FRENCH 17

• See French 17 (1997).

BERLOW, LAWRENCE H. The Reference Guide to Famous Engineering Landmarks of the World: Bridges, Tunnels, Dams, Roads, and Other Structures. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998.

Review: P. Heller in Choice 35.10 (1998), 1684: "Berlow's guide is a compendium of short entries ... on famous feats of civil engineering throughout the world." Begins in Ancient Egypt; offers historical overview. "[U]seful addenda include brief biographies of important builders and designers, a glossary of important terms from 'the third millenium B.C. to the present,' and geographical and subject indexes."

BERNOS, MARCEL. "Conversion ou apostasie? Comment les chrétiens voyaient ceux qui quittaient leur église pour 'l'église adverse'." SCFS 18 (1996), 33–49.

Valuable inquiry into the psychology of conversion, in the sense of abandonment, between 1628 and 1685, using personal accounts and individual case histories.

BLAIR, ANN. The Theatre of Nature: Jean Bodin and Renaissance Science. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Review: Peter J. McDermott in Isis 89.3 (1998), 535–36: Excellent treatment of Bodin's last work within the context of his time, the development of natural science, and of its reception. Recommended by reviewer for showing graduate students the best kind of expository skills.

Review: J. N. Muzio in Choice 35.8 (1998), 1392: "B. offers an excellent example of thorough, analytical scholarly writing ... on the highly influential Bodin and his significant role in the evolution of Renaissance science. She focuses on Bodin's last writing in 1596, Universæ Naturæ Theatrium... and other related scholarship from the then exclusively male thinkers and writers.... B. structures her book around three major themes: the book-format techniques and activities of 'physics'; the religious justifications to study nature; and the difficulty in bringing order to exploding knowledge areas during the late Renaissance. Extensive descriptions focus on the kinds of natural philosophy, bookish scholarship, and rhetorical presentation of the times."

BLET, PIERRE. Le clergé du Grand Siècle en ses assemblées, 1615–1715. Paris: Eds. du Cerf, 1995.

Review: Claude Michaud in RHMC 45 (1998) 492–95: Overview of history published in parts (1959, 1972, 1989), which doubtless will long be the authoritative account of the church of France, whose government the quinquennial assemblies constituted from 1625 on, together with the Vatican. Part I treats the organization of the assemblés and the matter of the reception of the articles of the Council of Trent; Part II the eras of Richelieu and Mazarin, the "décimes" and the "don gratuit" in times of war with Spain; Part III's chronology includes important reconsiderations of the Gallican Articles, the measures Louis XIV took against Jansenism, and his interventions in the condemnation of Fénelon.

BLOUIN, FRANCIS X., ed. Vatican Archives: An Inventory and Guide to Historical Documents of the Holy See. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Review: D. Bourquin in Choice 35.11/12 (1998), 1826: "This book will become the essential contemporary English-language source for understanding the arrangement and content of documents in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano.... Historians and archivists affiliated with the Vatican Archives Project...examined materials on site, including documents in various other archives within the Holy See, in the Trinity College Library (Dublin), as well as the Archives de France (Paris) and the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris). Materials are listed under the agencies that produced the documents or whose activity they reflect.... Series titles...are subarranged alphabetically, and each entry has its own numerical designation... [T]he 20-page introduction, which presents a brief history of each agency, will be essential reading.... Nearly all items in the 45-page bibliography are in languages other than English."

BOLD, STEPHEN C. Pascal Geometer: Discovery and Invention in Seventeenth-Century France. Geneva: Droz, 1996.

Review: N. Hammond in MLR 93 (1998), 506: "Bold's study is a broad and innovative analysis of Pascal's geometrical experience, situating it as 'a continuation—not a replacement—of the inventive tradition'." Reviewer regrets numerous transcription errors but praises this "new and original revaluation of many idées reçues in Pascalian scholarship."

BONZON, ANNE et MARC VENARD. La religion dans la France moderne, XVIe–XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Hachette, 1998.

Review: BCLF 600 (1998), 1833: Les auteurs se proposent "d'examiner comment fonctionne la religion durant cette période" dans une société où "le religieux est au coeur même de la conscience individuelle et collective."

BOWMAN, WAYNE D. Philosophical Perspectives on Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Review: F. Goossen in Choice 35.11/12 (1998), 140: "Nothing in print offers comparable coverage of the arguments of philosophers of music from Plato and Aristotle to the wrangling polemicists of the late 20 [sic] century. B. ... takes a chronological approach, and even though some of the thinkers he considers do not concentrate on music as an independent art, his effective and convincing survey of their thinking is a bracing intellectual draught, embodied in a format and exhibiting a range of insights one rarely encounters in discussions of this difficult subject. B.'s grasp of the thinking of philosophers as different as Boethius and Adorno testifies to his understanding of the subject's depths and sublteties. Especially notable is Bowman's revelation of the persistence, through the centuries, of certain problems: the perplexing relationship between music and meaning, the nature of music's influence on individuals and communities, the importance of music and whether it should be counted as an art.... An important work that places questions of musical aesthetics squarely before the reader."

BRESNER, LISA. "The Fathers of Sinology: From the Ricci Method to Léon Weiger's Remedies." Diogenes 178 (197), 107–124.

A history of two Jesuit fathers in China: Matteo Ricci (who died in 1610) and Léon Wieger (19th c.).

BROCKLISS, LAURENCE and COLIN JONES. The Medical World of Early Modern France. Oxford: Clarendon, 1997.

Review: Thomas Browman in Isis 89.3 (1998), 528–30: Superlative review of "landmark study," the more welcome for its alternative focus away from England as the predominant locus of research and the setting of questions by Roy Porter's assumptions. Thoroughly socialized in its institutional focus, attention to changing demographic patterns, cultural perceptions of disease, the evolving role of hospitals in caring for the sick, nursing orders' staffing. "One of the best available guides to medical science between 1500–1800. First half, on 17th century, deals especially with the framing institutionalization of medical corporations across France; authors demonstrate that France had by 1700 "a corporate medical community" that was "under physicians' control, decentralized if also homogenous." This study sets the agenda for the next generation of researchers.

Review: Roger Mettam in TLS 4935 (31 Oct. 1997), 17–18: Monumental scholarly work written with exemplary clarity in its philosophical exposition, accuracy in its coverage, and vividness of case histories and details. Brokliss has been responsible for the "core" over the two centuries, the formation and development of the guilds with their special training, practices, and learned opinions/prejudices (the latter in terms of social relations with allied groups; Jones, for the "penumbra" the large and motley practitioners at the edges of the constituted profession. The "core," and the 17th-century part generally is seen as profiting from the critical detachment from the "new orthodoxy" of Foucauldian interpretation. The evolution toward this new state of affairs is treated by Jones in a lengthy consideration of enlightment values and their effects in the medical world.

BUCCIANTINI, MASSIMO. Contro Galileo: Alle origine dell'affaire. Florence: Olschki, 1995.

Review: Maurice A. Finocchiaro in Isis 88 (1997), 141–41: Fills in welcome details of the first phase of the controversy with considerations of Francesco Ingoli, author of the Disputatio and charged with corrections to Copernicus's Revolutions after its banning. Reviewer gives a thorough and very useful résumé of the stages of the controversy.

CHARLES-DAUBERT, FRANÇOISE. Les libertins érudits en France au XVIIe siècle. Paris: PUF, 1998.

