Early Modern Studies

ABSTRACT in English (résumé en français plus bas): "Artillery and the art of the 'petite guerre': a long progression"
In 1744, for the first time in France, some pieces of artillery are associated to a unit of light troops from its inception. Indeed, the regiment of the harquebusiers of Grassin, a mixed body of infantrymen and cavalrymen, received two pieces of the light cannon known as "à la Suédoise" (in the Swedish way). With examples, the article shows on the one hand that narrative sources make it possible to identify a use of cannons in the "petite guerre" – the tactic in which light troops are specialized – from the War of the Austrian Succession in Flanders (1744-1748) onwards. But on the other hand, it is observed that only the theoretical treatises of the "petite guerre" published after the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) seriously consider the use of artillery in this area and encourage it. To clarify this discrepancy, we must return to the tactical and technical developments as well as to the political choices during the 18th century.

RESUME en français :
« Artillerie et art de la petite guerre : un long cheminement »
En 1744, pour la première fois en France, des pièces d’artillerie sont associées à un corps de troupes légères dès sa création. Le régiment des arquebusiers de Grassin, corps mixte de fantassins et de cavaliers, se voit en effet attribuer deux pièces du canon léger dit « à la suédoise ». L’article montre d’une part, exemples à l’appui, que les sources narratives permettent d’identifier un usage du canon à la petite guerre – la tactique de spécialité des troupes légères – dès la guerre de Succession d’Autriche en Flandre (1744-1748). Mais, d’autre part, on observe que seuls les traités théoriques de petite guerre publiés après la guerre de Sept Ans (1756-1763) envisagent sérieusement le recours à l’artillerie dans ce domaine et l’encouragent. Pour éclairer ce décalage, il faut revenir sur les évolutions tactiques et techniques ainsi que sur les choix politiques au long du XVIIIe siècle.

“More than for the preaching, [the natives] convert for the music”, the first bishop of New Spain famously wrote to Emperor Charles V in 1540. European missionaries were quick to realize that music was a powerful tool for establishing a connection with the natives, and pave the way for their conversion. In this chapter I discuss the interrelation between song, memory, and language in early modern missionary methods. I also reflect on how the growing body of evidence regarding the use of songs in extra-European missions can affect our understanding of parallel phenomena on European soil. In particular, I show how methods involving the use of songs in order to teach the catechism travelled on the triangular route between Europe, the Indies, and what became known as “our Indies” (“le nostre Indie” or “las Indias de por acá”: missionized areas on European soil).

Updated version of the talk given to the Medieval Dress and Textile Society, 28th November 2020. A general look at beds and bedding across the later medieval and early modern period. Much of it will focus on information that has been gathered from wills, and from 16th century probate inventories. It will look first at the bedstead itself, and then at all the layers of textiles that go to make a “bed performed,” that is a bed with everything that is related to it: beds, bedmats, mattresses, bolsters and pillows, sheets and pillowcases, blankets, coverlets, rugs and quilts, curtains, testers, valances and ceilings.

ABSTRACT in English (résumé en français plus bas): "Light artillery in the field during the 18th century: new reflections".
This article describes in depth the place of light artillery in military thinking and in military campaigns throughout the 18th century; it widens the question dealt with another article of ours (in the Journal: ‘Carnet de la Sabretache’, June 2001) by extending it to the battle, and by studying the Prussian example besides the French one. Light artillery in the 18th century is indeed an important topic, since what then left a mark in Europe regarding artillery was, on one hand, the search for weight reduction of artillery systems in general; and on the other hand, the appearance in several European countries of very light artillery pieces, not only due to their calibre (ie the weight of the cannonball), but with the mass of the pieces themselves. After having defined what was understood at that time with the expression "light artillery", the article develops the reasons and the conditions of the use of light artillery: an increase of manoeuvre capabilities for regular warfare, and a preservation of the surprise effect in the "petite guerre". While France was pioneer in Europe for the theoretical reflection about the use of light artillery, especially for the "petite guerre", other nations like Austria, Prussia and Saxony did use this artillery in the field earlier than France. The operational use of light artillery in battle is described through the examples of Fontenoy and the thought of King Frederick II of Prussia. The article reminds also about the other circumstances for the use of light artillery during a military campaign.

RESUME en français :
« L’artillerie légère en campagne au long du XVIIIe siècle : nouvelles réflexions »
L’article approfondit la place de l’artillerie légère dans la pensée militaire et dans les campagnes militaires tout au long du XVIIIe siècle ; il élargit la question traitée dans un autre de nos articles (dans la revue : ‘Carnet de la Sabretache’, juin 2001) en l’étendant à la bataille, et en étudiant, outre l’exemple français, celui de la Prusse. Le thème de l’artillerie légère au XVIIIe siècle est en effet important, parce que ce qui a marqué alors l’Europe en matière d’artillerie est, d’une part, la recherche de l’allégement des systèmes d’artillerie en général ; d’autre part, l’apparition, dans plusieurs pays d’Europe, de pièces très légères, non plus seulement par le calibre des pièces (ie le poids du boulet tiré), mais par la masse même des pièces. Après avoir défini ce que l’on entendait à l’époque sous l’expression d’« artillerie légère », l’article développe les raisons et les conditions de l’emploi de l’artillerie légère : augmentation de la capacité de manœuvre dans la « grande » guerre, préservation de l’effet de surprise dans la « petite guerre ». Si la France fut pionnière en Europe par la réflexion théorique sur l’emploi de l’artillerie légère, notamment à la petite guerre, d’autres pays, Autriche, Prusse, Saxe, précédèrent la France dans l’usage de cette artillerie sur le terrain. Les modalités d’emploi de l’artillerie légère dans la bataille sont abordées à travers les exemples de Fontenoy et de la pensée du roi Frédéric II de Prusse. L’article rappelle enfin les autres circonstances d’emploi de l’artillerie légère au cours d’une campagne militaire.

