FRENCH 17

ARNOLD, MATTHIEU, éd. Annoncer l'Evangile (XV–XVIIe siècles). Permanence et mutations de la prédication. Actes du colloque international de Strasbourg (20–22 novembre 2003). Paris: Editions du Cerf, 2006.

Review: M. Engammare in BHR 69.3. (2007), 763–70: "Si, entre le moyen âge et le XVIe siècle, la prédication a connu une 'mutation décisive', ce ne fut pas une 'révolution copernicienne'. Le colloque et ce livre visaient donc 'à explorer, principalement dans l'espace germanique, la permanence et les mutations de la prédication dans les quatre principaux domaines du champ d'étude de l'homilétique: 1) les sources, 2) les formes, 3) les thèmes et les lieux théologiques, et 4) la réception. Chacun de ces quatre domaines d'études est lui-même exploré de façon chronologique, du XV au XVIIe siècle' (p. 9)." Voir la contribution qui traite de l'influcence d'Augustin sur Bossuet.

AUCANTE, VINCENT. La philosophie médicale de Descartes. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2006.

Review: J. E. H. Smith in Isis 98 (September 2007), 623–625. Makes a powerful case for the importance of medicine in Descartes's work (the author estimates that approximately 20% of the work deals with medicine). Fascinating and authoritative, Aucante's work makes the case that "Descartes's medicine is both incomplete and exemplary."

BATES, A.W. Emblematic Monsters: Unnatural Conceptions and Deformed Births in Early Modern Europe. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005.

Review: S. Brown Clark in Isis 98 (December 2007), 830–831. Expands and challenges the claims of Park and Daston, with particular attention to the overlap of popular and scientific writing. Pays special attention to monsters in emblems, showing their influence throughout the seventeenth century. The book includes a helpful catalog of recorded European monsters of the period.

BERCHTOLD, JACQUES & MARIE-MADELEINE FRAGONARD, éds. La Mémoire des guerres de religion. La concurrence des genres historiques (XVI–XVIIIe siècles). Genève: Droz, 2007.

Review: E. Herdman in MLR 103.2 (2008), 533–34: "The fifteen articles in this volume explore the historiographical genres employed to evoke the wars between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries; a further volume studying the nineteenth century is envisaged. Marie-Madeleine Fragonard's excellent methodological introduction raises historiographical questions such as the blurring of traditionally literary and historical genres, the quest for authenticity and the position of the historian, and the challenges to historiography in different historical contexts. The chronologically arranged articles combine explorations of individual genres and specific case studies: contextual readings are often employed and elisions with each historian's contemporary political concerns frequently emerge."

Review: A. Mellet in BHR 69.3 (2007), 828–31: "Cet ouvrage réunit les actes du premier colloque de l'équipe Formes et idées de la Renaissance aux Lumières (Université de Paris III). Il est constitué de quinze articles consacrés à la représentation des guerres de religion françaises dans différents genres littéraires entre 1560 et 1780. Comme l'indique M.-M. Fragonard dans un beau texte introductif, trois problématiques majeures se croisent dans ces études: celle de la nature de l'actualisation d'un passé conflictuel, celle de la constitution d'une méthode historique et de l'utilisation de textes anciens, enfin celle de la circulation des références au passé à travers plusieurs genres historiographiques."

Review: N. Salliot in DSS 238 (2008), 178–180: "Les quinze contributions et leur présentation (par M.-M. Fragonard) s'attachent à l'écriture de l'histoire des guerres de Religion du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle. Classées par ordre chronologique, elles posent le problème de la relation mémorielle à un passé plus ou moins proche, traumatisant, parfois occulté, délicat à appréhender et toujours soumis au risque d'une vision partiale ou parcellaire, mais dont le souvenir, retravaillé par les formes qui le diffusent, demeure essentiel pour la réflexion politique et religieuse, et ce jusqu'au XVIIIe siècle."

BERGIN, JOSEPH. "L'essor du confesseur du roi au XVIIe siècle." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer, & Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008. 111–125.

Commenting on Saint-Simon's fascination with the power of the king's confessor under the reign of Louis XIV, Bergin notes that this power was relatively new, and he analyzes how the confessor's in old régime France evolved over time. Henri IV selected a Jesuit confessor at the same time the Jesuits themselves were trying to figure out rules for how best to manage this challenging role. Under Louis XIII, there was much uncertainty surrounding the confessor's role, given Richelieu's tight hold over who would receive what major ecclesiastical positions, as well as the creation of a "conseil du conscience" for the king, of which he would be the sole member. When Père Annat became Louis XIV's confessor, the situation stabilized and the confessor's role better defined. Bergin ends by noting that at first confessors were chosen for their preaching skills, but that under Louis XIV, confessors were chosen for their theology and bureaucratic ability, leaving their preaching for the king's ear alone.

BINET, ANA MARIA. " 'Rhétorique de cour' et sermons d'église: quelques exemples dans l'œuvre du P. Antonio Vieira, jésuite portugais (1608–1697)." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer, & Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008. 155–164.

Binet discusses the Jesuit Antonio Vieira, who served as royal preacher to King Jean IV of Portugal; his intellectually rigorous sermons attracted a large Court following, despite his criticisms of the loose morals of the Court. Binet asks if Vieira can be considered a courtier as well; after all, he preached on politics as well as on morals and religion. The answer seems to be no, for Binet analyzes a sermon in which Vieira suggests that only the Jesuit order can truly perform the evangelistic mission—a public appeal to the King to let him leave Court and return to Brazil to sow God's word. Once in Brazil, Vieira exchanged the theater of Baroque churches and correspondingly rich oratory for the popular theater of preaching the colonists, whom he criticized for their violence towards the indigenous peoples—violence that would turn against him, causing him to flee back to Portugal.

BLANCHARD, J.-V. L'Optique du discours au XVIIe sièvle: De la rhétorique des jésuites au style de la raison moderne. Québec: Presses Universitaires de Laval, 2005.