Review: BCLF 600 (1998), 1834: "Ce petit ouvrage synthétique permet d'identifier avec justesse le libertinage, de distinguer les libertins du XVIIe siècle de ceux du XVIIIe siècle. Il divise le libertinage en ses grandes branches afin de cerner les objets et des enjeux différents, par exemple, le libertinage de moeurs, le libertinage littéraire et le libertinage érudit."

CHARRAK, ANDRE. Musique et philosophie à l'âge classique. Paris: PUF, 1998.

Review: BCLF 600 (1998), 1860: ". . . il s'agit d'analyser les usages de la musique en philosophie aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles."

CHATELLIER, LOUIS. The Religion of the Poor: Rural Missions in Europe and the Formation of Modern Catholicism, c. 1500 c. 1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Review: G. J. Miller in Choice 35.9 (1998), 1546: "This book surveys Roman Catholic missions to rural Europe from the Council of Trent... to the eve of the French Revolution. In the wake of Trent, particular effort was made to eliminate superstition from the rural population and to teach people the rudiments of their faith. This was done primairly through systematic visits by members of the new monastic orders, especially the Jesuits and Capuchins. The missions were characterized by high drama and emotion (flagellant processions, planting of crosses, sermons about death). A second section of the book examines topics in the interaction of the missions with indigenous religion (e.g., 'Bread,' 'Satan').... Because the evidence is drawn primarily from a sampling of monastic records, at times it seems more anecdotal than comprehensive. However, the book admirably serves its purpose as a sweeping survey of a neglected subject.... This edition is a translation of the 1993 French original."

CHIRPAZ, FRANÇOISE. Le tragique. Paris: PUF, 1998.

Review: BCLF 600 (1998), 1677: ". . . l'intérêt de cet ouvrage, de bonne facture, cohérent, et plus conceptuel que descriptif, c'est surtout dans la thèse défendue par l'auteur, à savoir que la philosophie ne s'est instaurée contre le tragique qu'en le méconnaissant. Depuis la naissance de la philosophie et le geste de Platon chassant les poètes tragiques de la cité, il existerait une face nocturne de la pensée, rebelle à toute prétention de la raison et ne cessant de se poser comme un défi devant la raison. Aussi, les héritiers du tragique se nomment-ils Pascal, Nietzsche et quelques autres. On appréhende dans la facture de l'ouvrage l'influence de la philosophie de Heidegger."

CLARK, STEPHEN, Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998.

Review: Jenny Wormald in TLS 4959 (17 Apr. 1998), 13: "Massive (827 pp.) work with a remarkable range of knowledge firmly fitting beliefs into intellectual climates, 15th 18th centuries. Five sections on languages, science, history, religion, and politics. In the language sections a very strong and convincing statement is made that it was as witches, and not as women, that individuals were persecuted. Puts into wider context of contrariety. Especially good chapter on Bodin.

CONLEY, TOM. "The Self-Made Map: Cartographic Writing in Early Modern France. Minneapolis/London: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.

Review: T. Peach in MLR 93 (1998), 498–99: "The full import of this book became clear only on reading its conclusion: 'The cartographic impulse [relates to] the Pascalian wager that human beings, having no reason to be, would do well to inhabit a world lost in infinite space'. We are to understand that the 'many literary works of the years 1470–1640 appear to be seeking to contain and appropriate the world they are producing in discourse and space through conscious labors of verbal navigation'." Difficult, stimulating work despite the psychocartographical jargon.

• See French 17 (1997).

CONRADO, LAWRENCE I., et al. The Western Medical Tradition, 800 B.C. to A.D. 1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Review: PW in TLS 4943 (26 Dec. 1997), 29: Collaboration by five Wellcome Institute researchers "at a very high scholarly level," includes treatment of Early Modern period by Andrew Weir.

COOKE, ROGER. The History of Mathematics: A Brief Course. New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1997.

Review: J. M. Clark in Choice 35.11/12 (1998), 168: C. "concentrates on the mathematics that was done during various periods, and the connections between this mathematics and other areas of human endeavor. Roughly one-half of the book is devoted to early Western and other ancient mathematical traditions, and the latter half discusses 'modern' mathematics, beginning with medieval Europe."

COTTINGHAM, JOHN. Philosophy and the Good Life: Reason and Passion in Greek, Cartesian, and Psychoanalytical Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

COUDERT, ALLISON P. and TAYLOR CORSE, eds. Anne Conway, The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Review: Mary Warnock in TLS 4883 (1 Nov. 1996), 32: "Very good to have this clever woman revived." Her philosophy, under the tuteledge of More and Van Helmont (and an avowed use of cabbala) opposed her to Descartes and Hobbes. Admiringly read by Leibniz, "it is difficult not to place her in the same philosophical company as Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz."

DANIEL, THOMAS M. Captain of Death: The Story of Tuberculosis. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 1997.

Review: I. Richman in Choice 35.10 (1998), 1741: "This beautifully written and thoroughly researched monograph ... traces the history of TB from prehistory through today. It is both synoptic and chronologic in approach ... user-friendly for the non-technical reader, the book includes an extensive glossary of medical and technical terms used in the text as well as a chronology of the events that D. treats."

DARMON, JEAN-CHARLES. Philosophie épicurienne et littératures au XVIIe siècle en France. Paris: PUF, 1998.

Review: BCLF 600 (1998), 1677–78: "Entre le libertinage érudit et l'épicurisme mondain, tout un pan de la littérature du XVIIe siècle se voit exploré avec art." Parmi les auteurs considérés se trouvent La Fontaine, Saint-Evremond, Cyrano de Bergerac, Gassendi, Molière. "L'ouvrage apporte évidemment quelque chose aux études littéraires. Il apporte non moins quelque chose à l'analyse des interactions entre philosophie et littérature."

DAWSON, NELSON MARTIN, ed. Crise d'autorité et clientélisme. Mgr. Jean Joseph Languet de Gergy et la Bulle de l'Unigenitus. Sherbrooke: Les Fous du roi, 1997.

Review: J. Solé in RHEF 84 (1998), 191–92: "Extrèmement sympathique et intéressant," collection of 5 M.A. theses combined in mining the Languet archive at the Bibliothèque Municipale de Sens: the network of personal relations whereby the ambitious Languet sought to free himself of control by Rohan and to become Fleury's righthand man; his place in Fleury's system of agents; his problems as bishop with the Bishop of Bayeux; his position on Jansenist miracles as Archbishop of Sens; his relations with Mmes Luillier and Descordes in anti Jansenist campaigns.

DE LANDA, MANUEL. A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History. New York: Zone Books, 1997.

Review: J. W. Dauben in Choice 35.10 (1998), 1730: "De Landa advances the philosophical argument that all structures in nature—physical, biological, and social—are the result of specific historical processes. Consequently, history must figure in such accounts.... The author... considers the possibility of writing 'nonlinear and nonequilibrium history' by studying three areas of development in the West over roughly a 1000-year period. The author describes Western history as a series of 'pidginizations, creolizations, and standardizations in the flow of norms; isolations, contacts, and institutionalizations in the flow of memes; domestications, feralizations, and hybridizations in the flow of genes; and intensifications, accelerations, and decelerations in the flow of energy and materials.' This book offers a unique approach to the history of civilization over the past thousand years, although it will confuse and befuddle rather than enlighten all but the most sympathetic and attentive readers."

