17th century France

This essay reappraises the origins of French Quakerism based on new archival research conducted on both sides of the Channel. It identifies 34 Quaker missionaries in 17th- and early 18C France, sheds new light on the French reception of Quakerism and suggests possible connections with non-violent, charismatic movements in Languedoc.

This is a re-reading of Corneille's relationship with music, drawing from the machine play "Andromède" (and scholarship on "Andromède") and comparing its particularities with Corneille's theoretical work from ten years later. The idea is that we have too often relied on the theoretical writings to explain his relationship with music, whereas Corneille was much more experimental (and opera-friendly) in practice than he claimed to be in the _Discours_. "Andromède" without the _Discours_ can be read as a kind of laboratory for early French opera.

A closely-researched and detailed study of the operations and tactics of early modern armies, it uses the French and Savoyard invasion of Spanish Lombardy in 1636 to explore warfare through a neo-Darwinian lens. This emphasizes the universal features of human behavior and psychology as they relate to violence and war. Oxford University Press, January 2016, Paperback version 2018; Italian translation LEG 2018.

"Le second peuple de Nantes au XVIIIe siècle :
environnements du quotidien et interactions sociales.

Pour les intellectuels et lexicographes officiant sous l’Ancien Régime, le peuple de France n’est alors pas un mais multiple. Au cœur de l’espace urbain, exclusion faite de la population mendiante et vagabonde, la partie tout à la fois la plus nombreuse et la moins bien considérée de ce peuple regroupe les travailleurs journaliers et sans qualification, ceux de la terre ou plus ou moins qualifiés mais non dépendants d’un cadre corporatif, la domesticité au sens large, les ouvriers de manufactures, les compagnons et garçons de métiers jurés ainsi que l’ensemble des chambrelans besognant en contravention aux statuts des jurandes. Cette population que nous identifions sous l’appellation « second peuple » se caractérise par une existence de ses membres majoritairement vécue dans la précarité quotidienne, une insertion plus ou moins bien définie et solide au sein de la société urbaine et une inscription en dehors de toute forme officielle d’organisation horizontale du travail. Une attention portée sur trois pans majeurs de l’existence du second peuple de la ville de Nantes au dernier siècle de la monarchie absolue, soit la vie en communauté, la consommation matérielle et l’activité laborieuse, est en mesure de dévoiler quelques-uns des traits essentiels des individus le constituant : place centrale de l’élément féminin, importance des notions de déplacement et d’implantation géographiques, force des connexions et solidarités de voisinage, rapport parfois houleux à l’autorité et frugalité de l’environnement matériel du quotidien.

Mots clés : peuple, ville, Nantes, inventaire de biens, travail illégal, résistance, solidarité, voisinage, lien social, violence, mouvement, migration, parrainage, pauvreté, précarité, consommation, micro-histoire, déménagement.

The second people of Nantes in the XVIIIth century:
everyday environments and social interactions.

For the intellectuals and lexicographers officiating under the Ancien Regime, the people of France was then not one but many. At the heart of urban space, excluding the population of beggars and vagabonds, the at once most numerous and least well regarded part of this people groups together unqualified day laborers, those working on the land or more or less qualified but not dependent on a corporate framework, domestic workers in the broadest sense of the word, factory workers, journeymen and juniors in the legal profession and all “roomworkers” toiling in contravention of the statutes of the guilds. This population that we identify under the name of the “second people” is characterized by a life of its members mostly lived in everyday poverty, a more or less well defined and strong insertion in the heart of urban society and an entry without any official form of horizontal organization of work. A focus on three major segments of the existence of the second people of the city of Nantes in the last century of absolute monarchy, be it community life, material consumption or work activity, is able to reveal some essential features of the individuals which make it up: the central role of the feminine element, the importance of the concepts of travel and geographic location, the strength of connections and neighborhood solidarity, sometimes stormy relations with authority and the frugality of the material environment of daily life.

Key words: people, city, Nantes, inventories of goods, subterranean work, resistance, solidarity, neighborhood, social tie, violence, movement, migration, spiritual kinship, poverty, precariousness, household consumption, microhistory, move."

