Anne de Graville and Women's Literary Networks in Early Modern France 9781843846864, 9781800109414, 9781800109421

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Gallica Volume 49

ANNE DE GRAVILLE AND WOMEN’S LITERARY NETWORKS IN EARLY MODERN FRANCE

Gallica ISSN 1749–091X

Founding Editor: Sarah Kay Series Editors: †Simon Gaunt and Peggy McCracken Gallica aims to provide a forum for the best current work in medieval and early modern French studies. Literary studies are particularly welcome and preference is given to works written in English, although publication in French is not excluded.

Proposals or queries should be sent in the first instance to the editors, or to the publisher, at the addresses given below; all submissions receive prompt and informed consideration. Professor Peggy McCracken ([email protected]) Caroline Palmer ([email protected])

Previously published volumes in this series are listed at the end of this volume.

ANNE DE GRAVILLE AND WOMEN’S LITERARY NETWORKS IN EARLY MODERN FRANCE

ELIZABETH L’ESTRANGE

D. S. BREWER

© Elizabeth L’Estrange 2023 All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner The right of Elizabeth L’Estrange to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 First published 2023 D. S. Brewer, Cambridge ISBN 978-1-84384-686-4 hardback ISBN 978-1-80010-941-4 ePDF D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620–2731, USA website: www.boydellandbrewer.com A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate Cover image: Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, Anne de Graville receiving a book from a disembodied hand, guided by Cupid; frontispiece of the Chaldean Histories, Abu Dhabi, Louvre, LAD 2014.029, fol. 2v, c. 1508–10 (photo: © Les Enluminures)

For Bruno and Rosalyn, with love In memory of Denise Jacobs (1971–2017) and Jutta Vinzent (1968–2021), passionate educators and much missed

Contents 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

ix xiii xv xvii 1

PART I: ANNE DE GRAVILLE: READER AND COLLECTOR

1 J’en garde un leal: Reconstructing Anne de Graville’s Library

25

2 ‘A vos yeulx, un peu de recreation’: Translation, Translatio Studii and Self-Fashioning in Anne de Graville’s Chaldean Histories

57

3 The Rouen Connection: The Puy, Poetry and Petrarch

76

PART II FROM READING TO WRITING: ANNE AS AUTHOR

4 Musas natura, lachrymas fortuna: Anne de Graville, Christine de Pizan and Women’s Shaping of the querelle des femmes

119

5 Love, Amazons and Fortune in the Beau roman for Claude of France

160

6 Debating with ‘Maistre Allain’: Chartier, Blois and Poetic Form in the Rondeaux for Louise of Savoy

233

Conclusion: ‘Celle la qui porte le regnon’: A Last Word on Anne de Graville

287

Appendix A: Books Inherited, Acquired, Commissioned by 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 Index

293 304 314 317 343

Illustrations Genealogical Table: Graville Family Tree.

xviii

1

Title page, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 1r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

2

2

Master of Anne de Graville (Etienne Colaud?), Anne de Graville presenting her work to Claude of France, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 1v, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

3

3

Jean Bourdichon, Jean Marot presenting his work to Anne of Brittany, Jean Marot, Voyage de Genes, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5091, fol. 1r, c. 1507 (© Paris, BnF).

4

4

Master of the City of Ladies, Christine de Pizan presenting her works to Isabel of Bavaria, Christine de Pizan, Collected Works (The Queen’s Manuscript), London, BL, Harley MS 4431, fol. 3r, c. 1410–14 (© London, British Library Board).

5

Master of François de Rohan (workshop ?), Margaret of Navarre presenting her work to Anne de Pisseleu, Margaret of Navarre, La Coche ou débat d’amour, Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 522, f.43v, c. 1540–42 (photo: CNRS-IRHT, © Bibliothèque du musée Condé, château de Chantilly).

6

Circle of Jean Pichore, Anne de Graville presenting her Rondeaux to Louise of Savoy, formerly Nantes, Saint-Gildas-des-Bois, Les Sœurs de l’Instruction Chrétienne, single leaf inserted in an unfoliated manuscript, c. 1524–26 (photo: CNRS-IRHT, © Bibliotheque de musee Conde, chateau de Chantilly).

7

Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, Portrait of Anne de Graville and opening of the prologue, Chaldean Histories, Abu Dhabi, Louvre, LAD 2014.029, fols 2v–3r, c. 1508–10 (© Les Enluminures).

27

8

Marie de Balsac’s arms, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune, Munich, BSB, Cod. Gall. 11, fol. 2r (detail), c. 1410–11 (© Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München).

36

9

Anne de Graville’s arms, Triumph of Death, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541, fol. 77v (detail), c. 1520–25 (© Paris, BnF).

36

10 Master of the Paris Entries, frontispiece with Anne de Graville’s arms, motto and devices, Marco Polo, Devisement du monde, Paris, Arsenal, ms 3511, fol. 2r, c. 1520 (© Paris, BnF).

41

5

6

7

11

Criseis [sic for Briseis] handing over a letter for Achilles, Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 254, fol. 102r (detail), 1467 (photo: E. L’Estrange).

12 Robinet Testard, Penelope writing to Ulysses, Octovien de Saint-Gelais, Les XXI espistres d’Ovide (Heroides), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 875, fol. 1r, 1497 (© Paris, BnF). 13

Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, Anne of Brittany enthroned, Ovid, Excerpts from the Heroides, translated by Octovien de Saint-Gelais, and letters, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, MS 121 (2021.7), fol. 55r, c. 1493 (public domain).

51 52

72

x

Illustrations

14 Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, Anne of Brittany and the Virtues, Guillaume Filastre, Histoire de la Toison d’Or, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 138, fol. 1v, c. 1490–1500 (© Paris, BnF). 73 15

Field of the Cloth of Gold, relief carving Hotel Bourgtheroulde, Rouen, c. 1522 (photo: E. L’Estrange).

83

16 Vitrail des chars (detail). Moses with the arms of Francis I and Claude of France formerly in the church of St Vincent, Rouen, now in the church of Joan of Arc, Rouen, c. 1522 (photo: E. L’Estrange).

83

17 Graville fermail, Chants Royaux, Rondeaux and Ballades, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25535, fol. 14v (detail), c. 1524 (photo: E. L’Estrange).

91

18 Workshop of the Ango Hours Master/Acarie Master, Triumph of Chastity, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541, fol. 58v, c. 1520–25 (© Paris, BnF).

98

19 Triumph of Chastity, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 223, fol. 94v, before 1510 (© Paris, BnF).

100

20 Triumph of Chastity, Petrarch, Les Triumphes messire Francoys Petrarcque, trans. by Georges de la Forge (?) (Paris: Barthélemy Vérard, 1514), Paris, BnF, Réserve YD-81, fol. 25v (© Paris, BnF).

102

21 Master of the Triumphs of Petrarch, Triumph of Chastity, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 594, fol. 102r, c. 1503 (© Paris, BnF).

103

22 Master of the Triumphs of Petrarch, Triumph of Death, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 594, fols 134v–135r, c. 1503 (© Paris, BnF). 104–05 23 Workshop of the Ango Hours Master/Acarie Master, Triumph of Death, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541, fol. 77v, c. 1520–25 (© Paris, BnF).

107

24 Triumph of Death, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 223, fol. 123v, before 1510 (© Paris, BnF).

108

25 Workshop of the Ango Hours Master/Acarie Master, Triumph of Fame, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541, fol. 101v, c. 1520–25 (© Paris, BnF).

109

26 Workshop of the Ango Hours Master/Acarie Master, Triumph of Love, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541, fol. 1r, c. 1520–25 (© Paris, BnF).

111

27 Chantepleure and devices of Marie de Clèves, Boccaccio, Il Filostrato, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25528, fol. 1r, c. 1455–56 (© Paris, BnF).

112

28 Roger de Gaignières (1642–1715), drawing of a tapestry from the Célestins de Marcoussis, with the arms, devices and mottos of Anne de Graville and Pierre de Balsac [1523], Paris, BnF, Estampes, Réserve Pc-18-fol. 65 (© Paris, BnF).

114



Illustrations xi

29 Master of the City of Ladies, Christine de Pizan in her study, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune, Munich, BSB, Cod. Gall. 11, fol. 2r, c. 1410–11 (© Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München).

123

30 Anne de Graville’s quartered arms, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune, Paris, Arsenal, ms 3172, fol. 1r, c. 1520 (© Paris, BnF).

126

31

Pointing hand, marginal drawing, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune, Paris, Arsenal, ms 3172, fol. 3r (detail), c. 1520 (© Paris, BnF).

127

32 Face, marginal drawing, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune, Paris, Arsenal, ms 3172, fol. 10r (detail), c. 1520 (© Paris, BnF).

129

33 Master of the City of Ladies, Amazons going into battle, led by Penthesilea, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune, Munich, BSB, Cod. Gall. 11, fol. 109v (detail), c. 1410–11 (© Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München).

132

34 Robinet Testard, Penthesilea, Boccaccio, Des cleres et nobles femmes, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 599, fol. 27v (detail), c. 1488–96 (© Paris, BnF).

134

35 Anne of France and Suzanne de Bourbon, engraving by M. A. Queyroy of the frontispiece from the now-lost presentation copy (c. 1503–05) of the Enseignements, formerly Dubrowski Collection, St Petersburg, reproduced from Anne de France, Les Enseignements d’Anne de France, duchesse de Bourbonnois et d’Auvergne à sa fille Suzanne de Bourbon, ed. by A.-M. Chazaud (Moulins: Desrosiers, 1878). Paris, BnF, Réserve M-R-5 (Public Domain).

139

36 Circle of Master François, Petrarch appearing to Boccaccio, Boccaccio, Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, private collection, formerly Basel, Jörn Gunther Rare Books, fol. 390r (detail), c. 1470 (photo: E. L’Estrange).

151

37 Master of Jacques de Besançon, Presentation scene, Antoine de La Sale, Petit Jehan de Saintré, London, BL, Cotton MS Nero D IX, fol. 2r, c. 1475 (© London, British Library Board).

153

38 Prologue and frontispiece with the arms of Claude of France, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 513, fols 1v–2r, c. 1521–24 (photo: CNRS-IRHT, © Bibliothèque du musée Condé, château de Chantilly).

166–7

39 Prologue and opening verses, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25441, fols 5v–6r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF; photo: E. L’Estrange).

169

40 Master of Anne de Graville (Etienne Colaud?), Emilia and Hippolyta with Theseus and a mounted knight, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 2r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

173

41 Master of Anne de Graville (Etienne Colaud?), Palamon and Arcita before Theseus (as Francis I and Henry VIII), Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 12r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

174

42 Executant Principal des Statuts, Emilia with Theseus, Palamon and Arcita, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 20v, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

179

43 Executant Principal des Statuts, Emilia cradling Arcita after the tournament, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 41r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

180

x i i

Illustrations

44 Executant Principal des Statuts, Arcita on his death bed, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 51r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF). 183 45 Executant Principal des Statuts, Emilia leading Arcita’s funeral procession, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 56r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

185

46 Jean Pichore, Anne of Brittany and Claude of France, ‘Du Roy sans fils – douleur’, Petrarch, Remèdes de l’une ou l’autre Fortune, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 225, fol. 165r, 1503 (© Paris, BnF).

188

47 Executant Principal des Statuts, Marriage of Emilia and Palamon, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 68r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

198

48 Executant Principal des Statuts, Emilia and Hippolyta watching the tournament, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 36r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF). 204 49 Master of Jacques de Besançon, Tournament scene, Antoine de La Sale, Petit Jehan de Saintré, London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D IX, fol. 40r (detail), c. 1475 (© London, British Library Board).

205

50 Cleriande at her writing desk, Macé de Villebresme, Epistre de Cleriande la Romaine, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 71r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

217

51

Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier as constable, accompanying Queen Claude, Entry of Francis I into Lyon, Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 86.4 Extragav., fols 7v–8r (© Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek). 226–7

52 Anne de Graville, Rondeaux, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2253, fols 2v–3r, c. 1524–26 (© Paris, BnF; photo: E. L’Estrange).

232

53 Recto of image 6, title page, Anne de Graville, Rondeaux, formerly Nantes, SaintGildas-des-Bois, Les Sœurs de l’Instruction Chrétienne, single leaf inserted in an unfoliated manuscript, c. 1524–26 (photo: CNRS-IRHT, © Bibliotheque de musee Conde, chateau de Chantilly).

234

54 Master of Philippe de Gueldre, Louise of Savoy guiding Francis I, Compas du dauphin, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2285, fol. 5r, c. 1505–06 (© Paris, BnF).

237

55 Noël Bellemare, Louise of Savoy at the helm of the state, Etienne Le Blanc, Les Gestes de Blanche de Castile, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5715, fol. Av, c. 1520–26 (© Paris, BnF).

240

56 Jean Pichore, Penelope and devices of Louise of Savoy, Octovien de Saint-Gelais, Les XXI espistres d’Ovide (Heroides), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 873, fol. 1v, c. 1505–15 (© Paris, BnF). 242 57

Robinet Testard, Paris writing to Helen, Octovien de Saint-Gelais, Les XXI espistres d’Ovide (Heroides), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 875, fol. 83r, c. 1497 (© Paris, BnF).

250

The author and publisher are grateful to all the institutions and individuals listed for permission to reproduce the materials in which they hold copyright. Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders; apologies are offered for any omission, and the publisher will be pleased to add any necessary acknowledgement in subsequent editions.

Acknowledgements This book began over a decade ago, with a suggestion for a paper on Anne de Graville from Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier. My greatest thanks go to Kathleen not only for introducing me to Anne but for her friendship over a much longer period and for her incredible generosity, both as a scholar and as a host during my frequent stays in Paris. The paper that I wrote was delivered at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds as part of the British Academy Text/Image Relations in Medieval French and Burgundian Culture run by Rosalind Brown-Grant from 2010 to 2011. I am grateful to have been part of this and for Ros’s continued support of my work, especially her willingness to comment on my translations of Middle French. Other scholars have also provided invaluable linguistic help, and made many astute observations, especially Michelle Szkilnik as well as Kathy Krause, David Potter, Olivia Robinson and Helen Swift. All interpretations, and any mistakes, remain mine. I am grateful to Emma Cayley, Daisy Delogu, Dominique Demartini, Thelma Fenster, Joan E. McRae, Anne Paupert and Andrea Valentini for participating in a roundtable workshop hosted at the Institut d’Etudes Avancées in Paris in 2018. They have taught me much about Chartier and Christine de Pizan. I am especially grateful to Joany for her work identifying the Chartier text used by Anne and for our conversations about the Rondeaux. Thanks, too, go to Mary Beth Winn and Christine Reno for their insights and generous sharing of information. Colleagues at different institutions have provided valuable assistance with accessing original materials or providing reproductions, especially Charlotte Denoël at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Natalia Elaguina at the National Library of Russia, Patrik Granholm at the Kungliga Biblioteket in Stockholm, Julian Harrison at the British Library, Ulrika Hogg at the National Library of Scotland, Wolfgang-Valentin Ikas of the Munich Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Juliette Jestaz at the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris, Marie-Hélène de La Mure and Yannick Nexon at the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, Don C. Skemer at Princeton University Library, Hanno Wijsman at the Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes and Sandra Hindman at Les Enluminures who allowed me to study and publish an initial article on the Chaldean Histories prior to its acquisition by the Louvre, Abu Dhabi. I am also grateful to those who have provided timely advice on particularly knotty problems or answered bibliographical queries: Elliot Adam, Diane Antille, Adrian Armstrong, François Avril, Cynthia J. Brown, Elizabeth A. R. Brown, Laurent Brun, Rhiannon Daniels, Eva De Visscher, Eugenio Donadoni, Consuelo Wager Dutschke, Laure Fagnart, Laurent Hablot, Catherine Léglu, Cathy McClive, Elizabeth Morrison, Catherine Müller, Marianne O’Doherty, Jeremy Roe, Craig Taylor, Jean Vignes and Roger Wieck.

x i v

Acknowledgements

A fellowship at the Institut d’Etudes Avancées in Paris, from September 2017 to January 2018, allowed me to complete a substantial amount of writing and research and I am grateful to the other fellows for our discussions and to Simon Luck and Caroline zum Kolk for their support. Generous financial assistance was received from the Newberry Library’s Weiss Brown Subvention and the Institute for Historical Research’s Scouloudi Foundation for the inclusion of colour images. For reading drafts and for generally listening to me talking about Anne de Graville with varying degrees of intensity, I thank Tracy Adams, Catherine Bradley, Hilary Brown, Ingrid Falque, Emilia Jamroziak and Emily Wingfield as well as my departmental colleagues at the University of Birmingham, especially Francesca Berry, David Hemsoll and Camilla Smith. Jamie Edwards has been a brick in helping to put bibliography and images together. Thanks also go to the series editors, initially Sarah Kay, then Simon Gaunt and Peggy McCracken, for taking this project forward. I am only sorry that Simon will not see the work in its finished form. Caroline Palmer at Boydell & Brewer has been a marvel of advice, support and endless patience and she has my deepest gratitude for guiding me through this long process. Finally, this book was written between two countries: thanks to my friends on both sides of the Channel, to my parents for their continued support and frequent babysitting and to Bruno for the numerous airport and train station pick-ups and for Rosalyn, who came into our lives after Anne de Graville, but whose love of dancing to 1970s disco helps to put it all in perspective.

This book has received the Weiss-Brown Publication Subvention Award from the Newberry Library. The award supports the publication of outstanding works of scholarship that cover European civilization before 1700 in the areas of music, theater, French or Italian literature, or cultural studies. It is made to commemorate the career of Howard Mayer Brown. The publication of this book has been made possible by a grant from the Scouloudi Foundation in association with the Institute of Historical Research.

A Note on Citations, Translations and Transcriptions In referring to historical figures and authors, I have opted for the anglicised name where one exists or is commonly used (e.g. Anne of France, Louise of Savoy, Margaret of Navarre). For simplicity’s sake, I have anglicised some titles of works (e.g. Annius’s Antiquities, the Chaldean Histories, Petrarch’s Triumphs). However, I have retained French titles for works by Christine de Pizan and others which were originally written in French, and I use the French titles for Boccaccio’s De mulieribus claris and De casibus virorum illustrum and other works in French translation when discussing their circulation, reception and appearance in collections. For editions of works, I replicate the name used by the editors in the original publication (e.g. Anne de France, Marguerite de Navarre) and the title of the edition (e.g. Les Enseignements / Enseignements à sa fille). All translations from Middle French into modern English are mine unless otherwise stated. I have standardised i/j and u/v and added minimal punctuation, capitalisation and final é to aid reading.

Abbreviations AD AN Arsenal Beaurepaire

Archives départementales Archives nationales Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal Inventaire sommaire des Archives départementales antérieur à 1790 rédigé par M. Charles de Robillard de Beaurepaire, Seine-Inférieure, série G, 7 vols and Supplément (Paris: Paul Dupont, 1868–1900) – available online at http://recherche. archivesdepartementales76.net/ BDSM Belle dame sans mercy BHVP Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris BL British Library BM Bibliothèque municipale BnF Bibliothèque nationale de France BSB Bayerische Staatsbibliothek KBR Bibliothèque royale de Belgique/Koninklijke Bibliotheek van Belgïe KB Kungliga Biblioteket LV Guillaume De Bure, Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de feu M. le duc de La Vallière. Première partie, contenant les manuscrits, les premières éditions, les livres imprimés … dont la vente se fera dans les premiers jours du mois de décembre 1783, 3 vols and Supplément (Paris: Guillaume De Bure, 1783) New Haven, Beinecke Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University NLR National Library of Russia NLS National Library of Scotland ÖNB Österreichische Nationalbibliothek PMLA Publications of the Modern Language Association of America Sainte-Geneviève Bibliothèque de Sainte-Geneviève

Genealogical Table: Graville Family Tree.

Introduction: ‘Une femme d’excellence en vertus, ma dame d’Entraigues’: Anne de Graville’s Life and Works Manuscript 5116 of the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal in Paris opens with the words ‘C’est le beau romant des deux amants Palamon et Arcita et de la belle et saige Emilia translaté de vieil langaige et prose en nouveau et rime par mademoiselle Anne de Graville la Mallet, dame du Bois Malesherbes. Du commandement de la Royne (The fine story of the two lovers Palamon and Arcita and the beautiful and wise Emilia, translated from the old prose version into a new, rhymed one, by Lady Anne de Graville la Mallet, Dame du Bois Malesherbes, at the request of the queen) (fig. 1). This long title announces the genesis and authorship of the Beau roman – a reworking of the Livre de Thezeo, itself based on Boccaccio’s Teseida – by the noblewoman Anne de Graville (c. 1490–1540) and its dedication to the queen, Claude of France (1499–1524), wife of Francis I (1494–1547). It is followed by a dedicatory prologue in which Anne de Graville addresses her ‘souveraine dame’ and the text continues on the verso, beneath a large miniature showing Claude seated on a throne draped in royal blue, under a canopy decorated with her arms of France and Brittany (fig. 2). Accompanied by a group of conversing ladies on her left, Claude turns towards Anne, who, soberly dressed in black, kneels on her right and humbly presents the queen with her work which she composed between 1521 and 1524.1 Whereas images of men presenting their works to women patrons are not unusual at the turn of the sixteenth century – for example, Jean Marot presenting his Voyage de Gênes to Claude’s mother, Anne of Brittany (1477–1514) (fig. 3) – such images of woman-to-woman presentation are more unusual. Text and image on both sides of the Beau roman’s opening folio nevertheless bear witness to women’s literary activity at the French court as readers, patrons and writers. The Arsenal miniature does, of course, have a precedent in a more famous example from one hundred years earlier, that of Christine de Pizan offering her collected works to another queen of France, Isabel of Bavaria (c. 1370–1435), surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting in the Queen’s Manuscript (fig. 4).

1

On the dating, see the discussion in Chapter 5.

Fig. 1. Title page, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 1r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

Fig. 2. Master of Anne de Graville (Etienne Colaud?), Anne de Graville presenting her work to Claude of France, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 1v, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

Fig. 3. Jean Bourdichon, Jean Marot presenting his work to Anne of Brittany, Jean Marot, Voyage de Genes, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5091, fol. 1r, c. 1507 (© Paris, BnF).

Fig. 4. Master of the City of Ladies, Christine de Pizan presenting her works to Isabel of Bavaria, Christine de Pizan, Collected Works (The Queen’s Manuscript), London, BL, Harley MS 4431, fol. 3r, c. 1410–14 (© London, British Library).

Fig. 5. Master of François de Rohan (workshop ?), Margaret of Navarre presenting her work to Anne de Pisseleu, Margaret of Navarre, La Coche ou débat d’amour, Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 522, f.43v, c. 1540–42 (photo: CNRS-IRHT, © Bibliothèque du musée Condé, château de Chantilly).

Fig. 6. Circle of Jean Pichore, Anne de Graville presenting her Rondeaux to Louise of Savoy, formerly Nantes, Saint-Gildas-des-Bois, Les Sœurs de l’Instruction Chrétienne, single leaf inserted in an unfoliated manuscript, c. 1524–26 (photo: CNRS-IRHT).

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ANNE DE GRAVILLE AND WOMEN’S LITERARY NETWORKS

Moreover, in about 1542, two decades after the Beau roman manuscript was made, Claude’s sister-in-law, Margaret of Navarre (1492–1549), had herself represented giving her work, La Coche ou débat d’amour, to Anne de Pisseleu, the mistress of her brother, Francis I (fig. 5).2 A frontispiece which came to light during the writing of this book shows Anne de Graville presenting her other main surviving work, the Rondeaux, to Claude’s mother-in-law, Louise of Savoy (1476–1531), surrounded by a host of courtiers with the women occupying the front row (fig. 6).3 Composed a few years after the Beau roman, the Rondeaux is a reworking of Alain Chartier’s debate poem, La Belle dame sans mercy (1424). In all these miniatures, a woman presents her work to a high-ranking lady of the French court, with a wider feminine audience implied by the attendant – and attentive – women around her. Falling chronologically between the more famous depiction of Christine de Pizan in the early fifteenth century and that of Margaret of Navarre in the mid-sixteenth, the little-known frontispieces of the Beau roman and the Rondeaux visually situate Anne de Graville both as the continuation of Christine’s legacy and as a precursor to Margaret in the creation of women’s literary networks and of pro-feminine writings.4 Taking these images of Anne de Graville as a starting point, this book seeks to expand our understanding of the role that courtly women played in the shaping of literature in late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century France as readers, writers and collectors. Following Susan Bell’s ground-breaking article published some forty years ago, there has been a wealth of studies on the libraries and reading habits of late-medieval aristocratic women, especially in France.5 Anne de Graville is, however, largely absent from this field despite Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 522, fol. 43v. On the copies of La Coche, see Sherry C. M. Lindquist ‘“Parlant de moy”: Manuscripts of La Coche by Marguerite of Navarre’, in Excavating the Medieval Image: Manuscripts, Artists, Audiences: Essays in Honor of Sandra Hindman, ed. by David S. Areford (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), pp. 197–221. See also Roberta L. Krueger, ‘Staging Female Authority in Chantilly MS 522: Marguerite de Navarre’s La Coche’, in Founding Feminisms in Medieval Studies: Essays in Honor of E. Jane Burns, ed. by Laine E. Doggett and Daniel E. O’Sullivan (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2016), pp. 187–203. 3 The frontispiece was inserted into a manuscript that was previously in the possession of the Sœurs de l’Instruction Chrétienne at Saint-Gildas-des-Bois in Nantes but which is now untraceable. Parts of the manuscript and some colour images were published by Sister Marie Brisson in her article ‘Oraisons à Notre Dame d’après un manuscrit du XVe–XVIe siècles’, Marian Library Studies, 25 (1996), pp. 89–208; see the detailed discussion in Chapter 6. A colour reproduction of the frontispiece is available at https://ecommons.udayton.edu/ml_studies/vol25/ iss1/5 [accessed 1 September 2022]. 4 I take my cue in opting for the term pro-feminine rather than the terms proto-/pro-feminist from Helen Swift, Gender, Writing and Performance: Men Defending Women in Late Medieval France (1440–1538) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 13–14. 5 Susan Groag Bell, ‘Medieval Women Book Owners: Arbiters of Lay Piety and Ambassadors of Culture’, Signs, 7 (1982), 742–68. There are too many studies to list in full here but see, for example, Livres et lectures des femmes en Europe entre moyen âge et renaissance, ed. by Anne-Marie Legaré (Leuven: Peeters, 2007) and the special issue of the Journal of the Early Book Society, 4 (2001) as well as references to relevant works given throughout the chapters.

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the evident importance of her collection and her connections to some of France’s most famous women bibliophiles.6 Furthermore, a great deal of scholarship has been dedicated to exploring how Christine de Pizan, in the early fifteenth century, and women writers from the mid-sixteenth century French urban elite, such as Hélisenne de Crenne (Margaret Briet, d. 1552?), Pernette du Guillet (d. 1545) and Louise Labé (d. 1556), sought to defend their sex as part of the querelle des femmes, the debate about the nature of women and differences between the sexes that took off in France in the early 1400s.7 Yet this focus on Christine, on the one hand, and on Labé and her circle, on the other, has left the interventions of women writers in the period in between somewhat understudied. This book’s close analysis of Anne de Graville’s pro-feminine writings in relation not only to those of Christine but also to those of her (near) contemporaries including Marie de Clèves (1426–87), Anne of France (1461–1522), Catherine d’Amboise (1482–1550) and Margaret of Navarre shows that women engaged, in various ways, in the defence of their sex throughout the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Women’s literary activity thus emerges as far more coherent and interrelated than has previously been thought and suggests that Christine’s legacy, and the scope and format of the querelle des femmes to which she and other women contributed, can be usefully reassessed. Anne de Graville was the youngest of three daughters born to Louis Malet de Graville (1438–1516) and Marie de Balsac (d. 1503), probably around 1490.8 Both Louis and Marie See below for specific studies of Anne’s writings. Mathieu Deldicque has published a number of articles on Anne’s library and its relationship to those of her parents, including, ‘Bibliophiles de mère en fille: Marie de Balsac (†1504) and Anne de Graville (†1540)’, in Les femmes, la culture et les arts en Europe entre Moyen Âge et Renaissance/Women, Art and Culture in Medieval and Early Renaissance Europe, ed. by Cynthia J. Brown and Anne-Marie Legaré (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), pp. 73–88; and ‘La Passion des livres en héritage. Anne de Graville et sa bibliothèque’, in Au prisme du manuscrit: regards sur la littérature française du Moyen Âge (1300–1550), ed. by Elliot Adam and Sandra Hindman (Turnhout: Brepols, 2019), pp. 109–36; much of this material was also included in his subsequent book, Le dernier commanditaire du Moyen Âge: L’amiral de Graville (Lille: Septentrion, 2021). His list of manuscripts belonging to Anne largely corresponds to my own. 7 On de Crenne, du Guillet, Labé and others, see for example, Susan Broomhall, Women and the Book Trade in Sixteenth Century France (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002); Leah Chang, Into Print: The Production of Female Authorship in Early Modern France (Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 2009); Madeleine Lazard, Louise Labé Lyonnaise (Paris: Fayard, 2004); Hélisenne de Crenne: l’écriture et ses doubles, ed. by Jean-Philippe Beaulieu and Diane Desrosiers-Bonin (Paris: Champion, 2004), and Pernette du Guillet, Complete Poems, ed. by Karen Simroth James and trans. by Marta Rijn Finch (Toronto: Iter and Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2010). On the querelle, see below. 8 The earliest biographies of Anne include the note on her by André d’Orville and the Marquis de Paulmy (who owned the Arsenal copy of the Beau roman) in De la lecture des livres François: Quatrieme Partie: Poésies du seizième siècle (Paris: Moutard, 1780), pp. 66–82; M. le Marquis de Laqueuille, Anne de Graville, ses poésies, son exhérédation (Chartres: Garnier, 1858); Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun, Histoire de Marcoussis (Paris: Aubry, 1867); and Maxime de Montmorand, Une femme poète du XVIe siècle: Anne de Graville. Sa famille, sa vie, son œuvre, sa postérité (Paris: Picard, 1917). See also the Graville family in Genealogical Table 1. 6

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were from families with a long history of service to the kings of France.9 Louis served under Louis XI (1423–83) and became close to the king’s daughter, Anne of France, later duchess of Bourbon, during her regency for her brother, Charles VIII (1470–98). Anne offered him the role of admiral, which he retained under Charles’s successor, Louis XII (1462–1515). Marie’s father, Roffec (d. 1473), had been chambellan to Louis XI, and her uncle, Robert de Balsac (d. 1503, father of Anne’s husband Pierre), himself a writer, also served a series of noblemen including the kings Louis XI, Charles VIII and Louis XII.10 As Mathieu Deldicque has shown, both Louis de Graville and Marie de Balsac amassed an important collection of manuscripts, a good proportion of which Anne eventually went on to inherit. Louis also offered a number of luxury volumes to Louis XII during his time as admiral of France.11 Anne and her sisters, Louise (d. before 1514) and Jeanne (1478–1540?), therefore grew up in an environment in which books were key conveyors of social status, literary and artistic taste, and religious and political affiliations as well as a means of demonstrating and cementing personal relationships.12 Although there is little trace of books belonging to Louise and Jeanne, they were both the subject of rondeaux, written on the acrostic of their names, copied alongside poems that praised Claude of France, Louise of Savoy and Margaret of Navarre, thus hinting at the part they may also have played in courtly literary circles.13 In fact, Jeanne’s marriage to Charles II d’Amboise, seigneur de Chaumont, who took over from Louis as admiral from 1508 until his untimely death in 1511 at Correggio, added another dimension For a full discussion, see Deldicque, Le dernier commanditaire. See Deldicque, Le dernier commanditaire, pp. 352–53. Robert was the author of two works, a moral treatise, Le Chemin de l’Ospital ([Lyon]: [no publisher], 1490) and a war treatise, La Nef des princes et des batailles de noblesse (Lyon: Guillaume Balsarin, 1502); see Philippe Contamine, ‘The War Literature of the Late Middle Ages: The Treatises of Robert de Balsac and Béraud Stuart, Lord of Aubigny’, in War, Literature and Politics in the Late Middle Ages. Essays in Honour of G. W. Coopland, ed. by C. T. Allmand (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1976), pp. 101–121. 11 Deldicque, Le dernier commanditaire, esp. pp. 267ff and appendices, and discussion below. 12 Dates given in Deldicque, Le dernier commanditaire, pp. 356–57. 13 No books can be placed in Louise’s possession; Jeanne’s married arms appear in a breviary, Paris, BnF, ms lat. 1058; see Deldicque (Le dernier commanditaire, pp. 356–60) who suggests that Jeanne may have inherited Paris, BnF, ms fr. 20350, the Grandes Chroniques de France, rather than Anne. The acrostic poems appear in Paris, BnF, ms fr. 19182, fols 7r–v for Jeanne and Louise respectively; and in Lille, BM, ms 402 (308), no. 24 (fol. 23v) ( Jeanne) and no. 328 (fol. 99v) and no. 330 (fol. 100r) (Louise); see Marcel Françon, ‘Rondeaux du MS. 402 de Lille’, PMLA, 52 (1937), 313–34. Patrick Macey has recently suggested that the Lille manuscript, which he dates to 1510, was owned by Anne de Graville with the ‘N-E’ letters that adorn each rondeau invoking the name ‘Anne’ in their pronunciation. As discussed later, Anne used the abbreviation ‘N’ for her name in Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24315 and in Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541, her copy of Petrarch’s Triumphs; see Macey, ‘Cueurs desolez: Josquin, La Rue and a Lament for Anne de Foix’, Early Music, 48 (2020), 495–515. Macey also claims that Anne de Graville was also called Anne de Quesnai and that the rondeau in the Lille manuscript on the acrostic of this name was thus in honour of Anne. I have found no evidence of Anne being known by this name. 9

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to the family’s courtly and literary connections, since Charles was the nephew of the bibliophile Cardinal Georges d’Amboise (d. 1510) and brother of the writer Catherine d’Amboise, whose surviving works also reveal her pro-feminine interests. Jeanne de Graville may have received one of the surviving copies of Catherine’s Complaincte de la dame pasmée contre la Fortune.14 Many of the earliest biographies and references to Anne de Graville state that she served as a dame d’honneur or lady-in-waiting to Queen Claude and that she was a confidante of, and perhaps also later in the household of, Margaret of Navarre. No archival records have yet confirmed Anne’s presence in Claude’s household, but a reference in the Beau roman to the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the meeting that took place between Henry VIII and Francis I in June 1520, suggests that she attended this event, perhaps in Claude’s company.15 Two references in Margaret’s accounts to a lady ‘d’Entraigues’ may well refer to Anne, since Entraigues was the seigneurie of her husband, Pierre de Balsac (1479–1531?).16 Certainly the preface to the Arsenal copy of Anne’s Beau roman stating that it was written ‘au commandement de la reine’ indicates that Anne was close enough to the queen’s circle See Catherine d’Amboise, Poésies. Une nouvelle édition du manuscrit Paris, BnF, fr. 2282, ed. by Catherine M. Müller (Montreal: Ceres Editions, 2002), p. 24 (hereafter Poésies) and the recent edition of Catherine’s works, Œuvres complètes, ed. by Evelyne Berriot-Salvadore and Catherine M. Müller (Paris: Garnier, 2022), pp. 37–38 (hereafter Œuvres complètes), as well as the discussion in Chapter 4. 15 In the sixteenth century, the role of dame d’honneur referred to one sole woman who was the highest-ranking woman in the queen’s entourage. The records of Claude’s household are incomplete but Anne does not appear in those that are available for 1523–24 in Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 9175, fols 367–370 and in Paris, AN, J 964 for the same years. It is not clear who was Claude’s dame d’honneur. My thanks to Caroline zum Kolk for discussing this with me. On the reference to the Field of the Cloth of Gold, see the discussion in Chapter 5. 16 The name ‘Antraigues’ (a variant spelling) is listed under ‘Dames et Demoiselles’ in Margaret of Navarre’s household for the year 1529 (Paris, Sainte-Geneviève, ms 848, fols 163r–64v) and another ‘Madamoiselle d’Entragues’ (another variant) is listed under ‘Filles Demoiselles’ as being ‘hors en 1539’ (i.e. no longer in her service) in Margaret’s accounts from 1529 to 1539 (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 7856, p. 882). Both sources are printed in Comptes de Louise de Savoie (1515, 1522): et de Marguerite d’Angoulême (1512, 1517, 1524, 1529, 1539), ed. by Abel Lefranc and Jacques Boulenger (Paris: Champion, 1905), p. 81 and p. 69. Jonathan Reid has stated that the 1529 reference relates to Anne but that the Madamoiselle d’Entraigues listed as ‘hors’ in 1539 is Anne’s daughter, although he does not specify which; see his King’s Sister, Queen of Dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492–1549) and her Evangelical Network, 2 vols (Leiden: Brill, 2009), i, p. 344 and n. 85. Anne had four daughters: Jeanne, who married Claude d’Urfé in 1532, Louise, who married Charles Martel de Bacqueville in 1523, Antoinette, who became abbess of Malnoue, and Georgette, who married Jean Pot on 10 May 1538, apparently in the presence of Margaret of Navarre (see François-Alexandre Aubert de La Chesnaye-Desbois, Dictionnaire de la noblesse contenant les généalogies, l’histoire & la Chronologie des Familles nobles de France …, 15 vols (Paris: La Veuve Duchesne, 1770), i, p. 680). Given the date, Georgette seems the most likely candidate if ‘fille demoiselle’ refers to an unmarried girl. It is worth noting, however, that Anne is referred to as both ‘madame’ or ‘madamoiselle’ d’Entraigues in archival sources from Rouen (see Chapter 3). 14

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to provide, or to be asked to provide, the monarch with a specific literary work. The frontispiece of Anne presenting the Rondeaux to Louise further confirms that she was close to the most powerful women of the French court. Anne also had links to the movement for church reform in France, in which Margaret of Navarre has long been recognised as a key player but which Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier has more recently argued was also supported by Queen Claude, amongst whose entourage was the evangelical sympathiser Anne Boleyn.17 In 1520, Anne de Graville acquired property from her father’s estate, including a house in the rue de Jouy in Paris, in the diocese of Saint-Paul, where the humanist and reformist Cercle de Meaux was founded in 1521 by the bishop of Meaux, Guillaume Briçonnet. In 1525 and 1526, Anne sheltered two evangelical reformers, Pierre Caroli (1480–1550) and Pierre Toussain (1499–1574), at her castle in Malesherbes.18 In a letter written from Malesherbes, Toussain explains that he has been well received by the Duchess of Alençon (Margaret of Navarre) and taken refuge at the castle of Madame d’Entraigues, ‘protector of Christ’s exiles’.19 Anne’s closeness to Margaret is further suggested by the fact that in 1531 her husband, Pierre de Balsac, appears to have left the care of his children to Margaret in his will.20 Although neither Pierre’s will, nor that of Anne, survives, an undated act (but likely from 1531) indicates that Margaret absolved herself of this responsibility, with the garde-noble of the children passing to Charles Martel, seigneur de Bacqueville, the husband of their daughter Louise.21 Anne, however, survived Pierre by about a decade: she was still alive in 1534 or 1535 when a reference is made to her in the accounts of the archbishopric of Rouen concerning a gift she had made to the cathedral.22 She had certainly passed away by 1556, since both Pierre See Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier, ‘From Dissent to Heresy. Queen Claude of France and Her Entourage: Images of Religious Complaint and Evangelical Reform’, in Representing Heresy in Early Modern France, ed. by Gabriella Scarlatta and Lidia Radi (Toronto: Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2017), pp. 93–129 (pp. 93–95). Louis de Graville was also close to key reformers, including Jan Standonck: see Deldicque, Le dernier commanditaire, pp. 311ff. 18 See Reid, King’s Sister, i, p. 344. For Caroli see Michel Veissière, L’Eveque Guillaume Briconnet (1470–1534): Contribution à la connaissance de la Réforme catholique à la veille du Concile de Trente (Provins: Société d’Histoire et d’archéologie, 1986), p. 347. On Toussain see Correspondance des réformateurs dans les pays de langue française, ed. by A.-L. Herminjard, 9 vols (Geneva: H. Georg / Paris: Michel Levy, 1866–1897; Reprint Nieuwkoop: B. de Graaf, 1965), i, pp. 444–48. 19 ‘Nam sum hic, in hac arce generosissimae Dominae d’Entraigues, exulum Christi susceptricis’; see Herminjard, i, pp. 445. 20 See Montmorand, p. 99, who is apparently referring to Père Anselme’s entry on the Balsacs in his Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France …, 9 vols (Paris, 1726–33), ii, but without citing a page number. 21 Montmorand, p. 99, and the act printed in Paul Marichal, Catalogue des Actes de François Ier, 9 vols (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1887–1908), vii, p. 683, n° 28291. 22 Beaurepaire, ii: G 2537 (1534–35): ‘A Loys Le Pilleur, paintre, pour avoir redoré 4 bastons du pouaille [sic] de madame d’Entragues, qu’elle a donnés à l’église (afin) qu’ilz servent à porter le Corpus Domini à la procession générale faicte le 4 février.’ (To Louis Le Pilleur, painter, for 17



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and Anne are referred to as deceased in a legal document relating to the distribution of their possessions.23 During her lifetime, Anne’s literary skills earned her the praise of the humanist and printer Geoffroy Tory, who, in his 1529 Champfleury, printed her rondeau ‘Pour le meilleur’ as proof of the eloquence of the French language: Et pour monstrer que nostre dict langage françois a grace quant il est bien ordonné, j’en allegueray icy en passant un rondeau que une femme d’excellence en vertus, ma dame d’Entraigues, a faict et composé. And to show that our French language is graceful when used properly, I here present in passing an example of a rondeau that a woman of great virtue, my lady of Entraigues, wrote.24

Until the early twentieth century, however, Anne’s works as well as her book collection proved rather less interesting to biographers and literary critics than the story of her marriage to her maternal cousin Pierre de Balsac, which resulted in her disinheritance. Anne and Pierre’s union probably took place in 1507, since in January 1508 (n.s.) Louis de Graville took out criminal proceedings against Pierre for ‘cas d’excès, rapt, crimes, delictz, et malefices’ (cases of abuse, abduction, crimes, misdemeanours and wrong-doings).25 Anne and others in the couple’s entourage were also accused of colluding in the rapt, which suggests that Anne did not marry against her will. It is not clear why Louis objected so much to the marriage, but his anger caused him to disinherit his daughter. Around 1510, an agreement was reached in which Anne renounced her inheritance in return for 10,000 écus d’or and 1,000 livres de rente. The affair was far from resolved, however, and in 1513 Louis accused his daughter of forging letters that placed her back in the succession.26 In fact, Louis continued to revise his will, and Anne’s place within it, up until his death in 1516. It was only in 1518 that Anne succeeded in inheriting her share of Louis’s moveable goods, including some of his books; the distribution of his properties was not resolved until 1520.27 having re-gilded four canes [for a liturgical cloth?] given by Madame d’Entragues to the church to carry the Corpus Domini in the procession of 4 February.) 23 Paris, AN, MC/ET/XIX/108, ‘Constitution de procureurs pour demander le partage des biens meubles, dettes et actions mobilières délaissés par feu Pierre de Balsac, baron d’Antragues, et dame Anne de Graville’, 16 octobre 1556. This document also indicates Bacqueville as the ‘tuteur et curateur des enfans et heritiers desdits defunctz de Balsac et de Graville’. 24 Geoffroy Tory, Champfleury, ed. by J. W. Joliffe (Paris, La Haye: Mouton Éditeur, 1970; repr. of 1529 edition), f.4r. 25 Paris, AN, Parlement criminel, X2, A66, fol. 157r–v dated 27 January 1508 (n.s.). The extract is printed in Montmorand, p. 64 and n. 1. 26 Montmorand, pp. 76–84. 27 The procès that led to the reinstigation of Anne’s inheritance is noted in Marichal, Catalogue, i, p. 151 (no. 863). No direct source regarding the inheritance survives but an agreement was

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In 1889 Paul Durrieu evoked the circumstances of Anne’s marriage and disinheritance in his interpretation of Anne’s manuscript of the Chaldean Histories, offered to her by Pierre de Balsac and replete with declarations of his love for her, stating that ‘[o]n possède en lui le souvenir matériel d’une aventure d’amour qui fit un certain bruit dans le temps’ (the manuscript is the material souvenir of an amorous adventure that caused a certain stir at the time).28 In fact, as I have already argued elsewhere, it is likely that this manuscript does evoke, and was intended to compensate for, the furore that surrounded the couple’s marriage, as well as being designed to appeal to Anne’s literary interests.29 By the time Anne came to write the Beau roman for Claude, the resolution of her inheritance had led to an improvement in her fortune, as witnessed by a flurry of book acquisitions and commissions in the early 1520s. The fact that both the Beau roman and the Rondeaux were concerned with themes such as honesty, love, marriage and the refuting of slander suggests that her earlier experience left its mark on her. However, Anne’s personal life was not the only influence on her literary output and is not the only lens through which to interpret it: as this study shows, her collection of books, her close reading of them and the literary milieu that she inhabited provided her with a wealth of other material that she brought to her writing. Early studies of Anne’s works, although few, were particularly harsh in their judgements. Henri Hauvette’s 1908 analysis of early French translations of Boccaccio claimed that Anne’s Beau roman removed the epic and classical aspects of the Teseida, transforming it into ‘un roman destiné à charmer les loisirs de dames sentimentales’ (a novel destined to entertain sentimental ladies).30 Montmorand’s 1917 analysis reiterates Hauvette’s points and is scathingly critical of her style: Malheureusement, chez elle, l’expression trahit presque toujours la pensée; sa langue est pénible, comme embarrassée de cailloux, sa versification haletante, mal assurée, encore first reached between Jeanne and Anne in 1517 (Paris, AN, minutier central, étude XIX, 42), followed by a favourable outcome for Anne in 1518 which led to the dispersal of Louis’s moveable property, including his books (Paris, AN, minutier central, étude XIX, 46). A record of the distribution of Louis’s lands is found in Chamarande, AD de l’Essonne, 13 J 17. Anne and Pierre received the castle and domain of Bois-Malesherbes as well as various other seigneuries including those of Montagu (Cotentin) and Ambourville (Rouen) and the house in Paris on the Rue de Jouy; see also Deldicque, Le dernier commanditaire, pp. 355–56. 28 Abu Dhabi, Louvre, LAD 2014.029; Paul Durrieu, ‘Les manuscrits à peintures de la bibliothèque de Sir Thomas Phillipps à Cheltenham’, Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des chartes, 50 (1889), 381–432 (p. 430). Before being acquired by the Louvre, Abu Dhabi in 2014, the manuscript was on deposit at the British Library as part of the Phillipps collection before being sold in 2006 (Christie’s, 7 June 2006, lot 34) and again in 2014 (Les Enluminures). 29 Elizabeth L’Estrange, ‘“Un étrange moyen de séduction”: Anne de Graville’s Chaldean Histories and her Role in Literary Culture at the French Court in the Early Sixteenth Century’, Renaissance Studies, 30 (2016), 708–28. 30 Henri Hauvette, ‘Les plus anciennes traductions françaises de Boccace’, Bulletin italien, 8 (1908), 1–17, 189–211, 285–311 (p. 205).



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barbare […] Elle manque de métier, elle n’a pas le don du style; et l’on ne peut lui attribuer celui de l’originalité, de l’invention, puisqu’elle ne fit jamais que traduire ou remanier l’œuvre de l’autrui.31 Unfortunately, in her works, the expression always betrays the thought; her language is difficult and stumbling, her versification stuttering, lacking self-assurance, old-fashioned even. She lacks skill, she is not gifted for style; and no originality or inventiveness can be attributed to her since she never did anything but translate or rework the works of others.

The opinions of Hauvette and Montmorand betray a rather patronising attitude that finds a woman author lacking originality and unable to master either the subject or the form. Although they both recognised that Anne was working from the anonymous fifteenth-century prose Livre de Thezeo rather than the Teseida itself, they insist on a comparison with Boccaccio, and they do not consider that ‘traduire ou remanier’ (translate or rework) – manners of writing and engaging with texts to which this study will return – were intrinsic to much late medieval and early modern literary output. Montmorand acknowledged that Anne was singled out by Tory for the elegance of her style but concluded, after quoting her rondeau, ‘[e]t voila ce qui passait pour un chef-d’oeuvre, en l’an de grace 1529’ (and there we have what was considered a masterpiece in the year 1529).32 He was equally dismissive of her reworking of Chartier’s Belle dame sans mercy, describing her verses as ‘bien pénibles et rocailleux’ (so difficult and stumbling).33 These judgements on Anne’s works recall those made about Christine de Pizan at the end of the nineteenth century when she was condemned for ‘la lourdeur de son style, sa syntaxe incompréhensible, sa prose terne et ennuyeuse’ (the clumsiness of her style, her incomprehensible syntax, her drab and boring prose).34 Such comments regarding the value of women’s writings from the medieval and early modern period have had a long-lasting effect, shaping the canon of French and European literature in ways that are still tangible today.35 For example, although Christine de Pizan’s wilderness years are over, she is still only one of a handful of women authors who (sometimes) make it onto the French literature agrégation syllabus.36 33 34

Montmorand, pp. 155–56. Montmorand, p. 105. Montmorand, p. 134. Thérèse Moreau, ‘Promenade en féminie: Christine de Pizan, un imaginaire au féminin’, Nouvelles questions féministes, 2003 (22), 14–27 (p. 15); Gustave Lanson famously described her as a blue-stocking and for being ‘la première de cette insupportable lignée de femme auteurs’ (the first of this insufferable line of women authors); see Moreau, p. 15 (quoting from Gustave Lanson’s Histoire de la littérature français (Paris: Hachette, 1894)). 35 As discussed in Chapter 5, even a recent edition of the Livre de Thezeo remains dismissive of Anne’s originality; see Le Livre de Thezeo. Traduction anonyme du XVe siècle du ‘Teseida’ de Boccace, ed. by Gabriel Bianciotto (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017), hereafter Thezeo. 36 In 2017, an online petition was launched in France entitled ‘Pas d’agrégation de lettres sans autrice’ which argued that it should not be possible to qualify as a teacher through the public exam 31 32

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Another likely reason for the relative paucity of interest in Anne de Graville is the inconspicuousness of her patron, Claude of France. The short-lived queen was overshadowed both in her lifetime and in later history books not only by her husband, Francis I, but also by her mother, Anne of Brittany (who held the exceptional status of being twice crowned queen of France), her mother-in-law, Louise of Savoy, and her sister-in-law, Margaret of Navarre.37 Recent work that has brought to light Claude’s participation in the political, cultural and artistic life of the French court has given impetus to this present study, enabling both Anne and Claude to take their rightful places in what is otherwise a lively narrative of women’s book culture and patronage in France at this time.38 Nevertheless, one cannot help but wonder whether, had the manuscript with the frontispiece of Anne giving her Rondeaux to Louise survived intact, Anne de Graville would have been more familiar to historians today. In the last twenty years or so, a handful of literary and manuscript scholars, including Catherine M. Müller, Mawy Bouchard and Daisy Delogu, have paid serious attention to Anne’s works, arguing for the pro-feminine nature of both the Beau roman and the Rondeaux, and for their participation in two separate, but not unrelated, literary querelles.39 without studying a woman author. The syllabus released for the 2018 competition consisted of twelve authors, not one of them a woman. 37 Robert Knecht, ‘“Our Trinity”: Francis I, Louise of Savoy and Marguerite d’Angoulême’, in Gender, Power and Privilege in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Jessica Munns and Penny Richards (Harlow: Pearson, 2003), pp. 71–89. 38 For recent work on Claude of France, see Cynthia J. Brown, ‘Like Mother, Like Daughter: The Blurring of Royal Imagery in Books for Anne de Bretagne and Claude de France’, and Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier, ‘Claude de France: In Her Mother’s Likeness, a Queen with Symbolic Clout?’, both in The Cultural and Political Legacy of Anne de Bretagne: Negotiating Convention in Books and Documents, ed. by Cynthia J. Brown (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2010), pp. 101–21 and 123–44 respectively; and Wilson-Chevalier, ‘From Dissent to Heresy’; idem, ‘Claude de France. La vertu de la littérature et l’imaginaire d’une princesse vertueuse’, in Valeurs de lettres à la renaissance: Débats et réflexions sur la vertu de la littérature ed. by Pascale Chiron and Lidia Radi (Paris: Garnier, 2016), pp. 43–81. 39 See Mawy Bouchard, ‘Les belles [in]fidèles ou la traduction de l’ambiguïté masculine: les Rondeaux d’Anne de Graville’, Neophilologus, 88 (2004), 189–20; idem, ‘Le roman “épique”: l’exemple d’Anne de Graville’, Etudes françaises, 32 (1996), 99–107; idem, ‘La translation du “vieil langaige et prose, en nouveau et rime”: Anne de Graville et les visées épidictiques du Beau roman’, Renaissance and Reformation, 35 (2012), 25–43; idem, ‘The Power of Reputation and Skill According to Anne de Graville’, in Women and Power at the French Court, 1483–1563, ed. by Susan Broomhall (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018), pp. 241–61; Daisy Delogu, ‘A Fair Lady takes on “Maistre Allain”: Anne de Graville’s Belle Dame sans mercy’, French Forum, 42 (2017), 471–91; idem, ‘Voiceover: Anne de Graville’s Beau Romant, Boccaccio’s Teseida, and Alain Chartier’s Belle Dame sans mercy’, in Gender and Voice in Medieval French Literature and Song, ed. by Rachel May Golden and Katherine Kong (Gainsville: University of Florida Press, 2021), pp. 253–272; Catherine M. Müller, ‘Anne de Graville lectrice de Maistre Allain. Pour une récriture stratégique de la Belle Dame sans mercy’, in Lectrices d’Ancien Régime, ed. by Isabelle Brouard-Arends (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2003), pp. 231–241 (hereafter ‘Lectrice’); and idem, ‘Jeanne



Anne de Graville’s Life and Works 17

The first of these, noted above, is the querelle des femmes, in which Christine de Pizan played a formative role, resulting in one of her most famous works in defence of women, the Cité des dames.40 The second querelle was that sparked by Chartier’s Belle dame sans mercy (BDSM), whose protagonist divided readers who found her either cold and uncourtly or, alternatively, justified in her desire to refuse the advances of the knight-lover.41 Anne de Graville’s decision to rewrite two male-authored works whose themes and heroines show a close relationship to querelle works, and to present them to leading ladies of the early sixteenth-century court, reinforces the point made by Helen Swift that aristocratic women in the entourage of Francis I were behind the production of literature on feminine topics, both as readers and as writers.42 By developing existing interpretations of Anne’s work with reference to her collection and her very active reading practices, as well as the political milieu of the French court, this book demonstrates how Anne de Graville consciously followed in Christine de Pizan’s footsteps and continued her legacy in a number of ways. As Floyd Gray notes, originally querelle works were those that ‘participated in the debate on the pros and cons of women’s estate in the late middle ages and, more particularly, the first part of the sixteenth century’.43 Swift, in her discussion of male-authored texts defending women, includes a list of querelle des femmes primary texts ‘which are to varying degrees connected to the defences of women’ that she discusses.44 I similarly use the term

40



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43

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de la Font et Anne de Graville, translatrices de la Théséïde de Boccace au XVIe siècle’, in D’une écriture à l’autre: les femmes et la traduction sous l’Ancien Régime, ed. by Jean-Philippe Beaulieu (Ottawa: Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa, 2004), pp. 187–210 (hereafter ‘Translatrices’). As I completed this study, I also became aware of Elisabetta Barale’s article, ‘La mise en scène des voix narratives dans la réécriture de la “Belle dame sans mercy ” par Anne de Graville’, Studi Francesi 186 (2018), 407–15. On the origins of the querelle and Christine’s role within it, see for instance Margarete Zimmerman, ‘Querelle des femmes, querelle du livre’, in Des Femmes et des livres, France et Espagne, XIVe– XVIIe siècle, ed. by Dominique de Courcelles and Carmen Val Julián (Paris: Ecole nationale des chartes, 1999), pp. 79–94; for a slightly different perspective, see Anne Paupert, ‘Les débuts de la Querelle: de la fin du XIIIe siècle à Christine de Pizan’, in Revisiter la ‘querelle des femmes’: Discours sur l’égalité / inégalité des sexes, de 1400 à 1600, ed. by Armel Dubois-Nayt, Nicole Dufournaud and Anne Paupert (St-Etienne: PUSE, 2013), pp. 24–37. On the querelle de la BDSM, see the introduction in Alain Chartier, The Quarrel of the Belle Dame sans mercy, ed. and trans. by Joan E. McRae (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2014) (hereafter The Quarrel) and the essays in A Companion to Alain Chartier (c. 1385–1430): Father of French Eloquence, ed. by Daisy Delogu, Joan E. McRae and Emma Cayley (Leiden: Brill, 2015), as well as the discussion and bibliography in Chapter 6. Swift, p. 177. Floyd Gray, Gender, Rhetoric and Print Culture in French Renaissance Writing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 15. He also states that the term querelle has come to be used ‘in conjunction with any work which, because it treats women negatively or, less often, positively, is considered to afford yet another chapter in the continuing discussion of their role and place in literature and society’. Swift, Appendix I, p. 247.

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querelle texts to refer to works that sat on each side of the debate, such as the Roman de la Rose, Christine’s Cité des dames, Boccaccio’s De mulieribus claris and De casibus virorum illustrum and their French translations, and Octovien de Saint-Gelais’s Les XXI epistres d’Ovide (Ovid’s Heroides); such works were also related – by content or author – to several of the works that Anne de Graville read (and annotated) and to those that she wrote. However, Anne’s works, like those of Anne of France, Catherine d’Amboise or Margaret of Navarre, did not set themselves up as defences of women in stricto sensu. Instead, they drew on the vast body of querelle literature (including that of the querelle de la BDSM) as well as on an array of other works such as conduct literature and romance to explore the inequalities suffered by the female sex and to put forward nuanced suggestions as to how these might actually be redressed.45 In this sense, Anne’s writings did not interject in the querelle following the dialogic model established primarily by male authors, but responded to those works through rewritings and allusions that gave a different spin to the way the querelle was expressed and which suggests that it can be considered as more than a pro/ contra debate, especially where women’s contributions are concerned. In offering a sustained analysis of Anne’s library as well as her works, this book also seeks to correct some of the errors and obfuscations that continue to persist in scholarship about Anne and that have, somewhat ironically, led to her being a frequently cited, if inadequately studied, example of an early sixteenth-century woman bibliophile. Confusion remains, for instance, over the manuscript witnesses of the Beau roman as well as the books that Anne owned and the nature of the works that she produced.46 Whereas a Middle French, critical edition of the Beau roman, published by Yves Le Hir in 1965, has given some visibility to this work, the only edition of the Rondeaux is that published by Carl Wahlund in 1897.47 Anne is still not listed as the author of the Rondeaux in the For a related discussion of how women (literary and ‘real’) ‘respond’ to the negative discourses about the female sex, see Helen Solterer, The Master and Minerva: Disputing Women in French Medieval Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995). 46 Several recent publications, including Myra D. Orth’s Renaissance Manuscripts: The Sixteenth Century, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 2015), still list a copy of the Beau roman as being in Stockholm despite it entering the BnF as ms nafr. 719 in 1872; see vol. ii, p. 105, where she lists ‘Stockholm, Royal Library, MS 719 (not seen)’ as well as Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 719. The same mistake is made by Bouchard in ‘The Power of Women’, p. 243 (n. 9). In his critical edition of the Livre de Thezeo (pp. 281–82), Bianciotto states that four manuscripts of Christine de Pizan’s works contain corrections and additions in Anne’s hand whereas, as this study establishes, only two such manuscripts are known. Finally, a study of late medieval women’s authorship, patronage and translation inaccurately states that Anne ‘translated […] male authored Latin works’ and omits mention of the Rondeaux; see Anneliese Pollock Renck, Female Authorship, Patronage, and Translation in Late Medieval France: From Christine de Pizan to Louise Labé (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018), p. 171. 47 Anne de Graville, Le beau Romant des deux amans Palamon et Arcita et de la belle est saige Emilia, ed. by Yves Le Hir (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1965), hereafter BR; Anne de Graville, La belle dame sans mercy: En fransk dikt författad … ed. by Carl Wahlund (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells boktr., 1897), hereafter La belle dame. 45



Anne de Graville’s Life and Works 19

BnF catalogue entry for the sole-surviving manuscript.48 In addition, the commentary and apparatus of Wahlund’s edition are in Swedish, thus making his editorial practice, including his decision to replace the version of Chartier’s text reproduced in parallel with Anne’s poem in the surviving manuscript with text from a printed edition of Chartier’s work, difficult to access for many researchers.49 Finally, Anne’s collection has most often been discussed for its relationship to those of her father, Louis de Graville, and of her sonin-law, Claude d’Urfé (1501–58), whose marriage to Anne’s daughter Jeanne de Balsac (d. 1552) in 1532 eventually led to the integration of many of her books into the library at La Bâtie. The reconstruction of Anne’s library offered here provides an up-to-date list of works she owned and constitutes the first discursive analysis of her collection that in turn sheds considerable light on the connections between Anne’s reading and collecting habits and her literary output.

* * * The first part of this book, Anne de Graville: Reader and Collector, focuses on identifying the manuscripts that Anne owned, how she engaged with them as a reader and the literary connections which she cultivated. Chapter 1 reconstitutes a significant library of over thirty manuscripts and one printed volume that Anne acquired through inheritance, commission, second-hand purchase and as gifts. Moving away from an analysis of her collection as a conduit between those of her father and her son-in-law, and recentring the discussion on what Anne actually owned, not only brings the specificities of her collection to light but also points up the problematic way in which a history of collecting, traditionally concerned with – and frequently written by – men, can obscure the part played by women in the acquisition of books. This chapter also demonstrates the coherence of Anne’s collecting practice and points to a dynamic inter- and intratextual relationship between the books she owned and read and the works that she wrote. Chapter 2 explores in detail the Chaldean Histories manuscript offered to Anne by Pierre around the time of their marriage. Illuminated with a portrait of her by the court artist, the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, and containing a unique translation of Annius da Viterbo’s Antiquities, the manuscript presents a complex layering of personal history, French history and translation that was intended to speak to Anne’s emerging literary interests and to enhance her visibility in royal circles during the difficult years Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2253. The manuscript is listed in the BnF online catalogue as La Belle dame sans mercy, d’Alain Chartier, mise en rondeaux. 49 My thanks to Vicki Brett and Charlotta Nordstrom for deciphering the Swedish introduction. The lack of a modern critical edition of Anne’s text – and the reliance on this inaccurate and bizarrely edited 1897 edition – speaks to Kathryn Maude’s point about the continued importance of producing editions within medieval studies. See Kathryn Maude, ‘Citation and Marginalisation: The Ethics of Feminism in Medieval Studies’, Journal of Gender Studies, 23 (2014), 247–61. Joan E. McRae and I are now preparing an edition of Anne’s works. 48

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following her disinheritance. Chapter 3 focuses on a group of manuscripts connected to Rouen, including a personalised copy of poems entered for the city’s Puy, an annual poetry competition held in honour of the Virgin, which suggests Anne was held in high regard by the cultural elite of that city. A richly illuminated manuscript of Petrarch’s Triumphs that Anne commissioned there in the early 1520s is rife with her mottos and heraldry and indicates that, by this time, the difficulties of her disinheritance were behind her and that she had achieved a certain status and reputation which she was keen to celebrate.50 The fourth chapter serves as a pivot to the second part of the book, From Reading to Writing: Anne as Author, and explores Anne de Graville’s active reading of Christine de Pizan’s Mutacion de Fortune, which she owned in two copies, and other querelle-related works including Boccaccio’s Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes and Antoine de La Sale’s Petit Jehan de Saintré. It also situates Anne’s knowledge of and interaction with the querelle in relation to works by other women authors, including Anne of France’s Enseignements, Catherine d’Amboise’s Livre des prudents et imprudents and Margaret of Navarre’s Heptameron. As such, this chapter provides important context for assessing Anne’s own contribution to the querelle through the Beau roman and the Rondeaux, discussed in Chapters 5 and 6. These final two chapters build on recent studies of Anne’s works but situate them more fully within the political, as well as literary, contexts of the French court, paying more attention to the women to whom they were dedicated, and Anne’s possible motivations for choosing her source texts. Chapter 5 explores the Beau Roman and examines in particular the Arsenal copy – the only one with miniatures – proposing that the decoration of what may have been the presentation copy was designed to help convey the text’s pro-feminine stance and perhaps to allude to the rising tensions between Francis I and his connétable, Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier (1490–1527). The chapter also considers the significance of the two love epistles by Clément Marot and Macé de Villebresme that were also included in Arsenal 5116. These texts were modelled on Ovid’s Heroides, a text that was enjoying a particular success at the French court in Octovien de Saint-Gelais’ 1497 translation. By bringing all these texts together in one volume, Anne was seeking to elicit intertextual and intervisual responses from her intended reader around the themes of the querelle des femmes. Intertextuality is also a feature of the Rondeaux, explored in Chapter 6, since the sole surviving copy of this text has an innovative mise-en-page that parallels Anne’s composition with Chartier’s BDSM, offering a visual manifestation of the dialogue that she was entering into with ‘Maistre Allain’. In her reworking, Anne deliberately used the language of Chartier’s text to craft her own version of the debate, a technique that, along with the page layout, has parallels in the ‘manuscripts communities’ of the querelle de la BDSM where the collation and organisation of debate poems allowed for interplay between the texts.51 The most famous of these ‘manuscript communities’ are the codices that were produced Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22451. Emma Cayley, Debate and Dialogue: Alain Chartier in his Cultural Context (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

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for members of the literary salon of Marie de Clèves (1426–87) and Charles d’Orléans (1394–1465), who in themselves provide a link to the Rondeaux’s dedicatee, Louise of Savoy. This chapter argues that, through the strategies at play both within the poem and within the manuscript, Anne was consciously inserting herself into, and nuancing, this debate. In addition, it proposes that Anne chose to rework this text concerning a strong yet controversial dame for Louise of Savoy at a moment when the duchess’s power was reaching its zenith but when her own was perhaps once more subject to the turning of Fortune’s wheel following death of Queen Claude.

* * * Anne de Graville and Women’s Literary Networks in Early Modern France explores the contributions made by Anne and her contemporaries to French literary culture through their reading, writing and collecting. Teasing out the intersections between these activities in relation to Anne’s library and works reveals not only the extent of her knowledge but also her position and reputation within courtly bibliophilic networks. Anne’s active reading and collecting practice, coupled with her literary milieu, provided her with a series of strategies – including manipulation of genre, remaniement (reworking), use of iconography and mise-en-page – which she employed in the creation of works that engaged with and shaped the querelle des femmes in the century following the death of Christine de Pizan. Exploring Anne’s writing in relation to that of Marie de Clèves, Anne of France, Catherine d’Amboise and Margaret of Navarre, who similarly engaged with the querelle, not only demonstrates women’s sustained interest in Christine’s legacy but also asks us to critically re-examine the way that this debate was experienced by women as readers and developed by them as writers. The strong sense of identity that emerges from Anne’s collection, together with the dedication of her works to two of the most powerful women at court, provides important evidence of the ways in which women participated in, challenged and often destabilised an established literary culture that was largely dominated by men and their points of view.

Part I

Anne de Graville: Reader and Collector

1 J’en garde un leal: Reconstructing Anne de Graville’s Library Around the time of their marriage in 1507, Pierre de Balsac offered his wife, Anne de Graville, a luxurious manuscript illuminated by the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse.1 The frontispiece depicts a centrally seated Anne reaching up to take a book, offered to her by a disembodied hand guided by Cupid (fig. 7). A group of men and women gather behind her chair and a banderol with an anagram of Anne’s name, j’en garde un leal, floats above her head.2 Below, in the bas-de-page, is the Graville coat of arms, de gueules, à trois fermaux d’or (red with three gold buckles), and on the opposite folio, a dedicatory prologue praises Anne and introduces the work that follows as that of Berosus the Chaldean. In contrast to the miniature in the Beau roman in which Anne is depicted as an author presenting her work to Queen Claude (fig. 2), the opening miniature of the Chaldean Histories clearly positions Anne as a discerning recipient – and by implication, reader – of high-quality, and original, books. This manuscript, its illustration and its text – actually a translation of Annius da Viterbo’s 1498 Antiquities – is the principal subject of the next chapter, but its opening miniature is a fitting place to begin this discursive reconstruction and analysis of Anne’s collection. The Chaldean Histories and other volumes owned by Anne bear witness to her participation in a long-standing tradition of book culture in and around the French court, one in which women were serious players. This chapter shows how Anne carefully crafted her collection in relation to her personal interests – familial as well as literary – and points to the fundamental role her books and reading played in establishing her as a writer in the patronage of royal women.

Between Graville and d’Urfé: Problems, Sources, and Evidence for Defining Anne’s Library

Despite never having been the subject of a full-length modern study, Anne de Graville has frequently been evoked in studies into late medieval women’s book ownership for the size and importance of her collection. These evocations have, however, relied largely on Montmorand’s 1917 biography of Anne in which he stated that Anne probably inherited most of the manuscripts that her father had collected, as well as on studies of the 1 2

LAD 2014.029. Taking the j for an i.

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d’Urfé library.3 Writing about Anne some eighty years after Montmorand, Myra D. Orth claimed, but without providing any references, that 153 manuscripts and ‘some fifteen printed books can be traced to Anne’s library’ which she ‘triumphantly inherited’ from her father in 1518.4 In 2007, an entry on Anne de Graville in the Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance described Anne as ‘one of the most daring women of the time’, who ‘was able to win back financially all that had been denied to her including the huge paternal library, which she passed on, together with her own impressive collection, to her daughter Jeanne [d’Urfé]’.5 The idea that Anne amassed such a large collection of books speaks to the desires of medieval and early modern feminist historians keen to uncover examples of women’s ‘special relationship’ to books in this period. In fact, a library of over 150 books, both manuscript and printed, would put Anne’s library amongst the biggest of fifteenthand early sixteenth-century women, even rivalling those of some queens.6 Moreover, the claim that Anne ‘triumphantly’ inherited the ‘huge paternal library’ not only ignores the existence of Marie de Balsac’s own collection, part of which Anne inherited, but also subscribes to the romantic reading of her life that pits the stern father against the headstrong daughter who married for love, and which sees Anne, the disinherited poetess, finally get justice. Moving away from the more speculative nature of previous studies, the following section teases out the complex relationship between Anne’s collection, that of her parents and that of her daughter Jeanne and son-in-law Claude d’Urfé. The discussion then moves on to establish in greater detail the books that Anne inherited from Louis and Marie and those that she acquired by other means, before turning to a discursive interpretation of the collection as a whole. Montmorand, p. 273. Myra D. Orth, ‘Dedicating Women: Manuscript Culture in the French Renaissance, and the Cases of Catherine d’Amboise and Anne de Graville’, Journal of the Early Book Society, 1 (1997), 17–39 (p. 23). Müller repeated these figures in ‘Lectrice’, p. 231, where she also states that an inventory after Anne’s death in 1540 gives a list of all the books she inherited but gives no archival source. The AN in Paris hold two inventaire après décès for her sister Jeanne dated 2 October 1540 (meubles) and 17–18 March 1541 (papiers): MC/ET/XXXIII/20, fols 22r–26r and fols 33r–60r, although neither appears to mention books. 5 Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: England, France, Italy, ed. by Diana Maury Robin, Anne R. Larsen and Carole Levin (Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2007), pp. 173–75 (p. 174), emphasis added. 6 At her death in 1483, Charlotte of Savoy owned eighty-one books and her daughter Anne of France, who inherited many of these, owned 324; Gabrielle de la Tour owned 203 volumes; Anne’s contemporary, Catherine de Coëtivy, owned fifty manuscripts and two incunables, half of which she acquired jointly with her husband; and Marie de Luxembourg owned twenty-five manuscripts; see Colette Beaune and Élodie Lequain, ‘Femmes et histoire en France au XVe siècle: Gabrielle de la Tour et ses contemporaines’, Médiévales, 38 (2000), 111–36; Roseline Claerr, ‘“Que ma mémoire ‘là demeure’, en mes livres”: Catherine de Coëtivy (vers 1460–1529) et sa bibliothèque’; and Anne S. Korteweg, ‘La Collection de livres d’une femme indépendante: Marie de Luxembourg (v. 1470–1547)’, both in Livres et lectures des femmes, ed. by Legaré, pp. 101–117 and pp. 221–232 respectively. 3 4

Fig. 7. Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, Portrait of Anne de Graville and opening of the prologue, Chaldean Histories, Abu Dhabi, Louvre, LAD 2014.029, fols 2v–3r, c. 1508–10 (© Les Enluminures).

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The idea that Anne’s collection numbered over 150 books and also included printed items probably stems from the fact that several of her books passed into the famous d’Urfé library at La Bâtie through her daughter Jeanne, who married Claude d’Urfé in 1532.7 No inventory of this library survives from the time of Jeanne and Claude, but various studies of the collection, which was added to by their grandson Honoré (1568–1625), cite Père Louis Jacob who, in 1644, described the library as containing ‘plus de quatre mille six cens volumes entre lesquels il y avoit deux cens manuscrits en velin’ (more than 4,600 volumes of which there were 200 manuscripts on vellum).8 It is likely that the d’Urfé collection was even bigger, since, after Honoré’s death in 1625, the library was gradually dispersed, with some volumes sold off by the second half of the seventeenth century.9 An inventory made in the eighteenth century, now in Amsterdam, lists 134 manuscripts and printed books that were still at La Bâtie around 1770 before the collection was moved to Paris to the home of the last member of the d’Urfé family, Jeanne de La Rochefoucauld.10 After Jeanne’s death in 1775, the remainder of the collection was purchased en bloc by the duke de La Vallière, who also acquired another 200-odd books also from the d’Urfé collection via M. de Bombarde.11 The Amsterdam inventory is discussed in more detail below, since, although an imperfect source, it allows certain books owned by Anne and her parents to be traced into the d’Urfé library. A flurry of – sometimes conflicting – studies published in the 1970s sought to reconstruct the contents of the d’Urfé library at the time of Claude and Jeanne. Claude Longeon argued that most of the d’Urfé manuscripts came via Anne de Graville and he published a catalogue of books in the d’Urfé collection for which he gave the provenance as either Louis and/or Anne.12 Longeon’s claims and his catalogue are problematic, since none of the printed books that he cites, and only a handful of the manuscripts, contains any internal evidence that actually relates them to Anne or Louis. Other errors are also evident. For example, his catalogue no. 51, a manuscript recueil, including the Livre de Mélibée et See André Vernet, ‘Les manuscrits de Claude d’Urfé (1501–1558) au château de La Bastie’, Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 120–21 (1976), 81–97; his article is discussed in more detail below. 8 Père Louis Jacob, Traicté des plus belles bibliothèques publiques et particulières qui ont esté et qui sont à présent dans le monde […] (Paris: Rolet Le Duc, 1644), p. 671. 9 Nicolas Ducimetière, ‘La Bibliothèque d’Honoré d’Urfé: histoire de sa formation et de sa dispersion à travers quelques exemplaires retrouvés’, Dix-Septième siècle, 249 (2010), 747–73 (p. 771). 10 Amsterdam, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Remonstrantsche Kerk III. C. 21; see the transcription in Appendix B. As noted below, the inventory consists of two lists; subsequent references to books are given as L1 (List 1) and L2 (List 2) plus number. 11 Ducimetière, pp. 771–72 and n. 112. 12 Claude Longeon, Documents sur la vie intellectuelle en Forez au XVIe (Saint-Etienne: Centre d’études foréziennes, 1973), see part XIX; for the catalogue, see his later publication Une province française à la renaissance, la vie intellectuelle en Forez au XVIe siècle (Saint-Etienne: Centre d’études foréziennes, 1975) esp. pp. 150–51, where he states that the ex-librises prove that most of the books came via Anne. 7



Reconstructing Anne de Graville’s Library 29

de Prudence, is listed as containing Anne’s arms; in fact, there are no arms, but instead an inscription of Anne’s name and a note that she bought it in Rouen in 1521.13 He also equates a copy of Brunetto Latini’s Livre du Trésor (no. 12) with the La Vallière sale no. 1467 and the modern shelfmark Paris, Arsenal, ms 2677, stating that it contains the Graville arms (but gives no folio) and the d’Urfé arms (‘folio 5’). Although the d’Urfé arms do appear on folio 5r of Arsenal 2677, the Graville arms are not present in the manuscript: the copy of the Trésor in the La Vallière sale is described as being decorated with the impaled arms of Graville-Balsac (the arms of Anne’s mother, Marie) but this manuscript is untraced.14 Other books listed by Longeon have since been shown to have been falsely attributed to the d’Urfé collection, which brings into doubt any suggestion that they were in the possession of either Anne or her parents. André Vernet and, more recently, Milton Gatch, both point out that in the 1791 Bibliotheca Parisiana sale, the bookseller, James Edwards, had indicated a d’Urfé provenance for many of the manuscripts and a handful of the printed books as a means of attracting interest and increasing their price.15 In fact, twenty of the seventy-four manuscripts in Longeon’s d’Urfé catalogue have a Parisiana provenance.16 Vernet discounts seventeen from the d’Urfé library on the basis of Edwards’ fabrications, although he does not specifically indicate which ones. However, given that he discusses three manuscripts corresponding to Longeon’s nos 5, 43 and 71 as being in the d’Urfé collection, Vernet must have retained these three as genuine d’Urfé manuscripts.17 Paris, Arsenal, ms 2691. The manuscript did, however, enter the d’Urfé library, as witnessed by the inscription ‘Monseigneur d’Urfé’ on fol. 2r under Anne’s own name. 14 Deldicque, ‘De mère en fille’, p. 82; and see the description in LV, i, no. 1467. 15 See Vernet, ‘Les manuscrits’, p. 88, and Milton McC. Gatch, ‘The Bibliotheca Parisina’, The Library, 12 (2011), 89–118. As Gatch notes (p. 94), Edwards also added to his catalogue that the d’Urfé library came from ‘Diane de Poictiers’; Edwards was presumably capitalising on the fact that many of the Parisiana books had come via the duke de la Vallière, who had, in fact, purchased the remainder of the d’Urfé library. I follow the spelling ‘Parisiana’ used in the English catalogue. 16 Gatch notes (n. 20) that Longeon was ‘content to list the “d’Urfé” manuscripts in Edwards’ catalogue as genuine’. 17 On this point, it is interesting to note that these three books are also the only Parisiana manuscripts for which Longeon gave a provenance other than Claude d’Urfé. Longeon’s no. 5 (Parisiana, 464), a copy of Bartholomeus Anglicus’s, Propriétes des choses is listed in the La Vallière sale (no. 1470) and according to Vernet (‘Les manuscrits’, p. 95) was sold in 1907 and is now untraced; also lost is Longeon no. 43, a copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Parisiana, 349) listed by Longeon as belonging to René d’Anjou, ‘Graville’, and Claude d’Urfé and as being in the La Vallière sale (no. 2786). In the sale catalogue 2786 is described as containing the d’Urfé arms and it may thus correspond to the French translation of the Metamorphoses listed in the d’Urfé inventory (L1, no. 34). Longeon suggests the manuscript might be Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. Lat. 1686. Finally, Longeon’s no. 71, a copy of Titus Livy’s Histoires, is now Paris, BnF, ms fr. 20315 and is still in a d’Urfé binding but I have not found specific evidence that it belonged to Louis or Anne. 13

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Vernet does not discuss in detail the printed books that Longeon listed as being in the d’Urfé collection. However, as Gatch points out, as far back as the 1820s, Joseph Van Praet had already shown that several printed books with a d’Urfé provenance in the Parisiana sale in fact came from the collection of the Comte de Clermont-Tonnerre (1571–1640), who had given them to the monastery of the Minimes at Tonnerre in 1611 before they were acquired by the Cardinal Loménie in 1778.18 The cardinal’s library was acquired by Edwards shortly before the Parisiana sale and he included some of them in the catalogue, thereby obfuscating their real provenance with a reference to d’Urfé.19 Thus, five printed books listed by Longeon (his catalogue nos 2, 3, 7, 11 and 14) with a d’Urfé-Parisiana provenance have been traced instead to the Tonnerre collection.20 In terms of establishing Anne de Graville’s library, this obfuscation is important to note, since it would be tempting, on the basis of a d’Urfé provenance, to imagine some of these works in Anne’s hands: for instance, a copy of Boccaccio’s Des nobles malheureux (Longeon no. 2; Paris, Vérard, 1494; Parisiana 619) and a copy of Les faictes, dictes et ballades de Maistre Alain Chartier (Longeon no. 3; Pierre le Caron, no date; Parisiana 240) would seem to be a perfect fit in the library of a woman who not only reworked texts by both authors but who already owned a manuscript copy of Laurent Premierfait’s translation of De casibus on which Vérard based his edition, and who was also interested in the broader questions and debates that Boccaccio’s and Chartier’s works raised.21 A few years after Longeon’s studies, Maxime Gaume published Les Inspirations et les sources de l’œuvre d’Honoré d’Urfé, which also included a catalogue of over sixty manuscripts (but no printed books) belonging to Claude d’Urfé that he claimed to have examined and for which there was no doubt about the provenance.22 However, although the list contains a number of manuscripts that definitely were in the possession of Louis and/or Anne de Graville, their provenance from the d’Urfé library is not always clear. For instance, he includes a copy of the Chevalier délibéré by Olivier de la Marche, a two-volume copy of Augustine’s Cité de Dieu, a volume of Meschinot’s poetry, a copy of Benvenuto d’Imola’s Romuléon and the Pragmatique sanction, all of which are associated with Louis de Graville but none of which now bears any trace of Anne’s ownership or of their presence at La Bâtie;

20 21

Gatch, pp. 94; 96–97. On the acquisition of the cardinal’s books by Edwards, see Gatch, pp. 96–99. Gatch, p. 100. The three other falsely attributed printed works are: a copy of Froissart’s Chroniques (Vérard, 1493; Parisiana 543); the Prophécies de Merlin l’Enchanteur (Vérard, 1498; Parisiana 375); and a two-volume French translation of Valerius Maximus, Valere le Grant … (Vérard, no date; Parisiana 523). The fact that the books were given by Tonnerre to the Minims in 1611, before the library at La Bâtie began to be dispersed, further indicates that these books did not have a Graville-d’Urfé connection. 22 Maxime Gaume, Les Inspirations et les sources de l’œuvre d’Honoré d’Urfé (Saint-Etienne: Centre d’études foréziennes, 1977). 18 19



Reconstructing Anne de Graville’s Library 31

nor are they listed in the Amsterdam inventory.23 He appears to have been working on the assumption that the admiral’s manuscripts must have entered the d’Urfé library via Anne, thus reinforcing the idea that she inherited his entire collection. In fact, Deldicque has argued that the Pragmatique sanction was commissioned by Louis de Graville as a gift for Louis XII, meaning it would not have passed to Anne and thence to La Bâtie.24 Longeon’s and Gaume’s catalogues have clearly complicated knowledge of Anne’s collection, as has a tendency to assume that all Graville manuscripts that were in La Vallière’s collection must have passed through La Bâtie.25 Also problematic is the idea that any d’Urfé-bound or ex-libris-ed manuscript or printed book of the right age acquired by La Vallière must have originated in the Graville collections, since this precludes the possibility of Jeanne de Balsac or Claude d’Urfé adding books or manuscripts that predate Anne’s or Louis’s death to their collection.26 Vernet’s 1976 article contradicted some of the attributions given by Longeon and Gaume, particularly concerning the false provenances introduced by the Parisiana catalogue. He also draws on the Amsterdam inventory but does not reproduce or cross-reference this source with the other evidence that he presents. Considering this inventory in more detail sheds additional light on Anne’s collection and its dispersal.

The Chevalier délibéré (Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 507) was in the collection of Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle (d. 1550), a Burgundian politician, by the mid-sixteenth century, and the Cité de Dieu (Paris, BnF, mss fr. 18–19) was in the collection of Charles-Maurice Le Tellier in the late seventeenth century before being offered, with the rest of his collection, to the king in 1700. The copy of Meschinot’s poetry (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24314) appeared in the La Vallière sale (no. 2832). The Romuléon now has the shelfmark Paris, BnF, ms fr. 364; and the Pragmatique sanction, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 203; see also below. 24 See his entry in Être mécène à l’aube de la Renaissance: l’Amiral Louis Malet de Graville, ed. by Mathieu Deldicque and Elisabeth Leprêtre (Ghent: Snoek, 2017), no. 9 (Pragmatique sanction). The Romuléon also seems unlikely to have passed to Anne, since it is listed in the 1518 Blois inventory (no. 400: ‘Romuleon historié, a grant volume, escript en parchemin a la main, couvert de veloux noyr et ferré partout’) and it also includes the shelfmark of Francis I’s personal library; see Henri Omont, Ancien inventaires et catalogues de la Bibliothèque nationale, 5 vols (Paris: E. Leroux, 1908), i, p. 57. Deldicque has suggested that Louis also commissioned Paris, BnF, ms fr. 53 (a second volume of Jean Mansel’s Fleur des Histoires), which Gaume places in the d’Urfé library, as a gift for King Louis XII; see Deldicque and Leprêtre, Être mécène, no. 8. The Amsterdam inventory does note a copy of the second volume of the Fleur: ‘Second volume d’un livre intitulé la Fleur des histoires, manuscript en vélin’ (L1, no. 67). 25 Over 26,000 volumes from the last of the La Vallière sales were purchased by the Marquis de Paulmy and from there entered the Arsenal library, although it may not be the case that all d’Urfé manuscripts acquired by Paulmy belonged to Anne. See Ducimetière, p. 772. 26 For instance, London, BL, Burney MS 38, Florus of Lyon (?), Commentary on the Pauline Epistles dating from the thirteenth century, is bound for Claude and Jeanne d’Urfé and has traces of fifteenth-century owners but is not placed in Anne’s possession in the British Library catalogue. 23

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The inventory consists of two lists, one of seventy (L1) and one of sixty-four (L2) items, distinguished by their bindings.27 Like many sources of this kind, the inventory does not always give sufficient information to allow all the books to be traced in modern collections. However, using the inventory alongside the internal evidence of the manuscripts themselves, such as bindings, inscriptions and coats of arms, it is possible to establish that around half of the manuscripts (at least fifteen titles) that we can securely place in Anne’s hands passed to her daughter Jeanne and thence into the d’Urfé library. Five of these titles originally belonged to Louis and Marie, indicating a transmission across three generations: a copy of Bruni’s Batailles puniques,28 a copy of Marco Polo’s Devisement du monde,29 a Prose Lancelot,30 the three-volume Sept Sages de Rome that bears Marie’s arms31 and the Recueil des pieces sur les Croisades.32 The d’Urfé inventory also lists a vellum manuscript copy of a French translation of Boccaccio’s Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes: it is not certain that this is the manuscript formerly with Jörn Günther Rare Books, since, although it is inscribed with Anne’s name and the date 1518, it is written almost entirely on paper.33 Four manuscripts that Anne acquired second hand also entered the d’Urfé library: a copy of the chanson de geste, Anseis de Metz inscribed with Anne’s name and the date 1521;34 an abridged first redaction of the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César bought in Rouen in the same year;35 a compilation including the Secret des secrets, also acquired in Rouen (but See Appendix B. It notes that all those in the first list (L1) were bound in green velvet with metalwork corners with the interlinked CI monogram of Claude and Jeanne and the d’Urfé arms in the centre. The second list of items (L2), entitled ‘Autres livres’, includes books that are still preserved in a d’Urfé binding of green leather, but without metalwork elements, suggesting that the person making the inventory made a distinction between the two different kinds of bindings. 28 New Haven, Beinecke, Marston 274, not listed in the inventory, but in a d’Urfé binding and contains an inscription, found in more or less the same form in several other books, regarding her inheritance; see below. 29 Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 1880 includes the reference to her inheritance and is in a d’Urfé binding. 30 Chicago, Newberry Library, MS f. 21, includes the reference to her inheritance; Saengar argues that it is the ‘Chronique de Bretagne, tres ancien manuscript en vélin’ listed in the inventory, L1, no. 37; see Paul Saengar, ‘Un manuscrit de Claude d’Urfé retrouvé à la Newberry Library de Chicago’, Bibliothèque de l’école des chartes, 139 (1989), 250–52. 31 Paris, BnF, mss fr. 22548–50, described in the inventory (L1, nos 29–31) as three volumes of the ‘histoires de Marques de Rome, Laurin, Cassiodorus, Peliarmeneus et plusieurs autres empereurs de Rome et de Constantinople’. 32 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 20853 is not in the inventory but includes the inscription relating to Anne’s inheritance and is in a d’Urfé binding. 33 Only one folio is on vellum although some of the now-missing pages and illuminations could conceivably have been on vellum. The inventory description does not, however, suggest the volume was illuminated. See further discussion in Chapter 4. 34 Paris, BnF, ms. fr. 24377 (L2, no. 44), also inscribed ‘A mons. D’Urfé’ and in a d’Urfé binding. 35 Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 10053, listed in the inventory (L1, no. 3) as an ‘Histoire d’Orose’ and now in a d’Urfé binding. 27



Reconstructing Anne de Graville’s Library 33

with no date given);36 and another chanson de geste, Auberi le Bourguignon.37 In addition, the Amsterdam inventory lists a ‘roman d’Amilles et d’Amis, manuscript [sic]’, which must refer to the version en alexandrines now in Basel which contains Anne’s name and the date 1521.38 The sixteenth-century copy of the Mutacion de Fortune39 bearing Anne’s arms that is now in the Arsenal and the highly illuminated and personalised copy of the commentaries on Petrarch’s Triumphs40 as well as the collection of poems from the Rouen Puy offered to her by Nicolas de Coquinvilliers also went to the d’Urfé library.41 The inventory’s reference to an ‘Histoire de Theseus Palamon et de la belle Emilya, manuscript [sic]’ must refer to the d’Urfé-bound copy of the Livre de Thezeo, now in Oxford, and the source of Anne’s Beau roman.42 Internal evidence in another manuscript in a d’Urfé binding, a volume of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century French poetry with a decidedly Norman flavour, indicates that it is also a strong candidate for being in Anne’s possession as we will see below.43 The Amsterdam inventory lists a variety of other manuscripts and printed books that are appealing candidates for Anne’s library. The reference to a vellum manuscript of the first volume of Froissart’s Chroniques may well correspond to a copy sold in 2011 that Arsenal 2691, inscribed with Anne’s name and ‘Monseigneur d’Urfé’. Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24368, inscribed with Anne’s name and listed in the inventory (L2, no. 54). 38 Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, MS F IV 44. This reference to Ami et Amile cannot refer to the prose version that she also owned within a compilation, now Lille, BM, ms 130 (190), since this was in the possession of Paul de Valory, Canon of St Peter’s in Lille, before the inventory was drawn up; see the description given by Huw Grange at www.huwgrange.co.uk/elucidarium/ EP_Lille_Biblioth%C3%A8que-municipale_190.xml [accessed 23 March 2022]. 39 The Mutacion de Fortune (Paris, Arsenal, ms 3172) is in a d’Urfé binding but it cannot be the copy listed in the inventory (L1, no. 3: ‘Livre de la mutation de fortune, en vers, manuscript [sic] en velin, datté du 18 novembre de l’année 1403’) since it is written on paper and also lacks the rubric with the date. It also seems unlikely that this inventory item refers to Marie de Balsac’s copy of the Mutacion now Munich, BSB, Cod. Gall. 11, since this copy is, unusually, dated ‘le .viijme jour de novembre’. Only one other manuscript (The Hague, KB, 78 D 42) has this date, which refers to Christine’s completion of the work; see Album Christine de Pizan, ed. by Gilbert Ouy, Christine Reno, Inès Villela-Petit (Turnhout: Brepols, 2012) (hereafter Album Christine), nos 23 and 26. On the provenance of Munich, Gall. 11 and its relationship to Arsenal 3172, see Chapter 4. 40 Fr. 22541 (L1, no. 14: ‘Commentaires francois sur le texte italien des Triomphes de Francois Pétrarque, manuscript en vélin, enrichy de figures’). 41 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25535 (L2, no. 17, ‘manuscript [sic] de chantes (sic) royaux, rondeaux et balladées’) now in a d’Urfé binding. 42 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 329 (L2, no. 1): the manuscript has the title ‘Hystoyre de Theseus, Palamon & Arcita & la belle Emylia’ written in a sixteenth-century hand that may be Anne’s; Bianciotto in his edition of the Livre de Thezeo, has shown that this was the copy Anne used in writing her Beau roman; on these points, see Chapter 5. This reference to the Livre de Thezeo cannot refer to the copy of Anne’s own work (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25441) bound for d’Urfé, since that manuscript contains an inscription indicating it had already left the library by 1708. The Douce manuscript subsequently entered the La Vallière collection (sale cat. no. 4175), which further suggests that this is the copy listed in the d’Urfé inventory. 43 Fr. 24315. 36 37

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was decorated with Marie de Balsac’s arms.44 If so, it would constitute another example of the transference of manuscripts across three generations of the same family. It is also tempting to think that she owned the copy of Christine’s Livre des trois vertus, a lost/ unlocated Advision Christine and another copy of the Mutacion de Fortune that are also listed in the inventory.45 The inventory also refers to two copies of the Roman de la Rose, one of which might be a manuscript now in the Arsenal which contains the inscription ‘Pour Monseigneur de Marcoussis’ in a fifteenth- or sixteenth-century hand.46 The first volume of the Policraticus, decorated with Louis’s arms, and a copy of the querelle de la BDSM now in St Petersburg, both discussed below, also include this inscription in the same hand, begging the question of whether it refers to Louis, since Marcoussis was his principal residence.47 Other works, such as the 1509 vellum-printed edition of the Chasse et le départ d’Amours listed in the inventory, also fit with Anne’s wider literary interest and undertakings.48 However, whereas the discussion here and in subsequent chapters bears in mind such additional possibilities for Anne’s ownership, it focuses primarily on those L1, no. 25: ‘Chroniques de France par Jean Froissart, manuscript en vélin, volume premier’. The online catalogue for Gros et Delettrez’s sale (8 April 2011, lot 549) identifies this manuscript with La Vallière sale no. 5049 and assumes that it was acquired by the duke from the d’Urfé library, thus tracing it back to Louis and Marie via Anne. Deldicque also suggests it may have been owned by Anne and could be the ‘chroniques’ that were returned to Anne from the diocese of Rouen in 1525. See Deldicque, ‘De Mère en fille’, p. 87 and ‘La Passion’, p. 119 (and his fig. 8); the return of the book is recorded in Beaurepaire, ii: G 2152 (November 1525). 45 L2, no. 53: ‘Livre des Trois vertus pour l’enseignement des dames, manuscript [sic] en vélin’ may be the mid-fifteenth-century copy now in Tours, BM, ms 2128 and decorated with the d’Urfé arms but with no other indication of Anne’s ownership; Deldicque, who excludes the manuscript from Anne’s possession, mistakenly refers to it as a Mutacion de Fortune (‘La Passion’, p. 122, and Le dernier commanditaire, p. 366). L2, no. 62: ‘La vision Chrestienne (sic), manuscript [sic], en velin’ cannot be linked to any of the three surviving copies of this text. On the Mutacion, see n. 39 above. 46 Paris, Arsenal, ms 5210, fol. 1r; Vernet identifies this manuscript with the first item in the inventory (L1, no. 1, ‘Le Roman de la rose, manuscript [sic] en vélin’) although presumably it could also be the copy described as ‘Le Roman de la rose, manuscript [sic] en vélin, enrichy de figures’ (L1, no. 56) since Arsenal 5210 contains thirty-one miniatures; see Vernet ‘A propos d’un manuscrit de la Vie de Du Guesclin par Cuvelier’, Revue d’histoire des textes, 8 (1978) [1979]), 325–27 (p. 325, n. 2). Ernest Langlois noted the inscription in his Les manuscrits du Roman de la Rose, description et classement (Paris: Champion, 1910), pp. 79–80. Arsenal 5210 also passed through the La Vallière collection, which might further indicate a Graville-d’Urfé provenance. 47 Paris, Sainte-Geneviève, ms 1144; and St Petersburg, NLR, fr. fol. v. XIV. 7. 48 L1, no. 4: ‘La Chasse et le Despart d’Amours par St. Gelais, évesque d’Angoulesme, imprimé en vélin l’an 1509 à Paris’. The Chasse, printed by Vérard, contains works by Chartier, Charles d’Orléans and Marie de Clèves and ‘La Chasse d’Amours’, a poem which Winn has argued sits alongside other ‘defences’ of women written or printed in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, like Martin Le Franc’s Champion des dames (c. 1485). See Winn, Anthoine Vérard: Parisian Publisher 1485–1512: Prologues, Poems, and Presentations (Geneva: Droz, 1997) and on La Chasse, see Winn, La Chasse d’Amours (Geneva: Droz, 1984), pp. l–liii. 44



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books for which there is concrete, or compelling circumstantial, evidence that they were in her possession.49

The Collections of Louis de Graville and Marie de Balsac

As part of his substantial work on Louis de Graville’s patronage, Deldicque has identified thirty extant manuscript titles and two printed works (one lost) as having been part of Louis and Marie de Balsac’s collection.50 These surviving manuscripts, the majority in the vernacular, indicate that the couple’s tastes were largely typical for their time, and included a book of hours and several volumes of historical texts, both ancient and modern, as well as chivalric literature and poetry. They also contain a mixture of plain manuscripts – perhaps working copies – and richly decorated volumes by some of the leading artists of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, including Jean Colombe, Jean Pichore, the François Master, the Master of Jacques de Besançon and the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse. Moreover, since some of these books contain the arms of both husband and wife, it suggests that their collection or commissioning practice cannot be attributed to Louis alone.51 However, a small subset of these manuscripts – six in total – that contain the Graville-Balsac arms points to Marie de Balsac’s own, discrete, collection of books. As Deldicque has shown, this fact has previously been overlooked because of the assumption that the impaled coat of arms found in these manuscripts (fig. 8) was that of Anne after her marriage to her cousin Pierre de Balsac.52 Anne actually employed a more complex configuration of her married arms which allowed her not only to distinguish herself from her mother but also to promote the marriage that had been so opposed by her father (fig. 9).53 The clarification of Marie’s arms not only means she can now be considered a book Vernet (‘Les manuscrits’) also identified the following manuscripts as corresponding to titles listed in the d’Urfé inventory but there is no evidence that they were specifically in Anne’s possession: Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, 78 D 9, Le livre/traité des anges by Francesc Eiximenis (L1, no. 49: ‘Traicté des anges par F. Francois Comminez (sic), de l’ordre des frères mineurs, manuscript [sic] en vélin’); and Evora, Biblioteca publica, cxxiv/1–6, Biblia sacra, a thirteenth-century copy of the Vulgate that contains the d’Urfé arms (L1, no. 39: ‘Biblia sacra in charta verucina’); the latter manuscript was acquired by La Vallière, sale no. 25. Thanks to Jeremy Roe for help in accessing information about this manuscript. 50 Deldicque, Le dernier commanditaire, pp. 427–30. A further three works were offered to the king and to the church (p. 431 and see n. 24 above) and other manuscript and printed works now lost or of less certain attribution are also listed (pp. 431–32). 51 See Deldicque, Le dernier commanditaire, pp. 307–08. 52 Deldicque, ‘De mère en fille’, p. 75. In fact, the impaling of the Graville fermaux (on the male, dexter side) with those of Balsac, d’azur, à trois flanchis d’argent; au chef d’or, chargé de trois flanchis d’azur (on the female, sinister side) found in the Munich Mutacion amongst others would have been reversed in Anne’s case. 53 Emmanuel De Boos has suggested that the manuscript of heraldry, L’Armorial Le Breton (Paris, AN, AE I 25, no. 6 (MM 684L), was also owned by Anne de Graville, since a shield labelled ‘les armes de mademoiselle de Graville’ (impaled Graville and Balsac) appears amongst later 49

Fig. 9. Anne de Graville’s arms, Triumph of Death, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541, fol. 77v (detail), c. 1520–25 (© Paris, BnF).

