Soeur Anne de Marquets 
(1533-1588)

Relatively little is known of the life of Anne de Marquets. She was born in Normandy of a noble family which she left at the age of nine or ten to enter the order of Saint Dominic at the royal monastery in Poissy. It is likely she took the veil in 1548 or 1549 and remained cloistered until her death in May of 1588. Whether she expressed a call to a spiritual vocation early in life or she was simply sent to Poissy as a "pensionnaire" cannot be determined with any certainty. One can speculate, however, that family connections facilitated her entry into this most prestigious of convents. At Poissy, Sister Anne's education would be a mixture of traditional church doctrine and the Humanist ideas espoused by her teacher Henri Estienne. She also met Dorat, and more importantly Ronsard whose work would exercise a major influence on her own. She composed a number of religious poems, including prayers, hymns, meditations and a large body of sonnets, many of which were published after her death. The conviction of Soeur Anne's faith pervaded all her works and served as an inspiration for the members of her community and the Catholic populace as a whole during the troubled years of the Wars of Religion.

The Sonnets, prieres at devises written on the occasion of the Colloque de Poissy and circulated first in manuscript, criticized the Hugenots and placed her voice firmly in the Catholic camp. They portray, in allegorical form, the troubles of the Church and her eventual triumph. The pasquins, addressed to different Cardinals and other notables at the colloquy, are poetic biblical glosses which elicited a strong Protestant reaction, including criticism for having interpreted the Bible as favoring Catholics. The “Response” directed at Soeur Anne placed her in the limelight and prompted her to publish both sonnets and the pasquins in 1562. This edition was followed by a second one in 1566, attesting to its success. De Marquets next collection, Divines poesies, a translation of the neo-Latin poet Flamino, included a number of her own poems, inspired mainly by the verse of Flamino. These texts, less inflammatory in subject than the earlier works, are no less ardent in their faith. Nonetheless, Soeur Anne demonstrates a sure style and a skillful mastery of rhymes. However, The posthumous Sonets spirituels demonstrate the true originality Marquets’ work: her artful union of the sonnet, perfected by Ronsard as the form par excellence of love poetry, with profoundly Christian themes.

Soeur Anne de Marquets takes a well-deserved place among that rarefied group of published women writers in Renaissance France. As a nun, her works are unique examples of vernacular of religious poetry in that period.

Works

Sonets, prieres et devises en forme de pasquins pour l'assemblee de messieurs, tenue a Poissy (1562, 1566)

Les Divines poesies de Marc-Antoine Flaminius ... avec plusieurs Sonnets & Cantiques ou Chansons spirituelles pour louer Dieu (1568)

Sonets spirituels de feue tres-vertueuse et tres docte Dame Sr. Anne de Marquets, religieuse à Poissy, sur les dimanches et principales solennités de l'année (1605)

Studies

Cave, Terence. Devotional Poetry in France c. 1570-1613. Cambridge University Press; 1969.
Feugère, Léon. Les Femmes poètes au XVIe siècle. Paris: Didier, 1860.
Fournier, Hannah. "La voix textuelle des Sonets spirituelsde Soeur Anne de Marquets." Etudes littéraires 20:2 (Automne 1987): 77-92.
Seiler, Sister Mary Hilarine. Anne de Marquets, poétesse religieuse du XVIe. Washington, DC: L'Université Catholique d'Amérique, 1931. 

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