Reading women writing: female readers and the angoysses douloureuses qui procedent d'amours by Helisenne de Crenne

This article uses the materiality of the book and representations of inscribed readers to examine the ways in which the first edition of the Angoysses douloureuses qui procedent d'amours may have been courting or responding to the needs of a female readership in sixteenth-century France. It uses analysis of the choice of medium, title-page, preface, format, typeface, and illustration as well as representations of readers within the work to explore how it is appealing to new readerships compared with traditional vernacular romances, giving female readers a prominent and visible position which surpasses that of their male counterparts. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]