FRENCH 17

ADAM, MICHEL. L'Eucharistie chez les penseurs français du dix-septième siècle. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2000.

Review: BCLF 631 (2001), 627: "Ce livre de spécialistes, concernant un sujet ardu se révèle absolument nécessaire à celui qui veut comprendre les débats philosoophiques et théologiques qui ont secoué le XVIIe siècle."

ADAMS, ALISON and STANTON J. LINDEN, eds. Emblems and Alchemy. Glasgow: Glasgow Emblem Studies, 1998.

Review: R. Ganim in CdDS 8.1, 212–16. Ten interdisciplinary essays that "explore the relationships between text, image, and alchemical practice." "A significant contribution" examining subjects such as mnemonics, gender, architecture, spirituality, frontispieces, and alchemical allusions in Shakespeare, Milton, and Goethe.

ALET, MARTINE. "La mélancolie dans la psycho-physiologie du début du XVIIe siècle." PFSCL XXVII, 53 (2000) 447–471.

Definition of the concept of melancholy in the medical field and the moralist discourse at the beginning of the 17th Century.

ALMQUIST, KATHERINE ANN. "The concept of probable opinion in rhetoric and the law from Montaigne to Pascal." DAI 60/12 (2000), 4399.

Through an analysis of Montaigne's "Apologie de Raymond Sebond" and Pascal's Lettres provinciales, shows "how the concept of probable opinion shifts from probity to plausibility in sixteenth and early seventeenth-century French civil and canonic jurisprudence." Argues that Pascal responds to the Jesuits' extreme skepticism not through a return to dogmatism, but by appealing to "the verisimilar notion of opinion which is held by his opponent and his audience alike."

BERTOLINI, SONIA. "Gabrielle Suchon: une vie sans engagement?" AJFS 37.3 (2000), 289–308.

An attempt to shed light on the life, work, and theories of Suchon. Discusses numerous archival documents discovered by Bertolini, including descriptions of the professional activities of Suchon's father, a certificate authorizing Suchon's transfer to the Jacobin monastery at Langres, and another clarifying details about the lives of two of Suchon's aunts. Examines the publication circumstances and reception of Suchon's Traité de la Morale et de la Politique (1693) and Le Célibat volontaire ou la vie sans engagement (1700) in which Suchon "proposait aux femmes la voie du célibat volontaire et dénonçait avec force les mariages arrangés et les vocations forcées." Bertolini demonstrates that much work needs to be done on this important social theorist. Archival documents are reproduced in an appendix. (Article is followed by a short bibliographic note on S. by Wallace Kirsop [pp. 309–11]).

BIRELEY, ROBERT. The Refashioning of Catholicism, 1450–1700; A Reassessment of the Counter Reformation. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic U of America P, 1999.

Review: M. M. Bullard in Ren Q 53 (2000), 1221–23: Welcomed as a "fresh, updated assessment of religious life in the early modern Roman church," Bireley's study is organized around major changes, in authority, economics, society, missionary zeal, humanistic culture and in the need for reform made evident by the Protestant Reformation.

BLAY, MICHEL. Reasoning with the Infinite: From the Closed World to the Mathematical Universe. Trans.M.B. DeBevoise. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Review: Antoni Malet in Isis 91 (2000), 778–779: Praises the work as a "useful repository of important texts and insightful commentary," but regrets that there is little historicization of the concepts discussed. Notes that the book ends with a long epilogue devoted primarily to Fontenelle's Elemens de la géométrie de l'infini (1727).

BLUM, PASCALE and ANNE MANTERO, éds. Poésie et Bible de la Renaissance à l'âge classique 1550–1680. Paris: Champion, 1999.

Review: R. Arab et al. in Ren Q 53 (2000), 302: Diverse and highly useful, with indices, an appendix on music, bibliography, the volume is organized into sections on: "Une Nouvelle Poétique," "Mises en Scène Bibliques," "Libertés, Constraintes, Polémique," and "Formes du Lyrisme."

BOITANO, JOHN F. "Startling Revelations From the Orient: Martino Martini's Histoire de la Chine." CdDS 8.1, 19–28.

Author reinserts Martini's forgotten text into the religious controversies of the day regarding the richness of the Chinese cultural heritage. Although not devoid of bias, his account of travels "forced the Occident to re-examine, to re-define, and to expand ultimately the very foundations of Christianity."

BOURG, JULIAN. "The Rhetoric of Modal Equivocacy in Cartesian Transsubstantiation." JHI 62 (2001) 121–140.

Taking the Eurcharist as a kind of litmus test, shows how Descartes elaborates "original positions" within scholastic language. "The rhetoric of modal equivocacy shows the presence of contextual negotiations in the content of Cartesian philosophy—why Descartes had to say certain things, what he said, and how he said them were all mixed up. Ambiguity was part of the equation. His long-standing reputation as a thinker of univocity notwithstanding, the case of modes and Cartesian transubstantiation warrant consideration of Descartes as a thinker of equivocacy." Shows how Descartes used the traditional category of "mode" in equivocal ways in order to accommodate the innovations in his philosophy.

BOUVERESSE, JACQUES. "Mathématiques et logique chez Leibniz." Revue d'Histoire des Sciences, 54, #2, Avril-Juin 2001, 223–246.

The author demonstrates the modernity of Leibniz's concepts of proof and provability.

BRULIN, MONIQUE. Le verbe et la voix. La manifestation vocale dans le culte en France au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Beauchesne, 1998.

