# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Pise, or Pisan, Christine de

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PISE, or PISAN, CHRISTINE DE,
Was born in Venice, In 1363; and, at the age of five years, wag taken by her father to France, where he emigrated upon the invitation of Charles the Fifth. Thomas de Pise was one of the marked men of his age; possessing all the learning and science that could then be attained, his ambitious genius struggled for something beyond, and took the path of astrology. Lamb makes the quaint remark that, through our modern men of science, the stars have become merely astronomical. It was quite otherwise in the fourteenth century; then the stars were really "the poetry of heaven," and the scientific men, poets, through whose Imaginations the highest destinies passed, dignified with an august feeling of preternatural skill, that, however false, must have elevated their tone of self-appreciation beyond the vanities of our times. Charles the Fifth honoured Thomas de Pise, and made him his astrologer. Thomas ​gave his daughter a learned education. The child having an hereditary brightness of mind, applied herself with diligence, and became remarkable, ere she reached womanhood, for her many-acquirements. She was well acquainted with history, and equal to any of the scholars of the day in the Greek and Latin languages. She married, early in life, Stephen Castel, a gentleman of Picardy. Shortly after this, her father died; and, at the age of twenty-five, having also lost her husband, she was left destitute of all human support, having no relations in France. To add to her distress the inheritance of her husband was litigated by some members of his family, and she had great difficulty to obtain a portion of it. Being a foreigner, she was obliged to rely entirely on her own energies; and she applied herself to a resource never before sought by a female. Christine de Pisc was the first woman who used her literary abilities to support her household, and made her pen procure bread for her children. Louis, Duke of Orleans, brother of Charles the Sixth, was a prince of elegant tastes, and a patron of letters; he discerned the merit of Christine, and invited her frequently to his court, where she met with honourable attention. This unfortunate young man was, as is well known, assassinated by emissaries of the Duke of Burgundy. After his death, and the confusion of parties that ensued, the insanity of the king, the invasion of France by the English, all these national misfortunes darkened the state of literature, and obstructed farther progress in social improvement.
Christine lived to an advanced age in the privacy of domestic life. She died in 1441. Some of her poems, which are full of tenderness, were printed in Paris, in 1529; others remain in manuscript, in the royal library. "The Life of Charles the Fifth," written by desire of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, is considered her best prose performance. One of her first books was called "A Hundred Stories of Troyes." She also wrote several long poems. She had three children, one of whom retired to a convent, where Christine passed the latter part of her life.
Henry the Fourth invited her to the English court; and she was everywhere received with that homage and veneration which her virtues and talents deserved. True feminine purity and refinement prevail throughout her writings. All her works are written in French.