French 17 FRENCH 17

2004 Number 52

PART III: PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE AND RELIGION

ANKARLOO, BENGT and STUART CLARK, eds. Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, V. 4. U Pennsylvania P, 2003.

Review: L.R.N. Ashley in BHR 66,1 (2004), 171–72: "It consists of the following: William Monter (Northwestern)'s 'Witch Trials in Continental Europe (1560–1660)' with an emphasis on civil and ecclesiastical court proceedings; Bengt Ankarloo (Lund)'s 'Witch Trials in Northern Europe (1450–1700)'involving Britain and Finland, etc.; and Stuart Clark (Wales at Swansea)'s 'Witchcraft and Magic in Early Modern Europe' with a preference for examining 'the realm of belief and ideas'. The lot adds up to a group of valuable approaches to an important topic in the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries."

BEDUELLE, GUY. La Réforme du Catholicisme (1480–1620). Paris: Cerf, 2002.

Review: BCLF 649 (2003), 22–23: Cet ouvrage "propose, en douze courts chapitres, un parcours à la fois clair et convaincant qui permet de comprendre les enjeux historiques, politiques, ecclésiastiques, théologiques et moraux des réformes religieuses qui modifient profondément l'Occident chrétien au seuil de la modernité."

BIRNSTIEL, ECKHARD, ed. La Diaspora des Huguenots: les Réfugiés protestants de France et leur dispersion dans le monde (XVIe–XVIIe siècles). Paris: Champion, 2001.

Review: H. Phillips in MLR 99.1 (2004), 194–95: Work points to changes in the direction of studies concerning the Church of the Refuge: "Clearly, both terms in the latter expression should now be in the plural form, since a homogeneous history of Protestant emigration no longer stands the test of evidence, if it ever did. Indeed, the second term determines the first in the range of solutions required to accommodate the immense variety of situations and the differing roles of the churches encountered in contact with the host communities."
Review: G. Schrenck in RF 115 (2003): 390–392: Highly laudable review of these proceedings of a 1995 colloquium at Castres and at Ferrières (Tarn). Finds the great originality of the collection of essays to be its open stance, considering the problematic not only from religious but also from political, economic, demographic and socio-cultural perspectives. The welcome and the integration of many countries (South Africa, Germany, Holland, the Americas, British Isles, etc.) is as clear as is the hostility of France. The "savantes et passionnantes études" treat mechanisms of integration, modification of mentalities and progressive reestablishment of identities (390). Highly informative and suggestive for future scholarship with fine bibliography, valuable tables of statistics and indices.

BLAY, MICHEL. "De l'apparition subreptice des futures formules de conservation à l'occasion de l'algorithmisation de la science du mouvement au tournant des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles." RSHA 54.3 (2001): 291–301.

"[F]ocuses on French scientist and mathematician Pierre Varignon's works... [E]mphasizes the close connection between what governed the mathematical structure of principles of conservation and the practice of the differential calculus linked to the genesis of the science of motion at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries."

BLAY, MICHEL. L'Homme sans repos: du mouvement de la Terre à l'esthétique métaphysique de la vitesse (XVIIe – XXe siècles). Paris: Armand Colin, 2002.

Review: BCLF 646 (2003), 16–17: "M. Blay déploie les perspectives d'une esthétique métaphysique de la vitesse en quatre chapitres. Dans les deux premiers, il retrace l'histoire de la mise en mouvement de la terre, grâce au travaux de Copernic, mais aussi à l'oeuvre de Newton... Le troisième chapitre raconte l'introduction du concept de vitesse grâce au calcul différentiel et intégral puis, surtout, grâce à la construction de l'algorithme de la cinématique, entre les XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Le quatrième chapitre, enfin, ainsi que l'épilogue, déploient les figures de la vitesse, telles que les machines et finalement une véritable esthétique ont pu les introduire au sein de la culture moderne, pour en faire un véritable culte de la puissance, de la maîtrise du temps et de l'espace."

BOECKL, CHRISTINE M. Images of Plague and Pestilence; Iconography and Iconology. Kirksville, MO: Truman State UP, 2000.

Review: E. D. Howe in Ren Q 56 (2003): 205–206: Reviewer is not altogether happy with Boeckl's approach (Howe suggests instead an exploration of case studies of core works) and the, at times, "short shrift" given to scholarship since 1970. Howe nevertheless has praise for Boeckl's emphasis on "theological underpinnings" and her "placing the art of northern and southern Europe in dialogue and extending that contact to the New World" (206). 17th c. scholars will note the chapter entitled: "The Tridentine World: Plague Paintings as Implementations of Catholic Reforms (1600–1775)."

BRANCHER, DOMINIQUE. "Les Ambiguïtés de la pudeur dans le discours médical (1570–1620)." CAEIF 55 (2003), 275–297.

One of a series of papers delivered at the LIVe Congrès de l'Association (2002) under the auspices of Louis Van Delft on the subject of "littérature et anatomie (XVIe–XVIIe siècle)." Here Brancher examines the early days of French medical discourse as practitioners and philosophers grapple with the appropriation and development of their own language, terminology, and reasoning, leaving behind the traditional medical Latin-language treatise. An inescapable tension arises between the necessity for anatomical exposure / description or any form of overt discussion in medical science and the increasingly strict rules of modesty that preclude all vulgarity in the public domain, particularly concerning any sexual / libidinous organs / function.

BRAZEAU, BRIAN JAMES. "La réflexion qu'ils feront sur eux-mêmes: Empire and identity in Early New France (1604–1632)." DAI 64/6 (2003), 2106.

Argues that the creation of an overseas namesake" was the site of an important and sustained reflection on aspects of 'Frenchness.'" Examines texts by Marc Lescarbot, Gabriel Sagard, Samuel Champlain, and Jesuit missionaries.

CABANEL, PATRICK. Juifs et Protestants en France. Les Affinités électives: XVIe–XXIe siècle. Paris: Fayard, 2004.

Review: BCLF 661 (2004), 22: "L'histoire retracée dans Juifs et protestants en France: les affinités électives, qui couvre la période s'étendant du XVIe siècle à aujourd'hui, révèle comment une frange de la société française rompt dès la Réformation avec l'antijudaïsme chrétien et l'enseignement du mépris (qui disparaît dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle)."

