Money and sovereignty in early modern France

Journal of the History of Ideas

Volumn 62, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 59-78

  Parsons, Jotham ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0041903687     PISSN: 00225037     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3654175     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. Cassiodorus, Variae, VII.32.
2. See, e.g., François Hotman, De re numaria populi Romani liber (s. 1., 1585), 30; or, slightly later, François le Begue, Traicté et advis sur les desordres des monnoyes & diversité de moyens d'y remedier (Paris, 1600), 16: "Omnino debet integritas quœri (dit Cassiodore) ubi vultus regius imprimitur. Et comme dit cest Empereur. Quidnam erit tutum si in noster peccetur effigie?"
3. See, e.g., François Hotman, De re numaria populi Romani liber (s. 1., 1585), 30; or, slightly later, François le Begue, Traicté et advis sur les desordres des monnoyes & diversité de moyens d'y remedier (Paris, 1600), 16: "Omnino debet integritas quœri (dit Cassiodore) ubi vultus regius imprimitur. Et comme dit cest Empereur. Quidnam erit tutum si in noster peccetur effigie?"
4. "Recueil concernant les monnaies," in Bibliothèque Nationale Ms. Fr. 18499, fols. 1-85.
5. See Claude Nicolet, "Prix, monnaies, échanges: les variations des prix et la 'théorie quantitative de la monnaie' à Rome, de Cicéron à Pline l'Ancien," Annales ESC, 26 (1971), 1203-7.
6. Guillaume Budé, De Asse et partibus ejus libri quinque (Paris, 1514).
7. See Eckhard Budruss, "Erudition classique et théorie quantitative de la monnaie dans la 'Réponse à Malestroit' de Jean Bodin," Journal des savants (1987), 89-125.
8. See Joseph Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis (New York, 1954), 311-17, and Thomas Guggenheim, Preclassical Monetary Theories (London, 1989), 19-36.
9. See Joseph Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis (New York, 1954), 311-17, and Thomas Guggenheim, Preclassical Monetary Theories (London, 1989), 19-36.
10. See, e.g., Charles Cole, French Mercantilist Doctrines before Colbert (New York, 1931); Pierre Deyon, Le mercantilisme (Paris, 1969), 18-31 and 52-54; Eli Hecksher. Mercantilism (London, 1935), and Lars Magnusson, Mercantilism: The Shaping of an Economic Language (London, 1994), 176-87. Histories of "political economy" center on a somewhat bizarre cult of the obscure theorist Antoine de Montchrétien: see Henry C. Clark, "Commerce, the Virtues, and the Public Sphere in Early-Seventeenth-Century France," French Historical Studies, 21 (1998), 415-40.
11. See, e.g., Charles Cole, French Mercantilist Doctrines before Colbert (New York, 1931); Pierre Deyon, Le mercantilisme (Paris, 1969), 18-31 and 52-54; Eli Hecksher. Mercantilism (London, 1935), and Lars Magnusson, Mercantilism: The Shaping of an Economic Language (London, 1994), 176-87. Histories of "political economy" center on a somewhat bizarre cult of the obscure theorist Antoine de Montchrétien: see Henry C. Clark, "Commerce, the Virtues, and the Public Sphere in Early-Seventeenth-Century France," French Historical Studies, 21 (1998), 415-40.
12. See, e.g., Charles Cole, French Mercantilist Doctrines before Colbert (New York, 1931); Pierre Deyon, Le mercantilisme (Paris, 1969), 18-31 and 52-54; Eli Hecksher. Mercantilism (London, 1935), and Lars Magnusson, Mercantilism: The Shaping of an Economic Language (London, 1994), 176-87. Histories of "political economy" center on a somewhat bizarre cult of the obscure theorist Antoine de Montchrétien: see Henry C. Clark, "Commerce, the Virtues, and the Public Sphere in Early-Seventeenth-Century France," French Historical Studies, 21 (1998), 415-40.
13. See, e.g., Charles Cole, French Mercantilist Doctrines before Colbert (New York, 1931); Pierre Deyon, Le mercantilisme (Paris, 1969), 18-31 and 52-54; Eli Hecksher. Mercantilism (London, 1935), and Lars Magnusson, Mercantilism: The Shaping of an Economic Language (London, 1994), 176-87. Histories of "political economy" center on a somewhat bizarre cult of the obscure theorist Antoine de Montchrétien: see Henry C. Clark, "Commerce, the Virtues, and the Public Sphere in Early-Seventeenth-Century France," French Historical Studies, 21 (1998), 415-40.
