Early modern representations of witchcraft have been the subject of considerable recent scholarship; however, three significant aspects of the corpus have not received sufficient attention and are treated independently here for the first time. This dissertation will examine how witchcraft imagery invited discourse concerning the reality of magic and witchcraft and suggested connections to contemporary issues through the themes of the witch’s violent autonomy, bestial passions, and unnatural interactions with the demonic and the dead. These three themes address specific features of the multifaceted identity of the witch and participate in a larger discussion that questioned the nature of humanity. Analysis of each issue reveals a complex, ambiguous, and often radically open treatment of the subject that necessitates a revision of how witchcraft imagery from this period is understood. Each understudied aspect of witchcraft imagery is explored through a series of case studies that have not appeared together until now. Previously unexamined artworks with inventive content are introduced and canonical pictures are examined from new perspectives. These images were created in the principal artistic centers, the Italian city-states, the German provinces, and the Low Countries, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when the controversy over witchcraft was at its peak. Although they are few in number, these highly innovative images are the most effective and illuminating means by which to access these themes. These works of art provide valuable insights into important issues that troubled early modern society. Chapter 1 reveals how witchcraft imagery produced in the Low Countries is concerned with the witch’s violent rejection of the social bonds and practices upon which the community depends for survival. Chapter 2 examines how the figure of the witch was used to explore concerns about the delineation and transgression of the human-animal boundary. Chapter 3 exposes an interest in the physical possibility of witchcraft; artists questioned the ability of witches and demons to manipulate the material world. Issues include the witches’ capacity to reanimate dead bodies and create monstrous creatures. Together these images demonstrate active and meaningful engagement with the theories, beliefs, and practices associated with witchcraft.

Early modern representations of witchcraft have been the subject of considerable recent scholarship; however, three significant aspects of the corpus have not received sufficient attention and are treated independently here for the first time. This dissertation will examine how witchcraft imagery invited discourse concerning the reality of magic and witchcraft and suggested connections to contemporary issues through the themes of the witch’s violent autonomy, bestial passions, and unnatural interactions with the demonic and the dead. These three themes address specific features of the multifaceted identity of the witch and participate in a larger discussion that questioned the nature of humanity. Analysis of each issue reveals a complex, ambiguous, and often radically open treatment of the subject that necessitates a revision of how witchcraft imagery from this period is understood. Each understudied aspect of witchcraft imagery is explored through a series of case studies that have not appeared together until now. Previously unexamined artworks with inventive content are introduced and canonical pictures are examined from new perspectives. These images were created in the principal artistic centers, the Italian city-states, the German provinces, and the Low Countries, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when the controversy over witchcraft was at its peak. Although they are few in number, these highly innovative images are the most effective and illuminating means by which to access these themes. These works of art provide valuable insights into important issues that troubled early modern society. Chapter 1 reveals how witchcraft imagery produced in the Low Countries is concerned with the witch’s violent rejection of the social bonds and practices upon which the community depends for survival. Chapter 2 examines how the figure of the witch was used to explore concerns about the delineation and transgression of the human-animal boundary. Chapter 3 exposes an interest in the physical possibility of witchcraft; artists questioned the ability of witches and demons to manipulate the material world. Issues include the witches’ capacity to reanimate dead bodies and create monstrous creatures. Together these images demonstrate active and meaningful engagement with the theories, beliefs, and practices associated with witchcraft.

La présente recherche se propose de retracer la vie et l’œuvre du père jésuite Jean Pierron (1631-1701), qui, venu de Lorraine, a contribué à la réouverture des missions iroquoises en Nouvelle-France. Arrivé dans la colonie en juin 1667, Pierron, se fit introduire auprès des populations autochtones par Jean Talon, après quoi il eut en charge un territoire d'environ une demi-douzaine de villages agniers de la vallée de l'Hudson. Après avoir livré ses premières impressions, le jésuite mit au point son programme apostolique, faisant appel à une méthode « audio-visuelle » fondée sur le dessin didactique. Mais le jésuite fut aussi un formidable voyageur, qui se rendit non seulement en Iroquoisie, mais aussi en Nouvelle-Angleterre. Il semble bien que ce soit grâce à de précieux réseaux de connaissances en dehors de ceux de la Compagnie de Jésus qu'il put entreprendre un tel voyage. La biographie de ce missionnaire-polyglotte, diplomate et peintre, souligne entre autre choses, l’importance du contexte stratégique et politique plus vaste des missions françaises en Amérique au XVIIe siècle. / The following study is devoted to the Jesuit father Jean Pierron (1631-1701). Arriving from Lorraine in 1667, Pierron participated in the Catholic mission to the Mohawk of the Hudson Valley, after being formally introduced to delegates of this nation by the intendant Jean Talon. Working in a half-dozen villages, Pierron designed an audiovisual method of conversion based upon didactic drawings and paintings. The missionary was also an energetic traveller, both within Mohawk territories and to the English colonies. These journeys point to Pierron’s earlier experiences and more precisely, to the network of contacts he seems to have developed in Europe. In sum, the life of this polyglot missionary, diplomat and painter underscores the importance of the broader strategic and political context of the Jesuit missions.

