Building the ideal city: Female memorial praxis in Christine de Pizan's Cite des Dames

After establishing the difference between prudent and imprudent constancy, Droitture returns to peopling the city's buildings with further positive exempla, providing agent images that reinforce women's prudent and virtuous conduct. For instance, she tells the story of the Roman woman, Claudia Quinta, who despite her venal reputation is actually virtuous; because of her purity and chastity, she is able to rescue a boat stuck in the Tiber, pulling it to shore using only her belt. Finally, Droitture states that she has completed her portion of the task at hand: she has built "de biaulx palais et de maintes belles heberges et menssions" (970; "beautiful palaces and many fair inns and mansions"; 215) and also populated the city with many virtuous women. At this point, Christine enters the narrative in the persona of the author to address her readers. She declares that she has created this text to provide "heberge honnourable pour demeure perpetuelle tant que le monde durera, vous soit par moy en la closture cite establie" (971; "honorable lodging within city walls as a perpetual residence for as long as the world endures"; 214-15). With the mnemonic city nearing its completion, the female reader will be able to keep the ideas it contains in her mind perpetually.

However, although its buildings are constructed and peopled, the city itself is still not complete. Instead, Justice explains to Christine that the city's final purpose is to house its Queen, the Virgin Mary, who is the chief du sexefemenin (977; "head of the feminine sex"; 219). Now, with its palais et les haultes menssions prestes et parees (974; "palaces and tall mansions ready and furnished"; 217), this city is hers to dominee et seigneurie (974; "rule and govern"; 217). Justice further explains that the city's citizens are to drink from the fontaine de vertus (976; "fountain of virtues"; 218), which flows from the Virgin. This image of a fountain of virtues serves to counteract the image of the gushing fountain of anti-feminist authorities that overwhelmed the narrator in the beginning of the Cite; the authority of the Virgin, placed within the confines of the pro-feminist mnemonic city, counterargues and counteracts the anti-feminists' vicious, incorrect attacks. The Virgin arrives accompanied by her attendants, the female saints and martyrs, "desquelles les vies sont belles a ouyr, de bon example a toute femme sur toute autre sagesce" (978; "whose fair lives serve as excellent examples for every woman above all other wisdom"; 219); because of the constancy and strength they demonstrate in their suffering, their stories provide the concluding exempla and agent images of the mnemonic city.