Poésie et cosmologie : le succès de la première Sepmaine de Du Bartas

Du Bartas’s La Sepmaine experienced a huge success for three decades, both in France, as demonstrated by the considerable number of editions, and abroad, where there were several translations. This poem of a mixed genre, as Goulart’s commentary shows, makes reference to ancient cosmology, which was comforting for readers: at the very moment when great minds such as Pontus de Tyard questioned it, Du Bartas, like Goulart, made himself its confident exponent. When the new science pushed these theories aside, Du Bartas too would cease to be read.