Pierre de Brantôme

French historian (1540–1614)

Pierre de Bourdeille (c. 1540 – 15 July 1614), Abbé Seigneur de Brantôme, was a French memoirist, soldier and biographer.

Quotes

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Vies des dames galantes

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The Lives of the Gallant Ladies, 2 vols. (The Alexandrian Society, Inc., 1922)
  • A fair body, if it have not a fair mind to match, is more like a mere image of itself or idol than a true human body.
    • Volume 1, Second Discourse, Part 2: Of the Power of Speech in Love
  • Three things white: skin, teeth and hands.
    Three black: eyes, brows and lids.
    Three red: lips, cheeks and nails.
    Three long: body, hair and hands.
    Three short: teeth, ears and feet.
    Three wide: chest or bosom, forehead and space betwixt the eyes.
    Three narrow: mouth (upper and lower), girth or waist, and ankle.
    Three big and thick: arm, thigh and calf.
    Three long and fine: fingers, hair and lips.
    Three small and delicate: breasts, nose and head.
    • Volume 1, Second Discourse, Part 3: Of the Power of Sight in Love
    • "The Spaniard saith that to make a woman all perfect, complete and absolute in loveliness, she must needs have thirty several beauties, the which a Spanish lady did once enumerate to me at Toledo, a city where be very fair and charming women, and well instructed to boot."
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