Анекдот как альтернативная биография во французской культуре XVII века

Abstract

The article deals with the evolution of “anecdote” in European culture from the late Antiquity (5th century) to the Early Modern period (18th century) Being originally a symbol of the text’s secret status, i.e. his “clandestine” or non public existence (the etymology of the word, i.e. “unpublished”), an anecdote became in the 17th century the term to describe the genre of French historiography. We analyze the “illegal” text of Procopius of Caesarea dedicated to the reign of Emperor Justinian and the strategies of the semantic change in 17th century in the text of “The Florentine anecdotes, or secret history of the Medici house” by Antoine de Varillas who purposed the rules for writing stories about the “secret” life of the politics or the kings.