DES CHENE, DENNIS. Physiologia: Natural Philosophy in Late Aristotelian and Cartesian Thought. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996.

Review: Alan Gabbey in Isis 88 (1997), 124: The most important contribution since Gilson's pioneering work. Presupposition is that Descartes' project is "a functional equivalent to the Aristotelian philosophy of nature" and the methodological focus is on the texts through which Descartes and his contemporaries knew Aquinas and Aristotle. Renews views of the Peripathetic cursus with close and shrewdly detailed readings of Fonesca, Toletus, Suarez, Scipion Dupleix, Eustache, de Saint-Paul, Abra de Raconis, and the Coimbran authors. Offers sharp insights into Descartes' purpose as a natural philosopher, valuably corrects secondary literature, and demonstrates that understanding of Descartes' thought is indissociable from an informed knowledge of its Aristotelian background.

DEVILLAIRS, LAURENCE. Descartes, Leibniz. Les vérités éternelles. Paris: PUF, 1998.

Review: BCLF 600 (1998), 1764: Le rapprochement/opposition de Descartes et Leinbiz "permet de dessiner un XVIIe siècle moins homogène qu'il ne semble aux yeux de beaucoup . . . . Ouvrage technique à l'exposition claire et cohérente."

DIXON, LAURINDA, ed. Nicolas Flamel, His Exposition of the Hieroglyphical Figures. New York: Garland, 1994.

Review: Deborah Harkness in Isis 89.1 (1998), 132–33: "A significant contribution to early modern scholarship," for emblem research but also for those studying visual culture (especially in reference to Flame1's design for the Holy Innocents). His work, first published in France in 1612 is reproduced from Erinaeus Orandus's 1624 English edition. The introduction is a "thoughtful, lucid guide" to the intricacies of Flamel's alchemical work with valuable emphasis on their Christian context.

DOHRN-VAN ROSSUM, GERHARD. L'histoire de l'heure, l'horlogerie et l'organisation moderne du temps. Trans.O. Mannoni. Paris: Maison des sciences de l'homme, 1998.

Review: J. Chesneaux in QL 746 (1998), 24–25: Primarily a study of the topic at the end of the Middle Ages; "l'époque 'moderne' proprement dite n'est traitée que rapidement."

DUBOIS, ELEFRIEDA. "The Value of Human Relationships: The Correspondence of Jeanne Françoise de Chantal." SCFS 19 (1997), 11–23.

Sensitive evocation of the human and spiritual elements that intertwine in Chantal's friendships with St. François de Sales and the nuns in her charge with a fine choice of quotations from the letters. Helpful bibliography.

DUBU, JEAN. Les églises chrétiennes et le théâtre (1550–1850). Grenoble: Presses universitaires de Grenoble, 1997.

Review: Laurent Thirouin in RHL 98.2 (1998), 288–90: Book deals with, "La situation inconfortable des comédiens dans la France classique, les multiples condamnations morales et religieuses auxquelles le théâtre a longtemps dû faire face." T. states that of the many issues the work raises, "l'enquête la plus originale et la plus fructueuse est sans nul doute le patient examen des rituels diocésians," which reveals, "le traitement exact réservé aux artistes." Other issues involve, "la déclaration royale de 1641 en faveur des comédiens, les polémiques des années 1660, [et] les difficultés de Molière." Reviewer congratulates D's ability to "allier (en quelques deux cents pages) les exigences de la synthèse et de la recherche," calling the work a "brillante démonstration."

DUFFY, EAMON. Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.

Review: C. Lindberg in Choice 35.8 (1998), 1388: "[T]he volume is a splendid testimony to ... D.'s ability to compress into a lively and substantive narrative 2,000 years of one of, if not the, most significant institutions of the world and its disparate office-holders. Lavishly illustrated with full color plates and prints on nearly every page.... "

DUPUY, MICHEL, THERESE DARRAS, et al., eds. Nicolas Barré. Oeuvres complètes. Paris: Eds. du Cerf, 1994.

Review: Charles Teisseyre in RHEF 84 (1998), 188–89: First complete edition of writings, many unpublished, by the Spiritual leader in the line of Bérulle, who found his first schools for the poor in 1662, was an influence on J. B. de La Salle, and is at present in course of beatification. Informative introduction, index of Biblical references, index nominorum to writings to his spiritual community, spiritual writings, "temoignages des contemporains."

FLASCH, KURT and DOMINIQUE DE COURCELLES, eds. Augustinus in der Neuzeit. Colloquium of the Duke Augustus Library, Wolfenbutel, 14 17 Oct., 1996. Turnhout: Bredpols, 1998.

14 papers over a wide range of topics. Of particular interest is Bruno Neveu, "Pour une histoire de l'augustinisme;" Denis Thouard, "Le cogito et l'amour, Fénelon entre Descartes et Augustin;" Kurt Flasch, "Jean Leclerc Uber Augustinus."

FOURNIER, MARIAN. The Fabric of Life: Microscopy in the Seventeenth Century. Baltimore/ London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

Review: Lodewuk Palm in Isis 89.3 (1998), 543–44: Good presentation of major pioneers in construction, nature of their researches with microscopes, and its contributions to scientific knowledge. Less convincing, because of internalist focus on causation of the end of the century's decline. Reviewer recommends as supplements the studies of Catherine Wilson (1995) and Edward Ruestow (1996).

• See French 17 (1997).

GARBER, DANIEL, MICHAEL AYERS et al., eds. The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Review: F. Wilson in Choice 35.11/12 (1998), 143–144: "The remark 'ground-breaking' on a dust jacket is seldom to be believed, but in this case the description is correct. These 36 chapters by many specialists are arranged topically and provide in-depth coverage of seventeenth-century philosophy, including its relations to science, occultism, religion, and politics. Considerable attention is paid to connections to earlier scholastic and Renaissance thought. Not only do major figures such as Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, and Spinoza find their place, but also important but neglected thinkers such as Digby and Gassendi. Central texts such as Descartes' Meditations are discussed in multiple chapters from different perspectives and always in a wide intellectual context. One could argue with certain emphases... but that should not detract from the incredible utility of these volumes. Bibliographies of all major and most minor figures are included."

GARRETT, DON, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Review: Margorie Grene in Isis 1988 (1997), 145–46: Includes essay by Richard H. Popkin on Biblical criticism, "contributing original and illuminating material," Alan Gabbey on natural science and method. Provides new historical perspective, Edwin Curley illuminates in political theory the relationships to Hobbes and to Machiavielli. Alan Donagan's "beautiful essay" treats theology: Pierre-François Moreau offers a very thorough study of reception. Able introductory expositions of theory of knowledge (M.D. Wilson) and ethical theory (D. Garrett). Severe restrictions on essays on metaphysics and metaphysical psychology.

GAUKROGER, STEPHEN, ed. The Soft Underbelly of Reason: The Passions in the Seventeenth Century. London/ New York: Routledge, 1998.

6 papers on the origins and the theories of the passions and their aesthetic uses. Of special interest: C. Allen, "Painting and Passions: the Passions de l'âme as a Basis for Pictorial Expression." Complete listing in Isis 89.3 (1998), 592.

GAWANDE, ATUL. "The Pain Perplex." The New Yorker (21 September 1998), 86–94.

