Le voyage d'Italie et la formation des élite françaises

During the sixteenth century, at least until 1559, Italy was a centre for political, diplomatic, and cultural activity for the French elite, who undertook studies and training in the Peninsula. Lawyers and magistrates in the making eagerly enrolled in the universities of Pavia, Ferrara, and especially Padua, where some of them joined with other scholars in constituting the first Literary Republic. Gentlemen who were aiming at a military career or wished to succeed at the Court went to the Academies of Naples, Bologna or Padua, where they learned fencing and riding. During the age of Henri IV, attitudes towards this double education, scholarly and aristocratic, changed thoroughly, partly for economic reasons, but also because of a general anti-Italian polemic which opposed the model of Italian culture and social structure to a national model. The French did continue to visit Italy during the entire early modern period, but latterly they went to “see,” not to learn.