Guirlande de Julie

The Guirlande de Julie is a unique French manuscript of forty-one "madrigaux".

The salon of Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet (1588-1665), wife of Charles d'Angennes, marquis de Rambouillet (1577-1652) [http://web.genealogie.free.fr/Les_dynasties/Les_dynasties_celebres/France/Dynastie_d'Angennes.htm. Scroll down to VIII, last on page.] , was the first and most brilliant Parisian literary salon of the first half of the 17th century, at its height between 1620 and 1645. The Hôtel de Rambouillet [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-RamblltCV.html.] , as it was called, was frequented by renown "précieuses", writers, nobles and "robins".

One of its "habitués", Charles de Sainte-Maure, marquis de Montausier (1610-1690), had been in love since 1631 with Julie d'Angennes (1606-1671), the daughter of the marquis and marquise de Rambouillet. To charm her, he decided to give her an extraordinary present.

Montausier asked seventeen of the most talented poets of the time, all frequent visitors of the Hôtel de Rambouillet, to each write a "madrigal" in which a flower would sing the praises of Julie d'Angennes. These "madrigaux" were composed by writers as famous as Georges de Scudéry, Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin, Valentin Conrart, Chapelain, Racan, Tallemant des Réaux, Antoine Godeau, Robert Arnauld d'Andilly or Simon Arnauld de Pomponne. Montausier himself wrote five of the madrigals.

Then the text was ornamentally written by the calligraphist Nicolas Jarry and the flower quoted in each poem painted by Nicolas Robert, while the binding was done by Le Gascon [http://www.aboutbookbinding.com/FamousBinders/De-Thou-and-LE-Gascon-3.html.] . The final object turned out to be one of the most extraordinary manuscripts of the century and one of the hightlights of the "précieuse" society.

Julie found the manuscript on her bed, upon awakening one morning of 1641 [G. Lenotre, "Le Château de Rambouillet, six siècles d'Histoire", Calmann-Lévy, Paris, 1930. Réédition, Denoël, Paris, 1984, pp. 27-29] . However, she let Montausier wait until 1645 before accepting to marry him. Their "engagement" had lasted fourteen years.

La Guirlande de Julie is now conserved at the "département des manuscrits" of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (French National Library). It was first published in 1729, although several poems had already appeared in various collections.

References

Bibliography

*Frain, Irène, "La Guirlande de Julie", Robert Laffont, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1991, ISBN 2-221-06819-6
*Lenotre, G., "Le Château de Rambouillet, six siècles d'Histoire", Denoël, Paris, 1984, ISBN 2-207-23023-6..