FRENCH 17

AMSTUTZ, DELPHINE. "Comment penser l’amitié royale à l’âge baroque?" SCFS 34.1 (2012), 26-37.

"Parmi les amitiés inégales, décriées par toute une tradition aristotélicienne, l’amitié royale occupe nécessairement une place singulière. A l’âge baroque, le roi cesse d’être conçu comme primus inter pares. Il s’impose comme un véritable souverain: une différence de nature et non plus seulement de degré le distingue de son entourage. Qui peut dès lors légitimement prétendre au titre d’ "ami du roi" ? L’actualité politique des XVIe et XVIIe siècles en Europe, marquée par la domination des ministres-favoris, renouvelle l’intérêt porté à cette quaestio disputata. Des auteurs comme Bacon, Guez de Balzac puis les Scudéry tentent de dépasser l’aporie aristotélicienne et cherchent à concevoir la légitimité nouvelle acquise par l’amitié dite " inégale " dans la société du XVIIe siècle."

ASSAF, FRANCIS. "Le corps souffrant au XVIIe siècle (à travers le Journal Des Sçavans)." CdDS 13.2 (2011), 1-30.

This article studies "l’envers du grand siècle": not the splendor or joy of the century, but the great number of illnesses from which the population suffered throughout the 17th-century, from the plague to cancerous tumors, and the treatments prescribed by the medical doctors of its time. Assaf bases his study on the Journal des Sçavans from its beginnings in 1665 to the death of Louis XIV in 1715. A particular emphasis is placed on individual cases of illness, as well as on Louis XIV’s own suffering.

BARATAY, ÉRIC. "Claude Perrault (1613-1688), observateur révolutionnaire des animaux." DSS 255 (2012), 309-20.

Article proposes that Claude Perrault should be considered an important founder of modern zoology. Overview his work with the royal menageries at Vincennes and Versailles and discusses the emphasis Perrault placed on first-hand observation of live animals to learn about different species. This empiricism broke with the tradition of relying on received knowledge, travel accounts, or direct observation of bones and other animal parts, making Perrault a predecessor of Linneas and other 18th-c biologists.

BENOIST, PIERRE. "Varia. Prélats et clergé de cour en France au XVIIe siècle." DSS 253 (2011), 713-24.

Examines the "clergé de cour" "comme un champ d’investigation pertinent et central pour étudier les deux versants du service religieux (dans ses dimensions théologiques, spirituelles et liturgiques) et du service politique (dans ses aspects décisionnels, gouvernementaux et administratifs), comme pour tenter d’en saisir sur la longue durée les fonctions, les interrelations ou les disjonctions."

BOCHET, MARC. L’âne, le Job des animaux. De l’âne biblique à l’âne littéraire. Paris: Champion, 2010.

Review: G. Bosco in S Fr 164 (2011), 475. B. focuses on the positive characterizations of the donkey from Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday through artistic and literary history. Organized in sections as follows: "Souffrance," "Sagesse," "Courage," and "Beauté," the volume includes analyses of the donkey chez La Fontaine. Iconographical and bibliographical apparatus.

BOUTEILLE-MEISTER, CHRISTINE and KRISTIN AUKRUST. Corps sanglants, souffrants et macabres XVIe-XVIIe siècles. Paris: PU Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2010.

Review: C.-L. Morand Metivier in FR 85.4 (2012) 746-747. Acts of the conference "Corps sanglants" held in 2008 at the University of Oslo. Ce receuil, de par la grande diversité des sujets traits, ainsi que par l’abondante bibliographie qui l’accompagne, apparaît comme une lecture incontournable pour quiconque s’intéresse à une etude pluridisciplinaire de cette question.

Review: S. Turner in MLN 127.4 (2012), 945-46. Interdisciplinary volume of conference proceedings focused on "the depiction of the suffering body in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe" within various contexts "whether religious (the Wars of Religion), medical (the new anatomical discoveries) or political (the use of propaganda)....

