Jean le Fèvre

Inscription by George Boleyn in a copy containing Les Lamentations de Matheolus and Le Livre de Leesce attributed to Jean Le Fèvre.

Jean Le Fèvre de Ressons (also spelled Jehan Le Febvre; c. 1320 – after 1380) was a French poet and translator active in the later fourteenth century. A procureur associated with the Parlement of Paris, he produced a substantial body of verse and translations from Latin into Old French, including influential vernacular versions of the Lamentationes Matheoluli (often known in French as Les Lamentations de Matheolus) and a pro-woman reply, Le Livre de Leesce (also called the Book of Gladness), a notable contribution to medieval debates about marriage and women.

Le Livre de Leesce is also associated with the early development of the motif of the Neuf Preuses (Nine Worthy Women), presented as female counterparts to the Nine Worthies in late medieval chivalric culture.