FRENCH 17

ACERRA, MARTINE. "La création de l’arsenal de Rochefort." DSS 253 (2011), 671-76.

Offers a "bilan" of recent research on the Rochefort naval yard. Argues that Rochefort served as a "brouillon" and model for future naval development.

ALBANESE, RALPH. "Réflexions sur le mythe culturel du ’Grand Siècle." CdDS 13.2 (2011), 184-200.

The author seeks to show "que le classicisme français était lié avant tout à une construction à la fois culturelle et institutionnelle" and raises the question "pourquoi la culture classique a pris une dimension mythique au sein du patrimoine national" (184). Albanese argues that the seventeenth century has become a "cultural myth" for the French imaginaire The Third Republic, in particular, idealized and venerated the Grand Siècle while turning it into a "classicisme républicain."

ANON. L’estampe au Grand Siècle. Études offertes à Maxime Préaud. Paris: école Nationale des Chartes, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 2010.

Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 164 (2011), 401. Richly illustrated volume in color as well as in black and white, with indices. Includes thirty-seven articles on diverse aspects of 17th c. illustration. Important not only for Art History but also for numerous other cultural domains.

ARNASON, LUKE. "L’humour dans les tragédies en musique de Jean-Baptiste Lully." CdDS 13.2 (2011), 130-159.

While Lully’s operas don’t seem openly humoristic and the strict division of genre did not allow for comical episodes in tragedy, there are ludic elements in Lully’s work that merit a detailed study. Arnason’s analysis focuses on the principal action (not the divertissements). Aspects studied are the Italian influence, the ambiguous humor of the "disputes entre amoureux," and the demonic as a ludic element. The author closes on an explanation of the function of the comical elements and on the progressive decline of the comical in French opera during the century.

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

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

BAJOU, VALERIE. Versailles. Château de Versailles: Harry N. Abrams, 2012.

Review: A. Riding in NYTSBR (June 1, 2012). Presented by a curator of Versailles, this hefty volume is praised for stunning photographs and pleasant historical anecdotes that weave together to provide an interesting history of the palace and its gardens through the centuries.

BASTIEN, PASCAL. Une histoire de la peine de mort: bourreaux et supplices 1500-1800. Paris: Seuil, 2011.

Review: E. Ousselin in FR85.4 (2012), 767-768. In this comparative study of practices in London and Paris, the author approaches the death penalty not as an example of barbarism, but as a tool of communication between power and the people. Chapters treat the position of the executioner/bourreau as well the "environnement sonore"-the reading of sentences, the condemned’s final words, popular songs, and horrified screams that made up the spectacle of public executions.

BAYARD, MARC. Feinte baroque. Iconographie et esthétique de la variété au XVIIe siècle, Collection d’histoire de l’art, Académie de France à Rome-Ville Médicis. Paris: Somogy éditions d’art, 2010.

Review: L. Rescia in S Fr 164 (2011), 401. Focus of analysis is Mahelot’s Mémoires, staged by the Hôtel de Bourgogne. Important especially for theatrical representation of the 1630s and 40s, the debates on regularity and irregularity and the Querelle du Cid.

BONAR, DAPHNE L. "Debt and Taxes: Village Relations and Economic Obligations in Seventeenth-Century Auvergne." FHS 35.4 (Fall 2012), 661-689.

The author examines tax collection practices at the village level through the lens of microcredit-a system of local, undocumented, informal credit that, in a semimonetized economy like the Auvergne, inevitably included a wide range of exchanges of goods and obligations.

BÉGUIN, KATIA. Financer la Guerre au XVIIe siècle. La dette publique et les rentiers de l’absolutisme. Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 2012.

Review: P. Hamon in QL 1067 (2012), 20401. Katia Béguin étudie les rouages de ce marché [de rentes] en France, à partir de sources intelligemment choisies au sein d’une documentation surabondante. Sans négliger les transformations institutionnelles, elle donne cependant la priorité au jeu des acteurs, et en particulier aux acheteurs des rentes. Elle fournit, ce faisant, une histoire sociale de leur circulation qui est profondément novatrice.

BLANCHARD, JOHN-VINCENT. Éminence: Cardinal Richelieu and the rise of France. Walker & Company, 2011.

Review: J.W. McCormack in CHOICE (Apr. 2012). Blanchard’s new biography of Richelieu emphasizes the cardinal’s ’sense of opportunity, amazing decisiveness, and courage’ in order to counterbalance the classic picture of a nefarious, Machiavellian political genius. […] The author draws on both the best recent scholarship and an array of vivid memoirs, partisan pamphlets, and personal letters, including a number of manuscripts.

BONARDI, MARIE-ODILE. Les Vertus dans la France baroque. Représentations iconographiques et littéraires. Paris: Champion, 2010.

