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The London Edition of De Thou's History: A Critique of Some Well-Documented Legends

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Alfred Soman
Alfred Soman*
Affiliation:
Carleton College
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Extract

For more than two hundred years, the Buckley-Carte edition (London, 1733) of Jacques-Auguste de Thou's History of His Times has been the standard one for this great Latin chronicle of the latter half of the sixteenth century. In six massive folio volumes, it presents the most complete and accurate text generally available. A seventh volume offers an imposing array of pièces justificatives: letters by and to de Thou and his friends, discussing the publication, emendation, and censoring of the History as well as its reception at the courts of Europe and in the ‘republic of letters.’ Many of these documents were reproduced in the three most widely used French translations of the History. In his recent bibliographical study, Samuel Kinser demonstrates at great length the superiority of the London text.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , Spring 1971 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1971

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References

1 Historiarum sui temporis libri CXXXVIII [ed. Carte, Thomas] (7 vols.; London: Samuel Buckley, 1733)Google Scholar; Histoire universdle de Jacques-Auguste de Thou depuis iStfjusqucn 1607 (16 vols.; London [i.e., Paris], 1734); Histoire universelle … (11 vols.; The Hague, 1740); Histoire universelle … (11 vols.; Basel, 1742).

2 Kinser, , The Works of Jacques-Auguste de Thou (The Hague, 1966), pp. 3 Google Scholar, 10, 57-79, 95, et passim. (Kinser's book was reviewed in Renaissance Quarterly, xxi [Autumn 1968], 338-340-)

3 ‘Comparison with the manuscripts shows that many of the letters published in volume 7 are incomplete or changed in details of wording and punctuation. These changes and omissions are nowhere indicated by Carte or Buckley’ (Kinser, p. 161, n. 3). Cf. Kinser, p. 71: ‘All documents are quoted in full with the exception of some letters excerpted from published books. In some cases manuscript letters contain indications of an Osiission: where this occurs, it is due to the state of the manuscript, not to the decision of the editors.'

4 Kinser, pp. 71, 79.

5 ‘Les deux Lettres suivantes, trouvées parmi nos Manuscrits, ne se rapportent pas directement au sujet que nous allons exposer, sçavoir, la maniere dont l'Histoire de M. de Thou fut reçue à la Cour de France. Cependant nous n'avons pas voulu les supprimer, mais avons jugé à propos de les placer icy, comme des preuves authentiques de l'estime & de la consideration particuhere que le grand Henry IV avoit pour nôtre Auteur avant la publication de son Histoire’ (Historiarum [London, 1733], VII, Pt. n, p. 1).

6 ‘Quand le nonce m'a parlé et fait plainte du livre du president de Thou, il a cogneu le desplaisir que j ‘ en ay receu, et comme j ‘ ay commande le cours et la vente d'iceluy, qui a este faite’ (ibid., p. 2). This same fragment is also found in the above-mentioned translations of the History.

7 Je croy que M. le president de Thou est marri d'avoir publié son livre, et qu'il ne s'y engageroit si avant s'il estoit à recommencer: mais il faut manier ce fait doucement pour y apporter quelque remede, qui ne peut estre autre, à mon avis, que d'en empescher la reimpression; car pour l'amender & corriger, il faudroit changer une grande partie d'iceluy; chose difficile de faire. Je luy en ay parlé par le commandement de sa Majesté. II m'a assuré qu'il sera le premier à tenir la main qu'il soit enseveli, & qu'il ne s'en parle plus; non qu'il estime avoir failli a l'Histoire, ne qu'il se veuille desdire de ses opinions en ce qui concerne la Religion; mais parce qu'il ne veut faire chose qui desagree a sa Majeste, & porte prejudice a son service’ (ibid., p. 4).

8 Delisle, L., Inventaire general et methodique des manuscrits frangais de la Bibliotheque Nationale (2 vols.; Paris, 1876-78), I, lxx.Google Scholar

9 The original begins: ‘Je n'ay rien a vous escrire sur le livre de monsieur le president de Thou, sinon que je croy qu'il est marry de l'avoir publie … ‘ (MS.fr.3488, fol. 45T). In the French translations based on the London edition, this letter is presented in the same supposititious chronological order, but is left undated. (See Histoire universelle [(Paris), 1734], xv, 196; Histoire universelle [The Hague, 1740], x, 375-376.)

10 ‘J'ay blasmé & condampné autant que nul autre l'impression de ces mauvais livres qui courrent en ce siecle, et quand le nonce de Sa Sainteté m'a parlé & fait plaincte de celuy du president de Thou, il a cogneu le desplaisir que j ‘ en ay receu, et comme j'ay commande d'arrester le cours & la vente d'iceluy, ainsi qu'il a este fait’ (Ms.fr.3486, fol. 29).

11 Historiarum, vn, Pt. II, 2. Gillot's letter is quoted by Kinser, p. 9, n. 1. Vertunien, living in Poitiers, was often tardy in his news.

12 De Thou to Christophe Dupuy, Nov. 14, [1605], Historiarum, VII, Pt. I, 6. De Thou omitted the year when he dated this letter. Following the order of the bound volume containing the manuscripts (Bibl. Nat., MS.Dupuy 409), Carte assumed that it was written in 1604. In fact it is a reply to Dupuy's of Oct. 18, 1605 (MS.Dupuy 806, fols. 36-37), as can be seen from the reference to Dupuy's two previous letters of Sept. 20, and Oct. 4 (ibid., fols. 32-34).

13 MS.Dupuy 409, fol. 82v. The interpolation begins, ‘Ajoutez à Monsieur de Montpensier …’ and ends, ‘Je remets le tout a l'equité de Monseigneur le Cardinal Seraphin, & à sa prudence.’ In his letter to Dupuy, Dec. 29, 1605, de Thou stated more obliquely that censure by Rome would offend ‘ceux de la maison de Bourbon’ (Historiarum, vn, Pt. 1, 11-12; MS.Dupuy 409, fol. 93).

