Denis Hue. La poesie palinodique a Rouen (1486-1550).

(Bibliotheque litteraire de la Renaissance, 3.44.) Paris: Honore Champion Editeur, 2002. 1047 pp. index, illus, bibl. 120 [euro]. ISBN: 2-7453-0479-8.

Joachim du Bellay's prominent and disparaging remarks concerning the Puy de Rouen which for him showcases poetic "episseries, qui corrumpent le goust de nostre Langue, & ne servent si non a porter temoingnaige de notre ignorance" (Deffence, 2.4) are boldly and persuasively disproved in Denis Hue's rich and very welcome overview of the early modern literary competition in honor of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Hue demonstrates that the poetic "episserie" was, in fact, "encyclopedie" and that "ignorance" was "science," and, rather than corrupting the French language, the contest fortified it. Though the competition existed in Rouen from the end of the fifteenth century to the Revolution, Hue focuses on one of its most flourishing periods, from its most probable origin in 1486 to 1550, for which significant documentation remains extant. Initially called "le Puy de Palinods de Rouen," the puy refers to the podium on which the poets declaimed their verse, and the palinod (Greek, palin) to the final verse of every stanza that is repeated in the chant royal.

Hue divides his study into three parts. The first presents a summary of the history of the theology of the Immaculate Conception and its cult. Beginning with a review of the apocryphal New Testament writings, the Protoevangelium of James (2c.) and its imitators, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Gospel of the Nativity, Hue posits the founding accounts of the miraculous birth of Joachim and Anne's daughter. Moreover, he schematizes the varied reception and ardent debate over the Virgin's birth from the time of the Church Fathers to the Council of Basle and tells how the cult of the Immaculate Conception ultimately became practiced throughout France and Europe by the mid-fourteenth century. This historical perspective is particularly helpful for literary scholars and students unversed in religious history.

The second part offers further background on Rouen, the puy, and the available manuscripts from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Here, Hue describes the organization of the Confrerie de la Conception-Notre-Dame and its establishment in 1486 of the puy centered on the Virgin. Though the prince of the puy (i.e., the person who presided over the competition and determined the topic in a given year) was generally an aristocratic member of the confraternity, there was occasion for less socially elite members to ascend to this role. This kind of openness allowed for highly diverse forms of devotional expression to emerge. After 1510 the contest grew so much that it had to be moved in Rouen from the Eglise Saint Jean to the church of the Carmelites. The participation of Andrieu de La Vigne in 1511, Cretin from 1513, and Jehan and Clement Marot around 1520 reflects its rise in prestige and popularity.

The third part, clearly the most revealing of the mentalite of the city, province, and country, presents and analyzes the poetry of the puys and its imagery according to topics rather than authors. Hue shows how zealous belief in the Immaculate Conception led poets to define, describe, and defend in an intricate manner the Virgin's place as auxiliary in virtually every aspect of nature and society, of the city and the universe--the place of one born free of sin. All unfolds around humankind through her help; all knowledge of the world, earthly and heavenly, and all advancement of civilization have their foundation in her. The list of topics is a veritable cornucopia: the heavens, the seasons, the mineral world, vegetation of all kind, the arts, the sciences, scientific instruments, musical instruments, agriculture, and the cloth industry (to name only some) rely on the Mother of Jesus for their very being.

The Rouennais puy was eclipsed after 1550 by the work of the Pleiade and mounting tensions between the orthodoxy and the reform, but Hue's work restores meaning to the theological, social, linguistic, and poetic achievements made during the first half of the French Renaissance in the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

EHSAN AHMED 

Michigan State University