Call for papers: Women’s voices on nobility
International colloquium
Institut catholique de Rennes, 5th-6th june 2025
Organization
Bertrand Goujon (Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, CERHiC – UR 2616)
Camille Pollet (CRH – UMR 8558, CRHIA – UR 1163)
Clément de Vasselot (Institut catholique de Rennes, CESCM – UMR 7302)
Between 1637 and 1644, the Countess of Aranda, Luisa de Padilla y Manrique, published four theoretical and didactic books dealing with nobility. The first three were published under the name of her confessor, but the last one was under her name. While this authoress of four moralistic and theoretical treatises on nobility is, in many ways, exceptional, she is not an isolated case since many women, both aristocratic and non-aristocratic, in medieval, modern and contemporary times, through different types of writing and other means of expression, have discussed the matter and assumed positions in the reflections and debates on what nobility is and how its members should conduct themselves. While the history of women and gender studies has shed light on women’s agency, and the female part of the aristocratic group has been well studied, we need to ask not only how these women conceived of their place within this group and within society as a whole, but also to what extent and in what ways they were likely to (or inclined to) express it.
This raises the issue of the debates surrounding the concept of nobility, which meanings have been multiple over time and in different European political spaces. Understood as a moral and behavioural quality supposed to distinguish an elite group and constituting the cornerstone of the ‘idea of nobility’ (Philippe Contamine), it was also very gradually and partially framed in legal terms from the 14th and 15th centuries onwards, and then in the modern era, through ennoblements, tax exemptions, various privileges, etc. Although these privileges were gradually questioned, abandoned or abolished in Europe, the persistence of legal definitions and a singular ‘culture of order’ (Claude Isabelle Brelot) suggests that the nobility should not be reduced to a mere ‘phenomenon of opinion’ (Adeline Daumard) in the Europe of the long 19th and 20th centuries.
The importance given by many theorists of nobility to the hereditary dimension naturally raises the question of the place that women gave themselves in the process of transmitting the quality or status of nobility since maternal descent, which was sufficient in the 10th-11th centuries, was progressively undermined in a large part of Europe, and even almost totally ignored in France, where only male heredity made a noble. It involves looking women’s views on the mechanisms for transmitting property, titles and offices within noble families. It also requires us to look at how these women perceived their roles, whether in the public arena (political action, estate governance) or in the domestic sphere (management, education of the next generation), taking into account not only the weight of gender assignments, but also the ways in which they were contested and reshaped. It also raises the question of how women of non-noble origin view the social group they join through marriage or ennoblement and how noble women who have taken religious vows view it.
Women’s expression on nobility naturally leads to question their authorship, the legitimacy they claim on this subject, their arguments and positions’ possible gendered specificity or, on the contrary, their adoption of the viewpoints and reasoning of male authors – without excluding the use of female voices, real or fictional, by men.
Women’s ‘voices’ on the nobility cover a range of modes of expression, from scholarly treatises to blogs. Through case studies, comparisons and overviews, we will seek to understand the social situations in which women took up the pen – or other media – to take part in the debate on nobility, to measure the extent to which this writing – or speaking – was part of the legal systems, mores and customs of the time, and to contextualise how these points of view were circulated and publicised, and to analyse the political, social and gendered issues at stake. These female expressions’ dependence on other actors, whether male or female and their dissemination will be highlighted. Finally, there is the question of the audience, reception, uses and temporality of these female points of view on the nobility and their means of expression.
This colloquium invites us to compare, on the one hand, women’s history and, more specifically, women’s authorship and expression history without reducing them to the simple field of writing and, on the other hand, aristocracy and the concept of nobility’s history in particular. The aim will be to explore any feminine discourse conveying ideas about the nobility, whether from a nobility member, a woman from outside the nobility or a fictional female character. To capture changes over time and encourage comparative reflection, this colloquium will be transperiodic, covering Europe from the medieval period to the present day. This temporal and geographical framework should enable us to identify continuities or developments and specific chronological and regional features. Contributions will likely cover a wide range of sources: theoretical treatises, epistolary or diaristic sources, memoirs, literary works, artistic and musical representations and even oral sources for the contemporary period. The colloquium calls for an interdisciplinary approach insofar as its themes can be examined from the point of view of history, literature, sociology, art history, and musicology.
Period : 5th-21th centuries
Area : Europe
Place : Institut catholique de Rennes, Ker Lann.
Date : 5th-6th June 2025
Communication form
Papers will be 25 minutes each, followed by a discussion. Papers may be presented in French or English.
Submission form
The communication proposals may be submitted, in French or English, by email to the organisers before 15th December 2024. They will take the form of an abstract (300-500 words), accompanied by a provisional title in Word or OpenOffice format (.doc, .docx, .odt). A scientific committee will select the proposals which must be sent jointly to the three organisers : bertrand.goujon@univ-reims.fr; camille.pollet1789@gmail.com; c.devasselot@icrennes.org.
