Gabrielle de Coignard’s collected works of poetry, the

(1594), provide unique insight into the private life and spiritual journey of a French aristocratic woman writing in Toulouse during the late sixteenth-century religious wars. The collection is divided into two parts: the first half, entitled

contains 129 sonnets dealing largely with religious themes, and the second consists of 21 longer poems, collectively called the

, featuring devotional genres, as well as an epic poem called the “Imitation de la victoire de Judich”. Likely composed by Coignard after the loss of her husband in 1573 at the age of 23, the composition and publication of the collection can be studied to reveal changing attitudes towards women’s places in…

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Citation: Jakeway, Eileen. "Œuvres chrestiennes". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 August 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35715, accessed 23 November 2024.]