Seventeenth-Century France Research Articles

Gendering Metamorphosis in d'Aulnoy's 'Babiole'

AbstractThis article explores how Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy uses the fairy-tale trope of metamorphosis not only to blur the distinction between human and animal but also to comment upon notions of femininity and masculinity. In 'Babiole', the heroine is transformed into a guenon, a kind of female monkey also used to denote an ugly woman in seventeenth-century France. Although the monkey-princess undergoes a civilizing process, she is always viewed by others as an inferior creature whose animality defines her. Babiole's experience contrasts sharply with that of her male fairy-tale counterpart, the Prince Marcassin, who is transformed into a boar. By comparing Babiole to Prince Marcassin, we see the extent to which d'Aulnoy's choice of animal for each metamorphosis is not arbitrary.

Notes on Contributors

Notes on Contributors

Political Pamphlets in Early Seventeenth-Century France: The Propaganda War between Louis XIII and His Mother, 1619—20

Political Pamphlets in Early Seventeenth-Century France: The Propaganda War between Louis XIII and His Mother, 1619—20

“Analysis Paralysis”: The Suspicion of Suspicion in the Fiction of David Foster Wallace

“Analysis Paralysis”: The Suspicion of Suspicion in the Fiction of David Foster Wallace

French Apocalyptic Messianism: Isaac La Peyrère and Political Biblical Criticism in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract: Isaac La Peyrère is one of the most important and yet little-known seventeenth-century intellectuals involved in developing modern biblical criticism. His work on the Bible resembles that of his later contemporaries Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, and La Peyrère's friend Richard Simon, all of whom his writings may have influenced. Through his attempt to get behind the biblical texts and his use of comparative extra-biblical historical literature from across the globe, La Peyrère's methods attempted to mould biblical exegesis into historical criticism. His social and political context in seventeenth-century France during the reign of King Louis xiv provides an important glimpse into the historical background that shaped La Peyrère's thought and project. At its core, La Peyrère's work was not scholarship for its own sake, but was politically motivated. His exegesis entailed an elaborate theo-political messianic vision, which his historical method was an attempt to bolster. La Peyrère's biblical exegesis was in service of his French apocalyptic messianic vision, the heart of which supported the political designs of his employer, the Prince of Condé.