Review: D. Dinet in DSS 211 (2001), 343–344: Featuring religious expression as it is spoken, read and sung, this study analyzes spoken prayer, "la manifestation extérieure de la foi et de la vie intérieure du chrétien" and the Christian lyricism of hymns. Brulin is especially interested in the theories of vocal art. The reviewer criticizes some factual and stylistic imperfections and notes that inclusion of recent research on monastic orders would have provided data for a deeper analysis of actual practices.

BRUNEAU, MARIE-FLORINE. Women Mystics Confront the Modern World: Marie de l'Incarnation (1599–1672) and Madame Guyon. State University of New York Press, 1998.

Review: V. Worth-Stylianou in FS 54.4 (2000), 504–5: Marie-Florine Bruneau "achieves valuable insights" as she "examine[s] the transformations which mystical and writing practices underwent" during the seventeenth century, and "explore[s] the social significance of female mysticism in Western tradition." Bruneau's approach to her subject derives from two very different sources, the work of Michel de Certeau and that of Caroline Walker Bynum. While "this study is lucid, well-researched on the level of individual texts," the reviewer regrets that "one is left with the feeling of having read two separate case histories; interesting points of similarity and contrast" between Marie de l'Incarnation and Madame Guyon "are not systematically followed up."

BRUNET, PHILIPPE. "L'acte de mîmêsis." Littérature 122, juin 2001, 90–99.

Meditating on mimesis implies astonishment at scholarly avoidance of Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy and at Aristotle's Poetics' avoidance of theatrical reality; avoidances which perhaps point to ". . .the avoidance of mimesis as an actualization, a mode of reintroducing, revisiting, reliving, representing myth."

CAGNAT-DEBOEUF, CONSTANCE. Bossuet. Sermons. Le Carême du Louvre. Ed. établie et annotée par Constance Cagnat-Debœuf. Paris: Gallimard (Folio-Classique), 2001.

Review: E. Pieiller in QL 812 (du 16 au 31 juillet 2001), 29: A new edition of Bossuet's Lenten sermons of 1662. "Bossuet a trente-cinq ans, lorsqu'il prononce devant le Roi et la Cour ces Sermons de Carême à la chapelle du Louvre. (...) Les Sermons de Carême sont un événement mondain, et ceux qu'écoute le Roi sont particulièrement 'glorieux' et... risqués. Bossuet ne manque certes pas d'audace, et le Roi, qui n'aime guère les reproches, se dispensera des derniers Sermons. Aujourd'hui encore, ce courage dans l'accusation voilée est parfaitement perceptible, même si ce qui nous touche plus particulièrement, c'est la rhétorique de l'effroi, c'est la mise en scène de 'l'homme déchu', c'est la vigueur d'une culpabilisation systématique, où l'orateur lui-même se met en cause, et en jeu, et en crise."

CERTEAU, MICHEL DE. The Possession at Loudun. Transl.Michael B. Smith. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Review: H. Phillips, in French History 15 (2001), 111–112: "[A] fine translation that never intrudes" of a work whose thesis "is that the 'truth' of history is elusive, even illusory." De Certeau finds that the possession is directly related to the period of historical transition in which it occurred, and uses this theory to address the issue of whether "discourse creates the event rather than the reverse," a discussion in which the historian's role is called into question.

CHAUZAT, F. et al., eds. Protestants en Vaucluse, XVIe–XIXe siècles. Archives départementales de Vaucluse: Catalogue de l'exposition au Palais des Papes à Avignon sept.-déc 1998.

Review: H. Genton in BHR 62.2 (2000), 414: "Le catalogue retrace dans l'ordre chronologique les conditions de la profession de foi des protestants dans le Vaucluse. . ."

CLERO, JEAN-PIERRE AND NIDERST, ALAIN, eds. Le Végétal. Textes réunis par Jean-Pierre Cléro et Alain Niderst. Rouen: Publications de l'Université de Rouen, 1999.

Review: Marie-Odile Sweetser in PFSCL XXVIII, 54 (2001) 180–182: "Ce très riche volume offre des perspectives fraîches et stimulantes dans des textes d'une grande variété."

COIRAULT-NEUBURGER, SYLVIE. La confusion du bien et du mal. Le diable imitateur. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2000.

Review: M. Adam, in RPFE 1141 (2001), 272: Raises questions such as: are good and evil as opposite as they appear? Is the human soul capable of recognizing the good? How do we tell the original from its imitation, for example in the "geste créateur"? Coirault-Neuburger's multi-faceted response to these questions includes analyses of 17th-century writers La Bruyère and La Rochefoucauld as she explores the roles that vanity, simulation, and duplicity play in formulating our response to these issues.

CONSTANTINI, MICHEL. "Les fragments stagyrites." Littérature 122, Juin 2001, 6–29.

"This fictive and abundantly annotated "translation" is a reconstruction from notes from a close reading of —mainly—the first four chapters of Aristotle's Poetics in the 1980 edition of Roselyne Dupont-Roc and Jean Lallot (Seuil-Paris). It purposes to demonstrate Aristotle's modernity—in particular his semiotic modernity."

CRISTIN, OLIVIER et DARIO GAMBONI, eds. Crise de l'image religieuse. Krisen religioser Kunst. Paris: Maison des sciences de l'homme, 1999.

Review: A. Tallon in BHR 63.1 (2001), 165–166: Communications pluridisciplinaires d'un colloque tenu à Göttingen les 18–20 mars 1994 et qui "couvrent un espace chronologique extrêmement large, du Haut Moyen Age à la période la plus contemporaine." Article de M.-H.Froeschlé-Chopard à propos de la Provence, "De l'image protectrice à l'image enseignante. Une mutation du sentiment religieux au XVIIe siècle."

