...n of women. When in 1600 the beautiful Catherine dea Pisani was married to the Marquis de Rambonillet, and changed the name of the great mansion which had borne her Italian mother's name to that of Hotel de Rambonillet , she there began a series of literary receptions which lasted half a century, and have been the model of all such gatherings ever since. There Corneille read his tragedies before their public repr...