.

"LA POESIE DU CIEL" IN MONTAIGNE'S

" APOLOGIE DE RAIMOND SEBOND"

by Marc-Andre Wiesmann

Unlike any other of the essays,

"L'Apologie de Raimond Sebond" (2.12)setsitself a
precisepolemical goal, the theological defenseof La theologienaturellede Raimond
Sebond(1569),Montaigne's translation of the Liber creaturarum,a fifteenth-century
treatise of the Catalan theologian Raimundo Sibiuda.\ In this work, composed in
1436,Sebondarguesthat the first sacredbook God offeredmankind was "Ie livre de
la nature," whose alphabet,to use his extendedmetaphor, is constituted by all of
createdthings, of which humans representthe principal "letter."z For Sebond,with
the aid of scripture and of natural reason,we can still decipher,in spite of our fallen
state,the vast sequentialordering of createdbeings:this "echelle" arrangesthings
accordingto their ontological characteristicsand begins,at its lowest rung, with inanimate entities such as the four elements,the minerals,the sky with its starsand
planets; it continues with vegetals,proceedsto animals,and arrives at human beings,
who representNature's most perfect accomplishment} Sebond'streatise thus construes an optimistic anthropology assuringus that we can rationally derive a message
or "signifie" from the universe- namely our superiority- and claiming for our "raison naturelle" the power to understandour crucial position within God's creation.
Montaigne's "Apologie" begins by sketchinga refutation of the argumentsof two
campsof Sebond'sdetractors:the first, zealousChristianswho find Sebondhubristic
and perhaps even heretical in his claims for natural reason;the second,atheists
IPor the essays,I usethe following text: Michel de Montaigne,LesEssais,eds.Pierre Villey andV. L.
Saulnier (paris 1988).In the quotes,[A] indicatesthe 1580text, [B] a 1588addition and [C] a post-1588
addition. A useful introductory guideto "L 'apologiede RaimondSebond" is Robert Aulotte, Montaigne.
Apologiede Raimond Sebond(paris 1979).For a clear discussionof the structure of the" Apologie," see
Jaume CasalsPons, "Sur Ie seconddegre de \"Apologie'," in Claude Blum, ed., Montaigne.Apologie de
RaimondSebond.De la "1beologia"ala 1beologie(paris 1990)187-200.This recentcollection of essaysis
devotedto "L' Apologie," and to its relations with Sebond'swork. It containsa representativebibliography of the recentscholarshipdealingwith the essay(301-334).
2SeeMontaigne, La theologienaturellede Raimond Sebond,in OeuvresCompletesde Michel de Montaigne,vols. 9-10 (paris1935):". ..chaque creaturen'est que commeune lettre, tiree par la main deDieu.
...grande multitude de creaturescomme d'un nombre de lettres ...\'homme en est la lettre capitaleet
principale." (prefacede \'autheur, x)
)Por a generalintroduction to the 1beologianaturalis,seeAlain Guy, "La 1beologianaturalis en son
temps: structure, portee, origines," in De la "1beologia"a la 1beologie(n. 1 above) 13-47. In the same
volume, seealso Raymond Esclapez,"L'echelle de Nature dansla 1beologienaturelleet dans'L'Apologie
de Raymond Sebond,'"201-226. In Sebond's"echelle,"the first rung only possesses
"\'estre"; the second
"\'estre et Ie vivre"; the animals have "\'estre, Ie vivre et Ie sentir," sometimesaccompaniedby "la
memoire." Human beingspossess
the whole panoply of ontologicaltraits: "estre, vivre, sentir, entendre,
juger, vouloir et ne vouloir pasa leur fantasie,c'est-a-direIe liberal arbitre."

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MARC-ANDREWIESMANN

whose presumedintellectual sophisticationleadsthem to sneerat Sebond'snaivete.

However,very soon after the preamblethat seeksto vanquishSebond'senemies,the
reader of the essayconfronts a major interpretive puzzle. Unrelentingly, the text
which claims in its early stagesto endorseSebond'sthesis in favor of our natural
faculties,launchesinsteada devastatingattack on the presumption of human reason
and disparagesthe theologian's boundlessenthusiasmfor the dignitas hominis. In
fact, the" Apologie" displaysMontaigne'smost sustainedexercisein skepticism,and
accentshis leaningstowardsthe radical branchof skeptic thought, pyrrhonism.4
In his preambulatory defenseof Sebond,Montaigne plies an argumentreminiscent of the Liber creaturarum'sinsistencethat the universeis organizedasa reminder
of our privileged position in God's works. In a passagedesignedto overcomethe
objections of those Christian believerswho incriminate Sebond for wishing to
"appuyer [nostre) creancepar des raisonshumaines" (440A), the essayisturgeshis
readersto look up towardsthe skies and to contemplatethe harmonious organization of the cosmos,"Ie Soleil, les estoilles,les eauxet la terre" (447B);and he posits
this spectacleasthe visible manifestationof God's presencein the world. As we shall
show in detail, Montaigne is here promulgating the ancient comparison of world
with book.s For polemical purposes,he assertsthat the cosmosis indeeda fabric, a
textual weavingyielding to our inquisitivenessand offering, as"signifie," the senseof
our intimate participation in the divine order. The following pageswill analyzehow
Montaigne's initial gesturetowardsthese metaphorically textualizedheavensrecurs
throughout the" Apologie." The introductory and optimistic referenceto astronomical considerationsasvalidating instancesof our direct communication with the
divinity installs in the essayan extensiveparadigmrepeatedlyaddressinghuman beings' relationshipsto the skies. Once he abandonsSebond'sdefense,however,and
begins attacking the theologian's championing of human superiority, Montaigne
instills his skeptical outlook in the recurring imagery featuring the human gaze's
embrace of celestialphenomena. Tellingly, this skepticismputs into question the
textual nature of human representationsof the cosmic realities hovering aboveus.
The various avatarsof the essay'sdiscourseon astronomy are, in each instance,
linked with poetic crafting, with the poiesishumans deploy and the admirablepoetry they fabricate in order to come to terms with their place in the universe.This
consistentoverlap betweenevocationsof the skiesand their textual or poetic renditions motivatesthe expression"poesie du ciel" we will use to denotethe strand of
concernswith the cosmic fabric which traverses"L' Apologie de Raimond Sebond"
and which hasnot yet beenconsistentlytraced.

4Pora convincing description of the" Apologie" asa pyrrhonian text, seeAndre T oumon, Montaigne.
La gloseet l'essai(Lyon 1983)228-256. Montaigne's panicular brand of pyrrhonism is most recently
discussedin Pierre Statius, Le reel et la joie. Essaisur l'oeuvredeMontaigne (paris 1997). Seeespecially
Chapter1, "Pyrrhonismes," 45-80.
;Por the ancestryand great fonune of the book asimagisticcounter, seeE. R. Cunius, EuropeanLiteratureand the Latin Middle Ages (New York 1953),especiallythe section"The Book of Nature," 319325.

"LA POESIEDU CIEL"

243

Montaigne's persistentrecourseto "poesiedu ciel," the textualization or "fabrication" of the skies,echoesthe sixteenthcentury's heightenedliterary and intellectual
preoccupationswith astronomicalquestions.6His awarenessof contemporary attempts at formulating coherenttheories of the solar systemprominently surfacesin
his mentioning Copernicusand heliocentrismnearthe end of the" Apologie." The
Polish astronomerpublished his De revo/utionibusorbium cae/estiumin Nuremberg
in 1543;and Copernicanismimmediatelyelicited a certain amount of theological,
moral and epistemologicaldebatein France.7In the essay,Montaigne's treatment of
Copernicusreflectshis skepticismtowardsany human endeavorinstituting an overarching explanatory system of the universe: heliocentrism, a descriptive solution
alreadyproposedbefore Ptolemy'sgeocentricschemabecamedominant, only presagesanother representationalrevolution which will sooner or later nullify the Copernican achievementand introduce the reign of "une tierce opinion" (570A). The
essay'sreferenceto Copernicus stands out as the last term of the paradigmatic
"poesie du ciel" we shall be tracing, and thus belongs integrally to the Montanian
discourseabout the artificial qualities of the constructsof human reason.The present readingwill stressthat, for the essayist'slate humanistconsciousness,
"science"is
still an exact synonym of "lettres," and that the" Apologie" placesCopernicus's
work in the categoryof literary successes
exemplifiedby many of the citations from
the ancients (Manilius, Ovid, Plato, Lucretius) and from their modern emulators
(i.e., Ronsard)who employ a powerful poetic idiom to describethe skies. In Montaigne's view, these authors, with whom he entertainsa complex intertextual commerceand to whom he addsCopernicus,incarnatethe "poesiedu ciel" by projecting
a superior poiesis onto celestialreferentsin order to make them readableand, in a
sense,to bring them down to the earthly vagariesand weaknesses
of human interpretive efforts.
Our itinerary through the" Apology" will first establishhow the contemplation
of the heavensis thematically anchored in the preamble where, as we have mentioned, it servesto uphold an early unequivocaldefenseof Sebond. It is here that
lexical and imagistic networks articulate the traditional equation betweenweaving
and writing and underline that, when viewed from Sebond'soptimistic anthropology,the universeis a figurative textum,a visually efficient artifact whose divine mes6In her recent book, La poesie du ciel en France dans la secondemoitre du seizi'emesi'ecle (Geneve 1995),
Isabelle Pantin has analyzed the prevalent use of astronomical material in the poetic output of late sixteenth-century French poets. I borrow the expression "poesie du ciel" from her title. Pantin mentions
Montaigne only very occasionally.
7For the reception of Copernicus in France in the sixteenth century, see Henry Heller, "Copernican
Ideas in sixteenth-century France," Renaissanceand RefoYnlation/Renaissance et Reforme 20.1 (1996) 5-26.
This anicle supersedes Jean Plattard's "Le systeme de Copernic dans la litterature fran~aise au XVle
siecle," Revue du seizi'emesi'ecle16 (1913) 220-237. Plattard observes that Montaigne "est Ie premier de nos
ecrivains qui, au chapitre 12 du livre II des Essais, a envisage Ie systeme de Copernic comme une theorie
scientifique qu'on accorde aux hypotheses de cette nature." (235) Plattard overlooks the erudite discussions of Copernicus Heller describes. On Copernicus and astronomy in the sixteenth century, see also
John C. Lapp, "Pontus de Tyard and the Science of his Age," Romanic Review 37 (1947) 16-22; and Beverly S. Ridgely, "Mellin de Saint-Gelais and the first vernacular reference to the Copernican system in
France," Journal ofthe History ofIdeas 23 (1962) 107-116.

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MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

sageis accessibleto all Christians. In order to bolsterhis argumentsand reduceboth

camps of Sebond'sopponents,Montaigne usessubstantialquotations from the Astronomica of Manilius, an Augustan sum of Roman-astronomicaland astrological
lore infused with stoic doctrine. Theseopening movementsof the essayhighly valorize the hexametersof Manilius and display them asthe site of a luminous textuality with anagogicor protreptic potential. Theseversesserveas a model of the wedding of textuality and astronomyand of eminently successful"poesiedu ciel." However,Montaigne's polemical assertionof the existenceof a textualized and legible
sky, which, as Manilius's verses,should seducereadersand vivify their religious
faith, soon undergoesa lengthy re-evaluation.But the essayist'sindictment of the
vanity of human reasonpersistentlyreturns to solar and stellar imagery,astronomical referenceswhich now serveto denounceour propensity to conceiveand to manipulate artificial textual constructs. In these developments,the sun assumesa crucial thematic importance and fascinatesthe text. Montaigne, however,exploiting the
tragic tale of Ovid's Phaeton,warns of the theologicaland philosophical dangersof
this fascination.The referenceto De revolutionibus,lastinstanceof the paradig-matic
"poesie du ciel" in the essay,brings backthe representationof the sun into focus.At
this point, while insisting upon the personaldimension of the enunciating "je," the
essayistdiscusseshis own internalization of the textually attractive yet factitious
products of reason.Lexically and intertextually,the text of the essayindicates how
the turns, returns or revolutions of the astronomer'streatiseinfluence it; but Montaigne's self-consciousness
as readerand writer neutralizesthe temptations of the
treatise by reflecting upon the diachronic supersession
of one explanatorymodel of
the skies by another. The effectivenessof "poesie du ciel," irremediably caught in
this circular process,is thus reducedto the inability of human "lettres," whether
they are wielded by poet, philosopher or astronomer,to reachany lasting meaning
or "signifie."
I. MANILIUS'S "POESIE DU CIEL VS. SEBOND'S DETRACTORS

Montaigne's admirative inscription of Manilius's verses at the beginning of the

"Apologie" heraldsboth his love for ancientlettersand the depth of his acquaintance
with Latin literature. Indeed, in spite of the sixteenthcentury's standardsof massive
erudition, the Astronomicaremaineda treatise familiar only to the intellectual elite
of RenaissanceFrance. Towardsthe end of the century, Manilius's literary profile
asserteditself more vigorously on accountof one of the philological triumphs of the
entire Renaissance,
JosephScaliger's1579 edition of the Astronomica.As Anthony
Grafton has recounted,the fierce French savantreachedthe heights of his sovereign
mastery of philology in this monumental edition which classicalscholarstoday still
considera masterpiece.8
Although Villey doubts that Montaigne consultedthis entirely refurbished text of the five books (over four thousanddactylic hexameters)of
8Anthony

Grafton, JosephScaliger. A study in the History of Classical Scholarship, 2 vols. (Oxford 1983,

1993) 1.180-226,2.437-458.