Article traces the history of our understanding of pain, including Descartes' contribution to theories of pain: "The explanation of pain which has dominated much of medical history originated with René Descartes who proposed that pain is a purely physical phenomenon—that tissue injury stimulates specific nerves that transmit an impulse to the brain, causing the mind to perceive pain." In everyday medicine, doctors see pain in Cartesian terms—as a physical process, a sign of tissue injury. The article also details new theories which overturn the theory of Descartes.

GRANDJEAN, MICHEL et BERNARD ROUSSEL, eds. "Coexister dans l'intolérance: L'Edit de Nantes (1598)." BSHPF 144 (jan june 1998).

Distributed in book form by Geneva: Labor et fides, special double issue commemorating the fourth centenary. 28 articles organized under the headings: "La date de l'Edit;" "Autour de l'Edit;" "négotiations;" "réception;" "interprétations;" "L'Europe des paix religieuses."

GROS, GERARD, ed. La Bible et ses raisons: diffusion et distortions des discours religieux. Saint Etienne: Pubs. de l'Université de Saint Etienne, 1996.

Review: Elisabeth Labrousse in BSHPF 143 (1997), 556: Imprecise title for a collection of essays on figures from Catherine of Sienna to Bayle. On the latter, the study of Ruth Whelan, "Les réformateurs radicaux dans le Dictionnaire de Bayle," is judged to discover a typically ambivalent attitude.

HAYOUN, MAURICE RUBEN. Les Lumières de Cordoue à Berlin. Une histoire intellectuelle du judaïsme. Paris: J. C. Lattès, 1998.

Review: E. Traverso in QL 738 (1998), 22–24: "Une tentative de synthèse de plusieurs siècles d'histoire intellectuelle du judaïsme.... Clair, rigoureux, documenté, équilibré dans l'organisation d'une immense matière s'étalant sur presque une millénaire, ce travail rend accessible à un vaste public les parcours d'une pensée fréquentée d'habitude par les seuls spécialistes... [N]ous assistons à l'écloison progressive d'une relation harmonieuse entre la Loi mosaïque et la Raison..."

HEADLEY, JOHN M. Tommaso Campanella and the Transformation of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Review: P. Grendler in Choice 35.8 (1998), 1440–1: "Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639) was probably the most complex and voluminous writer of the late Renaissance. Because his imagination and pen were so fertile, Campanella's work is extraordinarily difficult to interpret. He wrote on astrology, philosophy, politics, prophecy, religion, science, and social engineering. Rather than trying to construct Campanella's system of thought (an impossibility in any case), H. elucidates several broad themes: anti-Aristotelianism; an emphasis on experience; an almost mystical belief in nature; criticism of Machiavelli; belief in universal monarchy; a longing for a Christian theocracy led by the Pope; an audacious utopian society that included community [sic] of women; and a talismanic view of America. With a wealth of primary and secondary literature, H. draws out these themes and compares Campanella's views with those of Galileo, Hobbes, and other contemporaries. H. sees Campanelle as a late Renaissance figure clinging to older intellectual beliefs while conducting a dialogue with the proponents of the emerging age of rationalism, science, and the larger geographical world of America and Asia. This is the best study in English yet to appear on an immensely complex figure."

HILDESHEIMER, FRANÇOISE. "Au coeur religieux du ministériat: la place de Dieu dans le Testament politique de Richelieu." RHEF 84 (1998), 21–37.

Careful examination of the references to God, in conformity with the principles of reason and the establishment of the Kingdom of God —the two ends of political action according to Richelieu reveals the structure of both the minister's sense of his divine purpose and the source of the authority/justification of the pressures exerted on the pious Louis XIII.

HILLERBRAND, HANS, ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. 4 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1995.

Review: Theodore K. Rabb in TLS 4883 (1 Nov. 1996), 6: Goes well beyond Ranke's parameters in time (up to Grotius) in printing," in geographic coverage, topics ("prostitution," "common sense," e.g.), and in intellectural history ("alchemy,") cited as exemplary. Inclusion also of broad spectrum of Catholic reform (Bellarmin, Borromeo, Ignatius, popes, among many others). High praise for scholarship and concision.

HSIA, R. PO CHIA. The World of Catholic Renewal, 1540–1770. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

HUNTER, LYNETTE and SARAH HUTTON, eds. Women, Science and Medicine, 1500–1700: Mothers and Sisters of the Royal Society. Thrupp/Stroud/ Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 1997.

Review: M. Rossi in Choice 35.9 (1998), 1577: "H. and H. offer an interesting perspective on the history of women in science by demonstrating that women have been doing science for a very long time but that, as in other fields, their contributions were not recognized. Specifically, this collection of essays makes clear that women were involved in medicine (through midwifery) and science (in the context of keeping up a good home). It is enlightening to discover that 'science' in this period frequently had to do with food preservation, herbal and other medicinal remedies for the sick, and that the 'laboratory' was frequently the home. The life and work of several exceptional, although not commonly recognized, women (primarily in English society) are highlighted in different essays."

JOHNSON, NORMAN L., ed. Leading Personalities in Statistical Sciences: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present. New York: Wiley Interscience, 1997.

Review: D. V. Chopra in Choice, 35.3 (1997), 522: "This interesting book presents a fascinating chronicle of the lives and achievements of more than 110 men and women primarily responsible for developing statistics from infancy to the present state. It provides some knowledge and appreciation of the social and intellectual backgrounds of those who developed the invaluable statistical and probabilistic tools to solve complex problems in almost every human activity."

JOXE, PIERRE. L'édit de Nantes, une histoire pour aujourd'hui. Paris: Hachette, 1998.

Review: F. Dufay in Le Point 1325 (1998), 95: "P.J., adoptant un point de vue ... strictement protestant, reste froid face à [l'Edit,] ce 'texte de circonstance' qui, au final, n'empêcha pas les persécutions anti huguenots... [Selon lui, l'Edit] porte en germe sa révocation par Louis XIV ... J. y voit ... le coup d'envoi de l'absolutisme, l'Edit, imposant, sauf exceptions à peine tolérées, la religion du roi à ses sujets."

JULLIEN, VINCENT, ed. G. P. de Roberval, éléments de géométrie. Paris: Vrin, 1996. Preface byJean Dhombres.

Review: Eberhard Knobloch in Isis 89.3 (1998), 540–41: First integral publication of work left unedited but complete at Roberval's death. Superb manuscript reconstruction and edition (annotation, bibliography), which all for the first time allows a full knowledge of the extent of Roberval's understanding of geometry and his epistemological claims for it.

LABROUSSE, ELISABETH. Conscience et conviction: études sur le XVIIe siecle. Paris/Oxford: Universitas/Voltaire Foundation, 1996.

Review: Solange Deyon in BSHPF 143 (1997), 147–49: Collection of twenty articles first published between 1967 and 1992, all concerning the history of Protestantism and arranged under the rubrics "Marginaux du XVIIe siecle," "Le Protestantisme," "Les frères ennemis: Bayle et Jurieu," "Libertés de conscience."

LENOIR, FREDERIC et YVES TARDAN MASQUELIER, eds. Encyclopédie des religions. Paris: Bayard, 1997.

