French 17 FRENCH 17

2008 Number 56

PART II: ARTISTIC, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND

AGAPIOU, NATALIA. Endymion au carrefour: La fortune littéraire et artistique du mythe d'Endymion à l'aube de l'ère moderne, Ikonographische Repertorien zur Rezeption des antiken Mythos in Europa 4. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 2005.

Review: P. Hunt in Ren Q 60.3 (2007), 983–85: Highly recommended as "an insightful new study by a gifted linguist and sensitive literary imagist" who is also praised for her "sleuthing" efforts through an extensive corpus, both artistic and literary (984). A useful guide for future studies. seventeenth-century specialists will appreciate the inclusion of Poussin and Galileo. Index, illustrations, bibliography.

APPELBAUM, ROBERT. Aguecheek's Beef, Belch's Hiccup, and Other Gastronomic Interjections: Literature, Culture, and Food among the Early Moderns. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2006.

Review: J Purnis in Ren Q 60.3 (2007), 1038–39: Wide-ranging geographically and chronologically, Appelbaum's volume "deftly synthesizes myriad critical perspectives in his interpretation of the 'semiotics of food and feeding' (216) in an impressive range of textual material-including drama prose fiction, epic, travel writing, medical documents, and cookbooks-from a number of European nations and ranging from the classical period to the eighteenth century" (1038). Recommended to scholars as well as to the general reader, Appelbaum's study not only treats allusions to food in literature, but also the influence of publication on diet and eating as a cultural practice, utopian dining and myth, the colonial experiment, among other subjects.

BAES, CHRISTIAN. "Prendre l'argent plutôt que le sang: la contribution de guerre au XVIIe siècle." RBPH 85.3–4 (2007), 663–684.

"De nos jours synonyme d'impôt, la contribution est une taxe de guerre spécifique au XVIIe siècle, dont la nature comme le mode de perception changent graduellement tout au long de la période. La documentation ici rassemblée permet d'esquisser une périodisation en trois temps qui transforme cette taxe aléatoire en un impôt collectif systématique."

BARILLY-LEGUY, MARTINE. "Le livre de mes anciens grands-pères." Le livre de raison d'une famille mancelle du Grand Siècle (1567–1675). Rennes: PUR, 2006.

Review: I. Robin-Romero in DSS 239 (2008), 368–369: "Cette très belle source, éditée de façon rigoureuse dans une première partie de l'ouvrage, nous fait entrer dans la chronique d'une famille mancelle racontée par Jehan, Julian, Julien et enfin Charles Bodreau. Pour mieux comprendre la trame des existences, pour restituer la famille dans son environnement urbain, social et culturel, un patient travail de collecte dans les archives manuscrites et imprimées était nécessaire." In great detail, the author outlines over the course of six chapters, "la lignée, l'éducation, l'amitié conjugale, la mort chez les Bodreau, puis la sédentarité, les peurs du temps, la religion et leur insertion dans la cité et le royaume."

BÉLIN, CHRISTIAN, ed. La méditation au XVIIe siècle: rhétorique, art, spiritualité. Paris, Champion, 2006.

Review: V. Kapp, PFSCL XXXV (69), 752–755: Reviewer applauds the publication of this volume which he sees as complementary to Bélin's La Conversation intérieure (2002), while developing analyses of the links between la méditation and music, drama and the novel.

BENOIT, MARCELLE. Les événements musicaux sous le règne de Louis XIV. Chronologie. Paris: Picard, 2004. "La vie musicale en France sous les Rois Bourbons," n. 33.

Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 151 (2007), 173: Inventory, year by year, from 1644 to 1715, of all the musical events in France; also includes various indications such as dates of the birth and death of the musicians, their works, critical works relating to the music of the time, music of the church, the academy, the role of music and general history and, for each year, one or more texts concerning music is reproduced. A bibliography accompanies the chronology.

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

Review: E. Herdman in MLR 103.2 (2008), 533–34: "The fifteen articles in this volume explore the historiographical genres employed to evoke the wars between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries; a further volume studying the nineteenth century is envisaged. Marie-Madeleine Fragonard's excellent methodological introduction raises historiographical questions such as the blurring of traditionally literary and historical genres, the quest for authenticity and the position of the historian, and the challenges to historiography in different historical contexts. The chronologically arranged articles combine explorations of individual genres and specific case studies: contextual readings are often employed and elisions with each historian's contemporary political concerns frequently emerge."
Review: A. Mellet in BHR 69.3 (2007), 828–31: "Cet ouvrage réunit les actes du premier colloque de l'équipe Formes et idées de la Renaissance aux Lumières (Université de Paris III). Il est constitué de quinze articles consacrés à la représentation des guerres de religion françaises dans différents genres littéraires entre 1560 et 1780. Comme l'indique M.-M. Fragonard dans un beau texte introductif, trois problématiques majeures se croisent dans ces études: celle de la nature de l'actualisation d'un passé conflictuel, celle de la constitution d'une méthode historique et de l'utilisation de textes anciens, enfin celle de la circulation des références au passé à travers plusieurs genres historiographiques."
Review: N. Salliot in DSS 238 (2008), 178–180: "Les quinze contributions et leur présentation (par M.-M. Fragonard) s'attachent à l'écriture de l'histoire des guerres de Religion du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle. Classées par ordre chronologique, elles posent le problème de la relation mémorielle à un passé plus ou moins proche, traumatisant, parfois occulté, délicat à appréhender et toujours soumis au risque d'une vision partiale ou parcellaire, mais dont le souvenir, retravaillé par les formes qui le diffusent, demeure essentiel pour la réflexion politique et religieuse, et ce jusqu'au XVIIIe siècle."

