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Most excellent, revered, and honored princesses of France and of all lands, and all ladies and maidens, and, indeed, all women who have loved and do love and will love virtue and morality, as well as all who have died or who are now living or who are to come, rejoice and exult in our new City which, thanks to God, is already formed and almost finished and populated.

Christine speaks these words in Part Two, section 69.1. With this pronouncement, she is, in effect, declaring the City of Ladies open and ready to house and nurture the scores of women who will come to take up residence there. This statement is a conclusion to the book’s second part as well as a transition to the final sentiments contained in Part Three. Christine is welcoming the women who have been summoned through the narration and storytelling that comprise most of the work. They represent the earthly realm of women and the numerous good works and improvements women have contributed to human life. Then, in a nod to the book’s concluding section, Christine gives thanks to God, who will ordain and sanctify the city.

In her declaration, Christine establishes two important precedents that her work and the organizing principles of the City of Ladies subscribe to. First of all, although she acknowledges a hierarchy of women and women’s roles from princess to ladies to maidens, she makes it clear that all women, regardless of class or social standing, have a place in her city. By doing this, Christine is erasing one of the factors that divide and separate women, in an attempt to create greater unity and sisterhood. Second, Christine establishes a historical continuum, including women from the past and present and invoking the women of the future. In this way, Christine hopes to universalize the experiences of women and not just speak to readers of her time. She attempts to unify the past and the present in order to ensure a brighter future in which women, united and strong, openly resist the abuse and misrepresentation they have suffered.

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