Philippe Desportes

The luxurious Hypnerotomachia bound for Claude III later passed to his sister, Madeleine. It probably influenced a neo-Latin poem she wrote in praise of Chanteloup, a garden famous in its day for features inspired by Greek and Latin myths. The garden belonged to her husband’s cousin, a connection that enabled the art historian Matthieu Dejean to attribute the poem to Madeleine. The only work published under her name in her lifetime is this commendatory sonnet addressed to Philippe Desportes, signed CMDL (Callianthe-Madeleine-de-Laubespine). The pseudonym Callianthe is derived from the Greek for “beautiful flower” and plays on her family name, aubépine, a tree with white flowers.