Volker Schröder
The purpose of this blog is to present and analyze objects, not opinions. Typical entries are built around unique or rare, unknown or neglected artifacts encountered during research in various (physical and/or digital) collections and archives. The commentary aims to be accurate and informative, but by no means definitive. All corrections and comments are welcome.
The main focus is French culture during the "long seventeenth century" (ca. 1598-1715), but occasional excursions into other areas are not excluded.
Categories used most frequently by the blogger:
Biography Archives Autographs Manuscripts Printed Books Correspondence
8 August 2022
At the beginning of Madame d’Aulnoy’s fairy tale “The White Cat,” an aging and timorous king sets up a winner-take-all competition between his sons: “whichever of you three...
The first German translation of Les Contes des fées
21 February 2022
A longstanding scholarly consensus holds that German translations of Madame d’Aulnoy’s fairy tales did not appear until the second half of the eighteenth century, starting with...
Pierre-Daniel Huet in New York
31 December 2021
This year should not go by without a brief salute to Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630-1721), the Norman polymath who was one of the most brilliant and renowned intellectuals during the reign...
Madame d’Aulnoy and Monsieur le Premier
8 November 2021
As biographers have occasionally pointed out, Mme d’Aulnoy was related on the maternal side to one of the most prominent families at the French royal court, the Beringhens. Her mother...