Upon consulting three different forms of medieval dream divination, we learn that to dream of a dragon signifies honour, but to do so on the sixteenth day of the moon will make the dream come true only after a long time, and if one finds the letter v on the first line of the left-hand page of a book opened at random after the dream, it means death. The dreamer may eventually achieve honour, therefore, but if out of luck might die before the auspicious outcome of the dream can take effect. Whether medieval people approached dream divination in the same exhaustive way as the example given here is the subject of this chapter.

Cet article se veut un outil précis et fouillé à l’usage des chercheurs souhaitant approfondir le domaine de la petite guerre et des troupes légères (mise à jour, 2005).
Depuis un article d’André Martel paru dans la « Revue Historique » en 1971, la communauté des historiens militaires en France n’a cessé périodiquement de souligner jusqu’à nos jours – avec des approches actualisées – le renouveau de cette histoire militaire. L’intérêt pour la petite guerre s’inscrit dans ce mouvement. Il a été porté aussi par la réalité de beaucoup des conflits d’aujourd’hui, dits « de basse intensité », dans lesquels la tactique des troupes légères d’autrefois, alternative à la bataille, trouve son avatar contemporain. L’article attire d’abord l’attention sur la plus ou moins grande pertinence de l’emploi de l’expression de « petite guerre » dans l’historiographie, en français, en allemand et en anglais. Il procède ensuite à la généalogie de l’étude de la petite guerre à l’époque moderne (XVIe - XVIIIe siècles), en France et dans les mondes anglo-saxon et germanique. Il pointe enfin le problème du cloisonnement des travaux, entre les périodes historiques comme d’un pays à l’autre.

Carla Mazzio and Douglas Trevor have brought together an outstanding group of literary, cultural, and history scholars to examine various aspects of early modern culture and subjectivity with a heightened attention to pressing questions of method. Through a synthesis of historicism and psychoanalytic criticism, the contributors explore the complicated, nuanced, and often surprising relationships between history and subjectivity in Europe centuries before psychoanalytic theory. Addressing such topics as "fetishes and Renaissances," "the cartographic unconscious," and "the topographic imaginary," these essays move beyond the strict boundaries of historicism and psychoanalysis to carve out new histories of interiority in early modern Europe. Contributors include Ann Rosalind Jones, Peter Stallybrass, James R. Siemon, John Guillory, Eric Wilson, Karen Newman, Tom Conley, Jeffrey Masten, Carla Mazzio, Katharine Eisaman Maus, Jonathan Goldberg, Douglas Trevor, Kathryn Schwarz, David Hillman and Marjorie Garber.

The objective of this book could be easily summarised as ‘to provide an
introduction to the emblematic culture in Colonial Ibero-America’.
However, establishing the parameters of this endeavour was not a particularly simple task: it was necessary to delineate the historical and
geographical limits for the book, the relationship between the contributions and even the aspects of the emblematic culture that would be considered here. At first, it seemed almost impossible to find a balance between these principles.
The decision to include both Spanish and Portuguese colonies was
justified by the interest of understanding the phenomena studied here as
a whole, by being able to contrast different colonial realities with the
different native receptions (or cultural substrata).13 In addition, more
than any other aspect of European visual culture, emblems had a sophisticated rhetorical function and became a fundamental instrument of colonialisation, and the success of the application of this tool in different cultural contexts may constitute a significant symptom of an emerging hybrid cultural identity.
This initial resolution implied that the volume would be dealing with
a vast corpus of material, spread in different historical and geographical
circumstances. Consequently, a choice was made to divide the book into
three sections, roughly corresponding to the three main Iberian colonies
in the New World: the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the Viceroyalty of Peru and Portuguese America. During the colonial period, the boundaries of these lands were extremely volatile, whether as a result of complex legal and political struggles between the European countries, or fierce disputes against natives and foreign nations for territorial occupation, or even the difficulties that emerged from administrating such vast colonies. As a historical and anthropological subject, the vicissitudes of the process of colonisation of Ibero-America are of great complexity and its study has produced a massive bibliography, which certainly goes beyond the purposes of this introduction.
Nevertheless, presenting a more general visual cultural context for each
of the three sections of this book, even if very briefly, is crucial to
understanding the place of the emblem in colonial society.

This chapter examines the contrasting attitudes to jugglers in early modern demonological treatises. These popular entertainers who specialised in legerdemain and feats of agility were denounced by some demonologists as disciples of the devil; but other authors saw their tricks as a form of natural magic that did not necessarily entail a collusion with the devil, even if it could sometimes be put to use by demons to forge their illusions. The devil, in these treatises, is presented as a consummate juggler whose powers of illusion rely on his ability to manipulate objects, to convey them swiftly from one hiding place to another, to substitute one for the other. I argue that jugglers’ tricks therefore offered early modern demonologists an interpretative and cognitive model allowing to understand and conceptualise the action of the devil within the natural world. To a certain extent, it is the practical experience of this form of popular, visible and accessible magic that allowed early modern demonologists and their contemporaries to ‘think with demons’.

