Heptameron (review)

Abstract

For the most part, literary scholars have the benefit of working with modern critical editions of the major texts of their period or field of interest. Until recently, however, such was not the case with Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptaméron, unquestionably one of the most important works of the French Renaissance. It must be admitted that the problems posed by the textual tradition for a potential editor were particularly daunting. Remaining unfinished at Marguerite’s death, her collection of short stories was first published posthumously in 1558, then again in 1559. Unfortunately, neither of these editions offers a satisfactory text, even though the second, which improves greatly upon the first, remained standard until 1853—54. At that date, Le Roux de Lincy published a text of the Heptaméron based, for the first time, upon a manuscript source, BnF ms. fr. 1512. Anatole de Montaiglon’s revised reissue of this edition in 1880 was reprinted by Slatkine in 1969. Apart from Yves Le Hir’s edition, in 1967, of BnF ms. fr. 1524, the manuscript on which all other modern editions have been based has remained BnF fr. 1512–i.e., those of Michel François (first published 1943), Pierre Jourda (1965), and Simone de Reyff (1982). While François’s edition became the standard reference for scholars, its limitations were not unknown. As de Reyff admitted in her 1982 introduction: "On attend encore l’indispensable édition critique qui . . . permettra d’aborder l’oeuvre narrative de la reine dans un texte satisfaisant" (Heptaméron, Paris: GF-Flammarion, p. 31).