Abstract
We have come to call “Pléiade” a group of French poets of encyclopedic learning [Joachim du Bellay (Deffence et illustration, 1549), Pierre de Ronsard, Pontus de Tyard, Jean-Antoine de Baïf, Jacques Peletier du Mans, Rémi Belleau, Etienne Jodelle] who aimed to revitalize the classical arts and to argue for a demanding poetry in the vernacular, both erudite and inspired. Their high-handed style contrasted with that of their predecessors (the Grands Rhétoriqueurs and Marotic poets), and their poetic production was varied.
The Pléiade had an important lexical and poetic impact. Its principles were inseparably literary and philosophical, due to a humanist trust in language’s capacity to reveal the hidden qualities of things as well as in the signifying power of classical, allegorical myth (cf. Jean Dorat’s teachings). They attracted criticism because of their erudition, but also because of Reformist rejection of pagan myth and “useless” profane poetry.
The Pléiade poets embraced philosophy and the sciences, especially mathematics, cosmology and meteorology, astrology, music, bestiaries, and lapidaries. They played a pivotal role in two Academies and some contemporaneous philosophical dialogues featured them on poetry or natural philosophy. As regards the philosophy of love, they explored the philosophical and literary innovations arriving from Italy (Neoplatonism, Petrarchism), at least temporarily; these influences were, however, enmeshed with the dominant Aristotelianism.
The influence of the Pléiade was so powerful that Ronsard came to represent negatively the Renaissance legacy for the following century. It also extended in other vernacular languages in Europe.
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Pouey-Mounou, AP. (2015). Pléiade. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_310-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_310-2
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