Ship of Virtuous Ladies

Symphorien Champier’s La nef des dames vertueuses (The Ship of Virtuous Ladies), a central text in the debates about women in early modern France, has at last been translated into English by Todd Reeser (following the first complete modern French edition by Judy Kem in 2007). Champier’s Ship explicitly sets out to defend women, although this professed aim is complicated in ways that the editor explains. Preceded by a first-rate introduction situating the work both historically and rhetorically, the volume demonstrates a version of Neoplatonism in which women can participate, offers advice to new wives, praises countless legendary and historical women, and proffers medical counsel. Students of early modern culture, women’s studies, and medical history will doubtless applaud Reeser’s meticulously researched and elegantly presented edition.—Cathy YandellW. I. and Hulda F. Daniell Professor of French Literature, Language, and Culture, Carleton College

• List of Illustrations xiiiIntroduction 1The Ship of Virtuous Ladies 27Title Page 29Double Rondeau about The Ship of Ladies 29Prologue of the Author in French in Rhetorical Style on The Ship of Ladies 30Genealogy of the Noble and Excellent House of Bourbon 35Poems Summarizing the First Book, in the Form of a Polemic against Defaming Ladies 37Book 1 of The Ship of Virtuous Ladies: Praise, Flowers, and Defense of Women 39Book 2 of The Ship of Virtuous Ladies: Rules for Marriage 95Book 3 of The Ship of Virtuous Ladies: The Prophecies and Oracles of the Sibyls 120Book 4 of The Ship of Virtuous Ladies: The Book of True Love 121Bibliography 137Index 149