French 17 FRENCH 17

2002 Number 50

PART II: ARTISTIC, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

ADAMS, ALISON, STEPHEN RAWLES, & ALISON SAUNDERS. A Bibliography of French Emblem Books of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Vol. I. Genève: Droz, 1999.

Review: J. Britnell in MLR 97.2 (2002), 423–24: First of two volumes arranged alphabetically by author (A – K) and chronologically by edition; second volume to be published with indexes and a supplement. "The publication of Volume II will complete a hugely valuable tool of research, indispensable to all scholars concerned with emblems, and indeed of immense use to anyone interested in early-modern printing."

"L'amitié". XVIIe siècle, no. 205 (oct.–déc.1999).

Review: A. Arrigoni in SFr 133 (2001), 136–137: This issue of DSS analyzes diverse understandings of friendship demonstrating the complexity of this sentiment. Studies of various kinds of friendship (intellectual, political, literary, bacchic) are complemented by analyses of works such as Blaise de Vignère's dialogues, Madeleine de Scudéry's Clélie, and La Rochefoucauld's Maximes.

APOSTOLIDES, JEAN-MARIE. "Entrée royale et idéologie urbaine au XVIIe siècle." DSS 212 (2001), 509–520.

Apostolidès examines Louis XIV's 1660 entry into Paris, the ultimate goal of which was "la création d'une image unifiant le monarque à l'élite urbaine." Essential to this union is the figure of the Serviteur, "un type d'homme nouveau." Apostolidès outlines the various signs and functions of this figure in transformations of the entrée in the 17th century.

ARVEILLER, RAYMOND. Addenda au FEW XIX (Orientalia), édités par Max Pfister. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1999.

Review: R. Kiesler in ZRP 118 (2002), 89–92: Highly praised as an indispensable work for all scholars interested in Oriental elements as well as for diachronic lexicographers. This important tool contributes numerous new examples from hundreds of new sources. Although many of the orientalisms came into French in the 16th c., others, such as "couscous" was in its present form since 1637 (A. 339).

ASBACH, OLAF, KLAUS MALETTKE, & SVEN EXTERNBRINK, eds. Altes Reich, Frankreich und Europa. Politische, philosophische und historische Aspekte des französischen Deutschlandbildes im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2001.

Review: H. Duchhardt in HZ 273 (2001), 777: Welcome proceedings of the 1999 Marburg Colloque treats French perceptions of Germany in the 17th and 18th c. Sources include diplomatic works, literature, travel accounts, among others. Important new outcomes testify to well-functioning German-French cooperative scholarship.

BAILEY, GAUVIN ALEXANDRE. Art on the Jesuit Missions in Asia and Latin America, 1542–1773. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1999.

Review: C. Farago in RenQ 55 (2002), 319–321: Judges Bailey's work "a gold mine" which "provides a significant basis for further historical investigations of cultural domination. . ., acculturation and co-existence" (321). Focusing on images that the Jesuits used in educating Catholics, the volume "offers the first overview of these activities outside Europe" (320). Of particular interest is the role of printed books and illustrations, for example, that of Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises. Formal descriptions of objects which are "artistically hybrid" (321) join with sensitive interpretations, for example the 17th c. statues of the Guarani in the Paraguay rainforest. These statues, which adorn cathedral-sized churches, were "highly symbolic of personal identity and kinship" (Bailey 178).

BARATAY, ERIC & ELISABETH HARDOUIN-FUGIER. Zoo. A History of Zoological Gardens in the West. Trans.O. Welsh. Reaktion Books, 2002.

Review: R. Hurwitt in San Francisco Chronicle (4 August 2002), M6: Book contains "magnificent" artistic reproductions; reviewer also judges the book to be a "curiously engaging, provocative and confounding tome." Includes "schematic overviews of 16th and 17th century hunting parks and aristocratic menageries" as well as "layouts and specific exhibits from early European zoos." In addition, "The authors mix larger views on the theme of 'culture enclosing nature' — as in Louis XIV's consciouly theatrical architecture for the menagerie at Versailles. . . — with such fascinating minutiae as the itinerary of an elephant traveling through Europe." Translation is problematic. Book contains significant factual errors as well.

BEHRINGER, WOLFGANG & BERND ROECK, eds. Das Bild der Stadt in der Neuzeit 1400–1800. München: Beck, 1999.

Review: A. Schwarz in HZ 272 (2001), 458–459: Impressive panorama focuses on the iconography of towns and cities in the Early Modern period. From bird's eye views to views in profile and sections, from large metropolises to small size towns, this remarkable and highly interdisciplinary study will be of use to specialists in many fields including art and literature as well as social history.

BELL, DAVID A. The Cult of the Nation in France. Inventing Nationalism, 1680–1800. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2001.

Review: P.G. Wallace in CHOICE 40, 2 (2002), 346: a "masterful, thought-provoking, yet accessible" analysis of the birth in eighteenth-century France of the concept of nationalism. Bell argues that the emergence of nationalism can be traced to a historical moment when "French intellectuals increasingly came to see God as distant from human affairs and sought to separate religious passions from political life."

BELY, LUCIEN, ed. L'Information à l'époque moderne. Actes du colloque de 1999. Paris: Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2001.

Review: C. Todd in MLR 97.2 (2002), 426: ". . .the main purpose of the 1999 colloquium was to get beyond the stereotyped view of pre-revolutionary journalism as a mere mouthpiece for official propaganda, and this is most clearly shown here by Stéphane Haffemayer in his analysis of the ideological ambiguities of the press in the middle of the seventeenth century."

BERCE, YVES-MARIE & MICHEL CASSAN. Archives de la France. IV, Le XVIIe siècle. Paris: Fayard, 2001.

Review: BCLF 637 (2002), 147–48: "On lira donc, dans ce volume consacré au XVIIe siècle, des extraits de documents concernant les institutions — théories politiques de Richelieu et de Bossuet, lettres d'anoblissement, passages de lits de justice, témoignange de la croissance de la fiscalité, etc. D'autres textes évoquent très concrètement la vie paysanne, celle des citadins et des métiers, l'éducation et les moeurs. [. . .] Enfin, le livre s'achève sur les événements et les opinions auxquels ils donnent lieu, de l'assassinat d'Henri IV à l'arrestation de Fouquet, en passant par la bataille de Rocroi et par les événements de la Fronde. . ."

BERTELLI, SERGIO. The King's Body: Sacred Rituals of Power in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Trans.R. Burr Litchfield. Universtiy Park, PA: Pennsylvania State UP, 2001.

Review: R. Bartlett in TLS 5184 (Aug 9 2002), 23: A "rambling assemblage of accounts of royal rituals." Contains entertaining anecdotes and attractive illustrations, but Bartlett complains of "lack of argument and lack of accuracy." "Examples are piled up indiscriminately with little detailed analysis or consideration of specific historical circumstances."

