De la biographie au miroir du prince : le Livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V de Christine de Pizan

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From Biography to the Mirror for Princes : the Livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V by Christine de Pizan Although, at first glance, the Charles V was in the biographical genre, Christine de Pizan, however, had no intention of providing the reader with a chronicle of this reign. The moral project constructed by the writer encourages the reader to see the work as a theoretical tract, which, by showing the virtues required by a prince, presents itself as a manual of good government. It is still the case that this traittié gives considerable renewed life to the tradition of the mirror for princes. Whereas the theorists of power referred until then to examples from the auctoritates, Christine refers to a quasi-contemporary model, which updates her pedagogical treatise by adding a layer of lived experience to it. The remarkable nature of this mirror for princes lies more particularly in the predominance it gives to the perfect moderation that never ceased to govern the monarch’s behavior. This self-control is presented as the tangible manifestation of the inner wisdom, both political and moral, required by any sovereign worthy of the name.