes biographies, guides for calligraphists, history books.

Christine is even the author of a very appreciated manual for knights, The Book of Feats of Arms and of Chivalry. She’s never seen a battlefield. But she did so much research, and studied so many books, that she has been able to teach the art of combat to even the scions of the French nobles.

Christine didn’t only write on commission though. She was an advocate of women’s dignity. Her masterpiece, The Book of the City of Ladies (Le Livre de la Cité des Dames) broaches so many topics that were taboo at the time, such as the gender equality in education and administration of family affairs, the atrocity of rape, and of a society in which honesty and virtue are worth more than nobility of birth.