In

11. Catherine de Vivonne, Marchioness de Rambouillet, used to receive in her hôtel, near St. Thomas du Louvre, in Paris, ail the élite of French Society (1600-1665). There arose a kind of literary coterie which was

long considered as the suprême arbiter in matters of taste. The ladles who frequented Madame de Rambouillet's salon assumed the name o( Précieuses. See M. Ch. Livet's volume Précieux et Précieuses, Paris, 8vo., and Walckenaer's Mémoires touchant la Vie et les Écrits de Madame de Se vigne, vol. i, ch. 4, 5.

12. Vincent Voiture (i 598-1 648), one of the great authorities at the Hôtel de Rambouillet. Has left some réputation as a prose writer.