CROXTON, DEREK. Peacemaking in Early Modern Europe. Cardinal Mazarin and the Congress of Westphalia, 1643–1648. Setinsgrove:Susqueanna UP, 1999.

Review: H. Duchhardt in HZ 271 (2000), 477–78: Mixed review praises insights, for example on the question of alliances in French politics, as correct and important, yet Duchhardt is not completely convinced of Croxton's interpretation of impressive sources, especially as concerns military strategies.

DAGEN, JEAN, éd. Entre Epicure et Vauvenargues: principes et formes de la pensée morale. Paris: Champion, 1999.

Review: J. Campbell in FS 55.2 (2001), 238–39: "This is the first volume in a projected new series which seeks to focus on ethical issues in early modern texts." Among the essays featured here are Jean-François Lecoq's "refreshingly clear" account of "how internal tensions in Locke's philosophy were reflected in the evolution of moral philosophy in France," Béatrice Guion's "illuminating" essay on Pierre Nicole, and David Bensoussan's "delightful essay on Saint-Evremond's style as a moralist." There are also two "stimulating 'theatrical' piece[s]," Anne Larue's 'Théâtre du monde et théâtralité des supplices' and Camille Guyon-Lecoq's 'La Morale à l'opéra: Fontenelle et la tragédie lyrique."

DEAR, PETER. Revolutionizing the Sciences. European Knowledge and its Ambitions, 1500–1700. Basingstoke: Paigrave, 2001.

Review: J. Black in JES 31, 108–10: Dean sees that a "natural" philosophy firmly directed towards the control of the world is in place by the time of Newton's death. Explores the importance not only of research and discovery but also of the integration of knowledge into systems. Shows how new political and administrative structures sprang from new understanding of the world.

DEMANDT, ALEXANDER, ed. Stätten des Geistes. Große Universitäten Europas von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Köln: Böhlau, 1999.

Review: N. Hammerstein in HZ 271 (2000), 391–92: Highly readable and informative overview of important European institutions, including those in Paris.

DENVILLAIRS, LAURENCE. "La Première Méditation de Descartes et le De beata vita d'Augustin. " RMM, 2 (avril-juin 2001), 119–132.

The author shows that the First Meditation is written from a reading of Augustine's first confessions, that is to say the De beata vita. The augustinian source is certified by Régis who immediately connects the divine attributes of God as they are stated in Descartes' Meditations to Augustine's theology.

DE VALENCE, FRANCOISE. Médecins de fortune et d'infortune: des aventuriers français en Inde au XVIIe siècle: témoins et témoignages. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 2000.

Review: BCLF 624 (2000), 2256: "En dépit de questionnements intéressants, la rareté des analyses donne parfois au livre l'aspect d'un catalogue, au demeurant riche d'informations, en particulier dans la troisième partie, qui répertorie la pratique indienne de la médecine (les maladies et les remèdes) telle qu'elle fut observée par ces 'médecins d'aventure'. . ."

DIEFENDORF, BARBARA B. "Contradictions of the Century of Saints: Aristocratic Patronage and the Convents of Counter-Reformation Paris." FHS 24 (2001), 469–499.

Implies that some modern studies of 17th-century convents wrongly depict them as tightly controlled by misogynistic ecclesiastics. Shows that individual donors were in fact responsible for construction and eventual success or failure, and that the women in charge could manage them as they pleased.

DI MARE, DANIELA. "In imagine homo pertransit. Painted portrait and sacred image in early seventeenth-century French novels." DAI 60/11 (2000), 4028.

Examines the problematics of the painted portrait in the early novel, showing how it raises questions of both identity and representation. Situates texts by d'Urfé, Gomberville, Sorel and Camus within a contemporary debates on sacred images.

FAYE, EMMANUEL, ed. Descartes et La Renaissance. Paris: Champion, 1999.

Review: R. Arab et al. in Ren Q 53 (2000), 950: Collection of essays from the 1996 Colloque de Tours examines Descartes' works in the context of Renaissance humanism and the history of ideas. Hermeneutic and doctrinal studies complement examinations of rhetoric, medicine, representation, and so forth.

Review: M. Gauna in FS 55.3 (2001), 381–82: The papers presented here are "grouped under six headings that give a very fair idea of the vast scope of this colloquium, namely: Descartes and Peter Ramus; Montaigne, Charron and Descartes, from human doubt to divine omnipotence; Continuities and Ruptures from the Renaissance to Descartes; Similitude and Representation; Physics, Mechanics and Medicine; Hermeneutic Enquiries and Doctrinal Confrontations." The reviewer concludes, "All in all a most worthy volume, but certainly not an easy read [...]."

FICHANT, MICHEL. Science et métaphysique dans Descartes et Leibniz. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1998.

Review: S. Roux in RdS 122.1 (2001), 210–214 : Treize études publiées entre 1990 et 1996 ; le seul texte à proprement parler inédit est une courte préface où Fichant s'attache à dégager rétrospectivement les principes qui ont orienté son travail. Trois de ces articles sont consacrés à Descartes, neuf à Leibniz, un à Cassirer : ce dernier prolonge la préface par un examen critique de l'histoire pratiquée par Cassirer.

FINNEY, PAUL CORBY, ed. Seeing Beyond the Word: Visual Arts and the Calvinist Tradition. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.

Review: B.D. Spinks in Ren Q 53 (2000), 1224–25: Spinks appreciates the collection, richly illustrated, which grew out of a 1998 conference at Princeton's Center of Theological Inquiry. Diverse contributions treat both theory and practice range geographically from England and Europe to the New World, and "dispel the idea that Calvinism made no contribution to the visual arts." Of particular interest to 17 th c. scholars is Hélène Guicharnaud's essay on distinctive features of Huguenot temples, "practically all destroyed after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685" but thanks to her careful examination of "plans, drawings and contractual documents", these buildings come alive for us, and it is clear, by their interior decoration, that "loyalty to God and King" was essential to the Calvinist tradition.

