This book fills a gap in the market as it ranges over the whole of Belleau's work rather than
concentrating solely on La Bergerie or Les Amours et nouveaux eschanges des pierres precieuses.
It starts by asking why a group of doctors produced a French edition of Belleau in 1945. It
moves on to consider sickness and healing in Belleau's work studying the comedy La Reconnue
and the macaronic poem the Dictamen metrificum alongside the better-known texts. Throughout
it emphasizes the importance of the political and religious background of the time. A
miraculous stick that Belleau describes in La Bergerie is seen in the first chapter of L'Art de
guérir as a symbol of therapeutic powers. The second chapter considers love and the poet's debt
to other writers such as Sappho or Ficino (Belleau was erudite and eclectic). Les Amours de
David et de Bersabee is the focal point of Chapter 3 once again one sees the corrosive powers
of love and the ability of poetry and music to transform suffering into beauty. Mention is
made of the various academies which were important in Belleau's development. Chapter 4 traces
the motif of illness in La Reconnue and links it to religious turmoil. This connection is even
clearer in the Dictamen metrificum de bello huguenotico a strange savagely humorous text
(Chapter 5). Chapter 6 concerns Belleau's poems on precious stones surely the pinnacle of his
achievement. In those therapy is an explicitly articulated motif while religious faith is
crucial. The conclusion suggests parallels with writers such as Saint Augustine Rabelais Du
Bellay and Montaigne.
