Death at the Poissy convent

Christine de Pizan died around 1430 at the Dominican convent of Poissy, France, where she had lived in relative retirement since around 1418. The precise day and month of her death are not recorded in surviving historical sources, though contemporary and later scholarship consistently places her death in or near this year.

By the time of her death, Christine had produced one of the most substantial and varied bodies of work by any medieval author, male or female, spanning poetry, political philosophy, biography, military theory, and moral and educational treatises. Her final known work, celebrating Joan of Arc's early victories, had been completed just months prior in July 1429.

Christine's death marked the end of a career that had been extraordinary by any measure: she is widely regarded by modern historians as the first woman in France, and possibly in Europe, to earn her living exclusively through professional writing. Her sustained output over roughly three decades, her direct engagement in public intellectual debates such as the Querelle de la Rose, and her innovative works defending and educating women left a legacy that would be rediscovered and celebrated by feminist scholars and artists centuries later, notably in the 20th century.

Her manuscripts, many lavishly illuminated under her own supervision, survive today in libraries and museums across Europe, testament to the enduring value placed on her work even in her own lifetime.