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Donkey milk knowledge archive · Historical source
Donkey milk in the letters of Madame de Sévigné (1679–1680)
In two letters to her daughter, the Marquise de Sévigné mentions donkey milk as a cure in her Parisian circle of acquaintances – drunk “in the evening and in the morning”. The letters show how commonplace donkey milk was in the France of Louis XIV.
- Author
- Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sévigné (1626–1696)
- Work
- Lettres (letters to her daughter, the Comtesse de Grignan), Monmerqué edition
- Passage
- Letter no. 749 (Livry, 1 November 1679), vol. 6; letter no. 865 (Paris, 30 October 1680), vol. 7
- Time & place
- 1679–1680 · France (Paris, Livry)
- Type of source
- Letters
In the original words
What the original says
elle revient à vue d’œil avec du lait d’ânesse le soir et le matin
she is visibly recovering with donkey milk, in the evening and in the morning
Mme de la Fayette a passé ici l’après-dînée entière ; elle se trouve fort bien du lait d’ânesse.
Madame de La Fayette spent the whole afternoon here; she is feeling very well with the donkey milk.
English rendering: our own translation by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, following the sense of the text.
Background
Who, when, what kind of text
For decades, Madame de Sévigné wrote letters to her daughter in Provence. They are regarded as an important testimony to the everyday life of the French upper class in the 17th century and were critically edited by Louis Monmerqué in the 19th century.
The letters are private communications, not medical texts. They reflect what was said in aristocratic circles about diet and cures – at the level of knowledge of a time that still interpreted illness according to humoral theory.
Content
What the source reports about donkey milk
In the letter of 1 November 1679 from Livry, Sévigné reports on a young acquaintance, Madame de Nesmond, who had suffered from a serious chest illness. According to Sévigné’s account, she recovered “visibly” while drinking donkey milk in the evening and morning. In the same letter, Sévigné regrets that her daughter refuses donkey milk because it does not agree with her and she finds it repugnant.
In the letter of 30 October 1680 from Paris, she mentions in passing that the writer Madame de La Fayette (“La Princesse de Clèves”) had spent the afternoon with her and was feeling very well with the donkey milk.
Both passages show donkey milk as a medically prescribed or self-chosen drinking cure in Parisian society – not as a cosmetic but as a drink.
At a glance
Figures & facts from the source
Critical assessment
How reliable is this source?
Authenticity
The letters are well transmitted and freely accessible in Monmerqué’s scholarly edition with letter numbers and dates.
Nature of the statement
These are the personal impressions of a letter writer, not the observations of a physician. Whether the improvement was connected with the donkey milk cannot be inferred from them.
Today’s assessment
The passages document a widespread habit, not an effect. Health effects of donkey milk as assumed at the time are not scientifically substantiated today and cannot be transferred.
Our assessment
For us, these letters are a vivid everyday testimony: in 17th-century Paris, donkey milk was a common drink of the upper class. Medically, the letters say nothing reliable – they tell cultural history.
References
Sources to check
- Primary sourceFrench text, vol. 6, letter 749 (Wikisource)
https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Lettres_de_Madame_de_S%C3%A9vign%C3%A9/%C3%89dition_Monmerqu%C3%A9/Volume_6/Texte_entier#749._%E2%80%94_DE_MADAME_DE_S%C3%89VIGN%C3%89_%C3%80_MADAME_DE_GRIGNAN. - Primary sourceFrench text, vol. 7, letter 865 (Wikisource)
https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Lettres_de_Madame_de_S%C3%A9vign%C3%A9/%C3%89dition_Monmerqu%C3%A9/Volume_7/Texte_entier#865._%E2%80%94_DE_MADAME_DE_S%C3%89VIGN%C3%89_%C3%80_MADAME_DE_GRIGNAN.
More sources and studies in the research archive. Summarised by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, as of November 2026.