14. See, e.g., Charles Cole, French Mercantilist Doctrines before Colbert (New York, 1931); Pierre Deyon, Le mercantilisme (Paris, 1969), 18-31 and 52-54; Eli Hecksher. Mercantilism (London, 1935), and Lars Magnusson, Mercantilism: The Shaping of an Economic Language (London, 1994), 176-87. Histories of "political economy" center on a somewhat bizarre cult of the obscure theorist Antoine de Montchrétien: see Henry C. Clark, "Commerce, the Virtues, and the Public Sphere in Early-Seventeenth-Century France," French Historical Studies, 21 (1998), 415-40.
15. Not coincidentally, the chronological limits of this discourse are almost exactly those of the "silver phase" in French monetary history identified by Frank C. Spooner, L'Economie mondiale et les frappes monétaires en France, 1493-1680 (Paris, 1956).
16. See Paul Harsin, Les doctrines monétaires et financières en France du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1928), 1-68; Henri Hauser, introduction to La response de Jean Bodin à M. de Malestroict, 1568 (Paris, 1932); Germain Martin, "La monnaie et le crédit privé en France aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles; les faits et les théories (1550-1664)," Revue d'histoire des doctrines économiques et sociales, 2 (1909), 1-40; and Emil Sczlechter, "La monnaie en France au XVI siècle," pt. 1, Revue historique du droit français et étranger, 19 (1951), 501-21.
17. See Paul Harsin, Les doctrines monétaires et financières en France du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1928), 1-68; Henri Hauser, introduction to La response de Jean Bodin à M. de Malestroict, 1568 (Paris, 1932); Germain Martin, "La monnaie et le crédit privé en France aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles; les faits et les théories (1550-1664)," Revue d'histoire des doctrines économiques et sociales, 2 (1909), 1-40; and Emil Sczlechter, "La monnaie en France au XVI siècle," pt. 1, Revue historique du droit français et étranger, 19 (1951), 501-21.
18. See Paul Harsin, Les doctrines monétaires et financières en France du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1928), 1-68; Henri Hauser, introduction to La response de Jean Bodin à M. de Malestroict, 1568 (Paris, 1932); Germain Martin, "La monnaie et le crédit privé en France aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles; les faits et les théories (1550-1664)," Revue d'histoire des doctrines économiques et sociales, 2 (1909), 1-40; and Emil Sczlechter, "La monnaie en France au XVI siècle," pt. 1, Revue historique du droit français et étranger, 19 (1951), 501-21.
19. See Paul Harsin, Les doctrines monétaires et financières en France du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1928), 1-68; Henri Hauser, introduction to La response de Jean Bodin à M. de Malestroict, 1568 (Paris, 1932); Germain Martin, "La monnaie et le crédit privé en France aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles; les faits et les théories (1550-1664)," Revue d'histoire des doctrines économiques et sociales, 2 (1909), 1-40; and Emil Sczlechter, "La monnaie en France au XVI siècle," pt. 1, Revue historique du droit français et étranger, 19 (1951), 501-21.
20. In France this unit was the livre tournois, except for the period from 1577-1602, when it was the écu.
21. Hotman, De re numari, 18-19: "numi potestatem, non tam ex corpore sive materia ... neque tam ex numero, vel pondere ... quam ex auctoritate publica, & pretio ei publica lege imposito, censeri."
22. Bodin, Les six livres de la république (Paris, 1583), 242.
23. Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, tr. David Ross et al. (Oxford, 1980), 119.
24. Aristotle, The Politics, ed. Stephen Everson (Cambridge, 1988), 13.
25. Bodin, Response, 52-53 and note. This is an edition of the BN's copy of the 1568 edition (Rés. Lf 77.20B), with marginalia.
26. See, e.g., Bodin, République, 223: "Sous ceste mesme puissance de donner & casser la loy sont compris tous les autres droits & marques de souveraineté: de sorte qu'à parler proprement on peut dire qu'il n'y a que ceste seule marque de souveraineté."
27. r.
28. r.