Review H. Phillips in FS 62.3: 335. Overall this work receives a warm reception from the reviewer who notes its erudition and dense argument. "This book is not for the faint-hearted," he states. While at times fascinating, the study spends much energy in explanations, meaning that "the end [Descartes, Pascal] is rather rushed." Those interested in Descartes, Pascal, and Jesuit rhetoric will find compelling material here.

BOURGEOIS, CHRISTOPHE. Théologies poétiques de l'âge baroque: La Muse chrétienne (1570–1630). Lumière classique 69. Paris: Champion, 2006.

Review: D. Clifford in Ren Q 60.4 (2007), 1350–52: Judged "a book for scholars written by a scholar," Bourgeois' 852-page tome, originally a thesis, is highly informative and thorough as it examines "poetic theologies," and demonstrates and analyzes "the interpenetration of the poetic and the theological." Reexamines "the coming together of interior asceticism and spectacular language as it reconsiders the very meaning of "baroque" and the multiple expressions of "la muse chrétienne": "sermon, poem, personal meditation, dogmatic discourse, sacred hermeneutics and moral exhortation" (1351–52).

Review: L. Marsh in SCN (2007), 239–242: "Bourgeois has set an enormous agenda in a volume that is more important as a resource for French devotional poetry of the period than as a work that answers convincingly the question of how the baroque aesthetic is expressed in that literature, if indeed it is."

Review: V. Kapp, PFSCL XXXV (69), 755–760. "[Ce livre] explore un domaine peu connu avec une érudition admirable and une grande sensibilité littéraire dont la finesse de ses analyses témoigne abondamment."

BROOKE, JOHN & IAN MACLEAN, eds. Heterodoxy in Early Modern Science and Religion. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005.

Review: I. A. Kelter in Ren Q 60.4 (2007), 1411–1412: Well-known scholars in the history of science, MacLean and Brooke have edited a volume containing "a series of thoughtful and insightful studies" demonstrating the complexity of relationships between religion and science. Helpful examination of terms by MacLean precedes the chronological arrangement of essays the focus of which is the seventeenth-century Includes the iconoclastic demonstration by Margaret Osler that Gassendi "was not an early modern free-thinking libertine;" she "argues that this. . . legend begins with. . . René Pintard" (1412).

BRUCKER, NICOLAS, éd. La Conversion. Expérience spirituelle, expression littéraire. Berne: Peter Lang, 2005.

Review: G. Banderier in RBPH 85.3–4 (2007), 939–40: ". . .un récit de conversion est une mise en mots d'une expérience singulière, donnée à lire à travers l'opacité du langage. . . et l'on devine que, bien souvent, les mots sont restés en deçà de ce que le converti a vraiment éprouvé. Sur ces questions, les actes du colloque organisé à Metz en juin 2003 sont d'une grande richesse. Des contributions reviennent sur les 'figures imposées' que sont les conversions de saint Paul et de Constantin; d'autres portent sur les Temps Modernes et des grandes lignes de faille que furent les guerres de religion (dont on peut considérer qu'elles trouvèrent leur prolongement avec la Révocation de l'Edit de Nantes) et la Révolution française."

BURNETT, AMY N. Teaching the Reformation: Ministers and Their Message in Basel, 1529–1629. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006.

Review: J. Mallinson in Ren Q 60.3 (2007), 938–40: Admirable for its attention to detail, yet "broad enough to be relevant to diverse scholars" (938). Burnett's work makes "three significant contributions toward a scholarly understanding of this process of transmitting the Reformation": 1) on the transformation of traditions rather than their eradication, 2) on the geographical region itself and its confessional transition and 3) on Ramism, its influence on education as well as on homiletics (939). Praiseworthy for its "copious research into neglected documents," Burnett's work includes tables, graphs, illustrations, an appendix, a map and a bibliography.

CLARKE, DESMOND M. Descartes: A Biography. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Review: G. Hatfield in Isis 99.1 (2008), 177–178. Well-researched and balanced, with attention paid to Descartes' philosophy and Descartes the man. Casts doubt on the view of Descartes as a conservative Catholic.

COOPER, ALIX. Inventing the Indigenous: Local Knowledge and Natural History in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Review: A. Wakefield in Isis 98 (December 2007) 833–834. While the book concentrates mainly on Germany and England, it makes the fascinating case that the Columbian encounter led Europeans to classify and describe local flora, "thereby reflecting on what it meant to be local and what it meant to be foreign, simultaneously representing themselves and their fears about strange new worlds."

DARMON, JEAN-CHARLES and GEORGES MOLINIÉ, eds. Libertinage et politique au temps de la monarchie absolue. Littératures classiques 55 (été 2005).

Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 150 (2006), 596: This number of LC explores connections between "libertinage" and "politique" and is arranged in sections as follows: "Thématiques et enjeux spécifiques de la critique libertine: entre conformisme apparent et subversion radicale," and "Modalités et effets de l'art d'écrire libertin: d'un genre à l'autre, d'un siècle à l'autre." Also includes introductions by Darmon and Molinié and an Annexe with a text of Gassendi.

DEKONINCK, RALPH. Ad imaginem. Status, fonctions et usages de l'image dans la littérature spirituelle jésuite du XVIIe siècle. Geneva: Droz, 2005.

Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr 151 (2007), 170: Praised as a "splendido libro," Dekoninck's masterful volume is organized in two parts as a "défense" and an "illustration" of the image. The "défense" is an ample "philosophie des images" and the work as a whole the result of a vast and erudite inquiry which establishes the unifying thread of a Jesuit theory "qui au lieu de penser l'image comme une réalité en soi l'envisage du point de vue des différentes formes de relation que l'on peut entretenir avec elle."

DINET, DOMINIQUE. "La religion des gens de justice en Bourgogne et en Champagne au XVIIe siècle." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer & Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700) en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008. 275–288.

By cross-reading a number of various sources, the author is able to present the state of religion of the parliamentary elite of Burgundy and Champagne. These dévots are attaining a state of heaven on earth by sending 20 to 25% of their children to religious institutions, by contributing monetarily, and by establishing new buildings for various religious institutions.