BLIN, ARNAUD. 1648, la paix de Westphalie ou la naissance de l'Europe politique moderne. Brussels: Complexe, 2006.

Review: CHOICE. Mentioned in Choice 45 (2007) as a Significant European Scholarly Title for 2006.

BLOCKER, DEBORAH & ELIE HADDAD. "Protections et statut d'auteur à l'époque moderne: Formes et enjeux des pratiques de patronage dans la querelle du Cid (1637)". FHS 31.3 (2008), 381–416.

Les auteurs analysent "le rôle des écrits dans les échanges sociaux et sur la manière dont les compétences de certains scripteurs sont mobilisées dans l'espace social". En prenant comme exemple Le Cid de Corneille, les auteurs expliquent que "l'interrogation sur le patronage des gens de lettres invite en réalité à repenser l'ensemble de nos conceptions du fait "littéraire" à l'époque moderne."

BRITNELL, JENNIFER & ANN MOSS, eds. Female Saints and Sinners-Saintes et Mondaines (France 1450–1650). Durham: U of Durham, 2002.

Review: C. Magnien-Simonin in BHR 69.3 (2007), 798–99: "Actes d'un colloque qui a eu lieu à l'Université de Durham en septembre 2000, ce volume soigné, de fort bonne tenue, regroupe quinze articles in utraque lingua, sept en anglais et huit en français de chercheurs américains, britanniques et français." Voir, entre autres, la contribution de Séverine Génieys qui "définit l'héroïne de Madeleine de Scudéry par sa générosite."

BROOKS, JEANICE. "Music as Erotic Magic in a Renaissance Romance." Ren Q 60.4 (2007), 1207–1256.

Highly informative study focuses on the musical writings of alchemist/philosopher Jacques Gohory who adapted several volumes of Amadis de Gaule. Although the focus of the article is the Renaissance (Gohory died in 1575), the pages on "romance reading" and musical adaptations include considerations on the practice of Henri IV and his rejected wife in using romance and music therapeutically. Brooks' analysis of a letter of Malherbe reveals a certain "urgency" and possible "belief in song [on the part of Henri IV] as both erotic cure and potential charm" (1249). Excellent and lengthy bibliography.

CARRIER, HUBERT. Le labyrinthe de l'Etat. Essai sur le débat politique en France au temps de la Fronde (1648–1653). Paris: Honoré Champion, 2004.

Review: P. Ronzeaud in DSS 240 (2008), 559–562: In this product of extraordinary research, the author "a voulu emblématiser la complexité de l'espace politique et l'opacité des cheminements de carrière ou de pensée contemporains, mais il a, ainsi, presque décrit par antiphrase son propre ouvrage, d'une composition et d'une méthode lumineusement claires, et qui réussit le tour de force de rendre, pour le lecteur, quasiment simples les éléments, les enjeux et les issues des débats politiques, théoriques et pratiques, inscrits dans l'immense corpus des Mazarinades."

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

Review: P. Solon in Ren Q 60.2 (2007), 570–71: Judged "a book that must be read" though some readers may not be persuaded that "such an elusive concept as vindicatory violence is a satisfactory diagnostic device" (571). Both specific incidents and collective examples of violence are analyzed across four centuries. As Carroll examines this "vindicatory violence," he documents it by exploiting "trial records, pardon papers, and family records as well as traditional narrative sources. . . [and assembling] the materials into databases allowing reconstruction of narratives of dispute" (S. 571). Helpful illustrations, tables, maps, index and bibliography.

CHORPENNING, JOSEPH F., ed. Emblemata Sacra: Emblem Books from the Maurits Sabbe Library, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Philadelphia: St. Joseph's UP, 2006.

Review: D. Russell in Ren Q 60.1 (2007), 252–254: Praiseworthy both for its high quality reproduction and clear and knowledgeable commentary, Chorpenning's edited volume is "the catalogue of the exhibition of Catholic emblem books originally mounted in conjunction with the Emblemata Sacra conference in Leuven in January 2005" and "developed and published in conjunction with the exhibition's venue at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia" (2006). Catalogue commentary on some 70 emblem books and manuscripts (from the U of Leuven's library) is provided by Agnès Guiderdoni-Bruslé, Ralph Dekoninck and Mark van Vaeck. Thematically arranged, the exhibit and catalogue demonstrate numerous and fascinating insights into meditation and the use of motifs, the execution of emblems, especially in Jesuit colleges and printing practices.

CLARK, HENRY C. Compass of Society: Commerce and Absolutism in Old-Regime France. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007.

Review: L. Rollo in Choice 45 (2007), 695: A history of the concept of commerce. Organized in three sections: the seventeenth century, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution. Clark's "description of old regime France as a "low trust" society fractured by modernizing forces (absolutism and capitalism) is persuasive" (695). Highly recommended by reviewer.

CONSTANT, JEAN-MARIE. "Le rôle pionnier de Marc Fumaroli dans l'histoire du XVIIe siècle." OeC 32.1 (2007), 73–84.

Contribution au numéro d'Oeuvres et critiques présenté par Roxanne Roy et consacré à l'oeuvre de Marc Fumaroli. "J'ai choisi, de façon très subjective, des publications, qui ont eu une très grande influence sur les travaux que j'ai pu mener. Le premier ouvrage, que j'ai rencontré, est la publication des Mémoires d'Henri Campion, qui sont suivis par les Entretiens d'histoire, de politique et de morale. Je vais m'attarder à montrer l'importance de ce livre, pour la connaissance de cette première moitié du XVIIe siècle, que j'oserai qualifier de baroque, par rapport à la deuxième période qui a suivi, à qui toutes les qualités du classicisme du règne de Louis XIV sont attribuées. . . je me pencherai ensuite sur le séminaire du Collège de France, qui a été consacré à Marie de Médicis. Cette reine est pousuivie par une légende noire, qu'elle est loin de mériter. Ce beau livre consacré à une Reine qui a été une mécène et a joué un rôle important, me paraît être aussi une oeuvre entièrement pionnière."