29. See Louis Monnier, "Causes et conséquences économiques de la Saint-Barthélémy: Etude sur le système monétaire en France de 1568 à 1578," in Actes du colloque l'Amiral de Coligny et son temps (Paris, 24-28 octobre 1972) (Paris, 1974), 651-701. Particularly in the mid-1570s, the crisis of the money account reached the proportions of a true hyperinflation.
30. v. Jacques Colas cites this passage repeatedly in the treatise discussed below.
31. From the minutes of a meeting of the Paris Marchands de grosserie, draps d'or et d'argent et de soye, joyaillerie, et mercerie, AN Minutier Central, Etude VIII, notaire Hauldesens, 323, 30 July 1572, quoted in Denis Richet, "Le cours officiel des monnaies étrangères circulant en France au XVIe siècle," Revue historique, 225 (1961), 373.
32. From the minutes of a meeting of the Paris Marchands de grosserie, draps d'or et d'argent et de soye, joyaillerie, et mercerie, AN Minutier Central, Etude VIII, notaire Hauldesens, 323, 30 July 1572, quoted in Denis Richet, "Le cours officiel des monnaies étrangères circulant en France au XVIe siècle," Revue historique, 225 (1961), 373.
33. See Richet, "Le cours officiel," 367-72.
34. Gabriel Biel, Treatise on the Power and Utility of Money, tr. Robert Belle Burke (Philadelphia, 1930), 23. The work was reprinted fairly frequently in the Renaissance: e.g., Tractatus de potestate & utilitate monetarum (Oppenheim, 1516); and in Marquard Freher (ed.), De Re monetaria veterum Romanorum et hodierni apud Germanos Imperii, libri duo (Lubduni, 1605).
35. Gabriel Biel, Treatise on the Power and Utility of Money, tr. Robert Belle Burke (Philadelphia, 1930), 23. The work was reprinted fairly frequently in the Renaissance: e.g., Tractatus de potestate & utilitate monetarum (Oppenheim, 1516); and in Marquard Freher (ed.), De Re monetaria veterum Romanorum et hodierni apud Germanos Imperii, libri duo (Lubduni, 1605).
36. Gabriel Biel, Treatise on the Power and Utility of Money, tr. Robert Belle Burke (Philadelphia, 1930), 23. The work was reprinted fairly frequently in the Renaissance: e.g., Tractatus de potestate & utilitate monetarum (Oppenheim, 1516); and in Marquard Freher (ed.), De Re monetaria veterum Romanorum et hodierni apud Germanos Imperii, libri duo (Lubduni, 1605).
37. The De Moneta of Nicholas Oresme, ed. Charles Johnson (London, 1956), 10.
38. "Secret des monnoyes par Jaques Colas contrerolleur dicelles es monnoyes de Paris," in BN n. a. fr. 5064, fols. 235-41.
39. Colas was later made a general in the Cour des monnaies: see Janet Girvan Espiner-Scott, Claude Fauchet: sa vie, son oeuvre (Paris, 1938), 37 and 51-52.
40. v. This statement in itself was classical in its form and authority, being a near-quotation of Cicero, Paradoxa stoicorum, proœmium: "Quæ quia sunt admirabilia contraque opinionem omnium - ab ipsis παράδοξα appellantur."
41. This was the basic evil against which Oresme and his followers wrote. More recently, Thomas More had devoted a sizable section of the first book of Utopia to the immorality of manipulating the currency.
42. r.
43. "Memoires sur le faict des monnoyes," in Luigi Einaudi (ed.), Paradoxes inédits du Seigneur de Malestroit touchant les monnoyes (Turin, 1937), 99-130. Malestroict's Memoir is in large part merely a restatement of Colas's treatises: "j'ay mis peine de voir les registres anciens & nouveauls estant tant en la chambre des comptes que Cour des monnoyes, dont j'ay faict plusieurs grands extraicts de ce qui concerne le faict des dittes monnoyes, que j'ay avec l'aide du controlleur des monnoyes de Paris qui est icy present exactement supputez," 106.
44. r.
45. See Allen G. Debus, "Mathematics and Nature in the Chemical Texts of the Renaissance," Ambix, 15 (1968), 1-28.
46. r.
47. r. There is clearly some continuity between Colas's title and the far less technical "secrets of nature" so commonly discussed at the time - see William Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture (Princeton, 1994).
