The French Renaissance: Medieval Tradition and Italian Influnce in Shaping the Renaissance inFrance by H. Gaston HallReview by: Lauro MartinesThe American Historical Review, Vol. 76, No. 5 (Dec., 1971), pp. 1530-1531Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1870537 .

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15 ,30 Reviews of Books

nearly every aspect of Franco-Burgundian rela- tions in Louis's reign: part i of his second volume, under notice here, discusses these rela- tions in the years 1472-74, together with Louis xi's relations with the Swiss between 1469 and

1475- Neither of these books provides that detailed,

well-documented, scholarly history of France during Louis xi's reign that is so badly needed. Mesmerized by the alleged vagaries of Louis's character and his supposed diplomatic skill and political vision, writers interested in the period have tended to turn to biographies, more or less popular, of the king. Kendall has only done again what was done in 1927 by Pierre Cham- pion. In some respects his book is less interest- ing and original than D. B. Wyndham Lewis's King Spider, published in 1930, whidc finds no mention in his bibliography. Bittmann, on the other hand, has compiled a massive histori- ographical work that perforce ignores many of the most important problems of French history under Louis xi. But this work, which is far from complete, will remain an essential tool for serious historians long after Kendall's Louis XI has been forgotten and replaced. Meanwlhile, the general public will read Kendall and con- tinue to subscribe to the version of Louis xi as a patriotic, crafty, unscrupulous, and bril- liantly successful tyrant and probably, ignoring Bittmann as Kendall does (apart from some petulant remarks in an appendix), continue to accept Commynes as a writer striving to be truthful.

RICHARD VAUGHAN

University of Hull

FRANCO SIMONE. The French Renaissance: Medie- val Tradition and Italian Influence in Shaping the Renaissance in France. Translated from the Italian by H. GASTON HALL. [London:] Mac- millan; distrib. by St. Martin's Press, New York. 1969. Pp. 335- $11.50.

Franco Simone first published this book in Italy in 1961. Treating the period from about 1300 to

155o, lhe sets out to update our views concerning the origins and direction of the French Renais- sance. His strength lies in the analysis of literary influences and the nailing down of traditions. In this study he puts his scholarship at the service of historiography with mixed results.

The following are his main points. Now that the revolt against the "Romantic" views of Michelet and Burckhardt can be more coolly assessed, we have come to appreciate that the French Renaissance was distinctive, although it reflected general and local traditions (introduc- tion). Stimuli provided by the Avignonese pa- pacy helped to rekindle native traditions in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; the effects of outside influences, mostly Italian, may thus be seen to have been more modest (ch. i). From the late fourteenth century French scholars and literati became sorely sensitive to Italian leader- ship, real or suspected, in the cultivation of eloquence and the revival of classical letters, but here again native differences swiftly emerged: Italian humanists were more addicted to literary style and the delights thereof (or at least were thought to be so), whereas French humanists, following a more traditional track, revealed deeper moral and theological concerns (ch. 2).

A strong tradition of scholarship long held that the French fifteenth century exhibited little fresh interest in the pursuit of classical studies. This view is invalid; throughout the course of the century, from Clamanges and Montreuil to Fichet and Gaguin, imposing figures came forth to attest to the vitality of French literary culture (ch. 3). The productive force of this intellectual tradition was vigorously demon- strated in the early sixteenth century, when, in the movement for Church reform, French hu- manists won the vanguard by arguing that the new weapon of the miles Christi had to be learning (cll. 4). The native thrust of French letters was also manifested in the reception accorded to Petrarch's writings even in the six- teenth century: the French emphasis was un- mistakably moral (ch. 5). Finally, an appended review-discussion of Paul Renucci's L'Aventure de l'Humanisme europe'en au moyen age (1953)

is used to draw attention to the scholarly prepa- ration of the best of the fourteenth-century hu- manists, the better to highlight the distinctive nature of the Renaissance, in contrast to the renaissances of the twelfth or earlier centuries.

