Tuesday 26th October 2021, 5:15-6:30pm

Hovenden Room, All Souls College

Alex Lawrence (Keble College) - 'Un maistre bec': confessional appropriations of the Toucan in seventeenth-century France

The ‘discovery’ of the Toucan by European explorers in the sixteenth century sparked a series of imaginative responses across literary genres and cultural media. First appearing in the texts of travellers and natural historians, the bird became a subject of interest for confessional writers -- both Catholic and Huguenot -- by the turn of the seventeenth century. How did these writers interpret this bizarre creature? In what kinds of context did they place it? Importantly, what were the principal differences between Protestant and Catholic representations of the bird, and how might these inform our understanding of the confessional conflict in the broader sense? This paper addresses such questions through a selection of sources, including those of the Reformist pastor Jean de Léry, the Capuchin friar Claude d’Abbeville, and the Jesuit emblematist Nicolas Caussin.

Following Q&A and a short break, we will move to a roundtable which will give all attendees the change to introduce themselves and their research topic.