BIET, CHRISTIAN. "Les monstres aux pieds d'Hercule. Ambiguïtés et enjeux des entrées royales ou l'encomiastique peut-elle casser les briques?" DSS 212 (2001), 383–403.

Biet examines how and why mythological figures superceded Biblical personnages as chosen icons representing the "modern" king, Henri IV, in royal entries. Biet also considers the ways in which the official relations subtly resisted hyperbolic encomiums of the king in view of claiming urban power and autonomy.

BIMBENET-PRIVAT, MICHÈLE. "The Two Parisian Mirror Sconces at Knole: Their Date and Makers." Burlington 1191 (2002), 332–337.

Attempts to date and analyze the origins of two silver mirror sconces bearing Parisian hallmarks that are currently housed amongst other valuable English and French 17th-century furnishings in the King's Room at Knole. Concludes they were probably produced by Pierre Doublet and Robert Collombe around 1669–1670.

BLANCHARD, JEAN-VINCENT. "Conversation and the Genealogy of Recognition." EMF 7 (2001), 48–72.

In classical conversation, the work on identity representations as productive, artistic and personal creations entails persuasion with pleasure. The author grounds his analysis on the works of Jürgen Habermas, Hélène Merlin, Joan DeJean, and Marc Fumaroli. Offers a critique of Marc Fumaroli's "conservative" view of conversation, which associates it with universalism; argues instead, mostly from Méré, that seventeenth-century conversation could and did accept difference.

BLANCHARD, JEAN-VINCENT. "Description et rhétorique politique: du récit d'entrée royale à la promenade de Versailles." DSS 212 (2001), 477–489.

Through a close reading of the anonymous pamphlet L'Entrée triomphante (1660) and Scudéry's La Promenade de Versailles (1669), Blanchard argues that architectural ekphrasis produced discourses of royal absolutism by functioning as eternal "monuments" and testaments to human endeavor that transcend history and the eventual destruction or delapidation of actual architectural monuments.

BLANNING, T. C. W. The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture. Old Regime Europe, 1660–1789. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002.

Review: T. J. Reed in TLS 5163 (Mar 15 2002), 3–4: Blanning takes culture as a real political force. Power must use culture as a "means of political communication and control." Blanning attributes the fall of the Ancien Régime to the "overbearing" representational culture of absolutism.

BLAUERT, ANDREAS and GERD SCHWERHOFF, eds. Kriminalitätsgeschichte. Beiträge zur Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte der Vormoderne. Konstanz: Universitätsverlag Konstanz, 2000.

Review: L. Schilling in HZ 273 (2001), 128–130: Wide-ranging volume of thirty-three essays contributes an innovative socio-cultural history of criminality of the late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period.

BOHANAN, DONNA. Crown and Nobility in Early Modern France. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

Review: D.C. Baxter in CHOICE 39, 8 (2002), 1486: Argues that "monarchy was not driven by a desire for reform and centralization, but by the need to collect additional taxes. It responded on an ad hoc basis, using traditional means like patronage and power brokers to gain its ends." Includes three detailed case studies of these procedures in Provence, Dauphine, and Brittany.

BOUWSMA, WILLIAM H. The Waning of the Renaissance, 1550–1640. New Haven: Yale UP, 2000.

Review: D. R. Kelley in Isis 92.4 (2001), 777–778: Gives "a nuanced, even ambivalent, portrait of the mentality of a world being delivered into a painful modernity informed by liberties at least as negative as positive. . . It is a marvelous portrait, deserving to be set beside those of the earlier masters Burckhardt and Huizenga."
Review: R. G. Witt in RenQ 55 (2002), 302–303: Finds this volume "a rewarding and challenging book by a master scholars" (303). Includes sections on human nature and its cultural manifestations (important emphasis is placed on Augustinian spirituality and scientific discoveries), the anxiety of Renaissance thinkers and artists (reviewer singles out for praise Bouwsma's "superlative chapter" on theatre), and on the culture of order where "reason was sovereign and the passions and imagination fell under suspicion" (302). Order and freedom are the "two dynamic forces" which produce the later waning of the Renaissance (303).

CAMERON, EUAN, ed. Early Modern History: An Oxford History. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999.

Review: P. Dukes in JES 32 (2002), 63–64: A "coherent, informative and thoughtful treatment of European history," though reviewer feels "basic narrative" of the period could have featured more centrally. Book consists of a stimulating prologue and ten "worthwhile contributions," three of which focus on the seventeenth-century. R.A. Houston examines the "new if rudimentary" world economy as distinctive of the seventeenth century. Robin Briggs writes on the confrontation of religion and natural science. Jeremy Black emphasizes war as a promoter of absolutism. Dukes praises the choice of illustrations, but would have liked to see more maps.

CANOVA-GREEN, MARIE-CLAUDE. "Révolte et imaginaire: le voyage de Louis XIII en Provence (1622)." DSS 212 (2001), 429–439.

An examination of the king's entries in Aix, Avignon, and Arles following his triumph over Protestant rebels. The essay scrutinizes various meanings produced by the entries, ranging from celebration of Louis's Christian virtue to encomiums of provincial heritage and culture.

CHARTIER, ROGER, ALAIN BOUREAU & CECILE DAUPHIN. Correspondence: Models of Lettter-Writing from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century. Trans. byChristopher Woodall. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Review: J. G. Altman in MP 100.1 (August 2002): "The three essays composing this slim volume were originally published as the second section of a much longer study of letter writing as a phenomenon of daily life in nineteenth-century France (La correspondance: les usages de la lettre au XIXe siècle [Paris: Fayard, 1991]). Christopher Woodall has provided lively and readable English translations of selected essays that already had a distinct identity in the Fayard volume. They embrace a longer chronology (A.D. 150–1900), a different corpus of works... and a different set of questions... Chartier's essay, 'Secrétaires for the People?' (pp. 59–111), focuses on the three letter manuals selected for publication in the Bibliothèque bleue ('Blue Library') series in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This inexpensive blue-cover paperback collection... has been of considerable interest to social historians in recent decades, because of the questions it raises about "popular culture" in the Ancien Régime."

COHEN, SARAH R. Art, Dance and the Body in French Culture of the Ancien Régime. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.

Review: E. Nye in FS 54.4 (2001), 543–544: ". . .a copiously illustrated book in which Sarah Cohen aims to put dance centre-stage in her description of the art, culture and politics of the Ancien Régime." While the study reveals "some quite striking analogies," the reviewer is disappointed by a shortage of supporting evidence and a "lack of detailed choreographic analysis."

DALY, PETER M. & JOHN MANNING, eds. Aspects of Renaissance and Baroque Symbol Theory, 1500–1700. New York: AMS Press, 2000.

Review: C. Preston in MLR 97.2 (2002), 392–93: "This volume is the latest in the very versatile 'AMS Studies in the Emblem' series that represents all aspects of current emblem scholarship, from monographs on individual emblem-books to contextual studies of emblematic practice. These fourteen essays on symbol-theory are divided into three discrete sections, each of which suggests culturally specific ways of thinking about such symbols."