GONTIER, THIERRY. "Le corps humain est-il une machine?" RPFE 1140 (2001), 27–53.

Uses Cartesian theories concerning the human body to introduce a new way of looking at the issues of "bio-power" and sovereignty of the body as defined by Foucault and Agamben.

GREGORY, BRAD S. Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1999.

Review: S. Covington in Ren Q 53 (2000), 1226–27: Praiseworthy for its theological, historical and textual analyses, Gregory's impressive volume (over 500 pages) treats martyrdom (and anti-martyrologies) among Anabaptists, Protestants and Catholics in England, France and the Low Countries. Covington admires Gregory's "truly innovative work" on the Anabaptists whose martyrdom is distinguished through songs as a "form of memorialization."

GREGORY, TULLIO. Genèse de la raison classique, de Charron à Descartes. Trad. de l'italien parM. Raiola. Paris: PUF, 2000.

Review: BCLF 627 (2000), 2530: ". . . dans la continuité historique et intellectuelle de la pensée humaniste de la Renaissance—c'est la thèse centrale de T. Gregory—, les divers courants ou figures du libertinisme peuvent apparaître ensemble comme un creuset d'où émergea ce qu'on nomme couramment la 'raison classique'."

GREINER, FRANK, ed. Aspects de la tradition alchimique au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque international de l'Université de Reims-Champagne (28 et 29 novembre 1996). Paris: S.E.H.A., 1998.

Review: L. M. Principe in Isis 91 (2000), 782–783: Calls the collection an excellent book, citing several articles on the intersection of alchemy and the scientific revolution, including Descartes. Also mentions Bernard Joly's article on Etienne de Clave and Sylvain Matton's contribution on alchemy and the Jesuits, as well as a final section on alchemy and the fine arts.

Review: A. Arrigoni in SFr 132 (2000), 585: of interest to students/scholars of medicine and philosophy as well as literature, Greiner's work reviews the alchemic tradition, analyzes its representatives, illustrates its literary fortune, examines style and discourses. Influences on literature are investigated, in particular on Camus and Gomberville.

GUENANCIA, P. L'intelligence du sensible. Paris: Gallimard, 《 NRF Essais 》, 1998.

Review: L. Devillairs in EP 1 (Jan.-Mars 2001), 124–125: First six chapters study what author identifies as the "epistémologie de la distinction" (as opposed to "dualisme") in Descartes. Second part examines the links between feeling and reflection, "amour" and "générosité." Author focuses on the question of free will; Devillairs suggests that Descartes's views on Providence should also be more fully considered.

HAMOU, PHILIPPE. La mutation du visible. Essai sur la portée épistémologique des instruments d'optique au XVIIe siècle. vol. I: Du Sidereus Nuncius de Galilée à la Dioptrique cartésienne. Villeneuve-d'Ascq: Presses Universitaires de Septentrion, 1999.

Review: S. Mazauric in DSS 211 (2001), 366–368: Part I is devoted to the "révélation galiléenne" and its legacy in Gassendi, Hevelius, and Huygens; the second part traces its repercussion in Képler and Descartes. The reviewer emphasizes and lauds the novelty of Hamou's approach: rather than yet another study ("une énième enquête") of the causes of the scientific revolution in the 17th century, this book investigates one of its "symptoms" and proposes a "symptomatologie" rather than an "étiologie." The author's goal: analyze "la fonction épistémologique de l'emploi de ces instruments [d'observation]." The book's rigor and precision are persuasive, but the reviewer questions the author's decision to focus on Sidereus Nuncius to the exclusion of Galileo's other works.

HASELER, JENS and ANTHONY McKENNA, eds. La Vie intellectuelle aux Refuges protestants. Paris: Champion, 1999.

Review: D. Monda in S Fr 132 (2000), 597: The acts of a colloque at Münster (25 July 1995) which began an impressive scholarly investigation of the intellectual life of Huguenots in 17th and 18th C. Essays are diverse and wide ranging from a consideration of Bayle's history of Reformed churches to studies of history of the Francophone public in Prussia, and so forth. Important interdisciplinary contributions on history, philosophy, literature, and ideas.

HAYES, JULIE CANDLER. Reading the French Enlightenment: System and Subversion. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999.

Review: M. Calder in MLR 96.3 (2001), 822–23: "Cross-sectioning an impressively diverse range of textual genres, Julie Candler Hayes pursues her reinterpretation of the Enlightenment's 'esprit systématique' with consistency and focus. The guiding thesis is that the system-building impulse, the epistemological need for rationalizing and classifying the world, contained within itself the potential for its own subversion." The author tracks the systematizing project "through the correspondences of Elizabeth of Boehmia and Descartes, Desjardins and Villedieu and Graffigny and Devaux..."

HUREL, DENIS-ODON and RAYMOND ROGE, eds. Dom Bernard de Montfaucon. Actes du Colloque de Carcassonne, octobre 1996. Editions de Fontenelle, 1998.

Review: P. Castagnetti in DSS 211 (2001), 341–343: Author of l'Antiquité expliquée and Monuments de la Monarchie française, Montfaucon is a little-known disciple of Jean Mabillon. Primarily biographical in its approach, this collection of articles by a diverse range of participants strives to present an image of the man "dans sa globalité."

JONES, MATTHEW LAURENCE. "Technical Subjects: Mathematics and Natural Philosophy as Spiritual Exercises in Descartes, Pascal and Leibniz." DAI 61/09 (2001), 3742.

