Pierre de Brantôme

thumb| Pierre de Bourdeille (c. 1540 – 15 July 1614), Abbé Seigneur de Brantôme, was a French memoirist, soldier and biographer. Quotes Vies des dames galantes The Lives of the Gallant Ladies, 2 vols. (The Alexandrian Society, Inc., 1922) A fair body, if it have not a fair mind to match, is more like a mere image of itself or idol than a true human body. Volume 1, Second Discourse, Part 2: Of the Power of Speech in Love Three things white: skin, teeth and hands.Three black: eyes, brows and lids.Three red: lips, cheeks and nails.Three long: body, hair and hands.Three short: teeth, ears and feet.Three wide: chest or bosom, forehead and space betwixt the eyes.Three narrow: mouth (upper and lower), girth or waist, and ankle.Three big and thick: arm, thigh and calf.Three long and fine: fingers, hair and lips.Three small and delicate: breasts, nose and head. Volume 1, Second Discourse, Part 3: Of the Power of Sight in Love "The Spaniard saith that to make a woman all perfect, complete and absolute in loveliness, she must needs have thirty several beauties, the which a Spanish lady did once enumerate to me at Toledo, a city where be very fair and charming women, and well instructed to boot." External links Category:Authors from France