DUFOURCET-HAKIM, MARIE-BERNADETTE. "Musique sacrée pour le roi en France et en Espagne au XVIIe siècle." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer, and Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008. 165–181.

The author provides a detailed comparative analysis of sacred music at the 17th-century Spanish and French courts. She discusses the royal chapels, the categories of liturgical music played there, how the chapel musicians were selected and organized, their social status and pay, the musical repertoire (plainchant, polyphonic music, instruments, etc.), the role of instrumental ensembles, and the vernacular repertoire. The resulting picture, she concludes, shows more complexity and less binary opposition between the two royal houses than one might think.

EICHEL-LOJKINE, PATRICIA & CLAUDIE MARTIN-ULRICH, eds. De bonne vie s'ensuit bonne mort: Récits de mort, récits de vie en Europe (XVe–XVIIe siècle). Colloques, congrès et conférences sur la Renaissance européenne, 53. Paris: Champion, 2006.

Review: B. Renner in Ren Q 60.4 (2007), 1431–32: Organized in three sections: "Narration, argumentation et organisation de la matière historique," "La 'thanatographie,' récit et interprétation de la mort," and "Présence de la mort dans l'autobiographie," the volume brings together successfully 18 essays reflecting a remarkable interdisciplinarity and focuses on the "dialogical relationship" (9) between life and death. Funeral orations, verse epistles, popular biographies of Protestant ministers (by Julien Goeury), press reports, autobiographical texts as exempla, as well as other genres are skillfully examined in this diverse and rich collection.

FAVREAU, MARC. "Entre croyance et art d'une élite: la religion chrétienne et sa pratique à l'Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture au XVIIe siècle (1648–1715)." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer & Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700) en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008, 319–336.

Looks at religious practices among members of the Royal Academy, through a number of archival documents. He remarks the absence of religious items within the academy's walls, as well as tolerance and unity among artists from different religions. He concludes by noting a banalisation of religion in the eighteenth century.

FERREIRO, LARRIE D. Ships and Science: The Birth of Naval Architecture in the Scientific Revolution, 1600–1800. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2007.

Review: D. McGee in Ren Q 60.3 (2007), 991–92: McGee finds Ferreiro's study both misleading and disappointing as it focuses more on naval science than on "naval architecture" and treats 1670–1800, not the early -mid-seventeenth-century According to McGee, the term "naval architecture" existed much earlier than Ferreiro claims and "before European savants begin to develop scientific theories concerning the behavior of ships" (991). McGee also would have preferred a chronological organization of the treatment of naval science and its development (rather than a topical one) since the scientists "were working on all three branches of theory at the same time" (991).

FLORE AU PARADIS. EMBLEMATIQUE ET VIE RELIGIEUSE AUX XVIe ET XVIIe SIECLES. Glasgow: U of Glasgow, Glasgow Emblem Studies, vol. 9, 2004.

Review: A. Gendre in BHR 68.3 (2006), 618–20: ". . .ce nouveau volume sur les emblèmes nous offre des études sur différents aspects du langage des fleurs et des plantes à la Renaissance et au temps de la Contre-Réforme. C'est un ouvrage de qualité."

FRIEDMAN, RUSSELL L. & LAUGE O. NIELSEN, eds. The Medieval Heritage in Early Modern Metaphysics and Modal Theory, 1400–1700. The New Synthese Historical Library 53. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003.

Review: L. Nauta in Ren Q 60.3 (2007), 942–43: Praiseworthy for its "focus on modalities and modal logic" and its collection of several fine studies on the scholastic legacy and the "notion of possibility and impossibility, contingency and necessity" (942). Argues convincingly that "we should treat the period 1400–1700 as a whole without a sharp break between the later Middle Ages. . . and the Renaissance and early modern period" (942). Index, bibliography.

GELDHOF, JORIS. "Pascal's Double Mistake or, the Desirability of Sound Metaphysics." DownR 445 (2008), 235–246.

The author explores why Pascal apparently escapes anti-ontotheologian criticism — "in this paper, I want to argue that Pascal indeed made mistakes, and that, in doing so, he did not escape from the processes that modern thought initiated and still pursues. Therefore, the reasons why Pascal is spared the criticism of the anti-ontotheologians are as telling as undeserved. All the more so are the reasons why Pascal is wholeheartedly welcomed by those who attempt to reconsider and revalue relgion in our age." The author concludes that, "what we need is not more of Pascal, but sound metaphysics."

GOUVERNEUR, SOPHIE. Prudence et subversion libertines. La critique de la raison d'État chez François de La Mothe Le Vayer, Gabriel Naudé et Samuel Sorbière. Paris: Champion, 2005.

Review: Frédéric Briot in RSH 282.4 (2006), 204–206: Gouverneur's introduction retraces the notion of libertin, proposing a clear and stable definition that 1. libertine thought must have a subversive goal in relationship to dominiant norms and that 2. this goal is achieved by subverting the discourse of the other in a non confrontational way. Focusing on prudence, then, proves to be a fruitful approach to analyzing libertine discourse, and this highly analytical and rigorous study debunks the argument that libertine thinkers were subservient to the state, examining "une politique prudentielle, une éthique prudentielle" and "une esthétique prudentielle." The author shows how libertine authors turn "prudence politique" against the political power itself and analyzes "l'esthétique prudentielle," examining hidden narrative strategies and modes of publication. Gouverneur makes careful distinctions and draws compelling parallels between her chosen authors. Excellent bibliography.

Review: G. Lana in S Fr 151 (2007), 172–173: Gouverneur proposes to relate general philosophical research on the notion of "prudence" with research in the history of philosophy and particularly French "libertinage" of the seventeenth-century Gouverneur's philosophical reevaluation of the libertine writers demonstrates that their thought, though not systematic, is coherent, and that the dissimulation rather than operating like a simple hypocrisy, is instead philosophically essential to their theory and practice. Prudence is examined in three aspects: political, ethical and aesthetic and the volume is organized in two sections: "Des philosophes au service du pouvoir?" and "Dénouer la servitude." Biographical and rich bibliographical sections, an index of names and a detailed table des matières completes this useful study.

