Rambouillet

Rambouillet, Marquise de (Catherine de Vivonne), was born in Rome in 1588, her father being French ambassador there, and her mother a member of one of its aristocratic families. She was married at the age of 12 years, and went to France, where the society of the court was not at all to her taste. She initiated the idea of forming a society of her own, and, being a lover of the arts and of literature, rich and hospitable, she soon gathered into her salons all that was best and most intellectual in Paris. French literature of that time is full of references to her and her circle, which, however, finally succumbed to its affectations, being dissolved at her death in 1665. The most notable men in France were members of her coterie.