ABSTRACT
It is clear from the evidence of the first chapter that many women in sixteenth-century France were taught at least rudimentary literacy skills, and many at the more wealthy levels could read and write competently, and even in several ancient and modern languages. Why then did they not participate more fully as authors in publication? What factors influenced their participation, and did these differ between manuscript and print publication? Women faced different issues to men as authors in sixteenth-century France. Their opportunities to contribute to publication, in either manuscript or print editions, were circumscribed by factors beyond their education and access to reading materials. Even in the wealthiest social circles in France, educated women have left far less writing than men in either manuscript or printed works. What prevented literate women from contributing as writers on a par with their male counterparts?