Argues that the technical difficulties with the experiments of these thinkers stem from their relation to spiritual exercises. "The innovative uses and defenses of algebra in Descartes, experimental narrative in Pascal and infinite series in Leibniz, all new written forms designed to help overcome the insufficiencies of postlapsarian language and thought, were defended as ways simultaneously to gain knowledge and to cultivate the self."

KELLEY, DONALD R., ed. History and the Disciplines. The Reclassification of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe. Rochester NY: The Univ. of Rochester Press, 1997.

Review: J-P Cavaillé in RPFE 1140 (2001), 92–94: Aims to show how history is used, from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment, to legitimize various disciplines. Each essay focuses on the cultural, historical, and institutional contexts in which the "knowledge" essential to a particular discipline was (re)defined. Cavaillé only regrets that the editor and essayists deliberately avoid the history of philosophy.

KNOBLOCH, EBERHARD. "Déterminants et élimination chez Leibniz." Revue d'Histoire des Sciences, 54, #2, Avril-Juin 2001, 143–164.

A technical study of Leibniz's use of indices in algebra.

KRONICK, DAVID A. "The Commerce of Letters: Networks and 'Invisible Colleges' in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Europe." LQ 71 (2001), 28–43.

Demonstrates the important role of correspondence, as opposed to publication, in circulating and disseminating scientific knowledge. Proposes new approach to investigating these "networks" or "invisible colleges."

LAURSEN, JOHN CHRISTIAN and CARY J. NEDERMAN, eds. Beyond the Persecuting Society. Religious Toleration Before the Enlightenment. Philadelphia: U of Penn P, 1998.

Review: M. Maurer in HZ 270 (2000), 474–75: Maurer warmly welcomes this collection of essays on the problem of tolerance which includes three divisions: the Middle Ages, the Sixteenth Century, and the Seventeenth Century. Pierre Bayle receives particular mention.

LESNE-JAFFRO, EMMANUELE. ed. Fléchier et les Grands Jours d'Auvergne. Actes d'une Journée d'étude, Université Blaise Pascal-Clermont-Ferrand, 3 octobre 1997. Biblio 17 122, 2000.

Review: "Les Mémoires sur les Grands Jours d'Auvergne, d'Esprit Fléchier sont le prétexte d'une réflexion pluridisciplinaire, qui permit de réunir, à l'Université de Clermont-Ferrand, autour d'un récit exceptionnel, des spécialistes de l'histoire politique, religieuse, juridique et littéraire du XVIIe siècle (. . .) Les études réunies dans ce volume permettent de mesurer l'exacte place d'un texte discret mais essentiel pour la connaissance de l'histoire et de la littérature du XVIIe siècle."

LESTRINGANT, FRANK. Une sainte horreur, ou le voyage en Eucharistie (XVIe–XVIIIe siècle). Paris : P.U.F., coll. "Histoires," 1996.

Review : Lestringant writes a history of the significance of the Eucharist for Catholics and Protestants from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The controversy arose from discussions of the degree of the presence of flesh in the sacred ritual. "Erudition précise et colorée à la fois, la rigueur de l'analyse et la verve du récit donnent à ce "voyage en Eucharistie" son attrait et sa profondeur. L'historien des religions, le spécialiste de littérature moderne, l'anthropologue et tout simplement le lecteur désireux de mieux connaître les racines de notre modernité y trouveront plus que leur compte."

LURIA, KEITH P. "Separated by Death? Burials, Cemeteries, and Confessional Boundaries in Seventeenth-Century France." FHS 24 (2001), 185–222.

Describes varying ways in which Huguenots and Catholics shared burial practices, cemeteries in "confessionally mixed communities." Focuses on both coexistence and conflict.

LUTHY, CHRISTOPH. "The Fourfold Democritus on the Stage of Early Modern Science." Isis 91 (2000) 442–479.

Argues that "the observed polyvalence of the early modern concept of 'atomism' is related to the considerable polyvalence of the revived figure of Democritus." Explores the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century views of Democritus as a natural philosopher and atomist, the laughing philosopher, the moralizing anatomist, and finally, the alchemist.

MADEC, GOULVEN. Le Dieu d'Augustin. Paris: Cerf, 1998.

Review: L. Devillairs in RdS 122.1 (2001), 207–210: Très référencée, l'ouvrage constitue une excellente introduction à la lecture d'Augustin. L'auteur propose d'examiner l'idée de Dieu dans les œuvres de l'évêque d'Hippone. 《 La thèse réside en l'affirmation de l'origine exclusivement biblique des conceptions augustiniennes : le Dieu d'Augustin n'est en rien différent du Dieu des Ecritures, la pensée de l'évêque d'Hippone est avant tout une méditation sur la Bible.  》

MARGUERITE DU SAINT-SACREMENT. Correspondance (Lettres reçues à son sujet). Présentée par Sœur Marie-Françoise Grivot. vol. I (1631-1648), Forelle, 1997.

Review: J. Deprun in DSS 211 (2001), 339: 360 letters or letter fragments, some never before published, all carefully annotated. An introduction outlines the extraordinary richness of this correspondance, and a preface underscores its cultural merit.

MARTIN, CATHERINE. Révocation de l'Edit de Nantes. Genève: Droz, 2000.

Review: BCLF 627 (2000), 2716: "A partir de vastes recherches dans les archives, Catherine Martin a étudié, selon un plan rigoureux, d'abord la compagnie [de la propagation de la foi] de Paris; puis la mise en place et le fonctionnement de celles de Grenoble, d'Aix, de Lyon et de Montpellier; en enfin, l'évolution de l'ensemble de ces associations [travaillant à l'éradication du protestantisme]."