"LA POESIE DU CIEL"

245

the treatise,it is tempting to imaginethat Scaliger'sground-breakingedition prodded

his interest in the Latin poet at the very moment in which he was struggling with
the" Apologie."9 Of Manilius the person,we know practically nothing, exceptthat
he lived in the first century and indubitably witnessedthe reign of Augustus and
perhaps that of Tiberius. He is thus a contemporary of Virgil and Ovid, and his
verseis as much marked by the fluid lucidity of Ovid's hexametersas by the burning
and cruel memoriesof the recentRomancivil wars.IO
The first book of the Astronomicadivulgesthe intellectual credentialsof Manilius, and urgesthe readerto recognizein him a fervent adherentto stoic cosmogony
and cosmology.II After a section(vv. 113-246)exposingin stoic parlancethe origin
and nature of the universe,Manilius defineshis cosmologicalstoicism(vv. 247-254).
These eight versesunderscorethe constructedness("opus immensum," "condita
membra") of the world's body, and the construct'sobedienceto a divine world-soul
("vis animaedivina regit"). With his sacredbreath ("conspiratdeus"),God holds the
varied parts of the mundusin agreementwith eachother ("mutua foedera"), thereby
insuring the constantdynamics of a concordiadiscors.The g~iding principle of this
concord is, asSebondhimself thinks, an implied rationality ("tacita ratione") which
transpires in the sacredmovementsor, to use Montaigne's term, the generalized
"bransle" of the universe("sacroquemeatu").12The rest of the book elaboratesthe
sphaerawith a description of the constellationsbeginning with the twelve zodiacal
signs(vv. 255-531), of the planetsand of the comets.The remaining four books constitute an advancedmanualof astrology,and givesystematicinstructions pertinent to
the drawing of horoscopesand astrologicalforecasts.13
For the generalreader,the
prologuesand perorationsof eachbook (especiallythose of the first and fourth) contain versesof great strength and subtlety, qualities which Montaigne, weaned on
Latin poetry, certainly savoredand envied.Montaigne also probably recognizedin
Manilius a type of "anti-Lucretius," a stoic philosophertrusting in a strictly rational
and harmonious organizationof the mundus,and engagedin wrangling with Epicurean doctrine, which givesatomic randomnessthe force of universallaw. In an essay~
9Pierre Villey, Les Sour~eset l'evolution des Essaisde Montaigne, 2 vols. (paris 1933) 1.191-193. Villey
believes, through internal textual evidence in Montaigne's quotations, that he is using the 1566 Lyon
edition of Molineus.
IOPor the text of Manilius, I use the Loeb edition and translation: Manilius, Astronomica, trans. G.P.
Goold (London 1977). Goolds's extensive introduction is very informative and provides quick accessto
Manilius's difficult work. An introductory anicle which also serves as introduction by presenting samples
and good translations of the most famous and literary passagesof Manilius is G. B. A. Fletcher's "Manilius," The Durham University journal 65.2 (March 1973) 129-150.
llFor an argument proving Manilius's intimate knowledge of stoic physics and cosmogony, see G.
Luck, "A stoic cosmogony in Manilius (1.149-172)," in Memorial Andre Festugrere.Antiquite palenne et
chretienne, ed. Patrick Cramer (Geneve 1984) 27-32.
12Here is the full Latin text of this passage(Astron. 1.247-254): "Hoc opus immensi constructum corpore mundi/membraque naturae diversa condita forma/aeris atque ignis, terrae pelagique iacentis/vis
animae divina regit, sacroque meatu/conspirat deus et tacita ratione gubernat/mutuaque in cunctas dispensat foedera panes,/aitera ut aIterius vires faciatque feratque/summaque per varias maneat cognata
figuras."
I3For Manilius as astrologer, seeJ. H. Abry, "L'astrologie a Rome: les Astronomiques de Manilius,"
Pallas 30 (1983) 49-61.

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MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

which celebratesthe skeptical"balance"asMontaigne'spersonalemblem(527B),the

stoic Manilius provides verseswhich, in the "essaying" of ancient philosophical
opinions, act asa counterweightto Lucretius,whose De rerum natura,through constant quotations,becomesan inescapableintertext,I4
Manilius also oweshis prominent role in the" Apologie" to factorspertaining to
the history of French literature in the sixteenth century, an epoch adorned by the
Ple'iade,sevenpoets who choseas emblematic of their glory a symbolic metamorphosis into starsstudding the literary firmament. In the work of Pontus de Tyard,
the astronomer-poetof the Ple.iade,the Astronomicafunction as a significant intertext.ISIsabelle Pantin has recently surveyedand analyzed the wealth of Ple.iade
"poesie du ciel," and sheemphasizesthe specialaffinity existing betweenastronomy
and theology in the Renaissance.16
The ancientlineageof astronomy,with its Chaldean, Egyptian, and Greek roots, induced Christian humanists to find its ultimate
origin in the book of Genesis.
Maurice Sceve,for instance,depicts,in his Microcosme,
Adam teaching Eve "les revolutions des signessyderaux."17
As the first science,astronomy closelyparticipatesin the theme of the dignity of man: the creator,asPlato
explains in the Timaeus(47a-b),has givenus the most noble of the senses,vision, in
order that we contemplatethe movementof the starsand that we start to philosophize.ISThree famous versesof Ovid (known as the topical "Homme d'Ovide"),
whose import is subvertedin the" Apologie," proclaim that our erectstatureand the
easewith which we can lift our facetowardsthe sky indicate our innate and unique
propensity for the contemplation of the divinized heavens.19
SinceMontaigne must
deal with theological issues,he finds it rhetorically expedient to start with astronomical/ astrological topoi, which will continue generating his commentary
throughout the" Apologie." Furthermore, the predilectionhis contemporariesshow
for astronomicalpoetry probably swayshim to remedythe rather lack-lustertreatment of the starsby Sebond,who placesthe cosmicbodies at the lowestrung of his
"echelle" of being,and who seemsquite uninterestedin the starsasbeaconsof God's
t4Forthe conceptualimponance of the "balance" in Montaigne'sdiscursivestrategies,seeFloyd Gray,
Exagium/essai:LabalancedeMontaigne (paris 1982).The role of the abundantquotations from Lucretius
in the" Apologie" has been studied by P. Hendrick, "Lucretius in the' Apologie de Raimond Sebond,'"
Bibliothequed'Humanismeet Renaissance
37 (1975)457-466; and Daniel Menager,"Les citations de Lucrece chez Montaigne," in Philip Ford and Gillian Jondorf, eds.,Montaignein Cambridge(Cambridge
1988)25-38. In my opinion, no satisfactorystudy of the usesof Lucretius in "L'Apologie" hasyet been
published.
150nTyard and Manilius, seeS. Bokdam,"La poesieastronomiquede Pontus deTyard," Bibliotheque
d'Humanismeet Renaissance
48 (1993)259-275.
16See
IsabellePantin, La poesiedu ciel enFrance...(n. 6 above),especiallyChapter 3, "ElogesI: Astres,
theologie et dignite humaine," 55-72. Pantin's book contains a handful of referencesto Manilius's presencein the French Renaissance.
17Citedby Pantin (n. 6 above)56.
liThe quasi-mythological background invested in astronomy in the Renaissanceis examined in S.
Bokdam, "Les mythes de l'origine de l'astronomie a la Renaissance,"in Divination et ControverseReo
ligieuseen FranceauXVIe si'ecle(paris 1987)57-72.
190vid, Metamoryhoses
1.85-86: "Pronaque cum spectentanimaliaceteraterram,/os homini sublime
dedit caelumquevidere/iussit et erectosad sideratollere vultus." Montaigne'scites theseversesat 484A,
but in a bitterly ironic tone intendedto castigateman'shubris and to pleadfor the animals'own nobility.

"LA POESIE DU CIEL"

247

presence!O
One should thus readthe quotationsfrom Manilius's Astronomicaat the
start of the" Apologie" from severalstandpoints:as a sign of Montaigne'sparticipation in the contemporaryvogueof "poesiedu ciel," asa document of stoic doctrine
with theological implications,and asan illustration of convincing ancientpoetry.
This third point functions centrally in the argumentproposed here,becausethe
quotesfrom Manilius act, asit were,asthe inaugural,positive,and highly valorized
exemplarof "poesie du ciel," a touchstoneagainstwhich to judge the other occurrencesof enticing textualizations of the skies. The pages(438-448)leading to the
first citation aim at the polemical reduction of the first camp of Sebond'sdetractors,
those who show "quelque zele de piete" and who therefore must be treated with
"plus de douceur et de respect" (440A) in spite of their negativeresponseto "les
bellesimaginationsde cet autheur,la contexturede sonouvragebien suyvie." (440A)
The word "contexture," a sixteenth-centuryneologismwhose etymology refersto
weaving (texere= to createany type of fabric),vauntsthe theologian'sinvention and
disposition of his material!1 The expression"preuves mieux tissues et mieux
estofees"(448A), soon used in praise of the Ibeologia naturalis, confirms Mon!:aigne'ssensitivity to and exploitation of the weaving topos, whose fortune was as
flourishing in the French Renaissanceas, more recently, in the textually obsessed
criticism of the 1970sand 1980s!2Nevertheless,Sebond's"textum" and its French
translation haveprovedineffectivein persuadinga segmentof Sebond'sreaders,and
the" Apologie" now tries to correct this situation by providing its own supplementary "contexture," a written constructlinked or "suivi" tightly enoughto insure the
capture of the resistantinterpreter.
The. versesof Manilius participate integrally in the loom-work or needle-work
implicit in "ouvrage" and "contexture," and the French text which surrounds them
very competently pursuesthis total integration. The first five hexametersfrom the
Astronomicasurface at the heart of Montaigne's peroration (446-448)to Sebond's
20SeeMontaigne, La the'%gie nature/Ie de Raimond Sebond(n. 2 above). In his work, Sebond assigns to
sky and eanh, considered in their materiality or lifeless minerality, the first rung or "ordre" in the
"echelle de nature": "La terre est la plus abaisseeet de moindre pris ...Le ciel est encores de cet ordre, et
tous les corps celestes, planettes et estoilles, comme aussi toutes choses faites par an. .." (1.5). Although
Sebond uses the topos of deus artifex of the heavens (6.17), he is clearly uninspired by it and the rhetorical
fabric of his book does not develop any "poesie du ciel" in our terms.
21This appreciative language on Montaigne's pan is somewhat surprising, since he has just negatively
described the Liber creaturarum as "basty en un Espagnol barragoine en terminaisons Latines" (439A) ,
and indicated that oil faict bon traduire les autheurs comme celuy-la, ou il n'y a guiere que la matiere a
representer." In other words, for Montaigne, Sebond's style is purely functional, without any esthetic
dimension. He nevenheless insist on the organizational qualities of the text.
22Fran~ois Rigolot in "Les 'sutils ouvrages' de Louise Labe, ou: quand Pallas devient Arachne," Edudes
Litteraires 20.2 (1987) 43-60, discussesthe popularity of this top os, especially in contexts concerned with
the status of women writers. Ovid's tale of the weaving contest between Minerva and Arachne (Metamorphoses 6 vv. 1-145) is central to the equation between writing and weaving. In his long section on the
technical abilities of animals, Montaigne mentions twice the spider and its feats as an anist in textiles
(455A, and 464A). Among contemporary critics, Roland Banhes probably did the most to promote the
topos. For a typical Banhesian expansion on the topos, see S/Z (paris 1970) 165-166: "Le texte, pendant
qu'il se fait, est semblable a une dentelle de Valencienne qui naitrait devans nous sous les doigts de la dentelliere: chaque sequence engagee pend comme Ie fuseau ...la
main reprend Ie fil ...L 'ensemble des
codes. ..constitue une tresse ("texte," "tissu" et "tresse," c'est la meme chose) ..."

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MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

pious Christian foes. The first sentenceof this stylistically elevatedexhortation rehearsesand developsimagesand themes announcing the Manilian version of the
poetry of the skies:
Le neud qui devroit attachernostre jugement et nostre volonte, qui devroit estreindre
nostre ame et joindre notre createur,ce devroit estre un neud prenant sesrepliz et ses
forces,non pas de nos raisonset passions,mais d'une estreintedivine et supernaturelle,
n'ayant qu'une forme, un visage et un lustre, qui est l'authorite de Dieu et sa grace.
(446A)

The insistenceon "hoeud," "estreinte,"and "joindre" activatesan etymological and

semantic connection with the term "religion," which appearsin the precedingsentence. Along with its adverbial and adjectival derivations,religion has been a leitmotif of the nine previous pages.Both Cicero and St. Augustine, to whom the
"Apologie" incessantlyrefers,usethe etymological complex relegere/
religareto draw
out the semanticvalue of religio!3 Relegere
sharesthe sameetymology as legere,"to
read," an activity hermeneutically central to both Sebond'sand Montaigne's concerns with the discernmentof the interpretablelettresof God's creation. Religare,on
the other hand, points to the bond, liaison, or noeudwhich attachesthe creatureto
the creator.
Montaigne's "noeud," forcefully alluding to the religareof religio, also contains a
metaphor referring to thread, to the tight intertwining of two strands of material.
This literal textual dimensionthus reinscribesthe semanticvaluesof contexture,and
promotes relegere,
the notion of a correct readingimplicitly presentin religio. At the
sametime, with the use of "noeud," Montaigne is insisting on the verticality of the
true religious bond, "une estreintedivine et supematurelle."He is contrasting this
positive, vertical relation with its negative,horizontal counterpart, evoked on the
preceding page, when he mentions the prevalenceof "religions mortelles et humaines," mere "liaisons humaines." (445A)Thesebonds haveno upward connection
with the divine, and they operate laterally, remaining tied to the earth and to the
foibles of its human inhabitants. They thus belong to the realm of "imbecillite," a
term the" Apologie" favors in its characterizationof human weakness.Etymologically, imbecillite means"without a supporting staff" (in + baculus,quasisine bacula),
and expressivelyconnotes our prone or prostrate position, our irremediably horizontal relations vis-a-vis religion.24Montaigne arguesthat the effect of the French
2JFora thorough study of the etymology of religio down to Augustine, seeItalo Ronca, "What's in
Two Names: Old and New Thoughts on the History and Etymology of 'religio' and 'superstitio'," Res
Publica Litterarum 15 (1992)43-60. For Cicero, seeDe natura deorum2.72-75, and De divitatione 2.72;
for Augustine, seeDe Civitate Dei 10.1and 10.3,andRetractationes
2.13,19.
24Forall etymological points, I refer to A. Ernout and A. Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologiquede la
languelatine. Histoire desmots(paris 1985).Throughout this study, I readMontaigne philologically, with
an eye towards the Latin countenancesof his language.For the Latinate dimensions of Montaigne's
oeuvre and consciousness,seeFloy Gray, Montaignebiligue: Ie latin desEssais,(paris 1991).The term
"imbecillit'e" occurs seventimes in the" Apologie." SeeRoy E. Leake, Concordance
desEssaisde Montaigne (Geneva 1981). Although the term is not in the immediate context, an expressiverendition of
"imbecillit'e" occurs at 499: "[A] C'est aDieu seul de secognoistreet d'interpreter sesouvrages.[C] Et Ie

