Georges Dulac informs us that his wife, Liliane Dulac, passed away yesterday, April 22, 2023, in France. We will post a necrology soon. We send our deepest condolences to Liliane’s family and many friends.

OUVRAGES
– (avec D. Buschinger, L. Dulac, C. Le Ninan, C. Reno, dir.), Christine de Pizan et son époque, numéro spécial de Médiévales 53 (Amiens), 2012.
– (avec A. Paupert, C. Reno, B. Ribémont, dir.), Desireuse de plus avant enquerre… Christine de Pizan 2006. Volume en hommage à James Laidlaw, Paris, H. Champion, 2008.
– (dir., avec Bernard Ribémont) Une Femme de lettres au Moyen Age. Études autour de Christine de Pizan, Orléans, Paradigme, 1995.
– (dir., avec Jean Dufournet) Christine de Pizan. Hommage à Charity Cannon Willard, numéro spécial de la Revue des langues romanes, 1988-2.

ÉDITIONS CRITIQUES
– Christine de Pizan : Les Heures de contemplacion sur la Passion de Nostre Seigneur (en préparation).
– Christine de Pizan : Le Livre des trois Vertus, traduction, in D. Régnier-Bohler (dir.), Voix de femmes au Moyen Âge. Savoir, mystique, poésie, amour, sorcellerie, XII-XVe siècle, Paris, Robert Laffont, 2005.
– (avec Christine Reno) Christine de Pizan : L’Advision Cristine, Paris, H. Champion, 2001.
– (avec Jean Dufournet) La Châtelaine de Vergy, édition bilingue, Paris, Gallimard, 1994.

Bibliography of articles, etc.

Frederick Douglas Kelly, Jr. “Douglas”

We are saddened to announce the passing of Christine de Pizan scholar Douglas Kelly. He published very influential works on Christine de Pizan very early in the revival of her work. His 1971 article in SubStance was path-breaking for first calling Christine a feminist. Douglas was a member of my dissertation committee at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and I will always remember his kindness as a mentor. He traveled with the caravan of graduate students and professors (medievalists from the French and Italian and English departments) to the International Congress on Medieval Studies held each May at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. We would stop at a restaurant for dinner along the way. I particularly remember him on the dance floor with his wife Sandra and students during the Saturday evening party. Douglas was one of the first people to donate to the Charity Cannon Willard Scholarship (sponsored by this organization). Many have stated that he was a monumental figure in medieval French studies, nationally and internationally. He was a professor who always offered his students warmth and friendship, welcoming them to the world of scholarship.

Julia Nephew, Treasurer and Webmaster

North American Branch of the International Christine de Pizan Society

F. Douglas Kelly Obituary

There will be a Celebration of Life for Douglas at THE UNIVERSITY OF MADISON MEMORIAL UNION in Tripp Commons, 800 Langdon Street, Madison on May 8, 2022, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

Selection of Titles

Kelly, F. Douglas. “Reflections on the Role of Christine de Pisan as a Feminist Writer.” SubStance, vol. 1, no. 2, 1971, pp. 63–71, https://doi.org/10.2307/3684605. Accessed 23 Apr. 2022.

—. Christine de Pizan’s Changing Opinion: A Quest for Certainty in the Midst of Chaos. D.S. Brewer, 2007.

—. Medieval Imagination: Rhetoric and the Poetry of Courtly Love. University of Wisconsin Press, 1978.

Prof. Keith Busby writes:

Douglas Kelly, Julian Harris Professor of Medieval French Emeritus, passed away on the morning of March 21, 2022. He was 87 years old. Douglas Kelly was one of the great medieval scholars of his generation, who transformed the study of several areas of medieval French literature, particularly romance narrative of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Among several books on the topic is the landmark The Art of Medieval French Romance (1992). He also published major studies on later authors such as Christine de Pizan (2007) and Guillaume de Machaut (2014). Underlying all of his work is the notion that vernacular poetics were fully grounded in the Latin arts of poetry. Douglas Kelly taught many students in Madison who have gone on to distinguished careers in North American universities and colleges. He was a great scholar and teacher and the best of men.