Review: V. Fortunati in S Fr 165 (2011), 635. Important for its contribution to the criticism of art, ideas and mentalities; for the abundance of material taken into account; and for the clarity of its convincing argumentation. B.’s rich study demonstrates the diversity of 17th c. expression of "les vertus," as she examines Descartes, d’Urfé, de Sales, La Rochefoucauld and others. Rich bibliography and iconographic appendix.

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

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

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

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

BRAZEAU, BRIAN. Writing a New France, 1604-1632: Empire and Early Modern French Identity. Ashgate: 2009.

Review: Ibbett, Katherine in CdDS 13.2 (2011), 209-213. Brazeau raises the question how metropolitan French concerns about identity and history were played out across the Atlantic, and asks "how French debates with which many readers will be familiar might be imagined differently in the context of new world realities." The first chapter addresses the question whether Canada was an appropriate territory for viniculture. Chapter two turns to French evaluations and translations of indigenous languages, and chapter three focuses on Marc Lescarbot’s Histoire de la Nouvelle-France. The book concludes with the relation between missionaries and merchants in New France.

BRENNAN, THOMAS E. Public Drinking in the Early Modern World: Voices from the Tavern, 1500-1800: v.1: General introduction, France; v.2: Holy Roman Empire I; v.3: Holy Roman Empire II; v.4: America. Pickering & Chatto, 2011.

Review: D.M. Fahey in CHOICE (Dec. 2011). This collection of tavern documents makes otherwise-inaccessible primary sources available in multivolume format and will be invaluable for students and teachers. The set includes a volume of about 450 pages that contains translations from the French; two volumes, totaling about 900 pages, with translations from the German; and a volume of about 600 pages with English-language documents. […] General editor Brennan introduces the entire collection and his volume devoted to France. He adds introductions to sections (e.g., public sociability) and to sub-sections (e.g., gaming). There also are editorial notes. […] Brennan relied mostly on archival sources, especially Parisian police records.

CABRERA, ADRIANA. "Les Voyageurs français et le fleuve Amazone." Tr Lit 24 (2011), 173-184.

Accompanied by a wonderful reproduction of a 1717 map of Samuel Fritz of the "fleuve Maragnon" (otherwise known as the Amazon), C.’s study examines French accounts of explorations to the Amazon, contrasting their perspectives with those of the Spanish and the Portuguese. After considerable attention to early 15th and 16th c. accounts, aspects of discovery and tentatives of colonisation are investigated by C., emphasizing navigation, commerce and the desire to found a French colony by annexing the Amazon. The support of Richelieu, Louis XIII and others is referenced as is the important mid-century tableau provided Blaise François de Pagan in his 1655 Relation historique et géographique de la grande rivière des Amazones dans l’Amérique: "l’unique et merveilleux détroit enflé de tant de grandes rivières, des plaines les plus fertiles de l’univers" (chap. 13, 36)

CANOVA-GREEN, MARIE-CLAUDE. Ballets pour Louis XIII. Danse et politique à la cour de France (1610-1643). Toulouse: Société de Littératures Classiques, 2010.

Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 165 (2011), 634. Judged highly useful, C.-G.’s edition documents the presence of a genre greatly appreciated in the Baroque era, the constant literary contact between Italy and France, and political ramifications. After a short but diverse introduction, eighteen ballets are presented. Reviewer notes that among the authors are to be found illustrious poets such as Tristan, Boisrobert and Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin. She does however regret the absence of any mention of the famous critic Jean Rousset.

CANOVA-GREEN, MARIE-CLAUDE. "D’une culture l’autre: Charles Perrault et le Labyrinthe de Versailles." SCFS 34.2 (2012), 143-157.

Dès les années 1660, les jardins de Versailles ajoutèrent aux joies de la promenade celles de la découverte d’un monde où l’art rivalisait avec la nature pour la plus grande gloire du monarque. Si fontaines et jets d’eau témoignaient de prouesses techniques jusqu’alors inégalées, si Orangerie et Ménagerie offraient aux curieux le spectacle d’espèces animales et végétales rares, le Labyrinthe, lui, proposait un parcours culturel menant le visiteur à une plus grande connaissance de soi et du monde. Mais aux leçons éprouvées de la sagesse ésopique, qu’incarnaient les animaux de plomb peint décorant les fontaines et les rondeaux de Benserade qui les accompagnaient, s’ajoutaient aussi, pour qui savait les déchiffrer, les tout derniers conseils en matière de galanterie. Conçu très certainement par Charles Perrault, le Labyrinthe était enfin une autre manière de dire la supériorité des Modernes sur les Anciens que proclamaient le château et les jardins dans leur ensemble.

CORIMER, JAQUES. "Les Amériques de Robert Challe." Tr Lit 24 (2011), 55-64.