"LA POESIEDU CIEL"

249

wars of religion has been,precisely,the enhancementof imbecillite,the debilitating

humanization or lateralization of religion. Each warring faction seesfit to "play
ball" (. .."nous pelotonsles raisonsdivines,et combien irreligieusement..." 443C)
with theology, a situation which entails, for the logic of the religare/religerecomplex, a lack of union with the divine and a fundamental crisis in reading. Indeed,
legerebecomestangled in the horizontal, earthbound movementsof a violent playing field, when it should lead insteadto a meaningful, univocal and upwardly-directedbond, "un neud ...n'ayant qu'une forme, un visage,et un lustre. .." (446A).
The conjunction of "noeud" with "visage"(from video)and "lustre," of textuality
with a visibility infused with divine lux, pervadesMontaigne's peroration and will
have a fundamental import for the "poesie du ciel" the" Apologie" contains.
"Lustre" belongsto a densenetwork of terms the essayhas alreadygatheredin similar contexts to underline the luminous properties of the divine instance!5 These
scintillating qualities contrast,throughout the essay,with the "horribles tenebresde
l'irreligion" (448A),the darknessand blindnessto which human beingsare confined
when they remain the slavesof "liaisons humaines."26
While emphasizingthe sightgiving power of faith and religion, the peroration simultaneouslyaccentuatesGod's
active crafting, his inventive fashioning of the universe.God becomesthe "facteur,"
the "grand architecte"of the world's "machine," into which he leavesastracesof his
energycertain inscriptions for humansto decipher,"quelquesmarquesempreintes
de [sa] main," "quelque image aux choses du monde, raportant aucunement a
l'ouvrier qui les as bastieset formees." (446A)"Ouvrier" remarks againthe literary
and textual form of God's "ouvrages":"11a laisseen ceshautsouvragesIe caracterede
sadivinite, et ne tient qu'a nostre imbecillite que nous ne puissionsles descouvrir...
.Sebond s'esttravaille a ce digne estude,et nous montre comment il n'est piece du
monde qui desmante son facteur." (446-447A) "Ouvrages," "empreintes" and
"caractere"designatethe world asa printed text, a metaphor which elegantlyechoes
Sebond'sown belaboredinsistenceon the "alphabet" transpiring from God's works
and beggingto be strung into readablesentences.27
In this sketch of the persuasive
faict en nostre langue, improprement, pour s'avaller et descendre a nous, qui sommes a terre, couchez."
Andre Tournon, in La glose et I'essai (n. 4 above) 238, observes Montaigne's "horizontalization"
of Sebond's ladder of creatures.
25See,for example, Knous eclairer" (441A), "sa splendeur" (441A), "ce rayon de la divinite ...[sa]
lueur et [son] lustre," "on Ie [- man] verroit illumine de cette noble clarte" (442A), "luire" (442B), etc.
26For an outstanding article analyzing the Paulinian and especially the Augustinian tendencies of
Montaigne in terms of the light/obscurity
dichotomy, see Mary B. McKinley, "L'accomplissement de
1" Apologie de Raymond Sebond': esthetique et theologie," in Claude Blum, ed., Montaigne et IesEssais.
1588-1988 (paris 1990) 55-65. This article completes and amplifies her earlier article, "The City a/God
and the City of Man: limits of language in Montaigne's 'Apologie'," Romanic Review 71 (1980) 122-140.
Both these articles are fundamental to this reading of the" Apologie."
27Montaigne, La theologie natureIIe de Raimond Sebond (n. 2 above): "Davantage, ceste doctrine [that
of the Book of Nature] ouvre a un chacun la voye et I'intelligence des saincts docteurs: voire, elle est
incorporee en leurs livres (encores qu'elle n'y apparoisse point), comme est un Alphabet en tous escrits.
Aussi est-ce I' Alphabet des Docteurs: et comme tel il Ie fault premierement apprendre." (preface de
I'autheur vi-vii) And ". ..chaque creature n'est que comme une lettre, tiree par la main de Dieu ...
.grande multitude de creatures comme d'un nombre de lettres ...I'homme
en est la lettre capitale et
principale." (preface de I'autheur x)

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MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

properties of the divine text, it is important to recognizethe Renaissance

ideal of
rhetorical copia or abundance,of a linguistic construct inhabited by enargeiaand by
its doublet, a dynamic and moving energeia!8The sublime visual powersof the divine script, product of God the architector architextor,appropriatethe effectsof the
rhetorical figures evidentia, hypotyposis,
and of the genre ekphrasis,linguistic feats
which, through expert manipulations of verba, give the resa tangible existencein
the reader'seyes.29
It is in this context preoccupiedby the thought of a truly compelling textuality
that Montaigne introducesManilius and his "poesiedu ciel," but not beforeamplifying upon the artistic aspectsof God's creation:
Car ce monde est un temple tressainct,dedanslequel I'homme est introduict pour y
contemplerdes statues,non ouvreesde mortelle main, mais cellesque la divine penseea
faict sensibles:Ie Soleil,les estoilles,les eauxet la terre,pour nous representerles intelligibles. (447B)

A kind of museumexposingsacredworks of art ("statuesnon ouvreesde mortelle

main") awaits our contemplation in the sky. Sight stands out as the noble sense
which, through esthetic responseto the evidential enargeiaof the world-text, will
initiate us into the divine mysteries.The artistic details serveto bring out the etymology of both cosmosin Greek and mundus("ce monde") in Latin, terms which
harbor a cosmetic aspect,a notion of self-consciousbeautification!o The estheticism
of this description echoes,in fact, the type of vocabularyand rhetoric which Copernicus himself cultivates in the prooemium of Book 1 of De revolutionibus.Here,
to whet his humanist audience'sappetite,the astronomerhighlights the beauty of
heaven,whose "transcendentperfection most philosophershavecalleda visible God
[visibilem deum]." Copernicus also brings out the etymological relations the terms
mundusand caelumentertain with the arts themselves:"What indeedis more beau-

28See
Terence Cave, The CornucopianText. Problems of writing in the French Renaissance
(Oxford
1979)23-34. Seealso Perrine Galand-Hallyn, Lesyeux de l'eloquence.Poetiqueshumanistesde l'evidence
(Orleans 1995)99-121.
29My neologism "architextor. compellingly revivifies, in "architect,. the Indo-European etymon
"teks,. which refers to weaving,whoseliteral, textual dimensionsbecometransferredto all technological
activities. For "hypotypose. seePierre Fontanier, Lesfiguresdu discours(paris 1977)390-392. Here is his
definition of hypotyposis: "L 'hypotyposepeint les chosesd'une manieresi vive et si energique,qu'elle les
met en quelque sorte sousles yeux, et fait d'un recit ou d'une description, une image, un tableau, ou
meme une scenevivante.. (390)"Hypotypose,. whoseLatin nameis evidentia,is very akin to ekphrasis,
the written representationof a visualrepresentation.For the classicaldefinition of evidentia,seeH. Lausberg, Handbuch der literarischenRhetorik (Munich 1960)sections810-819. An excellent book-length
treatment of ekphrasisas literary genre is JamesA. W. Heffernan, Museum of Words.ThePoeticsof EkphrasisfromHomer to Ashbery(Chicago1993).I usethe term "sublime. with the "Longinian. dimensions
one finds in the essay"Du jeuneCaton. (1.37),a chapter in which the effectsof superior ancient poetry
upon the readerare describedin terms surprisingly similar to those found in the first-century treatiseOn
the Sublime.Significantly, in "Du jeune Caton,. one of the writers Montaigne selectsto exemplify one
degreeof sublimity is Manilius (232A).
JOSee
Ernout and Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique(n. 24 above):"mundus: ensembledescorps celestes,cieux, univers lumineux. Semblebien etre Ie meme mot que 'mundus,' 'parure,' qui a ete choisi
pour designerIe 'monde,' sansdoute a l'imitation du grec'kosmos.'.

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"LA POESIE DU CIEL"

tiful than heaven? This is proclaimed by its very names, 'Caelum' and 'Mundum,'
the latter denoting purity and ornament [hoc puritatis et ornamenti], the other a
carving [illud caelati appellatione]." Through an intertext of Pliny, Copernicus's
"carving" has become Montaigne's "statues."3!
The protreptic invocation of God's textual, architectural and artistic oeuvres leads
to the first citation of Manilius:
Atque adeo faciem coeli non invidet orbi
Ipse Deus, vultusque SUDS
corpusque recludit
Semper volvendo; seque ipsum inculcat et affect,
Ut bene cognosci possit, doceatque videndo
Qualis eat, doceatque suasattendere leges}2

These five Latin dactylic hexametershave been selectedbecausethey remarkably

interact with the Frenchthe essayisthascarefullyelaboratedto showcasethem. "Faciem" and "vultus" rewrite the textual "visage"we haveencountered,and amplify its
associationwith enargeiaand lustre.Furthermore, "faciem," too easily dismissedas
"face," regainsits semanticpotencywhen linked with the Frenchtext's "facteur" and
"fa~on," which refer to God's active craftsmanshipof the universe,and rejoin the
paradigm"ouvrier," "hauts ouvrages"and "oeuvres."Faciessharesfacio asa root verb
with facteur and fafon, an etymon which endowsappearancewith an active depth
laboring to valorize the surfaceand to invest it with singular truth and relevance.))
The visual force of "faciem" is heightenedby "in/videt," which prepares"videndo"
and injects deeply into the Latin text a primary concern with visual agency."Recludit" rejoins Montaigne's "descouvrir," "leges"flirts with the semanticmaterial of
religio, relayed by "intelligibles," an adjective here synonymous with "lisible" or

J1Nichoias Copernicus, On the revolutions, ed. J. Dobrzycki, trans. and commentary by Edward
Rosen (Warsaw 1978) 2.7. For the Latin text, I have consulted Nicolaus Copernicus, De revolutionibus
orbium caelestium libri sex,eds. F. Zeller and C. Zeller (Munich 1949). For Pliny's comment, see his Natu.
ral History 2.3, 8. Pliny relates "caelum" to "caelare," "to engrave," "to carve in bas-relief." In the proemium, Copernicus refers to God as "opifex omnium." The manner in which Copernicus, in his prefatory
and introductory matters, employs a humanist discourse through allusions to Roman and Greek poets
(Horace, Sophocles, Virgil, etc.) has often been noted. See, for example, Jacob Bronowski, "Copernicus as
a humanist," in The Nature ofScientific Discovery. A Symposium Commemorating the 500th A nniversary of
the Birth ofNicolaus Copernicus, ed. Owen Gingerich (Washington, DC 1975) 170-188; and, in the same
volume, Heiko A. Oberman, "Reformation and revolution: Copernicus' discovery in an era of change,"

134-169.
J2Astron. 4.915-919. The passagecomes from probably the most famous part of the Astronomica, the
long peroration which concludes book IV. Here is Goold's translation: "God grudges not the earth the
sight of heaven but reveals his face and form by ceaselessrevolution, offering, nay impressing, himself
upon us to the end that he can be truly known, can teach his nature to those who have eyes to see, and
can compel them to mark his laws." A praise of human vision follows (924-927).
JJIn the post-1588 editions, the verses of Manilius are immediately followed by this statement: "Or
nos raisons et nos discours humains, c'est comme la matiere lourde et sterile: la grace de Dieu en est la
forme; c'est elle qui y donne la fafon et Ie pris." (447A) Without God's grace, Montaigne continues, human arguments remain "une masse informe, sansfafon et sans jour. .." (447A) Sebond's arguments,
through grace, benefit from this "fa~on" to the point that they, in turn, can shape ("fa~onner") the theological apprentice: oils sont capables de servir ...de
premiere guyde a un aprentis ...ils
Ie fafonnent
aucunement, et rendent capable de la grace de Dieu.." (447A) My emphases.

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MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

"legible." Finally, the repetition of "doceat," expanding upon "cognosci," recalls

"toutes choses [du monde] ...nous
instruisent, si nous sommes capables
d'entendre." (447A) The instructional imperative acquires even more urgency
through the use of the verb "inculcat," literally "to trample" ("fouler aux pieds"
448A), "to forcefully imposeknowledgeupon someone."34
The editions of the Essaispublished during Montaigne'slifetime explicitly reveal
to what degreeMontaigne banked upon the energeticand "enargetic"virtue of these
versesto ravish and inculcate the unwilling minds of Sebond'sdetractors.In these
editions, the citation we have just read is immediately followed by a comment lamenting the fact that the printer hired for the French translation of Sebond'sLiber
creaturarumdid not employ these versesin the preface,"vers ...qui
sont de
meilleure et plus anciennerace,que ceux qu'il y estalle planter."3sThis observation
ascribesto the five versesof Manilius a primary responsibility,the "rehaussement"of
the weakerhost language,whether it be the French of the translation or that of the
"Apologie."36 Their ancient literary pedigreetransforms these hexametersinto a
"protocole de lecture" or "mode d'emploi" of Montaigne's rendition of Sebond.For
the essayist,Manilius's "poesie du ciel" thus embodiesthe protreptic model according to which the readerof La thelogienature/Ieshould view Sebond's"contexture"
and "belles imaginations."
After the peroration to the Christian opponents of Sebond,the essayistfacesthe
secondprong of his rhetorical and theologicalmission,the battle againstantagonists
"plus dangereuxet plus malitieux que les premiers." (448A) A 1588addition brands
this second camp as "athelste," an epithet which justifies a violent attack against
them. Montaigne must "les secouerun peu plus rudement," and his bellicoselanguageconveysthe extent of his rage at the "frenaisie" of their hubris or "cuider."
The polemic he is now engagingdemandsthe literal trampling intimated by Manilius's "inculcat," the fiercenessof "froisser et fouler aux pieds l'orgueil et humaine
fierte ...la vanite et deneantisede l'homme." (448A)As ammunition in this struggle, Montaigne echoesManilius's ardentversesas he developshis own eloquent description of the luminous fabric of the heavensin order to confound his arrogant~
34Manilius's"inculcat" resonatesagainstthe initial Latin quotation of the essay,a versefrom Lucretius
addedin 1588: "Nam cupide conculcatur nimis antemetutum" [For he lustily tramplesunder foot what
he had once very much feared.](439B).In Montaigne'stext, this vignettedepictsthe dangersof letting "Ie
vulgaire," spurred on by the Protestant"heretics," havea say in mattersof religiousdoctrine ("anicles de
sareligion"). The verbs conculcareand inculcarepossessasetymon the noun calx,"the heel," the pan of
the foot usedto trample. SeeErnout et Meillet (n. 24 above):"calco: talonner, fouler aux pieds ...d'ou
con-culcare,tasseravecIe pied, inculquer."
35Yilley'snote reproducesthis passage,expungedafter Montaigne'sdeath. Montaigne is pointing to
the first edition (1569)of La theologienaturellewhich the editors, Gourbin, Sonniusand Chaudiere,had
adornedwith a French sonnet by an obscurefrench "litterateur," Fran~oisd'Amboise. From Montaigne's
sarcastictone, we can gatherthat he did not think this sonnet wonhy to prefacehis effons astranslator,
and a look at the epigraphicpoem resoundinglyconfirms hisjudgment. For detailsabout the story of the
publication of Montaigne's translation of Sebond,including a text of Fran~oisd'Amboise's poem, see
Michel Simonin, "La prehistoire de 'L'apologie de Raimond Sebond," in De La"Theologia"ala Theologie
(n.1 above)85-116.

