ABSTRACT
The historical context within which the Recueil des dames were written is immediately brought to life by the mere mention of the identity of Brantôme's interlocutor. Brantôme's work carefully documents important elements in the history of late Renaissance sexuality in France. If gender maintains an intimate relationship to sex, to such an extent that one's gender is at least partly a function of one's sexuality, then the final section of 'Sur les dames qui font l'amour et leurs maris cocus' provides a remarkable testimony of the complexity and diversity of sexual practices during this period. The masculine subject inscribed as the first-person narrator of Brantôme's text describes in detail the dynamics of a concupiscent masculine gaze that surveys female body parts in order to gauge their worth and desirability. For men, the female body was thus an imaginary locus at which the various projections of men's potency had to be exhibited and put into circulation for the visual consideration.