Seventeenth-century Seville, one of early modern Spain's most populous cities and the mercantile hub of its imperial trade, endured repeated and severe flooding of the Guadalquivir River, events that have been largely overlooked by historians. Additionally, Seville's boom-then-bust history and the allure of the 'decline of Spain' thesis have ensured that the second half of the seventeenth century for both the urban and the national context remains similarly neglected. This thesis, by conducting research into the city's flooding from 1621 to 1700 presents an alternative narrative of continuity, at the same time as asserting the value to be gained from a historical study of the environment and disasters. I argue that urban responses - political and cultural - to disaster provide fundamental evidence of the impact of wider historical processes and structures. The asistente - the royal governor - of Seville likewise lacks sustained or detailed study. These men, as the king's appointees, had a vital role in the performance of the government of the Habsburg monarchy. The city's equivalent of the corregidor in other Spanish cities and towns, and previously understood as a legal and administrative official, the asistente was, I argue, responded to a broader set of political attitudes, which prioritised conservation and discouraged novelty. I also stress the hands-on and practical aspects to the post, which demanded a working appreciation of urban space. By connecting a study of royal government in one of the most significant of early modern Spanish cities to an environmental history of flooding, I address important gaps in the scholarship and suggest new avenues of research into the history of environmental disaster. Spanish 'decline' might be reinterpreted as a failure to deal with specific local environmental issues, and environmental disaster acknowledged as an issue of central political importance.

En 1647, dans ses Remarques sur la langue française, Vaugelas oppose « la richesse et la beauté » de la langue française aux « langues pauvres » où les équivoques « abondent ». Au XVIIe siècle en France, l’écriture familière est une pratique de la langue propre à l’espace particulier qui assume délibérément une pauvreté de langage et son équivocité. Quels enjeux les contemporains attachent-ils à ce qui est, non pas un style, mais, comme l’exprime Dominique Bouhours, un état « immature » de la langue ?Dans une première partie (chap. 1 et 2), nous nous attachons au principal modèle de l’écriture familière qui organise la discussion au XVIIe siècle : le sermo (cicéronien ou augustinien). Nous mettons alors au jour une fiction politique sous la théorisation de l’écriture familière : ce qui est en jeu dans le sermo, c’est le passage du langage des communautés primitives, langage considéré comme simple mesure affective des relations humaines à un langage différencié propre aux sociétés avancées et fondé sur la représentation et le partage du sens.Notre seconde partie (chap. 3-6) explore les bouleversements que l’autonomisation progressive de l’espace privé provoque dans la compréhension de l’écriture familière au XVIIe siècle. Aux yeux des contemporains, les usages familiers de la langue constituent à la fois une opportunité favorisant le sentiment du commun et une menace sur les ambitions civiles qui y sont attachées.Les traités sur la conversation essaient d’en limiter les dangers ; les textes libertins en exacerbent les pouvoirs de césure.Notre dernière partie (chap. 7) se consacre au théâtre de Molière. A la suite des réajustements apportés aux notions de style et de représentation par notre exploration de la théorisation classico-baroque de l’écriture familière, comment interpréter le langage comique moliéresque ?Quelles conséquences sur notre compréhension du ridicule ? / In Seventeenth-Century France, familiar writing was a language practice unique to the particular space that intentionally assumed a poverty of form and multiplicity of meanings. What issues did 17th century contemporaries see at stake in what is not a “style”, but as described by Dominique Bouhours, an “immature” state of language? In the first part (chapters 1 & 2), we will focus on the principal model of familiar writing that centers the discussion in the 17th century: the “sermo” (Ciceronian or Augustinian). Thus we will shed light on a political fiction under the theorization of familiar writing: what is at stake in the “Sermo” is the passage from a language attached to primitive communities and understood as simply an affective measure of human relations to a differentiated language,unique to societies and built on the representation and sharing of meaning.The second part (chapters 3-6) will explore the disruptions that progressive empowerment of the private space provokes in the understanding of familiar writing in the 17th century. In the eyes of those who lived in the 17th century, familiar usage of language constituted both anoccasion that preferred the feeling of community, as well as a threat to civil ambition to which it is attached. Treaties on conversation tried to limit its dangers. Libertine texts exacerbated the power of its disruptions.The last part (chapter 7) is devoted to the theatrical works of Molière. Following readjustments brought to notions of style and representation by our exploration of the classico-baroque familiar writings, how does one interpret Molière’s comic language? What are the consequences for our understanding of “le ridicule”?

