La poésie à la cour de François Ier éd. par Jean-Eudes Girot (review)

often left skeptical, rather than nodding in agreement with a potentially appealing critical approach. Indeed, the desire to push the analytical envelope is evident throughout the book. This can result, among other things, in fuzzy chronology and geography, even in simple statements, such as saying that troubadour manuscripts N (Padua, late thirteenth c.) and R (Toulouse, fourteenth c.) are from the“late Middle Ages”or calling the early thirteenth-century frescoes at Bassano del Grappa and an illuminated manuscript of Alfonso X’s Milagros (Escorial T.I.i, c. 1270–90)“contemporary”(116) to the same two chansonniers. All of this is unfortunate, as there are few scholars with the expertise to tackle such a comparative study, and Galvez is commended for her will to push the comparative envelope and examine together texts, and manuscripts, from different traditions and linguistic communities. Her arguments challenge some outdated ideas about chansonniers, and provide fresh readings of a number of fascinating lyric corpora; they would have had greater impact with more substantiation and less speculation. University of Missouri, Kansas City Kathy M. Krause Girot, Jean-Eudes, éd. La poésie à la cour de François Ier . Paris: PUPS, 2012. ISBN 9782 -84050-832-8. Pp. 272. 25 a. Published under the auspices of the Centre V.L. Saulnier, this volume’s thirteen articles provide consistently insightful studies of the era between the Rhétoriqueurs and the Pléiade. While Francois Ier and his ebullient court are keenly familiar to all specialists of French history and literature, there is surprisingly little recent work on the poetic activity of the early and mid-Renaissance. The multiple linkages drawn between the sister arts, i.e., poetry, painting, and music, emerge as one of the volume’s chief contributions. The book argues that François’s patronage formed the basis of what became French national identity. Frank Lestringant emphasizes this point in his preface, but also signals the role of Clément Marot who, as secretary to Marguerite de Navarre, and Valet de Chambre du Roy, greatly promoted poetic activity. Following these ideas in his introduction, Girot discusses the development of the anthology during the Renaissance as a reflection of both print culture and the emerging concept of authorship. Relatedly, Isabelle Pantin looks at the issue of typography and how changes from Gothic to Roman script led to enhanced readability and increased circulation. Notions of audience interest Guillaume Berthon, who views Marot’s editions of Villon as an effort to attract attention to other medieval authors such as Alain Chartier and Chrétien de Troyes. François’s cultural influence naturally involves his fascination with Italy. Franco Tomasi’s essay sheds light on the success and failure of Italian poets in the king’s court, while Luisa Capodieci studies the Italian Theocrenus’s ekphrastic homage to Rosso Fiorentino’s tableau of Venus,Cupid,and Bacchus.Eroticism is a central element in Mireille Huchon’s article describing how the licentious was 228 FRENCH REVIEW 88.1 Reviews 229 suppressed in the ‘approved’ Recueil de Vraye Poésie Françoyse, but included in the equally influential but less sanctioned Art poétique by Thomas Sébillet. The compilation and distribution of noteworthy recueils is also the theme of Nathalie Dauvois’s intriguing essay on the Fleurs de Poésie Françoyse, where some epigrams were set to music by Claudin de Sermisy. The often unspecified relationship between poetry and music becomes the focus of both Frank Dobbins’s and Alice Tacaille’s contributions, while Élise Rajchenbach-Teller explores the political and poetic feud between Paris and Lyon which took place in the form of a querelle des dames actually authored by men. Completing the volume are two articles, by Isabelle Garnier and Michel Magnien, which examine the funereal poetry occasioned by deaths of the Queen Mother, Louise de Savoie, and the Dauphin François. The volume commands attention for its exhaustive use of primary sources and the quality of its overall erudition. If there is a cavil, it would stem from the lack of attention given to the effect of the Wars of Religion on creative output. Similarly, more could have been said about the influence of this period...