Exploration of C.’s journals and unfinished memoirs demonstrates significant differences of treatment in his two experiences, his long stays in Acadia versus his stay of a month in the Antilles. Underscoring the "lien affectif très fort avec ce Canada dans lequel il [Challe] vécut ses premières années de jeune adulte" (57), Cormier evokes Challe’s seduction by the project of a new France which would be an ideal society embodying values that France had lost and a harmony that followed the model of Télémaque (58-59). Economic, political and metaphysical reflections, the latter in the words attributed to an Iroquois chief, contrast with Challe’s focus on the natural beauty of the Antillean women, "bien faites . . . d’un sang plus pur que nos Françaises" (cited by Cormier 64).

DAGEN, JEAN and BARROVECCHIO, ANNE-SOPHIE. Le Rire ou le Modèle? Le Dilemme du moraliste. Paris: Champion, 2010.

Review: A. Schellino in S Fr 165 (2011), 698-699. Vast (nearly 700 pages) and praiseworthy collection investigates exemplarity and the laughter of French moralists from the 15th to the 18th c. and includes philosophers and literary authors as well (Pascal, Descartes, Bayle, Corneille, and Molière, for example). Highly interdisciplinary, the volume is comprised of essays on both literary and artistic portraits, theatre, the novel, history and even jurisprudence. A genuine treasure trove for the 17th c. scholar who will delight in numerous essays such as Laurent Thirouin’s "éclats de rire pascaliens" (363-390) and Dominique Bertrand’s "L’imaginaire du rire dans ’Les Caractères’ de La Bruyère" (489-520). The volume closes with a triptych including Louis Van Delft’s essay on "rires philosophiques" and Jean Dagen’s "Que philosopher c’est apprendre à rire.

DANDREY, PATRICK. Quand Versailles était conté: La cour de Louis XIV. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2009.

Review: O. Ranum in PFSCL 77 (2012), 550-56. Unlike recent studies by Christian Jouhaud or Olivier Chaline which have aimed "to breathe new life" into our images of the 17th c by bringing new sources and historical perspectives to light, Dandrey’s book turns back to traditional literary and moralistic sources to reproduce a well-worn critique of court life. The reviewer is disappointed by the "cliché-ridden" interpretations.

DAVIES, J.D.. "Les arsenaux royaux anglais au XVIIe siècle." in DSS 253 (2011), 677-89.

History of shipyards in Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham et Portsmouth with detailed information on the vessels and forces they housed.

DEJEAN, JOAN. The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casual-and the Modern Home Began. New York: Bloomsbury, 2009.

Review: M.S. Kaplan in FR 85.2 (2011), 79. DeJean explores how the French discovered casual living […] creating the "Age of Comfort" during the period from 1670 to 1765 […] The author shows how the innovations created during the Age of Comfort had a profound impact on such seemingly unrelated domains of early modern life as apparel, body language, literature, and the relations between the sexes." Because of its "accessible language," this book will appeal to a broad audience; it will also be "an invaluable addition" to scholars’ libraries.

DEKKER, RUDOLF. "Note sur les arsenaux hollandais au XVIIe siècle." DSS 253 (2011), 691-3.

Brief article focusing on the naval yard in Amsterdam and calling for more research on Dutch naval forces in the 17th century.

DEKONINCK, RALPH, AGNES GUIDERON-BRUSLE, and NATHALIE KREMER. Aux limites de l’imitation: l’ut pictura poesis à l’épreuve de la matière (XVIe-XVIIe siècles). Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009.

Review: S. Genieys-Kirk in FS 66.4 (2012), 46-547. Cet ouvrage collectif propose une fascinante étude de l’émergence progressive d’un concept longtemps dénigré: celui de la ’matière’ ou de la matérialité inhérente à toute oeuvre. Aux seizième et dix-septième siècles, la matière constituant ’un impensé de la thèorie de l’art’ (p. 7 ) est quasi absente sous la plume des théoriciens. La matière en tant que paradigme digne d’inclusion dans le langage théorique est incompatible avec une vision de l’art qui ne saurait déroger aux principes sacrés de la mimesis dont l’ultime fonction est de donner à voir le beau sous sa forme la plus parachevée, éliminant toute trace de l’acte créateur, mû par le modus vivendum horatien de l’ut pictura poesis.

DOREL, FRÉDÉRIC. "L’histoire de l’Amérique au coeur des passions françaises: le cas du Paraguay." Tr Lit 24 (2011), 105-116.

