The Politics of Print During the French Wars of Religion : Literature and History in an Age of “Nothing Said Too Soon”

In The Politics of Print During the French Wars of Religion, Gregory Haake examines how, in late sixteenth-century France, authors and publishers used the new medium of the printed text to control the terms of public discourse and determine history, or at least their narrative of it. The creativity of the Renaissance ushered in new instability of discourse and a decline of traditional centres of authority. Gregory Haake shows that poets, authors, printers, and polemicists — including historians, such as Simon Goulart; the great poets of the time, such as Pierre de Ronsard or Agrippa d'Aubigné; or anonymous authors of polemical texts — rushed in to take advantage of discursive uncertainty to discredit their enemies and shape the meaning of history as it unfolded. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 Crisis 1 The Crisis of Representation 1.1 Too Much of a Good Thing 1.2 Nominalism 1.3 Scholasticism vs. Humanism 1.4 Ancients vs. Moderns 2 The Crisis of Interpretation 2.1 Imitation 2.2 A New Word 2.3 Destructive Debates 3 The Crisis of Authority 3.1 Authority and the Church 3.2 The Monarchy and Authority 3.3 History and Authority 4 Conclusion Chapter 2 Fanatics, Martyrs, and the Rhetoric of Extremes 1 “Le bon & saint zele”: Extreme Devotion to the Cause 2 Tyranny: The Extremes of Princely Rule 2.1 Atheism and Tyranny 3 The Rhetoric of Martyrdom 4 Conclusion Chapter 3 Print Matters 1 The Power of a Preface 2 Sacred Scripture: A Charged Textual Frame 2.1 Scripture on the Title Page 2.2 Judith and Holofernes: Exegesis, Politics, and History 2.3 Judith and Holofernes: Counterpoint 2.4 Weaving Together Poetry and Scripture 3 Poetic Interludes: Framing Texts with Verse 3.1 De l’estrange et subite mort de Henri de Valois 3.2 Pierre de l’Estoile’s Registre-journal 3.3 Charles Pinselet’s Le Martyre des deux freres 4 Conclusion Chapter 4 Recreating Authority in the Person(a) of the Author 1 Ronsard’s Political Intervention and Personal Attacks 2 Teaching through Drama: Jean de La Taille and Saül le furieux 3 Experience Knows Best: Finding Authority in Foreignness 4 Prometheus and Prophet: Stealing the Truth for the Reader 5 Conclusion Chapter 5 The Mémoire of the Advocate David and the Discrediting of the Guises 1 The Treason of the Guises: The Mémoire and Papal Authority 1.1 The Gesta Stephani papæ 1.2 A Direct Response and a Call to Action 2 Lyon Looks South: An Alternative Emphasis for the Mémoire 2.1 The Sack of Antwerp of 1576 3 Making It Stick: The Enduring Nature of the Mémoire as a Political Attack 4 Conclusion Chapter 6 The Truth at the Source 1 From Calumny to Exaltation: Seeking Unity and Truth in the Wisdom of the Past 1.1 The Language is the Message 1.2 Here Come the Franks 1.3 Better than Troy 2 Excessive and Repetitive Citation 3 Arming the Resistance: Differing Approaches Among Monarchomachs 3.1 Propagandistic and Reactionary 3.2 A Change in Rhetoric and a Change in Evidence 4 Obstacles to Hotman’s Success Conclusion Finding a Way Out Bibliography Index "In The Politics of Print During the French Wars of Religion, Gregory Haake examines how, in late sixteenth-century France, authors and publishers used the new medium of the printed text to control the terms of public discourse and determine history, or at least their narrative of it. The creativity of the Renaissance ushered in new instability of discourse and a decline of traditional centres of authority. Gregory Haake shows that poets, authors, printers, and polemicists - including historians, such as Simon Goulart; the great poets of the time, such as Pierre de Ronsard or Agrippa d'Aubigné; or anonymous authors of polemical texts - rushed in to take advantage of discursive uncertainty to discredit their enemies and shape the meaning of history as it unfolded"-- Provided by publisher Klappentext: "In The Politics of Print During the French Wars of Religion, Gregory Haake examines how, in late sixteenth-century France, authors and publishers used the new medium of the printed text to control the terms of public discourse and determine history, or at least their narrative of it. The creativity of the Renaissance ushered in new instability of discourse and a decline of traditional centres of authority. Gregory Haake shows that poets, authors, printers, and polemicists - including historians, such as Simon Goulart; the great poets of the time, such as Pierre de Ronsard or Agrippa d'Aubigné; or anonymous authors of polemical texts - rushed in to take advantage of discursive uncertainty to discredit their enemies and shape the meaning of history as it unfolded"