Acknowledgements
I have been privileged enough to spend an extended and highly enjoyable time conducting research in various scenic locations in Europe in the process of writing this book; the perks, no doubt, of studying a scholar who lived in Rome and corresponded with a great many scholars throughout Italy and France. My thanks, therefore, must go to the Rouse Ball/Eddington Fund of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Cambridge History Faculty Fieldwork Fund for making these travels possible. I would also like to thank the librarians and archivists of the Vallicelliana, Angelica, and Propaganda Fide archives in Rome, the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and the Royal Library of The Hague for their assistance during this time, and for putting up with my broken French and Italian (I did not try to speak Dutch). I would like to add a special thanks to Anthea Bulloch who provided her kind assistance during my trip to the Italian seminary archives in Montefiascone and allowed me to walk the same halls and examine the same books Bonjour had once done.
Although it was not my immediate intention (nor, I must confess, task), a small section of this work was rewritten while I was an Herzog Ernst Fellow at the Forschungszentrum Gotha in the summer of 2023, and it would be remiss of me not to thank them for offering me (when the future looked a little bleak) my first research position as a postdoc, and by extension the possibility of turning the thesis into a book in the first place. Before this, I spent eight happy years at Trinity College, Cambridge, from my time as an ignorant undergraduate to an ignorant postdoc, and I must thank both the College, the History Faculty, and the University for the years in which they supported my development (so to speak) and my research, and in which they provided for me not only a place of work but also a home. Above all, however, I would like to thank all of those who have taught me in some form or other throughout my long time at Cambridge; I would not be in the position I am now without them. Of these, special thanks must go to Richard Serjeantson, whose kind words and wise advice during my early years helped lay what I consider the platform for all the work which was to come. He is, of course, not responsible should anyone take any major issues with the work to come, or with its proverbial platform (nor indeed are any of the individuals mentioned here, except me).
In preparing this book over many years, sections of it at various stages of completion were read and commented on by a number of people, to whom I will always be grateful for their attention and advice. In particular, I would like to thank Michael Moriarty, who acted as my PhD advisor and read through some very early versions of my work, as well as the members of Scott Mandelbrote’s PhD cohort in the years between 2020–2021, who were forced in our bi-weekly meetings to read and discuss some of my most rudimentary and unrefined drafts. Of these, I would like to add special thanks to Derrick Mosley, who allowed me to see what was at that point an unfinished draft of his excellent thesis on John Marsham. I would also like to thank Zachary Case, Alicia Mavor, Gabriel Gendler, Niall Dilucia, Anton Bruder, Santi Wilder, Iona Nicolson, and Emma Cavell, who all kindly provided their assistance with various foreign-language translations or other questions regarding editing in this work, and to add in this context a particular note of thanks to Nathaniel Hess, who provided priceless help in pruning some of my more infelicitous (and occasionally downright incorrect) translations of early modern Latin. I must also thank the two anonymous reviewers at Brill for taking the time to read the work, for their kind comments, and for their helpful individual points of advice, as well as Ivo Romein for helping to shepherd the work through the various stages of revision, proofing, and finalising at Brill. Above all, however, I must thank my two PhD examiners, Felix Waldmann and Noel Malcolm, who read through the work with a level of care and attention which was sometimes lamentably lacking in my own efforts. Their many comments regarding corrections and further improvements for turning the submission into a (more) error-free thesis, and this thesis into a publishable monograph, proved invaluable, and have substantially shaped the transition from dissertation to book.
Writing any lengthy, extended work of research over many years – often in solitude, in unknown foreign locations, and through the occasional worldwide pandemic – comes with its own challenges and I would like to thank all those friends whose encouragement and kindness have made even those many days in which Bonjour tried my patience enjoyable. Special thanks must therefore go to Dan, Matt, Emma, Ben, Zack, Niall, and Alicia for their invaluable companionship during this period. In this, I must also include TCAFC, which, for many years, was, of course, my true home. To Peter and Helene, I say only this: your many flawed opinions have helped me better form my own correct ones.
Of all the individuals associated with this project, particular and special thanks must of course go to my supervisor Scott Mandelbrote, without whom I can say with some certainty I would never have encountered Bonjour, nor therefore have been in a position to foist this scholar onto the academic public. Over the many years, Scott’s insight, support, and guidance has been invaluable, and he has helped me see the woods when I would otherwise still be examining the bark of trees.
Lastly, and most importantly, to Mimi, whose support always meant the world; and to my parents, to whom words cannot express my thanks, and to whom I owe everything.
To Bonjour, I bid au revoir.