Nouveaux départs: Studies in Honour of Michel Jeanneret (review)

In this volume, the result of a conference held at Nottingham University, where Michel Jeanneret was Special Professor in French from 2006 to 2009, eight seiziémistes based in English universities mark Jeanneret's immense contribution to studies of the French Renaissance. There is no overarching theme to speak of since, as Stephen Bamforth points out in his Introduction, Jeanneret's vision was to allow contributors room to present work in progress (p. 1). The result is a varied collection, with some points of connection between different articles. Jeanneret's own contribution revisits the question of 'l'homme et l'oeuvre', pointing out that, for all the benefits to literary criticism of the structuralist death of the author, the Renaissance, and especially Petrarch, conceived of the author's life as being 'le laboratoire et le garant de sa morale' (p. 13). Using Marc-Antoine Muret's commentary on Ronsard's Amours as a test case, James Helgeson's piece complements Jeanneret's argument by examining the different ways in which the 'I' of lyric poetry could be conceived. John O'Brien then analyses different views of both personal and historical chronology as expressed in Du Plessis-Mornay and at the beginning of Montaigne's 'Apologie de Raimond Sebond' (Essais, II. 12). Also focusing on Montaigne, Richard Scholar examines 'free-thinking' in a passage from 'De l'institution des enfans' (I. 26), establishing 'a method that combines close textual scrutiny with a sense of context' (p. 40), with particular attention paid to the intellectual freedom allowed for in the practice of imitation. Drawing on recent work in social history, Emily Butterworth examines gossip as relayed in Brantôme's Dames galantes, revealing that 'causeries' served a variety of political and social functions, enabling the best gossips to gain advancement at court, but not without the threat of scandal. Kathryn Banks's article on Catholic imitations of Du Bartas's Sepmaine shows that following the 'other' can provoke considerable tensions when the 'other' happens to be a Protestant. As Banks points out, her article thereby offers another, complementary perspective on imitation to that uncovered in Scholar's contribution. Drawing inspiration from Jeanneret's contributions to studies of the nineteenth century as well as the Renaissance, Neil Kenny analyses how modern dramatists drew on sixteenth-century history in an attempt to reanimate the emotional charge of the past, albeit with a recognition that this wish bordered on the impossible. Concentrating on the 'Apologie de Raimond Sebond', Rowan Tomlinson analyses Montaigne's use of lists, especially as inspired by Pliny, in order to embrace variety in opposition to systematic attempts to order knowledge. Finally, Stephen Bamforth looks at how Renaissance contributions to natural history were open to 'wonder', including fabulous beasts, notably the unicorn, which was the subject of disputes between doctors and surgeons in Italy and France, not about its existence, but about whether its horn had extraordinary medicinal properties or not. In short, this volume gives a snapshot of some current research in studies of the French Renaissance in the United Kingdom, and the individual case studies will be of interest to others in the field.