CABANTOUS, ALAIN. Entre fêtes et clochers: profane et sacré dans l'Europe moderne XVIIe – XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Fayard, 2002.

Review: BCLF 640 (2002), 145: "...cet ouvrage porte un joli titre. Mais celui-ci dissimule une conception réductrice de la vie religieuse des Français des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Il est d'ailleurs présenté comme étant 'moins une histoire des manifestations du sacré qu'une histoire sociale et culturelle de son organisation avec le profane'."

CANOVAS, FREDERIC & DAVID WETSEL, eds. Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Ceremonies and rituals in XVIIth century France. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), Vol. 4. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlage, 2002. Individual articles summarized in the appropriate sections.

CARR, THOMAS M. "Remi de Beauvais's La Magdeleine (1617) and the apostolorum apostola Tradition" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 139–49.

Beauvais' Mary-Magdalene does not fit the most common model of a penitent and contemplative mystic that dominated the seventeenth-century. He instead portrays her as an apostola apostolorum who announces the resurrection and becomes a preacher herself. Beauvais' Magdalene is not a role model for women, but rather a "vehicle for presenting doctrine in a non-technical way suitable to women."

CARVALLO, SARAH. "Chimie et scepticisme: Heritage et ruptures d'une science. Analyse du Chimiste sceptique, 1661, Robert Boyle." RSHA 55.4 (2002): 451–92.

Examines Boyle's criticism of "Aristotelian and Paracelsian definitions of chemical objects" and his establishment of "a new methodology in chemistry that conformed to the requirements of experimental philosophy while avoiding a Cartesian-style reduction."

CHAREIX, FABIEN. "La découverte des lois du choc par Christian Huygens." RSHA 56.1 (2003): 15–58.

Analyzes how Huygens discovered the laws of motion of bodies after collision based on his manuscripts, where his engagement in the pursuit of finding a descriptive kinematics and the steps of that process are clearer than in his printed texts.

CHARRAK, ANDRE. "Huygens et la théorie musicale." RHSA 56.1 (2003): 59–78.

Huygens's writings on musical theory examine not only technical matters but links between music and mathematics, the physical explanation of consonance, and the historical development of future possibilities in music, proposing a theory of baroque harmony, here put in context.

CLAVELIN, MAURICE. Galilée copernicien: le premier combat (1610–1616). Paris: Albin Michel, 2004.

Review: BCLF 661 (2004), 11–12: Le but de cet ouvrage est de "comprendre et faire comprendre pourquoi Galilée, bravant hostilité et dangers, s'engagea dès 1610 dans un combat passionnée en faveur de Copernic."

CLOSSON, MARIANNE. "L'invention d'une 'littérature de la peur': le temps de la chasse aux sorcières." TL 16 (2003): 47–63.

Demonstrates that contrary to what is generally thought, "la sorcière est... une figure des temps modernes, contemporaire... de Descartes, et non du Moyen Age" (48). Includes treatment in literature (Pierre de Lancre, Bossuet) and art (Jacques de Gheyn II, Claude Gillot) of representations of "religieuses possédées." Underscores the remarkable success of works such as the Histoires tragiques de notre temps by François Rosset (more than 35 editions beginning with that of 1614) as well as the larger fascination of the subject and its function in multiple literary genres (57, 62).

DAHIER, ANDREA. Les Singularités de la France Equinoxiale. Histoire de la mission des pères capucins au Brésil (1612–1615). Paris: Champion, 2002.

Review: C. Skenazi in BHR 65,3 (2003), 773–75: "Le livre d'Andrea Dahier cherche à tracer des liens entre un projet d'évangélisation française au Brésil du début du dix-septième siècle, les visées colonisatrices de la monarchie, et une conception ethnographique. Les trois parties de l'ouvrage offrent chacune une perspective différente sur la mission des pères capucins à Maragnan."

DAHLINGER, JAMES, S.J. "Liturgy and Last Things in the Grand Siècle: The Requiem High Mass For The Feast of All Souls" [sic] in Frédéric Canovas & David Wetsel, eds., Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Ceremonies and rituals in XVIIth century France. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), Vol. 4. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlage, 2002: 169–180.

This article offers a description and explanation of the Tridentine rite requiem mass conducted during the North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature conference in Tempe, AZ in 2001.

DE COURCELLES, DOMINIQUE. "La conquête d'un savoir raisonnable: l'Histoire naturelle et moralle [sic] des Indes, tant Orientalles [sic] qu'Ocidentalles [sic] du P. Jésuite José Acosta, 1598" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 311–321.

An analysis of the originality of Acosta's work which marks a shift in the criteria of scientific knowledge of both nature and human cultures. It allows us to see how the scientific criteria of history are not universal features but rather an early-modern invention.

DELPORTE, CHRISTOPHE. "Religiosité populaire ou dévoiement? Fêtes, pèlerinages et merveilleux dans les provinces septentrionales au XVIIe siècle. Quelques aspects de la censure cléricale" in Frédéric Canovas & David Wetsel, eds., Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Ceremonies and rituals in XVIIth century France. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), Vol. 4. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlage, 2002: 105–134.

This study examines how the clergy's tampering with liturgy, the disappearance of feast days, the rationalization and standardization of holidays and popular customs cut the popular classes' ties to the Church and contributed to their dechristianization and ultimate disdain for religion.

DESCOTES, DOMINIQUE, ANTONY MCKENNA, and LAURENT THIROUIN, eds. Le Rayonnement de Port-Royal. Mélanges en l'honneur de Philippe Sellier. Paris: Champion, 2001.

Review: T. Gheeraert in IL 55.3 (2003), 53–55. Feschrift contains five parts: "Spiritualités," "Art de penser et d'écrire," "Pascal," "Affinités" (on the Augustinianism of Port-Royal), and "Tensions" (on Port-Royal's adversaries). "La richesse des contributions montre... que les perspectives offertes par les travaux de Philippe Sellier... continuent... d'inspirer les pages de bien des travaux dix-septiémistes."

