The Book of the City of Ladies - Quiz
The Book of the City of Ladies
  • 1. Who is the author of The Book of the City of Ladies?
A) Matheolus
B) Christine de Pizan
C) Princess Margaret of Burgundy
D) Jean de Meun
  • 2. By what year is The Book of the City of Ladies believed to have been finished?
A) 1500
B) 1405
C) 1450
D) 1305
  • 3. What language did Christine de Pizan use to compose the book?
A) Vernacular French
B) English
C) Latin
D) Italian
  • 4. What style of syntax and conventions does Pizan often use within her French prose?
A) Celtic-style
B) Germanic-style
C) Latin-style
D) Greek-style
  • 5. Which work serves as Pizan's formal response to Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose?
A) The Book of the City of Ladies
B) The Treasure of the City of Ladies
C) Ditie de Jehanne D'Arc
D) Matheolus's Lamentations
  • 6. How does Pizan combat Meun's statements about women?
A) By translating Latin plays
B) By writing a military treatise
C) By ignoring all male writers
D) By creating an allegorical city of ladies
  • 7. How does Pizan defend women in her book?
A) By claiming women ruled ancient empires alone
B) By collecting a wide array of famous women throughout history
C) By proving women invented writing
D) By arguing that women are physically stronger than men
  • 8. What do the famous women act as in the City of Ladies?
A) Guards protecting the city gates
B) Slaves performing manual labor
C) Architects designing the layout
D) Building blocks for the walls, houses, and her thesis
  • 9. What else does Pizan advocate in favour of?
A) The abolition of marriage
B) Education for women
C) Universal male suffrage
D) Monastic life for all citizens
  • 10. What is another name for The Treasure of the City of Ladies?
A) The Roman de la Rose
B) Ditie de Jehanne D'Arc
C) The Book of Matheolus
D) The Book of the Three Virtues
  • 11. To whom is The Treasure of the City of Ladies dedicated?
A) Joan of Arc
B) Jean de Meun
C) Princess Margaret of Burgundy
D) Matheolus
  • 12. What is the nature of The Treasure of the City of Ladies?
A) A manual of education
B) A book of poetry
C) A historical biography
D) A fictional romance
  • 13. What advice does The Treasure give to a woman who has a husband if she wants praise?
A) She will manage all the finances alone
B) She will never speak to him
C) She will travel the world independently
D) She will be cheerful to him all the time
  • 14. Which of the following is NOT one of Pizan's two best-known works alongside her Book and Treasure?
A) Matheolus's Lamentations
B) The Book of the City of Ladies
C) Ditie de Jehanne D'Arc
D) The Treasure of the City of Ladies
  • 15. What is Ditie de Jehanne D'Arc?
A) An educational manual
B) A religious play
C) A poem
D) A prose novel
  • 16. What century does Matheolus's Lamentations belong to?
A) Fourteenth century
B) Twelfth century
C) Fifteenth century
D) Thirteenth century
  • 17. What does Matheolus's work argue about marriage and women?
A) That marriage brings eternal joy
B) That women make men's lives miserable
C) That marriage is unnecessary
D) That women should rule households
  • 18. How does Christine feel after reading Matheolus's work?
A) Upset and ashamed to be a woman
B) Inspired and empowered
C) Angry and ready to fight men
D) Indifferent and amused
  • 19. Who appears to Christine after she reads Matheolus?
A) Her parents
B) The three Virtues
C) Jean de Meun and Matheolus
D) Three famous queens
  • 20. What do the three ladies tell Christine?
A) How to write a poem about Joan of Arc
B) What her role will be in helping her build the City of Ladies
C) How to escape from society
D) Where to find hidden treasure
  • 21. Which virtue is the first to join Christine?
A) Lady Justice
B) Lady Wisdom
C) Lady Mercy
D) Lady Reason
  • 22. What does Lady Reason help Christine build?
A) The roof of the palace
B) The grand gates
C) The interior library
D) The external walls of the city
  • 23. What questions does Lady Reason answer for Christine?
