One beautifully illuminated copy of the Mutation of Fortune in two
volumes is a curious example of its title, for one volume of it is in
the National Library at Paris (fonds fr. 603) and the other in the Royal
Library at Munich. In the former we have her portrait. In a blue gown
she sits at her writing-desk busy at her work. On her head is the
muslin-draped and high-peaked "hennin." Beside her a table covered with
a green cloth and laden with crimson and violet-bound books and an
inkstand. Her chair has a high back, and the floor is of the usual kind
seen in illuminations; that is, as if composed of a parquetry of
coloured woodwork or of tiles of various kinds of marble. On the sill of
the Gothic-latticed window, through which we catch a glimpse of the blue
sky, stands a vase of flowers. Not perhaps an ideal lady's boudoir, but
still an apartment of taste, and an altogether charming little picture.
In the second miniature of the Munich volume Christine is standing in a
chamber--in the same costume as above described. The pictures on the
walls are--a fortress, a watchman, two knights, a prince with crown and
sceptre, seated on his throne, surrounded by courtiers; a duel; and a
martyr having his head struck off. Just such mediæval subjects as we may
expect in a fifteenth-century mansion.
In a copy of the "Cité des Dames" at Munich is another portrait of
Christine. The book is an Apology for the feminine sex, and it is well
thought out. It appears that the conversation of the time was not always
free from rather severe sarcasm concerning the ladies. We learn from Du
Verdier that the continuator of the Romance of the Rose narrowly escaped
most condign chastisement from some of the insulted sex at the French
Court for the base insinuations in his poem against the character of
women. Christine herself heartily disapproved of the Romance of the
Rose, and wrote a sharp criticism upon it. Her "Cité des Dames" is an
elaborate confutation of the opinion that women are naturally more
immoral and less capable of noble studies or high intellectual
attainments than men. In her introduction she says: "I reflected why men
are so unanimous in attributing wickedness to women. I examined my own
life and those of other women to learn why we should be worse than men,
since we also were created by God. I was sitting ashamed with bowed head
and eyes blinded with tears, resting my chin on my hands in my
elbow-chair, when a dazzling beam of Light flashed before me, which came
not from the sun, for it was late in the evening. I glanced up and saw
standing before me three female figures wearing crowns of gold, and with
radiant countenances. I crossed myself, whereupon one of the three
addressed me. 'Fear not, dear daughter, for we will counsel and help
thee. The aphorisms of the Philosophers are not Articles of Faith, but
simply the mists of error and self-deception.'" The three ladies or
goddesses are Fame, Prudence, and Justice, and they command Christine
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