La Voix de la nature dans l'œuvre de Jacques Peletier du Mans (1517–1582) (review)

This valuable study is the first book-length discussion of Peletier's œeuvre since Clément Jugé's work of 1907. Sophie Arnaud analyses Peletier's wide range of texts, many of which have received little critical attention. This brings her to deal with many areas of sixteenth-century thought, since Peletier's works treat — in a range of poetic and prosaic genres — diverse topics in domains including natural philosophy, mathematics and language; however, readers interested primarily in love lyric might be disappointed that Arnaud does not say more about the love poems in Peletier's Amour des amours. She pays close and often subtle attention to Peletier's writing, while also placing it in many different contexts. Through careful comparisons between Peletier and other writers, she shows to what extent Peletier's ideas constitute sixteenth-century commonplaces, and where — and how — they diverge from these more usual conceptions. Furthermore, much historical detail is provided in order to discuss issues such as Peletier's relationships with other figures of sixteenth-century intellectual and public life; religious reform and Peletier's probable reaction to it (pp. 123-36); and Renaissance education in general as well as Peletier's more specifically (section 2.1).

La Voix de la nature is divided into two parts dealing with 'Le Sens de la nature' and 'La Parole naturelle' respectively. In addition, sections and subsections assist the reader in navigating this dense and long volume; sections are also preceded by summaries of their contents. The volume is organized according to theme rather than to Peletier's works, and so readers will sometimes find discussion of a particular passage — such as Peletier's treatment of the air in the Amour des amours — in several parts of the book. Arnaud constructs a rich and detailed account of Peletier's points of view on a large variety of subjects, as well as a narrative of shifts in some of his ideas. Ultimately, her principal conclusion is that Peletier perceives a strong opposition between, on the one hand, the imperfection of the self, human language and human reason, and, on the other, the meaningful, rational and harmonious structure of nature. 'La voix de la nature' contains the promise of meaning, and man's role is to recognize and reveal this meaning. It is in this, Arnaud argues, that one can find a coherence amid Peletier's diverse projects: all his writing aims to express the order of nature as clearly as possible, in particular through the use of mimetic techniques intended to approach orality.