Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet

Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet (1588 – 2 December 1665), known as Madame de Rambouillet, was a society hostess and a major figure in the literary history of 17th-century France.

Born in Rome, she was the daughter and heiress of Jean de Vivonne, marquis of Pisani, and Giulia Savelli, who belonged to a noble Roman family. She was married at the age of twelve to Charles d'Angennes, vidame du Mans, and in 1612, marquis de Rambouillet. They had seven children, two sons and five daughters. The young, beautiful and witty marquise found the coarseness and intrigues of the French court little to her taste and, in 1620, she began to gather around her the circle that gave its renown to her salon. She and her husband had taken residence in Paris at the Hôtel Pisani, later renamed Hôtel de Rambouillet, and which she restored between 1618 and 1620. It was situated rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre, between the Louvre and the Tuileries. The former Hôtel de Rambouillet, which belonged to the d'Angennes family, was located rue Saint-Honoré and was sold in 1602 by her father-in-law, Nicolas d'Angennes. In 1624, it was bought by Cardinal Richelieu who had it demolished, and who built on its site his Palais Cardinal, future Palais Royal.

Madame de Rambouillet arranged the former Hôtel Pisani for the purpose of receiving her guests, and devised suites of small rooms where guests could move around and find more privacy than in the large reception rooms. She received her visitors in the chambre bleue, a salon painted in blue and with blue heavy brocade wall hangings. The Hôtel de Rambouillet maintained its importance as a literary salon until the mid-17th century: the beginning of its decline was in 1645, year of the marriage of Julie and of the death of the 30-year-old marquis de Pisani, son of the marquis and marquise de Rambouillet; it continued in 1648, which saw the beginning of the Fronde and the death of Vincent Voiture, l'âme du rond ("the soul of the circle"), and was accelerated in 1652, at the death of the marquis de Rambouillet. Almost all major personages of the French aristocracy and literature of the time frequented it, and its reputation was at its height in the second quarter of the century. Occasionally, in spring and summer, the marquis and marquise de Rambouillet would entertain the habitués of their Parisian residence in the château de Rambouillet and its beautiful park.

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