Pierre de Bourdeille Brantôme

Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme, was a French soldier and courtier of the Renaissance whose gossipy memoirs chronicled the courts of sixteenth-century Europe. Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies records the scandals, intrigues, and manners of his age with unblushing candor.

Translated afresh into modern English, his court chronicles read like dispatches from a very indiscreet insider.