Sacred Music from the Era of Louis XIII

SACRED MUSIC FROM THE ERA OF LOUIS XIII Gantez. Missa Lae tamini. Serie proposee par Michel Cuvelier. (Cahiers de musique. Patrimoine musical bourguignon.) (Patrimoine musical francais. Collection choeur.) Versailles: Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, 2009. [Notes biographiques, etc., p. [3-5]; score, p. 7-26. ISMN M560161709, ISBN-13/EAN 9790560161709, pub. no. CAH 170. euro12] Artus Aux-Cousteaux. Magnificat primi toni (1641); Magnificat secundi toni (1641); Magnificat tertii toni (1641); Magnificat quarti toni (1641); Magnificat quinti toni (1641); Magnificat sexti toni (1641); Magnificat septimi toni (1641); Magnificat octavi toni (1641). Edition proposee par Gerard Geay. Restitution du plain-chant: Jean-Yves Hameline. 8 volumes. (Patrimoine musical francais. Collection choeur.) Versailles: Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, 2009. [Notes biographiques, etc., p. [3-6]; scores, p. 7-12 or 13. ISMN M560161815, ISBN-13/EAN 9790560161815, pub. no. CAH 181 (primi toni); ISMN M560161822, ISBN-13/EAN 0790560161822, pub. no. CAH 182 (secundi toni); ISMN M560161839, ISBN-13/EAN 9790560161839, pub. no. CAH 183 (tertii toni); ISMN M560161846, ISBN-13/EAN 9790560161846, pub. no. CAH 184 (quarti toni); ISMN M560161853, ISBN-13/EAN 0790560161853, pub. no. CAH 185 (quinti toni); ISMN M560161860, ISBN-13/EAN 0790560161860, pub. no. CAH 186 (sexti toni); ISMN M560161877, ISBN-13/EAN 0790560161877, pub. no. CAH 187 (septimi toni); ISMN M560161884, ISBN-13/EAN 0790560161884, pub. no. CAH 188 (octavi toni). Each volume euro9.50] This group of publications by the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles (CMBV) contributes both to the study and to the performance of sacred music from the time of Louis XIII, a period for which sacred music has not received much scholarly attention until recently. The year 2009 brought two important additions to the collection that is published under the CMBV's Cahiers de musique series, including Gantez's (1607-ca. 1668) Missa Lae tamini, and a cycle of Magnificats on the eight Psalm tones by Artus Aux- Cousteaux (ca. 1590-ca. 1654) issued in eight separate volumes. These scores complement earlier publications of works of Antoine Boesset (1586-1643), and Guillaume Bouzignac (ca. 1587-after 1642) in the CMBV Cahiers de musique series, as well as a newly issued large collection of Boesset's sacred works edited by Peter Bennett and published by A-R Editions (Sacred Music, Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, 164-65 [Middle - ton, WI: A-R Editions, 2010]) all adding substantially to the modest list of modern editions available to the scholar and musician for French sacred music from the early seventeenth century. The nine scores under consideration here contain music for four unaccompanied voices, offering a rich new body of unexplored choral music for collegiate choirs. Gantez is known to us primarily through his 1643 book L'entretien des mu - siciens (The care of musicians), a delightfully entertaining and informative collection of letters that sheds light on the customs and practices of musicians associated with the maItrises (choir schools) of seventeenth-century France. Recent research has established for the first time Gantez's birth in Marseille in 1607 (Florence Chappee, Annibal Gantez, auteur de L'entretien des musiciens (1643), in MaItrises & chapelles aux XVIIe & XVIIIe siecles: Des institutions musicales au service de dieu, ed. Bernard Dompnier, 271-89, Collection Histoires croisees [Clermont- Ferrand: Presses Uni versitaires Blaise- Pascal, 2003]), and also has given evidence that he served at least seventeen maItrises during his peripatetic career, several of them for more than one period of employment. Gantez worked as far south as Toulon and as far north as Le Havre, and served St. Paul and St. Innocents in Paris in the three years before his move to Auxerre in 1643 where he published his book. No manuscripts of this composer have survived, but in 1642 Ballard published two of Gantez's masses, one of which was the Missa Lae tamini (Mass of Rejoicing). …

Law, Society, and the State in Early Modern France

Previous articleNext article No AccessReview ArticleLaw, Society, and the State in Early Modern France*Michael P. BreenMichael P. BreenReed College Search for more articles by this author Reed CollegePDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 83, Number 2June 2011 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/659209 Views: 288Total views on this site Citations: 11Citations are reported from Crossref © 2011 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Lewis Wade Underwriting Empire: Marine Insurance and Female Agency in the French Atlantic World, Enterprise & Society 34 (Oct 2022): 1–29.https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2022.33Felix Petersen Montesquieu and the Concept of the Non-Arbitrary State, The European Legacy 83 (Aug 2022): 1–19.https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770.2022.2106638Ozan TOK, Kamil YILDIRIM Tarihsel Süreç İçerisinde Fransız Temyiz Mahkemesinin Gelişimi, Marmara Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Hukuk Araştırmaları Dergisi 27, no.22 (Dec 2021): 26–50.https://doi.org/10.33433/maruhad.941108Matthew Vester On the edge of the Italian Renaissance, (Apr 2020).https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463726726_ch01Matthew Vester Kinship and noble life, (Apr 2020).https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463726726_ch05Jefferey M. Sellers, Anders Lidström, Yooil Bae Multilevel Democracy, 19 (Feb 2020).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108672337Alexandra Shepard Worthless Witnesses? Marginal Voices and Women's Legal Agency in Early Modern England, Journal of British Studies 58, no.44 (Oct 2019): 717–734.https://doi.org/10.1017/jbr.2019.85Philip Loft A Tapestry of Laws: Legal Pluralism in Eighteenth-Century Britain, The Journal of Modern History 91, no.22 (May 2019): 276–310.https://doi.org/10.1086/703162CHRISTOPHER J. LANE Vocational Freedom, Parental Authority and Pastoral Persuasion in Seventeenth-Century France, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 69, no.44 (Mar 2018): 768–784.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046917002743Michael P. Breen “An Uncertain, Useless, and Disgraceful Means of Proof”: Marriage, Law, and Authority in the Épreuve du Congrès, The Journal of Modern History 87, no.44 (Dec 2015): 771–808.https://doi.org/10.1086/683598Erik Goldner Corruption on Trial : Money, Power, and Punishment in France’s Chambre de Justice of 1716, Crime, Histoire & Sociétés 17, no.11 (May 2013): 5–28.https://doi.org/10.4000/chs.1407