Fig. 8. Marie de Balsac’s arms, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune, Munich, BSB, Cod. Gall. 11, fol. 2r (detail), c. 1410–11 (© Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München).



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owner in her own right but also makes it possible to trace Marie’s specific influence on Anne’s collection as well as the passage of books along the female line, since several of Marie’s manuscripts went to Anne, and from there to Jeanne and the d’Urfé library.54 The six titles belonging specifically to Marie are: the three-volume Sept Sages de Rome noted above (two volumes of which include only her married arms, not Louis’s), a Faits d’Alexandre,55 an Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César,56 the Munich copy of the Mutacion de Fortune, the first volume of Froissart’s Chroniques now in a private collection and the now-lost copy of Latini’s Livre du Trésor.57 Although none of these manuscripts was originally made for Marie, they were all high quality and were subsequently personalised specifically for her. For instance, the Mutacion de Fortune to which she added her arms is one of the earliest presentation copies of the work illuminated by the Master of the City of Ladies under Christine de Pizan’s guidance.58 We might discern an interest in the querelle des femmes

54 55

56





57



58

additions to the book in the company of those of other families close to the Gravilles (including Charles d’Amboise, husband of Jeanne de Graville, and Jacques de Vendôme, husband of Louise de Graville). However, the arms are the same format as those used by Marie de Balsac. See Emmanuel De Boos et al., L’Armorial Le Breton (Paris: Somogy/Archives nationles, 2004), p. 21 and nos. 47b, 865, 866, 873, 875. Deldicque, ‘De Mère en fille’, pp. 74–75. Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 755; the text, by Quintus Curtius Rufus, was translated into French by Vasco da Lucena in 1468. Paris, BnF, ms fr. 254; this is a second redaction of the text, not a copy of Raoul Lefèvre’s Le Recueil des histoire de Troye as stated in the BnF catalogue. Deldicque discounts the two other manuscripts in which Marie’s arms appear with those of Louis, the Fleur des Histoires (fr. 53) and the Description ou traicté du gouvernement et regyme de la cyté et seigneurie de Venise (Traité de Venise) (Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 799) on the basis that the former was made for Louis XII and the latter after Marie’s death; see ‘De mère en fille’, p. 78. The inclusion of Marie’s arms in a manuscript offered to Louis XII during Marie’s lifetime begs the question of whether she was as much behind the gifting as her husband. See the catalogue entry for Munich, Cod. Gall. 11, in Album Christine (no. 26). The addition of Marie’s arms beneath a miniature showing the birth of Alexander in the Faits d’Alexandre may indicate that the admiral offered the gift to his wife on the birth of one of their children; see Deldicque (‘De mère en fille’, p. 79), who follows Chrystèle Blondeau, who argues that the impaled arms of Marie were painted over the plain Graville arms; see Blondeau, ‘La diffusion d’un succès bourguignon à la cour de France: les faits et gestes d’Alexandre de Vasque de Lucene’, in ‘Ars auro gemmisque prior’. Mélanges en hommage à Jean-Pierre Caillet, ed. by Chrystèle Blondeau et al. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013), pp. 335–44 (pp. 338–39). Marie’s copy of Froissart’s Chroniques sold in 2011 was illuminated by an artist in the circle of the Maître de Giac. Marie’s arms were also added to the copy of the Histoire ancienne (fr. 254) which is dated 1467, some three years before her marriage. The border decoration is visible, for instance, beneath the arms on fol. 75r. Deldicque (Deldicque and Leprêtre, Être mécène, no. 5) has suggested that the manuscript was a gift from the seigneurs of Rochechouart, as attested by a manuscript inscription on the flyleaf ‘Voutre [sic] bon et loyal coussin, Ja. de Rochechouart. Toutes loyalles penseez. Jeh. de Rochechouart’, whom he identifies as Jean de Pontville (d. 1499), who inherited the viscounty through his wife, Anne, and Jacques de Rochechouart, seigneur de Bourdet (d. 1501).

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amongst Marie’s books, since the Sept Sages and the couple’s copy of Boccaccio’s Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes recounted tales of women’s unfaithfulness and wickedness; by contrast, the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César included an early French translation of Ovid’s Heroides, with its steadfast heroines, and Christine’s Mutacion – like her Cité – retold more positively some of the problematic stories about women found in Boccaccio. Marie evidently owned other books that have since been lost, as indicated by a codicil to her will dated 1500, three years before her death, in which she bequeathed ‘son grant psaultier et tous ses livres de devotion’ (her large psalter and all her devotional books) to her servant, Collette la Brunelle. This Collette, according to Deldicque, may be the same woman who appears in the accounts of Margaret of Navarre, pointing to an earlier, close relationship between Graville women and those at court.59 Another group of books in the Graville collection point to Louis’s very personal interest in works associated with Charles V and what Deborah McGrady has called his sapientia project; yet others recalled the Graville family’s long-standing service to the French monarchy, especially to the Wise King.60 For instance, Louis had his arms added to a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century copy of Nicolas Oresme’s translation of Aristotle’s Politiques et Economiques,61 to a fifteenth-century copy of Raoul de Presles’ translation of Augustine’s Cité de Dieu62 and to the first volume of Denis Foulechat’s translation of John of Salisbury’s Policraticus, all of which had originally been produced at the behest of Charles V.63 Although not part of the sapientia project, Marco Polo’s Devisement du monde was also a text much prized by Charles V, who owned five copies. Louis owned two versions of the Devisement, discussed in more detail below, one of which was copied directly from one of Charles V’s own manuscripts in Honfleur in Normandy in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, a date which suggests it may have been done specifically for him.64

Deldicque, ‘De mère en fille’, p. 77 and p. 82, n. 38. For Colette’s appearance in Margaret’s accounts, see Lefranc and Boulenger, pp. 24, 43, 82, 89 and 70. Marie’s testament is in Paris, AN, MC/ET/XIX/16, 20 décembre 1500. 60 On the sapientia project, see Deborah McGrady, The Writer’s Gift or the Patron’s Pleasure? The Literary Economy in Late Medieval France (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019). On Louis’s interest in Charles V, see Françoise Autrand, ‘La Prière de Charles V’, Annuaire-Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de France, 108 (1995), 37–68 (p. 42). 61 Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 279; the Calames online record for this confusingly states that it is a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century copy, previously owned by Charles III d’Anjou (1270–1325). Given that Oresme’s dates are c. 1320–82, it seems more likely that the scratched-out inscription refers to Charles, Count of Maine (1414–72). 62 Fr. 18–19. 63 Paris, Sainte-Genevieve, mss 1144–45; see the discussion below. On Charles V’s patronage of these works, see McGrady, The Writer’s Gift, esp. Chapter 1. 64 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1880. Charles V’s copy from which this manuscript was made is now Stockholm, KB, Cod. Holm M 304 and includes a fifteenth-century inscription ‘Pour Symon du Solier, demorant a Honnefleu’. Louis de Graville was the governor of this town. 59



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Further manuscripts with a connection to Charles V commissioned by Louis include the Prières à l’usage de Charles V65 and an inventory of the king’s possessions (Table alphabétique de l’inventaire des meubles et joyaux du roi Charles V) which Susie Nash has shown was no simple copy but one which ‘reorder[ed] and condens[ed]’ the original and which gave Louis access to the ‘long-lost royal collections of the 1380s in a statistical manner that was searchable’.66 His commissioning of a manuscript of the Rolls of Oléron (the first maritime laws) together with Charles V’s Ordinances concerning the admiralty was clearly intended to draw a link with his own position as admiral, and the manuscript is personalised with his coat of arms and an anchor.67 The Recueil de pièces sur les Croisades, also decorated with his coat of arms, opens with a list of the knights who accompanied Louis IX on the Eighth Crusade, including his own ancestor Jean I de Graville ( Jean Malet) and Florent de Varannes, the first admiral of France.68 Another indication of Louis’s interest in cultivating the Gravilles’ loyalty to the French kings is his ownership of a Latin copy of the retrial and acquittal of Joan of Arc which took place in 1456 and from which a French translation was made for Louis XII at the admiral’s behest.69 As discussed below, through

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5730. The manuscript contains three items: the first two are a series of short prayers supposedly said frequently by Charles V (‘aucunes briefves peticions, requestes et devocions que le bon, noble et prudent roy Charles le Quint faisoit souvent à Dieu’) and a manual advising the king on how to live well (‘Instruction de bien vivre composée par ung docteur en theologie confesseur dudit seigneur’), notably by looking after his household and the poor. On the dating and authorship of these, see Autrand pp. 48–52; the third item, a prayer to the cross, is discussed below. 66 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 23932. See Susie Nash, ‘The Inventory as Royal Object: Charles V and the Enumeration of Kingship’, in The Medieval Book as Object, Idea and Symbol, ed. by Julian Luxford (Donington: Shaun Tyas, 2021), pp. 41–79 (p. 59). Nash notes that compiling this version of the inventory would have taken time and that the scribe was evidently working from the original manuscript or a copy of it. Louis read the manuscript carefully, highlighting references to his namesakes, St Louis IX and St Louis of Marseille, as well as to Charlemagne, a namesake for Charles V. 67 London, BL, Sloane MS 2423. 68 Fr. 20853. Louis’s motivation for commissioning the Recueil appears to have been the connections with the people and events to which it refers. He annotated the reference to Louis IX with the note that he ‘passa par la mer deux foiz’ (crossed the sea twice); see Autrand, p. 43. 69 Paris, BnF, ms lat. 8838, now in a d’Urfé binding and commonly referred to as the Manuscrit d’Urfé. It has been argued that the manuscript was copied in 1456–58 and that it served as the base text for the French translation of the trial ordered by Louis de Graville, a copy of which is preserved in Orléans, BM, ms 518; see Deldicque and Leprêtre, Être mécène, no. 11. The translator of the Orléans manuscript notes ‘Lequel procez j’ay extraict par le commandement du roy Louis XIIme de ce nom et de monseigneur de Graville, admiral de France’ (fol. 1r). Philippe Contamine indicates that Louis played an important role in promoting the memory of Joan of Arc, perhaps since his grandfather, Jean V de Graville, was one of her soldiers; see his De Jeanne d’Arc aux guerres d’Italie. Figures, images et problèmes du XVe siècle (Orléans: Paradigme, 1994), pp. 139–62. 65

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the books that she inherited and acquired, Anne continued this cultivation of the family’s status and memory begun by her father.

Anne’s Inheritance

Ten manuscripts belonging to Louis and Marie can easily be placed in Anne’s hands, since they contain the inscription ‘A mademoiselle Anne de Graville, a la succession de feu monseigneur l’Amiral, Vc viij [1518]’ (or a close variant), clearly indicating that Anne acquired them as part of her inheritance.70 These manuscripts include some of the plainer, as well as the more luxurious, codices from her parents’ collections: the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César belonging to her mother, the Prose Lancelot, the Roman de Tristan,71 two copies of the Devisement du monde, Bruni’s Batailles Puniques, the Prières à l’usage de Charles V, the Inventaire des joyaux de Charles V, the Recueil concerning the crusades and the royal household and Boccaccio’s Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes. As noted above, Anne also inherited her mother’s three-volume copy of the Sept Sages de Rome, since it was present in the d’Urfé library. In addition, the name ‘gravile’ was added in large letters at the bottom of folio 178r in the second volume, which may also be evidence of Anne’s adoption of the manuscript. The two Devisement du monde manuscripts that Anne inherited deserve further comment here. Some scholars have assumed that the sixteenth-century Arsenal copy of the Devisement (fig. 10) was commissioned by her from the smaller, paper copy belonging to Louis.72 This assumption has been made on the basis of the Arsenal manuscript’s large frontispiece showing the Great Khan giving his seal to Polo’s father and uncle that was painted by the Master of the Paris Entries; Anne’s mottos, coat of arms and device of a chantepleure appear in the bas-de-page.73 However, not only do these manuscripts constitute The wait of two years from Louis’s death can be explained by the process undertaken by Anne to reclaim her inheritance; see the discussion in the Introduction. Deldicque (‘La passion’, p. 117) has noted that at least two hands write inscriptions in the manuscripts that Anne inherited, with the main one being that of Guillaume le Gentilhomme ‘avocat au parlement de Paris’, who looked after Anne and Pierre’s legal affairs. He does not, however, indicate in which specific manuscripts each of the hands can be found. 71 London, BL, Egerton MS 989, Roman de Tristan; this manuscript contains sixteenth-century annotations that appear to be by Anne and which are discussed below. 72 See Christine Gadrat-Ouerfelli, Lire Marco Polo au moyen âge: Traduction, diffusion et réception du Devisement du monde (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015), p. 141, who assumes that the Arsenal copy was commissioned by Anne; and Deldicque (‘La Passion’, p. 122) who, as with the Munich and Arsenal copies of the Mutacion de Fortune, assumes that the parents’ manuscripts served as models for Anne’s. 73 I am grateful to François Avril for confirming the attribution to the Master of the Paris Entries (personal correspondence, 8 March 2019). The artist was active in Paris from the end of the fifteenth century to around 1520 and produced a number of works for the French court, including the manuscript commemorating the Entry of Claude of France to Paris in 1517; see Les Enluminures du Louvre, Moyen Âge et Renaissance, ed. by François Avril, Nicole Reynaud and 70

Fig. 10. Master of the Paris Entries, frontispiece with Anne de Graville’s arms, motto and devices, Marco Polo, Devisement du monde, Paris, Arsenal, ms 3511, fol. 2r, c. 1520 (© Paris, BnF).

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two different redactions of the most widely diffused French version of the text but a very faded inscription on the flyleaf indicates that the Arsenal manuscript too was obtained by Anne as part of her inheritance in 1518, thus adding an additional manuscript to Louis’s collection.74 Given that all elements of the frontispiece, including the figures and motifs in the bas-de-page, were produced in one campaign, Anne must have employed the artist to paint – or complete – the miniature once she had acquired the manuscript as a means of asserting herself as the new owner.75 In this respect, the positioning of the women in the main miniature on the right-hand side of the Khan, who turns towards them, might be read as reference to Anne’s justified acquisition of the manuscript. Perhaps it was also this inheritance of two redactions of the Devisement that sparked Anne’s later interest in seeking out other works in different versions. A further four manuscripts already encountered in this chapter are candidates for Anne’s inheritance on the basis of their internal evidence. The first is Marie de Balsac’s copy of the Mutacion de Fortune now in Munich, which is closely related to, although not the direct model for, the Arsenal copy that Anne commissioned for herself. Marie’s copy of Froissart’s Chroniques sold in 2011 may be one of the copies of this work referenced in the Amsterdam inventory. The Grandes Chroniques de France decorated with Louis’s arms contains inscriptions relating to the children of Anne’s son Guillaume de Balsac and his wife, Louise d’Humières, suggesting that it passed to them via Anne.76 It is also reasonable

Dominique Cordellier (Paris: Hazan/Louvre éditions, 2011), pp. 222–23 (notice 118); Isabelle Delaunay, ‘Le Maître des Entrées parisiennes’, L’Art de l’enluminure, 26, 2008, pp. 52–61; and Marie-Blanche Cousseau, Etienne Colaud et l’enluminure parisienne sous le règne de François Ier (Tours: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2016; open edition, 2018, https://books.openedition. org/pufr/8467) [accessed 28 November 2022]). 74 On the different redactions, see Marco Polo, Le Devisement du Monde, ed. by Philippe Ménard, 6 vols (Geneva: Droz, 2001–2009), iv, Livre d’Ynde: Retour vers l’Occident, ed. by Dominique Boutet, Thierry Delcourt, and Danièle James-Raoul. In this edition, the Arsenal manuscript has the sigle A3 and the editors note that it ends at chapter 205 and has an original conclusion; the paper copy has the sigle C2 and ends in the middle of chapter 204 (see pp. xi and xiii). My thanks to Marianne O’Doherty and Simon Gaunt for help identifying these texts. The inscription, ‘A Anne de Graville de la succession du feu […] admiral Vc viij’ is more visible under UV light. It was first noted by Consuelo W. Dutschke, ‘Francesco Pipino and the manuscripts of Marco Polo’s Travels’, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1993, p. 392. 75 That the page was painted in one campaign was confirmed to me by François Avril, who notes that the artist was sometimes called upon to complete works in urgent circumstances (personal correspondence, 8 March 2019). The coat of arms appears to have been painted over a much smaller shield that may also have included the Graville and Balsac arms, perhaps further evidence of a sudden change of ownership. 76 As noted above, Deldicque has also proposed that the Grandes Chroniques manuscript was inherited by Jeanne de Graville, who made Guillaume her heir. Both this manuscript and the Froissart are also possible candidates for a ‘chroniques’ that Anne requested be returned to her from a chapter in Rouen in 1525; see Chapter 3.



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to suppose that she inherited the so-called Manuscrit d’Urfé relating the retrial of Joan of Arc, since its binding indicates that it went to the d’Urfé library.77 The two-volume Policraticus now in Paris, Sainte-Geneviève, which several scholars have associated with Louis and Anne, presents a slightly more complicated case. The first volume, ms 1144 containing books I–V, dates from the fifteenth century and is decorated with the arms of Louis de Graville and the inscription, ‘Pour Monseigneur de Marcoussy’.78 It is accompanied by a second volume, ms 1145, written by another, possibly later, scribe on parchment of a slightly different size and ruling, suggesting that the two were not produced as a pair.79 This second volume contains books VII–VIII and has had a folio inserted after the opening list of chapters that contains a miniature by Etienne Colaud and a page of writing in yet another hand that both certainly date from the early sixteenth century (now folio 3r–v). The rubric below the miniature indicates that it is the start of the seventh book of the Policraticus and the following page of text provides what must have been the missing start of this seventh book, which continues on folio 4r in the manuscript’s original hand. Between them, then, the volumes are missing Book VI. An inscription on the flyleaf of the first volume indicates that in 1762 the bibliophile Mercier de Saint-Léger persuaded the marquis of Soubise, Charles de Rohan, to donate his first volume to the Sainte-Geneviève library, which owned only a second volume. Although there are material differences between the two volumes, Cousseau argues that they are similar enough in size and ruling to suggest that Anne had the second volume made to complete the first. Her theory resides on the basis that Anne de Graville commissioned the same artist, Colaud, to provide some of the illuminations in the presentation copy of the Beau roman.80 However, if we assume Anne’s ownership of the first volume on the basis of the inscription ‘Pour Monseigneur de Marcoussis’, Anne would then have acquired the incomplete second volume (either from Louis or elsewhere) and had the miniature and A Book of Hours (San Marino, Huntington Library, HM 1163) illuminated by the Master of the Munich Boccaccio was probably originally made for Louis de Graville (and Marie de Balsac?) on the basis of its date. The Graville and Balsac arms appear separately on fols 22v (Balsac) and 62r (Graville). Deldicque (‘De mère en fille’, p. 78) claims that the Balsac arms are a later addition indicating Pierre de Balsac’s ownership. If the arms are an addition (curators at the Huntington were unable to confirm this in personal correspondence 8 September 2020), we might also imagine that Anne, having inherited the book, was responsible for updating the arms to reflect her and Pierre’s usage. 78 My thanks to Marie-Hélène de La Mure at Sainte-Geneviève for supplying photos of the inscription on the flyleaf. 79 My thanks to Yannick Nexon at Sainte-Geneviève for his thoughts on these two volumes, which he does not consider to have been produced as a pair (personal correspondence, 10 September 2014). 80 See the discussion in Cousseau where she discusses the close links between the hand that Orth names the Master of Anne de Graville and that of Etienne Colaud. She does not take into account the textual insertions in ms 1145, nor the fact that there is otherwise no concrete evidence of Anne’s ownership in either volume. 77

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missing text added. The volumes would then have been separated at some stage, and it would then presumably be by a stroke of luck that the second volume was reunited with the first in the eighteenth century. If Anne had commissioned a new second volume, either she did not take into account the fact that the sixth book was missing in ms 1144 (if it was ever there) or, alternatively, it is possible that Book VI was lost when the manuscripts left her possession. A final manuscript that has not previously been considered as part of either Anne’s collection or that of her parents, but for which there is a compelling case, is a copy of Chartier’s Belle dame sans mercy and the querelle texts that followed it.81 As noted above, the manuscript is, like the Policraticus and the Roman de la Rose, inscribed ‘Pour Monseigneur de Marcoussis’ and contains the names of several owners or readers with links to Louis de Graville, in the manner of coterie manuscripts, including those of the BDSM, that circulated at the court of Blois in the mid-fifteenth century. Joan E. McRae has established that this manuscript was one of the sources that Anne used in composing her Rondeaux and it therefore seems likely that she also inherited it from her parents.82 Curiously, an inventory of items in the castle of Marcoussis made after Louis’s death refers to two untraced books, a missal and a ‘rommant de maistre Alain Chartier escript a la main’ which it is tempting to think might be this volume.83 There is thus clear or compelling evidence that Anne inherited around half of her parents’ known manuscripts, with four titles (six volumes) coming specifically from her mother’s collection. These volumes went on to make up about a half of what can be reconstituted of Anne’s collection. The following section outlines the twenty or so other volumes – works of literature, poetry, morality and history – that entered Anne’s collection as personal commissions, second-hand purchases or as gifts. Here it will become evident that Anne was keen to acquire books that wove connections around particular themes, some of which were already present in her inherited volumes, as well as to acquire texts in more than one redaction.

Acquired Books: Purchases and Gifts

The Chaldean Histories, with which this chapter opened, entered Anne’s collection as a gift from her husband, Pierre, sometime before 1510 and was intended to offer her some solace in the period following the dispute with her father. Most of the other books she owned, however, were acquired in the years following the final resolution of her inheritance and an NLR, fr. fol. v. XIV. 7. My thanks to Natalia Elaguina at the NLR for providing photographs of the inscriptions and of the binding, which is eighteenth-century (?) red velvet. 82 Joan E. McRae, ‘Anne de Graville Translates Alain Chartier: Identifying the Manuscript Source in the Margins of B.N. fr. 2253’, Magnificat, 7 (2020), 189–209. I am extremely grateful to Joany for sharing her findings on the textual aspects with me, including a pre-print copy of her article. See the discussion in Chapter 6. 83 Deldicque, Le dernier commanditaire, p. 433. 81



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improvement in her financial position. In 1520 Anne came into possession of Louis’s house in Ambourville near the city of Rouen, where she made several second-hand purchases in 1521 and 1522. Many of these expanded her collection of French literature, particularly epic poems and chansons de geste. For instance, in 1521 she bought a fourteenth-century copy of Jacques de Longuyon’s Voeux du Paon (c. 1312–13) and its continuation, Jean le Court (dit Brisebarre)’s Restor du Paon (before 1338).84 In the same year, Anne acquired a thirteenth-century copy of the chanson de geste, Anseis de Metz (c. 1121–71) and, perhaps at the same time, a similarly dated copy of another twelfth-century chanson de geste, Auberi le Bourguignon.85 Only four and five copies, respectively, of these works survive and, although it is difficult to assess how many copies might have been in circulation in Anne’s day, their relative rarity may mean that her library was a place in which more unusual reading matter could be found. Two late, and now also rare, medieval reworkings of Ami and Amile, another chanson de geste written around 1200, entered Anne’s collection in 1521.86 One is a prose version from the fourteenth century surviving only in the compendium now in Lille, in which Anne inscribed her name and the words ‘[1]521, Achetté à Rouen’;87 the other is the version, probably dating from the early fifteenth century, in alexandrine verse now in Basel and inscribed with the same date.88 The fact that Anne acquired both a verse and a prose version of Ami et Amile points to a sensitivity to shifts between verse and prose that is evident elsewhere in her collection, and which was also a feature of literary production in the later middle ages, including in her own works.89 In fact, the presence of two redactions of a text is a striking feature of Anne’s collection that indicates a tangible interest in literary reworkings. The Lille recueil also contains a series of eleven tales with a religious and moral meaning that are taken from the Vie Paris, Arsenal, ms 2776. These two texts were the first and second parts of the so-called ‘Peacock Cycle’, whose ‘inter-related tales elaborate on the fictional exploits of Alexander the Great as recounted in the late twelfth-century Roman d’Alexandre’; see Domenic Leo, Images, Texts, and Marginalia in a ‘Vows of the Peacock’ Manuscript (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS G24) (Leiden: Brill 2013), p. 34. 85 Fr. 24377 and fr. 24368. Both texts are related to the Lorraine chansons de geste cycle. 86 The story of Ami and Amile survives in six different redactions. See the entry in the Arlima database: www.arlima.net/ad/ami_et_amile.html [accessed 2 June 2022]. 87 Lille, MS 130; see Brian Woledge, ‘Ami et Amile, les versions en prose française’, Romania, 65 (1939), 433–56, who also provides a transcription of the Lille version that Anne owned. The other texts in the Lille manuscript are discussed below. 88 Basel, MS F IV 44; the manuscript is dated 1425 by the scribe. 89 See Adrian Armstrong and Sarah Kay, Knowing Poetry: Verse in Medieval France from the Rose to the Rhétoriqueurs (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 2011), pp. 1–2. It is tempting to think that a luxury vellum copy of an anonymous prose reworking, Milles et Amys or L’hystoyre des nobles et vaillans chevaliers nommez Milles et Amy published by Vérard around 1503 and decorated with the arms of Claude d’Urfé (Paris, BnF, Vélins 1126) might also have been in Anne’s possession, adding yet another dimension to her reading of this tale. Thanks to Mary Beth Winn for help in identifying this book. 84

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des Pères, a collection of seventy-four religious stories dating from the early thirteenth century.90 In the same year that she purchased the Lille copy, Anne acquired an entire Vie des Pères that dates from the fourteenth century.91 In 1521 and 1522 she also bought two other compilations containing different versions of pseudo-Aristotle’s Secret des secrets, a popular text that purported to be a letter from the philosopher Aristotle to his former pupil Alexander offering advice on good governance.92 Finally, another text purchased in Rouen in 1521, a plain and selective first redaction of the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César on paper, must have been intended to complement Anne’s richly illuminated copy of the second redaction inherited from her mother’s collection.93 The first redaction contains material not present in the second, suggesting that Anne’s purchase of this manuscript was motivated by her interest in different textual redactions and the opportunity to build up detailed knowledge of a work. This interest is also apparent in Anne’s commissioning of a copy of Christine de Pizan’s Mutacion de Fortune which complements the more luxurious Munich copy inherited from her mother; both copies were carefully annotated by Anne, as is discussed in Chapter 4. Anne’s close reading of the Mutacion also sheds additional light on some of the acquisitions already discussed: one of Christine’s main sources for the work was the Histoire ancienne, and she also drew heavily on the Jeu des eschés moralisé which is included in the recueil that also contains the Secret des secrets.94 In addition to purchasing books in Rouen, Anne also acquired a small group of books that connect her intellectually to the city and its literary activity and which are explored in detail in Chapter 3. Her copy of Petrarch’s Triumphs (c. 1518–25) is closely linked, both stylistically and textually, to two copies commissioned by Rouen’s archbishop, Cardinal In the Lille recueil these tales are attributed to Robert de Chipoy, ‘clerc escolier a Paris et estudiant’ (fol. 56v). The tales in the Lille copy have been rearranged in relation to the order established by Edouard Schwan in ‘La vie des anciens Pères’, Romania, 13 (1884), 233–263. 91 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24758. 92 Arsenal 2691 inscribed ‘A Anne de Graville Vc xxi / Achetté à Rouen’; and Paris, BHVP, ms 4-MS-RES-010 (formerly ms 527) inscribed ‘A mademoiselle Anne de Graville, dame du bois de malesherbes Vc xxij’. My thanks to Juliette Jestaz for facilitating access to this manuscript and for our discussions about its contents. The version of the Secrets found in the Arsenal copy dates from the fourteenth century, whereas the version in the BHVP recueil appears to be a different version dating from around the turn of the fifteenth century; see Paul Meyer, ‘Notice d’un MS. Messin (Montpellier 164 et Libri 96)’, Romania, 58–59 (1886), 161–91. The opening of the BHVP manuscript corresponds to the text cited by Meyer (p. 189) or his version C. See also Denis Lorée, Pseudo-Aristote, Le Secret des Secrets. Traduction du XVe siècle (Paris, Champion, 2017). 93 Nafr. 10053, listed in the d’Urfé inventory (L2, no. 3). Thanks to Simon Gaunt for clarifying that this is a very late first redaction of the text, with major lacunae. The manuscript consists of the first four of the conventional eleven segments of the Histoire ancienne: Genesis (Creation up to the death of Joseph as well as the story of Ninus, who is usually left out of the second redaction), Orient I (including the story of Ninus and Semiramis), Thebes (an abridged version of the Roman de Thebes) and the Greeks and Amazons. See the entry on the Medieval Francophone website: www.medievalfrancophone.ac.uk/browse/mss/74/manuscript.html/ [accessed 23 June 2022]. 94 BHVP, 4-MS-RES-010. 90



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Georges d’Amboise, and its decorative programme asserting Anne’s identity suggests it was commissioned during an upturn in her fortunes and reputation.95 Moreover, its miseen-page, in which the commentary confronts the main text (in different scripts), points towards the strategy and layout that Anne employed in the Rondeaux. In 1524, Anne was presented with a collection of chants royaux, ballades et rondeaux that had been entered into the Puy de l’Immaculée conception at Rouen that year and which celebrate Anne’s familial links with Normandy.96 Her interest in late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century French and, especially, Norman literature is also evident in her ownership of a collection that includes poems by François Villon and Guillaume Crétin as well as the only extant copy of Guillaume Tasserie’s play, Le Triomphe des Normands, which was performed at the Rouen Puy.97 Whereas several of the books that Anne acquired, especially those she bought in the 1520s, are relatively old, plain copies of even older texts, the copy of Antoine de La Sale’s Petit Jehan de Saintré (1456) and Rasse de Brunhamel’s Floridan et Elvide (also c. 1456) that dates from 1475 to 1500 is one of the more ‘modern’ and luxurious items in her collection.98 It is illustrated with high-quality miniatures by the Master of Jacques de Besançon and his circle who had also worked on some of Louis’s manuscripts.99 A now lost copy of another fifteenth-century text, Paris et Vienne, was also acquired (perhaps inherited?) by Anne, since it was inscribed with the words ‘A mademoiselle Anne de Graville, dame du boys de Malesherbes’.100 Anne inscribed her name and the titles ‘dame du boys de mallesherbes et Contesse de sainct yon’ on the flyleaf of the Petit Jehan: this is the only instance where Anne refers to herself as being the countess of Saint-Yon, one of Louis’s territories situated in the Fr. 22541; on the relationship to copies commissioned by Georges d’Amboise, see Chapter 3. Fr. 25535. 97 Fr. 24315. Another manuscript in Edinburgh (Advocates Library, MS 19.1.4), also from the early sixteenth century and in a d’Urfé binding, contains much of the same material although not the riddle on Anne’s name, the Norman content or the copy of Montebourg donations discussed in Chapter 3. It contains no other marks of ownership but it does raise the possibility that it too is linked to Anne. My thanks to Ulrika Hogg at the NLS for information on this manuscript. A copy of the Grandes Chroniques de Normandie, now in a private collection but closely related to Paris, BnF, fr. 2651 which was in the royal library, has underlinings relating to the name Graville, leading Gillette Labory to suggest that it may have been in Louis or Anne’s collection. See Gillette Labory, ‘Les manuscrits de la Grande chronique de Normandie du XIVe et du XVe siècle’, Revue d’Histoire des Textes, 29 (2000), 245–94. 98 London, BL, Cotton MS Nero D IX. Brunhamel’s texts is a translation of Nicolas de Clamanges’ Historia de raptoris raptaeque virginis lamentabili exitu composed before his death in 1437. 99 Deldicque (Le dernier commanditaire, p. 431) suggests the manuscript may have originated in Louis’s collection. 100 Manuscript on paper, 106ff; see Henry Huth et al., The Huth library. A catalogue of the printed books, manuscripts, autograph letters, and engravings, collected by Henry Huth with Collations and Bibliographical Descriptions (London: Ellis and White, 1880), p. 1093. This manuscript was noted by Vernet (‘Les manuscrits’), but not the inscription. 95 96

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Essonne to the south of Marcoussis.101 Anne also wrote her name in capital letters in an early fourteenth-century manuscript made in Italy and containing works related to the Prose Lancelot cycle, now in Oxford.102 This large manuscript decorated with numerous miniatures complemented the two Arthurian works that she had inherited from her parents, a Roman de Tristan and a Prose Lancelot, supplementing the latter in a very particular way. The Prose Lancelot contained parts 1–4 of the Lancelot cycle and originally formed a pair with Paris, Arsenal, ms 3347 which contains the fifth and final part. The Douce manuscript is a copy of the Estoire, Merlin and Suite Vulgate texts which served as a kind of prequel to the main Lancelot story, ‘prepar[ing] the way for what was originally the first Prose Lancelot (En la marche de gaule)’.103 Even if Anne never owned the companion volume in the Arsenal (there is no internal evidence), her acquisition of the Douce manuscript nevertheless served to supplement and complete that part of the cycle that she had already inherited and also points to a broader interest in Arthurian matter. Despite the claims of some scholars that Anne owned a number of printed texts, only one can so far be securely placed in her ownership. This book, a first edition of Guillaume Michel’s French translation of Virgil’s Georgics, was printed in 1519 in Paris by Durand-Gerlier.104 In contrast to some of the older works of French literature that Anne had acquired, this book demonstrates her familiarity with the reworking of classical authors being undertaken by poets around 1500, including Octovien de Saint-Gelais’s XXI Espitres d’Ovide (1497) and his Aeneid (1500, printed 1509), and Clément Marot’s translation of Virgil’s first Eclogue into French (1512).105 The edition of the Georgics presented Michel’s text with excerpts of the original Latin in the margins in a layout that, also like the Petrarch manuscript, encouraged an interactive reading process that recalls the mise-en-page of Anne’s Rondeaux. Anne may also have been drawn to Michel’s The Fonds Malesherbes (Paris, AN, 399AP/1–399AP/596) indicates that Jeanne inherited Boissy-sur-Saint-Yon. 102 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 178, fol. 417r: The inscription, ‘A. ANNE DE GRAVILLE SVIS’, is probably Latin and might be translated as ‘of Anne’s books’. There is also a large, quartered, obliterated, coat of arms on folio 148r but this bears no relationship to Anne’s ownership. 103 On the history of the Prose Lancelot, see the website of the Lancelot-Grail project – especially, for terminology, Elspeth Kennedy’s contribution: www.lancelot-project.pitt.edu/LG-web/Whatis-LG.html, [accessed 2 June 2022]. The Arsenal manuscript contains L1–4 and the Chicago one L5QMA. See also A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, ed. by Carol Dover (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003). 104 Sold by Drouot, Paris, 28 March 2007 (lot 2) to a private collector. The brief catalogue description notes that an inscription in ink in a contemporary hand on the title pages indicates its provenance from Anne de Graville. The Georgics is a difficult text to classify and has been described as ‘part agricultural manual […] part political poem and allegory’; see Virgil, Georgics, trans. by Peter Fallon, introduction and notes by Elaine Fantham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. xv. 105 See Alice Hulubei, ‘Virgile en France au XVIe siècle: Editions, Traductions, Imitations’, Revue du Seizième siècle, 18 (1931), 1–77. 101



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translation because of his works in praise of Claude of France and Francis I, including Le Penser de royal mémoire and the Soulas de noblesse sus le coronnement de la royne de France Claude, published together in 1518.106 The latter work celebrated the queen, making her an emblem of faith and virtue, and functioned in relation to the Penser, as Lidia Radi has argued, in that Claude is presented as the one to guarantee the king’s salvation and that of his people.107

Towards an Interpretation of Anne’s Collection

This chapter has deliberately taken a fine-toothed comb to the knotty problem of Anne de Graville’s book collection and identified some forty books that definitely, or very likely, passed through her hands. Whereas some questions will inevitably remain unanswered, and more manuscripts and printed books that belonged to her may yet come to light, it is now possible to speak of Anne’s library on its own terms. By way of a conclusion to this teasing-out process, this final section makes some broader comments on the nature of Anne’s collection and the interweaving of her collecting practice, her literary interests and the crafting of her reputation. In doing so, it also points to how this new knowledge of Anne’s library expands and nuances understanding of late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century book collections, especially those built up by female readers. In many ways, with its predominance of vernacular literature and history, including works by authors like Marco Polo, Christine de Pizan and Giovanni Boccaccio, Anne’s library meets many of the received expectations regarding a secular woman’s library at the turn of the sixteenth century. Yet Anne owned far fewer of the overtly devotional, moralising or conduct-type works that are found in the libraries of some of her contemporaries. Whether this is simply the hazards of survival, or whether it is related to Anne’s evangelical leanings, is hard to tell. Moreover, given the pro-feminine approach that Anne takes in both the Beau roman and the Rondeaux, it may seem surprising that Anne does not appear to have owned texts such as Christine de Pizan’s Cité des dames, Boccaccio’s Des Cleres et nobles femmes or Martin Lefranc’s Champion des dames. However, her collection was not lacking in examples of heroic, if not problematic, female characters of the kind that were debated, or rewritten, in works of the querelle. In both the Sept Sages de Rome and the Petit Jehan de Saintré, the female protagonists turn the traditional world of courtesy and chivalry Guillaume Michel, Le Penser de royal memoire (Paris: for Jean de la Garde and Pierre Le Brodeur [1518]); for a modern edition, see Guillaume Michel, Le Penser de royal memoire, ed. by Lidia Radi (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2012). 107 See Lidia Radi, ‘Claude de France, mère/mer de vertueuse mémoire’, in Cherchez la femme: Women and Values in the Francophone World, ed. by Erika Fülöp and Adrienne Angelo (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2011), pp. 113–27 (p. 123). Following Claude’s death in 1524, Michel also composed Les Elegies, thrennes et complainctes sur la mort de tresilustre dame, madame Claude, jadis de son vivant royne de France ([n.p.]: [n.d], [1526]); see Elizabeth Armstrong, ‘Notes on the Works of Guillaume Michel, dit de Tours’, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 31 (1969), 257–81. 106

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upside down; Floridan et Elvide concerns the story of the unfortunate Elvide who takes her own life to avoid the shame of rape, and Paris et Vienne tells the tale of the two lovers whose parents oppose their marriage, a theme which may have resonated especially with Anne.108 In her copy of the Roman de Tristan a sixteenth-century hand, seemingly Anne’s, marks out the episode in which the lovers, Tristan and Isolde, die: ‘Dictez s’il vous plaist pour les deux vrays amans ung requiescant in pace A.M.E.N.’ (please say a ‘May they Rest in Peace’ for the two true lovers. Amen.).109 The Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, the Mutacion de Fortune, the Livre de Thezeo, Petrarch’s Triumphs and the Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes included a range of other heroines whose tales were also subject to continual reinterpretation by authors engaged in defending women. For instance, Semiramis, who is the founding stone in Christine’s Cité, features both in the Histoire ancienne and in the Mutacion de Fortune. Here, as in the Cité, Christine famously excuses Semiramis’ incest with her son – about which Boccaccio was so damning – as having taken place before such acts were banned by law.110 Anne’s manuscript of the second redaction of the Histoire ancienne, inherited from her mother, includes an early French translation of thirteen of Ovid’s Heroides, in which classical women abandoned by their lovers tell their stories in the form of letters addressed to the absent man: in Anne’s copy, each woman’s story is singled out with a miniature of her giving her letter to a messenger, or the addressee receiving the letter (fig. 11).111 A copy of Saint-Gelais’s translation of the Heroides illuminated by Robinet Testard for Louise of Savoy at the turn of the sixteenth century also places the emphasis on the women’s letter writing through close-up, half-length, portraits showing them with pen in hand (fig. 12).112 Thus, although Anne did not apparently own a copy of Saint-Gelais’s work, she was familiar with the tales and their iconography as found in late medieval manuscripts. Moreover, many of these classical heroines moved across texts: Hippolyta, the Amazon queen in the Livre de On the different versions of the text, see Rosalind Brown-Grant, ‘Adolescence, anxiety and amusement in versions of Paris et Vienne’, Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes, 20 (2010), 59–79. It is not known which of the three surviving redactions was owned by Anne. 109 Egerton 989, fol. 423r. 110 See Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies, trans. by Rosalind Brown-Grant (London: Penguin Classics, 1999), I. 15, pp. 35–37; on Boccaccio’s interpretation of Semiramis, see Margaret Franklin, Boccaccio’s Heroines: Power and Virtue in Renaissance Society (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 32–33. 111 On this manuscript and another to which it is closely related, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22554, see Anne Rochebouet ‘L’interpolation, entre insertion et compilation. La traduction des Héroïdes dans la cinquième mise en prose du Roman de Troie’, in Le Texte dans le texte. L’interpolation médiévale, ed. by Annie Combes and Michelle Szkilnik (Paris: Garnier, 2013), pp. 123–42 (p. 130). According to Luca Barbieri, fr. 22554 was copied in France in the sixteenth century and contains the arms of the Breseillac (or Brefeillac?) family; see Luca Barbieri, ‘Roman de Troie, Prose 5’, in Nouveau répertoire des mises en proses, XIVe–XVIe siècle, ed. by Maria Columbo Timelli et al. (Paris: Garnier, 2014), pp. 823–48 (p. 829–31). 112 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 875; see Wilson-Chevalier, ‘Proliferating Narratives’, p. 165. 108



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Fig. 11. Criseis [sic for Briseis] handing over a letter for Achilles, Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 254, fol. 102r (detail), 1467 (photo: E. L’Estrange).

Thezeo, also appears in the Mutacion and the Cité; Penelope, Dido and Lucretia, who were included in the Histoire ancienne, are also found in Petrarch’s Triumph of Chastity as well as in the Cité; Dido also appears with the transgressive Pope Joan in Boccaccio’s Des cas; and, as is shown in Chapter 5, she is the subject of Marot’s rondeau which ends his Epistre de Maguelonne, bound with the Beau roman. In addition to the stories of classical and Amazonian women found in the works noted above, the chanson de geste, Anseis de Metz, that Anne bought in 1521 includes an episode of ‘Amazon’ women taking up arms and fighting in the battle of Santerre.113 Moreover, the story of Ami et Amile, which Anne owned in two redactions, is, like that of Palamon and Arcita in the Beau roman, one of male friendship and loyalty, but one which is nuanced differently in the various versions. Jean-Pierre Martin has argued, for instance, that in the alexandrine version (found in Anne’s Basel copy) the noble birth of Amile is emphasised and the female character of Lubias provides the author with plenty of opportunity Alfred Adler, ‘A Note on the Amazons in Anseys de Mes’, Modern Language Notes, 61 (1946), 451–54.

113

Fig. 12. Robinet Testard, Penelope writing to Ulysses, Octovien de Saint-Gelais, Les XXI espistres d’Ovide (Heroides), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 875, fol. 1r, 1497 (© Paris, BnF).



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for misogynistic tirades.114 Brian Woledge notes the tighter structure of the Lille version that Anne also owned, remarking that here the author reduces the tale to the friendship between the two knights who save each other’s lives.115 Anne would have encountered another female figure, this one with a moralising role to play, in the Livre de Mélibée et de Prudence sa femme, Renaud de Louhan’s fourteenth-century translation of Alberta di Brescia’s Liber consolationis et consilii found amongst other texts, including the Secrets, in Arsenal 2691.116 The Livre de Mélibée is a discussion between husband and wife on how to take revenge on one’s enemies with the wife, aptly named Prudence, counselling against rash behaviour. Significantly, the Livre de Mélibée is elsewhere found in the company of other texts relating to appropriate moral conduct. In Paris, BnF, ms fr. 580 for instance, it is bound with Christine de Pizan’s Epistre à la reine, which she addressed to Queen Isabel in 1405, Geoffroy de la Tour Landry’s Livre du Chevalier de la Tour Landry (1371–72) and Jean de Vignay’s fourteenth-century Jeu des eschés moralisé.117 The Jeu des eschés is a text in the ‘mirror for princes’ genre and was an important source, as already noted, for Christine’s Mutacion de Fortune.118 Anne’s copy of Vignay’s text in the BHVP manuscript that she acquired in 1522 is accompanied by two other texts of a moralistic nature, the Livres de moralités and the Quatre vertus cardinales.119 Together with the first two works found in the Prières of Charles V manuscript that Anne inherited, those in Arsenal 2691 and the BHVP manuscript fit into the genre of moralising texts encouraging good governance and wise behaviour, and likely associated in readers’ minds with other Jean-Pierre Martin, ‘Les Nouvelles aventures d’Ami et Amile au XVe siècle’, in Façonner son personnage au Moyen Age, ed. by Chantal Connochie-Bourgne (Aix-en-Provence: Presses universitaires de Provence, 2007), pp. 223–32. He also notes that the remanieur uses Lubias’ marriage to show how she schemes against the two friends. 115 Woledge, p. 441. There is not space here to consider the differences between all the versions in detail, especially since critics tend to focus on the differences between the later remaniements and the chanson de geste, which Anne did not own. On the chanson de geste version, see Sarah Kay, ‘Seduction and Suppression in Ami and Amile’, French Studies, 44 (1990), 129–42, where she notes that the female characters alternate between two misogynistic types and serve as objects of exchange between men. 116 For the full contents, see the description provided in the Jonas database. 117 In another manuscript, Paris, Arsenal, ms 3356, a text once owned by a certain Katherine Rance (or Vance?), the Livre de Mélibée is again found with the Livre du Chevalier de la Tour Landry as well as with Christine de Pizan’s Livre des trois vertus. 118 Moreover, along with the Sept Sages de Rome, the Jeu des eschés also provided material for the Ménagier de Paris (1393), a conduct-style guide book for a young wife on managing her household; see Georgina E. Brereton, ‘Deux sources du Ménagier de Paris, le Roman des sept sages de Rome et les Moralitez sur le jeu des eschecs’, Romania, 295 (1953), 338–57. 119 The BHVP catalogue entry groups these two texts together as a French translation of Guillaume de Conches’s Moralium dogma philosophorum (incipit: ‘Talant m’estoit prins’), fols 92–113v. The Jonas catalogue separates fols 92–113v into two distinct texts, the Livre de moralités, beginning ‘Talant m’estoit prins’ (fols 92r–110v) and the anonymous Quatres vertus cardinales, beginning: ‘Quatre manieres de vertus’, fols 110v–113v. 114

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‘conduct’-style texts.120 Anne’s library thus provided her with a wealth of literary models concerning women, romance and morality that, although not all directly related to the querelle, must have informed the pro-feminine stance she took in the Beau roman and the Rondeaux. This in itself suggests that knowledge of and engagement with the querelle des femmes occurred in ways and through texts that extend beyond the traditional reading (and writing) of literary defences, an idea explored further in Chapter 4. Through her inheritance of a number of Louis’s manuscripts that were connected to the French monarchy, especially to the time of Charles V and his sapientia project, Anne was able to continue to promote the Graville family memory and develop her connection with Christine de Pizan, who had begun her career in the shadow of Charles V’s reign when many of these works were still fresh. For instance, in addition to acquiring both of Louis’s copies of Marco Polo’s Devisement du monde, a text which Charles V owned in five manuscripts, she also received the Oresme translation of the Politiques et Economiques, possibly Foulechat’s Policraticus, as well as her parents’ copy of Jean Lebègue’s translation of Leonardo Bruni’s Batailles puniques, a text that also had tangential links to Charles V and whose genesis offered the opportunity to reflect on issues of translation and remaniement.121 The In this sense, another manuscript that was certainly in Anne’s family, if not in her own library, also deserves mention: Princeton, Princeton University Library, MS 194, a copy of three letters supposedly written by Peter of Luxembourg (1369–86) for his sister Jeanne to encourage her to lead a pious life of chastity, dates from c. 1450 and was owned by Anne de Graville’s granddaughter, Louise d’Urfé (daughter of Jeanne and Claude d’Urfé). She probably acquired it from her parents, perhaps via a member of the Balsac family, since it is inscribed with the name ‘G. de Balsac’ who could be either Guillaume de Balsac (Anne’s son, 1517–55) or Geoffroy de Balsac (brother of Marie, d. 1509). It is probably this work that Anne of France advises her daughter to read in the Enseignements; see Anne of France, Lessons for my Daughter, ed. by Sharon L. Jansen (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004), p. 28 (n. 9) (hereafter Lessons). In other copies, these letters circulated as part of a longer text entitled the Diète du salut. The book’s current binding was done for Louise, since it has two Ls stamped in the centre on either side. The manuscript then passed to Louise’s daughter, Françoise de Montmorin. See the description in Don C. Skemer, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, 2 vols (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013), ii, pp. 477–79. My thanks to Don C. Skemer for providing a copy of the catalogue entry. 121 Lebègue’s Batailles puniques was a mid-fifteenth-century translation of Leonardo Bruni’s slightly earlier De bello punico (1419–21), an account of the First Punic War (264–241 BCE) written to replace the lost second decade of Livy’s Roman History. Lebègue’s translation was done to supplement Pierre Bersuire’s fourteenth-century translation of Livy’s texts, the second version of which Bersuire had dedicated to Charles V. Lebègue’s text was also destined for a royal reader, King Charles VII, but it was widely circulated, frequently as part of Bersuire’s translation. See Anne D. Hedeman, ‘Making the Past Present: Visual Translation in Jean Lebègue’s Twin Manuscripts of Sallust’, in Patrons, Artists and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris circa 1400, ed. by G. Croenen and Peter Ainsworth (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), pp. 173–96 (esp. pp. 183–84). The relationship between the texts is evident in the manuscripts in Chantilly (Bibliothèque du château, mss. 759–61) entitled Les trois decades that belonged to Catherine de Coëtivy and her husband, Antoine de Chourses, where Lebègue’s translation of Bruni’s text is inserted between 120



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Prières manuscript also inherited by Anne contains, in addition to the two texts related to Charles V, an ‘Oroison à la Croix’, a later text written in the feminine form which, in the nineteenth century, Kervyn de Lettenhove attributed to Christine de Pizan. Autrand has suggested that the author may be Anne de Graville herself and that she copied the first two items for her father, adding her own work at the end.122 The idea is tempting, since a variant copy of the work is preserved in a mid-sixteenth-century manuscript that belonged to Jacques Thiboust (1492–1555), secretary of Margaret of Navarre, who presided over a literary salon with his wife, and with whom Anne likely discussed Chartier’s BDSM.123 Family history was also present in two other manuscripts in Anne’s collection and demonstrates the importance of the Gravilles’ reputation and their place in Norman culture. The dedication in a 1524 manuscript of Rouen Puy poems offered to Anne and analysed in Chapter 3 evokes an event from 1356 in which Jean III de Graville was executed in Rouen for being part of a Norman resistance to King John II, organised by his son, the future Charles V who later restored the family’s honour.124 The so-called Manuscrit d’Urfé recording the retrial of Joan of Arc in 1456 provided another reminder of her family’s connections to the monarchy: Jean V de Graville was one of Joan of Arc’s soldiers, helping her to recapture Orléans, and also acted as an advisor to Charles VII. In the same way that Louis’s books helped him to craft a link to the monarchy via his Montagu and Graville ancestors, the d’Urfé manuscript would have allowed him to recall Jean V’s support for Joan of Arc and the beleaguered Charles VI. It also appears to have inspired him to encourage Louis XII to sponsor a French translation of the Latin text, as noted above. Finally, one of the most striking aspects of Anne’s collection that has already been emphasised is the prevalence of texts that encourage inter- and intratextual reading, through translation, through remaniement or because one text was a source for another. Anne owned six works in two different redactions – the Devisement du monde, the Secret des secrets, Ami and Amile, the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, the Vies des Pères and the Mutacion de Fortune. She may also have been behind an early sixteenth-century copy of the poems in fr. 24315, now in Edinburgh, that was also bound for d’Urfé.125 Although the ownership of more than one copy of a text amongst aristocratic book owners was not necessarily unusual, this is often as a result of the way collections were built up through inheritance from those of Bersuire. See Claerr, p. 113 and the recent exhibition catalogue available at https:// docplayer.fr/164239721-La-collection-chourses-coetivy.html [accessed 2 June 2022]. 122 Autrand, p. 47; she notes that, like the Beau roman, the prayer is written in decasyllables with a caesura in the fourth foot. The prayer appears to be written in a different hand to the other two items but with the same rubrications and on parchment with the same rulings. 123 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1667. This poetic anthology or Liber amicorum includes works by Margaret of Navarre and Francis I and Thiboust’s own translations. The ‘Oraison à la Croix’ begins on fol. 27r. Further investigation that is beyond the scope of the present study might shed further light on the literary relationship of these two copies. 124 Simon Hirsch Cuttler, The Law of Treason and Treason Trials in Later Medieval France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 160–62; and Autrand, p. 41. 125 See n. 97 above.

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various sources, or an owner’s desire to have a new or illustrated version of a text. In Anne’s case, apart from the two inherited copies of the Devisement, she deliberately acquired second copies of certain texts in second-hand, relatively low-key manuscripts, indicating a different kind of collecting and reading practice that was based on specific textual interests. As such, Anne’s library emerges as a place in which active reading took place, a practice that is evidenced not only by the annotations in several of her manuscripts but also by the fact that the sources for both of her surviving works can be traced to her library.

2 ‘A vos yeulx, un peu de recreation’: Translation, Translatio Studii and Self-Fashioning in Anne de Graville’s Chaldean Histories Anne’s manuscript of the Chaldean Histories contains a unique translation and adaptation of five books, purportedly written by the Chaldean priest Berosus, that formed part of Annius da Viterbo’s Antiquities. Written in Latin and first published in Rome in 1498, the Antiquities recounted the history of the world around the time of the Flood through eleven ‘ancient’, ‘lost’ books that Annius claimed to have rediscovered but which were in fact his own work.1 Despite their fabricated status, the Antiquities became an important source for subsequent works promoting the French monarchy’s ancient lineage.2 This chapter explores how both text and image in Anne’s manuscript served to bring her into a network of writers and readers with a strong interest in promoting France’s cultural superiority through translatio studii. It also suggests that, as both a translation and, effectively, a remaniement, the Chaldean Histories also anticipated the directions in which Anne’s collection and her own writings would develop. Although the author/translator of Anne’s text is never named, an inscription on one of the flyleaves beneath Anne’s name, ‘Tout pour le mieux, vostre bon cousin et amy, c’est moy’, have led scholars to assume that Pierre de Balsac had the book made for Anne, even if he did not translate it himself.3 The manuscript is replete with declarations of love and On the composition of the Antiquities, see Walter J. Stephens, ‘From Berossos to Berosus Chaldaeus: The Forgeries of Annius of Viterbo and Their Fortune’, in The World of Berossos: Proceedings of the 4th International Colloquium on The Ancient Near East between Classical and Ancient Oriental Traditions, Hatfield College, Durham, 7–9 July 2010, ed. by Johannes Haubold et al. (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag: 2013), pp. 277–89. 2 Two editions of the Antiquities appeared in 1498, one in Rome, with Annius’s commentaries, and one in Venice with the ‘ancient’ texts only. The Roman edition with the commentaries has the title Antiquitatum variarum volumina XVII and the Venetian edition Auctores vetutissimi …. A copy of the Roman edition printed in France in 1515 by Jean Petit (hereafter Antiquitatum) from which I take quotations in this chapter is available at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/ bpt6k526066 [accessed 20 April 2022]. Page references are to the numbers generated by the PDF from this link. 3 LAD 2014.029, fol. iv; Durrieu (p. 408) assumed Pierre was responsible for the translation. Others including Montmorand (pp. 67–68) and later sales catalogues have assumed Pierre’s involvement at some level. See L’Estrange, ‘“Un étrange moyen de séduction”’ for further references 1

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admiration for Anne in both the prologue and the epilogue, and the mottos, à non plus, à autre non, and à amour, appear in the opening miniature and on nearly all the pages: these mottos pun on the preposition à and Anne’s initial A, making them read to/Anne no-one else; to/Anne no other; for/Anne love. Montmorand called the book a ‘singulier cadeau à faire à la femme aimée, et l’étrange moyen de séduction!’ (an odd gift to offer a female beloved, and a strange means of seduction!).4 In Anne’s case, however, the two things are not incompatible and Pierre’s gift provides important evidence of Anne’s erudition and learning as well as the high esteem in which she was held.

Contextualising the Chaldean Histories

In composing the Antiquities, Annius drew on a variety of pagan and Judaeo-Christian authorities, notably the Chronicle of Jacobus de Voragine in which it was claimed that Italy had been colonised by Noah’s descendants, and the writings of Flavius Josephus in which traces of the original Berosus had been preserved.5 The motivation behind his work was to defend the supremacy of the Roman Church, to promote his own home town of Viterbo and to ‘prove that Greco-Roman consensus about ancient history had been a malicious forgery’.6 Moreover, as Ron E. Asher notes, Annius’s glorification of Italy ‘involved downgrading Greece, Italy’s main rival, and this in turn entailed denying that the civilisation of Western Europe as a whole came from Greece’.7 Despite a series of condemnations from leading commentators, including Erasmus and Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples, which exposed Annius’s work as a forgery, at least nineteen editions of the Antiquities were published between 1498 and 1612.8 Somewhat ironically, Annius’s aim to shift attention away from Greece and onto Italy led to the text becoming extremely popular amongst historiographers outside of the peninsula whose nationalistic interests often involved proving the illustrious Trojan origins



4 5



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8

and where I argue that the manuscript relates specifically to their marriage. The manuscript also includes the date [1]518, which corresponds to that in many of her inherited books but, as set out here, Anne must have acquired it before this date. Montmorand, p. 69. Stephens, ‘From Berossos to Berosus Chaldaeus’, pp. 278–79; see also his ‘Berosus Chaldaeus: Counterfeit and Fictive Editors of the Early Sixteenth Century’, unpublished PhD dissertation, Cornell University, 1979, p. 26. Stephens, ‘From Berossos to Berosus Chaldaeus’, p. 280. See also Anthony Grafton, ‘Invention of Tradition and Traditions of Invention in Renaissance Europe: The Strange Case of Annius of Viterbo’, in The Transmission of Culture in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Anthony Grafton and Ann Blair (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990), pp. 8–36. Ron E. Asher, National Myths in Renaissance France: Francus, Samothes and the Druids (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993), p. 50. On the condemnations and editions, see Stephens, ‘Counterfeit and Fictive Editors’, p. 6 and the list in his bibliography.



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of their own people.9 Walter J. Stephens has argued that the sections of the Antiquities attributed to the Babylonian priest Berosus are the most important because they ‘contain […] genealogies and lists of kings and events from three generations before the flood to the founding of Troy’.10 The Antiquities were particularly successful in France, where several editions were published between 1509 and 1515. The first of these editions reproduced only the ‘ancient’ texts, without Annius’s commentary; it was only in 1512 and 1515 that the full text – essentially a reprint of the editio princeps of 1498 – was published by Josse Bade and Jehan Petit. For modern historians, the most well-known use of the Antiquities was by Jean Lemaire de Belges, who mined the text for his Illustrations de Gaule et Singularitez de Troyes, published in three volumes between 1511 and 1513. Lemaire de Belges had begun his Illustrations while serving as historiographe indiciaire to Margaret of Austria (1480–1530), regent of the Netherlands, to whom he dedicated the first volume in 1511. The Illustrations were originally aimed to demonstrate that the Burgundians were descendants of Noah and the founders of Troy, but when Lemaire de Belges switched allegiance to the French court in 1511 he took his unfinished project with him and, in a clever volte face, dedicated the next two volumes to Claude of France and her mother, Anne of Brittany, in 1512 and 1513, respectively.11 Given that no direct translations of the Antiquities have previously been identified before the mid-sixteenth century (and then these were into Italian), scholars have generally assumed that French readers’ only access to Annius’s text in the vernacular was through the loose translations that Lemaire de Belges incorporated into his Illustrations.12 However, Anne’s manuscript constitutes a separate, earlier and more direct translation of the Antiquities than that circulated in the Illustrations. Allusions in the prologue to the troubles caused by Anne’s marriage to Pierre, which took place in 1507, and the manuscript’s illumination by the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, indicate that it must have been produced between the time of their marriage and 1510, when the artist’s activity is generally assumed to have stopped.13

Asher, pp. 49–50. See also Grafton, p. 15, who notes the appeal of the Antiquities to the Spanish, French, English and Germans. 10 Stephens, ‘Counterfeit and Fictive Editors’, p. 25. 11 On the publication of the three volumes of the Illustrations and the change of court (and ensuing subtle changes in the titles), see Marian Rothstein, ‘Jean Lemaire de Belges’, Illustrations de Gaule et singularitez de Troyes: Politics and Unity’, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 3 (1990), 593–609. On the complicated genesis of the Illustrations, see also Jacques Abélard, Les Illustrations de Gaule et singularitéz de Troye de Jean Lemaire de Belges: Etude des éditions, genèse de l’œuvre (Geneva: Droz, 1976), p. 13. 12 See for example Stephens, ‘Counterfeit and Fictive Editors’ (p. 4 and p. 209), who notes that the Illustrations became ‘the most widely-read “translation” of Annius’ text’, to the point that it ‘nearly eclipsed the original’. 13 This dating is further strengthened by the fact that the translation relies in part on the commentaries present in the 1498 editio princeps that were not printed in France until 1512. 9

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Whereas the translation in Anne’s manuscript is unique, it shares similarities with another translation of parts of Annius’s text and commentaries by Robert Frescher, raising the possibility that he was also responsible for her version. Frescher, who styled himself ‘bachelier formé en théologie’, produced a number of translations and compositions for members of the French court in the early sixteenth century.14 He was depicted by the Master of the Petrarch Triumphs presenting his translation of Darius Phrygius’s account of the destruction of Troy to Louis XII in the frontispiece of a manuscript jointly owned with Anne of Brittany.15 His translations also appear in manuscripts that may have been commissioned by Louise of Savoy for her children: the Songe de Charles, Comte de Taillebourg and Pico della Mirandola’s Livre de la doctrine salutaire for Margaret of Navarre, and Hyngius’s astrological treatise for the future Francis I.16 Frescher is often cited as the ‘translator’ of a copy of Marco Polo’s Devisement du monde, now Paris, Arsenal ms 5219, which some scholars have also associated with Louise.17 This manuscript is well known for its extensive illustrative programme by the Master of the Paris Entries – the same artist responsible for the frontispiece in Anne’s Arsenal copy. However, the association between Frescher and the Devisement is erroneous: as Philippe Ménard has noted, Frescher did not translate a Latin version of Polo’s work into French but ‘quelques textes latins’ (a few Latin texts) that appear at the start The epithet appears in Paris, BnF, ms fr. 9735 and Paris, Arsenal, ms 5219, both discussed below. Fr. 9735, Le livre de Dares de Phrigie de la destruction de Troye; the presentation miniature appears on fol. 1v and the symbols of Anne of Brittany, her cordelière and motto ‘non mudera’, as well as a large, crowned letter A against a background of Breton ermine and the French fleur de lys, on the facing page, fol. 2r. Thanks to Elliot Adam for confirmation of the artist responsible for the miniature. 16 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2444 is dedicated to ‘ma damoyselle d’angoulesme, Marguerite d’orleans’ (fol. 1r). The Songe is headed ‘La noble Marguerite’ and the translation of Pico della Mirandola’s letter to his nephew is dedicated to a ‘princesse’; the coat of arms in the opening initial of the latter is that of Louise of Savoy surrounded by a cordelière: the fact that Margaret is referred to as ‘d’Angoulême’ and ‘d’Orléans’ indicates she had yet to marry. Hyginus’s astrological treatise for Francis I, now Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 237 Blankenburg, includes the dedication ‘pour la recreation de tresnoble et illustre prince Francois de Vallois’ (for the amusement of the very noble and illustrious prince, Francis of Valois); the fact that Francis is referred to as ‘prince de Valois’ means he is yet to become king. 17 The association with Louise is noted by Laurence Harf-Lancner, who mistakenly refers to Arsenal 5169 instead of Arsenal 5219. See her ‘From Alexander to Marco Polo, from Text to Image: The Marvels of India’, in The Medieval French Alexander, ed. by Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox (New York: SUNY, 2012), pp. 235–57 (p. 247). The manuscript is bound in red velvet which may be original, further reinforcing the connection with Louise, who owned volumes bound in ‘cramoysi’. On the bindings, see Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier and Mary Beth Winn, ‘Louise de Savoie, ses livres, sa bibliothèque’, in Louise de Savoie, 1476–1531, ed. by Pascal Brioist, Laure Fagnart and Cédric Michon (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2015), pp. 235–52 (p. 247), although according to Winn, this manuscript is not known to scholars of Louise’s books (private correspondence, 2 December 2019). 14 15



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of the manuscript (fols 1r–8r).18 In fact these texts, in which Frescher names himself as the translator, and which has probably led to the confusion, rely in part on the opening of Annius’s commentary on Berosus and go on to offer a brief history of early Celtic and Gallic kings as told in the works of ancient historians. The author addresses the work to a king of France, stating that he has undertaken the work ‘affin que vostre tresdivin entendement y preigne quelque foy recreation comme bien vous ensuyvez en lectures de gestes enciens des tresmananimes empereurs roys et princes qui devant vous ont regné’ (so that your very divine understanding takes some pleasure therein since you follow, through reading the past deeds of the very magnanimous emperors, kings and princes who have ruled before you).19 It is not evident why this text appears as it does at the start of this manuscript, but the folios on which it is written have the same ruling and appear to be in the same early sixteenth-century hand as the Devisement.20 Given that the Master of the Paris Entries was active c. 1500–20, the king in question must have been either Louis XII, for whom Frescher had produced the Darius Phrygius text, or Francis I, for whom he had prepared Hygnius’s astrological treatise at Louise’s instigation.21 Louise’s association with Frescher and, potentially, the Devisement manuscript might then explain the presence of his prologue in Arsenal 5219, particularly if the king referred to was Francis I. If Frescher were the translator of Anne’s Chaldean Histories, it points to her and her husband’s early links to royal literary circles and, in particular, to Louise of Savoy, for whom she wrote the Rondeaux. Consuelo W. Dutschke has noted that the text of the Devisement in Arsenal 5219 stops in the middle of Chapter 205, a break that is also found in the same redaction inherited by Anne, and in the Stockholm manuscript belonging to Charles V from which that copy was made, raising the possibility that the texts were copied together, or from each other.22 Frescher’s text in the Devisement manuscript begins with a paraphrasing translation of the opening lines of Annius’s commentaries on the Berosus books which is similar to, although not the same as, the translation in Anne’s manuscript, as a couple of examples show. Annius’s Latin text states that Berosus was a native of Babylon and a priest (Berosus fuit patria Babylonicus […]. Fuit ergo sacerdos), which is rendered in Arsenal 5219 as Marco Polo, Le Devisement du Monde, ed. by Philippe Ménard, 6 vols (Geneva: Droz, 2001–09), i, Départ des voyageurs et traversée de la Perse, ed. by Marie-Luce Chênerie, Michèle GuéretLaferté and Philippe Ménard, p. 48. 19 Arsenal 5219, fol. 1v. 20 Frescher’s prologue ends on fol. 8r and fol. 8v is blank. 21 Although there is not the space to pursue this here, a further clue may be found in another manuscript, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5692, which bears the title ‘Les antiquités de Gaule, à present nommée France, extraictes de Berose chaldaique, Manethon egiptian, et Gaguin françoys’ and includes what appears to be an adapted copy of Frescher’s prologue from Arsenal 5219. The manuscript commemorates Francis I’s founding of Le Havre in 1517. 22 Dutschke, p. 394, n. 1. She refers to the chapter divisions established in Benedetto’s edition: Marco Polo, Il Milone, ed. by Luigi Foscolo Benedetto (Florence: Olschki, 1928). See also the discussion in Chapter 1. 18

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‘Berosus […] fut natif de la cité de babilone il estoit presbytre’ and in Anne’s manuscript as ‘Berosus […] fust du pays et nacion de babiloyne […] Et fust le dicte Berosus prestre’.23 Annius also tells us that Berosus was skilled in the Greek language and that he taught astrology at the university of Athens (Calluit item Berosus Graecam linguam: et docuit Athenis disciplinas Chaldaeas precipue Astronomiam): Arsenal 5219 translates this as, ‘en langue grecque fut tresexpert regent en philosophie en l’université d’athenes’ and Anne’s manuscript as ‘Berosus estoit grandement scavant et expert. Non seulement en sa langue caldaique mais en la greque. Et l’eut et enseigna publiquement en l’université d’Athenes les sciences caldaiques et principalement l’astronomye’.24 Finally, both manuscripts also translate Annius’s ‘Dividit autem hunc librum Berosus in quinque libros’ (Berosus also divided this book into five volumes): ‘il a compose ung petit volume divisé en cinque livres’ (Arsenal 5219) and ‘Il a devisé ce present euvre en cinq parties et petis livres’ (Chaldean Histories).25 That Frescher was working directly from the Antiquities is also evident from the fact that he refers to the author a number of times during the text, in one instance as ‘maistre Jehan de Viterbe commentateur dudit Berose’ (master John of Viterbo, commentator of the said Berosus).26 In contrast to Anne’s text, which renders all five of the Berosus books into French – albeit with various embellishments and additions – Arsenal 5219 takes the Antiquities as a starting point, with Frescher developing Berosus’s claims by referring to what ‘Tholomee, Pline, Dydore, Josephe, et autres plusieurs’ (Ptolemy, Pliny, Diodorus, [Flavius] Josephus and many others) have also written about the subject of France.27 Like the Chaldean Histories text, however, Frescher also links the Celts and the Gaules ‘que nous appellons francois’ (whom we call French) back to Noah and his descendants, and he emphasises the ancient origins of several French cities, including Rouen, Lyon and Paris. This little text by Frescher, overlooked because not adequately catalogued, constitutes another important witness to the circulation of Annius’s Antiquities in early sixteenth-century France and its role in the concept of translatio studii. The following section explores 25 26 27 23 24

Antiquitatum, p. 222; Arsenal 5219, fol. 1r; LAD 2014.029, fol. 6r. Antiquitatum, p. 223; Arsenal 5219, fol. 1r; LAD 2014.029, fol. 7r. Antiquitatum, p. 223; Arsenal 5219, fol. 1r; LAD 2014.029, fol. 7v. Arsenal 5219, fol. 7r. Arsenal 5219, fol. 1v: ‘A ceste cause sire d’autant qu’il n’a point obmis a parler du royaume de France comme vous pourrez ouyr par lettre de ce present livre en poursuivant ce que le dit Berose et depuis luy maintes en ont escript iusques a Francus dont sont ditz les francoys j’en ay fait ung extraict en adjoustant ce que Tholomee, Pline, Dydore, Josephe et autres plusieurs ont escript sur ceste matiere ce que j’ay fait affin que plus facillement par aide de tesmoins on adiouste foy a ce qu’ilz en ont escript’ (For this reason, sire, in so much as he has not omitted to speak of the kingdom of France as you can clearly hear in the present book by following what Berosus and many after him have written about it up until Francus who gave his name to the French, I have made an extract by adjusting what Ptolemy, Pliny, Diodorus, [Flavius] Josephus and others have written on this matter which I have done so that more easily with the aid of witnesses one can trust what they have written about it).



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the text of Anne’s manuscript in more detail and the possibility that Frescher was the translator, a fact which would bring her even closer to the immediate royal circle for whom Frescher was working.

The Chaldean Histories as a Gift

That Anne was the intended recipient of the Chaldean Histories is not in doubt. Her portrait is accompanied by the Graville arms in the bas-de-page, the anagram of her name floats about her head and large initial As surrounded by the mottos à autre non, à non plus and à amour decorate the opposite folio. Here the prologue begins, offering ‘salut et honneur’ (greetings and honour) to Anne de Graville (fig. 7). Neither Pierre nor the translator is ever named, but the first-person voice of the prologue frequently blends references to love for Anne with the task of translating the text, such that the work appears to have been done by the person offering the book.28 The prologue continues by praising Anne’s virtue and explaining that the reasons for the work’s genesis were to offer her some pleasure and relief at a difficult time: A ceste cause Mademoiselle Pour ce que vous estes pleine de bon et gentil esprit remplye de vertuz et de toutes celles que j’ay veu la plus [fol. 5r] des plus en toutes bonnes choses louables parfaicte et acomplye qui prenez plaisir et delectation en tout ce en quoy les gens de bonne sorte doibvent faire. Aussi pour ce que contre toute raison divine naturele et humaine l’en vous donne du deul ennuy et tribulation beaucoup et sans cause afin de donner à vos yeulx un peu de recreation et soulager vostre cueur par doulce consolation, j’ay bien voulu prendre un peu de pene qui m’a esté grand plaisir à reduyre ceste presente hystoire Berosyene nouvellement de langue Caldayque en latine translatée et l’escripre en langue vulgaire pour honneur et amour de vous.29 For this reason, Mademoiselle, because you are full of kind and gentle spirit, the most virtuous of all those women I know, and in all good commendable things perfect and accomplished, who takes pleasure and delight in all things that people of a good nature should do; and also because against all divine, natural and human reason you are being made to suffer a great deal and without cause, in order to give your eyes some respite and to relieve your heart through gentle solace, I wished to take a little trouble, which was a great pleasure to me, to redact this present Berosian history, newly translated from the Caldean language into Latin, and to write it in the vernacular out of love and honour for you.

The ‘deul ennui et tribulation beaucoup et sans cause’ refers to the problems Anne encountered as result of her marriage to Pierre de Balsac, in particular her subsequent disinheritance.30 Moreover, the prologue goes on to state that when the author-translator I distinguish, however, between the work of the author-translator (in the construction of the text) and Pierre (as the person offering the book to Anne). 29 LAD 2014.029, fol. 5r. 30 L’Estrange, ‘“Un étrange moyen de séduction”’. 28

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began his task, the book being translated actually requested that the work be dedicated to Anne. Any doubts in the translator’s mind about the quality of his work or the suitability of his efforts were quickly overridden by Love: Et si toust qu’ay commencé a mectre la main à l’euvre, le livre qui devant moi estoit c’est [sic] grandement humilié et en faisant une humble requeste m’a trèsfort pryé que je le voulusse à vous du tout vouher et dedyer comme a celle a qui il est dheu et apartient par excellence toutes gentillez et meilleurs choses. Combien que celle cy ne soit telle ne digne d’estre par vous estimée. Neantmoins, Amour qui est conducteur de l’ouvrage, souverain gouverneur des cueurs humains, a pris la dicte request et de sa propre main ainsi qu’on fait es supplications Romaines ha mis fiat c’est a dire soit faict dont ay esté tresjoyeux.31 And as soon as I began to turn my hand to the work, the book that was in front of me humbled itself and making a humble request begged me hard that I would devote this book to you and dedicate it to you, as to her to whom is due and belongs par excellence all the nicest and best things. However much this work is not fit for presentation nor worthy of your appreciation, nevertheless, Love who is the driving force behind this work, supreme governor of human hearts, took this request into his own hands, in the same way that the Romans used to supplicate, put fiat, that is to say, let it be done, for which I was very happy.

The author-translator’s emphasis on the book’s desire to be dedicated to Anne, and the role of Love in making this happen, displaces attention away from the translator to Anne herself. This displacement was given visual expression in the frontispiece, where a hand holding the book descends from a cloud, guided by Cupid, to give it to Anne. The epilogue further reinforces the part played by Love in the creation of this ‘livre d’amour’, with the author-translator playing down his own achievement and inviting Anne to correct the language used, should she find it inelegant or crude: Je fais fin à ce present oeuvre le quel combien qu’il soit brief et petit si est il de grant poix et consequence. Et ne l’eusse jamais entrepris ne pris la peine de le coucher en langue vulgaire et maternelle car je m’en scay tresmal ayder si ce n’euste esté amour qui est vaincqueur de toutes choses lequel m’a commandé ainsi le faire, pour l’honneur de vous ma damoiselle à qui je suis du tout voué pour vos nobles et grandes vertus incomparables. Et si le lengaige est rude et mal aourné vostre bon plaisir sera le corriger et y employer du vostre, qui est sur tous doulx benign et gracieulx. En vous suppliant humblement que veuilliez le petit present prendre pour agreable, et ne consideres pas la petitesse ou peu de valeur du don mais le bon et parfait couraige cordial et entier vouloir de celuy qui le vous offre comme a celle a qui du tout il est et veult demourer pour jamais et a aultre non voustre humble et obeissant. Cy finit le livre d’amour le quel a voulu estre ainsy nommé parce que amour ha induyt l’acteur et commandé le faire.32 LAD 2014.029, fols 5v–6r. LAD 2014.029, fols 77r–v.

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I end this present work which, however short and small it be, carries great weight and consequence. And I would never have undertaken it, nor taken the trouble of couching it in the vernacular and the mother tongue, because I know little about getting help with these things, if it had not been for Love, who is the conqueror of all things who ordered me to do it in this way, for the honour of you, my lady, to whom I am totally devoted because of your noble and great incomparable virtues. And if the language is rough and lacking in elegance, your pleasure will be in correcting it and using your own, which above all others’ is sweet, gentle and gracious. Humbly beseeching you that you will find this little gift agreeable. And do not consider the small size or value of the gift, but the good and perfect friendly intention and total desire of he who offers it to you, as to the one to whom he wished to remain above all for ever and to none other your humble and obedient subject. Here ends the book of love which wished to be named as such because love inspired the author and ordered him to make it.

Comparing some of the phrases of the prologue and epilogue with the work by Frescher in Arsenal 5219 reveals similarities that point to Frescher as the translator of Anne’s text. For example, giving his reasons for the undertaking of the work, Frescher refers to the king’s own writings as ‘doulz et begnin’ (sweet and kind), the same words used to describe Anne de Graville’s language. He also begs the king to find ‘l’euvre aggreable’ (the work enjoyable), which is similar to the author-translator’s plea to find ‘le petit present […] agreable’. Frescher also hopes that the king will take some pleasure (‘recreation’) in the book, just as the author of Anne’s prologue wishes to ‘donner a ses yeulx un peu de recreation’ (offer her eyes some respite).33 A further point of comparison can be found in Frescher’s prologue to the Songe de Charles, Comte de Taillebourg dedicated to Margaret of Navarre where he refers to ‘mon rude langaige et mal aorné’, the same adjectives used by the translator to describe his language in the Chaldean Histories’ prologue.34 In addition to the linguistic similarities of the paratexts and their common source, further connections between the two manuscripts can be observed in the references to older authorities, a technique much employed by medieval writers to bolster their own claims to authority. In the Arsenal manuscript, Frescher cites additional authors, such as Diodorus, as a means of strengthening the claims of Berosus regarding the links between the French monarchy and ancient rulers. Within the first few lines of the Chaldean Histories’ prologue, both Valerius Maximus and Aristotle are referred to in the context of a discussion of virtue and honour.35 The citing of these authors is, on the one hand, a demonstration of the author-translator’s own learning, one that draws a parallel with Annius, who also refers Arsenal 5219, fol. 1v. Fr. 2444, fol. 2r. Later in the same manuscript, in his translation of Pico della Mirandola, Frescher asks the reader to ‘Par donner a ma rude plume et mal cultivée et a mon par trop rude bucolic et rural langaige’ (fol. 26r). 35 LAD 2014.029, fols 3v–4r; the first reference is to Valerius Maximus and his description, in the Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX, of the adjoining temples of Honour and Virtue in Rome, in which the throne of Honour cannot be achieved without passing first through the 33 34

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to ancient authors; on the other hand, considering the personal nature of the manuscript and translation, these references also presuppose Anne’s broader literary knowledge and reading skills. In fact, the prologue goes on to indicate that it is not possible to understand life and society unless it is through the truthful retellings of ancient stories and chronicles.36 As the study of her library has already shown, Anne was familiar with a variety of chronicles and histories and their reworkings: she may have known the work of Valerius Maximus directly, since both a manuscript and a printed copy were in the d’Urfé library and, although she did not inherit it, she surely knew her father’s copy of Aristotle’s Politiques et Economiques.37 After explaining the genesis of the work and the influence of Love, the author of the prologue segues almost seamlessly, at the words ‘Berosus acteur’, into a translation of Annius’s commentaries, rendering into French the more concise Latin: ‘Berosus fuit patria Babylonicus: et dignitate Chaldaeus: ut Iosephus contra appionem grammaticum: & in primo de Antiquitate Iudaica significat. Fuit ergo sacerdos: […]’:38 Et en obtemperant et obeyssant a luy je vous en fait don et present, mais pour bien entendre la matiere et qui en elle est contenu il est a noter et scavoir que Berosus acteur de ce livre fust du pays et nacion de babiloyne et de dignite Caldayque ainsi que racompte Iosephus Ancien historiograffe hebraique en un livre qu’il a compousé encontre un orateur appellé Appion ou premier livre de l’antiqueté judaique. Et fust le dicte Berosus prestre.39 And in submitting to and obeying him [Love], I make you a gift of this book, but in order to properly understand the matter that is contained in it, it is worth noting and knowing that Berosus, the author of this book, was from the country and nation of Babylon and held the title of Chaldean, as told by [Flavius] Josephus, ancient Hebrew historiographer, in a book which he wrote about an orator called Appion, in the first book of Jewish Antiquity. And this Berosus was a priest.

With this shift to the translation of the Antiquities itself comes mention of another ancient author, Flavius Josephus, whose Antiquitates Judaicae Annius cites as a source of his information on Berosus. In late medieval France, the Antiquitates Judaicae circulated both in the Latin version translated from the Greek and in an anonymous French translation



36



37



38 39

temple of Virtue; the second reference is to Aristotle, who is said to share the same view in his Ethics. LAD 2014.029, fols 4r–v: ‘il est ainsi que l’en ne peut plus clerement ou facilement congnoistre et entendre la vie et conversacion de tous humains que par les croniques et anciennes hystoires esqueles sont descripts et racomptez veritablement’. L1, no. 23: ‘Valerius Maximus traduit en françois, manuscript en vélin, enrichy de figures, datté de l’an 1401’; and L1, no. 62: ‘Valère le Grand, traduction Françoise, imprimé, en vélin’. The latter is likely Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Inc. 288 (LV, iii, no. 5657); Chantilly, ms 279, Politiques et Economiques. Antiquitatum, p. 222. LAD 2014.029, fol. 6r.



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made during the reign of Charles V.40 It was also used by Lemaire de Belges in his Illustrations, and in 1534 a French translation, the Antiquitiés juives by Guillaume Michel, was published, and a copy entered the d’Urfé library.41 Whereas it cannot be proved that this particular volume was owned by Anne, her acquisition of Virgil’s Georgics by this prolific translator of Latin works may also point to the formative influence of the Chaldean Histories in the development of her interest in ancient literature, translations and remaniements. Both the prologue and the epilogue of the Chaldean Histories reveal that early in her life Anne was already developing a reputation in the literary field. The prologue’s reference to her language skills looks forward not only to the works she would write for Queen Claude and Louise of Savoy but also to the praise she would receive from Geoffroy Tory in his Champfleury. More than simply a love token from Pierre to his wife, the manuscript was a means to encourage, valorise and shape Anne’s literary interests and reputation. Turning in more detail to the material translated in the Chaldean Histories – the story of Noah and his descendants and the history of Troy, inflected to promote the French nation – it becomes evident that, through this book, Anne was also participating in the contemporary creation of narratives about the founding of France that were close to the monarchy’s heart.

French Nationhood

By the early sixteenth century, the Trojan origins of the French people and its monarchy had been well established, particularly through texts like the Roman de Troie and the Grandes chroniques de France which had been used to legitimise Capetian claims to power.42 These origins were consolidated in works like Lemaire de Belges’ Illustrations which helped to promote the country’s superiority and justify French campaigns to claim territories on the Italian peninsula.43 Moreover, as is discussed further in Chapter 3, Italian art and literature, which had made their way back to France as spoils from these campaigns, were A second French translation was produced by Guillaume Coquillart in the latter half of the fifteenth century. See Guy N. Deutsch, Iconographie de l’Illustration de Flavius Joséphe au temps de Jean Fouquet (Leiden: Brill, 1986), pp. 16–17. 41 L1, no. 4: ‘Josèphe de l’Antiquité des Juifs et du Martire des Macabées, en vélin, enrichy de figures, imprimé à Paris le 15 avril l’an 1534’. This edition was published by Nicolas Cousteau for Galliot du Pré. 42 See Elizabeth Morrison, ‘Linking Ancient Troy and Medieval France: Illuminations of an Early Copy of the Roman de Troie’, in Medieval Manuscripts, their Makers and Users: A Special Issue of Viator in Honor of Richard and Mary Rouse (Turnhout: Brepols, 2011), pp. 77–102 (pp. 77–78); and Colette Beaune, ‘The Political Uses of The Trojan Myth’, in her The Birth of an Ideology: Myths and Symbols of Nation in Late-Medieval France, trans. by Susan Huston (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), pp. 226–44. Although increased study of ancient Greek and Roman texts eventually led, in the mid-sixteenth century, to scepticism about the Trojan myths, the late 1400s and early 1500s continued to see the production of texts that traced France’s origins back to the Trojans and Noah. A useful discussion of the complex situation is found in Asher, pp. 9–43. 43 Stephens notes that ‘Lemaire succeeds […] in transforming Gaul into the first postdiluvian home of the arts and letters in Europe’; see ‘Counterfeit and Fictive Editors’, p. 233. 40

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also being appropriated by French patrons, artists and authors. Although Anne’s personal manuscript was a very different project to the widely circulated Illustrations, it too participated in the proliferation of narratives about France’s illustrious past and its superiority to Italy through the subtle additions and alterations that the translator brought to the text. The inflection of Anne’s text towards France can be seen, for instance, where, having followed the Latin description of the subjects of the five books that will follow the preface, the translator adds the following passage: Et l’on pourra en ceste petite hystoire veritablement congnoistre et parcevoir que en France plus de mille ans devant noustre Faranundus [sic] que nous estimons premier Roy des françoys en y a eu plusieurs autres desquelz le premier fust Samotes fils de Jafet fils de l’ancien père Noa et aussy pareillement en aultres Royaulmes et nacions comme l’on verra.44 And in this little story one will truly learn and perceive that in France more than one thousand years before our Pharamond whom we believe to be the first king of the French there were several others of whom the first was Samotes, son of Japhet, son of the ancient father Noah and also it was the same in other kingdoms and nations as we shall see.

With this addition, the book becomes a place in which the ancestry of the French can be traced back beyond the first presumed king of the Franks, Pharamond, to Noah himself. As it continues, the prologue deviates even further from the Latin, summarising events relating to writers and characters not mentioned in Annius’s prologue, including Ovid, Helen of Troy and Hercules.45 Yet, the French translator is still careful to render Annius’s criticism of Graecia mendax (lying or treacherous Greece), for which his text became notorious: Et l’autre Hercules fut appellé Alceus filz de Amphitroron et Alemena. Au quel la nation grecque ha apliqé et atribué toutes les belles et anciennes proessez et chevalereuses entreprises en leur mensongieres et fabuleuses histoires es queles ils ont si doulcement et armonieusement chanté par fictions poetiques qu’ils on [sic] voulu exalter agrandir acroistre et magnifier seulement leur nom et ceulx de leur gent et nation pour dimynuer abolyr aneantir et extaindre l’inextimable et incomparable magnificence et magnanimité des autres.46 And the other Hercules was called Alceus, son of Amphitroron and Alemena; to whom the Greek nation has applied and attributed all the wonderful and ancient skills and knightly feats that he undertook, through their lies and fabulous stories in which they have so beautifully and harmoniously sung through poetic fictions in order to glorify, LAD 2014.029, fol. 8r. For example, on fols 8v–9r the translator mentions the work of Xenophon and his description of five floods, including the one during which ‘la belle Helene grecque fut par Parys troyen ravye’ (the beautiful Greek, Helen, was abducted by Paris the Trojan). 46 LAD 2014.029, fols 9v–10r. 44 45



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extend, heighten and idealise their name alone, and that of their people and their nation, in order to diminish, abolish, destroy and extinguish the inestimable and incomparable magnificence and magnanimity of other [nations].

This paragraph generously expands the short Latin phrase in Annius’s prologue, ‘Et tamen Graecia mendax audet eam in historia quasi inundationem terrarum fingere’ (And yet, treacherous Greece dares to claim falsely that she [was as important] in history as the Flood), thereby emphasising the way in which the Greeks, through lies and legends, wished to ‘glorify, extend, heighten and idealise’ their own people and nation at the expense of others.47 Marginal notes in the manuscript flag up references to kings of the ‘francoys’ or ‘gaules’. For instance on fol. 34r the main text reads: ‘Et peu apres Samotes qui estoit surnomme Diz fonda les Celtes qu’on appelle les Gaules. Et a present francoys, Et en son temps ne fut plus saige Roy meilleur ne plus iuste prince que luy’ (And soon after Samothes who was known as Diz founded the Celts who are called the Gaules. And now known as the French. And during his time there was no wiser or more just prince that him). In the margin there is the note: ‘Samotes premier Roy de France’. Thus, not only does the French translation qualify that the Celts whose nation Samothes founded were also ‘Gaules’ and (nowadays) ‘French’, but the marginal note makes sure that the reader can navigate to such references easily. The manuscript of the Chaldean Histories prepared for Anne de Graville thus constitutes an important intervention in discourses of French nationhood so popular with the monarchy in the early sixteenth century, one in which Anne is clearly implicated by the references to her in both text and image. As an overlooked translation, perhaps by Frescher, of part of Annius’s Antiquities, otherwise known in French only through Lemaire de Belges’ Illustrations, it helps to contextualise and resituate both texts. The last section of this chapter looks in more detail at the opening miniature in order to explore how the Chaldean Histories situated Anne in relation to the French court in other ways.

