Guirlande de Julie

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The Guirlande de Julie is a famous poetic French manuscript.

The salon of Madame de Rambouillet was one of the most important place of the middle of the XVIIth century. It was frequented by famous writers, dukes or "robins".

One of those, the marquis de Montausier was in love with the daughter of Monsieur and Madame de Rambouillet. To charm her, he decided to give her an extraordinary present. He asked people who used to frequent the salon to write poems where each flower would sing the praises of Julie de Rambouillet. These poems were composed by people as famous as Georges de Scudéry, Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin, Valentin Conrart, Chapelain, Racan, Tallemant des Réaux, Robert Arnauld d'Andilly or Simon Arnauld de Pomponne.

Then the text was ornamentally written by the calligraphist Nicolas Jarry and the flower quoted in each poem painted by Nicolas Robert to make one of the most extraordinary manuscripts of the century and one of the hightlights of the "précieuse" society.

It was offered to the young lady in 1641 but she only got married with Montausier in 1645.

The manuscript is now conserved at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (département des manuscrits). It was first published in 1729 but several poems had already been published in several collections.