Commerce, law, and erudite culture: The mechanics of Théodore Godefroy's service to cardinal Richelieu

Journal of the History of Ideas

Volumn 68, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 407-424

  Thomson, Erik ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34548133581     PISSN: 00225037     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jhi.2007.0028     Document Type: Review

References (124)

1. See Klaus Malettke and Ulrich Hatte, eds. Zur Perzeption des Deutschen Reiches im Frankreich des 17. Jahrhunderts: Théodore Godefroy, Description d'Alemagne (Münster: LIT, 2002),
2. Klaus Malettke, "Die Perzeption des Deutschen Reiches bei Théodore Godefroy," in Frankreich im Europäischen Staatensystem der Frühen Neuzeit. Rainer Babel, ed. (Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke, 1995), 153-78,
3. e siècle (Originally Paris, 1873, reprinted Geneva: Slatkine, 1971), 129-30,
4. and N. Jordan, "Théodore Godefroy, historiographe de France (1580-1649)," Positions des thèses de l'École nationale des Chartes (1949): 91-95; I could not obtain a copy of her thesis. I thank Caroline R. Sherman for letting me read a copy of her "Building a Dynasty of Scholars: The Godefroy through the Generations," presented at the Society for French Historical Studies Conference, 22 April 2006.
5. H.J.M. Nellen, Hugo de Groot (1585-1645): De loopbaan van een geleerd staatsman (Weesp: Uitgeverij Heureka, 1985), 44-46.
6. For Grotius's work for the VOC, see Martine Julia van Ittersum, Profit and Principle: Hugo Grotius, Natural Rights Theories and the Rise of Dutch Power in the East Indies (1595-1615) (Leiden: Brill, 2006).
7. Jacques Dupuy to Peiresc, Paris, 12 April 1627, Lettres de Peiresc, ed. Philippe Tamizey de Larroque (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1888-98), I, 843.
8. Jacques Dupuy to Peiresc (5 April 1627), I, 836. François Fossier thought Godefroy's appointment lasted only until 1628 "La charge d'historiographe du seizième au dixneuvième siècle," Revue Historique 258 (1977): 79 note 3, but a letter from Claude de Bullion to Pierre Dupuy and Godefroy disproves this, From Metz, 21 January, B.N. Collection Dupuy, 881, f 34.
9. Bibliothèque de l'Institut (Quai de Conti), Collection Godefroy (here after C.G.) See François Gébelin, Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France: Paris: Bibliothèque de l'Institut, Collection Godefroy (Paris: Pion, 1914).
10. Peter Groenewegen, "Thoughts on the emergence of economics as a science," in Eighteenth-century Economics: Turgot, Beccaria, and Smith and their contemporaries (London: Routledge, 2002), 48-96.
11. Historians have focused on Antoine de Montchrestien's Traicté de l'Oeconomie politique (Paris, 1615).
12. See Nannerl O. Keohane, Philosophy and the State in France: The Renaissance to the Enlightenment (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), 163-68,
13. Henry Clark, Compass of Society: Commerce and Absolutism in Old-Regime France (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2007), 3-26.
14. Brian W. Ogilvie, The Science of Describing: Natural History in Renaissance Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), 5-6.
15. e siècle," in Les premiers siècles de la République européenne des Lettres: Actes du Colloque international, Paris, décembre 2001, ed. M. Fumaroli (Paris: Alain Baudry, 2005), 407-25.
16. Ann Blair, "Reading Strategies for Coping with Information Overload, ca. 1550-1700," JHI (2003): 11-23.
17. Jacob Soll, "The Antiquary and the Information State: Colbert's Archives, Files, and the Affaire of the Régale, 1663-1682," forthcoming, available at http://isites.harv ard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword = k12884, accessed on 17 November 2006.
18. See, more generally, Peter Burke, A Social History of Knowledge from Gutenberg to Diderot: Based on the Vonhoff Lectures given at the University of Groningen (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000), 118-41.
19. Orest Ranum, Artisans of Glory: Writers and Historical Thought in Seventeenth Century France (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980), 50-57,
20. see also "Richelieu, L'histoire, et les historiographes," in Richelieu et la Culture, ed. R. Mousnier (Paris: CNRS, 1987), 137.