"LA POESIEDU CIEL"

253

enemies:"Qui luy a persuadeque ce bransleadmirablede la voute celeste,la lumiere

eternellede ces flambeauxroulans si fierement sur sa teste. ..soyent establiset se
continuent pour sacommodite et pour son service?"(450A) However,suchrhetorical gesturingtowardsa cosmicsublime text brimming with "enargeia"provesinadequate becausefaith cannot jolt the atheistsawayfrom disbelief.As he acknowleges,
Montaigne is now entering the realm of "l'homme seul,sanssecoursestranger. ..et
despourveude la graceet connaissance
divine" (449A), a situation requiring a new
argumentativestrategy.
Once again,the essayintertextually relies upon Manilius's Astronomica in order
to advancethis strategy.In a long interrogativesentencestarting with "Mais, pauvret,
..." (450A-451A), a cento or patchwork of quotations from Manilius's first, third
and fourth books formulates in clearly stoic terms the ineluctability of the stellar
tatum, God's "si juste regIe" which astrologicallydeterminesour attitudes: "Facta
etenim et vitas hominum suspenditab astris." (450A)37
Introducing the cento,three
hexametersof Lucretius, echoing, with "templa," Montaigne's "temple tressainct,"
display a secondexemplarof "poesie du ciel" vying with the essayist'sown poetic
efforts (cf. "flambeaux roulants") and offering a vignette of stars,moon, and sun.38
Manilius's verses,however,harbor a political dimension which underscoresMontaigne's earlier reflections on the wars of religion and their promotion of religious
"imbecillite." The minutest motions of the starsdeterminethe fate of kings: "Tanturn est hoc regnum, quod regibus imperat ipsis!" (451A)39The longest and final
citation of Manilius in the essayfurther lyricizes the adamantineregnumof the stars
upon our destinies.Astral influencedeterminesour passions,our vocations,but also
"this war," hoc bellum,the lengthy Roman civil wars which precededthe reign of
Augustusand which correspondto the devastatingreligiousconflicts in France.The
four penultimate hexametersrehearsethe unnatural atrocities resulting from internecine warfare and affirm Montaigne's indignation at the brutality of the various
factions'schemes,"leursviolentes et ambitieusesentreprises."(443C)
The political use of "poesie du ciel" culminatesin the extremeconceptualstratagem the final hexameterof Manilius in the" Apologie" proposes.The starsdictate
civil war and its horrors, but they also possessoverwhelming textual implications:
"Hoc quoque fatale est,sic ipsum expenderefatum," "This too is an effectof fate,to
considerfate itself in this manner." (451A)4O
According to the strictures of such a
36Inthe essay"Des livres," Montaigne speaksabout the citations he sowsin his text asa meansto bolster ("rehausser")or give elevationto his own discourse(2.10408C).
37"It indeedsuspendsfrom the starsboth men'sdeedsandtheir lives." Astronomica3.58.
38Beautifulversesindeed:"cum suspicimusmagni caelestiamundi/Templa super,stellisquemicantibus
Aethera fixum,/Et venit in mentem Lunaesolisqueviarum." [When we look upward at the celestialtemples of the immenseworld, the fixed Ether with its scintillating stars,the paths of the Moon and of the
sun descendinto our mind.] Lucretius,De rerum natura5.1204-1206.
39"50greatis this sovereignpower which orders around the Kingsthemselves."Astronomica 1.55and

4.93.
4Astronomica
4.118.In the essay"De l'incertitude de nostrejugement," Montaigne alsoquotesManilius in a context where the relation of "fortune" or "hazard" (not fatum, which is the opposite of chance)
with speechand reasoningcomesinto question. On this essay,seeDaniel Martin's brief commentsin his

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MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

logic, the textual maneuversunfolding underneaththe readers'eyesthemselvesobey

the rule of "fatum." This surprising assertioncondemnsthe entire fabric of the essay
to the tyrannical sway of the stars.Pursuing stoic dogmatismto its absurd consequences,Montaigne thus arrives, through Manilius, at the notion of a hyperdetermined cosmic script strictly controlling both his composition of the essayand the
responsesof his readers,whether they be atheistsor not. This version of the cosmic
text posits the elimination of the arbitrarinessof languageand the achievementof a
textual necessitywhich cancelsthe needand possibility of persuasion,sincepersuasion is now predeterminedbeforethe reader'sactivity has evenbegun. Any interpretive distancebetweentext and readerdisappears,
leaving only the paralysisof a total
determinism. To capitalize on Manilius's teachings,Montaigne points towardsthis
paralysis: "Tout ce que nous voyons en ces corps [= the celestialbodies] nous
estonne." (451A)The verb "estonner,"[to make aghast,to stun, benumb,or dull the
sensesof] capturesthe transfixing amazementwhich results from man's consideration of the stoics' heavens.41
Any further speculationon their workings and their
import to mankind is impossible,since thought itself is alwaysalreadyinscribed or
immobilized by and within the fatum. This polemical "tour d'escrime" (558A)thus
robs from the warring factions of the French "troubles" the illusion that a willful,
self-consciousdrive pushesthem to commit evil, that they are the mastersof their
criminal destiny. From the perspectiveof a textualized,fateful cosmos,thesewarriors remainthe murderousslavesof Fate,not evenrealizing they areslaves.
II. FROM MANILIUS TO COPERNICUS

If, at the end of this preamble,Montaigne were himself convinced that his twopronged polemical task had beenaccomplished,he could safelylapseinto silenceand
conclude the" Apologie." The deterministic tenor of the secondphaseof his argument reducesthe star gazeror readerof the literal "poesiedu ciel" to "estonnement,"
and the stoic, Manilian perspectivetransformsthe heavenlyscript into a petrifying
Medusa.Nevertheless,we have only arrived at one twelfth of the essay,and the 152
pagesremaining amply prove Montaigne's discontent with the validity of his theological exertions.42
One evident and easilytraceablesymptom of this dissatisfaction
Montaigneet la Fortune (paris 1977)19. Manin, to my knowledge,is the only recent commentator who
hasmentioned Manilius in connectionwith Montaigne.
41Forthis definition of "estonner,. see Randle Cotgrave, A Dictionarie of the French and English
Tongues,reproducedfrom the first edition, London 1611(Columbia, SC 1950).
42Montaigne'suse of Manilius's stoicism is, however, very significant in terms of intellectual history
and of the epistemologicalreception of Copernicusin the sixteenthcentury. In his imponant book The
Genesisofthe Copernican World, Hans Blumenbergexamineshow cenain shifts in a mostly Aristotelian
medieval world-view make possiblethe emergenceof heliocentrism as a comprehensibleand influential
proposition to late sixteenth-centuryintellectuals. Blumenberg insists that Copernicus found a philosophical basisfor his work in the stoic notion of a total communication betweenmen and god, exactly
the positions that Montaigne, through Manilius, has been aniculating: "The divine manifests itself
through the cosmos;the traditional attitudes of "pietas,. "sanctitas,. and "religio. are responsesto the
definite sensethat is manifestin the world- to the favor, through the world, that is grantedto the human
raceby the gods. In this way religious behavior becomesa pieceof justice, a "iustitia adversumdeos,. as

"LA POESIE DU CIEL"

255

lies in the repeatedreturns to "poesiedu ciel" in the remainderof the essay.Each of

these successiveremisesen questionimplicitly recallsthe initial model of a highly
active and persuasivetext correspondingto God's presenceand accessibilityto humans, an environment in which they benefit from faith's "infusion extraordinaire"
(441A),which alone canleadto the deciphermentof the encodeduniverse.To facilitate the discussion,the conceptof sucha "transitive" text (446-447)leadingto a verifiable "signifie" shall henceforthbe referredto as the "legible heavens."After his
addressto the Christian enemiesof Sebond,Montaigne refers only to "l'homme
seul." The critique of the "poesiedu ciel" and of its articulation of the "legible heavens" thus operatesin the human realm of "imbecillite." Eachof the various modulations of this critique insists on the quandaryof lettreswhich haveto function without any assurancethat they can signify otherwise than horizontally, in an endless
systemof earth-boundself-referentiality.
The first sentencesof the" Apologie" revealthat, for Montaigne, "science"representsonly the cultivation of "lettres," and that, in his view, there existsno conceptual differencebetweenthe endeavorsof the letteredand scientific inquiry.43To analyze Montaigne's formulations on the enticementsof "poesie du ciel" thereforeestablishesthe parameterswhich inform his reception and epistemologicalgrasp of
Copernicus as "homme de lettres." De revolutionibusdevelopsa heliocentrism, inspired in part by ancient models,in order to fix Ptolemaic geocentrismand more
convincingly to "savethe appearances,"an astronomicalcommonplacereferring to
the attempt, increasinglyempirical and mathematical,to deliver a coherentexplanation for the puzzling movementsof the heavenlybodies.44
Copernicus'sreordering
of the fabric of the skiesimposeson the earth a daily rotation on its own axisas well
asa year'sorbit around the sun; and it forcesthe moon to be a satellite of the earth.
the fulfillment of an intracosmic reciprocity, on which alone the moral transformation of the natural
order is based." See Hans Blumenberg, The Genesis of the Copernican World, trans. Robert M. Wallace
(Cambridge MA 1987) 175-176. Blumenberg's Part II, "The opening up of the Possibility of a Copernicus" (123-255), retraces the discursive movements (nominalism especially) which broke the Aristotelian
blockage and made possible the articulation of Copernicus's theory. Part VI, "Vision in the Copernican
World" (617-685), mentions Montaigne's preoccupations, in the" Apologie," with sight and the other
senses(627-638). Furthermore, Blumenberg points out that one of the key ingredients insuring the "intracosmic reciprocity" of man and God is the esthetic dimension, the particular pleasure that man derives
from the viewing [" Anschaung") of the world to which we are bound (176).
.) At 438A, Montaigne first refers twice to "science," a notion he immediately rewrites as "Iettres": ". .
.cette ardeur nouvelle dequoy Ie Roy Fran~oys Premier embrassa les lettres." For Montaigne's thoroughly humanist view of "science" as a sub-genre of "Iettres," see Georges Pholien, "Montaigne et la
science," Bulletin de Lasociete des amis de Montaigne nos. 19-20 (1990) 61-70. For very pertinent remarks
on the thematic presence of "science" and its relations with "Iettres" in the essay, see also Philip J. Hendrick, "Le dialogue de Montaigne: l'Apologie de Raimond Sebond," in Montaigne et les Essais 1580-1980,
Actesdu Congres de Bordeaux, ed. Claude Blum (paris 1983) 213-221, esp. 217-218.
"Claude Ptolemy, the Hellenistic astronomer of the second century, makes no pretense that the
mathematical models he develops to explain the contradictory motions of stars and planets have any
bearing on the truth. For Ptolemy and for all astronomers after him until perhaps Kepler, "saving the
appearances" means to provide models which approximately fit the evidence, but which never claim to
explain the reality of cosmic events. See Blumenberg, The Genesisof the Copernican World (n. 42 above)
211-214. On the Greek expression "saving the appearances," see G. E. R. Lloyd, "Saving the Appearances," Classical Quarterly 72 (1978) 202-222.

