Marie de France was one of the best Old-French poets of the twelfth century. She identifies herself only as Marie who originated in France. Nothing else definite is known about her. Whereas the English poet Denis Piramus (

Vie Seint Edmund le rei

, after 1170) refers to her as “dame Marie”, emphasizing her noble rank, the scholar Claude Fauchet was the first to coin the name “Marie de France” in his

Reueil de l'origine de la langue et poésie françoise

(1581). Both the historical circumstances of the manuscripts containing her texts, and linguistic elements of Anglo-Norman, suggest that she lived in England during her adult life, but it seems most likely that she was born in France, probably in the Bretagne. Although Marie has not been incontrovertibly identified, there are a…

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Citation: Classen, Albrecht. "Marie de France". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 September 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5494, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5494 Marie de France 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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