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First detailed reconstruction of Anne de Graville's library, establishing her as one of the most well-read and erudite poets of the period.
WINNER: 2024 Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender Book Award
In the 1520s, the French noblewoman Anne de Graville composed two poetic works, based on older, canonical, male-authored texts: Giovanni Boccaccio's Teseida and Alain Chartier's Belle dame sans mercy. The first, the Beau roman, she offered to Claude, queen of France and wife of Francis I, and the second, the Rondeaux, to the king's mother, Louise of Savoy. With the pro-feminine spin of her rewritings, Anne developed the legacy of another woman writer from 100 years earlier, Christine de Pizan, by entering the on-going debate known as the querelle des femmes. Like Christine, Anne sought to redress the negative view of women found in much contemporary popular literature and to offer role models for both men and women at the court of Francis I.
This book is the first detailed reconstruction and interpretation of Anne's library and her collecting practice, showing how they relate to her own writings and her literary milieu. It also teases out her links to other women writers of the time interested in the querelle, such as Catherine d'Amboise and Margaret of Navarre. Paying close attention to literary, manuscript, and artistic sources, it establishes Anne's reputation as one of the most erudite poets of the period, and one keenly attuned to the position of women in society as well as to the political sensitivities of the French court.
WINNER: 2024 Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender Book Award
In the 1520s, the French noblewoman Anne de Graville composed two poetic works, based on older, canonical, male-authored texts: Giovanni Boccaccio's Teseida and Alain Chartier's Belle dame sans mercy. The first, the Beau roman, she offered to Claude, queen of France and wife of Francis I, and the second, the Rondeaux, to the king's mother, Louise of Savoy. With the pro-feminine spin of her rewritings, Anne developed the legacy of another woman writer from 100 years earlier, Christine de Pizan, by entering the on-going debate known as the querelle des femmes. Like Christine, Anne sought to redress the negative view of women found in much contemporary popular literature and to offer role models for both men and women at the court of Francis I.
This book is the first detailed reconstruction and interpretation of Anne's library and her collecting practice, showing how they relate to her own writings and her literary milieu. It also teases out her links to other women writers of the time interested in the querelle, such as Catherine d'Amboise and Margaret of Navarre. Paying close attention to literary, manuscript, and artistic sources, it establishes Anne's reputation as one of the most erudite poets of the period, and one keenly attuned to the position of women in society as well as to the political sensitivities of the French court.
Price: $49.95
Pages: 376
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Publication Date:
08 September 2026
Trim Size: 9.45 X 6.69 in
ISBN: 9781843847779
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 16th Century, Literary studies: c 1400 to c 1600, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / French, Literature: history and criticism
At once a rich trove of carefully curated images from the manuscripts, books, and architectural contexts of Anne de Graville (ca. 1490-1540) and a well researched history of connections illustrating the literary networks of Anne and other noble and royal women of her time, L'Estrange's book provides an excellent foundation for consideration of the spread of Renaissance literary culture in early sixteenth-century France, especially women's place in it.
Mirroring her subject matter, L'Estrange masterfully weaves in a compendious array of studies on Anne de Graville, her work, and her collection, reuniting through this book a community of scholars and inviting new scholarship on this neglected femme de lettres. There is no doubt that this volume will become canonical for current and future scholars interested in early modern female writers, their networks, and their legacy.
Anne de Graville and Women's Literary Networks in Early Modern France combines meticulous archival and bibliographical research with innovative literary analysis. This lavishly illustrated and well-written book offers a fascinating account of the concerns animating one woman's complex involvement in the world of books.
This beautiful and richly illustrated book edited by Gallica will greatly interest art historians, as well as specialists of Early Modern book history and literature, and scholars of gender studies.
Elizabeth L'Estrange presents the first full-length study of Anne de Graville's considerable influence as a major contributor to early 16th c. French culture, providing valuable revisions of previous scholarship. Meticulously drawn from archival and codicological sources as well as past and more recent research, the thoroughly researched details about Anne's biography, the contextualization of her cultural and political associations, and the comprehensive analyses of Graville's library, her own writings and related ms. images are impressively complemented by the 57 beautifully reproduced illustrations that illuminate the discussion.
This meticulously researched and richly illustrated study both highlights the value of detailed material bibliography and draws useful attention to the early modern writer and bibliophile Anne de Graville.
Cette monographie d'une grande richesse à tous points de vue ouvre de nouvelles possibilités de recherche sur les réseaux littéraires féminins de la Renaissance et sur l'oeuvre de l'autrice en particulier, ce qui ne peut par ailleurs que nous faire espérer la publication prochaine de l'édition critique des oeuvres d'Anne de Graville. "
(This richly detailed monograph, in every respect, opens up new avenues of research into female literary networks of the Renaissance and into the work of the author in particular-something that also gives us hope for the forthcoming publication of a critical edition of the works of Anne de Graville.)
