88 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



the mind. But, not then daring to face the ridicule which 

 was inevitable, if she devoted herself to science or philos- 

 ophy, she sought a substitute for her intellectual activity 

 in the salon. 



The first salon was established by an Italian woman, the 

 Marquise de Rambouillet, in 1617, and was modeled after 

 the famous reunions held at the court of Urbino under 

 Elizabetta Gonzaga, a century before. Although it never 

 exhibited the splendor of its Italian prototype, the Hotel 

 de Rambouillet was for more than fifty years the most im- 

 portant literary center of the kind in France. Here, owing 

 to the tact, esprit, and magnetic personality of Mme. de 

 Rambouillet, were gathered the most distinguished men 

 and women of the time. Among them were poets, philos- 

 ophers, statesmen, ecclesiastics and ladies of rank, whose 

 names still dazzle us by their brilliancy. Bossuet, Moliere, 

 La Fontaine, Corneille and the great Conde were there; 

 so were Flechier, Balzac, Voiture, Saint-Evremont, Des- 

 cartes and La Rochefoucauld; and so, too, were Mme. de 

 Sevigne, the Duchess of Montpensier, Madeleine de Scu- 

 dery, La Comtesse de La Fayette, Charlotte de Montmor- 

 ency, and Cardinal Richelieu who got from this noted salon 

 the idea which led to his greatest foundation the French 

 Academy. 



It was Mme. de Rambouillet who, through her reunions 

 in her exquisite Chavribre Bleue, for the first time brought 

 together elements that were previously considered as be- 

 longing to different castes. It was she, also, who created 

 modern society with its purely intellectual hierarchy, by 

 having the representatives of the nobility meet men of 

 science and letters on an equal footing. It seems to us 

 now the most natural thing in the world for a great savant, 

 a great poet, or a great philosopher, to be received in the 

 same salon with the Duchess of Montpensier La Grande 

 Mademoiselle but it was far from being so when the bril- 

 liant young Italian matron for she was a daughter of the 