The Chaldean Histories’ Frontispiece: Anne de Graville and the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse

The artist of the frontispiece, the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse (fl. Paris 149?–c. 1510), was a close collaborator of the leading Parisian artist Jean Pichore (fl. 1490–1521), to whom the Chaldean Histories miniature was long attributed.48 The Master’s style is characterised by figures with heavily drawn eyebrows, eyes that appear half closed, small, Antiquitatum, p. 223. See the description of his work given by François Avril and Nicole Reynaud in Manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440–1520 (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1993), pp. 274–77. The Chaldean Histories miniature was identified in the 2006 Christie’s sale notice and the Les Enluminures catalogue as being by Jean Pichore; see Flowering of Medieval French Literature: Au parler que m’aprist ma mère, ed. by Ariane Bergeron-Foote and Sandra Hindman (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014), p. 180. Since then, François Avril and Isabelle Delaunay (personal correspondence,

47 48

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plump red lips and fine pink tones on the cheeks. His work often appears to have been rapidly executed with loose or watercolour-esque modelling and gold highlighting. Such traits are evident in the Chaldean Histories manuscript, where the faces of the women behind Anne and even Anne herself have the characteristic eyes, mouth and peachy cheeks; the area around Anne’s right hand shows evidence of some indecision over, or sketchy approach to, this part of the painting, and the folds of the figures’ clothes and their jewellery have rapid gold highlights (fig. 7). The artist’s work is found in both manuscripts and luxury printed books, often of a rare or secular nature, produced for members of the French court. The presence of his work in the Chaldean Histories is therefore entirely consistent with the rest of his output and also serves to date the work to 1510 at the latest.49 He illuminated for instance a copy of Vérard’s 1494 edition of Premierfait’s translation of Boccaccio’s Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes for Charles VIII, and provided a miniature in the first volume of Louis de Graville’s Fleur des Histoires.50 He also illuminated the frontispiece of Les espistres de sainct Pol glosées printed by Vérard for Louise of Savoy (c. 1508), and seven miniatures in the Louenges de Nostre Dame, a manuscript produced by Vérard also for Louise.51 With Pichore, he illuminated a copy of Lactantius’s Institutiones divinae for Cardinal Georges d’Amboise around 1500, and a few years later, again with Pichore and with Robert Boyvin, he worked on the cardinal’s copy of Flavius Josephus’ Antiquitates Judaicae.52 He also illuminated a number of works made for, or in the circle of, Anne of Brittany, including the only copy of André de la Vigne’s, Le sacre et l’entrée de la royne a Paris,53 as well as an Histoire de la Toison d’or, and the selective copy of the Heroides now in the Getty Museum and discussed in more detail below.54 Pierre de Balsac’s decision to have the Chaldean Histories illuminated by the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse was therefore an astute choice and shows that, even

24 October 2014) have confirmed to me their opinion that the miniature is by the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse. 49 The script employed in the manuscript is a rounded humanistic book hand of the sort that is often found in later manuscripts. However, there are precedents for this script in earlier works, including those commissioned by Georges d’Amboise, such as his copy of Josephus’s Antiquitates Judaicae, also illuminated by the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse: Paris, Bibliothèque de la Mazarine, ms 1581. 50 Boccaccio, Des nobles malheureux (Paris: Vérard, 1494), now Paris, BnF, Vélins 774; see Winn, Antoine Vérard, p. 239; Jean Mansel, La Fleur des Histoires, Besançon, BM, mss 851–52, illuminated in collaboration with the Master of Jacques de Besançon. 51 Les espistres de sainct Pol glosées (Paris: Vérard, c. 1508) now, Paris, BnF, Vélins 124; the Louenges a Nostre Dame (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2225), was based on texts that Vérard had already printed. 52 Lactantius, Institutiones divinae, Paris, BnF, ms lat. 1671; and Mazarine, 1581 (see n. 49 above). 53 Aylesbury, Waddesdon Manor, MS 22. 54 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 138; Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, MS 121 (2021.7), formerly known as the Breslauer manuscript.



Reconstructing Anne de Graville’s Library 71

before she wrote her surviving works for Claude and Louise, Anne de Graville was being presented within a visual schema that closely associated her with that of other women at the French court at the turn of the sixteenth century. In the Chaldean Histories frontispiece, Anne de Graville, as well as the women behind her, are shown wearing a style of dress and headdress that recalls the Breton fashion introduced by Anne of Brittany: the queen was frequently depicted in this dress, as in the frontispiece of the Voyage de Gênes (fig. 3). As Cynthia J. Brown has shown, the crowned woman wearing a deep red dress and a black headdress in the Getty manuscript is also likely to be Anne of Brittany (fig. 13).55 This luxurious manuscript contains an early version of five of Saint-Gelais’s translations of Ovid’s Heroides, as well as three other poems also attributed to him.56 The first of these is an epitaph on the death of one Madame de Balsac – Anne de Graville’s aunt, Marie de Montberon (d. 1492) – who is praised for her beauty and for being ‘the paragon of France’.57 This is followed by the Arrest de la louange de la dame sans sy concerning the ‘the legal judgment about the unique beauty of the so-called Dame sans sy [the Lady without peer]’ and an Appel against this judgment ‘by the ladies in Anne of Brittany’s entourage’.58 The Epitaphe de feue madame de Balsac is not explicitly related to the Arret and Appel that it accompanies, but Brown ventures that Madame de Balsac ‘could be the one and the same as the Dame sans sy’.59 Although it is not certain that Anne de Graville knew the Getty manuscript, it is highly likely that she knew of the texts, since the epitaph on her aunt, together with the Arrest and the Appel, circulated outside of this particular volume in both manuscript and print. They are reproduced, for instance, in a manuscript bound with a printed edition of Le Chevalier délibéré, and they Brown, The Queen’s Library, p. 185 and also her earlier article, ‘Celebration and Controversy at a Late Medieval French Court: A Poetic Anthology for and about Anne of Brittany and her Female Entourage’, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 72 (2010), 541–73. 56 As Brown notes (The Queen’s Library, pp. 185–90), the five epistles included in this manuscript must presumably be an earlier version of the translation of twenty-one epistles offered to Charles VIII around 1497. Although there is no concrete evidence that this miniature represents Anne of Brittany, the aspects of the portrait and the contents of the volume certainly suggest that Anne would have been a worthy recipient. 57 Brown, The Queen’s Library, p. 187. Marie de Montberon was the wife of Geoffroy de Balsac. Henri Lamarque in his article ‘Autour d’Anne de Graville: Le Débat de la “Dame sans sy” et l’épitaphe de la poétesse’, Mélanges sur la littérature de la Renaissance à la mémoire de V.-L. Saulnier, special edition of Travaux d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 202 (1984), 603–11, assumed that this Madame de Balsac was Anne de Graville herself. However, others, including Eugénie Droz (as early as 1918) and Brown (The Queen’s Library, p. 186), have shown that this is not possible based on the dates. See Eugénie Droz, ‘Notice d’un manuscrit ignoré de la Bibliothèque nationale’, Romania, 45 (1918–1919), 503–13. 58 These ladies were Jeanne Chabot, dame de Montsoreau, Blanche de Montberon (sister of the deceased Marie), and Françoise de Talaru. These women seem to mirror the three ladies who warn Chartier of the accusation against him in the first of the querelle de la BDSM texts: see Chapter 6. 59 Brown, The Queen’s Library, p. 187 and n. 19. 55

Fig. 13. Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, Anne of Brittany enthroned, Ovid, Excerpts from the Heroides, translated by Octovien de Saint-Gelais, and letters, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, MS 121 (2021.7), fol. 55r, c. 1493 (public domain).

Fig. 14. Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, Anne of Brittany and the Virtues, Guillaume Filastre, Histoire de la Toison d’Or, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 138, fol. 1v, c. 1490–1500 (© Paris, BnF).

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were also printed alongside the five Heroides in an undated edition.60 Moreover, as Brown has noted, the topic of the arrêt and appel of the Dame sans sy poems ‘resonate with the […] literary trial associated with Alain Chartier’s Belle Dame sans mercy’, the text which Anne herself would rework and present to Louise of Savoy, who also had a predilection for Saint-Gelais’s text.61 Another manuscript illuminated by the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, Guillaume Filastre’s Histoire de la Toison d’or, provides a further comparison with Anne de Graville’s Chaldean Histories (fig. 14). This manuscript depicts a woman, who closely resembles other portraits of Anne of Brittany, opposite a series of personified, female virtues.62 Around the frame are the cordelière and the letters A and S, which some scholars have suggested are references to Anne and Charles VIII, who used the symbol of the closed ‘S’ or fermesse.63 In the bas-de-page, there is the motto ‘A se me rends pour jamais A’, which Brown interprets in two ways. First, as ‘To this one I render myself forever’, it ‘verbally translates the visual allegory’ of the miniature in which the queen ‘consciously embraces and embodies divinely inspired virtuous behaviour personified through the female agents across from her’; and, second, as ‘To S (that is, Charles VIII), A (that is, Anne) gives herself forever’. Similarities between the Toison d’Or portrait and that in the Chaldean Histories are striking: like Anne of Brittany, Anne de Graville wears a red dress complete with black and gold trim around the neck and a black headdress. Both women hold up their right hand and, in the top left-hand side of the Toison d’Or miniature, a disembodied hand supported by cupid-like figures emerges from a blue cloud that parallels the hand presenting the book to Anne de Graville in the Chaldean Histories frontispiece. Scrolls and mottos are also present in both miniatures: in the Toison d’Or manuscript banderols are used to name the Virtues and the disembodied hand holds a scroll stating ‘Dieu le arra a garans’ (God will have it as a guarantee); a blue banderol floats up from close to Anne of Brittany’s hand with the words ‘O c’est la bonne fin’ (Oh ’tis the right end).64 In the Chaldean Histories banderols with ‘amour’ and ‘non plus’ flutter around the hand offering the book and another with Anne’s motto flies above her head. The play on words, especially on the letter A, in Anne de Graville’s manuscript recalls the pun noted by Brown in the Toison d’or motto. Le Chevalier délibéré is Paris, BnF, Vélins 2231; the Louange appears alone in Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2206, fol. 195v which is, interestingly, a collection of poems in praise of the Virgin and other works by poets including Guillaume Alexis, Clément Marot and Alain Chartier (Bréviaire des nobles); see Droz, p. 509. The printed edition of the Heroides as well as the three poems is Le recueil des espistres d’Ovide translaté en françoys o vray, ligne pour ligne, faisans mencion de cinq loyalles amoureuses … Paris, BnF, Réserve Yc 1567 ([no place]: [no publisher], [no date]). 61 Brown, The Queen’s Library, p. 187. 62 Brown, The Queen’s Library, p. 17. 63 Fr. 138. There is a lack of consensus amongst scholars as to whether this manuscript was made for Anne of Brittany or not. Here I follow Brown, who links it with Anne of Brittany (The Queen’s Library, pp. 15–18 and nn. 1–3). In Manuscrits à peintures (p. 276), Avril states that the manuscript was, rather, intended for a member of the Baraton family from the Anjou region. 64 Brown, The Queen’s Library, p. 18. 60



Reconstructing Anne de Graville’s Library 75

According to Brown, this image of Anne of Brittany ‘directly honors the French queen as a purveyor of multiple virtues’ and, whether she was closely involved in the production of this image of herself or not, ‘it is clear that the queen, her husband, and/or someone else in her entourage understood the importance of depicting Anne’s association with virtues in verbal and visual form’.65 Those involved in the production of the Chaldean Histories – the author-translator, Pierre de Balsac, and the artist – similarly paid close attention to the depiction of Anne de Graville: the opening discussion of virtue that cites Valerius Maximus and Aristotle segues into a description of Anne as ‘pleine de bon et gentil esprit, remplye de vertuz’ (full of good and gentle spirit, filled with virtues) and the frontispiece itself is used as an opportunity to place Anne de Graville centre stage. She is accompanied by an entourage in which women have a prominent place, perhaps a nod at the support which she attracted from others despite – or even during – her elopement or a suggestion that she was forming her own court. She is, nevertheless, shown with her back to these figures as she alone reaches up to take the divinely inspired book. Combined with the dedicatory prologue and epilogue, and the mottos that play on her name, this miniature indicates both the esteem in which Pierre held Anne and the early (self-)fashioning of her image, which would continue in her copy of Petrarch’s Triumphs. In contrast to many presentation miniatures, where there is a potential vying for dominance over who is actually being promoted, the Chaldean Histories frontispiece – like the text that follows – avoids any direct reference to the creator of the work. Instead, the emphasis falls squarely on Anne, her lineage indicated by the Graville-only arms in the bas-de-page, as the recipient, inspiration and, most importantly, the reader of this timely, French-centred translation.

65

Brown, The Queen’s Library, p. 18.

3 The Rouen Connection: The Puy, Poetry and Petrarch The Norman city of Rouen occupied an important place in Anne de Graville’s life and that of her family, who could trace their origins in the region back to the time of William the Conqueror.1 As shown in Chapter 1, Anne acquired the family house at Ambourville, a dozen or so miles from Rouen, in 1520, allowing her the opportunity to easily spend time in the area.2 Many of the books – both new and second hand – that Anne added to her collection in the 1520s were acquired in the city. Her presence and interest in the region are also witnessed by her involvement in the proceedings taken out by her nephew, Louis de Vendôme, seigneur de Graville and vidame de Chartres, against the vice-admiral, Guyon Le Roy, concerning the illegal acquisition of Graville land in the founding and building of the port of Le Havre in 1517.3 In 1523 Anne was recorded as having gifted an expensive cloth to the Rouen cathedral of Notre-Dame, and in 1525 the cathedral chapter returned to her a ‘livre de chroniques’ belonging to Louis de Graville that was amongst the belongings of the deceased canon Pierre Mesenge, treasurer of Cardinal Georges d’Amboise, Rouen’s archbishop.4 For an overview of the Graville family in Normandy and in particular Louis de Graville’s patronage and projects in the region, see Deldicque, ‘De grands mécènes à la renaissance en Normandie et à Rouen autour de 1500: Les Malet de Graville’, in La Renaissance à Rouen: L’essor artistique et culturel dans la Normandie des décennies 1480–1530, ed. by Sandra Provini, Xavier Bonner and Gérard Milhe Poutingon (Rouen: Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre, 2019), pp. 63–77. Louis had invested heavily in his Norman territories in the late fifteenth century, restoring residences like the manor at Ambourville and contributing to religious projects in the city. He financed the building of a chapel in the convent church of the Célestins, the restoration of which had been finished under the patronage of Cardinal Georges d’Amboise, and placed there a stained glass showing him, his wife Marie de Balsac and their children. The church and the chapel now no longer exist but the stained glass was recorded by Gaignières (Paris, BnF, Estampes, Pe 8, fols 27–28); he also donated liturgical ornaments and a bell to the cathedral of Rouen. Louis’s role as admiral, as captain of Saint-Malo, Dieppe and Honfleur and as governor of Normandy brought him financial benefits that anchored him politically in the region, too. 2 Deldicque, ‘La Passion’, p. 115. 3 The case was resolved in 1524 by the Rouen parlement, which ruled largely in Louis’s favour. See Stephano de Merval, Documents relatifs à la foundation du Havre (Rouen: Métérie, 1875), pp. vii–viii; 291–92; 352–54. 4 See Beaurepaire, ii: G 2151 (1521–23): ‘5 juin, don par la demoiselle d’Entragues d’un drap de grand prix’ and G 2152 (1523–27): ‘dernier novembre, on rend à la demoiselle d’Entragues un 1



The Rouen Connection: The Puy, Poetry and Petrarch 77

This chapter begins by exploring the importance of Rouen as it developed in the early sixteenth century, in particular under Georges d’Amboise, and the interest in poetic prowess, the triumph and translatio studii that emerged in its cultural and religious milieus. It then turns to three manuscripts belonging to Anne and one containing her rondeau ‘Pour le meilleur’ that offer evidence of her close connections both to Rouen and to Normandy more generally. These sources reveal that Anne not only participated in, but was seen by others as a member of, one of the most important centres of cultural activity in late medieval and early modern France. The manuscripts also show how Anne’s reputation and self-fashioning continued to develop, from that given visual and verbal expression in the Chaldean Histories offered to her around a decade earlier, to the visually rich Triumphs of Petrarch which promoted her identity through symbols, mottos and heraldry. Whereas many of the extant items from Anne’s library show her evident penchant for older works of French literature like chansons de geste, the manuscripts studied here show her familiarity with contemporary themes and practices employed by early sixteenth-century poets and translators like Jean and Clément Marot and Jacques Le Lieur (c. 1480–1550), offering an important context for situating Anne’s own works in Chapters 5 and 6.

Rouen at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century

In the early decades of the fifteenth century, the Normandy region had been in turmoil, with its capital, Rouen, under English control for some thirty years of the Hundred Years’ War. It was also in Rouen, in 1431, that the English had Joan of Arc burned at the stake. Although the city was recaptured by Charles VII in 1449, in 1465 as a result of the Ligue du Bien public his successor, Louis XI, was forced to hand the duchy over to his younger brother, Charles de Valois, who was in an alliance with the king’s feudal opponents. Louis XI took back control in 1469 and the city began to grow in political and cultural importance, emerging in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century to become one of France’s most populous cities, with important trade links to the New World.5 Between 1499 and 1515, the old ducal exchequer was transformed ‘into a permanent royal parlement court of appeal for Normandy […] which would maintain a distinctive Norman jurisprudence within the royal justice system’.6 From 1484, the city’s literary reputation began to thrive as result of its annual poetry competition organised by the Confraternity of the livre de chroniques ayant appartenu à son père, le sieur de Graville, livre qui a été trouvé parmi les meubles du chanoine Mesenge, décédé’. 5 On Charles, Normandy and the Ligue, see Jean Favier, Louis XI (Paris: Fayard, 2001), pp. 537– 38. On the city’s development and connections with the New World, see Michael Wintroub, A Savage Mirror: Power, Identity and Knowledge in Early Modern France (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), pp. 4–8 and passim. 6 Dylan Reid, ‘Patrons of Poetry: Rouen’s Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady’, in The Reach of the Republic of Letters: Literary and Learned Societies in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. by Arjan Van Dixhoorn and Susie Speakman Sutch (Leiden: Brill, 2008), pp. 33–78 (p. 38).

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Immaculate Conception.7 Moreover, under the patronage of the city’s archbishop, Cardinal Georges d’Amboise, Rouen developed a reputation for manuscript production and for the promotion of classical, humanist learning and of Italianate renaissance art and architecture. Linking these areas of artistic output was the theme of the triumph, both that of the Virgin and that of cultural civilisation, one that was played out in Anne de Graville’s manuscripts. Dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, Rouen’s Puy was anchored in, and fêted, the region’s long-standing devotion to this doctrine. It took place on the feast of the Immaculate Conception (8 December), which became known as ‘la feste aux normands’ (the Normans’ feast).8 It reached its heyday in the period c. 1510–30, when it saw the participation of André de la Vigne (1511), Guillaume Crétin (from 1513) and Jean and Clément Marot (from around 1520), poets who were all associated with members of the French court, especially Anne of Brittany, Louis XII and, later, Claude, her sister Renée, Louise of Savoy and Margaret of Navarre.9 Entries took as their theme the Virgin’s purity and were subject to strict rules of verse and form. The format most frequently associated with the Puy and the oldest category of the competition was the chant royal: winners in this category were awarded the palme, with a second prize, the lys, introduced in 1493.10 The rondeau was added in 1511, with the winner awarded a signet d’or, and from 1514 the rose was offered as a prize for the best ballade. As Dylan Reid notes, the introduction of the rondeau form brought a more intimate and lyrical quality to the competition, since these compositions were frequently in the voice of the Virgin.11 From 1511, prizes were also awarded for poetry composed in Latin, but this was judged separately and many of the extant collections of Puy poetry do not include entries in Latin, suggesting that the interest was primarily on the possibilities and achievements of the vernacular forms.12 Given the long-running debate over the veracity of the Immaculate Conception, with the Dominicans being its particular detractors, the Rouen Puy provided a means ‘to create a canon of works supporting this doctrine, and to propagate it both locally and throughout France’.13 In addition to the poetry itself, a key part of the Puy was Guillaume Tasserie’s play, Le Triomphe des Normands, in which the Puy’s origins were traced back to William the Conqueror’s court. In the play, the king states that ‘it was through the Virgin’s patronage Reid, ‘Patrons of Poetry’, p. 38. Reid, ‘Patrons of Poetry’, p. 39. 9 See Denis Hüe, ‘Les Marots et le Puy de Rouen, remarques à propos du Ms. BN. F. fr. 2205’, Nouvelle Revue du XVIe Siècle, 16 (1998), 219–47 and Reid, ‘Patrons of Poetry’, p. 63, who also notes (p. 48) that in 1515, due to its popularity, the Puy was moved from its original location in the church of St John to that of the church of the Carmelites. 10 Reid, ‘Patrons of Poetry’, p. 53; see also Gérard Gros, ‘Le Rondeau marial au Puy de Rouen’, Nouvelle Revue du XVIe Siècle, 14 (1996), 117–54 (p. 117). 11 Reid, ‘Patrons of Poetry’, p. 53. 12 Reid, ‘Patrons of Poetry’, p. 53. 13 Reid, ‘Patrons of Poetry’, p. 40. 7 8



The Rouen Connection: The Puy, Poetry and Petrarch 79

that the Normans were able to triumph over their foes time and again’.14 When the Normans’ dedication to the Immaculate Conception is contested by a heretic, Sarquis, William challenges him to a battle of words to be judged by King Solomon. The Conqueror wins and Solomon ‘commands the Normans to prove their pious devotion to Mary by writing poetry in her honor’.15 The play, which as Michael Wintroub notes employs a variety of triumph imagery, was probably first performed after the 1499 competition.16 Anne’s ownership of what is now the only surviving copy of this play thus gave her access to material written by an important Puy participant and which she might even have seen performed in the 1520s. In addition, the play links the contemporary Puy competition back to a time when the Normans were defending themselves against heresy: as we shall see, debates about, and charges of, heresy were rife in courtly and Norman circles in the early decades of the sixteenth century.17 The fact that Rouen’s Puy attracted the participation of poets from outside of the region led to the Puy’s influence on the production and appreciation of vernacular poetry further afield. Collections of Puy entries for particular years or periods of years were commissioned and owned by Rouen’s and the nation’s cultural elite, with many manuscripts produced in the city’s own ateliers.18 In around 1525, Pierre Vidoue published a collection of Rouen Puy poems in Paris which also fêted, in the preface, the Normans’ devotion to the Virgin and the Immaculate Conception, thus increasing the visibility of the Puy to an even wider audience. Moreover, the Puy not only contributed to the advancement of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception but, by stimulating new vernacular poetic forms, also participated in the city’s cultural renewal. This renewal had a religious as well as a civic and political agenda and drew on the theme of the triumph as a means of promoting the idea of translatio studii. As seen in Chapter 2, translatio studii was a concept by which European nations sought to demonstrate themselves as the true heirs of ancient civilisations like Troy and Rome. At a time when Francis I, following in the footsteps of his predecessors Charles VIII and Louis XII, was engaged in ongoing battles for territories on the Italian peninsula, Wintroub, p. 78. Wintroub, pp. 78–79. 16 Wintroub, pp. 78–79 and Reid, ‘Patrons of Poetry’, p. 59. Moreover, Guillaume and his two uncles, François and Pierre, had been involved in the Puy since its inception and Guillaume served as prince seven times (Wintroub, p. 78). 17 That the Puy was closely tied up with the history of the Norman region is also demonstrated by a copy of Puy poems from 1511 (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 379) which is bound with a copy of another important Norman text, the Gesta normanorum ducum. For a discussion of this manuscript, see Cynthia J. Brown, ‘André de la Vigne au Puy de 1511: étude du manuscrit Douce 379 de la Bibliothèque Bodléienne’, in Première poésie française de la Renaissance autour des Puys poétiques normands, ed. by Jean-Claude Arnould and Thierry Mantovani (Paris: Garnier, 2003), pp. 161–92. 18 See Myra D. Orth, ‘Les Puys en images. L’illustration des palinods de Rouen dans les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale de France (ms fr. 379 et 1537)’, in Première poésie française, ed. by Arnould and Mantovani, pp. 51–74; and Brown, ‘André de la Vigne’. 14 15

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the creation of narratives such as Lemaire de Belges’s Illustrations that constructed the French people as culturally and politically superior to their European neighbours were part of the country’s self-fashioning. Anne, as already seen, was sensitive to this strategy of national advancement through her Chaldean Histories manuscript. In addition to Tasserie’s play, triumph imagery and a sense of cultural superiority were woven into the Puy through the references made in the poems to the triumphs of Christ and the Virgin. This is particularly the case, for instance, in the Puy poems included in a manuscript made for Jacques Le Lieur, alderman of the city of Rouen, a competitor in and prince of the Puy, and also secretaire and notaire to Francis I. In this manuscript, ‘the Virgin, Christ, or symbols associated with them were linked to historical and national myths having to do with the special status of the French king and the extension of French hegemony to the Italian peninsula’.19 Thus the Confraternity not only posited Rouen as a new Christian Rome in which ‘les vertus des églises de la ville sont comparables à celles de la Ville Sainte’ (the virtues of the city’s churches were comparable to those of the Eternal City) but also drew parallels between the people of Rouen and the Romans of classical Antiquity.20 The statutes of the Confraternity stated that [j]ust as the ancient imperators and other Roman Princes triumphantly wore laurel crowns after victories obtained over their enemies, so too would the Virgin, excellent Mother of God, victoriously triumph over all sin and vice without exception – bestow a laurel crown … on the poet with the best epigram.21

The triumphal and ‘Roman’ themes of the Puy also fed into, and drew on, another aspect of the city’s cultural activity, the revival of humanist and classical learning and the building of Italian-inspired Renaissance architecture that had begun under Georges d’Amboise at the turn of the sixteenth century.22 Like Louis de Graville, Georges d’Amboise came from an influential aristocratic family with long-standing links to the French monarchy.23 In addition to his roles within Normandy – as lieutenant-general from 1493 and archbishop of Rouen from 1498 – Georges was a close political advisor of the future Louis XII, arranging the annulment of Louis’s marriage to Charles VIII’s sister Jeanne of France in 1498, shortly after he came to the

21 22

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 379; Wintroub, p. 80. See also Orth, Renaissance Manuscripts, ii, pp. 240–42. Denis Hüe, La Poésie palinodique à Rouen 1486–1550 (Paris: Garnier, 2007), p. 234. Quoted in Wintroub, p. 79. On the cardinal’s patronage, see Une Renaissance en Normandie: le cardinal Georges d’Amboise, bibliophile et mécène, ed. by Florence Calame-Levert, Maxence Hermant and Gennaro Toscano (Paris: BnF, 2017). 23 His father, Pierre d’Amboise, was the chambellan of Charles VII and Louis XI, and his brother Louis, bishop of Albi, was the latter’s counsellor and confessor; see Mathieu Deldicque, ‘Entre Normandie et Italie: Georges d’Amboise, cardinal et commanditaire’, in Une Renaissance, ed. by Calame-Levert et al., pp. 15–21 (p. 15). 19 20



The Rouen Connection: The Puy, Poetry and Petrarch 81

throne.24 He was also a supporter of church reform, particularly amongst the monastic orders, although not always in line with some of the more fervent reformers like Jan Standonck, who founded the College de Montagu with Louis de Graville.25 During the 1480s, Georges’s relationship with Louis d’Orléans pitched him against Anne of France and Pierre de Beaujeu/Bourbon, who were acting as regents for the young Charles VIII and with whom Louis de Graville was closely involved. Historians have suggested that the marriage between Georges’s nephew Charles II d’Amboise and Jeanne de Graville that took place in 1491 had a political intent: the cardinal’s return to favour with the Bourbon regency following his implication in a plot against Charles VIII.26 The union was mutually beneficial and Louis may also have had a hand in organising the alliance as a means to retain his influence at court in the face of opposition to his policies by Anne of Brittany. Moreover, Georges was instrumental in the partial reconciliation between Anne de Graville and her father and it was to his son-in-law, Charles II, that Louis relinquished the role of admiral in 1508.27 Through Jeanne’s marriage to Charles, Anne became sisterin-law to the writer Catherine d’Amboise, who came into the possession of her uncle’s French manuscripts. Catherine’s principal residence of Lignières in Margaret of Navarre’s duchy of Berry, where Anne too had connections, would have provided further opportunities for the two writers to meet and exchange ideas, perhaps around the literary salon of Margaret’s secretary, Jacques Thiboust, and his wife, Jeanne de la Font, also a writer.28 A veritable explosion of Italian-influenced artistic production in Rouen and the surrounding region can be attributed to Georges d’Amboise, who accompanied Louis XII on several of his campaigns to Italy, from where he brought back important collections of Italian art. In particular, he acquired an impressive collection of Italian manuscripts, including 138 manuscripts from the library of the kings of Aragon. He also obtained several manuscript copies of the works of Petrarch and is credited with promoting French interest in his writings: some of the earliest French translations of Petrarch’s works – including the version belonging to Anne de Graville – were produced in Rouen ateliers.29 Rouennais scribes and artists flourished under his influence, collaborating with Paris-based illuminators such as Jean Pichore and the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse to produce Deldicque, ‘Entre Normandie et Italie’, p. 16. The marriage had been arranged by Charles VIII to effectively prevent his rival, Louis, from having any heirs, since Jeanne was believed to be incapable of having children. 25 See Jean-Marie Le Gall, Les Moines au temps des réformes: France, 1480–1560 (Paris: Champ Vallon, 2001), p. 85. 26 Le Gall, p. 85 and Montmorand, pp. 10–12. 27 For the reconciliation between Anne and her father and the cardinal’s role within it, see Montmorand, pp. 75–78. When Charles d’Amboise died unexpectedly in Italy in 1511, Louis took back the role of admiral until his death. 28 On Thiboust and Jeanne de la Font, see Müller, ‘Translatrices’ and the discussion in later chapters. 29 See Wintroub, p. 67 and nn. 22–23. 24

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works for some of the highest French nobility. Petrarch’s Triumphs in particular became closely associated with the idea of translatio studii.30 In the early 1500s, Georges d’Amboise began an intense rebuilding programme of his summer residence at Gaillon, for which he employed Italian architects, sculptors and artists. The castle’s original Gothic structure was ‘transformed […] to integrate – and express – Renaissance ideals of classical antiquity – in particular the idea of Triumph’.31 In 1508, the castle welcomed Louis XII and Anne of Brittany on the occasion of the king’s Rouen entry.32 Integrated into the castle’s design were references to Louis’s victory at Genoa and decorative elements that drew parallels between the French kings and the Caesars of ancient Rome. Wintroub notes that, rather than demonstrating France’s ability to match the magnificence of Italian art and design, the rebuilding and decorative aspects of Gaillon made it ‘a clear and unambiguous declaration of French superiority – of victory and triumph – over the Italians […] and an unequivocal declaration of the pre-eminence of French “civilization”’.33 Rouen’s cultural and political programme thus chimed with France’s broader, nationalistic concerns to dominate Italy physically as well as culturally. The Renaissance styles of art and literature being promoted in Rouen in the early sixteenth century were of interest to the city’s Confraternity, whose members also engaged with humanistic learning and patronage. For instance, sometime after 1520, one Confraternity member, Guillaume III Le Roux, who had served as a canon of Georges d’Amboise’s chapel at Gaillon, continued work on the Hôtel Bourgtheroulde built by his father at the end of the fifteenth century, adding bas-relief scenes of the meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold and scenes taken from Petrarch’s Triumphs (fig. 15).34 The flourishing of triumphal imagery was not, however, limited to depictions of Petrarch’s work. Triumphal imagery of a religious nature, complementing the triumph themes in the Marian poetry of the Puy, also became popular in the stained glass produced for Rouen’s churches from the 1520s. The so-called vitrail des chars, originally in the church of St Vincent, created 1522–24, shows three triumphs, those of Adam and Eve (top), Satan (middle) and the Virgin (bottom). Laurence Riviale argues that the donors, who can be seen in the bottom left-hand panes, were perhaps the Le Roux Bourgtheroulde, based on similarities between the designs and those found on bas-relief sculptures made for another of their residences, the castle of Tilly, in 1515–20.35 See Wintroub, p. 67; however, Wintroub’s assertion that Jean Molinet translated Petrarch’s Triumphs for Francis I must be erroneous, since he died in 1507, well before Francis’s accession. 31 Wintroub, p. 66. 32 See the description and references in Wintroub, pp. 66–67 and notes. 33 Wintroub, pp. 66–67. 34 Reid, ‘Patrons of Poetry’, p. 43. 35 Situated in the Eure, at Boissey-le-Châtel. See Laurence Riviale, ‘L’Immaculée conception dans les vitraux normands’, in Marie et la fête aux normands: dévotion, images, poésie, ed. by Françoise Thelamon (Mont-Saint-Aignan: Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre, 2018), pp. 179– 93; available online at https://books.openedition.org/purh/10932 [accessed 21 April 2022]. 30

Fig. 15. Field of the Cloth of Gold, relief carving Hotel Bourgtheroulde, Rouen, c. 1522 (photo: E. L’Estrange).

Fig. 16. Vitrail des chars (detail), Moses with the arms of Francis I and Claude of France (bottom right), formerly in the church of St Vincent, Rouen, now in the church of Joan of Arc, Rouen, c. 1522 (photo: E. L’Estrange).

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Guillaume III Le Roux – one-time prince of the Puy – was also in the entourage of Francis I and had been involved in the negotiations of the Concordat of Bologna in 1516 which gave Francis the right to choose his own churchmen and the pope to collect income from the French church.36 Also involved in the Bologna negotiations was the pro-reform bishop of Meaux, Guillaume Briçonnet (1472–1534), former almoner of Anne of Brittany and later correspondent of Margaret of Navarre. As the leader of the Cercle de Meaux, a group of evangelical humanists including Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples, Briçonnet was keen to effect religious reform from the diocese of St Paul in Paris, where Anne owned a house on the rue de Jouy.37 The reformist leanings of Le Roux might seem at odds with the Confraternity’s close association with the Immaculate Conception and its defence of the feast when it came under attack, first from the Dominicans and then, from the 1520s, from Luther and his followers.38 In this respect, Riviale reads the triumphal imagery in the stained glass windows of Rouen’s churches as part of this defence of the doctrine. She argues that the inclusion of the arms of Claude of France (along with those of Francis I) in the Triumph of the Virgin in the vitrail des chars signifies the queen’s particular devotion to the Virgin and the Immaculate Conception (fig. 16).39 However, the presence of the royal couple’s arms was probably more complex than an assertion of the queen’s devotion or a simple resistance to the ideas of Lutheran reformers. In fact, in the 1520s, support for church reform was particularly strong at the French court, especially amongst its women: Anne de Graville, who, in 1526, would shelter two reformers at her castle in Malesherbes, had no doubt been brought into this circle through her connections to Claude and Margaret of Navarre. At the time when the St Vincent windows were being made, Briçonnet and his circle were printing their French translations of biblical texts and promoting them to the wider public; a few years later, they were tried before the Parisian parlement, charged with heresy of the Lutheran kind.40 They were acquitted, but, as Wilson-Chevalier has shown, accusations of heresy were used as weapons on both sides of the reform debate.41 If the window was made at the instigation of Guillaume III Le Roux and his family, the representation of Moses, Truth and Heresy leading the Virgin’s cortège might be related to the happenings around the court in Paris as well as the threats to Norman identity in Riviale, para 12. See the Introduction, and also Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier, ‘Denis Briçonnet et Claude de France: L’Evêque, les arts et une relation (fabriste) occultée’, Seizième siècle, 11(2015), 95–118 and idem, ‘From Dissent to Heresy’. 38 Riviale, para 2. 39 See Riviale, para 9. 40 Pierre Miquel, Les Guerres de religion (Paris: Fayard, 1980), pp. 50–63. 41 See Wilson-Chevalier, ‘From Dissent to Heresy’ (pp. 93–94 and n. 4), who notes that Lefèvre d’Etaples had been suspected of heresy as early as 1515 and that by 1517 ‘he and Erasmus were accusing each other of heresy’. Central to the accusations against Lefèvre d’Etaples was the publication in 1517 of his De Maria Magdalena, in which he argued that Mary Magdalene, Mary the sister of Lazarus and the woman who anointed Christ’s feet were not the same person. 36 37



The Rouen Connection: The Puy, Poetry and Petrarch 85

Rouen. Moses and his brother Aaron were ‘often understood as Old Testament prefigurations of the Christian priesthood as they represent two powers, royal and priestly, that will be joined together in the person of Christ’.42 The figure of Moses striding forth on the right-hand side of the window, just behind the coats of arms, probably refers to Francis I, God’s anointed leader on earth. The figures of Heresy and Truth, then, perhaps point less to a strong anti-reform sentiment in Rouen and more to the fluidity of debates that characterised the early years of the Reformation. In particular, Rouen’s cultural elite – like the Le Roux – must have felt a need to promote the truth of ‘la feste aux normands’ in which the defeat of a heretic led to the Virgin’s protection of the region, as well as to protect their Confraternity and its Puy, whose very reasons for being were intricately tied to the Immaculate Conception. Even a poet like Clément Marot, closely aligned to both Claude of France and Margaret of Navarre and their evangelical sympathies, could participate in a competition fêting what would become a ‘Catholic’ dogma in all but name.43 In fact, as Denis Hüe has argued, Marot’s composition of immaculist poems for the Rouen Puy in the early 1520s was a formative aspect of his poetic career, especially for his translation of the Psalms.44 The Rouen which Anne de Graville frequented in the 1520s and where she acquired a good proportion of her books was, therefore, a place in which civic – and Norman – identity was expressed through literary output, religious devotion, openness to reform and humanistic patronage, with the theme of the triumph, derived from both the Immaculate Conception and Petrarch’s text, serving all of these. It also emerges as a place in which Anne’s interest in religious reform, infused with the ideas of the humanists in Claude’s and Margaret’s circles, would not have been out of place. This image of Rouen serves as a backdrop to the following section, which explores the connections that Anne developed with the city as both a reader and writer through four particular manuscripts that were in her collection or which contain her work.

A Riddle and a Recueil of Poetry: BnF, ms fr. 24315

BnF, ms fr. 24315 is a collection of over sixty works, the majority in French but with some in Latin, covering a variety of poetic and literary genres including ballades, rondeaux, débats, epitaphs, word games and historical notes. Although many of the texts are anonymous, there are a number of works by well-known fifteenth-century writers including the Burgundian historiographer, Georges Chastellain, his successor Jean Molinet, Christine

Jennifer Sliwka, ‘Domenico Beccafumi and the Politics of Punishment’, in Art as Politics in Late Medieval and Renaissance Siena, ed. by Timothy B. Smith and Judith B. Steinhoff (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016), pp. 163–94 (p. 182). 43 The dogma was pronounced only in 1854. 44 See Hüe, ‘Les Marots’. 42

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de Pizan and François Villon.45 Moreover, as noted above, it contains the only surviving copy of Tasserie’s play, Le Triomphe des Normands, and the manuscript as a whole has a particularly Norman, as well as courtly, flavour to it. Internal evidence dates the manuscript to 1513 at the earliest and Anne de Graville’s ownership is attributable to a number of factors, including the d’Urfé binding and the inclusion, on the opening page, of a riddle, the answer to which is ‘Anne de Graville’: Si tu veulx bien savoir qui est le nom De celle la qui porte le regnon De surmonter les femmes en scavoir Pour recipe, une Anne fault avoir De cher de femme et prandre du plus gras En assessant le de a tour de bras Puis l’aporter pour l’affiner en ville Ainssi son nom trouveras lire habille. N.46 If you wish to know the name Of that lady who bears the renown Of surpassing all women in learning The recipe is thus: you need an ‘Anne’ Of female flesh, and take the ‘gra[s]’ And place the ‘de’ in between them Then to make it complete, add ‘ville’ Thus you’ll find you can read her name easily. N.

It is hard to convey in modern English some of the word plays employed here but the fact that Anne is an epicene name is the reason why an Anne of ‘female flesh’ is needed. Although there is no ‘s’ in Graville, the word ‘gras’ would be pronounced the same as ‘gra-’ and Anne is clearly playing here on the idea of a recipe containing the fattest (plus gras) flesh (cher). The ‘N’ that ends the riddle is another clue, being shorthand for ‘Anne’, since the pronunciation of the letter is similar to that of her name: Anne’s Triumphs manuscript includes the letters P and N in the margins, for Pierre and Anne. The riddle and its solution were first noted by V.-L. Saulnier in 1952 but the item does not appear in the online See, for instance, Chastellain fols 4v–12v (Mistere ou France se represente en forme d’ung personnage au roi Charles VIIe ), Molinet, fols 16r–19v; 95r–v and 96r (Petit traicté fait par Molinet; Epitaph de Simon Marmyon and Epitaphe de venerable seigneur Okgam); Christine de Pizan, fols 67v–68r (ballade no. 6 of the Cents Ballades); François Villon, fols 69r–v (Epitaph Villon). 46 Fr. 24315, fol. 1r. My thanks to Françoise Féry-Hue for discussing these lines with me and suggesting the reading ‘lire’ for the abbreviated penultimate word. 45



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catalogue description, another omission that has contributed to the relative invisibility of Anne.47 In fact, Anne had a keen interest in anagrams, word plays and riddles which is witnessed across her works and collection and which, as the following chapter shows, was also related to her knowledge of Christine de Pizan. The majority of the manuscript was written out by one scribe after 1513, since it contains a copy of ‘La Bataille spirituelle’ which refers to the death in that year of Pope Julius II (fol. 40r). However Gérard Gros has noted that the folio on which the riddle appears is the last in an otherwise missing quire: the verso is blank, meaning that the rest of the quire may already have been lost when the manuscript was bound for Claude and Jeanne d’Urfé.48 The hand that has written the riddle is perhaps the same as that which inscribed Anne’s name in some of the manuscripts that she inherited, perhaps a notary in her service, or even Anne herself.49 The poem that follows it, ‘Les colleurs deschiffrées du temps du roy Francoys’, is in another hand and must date from 1515 at the earliest, the date of Francis I’s accession.50 The addition of the riddle at the top of what is now – and perhaps was also in Anne’s time – the first page, would have functioned as an assertion of her ownership of the book and situated her – the most learned of women – as the leading item in a recueil of a whole host of important French (and, apart from Christine), male authors, and ones with particular links to the French crown as well as to the region of Normandy. In addition to the copy of Tasserie’s play, the manuscript contains works of Norman origin or relating to the region. There are, for instance, historical notes concerning Joan of Arc, and a description of the 1450 battle of Formigny in which the French recaptured Normandy from the English. There are two works attributed to Guillaume Alexis (d. 1486), a monk at the abbey of Notre-Dame de Lyre in the Normandy diocese of Evreux, found only in this manuscript: Le passetemps du prieur de Busy et de son frere le cordelier, a dialogue of alternating quatrains between two monk brothers on a variety of subjects, and Le mireur

V.-L. Saulnier, ‘Dans le cercle des Palinods rouennais. Richard de la Porte, Adrien de SaintGelais, Nicolas Boyssel, et quelques autres auteurs de la Renaissance, d’après un manuscrit nonétudié’, Bulletin du bibliophile et du bibliothécaire, 3–5 (1952), 143–62, 182–96, 239–51 (p. 189). Gros notes its presence in his article, ‘De vair et de quelques couleurs: note sur une page du manuscrit de Paris, bibl. nat. fr. 24315’, in Les Couleurs au moyen âge (Aix-en-Provence: CUERMA, 1988), pp. 109–118 (p. 110), but the online catalogue gives the first item as the one beneath the riddle, ‘Les colleurs deschifrees du temps du Roy Françoys’. 48 Gros, ‘De vair et de quelques couleurs’, p. 110. 49 Compare, for instance, the capital letter ‘A’, the lower case ‘a’ and the double ‘l’ with the inscription in nafr. 1880, the Devisement du monde. 50 At the end of the manuscript is a copy dated 28 December 1561 of the confirmation of gifts made by several members of the Graville family to the abbey of Montebourg; the date of the original document is given as 4 September 1457. Claude d’Urfé and Jeanne had both died by 1561, suggesting that either the text relating to the abbey of Montebourg was copied into the manuscript after it was bound for d’Urfé, or that it was rebound with the same binding. 47

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des moines, which criticises monks for their dissolute lifestyle.51 Alexis was the author of several other works, including those in a debate-like format and which took up some of the themes of the querelle des femmes.52 Also included in the recueil is the Traité des quatre novissimes by Frère Bigot, ‘Celestin, natif de Rouen’; a series of short anonymous works on the death of Cardinal Georges d’Amboise; and Pierre Fabri’s epitaph for Louis XI given at Rouen. Fabri was closely involved in the Rouen Puy, serving as its second Prince in 1487. He was also the author of a defence of the Immaculate Conception printed in Louvain in 1514, and of the Le Grand et vrai art de pleine rhétorique (published posthumously in Rouen in 1522). This work effectively outlined the ‘rules’ of the Puy by describing in detail the composition of the poetic forms that could be submitted to the competition.53 Other authors with connections to the Rouen Puy present in the volume are Guillaume Crétin, almoner of Francis I and known for his chants royaux (Puy 1527), and the previously noted Rouen alderman and royal secretary, Jacques Le Lieur.54 Fabri’s epitaph for Louis XI, and Le Lieur’s role in Francis I’s entourage, demonstrate that Rouen and the French court were closely tied on a political as well as a cultural level. Crétin’s translation of Faustus Andrelini’s Epistre à Louis XII, also included in Anne’s recueil, further proves such connections. In this poem composed by Anne of Brittany’s secretary sometime before 1512, the queen exhorts Louis XII to return from Italy. As Brown notes, it ‘represents the poet’s attempt to create a contemporary version of Ovid’s Heroides’, following the success of Saint-Gelais’s translation.55 Andrelini’s epistle was also translated by Macé de Villebresme, where it is found in a manuscript illuminated by the queen’s painter, Jean Bourdichon, alongside eleven other verse epistles, some in the queen’s voice and some in that of the king, composed between 1509 and 1512.56 However, Andre Several of Alexis’ works were widely circulated through the medium of print. Le Passetemps was published twice in Rouen, once by Jacques Le Forestier (before 5 November 1500) and the other undated; the Mireur was not published until the early seventeenth century; see the entry on the Arlima website: www.arlima.net/eh/guillaume_alexis.html [accessed 6 June 2022]. 52 The most famous of these is the Grant Blason des faulces amours, a debate between a gentleman and a monk that attacks ‘non-marital love and echoes commonplace glosses of Medea as a warning against excessive or foolish love’; see Catherine Léglu, ‘A New Medea in Late Medieval French Narratives’, in Unbinding Medea: Interdisciplinary Approaches to a Classical Myth from Antiquity to the 21st Century, ed. by Heike Bartel and Anne Simon (New York and Abingdon: Legenda, 2010), pp. 68–79 (p. 74). Somewhat in the manner of the querelle de la BDSM, the Grant Blason incited another author to write a Contre Blason, first published in 1512, where the same arguments are this time defended by two women, a woman of the court and a nun; see Emile Picot, ‘Note sur l’auteur du Contreblason de faulces amours’, Romania, 73 (1890), 112–17. 53 See Chas B. Newcomer, ‘The Puy at Rouen’, PMLA, 31 (1916), 211–31 (p. 217). 54 Four texts (fols 99v–100v) end with the phrase ‘Du bien le bien’, which is the motto of Jacques Le Lieur, although the incipits of these texts have not been associated with him in the existing literature. 55 Brown, The Queen’s Library, p. 203. 56 St Petersburg, NLR, fr. fol. v. XIV.8, Collection of Versified Royal Epistles; see Brown, The Queen’s Library, p. 203 and n. 56. The manuscript also contains works by Jean d’Auton and Gian 51



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lini’s letter and these other epistles also appeared in contexts beyond that of the immediate court and Anne of Brittany’s manuscript. For instance, Jose Bade printed Andrelini’s Latin original in 1509, and Crétin’s translation found in fr. 24315 was published in two editions at around the same time.57 The presence of Crétin’s work in Anne’s manuscript strengthens Brown’s point that ‘these letters in their original and translated forms must have appealed to several different audiences at once’.58 Anne’s knowledge of this work that not only drew on the Heroides tradition but was also aimed originally at the queen of France helps to provide context for, and perhaps explain, the inclusion of Heroides-inspired material in the Beau roman written for the subsequent queen, Claude. Through her ownership of fr. 24315, Anne de Graville had at her fingertips a rich variety of material that would have informed her own works and which, through its authors, addressees and subject matter, brought together the Rouen Puy, Norman history and the French court. That Anne saw herself as a key player in this criss-crossing of influences is evident in the riddle that opens the manuscript where she literally heads up this witness to Franco-Norman literary activity.

Chants Royaux, Ballades et Rondeaux from the 1524 Puy: BnF, ms fr. 25535

Following the 1524 Rouen Puy, the Prince du Puy, Nicolas de Coquinvilliers, offered Anne de Graville a manuscript containing a selection of poems presented in the competition. The year 1524 apparently left its mark on the event not only because of Coquinvilliers’s reputation – he was a bishop in the diocese of the archbishop of Rouen – but also because he increased the number of entries for that year, awarding many of the prizes himself.59 The economic and cultural growth of Rouen in the early decades of the sixteenth century, and the participation of some of France’s leading poets in the Puy, had led to the event’s wider visibility within France, which, according to Hüe, also increased demand for copies of Puy poetry outside the city’s immediate circle. He thus situates the manuscript made for Anne de Graville, as well as one made for Jean Perréal (c. 1528–29) and another made for Francisco Suardo. See Yvonne LeBlanc, Va Lettre Va: The French Verse Epistle (1400–1550) (Birmingham, AL: Summa, 1995), p. 108, and Laurence Marois, ‘L’Hystoire romaine de la Belle Cleriande de Macé de Villebresme, à la croisée de l’épître et de l’élegie’, Renaissance and Reformation, 34 (2011), 5–21 (p. 5) as well as Brown, The Queen’s Library, p. 203. See also Jonathan Dumont and Alain Marchandisse, ‘Le Manuscrit FR. F. V. XIV, 8 de la Bibliothèque nationale de Russie à Saint-Pétersbourg au prisme de l’analyse littéraire et historique’, in L’Oeuvre littéraire du Moyen Âge aux yeux de l’historien et du philologue, ed. by Ludmilla Evdokimova and Victoria Smirnova (Paris: Garnier, 2014), pp. 43–63, who suggest that the work is a collaboration between Andrelini and Villebresme. 57 Brown, The Queen’s Library, p. 204 and n. 59. 58 Brown, The Queen’s Library, p. 204. 59 See Joseph André Guiot, Les trois siècles palinodiques ou Histoire générale des palinods de Rouen, Dieppe etc., publiés pour la première fois, d’après le manuscrit de Rouen par l’abbé A. Tougard, 2 vols (Rouen: A. Lestringant/A. Picard, 1868), i, pp. 165–66.

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Diane of Poitiers (c. 1522), within this context.60 Although Diane came to prominence as the mistress of Henri II, she also had close ties to Normandy. Married in 1515 at the age of fifteen to Louis de Brézé (d. 1531), grand seneschal of Normandy, she earned herself the title of ‘la grande seneschale’. In addition to the family seat of Anet, situated in the Eure-et-Loir, the couple had a town house in Rouen and it seems likely that Diane and Anne would have crossed paths around their territorial, courtly and literary interests.61 Anne’s sister-in-law, Catherine d’Amboise, also appears to have been familiar with the Puy and its literary forms, having composed a chant royal in honour of the Virgin that is the only extant work in this genre known to be by a woman.62 Müller has suggested that Catherine may have known of the manuscript offered to Anne as well as the copy of chants royaux from the Amiens Puy offered to Louise of Savoy in 1518.63 Anne’s manuscript provides evidence of the ways in which the Puy’s output was circulated and perhaps even points to a network of women readers interested in Puy poetry. However, the highly personalised prologue, with its specific references to the Gravilles as an ancient Norman family, indicates that it was also a gift intended to flatter Anne and to appeal specifically to her literary and familial interests in Rouen. Not only was 1524 an important year for the Puy, but it was also the year in which Queen Claude had died and likely corresponds to the period in which Anne was preparing her Rondeaux for Louise: this little manuscript shows that Anne’s visibility as a poet and bibliophile was evidently well established, and independently of her relationship to the now-deceased queen. Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25535 is a relatively modest volume. It is written on paper and, unlike some of the other surviving recueils of Puy poems studied by Hüe, does not include any illuminated miniatures. A title at the top of folio 1r offers greetings to the ‘haulte et puissant’ (noble and powerful) Anne de Graville from ‘Nicolas de Coquinvillier, Evesque de Veriense’.64 The opening initial of the dedicatory epistle, as well as that of each poem, con Hüe, La Poésie palinodique, p. 239. The manuscript for Diane of Poitiers is Copenhagen, Kongelige Biblioteket, Thott ms 59; for Jean Perréal, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2202; on these, see Denis Hüe, Petite Anthologie Palinodique (1485–1550) (Paris: Garnier, 2002), pp. 377–78 and pp. 391–93 respectively. 61 Patricia Z. Thompson, ‘De nouveaux aperçus sur la vie de Diane de Poitiers’, Albineana, 14 (2002), 345–60 (p. 346); Didier Le Fur, Diane de Poitiers (Paris: Perrin, 2017), p. 73 indicates that Diane probably attended the Field of the Cloth of Gold and may also have attended Claude when she gave birth to her daughter Madeleine. If the inscription on the flyleaf of the Chaldean Histories on a visit to Anet is in Anne de Graville’s hand, then this might be further indication of their acquaintance. Anet, some fifty miles south of Rouen, was rebuilt by Henri II for Diane in 1547–52. 62 Poésies, p. 32. It has been suggested that Catherine’s poem dates from before 1516, since she frequently employs the ‘césure lyrique’, which was banned from the Rouen competition after this date. However, she may simply have not intended the work for the competition. 63 Poésies, p. 32; Louise’s Amiens manuscript is Paris, BnF, ms fr. 145. 64 The spelling Coquinvilliers is used in Beaurepaire and I have opted for this. It is not clear what city is being referred to in the title ‘evesque de Veriense’. His tomb epitaph is recorded as Jacet reverendus in Christo pater ac dominus magister Nicolaus de Coquinovillari, episcopus Veriensis, qui 60



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Fig. 17. Graville fermail, Chants Royaux, Rondeaux and Ballades, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25535, fol. 14v (detail), c. 1524 (photo: E. L’Estrange).

sists of a letter painted on a gold ground, with the interior of the letters painted with the Graville fermaux in gold on a red ground (fig. 17); the only exception is the letter opening the (anonymous) rondeau ‘Le Vray amant’ on folio 37v, which is painted on a blue ground without the Graville arms.65 Anne is therefore foregrounded as the reader-recipient of this book of Norman poetry. In his opening dedication, Coquinvilliers makes mention of the fact that during a period of idleness he is reminded of the promise he had made to himself to present Anne with ‘les exquises louenges et heroiques faits des orateurs palinodes, nommez, examinez pour la presente annee en la noble cité de Rouen par les princes du Puy et senat de Normandie, nation singuliere zelatrice de la benigne mere du Createur’ [fol. 5v] (the delightful words of praise and heroic feats of the palinode speakers, appointed [and] examined for this year in the noble city of Rouen by the princes of the Puy and the senate of Normandy, a nation especially dedicated to the gentle mother of the Creator).66 The works he includes are obiit an. 1531, 6 januarii; see Beaurepaire, i: G 1 à 1566 (p. 32) and LV, Supplément, p. 49. He was also a prior of Saint-Laurent-en-Lyon, and suffragan (bishop of a diocese) of the archbishop of Rouen, who at this time would have been Georges II d’Amboise, nephew of Cardinal Georges. See Guiot, Les trois siècles palinodiques, i, pp. 165–66. 65 Gros, ‘Le Puy marial’, p. 120, where he notes the difference in the illumination but does not remark on the identification of the arms or the dedicatee of the manuscript. It is not clear why this particular rondeau would be singled out for a different decoration. 66 The language of the preface is difficult and convoluted and so I have sometimes opted to convey the overall sense rather than to stick closely to the original text. It also switches from using ‘tu’ to address Anne at the start, to ‘vous’ towards the end. This may simply be an instance of the fluidity of pronouns in medieval French, since the letter is otherwise a coherent address to one

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‘ceulx qui a la palestre des poetes et orateurs apres avoir tant bataillé mery avoient comme vainqueurs la palme et chappeau de laurier et aultres dons de prix selon la diversité de leurs œuvres haultains’ (those who, in the competition of poets and orators, after having fought so well, have deserved as victors the palm, the laurel wreath and other prizes according to the variety of their noble works). This phrase evokes the Antique not only through its reference to ‘palaestra’, a public space in which wrestling was taught and practised, but also to ‘palms’ and ‘laurels’, which convey a sense of classical literary authority, perhaps intending to reinforce the idea of Rouen as a new Rome.67 Much of Coquinvilliers’s letter is dedicated to praising the Virgin Mary, but he also extols the Norman race, their particular dedication to the Virgin, and their long-standing reputation and military prowess, thus chiming with the sentiments of Tasserie’s play, Le Triomphe des Normands: Ilz on en leurs primerains années desdiée en magnamines actes du faict de la guerre et des armes le passetemps tellement que en fureur bellicques oncques jamais par l’universel siecle equaulx a eulx ne se sont apparus ne qui en conquestes victoires rencontres et aultres faictz d’armes si gallans hommes ou si gaillardz se soyent monstrés. Tesmoigns en sont antiques hystoriographes et vulgaires romantz par tous lieux respandus.68 They have in their early years devoted themselves in generous acts to war and to the exercise of arms, to such an extent that none have ever in the world been their equal in warlike rage nor in conquests, victories, battles and other feats of arms, been found so bold and daring. The evidence is to be found everywhere in old historical writings and romances.

He then alludes to an event in the history of the Graville family, the assassination of Jean III de Graville, Jean V d’Harcourt and several other noblemen in 1356 by King Jean II. Graville and Harcourt were part of a resistance amongst the Norman aristocracy to further engagement in Jean II’s ongoing war with England; they were supported by Charles ‘the Bad’, king of Navarre, who also held the title of count of Évreux in Normandy.69 In April person (Anne). My great thanks to David Potter, Rosalind Brown-Grant and Michelle Szkilnik for their help with many of these passages. 67 The palms and laurels also allude to the prizes offered for some of the entries. 68 Fr. 25535, fols 7v–8r. 69 Charles of Navarre held several territories in Normandy through his parents and also laid claim to Angoulême through his mother, Joan of Navarre. In 1353 he organised the murder of the constable of France, Charles de la Cerda, who had been created count of Angoulême by Jean II, resulting in strained relations with the monarchy. See the entry in Medieval France: An Encyclopedia, ed. by William W. Kibler et al. (Abindgon: Routledge, 2016), pp. 199–200. Although the text does not specifically mention the murder of de la Cerda, the fact that Anne’s manuscript dates from 1524, a year after the current connétable, Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier had defected to the emperor’s camp, may have added another dimension to Anne’s reading of these past events.



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1356, the future Charles V, then duke of Normandy, hosted a banquet in Rouen attended by Harcourt, Graville and Charles of Navarre. The banquet was stormed by the king, who had Harcourt and Graville executed the same evening and their corpses displayed in Rouen.70 Coquinvilliers does not retell the story explicitly but weaves it into his praise of the Normans’ desire to preserve their freedoms and liberties: Et tant et si longuement y ont perseveré que de leurs nobles et gros seigneurs la plus grand part au lict d’honneur et questes chevallereuses on leurs jours consumez leur rasse masculine prins fin et leurs vie estaincte. Et si peu qu’ilz se sont trouvez de residu pour la pluspart en conservant de leur pays franchises et libertez par le Roy Jehan de leurs droictz infracteur. Furent a mort damnez et de cecy en porte tesmoignage de Rouen l’eglise cathedral en laquelle pour vestiges et memoire a jamais sont les heaulmes du conte de harcourt du Sire de graville votre proave, du seigneur de maynemares, et aultres du pays les plus nobles.71 And they persisted in this so much and for such a long time that the greater part of their noble houses have been extinguished in the male line. And, however few the remainder, they have sought to preserve their freedoms and liberties of their lands, [as against] King John the infringer of their rights for which they were condemned to death, and of this [condemnation] the cathedral of Rouen bears witness, where, as relics and for perpetual remembrance, are the helmets of the count of Harcourt, the sire of Graville your ancestor, the lords of Maynemars and others from the most noble of the land.

The allusion would surely have been recognisable to Anne de Graville not only as an anecdote from her family’s past but also because she possibly owned a copy of Froissart’s Chronicles in which the story is most famously told. Her presence in the city and even within the cathedral itself, where she is recorded as taking bread and wine, means that she would also have seen the murdered men’s helmets – which Coquinvilliers says provided a continual memorial to them – on display.72 A little later, Coquinvilliers refers to Anne’s descent from this ancient, noble, Norman family: ‘de la rasse de graville la mallet des normans la plus ancienne avez prins la naissance et paternel succes’ (from the oldest race of the Norman Malet de Graville you were born and succeeded your father). And then in a play of deference he describes how he hopes the volume will please Anne: au myen indigeré et mal pollit langage la fin imposeray puis consideré la votre grandeur et de moy la basse fortune plus humblement que faire le puis supplie qu’il plaise a la votre seigneurie prendre et accepter ce que vous offre non ce que je puis maiz ce que desire povoir faire et ainsy faisant donnerez force au myen debile scavoir a mon cueur crestrez Roland Delachenal, Histoire de Charles V, 5 vols (Paris, 1909–1931), i, pp. 144–57. Fr. 25535, fol. 8r. 72 See Beaurepaire, ii: G 2149 (1513–19): ‘5 juillet [1518], pain et vin présentés à la dame de Milly, fille du feu sieur amiral’ and Deldicque, ‘De grands mécènes’, pp. 75–76. 70 71

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l’audace et favoriserez a la myenne perseverance. Esperant toutesfoys que deceste epistre l’imparfaict excusera la divine bonté et l’aydera la vostre humayne amytié et pour fin de lettre saulvera la myenne juste volunté.73 to my unrefined and badly polished language I will put an end, then considering your grandeur and my low circumstances, more humbly than I can, beg that it pleases your ladyship to take and accept what I offer you, not what I can but what I desire to and thus doing you will give force to my feeble knowledge, to my heart you will give courage and support my perseverance. Hoping nevertheless that divine generosity will forgive the imperfection of this letter and that your humane friendship will help it [my letter] and finally that it will save my own worthy desire.

Like the Chaldean Histories discussed in the previous chapter, the letter sets up a hierarchy between the (supposedly) lowly and incompetent writer, and Anne as a discerning reader and patron. While this is a standard literary trope – a similar one is used by Anne herself when addressing Claude and Louise in the prologues of her Beau roman and Rondeaux – it is also a flattering appeal to Anne’s literary erudition and knowledge. Even though Anne was married to Pierre when the manuscript was made, the fact that all but one of the poems is, like the Chaldean Histories manuscript, decorated with the Graville fermaux, rather than the quartered arms of Balsac-Graville found in other manuscripts, places the emphasis on Anne – alone – as a descendant of this Norman ‘race’ and the inheritor of its literary traditions.74 Following Coquinvilliers’s dedication to Anne, the manuscript continues with twelve chants royaux, twelve rondeaux and twelve ballades, the three categories of vernacular poetry that could be entered for the Puy. A number of these were given attributions in the supplement to the La Vallière sale catalogue and further identifications have been proposed in the IRHT database, Jonas.75 The first chant royal in the collection, ‘Le sainct desert plaine de manne angélique’, is by Nicolas Lescarré, and the eighth, ‘La noble court rendante à tous justice’ by Pierre Avril, and both were prize winners in that category. Amongst the other works there is at least one chant royal and one rondeau by Jacques Le Lieur,76 as well as works attributed to Nicole Osmont, Guillaume Thibault, Gilles Desveaulx, Jacques

Fr. 25535, fol. 8v. Perhaps by allusion to some of Louis’s manuscripts which contain his arms alone, rather than those of him and Marie de Balsac. See Chapter 1. 75 LV, Partie 1, Supplément, pp. 48–52. 76 No. 4, ‘L’arbre de vie en l’isle fortunée’ is attributed to Le Lieur by Denis Hüe in ‘De Dieppe à Rouen, îles, mers et Navigation’, in Mondes marins du Moyen Âge, ed. by Chantal Connochie-Bourgne (Aix-en-Provence: Presses universitaires de Provence, 2006), pp. 199–218, but to Jean Alyne on Jonas; rondeau no 3, ‘Fors vous sans sy femme n’est sans reprise’ and chant royal no. 5, ‘Fleur de lys d’or par singularité’, are identified on Jonas as by Le Lieur, but Anne’s manuscript is not listed amongst the witnesses. 73 74



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Fillastre, Jean Alyne and Isambert Busquet.77 Osmont, Lescarré, Thibault and Le Lieur were not only Rouennais poets but, as Reid notes, were among ‘the most notable authors in the manuscripts from the period 1510–1530’.78 While it may not be as luxurious as some of the other extant Puy collections, Anne’s manuscript with its personalised prologue and the inclusion of the Graville arms nevertheless brought Anne into a privileged circle of Puy participants: poets, princes and readers.79 Moreover, the specificity of the manuscript’s composition, like that of the Chaldean Histories, indicates not only that it was a gift intended to please and flatter Anne, but also that her reputation – as a poet and as a member of the Norman aristocracy – qualified her for this kind of bespoke book.

Reading Anne in Rouen: Penn University Library, Codex 850

The two manuscripts just discussed show how Anne engaged, as a reader, with works with a specifically Norman, or Rouennais, focus. This section explores how she fitted into that literary context as a writer, by turning to Penn University Library Codex 850, which contains her rondeau ‘Pour le meilleur’.80 This work had been published and praised by Tory in his 1529 Champfleury, but a version is also preserved in this manuscript copied a couple of years earlier, where it sits alongside works by Alain Chartier, André de la Vigne and Adrien de Saint-Gelais. The manuscript was copied in at least two stages by members of the de la Porte family who were active in Rouen at the same time as Anne de Graville.81 The first part was written out in 1527 by Richard de la Porte and the second part in 1552, probably by his son, Robert.82 The folios copied by Richard de la Porte include a relatively rare text, Les Trois Buccines, an allegorical poem on Faith, Hope and Charity by Adrien de Saint-Gelais, a relation of the more famous Octovien. These folios also include a number of other, shorter works, including a section of six rondeaux, one of which is Anne’s. The See LV, Partie 1, Supplément, pp. 48–52. Reid, ‘Patrons of Poetry’, p. 60 and note 96. Lescarré was crowned seven times (surpassed only by Avril, who was crowned ten times); Tasserie and Thibault were both crowned six times and Crétin five times; see Gérard Defaux, ‘Revisiting Délie: Maurice Scève and Marian Poetry’, Renaissance Quarterly, 54 (2001), 685–739 (p. 693). 79 See, for instance, Paris, BnF ms fr. 1537, which contains illuminations by one of the artists responsible for illuminating the presentation copy of the Beau roman, or that made for Jacques Le Lieur, fr. 379. 80 Philadelphia, Penn University Library, Codex 850; the manuscript is paginated, not foliated. Anne’s rondeau appears on p. 55; see the article by Saulnier, n. 47 above. 81 The family appear in the city’s ecclesiastical records relating to the church of St Vincent; see Beaurepaire, vi, G 7678 (1508–11) for Marguerite de la Porte, and G 7682 for (1517–18) for her husband, Richard. 82 The first section is in a clear, neat hand signed ‘R. Portanus’ (identified by Saulnier as Richard de la Porte) who dated this section 1527 and included his motto J’ayme le lugs (p. 93). A second hand intervenes on the blank pages left by the first compiler (pp. 50; 52–53), adding information about the children of Richard and Marguerite Le Pilleur, and those of their son, Robert de la Porte, whose hand it may be. 77 78

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others are by André de la Vigne, Richard de la Porte, Jean Marot, Francis I (signed with the motto/anagram royal suis de facon) and an anonymous composition on the words ‘Circumdederunt me’.83 Saulnier notes that de la Vigne’s rondeau (‘Apprez la mort ne fault plus riens querir’) was originally written and printed on the death of Anne of Brittany in 1514 but recycled at Claude’s death in 1524.84 In her rondeau, Anne recommends that to find a path through life one must not only learn to love God but also behave in an appropriate manner that does not involve stepping beyond one’s boundaries: Pour le meileur et plus sceur chemin prendre Je te conseille a dieu aymer apprendre Estre loyal de bouche cueur et mains Ne te vanter peu mocquer parler moins85 Que tu ne doibz scavoir ou entreprendre Fors tes subiectz ne te chaille reprendre Trop haultains fais ne t’admuse comprendre Et cherche paix entre tous les humains Pour le meileur Ung don promis ne fais jamais attendre Et à scavoir sans cesser doibz entendre Peu de gens fays de ton voulloir certains A ton amy riens ne collore ou taindz86 Bien me plairas si à ce veulx pretendre87 Pour le meilleur.

Jen garde ung leal Anne de graville Nel aurea digna88

In order to take the best and safest path I advise you to learn to love God, To be loyal in speech, heart and hands Not to boast, to mock little, to speak less Of those things that you should not know or undertake. 85 86 87 88 83 84

Saulnier, p. 185. Saulnier, pp. 183–84. Tory includes punctuation: ‘se vanter, peu mocquer, parler moins’. ‘dissimule ou tains’ in Tory’s edition. ‘entendre’ in Tory’s edition. As Saulnier notes (p. 183), the solution to Nel aurea digna is ‘Anna de Gravile’ rather than ‘Anne de Graville’.



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Do not chastise but your own subjects, Do not waste your time trying to understand things that are out of your scope And seek peace between human beings In order [to take] the best Never delay a promised gift, You must always strive to acquire knowledge. Make your desire known but to a few, Do not hide or cover up anything from your friend. You will please me well if you wish to aim for this In order [to take] the best.89

The poem’s moralising tone, its call to exercise moderation and good judgement and to seek peace between people, are themes that recur in Anne’s other works, especially the Beau roman, where it also chimes with the kind of advice given by Christine de Pizan. The signing of the rondeau with her name as well as two anagrams also has parallels in the surviving copies of her work and suggests that she would have been known for this trait. In addition to being in the company of other rondeaux by elite figures such as Jean Marot, Francis I and de la Vigne, Anne’s work was, more broadly, rubbing shoulders with those of other, well-known authors also included in the manuscript, including Chartier, Nicolas Boissel (a participant of the Puy in 1533) and Clément Marot.90 Whereas Codex 850 was clearly put together as a personal and meditative collection of poetry and a livre de raison for the de la Porte family, it also constitutes a rare indication of the way in which Anne’s work circulated, especially in Rouen circles where it was evidently read, both during her life time and beyond, alongside those of poets with connections to the court and the Puy.

Petrarch’s Triumphs: Text, Context and Identity in BnF, ms fr. 22541

In the early 1520s, Anne commissioned a luxury copy of Bernardo Illicino’s Commentaries on Petrarch’s Triumphs from a Rouennais workshop. The Triumphs, written c. 1351–74, consists of six allegorical poems in Italian terza rima which see the protagonist, in a dream vision, witnessing the triumphs of Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time and Eternity. The work enjoyed enormous popularity in late medieval Europe, partly due to the work of commentators who interpreted the poems as ‘an allegory of the human soul’s progress’.91 Illicino’s Commentaries, which first appeared in 1475 and offered ‘some 15 or 20 words of exegesis for every word of Petrarch’s text’, influenced a whole raft of later commentaries, Thanks to Olivia Robinson and Michelle Szkilnik for advice on this translation. The manuscript includes Chartier’s ‘Il n’est danger que de villain’ (p. 67, though not attributed here); a ballade by Boissel (p. 61); and Marot’s ‘Exploration de Jacques de Beaune’ (p. 149). 91 D. D. Carnicelli, ‘Bernardo Illicino and the Renaissance Commentaries on Petrarch’s Trionfi’, Romance Philology, 23 (1969), 57–64 (p. 58). 89 90

Fig. 18. Workshop of the Ango Hours Master/Acarie Master, Triumph of Chastity, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541, fol. 58v, c. 1520–25 (© Paris, BnF).



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including those made in European vernaculars.92 In France, various translations of the Triumphs, some of which drew on Illicino’s work, circulated in both prose and verse from the turn of the sixteenth century, but the anonymous French version of Illicino’s Commentaries that is found in Anne de Graville’s manuscript alongside Petrarch’s Italian actually survives in very few copies. The earliest of these (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 594) dates to 1503 and was commissioned by Cardinal Georges d’Amboise for Louis XII; it formed a pair with Paris, BnF, ms fr. 225, a French translation of Petrarch’s De remediis utriusque fortunae (Remedes de l’une et l’autre fortune). D’Amboise is also presumed to have commissioned another copy (Paris BnF, ms fr. 223), perhaps for himself, before 1510 (the year he died).93 The title in fr. 594 indicates that the work, like that of the Remedes, was translated in Rouen (‘translatez a Rouen de vulgaire ytalien en françoys’).94 Although the artist who decorated fr. 223 has not been identified, the elaborate two-page miniatures in Louis’s copy have been variously attributed to Jean Pichore or his close collaborator, the Master of the Petrarch Triumphs, both active in Paris and Rouen.95 Two other prose versions of the Triumphs were also in circulation in early sixteenth-century France: a short translation attributed to George de la Forge, and a longer version based on Illicino’s commentaries, sometimes also attributed to La Forge, which formed the basis of the edition illustrated with woodcuts and printed by Barthélemy Vérard in 1514.96 A fourth version, a verse translation this time, was produced by Simon Bourgouin, Louis XII’s valet de chambre, around 1510.97 A copy of Bourgouin’s text intended for Francis I, dating from 1520 to 1525 was illustrated by Godefroy le Batave, whose work may have inspired the stained glass showing the Triumph of the Virgin in the Rouen church of St Carnicelli, p. 59; see also Pere Bescós Prat, ‘Leonardo Bruni in Bernardo Ilicino’s [sic] “commento” to Petrarch’s “Triumphi”’, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 76 (2014), 527–42. Prat’s article looks at the influence of Bruni’s De Bello Punico on the Triumph of Fame and how Illicino used Bruni to comment on these episodes of Roman history. As noted above, Anne had inherited a French translation of De Bello Punico but it is beyond the scope of this study to explore whether the French translation made apparent Illicino’s use of Bruni and thus Anne’s possible comparison or intertextual reading of the two texts. 93 Paola Cifarelli notes that Paris, BnF, mss fr. 595–96 includes the same translation; see Cifarelli ‘Jean Maynier d’Oppède et Pétrarque’, in Les poètes français de la Renaissance et Pétrarque, ed. by Jean Balsamo (Geneva: Droz, 2004), pp. 85–104 (p. 87). See also Jean Balsamo, ‘François Ier, Clément Marot et les origines du pétrarquisme français (1533–1539)’, in Les poètes français, ed. by Balsamo, pp. 35–52. 94 In fr. 225, the colophon on fol. 221r mentions Rouen. 95 The Master of the Petrarch Triumphs was also responsible for the decoration of Frescher’s translation of Darius Phrygius offered to Anne of Brittany and Louis XII discussed in Chapter 2. On the attributions and the artists, see Une Renaissance, ed. by Calame-Levert et al., cat. 75 (which argues that the illumination was done in Paris) and Orth, Renaissance Manuscripts, i, p. 299. 96 On the short version, see Cifarelli, p. 86; on the long version, see Balsamo. References to the Barthélemy Vérard edition are to the copy in Paris, BnF, Réserve YD-81. 97 See Balsamo, pp. 36–37. 92

Fig. 19. Triumph of Chastity, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 223, fol. 94v, before 1510 (© Paris, BnF).



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Vincent noted above.98 In fact, the illustrations of these different textual versions often share iconographic similarities, with the miniatures in fr. 223 appearing to have served as models for the woodcuts in Vérard’s edition in particular.99 Petrarch’s Triumphs were, then, an important part of the visual and literary culture of late medieval France and had a particular prominence in Rouen. Anne de Graville’s manuscript has been dated to between 1520 and 1525 and was therefore produced within this flurry of iconographical and literary interest in the Triumphs. Orth wondered why Anne opted for this particular translation, ‘since the Georges de la Forge prose translation was readily available in a 1514 Paris edition (B. Vérard), and with her status at court as lady-in-waiting to Queen Claude, Anne should have been able to locate a copy of Bourgouyn’s [verse translation]’.100 What Orth failed to realise is that Anne’s choice was likely very deliberate, driven by a desire to affirm her connections to both Rouen and the Amboise family and perhaps also because she had access to one of the copies commissioned by the cardinal. Anne’s Triumphs shares not only the same translation but also specific iconographical similarities with the manuscripts made for Georges d’Amboise and Louis XII as well as with the woodcuts of the 1514 printed edition. For instance, in the Triumph of Chastity scene in Anne’s manuscript, as in Georges’s copy (fr. 223) and in the printed edition, the two unicorns pulling the chariot on which the figure of Chastity rides lean in towards each other, crossing their horns (figs 18–20). The headdresses of the two figures in the foreground of the miniature in fr. 223 (fig. 19) have also clearly been taken over into the woodcuts and then figured in Anne de Graville’s manuscript: note, for example, the triangular-shaped hat of the woman closest to the chariot/unicorns. Whereas this miniature in Louis’s copy (fr. 594), like the other three, shows the figure of Chastity holding a column and a shield and riding atop a chariot, the chariot is pulled by four unicorns and the arrangement of the figures is different (fig. 21). In fact, it is the left-hand miniature of the Triumph of Death in Louis’s copy that more closely resembles the other Chastity scenes (fig. 22). Here, a figure holding a pennant bearing an ermine is placed prominently in the foreground; in the printed copy and in fr. 223 (figs 19–20), the pennant-holding figure has been placed on the righthand side of the Chastity composition, and in Anne de Graville’s copy the figure holds instead a spray of branches with the ermine displaced onto Chastity’s shield (fig. 18). The copy for Francis I is Paris, Arsenal, ms 6480. Joseph Burney Trapp, ‘Remarques sur l’iconographie des Trionfi de Petrarque au début du seizième siècle français’, in La Posterité répond à Pétrarque. 1304–2004. Défense et illustrations de l’humanisme. VIIe centenaire de la naissance de Pétrarque, ed. by Eve Dupperay (Paris: Beauchesne, 2006), pp. 219–48 (p. 228). See also Alessandro Turbil, ‘Autour de l’iconographie du “Triomphe d’Amour” dans deux mises en prose, entre manuscrit et imprimé’, Studi Francesi, 192 (2020), 580–87. The fluidity and transmission of this visual culture of the triumph is also indicated by the fact that a miniature in Le Lieur’s manuscript of Puy poetry (fr. 379) has similarities to Petrarch Triumphs manuscripts discussed here in its depiction of a horse-drawn chariot descending from the sky and the Virgin paraded on a chariot drawn by a unicorn and an elephant. 100 Orth, Renaissance Manuscripts, ii, p. 230. 98 99

Fig. 20. Triumph of Chastity, Petrarch, Les Triumphes messire Francoys Petrarcque, trans. by Georges de la Forge (?) (Paris: Barthélemy Vérard, 1514), Paris, BnF, Réserve YD-81, fol. 25v (© Paris, BnF).

Fig. 21. Master of the Triumphs of Petrarch, Triumph of Chastity, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 594, fol. 102r, c. 1503 (© Paris, BnF).

Fig. 22. Master of the Triumphs of Petrarch, Triumph of Death, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 594, fols 134v–135r, c. 1503 (© Paris, BnF).

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Although it would be tempting to see the ermine in Louis’s copy as a reference to Anne of Brittany, it is actually a feature of Petrarch’s text, where one of Chastity’s women is described as carrying a green flag bearing an ermine.101 In fr. 223 the flag is red, but in Anne’s copy it is royal blue, a choice that nevertheless might have been a way to inflect the iconographic tradition to evoke Claude of France, who took over her mother’s Breton device. Further similarities between Anne’s manuscript and that of the cardinal can be found in the Triumph of Death scenes with the skeleton figure sporting a flowing shroud, riding on a chariot with one arm outstretched and the other holding a flag (figs 23–24).102 However, the Triumph of Fame in Anne’s manuscript showing Fame holding her trumpet by her side and seated in a chariot pulled by a winged horse bearing a shield with the arms of Pierre de Balsac bears little relationship to either fr. 223, fr. 594 or the printed edition (fig. 25): perhaps the personalised nature of this miniature led the artist to propose a different composition that would allow an emphasis to be placed on Pierre.103 The circulation of several illustrated copies, especially the 1514 edition with woodcuts, might explain the iconographic correlations between Anne’s manuscript and the copies commissioned by Georges d’Amboise. However, given the fact that her copy also includes the same, rare, translation, it seems plausible that Anne had direct access to one or both of the earlier copies. Louis XII’s copy is listed in the inventory of the royal library at Blois made in 1518, and Anne’s connection to Claude by the 1520s means that she may have been able to borrow it.104 She could, however, have had relatively easier access to the copy owned by Georges d’Amboise, since, at his death in 1510, his vernacular books were inherited by her nephew, Georges III d’Amboise (c. 1503–25), son of Jeanne de Graville and Charles II d’Amboise. Given that Georges would have been only about seven when he inherited the collection, and given that his father died a year later in 1511, it was probably Jeanne who was actually in possession of these books. When Georges died at the battle of Pavia in 1525, the collection was inherited by his paternal aunt, Catherine d’Amboise.105 The dating of Anne’s manuscript thus corresponds to a period when her immediate family were in possession of fr. 594. Anne’s commissioning of this luxury copy of a text closely associated with Rouen, the court and her own family was clearly a significant move that provided a stage on which her identity could be played out. Kathleen Christian, ‘Petrarch’s Triumph of Chastity in Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine’, in Coming About … A Festschrift for John Shearman, ed. by Lars Jones and Louisa C. Matthew (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums, 2001), pp. 33–40 (p. 35). 102 In the printed edition, however, this scene bears a closer resemblance (albeit in reverse) to fr. 594 with the skeleton holding a scythe and the chariot with roundels showing skulls and crossed bones. 103 The composition of the scenes in fr. 223 (fol. 160v) and the printed edition (fol. 56r) are strikingly similar. 104 ‘Triumphes de Petrarche, richement historiez et couvers. Item. Les Triumphes de Petrarche, translatees de vulgaire italien en françoys, richement historiees, couvertes de veloux violet, a gros cloux en façon de roses, et ung Jhesus aux deux pars’; see Omont, i, p. 49, no. 324. 105 Maxence Hermant, ‘Les bibliothèques après la mort du cardinal: Enrichissements et dispersions’, in Une Renaissance, ed. by Calame-Levert et al., pp. 231–43 (p. 231). 101

Fig. 23. Workshop of the Ango Hours Master/Acarie Master, Triumph of Death, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541, fol. 77v, c. 1520–25 (© Paris, BnF).

Fig. 24. Triumph of Death, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 223, fol. 123v, before 1510 (© Paris, BnF).

Fig. 25. Workshop of the Ango Hours Master/Acarie Master, Triumph of Fame, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541, fol. 101v, c. 1520–25 (© Paris, BnF).

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The Decorative Programme: Forging an Identity in the Triumphs

Orth attributed the illumination of Anne’s manuscript to two closely related Rouennais workshops led by the so-called Acarie Master and the Ango Hours Master, both of which produced books for members of the French court as well as for notable Rouen dignitaries.106 For instance, the Acarie Workshop illuminated – perhaps in conjunction with the Ango Hours Workshop – a copy of the Roman de la Rose which was presented to Francis I in around 1525.107 The Acarie Workshop also provided some of the decoration in Le Lieur’s Rouen Puy manuscript (fr. 379) as well as in several copies of his poems.108 The six miniatures that open each Triumph in Anne’s manuscript are filled with references to Anne’s identity. Three different anagrams of Anne’s name – j’en garde un leal, garni d’une leale and an vellere digna – appear in the marginal decoration of the Triumph of Time (fol. 188r) and the Triumph of Death (fig. 23). The Graville fermaux appear multiple times, integrated into the border decorations. For instance, on the opening miniature of the Triumph of Love, they form an interlinked chain around the border (fig. 26). Similarly linked fermaux, this time on a black background in the borders of the Triumph of Fame, contain the letters P, for Pierre, and N, for Anne, in their interior (fig. 25). The P and N also appear scattered in the margins of the miniature of the Triumph of Chastity (fig. 18). Anne’s motto, musas natura, lachrymas fortuna (nature brings me the muses, fortune tears), together with the device of a chantepleure appear in the miniatures of the Triumph of Chastity and the Triumph of Love (figs 18 and 26). Finally, in the bas-de-page of the Triumph of Death is a lozenge-shaped shield showing Anne and Pierre’s quartered arms charged with the Visconti guivre (fig. 9). Delving further into the significance of Anne’s motto, her use of the chantepleure device and the way her arms are represented suggest that whereas the text and main illuminations of the Triumphs anchored Anne’s commission in Rouen, the details of the manuscript’s decorative programme served to locate Anne in a wider literary and familial – and specifically female – network. In both the Petrarch manuscript and in the Arsenal Devisement frontispiece (fig. 10) Anne’s motto is accompanied by the chantepleure. Literally meaning ‘singing-crying’, the chantepleure was a hydraulic device for sprinkling water; shaped like a squat bottle, it had many holes on the bottom which would release droplets of water when the opening in the neck was uncorked.109 It is closely associated with Marie de Clèves, poet and wife of the Orth, Renaissance Manuscripts, ii, pp. 229–30; she notes that the style and framings of the large miniatures which fill the folio are ‘thoroughly Rouennais’ and that the ‘striking use of spacious landscape in every composition is consonant with the work of these artists’ in other manuscripts. Hereafter I prefer the use of the term Ango Hours Workshop as argued by Rowan Watson, Western Illuminated Manuscripts, 3 vols (London: V&A Publishing, 2011), ii, p. 716. 107 New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M. 948. 108 For instance, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M. 147, Le Lieur’s Poeme sur la Passion; Orth provides a list of other works attributed to both workshops in Renaissance Manuscripts, i, p. 283; see also her catalogue entries in ii, nos 71 and 74. 109 See Jonathan Saso, ‘Rien ne m’est plus, plus ne m’est rien: la valeur dynastique de la devise de la chantepleure entre Valentine Visconti et Marie de Clèves, duchesses d’Orléans’, in La devise, 106

Fig. 26. Workshop of the Ango Hours Master/Acarie Master, Triumph of Love, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541, fol. 1r, c. 1520–25 (© Paris, BnF).

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Fig. 27. Chantepleure and devices of Marie de Clèves, Boccaccio, Il Filostrato, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25528, fol. 1r, c. 1455–56 (© Paris, BnF).

poet-duke Charles d’Orléans, where it appears in several of her manuscripts along with the motto riens ne m’est plus (sometimes abbreviated to RNMP) and tear-drop motifs; it also featured on items of her jewellery.110 Her copy of a French translation of Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato includes two chantepleures which release droplets of water, or tears, on the opening page (fig. 27).111 Around the chantepleure on the top left is a banderol with Marie’s motto, and the top of the other one is tied with pansies; a symbol, composed of several letters, including l and m, positioned either side of Marie and Charles’s quartered arms un code emblématique européen, ed. by L. Hablot, M. Ferrari et M. de Seixas (forthcoming). My thanks to Laurent Hablot for providing a copy of Saso’s text prior to publication. 110 See René de Maulde-La Clavière, ‘La mère de Louis XII. Marie de Clèves, duchesse d’Orléans’, Revue historique, 36 (1888), 81–112 (pp. 85–86 and n. 1); and Léon de Laborde, Les ducs de Bourgogne: études sur les lettres, les arts et l’industrie pendant le xve siècle, et plus particulièrement dans les Pays-Bas et le duché de Bourgogne, 3 vols (Paris: Plon, 1849–52), including iii, pp. 377–79, nos 6945–47, 6949, 6954. A woman holds a chantepleure and waters a pot of flowers in a tapestry that is thought to show Marie de Clèves and Charles d’Orléans: Paris, Musée des arts décoratifs, inv. 21121. 111 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25528, fol. 1r.



The Rouen Connection: The Puy, Poetry and Petrarch 113

further indicate her ownership.112 The same devices are found in the decorative margins of Marie’s Carpentras manuscript that contains poetic works by her and Charles, and in her copy of the works of Alain Chartier discussed in Chapter 6.113 Contrary to some suggestions, Marie did not adopt her motto or the chantepleure from her mother-in-law, Valentina Visconti, nor did she use them as mourning devices, since they appear on manuscripts that predate the death of Charles d’Orléans.114 Given the dating of Anne’s manuscript to the early to mid-1520s, it also seems unlikely that Anne de Graville was referring to her widowhood, since Pierre died in 1531. Instead, the coupling of Anne’s motto with the chantepleure might be an allusion to the turning of Fortune’s wheel: both featured prominently in a tapestry bearing Anne and Pierre’s arms dated 1523 where the droplets of water falling from the chantepleure are released onto a garden of burgeoning flowers, suggesting that they might not just be tears but also a source of life (fig. 28).115 Interestingly enough, the chantepleure here is held by a hand emerging from clouds, drawing a visual parallel with the disembodied hand in the Chaldean Histories. Thus, used in conjunction with the Visconti guivre – also employed by Marie de Cleves – these devices offered a way for Anne to connect herself with the royal family as well as with a royal, woman, poet. The Visconti guivre was first associated with the royal arms of Orléans through the marriage of Valentina Visconti to Louis I d’Orléans, second son of Charles V, in 1389. In the 1440s their son, Charles d’Orléans, added the guivre to his own arms on his return from captivity in England. The quartered arms of Charles and Marie in Marie’s manuscripts just discussed have the Visconti guivre in 3. Marie’s son, the future Louis XII, who laid claim to the duchy of Milan through this ancestry, also included the guivre in his arms and it was later taken up by Francis I, who continued to pursue Milan as a French territory, although

The combination of letters, which also seems to include a ‘y’, and their meaning, are not entirely clear; see the entry by Hablot in the database Devise: https://devise.saprat.fr/embleme/lm-2 [accessed 1 September 2022]. 113 Carpentras, BM, ms 375, f. 2r and f. 10r; the manuscript was copied from the duke’s manuscript, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25458; and Paris, BnF, ms fr. 20026. 114 For instance, as Saso has shown, the copy of Il Filostrato has been dated to 1456 on the basis of a record of payment for the parchment; see also Pierre Champion, La librairie de Charles d’Orléans (Paris: Champion, 1910), p. 116, n. 8. Some historians, beginning with Brantôme, have assumed that Marie took the motto and device from her mother-in-law, who supposedly adopted them after the murder of her husband, Louis d’Orléans. See Pierre de Bourdeille Brantôme, Vie des femmes illustres françoises et étrangères (Paris: Garnier Frères, 1868), pp. 48–49; and Anna Kłosowska, ‘Tearsong: Valentine Visconti’s Inverted Stoicism’, Glossator, 5 (2011), 173–98 who appears to have misinterpreted references to the ‘duchesse d’Orléans’, since the inventory she cites is dated from 1455, long after Valentina’s death, and is in fact the inventory of Marie de Clèves. Saso has argued that no primary sources mention either the chantepleure or the motto in relation to Valentina and the oldest representations of the device relate to Marie. Thanks to Diane Antille for discussing this with me. 115 Paris, BnF, Estampes, Réserve Pc-18-fol. 65. The date, 1423 is erroneous and is corrected in the BnF catalogue entry. 112

Fig. 28. Roger de Gaignières (1642–1715), drawing of a tapestry from the Célestins de Marcoussis, with the arms, devices and mottos of Anne de Graville and Pierre de Balsac [1523], Paris, BnF, Estampes, Réserve Pc-18-fol. 65 (© Paris, BnF).



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in fact the claim came through his wife, Claude, as Louis XII’s daughter.116 The guivre was therefore closely integrated into French royal heraldry, and Hablot has shown that during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a number of aristocratic families added the guivre to their coats of arms as a means of demonstrating their allegiance to the monarchy.117 Whereas this is one explanation for the guivre charge on Anne’s arms, there is also another, her blood connection to the dukes of Milan. Her great-grandmother was Bonne Visconti (1385–1469), a second cousin of Valentina and also aunt of the queen of France, Isabel of Bavaria. Bonne married Guillaume de Montauban (d. 1432), Queen Isabel’s chancellier, and a number of Anne’s Montauban ancestors included the guivre in their arms.118 Anne’s own use of this symbol thus had a familial precedent and was an important means for her to call attention to her royal ancestors and her own loyalty to, and association with, the present monarchy and their entourage. Finally, Anne’s choice to use a quartered coat of arms deserves comment. The lozenge-shaped shield typically associated with women that appears in the bas-de-page on folio 77v shows the Balsac arms in 1 and 4 and the Graville arms in 2 and 3 (fig. 9). The quartering of a couple’s arms was a means to emphasise the prestige of both lineages, placing the husband’s and the wife’s houses on an almost equal footing.119 Here, since Anne and Pierre were cousins, the alternating Balsac and Graville arms of the Petrarch manuscript indicate both Pierre de Balsac’s origins and his Graville connection through Anne, as well as Anne de Graville’s double link – through husband and mother – to the Balsac family.120 Yet, despite the references to Pierre in the marginal letter Ps and his coat of arms on the winged horse, the charging of their joint arms with the guivre of Anne’s own lineage (already both Balsac and Graville), together with the abundant repetition of her personal devices and mottos, suggest that it was primarily her identity that was being promoted in this intensely symbolic manuscript. The Rouen manuscripts discussed in this chapter, coupled with Anne’s more low-key purchases made in the city in the 1520s, bear witnesses to the importance of the Normandy region and its capital in Anne’s life and her family’s history. They also flesh out the extent of Anne’s literary knowledge and networks, indicating some of the ways in which she saw herself, and was seen by others, in a period in which her reputation was on the rise and the production of her own works was well underway.

