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Gabrielle de Coignard (1550?–1586) was a Toulousaine devotional poet in 16th century France. She is most well known for her posthumously published book of religious poetry, ''Oeuvres chrétiennes'' ("Christian Works"), and her marriage into the prominent political family of Toulousain president Jean de Mansencal in 1570. == Life == Though her exact date of birth is unknown, her death at the age of 36 in November of 1586 provides 1550 as the likely year of her birth.〔Coignard and Gregg, 4.〕 Her father, Jean de Coignard, was a prominent member of the elite literary society of Toulouse during the mid-16th century, acting as maître for the prestigious Académie des Jeux Floraux. 〔Larsen and Winn, 171.〕 Records of his life indicate that Coignard received a good education fitting of her status—a luxury not afforded to women of lower classes〔Bankier and Lashgari, 163.〕—and she was well-versed in the Catholic faith.〔Coignard and Gregg, 4.〕 Although her father’s position as ''maître ès Jeux Floraux'' and counselor at the Parlement of Toulouse〔Coignard and Gregg, 4.〕 offered the Coignard family a comfortable lifestyle, Gabrielle de Coignard’s marriage to Pierre de Mansencal in 1570 considerably elevated her social status.〔Larsen and Winn, 171.〕 Mansencal’s father was a prominent political figure in 16th century France, acting as the first president of the Parlement of Toulouse from 1535-1555,〔Coignard and Gregg, 4.〕 a position which Pierre de Mansencal would assume in 1572.〔Coignard and Gregg, 4.〕〔Shapiro, 231.〕 Coignard and Mansencal had two daughters, Jeanne and Catherine,〔Larsen and Winn, 171.〕 and Coignard was left a widow and single mother after just three years of marriage when her husband died of unknown causes in 1573.〔Coignard and Gregg, 5.〕 There is very little information regarding the nature of Coignard’s relationship with her husband, but her poems indicate that her marriage was loving and rewarding. This was a rare coincidence in a time when aristocratic marriages were generally motivated by economics and politics, but Coignard was said to have been deeply affected by Mansencal’s sudden death, and current scholarship indicates that she turned to writing to cope with her grief.〔Larsen and Winn, 171.〕 Unlike most women in the early modern period, Coignard never remarried after the loss of her husband;〔Coignard and Gregg, 8.〕 instead, she became more deeply immersed in her Catholic faith and vowed that God would be her only spouse.〔Ferguson, 198.〕 Interestingly, although both widowhood and religion were two major avenues through which women gained power in this time period, there is little evidence to indicate that Coignard led anything other than a rather solitary lifestyle, and after her husband’s death she essentially fell into obscurity.〔Coignard and Gregg, 5〕 We do know, however, that she passed on her religious devotion to her two daughters, and she leveraged her elite status to provide them with the educational resources that were often withheld from women in that era.〔Coignard and Gregg, 5.〕 It appears that the gender expectations of early modern France greatly dictated Coignard’s life, and her strict adherence to the feminine virtues of silence, piety, and humility encouraged her to refuse to publish her works during her lifetime, going so far as to hide her poetry from her daughters to ensure that this wish was fulfilled.〔Sommers, 273.〕 In 1594, eight years after Coignard’s death, Jeanne and Catherine de Mansencal published their mother’s entire catalog of religious poetry under the title ''Oeuvres chrétiennes'', which would gain substantial recognition in the early 17th century as a poetical devotional text. == Oeuvres Chrétiennes == ''Les oeuvres chrétiennes'' is a compilation of 129 individual sonnets (''Les sonnets spirituels'', or "Spiritual Sonnets") and 21 other poems (''Les vers chrétiens'', or "Christian Verses") that employ a variety of Christian themes and biblical imageries.〔Coignard and Gregg, 5.〕 Although ''Oeuvres'' focuses on some secular themes, it is first and foremost a religious text, and its preface makes that abundantly clear. This introduction, written by Coignard’s daughters, dedicates her work to two “devout” and “venerable” ladies that their mother greatly admired.〔Coignard and Gregg, 35.〕 These two women are generally assumed to be Marguerite de Valois and Clémence Isaure, two renowned devotional poets in their own right, who greatly influenced Coignard’s faith and literary career.〔Coignard and Gregg, 6.〕 The preface also asks that the readers ignore the “fairly remarkable errors in this book that you will be likely to criticize and condemn,” instead encouraging them to recognize its “honest and virtuous” author, indicating that the Mansencals were invested in protecting their mother’s legacy.〔Coignard and Gregg, 37.〕 And indeed, Coignard’s work has received some literary criticism for its lack of skill,〔Coignard and Gregg, 13.〕 but her work has gained praise for its emotional veracity and piety.〔Coignard and Gregg, 13.〕 Religious themes are a constant throughout this work, with the Cross, grace, prayer, and death all figuring heavily into Coignard’s poetry.〔Coignard and Gregg, 7-8.〕 However, she has also received praise for her inclusion of the more worldly themes of widowhood, the body, and illness, for offering a unique perspective on womanhood in early modern France.〔Coignard and Gregg, 3, 8, 11.〕 Coignard has also gained recognition for the transgressive nature of some of her works, notably her 1548-line long epic ''Imitation de la victoire de Judich'' ("Imitation of the Victory of Judith") from ''Les vers chrétiens.'' In this piece, she purposefully downplayed the more subversive acts of the biblical heroine Judith, instead highlighting her acceptable womanly values of chastity, piety, and virtue in order to cast a more favorable light on this heroine, who was often maligned by Coignard's contemporaries.〔Larsen and Winn, 172.〕〔Sommers, 211 and 215.〕 Modern scholarship on Coignard suggests that, although she was forced to work within the patriarchal confines of her society—and thus frame her poetry in a manner which upheld the dominant prescriptions for femininity of that time—Coignard nonetheless found ways to subvert sexist biblical narratives by reframing the stories of biblical heroines to focus on their virtues and accomplishments, rather than those of the male heroes within their tales.〔Sommers, 217.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gabrielle de Coignard」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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