16th-century French novelists

François Rabelais ( RAB-ə-lay, -⁠LAY, born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He is primarily known as a writer of satire, of the grotesque, and of bawdy jokes and songs.

François de Belleforest (1530 – 1 January 1583) was a prolific French author, poet and translator of the Renaissance.

Marie de Gournay ( 6 October 1565, Paris – 13 July 1645) was a French writer, who wrote a novel and a number of other literary compositions, including The Equality of Men and Women (Égalité des hommes et des femmes, 1622) and The Ladies' Grievance (Grief des dames, 1626). She insisted that women should be educated. Gournay was also an editor and commentator of Michel de Montaigne. After Montaigne's death, Gournay edited and published his Essays.

Jean Ogier de Gombauld (1576 – 1666) was a French playwright and poet.

Antoine de Nervèze (c. 1570 – after 1622) was a French nobleman and writer of novels, translations, letters and moral works at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries.

François du Souhait (between 1570 and 1580 – 1617 in Nancy) was a French language author (translator, novelist, poet, satirist, moral philosopher) of the late 16th and early 17th century from the Duchy of Lorraine (at the time, a sovereign court with ties to France).

Nicolas de Montreux (c. 1561–1608) was a French nobleman, novelist, poet, translator and dramatist.

François Béroalde de Verville (27 April 1556 – 19–26 October 1626) was a French Renaissance novelist, poet and intellectual. He was born in Paris, the son of Matthieu Brouard (or Brouart), called "Béroalde", a professor of Agrippa d'Aubigné and Pierre de l'Estoile and a Huguenot; his mother, Marie Bletz, was the niece of the humanist and Hebrew scholar François Vatable (called "Watebled"). At the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, his family fled to Geneva (1573), but Béroalde returned to Paris in 1581. During the civil wars, Béroalde abjured Calvinism and joined the factions around Henri III of France (he may also have served in the army). In 1589 he moved to Tours (the French parlement fled here from 1589-1594), and became chanoine (canon) of the cathedral chapter of Saint Gatien, Tours, where he remained until his death.

Honoré d'Urfé, marquis de Valromey, comte de Châteauneuf (11 February 1568 – 1 June 1625) was a French novelist and miscellaneous writer.