Laure de Noves - Paris, France
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 48° 50.753 E 002° 20.184
31U E 451313 N 5410535
Laura de Noves (1310–1348) is famous only because she is the probable subject of Francesco Petrarch's "Canzoniere" (Songbook).
Waymark Code: WMD2N7
Location: Île-de-France, France
Date Posted: 11/10/2011
Views: 18
Located in the Jardin du Luxembourg, this sculpture is one of many prominent women in this area...mostly queens. Laure de Noves (1310-1348), however, was the wife of Count Hugues de Sade- an ancestor of the Marquis de Sade. The sculpture depicts her in a long dress and cape. She looks down glumly as she adjusts her left sleeve with her right hand. The artist is Auguste-Louis-Marie Jenks Ottin (1811–1890). Read more about him at (
visit link)
Wikipedia (
visit link) further informs us:
"Not much is known about her other than she did have a large family, was a virtuous wife, and died in 1348. Since this first encounter with Laura, Petrarch spent the next three years in Avignon singing his purely platonic love and haunting Laura in church and on her walks. After this Petrarch left Avignon and went to Lombez (a French department of Gers) where he held a canonry gifted by Pope Benedict XII. Her possible tomb could have been discovered by the French poet Maurice Scève in 1533.[2]
In 1337 he returned to Avignon and bought a small estate at Vaucluse to be near his dear Laura. Here for the next three years he wrote numerous sonnets in her praise.[3] Petrarch's Canzoniere (Songbook) is the lyrics to her in the troubadour tradition of courtly love. They advanced the growth of Italian as a literary language. They also popularized this form of sonnet that is called Petrarchan sonnet. Years after her death Petrarch wrote his Trionfi, which is a religious allegory in which Laura is idealized."
Additional information about her can be found at (
visit link)