DAGEN, JEAN & PHILIPPE ROGER, eds. Un siècle de deux cents ans? Les XVIIe et XVIIIe Siècles: continuités et disconuités. Paris: Desjonquières, 2004.

Review: E. Koch in FS 61.4 (2007), 509–10. This, in the reviewer's words, is an "important volume that will... open important lines of interrogation in scholarship on the relations of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries." Notably, this collection of essays about literature, history and the arts succeeds in overcoming the teleological historicism that has defined so much literature about this period.

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

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

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

Review: G.A. Bailey in Ren Q 60.1 (2007), 254–256: Highly praiseworthy and erudite, Dekonnick's new study provides "the most thorough survey of seventeenth-century Jesuit print culture in existence" and includes "illustrated gospels, meditative images, emblem books, spiritual exercises and virtual pilgrimages." Particularly instructive for its demonstration of the "complicated mechanics of [Jesuit] spiritual and meditative processes,. . . education and missionary work." Divided into two sections, an exploration of theory ("the theology of the visible," "the principle of logos made image," "the world [as] a book,. . . as a mirror,. . . [and] as a work of art or theater with God as the artist-choreographer") and a demonstration of practice ("how images in Antwerp between 1585 and 1640 were used to inspire and guide meditation"). Found impressive as it "rallies together the forces of theology, anthropology and image theory," Dekonnick's volume is essential to future studies of the genre.
Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr 151 (2007), 170: Praised as a "splendido libro," Dekoninck's masterful volume is organized in two parts as a "défense" and an "illustration" of the image. The "défense" is an ample "philosophie des images" and the work as a whole the result of a vast and erudite inquiry which establishes the unifying thread of a Jesuit theory "qui au lieu de penser l'image comme une réalité en soi l'envisage du point de vue des différentes formes de relation que l'on peut entretenir avec elle."

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

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

FRANGENBERG, THOMAS & ROBERT WILLIAMS, eds. The Beholder: The Experience of Art in Early Modern Europe. Histories of Vision 4. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Review: M. B. Hall in Ren Q 60.4 (2007), 1387–89: "Beholder" is the key term in these ten essays' theoretical underpinnings as their authors "provide insight into the way a piece would have been viewed by its own culture" (1388). Wide-ranging as it treats artistic expressions from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, along with letters exchanged with patrons, drawings, pamphlets by painters, etc. Reviewer is surprised by "the absence [here]. . . of a study of artist's technique and working practice" (1389), while appreciating studies of portraiture, still-life and a "daring" and "productive" application of psychoanalysis to Botticelli's nudes (1389).

GAMBELLI, DELIA & LETIZIA NORCI CAGIONO, eds. Le Théâtre en musique et son double (1600–1762). Paris: Champion, 2005.

Review: J. Gilroy in FR 81 (2008), 581–82: Assembles the proceedings of a conference in 2000 on Lully, opera parodies, and the French Academy of Music. The work includes treatment of the origins of opera in Italy, its arrival and development in France, and its gradual adaptation to a French public. Several papers which address parodies of opera and of Lully chart a means by which opera moved toward heightened naturalness and realism.

GARAPON, JEAN, ed. Armées, guerre et société dans la France du XVIIe siècle. Actes du VIIIe Colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle, Nantes, 18–20 mars, 2004. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2006.

Review: C. Rolla in S Fr 153 (2007), 647–648: These acts present the scholarship of twenty specialists and define a rich, multifaceted picture of war, not limited to literature, but including perspectives from all forms of the beaux arts. Presented in homage to Wolfgang Leiner, honorary president of CIR 17 (see Cecilia Rizza's "In memoriam"), the volume is organized in six sections as follows: "Guerres et sociétés," "Visions chrétiennes," "La guerre dans la fiction," "Guerre et existence," "La guerre et le théâtre musicale," "La glorification de la guerre."

GORRIS, ROSANNA,dir. Les Montagnes de l'esprit. Imaginaire et histoire de la montagne à la Renaissance. Actes du Colloque International, Saint-Vincent, 22–23 november 2002. Aosta: Musumeci Editore, 2005.

Review: S. Arena in BHR 68.3 (2006), 620–22: Volume pluridisciplinaire en quatre parties: la première partie "est consacrée à la métaphore de la montée comme élévation intérieure, élan de l'âme vers Dieu et parcours personnel vers la connaissance et la purification"; la deuxième section est consacrée "à la représentation des montagnes dans les oeuvres artistiques et littéraires"; dans la troisième partie, "les montagnes de la Renaissance sont explorées sur la base des oeuvres des cosmographes et des progrès de la cartographie"; le volume "s'achève sur une quatrième partie de nature historique."

GRAFTON, ANTHONY. What Was History? The Art of History in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge UP, 2007.

Review: M. L. Colish in Ren Q 60.4 (2007), 1293–95: Praiseworthy both for "illuminating the rise, development, and supersession of ars historica" and for calling for more breadth as well as nuance in our understanding of Renaissance humanism (1294–95). Time period covered is from 1550–1700. Grafton traces, explores, and illustrates "successive stages" of debates on reading history while offering helpful analyses of both well-known figures such as Jean Bodin (1530–96) and numerous lesser known ones which merit appreciation. Found "erudite and engagingly written" (1294). Illustrations and bibliography.