DESLANDRES, DOMINIQUE. Croire et faire croire. Les missions françaises aux XVIIe siècle. Paris: Fayard, 2003.

Review: J. Nicolas in QL 870 (du 1er au 15 février 2004), 18–19: "La France se veut terre de mission dans une double perspective: évangéliser ses 'sauvages' de l'intérieur et, de gré ou de force, porter sa bonne parole outre-mer dans ses terres d'influence. Dominique Deslandres, professeur à l'université de Montréal, est partie sur les traces de ce mouvement de christianisation assis sur une vision mystique, mais traversé de tous les appétits, les contradictions, les chocs du monde humain. Au XVIIe siècle, les vocations abondent, tous aspirent à l'aventure, récollets, jésuites, capucins et autres 'voltigeurs de l'Eglise'..."
Review: BCLF 660 (2004), 141–42: "Si les missions chrétiennes au XVIIe siècle constituent un sujet déjà largement traité, le souci de réinscrire ce phénomène dans un processus d'intégration socio-religieuse en plaçant au centre de la recherche la question de l'identité, celle des missionaires autant que celle des missionnés, revouvelle profondément l'approche."

DEVILLAIRS, LAURENCE. "L'immutabilité divine comme fondement des lois de la nature chez Descartes et les éléments de la critique leibnizienne." RHSA 54.3 (2001): 303–24.

Shows a link between Descartes's assertions in physics of the Principia Philosophae (1644) and the exposition of the doctrine of 1630 around the question of divine freedom in the creation of eternal truths.

DIXON, C. SCOTT and LUISE SCHORN-SCHüTTTE. The Protestant Clergy of Early Modern Europe. New York: Palgrave, 2003.

Review: M. Wiesner in Choice 41 (2004), 2115. Eight articles examine the creation of the European Protestant pastorate in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A useful introduction synthesizes numerous regional studies on the Protestant clergy. The volume includes a chapter by Mark Greengrass on the pastorate in France.

DONETZKOFF, DENIS. "Port-Royal et le diable." TL 16 (2003): 65–82.

The devil is considered, as indeed Scripture teaches, "un adversaire effrayant" but not for the person of faith who "s'est mis à l'école de la volonté divine" (81). Traces the evolution of the relationship of Port-Royal and the devil from the eloquent writings of the Abbé de Saint-Cyran to several key memoirs, "relations," and treatises, focusing on persecution (Claude Lancelot, Angélique de Saint-Jean Arnauld d'Andilly, M. Hamon, among others).

EL YADA, OUZI et JACQUES LE BRUN. Conflits politiques, controverses religieuses. Essais d'histoire européene aux XVIe–XVIIIe siècles. Paris: Editions de l'Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, 2002.

Review: T. Debbagi Baranova in DSS 222 (2004), 125–126: "Conçu en hommage à Myriam Yardeni, ce livre rassemble 14 articles sur des thèmes se trouvant au cœur des recherches de l'historienne: la conscience nationale comme une construction des polémistes et des historiens, le protestantisme et le judaïsme, l'écriture de l'histoire. Ces études portent essentiellement sur les situations de crise et de conflit qui se révèlent génératrices de nouvelles idées et de contacts stimulants dans la société moderne."

FORNEROD, NICOLAS, PHILIPPE BOROS, GABRIELLE CAHIER (d.), et MATTEO CAMPAGNOLO, eds. Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève. T. XIII, 1617–1618. Genève: Droz, 2001.

Review: R. M. Kingdon in BHR 66.2 (2004), 468–69: Excellent volume on Genevan ecclesiastical history "that reveals a good deal about Geneva's continuing role in providing intellectual leadership to the entire Reformed movement." Seventy-seven indexes, of which no. 16 contains an inventory of senior pastor Antoine de la Faye's private library and "constitutes a separate little treatise on the world of books used by the Reformed in the early seventeenth century."

FREMONTIER-MURPHY, CAMILLE. Les Instruments de mathématiques, XVIe–XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2002.

Review: BCLF 651 (2000), 65–66: Catalogue offert par le département des Objets d'art du Musée du Louvre: cadrans solaires, calendriers, astrolabes, globes, "nécessaires de mathématiques," instruments d'arpentage, microscopes; "iconographie somptueuse."

GIGLIONI, GUIDO. "Francis Glisson's Notion of Confoederatio Naturae in the Context of Hylozoistic Corpuscularianism." RHSA 55.2 (2002): 239–62.

Examines the work of Francis Glisson and Ralph Cudworth who, "[t]aking opposing standpoints,... contributed to a mid-17th-century restatement of the extent and limits of naturalism." Shows how both attempted revival of vital corpuscularianism in different ways, demonstrating "that atomism could be reconciled with a hylozoistic, or even spiritualistic, vision of nature."

GIOCANTI, SYLVIA. Penser l'irrésolution: Montaigne, Pascal, La Mothe Le Vayer-trois itineraires sceptiques. Bibliothèque de la Renaissance. Série 3, tome 45. Paris: Champion, 2001.

Review: M.-F. Hilgar in FR 77 (2003), 370–371. Giocanti "prouve que Pascal et La Mothe Le Vayer doivent beaucoup au scepticisme des Essais de Montaigne. . .Elle trouve en eux une commune pratique du discours philosophique qui proscrit la manière dogmatique de philosopher" (371). Undertakes an inventory of these three philosophers' positions toward misology, that is to say, their "attitude intellectuelle adoptee à l'égard de l'irrésolution humaine… qui incrimine la raison… la rendant responsable de l'inconstance de nos opinions et volitions" (371).

GRAFTON, ANTHONY and WILLIAM R. NEWMANN, eds. Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe. Boston: MIT Press, 2001.

Review: J. Harrie in Ren Q 56 (2003): 846–849: Important collection of essays for its assessment of the complexity and impact of astrology and alchemy for early modern Europe. Includes investigations of interconnections with science, medicine and religion; of particular interest to 17th c. scholars is Didier Kahn's "exemplary study of the posting of Rosicrucian placards in Paris in 1623" (847).

GREINER, FRANK, ed. Pierre Jean Fabre. L'alchimiste chrétien: traduction anonyme inédite du XVIIIe siècle avec le fac-similé de l'édition latine originale. Paris: Société d'Etude de l'Histoire de l'Alchimie, 2001.

