DICTIONARY OF WOMEN IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN FRANCE

General Overview

The Société Internationale pour l'Étude des Femmes de l'Ancien Régime (SIEFAR) was created in Fall 2000 to enhance the visibility of, and promote scholarship on, French Ancien Régime women. Alongside other research tools such as the Bibliographical Repertory of Scholars working in this field which can be consulted on our web site, it is presently producing a Dictionary of Women in Medieval and Early Modern France. These women, "famous names" excepted, tend to be absent from existing dictionaries, or else presented in less-than-scientific, or even hostile ways.

Several aspects of this Dictionary makes it unique:

  • It is accessible, with no restrictions whatsoever, on the SIEFAR web site.
  • It includes entries on all women, whether famous or ill-known:
    - who made a name for themselves, or are worth remembering, in any field of endeavour whatsoever (politics, culture, the sciences, the arts, religion, society, economics...);
    - who lived between the 5th and the 18th centuries, from St. Genevieve to women born in 1780;
    - who are linked in some meaningful way to France: French women who were active within the French realm (to some extent, at least), foreigners who expressed themselves in French, emigrants, missionaries, translators... (mythical figures and literary characters will not be included).
  • This dictionary consists of 1) "modern entries" written by the most competent contemporary scholars, followed (if possible) by a selection of citations illustrating how these women have been perceived over the centuries; 2) "historical entries", extracted from 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th century dictionaries which are not easily available today. The first type of entries is (or will be) bilingual, in French and English.
  • It is possible to undertake area searches: to find manuscript illuminators, women historians, wet-nurses, "salonnières", and so on.

    • This dictionary will offer reliable, up-to-date information and make it possible to commence a research project, or map changing attitudes to the best known of these women. It will provide a study tool and enable information searches, with unrestricted availability to the multiple audiences that have access to the Internet (scholars, teachers, college and high school students, institutions, the population at large).

    This project was launched in Fall 2002. More than a one hundred contemporary entries can now be consulted on the site; several historical dictionaries have been uploaded in their entirety; others are presently being entered into the data base.

     

    How to consult the Dictionnary

  • The modern entries appear in red in the A-Z list and are accessible by clicking on the name of a specific woman.
  • Les historical entries appear under a code of 2 or 3 capital letters which serves to identify the source. Simply click on the code.
  • The symbol Q indicates the existence of an English version of the entry.

    • Information regarding the codes indicating fields of activity
    For information on the new dictionary
    For information on the old dictionaries
    Information on how the historical entries were entered into the data base

    Beware!

    The historical dictionaries can be very useful, but they are not necessarily reliable. The information provided may be fanciful or even downright wrong, and they should be consulted with caution. The fact that several dictionaries furnish the same information about the same woman cannot be taken as proof that the information is accurate: authors copy other authors. The modern entry, when it exists, provides (more) reliable information.

     

    How the Dictionary functions; how the Dictionary is being produced

    A Steering Committee (composed of members of the SIEFAR who are specialists in different fields of study and varying chronological periods) is supervising both the writing of new entries and the entering of data extracted from a selection of historical dictionaries.
    This Steering Committee entrusts the production of new entries to the most competent scholars at hand, whether SIEFAR members or not. The member of the Steering Committee who works most directly on a given field and/or period is responsible for interaction with the designated collaborators. The Steering Committee then brings together all the entries solicited by its committee members and gives its stamp of approval prior to their uploading onto the SIEFAR site. The writing of entries is not remunerated, but each contribution is signed and dated by its author.
    The entering of historical dictionaries into the data base is undertaken in two possible ways: on the one hand, through contact with professors whose students copy entries in the framework of their advanced degrees ­ and their contributions receive acknowledgement on the web site; on the other hand, thanks to grants received from institutions and foundations for the financing of this endeavour, which is also entrusted to students pursuing advanced degrees.