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This thesis explores the disciplinary relationship between natural philosophy (the study of nature or body) and theology (the study of the divine) in seventeenth-century England. Early modern disciplines had two essential functions. First, they set the rules and boundaries of argument – knowledge was therefore legitimised and made intelligible within disciplinary contexts. And second, disciplines structured pedagogy, parcelling knowledge so it could be studied and taught. This dual role meant disciplines were epistemic and social structures. They were composed of various elements, and consequently, they related to one another in a variety of complex ways. As such, the contestability of early modern knowledge was reflected in contestability of disciplines – their content and boundaries. Francis Bacon, Thomas White, Henry More and John Locke are the focus of the four chapters respectively, with Joseph Glanvill, Thomas Hobbes, other Cambridge divines, and a variety of medieval scholastic authors providing context, comparison and reinforcement. These case studies offer a cross-section of seventeenth-century thought and belief; they embody different professional and institutional interests, and represent an array of philosophical, theological and religious positions. Nevertheless, each of them, in different ways, and to different effect, put the relationship between natural philosophy and theology at the heart of their intellectual endeavours. Together, they demonstrate that, in seventeenth-century England, natural philosophy and theology were in flux, and that their disciplinary relationship was complex, entailing degrees of overlap and alienation. Primarily, natural philosophy and theology investigated the nature and constitution of the world, and, together, determined the relationship between its constituent parts – natural and divine. However, they also reflected the scope of man’s cognitive faculties, establishing which bits of the world were knowable, and outlining the grounds for, and appropriate degrees of, certainty and belief. Thus, both disciplines, and their relationship with one another, contributed to broad discussions about, truth, certainty and opinion. This, in turn, established normative guidelines. To some extent, the rightness or wrongness of belief and behaviour was determined by particular definitions of, and relationship between, natural philosophy and theology. Consequently, man’s place in the world – his relationship with nature, God and his fellow man – was triangulated through these disciplines.

En 1594, l’Ordre des Prêcheurs engage en France une réforme. À la fin du XVIIe siècle, le Maître général Antonin Cloche tente de nouveau d’aviver l’esprit d’observance. Parallèlement, l’Ordre devient pour les pouvoirs politiques, en France et aux Pays-Basméridionaux, un instrument de lutte contre les Réformés. Les dominicains s’engagent également dans tous les débats théologiques internes à l’Église catholique et se mobilisent pour les missions jusqu’aux extrémités de l’Asie. Ces évènements et la glorification des saints suscitent la création d’images gravées sur cuivre, commandées par l’Ordre ou indépendamment de celui-ci. Retrouver ces estampes, françaises et flamandes, comprendre leur processus d’émergence et le but qui leur fut assigné est l’objet du présent travail. L’enquête croise ainsi des données historiques internes à l’Ordre et supranationales. Sur le plan artistique, l’étude accorde une attention particulière, d’une part, à la circulation des graveurs et des modèles et, d’autre part, à l’émergence de styles propres. Ainsi se trouve valorisée l’articulation entre l’épanouissement de la taille-douce au XVIIe siècle, le discours d’un Ordre, et le regard porté sur lui. / This thesis focuses on the representation of the members of the Dominican Order as found in seventeenth century engravings. It seeks to examine the role of the French and Flemish engravers commissioned by the Order of Preachers in order to stress its social and moral importance. The engravings are an integral part of an artistic heritage with his own language, challenging our perception of the Dominican story, and more generally of the history itself. This has enabled us to question the contribution and the capacity of images either to reflect or to distort, like a mirror, the spiritual life and the theological debates in both the Church and in society during the seventeenth century.

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Ce mémoire traite du débat entre le coeur et le devoir et des différentes influences qui ont conduit à la fameuse question : Pourquoi la princesse n’épouse-t-elle pas le duc de Nemours alors que tous les obstacles sont levés ? À défaut de pouvoir répondre définitivement à cette énigme dont seule Madame de La Fayette possède la clé, nous nous sommes concentrée sur les influences qui auraient pu pousser la princesse à sacrifier son coeur pour son devoir. La méthode de recherche utilisée est l’approche de la biographie intellectuelle. Il est évident que le vécu de l'auteure a teinté le contenu de son oeuvre ainsi que l'âme de son héroïne. Nous nous sommes également inspirée de la méthode sociocritique quant aux influences et mouvements de l'époque. Dans le but de simplifier la collecte des sources et l’organisation de la recherche, nous avons regroupé les influences en trois grandes catégories : les influences personnelles, internes et externes. Cette étude a mis en évidence que les moeurs, dans La Princesse de Clèves, sont le miroir de la société du XVIIe siècle. Chaque influence présentée forme le dessin d’une princesse cachant en elle le secret de son renoncement à l'amour. / This work addresses the debate between heart and duty as well as the various influences that led to the famous question : Why doesn't the princess marry the Duke of Nemours when all barriers are removed ? All things considered, we cannot conclusively answer this enigma to which only Madame de La Fayette holds the key, therefore we focused on the influences that urged the princess to sacrifice her heart to her duty. The method of research used is the intellectual biography approach. It is apparent that the life of the author tinged the contents of her work and the soul of her heroine. We were also inspired by the sociological criticism method as to the influences and movements of this particular era. In order to simplify the collection and organization of this research, we combined the influences into three main categories : personal, internal and external. This study has shown that the characteristics in La Princesse de Clèves, mirror the society of the seventeenth century. Each presented influence forms the picture of a princess hiding, within herself, the secret of her renunciation of love.