Scientific committee
- Guido Castelnuovo (Avignon Université, CIHAM – UMR 5648)
- Fanny Cosandey (EHESS, CRH – UMR 8558)
- Michel Figeac (Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3, CEMMC – UR 2958)
- Frédérique Lachaud (Sorbonne Université, Centre Roland Mousnier – UMR 8596)
- Éric Mension-Rigau (Sorbonne Université, Centre Roland Mousnier – UMR 8596)
- Isabelle Poutrin (Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, CERHiC – UR 2616)
Publication
This colloquium’s proceedings will be published.
Suggested bibliography
Emmanuelle Berthiaud (dir.), Paroles de femmes. Rôles et images de soi dans les écrits personnels. Europe, xvie-xxe siècles, Paris, Éditions le Manuscrit, 2017, 245 p.
Guido Castelnuovo, Être noble dans la cité. Les noblesses italiennes en quête d’identité (xiiie-xve siècle), Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2014 (Bibliothèque d’histoire médiévale 12), 511 p.
Mathilde Chollet, Être et Savoir. Une ambition de femme au siècle des Lumières, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2016, 304 p.
Philippe Contamine (éd.), Nobles et noblesse en France, 1300-1500, Paris, CNRS, 2021, 393 p.
Fanny Cosandey, Dire et vivre l’ordre social en France sous l’Ancien Régime, Paris, EHESS, 2004, 336 p.
David Crouch, The Birth of nobility, Constructing Aristocracy in England and France: 900-1300, Pearson, Longman, 2005, 361 p.
Robert Descimon, Élie Haddad (éd.), Épreuves de noblesse. Les expériences nobiliaires de la haute robe parisienne (xviiie siècle), Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2010, 459 p.
Claudio Donati, L’idea di nobiltà in Italia, secoli xiv-xviii, Bari, Laterza, 1988 (Collezione storica), 402 p.
Aurora Egido, « La Nobleza virtuosa de la Condesa de Aranda, doña Luisa de Padilla, amiga de Gracián », Archivo de filología aragonesa, vol. 54-55, 1998, p. 9-41.
Suzanne Fiette, La noblesse française, des Lumières à la Belle Époque. Psychologies d’une adaptation, Paris, Perrin, 1997, 349 p.
Michel Figeac, Helena Potocka : une princesse européenne au temps des révolutions, Paris, Vendémiaire, 2023, 326 p.
Michèle Fogel, Marie de Gournay. Itinéraires d’une femme savante, Paris, Fayard, 2004, 397 p.
Nathalie Grande, Stratégies de romancières de Clélie à La Princesse de Clèves (1654-1678), Paris, Honoré Champion, 1999 (Lumière classique), 497 p.
Chantal Grell, Arnaud Ramière de Fortanier (dir.), L’Éducation des jeunes filles nobles en Europe. xviie et xviiie siècles, Paris, Presses Universitaires Paris-Sorbonne, 2004, 218 p.
David Martens, L’imaginaire nobiliaire dans la littérature française du xxe siècle, Paris, Lettres Modernes Minard, 2016, 216 p.
Éric Mension-Rigau, Enquête sur la noblesse. La permanence aristocratique, Paris, Perrin, 2019, 394 p.
Alexander Murray, Reason and society in the Middle Ages, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1978, 507 p.
Alessandro Palazzo, Francesca Bonini et Andrea Colli (éd.), La nobiltà nel pensiero medievale, Fribourg, Academic Press, 2016 (Dokimion 41), 223 p.
Camille Pollet, Définir la noblesse. Écriture et publication des traités nobiliaires au xviie siècle (Angleterre, France et Espagne), Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2023 (Histoire), 389 p.
Josette Pontet, Michel Figeac, Marie Boisson (éd.), La noblesse de la fin du xvie au début du xxe siècle, un modèle social ?, Anglet, Atlantica, 2002, 2 vols.
Isabelle Poutrin, Le Voile et la Plume. Autobiographie et sainteté féminine dans l’Espagne moderne, Madrid, Casa de Velázquez, 1995, 495 p.
Martine Reid (éd.), Femmes et littérature. Une histoire culturelle, Paris, Gallimard, 2020 (Folio Essais), 1040 p. (2 vol.).
Andrea A. Robiglio, « The Thinker as a Noble Man (bene natus) and Preliminary Remarks on the Medieval Concepts of Nobility », Vivarium, 44/2-3 (2006), p. 205-247.
Joanne M. Robinson, Nobility and annihilation in Marguerite Porete’s Mirror of simple souls, Albany, State University of New York Press, 2001 (Suny series in Western esoteric traditions), 178 p.
Monique de Saint-Martin, L’espace de la noblesse, Paris, Métailié, 1993 (Leçons de choses), 326 p.
Ellery Schalk, L’épée et le sang. Une histoire du concept de noblesse, vers 1500 – vers 1650, Seyssel, Champ Vallon, 1996 (Époques), 189 p.
Frances Teague, Bathsua Makin, Woman of Learning, Lewisburg, Bucknell UP & Associated UP, 1998, 207 p.
Maaiké Van der Lugt et Charles de Miramon (éd.), L’hérédité entre Moyen Âge et Époque moderne, Florence, Sismel, 2008 (Micrologus’ Library 27), 412 p.
Claudia Wittig, Learning to be noble in the Middle Ages. Moral Education in North-Western Europe, Turnhout, Brepols, 2022 (Disputatio 33), 295 p.