Christine de Pizan's crown of twelve stars

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

Finally, Gerson's 'Doctrinal aux simples gens' of 1387 deals with the joys of paradise and should also be taken into account here:

   Des joyes de paradis.--Ou glorieux royaume de paradis sont toutes
   joies, toute gloire, tous biens, toutes beneuretez et quanque cueur
   peut desirer, sans aucun default. Les anges, les sains et les
   sainctes en veoir Dieu face a face en sa beaute et en sa majeste,
   et de estre en sa glorieuse compaignie. Tous en lui ont si grant
   delit qu'ilz ne s'en peuent saouler, mais tousiours plus le
   desirent; et toutes voies ilz ont tousiours ce qu'ilz ont en desir,
   parfaictement, sans aucun default, et ont et auront tousiours, mais
   sans fin, joie et honneur, gloire si grant que toutes richesses et
   toutes delices et tous aises et toutes teesses de ce monde sont
   doulours et angoisses au regard d'icelles .... l'Escripture dit que
   oreille ne pourroit oyr, ne bouche dire, ne cuer penser la gloire
   qui la est .... Et a ceulx qui des biens et des richesses qu'ilz
   ont, plus ne se enprisent ne orgeuillissent, et selon leur quantite
   en departent voulenuers aux poures et a ceulx aqui ilz ont tenu, ne
   s'y mettent pas leur cuer principalment mais en Nostre Seigneur; et
   a ceulx qui les maulx et les pouretez, les peines et les
   tribulations qui leur viennent ou que on leur fait, seuffrent
   patiemment pour l'amour et reverence du doulx Saulveur Nostre
   Seigneur Jhesus Christ qui nous en monstra exemple .... Rendons lui
   donc graces de tous ses benefices, et nous esiouissons en lui, et
   ehantons en noz cueurs de grant joie, car nous sommes filz et
   filles de Dieu, raiz et formez a sa semblance, freres et seurs du
   doulx Jhesus Christ. (46)

When we group all of these elements together, we seem to have a plausible source for much of Christine's list (apart from the inclusion of the number twelve, and the link with the twelve stars). If we assume (and we can do this) that Christine was aware of the tradition of the twelve joys, it would have been relatively easy for her to make use of the material in Gerson, and select twelve of the elements she required.

Let me try to sum up. Reasonably confident answers can be given to the first two of the three questions posed at the beginning of this article. In answer to the first, it can be stated that Christine's source for the crown of twelve stars is Rev. xii.1; she dispenses with most of the components of the image of the Woman of the Apocalypse (the woman herself, the sun, the moon, etc.), retaining only the crown of twelve stars in order to preface her presentation of the joys of Paradise with a striking image already imbued with associations with the afterlife. With regard to the second question, it has been established that Christine did not invent the link between the twelve stars and the twelve joys of the resurrection, as this link can be found in Bonaventure; given that this link is not as well attested as all the other associations of the twelve stars and that its transmission to Christine may seem problematic, it is suggested that Bonaventure's work may have been made known to Christine through the influence of Gerson, who had a special attachment to the 'Seraphic Doctor' and his teaching. With regard to the third issue, our knowledge of the tradition and content of the twelve joys independently of Christine (and hence our identification of her possible source or sources), there is a need to proceed more tentatively, particularly since the research involved is limited both by one's ability to identify likely areas of enquiry, and the amount of reading that it is possible to undertake (the Breton proverb 'ma barque est si petite et la mer est si grande' comes to mind; and one warms to Bernard's observation that dealing with the crown of twelve stars is a superhuman task: 'Supra hominem est coronae hujus rationem exponere, indicare compositionem'). (47) ('It is beyond the wit of man to explain the meaning and to denote the arrangement of this crown.') What one can say is that it is clear that there does not seem to be any uniformity in those lists that have been discovered so far. The lists in the Cambridge manuscripts and the Diaeta salutis are very similar to each other, yet as a group they are quite distinct from what one finds in both Christine and Bonaventure. Though it is true that Gerson does not mention the link between stars and joys, and covers far more than Christine's twelve, his material is extremely important, being by far the closest to Christine's; and the fact that he is a contemporary and ally of Christine makes the claim that he is Christine's source all the more plausible. Since all the main roads we have travelled seem to lead to Gerson, absent from Paris at the time of the composition of the Epistre but enjoying an invisible presence in Christine's text, his work might be thought to provide the most elegant and economical solution to the question of sources. I think, however, that to dispense with all the other material already discussed would result in a solution that is just too economical, since Gerson himself is heir to a long tradition of scholastic thought that needs to be taken into account (particularly the contribution of Bonaventure). Given this point, and the fact that one can detect in Christine echoes of all the available material (the echoes being stronger in the case of Gerson and Bonaventure, and weaker in the case of the others), ir seems prudent to conclude on balance that Christine has put together her own list, drawing on a variety of sources rather than one single text, her underlying priority being to maximize the consolatory effect of her letter on her readers. As has been seen so often in her other works, Christine as author is in control of her source material, not in subjection to it.