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MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

Fernand Hallyn, in a noteworthy book, demonstrateshow Copernicus's work

wholly belongs to the "episteme" of his century. Hallyn emphasizesthe anagogical
motives of De revolutionibus,its desireto fostera vertical linkage betweenChristian
believersand the divinity.4s The astronomer pictures the esthetically appealing
symmetry of the universeto his contemporariesin order to make them lift their eyes
towardsthe skies,which, aswe mentioned in our discussionof the "legible heavens,"
assumethe characteristicsof a visual work of art, a temple, a statue or a painting.
Hallyn skillfully discusseshow the artistic theories of prominent High Renaissance
figures (Alberti, Durer, da Vinci) surface in Copernicus'sHoratian preoccupation
with the production of a text designedto remedythe "monstrosity" of the Ptolemaic
system.46SuchobservationsevidenceCopernicus'scredentialsasthe hommede lettres
Montaigne took him to be.
The refocusingof Copernicus'sgazeupon a central sun echoeswhat Hallyn calls
a heliolatriedating from the precedingcentury and taking unprecedentedhold in the
sixteenth.47
The" Apologie" bearseminent signs of this heliolatrie,and the essayist's
severalcritical assessments
of the sun and of the human representationsit inspires
preparethe readerfor the mention of Copernicus.48
In the essay,the sun first appears
as the essentialbeaconof the "legible heavens."(447B)The secondmention of the
sun, arising soon after the last citation of Manilius has presumablyvanquishedthe
atheists,contrastsmarkedly with this initial, radiatingoptimism:
Dirons nous que nous n'avons veu en nuIIe autre creaturequ'en I'homme I'usaged'une
ame raisonnable?Et quoy! avonsnous veuqueIquechosede sembiableau soleil?Laisse
il d'estre,par ce quenous n'avons rien veude semblabIe?et sesmouvementsd'estrepar
ce qu'il n'en ait point de pareils?" (452C)

These rhetorical questionsidentify "ame raisonnable"with "soleil," and subtly endorsethe traditional dichotomy inner microcosm/outermacrocosm.By evoking the
dazzling powers of a Ptolemaic,mobile sun and the dangerouse'blouissement
they
entail, Montaigne simultaneouslysurmisesthe existenceof other suns and/or rea45FernandHallyn, La structurepoetiquedu monde: Copernic,Kepler (paris 1987).For the anagogical
imperativesof "science" to which Copernicus wholly subscribes,seethe chapter "Scienceet anagogie,"
61-85. I find Hallyn's work remarkablethrough andthrough.
46Hallyn(n. 45), "L'intertexte de la symmetrie," 102-115.For "monstrosity," see71-72. By "Copernicus'sHoratian preoccupations,"I add an estheticobservationHallyn doesnot register.In his prefatory
letter to Pope Paul III, Copernicus complains that the theories of his predecessors
make of the sky a
"monstrum": "On the contrary, their experiencewas just like some one taking from various places
hands,feet, a head,and other pieces. ...; sincethesefragmentswould not belongto one another at all, a
monster rather than a man would be put together from them." On the revolutions(n. 31 above)4. In my
opinion, this imagery constitutes an unmistakable allusion to the very famous first four verses of
Horace'sA rs Poetica,in which the poet depictsthe monster producedby an inexperiencedpainter: "Humano capiti cervicempictor equinam/lungeresi velit ..."
47Forhetiotatrieand its relatedtopic, the fascinationwith a center,seethe chapterof Hallyn's La structure poetiquedu monde(n. 45 above),"La metaphoredu centre" 139-160.
48Fora useful compendium of essayson the Renaissance
sun, seeLe Solei!a LaRenaissance.
Sciences
et
Mythes(Brussels1965). From this volume, of specialrelevancehere are Alexandre Birkenmajer's "Copernic comme philosopheR7-18; and S. K. Heninger's "PythagoreanCosmology and the Triumph of
Heliocentrism" 33-54.

"LA POESIEDU CIEL"

257

sonablebeingswhosepresencewe cannot detectbecausethe presumptuous"light of

reason" blinds us. Instead of legibility and accessto a solid message,
the "light of
reason" produces a calligo mentium, a dark fog incapacitating our interior visual
and/or rational perceptions.49
Thus, the conceitedvalorization of one's own reasonablenesscomprisesa conceptual infirmity seriouslyundermining the intelligibility
or readability of the outsideworld.
This transitional passageof the essaytherebycancelsthe strongly positive values
earlier invested in the light of sun and starsand replacesthem with an excessive
brightness leading to a beclouded,arrogantignorance.Ironically, the calligo mentium, metaphorically induced by the sun, beguilesmen into consideringthemselves
expert astronomersand into invading the heavenswith their science: "n se va
plantant par imagination au dessusdu cerclede la Lune et ramenantIe ciel soubsses
pieds." (452A) Furthermore, the solar imageryand the sneerat astronomersintroduceMontaigne'shuge amplificatio (452-486)on the distinctive mental and physical
gifts of the animals.Blinded by our own presumedsun-like superiority, we are unable to identify thesegifts, and the bulky bestiaryscourgesthe myopic vanity which
refusesto admit the existenceof excellenceand reasonin any other creature.As
Villey correctly observes,the section (486-559)following the bestiary treats the
"vanite de la sciencedont l'homme setargue," a "science"that, while primarily referring to ancient philosophy and theology (502-534),also encompasses
significant
referencesto astronomy (534-538) and to its microcosmic equivalent, medicine
(556).50The quest after "science,"fueling our fondnessfor the "Homme d'Ovide"
topos, promotes the elevatedimagewe have of ourselves,and this "curiosite" radically distinguishesus from the animals. For Montaigne, however,scienceis a Homeric siren,and also "la premieretentation, la part du diable,sapremierepoison. ..
" (488B-448C).5\This intransigeantallusion to Genesisoccurs in a context which
castigatesthe moral pretentions of the "s~avants"and praises"les ignorans." (488A)
If "science" were also left operative in the realm of ethics, where "l'imbecillite et
variete infinie de nos raisonset opinions" are especiallyvirulent, the essayistwarns
that "nous nous forgerionsen fin desdevoirsqui nous mettroient a nous mangerles
uns les autres,comme dit Epicurus." (488A)This dire prediction of the bestialmoral
behaviorto which a blind faith in "science"might lead introducesthe verb "forger"
and installs in the section leading to the mention of astronomya lexical paradigm
which employs "forger" seventeentimes,and which bolstersthe verb's connotations

49
At 453c,"calligo mentium" occursin a late addition, a citation from Seneca's
De Ira (2.9): "Inter caetera mortalitatis incommoda et hoc est, calligo mentium, nec tantum necessitaserrandi, sed errorum
amor." [Besidesother infinnities of our mortal nature there is this one, the misty darknessof our minds,
which not only meansthat they must err, but that they love to do sO.](My translation.)
5~n the edition of the EssaisI use,Villey's prefatory material to the" Apologie" includesa plan of the
essaywhich, in its main lines,I find totally convincing.
51Thereferenceto the Odysseansirenscomesin a lateaddition: "[C] Et les Sereines,pour piper Ulisse,
en Homere, et l'attirer en leurs dangereuxet ruineux laqs,lui offrent en don la science."(488)The exquisite detail "ruineux laqs" ties the siren'ssongto the paradigm"dangeroustextuality."

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MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

with four instances of the semantically related Latin fingere ("to shape," "mould" or
"fashion"), and its derivative,figmenta.52
In all instances, forger, fingere, and figmenta are used pejoratively to indicate that
"science," whether philosophy, astronomy or ancient theology, fabricates explanatory systems, figmenta or fictions. The forger/fingere complex amounts to Montaigne's definition of poiesis, the crafty human making of textual artifacts seeking to
rival the works of God, the "rerum, regumque deumque/Progenitor genetrixque"
(S13C), the "magnus artifex" (S29A). Another thematic and semantic paradigm continues to saturate the essay,that expressive of luminosity and vision, and of their
opposites, human "aveuglement" (SOOA)and darkness ("ombre," 499A). This strand,
as we have seen, contributes heavily to the vibrancy of the "legible heavens" and to
its negative counterpart, the evocation of human reason as a blinding sun. In the
long section on "science," several passagessimilarly appeal to divine light and its
salving virtue, a notion embodied in the repeated mention of the divine lamp, "la
saincte lampe de la verite qu'il a pleu aDieu no us communiquer" (S20A), and the
"lampe de sa grace," without the assistanceof which "tout ce que no us entreprenons
...n'est
que vanite et folie" (SS3A). Two important exempla vividly portray the
devastating consequences of this "folie," which, for Montaigne, implies a Promethean quest for the control of fire and light, with its inevitable results, suffering,
irremediable darkness, and "bestise." Tasso, in his quest for an epic poem reaching
the celestial "air de cette antique et pure poisie," plummets from the heights of his
excellence ("Quel saut vient de prendre. .."), insane and metaphorically blinded,
victim of "cette clarte qui l'a aveugle." (492A)53Eudoxus, an ancient astronomer, is
similarly eagerto trade both sight and life for one long glimpse at the sun: "[11] souhaitait et prioit les Dieux qu'il peut une fois voir Ie soleil de pres, comprendre sa
forme, sa grandeur et sa beaute, a peine d'en estre brule soudainement." (SIlB)54
Slaves of the aura of belles lettres, poet and astronomer share the same self-destructive
quest to harness and control a light incommensurable with our "imbecillite," an
enargeia"/"energeia our weak poietic efforts at forger or fingere cannot bring back
from the skies.

52See
Leake'sconcordance(n. 24 above) for these numerous instancesof "forger" in the passagein
question(488-537)."Forger," aswe shall see,strongly hints at the presenceof Vulcan, the "forger" of the
gods,in the essay.The four instancesoffingere occur in the following Latin citations: "quam docti fingunt, magisquam norunt" (507C),still unattributed; "unicuique ista pro ingenio finguntur, non ex scientiae vi" (511C), SenecaRhetor, Suasoraie4; "Quod fingere, timent" (530A), Lucan, Pharsalia 1.486;
"Quasi quicquam infelicius sit homine cui suafigmentadominantur" (53OC),still unattributed. Fingereis
an important word in the Latin estheticlexicon, and it should be put in relation, in the" Apologie," with
the sculptor Pygmalion, who appears,through the quote from Ovid at 560,manipulatingwax. This is the
same"cire" or "wax" which characterizesreasonat 565. Also, refer to the passagewe have analyzed
where God's "statuesnon ouvreesde mortelle main" offer themselvesto our contemplation (447): even
God is a proto-Pygmalion, obsessed
withfingere.
5JDuring his voyage in Italy, Montaigne had the sad opportunity to meet the mad poet at Ferrara.
Montaigne tells us that Tasso'soverly zealousquestafter "science"hasled him insteadto "bestise."
54Eudoxusof Cnidos (ca. 390-ca. 340 BC)was a pioneer in astronomy, the first to "savethe appearances"for the movement of a few planetsby building a systemof "homocentric spheres,"a precursor of
Aristotle's system.

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259

The poet and the astronomer's destructive and quasi-religious yearning for a radiance as potent and blinding as the sun's induces a flaring up of Montaigne's own
version of the sixteenth-century heliolatrie to which Hallyn finds Copernicus beholden. Mimicking Tasso or Eudoxus, Montaigne conditionally casts himself in the
role of a Pagan idolater intra-textually adoring a massive quotation from a poem
penned by the stellar Ronsard: "De celles [= ancient divinities] ausquelles on a
donne corps. ..parmy cette cecite universelle [= paganism], je me fusse ...plus
volontiers attache a ceux qui adoroient Ie Soleil." (514A) The fifteen alexandrines of
Ronsard are then thrust in our eyes,a veritable hymn to the sun, inhabited by all the
enargeia any ancient author could muster. Significantly, this irruption of a French
textual sun in the essayis obliquely associated with the immediately preceding remarks defending, in a post-588 addition, the religious use of "ornements" and
"mouvements ceremonieux de nos eglises" (514C), and encouraging the contemplation of the crucifix and the painted representations of Jesus'slong torture ("la veue
de nos crucifix et peinture de ce piteux supplice" 514C). In a passageladen with calculated theological ambiguities, these remarks, which adopt a pro-Catholic stance,
emphasize the seriousness Montaigne invests in his putative adoration of a Pagan
sun.55Ronsard's verses echo, in many of their particulars, Manilius's insistence on
the scopic and generative agency which permeates the sky: the sun is both "l'ame"
and "l'oeil du monde," God's "yeux radieux/qui donnent vie a tous .../Et
les faicts
des humains en ce monde regardent."56With "fils" and "pere," the line "Fils ayne de
nature et Ie pere du jour" recalls the Christic dimensions of Montaigne's crucifix,
and underlines the sun's generative capacities. Furthermore, Ronsard's quoted verses
evince a curious astronomical ambivalence, staging a sun both mobile and immobile:
"En repos, sans repos, oisif et sans sejour." In other words, this sun cannot decide
whether to respect Ptolemy or to obey Copernicus.
In the first publication of the" Apologie" in 1580, Ronsard's sun occupied the
very center of the essay,a textual detail which demands attention in a text whose
final moments are borrowed almost literally from Amyot's translation of Plutarch's
De E Delphico, ,a treatise on Apollo's mystic letter E.57Plutarch, Montaigne's favorite
author, was a high priest of the Delphic Apollo, the solar divinity invoked as "ce
Dieu" in the final sentence of the last of the Essais.58Although it loses its textual
55The passageis ambiguous, and even, perhaps, theologically dangerous, because it seems apologetic
for the use of ornements so prevalent in Catholic rituals and so abhorred by the Protestants. Also, it
hinges upon the remarks of Plato, in the preceding pages, that it is often necessary to fool human beings
("il est souvent besoin de les piper" 512C) in order to rule better over them. Implicit, then, is the thought
that the Catholic clergy is deceiving "Ie peuple" with ornate ceremonies and images.
56SeePierre de Ronsard, Oeuvres completes,ed. Paul Laumonnier (paris 1946) 10.64-106.
57For the position of the long citation from Ronsard, consult Montaigne, Essais. Reproduction photographique de l'edition originale de 1580, published by Daniel Martin (paris 1976). In the original pagination, the essay begins at 147 and ends at 395, a total of 248 pages (124 + 124). 147 + 124 -271, center of
the essay. The hymn to the sun begins on 272.
58InDe E Delphico, Plutarch asserts that Apollo is the divinity which has contact with being, since
"e" -"ei" -"is". The title" Apologie" itself can be read as a pun on "Apollo," and as a reference to Apollo
loxias, the god which gives ambiguous answers. The whole nature of the essay is ambiguous since its
apologetic nature becomes entangled in skeptical suspension of judgment.

