This is a collection of studies in celebration of the retirement of Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier, the author of many pioneering studies of early modern French royal and aristocratic women in which she brought to the light their political agency and art patronage. Wilson-Chevalier started researching this subject in a time when women's studies was not yet generally accepted as a relevant historical discipline. Her article “Women on Top at Fontainebleau” (1993) and the volume she coedited with Eliane Viennot, Royaume de fémynie (1999), marked the beginning of a reorientation in early modern history, a field that was then still mostly dedicated to male heroes of political history.
In the wake of a series of publications by Wilson-Chevalier on Queen Claude de France (1499–1524), this collective volume brings together multiple perspectives on her younger sister Renée de France (1510–74), royal princess by birth, later in life the Duchess of Ferrara and an unfaltering force supporting movements of religious reform. In their well-documented introduction, the editors make use of the excellent and almost exhaustive biography by Eleonora Belligni, Renata di Francia (1510–1575): Un'eresia di corte (2011). With this new collection of studies, the editors intend to contribute further by making use of the critical perspectives of several scholarly disciplines combined.
In their epilogue, the editors identify new directions for future research: firstly, the use of digital technologies for Renée's correspondence and for the reconstruction of architecture and gardens commissioned by Renée, such as Montargis 3D, and secondly, Renée's influence on literary culture. Interesting as these two avenues may be, the editors could have been more ambitious in sketching the outlines of a future research agenda. For example, it will be important to move on from (excellent) case studies of such exceptional women as Renée de France to broader research questions addressing fundamental processes of female political power and patronage.
For example, building further on Wilson-Chevalier's insightful chapter on Anne de Bretagne in the volume, future research could be concerned with broader expectations for women from the high aristocracy to be at least prepared to be involved in hard political power, maybe by means that have gone less noticed in modern historiography. Another avenue could be to further exploit the possibilities for postnational perspectives on politics, culture, and religion that royal and aristocratic women such as Renée de France offer, because they lived away from their home countries and functioned as important transnational intermediaries. Finally, a deeper contextualization of the agency of French royal and aristocratic women as Renée in religious debate and controversy, while keeping open the possibility of a position of religious tolerance, could be an interesting perspective.
The volume further consists of eleven highly relevant, well-documented, and learned contributions by leading scholars in the field, all approaching Renée de France from different disciplines. The chapters are arranged chronologically and address Renée in relation to personal and political aspects of religiosity in the context of growing tension and persecution, humanism and intellectual debate, literary history, art patronage, and Renaissance architecture gardens as a political and religious program.
A few chapters stand out: Dick Wursten's chapter, “Back to Basics: Rereading the ‘Ferrarese Imbroglio’ of 1536 in Light of Primary Sources,” is a thorough unpacking of apologetic narratives from a Protestant perspective concerning Renée's relations with John Calvin. Renée's court in Ferrara was indeed a safe haven for French refugees, but the accusations of Lutheranism were as much based in politic machinations as they were in religious dissent. She always kept her spiritual independence with regard to Calvin, and his interest in Renée was probably also politically motivated.
Gabriella Scarlatta's chapter, “Between Literature and Religion: Renata di Francia's Literary Network,” addresses the community of women, both real and textual, who were related to Renée's court in Ferrara. The network of female courtiers, authors, and spiritual advisors turned the court into a relatively protected free place for religious debate that included a wide diversity of perspectives and favoured literary innovation.
Finally, Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier addresses Renée's art patronage in her chapter “Under the Rubble: Renée de France and Fragments of Art from Her Italian Years.” Despite the fragmented survival of artworks, books, and architecture commissioned by Renée herself, Wilson-Chevalier's erudition ensures the assemblage of a masterful and incredibly rich overview of the artistic context of Renée's years in Ferrara.
