Untitled - Monoskop

THE ROYAL CHANCERY
in this category (CH 1508, i). As choirmaster of Orleans cathedral he may
well have been known personally to the king, and his application had the
backing of powerful friends though these are not named ('en faveur mesmement
d'aucuns noz especiaulx serviteurs qui pour ce nous ont supplie et
had secured (as he tells his readers in the course of a versified
requis'). 1 He
colophon at the end of the book, Le livre de la deablerie} the written approval of
two Paris doctors of theology, Guillaume de Quercu and Pierre Charpentier.
He can hardly have made this up. They were both well-known characters.
Guillaume de Quercu, or Du Chesne, was actually to be deputed by the
of new books
Faculty to act as one of its censors when the censorship
concerning religion became compulsory. 2 Whether this written approval was
submitted with d'Amerval's requete to the chancery, or played any part in the
decision to grant him a privilege, is not known. Certainly it is not mentioned
in the Letters Patent. From the tone of d'Amerval's verses one might rather
infer that it was invoked as an added recommendation, like a testimonial or an
extract from a favourable review:
II est vray, ainsi que j'entens,
Que deux maistres tresreverends,
Fort renommez en grant clergie
Et docteurs en theologie
De Paris la noble cite,
Tenus, il est bien verite,
Deux fermes pillers de la foy,
Scientifique, je le croy,
Et dignes d'en porter 1'escu,
Maistre Guillaume de Quercu
Et maistre Pierre Charpentier,
Ce livre icy tout entier
Ont visite deligemment
Et postille semblablement.
C'est la Deablerie d'Eloy,
Et 1'ont trouvee de bon aloy
Et approuve il ont ainsi,
Fidel et catholique aussi.
Et chascun d'eulx par son beau signe
Testifient que il est digne
D'estre imprime honnestement,
Car maint y a enseignement.
To produce this evidence of orthodoxy seems at any rate to have been the
author's own idea. Possibly it was mainly an advertisement. Possibly it was a
precaution, his satire on contemporary society being fairly wide-ranging.
Two important privileges granted by Louis XII's chancery the following
year went to authors who must have been eminently persona grata to the king.
1
Cf. 'et en faveur d'aulcuns noz serviteurs speciaulx qui pource ont requis et supplie a ycelluy
suppliant' in the privilege for Huon de Bordeaux (CH 1513, 3).
2 See 1 below, pp. 10-1 1.
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IOI