We invite papers that address the growing importance of Madeleine de l’Aubespine (1546-96), author, patron, book collector, and Ronsard’s fille d’alliance. She wrote in French and Latin, in prose and verse (including erotica and lesbian sonnets), translated parts of Ariosto’s Orlando furioso and Ovid’s Heroides, engaged and co-wrote with her male contemporaries including Ronsard, Desportes and d’Aubigné as an equal participant in the ambitious project of forging a national literature.
During l’Aubespine’s life, her poems circulated in manuscript and print. As part of The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe series, Anna Kłosowska edited her French verse and translations (2007). L’Aubespine’s newly attributed 800-line Latin poem Cantilupum, printed in Paris in 1587 and 1588, was edited by Matthieu Dejean and Perrine Galand-Willemen (2022). Colette Winn also attributed to her the Cabinet des saines affections, a Stoical text (2001). The Morgan Library and Museum (NYC) hosted Poetry & Patronage: The Laubespine-Villeroy Library Rediscovered, an exhibit curated by Isabelle de Conihout, which was accompanied by a beautiful catalog (2020).
By shining a spotlight on this remarkable author, our panel seeks to return l’Aubespine to the rightful position she occupied among her contemporaries: at the center of cultural and artistic production during the second half of the sixteenth century. We welcome contributions focusing on all aspects of her life, work, and reception, including patronage and salons, manuscript and print, book collecting and bindings, portraits and sculpture, architecture and gardens, family and circle, collaborators and tutors, her place in the canon and in the avant-garde. Participants are encouraged to highlight her contributions to diverse fields including Stoicism, Petrarchism, anti-Petrarchism, petrarchismo femminile, translation, ecocriticism, trans, queer, and gender studies, Neo-Latin poetry, and Classical reception.
Please send 250 word abstracts to panel organizers Jessica DeVos (jessica.erin.devos@gmail.com) and Anna Kłosowska (roberta2@miamioh.edu) by June 30, 2024.
Link to conference home page: https://www.rsa.org/page/rsaboston2025