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centrality as the" Apologie" grows through successivelayers of accretions,Montaigne seesfit to later re-mark the Apollonian sun by implanting the "crucifix," a
hapax in the Essais,in its immediatevicinity. Thesehints point to the complexity of
a passagewhich lends itself to severalrival interpretations. On one level, its Christian tenor clearly revealspolitical motives,which recallRonsard'sown "engage"attitude in the violent religious strugglesof the day.Ronsard's"Remonstrance"is a political tract in which the poet castigatesFrench Protestant"heretics" who havemade
Christianity the laughing stock of "Ie Turc,Ie Juif, Ie Sarrasin."This argumentparallels Montaigne's fears,in the" Apologie," that the religious wars in France are destroying the exclusivistpretensionsof Christianity (442B).59
Were it not for his unwavering Catholic faith, Ronsardconfessesthat he would becomea paganand worship the sun, at which point he inscribesthe solar hymn Montaigne appropriates.
On another level,the presenceof Copernicus in the essayand the originally central
position of the sun in its organizationsuggestsa heliocentric flirtation, repressedby
the orthodoxy of Montaigne's faith. Perhapsmore to the point, however,Montaigne's conditional "adoration" and "attachement" to an Apollo textualized by a
famous French poet prefiguresPhaeton'sworship of Ovid's Apollonian chariot, an
episodecrucial in the critique of "poesiedu ciel" in the essay.
Montaigne's vehementdismissalof the abusesof both contemporaryand ancient
theology propels the text through a series of negativeexemplaand commentary
which culminates in an intensequestioning of the "truth-value" of astronomy.This
passage(535-538)begins with a referenceto the tragic fate of Apollo's mortal son,
Phaeton, and continues, mentioning Anaxagoras,Zenon and Archimedes,ancient
philosopherswho formulated conflicting theories about the skiesand the sun:
[B] Les yeux humains ne peuvent apercevoirles chosesque par les formes de leur
connoissance.[C] Et ne nous souvient pas quel saut print Ie miserablePhaetonpour
avoir voulu manier les renesdes chevauxde son perf d'une main mortelle. Nostre esprit
retombe en pareille profondeur,sedissipeet sefroissede mesme,par satemerite. [B] Si
vous demandeza la philosophie de quelle matiere estIe ciel et Ie Soleil ...(535)

"Quel saut print. .." echoesthe first phrase of the Tassoexemplum("Quel saut
vient de prendre. .."), therebylinking the fate of Phaetonto that of the Italian poet.
Tassotried to reachsupremeliterary heights ("l'air de cette antique et pure poisie"),
but miserably failed. For Montaigne, the demise of Phaeton,who combines the
functions of poet (Tasso)and philosopher/astronomer (Eudoxus),is again directly
connected with a radical infirmity of our visual powers."Les yeux humains" can
only distinguish what they already know ("les formes de leur connoissance"),
thereby dooming mankind to an eternal rediscoveryof its weaknesses,
to a constant
59poran essayexploring the background of Ronsard'spoemson the wars of religion, seeF. M. Higman, "Ronsard's political and polemical poetry,' in TerenceCave,ed., Ronsardthe Poet (London 1973)
241-285. Seealso Fran~oisRigolot, "Po'etiqueet Politique: Ronsardet Montaigne devant les troubles de
leur temps,' in Ronsardet Montaigneecrivainsengages?,
ed. Michel Dassonville(Lexington, KY 1989)5770. Seealso Gilbert Gadoffre, "Ronsard et Ie theme solaire,' in Le Solei!a fa Renaissance
(n. 48 above)

501-518.

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DUCIEL"

261

reenactment of Phaeton's fall. Onomastically, "Phaeton," from the Greek verb

phaino, "to shine brightly," perfectly captureshis plight: the destructivelight of his
inner presumption or "temerite" blinds him, his own eyescan only seewhat they
wish to see,and he cannot keep his hands ("manier", "main mortelle") from attempting to usurp his divine father's control of the chariot. Finally, the quotation
collapsesthe astronomical/poeticalquestinto the philosophical,and capitalizesthe
sun ("Soleil") asthe object of desireof poetry, astronomyand philosophy.
The essaytightens its negativecriticism of astronomy (and implicitly of poetry
and philosophy) by branding it a "ridicule entreprise" whose rhetorical and factitious motives againsurfacein the terms "forgeant"and "nostre invention" (536A):
Comme il se void au mouvementdes planettes,auquel d'autant que nostre esprit ne
peut arriver, ny imaginer sa naturelle conduite, nous leur prestons,du nostre, des
ressortsmateriels,lourds et corporels:"temo aureus,aureasummae/curvaturarotae,radiorum argenteusordo."
[The beam was golden,as was the upper curvature of the wheel, whereasthe arrangement of the spokeswas silver.] (536A)

The Latin citation belongs to Ovid's tragic tale of "magnanimous"Phaeton; and

Montaigne, who has internalized the Metamoryhoses
from his earliest school days,
fully expectsus to import this famous parable into our reading,and especiallythe
immediate context of the two verseshe quotes.Ovid portrays Phaeton,to whom
Apollo has unwittingly sworn that he could drive the sun's chariot for one day,
"burning with desire for the cart" (v. 104)whose wonderful artistry he is rapturously viewing ("miratur opusque,"v. 111). The craftsmanresponsiblefor the cart,
referred to as "Vulcania munera" (v. 106), is the archetypal"forgeur" Vulcan, the
Greek god Hephalstos,whose masterpiecesinclude Achilles's and Aeneas'sshields.
Phaetonis thus contemplating a mythic masterpieceof the visual arts, and the hexametersMontaigne quotesbelong to an Ovidian ekphrasis,a written representation
of a visual representation.This short ekphrasis,however,must be readalongsidethe
much longer sample of the genrelocated at the very beginning of the book, the depiction of the cosmoswrought by Mulciber/Vulcan on the double doors of Apollo's
celestialpalace.In anotherekphrastictour de force,Ovid weaveshere his own exemplary "poesie du ciel," imitative of Vulcan'sprowessasthe smith of the gods.6O

6O0vidiusNaso, Metamorphoses,
ed. William S. Anderson (Leipzig 1977)2 vv. 111-112: "dumque ea
magnanimusPhaetonmiratur opusque/perspicit";v. 104:". ...flagratque cupidinecurrus." The description of the palaceof the sun (2 vv. 1-18) is an ornate ekphrasiswhich introduces the Phaeton/Apollo
episode,stressingthat Mulciber/Vulcan is the anist responsiblefor its magnificence,a victor over raw
materia: "materiam superabat opus; nam Mulciber illic/aequora caelarat medias cingentia terras/terrarumqueorbem caelumque. .." (vv. 5-7) Notice thefigura etymologica"caelarat/caelum,"explicited by Manilius, Copernicus,Pliny andMontaigne. The passage
closes(vv. 17-18) by underscoringthat
Mulciber's representationis cosmic in nature, encompassingeanh, seaandsky. It is no hazardthat Mulciber surfacesby namein the" Apologie" at 561,in a versefrom the first book of the Metamorphoses.
For
a treatment of the influence of Ovid upon Montaigne'swriting practices,seeFran~oisRigolot, LesMetamorphoses
deMontaigne (paris 1988)218-229. The last words of the" Apologie" are "miraculeusemetamorphose."

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MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

As noted earlier in the discussionof the "legible heavens,"ekphrasisbelongs,in

both antiquity and the Renaissance,
to that most difficult of textual challenges,the
production of a capiadevelopingenoughenargeiato bridge the distancebetweenthe
reader'seyesand the written surface. With ekphrasis,writing must overcomethe
severelimitations imposed upon it by time and linearity, the horizontal dimensions
it necessarilyfollows while being processed.To rival with vision, the written text has
to act instantly, as if it were not "re-presentation"but presentationand "present-ification." Sebondhoped, in a sense,that suchproperties of the world-text would capture the readerand lead her irresistibly to the messageof the presenceof God in the
world. However, Montaigne's meditation on ekphrasis (another name for Ovid's
"poesie du ciel") is now totally divorcedfrom suchoptimism. As readersof the essay,
we read Phaetonbeholding a text, namely Ovid's ekphrasisof a mythical work of
art, a situation multiplying sets of irremediable distancing from what, in reality,
should be the actual sun as astronomy conceivesit. We also know that what the
youth is beholding is nothing more than the vain image of his pride, which will
soon becomethe instrument of his destruction. The son of a mortal woman and of
Apollo himself, Phaetonis neverthelessdestinedto remain an "imbecile," weddedin
deathto the earth's horizontal surface.61
For Montaigne,Phaeton'splight exemplifies
that of astronomy and of all other sciences,including poetry. Analyzed from the
perspectiveof "l'homme seul," all poetic/poietic constructs are ponderous fetters,
"ressorsmateriels,lourds et corporels,"tying us to our insurmountablelimitations.
The presentpassage(535-538)complementsthat of the "legible heavens"through
its enrollment of numerousterms evocativeof a literal textuality: "entrelassements,"
"poinct," "descousu," "cordage," "contexture," "descoudre," "estoffer," "architecture," and "rapie~ee."62
Textuality also inhabits the Latin term arda, last word of the
quotation from Ovid, whose primary acceptanceis "the order of the threadsof the
woof and weft of a weaving."63Both astronomyand philosophy arethereforeclearly
subsumed by a poetic/poietic activity which possesses
spinning, weaving and all
operations of needleand thread as its emblemsand which inhabits the core of any
"science."Plato views nature,like Sebond,asa wonderful text to be deciphered,"nature n'est rien qu'une poesie oenigmatique,"to which Montaigne retorts that philosophy itself "n'est qu'une poesiesophistiquee."(535-536C)This sustainedemphasis on the fabrication of a fiction, of a poetic "textum," originates in Montaigne's
allusion, in a glossjuxtaposedto Ovid's arda,to Plato's myth of Er:

61The story of Phaeton does not begin with Book 2 of the Metamoryhoses, The end of Book 1 (vv,
747-779) relates the youth's psychological quandary, He doubts his father is a god, and he demands a
formal proof from his mother Clymene, who entreats Apollo who, in turn, lifts Phaeton to heaven to
illuminate him,
62In the phrase "je suis trompe si [nostre pauvre science] tient une seule chose droitement en son
poinct" (536C), Montaigne choses the spelling "poinct" instead of "poing" in order to create an amphiblogy which means both "in its fist" and "in its Stitch,"
6JSeeErnout and Meillet, Dictionnaire erymologique de la langue latine (n, 24 above): "ordior: ourdir
une trame, commencer a tisser"; "ordo: d'abord, ordre des fils dans la trame,"

"LA POESIEDU CIEL"

263

"[A] Vous diriez que nous avonseudes cochers,descharpentiers[C] et despeintres [A]

qui sont allez dresserla haul desenginsa divers mouvemens,[C] et rangerles rouageset
entrelassements
descorps celestesbigarrezen couleur autour du fuseaude la necessite,
selonPlaton." (536)

For the essayist,all technicians,intellectual and otherwise,participate in a poietic

weavingof the world, exemplarilyillustrated by Plato'sgrandiosecosmogonicmyth.
Indeed, the myth of Er, culminating moment of the Republic,puts spinning and
weavingat the very centerof the philosopher'svision of the fabrication of the fated
ordo of the cosmos.Plato's sphaera,
the descriptionof the heavens,presentsthe celestial bodies and their orbs asa wonderful piece of fabric actively being spun by "Ie
fuseaude la Necessite."The spinning imageryleadsto the picture of the three Parcae,Lachesis,Clotho, and Atropos, textually determiningthe fate of each individual
soul. A relationship, very reminiscent of Manilius's stoic positions, is thus drawn
betweenthe textuality of the cosmosand that of man'sdestiny.64
Inevitably, this intenseawarenessof the fabricatednature of all human artifacts,
of the irrepressiblehumanhandling or manipulation going into the ordering of their
warp and weft, entails the "mise en abyme" of the essay'sown textuality. A sign of
this self-reflexiveturn surfacesin Montaigne'sinscription, in late additions, of painting in the list of technaiactively fabricating the world for human readingand consumption: "[A] des cochers,des charpentiers,[C) et despeintres."65
In the 1580preface" Au lecteur," the famoussentence"car c'est moy que je peins" spells out one of
the overarching metaphorsfor Montaigne's project, the literary self-portrait. This
accenton painting thereforeexposesthe entire fabric of the Essaisto the samecriticism leveled against Plato as "poete descousu"and "grand forgeur de miracles."
(537C)Montaigne himself becomesthe Vulcanianand/or Ovidian "forgeur" trying
to producea visually activepiece of fabric, a sort of ekphrasismiraculously mirroring an absentvisual representation.Applied to the" Apologie," suchconsiderations
are utterly destructive of the rhetoric of the passage
endorsing visually convincing
"legible heavens,"since it indissociablybelongsto the textualordo enablingall of the
essay'spronouncements.The Latin and Frenchsamplesof "poesie du ciel" we have
appreciatedalso belong to this ordo or product of the human loom. To make this
point, Montaigne cites four versesfrom Varro asa gloss upon Plato's "fuseaude la~

64SeePlato, The Republic, trans. Desmond Lee (New York 1974) 450-452 (- 616b-618b, Stephanus
pagination). This edition has a helpful appendix (460-464) with a diagram attempting to show what Plato
means by "the Spindle of Necessity~ and its role in the workings of the universe.
65My emphasis. Here are the relevant passageson painting: "Ay je pas veu en Platon ce divin mot, que
nature n'est qu'une poesie oenigmatique? comme peut estre qui diroit une peinture voilee et tenebreuse,
entreluisant d'une infinie variete de faux jours a exercer nos conjectures.~ (536C) "Et ce n'est pas raison de
les [the philosophers who confusedly attempt to represent microcosm in terms of the macrocosm] excuser. Car aux peintres, quand ils peignent Ie tiel, la terre, les mers, ...nous
leur condonons
[-"pardonons~]
qu'ils nous en rapportent seulement quelque marque legiere ...Mais
quand ils nous
tirent apres Ie naturel en un subject qui nous est familier et connu, nous exigeons d'eux une parfaicte et
exacte representation des lineaments et des couleurs, et les mesprisons s'ils y faillent.~ (538C)

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MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

necessite"and its cosmologicaldimensions.66

Theseversespresentone more sample
of the poetry of the skies,and they recallthe celestialdescriptionsof Manilius, Lucretius, Ovid, Ronsard and Plato. But Montaigne now qualifies his appreciation of
their suggestivesplendorwith the tersecomment,"Ce sont tous songeset fanatiques
folies." (536B)67
III. COPERNICUS
If, as we advanced,Montaigne's quotation of Ronsard'shymn to the sun stageda
temptation towards heliolatrie or even a momentary flirtation with Copernicus's
heliocentrism, the myth of Phaetonhas efficiently neutralizedthese "songeset folies." Under the spell of the youth's monitory catastrophe,"science,"and especially
astronomy, downgradedto the status of a dubious "astrologie," come once more
under attack: "Elle [= la science]nous donne en payementet en presuppositionles
chosesqu'elle mesmenous apprend estre inventees:car ces epicycles,excentriques,
concentriques,dequoy l'Astrologie s'aidea conduire Ie branslede sesestoilles,elle
nous les donne pour Ie mieux qu'elle ait ss;euinventera ce sujet." (537A) The technical vocabulary Montaigne useshere brings into focus Copernicus and his peers,
who, like Plato or Varro, are guilty of rhetorical "inventions," "fictions legitimes"
(537C) they wish to endow with verisimilitude, with the ontological power of "ce
qui est." (537A) "Epicycles,excentriques,concentriques"representthe mathematical
battleground of the Copernicanefforts to rewrite the cosmosas a whole symmetrically organizedaround a determinablecenter,a notion which particularly fascinates
Renaissanceart and Neoplatonic philosophy.68At this point, however,Montaigne
shifts the discussionfrom the philosopher's and/or astronomer'soutward gazetowards the skiesto the interior of "nous mesmeset notre contexture," from the macrocosmic to microcosmic concerns("Ie petit monde" 537A). He arguesthat the astronomers' methods, which launch into the skies their "cordages,""engins" and
"roues," apply as well to science'sinvasivedrive to comprehendthe mechanismsof
our inner selvesand bodies: "11n'y a pasplus de retrogradation,trepidation, accession, reculement,ravissement,aux astreset aux corps celestes,
qu'ils en ont forge en
66
As Villey notes,Montaigne finds theseversesin a commentary of Valerius Probus (late first century
AD) on the sixth eclogueof Virgil. For the intertextual reader,Montaigne demonstrateshere the remarkable extent of his grasp of Roman literature. He has gone out of his way to find theseversesof Varro.
This Latin polymath's nameappearsseventimes in the" Apologie," and Montaigne wishesus to associate
Varro with a textual sample. In the section which concernsus here, Varro is in our mind as the "plus
subtil et Ie plus s~avantautheurLatin" (531C),and, more specifically,asan outstandingpagantheologian
(531C, 535C). Like Plato, he is very concernedwith the "revolutions" of the soul, in other words, with
metempsychosis(555C). Even more to the point, however, is the expression"Ie plus subtil." The verses
of Varro illuminate Plato's cosmicspinning and weavingwith their own weavingdexterity, since"subtil"
is an eminently textual word, coming from the Latin sub+ tela, "underneaththe weaving." Furthermore,
the "bigas" (- "chariots drawn by a pair of horses") reinscribethe Apollonian chariot which fascinates
Phaeton.
67Significantly,the term "fanatique" comesfrom the Latin "fanum," "temple," the region of the sky
which the augur delimits with his wand in order to readit for possibleoracularevents.
68See
Hallyn, La structurepoetiquedu monde(n. 45 above)102-104.