Wide-ranging, D.’s essay traces "le cas du Paraguay" from the early modern "christianisation et européanisation du monde," to the "sécularisation" and finally to the "décolonisation" of our day. 17th c. specialists will be interested in D.’s references to Antoine Arnauld’s denunciation of the Jesuits whose own letters, finds D., contain not only precious inventories of climate, fauna and flora, but also of "le pittoresque" and invite "l’interrogation" (108). Finally the very question of the truth of history is undertaken by D. who concludes: "il n’y a pas de vérité unique sur le passé, dans la relation complexe entre le réel et le discours, [et] l’écriture étant une ’pratique historique’, les histoires sont toutes des romans vrais" (115).

DURON, JEAN. André Campra (1660-1744), Un musicien provençal à Paris. Wavre: Mardaga, 2010. AND

DURON, JEAN. Le Carnaval de Venise d’André Campra et Jean-François Regnard. Wavre: Mardaga, 2010.

Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 164 (2011), 405. This review considers together the two volumes which focus on Campra. The first is composed of a series of essays on his activities and importance, while the second includes comments by diverse authors, and the libretto of the text. Of particular interest for the history of spectacle, music and literature. Richly illustrated.

GAUTHIER, LAURE. Preface by Dominique Bourel. L’Opéra à Hambourg (1648-1728), Naissance d’un genre, essor d’une ville. Paris: PUPS, 2010.

Review: M.-T. Mourey in PFSCL76 (2012) 263-6. This revised version of a doctoral dissertation augments recent research on the origins of German opera by focusing on the atypical case of the bourgeois, urban opera in Hamburg. The reviewer is left unconvinced by the book’s thesis that the "operatic project" of Lutheran courts failed and submitted to the influence of the Hamburgian model, noting that the author’s definition of the genre of opera is too narrow. The reviewer also notes some small factual errors. Overall, however, the reviewer is impressed by Gauthier’s book which offers a welcome, richly contextualized study of an underexplored aspect of German musical culture.

FRIEDLAND, PAUL. Seeing Justice Done: The Age of Spectacular Capital Punishment in France. Oxford: 2012.

Review: Lorenzini, P. in CHOICE (Feb. 2013). Friedland begins his study with Roman law and works his way through the Middle Ages and Renaissance to France in the modern age, all the while noting that his study describes the evolution of penal theory and practice in Western society as a whole. The book thus ranges over a very broad expanse of time and covers a wide variety of interrelated topics. […] the author assesses major anthropological and historical interpretations of punishment in both practice and theory […] summarizes legal history over the period studied while addressing the importance of ritual and spectacle in the administration of justice.

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

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

Goyet, Francis. Les Audaces de la prudence. Littérature et politique au XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Paris: éditions Classiques Garnier, 2009.

Review: M. Airoldi in S Fr 165 (2011), 633. Cet ouvrage collectif propose une fascinante étude de l’émergence progressive d’un concept longtemps dénigré: celui de la ’matière’ ou de la matérialité inhérente à toute oeuvre. Aux seizième et dix-septième siècles, la matière constituant ’un impensé de la thèorie de l’art’ (p. 7 ) est quasi absente sous la plume des théoriciens. La matière en tant que paradigme digne d’inclusion dans le langage théorique est incompatible avec une vision de l’art qui ne saurait déroger aux principes sacrés de la mimesis dont l’ultime fonction est de donner à voir le beau sous sa forme la plus parachevée, éliminant toute trace de l’acte créateur, mû par le modus vivendum horatien de l’ut pictura poesis.

HAMMOND, NICHOLAS. Gossip, Sexuality and Scandal in France (1610 -1715). Bern: Peter Lang, 2011.

Review: P. Shoemaker in FS 66.4 (2012), 54-555. In the Introduction to this slim monograph, Nicholas Hammond remarks that previous treatments of gossip and gender have generally focused on the negative depiction of women. Drawing from seventeenth-century French material, Hammond takes a different tack: his thesis is that gossip, with its characteristic combination of innuendo, complicity, and anonymity, provides a discursive ’borderland’, a space where marginal identities and sexual practices can be accommodated. After a first chapter that provides a useful overview of the various seventeenth-century French terms that correspond to the English ’gossip’ […] Hammond devotes the central chapters of his study to the relationship of gossip and same-sex desire. […] Hammond closely examines the ways in which gossip about the sexual proclivities of these figures circulated by word of mouth and in print. Relying primarily on the Chansonnier Maurepas a fascinating collection of mostly anonymous songs, he argues that gossip did not necessarily lead to scandal. Within sexual subcultures, gossip could also function as a ’shared language’ by which acolytes could recognize each other. Outside of such groups, too, rumours about ’sodomites’ were not always accompanied by moral censure, suggesting a tacit acceptance of same-sex desire.

HARRIGAN, MICHAEL"Mobility and Language in the Early Modern Antilles." SCFS 34.2 (2012), 115-132.