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

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

HAAR, JAMES, ed. European Music 1520–1640. Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music 5. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2006.

Review: B. J. Blackburn in Ren Q 60.4 (2007), 1391–92: Addressing both scholars and students, this volume contains "conceptual essays" (such as "Renaissance Humanism and Music" and "The Concept of the Baroque") as well as "narrative chapters" with genres subsumed under countries (France is included, but the reviewer gives no details). Index is judged "disappointing" with important omissions; the lack of illustrations is found "surprising" (1392).

HARRIS, JOSEPH. Hidden Agendas: Cross-Dressing in Seventeenth-Century France. Tubingen: Narr, 2005.

Review: J. Prest in MLR 103.3 (2008), 853: "Therein lies one of the many asymmetries that abound in Harris's fascinating study: if cross-dressing can be neatly defined as a form of inversion—that is, the adoption by an individual of clothing generally thought to belong to the opposite biological sex—then this must immediately be qualified by the crucial fact that male-to-female and female-to-male cross-dressing are perceived to work very differently, in life as in literature. A second asymmetry is to be found in the fact that the frequency with which cross-dressing features in seventeenth-century French literature far outweighs its occurrence in real life. This disparity indicates, among other things, that the phenomenon was a source of considerable interest for the contemporary reading public."

HEYWOOD, COLIN. Growing up in France: from the ancien régime to the Third Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Review: R. Spickermann in Choice 45 (2008), 1406: A history of changing notions of childhood which avoids over-reliance on top-down source materials and which turns instead to diaries and autobiographies. Describes a gradual shift in perceptions of children—a construction of them as inherently sinful is shown to give way to views which posit children's need for love and guidance. A useful contribution to the field; recommended by the reviewer.

HYDE, ELIZABETH. Cultivated Power: Flowers, Culture, and Politics in the Reign of Louis XIV. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.

Review: B. Hamon-Porter in FR 81 (2008), 1283–84: Tracing the representation and cultural meaning of flowers from their association with women and "nature unchecked and uncivilized" to their association with men, civilization, and culture, Hyde underscores the significance of this shift by documenting Louis XIV's interest in flowers and their use in his self-glorification. Considering issues such as how much space in the Versailles gardens was actually devoted to flowers, whether flowers were concentrated in the primarily public or more private areas of the estate, and how the cultivation of flowers fit into a Colbertian economy of homegrown (rather than imported) luxuries, Hyde lends considerable scope to her project. Her study "joins a growing number of works exposing the intricate way in which power used nature to further its reach" (1283).

KAPP, VOLKER. "Paris et Rome, capitales de la République européenne des Lettres dans l'oeuvre de Marc Fumaroli." OeC 32.1 (2007), 9–24.

Contribution au numéro d'Oeuvres et critiques présenté par Roxanne Roy et consacré "à l'oeuvre de Marc Fumaroli. "On pourrait ériger la problématique qui nous occupe ici en fil d'Ariane de l'oeuvre de Fumaroli puisque ce brillant professeur d'université dresse dans sa thèse L'âge de l'éloquence. Rhétorique et 'res literaria' de la Renaissance au seuil de l'époque classique (1980) un panorama de l'art oratoire pour mettre en évidence que ses métamorphoses depuis l'Antiquité greco-romaine jusqu'au seuil du Grand Siècle français sont liées à l'émergence de la République des Lettres et au déplacement de sa capitale de Rome à Paris, déplacement qui correspond à un glissement de la sphère cléricale vers les cercles laïcs et mondains." Kapp se propose d'étudier "quatre facettes de ce concept: 1. son impact sur la vision du classicisme français; 2. son importance pour caractériser l'identité française; 3. les liens entre la République des Lettres et l'histoire de la rhétorique; 4. le statut du concept de la République des Lettres.

KAVANAGH, THOMAS. Dice, Cards, Wheels: A Different History of French Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.

Review: J. Hayes in MLQ 68 (2007), 575–78: Gambling, a subject addressed in some of Kavanagh's earlier work on the Enlightenment, is examined here through analysis of literary and filmic representations extending from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Kavanagh approaches games of chance as sources of insight into French society's understanding of itself, its tensions, and its preoccupations. A chapter on Pascal may be of particular interest for dix-septièmistes, though the reviewer notes that "the chapter. . . leaves something to be desired because of its very abstraction. Indeed, in Kavanagh's reading, Pascal's gambler is a historical anomaly. . . he remains worlds away from the carnality of medieval dicing bodies, yet Pascal's skepticism of our capacity to understand the world rendered him unacceptable to the heralds of the philosophical Enlightenment" (576).

KERN, THOMAS, ed. French Illuminated Manuscripts (Ninth to Eighteenth century). Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007.

Review: L. R. N. Ashley in BHR 70.1 (2008), 177: Paperback illustrated in color and presented by the museum's curator of manuscripts. "Most are religious pictures from psalters, bibles, sacramentaries. . ."

LANINI, KARINE. Dire la vanité à l'âge classique: paradoxes d'un discours. Paris, Champion, 2006.

Review: O. Ranum, PFSCL XXXV (69), 768–772: Very favorable review. "Lanini's book reaches far deeper than [a defense of modernity], by exploring fundamentally new, more intense notions of vanitas that she characterises as 'laïque' because the human condition that is elucidated is trans-historical and beyond the boundary of religions." Author is "not only a formidable close reader of many different genres [. . .], she is illuminating in her prose analysis of still-life and vanité paintings. Her command of the literature on Western attitudes toward death is very strong, and her writing about Pascal, Bossuet, Lenclos, Sévigné, Claesz, Champaigne and Stoskopff inspires awe."

