This article examines the controversy between Denis Diderot and the Jesuit Guillaume-François Berthier, editor of the *Journal de Trévoux*, over the culinary articles of the *Encyclopédie*. Focusing on Berthier’s criticism of the encyclopaedists’ treatment of cooking, the article shows how an apparently marginal dispute raises fundamental questions about the nature, legitimacy, and organization of knowledge. By situating the controversy within the eighteenth-century *Querelle des Bouffeurs*, it explores the opposition between ancient and modern cuisine and the relationships between culinary practices, fashion, rhetoric, and fiction. The analysis then turns to the religious implications of the debate, showing how the Jesuit criticism of culinary knowledge reflects broader concerns about pleasure, desire, and their regulation. Against this background, Diderot’s interest in cooking acquires a philosophical significance: culinary pleasure becomes a means of reconsidering the relationship between matter, sensation, and enjoyment. The article thus argues that the controversy over cuisine illuminates a central aspect of Diderot’s materialism, in which matter is understood not merely as capable of sensation but as actively enjoying.
L'art "d'arranger les boucles" et "la façon de mettre les artichaux à la poivrade": les enjeux de la querelle entre Diderot et le P. Berthier, jésuite
Matteo Marcheschi
2022-01-01
Abstract
This article examines the controversy between Denis Diderot and the Jesuit Guillaume-François Berthier, editor of the *Journal de Trévoux*, over the culinary articles of the *Encyclopédie*. Focusing on Berthier’s criticism of the encyclopaedists’ treatment of cooking, the article shows how an apparently marginal dispute raises fundamental questions about the nature, legitimacy, and organization of knowledge. By situating the controversy within the eighteenth-century *Querelle des Bouffeurs*, it explores the opposition between ancient and modern cuisine and the relationships between culinary practices, fashion, rhetoric, and fiction. The analysis then turns to the religious implications of the debate, showing how the Jesuit criticism of culinary knowledge reflects broader concerns about pleasure, desire, and their regulation. Against this background, Diderot’s interest in cooking acquires a philosophical significance: culinary pleasure becomes a means of reconsidering the relationship between matter, sensation, and enjoyment. The article thus argues that the controversy over cuisine illuminates a central aspect of Diderot’s materialism, in which matter is understood not merely as capable of sensation but as actively enjoying.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
