Myth, Montage, and Visuality in Late Medieval Manuscript Culture: Christine de Pizan's Epistre Othéa

Against the rich historical background of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the many life-altering historical events that occurred in Western Europe (e.g., the Hundred Years' War between England and France, the Babylonian Captivity of the papacy, the Black Death, the Peasant's Revolt, and even a little ice age), Christine de Pizan's "mirror of princes" (Epistre Othéa) is a testament to a burgeoning visual culture in late-medieval France. Taking the illuminations of the Othéa as its focus for analysis, Myth, Montage and Visuality in Late Medieval Manuscript Culture offers a fresh perspective on the study of late-medieval manuscript reading practices in a politically turbulent France by employing modern film theory through a feminist lens.

The two manuscripts of de Pizan's book were painted and constructed under her watchful eye, and Marilyn Desmond has often analyzed them in earlier books. The first is the duke of Berry's own personal copy, Biliothèque Nationale de France fr. 606, and the second is dedicated to the French Queen Isabeau de Bavière, British Library Harley 4431. Given the manuscripts' lavish illuminations, Marilyn Desmond and Pamela Sheingorn's concern is with how a reader becomes educated in the ethical and chivalrous behavior befitting a future king through an unexpected juxtaposition of image and text, a "visual bricolage as montage" (6).

Since visual images in manuscripts are part of and shape the medieval reading experience, Desmond and Sheingorn's interdisciplinary approach to the Othéa naturally opens with a recap of the history of iconology and the scholars responsible for drawing attention to illustrations and illuminations. While praising Erwin Panofsky for his contributions to cinematic theory, Desmond and Sheingorn critique others, such as Aby Warburg and Fritz Saxl, for their Eurocentric gaze at "projected images of female bodies in various stages of undress" (33). The introductory chapter suggests that the Othéa's illuminations should be considered a cornerstone for an early-modern construction of alternate notions of masculinity and sexuality (Desmond alludes to queer theory) and the representation of violence.

The strength of Desmond and Sheingorn's discussion, though, lies in later chapters, where the authors examine specific classical figures, such as Pygmalion and Orpheus, whose appearances in the Othéa bring to the forefront Christine's own views regarding courtly love. For many Christine de Pizan scholars, one of the medieval woman writer's main literary contributions was a critique of her contemporaries' misappropriation and abuse of courtly-love conventions. In the Othéa, as well as her participation in the literary debate known as la querrelle de la Rose, Christine draws attention to the fact that the societal function of courtly love was undergoing a transformation; it was no longer necessary to be "in love" to write about the pursuit of love. In fact, all that was required was the rhetorical pretense. Christine alludes to a literary erosion in the Othéa, and Desmond and Sheingorn point to it implicitly in their chapter dedicated to the Othéa's depiction of violence. In that chapter, Desmond and Sheingorn discuss how Christine removes women's complicity through the Othéa's unusual tripartite structure of texte, glose, and allégorie.

Since Christine pursued a revisionist approach and occupied a critical stance as a sociopolitical commentator and defender of women, it is no wonder that Desmond and Sheingorn turn to an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates cinematic and feminist theories to underscore the role of the images and the spectator in this popular fifteenth-century mirror of princes. Myth, Montage and Visuality in Late Medieval Manuscript Culture conveys the authors' well-crafted argument by maintaining a historical grounding and imbedding their analysis in their own revisionist approach to medieval iconology and some traditional theories about medieval reading practices. Overall a challenging and informative read, Desmond and Sheingorn's text offers a pivotal contribution to the study of visual culture, gender, and sexuality, as well as of manuscript studies. The book includes 140 lovely reproductions and illustrations.