Georgette de Montenay

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Georgette de Montenay

Georgette de Montenay (* 1540 in Normandy ; † 1606 or 1607 in Saint-Germier, Département Gers ) was a French Renaissance writer .

life and work

Georgette, who came from a noble Norman family, lost her parents at the age of eight. In 1561 or 1562 she married Guyon de Gout (d. 1574) from the south of France, lived with him in Saint-Germier, Département Gers , and frequented the court of Jeanne d'Albret , Queen of Navarre.

The book of emblems

Following the example of Andrea Alciato , but for the first time with religious motifs, she created a successful emblem book in which she wrote a legend in poetry for each of the engravings (made according to her instructions by Pierre Woeiriot de Bouzey ). According to the judgment of Sara Matthews-Grieco, she designed "the model of an educated and spiritually sovereign femininity as well as a vision of fairer sexual relations".

Example: Emblem No. 16

Sic fiet filiis iniquitatis [image: flying crow with a nut in its beak] La Corneille a en soy ceste finesse, / De monter haut pour sa noix mieux casser / Dessus la pierre en plus grande rudesse. / Ainsi Dieu laisse aucuns pervers hausser, / Par tout à coup les desrompre & froisser / Plus grievement, à fin qu'il soit notoire / Que tout orgueil luy seul sait abaisser, / Et ce voyant qu'on luy en donne gloire.

(The crow is skilful enough / To climb high to break better / The nut that falls on a rough stone. / So too God lets the sinner rise up / So that he may perish all the more surely / And the world now apparently, / That all arrogance is only ducked by him / And he alone deserves the honor.)

Works

  • Emblèmes ou devises chrestiennes , composées par damoiselle Georgette de Montenay, Lyon, Marcorelle, 1571 (dedication in verse to Jeanne d'Albret, poem in praise of the author of PDC, 130 pages); Menston 1973.
  • Georgiae Montaneae, Nobilis. Gallaea, Emblematum Christianorum Centuria, cum eorundem latina interpretatione. Cent Emblemes Chrestiens de Damoiselle Georgette de Montenay , Zurich, Chr. Froschoverum, 1584, Heidelberg, Lancelot, 1602 (French-Latin).
  • Stud book in it of Christian virtues example one hundred unread emblemata, adorned with beautiful copper pieces, first in French, described by the noble ingenious Jungfrauw Georgetta von Monteney. But now increased with Latin, Hispanic, Italian, German, English and Dutch verses , Frankfurt am Main, Unckels, 1619 (447 pages).
    • Livre d'armoiries en signe de fraternité , Paris, Aux Amateurs de livres, 1989 (447 pages, foreword by Simone Perrier).
  • Emblèmes ou Devises chrétiennes composées par demoiselle Georgette de Montenay , La Rochelle, Jean Dinet, 1620; Lyon, Chavance, 1717.

Literature (selection)

  • Sara F. Matthews Grieco, “Georgette de Montenay. Another voice in the emblematic of the 16th century ”in: The European Querelle des Femmes. Gender debates since the 15th century , ed. by Gisela Bock and Margarete Zimmermann = Querelles. Yearbook for Women and Gender Research 2, 1997, pp. 78–146; English original in: Renaissance Quarterly 47, 1994, pp. 793–871 ( http://www.mvbz.fu-berlin.de/publierungen/querelles_jahrbuch/pdf_band_2/querelles078-146.pdf )
  • Regine Reynolds-Cornell, "Georgette de Montenay, Emblèmes ou Devises Chrétiennes (1571)", in: Writings by Pre-Revolutionary French Women , ed. by Anne Larsen and Colette H. Winn, London / New York, Garland Publishing, 2000, pp. 123-136.
  • Alasdair A. MacDonald, "Emblematic construction of meaning in Georgette de Montenay", in: Spiritual literature of the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Ceremony for Rudolf Suntrup , Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, 2013.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Montenay, Georgette de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Renaissance writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1540
PLACE OF BIRTH Normandy
DATE OF DEATH 1606 or 1607
Place of death Saint-Germier, Gers department