Christine de Pisan

Christine de Pisan, born around 1364 in Venice, Italy, was a French-Italian poet and philosopher, regarded as Europe’s first professional woman writer.

Widowed in her twenties with three children, she supported her family through her writing, producing love poetry, biographies, and political treatises, as well as The Book of the City of Ladies (1405), a landmark defense of women against the misogyny of her era.

She died around 1430 in Poissy, France.