Sponde: commentateur d'Homere.

Christiane Deloince-Louette. Sponde: commentateur d'Homere.

Paris: Honore Champion Editeur, 2001. 472 pp. index. tbls. bibl. 450 FF. ISBN: 2-7453-0532-8.

This lucid and captivating study of Jean de Sponde's Latin commentaries on the Iliad and the Odyssey, published in Basel by Eusebius Episcopius in 1583, surveys the religious, cultural, and literary consciousness of a very young and very gifted humanist and Hellenist who fervently considers Homer's works to be a founding gesture of civilization. Although he admirably exemplified the Protestant penchant for Greek studies, Sponde was also well aware that his Homeric enthusiasm could be construed by some of his rigorist coreligionists as a pernicious diversion from Calvinist faith and from the study of the Bible. However, the theologically orthodox and pious mode of his reading deflects such criticisms, while respecting the integrity and historical remoteness of Homer's productions. Deloince-Louette demonstrates the commentator's careful underlining of Homer's pagan "defects" as he simultaneously develops moral arguments affirming the proto-Christian stance of the bard he so admires. In his interpretation of the text, Sponde constantly shuns the kind of allegorizations of the Homeric tales that characterized many ancient and Renaissance discussions (such as those of the Catholic Jean Dorat, whose comments on the Odyssey have recently been examined by Philip Ford) of the texts. In a very rich passage (338-54) Deloince-Louette analyzes this quasi-systematic refusal of allegory and illuminates it in the terms of Protestant theology (Calvin and Melanchton) and its emphasis on the simplicitas it cultivates for the reading of the Bible. It is this simplicity and directness that Sponde translates into his reflections on Homer. Ultimately, his desire to transmit his erudition and love for the pagan text rejoins the doctrinal and rhetorical goals of Protestant predicators, and leads to the prayer Sponde inscribes as the concluding move of his discussion of the Iliad. This prayer equates the commentaries to an earnest effort at unveiling the name of the Christian God hiding in the Homeric poems, and it begs God's assurance that the scholar's human love for ancient literature be not impious (372).

One of the many strengths of Deloince-Louette's treatment is her keen understanding and exposition of the various ideological, doctrinal, and rhetorical tensions that inhabit Sponde's well-crafted commentariis perpetuis, the perpetual assistance he provides the reader embarking on the enormous task of negotiating the world of Homer's encyclopedic and foundational fictionalization of the ancient Greek ethos. Using the traditional dichotomies utile/dulce or docere/delectare that give crucial parameters to the commentator's work, she clearly situates Sponde's authorial voice and discriminatingly articulates its complementary nuances, ranging from poetic furor to theological rigor. She catalogues and discusses the literary strategies (paraphrase, definition, digression, feint astonishment, and apostrophe, among others) Sponde uses to give depth and breadth to his hermeneutic tasks. Throughout her presentation, we come to realize the fundamental importance of a genre, the commentary of canonical artifacts, which is seldom granted the critical attention its complexities and inevitable political and theological inflections deserve. For the twenty-first-century Homerist who regularly consults the many fine critical tools we currently enjoy to explore these primordial Western epics, this book will raise central questions about the tacit presuppositions underpinning such instruments. It also brings into focus the troubled concept of "traditions" that, while enabling reading and interpretation itself, also impair the spectrum of signifying possibilities. More specifically, it provides the admirer of Sponde's remarkable "Sonnets d'Amour" and "Sonnets de la Mort," for which he is best known today, with key pieces of evidence about the intellectual and spiritual development that led to the condensed sophistication and beauty of his French verse. In the final pages of the book, Deloince-Louette suggestively applies some of her findings about Sponde the Homerist in order to enhance our appreciation of his poetry.

The thoroughness and competence of Sponde: commentateur d'Homere leaves this reader's hunger slightly unsatisfied on only two points. It would have been helpful to include a few photographs of the 1583 text itself at key moments of its presentation, since the visual configuration of commentaries is such an integral part of their "mode d'emploi." Furthermore, the book only offers one small yet fascinating sample of Sponde's Latin translation of Homer that accompanies the Greek text. In my opinion, this word-for-word rendering, so greatly beneficial for novice readers of Greek, warrants more attention both semantically and stylistically.

MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

Skidmore College