Laurent Hablot, ‘La mémoire héraldique des Visconti dans la France du XVe siècle’, in L’Arme Segreta: Araldica e storia dell’arte ne Medioevo (secoli XIII–XV)), ed. by M. Ferra (Florence: Le Lettere, 2015), pp. 267–83 (p. 273). 117 See the discussion in Hablot, ‘La mémoire héraldique’. 118 Bonne’s father, Carlo, and Valentina’s father, Giangaleazzo, were cousins. Bonne and Guillaume’s daughter Marie was the first wife of Jean VI de Graville and the mother of Louis. 119 I am grateful to Laurent Hablot for his thoughts regarding this shield. 120 The quartered arms of Balsac-Graville charged with the guivre and another motif are also found in the Arsenal copy of the Mutacion de Fortune; see the discussion in the next chapter. 116

Part II

From Reading to Writing: Anne as Author

4 Musas natura, lachrymas fortuna: Anne de Graville, Christine de Pizan, and Women’s Shaping of the querelle des femmes Around one hundred years before Anne de Graville offered her works to Queen Claude and Louise of Savoy, another woman, more famous to scholars today, also embarked on her literary career at the French court. Christine de Pizan had come there in the 1360s when her father, Tommaso di Pizzano, became astrologer to Charles V; in 1380 she married Etienne de Castel, the king’s secretary, a union that probably gave her access to the royal library.1 When Charles V died in 1380, her father suffered a serious downturn in his status and health, and in 1388 he passed away. His death was followed a year later by that of Christine’s husband. Finding herself at the bottom of Fortune’s wheel, Christine began her literary activity as a means to support herself, her young family and her elderly mother. Her output was prolific, and she authored numerous texts in both poetry and prose that dealt with questions of conduct, good government, war and peace, courtly love and the benefits of study. She remains best known, however, for her engagement in the querelle de la Rose, in which she took issue with the misogyny and immorality in Jean de Meun’s continuation of the Roman de la Rose and, later, her participation in the querelle des femmes. The Livre de la Cité des dames, written around 1405, was a major intervention in the debate about women in which she ‘tackles the problem of misogyny head-on, offering an alternative view of history in which women’s contribution as historical figures is fully recognised’.2 After 1430, most aristocratic women’s libraries in France included at least one, if not all three, of Christine’s most pro-feminine texts, the Cité, the Epistre Othea and the Livre des trois vertus (Le Trésor de la Cité des dames), often in conjunction with one of the French translations of Boccaccio’s De mulieribus claris.3 Christine de Pizan, The Book of the Mutability of Fortune, ed. and trans. by Geri L. Smith (Toronto: Iter Press, 2017), p. 5 (hereafter Mutability). For a recent and very accessible discussion of Christine’s life and works, see also Charlotte Cooper-Davis, Christine de Pizan: Life, Work, Legacy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022). 2 Rosalind Brown-Grant, Christine de Pizan and the Moral Defence of Women: Reading Beyond Gender (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 128. 3 Beaune and Lequain, p. 125; I paraphrase the French. An anonymous translation of the De mulieribus claris, Des cleres et nobles femmes, appeared in 1401; Vérard published another anonymous translation in 1493 that was dedicated to Anne of Brittany, Le livre de Jehan Bocasse de 1

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The aim of this chapter is three-fold. First it explores Anne de Graville’s knowledge of and interaction with Christine de Pizan, and with the querelle des femmes more broadly. The similarities between the two women cannot have been lost on Anne: both women were victims of the vagaries of Fortune, both were pro-feminine writers seeking the patronage of women at the French court and both had themselves represented as authors in copies of their works.4 Moreover, the important emphasis placed on reading in Christine’s works, both as an activity in itself and as one closely related to writing, provided a model for Anne’s own literary practice. By associating herself with her predecessor in various ways, Anne was able to establish her authority as a writer and appeal to Queen Claude and the women in her entourage who would also have been familiar with Christine and the querelle des femmes. Second, this chapter looks to move away from the tendency to see women just as readers and patrons of male-authored querelle works by considering how the writings of some of Anne’s contemporaries, notably Anne of France, Catherine d’Amboise and Margaret of Navarre, might be seen as responding to, and expanding, that querelle, thus also fleshing out a tangible network in which Anne created her own works.5 In this sense, the chapter aims to fill a gap parallel to that which Swift was filling in her study of men’s defences of women that fall ‘between Christine de Pizan […] and a later generation of women writers and male, Neoplatonic writers who have all received due critical attention’, by looking at how women after Christine – but before the later generation that includes writers like Labé – entered and shaped the debate.6 The chapter thus provides important context for situating Anne as a key player between Christine de Pizan and Margaret of Navarre and for the analysis of her own pro-feminine works that are discussed in Chapters 5 and 6. Finally, to explore further the notion of the querelle’s scope, the chapter ends by considering two more manuscripts from Anne’s collection: her copy of the French translation of Boccaccio’s De casibus and the volume containing the Petit Jehan de Saintré and Floridan et Elvide. Considering how the format and themes of these texts could have evoked the querelle for a contemporary reader through their relationship to works by Christine and Chartier, it suggests that knowledge of the querelle could be accessed in a variety of ways, not just through the most frequently cited defences such as Boccaccio’s De mulieribus or Christine’s Cité. Similarly, an author’s participation in the querelle might not consist simply of their writing of ‘catalogue’-style texts or those which overtly set out to defend women but, as in the case of the women discussed here, might include works in other genres or formats that make la louenge et vertu des nobles et cleres dames. On the French versions of De mulieribus claris more broadly, see Brigitte Buettner, Boccaccio’s ‘Des cleres et nobles femmes’: Systems of Signification in an Illuminated Manuscript (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1996). 4 The connections between the two writers were first noted by Christine Reno, ‘Anne Malet de Graville: A Sixteenth Century Collector Reads (and Writes) Christine’, The Profane Arts of the Middle Ages / Les arts profanes au Moyen Âge, 7 (1998), 170–82. 5 Solterer (pp. 3–4) notes that women have long been recognised as readers of literature but that this reading is restricted to ‘first-degree literacy’. 6 Swift, p. v.



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use of themes and protagonists commonly associated with the querelle. Looking beyond the traditional parameters of how the querelle des femmes (and by extension the querelle de la BDSM) was experienced and articulated helps to reframe that debate and create a space in which women’s participation in it, as both readers and writers, can be more fully appreciated.

Christine, Anne and the Mutacion de Fortune

Christine began writing the Mutacion de Fortune, which has been described as ‘a universal history framed by a personal history’, in 1400 and completed it on 18 November 1403.7 In the work, Christine-the-protagonist recounts her experience of the goddess Fortune who causes the death of her beloved husband, then changes her into a man so that she can ‘handle the responsibilities and tribulations that her loss has imposed on her’.8 Christine-the-author combines this story with an exploration of the effect that this fickle mistress has wreaked on the rulers, heroes and civilisations of the world. In the (near parallel) world outside the allegory, Christine-the-author was also subject to the turning of Fortune’s wheel with the death, first, of her father’s patron, Charles V, followed by those of her father and her husband. Fortune’s wheel then turned in Christine’s favour when she found success as a writer at the French court.9 The Mutacion was copied eight times under Christine’s supervision, making it one of her more popular works during her lifetime.10 The Munich manuscript to which Marie de Balsac added her arms in the bas-de-page is one of these copies: it was written on parchment and contains six miniatures illuminated by the Master of the City of Ladies around 1410–11.11 A partly erased inscription either side of the shield reads ‘Pour Mons[eigneur] Kevin Brownlee, ‘The Image of History in Christine de Pizan’s Livre de la mutacion de Fortune’, in Contexts: Style and Values in Medieval Art and Literature, ed. by Daniel Poirion and Nancy Freeman Regalado, special issue of Yale French Studies, 44 (1991), 44–56 (p. 44). The Mutacion consists of seven books of 23,636 lines of octosyllabic rhyming couplets as well as a passage in prose which appears at the end of Book IV. The first three chapters detail Christine’s life and transformation and describe her encounters at Fortune’s castle. The second part of the work offers a world history, beginning with Adam and Eve and continuing through the histories of places and people like Assyria, Thebes and Athens, Queen Semiramis, Oedipus, Judith and Esther, with particular attention paid to the Amazons and the history of Troy in Book VI. For a more detailed summary of the Mutacion, see Le Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune par Christine de Pisan, ed. by Suzanne Solente, 4 vols (Paris: Picard, 1959) (hereafter Mutacion) and for a summary in English, see that provided by Smith in Mutability, pp. 14–16. 8 Mutability, p. 15. 9 However, as McGrady has noted, the situation was not always stable, as, for instance, when the death of Philip the Good left her biography of Charles V ‘orphaned’; McGrady, The Writer’s Gift, pp. 209–213. 10 On the manuscript copies of the Mutacion, see Album Christine, pp. 413ff. 11 For a full description, see Album Christine, pp. 469–75. The manuscript has one space for a seventh miniature that has not been completed. It is now missing the seventh book, the rubric for which has been scratched out. 7

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de Montagu’. This suggests that it was once in the possession of the Montagu family, Anne’s ancestors who were close to Charles V and VI, not long after its production and that it came to the Graville family through inheritance.12 Despite its initial popularity, surviving manuscripts suggest that the Mutacion was less frequently copied in later decades than works like the Othea and the Cité des dames. The Arsenal copy of the Mutacion also belonging to Anne is one of only a very small number of (surviving) copies of the text made around 1500, making Anne’s commissioning of a second copy a very specific, as well as an unusual, choice.13 Anne may have been drawn to the Mutacion for a variety of reasons, not least the theme of Fortune which can be discerned elsewhere in her collection and oeuvre. In addition to their shared experience of this goddess, Anne and Christine’s connections to the royal court at the time of Charles V and his descendants would also have resonated with Anne. Although Christine began her literary career some twenty years after Charles V’s death, she continued to hold her father’s employer in very high esteem and McGrady notes that ‘her pursuit of patronage was infused with a nostalgic desire to revive the intellectual community she associated with [him]’.14 Items in Louis de Graville’s collection inherited by Anne linked the Gravilles’ literary interests to Charles’s court, and acted as a reminder of their loyal service to the monarchy some hundred years earlier. As seen in the previous chapter, Anne’s sporting of the Visconti guivre on her coat of arms was another way of marking her connection to royalty and evoking the literary context in which both she and Christine were working. Christine’s activity as a reader played an important part in the writing of the Mutacion. She drew on a variety of sources she had probably encountered in the royal library, particularly the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César and the Jeu des eschés moralisé, as well as the Aeneid, the Roman de la Rose, the Prose Lancelot, the Divine Comedy, the Ovide moralisé, Brunetto Latini’s Livre du Trésor, and Isidore of Seville’s Etymologies.15 Miranda Griffin has argued My thanks to Hanno Wijsman for deciphering this and to Munich BSB for providing photographs taken under UV light. The authors of Album Christine (p. 470, n. 9) read the name as ‘[Marcousys?]’. It is tempting to think the inscription refers to Anne’s ancestor Jean de Montagu, whose books were confiscated after he was condemned to death in 1409, but this would predate the traditional dating of the manuscript to 1410–11. 13 A manuscript containing books IV and V of the Mutacion was copied in the early sixteenth century: Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25430. Angus Kennedy has noted the close similarity of this manuscript to a fragmentary copy of the Epistre à la reine in Brussels, KBR, ms IV 1176. See his ‘Le manuscript de Châtellerault. Un manuscrit perdu du VIIe livre de “La Mutacion de Fortune”’, in The City of Scholars: New Approaches to Christine de Pizan, ed. by Margarete Zimmerman and Dina De Rentiis (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 1994), pp. 107–15 and his ‘Christine de Pizan, Victor de Saint-Genis et le manuscrit de Châtellerault’, Romania, 109 (1988), 540–60. 14 McGrady, The Writer’s Gift, p. 179 15 On Christine’s use of sources, see Solente’s detailed analysis in Mutacion, i, pp. xxx–xcviii, as well as her, ‘Le Jeu des échecs moralisés, source de la Mutacion de Fortune’, in Recueil des Travaux offerts à M. Clovis Brunel par ses amis, collègues, et élèves, 2 vols (Paris: Société de l’Ecole des Chartes, 12

Fig. 29. Master of the City of Ladies, Christine de Pizan in her Study, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune, Munich, BSB, Cod. Gall. 11, fol. 2r, c. 1410–11 (© Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München).

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that Christine de Pizan was ‘transformed by the Fortunes of her reading and her readings about Fortune; and in turn, she transforms her own reading into a unique and diverse literary corpus’.16 More generally, Marilynn Desmond notes that ‘[r]eadership is central to authorship throughout the texts of Christine de Pizan, a fact that is visually emphasised by the variations on the “humanist” portrait of the author as reader that frequently accompany her works’.17 One of the two author-portraits of Christine in the Munich Mutacion shows her with pen in hand, in the act of writing. She is, however, also surrounded by books that point to the link between reading and writing: three are haphazardly piled on her writing desk, and another large tome lurks on the lower shelf (fig. 29).18 As seen in Chapter 1, some of the works that Christine used in writing the Mutacion were present in Anne de Graville’s collection, including two copies of the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César and the Jeu des eschés moralisé.19 In seeking out these works and in commissioning a second copy of the Mutacion – when Fortune seems to have been in her favour – Anne was able to engage in an (inter) active reading process that confronted Christine’s works with the sources that she had used. I propose that Christine – as both reader and writer – provided a model for Anne de Graville’s own synthesis of the two activities to the extent that we might consider Anne, like Christine, to have been ‘transformed by the Fortunes of her reading and her readings about Fortune’.20

Anne’s Copies of the Mutacion: Munich, Gall. 11 and Arsenal 3172

Reno has shown that Marie’s Munich manuscript did not serve as the direct model for the Arsenal copy, although they are closely related both to each other and to another early witness, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 603, which shares a scribe, illuminator and border decorator with the Munich copy.21 Arsenal 3172, now in a d’Urfé binding, was copied on paper in a



16



17



18



19



20 21

1955), ii, pp. 556–65; see also Franziska Huber, ‘L’histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, source du Livre de la mutacion de Fortune de Christine de Pizan: Etude comparative des récits sur Cyrus’, in Au Champs des Escriptures: IIIe colloque international sur Christine de Pizan, ed. by Eric Hicks, Diego Gonzalez and Philippe Simon (Paris: Champion, 2000), pp. 161–74; and Brownlee, pp. 44–56. A brief overview of Christine’s sources is also given in English in Mutability, pp. 18–19. Miranda Griffin, ‘Transforming Fortune: Reading and Chance in Christine de Pizan’s Mutacion de Fortune and Chemin de long estude’, The Modern Language Review, 104 (2019), 55–70 (p. 70). Marilynn Desmond, Reading Dido: Gender, Textuality and the Medieval Aeneid (London: University of Minnesota Press, 1994), p. 194, my emphasis. The other author-portrait appears on fol. 53r and shows Christine-the-protagonist observing the paintings that decorate the walls in the Salle de Fortune. As noted above, she may also have owned other works known to Christine, such as the copy of the Roman de la Rose (Arsenal 5210) inscribed ‘Pour Monseigneur de Marcoussis’. Griffin, p. 5. See Reno and the notice on fr. 603 in Album Christine, pp. 295ff. The original owner of this manuscript is not known, but in Album Christine the authors follow Charity Cannon Willard, who first indicated it must have been an Armagnac patron, since no reference is made to the victory of John the Fearless in Liège, whereas this is emphasised in the copy Christine offered to Philip the Bold (Brussels, KBR, ms 10476); see Album Christine, p. 185, and Willard, ‘Christine de Pisan’s



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careful, roman script. Space has been left at the start of each book for a miniature that has not been executed; titles and chapter numbers are written in red, and blue or red letters appear at the beginning of each chapter.22 The manuscript now contains only books I–V, but the text was misbound before the last two books were lost, as indicated by various notes showing the reader how to follow the text.23 A quartered coat of arms is found in the bas-de-page of folio 1r (fig. 30). These arms are charged with another shield that is quartered with the Visconti guivre and de gueules au portail or chateau d’or. Whereas the guivre highlighted Anne’s familial link to the Visconti and the Orléans families, the castle motif would presumably relate to one of Pierre’s territories or family connections, perhaps the Castelnau of his mother. The placing of Anne’s married arms at the bottom of the first page of the Arsenal manuscript directly parallels the addition of Marie de Balsac’s married arms in the Munich copy, thus creating a visual link between the two manuscripts that complements their shared textual variants and annotations. The Munich manuscript includes annotations in two different hands, one early fifteenth-century that the editors of Album Christine have argued is that of Christine herself and another, sixteenth-century one, that Reno identifies as Anne de Graville’s, since the same corrections and annotations, in the same sixteenth-century hand, are also found in the Arsenal manuscript.24 Together, these insertions in both manuscripts produce variant readings that are not found elsewhere, leading Reno to argue that they constitute Anne’s Treatise on the Art of Warfare’, in Essays in Honor of Louis Francis Solano, ed. by Raymond C. Cormier and Urban Tigner Holmes (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1970), pp. 179–91 (p. 181). 22 There are also yellow highlights to the first letter of each line from fols 1–66v. 23 A note at the bottom of folio 258v ‘Tournez xl feuilletz a la signe .P.’ has no corresponding sign eleven folios later, meaning that that part of the manuscript had already been lost when it was bound for Jeanne and Claude d’Urfé. Other indications in Arsenal 3172 regarding the misbinding occur, for example, at fol. 69v, which ends with the marginal note ‘Tourne ung feillet en ce signe’ followed by a drawing of a flower; the correct text follows at the top of fol. 71r, where the flower symbol has been drawn in. Similar indications are used to navigate the misbinding in Anne’s copy of Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, discussed below. 24 See Album Christine, p. 475 and Reno, p. 177. I am also grateful to Christine Reno for discussing these additions and the hands with me. The Arsenal Mutacion includes corrections to the text in different scripts but which are conceivably the same hand. For instance, a relatively large script has been used to make various corrections to the text on folios 18v, 181v, 185v, 254v and 289r. This hand shows a distinctive left-leaning angle to the descender of ‘y’ which is common to other examples of what is likely Anne’s handwriting. This ‘y’ can also be seen in the smaller script that appears in both the Munich and the Arsenal copies: compare for instance ‘ainssy’ in Gall. 11 (fol. 53v) with ‘ainsy’ and ‘luy’ in Arsenal 3172 (fols 185v and 39r). This is probably the same hand, using a very small script, that noted the birth of Christine on folio 106r and wrote the instructions on navigating the misbinding (see below). It was not impossible for scribes to switch between different scripts, and Anne may have used a series of styles: Reno et al. in Album Christine (pp. 37–38 and n. 45) identify two hands, X and X1 as both belonging to Christine de Pizan. See also Carla Bozzolo, ‘L’Humaniste Gontier Col et Boccace’, in Boccaccio in Europe. Proceedings of the Boccaccio Conference, Louvain, December 1975, ed. by Gilbert Tournoy (Leuven:

Fig. 30. Anne de Graville’s quartered arms, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune, Paris, Arsenal, ms 3172, fol. 1r, c. 1520 (© Paris, BnF).



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Fig. 31. Pointing hand, marginal drawing, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune, Paris, Arsenal, ms 3172, fol. 3r (detail), c. 1520 (© Paris, BnF).

own inventions, rather than corrections copied from another text.25 Other sixteenth-century marginal annotations in the Arsenal manuscript offer further evidence of Anne’s close reading of this text. For instance, a pointing finger on folio 3r flags up the line ‘Par bien aprendre est on savant’ (fig. 31).26 The context of this is Christine-the-narrator’s description of Fortune and her court: Car grant royne ert couronnée Et plus crainte que autre riens née Si tient court et moult plainiere Ou gent a de mainte maniere Si peut qui veult la moult aprendre Et du bien et du mal yprendre Par bien aprendre est on savant Et par servir vient en avant27 Leuven University Press, 1977), pp. 15–22 (p. 20), where she notes how Col used different forms of writing according to the context. 25 Reno, p. 181. For a list of the variants, see Reno, p. 176, n. 16 and her discussion of these, pp. 177–82. 26 Quotations in this discussion of the Arsenal Mutacion are taken directly from that manuscript with corresponding folio numbers; reference to the corresponding line numbers in Solente’s edition and to Smith’s translation, Mutability (where given) are also indicated. 27 Arsenal 3172, fol. 3r; Mutacion, vv. 95–102.

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She is a great crowned queen, more feared than anything ever born, with a grand and very powerful court where there are many different kinds of people. Whoever wishes to can learn a lot there, taking the good as well as the bad. One becomes wise by learning well, and gets ahead by serving.28

Anne has here highlighted ‘Christine’s testimony to the value of serious study’ – something at which she also hints in her Beau roman – but also, perhaps, what it means to be an apprentice of Fortune.29 The sentiment of the highlighted line and that which follows, ‘et par server vient en avant’, is echoed a bit later in the Mutacion, where Christine wonders what she did wrong since she served well but encountered only suffering: Je ne scay s’en servant mespris Car moult petit loier y pris Si yoz je duresse et peine Et mainte contraire sepmaine Travail penible et anyeux Sanz qu’il m’en fust en riens de myeulx Mais je me doute et il peut estre Que la deffault tint au maistre Car bon loier celluy attent Qui service a bon maistre tent.30 I do not know if I made a mistake in serving, because I earned very little reward for it. I endured cruel suffering, many hard times, and tiresome and troublesome work, without anything getting any better for me. I am afraid that the fault lies with the master, however, because good recompense comes to one who serves a good master.31

At this point in the Arsenal manuscript, another pointing hand appears in the margin and a short line is drawn between the two lines ‘Car bon loier celluy attent / Qui service a bon maistre tent’. For Reno, these phrases evoke the relationship between writer and patron which was of particular concern to Christine.32 Anne’s highlighting of these lines reveals that she, too, was sensitive to the writer/patron relationship as she sought to demonstrate her learning and win the favour, first of Claude and then of Louise of Savoy. Anne also drew attention to another passage in the Mutacion that refers to Christine-the-narrator’s relationship to her father’s wealth (fig. 32). On folio 10r, a face with lines spouting from its mouth has been sketched in the margins, picking out the lines ‘Plus par coustume que par droit / Se droit regnoit rien n’y perdroit’ in the following passage: 30 31 32 28 29

Mutability, p. 30. Reno, p. 178. BR, lines 3580–91. Arsenal 3172, fol. 3v; Mutacion, vv. 113–22. Mutability, p. 30. As also explored by McGrady in The Writer’s Gift.



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Fig. 32. Face, marginal drawing, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune, Paris, Arsenal, ms 3172, fol. 10r (detail), c. 1520 (© Paris, BnF).

Mais pource que fille fuz née Ce n’estoit pas chose ordonnée Qu’en richir deusse n’amander Des biens mon pere et succeder Ne poz a lavoir qui est pris En la fontaine de grant pris Plus que costume que par droit Se droit regnoit rien n’y perdroit La femelle ne que le filz Mais en mains lieux j’en suis tous fis Reignent plus coustume que drois Par celle cause entous endrois Je perdi par faute d’apprendre.33

Arsenal 3172, fol. 10r; Mutacion, vv. 413–25.

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But since I was born a girl, it was not the norm that I would benefit in any way from my father’s wealth. More by custom than by right, I could not inherit the wealth that was taken at the esteemed fountain. If justice ruled, the female would lose nothing in this regard, no more than the son. But I am absolutely certain that in many places, customs reign over justice. Therefore, due to a lack of learning, I lost out utterly on this very rich treasure.34

Whereas Anne did not lose out through a lack of learning or on her inheritance because of her sex (her parents had no surviving sons), she was nevertheless initially deprived of her parents’ intellectual, as well as material, wealth in the form of their books, through her disinheritance. Christine’s commentary on the injustices not just of inheritance but of the inheritance of knowledge must therefore have resonated strongly with Anne de Graville, to the extent that these passages were worth highlighting. Other comments by Christine about wealth and riches, and their link with Fortune, are also singled out in the Arsenal manuscript. For instance, on folio 37r, in a section detailing that Lady Wealth is the sister of Fortune and does nothing ‘unless it were Fortune’s will’, a further manicule points to the lines ‘Car fortune estoit pieca née/ Ains que richece fust formée’ (because Fortune had already been around for some time before Wealth came to be’).35 A few lines later, Christine speaks of Fortune’s two brothers, Mischance, who ‘oversees my lady’s justice, and there is not rightfulness in it at all’, and Luck, who ‘keeps company with Wealth’.36 On folio 41r in the passage describing the ways of Luck, lines have been drawn in the margin that pick out the phrase ‘On l’acquiert a trop grant dangier / Et si le pert on de legier’: Mais qui peut sa cointance avoir Il ne faut pas a grant avoir Qui la bien se peut tenir cointe Mais a pou de gent est acointe On l’acquiert a trop grant dangier Et si le pert on de legier Sans savoir pour quelle achoison.37 But whoever can gain his friendship will never lack for wealth. Whoever has it can consider himself quite clever – Luck is a friend to few people. His favor is acquired with great difficulty, and one loses it easily without knowing why.38

36 37 38 34 35

Mutability, p. 36. Mutacion, vv. 1613–14; Mutability, pp. 50–51. Mutability, p. 52. Arsenal 3172, fol. 41r; Mutacion, vv. 1785–91. Mutability, p. 53.



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As Reno points out, these are ‘reflexions on the evanescent nature of riches which are amassed with difficulty and easily lost’.39 Anne may have felt that such points were relevant not only to her family’s history and her own situation but also to those of others around her at the court – in particular, perhaps, the connétable, Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier. As the next two chapters show, Charles had his inheritance challenged by Louise of Savoy in the early 1520s and his belongings – including his library – were eventually confiscated; Anne’s decision to offer her Rondeaux to Louise might also have been a way for Anne – whose family had ties to the constable – to negotiate the fall-out from this situation. A final annotation in the Arsenal manuscript worth noting is the passage in the section dealing with the ‘place of nobles’ where Christine-the-protagonist sees many people, ‘some admirable and others prone to bad behaviour’.40 Converging lines in the left margin and a No[ta] in the right flag up the lines ‘De nulluy car qui aultruy blasme / Sur soy meisme acquiert le blasme’ (speaking ill of people only reflects badly on the critic).41 Christine is here seeking to expose some of the troubling vices that she observed amongst nobles ‘such as excessive drinking, foul language, and indulgence’.42 Her moralising tone is present elsewhere in her works where she is not afraid to criticise her peers or superiors. In fact, (in)appropriate language and behaviour – including slander – are recurrent themes of the querelle des femmes and the querelle de la BDSM.43 Anne de Graville picks up on this when she has the Belle dame note the dangers to women of deceptive speech in her rondeau 68, and when, in the Beau roman, she points to the need to use speech wisely. Moreover, as we saw in Chapter 3, Anne advised the reader of her rondeau ‘Pour le meilleur’ to exercise moderation and loyalty in their speech and behaviour. Furthermore, it is possible that in highlighting these passages Anne may have been once more thinking of the Bourbon succession affair, since, as Denis Crouzet has shown, the dispute was partly played out through accusatory rhetorical exchanges.44 In Book VI of the Mutacion Christine drew in particular on the Histoire ancienne to recount the history of the Amazons and of Troy. In the Munich manuscript, this section opens with a miniature showing the Amazon queen Penthesilea leading her women into battle (fig. 33). Christine recounts a fight between Hippolyta and Theseus, and Menalippe and Hercules, that is also described at some length in the Cité des dames.45 In the Mutacion, Christine states that

41 42 43

Reno, p. 178. Mutability, p. 90. Arsenal 3172, fol. 113r; Mutacion, vv. 5145–46. Mutability, p. 90. For a broader discussion of the role of defamation and verbal injury in relation to the querelle and women’s responses, see Solterer, esp. chapters 6 and 7. 44 Denis Crouzet, Charles de Bourbon: Connétable de France (Paris: Fayard, 2003), esp. pp. 292–310. 45 The story occurs in I. 48 of the Cité; see Christine de Pizan, City of Ladies, pp. 41–42. 39 40

Fig. 33. Master of the City of Ladies, Amazons going into battle, led by Penthesilea, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune, Munich, BSB, Cod. Gall. 11, fol. 109v (detail), c. 1410–11 (© Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München).



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L’afrainte oirent les .II. seurs Pucelles de moult grant eslite Ce ert Menalipe et Ypolite, Ainsi estoient appellees, Qui de ce estoient adoullees Suers de Sinoppe la royne Furent et de [moult] noble orine Moult richement se sont armées Icelles et bien achemées Montees sur riches destriers, Et bien seans sur les estriers, Lances es poings, de grant eslés Vint Menalippe a Hercules A Theseus jouste Ypolite Qui moult en armes se delicte. Si dorent grante honneur avoir De celle jouste, a dire voir, Car les meilleurs de tout le mond Trebuch[er]ent, tout en un mond Cheval et tout et jus getterent, Du premier coup qu’elles jousterent.46 Two sisters, maidens of very great quality, heard the noise of the battle. They were called Menalipe and Hyppolite, and they were very distressed about this. They were sisters of the queen Sinope and were of very noble origin. They armed themselves most grandly and prepared for battle, mounted on rich war-horses, well positioned in the stirrups, lances in hand. Menalipe attacked Hercules at full gallop. Hyppolite, who took great pleasure in feats of arms, fought with Theseus. And they should have had great honour from this fight, to tell the truth, because they made the best in the whole world fall in a heap, horse and all, and threw them down with the first blow that they dealt.47

This description of the battle recalls the encounter between Hippolyta and Theseus at the opening of the Beau roman, and a couple of annotations to this passage in the Munich copy suggest that Anne brought her knowledge of it to bear on her own retelling of this battle.48 Christine’s emphasis on Hippolyta’s love of fighting (Qui moult en armes se delicte) is reiterated by Anne when she refers to Hippolyta’s military prowess (ses trespuissans efforts) which is appreciated by Theseus and, later, her desire to engage in the fight The citation is from Gall. 11, fol. 106r; insertions by Anne are marked in square brackets; Mutacion, vv. 13758–78. 47 Mutability, p. 161. 48 For example, in Gall. 11. fol. 104r, insertion of ‘grant’ in the penultimate line of the second column. 46

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Fig. 34. Robinet Testard, Penthesilea, Boccaccio, Des cleres et nobles femmes, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 599, fol. 27v (detail), c. 1488–96 (© Paris, BnF).

between Palamon and Arcita.49 The Amazons’ prowess is further reinforced by the miniature of Penthesilea and her army in the Munich manuscript in which the female warriors dominate the space, charging from the left as if they will push the men out of the frame on the right.50 Such an image of female force, which is not found in any other surviving Mutacion manuscript, also offered a visualisation of women’s bravery that would have provided further impetus for Anne’s own emphasis on the bravery and virtue of Hippolyta.51 Olga Vassilieva-Codognet has linked the image of the charging Penthesilea in the Munich Mutacion to a copy of Boccaccio’s Des cleres et nobles femmes made for Louise of Savoy around 1497 (figs 33–34). She notes that the Amazon queen painted by Robinet Testard in Louise’s manuscript has the same flowing golden hair and pointed headdress as that of Penthesilea in the Munich copy, leading her to conclude that Testard must have known the Munich copy with its unique image.52 Given the date of Louise’s manuscript, it would have probably been Marie, who died in 1503, rather than Anne, who lent Louise ‘Ypolite /Qui n’avait pas la volunté petite. /Bien eut voulu qu’aux rudes coups donner’, BR, lines 1844–46. 50 For the story, see Mutacion, vv. 17641–770 and Mutability, p. 193. 51 On the iconography as unique, see Olga Vassilieva-Codognet ‘Quelques échos des miniatures du Livre de la mutacion de Fortune dans l’entourage de Louise de Savoie’, Le Moyen Français, 78–79 (2016), 255–71. 52 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 599, fol. 27v; Vassilieva-Codognet mistakenly states that fr. 599 is a copy of the Heroides; the copy of this text that Testard illuminated for Louise is fr. 875. 49



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the Munich copy. Although it is difficult to prove that such an exchange took place, the miniature might nonetheless constitute the tangible remains of Marie’s own involvement in the bibliophilic networks of women at the French court, one that perhaps paved the way for her daughter Anne to present her works to Claude and Louise.

Reputation and Eloquence

Several of Anne de Graville’s manuscripts that have been discussed thus far point to another parallel with Christine de Pizan – the use of mottos, riddles and word plays. Christine almost always shortened her first name to ‘xpine’, combining the Greek letters chi rho (χρ), which were used as an abbreviation for Christ, plus the letters ‘ine’.53 In the Dit de la Rose from 1402, Christine says that her name will be revealed to anyone ‘Qui un seul cry crieroit, et la fin d’aoust y mettrait, / së il distoit avec une yne’ (if he will say a single cry / then add the month of August’s end / and if he says it with an een).54 Lori J. Walters suggests that Christine’s use of the divine abbreviation xpine was a way of sanctifying her advisory role to both the queen of France, Isabel of Bavaria, and to her son, the future Charles VII.55 In the Mutacion de Fortune, Christine refers to this abbreviation explicitly: Or diray je quel est mon nom Qui savoir le veille ou qui non Combien qu’il soit pou renommé Mais quant pour estre adroit nommé Le nom du plus parfait homme Qui onques fut, le mien nomme I.n.e fault avec mettre.56 I will tell you my name, whether anyone wants me to or not. Although it is little known, in order for my name to be stated correctly, take the name of the most perfect man who ever was, and you must put I.N.E. with it.57

The ‘most perfect man’ is, of course, Christ, to which INE must be added. In Anne de Graville’s Arsenal copy of the Mutacion, the line ‘I.n.e fault avec mettre’ appears to have been completed separately, making it stand out for the reader on the page. Further on in Multiple examples are found, for instance, in Harley 4431, where she also employed riddles in referring to her name. See Lori J. Walters’s discussion: www.pizan.lib.ed.ac.uk/waltersanagrams. html [accessed 2 June 2022]. 54 Mutability, p. 17; emphasis original. 55 Walters, ‘Remembering Christine de Pizan in Paris, BnF, MS fr. 24392, A Manuscript Owned by Anne de France, Duchess of Bourbon’, Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures, 6 (2017), 15–66 (p. 23). 56 Arsenal 3172, fol. 9r; Mutacion, vv. 371–77. 57 Mutability, p. 34. 53

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the Arsenal manuscript, on folio 106r, the line referring to Christine’s birth in Italy has been underlined and a marginal annotation reads ‘la nativité xpine’.58 An encomium addressed to Anne of France and dating from the period of her regency (1483–91) for Charles VIII also employs the form ‘xpine’ when describing Anne as having ‘the profound eloquence of Christine’.59 Walters argues that the use of this form indicates a reader familiar both with Christine’s works and also with her (self-proclaimed) role as an advisor to the French monarchy. She thus suggests that the author of the encomium – perhaps Jacques de Brézé – was drawing a parallel between Anne as regent and Christine: ‘Anne follows Christine as a dispenser of oral and written advice, both women becoming masters of eloquence in the service of the state’.60 Moreover, she argues that the encomium shows how, even before she had written her Enseignements for her daughter Suzanne, Anne ‘was already engaged in an ongoing process of self-fashioning’ that took Christine’s life as a model, ‘a life characterised by her verbal and literary eloquence’.61 Anne de Graville’s use of the form ‘xpine’ in the Arsenal Mutacion indicates that she was also conversant with Christine’s works and reputation and, like Anne of France, found her a suitable and relevant model. Given Anne de Graville’s courtly connections and the fact that the Enseignements circulated amongst, and was disseminated at the instigation of, women readers it is likely that she had some knowledge of the text.62 For example, the presentation copy made for Suzanne (now lost) and which included another work, the Histoire du siege de Brest, was at one point in the possession of Diane of Poitiers, whom Anne probably encountered in Normandy.63 A printed edition appeared at ‘à la requête de très haute et puissante princesse Madame Suzanne de Bourbon’ (at the request of her highness the powerful princess, Madame Suzanne de Bourbon) probably before Suzanne’s death in 1521.64 This edition provided the basis of another, printed at the instigation of Margaret of Navarre by her ‘tres humble serviteur Jehan Barril’ (her very humble servant Jehan Barril) in 1535.65 As scholars like Tatiana Clavier and Tracy Adams have shown, the Enseignements is indebted to Christine de Arsenal 3172, fol. 106r; ‘que la nasquis par quoy faveur’; v. 4823; Mutability, p. 87. Walters, pp. 22–23. Walters includes an edited and translated version of the encomium which follows a copy of works by Jean de Meun including the Roman de la Rose that was intended to rehabilitate the author. 60 Walters, p. 21. 61 Walters, p. 46. 62 On the work’s circulation, see Lessons, pp. x–xi, and Anne of France, Enseignements à sa fille, suivis de l’Histoire du siège de Brest, ed. by Tatiana Clavier and Eliane Viennot (St-Etienne: PUSE, 2006), pp. 29–30, hereafter Enseignements. 63 Enseignements, p. 29; see Chapter 3, p. 90. 64 Paris, BnF, Réserve, D-80044; see Enseignements, p. 30 and Lessons, p. viii, n. 4. 65 Enseignements, p. 31; Lessons, p. viii, and n. 5; two copies survive: Paris, BnF, Rothschild 2754 and London, BL, C.125.dd.21. The Siege de Brest does not appear in any of the printed editions, although the version for Margaret includes a series of other works including a lament on a deceased queen. 58 59



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Pizan – even if Anne never cites her directly – and many of her works were in the Moulins’ library.66 In taking up the pen Anne was, like Christine before her and Anne de Graville after her, rebutting the traditional gendering and transmission of knowledge as the preserve of men. Engravings made of the presentation manuscript’s miniatures before it was lost further indicate this rebuttal, adding another visual example to the miniatures of women presenting their works to other women that were discussed in the Introduction. In the frontispiece, Anne of France and Suzanne are in the act of reading (fig. 35): they both hold open books on their laps and Suzanne follows the text with her finger; in the background, a group of three women are listening, just as they do in the presentation miniatures of Isabel, Claude and Margaret (figs 2, 4 and 5).67 In the text itself, Anne recommends that Suzanne read Louis IX’s Enseignements as well as a treatise of Saint Peter of Luxembourg, the Somme le roi and the Horloge de Sapience – all works which could be found in the ducal library at Moulins.68 Anne of France advises her daughter to behave in a way that leaves her beyond the reproach of male critics, an approach that chimes with that of Christine de Pizan, who, in the Cité des dames, exhorted women to ‘Faittes les tous [les hommes] menteurs par monstrer vostre vertu et prouvéz mençongeurs ceulx qui vous blasment par bien faire […]. Fuyez, fuyez la fole amour dont ils vous admonnestent’ (Prove them all wrong by showing how principled you are and refute the criticisms they make of you by behaving morally. […] Fly, fly, from the passionate love with which they try to tempt you!).69 Later, in the Livre des trois vertus, she states of the woman in whom the virtue of chastity rules, ‘en fait ne en dit, semblant, On Anne of France and Christine de Pizan see Tatiana Clavier, ‘Les enseignements d’Anne de France et l’héritage de Christine de Pizan’, in Lectrices d’Ancien Régime, ed. by Isabelle BrouardArends (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2003; open edition, 2016: http://books.openedition.org/pur/35499?lang=fr#bodyftn1) [accessed 22 April 2022]; Tracy Adams, ‘Appearing Virtuous: Christine de Pizan’s Le Livre des trois vertus and Anne de France’s Les Enseignements d’Anne de France’, in Virtue Ethics for Women, 1250–1500, ed. by Karen Green and Constant J. Mews (London: Springer, 2011), pp. 115–32; idem, ‘Theorizing Female Regency: Anne of France’s Enseignements à sa fille’, in Les femmes, la culture et les arts, ed. by Brown and Legaré, pp. 387–401; and Charity Cannon Willard, ‘Anne de France, Reader of Christine de Pizan’, in The Reception of Christine de Pizan from the Fifteenth through the Nineteenth Centuries: Visitors to the City, ed. by Glenda K. McLeod (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1991), pp. 59–69. 67 The drawings were made by M. A. Queyroy and reproduced in Anne de France, Les Enseignements d’Anne de France, duchesse de Bourbonnois et d’Auvergne à sa fille Suzanne de Bourbon, ed. by A.-M. Chazaud (Moulins: Desrosiers, 1878). As she had done with the statues commissioned for the castle of Chantelle showing St Anne teaching the Virgin to read, and St Suzanne holding a book, Anne emphasises to her daughter the importance of a mother’s instruction and of actively reading as a means to learning; see Elizabeth L’Estrange, ‘Sainte Anne et le mécénat d’Anne de France’, in Patronnes et mécènes en France à la Renaissance, ed. by Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier (St-Etienne: PUSE, 2007), pp. 135–54. The statues, which were accompanied by a St Peter (thus creating a kind of Bourbon trinity) are now in the Louvre. 68 Lessons, p. 28. 69 There is no easily accessible Middle French-language edition of the Cité, so this citation is taken from Harley 4431, fol. 373v. English translation from Christine de Pizan, City of Ladies, p. 239. 66

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atour, contenance, maintien, estat, regard, n’aura riens n’ens ou il ait a redire ne a reprochier’ (in neither word nor deed, appearance, ornaments, nor bearing, conduct, social pomp nor expression will there be anything for which she could be reproached or criticized).70 In the same vein, Anne of France advises her daughter: quoi que vous fassiez, sur toutes riens, soyez véritable, franche, humble, courtoise, et léale, et croyez fermement que si petite faute ne mensonge ne pourrait être trouvée en vous, que ce ne vous fût un grant reproche.71 whatever you do, above all, be truly honest, humble, courteous, and loyal. Believe firmly that even if a small fault or lie were to be found in you, it would be a great reproach.72

The Enseignements were accompanied in the presentation manuscript by the Histoire du siege de Brest, a reworking of part of Antoine de La Sale’s 1457 Réconfort de Madame de Fresne. La Sale’s work consists of three distinct parts: the first is a letter addressed to one Catherine de Neuville, Madame de Fresne, who had just lost her first child; it is followed by two exempla, concerning ‘Madame du Chastel’ and ‘la baronnesse de Portugal’ who had also lost their children, that were intended to provide consolation and examples of stoicism to Catherine.73 The Histoire du siege de Brest is a rewriting of the second text, the story of Madame du Chastel, whose son is held hostage by the English and eventually sacrificed – on the orders of his mother – to save the town.74 Some scholars have assumed that Anne was the author of this text, although this is not certain: another, stand-alone, version of Madame du Chastel’s story appears in a manuscript copied in 1472 and owned by Anne de Polignac, which might point to its wider popularity, adaptation and circulation amongst female readers.75 There is no easily accessible Middle French-language edition of the Livre de trois vertus, so this and subsequent quotations are taken from New Haven, Beinecke, MS 427, fol. 18v; English translation from Christine de Pizan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies, ed. and trans. by Sarah Lawson (London: Penguin Classics, 1985 rev. 2003), p. 32. 71 Enseignements, p. 42. 72 Lessons, p. 31. 73 Two manuscript copies of de La Sale’s text survive, both in Brussels, KBR, ms 10748 (monotextual, formerly the library of the dukes of Burgundy) and ms II 7827 (fols 2r–33v), where it is accompanied by another work, the Journee d’honneur et de prouesse. 74 As several scholars have noted, La Sale’s story derives from Froissart’s Chroniques, although in Froissart’s version it is the French who attack Brest, which is occupied by the English, and it is an English hostage that is killed; see Enseignements, p. 28; and Antoine de la Salle [sic], sa vie et ses ouvrages, d’après des documents inédits, ed. by Joseph Nève (Paris and Brussels: Champion/Falk, 1903), p. 68. 75 Chazaud, who prints the work in his edition of the Enseignements (p. xxxiv), appears to assume that Anne is the author, as do Clavier and Viennot (Enseignements, pp. 26–29). Viennot discusses it explicitly as a work by Anne in her article, ‘Une nouvelle d’Anne de France: l’Histoire du siège de Brest’, in Mélanges offert à Nicole Cazauran, ed. by Catherine Magnien and Isabelle Pantin (Paris: Champion, 2002), pp. 139–50. For Anne de Polignac’s manuscript, see Paris, BnF, nafr. 1157, fols 70

Fig. 35. Anne of France and Suzanne de Bourbon, engraving by M. A. Queyroy of the frontispiece from the now-lost presentation copy (c. 1503–05) of the Enseignements, formerly Dubrowski Collection, St Petersburg, reproduced from Anne de France, Les Enseignements d’Anne de France, duchesse de Bourbonnois et d’Auvergne à sa fille Suzanne de Bourbon, ed. by A.-M. Chazaud (Moulins: Desrosiers, 1878). Paris, BnF, Réserve M-R-5 (Public Domain).

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The adaptation of the text and its inclusion in the presentation manuscript of the Enseignements have received very little attention.76 Viennot and Clavier note that in the manuscript made for Suzanne the language of La Sale’s version has been updated, some parts of the text have been shortened, others lengthened and there is a balancing out of the relationship between the husband and wife characters. These changes ‘f[ont] de la dame du Châtel une veritable héroïne, qui rayonne d’une force intérieure – et qui, l’air de rien, domine son monde’ (turn the dame du Châtel into a true heroine, whose interior strength shines through and who, effortlessly, rules over her world).77 As Adams has explored, the text ‘foregrounds the relationship between husband and wife’, but the wife also ‘sacrifices her one claim to power as a woman, her maternity, eschewing her natural love for her son’, which allows her to ‘become […] her husband’s necessary supplement’ and to save his honour.78 First asking her husband for his permission, Madame du Chastel, like many querelle heroines, puts aside the fragile heart associated with women who are ‘par l’ordonnance divine […] aux hommes sujettes en loyal mariage’ (by divine ordinance subject to men in marriage) and is thus able to act in a way that saves her husband.79 Whether Anne was the author of this reworking or not, the text is a worthy and coherent accompaniment to the Enseignements. Adams remarks: The exemplum makes visible in an emotionally stirring way the significance of the strictures laid out in Anne’s Enseignements. The tenets of the latter, offering guidance to a young woman maneuvering through a maze of conflicting loyalties and regulations, can be summarized as the need to guard one’s honor above all things, to leave one’s natural place in the hierarchy only under extreme conditions, and, when one does so, to recognise one’s actions as exceptional; to be prudent by never letting one’s enemy see that one is moved; to offer one’s sorrows to God. All of these tenets are enacted by the Dame du Châtel, who cleverly rescues her husband from himself, sacrificing her own nature to maintain the ‘natural’ masculine order.80



76

79 77 78



80

221r–233r (‘Aventure qui advient au sieur et damme du Chastel en Bretaigne’). See also Léopold Delisle, ‘La bibliothèque d’Anne de Polignac et les origines de l’imprimerie à Angoulême’, in Mélanges de paléographie et de bibliographie, ed. by Léopold Delisle (Paris: Champion, 1880), pp. 334–38. It has been beyond the scope of this study to explore these versions in detail but a brief comparison of the text in Anne de Polignac’s manuscript with that found in the Enseignements manuscript and with La Sale’s version indicates that none of them is exactly the same. Descriptions of the lost presentation copy indicate that the volume was prepared as a coherent whole and both texts were copied and illustrated by the same scribe and artist; see Nève, p. 68. Enseignements, p. 8; see also Viennot, ‘Une nouvelle d’Anne de France’, p. 2. Adams, ‘Theorizing Female Regency’, p. 396. Enseignements, p. 107; see also Adams, ‘Theorizing Female Regency’, p. 397. Viennot remarks that in La Sale’s version, the heroine notes women’s subjection to men more generally, whereas in the Enseignements version, Madame du Chastel states that women’s only superior is their husband; see Viennot, p. 7. Adams, ‘Theorizing Female Regency’, p. 397.



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Although the lady’s actions, by effectively reiterating women’s subjection to their husbands and the ‘natural’ order of society, seem somewhat at odds with what we might consider to be pro-feminine ideas, they in fact resonate with Swift’s reading of certain querelle authors, including Christine, who, she says, were writing against Boccaccio’s tradition of ‘abandon femininity + acquire masculinity = virtue and renown’.81 Madame du Chastel, like Antoine Dufour’s Hypsicratea in the Vie des femmes celebres composed for Anne of Brittany in 1504, ‘temporarily performs a male identity in order to get what she wants’ – in this case, saving her husband’s honour.82 Moreover, the interspersing of the Histoire with a series of miniatures in which the Dame du Chastel is shown larger than life, dominating her husband, ‘reinforce[s] her strength’ and suggests that in compiling the manuscript, Anne of France was allowing her reader to use the images and their imagination to effect a second level of reading.83 The miniatures included in the Arsenal copy of the Beau roman also depict the heroine, Emilia, larger than the other characters and, as the discussion in Chapter 5 shows, similarly provided the reader with another means to interpret or gloss the story. The relationship that Anne of France entertained with Christine de Pizan both as a reader and as a writer in the Enseignements, and her evident interest in, if not authorship of, a text that brings an additional pro-feminine slant to the manuscript for Suzanne thus provide a precedent for Anne de Graville’s own interaction with Christine and her preparation of the Arsenal manuscript for Claude. The women’s shared interest in their literary predecessor indicates that as readers they did not simply experience Christine’s works passively but also read her actively, using her as a springboard for the production of their own works. This idea can be developed further by turning to the writings of Anne’s contemporary, Catherine d’Amboise who, as the last chapter suggested, may have shared her uncle’s copy of Petrarch’s Triumphs with her sister-in-law. Catherine was the author of several poetic and prose works (one only recently identified) but, like Anne, has yet to receive sustained scholarly attention.84 Also like Anne, her writings are concerned with the promotion of female experience in which Fortune plays a key role. Although no inventory of her library exists, her works indicate that she, like Anne of France and Anne de Graville, read widely, and several of the sources to which she refers in her writings could

Swift, pp. 195–97. Swift, p. 207. Nantes, Musée Dobrée, ms 17, Antoine Dufour, Vie des femmes celebres. See also the discussion of the Amazons in Chapter 5. 83 Adams, ‘Theorizing Female Regency’, p. 397, and Viennot, p. 9. 84 As noted in the Introduction (n. 14), Berriot-Salvadore and Müller have now published a much overdue edition of Catherine’s complete works. Previous studies include Ariane Bergeron-Foote, ‘Les œuvres en prose de Catherine d’Amboise, dame de Lignières (1481–1550)’, unpublished thesis, École des chartes, 2002; Catherine d’Amboise, Poésies, ed. by Müller; and Müller, ‘Catherine d’Amboise’s Livre des prudents et imprudents: Negotiating Space for Female Voices in Political Discourse’, in Virtue, Liberty, and Toleration: Political Ideas of European Women, 1400–1800, ed. by Jacqueline Broad and Karen Green (Dordrecht: Springer, 2007), pp. 39–56. 81 82

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also be found in Anne de Graville’s collection.85 Analysing the manner in which Catherine’s works engaged with the querelle also develops understanding of the ways in which Christine’s legacy was perpetuated and adds further depth to the context in which women were reading as well as composing literary works. The three surviving prose works by Catherine all contain very personal, autobiographical elements. She appears to have played a part in the copying and dissemination of her works which, like those of Anne de Graville, were intended for a relatively small or select audience. The Livre des prudents et imprudents, dating from 1509, is extant in one illuminated manuscript where the title page shows Catherine inside a large initial D in the act of writing, à la Christine. The author described the work as ‘le myen premier coup d’essay’ (my first shot at it [i.e. writing]) and it may have been written in the aftermath of the death of her first husband, Christophe de Tournon, and their child.86 The Complaincte de la dame pasmée contre Fortune is extant in three manuscripts, one now in a private collection87 and two in Paris. Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 19738 comprises an abbreviated version of the text and was illuminated by the Master of the Paris Entries, the artist responsible for the frontispiece of Anne’s Arsenal Devisement.88 Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 28878, illuminated by an unidentified artist, may have been gifted to Anne’s sister, Jeanne de Graville, since an inscription states that it was owned by Leonor de Rohan, sister-in-law of François de Balsac, Anne de Graville’s grandson via her son, Guillaume, whom Jeanne named as her heir.89 On the basis of this connection, Orth suggested that the Complaincte was written on the death of Jeanne’s son, Georges, in 1525.90 However, as Müller and Berriot-Salvadore note, Georges’s death is not mentioned in the text, and it seems instead to have been written around the time of the deaths of Catherine’s uncle, Cardinal Georges, in 1510, and her two brothers, including Jeanne’s husband Charles, in 1511.91 Writing of the Complaincte and the Livre, Müller notes that Catherine’s works show ‘a solid knowledge of biblical, liturgical, mythological, and historical sources’, with explicit references to works by Boethius, Boccaccio and Aristotle and to compilations such as Les See Müller, ‘Negotiating Space’, p. 39 for a list of the works she refers to, and see the extended analysis in Œuvres complètes, pp. 18–28. 86 Paris, Arsenal, ms 2037; Muller, ‘Negotiating Space’, p. 39. 87 Previously sold in New York by Sam Fogg (1999) and then at Christie’s, London, 6 June 2007, lot no. 41. The manuscript is discussed by Orth in ‘Dedicating Women’. 88 Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 19738 is contemporary with the other manuscripts but it does not contain any references or heraldry relating to the Amboise family and adopts ‘a masculine narratorial perspective’; see Hindman and Bergeron-Foote, p. 204. 89 Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 28878 (formerly on deposit at the BnF as Paris, Société des manuscrits des assureurs francais, 79-7) inscribed ‘Ce libvre est a Leonor de Rohan princesse de Guemene’. See Œuvres complètes, pp. 37–38 and n. 83. 90 Orth, ‘Dedicating Women’, p. 92. 91 See Œuvres complètes (pp. 37–38), where Berriot-Salvadore and Müller discuss the dating in more detail. In Poésies, Müller followed the 1525 dating and connection to the death of Georges III d’Amboise. 85



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Grandes Chroniques de France and the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César.92 A third work, Les continuelles meditations de la volubilité et soudaine mutation des créatures raisonnables, came to light only in 2014 when the manuscript came up for sale.93 Like the Complaincte, it draws on the writer’s knowledge of allegorical pilgrimages, including those by Guillaume de Deguileville, Philippe de Mézières and of another female writer, Gabrielle de Bourbon-Montpensier (c. 1460–1516) to whom Catherine was related. Catherine rewrote a spiritual letter addressed to Gabrielle by Jean Bouchet in another of her works, Les Espiltres.94 With her primary residences at Lignières and Bourges, Catherine no doubt participated in the literary and religious circles in the Berry region with which Anne de Graville was also familiar. She probably knew Jeanne of France (d. 1505), sister of Charles VIII and repudiated wife of the future Louis XII, who became duchess of Berry and founder of the Order of the Annonciades at Bourges, with which Jeanne de Graville was closely connected.95 Perhaps she came into contact with Margaret of Navarre, who herself became duchess of Berry in 1517 and who encouraged and protected religious reform around the university of Bourges, as well as with her secretary, Jacques Thiboust, and his poet-wife, Jeanne de la Font, who presided over their own literary salon nearby.96 Jacques was also the patron of L’Amant infortuné, a work attributed to François Habert, poet, translator Müller, ‘Negotiating Space’, p. 39. London, Christie’s, 16 July 2014 (lot 24). The manuscript is now in New Haven, Beinecke, MS 1201; for a preliminary study, see Eugenio Donadoni, ‘Les continuelles mediations de la volubilité et soudaine mutation des créatures raisonnables: A Newly Discovered Work by Catherine d’Ambosie, Dame de Lignières, Poet and Prose-Writer of the French Renaissance’, French Studies, 138 (2016), 4–9. Thanks to Eugenio Donadoni for bringing this to my attention. 94 Gabrielle de Bourbon-Montpensier wrote a now lost book of advice for young girls; see Sophie Léger, ‘Gabrielle de Bourbon: une grande dame de la France de l’ouest à la fin du Moyen Age’, in Autour de Marguerite d’Ecosse. Reines, princesses et dames du XVe siècle, ed. by Geneviève and Philippe Contamine (Paris: Champion, 1999), pp. 181–99; and Jennifer Britnell, ‘Gabrielle de Bourbon and a Not-So-Sinful Soul’, in Women’s Writing in the French Renaissance, ed. by Philip Ford and Gillian Jondorf (Cambridge: Cambridge French Colloquia, 1999), pp. 1–26. On Catherine’s relationship to Gabrielle and the Espiltres, see Œuvres complètes, p. 26 (n. 49) and p. 39. 95 Œuvres complètes, pp. 11–12. In her thesis, Bergeron-Foote notes that Catherine’s husband, Philibert de Beaujeu, carried a ‘poêle funéraire’ (a funerary cloth) at Jeanne of France’s funeral in 1505 and that her brother, Louis d’Amboise, was one of the executors of her will. See the online summary available at www.chartes.psl.eu/fr/positions-these/oeuvres-prose-catherine-amboisedame-lignieres-1481-1550 [accessed 6 June 2022]. According to Hilarion de Coste, Jeanne de Graville funded fifteen female religious at the Bourges convent and her heart was buried there near the body of Jeanne of France: Hilarion de Coste, Les Eloges et les vies des reynes, des princesses, et des dames illustres en pieté, en Courage & en Doctrine, qui ont fleury de nostre temps, & du temps de nos Peres …, 2 vols (Paris: Sébastien Cramoisy and Gabriel Cramoisy, 1647), extract available on the Siéfar website: http://siefar.org/dictionnaire/fr/Jeanne_de_France_(1464-1505)/Hilarion_de_Coste [accessed 6 June 2022]. 96 Jacques also took an interest in Jeanne of France, since one of his manuscripts written out in his hand contains documents relative to her founding of the Collège de Sainte-Marie in Bourges, an epitaph following her death and a copy of her will; Bourges, BM, ms 373. 92 93

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and friend of Catherine’s nephew, Michel d’Amboise.97 Michel was the illegitimate son of Charles II d’Amboise, and Catherine not only offered him financial protection but entertained a strong literary relationship with him too. Michel styled himself ‘L’Esclave fortuné’ and the common theme of Fortune in the work of both poets has led to the suggestion that they perhaps enjoyed a literary collaboration or mutual influence, somewhat in the manner of other salons.98 The Livre des prudents et imprudents begins with the melancholic narrator – styled Katherine d’Amboise – experiencing a dream vision in which she is attacked by the figures of Corrupted Justice and Treason before receiving a vision of Lady Prudence, whose series of exempla of those men and women who have (or have not) strayed from Lady Prudence’s path results in the treatise that Catherine writes down. Catherine’s creation of a work in which a version of herself is the protagonist recalls the way in which Christine de Pizan appears as a protagonist in works like the Mutacion and the Cité. Although the dream vision is a common enough trope in medieval literature, the fact that Katherine, like Christine-the-protagonist, is visited in a dream vision by personifications of female virtues begs the question of whether Christine’s work, especially the Cité in which she was also visited by personifications of Reason, Rectitude and Justice, provided her with specific inspiration. Müller notes that the Livre, in opposing wise and foolish examples, ‘also pertains to […] the literary debate, as it takes part in the Querelle des femmes’.99 Moreover, the catalogue-like format of the work, which deals with the destinies of men and women, links it to Boccaccio’s De casibus, and its protagonists invite further comparisons with his De mulieribus and Christine’s Cité. For instance, Catherine’s treatment of the triad of Minerva, Ceres and Isis – similarly grouped in the Cité and the De mulieribus – implies not only her knowledge of these sources but also, as Müller points out, her reader’s familiarity with them too, such that she ‘uses the chapters as pretexts for praising the female sex’ rather than expanding on their inventions relating to literature, writing and agriculture. Catherine also ‘never hesitates to interject opinion on the nature of power relations between the sexes’, and her comments, for instance, on women’s exclusion from education draw attention to society’s inequalities in a way that resonates with Anne de Graville’s highlighting of passages in the Mutacion concerning Christine’s access to her father’s wealth.100

Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 508. Poésies, p. 19. 99 Müller, ‘Negotiating Space’, p. 40. 100 Müller, ‘Negotiating Space’, p. 40; ‘C’est euvre de femme, qui donne rason peremptoire d’excusacion, plus ample que d’ung homme, qui a liberté aller sa et là aux universitez et studez où il peult comprandre toustes sciences par solicitude, qui n’est l’estat du sexe femynim’ (This is the work of a woman, and that gives peremptory reasons for making excuses, greater than for a man, who has the freedom to go here and there to universities and places of study where he may comprehend all sciences by solicitude, which is not the case of the female sex); French and English translation from Müller, ‘Negotiating Space’, p. 43 and n. 20. 97 98



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In Katherine-the-protagonist’s discussion with Eve, the first woman is neither entirely condemned nor entirely exonerated; instead, Katherine ‘gives her a voice, an opportunity to justify herself and express her sadness’.101 Müller argues that her characterisation of Eve ‘evolves and shows great capacity for self-evaluation and spiritual amendment’ that ‘tends to place her in the category of wise women’.102 Moreover, the Livre ‘avoids both of the two extreme views transmitted by exemplary literature, refusing to present Eve as solely responsible for human downfall or to completely free her from culpability’.103 Catherine’s strong defence of women in these passages has led Müller to argue that the Livre des prudents et imprudents ‘deserves to be added to the large collection of writings pertaining to the Querelle de femmes’.104 In fact, the miniatures accompanying the stories of Minerva and Ysis show them – like Catherine in the title page – in the act of writing, surrounded by large volumes in scenes that echo those of Cleriande in the Arsenal copy of the Beau roman and the Heroides genre more generally, reinforcing the idea that these heroines, again like Catherine, are in the process of taking control of their own histories. Catherine’s work not only expands the querelle corpus in a quantitative sense, as Müller has argued, but, by adding and emphasising other women’s voices that propose a different manner of ‘defending’ the female sex, also expands the querelle in a qualitative sense, inviting a reconsideration of the nature and breadth of the debate itself. The Livre des prudents et imprudents also owes much to Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy in which the author is guided by Lady Philosophy on the fickle nature of Fortune; the final miniature of the surviving manuscript shows Catherine in dialogue with Boethius.105 The Complaincte de la dame pasmée contre Fortune is also indebted to Boethius and describes the author-protagonist (not named in this work but otherwise identifiable as Catherine) collapse after being brought some bad news which was probably the death of her two brothers in 1511, as noted above.106 The Complaincte is not concerned with promoting the female sex as is the case for the Livre, but its focus on (mis)fortune brings it into dialogue with the writings of Christine de Pizan, who also drew on Boethius and explored the figure of Fortune not just in the Mutacion but also in the Cité, the Advision and the Chemin de long estude.107 Julia Holderness has drawn attention to the links between Christine and Müller, ‘Negotiating Space’, p. 48. Müller, ‘Negotiating Space’, p. 48. 103 Müller, ‘Negotiating Space’, p. 48. 104 Müller, ‘Negotiating Space’, p. 48. 105 Arsenal 2037, fol. 133r. 106 In nafr. 28878, the opening miniature (fol. 1r) shows Catherine receiving the news in the form of a letter, accompanied by another lady who looks on intently with clasped hands and who Berriot-Salvadore and Müller suggest might have been intended to evoke Jeanne de Graville; see Œuvres complètes, p. 37. 107 Julia Simms Holderness, ‘Knocking on the City of Ladies’ Door: The Transgenerational, Transcendent Friendship of Christine de Pizan and Catherine d’Amboise’, Women in French Studies, 3 (2010), 15–24. 101 102

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Catherine, suggesting that Catherine’s Complaincte ‘is a friendly continuation of the dialogue already begun by Christine’ on friendship as ‘a source of consolation’ through which one can ‘overcome the petty provocations of Fortune’.108 Whereas Catherine’s use of the figure of Fortune is central to her works and very clearly related to her personal experiences of loss, Anne’s interest in the goddess emerges more gradually from the piecing together of information concerning her disinheritance, her close reading of the Mutacion, her motto, musas natura, lachrymas fortuna, her ownership of Boccaccio’s Des cas and the role of Fortune in the Beau roman. Given their literary and familial connections it is even possible to imagine a circle of friendship in which Catherine, Anne and Jeanne discussed the Complaincte and their own various encounters with Fortune. Müller has argued that the Livre des prudents ‘implies a search for a female literary and civic community where women would show solidarity, uplift each other, and offer stimulating models to one another, in a manner similar to the City of Ladies’.109 The works of Anne of France and Anne de Graville, dedicated to women readers, operate in a similar way by creating an informed and supportive space combined with practical advice. Roberta Krueger has proposed that Margaret of Navarre’s La Coche also provides a ‘valorization of female friendship’ and ‘dramatiz[es] […] a community of women offering support to a female writer who takes up her pen in their interests’.110 On the one hand, the extent to which Margaret was engaged in a defence of women, especially in La Coche and in her most famous work, the Heptameron (c. 1540–49), has sometimes been called into question.111 Elizabeth Chesney Zegura has pointed to the ‘inconsistencies […] in Margaret’s representation of gender and patriarchy’, such as her ‘androcentric rhetoric’ in the Heptameron and its ‘echoes of patriarchal-style exempla that reinforce hegemonic constructions of female identity’.112 On the other hand, she notes how Margaret’s work also ‘explore[s] the battle of the sexes, male violence towards women, sexual infidelity, female vices and virtues, and the nature of patriarchy’, and that the strategies she employs ‘contest normative assumptions about gender relations, male and female identity, and gender-based power hierarchies in sixteenth century French culture’.113 As with the writings of Anne of France or Christine de Pizan, it is the broadly pro-feminine stance taken by Margaret that is important here (rather than the inconsistencies that might jar with a twenty-first-century feminist perspective) in analysing how women responded to and negotiated patriarchal society and a misogynistic literary tradition, bringing their own nuance to the querelle. Holderness, p. 15. Müller, ‘Negotiating Space’, p. 49. 110 Krueger, p. 188. 111 Judy Kem, ‘Marguerite de Navarre and the Querelle des femmes’, L’Esprit Créateur, 57 (2017), 1–7. 112 Elizabeth Chesney Zegura, Marguerite de Navarre’s Shifting Gaze: Perspectives on Gender, Class and Politics in the Heptaméron (London and New York: Routledge, 2017), pp. 65–66. 113 Zegura, pp. 65–66. 108 109



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La Coche is the staging of a debate between three women about who is the most unhappy in love. The debate is listened to by a fourth protagonist, the Queen of Navarre who, as with the protagonists Christine and Katherine, is essentially Margaret herself, who offers to write it down. In response to the women’s argument over who should be the judge of their situations, Margaret agrees to offer the book to the king’s mistress, Anne de Pisseleu, duchess of Etampes, who will read it with the king. The composition and presentation of the work to the duchess in 1541 occurred at a time of tension between Margaret and her brother over the marriage of her daughter, Jeanne of Navarre. Her aim, it appears, was to flatter the duchess and gain some leverage with the king.114 As noted in the Introduction, a miniature showing Margaret giving her book to the duchess emphasises the female– female nature of this project (fig. 5).115 Focusing on the text as well as the images in the Chantilly copy, Kruger reads La Coche as ‘Marguerite de Navarre’s staging of a textual and visual performance that valorizes her authority and subtly disrupts the male hegemony of the court’.116 Aside from the personal and political nature of La Coche, the work’s format (a debate poem) and subject matter (love) point to its participation in both the querelle des femmes and the querelle de la BDSM. For Renier Leushuis, electing the duchess of Etampes as the judge of the debate constitutes an ‘overt contribution to the Querelle des femmes, discredit[ing] the traditional male-dominated mediation of love debates’.117 Christine de Pizan had employed the debate format in her Débat des deux amants as well as her Dit de Poissy, which has been proposed as an inspiration for La Coche alongside Chartier’s BDSM and his Livre des Quatres Dames.118 Margaret in fact refers directly to Chartier early on in the work, stating that the subject is ‘Digne d’avoir un Alain Charretier / Pour les servir comme elles ont mestier’ (worthy of an Alain Chartier to serve them as they need).119 Mary Skemp has pointed out the irony of this reference to Chartier, given the negative reception of the BDSM, and, in light of this, Krueger has suggested that Margaret ‘may pay homage to the See Lindquist, esp. pp. 197 and 200; and Krueger. Chantilly, ms 522 and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 91. See Lindquist, p. 198; as she notes, it seems likely that a copy would also have been presented to her. Three other copies, without illuminations, are extant. 116 Krueger, p. 189. Lindquist also discusses the role and importance of the images in relation to the text. 117 Reinier Leushuis, ‘Marguerite de Navarre’s Rewriting of the Courtly Dialogue: Speaking of Love in La Coche’, French Forum, 42 (2017), 453–69 (p. 459). His article explores how ‘Marguerite deliberately reworks the medieval poetic debate in order to create an authentic love dialogue by female voices only’ and in doing so ‘critically echoes and proposes a gendered alternative to the rhetorical (Ciceronian) and dialectical (Neoplatonic) conventions of male-authored Italian Renaissance models’, including Castiglione’s The Courtier (p. 454). 118 Robert Marichal, ‘La Coche de Marguerite de Navarre’, Humanisme et Renaissance, 5 (1932), 247–96; Marguerite de Navarre, Selected Writings: A Bilingual Edition, ed. and trans. by Rouben Cholakian and Mary Skemp (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), p. 152. 119 Marguerite de Navarre, Selected Writings, p. 402; n. 8; Marichal, ‘La Coche’, p. 249; n. 1. 114 115

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renowned lyric master only to mark her evident departure from the courtly tradition’.120 However, the querelle de la BDSM in itself indicates that opinion on Chartier was not clear cut and, as Chapter 6 shows in more detail, Margaret’s references to the BDSM in the Heptameron allowed her to ‘bolster [her] critique of courtly love as anti-feminist’.121 Moreover, given the connections between Anne de Graville, Margaret and Louise, it is possible that Margaret actually took inspiration for La Coche from Anne’s Rondeaux, with Anne’s work serving a pivotal role in joining the dots between Christine de Pizan and Margaret of Navarre. This brief excursion into the writings of Anne of France, Catherine d’Amboise and Margaret of Navarre has proposed that women’s writing, beyond that of Christine, intervened in the querelle in a variety of ways that do not necessarily fit the catalogue or defence model: the notion of what constitutes the querelle, or a querelle text, might then be conceived as more flexible than previously thought and be expanded to take better account of women’s reading and writing habits. With this idea in mind, the final section of this chapter turns to two other manuscripts in Anne’s collection that suggest that engagement with the querelle as a reader as well as a writer could happen through a range of works that, although not usually considered querelle works themselves, evoked themes relevant to that debate.

Reading the querelle in Boccaccio’s Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, Antoine de La Sale’s Petit Jehan de Saintré and Rasse de Brunhamel’s Floridan et Elvide

Anne owned an impressive copy of the second redaction of Premierfait’s translation of Boccaccio’s De casibus virorum illustrum (1409) that was made in Paris around 1470.122 The inscription of her name and the date 1518 on the flyleaf suggest that it may have come from her parents’ collection. Although it is written mainly on paper – there is one surviving vellum folio – the manuscript is a luxury item, measuring 372 x 260mm and illuminated with five miniatures (of an original total of nine) in the circle of Maître François, one of Krueger, p. 196. See Nancy Frelick, ‘Love, Mercy and Courtly Discourse: Marguerite de Navare Reads Alain Chartier’, in Mythes à la cour, mythes pour la cour, ed. by Alain Corbellari et al. (Geneva: Droz, 2010), pp. 325–36 (p. 1) available online at https://earlyromance.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/ margueritechartier-07-droz.pdf [accessed 6 June 2022]. 122 Formerly Jörn Günther Rare Books; my thanks to Helen Wüstefeld for facilitating access to this manuscript while it was there. The De casibus was translated into French by Laurent Premierfait in two redactions in the early 1400s: the second redaction (1409), dedicated to Premierfait’s employer, Jean, duke of Berry, amplified the first redaction (1400) with the addition of material from Livy, Valerius Maximus and other sources; information supplied by Jörn Günther Rare Books, quoting Millard Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry, 3 vols (London: Phaidon, 1967–74), ii, The Boucicaut Master, p. 47. For a detailed study of Premierfait’s translations and their differences with Boccaccio’s original, see Anne D. Hedeman, Translating the Past: Laurent de Premierfait and Boccaccio’s De Casibus (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2008). 120 121



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Louis de Graville’s preferred artists. The manuscript is still in a sixteenth-century binding but was severely mis-bound at an early stage in its history: it is annotated throughout with navigation symbols that are very similar to those in the Arsenal Mutacion, suggesting that Anne read this text meticulously too.123 In comparison to De mulieribus, the De casibus might be considered as only tangentially related to the querelle des femmes. However, Christine de Pizan, who was likely working from the French translations made just a few years before, drew on the structure of both works in her Cité, reworking the catalogue format employed by Boccaccio to ‘call the reader’s attention to its status as a polemical panegyric designed not only to praise but moreover to defend the female sex’.124 Despite no tangible evidence that Anne de Graville owned either the Cité or De mulieribus in a French translation, overlaps between these two texts, as well as with the De casibus and the Mutacion de Fortune, mean that the Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes manuscript constituted an important element in Anne’s tapestry of knowledge both of querelle-related texts and also of literary manifestations of the figure of Fortune. Her likely interactions with Catherine d’Amboise and perhaps her knowledge of the Livre des prudents et imprudents, which owes much to Boccaccio’s model, may have inflected her reading of this work further. Many of the same characters, for instance, appear in both the Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes and in the Mutacion de Fortune, including the female figures of Jocasta, Dido and Cleopatra.125 Moreover, the Des cas has an entire chapter towards the end of the first section in which the narrator of the text blames women specifically for the downfall of men, citing well-known misogynistic tropes as well as examples of heroes like Paris and Hercules suffering at the hands of the female sex.126 However, as Marilyn Miguel has argued, the way that Boccaccio-the-narrator ‘expresse[s] anxieties about women lead[s] him to sound like the misogynist male narrators in Boccaccio’s fictional works who discredit

The running chapter headers/foliation are consistent and in the right order but the actual text does not follow, suggesting that the manuscript folios were put together in the wrong order before the headers and foliation were added. 124 Brown-Grant, Christine de Pizan, p. 135. On Christine’s use of Boccaccio in translation, see Anne Paupert, ‘L’autorité au féminin: les femmes de pouvoir dans la Cité des dames’, Le Moyen Français, 78–79 (2016), 167–85 (see nn. 3 and 11). 125 All three women also appear in the De mulieribus, with Jocasta and Dido featuring in Christine’s Cité as well. On Boccaccio’s sources, see Tutte le opere di Giovanni Boccaccio, ed. by Vittorio Branca, 10 vols (Milan: Mondadori, 1964–99), especially ix, De casibus virorum illustrium, ed. by Giorgio Ricci and Vittorio Zaccaria (1983). 126 ‘Le xviije raisonne contre les femmes en racomptant leurs vices et baratz’ (cited from Paris, BnF, ms fr. 229, fol. 2v). As discussed in Chapter 5, the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César included a series of male lovers deceived by women, a trope that is reversed not only in the Heroides and the love epistle genre but also in Anne’s Beau roman through her inclusion of a list of heroines deceived by love. 123

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themselves as they assert their dominance’.127 This strategy of ‘interpretative traps’ is employed by Boccaccio-the-author, she argues, in order to ‘test the reader, challenging her to decide which of the narrator’s assertions she will accept and which she will discard’.128 Following Miguel’s interpretation, then, the Des cas is a text that requires its reader to actively critique and challenge the text, bringing other reading strategies and experiences to bear on it. Given what has been explored of Anne de Graville’s reading practices and book collection so far, it seems extremely likely that Anne would have risen to the challenge set down by Boccaccio in this text. Anne’s ownership of the Des cas allowed her to foster further links with Christine de Pizan, since the text’s translator, Premierfait, was Christine’s contemporary who became part of the ‘peripatetic world of chancellery culture’ that brought him into the service of the Princes of the Blood and their associates.129 These princes were the figures at whom Christine was also aiming her writings, and both she and Premierfait dedicated works to Jean, duke of Berry, brother of Charles V. In 1405 Christine offered him her orphaned biography of Charles V, following the unexpected death of its commissioner, Philip the Bold, Charles’s other brother; then in 1409 Jean received the second, amplified, redaction of Des cas from Premierfait. As Anne D. Hedeman notes, Premierfait also became part of the humanist circle that included Gontier Col and Jean de Montreuil – defenders of Jean de Meun in the epistolary debate with Christine de Pizan over the Rose – and Nicolas de Clamanges, whose Historia de raptoris raptæque virginis lamentabili exitu was translated into French as Floridan et Elvide by Rasse de Brunhamel, discussed below.130 Two mottos that appear in the miniature on folio 309r of Anne’s copy showing a sleeping Boccaccio being spoken to by Petrarch may relate to the manuscript’s original commissioner, since other copies of the text include personalised mottos at this point (fig. 36).131 However, they can also be read in relation to the work itself. Running along the canopy of the bed are the words ‘En Dieu Fiense on Rien’, which seems to allude to verses eight and nine of Psalm 117 (118) (‘It is good to confide in the Lord, rather than to have confidence in man./ It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than to trust in princes’). In the context of Des cas’ focus on the downfall of men and women, including notable leaders, Marilyn Miguel, ‘Tests and Traps in Boccaccio’s De casibus virorum illustrium’, Heliotropia, 15 (2018), 253–66 (pp. 254; 258). 128 Miguel, p. 254. 129 Hedeman, Translating the Past, p. 10. 130 Premierfait revised Oresme’s translation of Aristotle’s Economiques executed for Charles V and produced a new edition of Bersuire’s Titus Livy; see Hedeman, Translating the Past, pp. 10–11 and Marie-Hélène Tesnière, ‘Un remaniement du “Tite-Live” de Pierre Bersuire par Laurent de Premierfait (manuscrit Paris, B.N., fr. 264–265–266)’, Romania, 107 (1986), 231–81. 131 For example, London, BL, Royal MS 14. E. V has ‘Josne et joyeulx’ at this point and Munich, Cod. Gall. 369 ‘Sur ly n’a regard’, which Durrieu deciphered as an anagram of the book’s first owner, Laurens Gyrard. Information in the catalogue description provided by Jorn Günther Rare Books. 127



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Fig. 36. Circle of Master François, Petrarch appearing to Boccaccio, Boccaccio, Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, private collection, formerly Basel, Jörn Gunther Rare Books, fol. 390r (detail), c. 1470 (photo: E. L’Estrange).

these words serve as a warning to the reader to be wary of both Fortune and of individuals who are not in control of their own destiny. Given Anne’s close reading of the Mutacion and underlining of passages that to relate to her own situation, she may have been particularly attuned to this citation in the Des cas. The second inscription, ‘En esperance de mieulx avoir’, runs diagonally across the curtain behind Boccaccio and is very close to the opening line of a rondeau by Christine de Pizan: En espérant de mieulx avoir, Me fault le temps dissimuler, Combien que voye reculer Toutes choses a mon vouloir. Pour tant s’il me fault vestir noir Et simplement moy affuler, En esperant de mieulx avoir. Se Fortune me fait douloir, Il le me convient endurer, Et selon le temps moy riuler Et en bon gré tout recevoir, En espérant de mieulx avoir.

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Hoping for better I must pretend not to notice time passing Even though I see receding before me All the things that I might wish for Even if I must put on black, And dress myself simply, Hoping for better, If Fortune makes me suffer It is necessary that I endure it And abide by the rule of time And accept all willingly Hoping for better.132

For Anne de Graville, a reader who was clearly engaged with the writings of both Christine and Boccaccio, this allusion to Christine’s poem with its specific reference to Fortune would surely have underscored the intertextual connections between the two authors’ works, not just around Fortune but also concerning some of the stories of women highlighted here. Anne would have found further connections between Christine and Boccaccio as well as between these writers and Chartier and the querelle de la BDSM in her copy of the Petit Jehan de Saintré and Floridan et Elvide, now in the British Library.133 Like the Des cas, it is a large, luxury manuscript measuring 350 x 270mm, written on parchment in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. It is illuminated with eleven miniatures, ten for the Petit Jehan and one for Floridan et Elvide, by the Master of Jacques de Besançon, a key associate of Master François who also worked alongside the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse. Antoine de La Sale wrote the Petit Jehan in 1456 and dedicated it to Jean, duke of Calabria. The tale concerns a young knight, Jehan de Saintré, who enters the service of the Dame de Belles Cousines who mentors him and funds his chivalric exploits, eventually becoming his lover. The large opening miniature in Anne’s copy, which takes up more than half the page, shows a man, presumably the young Jehan, kneeling before a noble woman who is accompanied by a group of ten conversing ladies (fig. 37). Below, in the historiated initial, a presentation between La Sale and the duke, surrounded by male courtiers, offers an almost exact, but inversely gendered, mirror image of the one above. The Petit Jehan de Saintré, which begins as a tale of courtly love, later turns to fabliau when Belles Cousines takes comfort in the arms of an abbot while Jehan is away on his knightly mission.134 In an exhortation not dissimilar to the narrator’s final verses in the Thanks to Joan E. McRae for assistance with the translation. Cotton Nero D IX. 134 Dominique Demartini, ‘La dame au bûcher? La réponse d’Antoine de la Sale à Christine de Pizan’, in Désir n’a repos: hommage à Danièlle Bohler, ed. by Florence Bouchet and Danièle 132 133



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Fig. 37. Master of Jacques de Besançon, Presentation scene, Antoine de La Sale, Petit Jehan de Saintré, London, BL, Cotton MS Nero D IX, fol. 2r, c. 1475 (© London, British Library Board).

BDSM, the end of the tale warns women of all social statuses (‘toutes dames et demoiselles, bourgeoises et aultres, de quelque estat que soient’) to note the example of Belles Cousines who went astray because of the pleasures of love (‘qui par druerie se perdit’).135

James-Raoul (Bordeaux: Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 2015), pp. 321–36 (p. 321); see also Allison Kelly, ‘Christine de Pizan and Antoine de la Sale: The Dangers of Love in Theory and Fiction’, in Reinterpreting Christine de Pizan, ed. by Earl Jeffrey Richards et al. (Athens, GA., and London: University of Georgia Press, 1992), pp. 173–86. 135 Cited by Demartini, ‘La dame au bûcher?’, p. 321, from the edition Antoine de La Sale, Jehan de Saintré, ed. by Joel Blanchard, trans. by M. Quereuil (Paris: Lettres gothiques/Le Livre de Poche, 1995), p. 528.

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As Dominique Demartini has noted, critics are divided over the text’s meaning: is it a critique of women in the misogynistic, clerical vein, highlighting women’s inconstancy; or is it a defence of women against the perils that befall them in courtly love in the manner of Christine de Pizan?136 Moving away from the either-or debate, Jane H. M. Taylor has shown that much of the tale in fact focuses on Jehan’s ‘knightly deeds’, which are described in great detail, and that scholarship’s tendency to focus on the romance-versus-fabliau aspects distorts the way in which it might have been received by contemporary readers. Her analysis of two illustrated copies of the text, one of which is Anne’s, shows that the artists chose to emphasise the chivalric aspects of the tale, with seven of the ten miniatures in Anne’s copy accurately depicting jousting scenes. For Taylor, the space given over within the tale, as well as within the decorative cycle, to Jehan’s chivalric endeavours indicates that it was this aspect of the work that interested readers rather than the erotic and treacherous ones centred on the ‘love triangle’ of Belles Cousines, Jehan and the monk.137 However, Taylor’s reading and those that focus on the tale as romance/fabliau may not be mutually exclusive, especially when considering Anne’s potential reception of this manuscript. The frontispiece depicting a feminine courtly space, and the numerous tournament scenes which show women as spectators, indicate Anne’s familiarity with iconographic and social conventions that are also found in the Arsenal copy of the Beau roman.138 Moreover, the variety of ways in which the text – and its images – can be interpreted means that Anne, too, could have read the text in the way proposed by Taylor as well as in relation to her interest in debates about love, fin’amour and the relations between the sexes. Several scholars have demonstrated that La Sale knew the works of Christine de Pizan, particularly the Cité des dames, the Epistre Othea and the Livre des trois vertus, especially the latter’s letter written to a high-born lady by her governess, Sibylle de la Tour, in which she warns her of the dangers of illicit love.139 Allison Kelly has shown that ‘Belles Cousines encounters each problem that [Sibylle] warned against, falling into every trap as if Demartini, ‘La dame au bûcher?’, p. 321. See also Jane H. M. Taylor, ‘Image as Reception: Antoine de La Sale’s Le Petit Jehan de Saintré’, in Literary Aspects of Courtly Culture: Selected papers from the Seventh Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, U.S.A., 27 July–1 August 1992, ed. by Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1994), pp. 265–79; and Rosalind Brown-Grant, ‘Les rapports de force dans la liaison amoureuse chez Christine de Pizan, Alain Chartier et Antoine de La Sale’, in Actes du IIIe Colloque international sur la littérature en moyen français (Milan, 21–23 mai 2003), ed. by Sergio Cigada et al., L’analisi linguistica e letteraria, 12 (2004), 593–611. 137 Taylor, ‘Image as Reception’, p. 278. 138 See the further discussion relating to tournament scenes in Chapter 5. 139 The letter first appeared in the Livre du duc des vrais amants, but she included it in the Livre des trois vertus for a wider female audience; see Kelly, p. 176. Demartini (‘La dame au bûcher?’, pp. 321–22) notes that La Sale plays on Sibylle’s quotation of the proverb, Feu n’est point sans fumee (there is no fire without smoke) with his phrase ‘Oncques ne fut feu sans fumee, tant fust il soubz terre parfont’ (Never was there fire without smoke, unless it was deep underground) in relation to the dangers of using speech in the wrong way or engaging in false flattery). 136



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to demonstrate the veracity of Christine’s objections to fin’amor’.140 She suggests that ‘a rereading of Saintré in the light of [Christine’s] work offers a greater understanding of its most puzzling character, Belles Cousines’.141 The close relationship between Christine’s works and the Petit Jehan brings the importance of this luxury manuscript for Anne into even sharper focus. Anne’s likely knowledge of other works by Christine beyond the Mutacion means that she would have been attuned to the themes and debates that the Petit Jehan raised in relation to courtly love and which she explored in her own querelle-informed Beau roman and Rondeaux. Rosalind Brown-Grant’s reading of power relations between men and women in three texts – the Petit Jehan and the BDSM, which Anne certainly knew – and Christine’s Livre du duc des vrais amants, in which the letter from Sibylle de la Tour first appeared, helps to flesh out this idea further. Brown-Grant explores how, in these three texts, the authors problematise key aspects of courtly rhetoric and how they aim to resolve conflict around masculine and feminine honour, given that courtly ideology requires women’s altruism be put to the service of men’s egoism.142 In the Livre du duc, for instance, Christine demonstrates how women must be on their guard against the language used by men to exercise power over them, something of which the Belle dame in Chartier’s poem is also aware. The duke, desiring a lady who will allow him to show off his chivalric prowess, uses courtly language to create a situation in which it is the woman’s gaze (‘la fleche de Doulx Regard’) that has pierced his heart and caused him to suffer.143 The lady’s response is, initially, to remind the duke that it is his ‘esprit fantaisiste’ which has led to this situation; at the end, however, her heart is broken and she yearns for death, caught out by failing to recognise the lover’s narcissistic and selfish motives.144 The lover in the BDSM also refers to the lady’s look, ‘Doulx Regart’, which throws him a challenge he cannot avoid.145 In the courtly love tradition, the fact that the lady has ensnared the lover would then oblige her to compensate him in some way, by showing ‘mercy’ in the sense of sexual favours. However, the lady’s response is to reject his argument and to point out, quite simply, ‘les yeulx sont faiz pour regarder’ (eyes were made for looking).146 As Brown-Grant notes, ‘En contestant la rhétorique du regard amoureux et en adoptant une politique de “closes oreilles” (huitain XXXVIII, v. 304) aux plaidoyers du soupirant, la Belle Dame semble ainsi mettre en pratique tous les conseils que Christine avait voulu disséminer aux femmes’ (by challenging the rhetoric of the amorous gaze and by adopting a policy of ‘closed ears’ with regard to the supporters of the lover, the Belle

Kelly, p. 177. Kelly, p. 184. 142 Brown-Grant, ‘Les rapports de force’, p. 597; I paraphrase her French. 143 Brown-Grant, ‘Les rapports de force’, p. 598, quoting v. 264 of the Livre du duc. 144 Brown-Grant, ‘Les rapports de force’, p. 599. 145 Brown-Grant, ‘Les rapports de force’, p. 600, referring to huitain 29 of the BDSM. 146 Brown-Grant, ‘Les rapports de force’, p. 600, referring to huitain 30 of the BDSM. 140 141

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dame thus seems to put into practice the advice that Christine had wanted to give to women).147 In the Petit Jehan, it is the woman, Belles Cousines, who takes up the position normally occupied by the male lover, subjecting him to her own narcissistic gaze.148 Much of the power relations between the two characters play out in the chivalric contests in which Jehan takes part and which, as noted, are amply illustrated in Anne’s manuscript: the traditional topos of the lady’s gaze providing the knight with inspiration is turned completely upside down and results in Jehan leaving the lady’s service. Belles Cousines’s attempt to appropriate the male gaze not only goes against the rules of courtly love but also leaves her without any reason to exist.149 All three of these texts thus take issue with, or point to the problematics of, the relationships into which courtly love and language place men and women. They are, however, far from singing from the same hymn sheet: as Brown-Grant puts it, Christine, de La Sale and Chartier semblent en venir à des jugements nettement opposés. Pour Christine, le jeu de l’amour n’en vaut pas la chandelle car, même un homme bien intentionné comme le duc [du Livre du duc des vrais amants], peut finir par détruire la vie d’une femme à qui il inspire des sentiments d’amour. Selon Chartier, par contre, puisque les hommes sont les victimes dans l’amour et les femmes les agresseurs en refusant d’y participer, il est nécessaire de menacer celles-ci d’être diffamées afin de contrecarrer leur désir d’autonomie sur le plan affectif. Enfin, au dire de La Sale, le fantasme Courtois de la ‘domna’ et du vassal risque de dégénérer en réalité en une lutte violente dont nul ne sort vainqueur.150 come to very opposite conclusions. For Christine, the game of love is not worth it since even a well-intentioned man like the duke [in the Livre du duc des vrais amants] can end up ruining the life of a woman in whom he has awoken feelings of love. According to Chartier, on the other hand, since men are the victims in love and women are the aggressors by refusing to participate, it is necessary to threaten them with defamation in order to thwart their desire for emotional independence. Finally, where de La Sale is concerned, the courtly fantasy of the ‘domna’ and the vassal runs the risk, in the real world, of descending into a violent struggle in which neither comes out on top.

Yet this lack of convergence only serves to highlight the fact that courtly love – and the power relations between men and women that it comprised – were being called into question by writers of the fifteenth century in a way that parallels the querelle de la BDSM. In this sense, although the three works discussed here are not part of the traditional querelle corpus, nor were they directly debating with one another as were the authors of the querelle de la Rose or the querelle de la BDSM, they nonetheless offered Brown-Grant, ‘Les rapports de force’, p. 600. Brown-Grant, ‘Les rapports de force’, p. 601. 149 Brown-Grant, ‘Les rapports de force’, p. 603. 150 Brown-Grant, ‘Les rapports de force’, pp. 610–11. 147 148



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a contemporary reader interested in such matters the chance to hear competing voices that resonated with those wider querelle frameworks. In fact, the intertextuality that scholars have noted between Christine’s works and those of La Sale, especially the letter from Sibylle de la Tour and the Petit Jehan, together with Brown-Grant’s suggestion that Chartier’s Belle dame put into practice Christine’s advice to women, indicates the ways in which the reader could play an active role in the texts’ interactions. Anne de Graville, as owner of the Petit Jehan, and as reader and then rewriter of the BDSM, was in just such a position, especially if she knew the Sibylle’s letter from the Livre des trois vertus, a vellum copy of which was listed in the d’Urfé inventory. The Petit Jehan de Saintré is followed by Rasse de Brunhamel’s Floridan et Elvide, a translation of Nicolas de Clamanges’ Historia de raptoris raptaeque virginis lamentabili exitu to which he added a prologue and epilogue, dedicating the work to La Sale.151 The tale is one of the love between two childhood sweethearts who defy their parents and elope. Like its literary precedents, the thirteenth-century Pirame et Thisbé, adapted from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and the twelfth-century Floire et Blanchefleur, the tale ends tragically with the suicide of the heroine.152 Elvide is, however, transformed into a model of chastity: threatened with rape by four aggressors who have already killed Floridan, she cuts her own throat with a knife. According to Brown-Grant, this ‘cautionary tale’ is one of several that warn of the ‘ever-present threat of rape for young noble women who lack familial protection’.153 For Foehr-Janssens, the text provides an educational model for women that is based on obedience, chastity and humility that ultimately leads to the heroine’s self-effacement.154 This kind of erasure or reduction of the woman to her dead-but-chaste status recalls the stories of women such as Lucretia and Dido found in Boccaccio’s De mulieribus and to which Christine gave a more positive spin in her Cité.155 In fact, in his epilogue, Rasse de Brunhamel points out to La Sale that the tale of Floridan and Elvide could easily have been lifted from Boccaccio’s De casibus and his De mulieribus, respectively: Dittes moy Antoine se ceste piteuse adventure et infortune feust advenue au temps de Bocasse poete fleurentin s’il eust teu et passé soubz silence sans en faire aucune mencion en ses livres. Certes il est bon a croire que nennil. Mais eust bien et notablement recité le fait de messire Floridam en aucune partie de ses livres qui s’appellet [sic] des adventures The two authors appear to have known each other, perhaps through their service to Louis of Luxembourg. Floridan et Elvide follows the Petit Jehan four manuscripts. See Harry Peter Clive, ‘Floridan et Elvide: A Critical Edition’, Medium Aevum, 26 (1957), 154–85 (p. 154). 152 Yasmine Foehr-Janssens, ‘Thisbé travestie: Floridan et Elvide ou l’idylle trafiquée’, Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes, 20 (2010), 71–87 (p. 72). 153 See Rosalind Brown-Grant, French Romance of the Later Middle Ages: Gender, Morality, and Desire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 120. 154 Foehr-Janssens, p. 73, my paraphrase of her French. 155 See for instance Karen Casebier, ‘Re-Writing Lucretia: Christine de Pizan’s Response to Boccaccio’s De Mulieribus Claris’, Fifteenth Century Studies, 32 (2007) 35–52. 151

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des hommes nobles. Et en latin de Casibus virorum illustrium. Eust aussi recité le fait de la pucelle Ellvide en son livre qui s’appelle des femmes cleres en latin De Mulieribus claris.156 Tell me, Antoine, if this pitiable and unfortunate adventure had occurred in the time of Boccaccio, the Florentine poet, would he have passed over it in silence, without making any mention of it in his books? Certainly, we can believe not. Instead he would have specifically included the story of Floridan somewhere in his book called the Adventures of Noble Men, known in Latin as the De casibus virorum illustrium. And similarly he would have told the story of the young Elvide in his book which is called, On Famous Women, in Latin De mulieribus claris.