"This article analyses a corpus of texts, principally of ecclesiastical authorship, which depict early- to mid-seventeenth-century attempts to colonize the Antilles and coastal South America. Focus is placed on French representations of Amerindian populations and of plantation and indigenous economies at a time of great political and military upheaval in the Caribbean. An initial analysis of depictions of European colonial initiatives explores their significant impact on Caribbean societies and suggests how the resultant conflicts influenced representations of Amerindian peoples. This is followed by analysis of the contrasting depictions of European and indigenous economic systems. European populations are depicted as mobile, laborious, and surplus-producing whereas indigenous populations are mainly characterized by economic stasis and the subsistence economy. A further analysis of depictions of Amerindian languages suggests how these might reflect the perception by French observers of absence at the heart of indigenous societies. Rather than indicating an innate deficiency in the faculty of language, this may be interpreted as mirroring a perceived incompleteness in the religious, economic or textual domains."

HOCQUET, JEAN-CLAUDE. "L’Arsenal de Vénise. Créations, modernisations, survie d’une grande structure industrielle." DSS 253 (2011), 627-38.

Informative history of the Venetian naval yard from 1104 to the present.

JAMES, ALAN. "Les arsenaux de marine en France avant Colbert." DSS 253 (2011), 657-69.

Considers Richelieu’s naval policies not so much "comme une tentative ambitieuse pour aménager une infrastructure navale moderne" but rather as the "poursuite efficace et acharnée d’une volonté politique née au siècle précédent" and as a reaction to contemporary political challenges.

KOSTROUN, DANIELLA. Feminism, Absolutism, and Jansenism: Louis XIV and the Port-Royal Nuns. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Review: N. Arenberg in DFS 95 (Summer 2011), 103. This book "traces the historical roots of the socio-political debate surrounding Jansenism" with, as its focus, the nuns of Port-Royal-des-Champs. The author shows how the nuns "asserted their equal rights as women who were capable of reason, including the right to follow their female consciences," thereby offering a new perspective on a "forgotten group of remarkable women."

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

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

LE MAO, CAROLINE. "Gérer un arsenal au temps de guerre: réflexions sur le rôle des intendants de marine lors de la guerre de la Ligue d’Augsbourg (1688-1697)." DSS 253 (2011), 695-708.

Examines the task of the shipyard director in wartime versus during times of peace. Focuses on the role of the "intendants de marine" especially at Rochefort and Dunkerque.

LOMBARD-JOURDAN, ANNE. Les Halles de Paris et leur quartier dans l’espace urbain (1337-1969). Paris: École Nationale des Chartes, 2009.

Review: A. Schellino in S Fr 163 (2011), 231-232. This volume collects L.-J.’s earlier ground-breaking studies and enlarges them, demonstrating both "les permaneneces et les ruptures qui ont marqué cet espace parisien au cours des huit siècles . . . de son histoire." Reviewer signals the rich section of annexes which includes archival documents as well as topographic and iconographic contributions.

LOSFELD, CHRISTOPHE. Politesse, morale et construction sociale. Pour une histoire des traités de comportement. Paris: Champion, 2011.

Review: S. Gallegos Gabilondo in S Fr 165 (2011), 640. Praiseworthy for its competence and clarity, L.’s work analyzes manuals which elaborated the Italian tradition of Castiglione. Social distinction and a certain normalization converge as L. takes account of a secularization of the concept. Political resonances are considered along with social relationships.

MARIÑEZ, SOPHIE. "Straighten Those Curls! Style, Gender, and Morality in Early Modern Treatises of Architecture." PFSCL 76 (2012), 3-33.

Early modern architectural texts - Jean Martin’s French translation of Vitruvius’s De Architectura, Philibert Delorme’s 16th-c architectural treatises, Roland Fréart Sieur de Chambray’s Parallèle de l’architecture antique avec la moderne - discuss the beauty of edifices through comparison to human (both male and female) bodies and their functions. Through these gendered and sexualized references, the authors assign moral values to architectural forms. Claude Perrault’s 1672 translation and edition of Vitruvius’s work largely eliminates the gender from its language, "propos[ing] architecture as an object of mathematical measurement rather than a representation of the human body."

MEERE, MICHAEL. "Social Drama, Cultural Pragmatics, and Louis XIII’s Performativity: La Victoire du Phébus (1617)." 85.4 (2012), 672-683.

Employing theatrical semiotics and cultural pragmatics, the author examines the anonymous "performance text" La Victoire du Phébus that appeared in Rouen following the assassination of Concini and the arrest of Leonora Galligay in order to show how it strengthened royal legitimacy and affirmed the king’s image as "Louis le Juste.

MELLET, PAUL-ALEXIS. Les Traités monarchomaques. Confusion des temps, résistance armée et monarchie parfaite (1560 -1600). Geneva: Droz, 2007.

