1668: The Year of the Animal in France (Zone Books)

Peter Sahlins’s brilliant new book reveals the remarkable and understudied “animal moment” in and around 1668 in which authors (including La Fontaine, whose Fables appeared in that year), anatomists, painters, sculptors, and especially the young Louis XIV turned their attention to nonhuman beings. At the center of the Year of the Animal was the Royal Menagerie in the gardens of Versailles, dominated by exotic and graceful birds. In the remarkable unfolding of his original and sophisticated argument, Sahlins shows how the animal bodies of the menagerie and others (such as the dogs and lambs of the first xenotransfusion experiments) were critical to a dramatic rethinking of governance, nature, and the human. The animals of 1668 helped to shift an entire worldview in France ― what Sahlins calls Renaissance humanimalism ― toward more modern expressions of Classical naturalism and mechanism. In the wake of 1668 came the debasement of animals and the strengthening of human animality, including in Descartes’s animal-machine, highly contested during the Year of the Animal. At the same time, Louis XIV and his intellectual servants used the animals of Versailles to develop and then to transform the symbolic language of French absolutism. Louis XIV came to adopt a model of sovereignty after 1668 where his absolute authority is represented in manifold ways with the bodies of animals and justified by the bestial nature of his human subjects. 1668: The Year of the Animal in France explores and reproduces the king’s animal collections ― in printed text, weaving, poetry, and engraving, all seen from a unique interdisciplinary perspective. Sahlins brings the animals of 1668 together and to life as he observes them critically in their native habitats ― within the animal palace itself by Louis Le Vau, the paintings and tapestries of Charles Le Brun, the garden installations of André Le Nôtre, the literary work of Charles Perrault and the natural history of his brother Claude, the poetry of Madeleine de Scudéry, the philosophy of René Descartes, the engravings of Sébastien Leclerc, the trans_fusion experiments of Jean Denis, and others. The author joins the non_human and human agents of 1668 ― panthers and painters, swans and scientists, weasels and weavers ― in a learned and sophisticated treatment that will engage scholars and students of early modern France and Europe and readers broadly interested in the subject of animals in human history. When animals and their symbolic representationsin the Royal Menagerie, in art, in medicine, in philosophyhelped transform the French state and culture. Peter Sahlins's brilliant new book reveals the remarkable and understudied animal moment in and around 1668 in which authors (including La Fontaine, whose Fables appeared in that year), anatomists, painters, sculptors, and especially the young Louis XIV turned their attention to nonhuman beings. At the center of the Year of the Animal was the Royal Menagerie in the gardens of Versailles, dominated by exotic and graceful birds. In the unfolding of his original and sophisticated argument, Sahlins shows how the animal bodies of the menagerie and others were critical to a dramatic rethinking of governance, nature, and the human. The animals of 1668 helped to shift an entire worldview in Francewhat Sahlins calls Renaissance humanimalism toward more modern expressions of classical naturalism and mechanism. In the wake of 1668 came the debasement of animals and the strengthening of human animality, including in Descartes's animal-machine, highly contested during the Year of the Animal. At the same time, Louis XIV and his intellectual servants used the animals of Versailles to develop and then to transform the symbolic language of French absolutism. Louis XIV came to adopt a model of sovereignty after 1668 in which his absolute authority is represented in manifold ways with the bodies of animals and justified by the bestial nature of his human subjects. 1668 explores and reproduces the king's animal collectionsin printed text, weaving, poetry, and engraving, all seen from a unique interdisciplinary perspective. Sahlins brings the animals of 1668 together and to life as he observes them critically in their native habitatswithin the animal palace itself by Louis Le Vau, the paintings and tapestries of Charles Le Brun, the garden installations of Andr Le Ntre, the literary work of Charles Perrault and the natural history of his brother Claude, the poetry of Madeleine de Scudry, the philosophy of Ren Descartes, the engravings of Sbastien Leclerc, the transfusion experiments of Jean Denis, and others. The author joins the nonhuman and human agents of 1668panthers and painters, swans and scientists, weasels and weaversin a learned and sophisticated treatment that will engage scholars and students of early modern France and Europe and readers broadly interested in the subject of animals in human history.

