Études Rabelaisiennes, Tome XLII by François RabelaisReview by: Gary W. JenkinsThe Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Spring, 2006), pp. 187-188Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20477751 .

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Book Reviews 187

Etudes Rabelaisiennes, Tome XLII. Fran,ois Rabelais. Travaux d'Humanisme et Re naissance. Geneva: Droz, 2003. 144 pp. SF 92.00. ISBN 2-600-00869-1

REVIEWED BY: Gary W Jenkins, Eastern University

The first of the five studies presented in this volume, the second part of a study begun in Etudes Rabelaisiennes XXXIX, is also the longest. Fran,ois Cornilliat's "On Sound Effects in Rabelais" delves into the subject's use of puns and begins by looking at Rabelais's use of paronymous words to construct virtues of moderation set between extremes; this Cornilliat contrasts with Monlinet's use of opposite extremes to lionize Charles the Bold. Cornilliat's Rabelais, by positioning himself in the "moderate middle," avoids becoming a vice's twin through a martial opposition to it. This plays out in Pantagruel's and Panurge's antiphonal lauds of the folly ofTriboulet (Le tiers-livre, XXXVIII), wherein Panurge is carried away with his words (following Duval, Cornilliat sees Panurge as extreme and intoxicated by the divin ity of folly), whereas the more stoical giant moderates his tone and refuses to be pulled into a struggle with Panurge. The author concludes by looking at the rhetoric of Rabelais's lists, contrasting them with the sober rhetoric of Molinet, and seeing here a drunken criticism of the austerity and self-importance of princely encomia, noting that "language.. .proves actually less empty, and less dangerous.. .when it persuades itself of its motivation" (50, emphasis in the text).

Fr&deric Tinguely's "L'Alter Sensus des Turqueries de Panurge" finds in Panurge's account of his escape from the cannibalism of the Turks, and then subsequent escape from the pack of dogs who smell his partially roasted flesh, a metaphor, the keys to which are Eras mus's De bello Turco (1530) and a little-known tract, attributed to Guillaume Farel but penned under the name Magister NosterThomas Murmau, Determinatio Facultatis Theologiae Parisiensis (1524). The tract is an attack on the syndic of the Sorbonne, Noel Beda. Erasmus provides the broader context of identifying Panurge's Turks with Christians, and Panurge's citation of

Magister Noster Murmau betrays Rabelais's ultimate target as the paunchy, bacon-loving bigot of the University of Paris.

After a paean to the problems raised by poststructuralism as regards meaningless mean ing,James Helgeson dives into a spirited study of Rabelais's meaning and intention.The foci for this study are the several prologues, most notably the first, in the voice ofAlcofrybas. Hel geson notes the diverse interpretations of the passage, some of which see it as pure contra diction, while he opts for that of Duval who sees Rabelais claiming a libidinous inspiration for the greater, allegorical truths found in his text. This reading comes with problems, but it keeps Rabelais's text from falling into the hurly burly. For Helgeson, this also requires a com munity of reading, one whose shared understanding of the text and charity toward Rabelais enables them to decipher the plus hault sens. But if an inspired allegory exists, even one effected by the bottle, what of intention? Here Helgeson addresses the question through a heterodox prism of Strauss, seeing two possible subtexts: alchemy and hermeticism on the one hand, and an evangelical one of the other. The occult reading brings the lector to no higher sense of the text, and the explicitly anticlerical episodes are hardly veiled in their intent. Ultimately, the ambiguity of "entendre," even for Renaissance authors for whom intent was a "burning" question, leaves us grasping for what Rabelais plausibly either intended or understood.

Fran,oise Rouget in "Rabelais Lecteur de Castiglione et de Machiavel a Theleme" demonstrates Rabelais's extensive use of Castiglione's Libro del Cortegiano, seeing in his famous abbey many of the traits Castiglione desired in his courtiers.Yet not everything was

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188 Sixteenth CenturyJournal XXXVII/1 (2006)

adopted, and here Rouget presents the similarities, more than coincidental, between Machi avelli's Capitoli per una Compagnia di Piacere (1504) and the rules inserted into Theleme by Gargantua. After tracing the history of Machiavelli's text, Rouget then proceeds with his analysis of the three works, showing Rabelais's appropriation from both authors.

In the last essay, St&phan Geonget's "Rabelais, son Coq et ses Gelines: La Basse Cour d'Ulrich Gallet" shows Rabelais's reco-option of one Uldaricus Han, the founder of the first library in Rome. Uldaric Hahn passed into memory as Uldaricus Gallus, and finally Ulrich le Fran,ais.Johannes Wimpheling, in the name of Germanic pride, sought to correct Hahn's Francophile patronymic, and Rabelais used his story of the war between Grandgousier and Picrochole to take a slap at Germanic hubris; including, of course, that of the emperor Charles V. The emissary Grandgousier chose in order to try to bring peace is his Master of Requests, Ulrich Gallet (cf. Gargantua chap. XXV ff.). Geonget points out how Rabelais inserted into the pericope wonderful hints that all of this pertained to the struggle between Fran,ois I and Charles V, from the whisperings of Picrochole's advisors about the glories of Crusade and world conquest, and his status as a great Christian prince, to "le bon frere Jean [et] son baton fleurdelis6" which the good monk used to smash the heads of those who had profaned the vineyard of his monastery.

The last part of the volume is an index of the works of Rabelais cited in the first forty volumes of Etudes Rabelaisiennes. This useful tool only adds to a collection of imaginative, enjoyable, and, at many points, profound essays.

L'Ordre du temps: L'Invention de la ponctualite au XVIe siecle. Max Engammare. Geneva: Droz, 2004.263 pp. SF 42.00 ISBN 2-600-00914-9.

REVIEWED BY: Susan C. Karant-Nunn, University ofArizona

I am doubtless not alone among regular attendees of the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference who are pleased every year to see the cordial face of Max Engammare at the Librairie Droz table in the book exhibition. This publishing executive leads a second life as a Reformation historian and expert on, among much else, the Genesis sermons of John Calvin. (See Supplementa calviniana, vol. 11, Sermons inedits: Sermons sur le Gene'se [Neu kirchen-Vluyn: NeukirchenerVerlag, 2000]).

This book is the result of his close familiarity with Calvin, and in particular with Calvin's determination not to waste a single moment; he would have to give a complete accounting for every second. Not only the Genevan reformer but his followers in France, London, and elsewhere came to structure their time closely, in an age in which many others, such as Pope Gregory XIII, were thinking about time on a larger scale, the calendar in relation to the sun.All Genevans had to learn to take time as seriously as their spiritual leader. Calvin was determined that, in contrast to lackadaisical practice, they must arrive at the sermon punctually; the earliest preaching in the summer began at 4:00 a.m. and in the winter at 5:00. The full benefit of lectio continua depended on their presence for the entire service, including related readings and prayers. Public worship may have been labeled "the sermon," but all surrounding liturgical activities were included. Engammare casts his eye outside of Reformed lands and notes that Lutherans, too, by the end of the century thought about time-like Genevans, they were concerned that sermons not last over an hour, even on Sundays.

In his own frequent preaching, Calvin instructed the people that they must not lose a

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