En la presente comunicación analizamos la alteridad y las categorías de representación en la narrativa de viajes de Antonio Pigafetta, examinando las percepciones que forja sobre la otredad indígena en los confines del mundo durante el siglo XVI. Primero, revisamos las nociones de alteridad y representación desde un enfoque historiográfico, antropológico y cultural. Segundo, estudiamos la percepción de la otredad del viajero europeo sobre el mundo indígena de la Patagonia. De este modo, consideramos que Pigafetta establece una descripción de los nativos basado en lo exótico, lo diabólico y lo barbárico, con lo cual se construye una imagen del otro centrada en elementos maravillosos, paganos y salvajes que contrastan con la identidad cultural europea. Así, mediante la dialéctica de la alteridad se articulan representaciones de los patagones como seres gigantes y fabulosos, enfatizando en sus costumbres, prácticas religiosas y vida material, a modo de realzar un sentido de extrañeza y diferencia cultural. El ‘otro’ se ubica en los márgenes del mundo, reflejando la rareza y la singularidad de una cultura lejana que oscila entre lo barbárico y lo maravilloso; una inversión cultural con la que los viajeros europeos exaltan las bases de su identidad y proyectan modos de representar y categorizar a una otredad distinta y novedosa.

ABSTRACT in English: "‘Partisan warfare’, ‘war in detachment’: the ‘petite guerre’ seen from England (18th century)"
The article aims to measure and to explain the gradual realisation, in Great Britain during the 18th century, of the importance of the "petite guerre" or the "partisan warfare" in military thinking (later that elsewhere in Europe). It shows then the creation and the increase in numbers of British light troops in the course of this century, the Government's policy with regard to them, and the awareness of the British for the "petite guerre" in the field, through a new case study regarding the War of Austrian Succession.

It was only in 1770 that a British author, Stevenson, wrote and published for the first time a treatise on the "petite guerre". Indeed, the British remained for some time on the sidelines of the stream of publications in Europe on this subject. Some historians are asserting that British officers in the 18th century didn't really care about refining their military knowledge. The researches of J. Houlding allow nuancing this statement. The fact remains that a prevailing tactical routine was real, with a tendency in military treatises to instruct only parade and garrison duties.

The article explores the context that brought the real – albeit late – interest expressed by English officers for the "petite guerre" in the years 1760-1770. It should be noted that there have been more translations of foreign books than real national works. 

More important than it seems is the question of the translation – or rather the non-existence of any translation! – of the wording for the "petite guerre" in English during the 18th century ; and, therefore, the difficulty for British historians of the 20th century to suggest an adequate wording in order to express a reality which was only translated with circumlocutions in the 18th century... The article points out the shortcomings of military vocabulary in the English language during the 18th century (recognized at the time), makes an inventory of the authors' choices to express the reality of the "petite guerre", as well as the solutions considered by today's historians. A consequence of this underestimated question is the confusion often remaining nowadays between the "petite guerre" in singular and the small wars in plural (that is, between the tactic of irregular warfare and the small wars in the sense used by Charles Edward Callwell).

Numerous studies have been written within the historiography in English language about the American War of Independence and about the tactic which it used; because civil wars make a bigger mark on the national consciousness than other types of conflicts, especially in the case of an independence war, leading to the birth of a new state! However, contrary to what one might think accordingly, the tactic of "guerrilla" in the American War of Independence only had later an influence of British strategic thinking. To be sure, a theoretician like Emmerich (a Hessian officer who fought with the British in this conflict, and who cites it as an example in his treatise of the "petite guerre" in 1789) has the merit, with his fellow countryman Ewald, of having understood the role that would have from now on the civilian populations and the ideological motivations in conflicts.

However, on one hand real light troops existed in the British army well before the American War of Independence, even if their inception came later than for the main European neighbours. On the other hand, those troops were unfortunately disbanded every time peace was made, and this didn't help the perpetuation of a certain know-how regarding an indirect style of operations. The first real regiment of light troops, the Light Dragoons, was raised in 1745 in order to fight the Jacobite rising. Other were raised on this model, always temporary, on the occasion of the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and then of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763).

The article concludes with a new case study (to be continued) which presents the "petite guerre" understood and conducted by the British during the campaigns in Flanders of the War of Austrian Succession, and especially in 1747. This case study focuses on a period and on a theatre of operation still unexplored regarding this aspect of the art of war, as the British saw and experienced it. We can see that some of their generals didn't wait for the conflicts of the second half of the century and for the American theatre of operation to clearly understand the role of the "petite guerre". Beside some military accounts of British authors published after the conflict, this case study is based mainly on archives still waiting to be used on this subject : the military papers of the Duke of Cumberland, the English commander in chief of the Allies opposed to the French in 1747.

