CHRISTINE DE Pizan's attitude towards war and warfare has attracted a good deal of scholarly attention over the past ten years or so. In particular, her socio-political reflection on the possible justifications of warfare has been studied by peace-theory scholars, who consider Christine's stance as proto-pacifist in nature, and indeed in some respects as ahead of her times.

In view of Christine's well-documented opinion that war is an evil to be engaged in only when all other avenues have been explored, and then only in order to redress a gross injustice such as a hostile invasion, the presence on her list of writings of a treatise on the art of warfare strikes a somewhat dissonant note. Le Livre des faits d'armes et de chevallerie, published in 1410, that is, three years after the assassination of Louis d'Orléans, is a manual for knights and soldiers. It is a compendium of the leading authorities on the subject: Vegetius's De re militari, Frontinus's Stratagemata and Valerius Maximus's Facta Ditaque Memorabilia for Books I and II, and Honoré Bouvet's Arbre des batailles (published c. 1387) for Books III and IV. However, the Livre des faits d'armes et de chevallerie is more than a mere compilation. The shortcomings of old authorities such as Vegetius are recognised, and changes in warfare requirements due to technological developments such as the rise of the artillery lead to supplemental chapters based, we are told, on the advice of ‘wise knights expert in the said matters of arms’, ‘saiges chevaliers expars es dittes choses d'armes’ (Laënnec, p. 148).