Review: C. Makarian in Le Point 1311 (1997), 85–86: The authors "n'ont négligé aucune collaboration prestigieuse, ni en France ni à l'étranger, afin que les 228 articles, les 4 index regroupant 5000 entrées et les 200 dessins qui complètent l'information soient les plus savants possible, tout en restant parfaitement accessibles au grand public." "Cet ouvrage ... aborde de façon passionnante le fait religieux ... [I]l offre un panorama éblouissant de toutes les formes de religiosité existantes ou ayant existé... [C]haque article ... est le strict condensé du meilleur livre consacré à la question...."

LESTRINGANT, FRANK. Une sainte horreur, ou le voyage en eucharistie, XVI–XVIIIe siecles. Paris: PUF, 1997.

Review: Claude Rawson in TLS 4935 (31 Oct. 1997), 4–5: Port-Royal figures prominently in this narrative of problems of "real presence" that goes back to Augustine and begins here with the account of d'Aubigné's horror on being forced to take catholic communion in exchange for his life.

LINDENBERG, DANIEL. Figures d'Israël. L'identité juive entre Marranisme et Sionisme (1648 1998). Paris: Hachette, 1998.

Review: E. Traverso in QL 738 (1998), 22–24: "Le livre de D.L. se présente comme une méditation sur l'identité juive entre marranisme et sionisme... [Il] aborde l'histoire juive dans une perspective 《 braudelienne 》 de la longue durée," while interrogating that history "à partir de ses ruptures et non pas en assumant le postulat d'une continuité intellectuelle préservée, à l'abri des secousses du monde profane.... Le lecteur est immédiatement captivé et séduit par les pistes qu'il explore, les courants qu'il dégage, les affinités ... qu'il saisit et interroge.... Selon L., ... le début de la modernité juive se situe ... au milieu du XVIIe siècle.... Trois figures sont au centre de cette mutation: Menassé Ben Israël, Sabataï Tsvi et Barukh Spinoza. Tous trois ont des origines marrans.... Le marranisme constitue, selon L., le laboratoire commun dans lequel se forme cette modernité juive."

LOUDON, IRVINE, ed. Western Medicine: An Illustrated History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Review: G. Eknoyan in Choice 35.7 (1998), 1224: "Intense research by professional historians on the social context in which medicine, in its broader meaning of health care, has evolved. Edited and authored by distinguished medical historians... it is this change that distinguishes this authoritative, elegantly designed, and well-illustrated history of Western medicine." Two parts: "a chronological recounting of the principal periods of Western medicine from classical Greece to the present" and "a series of essays on selected themes central to the recent progress of medicine."

MAGDELAINE, MICHELLE, MARIA PITASSI, RUTH WHELAN, and ANTHONY McKENNA, eds. De l'Humanisme aux Lumières. Mélanges en l'honneur d'Elisabeth Labrousse. Paris/Oxford: Universitas/Voltaire Foundation, 1966.

Review: Laurent Theis in BSHPF 143 (1997), 149–50: High praise for the sholarship, diversity, and attention to Bayle exhibited by the 54 contributors without listing of particular contributions.

MAHONEY, MICHAEL SEAN. The Mathematical Career of Pierre de Fermat, 1601–1665. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.

Review: G. Ouwendijk in RenQ 50 (1997), 334–35: This second edition corrects some errors, yet a few remain, even mathematical ones. Yet O. finds this volume, which focuses on F.'s thought, to be solid, persuasive, a "satisfying analysis of Pierre de Fermat's truly remarkable work within the mathematical context of the seventeenth century." Chapters 1 and 2 treat F.'s life, mathematical interests and intellectual influences. O. has high praise for M.'s presentation of F. in an historical context, notably the section on François Viète. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 examine F.'s "mature mathematics." Penetrating consideration of F.'s "Last Theorem."

MAILLARD, BRIGITTE, ed. Foi, fidélité, l'amitié en Europe à la période moderne. Mélanges offerts àRobert Sauzet, Tours: Pubs. de I'Université de Tours, 1995.

Review: Charles Teisseyre in RHEF 84 (1998), 178–80: 52 articles ranging across Europe in subject and from the Middle Ages to the present. Of interest to 17th century specialists: in Part I, including papers on Languedoc and Touraine, Cl, Petitfrère on the canons of Tours; in Part II on spiritualities, J. Delumeau on millenarians; Part III on sensibilities and practices of religion, M. Yardeni on the importance of the Psalms, P. Sahin Toth on the resurgence of a crusading ideal, F. Lebrun on Oudin's Curiosités françaises, R. Taveneaux on Nicolas Fontaine and Jansenism; Part IV, grouping papers on friendship, I. Zinguer on Béroalde de Verville's friendships with women, M. Ménard on Poussin and Chantelou, M. Tietz on the disagreement of Jean Pierre Camus with Saint François de Sales's recommendation of the "ami confesseur," Th. Guiger on Mme de Miramion and her confessor (Edme Jolly), Arnauld d'Andilly on friendship by J. Lafond. Reviewer insists on the enlargement of perspectives that this collection, like Sauzet's collected scholarly work, gives to future study.

MAIRE, CATHERINE. De la cause de Dieu à la cause de la nation: le jansénisme au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Gallimard, 1998.

Review: L. Theis in Le Point 1338 (1998), 90–91: "[Le] jansénisme n'est pas le vaincu de l'Histoire qu'on croit ... au contraire, tout au long du XVIIIe, il se répand et s'épanouit en des configurations multiples, pour devenir un mouvement théologiquement et politiquement déterminant ... [Ce] livre commente un parcours théologique [particulier, à savoir:] ... comment apprécier au plus juste la distance qui sépare la terre du ciel et quelle est en conséquence la communication possible entre l'homme et Dieu? ... Le jansénisme, à travers Port Royal, apporte sa réponse à la fois sublime et décourageante: Dieu se cache au sein du mystère de l'eucharistie. Puis ... Port Royal ... parut entrer dans un sommeil définitif. C'est en s'acharnant sur ses restes, y compris sur les cadavres des religieuses, que le vieux Louis XIV ... relance la querelle, en obtenant du pape, en 1713, la bulle 'Unigenitas Dei Filius' ... Elle condamne cent une propositions réputées contenues dans un livre ... de Pasquier Quesnel ... Une nouvelle génération se lève alors... au séminaire de Saint Magloire." Book traces in detail the activities of this new generation.

MANCOSU, PAOLO. Philosophy of Mathematics and Mathematical Practice in the Seventeenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.

Review: Peter Dear in TLS 4934 (24 Oct. 1997), 32: Succeeds admirably in explaining, clarifying, and analyzing the conceptual issues at stake in the material examined with a sure sense of when to consider the complexities of mathematical derivation and when to bypass them. "The material is fascinating and in this treatment adds up to a lot more than just 'sums in the past' (i.e. a chronicle of the discovery of techniques.)." Central figures are Descartes, Leibniz, and Newton, though many others including the publication in appendix of Giuseppe Biancani's extremely influential De mathematicarum natoua dissertatio (1615).

MAZAURIC, SIMONE. Savoirs et philosophie à Paris dans la première moitié du XVIIe siècle. Les Conférences du bureau d'adresse de Théophraste Renaudot, 1633–1642. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1997.

Review: BCLF 597 (1998), 1278: "Dès 1617, mais surtout à partir de 1630, des académies et conférences à vocation encyclopédique prolifèrent à Paris et en province, avec l'ambition de s'opposer au monopole universiatire et, pour certains milieux sociaux, d'intervenir dans la vie intellectuelle. L'intérêt se fait de plus en plus profond à l'égard du savoir et de la culture. L'étude de ces académies permet de révéler leur organisation et les structures de sociabilité savante, et de suivre l'évolution scientifique."