Review: S.E.B Nichols in FS 66.4 (2012), 48. "Paul-Alexis Mellet adopts a different approach to the monarchomach brand, taking us away from its associations with anarchy and assassination. He first narrows down the application of the term to solely French Huguenot texts, and within those parameters finds a corpus of ten. The focus of his study is on Françis Hotman, Théodore de Bèze, and Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, and Mellet opens up the field to include works that typically have not received much scholarly attention. He identifies the following features that they have in common: the right to armed resistance, the rejection of tyranny, the existence of a double covenant, the sovereignty of the people, and, finally, conditional obedience of the people to monarchical rule. One of the most significant moves Mellet makes with regard to French scholarship is his argument that the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (1572 ) should not be read as the primary intellectual context of these works. He argues that the texts in his corpus should be read with a much longer view of the state of France in mind, their aim being a profound transformation of the French monarchy rather than a polemical response to the massacre. Mellet’s reinterpretation of ’monarchomach’ offers an important adjustment to our reading of ’resistance theory’ in this period."

MÉROT, FLORENT. "La Fronde et ses lendemains autour de Paris : Conséquences environnementales, économiques et sociales en vallée de Montmorency au XVIIe siècle." FHS 36.2 (Spring 2013), 175-204.

"En 1649 puis en 1652, la vallée de Montmorency est prise dans les tourments de la Fronde et devient le cœur des opérations militaires du jeune Louis XIV et de son cousin, le Grand Condé. Les conséquences sont terribles pour la population puisque l’environnement est entièrement déstructuré. Cependant, la paysannerie, aidée par les élites urbaines, parvient à reconstruire son lieu de vie dès les années suivantes."

MEYZIE, VINCENT. "Les compagnies d’officiers ’moyens’ entre déplorations collectives et mobilisations corporatives au début du XVIIIe siècle." FHS 35.3 (Summer 2012), 477-507.

Par l’étude à l’échelle du royaume de la création d’une nouvelle charge dans les élections durant la seconde moitié du règne de Louis XIV, l’article démontre le poids de la politique vénale intensive dans des compagnies de second rang négligées par l’historiographie et propose une lecture affinée du modèle de l’économie politique de l’office de David Bien.

PIOFFET, MARIE-CHRISTINE. "La Nouvelle-France dans les écrits de Cartier et de Champlain: de la dénégation au ’descouvrement’." Tr Lit 24 (2011), 25-38.

Penetrating analysis of key passages of Cartier and Champlain’s "relations" or "récits" reveal not only their aspirations and visions, but also their fixations such as Cartier’s "morphologie insulaire [qui] répond à une volonté d’isoler l’eldorado saguenéen du reste du pays, [et qui] fait de tout le Canada une construction en archipel" (26-27). If similarities in both "découvreurs" may be found, for example in their perspective of North America as "un lieu d’approvisionnement et de relâche" (28), their differences are also remarkable. While "une euphorie palpable" and the use of hyperbole characterize Cartier’s observations, Champlain’s vision is so pragmatic and prosaic that the critic Michel Bideaux has called Des Sauvages an "antirelation de voyage" (29). As P. explores these impressionistic visions, she brings to the fore "le rêve de transmuer le Canada en une autre France" (32) and a shared optimism of "une cohabitation harmonieuse avec les indigènes" (36). Revealing deliberate fabrications and theatricality in the narrations which introduce "le topos du bon sauvage jovial et amical" (35), P. concludes that "l’histoire des premières expéditions en Nouvelle-France en est une de duperie et de mystification" (37).

PONCET, OLIVIER and STOREZ-BRANCOURT, ISABELLE. Une histoire de la mémoire judiciaire de l’antiquité à nos jours. Paris: L’École Nationale des Chartes, 2009.

Review: A. Schellino in S Fr 163 (2011), 232-233. The fruit of a 2008 international conference organized by the Institut de l’Histoire du Droit and the École Nationale des Chartes, the volume is highly interdisciplinary and wide-ranging. Focus includes three elements of memory: the process, the content, and the conservation. The over 400 pages of essays are organized into the following sections: "Enregistrement: écrire et décrire"; "Conservation: hommes et institutions"; and "Exploitation et mémoires concurrentes."

POSTERT, KRISTEN. Tragédie historique ou Histoire en Tragédie? Les sujets d’histoire moderne dans la tragédie française (1550-1715). Tübingen: Narr, 2010.

Review: Perry Gethner in CdDs 13.2 (2011), 206-209. Postert wants to show that the "subgenre" of historical tragedy was neither unacceptable at the time nor rare, but demonstrates its importance, its aesthetic aspects, the polemics surrounding the genre, and the practical difficulties of writing historical tragedy. Instead of approaching the usual question of fidelity to historical sources, Postert tries to determine how each of the playwrights concerned viewed history in general, his/her reasons for manipulating the factual material, and why certain subject matters were chosen. While the book deserves our attention, its main flaw is lack of careful proofreading.