The paper focuses on intarsia (wood inlay), lacca ('imitation lacquer') and maiolica (tin-glazed earthenware), and inscribe these three arti within a critical framework of 'material mimesis' to capture the way in which different Italian Renaissance artistic practices operate through continuous processes of mutual 'trans-material' emulation, whereby an art strives to look and be like another, in a flow of constant transformation.
Material mimesis engages not only in the imitation of nature, but also of man-made things. It can complicate explanations centred on substitution, as with Venetian lacca, which can be both substantially, 'chemically' different from the non-European lacquer that it is supposed to emulate, while being structurally and technologically analogous, opening questions of longue durée cross-cultural circulation and interpretation of material knowledge and practice. Intarsia, lacca and maiolica are explored as arts of connectivity: connecting with each other, with other (supposedly) indigenous arts – such as Italian painting, stone inlay and metalwork – and with their material counterparts globally, particularly Middle Eastern wood inlay, Japanese and Ottoman lacquer and Chinese and Middle Eastern ceramics.

I will suggest that a culture of material mimesis is the emergent, dynamic context against which we should measure many practices of Italian Renaissance artisanal emulation and that this phenomenon should be understood as an active component of wider processes of artisanal epistemology whereby approximating another material might be seen as a manifestation of proto-scientific experimentation or knowing by making.

ABSTRACT in ENGLISH (résumé en français plus bas).
Dealing with the topic of prisoners of war is unavoidable if war is in question, and it is also valid for the eighteenth century. On the one hand, prisoners were made, indeed, every day – several soldiers or several tens of soldiers, in this daily war which was called “petite guerre” or “war in detachments”. On the other hand, thousands of prisoners of war were made when sieges and battles took place. These facts forced armies to face huge logistic and administrative challenges (feeding, accommodation, medical treatment; and accounts books of all the prisoners, in preparation for the exchanges). This article, which is a precise synthesis encompassing the German territories and the Low Countries, reviews the question of the status, and of the conditions of life, of prisoners of war in the middle of the eighteenth century. The war of the Austrian Succession is an indispensable point of view, because this conflict constituted on several points a major step in the history of the captivity in war.

RESUME en FRANCAIS.
Evoquer la question des prisonniers de guerre est inévitable lorsque l’on aborde la guerre, et c’est vrai aussi pour le XVIIIe siècle. En effet, d’une part, on faisait des prisonniers tous les jours, quelques hommes ou quelques dizaines d’hommes, dans cette guerre du quotidien qu’était la petite guerre ou « guerre de partis » ; et l’on faisait des milliers de prisonniers lors des sièges et des batailles. Cela impliquait, pour les armées belligérantes, de faire face à d’énormes défis en termes de logistique (nourriture, logement, soins) et en termes d’administration (tenue de livres de décomptes de tous les prisonniers en vue des échanges). L’article fait le point, en une synthèse précise intégrant l’espace germanique et la Flandre, sur le statut de prisonnier de guerre et les conditions de captivité au milieu du XVIIIe siècle. La guerre de Succession d’Autriche est une période d’observation essentielle parce qu’elle constitua, à certains égards, une étape majeure de la captivité de guerre.

This published article aims to be an accurate and detailed tool for the researchers who want to study the subject of the “petite guerre” and the light troops (update 2005).

Since the historian André Martel published in 1971 his article in the “Revue Historique” (France), the military historians in France regularly underscored until nowadays the renewal of military history – with updated approaches. The interest for the “petite guerre” is part of this movement. Additionally, the interest for the “petite guerre” has been supported by the reality of many conflicts today, which are told “low intensity conflicts”. The tactic of light troops of olden times, which filled the theatre of operations between the battles, finds here its contemporary transformation. The present article draws attention first upon the use of the terms of “petite guerre” in the French, German and British historiography, and its relevance, or not. Second, the article details the history of the study of the “petite guerre” of the early modern times (16th – 18th centuries) in France, in Germany and in the Anglo-Saxon world. Finally, it points out the problem of the compartmentalisation of the researchers’ works, both between the historical periods and between the different countries.

ABSTRACT in English (the book is written in French):
This book presents a thorough analysis and a case study upon the "petite guerre" in the 18th century Europe - tactical and operational levels dealt with, as also relations between war and society (with a substantial historical reminder, in a large chapter exclusively devoted to the 17th century).

The “petite guerre“ was a type of warfare consisting in skirmishes and ambushes which, next to the sieges and battles, filled the theatre of operations during the conventional wars between princes. The locution "petite guerre" with this meaning was always used in the singular, and has to be used so today. The first treatises on the art of the “petite guerre” were published in France, from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. The locution “petite guerre” wasn’t translated into English in the eighteenth century, even in treatises published in Great Britain or America (on the contrary, it was translated into German).

Next to the case study of the Flanders during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), the book makes an analysis of the thoughts on the “petite guerre” throughout the eighteenth century, in France and in the most important countries of Europe. A special chapter is devoted to the thoughts in Great Britain throughout the 18th century, and to the case study of the actions of British light troops in Flanders (example of 1747), because this topic has not been dealt with before - On the contrary, one book already dealt with the case study of Austria's and another, with the case study of Prussia's use of the "petite guerre" in the eighteenth century.

Besides the tactical level, the book shows how the use of the "petite guerre" was necessary to contribute to the victory in a military campaign at the operational level. In Flanders between 1745 and 1748, the Marshall of Saxe (commander of the French Army) and the Allies (Austrian, British and Dutch armies and their commanders) understood the advantage and importance of the "petite guerre" at this level. A case study shows in detail how the "petite guerre" strongly contributed to the main aims of the French army in August 1746.