21. See, for example, Marc Fumaroli, "Préface," to Les premiers siècles de la République européenne des Lettres, ix-xviii,
22. Françoise Waquet, "Qu'est ce que la République des Lettres? Essai de sémantique historique, " Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes 147(1989): 473-502,
23. or Hans Bots and Françoise Waquet, La République des Lettres (Paris: Belin, 1997), 34-44.
24. See Anne Goldgar, Impolite Learning: Conduct and Community in the Republic of Letters, 1680-1750 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 174-218,
25. Peter Miller, Peiresc's Europe: Learning and Virtue in the Seventeenth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000),
26. e siècle (Florence: Leo S. Olschkim 2005).
27. C.G., vol 67, f. 18.
28. C.G., vol. 67, f. 27.
29. C.G., 207, f. 27v. Book list headed "Mr des Cordes a tous ce que dessus."
30. C.G., 67, f. 136,
31. "Naufrage." On the Dupuys, see Klaus Garber, "Paris, die Hauptstadt des europäischen Späthumanismus, Jacques August de Thou und das Cabinet Dupuy," in Res Publica Litteraria: Die Institutionen der Gelehrsamkeit in der frühen Neuzeit eds. Sebastian Neumeister and Conrad Wiedemann (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1987), 71-92
32. and Jérôme Delatour, "Les Frères Dupuy (1582-1696)," Positions des thèses de l'École nationale des Chartes (1996): 93-100.
33. C.G., 207, contains a title page for the "Dictionnaire de la marine" followed by "Il faut parcourir & extraire," followed by a list beginning "Mes Recueils" naming another fifty two books.
34. A to-do list involving commerce is in C.G., 67, 48 v. headed "Mercredy," which begins "Escrire a ma Mere & Soeurs," but continues "Extraits pour le commerce."
35. C.G., 68, f. 269, "Discours sur le subiect des guerres qui se font par mer, dressé peu apres la prize de la Rochelle," notes on f. 278r.
36. London, H Fetherston, 1625. For Purchas's ideology, see James A. Boon, Other Tribes, Other Scribes: Symbolic Anthropology in the Comparative Study of Cultures, Histories, Religions and Texts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982). The translations were by Godefroy himself; C.G., 63 English company charters from Purchas, with Godefroy's interlinear translations.
37. Godefroy used the edition L'Histoire de Pay-bas d'Emanuel de Meteren, ou Recueil des guerres . . . (La Haye: Hillebrant Jacobz. Wou, 1618).
38. Draft of Godefroy to Marillac, 21 January 1628, C.G., 67, f. 19.
39. "Discours d'un particulier sur le fait du Commerce de Indes," summary in van Meteren, f. 630 et seq. and contained in the C.G., 66, f. 40.
40. Peiresc to Dupuy (16 may 1627) Lettres de Peiresc, I, 230, and Peiresc to Dupuy (17 July 1627), 294.
41. C.G., 68, f. 359v. "Envoyer a Monsieur Hotman."
42. He told some Dutch correspondents to post letters by way of the French ambassador's secretary Boutard, C.G., vol. 67, f. 25r.
43. C.G., 65, f. 3, "Livres d'Alemagne à recouvrer," He noted "Ces livres se peuvrent recouvrer par le Librarie Elzivir de Leide ou par Jansonius d'Amsterdam ou bien par quelque autre d'Amsterdam, de Lubec, de Hambourg, ou Rostock."
44. Godefroy's connections resemble Diodati's, see Garcia, Élie Diodati et Galilée.
45. Draft of Godefroy to Joachim Camerarius, 21 Jan 1628, C.G., vol. 67, f. 21v. On Camerarius see F.H. Schubert, Ludwig Camerarius, 1573-1651: Eine Biographie (Kallmünz: Michael Lassleben, 1955). Theodore's sister Renée married Phillip Camerarius, Joachim's cousin.
46. See Les savants Godefroy, 43.
47. C.G., 67, Godefroy to "M Gerritz" 10 Feb. 1628, f. 25, and Godefroy to Nic. van Wassenaer, 10 Feb. 1628, f. 23.
48. On these two, see P.C. Molhuysen, et al. eds. Nieuw Nederlandisch Biografisch Woordenboek (Leiden: Sijthoff, 1911-37), III, 462, and VIII, 1307-8.
49. C.G., 64, f. 35.
50. C.G., 65, f. 6.
51. "s'enquerir de quelque Marchand Hollandois de ce que signifient ces mots" C.G., 67, f. 45; another copy of this list, with translations in another hand, is f. 71.
