FRENCH 17

AARONSON, BEA. "La Civilisation du goût. Savoir et saveur à la table de Louis IV (ou, Gastéréa et l'histoire de la cuisine française au dix-septième siècle)." FLS 33 (2006): 85–116.

The author picks up the seventeenth-century theme of "Des mots pour dire les mets": the banquet and its relation to the identity and identification of France. Discusses how the Gastéréa has marked French aristocratic culture through many different voyages: a historical journey, an economic journey, a civil journey, etc. Examines the notion of gastronomy and taste in the seventeenth, which are not inventions of the nineteenth century.

ANDERSON, KATHLEEN. "A Baroque Banquet: Representations of the Meal in France, 1571–1661. DAI 67/10 (2007):

Study explores written and visual texts produced in France from 1571 to 1661, starting with Montaigne's numerous commentaries on culinary practices in his Essais and Journal de voyage en Italie and extending through 1661 when we encounter "the first concrete literary illustration of new cooking methods and ingredients in seventeenth-century France." Theoretical approaches include sociology and the semiotics of culture. Through culinary representations, this dissertation intends to explore the "symbolic strategies used by monarchy and elites to establish their social and political positions."

ANTOINE, MICHEL. Le Coeur de l'Etat. Surintendance, contrôle général et intendances des finances, 1552–1791. Paris: Fayard, 2003.

Review: M. Touzery in RBPH 84.4 (2006), 1311–1313: ". . .l'ouvrage que donne Michel Antoine est le livre fondamental sur le gouvernement central des finances de l'ancienne monarchie de France. Il est absolument sans équivalent par la durée traitée, à savoir la totalité de l'Ancien Régime, la constance et la complétude de l'information sur ces trois siècles, et enfin par la hauteur de vue et la synthèse que permet cette maîtrise de la totalité du sujet et de la durée."

BEASLEY, FAITH. "Gender and the Marketing of Seventeenth-Century France." CdDS 11.1 (2006): 137–46.

Subtle study of Pierre Nora's Les Lieux de Mémoire, as a tool to help American students learn about French identity. Yet also points to drawbacks, as Nora's work does not touch upon 1) how women's studies are developed and have helped to develop the literary world. 2) The institution of the salon. What do we make of a false image of historical truth that has been brushed under the rug? Argues that we must rectify Les Lieux de Mémoire de Nora and points to the interest of Americans today in the study of early modern women.

BEASLEY, FAITH. Salons, History, and the Creation of Seventeenth-Century France: Mastering Memory. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Review: J. Campbell in Ren Q 59.4 (2006): 1225–26: Both a "critique of critiques" and "a study on canon formation," Beasley's examination is also "valuable for its consideration of the shaping of the history of Louis XIV's reign" (1225). Judged "timely," "convincing," and "of interest to scholars of women's literary history as well as those who specialize in the literature of le Grand Siècle" (1226).

Review: M.-C. Canova-Green in MLR 102.4 (2007), 1155–56: "Focusing on the influential salon culture led by women, Faith Beasley retraces the various stages of the appropriation and obfuscation of this rich heritage by later generations. Not only were the seventeenth-century salons reinterpreted and their role in literary culture redefined, the influence exerted by women through the salons was also misrepresented and eventually erased from the nation's collective memory. Less concerned with determining the historical 'truth' of the salon than with analysing how it has been 'remembered' by posterity, Beasley offers a compelling account of the rewriting of France's literary past at the hands of successive generations of Academicians and literary historians." Work "destined to become an essential reference for the field of French seventeenth-century literary studies."

Review: J. Prest in FS 61.2 (2007), 221–222: Beasley's account of women's roles in the seventeenth-century salon is a "sobering reminder" of the misogynist, revisionist and inaccurate literature that continues to inform even literary historians of today. Her book "convincingly" argues the importance of women in the literary world of the period and then charts their historical suppression or marginization from Boileau to Victor Cousin to the present.

BELLANGER, JACQUELINE. Histoire du verre: l'aube des temps modernes 1453–1672. Paris: Massin, 2006.

Review: n. a. in BCLF 685 (2006), 46: "Visant une approche pédagogique, cet ouvrage passe en revue les grands centres de production du verre en Europe, d'abord les dépendances de Venise, puis de multiples foyers comme la Lorraine, le Saint Empire, l'Alsace, la très raffiné Bohème, les Pays Bas. . ."

BERCE, YVES-MARIE. "Allées et venues dans les campagnes de l'Angoumois vers 1650." DSS 234 (2007), 83–96.

Taking judicial documents as rich source material, the author explores peasant migratory patterns in the Angoumois countryside in the mid 17th century.

BERRADA, TAREK. "Les lieux de la pratique musicale dans l'architecture privée au temps de Louis XIV." In Mazouer, Charles, ed. Les Lieux du spectacle dans l'Europe du XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 11–13 mars 2004. Biblio 17 Volume 165. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006. 395–407.

Listening to music was a social activity that came to require specially-designed spaces. The author examines the development of alcoves, music salons, ballrooms, cabinets de musique, and terrasses as special spaces dedicated to music and pays close attention to the introduction of the harpsichord which ultimately made separate music rooms a necessity.

BLUCHE, FRANCOIS. Le Grand règne. Paris: Fayard, 2006.

Review: n. a. in BCLF 691 (2007), 108–109: "Ce volume rassemble les textes de trois livres de François Bluche publiés précédemment. Il comprend une 'vie quotidienne' des Français au temps de Louis XIV, très vivante, ne délaissant aucun des groupes sociaux, ni aucune province, une biographie du roi, présentant avec le maximum d'objectivité ses politiques intérieure et extérieure (pages 255–915); enfin, sous le titre Louis XIV vous parle, un recueil de 'mots et anecdotes' (pages 923–1201) comme il en existait un dans le classique ouvrage de Voltaire, mais réalisé à partir d'autres documents. C'est là sans doute la partie la plus captivante du volume."

BONNET, ANNE-MARIE & BARBARA SCHELLEWALD, eds. Frauen in der Frühen Neuzheit: Lebensentwürfe in Kunst und Literatur. Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2004.

Review: S. Ruby in Ren Q 59.1 (2006): 238–39: This first in a new series of publications by the Institute of Art History at the U of Bonn gathers essays from a symposium and is particularly useful for scholars in Romance literature and Art History. French specialists will be interested in Andreas Toennesmann's excellent contribution on art patronage of women regents in France (Catherine and Marie de Medici and Anne d'Autriche). Emphases of sociopolitics connects with memory of the women regents and "highly original architectural statements" (239).

BONNIFFET, PIERRE. Structures sonores de l'humanisme en France: de Maurice Scève: Délie, objet de plus haulte vertu (Lyon, 1544) à Claude Le Jeune, Second livre des Meslanges (Paris, 1612). Bibliothèque Littéraire de la Renaissance 57. Paris: Champion, 2005.

Review: L.K. Donaldson-Evans in Ren Q 59.2 (2006): 530–31: A "Ficinian-inspired humanist perspective" guides Bonniffet, "who is both a musicologist and a singer" (530). Impressive for its attention to both primary and secondary sources from the early modern period as well as to recent criticism. A grounding in music theory is judged helpful to the reader of this praiseworthy examination of the relationship between music and poetry in the long Renaissance.

Review: M. Mastroianni in S Fr no. 148 (2006): 144: Bonniffet's analysis of the structure of significant musical examples and poetic texts demonstrates the diversity and talent of the period from 1544 to 1612 as it focuses on genres such as the psalm, the "chanson spirituelle" and the "air spirituel." Convincing testimony to the rhetorical elaboration of the trivium: (l'inventio, la dispositio and l'elocutio).

BOUDON-MACHUEL, MARION. "Putto ou enfant? Étude d'une figure singulière dans la sculpture française de la première moitié du XVIIe siècle." In Defrance, Anne, Denis Lopez, and François-Joseph Ruggiu, eds. Regards sur l'enfance au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre des recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 24–25 novembre 2005. Biblio 17 Number 172. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2007. 187–216.

The author examines the modifications of of sculpted putto figures in wall decorations and funerary art of the seventeenth century. As a decorative element, the putto remains a stylized figure in spite of a more realistic representation and begins to symbolize childhood's playfulness: its abundant use at Versailles, for example, contributed to its banalization and put an end to the stylistic innovations of the early seventeenth century. In funerary art, the putto is used to elicit emotion and represents tenderness and fragility, but this innovation was also obscured by overuse during the reign of Louis XIV.

BRENNAN, MICHAEL, ed. The Origin of the Grand Tour: The Travels of Robert Montagu, Lord Mandeville, 1649–1654, William Hammond, 1655–1658, Banaster Maynard, 1660–1663. London: The Hakluyt Society, 2004.

Review: D. Stymeist in Ren Q 59.1 (2006): 250–51: Although the travel narratives are by 17th c. English gentlemen, descriptions of palaces and other places may be "directly compiled and translated. . . [from] French travel guides" (in Montagu's case, for example). Hammond's letters give us a glimpse of his impressions of ballet performances of Louis XIV. These previously unpublished examples present social, political and economic motivations for travel while they display the traveler/ narrator's wide knowledge in several fields.

BROOMHALL, SUSAN. "Familial And Social Networks in the Later Sixteenth-Century French Convent: The Benedictines Of Beaumont-Les-Tours." EMF. Ed. Anne L. Birberick & Russell Ganim. Vol. II. The Cloister and the World: Early Modern Convent Voices. Guest editor, Thomas M. Carr. Rockwood Press, 2007, 59–74.

The author does not intend to treat the class boundaries and familial networks inside of the monastic walls, but to emphasize the importance and need for a study of how the nuns themselves perceived the significance of their own connections "to familial and other social communities." Questions discussed include: How did their writing alter the perception of their familial and social networks, and, what were these networks? The authors make use of listed records, financial, spiritual, historic, eyewitness accounts, correspondence, necrologies, etc., of the abbey of Beaumont & co. Emphasis is also placed on the nuns' importance in community life and, finally, on the family networks (social cohesion) within and outside the convent.

BRUNET, SERGE. "Les prêtres des campagnes de la France du XVIIe siècle: la grande mutation." DSS 234 (2007), 49–82.

