Catherine
Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria.
In the early Christ ...
Fradonnet (December 1542 – November 1587), called Catherine Des Roches, was a French writer of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...
.
She was the daughter of
Madeleine Des Roches
Madeleine Des Roches (née Madeleine Neveu) (c. 1520 – November 1587) was a French writer of the Renaissance. She was the mother of Catherine Fradonnet, called Catherine Des Roches (December 1542 - November 1587), to whom she taught poetry, lit ...
, née Madeleine Neveu (c. 1520
[Date given by the French Wikipedia article. Note that Simonin gives 1530.] - November 1587) and of André Fradonnet, seigneur Des Roches,
[Simonin.] the procurer of Poitiers. Catherine was educated by her mother and was taught poetry, literature and ancient languages.
Wanting to invest all her time in her intellectual pursuits, Catherine Des Roches never married. Both mother and daughter died of an
epidemic
An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics of infectious d ...
on the same day.
Contemporaries of
Pierre de Ronsard
Pierre de Ronsard (; 11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a French poet or, as his own generation in France called him, a " prince of poets".
Early life
Pierre de Ronsard was born at the Manoir de la Possonnière, in the village of ...
, and friends of the humanist
Estienne Pasquier Estienne is a French surname
In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community.
Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the ...
, Catherine Des Roches and her mother were the center of a literary circle based in
Poitiers
Poitiers (, , , ; Poitevin: ''Poetàe'') is a city on the River Clain in west-central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and the historical centre of Poitou. In 2017 it had a population of 88,291. Its agglome ...
between 1570 and 1587, and which included the poets
Scévole de Sainte-Marthe, Barnabé Brisson, René Chopin, Antoine Loisel, Claude Binet,
Nicolas Rapin
Nicolas Rapin (1535 – 16 February 1608) was a French Renaissance magistrate, royal officer, translator, poet and satirist, known for being one of the authors of the Satire Ménippée (1593/4) and an outspoken critic of the excesses of the Hol ...
and
Odet de Turnèbe.
The circle is most well known for a collection of gallant verse (in French, Italian, Latin and Greek) entitled ''La Puce de Madame Des Roches'' ("The
Flea
Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, a ...
of Madame Des Roches", published 1583) in which the poets, inspired by an original poem by Pasquier, wrote on the theme of a flea upon Catherine's throat.
The combined output of mother and daughter—which was published collectively—comprise
epistles,
ode
An ode (from grc, ᾠδή, ōdḗ) is a type of lyric poetry. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three majo ...
s,
sonnet
A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's inventio ...
s,
stanzas,
epitaph
An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...
s, and a few
dialogue
Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is ...
s in prose and verse.
Although less scholarly than her mother, Catherine wrote more than her. Her most anthologized work is the sonnet ''À ma quenouille'' ("To My
Distaff
A distaff (, , also called a rock"Rock." ''The Oxford English Dictionary''. 2nd ed. 1989.), is a tool used in spinning. It is designed to hold the unspun fibers, keeping them untangled and thus easing the spinning process. It is most commonly use ...
") in which she portrays a woman torn between her domestic duties and her intellectual activities.
Works
Original editions:
*''Oeuvres'', Paris: Abel L'Angelier, 1578-9.
*''Secondes Oeuvres'', Poitiers: Nicolas Courtoys, 1583.
*''Les missives de Mesdames des Roches...'' (in prose and verse), Paris: Abel L'Angelier, 1586.
Related works:
*''La Puce de Madame Des Roches'', 1583.
Modern editions:
* ''Les missives de Mesdames Des Roches de Poitiers mère et fille'', Anne R. Larsen, editor, Geneva: Droz, 1999.
* ''Les secondes œuvres de Mesdames Des Roches de Poitiers mere et fille'', Anne R. Larsen editor, Geneva: Droz, 1998.
* ''Les œuvres de Mesdames Des Roches de Poitiers mere et fille'', Anne R. Larsen editor, Geneva: Droz, 1993.
See also
Two other French Renaissance literary circles:
*
La Pléiade
La Pléiade () was a group of 16th-century French Renaissance poets whose principal members were Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Jean-Antoine de Baïf. The name was a reference to another literary group, the original Alexandrian Pleia ...
- the literary circle around
Ronsard
Pierre de Ronsard (; 11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a French poet or, as his own generation in France called him, a " prince of poets".
Early life
Pierre de Ronsard was born at the Manoir de la Possonnière, in the village of ...
*
Maurice Scève - leader of a literary circle based in
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...
Notes
References
*''Portions of this article are based on the
equivalent article from the
French Wikipedia
The French Wikipedia (french: Wikipédia en français) is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has article ...
, consulted on November 7, 2007.''
* Simonin, Michel, ed. ''Dictionnaire des lettres françaises - Le XVIe siècle.'' Paris: Fayard, 2001, pp. 351–352.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Des Roches, Catherine
1542 births
1587 deaths
French women poets
16th-century French women writers
16th-century French writers