MATHIEU-CASTELLANI, GISÈLE. "La colère d'Aristote-Défense et illustration d'un emportement plus doux que le miel. . ." Littérature 122, Juin 2001, 75–89.

"Anger for Aristotle is the exemplary passion; it is also one for which he shows considerable indulgence, in not approval, while analyzing it in terms of its logic. These considerations make its study and the study of its posterity valuable."

MAXWELL-STUART, P.G., ed. The Occult in Early Modern Europe: A Documentary History. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.

Review: R. Arab et al. in Ren Q 53 (2000), 294: Valuable for its compilation and translation (in many cases of the first time) of 16th and 17th c. documents relating to diverse aspects and practices of the occult and suggestive of its role in the developing world view of these periods. Extensive bibliography.

MECHOULAN, HENRI, ed. Menasseh Ben Israël. De la fragilité humaine et de l'inclination de l'homme au péché. Paris: Cerf, 1996.

Review: A. Goosens in RBPH 77.5 (1999), 1220–1221: Ce texte du rabbin amstelodamois "destiné à faire l'apologie du libre arbitre face à la prédestination" est "d'une importance non négligeable dans la compréhension des débats théologiques soutenus dans les Provinces-Unies au XVIIe siècle..."

MENN, STEPHEN. Descartes and Augustine. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998.

Review: L. Devillairs in RdS 122.1 (2001), 207–210: "La thèse générale qui y est développée consiste à montrer que la métaphysique augustinienne a fourni à Descartes le fondement et le principe de légitimation d'une physique non-aristotélicienne.  》

MOREAU, DENIS,trans. Antoine Arnaud. Textes Philosophiques. Paris: PUF (collection "Epiméthée), 2001.

Review: J. Lacoste in QL 811 (du 1er au 15 juillet 2001), 20–22: "Défenseur intransigeant de la conception augustinienne de la grâce efficace, qui seule peut sauver et vient de Dieu seul—il est l'auteur d'un ouvrage sur De la nécessité de la foi en Jésus-Christ pour être sauvé—Arnaud se plaît également à s'engager dans les disputes philosophiques de son époque, qui sont étroitement liées à ces problématiques religieuses. Ce qui le conduit à discuter par lettres et par opuscules avec Malebranche, Leibniz et surtout Descartes, aux Méditations duquel il a adressé vers 1640 des 'Objections'—les Quatrièmes—que leur destinataire jugea être 'les meilleures de toutes.'" As for the edition, the reviewer qualifies Moreau as "le savant éditeur de ces textes."

NIDERST, ALAIN. "La géométrie et les réalités: à propos des Elements de la géométrie de l'infini de Fontenelle." Revue d'Histoire des Sciences, 54, #2, Avril-Juin 2001, 247–254.

Niderst proposes a reading of various documents relating to Fontenelle's purposed synthesis of Leibniz's and Newton's systems.

NUBOLA, CECILIA and ANGELO TURCHINI, eds. Fonti ecclesiatiche per la storia sociale e religiosa d'Europa: XV–XVIII secolo. Bologna: Mulino, 1999.

Review: R. Arab et al. in Ren Q 53 (2000), 954: Reevaluates sources and their use for this discipline. Sections on 1)use of computers in historical research, 2) pastoral visits and 3) diverse research subjects such as the construction of morality, spiritual justice, popular religion, and so forth.

Review: T. Deutscher in BHR LXIII,2 (2001), 362–65: Twenty presentations from an international colloquium (November 28–30, 1996) on the theme of pastoral visitations. The volume "provides a valuable update on recent publications and research employing acts of visitations and other ecclesiastical sources in France, Italy, and Germany. It develops new perspectives on such matters as the role of the confessional in the development of spirituality in the late medieval and early modern era. It is, in sum, a worthwhile addition to the social and religious history of Catholic Europe."

O'MALLEY, J. W. et al., eds. The Jesuits: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540–1773. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1999).

Review: W. Monter in BHR 62.3 (2000), 787–788: "This thick and rich volume is the outgrowth of an international conference held at Boston College in 1997, devoted to the pre-1773 Society of Jesus' 'way of proceeding', particularly as it affected their approach to the arts and sciences, and its various manifestations in the multiple Jesuit encounters around the globe." Reviewer notes many useful contributions but agrees with one of the conference summarizers that the focus on the external rather than internal history of the Jesuits "'missed the problem of their motives, and the problem of the successive versions of their specific identity'."

PEARL, JONATHAN L. The Crime of Crimes. Demonology and Politics in France 1540–1620. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier UP, 1999.

Review: M. Closson in BHR 62.2 (2000), 500–503: ". . . son but a été de replacer la 'démonologie française'— c'est-à-dire les ouvrages traitant des pouvoirs des démons et donc de la sorcellerie— dans le 'contexte politique, religieux et intellectuel' des Guerres de religion." C. trouve que l'ouvrage "tout en proposant quelques pistes intéressantes et peut-être pas assez explorées—tels les liens entre les auteurs d'ouvrages démonologiques et les partis politiques et religieux de l'époque—ne contient donc malheureusement guère d'arguments de nature à convaincre un lecteur de la thèse qu'il défend."

PETEY-GIRARD, BRUNO. "De l'oraison mentale au sermon intérieur: la petite rhétorique méditative du révérend-père Coton." PFSCL XXVIII, 54 (2001), 45–60.

Analysis of the rhetoric of meditation in Coton's Sermons sur les principales et plus difficiles matières de la foy.

PIQUE, NICOLAS et GHISLAIN WATERLOT, eds. Tolérance et Réforme: éléments pour une généalogie du concept de tolérance. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2000.