Review: J. Harrie in Ren Q 56 (2003): 846–849: Welcome facsimile of Fabre's Alchymista christianus of 1632, with 18th c. translation, copious notes and an extensive introduction by editor Greiner. Makes accessible this text whose importance is demonstrated both as a "practical art" and as "an additional weapon in the Counter-Reformation" (849).

GREINER, FRANK. Les Métamorphoses d'Hermès: Tradition alchimique et esthétique littéraire dans la France de l'âge baroque (1583–1646). Paris: Champion, 2000.

Review: D. M. Posner in Ren Q 56 (2003): 190–192: Grenier's focus in this thèse d'état is alchemical themes in numerous Baroque texts, technical and expository treatises as well as literature. Demonstrates the shift in the alchemical tradition from the oral or manuscript based to "one residing primarily in the written word" (190). Praiseworthy for its rich and careful documentation, its "encyclopedic bibliography," Grenier's study "will therefore be a valuable resource to anyone interested in exploring alchemical themes, la poésie scientifique and Baroque aesthetics" (191).

GRES-GAYER, JACQUES M. "Autour du Requiem de J. Gilles: Cérémonial liturgique de l'Eglise gallicane" in Frédéric Canovas & David Wetsel, eds., Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Ceremonies and rituals in XVIIth century France. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), Vol. 4. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlage, 2002: 163–167.

A description of Gilles' Requiem, the historical background of its composition, and its liturgical functions that highlights the work's links with Catholic tradition and "solidarité."

GUERRINI, ANITA. "Duverney's Skeletons." Isis 94.4 (December 2003), 577–603.

Guerrini analyzes the controversy caused by the 1730 will of Joseph-Guichard Duverney, professor of anatomy at the Jardin du Roi and member of the Académie des Sciences. She argues that "the ambiguity of the skeleton itself in terms of its ownership, moral and scientific significance, and authorship reveals significant tensions in the prosecution, patronage and legacy of pre-Revolutionary Parisian anatomical study."

HARDING, VANESSA. The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500–1670. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002.

Review: A. Fahrmeir in HZ 276 (2003): 750–751: Recommended as "extremely worth reading", Harding's investigation focuses on the meaning of the concurrence of the dead and living for the scarce space available in the two cities. Part two examines burial rituals, finding clear differences between Catholic and Protestant practices as well as a general tendency toward commercialization.

HARTMANN, PETER C. Die Jesuiten. München: Beck, 2001.

Review: P. Fuchs in HZ 276 (2003): 401–402: Small (128 pages) but useful volume offers a helpful overview of the controversial Society of Jesus. Literature scholars will appreciate discussion on theatre and genre formation and historians will benefit from the space devoted to the history of the order.

HILGAR, MARIE-FRANCE. "Cérémonial au séminaire de Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet à l'époque de Louis XIV" in Frédéric Canovas & David Wetsel, eds., Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Ceremonies and rituals in XVIIth century France. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), Vol. 4. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlage, 2002: 157–162.

The author describes the rules, traditions, and rites that ordered life at the seminary of Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet in the seventeenth century.

HOURS, BERNARD. L'Eglise et la vie religieuse dans la France moderne XVIe–XVIIIe siècle. Paris: PUF, 2000.

Review: I. Mieck in HZ 276 (2003): 759–760: Hours's volume belongs to PUF's important "Collection Premier Cycle" designed for the public as well as for university students. Hours's aim is to "retracer les grandes étapes de la vie religieuse des Français à l'époque moderne, de manière non confessionnelle, en essayant de ne négliger aucun de ses aspects" and to give "une initiation précise à l'histoire religieuse de la France moderne dans une langue claire et accessible" (qtd. in review, 759). Of particular interest are considerations of 17th c. political and religious sensibilities, the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. Extensive glossary and general bibliography.

HUREL, DANIEL-ODON and GERARD LAUDIN, eds. Académies et sociétés savants en Europe (1650–1800). Paris: Champion, 2000.

Review: J. Lauersdorf in FR 77 (2003), 1259. "Résultat d'un colloque organisé à Rouen en novembre 1995, cette collection d'articles très variés a pour objet ambitieux d'établir un portrait comparative aussi peu "réducteur" que possible de "l'Europe des Académies" des dix-septième et dix-huitième siècles" (1259). Places more emphasis on 18th than on 17th century. Gives consideration to a vast range of countries.

JACQUIN, GERARD, ed., notes & trad. latine et grecques. Jacques Ferrand. Traité de l'Essence et Guérison de l'Amour ou De la Mélancolie érotique (1610). Paris: Anthropos, 2001.

Review: A. Lanavère in DSS 222 (2004), 110–112: This medical treatise is published here with extensive translations, notes and corrections as well as an interesting contextual introduction. The reviewer remarks on the timeliness of this edition given the reference made to it by Starobinski, Pigeaud and Dandrey, among others. He notes that it is destined for a non-academic public, therefore, some of the spelling, notations and abbreviations have been normalized.

KAHN, DIDIER. "La condamnation des thèses d'Antoine de Villon et Etienne de Clave contre Aristote, Paracelse et les 'Cabalistes' (1624)." RSHA 55.2 (2002): 143–198.

This historical account of the condemnation of the theses on materialism and atomism places them in context of the University of Paris, where the rector may have initiated the reaction. Brings to light some previously unknown documents.

KOSTROUN, DANIELLA J. "Historical Appeal under Absolutism: Women and Gallicanism at Port Royal, 1690–1709" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 99–110.

Identifies two types of historical arguments, "figurist" and "gallican," used by the nuns at Port-Royal to guide their actions, hasten Port-Royal's destruction, and influence public opinion and future historians. A figurist reading highlights the nuns' victimization by royal tyranny, while a gallican logic sees them as preservers of tradition and precedent who scrupulously challenged the authority of both church and monarchy.

LAGNY, ANNE, ed. Les Piétismes à l'âge classique: crises, conversions, institutions. Villeneuve-d'Ascq: PU du Septentrion, 2001.

