Reading in the Renaissance
Subtitle: Amadis de Gaule and the lessons of memory
By: Marian Rothstein.
Publisher: University of Delaware Press; Associated University Presses
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Newark [Del.]; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 193
Subjects: Herberay, Nicolas de, sieur des Essars, 16th cent.; Amadís de Gaula (Spanish romance) -- Translations into French -- History and criticism.; Books and reading -- France -- History -- 16th century.
Description: "Amadis de Gaule may well have been France's first real best-seller. When it first appeared, in 1540, Amadis attracted the smart crowd - court circles and rich bourgeois. Its early editions are large luxury folios, dedicated to members of the royal family. But some twenty years after the Amadis phenomenon started, it ended. References to it in the last quarter of the sixteenth century tend to be either nostalgic or critical.

This book uses the rise and fall of Amadis de Gaule as a case study of the time-bound nature of readers' reading. The rhetorical, narrative, and memorial techniques of Amadis also appear in other contemporary works where they have received little notice."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-187) and index.