This study of ludic literary society in sixteenth-century France addresses Italianate practices of philosophical and literary sociability as they took root there. It asserts that entertainment activities of women-led circles illustrate the richly complex precursors of the seventeenth-century salons. Notions from the philosophy of play, such as those developed by Johan Huizinga, Eugen Fink, and Roger Caillois, who argue that play is critically intertwined with the development of society, provide a theoretical path across these periods of women’s engagement in literary culture. The barrister Estienne Pasquier, whose voluminous network of literary and legal connections permitted him entry into the society of such women, acts as an eyewitness to sixteenth-century circles. Ultimately, we see that the ludic activities in such society produced powerful influences that extended beyond the confines of the groups in question to shape ideas, attitudes, and activities—such as those of the salon cultural norms to come.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Note on the Texts
- Introduction: Women, Entertainment, and Precursors of the French Salon, 1532–1615
- 1. At Play in Italy and France
- Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Social Continuities
- 2. Marie-Catherine de Pierrevive and the Dames des Roches
- Proto-Salon Entertainment in Lyon and Poitiers
- 3. Antoinette de Loynes and Madeleine de l’Aubespine
- Entertainment among the Parisian Noblesse de robe
- 4. Claude-Catherine de Clermont
- Amusement and Escapism among the Noblesse d’épée and Royal Milieu
- 5. Marguerite de Valois and Proto-Précieuse Taste
- 6. L’Histoire de La Chiaramonte
- A Divertissement for the Circle of Marguerite de Valois
- Conclusion: Sixteenth-Century Société Mondaine and the Persistence of Entertainment Practices
- Appendix: Estienne Pasquier and His Social Network
- Bibliography
- Index
- List of Illustrations
- Fig. 1. Estienne Pasquier (1529–1615). By Léonard Gaultier (1617). National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
- Fig. 2. Marie-Catherine de Pierre-Vive (ca. 1498–1570). By Claude Duflos (1665–1727). National Galleries Scotland. Mrs A. G. Macqueen Ferguson Gift 1950.
- Fig. 3. Frontispiece, La Puce de Madame des Roches (1579). Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books, Small Special Collections. University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, VA.
- Fig. 4. Madeleine de l’Aubespine (1546–1596), madame de Villeroy. By L’anonyme Lécurieux (1571). Bibliothèque nationale de France.
- Fig. 5. Claude-Catherine de Clermont (1543–1603), duchesse de Retz. By François Quesnel (1571). Bibliothèque nationale de France.
- Fig. 6. Marguerite de Valois (1553–1615). By François Clouet (1569). Bibliothèque nationale de France.
- Fig. 7. Frontispiece, L’Histoire de La Chiaramonte (1603). Bibliothèque nationale de France.
- Fig. 8. Estienne Pasquier’s social network: Selected members mentioned in this study.
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