Review: BCLF 647 (2003), 19: "Rassemblement donc des articles théoriques sur la notion même du piétisme et des études historiques et biographiques retraçant sa diffusion, cet ouvrage s'adresse à des chercheurs en histoire, philosophie et théologie."

LAUX, HENRI et DOMINIQUE DALIN, eds. Dieu au XVIIe siècle: crises et renouvellement du discours: une approche interdisciplinaire. Paris: Editions facultés jésuites de Paris, 2002.

Review: BCLF 650 (2003), 12–13: "Ce volume rassemble les quatorze interventions présentées en septembre 2001 au Centre-Sèvres, qui est la faculté jésuite de Paris. L'évolution du discours sur Dieu au XVIIe siècle est envisagé globalement, d'un point de vue plus religieux qu'historique." On trouve que le volume " apporte peu de neuf sur les questions qu'il aborde. Le manque d'index et de bibliographie ne plaide pas en faveur de cet ouvrage."

LEMAITRE, NICOLE, ed. Histoire des curés. Paris: Arthème Fayard, 2002.

Review: V. Mellinghoff-Bourgerie in BHR 63,3 (2003), 704–07: "On ne peut que saluer la rigueur et la lucidité du constat auquel aboutit cette recherche collective en ajoutant, si la chose devait échapper au lecteur saturé par l'ampleur de la matière historique appréhendée, que le caractère 'pluriel' de la fonction pastorale que l'éditrice voit poindre à l'horizon n'est pas sans rejoindre les acquis de la Réformation." Notes, glossaire et index; manque de bibliographie générale.

LESTRINGANT, FRANK. Lumière des martyrs: essai sur le martyre au siècle des réformes. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2004.

Review: BCLF 661 (2004), 142: Ouvrage en trois volets: "Une première partie ('La cause des martyrs') pose d'abord la question des conceptions rhétoriques et juridiques qui servent de soubassement au martyrologe huguenot dans ses différentes mises en scènes livresques." On y trouve une lecture de la poésie d'Agrippa d'Aubigné. Dans la deuxième partie, "Le théâtre des martyrs," Lestringant donne "toute sa mesure à cette représentation très politique et dont la scène est l'univers." Dans la dernière partie, "Horreur et nostalgie des martyrs," l'auteur se livre à des réflexions "sur la postérité, aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, de ces archives sanglantes dans la mémoire protestante."

LOJACONO, ETTORE, dir. La recherche de la vérité par la lumière naturelle de René Descartes. Textes établis par Erik Jan Bos. Milano: Franco Angeli, 2002.

Review: M. Devaux in DSS 222 (2004), 145–147: This large volume provides important commentary, translations and "concordances". Descartes' text serves as, "un prétexte en trois sens [...] a) La recherche de la vérité est un prétexte puisque le texte que nous avons n'est connu dans la langue même de Descartes que dans sa première moitié [...], la seconde jusque-là n'était connue que par la traduction latine (1701). Erik Jan Bos rétablit ces textes, et rend accessible la traduction néerlandaise (1684) de la totalité du texte, négligée jusqu'alors. b) La recherche de la vérité est un prétexte, ensuite, au sens où, par la datation (1634) proposée ici par Ettore Lojacono, il s'agit d'un texte antérieur au Discours de la méthode, et non pas d'un texte tardif comme on le dit souvent. c) Enfin, l'édition des différentes versions (le français et les traductions) est le texte à partir duquel les index et concordances sont établis - ce travail étant l'essentiel, par le volume, de cet ouvrage."

MARGOLIN, JEAN-CLAUDE. "Perspectivisme, relativisme et scepticisme: précarité et créativité de l'Anamorphose." S Fr 46 (2002): 527–545.

Masterful elaboration of the three "isms" and application of the technique of anamorphose to the literature of the Baroque era. Highly instructive, well-documented and precise, Margolin's essay insists that the three "isms" define a philosophical attitude and a method of research rather than a determined ideological position (535). Refusing ontological dogmatism, "ils nous engagent à cheminer au niveau des phénomènes... [et] aident surtout à mieux comprendre... la puissance de créativité et la précarité de l'anamorphose, dans son extension icono-textuelle" (535).

MARTIN, MARGOT. "Devilish Utterance Through Sublime Expression: The Union of the Sacred and the Profane in Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Médée" in Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 231–237.

Médée offers an amalgamation of the sacred and the secular music traditions and can be interpreted as either "devilish utterance" or "sublime expression."

MARTIN, PHILIPPE. Une Religion des livres (1640–1850). Paris: Cerf, 2003.

Review: BCLF 655 (2004), 62: Ouvrage dédié aux livres de piété: "Le XVIIe siècle, époque des saints et des dévots, est la période faste pour les religieux, qui dominent tous les registres de la littérature pieuse; la deuxième moitié du XVIIIe siècle est l'âge d'or de la production de livres de piété par des laïcs..."

MATERIA ACTUOSA. ANTIQUITE, AGE CLASSIQUE, LUMIERES. Mélanges en l'honneur d'Olivier Bloch. Paris: Champion, 2000.

Review: G. Stenger in RHLF 103.3 (2003), 727. 41 studies that immerse the reader in "trois mille ans d'histoire de la pensée." Essays on, among many others, the libertins érudits; Gassendi, Hobbes and Locke; and Spinoza.

MENTZER, RAYMOND A. and ANDREW SPICER, eds. Society and Culture in the Huguenot World, 1559–1685. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002.

Review: M. P. Holt in Ren Q 56 (2003): 800–801: Praised as "very useful" and "coherent," the volume offers rich and varied contributions on the question of Huguenot identity. Wide-ranging themes include: formal and informal networks of communication, legal processes, "convivencia" and antipopery, academies, the military, architecture and funerals.

MOENE, GENEVIEVE. "Jean Meslier, prêtre athée et révolutionnaire." FR 77 (2003), 114–125.

