race, and PETRARCH; his Bocage (1554) and Continuation
des Amours (1555) were inspired by the Greek poet
Anacreon and the Hymnes (1555–56), a series of longer
poems, by Callimachus. By 1560 Ronsard had become es-
tablished as court poet to Charles IX. During the Wars of
RELIGIONhis ardent and patriotic support of the royalist
and Catholic cause found expression in the political
poems Discours des misères de ce temps (1562), Remon-
strance au peuple de France (1562), and the unfinished
epic La Franciade (1572). Under Henry III, however, Ron-
sard found himself supplanted by Philippe DESPORTES; in
semi-retirement at his priory of St.-Cosme at Tours he
continued to write, publishing the Sonnets pour Hélène,
one of his best-known collections of love poetry, in 1578.
His nostalgic Derniers Vers appeared in 1586, the year after
his death. Ronsard had numerous imitators and transla-
tors among 16th-century English poets, but the criticisms
of François de MALHERBE, Nicolas Boileau, and other pro-
ponents of classicism led to a decline in his reputation in
France in the 17th and 18th centuries. Sainte-Beuve’s
Tableau historique et critique de la poésie française et du
théâtre français au XVIesiècle (1828), however, brought
about a new appreciation of Ronsard’s work and reestab-
lished his position among the principal French poets of
the Renaissance.
Further reading: Elizabeth T. Armstrong, Ronsard and
the Age of Gold (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University
Press, 1968).
Roper, Margaret (1505–1544) English woman of letters
and favorite daughter of Sir Thomas More
A scholastic prodigy, she grew up in her father’s humanist
milieu. MOREeducated Margaret, her siblings, and a col-
lection of wards, stepchildren, and other relatives in his
own experimental and domestic “school of More.” Thanks
to his advocacy of private study for women, Margaret re-
ceived an exceptional and rigorous education, being tu-
tored in Latin, Greek, logic, theology, rhetoric, philosophy,
mathematics, medicine, and astrology. Renowned for her
modesty and virtue, she married William Roper in 1521,
confining herself to the domestic sphere as exemplary
wife, mother, and intellectual companion. She retained
her interest in learning, translating (1524) from Latin
Erasmus’s Precatio Dominica (1526) and Eusebius’s eccle-
siastical history from Greek into Latin, as well as writing
poetry. She was devoted to her father; the moving letters
she wrote to him during his incarceration in the Tower of
London (April 1534–July 1535) were published in 1947.
It is said that she preserved her father’s severed head after
his execution, and requested it be buried with her.
Rore, Ciprien de (c. 1515–1565) Franco-Flemish
composer
Born at Malines, Rore appears to have been in Venice in
the 1540s, and by 1547 was maestro di cappella at the Este
court at Ferrara, where he remained until the death of
Duke Ercole II (1559). After a brief period of employment
with MARGARET OF PARMA, governor of the Netherlands, in
1561 he entered the service of her husband, Ottavio Far-
nese, in Parma. In 1563 he succeeded Adrian WILLAERTas
maestro at St. Mark’s, Venice, but returned to Parma a year
later, where he died. Rore composed much sacred music;
his parody Masses and motets follow the style of com-
posers of the previous generation, but it is for his madri-
gals that he is chiefly remembered. Of these, 125 survive;
Rore set many Petrarchan texts in his earlier madrigals,
and in the later ones sensitive treatment of the text be-
came increasingly important. He is recognized as a strong
influence on MONTEVERDI.Rosicrucianism The movement that combined several
strands of esoteric wisdom—HERMETICISM, the CABBALA,
and ALCHEMY—in a mysterious secret society of the
learned that apparently originated in Protestant Germany
in the early 17th century. The two basic Rosicrucian texts
were both printed in Kassel: the German Fama Fraterni-
tatis, of which the first known printed edition appeared in
1614 (it had earlier circulated in manuscript), and the
Latin Confessio Fraternitatis R.C. (1615). The Fama relates
how “Christian Rosencreutz,” who was purportedly born
in 1378, journeyed to the East and returned with secret
wisdom, which he then imparted to members of the order
he founded; the “discovery” (dated to 1604) of the em-
blematic tomb of “Rosencreutz” and his disciples is then
described, together with the refounding of the order. The
Confessio sets out the order’s program for universal Chris-
tian reformation and enlightenment. The author or au-
thors of the Fama and Confessio are unknown, but the
Lutheran pastor and mystic Johann Valentin Andreae
(born 1586) was indisputably the author of a third Rosi-
crucian text Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz
(1616), and the anonymous writers probably belonged to
his circle in Württemberg and the Palatinate.
The Rosicrucian manifestos caused a stir throughout
Europe. Several English scholars, among them Robert
FLUDD, claimed to be or to be in touch with a member of
the society. Disillusionment set in when the “brothers of
the Rosy Cross” remained obstinately invisible and elu-
sive. However, some of the Rosicrucian enthusiasm for
utopian restructuring of society through knowledge resur-
faced in the ideals of early members of the Royal Society.
Further reading: Susanna Åkerman, Rose Cross over
the Baltic: The Spread of Rosicrucianism in Northern Europe
(Leyden, Netherlands: Brill, 1998); Frances A. Yates, The
Rosicrucian Enlightenment (London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul, 1972; repr. 1999).Rosselli, Cosimo (1439–1507) Italian painter
The pupil of Benozzo GOZZOLI, Rosselli established an im-
portant workshop in his native Florence, where his ownRRoosssseellllii,, CCoossiimmoo 4 41177