ABSTRACT
In his panegyric of Catherine de’ Medici for her magnificence and liberality “tout pareil à celuy de son grand oncle le pape Leon, et du magnifique le seigneur Laurens de Medicis”, Brant ôme singles out three occasions on which her Medicean magnificence was most wonderfully displayed. 1 The first of these was at Fontainebleau in 1564; the second at Bayonne in 1565; and the third at the Tuileries in 1573 for the reception of the Polish ambassadors. These three major magnificences all fell within the reign of Charles ix, during the earlier part of which Catherine was regent for her young son.
