Marie-Madelaine Fontaine was one of the ten original Fellows of CESH. She was the leading specialist of the history of the body in the sixteenth century. A true European scholar she could communicate in French, Italian, and Spanish, and their early modern versions and dialects – and, of course, the lingua franca of that time: Latin.

After her preparation in the Classics (1960) she was accepted in the highly selective and prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure (Sèvres), where she specialized in French Literature of the Renaissance. Her first university appointment was that of a university assistant at the University of Rouen (1969) where she also went through the following steps in her career. She found her place when she presented a paper on the history of the body in Tours in 1979. She became one of the editors of the voluminous proceedings and from then on, she learned more and more about the body expressions and techniques in the renaissance. She presented her first paper at a sport history paper together with Guy Bonhomme on the history of swimming in the renaissance at HISPA in Lisbon in 1981. In 1982 she was appointed Maitresse de conférences at the Sorbonne where she stayed for eighteen years.

She did not shy back from the tedious small but important work, which is the basis for what we normal sports historians tend to do. The Dictionnaire des littératures françaises has 79 new pieces by her, more than by the formal editors. She published many annotated editions of renaissance books. She enjoyed using her skills on problems others did not dare to touch. One such example was the reconstruction of the life of Pietro del Monte (1457-1509), a condottiere whose troop of mercenaries fought in various Italian states, in France, Spain, and Portugal for the highest bidder without any ideological preference. A third generation condottiere he came from a noble family which included Dukes and Popes. As in each country del Monte had transformed his name into the local language, and the sources are also in different languages, he was difficult to follow. Marie-Madelaine even found the unpublished Manual by which he trained his multinational team of mercenaries. Del Monte faced a problem like that of a modern first division football coach who must make sure the team functions even if the players cannot communicate with each other as they speak a multitude of different languages. Del Monte taught them his system: in Latin, so each mercenary knew what was expected from him. He died on the battlefield as he always fulfilled his contracts one hundred percent. When there was an ideological discussion about the gymnastica bellica of the renaissance in Germany and I asked her what she thought about it, she wrote a piece for us in Germany showing that there is a fundus of renaissance literature on the gymnastica bellica for which you better have the necessary language skills.

After her years at the Sorbonne and her Thèse d’Etat she finally received her full professorship at the University of Lille III in 2000 where she taught for another eleven years. Her doctoral students loved her as she had more time than many and helped them with their problems. She organized many conferences on various aspects of the body and edited the resulting books. This included laughter in the renaissance, but she enjoyed also to laugh with her students who sang renaissance songs at the occasion of the book presentation. At the occasion of her sixty-fifth birthday, she was honoured by an international Festschrift by her colleagues and friends (Textes au corps: Promenades et musardines sur les terres de Marie-Madeleine Fontaine).

On 15 January 2024, this grande dame of renaissance studies of the body passed away in Paris. The College of Fellows of CESH will always remember this truly European scholar.

Arnd Krüger

The 2024 General Assembly of CESH will be held on 5 June 2024, 4:30PM at University of Paris Nanterre, Alice Milliat Building, Amphitheatre S1 (ground floor).

Please remember to pay your membership fee before the GA. The Agenda can be downloaded below.

We are looking forward to meeting you.

The Directing Council of CESH

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