48. He refers to Hipparchus, 231D, apparently quoting Ficino's translation from memory.
49. Bodin, Response, 46. In the 1578 edition and his Republic VI.3 (which transmitted the essentials of the Response to a broad audience) Bodin added the stipulation that gold coins should weigh the same as silver ones, to increase the transparency of the system.
50. Hauser, in his introduction to Bodin, Response, liv-lxxvii, gives a fairly complete account of its fortuna, though he tends to overstate its importance in later works; see also Bernardo Davanzati, "Delle monete," translated by John Toland during the Recoinage debate as A Discourse upon Coins (London, 1696).
51. Hauser, in his introduction to Bodin, Response, liv-lxxvii, gives a fairly complete account of its fortuna, though he tends to overstate its importance in later works; see also Bernardo Davanzati, "Delle monete," translated by John Toland during the Recoinage debate as A Discourse upon Coins (London, 1696).
52. François le Blanc, Traité historique des monnoyes de France (Paris, 1703), 343, 344-45.
53. Le Blanc, Traité, 345.
54. See the preamble to the second edict, in le Blanc, Traité, 351-53.
55. c lxxvii pour reduire toutes comptes en france en especes descuz ou valleur diceulx par proportions correspondantes en supprimant le compte de livre comme incertaine & imaginaire qui seroit a vray dire tacitement remetre la forte monnoye," BN Ms. fr. 18503, fols. 113-15 (referred to in the title of Garrault's work, below).
56. v. Garrault was a member of the Cour des monnaies.
57. Le Blanc, Traité, 343 (from the remonstrance of the Cour des monnaies).
58. r.
59. "Remonstrances tres humbles au Roy par les gens tenans sa Cour des monnoyes sur la plainte ... de la rarite & necessite de monnoyes de billon," BN Ms. Fr. 18504, fol. 47.
60. r. This is followed by a calculation of the bimetallic ration in every royal ordinance since 1540. Later in the same manuscript (fols. 103-4) is a "Memoire faict par le commandement du roy a la cause qui faict encherir lor et largent par dessus son ordinance, et du moien dempescher ledict encherissment," which shares some text with the maxims and is doubtless also by Colas.
61. This group includes Coquerel, Chabans, Pierre-Antoine de Rascas de Bagarris, Montchrétien and to some extent the avocat du Roi in the Cour des monnaies, François le Begue (who nevertheless supported his corps in the dispute of 1609).
62. Including Guillaume de Herail, Poullain, du Plessis, Guillaume le Clerc (Premier président in the Cour des monnaies for most of this period), and Denys Godefroy (though Poullain strongly disagreed with much of what he said).
63. It now survives only in a single manuscript copy: BN Ms. Fr. 18503, fols. 177-180, "Projet d'Edict du Roy Henry le Grand l'an 1609 au mois d'Aoust touchant les monnoyes." Both the Cour des monnaies and the Parlement of Paris seem to have strongly opposed the edict, largely on the grounds that it substantially increased the seigneurage, the tax on metal being coined.
64. [Henri Poullain], Refutation de l'erreur cy devant publié en un livret imprimé. Que le Traite proposee par l'autheur d'iceluy n'excede se qui se souloit lever, & se leve de present ... (s. 1., 1609), 14 (responding to Nicolas de Coquerel); and Traictés des monnoyes, pour un Conseiller d'Estat (Paris, 1621), 81-82 (responding to Denys Godefroy). No work by Colas had ever been printed, so there must have been a strong manuscript tradition among students of monetary affairs. A copy of Colas's treatise by the erudite jurist Pierre Pithou seems to have survived: see L. de Rosanbo, "Pierre Pithou érudit," Revue du XVIe siècle, 16 (1929), 311-12.
65. [Henri Poullain], Refutation de l'erreur cy devant publié en un livret imprimé. Que le Traite proposee par l'autheur d'iceluy n'excede se qui se souloit lever, & se leve de present ... (s. 1., 1609), 14 (responding to Nicolas de Coquerel); and Traictés des monnoyes, pour un Conseiller d'Estat (Paris, 1621), 81-82 (responding to Denys Godefroy). No work by Colas had ever been printed, so there must have been a strong manuscript tradition among students of monetary affairs. A copy of Colas's treatise by the erudite jurist Pierre Pithou seems to have survived: see L. de Rosanbo, "Pierre Pithou érudit," Revue du XVIe siècle, 16 (1929), 311-12.
