Untitled - Monoskop

RANGE OF INTERESTS: ANALYSIS BY SUBJECT
Regnault also who first printed Le lime de la Toison d'Or, by Guillaume Fillastre
(d. 1473), chancellor of the Order of the Golden Fleece, hitherto available
only in manuscripts owned by members of the Order (PA 1516, 5). Michel Le
Noir produced Les passaiges d'oultremer faitz par les Franfqys, by Sebastien
Mamerot, a history of the part played by the French in the crusades from
Charlemagne to 1462, adding later material to bring the story down to the
conquest of Granada in 1492 (CH 1517, 6 (4)).
The official history of France was to have been written by the Veronese
humanist Paulus Aemilius, brought in by Charles VIII and employed as
'orateur et chroniqueur du roi'. De rebus gestis Francorum never got further than
Philip Augustus (CH 1517,7); the author died in 1529, though continuations
were later added by other hands. Tributes to great figures from the national
past were attempted by several writers, ranging from Christophe de
Longueil's eulogy of St Louis (PA 1512, 7 (2)) to Jean
Bouchet's L'histoire et
cronicquede Clotaire (CH 1518, i). Such activity might extend to the contempo-
rary era, as with Claude de Seyssel's Les louanges du roy Louys xii (CH 1507, i
(7)). New histories of particular territories in France or on its borders were, on
the other hand, produced in relatively large-scale works. Among those which
came out under privilege were Les grandes croniques de Bretaigne of Alain
Bouchard (CH 1514, i (i)); Les grans croniques des gestes des princes de Savoye of
Symphorien Champier (PA 1516, 4); Les gestes des Tholosains of Nicolas
Bertrand (PA 1517, 3); and Les annales d'Acquitaine ofjean Bouchet (PA 1524,
15). Enterprising publishers sponsored translations into French of ancient
historians: Livy, Le premier volume des grans decades (CH 1514, 3 (i)); Suetonius,
Desfaicta et gestes des douze Cesars (CH 1520, 3 (i)); and Valerius Maximus, Le
floralier des histoires (PR 1525, i). Nor did they always shun romanticised
history: Le violier des histoires rommaines (CH 1520, 8)
is a version of the Gesta
Romanorum. More workaday publications were French translations of the
Chronica chronicarum, a long-established historical dictionary or repertory
(CH 1521, 3), and of Sacchi de Platina's collection, containing genealogies of
popes and reigning dynasties (CH 1519, 3 (2)). Occasionally recent Italian
historians feature among works which obtained privileges in France. Such
were Sabellicus, who had written in Latin the history of his native Venice
(PA 1514, i (i)), and Polydore Virgil, whose De inuentoribus rerum was
translated into French (PR 1520, 12).
The first contemporary events of which accounts appeared under privilege
were episodes of Louis XII's campaigns in Italy, usually presented with a
strong bias favouring the king's policies, such as La chronique
de Gennes
(PA 1507, i (2)), by an anonymous writer, and L'entreprise de Venise and L 'union
des princes (PR 1509, 2 and 3), by Pierre Gringore. Some accounts came out
with a conge, 1
not specifically with privilege, such as L'Armee du Roy qu'il avail
1 See above, pp. 112-13.
178