MENTZER, RAYMOND A., ed. Sin and the Calvinists: Morals, Control and the Consistory in the Reformed Tradition. Kirksville, MO: Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies, 32. 1994.

Review: W. Monter in RenQ 50 (1997) 302–304: Useful volume on church discipline, "currently the most intensively studied aspect of sixteenth-century Reformed Protestantism." In depth studies of individual localities complement national treatments, demonstrating remarkable contrasts which reflect diverse social and political circumstances. Reviewer calls for future studies which would involve histories of the great universities of Reformed Europe (Geneva, Heidelberg, Leiden). Focus is 16th c. but volume is highly useful for 17th c. scholars, particularly in the area of Huguenot studies.

MISRAHI, ROBERT. Les figures du moi et la question du sujet depuis la Renaissance. Paris: Armand Colin, 1996.

Review: BCLF 598–99 (1998), 1500–01: "Spécialiste de Spinoza, Robert Misrahi met sa compétence philosophique au service de ce manuel d'enseignement supérieur qui correspond à l'une des questions du programme de culture générale de la première année des classes préparatoires aux écoles supérieures de commerce." M. "présente la philosophie cartésienne et ses difficultés" à l'époque de l'instauration du 'sujet' au XVIIe siècle.

MOSER, PAUL K. and ARNOLD VANDER NAT, eds. Human Knowledge: Classical and Contemporary Approaches. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Review: G.M.C. in PhQ 48.192 (1998), 425–426: Anthology is "suitable for a general undergraduate course in epistemology." Includes a section on early modern sources, "containing excerpts from Descartes, Locke, Leibnitz, Berkeley, Hume and Kant."

NAPHY, WILLIAM and PENNY ROBERTS, eds. Fear in Early Modern Society. Manchester/New York: Manchester UP/St, Martin's, 1997.

12 essays on divers subjects, from fire, floods, death, disease, witches, and kings to purgatory and dogs. Full listing of contents in Isis 89.2 (1998), 382.

ONASCH, KONRAD and ANNEMARIE SCHNIEPER. Icons: The Fascination and the Reality. Trans.Daniel G. Conklin. New York: Riverside Book Company, 1997.

Review: E. L. Anderson in Choice 35.7 (1998), 1183: "O. ... has packed Icons with fine photographs and appropriate data. A master art historian, O. ... exposes the 2,000 years of Christian literature, distinguishes the art of the varying national traditions and ages, uses Orthodox hymns to explicate common icons, and works with the delicate issues of aesthetics, composition, and light."

PARK, DAVID. The Fire Within the Eye: A Historical Essay on the Nature and Meaning of Light. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Review: Antoni Malet in Isis 89.3 (1998), 520–21: A clear and informative overview, from Empedocles to Kepler and the Renaissance, to Einstein and Bohr. Well informed on current research and sophisticated in the questions asked of how science understands nature. The best text "to provide a technically informed introduction to the topics it covers," particularly optics.

PETTEGREE, ANDREW, ALASTAIR DUKE, and GILLIAN LEWIS, eds. Calvinism in Europe, 1540–1620. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Review: W. Monter in RenQ 50 (1997) 302–304: Praised as rich and instructive for the history of Calvinism, this collection, essentially drawn from the international Oxford conference of 1992, forms a "delayed introduction to the collection of documents on Calvinism in Europe, 1540–1610 (Manchester UP, 1992).

PHILLIPS, HENRY. Church and Culture in Seventeenth-Century France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Review: J. E. Brink in Choice 35.5 (1998), 891: "The starting point of this provocative and convincing work is Foucault's dictum that 'spaces are a function of power.' P. ... dissects nine distinct cultural spaces to gauge the penetration and control of the post Tridentine French Catholic Church.... Religion was still the pervasive culture in 17th century France; the state had not overtaken the 'unified space of orthodoxy,' nor had it subordinated the church to its secular ends. The two, church and state, 'remained incompatible realities in themselves,' in a close but not deliberate alliance. Thus P. searched elsewhere for the church's level of success in dominating such spaces as belief and nonbelief, education, art and literature, and the new science. He ... points to the limits of the church's agenda for moral and organizational reform. In the space of education it was spectacularly successful, while it failed to make much ground on the growing but still marginal spaces of science, atheism, and the curiously described libertinage. Traditional faith remained dominant and thus ironically was more susceptible to the growing secular beliefs of the Enlightenment."

Review: N. Hammond in MLR 93 (1998), 503: "Working from the starting-point of spaces (both literal and metaphorical ) created by the notions of exclusion and inclusion within the Church, Phillips explores a wide variety of cultural domains." Discussion of representation, the different facets of education, the rise of gallicanism, the rise of the new science, the hostility between believers and non-believers.

PICKERING, DAVID. Dictionary of Witchcraft. London: Casselle 1998.

Review: Jenny Wormold in TLS 4959 (17 Apr. 1998), 14: A real compendium of information at times less than rigorous in its acceptance of myths.

PURKISS, DIANE. The Witch in History. London: Routledge, 1998.

Review: Jenny Wormold in TLS 4959 (17 Aprils 1998), 13–14: "Original and invigorating book" containing a vigorous critique of both modern witches and English historians of witchcraft. Overall a "highly effective and very balanced picture of the relationship between theories of witchcraft and theories of the female body."

RAPLEY, ROBERT. A Case of Witchcraft: The Trial of Urbain Grandier. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998.

REISS, TIMOTHY. Knowledge, Discovery and Imagination in Early Modern Europe: The Rise of Aesthetic Rationalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Review: E. D. Hill in Choice 35.5 (1998), 813: "Reiss... takes issue with Walter Ong's claim... that the distinctive feature of early modern thought was its increasing stress on spatialization. The author contends that visual devices were used merely as pedagogical aids for communicating knowledge already possessed. For the discovery of new truths, thinkers increasingly rejected natural language in favor of mathematical reasoning. The mathematical approach was adopted by writers on music and poetry, producing what R. calls 'Cartesian aesthetics.' R. sees early modern humanists transferring their allegiance from the language based arts of the university trivium to the mathematical concerns of the quadrivium...."

ROCARD, MICHEL. L'art de la paix. Biarritz: Atlantica, 1998.

Review: F. Dufay in Le Point 1325 (1998), 95: "Le plus fidèle [lecture de l'Edit de Nantes] de la vision traditionnelle léguée par la IIIe République est M.R., qui s'enthousiasme pour cette 'magnifique orfèvrerie de la paix'... [L]'Edit d'Henri IV a assuré au pays un siècle de paix religieuse ... [et a] introduit la liberté de conscience dans notre culture politique... R. a retenu de l'action d'Henri IV non pas le statut des minorités, mais l'habileté dans la négociation."

RUSSO, ELENA. "Sociability, Cartesianism, and Nostalgia in Libertine Discourse." ECS 30 (1997); 383–400.

Highly suggestive and well documented treatment of the 18th century "libertin galant"'s ancestors in the Cartesian project for autonomy, the "libertins érudits"'s sensual quests, and the discourse of "honnetêté."

