"Ung corbeau et ung coulon": Jean Lemaire de Belges's politics of religion
Presentation
Overview
Overview
Description
In the Traicté de la différence des schismes et des conciles de l'église (1511), Jean Lemaire de Belges demonstrates the import of councils as a way to restabilize a Christianity plagued by schisms. In the Traicté, Pope Jules II is resolutely "ung corbeau" (crow). The "coulon" (dove), however, is a Muslim leader, Shah Ismail of Persia, or Sophy. I focus on Lemaire's bold staging of the "good" Muslim and the rhétoriqueur's additions to Giovanni Rota's La vita del Sophi. Turning to Lemaire's politics, I show how his initial antithesis gradually makes room for a more complex, though still biased, political paysage where Mamluks cajole Christians and Venetians compete with the French. However, in Lemaire's geopolitical world of the Mediterranean, other powerful binary structures resurface prompted by allusions to prophecies and other religious traditions like the crusade. Ultimately therefore, Lemaire's stated interests lay squarely with Christianity and in opposition to Islam.
In the Traicté de la différence des schismes et des conciles de l'église (1511), Jean Lemaire de Belges demonstrates the import of councils as a way to restabilize a Christianity plagued by schisms. In the Traicté, Pope Jules II is resolutely "ung corbeau" (crow). The "coulon" (dove), however, is a Muslim leader, Shah Ismail of Persia, or Sophy. I focus on Lemaire's bold staging of the "good" Muslim and the rhétoriqueur's additions to Giovanni Rota's La vita del Sophi. Turning to Lemaire's politics, I show how his initial antithesis gradually makes room for a more complex, though still biased, political paysage where Mamluks cajole Christians and Venetians compete with the French. However, in Lemaire's geopolitical world of the Mediterranean, other powerful binary structures resurface prompted by allusions to prophecies and other religious traditions like the crusade. Ultimately therefore, Lemaire's stated interests lay squarely with Christianity and in opposition to Islam.