LANOE, CATHERINE. La Poudre et le fard. Une histoire des cosmétiques de la Renaissance aux Lumières. Seyssel, France: Champ Vallon, 2008.

Review: V. Milliot in QL 975 (du 1er au 15 Septembre 2008), 21: 《  Le livre de Catherine Lanoé montre comment le visage constitue à la fois un outil symbolique qui permet l'agrégation à un groupe (...) comme la construction d'identités individuelles de plus en plus diversifiées, lorsque les soins du corps et les plaisirs de l'intimité deviennent choses mieux partagées dans la société des Lumières. Le grand intérêt de ce nouveau volet de l'histoire des apparences et des sensibilités est son croisement avec une histoire de l'innovation et des façons de produire ce que l'on consomme, comme avec une histoire de la diffusion sociale des biens de consommation.  》

LECOQ, ANNE-MARIE. "'Séduisant, passionnant, agaçant'. Marc Fumaroli chez les historiens de l'art (surtout français)." OeC 32.1 (2007), 91–98.

Contribution au numéro d'Oeuvres et critiques présenté par Roxanne Roy et consacré à l'oeuvre de Marc Fumaroli. "C'est sous l'égide d'André Chastel qu'eut lieu, en 1986, la première intrusion publique de Marc Fumaroli dans le domaine de l'histoire de l'art: il le fit inviter à Rome pour le colloque international sur Les Carrache et les décors profanes, et c'est là sans doute que beaucoup d'historiens de l'art non Italiens apprirent l'existence d'un poète nommé [Giambattista] Marino, grâce à une communication sur 'La Galeria de Marino et la galerie Farnèse'. . ." En 1988, "la copieuse 'introduction' au catalogue de l'exposition de La peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines au Grand Palais à Paris fit l'effet d'un coup de canon par la nouveauté du point de vue et la force entraînante de l'expression. L'audace des Musées nationaux, qui avaient mis en vedette un étranger au sérail, se révélait payante et en 1989, Pierre Rosenberg et Jean-Pierre Cuzin confièrent à Marc Fumaroli le 36e 'Dossier du Département des peintures' du Louvre, autour de L'inspiration du poète de Poussin."

MAUND, KARI and PHIL NANSON. The Four Musketeers: The True Story of d'Artagnan, Porthos, Aramis, and Athos. Stroud: Tempus, 2005.

Review: R. Petit-Rasselle in FR 81 (2008), 601: While the reviewer regrets the work's tendency to conjecture and its lack focus on the subject announced in the title—namely, historical treatment of the figures behind Dumas' characters—she praises its pedagogic usefulness as a work that brings d'Artagnan and his friends to life. The reviewer also praises the chapters which address d'Artagnan and the background surrounding the early modern musketeer corps.

MCKENNA, Antony. "Yearning for the Homeland: Pierre Bayle and the Huguenot Refugees." AJFS 44.3: 207–220.

Examines the plight of Huguenot refugees in the United Provinces after the Revolation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, whose situation serves as a test case for the sense of national identity—both of belonging and betrayal—of those expelled from their homeland. This context brings new light to the battle between Bayle and Jurieu and helps clarify apparent contradictions in Bayle's religious philosophy.

MILLER, NAOMI & NAOMI YAVNEH, eds. Sibling Relations and Gender in the Early Modern World: Sisters, Brothers and Others. Women and Gender in the Early Modern World. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Review: G. Benadusi in Ren Q 60.4 (2007), 1402–1404: Judged "interesting" and "stimulating," the volume draws on specialists from a wide variety of disciplines as it examines the neglected "bonds between brothers and sisters" and demonstrates "that [those relationships] shaped family life, gender relations, women's roles, literary narrative, theater, and the dynastic strategies of European rulers, ultimately defining Renaissance society and culture" (1403). France is included in the wide geographical range of the 17 essays which are organized in the following sections: "Divine Devotion," "Ties That Bind," and "Drawing the Line" (competition and collaboration). Gender, royal politics and religion come to the fore in essays that focus on Henri IV and his sister Catherine.

MOLLENAUER, LYNN WOOD. Strange Revelations: Magic, Poison, and Sacrilege in Louis XIV's France. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007.

Review: M. Kashuba in FR 81 (2008), 797–98: A clever, readable, and yet erudite work on the famed "Affaire des Poisons," an episode in which women and priests were accused of disseminating poison. Mollenauer contextualizes the episode by discussing "why magic and poison became so important at this time" (798). She also considers cultural representations, such as figurations of Medea, which depicted poison-bearing women like those evoked in the Affaire. Despite the sensational aspect of her material, Mollenauer shows herself a scrupulous and reliable researcher. The book is highly praised by the reviewer.
Review: C. Weiss in Ren Q 60.4 (2007), 1344–46: This well-researched and "wickedly fascinating study" of the Affair of the Poisons is recommended for both students and general readers (1345) and is a praiseworthy addition to Penn State's series "Magic in History." Mollenauer has documented her study from archives, police and court records, letters (notably, Mme de Sévigné's), memoirs and more. Chapters are organized as follows: "Investigating the Affair of the Poisons," "Medea and the Marquise [Brinvilliers], "The Criminal Magical Underworld of Paris," "The Renegade Priests of Paris and the Amatory Mass," and "The Magic of Mistresses at the Court of Louis XIV."

MONTER, WILLIAM. A Bewitched Duchy. Lorraine and its dukes, 1477–1736. Genève: Droz, 2007.

Review: A. Cullière in BHR 70.2 (2008), 532–36: ". . .vouloir mêler les faits politiques et le phénomène de sorcelleire [sic], c'est inévitablement créer des liens de cause à effet. On ne saurait nier que des circonstances ou des événements se précisent parfois à la lumière d'un certain environnement socioculturel, mais comment comprendre deux cent cinquante ans de politique lorraine à partir d'un phénomène qui fut plutôt limité dans le temps mais non dans l'espace ?"