SCHOBINGER, JEAN-PIERRE, ed. Die Philosophie des 17. Jahrhunderts. Part 2: Frankreich und Niederlande. 2 vols. Basel: Schwabe, 1993.

Review: Jean-Robert Armogathe in Isis 87 (1996), 726–27: Replacement in progress for the old Grundriss of Friedrich Ueberweg (7 vols). The 27 contributors achieve uniformly high scholarly results. Of particular distinction is an 80-page treatment of university philosophy, sections on humanistic tradition (including "very good chapter on Huet"), thorough examination of theories of passions and taste as introduction to the treatments of Gassendi and his disciples, Descartes and Cartesianism, and Port-Royal (with an "outstanding" treatment of Pascal), the scientists and Malebranche, academies, Spinoza and Jewish philosophy, the Protestant Refugees and Pierre Bayle.

SCHWARTZ, JOEL S. "The Roots of Evolutionary Ideas: How Travel to Exotic Lands Changed Natural History." Choice 35.6 (1998), 929–947.

Article traces many of Darwin's predecessors and contemporaries who "advanced the idea that living things were capable of modification. Special attention [is] devoted to those naturalists who discovered new forms of life in strange and distant lands." Includes references to Maupertius and "Maupertius' contemporary Benoit de Maillet (1656–1738) [who] developed the theory that all land animals had evolved from fishes through the influence of change in habits and different environments." In Telliamed, Maillet "suggested that birds were derived from flying fish, lions from sea lions, and humans from mermen and mermaids. Maillet recognized that powerful forces directed the transformation of species, and his ideas influenced later naturalists like Buffon and Erasmus Darwin." Extensive bibliography.

SELIN, HELAINE, ed. Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non Western Cultures. Dordrecht/Boston: Kluwer Academic, 1997.

Review: R. J. Havlik in Choice 35.5 (1998), 798: "Early Western culture relied much on the science of other cultures, but as academia became more Eurocentric, much of the science in non Western cultures was undervalued or lost. The editor of this extensive volume has tried to alleviate this oversight by assembling some 600 signed essays by eminent scientists and historians of non Western science that will be a landmark in the study of the history and philosophy of science, technology, and medicine. The articles consist of brief biographies, some long philosophical articles, and general articles that serve as a guide to the comparison and history of sciences among various cultures.... Some of the more extensive articles discuss the relationship between colonialism and science, environment and nature, maps and map making, and magic and science. Each article includes a short list of references. There is a subject index as well as frequent illustrations."

SENIOR, MATTHEW and JENNIFER HAM, eds. Animal Acts: Configuring the Human in Western History. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Contains 6 papers on subjects from Boccaccio to Gary Larson (Charles D. Minahen). See especially M. Senior, "When Beasts Spoke: Animal speech and Classical Reason in Descartes and La Fontaine." Contents listed in Isis 89.1 (1998), 380.

SHAPIN, STEVEN. The Scientific Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Review: John North in TLS 4914 (6 June 1997), 34: A "relatively straightforward historical introduction to the science of the 17th century: a short and scrappy book of synthesis that draws heavily on author's previous work, with an excellent bibliographical essay." Reviewer has reservations on the presentation of the many dimensions of attitudes toward authority including Aristotelianism, the distinctions to be made between theorists and practitioners, and an English orientation. Overall, this study provides an impulsion to seek out more detailed accounts.

SHERMAN, STUART. Telling Time: Clocks, Diaries, and English Diurnal Forme 1660–1785. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Review: Rob Iliffe in Isis 89.3 (1998), 54142: Ambitious and richly suggestive for further research especially because of the on going link between the developing technology and literary, discursive time, in the novel but most notably in diary time and its modifications exemplified by Pepys's formats.

SIMON, GERARD. Sciences et savoirs aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Paris: Presses universitaires du septemtiron, 1996.

Papers on the scientific past, on machines, and astrology: on Porta, Descartes, and Newton. For listing of contents, see Isis 88 (1997), 390.

SINGH, SIMON. Fermat's Enigma: The Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem. New York: Walker & Company, 1997.

Review: Richard Bernstein in NYT (2 Nov. 1997), B36: Fascinating and readable account of the stunning solution offered by Andrew Wiles to the Isaac Newton Institute. Reviewer finds much of interest besides the story of the solution of the conundrum in the history of mathematics and is intrigued by the author's discussion suggesting that Fermat's solution (if indeed he had one for a wider margin) "would have been a 17th century proof very different from Mr. Wiles's." Although reviewer finds the two books complementary, he obviously prefers this one to Amir Aczel's Fermat's Last Theorem (Dell Delta, 1996).

Review: V. V. Raman in Choice 35.8 (1998), 1410: "Ever since its formulation in the first half of the 17th century, Fermat's Last Theorem has been known to anyone seriously acquainted with mathematics... S. tells the whole story [of the theorem's history and eventual solution by Andrew Wiles] in a most readable style. He presents the history of the problem since antiquity, tells the reader how Fermat stated it in a curious way, gives glimpses of other mathematicians of the past who had tackled (and contributed to) the problem."

SISTINO, ALPHONSE J. A Journey Into the Mysteries of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics: Capturing the Essences of Ancient, Classical and Modern Physics in an Exploratory Narrative. Orland Park, IL: Beaudoin, 1997.

Review: M. C. Ogilvie in Choice 35.11/12 (1998), 1889–1890: A "brief and personal tour of physics.... The treatment within each area is largely historical and very fast paced."

SMITH, JAMES R. Introduction to Geodesy: The History and Concepts of Modern Geodesy. New York: Wiley Interscience, 1997.

Review: H. K. Eichhorn in Choice 35.6 (1998), 1011: "Geodesy, the empirical and mathematical description of the earth's shape and its changes, is one of the oldest sciences. It was restricted to the earth's surface and thus to two dimensions, and depended mostly on measurements of angles until satellites were launched.... Competent and well informed, author Smith describes accurately and reliably the historical development from antiquity to the present...."

SNODGRASS, MARY ELLEN. Signs of the Zodiac: A Reference Guide to Historical, Mythological, and Cultural Associations. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1997.

Review: G. M. Herrmann in Choice 35.8 (1998), 1348: "A unique compendium of astronomical and astrological information focusing on cultural associations with the zodiac, this book covers stars and constellations and briefly outlines the history of stargazing from ancient Babylon to the age of the telescope. Treatment of the zodiac in history and its symbolic influences in the arts and sciences receive special attention in separate chapters... [T]his work's strength is in its collection of numerous cultural and literary associations with zodiacal signs."

SOLE, JACQUES. Les origines intellectuelles de la Révocation de l'Edit de Nantes. Saint Etienne: Pubs. de l'Université de Saint Etienne, 1997.

Review: Yves Krumenacker in RHEF 84 (1998), 189: High praise for the scholarship of this consolidation of the author's magisterial dissertation (4 vols., Paris: Aux Amateurs des Livres, 1985) and the authoritative presentations of the backgrounds in the controversy of Richard Simon, Bayle, Jean Le Clerc. Regrets some schematizing necessitated by the format such as loss of notes and a more extensive bibliography. Consultation of dissertation will still be needed.

Review: Elisabeth Labrousse in BSHPF 144 (1998), 720–22: Praises the evenminded fairness of presentation of individual thinkers and the freshness of that of general issues. Close analysis of Bayle is well informed, as is the case in general.