PROBES, CHRISTINE MCCALL. "In Search of ’l’amy’ and ’l’amitié’: Early Seventeenth-Century Editions of Emblems from the Glasgow University Website." SCFS 34.1 (2012), 2-16.

"How might French emblems of the Grand Siècle contribute to our understanding of the concept of amitié? In memory of Amy Wygant and in recognition of her distinguished career at the University of Glasgow, the present study focuses on friends and friendship in French emblems featured in the rich collection found on the Glasgow University Emblem Website. Just as early modern emblems moved between media, so this article will move between studies of emblems and reflections on our dear friend Amy."

QUELLIER, FLORENT. "Le discours sur la richesse des terroirs au XVIIe siècle et les prémices de la gastronomie française." DSS 254 (2012), 141-54.

Article exposes the emergent discourse on terroir in 17th-c. food culture, focusing particularly on its role in gift exchange practices. In addition to examining the language of terroir in literary discussion of food (Saint Amant, Furetière, Boileau) and in texts on gardening and agriculture, the article considers the importance of geographical provenance and quality in food gift exchange. Its role in the development of a gastronomic culture explicitly marked as French permits the author to treat terroir as "déclinaison et illustration du thème politico-économique de la richesse des terroirs du royaume."

RUBEL, ALEXANDRE. "Une question d’honneur: La Fronde entre éthique de la noblesse et littérature." DSS 254 (2012), 83-108.

Si l’on observe d’un peu plus près le comportement de la noblesse lors de la Fronde … l’on rencontre encore plus d’indices d’interférences littéraires dans la rationalité politique : évasions aventureuses, actions militaires audacieuses mais insensées, aventures amoureuses, frondes motivées par l’amour, duels et affaires d’honneur." Includes a section on noble women’s participation.

SAHLINS, PETER. The Royal Menageries of Louis XIV and the Civilizing Process Revisited. FHS 35.2 (Spring 2012), 237-267.

The author examines the shift in animal spectatorship from the violence of wild animal combat at the Vincennes menagerie to the peaceful display of graceful birds in the first pavilion constructed in the Versailles park beginning in 1662. The author argues that the menagerie is best understood both as a royal claim of absolute authority and as a model of the aristocratic experience of civilité.

SANZ, AMÉLIA. "Présences in absentia: les Amériques du XVIIe siècle." Tr Lit 24 (Spring 2011), 39-54.

S. offers a rich parcours of "un univers de représentation élargi par des découvertes qui ont mis en circulation d’autres entités épistémologiques, imaginables et, pour autant, lisibles" (39), allowing us to discover in a variety of texts the diversity of 17th c. "Amériques." Accepting the challenge to "abandonner les prémisses et les démarches qui privilégient la sédentarisation des cultures fixes et locales au profit d’une anthropologie du déplacement et de la circulation" (45), S. examines diverse, alternative modalities of authors "pour dire le monde," finding a global vision in works of Pyrard de Laval’s 1611 Discours du voyage de François aux Indes orientales and of Pierre Bergeron’s 1648 Voyages fameux du sieur Vincent Leblanc, the "roman total" of Gomberville’s 1629 L’Exil de Polexandre et d’Ericlée, and the "nouvelle" with its "solution galante" attributed to Anne de La Roche-Guilhem in L’Amitié singulière of 1710 (46, 47, 51-52). Numerous other 17thc. authors, canonical or not, are mentioned as S. challenges us to read and reread "tant de mémoires . . . qui revalorisent le petit, le quotidien, l’insignifiant, les traits anecdotiques et fugitifs en quête de ces présences des Amériques [du 17e siècle]" (53).

SCHNEIDER, HERBERT and SYLVIA BIER. "Travaux allemands sur le XVIIe siècle français en musicologie." DSS 254 (2012), 51-8.

A summary of over a dozen recent works on ballet, opera, and tragédie en musique; the composers Jean Regnault, Jean-Baptiste Lully, and March-André Charpentier; music and gender studies; musical exchanges between French and German courts; religious music; and other topics.

SCOTT, PAUL. Le Gouvernement présent, ou éloge de son Eminence, satyre ou la Miliade. London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2010.

Review: P. Shoemaker in MLR 107.2 (2012), 618-620: Welcome critical edition of the Miliade, which "weaves together political dissent, parody, gossip, and chanson populaire, and touches on a broad variety of subjects" associated with Richelieu. S. argues for attribution of the poem to Jacques Favereau. "More generally, Scott’s astute analysis of the political and literary signi?cance of the poem will be of broad interest to scholars who work on the political and cultural history of early modern France."

