By Marie Lebert | On April 10, 2026 | Comments (0)
Christine de Pizan (alternatively Pisan) 1364–1430), an Italian-French court writer, is best remembered for The Book of the City of Ladies and its follow-up, The Treasure of the City of Ladies, two manuscripts dated 1405.
A prolific writer of poetry, novels, biography and commentary in vernacular French, she earned a living with her writing and is considered the first professional woman writer in Europe.
Christine de Pizan’s husband died of the plague in 1389, a year after her father’s death, leaving her to support her children and her mother as a court writer. This was considered a male occupation. Read More→
By Marie Lebert | On December 28, 2025 | Comments (0)
Mary Hays (1759–1843) was an English writer whose main work was the six-volume compendium Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women of All Ages and Countries, featuring the biographies of 300 notable women (in 294 entries) from ancient figures to nearly contemporaries.
Originally published in England in 1803, it was published in the United States four years later. Hays was also a poet and novelist.
Mary Hays was born into a family of Protestant dissidents who rejected the practices of the Church of England, the established church at the time. Read More→
By Marie Lebert | On June 30, 2025 | Updated February 12, 2026 | Comments (0)
Claudine Picardet (1735–1820) was a French chemist and mineralogist whose translations of publications written by her European colleagues, contributed to the Chemical Revolution.
Picardet was the only woman scientist in the Dijon Academy (Dijon being a French town) and the only scientist who was proficient in four foreign languages (English, German, Italian, Swedish).
She translated many books and articles relating to chemistry and mineralogy for her French colleagues to keep abreast of current developments in their field. Read More→
By Marie Lebert | On June 26, 2025 | Updated November 11, 2025 | Comments (0)
Eliza Ashurst Bardonneau (1813–1850), born Elizabeth Ann Ashurst, belonged to a family of English radical activists. She teamed up with her friend Matilda Mary Hays (1820–1897), an English journalist writing about women’s rights, to offer the first translations into English of some works by French novelist George Sand.
They both liked the subversive tone of Sand’s novels and the political and social issues tackled in her works.
Eliza Ashurst belonged to a family of English radical activists who supported causes such as abolitionism, women’s suffrage and Italian unification (Risorgimento). Read More→
By Marie Lebert | On June 25, 2025 | Updated October 25, 2025 | Comments (0)
George Eliot was the pen name used by the English writer Mary Ann Evans (1819–1880). She used her real name as a translator, editor and critic, and used the pen name George Eliot for her fiction.
By her own account her first literary works were translations of theological and philosophical works, which influenced her work as a fiction writer. She also led a life defying the conventions of her time.
Mary Ann Evans received a good education and was a voracious reader. Her father was the estate manager of the Arbury Hall Estate (in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England) and she had access to the large library of the estate, including many Greek classics. Read More→
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