The Dream of Absolutism: Louis XIV and the Logic of Modernity. Hall Bjørnstad. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021. xii + 222 pp. + color pls. $30.

Abstract

of one Guilhem Enric, a jurist who was closely involved with a two-year conflict to remove Raymon d’Agoult from his position as seneschal of Provence. This conflict, adroitly traced by Archambeau, threatened civil war, but was resolved thanks to Delphine’s peacemaking efforts in 1349, efforts that were included as part of the canonization enquiry. Guilhem’s decision to elide in his testimony this important event of fourteenth-century Provençal politics is, we are told, “a powerful reminder of the choices witnesses had as they testified.” (39) Another closely involved witness, Bishop Philippe Cabassole, made a similar choice; he also did not have much to say about the conflict, choosing instead to focus on Delphine’s ability to bring about peace. For Archambeau, such choices reflect how “the story of the averted ‘war’ . . . brought order and a sense of control” (65) during this period of tumult and death. The actual story of war, it seems, remained best untold. Archambeau also points to contemporary anxieties caused by the presence of mercenary forces and the destabilizing effect they had on people’s lives, with a particular focus on how women were affected. While she offers a very interesting general discussion, her witnesses are again rather taciturn. One of them, Andrea Raymon, for instance, recalled how, upon being ambushed by a group of mercenaries, she prayed to Delphine for courage and found a sudden surge of confidence that allowed her to escape to safety with her son. For Archambeau, this demonstrates “women’s protective and leadership roles in their communities . . . during times of heightened violence” (104). Another point that Archambeau observes below the surface in the witness accounts is a kind of penitential anxiety—bad enough in ordinary times, and rather worse during a period that seemed like “divine punishment for sinful behavior” (143). But here too, the source of anxiety is addressed rather indirectly, the focus being on how the holy countess assuaged such fears. It is not surprising that a canonization inquest would focus intently on the character, piety, and miracles of the candidate, nor, then, that the more personal stories of war, plague, and confession would often only be hinted at, or referenced indirectly. While Archambeau is energetic in reading between the lines, one is nonetheless left wishing for rather more lines to read between.