Research in Progress related to the 1558 Histoires des amans fortunez of Pierre Boaistuau

Editio princeps of the Heptameron of Queen Marguerite de Navarre

Cultural & literary context

1540-1588: Consolidation of the state, rise of bureaucracy, the last generation of powerful post-feudal noble families: Valois, Bourbons, D’Albrets, Montmorencys, and Guises

A Catholic country with a Protestant minority

Manuscript culture gives way to the printing press

The forgotten best-sellers of Pierre Boaistuau “de Launay” 1556-1560-(1572)

Marguerite d’Angouleme, Q. of Navarre d. 1549

Author of the Heptameron

The first & second editions of the Heptameron

1558 Editor: Pierre

Boaistuau Dedicatee:

Marguerite de Bourbon

No author named on title page

Privilège: 6 years

1559 Editor: Claude

Gruget Patron: Jeanne

d’Albret, Queen of Navarre

Author: Marguerite Queen of Navarre

Privilège: 10 years

“confus auparavant…”

the sins of Pierre Boaistuau Went to the wrong royal princess for

patronage Suppressed the name of the author Disarranged the narrative format Skipped a few of the stories Toned down some of the remainder

Jeanne D’Albret, the warrior Queen of Navarre, 1555-1572

Daughter of Marguerite, the author of the Heptameron

The 1558 edition: gone Jeanne d’Albret bought them, or

paid to have them pulped, and commissioned a new edition

Copies survive in 8 institutional collections

3 copies were still in private hands in the early 20th century

Printing and publication in 16th

century Paris

Shared expense & shared distribution: shifting partnerships, project based

Division of labor: print, publish/distribute, secure the rights to reproduce

The Sertenas group – In-laws, widows & long-standing partnerships

Gilles Gilles, the undocumented printer

Threads to Pursue: history of books & printing

Why was Boaistuau’s edition scrambled & “confus?”

Establishing from presswork that the same group printed both the 1558 & 1559 editions

The mechanisms of suppression – why did the privilège not protect the 1558 edition?

How did a Paris printers’ cartel operate? The hidden career of printer Gilles Gilles The provenance history of surviving copies

Threads to Pursue: Historical, biographical

The mystery of the dedication – still stumped Marguerite de Bourbon-Vendome, who

eludes some researchers – could correct some recent published errors

The strange afterlife of the rival patrons : the adoption of Marie de Cleves (don’t understand it) and the funeral of Jeanne d’Albret as described by la Reine Margot in her memoirs (further research determined this was a dead-end – 3/2010)

Completing and publishing this story: subdividing, funding, venues?

• What are the logical components of this story?

• What audiences might want to hear or read about them?

• Funding sources for any of this work? • Update 3/2010: Received a Houghton

Library fellowship-in-residence grant to pursue some of these answers in the collection at Harvard