VIII: Camille De Morel: A Prodigy of the Renaissance

Literary historians of the French Renaissance have long since conceded to Camille de Morel a place of distinction among the learned women of her time. Nor is this an empty honor in a century which, following the example of the Italian Renaissance, produced a goodly number of women whose thorough humanistic training and literary accomplishments have aroused the admiration of succeeding generations. The complete story of Camille de Morel, however, has never been told. She has been too lavishly praised by some and neglected by others, and it is only through diligent examination of the many traces which she left in sixteenth-century French literature that one can come to know her true nature and appreciate her learning while pardoning her shortcomings.