To begin, this work proposes an inquiry into three interrelated areas of interest : a review of studies on gender construction during the Renaissance period ; an overview of current knowledge concerning social relations between the sexes extending from the central Middle Ages to the end of the XVIth century ; a review of textual production of the period and the indexed cataloguing of some 324 didactic, moralizing and polemical documents printed between 1475 and 1594, which contributed to the construction of gender identities and to the codification of social norms and ideals on the question of male-female relations during this period.The second part of this thesis is concerned with the description of a corpus represented by the three most widely distributed works in each of seven distinct categories: princely institutions, moral treatises, women’s institutions, model compilations on the lives of noteworthy men and women, and finally texts devoted to the question of women, marriage and love. The selected works are presented in their historical context (publication and reception), taking into account their subjective point of view, their material nature, the traditions according to which they are inscribed, the sources available to authors, and the distinct readerships. The final part of this work will concern itself with the various injunctions formulated by authors, and with the latter’s expressed opinions on education and gender relations. This part will examine the level of intense confrontation existing between partisans and adversaries of gender equality, as well as the complexity and contradictions that characterise the selected discursive examples.