DA VINHA, MATHIEU, "Les Nyert, exemple d'une ascension sociale dans la Maison du Roi au XVIIe siècle." DSS 214 (2002), 15–34.

Forming a "dynastie de Valets de Chambre", the Nyert family is the least well-known of the domestiques/confidents who served Louis XIII, Louis XIV, and Louis XV. The author defines the multiple functions and unique position of the valet de chambre in general, and argues that Nyert played key roles in the life of Louis XIV.

DESAN, PHILIPPE. "Les nouvelles théories économiques et le commerce de France avec le Levant au XVIIe siècle." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 233–242.

Desan posits that, "Encore prisonniers des modèles moyenâgeux, et alors que l'on commençait à peine à s'interroger sur le problème de l'inflation, la France tenta pourtant d'appréhender l'organisation des marchés et de s'intégrer tant bien que mal à la nouvelle économie politique. . . fondée sur le commerce international croissant. C'est le bassin méditerranéen qui permit en quelque sorte de "tester" ces nouvelles théories économiques et de transformer l'idée que la France se faisait du grand commerce au début du XVIIe siècle."

DESAN, PHILIPPE & GIOVANNI DOTOLI, eds. D'un siècle à l'autre-Littérature et société de 1590 à 1610. Fasano/Paris: Schena/PUF, 2001.

Review: B. Petey-Girard in BHR 64.1 (2002), 234: Quinze articles qui rappellent une "époque de tensions idéologiques et politiques, temps d'émergence d'une nouvelle notion d'Etat et d'une nouvelle vision du monde, temps de la mélancolie caractérisé par le doute et un sens nouveau de la relativité, par une cassure inédite entre la foi et le savoir."

DOTOLI, GIOVANNI. Littérature et société en France au XVIIe siècle. Faisano: Schena, 2000, Vol. II.

Review: Ph. Hourcade in PFSCL XXIX, 57 (2002): 530–532: A reissuing of previously published articles on a number of topics: "les conditions mentales et historiquement datées de la parole politique, de la fin du XVIe au XVIIe siècle"; Marie de Gournay; Mairet (biography, theater, and correspondence); Adam Billaut's "chansons à boire"; Pierre Boucher's writings on Canada; and three chapters on the writings of the moralistes. Reviewer lauds "la richesse de ce livre."
Review: S. Poli in SFr 135 (2001), 631: Remarkable both by its breadth and depth, this set of studies (vol. I appeared in 1987) demonstrates "la richezza, la vitalità e la continuità del secolo." Poli praises the erudition which characterizes Dotoli's approach, never heavy, to editorial or biographical questions as well as to those of a historical, political, sociological or ideological nature (631).

GARRIGUES, DOMINIQUE. Jardins et jardiniers de Versailles au Grand Siècle. Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 2001.

Review: BCLF 635 (2002), 79–80: Ouvrage qui "fait revivre de nombreux 'orfèvres de la terre': les jardiniers créateurs, puis Le Nôtre et d'autres encore. Une part importante du livre est consacrée à des sujets dont il est plus rarement question, à savoir tout ce qui concerne l'intendance du jardin, le fonctionnement du grand Versailles, les relations entre le roi et les jardiniers." Portrait de Louis XIV "roi jardinier."

GERMA-ROMANN, HELENE. Du "bel mourir" au "bien mourir." Le Sentiment de la mort chez les gentilshommes français (1515–1643). Genève: Droz, 2001.

Review: M. Venard in BHR 63.3 (2001), 673–75: "Rassembler tous les témoignages possibles sur le sens nobiliaire de la mort, l'entreprise, malgré tout, valait d'être tentée. Mais il est dommage que l'auteur n'ait pas davantage pris en compte, pour nourrir ses analyses et son esprit critique, les catégories qu'elle a fort bien distinguées dans sa bibliographie." Selon le recenseur il manque à cet ouvrage "un certain sens du métier d'historien."

GIBSON, WENDY. A Tragic Farce: The Fronde (1648–1653). Exeter: Elm Bank Publications, 1998.

Review: n.a. in FMLS 37 (2001), 100: Mixed appreciation; reviewer not sure that scholars will welcome descriptions such as that of the Duchesse de Longueville as a "blue-eyed blond bombshell" (213) or referencing that is judged less than satisfactory. However the volume seems to achieve its stated object of "narrating the Fronde in a coherent fashion for the benefit of English-speaking francophiles" (1). The Fronde is presented as a 5-act play and translations are provided of 17th c. texts and eyewitness accounts.

GLANVILLE, GORDON. "'In My Lady's Chamber:' The Provenance of the Parisian Mirror Sconces at Knole." Burlington 1191 (2002), 338–344.

Continues Bimbenet-Privat's work on the Knole mirror sconces by examining how they arrived there. Concludes they may have been commissioned, imported from France, or offered as a gift from the French ambassador. However, they were most likely given by Charles II or Catherine of Braganza to Lady Falmouth in 1674.

GROVE, LAURENCE & DANIEL RUSSELL. The French Emblem. Bibliography of Secondary Sources. Genève: Droz, 2000.

Review: J.-C. Margolin in BHR 63.3 (2001), 653–54: ". . .les auteurs proposent une organisation en cinq points de leur bibliographie, correspondant aux cinq chapitres de l'ouvrage: 1) Instruments de recherche; 2) Etudes générales; 3) Précurseurs des emblèmes français; 4) Auteurs des emblèmes français; 5) Applications de l'emblématique." Appendice final qui "recense, par ordre chronologique, les listes des premières éditions des livres français d'emblèmes, jusqu'à l'extrême fin du XVIIIe siècle."
Review: J.-M. Massing in MLR 97.3 (2002), 704–05: "This rich and wide ranging bibliography of French emblematic studies. . . should provide a most solid basis for the next generations of scholars."

HANLEY, SARAH. "European History in Text and Film: Community and Identity in France, 1550–1945." FHS 25 (2002), 3–19.

Describes a course entitled "European History in Text and Film: Community and Identity in France, 1550–1945," which was created to show the relationship between historical texts of an event or period and films based on that same episode or time.

HERSEY, GEORGE L. Architecture and Geometry in the Age of the Baroque. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2001.

Review: K. Downes in TLS 5154 (Jan 11 2002), 26: Author examines "the era's scientific, musical and architectural love of number, shape and proportion." "Baroque architects—and preachers—would admire Hersey's flair for connecting the disparate. But there are too many approximations and miscalculations."

HIBBELER, CORNELIE GERTRUDE. "Deux regards sur l'Amerindien: Marc Lescarbot et Adriaen van der Donck." DAI 63/03 (2002), 931.

