The Norman city of Rouen occupied an important place in Anne de Graville's life and that of her family, who could trace their origins in the region back to the time of William the Conqueror. As shown in Chapter 1, Anne acquired the family house at Ambourville, a dozen or so miles from Rouen, in 1520, allowing her the opportunity to easily spend time in the area. Many of the books – both new and second hand – that Anne added to her collection in the 1520s were acquired in the city. Her presence and interest in the region are also witnessed by her involvement in the proceedings taken out by her nephew, Louis de Vendôme, seigneur de Gravilleand vidame de Chartres, against the vice-admiral, Guyon Le Roy, concerning the illegal acquisition of Graville land in the founding and building of the port of Le Havre in 1517. In 1523 Anne was recorded as having gifted an expensive cloth to the Rouen cathedral of Notre-Dame, and in 1525 the cathedral chapter returned to her a ‘livre de chroniques’ belonging to Louis de Graville that was amongst the belong-ings of the deceased canon Pierre Mesenge, treasurer of Cardinal Georges d’Amboise, Rouen's archbishop.

This chapter begins by exploring the importance of Rouen as it developed in the early sixteenth century, in particular under Georges d’Amboise, and the interest in poetic prowess, the triumph and translatio studiithat emerged in its cultural and religious milieus. It then turns to three manuscripts belonging to Anne and one containing her rondeau ‘Pour le meilleur’ that offer evidence of her close connections both to Rouen and to Normandy more generally. These sources reveal that Anne not only participated in, but was seen by others as a member of, one of the most important centres of cultural activity in late medieval and early modern France. The manuscripts also show how Anne's reputation and self-fashioning continued to develop, from that given visual and verbal expression in the Chaldean Historiesoffered to her around a decade earlier, to the visually rich Triumphsof Petrarch which promoted her identity through symbols, mottos and heraldry.