L'ornithologie entre Renaissance et Lumières: leTraitté general des oyseauxde Jean B. Faultrier (1660)

Charmantier I. 2011. — L'ornithologie entre Renaissance et Lumières: le Traitté general des oyseaux de Jean B. Faultrier (1660). Anthropozoologica 46.1: 7–25.Ornithology between Renaissance and Enlightenment: Jean B. Faultrier's Traitté general des oyseaux (1660)The Traitté general des oyseaux was written in 1660 by Jean B. Faultrier, who was a controller of Louis XIV's falconries in the royal hunting lodge. The 787-page, un-illustrated manuscript was dedicated to Louis XIVs superintendent of the finances, the all-powerful Nicolas Fouquet, just one year before the latter's fall and imprisonment. This article aims to uncover how Faultrier worked and his aim in writing such a manuscript, which is one of the only ornithology works of seventeenth-century France. Analysis of the text reveals that Faultrier used an impressive variety of sources, from the natural history treatises of Aldrovandi and Belon, to falconry treatises, Italian bird-keeping manuals, Thevet's travel literature, and husbandry books. Faultrier's work brought together many facets of ornithology, and placed natural history, hunting and bird-keeping on the same level. Although on a par with Jonston's De avibus (1650), Faultrier's Traitté was never printed. In its form, the treatise recalls the ornithological encyclopaedias of the Renaissance, while in its scope and aims it prefigures the ornithological works of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment.

Alain de Solminihac (1593–1659). Prélat réformateur de l’Abbaye de Chancelade à l’éveché de Cahors (review)

