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Preda, Alessandra

Rabelais e la chimera : la biblioteca di Saint-Victor ‘au plus haut sens

2022 - Leo S. Olschki

P. 277-296

  • The essay comments on Saint Victor's library, described by Rabelais via an improbable catalogue, in Chapter VII of Pantagruel. The analysis of the repertoyre's titles - which Rabelais restores in macaronic language - shows the perfect ‘deconstruction' of privileged expressions of scholastic institutions, while highlighting the creativity of a critical procedure also aimed at renewal. Nothing is removed, but changes form; Rabelais's repertoyre is not just an anti-library, against scholastic culture, but also a library ‘au plus haut sens'. The essay highlights a sort of permeable library aimed at representing the transition to modernity that 16th century humanism experienced, critically.
  • The surplus of titles guarantees the polysemy of the res literaria that the library intends to preserve; at the same time, it shows its most problematic character, as a locus called to contain, even if not in a linear way, an abnormal cultural heritage. The ideal library - multilingual, polysemic, and inclusive - is, perhaps, a chimera. [Publisher's text]

Forma parte de

Rinascimento : seconda serie, LXII, 2022