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Excerpt from Heptaméron (1558)

Translated by Arthur Machen
Published in 1905

Heptaméron is considered one of the great prose works of the French Renaissance. (The Renaissance was a transition period in European history from medieval to modern times, marked by a revival of classical culture, which brought innovations in the arts and literature and initiated modern science.) The author, Margaret of Navarre (1492–1549), duchess of Angoulême, modeled Heptaméron on Decameron, a popular book by the fourteenth-century Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio. She herself had commissioned a French translation of Decameron, which appeared in 1545. Margaret was a prominent figure at the court of her brother, King Francis I (see accompanying box). It was at court that she was joined by Catherine de Médicis, wife of Francis's son Henry (the future King Henry II), and others in...