MOREAU, ISABELLE & GREGOIRE HOLTZ. 'Parler librement': la liberté de la parole au tournant du XVIe et du XVIIe siècles. Lyon: ENS Editions, 2005.

Review: H. Roberts in FS 61.4 (2007), 508–9. This positive review notes that while this edition is not a comprehensive review of freedom of speech at the turn of the 17th century, it nonetheless offers some intriguing analyses that leave the door open for future research. Those researching La Mothe Le Vayer, Théophile Viau, Guiaume Reboul, Antoine Fuzy and Vincent Leblanc will find some interesing approaches here.

MORGAN, LUKE. Nature as Model: Salomon de Caus and Early Seventeenth-Century Landscape Design. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2006.

Review: T. L. Ehrlich in Ren Q 60.3 (2007), 961–62: Judged "lucid and convincing," Morgan's examination demonstrates the centrality of de Caus's designs and treatises "to the dissemination throughout Europe of late sixteenth-century Italian garden motifs" (961). Includes chapters on 1) the historiography of De Caus scholarship, 2) his biography, 3) and 4) "the major contributions of De Caus as an hydraulic engineer and landscape designer in the courtly circles of Brussels, London and Paris," and 5) "the relationship between what De Caus read, what he wrote and what he built" (962). Morgan argues that theory and practice are strongly intertwined in De Caus and "debunks enticing myths. . . promulgated by such writers as Francis Yates, Umberto Eco and Simon Schama" (962). Recommended both to specialists in the history of landscapes and to cultural historians. Index, illustrations, bibliography.

NEWMAN, KAREN. Cultural Capitals: Early Modern London and Paris. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2007.

Review: T. Hill in Ren Q 60.4 (2007), 1435–37: Praiseworthy as a "handsomely produced volume [and]. . . a true work of cultural history" wide-ranging and purposefully interdisciplinary" (1436). Benefitting from theoretical insights of Lefebvre, Foucault, de Certeau and others, Newman focuses on "everyday urban life" in this "cornucopia" (1436). Index, illustrations, maps.
Review: R. Rosbottom in FR 81 (2008), 602–03: Attempting to show how certain characteristics of modern cities were anticipated in early modern ones, Newman "compellingly. . . leads us through a catalog of the daily lives of urban residents between 1550–1600" (602). She argues that obstacles of urban planning confronted during the Industrial Revolution had in fact already been addressed by previous generations. Newman also examines the figurative and actual use of urban space in these two cities. Praising the work as both witty and scholarly, the reviewer expresses a wish for more discussion of how/whether modern urban planners were aware of early modern ones.

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

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

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

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

PALISCA, CLAUDE V. Music and Ideas in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Ed. Thomas E. Mathiesen. Studies in the History of Music Theory and Literature 1. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 2006.

Review: J. Haar in Ren Q 60.3 (2007), 973–74: This posthumously published book, edited by Mathiesen, focuses on the broad period of the early modern as it evaluates the preservation of tradition and novelty. Includes chapters on musical change and intellectual history, cosmology, rhetorical language, scientific discovery, ancient and modern styles and genres. Appendices, illustrations, tables, bibliography. Recommended as a "sumula" of Palisca's remarkable scholarly oeuvre and as a possible textbook for a seminar (974).

PEREZ, STANIS. "Regards endeuillés: la mort et le corps d'Anne d'Autriche en perspective." PFSCL XXXV, 69 (2008), 643–656.

Examines two distinct re-constructions of the queen regent's final illness and suffering, firstly in the discourse of the oraisons funèbres and secondly in Madame de Motteville's memoirs. Demonstrates how "les clercs lui ont attribué un corps glorieux car souffrant, [tandis que] Motteville a opté pour un corps meurtri car vaniteux."

PETTO, CHRISTINE MARIE. When France was King of Cartography: The Patronage and Production of Maps in Early Modern France. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.

Review: J. Lauersdorf in FR 81 (2008), 1281–82: The first in an announced series of books entitled Toposophia, Petto's work addresses the socio-political situations which brought early modern French maps into being, considering the particular stakes involved in their creation. Petto discusses how maps were used to glorify the king, how changing social conditions influenced the science and exactitude of maps, and how maps were published, commercialized, and handled in terms of intellectual property rights. Praised by the reviewer.

PINKARD, SUSAN. A Revolution in Taste: The Rise of French Cuisine, 1650–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Review: C. Weber in NYT Book Review (Nov 30, 2008), 14(L). This book "explores the striking technical, material and philosophical shifts that profoundly altered French cooking between the second half of the seventeenth century and the revolution of 1789," according to this very positive review. Pinkard's argument is "lucidly argued and carefully researched."

POIRSON, MARTIAL. "Une modernité inachevée: quand l'intérêt entre en scène." PFSCL XXXV, 69 (2008), 723–745.

Analysis of how comedy "s'affranchissant de la morale, se situe à l'avant-garde du discours économique." Focuses on twenty-seven plays, mainly from the last decades of the seventeenth century and early decades of the eighteenth century.

POTTER, MARK. Coalitions and Local Politics in Seventeenth-Century France. FHS 31.1 (Winter 2008), 29–49.

The author takes examples from Provence and Burgundy to show how coalitions can be used to better understand the history of provincial estates in the seventeenth century. By "coalitions" the author means "networks of individuals, usually from across different corporate, privileged, or professional standings, who shared common political objectives."

