La Pléiade
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| La Pléiade | |
|---|---|
| Name | La Pléiade |
| Formation | 16th century |
| Founder | Pierre de Ronsard; Joachim du Bellay |
| Type | literary circle |
| Location | Paris, Kingdom of France |
| Language | Middle French, Early Modern French |
La Pléiade La Pléiade was a collective of 16th-century French poets associated with Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay who sought to renew French verse by drawing on Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Sappho, Pindar, and Anacreon. Influenced by humanist networks around Pope Clement VII, Pope Paul III, Petrarch, Marsilio Ficino, Desiderius Erasmus and the Italian Renaissance, the group engaged with institutions such as the Collège de Navarre, the University of Paris, and patrons like François I and Catherine de' Medici. Their aims intersected with contemporaries including Étienne Dolet, Marguerite de Navarre, Cardinal du Bellay, and critics from the circles of Jean de La Fontaine and Michel de Montaigne.
Origins and name
The circle formed in mid-16th-century Paris amid the cultural renewal driven by the Renaissance and the revival of classical letters through figures like Petrarch, Pico della Mirandola, Ludovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso, Pico della Mirandola, Dante Alighieri, and Boccaccio. Early meetings drew participants from the Collège de Coqueret, the Collège de Boncourt, and salons of Marguerite de Navarre and Anne de Montmorency. The appellation echoed groups such as the Alexandrian seven of Ptolemy I Soter's era and referenced troubadour traditions linked to Gui de Cavalhon and Peire Vidal, while responding to critics like Clément Marot and pamphleteers allied with Étienne Dolet. The name became established in exchanges with printers and booksellers in Paris and Lyons and through dedications to patrons including Charles IX.
Members
Core figures included Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay, Jean-Antoine de Baïf, Étienne Jodelle, and Pontus de Tyard. Associated or sympathetic writers numbered among them: Rémy Belleau, Melin de Saint-Gelais, Antoine Héroët, Jacques Peletier du Mans, Gilbert de la Porrée, Jean Salmon Macrin, Olivier de Magny, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Claude Binet, Jean Passerat, and Philippe Desportes. Broader humanist contacts included Marc-Antoine Muret, Côme de Brébeuf, Guillaume Budé, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, Jean Dorat, Scévole de Sainte-Marthe, and Pierre de Ronsard’s network with Nicolas Bourbon. Patrons and interlocutors encompassed François I, Henri II, Diane de Poitiers, Catherine de' Medici, and magistrates of the Parlement of Paris.
Literary aims and principles
The poets advocated reform of French versification drawing on the techniques of Horace, Virgil, Ovid, Homer, Sappho, and Pindar and on contemporary theorists such as Gian Giorgio Trissino and Lodovico Dolce. They promoted imitation of Petrarch and the cultivation of neologisms influenced by Latin, Greek, and Italian poetic diction, engaging with printers like Galliot du Pré and Henri Estienne. Their program, articulated in manifestos and polemical works, opposed the medieval models represented by Gautier de Coinci and sought lexical enrichment à la Claude Fauchet and Étienne Pasquier. They intervened in debates about the use of the alexandrine, the adoption of metres inspired by Horace and the lyric models of Sappho and Anacreon, and the elevated diction championed by Jean Dorat and Marc-Antoine Muret.
Major works and poetry styles
Signature publications include Ronsard’s collections such as the Sonnets pour Hélène, the Odes, and the Les Amours de P. de Ronsard; Du Bellay’s Défense et Illustration de la Langue Française and Les Regrets; Baïf’s Les Amours; Jodelle’s tragedies and comedies; and Tyard’s sonnets and discourses. Styles ranged from Petrarchan sonnet sequences modeled on Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio to Pindaric odes influenced by Pindar and classical lyric, Horatian odes derived from Horace, pastoral eclogues inspired by Virgil, and experiments in quantitative versus accentual metrics debated against the background of Greek and Latin prosody. They published in Parisian presses that also issued editions of Ovid, Horace, Virgil, Homer, Lucan, Catullus, and the humanist translations of Jacques Amyot and Étienne Dolet.
Influence and legacy
Their innovations shaped subsequent generations including François de Malherbe, Jean de La Fontaine, Madame de Sévigné, Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, Molière, Jean Racine, Pierre Corneille, Paul Scarron, Marin le Roy de Gomberville, Madame de Lafayette, Charles Perrault, and later Romantic and Symbolist poets such as Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Arthur Rimbaud. The group’s linguistic reforms influenced lexicographers and grammarians like Louise Labé (as a contemporary), Claude Favre de Vaugelas, Richeome, Blaise de Vigenère, and Jean Nicot. Their impact extended to institutions such as the Académie française and informed debates at the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, while translations and editions circulated across Italy, England, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and the Low Countries.
Criticism and controversies
Contested from the outset, they faced rebuttals from rivals like Clément Marot’s heirs, pamphleteers allied with Étienne Dolet, skeptical humanists including Michel de Montaigne, and later classical purists such as François de Malherbe. Critiques targeted perceived artificiality, excessive classicism, neologisms, and alleged elitism; polemical exchanges involved publishers such as Simon de Colines and translators like Jacques Amyot. Religious and political tensions intersected with their reception amid the French Wars of Religion, pamphlet wars involving Huguenots and Catholics, and patronage rivalries tied to Catherine de' Medici and Diane de Poitiers. Modern scholars from the fields represented by institutions like Collège de France and universities in Paris and Lyon continue to debate their legacy relative to later movements including Classicism and Romanticism.