However, the topic of the book goes beyond the scope of a tactical and operational study. By showing the impact of the “petite guerre” on civilians and on the activity of the provincial administration, by analyzing the French government policy towards light troops (the light troops were the specialists of the “petite guerre”), by approaching the opinions of the Parisian society (and of the elite as a whole) towards such military tactic and the troops specializing in it, what is at stake is also the possibility to grasp the ideas and sensitivity of society towards the “petite guerre”. This work is thus a contribution to a larger study ‒ that of an era's mentalities towards military issues.

The conclusion of the book offers the beginning of an analysis of the transformations in the use of the “petite guerre” during the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

Le marché du mérite. Penser le droit et l'économie avec Léonard Lessius, Bruxelles, Zones Sensibles, 2019,  248p.

Comprendre la genèse de l’économie moderne nécessite un retour à ses fondements théologiques. Plus d’un siècle après la parution de L’Éthique protestante et l’esprit du capitalisme, l’enquête de Max Weber reste en effet inachevée. Le Marché du mérite revisite l’héritage de l’un des protagonistes de l’histoire de la pensée économique tout en élucidant ses origines juridico-théologiques. Dans un contexte marqué par la mondialisation des échanges, l’essor des places boursières et de profonds bouleversements politico-religieux, le jésuite Léonard Lessius (1554-1623) fera figure d’« Oracle des Pays-Bas » parmi les marchands, banquiers et princes qui cherchaient à s’orienter dans ce Nouveau Monde. Son principal ouvrage, Sur la justice et le droit, deviendra rapidement un livre de référence en raison de sa fine maîtrise de la technique juridique et de la lucidité de ses analyses économiques (spéculation, subprimes, assurances, information et marché, monopoles, investissements, prêts, risques…). Si le marché n’a pas pour vocation de transformer le monde en marchandises ni l’homme en esclave d’une soif matérialiste, Lessius, comme ses collègues théologiens de l’École de Salamanque, encourage néanmoins l’effort, la prudence et l’industrie, autant de vertus aptes à libérer un marché basé sur le mérite.

ABSTRACT in English (résumé en français plus bas): "The Méhaigne manoeuvre (War of the Austrian Succession), a masterpiece of the indirect style of warfare, as part of the debate upon the 'petite guerre' in the 18th century"
This case study on the operational level is an excellent example of the possible contribution of the history of a campaign in the eighteenth century to the reflection of the military men today, regarding this level of war, beyond the technical differences.
The victory of Fontenoy is the main event related to Maurice de Saxe in the first biography dedicated to him. A battle, thus an event likely to summarize the value of a man of war when he was victorious, since it was the traditional image of what war had to be. This article shows however it its first part that Marshal de Saxe – the leading general of Louis XV – was a great master as well in the art of coordinating small scale actions (the "petite guerre") in order to push the enemy back without any battle, as in the art of confront him in battle. The Méhaigne manoeuvre, in August 1746, is the most dazzling example of it, and allowed the French to start laying the siege of Namur in good conditions. The article explores, in a second part, the "gap between the practice of war and the ideas on it", namely the reasons which could explain why many officers were reluctant towards the "petite guerre" in the 18th century: tactical, social and moral aspects, and the Government's attitude.

RESUME en français :
« La manœuvre de la Méhaigne (guerre de Succession d’Autriche), chef d’œuvre du style indirect, dans le cadre du débat sur la petite guerre au XVIIIe siècle »
La victoire de Fontenoy est l'événement-phare associé à Maurice de Saxe dans la première biographie qui lui est consacrée. Une bataille, donc ; événement propre à résumer la valeur d'un homme de guerre quand il en était victorieux, parce que c'était l'image traditionnelle de ce que devait être la guerre. Or l'article, dans sa 1ère partie, montre que le maréchal de Saxe, principal général de Louis XV, fut un aussi grand maître dans l'art de coordonner des actions de détail (la « petite guerre ») pour faire reculer l'ennemi sans bataille, que dans celui de donner des batailles. La manœuvre de la Méhaigne, en août 1746, en est l'exemple le plus éclatant, qui permit aux Français d'entamer le siège de Namur dans de bonnes conditions. L'article explore, dans une 2e partie, le « décalage entre la pratique de la guerre et les idées sur la guerre », c'est-à-dire les raisons qui pouvaient expliquer les réticences de beaucoup d'officiers à l'égard de la petite guerre, au XVIIIe siècle : aspects tactiques, sociaux, moraux, attitude du gouvernement.

