Author’s footnotes in religious sonnets: functions and forms on the example of Teorema by Jean de la Ceppède

Abstract

The article discusses the functions of footnotes in Teorema (1613, 1622) by Jean de La Ceppede. The author created a lengthy poetic composition consisting of 520 passion-themed sonnets. They are an example of the current of religious sonnets collections, vividly developing in the French poetry at the turn of the 16th and 17th century. Each composition by La Ceppede is accompanied by at least one footnote: the volume of prose-written text is often greater than the length of the sonnet itself. Based on an analysis of selected sonnets, the following roles of footnotes have been distinguished: introduction to the subject matter of the sonnets following (the purpose served by the first footnote); closing the thematic motif present in a group of stanzas; intensification of the work’s primary compositional rule, such as descriptive parallelism or an anaphora in the form of laudation, by making the structure of footnotes similar to the poem in terms of shape. The article also presents the testament of Teomata’s reception, unique in the context of its insignificant reception among those contemporary to La Ceppede.