A War Manual by a Woman, as Read by Englishmen. Evidence from Caxton’s Fayttes of Armes and of Chyualrye

Abstract

This article considers the reception of Christine de Pizan’s Livre des fais d’armes et de chevalerie using evidence from fifteenth-century manuscripts and incunabla. The fact that Christine de Pizan, a woman, would write a war manual is less surprising than it first appears if one situates it within the political climate of her time; the same holds true for William Caxton’s Fayttes of armes and of chyualrye. Surviving copies in English libraries bear witness to the perception of Christine’s authority among English readers across several centuries.