Review: M. Bernard in DSS 255 (2012), 371-2. Acta of a conference that took place in Oslo in 2008, the volume contains 22 articles on the representation of the suffering body in art, literature and spectacle in France, England, Holland, Spain, Italy, and Canada. The volume is unified in its reflection on authors’ and artists’ attempts to infuse suffering with meaning and to see universal significance in individual pain. Reviewer sees the volume as marking the beginning of a productive vein of research and particularly praises the book’s program of illustrations.

BRAIDER, CHRISTOPHER. The Matter of Mind: Reason and Experience in the Age of Descartes. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012.

Review: E. Ousselin in FS 66.4 (2012), 53-554. "While the first chapter of The Matter of Mind provides a detailed analysis of Descartes’s Méditations sur la philosophie première (first published in Latin in 1641), the other five chapters are devoted to Boileau, Pascal, Molière, Corneille, and the painter Nicolas Poussin. In the process, Christopher Braider’s stated objective of decentring Descartes’s dualist separation of mind and body as the underpinning concept of modern rationality evolves into broader commentaries on seventeenth-century literature and painting. […] Instead of Descartes’s systematic formulation of abstract reason, Braider posits Montaigne’s experience-based scepticism as having permeated early modern thought. In this respect, the author of Discours de la méthode (1637) seems less than central to what Braider nevertheless calls in his subtitle the ’Age of Descartes’. […] Whether he [Braider] succeeded in toppling the idol of Cartesian dualism will be for each reader to judge. All of them will most likely be impressed with the intellectual range and critical acumen displayed by Braider throughout this highly stimulating study."

BRUSCHI, ANDREA. "Litterae et arma: l’aspiration à l’encyclopédisme des premières académies nobiliaires françaises (1598-1612)." SCFS 34.2 (2012), 133-142.

"Inspirés de l’idéal humaniste de l’encyclopédisme et fondés sur le binôme ’armes et lettres’, les programmes d’études élaborés dans les premiers projets d’académies pour gentilshommes (fin du XVIe-début du XVIIe siècle) associent à la pratique d’activités physiques l’érudition et l’éducation dans des disciplines théoriques. De telles propositions sont éloignées des exigences d’une noblesse désireuse de trouver dans l’académie non pas un parcours pédagogique complet, mais un lieu de sociabilité et d’apprentissage des exercices chevaleresques. Les tentatives de création d’écoles nobiliaires à vocation encyclopédique sont donc destinées à rester lettre morte ou tout au plus à donner lieu, comme dans le cas des académies de Jacques Bourgoing et de David Rivault de Flurance, à des institutions éphémères. L’importance de ces expériences réside dans l’aspiration à un véritable renouvellement du second état par le biais de l’éducation, dans le but de faire de la noblesse un groupe compétent et en mesure d’agir pour le bien du royaume."

CARRAUD, VINCENT. L’invention du moi. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2010.

Review: Y. Onishi in DSS 253 (2011) 798-800. Examines Descartes and Pascal in light of, and as precursors to, Heidegger’s concept of the irreducible, existential self. Reviewer praises "la richesse et le détail des arguments mobilisés" and states that although the premise of the book might at first appear teleological, in fact it succeeds in shedding "une nouvelle lumière sur la constitution du Dasein à partir du concept qu’inventent Descartes et Pascal."

GERBER, MATTHEW. Bastards: Politics, Family, and Law in Early Modern France. Oxford UP: 2012.

Review: D. Baxter in CHOICE (July 2012). "Gerber provides a complex, compelling account of legal and social change surrounding illegitimacy in early modern France. Solidly based upon an examination of French legal cases and law books, the book depicts the shift from stigmatization of bastardy in the 16th and 17th centuries toward slow destigmatization in the 18th century. In the process, Gerber describes the ongoing relationship between law and broader social, cultural, and political movements, beginning with the predisposition of elite families to protect property rights, the steady expansion of state power, the complexity and diversity of French law, initial attempts toward a national legal code, and evolving views of the role of the state and public interest."