Some of Simone's points are certainly worth making, particularly those of the second and fourth chapters. But his arguments are not well served by a plaintive tone, an insufficiency of

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Medieval 1531

evidence with respect to the claims, andI a mediocre translation.

LAURO MARTINES

University of California, Los Angeles

WILLIAM M. BOWSKY. The Finance of the Com- mune of Siena, I287-I355. New York: Oxford University Press. 1970. Pp. xix, 379, 3 maps. $I6.oo.

The history of public finance in late medieval and Renaissance Italy remains largely unwrit- ten. William M. Bowsky's new book is there- fore a welcome beginning and should serve to stimulate further work in a neglected field, indeed, a field that historians who generalize about government, society, economy, and civic and religious ideology ignore at their peril.

Bowsky adheres rigorously to the plan he has set himself: to analyze the machinery of Siena's fiscal administration and the variety of govern- mental expenses and sources of revenue during the buon governo of the nine governors and defenders of the Commune of Siena. He lists numerous minor taxes, fines, and fees; describes the dazio (direct tax) and the many gabelles in detail; assesses the significance of forced and voluntary loans and the "pawning" of public properties; and evaluates the tax burden borne by the contado. He devotes less space to ex- penses in these years, but concludes that Siena, like most city-states, had a rapidly expanding budget, a good part of which was devoted to military expenditure. He ends with a chapter comparing Sienese public finance to that of other communes about which something has been written. The text is followed by fourteen appendixes of varying utility, in which docu- ments are reproduced and chronologies com- piled, and three fold-out maps, clearly intended to be no more than broadly illustrative, since two are dated 1599 and the third 1723. There is no bibliography.

Bowsky has brought together an impressive array of data, almost wholly from the archives, which he knows and uses well. His descriptions and conclusions will doubtless prove valuable guidelines for students of other Italian com- munes. But out of his careful factual analysis tantalizing questions arise. Most obvious are those involving the civic values of the Sienese-

the culture, if you will, of public finanice. Other historians have noted a strong statist tenclency in Florentine fiscal practices and institutions in the course of the fourteenth century, accom- panied by a major transformation of the citi- zens' attitudes toward their government and their role as political men. Bowsky withholds comment on what happened at Siena. He also witlhholds comment on such interest- ing questions as why Sienese authorities, as quoted in a tax order of 1324, believed the contado communities and the contadini should be treated "benignly" (benigne tractare) for tax purposes. Were the reasons political, eco- nomic, humanitarian, or ideological? We don't know. But perhaps I expect too much of the first modern book of quality on Siena in the late Middle Ages. A second book, whiclh I hope will be of wider scope, is in preparation.

DAVID L. HICKS

New York University

BAYARD DODGE, editor and translator. The Fih- rist of al-Nadim: A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture. In two volumes. (Records of Civilization: Sources and Studies, Number 83.) New York: Columbia University Press. 1970. Pp. xxxiv, 570; 572-1149. $40.00 the set.

In A.D. 987 or 988 the Baghdad bookseller Abu al-Faraj Muhammad al-Nadim completed his Fihrist or catalog. It may have been begun as simply that, a catalog for the patrons of his father's and his own bookstore. But as his own reading and interests grew the catalog was trans- formed into a guide and, in the end, into an encyclopedia not merely of the contents of one tenth-century Baghdad bookstore or, inideed, of the wide-ranging literary interests of one man, but of an entire civilization.

"This is a catalogue of the books of all peoples, Arab and foreign, existing in the language of the Arabs, as well as their scripts, dealing with various sciences, with accounts of those who composed them and the categories of their authors, together with their relationships and records of their times of birth, lengths of life, and times of death, anid also of the localities of their cities, their virtues anid faults, from the beginnings of the formation of each science to this our own time, which is the year three hundred and seventy-seven after the Hijrah."

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