In 1545, upon publishing Pernette du Guillet's Rymes, editor Antoine du Moulin lauded in his preface what he famously termed the Climat Lyonnois, an intellectual atmosphere in Renaissance Lyon that cultured a certain “vivacity and aptitude for learning of the fine minds . . . in all the arts . . . in both sexes” (85). With the appearance of a bilingual edition of Du Guillet's Complete Poems, paired with Deborah Lesko Baker's volume of Louise Labé’s œuvres (from the Chicago series of The Other Voice, 2006), the two finest representatives of female poetic verse in lyrical Lyon are now available to an English-speaking audience. Many thanks to the admirable collaborative efforts of her modern editor Karen Simroth James and translator Marta Rijn Finch, Du Moulin's stated objective in originally publishing Pernette du Guillet, of bringing honor and esteem to the Dames Lyonnoises “in many lands every time these little, yet praiseworthy, youthful works of hers are read and greatly admired by all” (85) is being fulfilled.

Opening the volume with an impressively erudite and heavily annotated seventy-three-page introduction, Karen James carefully establishes the cultural situation — focusing on biographical detail, social milieu, thematic trends, intertextual dialogues, and philosophical ideals — into which Pernette du Guillet's verse was published, before offering her own reflections on the reception of the Rymes across the centuries as well as her perceived obstacles in “effectively ‘transmuting’ Pernette du Guillet's poems into a new language and time” (70). Prudently citing all contemporary research on Pernette du Guillet and Renaissance Lyon, which yields a rich and useful bibliography on the subject, she also offers insightful, original observations on Pernette's engagement with Neoplatonism and practice of imitatio (especially concerning Petrarch, Clément Marot, her poetic interlocutor Maurice Scève, and Louise Labé). While remaining an engaging initiation into the poetic world of Pernette du Guillet, this introduction also asserts itself as an essential reference for all subsequent research on the Lyonnais lyric.

Marta Finch's translator's note, which immediately follows James's editor's introduction, reflects on the daunting task of translating poetic verse — especially that of Renaissance France. Her concise, anecdotal metanarrative on her experience with Du Guillet's text is a refreshingly honest seven-page essay on the difficult task of the translator that merits inclusion on the syllabus of any course on the translator's vocation. Of particular interest are her accounts of pondering how to most effectively preserve the meaning and lyrical effect of the key words of Du Guillet's poetic lexicon, especially that reserved for her lyrical object “mon Jour” (75). As readers, we enter into her dilemma, as she asks, “Should I ruin the line's flow and use ‘Day,’ or risk losing the important connections with other references to Jour?” (75); we find ourselves agreeing with the sonority of her eventual choice of “Morn.” Other such efforts to maintain consistency and provide the most integral, metrically sound, and melodic rendition of each poem, with focus on an exemplary few, are found throughout. Still, while this bilingual volume lends itself to an analysis of the translating enterprise, it merits stating that, through no small effort, both editor and translator effectively efface themselves to allow Pernette du Guillet's voice to ring true.

The choice of a committed bibliophile and an accomplished poet to translate Pernette du Guillet could not have been more appropriate, especially when one considers Antoine du Moulin's role in undertaking and forging the posthumous collection of Du Guillet's lyrical verse into a volume worthy of its author. In a similar spirit, the apparent ease of James and Finch's working relationship is manifest in this volume, as the renderings of both Du Moulin's preface and Du Guillet's poetic œuvre breathe new life into the lyrical world of Renaissance Lyon for the anglophone reader and offer occasion to pause and reflect in the white space between the bilateral pages for those of us long enamored with Pernette du Guillet. Even if I fear some colloquial translations such as “Catch you later, ciao!” (155, Epigram 40) and “Whoops!” (197, Epistle 1) may fail to preserve their freshness across the decades, I say so fully acknowledging that Du Guillet was not immune to similar innocent synchronic regionalisms. Even so, I am convinced that the sensitivity and vitality of this volume effectively capture the spirit of Pernette du Guillet and that, with its publication, both the academy and poetry-loving anglophone public have an excellent standard edition of the Rymes.