LADY REASON AND
THE WRITING OF HISTORY
Monika Leisch-Kiesl
Le livre de la cité des dames (The Book of the City of
Ladies) by the French writer and philosopher Christine de
Pizan (1364 – ca. 1430) is among the most widely-read
texts of the early 15th century and is considered to be one
of the first feminist works in European literature. As the
fruit of a highly-educated author’s broad range of reading,
it reflects the intellectual and socio-political debates of
its time, and the aesthetics of the book also demonstrate
how Christine de Pizan took care to publish her verbal and
visual compositions in a complex and self-assured form.
Multidisciplinary engagement with the many aspects of
“Christine de Pizan” as a research topic continues today in
an unbroken tradition. The art historian and philosopher
Monika Leisch-Kiesl, an expert in both historical gender
studies and book illumination, now convincingly succeeds
in bringing observers and readers into the often-surprising
intellectual world of a young female writer at the French
court in the early Renaissance. She emphasises not least the
still-powerful utopian potential of this poet who worked
in early 15th-century Paris. Furthermore, Sibylle Ryser’s
exceptional and perfectly-matched design for this bilingual
edition brings a gem of medieval book art into an enlight-
ening dialogue with its scholarly analysis.
Born in Venice in 1364, Christine de Pizan arrived in Paris at the age
of four, at the court of King Charles V, where her father, Tommaso
di Benvenuto da Pizzano, was an astronomer and physicist. She
benefited from the intellectual and cultural climate of the Valois
court and received an extensive education, not least from her
father, who introduced her to the artes liberales. She had access
to the royal library and participated in the vibrant political debates
during this period of transition between the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance.
She gained her first professional experience in the chancery of
her husband, Étienne du Castel, who held a position as secretary
and notary at the court. Widowed at the age of twenty-five and
responsible for three children, Christine de Pizan decided to pursue
a career as a writer. She employed scribes, supervised the illumi-
nation of her manuscripts and engaged some of the leading artists
working in Paris. The exquisite pieces were to be found in the most
prestigious libraries in Burgundy and beyond. Thanks to digitiza-
tion, they are now accessible to a wide range of readers.
An art historian and philosopher, Monika Leisch-Kiesl has held
a professorship for art history and aesthetics at the KU Private
University in Linz since 1996 and laid the foundation for a Faculty
of Philosophy and Art History there in 2005, which she chaired for
ten years. Her research has taken her to the Ludwig Maximilian
University and the State Library in Munich, the University of Basel
and the Schaulager of the Laurenz Foundation, the Jagiellonian
University and the Cricoteca in Krakow.
Monika Leisch-Kiesl creatively combines questions of gender
studies with impulses of text-image research, approaches to con-
temporary artistic positions with a broad knowledge of art theory
and aesthetics, insights in the field of drawing with problems of
global art history. One focus of her recent publishing endeavors is
to emphasize the intensity of intellectual debate by virtue of the
quality of formal design. → http://www.leisch-kiesl.com
After an initial professional stint in editing at Diogenes in Zurich,
Sibylle Ryser completed her graphic design training at the re-
nowned Basel School of Design (now the FHNW Academy of Art and
Design). She then worked in a design studio in Amsterdam and sub-
sequently founded a communications agency in Basel with two col-
leagues in 1992. In 2005, she graduated with a master’s degree in
art history and popular cultures from the University of Zurich.
Since 2001, Sibylle Ryser has been running her own office for book
design in Basel. She works for museums, publishers and institu-
tions in the fields of art and science. She understands her design
concepts as visual organization of content. She loves footnotes,
tolerant typographic grids, functional aesthetics and well-edited
typefaces. → http://www.sibylleryser.ch
Monika Leisch-Kiesl:
Lady Reason and the Writing of History.
Christine de Pizan’s “Livre de la Cité des dames”
Olms, 2021, 140 pp., bilingual ger/engl, numerous illustrations,
hard cover, half-linen binding
ISBN 978-3-487-16021-4. 48,00 EUR

An art historian and philosopher, Monika Leisch-Kiesl has held
a professorship for art history and aesthetics at the KU Private
University in Linz since 1996 and laid the foundation for a Faculty
of Philosophy and Art History there in 2005, which she chaired for
ten years. Her research has taken her to the Ludwig Maximilian
University and the State Library in Munich, the University of Basel
and the Schaulager of the Laurenz Foundation, the Jagiellonian
University and the Cricoteca in Krakow.
Monika Leisch-Kiesl creatively combines questions of gender
studies with impulses of text-image research, approaches to con-
temporary artistic positions with a broad knowledge of art theory
and aesthetics, insights in the field of drawing with problems of
global art history. One focus of her recent publishing endeavors is
to emphasize the intensity of intellectual debate by virtue of the
quality of formal design. → http://www.leisch-kiesl.com