In the 1520s, the Emperor Charles V visited the Palace of the Dukes of the Infantado in Guadalajara. According to a sixteenth-century manuscript, he was fascinated by the ceilings that adorned the palace and asked to be given a stair and a torch to study them in detail. Starting off with this anecdote, the aim of this paper is to investigate the ways in which decorated wooden ceilings were understood in the Iberian Peninsula in the centuries that marked the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period.
Relying on archival sources, chronicles and artworks, this research will delve into the world of lavish palaces and religious buildings in an attempt to uncover what people thought when they saw, displayed or created these truly magnificent structures that lived in the borderline between sculpture, painting and architecture.
For more info visit: https://eu.eventscloud.com/website/5317/sessions-by-day/crafting-medieval-spain-the-torrijos-ceilings-in-context/

ABSTRACT in ENGLISH (résumé en français plus bas)
Dealing with the topic of prisoners of war is unavoidable if war is in question, and it is also valid for the eighteenth century. On the one hand, prisoners were made, indeed, every day – several soldiers or several tens of soldiers, in this daily war which was called “petite guerre” or “war in detachments”. On the other hand, thousands of prisoners of war were made when sieges and battles took place. These facts forced armies to face huge logistic and administrative challenges (feeding, accommodation, medical treatment; and accounts books of all the prisoners, in preparation for the exchanges). This article, which is a precise synthesis encompassing the German territories and the Low Countries, reviews the question of the status, and of the conditions of life, of prisoners of war in the middle of the eighteenth century. The war of the Austrian Succession is an indispensable point of view, because this conflict constituted on several points a major step in the history of the captivity in war.

RESUME en FRANCAIS
Evoquer la question des prisonniers de guerre est inévitable lorsque l’on aborde la guerre, et c’est vrai aussi pour le XVIIIe siècle. En effet, d’une part, on faisait des prisonniers tous les jours, quelques hommes ou quelques dizaines d’hommes, dans cette guerre du quotidien qu’était la petite guerre ou « guerre de partis » ; et l’on faisait des milliers de prisonniers lors des sièges et des batailles. Cela impliquait, pour les armées belligérantes, de faire face à d’énormes défis en termes de logistique (nourriture, logement, soins) et en termes d’administration (tenue de livres de décomptes de tous les prisonniers en vue des échanges). L’article fait le point, en une synthèse précise intégrant l’espace germanique et la Flandre, sur le statut de prisonnier de guerre et les conditions de captivité au milieu du XVIIIe siècle. La guerre de Succession d’Autriche est une période d’observation essentielle parce qu’elle constitua, à certains égards, une étape majeure de la captivité de guerre.

Dossier Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting Berlin 2015
MAREEL Samuel, «Words and Images of Words: The Prayer to Saint Veronica in Petrus Christus’s Portrait of a Young Man »
FALQUE Ingrid, «Geert Grote and the Status and Functions of Images in Meditative Practices»
​GUIDERDONI Agnès, «Image Theory from Figurative Thinking in Emblematic Literature: Vauzelles, Corrozet, and Paradin»
SMEESTERS Aline, «The Neo-Latin Poet Manuel Pimenta s.j. (1542-1603) and his Ekphraseis Sacrae : a Rhetoric of Violence»
DE MUELENAERE Gwendoline, «Images of the Courtier in Flemish Thesis Prints (17th-18th centuries) »
DLABAČOVÁ Anna, «Books, Woodcuts, and Paintings. Meditation and Devotion through Text and Image in Antwerp, c. 1480–1500»

Dossier Travaux en cours présentés par les membres du GEMCA
EMS Gregory, «Poétique de l’emblème. Enjeux de la théorisation d’un genre nouveau par les jésuites aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles »
LOOS Roxanne, «Opacité d’un support et réflexivité du décor: les tapisseries peintes à Rome au XVIe siècle»

This article addresses the question of the actuality of Sir Thomas More’s Utopia by arguing for the centrality within More’s text of the question of forcibly displaced and economically “surplused” populations. Drawing upon Gramsci, this article posits the fundamental role of a dialectic between population and traumatic disaster in More’s text and the genre at large. After engaging with the most direct sign of this dialectic in Utopia, this article posits three interpretative advantages to reading it as a “fiction of population”: Such a reading, first, allows for an understanding of the logical consistency of the relationship between Hythlodaeus’s critique of the Tudor penal system in the first book and the highly disciplinary character of the Utopian society envisioned in the second; second, helps us grasp the existence of a similar logical continuity between the denunciation of European geopolitical rapacity (book 1) and the advocacy of Utopian colonialism as rational and just (book 2); and finally, problematizes the interpretive binary that posits Utopia as either a progressive/emancipatory or a fundamentally conservative/repression-laden work. It concludes by returning to the paradoxical nature of Utopia’s actuality, dwelling on its proximity to and distance from our own historical moment’s confrontation with the question of surplused lives.

ABSTRACT in English (résumé en français plus bas): "Thomas-Auguste Le Roy of Grandmaison (1715-1801), an officer in the service of the 'petite guerre'"
Peace is conducive to reflection. In 1756, between two wars, the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years Wars, Grandmaison published a treatise entitled "La petite guerre". It is one of the first treatises proposed to the public on this part of the military art; the first at least being well structured. And it is as the author of this treatise (translated into several languages, even in Polish at the beginning of the 19th century!) that Grandmaison passed to posterity. He is known today by military historians as the "captain of Grandmaison", as it is presented on the frontispiece of this work. Yet more than his works, it is his value on the ground, combined with his service in the light troops, where it is then easier to distinguish himself, which explain his ascent. In fact, he finished his career as Lieutenant-General, which is very honourable when one considers that he came from this small provincial nobility who often had a laborious military career because of lack of money or lack of support in the court. The article follows the stages of Grandmaison's career and highlights the major factors of his ascent.