Peter Sahlins's brilliant new book reveals the remarkable andunderstudied "animal moment" in and around 1668 in which authors(including La Fontaine, whose Fables appeared in that year),anatomists, painters, sculptors, and especially the young Louis XIVturned their attention to nonhuman beings. At the center of theYear of the Animal was the Royal Menagerie in the gardens ofVersailles, dominated by exotic and graceful birds. In theremarkable unfolding of his original and sophisticated argument,Sahlins shows how the animal bodies of the menagerie and others(such as the dogs and lambs of the first xenotransfusionexperiments) were critical to a dramatic rethinking of governance,nature, and the human. The animals of 1668 helped to shift anentire worldview in France - what Sahlins calls Renaissancehumanimalism - toward more modern expressions of Classicalnaturalism and mechanism. In the wake of 1668 came the debasementof animals and the strengthening of human animality, including inDescartes's animal-machine, highly contested during the Year of theAnimal. At the same time, Louis XIV and his intellectual servantsused the animals of Versailles to develop and then to transform thesymbolic language of French absolutism. Louis XIV came to adopt amodel of sovereignty after 1668 where his absolute authority isrepresented in manifold ways with the bodies of animals andjustified by the bestial nature of his human subjects. 1668:The Year of the Animal in France explores and reproduces theking's animal collections - in printed text, weaving, poetry, andengraving, all seen from a unique interdisciplinary perspective.Sahlins brings the animals of 1668 together and to life as heobserves them critically in their native habitats - within theanimal palace itself by Louis Le Vau, the paintings and tapestriesof Charles Le Brun, the garden installations of André Le Nôtre, theliterary work of Charles Perrault and the natural history of hisbrother Claude, the poetry of Madeleine de Scudéry, the philosophyof René Descartes, the engravings of Sébastien Leclerc, thetrans_fusion experiments of Jean Denis, and others. The authorjoins the non_human and human agents of 1668 - panthers andpainters, swans and scientists, weasels and weavers - in a learnedand sophisticated treatment that will engage scholars and studentsof early modern France and Europe and readers broadly interested inthe subject of animals in human history.

Peter Sahlins's brilliant new book reveals the remarkable and understudied "animal moment" in and around 1668 in which authors (including La Fontaine, whose Fables appeared in that year), anatomists, painters, sculptors, and especially the young Louis XIV turned their attention to nonhuman beings. At the center of the Year of the Animal was the Royal Menagerie in the gardens of Versailles, dominated by exotic and graceful birds. In the unfolding of his original and sophisticated argument, Sahlins shows how the animal bodies of the menagerie and others were critical to a dramatic rethinking of governance, nature, and the human. The animals of 1668 helped to shift an entire worldview in France -- what Sahlins calls Renaissance humanimalism toward more modern expressions of classical naturalism and mechanism. In the wake of 1668 came the debasement of animals and the strengthening of human animality, including in Descartes's animal-machine, highly contested during the Year of the Animal. At the same time, Louis XIV and his intellectual servants used the animals of Versailles to develop and then to transform the symbolic language of French absolutism. Louis XIV came to adopt a model of sovereignty after 1668 in which his absolute authority is represented in manifold ways with the bodies of animals and justified by the bestial nature of his human subjects. 1668 explores and reproduces the king's animal collections -- in printed text, weaving, poetry, and engraving, all seen from a unique interdisciplinary perspective Contents Introduction: The Wondrous Year of the Animal Part One: The Royal Menageries and the Civilizing Process Chapter One: Precious Beasts: Animals and Absolutism in the Early Reign of Louis XIV Chapter Two: Civilizing Animals: Early Literary Accounts of the Royal Menagerie Part Two: The Visual Afterlives of Animals Chapter Three: A Woven Zoo: Pieter Boel and the Royal Tapestries of the King Chapter Four: The Anatomy of Natural History: Claude Perrault and the Animals Project Chapter Five: Animal Faces: Charles le Brun and the Physiognomy of the Passions Part Three: In the Shadow of Descartes Chapter Six: Beast in the Blood: The First Xenotransfusion Experiments in France (1667-1668) Chapter Seven: Resisting Descartes: Three Chameleons between Science and Literature Chapter Eight: Aesop Revisited: The Royal Labyrinth of Versailles and the Fable of Absolutism Conclusion: Rebecca's Camels and Racine's Dog A Partial Chronology of the Year of the Animal, 1661-1669 Acknowledgments Notes Works Cited Illustration Credits Index of Names