Reviewed by: Alain de Solminihac (1593–1659). Prélat réformateur de l’Abbaye de Chancelade à l’éveché de Cahors Alison Forrestal Alain de Solminihac (1593–1659). Prélat réformateur de l’Abbaye de Chancelade à l’éveché de Cahors. By Patrick Petot. 2 vols. [Bibliotheca Victorina, Vol. XXI.] (Turnhout: Brepols. 2009. Pp. 507; 509–1091. €140,00. ISBN 978-2-503-53277-6.) Although scholars of seventeenth-century France are familiar with the name Alain de Solminihac, they have waited almost a century for a successor to the standard biography published by Eugène Sol, the diocesan archivist of Cahors (Aurillac, 1927). This was not due to a paucity of sources, for the archives of the Cahors Diocese are among the best preserved of the French Church, as this latest study of Solminihac demonstrates. Patrick Petot’s two-volume study of the Venerable Solminihac (who was beatified in 1981) makes ample use of the 10,000 documents stored in the Fonds Solminihac to analyze his lengthy career and includes a useful annex of 143 of the more important and illuminating. [End Page 373] Petot’s access to such documents has enabled him to track the dualism within his subject’s career, and this forms the basic thematic structure of the biography. One of only a handful of religious who ascended to episcopal status during the heyday of Catholic reform in France, Solminihac found his vocation within the walls of the abbey of the Augustinian canons of Chancelade in Dordogne and carried its influence into his subsequent career as bishop. It is Petot’s contention that it was the spirit of St. Augustine of Hippo that linked Solminihac’s devotion to his religious and episcopal status, although it is obvious that the bishop was inspired by other model bishops such as Ss. Martin of Tours, Charles Borromeo, and Francis de Sales (he met the latter around 1619 when St. Francis visited Paris). His career cannot be broken into two neat segments of Augustinian canonry and Augustinian episcopacy, however, for Solminihac’s progress from the abbey of Chancelade to the diocesan palace of Cahors in 1636–37 was the subject of private procrastination and anguish until he resolved to reconcile both in a form of religious prelacy and of public ecclesiastical dispute. In describing both aspects, Petot draws attention to the internal fissures within French Catholic Reform, which often placed varieties of reform at loggerheads. Dedicated to his companion canons at Chancelade and to the rule of Augustine that they followed, Solminihac had little desire to abandon the monastery in favor of a public pastorate and a more secular rule of life. He finally determined to retain his abbatial office and to adopt as many of the customs of religious life as possible within his episcopal household, including the appointment of his fellow canons as diocesan officials. Coupled with symbolic gestures such as the combining of religious regalia with episcopal, this contributed to the turbulent nature of Solminihac’s relations with the secular clergy of his diocese, often attributed simply to their reluctance to accept the reforming initiatives of a Tridentine bishop. Petot is quite correct to emphasize that Solminihac’s intractable rigor, sometimes criticized by episcopal associates who knew him personally, was a further source of discontent; and he offers a detailed examination of the climax to these tensions in 1651, when a set of malcontents temporarily seized control of the bishop’s synod. Solminihac’s devotion to his religious vocation was a source for a further conflict and related to the drive amongst reformers within religious congregations to restore pure and uniform discipline to associated monasteries throughout France. In Solminihac’s case, Cardinal François de La Rochefoucauld interpreted his appointment as bishop of Cahors as a de facto resignation of the abbacy of Chancelade and the signal for his attempt to absorb Chancelade into the Congrégation de France. There followed an extended dispute that reached to the level of the royal council, as Solminihac strove to maintain reforms in Chancelade and to ensure that the abbey was not simply swallowed by Messieurs de Sainte-Geneviève. Whereas Joseph Bergin and Isabelle Brian have examined attempts at reform...

Jurisdiction, inscription, and state formation: administrative modernism and knowledge regimes

In seventeenth-century France, Colbert built a more effective state administration not by rationalizing state offices but by using public documents to increase the government’s intellectual capacity to exercise logistical power and engage in territorial governance. This pattern calls into question Weber’s model of the genesis of “modern officialdom,” suggesting that its source was not social rationalization, but rather the identification and management of expertise. Colbert recruited into government nascent technocrats with knowledge useful to territorial politics, using contracts and other documents to limit their independence and subordinate them to patrimonial authorities. They exercised specific duties and impersonal powers in jurisdictional areas—much like modern technocrats. Their expertise enhanced the intellectual capacity of the administration to exercise territorial power and made the state less dependent on patrimonial clienteles without challenging the patrimonial culture of power/knowledge.

The Cartesian doctor, François Bayle (1622–1709), on psychosomatic explanation

There are two standing, incompatible accounts of Descartes’ contributions to the study of psychosomatic phenomena that pervade histories of medicine, psychology, and psychiatry. The first views Descartes as the father of “rational psychology” a tradition that defines the soul as a thinking, unextended substance. The second account views Descartes as the father of materialism and the machine metaphor. The consensus is that Descartes’ studies of optics and motor reflexes and his conception of the body-machine metaphor made early and important contributions to physiology and neuroscience but otherwise his impact was minimal. These predominately negative assessments of Descartes’ contributions give a false impression of the role his philosophy played in the development of medicine and psychiatry in seventeenth-century France and beyond. I explore Descartes’ influence in the little-known writings of a doctor from Toulouse, François Bayle (1622–1709). A study of Bayle gives us occasion to rethink the nature and role of psychosomatic explanation in Descartes’ philosophy. The portrait I present is of a Cartesian science that had an actual and lasting effect on medical science and practice, and may offer something of value to practitioners today.