An interesting article on the challenges (from within the Church and without) facing rural 17th c. French clergy. Brunet concentrates on the dramatic decline in "l'effectif du clergé séculier," from the early 16th c. to the end of the 17th c., termed "la grande mutation."

BULL, MALCOLM. The Mirror of the Gods: How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods. New York: Oxford UP, 2005.

Review: S. B. McHam in Ren Q 59.1 (2006): 239–41: Judged a "most valuable. . . overview of a vast field"; Bull here traces classical mythology's reception from the 14th through the 17th c. The "artists" of the title includes authors of literature as well as artistic objects. Both primary and secondary sites are analyzed as are political applications such as ceiling paintings in state apartments. Includes a separate analysis of 6 most favored pagan deities, illustrations, appendices, maps, a bibliography (if only judged "sparse") and endnotes.

BUR, MICHEL. Le château d'Epinal XIIIe–XVIIe siècle. Paris: Comité des Travaux historiques et scientifiques, 2002.

Review: M. de Waha in RBPH 84.2 (2006), 530–532: "M. Bur donne avec ce livre richement illustré la conclusion d'une entreprise scientifique et pédagogique. Le chantier d'Epinal servit de chantier école pour l'Université de Nancy et rappelle combien nos institutions universitaires ont besoin de semblables chantiers pédagogiques où peuvent se former non seulement les futures archéologues mais aussi des historiens qui auront toujours davantage besoin du cours de leurs recherches de recourir aux sources archéologiques et de pouvoir les interpréter correctement. Grande entreprise scientifique aussi, puisqu'Epinal offre un cas remarquable de genèse du domaine rural à la "ville", dans le cadre également de la ou plutôt des politiques de l'Empire ottonien."

BURY, EMMANUEL. "Un idéal de la culture française entre humanisme et classicisme: 'civiliser la doctrine.'" FLS 33 (2006): 117–130.

Bury explores how the writing of letters in the seventeenth century can be traced back to its heritage in classical antiquity and its rendition by the humanists of the sixteenth century. He argues that the seventeenth century got rid of the pedantic aspect of its sources, therefore keeping a balance between a mastered culture and individuality. He also studies the difference between pedantic thought patterns and true humanity that makes up humanism: "civiliser la doctrine" (Guez de Balzac). Bury argues that the art of letters makes an honnête homme, while l'honnêteté is nothing more than the accomplishment of a man after his nature.

CANOVA-GREEN, MARIE-CLAUDE. "Le divertissement à la cour des Bourbons et des premiers Stuarts, ou comment ordonner le désordre." In Mazouer, Charles, ed. Les Lieux du spectacle dans l'Europe du XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 11–13 mars 2004. Biblio 17 Volume 165. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006. 333–353.

The growing use of theatre and performance to celebrate and enhance the social and political order of absolute monarchy saw a rise in disorder on the part of an undisciplined audience eager for spectacle and distinction. Thus the space of the theater began to win out over the use of ballrooms and great halls: in theaters spectators were restrained in their seats and neatly ordered according to rank and position, neatly mirroring the monarchical political order.

CARILE, PAOLO. Huguenots sans frontières. Voyage et écriture à la Renaissance et à l'Age classique. Paris: Champion, 2001.

Review: L. Sozzi in S Fr no. 148 (2006): 119–120. Judged stimulating and rich, Carile's volume is useful for the perspectives it offers on themes of happiness and desolation as well as "renouveau spirituel." Other dimensions such as romanesque adventures and the "mondo primitivo" are highlighted (119). Valuable contribution to politics, socio-economics as well as to literature and culture.

CARRIER, HUBERT. "La crise de la Fronde: mémorialistes et pamphlétaires devant la guerre civile." In Garapon, Jean, ed. Armées, guerre et société dans la France du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIIIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Université de Nantes, 18–20 mars 2004. Biblio 17, Number 167. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2006. 37–49.

Certain Frondeur observations on the notion of civil war (e.g., civil war is dangerous, deadly to the state, and advantageous to foreign enemies) are based on empirical evidence, while another category draws on moral arguments. The arguments that circulated in pamphlets and memoirs on the horrors of civil war seem to have had little effect on the participants and points to how the political reality of the Fronde won out over moral considerations.

CARRIER, HUBERT. Le Labyrinthe de l'État: Essai sur le débat politique en France au temps de la Fronde (1648–1653). Bibliothèque d'histoire moderne et contemporaine 14. Paris: Champion, 2004.

Review: A. Amatuzzi in S Fr no. 148 (2006): 120–122: Carrier's valuable volume examines not only the vast pamphlet production in question (see as well his previous publications on the Mazarinades), but also correspondence, memoirs, gazettes, etc. The comprehensive study (of 694 pages) includes the following sections in addition to a rich critical apparatus: "Les courants de la pensée politique," "Problèmes économiques et questions fiscales," and "Structures et mentalités sociales."

Review: J.R. Fehleison in Ren Q 59.2 (2006): 525–26: Recommended for its command of an impressive body of research, exploring pamphlets, correspondence and cahiers de doléances and addressing "the monarchy, the Parlement of Paris, the princes of the blood, the nobility, and the various bodies of the Third Estate as the Frondeurs challenged Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin's management of the monarchy. . . during the minority of Louis XIV" (525). Carrier's ambitious study is organized around sections dealing with the diversity of political thought (yet support for the monarchy by many), fiscal crises (focusing on excessive taxation and hunger), and "the multifaceted issue of social orders. . . [particularly] the role of the people" (Fehleison, 526).

CARROLL, STUART. Blood and Violence in Early Modern France. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006.

Review: F. Baumgartner in Choice 44 (2007), 1819: Argues that noble blood feuds persist well after the end of the Middle Ages and thus cannot be understood as a 'medieval' phenomenon. Looking at the seventeenth century, "Carroll concludes that the creation of a large standing army under Louis XIV provided an outlet for vindicatory violence" (1819). Reviewer finds the book somewhat difficult to read, but well worth the effort.

Review: R. Briggs in TLS 5409 (Dec 1 2006): 26. Treats violence in France from fifteenth through seventeenth century, especially feuds and revenge killings. Chief sources are pardon letters, judicial proceedings of parlements and family histories. Shows that formal duels under Louis XIV were mainly associated with army officers. Hypothesizes that the incorporation of many lesser nobles into royal army had "immense social consequences" as aggression "was redirected to service of the crown." An "excellent and thought-provoking book."

CATTEEUW, LAURIE. La Modernité de la raison d'état et le masque du temps. RdS 3-4 (2007), 369–394.

This article covers Liebniz and political thought. In the course of the centuries, the theoreticians of the reason of State define the new notion by comparing ancient and modern times: they affirm, almost unanimously, that the Ancients knew the reason of State — thus willingly depriving it of its modernity. Yet it is not less true that historically reason of State accompanies the advent of the modern State and participates in the elaboration of its political rationality. In this article, we hear recalled those multiple antique figures of the reason of State, brought it light and exploited by its own theoreticians, in order to grasp their stakes for the history of the notion, their relations to the political modernity and their effects on the art of governing proper to the modern State. Beginning with the description of its constitutive polymorphy, through which it seems to adapt itself to every era, it is a question of seizing in what consists the modernity of the reason of State.

CHAURAND, JACQUES. "Le vocabulaire que révèlent les inventaires après décès dans l'est picard au XVII siècle." DSS 234 (2007), 169–187.

Much can be learned from looking at these specific legal registers: "une somme de richesse considérable pour qui veut connaître le vocabulaire et à travers lui la vie quotidienne [...]" Chaurand lists a multitude of these documents and proposes a brief analysis.

CHERBULIEZ, JULIETTE. The Place of Exile. Leisure Literature and the Limits of Absolutism. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 2005.

Review: L. Leibacher-Ouvrard in Fr F 31.3 (2006): 159–162: As Leibacher-Ouvrard so felicitously states, Cherbuliez's Place of Exile is "lui-même un voyage de distanciation critique" (161). Continuing along the lines of Joan DeJean's Tender Geographies (1991) and Nicholas Paige's Being Interior. . . (2001), Cherbuliez focuses on the imposition of "vivre 'à l'extérieur'" for representative women authors but also indicates "combien ces écrits de femmes ont souvent accueilli la participation de collaborateurs masculins (secrétaires, correspondants, imprimeurs, etc.) tels que Huet, Segrais ou Saint-Evremond" (161, Leibacher-Ouvrard). Cherbuliez's thesis is illustrated by four cases in as many chapters: "Diversions: Montpensier's Exilic Communities," "Detours: Ovidian Fantaisies of Community and Villedieu's Les Exilez de la Cour d'Auguste," "Periphery: Zayde and the Domestic Conquest of the Nation," and "Diaspora: Francophone Refugee Fiction from Hortense Mancini to Anne de La Roche-Guilhen." Judged a "bel ouvrage" which proves the significance (literary, socio-cultural, political, for example) of this "leisure literature."

CIAVOLELLA, MASSIMO and PATRICK COLEMAN, eds. Culture and Authority in the Baroque. Toronto: UTP, 2005.

Review: L. R. N. Ashley in BHR 69.1 (2007), 198: Superior anthology that contributes "to the better definition of baroque" and "permits of a wide range of interests: architecture, exploration, music, poetry,. . ."

CONSTANT, JEAN-MARIE. "Le discours sur la guerre de l'opposition nobiliaire à Richelieu: amorce d'une autre vision politique et philosophique du monde." In Garapon, Jean, ed. Armées, guerre et société dans la France du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIIIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Université de Nantes, 18–20 mars 2004. Biblio 17, Number 167. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2006. 25–35.

During the regency of Marie de Médicis, a dévot anti-war discourse predominated which was superceded by a noble discourse in the wake of the Journée des Dupes. While retaining certain dévot elements, this princely discourse added new themes: the stuggle against tyranny, a call for the return of the Etats généraux, and an idyllic political vision inspired by pastoral literature, most notably d'Urfé's Astrée.

CONSTANT, JEAN-MARIE. La Folle liberté des baroques 1600–1661. Paris: Perrin, 2007.