66. [Henri Poullain], Refutation de l'erreur cy devant publié en un livret imprimé. Que le Traite proposee par l'autheur d'iceluy n'excede se qui se souloit lever, & se leve de present ... (s. 1., 1609), 14 (responding to Nicolas de Coquerel); and Traictés des monnoyes, pour un Conseiller d'Estat (Paris, 1621), 81-82 (responding to Denys Godefroy). No work by Colas had ever been printed, so there must have been a strong manuscript tradition among students of monetary affairs. A copy of Colas's treatise by the erudite jurist Pierre Pithou seems to have survived: see L. de Rosanbo, "Pierre Pithou érudit," Revue du XVIe siècle, 16 (1929), 311-12.
67. Le Begue, Traicté, 5.
68. In addition to the works discussed above one should note two further works by Garrault. The first was Les Recherches des monnoyes, poix et maniere de nombrer, des premieres & plus renommees nations du monde ... livres trois (Paris, 1576). This work combined an emphasis on number and scripture with erudite history and a claim of personal, experiential expertise. It also featured a liminal poem by Postel, defending the duodecimal ratio on numerological grounds. The title was clearly meant to echo that of Etienne Pasquier's Recherches de la France. The second, a Paradoxe sur lefaict des monnoyes (Paris, 1578), was an emulation of Malestroict.
69. In addition to the works discussed above one should note two further works by Garrault. The first was Les Recherches des monnoyes, poix et maniere de nombrer, des premieres & plus renommees nations du monde ... livres trois (Paris, 1576). This work combined an emphasis on number and scripture with erudite history and a claim of personal, experiential expertise. It also featured a liminal poem by Postel, defending the duodecimal ratio on numerological grounds. The title was clearly meant to echo that of Etienne Pasquier's Recherches de la France. The second, a Paradoxe sur lefaict des monnoyes (Paris, 1578), was an emulation of Malestroict.
70. In addition to the works discussed above one should note two further works by Garrault. The first was Les Recherches des monnoyes, poix et maniere de nombrer, des premieres & plus renommees nations du monde ... livres trois (Paris, 1576). This work combined an emphasis on number and scripture with erudite history and a claim of personal, experiential expertise. It also featured a liminal poem by Postel, defending the duodecimal ratio on numerological grounds. The title was clearly meant to echo that of Etienne Pasquier's Recherches de la France. The second, a Paradoxe sur lefaict des monnoyes (Paris, 1578), was an emulation of Malestroict.
71. Roland du Plessis, Avertissement pour servir de response au discours nagueres publié sur lefaict des Monnoyes (Paris, 1609), 7. His unnamed opponent was Loys de Chabans.
72. Poullain, Refutation, 4. Compare an anonymous set of "Maximes sur le faict des monnoyes," in BN 18503, fols. 173-76, which begins, "Il est tout certain, que toutte science ou art, soit liberal ou mecanique, doit avoir ses fondements, et maximes, certaines, fermes, et resolues que Ion appelle en latin, Principia, sur lesquelles, tout ce qui se faict, dict, et propose, concernant la science ou lait, doit estre fondé."
73. Poullain, "De la science & cognoissance que doibt avoir un Conseiller d'Estat, au faict des Monnoyes," in Traictés, 1. The Counselor to whom this tract is addressed was (in a victory for the conventional wisdom) Sully, which dates it to before 1611. Coquerel began his Discours, fols. 1-4, with a complete history of human society in order to demonstrate the centrality of money and monetary policy to the state.
74. Poullain, "De la science & cognoissance que doibt avoir un Conseiller d'Estat, au faict des Monnoyes," in Traictés, 1. The Counselor to whom this tract is addressed was (in a victory for the conventional wisdom) Sully, which dates it to before 1611. Coquerel began his Discours, fols. 1-4, with a complete history of human society in order to demonstrate the centrality of money and monetary policy to the state.
75. Du Plessis, Advertissement, 81. Coquerel had said much the same thing.
76. "Locke, Liberalism and the Natural Law of Money," Past and Present, 71 (1976), 55-56.
77. See Marie-Thérèse Boyer-Xambeu, Ghislain Deleplace, and Lucien Gillard, Private Money and Public Currencies: The Sixteenth-Century Challenge, tr. Azizeh Azodi (Armonk, N.Y., 1994).