Manning the Margins: Masculinity and Writing in Seventeenth-Century France, by Lewis C. Seifert

The paradox of the masculine fop is one that captures the dramatic imagination, as seen in two characters in recent cinema set in the late seventeenth century: Archibald Cunningham in Rob Roy (1995) and Monsieur (Philippe d’Orléans) in Vatel (2000). Both appear at first as effeminate and therefore harmless, only to surprise their foes (and audiences) with their extremely deadly prowess with the sword. In his latest book, Lewis Seifert helps us position such fictional portrayals within historical literature from the same period, exploring the contradictions of a society requiring men to be both heroic warriors and cultured aesthetes. In his thorough use of case-studies from a variety of literary sources in seventeenth-century France, Seifert provides historians, sociologists and literary scholars alike with a critical appraisal of masculinities in a key period of transition. As wider trends in European thought shifted from the emotional to the rational, Seifert argues, behavioural roles performed by men were both questioned and reaffirmed. This paradox and resulting ambiguity forms the running theme to this study. Indeed, the author seems to take pleasure in muddying the waters of the history of sexuality, neither affirming nor denying the more one-sided theories posited by Foucault or Halperin. There is no linear trajectory from a world that saw effeminacy and sodomy as heretical to one that differentiated the act as a civic crime from the desire, as part of an individual's personality and the creation of the homosexual identity (or in Seifert's words, the ‘sodomitical self’). Instead, in an age seeking certainty and ‘absolutes’, there is ambivalence and nuance. But, rather than presenting one model, there are a variety from which to choose, from the honnête homme, the gallant or the ‘tender’ man of salon and courtly society, to the secretive, intellectual or fantasy worlds of transgressive poets and writers.

La Prononciation française pour de vrai by Penelope Sewell

A selected bibliography and filmography is also supplied, listing for example the reference editions of Corneille’s work, a selection of books and articles about Corneille and his work, works on the seventeenth century, works on French literature in general, possible sources for the play, other important authors and their works of the seventeenth century, as well as a list of films and recordings of Corneille’s plays and other works, including operas and dance, which deal with seventeenth-century France, the addresses of companies that sell these recordings in the USA, and finally a few Web sites concerned with seventeenth century French theater, Corneille, his life, and his work. To conclude, the volume ends with a list of useful vocabulary to talk about theater plays, pictorial credits, acknowledgments, and a few words about the authors. This volume is very clear, written in simple yet accurate French, well laid out and would work well for students who are novices in classic theater or as a part of a basic introduction to French theater class. Armstrong Atlantic State University (GA) Dorothée Mertz-Weigel SEWELL, PENELOPE. La Prononciation française pour de vrai. London: Birkbeck, University of London, 2009. ISBN 978-0-9561796-0-9. £30.00 This program is a series of 24 lessons aimed at English speakers with a high intermediate or advanced level of proficiency in French. The program is presented entirely in French over five hours and forty-three minutes on a set of 3 DVDs. The content is detailed, thorough, well sequenced and challenging. It is obvious that Penny Sewell has a wealth of technical knowledge and expertise in teaching about the sounds of French and how to pronounce them. The program uses three native speakers to provide examples throughout the program. While the content is excellent, the production and delivery limit how the program might be used as an instructional tool. The material in this program is organized into 24 lessons. Lessons 1–8 focus on stress, rhythm, and intonation; lessons 9–17 focus on vowels; lessons 18–23 focus on consonants. The 24th lesson is a pot-pourri of useful information, including common phrases that differ between written and spoken French and onomatopoeia. These lessons vary in length, ranging from about seven to twenty minutes in length. Additionally, there is a Livret d’accompagnement with exercises on the phonetic alphabet, syllabification, and intonation. The longest segment of the DVD series is the twenty-four minute introduction. In this segment, Sewell explains how the program is structured, presents essential phonetic terms in French and English, teaches the International Phonetic Alphabet and explains its importance, discusses common problems English speakers face when learning French, and explains how to learn to pronounce French like a Francophone. The subsequent lessons on the first DVD focus on syllabification, intonation and accentuation, and rhythmic groups. The second DVD of the series offers an in-depth look at vowels. It begins with some generalizations of sounds and continues with how to form one’s lips to create the appropriate vowel sounds. The remaining lessons in the second DVD focus on at least one, but no more than three vowels in each lesson. Sewell offers comparisons and contrasts between vowels pronounced in French and 636 FRENCH REVIEW 84.3 those in English. Additionally, native Francophone speakers are used to model the pronunciation. In each of these lessons, there is ample opportunity for the student to gain practical skill in pronunciation and listening. The third DVD focuses mainly on consonants. As was the case in the prior lessons, the student has ample opportunity to practice the sounds along with Sewell as well as with native speakers. The information is detailed and thorough. Again, Sewell makes many comparisons between French and English and points out common errors Anglophones make in pronunciation. This program’s weakness is in the production value and technical delivery of the material. While Sewell’s information is thorough and comprehensive, the method in which it is delivered is lacking. Throughout the three DVD series, Sewell is seated in front of a green or blue screen and reads from off-screen notes. Often, there is an informational slide projected behind her...