This book poses the question: before the Enlightenment, and before the imperialism of the later 18th century, how did European readers find out about the varied cultures of Asia? The book presents a history of Oriental studies in 17th-century France (c.1643–1715), mapping the place within the intellectual culture of the period that was given to studies of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Chinese texts, as well as writings on Mughal India. The Orientalist writers studied here, such as Melchisédech Thévenot, François Bernier, and Barthélemy D'Herbelot, produced books that would become the sources used throughout the 18th century. They are here placed in their own context as members of the ‘republic of letters’ in the age of the scientific revolution and the early Enlightenment."

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Contents

Introduction: Baroque Orientalism

1 Barthélemy d'Herbelot and the Place of Oriental Learning

2 "Toutes les Curiosités du Monde": The Geographic Projects of Melchisédech Thévenot

3 The Double Eclipse: François Bernier's Geography of Knowledge

4 The Making of d'Herbelot's Bibliothèque orientale

5 Printing Confucius in Paris

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index

La présente étude traite de l’adaptation cinématographique d’Angélique marquise des Anges d’Anne et Serge Golon, qui a connu un grand succès en librairie. Classé comme roman populaire, le roman des Golon, qui a souvent été ignoré par la critique, est une oeuvre historiquement bien documentée. Adressée à un public essentiellement féminin, Angélique marquise des Anges, dont le casting réunissait des auteurs célébres, a été à l’origine de cinq films réalisés par Bernard Borderie, qui ont connu un succès commercial important. Après une courte présentation de l’oeuvre littéraire, nous analysons la personnalité et l’image de Louis XIV et de sa cour dans les cinq films. Vu l’étendue du roman fleuve, le scénariste et le producteur ont été obligés de rendre partiellement le caractère des personnages historiques ou même de les supprimer dans l’adaptation cinématographique. De plus, ils ont enlevé des descriptions et des passages importants réduisant ainsi les références chronologiques. En outre, quoique dans les romans des Golon,  l’image de la cour de Louis XIV soient représentée de manière réaliste, dans les films de Borderie, qui se focalisent sur les aventures amoureuses de l’héroine, malgré l’utilisation d’un décor naturel,  elle n’a pas été rendue de manière convaincante. Révélatrice des rapports complexes entre la littérature et le cinéma, l’adaptation cinématographique de la série d’Angélique, était, à l’exception du premier film de Borderie, une adaptation libre du roman, ce qui n’a pas nuit à son grand succès commercial.

Théodora Psychoyou, « De la mesure, du rythme, et du statut du temps au XVIIe siècle : une nouvelle rythmopoétique », La Fabrique des paroles de musique à l’âge classique, textes réunis par Anne-Madeleine Goulet et Laura Naudeix, Wavre, Mardaga, 2010, p. 37-56

BARBARA HRYSZKO
Alexandre Ubeleski (Ubelesqui): The Œuvre of the Painter and the Definition of his Style (pp. 226-280)
Summary
The purpose of this article is to identify the undisputed works of Alexandre Ubeleski (1649/1651–21 April 1718), a painter of Polish origin, who worked in the service of Louis XIV and was affiliated with the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. A number of facts concerning the painter’s life were established on the basis of archival documentation. Thanks to the archival sources, history of individual works and the analysis of the painter’s signatures it was possible to identify Ubeleski’s output consisting of forty-four works, including: seven paintings, twenty preparatory drawings for paintings and seventeen académies. Another twenty-eight works are documented in prints and over fifty-three works are known only from written sources. Although the surviving works constitute merely a small percentage of the artist’s total output, they may serve as evidence in defining his style. One may hope that defining the painter’s style and the common element of all of his paintings and drawings shall serve as a basis for the future attribution of works that may appear, for instance, in the antiquarian trade.
The painter was one of many artists at the time whose work was strictly defined by the academic canon. Ubeleski’s style was fundamentally influenced by his studies at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. This very institution was his basic source of inspiration. It was there that the artist learned about the works of great masters. The classical style and the preponderance of drawing in his works contributed to his early successes which started his academic career, and gained him the chair of a professor. Ubeleski’s artistic output is a representative sample of the French academic art in the reign of Louis XIV. The nature of his œuvre indicates that he was one of the Poussinistes, who valued classical models of great predecessors over creative experiments.

Saint Louis (Louis IX) was one of the most frequently invoked historical figures in Bourbon France. Positioned at the nexus of the relationship between church and state, his cult and memory had an important place in the political, religious, devotional, intellectual and artistic culture of the Ancien Régime. This book examines the cult between 1589 and 1830, using it to explore themes of sacral kingship (including the alleged desacralization of the monarchy before the Revolution) and historical memory.


