Aristocratic Reform and the Education of Girls: A Social History of Saint-Cyr

FAIN: FT-12674-75

Carolyn C. Lougee
Stanford University (Stanford, CA 94305-2004)

To study girls' education in socio-political context, focusing on the exemplary school which effected the most significant theoretical and institutional achievements of the ancien regime in the domestic education of French girls: the Maison Royale de Saint Louis at Saint, Cyr, founded in 1686 by the morganatic wife of Louis XIV, madame de Maintenon. Study will focus on three dimensions of Saint-Cyr education: the social composition of the student body, the curriculum, and the impact of Saint-Cyr on French society. Study will add new insights into the pre-Revolutionary aristocratic reform movements and thus into the genesis of the French Revolution itself.