Guirlande de Julie

The Guirlande de Julie (French pronunciation: ​[ɡiʁlɑ̃d də ʒyli], Julie's garland) is a unique French manuscript of sixty-twomadrigaux.

The salon of Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet (1588–1665), wife of Charles d'Angennes, marquis de Rambouillet (1577–1652), was the first and most brilliant Parisian literary salon of the first half of the 17th century, at its height between 1620 and 1645. The Hôtel de Rambouillet, as it was called, was frequented by renowned précieuses, writers, nobles and "robins".

One of its habitués, Charles de Sainte-Maure, marquis de Montausier (1610–1690), had been in love since 1631 with Julie d'Angennes (1606–1671), the daughter of the marquis and marquise de Rambouillet. To charm her, he decided to give her an extraordinary present.

Montausier asked seventeen of the most talented poets of the time, all frequent visitors of the Hôtel de Rambouillet, to each write a madrigal in which a flower would sing the praises of Julie d'Angennes. These madrigaux were composed by writers as famous as Georges de Scudéry, Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin, Valentin Conrart, Jean Chapelain, Racan, Tallemant des Réaux, Robert Arnauld d'Andilly, Simon Arnauld de Pomponne, Arnauld de Corbeville, Montmor, Germain Habert, Colletet, Claude Malleville, Philippe Habert, le chevalier de Méré, Antoine Godeau, Pinchesne, Pierre Corneille (doubtful, according to Bibliothèque nationale de France) and the marquis de Rambouillet. Montausier himself wrote sixteen of the madrigals.

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