Examines French justifications for colonialism in Lescarbot's 1609 Histoire de la Nouvelle France; argues that "his philosophical ideas imply not only a desire to civilize the Indian, the Other, but also a criticism of society: the corruption in France that he has fled and a new social order that he envisions."

HINRICHS, ERNST. Fürsten und Mächte. Zum Problem des europäischen Absolutismus. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000.

Review: P. Fuchs in HZ 273 (2001), 775–776: Found to be a worthwhile treatment (Fuchs does include several corrections in the review). 17th c. French scholars will find much space devoted to Louis XIV, his foreign policy, opposition (such as the Fronde), finances, commerce, military activity, and religion. Bibliography and indices.

HOPKINS, A.G., ed. Globalization in World History. London: Pimlico, 2002.

Review: A. Pagden in TLS 5171 (May 10 2002), 14: An attempt to put current globalization in historical perspective. Hopkins sees globalization as "the increasing interrelatedness of the world's economies after 1600." Essays of high quality, but reviewer finds chronology for globalization somewhat arbitrary.

HUFTON, OLWEN. Frauenleben. Eine europäische Geschichte 1500–1800. Trans.Holger Fliessbach andRena Passenthien. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1998.

Review: U. Gleizuer in HZ 272 (2001), 179–180: This highly readable translation of Hufton's 1995 volume (in English, The Prospect Before Her. A History of Women in Western Europe) is welcome. Comparative, thematically organized and abundant in details, Hufton demonstrates both continuity and change in women's life during this 300 year period.

HUREL, DANIEL-ODON & GERARD LAUDIN, éds. Académies et sociétés savantes en Europe (1650–1800). Paris: Champion, 2000.

Review: D. Williams in MLR 97.3 (2002), 708–09: Collection of twenty-eight articles presented at a November 1995 CNRS colloquium in Rouen. "The volume has been judiciously positioned with the emphasis placed on the intersection between the international and local dimensions of the cultural space inhabited by the academies, and the tensions between their place within a European Republic of Arts and Sciences on the one hand, and the narrower political, social and pedagogical roles that they were obliged to play within specific regional environments on the other."

HUTTON, MARGARET-ANNE, ed. Text(e) Image. Durham: U of Durham, 1999.

Review: n.a. in FMLS 37 (2001), 356–357: These Acts of a conference on text-image interrelationships are wide-ranging, with a useful introduction. The twelve essays include contributions on Poussin, the two Dianas — "de Poitiers" and "de Galles" — as well as on modern French/Francophone culture. Transdisciplinary and leading to the notion of "interesthéticité" (Leduc-Adine), the collection points to "a more complex symbiosis" as it explores "multimedial intertextualities" (357).

JAKUBOWSKI-THIESSEN, MANFRED, ed. Krisen des 17. Jahrhunderts. Interdisziplinäre Perspectiven. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999.

Review: H. Schilling in HZ 273 (2001), 195–199. Highly interdisciplinary and wide-ranging Festschrift for Hartmut Lehmann makes a new and important contribution to the question of the place of the 17th c. in the history of Europe. Among the subjects treated are culture conflicts, the lyric, music theory, landscape painting, among others.

JANCZUKIEWICZ, JEROME. "Le renouvellement de la Paulette en 1648." DSS 214 (2002), 3–14.

A study of the various conditions of the Paulette's renewal and the proliferation of royal legislation pertaining to it throughout 1648. The author concludes that the renewal and its particulary favorable terms for officers points to the weakness of the government at the outset of the Fronde.

KALE, STEVEN D. "Women, the Public Sphere, and the Persistence of Salons." FHS 25 (2002), 115–148.

Although the author focuses primarily on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, he does strive to place the salons in a larger social, political, and cultural context which relates both to the role of the aristocracy and that of women; to do so, he must reach back to the seventeenth century.

KELCH-RADE, CLIVIA & ANUSCHKA TISCHER with KRIEMHILD GORONZY and MICHAEL ROHRSCHNEIDER, eds. Acta Pacis Westphalicae. Ser. 2, Abt. B: Die französischen Korrespondenzen. Vol. 4. Münster: Aschendorff, 1999.

Review: A.V. Hartmann in HZ 272 (2001), 199–201: Period under consideration is June 9–November 23, 1646; documents shed important light on political and military development. The rich material receives careful editorial attention and thematic organization. Notes and biographical notices complete the volume.

KERTZER, DAVID I. & MARZIO BARBAGLI, eds. Family Life in Early Modern Times. 1500–1789. New Haven: Yale UP, 2001.

Review: J. Goody in TLS 5159 (Feb 15 2002), 12: Goody is complimentary of the attention given to the role of religious practices and believes in shaping family structure. He also praises the chapter on the house as the physical basis for family life. He recognizes "fruitful cooperation" between historians of the family and social scientists but wishes the historians had better assimilated anthropological terms for family structures.

LEHMANN, HARTMUT & ANNE-CHARLOTT TREPP, eds. Im Zeichen der Krise. Religiosität im Europa des 17. Jahrhunderts. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999.

Review: H. Schilling in HZ 273 (2001), 195–199: Excellent collection of essays makes fine contribution to the assessment of crisis in Early Modern research. Focusing on the long 17th c., the 27 essays are grouped in sections which treat themes such as (I) Apocalyptics and Prophecy, (II) Epidemics, Famine, Sickness and Death, (III) The Jewish Experience, (IV) Presence of Foreigners, the Secular and the Supernatural, (V) Old and New Science and Interpretations of the World, and (VI) Transformations of the Sacred. The last section includes treatment of Paris politics between 1580 and 1630.

LE PAS DE SÉCHEVAL, ANNE. "Peinture et spiritualité au XVIIe siècle: l'église parisienne des Carmélites de l'Incaration, entre bérullisme et tradition carmélitaine." XVIIe siècle no. 208 (juillet–sept. 2000), 387–406.

Review: S. Poli in SFr 134 (2001), 387: Author reconstructs the church of the convent with its rich collection of frescos and paintings through a close examination of these works. Illustrates, with special attention to Bérulle, the religious controversies of the time and furnishes the reader an articulated frame of a setting and a period.

LE ROY LADURIE, EMMANUEL. Histoire des paysans français, de la peste noire à la révolution. Paris: Seuil; Paris: PUF, 2002.

Review: J. Nicolas in QL 837 (du 1er au 15 septembre 2002): "Toujours dans l'air du temps, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie recoud aujourd'hui en un seul morceau les synthèses rurales qu'il avait naguère signées dans deux ouvrages collectifs. Ainsi rétabli dans son unité et enrichi d'aperçus nouveaux, le parcours se révèle dans toute sa cohérence. (...) Le livre restitue l'histoire du peuple des champs à l'échelle du royaume, des débuts du XIVe siècle à la Révolution."

"Libertines and Homosexuality." MLA Convention 1998, PFSCL XXVII, 53 (2000), 417–444.