In 1618, Louis XIII sought to extend devotion to Saint Louis across his whole kingdom, uniting his vast and varied population of subjects in celebration of the dynastic patron saint. This book argues that the king’s project had only limited success. Not only did early modern French people choose whether to celebrate Saint Louis based on their own interests – often at variance with those of the monarchy – but the elevation of Saint Louis into a model of ideal kingship handed them a tool with which to criticise their reigning king.


In following the cult of Saint Louis from the reigns of Henri IV and Louis XIII, when the Bourbons sought to establish their authority after the Wars of Religion, through the apogee of absolute monarchy under Louis XIV to the changed intellectual environment of the Enlightenment, the radicalism of the French Revolution and the attempt to rebuild royal authority during the Restoration, this book offers a new lens through which to view the twists and turns of this fascinating period of French history.

Euro 14,00 " Molti hanno lodato lo spirito d'animo del duca di Parma, un esempio singolare e mostra spiritosa, della franchezza di un animo degno di Principe libero, e di imparare ai Spagnoli come si dovevano tenere conto dei principi italiani, e con qual rispetto si deva con essi procedere. Altri hanno biasimate le azioni del duca, che era degli primi anni imbevuto di pensieri grandi, di pretenzioni maggiori della sua condizione, che non c'era buona e sufficiente ragione di rompere con la Spagna "

Artiste fécond et productif, Jean Lemoyne eut sa place dans le renouvellement de l’arabesque à la fin du XVIIe siècle. Novateur au début de sa carrière, inventif dans les formes et les compositions, ce que notait Hyppolyte Destailleur en soulignant que « l’ornementation de Le Moyne est mieux composée que celle de Berain ; le dessin est plus large de facture & généralement plus varié », il eut une influence sur ses contemporains et, sans doute, plus particulièrement sur Jean Ier Berain. Par la suite les choses s’inversèrent, le dessinateur de la chambre et Cabinet du Roi ayant su dépasser les formules qu’il avait proposées.

Discusses choral lament scenes in French Baroque opera in the context of historical state funeral culture.  Asks what staged choral mourning can tell us about the political imagination of publicity and participation under Louis XIV and Louis XV.

Aujourd’hui disparue, la demeure de campagne que Charles Le Brun se fit bâtir à Montmorency reste mal connue. Richement ornée et agrémentée d’un jardin avec ses fontaines, ses grottes et ses parterres, cette maison de peintre était d’une grande somptuosité. Grâce aux dessins, aux estampes, aux archives et aux témoignages qui ont pu être réunis, cet article rend compte de l’histoire du lieu, de l’aspect général de l’habitation et de ses jardins et enfin de la vie du peintre dans cette maison de plaisance qu’il habita les dernières années de sa vie. Apparaissent ainsi en filigrane ses goûts et ses ambitions dans cette création toute personnelle.

This is a historiographical examination of the first History of Music published in France in 1715, written during a long span of time by three different authors. "Histoire de la Musique et de ses effets depuis son origine jusqu'a present" portrays the ideological war taking place in France in the late 17th and early 18th-century between defenders of the French and the Italian styles and proposes an union of the two – what would be later called "Les Goûts Réunis" (the united tastes) - as an aesthetic solution to the conflict. 

Longtemps négligé, le rôle des Gondi apparaît comme primordial pour l’histoire de Saint-Cloud. Ce sont eux qui donnèrent le tracé général du domaine que l’on retrouve encore aujourd’hui et fixèrent l’implantation des bâtiments.
La période de Monsieur reste centrale. Le château construit par Le Pautre subsista malgré les remaniements et les adjonctions jusqu’à sa destruction. L’intervention de l’architecte a été sous-estimée. Il fut l’auteur de l’ensemble, même si quelques libertés ont pu être prises par Girard après sa mort en 1679. Deux grandes campagnes apparaissent. Un premier projet, pour une petite maison, durant les années 1660, pendant laquelle l’architecte fit en même temps office d’entrepreneur et put s’appuyer sur une équipe bien constituée qui le suivait sur bon nombre de ses chantiers. Puis, dans les années 1670, à la demande de Monsieur, Le Pautre repensa complètement l’ensemble pour construire un vaste château en U, qui fut achevé par Girard. L’intervention d’Hardouin-Mansart sur le chantier apparaît circonstancielle, liée à des problèmes de distribution que Girard n’avait pas su résoudre.
Les sources ne nous ont permis que d’ébaucher le rôle du Régent, mais des travaux furent bien envisagés et parfois menés à son époque, sous la direction d’Oppenord, dont le nom n’avait jamais jusqu’ici été associé à Saint-Cloud : un nouveau salon pour l’aile du Midi, dont subsiste une ébauche d’Antoine Coypel, et la création d’un appartement pour la duchesse d’Orléans au rez-de-chaussée du château. Enfin, le rôle de Contant d’Ivry a pu être précisé. Son intervention ne se borna pas aux jardins et aux cadres de festivités comme le pavillon de La Brosse, mais doit aussi être envisagée pour les appartements du château, la serre, la salle de comédie et le nouveau salon aux décors peints par Pierre.