Rasse de Brunhamel thus brings the tale into the remit of the querelle des femmes and, moreover, enters into the debate himself by continuing with a comparison between Lucretia and Elvide. He concludes that whereas Lucretia ultimately was a victim of Tarquin’s lust (with her death unable to erase her lost virginity), Elvide, in preserving her virginity by taking her own life, remains unvanquished.157 Furthermore, he compares Lucretia’s oppression by a single man to Elvide’s successful fight against the four men who would rape her: ‘Mais Ellvide batailla contre quatre gras loudiers et inhumains murdriers lesquelz n’eurent point la force de la deshonnourer. Ains les surmonta et se preserva de leur dampnable voulenté et entreprinse’ (But Elvide fought against four big bandits, inhuman murderers, who did not have the strength to bring shame upon her. Thus she overcame them and saved herself from their wretched desire and actions).158 This description, as Foehr-Janssens has noted, also likens her to an Amazon and is reminiscent of the fight between Hipployta and Theseus that appears in both Christine’s Mutacion and Anne de Graville’s Beau roman. Brunhamel’s intertextual epilogue that links the tale of Floridan and Elvide with Boccaccio’s catalogues, the figure of Lucretia, and Amazon women therefore points to how a reader with a range of literary references might encounter the querelle des femmes through a text that is not explicitly a defence of women. As an attentive reader of Boccaccio’s Des cas and Christine’s Mutacion, Anne de Graville likely read Floridan et Elvide in the light, or as part, of the querelle in the same way that she might have read the Petit Jehan in the context of the querelle de la BDSM. Although the figure of Elvide provides a stark contrast to the louche Dame des Belles Cousines, both of them present an idea about women’s behaviour and value that is informed, and framed, by male opinion and which Anne may have read resistingly. Her own elopement and lack of familial protection left her, like Elvide, exposed and open to criticism, yet through her reading and her writing Anne was able, like Christine de Pizan in the Mutacion, and Catherine d’Amboise in the Livre des prudents et imprudents, to transform both her own situation and that of the literary heroines in her works. Cotton Nero D IX, fol. 114r; the words ‘de casibus virorum illustrium’ are underlined in red in this copy. 157 Foehr-Janssens, p. 76. 158 Cotton Nero D IX, fol. 114v. 156



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Anne de Graville’s relationship with Christine de Pizan, as a reader and writer, and her knowledge of the querelle des femmes, emerges very clearly through this key group of texts from her collection. The Des cas, along with the Petit Jehan de Saintré and Floridan et Elvide, wove links with the works of Christine and with the themes of the querelle des femmes and the querelle de la BDSM, demonstrating that these debates were accessed and experienced beyond the traditional catalogue-style defences. The pro-feminine writings of Anne de Graville’s contemporaries, Anne of France, Catherine d’Amboise and Margaret of Navarre, while continuing the legacy of Christine de Pizan, also contributed to this nuancing of the nature and scope of the querelle in that they, too, moved beyond polemical debate and outright defences of women. Their employment of textual strategies, their manipulation of sources and genres, as well as their emphases on redressing the relationship between men and women both in society and in the literary tradition are also aspects central to Anne de Graville’s writings, as the next two chapters show. Seeing these writers – Christine included – as part of a longue durée of interconnected women’s literary activity is an important step in reassessing the tendency to exceptionalise Christine as well as in bringing to light how other women actively participated in and shaped the querelle through their reading as well as their writing.

5 Love, Amazons and Fortune in the Beau roman for Claude of France Claude of France, to whom Anne de Graville dedicated her Beau roman, was born in 1499 to Anne of Brittany and Louis XII. Her marriage to the future Francis I in 1515 had been engineered by Louis and by Francis’s mother, Louise of Savoy, against the wishes of Anne of Brittany, who had hoped that an alternative union would ensure the independence of the duchy of Brittany from the Crown.1 Despite a short life, lived – as historiography would have us believe – away from the political limelight, Claude has recently been shown to have played an important part in the cultural life of the court, having received a thorough religious and humanist education at her mother’s instigation.2 In his Soulas de Noblesse sus le coronnement de la Royne de France Claude, addressed to the queen in 1518, a few years before the Beau roman, Guillaume Michel wrote: Cronis, qu’on dict deesse des croniques, De grand sçavoir et hystoires publicques, Te logera et choisira ta place Bien haultement au livre de Bocace: Lequel contient en sa rescription L’honneur, l’estat, et la cantation Des dames lors qui furent sans diffemmes, Intitulé ‘Des nobles cleres femmes’.3

Elizabeth L’Estrange, Holy Motherhood: Gender, Dynasty and Visual Culture in the Later Middle Ages (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008), pp. 240–41. 2 For further information on Claude’s books and education, see the articles by Wilson-Chevalier and Brown cited in the Introduction, n. 38. Some of the ideas in this chapter first appeared in my article ‘Re-Presenting Emilia in the Context of the querelle des femmes: Text and Image in Anne de Graville’s Beau roman’, in Text/Image Relations in Late Medieval French and Burgundian Culture (Fourteenth-Sixteenth Centuries), ed. by Rosalind Brown-Grant and Rebecca Dixon (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015), pp. 187–207. 3 The work is the last section in Michel’s, Le penser de royal memoire (see Chapter 1, p. 49), a work with political and religious intent aimed at Francis I. This quotation taken from Paris, BnF, Rothschild 2828 (511 c) [II, 3, 6], p. lxxiiiib. See also Radi, ‘Claude de France’. 1



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Cronis, who is said to be the goddess of chronicles Of great learning and well-known stories Will find a place to house you High up in the book of Boccaccio, Which relates, in its translation, The honour, estate and the recitations Of ladies who were without blame at that time [And is] entitled ‘Des nobles cleres femmes’.

Despite the problematic nature of the praise Boccaccio offered to women in De mulieribus claris, Michel’s text associated Claude with an important literary tradition and was intended to highlight her honour and blamelessness. It followed similar associations between Anne of Brittany and the women of De mulieribus in the anonymous translation dedicated to the queen in 1493 and reinforced a decade or so later in Dufour’s Vie des femmes celebres. Claude’s commissioning of a new version of the Livre de Thezeo is an important source of information about the queen that must be situated in relation to this close association between French aristocratic women and the querelle des femmes. However, whereas works like the Penser and the Vie des femmes celebres were written by male authors in praise of their female recipients, the Beau roman was written by one woman for another in a subtle interplay of promotion and deference. The opening miniature of the Arsenal manuscript (fig. 2), to which this chapter pays particular attention, sets the tone for this work which, continuing the legacy of Christine de Pizan, subverted the male literary tradition that paradoxically praised and condemned women, presenting itself instead as a site of advice and knowledge exchange between women.

The Origins of the Beau roman: The Teseida, its Adaptations, and Anne’s Remaniement

Anne de Graville based her Beau roman on the Livre de Thezeo, a mid-fifteenth-century prose translation of Boccaccio’s Teseida delle Nozze d’Emilia. Boccaccio wrote the Teseida around 1340 and dedicated it to a fictional woman reader, Fiammetta. As Rhiannon Daniels notes, this dedication served a number of purposes, not least providing a figure of the ‘crudel donna’, allowing Boccaccio to present himself as the spurned lover and the tale as one of courtly love.4 The Teseida itself is the story of the Amazons who, under their queen Hippolyta, rise up against their husbands and set up their own government. Angry Greeks complain to Theseus, duke of Athens, who decides to punish the Amazons in a battle. Defeated, Hippolyta is wedded to the duke and returns with him to Athens, accompanied by her sister Emilia. Theseus then defeats Creon, King of Thebes and after 4

She notes that the dedication to Fiammetta also justifies his use of the vernacular; see Rhiannon Daniels, Boccaccio and the Book: Production and Reading in Italy, 1340–1520 (London: MHRA, 2009), pp. 4–5.

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the battle takes as prisoner two Thebans, the cousins Palamon and Arcita. Emilia becomes the object of their desire when they espy her from their prison cell. Both vow to marry her and, eventually, to settle the dispute, Theseus organises a tournament in which the victor will win the hand of Emilia. Arcita, putting himself under the protection of the god Mars, wins the tournament but the goddess Venus, taking up Palamon’s cause, sends down a fury which knocks over Arcita’s horse, mortally wounding the hero. On his deathbed, Arcita asks his cousin to wed Emilia in his place, and their marriage is celebrated at the end of the story. The Teseida enjoyed a certain popularity in Italy, surviving in a similar number of manuscripts to the Decameron, and it was printed twice before 1500.5 This popularity led to a number of adaptations of the work in both English and French, including Chaucer’s Knights Tale (c. 1400), William Shakespeare and John Fletcher’s Two Noble Kinsmen (1613), the Livre de Thezeo and another, now lost, version penned by Anne’s contemporary, Jeanne de la Font, the wife of Margaret of Navarre’s secretary, Jacques Thiboust.6 Much scholarship has focused on the figure of Emilia in Boccaccio’s version and Emelye in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, with critics divided on her role – or lack of it – in the story.7 Michael Sherberg has suggested that Boccaccio not only ‘gives voice to Emilia, enabling her to lament the paradox of her situation as well as her despair at being the object of undesired desire’ but also insists on the pleasure Emilia takes in being watched, which calls attention to a certain ambiguity in her characterisation.8 Once described by Norman Eliason as ‘possibly the most mindless heroine in all literature’, Chaucer’s Emelye is, for some critics of the Knight’s Tale, a passive object through whom homosocial relations are played out.9 Others, such as William F. Woods, have seen her as central to the tale See Daniels, p. 173. She notes (p. 42) that there are sixty-two surviving manuscripts of the Teseida and another seventeen manuscript copies have been lost. 6 See Susan L. Wing, ‘Something about Emilia: Woman as Love Object in Boccaccio, Chaucer, Anne de Graville, and Shakespeare and Fletcher’, in Comparative Literature East and West: Traditions and Trends, ed. by Cornelia Niekus Moore and Raymond A. Moody (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989), pp. 139–51. For Jeanne de la Font, see Müller, ‘Translatrices’. On the popularity of Boccaccio in France more generally, see Boccace en France: de l’humanisme à l’éroticisme, ed. by François Avril and Florence Callu (Paris: BnF, 1975), esp. pp. ix–xii. 7 For bibliography on the characterisation of Emelye, and a discussion of her in relation to Boccaccio’s Emilia, see Jamie Friedman, ‘Between Boccaccio and Chaucer: The Limits of Female Interiority in the Knight’s Tale’, in The Inner Life of Women in Medieval Romance Literature: Grief, Guilt and Hypocrisy, ed. by Jeff Rider and Jamie Friedman (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 203–22 (esp. n. 1). See also the literature noted by Sarah Stanbury in footnote 7 of her ‘Visibility and Homosocial Pose in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale’, 2002, www.academia.edu/22221457/_Visibility_and_Homosocial_Pose_in_Chaucer_s_Knight_s_Tale_ [accessed 2 June 2022]. 8 Michael Sherberg, ‘The Girl Outside the Window (Teseida delle nozze d’Emilia)’, in Boccaccio: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works, ed. by Victoria Kirkham, Michael Sherberg and Janet Levarie Smarr (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014), pp. 95–106 (p. 106); on Emilia taking pleasure in being watched, see pp. 103–04. 9 Norman Eliason, ‘Chaucer the Love Poet’, in Chaucer the Love Poet, ed. by Jerome Mitchell and William Provost (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1973), pp. 9–26 (p. 14). 5



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and that her prayer to Diana over which of the men she should choose is a ‘crucial act of will’.10 In her study of the four surviving adaptations of the Teseida, Susan L. Wing claims that Anne de Graville’s Emilia is, like those of Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Shakespeare and Fletcher, an ‘ultimately powerless victim of Venus’ sway over the “civilised” male knights’; they are all ‘unwilling objects of masculine obsession, an adulation none of them seeks’.11 However, such a reading of all the Emilias as passive and as reasserting the patriarchy is reductive, and a closer consideration of Anne’s source and the manuscript she worked from serves as an important step in understanding the nature of her remaniement in which Emilia plays a central role. Anne’s source, the Livre de Thezeo, survives in four copies and one fragment. The work may originally have been intended for a female patron, since one of the manuscripts now in Vienna includes a presentation scene in which a young man kneels before a lady and offers her the book.12 By the early sixteenth century, this manuscript was in the possession of Margaret of Austria, regent of the Netherlands and sister-in-law to Louise of Savoy.13 The presentation scene as well as Margaret’s acquisition of the copy suggests that the prose version was of interest to female readers, and the 1523 inventory of the ducal library at Moulins shows that a paper copy was also in Anne of France’s possession.14 Two other copies of the text in Chantilly and Vienna that date from a similar time period, both on parchment, have space for illuminations that were not completed.15 Another copy written out in the early sixteenth century on paper is now in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 329 and it is tempting to wonder if this was once the copy in the Moulins library. In his 1965 edition of the Beau roman, Yves Le Hir dismissed the Oxford manuscript as a possible source text for Anne de Graville on the basis of its lacunae.16 However, his doubts William F. Woods, ‘“My Sweete Foo”: Emelye’s Role in “The Knight’s Tale”’, Studies in Philology, 88 (1991), 276–306 (277–78). 11 Wing, p. 139. 12 Vienna, ÖNB, ms 2617, fol. 14v; this manuscript dates from the third quarter of the fifteenth century and has sixteen high-quality illuminations that have been attributed to Barthélemy d’Eyck and the circle of René d’Anjou. See Orth, Renaissance Manuscripts, ii, p. 103, and Avril and Callu, pp. 64–65. The manuscript has been fully digitised at https://digital.onb.ac.at/RepViewer/ viewer.faces?doc=DTL_7302611&order=1&view=SINGLE [accessed 1 September 2022]. 13 Marguerite Debae, La bibliothèque de Marguerite d’Autriche: Essai de reconstitution après l’inventaire de 1523–24 (Peeters: Leuven, 1995), p. 497: ‘ung livre […] parlant de Ypolite royenne de Cithia, depuis nommée Amazeon’ (A book […] about Hippolyta, queen of Scythia, since known as Amazonia). 14 ‘Le Livre de Theseus, en papier, à la main’; no. 283 (p. 253) in Chazaud’s edition of the Enseignements. 15 Chantilly, Bibliothèque du chateau, ms 601 and Vienna, ÖNB, ms 2632; see Thezeo, pp. 22–26 and 32–35; and BR, p. 13. The fragmentary copy is Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 934. 16 BR, p. 29; following Hauvette (pp. 190; 200), Le Hir (BR, p. 13) signalled a now-lost copy of the Livre de Thezeo listed in the 1791 Parisiana sale (no. 376) with a d’Urfé provenance although it seems this manuscript was never in the possession of the d’Urfé (see Gatch, p. 100). 10

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were misfounded and Bianciotto has shown, through a close comparison of the gaps and variant readings in Douce 329 and in Anne’s text, that this is indeed the source from which she worked: the d’Urfé binding, the added title ‘Hystoyre de Theseus, Palamon & Arcita et la belle Emylia’ in a hand that bears similarities with other inscriptions by Anne, and the mention in the Amsterdam inventory further confirm this.17 Bianciotto does not, however, follow other scholars who have attributed Anne’s adaptations to her literary skill and originality.18 In particular, he considers her use of brevitas as simply working around the faults in her model and does not dwell on the instances where she uses the lacunae to elaborate other episodes of the text, such as Palamon’s visit to Venus’ temple. Such adaptations are actually crucial to the meaning of the text and its relevance to her intended audience and also demonstrate the close connection between Anne’s reading and her writing. Pascale Mounier has recently shown that Anne de Graville’s ‘translation’ of the old prose Thezeo into a new rhymed version was one of six verse romances produced around 1500, a period in which prose was still the dominant narrative form.19 These works, that also include the anonymous Cent rondeaulx | Et cinq avec (c. 1510–15) and Pierre Sala’s Le bon chevalier au Lyon (c. 1519), demonstrate the authors’ desire to use a particular form for the genre of romance that would appeal to a courtly audience.20 Moreover, Anne’s employment of decasyllabic or heroic verse links her remaniement not only directly back to Boccaccio’s Teseida, and more broadly to the style of the tre corone, but also – and more relevantly – to the writings of contemporary French rhétoriqueurs who, as Bouchard notes, preferred poetry to prose when heightening the beauty of the language or telling of the exploits of famous figures.21 Anne was therefore conscious of the importance, and the effect, of the forms that she employed, a fact that is also witnessed by her decision to use the rondeau for her rewriting of the BDSM. The Douce catalogue notes this is a later hand than the main text and it has similarities with the hand which annotated the Arsenal Mutacion and with that which wrote out the Beau roman in nafr. 719 (discussed below). The Douce manuscript is misbound in places and contains additional lacunae that Bianciotto shows must have occurred after Anne had completed her work; see Thezeo, pp. 288–300. The manuscript is also missing the prologue and epilogue addressed to the original female recipient. 18 See Thezeo, pp. 300–01 and nn. 25–26, where he is critical of Le Hir and Müller’s readings. Although he cites Müller’s article ‘Translatrices’, he does not engage in any way with the most recent pro-feminine readings of Anne’s text and dismisses Müller’s argument as an ‘exemple de l’interprétation psychologique qui peut dériver de la méconnaissance d’une telle lacune’ (example of psychological interpretation that can result from a lack of knowledge of a particular lacuna). 19 Pascale Mounier, En style poétique: L’Ecriture romanesque en vers autour de 1500 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2020); see esp. pp. 30–35. 20 Mounier, p. 15. This decision may also correspond to an interest in the reworkings of older works amongst writers and publishers at the turn of the sixteenth century; see Guillaume Berthon, ‘Présence des “Anciens bons autheurs en rithme françoise” à la cour de François Ier’, in La Poésie à la cour de François Ier, ed. by Jean-Eudes Girot, Cahiers V. L. Saulnier, 29 (2012), 51–63 (p. 54). 21 Bouchard, ‘Le roman “épique”’, p. 103; I paraphrase the French. 17



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The Extant Copies of the Beau Roman

The Beau roman survives in six manuscripts copies, two copies on paper and in cursive scripts, the other four on vellum and written in a neat bâtard.22 Although there is some variation between the manuscripts’ quality and state of completeness, all but one include the title ‘A la royne’ or ‘A la royne Claude’ and the anagram of Anne’s name. The relationship between Claude as the commissioner and Anne as the author was thus well established and, along with the prologue, suggests that the dedicatee was integral to the poem’s genesis and meaning. The presence of Anne’s anagram, the possibility that she herself wrote out at least one of the paper copies and that she was responsible for making corrections on one of the vellum ones, means that she was, like Christine de Pizan, closely involved in her work’s production and dissemination. Only the Arsenal and the Chantilly copies of the Beau roman now contain any illumination. The Chantilly copy has J’en garde un leal on a banderol beneath the dedicatory prologue (fig. 38). Opposite, a shield with Claude’s arms, crowned and encircled by a cordelière and two ermines, are painted inside a large letter G which is made of silver and black heraldic ermine tails, the symbol of Brittany. The background, which appears to have undergone some repainting, is also painted with ermine tails, gold letter Gs and white ermines; the entire miniature is framed by intertwined cordelières encircled by blue serpent-like creatures that perhaps were a reference to the salamander employed by Francis I, and yet more ermine tails.23 Some, including Le Hir, have read the large letter G as a C – which would make sense in relation to the work’s patron, Claude – but the straightness of the lower ‘curve’ of the letter suggests otherwise.24 A letter G would, of course, refer to In addition to Arsenal 5116 and fr. 25441 (both on vellum) and nafr. 719 that have already been mentioned, these copies are: Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 513 (vellum); Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1397 (vellum, lacks the title rubric); Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 6513 (paper). See the list in Appendix C. 23 Claude inherited the cordelière – a version of the knotted Franciscan cord – from her mother but Francis, too, inherited the ‘Savoy’ (figure of eight) cordelière from Louise. The two seem to be referenced here: Claude’s around her arms and the Savoy one around the margins. On Louise’s use of the cordelière, see Laure Fagnart, ‘Nœuds de Savoie et cordelières de Louise de Savoie’, in Princesses et Renaissance(s). La commande artistique de Marguerite d’Autriche et de son entourage, ed. by Laurence Rivière Ciavaldini and Magali Briat-Philippe (Paris: Editions du patrimoine, 2018), pp. 125–34. The blue snake-like figures also recall the Visconti guivre. 24 BR, p. 37. Orth, in Renaissance Manuscripts, ii, p. 103, reads it as a G and links it to Graville. I am grateful to Dominique Stutzmann for his opinion, in which he also sees a large letter G, and also suggests the background letter Gs might have been combined with now erased (modified or oxidised?) letter As. The Chantilly catalogue is somewhat inaccurate in respect of provenance, giving previous owners as ( Jean) Crozet, Richard Heber, (Guillaume de) Lamoignon and Jérôme Pinchon; see: www.calames.abes.fr/pub/#details?id=IF3010917 [accessed 2 June 2022]. It is not clear which ‘Guillaume’ de Lamoignon is meant here, but the catalogue of the books of Chrétien-François de Lamoignon (1735–89) made in 1770 includes a ‘Roman de Palæmon, et Æmylia, sœur d’Hyppolyte, en Vers François. Manuscrit gothique sur Vélin, in-4o. [3. M. 473]’; see Catalogue des livres imprimés et manuscrits de la bibliothèque de M. de Lamoignon, président 22

Fig. 38. Prologue and frontispiece with the arms of Claude of France, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 513, fols 1v–2r, c. 1521–24 (photo: CNRS-IRHT, © Bibliothèque du musée Condé, château de Chantilly).

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Anne’s surname, thus making the page a complex intertwining of Anne’s identity with that of Claude, to the point that Claude’s emblem of stylised ermine tails forms not her, but her writer’s, initial. On the opposite page, Anne’s anagram is also larger than the now faded ‘A la royne’, which might beg the question of who is being promoted here. If it were not made for Claude, was the Chantilly manuscript perhaps a luxury copy for Anne or for someone else in her entourage? And/or was it adapted by its Lamoignon owners in the eighteenth century, whose coat of arms included the Breton ermine?25 The manuscript contains no other illumination. The hand that copied the Chantilly manuscript is the same as that which copied the Beau roman’s prologue in fr. 25441 and as the first hand that intervenes in the Rondeaux manuscript.26 Fr. 25441 is a high-quality manuscript, written on thick parchment with pale grey-on-gold initials. It also includes ten additional lines in the section detailing Palamon’s visit to Venus’ temple that are absent from the Arsenal copy and from nafr. 719 but which are present in the other three copies.27 The dedicatory prologue on folio 5v is headed with the words ‘A la Royne’ written in red; at the top of the opposite folio, 6r, Anne de Graville’s anagram appears in capital letters followed by the opening lines of the text (fig. 39). The manuscript was originally illuminated, since not only does folio 6r have stains that might du Parlement (Paris: [L. F. Delatour], 1770), p. 194. The same book is listed in the posthumous catalogue of his books, see Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de feu M. de Lamoignon, garde des sceaux de France, 3 vols (Paris: Mérigot, 1791–92), ii, p. 17. These seem likely to refer to the Chantilly copy. An item corresponding even more closely to the Chantilly copy appears in the Catalogue des livres composant le fonds du librairie du feu M. Crozet … Seconde partie contenant les raretés bibliographiques et les belles reliures (Paris: Colomb de Batines, 1841), p. 61. This would be Joseph, rather than Jean, Crozet (1808–48). However, prior to this, the manuscript appeared in the sale catalogue of Richard Heber in 1836, no. 1181; see Bibliotheca Heberiana: Catalogue of the Library of the Late Richard Heber, esq., Part the Eleventh. Manuscripts (London: [no publisher], 1836), p. 123. The manuscript evidently passed from Lamoignon’s estate to Heber around 1791–92 and then in 1836 to Crozet and then after his death in 1848 to Pinchon; see his sale catalogue, Catalogue des livres rares et précieux, manuscrits et imprimés de la bibliothèque de M. le baron J. P***** (Paris: L. Potier, 1869), no. 472. There is a family connection between Anne de Graville and the Lamoignon family, since Guillaume II de Lamoignon (1683–1772) bought the castle of Malesherbes from Alexandre d’Illiers d’Entragues in 1718. Alexandre was a descendant of Anne de Graville via her son Guillaume and Louise d’Humières. 25 See the discussion in the preceding footnote regarding provenance. 26 On the scribe of the Chantilly manuscript, see Mounier, p. 121. My thanks to Joan E. McRae for noticing the connection between fr. 25441 and the Rondeaux manuscript. The hands and layout of the Rondeaux and Beau roman also bear similarities to a group of manuscripts containing rondeaux that were produced in the Loire Valley for royal consumption, meaning it is possible that Anne was drawing on the services of a workshop associated with the court in having her work copied. Thanks to Mary Beth Winn for this suggestion. 27 These lines begin with the reference to Thisbee (‘De telle mort […]’) and end with the example of the niece of the duke of Burgundy (‘[…] feit mourir de vergogne’) and occur after line 1357 in Le Hir’s edition (see also BR, p. 138). Bouchard also edits these lines in ‘Le roman “épique”’, pp. 105–07, but she does not comment on their content.

Fig. 39. Prologue and opening verses, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25441, fols 5v–6r, c. 1521–24 (photo: E. L’Estrange).

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correspond to the rubbing of a facing miniature, but the manuscript contains a series of lacunae that occur systematically at the beginning/end of chapters and corresponding to enough lost lines and space to indicate that illuminations for each section have been removed.28 Fr. 25441 was once in Anne’s possession, as attested by the d’Urfé binding and the inscriptions relating to the marriage of Jeanne de Balsac and Claude d’Urfé and the births of their children. The manuscript also contains series of corrections to the text in a hand that is likely to be Anne’s own – notably, an insertion in the margin of folio 39v indicating a missing line (‘y fault une ligne’) in the list of unfortunate women that Palamon sees in Venus’ temple. Similarities between the marginal hand in fr. 25441 and that which wrote out nafr. 719 have led Mounier to propose that Anne was responsible for copying nafr. 719 and that it constitutes her mise-au-net of the work.29 Further correspondences between the hands found here and the additions to the Mutacion manuscripts, such as the distinctive ‘y’, also point to Anne being the scribe. Nafr. 719 almost certainly served as the model for the makers of the Arsenal manuscript, since both lack the ten lines found in the other four copies and because these are the only two versions to include the long title beginning ‘C’est le beau roman …’. Moreover, the text of nafr. 719 is divided into sections entitled ‘hystoires’ and numbered I–X, divisions which correspond to the chapters and illuminations in the Arsenal manuscript. The history of nafr. 719 also points to it being in Anne’s possession. It entered the BnF in 1872 when it was sent, along with two other manuscripts, from the Royal Library in Stockholm in exchange for Paris, BnF, ms scandinave 8.30 A description If a frontispiece miniature has been removed, as the rubbing suggests, this would imply a possible blank recto between the dedicatory prologue on fol. 5v and the miniature and the start of the text on fol. 6r. Mounier (p. 173) makes a similar observation and dismisses the likelihood of a missing miniature here. However, a lost page might have been decorated on both sides, as is the case with the Arsenal manuscript, although there is no indication of rubbing on fol. 5v. Mounier (p. 173) notes that four folios of text are missing, corresponding to chapters 3, 4, 5 and 8, but on closer inspection it is evident that there are lacunae in all chapters. The incomplete state of the manuscript was noted by La Monnoye in a note relating to its sale in the early eighteenth century that is preserved inside, meaning that the miniatures had probably been removed by this date. 29 Nafr. 719 also contains corrections in the margins and on the text itself. Mounier (pp. 109–10; 119) argues that the prologue was added afterwards (by Anne) and that the rondeau and anagram of Anne’s name, which conclude the tale but in a different script, are also by Anne, who was here using a more applied hand. 30 A note regarding the exchange is pasted into the front of nafr. 719. My thanks to Patrik Granholm at the KB in Stockholm for information regarding the exchange of manuscripts and identification of the printed texts discussed below. Nafr. 719 originally had the shelfmark Stephens LIV in the KB. BnF, ms scandinave 8 is now Stockholm, KB, MS A110, and is the sole witness for an important Swedish devotional text, Järteckensboken (the Book of Omens). Although they contain no indications of ownership, two other manuscripts in the exchange, Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 718, a copy of Wace’s Le Roman de Rou et les ducs de Normandie and Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 1943, Roman d’Eledus et de Serene, are also tempting candidates for Anne’s ownership based on their subject matter. 28



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of the manuscript while it was still in Sweden shows that it was bound with (parts of ) three printed texts, which are still in Stockholm.31 The first is Guillaume Le Rouillé’s Alenconiensis causidici in legibus licentiati: Justicie atque injusticie descriptionum compendium that was printed in Paris in 1520 by C. Chevallon.32 The other two texts are in effect just two pages, one headed La Doctrine des Crestiens and the other Livre de Jhesus, now bound together.33 La Doctrine was a text by Noel Béda and Thomas Warnet that was printed by Alain Lotrain c. 1525. The page headed Livre de Jhesu, which contains translations into French of the Pater Noster and Credo, amongst others, might be another text printed by Lotrain, La Vie de Jesucrist.34 Le Rouillé was a poet and lawyer (not to be confused with the Lyon printer of the same name) in the circle of Margaret of Navarre, better known for his edition of the Grand Coutumier de Normandie (1534 and 1539). Béda and Warnet were both closely associated with the reformist Collège de Montagu, financed in the later fifteenth century by Louis de Graville and headed up by the reformer Jan Standonck.35 The dating of these texts and their links to causes and people in which Anne had an interest thus further the likelihood that they, along with nafr. 719, were previously owned by Anne.36 A second copy on paper, BnF, ms nafr. 6513, is actually the largest of all the manuscripts and of relatively high quality with wide margins. Although there are no illuminated initials or rubrics, the separation of the text into stanzas is marked by a space of several lines as well as a larger script for the opening words of each section. The text ends abruptly on folio 48v at line 3344, the final 300-odd lines having been lost at some point. Contrary to what Le Hir noted in his edition, the manuscript was copied by one hand which may also be that of Anne de Graville.37 The text is titled ‘A la Royne Claude’ in the same ink as the rest of the text and Anne’s anagram appears between the dedicatory prologue and the start of the text. It is possible that this paper copy was a revised version of the text in Arsenal 5116 and nafr. 719, and that it served as the model for Chantilly 513, fr. 25441 and fr. 1397, since all four contain the additional ten lines. Auguste Geffroy, Notices et extraits des manuscrits concernant l’histoire ou la littérature de la France qui sont conservés dans les bibliothèques ou archives de Suède, Danemark et Norvège (Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1885), p. 107. 32 Stockholm, KB, Jurid. Allm. See Geffroy, pp. 106–07. 33 Stockholm, KB, 173 H Br. qv. Livre. 34 Lotrian’s shop was at ‘la rue neufve nostre Dame a l’enseigne de l’escue de France’, and this indication is given at the end of the page in Stockholm. 35 Le Gall, p. 85 and see also Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation, 3 vols, ed. by Peter G. Bietenholz and Thomas Brian Deutscher (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003), i, pp. 116–18 (Noel Béda); iii, pp. 281–82 ( Jan Standonck); and iii, pp. 431–32 (Thomas Warnet). 36 Unfortunately the binding, which might have provided further information, was lost when the volume was broken up for the 1872 exchange. 37 BR, pp. 36–37; Mounier (pp. 120–21) proposes that the hand is Anne’s; if so, she would be using a different script to that employed in nafr. 719. 31

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Fr. 1397, like the other vellum copies, is written in a neat bâtard script; it has gold initials on alternating red and blue grounds. There is no provision for miniatures, although the dedicatory prologue is blank on the verso, where a miniature facing the start of the text might have been envisaged. There are some variant readings in common with other copies, notably fr. 25441, which the scribe may have consulted.38 This is the only copy of the Beau roman that does not contain the title ‘A la Royne’ or Anne de Graville’s anagram. However, the fact that the text shows the scribe’s familiarity with other copies makes it unlikely that Anne would not have been behind the production of this manuscript too. Arsenal 5116 is written on thick, fine-quality parchment and, in addition to the presentation miniature already discussed, is illustrated with twelve miniatures, ten within the Beau roman and two frontispieces to the love epistles. The epistles, written in the same hand and on pages with the same ruling were evidently part of the original campaign. Towards the centre of the title page, a laurel wreath surrounds a shield, behind which runs a pointed stake or pin from top to bottom, which might have been intended to evoke the Graville heraldic fermail (fig. 1). Underneath this emblem are the words ‘A la Royne’ in red and the start of the dedicatory poem. The shield now shows three rabbit (?) heads on a red ground, although the outline of a lion rampant is still visible beneath to the naked eye.39 It is possible that the lion rampant was also an overpainting and that the shield originally held Anne’s or Claude’s arms. However, a lion rampant also appears on the arms of Vendôme, a family closely linked to the Bourbons and into which Anne’s sister, Louise, married.40 Although the Arsenal manuscript has long been accepted as the copy made for Claude, its ambiguous arms, together with the fact that the Chantilly manuscript also seems aimed at Claude, raise the possibility of another owner for the Arsenal manuscript, an idea considered in more detail towards the end of the chapter in relation to the connections between Anne de Graville’s family, Anne of France and the connétable Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier.41 Three artistic hands are at work in the manuscript. The first was responsible for the dedication miniature (fig. 2) and three others: Emilia and Hippolyta with Theseus and Mounier notes that fr. 1397 has two lines (lines 81–82, fol. 3v) grouped together, separate from the rest of the verses, a feature also found at the same point in 25441 (fol. 7v), suggesting that the scribe of fr. 1397 had seen the layout of fr. 25441. 39 I am grateful to Hanno Wijsman for bringing the lion rampant to my attention. It has not been possible to identify to which family the rabbit heads might refer, although Jean-Luc Deuffic suggests they might be those of the Norman family, Dumont de Bosquatet ([sic] for Bostaquet); see http://pecia.blog.tudchentil.org/category/textes-et-images/page/7/ [accessed 6 December 2022]. A Norman connection is also suggested by the inscription ‘Appartien à Antoine de Casseres’ on the front paste-down which might refer to a Rouen-Portuguese merchant active in the mid-1600s; see Bertrand Gautier, ‘Les négociants étrangers à Rouen à l’époque de Richelieu et de Mazarin (1625–1660)’, Annales de Normandie, 55 (2005), 247–66 (p. 256). 40 D’argent au chef de gueules; au lion d’azur, armé, lampassé et couronné d’or, brochant sur le tout. 41 Orth in fact stated said that ‘some doubt must remain about the original ownership of the book [Arsenal 5116]’: Renaissance Manuscripts, ii, p. 103. 38

Fig. 40. Master of Anne de Graville (Etienne Colaud?), Emilia and Hippolyta with Theseus and a mounted knight, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 2r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

Fig. 41. Master of Anne de Graville (Etienne Colaud?), Palamon and Arcita before Theseus (as Francis I and Henry VIII), Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 12r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).



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a mounted knight (fig. 40); Palamon and Arcita kneeling before Theseus (fol. 8v); and Palamon and Arcita again before Theseus (fig. 41). Orth named this artist the Master of Anne de Graville, although Marie-Blanche Cousseau identifies this hand with that of the Parisian illuminator Etienne Colaud who was also responsible for the miniature added to the Policraticus discussed in Chapter 1.42 The six other Beau roman miniatures are by a second hand linked stylistically to Colaud to whom Cousseau gave the somewhat unwieldly epithet the ‘Executant principal des Statuts de l’Ordre de Saint-Michel’.43 The two miniatures that illustrate the epistles of Clériande and Maguelonne are, according to Orth, ‘by a third, but closely related, artist whose miniatures are more polished and colourful than the preceding ones’.44 Anne de Graville must have become familiar with the work of Colaud and his collaborators through her connections to the court, since they produced a number of copies of the Statues de l’Ordre de Saint Michel under Francis I’s patronage, a copy of François Bergaigne’s translation of Dante’s Paradise for Francis I’s chancellier and close advisor of Louise, Antoine Duprat, as well as manuscripts owned by Anne de Polignac (1495–1554), another important female bibliophile and contemporary of Anne.45 Orth was of the opinion that although the ‘lively and often complicated miniatures [in the Beau roman] provide a kind of visual shorthand to summarize the scenes’, their ‘formulaic compositions […] make it apparent that Anne had little or nothing to do with advising the artists’.46 In fact, given Anne’s involvement in the other copies of her work, and the integration of the two love epistles, the opposite is more likely to have been the case. As with her copy of Petrarch’s Triumphs, through her choice of illuminator and workshop for this copy of the Beau roman, Anne was participating in, and associating her work with, the kind of quality book production and visual programmes familiar to and demanded by courtly readers. Moreover, if the manuscript were intended for Claude, the representation of Emilia in many of the miniatures in royal blue and ermine offered the queen a chance to see herself in the Amazon heroine. The illustrative programme functioned in conjunction Sainte-Geneviève, ms 1145; see chapter 2 of Cousseau. Arsenal 5116, fols 20v, 29r, 36r, 41r, 51r, 56r, 68r. According to Cousseau, this artist was responsible for five of the nineteen surviving copies of the Statutes produced by Colaud’s workshop; see Cousseau (para. 2 of Chapter 3). 44 Fols 71r and 77r; see Orth, Renaissance Manuscripts, ii, p. 104. 45 On the Statues, see Cousseau. Bergaigne’s Paradise was originally part of a now lost translation of the Divine Comedy made for Claude of France. A description survives in a seventeenth-century inventory published by Léopold Delisle, ‘Manuscrits d’une ancienne bibliothèque du midi de la France’, Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des chartes, 50 (1889), 158–60 (p. 160). Duprat’s copy of the Paradise is now Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 4119. The manuscripts produced for, or owned by, Anne de Polignac include a copy of the Mémoires of her uncle, Philippe de Commynes, Paris, BnF, nafr. 20960 (ill. 42 in Cousseau). On Anne’s book collection and links to the court, see Delisle, ‘La bibliothèque d’Anne de Polignac’ and Walter Cahn, ‘A French Renaissance Collection of Ancient Oratory from the Library of Anne de Polignac’, The Yale University Library Gazette, 79 (2005), 119–37. 46 Orth, Renaissance Manuscripts, ii, p. 104, my emphasis. 42 43

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with the texts to help convey the pro-feminine and political messages that were intended to appeal to Anne’s royal commissioner. It is therefore apparent that three of the six surviving copies of the Beau roman were, or could have been, in Anne’s possession: the two paper copies written in her hand and that served as models for the more luxurious copies, and the vellum copy in a d’Urfé binding that has lost its miniatures. If the illuminated Arsenal manuscript were made for Claude, this leaves two vellum copies – the one in Chantilly with the large letter G frontispiece, and the copy lacking any direct reference to Claude or Anne – with no evident first owner.47 With the exception of fr. 1397, Anne took pains to indicate her authorship (through her anagram) of the Beau roman as well as its royal origins. If the Arsenal copy was not made for Claude but for a member of the Vendôme family as explored later, then Claude may have been the recipient of the Chantilly copy. Whatever the answer, Anne, like Christine de Pizan and Catherine d’Amboise, oversaw the production of her work and intended it for circulation amongst an elite audience with whom she was closely involved.

Destabilising Hierarchies: Women Writing for Women

Like the Teseida and the Livre de Thezeo, Anne’s Beau roman begins with a prologue addressed to a woman.48 On the one hand, her prologue follows the established convention of praising the work’s recipient and diminishing the author’s achievements. On the other, as Delogu notes and as the presentation miniature makes clear, ‘Anne continues to unsettle the heteronormative sexual economy that shapes Boccaccio’s Teseida as well as the noble courts of sixteenth-century France’, since she is not caught in a courtly convention where the female dedicatee holds power over the male author who seeks to serve her.49 Instead, Anne de Graville ‘seeks intellectual recognition rather than erotic satisfaction’ and the prologue emphasises, through its language and grammar, that this is one woman writing for another, both of whom can lay claim to being learned and intelligent:50 Si j’ai emprins ma souveraine dame, Comme ignorante et peu scavante femme, Oser à vous, là ou gist tout scavoir, Faire present de ce que ay peu avoir, De dure teste et langue mal aprise, Je vous supply que je n’en soye reprise: Neither of these other two copies are in a d’Urfé binding. Fr. 1397 was in the collection of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (d. 1683) which was sold in 1728 and mainly acquired by the king, hence the current royal binding. Bianciotti (p. 278, note 5), apparently following Vernet, claims that fr. 1397 and nafr. 6513 were also in the d’Urfé library, but neither he nor Vernet provides any evidence for this. 48 As noted above, the Thezeo’s dedication is, however, absent from Anne’s source text. 49 Delogu, ‘Voiceover’, p. 258. 50 Delogu, ‘Voiceover’, p. 258. 47



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Car je l’ay fait pour sans plus vous monstrer Que avez bien peu mon ignorance oultrer Quand j’ay parfait ce que n’ay sceu oncq faire Pour vostre gré acomplir et parfaire. Et vous plaira congnoistre que combien Que en tel scavoir j’entende moins que rien, Se ainsy estoit que y sceusse quelque chose Si envers vous la vouldroye tenir close. Et vous requiers croire que je consens Que tous mes ans, mon corps, mon temps et sens Soient dediez au treshumble service De vous madame, en tout dicté sans vice.51 If I have undertaken, my sovereign lady, As an ignorant and uneducated woman, To dare to make a gift to you, in whom all knowledge lies, Of what I have been able to create out of a thick head and badly learned language I beg that you not blame me for it: Because I did it for nothing more than to show you That you have been able to easily surpass my lack of knowledge, When I have achieved that which I never knew how to do, In order to please you perfectly. And it will please you to know that, However much I understand less than nothing in all this learning If it was thus that I did know something I would therefore wish to keep it quiet in front of you And I entreat you to believe that I am dedicating All my years, my body, my time and mind To your very humble service, You who are known to have no vice.

Anne de Graville sets up Claude as a powerful, royal lady (ma souveraine dame) and a learned patron who is without vice. Although she contrasts this with references to herself as an ignorant woman of little learning, this is largely a rhetorical strategy. Anne goes on to call attention to her literary achievements which have been facilitated (of course) by the largesse of her patron, by stating that she has managed to achieve what she did not think she was capable of doing for the queen’s pleasure. She employs a similar trope in the prologue of the Rondeaux, where she emphasises the audacity and silliness of her writing at the same time as demonstrating her knowledge and judgement of Chartier’s works.

51

BR, lines 1–18.

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In both the Beau roman and the Rondeaux prologues, and in their accompanying images, Anne replaces masculine literary privilege and authority with female agency, positing women as the seat of learning and literary production. However, whereas Anne disrupts the male literary tradition through her writing, her heroine, Emilia, overturns the long-standing criticisms of the female sex in relation to speech. Both Anne of France in the Enseignements and Christine de Pizan in the Livre des trois vertus cautioned their readers to use speech wisely, and Delogu has noted that not only is the amount of direct speech accorded to Anne de Graville’s Emilia in the Beau roman greater than in Boccaccio’s original but that ‘[e]ven more important than the fact of speaking is that Emilia speaks wisely and well’.52 An example of this is found in the episode when Theseus decides to settle the question of Palamon and Arcita’s rivalry for Emilia’s hand by a tournament. The miniature that illustrates this episode in the Arsenal manuscript underscores the particular modification that Anne de Graville effected in her version of the tale (fig. 42). The text directly beneath the miniature explains how Theseus listened to Palamon and Arcita affirming their love for Emilia while she is described as having ‘ses yeux bas fichés, / Tous vergongneux et de larmes tachés’ (her eyes downcast, bashful and stained with tears), fearful of the outcome of the quarrel.53 The miniature, however, shows a different, more proactive, image of Emilia. She stands in the centre of the scene, her hand, placed on her chest, drawing attention to herself, while the other characters’ hands also point in her direction. She is clearly in command of the discussion with Palamon and Arcita, whose smaller sizes and poses of deference, with their hats removed, emphasise her status. Theseus, standing to the left, is somewhat on the periphery of the proceedings and even appears to be tugging on Emilia’s sleeve to get her attention. The scene in fact corresponds to the narrative a few lines later when Au milieu d’eux mit Theseus la belle Qui en parler n’est sotte ne rebelle. Propoz leur tient qui ne leur fasche point, Car mot ne dit qu’elle ne vienne au poinct, Ainsi tous deux saigement les contente, Tousjours ayant espoir a leur entente.54 Theseus placed between the two of them the beautiful [Emilia], Who is neither stupid nor rebellious in her speech. She spoke to them without angering them, Since she does not speak a word that does not bring her to the point,

Delogu, ‘Voiceover’, p. 261. BR, lines 1036–39: ‘De grand pitié, en craignant que l’ung meure / a deshonneur et que l’autre demeure’ (For great pity, fearing that one will die dishonourably while the other lives). 54 BR, lines 1050–55. 52 53

Fig. 42. Executant Principal des Statuts, Emilia with Theseus, Palamon and Arcita, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 20v, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

Fig. 43. Executant Principal des Statuts, Emilia cradling Arcita after the tournament, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 41r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).



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Thus she wisely satisfies the two of them, Both still hoping to achieve their intended goal.

This episode, giving Emilia the role of pacifier/negotiator, is absent from the prose version of the male-authored Livre de Thezeo: Emilia, honteuse, les regardoit et de leur peine avoit grant pitié, à laquelle Thezeo dist: “O jeune damoiselle, voiz tu combien fait Amour pour toy, pource que tu es plus que nulle autre belle? Bien doiz a grant honneur tenir que tu es nouvelle espouse par promesse de l’un des deux, qui sont de tel valeur.” A Thezeo ne respondit aucune chose, mais de honte craintive luy mua la couleur ou visaige.55 Emilia, ashamed, looked at them and had great pity for their pain, and Theseus says to her, ‘O young lady, do you see what Love has done for you, because you are more beautiful than any other woman? You must with all honour accept that you are the newly promised bride to one of these two men, who are so full of valour.’ Emilia did not say anything in reply to Theseus, but because of fearful shame she blushed.

Theseus’ words admonishing Emilia are completely suppressed by Anne and instead she reports an invented discussion between Emilia and the two lovers. She also avoids the use of the phrase ‘honte craintive’ which diminishes Emilia’s agency and status in the prose version, and deliberately emphasises Emilia’s active role in bringing accord between the two men: she ‘wisely satisfies the two of them’, without, in fact, promising herself to either of them. The miniature, showing her conversing sensibly, on her own terms, means the reader can thus focus on the text’s description of Emilia as speaking ‘saigement’, and as participating in the discussion of her marriage and future, even though she does not know which one to choose. Although Emilia is not here dressed in Claude’s colours, the part she plays in bringing accord between the two men may have been a nod to the emerging crisis between Francis I and his connétable, Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier, and the potential for Claude or women in her entourage to ease the tense situation. Despite her hesitancy, Emilia eventually opens her heart to Arcita, a decision which, according to Müller, makes her less passive than other versions of Emilia.56 Arcita wins the tournament but he is mortally wounded by a fury, sent down by Venus to whom Palamon had sworn allegiance. Three miniatures illustrate this central section of the text and convey the sense of a woman who is beyond reproach in the manner advocated by Christine de Pizan and Anne of France. In the first of these, Emilia, seated on the tournament field, cradles a very small, wounded, Arcita in her lap as several figures, including Theseus, look on (fig. 43). The text describes how ‘Emilia en son gyron le couche / Comme celluy qui près du cueur la touche / Elle le tient et voit de piteux euil / Et si en porte un trespenible deuil’ (Emilia lays him on her lap, as one who touches her heart; she holds him and looks at 55 56

Thezeo, p. 544. Müller, ‘Translatrices’, p. 197.

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him with a pitying eye, and suffers in her mourning).57 Emilia’s compassion for the fallen knight is absent from both Boccaccio’s text and the prose version, and the changes Anne brings to the Beau roman result in an Emilia who is less self-centred in the expression of her sadness, but much more demonstrative in communicating her affection.58 Emilia’s tenderness and concern – her pitié, as Delogu emphasises – for Arcita are brought out in this miniature through both the pose and the disparity in size between the figures. The small, inert figure of Arcita, lying across Emilia’s knees, recalls the iconography of the Pietà, that archetypal image of female compassion in which the Virgin Mary cradles her dead son. The use of this motif clearly presents Emilia as the mourning woman, an acceptable and recognisable role for contemporary readers that complements the text’s ongoing emphasis on her grief and tears over Arcita’s fate. The allusion to the Virgin also emphasises Emilia’s blamelessness – like the ‘dames lors qui furent sans diffemmes’ amongst whom Guillaume Michel suggested Claude should take her place in Le Soulas. The miniature also places Emilia centre stage: she not only dominates Arcita in size but she is positioned in the very foreground of the image, her robe just touching the edge of the frame as if she is on the point of spilling into the reader’s space. Many of the spectators in the stand above incline their heads towards Emilia, and the figure to her left turns to Theseus, but gestures towards Emilia, as if to encourage him to witness the scene. Emilia’s compassion for her fallen knight in both text and image displaces attention away from the tale’s male rivals and from the mastermind of the tournament, Theseus. Positing Claude as the reader of Arsenal 5116, Emilia’s royal blue dress surely would have encouraged the queen to identify with this quietly pro-active, yet blameless and compassionate, heroine. The miniature on folio 51r showing Arcita and Emilia in a dolorous embrace on his deathbed continues the sense of Emilia’s compassion and highlights the emotion and amorous exchanges between the two lovers that are present in the text (fig. 44). Their gazes, focused on one another, make them unaware of the onlookers on the left-hand side of the room, from whom they are also physically separated by the frame of the bed. The blue curtain that winds around the bedpost is echoed in the barley-twist columns that frame the entire miniature and both reiterate the text’s description – about a hundred lines later – of the lovers being locked together such that it was not possible to tell them apart: Ainsy estans si bien s’entre embrasserent Et leurs deux bras si fort entrelacerent Que l’on ne peult leur amoureuse chair L’une de l’aultre avoir ni arracher.59 Thus embracing each other so closely And the arms of both of them so tightly interlaced BR, lines 2216–19. Müller, ‘Translatrices’, p. 198. 59 BR, lines 2742–45. 57 58

Fig. 44. Executant Principal des Statuts, Arcita on his death bed, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 51r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

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That it was not possible to tell or tear Their loving flesh apart.

This episode, and their subsequent separation by the onlookers, is absent from the prose version and Anne takes the opportunity to make an authorial interjection, noting the difficulty that even her poetic predecessors would have had in describing the situation:60 Si sus ce point il y avoit ung acteur Comme jadis fut Homere orateur Demosthenes ou le scavant Virgile Qui en son art fut si prompte et habile, Si auroit il affaire iusque[s] au bout Pour bien descripre et deschiffrer le tout.61 If at this point there were an author As once Homer the orator was, Demosthenes, or the knowledgeable Virgil Who in his art was so quick and deft He too would have trouble right up to the end To describe and explain everything properly.

She then offers a compelling and detailed description of Arcita’s agonising death that involves crushed bones, bursting veins and the hero grinding his teeth.62 In referencing the difficulty of the task in hand, but then doing it, Anne de Graville not only emphasises the strength and genuineness of Emilia’s feelings but also places herself on the same footing as these eminent male poets, a parallel that contributes to the disruption that both this work and the Rondeaux effect more broadly in their appropriation of male literary voices and traditions. Following Arcita’s death, Theseus erects a stone monument in his honour in the middle of a forest. The stone is covered in purple cloth and bordered with a gold fringe – details included by the artist of the miniature on folio 56r (fig. 45).63 In the text, Anne first describes the great mourning that ensues, especially the reactions of Palamon and Emilia, as well as the elaborate processions surrounding the funeral. On the journey to the monument, Palamon, supported on either side by Egeus and Theseus, is described as being closest to the body of Arcita, with Emilia ‘qui bien sembloit estre de mort attaincte’ (who seemed to be afflicted with death) following behind.64 The miniature, however, keeps a stoic-looking Emilia, accompanied by Thesues, at the head of the procession, drawing attention to her appropriate mourning and compassion for her deceased fiancé as well as her self-control. 62 63 64 60 61

The separation is described at lines 2754–65. BR, lines 2746–51. BR, lines 2848–49. BR, lines 2925–30. BR, line 3029.

Fig. 45. Executant Principal des Statuts, Emilia leading Arcita’s funeral procession, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 56r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

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Moreover, in this section of the text Anne, while emphasising Emilia’s great sadness and the blame she places on herself, gives her more speech than that accorded to her in the Livre de Thezeo. Anne also reduces considerably the subsequent section in which Palamon erects a temple in Arcita’s memory, painted inside with scenes from their ‘advanture’, and in so doing, takes the emphasis off the men’s exploits.65 Anne then concludes this section with an authorial interjection: Mais je reviens au propos d’Arcita Qui a plorer maint bon cueur incita Prenez y donc exemple qui amez Et pour aymer gardez d’estre blasmez En evitant le danger de Fortune, Car nous n’avons de vie a perdre que une. Aymez honneur et cherissez la vie Et la gardez d’estre ahonte asservie.66 But I return to the subject of Arcita Who has incited many good hearts to cry You who love, take this therefore as an example And by loving, keep yourself from being blamed By avoiding the danger of Fortune, Because we only have one life to lose. Love honour and cherish life And keep it from being subject to shame.

Intervening in the narrative, Anne holds Arcita up as an example to be followed, emphasising the need to lead an honourable life. In particular she equates loving with a means to avoid blame and the dangers of Fortune. The following section explores this idea in more detail, considering the role that Fortune, and her equally capricious counterpart, the Fate Atropos, have to play in the Beau roman.

Fortune and Atropos in the Beau roman

Like Anne de Graville, the Beau roman’s dedicatee, Claude, was no stranger to the turning of Fortune’s wheel: one of the earliest depictions of her is as a child seated on her mother’s lap in a copy of the Remedes de l’une ou l’autre Fortune, a translation of Petrarch’s work that was commissioned by Cardinal Georges d’Amboise and presented, along with the Triumphs manuscript discussed in Chapter 3, to Louis XII.67 Mother and daughter are depicted at the start of the chapter ‘Du Roy sans fils – douleur’ (On the King with no BR, lines 3145–3179. BR, lines 3180–87. 67 Fr. 225; Wilson-Chevalier, ‘La Vertu’, p. 46. 65 66



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son – sadness) and Louis XII points at them accusingly (fig. 46). The image and text thus linked both Claude and her mother to the king’s misfortune in having no male heir. Through her references to Fortune in the Beau roman, Anne points to the ways in which literature has trapped women in outdated concepts of love. She suggests that Fortune is not, in fact, destiny, and that there are ways of taking action (including listening to one’s sovereign) that can counter the goddess’s changeability – something to which Claude, as the ‘unfortunate’ daughter of Louis XII, would surely have been sensitive. During the tournament between Palamon and Arcita, Anne refers to the turn of Fortune’s wheel in which Palamon is attacked by Cronus’s horse, leading to Arcita’s initial victory.68 A few lines later, Anne adds in a reference to Fortune which sets the scene for the fury that Venus is about to send down that will mortally wound Arcita: ‘Mais c’est le tour de Madame Fortune / Qui les humains de tel mal infortune; / Dont tressaige est qui aisiement la passe. / C’est tresbien dit, mais trouvez [sic] qui le face’ (but now it’s the turn of Lady Fortune, who brings such bad luck to humans; very wise is he who easily avoids such mischance. It is easily said, as long as one can manage it).69 On his death bed Arcita claims that he has obtained Emilia not by any act of prowess ‘Mais par l’erreur de ma dame Fortune, / car sa valeur est telle, se me semble, / Que mon povoir au syen point ne ressemble’ (but by the error of my lady Fortune, since her worth is such, as it seems to me, that my power is no match for hers).70 By referring to Fortune’s ‘error’ and encouraging his cousin to marry Emilia, Arcita is implying that Fortune’s decisions are not necessarily inevitable and that it is indeed possible to circumvent her power: Palamon and Emilia do not have to follow the path that Fortune has laid out for him. Having blamed his triumph on Fortune’s mistake, Arcita then evokes Atropos in his final speech: ‘Je m’en voys voir le fleuve d’Acheront / Car Atropos le fil a force rompt’ (I’m on my way to see the river Acheron, since Atropos breaks the thread [of life] with force).71 Atropos was one of the three goddesses of fate (Moirai in Greek mythology, Parcae in Roman) who held sway over life and death by being able to cut the thread of life at any time.72 Her inclusion in the Beau roman is an invention of Anne – she is completely absent from the Livre de Thezeo – and serves as a means to add to the sense of life’s unknown twists and turns that are also conveyed by the references to Fortune’s wheel. Atropos appears at three other moments in the work, once at the start where she is blamed for the death of Emilia’s first husband, Achates, and then twice more in speeches by Theseus and Egeus

70 71 72 68 69

BR, line 1910. BR, lines 1980–83. BR, lines 2626–29. BR, lines 2806–07. Along with her two sisters Clotho and Lachesis, Atropos controlled the destiny of mortals. Clotho and Lachesis spun and measured the thread of life which Atropos then cut with her shears, causing death.

Fig. 46. Jean Pichore, Anne of Brittany and Claude of France, ‘Du Roy sans fils – douleur’, Petrarch, Remèdes de l’une ou l’autre Fortune, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 225, fol. 165r, 1503 (© Paris, BnF).



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that relate to Arcita’s impending death.73 Egeus mentions Atropos when he is attempting to persuade the Greek princes who have come to mourn Arcita to set aside their grief: La Egeus se travaille et prent paine De mettre fin a chose si tresvaine Leur remonstrant nostre doubteuse vie, Toute d’ennuy et de peine assouvye Et qu’il n’y a de seureté ny arrest; Mais Atropos sans cesse a son dart pres Pour transpercer ce tresincertain vivre Et par ainsy nous fait des maulx delivre. Pensons y donc et laissons le plourer Car nos cueurs sont rompuz de souspirer.74 There Egeus worked hard and took pains To end this very pointless thing [i.e. the mourning] Pointing out to them our uncertain life, So full of trials and pain And that there is no guarantee nor stability; But Atropos forever has her arrow near [Ready] to run through this very uncertain life And in doing so frees us from bad things. Let’s think about that and leave behind the weeping Because our hearts are broken from sighing.

Similarly, Theseus, in his speech encouraging the marriage of Palamon and Arcita, blames ‘la cruelle Atropos’ for the fact that death can come at any time, yet he continues by exhorting the mourners to leave sorrow behind, to take heart and make merry and celebrate Palamon and Emilia’s union.75 Like Arcita, both Theseus and his father, Egeus, attempt to move the events of the story on from one in which the characters are paralysed by mourning and death, caused by the capricious behaviour of Fortune/Atropos, to one where life is lived, good comes of bad and love prevails. Anne’s interest in literary manifestations of Fortune is apparent in her ownership of Boccaccio’s De casibus as well as Christine’s Mutacion, and she may have known other works by Christine in which Fortune had a central role to play, such as the Advision Christine – a copy of which was in the d’Urfé library – and the Chemin de long estude. Emilia’s planned marriage to Achates is mentioned a couple of times in the Beau roman as it is in the Livre de Thezeo. However, whereas in the Livre the reason for his death is not given, Anne attributes it to Atropos, who opposed the marriage; see BR, lines 714–16; Emilia later attributes Achates’ death to Venus, BR, lines 2668–70. 74 BR, lines 2982–91. 75 BR, lines 3234–65. 73

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These texts show the evolution of Christine’s thoughts about the extent of Fortune’s influence, with the result that, in the Advision, she eventually escapes the suffering and instability caused by the goddess by taking refuge with Reason, Philosophy and Wisdom.76 In the Mutacion, Christine is careful to underline that there is no link between Fortune and divine vengeance and, as Barbara Falleiros notes, Christine suggests that a wise person can escape Fortune’s inconstancy and get closer to God by practising reason and by their attachment to genuine things.77 In the Chemin de long estude, Christine listens to a debate, presided over by Reason, between Noblesse, Richesse, Chevalerie and Sagesse. These four ladies are accused, along with Fortune, of leading human hearts astray such that they prize these figures’ false riches above their own lives: Earth begs their intervention to resolve the mess in which the world currently finds itself.78 Following extensive deliberation and in-fighting, the four ladies finally decide that the world should be governed by a perfect monarch and send the decision back to Earth, specifically to the French court, which has such a worthy reputation, to let humanity decide on this prince themselves.79 Christine is then chosen to record the debate. In other words, as Falleiros points out, ‘en dépit de l’influence de Fortune, celui qui doit mettre le monde en ordre est le prince’ (despite Fortune’s influence, the person who must put the world to rights is the prince).80 For Christine it is also ‘sagesse’ (wisdom) that, in marked contrast to Fortune, is accessible to humans and essential for order to reign.81 In the Beau roman it is similarly the prince-monarchs, Theseus and his father, Egeus, who employ ‘sagesse’ – and ask it of their subjects – as a means to counter the caprices of Fortune and restore stability and order to their kingdom. Christine de Pizan was also a likely source for Anne de Graville’s knowledge of Atropos, which Marilynn Desmond and Pamela Sheingorn note was a ‘highly unusual figure in both textual and visual traditions’.82 That said, she appears to have gained literary currency at the turn of the sixteenth century in Anne’s milieu, since she is described as causing the death of Madame de Balsac in the Epitaph included in the Getty Heroides manuscript made for Anne of Brittany: here, Atropos appears as an unattractive, dark-skinned woman, Barbara Falleiros, ‘Fortune, Force d’ordre ou de désordre chez Christine de Pizan’, Camenulae, 5 (2010), https://lettres.sorbonne-universite.fr/camenulae-ndeg-5-juin-2010 [accessed 1 June 2022] (p. 1); I paraphrase the French. 77 Falleiros, p. 8; I paraphrase the French. 78 Christine de Pizan, Le Chemin de longue étude, trans. by Andrea Tarnowski (Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 2000), lines 2834–55. 79 Le Chemin, lines 6258–65; and see Falleiros, p. 8. 80 Falleiros, p. 8. 81 Failleiros, p. 9; and see, for example, Le Chemin, lines 5059–68. 82 See Marilynn Desmond and Pamela Sheingorn, Myth, Montage and Visuality in late Medieval Manuscript Culture: Christine de Pizan’s Epistre Othea (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2006), p. 66. Atropos does, however, feature in the Roman de la rose, and in Boccaccio’s De genealogia deorum (a French translation of which is listed in the d’Urfé library). 76



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riding a bull and brandishing her spear.83 In the Mutacion de Fortune, the Fate is one of the four guardians of Fortune’s castle and Christine describes her as a loathsome figure with an ashen face and earth-coloured skin.84 In the Epistre Othea, a letter written by the goddess Othea to the young Hector of Troy to instruct him in chivalric conduct, Christine dedicates an entire chapter to the Fate. In it, she ‘offers a subtle commentary on the sexual discourse of Genius in the Rose’, in which ‘Genius urges his male audience to use phallic power to defeat Atropos through heterosexuality and reproduction’.85 Christine’s take on this in her texte states,86 Ayes a toute heure regart A Atropos et a son dart Qui fiert et n’espargne nul ame; Ce te fera penser de l’ame. Keep watch at all times for Atropos and her spear, which strikes and spares no one; This will make you think of the soul.87

This passage with its reference to Atropos’s spear evokes the words of Egeus when he stated that ‘Atropos sans cesse a son dart pres’ and raises the possibility that Anne was drawing directly on her knowledge of Christine’s Othea in this line. Christine’s glose on the part of the Rose is to ‘expose Amant’s eroticized appeal to Atropos as a reckless disregard for his soul’ and to show that ‘a proper regard for Atropos leads to a Christian awareness that death can result in the resurrection of the flesh’.88 Anne de Graville’s Beau roman does not have the same overtly Christian impulse. However, the way in which the Othea, as Desmond and Sheingorn have noted, ‘posits a male reader who might transform the past into agency by adopting a conduct responsive to the demands of the present’ is not dissimilar to the way in which the Beau roman, positing a female reader, re-presents the Athenian story to promote a model of love – ‘amytié parfacite’ – and courtly behaviour for the present that leaves unfortunate literary heroines, victims of Fortune and death/ Atropos, in the past.89 Atropos was also evoked in epitaphs written on the death of Anne of Brittany by Jean Bouchet and André de la Vigne; see Brown, The Queen’s Library, pp. 266–70. The image is available at www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/109Q8W [accessed 2 September 2022]. 84 BR, lines 2771–853; see also Mutability, p. 64. Interestingly enough, she does not appear in some of Christine’s most popular sources such as the Histoire ancienne or the Ovide moralisé; see Desmond and Sheingorn, p. 66. 85 Desmond and Sheingorn, p. 66. 86 The Othea alternates texte, rhymed passages that ‘instruct both Hector and the reader on the viewing of the [accompanying] miniature’, with prose gloses that offer an interpretation in relation to chivalric conduct. See Desmond and Sheingorn, p. 3. 87 Citation and translation from Desmond and Sheingorn, p. 69. 88 Desmond and Sheingorn, pp. 69–70. 89 Desmond and Sheingorn, pp. 3–4. 83

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A New Conception of Love: ‘Amytié parfaicte’

Theseus, keen to cast aside fears about the uncertainty of life and to encourage the marriage of Palamon and Emilia, has little sympathy with the refusals of either protagonist. He tells Palamon, […] Laisse a plorer, Car il te fault ce jour myeulx esperer. Nous congoissons ton amour et ennuy; Mais c’est assez, mettons y fin meshuy, Car j’ai despit dont si longuement uses Icy endroit de si vaines excuses. Prens ce party et laisse tout soussy Car je le vueil et le te ordonne ainsy.90 […] leave off crying, Because today you need to hope for better. We know of your love and your chagrin But that’s enough, let’s put an end to it today Because I am irritated by those pointless excuses That you have been using for so long. Take this course and set aside all cares Because I desire it and I order you thus.

Palamon, whose rejection of the union was made despite his evident desire for Emilia, needs little persuasion to obey his sovereign and, having invoked a series of gods, agrees to do Theseus’ bidding.91 Theseus then turns to Emilia and says ‘Delaisse ta folie / Et te consents que mon vueil soit parfaict, / Non par parler, car je demande effaict’ (leave aside your silliness and agree to fulfil my will, not by talking because I require action).92 He is effectively telling her not to speak but to act. Anne nevertheless has her heroine resist. Picking up on her earlier speech to Arcita on his death bed, where she recalled her Amazonian heritage, her vow of chastity, and her evident bad luck, Emilia begs to be allowed to live a chaste life. She will, however, agree to marry Palamon only if Theseus considers him to be an enemy, since she is sure that she will provoke his death.93 Theseus’ reaction to Emilia’s speech is similar to his response to Palamon: 92 93 90 91

BR, lines 3314–21 BR, lines 3270–75; and also lines 3330–31. BR, lines 3335–37. BR, lines 3360–65; earlier (lines 2666–72) Emilia makes a longer version of this speech to Arcita where she curses the fact that she has already ‘killed’ two husbands: Achates, to whom she was first betrothed, and now Arcita. She declares her desire to end her life by poison or, if she must live, to dedicate herself to Diana. Failing these two solutions, she says that she is willing to marry anyone Theseus wishes to avenge, since, as her husband, he will surely die.



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N’en parle plus et n’y metz contredit A mon vouloir, car tes vaines parolles Je te tiens et sens inutilles et folles. Je te commande obeyr a mon veul En te delaissant tout desplaisir et deuil Et te remets en ton premier etat Et qu’entre nous n’y ait point de debat.94 Do not talk about it anymore and do not contradict My desire further, because I consider your pointless words To be lacking in sense and usefulness to you. I order you to obey my will By putting aside all unhappiness and mourning. Return to your previous state And there will be no more discussion between us.

Emilia’s protestations and Theseus’ reaction are present in the Livre de Thezeo and are therefore not Anne’s invention. On one level, the way Theseus closes down her speech appears to be a violent silencing of a heroine who has otherwise behaved decorously and faithfully in love, speaking wisely and showing a great deal of compassion. However, in the Livre, emphasis is given to Emilia’s argument that she had evidently offended Diana in not following her vow of chastity which, in the Beau roman, comes earlier in her speech to Arcita. In the Livre, Theseus tells her that if Diana were really angry with her, she would have punished Emilia, not those to whom she was betrothed. Her beauty, he claims, is such that it is not suitable to serve Diana either in a temple or in the mountains. Anne de Graville avoids this rebuttal and simply has Theseus insists on her ‘vaines paroles’ and on the execution of his will. The passage thus foregrounds the idea of royal authority in a way that chimes with the strategy found in Christine’s Chemin. Moreover, it further serves to demonstrate Emilia’s constancy. Read in the context of the querelle des femmes, Emilia’s reluctance to marry Palamon is both evidence of her loyalty to Arcita and a means of absolving her from accusations of flightiness, putting her beyond the reproach of a male literary tradition which frequently condemned women’s constancy and fidelity, especially in widowhood.95 Yet, by 94 95

BR, lines 3367–73. Anne of France, in the Enseignements, advised Suzanne, if widowed, to avoid behaving ‘comme ces folles, qui, effrayées, se tempêtent et crient, et font vœux et promesses, dont il ne leur souvient deux jours après, et à d’aucunes, ne chaut de leur honneur et n’en laissent de rien à trotter, sans qu’il leur souvienne plus de leur bon mari, qui est mort n’a pas par advanture un mois; qui est moult déshonnête à femmes de bien. Et celles-[là] chargent leur honneur, et reculent le bien de leurs filles, et non sans cause’ (Enseignements, pp. 86–87) ([like] one of those foolish women who are so frightened they rave and cry and make vows and promises they do not remember two days later, not one of those who care so little about their honor they rush about and a month

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having Theseus insist on his vouloir, Anne highlights the need to listen to the advice of the wise prince, and to not let oneself be a victim of Fortune. Unlike the sad women listed in the Temple of Venus who are stuck in the mythical past, abandoned by the men who have betrayed them, Emilia is offered a different future in a union of mutual understanding and respect with Palamon. By acting as a wise prince must, Theseus is able to maintain order and avoid the chaos caused by Lady Fortune. This insistence on the obeying of the monarch’s will might also have been an allusion, as we shall see, to the unruly connétable and those who would support him. ‘Amytié parfaicte’, the reconfigured idea of love and equality – based on honourable behaviour – is explained by Anne in a long and important authorial interjection following the wedding between Emilia and Palamon: De vous compter du jour ne de la nuyt, Tout ce propos ne me siet ne me duyt. Si mon subject en parle en aultre sorte A qui le feist de cela me rapporte. Il me suffist que celluy qui m’entent Pense combien ung vray cueur est content D’avoir ce bien dont la longue attendue Luy feist souffrir jadis mainte venue; J’entends aymant d’ung amytié par faicte Non pas de celle aujourd’huy contrefaicte, Comme l’on dit, car je n’en ay point veu. Mais eureux est qui de sens est pourveu. Bien suis d’avis que si ung honneste homme Voit pourmener quelque sotte personne Que on doit nommer damoiselle legere, Je treuve bon qui luy face grant chere, Car c’est aulmosne et l’aprenne en ce livre: A jeune sotte on doit apprendre à vivre Et mesmement quant ilz comptent leurs eurs Qui plus enfille et a de serviteurs. Dont s’il advient que quelque homme sans vice A telle sotte offre le sien service, Soy desmettant de son arbitre franc Du reng le met d’ung qui ne vault un blanc Et par son art comme bien peu aprise, D’une façon les estime et les prise; Dont je concludz qu’elle est plus punissable later seem no longer even to remember their dead husbands, which is very improper in a worthy woman; Lessons, p. 64).



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Par beau fouet que ung gros varlet d’estable. Se on me respond que les hommes se vantent D’avoir tel cas duquel bien souvent mentent Et que souvent ilz ont pris et usé Ce que on leur a mille foys reffusé; S’ilz ne l’ont dit si font ilz telle myne Qu’ilz veulent bien qu’on entende a leur signe Qu’ils ont finé de propos et credit Dont bien souvent c’est monsieur l’escondit Et honte n’ont d’homme ne de dieu craincte De oster l’honneur par une telle faincte; S’il est ainsy il y a grant raison De les chasser de maison en maison Et tous leurs faictz lire, chanter et dire, Paindre, imprimer et en tous lieux escripre, Affin aumains que les honnestes hommes Ne soient chargez de si vilaines sommes. Si ces propos sont telz comme il me semble Honte et honneur ne peuvent estre ensemble.96 To keep up this telling day and night Of my story doesn’t suit me at all. And if there is anything else to say I refer you back to the author [of the original book] It is enough for me that he who hears me Think how a true heart is content To have this gift for which he waited so long and Strived so much to obtain: I mean loving with a perfect friendship. Not like the false kind found today As they say, because I haven’t ever seen it. But happy is he who has good sense! I am of the opinion that if an honest man Goes about pursuing a silly person Whom we should call a flighty young lady I find it a good idea that she be made welcome For it is a charitable act and taught in this book. A young silly girl should be taught how to live And likewise, the ones counting their blessings; 96

BR, lines 3572–617.

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She who sews most, has the most suitors.97 So if it happens that some man without vice To such a silly girl, offers his service and Gets rid of his own free will She treats him the same as one who is not worth a penny And by her ruse, which she has not properly mastered, She appears to esteem and appreciate them [men in general] equally So I conclude that she is more worthy of A whipping than a dishonest stable hand. If I am told that men brag About their success (though they often lie) And often pretend that they have taken and Used that which has been refused them a thousand times [And] even if they don’t say it, they want it to be understood by their expression That they have realised their goal and been granted favours, Although he is often Mr Rejected, And they have neither shame of man nor fear of God In taking away honour by such a ruse. If this is so, it is quite right To chase them out of every house And to have their deeds read about, sung, and retold, Painted, printed and everywhere exposed So that at least honest men Be not charged with such villainous burdens. If these words are as it seems to me, Shame and honour cannot exist together.

Here Anne distances herself from her source text, suggesting that she has exhausted her description of the marriage and any reader wanting more might return to the Livre de Thezeo. This allows her to move on to make her own point, rebuking the blameworthy of both sexes – the jeune sotte as well as the scoundrel – who attract suitors, lie or brag about their exploits, and use ploys and pretences to get what they want. Anne’s focus on women’s behaviour as well as men’s recalls Christine de Pizan’s insistence on the need for women to be above the reproach of the men who would criticise them. In Christine’s letter from the governess in the Livre des trois vertus discussed in the previous chapter, Sibylle de la Tour advises her mistress to steer clear of the ‘service’ offered by male lovers, since these ‘servants’ are not able to keep their mouths shut and will boast of their deeds: These lines are very difficult to translate. The sense seems to be something along the lines of those counting their blessings should be the ones teaching a young silly girl who compiles suitors, since they have experience; ‘enfiler’ suggests collecting or compiling in the sense of threading something onto a string, like the stringing of pearls. Thanks to Michelle Szkilnik for her detailed help with this passage.

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Et ainsi se sont mises de franchise en servaige. Et veez la fin du service de celle amour. Comment cuidiés vous ma Dame qu’il samble a ses servans grant honneur de dire et eulx vanter qu’ilz soyent amez ou ayent esté d’une bien grant maistresse ou femme de renom et comment en tairont ilz la vérité ? Car dieu scet comment ilz en mentent.98 And in this way the ladies in question have abandoned their freedom for servitude and have seen the last of the ‘service’ of this love affair. Consider, Madam, that as it seems to these ‘servants’ great honour to boast that they are loved or have been loved by a great lady or a woman of good name, how could they keep quiet about it if it was true? For God knows how they lie!99

In the Beau roman passage, Anne’s use of the word ‘serviteurs’, whom the ladies are ‘compiling’ or ‘collecting’ and pretending to esteem, as well as the verb ‘vanter’, recalls the vocabulary of Christine’s text as well as huitains 88–90 of Chartier’s BDSM. In huitain 88, the Lady says that she will not make herself ill in order to cure the lover’s ills, nor will she show contempt for her honour for any old man and ‘je y pourvoiray / que vous ne aultres ne s’en vante’ (I will make sure / that neither you [the lover] nor any others can say anything about it).100 The lover responds that he has never bragged, preferring silence, ‘car vanteur n’est a honnorer / Puis que sa langue le desprise’ (for a braggart should not be honored / since his tongue is so despicable).101 The Lady then replies: ‘Faulx amoureux au temps qui court / Servent tous de gouliardie, / Le plus secret veult bien qu’on dye / Qu’il est d’aulcunes mescreu, / Et pour riens que homme a dame die / Il ne doibt pas estre tousjours creu’ (False lovers nowadays / serve everyone a share of their debauchery. / The most discreet really wants to be spoken of, / to let it be known that certain women suspect him, / And so, no matter what a man says to a woman, / I say, he should not be believed).102 Anne’s reference to ‘ung amytié par faicte / Non pas de celle aujourd’huy contrefaicte’ evokes the ‘faulx amoureux au temps qui court’ mentioned by the Belle dame who use shameless words. Furthermore, she points out the desire of men to be known as lovers as well as the lack of trust that should be placed in their words. In this complex yet key passage, Anne’s knowledge of the early sixteenth-century debates around courtly language and behaviour emerges clearly. In exposing the dishonourable behaviour of women as well as men and describing a punishment for both the jeune sotte and the vanteur, she was adding her voice to the warnings aimed at female readers in querelle works, but also nuancing that debate by not taking one side over another and tarring all men with the same brush. Although there is no sense in the Beau roman French text from Beinecke, MS 427, fol. 48v. Treasure, p. 84; emphasis original. 100 BDSM, huitain 88; fr. 2253, fol. 33r. All quotations from the BDSM are taken directly from the manuscript of the Rondeaux, so as to preserve the idiosyncracies of Anne’s source, but all English translations are from McRae’s edition, The Quarrel. 101 BDSM, huitain 89; fr. 2253, fol. 33v. 102 BDSM, huitain 90; fr. 2253, fol. 34r. 98 99

Fig. 47. Executant Principal des Statuts, Marriage of Emilia and Palamon, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 68r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).



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that Emilia is a sotte or Palamon a scoundrel, this passage not only reinforces the need to follow wise counsel (in their case, Theseus’) but also conveys a version of the message at the end of the BDSM that honour can and should be obtained through appropriate, wise behaviour on both sides. A sense of equal responsibility (equal blame, equal honour, equal loving) and true, rather than counterfeit, love thus permeates the end of the Beau roman, and the union of the protagonists, that contrasts, as we shall see, with the list of unlucky female heroines encountered by Palamon in Venus’ temple. The final Beau roman miniature of the Arsenal manuscript shows Emilia as a willing participant in her marriage with Palamon (fig. 47). Once again portrayed slightly larger than the other figures, Emilia, sumptuously dressed in a royal blue, ermine-trimmed cloak, has left her ladies behind to advance into the room. Her outstretched hand gestures towards Palamon, who wears a yellow cloak trimmed with black fur and points to himself. Theseus, dressed in red and holding a white cane as he does in other images, points towards Palamon as if presenting him to her. Although Cousseau identified this scene as Theseus giving his pardon to Emilia (we might ask, pardon for what, exactly?), it actually appears to depict a moment full of potential as the new couple greet each other.103 The view through the door in the background shows a garden enclosed by trellis fences and bushes, a reminder of the space in which Emilia was first spied by Palamon and Arcita from their prison cell. Such a garden would have been familiar to medieval and early modern viewers as a hortus conclusus, a locus amoenus, a place symbolising love and chastity in both religious and courtly imagery. The fact that the gate to the garden is open foretells the new relationship that is about to start, and the space into which Emilia and Palamon will move, in ‘amytié parfaicte’.104 Like the circular form of the rondeau ‘En grand plaisir’ that ends the Beau roman, in which the lovers are described as ‘dechassant hors tout ennuy et tristesse’ (chasing away all chagrin and sadness), the whole poem itself is brought full circle, since the marriage of Emilia and Palamon at the end mirrors that of Theseus and Hippolyta ‘en amytié telle’ at the very start of the story.

Reconfiguring the Amazons and Reframing the Heroides

The Beau roman relates to the works of Christine de Pizan and the querelle de femmes in other ways, notably through Anne de Graville’s reconfiguration of her Amazon protagonists and the adaptation of Palamon’s visit to Venus’ temple. These modifications further show the complexity and depth of Anne’s literary knowledge and how her work intersects with the love epistles by Marot and Villebresme included at the end of the Arsenal manuscript. Considering these intersections also demonstrates the coherence of the Arsenal manuscript as a whole. In querelle works, Amazons are part of a broader category of what Swift calls ‘active women’ who are part of the ‘knotty problem of representing female exemplarity’, specifically ‘how to praise a woman for fulfilling an active, often military office, that is Cousseau, caption to her fig. 35. BR, line 3580.

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culturally defined as “masculine”’.105 Such active women appear in works that had a wide circulation at the French court, many of which featured in Anne de Graville’s library: the translations of Boccaccio’s De casibus and De mulieribus claris, Christine’s Cité des Dames and the Mutacion de Fortune, the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, Petrarch’s Triumphs, Amis et Amiles and the Heroides, to name a few. Swift notes that pro-feminine authors of the fifteenth century, including Christine, were ‘writing against the tradition of Boccaccio’s De mulieribus claris’, in which woman’s ultimate accomplishment was to overcome her sex to take on masculine qualities and behaviour, which Swift, following Lilian Dulac, formulates as ‘abandon femininity + acquire masculinity = virtue and renown’.106 She argues that in the Cité des dames, the principal source of which was the De mulieribus claris, Christine tries to disrupt a binary system that opposes masculine to feminine; in her accounts of virile women like Semiramis, ‘taking on “cuer’homme” might be an expedient implemented by a woman, who remains very much feminine, and positively so, in her achievement of honour’.107 Later querelle writers, according to Swift, also move beyond the ‘abandon femininity + acquire masculinity = virtue and renown’ model. In his Vie des femmes celebres, which was composed for Anne of Brittany, Dufour has Hypsicratea and other ‘active women’ perform a ‘temporary vestimentary transvestism corresponding to the doffing/donning of gendered characteristics’ that allows them to act in a proper and prudent manner and obtain what they want (in Hypsicratea’s case, remaining chaste and loyal to her husband).108 Swift notes that ‘[u]nlike his sources, [Dufour] does not characterize the courtly wife’s transformation into a warrior as an acquisition of the internal qualities of a manly spirit: animus virili’.109 Although Hypsicratea’s desire to remain a ‘loyal wife’ might be seen ‘as a retrograde step’ and a ‘way of circumscribing Hypsicratea’s activity to her accepted social role’, it also, Swift argues, relates to the work’s intended reader, Anne of Brittany. She argues that ‘the motive of decorum could be seen strategically to delete any acknowledgement of female inferiority’, which would otherwise be inappropriate to this twice queen of France.110 Anne de Graville also adapts the story of the Amazons to get around the same ‘knotty problem of representing female exemplarity’, but she does so by making Hippolyta less physically active and bellicose, emphasising instead her mental strength. The first obvious modification that Anne de Graville made to the Livre de Thezeo concerns the title: it is no longer the ‘Book of Theseus’ but the story of Palamon and Arcita Swift, p. 194. Swift, p. 202. 107 Swift, p. 202. Thus, she suggests (p. 201) ‘[b]y integrating normatively masculine virtues, such as hardiece, into a discursive space of femininity she [Christine] opens up femininity to new semantic possibilities that are determined by the woman’s ability and potential to perform a broader range of gestures than previously deemed ‘proper’ to her sex. 108 Swift, p. 206. 109 Swift, p. 207. 110 Swift, pp. 207–08. 105 106



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and the beautiful and wise Emilia, thus shifting its emphasis away from the Theban ruler to the Amazon protagonist and the men who desire her. This change of focus continues in the first lines of Anne’s version, which are a drastic truncation of the source text. Both the Teseida and the Livre de Thezeo begin with the Amazons’ uprising against their husbands and their subsequent defeat by Theseus. The first book of the Livre de Thezeo describes the women living in ‘Sithia’ as ‘dames cruelles et despites’ (cruel and bitter ladies) who killed their husbands with ‘couteaux ensanglantez’ (bloodied knives).111 The Beau roman, however, begins with Theseus’ return to Athens with Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, as his bride, accompanied by her sister Emilia: Victorieux en armes et amours Fut Theseus, apres que plusieurs jours Eut sejourné en l’amazone terre Ou Cupido et Mars luy firent guerre, Lesquels vainquit et Ypolite aussy Quant doulcement le receut a mercy Combien qu’il eust ses subjectes occises, Bruslé chasteaulx et ses villes conquises, Puis combattu a elle corps à corps Où il [Theseus] congnut ses trespuissans effors. Dont si tresfort dedans son cueur l’ayma Et sa vertu sus toutes estima, Qu’il l’espousa en une amytié telle Que la memoire en doibt estre immortelle. Mais de cela je laisseray le conte Et vous diray que le livre raconte.112 Theseus was victorious in war and in love, Following several days spent In the land of the Amazons, Where Cupid and Mars were warring against him, And whom he vanquished, Hippolyta too, When gently she received him with mercy Even though he had slaughtered her subjects, Burned castles and conquered towns, Then he fought with her hand to hand, When he recognised her powerful strength, Because of which he loved her in his heart And held her virtue above that of all other women, Thezeo, p. 417. BR, lines 19–34.

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So that he married her in such a friendship That it will be remembered forever. But I’ll put that tale to one side And tell you what the book says.

In her opening lines, Anne de Graville passes over any reference to the reasons for Theseus’ battle with the Amazons or their bloodthirsty nature. Their defeat is summed up in just a few lines, a radical reduction which, Reno argues, constitutes ‘a discreet glossing over the circumstances of [the Amazons’] surrender’ and allows Anne to emphasise ‘the Amazons’ military prowess and amplif[y] […] the description of their military ardour and moral virtues’.113 As already suggested in Chapter 4, Anne may have taken inspiration for this section from her close reading of the fight between Hippolyta and Theseus and Menalippe and Hercules in Christine de Pizan’s Mutacion. S. H. Rigby notes that Christine’s own version of the legend of Hippolyta in this text as well as in the Cité differs from the version in Boccaccio’s Teseida in that ‘Hippolyta is not the queen of the Amazons, Theseus does not beseige the Amazon ladies, and Theseus overcomes Hippolyta in a single combat’.114 Anne effects a similar nuancing of the episode by deliberately shifting the narrative emphasis of her source away from defeat to Hippolyta’s vertu without denying her abilities as a warrior: thus in the Beau roman’s first few lines the reader learns about Hippolyta’s physical prowess and her virtue which cause Theseus to fall in love with her and they marry ‘en une amytié telle’. Hippolyta’s physical capabilities are highlighted again at a later stage in the story, while she is watching the tournament between Palamon and Arcita: Or vous diray de la royne Ypolite Qui n’avoit pas la volunté petite. Bien eust voulu que aux rudes coups donner, Peust par honneur son corps abandonner; Car neifveté dedans son cueur absconse Par hault vouloir luy en faisoit semonce.115 Now I’ll tell you about Queen Hippolyta Who wasn’t lacking in desire. She would have liked to have thrown her Body into the combat since her True nature hidden in her heart Entreated her to do so.

Reno, p. 182. S. H. Rigby, Wisdom and Chivalry: Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale and Medieval Political Theory (Leiden: Brill, 2009), p. 135, n. 16. 115 BR, lines 1844–49. 113 114



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Once again, there is an initial emphasis on physical contact: at the opening of the story Hippolyta fought Theseus ‘corps a corps’ and now she wishes to engage in ‘rudes coups’ (literally, rough blows). Moreover, her desire, her volunté, is evoked three times (volunté, voulu, vouloir), yet this time, Hippolyta does not enter into the fray, even though her true nature (neifveté) hidden (absconse) in her heart compels her to do so. In the prose version, it is not Hippolyta who holds herself back, but her husband: Ypolite non pas de femenin couraige fort regardoit l’une partie et l’autre, et n’en tenoit aucun pour lasche ne couart, mais les louoit de leur hardement et prouesse. Et si son gentil seigneur et espoux Thezeo eust bien voulu comme elle desiroit, elle eust porté armes en celle bataille, tant sentoit encores en elle son cueur plain de valeur.116 Hippolyta not with feminine heart watched both parties intensely, and did not hold either of them to be weak or cowards, but praised them for their bravery and prowess. And if her gentle lord and husband Theseus had wished as she desired, she would have donned arms and gone into battle, since she still strongly felt her heart full of valour.

Anne de Graville’s Hippolyta retains her desire to participate in the tournament but also demonstrates a great deal of self-control, a trait that is also found in Emilia.117 As Müller notes, ‘à la force mentale correspond la force physique’ (mental strength corresponds to physical strength).118 Hippolyta is, then, both mentally and physically strong but her mind trumps her physical nature. Whereas Christine de Pizan reclaimed the Amazons for her Cité by making their warrior behaviour serve noble causes, Anne de Graville writes an Amazon queen who, apart from in the opening scene where it might be seen as a matter of expediency, actively decides not to engage in combat. This characterisation of Hippolyta as able to surmount her bodily desires through her mind runs contrary to misogynist ideas prevalent in the middle ages of women being ruled by their bodies. In this sense it also chimes with the way Christine de Pizan uses the example of the Amazons in the Cité to illustrate the socio-cultural, rather than biological, dimension of women’s strength and the fact that their body is not their destiny.119 The way in which Anne de Graville depicts, first, Hippolyta’s battle with Theseus and then her desire, but ultimate refusal, to participate in the tournament, not only calls attention to the socio-cultural constraints placed on women but indicates how women can take charge of, and responsibility for, their emotions.

Thezeo, pp. 617–18. Delogu notes this in ‘Voiceover’, pp. 259 and 264. 118 Müller, ‘Translatrices’, p. 200. 119 Dominique Demartini, ‘L’Exemple de l’Amazone dans la Cité des dames’, Le Moyen Français, 78–79 (2016), 51–63 (p. 59). For Demartini, the figure of the Amazon is used by Christine less to incite women to participate in military action than to highlight that the reason for their exclusion from such activity is their supposed physical weakness. 116 117

Fig. 48. Executant Principal des Statuts, Emilia and Hippolyta watching the tournament, Anne de Graville, Beau roman, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 36r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

Fig. 49. Master of Jacques de Besançon, Tournament scene, Antoine de La Sale, Petit Jehan de Saintré, London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D IX, fol. 40r (detail), c. 1475 (© London, British Library).

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The miniature that accompanies the episode in which Hippolyta refrains from engaging in combat reinforces the nuance that Anne de Graville brings to the tale (fig. 48). At historical tournaments and in medieval literary and artistic representations of them, noblewomen constituted the principal spectators, providing a suitable mirror for the reflection of masculine prowess.120 Anne de Graville’s copy of the Petit Jehan de Saintré, a text which actually called that courtly relationship into question, is illuminated with a number of such scenes (fig. 49). In the Beau roman miniature, women also dominate as viewers, blocking the view of the few male figures also present in the tribunes; Hippolyta and Emilia are both shown unnaturally large, presiding in a central position over the events. The artist has indicated Hippolyta’s volunté through the gesture of the female figure on the right of the central tribune, who raises a finger in a way that suggests engagement with the events on the ground. The iconographical convention of woman-as-tournament-spectator is employed here to visually transform Hippolyta’s desire to participate physically in the action into a more acceptable, decorous behaviour that falls within the limits of prescribed gender roles. The combination of text and image in the Arsenal manuscript allows for a recognition both of Hippolyta’s volunté and desire to give rude coups as well as her self-control. This is a strategy that can be linked to the text’s intended reception within – and parallels with – a courtly milieu: an Amazon queen who apparently conforms to patriarchy’s expectations by marrying her conqueror and restraining herself from battle may appear to be somewhat contradictory for a pro-feminine querelle text. Similarly, Emilia’s acquiescence to Theseus’ will, although leaving her beyond reproach, leaves her with little immediate agency. Yet, in the same way that Swift suggests that Christine and later writers try to move beyond the binary ‘abandon femininity + acquire masculinity’ model, the configuration that Anne effects makes Hippolyta a more identifiable and intellectually strong figure for her reader Claude.121 By creating a Hippolyta who is in charge of her own emotions, Anne de Graville creates a space within which a courtly reader might see the possibilities for reconfiguring her own neifveté to operate within the socio-cultural limitations and expectations of courtly life, the reward for which is a version of love and marriage that offers equality between the sexes. In the same way that she reconfigures Hippolyta’s bellicose tendencies, Anne adjusts another Amazonian trait in her sister Emilia, removing Emilia’s awareness of her own attractiveness that is present in both the Teseida and the Livre de Thezeo. Christine de Pizan again offers a potential source here, since, in her retelling of the tales of the Amazons, she elided the reputation they had gained within romance literature as seducers by removing any reference to their desire to love.122 She also turns them into chaste virgins in order to bring them into the (Christian) cité which is, after all, presided over by the Virgin See Elizabeth L’Estrange, ‘Gazing at Gawain: Reconsidering Tournaments, Courtly Love, and the Lady Who Looks’, Medieval Feminist Forum, 44 (2008), 74–96. 121 Swift, p. 202. 122 Demartini, ‘L’Exemple’, pp. 51–52; 55–56. This trait is especially evident in the romans d’Enéas, de Troie and d’Alexandre. 120



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Mary.123 In the mise-en-prose, Emilia’s visits to the garden from where Palamon and Arcita can see her from their prison cell demonstrate her sense of being watched, explaining that her vanity is a trait of the female sex: Continuant doncques ceste cy son aller ou jardrin, aucunefoiz seulete et autresfoiz acompaignee, tousjours secretement dressoit ses yeulx a la fenestre la ou premierement elle ouyt ce mot de Palamon quant il dist « helas », non pas que Amour a ce la contraignist, mais pour regarder si personne y fust qui la veist. Et si par avanture elle veoyt qu’on la regardast, comme si elle ne s’en avisast commençoit en plaisant voix a chanter, et par dessus l’erbete, entre les petiz arbres, vestue de humilité, tout bellement en maniere de dame alloit, mectant peine d’estre plaisante a qui la regardoit. Combien que nul pensement qu’elle eust d’amour a ce faire ne la conduisoit, mais la vanité, qui naturelement est ou cueur des dames pour faire aux autres leur beaulté apparcevoir; et comme d’autre valleur desnuees, sont de ce contentes, et pour leur beaulté et desir d’estre plaisantes mectent leur engin pour autruy prendre, et elles demourer franches.124 Continuing thus, her venture into the garden, sometimes alone and sometimes accompanied, always secretly she raised her eyes to the window there where she first heard Palamon saying ‘Alas’, not because Love bound her to do so but to see if someone was there to see her. And if by chance she saw that she was being watched, pretending she hadn’t noticed, she began singing in a pleasant voice, and on the grass, between the little trees, dressed in humility, beautifully like a lady, she went, taking care to be pleasing to whosoever was looking at her. And it was no thought of love whatsoever that drove her to do this, but vanity which is naturally in the hearts of women, to make others perceive their beauty; and deprived of all other virtue, women are content with this and because of their beauty and their desire to please, they exert their cleverness to entrap others, while they remain free.