PREST, JULIA. Theatre Under Louis XIV: Cross-Casting and the Performance of Gender in Drama, Ballet, and Opera. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Review: M. Greenberg in FS 62.3 (2008), 336. The reviewer praises Prest's knowledge of music and musicology and the richness this brings to her work and a "good chapter on 'gender ambiguity.'" The reviewer seems disappointed and perhaps a little chastising, though, that Prest did not explore the gender-bending terrain à la Judith Butler, noting that Prest seems "unimpressed" by this line of thinking. "Perhaps this was not her intention," he writes, praising her all the same for a "well-informed but traditional discussion."
Review: CHOICE. Highlighted by Choice 45 (2008) as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2007.

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

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

RECHNIEWSKI, ELIZABETH. "Imagining the Nation in Early Modern France." AJFS 44.3: 185–194.

Introduction to this volume devoted to the question, one product of an Australian Research Council project entitled "Communications and National Identity in Early Modern France" begun in 2002, filling a gap in scholarship. Provides an overview of the project's and volume's diverse approaches, underlining historical shifts taking place in late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France and the importance of looking at these questions across genres.

RIZZA, CECILIA. "Marc Fumaroli et l'Italie: un rapport de culture, de collaboration et d'amitié." OeC 32.1 (2007), 25–37.

Contribution au numéro d'Oeuvres et critiques présenté par Roxanne Roy et consacré à l'oeuvre de Marc Fumaroli. Rizza met en perspective le rôle que "l'Italie, sa culture, ses écrivains, ses artistes occupent dans l'élaboration de la pensée de Marc Fumaroli."

ROSENBERG, PIERRE & KEITH CHRISTIANSEN, eds. Poussin and Nature: Arcadian Visions. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.

Review: F. Robinson in Choice 45 (2008), 2142: A catalogue for an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum, the volume provides an excellent introduction to Poussin via discussion of his landscapes. Particular attention is given to Poussin's use of source material and his ties with other artists. Praised for its lack of jargon. Recommended by the reviewer.

SALMON, XAVIER. Pomp and Power: French Drawings from Versailles. London: The Trustees of the Wallace Collection, 2007.

Review: W. Wallace in Choice 45 (2007), 622: A volume which accompanied a British exhibition of drawings from Versailles. The exhibit was grouped into "Portraits," "Versailles and Its Environs," and "History." Although perhaps most relevant for drawing connoisseurs, this work is elegant and contains excellent reproductions.

SANKEY, Margaret. "Nationalism and Identity in Seventeenth-Century France: the Abbé Paulmier and the Terres australes. AJFS 44.3: 195–206.

Identifies proto-nationalistic discourse and the breaking down of the alliance between Church and State much earlier than Anderson's hypothesis of the late eighteenth century through an analysis of Abbé Paulmier's writings. Explores how Paulmier "interweaves his vision of the French nation, seen as a land of destiny . . . with his self-representation as an individual, simultaneously French and Other, at odds with both Chruch and State."

SARMANT, THIERRY, sous la dir. de, avec la collab. deGuillaume Lasconjarias,Benjamin Mercier,Emmanuel Pénicaut. . . [et al.]. Les Ministères de la guerre 1570–1792: histoire et dictionnaire biographique. Paris: Belin, 2007.

Review: n.a. in BCLF 697 (2007), 96–97: "Cet ouvrage, qui inclut de nombreuses références à des documents ainsi qu'à une très riche bibliographie, rendra d'éminents services, non seulement aux historiens, mais à tous les curieux d'histoire militaire. Il constitue une importante contribution à l'histoire de la croissance de l'Etat."

SHENNAN, J.H. The Bourbons: The History of a Dynasty. London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007.

Review: D. Baxter in Choice 45 (2008), 1229: A succinct yet erudite overview of the Bourbon dynasty. Shennan unites his analysis by examining the conflict the Bourbons faced between proprietorial and custodial notions of kingship. Suggests the Bourbons ultimately floundered because they failed to adapt to the latter model. Also examines the influence of royal personalities. Recommended.

SIMON, ROBIN. Hogarth, France and British Art: The Rise of the Arts in 18th-Century Britain. London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2007.

Review: D. Bindman in Burlington 1261 (2008), 262–63. More on the eighteenth century, but does go back to the seventeenth century to trace French influences on works by Hogarth, which is notable because Hogarth was known for his "anti-Gallicism." While Bindman finds some claims of influence "a little unpersuasive," the volume is overall "a wealth of surprising and fascinating information."

SMITH, KENNETH OWEN. "Sébastien de Brossard, the Galant Air, and French Hegemony in Strasbourg during the Nine Years War." SCFS, 30.1 (2008), 92–105.

Argues that "Brossard's songs contributed to the goal of establishing and maintaining galant civility and good taste as legitimate criteria for membership in France's emerging aristocratic class [. . .] Regardless of his conscious intentions, by promoting the air and other forms of galant culture in Strasbourg, Brossard directly supported the crown's concurrent attempts to subjugate the city to French cultural domination."

SOLL, JACOB. The Antiquary and the Information State: Colbert's Archives, Secret Histories, and the Affair of the Régale, 1663–1682. FHS 31.1 (Winter 2008), 3–28.

The author shows how Colbert and his ecclesiastical antiquarian archivists built a state administrative apparatus. Their "mixture of administrative, financial, and ecclesiastical learned culture developed into a state science of information-handling techniques necessary for collecting, filing, and retrieving up-to-date information in a massive state-policy archive to be used for rapid political response."

TONOLO, SOPHIE. Diverstissement et profondeur-L'épître en vers et la société mondaine en France de Tristan à Boileau. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2005.

