Summaries of articles Homer, Hipparcus and the Good Word A. SCHNAPP-GOURBEILLON The question as to the date of the writing down of Homeric poetry is one of the major obsessions of the epic's specialists. The supporters of the notion of a "lower" period dating (i.e. the writing down taking place rather late, that is in the 5th century B.C.) generally base their daim on Plato's depiction of Hipparcus, in which we see the tyrant boasting ofhaving "brought" Homer'spoems to Athens. Asidefrom the nar- rative's historical inconsistancy, an in-depth examination of the paradigm taken as a whole shows something other that what thèse authors had hoped tofind: an exaltation of orality in an elitist culture in which the "reading" (of inscriptions) concerned the populace alone, the only receiver of the tyrant's authoritative voice. A close study of other later sources provides no solution concerning a possible "writing down" of Homeric poetry, but instead reveals an attitude towards the respective values of writing and speech which was peculiar to ancient society. The Power of Writing: Power over Writing during the Italian Renaissance A. PETRUCCI The Italian Renaissance was a period characterized by rapid development ofliteracy in urban populations. It can be readily measured in terms, on the one hand, ofsocio- cultural status related to book production—manuscripts at first, then later printed books—and on the other, of two particular intermediary forms of writing: delegated writers who wrotefor the illiterate, and master writers who created graphie models and simple signs. The resuit was a clear opposition between macro-and micro-circuits ofthe production and use of writing and written texts. While a maximum of control was exereized over the former, which were officiai and expensive, freedom of expression was concentrated in the latter, which remained private and modest. Writing's Seasonal Workers: Schoolmasters and Clerks in the Languedoc's 18th Century Rural Communities D. BLANC A study of the émergence and multiplication of small schools at the end of the Ancient Régime permits us to define one of the historical figures of académie institu- tions: Created through contracts drawn up between schoolmasters and communities, schools established a model ofteaching which is well known today. The research pre- sented in this article highlights the multifarious compétences required of the person called upon to work as schoolmaster. Farfrom responding to the necessities of lite- racy alone, his duties came to include various uses of writing which became indispens- 1021 h tt p s: // d o i.o rg /1 0. 10 17 /S 03 95 26 49 00 07 23 09 D o w n lo ad ed f ro m h tt p s: // w w w .c am b ri d g e. o rg /c o re . C ar n eg ie M el lo n U n iv er si ty , o n 0 6 A p r 20 21 a t 01 :0 6: 11 , s u b je ct t o t h e C am b ri d g e C o re t er m s o f u se , a va ila b le a t h tt p s: // w w w .c am b ri d g e. o rg /c o re /t er m s. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0395264900072309 https://www.cambridge.org/core https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms SUMMARIES OF ARTICLES able because ofthe évolution of 18th century communities' relations with their environ- ment. Thus the figure of schoolmaster-clerk takes center stage in this analysis which tries to isola te his many faces. Surveyor, clothes tailor or mas ter surgeon, he already held an intermediate position in society. Thanks to him, schools did not hâve to con- quer virgin territory: they were inserted into already constituted sets of relationships. Languages and Possession: The Case of Pentecostal Groups in Southern Italy M.P. Di BELLA The "gift" of glossolalia (speaking in longues) as seen in Pentecostal groups which sprang up in rural southern Italy after the Second World War, conforms to the ambiant ideology insofar as it serves to handle problems of domination and hierarchization with which the local populations were preoccupied. In the groups studied—the unitary Pentecostal group from Accadia (Pouilles/Puglia), directed by a woman missionary, and the neighboring unitary or trinitary groups directed by men—an emphasis was found to be placed on "gifts" given by the Holy Ghost, especially that of glossolalia. In the Accadian group, this particular "gift" stimulâtes "equality", while elsewhere it "hierarchizes" the group by separating the pastor and missionary—who hâve the "gift" from the fait hful who are deprived ofit. Structures and Mutations of a Proto-Industrial Space: Rouen and its Région at the End ofthe 16th Century J. BOTTIN Because of its functions and commercialpower, Rouen furnishes a privileged obser- vatory oflate 16th centuryproto-industry in one ofFrance's earliest developed régions: Normandy. Centered on spatial diffusion and quantitative levels, the analysis ofcol- lected data from notary archives leads to two-pronged results. Starting in the 1580s, the production levels attained by the heaviest export sector—that of cloth fabrication— are comparable in volume to those ofthe 18th century. But from the 16th to the 18th century, the localization of this activity, due to the cotton boom, undergoes a geogra- phical "transfer" from wooded régions south of the Seine to the Caux countryside. This change in intra-regional balance, which also affected other activities, leads one to pay particular attention to the intervention modalities and organizational capacities of the commercial metropolis in the non-agricultural productive sector. The Distribution of Immigrants and Organization of Space in the North-Eastern United States in 1813 J. CHASE Récent studies of rural New England hâve shown how textile production was com- mercialized therefrom the mid-eighteenth century on, showing as well its key rôle in the rise of a domestic economy, its links with urban merchant financing, and the graduai évolution towards urban production locations. It is suggested hère that this model cannot be generalized. Within the tri-state New York City area prior the 1820s, the major seaboard city and its hinterland were relatively separate in terms of économie activity, growth rates and immigrant groups. Despite the importance of rural textile production, New York City's merchant involvement in it was highly sélective, rein- forced traditional modes of rural production, and may well hâve inhibited the growth of towns. The new spatial distribution oflabor that emerged in the 1820s reflected a new relation: the historical if not chronological end ofthe eighteenth century. 1022 h tt p s: // d o i.o rg /1 0. 10 17 /S 03 95 26 49 00 07 23 09 D o w n lo ad ed f ro m h tt p s: // w w w .c am b ri d g e. o rg /c o re . C ar n eg ie M el lo n U n iv er si ty , o n 0 6 A p r 20 21 a t 01 :0 6: 11 , s u b je ct t o t h e C am b ri d g e C o re t er m s o f u se , a va ila b le a t h tt p s: // w w w .c am b ri d g e. o rg /c o re /t er m s. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0395264900072309 https://www.cambridge.org/core https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms