Susan Farmer wrote:
_http://homepages.tig.com.au/~dispater/armourers3.htm_
(http://homepages.tig.com.au/~dispater/armourers3.htm)
If I had to guess, I'd say that was one of the illustrations from
Christine de Pizan's City of Women. There are other such examples in
that manuscript (like women building a house .)
I wrote a bit earlier that I had found a detail of the image (a close-up of
just the lady) in the Medieval Woman Book of Days, attributed to a 14th c.
Roman de la Rose. The Roman de la Rose does have a scene in which Dame Nature
(an allegorical figure) is described as working at a forge, making new people
to replace dead ones. However, the attribution line on the image in the Book
of Days was clearly wrong, as this picture was obviously late 15th c. (I
posted a link to the actual 14th c. picture, a much earlier rendition of
Fortune at the forge.)
While I was waiting for that e-mail to come through on the list, I've been
chatting with Cathy's husband Jeb, who posed the original question. Here's the
gist of what I wrote to him (pertinent bits of several messages tidied up and
combined):
---
Because the image was misattributed in the book I have, there is a slight
possiblity this is not a Roman de la Rose, and thus not Dame Nature, but in
any case the costume clearly signals an allegorical or symbolic presentation.
So this can't be used as evidence for women blacksmiths, much less women
blacksmiths in sideless surcotes with their hair down! For your purposes,
though, the rendition of the forge and the blacksmithing tools, techniques,
etc. is probably as accurate as any other image from the period.
[Then I saw the full image, which shows the rest of the shop, including three
men making armor]
Having seen the full image, I think now that it is not the Roman de la Rose,
but rather a scene from Boccaccio's Livre des cleres et nobles femmes, of
which there are quite a few illuminated manuscripts from this period. (I'd put
this one around 1480-1500 offhand.) There's a scene in that book of a queen
who supervises armourer-making or possibly helps make armour. I don't have the
book handy so can't look up the story, but I know I've seen several
illuminations of the scene.
---
Susan is right that there are a number of unrealistic images of queenly
allegorical figures doing craft and building work in the Cite des Dames. (One
of my favorites shows a queen doing bricklaying.) I don't recall any scenes of
armor-forging in that context, though.
--Robin
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