T om H amilton . Pierre de L’Estoile and His World in the Wars of Religion

Pierre de L’Estoile was a mid-level royal official in the Paris chancellery during the second half of the sixteenth century, and his education, career, and life were in many ways unremarkable—except for his passion for collecting current news, rumors, and especially political and religious publications. His collections, along with his personal reflections on them and the world that he lived in, make him one of the most important eyewitnesses to the religious wars in the French capital. While specialists have extensively used his collections and diaries (known variously as mémoires, journals, or registre-journals), Hamilton’s study, Pierre de L’Estoile and His World in the Wars of Religion, is the first to focus on L’Estoile and the social and cultural contexts in which he compiled his remarkable manuscripts. Drawing on L’Estoile’s collections and diaries along with notarial and legal records, the first two chapters situate L’Estoile in his material and social worlds as a royal office holder working in the Palais de Justice on the Île de la Cité and as a resident of the parish of Saint André-des-Arts on the left bank of the Seine. Chapter 3 draws on similar sources and L’Estoile’s family book to explore his private life, Protestant connections, Catholic faith, and experiences of the first wars of religion through the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre. Collectively these chapters bring L’Estoile’s world alive, touching on his work, family, social, and religious experiences and providing critical context with which to understand how and why he compiled his remarkable collections of historical materials and personal reflections

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