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Although the works of Homer remained unknown in Western Europe for much of the Middle Ages, their reappearance was welcomed enthusiastically in France toward the end of the fifteenth century by the small band of scholars capable of reading Greek. The founding of the College des lectures royaux in 1530 gave a fillip to Homeric studies, and partial editions of Homer were printed in Paris, aimed at a student audience. French translations also helped to bring the poems to a wider audience. However, the question of the interpretation of Homer was central to the reception of the two epics, and, after examining the publishing history, this paper sets out to assess how succeeding generations of scholars set about reading and teaching the prince of poets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to a popular legend in the Middle Ages, toads were used as the arms of the king of France before Clovis's conversion to Christianity. This paper follows the evolution of these symbolic toads in literary, juridical, and historical texts, as they adapt to changing political environments in the Renaissance. In general, the toads were used to compare negatively with the virtuous lilies during the Middle Ages in France. As monarchical power became more absolute, writers tried to adapt the toads to this new political context, but the toads tended to disappear in France while they flourished in other countries, such as the Spanish Netherlands, where they were sometimes exploited as part of a polemic against the French. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how Protestant and Catholic elites in early seventeenth-century France memorialized the Wars of Religion in purpose-built picture galleries. Postwar France remained a divided nation, and portrait galleries offered a sectarian memory of the conflict, glorifying party heroes. Historical picture galleries, on the other hand, promoted a shared memory of the wars, focusing on King Henry IV's successful campaign against the Catholic League to unite the kingdom. This article argues that postwar elites made a sincere effort to manage religious tensions by allowing partisan memories to circulate in private while promoting a consensual memory in public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sketches the history of the mediation of linguistic difference in the context of judicial torture in early modern France. It argues that language represented an important dimension of what took place in the torture chambers of early modern Europe. Embedded within multilingual societies and habitually confronted with linguistic difference, tribunals developed an array of mediation practices. Shaped by officials' scribal and linguistic practices and their infliction of pain in order to establish judicial facts, their linguistic choices also shed light on how jurists conceived of and set out uncovering the truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the role of ancient Egypt in courtly masquerades under François Ier (r. 1515-47). It opens with an analysis of the iconography of a sphinx costume that was designed by Francesco Primaticcio (1504/05-1570) and worn by the king and one of his favorite courtiers, Cardinal Jean de Lorraine (1498-1550), at a wedding celebration held in 1546. Two other costume drawings by the same artist are discussed next, and the first printed French translation of Horapollo's Hieroglyphica, which was published in Paris in 1543, is identified as their source. In examining their strange aesthetic and multiple layers of meaning, this study considers how these costumes were symptomatic of a broader French Renaissance fascination with concealed truth and how, as conveyors of veiled messages, they were meant to spark lofty discussions and demonstrate the French court's sophistication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an examination into the late 16th-century practice of producing live-casting sculpture from small animals and plants. Introductory details are given highlighting the popularity of live-cast items during the period. Extensive discussion is offered regarding the techniques of the process as taken from a French scientific technical manuscript. The treatise's instructions are reproduced and commentary is given regarding the role of such practices in the intellectual culture of the era. The author concludes that the popularity of the technique was rooted in the interests of natural science rather than more direct artistic concerns.

Margherita Datini's correspondence with her husband Francesco presents a well-documented case of progress from partial to full literacy. In Margherita's merchant world, letter writing was a major concern, and her household duties included frequent reports to her absent husband. First, she prided herself on her dictation, and then she turned her attention to reading and writing. A recently discovered autograph letter shows that she was writing at twenty-eight, earlier than previously thought, and she attained full literacy in her mid-thirties. After that, writing no longer seemed a challenge, and she returned to using a scribe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pierre Corneille's "Mélite" (1629) resonated in part due to a social critique with deep roots in the French Renaissance. Corneille's characters live by the canons of a (notionally) natural system of merit, divorced from money, implicitly noble, but open to upwardly-mobile commoners. Reconciling the traditional social order with the purchase of status and power by venal office-holders had preoccupied French comedy since the 1550s. While early playwrights hesitated to comment on this phenomenon (in which they took part), by about 1580 Odet de Turnèbe had already dramatized an educated elite's transcendence of the economic, which Corneille would then go on to perfect. The biographies of these playwrights show that their plays' ideological functions suited their own social situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to portraits and diplomatic reports. Renaissance courts relied on fashion dolls to acquaint themselves with foreign dress. Unfortunately, literature on this subject is scarce and often disappointing. Overlooked by doll historians, a letter written by Federico Gonzaga (1500-40) in 1515 reveals that François Ier (1494-1547) requested a fashion doll from Isabella d'Este (1474-1539). After examining this document within the context of what is currently known about Renaissance fashion dolls, this essay explores what François Ier's interest in these objects suggests about his personality and his relationship to the women of his court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]