De Troie à Ithaque: réception des épopées homériques à la Renaissance (review)

Ford's is a truly magisterial study of the evolution in the reception of Homeric epic in Europe over the sixteenth century. At once immensely erudite and accessibly written, the book is a treasure trove of humanist learning from Budé to Scaliger and Sponde. The work divides neatly into two sections of three chapters each: 1) a chronological textual reception study which looks at editions and translations of Homer's epics across Europe; and 2) a French-focused analysis of the interpretation of these texts as reflected in the original works of humanists, writers and artists. The first section charts a rise and fall in the status of Homer and the epics over the period. In the early years of the sixteenth century, a lack of resources for the study of the Greek language hampered the humanists' access to the Homeric texts, but enthusiasm for Homer as a divinely inspired poet nonetheless burned bright. By the 1540s, a proliferation of translations and lexicons paved the way for a 'golden age' of Homeric epic, in which humanists had a finer appreciation of its style and an understanding of its oral beginnings. In the final phase, from the 1570s onwards, the passion for Homer waned even as his canonical status was assured. Ford cites Montaigne's view as emblematic: happy to include Homer in his chapter 'Des plus excellens hommes' (Essais II.36), Montaigne clearly never read a line of Homer's verse. The three chapters of the second French section mirror the chronological divisions of the first part. Budé's civic humanism set the tone for the moralising, politically-oriented reception of Homeric epic in his generation, represented also by the translator Jehan Samxon, Jean Lemaire de Belges and François Rabelais. Under Dorat and the Pléiade poets, nationalism fuelled the interest in Greek epic as a prestigious ancient alternative to Virgil, claimed by the Italians. Post 1570, changes in taste meant that Homer's rough style and lack of verisimilitude were no longer acceptable. The criticisms laid out in Scaliger's Poetices libri septem (1561) marked a turning point in Homer's fortunes. By this time, the belief in a single Homer was no longer unanimous, and the beginnings of the scientific revolution in any case undermined the view of Homer as a repository of scientific knowledge. The book is complemented by a comprehensive bibliography of European editions of the epics and of Latin and French translations up to the end of the sixteenth century. This bibliography provides the basis for Ford's analysis of the geographical diffusion of the Homeric epics and of publishing trends (the inclusion of indices, commentaries, author-biographies etc.) insofar as these reveal something of how the poems were read at any particular time. Ford's intriguing discussion of Homeric epic and the visual arts in France (e.g. Fontainebleau, château d'Oiron) would have benefited from more than two illustrations in the text. Still, this is a trivial criticism of what will surely stand as a greatly valued contribution to the study of the classical tradition in France.