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206Women in French Studies thematic and aesthetic complexity, and this despite the upsurge of scientific theories insisting on the biological and intellectual inferiority of women, and attendant backlash against creative women, discussed by Catherine Perry in her richly textured introduction to the period. Both Shapiro's bio-bibliographical notices and texts selected for the poets included in this section flesh out the stunning array of poetic works by women in modern France. For expert readers, however, the absence of Malvina Blanchecotte, Louisa Siefert and Marie Krysinska from the nineteenth century is glaring and the treatment of Louise Ackermann not sufficiently robust to transmit for posterity her strikingly poetic engagement with science. Readers may challenge for various reasons Shapiro's inclusion or exclusion ofparticular poets to represent women's poetic achievements in a given century. One may also question why, in a collection aiming to redress women's poetic history, their accomplishments are often, though not exclusively, situated in relation to their male counterparts, eclipsing resonant poetic developments by women across the centuries. Whether expert or amateur, readers will recognize without question the breadth and depth of Shapiro's superb volume, which offers stirring proof of the exceptional legacy of nearly sixty women whose poetic influence shall continue to shape the way we read and write French literary history. Adrianna M. PaliyenkoColby College Hobbes, Thomas. Historia Ecclesiastica. Ed. and Trans. Patricia Springborg, Patricia Stablein and Paul Wilson. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2008. Pp 729. ISBN 978-2-7453-1577-9. 130€ (Cloth). Thomas Hobbes's ecclesiology has been eclipsed by the magnitude of his political philosophy in his Leviathan and by censorship of his criticism of papal and episcopal power. Published posthumously, his elegiac Latin poem Historia Ecclesiastica has been given little critical attention. An Italian translation of the work was published in 1988 and a French translation is currently in progress, but this edition is the first English translation of an essential part of the Hobbesian corpus. It contributes to Hobbes's principal concerns of the state and civil order. An understanding of this poem and its political, poetical and religious contexts illuminates heretofore unexamined areas of Hobbes's thought. An extensive task with acknowledged contributions from several scholars, the edition gives an excellent account of the poem's composition and publication as well as its reception and historical context. What comes through is Hobbes's preoccupation with heresy and historiography. The ambiguous poem serves as a connection between several other works and can be seen as a summary of the philosopher's thoughts on the history of Christianity and the struggle between ecclesiastical and political authority. The poem details the relationship between Christianity and the rise of European states up to the Book Reviews207 Reformation, covering such diverse topics as Egyptian justice, Constantine, Arianism, Germanic invasions, the Crusades and Martin Luther. Its discursive form (a dialogue between the interlocutors Primus and Secundus) and its mixed genre place it in classical and humanistic traditions, recalling such authors as Thucydides, Horace and Erasmus. A compelling argument is made for the poem as both a clarification ofHobbes's ecclesiology and a literary undertaking. The questions which are brought to fore include Hobbes's place in the humanist and Latin poetic traditions, his fear of the charge of heresy, his connections with Continental thinkers such as Gassendi and Lorenzo Valla and his critique ofthe Nicene Creed. This edition offers a multitude of significant information; all told, the support material amounts to over 400 pages. The introductory chapters help to elucidate a complicated context, and the index ofproper names serves as a guide to a multifaceted text. A first appendix provides a survey of the manuscripts and printed editions while a second offers the entries in the Hardwick Hall Library, a collection which Hobbes himself helped to collect and document. The material is rounded out by extensive bibliographical references and a glossary of pertinent proper names. The remainder of the volume contains the Latin text with a facing English translation, extensive footnotes, manuscript variants and the 1 688 glossary and preface. The translation is meticulously researched and, although there might be the occasional disagreement as to the use of a term, this does not detract...

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