Mademoiselle de Montpensier, figlia di Gastone d’Orléans e cugina di Luigi XIV, fu testimone privilegiata del fastoso mondo della Corte e si trovò, ancora fanciulla, a guerreggiare come un generale. Più francese del re, più Borbone di lui, finì per cannoneggiare le truppe reali dagli spalti della Bastiglia. Dalla personalità complessa incarnò tutte le facce del Grand Siècle e le traspose nelle sue memorie. Fu una donna energica tanto da ordire, durante i torbidi tempi della Fronda, trame politiche in sostegno del padre e al contempo fu un’amante tanto sensibile da inseguire per decenni i fantasmi di un amore. Per la sua rivoluzionaria concezione del rapporto tra i sessi, è oggi considerata antesignana dei movimenti femministi. Le Memorie della Grande Mademoiselle ripercorrono, nella raffinata traduzione di Serafino Balduzzi, un’infinita serie di eventi reali e avvincenti raccontati dalla prosa agile e vivace di chi li visse in prima persona.

Résumés analytiques
Profitant de la forte déclivité du terrain de la partie basse vers la Seine, qui n’avait fait l’objet précédemment que d’aménagements sommaires, c’est là, dans le « jardin bas » que les efforts de Jean-François de Gondi, le nouveau propriétaire, se portèrent, lors d’une importante campagne de travaux dont le projet est à situer vers 1627-1628 et l’achèvement en 1636.
L’allée du Mail fut totalement réaménagée et agrémentée de bassins, en son centre et à son abord du côté de la pente où prirent appui la Cascade et le Grand jet. À l’extrémité de l’allée fut construite la fontaine du bout du Mail, pour laquelle le nom du concepteur, Francini, est connu par un acte de 1628. Mais la complexité du programme hydraulique, où elle venait s’insérer, ainsi que des différentes pièces d’eau, permet d’attribuer la paternité de l’ensemble à l’un des Francini, Tommaso ou Alessandro, si ce n’est aux deux. Toutefois, ils avaient l’habitude de travailler sous la direction d’un architecte. Un nom, raturé, apparait dans l’expertise réalisée en 1636. Il serait, toutefois, possible d’y lire celui de l’architecte Augustin Ier Guillain.

English Summaries
The article presents the new hydraulic installations that Jean-François de Gondi had undertaken at Saint-Cloud from about 1627. Benefitting from the steep slope of the land toward the Seine in the lower part of the property, the new owner wished to endow the lower garden with a large complex of fountains. Their construction seems to have been finished in 1636. The Allée du Mail was completely reworked and adorned with basins, in the center and on the sloping side where the Cascade and the Grand jet took their support. At the end of the alley was built a fountain conceived by “Francini”, whose name is mentioned in a document dated 1628. The complexity of the hydraulic program and the conception of the different waterworks invites an attribution of the installation to one of the Francini, either Tommaso or Alessandro. The name of an architect appears in an evaluation dated 1636. Scratched out and difficult to read, it may be the name of the architect Augustin Ier Guillain.

En quoi les Caractères se distinguent-t-il d’un traité de civilité ? En adoptant le modèle théophrastien, La Bruyère porte son attention moins sur les normes de la civilité que sur les conditions dans lesquelles il est possible de porter un jugement sur les comportements humains. La civilité, sous le regard du moraliste, devient objet de perplexité, mais aussi critère d’évaluation des conduites inciviles. L’indignation face à l’évidence qui se dégage alors est construite par le moraliste sur le modèle de l’expérience et vient justifier la prise de parole du moraliste.