"LA POESIEDU CIEL"

265

ce pauvre petit corps humain." (537A) The plethora of technicalvocabularybelonging to scientific and/or astrologicalspeculationsabout the heavensnow applies to
human corporal and mental realities.This lexicon seeksto "savethe appearances"
and to devisea schemeto accountfor the phenomenainterior to our consciousness,
"pour accomoderles mouvementsqu'ils voyent en l'homme,les diversesfonctions et
facultezque nous sentonsen nous." (537A)
This inward turn in the discussionof astronomyand of its poietic forgeriesimportantly prefigures the increasingpersonalizationof the "je" promoting the polemical discourseof the" Apologie." The referenceto Copernicus, which coincides
with the conclusion of the "poesie du ciel" paradigmin the essay,occurs at a moment when Montaigne is using a "je" very akin to that of the self-portrait. This "je,"
as Cathleen Bauschatzhas demonstrated,refersspecificallyto the preoccupationsof
the essayist'sown inner world.69The pronouncedpersonalnote entersthe essaywith
the famous apostropheto a mysterious"Vous" (557A), presumablya female reader
whom Montaigne elects as the dedicateeof the essay,and whose presenceand
reader'sgazechargesthe text with a more confessionaland self-revelatoryatmosphere.7O
With this specializedformulation of the writer/reader contract,Montaigne's
Copernicusbecomesa referenceoperativewithin the essayist'sprivate psychological
mIcrocosm.
In the passages
of the essayleadingto the naming of the astronomer,the textual
signsof this interiorization of Copernicus consist of a semanticand imagistic play
with the title of the treatise,De revolutionibus,literally "On the turns," "On the
wheeling backwards."Tellingly, it is within Ovid's hexameterson Phaetonthat this
semanticpatterning imitative of "revolutiones" finds its anchor. The ordo dangerously absorbing Phaetonis that of the spokesof the wheels of Apollo's cart, "radiorum ordo," leading outward from the central hub to the curvature of the wheel
("curvatura rotae"). The French immediately rewrites "rota" with "rouages...des
corps celestes"(536C) and, on the next page,with "roues" (537A), the explanatory
orbs, with their complicated epicycles,that sciencesends both outward into the
cosmosand within, into the microcosmic "petit monde." Twenty-sevenpageslater,
the imagerylatent in "roue" beginsto affirm its philological orbit in a contextwhere
"je" depictsitself as a sort of psychologicalastronomergazinginward at the mechanisms of consciousness:"Moy qui m'espie de plus prez, qui ay les yeux
incessammenttendu sur moy ..." (565A)7\Montaigne here reversesthe Ovidian
topos picturing man contemplatingthe skiesand showshimself particularly inclined
to gazeinward insteadof outward. The passage
leadingto this strong affirmation of
the "Moy" addresseshow affectiveand somatic alterationsoften influence, without
our awareness,
"nostre jugement et les facultezde nostre ame en general," remark
69Cathleen
M. Bauschatz,"The developmentof the narrator in Montaigne's'Apologie',. RomanicRe.
'View70.1 (1979)19-32. Bauschatzdiscusses
the introspectiveturn at 30-32.
TOpora discussionof the gendereddynamicsat this moment of the essay,seeFran~oisRigolot, "D'une
Theotogie'pour les dames'a une Apotogie'per Ie donne'?,. in De la "Theotogia.a ta Theotogie(n. 1 above)

261-290.

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MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

bolstered by a Latin citation whose intertextual repercussionsdeserveclose attentIon:

L 'air mesme et la serenitedu ciel nous apportequelque mutation, comme rut ce veTS
Grec en Cicero: "Tales sunt hominum mentes,quali pater ipse/juppiter auctiferalustravit lampadeterras." Ce ne sont pas seulementles fievres,les breuvages,et les grands
accidents qui renversentnostre jugement; les moindres chosesdu monde Ie tournevirent. (564)

This text developsthe turning implicit in "mutation" by accumulatingterms insisting on rotation and circularity: avers" (a ceaselessly
tropic construct) and "renversent" come from the Latin vertere,"to turn round"; "tournevirent" doubly increasesthe propensity of "jugment" to spin awayfrom itself in circular motions. The
Latin quotation is, on one level,itself a double turn: "un vers," and a Latin "version"
of a Greek verse.The text thus advertisesits tropisms,and encouragesthe readerto
pursue the layersof turns and counterturns inhabiting the vertiginous vortex Montaigne hascalculatedhere.The verseof Cicero, from a lost section of De Jato,is preservedin Saint Augustine'sCity ojGod (5.8),a work which either turns againstpagan culture to overturn it, or which turns and transforms it to serveAugustine's
purposes.The Ciceronian passage,
a translation from Homer's Odyssey,
depicts the
inner world of men'sminds as constantly changing,in the sameway ("tali") that the
sun god (hererepresentedby "Juppiter") projectsits constantly different luminosity
on earth in a fertilizing ("auctiferalampade")and recurring round.72The syntactical
difficulty "Tales. ..quali" presentsfor the construction of the Latin entails a comparison whereby men's minds, in a sense,are both the sun which inseminatesthe
microcosmic inner lands,and the landsthemselves.The boundariesbetweeninterior
and exterior blur, and give the sun a peculiar inner influence in men's minds. The
readeris thus reminded both of the earlier destructive inner sun of reasonwhich
blinds us to the excellencesof the animals,and of Phaeton'spathologicalself-blindmg.
From another standpoint, the citation from Augustine provesto be a unique occurrence in Montaigne's "quotesmanship,"since it is repeatedfrom its first servicein
"De l'inconstance de nos actions." (2.1) As a rule, Montaigne uses Latin passages
only once, but he finds it imperativehere to return to a versehe hasusedbefore.73
In
2.1 (333A), he quoted almost verbatim Augustine's version of Cicero's Homeric
translation. Here, however,the essayisttakes liberties with Augustine's quotation,
and replacesits "quali ...auctiferas lumine terras" with "quali ...auctifera lampade
71Forthe concept of "philological orbit," seeJulesBrody, LecturesdeMontaigne(Lexington 1982)29.
72Augustinus,
De civitate Dei, eds.B. Dombart andA. Kalb (Stuttgart 1981)5.8.
7JForan analysis of Montaigne's "quotesmanship" stressingthat the essayistnever repeatshimself
when quoting seeLino Pertile, "Paper andInk: the Structure of Unpredictability," in 0 UN AMYl Essays
on Montaigne in Honor of Donald M. Frame(Lexington, KY 1977)190-217. Pertile, however, maintains
that Montaigne quotes arbitrarily, without respectfor original contexts. I believe this position to be
totally erroneous. For brief referencesto this particular citation and its unique double usage,seeChristine Brousseau-Beuermann,
La copiedeMontaigne.Etudesur lescitationsdansles "Essais"(paris 1989)98101,112-114.

"LA POESIE DO CIEL"

267

terras." "Lampade auctifera," "fecundating lamp," reproduces "lampe de grace,"

which has surfaced twice previously in highly pious passagesof the essay (520A,
553A). The significance of this rewriting becomes much clearer once we refer to the
tenth chapter of Copernicus's De revolutionibus, where the sun receives the epithets
"lamp in the most beautiful temple" ("in hoc pulcerrimo templo lampadem"), and
"lantern of the universe" ("lucernam mundi"). In a forceful metaphor, Copernicus
goes on to praise the fertilization of the earth by the sun: "Concipit interea a Sole
terra et impraegnatur annuo partu.,,74This comment chimes with the image of solar
fecundation in Augustine's quotation of Cicero, and it reminds us of the generative
responsibilities of the sun in Ronsard's hymn. Montaigne is therefore contaminating
Augustine's Cicero's Homer with a Copernican intertext, a maneuver which places
the astronomer among the most eminent writers and theologians in the occidental
tradition, thereby preparing the ground for his introduction in the essay as an
"homme de lettres."
In this context, of course, one cannot read "auctifera" positively. Here, the adjective rather indicates the proliferation of "mutations" and endless turns affecting both
the body and the soul. Diseases,fevers, the slightest alteration engender giddy spins
in the judgment and are capable to "atterrer nostre ame" (564A), literally to "throw
it to the ground," to confine it to its natural "imbecillite." The undetectable nature
of these "maladies" proves especially worrisome to Montaigne: "Au demeurant, cette
maladie ne se descouvre pas aisement, d'autant que la raison va toujours torte, et
boiteuse, et deshanchee,et avec le mensonge et avec la verite. ...J'appelle tousjours
raison cette apparence de discours que chacun forge en soi." (565A) Our rational
faculties ("raison," "discours"), to which we mistakenly entrust the detection of our
personal inner maladies, suffer from an affliction which also implies continual turnings and "renversements." Reason is always twisted or "torte," a word whose physiognomy reminds us of "tour," and whose etymon, the Latin torquere, has, as its primary acceptance,"to turn" or to violently impress a turning motion upon an object.
Furthermore, "raison," "boiteuse et deshanchee," is subtly linked with the poietic
Vulcan of the Phaeton episode, a god equally lame and limping, yet the master
"forgeur" of artistic fictions. As fiction or forgery, reason can be twisted and fashioned, as lead or wax, to encircle any topic. A mind sufficient enough will always
find a way to turn reason around any intellectually problematic obstacle:
"cette raison, de la condition de laquelle il y en peut avoir cent contraires autour d'un
mesme subject, c'est un instrument de plomb et de cire, alongeable, ployable et accomodable a tous biais et a toutes mesure; il ne reste que la suffisance de Ie [= reason as a
bendable instrument] s~avoircontourner." (565A)7S

The persistent imagery which applies the "revolutiones"- the turns and counterturns of Copernicus'semblematic title- to the mechanismsof our consciousness
1'"Meanwhile the earth conceivesfrom the sun and is impregnatedfor its annualparturition." (My
translation.)SeeNicolaus Copernicus,On the revolutions(n. 31 above)2.22.
15Myemphasis.

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MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

and foregroundsreason'sturnable nature, now begins to qualify the essayist'sinnerworld,

ashe invites us to look inside of his own psychewith "Moy qui m'espie..."
(565A) Instability or "bransle," he confesses,
rules his statesof mind, a territory
where the metaphorical foot of his intellectual tread is alwaysready to twist underneath him and to force him to tumble or "crosler" (565A),a verb which comesfrom
the popular Latin corrotulare,"to set something rolling." Montaigne quickly transfers these constanttumbling falls awayfrom a solid concentrationto bring out salient aspectsof his most notable activities, reading and writing. When reading,he
often finds himself struck by "un tel passagede gracesexcellentesqui auront feru
mon ame" (566A). Coming back to it another time, however,"j'ay beaule tourner et
virer ...c'est une masseinconnue et informe pour moy." (566A)Here, "tourner et
virer" rewrites the earlier "tournevirent" to indicate the lack of fixity of his esthetic
sense.Turning and returning the passage
to replaceit at the angle which originally
struck him, he fails; and the only result is an emphasison the insecurewheelingsto
and fro of his literary judgment. The samephenomenonpertainsto his rereadingsof
his own writings, in which he cannotfind againthe "air" or tenor of his first draft.76
These constant detoursfrom an original intention characterizethe essayingmethod
itself, this weighing of contrary opinions: "Maintefois,ayantpris pour exercice...a
maintenir une contraire opinion a la mienne, mon esprit, s'applicantet tournant de
ce coste la, m'y attachesi bien que je ne trouve plus la raisonde mon premier avis."
(566B) In other words, a sort of gravitational pull inhabits the "contraire opinion,"
an attraction which yanks the essayist'smind from its original orbit and setsit turnfig on a new one.
The imageryendorsing"revolutiones" at all levelsof the text leadsto Montaigne's
reiterated admission of his own "volubilite" (569A), a key term reinforced by the
Latin revoluta,appearing in the Virgilian citation immediately precedingit. With
"revoluta" and "volubilite," we are very closeindeedto the "revolutiones" of Copernicus, who will be mentioned five sentenceslater. Thesewords all originate in the
Latin verb volvere,"rouler, "faire rouler, "rouler dansson esprit." Montaigne himself
insists on the etymology: "Autrement, je ne me s~auroygarderde rouler sanscesse."
(569A) As protection againstthis "volubilite" and endlessrolling from one opinion
to the next, Montaigne electsthe fixed "assiette"of faith in God. "Ainsi me suis-je,
par la gracede Dieu, conserveentier ...aux anciennescreancesde nostre religion. .
." (569A) His Catholic faith provideshim with a vertical "attache" or anchor guarding him againstthe endlesslateralgyrationstowards"nouvelletes"and the multiplicity of constantly changinghuman opinions.
Rather abruptly, the text now reverts to a discussionof writing and reading.As
some pagan siren or satanic voice, the "escrits des anciens" tempt the essayistand
createdangerousmutations in his inner being: "[Ils] me tentent et remuent quasiou
ils veulent." (569A) So strong is the seduction of their fullness, solidity and "roi76"Enmes escrismesmesje ne retrouve pas toujours Pair de ma premiereimagination: je ne s~ayce
que j'ay voulu dire, et m'eschaudesouvent a corriger et y mettre un nouveausens,pour avoir perdu Ie
premier, qui valloit mieux." (560B)

