The Gift in Sixteenth-century FranceOxford University Press, 2000 - 298 pages In this gem of a book, Natalie Zemon Davis explores the role of gifts in Renaissance France. From the King's bounty to the beggar's alms, from the lavish feasting and display of civic dignitaries to the humble tokens exchanged by peasant bride and groom, the giving and receiving of gifts -then, as now - held tremendous significance.Full of vignettes which illuminate life and belief in the sixteenth century, The Gift examines how the giving of presents functioned at all levels of society. As they do today, people evaluated gifts all the time - their own gifts and those of others - deciding what was at stake, and judgingwhether it was a good gift, a bad gift, or even a gift at all. Sometimes gifts brought peace and amity; sometimes they led to bitter quarrels and accusations of corruption. The Reformation and its liturgy were in part a quarrel between Protestants and Catholics about whether humans can give giftsto god, and what gifts we owe each other.Natalie Zemon Davis here deploys her own gift for the retelling of sometimes poignant personal stories to offer both telling cultural detail and a true historical perspective on the turbulent era of the Renaissance and Reformation. |
Table des matières
The Spirit of Gifts | 17 |
Gift Practices and Public Times | 36 |
Gift Practices and Social Meanings | 56 |
Gifts and Sales | 96 |
Gifts Gone Wrong | 110 |
Gifts Bribes and Kings | 142 |
Gifts and the Gods | 167 |
Conclusion | 209 |
Notes | 224 |
Illustration Credits | 281 |
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Expressions et termes fréquents
alms Antoine banquets Bible Bouchet Calvin Cartier Catholic century chap charity Christian church Claude Comptes contract court daughter donation donor Emblemes Erasmus Essais father favor feast François Ier François Rabelais French friendship Geneva Georgette de Montenay gift economies gift exchange gift mode gift register gift relations Gilles give Gouberville Gouberville's gratitude gratuitous Guillaume Bouchet Guillaume Budé Guillaume Rouillé honor human Hurtebye Jacques Jean Jean Bouchet Jeanne d'Albret Journal judge king king's Landelle Léry liberality Librairie Droz Lyon Marcel Mauss Marie de Gournay marriage mass master medieval Michel de Montaigne Montaigne Montenay Natalie Zemon Davis neighbors noble Noël du Fail obligation Oeuvres offered one's Pantagruel Panurge Paris Parlement payment peasant physicians Pierre poor presents priest quarrels Rabelais received recipient reciprocity Renaissance royal sacrifice Saint seigneur sixteenth sixteenth-century France social tion trans Trémoille University Press Valognes village vols wife wine women