Compassion’s Edge: Fellow-Feeling and Its Limits in Early Modern France.

Katherine Ibbett explains, our definition of compassion as an emotion with connotations of sympathy and heartfelt concern harks back to the meaning the term began to acquire in the eighteenth century. In the preceding early modern period, roughly from the end of the Wars of Religion through the era of Louis XIV, the conception and practice of compassion were subject to definite limits, limits that are clearly visible in Le Brun’s uneasy figure and which are explored in detail in this illuminating study

Le désignant « Histoire » dans l’Encyclopédie et dans l’Encyclopédie d’Yverdon

Le Système figuré était arbitraire et imparfait, ce que les premiers éditeurs n’ignoraient point, et fut pratiquement oublié dans les commentaires des éditeurs au fur et à mesure que l’Encyclopédie progressait. Il survit cependant dans le système des désignants, qui fonctionnent comme des renvois au tableau des connaissances. Tous les successeurs de l’Encyclopédie retiennent les désignants, les transformant selon leurs propres critères. Grâce à deux bases de données, ARTFL et celle de l’Encyclopédie d’Yverdon, nous pouvons désormais comparer l’emploi des désignants dans ces deux ouvrages. L’examen d’un seul domaine, les désignants combinés d’histoire (sauf histoire naturelle) montre que l’Encyclopédie d’Yverdon, par rapport à son modèle, supprime la plupart de certains désignants (superstition), multiplie le nombre d’articles dans d’autres catégories (religion, biographie), et surtout fait preuve d’une grande créativité. Le nombre de désignants occasionnels et complexes s’agrandit considérablement.The Indicator ‘History’ in the Encyclopédie and the Yverdon Encyclopédie The ‘Système Figuré’ was both arbitrary and imperfect, as the first editors were well aware, and it was practically forgotten in the editors’ commentaries as the Encyclopédie advanced. It survives, however, in the system of subject indicators which act as references to the table of knowledge. All of the work’s successors keep the system of indicators while altering them to fit their own criteria. Thanks to the two data banks of ARTFL and the Yverdon Encyclopédie, we can compare how the indicators are used in the two works. The analysis of a single field concerning the combined indicators for ‘History’ (except ‘Natural History’) shows that the Yverdon Encyclopédie removes most of its predecessor’s use of certain indicators (‘superstition’), increases the number of articles in certain categories (religion, biography) and above all shows great creativity. The number of occasional and complex indicators is considerably increased

Compassion’s Edge: Fellow-Feeling and Its Limits in Early Modern France.

Katherine Ibbett explains, our definition of compassion as an emotion with connotations of sympathy and heartfelt concern harks back to the meaning the term began to acquire in the eighteenth century. In the preceding early modern period, roughly from the end of the Wars of Religion through the era of Louis XIV, the conception and practice of compassion were subject to definite limits, limits that are clearly visible in Le Brun’s uneasy figure and which are explored in detail in this illuminating study

From 'Encyclopédie' to 'Encyclopédie méthodique'

The last of the great Enlightenment encyclopedias, Charles Joseph Panckoucke’s Encyclopédie méthodique was originally conceived as an innovative revision of the Encyclopédie and the Supplément. Arranged in a series of subject-specific dictionaries, it began to appear in 1782 and was completed 50 years later, boasting 203 volumes of text and plates produced by many eminent editors and contributors. Kathleen Hardesty Doig’s book is the first to compare the genealogy of the Méthodique with its predecessors as a means to understanding Panchoucke’s original vision for his work. Through careful examination of each volume of the Méthodique, the author explores for instance: • how Diderot’s materialist, anti-clerical articles were scrupulously preserved; • how new contributions on religious topics, written by a renowned French theologian, provided a counter-balancing apology of Catholicism; • how subjects were augmented or radically transformed, particularly in the sciences where articles reflect groundbreaking research in chemistry and medicine; • how these changes illuminate the editors’ original goal of an encyclopedia designed to present information in an accessible format to specialists and amateurs alike. Introduction 1. Mathematics and physics 2. Medicine, anatomy and chemistry 3. Agriculture and the natural sciences 4. History and geography 5. Theology, philosophy, grammar and literature 6. Law and political economy 7. The military arts 8. The fine arts, architecture and music 9. The mechanical arts 10. Miscellaneous subjects Conclusion List of dictionaries of the Encyclopédie méthodique Bibliography Index ‘This deeply researched work explores the construction of Panckoucke's innovative enterprise. It sheds new light on the emergence and development of the disciplines as well as their respective boundaries and interrelations. The breadth of Kathleen Doig’s scholarship is remarkable.’ Robert J. Morrissey, University of Chicag

Women, Gender and Disease in Eighteenth-Century England and France

Edited by Kathleen Hardesty Doig and Felicia Berger Sturzer. Includes a chapter by College at Brockport faculty member Morag Martin: \u27Augustine Debaralle, insensée, folle, charlatane, et enfin tout ce qu\u27il vous plaira\u27: A Female Healer\u27s Struggle for Medical Recognition in Napoleonic France. Based on encyclopedias, medical journals, historical, and literary sources, this collection of interdisciplinary essays focuses on the intersection of women, gender, and disease in England and France. Diverse critical perspectives highlight contributions women made to the scientific and medical communities of the eighteenth century. In spite of obstacles encountered in spaces dominated by men, women became midwives, and wrote self-help manuals on women\u27s health, hygiene, and domestic economy. Excluded from universities, they nevertheless contributed significantly to such fields as anatomy, botany, medicine, and public health. Enlightenment perspectives on the nature of the female body, childbirth, diseases specific to women, gender, sex, masculinity and femininity, adolescence, and sexual differentiation inform close readings of English and French literary texts. Treatises by Montpellier vitalists influenced intellectuals and physicians such as Nicolas Chambon, Pierre Cabanis, Jacques-Louis Moreau de la Sarthe, Jules-Joseph Virey, and Theophile de Bordeu. They impacted the exchange of letters and production of literary works by Julie de Lespinasse, Francoise de Graffigny, Nicolas Chamfort, Mary Astell, Frances Burney, Lawrence Sterne, Eliza Haywood, and Daniel Defoe. In our post-modern era, these essays raise important questions regarding women as subjects, objects, and readers of the philosophical, medical, and historical discourses that framed the project of enlightenment.https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/bookshelf/1356/thumbnail.jp