Born for everyone. Notes for the history of aristocratic authorship in the early modern era

For the early modern historian, the study of the aristocracy remains a magnificent field for the examination of a wide variety of aspects of European culture. Leaving aside historiographical polemics, the study of the nobility sheds light on the Republic of Letters, the Scientific Revolution and artistic renewal and renovation. The protagonism of aristocrats in these fields not only illustrates their activities as promotors, protectors and patrons but also tells us of their own authorship. The following pages aim to elucidate the general phenomena of authorship and the involvement of nobles in these fields in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Aristocrats generated models of patronage that were distinct from those of royal patrons; they demonstrated their capacity to express themselves as authors in a wide variety of arts such as poetry, painting, antiquarianism, drawing or music.