Gives a thoughtful presentation of village curate Jean Meslier (1664–1729), whose deathbed confession of atheism, followed by the release of lengthy polemical writings, concluded a largely humdrum ecclesiastic career with something of a bang. Meslier's Mémoire voices opposition to monarchy, aristocratic privilege, and organized religion, seeking "rien moins que…une revolution" (118). The text strives to unsettle and gradually incense its reader by systematic undermining both received Biblical truths and the new rational religiousity of the Cartesians. Moëne points out that Meslier's attachment to the paysannerie and his proto-communist ideals distinguish him from other avowed atheists of the time-who were for the most part aristocratic libertins. Voltaire and Diderot knew Meslier's Mémoire, although the former sifted out its socio-economic polemic when he circulated excerpts from the text.

MORIARTY, MICHAEL. Early Modern French Thought: The Age of Suspicion. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003.

Review: N. Jolley in TLS 5298 (Oct 15 2004), 6: Explores Augustinian roots of philosophy of Descartes, Malebranche and Pascal. Moriarty argues that partisans of new mechanistic philosophy needed an authority to legitimize their rejection of scholasticism. Augustine seemed to provide that authority. Moriarty finds common link among these three writers and with Augustine's City of God in suspicion of everyday experience. Reviewer doesn't disagree, but says Platonic rationalism a more obvious source of this distrust.

MORMINO, GIANFRANCO. "Le rôle de Dieu dans l'oeuvre scientifique et philosophique de Christian Huygens. RHSA 56.1 (2003): 113–33.

Examination of Huygens's later writings, which "shed light on the philosophical, epistemological, and even theological foundations of his thought, about which Huygens remained silent in his scientific treatises."

NADLER, STEVEN, ed. A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002.

Review: M. R. Antognazza in PhQ 54.216 (July 2004), 473–476. Includes essays on quite a few French philosophers, including Gassendi, Descartes, Pascal, Arnauld and Malebranche. "All told, this book is far more successful at achieving its self-imposed aim of giving 'a fair sense of the richness and variety of philosophy in the period' than any comparable volume yet produced."

NAPHY, WILLIAM G. Plagues, Poisons and Potions: Plague-Spreading Conspiracies in the Western Alps ca. 1530–1640. Manchester: Marchester UP, 2002.

Review: D. O. McNeil in Ren Q 56 (2003): 1289–1290: Archival research, notably in Geneva, has contributed to this rich and "thoroughly documented study [which] is a valuable addition to the growing library of works on the plague and its effects" (1289). Also sheds light on social history of witchcraft and on judicial processes. McNeil finds it "particularly instructive" that prosecutors often allege and the accused admit to pecuniary motives; "plague-workers... stood to benefit by plague... and it is entirely plausible that they acted in concert to spread plague" (1290).

PARMENTIER, MARC. "Demonstrations et infiniment petits dans la Quadratura Arthmetica de Leibniz." RHSA 54.3 (2001): 275–89.

Examines Leibniz's groundbreaking transcendental geometry, where he demonstrated the "method of indivisibles" and proved "that the indirect method of quadratures, based on a proof by reductio ad absurdum, and the direct method, based on infintesimally small quantities, are equivalent."

PERFETTI, AMALIA. "L'hypothèse atomistique dans L'autre monde de Cyrano de Bergerac." RHSA 55.2 (2002): 215–238.

Focuses on the author's knowledge and use of atomism to explain the phenomena of his world, a "universe... composed of an 'infinite number of invisible small bodies' whose characteristics were solidity, incorruptibility, and simplicity."

PONZIO, PAOLO. "À propos de l'atomisme de Galilée: Questions cosmologiques et problèmes théologiques." RHSA 55.2 (2002): 199–214.

"After providing a reconstruction of Galileo's position on the atomic constitution of matter, examines two significant consequences of this theory: the cosmological thesis of the plurality of worlds and the theological question of the sacramental mystery of the Eucharist."

POPKIN, RICHARD. The History of Skepticism: from Savonarola to Bayle. Revised and updated edition. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003.

Review: F. Wilson in Choice 41.5 (2003), 922. This new edition now includes Bayle-a crucial figure in European skepticism in the wake of Montaigne. Popkin's work also includes counterbalanced consideration of important philosophers opposed to skepticism, such as Descartes and Spinoza. "This is a text not only in the history of philosophy, but in philosophy. Popkin's writing is lucid throughout, and, although his scholarship is everywhere evident, he wears it lightly" (922).

QUANTIN, JEAN-LOUIS. Le rigorisme chrétien. Paris: Cerf, 2001.

Review: M. Cloet in RBPH 81,2 (2003), 574–75: "Ce petit livre nous offre une synthèse abordable d'une matière extrêmement complexe. Le jeune auteur semble maîtriser le problème qui hante l'Eglise depuis toujours. Son livre traite avant tout les XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, période des recherches personnelles approfondies de l'auteur. Le jansénisme en France et aux Pays-Bas espagnols est au centre de la problématique."

RACEVSKIS, ROLAND. Time and Ways of Knowing Under Louis XIV: Molière, Sévigné, Lafayette. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell UP, 2003.

Review: C. Levin in FR 77 (2003), 1233–1234. "This work presents a carefully researched study on the progress of the science of time measurement in the seventeenth century as well as a meticulous analysis of the use of time within the literary works the author associates with the cultural record he examines" (1234). Of interest to graduate students and scholars involved in the study of time.

RADELET-DE GRAVE, PATRICIA. "L'univers selon Huygens: Le connu et l'imaginé." RHSA 56.1 (2003): 79–112.

Examines how Huygens attempted to persuade skeptics of the truth of Copernican heliocentricity, and analyzes his exploration of and reflection on the universe, armed with Newtonian reflecting telescopes.

RANDALL, MARY M. "Mystic Edge or Mystic on the Edge? Madame Guyon Revisited" in Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 109–117.

The author urges us to vindicate Mme Guyon by considering the importance of her work for seventeenth-century literature, history, and religion.

RANUM, PATRICIA. "The Gilles Requiem: Ceremony and Rhetoric in the Service of Liturgy" in Frédéric Canovas & David Wetsel, eds., Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Ceremonies and rituals in XVIIth century France. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), Vol. 4. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlage, 2002: 181–195.

Ceremony and rhetoric join hands in Gilles' Requiem where music interspersed with liturgical texts "elevate the soul to a higher plane" so that it may "contemplate human foibles," death, and resurrection.

RAPLEY, ELIZABETH. A Social History of the Cloister: Daily Life in the Teaching Monasteries of the Old Regime. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002.