52. Undated draft of letter to Richelieu, C.G., 67, f. 27, "pour avoir l'intelligence des Langues Latine, Italienne, Espagnolle, & Allemande."
53. List headed "Je desire sçavoir," C.G., 67, f. 59.
54. Peiresc to Dupuy (22 Nov. 1628) Lettres de Peiresc, I, 749-50.
55. "Dictionnaire de la Marine, ou, Explication des mots, & Manieres de parler, comme aussi des Regles et Maximes servans à la navigation, & au commerce & trafic sur mer, let tout recueilly de plusieurs Histoires, Navigation, & Ordonnances, Statuts, Traictez, Accords, & autres memoire, escripts en langue latine, Italienne, Espagnolle, Portugaise, Françoise, Alemande, Angloise, & Flamande." Drafts of the Dictionary in C.G., 207 and 208; the title page is 207, f. 29. Godefroy crossed out the last phrase, listing the languages.
56. "Regles & Maximes sur les differences qui surviennent touchant la Navigation, & la liberté & Seureté du Commerce entre les Rois, Princes, & Republiques, ou leurs subjects," C.G., 66, f. 133.
57. See Peter Stein, Regulae iuris: From Juristic Rules to Legal Maxims (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1966), 167-70 and Chapter IX, passim.
58. Commentarius in titulum de diversis reguli iuris antiqui (Geneva, 1652).
59. Théodore's correspondence with Jacques mostly does not survive, but see Bruno Schmidlin and Alfred Dufour, eds. Jacques Godefroy [1587-1652] et l'Humanisme juridique àGenève: Actes du colloque Jacques Godefroy (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1991).
60. Marc Fumaroli, L'Age de l'éloquence: Rhétorique et "res literaria" de la Renaissance au seuil de l'époque classique (Geneva: Droz, 1980), 473-74, and 485-92;
61. See also Ann Moss, Printed Commonplace-Books and the Structuring of Renaissance Thought (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996);
62. and Ian Maclean, Interpretation and meaning in the Renaissance: The Case of Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
63. "que les Espagnols ne peuvent empescher les François, Anglois, & autres Nations de naviger & trafiquer par delà les Isles des Canaries és Cotes d'Afrique, & és Indes Orientales. Et par delà les Isles de Asores és Indes Occidentales," C.G., 67, f. 141-44: "Memoires pour la navigation et le Commerce de France."
64. For Seraphin de Freitas, C.G., 64, f. 40, and for Nicolas Boonartius, C.G., 65, f. 10.
65. Alan James, Navy and Government in Early Modern France (Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 2004), 32-76,
66. and "The Development of French Naval Policy in the Seventeenth Century: Richelieu's Early Aims and Ambitions," French History 12 (1998): 384-402.
67. Yves-Marie Bercé, "L'affaire des caraques échouées (1627) et le droit de naufrage," in État, Marine, et Société: Hommage à Jean Meyer eds. Martine Acerra, Jean-Pierre Poussou, Michel Vergé-Franceschi, and André Zysberg (Paris: Sorbonne, 1995), 15-24.
68. "[il] faut montre au Traitté des Droits de Bris, que tels Droits sont Royaux et du tout inalienables, Et que c'est un Abbus de penser qu'ils puissent estre patrimonniaux a quelques seigneurs particuliers comme quelques uns voudroient pretendre," C.G., 67, f.
69. Joseph Bergin, Cardinal Richelieu: Power and the Pursuit of Wealth (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), 97-102, and 116.
70. Archives nationales, AB XIX, 3192, dossier 3;
71. C.G., 67 is filled with relevant excerpts.
72. Bercé, "L'affaire des caraques échouées," 22-23.
73. See a copy in Godefroy's hand, (6 December 1627) in the C.G., 67, f 31. He wrote a number of draft letters to Richelieu in January, 1628 announcing the tract's completion, but they were probably not sent, C.G., vol. 67, f. 1 (dated 1 Jan. 1628), f. 5 (dated 5 Jan.) and an undated letter on f. 27. Grillon, V (1630), 38-39, Godefroy to Richelieu, 20 Jan. 1630.
74. C.G., undated "to-do lists" 67, f. 64 v, and 68, f. 349 v. Mémoires de Mathieu Molé, ed. Aimé Champollion-Figeac (Paris: Société de l'Histoire de France, 1855): 1, 419-48.