The Huguenots were a religious minority in France who fought during the second half of the sixteenth century for their Protestant (Calvinist) beliefs, and to whom concessions were granted by the crown with the Edict of Nantes in 1598. The Huguenots continued to enjoy their privileged status until the Edict was revoked in 1685. This collection of essays explores the character and identity of the Huguenot movement by examining their institutions, patterns of belief and worship, and interaction with French state and society.

This article revisits the letters written by readers of the Mercure galant responding to the “gallant question" posed by the periodical's editor in an April 1678 issue, regarding a central plot twist of Madame de Lafayette's novel La Princesse de Clèves. Highlighting the expansive, democratic, and participatory nature of these readers as they connected with the unprecedented complexity of the novel's characters, whose dilemmas they "identified" with, scholars have imputed to this 1670s public a modernity reflecting that of the novel itself, often considered “the first modern novel” in French. This essay analyzes the letters in light of their arguments as well as of the novel's editorial history, exploring the implications of a disconnect existing between the work and the readers in question, who, in reality, did not generally empathize with its protagonist's dilemma as presented by the Mercure, and moreover, who did not seem to have read the text. This disconnect highlights a number of realities that a "history of reading" approach to late 17th-century literary culture can bring out. One is that, in the summer of its publication, the work was perhaps not accessible in the provincial towns that produced the new readers of this modern public and who wrote in to the Mercure. Second, literary demand in the late 1670s, even as it was growing and touching new kinds of readers, expanded through a continuing interest in the didactic and romanesque genres of the 1630s-50s, rather than the "modern novel" of Lafayette. In the 1680s, excerpted texts from Scudéry's early romances, condensed as guidebooks for ideal comportment and sociability, were published in numbers that far exceeded copies of the Princesse de Clèves in circulation; and ultimately, the Mercure galant of the 1670-80s specialized in the former literary stylings more than the latter.

The book consists in the diplomatic report of the Safevid imperial scribe of the Iranian delegation sent by the Shah Sulayman to Siam (Thailand) at the end of the 17th century.

Published in Greek, in 1993 (STOHASTIS Publishing House, Athens - Greece), 304 p., the book consists in the Modern Greek translation of the diplomatic report of the Safevid imperial scribe of the Iranian delegation sent by the Shah Sulayman to Siam (Thailand).

The original title in Farsi, Safina'i Sulaymani, refers to the ship by which the entire Persian delegation traveled to Siam / Thailand. At those days, around the end of the 17th century (the trip lasted long: 1687 - 1688), the rivalry between the Sea powers in the area of the Indian Ocean was at its zenith, and alliances had to be formed: France and the Ottoman Empire against Iran and England. Holland, Spain and Portugal were equally present, and the local powers in Indochina had to accommodate themselves with the conflicting interests of the seven aforementioned powers.
First published online in Buzzle: 9th August 2005

Résumé

Le présent article a pour but de révéler comment la promenade a fait l’objet de discours normatifs visant à codifier son usage. L’exemple de François de Grenaille, auteur de l’ouvrage Les plaisirs des Dames, publié en 1641, permet de comprendre comment se mettent en place les discours visant à régler les sociabilités parisiennes et comment la promenade est de plus en plus considérée comme une pratique qui doit se réaliser conformément à l’honnêteté. Grenaille cible deux types de pratiques, soit la promenade qui se réalise au Cours-la-Reine et celle qui doit se pratiquer dans la nature. Il oppose ainsi deux types de divertissements, celui qui est conforme à la nécessité de « voir et être vu » et l’autre à la simple recherche d’introspection et de réflexion. L’oeuvre de Grenaille pourrait ainsi constituer les prémisses de cette tendance qui va se renforcer dans la seconde moitié du xviie siècle.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore how the promenade, or walk, served as a subject in normative discourse towards codifying its use. The example of François de Grenaille, author of the Les plaisirs des Dames published in 1641, shows how the discourse aligned with Parisian sociabilities and how the promenade became an increasingly genuine activity. Grenaille looks at two types of walk, the promenade at the Cours-la-Reine, and the nature walk. He contrasts the two types of leisurely practice, one involving the need to “see and be seen,” and the other as one that simply seeks introspection and reflection. Grenaille’s work may have set the stage for this trend that would become more definitive in the second half of the 17th century.

