ABSTRACT
The discovery of the “political Aristotle,” the Aristotle of the Politics and the Nichomachean Ethics, between 1250-1270 engendered a profound renewal of both the theories and practices of power in the medieval West. In this short chapter, written in homage to another great female scholar, my dear friend Barbara H. Rosenwein, I should like to explore the evolution of a key Aristotelian notion: “the science of architecture” or “the architectonic.” I intend to show that at the end of the Middle Ages the sovereign was not only seen as a sage, the virtue of prudence personified, occupying the highest position in the scientific hierarchy as conceived by Aristotle; he was also, in practice, a veritable architect. I will focus on Christine de Pizan, whose contributions must be understood in relation to two celebrated earlier thinkers: Thomas Aquinas and Nicolas Oresme, who was the educator, almsgiver, and counselor to King Charles V (1364-1380).1
