Pasquier's Recherches de la France: The Exemplarity of His Medieval Sources
Nancy S. Struever
At the beginning of his revised version Book I Recherches de la France (1596), Etienne Pasquier claims intrinsic interest anciennetJ France, and that all he writes, writes for toutefois escrivant ici pour ma & non moy.I Certainly it is case neither possible nor desirable to displace current working hypothesis, initiated by Kelley, Huppert, Franklin, Pasquier's history, like other histories period, responds exigencies Civil Wars fits into a program political history.2 The Recherches, then, contributes Gallican project finding indigenous paradigms French policy; they substantiate fundamental axiom: in well-ordered state peuple soit sujet au Magistrat, le Magistrat loy.993 propose, however, focusing on exemplum -the narration particular episode illumine edify-to develop an additional, modifying hypothesis reciprocity: represents not simply sixteenth-century reorganization medieval material, but reorientation historical politics. That say, only are exemplary incidents medieval, form or strategy as well; this exemplarity constrains tactic use history confection moral-political identity. shall claim epitome V -La commemoration quelques notables exemples, que ie voy ou n'estre deduits par commun nos Croniquers, passez si legerement qu'il son 'a plusiers inconnus4 signals anomalous, diagnostically interesting, within
History and Theory