In the Beau roman, Anne de Graville deliberately avoids implicating Emilia in the seduction of Palamon and Arcita, stressing her innocence regarding the effect she has on the two men: ‘Bien s’apperçut qu’ilz estoient pris es las / De Cupido; mais ne scet si c’est elle / Qui leur a mys au cueur ceste estincelle’ (She certainly saw that [Palamon and Arcita] were caught in Cupid’s love knots but she did not know if it was she who had lit this flame

For instance, in the Cité des dames she presents Penthesilea, last queen of the Amazons, who, according to Boccaccio, caused the downfall of her tribe by falling in love with Hector, as ‘vierge fu toute sa vie’ (a virgin all her life) who loves Hector ‘honorablement de tres grant amour’ (honourably with great love) on account of his reputation; her love for him is devoid of all erotic connotations. When Penthesilea finally arrives in Troy, Hector is already dead, and she is thus a widow. In the Mutacion de Fortune, Penthesilea loses her wish to have an heir with Hector and Christine skips over any mention of her love for him. See Demartini, ‘L’Exemple’, pp. 56–58. Moreover, as Demartini notes, Penthesilea initially loves Hector from afar, in a kind of inversion of the fin’amour trope of the knight who falls in love with the beauty and reputation of the lady. 124 Thezeo, pp. 483–84. 123

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in their hearts).125 She thereby counters the accusations of vanity and sexual voraciousness found in the Livre and frequently aimed at women more generally in misogynistic texts, and not least by Boccaccio. Devoid of any sense of her own attractiveness, Emilia initially resists marriage to either man; when, ahead of the tournament, she eventually choses Arcita she is essentially widowed (and for the second time) before the marriage can be celebrated. Whereas in her reconfiguring of the Amazons Christine de Pizan tackled head on the problem of explaining and integrating masculine traits in female characters, Anne subtly circumvents the problem by eliding the virile and seductive qualities associated with them and emphasising instead their mental strength, honourable conduct and wise speech. In doing so, she moves Hippolyta and Emilia out of the classical past and makes them models for the present-day reader. In this sense, they also provide a contrast to the other literary heroines depicted in Venus’ temple. Substantial parts of the section in the Livre de Thezeo in which Palamon prays to the goddess for success in the tournament are missing in Anne’s copy, and Anne’s negotiation of these gaps and her insertion of the heroines is key to understanding the work as an intervention in and nuancing of the querelle des femmes. In the Livre de Thezeo, Palamon approaches Venus’ temple and is greeted with a vision of Joy in a beautiful garden of flowers and fountains, filled with the sound of birdsong. Then, ‘au cousté d’une fontaine vit le dieu Cupido, qui a ses piez avoit son arc posé, et faisoit sayetes qu’il moilloit en l’eaue de la fontaine’ (next to the fountain he sees the god Cupid, who had placed his bow at his feet, and was making arrows which he was dampening in the fountain’s water).126 He then sees personifications of ‘Courtoisie’, ‘Beaulte’, ‘Plaisance’, ‘Jeunesse’, ‘Fol Hardement’, ‘Flaterie’, ‘Trafiqque d’Amours’ and ‘ma dame Paix’ accompanied by ‘Pacience’.127 Inside the temple, there is much noise and crying, caused by ‘une cruelle dame Jaleusie’ (a cruel lady Jealousy).128 Although this opening section, to which we return, was not missing from the Douce manuscript, Anne nevertheless paraphrased it in her own work. The next part of the prose section, in which Palamon sees a number of figures including Diana whose body is hung with broken bows, and paintings of Nino (son of Semiramis), and Pyramus and Thisbee, is mainly absent from Anne’s source. Only the following lines are extant: Au plus hault de ce temple fut assis Priapus, en tel habit comme il estoit la nuyt qu’il vint tempter Vesta, deesse de virginité, quant elle dormoit et [lacuna] Entre autres estoit la ou giron de Yoles le grant Hercules son mary; la doloruese Biblis y estoit piteusement priant. [lacuna] Et certes, les deux amoureux, par leur bonté, estoient de touz ceulx d’Athenes

See BR, lines 446–460. See also Müller, ‘Translatrices’, pp. 192–94 and Bouchard ‘La translation’, pp, 35–36. 126 Thezeo, p. 576. 127 Thezeo, p. 577. 128 Thezeo, p. 577. 125



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fort amez et prisez, par quoy touz esgaument prioyent les Dieux pour eulx qu’ilz les voulsissent de peril garder, et chascun si bien contenter que aucun ne se plaignist.129 At the top of this temple was seated Priapus, dressed as he was the night he came to tempt Vesta, goddess of Virginity, when she was sleeping [missing text] Amongst others there was, in the lap of Iole, the great Hercules, her husband; the unhappy Byblis was there piteously praying [missing text]. And certainly, the two lovers [i.e. Palamon and Arcita] because of their goodness, were loved and prized of all those in Athens, because of which everyone prayed to the gods equally for both of them, that they would keep them from danger and to satisfy both of them so well that neither of them would complain.

In the Beau roman, following the description of Arcita’s prayer to Mars, Anne de Graville launches straight into Palamon’s arrival at Venus’ temple and his immediate supplication to her image.130 She eschews a close reworking of the opening description of the temple and its gardens, ignores the reference to Priapus, Iole, Hercules and Byblis that are not missing in her source, and instead develops the section with a series of female characters who have all been hit by Cupid’s arrow which, significantly, had previously been in the possession of the goddess Fortune: Ceste oraison, de cueur dicte a merveilles, Vint a Venus jusque fons des oreilles; Et tout a coup veist le temple aclarcy Qui signe estoit d’avoir don de mercy, Et qu’elle avoit bien sa priere ouyé. Dont Palamon en pensée esjouyé La mercya, puis se leva joyeux, Se pourmenant par ce lieu sumptueux Et aperçoit que paincte y est jeunesse, Plaisir, désir, secret espoir, liesse, Que d’ung accord de toute leur puissance Faisoient honneur à dame iouyssance. Cupido fut dessus une fontaine, Les yeulx bendez qui de main incertaine Fleches tyroit, a plusieurs dommaigeuses, En faisant playes a chascun dangereuses. Deux fleches eut agues par les poinctes, Et deux aussy par grande doulceur oingtes. Quattre en avoit fort bien enferrées d’or, Qu’il tyra hors de son riche trésor, Dont il tyroit et rendoit ses subjetz For the full original, see Thezeo, pp. 576–79. BR, lines 1274ff.

129 130

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Trop myeulx tenuz que nul oyseau par getz. Pres de ses piedz y avoit fait de boys Ung bel estuy qu’on appelle ung carquois, Bien peu usé, car on n’y touchoit guere. Flesches y eut d’une estrange maniere, Longue seroit et fascheuse a descripre; Dont n’est besoin de plus avant en dire, Fors qu’ilz estoient a la turque envenimées, Par quoy faisoient leurs playes ennymées, Et n’en peult on le frappe secourir Qu’il n’ayt le mal tousjours jusque au mourir. Mais Cupido eut de sa mere ung don Pour les brusler toutes de son brandon. Ce qu’il fut fait se monstroit la paincture Fors une flesche oublyée d’aventure, Mais congnoissant l’heure tresoportune Tout doulcement la desroboit Fortune Qui la vendit depuis a Cupido Pour l’essayer sus la royne Dido. Si la trouva de semblable vertu Et tel effaict que au premier avoit eu, Bien l’approuva Sapho, Yseud, Phillis, Sigismonde, Felice, Amordelis, La dame aussy que on nommoit d’Escallot Qui trop ama messire Lancelot, Et ceste la née en Northombelande Pour qui Phebus feit mainte chose grande, Oenone, Aulde, Laodomye Et Solonime, de Gloriant amye, Yziphile, Sobrine et Thessala Qui en mourant Absalon accolla. [De telle mort fut prise et succumbée La vertueuse dame et tresbelle Thisbée Semblablement en fut par trop friande La belle dame et saige Claryande Aussi mourut pour Laurin trop amer Celle qui fut contesse de Gomer Et si puis bien avecques elle mectre De Jheromime oultrée pour Silvestre Puis la niepce au bon duc de Bourgogne Que son amy feit mourir de vergogne]



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Aultres assez dont laisse le propos Car leurs espritz sont au port de repos. Depuis ce temps antique et de long aage Nous avons eu en France l’avantaige: Car ceste flesche a peu executé, Car maint amant d’aymer s’est rebuté Comme on m’a dit avant le sien trespas. S’ilz ont bien faict, je ne le mescroys pas.131 This prayer, said beautifully from the heart, Went right to Venus’ ears. And suddenly he saw the temple light up, Which was a sign of having been granted grace, And that Venus had definitely heard his prayer For which Palamon with joyful thoughts Thanked her, and he got up happily, Wandering around this sumptuous place, And saw that painted there was Youth, Delight, Desire, Secret Hope, Jubilation Who, together and with all their might Were honouring ‘Jouissance’ [Pleasure/Enjoyment]. Cupid was above a fountain, His eyes blindfolded and with an uncertain hand He was firing arrows, many of them causing damage, Making wounds that are dangerous for all. He had sharpened two arrows at the points And two more were anointed with great sweetness. Four were well tipped with gold, Which he pulled out of his rich store [of arrows], With which he hit and subdued his targets, Who were better captured than any bird with throws. Near to his feet there was, made of wood, A beautiful case that is called a quiver, Little worn since it was hardly used. There were arrows in it of a strange sort, It would take a long time and be annoying to describe them, So there is no need to say any more, Save that they were poisoned à la turque Which made their wounds painful BR, lines 1307–65; the ten additional lines are marked in square brackets. See n. 27 above.

131

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And the blow cannot be healed Such that one has the pain until death. But Cupid had a gift from his mother For enflaming all women with his brand. What was done was shown in the painting, Except for an arrow forgotten by chance, However, knowing the moment was opportune, Fortune quietly stole it, And then sold it to Cupid In order that he might try it on queen Dido. Thereafter [i.e. in subsequent firings of it] he found it [the arrow] to have similar quality And the same effect as it had the first time, And well it was felt by Sappho, Isolde, Phyllis, Sigismonde, Felice, Amordelis, The lady that is known as ‘of Shallot’ Who loved Sir Lancelot too much, And she who was born in Northumberland For whom Phebus did many great things, Oenone, Aude and Laodomyne And Solonime, the lover of Gloriant, Yziphile, Sobrine and Thessala Who in dying embraced Absalon. By such kind of death was also taken and killed The virtuous and beautiful lady Thisbée. Similarly, the beautiful and wise Cleriande Was burned excessively by it. Also, she who was the countess of Gomer Died from loving Laurin too much, And we can also put with her Hermione, killed for Silvester, And then the niece of the good duke of Burgundy Whose beloved caused her to die of shame; And many others of whom I leave aside comment Because their souls are in the haven of rest. Since that long ago period We have been lucky in France: Because this arrow has not done much, For many a lover has been put off loving, As I was told, before his death. That they acted well, I do not doubt it.



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Anne’s decision not to integrate the references to Priapus, Iole, Hercules and Byblis may be because she deemed the nature of the stories inappropriate for her purposes. Priapus, the comedic figure in Xenarchus’ fourth-century comedy Priapus and also a character in Ovid’s Fasti, was known for his lustful nature and permanent erection. The Livre de Thezeo describes Priapus seated at the top of Venus’ temple, dressed as he was when he tried to seduce – perhaps rape is better – the virgin goddess Vesta, recounted in book six of the Fasti. Iole, one of Ovid’s Heroides (Letter 9) who, in the Metamorphoses, becomes Hercules/Heracles’ concubine and makes him dress up in women’s clothes and perform women’s work, and Byblis, who fell in love with her twin brother Caunus (also in the Metamorphoses), must also have seemed unsuitable in a work that sought to conquer misogynistic views of women.132 The figures Anne incorporated instead are key examples of ill-fated women who could be found in a variety of texts circulating in sixteenth-century France and they reveal the wide-ranging nature of Anne’s literary knowledge. Some of the sources can be specifically identified in her own collection. Moreover, the catalogue-esque nature of this section not only evokes Boccaccio and Christine’s works but might also be seen as a direct riposte to a related trope found in medieval texts of enumerating a series of unfortunate male lovers who have been tricked by women. One such example is found in the Prose 1 and Prose 5 versions of the Roman de Troie where they illustrate ‘la folie provoquée par l’amour, à propos du comportement d’Achille’ (the madness provoked by love, in relation to Achilles’ behaviour).133 Prose 5 is the Trojan section of the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César and is included in the copy Anne inherited from her parents (fr. 254). The seven wise and strong men listed – Adam, David, Solomon, Samson, Holofernes, Virgil and Aristotle – are described as ‘furent par feme souspris et engenné’ (were surprised and tricked by a woman), and the author remarks that it is not therefore surprising that Achilles went out of his mind for love.134 Anne Rochebouet sees the inclusion of this section in Prose 5 as related to the increased production of catalogues of famous men as well as to misogynistic literature more generally in the later middle ages.135 By including a list of malheureuseses – some of whom appear in the Histoire ancienne – Anne was able to overturn the commonplace literary and visual tropes that presented women as the tricksters and deceivers of men. Moreover, within the context of the Beau roman, these women also serve as warnings to the reader of how not to end up, thereby justifying Emilia’s wise decision to move on from Arcita’s ‘abandonment’ of her and accept a marriage to Palamon. Rather than seeking to That such tales were read by male viewers as cautioning against the power of women, is suggested by the depiction of the story of Hercules and Omphale (Iole) on the walls of the Porte Dorée at Fontainebleau. See Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier, ‘Women on Top at Fontainebleau’, Oxford Art Journal, 16 (1993), 34–48. 133 Anne Rochebouet, ‘Variations sur une liste d’amants malheureux dans les Romans de Troie: vers un timide reflet de la thématique des Hommes illustres’, Questes, 17 (2009), 89–98 (pp. 89–90). 134 Rochebouet, ‘Variations’, p. 97. 135 Rochebouet, ‘Variations’, p. 98. 132

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rehabilitate these female figures, afflicted by both Fortune and Cupid, by reworking their tales as Christine might have done, Anne points to the limitations of them as models, proposing her own women – Emilia and Hippolyta – as the way forward. Seven of the twenty-one women that Anne refers to as being hit by Cupid’s arrow – sold to him by Fortune – were included in Ovid’s Heroides, and some of them in the earlier French translation that circulated in the Histoire ancienne. They are Dido (Letter 7), who kills herself after Aeneas abandons her in Carthage; Sappho (Letter 15) and Phyllis (Letter 2, also included in the Histoire ancienne), who were driven to take their own lives by their love for Phaon, a ferryman, and Demophon, son of Theseus, respectively; Oenone (Letter 5, also in the Histoire ancienne), the nymph who writes to Paris lamenting his abandonment of her and warning him to beware of Helen; Hermione (Letter 8, also in the Histoire ancienne), who writes to her lover Orestes (here erroneously called Silvester) imploring him to rescue her from Neoptolemus who has abducted her; Laodamia (Letter 13, also in the Histoire ancienne), wife of the Greek general Protesilaus, who writes to try to persuade him not to engage in the Trojan war and who, after his death, kills herself; and Hypsipyle (Letter 6), queen of Lemnos, who was abandoned by Jason after he got her pregnant with twins. Three of these Heroides (Hypsipyle, Dido and Sappho) also feature in Boccaccio’s De mulieribus claris and Christine de Pizan’s Cité des dames. Dido, whose story is told in the Mutacion, also has an important role to play in Marot’s Epistre de Maguelonne that was copied in the Arsenal manuscript. The fact that many of these malheureuses appear in – or ‘haunt’, to use Swift’s term – multiple manuscript, textual and linguistic contexts allowed the reader trace their stories across and within sources, much as Anne must have done in her own reading.136 For example, the story of Thisbée – who kills herself following the death of Piramus – appears in Petrarch’s Triumphs, Boccaccio’s Decameron and the De mulieribus claris, and in Christine de Pizan’s Cité; the tale is also a precursor to that of Floridan et Elvide. Similarly, the tale of Sigismonda – or Ghismonda – whose lover Guiscardo was killed by her own father, causing her to kill herself by drinking poison, appears in both the Decameron and the Cité. Isolde, who falls tragically in love with Tristan, is included by Christine in the Cité but would also have been known to readers from Arthurian literature, in particular the Prose Tristan. Arthurian romance also provided the source for the Lady of Shalot, who dies of unrequited love for the knight Lancelot and whose story is told in La Mort le roi Artu, part of the Prose Lancelot Cycle. The reference to Thessala and Absalon likely refers to an episode in Guiron le Courtois, an early thirteenth-century text indebted to the Prose Tristan, in which Thessala, following the death of Absalon, throws herself on his body lamenting their fate, kisses him and the sword that she had given him when he became a knight and dies of grief. As noted in Chapter 1, Anne owned two manuscripts with parts of the Prose Lancelot as well as a volume containing a large portion of the second part of the Prose

136

Swift, p. 30.



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Tristan. An inscription in her copy of the Tristan at the point where Tristan and Isolde die shows her close reading of the two lovers’ fate.137 Other women included in the list come from French romance and chansons de geste, genres also present in Anne’s library. The lady who dies ‘from loving Laurin too much’ is taken from the Roman de Laurin, one of the continuations of the Sept Sages de Rome, inherited by Anne from her mother.138 ‘Aude’ refers to the fiancée of Roland in the Chanson de Roland, who dies of grief after she learns of his death fighting the Saracens. Felice is the female protagonist in Gui de Warwick, a French romance written in the first half of the thirteenth century that was reworked into prose in the fifteenth. In this tale, the knight Gui marries Felice but then abandons her to go on a pilgrimage and when he comes back decides to live as a hermit rather than return to her. The ‘niece of the good duke of Burgundy’ is the heroine of the thirteenth-century Châtelaine de Vergy who dies after discovering that her lover, a knight in the duke’s service, has revealed the secret of their love. Whereas the Châtelaine de Vergy does not appear in Anne’s collection, extant copies suggest that it was popular and was still being copied into the sixteenth century; moreover Anne – and her contemporaries – could also have accessed the story through Christine de Pizan, who included the châtelaine in her Cité des dames. ‘Amordelis’ likely refers to the wife of Philip of Macedonia, who appears in Le roman de Philippe de Madien, Perrinet du Pin’s prose continuation of Aimon de Varennes’ Florimont (1188) that was written in 1447–48 for Anne de Lusignan (1418–62), mother of Charlotte of Savoy, queen of France.139 The text of the Roman de Philippe de Madien, like the Florimont itself, constituted prequels to the Alexander Cycle with which Anne was also familiar through her copy of the Voeux and Restor du Paon that she bought in Rouen in 1521, and which may have led to her specific interest in or knowledge of Perrinet’s work. Perrinet’s text survives in four manuscripts and two sixteenth-century editions.140 Given that at least one if not both of these printed editions dates from after Anne’s composition of the Beau See Chapter 1, p. 50. In the original tale, Laurin’s lover is the empress of Constantinople, but here Anne names her, somewhat inexplicably, as the ‘Contesse de Gomer’. Thanks to Kathy Krause for clarifying some of the texts and women in this passage. 139 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 19168 includes the dedication to Anne de Luisgnan although it does not appear to be a presentation copy. On Le roman de Philippe de Madien, see the entry in Arlima www. arlima.net/mp/perrinet_du_pin.html# [accessed 2 June 2022]. The Florimont itself had been reworked into prose in the fifteenth century and in 1528 Girard Moët de Pommesson also produced a prose version which V. L. Saulnier suggests was done for Philippe de Sarrebrück (1490–1551), niece of Cardinal Georges d’Amboise and thus a cousin of Catherine d’Amboise; see his, ‘L’auteur du Florimont en prose imprimé: Girard Moët de Pommesson’, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 17 (1955), 207–17 (esp. 216–17). 140 The other surviving manuscripts are Paris, BnF, ms fr. 12578 (see below), Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 59, and Turin, Biblioteca nazionale, ms L.IV.1. An edition was printed in 1528 in Paris by Jacques Nyverd and Galliot du Pré and a further undated edition exists by Jean Bonfons, who worked towards the middle of the sixteenth century. 137 138

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roman, she must have known the Roman de Philippe de Madien through a manuscript copy, perhaps even one of the surviving ones, since Paris, BnF, ms fr. 12578 includes a series of ‘ballades’ added in an early sixteenth-century hand that are, curiously, signed with the motto l’on y garde: the use of the word ‘garde’, which Anne used in her own motto gives the phrase a distinctly Anne-like ring.141 However Anne came to know of the Roman de Philippe de Madien, her inclusion of Amordelis seems particularly apposite, since at some point in the tale the two lovers exchange, as it were, laments for each other, recalling the ‘double’ letters (e.g. between Helen and Paris) that are found in the Heroides.142 Some of the women to whom Anne refers remain unidentified, including ‘Sollomine de gloriante amye’, ‘Sobrine’ and the lady from Northumberland.143 However, the inclusion of the ‘belle et saige’ Cleriande amongst this list of women surely refers to the heroine of Macé de Villebresme’s Heroides-inspired Epistre de Cleriande la Romaine in which Cleriande’s lover Reginus has been forced to flee Rome but his lack of communication causes Cleriande distress. Although the lines referring to Cleriande are amongst those absent from the Arsenal copy, the combination of Anne’s list of abandoned women together with the two epistles indicates that Anne was drawing – and expecting the reader(s) of this manuscript to draw – connections across sources, linking her remaniement specifically to the love epistle genre.

The Love Epistles in Arsenal 5116

Inspired by Saint-Gelais’s translation of Ovid’s Heroides, sixteenth-century writers began to draw on a variety of sources to produce new works in the epistle format that developed the idea of the abandoned lady theme.144 The Epistre de Cleriande is the only original work attributed to Villebresme, valet de chambre to both Louis XII and Francis I, who otherwise had a successful career translating works from Latin into French: Crétin called him his

This hand is extremely close to that which wrote the riddle on Anne’s name in fr. 24315 and the inscriptions regarding Anne’s inheritance in several of her manuscripts. Thanks to David Potter for his advice on this. 142 These complaints occur at chapters 27 and 28 and are written in verse as opposed to the prose of the rest of the text. In fr. 19168 and fr. 12578 these sections stand out visually on the page. 143 In his glossary, Le Hir identifies Gloriant as a Saxon king in the Estoire de Merlin, in which case Sollomine would be his ‘amie’, but I have not been able to clarify this further. Gloriande/Gloriante is a fée in various romances such as Tristan de Nanteuil who is often refused by the hero, but it is not clear that this is who is meant here. Le Hir also identifies Sobrine as a character from Ariosto without going into further detail: although there is a male character, Sobrino, in Orlando Furioso, this would not fit with the focus on women. The lady born in Northumberland ‘for whom Phebus did many great things’ possibly refers to a character in Arthurian legend, where Northumberland frequently appears as a geographical location and place of chivalric exploits. 144 LeBlanc, p. 171. 141

Fig. 50. Cleriande at her writing desk, Macé de Villebresme, Epistre de Cleriande la Romaine, Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, fol. 71r, c. 1521–24 (© Paris, BnF).

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‘filz adoptif ’ (adopted son).145 As discussed in Chapter 3, he translated Fausto Andrelini’s Epistles written in Latin for Anne of Brittany, which, also in the manner of the Heroides, staged the queen as a letter writer offering her husband political support while he was in Italy and expressing her loneliness.146 The dating of the Cleriande is uncertain but it must have been composed before 1518, the presumed year of Villebresme’s death, and may date from 1515.147 Villebresme’s source was Claude de Seyssel’s prose translation from Latin into French of Appian’s Civil Wars that had been completed for Louis XII around 1507 and is thought to have been a favourite work of Francis I.148 In Cleriande’s letter, cast in the same decasyllabic rhyme as the Beau roman, she expresses her fear that she will not survive Reginus’ absence, and composes her own epitaph which, in the Arsenal manuscript, is set apart from the rest of the text by being written in red beneath a black tombstone.149 The miniature of Cleriande (fig. 50) at the start of the Epistre, writing at a lectern littered with books, emphasises the genre of the work by recalling the depiction of writing women found in copies of the Heroides (figs 11–12). Moreover, it also evokes those images of Christine de Pizan, who was often shown in a similarly solitary act of literary composition and consumption, with books placed on, inside and against her writing desk (fig. 29). For LeBlanc, however, Villebresme’s work, like many other sixteenth-century love epistles, differs in tone from the Heroides by ‘address[ing] the moral question of the relationship of love to civic responsibility and society’, which chimes closely with the way Anne frames love within the Beau roman.150 Cleriande’s promise to Reginus that ‘when she arrives in heaven she will pray for his victories on the field’ also sets it apart from the ‘paroxysms of love and desolation expressed by the heroines of Ovid’.151 That a different conception of love is being promoted by these later writers – and the connections that this has with the kind of relationships being voiced in Anne’s text – becomes even more evident when considering Marot’s Epistre de Maguelonne that accompanies Villebresme’s text. Marot – Rouen Puy participant, leading exponent of the love epistle and supporter of evangelical reform – is well known for being in the service of Margaret of Navarre before LeBlanc, p. 182; Villebresme appears amongst the ‘gentilshommes de la chambre’ of Francis I, where he is listed as ‘hors en 1518’: fr. 7856, p. 921. 146 St Petersburg, fr. fol. v. V. XIV.8 with miniatures by Jean Bourdichon. 147 The Cleriande survives in four other manuscript copies, Paris, BnF, mss fr. 1721, 1953, 12406 and Rothschild 2964, the latter a collection primarily of rondeaux compiled in Ferrara by Jehan Gueffier, secretary to Claude’s sister Renée, who had become duchess of Ferrara in 1528. 148 De Seyssel’s version survives in Paris, BnF, mss fr. 713–14; date given by Rebecca Boone in ‘Claude de Seyssel’s Translations of Ancient Historians’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 61 (2000), 561–75 (p. 565). On Francis I, see Godelieve Tournoy-Thoen, ‘Fausto Andrelini et la cour de France’, in L’Humanisme français au début de la renaissance, Colloque international d’études humanistes, 14 (1971) (Paris: Vrin, 1973), pp. 65–79 (p. 71). 149 Arsenal 5116, fol. 81v (now misbound). A similar off-setting is found in fr. 1953, fol. 18v, where the epitaph is framed. 150 LeBlanc, p. 182. 151 LeBlanc, pp. 182–83. 145



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moving to the court of Claude’s sister and fellow reformer Renée of France in Ferrara in 1535.152 Anne de Graville’s connections to Margaret would have brought her into Marot’s circle, but she may have encountered him and his works earlier. Berthon has argued that between 1515 and 1519 Marot sought the protection of Claude, naming himself ‘Facteur de la Royne’: his Temple de Cupido, dated variously between 1513 and 1519, is generally accepted as a work intended for Claude and Francis.153 The Epistre de Maguelonne, written some time before 1519 and usually linked to Margaret of Navarre, may, according to Berthon, have been written specifically for Claude too, making it a pertinent inclusion in the Arsenal manuscript, the only known witness.154 Marot’s source for the Epistre was the fifteenth-century prose romance Pierre de Provence et la belle Maguelonne, which he follows relatively closely.155 It tells the story of the adolescent Pierre and Maguelonne who enter into a clandestine marriage but who, despite vowing to remain chaste, cannot hold back their desire for each other and are separated as punishment. Where Marot’s text differs significantly from his source is at the end: in the romance, the lovers are eventually reunited as a reward for their constancy, despite their transgressions, but in the Epistre, Maguelonne becomes a ‘hospitaliere’ living a life of charity in a religious institution.156 This ending also emphasises the tale’s difference from Ovid’s Heroides by giving it an ending that, despite the lovers’ separation, retains a sense of (Christian) hope rather than (Classical) desolation, a difference which is clearly spelled out in the final rondeau, ‘Comme Dido’, which is written on an acrostic of Marot’s name: Comme Dido qui moult se courroussa Lors que Eneas seule la delaissa En son pays: Tout ainsy Maguelonne Mena son dueil: et comme saincte et bonne En l’hospital toute sa fleur passa Nulle fortune oncques ne la blessa Toute constance en son cueur amassa Guillaume Berthon, L’Intention du poète: Clément Marot, ‘autheur’ (Paris: Garnier, 2014), p. 50. See Richard Cooper, ‘Picturing Marot’, in Book and Text in France, 1400–1600: Poetry on the Page, ed. by Adrian Armstrong and Malcolm Quainton (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), pp. 117–38, who proposes a date of 1513–14 and links it to their marriage; Berthon discusses the Temple de Cupido and the epithet, ‘Facteur de la Royne’, in L’Intention du Poète, pp. 55–58, where he argues for la ater date of 1516–19. 154 Berthon, L’Intention du Poète, pp. 55–56. 155 LeBlanc, pp. 180–81; and Josiane Rieu, ‘Le silence de Dieu: Marot, l’Epître de Maguelonne’, Loxias 15 (2006), http://revel.unice.fr/loxias/index.html?id=1394 [accessed 2 June 2022] (paragraph 5). For a discussion of the French romance, see Brown-Grant, French Romance, pp. 106–110. 156 Because of this Christian context, and because of the obscurity of the tale and its mainly narrative content, the Maguelonne has sometimes been considered one of Marot’s weaker works, although, as Christine Scollen notes, its importance ‘lies in the fact that it demonstrates Marot’s interest in the Heroides in particular’; see her The Birth of the Elegy in France: 1500–1550 (Geneva: Droz, 1967), p. 28. 152 153

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Myeulx esperant. Et ne fut point felonne Comme Dido. Aussy celluy qui toute puissance a Renvoya cil qui au boys la laissa Ou elle estoit mais quoy qu’on en blasonne Tant eut de dueil que le monde s’estonne Que d’un cousteau son cueur ne transperca Comme Dido.157 Like Dido who became extremely upset When Aeneas abandoned her alone In her country: Thus Maguelonne Went about her mourning: and like a saintly good woman, In a charitable house she passed her youth No misfortune ever harmed her She gathered all constancy in her heart Hoping for better. And she was not unfaithful Like Dido. Also that One who has total power Sent back he who left her where she Was in the woods, but however one puts it [She] had so much pain that the world is astonished That she did not pierce her heart with a sword Like Dido.

Whereas the rondeau starts by suggesting a comparison between Maguelonne and Dido, the similarities rapidly break down and are emphasised in the syntax. Dido’s reaction to her abandonment by Aeneas is described with the verb ‘courroucer’ which has connotations not just of pain and anguish but also of anger (and is a word used of the Lover in the BDSM) and likely derives from Virgil’s description of her in the Aeneid as raging and raving around Carthage.158 She is also called ‘felonne’ – unfaithful – a characteristic that also derives from Virgil as well as from Ovid, who ‘maintains Virgil’s image of a woman burning with a passion that is beyond her control as well as emphasizing Dido’s failure to keep faith with the memory of her dead Arsenal 5116, fol. 83r. Béatrice Alonso explains the ‘Q’ that begins the final line as referring to ‘querincois’ – a resident of Le Quercy – an ancient district including Cahors where Marot was born and which was becoming an importance seat of church reform; see her ‘Exemplarité féminine et blâme des femmes: dialogue entre le Rondeau, duquel les lettres capitales portent le nom de l’auteur de Clément Marot et La Louenge des femmes’, Réforme, Humanisme, Renaissance, 69 (2009), 73–84 (p. 77). 158 Franklin, p. 156. 157



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husband’.159 By contrast, the abandoned Maguelonne seeks solace in a ‘hospital’ which protects her from the caprices of the (non-Christian) goddess Fortune (‘nulle fortune oncques ne la blessa’).160 Marot thus opposed Dido’s ‘fol amour’ – foolish love for Aeneas which results in her taking her own life – with Maguelonne’s constancy and love for Pierre, whom she hopes to see again, while living a life of charity.161 As in the Beau roman, Fortune is thwarted by the woman protagonist who chooses to behave appropriately and for the good of society, and not to let the goddess dictate her life.162 Anne’s inclusion of Dido at the top of her list of malheureuses struck by Fortune/Cupid’s arrow therefore intersects with Marot’s work in a dynamic way. If Claude were the intended recipient of this manuscript, she may have been especially sensitive to Dido’s appearance as a model not to be imitated, since she also appears in Marot’s Temple de Cupido where her ‘fol amour’ is contrasted negatively with the ‘ferme amour’ that unites Claude and Francis and which is set to bring about peace in France.163

Reading the Beau roman in and beyond the querelle

By citing only women who have been struck by Cupid’s arrow Müller has argued that Anne de Graville was, like Margaret of Navarre, Hélisenne de Crenne and Louise Labé after her, emphasising that the female sex is systematically disadvantaged in love relations due to men’s inconstancy or violent behaviour.164 However, in the Beau roman Anne also leaves these women in a mythological, literary past that she contrasts with the present when she states that Cupid’s arrows have had little success in France recently.165 Rather than participating in the querelle by offering another reworking of overfamiliar examples of these women who are victims of Fortune and/or of men’s bad behaviour, Anne used her work to nuance the debate and promote a new vision of love and marriage. Her decision to rewrite the Livre de Thezeo from a pro-feminine perspective moves the querelle away from the catalogue genre and, as she does with the Rondeaux, she takes the audacious step Franklin, p. 157. For further discussion of Marot’s Dido in relation to both a Christian context and the querelle discourses of the mid-sixteenth century, see Alonso. 161 Foolish love, as Chapter 6 shows, harks back to the querelle de la Rose where it is used to criticise the Lover, and the term is used by Anne’s Belle dame in the Rondeaux to again emphasise the preposterousness of the arguments put forward by her suitor. 162 There is not space to discuss this in detail here but it is also worth noting that the final folio of Arsenal 5116 contains the first part of the ‘Epistre à une dame’ by Jacques Colin (d. 1547), a humanist poet and diplomat in the service of Francis I, in which an unhappy lover says his goodbyes to a cruel lady who has, apparently, made him ride Fortune’s wheel and which also refers to ‘ferme amour’. Whenever and however this extract was copied, there is clearly a sense that the reader/writer has gleaned an interest in fortune and love from reading the other works in the manuscript. 163 On the Temple and ‘ferme amour’, see Berthon, L’Intention du poète, pp. 53; 58. 164 Müller, ‘Translatrices’, p. 199. 165 See also Müller, ‘Translatrices’, pp. 199–200. 159 160

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of truncating the tale in order to further reframe and reorientate the narrative. Emilia’s story is no longer buried in the ‘book of Theseus’ but emerges as a new, independent tale in which the distinction from the old one is emphasised by the change from prose to rhyme. Anne’s original interventions, including the significant adaptation of the episode at the temple and the references to Fortune and Atropos, allow her to contrast the marriage of Emilia and Palamon – a union required by Theseus but one which also thwarts Fortune – to the unfortunate women who decorate the walls of Venus’ temple. The Beau roman is not just about countering a negative narrative with a positive one, a platform for a woman to dispute the master narrative, which is the dialogic into which Christine entered with the defenders of the Rose and with Boccaccio, but about proposing alternative ways forward – alternative means of furthering society, of loving through mutual respect and of defending women and writing their stories. Like Christine, Anne subtly suggests the importance of behaving decorously and leaving oneself beyond the reproaches of the male critics who would condemn women as ‘légère’ (flighty), irrational and ruled by their bodies. Yet both Emilia and Hippolyta ultimately defer to the man in charge – Theseus. Hippolyta is gracious in defeat and marries her conqueror, suppressing her desire to undertake further battles, but in doing so ensures her survival in a union of ‘amytié telle’. Anne’s message is not always easy to tease out but it is perhaps the idea that when a woman tries to be what she is not (a man in battle), the result, eventually, is only weakness, or at best a ghettoising of women in a city like Christine’s. Instead, a woman can be strong within society when she combines strength of character and intellect, rather than strength of limb.166 Emilia, too, bows to Theseus’ will, eventually renouncing her fidelity to Arcita’s memory and marrying Palamon: in doing so she does not end up like Dido or one of the other malheureuses in Anne’s long list, consigned to continual laments or, worse, death at her own hand. The lesson appears to be one of duty over will, since that is the means by which Fortune is put on the back foot, although this seems to sit rather uneasily in relation to Anne’s own decision to marry against her father’s wishes. As a result, Hippolyta, Emilia and Palamon are released from the constraints of courtly literary conventions and into relationships of perfect friendship. The querelle des femmes may, however, not be the only lens through which to read this tale. Aspects of the poem clearly indicate that Anne was anchoring the Beau roman in relation to some of the French court’s political concerns of the early 1520s. Towards the end of the Beau roman, Anne de Graville makes a reference to the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the sumptuous ‘feat of arms’ that took place in June 1520 when Francis I met Henry VIII for the first time, halfway between Guînes and Ardres: ‘[…] mais ayez souvenance / Ce qu’il fut fait des gros princes de France / Et des anglois a Ardre l’aultre esté / Ou ung chascun, se me semble, a esté (but remember what the great princes of France and the English organised at Ardres the other summer, where everyone, it seems to me,

166

Thanks to Joan E. McRae for help in teasing out some of these ideas.



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was there’).167 This event was designed to be a visible display of the strengthening of Anglo-French relations in the light of the election of Francis’s rival, Charles V, as Holy Roman Emperor the previous year.168 Fortune, perhaps, had seen to it that Francis’s own ambitions to be elected to this title had failed and this only intensified his rivalry with Charles. Setting aside a long-standing history of distrust between France and England, the lead-up to the meeting with Henry saw the two sides signing of a series of treaties that included the return of Tournai to French control and the marriage of the dauphin to Henry’s daughter Mary Tudor.169 Queen Claude attended this display of courtly magnificence, dining with Henry on 10 June, while Catherine of Aragon dined with Francis.170 The meeting of the two kings and their displays of military prowess also seem to have inspired Anne’s descriptions of the tournament between Palamon and Arcita as well as her characterisation of the two heroes.171 Palamon is described thus: ‘Cheveux eut bruns, peu de barbe et fort noire […]/Sourcilz en arc, yeulx de couleur chattains, […]/Nez long et droit’ (He had brown hair, a small and very black beard […] arched eyebrows, light brown eyes, […] a long and straight nose). He is also said to be ‘Historien et congnoissant veneur […]/ Fort gaillart prince et bon coureur de lance,/De grand vertu et parfaicte puissance’ (a historian, and a knowledgeable hunter, […] a strong and lusty prince and a good jouster, of great virtue and perfect strength): such traits bring to mind contemporary portraits of Francis I and highlight what were known to be some of his favourite pastimes: hunting, jousting and history.172 Similarly, the description of Arcita alludes to the appearance and skills of Henry VIII with his […] cheveulx blonz, ung peu chauve devant, Et l’estomac qui poussoit en avant […] Fort bien aymoit le plaisir de dancer Et avoit l’art et la voix pour chanter, Et cherissoit instrumens de musique Desquelz avoit l’usaige et theorique […] Bel à cheval et homme de grand force.173 BR, lines 3460–63. The French erected hundreds of tents emblazoned with coats of arms and covered in velvet and gold; Henry set up a temporary wooden palace that was painted to look like brick; see Robert Knecht, Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 171. 169 Knecht, Renaissance Warrior, pp. 170–74; this would result in an annual pension to be paid by Francis to Henry. 170 Knecht, Renaissance Warrior, p. 174. 171 On the description of the tournaments, see for example BR, lines 1518–25, where Anne describes larges tribunes hung with tapestries. 172 BR, lines 527–45. That the descriptions were intended to relate to Francis and Henry was noted by Le Hir, BR, p. 11 and Müller, ‘Translatrices’, pp. 194–95. 173 BR, lines 546–67. 167 168

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[…] blond hair, a bit bald in front, And his stomach protruding; […] He very much enjoyed dancing And had the skill and the voice to sing, And he adored musical instruments Of which he had both practical and theoretical understanding, […] A good horseman and a very strong man.

The illuminator of the miniature that accompanies this section evidently read the text, since the two characters standing before Theseus correspond to their descriptions: for instance, the first figure – Arcita – is clearly blonde and slightly bald (fig. 41).174 Moreover, the fact that the description of Arcita is somewhat less flattering than that of Palamon, and the fact that Emilia, in whom Claude might have seen herself, ends up with Palamon-Francis, further reinforces the idea that Anne was presenting the two kings as the Beau roman’s rival yet loving cousins who go to battle over the woman they love. Rivalries, and attempts to appease them, were part and parcel of Francis I’s politics. Although the Field of the Cloth of Gold was a means for Francis to work with a former adversary to counter the forces of Charles V, the alliance was short lived, as Henry VIII also carried out secret negotiations with the emperor.175 If the phrase ‘l’aultre esté’ in Anne’s reference to the meeting at Ardres is read as ‘last summer’, this would date the Beau roman to as early as 1521. However, another reference that Anne makes to having seen handsome princes ‘depuis deux ans passé’ would push this date to 1522.176 Either way, these allusions indicate that the Beau roman must have been written after the Field of the Cloth of Gold and before Claude’s death in 1524. In fact, between 1521 and 1523, Francis was not only asserting himself in the face of one rival, Charles V, but also grappling with the emergence of another, his constable, Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier, a situation that Anne may have been alluding to in her work. As constable of France, Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier was head of the French army and second-in-command after the king himself. His marriage to Suzanne de Bourbon consolidated the various branches of the powerful Bourbon family and, it was hoped, the birth of an heir would serve to protect it from the Crown. Suzanne, the only child of Anne of France, who had become duchess of Bourbon in 1488, had made Charles her universal heir before her death in 1521. Then, before her own death in 1522, Anne had also

Le Hir (BR, p. 38) describes this miniature as ‘Piritheus demande à Thésée la grâce d’Arcita’, but, given the fact that the description of Palamon begins beneath the miniature, the correspondence between text and image seems more than a coincidence. 175 Crouzet, pp. 180–81. 176 BR, line 551. Most critics have followed a 1521 dating (see for example Mounier, p. 118 and n. 125) but Bianciotto (Thezeo, p. 279) reads ‘l’aultre esté’ as the summer before last, which would also date the composition to 1522. 174



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bequeathed Charles her personal inheritance.177 The reasons for the tension that started to emerge between Francis and Charles have been attributed to various causes, including the constable’s dissatisfaction with the king, who refused to pay Charles certain pensions and to reimburse him for substantial financial assistance on several campaigns.178 According to Philippe Hamon, Charles did not depend sufficiently – either financially or politically – on the king, and that made him a serious threat.179 Certainly his acquisition of the Bourbon titles and territories gave him substantial symbolic as well as actual power and resources. At the same time, as Crouzet notes, Francis was also resisting a model of customised honour: by refusing his favour on the duke, he was obscuring the importance of services rendered.180 Charles evidently felt snubbed and saw this as the monarchy separating itself from the ideal of friendly reciprocity based on the worth and rank of its servants, in favour of the king’s personal whims.181 As a means of reducing the constable’s political power, and to fill the royal coffers, Francis supported his mother’s claims to the duchy of Bourbon: Louise of Savoy’s mother, Marguerite de Bourbon, was the daughter of the last surviving duke of the main branch of the family.182 Faced with the inevitable prospect of losing his lands and titles, and with little room for manoeuvre, Charles was effectively pushed into an alliance with Francis’s rivals, Charles V and Henry VIII, and in 1523 he defected.183 It may be this tense situation of 1521–23 that is being played out in the miniature that opens the first section of the Arsenal Beau roman. On folio 2r (fig. 40), above the opening words of the tale, Emilia and Hippolyta are standing before an enthroned Theseus, who wears a royal blue robe over his armour and a fleur-de-lys crown in his hat, features which relate him to Francis I. From the point of view of the tale, the image Aubrée David-Chapy, Anne de France, Louise de Savoie: Inventions d’un pouvoir au féminine (Paris: Garnier, 2016), pp. 333–36; Crouzet, pp. 300–01. 178 Crouzet, p. 296. 179 Philippe Hamon, L’Argent du Roi: Les Finances sous Francois Ier (Paris: Institut de la gestion publique et du développement économique, 1994), online edition https://books.openedition. org/igpde/108?format=toc [accessed 2 June 2022] (paragraph 143). 180 Crouzet, p. 297. 181 Crouzet, p. 297; I paraphrase the French. Whilst ostensibly remaining loyal to Francis, from 1521 Charles was also implicated in a series of rumours that were intended to destabilise the monarchy, including calling into question the loyalty of the king’s counsellors and the prospect of his marriage to Charles V’s sister; see Crouzet, pp. 297–325. 182 Crouzet, p. 297. Marguerite de Bourbon (1438–83), was daughter of Charles I de Bourbon, and sister of the last three dukes of the main line, including Pierre, Anne of France’s husband. 183 Philippe Hamon, ‘Charles de Bourbon, connétable de France (1490–1527)’, in Les Conseilleurs de Francois Ier, ed. by Cédric Michon (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2011), pp. 95–97, online edition https://books.openedition.org/pur/119853 [accessed 2 June 2022] (paragraph 8); and Knecht, Renaissance Warrior, pp. 204–07. Part of the deal that Charles struck with the emperor was that he would marry Charles V’s daughter and be provided with 10,000 landsknechts to enable him to support his invasion of France; Henry VIII, apparently leaving aside the alliance agreed at Ardres, would invade via Normandy. Henry was also due to pay 10,000 crowns subsidy to Bourbon. 177

Fig. 51. Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier as constable, accompanying Queen Claude, Entry of Francis I into Lyon, Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 86.4 Extragav., fols 7v–8r (© Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek).

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represents the defeated Amazons being brought before Theseus by the figure on the right. This man, sitting on horseback and holding an upright sword closely resembles representations of the constable, for whom the sword was a key element of his iconography. Following the sacre of Francis in Rheims in 1515, Charles apparently stood next to the king during dinner, holding his unsheathed sword upright, without moving.184 In a manuscript commemorating Francis I’s entry into Lyon in the same year, a double-page illumination shows the constable holding an upright, flaming sword and standing on a winged stag (a Bourbon device) that bears the Bourbon shield around its neck and which pulls a boat bearing the queen through the water (fig. 51).185 In the Beau roman miniature, the figure’s glance towards Theseus and the stance of his horse, which looks ready to move away from the scene, implies a certain hostility. Anne de Graville’s humble offering of her book to the queen in the presentation miniature was thus swiftly followed by an image that not only begs to be read as the king and his constable but also positions two noblewomen between them. On the one hand, if Queen Claude were the driving force behind the Beau roman, as the long title suggests, we can assume that its audience would have been the immediate members of her (and Francis’s) entourage. If it were produced in 1521–22, Claude might have requested the work as a means to appeal to Francis to resolve his differences with the constable, or to encourage Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier to obey his sovereign (although there is no surviving evidence to suggest that Charles himself would have been expected to read the work). Certainly, the positioning of the two women in between the men in the miniature suggests that they – and by extension the book – have an advisory or conciliatory role to play in the conflict, in the same way that Emilia and Hippolyta appease the male protagonists through their actions and wise words. If the work is dated slightly later, it could also have been intended as a reaction to or comment on the duke’s defection to the emperor’s camp in 1523, highlighting the dangers of princely rivalries and how the turning of Fortune’s wheel can change one’s situation in an instant. Through her adaptation, Anne created a world in which Fortune is thwarted and equal and respectful love reigns at court, and from which bragging and dishonest speech have been banished; features which might also recall the rumours and language 184 185

Crouzet, p. 282. Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 86.4 Extravagantes, fols 7v–8r; the accompanying text includes a rondeau beginning ‘Le cerf volant a tout noble esperance’: the ceinture d’esperance was also a Bourbon device. Laurent Hablot notes that Charles adopted the symbols used by the main branch of the Bourbon family on his marriage to Suzanne and accession to the duchy in 1505 (Pierre having died in 1503). He also notes that the flaming sword was a conflation of the constable’s iconography with that used by Cardinal Charles II, uncle of Suzanne. See Laurent Hablot, ‘La ceinture ESPERANCE et les devises des ducs de Bourbon’, in ESPERANCE, le mécénat religieux des ducs de Bourbon au XVe siècle, ed. by Françoise Perrot ([Paris]: Souvigny, 2001), pp. 91–103; see also François Lagrange, ‘Signes du pouvoir militaire: de l’épée de connétable au bâton de maréchal’, Bulletin du Centre de recherche du château de Versailles, 2005 http://journals.openedition.org/crcv/11815 [accessed 2 June 2022].



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of discontent – a lack of love and friendship shown by Francis to Charles – that were a feature of the way the crisis played out.186 On the other hand, as McGrady has explored, the distinction between the desire of a patron and that of an author seeking recompense is sometimes blurred and the possibility remains that Anne sought out the commission to secure or define her own position.187 For all the assumptions that Anne was part of Claude’s household, no specific evidence for this has come to light. Her father, Louis de Graville, was close to Anne of France during her regency for Charles VIII, exercising considerable political influence, especially from 1487 when he was named admiral of France.188 He seems to have weathered the shift from Anne’s regency to Charles’s reign despite the fact that the queen, Anne of Brittany, never forgave him for his role in annexing Brittany as part of her marriage.189 Louis remained close to Charles VIII and, after the king’s death, managed to retain his position as admiral under his successor, Louis XII. However, Louis de Graville’s proximity to Anne of France and the absence of Anne de Graville and her sisters from the accounts (some nevertheless partial) of Claude’s household may mean that the Graville children were closely affiliated with the Bourbons and Anne of France – whose accounts do not survive – in the early years of the sixteenth century. Despite her marriage to Charles II d’Amboise, possibly designed to appease the opposing Bourbon-Orléans factions, Jeanne de Graville remained loyal to Jeanne, sister of Anne of France and repudiated queen of Louis XII, forming part of her entourage along with Charlotte de Bourbon and Françoise de Maillé and contributing to the Annonciades foundation in Bourges.190 Moreover, Anne de Graville’s sister Louise had married Jacques de Vendôme, vidame de Chartres, a family with close connections to the Bourbon dynasty. Their daughter, Louise de Vendôme, evidently spent time in Bourbon circles, since she became engaged to François de Ferrières, chambellan of Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier, around 1516.191 See Crouzet, pp. 292–310, who discusses the situation in terms of the constable’s use of antiphrasis and paradox. 187 McGrady, The Writer’s Gift. 188 P.-M. Perret, Notice biographique sur Louis Malet de Graville, amiral de France (144?– 1516) (Paris: Picard, 1889), p. 87. 189 According to Perret (pp. 147–48), in 1491–92, Anne of France – who was no longer regent and was thus indifferent to her former counsellor – formed an alliance against Louis with the new queen, Anne of Brittany, and Louis of Orléans (the future Louis XII). 190 Montmorand (p. 46), quoting from Hilarion de Coste, lists the women in Jeanne’s service as Charlotte de Bourbon, Charlotte d’Albret, Jeanne de Graville and Marie Pot. Gustave Schlumberger lists other women, including Françoise de Maillé and Jeanne de Bourbon, and states that, like the women they served, they were all unfortunate in some way (widowed, repudiated, etc.); see his ‘Le Château de la Motte-Feuilly en Berry’, Revue des Deux Mondes, 10 (1912), 101–34 (p. 119). See also the discussion in Chapter 4. 191 The marriage was contracted verbally in the first instance; see Léon de Bastard d’Estang, Vie de Jean de Ferrières, par un membre de la Société des sciences historiques et naturelles de l’Yonne (Auxerre: Perriquet et Rouillé, 1858), pp. 179; 189. 186

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The union was not approved by Louise’s brothers, Louis and Charles, who were in the service of the king.192 Louis de Vendôme’s marriage to Hélène Gouffier, whose father, Artus, and uncle Guillaume exercised enormous influence at Francis’s court, to the detriment of the constable, must have intensified the brothers’ opposition to a marriage linking their sister to the thorn in the king’s side.193 A complaint lodged by Ferrières in March 1519 indicates that Louise was taken at the request of Louis from the company of Anne of France first to Amboise, then to Blois, and that he was removed from his position with the constable.194 In a letter dated 16 March 1519, Louise of Savoy wrote to ‘Madame d’Aumont’ – Françoise de Maillé – at Blois to tell her that the marriage would take place and not to prevent François from seeing Louise. The marriage was celebrated in September 1519, but François had to renounce any claims on Louise’s inheritance, effectively disinheriting the couple as a result.195 The Vendôme-Graville family was evidently divided in its allegiances and this conflict may well have fed into Anne’s remaniement of the Livre de Thezeo a few years later, perhaps as a means to establish her own position and loyalty to the monarchy as the constable seemed headed for disaster. The overpainted lion rampant in the Arsenal manuscript raises the possibility that this copy was made not for Claude but for a member of the Vendôme family, perhaps Louise de Vendôme, whose marriage had left her and her husband in a vulnerable position that must have intensified with the death of Suzanne de Bourbon and Anne of France and the constable’s defection in 1521–23. Anne knew such family instability only too well, and by gifting a copy of the Beau roman to her niece she may have wished to impart some advice to her and her wider family at a crucial moment through the work’s emphasis not just on appropriate feminine behaviour but also on the broader idea of duty over will. The Beau roman may thus not only have been a work ‘au commandement de la royne’ but one designed to unite Anne’s family, to bring them onto the side of the monarchy and obtain the queen’s protection. In writing the Beau roman Anne positioned herself strategically at a turbulent moment for both the court and her family and, in the manner of Christine, offered advice to all the parties involved.

* * * Through her adaptation of the Livre de Thezeo, Anne de Graville provided a learned and advisory voice to the queen and the court, not only in matters of love and relations between the sexes, but also in matters of conflict. Her protagonists Emilia and Hippolyta play a They both appear in the accounts of Francis I’s household: Louis de Vendôme, vidame de Chartres, is listed as amongst the gentilhommes de la chambre, ‘en 1518 hors en 1527’ (the year of his death), and Charles, seigneur de Graville, as eschançon ‘en 1520 mort en 1522’; see fr. 7856, pp. 921 and 929. 193 See Crouzet, pp. 293–95. 194 Bastard d’Estang, pp. 179–80. 195 Bastard d’Estang, pp. 179–80. 192



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key role in moving the Beau roman’s narrative towards the harmonious space of mutual respect and ‘amytié parfaicte’ – something that was evidently lacking not just in courtly, literary conceptions of heterosexual love, but also in the king’s dealings with his constable.196 In this sense, the Beau roman’s engagement with the querelle des femmes and the legacy of Christine de Pizan meets the political context at the French court, an aspect of the work that has not previously been explored. In the fictional world created by Anne de Graville, women, through their reading, writing, speech and comportment, become agents in the resolution of conflict, in surmounting (as both Anne and Christine had done) the potentially devastating effects of Fortune’s wheel, and in liberating women from limiting ideas of love. Through her references to literary traditions and tropes, and to contemporary events, Anne subtly blurred the (fictionalised) past and the present to provide a timely corrective to the issues of love, loyalty and (mis)fortune facing men as well as women at the French court in the 1520s.

Crouzet (pp. 310–12) reads Francis’s refusal to acknowledge the constable’s service in relation to the chivalric codes familiar to the court through literary works such as the chansons de geste.

196

Fig. 52. Anne de Graville, Rondeaux, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2253, fols 2v–3r, c. 1524–26 (photo: E. L’Estrange).

6 Debating with ‘Maistre Allain’: Chartier, Blois and Poetic Form in the Rondeaux for Louise of Savoy Anne de Graville’s reworking of Alain Chartier’s Belle dame sans mercy survives in one vellum manuscript copy now Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2253. The text was written by two different scribes, the first of whom was also responsible for the Chantilly copy of the Beau roman as well as the prologue in Anne’s copy, fr. 25441.1 There is no illumination, or provision for miniatures, but alternating gold-on-red and gold-on-blue initials and paragraph marks punctuate the verses of Anne’s rondeaux, which occupy the main part of each page, with Chartier’s original huitains written in a smaller script in the margins. Anne’s motto, j’en garde un leal, appears in a banderol beneath the prologue, which bears the title ‘A ma dame’ (fig. 52). It was on the basis of the anagram that Wahlund, in the late nineteenth century, identified the work as being by Anne, although the BnF catalogue still does not list her as the author. Logically enough, scholars familiar with the Beau roman’s dedication to Claude have assumed that the Rondeaux was also dedicated to the queen and it has traditionally been seen as the earlier work.2 Yet, as Chapter 5 showed, all but one of the surviving copies of the Beau roman explicitly refer to ‘la royne [Claude]’ and the prologue refers to ‘ma souveraine dame’. This difference between the two titles has never been remarked upon but in fact already pointed to the possibility that the Rondeaux’s dedicatee was a lady other than Claude. The rediscovered frontispiece showing Louise of Savoy receiving a book from a kneeling woman, with the words ‘la belle dame sans mercy / translatée en rondeaulx’ on the reverse, now confirms the recipient, and certain motifs discussed below suggest that it was composed after Claude’s death in 1524 (figs 6 and 53).3

See Chapter 5, p. 168. Bouchard dates the Rondeaux to c. 1515 in several of her studies but without an indication as to why. Delogu dates it to the same period as the Beau roman and follows Müller and Montmorand, who believe it is the earlier of the two works. Bianciotto (Thezeo, pp. 277–28 and n. 3) gives the Rondeaux as the later work but also without a specific explanation. 3 Moreover, ‘madame’ was an epithet frequently used for Louise.

1 2

Fig. 53. Recto of image 6, title page, Anne de Graville, Rondeaux, formerly Nantes, Saint-Gildas-des-Bois, Les Sœurs de l’Instruction Chrétienne, single leaf inserted in an unfoliated manuscript, c. 1524–26 (photo: CNRS-IRHT).



Debating with ‘Maistre Allain’ 235

The Belle dame sans mercy was composed by Chartier in 1424 and was his most frequently read work.4 The majority of the poem consists of a debate between a lover and a lady, and this debate format would become a popular literary genre in subsequent decades, with poets frequently drawing inspiration from Chartier’s work.5 The BDSM sparked a specific literary quarrel in which a series of responses to the original poem sought to condemn or defend the lady for her rejection of the lover. Most of these responses were written in the mid-fifteenth century but they continued to be copied in subsequent decades and often circulated together in manuscript recueils;6 they also appeared in printed form well into the first decades of the sixteenth century.7 Although written almost a hundred years after the BDSM, Anne de Graville’s Rondeaux constitute relatively untapped evidence of the continued engagement with Chartier – and especially with the querelle de la BDSM – amongst sixteenth-century writers, including Margaret of Navarre.8 Margaret’s own debate poem, La Coche, as well as the Heptameron, included references to the querelle de la BDSM and the newly discovered connection between Margaret’s mother, Louise of Savoy, and the Rondeaux makes Anne and her work a potential influence for Margaret’s own use of Chartier. Adrian Armstrong has noted that ‘a broad critical consensus has been reached on [the] ideological significance’ of the BDSM and its querelle and that, through the figure of the Belle dame, Chartier was voicing his ‘rejection of courtly discourse, the self-interested

See The Quarrel, p. 7. Florence Bouchet discusses the influence that Chartier had on French literary production in the period 1429–1617, including the writing of debate poetry that falls outside of the querelle de la BDSM corpus; see ‘A Good Carter as Guide: Imitating Alain Chartier (15th Century – Early 17th Century)’, in A Companion to Alain Chartier, ed. by Delogu et al., pp. 324–53. Amongst these works, which often call direct attention to the BDSM through quotation or the use of the ‘clerc embusché’ (hidden cleric), are Martin Le Franc’s Champion des Dames (1442), the anonymous Débat de la Noire et de la Tannée and Jean Vaillant’s Débat des deux soeurs; the former is discussed below. On Chartier and debate poetry see also Cayley, Debate and Dialogue. 6 Despite the claims of Arthur Piaget and other early scholars that the poems were composed immediately following Chartier’s, manuscript evidence suggests that they were composed at a later date; see Joan E. McRae, ‘Piecing the Puzzle: Reconsidering the Dating of the Quarrel of the Belle dame sans mercy and Le Champion des dames’, Medieval Perspectives, 30 (2015), 101–16; and Olivia Robinson, ‘In the Forest of Long Waiting: Charles d’Orléans and the Querelle de la Belle dame sans mercy’, Medium Aevum, 87 (2018), 81–105. 7 On the manuscript tradition of the querelle de la BDSM, see Emma Cayley, ‘Collaborative Communities: The Manuscript Context of Alain Chartier’s Belle Dame sans mercy’, Medium Aevum, 71 (2002), 226–40; Joan E. McRae, ‘Cyclification and the Circulation of the Querelle de la Belle Dame sans mercy’, in Chartier in Europe, ed. by Emma Cayley and Ashby Kinch (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2008), pp. 91–104; and Olivia Robinson, ‘Alain Chartier: The Manuscript and Print Tradition’, in A Companion to Alain Chartier, ed. by Delogu et al., pp. 223–52. 8 Anne features little, for instance, in the two most recent volumes on Chartier: Chartier in Europe, ed. by Cayley and Kinch, and A Companion to Alain Chartier, ed. by Delogu et al. 4 5

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insincerity of which reflects a wider moral crisis in French chivalric masculinity’.9 In this sense, scholars tend to agree that Chartier was not a misogynistic author à la Jean de Meun. In her pro-feminine reading of Chartier’s works, Emma Cayley argues that he makes an intervention in the querelle des femmes, stating that the Belle dame ultimately ‘rejects a deceptive courtly and patriarchal discourse which is seen to snare and subjugate women’.10 However, as the querelle de la BDSM makes clear, medieval writers tapped into an apparent lack of consensus amongst readers over the interpretation of Chartier’s protagonists. It is significant, then, that Anne de Graville did not enter into the pro–contra nature of the quarrel by writing another response to the BDSM but instead retold the original, staying close to its language. In doing so, she further inflected – for a woman reader – a debate that had already put forward a woman’s reasoned resistance to the ‘self-interested insincerity’ of the lover but which some had nevertheless seen as detrimental to women’s reputations.11 Whereas the Rondeaux, as several scholars have noted, can be considered a contribution to the querelle de la BDSM as well as to the wider querelle des femmes, it also, by not refuting Chartier’s work outright, provides evidence of how female writers were able to take these querelles in different, less for/against directions.12 Anne’s decision to rework the BDSM and to present it in a dialogic format links it closely to the social and collaborative nature of poetic production in fifteenth-century France, in which literary debate and exchange was played out in the spaces of manuscript anthologies and collections.13 The work of Taylor, Cayley and Armstrong on the materiality of querelle and coterie manuscripts that circulated at the Blois court and the role of Chartier’s works therein offers a pertinent framework for interpreting the Rondeaux, especially in relation to its dedicatee, Louise of Savoy. In 1488 Louise married Charles d’Angoulême, the son of Marguerite de Rohan and Jean d’Angoulême, bibliophiles and close members of the coterie established by Jean’s older brother, Charles d’Orléans and his wife Marie de Clèves. On the death of her husband in 1496, Louise inherited her in-laws’ books, including Marguerite’s anthology of Chartier texts. Many of Marie’s and Charles’s books also went to the royal library via their son, Louis XII, and it is possible that Anne Adrian Armstrong, The Virtuoso Circle: Competition, Collaboration, and Complexity in Late Medieval French Poetry (Tempe: ACMRS, 2012), p. 2; he notes, however, that ‘the responses and continuations, on the other hand, are less politically engaged’. 10 Emma Cayley, ‘MS Sion Supersaxo 97bis: A Profeminine Reading of Alain Chartier’s Verse’, in Courtly Arts and the Art of Courtliness, ed. by Keith Busby and Chris Kleinhenz (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006), pp. 283–95 (p. 287). 11 Armstrong, The Virtuoso Circle, p. 2. 12 On the work as a contribution to these querelles, see Müller, ‘Lectrice’; Bouchard, ‘The Power of Reputation’ and ‘Les Belles [in]fidèles’; Delogu, ‘A Fair Lady’, p. 472. 13 See Jane H. M. Taylor, The Making of Poetry: Late Medieval French Poetic Anthologies (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007); see also her ‘Courtly Gatherings and Poetic Games: “Coterie” Anthologies in Late Medieval France’, in Book and Text in France, 1400–1600: Poetry on the Page, ed. by Adrian Armstrong and Malcolm Quainton (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), pp. 13–30; Cayley, Debate and Dialogue; and Armstrong, The Virtuoso Circle. 9

Fig. 54. Master of Philippe de Gueldre, Louise of Savoy guiding Francis I, Compas du dauphin, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2285, fol. 5r, c. 1505–06 (© Paris, BnF).

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de Graville’s connections to the court gave her access to these sources. The Visconti guivre and the chantepleure device, motifs favoured by Anne de Graville, were also employed by Marie de Clèves, who adopted the guivre from her mother-in-law, Valentina Visconti, to whom Anne was distantly related. In addition to demonstrating her loyalty to the current monarchy as explored previously, Anne’s use of these devices served to draw a parallel between herself and Marie de Clèves, and to associate her adaptation of Chartier’s work with that of Blois.

The Nantes Frontispiece and the Rondeaux Manuscript

The Nantes frontispiece showing Anne offering her work to Louise survives as a single folio inserted into an early sixteenth-century manuscript of religious texts that has now disappeared from the convent of Saint-Gildas-des-Bois in Nantes.14 It seems likely that this was once the frontispiece of fr. 2253, since an inscription of roman numerals in the manuscript indicates it was in the royal collection when Nicolas Rigault drew up his inventory in 1622.15 Moreover, the size of the Nantes folio matches well with that of fr. 2253, which is lacking a title and which would have been provided by the miniature’s verso along with an anagram of Louise’s name, De los aves joie, thus identifying ‘ma dame’ as Louise.16 The miniature, painted by a close collaborator of Pichore’s workshop, depicts Louise as a widow, in keeping with many other images of her found in works such as the Compas du dauphin (fig. 54).17 She is seated on a large throne, dressed in black, with a rosary hanging from her left wrist. With her right hand, she takes the blue-bound book being offered to her by a kneeling Anne de Graville, dressed not in the simple black of her Beau roman image, but in red, with a black Breton cap (fig. 6). There are multiple devices framing Louise and the scene as a whole. Her throne is placed beneath a black canopy that is covered with the letter L, wings and windmill sails and topped by her coat of arms. Behind the canopy, a crowd of courtiers – both men and women – have gathered See Brisson, noted in the Introduction. A black and white microfilm made in the 1970s is extant at the IRHT. My thanks to Hanno Wijsman for facilitating access to this. The first part of the manuscript contains a shelfmark (264) that locates it in Francis I’s library. Thanks to Mary Beth Winn for confirming this identification. 15 See Rigault’s catalogue in Omont, ii, p. 371 (no. 2165 corresponds to the roman numerals ‘mmclxv’ on the fly leaf ). 16 Fr. 2253 measures 210 x c. 140mm (slight width variations of a few millimetres on some folios) and there is no evidence of cropping, since the prick marks along the outer edges for rulings are visible on many folios. The Nantes folio, which shows evidence of cropping, now measures 185 x 120mm (using the ruler photographed with the manuscript on the microfilm) and so could once have been the right dimensions. The insertion of the Nantes miniature before the prologue in fr. 2253 would also create a blank recto folio which, although perhaps incoherent, is not impossible. Another possibility is that the miniature came between the prologue and the start of the poem. 17 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2285. I am grateful to Elliot Adam, François Avril and Roger Wieck for their opinions on the artist involved in the miniature. 14



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to watch the presentation. Around the edge of the entire miniature, the Savoy cordelière forming figures of eight creates a frame that is intertwined with banderols inscribed with the anagram of Louise’s name used on the title page as well as another, A dieu soie loué. These anagrams do not appear in any other known manuscript connected to Louise but are consistent with Anne de Graville’s frequent use of anagrams for her own name and offered a fitting way for her to flatter her new patron, who was also no stranger to word play.18 Next to Louise, behind Anne, and incorporated within the canopy, is a smaller throne on which a gold crown has been placed on a blue cushion. Along with the symbols on the canopy, the crown provides an indication of the date of the composition and Anne’s reasons for offering this work to the king’s mother. As noted in the previous chapter, in 1521–22, Louise stepped up her claim to the duchy of Bourbon, which was then in the possession of the constable, Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier, husband of Louise’s cousin Suzanne de Bourbon.19 When Charles fled to the emperor’s camp in 1523, his moveable goods were confiscated and Louise took possession of the Moulins library, which included books passed from Charlotte of Savoy to Anne of France, as well as items from the libraries of the duke of Berry and his daughter Marie. Charles’s lands were requisitioned in March 1524, although they were not redistributed until after his death in 1527 and Francis’s return from captivity in Spain.20 Louise was eventually given the title of duchess of Bourbon and ruled the duchy in the name of her son.21 Several books produced for Louise around the time of this dispute, such as Etienne Le Blanc’s Généalogies de Bourbon (c. 1521–22), were designed to legitimise her claim to the duchy and drew on the Bourbon family’s direct connections to the sainted Louis IX and his mother, Blanche of Castile, who, like Louise, had acted as regent for her son.22 Another work by Le Blanc, Les Gestes de Blanche de Castile, a collection of sources that place the emphasis on the benefits of female regency, is well known for its opening miniature of Louise steering the rudder of the kingdom of France (fig. 55).23 In this Louise was the recipient of a number of rondeaux composed on the acrostic of her name, such as the Rondeaux des vertus written by André de la Vigne extant in Écouen, Musée national de la Renaissance, MR 1815. 19 Wilson-Chevalier and Winn (p. 243) note that Louise’s claims to the duchy went back as early as 1516. 20 Wilson-Chevalier and Winn, p. 243. 21 It is difficult to give a precise date for when Louise officially became duchess of Bourbon because of the trials in progress and the delay caused by Francis’s captivity. 22 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5719; the work includes a genealogical summary of the house of Bourbon, a list of territories acquired by the house and a Life of Saint Louis. 23 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5715; the date of this manuscript is a matter of debate; Wilson-Chevalier and Winn see it as clearly related to Louise’s second regency, which began in 1524 during Francis’s absence in Italy and, later, his imprisonment in Spain. Francis gave Louise ‘prérogative extraordinare’ in 1523, but the regency began in October 1524 when Francis left for Italy, and ended with his return to France on 21 March 1526; see David-Chapy, pp. 484–86. 18

Fig. 55. Noël Bellemare, Louise of Savoy at the helm of the state, Etienne Le Blanc, Les Gestes de Blanche de Castile, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5715, fol. Av, c. 1520–26 (© Paris, BnF).



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miniature, Louise is adorned with a pair of multicoloured wings, a device that plays on the pronunciation of the letter L and the word ‘aile’ (wing) in French but which also recalls – perhaps deliberately in the circumstances – the wings of the cerf ailé used by the house of Bourbon and depicted with the connétable in the manuscript of Francis’s entry into Lyon (fig. 51).24 Wings and the letter L are prominent in the Nantes frontispiece, where they are accompanied by another type of ‘aile’, ailes de moulin, or windmill sails, which seem also to refer, in a very transparent way, to Louise’s claim to, if not acquisition of, the duchy of Bourbon, the seat of which was the castle at Moulins. Before the discovery of the Nantes miniature, the use of ailes de moulin (albeit in a different format) was found in only one other manuscript, a copy of Saint-Gelais’s Heroides owned by Louise (fig. 56).25 The manuscript, illuminated by Pichore, has traditionally been dated to c. 1505–15, before Louise’s claims to the Bourbon succession were underway, but it evidently underwent some changes in the border painting.26 Wilson-Chevalier and Winn have suggested that the manuscript originally belonged to Anne of France and that the ailes de moulin, as well as the wings and the letter Ls, were added by Louise to indicate her appropriation of books from the Bourbon library.27 Whether or not this is the case, the windmill sails are linked to Louise, and their appearance in the Rondeaux frontispiece suggests a date for the work of 1523 at the earliest. If the empty throne refers to the death of Claude or Louise’s regency, then a date after July 1524 and before March 1526, when her regency ended, would be even more accurate. The Rondeaux’s prologue shares similarities with that of the Beau roman. Both consist of eighteen decasyllabic lines that rhyme aabb, both praise the qualities of the woman being offered the work, and emphasise its potential faults and the audacity of the writer in presenting it. Some scholars have previously pointed to the dynamics between the two works based on the assumption that the Rondeaux were written before the Beau roman and that both were intended for Claude.28 In fact, the dating of the manuscript to a period that coincides both with Claude’s death as well as Louise’s regency/acquisition of the duchy of Bourbon raises the possibility that Claude was originally the intended recipient but that her death led Anne to redirect her work. The connections to the Blois coterie and Wilson-Chevalier and Winn, p. 242. Paris, BnF, ms fr. 873; that the manuscript was in Louise’s possession is indicated by the shelfmark of Francis I’s library; see Trésors royaux: La Bibliothèque de François Ier ed. by Maxence Hermant and Marie-Pierre Laffitte (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2015), no. 22. 26 Hermant notes that Louise’s emblems were added ‘après coup’ in France 1500: Entre moyen âge et renaissance, ed. by Geneviève Bresc-Bautier, Thierry Crépin-Leblond and Élisabeth Taburet-Delahaye (Paris: RNM, 2010), no. 87. 27 Wilson-Chevalier and Winn, p. 242. No manuscript in the Moulins inventory appears, however, to correspond to a copy of Saint-Gelais’s work. 28 See, for instance, Delogu (‘Voiceover, p. 257), who suggests that ‘[t]he relevant intertext to which the dedicatory poem of de Graville’s Teseida most insistently refers is neither Boccaccio’s original nor the French Livre de Thezeo, but the dedicatory poem of her own Rondeaux’. 24 25

Fig. 56. Jean Pichore, Penelope and devices of Louise of Savoy, Octovien de SaintGelais, Les XXI espistres d’Ovide (Heroides), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 873, fol. 1v, c. 1505–15 (© Paris, BnF).



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to Marie de Clèves that emerge in the Rondeaux seem especially pertinent to Claude, who after all was the granddaughter of Marie. Moreover, the work complemented the Beau roman in its evident relation to literary querelles, courtly love and men’s and women’s behaviour and speech that seem to posit Claude, as a married woman and queen, more easily as reader than Louise. Louise, who has traditionally been seen as favouring religious or moral treatises, had eschewed remarriage and dedicated herself to the promotion and support of Francis. Yet, with the evidence that the work was offered to Louise, re-reading the Rondeaux’s prologue in relation to the Nantes frontispiece casts a different light on the opening lines: A ma dame En maistre Allain de ses oeuvres j’ay quis A mon juger le plus fin et exquis Dont fais present a vous seulle, ma dame, Qui emportez l’honneur, le loz et fame Que aux ignorans pardonnez les deffaulx. Parquoy me tien excusée si je faulx, Aiant ozé vous presenter ceste œuvre Duquel l’escript ma sottize descœuvre. Mais je ne puis veoir l’imperfection Et men clost l’œuil ma dame affection Qui si tresfort le mien sens esblouyt Que par dessus congnoissance jouyt. Si vous supply, ma dame, recepvoir L’affection et vous plaise la veoir, Car sur ma foy elle est avecques vous Pour vous servir par sus toutes et tous Sans y chercher fors temps espace et lieu, Car en vous gist mon espoir apres dieu.29 To my lady Of Master Alain’s works I have sought out The finest and most exquisite in my opinion Of which I make a gift to you alone, my lady, Who prevails in honour, standing and reputation Who pardons the ignorant of their mistakes. Because of which I hold myself excused if I err, Having dared to present to you this work The writing of which will reveal my silliness. But I cannot see the faults Fr. 2253, fol. 2v.

29

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And, my lady, affection closes my eye to it, Which dazzles my senses so strongly That it [the affection] rejoices above knowledge. Thus I entreat you my lady to accept The affection and may it please you to see it Because by my faith it is with you To serve you above all women and all men Without seeking anything save time, space and place, Because in you lies my hope after God.

In the Beau roman prologue, Anne stated that she was dedicating herself entirely to Claude – to her ‘souveraine dame’. Here, the fact that she wants to serve Louise – ‘ma dame’ – above all other women and men (sus toutes et tous) and that she ends by saying that this woman is the source of her hope after God, implies that there is no higher person on earth to whom she could turn, a situation that must have been caused by the queen’s death in 1524.30 The word mercy is not used explicitly in the prologue but Anne’s plea to serve Louise, who here has the power, in the absence of the queen, to pardon the ignorant and to recognise or recompense Anne’s efforts and affection, may have evoked this meaning of the word for the reader. The understanding of mercy implied here is thus juxtaposed with the mercy that the Belle dame was seen to lack in the BDSM, that of sexually recompensing a lover, and serves to reinforce Louise’s position as the most powerful woman at court. The Nantes presentation miniature reiterates this reading, where the vast group of male and female courtiers who surround Anne and Louise contrasts with the more intimate, women-only, dedication scenes discussed in the Introduction. Louise here wields public power as part of her second regency: she is not simply the most powerful woman at court, but the most powerful person. The throne and crown positioned under Louise’s protective canopy are symbolic of the kingdom of France being under her jurisdiction, with Louise now standing in for both monarchs, the deceased queen and the temporarily absent Francis. The Rondeaux’s prologue is also a carefully crafted statement about Anne’s own poetic skill as well as her choice of text. Anne shows her familiarity with, and respect for, Chartier by referring to him as ‘maistre Allain’ and to his works in the plural and she highlights her ability to exercise judgement in deliberately seeking out the best of them to reinterpret.31 The opening words of the prologue are thus the first indication of the dialogue between Anne and this canonical male author that plays out in the subsequent pages through the mise-en-page. This mise-en-page is fundamental to an understanding of Anne’s work on a number of levels. Delogu for instance has suggested that the relegating of Chartier’s work Although Louise was known as the ‘reine-mère’ and wielded an inordinate amount of political and cultural influence at court, she was never queen: Claude, as long as she was alive, was, at least officially, the highest-ranking woman to whom a writer might turn, and the one who could accord mercy in the sense of granting grace or favour through goodwill or benevolence. 31 On the use of ‘maistre Allain’, see Bouchet, p. 324. 30



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to the margins is an important factor in the work as a prise de position in the querelle des femmes.32 The parallel layout also encourages a sense of textual dialogue and interaction that resonates with the organisational strategies found in works and manuscripts of the querelle de la BDSM as well as in those of the Blois poetic circle. The following section outlines the background to the querelle de la BDSM and examines Chartier’s relationship to the Blois coterie in order to provide the context for a more detailed analysis of Anne’s work, including her sources and this strategic mise-en-page.

Alain Chartier, the Querelle de la BDSM and the Blois Coterie

Alain Chartier was born in the late fourteenth century, a near-contemporary of Christine de Pizan, whose works some scholars believe he knew.33 However, whereas Christine’s works date primarily from the early decades of the 1400s and were often aimed at those in the entourage of Charles VI, the majority of Chartier’s works were composed in the troubled period of the 1420s, by which time Christine’s voice had gone all but quiet.34 Chartier was first in the service of Yolande of Aragon, duchess of Anjou, whose daughter Marie was engaged to the dauphin, the future Charles VII. The dauphin had been disinherited by his father, Charles VI, in the Treaty of Troyes in 1420 and Chartier accompanied him during this unsettled time, acting as his secretary and notary and participating in important diplomatic missions.35 He produced a varied output of poems, prose, letters and treatises, in both Latin and French, which show that he was ‘anxious to make sense of the turbulent times and eager to reestablish the dignity and peace of France’.36 The BDSM consists of 100 huitains (eight-line) verses, the first twenty-four and last four of which are in the voice of the narrator (l’Acteur), who is mourning the death of his lady. During an evening party, he overhears a conversation between a lover (l’Amant) and a lady (la Belle dame), in which the lover tries to persuade the lady to agree to his requests but she remains steadfast in her refusal. It is the debate between these two protagonists that constitutes the central part of the poem, with the huitains alternating between the voice of the lady and the voice of the lover. As McRae notes, the lady ‘refuses to believe the sincerity of his words and responds to his appeals brusquely, frankly and sceptically, calling the lover to return to reason’.37 The lover finally retreats and the narrator concludes See Delogu, ‘A Fair Lady’, p. 472. James Laidlaw states that ‘Chartier makes no reference to Christine but her influence on him is beyond doubt’; see his ‘Alain Chartier: A Historical and Biographical Overview’, in A Companion to Alain Chartier, ed. by Delogu et al., pp. 15–32 (p. 21). 34 Christine’s last work, the Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc, was written in 1429 and she appears to have died shortly afterwards. Chartier’s last work was also about la pucelle and he died at around the same time. 35 The Quarrel, p. 4. 36 The Quarrel, p. 4. 37 The Quarrel, p. 7. 32 33

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the tale by announcing that, after tearing out all of his hair, he died of grief. The narrator then ‘appeals to lovers to eschew the company of fickle lovers and slanderers, and to the ladies not to be without pity, as was this woman’, finally ‘reminding his readers of the laws of a courtesy menaced by the degradation of morals and manners’.38 The first cycle of responses to the BDSM has traditionally been dated to shortly after the poem’s composition and came in the form of two prose letters informing Chartier of a complaint about his poem, and insisting that he come to court ‘to justify his poem and his pitiless lady’.39 The first of these letters (la requeste) ‘purports to be from an unspecified group of men to a group of their lady friends, and attacks Chartier’s poem in no uncertain terms’, trying to dissuade them from reading it ‘lest it affect their own capacities for mercy’.40 The second letter (la lettre) was supposedly written by these same ladies, named Katherine, Jeanne and Marie, who ‘apparently side with Chartier and his fictional creation, forwarding on la requeste to him so that he can rebut its charges’.41 Chartier’s response, the Excusacion Maistre Allain, has been dated to 1425. A further letter, less frequently copied, the Response des dames, indicates that the ladies were not happy with his apology, and they warn him that he will be condemned further.42 These texts were followed by a second cycle of poems in which the Belle dame was put on trial (Baudet Herenc’s Parlement d’amours, written some time before 1440), acquitted (anonymous, La Dame lealle en amours, post-dates Herenc’s text) and sentenced to death (Achille Caulier’s Cruelle Femme en Amours, post-dates the Dame lealle en amours); a further anonymous work, Les Erreurs du jugement de la belle dame sans mercy, was a posthumous appeal mounted on behalf of the Belle dame by her relatives which is ultimately unsuccessful.43 As McRae has noted, each of these poems ‘is dependent on its antecedent for intertextual quotes and references’, with a lack of closure in the poems’ structures encouraging the continuation.44 Following these four sequels proper, Arthur Piaget catalogued a third cycle of some fourteen other texts which ‘rewrite Chartier’s poem, correcting either character or consequence of the amorous debate between the lover and lady’.45 These continuations all The Quarrel, p. 7. On the dating of the BDSM to 1424 and a summary of the texts of the querelle that ensued, see McRae’s Introduction to The Quarrel. The identity of the three ladies who wrote the letter is not clear and scholars are somewhat divided on their authorship, with some suggesting that they were written by Chartier himself. 40 Robinson, ‘In the Forest of Long Waiting’, p. 82. 41 Robinson, ‘In the Forest of Long Waiting’, p. 82. 42 This letter survives in only four manuscript witnesses, far fewer than many of the other texts. See The Quarrel, p. 9. 43 The exact dating of these works is not certain; see The Quarrel, pp. 15–17. 44 McRae, ‘Cyclification’, p. 93. The lack of closure begins with Chartier’s original poem, which critics have argued he left deliberately ambiguous: see, for instance, the discussion below regarding the lover’s demise. 45 The Quarrel, p. 11. McRae follows Arthur Piaget’s classification of the texts that participate in the querelle proper, as opposed to those he termed ‘imitations’; see Piaget, ‘La Belle Dame sans mercy et ses imitations’, Romania, 30 (1901) 22–48; 317–51; 31 (1902), 315–49; 33 (1904), 38 39



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broadly date from the middle of the fifteenth century and were frequently copied together, sometimes with additional non-querelle works, allowing for multiple interactions and ‘play’ between the texts as Cayley has shown.46 Late medieval readers thus consistently encountered the BDSM as part of the querelle, reading it alongside, and in dialogue with, the texts that it generated. Of the forty-odd querelle de la BDSM manuscripts that are extant, several of them are related to the poetic coterie at Blois of the 1460s, for whom Chartier, and the BDSM, were an important source of inspiration and debate.47 The Blois coterie was established around 1440 by the duke and duchess of Orléans following the duke’s release from captivity in England after the battle of Agincourt.48 Poets regularly sojourned at the court, participating in literary tournaments such as the one organised in 1455, and contributing to poetic exchanges by composing verses on established themes or refrains that were collected in coterie manuscripts.49 A famous example is the duke’s Livre d’Amis, a manuscript primarily of his own works, originally copied for him in England during his imprisonment, to which Charles and his friends later added further works, so that it became a repository of the coterie’s poetic output.50 Marie de Clèves had her own copy of Charles’s manuscript made which included other poems composed at Blois, but not found in the duke’s book.51 The duchess was a poet in her own right and, although only two rondeaux are definitively attributed to her, their themes, as well as the fact that several other works were dedicated to her, indicate her important role within the literary coterie.52 She also owned a small personal library that

46



47





48



49 50



51 52

179–208; 34 (1905), 375–428, 559–97, 597–602. See also the discussion and synopsis of the querelle cycle of works in Cayley, Debate and Dialogue, pp. 137–38. Cayley, ‘Collaborative Communities’, and Debate and Dialogue, esp. chapter 4; see also Armstrong, The Virtuoso Circle, esp. chapter 1. Opinion on the number of surviving querelle de la BDSM manuscripts varies between scholars according to the texts involved. McRae notes that the BDSM is ‘extant in forty-four manuscripts, of which thirty-one contain the letters and the Excuse. The sequel poems are contained in twenty-four manuscripts collectively; in nineteen of these twenty-four the “Belle dame” is also copied’; see The Quarrel, p. 21. On the couple’s library, see Pierre Champion, ‘Un Liber amicorum du XVe siècle’, Revue des bibliothèques, 20 (1910), 320–36. The Quarrel, p. 32, n. 47; and Taylor, The Making of Poetry, p. 192, n. 94. Fr. 25458; for a Middle French/Modern French edition see Le Livre d’Amis. Poésies à la cour de Blois (1440–1465), ed. by Virginie Minet-Mahy and Jean-Claude Mühlethaler (Paris: Champion, 2010); for an English/French edition, see Poetry of Charles d’Orléans and His Circle. A Critical Edition of BnF Ms. Fr. 25458, Charles d’Orléans’s Personal Manuscript, ed. by John Fox and MaryJo Arn, with English translation by R. Barton Palmer (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), hereafter Poetry of Charles d’Orléans; and Mary-Jo Arn, The Poet’s Notebook. The Personal Manuscript of Charles d’Orléans (Paris, BnF MS fr. 25458) (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008). Carpentras 375; see the discussion of this manuscript in Taylor, The Making of Poetry. Many of the poems in the duke’s manuscript are anonymous and have been assumed to have been composed by Charles, but the possibility remains that more of Marie’s work survived that simply cannot be identified.

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points to an interest in the querelle des femmes and romance literature. Her manuscripts included Antoine de La Sale’s Petit Jehan de Saintré, the Epistres sur le Roman de la rose by Christine de Pizan, the Livre du chevalier de la Tour Landry, and a copy of the works of Alain Chartier, including the BDSM.53 She probably had access to further works by Christine, since the Livre du corps de policie, the Livre de Prudence and the Chemin de long estude as well as another copy of the Epistres featured amongst her husband’s books.54 Her Chartier manuscript, like others in her collection, was decorated with her coat of arms and her motto Rien ne m’est plus (or its abbreviation RNMP); a crudely drawn pair of chantepleures are intertwined with the letters M and C at the end of the manuscript.55 The duke’s brother, Jean, count of Angoulême, and his wife, Marguerite de Rohan, the future parents-in-law of Louise of Savoy, were closely associated with the Blois circle. The brothers shared and exchanged books and Marguerite had her own manuscript of Chartier’s works that was copied, in part, from Marie’s.56 The ways in which late medieval poetry, especially the works of Chartier and those composed at Blois, was collected and presented within French manuscripts reveal a network of meanings between readers and poets. Taylor argues that poetic anthologies or coterie manuscripts bear witness to cultural conversations and to the ‘socioliterary dynamics of particular texts’.57 Such manuscripts also provided a stimulus for further literary activity and debate, and offered ‘a discriminating reader-poet the opportunity to recognise, and salute, stylistic expertise and control of form’.58 Evidence for this literary activity is found not only in the poems copied into coterie manuscripts but also in the signatures and mottos which appear on the flyleaves of some of the volumes, tangible traces of the now lost discussions and debates that occurred around them. Marie de Clèves’s copy of Chartier’s works is one such example, and contains the signatures of Marie’s own son, the future Louis XII, René d’Anjou, Pierre de Bourbon (husband of Anne of France) and her favourite ladies-in-waiting, providing ‘evidence of an active reading of the well-thumbed

For a list of her manuscripts, see Champion, La Librairie, pp. 115–17. For a more recent discussion of Marie and her manuscripts, see Catherine Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves, poétesse et mécène du XVe siècle’, Le Moyen Français, 48 (2001) pp. 57–76. 54 See Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 58; n. 9 and Champion, La Librairie, pp. 31–32. Charles’s copy of Epistres sur le Roman de la rose and the Livre de Prudence belonged to his mother, Valentina Visconti; the Livre du corps de policie is now Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1197 and is one of the manuscripts that passed to Jean d’Angoulême, Louise’s father-in-law, meaning that she may have inherited it. 55 Fr. 20026, fol. 177r; Hablot has suggested that the interlaced H&M letters in the border of fol. 1r might be a reference to Marie’s parents or an invocation to the Virgin in German (Heilige Maria); see https://devise.saprat.fr/embleme/lm-1 [accessed 1 September 2022]. 56 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2230; see Trésors royaux, ed. by Hermant and Laffitte, p. 37. 57 Taylor, The Making of Poetry, p. 8. 58 Taylor, The Making of Poetry, p. 9 53



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texts therein’.59 Marguerite de Rohan’s copy of Chartier was similarly inscribed by many of the same people as well as by Marie herself, who added both her motto ‘Riens ne m’est plus’ and her name ‘Cleves’. Although Chartier had died in 1430, while Charles and his brother Jean were imprisoned in England, Daniel Poirion has argued that Chartier was an important influence on Charles’s poetic output.60 The duke had a number of Chartier’s poems copied, alongside some of his own, in another manuscript made during his captivity.61 Charles’s chanson LIII, ‘Fault il aveugle devenir?’ (Is it necessary to go blind?) contains the line ‘les yeulx si sont fait pour server’ (the eyes are made to serve), and Bouchet suggests that the work might have been intended as an allusion or response to the Belle dame’s words in huitain 30 (v. 238), ‘Les yeulx sont faiz pour regarder’ (eyes were made for looking).62 Recently, Olivia Robinson has gone so far as to argue that the earliest responses to Chartier’s BDSM, the series of letters from women at court calling on Chartier to defend his text, were fictions that actually originated within the ‘social and poetic networks’ of Charles’s court in the 1440s.63 She suggests, for instance, that the reference to ‘la gaste forest de Longue Actente’ (the ravaged Forest of Long Waiting) in la requeste can be linked to the line ‘en la forest de Longue Actente’ that is a repeated refrain in rondels and ballades by Charles, Marie and their entourage.64 Mary Beth Winn has argued that the court at Blois in the 1460s and its lively literary scene were of importance to Louise.65 In Louise’s copy of the Heroides illuminated by Testard, the line ‘va t’en mon amoureux desir’ appears in the portrait of Paris (fig. 57). This line is strikingly close to Charles’s chanson ‘Va tost mon amoureux desir’, and was intended, Winn suggests, to emphasise Louise’s connection to the Orléans-Angoulême family. The Taylor, ‘Courtly Gatherings’, p. 15. See also Joan E. McRae, ‘A Community of Readers: The Quarrel of the Belle Dame sans mercy’, in A Companion to Alain Chartier, ed. by Delogu et al., pp. 200–22 (p. 208) and Champion, ‘Un Liber amicorum’. 60 Daniel Poirion, Le Poète et le prince: l’évolution du lyrisme courtois de Guillaume de Machaut à Charles d’Orléans (Grenoble: Publications de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences humaines de Grenoble, 1965), pp. 260–263. 61 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 19139; see Taylor, The Making of Poetry, pp. 100–01 and Jean-Claude Mühlethaler, ‘Jeux de pistes: reflets d’auteurs dans le manuscrit français 19139: Charles d’Orléans, Alain Chartier, Jean de Garencières … et les autres’, Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes, 36 (2018), 257–78. 62 Bouchet, p. 234. French and English text from chanson LIII taken from Poetry of Charles d’Orléans, pp. 382–83. 63 Robinson, ‘In the Forest of Long Waiting’; for an alternative reading which interprets the letters as being the product of Chartier’s immediate circle, see Sylvie Lefèvre, ‘Le Cachet de la poste faisant foi: la Belle Dame sans mercy et sa datation au miroir des lettres de reception et de leur lecture’, Romania, 131 (2013), 83–99. 64 Robinson, ‘In the Forest of Long Waiting’, p. 87. 65 Mary Beth Winn, ‘Chanson in Miniature: “Va t’en mon amoureux desir”, Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 65 (2015), 151–65. 59

Fig. 57. Robinet Testard, Paris writing to Helen, Octovien de Saint-Gelais, Les XXI espistres d’Ovide (Heroides), Paris, BnF, ms fr. 875, fol. 83r, c. 1497 (© Paris, BnF).



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presence of manuscripts belonging to her in-laws and to Charles and Marie in the royal library further accentuated this connection by providing a tangible link to the past. The Heroides was closely associated with the querelle des femmes and was popular amongst female readers, including Louise, perhaps for the way in which it put forward the voices of loyal (if abandoned and ultimately dead) women. Yet, this and other male-authored works written in women’s voices or which sought to defend the female sex could result in a kind of ventriloquism, making them vehicles for the expression of men’s (or masculine) points of view.66 If one of Anne’s reasons for choosing to rewrite the BDSM was the possibility it afforded to allude to Louise’s relationship to Blois, the opportunity, as a female poet, to reclaim the voice of the Belle dame who had been ventriloquised multiple times and to present it to a female reader clearly interested in women’s laments, may well have been another.