STROUP, ALICE. A Company of Scientists: Botany, Patronage, and Community at the Seventeenth-Century Parisian Royal Academy of Sciences. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

Review: J. Llana in RenQ 50 (1997), 332–34: Judged illuminating, well written and researched, the volume focuses on the period from the Academy's founding (1666) to the new royal regulations (1669). Both concerns of volume are successful: the Academy itself and botany. The latter is anchored within scientific revolution. 50 page appendix of expenditures of the Academy.

STURDY, DAVID J. Science and Social Status: The Members of the Académie des Sciences, 1661–1750. Woodbridge, Suffolk/ Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell, 1995.

Review: Guy Picolet in Isis 88.3 (1997), 541–42: Career studies for all active members elected in the 17th century, well informed and "a solid basis for further research." Cites bibliographic oversights of A. Darmon's study of Cureau de La Chambre (1985) and colloquia on Jean Picard (1987) and Edme Mariotte (1986).

THEIS, LAURENT. "Le compromis le moins mauvais possible." Le Point 1325 (1998), 93–94.

Article on the consequences of the Edit de Nantes. "Or l'Edit, s'il avait préservé de l'anéantissement un protestantisme très mis à mal par les guerres, lui interdisait tout développement et maintenait ses adeptes dans une situation subalterne à l'intérieur d'une société dont l'existence de deux religions en son sein heurtait profondément la culture.... [En 1685][l]'Edit apparut alors pour ce qu'il était: le compromis le moins mauvais possible au moment où il fut adopté. Ce n'est que bien plus tard qu'il fut considéré comme un acte de tolérance, ce qu'il n'était nullement. Du moins dans l'acceptation moderne du terme. Jusqu'à la fin du XVIIe siècle au moins ... le mot 'tolérance' porte une signification péjorative: endurer, provisoirement, ce qu'il est impossible d'empêcher sur le moment."

TIMMERMANS, BENOIT. La résolution des problèmes de Descartes à Kant: l'analyse à l'âge de la révolution scientifique. Paris: PUF, 1995.

Review: Emily Grosholz in Isis 89.3 (1998), 546–47: Author argues that Kant's concept of the superiority of synthesis over analysis distorts the latter and impoverishes his presentation of the thought of Galileo, Descartes, Pascal, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Newton. All these thinkers are discussed as engaged in analysis that is a method of discovery with Platonic dialectical origin (from the sensible to intelligible), Aristotelian regression (from a particular fact to an explanatory universal), and Pappian analysis (from a mathematical problem to the condition of its solution). Recommends several other studies to supplement work on Leibniz.

• See French 17 (1996)

VENARD, MARC, et al., eds. Histoire du christianisme des origines à nos jours, 9: L'Age de raison (1620–1750). Paris: Desclée, 1997.

VERENE, DONALD PHILIP. Philosophy and the Return to Self-Knowledge. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.

Review: G. Mazzotta in P&L 22.1 (1998), 249–252: "V.'s study can be said to belong legitimately to the timeless tradition of meditative thinking" [The book] has as its point of departure the interrogation of the spiritual roots for the crisis in modernity. [For V.,] Prometheus is the 'imaginative universal' or mythical prefiguration of Descartes as the philosopher of dualism of mind and body, of confusion between certainty and knowledge, of philosophy and method, of science that engenders the technological values of our time, and brings about the erasure of memory. The classical polarization between Vico and Descartes overtly sustains 'Barbarism of Reflection' (chapter one), which is a magisterial exercise in the tradition of the history of the idea of 'reflection' from optics to philosophy, from antiquity to the present."

VOVELLE, MICHEL. Piété baroque et déchristianisation en Provence au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Ed. du C.T.H.S., 1997.

Review: Dominique Julia in RHEF 84 (1998), 192–93: Published without the full critical apparatus of the original, this edition contains an important preface where Vovelle discusses his method, and developments in historiographical research and writing since the 1960s. "Stimulante," the reviewer emphasizes.

WATTS, SHELDON. Epidemics and History: Disease, Power and Imperialism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.

Review: n.a. in VQR 74.3 (1998), 79: "This book studies the great epidemics that have scourged the globe over the course of the last six centuries... W. views the movement of epidemics as a manifestation of imperial power. It was the rulers of infected lands who determined the official response to invading diseases and the rulers who would protect privileged groups more than other groups.... Particularly interesting is W.'s account of popular interpretation of epidemics as divine revenge on sinners."

WILLIAMS, GERHILD S. Defining Dominion: The Discourses of Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Germany. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996.

Review: Solveig Olsen in FR 71.6 (1998), 1076–77: Concentrates on the suppression of women and witches by power. Sees theology as a tool of persecution of powerful women, who are progressively demonized. A thought-provoking contribution to scholarship that develops its point of view and concerns on a much broader scale than has previously been done.

WOJCIK, JAN W. Robert Boyle and the Limits of Reason. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Review: Guido Giglioni in Isis 89.3 (1998), 542–43: Excellent classification of the ways Boyle's epistemological assumptions concerning the natural, observable world are intertwined with theological concerns leading to the notions of "spheres of intelligibility," the finiteness of men's intellectual powers, and finally the "double truth" doctrine. Addresses also a theme recurring through the whole of Descartes's physics. Recommends as a model of treatment of an individual's ideal world that "represents the best way to avoid the oversimplification both with stereotyped histories written with the benefit of hindsight and tendentious reconstruction of imaginary contexts."

YOLTON, JOHN W. Perception and Reality: A History from Descartes to Kant. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996.

Review: D. W. Hamlyn in PhQ 48.193 (1998), 540–542: "Historically, it might appear, Arnauld is the great hero of the saga and Malebranche the villain, though Arnauld is building on Descartes and is, in Y.'s view, Descartes' best interpreter. Y. takes Descartes' idea of things being objectively in the mind as pointing to the existence of an epistemic, non-causal relation between the mind and objects. Ideas or representations are not, as Malebranche thought, modifications of the mind, and there is therefore no call for the notion of a veil of perception. The Cartesian views developed by Arnauld are quite consistent with a realism according to which things are directly present to the mind.... Descartes, whom Arnauld is interpreting, acknowledged a causal relation between things and physical motions in the brain, while holding also that ideas are the interpretations of those physical motions considered as natural signs. Such interpretation does not demand awareness of the physical motions; rather, the conscious reactions involved are triggered by them, and the interaction in question is cognitive, not causal. The other philosophers of the period are treated in the same, somewhat controversial spirit." More attention could have been paid to the meaning of words such as 'sensation,' 'object,' and 'sign.'

Review: Steven Nadler in Isis 88 (1997), 124–25: "A sophisticated, texturally and historically informed, philosophically sharp discussion of issues that have often been glossed over or caricatured by other writers. Working premise is that the basic category for understanding perception and cognition is "interaction"—in a causal series of physical/physiological events and the significatory and semantic response of the mind. Treats various explanations of the two processes functioning together to produce awareness. Considers Descartes, Malebranche, Arnauld.

ZINGUER, ILANA and HEINZ SCHOTT, eds. Systèmes de pensée pré-cartésiens: études d'après le colloque international organisé à Haifa 1994. Paris: Champion, 1998.

20 papers on Paracelsus, neoplatonism, alchemy, medical science and healthcare, Rosicrucianism. Full listing in Isis 89.3 (1998), 598–99.