75. Grillon, III (1628), 26 (12 jan. 1628): Grillon omits the passage "J'ay recouvert les ordonnances avec quelques autres Edits et règlements sur le faict de la marine et L'Admiral de la Popleniere.[sic] Je faicts le tout relier et les vous envoieray par la premier commodité," C.G., 270, f. 209.
76. "j'estime qu'il seroit à propos qu'il vous plaise luy faire ordonner par le Roy quelque livre. J'estime que son travail ne sera inutile, et particulièrement sur le fait du commerce, dont il dit vouloir descouvrir la science et des Hollandois et des Anglois," Bullion to Richelieu, Paris 27 January [1628], C.G., 270, f. 231-32, not in Grillon.
77. Bullion to Richelieu, 17 October [1629], Les Papiers de Richelieu, IV (1629), 645-46.
78. C.G., 67, f. 40 undated draft.
79. C.G., 64, f. 92-99: Versions of "Que le Roy peut & doibt separer la charge d'Admiral de Levant d'avec celle de Gouverneur de Provence, et unir la dicte Charge d'Admiral à celle de Grand maistre de la navigation de France" in Godefroy's hand.
80. See John Guy, "The Rhetoric of Counsel in Early Modern England," in Tudor Political Culture, ed. Dale Hoak (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 292-310.
81. "Advis presenté au Cardinal duc de Richelieu," C.G., 68, f. 346,
82. "Pour faciliter le commerce de France sur Mer,"; the list of names is on 348r-v; another copy is in C.G., 64, f. 197.
83. See Conservación de monarquías, ed. Michael Gordon (Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Fiscales, 1982), 363-64.
84. C.G., 66, f. 121.
85. He probably used the Dupuy's copy, which he used for his work on ceremonies, see Journal de Jean Barrillon, secrétaire du Chancelier Duprat, 1515-1521, ed. Pierre de Vaissière (Paris: Renouard, 1897-1899), 1, 17, n 3, and I, 284-302.
86. C.G., 62, f. 8 and in the Table, f. 5, # 59.
87. C.G., 67, f. 136 under "Naufrage," lists books borrowed from Dupuy and DesCordes, including "les lieux communs de Bouchel," or Laurens Bouchel La Bibliotheque ou Tresor du Droict François, 2nd ed. (Paris: Pierre Bailler, 1629);
88. Montchrestien in I, f. 628, left column.
89. See L. A. Boiteux, "Un Économiste Méconnu: Du Noyer De Saint-Martin Et Ses Projets, 1608-1639," Revue d'Histoire des Colonies 44 (1957): 5-68.
90. "Moyens pour faciliter et entretenir le Commerce en France, à l'exemple de ce qui s'observe es Royaumes, & Estats estrangeres." C.G., 67, f. 144, XXXV.
91. See Lionel Rothkrug, Opposition to Louis XIV: The Political and Social Origins of the French Enlightenment (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), 10-35.
92. C.G., 68, f. 63
93. and C.G., 64, f. 195-96, # X.
94. "Des empeschements et dificultez qui se rencontrent au Commerce de France en Moscovie," C.G., 66, f. 86v-87v.
95. C.G., 64, f. 196r, #11. See Charlotte Wells, Law and Citizenship in Early Modern France (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 46-47, 81 and 94-120.
96. C.G., 68, f. 285-88 "Aucuns Points considerables touchant l'Establisement du libre Commerce de la Mer, en France," with Godefroy's comments, f. 289-90.
97. C.G., 66, f. 143, r. #XVIII.
98. See "Bericht aus Wien" from 19 Sept. 1627 in Les Papiers de Richelieu: Section Politique Extérieure: Empire Allemand, ed. Adolf Wild (Paris: Pedone, 1982), volume I (1616-29), 368-69,
99. and Nicolas de Bar, Seigneur de Baugy, Baugy to [secretary of state Raymond Phélypeaux) d'Herbaut, 14 January 1628. Archives des affaires étrangères (Quai d'Orsay) Correspondance politique, Pays-Bas Espagnols, 7, f. 11.
100. See Jonathan I. Israel, "Spain, the Spanish Embargoes, and the Struggle for the Mastery of World Trade, 1585-1660," and "The Politics of International Trade Rivalry during the Thirty Years War: Gabriel de Roy and Olivares' Mercantilist Project, 1621-1645," in his Empire and Entrepots: The Dutch, The Spanish Monarchy and the Jews, 1585-1713 (London: Hambledon, 1990), 206-7, and 213-31.