Review: D. Bermond in RDM (mai 2007), 187–189: "Dans cet essai tout en nervosité, baroque, se risquerait-on à dire, Jean-Marie Constant décline les mille et une manières de manifester sa liberté en cette première moitié du XVIIe siècle. L'auteur brosse des figures d'une belle trempe, qui ont fait de l'indocilité une règle de conduite, tells la duchesse de Chevreuse et la Grande Mademoiselle, deux croqueuses de pouvoir, ou ce comte de Montrésor, contestataire impénitent, conseiller de Gaston d'Orléans, lui-même prince de l'équivoque, qui se revendique 'esprit libre' par opposition aux 'esclaves' vivant dans 'la servitude' à la cour."

CONSTANT, JEAN-MARIE. "La lecture des cahiers de doléances des villages entre 1576 et 1651 permet-elle de parler d'un imaginaire politique paysan au XVIIe siècle?" DSS 234 (2007), 31–48.

In trying to understand rural political tendencies in early modern France, the historian must seek out creative sources. In this case, the author attempts to decipher "le contenu quelquefois très formel des cahiers de doléances des communautés d'habitants et des châtellenies pour en extraire le message que les villageois voudraient envoyer au roi et retrouver, à travers le langage et les idées exprimées, l'imaginaire politique des populations paysannes."

CORBIN, ALAIN, JEAN-JACQUES COURTINE, & GEORGES VIGARELLO, eds.

Histoire du corps. Vol. 1: De la Renaissance aux Lumières. Identified in Choice 44 (2006) as a "Significant European Scholarly Title" for 2005.

COURSE, DIDIER. D'or et de pierres précieuses. Les paradis artificiels de la Contre-Réforme en France (1580–1685). Lausanne, Éditions Payot, 2005.

Review: M.-O. Sweetser in PSCFL, 66 (2007), 254–257. According to the reviewer, "Le mérite de cette étude, centrée sur des matières précieuses et sur leur interprétation dans le contexte des mentalités de l'époque, consiste à voir éclairé d'importants aspects de la pensée religieuse et de l'esthétique de la Contre-Réforme, de l'imaginaire, en particulier en ce qui concerne une large galerie de figures féminines tirées de l'histoire, de la tradition scripturale et hagiographique. On le recommendera aux bibliothèques universitaires, aux spécialistes de l'âge baroque et à leurs étudiants."

CRAVERI, BENEDETTA. L'âge de la conversation. Traduit de l'italien parEliane Deschamps-Pria. Paris, Gallimard, 2002.

Review: R. Marchal in RHLF 106.4 (2006): 980–981. Review argues that this study "decrit une poétique et une mondanité. . . et qui dans le glissement insensible de l'oralité à l'écrit produit ces genres mimétiques de la conversation: ana, anecdotes, entretiens et dialogues, jeu de portraits, marques d'oralité de l'écriture épistolaire et mémorielle, etc." Author values the amount of information assembled, which extends from "l'âge de la conversation, de l'Hôtel Rambouillet jusqu'à. . . Mme de Staël."

CRAWFORD, KATHERINE. Perilous Performances: Gender and Regency in Early Modern France. Harvard Historical Studies 145. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2004.

Review: B. Gaehtgens (trans.S.J. Rabin) in Ren Q 59.1 (2006): 182–83: Although Crawford's thesis "that the female practice of regency for the young king ultimately made the royal power replaceable and therefore led to the end of the Ancien Régime" may, according to the reviewer, remain debatable (183), Gaehtgens praises Crawford's work for its ambition and its thorough investigation and reinvestigation of primary and secondary sources in a multi-disciplinary context.

CRESCENDO, RICHARD, MARIE ROIG-MIRANDA & VÉRONIQUE ZAERCHER, eds. Le Mariage des XVIe et XVIIe siècles: réalités et représentations. Nancy: Université de Nancy II, 2003. eds.

Review: B. Boudou in RHLF 106.4 (2006): 968. This collection assembles forty scholarly papers that were presented during a three-day conference in Nancy in November 2001. Papers given analyzed the question of marriage in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as a phenomenon "qui engage la vie des individus et même des nations dans le cas des mariages politiques." Among the questions discussed in this volume are hierarchies, the dichotomy between ideal/reality, the economic order, etc.

DAMME, STÉPHANE VAN. Paris, capitale philosophique: de la Fronde à la Révolution. Paris: Odile Jacob, 2005.

Identified in Choice 44 (2006) as a "Significant European Scholarly Title" for 2005.

DAUBRESSE, SYLVIE. Le Parlement de Paris ou la voix de la raison (1559–1589). Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance 398. Geneva: Droz, 2005.

Review: M.P. Holt in Ren Q 59.2 (2006): 522–523: Daubresse's archival training at the École des Chartes is evident in this "thoroughly researched and clearly argued study" of the Parlement de Paris' relations with the last three Valois kings. Convincingly demonstrates that "the reality was much more nuanced and complex" than the "confrontation and opposition" typically presented by critics. Key issues are religious uniformity and royal finances. This volume is of much value to 17th c. historians and offers a complement to Michel De Waele's 2000 study Les relations entre le Parlement de Paris et Henri IV.

DINAN, SUSAN E. Women and Poor Relief in Seventeenth-Century France: The Early History of the Daughters of Charity. Women and Gender in the Early Modern World. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Review: L. J. Taylor in Ren Q 59.4 (2006): 1223–25: This welcome extension of scholarly investigation into the role of women and active spirituality demonstrates the dependence of the state on religious women's social and education services in 17th c. France. Nuanced study argues that the feminization of the "French church of the modern era. . . began in the 17th c." (141).

DOMENECH, JACQUES, ed. Censure, autocensure et art d'écrire. De l'Antiquité à nos jours. Bruxelles : Éditions Complexe, 2005.

Review : J.-F. Somain in DFS 78 (Spring 2007), 159–161 : 《  L'ouvrage de Jacques Domenech permet d'approfondir ces notions qui sont au coeur de la conquête de la liberté, de la réflexion philosophique et de la pratique littéraire. Cet ouvrage, nettement eurocentrique, constitue les actes du Séminaire européen du CTEL (Centre transdisciplinaire d'épistémologies et de littérature) qui s'est déroulé à l'Université de Nice d'octobre 2001 à juin 2003.  》 Dans la première partie qui va de l'Antiquité au dix-huitième siècle, Olivier Bloch étudie le cas de Molière et Michel Bernsen étudie celui de La Fontaine. Dans la seconde partie, qui couvre l'Ancien Régime et l'Âge des Lumières, Marie-Paule de Weerdt-Pilorge étudie la censure et l'autocensure chez Saint-Simon. Le critique trouve que 《  les travaux de ces chercheurs éclairent bien les motivations des auteurs et le travail de révision littéraire.  》

DONTENWILL, SERGE. "Aspects de la vie quotidienne et de l'organisation sociale des communautés paysannes du centre sud-est de la France au temps de Louis XIV (1638–1715)." DSS 234 (2007), 97–134.

A lengthy and comprehensive socio-historical case study of rural social organization during the reign of Louis XIV. The author analyzes the social implications of many aspects of daily life, paying close attention to both external influence and community interaction.

DREVILLON, HERVE. Batailles, Scènes de guerre de la Table Ronde aux Tranchées. Paris : Seuil éd., 2007. Coll. L'Univers historique.

Review : C. Denys in QL 948 (du 16 au 30 juin 2007), 20–21 : 《  Après deux ouvrages de recherche historique savante, [...] Hervé Drévillon s'autorise ici un récit plus ouvert au grand public, récit qui sans s'écarter des méthodes rigoureuses de l'histoire scientifique-telle la critique des sources, essentielle pour passer au crible les témoignages des combattants-, se présente d'une manière plus allégée, sans appareil de notes, ni longs raisonnements socio-politiques. [...] L'auteur nous conduit de la fin du Moyen Âge jusqu'à l'aube du XXe siècle, à suivre la naissance puis la disparition par dilution dans l'espace et le temps de la bataille 'classique,' celle qui se décide en un jour, sur un terrain limité, entre deux armées face à face.  》 Le critique souligne le fait que l'auteur n'oublie jamais 《  le premier acteur de la bataille : le simple combattant, le fantassin ou le cavalier que l'on envoie marcher vers une haie de lances ou un déluge de feu  》.

ERBEN, DIETRICH. Paris und Rom. Die staatlich gelenkten Kunstbeziehungen unter Ludwig XIV. Berlin: Akademie, 2004. Studien aus dem Warburg-Haus, 9.

Review: M. Dauss in RF 118 (2006): 507–10: Highly informative "Habilitationsschrift" by Erben, an art historian whose erudition in literature is also impressive. Important for specialists interested in the relationship between cities in the Early Modern as well as between the politics and the production of art (architecture, sculpture, heraldry, painting, ceremonies, and so forth).

FARR, JAMES R. A Tale of Two Murders: Passion and Power in Seventeenth-Century France. Durham: Duke UP, 2005.

Review: B. Sandberg in Ren Q 59.2 (2006): 526–28: Praiseworthy as both "riveting and readable, equally appropriate for an audience of university students or general readers" (528). Farr's close examination of a particular case of the sudden disappearance of a presiding judge in Burgundy's Chambre des Comptes along with his valet allows us to appreciate the "complex and prolonged judicial investigation " in this case as well as "excruciatingly slow. . . mechanisms of justice" and "nefarious corruption within Dijon's highest court" (527). Impressive use of "voluminous manuscript records" plus faithfulness to "well-established social-historical methodology" (527).

FAVREAU, MARC. "De la bordure au tableau: l'évolution de la représentation enfantine dans les tapisseries françaises du Grand Siècle (1598–1715)." In Defrance, Anne, Denis Lopez, and François-Joseph Ruggiu, eds. Regards sur l'enfance au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre des recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 24–25 novembre 2005. Biblio 17 Number 172. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2007. 217–237.

As an elite art form available to only very few, tapestries generally reflect the values of their ecclesiastical or noble patrons who showed very little interest in child subjects. When they appear, children are represented in tapestry as "l'enfant divinisé" (Christ and other biblical figures), decorative border figures (putti) and, very infrequently, as "l'enfant héroïsé."