Mirroring her subject matter, L'Estrange masterfully weaves in a compendious array of studies on Anne de Graville, her work, and her collection, reuniting through this book a community of scholars and inviting new scholarship on this neglected femme de lettres. There is no doubt that this volume will become canonical for current and future scholars interested in early modern female writers, their networks, and their legacy.
Anne de Graville and Women's Literary Networks in Early Modern France combines meticulous archival and bibliographical research with innovative literary analysis. This lavishly illustrated and well-written book offers a fascinating account of the concerns animating one woman's complex involvement in the world of books.
This beautiful and richly illustrated book edited by Gallica will greatly interest art historians, as well as specialists of Early Modern book history and literature, and scholars of gender studies.
Elizabeth L'Estrange presents the first full-length study of Anne de Graville's considerable influence as a major contributor to early 16th c. French culture, providing valuable revisions of previous scholarship. Meticulously drawn from archival and codicological sources as well as past and more recent research, the thoroughly researched details about Anne's biography, the contextualization of her cultural and political associations, and the comprehensive analyses of Graville's library, her own writings and related ms. images are impressively complemented by the 57 beautifully reproduced illustrations that illuminate the discussion.
This meticulously researched and richly illustrated study both highlights the value of detailed material bibliography and draws useful attention to the early modern writer and bibliophile Anne de Graville.
Cette monographie d'une grande richesse à tous points de vue ouvre de nouvelles possibilités de recherche sur les réseaux littéraires féminins de la Renaissance et sur l'oeuvre de l'autrice en particulier, ce qui ne peut par ailleurs que nous faire espérer la publication prochaine de l'édition critique des oeuvres d'Anne de Graville. "
(This richly detailed monograph, in every respect, opens up new avenues of research into female literary networks of the Renaissance and into the work of the author in particular-something that also gives us hope for the forthcoming publication of a critical edition of the works of Anne de Graville.)
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
A Note on Citations, Translations and Transcriptions
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: 'Une femme d'excellence en vertus, ma dame d'Entraigues': Anne de Graville's Life and Works
Part I: Anne de Graville: Reader and Collector
Chapter 1: J'en garde un leal: Reconstructing Anne de Graville's Library
Chapter 2: 'A vos yeulx, un peu de recreation': Translation, Translatio Studii and Self-Fashioning in Anne de Graville's Chaldean Histories
Chapter 3: The Rouen Connection: The Puy, Poetry and Petrarch
Part II: From Reading to Writing: Anne as Author
Chapter 4: Musas natura, lachrymas fortuna: Anne de Graville, Christine de Pizan and Women's Shaping of the querelle des femmes
Chapter 5: Love, Amazons and Fortune in the Beau roman for Claude of France
Chapter 6: Debating with 'Maistre Allain': Chartier, Blois and Poetic Form in the Rondeaux for Louise of Savoy
Conclusion: 'Celle la qui porte le regnon': A Last Word on Anne de Graville
Appendix A: Books Inherited, Acquired, Commissioned or Associated with Anne de Graville
Appendix B: Inventory of the d'Urfé Library at La Bâtie, c. 1780
Appendix C: Manuscripts Containing Works by Anne de Graville
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
A Note on Citations, Translations and Transcriptions
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: 'Une femme d'excellence en vertus, ma dame d'Entraigues': Anne de Graville's Life and Works
Part I: Anne de Graville: Reader and Collector
Chapter 1: J'en garde un leal: Reconstructing Anne de Graville's Library
Chapter 2: 'A vos yeulx, un peu de recreation': Translation, Translatio Studii and Self-Fashioning in Anne de Graville's Chaldean Histories
Chapter 3: The Rouen Connection: The Puy, Poetry and Petrarch
Part II: From Reading to Writing: Anne as Author
Chapter 4: Musas natura, lachrymas fortuna: Anne de Graville, Christine de Pizan and Women's Shaping of the querelle des femmes
Chapter 5: Love, Amazons and Fortune in the Beau roman for Claude of France
Chapter 6: Debating with 'Maistre Allain': Chartier, Blois and Poetic Form in the Rondeaux for Louise of Savoy
Conclusion: 'Celle la qui porte le regnon': A Last Word on Anne de Graville
Appendix A: Books Inherited, Acquired, Commissioned or Associated with Anne de Graville
Appendix B: Inventory of the d'Urfé Library at La Bâtie, c. 1780
Appendix C: Manuscripts Containing Works by Anne de Graville
Bibliography