French Pulpit Oratory 1598 1650

French pulpit oratory, 1598-1650

French Pulpit Oratory, 1598-1650

This 1980 text was the first full-length study of seventeenth-century pulpit oratory since 1863, and the first to treat both Catholic and Protestant preaching. The first part opens with a general discussion on the sermon as a literary form, followed by a survey of ideas on preaching and the practical 'arts of preaching' circulating in late Renaissance Europe. Of the central chapters on the sermons themselves, two are concerned with the style and complex formal structures of the sermons; while two examine in turn the major themes of illusion and nature and the imagery associated with them. The second part is a descriptive catalogue of extant sermons and some funeral orations of the period, which provided a great deal of information never previously collected. The book made a significant contribution both to the study of a neglected period of French literature, the 'Baroque', and to comparative studies of the sermon.

The Sixteenth-Century French Religious Book

This study comprises the proceedings of a conference held in St Andrews in 1999 which gathered some of the most distinguished historians of the French book. It presents the 16th-century book in a new context and provides the first comprehensive view of this absorbing field. Four major themes are reflected here: the relationship between the manuscript tradition and the printed book; an exploration of the variety of genres that emerged in the 16th century and how they were used; a look at publishing and book-selling strategies and networks, and the ways in which the authorities tried to control these; and a discussion of the way in which confessional literature diverged and converged. The range of specialist knowledge embedded in this study will ensure its appeal to specialists in French history, scholars of the book and of 16th-century French literature, and historians of religion.