FAVREAU, MARC. "Deux couronnes en représentation" les marriages franco-espagnols de 1615 et 1659." In Mazouer, Charles, ed. Les Lieux du spectacle dans l'Europe du XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 11–13 mars 2004. Biblio 17 Volume 165. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006. 281–306.

The author compares and contrasts the royal marriage of Louis XIII and Anne d'Autriche (1615) with the nuptials of Louis XIV and Marie-Thérèse and fills in gaps in our knowledge of these state occasions through readings of contemporary accounts.

FOLLAIN, ANTOINE. "L'administration des villages par les paysans au XVIIe siècle." DSS 234 (2007), 135–156.

Lamenting the lack of modern progress in understanding the administrative and social intricacies of the rural 17th c. French village, the author jousts with Albert Babeau's 18th c. contribution to the subject, adds a refreshing new perspective, and exhorts his colleagues to action in exploring this neglected yet exciting avenue of research.

FRASER, ANTONIA. Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2006.

Review: P. Mansel in TLS 5410 (Dec 8 2006): 32. A "fluent and energetic book" which treats the king's relationship not just with his mistresses but with his mother and granddaughter-in-law, among others. Reviewer praises Fraser's "vast knowledge" and says readers will appreciate "details about background to court life." A different Louis XIV emerges here, for he appears as a "strong" monarch who was more easily swayed by his emotions than either Louis XIII or Louis XVI. The court of France becomes, in this book, "a school of psychology."

FRISCH, ANDREA. The Invention of the Eyewitness: Witnessing and Testimony in Early Modern France. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2004.

Review: L. Chang in E Cr 46.1 (2006): 108: Although Frisch's focus is 16th c., it helpfully illuminates for the entire early modern period the notion and the reality of the witness and its development from "feudal 'ethical'" to "epistemic," the latter informed by Calvinist theology (as in the case of Jean de Léry) "which itself relied on the notion of the witness, a 'faithful interlocutor' who interprets experience and makes testimony meaningful" (rev.). Chang finds the project's greatest strengths to be the "juxtaposition of postmodern theory and early modern texts."

FUDGE, ERICA, ed. Renaissance Beasts: Of Animals, Humans, and Other Wonderful Creatures. Urbana and Chicago: U of Illinois P, 2004.

Review: n.a. in FMLS 42 (2006): 326: Eleven essays explore animals in European culture in the early modern. 17th c. scholars will find of interest the sections on "conceptions and connotations of animals" at the court of Louis XIV. If animals are "instrumentalised and objectified," boundaries between them and humans were "porous and vulnerable."

GAILLARD, AURELIA. "L'enfant en peinture au XVIIe siècle dans le tableau d'histoire: histoires d'enfance ou histoires de peinture?" In Defrance, Anne, Denis Lopez, and François-Joseph Ruggiu, eds. Regards sur l'enfance au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre des recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 24–25 novembre 2005. Biblio 17 Number 172. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2007. 305–326.

While the influence of both religion and classical mythology account for the abundance of representations of children (particularly nude child figures) in seventeenth-century painting, children and childhood per se are neglected and instead communicate an allegorical meaning. The use of the figure of the child in painting thus reveals "toute l'ambivalence du langage pictural de la peinture d'histoire à l'âge classique."

GARRAWAY, DORIS. The Libertine Colony: Creolization in the Early French Caribbean. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2005.

Review: A. Stahl in FR 80 (2007), 706–07: "Through analysis of little-studied Old Regime texts from the French Caribbean, this book investigates disavowed aspects of colonial history, namely, the libidinal economies dominating power relations" (706). Drawing on texts by white male colonizers from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Garraway examines the ways in which narratives of incestuous family romance wind their way through these writings and how they contribute to white male supremacy in Caribbean societies. Engages many disciplines and takes up several contemporary scholarly debates. "Garraway's attention to terms and tropes, i.e., the distinction between flibustiers and buccaneers, the etymology of "cannibal," and the development of the figure of the "zombie," adds to [the work's] appeal for use in some undergraduate courses" (707).

Review: S. Toczyski, in PSCFL, 66 (2007), 263–266. Favorable review remarks: "Garraway's work is a compelling account of the ways in which race, gender, sexuality, deviance, violence, religion, filiation and segregation influenced the cultural transformation of the French Caribbean, and the problematic hybridization of populations that resulted from the inevitable and often coerced cross-cultural encounters that took place there. Helping to fill a lacuna born of what Edouard Glissant has called our 'collective amnesia,' Doris Gallaway's study will both challenge and change the way contemporary literary scholars read colonial narratives." She later adds, "one finds little to fault in this remarkable study of the profound ambivalences and contradictions emanating from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French colonies in the Carribean."

GIRON, CAROLINE. "Orfane filarmoniche L'éducation des orphelines à la musique dans la Venise du XVIIe siècle." 133–146.

GLENISSON, JEAN, ed. Histoire de l'Aunis et de la Saintonge. 3: Le Début des Temps modernes (1480–1610)/Marc Seguin. La Crèche: Geste, 2005.

Review: n.a. in BCLF 689 (2006), 107–108: "Le livre embrasse donc à la fois ce qu'on appelle 'le beau XVIe siècle et celui des troubles civils, particulièrement dévastateurs sur toute leur durée en Aunis et Saintonge. L'auteur, Marc Seguin, accomplit là son oeuvre maîtresse et il faut souligner d'emblée l'importance de ce livre. . . Il s'agit d'une avancée considérable dans la connaissance des deux provinces de l'ouest, dont l'auteur, en dépit de leur appartenance au diocèse de Saintes et de leur réunification départementale tardive, critique d'emblée l'unité factice."

GOEURY, JULIEN. "Guerres spirituelles et guerres temporelles dans les temples réformés au moment de la paix des Pyrénées." In Garapon, Jean, ed. Armées, guerre et société dans la France du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIIIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Université de Nantes, 18–20 mars 2004. Biblio 17, Number 167. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2006. 65–79.

Protestant preachers in 1659–1660 were torn between the desire to be loyal subjects (and using the pulpit to support France's war with Spain) and an ethical call to decry war's destruction and violence. This tension created a "secular pessimism" that prepared the Protestant community for the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

GOULET, ANNE-MADELEINE. Poésie, musique et sociabilité au XVIIe siècle. Les Livres d'airs de différents auteurs publiés chez Ballard de 1658 à 1694. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2004.

Review: S. Macé in DSS 233 (2006), 755–756: Widely recognized as an extraordinary contribution to the field, reviewer praises the author's accomplishment in achieving such an ambitious project, combining study of literature, music, cultural history, and sociology and situating the Maison Ballard in the greater context of the century.

GROVE, LAURENCE. Text/Image Mosaics in French Culture: Emblems and Comic Strips. Studies in European Cultural Transition, 32. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005.

Review: D. Graham in Ren Q 59.4 (2006): 1272–73: Grove's study provides "parallel mentalities," and case studies rather than a comprehensive survey. Theory, production, thematics and reception inform Grove's examination of these seemingly disparate mosaics. Reviewer appreciates the "thought provoking and unpretentious examples" studied enthusiastically and with intelligence, but regrets the publisher's lack of attention to details and striking printing errors.

HABIB, CLAUDE. La Galanterie française. Paris: Gallimard, 2006.

Review : D. Batude in QL 935 (du 1er au 15 déc. 2006), 26 : Habib 《  entend nous révéler comment l'alliance des rôles des femmes et des hommes valorise l'un et l'autre sexe, en réinventant dans un jeu complémentaire élégant le langage et les modes de vie liées à la différence sexuelle. (...) Dans les moeurs, le langage, en particulier écrit, joue un rôle fondamental, le livre de Claude Habib est donc très riche de citations et d'analyses d'oeuvres littéraires ; peut-être trop d'auteurs du XVIIe siècle sont-ils cités, même si c'est l'époque essentielle, alors que le livre est bien centré avec les auteurs des siècles suivants.  》

Review: M.-O. Padis in Esprit 1 (2007), 194–195: "Cet ouvrage se présente comme une histoire de la galanterie et nous entraîne donc, en suivant un movement régressif qui comble de proche en proche notre incompréhension de l'érotique galante, de la Belle Epoque au moment romantique avant de nous introduire dans l''âge galant', dont les libertés et les fictions constituent le coeur de l'ouvrage. Mais sa préoccupation n'est pas avant tout historienne: elle est de comprendre quelles sont nos ressources culturelles pour faire vivre la mixité, le mélange des sexes, dans la vie publique."

HAFFEMAYER, STEPHANE. Information et espace public. La presse périodique au XVIIe siècle. RdS 1 (2005), 109–137.

Abstract: " Depuis une vingtaine d'années, les spécialistes de la littérature du XVIIIe siècle ont accordé une attention croissante à l'étude de la presse d'Ancien Régime et mis en évidence la montée en puissance et le rôle révolutionnaire de l'imprimé auprès de l'opinion. À l'opposé de ce séduisant contexte culturel, la création de la presse au début du XVIIe siècle ne bénéficie pas d'un tel engouement. Discréditée pour sa servilité, l'information de la Gazette n'avait encore jamais fait l'objet d'une étude systématique et exhaustive. Pourtant, elle rencontra immédiatement un succès important, au point qu'elle suscita aussitôt des contrefaçons. À Grenoble, entre 1647 et 1663, les registres du libraire Nicolas dressent la liste de 171 abonnés fidèles à la lecture de sa réimpression lyonnaise. Cette passion du public pour la Gazette met en évidence le goût d'une nouvelle culture profane et nationale, ainsi qu'une conscience du politique que la lecture du périodique développe et enrichit. L'information place les actes du pouvoir sous le regard attentif des hommes et leur dévoile une certaine mécanique de la politique; ce faisant, en concédant ce premier partage de l'information, elle ouvre un champ de réflexion et de critique qui finira par lui être fatal."

HARRIS, JOSEPH. Hidden Agendas: Cross-Dressing in 17th Century France. Tübingen: Gunter Narr (Biblio 17, n. 156), 2005.

Review: L. Rescia in S Fr no. 148 (2006): 147–148: Prose, poetry, drama and opera provide examples for Harris's analyses of the socio-cultural and literary-historical phenomenon. Considers reactions of institutions, the bienséances and the particularly well-documented case of the abbé de Choisy. Well documented and with rich bibliography.