Review: C. Bernazzoli in SFr 133 (2001), 138: Two communications focus on this subject, the first by Randy P.L. Conner treats Claude Le Petit, his sensuality, pantheistic vision of life and epicurism. Leonard Hinds examines the trial of Théophile de Viau, demonstrating the power of the label "libertino ateo e sodomita."

LIEBERSOHN, HARRY. Aristocratic Encounters: European Travelers and North-American Indians. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998.

Review: n.a. in FMLS 37 (2001), 104: "Meticulously documented volume" focuses on the 18th and 19th c., revealing travelers' "empathy with native peoples." 17th c. scholars will benefit from his examination of French representations of the Indians. The analysis begins with the year 1682.

LIGNEREUX, YANN. "Les trois corps du roi.' Les entrées d'Henri IV à Lyon, 1594–1596." DSS 212 (2001), 405– 415.

Looking at three distinct "moments," Lignereux studies how the image of royal power is produced over time. In addition to marking Henri's triumph over the once rebellious city, these instances, which encompass the king's actual presence and a portrait of the king, "véritable substitut de la personne royale," seek to emblematize the on-going reconciliation of the king and the city.

LOHR, EVELYNE. Le 1er Arrondissement: itinéraires d'histoire et d'architecture. Paris: Délégation à l'action artistique de la Ville de Paris, 2000.

Review: BCLF 634 (2002), 62: Lohr "retrace à grands traits l'histoire de l'arrondissement, longtemps confondue avec celle de Paris: développement du pouvoir royal et de ses institutions, évolution de l'approvisionnement de la ville, transformation de celle-ci par le jeu du développement de ses enceintes." Découverte de plusieurs hôtels des 17e-18e siècles dans le quartier des Halles.

LORENZ, MAREN. Leibhaftige Vergangenheit. Einführung in die Körpergeschichte. Tübingen: diskord, 2000.

Review: F. Fritzen in HZ 273 (2001), 111–112: A fluent and solid overview of the history of the body, Lorenz's study is welcome and informative, treating the subject chronologically from Antiquity. Includes consideration of the symbolic as well as practices and rituals concerning the body.

MASSIP, CATHERINE. L'art de bien chanter: Michel Lambert (1610–1696). Paris: Société française de musicologie, 1999.

Review: H. Schneider in Revue de Musicologie 88 (2002), 210–214: Une monographie "attendue depuis longtemps," divisée en trois parties : cinq chapitres biographiques dont celui sur 'le maître de chant' est particulièrement recommandé, une deuxième partie consacrée à l'œuvre de Lambert et pour finir plus de vingt pages de documentation. "Au total, ce livre est digne du compositeur et de l'époque qu'il traite."

MEEK, CHRISTINE, ed. Women in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000.

Review: C. Levin in RenQ 54 (2001), 1602–1603: Praises the "many very fine pieces" in this collection which grew out of the 1998 conference at Trinity College, but regrets the absence of a coherent theme (1602). Reviewer notes that "France, particularly in the 17th c., is very well represented" (1603), singling out essays by Derval Conroy (on representation of queens), Carol Baxter (ideas on the body among the nuns of Port-Royal) and Susanne Reid (on representations of motherhood during Louis XIV's reign).

MERRICK, JEFFREY & BRYANT T. RAGAN JR., eds. Homosexuality in Early Modern France: A Documentary Collection. New York, Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001.

Review: E.M. Langille in FS 56.1 (2002), 234–235: "Merrick and Ragan present an astonishing collection of well-translated documents" on the subject; these include mazarinades and writings by theologians and men of letters.

MONCOND'HUY, DOMINIQUE. "Galérie et livre d'entrée (à propos de l'entrée de Louis XIII à Paris en 1628)." DSS 212 (2001), 441–455.

A detailed study of the official book produced after the 1628 entry, this essay examines the role of the modern galérie in the construction of political ideology. Using both the written text and accompanying images, the essay demonstrates that the royal entry transforms urban space into the site of multiple representations and that the gallery in particular facilitates "une nouvelle conception de l'espace de la représentation . . .."

MONTADON, ALAIN, éd. Bibliographie des traités de savoir-vivre en Europe du Moyen-Age à nos jours. Clermont-Ferrand: Association des Publications de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, 1995. 2 vols.

Review: V. Kapp in RF 113 (2001), 278–279: Chronologically arranged, this bibliography is impressive by its breadth and the importance of items included for questions concerning education, ethics, theology and politics. Montadon circumscribes the material included as follows: "tout texte dans lequel les considérations concernant les interactions sociales sont premières" (vol. 1, viii). Kapp supplies several 17th c. omissions but praises the whole as meritorious, copious and highly informative. Montadon's enterprise demonstrates "l'extraordinaire fécondité du genre littéraire compris sous le terme générique de traité de savoir-vivre" (vii) and its significance for the whole of culture. Twelve essays treat the theme from the Middle Ages to the present; 17th c. specialists will particularly appreciate E. Bury's "A la recherche d'une synthèse française de la civilité: l'honnêteté et ses sources."

MOSER, WALTER &NICOLAS GOYER,dir. Résurgences baroques. Bruxelles: La Lettre volée, 2001.

Review: BCLF 634 (2002), 56: "Le baroque est ici considéré comme un processus culturel, comme une 'manière de faire' en matière esthétique, dont la dimension historique s'étend du XVIIe siècle à nos jours, et dont la dimension géographique traverse l'espace mondial, de l'Europe à l'Amérique."

NICOLAS, JEAN. La Rébellion française. Mouvements populaires et conscience sociale, 1661–1789. Paris: Seuil, 2002.

Review: D. Roche in QL 825 (du 16 au 28 fév. 2002), 21–22: "C'est dans le cadre de la France, entre classicisme et Lumières, que le dispositif complet de cette enquête collective aboutit à des résultats assurés et convaincants. Il faut donc déjà saluer la performance qui en décentralisant, élargissant, creusant une documentation pléthorique et pourtant souvent lacunaire, a réuni en un récit cohérent la vague des gestes et des cris contestataires afin de les rendre intelligibles. Le phénomène rébellionnaire est réintégré dans un ensemble vital dont aucune dimension n'échappe et où se joue la question majeure des anciennes sociétés comme celle des nôtres : quelle forme de dialogue peut se créer entre les pouvoirs, les élites qui gouvernent, administrent, enseignent, et façonnent les esprits, les dominés privés de moyens d'expression reconnus sinon de force d'expression revendicatrice et de violence répétée."

NITSCHKE, PETER. Einführung in die politische Theorie des Prämoderne 1500–1800. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2000.

Review: L. Schorn-Schütte in HZ 272 (2001), 182–183: Develops in four discourses the crucial debate concerning political "Legitimation" and the principle of better government during the Early Modern Period. Of particular interest to Renaissance and 17th c. scholars is the discussion of the relationship between sacerdotium and regnum.

OZMENT, STEVEN. Ancestors: The Loving Family in Old Europe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2001.

