Untitled - Monoskop

RANGE OF INTERESTS: ANALYSIS BY SUBJECT
of legal publications, a role which his close association with Simon Vincent of
Lyon helped him to play. The books were the Quaestiones aureae and Tractatus de
Feudis of Pierre de Belleperche, edited by Jean Thierry of Langres, doctor of
laws; the commentary on the coutume of Burgundy by Chasseneuz, already
mentioned; and the Tractatus and Singularia of Guido Papa, a famous luminary
of the Parlement of Dauphine, edited again by Jean Thierry, though a
dedication by Vincent to Bohier shows that the latter was closely involved in
the project. The last privilege obtained by Bohier so far noticed is for a work
on canon law by Petrus de Ancharano of Bologna (CH 1519, 5). Quite unlike
any of these publications, and the only one for which his publishers and not he
himself obtained the privilege (CH 1515, 4), is Bohier's own treatise De
seditiosis. This was prompted by the trial at Agen, in which he had taken part
as one of the commissioners sent by Louis XII, of the inhabitants who had
staged an alarming riot there in 1513. Following his treatise, he printed in the
original French the text of the judgement given at the end of the trial itself, and
provided an illustration, which must have been prepared under his instructions,
of the scene in court, showing the judges (himself among them) and
officials, and the defendants, each labelled with his name. This had been a
sensational case. The rioters had seized control of the town for several days,
and imprisoned the consuls in the town hall, directly defying the royal
authority. All those convicted received exemplary punishment. Two of the
ringleaders were hanged. Most of the others were heavily fined, or banished,
or both. Bohier's decision to publish the full judgement, including the whole
account of the proceedings, as a sort ofpiecejustificative to his essay on sedition,
is therefore quite understandable.
Works which can be classified as political theory were sometimes published
under privilege. The Somnium viridarii, probably written by Philippe de
Mezieres in 1376, had lost nothing of its relevance to the situation when it was
printed for the first time in 1516 (PA 1516, 6); the French version, Le songe du
vergier, was long since in print. The topical interest of the treatise Contra rebelles
suorum regum was still more immediate when it was first printed in 1525
(CH 1524, 4); the author, Jean (Joannes) de Terre Vermeille or De Terra
Rubea, one of Charles VII's publicists, was an extreme advocate of the divine
right of kings, writing in a time of national crisis, and it was a timely move to
have it printed when the treason of the Connetable and the king's defeat at
Pavia made loyalty more imperative than ever. The editor, Jacques Bonaud,
in utroquejure licentiatus, added a panegyric of France of his own composition,
and dedicated the book to the chancellor, who, as the chief supporter of
Francis I's absolutism, may well have prompted the publication, and expedited
the grant of the privilege. Of contemporary French writers, Claude de
Seyssel was perhaps the most important political theorist, though his conception
of the French constitution was very different from that of the apologists of
absolute monarchy: the Grant monarchie de France was included in a privilege
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