GROS, JEAN-MICHEL. Les Dissidences de la philosophie à l’âge classique. Paris: Champion, 2009.

Review: A. Schellino in S Fr (2011) 697-698. Judged a convincing parcours with special emphasis on Pierre Bayle throughout but most particularly in the introduction (7-46) and in the second section, "Bayle ou le règne de la critique," where analyses of key concepts and questions are undertaken such as tolerance, excommunication, "l’art d’écrire" and the political function of religion. Wide-ranging and stimulating intersections are examined between Bayle and/or dissident philosophy and other thinkers such as Leibniz, La Mothe Le Vayer and Cyrano.

HÄFNER, RALPH. "Pierre Poiret et la ’science des saints’ : le problème de l’évidence de la contemplation mystique face à la Querelle du pur amour." DSS 254 (2012), 131-40.

Article examines theologian Pierre Poiret’s reception and translation of mystical literature by adherents of the Philadelphian Society, especially Jane Leade and Jacob Boehme.

HASKETT, KLESEY and HOLLY FAITH NELSON. French Women Authors: The Significance of the Spiritual (1400-2000). Rowman & Littlefield, 2013.

Review: W. Edwards in CHOICE (Apr. 2013). "Taken together, the essays in this volume […] trace the waning social influence in France of Christianity and the institutional church (though not necessarily of God), even as they highlight the frequency with which individual Francophone women turn to the spiritual as a means of personal expression and literary resistance. […] Trading religious orthodoxy for spiritual fulfillment, Marguerite de Navarre, Madame de Lafayette, George Sand, Simone Weil, and Marguerite Duras (and other less canonical writers) are presented here as pioneers forging unconventional paths toward God."

ICARD, SIMON. Port-Royal et Saint Bernard de Clairvaux (1608-1709). Saint-Cyran, Jansénius, Arnauld, Pascal, Nicole, Angélique de Saint-Jean. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2010.

Review: S. Hermann de Franceschi in DSS 255 (2012), 376-8. The revised version of Icard’s dissertation, the book explores the links between the Jansenist movement and the Bernardine tradition. The book’s first part examines the influence of Saint Bernard on 17th-c. spirituality focusing particularly on the translation and reception of his writings. Part two explores the iconography and imagery of Saint Bernard in this period, especially his depiction in silent prayer. Part three demonstrates how Port-Royal appropriated this vision of Saint Bernard, while the final part analyzes the theological links between Augustinianism and monasticism. Reviewer is impressed by the book’s interdisciplinarity and erudition, calling it a "contribution capital" to Jansenist studies.

JAMES, TONY. Le songe et la raison: essai sur Descartes. Paris: Hermann, 2010.

Review: S. Bold in FR 86.5 (2013), 1034-1035. "Although this book must be classified as a study on Descartes, it is in fact more a case study of dream interpretation as applied, in this case, to a classical thinker. Moreover, despite the author’s erudition, this brief study is not a systematic study but the rather personal ’essai’ that its subtitle announces […] The threads, notions, and terms of this study do come together in the final chapter and conclusion to present some new perspectives on Descartes and his dreams."

KELLER-LAPP, HEIDI. "Who Is the Real Sovereign of the Ursulines of Pondicherry." French Colonial History 13.1 (2012), 111-40.

Examines a relatively unknown failed Ursuline mission in India. Highlights issues of sovereignty, the role of women in the Church, disputes among religious orders, and the intertwined functions and conflicts of business, church and state. Although this mission was established in 1738, its roots lie in the 17th century.

LAVOCAT, FRANÇOISE. La Théorie des mondes possibles. Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2011.