Review: Frédéric Briot in RSH 282.4 (2006), 203–204: Important contribution to understanding an often neglected genre, "l'épitre," associated most prominently with Boileau. Examining both published and unpublished epistles, Tonolo extends the corpus, providing copious bibliography. The author first examines the literary difficulties of the epistle and the institutional and social roles it played. Next she performs an archeology of the genre, highlighting sources and influences, and then studies problems of composition and meter, a "poétique du déplacement." The reviewer praises a section devoted to Madame Deshoulières in particular. The second part examines the genre as "une poésie de l'action et de la vie," emphasizing its political, social, edificatory qualities. It is also a method of sociability, recounting travels, meals and walks. It is a poetic form where the sensual, the visual, the spontaneous have their place. It is also a poetry of exposition, manipulation and camouflage, of self-knowledge and contruction of self. This study richly illustrates that the mondain genres need to be taken seriously, and help us tounderstand seventeenth-century poetry and society better.

VAN ORDEN, KATE. Music, Discipline, and Arms in Early Modern France. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2004.

Review: L.R.N. Ashley in BHR 68.3 (2006), 692: The author "takes a highly original tack as she examines the musical education of the elite and the way that it connects to sociodynamics in France that are usually explained in terms of economics and politics, not the arts."

VERDI, PAUL. "Poussin and Nature." Burlington 1261 (2008), 284–45.

A review of the exhibition "Poussin and Nature," which is apparently one of the few to focus on Poussin's landscapes, though the reviewer laments that this was not made the sole focus. Instead, nature is explored as a theme across all Poussin's works, which "is likely to bewilder the general public" even as it interests scholars. Catalog by Pierre Rosenberg et al. available through the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

VERMEERSCH, GRIET. Oorlog, steden en staatsvorming. De grenssteden Gorinchem en Doesburg tijdens de geboorte-eeuw van de Republiek (1570–1680). Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP, 2006.

Review: W. Steurs in RBPH 85.3–4 (2007), 970–71: "Fruit d'une dissertation doctorale, le livre de Griet Vermeersch apporte un éclairage fin et précis sur la naissance d'une nation." Selon l'auteur, "la Hollande échappa à l'invasion [de Louis XIV en 1672] et reprit le dessus. Elle se fit la banquière de toutes les coalitions contre le roi de France, de la guerre de Hollande à celle de la Succession d'Espagne. Par son action financière et diplomatique, elle contribua à briser, après celles de l'Espagne, les prétentions françaises à l'hégémonie européenne."

WINN, COLETTE H., ed. Veufs, veuves et veuvage dans la France d'Ancien régime. Actes du colloque de Poitiers (11–12 juin 1998). Paris: Champion, 2003.

Review: I. Brouard-Arends in IL 59.4 (2007), 57–58. The title is somehow misleading, as most of the contributions concentrate on the female figure, e.g., the widow, while only one article, by F. Villemur, addresses the widower [ i.e., whether music may be able to sooth the widower]. The Acts are comprised of four parts: "La loi et ses pratiques," "Tableaux de groupes," "Portraits de veuves," and "L'expression du deuil." Questions in the foreground of individual essays are those of the emancipation of the widow, life in the convent, remarriage, as well as political, artistic, and familial roles.

WRIGHT, CHRISTOPHER. Poussin: paintings: a catalogue raisonné. New York: Hippocrene Books, 2007.

Review: F. Robinson in CHOICE 45 (2008), 1150: A second edition of Wright's original (1985) volume. Wright now takes stock of newly discovered Poussins, and revisions in the dating of his works. The volume is praised for its 200+ color reproductions. The text focuses on establishing the chronology of Poussin's work. Not recommended as an introduction to Poussin.

WYGANT, AMY. "Introduction: The Witching Hour." FMLS 43.4 (2007), 329–336.

Wygant's introductory essay to this issue (which she edited) both asks and answers numerous important questions and makes abundantly clear that witchcraft is "multi-factorial, with roots plunging deep into the mental structures of early modern people [and. . .] provides a particularly sensitive touchstone for historical understanding" (335).

YIM, Denise. "'Le gout de la nation': the Influence of Women in Forming French and Foreign Taste." AJFS 44.3: 221–237.

Traces the importance of the salons and the women who held them in defining manners and taste on a European level, serving as "the public face of France." Emphasis on this phenomenon in the eighteenth century.

ZOBERMAN, PIERRE. "A Modest Proposal for Queering the Past: A Queer Princess with a Space of Her Own." FLS 34 (2007), 35–49.

Author explores "the possibility that queer may not refer exclusively, or even primarily, to sexuality (at least homosexuality), but rather, to the calling into question of traditional, heteronormative definitions of gender roles in various historical contexts." In the first part, he focuses on the figure of Monsieur, Louis XIV's brother who can be called "gay" but not "queer" in that he did not threaten the (heteronormative) order. He then turns to La Princesse de Clèves to reveal in the ending a queer dénouement.

ZOBERMAN, PIERRE. "Représentation de l'écrivain et identités sexuelles." SCFS, 30.1 (2008), 77–91.

"[Une] mise en évidence des enjeux et mécanismes idéologiques de la construction du Grand Siècle par une révision (normative) des rôles sociaux et culturels des hommes et des femmes."

ZUFFI, STEFANO. European Art of the Seventeenth Century. Trans. byAnthony Shugar. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2006.

Review: L. R. N. Ashley in BHR 69.3 (2007), 732: Highly recommended paperback, "an Italian production from Mondadoro, this time from Stefano Zuffi (a noted art historian from Milan), translated by Anthony Shugar, in the Art through the Centuries series" covers sixty artists and "gives us information on major cities' holdings, tapestries, statuary, architecture, gardens and fountains, art theory, etc."

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