French libertinism
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Libertines I call our drunks, bar-flies and impious spirits who have no other God than their stomachs and who are recruited by that damned guild known as the Brotherhood of the bottle. [They] come chomping as young foals, enjoy the benefits of their age, and imagine that God will receive them with grace in their old age, and they are therefore worthy to be called libertines, although we may equally call them atheists." --"The curious doctrine of the would-be wits of our age" (1623) by François Garasse, tr. JWG |
Illustration: Portrait fantaisiste du marquis de Sade (1866) by H. Biberstein
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Libertinism in France starts with precursor François Villon and comes to fruition with Théophile de Viau and Lucilio Vanini.
In the early 17th century, two Jesuit priests, Marin Mersenne and François Garasse start French censorship and French religious suppression.
Most frequently cited is Mersenne's estimate (from Quaestiones celeberrimae in Genesim, 1623) that Paris counted 50,000 atheists or libertines. At a time when the total population of Paris was about 300,000, this is an astonishing one out of six Parisians.
And Garasse's definition of a libertine is also frequently cited (see inset).
References
- Gabriel Naudé, Apologie pour les grands personnages soupçonnés de magie, 1625 et Considerations politiques sur les Coups d'État, 1652
- Gassendi, De vita et moribus Epicuri, 1647.
- La Mothe Le Vayer, Discours (1655); Traités (1662); Dialogues (1669).
- Frédéric Lachèvre
- Antoine Adam
- Les Libertins au 17e siècle. Paris 1964, 1986
- René Pintard
- François Perrens
- Jij goudgepunte lans
See also
- Le Bordel des Muses
- The martyrs of French censorship
- Lucilio Vanini
- Libertine
- French Enlightenment
- Libertine novel