Review: F. de Maublanc in RDM (mai 2001), 188–189: Les textes proposés "retracent avec beaucoup de clarté et de précision les effets de la Réforme sur le concept et la pratique de la tolérance." Au 17e siècle, la mise en perspective historique et conceptuelle comprend l'oeuvre de "Hugo Grotius, des pasteurs de la fin du XVIIe siècle (Pierre Durieu, Pierre Du Bosc, Jean Claude, Etienne Merlat), et enfin des protestants exilés au Refuge (Pierre Bayle, pour l'essentiel) après la révocation."

PLATELLE, HENRI, ed. Journal d'un curé de campagne au XVIIe siècle. Villeneuve d'Ascq: PU du Septentrion, 1997.

Review: J. Dugnoille in RBPH 77.5 (1999), 1221–1222: Rédition du journal d'Alexandre Dubois qui "constitue une source précieuse pour connaître la vie sociale, la pratique religieuse, la perception des événements, dans un village du nord de la France au tournant des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles.

POLI, SERGIO. "Vendetta e pena capitale nella narrativa francese del primo seicento," in de Romanis, Roberto and Rosamaria Loretelli, eds. Il Delitto narrato al popolo. Palermo: Sellerio, 1999.

Review: M. Rossi in S Fr 132 (2000), 586: Poli reconstructs, through able analyses of 17th c. histoires tragiques, the evolution of the concept of the criminal of the time along with heterogeneous themes and topoï, Poli makes certain structural constraints. Important not only for light it sheds on a "tormented culture, but also on a society in full transformation."

POULOUIN, CLAUDINE. Le Temps des origines: l'Eden, le déluge et "les temps reculés". De Pascal à l'Encyclopédie. Paris: Champion, 1998.

Review: B. Chédozeau in PFSCL XXVIII, 54 (2001) 219–220: "Cet ouvrage permet de comprendre comment le temps des origines a pu se penser en termes sécularisés. Il éclaire d'un jour nouveau les textes "de Pascal à l'Encyclopédie."

Review: J. Leigh in FS 55.1 (2001), 90–91: "In this fascinating book, Claudine Pouloin recalls attempts to identify the sites described by Genesis, hence reconciling them with a newly sophisticated geography, and efforts to understand the origins of non-Christian nations and fables." The author shows that "the continuing absence of these sites began to discredit the Bible as the unique, unquestionable source of information about the origins of humanity, while the emergence of new lands and peoples in the Christian consciousness...threatened it further." Pouloin's study is not limited to French thinkers: it is also "richly informed by the work of...Hobbes, Spinoza and Newton."

POUTET, YVES. Originalité et influence de saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle. 2 vols. Paris-Rome: Frères des Ecoles chrétiennes, 1999.

Review: P. Martin in DSS 211 (2001), 339–340: A series of 33 articles published between 1960–1998, this book examines the pedagogical endeavor of La Salle, its roots and legacy. Poutet underscores the originality of La Salle and traces his affiliation with earlier spiritual leaders by means of a comparison of his work to that of Anne de Xainctonge and François de Sales. The reviewer concludes ". . .cette publication éclaire le travail de Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, mais elle le dépasse pour nous plonger dans l'histoire de l'éducation, de la spiritualité ou des circuits de diffusion de la culture."

PREVOT, JACQUES. Libertins du XVIIe siècle, vol. 1. Paris: Gallimard, 《 Bibliothèque de la Pléiade 》, 1998 (vol. 2 forthcoming).

Review: D. Leduc-Fayette in RPFE 1140 (2001), 55–60 ("Les esprits forts au 'Grand Siècle'"): Leduc-Fayette briefly gives history of the evolving definition of "libertin" before examining Prévot's work, which is described as "un ensemble polymorphe qui juxtapose des écrits relevant de genres hétérogènes: poésie, roman, apologie érudite, traité philosophique et dialogue érotologique!" In Leduc-Fayette's words, an anthology that is "fort riche," containing many hard-to-find texts that have rarely or never been published, in-depth critical analysis, and an excellent "index de langue."

RAMSEY, ANN W. Liturgy, Politics, and Salvation: The Catholic League in Paris and the Nature of Catholic Reform, 1540–1630. Rochester: U of Rochester P, 1999.

Review: R. A. Mentzer in Ren Q 53 (2000), 1230–31: Essentially praiseworthy, Ramsey's ambitious and complex analysis is judged promising, imaginative and fresh. The wills of over 1200 Parisians provide Ramsey with an extensive basis for her "evaluation of Leaguer religious performance." Selected wills are closely examined and interconnections between liturgical and social spheres are superbly made. For the sophisticated scholar, Ramsey's volume presumes a certain familiarity with the subject.

RAMOND, CHARLES. Spinoza et la pensée moderne. Constitutions de l'objectivité. Préf.Pierre-François Moreau. Paris: L'Harmattan, 1998.

Review : P. Séverac in RdS 122.1 (2001), 214–5 : 《  Ramond étudie des mots (perfection, puissance, affirmation, utilité. . .) ; cette manière de se tenir au plus près des textes, de les comparer entre eux, permet de saisir les évolutions, les ressemblances et différences entre théories, ainsi que les points d'achoppements, les difficultés—parfois non résolues—auxquelles se sont confrontés un ou plusieurs auteurs  》 (comme Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Pascal, et Hobbes).

RANDALL, CATHARINE. Building Codes: The Aesthetics of Calvinism in Early Modern Europe. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1999.

