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L'Âge de l'éloquence : Réthorique et "res literaria" de la Renaissance au seuil de l'époque classique
L'Age de l'eloquence demontre l'utilite, pour l'historien de la culture, du paradigme rhetorique. La premiere partie apprecie la longue duree: Antiquite classique et tardive, Renaissance italienne et Reforme catholique. On y voit s'etablir et se retablir dans la culture europeenne la fonction essentielle de mediation, de transmission et d'adaptation exercee par la rhetorique. Les debats relatifs au " meilleur style," a la legitimite et a la nature de l'ornatus, a la definition de l'aptum, ne sont pas le privilege de professionnels de la chose litteraire: ils mettent en jeu, a chaque epoque, l'ensemble du contenu de la culture et impliquent la strategie de son expansion et de sa survie. Les parties suivantes examinent respectivement deux grandes institutions savantes de la France humaniste, le College jesuite de Clermont et le Parlement de Paris. A l'horizon apparaissent le public feminin et le public de cour, que la res literaria savante et chretienne ne saurait ignorer sans se condamner a la stagnation ou a l'etouffement. Les debats rhetoriques entre jesuites ou entre magistrats gallicans oscillent donc entre la necessite de ne rien sacrifier de l'essentiel, et l'autre necessite, celle de doter cet " essentiel " d'une eloquence propre a le faire aimer, admirer, embrasser par les "ignorans ." Autant de debats qui se nourrissent de l'abondante jurisprudence accumulee par la tradition humaniste et chretienne. Le classicisme surgit ainsi, des le regne de Louis XIII, comme une solution vivante et efficace a un probleme qui n'a rien perdu de son actualite: comment transmettre la culture en evitant le double peril de la sclerose elitiste et de la demagogie avilissante ?
- GenresHistory
890 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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About the author
Marc Fumaroli
103 books14 followersMarc Fumaroli was a scholar of French classical rhetoric and art. He is acknowledged for the revival of Rhetoric as field of study of European culture, in a sharp move away from both structuralism and post-modernism.
He was born in metropolitan France, in Marseille, but he grew up in the Moroccan city of Fez. He was educated at the university of Aix-Marseille and at the Sorbonne. He began his academic career in Lille but continued it it Paris. Following his appointment to a chair in Seventeenth Century Studies at the Sorbonne, he was elected to a chair in Rhetoric and Society in Europe (16th and 17th century) at the Collège de France. He held it from 1986 until mandatory retirement in 2002, and then became an emeritus professor.
He was a member of the British Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Société d'Histoire Littéraire de la France, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and the Académie Française. Before being elected a member in 1995, Fumaroli received from the Académie Française the Monseigneur Marcel Prize in 1982 and the Critique Prize in 1992. He was promoted to the title of commander of the French Legion of Honor in 2008, after previously being named chevalier in 1993 and officer in 2002.
After his death on 24 June 2020, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron praised Fumaroli as one of the country's greatest ever storytellers and historians.
He was born in metropolitan France, in Marseille, but he grew up in the Moroccan city of Fez. He was educated at the university of Aix-Marseille and at the Sorbonne. He began his academic career in Lille but continued it it Paris. Following his appointment to a chair in Seventeenth Century Studies at the Sorbonne, he was elected to a chair in Rhetoric and Society in Europe (16th and 17th century) at the Collège de France. He held it from 1986 until mandatory retirement in 2002, and then became an emeritus professor.
He was a member of the British Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Société d'Histoire Littéraire de la France, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and the Académie Française. Before being elected a member in 1995, Fumaroli received from the Académie Française the Monseigneur Marcel Prize in 1982 and the Critique Prize in 1992. He was promoted to the title of commander of the French Legion of Honor in 2008, after previously being named chevalier in 1993 and officer in 2002.
After his death on 24 June 2020, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron praised Fumaroli as one of the country's greatest ever storytellers and historians.
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