SOLL, JACOB. The Information Master: Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s Secret State Intelligence System. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009.

Review: Ellen McClure in CdDS 13.2 (2011), 201-203. McClure praises Soll’s well- researched and engagingly written book in which he argues that Colbert innovated not only "in the methods that he used to organize information, but in the very information that he chose to gather" (201). Colbert intended to create knowledge through his loyal intendants who were sent to the countryside. Soll not only points out Colbert’s many successes but is careful to note the minister’s failures, as well, in particular in relation to the French colonies. McClure merely finds fault with Soll’s use of "absolutism," a term fallen out of use in recent scholarship due to its anachronism.

SPANGLER, JONATHAN. "Material Culture at the Guise ’Court’: Tapestries, a Bed and a Devotional Dollhouse as Expressions of Dynastic Pride and Piety in Seventeenth-Century Paris." SCFS 34.2 (2012), 158-175.

The deepening study of courts and courtly societies in the early modern world has provided political, social, and cultural historians with new insights into how (and why) such societies functioned, but have too often focused exclusively on the singularity of a monarch, or at best, his immediate family. This essay explores similar themes of the functionalities of patronage, dynasticism and piety in the context of the high court aristocracy, represented here by the House of Guise, and in particular by its women, caretakers of family image. Using inventories from two periods in the seventeenth century, and, more specifically, key pieces of material culture representative of familial pride and piety, it demonstrates how court families shifted their behaviour in a climate of increased centralization and royal domination. In line with current revisionism of notions of ’absolutism’, this study also reinforces the more nuanced vision of a courtly society driven by crown/noble co-operation and competition rather than control.

TAILLEMITE, ETIENNE. "Histoire comparée des arsenaux de marine dans l’Europe du XVIIe siècle." DSS 253 (2011), 619-26.

An introduction to a conference on the European naval arsenals. Gives an overview of the development of the French navy from 1624 to 1696.

THÉPAUT-CABASSET, C. L’Esprit des modes au Grand Siècle. Paris: Éditions de CTHS, 2010.

Review: D. Dalla Valle in S Fr 164 (2011), 404-405. Illustrating the state of "l’esprit des modes" through a rich documentation examining testimony from Le Mercure Galant (1672-1710), the study is organized in sections as follows: "Les Modes du Mercure Galant," "Articles des modes nouvelles," and "Plaintes des Palatines contre la Mode." Numerous illustrations from the Mercure Galant, such as the "Palatine" or fur collar, annotations, a rich glossary and indices.

TRUE, MICAH. "’Une Hiérusalem Bénite de Dieu’: Utopia and Travel in the Jesuit Relations from New France." PFSCL 76 (2012), 175-89.

The article argues that the Jesuit Relations incorporate aspects of the literary genre of utopia into their chronicle of the missions, allowing them to depict New France as an "embryonic ideal Christian colony" (189).

VAILLANCOURT, DANIEL. Les urbanités parisiennes au XVIIe siècle: Le livre du trottoir. Quebec: Presses de l’ Université de Laval, 2009.

Review: G. Oiry in PFSCL 77 (2012), 558-61.The book proposes a reflection on the concept of urbanity through a comparative study of the materiality of Paris and the texts and discourses about it, from the end of the Wars of Religion and reign of Henri IV to the late 17th c. The reviewer positively assesses the study overall but also wishes the author had included more literary and philosophical perspectives in his corpus and that the text had been more carefully edited.

ZIEGLER, HENDRIK. Der Sonnenkönig und seine Feinde. Die Bildpropaganda Ludwigs XIV, in der Kritik. Petersberg: Michael Imhof Verlag, 2010.

Review: J. Schillinger in DSS 254 (2012), 187-190. Art historian Ziegler’s book examines art works produced for Louis XIV as "propaganda," designed not only to project the king’s grandeur and majesty but also to display a "programme politique précis" to a foreign audience. The book examines three case studies: solar imagery, the monument erected at the Place des Victoires, and Le Brun’s cycle of paintings for the Galerie des Glaces. Ziegler focuses on the European reactions to each of these art works through statesmen’s writings, pamphlets, and the construction of rival monuments by foreign princes. The reviewer praises this "bel ouvrage, abondamment et judicieusement illustré," noting that it succeeds in demonstrating the complexity of propaganda and the mediating function of art.

ZYSBERG, ANDRE. "L’Arsenal, cité des galères à Marseille au siècle de Louis XIV." DSS 253 (2011), 639-56.

From 1665 to its bankruptcy and decline in the early 18th century, Marseille was "le seul port de commerce où une base navale est implantée au cœur d’un espace portuaire déjà considéré comme une grande place de négoce." The article discusses naval and economic activity around the shipyard during this period.