Review: F. Forcolin in S Fr 164 (2011), 479. Without diachronic restrictions, this fruit of a 2005-2006 seminar at the Université de Paris-Diderot presents a first study in French on the subject applied to all literature and visual arts. Organized in three sections, the first deals with genres of fictions, the second with historical perspectives examining "façons de faire des mondes," and the third with effects of reading or "les mondes du texte." 17th c. scholars will appreciate diverse theoretical and stylistic perspectives (see, in particular, Christine Noille-Clauzade’s "Considérations logiques sur de nouveaux styles de fictionalité: les mondes de la fiction au XVIIe siècle" (171-188), as well as a rich bibliography and the closing essay of Thomas Pavel, "Univers de fiction: un parcours personnel" (307-314).

MATHERON, ALEXANDRE. Études sur Spinoza et les philosophes de l’âge classique. Lyon: ENS Éditions, 2011.

Review: Y. Citton in DSS 254 (2012), 190-192. This carefully prepared collection of previously published essays by "LE grand exégète de la pensée spinoziste" examines the political, ethical, ontological, and epistemological dimensions of Spinoza’s writings. Matheron treats Spinoza’s corpus as a coherent whole and assumes that the philosopher "a toujours raison," which the reviewer finds to be a hermeneutically productive approach. The reviewer enthusiastically praises the volume for its rigor and its "caractère exhaustif."

MORIARTY, MICHAEL. Disguised Vices: Theories of Virtue in Early Modern French Thought. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011.

Review: R. Parish in FS 67.1 (2013), 96-97. Michael Moriarty moves to the question of virtues, pagan and Christian. Although the title makes a clear reference to the much-quoted epigraph of La Rochefoucauld, the Maximes are the principal subject only of the last three chapters, to which the preceding material affords an extensive scholarly contextualization, dealing both with the differences between pagan and Christian understandings of virtue and with intra-Christian disagreements, and foregrounding the ways in which ’thinking about pagans also prompted Christians to raise questions about their own moral lives’ (7). The first chapters are devoted to Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch, in so far as they impinge on later French thought (and that teleology prevails throughout). Moving to the patristic realm, Moriarty explores in particular Augustine’s examination of ’human virtue not subordinated to God’ (73), stressing the end of an action as the defining criterion for its moral evaluation. The enquiry then moves forwards to the Reformation and Counter- (or, better, Catholic) Reformation, when such questions as the salvation of pagans again took centre stage among Protestants in claims made by Calvin, inter alia, that true virtue was impossible to non-believers. […] In this way, La Rochefoucauld’s nuanced and complex account of human behaviour is renewed by Moriarty’s exposition of the transcendent values that it both assimilates and throws into question, as the reader confronts this wilfully and artfully provocative text in which, somme toute, ’moral agency is largely an illusion’ (357).

PARISH, RICHARD. Catholic Particularity in Seventeenth-Century French Writing: ’Christianity is Strange’. Oxford: OUP, 2011.

Review: N. Hammond in MLR 108.1 (2013), 302-303: "Taking as his starting-point Pascal’s statement ’Le christianisme est étrange’, Richard Parish examines the compatibility and incompatibility of thought contained in the work of a number of seventeenth-century French Catholic writers, showing the various ways in which ’Christianity is unfamiliar, strange, and counter-intuitive’ (p. 5). In addition to Pascal himself, well-known ?gures such as Bossuet, St François de Sales, Fénelon, Pierre Corneille, and Madame Guyon loom large, but other less familiar names, such as Jean Rotrou, St Margaret-Mary Alacoque, Antoinette Bourignon, Jeanne des Anges, and Jean-Joseph Surin, make regular appearances over the course of the book. While Parish does not aim to cover all writers on religion of the age (Malebranche, Bérulle, and Nicole are perhaps the most notable absentees, and Protestant thinkers do not form part of his remit), the range of his analysis is remarkably diverse."

PEROVIC, SANJA. Sacred and Secular Agency in Early Modern France: Fragments of Religion. Continuum International Publishers Group, 2012.