    Steering Committee
    Danielle Bohler, Université Bordeaux III
    Isabelle Brouard-Arends, Université de Rennes II
    Geneviève Bürer-Thierry, Université de Marne-la-Vallée
    Mélinda Caron, Université de Montréal/Université Paris IV-Sorbonne
    Danielle Haase-Dubosc, Columbia University, Paris
    Sarah Hanley, Iowa University, USA
    Marie-Élisabeth Henneau, Université de Liège, Belgique
    Danièle James-Raoul, Université de Paris IV
    Sandrine Lely, Université de Paris IV
    Elizabeth Lestrange, Université de Liège
    Cathy McLive, University of Durham, Angleterre
    Eugénie Pascal, Université McGill, Montréal, Canada
    Nicole Pellegrin, CNRS Paris
    Susan Van Dijk, Université d'Utrecht, Pays-Bas
    Laurence Vanoflen, Université de Paris X Nanterre
    Eliane Viennot, Université de Saint-Étienne, Institut universitaire de France
    Rotraud von Kulessa, Albert Ludwigs Universität, Freiburg im Breisgau, Allemagne
    Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier, Université Américaine de Paris
    Christian Zonza, Collège Landwski, Boulogne

    This project has thus far received financial support from:
    - The French "Ministère délégué Recherche et Nouvelles Technologies" (Mission pour la Parité dans la Recherche et l'Enseignement Supérieur; Irène Joliot-Curie 2004 Award, "for active support of women in research") ;
    - The European Social Fund ;
    - The Florence Gould Foundation ;
    - The French "Ministère délégué à la Parité et à l'Égalité professionnelle" (Service des Droits des Femmes) ;
    - The CIC (Crédit Industriel et Commercial) ;
    - The "Fondation d'entreprise EADS".

     

    How can you collaborate?

    A -The New Dictionary
    If you would like to propose new entries, either because you are the specialist of a given woman, a group of women, a social group or a field which has led you to become particularly familiar with one or several women, or because you have encountered during your scholarly investigations unknown or poorly known women whom you deem worthy of interest, and for whom you would like to write a short entry, please contact the Steering Committee member in charge of your period or field, forwarding a presentation of your qualifications (publications, studies) and proposals.
    If you are aware of the existence of specialists of women or groups of women who might be willing to collaborate on this open-ended project, please either encourage them to contact us or supply us with their name (along with the necessary contact information) so that we may solicit their collaboration, again by establishing contact with the Steering Committee specialist most directly concerned.

    B- Historical entries
    If you would like to collaborate on the (partial or total) entering of data for a historical dictionary, either because your institution has funding, or because you wish to delegate a project to students, or because you yourself have computerized texts which you would consider placing at our disposal, we invite you once again to enter into contact with the appropriate Steering Committee member. Your contribution will be credited on the web site and made known to the authors and institutions that have participated in the project.

     

    Who to contact:

    - For the Middle Ages: Danielle Bohler, Université Bordeaux III, dbohler@noos.fr
    - For the Renaissance: Eliane Viennot, Université de Saint-Étienne, eviennot@aol.com
    - For the 17th century: Henriette Goldwyn, New York University, hg3@nyu.edu
    - For the 18th Century: Rotraud von Kulessa, Albert Ludwigs Universität, Lange.vonKulessa@t-online.de
    - For the Fine Arts and the translations: Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier, The American University of Paris, kathleen.wilson-chevalier@wanadoo.fr
    - For women active in the religious domain: Marie-Élisabeth Henneau, mehenneau@ulg.ac.be
    - For traductions : Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier (kathleen.wilson-chevalier@wanadoo.fr)

    Or the Editorial Board : Marie-Élisabeth Henneau (mehenneau@ulg.ac.be), Danièle James-Raoul (daniele.james-raoul@wanadoo.fr), Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier (kathleen.wilson-chevalier@wanadoo.fr)

    Please, don't forget to send a list of your publications (on women or gender/France/the Middle Ages & Ancien Régime) to the on-line Bibliographical Repertory of Scholars on Medieval and Early Modern Women: it's free and highly useful as well! On our web site, under the rubrique "Répertoire", you will find a form to fill out by clicking on the link "s'inscrire au Répertoire".