The Sixteenth-Century French Religious Book (review)

224 Reviews Parergon 21.2 (2004) in Dutch state finances, for which colonial exploitation provided one solution. Although Horlings provides some revealing statistics about Dutch and British economic activity (export figures; the number of steamships in merchant fleets) the comparative element is found here (if at all) within a single article, rather than between the pair. The two opening essays examine political developments from very different perspectives. H. M. Scott looks at the deterioration in diplomacy up until 1788 through the figure of Sir JosephYorke, Britain’s representative in The Hague. Niek van Sas concentrates on internal rivalries between Patriots and Orangists in the Netherlands and their impact on foreign relations from 1780 to 1850. Later, N. A. M. Rodger and Jaap R. Bruijn offer essays on seapower, the former questioning traditional readings of the British navy’s role in imperial policy, the latter exploring the relatively late entry of the Dutch navy into colonial affairs. Finally, there are two articles on the metropolitan state and its relations with the colonies. P. J. Marshall identifies the trends that saw the British parliament and the judiciary taking a more active role in imperial administration. He also challenges earlier interpretations of the differences between British and Dutch colonial government. Jur van Goor asks whether the changing style of Dutch rule in the East Indies during the period represents a radical change or merely a change in emphasis. Unfortunately, his brief conclusion does not provide a clear answer to this question. In most cases there are implicit comparisons to be made between the two articles in each section, but simple juxtaposition is no substitute for a more thorough and overt analysis of the variations in British and Dutch experience (especially in the form of editorial commentary). In summary, Colonial Empires Compared contains much interesting material but fails fully to live up to the promise of its title. Lindsay Diggelmann Department of History University of Auckland Pettegree, Andrew, Paul Nelles and Philip Conner, eds, The Sixteenth-Century French Religious Book, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2001; cloth; pp. xviii, 366; RRP US$99.95; ISBN 0754602788. Contrary to the usual flow of academic bright ideas, the French, or at least Britishbased historians of early modern France, have begun to emulate the British model of the history of the book, built upon the monumental foundations of Pollard Reviews 225 Parergon 21.2 (2004) and Redgrave, Wing and the ESTC. The University of St Andrews Reformation Studies Institute has begun assembling an analytical database of sixteenth-century French religious vernacular literature, broadly conceived and now re-labelled the French Vernacular Book Project. This collection publishes eighteen papers, four in French, from the first Sixteenth-Century French Religious Book Conference, held at St Andrews University in 1999, and celebrating the conclusion of the first stages. As might be expected, the initial results of collaborative research into a topic intersecting such vast fields as the history of the early modern book and its relationship with the Reformation and Catholic Reformation, have spawned an eclectic collection showing little cohesion. Topics range from the material to the intellectual, including the production and distribution of books, their censorship, readership and impact on group opinions, their collection by individuals and institutions, their use for devotional rituals, religious drama, Protestant historiography, political advice and criticism. In other words, this book reflects a field in the process of growing through prodigious work into one asking new historical questions that will precipitate illuminating answers. Andrew Pettegree outlines the early trends revealed by the project, most intriguingly the limited period (1555-67) of vigorous French Protestant printing, and the subsequent resurgence of French Catholic printing in shaping a distinctive Catholic identity, previously badly under-estimated by historians. Paul Nelles challenges similar assumptions about the limited and specific impact of the book on French religious life through a thorough analysis of individual and institutional book inventories and their provenances. Though necessarily limited, such evidence enables him to project beyond the material production of religious books to their potential audiences, identifying the Catholic clerical professionals who bought liturgical, sacramental and apologetical works, the clergy and laity throughout society who sought manuals of piety and devotion, and the socially...