Interpretations of the Body Politic and of Natural Bodies in Late Sixteenth-Century France

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates that in sixteenth-century France the body politic metaphor was extremely flexible, providing answers — including contradictory ones — to a range of heated contemporary debates. As absolutist and constitutionalist conceptions of monarchy jostled for precedence, the metaphor could either locate sovereignty uniquely in the ‘head’ or disperse it through the ‘body’. At a time of civil war, it could be harnessed to support peace or, conversely, the resumption of hostilities. The healthy body could represent the unified French body politic but, as France became increasingly divided in the wars, a resemblance between disease and disharmony was highlighted as much as that between health and harmony. In addition, nature could constitute the target domain rather than the source, and interpretations of the metaphor in one domain influenced those in the other. This chapter highlights historically specific factors behind the use of the metaphor. I will show how the seventeenth century witnessed a more radical adaptation of the metaphor, as a mechanical and artificial ‘person’ provided a solution to problematic interpretations of the natural body.