Anne’s Sources for the Rondeaux

Given the context in which the BDSM circulated, Anne de Graville must have read Chartier’s work alongside other works of the querelle: the mise-en-page of fr. 2253 in itself shows her familiarity with the idea of layers of debate. The identification of the sources(s) of the marginal verses reproduced in fr. 2253 has, however, never been attempted, even by Chartier scholars. In his edition of the Rondeaux published in 1897, Wahlund noted that the version of the BDSM found in fr. 2253 did not correspond to any known copy of Chartier’s work.67 Proposing that she had drawn on several sources, he replaced this marginal text with that of a printed version published c. 1489–90, providing additional readings and comparisons with another printed edition from c. 1500.68 His aim was to bring the text in the margins closer to the version(s) that Anne had consulted, although in doing so he obscured not only her source, but also her specific response to it. Furthermore, he corrected the presentation, on folio 12v, in which two of Chartier’s verses appear alongside one of Anne’s rondeaux: in the manuscript, this results in the subsequent marginal verses being one huitain ahead of Anne’s until the final rondeau, which has no marginal text. Wahlund may have perceived this as a scribal error, and no previous studies have commented on the effect of this décalage. However, as McRae has recently shown, this shift further contributes to the dialogue-debate aspect of the poem, and was likely For further discussion, see Swift, pp. 179–86, where she notes that presumption on speaking on behalf of women was a matter of debate in the sixteenth century as much as it can be in the twenty-first. In the case of Champier and his Nef des dames vertueuses, rejected by Anne of France, his position was at odds with a woman ‘who did not hesitate to take up the pen herself, and who expected her daughter to speak out and act with a similarly assertive spirit’ (p. 181). Yet Swift also notes that the tendency to dismiss ‘transvestite ventriloquism’ and to see only biological women (namely Christine) as sincerely pro-feminine, can restrict our readings of male authors as well as limit scholarship on Christine (pp. 184–85 and notes). 67 La belle dame, pp. 3–4. 68 The printed edition he used is Paris, BnF, Réserve Ye 838. The other printed edition to which he refers and takes readings is Paris, BnF, Rothschild 443. 66

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another strategy employed by Anne in signalling her poem’s contribution to the querelle de la BDSM and to debate poetry more generally.69 Obscure editorial decisions aside, Wahlund was not far wrong in assuming that Anne was drawing on more than one source, a practice that would be entirely in keeping with her interest in comparative readings, and in adapting, correcting or improving on the texts with which she engaged. A number of manuscripts present themselves as possible sources for the version copied in fr. 2253, in particular the volume now in St Petersburg noted in Chapter 1 which was likely in Louis de Graville’s possession. This manuscript contains the first cycle of the querelle de la BDSM, including Chartier’s original text, the letters from the ladies, the Excusacion, Herenc’s Parlement d’amours, the anonymous La Dame lealle en amours and Caulier’s Cruelle femme.70 It was probably copied in the mid-fifteenth century in north-eastern France and, although not decorated, it appears to be a relatively high-quality manuscript, written on parchment with coloured initials.71 Like the inscribed manuscripts of the Blois coterie discussed below, the St Petersburg manuscript contains a series of signatures, mottos, essaies de plume and poetic compositions on its flyleaves which hint at the social interaction and literary creativity that took place around Chartier’s BDSM as well as its popularity beyond Blois. Three of the signatures relate to the circle of Anne’s father, Louis de Graville.72 There is the signature, twice, of Louis’s nephew, François Martel de Basqueville or Bacqueville (d. after 1492), whose own nephew Charles Martel would marry Anne’s daughter Louise;73 the motto ‘Au besoing. Maulevrier’, which the Jonas database identifies as Jacques de Brézé (1440–94), grand sénéchal of Normandy and probable author of the encomium to Anne of France discussed in Chapter 4;74 and Some of the findings presented here are the result of extended discussion and collaboration with Joan E. McRae, who undertook the painstaking work of analysing the marginal text in fr. 2253 and comparing it with known versions of Chartier’s work. 70 NLR, fr. fol. v. XIV. 7. For a description and list of contents, see Olivier Delsaux, ‘Découverte d’un témoin inédit d’une ballade de François Villon (Testament, vv. 1422–1456). Le manuscrit St-Pétersbourg, Bibliothèque nationale de Russie, fr. fol. v. XIV.7’, Le Moyen français, 73 (2013), 3–24. The manuscript must date from after the composition of Caulier’s Cruelle femme (c. 1441) and before the death in 1477 of Louis de Beaumont-Bressuire, whose signature it contains. I am grateful to Natalia Elaguina at the NLR for supplying colour photos of the binding and flyleaves. I have otherwise been able to consult only the poor-quality microfilm held at the IRHT. 71 See McRae, ‘Anne de Graville’, who notes the Northern French forms. 72 Not all the signatures have been identified; for further details and transcriptions, see Delsaux. 73 These identifications are taken from the IRHT Jonas database. François Martel de Basqueville or de Bacqueville (Delsaux (p. 8) reads ‘Vacqueville’): signature on the pastedown and on fol. 152v. He was the son of Renée Malet de Graville (born c. 1453 or earlier), half-sister of Louis de Graville by his father’s second wife, Marie Montberon, and Jean Martel de Bacqueville. 74 Delsaux does not identify Jacques de Brézé but dates the inscription (fol. 1r) to the sixteenth century: Jacques de Brézé, was count of Maulevrier in Normandy. He killed his wife, Charlotte de Valois, and her lover in 1477 after surprising them in flagrante delicto. He was imprisoned and his lands confiscated and given to his son, Louis de Brézé (who would marry Diane de Poitiers), although he obtained a pardon from Charles VIII in 1486. 69



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the motto ‘Foys sans Esperance. Loys de Beaumont’, probably that of Louis de Beaumont-Bressuire (d. 1477), who played an important role in the Hundred Years’ War and who later served Louis XI.75 The manuscript’s contents also provided the impetus for other compositions, several of them on the theme of love. There are two short poems in a late fifteenth-century hand on the back paste-down, one a quatrain beginning ‘Prenez le mon cueur, il s’en vole’ (written out twice) and three other quatrains beginning ‘Desir madamme / de belle amer’.76 McRae has shown that the Rondeaux manuscript ‘generally adheres to the readings of the St Petersburg manuscript’, with many of the stanzas being copied identically with no alterations.77 However, some of the variants point to links with other copies of the BDSM, including those of Marie de Clèves and/or Marguerite de Rohan and it is evident that Anne also altered her sources to create new readings much like her interventions in the Mutacion de Fortune. For instance, both fr. 2253 and the St Petersburg manuscript share a reading found in another manuscript, Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1131, also localised to the north-east of France: ‘Quant meschans mechant parler usent’.78 Although this reading was rejected as impossible by James Laidlaw,79 a very similar reading is found in Marie de Clèves’s manuscript (fr. 20026) and in the manuscript made for Marguerite de Rohan (fr. 2230) from which it was copied: ‘Quant meschans meschant parler eussent’. McRae also notes that the reading at verse 720, ‘Il ne doit plus estre creüz’, which is common to most manuscripts, has been altered in Anne’s by the addition of ‘toujours’ to read ‘Ne doibt pas estre tousiours creu’. A similar reading, ‘Il ne peust estre jamaiz creuz’ is found in Marie de Clèves’s manuscript, which for McRae ‘might have been the source of this alteration’, as well as in Marguerite de Rohan’s copy.80 Perhaps Anne had direct access to these copies through her courtly connections: Champion suggested that Marie’s Chartier manuscript may have gone to Blois, equating it with the entry ‘Le livre qui s’appelle les Quatre Dames, en rime et en parchemin’ (the book which is called the Four Ladies, in rhyme and on parchment), in the 1518 inventory, although this is far from certain.81 Marguerite’s manuscript, however, contains an inventory number NLR, fr. fol. v. XIV. 7, fol. 1r; identification given in Jonas. Delsaux (p. 8), however, suggests the signature belongs to his son, Louis de Beaumont, archbishop of Paris, who died in 1492. 76 These are edited, along with the other additions, in Delsaux’s Appendix, p. 14ff. 77 McRae, ‘Anne de Graville’, p. 202 for other examples. 78 BDSM, huitain 92 (verse 729); Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1131 (Laidlaw’s MS Pc) was also the base text for the edition, Alain Chartier, Le Cycle de La Belle Dame sans Mercy. Une anthologie poétique du XVe siècle (BNF MS FR. 1131), ed. by David F. Hult and Joan E. McRae (Paris: Champion, 2003). The manuscript does not, however, contain any indication of its previous owners. 79 McRae, ‘Anne de Graville’, p. 203. 80 McRae, ‘Anne de Graville’, p. 204, n. 38. 81 Champion ‘Un Liber amicorum’, p. 323 and n. 7; see Omont, i, p. 47 no. 305. The manuscript bears the title Le Livre des quatres dames one on of the flyleaves. If the manuscript did enter Blois, it must have left there at some point because it was in the library of Saint-Germain-des-Prés by the eighteenth century, whence it passed to the BnF. If Anne had also consulted Marie’s manuscript, she would have seen the chantepleure motif and the riens ne m’est plus device. 75

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corresponding to Rigault’s 1622 inventory of the royal library, meaning that Louise, who had inherited it directly, could more have easily put this copy at Anne’s disposal.82 It seems likely that Anne also consulted another copy of the BDSM, that belonging to Jacques Thiboust, secretaire to Margaret of Navarre.83 As noted in Chapter 4, Thiboust and his wife, Jeanne de la Font, also a poet, presided over a literary salon in Margaret’s duchy of Berry that has been likened to that of Blois. This salon attracted poets like François Habert and Clément Marot, who was also closely associated with both Claude and Margaret.84 Anne’s connections in the region gave her ample reason and opportunity to participate in this elite literary circle. Jacques’s manuscript is one of the latest, and most complete, manuscript copies of the querelle de la BDSM and demonstrates the enduring appeal of Chartier’s work towards the turn of the sixteenth century.85 Certain readings in fr. 2253 and in Jacques’s manuscript indicate that a discussion might have taken place between the two bibliophiles: for instance, v. 462 in huitain 58 of the BDSM in Anne’s manuscript ‘is rewritten to eliminate the hiatus in the final rhyming word seen in the St Petersburg and other manuscripts: “Ung cuer folement deceü” to Anne’s “Ung cueur trop follement deceu”’.86 Thiboust also corrects this verse – twice – in his manuscript, as McRae notes, ‘first adding “trop” as Anne did, and then canceling “trop” and adding “qui est” in superscript: “Un cueur qui est follement deceu”.’87 Anne then also had to add another syllable to the last line of this huitain (v. 464) to make the rhyme match with ‘deceu’, ‘altering her text from the general manuscript lesson “Et esbranlé mieulx que cheü” to “Et esbranler myeulx que estre cheu”’. A similar change is also found in Thiboust’s manuscript, which has been altered to read: ‘Et esbranlé que d’estre cheu’.88 Other annotations in Thiboust’s manuscript suggest more generally that the text was discussed and debated within his literary salon much as it had been at Blois. Numerous passages are marked with asterisks as well as with Thiboust’s own opinions on, and corrections to, the text. On folio 39v, for instance, he has written, ‘Explicit, Nous serons contre la belle dame sans mercy’ (We will be against the Belle dame). In huitain 30, the line (v. 238) ‘Les yeulx sont faiz pour regarder’, is marked with an asterisk and the last line has been altered from ‘Qui y sent mal s’en doit garder’ to ‘Qui mal y scait s’en doit garder’, which also corresponds to the lesson in fr. 2253.89 In the corresponding rondeau, Anne kept the same line and simply increased the syllable count Fr. 2230 has a roman numeral shelfmark ‘mmcccx’, which corresponds to the ‘loy de paix et d’amitié, debat de bien et de mal d’amours, et jugement d’amours, en vers françois’, listed in Omont, ii, p. 377, no. 2310. 83 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 924, copied in the late fifteenth century; see also the note on Jacques’ Liber amicorum in Chapter 1, n. 123. 84 See McRae, ‘Anne de Graville’, pp. 198–99, and Müller, ‘Translatrices’, p. 189. 85 For a description of the manuscript, see The Quarrel, pp. 35–37. 86 McRae, ‘Anne de Graville’, pp. 203–04. 87 McRae, ‘Anne de Graville’, pp. 203–04. 88 McRae, ‘Anne de Graville’, p. 204. 89 ‘Qui y sent mal s’en doit garder’ is the accepted reading and is found in Marie’s manuscript. 82



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by adding ‘contregarder’. The line ‘Si gracïeuse maladie / ne met gaires de gens a mort’ in huitain 34 has been altered in Thiboust’s manuscript to read ‘Si Amoureuse maladie’: it is this line (‘Si gracieuse …’) that is cited by Marguerite de Navarre’s Parlemente in the Hepatameron, as discussed later. Anne’s access to one or more copies of the BDSM not only provided her with the text – in the sense of words – from which to work but also with examples of the ways in which poetry was composed, copied, circulated and debated, and of how variants were at play in the interpretation, and disseminated versions, of a text. The St Petersburg manuscript which served as her main source was evidently circulating amongst a group of elite readers (and writers) whilst it was in Louis’s possession: Anne may even have taken part in this circulation and the discussions it elicited, or perhaps penned some of the verses on the flyleaves. Her knowledge of Marguerite and/or Marie’s copies of the BDSM and of Jacques Thiboust’s manuscript of the whole querelle gave her further licence and encouragement to adjust the text that she included in the margins of fr. 2253. Building on this exploration of Anne’s familiarity with the querelle de la BDSM and its manuscript culture, the following section turns to the mise-en-page of the Rondeaux manuscript and considers how this familiarity can be discerned in the changes she made to her remaniement in terms of structure and form.

Strategies of Form, Presentation and Debate in BnF, ms fr. 2253

Existing studies of Anne’s Rondeaux have noted the importance of her decision to ‘translate’ Chartier’s huitains into fifteen-line decasyllabic rondeaux. The rondeau was a lyric form popular throughout the later middle ages that had its origins in musical settings and which became a vehicle for courtly love poetry.90 For Müller, Anne’s choice of a form associated with music, circularity and courtly love gave her more room for expression and amplificatio than the more neutral and linear octosyllabic huitain employed by Chartier and the form used for much debate poetry.91 As Delogu points out, the circular form of the rondeau ‘can unify and reiterate, but can also fragment or undermine meaning, sometimes functioning ironically as it is recontextualised over the course of the poem’ and making it ‘a particularly apt form in which to adapt the work of another’.92 Anne’s use of the rondeau thus allowed her to evoke, as well as to critique, the theme of courtly love associated both with the form and with the BDSM. Another reason for Anne’s choice of the rondeau form may have been its increasing association with technical prowess. In 1511 it had become a specific category in the Rouen Puy, a competition and city in which Anne had a particular interest. She was also familiar with the work of the Marots, Crétin, de la Vigne and others, well-known practitioners of this form, both at the Puy and at the French court. As Berthon has argued, these See the definition in Armstrong, The Virtuoso Circle, p. 176. Müller, ‘Lectrice’, p. 232; Delogu, ‘A Fair Lady’, p. 476. 92 Delogu, ‘A Fair Lady’, pp. 475–76. 90 91

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poets engaged in dynamic and intertextual ways with the works of the fifteenth century, responding to, or even creating, an interest in poetry of the preceding decades at the court of Francis I.93 Employing intertextual strategies at the level of the text as well as in the physical mise-en-page, and using a popular, yet highly complex, poetic format, Anne was very much aligning her output with contemporary courtly literary trends.94 The rondeau format was also frequently used within the poetic coterie of Blois, where, as in the later period, it ‘constitute[s] a form of social interaction, a medium through which members […] construct their relationships with one another’.95 Anne’s decision to rework Chartier’s huitains into rondeaux was, therefore, driven by contemporary prestige associated with the form, which allowed her to show off her poetic skill, the opportunities it offered as a poetic structure and for adaptation and the connections it allowed her to make with both the literary activities at Blois and the contemporary French court. Anne de Graville also adapted the structure, as well as the form, of Chartier’s BDSM. In Chartier’s original poem, the debate between the lover and the lady is prefaced by twenty-four huitains that are spoken in the voice of the Acteur. Anne removed this frame and started her version at Chartier’s huitain 25, the moment the lover declares his burning passion for the lady (‘Je seuffre mal ardant et chault’). However, as Delogu has astutely noted, Chartier’s lover here speaks for three huitains (25–27) – the only point in the BDSM where this happens (the voices otherwise alternate) – but Anne de Graville compresses all three into a single rondeau in order to ‘level the rhetorical playing field’.96 Moreover, the compressing of the lover’s opening words into one rondeau results, Delogu argues, in a kind of reductio ad absurdum of his ‘central claim’, ‘je seuffre mal’.97 The manuscript copy clearly draws attention to this deliberate compression because the scribe has had to squeeze Chartier’s huitains 25–27 into the margins (fig. 55). All three verses are incorporated into Anne’s rewriting, as a comparison of the two shows:

See Berthon, ‘Présence’. See also Armstrong, who points out that in the period c. 1420–1530, poetry was seen as a ‘craft to be mastered’, a view that ‘emerges implicitly from the dynamics of intertextual response, as poets engage with pre-existing texts’. He thus proposes that ‘[m]uch greater continuity between the rhétoriqueurs and their predecessors emerges when the epistemic value of intertextual exchange is considered’; see The Virtuoso Circle, pp. xvi, xviii. 95 Armstrong and Kay, Knowing Poetry, p. 206. Although the Blois group tended to favour the octosyllabic rondeau simple, rather than the decasyllabic rondeau double employed by Anne, both forms allowed for the ‘intersection and collision of form, theme and metaphor’; see Taylor, The Making of Poetry, p. 129. 96 Delogu, ‘A Fair Lady’, p. 475. 97 Delogu, ‘A Fair Lady’, p. 475. 93 94



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Je seuffre mal trop ardant et trop chault Et si voy bien que point ne vous en chault Et de y penser n’avez aucun voulloir Quoy que voyez que pour vous bien voulloir Deul et ennuy mon povre cœur assault Helas ma dame esse si grief assault Si le myen coeur vous ayme sans deffault En asservant ma franchise et povoir Je seuffre mal. Ja soit pourtant que mon servir ne vault Vostre amytié dont le bien est si hault Souffrez au moins le myen service avoir Car leaulment j’en ferai mon devoir Veu qu’asservir en vous servant me fault Je seuffre mal.98

Je seuffre mal ardant et chault Dont je meurs pour vous bien voulloir Et si voy qu’il ne vous en chault Et n’avez d’y penser voulloir Mais a trop moins que a non challoir Le mectez quant je le vous compte Et si n’en povez moins valoir N’avoir moins honneur ne plus honte. Helas que vous griefve madame, S’un franc cœur d’homme vous veult bien Et se par honneur et sans blasme Vostre suis et vostre me tien De droit je n’y chalenge rien Car ma voulenté s’est soubmise A vostre gré non pas au myen Pour plus asservir ma franchise Jacoit ce que pas ne desserve Vostre grace par mon servir Souffrez au moins que je vous serve Sans vostre malgré desservir Je serviray sans desservir En ma loyaulté observant Car pource me feist asservir Amour d’estre vostre servant.99

Fr. 2253, fol. 3r; I suffer from a pain that burns and inflames me / And yet I see that it does not seem to bother you / And that you do not even wish to think about it / Although you see that for you, because of my love for you / Suffering and worry attack my poor heart. / Alas my lady, is it such a terrible attack / If my heart loves you without fault / Enslaving my freedom and power [to you] / I suffer pain. / Already, however, my service is not worthy of / Your friendship, the goodness of which is so high / Suffer at least to accept my service / Because I will loyally carry out my obligations / Given that I must subject myself by serving you / I suffer pain. 99 Fr. 2253, fol. 3r; BDSM, huitains 25–27: I suffer from a pain that burns and enflames me / and is killing me, for want of you. / And yet you do not seem to care, / refusing even to notice it, /and are indifferent / when I speak to you about it, / and yet your reputation will not suffer; / neither will you lose honor or incur any shame. / Alas! How can it cause you pain, my lady, / if the heart of a sincere man so desires you, / and if, with honor and beyond reproach, / I declare and consider myself yours? / As is right, I ask for nothing in return, / for my will is submitted / to your pleasure, not to my own, / and my freedom is enslaved to you. / Although I do not deserve / Your grace for my service, / At least permit me to serve you / Without incurring your displeasure. / I will serve though I am not worthy, / Keeping true to my troth, / For this is the service Love requires: / That I be your humble servant. 98

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Anne picked words and lines (here marked in bold) from each of the three huitains to start each section of her single fifteen-line rondeau. In fact, Anne used key words and phrases from the original throughout her reworking, a ploy that, as Bouchard argues, gives the impression of a faithful ‘translation’ at the same time as she plays around with the syntax and meaning.100 At the end of Chartier’s poem, the Acteur returns, concluding the work with four huitains (97–100) in which he warns men to avoid women like the Belle dame and advises women not to behave like her. Anne, however, condenses huitains 97 and 98 into one rondeau, although only huitain 97 is copied into the margins, which are spoken in the voice of an ‘Acteur’. The final two huitains, 99 and 100, which contain the specific reference to the Belle dame being without mercy, are left out entirely, both in Anne’s translation and in the margins. One effect of the near total removal of the Acteur’s frame, according to Bouchard, is that it ‘forces readers to assess for themselves the arguments of both parties’.101 However, in Anne’s version, the final rondeau in the voice of the Acteur also forms a frame with the prologue, effectively replacing Chartier/the Acteur (who were often conflated) with a female je, who, as discussed in more detail below, demonstrates a level of compassion or mercy – in the ethical sense of the word – for the lover by chasing after him to offer help.102 Thus, rather than just laying the arguments of the two protagonists bare, as Bouchard suggests, the poem is actually reframed with the voice of a female poet. In fr. 2253 Chartier’s text and Chartier-the-poet occupy a subordinate – quite literally marginal – position to Anne de Graville. For Delogu, this is a clear example of what she calls Anne’s ‘marginalisation and citation’ of Chartier, making the Rondeaux a prise de position in the querelle des femmes.103 In this sense, Anne’s reference in the prologue to Chartier as ‘maistre Allain’, coupled with the assertion of her own ability to read and select his works for rewriting, appears somewhat ironic. However, without dismissing the Rondeaux as being informed by and even making an intervention in the querelle des femmes, there is also room for a concurrent, but less ironic or resisting, reading here which also helps to understand what Anne was bringing to the querelle. As Armstrong has noted, poets of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century engaged epistemically with their predecessors.104 By citing Chartier, by deliberately keeping him ‘in play’ in the margins of fr. 2253, Anne was able to gain cultural capital that gave additional value or credit to her work.105 Chartier is named in the prologue and remains present throughout the Rondeaux, Bouchard, ‘Les Belles [in]fideles’, p. 194. Bouchard, ‘The Power of Reputation and Skill’, p. 247. 102 Robinson discusses the ‘fruitful tension set up by Chartier between scribe, author, and fictional character’, especially as played out in the miniatures of the recently rediscovered Clumber Park manuscript now New Haven, Beinecke, MS 1216. See Olivia Robinson, Contest, Translation and the Chaucerian Text (Turnhout: Brepols, 2020), p. 123. 103 Delogu, ‘A Fair Lady’, p. 475. 104 Armstrong, The Virtuoso Circle, pp. xvii–xviii. 105 This interpretation is informed by Cayley’s work on the metaphor of play between texts and on cultural capital; see ‘Collaborating Communities’ and Debate and Dialogue. 100 101



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never entirely effaced. His work is thus a continual point of reference, inviting the reader to engage in an active, intertextual reading process – to debate the texts – and to dwell on the transformation that Anne has effected. A reader like Louise, well versed in the intricacies of social poetic production – verbal jousting, deliberate citation and intertextuality – would have been particularly sensitive to this mise-en-page where, sometimes, Anne’s text literally runs into that of Chartier. On folio 11r, for instance, unless the eye quickly assesses the syllable count, it is unclear where Anne’s line ‘Vers vous ne quiers nulle chose maulvaise’ ends and the end of Chartier’s verse, ‘Une seulle ioye / en ce monde’ begins, leading to the possibility of reading ‘Vers vous ne quiers nulle chose maulvaise en ce monde’. The two poets thus confront each other on the manuscript page which becomes a space for multiple interpretations, much in the manner of coterie manuscripts. For the first twelve folios, this confrontation takes place in parallel: Anne’s text and Chartier’s are placed side by side, meaning the reader can read each separately, in a linear fashion, or in dialogue with each other, creating a kind of meta-debate that mirrors that between the two protagonists in each poem. However, the relationship between the two poems becomes even more dynamic from folio 12v onwards. As noted above, two huitains are included in the margins of folio 12v; the second one, and all other marginal verses thereafter, have the rubric ‘Pour le rondeaux d’apres’. It is not immediately clear why this is the case but it appears to have been a deliberate choice, at least on the part of the scribe since s/he has taken the pains to start the first of the huitains right at the top of the folio to allow enough room for both, rather than starting in the middle as on the other pages. Interestingly, a different scribe takes over on folio 13r, which is also likely to be the start of a new quire.106 On folio 12v, Chartier’s second huitain (47) begins with ‘Qui bien pense …’, words which Anne repeats very closely in the corresponding rondeau on folio 13r, ‘Qui bien y pense …’.107 One theory might be that the first scribe included the additional huitain as a kind of catchword so that the next scribe knew where to pick up. McRae, however, sees this alteration as part of a dynamic dialogue between Anne and Alain which […] propels the narration forward, prompting the lady to respond to the lover, or the lover to the lady, Alain’s lover to Anne’s lady, then Anne’s lover to Alain’s lady. Before this transition, each folio was pitting Anne’s lady against Alain’s lady, or Alain’s lover against Anne’s lover, inspiring quite a different dialogue than the lover vs lady intended by the authors.108 The first scribe takes over again at fol. 36r and suggests that the work was being shared out. McRae (personal correspondence, 1 May 2022) observes that this opening line also shows Anne’s modification of her source(s): for Chartier’s huitain she has ‘Qui bien pense tout bien luy vienne’, compared to ‘Qui ne pense bien ne lui viengne’ in the St Petersburg and fr. 1131 manuscripts, and ‘Qui pense mal bien ne luy vieigne’, which is the reading found in Marie de Clèves’s manuscript and that provided by Wahlund. For her rondeau she opts for ‘Qui bien y pense honneur et bien luy vienne’, which confirms her Chartier line and is closest to the St Petersburg manuscript. 108 McRae, ‘Anne de Graville’, p. 196. She also here notes that the rubric ‘pour le rondeaux d’apres’ ‘instructs readers to address the text according to the hierarchy of glossed academic or religious text: read the larger, central verses first, then the smaller writing in the margin’. This is a practice 106 107

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The Rondeaux, in its manuscript as well as its poetic form, alludes to the complex social interactions of poets and manuscripts in the coterie context; the décalage between huitains and rondeaux highlights the individuality of Anne’s own voice and the sense of her engagement with Chartier’s work. As both manuscript object and literary work, the Rondeaux thus moves the debate from one between two fictional protagonists, the Lady and the Lover, to one between two esteemed poets in the real world, Anne de Graville and Alain Chartier.

Alain ‘Charretier’ and Louise of Savoy: Inflecting the Belle dame for the Regent?

By evoking the Blois coterie and its interest in the querelle de la BDSM, Anne de Graville sought to appeal to Louise’s bibliophilic interests as well as her familial connections. This interpretation complements and extends that of Winn, who sees the quotation from Charles d’Orléans’s verse in Louise’s Heroides as designed to bring her into the OrléansAngoulême literary circle. Moreover, it indicates that the scope of Louise’s literary interests extended beyond the moralising and the religious, encompassing the realm of the querelle des femmes more than has previously been assumed. As proposed in Chapter 4, interest in and access to the querelle des femmes might be discerned in a wider variety of texts and adaptations. In Louise’s case, her ownership of the Rondeaux helps to cast a new light on, and bring more coherence to, some of the lesser-studied items in her collection that resonate with the querelle, not just Marguerite’s copy of the BDSM, but also her copy of Boccaccio’s Des cleres et nobles femmes and a Roman de la Rose (discussed below) and Jean d’Angoulême’s manuscript containing Le Chevalier aux dames by an author known only as ‘Doulant fortuné’ which aimed to do various things, not least refute the Roman de la Rose and offer a defence of women wrapped up in Christianising morality.109 Chartier’s reputation in which he comes to be seen as ‘a conveyor and guide for many generations’ provided Anne de Graville with another means to appeal to Louise.110 In addition to the epithet ‘maistre Allain’, his name allowed for frequent play on the word charretier (carter) and he himself signed his works ‘Alanus Aurige’ (aurige being Latin for charretier).111 The 1526 edition of his works includes the words ‘C’est l’aurigateur et royal charretier qui bien sçait tourner son chariot a dextre et a senestre, adextre a fuyr pechié, oysiveté et vice’ (he is the good driver and royal carter who knows how to turn his cart to the right or the left,

with which Anne would have been familiar and would have undertaken herself, since her copy of the Triumphs has Illicino’s commentary surrounding Petrarch’s original Italian, and the printed edition of Virgil’s Georgics that she also owned contains excerpts of the original Latin in the margins against Michel’s translation. 109 Jean Miquet, Le Chevalier des dames de Dolent Fortuné: allégorie en vers de la fin du XVe siècle (Ottawa: Unviersity of Ottawa press, 1990), pp. 8–10. 110 Bouchet, p. 324. 111 Laidlaw, p. 196.



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skilful at fleeing sin, idleness and vice).112 This well-known image of Alain as a ‘good guide’ perhaps evoked Louise’s own role as a ‘royal charretier’ that was given visual expression in the miniatures of her steering the kingdom of France and in guiding the dauphin.113 Moreover, the Belle dame, as a woman who eloquently refuses the advances of the lover and continually provides him with advice on how to resolve his lovesickness, also provided a parallel for Louise who, by refusing to remarry, remained free to pursue her political, territorial and familial interests. In huitain 38 of the BDSM, the lady’s riposte to the lover is D’amours ne quiers courroux ne esance, Ne grant espoir ne grant desir, Et si n’ay de vos maulx plaisance Ne regard a vostre plaisir. Choisisse qui vouldra choisir: Je suis franche et franche veulx estre, Sans moy de mon cœur dessaisir Pour en faire ung aultre le maistre.114 I seek neither the pain nor the pleasure of love, Neither grand hope nor great desire; And I get no joy from your sadness, Neither am I concerned about your pleasure. I will choose whom I wish to choose: I am free and wish to remain so, And will not let my heart go So that another can become its master.

‘Je suis franche et franche veulx estre’ is one of the most famous lines of the poem and it recurs ‘obsessively’ throughout the querelle.115 Helen Solterer notes that Chartier’s poem allows for two readings of this line: ‘it showcases a woman able to claim her franchise, yet it reprimands her for her liberty’s cruel ends – the lover’s death’.116 Anne de Graville’s reworking of this huitain in her tenth rondeau involves a shift in emphasis: De telz amours je ne veuil congnoissance De vous voir mal je n’euz onc plaisance Ne aucun regret si vivez en plaisir De vous aymer n’ay espoir ne desir. Et si n’en quiers ne foy ny asseurance Bouchet, p. 324, n. 4; her translation. The edition was published by Anthoine Couteau for Galliot du Pré. 113 Thanks to Olivia Robinson for helping to tease out these ideas. 114 Fr. 2253, fol. 7v. 115 Solterer, p. 180. 116 Solterer, p. 181. 112

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Il peult choisir qui cherche joyssance Au faict d’amours car il en a puissance Mais je vous dis que ce m’est desplaisir De telz amours Franche naquis et par bonne ordonnance Franche seray sans crainte ne doubtance D’homme vivant et sans me dessaisir De liberté que j’ay voulu choisir. Et pour autant je ne veulx acointance De telz amours.117 Of such loves I wish to know nothing, I have no satisfaction in seeing you suffer, Nor any regret if you live in pleasure. I have no hope or desire of loving you. And thus I seek [of these loves] no faith or assurance. He would seek pleasure in love he can choose, For he has the ability to do so. But I tell you that for me, such loves are a displeasure. I was born free and by good arrangement I will remain free without fear of A living man and without letting go The freedom that I have decided to choose, And therefore I do not want to get involved with such loves.

Anne amplifies the sense of the lady’s freedom – she is not just ‘free’ but she was born free and will remain so, rather than simply wishing to, employing the verb form ‘seray’, instead of ‘veulx estre’ as in Chartier’s version. Moreover, whereas Chartier’s lady implies that she may use her freedom to choose a lover in the future, Anne’s lady uses the verb ‘choisir’ in relation to her freedom itself, which she has actively chosen and which will keep her safe from any man who may doubt her. This remaniement of Chartier’s verse, together with the truncation of the final section of the poem to remove the reference to the lady being ‘sans mercy’, shifts the meaning of the poem away from one in which ‘women’s freedom [is] an instrument of torture for men’ and more towards one where she can act on her own terms.118 Such adjustment seems particularly apposite for the Rondeaux’s recipient, Louise, who, widowed at just nineteen, never remarried. Instead, she obtained the tutelage of her children and dedicated herself to their education and to the promotion of Francis as the dauphin, before becoming his regent and political advisor. She cultivated an image of 117 118

Fr. 2253, fol. 7v. Solterer, p. 180.



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herself not just as a widow but also as a personification of Prudence and, more generally, as a guiding force for her son and the kingdom.119 In François Demoulins’s Traité sur les vertus cardinales, which dates from after 1509, Louise is depicted as Dame Prudence, holding a compass, and the opening lines of the text are formed on an acrostic of her name.120 In the anonymous Compas du dauphin Louise, holding an enormous compass, looms large over her small son who is accompanied by a dolphin standing on its tail (fig. 54). André de la Vigne’s acrostic rondeaux on Louise’s name, associated her with the Seven Virtues, with each poem accompanied by an illustration of a woman dressed in white combatting the equivalent sin, recalling Chartier’s skill ‘at fleeing sin, idleness and vice’.121 These images of Louise visualised and promoted her virtue and show her operating in the spheres of rulership, politics and education, areas that were traditionally reserved for men. In fact, taking her cue from Chartier, Anne may have conceived of her Rondeaux as a guide of sorts in its own right, in a way that is visually more assertive and proactive than, for instance, Etienne Le Blanc’s Gestes de Blanche de Castile. The Gestes were intended to draw a parallel between Louise and Blanche, who had played a key role in her son Louis IX’s life, acting twice as his regent. In the frontispiece (fig. 55), Louise steers a rudder in a small pool of water while the author, who refers to himself in the preface as a ‘pauvre paralitique qui desire entrer dans la piscine de votre grace’ (poor, incapacitated person who wishes to enter the waters of your grace), lies prostrate at her feet. In the Nantes miniature, Anne actively proffers her book to Louise in front of a crowd of courtiers: like her dedicatee, she too was taking centre stage, stepping beyond traditional boundaries by intervening in a male-dominated culture. Her adaptation of Chartier’s most famous work involved a complex play of posturing and voices: her work is a guide for Louise as well as a praising of her, based around ideas of female constancy and freedom. The work derives its authority in part from its, and Anne’s, association with ‘maistre Allain’, the charretier. Yet, in levelling the structural playing field and taking up the place of the male author in the frontispiece, and the male lover in the text, Anne de Graville also called attention, as she had in the Beau roman, to the fictions of works like the Heroides in which women’s voices were ventriloquised, leaving them trapped in a fictitious past. Through the parallels that she wove between herself, Louise, Chartier and the Belle dame, as learned, prudent, purveyors of advice, Anne created a text in which the female protagonist was liberated from the constraints of the male narrator. She also offered her patron the opportunity to admire, and perhaps

On Louise and the figure of Prudence, see Tracy Adams, ‘La Prudence et la formation des femmes diplomates vers 1500’, in Louise de Savoie, ed. by Fagnart et al., pp. 29–38; and also Karen Green, ‘Phroenis Feminised: Prudence from Christine de Pizan to Elizabeth I’, in Virtue, Liberty and Toleration, ed. by Green and Broad, pp. 23–38. 120 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 12247. 121 Écouen, MR 1815.

119

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compensate, the skill of the woman who had offered it to her, thus reconfiguring the sense of mercy that dominated in Chartier’s original.

Marie de Clèves and Women’s Voices at the Court of Blois

This section turns to Marie de Clèves and the presence of female voices in poetry associated with her circle to further flesh out the literary context on which Anne de Graville was drawing in her Rondeaux. Although only two octosyllabic rondeaux can be attributed to Marie with certainty, the literary coterie over which she presided with her husband gained an important and enduring reputation and she was the dedicatee of several works. Moreover, she was connected to other female literary networks, including that of the dauphine, Margaret Stuart (1424–45), and her mother-in-law, the queen Marie d’Anjou, wife of Charles VII, witnessed by the fact that she lent her copy of Clériadus et Méliadice to one of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting, Prégente de Mélun.122 Although the evidence for Marie’s reading and writing activity is relatively sparse, her association with Chartier’s BDSM and other debate poetry, her activity as a poet and her use of the chantepleure device suggest that she provided a model for Anne de Graville, in a similar way to Christine de Pizan, and allowed her to unite, through her own pro-feminine voice and in a somewhat rondeau-like manner, the Orléans-Angoulême court of the 1460s and that of the 1520s. The two rondeaux by Marie enjoyed a wide and long circulation within and beyond the Blois group. Scholars have pointed to the close relationship that these compositions – and the works with which they are associated – entertain with those of Chartier as well as the way in which they foreground the female voice. For example, her rondeau ‘L’Abit le moine ne fait pas’ (the habit does not make the monk) tackles the theme of how appearances can be deceiving: L’abit le moine ne fait pas, Car quelque chiere que je face, Mon mal seul tous les autres pace De ceulx qui tant plaignent leur cas. Souvent, en densant, fais mains pas Que mon cuer pres en dueil trespace; L’abit le moine ne fait pas. Las! Mes yeulx gectent sans compass Des lermes tant parmy ma face, Dont plusieurs foiz je change place, Alant a part pour crier: las! L’abit le moine ne fait pas. 122

Margaret Stuart was married to the future Louis XI but died before his accession. In 1450 Marie de Clèves sent one of her own women to claim the manuscript back; see Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 58; n. 8.



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The habit does not make the monk, But no matter what manner I affect, My one ill surpasses all the others Of those who so heartily lament their destinies. Dancing, I often take many a step When my heart is near to dying of grief, The habit does not make the monk. Alas! My eyes weep everywhere, Tears streaming down my face, And many times I change my seat, Wandering off alone to cry ‘alas.’ The habit does not make the monk.123

The refrain provided the departure point – as was frequent in coterie poetry – for three other rondeaux, including one written by Charles d’Orléans with which Marie’s poem is closely associated in both the duke’s and the duchess’s personal manuscripts.124 Müller argues that Marie’s rondeau, spoken in the female voice, reverses the set-up found in the BDSM, where it is the male lover in whom the signs of sadness were proof of his amorous sincerity.125 Conversely the duke, in his rondeau, evokes the language and argument of Chartier’s Belle dame, who, in huitain 38 (v. 299–300), refers to ‘plaisans bourdes / Confites en belles parolles’ (words of flattery, / crafted with pretty words), when he says ‘Soutbtil sens couchié par compas, / Enveloppé en beau langage’ (A subtle sensibility carefully deployed, / Wrapped in fine language), an inversion to which Marie may well have been responding directly.126 Moreover, in her rondeau, Marie ‘refuse l’artifice et le calcul’ (rejects artifice and calculation) in a way which contrasts with ‘l’importance de la feinte, du jeu, des apparences’ (the importance of the feint, play and appearances) in the rondeaux by Charles and the other male poets who composed on this theme. Anne’s authorial interjection at the end of the Beau roman also pointed to pretences in her condemnation of ‘counterfeit’ love that resulted from the insincere behaviour of both male and female lovers. Marie’s second rondeau, ‘En la forest de longue actente’, provided a refrain that was used in twelve other rondels or ballades by the Blois group.127 As previously noted, Robinson has argued that the appearance of a line very close to this in the prose letter, la requeste, implicates the Blois coterie in the composition of the earliest responses to the BDSM. Poetry of Charles d’Orléans, pp. 616–17; emphasis original. The poem appears in Marie’s manuscript, Carpentras 375, fol. 55v and in the duke’s, fr. 25458, on p. 446. 124 Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 69. The other authors are Jean de Lorraine and Guiot Pot. See Poetry of Charles d’Orléans, pp. 612–19. 125 Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 70. 126 Poetry of Charles d’Orléans, pp. 614–15; and Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 70 and n. 59. 127 For the list, see Robinson’s Appendix B, ‘In the Forest of Long Waiting’, p. 98. 123

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In addition to being found in Marie’s own manuscript and that of the duke, her rondeau is also present, along with poems by Charles, in the Rohan Chansonnier made for Anne de Graville’s father, Louis, and in Vérard’s La Chasse et le Départ d’Amours (printed from 1509), a copy of which was in the d’Urfé library, both offering possibilities for Anne to have encountered this work directly.128 For Müller, the rondeau is also a means through which Marie inverted the traditional pattern of love relations: she is the only one who invokes God as witness to her suffering and thus remains ‘attachée à une mystique de l’amour et […] aux vertus religieuses’ (attached to a philosophy of love […] and religious virtues).129 Furthermore, she uses ‘je’ in nearly every line, which lends a certain specificity to the speaker’s situation.130 Anne de Graville, too, places more emphasis on the speaking ‘je’ in the Belle dame’s verses. During his stay at Blois between 1455 and 1458, Jean de Lorraine composed an acrostic poem on Marie’s name, and Guillaume Thignonville, who wrote his name in Marie’s and Marguerite’s Chartier manuscripts, wrote a rondeau that includes her motto, ‘rien ne m’est plus’.131 The anonymous debate poem, Le Débat de la Noire et de la Tannée, was also dedicated to Marie and Marguerite. Although none of the three surviving copies can be associated with Marie, one may have been made for Marguerite de Rohan and was later owned by Louise of Savoy.132 It consists of a debate between two women, one dressed in black and the other in beige, who discuss which of them is the most unhappy in love.133 One of the recurrent courtly themes that they debate is the incompatibility of fin’amour with the oppressive context of the court. As Müller has noted, this debate recalls that of Chartier not only because it is overheard by a ‘clerc embûché’ but because it includes the words of Chartier’s lover in the BDSM – ‘Je seuffre mal ardant et chault’. This time, however, they are spoken by a woman, La Noire, and, like Marie’s and the duke’s rondeaux, create another Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, 78 B17, Rohan Chansonnier. It appears in Marie’s manuscript, Carpentras 375 on fol. 50v and in the duke’s manuscript, fr. 25458, on p. 415. 129 Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 71. 130 Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 71. 131 Both rondeaux were copied into Marie’s Carpentras manuscript. Thignonville also incorporated into his rondeau the mottos of members of Marie and Charles’s circle and whose signatures are also found in her books; see Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 61. A further rondeau that has been associated with Marie, although not generally ascribed to her authorship, begins ‘Riens ne m’est plus’ and is found in Lille 402, which Françon and Macey have associated with Anne de Graville (see Introduction, p. 10; n. 13). The fact that this rondeau was copied in this later context shows the continued circulation of Blois poetry amongst the contemporary, royal court of Blois. 132 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25420; see Winn, ‘Louise of Savoy, p. 278. This is a monotextual manuscript in which comments added by La Monnoye erroneously associate the two duchesses with Jeanne of France, sister of Charles VIII, and Louise of Savoy; the other copies are Paris, BnF, Rothschild 2798 and Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 685. On the text, see Emma Cayley, ‘Debate after Alain Chartier: Authority and Materiality in the Debat de la Noire et de la Tannee’, in Mythes à la cour, mythes pour la cour, ed. by Corbellari et al., pp. 311–21. 133 Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 63. 128



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instance of the way poets played around with and inverted courtly love themes.134 In seeking a judgement on their debate, the two women eventually call upon ‘deux nobles dames dont la supériorité est indéniable’ (two noble women of undeniable superiority): Marie de Clèves and Marguerite de Rohan.135 The debating women choose these two ‘parce qu’elles les ont vues, autrefois, trancher un débat semblable’ (because they have previously seen them make a decision in a similar debate), which may be an allusion to the discussions around courtly love that happened at the court of Blois.136 The poem indicates an audience familiar with Chartier and debate poetry, but also, through the election of Marie and Marguerite as judges, one that recognises the role that women were perceived to play in the poetic culture of Blois. The final verses of La Noire et la Tannée nevertheless allude to the disconnect between reality and fiction, between love as it is really experienced and its literary representation, a theme that emerges in the Beau roman.137 Müller notes that these verses lay bare the paradox that is having a man express the thoughts and feelings of a woman since he inevitably ends up transmitting his own viewpoint, and not that of the ladies, and concludes with ‘la trouvay ancre et parchemin / Pour mectre mon intencion’ (there I found ink and parchment to write down my meaning).138 Marie is, in the end, voiceless as a judge. It is the duchess’s awareness of and sensitivity to such ventriloquism that leads her, according to Müller, to present a more sincere woman’s voice and point of view in her own poems. The relative paucity of surviving works by Marie de Clèves means it is difficult to discern a specifically pro-feminine voice for her in the same way as it is for Christine de Pizan or even Anne de Graville and Catherine d’Amboise. Yet the voices of women as poets, protagonists and lovers was evidently of concern to Marie and she was clearly participating in reading and writing practices that drew specifically on Chartier’s works. Anne de Graville’s decision to rework Chartier’s polemical debate poem, a work so central to the coterie of Marie de Clèves, offered her a way of calling attention to the long-standing and problematic nature of male authors writing women’s voices. The following section considers Anne’s insertion of her own voice into the querelles and how her remaniement of Chartier provided a model and point of reference for Margaret of Navarre, thus pointing up not only Anne’s contribution to, but also her pivotal role in, women’s nuancing of these debates.

Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 70, n. 60. Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 65. 136 Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 66; and nn. 40–41. It is thus also significant that the debating women insert the motto of Marie de Clèves into their verses; see Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 67. 137 Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 68. 138 Müller, ‘Marie de Clèves’, p. 68; her emphasis. 134 135

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Reframing the BDSM, reframing the querelle

The Rondeaux’s opening prologue addressed to ‘ma dame’ and the final stanza in the voice of the Acteur provide an alternative, truncated, frame to that created by Chartier’s male narrator in the original. By replacing the narrator, who is suffering from the same love-sickness as the Amant, Anne creates a frame in which a female ‘je’ addresses another woman and, by extension, her entourage. The prologue effectively constitutes a textual version of the Nantes presentation scene where Anne offers her book to Louise, surrounded by both men and women, but where the ladies are closest to the action. Moreover, in the Rondeaux, Anne presents three female figures or voices who can defend their sex through three different means traditionally denied to women in the misogynistic tradition: writing (the author and ‘je’ of the prologue, Anne de Graville), reading (Anne, who has read Chartier, and Louise, who will read her work alongside Chartier’s in the manuscript) and speaking (the Belle dame, the protagonist of the work whose words are concerned with defending the female sex from characters like Faulx Semblant and Malenbouche). In the same way that Chartier was a ‘good carter’ or guide, Anne also, through her work, offered a model for women to debate, and combat, men’s views of them through the strategies that she employed both within the text and within the manuscript presentation and layout. In the outer frame of the prologue, Anne refers to Louise as she ‘who pardons the ignorant of their mistakes’: by casting Louise as the woman who grants mercy, Anne not only evokes an alternative meaning for the word but also reverses the reference in Chartier’s final verse (which she also does not ‘translate’) to the lack of mercy that the narrator claims was shown by the Belle dame. In fact, Anne’s final rondeau reiterates the idea that women are the purveyors of true mercy by having the Acteur, whom we can equate with the female ‘je’ of the prologue, run after the departing lover in an attempt to help him: ‘Je luy voulluz lors estre secourant / Et tout souldain je viens vers luy courant (I wanted to be of help to him, and all of a sudden I came running towards him). Through the way she employs the word ‘courant’, Anne completely turns Chartier’s words on their head, since the Acteur in huitain 97 reports that the lover says ‘mort vient a moy courant’ (death come quickly to me) whereas Anne employs ‘courant’ not to in relation to death, but to the act of seeking out the lover. She therefore effects a shift from a male narrator blaming a woman (and by extension women more generally) for having no mercy, to a female addressee and author/ narrator who both demonstrate it. The sense of a community of women within and around the Rondeaux also comes through in the way that the arguments put forward by Anne de Graville’s Belle dame are less generalising than those of Chartier’s lady, creating more complicity between the protagonist and the implied audience of courtly women. As Delogu notes, one of the ways Anne does this is to give more importance to the Belle dame’s use of ‘je’, which ‘makes possible the concomitant creation of a nous-women to whom and on behalf of whom the Lady speaks’.139 For instance, in rondeau 68, ‘De faire mal’, the lady states that if she is Delogu, ‘A Fair Lady’, p. 481.

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unwilling to accept the lover’s advances, it is not because she is criticising him simply to hurt him, but because she is wary of Faulx Semblant (False Seeming): De faire mal ou de penser grevance A aultre ou vous je n’euz oncque puissance Mais j’ay voulu me deffier de tous Craignant tomber entre les mains des folz Dont les propos nous portent grant nuisance. Si je ne veulx de vostre congnoissance Ou que je fuye avoir vostre accointance Ce n’est pourtant que j’aye blasme de vous De faire mal. Mais Faulx Semblant le trahistre en contenance Est en aguet puis nostre aage d’enfance Quoy que souvent monstre visaige doulx Pour nous tromper mais chacune de nous Y doibt le guet pour fouyr la meschance De faire mal.140 To do harm or to wish suffering To anyone else or to you I have never had any power to do so But I wanted to be wary of every man Fearing that I would fall into the hands of some idiots Whose words are very harmful to us. If I don’t want to know you And I flee your acquaintance It is not because I have behaved badly towards you To do harm. But False Seeming, the traitor in appearance Is waiting to trap us from our childhood Even though he often shows a sweet face To deceive us, but each one of us Has to be on the look-out, to flee mischance, To do harm.

Although Chartier’s Belle dame also refers to Faulx Semblant and the need for ladies to be on their guard, Anne’s lady intensifies the sense of ‘we’ women, who, she says, must be on ‘our guard’ against false words and pretences coming from men, for fear that ‘we fall’ into Fr. 2253, fol. 36v.

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the hands of idiots whose advances and deceptive speech do ‘us’ harm. A little earlier, in rondeau 64, the lady refers to the dangers of another character, Malenbouche: Malenbouche par tout le monde court Et mesdisans par tous lieux ont grant court Donc la pluspart a mesdire estudie Et n’en voit on pas ung qui ne mesdie Soit à la ville aux champs ou à la court S’on loue aulcun le parler est fort court S’on en mesdit tout le monde y acourt Et ne voit on ung seul qui contredie Malenbouche. Je ne croy pas qu’il en soit de si lourd Tant soit secret fust il muet ou sourd Qui ne voulsist [sic] estre mescreu et die Pour une amer porter grant maladie Et de cela se reliefve et ressourd Malenbouche.141 Slanderer is all over the world And malicious gossipers hold court everywhere Most of them studying how to slander And there is not one who does not slander Be it in the city, the fields, or at the court If someone is praised, the speech is very brief But if someone is slandered, everyone spreads the word And there is not one who will contradict Slanderer I do not believe that there is anyone so stupid, However discreet, whether dumb or deaf Who might not wish to be disbelieved and say That for loving one [woman] he suffers a great sickness And because of that Slanderer regains his force and rebounds.142

Faulx Semblant and Male Bouche are key allegorical characters in Jean de Meun’s continuation of the Roman de la Rose. In the Rose, Faulx Semblant is openly honest about his intent to deceive and is, as Taylor points out, ‘the offspring of barat, slick talk and a glib 141 142

Fr. 2253, fol. 34v. The complexity of the verse makes it hard to translate so that ‘Slanderer’ appears in the final position.



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tongue’.143 He is, therefore, ‘one of Amant’s most valuable allies, the one who gives him the means to dispose of perhaps his most formidable enemy, Male Bouche’.144 Taylor has suggested that in the BDSM, Chartier was inviting his readers, albeit in a nonchalant fashion, ‘to cross-read his poem against the Rose’, since in medieval France it was ‘impossible to write a treatise or a tale of love […] without engaging intertextually, in however clumsy or ill-informed a way, with the topoi and the arguments of the Rose [sic]’.145 In fact, the BDSM and its ensuing querelle followed a similar trajectory to that of the Rose, which, even prior to the querelle de la Rose, had been subject to comment, responses and revisions to the text since it had first appeared.146 In the Mutacion de Fortune, Christine compares the hypocritical courtiers and royal counsellors to the character of False Seeming, referring explicitly to Jean de Meun’s work.147 In the Beau roman, Anne might have had these characters in mind when she advises readers to be wary of women who only appear to appreciate their lovers and those men who brag about their exploits. For a discerning audience familiar with the Rose and its querelle, as well as with the querelle de la BDSM, Anne’s lady’s references to Malenbouche and Faulx Semblant would not only have been interpreted as part of her direct engagement with Chartier’s original text but also as part of both authors’ interactions with the polemical Rose. Louise of Savoy was one such discerning reader. McGrady has argued that the decorative programme in the copy of the Rose illuminated for her by Robinet Testard was carefully inflected to take account of its intended female reader, whose arms were incorporated into the initial on the first folio.148 Although the Rose of this manuscript was not altered to remove any offensive or misogynistic passages, the inclusion of female spectators in the miniatures throughout the manuscript ‘both redefine[s] the anticipated audience and model[s] confrontational interpretative strategies that promote new readings of the text’.149 Thus the ‘fictional’ as well as the ‘real audience’ of this copy of the Rose is encouraged Jane H. M. Taylor, ‘Embodying the Rose: An Intertextual Reading of Alain Chartier’s La Belle dame sans mercy’, in The Court Reconvenes: Courtly Literature across the Disciplines. Selected Papers from the Ninth Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, University of British Columbia, 25–31 July 1998, ed. by Barbara K. Altman and Carleton W. Carroll (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003), pp. 325–33 (p. 326). For discussion of False Seeming in the Rose, see Christine McWebb, ‘Heresy and Debate: Reading the “Roman de la Rose”’, Medium Aevum, 77 (2003), 545–56. 144 Taylor, ‘Embodying’, p. 327. 145 Taylor, ‘Embodying’, p. 325. 146 Deborah McGrady, ‘Reinventing the Roman de la Rose for a Woman Reader: The Case of MS Douce 195’, Journal of the Early Book Society, 4 (2001), 202–27 (p. 202). 147 Christine de Pizan, Debate of the ‘Romance of the Rose’, ed. and trans. by David F. Hult (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), pp. 233–34 (hereafter Debate). For the sections of the Mutacion that mention False Seeming see Mutability, pp. 92–94. See also McWebb, pp. 550–51. 148 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 195; McGrady, ‘Reinventing the Roman de la Rose’, p. 204 and n. 5. 149 McGrady, ‘Reinventing the Roman de la Rose’, p. 204. 143

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to ‘engage with the text at key moments in the narrative to observe, evaluate, and discuss the events at hand’.150 Although there are no visual strategies in the sense of illuminations in the Rondeaux manuscript, Anne’s reconfiguring of Chartier’s text nevertheless relies on an interplay between the margins and the main text that is inherently visual. Moreover, in showing Anne presenting her work to Louise, the Nantes miniature serves as an important visual strategy in marking the orientation of the work towards a woman. The ‘real’ and ‘fictional’ female protagonists of the Rondeaux are not dissimilar to the real and fictional female audiences of Louise’s Rose manuscript, whereby they function as actors or agents in the pro-feminine reinterpretation of a familiar, and polemical, text. Testard’s tendency to show groups of spectators, often in discussion, suggests that he ‘intended his audience to adopt a certain type of reading, specifically group reading’, of the Rose: such a strategy tallies with the presentation scenes between women discussed in this study that promote similar reading communities of women.151 Taylor’s reading of the BDSM in relation to the Rose is also pertinent for an understanding of the nuances that Anne’s Rondeaux makes. She argues that in Chartier’s text, the Belle dame is the product of the Roman de la Rose transposed: the ‘narrative,’ such as it is, is focalised not, as it is in the Rose, via a male participant but via an impartial observer, so that we no longer share the privileged viewpoint of the Amant. The Belle Dame, far from being the silenced, sexualised, receptive object of the romance, has become a public and visible woman, articulating choices and speaking from a locus of intelligence and experience. She is, as it were, a rose able to deploy, as a matter of choice, all the personifications which had taken charge of it/her in the Rose; the female voice, in short, has escaped male control.152

If Chartier’s Belle dame is more emancipated than the figure of the Rose, she is nevertheless condemned by the narrator at the end of the poem and she did not always fare well in her literary afterlife. Bouchard claims that ‘without the mediation of an Author in [Anne’s] text, the alternative viewpoints on women’s agency are passionately stated right from the outset, but left unresolved’.153 However, Anne’s elision of Chartier’s narrator – who may not be as impartial as Taylor suggests154 – and her replacement of him with a prologue and final rondeau voiced by a woman helps to take the lady’s emancipation a stage further, making her an active agent in the discourse of love. The Belle dame in Anne’s McGrady, ‘Reinventing the Roman de la Rose’, p. 204. McGrady, ‘Reinventing the Roman de la Rose’, p. 208. 152 Taylor, ‘Embodying the Rose’, p. 331. 153 Bouchard, ‘The Power of Reputation’, p. 248. 154 Delogu (‘A Fair Lady, p. 476) and Müller (‘Lectrice’, p. 233) have argued that the BDSM’s narrator shows sympathy with the lover: it is certainly he who makes the final exhortation in which the lady is called ‘sans mercy’ and, as noted above, he is suffering from the same lovesickness as the narrator. 150 151



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version has not only escaped male control but is part of a community of women where her voice is no longer ventriloquised by a male poet. As a reader of the Rose, and in particular of the Heroides where it was the male authors Ovid/Saint-Gelais who put forward the laments of the abandoned women, Louise was surely sensitive to the stance that Anne de Graville was taking. In the Rondeaux, Anne uses the voice of the Belle dame to emphasise women’s experiences within a patriarchal/courtly society. This has already been seen, for instance, in the way that the Belle dame insists on women’s vulnerability and their need ‘to watch out for themselves and one another’.155 This vulnerability is further alluded to in rondeau 48, ‘Sur tez mesfaitz’: Sur tez mesfaiz tant en ville qu’en court Pour droit avoir n’y a juge ne court Vers qui plaintifz puissent bien recourir S’ilz sont jugez ce n’est pas a mourir Dont de rechef recommence tout court. Pour en parler tout le monde y acourt Mais non pourtant toujours leur vice court Et seuffrent on blasme vers nous courir Sur tes mesfaictz Si nous prions replicquer on est sourd Se on nous fait tort aucun ne vous ressourd Nulz ou bien peu nous veulent secourir Donc il convient gref reprouche encourir Pour le mal faict qui d’eulx s’engendre et sourt Sur tes mesfaictz.156 For such wrongdoings, in town as well as at court To have justice there is neither judge nor court To whom plaintiffs can well turn If they are judged, it is not to die And so they start again. Everybody spreads the word But nevertheless their vice is not thwarted And we receive the blame For such wrong doings.

Delogu, ‘A Fair Lady’, pp. 482–83. Fr. 2253, fol. 26v.

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If we dare retaliate, everybody is deaf If we are hurt, no one will relieve us None, or very few, will come to rescue us So we have to risk grave reproach For the injustice which proceeds and surges from them For such wrong doings.

There is no court or judge by which the wrongdoings of men – or the lover in the BDSM – can be condemned. For Delogu, this rondeau ‘sets up an opposition between the female community nous and the “on,” “aucun,” “nulz,” “peu,” and “eulx” by whom this nous is oppressed, slandered, and left victim of injustice that not only remains unredressed but in fact is laid at their doorstep’.157 Anne’s Belle dame also highlights the fact that courtly talk is often in fact malicious gossip and that ‘the only power left to women is the limited, but real, capacity to convince an audience’ – and in doing so they risk grave reproach.158 Thus, whereas within the text, the Belle dame points out that ‘the malicious gossiper and wrongdoer act with impunity, their audience complacent, and their victim silenced’, Anne de Graville, in her very act of rewriting and producing a text-object for consumption, is demonstrating the capacity of a woman to convince an audience of an alternative point of view.159 Anne’s lady’s speeches also bring a certain clarification to the text of Chartier. For instance, in rondeau 14, she states: Le fol amour et [sic] cruel losenger Tresdoulx en bouche et ung grant mensonger Aspre en ses faictz, gracieux en mentir. Et si quelque ung veult ses segretz sentir Il se scait bien de cestuy la venger. Car s’il y vient il le fait arrenger Par Faulx Semblant qui scait l’esprit renger D’un cœur blessé quant il veult consentir Le fol amour. Puis tost apres va de luy se estranger En le mettant d’heure en heure en danger Et par fierté le faict vivre martir. S’il se repent si rien peult il partir Quoy que chaicun [sic] luy conseille changer Le fol amour.160 Delogu, ‘A Fair Lady’, p. 482. Bouchard, ‘The Power of Reputation’, p. 253. 159 Bouchard, ‘The Power of Reputation’, p. 254. 160 Fr. 2253, fol. 9v. 157 158



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Foolish love is [a] cruel flatterer, Sweet of tongue and a great liar, Bitter in his deeds and pleasant in lying. And if someone wants to hear his secrets He knows how to get his revenge. Because if he comes, he treats him With False Seeming who knows how to attack the spirit Of a wounded heart when he wants consent, Foolish Love Then soon after he [fol amour] will disassociate himself from [the wounded heart] By putting him more and more in danger, Making him a martyr by cruelty. Even if the lover repents he cannot leave Although everyone advises him to change from Foolish Love.

Whereas in his huitain 40 Chartier refers simply to ‘amour’ being a cruel flatterer (‘Amours est cruel losenger’), Anne qualifies the noun with ‘fol’, thus creating a distinction between love – perhaps the ‘ferme amour’ referred to by Marot – and ‘foolish’ love. In the querelle de la Rose, Jean Gerson, Christine’s co-attacker of Jean de Meun refers to the lover of the Rose as ‘fol amoureux’, picking up on the narrator-lover’s own use of the term in referring to his behaviour: ‘Se je sui fols, c’est mes domages’ (if I am foolish, the misfortune is mine).161 In doing so, David F. Hult notes, ‘Gerson cunningly transforms the Narrator into an allegorical personification representing not just any lover but one who deserves to be punished’.162 Whether or not Anne de Graville knew specifically of these documents from the Rose debate, this attention to detail indicates her sensitivity to the wider repercussions of this querelle and the ensuing critiques of courtly love and lovers. It also recalls the need to punish foolish lovers (both men and women) outlined at the end of the Beau roman as well as the qualification she makes regarding ‘amytié parfaite’ which is distinguished from the sort which is ‘contrefaicte’. Moreover, in this rondeau she associates ‘fol amour’ with Faulx Semblant, a pairing that is absent from Chartier’s huitain. She thus emphasises the way in which misogynistic discourses – such as those of the Rose – work together against women in order to trick them. The lady comes back to the vocabulary and arguments of this rondeau a little later, in number 38, in a way that also evokes the circularity of the form Anne was employing: Qui scet et peult quant il veult se partir De fol amour qui fait l’homme martyr Debate, p. 107; the quotation from the Rose is also taken from here (n. 13). Pierre Col picks up on this use of the word in his response, see Debate, p. 133. 162 Debate, p. 107, n. 13. 161

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Il est heureux, car il a grant science Qui se depart quant folie commence; Plus aisé est l’entrée que le sortir. Qui a vouloir et si veult consenter Et puis apres s’en peult bien diverter Pas n’a default de finesse et prudence Qui scet et peult. Quant a conseil ne s’en veult assentir Quoy qu’on luy ait peu dire et advertir Desespoir vient pour toute recompense Qui le poursuit mourir d’impacience Donc vault trop myeulx en temps s’en departir Qui scet et peult.163 He who knows, and can, when he wants, to separate himself From Fol Amour who makes a martyr of man, Is happy, for he has great knowledge, He who leaves when madness starts; It is easier to get involved than it is to leave. He who has desire and wants to consent to his desire And then afterwards can distract himself from it, Is not lacking in subtlety and wisdom He who knows, and can. When he does not want to listen to advice Whatever one has said to him and warned him of, Despair comes as the only reward. He who runs after it will die of impatience, Thus it is better to leave at the right time He who knows and can.

The lady refers again to ‘fol amour’ and insists on the fact that it makes a martyr of the man, thus highlighting that men, as well as women, can be victims of Foolish Love. By contrast, Chartier did not refer to love at all in the corresponding huitain but uses the word ‘folie’ to describe the behaviour of the man: ‘Saige est qui folie commence / Quant departir s’en scait et veult’ (he is wise who, having once acted foolishly, finds a way out of the situation).164 Anne also changes the way the word ‘science’ (knowledge, or savoir-faire) is used by stating the positive benefits of he who has it (since he is able to leave the situation), rather than, as 163 164

Fr. 2253, fol. 21v. Fr. 2253, fol. 21r; BDSM, huitain 64.



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in Chartier’s text, emphasising the misery of those in whom it is lacking. Whereas Anne’s rondeau ends with the words ‘qui scet et peult’ (he who knows and can), Chartier’s ends with ‘mourir a la poursuitte’ (the lover dying in hapless pursuit). Here, as elsewhere in the Rondeaux, Anne’s Belle dame is not only advising women to protect themselves, but also pointing out ways in which the lovesick man might change his outlook and behave differently. By shifting the focus away from bad/good men and women, and offering advice on how to get out of a situation that otherwise leaves both protagonists trapped, Anne was, as in the Beau roman, inflecting the querelle in a manner that moves beyond the either/or, pro/ contra debate. Rather like the initially stubborn Emilia and Palamon, men in the Rondeaux need to see the importance of walking way rather than standing their ground and dying of impatience. In an earlier rondeau (8), Anne develops the famous point made by Chartier’s Belle dame in his corresponding huitain 34, that love sickness never killed anyone: Il n’en meurt nulz de ceste malladie Combien qui maint en languissant mendye Pour acquerir de son mal reconfort Qui pourtant n’est si aspre ne si fort Quoy qu’on en ait la cervelle estordie. Je croy assez qu’on peult avoir envye Par desespoir de tost finer sa vie, Mais tout compté ce n’est que desconfort Il n’en meurt nulz. Il vault trop mieulx quelque chose qu’on dye Que ung a part soy se fache ou se maudye Que deux ensemble eussent mal sans confort Et vous promectz oultre plus de renfort Que je dy vray qui que le contredie Il n’en meurt nulz.165 No-one dies from this illness, However much he, pining, goes on begging In order to gain some comfort for his pain Which, however, is not as bitter or as strong Although one’s brain is spinning because of it. I think it is true that one can wish, Out of hopelessness, to end one’s life But in the end, it’s only a discomfort/inconvenience No-one dies from it 165

Fr. 2253, fol. 6v.

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It is much better, whatever one says, That a man gets angry or blames himself, on his own, Than two people suffer together without any comfort. And I promise you, moreover, That I tell the truth, whoever might contradict it, No-one dies from it.

Chartier’s Belle dame – having only a huitain in which to express herself – is very much to the point, stating that no one dies from such an affliction but that ‘se amours griefve tant, au fort, / Mieulx en vault ung dollent que deux’ (if Love doles out such affliction, / better for one to suffer than two!).166 Anne’s lady, using the additional words available to her in the rondeau format, shows a degree of sympathy with those suffering from ‘ceste malladie’, but she refrains from calling it a ‘gracious’ malady and argues that it is not a serious illness, merely a ‘desconfort’ – a nuisance or inconvenience. She also reinforces Chartier’s lady’s point by making ‘Il n’en meurt nulz’ the recurrent refrain of the rondeau in the same way as ‘Je seuffre mal’ became the refrain of the opening rondeau. At the end of the BDSM, the narrator tells us that the lover finally takes his leave and the lady goes back to the dance and thinks no more about him. The narrator subsequently reports that he dies of his distress (‘on me rapporta […] [qu]’il en estoit mort de courroux’). As Robinson points out, the narrator only hears of the lover’s death from a third party and the ‘polysemous’ nature of courroux means it is unclear whether he died from sorrow or from his own rage (or whether he even died at all).167 In Anne’s version, the final rondeau condenses huitains 97 and 98 into one stanza and the events, including the lady’s lack of thought for the lover, are all reported as coming from a third party: Ainsi partit de la feste pleurant Tout hors du sens disant vient [sic] accourant Mort despiteuse avant que par destresse De trop aymer mon sens se descognoisse Et que ne fine en me desesperant. Je luy voulluz lors estre secourant Et tout souldain je viens vers luy courant Mais je ne sceuz qu’il devint a la presse Ainsi partit. On me dist bien qu’il s’en alloit tirant Tous ses cheveulx et qu’il alloit mourant Par grant couroux et extresme tristesse Et qu’aucun deuil n’en a pris sa maistresse BDSM, huitain 34. Robinson, Context, p. 120. See also the discussion of this word in relation to Dido in Chapter 5, pp. 219–21.

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Combien qu’il fust par griefz plaintz soupirant Ainsi partit.168 Thus he left the party in tears Completely out of his senses saying ‘Come running Bitter Death before, out of distress Of loving too much, I lose my mind And I end up in despair.’ I wanted to be of help to him And all of a sudden I came running towards him But I do not know what became of him in the crowd. Thus he left. I was certainly told that he went off pulling Out all his hair and that he went off dying From great distress and extreme sadness And that the lady did not mourn him at all However much he was sighing with heavy groans Thus he left.

On the one hand, reporting the lover’s supposed fate as hearsay alleviates the Belle dame’s role in his (apparently) miserable end; on the other hand, when read in the context of the arguments that the Belle dame has put forward, these lines actually serve to make the lover look ridiculous: through the rondeau format, Anne overstates his fate – pulling out his hair, great distress, extreme sadness, excessive sighing and groaning – far more than Chartier. Thus, she effects a similar reductio ad absurdum as that which she created at the beginning of the work, where the lover’s three huitains and his claim ‘Je seuffre mal’ were condensed into one rondeau. Whereas Armstrong has suggested that Chartier was voicing his ‘rejection of courtly discourse’ and its ‘self-interested insincerity’, Anne took this rejection one stage further by calling attention to the discourse’s fictions and refuting its language.169 For instance, by eschewing the adjective ‘gracieuse’ when referring to the ‘illness’ of lovesickness, she refrained from buying into the economy of courtly love by using its language.170 Conversely, by choosing to qualify ‘amour’ with the adjective ‘fol’ as a means of distinguishing between serious love and that of courtly love/literature, and by emphasising the ridiculousness of the lover’s demise, Anne highlighted the ambiguity of courtly literary rhetoric and its dangers for women, rather than courtoisie in and of itself, which, according to Bouchard, actually Fr. 2253, fol. 38r. Armstrong, The Virtuoso Circle, p. 2. 170 As noted above (p. 255), in his copy of the BDSM, Thiboust crossed out ‘gracieuse’ and added ‘amoureuse’, indicating that the nature of the ‘maladie’ was clearly up for debate. 168 169

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defines a feasible position for a courtly lady.171 Thus in her rondeau 26, Anne removes courtoisie’s association with ‘guerdon’ (payment/recompense) and ‘servitude’ and links it instead to ‘honnesteté’, ‘liberté’, ‘franchise’ and ‘honneur’.172 Following Chartier she also refers to the practice of reading, which again draws attention to the ambiguous nature of fiction itself. In rondeau 16 the Belle dame, says: ‘On ne se doit par livre amy clamer / Mais bien par cœur en amours s’enflamer / Ou aultrement c’est ung amant commun (One should not call themselves a lover according to a book / But through a loving heart / Or otherwise it is a lover common to all).173 The kind of love found in books is false and not to be trusted; if you love according to books (courtly literature) rather than letting your heart genuinely fall in love, then you share your lover with everyone, since all fiction is standardised. Somewhat ironically, then, this passage seems to undercut the Belle dame’s point in the sense that she, too, is a fiction. However, in rondeau 56 Anne includes a reference to reading that is not present in Chartier’s original. She exhorts the lover to stop with his foolish talk and states that ‘si vous lisez aisemeement [sic], aprendrez / Que espoir repaist les chetifz et tendrez’ (if you read, you’ll easily learn that hope puts out to pasture the sheepish and tender ones).174 Similarly, in her long authorial interjection at the end of the Beau roman, Anne de Graville pointed to the importance of her own book as a place in which appropriate behaviour and love can be learned, in contrast to the tales of abandoned women that Palamon sees on the walls of Venus’ temple. What is most beneficial, it would seem, is engaging in an active reading (and writing) practice that questions the kind of love found in literature, and reappropriates voices, to arrive at new understandings and ways of behaving. In this sense, Anne effects a shift in the nature of the querelle de la BDSM, moving it on from one of male authors debating with each other about a male-authored woman’s virtues and fate in the spaces of manuscripts to one in which, through the mise-en-page, a female author debates with a male author regarding chivalry’s ‘self-interested insincerity’. To return to the point made at the start of this chapter, by not completely rewriting the outcome of the BDSM or continuing the story but by keeping Chartier’s work continually ‘in play’, Anne was able to refine and rearticulate the debate by allowing the reader to study the changes in form and language.

Alain Chartier, Anne de Graville and Margaret of Navarre

As briefly examined in Chapter 4, Margaret of Navarre also engaged with Chartier’s work and its legacy in works such as La Coche and the Heptameron. La Coche uses the debate format that is almost synonymous with Chartier and the Blois coterie, and even refers Bouchard, ‘Les Belles [in]fidèles’, p. 192. Fr. 2253, fol. 15v; and see Bouchard, ‘Les Belles [in]fidèles’, p. 193. 173 Fr. 2253, fol. 10v. Chartier’s lady in huitain 42 similarly states that ‘Nul ne se doit amy clamer/ S’il n’est pas cœur ains que par livre’ (No one should call himself a lover / unless it comes from the heart, rather than from a book). 174 Fr. 2253, fol. 30v. 171 172



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to itself as ‘worthy of an Alain Chartier’ in its subject matter. The debate between three women over their experiences in love is written down by a fourth lady, the queen of Navarre and, like Anne’s Rondeaux, constitutes another example in which a woman author disrupts the dominant format of men ventriloquising women’s voices: even the debate’s judgement, ostensibly given to the king, is mediated by the king’s mistress, Anne de Pisseleu. Like the presentation scene of Christine de Pizan in Harley 4431 and those for the Rondeaux and the Beau roman, the presentation miniature in one copy of La Coche, discussed in the Introduction, similarly challenges the familiar image of a male author as the purveyor of knowledge (figs 2, 4, 5 and 6). Given that Margaret’s works post-date Anne’s Rondeaux by at least a decade, and given Anne’s close association with Louise as well as with Margaret and her literary circles in Bourges, the Rondeaux provide a previously unexplored precedent for Margaret’s use of Chartier, her own contribution to the querelle des femmes and women’s nuancing of the debate more broadly. In her most famous work, the Heptameron, Margaret referred twice to Chartier’s BDSM, in both cases ‘to highlight the elaboration of lovesickness and courtly discourse as strategies of seduction’.175 Frelick notes that ‘Chartier is criticized by womanizing devisants, who see his doctrine as spoiling their game, and praised by women, who speak of his teachings as profitable to young ladies’.176 These differences in opinion not only mirror the querelle de la BDSM in itself but also indicate that the debate about courtly language was still of concern in the mid-sixteenth century. The first reference to the BDSM occurs when one of the frame’s devisants, Dagoucin, tells a story (nouvelle 12) about a duke who is murdered by a man wishing to protect his sister and family honour. He then ‘addresses the female discussants in the frame, asking them not to allow their beauty to cause the kinds of cruel deaths evoked in the story he has just told’.177 According to Frelick, ‘Dagoucin seems to be blaming women not only for attracting such attention with their beauty – attention which leads to their downfall – but also for choices made by men unbeknownst to the ladies in question, as is the case with the murder of the duke’.178 That his statement was intended to recall the narrator’s admonishment at the end of the BDSM is suggested by the fact that another frame character, the female Parlamente, replies ‘“Dagoucin, la Belle Dame sans Mercy nous a apprins à dire: sy gracieuse malladye / ne mecte gueres de gens à mort!”’ (Dagoucin, the Belle dame sans mercy has taught us to say: such a gracious malady causes the death of no-one!).179 Whereas Parlament’s quotation might seem somewhat ironic in the case of the duke, given that he did indeed die (more specifically, was murdered), it points more broadly to the dangers for women from men afflicted with this ‘gracieuse malladye’. The tales told in the Heptameron ‘illustrate that what is often called love is more Frelick, p. 1. Frelick, p. 1. 177 Frelick, p. 2. 178 Frelick, p. 3. 179 Frelick, p. 3. She cites Margaret’s text from Marguerite de Navarre, Heptaméron, ed. by Renja Salminen (Geneva: Droz, 1999), p. 117. 175 176

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likely to harm women than men: women are treated as objects of desire and exchange and, as such, are often victimized by men who decide to take what they want by any means available to them, sometimes through subtlety, sometimes through force’.180 This resonates with other of the Belle dame’s arguments in the BDSM and developed by Anne in the Rondeaux, where she warns of the dangers of Faulx Semblant and Malenbouche, and the difficulties faced by women in defending themselves from attacks made against them. The second reference to Chartier comes in a discussion between Parlament and Simontault around women’s exercising of mercy where Simontault effectively quotes the Belle dame’s words in huitain 34 ‘Mais il siet bien que l’en le die / Pour plustost attraire confort’ (But it serves well to say so / to win consolation all the sooner):181 […] je sçay combien de foiz vous vous pleignez des dames; et toutesfois, nous vous voyons si joyeulx et en bon poinct qu’il n’est pas acroyre que vous ayez eu tous les maulx que vousdictes. Mais la Belle Dame sans mercy respond qu’il siet bien que l’on le dye, pour en tirer quelque confort. […] Je vous prie, dictes moy si c’est chose honneste à une dame d’avoir le nom d’estre sans pitié, sans charité, sans amour et sans mercy! Sans charité et amour, dist Parlamente, ne fault il pas qu’elles soient, mais ce mot de mercy sonne si mal entre les femmes qu’elles n’en peuvent user sans offencer leur honneur. Car proprement mercy est d’accorder la grace que l’on demande, et l’on sçait bien celles que les hommes desirent.182 ‘I know how many times you have complained about ladies; and yet, we see you so joyful and well that it is not possible to believe that you have had all these ills of which you speak. But the Belle dame sans mercy replies that it is appropriate that he say it in order to get some consolation from it […] I beg, you, tell me if it is an honest thing for a lady to be renowned for being without pity, without charity, without love and without mercy!’ ‘Without charity and love’, says Parlament, ‘they must not be, but this word mercy rings so badly amongst women that they cannot make use of it without offending their honour. Because really, mercy means granting what is being asked, and we know what men are after.’

Frelick points out that the debate highlights the difference between mercy in the Christian sense of compassion and charity, and its profane meaning, in the sense of granting physical favours.183 Parlament’s advice echoes that of the Belle dame in huitain 84 when she says ‘Pitié doit estre raisonnable / Et a nul desavantageuse’ (Pity must be reasonable, however, and to none disadvantageous).184 Bouchet has noted that this debate about the ‘validity of courtly love’ in the Heptameron also ‘allows us to perceive Marguerite de Navarre’s ideal, Frelick, pp. 4–5. Fr. 2253, fol. 6v. McRae in The Quarrel has the reading ‘Il chiet bien que l’on le die’; ‘chiet’ is a scribal change in her source manuscript but the meaning is similar: challoir to have importance, or consequence; sëoir used impersonally can mean ‘it is fitting/suitable’. 182 Quoted in Frelick, p. 9. 183 Frelick, pp. 9–10. 184 Fr. 2253, fol. 31r. 180 181



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namely a platonic “honnête amour” [honest love] built on the esteem and intercourse of souls’.185 Margaret’s vision of love may well have been inspired by, and could be considered an extension of, Anne’s ‘amytié parfaicte’ from the Beau roman. Anne de Graville’s take on Chartier’s huitain 84 in the Rondeaux picks up on the idea of a debate, with the use of the word querelle twice in the first stanza: Selon raison pitié n’est dommaigeuse Au pitiable ou desadvantaigeuse A cestuy la de qui on la querelle; Aussy peult on en honneste querelle Se courrousser sans facon oultraigeuse. Mais la pitié se monstre despiteuse Quant une dame est a aultruy piteuse Et on la voit envers elle cruelle Selon raison. On congoist bien a une malheureuse Qui a esté trop soudain amoureuse Que son amour devient hayne mortelle Et en aura une reproche telle Qu’on verra la fin fort douleureuse Selon raison.186 According to reason, pity is not harmful to the pitiable or disadvantageous to the one with whom one is debating it; Therefore one can, through an honest debate, Get angry without doing so with excess. But pity shows itself to be pitiless When a lady treats another with pity And we see it [pity] being cruel to her According to reason. One well knows for an unfortunate woman Who has fallen in love too quickly That her love becomes a mortal hatred And she will have such a reproach for it That the end will be very painful According to reason. Bouchet, p. 233. Fr. 2253, fol. 31v.

185 186

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Anne not only points out the dangers to the lady in exercising pity/mercy – cruelty to herself – but also indicates the circumstances in which this happens: when a woman falls in love – and presumably grants favours – too quickly. The implied reason for this, we can imagine, is men’s flattery and deceptive use of lovesickness to get what they want, as Parlament notes. In the Rondeaux manuscript, the mise-en-page serves to highlight the insincerity of the lover’s stance, since the reader first encounters Anne de Graville’s Lady’s reasonable (literally selon raison) argument and then moves to Chartier’s lover’s response in the margins: Conforter les desconfortez N’est pas cruaulté, mais est los; Mais vous qui si dur cueur portez En si beau corps, si dire le os, Gaigner le blasme et le desloz De cruaulté, qui mal y syet, Se pitié qui depart les lotz En vostre dur cuer ne se assiet.187 To comfort those who are discomforted Is not cruel but laudable. As for you, who hide a heart so hard In such a lovely body, if I dare to say, You shall incur reproach and accusation of cruelty For this, which would suit you badly, Unless Pity, who determines each man’s worth, Is found in your [hard] heart.188

The Lover warns her that her reputation will be tarnished unless she finds pity in her heart, but the Lady’s speech has already pre-empted this threat by pointing to the fate of women who show too much pitié /mercy in the sense that he desires. While it is not possible to prove that Margaret of Navarre read Anne’s work, the two women shared a courtly and literary milieu, with evidence that Anne spent time in Margaret’s household in the 1520s.189 Both women clearly used similar strategies to promote a pro-feminine stance: their works and their protagonists make use of the debate format but the authors themselves, by citing and nuancing Chartier’s words, and keeping him ‘in play’, move beyond the simple for/against structure. This strategy derives from the fact that the BDSM was evidently not, as noted earlier, read solely as a misogynistic work: some readers – fictional, like Parlamente, and not – saw his works as sympathetic to the Fr. 2253, fol. 31v. BDSM, huitain 85. The standard lesson for the final line is ‘En vostre hault cuer’, but the text in fr. 2253 has ‘dur’. 189 See Introduction, p. 11. 187 188



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situation of women within the discourses of courtly love. Thus, in the Heptameron, following her references to Chartier, Parlamente continues with stories that ‘poke […] fun at the courtly code’ and which, in one tale (nouvelle 13), figure an ‘intelligent woman who sees through the specious arguments of courtly rhetoric, maintaining her dignity and equanimity while using speech (and even deception) in a masterful way to uphold values that support what we might call the community of women’.190 Margaret’s work, like Anne de Graville’s Rondeaux and Catherine d’Amboise’s Livre des prudents discussed in Chapter 4, thus participates in a literary practice that sought to create a space in which women could find their voice and, to quote Frelick once more, offer ‘stimulating models to one another, in a manner similar to the City of Ladies’.191

* * * Anne de Graville’s reworking of the BDSM has been relatively overlooked in discussions of the querelle de la BDSM and its legacy, and of Chartier’s influence more generally. However, in the sustained exploration of the Rondeaux offered here, Anne’s poem emerges as a carefully crafted, and timely, work that has an important role to play in demonstrating the ongoing interest in the BDSM into the sixteenth century. Like the Beau roman, it also provides key evidence for the way that women participated in the shaping of the two main literary querelles, as both readers and writers. In adapting Chartier’s BDSM, Anne effectively extended the concerns and interests of the Blois court of the 1460s into the royal court of the 1520s, and did so on the pivot of her dedicatee, Louise. Her remaniement relied on the known involvement of women – especially Louise’s ‘ancestors’, Marie de Clèves and Marguerite de Rohan – in the querelle de la BDSM and related debates, as readers, writers and dedicatees. Her intention may have been to flatter Louise, by drawing a parallel not only between the bibliophilic regent and her literary in-laws, but also between the steadfast Belle dame and Louise herself, whose own refusal to remarry allowed her to remain ‘free’ and dedicate herself to her children and, eventually, to take the reins of the kingdom. If so, Anne may have been capitalising on Chartier’s reputation as a ‘good guide’, appropriating his text to set herself up, as Christine had done, as an advisor to a woman of power; the Belle dame, who sees through the speciousness of discourse and dispenses advice to the Lover, may also have been intended to evoke Louise in her role as counsellor to her son. Overall, however, the furore created by the BDSM was around the exercising of mercy and I suggest it is this term, or idea, which is key to understanding the text in relation to Louise. Mercy can be interpreted in two ways: recompense of the suffering lover, by sexual favours; and the ability to pardon – to grant, by goodwill, clemency or favour. Chartier’s Belle dame was, of course, damned by readers for her refusal to grant the lover mercy in the first sense, and Anne’s text is very much invested Frelick, p. 11. Müller, ‘Negotiating Space’, p. 49.

190 191

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in calling attention to the traps and deceit associated with courtly language that might lead a woman to be tricked into acquiescing to a lover’s demands. As such, Delogu finds Anne’s remaniement ‘more didactic’ than Chartier’s text and suggests that it functioned as a guide on how to resist the ‘siren call of love’, teaching ‘both men and women to conduct themselves according to reason, avoiding fol amour, and preserving honneur and honnesteté ’.192 Yet it seems that Anne (also) intended to draw on the other meaning of mercy in this work. The frontispiece links the creation of the Rondeaux to a series of events including Claude’s death, Louise’s appointment as regent and her acquisition of the Bourbon territories. With some members of Anne’s own family effectively in the constable’s camp, Anne may have found herself in a difficult position following the queen’s demise. If the Beau roman was a means for Anne to negotiate her – and her family’s – position at the French court in the midst of the Bourbon crisis, the Rondeaux were a means for Anne to consolidate her loyalty to the Crown. Her personal request, in the prologue, for Louise’s indulgence comes in the allusion to mercy, whereby Anne praises Louise as the woman ‘who pardons the ignorant of their mistakes’ and begs her to accept the work, since ‘in you lies my hope after God’. Written by a woman who sets herself up as both the advisor and the one in need of favour, the work made a plea to Louise – newly invested with the powers of regent and (soon-to-be) duchess of Bourbon – to show mercy or pitié both to her subjects more generally and also to Anne de Graville herself. Anne’s decision to share her literary erudition with, while seeking the protection of, the most powerful woman in France – and the most powerful person after the king himself – was certainly a savvy and strategic move.

192

Delogu, ‘A Fair Lady, p. 483; 485.

Conclusion: ‘Celle la qui porte le regnon’: A Last Word on Anne de Graville In 2018, the town library in Le Havre announced that it would be undergoing refurbishment, reopening in September 2020 with a new name, the ‘Bibliothèque Anne de Graville’.1 This decision puts Anne’s name very much on the map in one of the Norman towns with which she and her family were closely connected. The choice of name, rather than that of her more famous bibliophile father, Louis, is evidence of an increased willingness to shine a public light on the roles played by women in history.2 Anne certainly merits this public accolade: her inclusion in Tory’s Champfleury and the riddle on her name in fr. 24315 show that she had earned a reputation for her learning and literary skills during her lifetime. Yet, by the early twentieth century she was criticised for her lack of style and originality and the ‘crime’ of having transformed Boccaccio’s Teseida into a sentimental tale for women. Such, perhaps, are the turnings of Fortune’s wheel, the cruelties of which Anne was only too aware and from which she, like Christine de Pizan, sought solace in books and writing. However, Anne’s place in the wilderness cannot simply be attributed to this fickle mistress. Although the last forty or fifty years have seen scholars of art, book and literary history engage in the serious study of women as patrons and writers, Anne de Graville has continued to occupy a place on the sidelines, and the reasons for this remain largely rooted in historiography and in scholarly practices: the erasure of her first known patron, Claude of France, from the history books; the lack of scholarly editions of Anne’s works (and an academic system that tends not to reward such outputs adequately); an ongoing bias towards better-known and -documented male patrons; and the restrictive nature of historical periodisation, which tends to divide the medieval from the early modern in ways that do not always fit with Anne’s interests and activity.

Announced on the LH Biblio Facebook page 1 November 2018: www.facebook.com/LH.biblio/posts/2326030770760196 [accessed 30 August 2021]. 2 The admission in 2020 of Mary of Burgundy to the Netherlandish ‘canon’, replacing her son, Philip the Fair, is another case in point. See www.canonvannederland.nl/nl/page/141750/ de-canon-is-vernieuwd [accessed 30 August 2021]. 1

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Anne’s works and collections have been frequently, but often incorrectly, catalogued and cited: the focus on the libraries of her father and son-in-law has obscured the extent, as well as the very personal nature, of Anne’s own collection and that of her mother, Marie de Balsac. Chapter 1’s meticulous (re)analysis of manuscripts associated with Anne has resulted in the identification of some thirty to forty extant volumes that can, or very likely could, be placed in her hands: this means there is now solid, and specific, evidence to support the long-held claims that Anne was one of the most important bibliophiles of her day. The nature of her collecting practice shows that, in terms of taste, Anne stood at the crossroads between the late middle ages and the early modern period. On the one hand, her apparent preference for manuscripts over print and for works written prior to the mid-fifteenth century give her library a very medieval feel, as does the limited circulation of her own works in manuscript form. Yet, on the other hand, her library also reveals a keen interest in contemporary French poetic forms and genres, as well as a familiarity with leading poets and artists of the court. Moreover, the works that Anne owned suggest that the idea of a ‘feminine’ library should be revisited. While this concept gained currency in the early days of research into women’s book ownership, the parameters it set – namely, women’s ownership of devotional and romance texts – now risk restricting our understanding of what women read, or what we seek to identify as important in their collections. The very specific nature of the volumes Anne de Graville acquired shows that investigating individual women’s collections on their own terms, as is often done for male patrons, may well lead to alternative interpretations that shift expectations around women’s collecting and reading habits. This is perhaps especially true at the turn of the sixteenth century, with its radical technological and religious changes. It is not only the medieval and early modern that interact in this study: the links highlighted here between the works that Anne read and those that she wrote encourage a closer look at the dynamic relationship between these two activities and might usefully serve as a model for (re)investigating other writer-collectors, both men and women. Chapters 2 and 3 explored how Anne’s reputation and activity as a reader are witnessed in a variety of manuscripts that she was offered, owned or commissioned. The luxurious Chaldean Histories, illuminated by the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, shows her as the privileged recipient of this personalised translation of ancient history that was intended to counter the negative fall-out from her marriage. The group of manuscripts linking Anne to Rouen is evidence of her close association with, and reputation within, the city’s literary scene. In teasing out the presence, in many of the manuscripts discussed in these two chapters, of works of literary ‘translation’ and remaniement, or the showcasing of different poetic styles such as the rondeau, this study has provided a far richer context for interpreting Anne’s own writing than has previously been available. Moreover, these manuscripts also foreground Anne’s identity as a reader/writer of ancient and well-connected lineage. Coquinvilliers’s prologue to the Rouen Puy collection, for instance, situates Anne within, and as the continuation of, Norman and Graville family history. Anne herself employed decorative and linguistic strategies of self-fashioning in



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the decoration of her manuscripts, forging links with the writers Christine de Pizan and Marie de Clèves as well as the monarchy past and present. The Rouen-made Triumphs manuscript, in which all of Anne’s devices come together – the anagrams on her name, her motto musas natura, lachrymas fortuna, the chantepleure device, the Graville fermaux as well as her impaled arms – stands out in particular as a celebration of her heritage, learning and affiliations, and perhaps drew attention to her own ‘triumphs’ following the successful reinstatement of her inheritance. Such confidence in her own reputation is discernible, too, in the Beau roman and Rondeaux presentation miniatures where she is shown handing on her literary skill and knowledge, gleaned from her collection, to the most important women of her day in compositions that disrupt, à la Christine, the cultural privilege of the male author/male reader. Christine de Pizan – also an avid reader – played an important part both in Anne’s library and in the subject matter and tone of the pro-feminine works that she wrote. Anne meticulously annotated both her and her mother’s copies of the Mutacion de Fortune, and she was evidently interested in the works on which Christine drew, including Boccaccio’s Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César and the Jeu des eschés moralisé. In bringing Anne’s reading and writing into dialogue with Christine and with other women authors like Anne of France, Catherine d’Amboise and Margaret of Navarre, Chapter 4 showed that, by the late fifteenth century, Christine’s was not the only voice fighting against the misogynistic literary tradition. These women took up Christine’s cause to different degrees by producing works that continued, and nuanced, the querelle des femmes: highlighting their interventions demonstrates the longue durée of women’s interest in the querelle and bridges the gap from Christine’s writing of the early 1400s and that of Louise Labé and others in the later 1500s. It is hoped that, having established Anne de Graville’s key role in the pro-feminine debates of the 1520s, as well as her courtly and literary relationship to both Catherine d’Amboise and Margaret of Navarre (whose works are more often considered alongside those of Labé), it will be possible to flesh out further these sustained literary connections between women writers and their contribution to the shaping of the querelle. Anne’s collection shows a predilection for works that, while not all strictly querelle works in the traditional sense, would have allowed readers to interact with that debate through a range of themes: conduct or moralising literature; different (and sometimes problematic) manifestations of women’s behaviour, such as the Amazons, the wicked stepmother in the Sept Sages and the louche and sexually voracious Dame de Belles Cousines; and the dangers for women of the fictions and language of love found in the BDSM and Arthurian romance. The nature and breadth of the querelle, and access to it, thus appear wider than we might initially presume: in this sense, both of Anne’s surviving works, as well as those of Anne of France, Catherine d’Amboise and Margaret of Navarre, ask us to think more creatively about what might have constituted a querelle des femmes text in the early sixteenth century. Like her contemporaries, Anne de Graville did not use the catalogue format that characterises many defences, nor did she overtly seek to defend women

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in the way Christine had done. However, through the modifications that she made to her source texts and her own interjections, she offered alternative conceptions of male–female relations to that of service and recompense that were circulating in courtly literature, and she re-gendered the author–reader dynamic. In the Beau roman, by truncating the Livre de Thezeo and changing the title to C’est le beau roman des deux amants, Palamon et Arcita et de la belle et saige Emilia, she focused the story more closely on Emilia and the cousins’ rivalry. With the development of the scene at Venus’ temple, Anne demonstrated her wide reading experience – and asked her readers to use theirs too – and pointed to the fallacies of literary manifestations of love, proposing instead a vision of love that is based on harmony and equality. Palamon and Emilia end the Beau roman in a union of ‘amytié parfaicte’ that is a model for the modern court. Similarly, in the Rondeaux, although Anne used the debate format that was central to the querelle de la BDSM, she did not do so simply to oppose, and completely refute, Chartier’s work. In contrast to the original continuations in which, as Solterer has shown, the Belle dame was put on trial ‘over and over again’, making ‘the literary character and not the writer accountable’, Anne’s Rondeaux sets up a dialogue between her work and that of ‘maistre Allain’ that is deliberately and carefully played out in the mise-en-page of the manuscript.3 Although Chartier is relegated to the margins, he and not the Belle dame, remains a constant point of reference. In this way, Anne nuanced a work that had deliberately been left ambiguous, but she did so in a way that often reinforces the Belle dame’s position as put forward in the original. The for-and-against nature of the original querelle de la BDSM – around the lady’s reputation – is thus absent from Anne’s intervention, although the for-and-against debate between the two protagonists, in which the lady frequently makes the lover look ridiculous, is retained, and is mirrored in the meta-debate between Anne and Alain. The majority of Anne’s literary activity – her acquisition of books as well her writing – occurred in the period following the final resolution of her inheritance, which gave her the means to develop her collection and to increase her visibility in and around the court. The assumption that Anne was Queen Claude’s dame d’honneur remains difficult to prove; instead, a more complex picture of her relationships with Anne of France, Queen Claude, Margaret of Navarre and Louise of Savoy has come to light, not least with the identification of Louise as the recipient of the Rondeaux. Anne’s evident involvement in the production of copies of the Beau roman begs the question of who (else) she was targeting with this work, written at the queen’s command, that has a seemingly political, as well as a pro-feminine, agenda. Whereas Arsenal 5116 appears to be the dedication copy, the overpainted coat of arms, as well as the elaborate frontispiece in the Chantilly copy, complicate this hypothesis. The creation of the Beau roman in the year or so following the Field of the Cloth of Gold, when Francis I was navigating a series of rivalries, stages women as peacemakers and has the main protagonists thwarting Fortune’s wheel in their obedience 3

Solterer, p. 195.