GRABILL, STEPHEN J. Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2006.

Review: D. B. Gallagher in Ren Q 60.3 (2007), 940–41: Wide-ranging analysis is already considered by many scholars to be "a turning point in the history of Renaissance philosophical and theological ideas on the natural law tradition and its contemporary relevance" (940). Organized into three sections, Grabill's work focuses first on Karl Barth, then on "the complex story of how rationalism and the Enlightenment remolded Protestant theology into natural theology and the subsequent effects such a theology had on natural law theory," and finally "a synthetic narrative that summarizes the author's more detailed study of [essential early modern] primary sources" (941).

GRÉGOIRE, VINCENT. "L'interprétation du tremblement de terre de 1663 en Nouvelle-France d'après les écrits des missionnaires." SCFS, 30.1 (2008), 64–76.

Aims to examine "pourquoi ce séisme est essentiellement représenté comme une punition divine (et une manifestation du Diable) frappant les trafiquants d'eau-de-vie et les Amérindiens qui en sont devenus dépendants [. . .]. Enfin, cette 'divine surprise' (d'un point de vue religieux) aura-t-elle des effets durables, ou ne coïncide-t-elle pas paradoxalement avec la fin de 'l'Église de la mission' et l'influence prépondérante des religieux sur la petite colonie — une colonie prise directement en charge, à partir de 1663, par l'autorité royale?"

GUERCI, LUCIANO, "Barruel, Bossuet e la democrazia nel 1789." S Fr 149 (2006), 319–332.

Impressively detailed and argued exposition of Jesuit Augustin Barruel's thought. Guerci develops the relationship between the latter's arguments (for example, the "thèse royale") and Bossuet's writings, notably his Politique tirée des propres paroles de l'Écriture sainte. If Barruel does not always acknowledge Bossuet (in the former's development of the concept of the king as a "père commun", for example), Guerci carefully demonstrates the clear reliance even in implicit references. Valuable article for several disciplines, especially religion, political science and government, for the reception of Bossuet and the proper understanding of Barruel.

JACOVIDES, MICHAEL. "How is Descartes' Argument Against Scepticism Better Than Putnam's?" PhQ 57 (September 2007), 593–612.

Jacovides argues that Descartes' arguments for the existence of God in the Third Meditation are better than their reputation suggests, and that they resemble (more than has previously been noted, including by Putnam himself) Putnam's arguments that since thought has a causal condition, we are not brains in vats, and the external world exists.

JANSE, WIM and BARBARA PITKIN, eds. The Formation of Clerical and Confessional Identities in Early Modern Europe. Dutch Review of Church History 85. Leiden: Brill, 2006.

Review: M. Laven in Ren Q 60.3 (2007), 937–38: Twenty-four essays demonstrate the diversity of early modern reform "so shifting that no confessional map of Europe could ever accurately represent them" (937). Rich case-studies, some based convincingly on material culture address numerous aspects of identities, but Laven would have appreciated more attention to the reception of ideas and impact.

JONES, MATTHEW L. The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution: Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, and the Cultivation of Virtue. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2006.

Review: J. Cottingham in Isis 98 (September 2007), 632–633. Cottingham characterizes the book's scholarship as "formidable," saying that Jones successfully (especially in the cases of Pascal and Leibniz) demonstrates that these thinkers' philosophies were not isolated academic exercises, but rather aimed at pointing out the link between science and ethics.

Review: K. Smith in Ren Q 60.2 (2007),643–44: Principally negative review disagrees with the positive assessments on the book's back cover by Daston and Gaukroger who term the work, respectively, as a "tour de force, offering a fundamental reassessment of what drives early modern philosophical thought" (644). Instead, Smith claims that Jones argues for the obvious and fails to connect his interesting and clear discussions (for example of the quadrature of the circle) to the cultivation of virtue.

JULLIEN, VINCENT. Philosophie naturelle et géométrie au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2006.

Review: C. Lüthy in Isis 99 (March 2008), 183–184. A fascinating book that centers on the debates and intellectual differences between Descartes and Roberval, vindicating, in part, the latter. Includes a chapter that analyzes in great and persuasive detail Newton and Leibniz's theories of light, showing how such debates shaped science and metaphysics. The reviewer is puzzled by the author's decision to attack Kuhn (and defend Dhombres) in the introduction and first chapter, and advises readers to begin reading at Chapter 2.

KAHN, DIDIER. Alchimie et paracelcisme en France (1567–1625). Genève: Droz, 2007.

Review: F. Fassina in S Fr 153 (2007), 646–647: Wide-ranging thèse breaks frontiers as it embraces the history of alchemy, literary history and general history. Seventeenth-century scholars will be particularly interested in parts three and four, which focus developments in the latter sixteenth and early seventeenth-century Important for cultural history as it traces and analyzes the diffusion of alchemy and paracelsism through France and Europe.

Review: P. Zambelli in BHR 70.2 (2008), 486–90: First of three volumes based on the author's 1998 thesis directed by Marc Fumaroli at the University of Paris IV Sorbonne: 《 la période qui va de 1567 à 1625 possède une forte cohésion. En 1567, cinq ouvrages publiés simultanément diffusent en français aussi bien qu'en latin, de Paris, de Lyon, de Strasbourg et d'Anvers, de grand [sic] textes alchimiques et, pour la première fois, en France, les doctrines de Paracelse. C'est l'illustration même du 《  renouveau paracelsien  》 à l'échelle de la France. 》

Review: n.a. in BCLF 695 (2007), 37: ". . .le premier volet d'une vaste trilogie s'attachant à présenter un peu plus d'un demi-siècle d'histoire culturelle et des idées à travers la réception française de ces deux courants, du milieu du XVIe siècle au début du XVIIe siècle. . ."