HOLLSTEN, LAURA JOHANNA. "Knowing Nature: Knowledge of Nature in Seventeenth-Century French and English Travel Accounts for the Caribbean." DAI 67/02, 287.

Study argues that travel narratives written "during a period when knowledge about nature was undergoing significant changes, can illuminate important aspects of the history of environmental ideas." Focuses on new scientific and mechanistic views, but also discusses the older, organic knowledge of nature. Describes trends in the development of the production of knowledge of nature through the interaction between the known and the unfamiliar; the encounters of three different groups of people; the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, the Europeans and the Africans; and changes in the discipline and practise of natural history. "A study of the use of nature on the Caribbean sugar islands shows how the production of knowledge on the sugar plantations led both to deteriorating environments and improved agricultural techniques."

JACOB, MARGARET C. Strangers Nowhere in the World: The Rise of Cosmopolitanism in Early Modern Europe. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

Review: D. Heimmermann in Choice 44 (2007), 1819–20: Concentrating on cultural and social practices, Jacobs examines forms of cross-class interaction and other forms of "border crossing" that laid the groundwork for cosmopolitan ideals. Jacobs traces a path between premodern cosmopolitanism and the emergence of universal principals under the French Revolution and republican movement. Highly recommended by the reviewer.

Review: B. T. Moran in Isis 97 (Dec 2006), 183–184. The work identifies pre-Enlightenment sources of cosmopolitanism, with special attention to early modern alchemy. The reviewer notes that the focus on alchemists does little to point to cosmopolitanism as a positive virtue, insofar as many of them were working at the margins of society and desired social rewards as much as financial payments.

JOHNSON, E. JOE. Once There Were Two True Friends : Idealized Male Friendship in French Narrative from the Middle Ages through the Enlightenment. Birmingham, AL: Summa Publications, 2003.

Review: E. Benkov in DFS 78 (Spring 2007), 149–150: This study is organized chronologically into four broad periods: medieval, renaissance, the "Age of Absolutism" and the "Age of Enlightenment." The third chapter treats the seventeenth century and examines Rosset's Histoires tragiques, one of La Fontaine's Fables, "Les Deux amis", and Madame de Lafayette's La Princesse de Clèves where the focus is not on the princess but on the "amis intimes." The critic thinks that Johnson "overstates his case" in asserting that "these French texts on male friendship have gone beyond their national border and exerted a significant influence on modern, normative discourses concerning gender, sexuality, and friendship" but she does agree that the texts are "central to the French literary tradition of idealized male friendship."

JONES, JENNIFER. Sexing "La Mode," Gender, Fashion and Commercial Culture in Old Regime France. Oxford: Berg, 2004.

Review: D. McCallum in FS 60.4 (2006), 513–514. This "well-researched and articulate study" is an "intriguing" work of cultural history according to the reviewer. The book follows fashion, dominated by the person of Louis XIV during the latter half of the seventeenth century, through a process of democratization and feminization during the eighteenth. Jones covers the increasing importance of boutiques and the emergence of a fashion press as they replace the royal gift economy and court-centered life. The reviewer notes a few flaws—quotations are given only in English with no translation and too frequent typos—but insists that these do not detract from the value of the whole.

KAMMERMAN, DAVID. "Making the Cut: Medical, Political, and Textual Bodies in Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century France." DAI 67/10 (2007): 577.

From Descartes' construction of mechanized bodies to Sade, the dissertation examines radical differences in the conceptualization of corporeal figures. The dissertation explores the tensions "between understandings of bodies in the universe as indivisible or divisible, identical or different, and continuous or contiguous in select works."

KENNY, NEIL. The Uses of Curiosity in Early Modern France and Germany. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Review: N. Paige in MLQ 68 (2007), 119–22. Brings a broad and potentially unruly topic under control, organizing its material in terms of two groups, "institutions" and "discursive tendencies." Reviewer finds Kenny particularly strong in his discussion of literary and aesthetic uses of curiosity, and applauds his conscientious use of scholarship, resistance to hype, and scholarly care. The book is deemed not entirely convincing in its attempt to argue against a generalized cultural shift toward the valorization of curiosity, but the reviewer nonetheless grants the work praise.

LAMAY, THOMASIN, ed. Musical Voices of Early Modern Women: Many Headed Melodies. Women and Gender in the Early Modern World. Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate Press, 2004.

Review: A.L James in Ren Q 59.1 (2006): 145–47: Divided into five sections: "Introduction to the Many Headed Ones," "Women En-voiced," "Women on Stage," "Women from the Convents," and "Women, Collections and Publishing," the volume includes two essays focusing on women in France, one on music and eroticism and another on gender representation and the influence of Lully's 'Operatic Style.'

LANDRY, NICOLAS. "Pêcheurs-engagés à Terre Neuve sous le Régime français, 1688–1713." French Colonial History 8 (2007): 1–21.

Uses archival sources to explore the working conditions of hired fishermen in both "dry" (dried and salted) and "wet" (fresh) fisheries in Plaisance, Newfoundland.

LOPEZ, DENIS. "L'éducation du prince au XVIIe siècle: regards sur l'enfance." In Defrance, Anne, Denis Lopez, and François-Joseph Ruggiu, eds. Regards sur l'enfance au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre des recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 24–25 novembre 2005. Biblio 17 Number 172. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2007. 61–113.

The author examines the historical context of royal education programs in order to separate seventeenth-century innovations from the practices of previous eras. He challenges the persistent belief that the education of royal heirs was largely neglected and offers details on the experience of Henri IV, Louis XIII, Louis XIV, and the Grand Dauphin. He then examines la pudeur and les châtiments corporels before analyzing the royal programs of study. What emerges is an image of tremendous care and concern for royal children's upbringing rather than casual neglect.

LOTTIN, ALAIN, ANNIE CREPIN et JEAN MARC GUISLIN, eds. Intendants et préfets dans le Nord-Pas-de-Calais. (XVIIe–XXe siècle). Artois: Presses Université, 2002.

Review: J. Logie in RBPH 84.2 (2006), 505–509: Un volume comprenant "les communications d'un colloque organisé par l'Université d'Artois en mars 2000, à l'occasion du bicentenaire de l'institution préfectorale. . ." On trouve que le mérite du volume "outre l'intérêt propre des communications, réside évidemment dans la perception de la longue durée et des vicissitudes multiples que la succession des régimes imposa aux représentants locaux du pouvoir central dans cette région du nord de la France, tellement importante sur les plans politique et économique."

LOYSEN, KATHLEEN. "Chattering Women: From the Evangiles des quenouilles to the Caquets de l'accouchée." SCFS 28 (2006), 21–31.

Through an analysis of a series of oppositions set up by each text ("male/female, literate/illiterate, written literature/oral exchange"), Loysen sets out to evaluate "the differing values ascribed to men's and women's verbal output, knowledge systems, and means of publication and dissemination of their knowledge."

MALEUVRE, DIDIER. "The Threat of Color in Seventeenth-Century Esthetics." PFSCL, XXXIV, 67 (2007), 233–247.

Sets out to examine the philosophical ideas underpinning the debate in aesthetics which pitched partisans of Form (les Anciens) against partisans of Colour (les Modernes).

MCCLURE, ELLEN M. Sunspots and the Sun King. Sovereignty and Mediation in Seventeenth-Century France. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006.

Review: D. Baxter in Choice 44 (2007), 1598: Explores inconsistencies in Grand Siècle representations of kingship which arise from conflicting sacred and secular / scientific notions of authority in the period. McClure shows how royal representations attempted to close up this divide. Her work makes admirable use of period political writing, as well as theater.

Review: R. Racevskis in PSCFL, 67 (2007), 543–546. Reviewer welcomes this "expertly researched study that problematizes early modern constructions of royal authority." Is particularly appreciative of the analysis of political theories and the "fine work on primary sources," both of which "make this book a significant contribution to early modern historical, literary and cultural studies."

MCTAVISH, LIANNE. Childbirth and the Display of Authority in Early Modern France. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005.

Review: C. Klestinec in Isis 97 (Dec 2006), 184–185. "This book treats the obstetrical treatises produced in France from 1550 to 1750 as a genre with particular conventions, as a site for producing authority, and as a window into the politics of seeing that structured power relations in the birthing chamber." (185) The reviewer particularly appreciates the attention to the relationship between surgery and midwifery rather than simply to that between learned and practical medicine, and calls it an important study.

Review: V. Worth-Stylianou in Ren Q 59.1 (2006): 180–81: McTavish focuses on some 24 French obstetric treatises published over two centuries. This thematically organized volume draws upon methodologies of art history, semiotics and cultural studies. Reviewer notes reservations and limitations but praises "other major achievements," for example, where she combines "the eye of an art historian with incisive questions of cultural history" (181).

MECHOULAN, ERIC. "L'enfant-roi: une figure de l'imaginaire politique moderne." In Defrance, Anne, Denis Lopez, and François-Joseph Ruggiu, eds. Regards sur l'enfance au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre des recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 24–25 novembre 2005. Biblio 17 Number 172. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2007. 329–341.

As a symbol of obedience and weakness, the image of the child was uniquely suited to representing the ideology behind the emerging modern concept of the nation-state. The figure of the enfant-roi, however, develops the paradoxical interplay of political force and weakness.

MECHOULAN, ERIC. "La guerre, source du lien social: les exemples de Hobbes et Pascal." In Garapon, Jean, ed. Armées, guerre et société dans la France du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIIIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Université de Nantes, 18–20 mars 2004. Biblio 17, Number 167. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2006. 51–61.

The author compares and contrasts the philosophical positions of Pascal and Hobbes on war and society and concludes that both philosphers view war as a natural, human phenomenon that is the origin of the state and, paradoxically, a source of social bonds.

MILNE, ANNE. "Fables of the Bees: Species as an Intercultural Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Scientific and Literary Texts." E Cr 46.2 (2006): 33–41.

