Leighton Library, Dunblane

Scotland's oldest purpose-built independent library founded in 1687

The Leighton Library has a 1685 edition of "Conversations nouvelles sur divers sujets" by Madeleine de Scudéry

Added at 05:15 on 02 June 2024

The Leighton Library has a 1685 edition of "Conversations nouvelles sur divers sujets" (New conversations on various topics) by French author Madeleine de Scudéry (known simply as Mademoiselle de Scudéry) who died #OnThisDay 2 June 1701. This text offered the rhetoric of salon conversation and model scenarios where women take intellectual control of the conversation, with chapters including the topics "Of magnificence" "Of politeness" "Of the absence" Sweetness, Pride, "Of The Inclination" - where Madeleine de Scudéry considered discourse to be built on the ideas of the speaker before them, opting for consensus rather than argument. She is one of the central figures associated with the "salon" conversation and letter writing. She was acknowledged as the first "bluestocking" (a term for an educated, intellectual woman) of France and of the world.