This book provides new perspectives on the question of the authority of female spiritual writing in sixteenth-century France. This topic is crucial for understanding the emergence of religious discourse written by women in French language during this period. Drawing on literary texts, polemical discourses, and memoirs, the essays by leading scholars explore the contradictions, difficulties, and support on the part of men for Christian women's initiatives over the course of an extended century. In particular, they address the sources of Christian thought about women, the question of models, the circulation and reception of Renaissance feminine writings, and the textual marks of this authority in order to open up new perspectives on feminine spiritual writing in the early modern era.
If the book is primarily aimed at an international academic audience of specialists who work on the history of women and the history of women's literature as well as history of religion and spirituality, it can also be addressed to a broader audience of people interested by these subjects.