RESUME en français :
La paix est propice à la réflexion. C’est entre deux guerres, celle de Succession d’Autriche et celle de Sept Ans, que Grandmaison publie en 1756 un traité intitulé La petite guerre. C’est un des premiers traités proposés au public sur cette partie de l’art militaire ; le premier au moins qui soit bien structuré. Et c’est au titre d’auteur de ce traité (traduit en plusieurs langues, même en polonais au début du XIXe siècle !) que Grandmaison est passé à la postérité. Il est connu aujourd’hui des historiens militaires comme le « capitaine de Grandmaison », ainsi qu’il est présenté sur le frontispice de cet ouvrage. Pourtant, plus que ses travaux d’écriture, c’est sa valeur sur le terrain, alliée à son service dans les troupes légères, corps où il est alors plus aisé de se distinguer, qui expliquent son ascension. Il termine en effet lieutenant-général, ce qui est très honorable quand on considère qu’il est issu de cette petite noblesse de province connaissant souvent une carrière militaire laborieuse, faute d’argent ou d’appuis à la cour. L’article suit les étapes de la carrière de Grandmaison en mettant en valeur les facteurs majeurs de son ascension.

In the wake of Venuti’s influential work, The Translator’s Invisibility (1995), early modern English translation practices have often been described in terms of cultural and linguistic “domestication”. While the early modern discourse on translation as “Englishing” does to a large extent warrant the application of this critical category, its theoretical and historical origins (as well as those of its correlative, “foreignization”) in German Romanticism usually remain unproblematized. At a time when early modern translation scholarship highlights the complex, sometimes paradoxical relationship to the foreign constructed through translation (see in particular Coldiron 2015), it seems important to interrogate the application of the Romantic binaries,“foreignization” vs. “domestication”, to the early modern English context. This essays proposes to do so by exploring the language of hospitality articulated in translation discourse, in an attempt to refine our understanding of attitudes to, and constructions of, the linguistic and cultural foreign in early modern Britain.

ABSTRACT in English (résumé en français plus bas): "Partisan warfare in the 17th century Europe"
The article evokes in its title the "partisan warfare", the equivalent in the 17th century of the "petite guerre", this latter expression – to my knowledge – having not used by military thinkers for this century. The idea of studying partisan warfare in the 17th century comes naturally when reading the chronicles doting the German treatises of "petite guerre" in the 19th century, since the 17th century is highlighted in this regard; especially, and sometimes exclusively, the Thirty Years War. Those who made the most of partisan warfare seem to have been Wallenstein, Mansfeld, Christian of Brunswick and Johann of Werth. But the authors leave out unfairly the French Marshal Turenne, who is recognized in particular by the French historiography of the 20th century as an unparalleled master of manoeuvre, who very often favoured the indirect approach in his action. After a historiographical review, the article delineates the definitions and tactical principles that can be drawn from the treatises about the art of war in the 17th century, before showing that the "petite guerre" of the time often leads to devastation of territories in spite of some prescriptions or recommendations. Finally, it clarifies the question of the troops potentially specialized in the "petite guerre" from the 17th century onwards, warning for example against the expression of "light cavalry", which then covers different realities.

RESUME en français :
« La guerre de partis au XVIIe siècle en Europe »
L'article évoque dans son intitulé la « guerre de partis », qui désignait au XVIIe siècle la « petite guerre », cette dernière expression n'étant pas utilisée pour ce siècle par les penseurs militaires, à ma connaissance. L'idée d'étudier la guerre de partis au XVIIe siècle vient naturellement quand on lit les historiques qui émaillent les traités d'art de la petite guerre allemands du XIXe siècle, parce que le XVIIe siècle y est mis en valeur ; surtout, et parfois exclusivement, la guerre de Trente Ans. Ceux qui ont le plus mis à profit la guerre de partis semblent avoir été alors Wallenstein, Mansfeld, Christian de Brunswick et Jean de Werth. Mais les théoriciens en question laissent de côté, injustement, le maréchal français Turenne, qui est reconnu notamment par l'historiographie française du XXe siècle comme un manœuvrier hors pair, qui privilégia très souvent dans son action l'approche indirecte. Après une mise au point historiographique, l'article démêle les définitions et les principes tactiques que l'on peut tirer des traités d'art de la guerre du XVIIe siècle, avant de montrer que la petite guerre de l'époque verse souvent dans la dévastation du territoire en dépit de quelques prescriptions ou recommandations ; enfin, il clarifie la question des troupes éventuellement spécialisées dans la petite guerre dès le XVIIe siècle, en mettant en garde par exemple contre l'expression de « cavalerie légère », qui recouvre alors des réalités diverses.

Pierre Bayle's Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, a landmark in intellectual history, is a curious text. Originally intended as a collection of all errors, it became an encyclopedia of everything, enfolding rampantly growing footnotes that commented on every imaginable topic. Instead of looking at Bayle's theoretical statements in the Dictionnaire, I explore Bayle's writing practice, his critical method and his practice of forming judgments. A close study of the textual, paratextual and contextual characteristics of the first entry of the Dictionnaire (the entry "Abaris") allows me to find out how Bayle made up his mind at every stage during a contemporaneous controversy on divination. In this way, we are able to see Bayle's mind in action while he is judging the contradictory information he receives and the to-and-fro movement of changing opinions he is confronted with. Th is examination yields new insights to Bayle's practical attitudes towards key issues in his oeuvre, including scepticism, rationalism, superstition and tolerance. At the same time, the article clarifies how Bayle was involved in the Republic of Letters and how he related to his local context in Rotterdam.

