French author, literary patron Daughter of Charles I d’Amboise and Catherine de Chauvigny, Catherine d’Amboise belonged to the powerful and wealthy d’Am-boise family. She was married three times: first to Christophe de Tournon who left her widowed at age seventeen, then in 1501 to Philibert de Beaujeu (d. 1540), and lastly, at age 65, to Louis de Cleves. Biographical information comes chiefly from her writings: Book of the Prudent and Imprudent and Complaint against Fortune, both in prose, and Devout Epistles, in verse. Book of the Prudent, dated 1 July 1509, offers an illustrated catalogue of men and women from history, mythology, and the Bible, noted for their prudence or lack thereof. Prudence is recognized through adversity, and, while Catherine seeks consolation in writing of her own personal tragedies (the loss of her parents, her first husband, and their only child), she underscores the difficulties faced by women authors: limited access to learning, inexperience in writing, and feminine modesty, which curtails discussion of “dishonorable” subjects. These difficulties justify the charitable reception of women’s work, just as Catherine’s gender, along with her God-given intelligence and reason, leads her to recount the good that has come from women.
Catherine declares that she regularly retires to her study to compose “lamentations and feminine regrets,” but her next two works probably date from after 1525. The autobiographical Complaint against Fortune relates how the author (dame pasmee) faints upon receiving sad news (of her nephew’s death in 1525). She is resuscitated by Dame Raison, who advises her not to accuse Fortune but to accept adversity as part of God’s order. Raison accompanies Catherine to the Park of Divine Love, where she finds Patience seated at Tree of the Cross.
This allegorical journey may have inspired the penitential verses called Devout Epistles. For the first epistle to Christ, Catherine apparently rewrote a text that Jean Bouchet had dedicated to Gabrielle de Bourbon (d. 1516).The second epistle to theVirgin concludes with an unusual chant royal, which is followed by a third epistle assuring Christ’s grace and pardon, as depicted in the accompanying miniature by a ring brought from heaven to the kneeling author.
Like her illustrious uncle, Cardinal-Archbishop George d’Amboise (d. 1510), Catherine was a patron, notably to her nephew, the poet Michel d’Amboise. Catherine’s works are preserved in deluxe, abundantly illustrated manuscripts displaying her name and arms and depicting the author. Probably intended as gifts for family members, especially her niece and heir, Antoinette d’Amboise, they reflect a strong tradition in early Renaissance France of aristocratic women writing, illustrating, and dedicating their works.
Mary Beth Winn
See also the subheading Literary Patronage (under Literary Culture and Women).
Bibliography
Primary Works
Catherine d’Amboise. La Complainte de la Dame pasmee contre Fortune. 3 manuscripts: Paris, Bib-liotheque Nationale de France, n. a.fr. 19738; SMAF Ms. 97-9, on deposit at the Biblio-theque Nationale de France; and London, in private hands, sold by Sam Fogg. An edition by Ariane Bergeron is forthcoming, based on her thesis (2002) for the Ecole des Chartes, Paris.
Catherine d’Amboise. Le Livre des Prudens. Paris: Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal, Ms. 2037.
Catherine d’Amboise. Les Devotes Epistres. Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Ms. fr. 2282.
Catherine d’Amboise. Les Devotes Epistres. Edited by J.-J. Bourasse. Tours: Mame, 1861.
Catherine d’Amboise. Les Devotes Epistres. Edited by Yves Giraud, with introduction, transcription, and reproduction of original manuscript on facing pages. Friburg: Editions Universitaires, 2002.
Catherine d’Amboise. Les Devotes Epistres. Edited by Catherine M. Muller, with substantial introduction and notes. Montreal: Ceres (Inedita et rara: 16), 2002.
Catherine d’Amboise. Poesies. Bibliotheque Nationale de France, fr. 2282.
Secondary Works
Berriot-Salvadore, Evelyne. Les Femmes dans la societe Jranfaise de la Renaissance. Geneva: Droz, 1990.
Orth, Myra D. “Dedicating Women: Manuscript Culture in the French Renaissance, and the Cases of Catherine d’Amboise and Anne de Graville.”Journal oJ the Early Book Society 1, no. 1 (1997): 17-39.
Souchal, G. “Le Mecenat de la famille d’Amboise.” Bull. Soc. Antiq. de l’Ouest et des Musees de Poitiers part II, XIII, no. 4 (1976): 567-612.
World History
