Commerce, Law, and Erudite Culture: The Mechanics of Théodore Godefroy's Service to Cardinal Richelieu

This paper examines the French erudite scholar Théodore Godefroy's (1580-1649) service to Cardinal Richelieu as a commercial expert. Using manuscripts that reveal his reading, connections and intellectual methods, it shows how Godefroy used his connections in the Parisian lettered circles and a politicized group within the Republic of Letters to gather commercial information, and used the techniques of juridical scholarship to organize his collection. His papers suggest that historians must look beyond a narrow canon of "mercantilist" works to understand seventeenth century debates about the governance of commerce, to a broader context of debates about law, history, and sovereignty.