GOURNAY, MARIE DE JARS de. — French woman of letters, born in Paris on 6 Oct. 1565, died there on 13 July 1645.
She taught herself Latin and Greek and, while still very young, read Montaigne’s Essais with enthusiasm; he adopted her as a daughter. She frequented the court, well regarded by Henry IV, protected by Richelieu, and honored by the literary public. She defended the Jesuits, drawing the ire of the Order’s enemies, and upheld Montaigne’s literary ideal against the theories of Malherbe and preciosity. She supervised the definitive edition of the Essais (1593) and wrote verse and moral treatises (Traité sur l’éducation des enfants de France).
BIBL.: Works: an early collected edition of her works appeared in Paris in 1626 under the title Ombres de la demoiselle de G.; this was followed by others in 1634 and 1641 under the title Les adois ou les presents de la demoiselle de G. Studies: M. Bayle-L. Feugère, M. Ile de G., étude sur sa vie et ses oeuvres, Paris 1853; M. Schiff, La fille d’alliance de Montaigne, M. de G., ibid. 1910; J. Dappen, M. de G., de «Wahltochter» Montaigne, Düsseldorf 1927; L. M. Richardson, The forerunners of feminism in French literature of the Renaissance from Christine of Pisa to M. de G., Baltimore 1929 (passim). Elena Bosticco