78. This was done more or less immediately, by Garrault, Recherches, 16-18. See also Hotman, De re numaria, 348-55; 354: "Auri ad argentum, cujusvis denique metalli aut aliud metallum, nullam esse proportionem, nisi quae Regis aut Principum imperio arbitrioque varie pro temporum varietate constituitur."
79. This was done more or less immediately, by Garrault, Recherches, 16-18. See also Hotman, De re numaria, 348-55; 354: "Auri ad argentum, cujusvis denique metalli aut aliud metallum, nullam esse proportionem, nisi quae Regis aut Principum imperio arbitrioque varie pro temporum varietate constituitur."
80. Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (New York, 1971), 658.
81. See Louis Marin, Le Portrait du roi (Paris, 1981), esp. 147-206.
82. Cassiodorus, Variae VI.7.
83. Loys de Chabans, Apologie de l'edict des monnoyes, ou refutation des Erreurs de Maistre Guillaume et de ses adherents (Paris, 1610), 31.
84. See Adolphe Dieudonné, Manuel de numismatique française (Paris, 1924), II.
85. Chabans, Raisons, 24.
86. Pierre-Antoine de Rascas, sieur de Bagarris, La necessité de l'usage des medailles dans les monnoyes (Paris, 1611).
87. See for instance the "advis au lecteur" of La Necessité.
88. La Necessité, 13.
89. La Necessité, 14-15.
90. r.
91. Henri Poullain, "Advertissement sur le placet presenté au Roy, par Pierre Antoine de Rascas, sieur de Bagarras," in Traictés, 38-69, p. 56. On ascending the throne in 1599, Phillip III had begun issuing vellón with reckless abandon, leading to its massive devaluation. In 1608 the Cortes of Castille forced him to cease this practice, but he and Phillip IV later resumed it, largely contributing to the collapse of Castillian finances during the Thirty Years' War.
92. See Earl J. Hamilton, American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain, 1501-1650 (Cambridge, Mass., 1934), 75-103.
93. Poullain, Traictés, 57; and see Orest Ranum, Artisans of Glory: Writers and Historical Thought in Seventeenth-Century France (Chapel Hill, 1980).
94. Poullain, Traictés, 57; and see Orest Ranum, Artisans of Glory: Writers and Historical Thought in Seventeenth-Century France (Chapel Hill, 1980).
95. Guillaume du Clerc, "Contre l'invention qui est donnee de faire des demys sols de cuivre et sur iceulx y faire graver les actions les plus memorables de nos roys," BN Ms. Dupuy 51, fols. 46-47. This ms. was a working draft, and the readings are sometimes dubious.
96. Charles Fontaine, Les Nouvelles, & antiques merveilles. Plus, un traicté des douze Caesars, Premiers Empereurs de Romme, nouvellement traduit d'Italien en François. En fin y a une Ode pour Dieu gard à la ville de Paris, faite en Juin 1554 (Paris, 1554). A second edition was published under the title La Description des terres trouvees de nostre temps. Avec le Sommaire de plusieurs belles antiquitez, contenant une partie de l'excellence & magnificence des richesses, triomphes, & largesses des anciens (Lyon, 1559).
97. Charles Fontaine, Les Nouvelles, & antiques merveilles. Plus, un traicté des douze Caesars, Premiers Empereurs de Romme, nouvellement traduit d'Italien en François. En fin y a une Ode pour Dieu gard à la ville de Paris, faite en Juin 1554 (Paris, 1554). A second edition was published under the title La Description des terres trouvees de nostre temps. Avec le Sommaire de plusieurs belles antiquitez, contenant une partie de l'excellence & magnificence des richesses, triomphes, & largesses des anciens (Lyon, 1559).
98. v.
99. Stephen Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World (Chicago, 1991).
100. Michel de Montaigne, Les Essais, ed. Pierre Villey (Paris, 1992), 902 (III.9).
101. Montaigne, Essais, 686 (II.24, "De la grandeur romaine").
102. On Montaigne's obsession with the instability of the political realm, see Dan Engster, "The Montaignian Moment," JHI, 59 (1998), 625-50.
103. Essais, 913; 911; 910.
104. Montaigne, Essais, 901.