14 Recueil de lettres missives de Henri IV (9 vols.; Paris, 1843-75), VIII, 902.

15 Lettres inidites du roi Henri IV à M. de Béthune, ambassadeur de France à Rome, du 26 Janvier au 28 décembre 1604 (Paris, 1899), p. 51; Kinser, p. 333.

16 Innocenzo del Bufalo to Pietro Aldobrandini, Feb. 10, and Mar. 8, 1604, in B. Barbiche, ed., Correspondence du nonce en France, Innocenzo del Bufalo, évéque de Camerino (1601-1604) (Acta Nuntiaturae Gallicae, rv; Rome and Paris, 1964), pp. 662, 683-684; Bethune to Henry IV, Apr. 6, 1604, Bibl. Nat., MS.fr.3494, 19v; Bethune to Villeroy, Apr. 6, 1604, MS.fr.3497, fol. 90”. (Extracts from these dispatches are published as an appendix to this article.) The delayed reaction from Rome is explained by the fact that Clement VIII had been suffering from gout and had cancelled all audiences; and it was during this interval that de Thou wrote, ‘Sa Majeste m'a defendu jusques icy’ (letter to Dupuy, Feb. 25, 1604, Historiarum, vn, Pt. i, 3).

17 See B. Barbiche, ‘L'influence française a la cour pontificale sous le règne de Henri IV,’ Mélanges a” archéologie et d'histoire, LXXVII (1965), 277-299. To question the king's sincerity in this policy is to enter into the much debated and infinitely subtle question of the quality of Henry IV's faith. The consensus seems to be that he was a pure pragmatist swinging this way and that under the influence of political pressures. I am inclined, however, to agree in general with those historians who see no reason to doubt his sincere devotion to the Church after his final conversion to Catholicism in 1593. (Jesuit scholars especially have taken this view. See, e.g., H. Fouqueray, Histoire de la Cotnpagnie de Jesus en France [5 vols.; Paris, 1910-25], vols, II, III.) It is quite possible that Henry IV was one of those persons who deeply believe that which is most to their advantage to believe.

18 Among the numerous cases in which the relative liberty of the French press interfered with royal policy, I know of no comparable situation. In a monograph, now in preparation, on diplomacy and censorship, I hope to make it clear just how unusual was the treatment accorded de Thou.

19 Historiarum, VII, Pt. I, passim, especially de Thou to Dupuy, Apr. 12, 1606, pp. 15-16.

20 De Thou to Dupuy, Jan. 24, 1604, Historiarum, vn, Pt. 1, 1; Bethune to Villeroy, Apr. 6, 1604 (see Appendix). Approximately 100 passages are indicated in d'Ossat's scribbled notes (MS.Dupuy 409, fols. 70-73).

21 De Thou to Joyeuse, Feb. 1604, Historiarum, VII, Pt. 1, 2-3; de Thou to Dupuy, Feb. 25, and Apr. 9, 1604, ibid., pp. 3-5.

22 Lucian of Samosata, How to Write History, analyzed in B. Reynolds, ‘Shifting Currents in Historical Criticism, Journal of the History of Ideas, xiv (Oct. 1953), 477. On ‘exemplar history,’ see G. H. Nadel, ‘Philosophy of History before Historicism,’ History and Theory, m (1964), 291-315. For an explicit reference to ‘the law of history … as prescribed by Polybius,’ see de Thou to Dupuy, July 21, 1606, Historiarum, vn, Pt. I, 21. Cf. the conclusion of Villeroy's letter to Béthune, quoted above, n. 7.

23 Caracciolo's censure, MS.Dupuy 409, fols. 66-67; cf. Historiarum, vn, Pt. 1, 44-62; Dupuy to de Thou, Jan. 11, Feb. 10, and Apr. 5, 1606, MS.Dupuy 806, fols. 48-51, 26. (The letter of Apr. 5 is incorrectly classified as ‘1605.’)

24 Edict of Master of Sacred Palace, Nov. 9, 1609, MS.Dupuy 409, fol. 68. See also François Savary de Bréves to de Thou, Feb. 18, 1610, MS.Dupuy 812, fols. 134-135.

25 Kinser, pp. 18, 23, 143-144.

26 Among the more recent studies on the subject, both Vivanti, C. (Lotta politka e pace religiosa in Francia fra cinque e seicento [Turin, 1963])Google Scholar and Mastellone, S. (La reggenzadi Maria de’ Medici [Messina and Florence, 1962])Google Scholar tend to treat the Gallicans as propagators of a single doctrine. Nevertheless, a perusal of the diplomatic correspondence of the period, especially the dispatches of the papal nuncios, reveals distinctions made by contemporaries. See also the numerous disparaging remarks on Servin by Pierre de l'Estoile, himself a Gallican.

27 Philippe Canaye, sieur de Fresne, to de Thou, June 3,1604, in Canaye, Lettres et atnbassade (3 vols.; Paris, 1635-36), n, 239-240; Lipsius to de Thou, Nov. 7,1604, Historiamm, VI, Pt. vi, 5; Scaliger to de Thou, Apr. 8, 1605, ibid., pp. 6-7.

28 Kinser argues that many changes were made under duress and against de Thou's principles (pp. 18, 74-78, 127, et passim). On the other hand, J. Ranee, a nineteenthcentury Catholic historian of the affair, stressed de Thou's obstinate refusal to submit to Rome (J.-A. de Thou, son Histoire et ses demeles avec Rome [Paris, 1881], pp. iv-vii, et passim).