Marie Pavie
Marie Pavie (fl. 1600) was a calligrapher active in France at the beginning of the seventeenth century and possibly the first woman to have published a copybook, Le premier essay de la plume de Marie Pavie, under her own name.
Marie Pavie | |
|---|---|
 A page from Le premier essay de la plume de Marie Pavie. S.l., 1608. (Chicago NL). | |
| Occupation | calligrapher |
| Years active | c. 1608 |
| Notable work | Le premier essay de la plume de Marie Pavie(1608) |
Life & work
Pavie, along with Dutch calligrapher Maria Strick, the other contender for the position of first woman to publish a copybook under her own name, were part of a vanishingly small group of professional early-modern women calligraphers. Little is known about Pavie's life and there are only two copies of her book extant, and one of those partial: the Newberry Library in Chicago holds the only known complete copy,[1] and the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris has some leaves.[2] Copybooks tended to receive heavy usage and many have not survived.
References
- A fully digitized version is available online.
- Marolles collection: Paris BNF (Est.): Kb31 fol.
Bibliography
- Mediavilla, Claude. History of French calligraphy. Paris: 2006, p.192.
- Le premier essay de la plume de Marie Pavie. S.l., 1608. 4° obl., 25 pl. (Newberry Library, Chicago: Wing ZW 639.P283, 15 pl. Available online).