Louise Labé

Birth of Louise Labe

Apr 25, 1523

Louise Labe was born on April 25, 1523 in Lyon, France. Lyon, a city where the crossroads of the burgeoning cultural Renaissance given its situation between Paris and Italy. She was the child of a wealthy roper maker Pierre Charley. Her mother Etiennette Roybet's, died when she was a child, her father had her educated in languages and music, and a brother may have taught her to ride and fence.

Italian War

Jan 1, 1526

War that was going on when Labe was a small child and started before she was born.This war was The Italian War, sometimes known as the Four Years' War.The war was between Francis I of France and the Republic of Venice against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Henry VIII of England, and the Papal States. This war was in the years of 1521-1526.

Arranged Marriage

May 23, 1542

Between 1542-1544 a conventational arranged marriaged for Labe with Ennemond Perrin. He was a rope maker just like her father. But he was well advanced in age than her.

Publishing and Printing Writing

Jun 12, 1555

Lyon was the cultural center of France in the first half of the sixteenth century. Labe became active in a circle of Lyonnais poets and humanists grouped around the figure of Maurice Sceve. Her number of works were printed and published in 1555, by the reowned Lyonnais printer Jean de Tournes. These works were also accompanied with two dozen poems.

Retirement

May 25, 1557

Labe's star that burned so brightly of success was short lived. She retired in 1557. She went to live in a country property on the outsides of Lyon. She lived there with her husband.

Love Affair

Apr 18, 1559

The poet Olivier de Magny, in hs Odes of 1559, praised Labe as his beloved. He had announced that he had a love affair with Labe since years. From the nineteenth century onward, literacy critics speculated that Magny was in fact Labe's Lover.However, the male beloved in Labe's poetry is never identified by name, and may well represent a poetic fiction rather than a historical person.

Husbands death

Mar 15, 1560

In the early 1560's, after Labe retired from working, her husband Ennemond Perrin died. She was left alone and lived alone in the country propery she owned.

Plague in Lyon

Feb 3, 1564

In 1564, outbreak of bubonic plague that spread throughout Lyon and southeast France during the spring, summer, and autumn months. This plague took some of Labe's friends lives.

Death

Apr 25, 1566

Labe lived in relative obscurity , until her death in 1566. She died at age forty five.She was buried on her country property. Which was close to Parcieux-en-Dombes, on the outsides of Lyon, France.

Afterlife of writings

Nov 17, 1585

From 1585, the name Louise Labe became known as "La Belle Cordiere". This was first described by Philibert de Vienne in 1547.The association with Labe was solidified by Antonie Du Verdier in 1585.