French Literature Reviews - 2026
V. Giacomotto-Charra, La Forme des choses. Poésie et savoirs dans La Sepmaine de Du Bartas
Poetry and Poetics
***
Violaine Giacomotto-Charra, La forme des choses. Poésie et savoirs dans La Sepmaine de Du Bartas
Toulouse: Presses universitaires du Mirail, coll. "Cribles XVIe - XVIIIe siècles ", 2009.
EAN 9782810700486
Price 33EUR
320 p.
Publisher's overview
La Sepmaine ou creation du monde, an expansive rewriting of the opening verses of Genesis, is a Renaissance text that defies easy classification. Generally regarded as a work of scientific poetry, it is deeply rooted in scholarly knowledge of the universe, yet aims to reshape that knowledge in order to generate both its own world and its own definition of writing, through a "new and eccentric method" championed by the author. In light of sixteenth-century natural philosophy, Violaine Giacomotto-Charra demonstrates how Du Bartas reconstructs and appropriates scientific material. She invites us to analyze La Sepmaine through the lens of composition and writing: indeed, the presence of the Word at the heart of both the creation of the world and the creation of the poem serves as the focal point for all questions concerning the text. Mirroring the divine act of Creation, poetic speech in turn brings a cosmos into being through a progressive alignment of discourse and scholarly form.
Violaine GIACOMOTTO-CHARRA is Associate Professor of 16th-century Language and Literature at the University of Bordeaux III. Her current research focuses on the reception, dissemination, and writing of knowledge related to natural philosophy during the Renaissance (scholarly texts from the university world, popularizing discourse, and literary forms such as dialogue and poetry).
Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas occupies a distinctive place in early modern French poetry, notably through expansive biblical epics that engage deeply with the encyclopedic learning of their time. The intersection of poetic composition and natural philosophy was a central concern for sixteenth-century writers who sought to reconcile verse forms with the transmission of scholarly information about the cosmos. Within this intellectual tradition, biblical paraphrase often served as a vehicle for broader reflections on the order of the universe and the authority of language, connecting theological themes with contemporary investigations into the structure of the physical world.
Readers interested in Renaissance poetry, the history of scientific knowledge, or early modern hermeneutics may find this study relevant. Violaine Giacomotto-Charra demonstrates how Du Bartas reconstructs and appropriates scientific material in La Sepmaine. The study invites us to analyze the text through the lens of composition and writing, focusing on the presence of the Word at the heart of both the creation of the world and the creation of the poem.