Review: D. Higgs in UTQ 73.1 (Winter 2003/4), 203–204: Rapley "has produced a splendid study of French teaching nuns from the 1630s to 1790, with an afterword about the post-revolutionary situation... The book is divided into two parts, the first sketching in the main developments among teaching nuns considered as a countrywide group of women over two centuries, and the second looking in more detail at the life of cloistered nuns from different orders. She has assembled statistics in a valuable appendix entitled 'Demographics of the Cloister.' She poses many hypotheses which will stimulate others doing research... She tries to read from a fresh perspective the uplifting and edifying chronologies produced by nuns writing about their individual communities and notable instances of piety.

ROWAN, MARY. "Angélqiue Arnauld's Web of Feminine Friendships: Letters to Jeanne de Chantal and the Queen of Poland" in Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 53–59.

Angélique Arnauld's correspondence reveals the unique feminine voice of a "strong-willed nun" known for her "skillful exercise of authority" and her devotion to Jansenism.

SARKAR, HUSAIN. Descartes' Cogito: Saved from the Great Shipwreck. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003.

Review: M. Bertman in Choice 41.5 (2003), 923. Though narrowly focused, an admirable work. "Sarkar moves, with care and erudition, through several centuries of scholarly examination of the cogito. Most interesting and mind-stretching are collateral arguments previous to Descartes, e.g., between Porphyry and Eudoxus" (923). Also considers Descartes' influence on Arnauld.

SCHMALTZ, TAD. Radical Cartesianism: The French Reception of Descartes. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002.

Review: A. Pyle in TLS 5270 (Apr 2 2004), 28: Study of strange branch of Cartesianism found in Dom Robert Desgabets and Pierry-Sylvain Regis. Belief that every substance indestructible even by God and that the "cogito" establishes the existence of the body as well as of the mind. Fundamental doctrine has impeccable roots in Descartes. A "richly rewarding excursion into a forgotten branch of Cartesianism illuminating the intellectual context of the French reception of Descartes." Also "helps us to focus on those aspects of mainstream Cartesianism that may be mistaken either exegetically or philosophically."

SCHRODER, WINFRIED. Ursprünge des Atheismus. Untersuchungen zur Metaphysik- und Religionskritik des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1998.

Review: S. Taussig in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 307–309. "Les 618 pages du livre de Winfried Schröder présentent toutes les qualités d'un ouvrage d'érudition et de synthèse; le lecteur découvre à la fois des documents, la doxographie, l'état du débat, une bibliographie impressionnante, un index très utile, au soutien d'une démonstration nuancée mais ferme, menée selon une méthode rigoureuse et parvenant à un énoncé efficace des conclusions."

SCOTT, PAUL A. "Cloisters, Teaching, and Tragedy: A Rediscovered Lost Play of 1663" in Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 151–161.

The discovery of a copy of L'histoire philosophe ou l'histoire de saincte Catherine d'Alexandrie (1663) by the nun known only as "de la Chapelle" sheds light on a female tragedian, the genre of the religious tragedy, and the conception of patriarchal authority.

SCOTT, PAUL A. "Devotions on a Local Theme: Sainte Reine d'Alise" in Frédéric Canovas & David Wetsel, eds., Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Ceremonies and rituals in XVIIth century France. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), Vol. 4. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlage, 2002: 135–153.

Of the five different plays about the martyred Sainte Reine d'Alise published between 1661–1687, three were written for amateur performances in the village of Alise-Sainte-Reine which in the mid-seventeenth century had become the most popular pilgrimage destination in France. These plays actually became "actors" in an ongoing dispute with the Benedictines of the neighboring village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain over contol of the sacred site and relics.

SCOTT, PAUL A. "Recreating a Traditional Liturgy: Jean Gilles's Messe des Morts" in Frédéric Canovas & David Wetsel, eds., Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Ceremonies and rituals in XVIIth century France. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), Vol. 4. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlage, 2002: 197–208.

A description and commentary, with photos, of the Tridentine rite requiem mass conducted during the North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature conference in Tempe, AZ in 2001.

TAYLOR, LARISSA J., ed. Preachers and People in the Reformations and Early Modern Period. Koln and Leiden: Brill, 2001.

Review: J. W. O'Malley in Ren Q 56 (2003): 824–826: Judged coherent and useful as contributing to an assessment of "the state of the question," Taylor's edition has sections on the following topics: "The Sermon as Genre," "The Social History of Preaching," and "Preaching and the Geography of Reformations." Taylor herself provides an essay on France.

THOUVENIN, PASCALE, éd. Nicolas Fontaine, Mémoires ou histoire des solitaires de Port-Royal. Paris, Champion, 2001.

Review: B. Guion in DSS 222 (2004), 129–130: The reviewer underscores the extraordinary accomplishment of Thouvenin, not only in finding the original Fontaine manuscript, but in bringing out such an important critical edition with a praiseworthy preface, detailed annotation, and indices. "Sainte-Beuve estimait que c'était l'ouvrage qui en offrait 'la plus vive et la plus parfaite idée', donnant à voir et à entendre les Messieurs dans leur vie la plus quotidienne," and the reviewer finds that this complete edition of Fontaine's memoirs will interest "pas seulement les spécialistes de Port-Royal, mais tous les curieux de la vie, et de la langue, du XVIIe siècle."
Review: M.-F. Hilgar in FR 77 (2003), 149–150. The behemoth memoirs of Fontaine, who became a member of the Solitaires community in 1644. The book constitutes an immense contribution to our understanding of Port-Royal. Addresses the abbey's efforts to defend its self-reform in the 1630s and 40s, while also recording "des signes de l'operation de la grâce chez des contemporains," and "les persecutions puis la détention des religieuses et des solitaires" (149). Contains transcriptions of numerous letters as well as an index of proper names, a glossary, and a 229-page introduction.
Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr 46 (2002): 444: Judged of "inestimable value" for the rediscovery of Port-Royal and for the re-evaluation of the contribution of "Jansenist Augustinism" to 17th c. letters. Praised for the authentic and suggestive qualities of these texts and for Thouvenin's rich historical and philological apparatus, including notes, annexes with variants, biographical and bibliographical variants, analytical indices and an erudite introduction of some 200 pages. In addition, Fontaine's Mémoires are a pleasure to read.
Review: D. Wetsel in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 311–315. Reviewer refers to P. Thouvenin's discovery of Fontaine's original manuscript in the library of the Institut de France as "perhaps the most important discovery in Port-Royal studies since the discovery over fifty years ago of the importance of the two Copies of Pascal's Pensées." "The transcription and orthographic modernization of the text, the preparation of copious and always relevant notes and the writing of nothing less than a magisterial [211-page] Introduction might have taken any other scholar a lifetime to complete."

