French Literature Reviews - 2026

V. Sigu, Medievalism and the Enlightenment: The Middle Ages in the Bibliothèque universelle des romans
Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Review published in Acta Fabula (May-June 2015, vol. 16, no. 5): "The Middle Ages of the Enlightenment" by Dimitri Garncarzyk & Sarah Delale.

***

Véronique Sigu, Medievalism and the Enlightenment: The Middle Ages in the Bibliothèque universelle des romans

Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, "SVEC", 2013.

EAN 9780729410748.

Publisher's overview:

At the end of the eighteenth century, medievalism appeared divided into two distinct currents: one grounded in dry erudition, the other flouting scholarly constraints to offer literary creations where the Middle Ages owed more to the imagination than to history. How are these two tendencies to be reconciled? How can we explain the inspiration that the Middle Ages would subsequently spark in the nineteenth century?

To answer these questions, Véronique Sigu offers the first comprehensive analysis of all the rewritings of medieval narrative works catalogued in the Bibliothèque universelle des romans (1775-1789). By shedding light on a pivotal moment in medievalism between the Enlightenment and Romanticism, she reveals the major role played by this vast periodical in transmitting medieval literature during the eighteenth century. Through the study of medieval miniatures, the author explores the original solutions that the Bibliothèque universelle des romans brought to the aesthetic and literary tensions running through the eighteenth century, notably between philosophy and erudition, scholarly culture and popularization, and the novel and history.

By comparing these rewritings with their sources, Véronique Sigu highlights the vision of the Middle Ages presented by the Bibliothèque universelle des romans and the significance it held for contemporary readers.

Table of Contents

Introduction

I Medievalism between Philosophy and Erudition

1. Philosophical Ambition

2. Scholarly Labor: The Problem of Sources

3. Relations with the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

4. A Scholarly Middle Ages?

II The Novel and History

5. The Status of the Novel in 1775: Triumph and a Troubled Conscience

6. History of the Novel or Novel of History?

7. New Legitimacy: Under Close Surveillance

III A Model for the Aristocracy: The Medieval Knight

8. The Political Model of the Knight

9. A Modern Knight

10. A Model for the Aristocracy

IV The Medieval Knight: Hero of National Origins

11. Medieval History in the Modern Political Context

12. The Knight: National and Patriotic Hero

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Pour tout autre renseignement, ou pour passer une commande / To order this book or other Voltaire Foundation publications: http://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/www_vf/orders/orders.ssi

Pour tout renseignement complémentaire merci de contacter email@voltaire.ox.ac.uk

During the eighteenth century, the literary and cultural reception of the medieval period occupied a complex space between strict historical scholarship and imaginative recreation. Periodicals and popularizing publications played a significant role in making older narratives accessible to contemporary readers, anticipating the heightened interest of the Romantic era. Studies focusing on this transitional phase often examine how Enlightenment periodicals negotiated the boundaries between rigorous erudition and novelistic invention, addressing tensions concerning historical accuracy, cultural dissemination, and the evolving status of prose fiction within the broader literary landscape of the period.

In Medievalism and the Enlightenment: The Middle Ages in the Bibliothèque universelle des romans, Véronique Sigu examines the rewritings of medieval narrative works catalogued in the Bibliothèque universelle des romans between 1775 and 1789. The publisher's overview notes that the study explores aesthetic and literary tensions between philosophy and erudition, scholarly culture and popularization, and the novel and history, while also investigating the depiction of the medieval knight as a political model for the aristocracy and a hero of national origins. Readers interested in eighteenth-century literary history and the reception of medieval literature may find this work relevant.