Renaissance Resonance : Lyric Modality in La Ceppede's Theoremes

Reversing the predominant critical interpretation of La Ceppede and the Theoremes, this study claims that literary contexts and avatars act as a point of entry into devotion. The book reads La Ceppede from the inside out, asking principal question: How does the literary initiate an exploration of the theological?

Focusing on the ways in which the Theoremes transform literature into a potential instrument of salvation, the text looks at La Ceppede's adaptation of different Renaissance lyric types. Modulation of the formal and thematic traits of lyric subgenres such as the blason, the baiser, the pastoral and pastourelle, as well as the emblem allow La Ceppede to develop and exploit literature as a contemplative framework.

The goals in taking this approach are to emphasize La Ceppede's originality in terms of representing the Christian body and spiritually erotic imagery. This methodology also highlights La Ceppede's use of lyric subgenre as a means of unifying the first and second volumes of the Theoremes.

In its final chapter, the book compares and contrasts La Ceppede's appropriation of lyric forms with that of other Renaissance poets such as Lazare de Selve, Jean de Sponde, and Marguerite de Navarre.

The work concludes by arguing that the contribution of La Ceppede's text lies in the singularity of its narrative structure, its poetic mission, and its depiction of Christ's humanity.

Literary structure becomes meditative structure, as lyric form becomes a vehicle toward redemption.