KAPP, VOLKER. "L'archéologie biblique et l'instruction des élites: Les Mœurs des Israélites et des chrétiens de Claude Fleury." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer, and Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008, 83–92.

Kapp argues that modern-day theologians have misunderstood the literary importance of Claude Fleury, a major figure in the religious instruction of seventeenth-century elites. He focuses on Fleury's Mœurs des Israélites et des chrétiens, examining how the work favorably compares ancient Hebrew society to the society of ancient Greece and Egypt, which can be seen as provocative to both the Ancients and the Moderns. Ultimately, Fleury's project consists of retelling the story of ancient Israel and the early Christian era in such a way that he captures elite readers' imagination and instructs them at the same time.

KOPPISCH, MICHAEL S.. "In God's Kitchen: Food and Devotion in François de Sales's Introduction à la vie dévote." PFSCL XXXV, 69 (2008), 529–541.

Examines the role of culinary and gastronomic imagery in de Sales' devotional work.

LANDRY, JEAN-PIERRE, ED. Le Temps des beaux sermons. Genève: Droz, 2006.

Review: P. Chaduc in DSS 238 (2008), 167–168: Acts of a colloquium at Lyon "sur l'éloquence religieuse au XVIIe siècle nourrissent un projet ambitieux et permettent de nuancer bien des idées reçues. Outre la variété des genres convoqués (oraisons funèbres, sermons, panégyriques) et des auteurs abordés (Bossuet, saint François de Sales, Fénelon mais aussi Bourdaloue, Mascaron, Du Perron, Le Faucheur), ce recueil confronte des approches critiques différentes contribuant à dresser un panorama complet et riche des débats et des différentes pratiques de la prédication au lendemain de la Réforme."

LAURENTI, JEAN-NOEL. Valeurs morales et religieuses sur la scène musique (1663–1737). Geneva: Droz, 2002.

Review: D.A. Thomas in SCN (2007), 47–50: Although the reviewer disagrees with some of the limitations imposed on this study, he nevertheless reviews it favourably accepting his "focus not on the aesthetic qualities of the tragédie en musique or its political or social functions during the Ancien Régime, but rather on the moral, philosophical, even theological meanings explored on the lyric stage."

LE GALL, JEAN-MARIE. Le Mythe de Saint Denis entre Renaissance et Révolution. Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 2007.

Review: B. Petey-Girard in BHR 69.3 (2007), 750–54: "Cette étude ne se réduit pas à l'examen de la tradition d'éditions, de traductions et de lectures interprétatives du corpus dionysien, mais prend en compte 'l'omniprésence fugace' de Denis au cours de trois siècles d'histoire française, interroge les causes de la réquisition de sa figure au gré de l'évolution des mentalités et en fonction des différents milieux qui en usent, sans oublier de parcourir les lieux de mémoire parisiens qui s'y ratttachent."

LEINKAUF, THOMAS & KARIN HARTBECKE, eds. Der Naturbegriff in der Frühen Neuzeit: Semantische Perspektiven zwischen 1500 und 1700. Frühe Neuzeit, 110. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 2005.

Review: F. Krämer in Ren Q 60.3 (2007), 989–91: Leinkauf's introduction reminds us that in the early modern period "no clear dividing line had yet been drawn between the natural sciences and the humanities" (989). It is in keeping with this multi-dimensional character that "the volume includes essays on the meanings of nature not only in the more obvious areas of the history of science and philosophy, but also in religious-theological, magical-alchemical, and literary contexts, and in the context of music theory" (990). French seventeenth-century specialists will appreciate Gábor Boros's essays "Dieu ou la nature: Die Umkehrung des cartesischen Naturbegriffs im Spätwerk Descartes." Broad in scope, the volume's essays are insightful as they analyze published and unpublished texts. Krämer would have preferred some attempt at "synthesizing" and/or "cross-referencing" of the essays (990).

LE MAO, CAROLINE. "Entre vocation et devoir social: l'appel de Dieu dans le milieu parlementaire bordelais au temps de Louis XIV." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer & Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700) en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008, 289–301.

Studies the parliamentary milieu of Bordeaux in order to understand the motivations of their children to enter religious institutions. She finds that it is seldom motivated by parents' desire to get rid of them, but rather due to the way of life offered in convents, the family reunions it implies, the lack of societal intrusion and the perspective of important clerical positions, along with true vocation.

LEWIS, JOHN. Galileo in France. Berne: Peter Lang, 2006.

Review: L.R.N. Ashley in BHR 69.3 (2007), 741: ". . .Descartes and lesser lights, some of them remaining devout sons of the Roman Catholic Church, discussed the impact of the trial of Galileo on faith and science, and, for a long, time, as John Lewis (Queen's, Belfast) shows, the effect of Copernican and Galilean ideas on French philosophy and scientific research was profound."

LOPEZ, DENIS & ERIC SUIRE. "Conclusions." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer & Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700) en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008, 409–418.

After presenting up-to-date research about religious questions, the authors point out the new interest in research about the religion of the elites, and the interdisciplinary approaches taken in the domain and presented at the conference. The authors conclude by coming back to the seventeenth century and stating the Grand Siècle closes with less of a need to dramatize the expression of faith.

LOPEZ, DENIS. "L'éducation religieuse des princes au XVIIe siècle." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer, and Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008, 15–35.

Lopez analyzes, from a literary perspective, the religious education of Louis XIII, Louis XIV, and the Grand Dauphin as attested by catechisms and other pedagogical materials. With Louis XIII, Héroard stresses the need to adapt religious education to the child's needs, with the ultimate (unrealized) goal of making the prince a theologian. Louis XIV's religious education was similar to that of his father's, with the notable exception of his mother Anne d'Autriche's personal role in her young son's religious instruction. The author examines how, unlike his father and grandfather, the Grand Dauphin's religious education focused primarily on reading the Bible itself.

LORIMER, EMMA. "Huguenot General Assemblies in France, 1579–1622: 'Public Opinion', Pamphlets and Political Memory." SCFS, 30.1 (2008), 52–63.