TREPANIER, HELENE. "Les grâces extraordinaires ou les 'surnaturelles connaissances expérimentales' de Jean-Joseph Surin" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 151–160.

Surin's work on a "science experimentale" based on human experience addresses the question of grâce extraordinaire ("visions, apparitions, extases, paroles intérieures, consolations sensibles") in order to explain and account for the inexplicable. In spite of the Jesuits' mistrust and disbelief in the supernatural, Surin seeks to convince that possession is legitimate and constitutes an essential proof of the existence of supernatural forces and therefore God.

TREXLAR, RICHARD C. Religion in Social Context in Europe and in America 1200–1700. Tempe, Ariz: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002.

Review: H. Lehmann in HZ 277 (2003): 390–392: 22 essays of which 21 have been reprinted from periodicals or collections (eight are appearing for the first time in English). Uneven quality of essays: some remarkably erudite, others present hypotheses as certain. Useful for intercultural comparisons. An index would have rendered the volume much more useful.

VAN DER SCHUEREN, ERIC, Les Sociétés et les déserts de l'âme. Approche sociologique de la retraite religieuse dans la France du XVIIe siècle. Bruxelles: Académie royale de langue et de littérature française, 2001.

Review: N. D. Paige in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 315–317. "Là où d'autres commentateurs ont trop facilement cru à ce que les retraitants eux-mêmes avaient dit de leur retraite - qu'elle représentait un refus de la société et de ses valeurs - Van der Schueren propose qu'en tous points la retraite ne fait que reproduire des distinctions déjà à l'œuvre dans la société extérieure". Reviewer finds fault however with "un hermétisme désespérant" and the fact that "l'auteur se plaît à multiplier les descriptions et diagnostics ponctuels, au détriment d'un argument suivi. Il en résulte qu'une grande partie de l'érudition et de la force de la pensée dont l'ouvrage fait manifestement preuve est perdue."

VERCIANI, LAURA. Le moi et ses diables. Autobiographie spirituelle et récit de possession au XVIIe siècle. Trad. Arlette Estève. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2001.

Review: F. Greiner in DSS 222 (2004), 127–129: In a series of case studies dealing with Jeanne Fery, Jeanne des Anges, Jean Joseph Surin and Madeleine Bavent, the author explores the diabolical according to a particular chronology which is designed to, "suggérer ainsi le mouvement d'une évolution conduisant de l'obscurantisme des grands inquisiteurs vers l'avènement d'une rationalité hostile à toute espèce de diableries."

WAITE, GARY. Heresy, Magic, and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe. Basingstoke, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Review: S. Boettcher in Choice 41.10 (2004), 1953–1954. "Examples are drawn from England, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, and Eastern Europe, and convincingly connect popular and elite culture" (1954). Of particular interest is Waite's exposition of how the hounding of religious dissenters cleared the way for the application of these same persecutional strategies to would-be witches. Highly recommended.

WALKER, CLAIRE. Gender and Politics in Early Modern Europe. Palgrave, 2003.

Review: L.R.N. Ashley in BHR 66,1 (2004), 190–91: Work dealing with English convents in France and the Netherlands: "How nuns in countries where foreign languages are spoken engage, from their cloisters, in the political controversies of their time (like getting involved in the restoration of Charles II), or even, so withdrawn from ecclesiastical politics (nuns seemed happiest with strict enclosure), managing to have effect upon non-convent spirituality within their church is an important but hard to see matter."

WETSEL, DAVID & CANOVAS, FREDERIC, eds. Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002.

Individual articles summarized in the appropriate section, organized by author.

WETSEL, DAVID & CANOVAS, FREDERIC, EDS avec la collaboration de Christine Probes et Buford Norman. Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003.

Individual articles summarized under author's name in the appropriate section.
Review: D. Kuizenga in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 319–321. Brief overview of the fifteen articles devoted to "les femmes au grand siècle' and the three devoted to "musique, littérature et liturgie." "Les articles réunis ici sont, dans leur grande majorité, d'une très haute qualité et méritent l'attention de tous ceux qui s'intéressent au grand siècle."

WYGANT, AMY. "La Mesnardière and the Demon" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 323–334.

Examines the relationship between medical and poetic knowledge through a comparative reading of La Mesnardière's work on demonology (Traitté de la mélancholie [sic]), his Poëtique, and d'Aubignac's Pratique du théâtre in order to show how medical knowledge was viewed as doubtful and imprecise whereas poetry was a cutting-edge, cerebral science.

YARDENI, MYRIAM. Le Refuge huguenot: assimilation et culture. Paris: Champion, 2002.

Review: H. Phillips in MLR 99.1 (2004), 194–95: Collection of articles from 1995 conference proceedings emphasizes "the creativity of Huguenot refugees in coming to terms with their new geography, in Europe and beyond" and dispels associated myths: "It is now almost universally recognized that the economic disadvantage to France of enforced exile of Protestants turned out to be much less than early historians of the Refuge had calculated, along with the economic advantage to host communities."

ZARADER, JEAN-PIERRE, dir. Vocabulaire des philosophes. 4 vol.s Paris: Ellipses, 2002.

Review: O.Tinland in EP 3 (2004), 431–432: From the Préface: "Il s'agit […] de saisir l'unité de chaque philosophie dans son articulation interne, telle qu'elle s'exprime dans le vocabulaire qui lui est propre ou qu'elle s'est approprié." Tinland finds that this work is destined to become "un classique des études philosophiques." Dix-septièmistes will especially appreciate volume II, "Philosophie classique et moderne (XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles)."

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