Pré-histoires II: langues étrangères et troubles économiques au XVIe siècle by Terence Cave (review)

Abstract

188 Reviews unusual book which tells us a lot about the importance of storytelling, whether true or false, forthe understanding ofthe human psyche, whatever the period. Edinburgh Graham Runnalls Pre-histoires II: langues etrangereset troubleseconomiques au xvf siecle. By Terence Cave. (Cahiers d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 61: Les seuils de la modernite, 5) Geneva: Droz. 2001. 212 pp. ?36.76; SwF 54.30. ISBN 2-600-00627-3. This volume shares with its predecessor, Pre-histoires: textes troubles au seuil de la modernite (Geneva: Droz, 1999) an approach and a methodology which are sketched out in an introduction that is a model of clarity: there is no globalizing or synthesizing aim, but rather a set of studies focusing on particular 'seuils hypothetiques pour indiquer une lente transformation' (p. 13). The 'seuils' in question are fluid, mobile, available almost solely to historical hindsight, but not to be confused with 'turning points' (this term may be useful to historians, but scarcely accurate) or 'ori? gins'. 'C'est cet ensemble de traces, ce qui etait la avant qu'il n'y eut une "histoire", qui est considere ici comme une "pre-histoire"' (p. 15), and consequently these ana? lyses follow no preconceived chronological or geographical order, and indeed often deliberately eschew such a method. Not the least important preconceptions to be rejected here are those which concern a supposed univocal Rabelais, or the different 'Rabelais' ('popular', iearned', etc.) created from the antitheses of Rabelaisants. The firstpart ('Polyglottes') considers a growing linguistic and geographical awareness initially epitomized by Pantagruel's famous meeting with Panurge on, significantly enough, the pont de Charenton (Pantagruel, Chapter 9), and then by the output of language teachers such as Gabriel Meurier and Gerard Du Vivier. The second part ('Le fons et abisme des monnaies') focuses on economic questions, especially on the complex phenomenon of progressive-price rises (I'encherissment), analysed by Bodin in his Response a M. de Malestroit of 1568 but perceived in a certain fashion earlier in the century (1546-52) by Charles Du Moulin and again Rabelais (the praise of debtors, the Dindenault episode), and, later, in a characteristically original way, by Montaigne ('Des coches'). The paradoxical Francofordiense emporium of H. Estienne (1574) and Ronsard's 'Hymne de l'Or' (1555) also figure here. The links between these apparently disparate parts are made manifest: learning a modern foreign lan? guage had a commercial application, the foreign trader's very otherness, like inflation, was a source of anxiety, and, as we discover, the cornucopiaof trade has its linguistic equivalent in the handbooks and word lists generated on a seemingly industrial scale by language teachers in the great centres. Although Terence Cave studiously avoids, and for good reason in this context, a loaded term like 'Renaissance' (let alone a sup? posed 'crisis ofthe Renaissance'), the dynamism, exuberance, and transformationthat it connotes are singularly well brought out in this thoughtful study. Prehistoires II does indeed, as the author indicates, bring to mind the paradoxical method of Mon? taigne in its study ofthe particular as a means ofapproachinga hypothetical universal, or its recognition of a potential general truth lying behind vaguely felt, occasionally visible but always transitory manifestation. Pre-histoires II is a challenging study and a pleasure to read. University of Wales, Lampeter T. Peach ...