When Louis Belmont discussed the bound collection of manuscript letters and verse known as the "Chroniques du samedi," he described it as a “luxurious specimen,” whose lavish (in his view) material forms – “good paper,” gilded edges, and blue velvet binding – echoed the refined sphere that its texts, a "register" of the activities of Madeleine de Scudéry’s Saturday salon, evoked. He called it “le livre bleu de la préciosité.” Yet the history of the "Chroniques" as a document is more complex. This article explores some of the contexts through which the manuscript may have passed in its trajectory from the Scudéry group in the 1650s to the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal today, and which may have shaped the book. I highlight two specifically: the world of 19th-century autograph collecting typified by Feuillet des Conches, collector and forger, who owned the manuscript and signed his name on its endsheets, and the political, religious, and secretarial framework of the early 18th century, when Pellisson’s papers were administered (published, archived) for posterity.

These contexts are obscure and to a degree, unknowable. But they have left discernible traces on the bound manuscript that, despite or because of the uncertainties encountered, may help us view it in a new light: created over time, invested in distinct and often contradictory ways, and materially altered for a variety of purposes.

Translated by Cécile Soudan. Original English version posted here, too.

Abstract : This article aims to describe the various aspects of processing and dissemination of consuls’ sanitary information in the late seventeenth century Mediterranean. Through the correspondence of the French consul in Livorno, François Cotolendy (consul from 1672 to 1691), it proposes to distinguish two types of dispatches sent by consuls to provide information about the risk of plague: dispatches of precaution and dispatches of precision. Moreover, it shows how the instrumental use of health rumour partook of the economic competition of the free ports of Marseilles, Genoa and Livorno at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: the constant tension between the increase of trade and the requirements of health protection led indeed to a climate of distrust with which consuls had to deal. / Cet article cherche à décrire les différentes facettes du traitement et de la diffusion de l’information sanitaire des consuls en Méditerranée à la fin du XVIIe siècle. À travers la correspondance du consul français de Livourne François Cotolendy (consul de 1672 à 1691), il s’agit de distinguer deux types de dépêches envoyées par les consuls pour renseigner sur le risque de peste : les dépêches de précaution et les dépêches de précision. On montre également comment l’instrumentalisation de la rumeur sanitaire participait pleinement de la concurrence économique des ports francs de Marseille, Gênes et Livourne au tournant des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles : la tension permanente entre la recherche de l’accroissement du commerce et les impératifs de protection sanitaire créait en effet un climat de méfiance avec lequel les consuls devaient composer.

Pierre Bayle's Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, a landmark in intellectual history, is a curious text. Originally intended as a collection of all errors, it became an encyclopedia of everything, enfolding rampantly growing footnotes that commented on every imaginable topic. Instead of looking at Bayle's theoretical statements in the Dictionnaire, I explore Bayle's writing practice, his critical method and his practice of forming judgments. A close study of the textual, paratextual and contextual characteristics of the first entry of the Dictionnaire (the entry "Abaris") allows me to find out how Bayle made up his mind at every stage during a contemporaneous controversy on divination. In this way, we are able to see Bayle's mind in action while he is judging the contradictory information he receives and the to-and-fro movement of changing opinions he is confronted with. Th is examination yields new insights to Bayle's practical attitudes towards key issues in his oeuvre, including scepticism, rationalism, superstition and tolerance. At the same time, the article clarifies how Bayle was involved in the Republic of Letters and how he related to his local context in Rotterdam.

This cultural history of civil warfare in early seventeenth-century France examines how warrior nobles' practices of violence shaped provincial society and the royal state.

Warrior Pursuits analyzes in detail how provincial nobles engaged in revolt and civil warfare in southern France between 1598 and 1635. The southern French provinces of Guyenne and Languedoc suffered almost continual religious strife and civil conflict in this period, providing an excellent case for investigating the dynamics of early modern civil violence. Brian Sandberg's extensive archival research on noble families in these provinces reveals that violence continued to be a way of life for many French nobles, challenging previous scholarship that depicts a progressive "civilizing" of noble culture. He argues that southern French nobles engaged in warrior pursuits -- social and cultural practices of violence designed to raise personal military forces and to wage civil warfare in order to advance various political and religious goals. Close relationships between the profession of arms, the bonds of nobility, and the culture of revolt allowed nobles to regard their violent performances as "heroic gestures" and "beautiful warrior acts." Warrior nobles represented the key organizers of civil warfare in the early seventeenth century, orchestrating all aspects of the conduct of civil warfare -- from recruitment to combat -- according to their own understandings of their warrior pursuits.