A) How to write vernacular prose
B) Why books are written in Latin
C) How to manage household finances
D) Why some men slander women
  • 24. What does Lady Reason tell Christine to take and dig deep with?
A) The spade of her intelligence
B) A wooden stick
C) An iron pickaxe
D) A golden shovel
  • 25. What did Christine believe in the beginning of the text about women?
A) That women must truly be bad
B) That women were superior to men
C) That women were unfairly targeted
D) That women should rule nations
  • 26. Why did Christine initially accept unfavorable opinions of women in moral works?
A) Because she hated her own gender
B) Because so many learned men wrote them
C) Because she wanted to marry Matheolus
D) Because her teachers forced her to read them
  • 27. What did Christine fail to use to discover the merits of women?
A) Wealth
B) Violence
C) Magic
D) Reason
  • 28. What does Lady Reason teach Christine to dispel?
A) Her fear of physical labor
B) Her desire to marry
C) Her inability to write in Latin
D) Her own self-consciousness and negative thoughts of past writers
  • 29. Besides her allegorical self, who else does Christine teach by creating Lady Reason?
A) Matheolus
B) Jean de Meun
C) Her readers
D) Princess Margaret
  • 30. What does Christine give readers and women reason to believe?
A) That women should govern kingdoms
B) That marriage is obsolete
C) That books are always truthful
D) That women are not evil or useless creatures
  • 31. Which part of The Book of the City of Ladies discusses 36 women?
A) Part III
B) Part II
C) Part IV
D) Part I
  • 32. Which gift is NOT specifically mentioned as being possessed by the ladies in Part II?
A) Great physical strength
B) The gift of prophecy
C) Devotion to their families and others
D) Chastity
  • 33. Besides building the city, what institution do Christine and Lady Rectitude discuss in Part II?
A) Knighthood
B) Monasticism
C) Marriage
D) Education
  • 34. How many women are discussed in Part II of the Book of the City of Ladies according to the text?
A) 92
B) 50
C) 37
D) 124
  • 35. Who is brought in to rule the city of ladies in Part III?
A) A queen
B) The Virgin Mary
C) Christine
D) Lady Justice
  • 36. Whom does Christine name as the queen that women should follow and protect the city for?
A) Ghismonda
B) Rhea Ilia
C) Lady Justice
D) The Virgin Mary
  • 37. How many women are discussed in Part III of the Book of the City of Ladies?
A) 92
B) 12
C) 129
D) 37
  • 38. Who was Christine's main source for information in writing her book?
A) Vincent of Beauvais
B) Margaret King
C) Jean de Vignay
D) Giovanni Boccaccio
  • 39. What is the French title of Boccaccio's work on famous women that Christine may have used?
A) De mulieribus claris
B) Des Cleres et Nobles Femmes
C) Speculum Maius
D) Miroir historial
  • 40. Which work by Boccaccio is cited in the latter stages of The City of Ladies?
A) Decameron
B) Des Cleres et Nobles Femmes
C) De mulieribus claris
D) Speculum Maius
  • 41. Does Boccaccio explicitly state that women should have a formal education?
A) Only in political matters
B) Only in religious matters
C) Yes
D) No
  • 42. According to scholars Margaret King and Albert Rabil, what was Boccaccio's outlook?
A) Feminist
B) Misogynist
C) Progressive
D) Neutral
  • 43. How were women who were active in the public realm depicted in Boccaccio's text, according to King and Rabil?
A) Suffering terrible punishments
B) Being praised for martyrdom
C) Becoming great scholars
D) Ruling as queens
  • 44. In what year was Jean de Vignay's Miroir historial produced or referenced as dating from?
A) 1300
B) 1240
C) 1400
D) 1333
  • 45. Which Virtue is NOT mentioned as one of the three sent to aid Christine?
A) Justice
B) Reason
C) Wisdom
D) Rectitude
Created with That Quiz — the site for test creation and grading in math and other subjects.