In Gargantua (ed. princ. 1535) Rabelais has his narrator describe the accidental discovery and unearthing of a bronze tomb containing ancient writings. One of these he appends to his account, in fragmentary form, “par reverence de l’antiquaille” (sic). At the same time the whole rollicking account is a singular illustration of Rabelais’ irreverence, as the collection’s editor shows in his introduction, where he foreshadows the diversity of approaches to the ancient literary inheritance that the book explores. Some obvious diversities emerge in the titles of the four sections into which the book is divided, and the wide range of figures and topics discussed in them. The first three sections treat transmission and reception through the lenses of different categories: editors, commentators and translators; encyclopedists and philologists; and poets. The last returns to veneranda antiquitas via Guillaume Budé (“premier révérent de l’antique en France”, p. 198) and Rabelais himself.
#classicalreception @ BMCR #review Frances Muecke (Sydney) on Nicolas Le Cadet, "Révérence de l’antiquaille." Les diverses formes de transmission du patrimoine textuel antique à la Renaissance bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2026/2026.03...