L'infamia e il perdono: Tributi, pene e confessione nella teologia morale della prima età moderna (review)
receive in the introductory pages any explanation as to why its publication was delayed during half a decade, in a time when the requirements of scientific or scholarly communication call for results to be quickly made public. Horace’s “nonumque prematur in annum” is always a wise piece of advice; nevertheless, Ferrer has obviously not taken advantage of these five years of delay to improve her edition: the bibliography was not updated (except for Ferrer’s own publications), the presentation of footnotes is sometimes tediously repetitive, and the editor seems to ignore even the rudiments of physical bibliography, in so far as she mistook title page for flyleaf (16). With or without the help of collating machines, she has not compared the few remaining copies of these Petites Œuvres meslées (the copy of the Public Library of Besançon, shelfmark 206.065, must be added to her list), in spite of the fact that this comparison may have provided valuable elements of analysis, for the book was printed, if not directly under d’Aubigné’s eyes, at least under the control of his heirs, and corrections during the process of printing cannot be excluded without a close and careful examination. Ferrer’s commentaries are not devoid of approximations (Geneva is not the capital of Switzerland, as stated on 440) and she also seems to ignore that some pieces of poetry were printed during d’Aubigné’s lifetime, so the variants provided by anthologies are not taken into account in the critical apparatus (F. Lachèvre, Bibliographie des recueils collectifs de poésies publiés de 1597 à 1700, Paris, 1901–05, t. I, p. 154–156). For the sake of scholarship, the 115-page long introduction is more accurate when dealing with the poetical, rhetorical, or theological trends of d’Aubigné’s prose and poetry. The Petites Œuvres meslées are clearly divided in two parts: the first one contains d’Aubigné meditative prose on six Psalms, a devotional exercise especially illustrated by Protestant writers (Théodore de Bèze, Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, or Jean de Sponde); the second one gathers poetry written during a lifetime, from the last Valois court to the Genevan exile. Some pieces of L’Hyver are gems of genuine baroque poetry, worthy to be compared to Donne or Vaughan. Ferrer’s edition has its qualities, but also some disturbing blemishes, and even the most benevolent reader may not be benevolent enough to wait until a hypothetical third set of complete works. The easiest solution is a second printing of the book, with corrections and emendations. This volume needs (and deserves) it. GILLES BANDERIER Taylor Institution Basle, Switzerland