"LA POESIEDU CIEL"

269

deur," that it seemsthat evenreligion hasa difficult time in preventingthe "je," fascinated as Phaeton,from successively
turning around them: "je les trouve avoir raison chacuna son tour, quoy qu'ils secontrarient." (570A, my emphasis)In this transition towards Copernicus, Montaigne is thus making explicit the sort of textual
responseDe revolutionibusitself elicits. In a tacit recognition of the tempting nature
of the Polish astronomer'smagnetizingtext, he is positioning his treatiseamongthe
writings of the ancients,a canonization which the Copernican contamination of
Augustine's quote of Cicero's translation of Homer had suggestedearlier. Furthermore, Montaigne namesCopernicus after having reaffirmed his Catholic "attache."
This affirmation functions, in a sense,as an apotropaicdeviceagainstthe often irresistible allurements (their ability to give their rhetoric "assezde couleur" and to
"rendre ce qu'ils veulentvray-semblable"[570A] of both the ancients'and Copernicus'sadroitly forgedtextualsystems.
We are finally in a position to fully read the sentencebearing, in Montaigne's
corpus,the only mention of the most "revolutionary" astronomerof the sixteenthcentury.77It begins:
"[A] Le ciel et les estoillesont branle trois mille ans; tout Ie monde l'avoist ainsi creu,
jusqu'a ce que [C] CleanthesIe Samienou, selon Theophraste,Nicetas Siracusien[A]
s'avisade maintenir que c'estoitla terre qui semouvoit [C] par Ie cercleoblique du Zodiaque tournant a l'entour de sonaixieu; ...(570)

In this statement,the "branle" of the celestialbodiesis replacedby the complicated

motion of the earth, which turns with the zodiac while simultaneously turning
upon itself. The sentencecontinues by stressingthat Copernicusemulatesand confirms Cleanthes'sand Nicetas'snotion of the "volubilite" of the earth:
"[A] et, de nostre temps,Copernicus a si bien fonde cette doctrine qu'il s'en sert tresregleementaroutesles consequences
Astronomiques...Et qui s~ayqu'une tierce opinion, d'icy a mille ans,ne renverseles deuxprecedentes?"(570)

Strikingly for an essayin which, through Ronsard'shymn and its Phaetonianrepercussions,we have delineatedthe thematic and textual importance of the sun, this
Copernican emblem par excellenceis here occulted. The text seemsto repressits
former urgesto gravitatearound the brightest beaconof the astronomic universe,to
entertain its self-conscioustemptation at heliolatrie. In a sense,Montaigne's recent
appealto the firm "assiette"he unquestioninglyacceptsfrom his Catholic faith has
totally succeeded:it has effectivelyneutralizedthe Apollonian fervor to which he
earlier confessed,and it evacuatesthe solar temptation from the very heart of the
contemporary literary and/or philosophical construct which most skillfully postulatesit. After its subversivecritique of "poesiedu ciel" and of its textual mechanisms,
77Pora book-length study of the concept of scientific "revolution" and its ties with politics, seeBernard I. Cohen, Revolution in Science(Cambridge,MA 1985).Cohen studiesthe semanticevolution of
"revolution" in Chapter 4, "Transformations in the Concept of Revolution" 51-76. His discussionof
Copernicusas"revolutionary" (105-125)isoutstanding.

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MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

the essaynow resiststhe sovereign("regleement"comes from rex) rhetoric which

founds a new order or ordo in the heavensand which savesthe appearances
by itself
producing a tantalizing appearance.As Montaigne comments a few sentenceslater:
"car de croire toutes les apparencesdesquellesnous ne pouvons nous deffaire,c'est
une grandesimplesse."(S70A)
The splendor of an Apollonian center is replacedby the keen awarenessof the
"renversements"or revolutions which inhabit both the essayist'sinner world and the
diachronically-bound theoretical expressionsof astronomers.Human speculation
about the heavensbegins in the furthest removesof antiquity a Christian can imagine (three thousand yearsfrom the time of the PythagoreanNicetas), and, through
these"renversements,"it is propelled far into the future (a thousand yearsfrom Copernicus). A citation from Lucretius,intervening soon after the referenceto Copernicus, reinforcesthe diachronic dimensionsof the fatality associatedwith the inevitable supersessionof one construct by another: time necessarilyrevolves("volvenda
aetas")and brings about the end of the seasonsin which all things humansprize are
born, flourish, and die ("commutat tempora rerum").78As the long passageMontaigne will soon borrow from Plutarch's De E Delphicoto concludethe" Apologie"
will make clear,the irrefragablerules of human time guaranteethat "Nous n'avons
aucune communication a l'estre, parce que toute humaine nature est toujours au
milieu entre l'estre et Ie mourir." (601A) In this famous sententia,"au milieu" ironically and radically weakensthe possibility for human beingsto possessan ontologically fixed middle or center,such asa solarfocus.Without sucha base,it is chimerical to attempt to arrestthe flow of time and to immobilize a logoswhose verifiable
presenceaboveus be not alwaysundermined by our "imbecillite" or prone condition, our horizontal jail, which is also the jail of textuality, of the temporal linearity
of language.
Imitating the teleologicaldrive of "1'humaine nature" towards death, the limitations of human textuality similarly affectthe expectedlife of the contemporaryexplanations of the heavens,among which Copernicus'sis so prominent:
Quelles lettres ont ceux-ci[= contemporary"principes" or explanatory systems],quel
privilege particulier, que Ie cours de nostre invention s'arrestea eux, et qu'a eux appartient pour tout Ie temps advenirla possession
de nostrecreance?"(570A)

Through a sort of eleganttmesis,this statementmobilizes the expression"lettres de

creance"in order to challengethe claims of De rewlutionibusto veracity and eternal
perdurability. Obviously, the treatisepossesses
no official act or "lettres" signedby a
prince or any other superior agencyvouching for the solidity and plenitude of a

78Lucretius.De rerum natura vv. 1275-1279.It is also quite significant that in the Phaeton episode,
Ovid insistson the diachronic dimensionsof Apollo by surrounding him with personificationsof passing
time: "a dextra laevaqueDies et Mensiset Annus/Saeculaqueet positaespatiisaequalibusHorae. .." A
brief description of the seasonsfollows (Metamoryhoses
2.25-31).

"LA POESIE DU CIEL"

message or faith
"lettres"

271

("creance")

of Copernicus's

as a perpetual
revolutions

victim

that one type

construct

of withstanding

time's

text stand alone, just as man, "l'homme

of his Phaetonian

of whimsical

tutes a revolution,

capable

opinion.

a turn

and illusions,

The

seul," stands alone

and of the ceaseless

This allusion to "lettres de creance" itself consti-

or return to the preamble

of authoritative

the privilege

hubris

depredations.79

writing

of the essay. Here, the notion

can grant to another and weaker linguistic

to found its "signifie"

had surfaced in the attack against Se-

bond's second camp of enemies, the atheists. In both cases, the reference to "lettres
de creance" interrogates
and understanding

the "bien fonde"

of our pretentions

displayed above us by God the architect and "architextor."

pernicus, the" Apologie"
the immense

towards a lasting grasp

of the real "poesie du ciel," of these "flambeaux

thus forces the diligent

philological

orbit

reflect upon the hermeneutic

us both the poetry

roulans"

(450A)

After its mention

of Co-

reader to retrace from its beginning

just accomplished.

In the process, we are asked to

status of human "lettres,"

these units which

deliver to

of the skies and the essay's text, in which samples of the textuali-

zation of the heavens are so insistently

lodged:

Et ce privilege qu'il [- l'homme) s'attribue d'estre seul en ce grand bastimant, qui art la
suffisance d'en recognoistre la beaute et les pieces, seul qui en puisse rendre graces a
l'architecte et tenir conte de la recepte et mise du monde, qui lui a seele ce privilege?
Qu'il fiCUSmontre lettres de cette belle et grande charge. (450B)
"L 'homme
letters

seul" cannot exhibit

which

mathematical

could

validate

his

to accomplish

the control

canian, poietic,
ton's chariot.

"ouvrage,"

feat, a "contexture"

which

would

ordo or weaving reflected by Ovid's

the fabric

amount

living signification.

la

necessary

reach upward

and

the Vul-

ekphrasis of Phae-

distance separating

us

believed we could read

For Montaigne,

only

to the ordinary

weavings

when compared

the perishable

let-

alone can exercise the sphragistic

In an overarching

etymological

of poets and philosophers.

to a supernatural,

privilege

"to begin to weave"), Montaigne

extraordi-

of authentification

figure depending

tion that the semantic root of ordo is ordior (in French "ourdir
set up the warp,"

for a

along with all the other samples of "poesie du ciel" we have

weavings are nothing

nary ordo which

which Sebond fondly

seemed to have textualized.

ters of De revolutionibus,
These ordinary

charge")

He does not have the "lettres"

This ordo can never bridge the inconceivable

Manilius

encountered,

et grande

("tenir conte," "recognoistre

of the skies into our hands. Man only operates within

or factitious

from the divine

and which

("belle

or recounting

of the world.

such a textual

seal ("seele" = "scelle") and the patent

responsibility

or an esthetic accounting

beaute") of the organization

bring

the official

and

on our recogni-

une trame, that is, "to

assigns the enargeia of such a su-

79Cotgrave's
Dictionarie (n. 41 above)givesdefinitions of "lettres" (pluralized)and "lettres decreance"
that are very helpful. For "lettres": "a Patent, Graunt, Commaund, Writ, or Decree passingfrom a
Prince, or out of a Court of Justice; (in which it is altogetherusedin the plural)." For "lettres de creance": "Letters of trust, and credence;wherein the writer wills, that his messengerbe credited in those
things which he shall deliver by word of mouth."

272

MARC-ANDRE WIESMANN

preme hypertext only to the "faveur," "infusion" or "secoursextraordinaires"God

lends us when he extendstowardsus "extraordinairementsamain" (604A),the hand
of the architextor.8o
In conclusion, with the hindsight afforded by an itinerary in pursuit of "poesie
du ciel" in "L'Apologie de Raimond Sebond," the readercan now see that Montaigne's thought about the theologicalvalidity of "science"and! or "lettres" finds its
formulation encapsulatedin one of the original sententialstatementsof the essay:
"Moy, je les [ = "les lettres" and! or "science"]ayme bien, mais je ne les adore pas."
(439A)This statementconstitutesthe epigrammatic"pointe" of a criticism leveledat
his father Pierre Eyquem, who had askedMontaigne to translatethe Theologianaturalis once given him by the savantPierre Bunel. Eyquem, a man with no formal
education, neverthelessidolized "les hommes doctes" as if they were "personnes
sainctes...ayant quelque particuliere inspiration de sagesse
divine..," and whose
pronouncements("discours")were "oracles." (439A)Pierre Eyquem'sattitude, Montaigne continues, amounts to "reverence"and "religion," the first appearanceof a
term which, at this its first instance in the essay,assumesits alternative semantic
value, that of the Latin superstitio.We have gaugedthe crucial implications of the
etymology of religio (relegerelreligare)in the essay.Here, its association with
"adorer" and "oracles" further specifiesthe directions to be chosenby Montaigne's
examination of the sway that "lettres," and their specialembodiment in the poetry
of the skies,maintains over us. "Adorer" and "oracles" are semanticallyvery close
through their common Latin etymon os,oris,the face or visage,and they announce
the essayist'ssubsequentdenigration of the "homme d'Ovide" topos ("Os homini
sublime dedit [Deus]" 484A), wherebythe sky-ward turn of the countenanceof human beingsacts as a sign of our divine origin, of our God-givenpropensity to read
the heavensand to derive a clearmessagefrom them. In deferenceto his father's late
fervor for Sebond,Montaigne initially insists upon the existenceof "legible heavens," a celestial"visage," a Manilian "faciem caeli" gratifyingly respondingto our
scrutinizing eyes.However,the rest of the essayliterally analyzesand radically loosens the putative linkage between our adoring faces and the divinity's. Phaeton's
tragic fate accusesthe dangersof the fascinating"os" or visageof Ronsard'sApollo,
the oracular god promising victory over time and knowledgeof the future. Finally,
Montaigne condemns to deaththe lettered endeavorsof the contemporary believer

80Instances
of "extraordinaire" in the preamble: "Toutefois ...cette verite de laquelle il a pleu a la
bonte de Dieu nous eclairer, il est bien besoinqu'il nous presteencoreson secours,d'unefaveur extraordinaire et privilegiee, pour la pouvoir concevoir et lager en nous." (441A) "Si elle [- la foi] n'entre chez
nouspar une infusion extraordinaire ...elle n'y est pasen sadignite ny en sasplendeur." (441A)"Dieu
doibt son secoursextraordinairea la fay et a la religion, non pasa nos passions."(443A) There are three
more instancesof the term "extraordinaire" in the essay."Extraordinairement samain" (604A) surfaces
on the very last pageof the" Apologie."

in Apollo, Copernicus,whose learned "doctrine" will sooner or later plummet, a

prey to the constant"renversements"imposedupon us by human time.sl
SkidmoreCollege
SaratogaSprings,NY 12866

811wish to thank FrancisBright, Jean-ClaudeCarron, Katherine King, SteveLight, and the anonymous
reader,who all gaveme crucial suggestionto better organizeand stylistically improve my manuscript.