The French literary style called préciosité (, preciousness) arose in the 17th century from the lively conversations and playful word games of les précieuses (), the witty and educated intellectual ladies who frequented the salon of Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet; her Chambre bleue (the "blue room" of her h?tel particulier) offered a Parisian refuge from the dangerous political factionism and coarse manners of the royal court during the minority of Louis XIV. One of the central figures of the salon that gathered at the h?tel de Rambouillet, Madeleine de Scudéry, wrote voluminous romance novels that embodied the refinements of preciosité; they were suffused with feminine elegance, exquisitely correct scruples of behavior and Platonic love that were hugely popular with a largely female audience, but scorned by most men.