Antoinette de Loynes and Madeleine de l’Aubespine

The ludic activities of sixteenth-century Parisian proto-salon society may be seen in the entertainment practices of prominent circles hosted by members of the noblesse de robe, the class of nobles who held state offices usually concerned with legal affairs. The circles of interest are those of the Morels, whose group was largely concerned with traditional humanist learning, and the Villeroys, whose group was more focused on poetry in the vernacular. Each, however, develops its own signature style of entertainments with modes of play that include poetry contests, group authorship, and performance and leaves fascinating records that attest to them. Huizinga’s notion of social-agonistic poetry composed by men and women in a spirit of badinage is strikingly on display.