La Défense et illustration de la langue française

La Défense et illustration de la langue française (French pronunciation: [la defɑ̃s e ilystʁɑsjɔ̃ də la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz]; The Defense and Illustration of the French Language) is a literary theory text written during the Renaissance in 1549 by the French poet Joachim du Bellay. It was a manifesto of the ideas of the group originally known as La Brigade, later as La Pléiade. Du Bellay called for "the enrichment of the French language by discreet imitation and borrowing from the language and literary forms of the classics and the works of the Italian Renaissance... In it he asserted that French (was) capable of producing a modern literature equal in quality and expressiveness to that of ancient Greece and Rome."