Review: J.F. Harrington in RenQ 55 (2002), 316–318: Finds that "this book performs an important public service, stripping our lay contemporaries of facile generalizations" (317) as it counters the work of Philippe Ariès and others who hold that "sentimentality and affection were largely alien to the premodern household" (317). Ozment relies heavily on qualitative sources, saints' lives, confessional manuals, letters, family archives. Reviewer believes these sources may be highly useful for micro-histories but is concerned about generalizations drawn from them.

PARROTT, DAVID. Richelieu's Army. War, Government and Society in France, 1624–42. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001.

Review: F.J. Baumgartner in CHOICE 39, 9 (2002), 1653: A study of the administration of the army during Richelieu's ministry that focuses on matters of cost, size, recruitment, and the relationships between commanders and the government. Argues that "the pressures of war did not enhance the authority of the monarchy over the grands, who served as commanders of the royal army." Contests the thesis that "centralized royal power over the army went hand-in-hand with enhanced authority over society as a whole."
Review: T. Rabb in TLS 5163 (Mar 15 2002), 11: Presents Richelieu's army as a counterexample to that of Louis XIV. The grands remained essential to the military effort, despite Richelieu's goal of reducing their power. Clientage and local patronage networks were central to recruiting efforts and to the organization of finances. "Corruption, disorder, and fiscal and administrative shortfalls" prevented "the kind of strong, centralized effort that has long been associated with Richelieu." This is "a monumental study, which not only puts a definitive stamp on its subject but sets a high standard for all future military historians."

PASQUIER, PIERRE, éd. Le Temps au XVIIe siècle. Toulouse/Paris: Société littéraire de littératures classiques/Champion, 2001.

Review: BCLF 635 (2002), 96: Volume thématique assorti d'une bibliographie critique qui réunit dix-sept contributions dans des domaines variés: "de la poésie lyrique ou spirituelle, du théâtre, de l'emblématique, da la peinture, de la sculpture, de l'opéra, de la musique sacrée, de la littérature narrative et de la méditation philosophique."

PERCIVAL, MELISSA. The Appearance of Character: Physiognomy and Facial Expression in Eighteenth Century France. Leeds: W.S. Maney, 1999.

Review: n.a. in FMLS 38 (2002), 238: Percival challenges the generally accepted view of physiognomy as relatively unimportant in the 18th c. Although the 18th c. figures heavily in title and thrust of volume, the period under consideration begins with Le Brun's 1668 Conférence sur l'expression générale et particulière. Found to be a "fascinating and illuminating study which extends the view put forward by Louis Van Delft, among others, that the caractères sketched by moralistes of the 17th and the 18th c. move away from the static."

PEROUSE DE MONTCLOS, JEAN-MARIE. L'Architecture à la française du milieu du XVe à la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Picard, 2001.

Review: BCLF 634 (2002), 62–62: Etude de l'ensemble de pratiques et de techniques architecturales de la construction qui dépasse "la traditionnelle approche stylistique de l'histoire de l'art opérant par l'application de notions aussi commodes que vagues. . ." Développements importants du classicisme.

PHILLIPS, HENRY. "Les acteurs et la loi au XVIIe siècle en France." Littératures classiques no. 40 (2000), 87–101.

Review: C. Rizza in SFr 135 (2001), 634–635. Phillips's contribution to this volume on "Droit et Littérature" re-examines in depth the problem of the comédien and the law by a close study of a series of Italian texts, including apostolic bulles. Makes reference as well to the fine criticism of J. Dubu and P. Olagnier.

PIOFFET, MARIE-CHRISTINE. "L'épreuve de la traversée dans les relations de voyage en Nouvelle-France: entre réalité et fiction." EFL 38 (novembre 2001), 129–157.

With an examination of numerous texts taken from both explorers such as Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain, etc., and from missionaries such as Pierre Biard, Gabriel Sagard, etc., Pioffet wishes to show "les différentes stratégies par lesquelles les voyageurs tentent de masquer les revers de leur entreprise en Nouvelle-France."

POWELL, JOHN S. Music and Theater in France 1600–1680. Oxford Monographs on Music. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000.

Review: B. Norman in FR 76, 1 (2002), 120–21: argues that a comprehensive study of musical theater during the French seventeenth century is needed to demonstrate the important role that music played in the theater; demonstrates the popularity of music as both an intellectual and a sensual pleasure for spectators. Provides "a useful overview of the repertory, institutions, playwrights, and actors during the period," and offers "detailed and insightful analysis [of] almost every comedy, tragicomedy, comedy-ballet, and pastoral in the corpus, organized by genre and by the place and function of the music used in the plays." Works are examined in the overall context of musical theater, looking back to Renaissance ballets and choruses and ahead to opera. Includes "a list of secular plays with music, an index of more than 300 sung lyrics, and 85 pages of excerpts from the works discussed."

QUIN, ECKEHARD. Personenrechte und Widerstandsrecht in der katholischen Widerstandslehre Frankreichs und Spaniens um 1600. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1999.

Review: I. Mieck in HZ 273 (2001), 200–210: Generally dismissive review points out uneven quality and omissions of this volume which includes discussions of the political ideas and discussions of the Ligue.

RACEVSKIS, ROLAND. "Time, Postal Practices, and Daily Life in Mme de Sévigné's Letters." EMF 7 (2001), 29–47.

In an examination of the cultural and political history of the postal system during the reign of Louis XIV, the author highlights how the structure of regimented time is reflected in Mme de Sévigné's writing.

RIETBERGEN, PETER. Europe. A Cultural History. London: Routledge, 1998.

Review: B. Roeck in HZ 272 (2001), 402–404: Reviewer has few kind words for this astounding undertaking: 2,000 years of history treated in 500 pages (402). Reviewer finds the cultural history to lack any perceptible theoretical model and to omit crucial moments such as the Wars of Religion.

ROBERTS, WILLIAM. "The Tuileries Gardens of Le Nôtre, seen by Perelle, Silvestre, and Others." Classical Unities: Place, Time, Action. Actes de Tulane, ed. E. R. Koch. Biblio 17, 131 (2002), 57–67.

Analysis of various 17th c. engraved views and maps, supplemented by textual references, which allow readrs to trace the scenic development of the gardens over a twenty-year period from 1664. An original connection between isolated documents at the B.N. Cabinet des Estampes supplies a lettered key to Perelle's Plan, which clarifies the architect's intentional symmetry in design. The five accompanying illustrations are essential, but small and not as clear as their originals.

ROHOU, JEAN. Le XVII siècle, Une révolution de la condition humaine. Paris: Seuil, 2002.

