French Literature Reviews - 2026
Anne de France, Enseignements à sa fille, suivis de l'Histoire du siège de Brest
Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Anne de France, Enseignements à sa fille, suivis de l'Histoire du siège de Brest (c. 1505)
Edited by Tatiana Clavier & Éliane Viennot.
Saint-Étienne, Publications de l'Université, collection « la cité des dames » no. 4, 2006, 144 p.
EAN: 9782862724096
7 €
This volume reproduces the score of illustrations from the Chazaud edition (1878).
The daughter of Louis XI is renowned for having ruled France with a firm hand following her father's death, while her brother Charles VIII was still a minor, before she reached the age of thirty, and amidst the turmoil of the "Mad War" (guerre folle) waged by the high nobility. After marrying her brother to Duchess Anne of Brittany (1491), she focused on organizing court life, educating her female attendants, and managing her duchies, while her husband, Duke Peter of Bourbon, remained the second most powerful figure in the State.
The two prose texts brought together here are her only known works. The Enseignements, written shortly after her widowhood (1503) for her only child, then an adolescent, provide a unique document on the upbringing of noblewomen during the Renaissance. The short story that follows illustrates some of her key messages by highlighting the exemplary conduct of a woman during a critical juncture of the Hundred Years' War. Steeped in insight and experience, both works testify to the extraordinary personality of Anne of France, the principles underlying her personal success, her awareness of the dangers threatening women of her era, and a literary talent that the great Marguerite de Navarre was undoubtedly the first to recognize.
Tatiana Clavier is a certified teacher of Modern Literature in the Toulouse region; she dedicated her master's and advanced graduate degrees (DEA) to Anne de France.
Éliane Viennot teaches Renaissance literature at the University of Saint-Étienne; a specialist in the history of women and power, she is a member of the Institut universitaire de France and president of the International Society for the Study of Women of the Old Regime (SIEFAR).
The book is available through booksellers (distributed by SODIS). You may also order directly from the Publications de l'Université de Saint-Étienne by filling out the online form on the SIEFAR website (at the bottom of the book presentation page, accessible from the homepage).
Also published in the same collection:
- Mémoires et discours de Marguerite de Valois (1574-1614), ed. É. Viennot, 2004, 228 p., 8 euros.
- Les Angoisses douloureuses qui procèdent d'amour (1543) by Hélisenne de Crenne, edited by Jean-Philippe Beaulieu, 2005, 380 p., 10 euros.
- L'Histoire des favorites by Mme de La Roche Guilhen (1697), ed. Els Höhner, 2005, 412 p., 8 euros.
Forthcoming:
- Théâtre de femmes, XVIe-XVIIIe siècles, Anthologie, ed. Aurore Evain, Perry Gethner, Henriette Goldwyn, Vol. 1: 16th century (Autumn 2006).
Published in the collection la cité des dames, this critical edition brings together the only known prose works of Anne de France, daughter of Louis XI and a prominent political figure of the French Renaissance. Composed around 1505, the Enseignements offer an invaluable look into the pedagogical traditions directed at noblewomen during a period of profound transition. Alongside the historical account of the siege of Brest, these writings reveal the intellectual horizons, political acumen, and literary sensibilities of an exceptional stateswoman whose legacy profoundly influenced later female authors like Marguerite de Navarre.
This volume will prove especially valuable to scholars and students of Renaissance literature, early modern women's writing, and the cultural history of the French court. By making these rare texts accessible alongside historical contextualization and period illustrations, editors Tatiana Clavier and Éliane Viennot shed new light on the mechanisms of power and education available to women in the pre-modern era. It serves as an essential resource for those exploring the intersections of gender, authority, and literary expression in early sixteenth-century France.