Pierre Corneille: Le Cid ed. by Myrna Bell Rochester, Eileen M. Angelini

Touchant, ce récit a posteriori a fait l’objet d’un formidable travail de compilations de documents, témoignages et photos. Il est suivi de notes et illustrations, et offre même quelques sujets de discussions pour des travaux de classe. Pourtant, cette succession d’épreuves humaines douloureuses et pleines de courage aurait pu faire l’objet d’une narration plus détaillée, d’un commentaire plus développé. L’histoire d’amour inconditionnel qui unit Paul et Trudy, sur fond de guerre et de génocide, séduit avidement le lecteur... qui en redemande! Bucknell University (PA) Candice Nicolas ROCHESTER, MYRNA BELL, and EILEEN M. ANGELINI, eds. Pierre Corneille: Le Cid. Newburyport: Focus Student Edition, 2010. ISBN 978-1-58510-296-9. Pp. 191. $14.95. This volume is the fifth in a series of texts for French language students. It is written entirely in French, and just like its predecessors, it offers simple, yet well organized and very clear information. The introduction elaborates upon the author’s life and his work, gives a summary of each scene of Le Cid, and mentions the sources that inspired the play. The introduction also discusses the famous “Querelle du Cid” and consequently touches upon the rules of unités and bienséances of seventeenth-century theater. Finally it provides clues to identify the Cornelian hero and heroine, and seventeenth-century morality. Following the introduction, the Notes stylistiques present: (1) the alexandrine verse; (2) a few seventeenth-century usages including examples of classic theater vocabulary, tutoiement and vouvoiement, and the placement of object pronouns and negation; (3) a clarification on what figure de style is, including a list of such stylistic tools necessary to analyze Le Cid and an activity to practice what students have just learned; and (4) the indispensable lesson on the imperfect and pluperfect of the subjunctive. All of these sections incorporate specific examples from the actual play studied. The last two elements of notes before the play starts are a map of eleventh-century Spain and a historical timeline of the seventeenth century, placing the play in French and European history, in the history of French literature, and the literature of other European countries, as well as in Corneille’s life. Le Cid is then presented in its integrality, and is accompanied by excellent French-to-French linguistic and cultural notes. They enable the readers to understand a vocabulary that can be outdated, without having to refer to a FrenchEnglish dictionary and consequently having to leave the French immersion that this text offers. The cultural notes allow not only for the understanding of the text, but also of the time and culture in which it was written. The Examen du Cid in which Corneille defends the “irregularities” of his play can be found right after the end of the play. A number of activities are subsequently suggested: warm-up questions consisting of general questions allowing students to think of particular themes related to the play (What is courage? How can you create the portrait of someone who does not brag or brags very little? etc.), multiple choice questions , with the answers given in the back of the book, reading comprehension and essay/discussion questions, and further exploration questions allowing the understanding of Corneille’s message(s) to the reader and the application of the themes found in Le Cid to our society and culture. Reviews 635 A selected bibliography and filmography is also supplied, listing for example the reference editions of Corneille’s work, a selection of books and articles about Corneille and his work, works on the seventeenth century, works on French literature in general, possible sources for the play, other important authors and their works of the seventeenth century, as well as a list of films and recordings of Corneille’s plays and other works, including operas and dance, which deal with seventeenth-century France, the addresses of companies that sell these recordings in the USA, and finally a few Web sites concerned with seventeenth century French theater, Corneille, his life, and his work. To conclude, the volume ends with a list of useful vocabulary to talk about theater plays, pictorial credits, acknowledgments, and...