Review: J.W. McCormack in CHOICE (Feb. 2013), 302-303: "This volume analyzes several literary, political, and philosophical ’fragments of religion,’ signaling both the persistence of religious categories in French culture and the poverty of theories of secularization that posit a clear caesura between premodern and modern thought […] The three case studies from the 16th and 17th centuries relate well to each other, addressing gender in ways the remaining essays do not. Most of the essays are appropriate for scholars already possessing a good deal of background."

ROBIN, JEAN LUC. "Y a-t-il des robots au XVIIe siècle? Descartes et l’invention de l’automatisme." CdDS 13.2 (2011), 110-129.

Turns to the problematic relationship between man/machine and the questions already raised by Descartes about the nature of machines, as well as his attempt to show the difference between man and machine. Robin explains the mechanistic principles behind Descartes’s philosophy of matter.

RUGGERI, MARC. "Didon à Port-Royal." DSS 253 (2011), 763-89.

Through analysis of the translation and reception of the Aeneid by Jansenist thinkers, the article shows that par "une version aussi fidèle que pédagogique, la traduction par Pierre Nicole et Le Maistre de Sacy du Livre IV de l’énéide programme une lecture anatomique de la passion et offre à qui souhaite exercer son jugement l’inventaire de tous les " lieux " investis par la concupiscence.

TRÉMOLIÉRES, FRANÇOIS. Fénélon et le sublime: littérature, anthropologie, spiritualité. Paris: Champion, 2009.

Review: R. Racevkis in FR 85.2 (2011), 67-368. At the beginning of this substantial and original study of the sublime in Fénélon, Trémolières recognizes the difficulty of his subject […] The approach throughout this carefully argued and meticulously documented book remains asymptotic, as Trémolières traces the complex contours of Fénélon’s thought without drawing any simple or synthetic conclusions […] As the book’s title indicates, the focus is simultaneously on spirituality, literature and (to a lesser degree) anthropology, while philosophical and theological issues are relegated to a vast apparatus of footnotes that outweighs the main body of the text.

Review: V. Kapp in PFSCL 76 (2012) 282-86. This study argues for a "Fénelon moraliste" by using the author’s concept of the sublime to draw out a coherent literary, moral, and theological program in his works. The reviewer finds the approach to Fénelon’s texts narrow and overly reductive, particularly lamenting the author’s choice not to engage with Fénelon scholars who do not share his views.

WOSHINSKY, BARBARA. Imagining Women’s Conventual Spaces in France, 1600-1800: The Cloister Disclosed. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010.

Review: H. Bostic in FR 85.6 (2012), 176-1177. "One of the delights of Woshinsky’s book is its treatment of little-known texts together with canonical works. Alongside the pleasure of discovering relatively unknown texts, this book offers the opportunity to encounter fresh reading of familiar ones. The author skillfully uses the motif of the convent to draw together disparate works. The analysis includes texts by many women writers who are finally making inroads toward the canon (into its parloir if not its cloître)." Authors treated include Mlle de Montpensier, Margaret Cavendish, Mme de Lafayette, Hortense and Marie Mancini, Mme de Villedieu, Marivaux, Chateaubriand, and Claire de Duras. A chapter examines the male appropriation of the persona of the nun in Les lettres portugaises and Diderot’s La religieuse. Woshinsky offers "a window on the past while reminding us of the enduring importance of history, its repression and representations."

WRIGHT, ANTHONY D. The Divisions of French Catholicism, 1629-1645: ’The Parting of the Ways.’. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011.

Review: M.H. Kashuba in FR 85.6 (2012), 1187-1188. "The author […] has traced the roots of division among French Catholics to well before the posthumous publication of Jansenius’s Augustinus in 1641. The book contains two sections, the historical and religious context before 1629, and the actual fragmentation between 1629 and 1645 […] Wright has used archival sources abundantly […] one cannot but admire the meticulous research and profound scholarship of this compact volume."