Concludes: "Pamphlets written against Huguenot general assemblies were able to have an effect on a broad public by using the burlesque, by adopting a populist tone, and later by employing biblical and theological references. Ultimately, they gained credibility by reference to and sometimes direct quotation of the assembly records."

MARSHALL, PETER & ALEXANDRA M. WALSHAM, eds. Angels in the Early Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006.

Review: L. Smoller in Ren Q 60.4 (2007), 1409–1411: Remarkable for its cohesive quality, this volume of essays should also stimulate future studies on the subject. Including the continent as well as England, Ireland and the New World, the essays demonstrate the great diversity of thought on angels, both between Catholics and Protestants, as well as within each communion. Several essays affirm that "the new mechanical philosophy of the seventeenth century. . . did not cause a disenchantment of the angelic world" (1410). Index and illustrations.

MELLINGHOFF-BOURGERIE, VIVIANE. "L'Écrivain au service des âmes: tradition et avatars de l'épistolarité spirituelle." TL 21 (2008), 117–130.

Marked by careful attention to appropriate terminology ("épître spirituelle" ou "lettre spirituelle" or as André Ravier has suggested "lettres d'amitié spirituelle"—these terms are preferable to the anachronistic "lettres de direction" which became prevalent in the second half of the 19th c.) and by sensitivity to different communions, Mellinghoff-Bourgerie's article refers to a significant corpus in the early modern, including Calvin, Briçonnet, Fénelon and François de Sales. Mellinghoff-Bourgerie demonstrates that to establish confidence, the "pastors" reiterate the sincerity of their friendship with their correspondents, balance authority and friendship and "sans avoir en commun le même credo, [adoptent] la même attitude envers le destinataire qu'ils [désirent] mener à Dieu" (130).

MINVIELLE, STÉPHANE. "Familles et religion: la place des clercs dans les élites bordelaises de la fin du XVIIe siècle." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer & Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700) en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008, 303–318.

Studies the marginal status of ecclesiastics among their families, looking at sources such as baptism and marriage certificates, and wills. He realizes that members of a family that have chosen the clerical path end up having very few links with their family, in terms of their participation in religious celebrations (baptism, marriage), and of their share in filial inheritance. The author concludes that they become outcasts once they enter the orders.

MORAN, BRUCE T. Distilling Knowledge: Alchemy, Chemistry, and the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.

Reviewed by N. Clulee in Isis 98 (September 2007), 634–635. "A thorough and judicious guide to the rethinking of the venerable Scientific Revolution." Among other things, the book links the experimentalism, supposedly new, of the Scientific Revolution, to long-standing practices in alchemy.

MORGAIN, STEPHANE-MARIE & FRANÇOISE HILDESHEIMER, eds. Armand Jean Du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu. Œuvres théologiques: Tome 1: Traité de la perfection du chrétien. Paris: Champion, 2002.

Review: H. Michon in RHLF 107.4 (2007), 963–964. Richelieu's theological work, although not very well known, was intended for publication. The two authors hereby render this neglected aspect of his career accessible to the general public and allow us to understand this great political figure. The Traité de la perfection du Chrétien is preceded by L'Instruction du chrétien.

NEWMAN, WILLIAM R. Atoms and Alchemy: Chymistry [sic] and the Experimental Origins of the Scientific Revolution. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2006.

Review: N. H. Clulee in Ren Q 60.3 (2007), 997–98: Praiseworthy as "the latest and most decisive contribution to establish the critical role that early modern alchemy-chemistry, or chymistry, played in the transformation of natural philosophy" (997). Newman's study may also be considered a "methodological manifesto" as it asserts and demonstrates "the value of the close reading of original primary texts, the need to attend to the philosophy part of natural philosophy, and the existence of important continuities between medieval and early modern natural philosophy" (998).

O'MALLEY, JOHN W., S.J. & GAUVIN ALEXANDER BAILEY, eds. The Jesuits and the Arts (1540–1773). Philadelphia: St. Joseph's UP, 2005.

Review: J. G. Harper in Ren Q 60.2 (2007), 622–24: Welcome translation and expansion of the 2003 Ignazio et l'Arte dei Gesuiti and includes numerous illustrations, an index, and a bibliography. Illuminates the Jesuit education mission and its relation to the arts and is a valuable resource, recommended for students, teachers and scholars. The reader will be impressed with the analyses of a "rich variety of Jesuit styles" (18), the evolution from "austerity" to "increasing embellishment," the "patron-architect triangle" (623) and consideration of "the religious dramas of the Jesuits [which] moved in tandem with the tragedies staged in the secular theater" (231). The second half of the volume concerns the Jesuit arts beyond Europe, notably in Latin America, Asia and North America.

O'MALLEY, JOHN W., S.J., GAUVIN ALEXANDER BAILEY, STEVEN J. HARRIS, & T. FRANK KENNEDY, S.J., eds. The Jesuits II: Culture, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540–1773. With CD-ROM. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2006.

Review: T. Worcester, S.J. in Ren Q 60.2 (2007), 621–22: Welcome second volume on the subject is the fruit of a 2002 conference at Boston College (the first volume was published at Toronto in 2000, the proceedings of a 1997 conference). Thirty-seven essays follow O'Malley's excellent introduction and "illuminate the complexity of successes and failures of the Society of Jesus" (621). Kennedy's presentation of a Jesuit opera on the passion of Christ complete with DVD of a 2002 performance rounds out the volume which includes topics as diverse as Jesuit schools, their funding and upward social mobility, translations, the roles of art and music and much more. Worcester calls for 19th and 20th c. specialists to be inspired by these studies and to devote their attention to "the relatively neglected field of the history of the post-1814 restored Society of Jesus" (622). Index, illustrations, tables.

PAPASOGLI, BENEDETTA. "L'ange illettré et la 《  science des saints  》." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer & Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700) en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008, 212–222.

Explains how the elites find the sublime through random encounters with illiterate simple people. Offers three examples: Surin and a mystic young man during a trip, Abbé de Rance and an illiterate poor shepherd, and Mme Guyon and a crazy Parisian wanderer. Their simplicity is considered as a form of elevation of thoughts.

PAPASOGLI, BENEDETTA. "Entre méditation et contemplation: la voix dans l'écriture spirituelle au XVIIe siècle" TL 21 (2008), 147–158.

Papasogli responds in this pertinent and multi-faceted article to the question: "Qu'est-ce. . . que la voix dans l'écriture spirituelle si ce n'est le secret de l'écrivain et la trace vivante d'une spiritualité personnelle?" (147). Papasogli demonstrates that in the seventeenth-century, "la thématique de la voix a contribué à enrichir et à nuancer la représentation des deux modes ou des deux tempi de la vie intérieur, méditation et contemplation" (148). Papasogli gives particular attention to the metaphor and to the emblematic or the "symbolisme de la voix" (153), but also to dialogue and other linguistic and literary forms as she interrogates key texts of major authors such as Pascal and François de Sales but also those of François Malaval and le Père Crasset.

PARK, KATHARINE & LORRAINE DASTON, eds. The Cambridge History of Science. Vol. 3, Early Modern Science. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006.

Review: J. Shackelford in Ren Q 60.3 (2007), 986–89: Focusing on Europe from 1490 to 1730, this volume contains a "mosaic of overlapping studies [and. . . provides] a rich critical apparatus of expansive, meticulous footnotes that document recent scholarship" (987). Organized into sections of "philosophical histories, studies of the people and sites producing new knowledge, disciplinary histories, and essays on how changes in natural knowledge were contextualized in other aspects of culture [such as. . .] art, religion and literature," the volume includes as well an "excellent introduction"(987). Seventeenth-century scholars will particularly appreciate the essays on Cartesian thought and Gassendian atomism.

PICCO, DOMINIQUE. " 《  Tourner doucement le premier usage de leur raison à connaître Dieu  》, ou l'instruction religieuse des filles de bonnes maisons dans la France du XVIIe siècle." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer, and Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008, 37–52.

Picco, a historian, analyzes Fénelon's Traité de l'éducation des filles (1687), in order to answer the question of which predominates: the elite nature of the work's destined public, or its gendered aspect. The author points out that Fénelon often speaks from practical experience, and, like Madame de Maintenon, thinks that the amount of instruction given should be proportional to the girl's social rank or situation in life. The conclusion is that Fénelon talks more about children in general than he does about girls in particular; moreover, particular emphasis is placed on the mother's role and duties in a child's religious education.

PIERRE, BENOIST. La Bure et le sceptre: la congrégation des Feuillants dans l'affirmation des Etats et des pouvoirs princiers (vers 1560-vers 1660). Paris: Sorbonne, 2006.

Review: n.a. in BCLF 684 (2006), 104–05: "La monographie de B. Pierre étudie cette congrégation dans ses rapports avec l'évolution politique du royaume de France."

PIERRE, BENOIST. "L'Éminence grise et l'Éminence rouge. La religion du Père Joseph et le service d'État." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer, and Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008, 95–110.

Benoist Pierre discusses Père Joseph's social status as "un noble déclassé" and its role in his choosing the religious life; his mystical, Christ-centered spirituality; and how his spirituality influenced the role he played in Court politics, such as a possible crusade against the Ottoman empire. The failure of this last to come to fruition did not prevent Père Joseph from close to Richelieu, and using his diplomatic talents in the cardinal's service and the king's. What set Père Joseph apart was his desire to use his political role in order to fulfill God's plans for the king as the eldest son of the Church.

RABB, THEODORE K. The Last Days of the Renaissance and the March to Modernity. New York: The Perseus Book Group, 2006.

Review: D. Rutherford in Ren Q 60.2 (2007), 503–504: Rabb's effort to identify distinctive unities and to analyze these coherences focuses on the end of the Renaissance when it "dissolved into the Age of Revolution" (xxii). His objectives include the book serving "not as a summary for [his] contemporaries, but as a template of European history for a new generation" (xvi) and attracting a general readership as well as a scholarly one. Instructive study includes the following among numerous "unities" or "coherences": "the appearance and growth of gunpowder warfare, the increasing centralization of power, the expansion of bureaucracies, the domestication of the aristocracy, overseas conquests and immigration, and the rise of capitalism, all coinciding with the cultural and intellectual admiration for antiquity" (reviewer 530).

RUTHERFORD, DONALD, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006.

Review: L. Nauta in Ren Q 60.4 (2007), 1422–24: Praiseworthy for its embracing of diverse perspectives and encouragement of argument and discussion, Rutherford's edited volume includes authoritative studies on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with emphasis on the seventeenth. Valuable both for the demonstration of the "immense vitality and innovation of early modern philosophy" and for "a state-of-the-art picture of current scholarship" (1423). Index, illustrations, short biographies and bibliography.

SCHOLAR, RICHARD. The 'Je-Ne-Sais-Quoi' in Early Modern Europe: Encounters with a Certain Something. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005.

Review: D. M. Posner in Ren Q 60.1 (2007), 192–194: Found both "cheerful" and "exhaustive," Scholar's work focusing on French sources, "embrac[es the term's] inarticulability even while exploring nearly every corner of its territory." The word history extends from Cicero's nescio quid through the seventeenth-century "where the term and its entourage really live." Certain theoretical underpinnings and interpretations are judged less persuasive than others, but Posner generally applauds both cultural contexts and analyses of lesser-known authors and texts as well as figures such as Corneille, Descartes and Pascal.

SEIDENGART, JEAN. Dieu, l'univers, et la sphère infinie: Penser l'infinité cosmique à l'aube de la science classique. Paris: Albin Michel, 2006.

Review: A. Davenport in Isis 98 (June 2007), 393–394. Examines the migration of the infinite from God to the universe, with special attention to Giordano Bruno. Descartes, Gassendi, Arnauld, Nicole, Pascal, Spinoza, and Leibniz are also discussed. Immensely readable; the author also shows sensitivity to the powerful emotions evoked by the infinite.