Manning the Margins: Masculinity and Writing in Seventeenth-Century France by Lewis C. Seifert

Manning the Margins: Masculinity and Writing in Seventeenth-Century France by Lewis C. Seifert

French Apocalyptic Messianism: Isaac La Peyrère and Political Biblical Criticism in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract:

Environmental Change and Globalization in Seventeenth-Century France: Dutch Traders and the Draining of French Wetlands (Arles, Petit Poitou)

SummaryBetween 1599 and the end of the 1650s, the French Crown sustained a policy of land reclamation at a large scale. It was led by the French aristocracy who were helped by representatives of the merchant elites of Amsterdam, such as Hieronimus van Uffelen and Jean Hoeufft. The works in both Arles (Provence) and Petit Poitou (Poitou) show that land reclamation involved a radical change in society, reinforced the authority of the Crown in the areas concerned, and disrupted the former social balances built around the marshes. Thus, land reclamation aroused several conflicts which revealed its deep impact on the environment. So, this article demonstrates how the making of the modern state, backed by the development of European trade and banking, caused ecological and social changes by connecting the political and financial powers on a European scale.

‘Upon the Quakers and the Quietists’: Quietism, Power and Authority in Late Seventeenth-Century France, and its Relation to Quaker History and Theology

This article poses a number of questions around its subject matter, from which I develop some explanatory frameworks and further conceptualizations of Quietism. It addresses, primarily, the questions: What is Quietism? What were the issues of power and authority leading to the infamous Quietist Controversy in late seventeenth-century France? And subsequently, what is the nature of Quietism’s connection to the Quaker theological tradition?

The Territorial State as a Figured World of Power: Strategics, Logistics, and Impersonal Rule

The ability to dominate or exercise will in social encounters is often assumed in social theory to define power, but there is another form of power that is often confused with it and rarely analyzed as distinct: logistics or the ability to mobilize the natural world for political effect. I develop this claim through a case study of seventeenth-century France, where the power of impersonal rule, exercised through logistics, was fundamental to state formation. Logistical activity circumvented patrimonial networks, disempowering the nobility and supporting a new regime of impersonal rule: the modern, territorial state.

El Œdipe de Pierre Corneille: una reescritura clásica de Edipo rey

El mito de Edipo es un relato heroico cuyo argumento gira en torno al Destino y al poder. Configurado en Época Micénica (siglos XVIII-XII a. C.), este mito ha marcado fuertemente la producción dramática. De hecho, su argumento se encuentra a la base de una de las mayores tragedias: el Edipo rey de Sófocles (430 a. C.). Drama representativo de la tragedia griega, la obra maestra de Sófocles es el punto de referencia de toda obra que desarrolle el fatídico gobierno del héroe tebano; Destino y política están entonces en el centro de la construcción dramática. En este marco temático, el Œdipe de Pierre Corneille, escrito en 1659, es una adaptación del argumento griego al contexto monárquico del siglo XVII. Este trabajo explora el Œdipe corneliano para analizar las transformaciones hipertextuales más importantes que dan a la obra una perspectiva contextual. De hecho, el Œdipe de Corneille es un drama donde el argumento sofocleo es revalorado de acuerdo con el air du temps de la producción clásica francesa.