Although the focus of this article of eco-criticism is on John Gay's and Bernard Mandeville's writings, there are some considerations of La Fontaine's "The Drones and the Bees." Milne concludes that La Fontaine "fails to take into account the holistic perspective and fails to imagine bees as essential to a larger biological community. . . The scenario played out [in the fable] is completely unnatural and uncharacteristic of bee behavior. . . The major truth derived is not that of a cooperative, socially-dependent ecosystem but of a social hierarchy that emphasizes power relations and imperatives of ownership" (38).

MILOVANOVIC, NICOLAS. Les grands appartements de Versailles sous Louis XIV: catalogue des décors peints. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2005.

Review: n. a. in BCLF 675 (2005), 43–44: "L'auteur, Nicolas Milovanovic, est conservateur au musée national du château de Versailles et spécialiste de la grande peinture décorative du XVIIe siècle. Il a pu aborder ce sujet complexe sous ses angles les plus importants: historique et iconographique, représentatif et esthétique." L'ouvrage apporte beaucoup d'éclaircissements sur "le rôle des hommes de lettres réunis par Colbert dans ce qu'il était coutume d'appeler la 'Petite Académie'," sur "les contributions de nombreux artistes qui travaillèrent sur le chantier des Appartements", sur "la composition d'un 'portrait du roi', dont l'aspect glorieux était l'un des principaux et des plus constants soucis du Roi-Soleil et de ses surintendants successifs."

MORIARTY, MICHAEL. "Evil communications corrupt good manners." SCFS 28 (2006), 173–182.

Examines "the view of human beings' relationship to language that leads it to be perceived as dangerous," focusing particularly on Pierre Nicole's "Discours où l'on fait voir combien les entretiens des hommes sont dangereux" from the second volume of the Essais de morale.

MOUSNIER, ROLAND. Les Institutions de la France sous la monarchie absolue, 1598–1789. Paris: PUF, 2005.

Review: n.a. in BCLF 675 (2005), 104: La première partie de cet ouvrage (dont la première édition date de 1974) "présente d'une part la société d'Ancien Régime avec sa classification en ordres, d'autre part l'Etat, les moyens dont il dispose, qui s'accroissent avec le temps. La seconde partie étudie ces moyens et leur fonctionnement, mais sans les séparer de la vie de leurs titulaires, ce qui rend ces pages étonnamment vivantes." On regrette le manque de développement substantiel consacré "à l'armée, à la marine, à la police, qui furent d'indéniables instruments du développement de la puissance royale." Volume bien documenté.

MULSOW, MARTIN & JAN ROHLS, eds. Socianism and Arminianism: Antitrinitarians, Calvinists, and Cultural Exchange in Seventeenth-Century Europe. Brill's Studies in Intellectual History 134. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

Review: R. E. McLaughlin in Ren Q 59.3 (2006): 915–16: Wide-ranging geographically and focusing on the 17th and the early 18th c., these selected proceedings of a 2003 Munich symposium on "Socianism and Cultural Exchange" demonstrate "the pervasiveness of Socianism speculation among dissenters and progressive thinkers from Poland to the British Isles." The essays also contribute "to our understanding of the often surmised, but rarely demonstrated, links between Reformation, Radicalism and the Enlightenment" (915). French scholars will find of particular interest Didier Kahn's examination of Nicolas Barnaud, alchemist and printer of radical texts. Useful index of names.

NELSON, ERIC. The Jesuits and the Monarchy: Catholic Reform and Political Authority in France (1590–1615). Catholic Christendom, 1300–1700. Bibliotheca Instituti Historici Societatis Jesu 58. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005.

Review: T. Worcester in Ren Q 59.3 (2006): 883–84: Main focus of this examination is "the Edict of Rouen of 1 September 1603, the royal edict by which Henry readmitted the Jesuits" (883). Nelson illuminates royal patronage, Jesuit expansion and treats "royal will as law" as well as the religious order (883). Valuable for scholars of early modern politics and religion.

NIDERST, ALAIN. "Les peintres du théâtre (Gillot, Watteau)." PFSCL, XXXIV, 67 (2007), 511–523.

Overview and analysis of the paintings of Gillot and Watteau devoted to late seventeenth-century and early eighteenth-century theatre. Four paintings are reproduced in miniature.

NOUIS, LUCIEN. "Politiques de l'hospitalité (1632–1796)." DAI 67/04 (2006).

Dissertation discusses the emergence of the new discourse on hospitality within the institution of the modern nation-state, and the new understanding of space and community. It address how hospitality "became increasingly bound to questions of religious tolerance, sovereignty, territory, law, and cosmopolitanism." Authors studied include Pierre Bayle's Commentaire philosophique sur les paroles de Jésus-Christ 《 Contrains-les d'entrer 》, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Kant. "From this historical inquiry into the political re-conceptualization of hospitality emerges the idea that it can be best understood as a systemic tension between the inside and the outside—an immunological process, by way of which the sphere of the familiar admits, rejects, or distances that which is foreign."

PASQUIER, PIERRE. "L'Hôtel de Bourgogne et son evolution architecturale: elements pour une synthèse." In Mazouer, Charles, ed. Les Lieux du spectacle dans l'Europe du XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 11–13 mars 2004. Biblio 17 Volume 165. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006. 47–71.

The author surveys the history of the Hôtel de Bourgogne which was built in 1548 by the Confrérie de la Passion for the staging of mystery plays (which had ostensibly been banned by the Parlement de Paris). The article traces the evolution of the space to show how a theatre with roots in medieval drama became synonymous with theatrical modernity and innovation.

PASQUIER, PIERRE, ed. Le mémoire de Mahelot: Mémoire pour le décoration des pièces qui se représentent par les Comédiens du Roi. Paris: Champion, 2005.

Review: D. Muller in ThS 47 (2006): 129–31. An edition that "goes a long way to remind us that there is much to learn (and unlearn) from the sources we think we already know." Pasquier's introduction is excellent as "a survey of scenic practice" and as a "contextual synthesis" of the historical work that relies on this manuscript. This new edition is "exemplary" in its description of the physical manuscript and in the analysis of the manuscript's functions and textual development.

PELLEGRIN, NICOLE, ed. Histoires d'historiennes. Saint-Etienne: Publications de l'université Sainte-Etienne, 2006.

Review: n.a. in BCLF 689 (2006), 99: "Coordonné par Nicole Pellegrin, Histoires d'historiennes se propose pourtant, en dépit de la ténuité de la matière, d'étudier la participation du sexe prétendument faible aux études historiques, 'sujet largement ignoré' et qui risque de le rester, tant les figures convoquées par les auteur-e-s (il n'y pas un seul homme à la table des matières: faudra-t-il des quotas pour qu'ils soient représentés?) appartiennent—dans le meilleur des cas—au second rang. On lira quelques articles sur des 'historiennes' d'Ancien Régime, en fait le plus souvent des écrivains de fiction: Christine de Pizan, Mmes de Villedieu, de Genlis, de Charrière."

PERKINS, WENDY. "Women, conversation and silence." SCFS 28 (2006), 205–220.

Examines the role women played in fostering conversation at informal everyday gatherings, given the emphasis placed on silence and submission in their convent educations.

PETERS, JEFFREY N. Mapping Discord: Allegorical Cartography in Early Modern French Writing. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2004.

Review: J. Tsien in PSCFL, 67 (2007), 556–557. Reviewer welcomes this "subtle and well-argued exposition of the relationship between the early modern scientific aspirations to map out the world and the creative use of those same methods to express a multiple, ever-changing field of human behavior and sentiment. Scholars of early modern literature, as well as students of post-colonialism, will find this to be an informative and enjoyable read."

PHILLIPS, HENRY. "Voices And Choices: Culture As Conversation." SCFS 28 (2006), 1–19.

Focuses on "the notion of conversation as exchange, the mutual relation involved in that exchange, and the value or use of conversation ascribed to human intercourse and society generally." Phillips aims to "offer some considerations concerning the nature and validity of conversation as a model of cultural discourse by looking at examples in the seventeenth century and at certain more recent historical and critical positions on conversation and social relations. In other words, conversation will be considered as an order of discourse, but also in terms of an order of discourse related to social order. In addition, conversation will be seen to exist in relation to other forms of discourse which might seem to run counter to order."

PICCO, DOMINIQUE. "L'éducation des demoiselles de Saint-Cyr (1686–1719)." In Defrance, Anne, Denis Lopez, and François-Joseph Ruggiu, eds. Regards sur l'enfance au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre des recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 24–25 novembre 2005. Biblio 17 Number 172. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2007. 115–131.

Saint-Cyr offers the possibility to study women's education as it was actually practiced as opposed to its conceptualization in the seventeenth century. The author surveys the policy of selecting girls from the nobility for the school as well as the goals of their education: creating a proper, Christian home for husband and children. The school itself stressed piety and the traditional notion of mens sana in corpore sano. In the classroom, reading and writing French (and eradicating traces of patois) were primary.

PIQUE, NICOLAS. Diversité des réactions réformées à la Révocation. L'esprit du monde en question. RdS 1 (2005), 91–108.

Abstract: "À partir de l'analyse de la diversité des réactions réformées à l'édit de Fontainebleau, cet article se propose de suivre l'avènement de deux des concepts fondateurs de la modernité politique, la distinction des sphères religieuse et politique d'une part, la souveraineté populaire d'autre part. Toutefois, l'analyse généalogique soulignera l'émergence distincte de ces deux notions, en fonction de logiques croisées et apparemment paradoxales dont il faudra chercher la cohérence dans les positions anthropologiques qui les sous-tendent. L'étude des débats théologiques modernes dessine de la sorte l'une des voies par laquelle les concepts politiques modernes ont été formés."

PLOUCHART-COHN, FLORENCE, trad. & ed., avec la collaboration d'Anne Bouscharain. Tommaso Campanella. Sur la mission de la France. Paris: Rue d'ULM, 2005.

Review: n. a. in BCLF 676 (2005), 90: "Le volume intitulé Sur la mission de la France réunit quatre textes soit peu avant l'installation de leur auteur à Paris, soit après que Campanella s'est fixé en France: un Dialogue politique entre un Vénitien, un Espagnol et un Français à propos des récents troubles de France (1632), des Aphorismes politiques en faveur des nécessités présentes de la France, des Avertissements à la nations française (1635) et des Discours politiques en faveur du siècle présent (1636)." Campanella "constate le déclin de la monarchie très catholique [en Espagne]. Il ne fait pour lui aucun doute que la France doit reprendre à son compte cet idéal universel et il ne se fait pas faute d'écrire sa pensée à Louis XIII et à Richelieu."

