PIERRE BOAISTUAU - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

Juliet. 29 A different, but closely related direction of study, examined the translation of
Histoires tragiques from Italian into French, such as Frank S. Hook’s The French
Bandello and Rene Sturel’s Bandello en France au XVIe siècle. 30 Lionel Sozzi’s La
nouvelle française à la Renaissance identified Boaistuau’s work within the context of
the nouvelle genre in France, and paved the way for later studies which examined the
expansion of Histoires tragiques by François de Belleforest and other literati from
different perspectives. 31
One of these was the close relationship between literature and law, and in particular
the critical position of literati regarding the contemporary legal system and practices.
Probably the first scholars who investigated this notion in relation to Boaistuau (and
Belleforest) were Thierry Pech and Ullrich Langer in their respective articles ‘Foy et
secret: le marriage clandestin entre droit et literature dans les Histoires tragiques de
Boaistuau à Camus’ and ‘The Renaissance Novella as Justice’. 32 Similarly, Claire J.
Cordell in her recent PhD dissertation examined works that show the sequence and
modification of the law-transgression-punishment model through their crime stories,
and at the same time the evolution of the histoire tragique genre in France. 33
Boaistuau’s work is a frequent point of reference throughout her analysis. Indirectly
linked to this notion of crime and punishment is the understanding of Histoires
29
Sohmer, S. T., Shakespeare for the Wiser Sort (Manchester, 2007).
30
Hook, F. S., The French Bandello (Columbia, 1948); Sturel, R., Bandello en France au XVIe siècle
(Geneva, 1970).
31
Sozzi, L., La nouvelle française à la Renaissance, vol. 2: L'‘Histoire tragique’ dans la deuxième
moitié du seizième siècle (Torino, 1977). Also see Simonin, M., ‘François de Belleforest et l’histoire
tragique en France au XVIe siècle’ (thèse, Paris XII, 1984). I would like to thank Dr. Hervé Thomas
Campangne for bringing this study to my attention.
32
Pech, T., ‘Foy et secret: le mariage clandestin entre droit et littérature dans les Histoires tragiques de
Boaistuau à Camus’, Dix-Septième Siècle, vol. 48, no. 4, (1996), pp. 891-909; Langer, U., ‘The
Renaissance Novella as Justice’, Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 2 (1999), pp. 311-341. See also
Pech, T., Conter le crime: droit et litterature sous la Contre-Rèforme: les histoires tragiques (1559-
1664) (Paris, 2000).
33
Cordell, C. J., ‘La transgression dans l’histoire tragique du XVIe siècle’ (PhD dissert., University of
Johannesburg, 2005).
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