Christine de Pizan's crown of twelve stars

Medium Aevum, Fall-Winter, 2008 by Angus J. Kennedy

While Christine takes it for granted that there is a link between the twelve stars and the twelve joys (and feels no need to explain it), most modern readers engaging with the text would wish to know more about what underlies her assumption. Did Christine invent the link, or was she drawing, consciously or unconsciously, on a well-established tradition? It is appropriate at this juncture to observe that there is much in the imagery of the crown of twelve stars, and its context, that would in principle predispose Christine or patristic commentators to make a connection of this kind: the verse describing the crown comes from a book of the Bible devoted almost entirely to a vision of the afterlife; the circular form of the crown, with no beginning and no end, is a suitable pointer to the notion of eternity; the reward of the crown has clear Pauline associations with the resurrection (e. g. II Tim. iv.7f.); and the light given out by the twelve stars (or indeed the sun in the same image) could easily be linked to the glory of the life to come. Given that Christine makes no comment about the link, our only recourse is to rum to the most likely source: namely, patristic commentaries on Rev. xii.1. When we do this, what comes as a considerable surprise is that this link, despite its inherent plausibility, is not made in the bulk of commentaries on this verse. To my knowledge, the link is made in only one text, Bonaventure's Soliloquium (1259-60), though it has to be said, given the continuity and consolidatory nature of patristic writing, one would in principle expect other examples to exist. To provide a context for this one interesting exception, let us look briefly at the mainstream interpretations of the Woman of the Apocalypse that are repeated endlessly from one patristic text to the other.

The two most common patristic interpretations are probably already familiar to many readers. (11) The first of these presents the Woman as the Church, clothed with the glory of Christ (the sun), and trampling underfoot all that is mutable and impermanent (the moon), the twelve stars of her crown representing the twelve apostles who light up the darkness of the present world, the image of the woman in childbirth suggesting the role of the Church in nurturing the word of God. The following extract, representative of a host of similar examples in the Patrologia Latina, (12) gives a succint illustration of all of these points:

   Mulier ecce signum, quia significat Ecclesiam amicte [sic, read
   amicta] sole, Christo, qui eam obumbrat et illuminat et luna
   mundus, quia deficit et crescit sub pedibus qus, quia a mundo
   sustentatur in necessariis. Mulier significat Ecclesiam: quia sicut
   mulier parit et nutrit, it a Ecclesia parit homines in lueem et
   fidem, et nutrit eos omni verbo divino, et in capite ejus corona
   stelarum duodecim, id est in Christo victoria mundi acquisita per
   duodecim apostolos. (13)

   (Note that the woman is a sign, for she denotes the Church, she is
   clothed with Christ as the sun, who overshadows and clothes her
   with light. The moon is the world, for it wanes and waxes, beneath
   her feet, for she is sustained by the world with life's
   necessities. The woman denotes the Church, for as a woman gives
   birth and nurtures, so the Church brings forth men to the light and
   the faith, and nourishes them with every divine word; on her head
   is a crown of twelve stars, signifying her victory over the world
   in Christ, gained through the twelve apostles.)