POMIAN, KRZYSTOF. Des saintes reliques à l'art moderne. Venise-Chicago. XIIIe–XXe- siècle. Paris: Gallimard, 2003.

Review: C. Loir in RBPH 84.2 (2006), 526–527: "C'est en 1987 qu'il publie son ouvrage, devenu célèbre, Collectionneurs, amateurs et curieux. Paris, Venise, XVIe–XVIIIe siècles. Grâce à la rédition de onze articles et contributions publiés depuis cet ouvrage, la collection 'Bibliothèque des Histoires' met aujourd'hui à la disposition des chercheurs un recueil réunissant les apports les plus substantiels de cet auteur à la recherche sur les collections depuis une quinzaine d'années. Les thèmes traités couvrent différents aspects de l'histoire des collections depuis la fin du moyen âge jusqu'au début de l'époque contemporaine, en Europe et en Amérique du Nord."

ROHOU, JEAN. Le XVIIe siècle, une révolution de la condition humaine. Paris: Seuil, 2002.

Review: M. Bouvier in RHLF 107.1 (2007): 245. Bouvier speaks favorably of this study, which leaves us with many questions to ponder and manifests Rohou's erudition on his subject. Rohou conceives of the classical era as a time of anxiety, as opposed to stability. He analyzes the anthropological system, then shows how men of great influence (including lettrés and bourgeois), looked to satisfy their personal desires by trying to force the established system to tumble, while nonetheless remaining modelled by this system, directed by its values, living the lifestyle of hardship in their pretended antimony. Such tension comes to a head at the time when Pascal and La Rochefoucauld were major figures who, in fact, would turn out to be sources of this tension during Louis XIV, while the values of raison, conscience and desire came to light, naturally leading to the Age of Enlightenment. This book brings into play all aspects of knowledge and science in the seventeenth century. It brings back into usage old concepts, while making them new, as well as exploring new theories. Bouvier does find fault with the work's treatment of the secularization of divine ideas throughout the course of the century.

ROLLIN, SOPHIE. "De la société de salon à la société de cour: l'ambivalence du processus de civilization." FLS 33 (2006): 134–145.

Rollin observes how the seventeenth century is marked by a passage from salon civilization to court civilization. The political values (politiques et politesse), borrowed from salon culture, are reinserted into French court life, first by Richelieu, then by Louis XIV. Mundane tastes and usages are thereby given more developed visibility. She also explores how salons continued to offer access to hommes d'esprit while the court, submitting to the idea of taste and nobility, would not allow for such liberality. The gallants hommes became honnêtes hommes, as audacity was slowly replaced by subdued conformity.

SAUZET, ROBERT. Au grand siècle des âmes. Guerre sainte et paix chrétienne en France au XVIIe siècle. Paris : Perrin éd., 2007.

Review : J.-M. Le Gall in QL 948 (du 16 au 30 juin 2007), 19–20 : Le critique énumère plusieurs critiques de l'œuvre comme, par exemple, 《  l'auteur ne hiérarchise pas clairement les causes du reflux de l'esprit de guerre sainte à la fin du XVIIe siècle, qu'il relativise du reste en rappelant la guerre des Camisards en pleine crise de conscience européenne  》, ou encore 《  Il me semble que le transfert de la guerre sainte dans le cadre des conflits entre Etats et Nations aurait été aussi une piste à explorer. Certes, Robert Sauzet montre que la guerre crée parfois une union sacrée entre sujets d'un même roi, appartenant à des confessions rivales. Mais il aurait fallu peut-être aussi voir en quoi la défense de la patrie prend l'allure d'une guerre sacrée qui diabolise l'adversaire, en évoquant par exemple le sa du Palatinat  》. Malgré tout ceci, le critique trouve que 《  ce livre écrit d'une plume alerte offre un tableau vivant, ample et synthétique de l'intolérance du Grand Siècle  》.

SCHLEINER, WINFRIED. "L'exercice physique des jeunes à l'époque de la Renaissance." In Defrance, Anne, Denis Lopez, and François-Joseph Ruggiu, eds. Regards sur l'enfance au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre des recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 24–25 novembre 2005. Biblio 17 Number 172. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2007. 33–43.

The author examines the hierarchization of different jeux and exercices according to different views of child physical and moral development. Renaissance pedagogues were divided over whether children should be toughened by sport or protected from it. Others viewed sport as a window onto a child's personality and temperament. Finally, the game of tennis (jeu de paume), for example, was lauded as a game that taught moderation but in practice the game was contentious and occasionally violent.

SECRETAN, CATHERINE. L'Edit de Nantes et l'indifférence hollandaise. RdS 1 (2005), 15–32.

Abstract: "La promulgation de l'édit de Nantes, en 1598, a-t-elle connu aux Pays-Bas un écho comparable celui provoqué par la Révocation de ce même édit, un siècle plus tard? Une première enquête menée à partir de documents directement liés aux évènements de l'époque (correspondances d'hommes politiques, pamphlets, actes de synodes, etc.) ne livre aucun témoignage révélateur d'un intérêt néerlandais pour le règlement français du biconfessionnalisme. Les hypothèses avancées dans cet article pour expliquer ce silence se fondent sur les déplacements des enjeux politiques et théologiques de la tolérance entre la France et les Pays-Bas dans la période considérée."

SERVANT, ISABELLE. "Foucault revisité par les sociologues et les historiens: la marginalisation productive des pauvres au XVIIe siècle." PFSCL, XXXIV, 67 (2007), 323–332.

Returns to Foucault's idea of a 'grand renfermement' to analyse perceptions and representations of poverty and exclusion in both the seventeenth century and today.

SHOEMAKER, PETER. "Learning to Drink: Attitudes toward Drinking in Seventeenth-Century Guides to Manners." CdDS 11.1 (2006): 283–294.

Article deals with the conventions and rituals of eating; how man and how the aristocratic culture of eating in the seventeenth century revolved around two poles: that of the cabaret and that of "polite society." As aristocrats embraced the idea of polite society, the drunken body became increasingly vulgar, marking "inferior social status." Author gives numerous examples of how important drinking and eating was in the classical age.

SOLL, JACOB. Publishing the Prince: History, Reading, and the Birth of Political Criticism. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2005.

Review: M. Jurdjevic in Ren Q 59.1 (2006): 183–85: Important reassessment of Amelot de La Houssaye's role as 17th c. French author, printer, editor and "tireless disseminator of Tacitus, Machiavelli and Paolo Sarpi" (183). Jurdjevic finds that Soll "makes a convincing case "that the Enlightenment owes a greater debt to the seventeenth century than has been appreciated, but. . . suggests that [it] is smaller than [that] to the Italian sixteenth" (185).

Review: V. Kahn in Fr F 31.2 (2006): 127–130: Soll's focus is Amelot de La Houssaye (1634–1706) who edited and translated writers such as Tacitus and Machiavelli. Soll emphasizes the importance of humanist editors and translators for absolutism. Reviewer finds the study engaging, provocative and useful for the reception of Machiavelli, if less than convincing at times (due to generalizations about secular political theory in early modern Europe, for example).

SOURIAC, RENE. "Le 《  sens politique  》 des paysans aux Temps modernes en France. Cultures et comportements paysans, vers 1550 – vers 1650." DSS 234 (2007), 11–29.

Concentrating on historical documents and information from the region around Toulouse, the author weighs in on the greater polemic surrounding the controversial quest to determine "l'identité politique des paysans," while attempting to tease out individual and collective attitudes throughout this ambitiously defined period.

STANDRING, TIMOTHY J. "Claude Lorrain." Burlington 1250 (2007): 356–57.

A review of the exhibition Claude Lorrain: The Painter as Draftsman. Drawings from the British Museum that traveled to San Francisco, Williamstown and Washington, D.C. Lorrain was a French-born painter of the late seventeenth century who studied in Rome and Naples before establishing himself as a forerunner of Wilson, Turner and Cole. The reviewer praises the exhibition and Lorrain's talents, as well as Richard Rand's catalog, declaring that exhibition and text together cause one to "part from Claude's works regretfully, wishing to continue witnessing his drawings as records of poetic responses."

STEINBERG, SYLVIE. "Nés de la terre? Les bâtards dans leurs familles au XVIIe siècle." In Defrance, Anne, Denis Lopez, and François-Joseph Ruggiu, eds. Regards sur l'enfance au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre des recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 24–25 novembre 2005. Biblio 17 Number 172. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2007. 343–358.

Legal treatises offer over-simplified principles concerning the legal status of illegitimate children and the constitution of families. Records of actual legal proceedings, however, reveal a wide variety of family situations and legal remedies, diverging conceptions of lineage, and the importance often accorded to bonds of affection and tenderness.

STICKER, HENRI-JACQUES, ed. Corps infirmes et sociétés. 3e ed. Paris: Dunod, 2006.

Review: G. Vigarello in Esprit 10 (2006), 223–225: "Le thème central est la notion de l'infirmité. C'est que l'image de l'infirmité, pour longtemps, s'efface d'abord devant celle de la monstruosité, la seule retenue traditionnellement lorsque la culture occidentale veut signifier le bouleversement de l'intégrité corporelle." Au 17e siècle, la création de l'Hôtel des Invalides en 1674 "définit. . . des territories du malheur physique hors celui de la mendicité, et, bien sûr, de la monstruosité. L'invalide, loin d'être gueux, est celui qu'une attenite corporelle a brisé. Il existe à partir de son mal. Il est identifié à lui."

STICKER, HENRI-JACQUES. Les Fables peintes du corps abîmé. Les Images de l'infirmité du XVIe au XXe siècle. Paris: Cerf, 2006.

