Rabelais (review)

This detailed and stimulating biography is timely in taking specific account of many important documentary discoveries recently achieved by scholars such as Richard Cooper, Franco Giacone, and Raymond C. La Charité, and indeed by the author herself, whose work on the still unattested Cinquième livre, plus her analysis of Rabelais's so-called censure antique, retain signal importance. Eschewing pre-emptive decisions concerning the unknown (for example, Rabelais's precise date of birth, the site of his law studies, attested by Budé, the origin of his Master's degree, etc.), Mireille Huchon details at length his role within the Du Bellay family, his early humanist contacts, especially Budé, his medical work in Montpellier and elsewhere, before moving on to the giant chronicles as of Chapter 5. Given her approach, these tend to be interpreted historically (the walls of Paris episode in Pantagruel reflects the 1524 defence of Marseille, the slaughter at the clos de l'abbaye recalls the sack of Rome, the island of Ennasin projects anti-English sentiments, and Quaresme-prenant a mockery of Charles V), but the associations are never arbitrary and remain consistent with the overall task of fitting the author into his avowedly complex period. In this connection, the Italian sojourns are analysed with particular depth and perception, while the plausible suggestion that his stay in Metz after the censuring of the Tiers livre involved secret diplomatic work adds interesting colour to the problem posed by other gaps in his documented life. The Du Bellay family looms large throughout Rabelais's maturity — witness the appealing suggestion that both the Tiers and Quart livres were composed at Saint-Maur under the tutelage of an at times disfavoured Cardinal Jean. Moreover, concerning those books' intellectual and literary qualities, Rabelais's interest in Macrobius, attested by the Gryphe edition of 1538, proves a further fruitful and novel area of enquiry, while the influence of Apicius, also published by Gryphe in 1541, appears in a changed attitude to banqueting apparent in his later works. Regarding the Cinquième livre, Huchon builds on points from her earlier publications, adding the intriguing suggestion that Odet de Châtillon, convert to the Réforme in 1560, may have incited the publication of the Isle sonante, while the 1564 edition implies responses to its alchemical bias detected and reflected by Rabelais's survivors, but traceable back to his own Pantagruel. Given the power of her investigations, apparatus and methodology, it seems discourteous to note occasional errors like the illustrations of 'Durër' (p. 103), Erasmus's 'Querella pacis' (p. 218), or the appearance of 'Giula' Farnese and 'Giulano' Orsini in Rabelais's 'Affaires romaines' (p. 233). More particularly, the critique of military conquest in Gargantua must surely nuance the 'gloire de la monarchie française' that the book indeed expresses (p. 183), while it seems reductive to claim that philautia is stigmatized 'tout au long [du Tiers livre]' (p. 302). Of course, the last word on Rabelais will never be said, a point Huchon makes herself by intimating that further archival discoveries remain likely. As it stands, his readers will surely welcome this contribution with universal acclaim.