101. C.G., 67, f. 122, another draft f. 87.
102. Godefroy accompanied his memoranda with translations of the Emperor's propositions to Lubeck and Danzig; C.G., 69, f. 2.
103. Mercure François, ou suitte de l'Histoire de nostre temps, sous le regne du Tres Chrestien Roy de France & de Navarre, Louys XIII (Paris, 1629), 14: 355-68.
104. See Jeffrey K. Sawyer, Printed Poison: Pamphlet Propaganda, Faction Politics, and the Public Sphere in Early-Seventeenth Century France (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 13637, and works cited there.
105. C.G., 64, f. 195v.-196r. # 6 & 7.
106. On Godefroy's new duties, see L. Delavaud, "Quelque collaborateurs de Richelieu" in Rapports et notices sur l'édition des Mémoires du Cardinal de Richelieu (Paris: Société de l'Histoire de France, 1907), 2: 140-44,
107. Fritz Dickmann, "Rechtsgedanke Und Machtpolitik Bei Richelieu: Studien an Neu Entdeckten Quellen," Historische Zeitschrift 196 (1963): 265-319,
108. William F. Church, Richelieu and Reason of State (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972), 361-72,
109. e Siècle 208 (2000): 376-77.
110. A "Memoire des matieres, dont il se peut faire des Recueils" dating from 1638 lists topics of commerce from # 25-28, C.G., 50, ff. 140-44.
111. Later additions include a memorandum from Dirck Granswinckel from December, 1641, (C.G., vol. 66, f. 48), a 1642 list "Namen vande plaetsen die in Orienten bie de Portugesen ende Nedderlanders werden besaten & gefrequentert," (C.G., vol. 66, f. 52.) and Swedish company charters by Willem Usselinx, translated in Godefroy's secretary's hand in Dupuy, 464, f. 140-52, from Argonautica Gustaviana: Das ist, nothwendige Nachricht von der newen Seefahrt und Kauffhandlung (Frankfurt am Main, 1633).
112. C.G., 66, f. 106.
113. The book was Orbis Maritimi sive rerum in Maris et Littoribus Gestarum Historia (Dijon, 1643).
114. Peiresc to Saint-Saulvier du Dupuy (28 Octobre 1636) Lettres de Peiresc, 3, #CLXVI, 597.
115. Documents feature in the Dupuy Collection B.N. Dupuy, 318, 319 and 464, and in that of Henri-Auguste de Loménie, count of Brienne.
116. See B.N. Nouvelles acquisitions françaises, 7287, collection de Brienne 319, mémoires starting on 267, 276, 288, 296, 298, 300, 304, 312, and 363. Fonds Français 4925 contains nothing but copies of Godefroy's "Mémoires pour la Navigation et le commerce de France."
117. François Foucquet to [Théodore Godefroy] (19 mai 1635), B.N., Collection Dupuy, vol. 881, f. 41.
118. B.N. Fonds français 18503-18504.
119. "Le dessein de la Maison d'Austriche de dominer en la Mer Baltique," C.G., 66, f. 254.
120. Godefroy's notes, C.G., 67, f. 59-60;
121. The book is the Dissertatio, super vetere Austriacorum Proposito, de Occupando MariBalthico Omnibúsque & Poloniae, & Septentrionalis Germaniae, Mercaturis ad se attrahendis, in Galliarum & Foederati Belgij Detrimentum: una cum Mediis quae banc Perniciem avertunt (Eminentissimo Cardinali Mazarino Dictata) (Paris: 1644) in the Bibliothèque Mazarine call number 14076, B, with the Ms. note "Pour Monseigneur [Claude de Mesmes] le comte d'Avaux."
122. "augmenté à la fin de plusieurs actes et memoires importans," C.G., 68, fol. 435-36.
123. Some of Théodore Godefroy's commercial memoranda can be found amongst Colbert's papers; see the 500 de Colbert, 203, f. 57, 81, 123, 140, 142, 146, 152, 155, 162, and 172.
124. Théodore Godefroy's brother Jacques, a citizen of Geneva, also wrote a book on maritime law-the De Imperio maris deque jure naufragii colligendi - in 1637.