Review: B. D. Spinks in Ren Q 53 (2000), 1224–25: Theology and space are intertwined in Randall's technical examination of architecture and gardens of the 16th and 17th c. Imaginative (perhaps a bit too much so according to Spinks) and far-ranging study relates the structure of the Institutes to architectural constraints of Reformed architects commissioned at times to build Catholic structures. Argues for an "encoded Calvinist understanding of space."

ROMANO, ANTONELLA. La Contre-réforme mathématique, constitution et diffusion d'une culture mathématique jésuite à la Renaissance (1540–1640). Rome: Ecole française de Rome, 1999.

Review: E. Poulle in BHR LXIII,2 (2001), 446–48: Romano "s'est attachée à démonter le mécanisme par lequel les Jésuites se sont trouvés amenés à créer un enseignement scientifique qui n'avait pas été prévu par leur fondateur et comment cet enseignement a acquis un rôle emblématique, puisque les Jésuites en sont venus à confisquer, pratiquement, la tâche de former les élites techniques du gouvernement royal en France."

ROUSSET, BERNARD. Geulincx entre Descartes et Spinoza. Afterword byP.-F. Moreau. Paris: Vrin, 1999.

Review: J.-P. Babin in DSS 209 (2000), 746: Posthumously published, Rousset's unfinished book provides the historical and biographical data necessary to understand Geulincx the man and his work and offers a systematic analysis of Geulincx's philosophy. The reviewer writes, "au cours de cet exposé et surtout dans les notes, est ébauchée la confrontation avec le spinozisme: si l'auteur n'aura pas eu le temps de la développer, il reste des perspectives éclairantes sur le dialogue qui s'est instauré, à travers leurs œuvres, entre les deux penseurs."

SCHILLING, HEINZ. Die neue Zeit. Vom Christenheitseuropa zum Europa der Staaten,1250–1750. Berlin: Siedler, 1999.

Review: H. Durchhardt in HZ 270 (2000), 405–07: Judged comprehensive and conclusive, Schilling's work covers topics such as economy, administration, political powers, culture and religion. Found to be magisterial, Durchhardt admires Schilling's remarkable synthesis of such a wide-ranging subject.

SEDGWICK, ALEXANDER. The Travails of Conscience. The Arnauld Family and the Ancien Régime. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1998.

Review: L. J. Taylor in Ren Q 53 (2000), 265–66: Valuable for the light it sheds on a 2000 year period of French history, Sedgwick's work identifies family traits (some due to Calvinistic influences), studies women's roles and devotions, and examines tensions among the men arising from ambition. Taylor would have appreciated more contextual analysis and less detail.

SERFATI, MICHEL. "Mathématiques et pensée symbolique chez Leibniz." Revue d'Histoire des Sciences", 54, #2, Avril-Juin 2001, 165–221.

Analysis of what Leibniz called "symbolic thought" in his mathematical system, and considered to be a main part of his system of the world.

TALLON, ALAIN. La France et le concile de Trente (1518–1563). Rome: Ecole française de Rome, 1997.

Review: I. Mieck in HZ 271 (2000), 191–92: Praiseworthy for its clarity and extensive documentation, Tallon's volume fills many lacunae as he treats The Council of Trent, its birth and conception in France's diplomatic structures and politics.

TOLLET, DANIEL, ed. Les textes judéophobes et judéophiles dans l'Europe chrétienne à l'époque moderne. Paris: PUF, 2000.

Review: F. Laplanche in DSS 210 (2001), 165–166: Actes of a 1995 colloquium held at the Sorbonne, the eleven articles are sub-divided into three groups: "Points de vue catholiques," "Points de vue réformés," and "Littérature et société." The diverse collection is characterized overall as "excellent" by the reviewer.

TOMA, DOLORES, ANCA CHRISTODORESCU and VLAD ALEXANDRESCU, eds. Autour de Descartes. Bucarest: Ed. Crater, 1998.

Review: M. Devaux in DSS 210 (2001), 178–179: Approximately twenty articles drawn from a 1996 colloquium, organized according to four rubrics: "Epistémologie cartésienne et rationalité;" "Parcours sceptique et métaphysique cartésienne;" "Esprit cartésien et langage;" "Morale et passions." The section devoted to language bears exclusively on Port-Royal, and the last section is primarily biographical.

WALCH, AGNES. "Du singulier à l'universel: La Perfection de l'amour selon Catherine Lévesque (1616–1693)." DSS 209 (2000), 703–718.

Inspired by marriage treatises penned by clerics, Lévesque's little-known devotional text discusses the ideal form of conjugal love. Walch identifies the singular nature of the text-secular and female-authored-and analyzes the theoretical and experiential underpinnings of Lévesque's marriage tract.

WILKIN, REBECCA MAY. "Feminizing Imagination in France, 1563–1678." 61/10 (2001), 4020.

Argues that literary, philosophical and medical texts of the early modern period demonstrate a changing conception of the nature and function of the imagination, specifically with respect to gender ideology. Shows that most male thinkers, concerned with issues such as witchcraft, epistemology and the influence of the novel, tended to disparage the imagination by branding in feminine, whereas Lafayette was able to appropriate the category to different ends. Other authors include Ronsard, Descartes, Pascal, Malebranche, Boileau, Huet and Sorel.

WOLLENBERG, JORG. "Richelieu et le système européen de sécurité collective. La bibliothèque du Cardinal comme centre intellectuel d'une nouvelle politique." DSS 210 (2001), 99–112.

Focuses both on the content of Richelieu's vast collection as well as how the Cardinal read, characterizing the latter as pragmatic: books must not simply instruct but inspire action. The vast collection of Protestant literature is seen as proof of Richelieu's desire to persuade by the superiority of his arguments founded on a solid knowledge of Calvinist thought.