Review: G. Vigarello in Esprit 10 (2006), 223–225: ". . .ce livre a une ambition plus grande: montrer que l'histoire de la peinture est aussi l'histoire de l'exploration du 'difforme', ou plus encore que l'histoire de la peinture est aussi l'histoire de l'abandon du corps chrétien. D'où cet éloignement non limité aux formes, explorant ce qui les habite, sondant les effets de l'intériorité, ceux de la folie, ceux de l'extême individualité."

THIEBAUD, JANE RATHER. "Madame de Rambouillet's Chambre Bleue: Birthplace of Salon Culture." DAI 86/06 (2007): 170.

This dissertation studies the scope and value of Madame de Rambouillet's innovative contribution in the light of the twenty-first century, "as communication by machine overshadows living face to face conversation and sociability. Her inestimable contribution to French culture deserves full recognition to inspire its much needed revival."

THOMSON, ERIK. "Commerce, Law, and Erudite Culture: The Mechanics of Théodore Godefroy's Service to Cardinal Richelieu." JHI 68 (July 2007), 407–427.

Traces Godefroy's self-invention as an expert on commerce to Richelieu, and argues that his underanalyzed papers demonstrate that "early seventeenth century commercial debated focused on the just and effective exercise of sovereignty." (409) Using manuscripts that reveal his reading, connections and intellectual methods, it shows how Godefroy used his connections in the Parisian lettered circles and a politicized group within the Republic of Letters to gather commercial information, and used the techniques of juridical scholarship to organize his collection. Demonstrates at length Godefroy's efforts to compile commercial knowledge from hundreds of books, maxims, documents, arguments, and counsels from across the continent; concludes by stating that we should not underestimate "interested scholarship's role in the expansion of knowledge." (427) Godefroy's papers suggest that historians must look beyond a narrow canon of "mercantilist" works to understand seventeenth-century debates about the governance of commerce, to a broader context of debates about law, history, and sovereignty." (abstract)

VAN DELFT, LOUIS. Les spectateurs de la vie. Généalogie du regard moraliste. Presses Universitaires de Laval, 2005.

Review: G.C. Banderier in Ren Q 59.4 (2006): 1222–23: Banderier finds Van Delft both a "boar" and a "fox"; while he is devoted to the examination of French moralists he also surveys an ancient and ongoing philosophical tradition. Although most of the essays here have been published previously, they are revised and richly deserving of an English translation. Scholars from diverse fields will benefit from this "welcome work of Toposforschung" which interprets engravings and paintings as well as literature.

Review: R. Baustert in PSCFL, 66 (2007), 279–282. Very favourable review where reviewer comments: "En somme, nous voici en présence d'une magistrale histoire du Spectateur qui, de contemplateur de l'absolu, se mue, aux temps nouveaux, en explorateur d'optiques."

Review: M.-O, Sweetser in FR 80 (2007), 1373–74: Van Delft's highly praised study attempts to think about moralist writing from the perspective of spectatorship. Its premise is that the early modern spectator, even when developing a more secular view of the world, and even when attempting to restrict him or herself to pure description, "demeure tenté de promouvoir une morale" (1373). The work is thought-provoking on issues of genre as well as on specific texts.

VAN DER CRUYSSE, DIRK. De Branche en branche: études sur le XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles français. Eds. Kris Peeters, Paul Pelckmans, Luc Rasson, and Bruno Tritsmans. La République des Lettres 26. Paris: Peeters, 2005.

Review: M.-O. Sweetser in FR 80 (2007), 1374–75: This collection of eighteen articles by Dirk Van der Cruysse celebrates a long and wide ranging career. The volume holds particular interest in its discussion of the Grand Siècle's foreign ambitions, which Van der Cruysse has addressed in monographs like Louis XIV et le Siam and critical editions such as the Journal du voyage au Siam de l'abbé de Choisy. He broaches these subjects again here.

VAN ELSLANDE, JEAN-PIERRE. "Imiter et désobéir: les enfants dans la littérature pré-moderne (XVIe–XVIIe siècles)." In Defrance, Anne, Denis Lopez, and François-Joseph Ruggiu, eds. Regards sur l'enfance au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre des recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 24–25 novembre 2005. Biblio 17 Number 172. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2007. 45–59.

The author sketches a history of the representation of childhood by focusing on the figures of "l'enfant sage" and "l'enfant terrible" which represent two distinct pedagogical orientations. The former objectifies the child and viewed childhood as a time to mold and shape the passive child, whereas the latter sees the child as having "son mot à dire" as an active subject for whom norms and authority must be adapted.

VAN ORDEN, KATE. Music, Discipline, and Arms in Early Modern France. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2005.

Review: A.E. Moyer in Ren Q 59.2 (2006): 528–30: "Persuasive" and "masterful," this "impressive contribution both to the history of music and to European cultural history" argues that "music played a central role in the transformations of French culture from the 16th to the 17th c." (528, 530). "Music" is understood here in its broadest sense, embracing education with its reforms, social roles, "musical activities with court participants" (including rulers), official ceremonies, military life (we see, for example, in dance manuals and military handbooks "remarkably similar charts for the movement of participants" (529).

VIALA, ALAIN. "Querelles galantes." SCFS 29 (2007), 9–18.

Analyses two distinct attitudes towards the model of galanterie, "une qui fait de la galanterie une modernité temperée et une autre qui en fait une modernité radicale. La première a été théorisée en particulier par un auteur comme Pellisson, la seconde par Charles Perrault notamment. Leur contraste s'éclaire par l'existence de deux courants différents de la galanterie, mais aussi par la façon dont la France vise, dans la seconde moitié du siècle, à imposer la galanterie comme son modèle national, et éminemment moderne."

WAGNER, MARIE-FRANCE. "Vers la disparition du lieu de la cérémonie. La tribune des harangues dans les entrées royals au XVIIe siècle." In Mazouer, Charles, ed. Les Lieux du spectacle dans l'Europe du XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 11–13 mars 2004. Biblio 17 Volume 165. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006. 261–279.

The tribune des harangues disappeared from the royal entrée ceremony because it valorized the orator and offered a "democratic" contact between sovereign and municipal powers, thereby minimizing the monarch. Its removal allowed for total royal control of the entrée's symbolic message and reduced "le peuple" to silence and a "decorum sclérosé."

WAINWRIGHT, JONATHAN and PETER HOLMAN, eds. From Renaissance to Baroque: Change in Instruments and Instrumental Music in the Seventeenth Century. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004.

Review: B. Bullard in Ren Q 59.2 (2006): 558–59: Praiseworthy for the "laudable research," the "valuable information" and "significant correctives" provided (559). This selection of papers and workshop reports from the 1999 conference of the National Early Music Association held in York, England includes numerous areas of interest to 17th c. French scholars, for example, on French lute style, the contribution of theorboed lutes to Airs de Cour, the evolution of consorts into orchestras in France, etc. Bullard would have preferred the inclusion of definitions and cross-referencing as well as better quality illustrations.

WARD, SEAN. "Functional Differentiation and the Crisis in Early Modern Upper-Class Conversation: The Second Madame, Interaction, and Isolation." SCFS 28 (2006), 235–247.

Argues that Elisabeth Charlotte, countess Palatine, was "not as reclusive as she often made herself out to be and that her dissatisfaction with society, though perhaps extreme (or at least extreme as chronicled in her letters), was to a considerable degree a consequence of a crisis in interaction in early modern high society," an interaction characterised by increasingly vapid polite conversation.

WATERLOT, GHISLAIN. La Tolérance et la crainte. La relation au pouvoir sous le régime de édit de Nantes. Agrippa d'Aubigné et Moyse Amyraut. RdS 1 (2005), 33–50.

Abstract: "La tolérance, telle que l'entend l'édit de Nantes, est un pis-aller. Les partis catholiques et réformés s'accordent sur l'idée que la tolérance est provisoire, car la restauration de l'unité religieuse doit demeurer la visée. Mais les réformés, minoritaires, sont en position défensive. Beaucoup parmi eux pensent que la tolérance ne tiendra que s'ils continuent de se faire craindre des catholiques. D'où la promotion, par Agrippa d'Aubigné, de l'esprit de résistance. Mais les forces armées protestantes sont réduites en 1629. En fonction de ce nouveau contexte, Moyse Amyraut, tout en professant un parfait loyalisme à l'égard du monarque catholique, sera amené à formuler les linéaments d'une nouvelle théorie de la tolérance, selon laquelle la tolérance n'est plus une grâce temporaire, mais un droit."

WETSEL, DAVID & FRÉDÉRIC CANOVAS with CHRISTINE MCCALL PROBES and BUFORD NORMAN, eds. Les femmes au Grand Siècle. Le Baroque: musique et littérature. Musique et liturgie. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Vol. 2. Tübingen: Narr, 2003.

Review: U. Jung in RF 118 (2006): 278–81: These selected, refereed contributions to the 2001 conference of NASSCFL held at Arizona State are organized in two sections, the first with 16 essays on "Les femmes au Grand Siècle" edited by Probes, the second with 3 essays on "Le Baroque: music et littérature" edited by Norman. In her introduction Probes correctly reminds us that recent decades have seen numerous and important studies on the woman from both sides of the Atlantic. This section is wide-ranging, from studies on concepts of "préciosité" and "galanterie" to specific feminine friendships as revealed in letters, to the theatre (5 articles), fairy tale authors (sexuality and gender), women's voices, and others, giving a taste of the 4 sessions that series editor and president of the society Wetsel had charged Probes with organizing. Norman's edited section includes a rich discussion of "opera mania" over three periods of French opera history, a study of Charpentier's religious music in his Médée, and conversely an examination of the worldly quality of Jean Gilles' Requiem, a composition which itself was featured in a performance for congressistes and the community-at-large.

ZOBERMAN, PIERRE. "A Modest Proposal for Queering the Past: A Queer Princess with a Space of HER OWN." FLS 34 (2006): 35–49.

Article claims that the queer existed before the invention of the homosexual in the nineteenth century. It searches for a queer seventeenth century, moving "from the figure of Monsieur, Louis XIV's brother. . . to the Princess of Clèves." The author deliberately uses the word queer and not gay, as it relates best to a form of "contextual discomfort." In La Princesse de Clèves, he views the princess' decision not to marry Nemours as a sort of homosexual dénouement, which challenges the received ideas of 'proper' feminine behavior.