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Reviewed by:
  • Pontus de Tyard: poète, philosophe, théologien
  • Jean-Claude Carron
Sylviane Bokdam and Jean Céard, eds. Pontus de Tyard: poète, philosophe, théologien. Colloque international de l' Universit é Créteil-Val-de-Marne, 19–20 novembre 1998. Colloques, congrès et conférences sur la Renaissance 31. Paris: Honoré Champion Éditeur, 2003. 413 pp. index. tbls. €69. ISBN: 2–7453–0807–6.

Pontus de Tyard (1521/2–1605) without a doubt remains largely unknown to the general public and is often neglected by specialists as well. Individuals reading his texts find themselves grappling with a mind that is very "complex" (E. Kushner, 371) and "disconcerting" (J. Céard, 8). This difficulty explains in part the author's marginalization. Overall however, this colloquium, the first exclusively devoted to Pontus de Tyard, has taken on the task, not so much of rehabilitating him — he is already considered of primary importance in the field of French Neoplatonism — but of offering a larger and more complete portrait of the person in all his complexity and ambiguities.

By and large, the text is very readable. The layout and printing are carefully produced. There are some printing flaws and misprints but these do not interfere with the reading. The majority of the articles are actually revisions and elaborations [End Page 238] of the original lectures. Many are close to twenty pages long, and more. The proceedings include discussions that are mostly very open, offering a real exchange of ideas that echo throughout the entire assortment of lectures. It follows then that the main interest of this collection resides less in the individual value of a given article than in the ensemble of lectures and their interconnections. The collection is dedicated to the memory of Michel Simonin.

The unity of a multifaceted body of work is one of the questions that confronts anyone reading Pontus de Tyard. Among the lectures that take this as their main subject, two articles address it either from a philosophical point of view (E. Kushner) or from a formal and architectural point of view (F. Rouget). A third article underscores the stylistic tendencies of the author's irenic hermetism as contrasted with Du Bellay's transparency (W.J.A. Bots). The concept of unity is in fact consubstantial with the very function of a work of art, since its main purpose is to participate in the salvation of the world through its unification. This itself can be practically achieved through the efficient use of number and meter in poetry (J. McClelland) and music (F. de Buzon), or through color in painting (G. Rèpaci Courtois).

Tyard's personal and professional relationships are yet another recurring topic in the collection. From his entrance into high society in Lyon where he frequented Marguerite de Bourg, a model for Pasithée according to M.-M. Fontaine, to his presence at the court where it was his faithfulness to Henry III, rather than his religious zeal that earned him a bishopric (J. Boucher). This same politico-religious involvement leads him to take up the pen in defense of Valois legitimacy against the Dukes of Lorraine and to pamphleteer the pro-League extremism of his Jesuit enemies (F. Roudaut). As M. Simonin shows us, Tyard's complex relations with his many printers can also be explained through his life-long series of commitments. Two articles, one on Etienne Pasquier, the author of the Recherches sur la France (C. Magnien) and the other on Guillaume des Autelz, Tyard's cousin as well as poet and pamphleteer (D. Martin), reveal a Tyard admired and respected by contemporaries who helped increase his notoriety and also benefited from it.

The political and religious dimension of Tyard's moderate royalism puts him in opposition with both the Reformation (refer to his anti-Calvinist rhetoric which is similar to the Counter-Reformation rhetoric analyzed by M.-M. Fragonnard), and the Catholic extremism of the Guises (see Roudaut). In opposition to J. Boucher, F. Giacone defends Tyard's religious convictions through his use of the Bible. The topic of Tyard's religious beliefs is brought up in the discussions that follow a number of lectures.

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