ABSTRACT
An examination and interpretation of The Book of the City of Ladies, a work by the medieval French writer Christine de Pisan, can demonstrate the way the form a work takes can be vital to the interpretation of the philosophical content of that work. In the case of The Book of the City of Ladies, its moral truths are hidden among the foundations, buildings, and inhabitants of an allegorical city. Metaphorically speaking, the self-reflective reader of The Book of the City of Ladies is the reader who can gain entrance to the allegorical city. Apart from the city of ladies constructed to protect women, there are two other distinct places described in Christine’s work: the home and the marketplace or public domain. Thus Christine appears to reaffirm the very institution that plays such a major role in the restrictions of women’s moral agency.
