A Lover and His Lady

The first English translation of Christine de Pizan’s Cent ballades d’amant et de dame and Lai mortel, presented here by an award-winning translator.

Christine de Pizan’s A Lover and His Lady: One Hundred Ballades and the appended “Lady’s Lay” extend her celebrated defense of women with a pointed critique of the conventions of fin’amors (today called “courtly love”). These translations, paired side by side with new editions of the original texts, create verse equivalents for the medieval fixed forms, allowing contemporary readers to experience the musicality as well as the literal meaning of Christine’s poetry. The volume includes an introduction and extensive notes on the writers who influenced Christine and those she influenced in her turn.