Women, Entertainment, and Precursors of the French Salon, 1532-1615 / / Julie Campbell.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Amsterdam University Press Complete eBook-Package 2023
• VerfasserIn: Campbell, Julie,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: Cultures of Play ; 4
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (284 p.)

This study of ludic literary society in sixteenth-century France addresses Italianate practices of philosophical and literary sociability as they took root there. It asserts that entertainment activities of women-led circles illustrate the richly complex precursors of the seventeenth-century salons. Notions from the philosophy of play, such as those developed by Johan Huizinga, Eugen Fink, and Roger Caillois, who argue that play is critically intertwined with the development of society, provide a theoretical path across these periods of women’s engagement in literary culture. The barrister Estienne Pasquier, whose voluminous network of literary and legal connections permitted him entry into the society of such women, acts as an eyewitness to sixteenth-century circles. Ultimately, we see that the ludic activities in such society produced powerful influences that extended beyond the confines of the groups in question to shape ideas, attitudes, and activities—such as those of the salon cultural norms to come.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Women, Entertainment, and Precursors of the French Salon , 1532–1615 -- 1. At Play in Italy and France -- 2. Marie-Catherine de Pierrevive and the Dames des Roches -- 3. Antoinette de Loynes and Madeleine de l’Aubespine -- 4. Claude-Catherine de Clermont -- 5. Marguerite de Valois and Proto- Précieuse Taste -- 6. L’Histoire de La Chiaramonte -- Conclusion : Sixteenth-Century Société Mondaine and the Persistence of Entertainment Practices -- Appendix: Estienne Pasquier and His Social Network -- Bibliography -- Index