Review: A. Viala in QL 833 (du 16 au 30 juin 2002), 19–20: "Il n'avait guère été question de révolution jusqu'ici pour le XVIIe siècle. (...) Jean Rohou pour sa part y discerne une révolution. A quatre indices : la montée de l'amour-propre, l'expansion de l'augustinisme rigoriste, le délitement du classicisme après 1678, et l'essor européen, de Shakespeare à Calderón et Racine, d'une 'littérature tragique.' Jean Rohou s'est ici engagé dans un grand livre. Par le volume (670 pages, nanties de deux index, bibliographie et table des matières détaillée). Et par le propos. Car non seulement il s'agit d'y voir le XVIIe siècle sous les couleurs de la révolution, mais, davantage, de parcourir l'Histoire dans la longue durée pour tracer les chemins de celle-ci pour justifier le terme et la thèse."

RÖSENER, WERNER, ed. Kommunikation in der ländlichen Gesellschaft vom Mittelalter bis zur Moderne. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000.

Review: E. Lacour in HZ 273 (2001), 126–127: Diverse and highly interdisciplinary collection of studies includes treatment of archeology trade, cultural hegemony, public and private sphere.

ROYER, JEAN-PIERRE. Histoire de la justice en France. Paris: PUF, 2001.

Review: J.-P. Jean in Esprit (juin 2002), 221–22: "Cet ouvrage de référence [3e éd.] est une histoire politique de la justice. L'auteur trace classiquement l'histoire de la justice royale à compter de 1661, puis rappelle les grands débats des 'révolutions de la justice' entre 1789 et 1889 avant de s'ouvrir sur 'la justice républicaine', depuis l'affaire Dreyfus jusqu'à la période contemporaine."

RUBIES, JOAN-PAU. Travel and Ethnology in the Renaissance. South India through European Eyes, 1250–1625.

Review: L.A. Gordon in RenQ 55 (2002), 318–319: Finds that Rubies "has transformed this modest field [the analysis of travelers' accounts] into one of high accomplishment" (318). Focuses include cultural and intellectual history and while sources do not include Indian language sources, they do include "materials in half a dozen European languages" (318). Limiting himself geographically to Vijayanagar, the the southern Deccan region, Rubies challenges recent critics such as Edward Said. Rubies shows the concerns of both missionary and traveler in this "masterful work" (319).

SALEWSKI, MICHAEL. Geschichte Europas. Staaten und Nationen von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. München: Beck, 2000.

Review: K. Hildebrand in HZ 272 (2001), 400–402: Hildebrand characterizes Salewski's study as an opus magnum and declares it to be an "imposing achievement" (402). 17th c. scholars will appreciate discussions of humanism, capitalistic tradition and of Louis XIV and Absolutism. Impressive by its erudition and unhesitatingly scientific character.

SALMON, J.H.M. "A Second Look at the Noblesse Seconde: The Key to Noble Clientage and Power in Early Modern France?" FHS 25 (2002), 575–593.

Recounts the evolution of the concept of the noblesse seconde in modern thought and examines the various influences these so-called "second-tier nobles" may have had on the French monarchy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

SAUNDERS, ALISON. The Seventeenth-Century French Emblem: A Study in Diversity. Genève: Droz, 2000.

Review: A. Adams in MLR 97.2 (2002), 426–27: "This book gives a real sense, not only of the diversity of emblematic phenomena in the seventeenth century, but, at the same time, of the century itself. It should enable all those working in the period to appreciate the centrality of this aspect of French culture."
Review: A. Arrigoni in SFr 134 (2001), 386–387: This interesting study details the evolution of the genre, its renewal and expansion. Saunders analyzes representative samples of a general type, of Christian or devotional type and of a polyglot type (often relating to love). Structure, style and intent are examined as are the diverse functions, often the glorification of the great. Important and detailed bibliography.
Review: A.-E. Spica in PFSCL XXIX, 56 (2002): 276–278: Reviewer lauds Saunders' "parfaite connaissance du terrain," noting that "la description matérielle des éditions est fort bien établie, tout comme le réperage et la comparaison des exemplaires. Le résultat donne un livre solidement informé, très annoté, muni d'une abondante bibliographie, qui présente un panorama large autant que varié d'un genre particulièrement prisé à l'âge moderne." First chapter presents a historical and cultural framework, covering material from Vulson de la Colombière to Ménestrier. Flemish influences are also accounted for, followed by "un parcours de l'emblématique française en matière de religion" with reference to Richeome, Berthod, Perrot de La Sale, and Georgette de Montenay, and then on 《 glorification royale 》 with reference to Félibien and Le Brun. Reviewer cites minor problems, for example, the lack of distinction made between French emblems and French-language emblems. Overall, however, the reviewer calls the work "un ensemble exemplaire. . . soigneusement illustré. . . d'une grande qualité."

SCHMITTER, AMY M. "Representation and the Body of Power in French Academic Painting." JHI 63.3 (2002), 399–424.

Extending a concept of representation modeled on written texts to the realm of painting, Schmitter demonstrates that images developed by Le Brun and the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture shaped "state power as the embodied royal power of a particular moment of French absolutism. . .."

SCHNEIDER, NORBERT. Geschichte der Landschaftsmalerei. Vom Spätmittelalter bis zur Romantik. Darmstadt: Primus, 1999.

Review: A. Schwarz in HZ 272 (2001), 404–405: Traces history of landscape painting from the later Middle Ages to the Romantic Era, from the stylistic and stereotypic through the allegorical and emblematic, to the 16th and 17th c. geo- and anthropocentric periods. Good quality reproductions.

SCHNEIDER, ROBERT A. "Political Power and the Emergence of Literature: Christian Jouhaud's Age of Richelieu." FHS 25 (2002), 357–380.

A "review essay" that both summarizes and critiques Christian Jouhaud's Les pouvoirs de la littérature: Histoire d'un paradoxe (Paris, 2000). According to Schneider, this well-done if narrowly focused study of the relationship between the development of literature and that of political power is "a work that deserves to be placed on the shelf next to two other recent studies of the period, Alain Viala's Naissance de l'écrivain (Paris, 1985), and Public et littérature en France au XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1994), by Jouhaud's sometime collaborator, Hélèn [sic] Merlin."

STRUDY, DAVID J. Fractured Europe: 1600–1721. Blackwell, 2002.

Review: D.C. Baxter in CHOICE 40, 2 (2002), 349: A survey of seventeenth-century Europe that is part of Blackwell's "History of Europe" series. Intended for teachers, students, and general readers, the book covers all of Europe, including the Mediterranean region, northern Europe, and the Ottoman Empire, rather than Western Europe alone. Organized around a political and diplomatic narrative, it also examines, in less detail, economic, social, and cultural themes.

SUPPA, SILVIO. "Raison et passion dans le paradigme politique." Les Méditerranées du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIe colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. Ed. G. Dotoli. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag (Biblio 17), 2002: 257–270.

Suppa maintains that in the 17th century, "la pensée politique française semble attentive à maintenir l'héritage de la tradition méditerranéenne en matière de raison d'Etat et à l'adapter aux nouvelles conditions historiques." Studies the relationship between passion and reason in Richelieu's Testament politique, with additional reference to Gabriel Naudé and Pierre Gassendi.

