PIERRE BOAISTUAU - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

Boaistuau noted in the title. Henry Tudor on the other hand, stressing the extent to
which Boaistuau borrowed from the Flemish theologian Josse Clichtove, suggested
that L’Histoire de Chelidonius Tigurinus could have been one of Clichtove’s
works. 611 However, apart from the similarities in certain passages, there exists no
relevant work written by Clichtove. A different possibility could be that Boaistuau
simply invented a pseudonym to add gravity to his first printed book, a practice not
uncommon at the time. As early as 1890, René Kerviller wrote that ‘le soi-disant
auteur latin Chelidonius est un nom supposé et Boaistuau est l’unique auteur de cet
ouvrage’. 612 Was this an attempt to protect himself from any possible criticism at the
beginning of his career? Or was it simply a marketing technique to attract the
attention of the public? Nicole Cazauran has argued that even the notion of the
‘translation’ of the work from Latin into French was a commercial trick: ‘Dès 1556, il
[Boaistuau] avait donné une Institution des Princes Chrestiens en la faisant passer
pour une traduction du Latin’. 613
This explanation is supported by Boaistuau’s own promotion of the book (‘il ne s’en
est offert aucun à mon jugement plus digne d’une Republique Chrestienne, que celuy
duquel je vous envoye la traduction’), and is a better match to the profile of the
Breton writer, and the nature of his work. 614 Divided into thirteen chapters, L’Histoire
de Chelidonius Tigurinus was primarily a treatise of princely advice and political
discourse in support of the monarchy as the most profitable political system. To this,
611 Tudor, H., ‘L’institution des princes Chrestiens: a note on Boaistuau and Clichtove’, o.c. Clichtove
(1472-1543) was educated in Leuven and Paris, became doctor in the Paris Faculty of Theology, and
later Bishop of Tournai. He is known for his theological works and his rivalry with Martin Luther. See
Massaut, J. B., Josse Clichtove, l’humanisme et la réforme du clergé, 2 vols (Paris, 1969).
612 Kerviller, R., Répertoire général de bio-bibliographie bretonne, t. 4 (Rennes, 1890), p. 39.
613 Cazauran, N., ‘Boaistuau et Gruget éditeurs de L’Heptaméron: à chacun sa part’, in Bessire, F. (ed.),
L’Écrivain éditeur, vol. 1: Du Moyen Âge à la fin du XVIIIe siècle (Geneva, 2001), p. 149.
614 Boaistuau, P., L’Histoire de Chelidonius Tigurinus, Epistre.
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