SHAPIRO, LISA, ed. & trans. The correspondence between Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia and René Descartes. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2007.

Review: R. Lee in CHOICE 45 (2007), 483–84: Shapiro helps make apparent Elisabeth's status as "an accomplished and honest philosopher" in her own right (484), discouraging those who would use her correspondence solely as a source of further insight into Descartes. The volume contains an extensive bibliography; useful for scholars as for undergraduates.

SZULAKOWSKA, URSZULA. The Sacrificial Body and the Day of Doom: Alchemy and Apocalyptic Discourse in the Protestant Reformation. Leiden: Brill, 2006.

Review: T. Nummedal in Ren Q 60.3 (2007), 998–1000: Important for its attention to and analysis of a body of early modern literature which "constructed a complicated rhetoric out of a blend of alchemy, Paracelsian theosophy, Hermeticism and Christian Kabbalah" (999). Arguing as her title suggests, that the images and texts are best understood "in the context of a radical apocalyptic Reformation theology," Szulakowska goes on to identify clusters of themes and connections, providing over 50 images for which she gives rich and detailed analyses (999). Nummedal would have preferred less detail and fewer generalizations but recognizes the importance of the images and arguments presented.

TILLIETTE, XAVIER. Philosophies eucharistiques de Descartes à Blondel. Paris: Le Cerf, 2006.

Review: M. Adam in RPFE 198.2 (2008), 260–261: L'auteur examine le mystère de foi eucharistique au centre de la réflexion théologique dans ce livre basé sur un cours de théologie des années 1980 à l'Université grégorienne de Rome et à l'Institut catholique de Paris. Il commence par Descartes, évoque Desgabets, Bossuet et Malebranche. " L'auteur rappelle la spiritualité pascalienne puis, à travers Bayle et Jurieu, les remous concernant l'eucharistie dans les milieux protestant... " L'auteur apporte ensuite des approches mal connues de la métaphysique allemande et finit avec des auteurs plus récents comme Maurice Blondel.

TOLLET, DANIEL. "Les autorités religieuses et la conversion au XVIIe siècle dans la République polono-lituanienne." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer & Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700) en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008, 395–408.

Looks at the religious history of the Polish-Lithuanian republic and shows that the conversion from Lutheran to Catholic faith in Poland was the result of Jesuit schools for the elite, but ultimately the conversion was the result of a political obligation within the creation of a nation-state endangered by surrounding nations of other religions.

VUILLEMIN, JEAN-CLAUDE. "Baroque: le mot et la chose." OeC 32.2 (2007), 13–21.

Contribution au numéro d'Oeuvres et Critiques présenté par Dorothea Scholl et consacré à "la valeur exploratrice de la notion" du baroque. "Le 'baroque' est la forme visible des interrogations de cette époque en proie à une extraordinaire mutation du savoir, prise entre des certitudes passées qui se délitent et un avenir imprévisible ouvert sur tous les possibles. Marqueur épistémologique, le 'baroque' — mon baroque — relève de la sorte beaucoup moins de l'esthétique que de la philosophie. Ainsi, si l'on est en droit d'affirmer le baroquisme du théâtre de Rotrou, et de l'ensemble de l'époque de Louis XIII, c'est beaucoup moins du fait de sa stylistique, de sa thématique, ou encore de son ambiguïté, qu'à cause des profondes affinités que cette dramaturgie entretient avec l'une des prémisses essentielles de la science moderne pour laquelle voir ne rime plus avec savoir."

WIEL, VÉRONIQUE. "Condition chrétienne, condition mondaine: les Conversations chrétiennes de Nicolas Malebranche." In Lopez, Denis, Charles Mazouer, and Eric Suire, eds. La Religion des élites au XVIIe siècle. Actes du colloque du Centre de recherches sur le XVIIe siècle européen (1600–1700), en partenariat avec le Centre Aquitain d'Histoire Moderne et contemporaine, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3, 30 novembre-2 décembre 2006. Biblio 17, Volume 175. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2008, 71–82.

Wiel tackles the apparent discord between the "condition chrétienne" and the "condition mondaine" that is the subject of Malebranche's Conversations chrétiennes from three standpoints: how the two intersect, oppose each other, and finally, how they co-exist. She analyzes the importance of the genre of conversation and how Malebranche is able to manipulate it in order to transmit Christian philosophy to an elite reading public not prepared or willing to digest theological treatistes.

WITTHAUS, JAN-HENRIK. Fernrohr und Rhetorik. Strategien des Evidenz von Fontenelle bis La Bruyère. (Neues Forum für allegemeine und vergleichenede Literaturwissenschaft, vol. 28). Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2005.

Review: H. Merkl in Archiv 244 (2007), 447–449: New, however eclectic perspectives, prevail in this interesting dissertation. Methodological influences from Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida, and Luhmann, among others. Focusing on astronomy and optics, but also examining theological, philosophical and anthropological points, the first part treats Galileo and Descartes, the second Borel, Fontenelle, Huygens, Pascal and La Bruyère.

ZAISER, RAINER. "Le pli: Deleuze et le baroque." OeC 32.2 (2007), 155–70.

Contribution au numéro d'Oeuvres et Critiques présenté par Dorothea Scholl et consacré à "la valeur exploratrice de la notion" du baroque. "Le pli est donc un concept transhistorique du baroque, concept disposé à élargir son répertoire de traits pertinents à condition que l'on puisse attribuer ces derniers au paradigme spécifique des divergences, des dissonances et des polyvalences. . . Cette élasticité du concept de baroque n'est pas seulement utile à l'analyse des manifestations du néobaroque, mais elle l'est aussi à l'étude du baroque du XVIIe siècle dont l'abondance des formes risque toujours de dépasser le cadre de quelques caractéristiques bien définies. Il ne reste qu'à préciser où sont les plis baroques dans les oeuvres littéraires. La théorie de Deleuze, si souvent citée qu'elle soit, attend encore son application dans ce domaine."