The Rabelais Encyclopedia

320 Pages·2004·2.27 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Chesney Zegura

THE
RABELAIS
ENCYCLOPEDIA

THE
RABELAIS
ENCYCLOPEDIA
EDITED BY
Elizabeth Chesney Zegura
GREENWOOD PRESS
Westport, Connecticut • London
Library of CongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
The Rabelaisencyclopedia/ edited by ElizabethChesney Zegura.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographicalreferencesand index.
ISBN 0–313–31034–3 (alk. paper)
1. Rabelais, Franc¸ois,ca. 1490–1553?—Encyclopedias. I. Chesney,ElizabethA., 1949–
PQ1694.R32 2004
843'.3—dc22 2004042479
British LibraryCataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright (cid:1) 2004 by ElizabethChesney Zegura
All rights reserved.No portion of this book may be
reproduced,by any processor technique,without the
express writtenconsent of the publisher.
Libraryof Congress Catalog Card Number:2004042479
ISBN: 0–313–31034–3
First published in 2004
GreenwoodPress, 88 Post Road West, Westport,CT 06881
An imprint of GreenwoodPublishing Group, Inc.
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For Krista

Contents
Introduction ix
Chronology xiii
Abbreviations xv
Alphabetical List of Entries xvii
Topical List of Entries xxi
The Encyclopedia 1
Selected Bibliography 267
Index 273
About the Contributors 285

Introduction
The very thought of a Rabelais encyclopedia is somewhat daunting to anyone familiar
with the Renaissance physician’s fiction. Not only would the project be gargantuan if
every name, theme, rhetorical device, and learned reference in the Five Books of Pan-
tagruel were included, but the sheer hubris of attempting to catalog the “living waters”
(3BK prol.—see Abbreviations) of this self-styled alchemist’scauldronseemsworthyof
Rabelais’s trickster, Panurge, or even the fool Triboullet. The Pantagrueline tales are
themselves encyclopedic, not just in the hyperbolic curriculum that Gargantua setsforth
for his son (P 8), urging him to become an “abyss” of knowledge, but also in the
compendiumofallusionstonavigation,theology,music,artandarchitecture,philosophy,
medicine, and other disciplines that Rabelais amasses in his magnum opus. Hisinterests
and areas of expertise are vast, in keeping with the ideal of the uomo universale or
Renaissance Man; one goal of this volume is to showcase the fascinatingarrayoftopics
that are grafted onto the mock-epic framework of the chronicles,transformingtheminto
a richly textured tapestry of life in the sixteenth century.
Somewouldarguethatthisrichnessisadouble-edgedsword:notonlyatreasuretrove
of laughter, mind teasers, mock-epic hijinks, and insights into the French Renaissance,
Rabelais’shybridandmultifaceteddiscoursealsooffersahostoflexicalandinterpretive
challenges. For readers accustomed to well-defined genres, classically crafted plots,and
transparent meanings, the hodgepodge of ingredients that make up Rabelais’s fiction,
ranging from genealogies, lists, and a library catalog to surrealistic battle narratives, a
flying pig, and the chatter of drunks, can at times be overwhelming. True, works of
fantasy requiring leaps of logic and a suspension of disbelief abound in modern culture,
as evidenced by the enormous popularity in film and fiction of Tolkien’s Lord of the
Rings, a saga often likened to Rabelais’s magnum opus for its epic proportions and
inspiration, or even the Harry Potter books, similar to Rabelais’s earliest chronicles in
their focus on children, games, education, and magic.Addingmorefueltothenarrator’s
claimthatPantagruelis“incomparable”(prol.),however,thesemodernworksoffantasy
lack the verbal prolixity, rapid shifts in tonality, and distinctive blend of high and low
culture, scatology and learned references, piety and irreverence that keeps readers off
balance in Rabelais.
Not accidentally, given the risk of arrest and execution that faced humanists in Ren-
aissance France who were too outspoken, Rabelais’s encyclopedic text isitselfaliterary
shape shifter, at least from the reader’s standpoint. Depending on our familiarity with
Rabelais’slearnedallusions,theparticularthematicthreadswefollowaswenavigatehis
prose, and the critical apparatus or perspective we bring to the interpretive process, the
unstable admixture of ingredients he includes in the crucible of his fiction seem tocom-
bineandrecombineinahostofdifferentpatterns,whichvaryfromonereaderorreading
to the next. The result is a Rabelais who is many things to many people: both a “mad
dog”anda“refinedgenius”;agoodCatholic,anEvangelical,andanatheist;amisogynist
and a closet feminist.