Conference "Flies from Montbéliard (1591): natural curiosity or political polemic? "
Wednesday, March 18, 2026 at 6pm
A drawing by Jean II Rabel, a successful painter, engraver and publisher under the last Valois, shows a strange fly. An inscription indicates that it is a species from Montbéliard. Was this a naturalistic observation or a prodigy to be interpreted, when Montbéliard, home to many French Protestant exiles, was attacked by the Guise in 1587-88? We'll be investigating.
By Florence Buttay, Professor of Modern History, Université de Caen Normandie Laboratoire Histemé
Wednesday, March 18, 2026 at 6pm
A drawing by Jean II Rabel, a successful painter, engraver and publisher under the last Valois, shows a strange fly. An inscription indicates that it is a species from Montbéliard. Was this a naturalistic observation or a prodigy to be interpreted, when Montbéliard, home to many French Protestant exiles, was attacked by the Guise in 1587-88? We'll be investigating.
By Florence Buttay, Professor of Modern History, Université de Caen Normandie Laboratoire Histemé
This text was translated by an AI.