Early Modern Black Diaspora Studies brings into conversation two fields—Early Modern Studies and Black Studies—that traditionally have had little to say to each other. This disconnect is the product of current scholarly assumptions about a lack of archival evidence that limits what we can say about those of African descent before modernity. This volume posits that the limitations are not in the archives, but in the methods we have constructed for locating and examining those archives. The essays that make up this volume offer new critical approaches to black African agency and the conceptualization of blackness in early modern literary works, historical documents, material and visual cultures, and performance culture. Ultimately, this critical anthology revises current understandings about racial discourse and the cultural contributions of black Africans in early modernity and in the present across the globe.

This essay examines the representation of the "gulls" or dupes
in Ben Jonson's play "The Alchemist" and reads their humorous and
satirical portrayal as effects of a deep cultural anxiety that rose out
of the emergence of the socially upstart middle-classes in a
hierarchically monolithic society. Ironically, their stereotypical
representation as fools or simpletons who become easy prey for the
tricksters gives the lie to the shrewd economic agency they exercised
in steering England towards a pre-capitalistic maritime economy. It
concludes by showing that despite Jonson's ridicule of these fictional
characters, the competitiveness, opportunism and ambition displayed
by their counterparts in real life may have inspired Jonson in
delineating his own authorial identity.

Tome 3, n° 1 des "GEMCA Papers in Progress", disponible en ligne à l'adresse suivante : http://gemca.fltr.ucl.ac.be/docs/pp/GEMCA_PP_3_2016_1.pdf

Table des matières :
- Ingrid Falque, « Images et expérience mystique chez Henri Suso »
- Aline Smeesters, « Fides ex auditu : fortune d’une citation de saint Paul au début du XVIIe siècle »
- Ralph Dekoninck, « L’invention moderne de l’expérience entre mystique et esthétique »
- Agnès Guiderdoni, « Expérience d’image : entre emblématique et physique »

à propos des "GEMCA Papers in Progress" : Aujourd’hui, les GEMCA : Papers in progress remplacent les Cahiers en ligne du GEMCA. Le changement de titre que nous opérons a pour but de souligner le caractère « brut» des textes que nous proposons au téléchargement : textes de conférences données à l’Université catholique de Louvain, dossiers de textes réunis après un séminaire ou une journée d’étude, états intermédiaires de recherches doctorales, comptes rendus critiques. Certains articles pourront être publiés presque à l’état de brouillon, avec un appareil de notes réduit au strict minimum : il s’agit essentiellement de donner une plus large diffusion à nos activités par l’intermédiaire d’une publication électronique dont la périodicité sera annuelle, avec la possibilité de plusieurs livraisons par an. (http://gemca.fltr.ucl.ac.be/php/pages/papers.en.php)

Abstract (ITA):
Nella sua semplicità formale e tematica questo manoscritto sulla legatura libraria condensa in sé i molteplici aspetti tipici del secolo in cui è stato redatto, il XVIII, storiograficamente noto ai più come il “secolo dei Lumi”. Tra le sue righe vergate a mano, quasi di getto, senza troppa attenzione alla forma e alla calligrafia, ma solo alla possibilità di fissare nero su bianco appunti e riflessioni di un anonimo maestro legatore, ritroviamo vivido e attualissimo tutto il fermento culturale di quegli anni, a testimonianza (peraltro non del tutto scontata) del fatto che le influenze culturali ed “enciclopedistiche” del XVIII secolo hanno avuto modo di varcare anche la soglia del monastero di San Martino, fino ad addentrarsi all’interno del laboratorio del nostro anonimo legatore. Per coglierne la presenza non è necessario alcuno sforzo: fin dalle prime battute, infatti, il nostro anonimo autore fornisce al suo lettore, quasi certamente un addetto ai lavori, forse proprio un collega di bottega, precisi riferimenti a tecniche, ad autori e a opere tipiche di quegli anni e che hanno segnato, in special modo per il mondo del libro e delle tecniche legate alla sua produzione, una codificazione e un rapidissimo sviluppo in chiave industriale.
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Abstract (ENG):
By examining an unpublished 18th-century manuscript from the archive of the Benedictine abbey of San Martino delle Scale (near Monreale and Palermo), I will focus on the fascinating evolution of book binding and marbling of books techniques, from Gabriel Naudé (author of the precious book Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque) to Ephraim Chambers (author of the Cyclopaedia, one of the first general encyclopedias printed in English), until to the Encyclopédie in the Age of Enlightenment.

The paper deals with the Coimbra Commentaries, a group of eight commentaries of Aristotle, published in the Portuguese town ofCoimbrn between 1592 and 1606, that knew a larg·e editorial success through Europe. The reception of the Medieval philosopher Henry of Ghent is considered as a case-study but attention is also paid to geographical, cultural and scholarly humanistic conditions that helped the Commentaries to create their own philosophical style.

This new series in environmental humanities will offer approaches to pre-industrial cultures from interdisciplinary environmental perspectives. We invite submissions (both monographs and edited collections) in the fields of ecocriticism, specifically new ecocritical analyses of under-represented literatures; waste studies; environmental history; environmental archaeology; animal studies and zooarchaeology; landscape studies; ‘blue humanities’, and studies of environmental / natural disasters and change and their effects on pre-modern cultures.