Building on the work of Arlette Jouanna and other historians of the nobility, Sandberg provides new perspectives on noble culture, state development, and civil warfare in early modern France. French historians and scholars of the Reformation and the European Wars of Religion will find Warrior Pursuits engaging and insightful.

Au sortir du Grand Schisme, le diocèse de Clermont s’engouffre pour deux siècles et demi dans une puissante spirale réformatrice. À rebours du cliché d’une Église tirant d’elle seule la capacité de se régénérer, ce livre offre une histoire externaliste des forces à l’œuvre dans les processus réformateurs des ordres religieux, interrogeant la marge de manœuvre dont disposent les réguliers dans ces affaires qui mobilisent très largement hors de leurs rangs. Les réformes de la Renaissance sont l’œuvre des puissants, dont le désengagement graduel au premier XVIe siècle laisse le champ libre aux projets pastoraux de l’évêque pré-tridentin Guillaume Duprat. Les guerres de Religion brisent cette dynamique, mais impulsent en retour l’intense renouveau régulier du « siècle des saints ». Si la monarchie se veut plus dévote que jamais, la primauté croissante des missions pastorales de l’épiscopat sonne le glas de l’action concertée d’autrefois. L’initiative revient désormais tout autant aux élites laïques et aux municipalités, avant que le triomphe des théories mercantilistes et de nouvelles conceptions de l’utilité ne détourne le Monde de la reformatio régulière, à l’automne du XVIIe siècle.

The main sources for my article are the files concerning dispensations for mixed marriages held in the Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the Holy Office). My article analyses the tension between two Roman Catholic attitudes toward Catholic women in mixed marriages: the hope that they would serve a missionary role, on the one hand, and the fear that they would succumb to heresy, on the other. Debates within the Holy Office over granting these dispensations show that both conceptions had ancient roots, the first going back to the Roman era, the second to the twelfth century, and then particularly emphasised after the Council of Trent. Studies of mixed marriages in Protestant end Orthodox regions suggest many similarities to the Catholic policies examined here, both regarding the woman’s missionary function and especially regarding the risk of the woman’s apostasy and the meth-ods developed to avoid this.

© Centre national de la recherche scientifique.
LIEN VERS ARTICLE COMPLET : https://doi.org/10.4000/histoiremesure.5443

Le traitement sériel des procès de faux témoignage jugés au parlement de Paris aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, croisé avec leur analyse qualitative, révèle les méthodes de travail des greffiers et des conseillers et la faon dont ceux-ci perçoivent le faux témoignage et les faux témoins. La prise en charge des accusés de faux témoignage souligne les enjeux qui entourent le pouvoir conféré aux paroles. Leur falsification est condamnée dès lors qu'elle apparaît à des périodes où l'équilibre social et l'autorité royale paraissent mis en danger ou qu'elle est suspectée chez des accusés dont la faiblesse sociale fragiliserait la droiture de la langue. Mais les conseillers restent souvent hésitants face un crime difficile à prouver.

Abstract. Capturing the Full Extent of Elusive Words: References to False Witnesses in the Archives of the Parliament of Paris (17th–18th Centuries). Statistical analysis of false testimony trials that took place at the Parliament of Paris in the 17th and 18th centuries , coupled with qualitative analysis, underlines the court clerks' and counsels' working methods as well as how they perceived both false testimony and false witnesses. The way in which defendants were handled reveals the significant power attached to words. False testimony would most likely be condemned in the following two cases: when social stability and royal authority were weakened, or when it was suspected of lower-class defendants, whose word was not considered entirely trustworthy. Nevertheless, counsels often hesitated to pass judgment on crimes that remained difficult to prove.

Contribution to the catalogue directed by Aurélie Chatenet-Calyste and Emmanuelle Le Bail, and related to the museum exhibition: La princesse Palatine (1652-1722), la plume et le Soleil, Musée des Avelines, Saint Cloud, 15 October 2020 to 28 February 2021.
ISBN: 978-2-490173-03-7

This contribution deals with the institutional and logistical administration of French postal service between 1650 and 1720, through the prism of the Duchesse d'Orléans' correspondence.