TERRIER, DIDER. Histoire économique de la France d'Ancien Régime. Paris: Hachette, 1998.

Review: I. Mieck in HZ 273 (2001), 455–456: Concentrates on the market, treating the consumer, the market's response and production. Chronologically organized according to three periods: 1480–1570, 1570–1720, 1720–1790. Volume is rich in substance but of somewhat difficult access in critical apparatus such as indices. Bibliography is incomplete and references are lacking to German language research.

THORNTON, PETER. Form and Decoration. Innovation in the Decorative Arts, 1470–1870. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1998.

Review: T. Clifford in Burlington 1191 (2002), 359. An "excellent read, explaining the complex spread and development of design throughout Europe over four centuries." It is destined for a popular audience; the reviewer finds this focus causes ideas to be "simplified and sometimes a little eccentric." The book lacks a bibliography, though some sources are cited in the text, but does contain a "wealth of illustrations," even if these are occasionally poorly reproduced. Overall, "yet another testament to the many talents of Peter Thornton, the reigning doyen of furniture studies."

TREASURE, GEOFFREY. Louis XIV. Longman, 2001.

Review: D.J. Heimmermann in CHOICE 40, 2 (2002), 349: a "complete and balanced study of the reign of Louis XIV" that "examines both the Sun King's influence and his personal qualities, detaching Louis from royal mystique and propaganda." Demonstrates that absolutism was less powerful than proposed in political theory, and shows how the monarchy "was limited by the terms on which it secured its authority." Also includes profiles of Colbert, Bossuet, Fenelon, and others.

VAILLANCOURT, DANIEL. "La ville des entrées royales: entre transfiguration et défiguration." DSS 212 (2001), 491–508.

A rich study of the multiple changes put into effect in preparation for and during the king's entry, including transformation of the urban space through a series of ordonnances that modified everyday life. Vaillancourt notes also that the official relations often silence the themes of domination and conquest underlying the entry in favor of a narration of the joy of triumph. Finally, the essay considers some of the reasons why the entrée royale became obsolete.

VEYRIN-FORRER, T. Précis d'héraldique. Nouvelle édition revue et mise à jour par M. Popoff. Paris: Larousse, 2000.

Review: J. Filée in ECl 69 (2001), 474: La rédition d'un ouvrage datant de 1951 qui contient 32 chapitres révisés par M. Popoff, conservateur au Cabinet de Médailles de la BNF. L'ouvrage propose au lecteur "un aperçu complet [. . .] depuis les notions fondamentales jusqu'aux détails des figures et des ornements" ainsi qu' "une bibliographie sélective," le tout dans un "remarquable ouvrage comportant quarante planches de blasons et seize illustrations en pleine page."

VISENTIN, HELENE. "Des tableaux vivants à la machine d'architecture dans les entrées royales lyonnaises (XVIe-XVIIe siècles)." DSS 212 (2001), 419–428.

A fascinating study of how and why tableaux vivants common to royal entries came to be replaced by decorative architectural elements. This mutation, Visentin argues, is intimately linked to a change in the representation of political power: in the 16th century, the political instrument that was the entrée affirmed "la ville face au roi". Later, it was the king who affirmed "sa puissance face à la ville qui l'accueille."

WAGNER, MARIE-FRANCE. "De la ville de province en paroles et en musique à la ville silencieuse ou la disparition de l'entrée royale sous Louis XIII." DSS 212 (2001), 457–475.

Essay deals with the temporal and spatial importance accorded to oratory in the entrée and elaborates several reasons for the decline of the ritual, linked in part to the shift in political power from urban centers to the state as embodied in the absolutist monarch.

WAHL, ELIZABETH SUSAN. Invisible Relations: Representations of Female Intimacy in the Age of Enlightenment. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1999.

Review: H. Andreadis in SCN 59:3 (2002), 289–291: Covering several centuries, this book "makes an important contribution to the study of women, gender, and sexuality during the early modern period by synthesizing a broad range of sources, from early modern pornographic and medical texts to the poetry of Katherine Philips, and by examining French as well as English materials." Wahl focuses on narratives by men, emphasizing female sexuality as viewed through male anxiety and prejudice. The author argues principally that "discourses of 'companionate' marriage. . .serve an increasingly militant heteronormativity. . .." A comparatist, Wahl also examines "the transmission of sexual knowledge, especially through pornography, between France and England."
Review: D. Steinberger in PFSCL XXVIII, 55 (2001), 562–563: "Wide-ranging and extremely well-documented study which seeks to demonstrate an increasing consciousness of female homosexuality from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century in England and France. Wahl writes of the evolution of erotic ties between women from 'invisible relations' to an 'open secret,' both from the point of view of contemporaries and of literary critics. She traces the growth of this awareness, and renders erotic relations between early modern women more visible, through her skillful close readings by a rich and intriguing variety of male and female French and English writers; these texts include legal and medical treatises on hermaphroditism, poetic and epistolary expressions of love between women, and libertine literary representations of the tribade." Includes reference to Brantôme, Saint-Pavin, Benserade, and Pontus de Tyard, Madeleine de Scudéry, Catherine Descartes, the Abbé de Pure, Saint-Evremond, and Nicolas Chorier.

WIESNER-HANKS, MERRY E. Christianity and Sexuality in the Early Modern World. Regulating Desire, Reforming Practice. London: Routledge, 2000.

Review: R. Jütte in HZ 272 (2001), 186–188: Recommends a German translation of Wiesner-Hanks's wide-ranging study of the role of Christianity in Early Modern sexuality. Wiesner-Hanks's impressive knowledge is evident in her arguments and clearly organized presentation as well as in the bibliographies that follow each chapter. Succeeds in this ambitious undertaking which is not limited to Europe, but treats the entire zone of Christendom.

WINE, HUMPHREY. National Gallery Catalogues. The Seventeenth-Century French Painters. New Haven, London: The National Gallery Company Ltd., 2001.

Review: P. Rosenburg in Burlington 1193 (2002), 507–508. Although the National Gallery Collection itself has significant gaps, such as no works by La Tour, Vouet, or Le Brun, it is to the reviewer's mind a beautiful collection, and Wine's catalogue is worthy of it. It is well-researched, contains excellent technical notes, and well-produced color reproductions. A catalogue "which should stand as an example to be followed by other museums."

WOLFTHAL, DIANE. Images of Rape: The "Heroic" Tradition and its Alternatives. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999.

Review: n.a. in FMLS 37 (2001), 360: "Persuasive and profusely annotated," the volume "explores the depiction of rape in European art, book prints and other records of visual culture" from the 12th to the 17th centuries. Argues convincingly against Foucault's pre-Victorian "homogeneous" conception of sexuality. Treats both canonical and non-canonical materials including legal treatises and war-illustrations. A case in point is Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women.

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