A Last Word on Anne de Graville 291

to the monarch’s will. If Claude was to read Emilia as a model for her own role as a pacifying force in the king’s affairs – notably that of the connétable – then perhaps Anne, via the medium of her work, was also playing a mediating role, using copies of the book to negotiate between the different factions of her extended family and the monarchy. Only a technical analysis might show what the altered arms and background in the Arsenal and Chantilly copies originally showed, but if the Arsenal copy were intended for her niece, Louise de Vendôme, left disinherited by her marriage to the constable’s chambellan, it would be evidence of Anne consolidating family ties and offering Louise timely advice under the aegis of Claude’s protection. The newly discovered frontispiece for the Rondeaux now situates this work around 1524–26, just following the constable’s defection and the death of Claude, when Louise became regent for the second time. Louise, an avid bibliophile, would have been a logical target for a writer who had previously served the sovereign and who was perhaps enjoying time and literary discussion in the household of her daughter, Margaret of Navarre. Moreover, if Anne had found herself caught up in the Bourbon affair due to family loyalties, what better way to try to stabilise her position than by appealing to the king’s mother and powerful regent? Anne’s adaptation of Chartier’s polemical debate poem and its evocation of the querelle de la BDSM at a number of levels, not least the manuscript’s mise-en-page, is a literary feat in itself. That the Rondeaux were written for Louise and not Claude further inflects understanding of Louise, her collection, her politics and her self-fashioning. In particular, the association between Chartier, the querelle de la BDSM and the Blois coterie frequented by Louise’s in-laws appears to have held a certain significance for the regent that Anne de Graville tapped into, but which has previously gone unremarked. Drawing on Chartier’s enduring popularity, his reputation as a ‘good guide’ and his Belle dame character who had dared to challenge the courtly code, Anne used the Rondeaux to turn the tables on the master narrative that left women at the mercy of men’s deceptive and defamatory language, placing herself, her heroine and her patron Louise – all three ‘good guides’ – centre stage in text and image. The aim of Anne de Graville and Women’s Literary Networks in Early Modern France has been to demonstrate Anne’s importance as a bibliophile, patron and author at the turn of the sixteenth century not just in her own right but in a way that adds more depth and colour to the fields of book history, art history, French literature and medieval and early modern gender studies. The scholar plays a crucial role in deciding which stories to tell, and this book has highlighted the fact that there is still work to be done to bring women’s cultural and literary contributions to the fore. Telling this particular story, however, is not simply the addition of one more woman to the mix as a means of redressing a broader bias in scholarship: it is hoped that it will inflect what we already know of well-established debates and figures, and encourage new ways of approaching and interpreting the part played by women in shaping culture. Like that of Christine de Pizan, Anne’s voice is worth listening to, and she deserves to be taken seriously as a writer and collector. More manuscripts from her collection may yet emerge and, as with her sister-in-law and contemporary

2 9 2

ANNE DE GRAVILLE AND WOMEN’S LITERARY NETWORKS

Catherine d’Amboise, perhaps more works by her hand will be identified. The continued study of Anne de Graville’s reading and writing and the connections that she wove with her political and literary milieus, past and present, should further consolidate her place amongst the most erudite, and pro-feminine, of early sixteenth-century authors.

Appendix A: Books Inherited, Acquired, Commissioned by or Associated with Anne de Graville

London, BL, Egerton Helie de Boron, 1475 MS 989 Roman de Tristan

New Haven, Beinecke, Marston MS 274

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 254

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5730

2

3

4

5

1

Paper

Paper

Vellum

Late Vellum 15th/early 16th C

Inscribed: ‘A Anne de Graville de la succession de feu monseigneur l’admiral. Ve XVIII’ (flyleaf A verso)

Inscribed: ‘A dame Anne de Graville de la succession de feu monseigneur l’admiral Vc xviij’ (fol. 2r) Marie de Balsac’s arms throughout

Inscribed: ‘A Anne de Graville de la succession de feu monseigneur l’admiral Vc xviij’ (flyleaf verso)

Inscribed: ‘A Anne de Graville de la succession de feu monseigneur l’admiral mil Vc xviii’ (fol. 1r)

Inscribed: ‘A Anne de Graville de la succession de feu monseigneur l’admiral mil Vc xviii’ (fol. 1r, partially trimmed)

L1, no. 37: “Chronique Bretagne, tres ancien”

Presence in d’Urfé Support Indications of provenance inventory1

Internally Vellum dated 1467

References are to the list in Appendix B.

Prières à l’usage de Charles V

Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (second redaction)

Leonardo Bruni, Bataille puniques, trans. Lebègue

Second half of 15th C

Lancelot en prose c. 1300

Chicago, Newberry Library, MS f. 21

Inherited by Anne from her parents

1

Date

Title

No. Shelfmark

Yes

Yes

d’Urfé binding

Autrand proposes prayer in 16th-C hand (‘Oroison à la croix’, ff. 20r–21v) may have been composed by Anne de Graville

Marie de Balsac’s arms added after the first campaign. Wrongly listed by BnF as by Raoul Lefèvre

Saengar identified the MS as being that mentioned in the d’Urfe inventory

Notes

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 20853

Paris, BnF, mss fr. 22548-50

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 23932

Paris, Bnf, ms nafr. 1880

6

7

8

9

Marco Polo, Devisement du monde

Paper

Late Paper 15th–early 16th C

Inventaire des 16th C meubles et joyaux du Charles V

Vellum

Late 15th/ Vellum early 16th C

Les Sept Sages de 14th C Rome

Recueil de pièces sur les Croisades et les guerres françaises, sur la population de la France et l’Hôtel du roi (XIIIeXIVe siècles)

Inscribed: ‘A Anne de Graville de la succession du feu monseigneur [erasure] l’admiral Vc xviij’ (fol. 1v)

Inscribed: ‘A Anne de Graville a la succession du feu monseigneur l’admiral Vc xviii’ (pastedown)

fr. 22548: Marie de Balsac’s arms (painted over original decoration, fol. 1r) fr. 22549: Louis de Graville’s and Marie de Balsac’s arms (fol. 1r); inscribed ‘Gravile’ [sic] (bas-de-page, fol. 178r) fr. 22550: Marie de Balsac’s arms (fol. 1r)

Inscribed: ‘A Anne de Graville de la succession de feu monseigneur l’admiral Vc xviij’ (verso of flyleaf )

L1, nos 29–31: ‘Premier volume des histoires de Marques de Rome, Laurin, Cassiodorus, Peliarmeneus et plusieurs autres empereurs de Rome et de Constantinople, manuscript en vélin, enrichy de figures’; ‘Second volume desdictes histoires, manuscript en vélin, enrichy de figures’; ‘Troisieme volume desdictes histoires’

Yes

Yes (green velvet with metalwork corners)

Private Collection, formerly Basel, Jörn Günther Rare Books (ex-Schoyen Collection MS 268)

11

12

Marco Polo, Devisement du monde

Paris, Arsenal, ms 3511

10

Christine de c. Pizan, Mutacion 1410–11 de Fortune

Likely or possibly inherited

Munich, BSB, Cod. Gall. 11

Early 16th C

Date

Boccaccio, Des c. 1475 cas des nobles hommes et femmes, trans. Premierfait (second redaction, 1409)

Inherited by Anne from her parents

Title

No. Shelfmark Inscribed: ‘A Anne de Graville de la succession du feu [….] amiral Vc viij’ (flyleaf, visible under UV light) Anne’s coat of arms, chantepleure device and motto on fol. 1r

Vellum

Marie de Balsac’s arms (fol. 2r) Inscribed: ‘A Monseigneur de Montagu’ (bas-de-page, fol. 2r)

Opening Inscribed: ‘A madamoiselle miniature Anne de Graville Vc xviij’ on (fol. 1r) vellum; the rest on paper

Vellum

L 1, no. 18 [?] ‘Traduction françoise de Boccace Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, manuscript en vélin’

Presence in d’Urfé Support Indications of provenance inventory

d’Urfé binding

Similarities in text and annotations to Arsenal 3172; illuminated by the Master of the City of Ladies; unusually, states that it was finished ‘8 novembre 1403’

Notes

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 20350

Paris, BnF, ms lat. 8838

St Petersburg, NLR, ms fr. fol. v. XIV.7

Private Collection, formerly in the collection of PaulLouis Weiller; sold Gros & Delettrez, 8 April 2011 (lot. 549)

13

14

15

16

Froissart, Chroniques (book 1),

Alain Chartier, BDSM, and works of the querelle de la BDSM

Proces de rehabilitation de Jeanne d’Arc et Siège d’Orléans

Grandes chroniques de France

Vellum

1415–20

Vellum

Vellum

Mid 15th Vellum and early 16th C

14th C

Marie de Balsac’s arms (fol. 1r?)

Inscribed: ‘Pour Monseigneur de Marcoussis’ (fol. 2r) Inscribed: ‘Francois Martel’ (front flyleaf ) and ‘de Bacqueville’ (fol. 152v) L1, no. 25[?]

Graville arms added fols [4v] L1, no. 25 [ ?] and [5r]; inscriptions relating to the births of the children of Anne’s son, Guillaume de Balsac and Louise d’Humières (final folio verso)

Yes

Also a candidate for the ‘Chroniques’ returned to Anne (see no. 13) from Rouen

Cf. same inscription in same hand in Policraticus (no. 38) and Paris, Arsenal, ms 5210 Roman de la Rose; likely the main source of the text of the BDSM reproduced in the Rondeaux

The basis of a French translation made at Louis de Graville’s instigation

MS is not foliated; Deldicque proposes it may have been owned instead by Jeanne de Graville; and/or may be the ‘Chroniques’ mentioned in Rouen archives as being returned to Anne (c.f. Froissart below)

Paris, Arsenal, ms 2691

Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 10053,

Oxford, Bodl., Douce Robert de Boron, 14th C MS 178 Roman du Graal

Lille, BM, ms 130 (190)

Paris, Arsenal, ms 2776

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24368

18

19

20

21

22

23

Auberi le Bourguignon

13th C

Jacques de 14th C Longuyon, Voeux du Paon and Jean le Court, Restor du Paon

Collection of 14th C works including Ami et Amile (prose)

Histoire ancienne 15th C jusqu’à César (second redaction, abridged)

Recueil (Secret des 15th C secrets, Livre de Mélibée…)

Vellum

Vellum

Vellum

Vellum

Paper

Vellum

Inscribed: ‘Anne de Graville’ L2, no. 54 ‘Roman (fol. 1r) d’Aubry, en vers, manuscript, en vélin’

Inscribed: ‘A madamoiselle Anne de Graville dame du bois mallesherbes Vc xxi / Achetté a Rouen’ (fol. 1r)

Inscribed: ‘A madamoiselle Anne de Graville dame du bois de mallesherbes Vc xxi / Achetté a Rouen’ (flyleaf )

Inscribed: ‘Anne de Graville suis’ (fol. 148r)

Inscribed: ‘A madamoiselle L2, no. 3 ‘Histoire Anne de graville dame du d’Orose, tradution (sic) boys de mallesherbes Vc xxi / françoise mansucripte’ Achetté à Rouen’ (fol. 1r)

Inscribed: ‘A Anne de Graville Vc xxi / Achetté à Rouen’ and ‘A monsieur d’Urfé’ (fol. 2r)

Portrait of Anne and dedication to her (fols 2v–3r)

Presence in d’Urfé Support Indications of provenance inventory

c. 1508–10 Vellum

Chaldean Histories

Abu Dhabi, Louvre, LAD 2014.029

Books acquired by Anne

17

Date

Title

No. Shelfmark

Yes

No but ex-libris of Claude d’Urfé

d’Urfé binding

BnF catalogue gives the title ‘Livre d’Orose’

Personalised translation of Annius da Viterbo’s Antiquities presented to Anne by Pierre de Balsac

Notes

London, BL, Cotton MS Nero D IX

Basel, Ami and Amile, 1425 Universitätsbibliothek, version in F IV 44 alexandrine rhyme

28

29

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25441

Paris, BHVP, 4-MSRes-010, formerly MS 527

27

30

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25535

Anne de Graville, Beau Roman

Antoine de La Sale, Petit Jehan de Saintré and Rasse de Brunhamel, Floridan et Elvide

1521–24

c. 1475– 1500

c. 1524

Collection of 14th C works including the Jeu des eschés moralisé

Chants royaux, ballades et rondeaux

14th C

26

Vie des Peres

Paris, BnF, ms 24758

13th C

25

Anseis de Metz

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24377

24

Vellum

Paper

Vellum

Paper

Vellum

Vellum

Vellum

Inscriptions relating to Jeanne and Claude d’Urfé (fols 3r–4r)

Inscribed: ‘A madamoiselle Anne de Graville Vc xxi’ (flyleaf )

Inscribed: ‘A madamoiselle Anne de Graville dame du boys de mallesherbes et Contesse de sainct yon’ (fol. 1v)

Inscribed: ‘A madamoiselle Anne de Graville, dame du bois de mallesherbes Vc xxij’ (fol. 2r)

L2, no. 44 [?] ‘Roman d’Amilles et d’Amis, manuscript’

Dedication ‘A haulte et L2, no. 17 ‘manuscript puissante madamoiselle […] de chantes (sic) royaux, Anne de Graville’ (fol. 5r) by rondeaux et balladées’ Nicolas de Coquinvilliers

Inscribed: ‘A madamoiselle Anne de Graville Vc xxi’ (fol. 1v)

Inscribed: ‘A madamoiselle Anne de Graville Vc xxi’ and ‘A Monseigneur d’Urfé’ (flyleaf )

Yes

Yes

Yes

Poems presented at the Rouen Puy of 1524

Location Unknown (formerly Huth Library)

32

33

Virgil, Georgics, first edition of French trans. by Guillaume Michel

Private collection, Paris, Drouot, sale 28 March 2007 (no. 2)

31

Oxford, Bodl., Douce Livre de Thezeo MS 329 (French miseen-prose of the Teseida)

Likely acquired

Paris et Vienne

Books acquired by Anne

Title

No. Shelfmark

Mid 15th C

15th C

Paris, DurandGerlier, 1519

Date

Paper

Paper

Inscribed ‘A madamoiselle Anne de Graville dame du boys malesherbes’

Paper [?] Sale catalogue notes inscription of Anne’s name

d’Urfé binding

L2, no. 1 ‘Histoire de Yes Theseus Palamon et de la belle Emilya, manuscript’

Presence in d’Urfé Support Indications of provenance inventory

Lacunae match those in the Beau roman (Bianciotto)

Catalogue description notes: ‘Edition originale de la première traduction française. Traduction de Guillaume de Tours. Initiales ornées, titre en deux couleurs, lettres gothiques. Reliure signée de Trautz-Bauzonnet […] Provenance: Madamoiselle Anne de Graville (inscription manuscrite contemporaine à l’encre sur la page de titre)’

Notes

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541

Paris, Arsenal, ms 3172

36

Commissions

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24315

35

34

Not before 1513

Christine de 16th C Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune

Petrarch, 1520–25 Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernardo Illicino (anonymous translation into French)

Collection of poetry and Guillaume Tasserie’s Le Triomphe des Normands

Paper

Vellum

Paper

Quartered arms of GravilleBalsac charged with Visconti/Entragues [?] (fol. 1r)

Quartered arms Graville/ Balsac with Visconti charge (fol. 77v); and multiple instances of anagrams on Anne’s name; chantepleure device and mottos; P&N in borders; arms of Pierre de Balsac; and Graville fermaux

Riddle on Anne’s name added to top of fol. 1r

L1, no. 14 ‘Commentaires françois sur le texte italien des Triomphes de François Pétrarque, manuscript en vélin, enrichy de figures’ Yes

Yes

Lacks the opening rubrics and Books VI and VII; includes textual and annotational similarities to the Munich copy (no. 12)

Also includes copy (dated 1561) of notices (dated 1457) relating to donations made to the abbey of Montebourg by members of the Graville family. Content very similar to Edinburgh, Advocates Library MS 19.1.4, in a d’Urfé binding.

Title

Date

San Marino, Huntington Library, MS 1163

Tours, BM, ms 2128

Paris, SainteGeneviève, mss 1144-45

37

38

39

John of Salisbury, Policraticus, trans. by Foulechat

Christine de Pizan, Livre des trois vertus

Book of Hours

15th C

1480s

Vellum

Vellum

1144 inscribed: ‘Pour Monseigneur de Marcoussis’ (flyleaf )

d’Urfé arms (fol. 1r)

Graville arms (fol. 62r), Balsac arms (fol. 22v)

? L2, no. 53: ‘Livre des Trois vertus pour l’enseignement des dames, manuscript en vélin’

Presence in d’Urfé Support Indications of provenance inventory

Manuscripts sometimes associated with Anne in existing literature

No. Shelfmark

d’Urfé binding

1145 contains a miniature by Etienne Colaud which Cousseau argues was added by Anne; the two volumes were possibly not originally a pair

The date of the MS and the d’Urfé connection make it a compelling candidate but there is no evidence of Anne’s ownership.

Originally made for Louis de Graville and Marie de Balsac [?]; Deldicque suggests the Balsac arms are an overpainting and the MS was acquired by Pierre de Balsac

Notes

Paris, AN, MM684L/ Armorial le AE 25, no. 6 Breton

41

Rondeaux

Lille, BM, ms 402 (308)

40

c. 1510

Vellum

The impaled arms used by Marie de Balsac have been added (line drawing) to pp. 4 and 62 and are identified as ‘madamoiselle de Graville’; others of families close to Anne have also been added on pp. 62 and 64

De Boos et al. suggest that the book was in Anne’s possession although this is primarily based on identifying Marie’s arms as Anne’s

Macey, following Françon, suggests that the ‘N-E’ decoration refers to the name ‘Anne’; includes acrostic rondeaux on the names of Louise and Jeanne de Graville

Appendix B Inventory of the d’Urfé Library at La Bâtie, c. 1780 Amsterdam, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Remonstrantsche Kerk III. C. 21 Reproduced from André Vernet’s typescript held in the IRHT1 List 1

[page 1] 1. Le Roman de la rose, manuscript [sic] en vélin. 2.

Poésies de Du Lyon, manuscript en vélin.

3.

Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune, en vers, manuscript en vélin, datté du 18 novembre de l’année 14032

4.

Josèphe de l’Antiquité des Juifs et du Martire des Macabées, en vélin, enrichy de figures, imprimé à Paris le 15 avril l’an 15343

5.

Annales de Nicolas Gilles, en vélin, enrichyes de figures, imprimé à Paris l’an 1547.

6.

Livre de desseins d’architecture, en vélin, contenant quarante-cinq desseins.

7.

Histoire de Troye, manuscript en vélin, et dans la première partie du mesme volume il y a diverses histoires des héros de l’Antiquité.4

‘sic’ in parentheses are part of Vernet’s original the transcription; sic in square brackets are mine and I have used the indication once only where the same word is repeated (e.g. ‘manuscript’). I have identified works where possible, especially where they are not necessarily obvious, and indicate where they can be identified with a particular manuscript or printed book. 2 Unlikely to be either Anne’s Arsenal copy (ms 3172), which has no date, or the Munich copy, Cod. Gall. 11, which is dated 8 November. 3 French translation of Flavius Josephus’s De bello Judaico by Guillaume Michel (Paris: Nicolas Cousteau and Galliot du Pré, 1534). 4 ? Paris, Bnf, fr. 254, Histoire ancienne jusqu’à césar. 1



Appendix B 305

8.

Livre de chronologie intitulé De temporibus mondy, imprimé à Nuremberg l’an 1403 (sic), remply de figures tant des images des Roys, Empereurs, Souverains pontifes et autres personnes considérables en tous les temps que des plans des villes et de cartes des provinces et des royaumes.5

9.

Manuscript en vélin intitulé les Antiennes histoires des roys et des royaumes de toutes les parties du monde et le commandement des empereurs de Rome.

10. Histoires de Jule Cesar et de Pompée, manuscript en vélin, enrichy de figures. 11. Traduction françoise des Epitres et Evangiles de toute l’année, manuscript en vélin.6 [page 2] 12 Le Songe du Verger, manuscript, ou Dialogue entre un clerc et un chevalier contenant les plaintes des eclésiastiques [sic] contre les nobles et des nobles contre les eclésiastiques et les responses et justifications des uns et des autres.7 13. Valerius Maximus traduit en françois, manuscript en vélin, enrichy de figures, datté de l’an 1401.8 14. Commentaires françois sur le texte italien des Triomphes de François Pétrarque, manuscript en vélin, enrichy de figures.9 15. Traduction françoise d’un ancien livre intitulé De proprietatibus rerum, manuscrit en vélin, enrichy de figures.10 16. Histoire de France par Guillaume de Nangis, manuscript en vélin.11 17. Histoire de vers du preux conte Aymery de Narbonne, manuscript en vélin.12 18. Traduction françoise de Boccace Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, manuscript en vélin.13 A Latin edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle. Jean de Vignay (attrib.), Les epistres et les euvangiles de tout l’an. 7 ? St Petersburg, NLR, fr. fol. p. II. 94, written on paper, d’Urfé arms with collar of the order of St Michael; Jonas suggests owned by Pierre II d’Urfé. 8 Likely to be Nicolas de Gonesse’s translation of Valerius Maximus’s Facta et dicta memorabilia libri IX, c. 1400–01 that completed and added to that begun by Simon de Hesdin. 9 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541, commissioned by Anne. 10 Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De proprietatibus rerum. 11 ? Aix-en-Provence, BM, ms 431, Chroniques amplifiée de rois de France, added frontispiece with d’Urfé arms and presentation scene (to Francis I?). 12 Aimery de Narbonne, chanson de geste. 13 ? Copy previously at Jörn Günther Rare Books (largely on paper). 5 6

3 0 6

Appendix B

19. Premier volume de l’Hystoire d’Enguerrand de Monstrelet, imprimé en vélin.14 20. Second volume de ladite Hystoire, enrichy de figures.15 21. Troisieme volume de ladicte Histoire, enrichy de figures.16 22. Hystoires des Grecs, Troyens, Assyriens, Macedonienns (sic) et Macabées par le sieur de Courcj gentilhimme normand, manuscript en vélin, enrichy de figures.17 23. La Forteresse de la foy, fort grand volume manuscript en vélin.18 24. Traduction françoise de la Bible, manuscript en vélin, enrichy de figures. 25. Chroniques de France par Jean Froissart, manuscript en vélin, volume premier. [page 3] 26. Histoires des Grecs, manuscript en vélin. 27. Le Songe du vieus pèlerin, composé l’an 1397 par Philippe de Maisières, chancellier de Chypres, manuscript en vélin.19 28. Historia orientalis, manuscripta in charta verucrina (sic).20 29. Premier volume des histoires de Marques de Rome, Laurin, Cassiodorus, Peliarmeneus et plusieurs autres empereurs de Rome et de Constantinople, manuscript en vélin, enrichy de figures.21

This and the two subsequent volumes must be Enguerrand de Monstrelet’s Chronique (second edition, printed in Paris by Vérard c. 1503), now in Paris, BnF, vélins 751–53; the arms of Claude d’Urfé have been added at several points in the volumes. See Hanno Wijsman, ‘History in Transition: Enguerrand de Monstrelet’s Chronique in Manuscript and Print, c. 1450–1600’, in The Book Triumphant: Print and Transition in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ed. by Malcolm Walsby and Graeme Kemp (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 191–252 (p. 237) and Winn, Antoine Vérard, pp. 186–89, who suggests the set may have been originally intended for Francis I. 15 Paris, BnF, vélins 752. 16 Paris, BnF, vélins 753. 17 Paris, Arsenal, ms 3691, Jean de Courcy, La Boucquechardière, inscribed ‘Monsieur d’Urfé’. 18 Pierre Richart’s translation of Alphonse de Spina’s Fortalitium Fidei, probably Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 84; see LV, i, no. 815. 19 ? Paris BnF, ms nafr. 25164, Philippe de Mézières, Le Songe du vieil pelerin, inscription by Robert le Loup (d. 1540) and d’Urfé ex-libris. 20 ? Jacques de Vitry, Historia Orientalis. 21 Paris, BnF ms fr. 22548; Les Sept Sages de Rome. 14



Appendix B 307

30. Second volume desdictes histoires, manuscript en vélin, enrichy de figures.22 31. Troisieme volume desdictes histoires.23 32. Traduction de l’Enéide de Virgile en vers françois, manuscript en vélin.24 33. Breviarium secundum consuetudinem Romane ecclesie, manuscript in charta veruchina, illustratum figuris. 34. Traduction en vers françois des Métamorphoses d’Ovide avec leurs allégories, manuscript en vélin.25 35. Phalterium (sic) davidicum, manuscriptum in charta verucin [35 bis]. Livre de doctrine, manuscript en vélin. 36. Institution sur le faict de la guerre, livre imprimé à Paris, en vélin, l’an 1548.26 37. Chronique de Bretagnes, très ancien manuscript en vélin.27 38. Phalterium (sic) et Manuale orationum, illustratum figuris, manuscriptum in charta verucina.28 39. Biblia sacra, in charta verucina. 40. Poésie invective contre le mariage et les femmes, manuscript en vélin. 41. La Chasse et le Despart d’Amours par St. Gelais, évesque d’Angoulesme, imprimé en vélin l’an 1509 à Paris.29 [page 4] 42. Livre de chansons, la pluspart mises en tablature, manuscript en vélin.30 43. Légendes des saincts et sainctes, manuscript en vélin. 44. Roman du moyne des Pélerins de la vie humaine, manuscript en vélin.31 24 25 26 22 23

29 30 31 27 28

Paris, BnF ms fr. 22549; Les Sept Sages de Rome. Paris, BnF ms fr. 22550; Les Sept Sages de Rome. ? Octovien de Saint-Gelais’s translation (only four MSS extant). ? LV, ii, no. 2786 (Vernet, ‘Les manuscrits’, p. 90). Guillaume Du Bellay, Instructions sur le faict de la Guerre (Paris: Galliot Ier Du Pré and Michel de Vascosan, 1548). Chicago, Newberry Library, MS f. 21, Lancelot en prose (see Saengar). ? The so-called ‘d’Urfé’ Psalter, sold Paris, Binoche et Giquello, 4 June 2021, lot 18. Edition printed by Vérard, 1509. ? Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24406, Chansonnier V, arms of Claude d’Urfé on fol. 1v. Guillaume Deguileville, Pèlerinage de la Vie humaine.

3 0 8

Appendix B

45. Livre apellé du Trésor, mansucript en vélin, traitant de la nessance de toutes choses et de la nouvelle loy et de la nature de tous animaux, des vices et des vertus et de la politique.32 46. Roman de Merlin, manuscript en vélin. 47. Libert de signis celestibus et imaginibus astronomicis, illustratus figuris manuscriptus in charta verucina. 48. Le livre qui est après le Trésors qui parle de la nessance detouts choses, mansucript en vélin.33 49. Traicté des anges par F. Francois Comminez (sic), de l’ordre des frères mineurs, manuscript en vélin.34 50. Les Généalogies, faicts et gestes des papes, empereurs et roys de France par Jean Platine, imprimé, en vélin, à Paris l’an 1518.35 51. Le Décaméron ou les Cents nouvelles de Boccace, imprimé, en vélin, à Paris.36 52. Lactance Firmien des Divines Institutions, traductions françoises, imprimé, en vélin, à Paris 1544. 53. Psalterium cum glossa, manuscriptum in charta agnina. 54. Chroniques annales d’Angleterre et Bretagnie par Alain Bouchard, imprimé, en vélin, à Paris, l’an 1531.37 55. Egisippus de Judaico bello et subversione Jerosolymorum manuscriptus in charta agnina.38 [page 5] 56. Le Roman de la rose, manuscript en vélin, enrichy de figures.39 57. Histoires des empires despuis le déluge jusques à Jule Cera (sic), manuscript en vélin. 34 35 32 33

38 39 36 37

? Paris, Arsenal, ms 2677, Brunetto Latini, Livre du Trésor, d’Urfé arms added on fol. 5r. Cf. no. 45. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, 78 D 9, Francesc Eiximenis, Le livre/traité des anges. Jean Platine, Les Généalogies, faits et gestes des saints Pères, Papes, empereurs et rois de France [Paris: Galliot Du Pré and Pierre Vidoue, [1519]). ? LV, ii, no. 3312 (110 miniatures). Alain Bouchard, Les grandes cronicques de Bretaigne … (Caen [?]: Galliot du Pré [?], 1531). Hegesippus’s translation into Latin of Flavius Josephus’s De bello Judaico. ? Paris, Arsenal 5201, Roman de la Rose, inscribed ‘Pour Monseigneur de Marcoussy’.



Appendix B 309

58. Trésor de l’âme par Robert, remply d’exemples et miracles, enrichy de figures, imprimé à Paris, en vélin.40 59. Homélies de St. Grégoire, traduction françoise, manuscript en vélin. 60. Livre intitulé le Jouvencel faict pour l’instruction des jeunes gens quy on inclination à l’exercice des armes, manuscript en vélin.41 61. Les Triomphes de la noble et amoureuse dame et l’Art d’honnestement aymer par Jean Bouchet de Frontières, imprimé, en vélin, à Paris, l’an 1535.42 62. Historie des Tournaisiens et de l’origine de Tournay. 63. Valère le Grand, traduction Françoise, imprimé, en vélin.43 64. Le premier volume de la Cité de Dieu de St. Augustin, traduction françoise, imprimée, en vélin, à Paris, l’an 1531. 65. Second volume de la Cité de Dieu de St. Augustin. 66. Quatriesme volume de Froissart des histoires de France et d’Angleterre, manuscript. 67. Second volume d’un livre intitulé la Fleur des histoires, manuscript, en vélin. 68. Annales de France soubz Charles 8, Louis 12 et François premier, l’an 1545, imprimé, en vélin, à Paris. 69. Poésie de morale chrestienne, manuscript en vélin.

Tous les livres cy dessus ont la tranche dorée, sont reli-[p. 6]és en velours vert avec deux escussons des armes d’Urfé au milieu de chaque costé, et aux quatres coins de la reliure un sacrifice, des devises et des chiffres, le tout de cuyvre doré en relief. Sept bustes: cinq de marbre blanc et deux de bronze. Les premiers sont Pompée, César, Cicéron, Germani[c]us, et le cinquiesme incognu. Les deux de bronze Sénèque et Socrate.

42 43 40 41

Robert le Chartreux, Le trésor de l’ame (Paris: Vérard, 1497). Jean de Beuil, Le Jouvencel. Edition printed by Nicolas Cousteau for Jacques Kerver. Edinburgh, NLS, Inc. 288, French translation of Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia (Paris: for Antoine Vérard, between Oct. 1499 and July 1503), with d’Urfé arms; cf. L1, no. 13.

3 1 0

Appendix B

Autres livres

[List 2] 1. Histoire de Theseus Palamon et de la belle Emilya, manuscript44 2.

Traduction françoise des Problesmes d’Aristote, manuscript.

3.

Histoire d’Orose, tradution (sic) françoise mansucripte.45

4.

Le Codicille et Testament de Me. Jean de Meun.

5.

Boccace de la Généalogie des dieux.

6.

Histoire naturelle des Indes traduicte du castillan en françois, imprimé à Paris, l’an 1555.46

7.

Roman de Bertan, en vers, manuscript.47

8.

Traduction françoise de Xenophon du voyage de Cyrus en Perse, imprimé à Paris, l’an 1529.

9.

Traduction françoise des Histoires de Diodore Sicilien, imprimé à Paris, l’an 15554 [sic].

10. Poésie intitulée le Chastel de Fortune, manuscript.48 11. Divi Basilii Magni Caesariensis episcopy eruditissima opera et monodia Gregorii Nazianzeni, Basiliea, 1523. 12. Térence en françois, prose et ryme, avec le latin, imprimé à Paris. [page 8] 13. Livre d’images et figures du Nouveau Testament. 14. Traduction françois[e] de l’Art militaire de Flave Vegesse, remplie de figures.49 15. Liber qui dicitur Interim, manuscriptum.

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 329, Livre de Thezeo. Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 10053, Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César. 46 Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, L’histoire naturelle et generalle des Indes, isles et terre ferme de la grand mer Oceane, trans. by Jean Poleur (Paris: Michel de Vascosan, 1555). 47 Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 993, Cuvelier, La Chanson du Bertrand du Guesclin, in a d’Urfé binding. 48 Could this refer to the seventh book of the Mutacion de Fortune? 49 Jean de Meun’s Le livre de Flave Vegece de l’art de chevalerie, translation of Flavius Vegetius Renatus’s Epitoma de re militari. 44 45



Appendix B 311

16. Quatriesme volume de Froissart des histoires de France et d’Angleterre, imprimé à Paris. 17. Manuscript des chantes (sic) royaux, rondeaux et balladées [sic].50 18. Le Pèlerinage de Jésuschrist, en vers, manuscript.51 19. Histoire d’Angleterre, manuscript. 20. Livre en manuscript de géographie. 21. La Cosmographie universelle de Munster. 22. Secon (sic) volume de Vincent, Miroir historial. 23. Roman manuscript d’Artus de Bretagne. 24. Second volume manuscript des Problesmes d’Aristate traduit en françois. 25. Second volume du Roman manuscript d’Artus de Bretaigne. 26. Troisiesme volume de Froissart des histoires de France et d’Angleterre, imprimé à Paris. 27. Diver[r]ses poésies françoises en manuscript.52 28. Troisiesme volume de Vincent, Miroir historial. 29. Cinquiesme volume de Vincent, Miroir historial. 30. Miroir de la rédemption de l’humain lignage, imprimé en l’an 1482. 31. Lancelot du Lac. [31 bis] Severini Boetii Aristmetica [sic], Parisis, anno 1521. 32. Institution sur le faict de la guerre extraicte de Polybe, Frontin, Vegesse, Cornezant ( ?), Machiavel et plusieurs autres, à Paris, 1549. [page 9] 33. Les Dictz moreaux des philosophes anciens, manuscript en vélin. 34. L’Art de naviguer de Nicolai, à Paris, 1548. 35. L’Histoire de Merlin, en vers, manuscript en vélin. 36. Histoire de St. Graal et de Merlin, manuscript en vélin. Paris, BnF ms fr. 25535, manuscript of Rouen Puy poetry offered to Anne c. 1524. Guillaume Deguileville, Le Pèlerinage de Jésus-Christ. 52 ? Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24315. 50 51

3 1 2

Appendix B

37. Le Château périlleux, manuscript en vélin, composé par un chartreux.53 38. Histoire en manuscript de Baudouin et Ferrand, conte de Flandre. 39. Le Trésor, composé en vers par Jean de Meun, manuscript en vélin. 40. Asia de Joam de Barros, dos effectos que os Portugueses fizeram no desrobriments et conquista dos mares et terres do Oriente, impressa em Lixboa, 1552. 41. Roman italien de Fiametta, manuscript en vélin.54 42. Vieille historie de Gales et de la petite Bretaigne, manuscript en vélin. 43. Livre traitant de la succession des temps et nessances des royaumes, ancien manuscript, en vélin. 44. Roman d’Amilles et d’Amis, manuscript.55 45. Roman de Guérin de Monglane, manuscript en vélin.56 46. Livre des meurs du gouvernement des seigneurs, manuscript en vélin.57 47. Vieille chronique de Haynaut et pays circonvoisins, imprimé à Paris, second volume. 48. Premier volume de ladicte histoire de Haynaut ou Gaule Belgique. 49. Bible en françois, manuscript, en vélin. [page 10] 50. Ancien manuscript du Sacrement de l’autel. 51. Roman de Gautier marquis de Saluces, manuscript.58 52. Roman en vers d’Yammont ( ?) et d’Agramant, manuscript, en vélin. 53. Livre des Trois vertus pour l’enseignement des dames, manuscript en vélin.59 54. Roman d’Aubry, en vers, manuscript, en vélin.60 Robert le Chartreux, Le chastel perilleux. Boccaccio, Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta. 55 Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, MS F IV 44. 56 Chanson de geste, extant in one verse redaction (thirteenth century) and two prose redactions (both sixteenth century). 57 ? Pseudo-Aristotle, Secret des secrets. 58 A version of the story of Griselda. 59 ? Tours, BM, ms 2128, Christine de Pizan, Le Livre des trois vertus, with added d’Urfé arms. 60 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24368, Auberi le Bourguignon. 53 54



Appendix B 313

55. Estrif de vertu, en vers, manuscript en vélin.61 56. Le Mapemonde, en vers, ancien manuscript, en vélin. 57. Le Rapt de Prosperine, en vers, manuscript en vélin.62 58. L’Arbre des batailles, manuscript, en vélin.63 59. Manuscript des vices et des vertus faict soubz St Louis, en vélin. 60. Parafrase d’Erasme, en flamand. 61. La Voye d’enfer, ancien manuscript, en vélin.64 62. La Vision Chrestienne (sic), manuscript en vélin.65 63. Vieux manuscript italien, en vélin, de pharmacopie et cognoissances de drogues.

63 64

Martin LeFranc, L’estrif de fortune et vertu. Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25424, inscribed with multiple names including ‘A Monseigneur d’Urfé’. Honoré Bovet, L’Arbre des batailles. Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24313, Pierre de l’Hospital, La voie d’infer et de paradis, inscribed ‘A Monseignur d’Urfe’. 65 Christine de Pizan, L’Advision Christine. 61 62

Appendix C: Manuscripts Containing Works by Anne de Graville Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 513, Beau roman, monotextual, c. 1520–24

• Vellum, 240 mm x 165 mm

• Prologue entitled ‘A la royne’ with anagram J’en garde un leal in the bas-de-page (fol. 1v) • Cordelière border, arms of Claude of France within a large letter G made of Breton ermine (fol. 2r)

Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116, Beau roman (ff. 2–69), c. 1520–24

• Vellum, 240 x 160 mm

• Frontispiece miniature (fol. 1v) showing Anne presenting the book to Queen Claude of France; Claude’s arms on the canopy

• Contains the long title ‘C’est le beau romant des deux amants Palamon et Arcita et de la belle et saige Emilia translaté de vieil langaige et prose en nouveau et rime par mademoiselle Anne de Graville la Mallet, dame du Bois Malesherbes. Du commandement de la Royne’ (fol. 1r) • Miniatures

• Missing ten lines of text also absent from nafr. 719

• Also includes Macé de Villebresme’s Epistre de Clériande (before 1518; ff. 71–76v) and Clément Marot’s Epistre de Maguelonne (before 1519; ff. 77–83)

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1397, Beau roman, monotextual, c. 1520–24

• Vellum, 170 x 250 mm

• Prologue but no dedication to the queen (fol. 1r)

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2253, Rondeaux, monotextual, after 1524?

• Vellum, 210 x c. 140 mm

• Prologue with dedication ‘A ma dame’ and Anne’s anagram (fol. 2v)



Appendix C 315

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25441, monotextual, c. 1520–24

• Vellum, 215 × 145 mm

• Prologue with dedication ‘A la Royne’ (fol. 5v) and Anne’s anagram (fol. 6v) • Lacunae indicating it once had miniatures

• Folios 3r–v and 4r contain loose handwriting recording the marriage in 1532 and the subsequent births of the children of Jeanne de Balsac and Claude d’Urfé

Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 719, Beau roman, monotextual, c. 1520–24

• Paper, 262 × 198 mm

• Previously Stockholm, n° LIV; entered the BnF in 1872 in exchange for ms scandinave 8. When in Stockholm, the manuscript was bound with three printed texts: Guillaume Le Rouillé’s Alenconiensis causidici in legibus licentiati: Justicie atque injusticie descriptionum compendium (Paris: C. Chevallon, 1520) now Stockholm National Library, Jurid. Allm; and excerpts from a Livre de Jhesus and La Doctrine des Crestiens (c. 1525?) now Stockholm National Library, 173 H Br. qv. Livre • Contains the long title ‘C’est le beau romant des deux amants Palamon et Arcita et de la belle et saige Emilia translaté de vieil langaige et prose en nouveau et rime par mademoiselle Anne de Graville la Mallet, dame du Bois Malesherbes. Du commandement de la reine’ (p. 1) and Anne’s anagram (p. 131) • Missing ten lines of text also absent from Arsenal 5116

Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 6513, Beau roman, monotextual, c. 1520–24

• Paper, 280 × 190 mm

• Prologue with dedication ‘A la Royne Claude’ and Anne’s anagram (fol. 1r)

Philadelphia, Penn University Library, Codex 850, rondeau, ‘Pour le meilleur’ (p. 55)

• Paper, 199 x 145 mm

• Poetry miscellany copied in Rouen by the de la Porte family in two stages, 1527 and 1552 • Anne’s poem appears amongst a group of six rondeaux

3 1 6

Appendix C

Unknown location, previously Nantes, Saint-Gildas-des-Bois, Les Sœurs de l’Instruction Chrétienne, Rondeaux frontispiece, after 1524?

• Vellum, c. 185 x 120mm

• Single leaf in a manuscript containing a kind of ‘mirror of princes’ and a series of prayers; multiple images of a woman (or women) at prayer; entire manuscript painted in the circle of Jean Pichore and the Master of Phillippe of Guelders; also contains other inserted folios • Recto depicts Anne de Graville presenting her work to Louise of Savoy who sits under a canopy decorated with her symbols; miniature surrounded by anagrams of Louise’s name and the looped Savoy cordeliere • Verso inscribed ‘La Belle dame sans mercy / translatée en rondeaulx’ and De los aves joie anagram

• Manuscript lost between 16 December 1976 (date of IRHT black and white microfilm) and the publication of Brisson’s article in 1996; some colour images reproduced in Brisson.

Bibliography Manuscripts, Archives and Early Printed Sources Abu Dhabi, Louvre

LAD 2014.029, Chaldean Histories

Aix-en-Provence, Bibliothèque municipale ms 431, Chroniques amplifiée de rois de France

Amsterdam, Universiteitsbibliotheek

Remonstrantsche Kerk III. C. 21, Inventory of the d’Urfé Library

Aylesbury, Waddesdon Manor

MS 22, André de la Vigne, Le sacre et l’entrée de la royne a Paris

Basel, Universitätsbibliothek MS F IV 4, Ami et Amile

Berlin, Kupferstichtkabinett

78 B 17, Rohan Chansonnier 78 D 9, Francesc Eiximenis, Le livre/traité des anges

Bern, Burgerbibliothek

MS 59, Perrinet du Pin, Le roman de Philippe de Madien MS 84, Alphonse de Spina, La Forteresse de la foy, trans. Richart

Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale

mss 851–52, Jean Mansel, La Fleur des Histoires

Bourges, Bibliothèque municipale

ms 373, Personal manuscript of Jacques Thiboust

Brussels, Bibliothèque royale/Koninklijke Bibliotheek

ms II 7828, Antoine de La Sale, Réconfort de Madame de Fresne and Journée d’honneur et de prouesse ms IV 1176, Christine de Pizan, Epistre à la reine, fragment

3 1 8

Bibliography

ms 10476, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune ms 10748, Antoine de La Sale, Réconfort de Madame de Fresne

Carpentras, Bibliothèque municipale

ms 375, Poetry collection belonging to Marie de Clèves

Chamarande, Archives départementales de l’Essonne

13 J 17, Documents relating to the distribution of Louis de Graville’s lands

Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château

ms 279, Aristotle, Politiques et Economiques, trans. Oresme ms 507, Olivier de la Marche, Le Chevalier délibéré ms 508, François Habert, L’Amant infortuné ms 513, Anne de Graville, Le Beau roman ms 522, Margaret Navarre, La Coche ou débat d’amour ms 601, Livre de Thezeo ms 685, Collection of poetry including Le Débat de la Noire et de la Tannée ms 755, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Faits d’Alexandre, trans. Vasco da Lucena ms 759–61, Leonardo Bruni, Les trois decades, trans. Lebègue/Bersuire ms 799, Description ou traicté du gouvernement et regyme de la cyté et seigneurie de Venise

Chicago, Newberry Library MS f. 21, Lancelot en prose

Copenhagen, Kongelige Biblioteket

Thott ms 59, Puy poetry collection for Diane of Poitiers

Ecouen, Musée de la Renaissance

MR 1815, André de la Vigne, Rondeaux

Edinburgh, Advocates Library MS 19.1.4, Collection of poetry

Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland

Inc. 288, Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia, trans. into French by Simon de Hesdin and Nicolas de Gonesse (Paris: for Antoine Vérard, between Oct. 1499 and July 1503)

Evora, Biblioteca publica cxxiv/1–6, Biblia sacra

Lille, Bibliothèque municipale

ms 130 (190), Collection of works including Ami et Amile (prose) ms 402 (308), Rondeaux



Bibliography 319

London, British Library

Burney MS 38, Florus of Lyon (?), Commentary on the Pauline Epistles Cotton MS Nero D IX, Antoine de La Sale, Petit Jehan de Saintré and Rasse de Brunhamel, Floridan et Elvide Egerton MS 989, Helie de Boron, Roman de Tristan Harley MS 4431,Christine de Pizan, Collected Works (The Queen’s Manuscript) Royal MS 14. E. V, Boccaccio, Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes Sloane MS 2423, Rolls of Oléron and Ordinances of Charles V General Reference Collection, C.125.dd.21, A tres illustre et puissante Princesse et dame, Madame Margueritte de France [Anne de France, Les Enseignements] (Toulouse: for Jehan Barril, 1535)

Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum

MS 121 (2021.7), Ovid, Excerpts from the Heroides, translated by Octovien de Saint-Gelais, and three poems [epitaph on the death of Mme de Balsac, Arrest de la louange de la dame sans sy, and Appel]

Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

Cod. Gall. 11, Christine de Pizan, La Mutacion de Fortune

Nantes, Musée Dobrée

ms 17, Antoine Dufour, Vie des femmes celebres

New Haven, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

Beinecke MS 427, Christine de Pizan, Le Livre des trois vertus/Le Trésor de la Cité des dames Beinecke MS 1201, Catherine d’Amboise, Les continuelles meditations Beinecke MS 1216, Alain Chartier, La Belle dame sans mercy and other works (The Clumber Park Chartier) Marston MS 274, Leonardo Bruno, Batailles puniques, trans. Lebègue

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M. 147, Jacques Le Lieur, Poeme sur la Passion MS M. 948, Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Le Roman de la Rose

Orléans, Bibliothèque municipale

ms 518, Procès de rehabilitation de Jeanne d’Arc et Siège d’Orléans

Oxford, Bodleian Library

Douce MS 91, Margaret of Navarre, La Coche ou débat d’amour Douce MS 178, Robert de Boron, Roman du Graal Douce MS 195, Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Le Roman de la Rose Douce MS 329, Livre de Thezeo Douce MS 379, Collection of Rouen Puy poetry

3 2 0

Bibliography

Paris, Archives nationales

399AP/1–399AP/596, Fonds Malesherbes AE I 25, no. 6 (MM 684L), L’Armorial Le Breton J 964, Accounts of the household of Claude de France (1523–24) MC/ET/XIX/16, Testament of Marie de Balsac MC/ET/XIX/108, Documents relating to the distribution of the property of Pierre de Balsac and Anne de Graville MC/ET/XXXIII/20, Post-mortem inventory of Jeanne de Graville Minutier central, Etude XIX, 42 and 46, Documents relating to the resolution of Anne de Graville’s inheritance Parlement criminel, X2, A66, Details of the criminal proceedings brought against Pierre de Balsac by Louis de Graville

Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal

ms 2037, Catherine d’Amboise, Livre des prudents et imprudents ms 2677, Brunetto Latini, Livre du Trésor ms 2691, Collection of works including the Secret des secrets ms 2776, Jacques de Longuyon, Voeux du Paon and Jean le Court (dit Brisebarre), Restor du Paon ms 3172, Christine de Pizan, La Mutacion de Fortune ms 3356, Collection of works including the Livre de Mélibée ms 3511, Marco Polo, Devisement du monde ms 3691, Jean de Courcy, La Boucquechardière ms 5116, Anne de Graville, Le Beau roman ms 5210, Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Le Roman de la Rose ms 5219, Marco Polo, Devisement du monde ms 6480, Petrarch, Triumphs, trans. Bourgouin

Paris, Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris

ms 4-MS-RES-010 (formerly ms 527), Collection of works including the Jeu des eschés moralisé

Paris, Bibliothèque de la Mazarine

ms 1581, Flavius Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae

Paris, Bibliothèque de Sainte-Geneviève

ms 848, Household accounts of Margaret of Navarre mss 1144–45, John of Salisbury, Policraticus, trans. Foulechat

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France

ms lat. 1058, Breviarum romanum ms lat. 1671, Lactantius, Institutiones divinae ms lat. 8838, Procès de rehabilitation de Jeanne d’Arc et Siège d’Orléans mss fr. 18–19, Augustine, Cité de Dieu, trans. de Presles ms fr. 53, Jean Mansel, La Fleur des Histoires (second volume) ms fr. 138, Guillaume Filastre, Histoire de la Toison d’or



Bibliography 321

ms fr. 145, Collection of Amiens Puy Poetry ms fr. 203, Pragmatique sanction ms fr. 223, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernado Illicino (anonymous translation into French) ms fr. 225, Petrarch, Remèdes de l’une ou l’autre fortune (anonymous translation into French) ms fr. 229, Boccaccio, Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, trans. Premierfait ms fr. 254, Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (second redaction) ms fr. 364, Benvenuto d’Imola, Romuléon ms fr. 379, Collection of Rouen Puy poetry ms fr. 580, Collection of moralising works, including the Livre de Mélibée ms fr. 594, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernado Illicino (anonymous translation into French) mss fr. 595–96, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernado Illicino (anonymous translation into French) ms fr. 599, Boccaccio, Cleres et nobles femmes (anonymous translation into French) ms fr. 603, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune mss fr. 713–14, Claude de Seyssel, L’Istoire de Appian, des Gestes des Rommains (The Civil Wars) ms fr. 873, Octovien de Saint-Gelais, Les XXI espistres d’Ovide (Heroides) ms fr. 875, Octovien de Saint-Gelais, Les XXI espistres d’Ovide (Heroides) ms fr. 924, Alain Chartier, La Belle dame sans mercy and other works ms fr. 1131, Alain Chartier, La Belle dame sans mercy and other works ms fr. 1197, Christine de Pizan, Livre du corps de policie ms fr. 1397, Anne de Graville, Le Beau roman ms fr. 1537, Collection of Rouen Puy poetry ms fr. 1667, Liber Amicorum of Jacques Thiboust ms fr. 1721, Collection of poetry including Macé de Villebresme, L’Epistre de Cleriande ms fr. 1953, Collection of poetry including Macé de Villebresme, L’Epistre de Cleriande ms fr. 2202, Collection of Rouen Puy poetry ms fr. 2206, Collection of works in praise of the Virgin and others, including the Arrest de la louange de la dame sans sy ms fr. 2225, Louenges a Nostre Dame ms fr. 2230, Alain Chartier, La Belle dame sans mercy, and other works ms fr. 2253, Anne de Graville, Rondeaux ms fr. 2285, Compas du dauphin ms fr. 2444, Songe de Charles, Comte de Taillebourt/ Livre de la doctrine salutaire ms fr. 2651, Grandes Chroniques de Normandie ms fr. 5091, Jean Marot, Voyage de Genes ms fr. 5692, Les antiquités de Gaule, à present nommée France, extraictes de Berose chaldaïque, Manethon egiptian, et Gaguin françoys ms fr. 5715, Etienne Le Blanc, Les Gestes de Blanche de Castile ms fr. 5719, Etienne Le Blanc, Généalogies de Bourbon ms fr. 5730, Prières à l’usage de Charles V ms fr. 7856, Accounts of Margaret of Navarre and Francis I ms fr. 9735, Le livre de Dares de Phrigie de la destruction de Troye, trans. Frescher ms fr. 12406, Collection of poetry including Macé de Villebresme, L’Epistre de Cleriande ms fr. 12578, Perrinet du Pin, Le roman de Philippe de Madien ms fr. 19139, Works of Alain Chartier and Charles d’Orléans

3 2 2

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ms fr. 19168, Perrinet du Pin, Le roman de Philippe de Madien ms fr. 19182, Rondeaux et autres poésies du sieur [ Jean?] de Fonssomme ms fr. 20026, Alain Chartier, La Belle dame sans mercy and other works ms fr. 20315, Titus Livy, Histoires, trans. Bersuire ms fr. 20350, Grandes Chroniques de France ms fr. 20853, Recueil de pièces sur les Croisades et les guerres françaises, sur la population de la France et l’Hôtel du roi (XIIIe-XIVe siècles) ms fr. 22541, Petrarch, Triumphs, with commentaries by Bernado Illicino (anonymous translation into French) mss fr. 22548–50, Les Sept Sages de Rome ms fr. 22554, Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (second redaction) ms fr. 23932, Inventaire des meubles et joyaux du roi Charles V ms fr. 24313, Pierre de l’Hospital, La voie d’infer et de paradis ms fr. 24314, Jean Meschinot, Poésies ms fr. 24315, Collection of poetry and Guillaume Tasserie’s Le Triomphe des Normands ms fr. 24368, Auberi le Bourguignon ms fr. 24377, Anseis de Metz ms fr. 24406, Chansonnier V ms fr. 24758, Vie des Pères ms fr. 25420, Le Débat de la Noire et de la Tannée ms fr. 25424, Le rapt de Proserpine ms fr. 25430, Christine de Pizan, Mutacion de Fortune (books IV and V) ms fr. 25441, Anne de Graville, Le Beau roman ms fr. 25458, Collection of poetry belonging to Charles d’Orléans ms fr. 25528, Boccaccio, Il Filostrato, trans. Beauvau ms fr. 25535, Collection of Rouen Puy poems ms nafr. 718, Le Roman de Rou ms nafr. 719, Anne de Graville, Le Beau roman ms nafr. 934, Livre de Thezeo (fragment) ms nafr. 993, Cuvelier, La Chanson du Bertrand du Guesclin ms nafr. 1880, Marco Polo, Devisement du monde ms nafr. 1943, Le Roman d’Eledus et de Serene ms nafr. 4119, Dante, Paradise, trans. Bergaigne ms nafr. 6513, Anne de Graville, Le Beau roman ms nafr. 9175, Accounts of the household of Claude of France ms nafr. 10053, Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (second redaction, abridged) ms nafr. 19738, Catherine d’Amboise, La Complaincte de la dame pasmée contre fortune ms nafr. 25164, Philippe de Mézières, Le Songe du vieil pelerin ms nafr. 28878, Catherine d’Amboise, La Complaincte de la dame pasmée contre fortune Estampes, Pe 8, Engravings of stained glass from the Célestins of Rouen Estampes, Réserve Pc-18, Heraldry and devices of kings and lords, fifteenth to seventeenth century Rothschild 443, Alain Chartier, La Belle dame sans mercy ([no place]: [no publisher], c. 1500) Rothschild 2754, A tres illustre et puissante princesse et dame, Marguerite de France …[Anne de France, Les Enseignements] (Toulouse: Jeahn Barril, 1535) Rothschild 2798, Collection of poetry including Le Débat de la Noire et de la Tannée Rothschild 2828 (511 c) [II, 3, 6], Guillaume Michel, Le penser de royal mémoire (Paris: for Jean de la Garde, 1518)



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Rothschild 2964, Collection of rondeaux and other works including Macé de Villebresme, Epistre de Clériande Réserve D-80044, A la requeste de tres haute et puissante princesse madame Suzanne de Bourbon [Anne de France, Les Enseignements] (Lyon: Le Prince, [no date]) Réserve Yc 1567, Le recueil des espistres d’Ovide translaté en françoys o vray, ligne pour ligne, faisans mencion de cinq loyalles amoureuses ([no place]: [no publisher], [no date]) Réserve YD-81, Petrarch, Les Triumphes messire Francoys Petrarcque, trans. de la Forge (?) (Paris: Barthélemy Vérard, 1514) Réserve Ye 838, Alain Chartier, La Belle dame sans mercy ([Paris ?]: [ Jean du Pré?], 1489–90) Vélins 124, Les espistres de sainct Pol glosées (Paris: Vérard, c. 1508) Vélins 751–53, Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Chronique (Paris: Vérard, c. 1503) Vélins 774, Boccaccio, Des nobles malheureux (Paris: Vérard 1494) Vélins 1126, L’hystoyre des nobles et vaillans chevaliers nommez Milles et Amy (Paris: Vérard [1503])

Philadelphia, Penn University Library

Codex 850, Collection of poetry owned by the de la Porte family

Princeton, Princeton University Library MS 194, Peter of Luxembourg, Diète de salut

Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Reg. Lat. 1686, Ovid, Metamorphoses

Rouen, Archives départementales de la Seine-Inférieur Série G Archives Ecclésiastiques

San Marino, Huntington Library HM 1163, Book of Hours

Stockholm, Kungliga Biblioteket

173 H Br. qv. Livre, fragments of Noel Béda and Thomas Warnet, La Doctrine des Crestiens (printed by Alain Lotrain, c.1525) and Livre de Jhesus (La Vie de Jesucrist printed by Lotrain?) Cod. Holm M 304, Marco Polo, Devisement du monde Jurid. Allm., Guillaume Le Rouillé, Alenconiensis causidici in legibus licentiati: Justicie atque injusticie descriptionum compendium (Paris: C. Chevallon, 1520) MS A110, Järteckensboken

St Petersburg, National Library of Russia

fr. fol. v. XIV.7, Alain Chartier, La Belle dame sans mercy and other works fr. fol. v. XIV.8, Collection of Versified Royal Epistles fr. fol. p. II.94, Le Songe du Verger

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Tours, Bibliothèque municipale

ms 2128, Christine de Pizan, Livre de trois vertus /Le Trésor de la Cité des dames

Turin, Biblioteca nazionale

ms L.IV.1, Perrinet du Pin, Le roman de Philippe de Madien

Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek ms 2617, Livre de Thezeo ms 2632, Livre de Thezeo

Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek

Cod. Guelf. 86.4 Extravagantes, Entry of Francis I into Lyon Cod. Guelf. 237 Blankenburg, Hyginus, Astrological Treatise

Private Collection

Ex-Jörn Günther Rare Books, Boccaccio, Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, trans. Premierfait (second redaction, 1409) Ex-Sam Fogg Rare Books and Manuscripts, Catherine d’Amboise, La Complaincte de la dame pasmée contre fortune Grandes Chroniques de Normandie (noted by Labory) Paris, Drouot sale, 28 March 2007, lot 2, Virgil, Les Georgiques, trans. by Guillaume Michel (Paris: for Jean de la Garde and Pierre Le Brodeur, [1518]) Paris, Gros et Delettrez sale, 8 April 2011, lot 549, Froissart, Chroniques

Unlocated

Formerly Huth Library, Paris et Vienne Formerly Nantes, Saint-Gildas-des-Bois, Les Sœurs de l’Instruction Chrétienne, Prières et Oraisons

Incunables and Early Printed Editions

Annius da Viterbo, Antiquitatum variarum volumina XVII (Paris: Jean Petit, 1515) Flavius Josephus, Joseph juif et hebrieu hystoriographe grec de l’antiquite judaique, trans. by Guillaume Michel (Paris: Nicolas Cousteau and Galliot du Pré, 1534) Giovanni Boccaccio, Le livre de Jehan Bocasse de la louenge et vertu des nobles et cleres dames translaté et imprimé nouellement a Paris (Paris: Vérard, 1493) Guillaume Michel, Les Elegies, thrennes et complainctes sur la mort de tresilustre dame, madame Claude, jadis de son vivant royne de France ([n.p.]: [n.d], [1526]) Perrinet du Pin, Roman de Philippe de Madien (Paris: Jacques Nyverd and Galliot du Pré, 1528) ——, Roman de Philippe de Madien (Paris: Jean Bonfons, [no date]) Robert de Balsac, Le Chemin de l’Ospital ([Lyon]: [no publisher], 1490) ——, and Symphorien Champier, La nef des princes et des batailles de noblesse…Item plus Le régime d’ung jeune prince et les proverbes des princes (Lyon: Guillaume Balsarin, 1502)



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Modern Editions of Primary Sources

Alain Chartier, Le Cycle de La Belle Dame sans Mercy. Une anthologie poétique du XVe siècle (BNF MS FR. 1131), ed. by David F. Hult and Joan E. McRae (Paris: Champion, 2003) ——, The Quarrel of the Belle Dame sans mercy, ed. and trans. by Joan E. McRae (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2014) Anne de France, Les Enseignements d’Anne de France, duchesse de Bourbonnois et d’Auvergne à sa fille Suzanne de Bourbon, ed. by A.-M. Chazaud (Moulins: Desrosiers, 1878) Anne of France, Lessons for my Daughter, ed. by Sharon L. Jansen (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004) Anne de France, Enseignements à sa fille, suivis de l’Histoire du siège de Brest, ed. by Tatiana Clavier and Eliane Viennot (St-Etienne: PUSE, 2006) Anne de Graville, Le beau Romant des deux amans Palamon et Arcita et de la belle est saige Emilia, ed. by Yves Le Hir (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1965) ——, La belle dame sans mercy: En fransk dikt författad… ed. by Carl Wahlund (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells boktr., 1897) Anon., Le Livre de Thezeo. Traduction anonyme du XVe siècle du ‘Teseida’ de Boccace, ed. by Gabriel Bianciotto (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017) Anon., La Chasse d’Amours, ed. by Mary Beth Winn (Geneva: Droz, 1984) Anon., L’Armorial Le Breton, ed. by Emmanuel De Boos et al. (Paris: Somogy/Archives nationales, 2004) Antoine de La Sale, Jehan de Saintré, ed. by Joel Blanchard, trans. by M. Quereuil (Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 1995) Catherine d’Amboise, Poésies. Une nouvelle édition du manuscrit Paris, BnF, fr. 2282, ed. by Catherine Müller (Montreal: Ceres Editions, 2002) ——, Œuvres complètes, ed. by Evelyne Berriot-Salvadore and Catherine Müller (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2022) Charles d’Orléans, Poetry of Charles d’Orléans and His Circle. A Critical Edition of BnF Ms. Fr. 25458: Charles d’Orléans’s Personal Manuscript, ed. by John Fox and Mary-Jo Arn, with English translation by R. Barton Palmer (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010) Christine de Pizan, Le Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune par Christine de Pisan, ed. by Suzanne Solente, 4 vols (Paris: Picard, 1959) ——, Le Chemin de longue étude, trans. by Andrea Tarnowski (Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 2000) ——, The Book of the City of Ladies, trans. by Rosalind Brown-Grant (London: Penguin Classics, 1999) ——, The Treasure of the City of Ladies, trans. by Sarah Lawson (London: Penguin Classics, 1985; rev. 2003) ——, Debate of the “Romance of the Rose”, ed. and trans. by David F. Hult (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010) ——, The Book of the Mutability of Fortune, ed. and trans. by Geri L. Smith (Toronto: Iter Press, 2017) Geoffroy Tory, Champfleury, ed. by J. W. Joliffe (Paris, La Haye: Mouton Éditeur, 1970; repr. of 1529 edition) Giovanni Boccaccio, Tutte le opere di Giovanni Boccaccio, ed. by Vittoria Branca, 10 vols (Milan: Mondadori, 1964–99) Guillaume Michel, Le Penser de royal memoire, ed. by Lidia Radi (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2012) Marco Polo, Il Milone, ed. by Luigi Foscolo Benedetto (Florence: Olschki, 1928) ——, Le Devisement du Monde, ed. by Philippe Ménard, 6 vols (Geneva: Droz, 2001–2009)

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Index Figures in bold at the end of page ranges refer to figure numbers Acarie Master Workshop  110, 18, 23, 25, 26 Amazons  51, 121 n. 7, 131, 134, 158, 161, 199–208, 33 See also Emilia, Hippolyta, Penthesilea Amboise (family) Catherine d’Amboise  9, 10–11, 18, 81, 90, 106, 120, 141–43, 215 n. 138 Les continuelles meditations (New Haven, Beinecke, MS 1201)  143 Livre des prudents et imprudents (Paris, Arsenal, ms 2037)  20, 142–46, 158, 285 Complaincte de la dame pasmée contre Fortune 142–43 Paris, BnF, nafr. 19738  142 Paris, BnF, nafr. 28878  142, 145 n.106 Ex-Sam Fogg MS  142 Charles II d’Amboise, seigneur de Chaumont  10–11, 81, 142, 144 Georges d’Amboise, cardinal and archbishop of Rouen  11, 46–47, 70, 76–78, 80–82, 88, 99–106, 142 Georges III d’Amboise  106, 142 Michel d’Amboise  144 Ami et Amile  33, 45, 51–53 Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, MS F IV 44  33 n. 38, 44, 45 n. 88 Lille, BM, ms 130 (190)  33 n. 38, 45 n. 87 Andrelini, Fausto  88–89, 218 Epistre à Louis XII Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24315  88–89 St Petersburg, NLR, fr. fol. v. XIV.8 88 Ango Hours Workshop  110, 18, 23, 25, 26 Angoulême (family) Charles d’Angoulême, husband of Louise of Savoy  236 Jean d’Angoulême  236, 248, 260

and Louise of Savoy  236, 249–51, 260 See also Blois (court and literary salon), Rohan, Marguerite de Annonciades, Order of the  143, 229 Anseis de Metz 51 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24377  32, 45 Antiquities, see Viterbo, Annius da Arc, Joan of  39, 55, 77, 87 Paris, BnF, ms lat. 8838  39, 43, 55 Orléans, BM, ms 518  39 n. 69 Aristotle  46, 65, 75, 142, 150 n. 130, 213 Politiques et Economiques (Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 279)  38, 66 Atropos  186, 187–91, 222 Auberi le Bourguignon (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24368)  33, 45 Austria, Margaret of  59, 163 Bacqueville (family) Charles Martel, seigneur de Bacqueville  11 n. 16, 12, 13 n. 23, 252 François Martel de Bacqueville  252 and n. 73 Balsac (family) François de Balsac  142 Geoffroy de Balsac  54 n. 120 Guillaume de Balsac  42, 54 n. 120, 142 Jeanne de Balsac  19, 170 Madame de Balsac, see Montberon, Marie de Marie de Balsac  9–10, 76 n. 1, 288 books belonging to  26, 29, 33–34, 35–38, 42, 43 n. 77, 121–22, 8, 11, 29 See also Mutacion de Fortune under Pizan, Christine de Pierre de Balsac  12–13, 25, 57–58, 75, 106, 115, 25, 28 marriage to Anne de Graville  13–14, 63–64

3 4 4

Index

See also Entraigues Robert de Balsac  10 and n. 10 Bavaria, Isabel of  see under France (house of ) Berosus  25, 57, 58, 59, 61–62, 65, 66 Blois (castle)  230 Blois (court and literary salon)  44, 236–38, 241–43, 245–51, 264–67, 285 Blois (royal library at)  106, 236–38, 249–51, 253–54 Boccaccio  30, 49–50, 120, 141, 142–43, 207 n. 122, 208, 213, 222 Decameron  162, 214 Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes (De casibus virorum illustrum) 17–18, 30, 32, 37–38, 40, 51, 70, 120, 144, 148–52, 157–58, 189, 200 Ex-Jörn Günther MS  32, 148, 36 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 229  149 Paris, BnF, Vélins 774  70 Des cleres et nobles femmes (De mulieribus claris)  17–18, 20, 49, 119, 144, 149, 157–58, 161, 200, 214, 260 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 599  134–35, 34 Il Filostrato (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25528) 112–13, 27 Teseida  1, 14–15, 161–63, 164, 176, 178, 182, 201–02, 206, 214 n. 28, 287 Boleyn, Anne  12 Bouchet, Jean  143, 191 n. 83 Bourbon (house of )  172, 229, 241 Anne of France, duchess of Bourbon, see Anne of France under France (house of ) Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier, constable of France  20, 92 n. 69, 131, 172, 181 iconography of  225–28, 241, 51 marriage to Suzanne de Bourbon 224–25 rivalry with Francis I and defection to Charles V  224–25, 228–29, 239 Gabrielle de Bourbon-Montpensier  143 Louise of Savoy, duchess of Bourbon, see Louise of Savoy under Savoy (house of ) Pierre de Beaujeu/Bourbon, duke of Bourbon  81, 248 Suzanne de Bourbon  136, 224–25, 230, 239, 35

Bourdichon, Jean  88, 218 n. 145, 3 Bourges  143, 229 Bourges (literary salon)  143, 281 See also Thiboust, Jacques Brézé, Jacques de  136, 252 Briçonnet, Guillaume, bishop of Meaux  12, 84 Brittany, Anne of, see Anne of Brittany under France (house of ) Brunhamel, Rasse de, Floridan et Elvide 47, 148, 150, 157–58 London, BL, Cotton MS Nero D IX  47, 152, 154, 158 n. 156 Caroli, Pierre  12 Cercle de Meaux  12, 84 Chaldean Histories (Abu Dhabi, Louvre, LAD 2014.029)  19, 25, 57, 7 and French nationhood  67–69 as a gift from Pierre de Balsac  14, 44–45, 63–67 illumination of  69–75 See also Viterbo, Annius da chantepleure Anne de Graville and  40, 110–13, 238, 289, 18, 26, 28 Marie de Clèves and  110–13, 238, 248, 253 n. 81, 264, 27 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor  223, 224–25 Chartier, Alain  30, 34 n. 48, 95, 97, 177, 244, 248 as a good guide  260–61, 263 La Belle dame sans mercy (BDSM) 155– 57, 197, 256–59 and the Blois coterie  20–21, 236–38, 249, 267 New Haven, Beinecke MS 1216  258 n. 102 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 924  254–55 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1131  253, 259 n. 107 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2230  248 n. 55, 253–54 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 19139  249 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 20026  113, 248–49, 253 Paris, BnF, Réserve Ye 838  251 Paris, BnF, Rothschild 443  251



Index 345

St Petersburg, NLR, fr. fol. v. XIV.7  34, 44, 252–53 and the Roman de la Rose  271–73 See also Rondeaux under Anne de Graville, under Graville (family) Livre des Quatres Dames 147 See also querelle de la BDSM chansons de gestes in Anne’s collection  32– 33, 45, 51, 77, 215 Chaucer, Knight’s Tale 162–63 Cleriande, 210, 212, 216 See also Epistre de Cleriande under Villebresme, Macé de Clèves, Marie de  9, 21, 241–43, 285, 288–89 and Alain Chartier  248–49, 264, 267 manuscripts belonging to  247–48, 253–54, 27 as poet  34 n. 48, 247, 264–67 use of Visconti guivre  113, 238 See also Le Débat de la Noire et de la Tannée, Blois (court and literary salon) Colaud, Etienne, see Master of Anne de Graville Coquinvilliers, Nicolas de  33, 89, 91–94, 288 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25535  33, 47, 89–95, 17 Crenne, Hélisenne de (Margaret Briet)  9, 221 Crétin, Guillaume  47, 78, 88–89, 95 n. 78, 216–17 Le Débat de la Noire et de la Tannée  235 n. 5, 266–67 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25420  266 Dido  51, 149, 157, 210, 212, 214, 219–21, 222 Dufour, Antoine, Vie des femmes celebres  141, 161, 200 Emilia, sister of Hippolyta  141, 161–63, 175, 178–86, 187–89, 192–94, 199, 206–08, 213–14, 222, 224, 230–31, 277, 40, 45, 47, 48 and compassion  81–84 depiction of in Beau roman  84–85, 141, 175, 199, 225 and speech  86, 178–81 Entraigues (Antraigues), seigneurie of Pierre de Balsac  11

as name used for Anne de Graville  11, 12, 13 Ferrières, François de  229, 230 Field of the Cloth of Gold  11, 82, 90 n. 61, 222–24, 290, 15 Filastre, Guillaume, Histoire de la Toison d’or (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 138)  70, 74, 14 Font, Jeanne de la  81, 143, 162, 254 Fortune  228–29, 231, 46 Anne de Graville’s interest in  113, 122, 124, 146, 149 in the Beau roman  187–91, 193–94, 209–14, 228–29, 290–91 and Catherine d’Amboise  144, 145–46 and Christine de Pizan  119, 121, 124, 145–46, 150–52, 190 and Claude of France  186–87 in Marot’s Epistre de Maguelonne 219–21 See also Mutacion de Fortune under Pizan, Christine de France (house of ) Anne of France (Anne de Beaujeu), duchess of Bourbon  9, 10, 18, 21, 81, 120, 146, 148, 229–30, 251 n. 66, 252, 289–90 book collection  26 n. 6, 137, 163, 239, 241 and the Bourbon succession  224–25 and Christine de Pizan  136–38, 159, 178, 181 Histoire du siege de Brest  136, 138, 140–41 Les Enseignements  20, 54 n. 120, 136–41, 178, 193 n. 94, 35 Charles V  38–39, 54–55, 61, 66–67, 92–93, 113, 119, 121, 122, 150 Inventaire des meubles et joyaux (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 23932)  39 Prières à l’usage de Charles V (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5730)  39, 53, 55 Charles VI  55, 245 Charles VII  54 n.121, 55, 77, 80 n. 23, 135, 245, 264 Charles VIII  10, 70, 71 n. 56, 74, 79, 81, 136, 229 Claude of France  1, 10, 16, 84–85, 96, 160, 175 n. 45, 241–43, 244 n. 30, 287, 2, 16, 38, 46, 51

3 4 6

Index

and Anne de Graville  11–12, 16, 84, 101, 106, 120, 165–68, 177, 228–30 education and evangelical leanings  12, 160 and Guillaume Michel  48–49, 160–61, 182 and Jean Lemaire de Belges, Les Illustrations de Gaule 59 marriage to Francis I  160 as reader of the Beau roman 175–76, 181–82, 206, 223–24, 228–29, 291 See also under Fortune; and under Marot, Clement Francis I  16, 55 n. 123, 60–61, 79–80, 84–85, 87, 96–97, 99–101, 110, 165, 175, 218, 219, 221, 16, 54 absence from kingdom  244, 239 and conflict with constable  20, 181, 224–29, 231 n. 195 and Field of the Cloth of Gold  11, 82, 222–24, 290, 15 marriage to Claude of France  160 as Palamon in the Beau roman 223–24, 41 use of Visconti guivre 113–15 Isabel of Bavaria, queen of France  1, 53, 115, 135, 137, 4 Jeanne of France, sister of Anne of France and Charles VIII  80, 143, 229, 266 n. 132 Louis IX  39, 137, 239, 263 Louis XI  10, 77, 264 n. 122 Louis XII  10, 31, 37 n. 57, 61, 78, 79–80, 81, 82, 88, 99, 113–14, 160, 186–87, 218, 236–38, 248, 46 annulment of marriage to Jeanne of France 80–81 and commission of Orléans, BM, ms 518  39 use of the Visconti guivre 113 Margaret of Navarre, sister of Francis I  9, 10, 18, 38, 78, 81, 136, 143, 171, 218–19, 267, 289–90 and Anne de Graville  11–12, 84 and Chartier and the querelle de la BDSM  147–48, 235, 280–85 interest in religious reform and evangelical links  12, 84–85, 143 Heptameron  20, 146, 148, 281–85

La Coche  146–48, 281 Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 522  8, 147, 5 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 91  147 and the querelle des femmes 120, 146–48, 159, 221, 285, 289 as recipient of Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2444  60, 65 Frescher, Robert  60–61, 65–66, 69 Astrological treatise for Francis I (Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 237 Blankenburg) 60 Le livre de Dares de Phrigie de la destruction de Troye (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 9735)  60 Recueil for Louise of Savoy (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2444)  60 Gerson, Jean  275 Graville (family) Anne de Graville  7, 9, 17, 28, 30, 39 Beau roman Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 513  165–68, 171, 176, 233, 38 Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116  20, 141, 161, 170–76, 178–87, 199, 206, 218–19, 230, 1, 2, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1397  165 n. 22, 171–72, 176 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25441  33 n. 42, 168, 170–72, 233, 39 Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 719  18 n.48, 167 n. 17, 168, 170–71 Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 6513  165 n. 22, 171, 176 n. 47 source for (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 329)  33, 163–64, 208–13 and Christine de Pizan  15, 17, 20, 49, 54–55, 87, 97, 120, 122, 124, 141–42, 144, 148–52, 155, 157, 158–59, 161, 189–91, 193, 196–97, 200, 202–03, 206–08, 213–15, 222, 230–31, 271, 281, 287–92 See also Mutacion de Fortune under Pizan, Christine de; and under querelle des femmes



Index 347

and Claude of France, see under Claude of France under France (house of ) evangelical leanings  12, 49, 84, 85 history of book collection  25–28 acquired books  44–49 acquisition of books in Rouen  28–29, 32–33, 45–47, 97 inherited books  40–44 marriage and disinheritance  13–14, 19–20 and Petrarch’s Triumphs (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541)  97–112, 9, 18, 23, 25, 26 See also Triumphs under Petrarch reception of literary works  13, 14–15 resolution of inheritance  13–14, 20, 44, 290 riddle on her name in Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24315  85–87, 89, 216 n. 140 Rondeaux Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2253  18–19, 233, 238, 251–52, 253–55, 255–60, 52 frontispiece, formerly Nantes, Saint-Gildas-des-Bois, Sœurs de l’Instruction Chrétienne  8, 238–39, 241, 244, 263, 268, 272, 6, 53 sources for   251–55 and the Rouen Puy  55, 89–92, 94–95 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25535, see under Coquinvilliers, Nicolas de use of mottos and anagrams in her manuscripts  1, 20, 40, 58, 63, 74, 77, 87, 97, 110, 113, 115, 146, 165, 168, 171–72, 216, 233, 238–39, 289 use of Visconti guivre  110, 113, 115, 122, 125, 238 See also under Rouen family history and links to monarchy  38–40, 54–55, 92–94, 288 Jean I de Graville ( Jean Malet)  39 Jean III de Graville  92 Jean V de Graville  39 n. 69, 55 Jean VI de Graville  115 n. 118 Jeanne de Graville  10, 11, 13 n. 29, 26 n. 4, 35 n. 53, 42 n. 76, 48 n. 101, 106, 142, 143, 145 n. 106, 146, 229 marriage to Charles II

d’Amboise  10–11, 81 as subject of rondeaux 10 Louis de Graville  9–10, 25, 30–31, 32, 34, 35, 37 n. 57, 43–44, 70, 122, 148–49, 252 activity in Rouen  76 n. 1 as admiral  10, 229 interest in religious reform  12 n. 19, 81, 171 objection to Anne’s marriage  13 manuscript collection  35–40 Louise de Graville  10, 35 n. 53, 172, 229 as subject of rondeaux 10 Guillet, Pernette du  9 Habert, François  143–44 Chantilly, Bibliothèque du château, ms 508 144 Henry VIII of England  11, 82, 222, 224, 225, 41 as Arcita in the Beau roman 223–24 Heroides  50–51, 70, 88, 89, 145, 149 n. 126, 200, 219, 251, 260, 263, 273 Criseis (Briseis) 11 Dido, see Dido Helen  214, 216 Hermione 214 Hypsipyle 214 Laodamia 214 Oenone 214 Phyllis 214 translation of Ovid by Octovien de SaintGelais  20, 71–74, 216, 218, 241 Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, MS 121 (2021.7)  70–71, 74, 190–91, 13 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 873  241, 56 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 875  50, 249–51, 12, 57 translation of Ovid inserted in the Histoire ancienne jusqu’a César  38, 50, 214 Sappho 214 Hippolyta  50–51, 131–34, 161, 199, 200–06, 208, 214, 222, 225–28, 230–31, 40, 48 Histoire ancienne jusqu’a César  38, 40, 50–51, 55, 122, 124, 131, 142–43, 149 n. 126, 191 n. 84, 200, 214, 289 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 254  37, 213, 11

3 4 8

Index

Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22554  50 n. 11 Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 10053  32, 46 Illicino, Bernardo, Commentaries on Petrarch’s Triumphs, see under Triumphs under Petrarch Iole  208–09, 213 Isolde  50, 210, 212, 214–15 Josephus, Flavius, Antiquitates Judaicae   58, 62, 66–67 Paris, Bibliothèque de la Mazarine, ms 1581  70 Labé, Louise  9, 120, 221, 289 Lactantius, Institutiones divinae (Paris, BnF, ms lat. 1671)  70 La Sale, Antoine de  20, 138, 140, 148, 156–57, 248 Le Petit Jehan de Saintré London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero IX  47, 152–54, 37, 49 Réconfort de Madame de Fresne Brussels, KBR, ms II 7827  138 n. 73 Brussels, KBR, ms 10748  138 n. 73 Lancelot en prose, see Prose Lancelot Le Blanc, Etienne, see under Louise of Savoy under Savoy (house of ) Le Havre  76, 287 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5692  61 n. 21 Le Lieur, Jacques  77, 80, 88, 94–95, 101 n. 99, 110 New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M. 147  110 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 379  80, 95 n. 79, 101 n. 99, 110 Lemaire de Belges, Jean, Illustrations de Gaule   59, 67–69, 80 Le Roux Bourgtheroulde (family)  82, 84–85, 15 Livre de Thezeo  161–64, 176, 181, 186–87, 193, 200–02, 206–09, 213, 230, 241 n. 28, 290 Chantilly, Bibliothèque du chateau, ms 601  163 n. 15 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 329  163–64, 208 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 934  163 n. 15 Vienna, ÖNB, ms 2617  163

Vienna, ÖNB, ms 2632  163 n. 15 love epistle genre  20, 149 n. 126, 172, 199, 216, 218 Lusignan, Anne de, mother of Charlotte of Savoy 215 as dedicatee of Perrinet du Pin, Le roman de Philippe de Madien 215 Malesherbes (castle)  12, 13 n. 29, 84, 165 n. 24 Marot, Clément  48, 74 n. 60, 77, 97, 199, 218–19 and Claude of France  218–19, 221 Epistre de Maguelonne   20, 51, 175, 218–21 Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116  175 and the Rouen Puy  78, 85, 255 Marot, Jean  1, 77, 78, 96–97 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5091  3 and the Rouen Puy  78 Master of Anne de Graville (Etienne Colaud?)  43, 175, 2, 40, 41 Master of the Chronique Scandaleuse  19, 25, 35, 59, 69–71, 74, 81, 152, 288, 7, 13, 14 Master of the Paris Entries  40, 60–61, 142, 10 Michel, Guillaume  48–49, 67, 160–61, 182, 259 n. 108 Montauban (family)  115 Montberon, Marie de  71, 190, 252 n. 73 Epitaphe in Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, MS 121 (2021.7)  71 Navarre, Margaret of, see under France (house of ) Orléans (house of )  249 Charles, duke of Orléans  21, 34 n. 48, 113, 236, 247, 260, 265 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 19139  249 Louis I, duke of Orléans  113 Louis, duke of Orleans, future Louis XII, see under France (house of ) use of the Visconti guivre  113, 125 See also Clèves, Marie de Ovid  29 n. 17, 68, 157, 191 n. 84, 213 Ovide moralisé 122 See also under Heroides



Index 349

Penthesilea  131, 134, 207 n. 122, 33, 34 du Pin, Perrinet, Le roman de Philippe de Madien 215–16 Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 59  215 n. 139 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 12578  216 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 19168  215 n. 138, 216 n. 141 Turin, Biblioteca nazionale, ms L.IV.1  215 n. 139 Petrarch 150, 36 Remèdes de l’une ou l’autre fortune Paris, BnF, ms fr. 225  99, 186–87, 46 Triumphs  50–51, 200, 214 Commentaries by Bernardo Illicino  97, 99 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 223  99–101, 106, 19 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 594  99, 106, 21, 22 Paris, BnF, mss fr. 595–96  99 n. 93 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 22541  20, 33, 46–47, 77, 97–115, 18, 23, 25, 26 translation by Georges de la Forge  99, 101 Paris, BnF, Réserve YD-81  99– 106, 20 translation by Simon Bourgouin  99 Paris, Arsenal, ms 6480  101 Pichore, Jean  35, 69, 70, 81, 99, 238, 241, 6, 46, 56 Pisseleu, Anne de  8, 147, 281, 5 Pizan, Christine de  8, 9, 119–21, 135–38, 141–42, 144–48, 154–58, 199–200 ballade in BnF, ms fr. 24315  85–86 Advision Christine  34, 145, 189–90 Cité des dames  49, 119, 120, 122, 131, 137, 144, 145, 149, 154, 157, 200, 202–03, 206, 207 n. 122, 214, 215 Collected Works (The Queen’s Manuscript) (London, BL, Harley MS 4431)  1, 135 n. 53, 281, 4 Le Dit de la Rose 135 Livre des trois vertus (Trésor de la Cité des dames)  34, 53 n. 117, 119, 137, 154, 157, 178, 196–97 Tours, BM, ms 2128  34 n. 45 Livre du corps de policie (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1197)  248 n. 54

Epistre à la Reine 580 Brussels, KBR, ms IV 1176  122 n. 13 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 580  53 Epistre Othea  119, 122, 154, 191 Epistres sur le Roman de la Rose 248 Mutacion de Fortune  20, 33–34, 37, 38, 42, 46, 50–51, 53, 55, 121–35, 135–36, 145–46, 149, 151, 158, 164 n. 17, 170, 189, 190, 191, 200, 202, 207 n. 122, 214, 253, 271, 289 Brussels, KBR, ms 10476  124 n. 21 Munich, BSB, Gall. 11  124–27, 125–36, 8, 29, 33 Paris, Arsenal, ms 3172  127–31, 21, 30, 31 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 603  124 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25430  122 n. 13 rondeau, En esperant de mieulx avoir 151–52 see also Amazons; querelle des femmes; querelle de la Rose; and under Anne de Graville under Graville (family) Poitiers, Diane de  89–90, 136 Polo, Marco, Le Devisement du monde  38, 54 Paris, Arsenal, ms 3511  40–42, 10 Paris, Arsenal, ms 5219  60–63 Paris, BnF, ms nafr. 1880  32, 40–42 Stockholm, KB, Cod. Holm M 304  38 Porte, Richard de la Philadelphia, Penn University Library, Codex 850  95–97 Premierfait, Laurent de  30, 70, 148 Prose Lancelot  40, 48, 122, 214–15 Chicago, Newberry Library, MS f. 21  32, 48 querelle des femmes  9, 16–18, 20–21, 88, 119–21, 131, 140–42, 156–59, 161, 193, 199–200, 208, 236, 251, 258, 260, 289–90 Anne de Graville’s interest in  49–54, 149, 197, 221–22, 289–90 Catherine d’Amboise’s interest in  142–49 Marie de Balsac’s interest in  37–38 see also under Margaret of Navarre under France (house of ) querelle de la BDSM   17–18, 20–21, 71–74, 88 n. 52, 131, 152–53, 156–59, 235–36, 244–47, 249, 251–52, 254–55, 271, 280–81, 285–86, 290–91

3 5 0

Index

querelle de la Rose  119, 156, 221 n. 160, 271, 275 Restor du Paon, see Vœux du Paon Rohan, Marguerite de  236, 248–49, 253, 255, 260, 266–67, 285 Roman de la Rose  18, 34, 44, 110, 119, 122, 136 n. 59, 150, 190 n. 82, 191, 221 n. 160, 222, 260, 270–73, 275 New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M. 948  110 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 195 271–72 Roman de Tristan 214–15 London, BL, Egerton MS 989  40, 48, 50 rondeau (poetic form)  78, 255–56 Rouen  77–78, 80–85, 88, 95 and Anne de Graville  12, 20, 55, 76–78, 95–96 church of St Vincent, stained glass  82– 85, 16 Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception  77–78, 80, 82, 84, 85 manuscript production in  110 Puy poetry competition  20, 33, 47, 78–80, 82, 85, 88, 89–92, 94–95 Copenhagen, Kongelige Biblioteket, Thott ms 59  89–90 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 379  79 n. 17 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 379  80 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1537  95 n. 79 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2202  89–90 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 25535, see under Coquinvilliers, Nicolas de and triumph imagery  78–79, 80–85, 99–101 See also translatio studii Saint-Gelais, Octovien de, translation of Ovid’s Heroides, see under Heroides and under Louise of Savoy under Savoy (house of ) Savoy (house of ) Charlotte of Savoy  26 n. 6, 239 Louise of Savoy and the Bourbon succession  225, 239–41 and the Compas du Dauphin (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 2285)  238, 263, 54

as dedicatee of the Rondeaux  8, 233, 238–45, 6, 53 and Etienne Le Blanc, Les Généalogies de Bourbon (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5719) 239 and Etienne Le Blanc, Les Gestes de Blanche de Castile (Paris, BnF, ms fr. 5715)  239–41, 263–64, 55 and the Heroides  241, 249–51, 260, 272–73, 12, 56, 57 as regent  239–41, 244, 262–63, 286, 291 Secret des secrets (pseudo-Aristotle)  Paris, Arsenal, ms 2691  28–29, 32–33, 46, 53 Paris, BHVP, ms 4-MS-RES-010  46 Sept Sages de Rome  38, 49–50, 53 n. 118, 215, 289 Paris, BnF, mss fr. 22548–50  32, 37, 40 Shakespeare (and Fletcher), Two Noble Kinsmen 162–63 Tasserie, Guillaume  78–79, 92, 95 n.78 Le Triomphe des Normands in Paris, BnF, ms fr. 24315  47, 86 Thiboust, Jacques  55, 81, 143, 254–55 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1667  55 Bourges, BM, ms 373  143 n. 96 Tory, Geoffroy, Champfleury  13, 95 Toussain, Pierre  12 translatio studii  57, 62, 77, 79, 82 Triumphs, see under Petrarch d’Urfé (family) Claude d’Urfé  19, 45 n. 89 Louise d’Urfé  54 n.120 d’Urfé (history of library)  25–56, 28–37, 43, 47 n. 97, 66–67, 86–87 de Varennes, Aimon, Le roman de Florimont 215 Vendôme (family)  172, 176, 229–30 Charles de Vendôme  230 Jacques de Vendôme  35 n. 53, 229 Louis de Vendôme  76, 230 Louise de Vendôme  229–30, 291 Venus  162, 163, 164, 170, 187, 194, 208–13, 280, 290 Vigne, André de la  70, 78, 95–96, 97, 191 n. 83, 239 n. 18, 255, 263 Villebresme, Macé de  20, 88, 199, 216–18



Index 351

Epistre de Cleriande la Romaine 216–18 Paris, Arsenal, ms 5116  145, 175, 218, 50 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1721  218 n. 146 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 1953   218 n. 146 Paris, BnF, ms fr. 12406   218 n. 146 Paris, BnF, Rothschild 2964  218 n. 146 Visconti (family)

Bonne Visconti  115 guivre 113–15 Valentina Visconti  113, 115, 238, 248 n. 54 Virgil  48, 67, 184, 213, 220–21 Viterbo, Annius da  19, 25, 57, 58–60, 61–62, 65–66, 68–69 Vœux du Paon (and Restor du Paon) 215 Paris, BnF, Arsenal, ms 2776  45

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9.

Philippe de Vigneulles and the Art of Prose Translation, Catherine M. Jones

10. Desire by Gender and Genre in Trouvère Song, Helen Dell 11. Chartier in Europe, eds Emma Cayley, Ashby Kinch 12. Medieval Saints’ Lives: The Gift, Kinship and Community in Old French Hagiography, Emma Campbell 13. Poetry, Knowledge and Community in Late Medieval France, eds Rebecca Dixon, Finn E. Sinclair with Adrian Armstrong, Sylvia Huot, Sarah Kay 14. The Troubadour Tensos and Partimens: A Critical Edition, Ruth Harvey, Linda Paterson 15. Old French Narrative Cycles: Heroism between Ethics and Morality, Luke Sunderland 16. The Cultural and Political Legacy of Anne de Bretagne: Negotiating Convention in Books and Documents, ed. Cynthia J. Brown 17. Lettering the Self in Medieval and Early Modern France, Katherine Kong 18. The Old French Lays of Ignaure, Oiselet and Amours, eds Glyn S. Burgess, Leslie C. Brook 19. Thinking Through Chrétien de Troyes, Zrinka Stahuljak, Virginie Greene, Sarah Kay, Sharon Kinoshita, Peggy McCracken 20. Blindness and Therapy in Late Medieval French and Italian Poetry, Julie Singer 21. Partonopeus de Blois: Romance in the Making, Penny Eley 22. Illuminating the Roman d’Alexandre: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264: The Manuscript as Monument, Mark Cruse 23. The Conte du Graal Cycle: Chrétien de Troyes’ Perceval, the Continuations, and French Arthurian Romance, Thomas Hinton 24. Marie de France: A Critical Companion, Sharon Kinoshita, Peggy McCracken 25. Constantinople and the West in Medieval French Literature: Renewal and Utopia, Rima Devereaux 26. Authorship and First-Person Allegory in Late Medieval France and England, Stephanie A. Viereck Gibbs Kamath 27. Virgilian Identities in the French Renaissance, eds Phillip John Usher, Isabelle Fernbach

28. Shaping Courtliness in Medieval France: Essays in Honor of Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner, eds Daniel E. O’Sullivan, Laurie Shepard 29. Violence and the Writing of History in the Medieval Francophone World, eds Noah D. Guynn, Zrinka Stahuljak 30. The Refrain and the Rise of the Vernacular in Medieval French Music and Poetry, Jennifer Saltzstein 31. Marco Polo’s Le Devisement du Monde: Narrative Voice, Language and Diversity, Simon Gaunt 32. The Pèlerinage Allegories of Guillaume de Deguileville: Tradition, Authority and Influence, eds Marco Nievergelt, Stephanie A. Viereck Gibbs Kamath 33. Rewriting Arthurian Romance in Renaissance France: From Manuscript to Printed Book, Jane H. M. Taylor 34. Unsettling Montaigne: Poetics, Ethics and Affect in the Essais and Other Writings, Elizabeth Guild 35. Machaut and the Medieval Apprenticeship Tradition: Truth, Fiction and Poetic Craft, Douglas Kelly 36. Telling the Story in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honor of Evelyn Birge Vitz, eds Kathryn A. Duys, Elizabeth Emery, Laurie Postlewate 37. The Anglo-Norman Lay of Haveloc: Text and Translation, eds Glyn S. Burgess, Leslie C. Brook 38. Sacred Fictions of Medieval France: Narrative Theology in the Lives of Christ and the Virgin, 1150–1500, Maureen Barry McCann Boulton 39. Founding Feminisms in Medieval Studies: Essays in Honor of E. Jane Burns, eds Laine E. Doggett, Daniel E. O’Sullivan 40. Representing the Dead: Epitaph Fictions in Late-Medieval France, Helen J. Swift 41. The Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure: A Translation, translated by Glyn S. Burgess, Douglas Kelly 42. The Medieval Merlin Tradition in France and Italy: Prophecy, Paradox, and Translatio, Laura Chuhan Campbell 43. Representing Mental Illness in Late Medieval France: Machines, Madness, Metaphor, Julie Singer 44. The Logic of Idolatry in Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Ellen McClure 45. The Face and Faciality in Medieval French Literature, 1170–1390, Alice Hazard 46. The Futures of Medieval French: Essays in Honour of Sarah Kay, eds Jane Gilbert, Miranda Griffin 47. Translation and Temporality in Benoît de Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie, Maud Burnett McInerney 48. Marguerite de Navarre: A Critical Companion, Emily Butterworth