Pierre de Bourdeille (Script error: No such module "IPA"., c.Template:TrimScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". – 15 July 1614), called the seigneur et abbé de Brantôme, was a French memoirist, soldier and biographer.
Born at Bourdeilles in the Périgord, Brantôme was the third son of the baron François de Bourdeille and Anne de Vivonne. His mother and maternal grandmother, Louise de Daillon du Lude, were both attached to the court of Marguerite of Navarre. After Marguerite's death (1549), Brantôme went to Paris and later to Poitiers (1555) to finish his education.Template:Sfn He was a nephew of Jeanne de Dampierre, who belonged to the royal household and whom he cited as a source of information in his works.[1]
A fall from his horse compelled him to retire into private life about 1589, and he spent his last years in writing his Memoirs of the illustrious men and women whom he had known.Template:Sfn
His life was the subject of the historical drama filmDames galantes (1990) that focused on his relations with women. The lead role was played by Richard Bohringer.
Memoirs
De Bourdeille left distinct orders that his manuscript should be printed; a first edition appeared late (1665–1666) and not very complete.
File:Brantome 1st edition.jpgMemoires De Messire Pierre de Bourdeille, Seigneur de Brantome. First Edition, volume 1, 1666
one in 15 volumes (1740) File:Brantome OEuvres.jpgOEuvres du Seigneur de Brantome, Nouvelle Édition, Plus correcte que les Précédentes. Tome Premier. A Paris, Chez Jean-François Bastien. M. DCC. LXXXVII.
De Bourdeille can hardly be regarded as a historian proper, and his Memoirs cannot be accepted as a very trustworthy source of information. But he writes in a quaint conversational way, pouring forth his thoughts, observations or facts without order or system, and with the greatest frankness.Template:Sfn
His works give a picture of the general court-life of the time, with its unblushing and undisguised profligacy. There is not an homme illustre or a dame galante in all his gallery of portraits who has not engaged in sexual immorality; and yet the whole is narrated with the most complete unconsciousness that there is anything objectionable in their conduct.Template:Sfn
The work was published in two volumes by the Golden Cockerel Press under the title The Lives of the Gallant Ladies in 1924 with woodcuts by Robert Gibbings.[2]
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