1—
Royal Patronage of Vernacular Translations
Patronage and Audiences
The rapid increase in translations from Latin into the vernacular is a hallmark of fourteenth-century cultural history.[1] The process had begun by the beginning of the thirteenth century, when social, political, and economic conditions in western Europe created a climate favorable to the spread of literacy among the lay population. Among the new audiences who read for pleasure, business, or both, were members of the royal bureaucracies, the feudal nobility, merchants, and growing numbers of the middle class living in towns or cities.[2] Earlier waves of translations addressed to a learned and largely clerical audience had made accessible many works of the Greek and Roman scientific and philosophical corpus previously unknown to medieval culture. These Latin translations are closely tied to the rise of universities in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.[3] The appropriation and assimilation of classical and Arabic texts into medieval Christian culture through the mediation of the university curriculum marks a significant turning point in Western thought.
Less well known, however, is the process by which authoritative texts in Latin were translated into the vernacular. Such translations involve another stage in the appropriation of classical culture by secular patrons and audiences, who chose the language, texts, and channels for the dissemination of knowledge.[4] Accurate versions of serious and scholarly works on philosophy, theology, and natural science became available in modern languages.[5] Although a rich body of literary texts in vernacular tongues had long existed, the fourteenth century witnessed the development of modern languages as instruments of abstract and scientific thought.
Modern scholarship has linked a preference for the vernacular by lay audiences to the growth of personal libraries and to new methods of reading.[6] Certain types of vernacular literature composed for aristocratic circles, such as chansons de geste, romances, and poetry, were intended for oral performance. Also read aloud was the popular thirteenth-century compilation in verse known as the Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César . Around 1200 French prose became the favored vehicle of vernacular historiography. During the course of the thirteenth century, members of the nobility commissioned for a French-speaking laity historical texts chronicling royal deeds written in the vernacular.[7] Of great importance is the translation from Latin into French of the official national history in 1274 by Primat, a monk of Saint-Denis, the royal abbey entrusted with this responsibility. The moral value of his-
tory as a guide to contemporary rule, the creation of a mythic French past, and the appeal to a lay audience provided important models for the political context of vernacular translations.[8]
The practice of composing original works in or translating them into French vernacular prose did not, however, suddenly eliminate the oral recitation of written texts. But Paul Saenger dates to the middle of the fourteenth century a shift among the aristocracy from oral performance or reading in small groups to silent, visual reading. As Saenger explains, the practice of individual reading and advances in the compilation of texts had begun during the thirteenth century in academic circles to enable students to master texts of the university curriculum. Such improvements encouraged the demand for and production of new vernacular texts.[9]
During the second half of the thirteenth century, royal patrons and members of the nobility closely tied to court circles commissioned various translations of serious or scholarly works in French prose.[10] As a young man, King Philip IV ordered translations of Giles of Rome's influential Mirror of Princes text, intended for the political and moral counsel of rulers, the De regimine principum , and later of the perennial medieval favorite, Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae .[11] The pace of translations accelerated during the first half of the fourteenth century, when French queens and princesses, unschooled in Latin, encouraged the commission of vernacular works.[12] Among the texts chosen for translation into French by royal patrons were works of history, classical mythology, liturgical and biblical texts, and treatises of moral instruction and personal devotion.[13]
The father of Charles V, King John the Good, who reigned from 1350 to 1364, continued the royal tradition of patronage of vernacular texts and of sumptuously illustrated manuscripts. As the founder of the royal library housed in the Louvre and as the first French king to envisage a program of artistic patronage for political ends, John the Good set an important precedent for his son. While still duke of Normandy, John commissioned the translation of James of Cessola's De ludo scaccorum from John of Vignai. After his accession to the throne, King John ordered from Master Jean de Sy a vernacular version of the Bible.[14] After the battle of Poitiers in 1356, the imprisonment of the French monarch interrupted this ambitious project. Even in captivity, King John ordered both religious and secular books written in French.[15]
The most important secular translation commissioned by King John was Pierre Bersuire's French version of Livy's History of Rome . Bersuire, a Benedictine, was a longtime resident of Avignon, which, as the temporary seat of the papacy, was an important cultural crossroads. Bersuire's translation profited both from the manuscripts in the papal library and from his contacts with Petrarch. The famous humanist may have furnished the translator with missing portions of Livy's text.[16] After Bersuire's return to Paris from Avignon in 1350, he seems to have enjoyed the protection of King John. Bersuire and Petrarch, whose friendship continued by correspondence, met again in Paris, when in 1361 the latter served as an ambassador to the French court of Galeazzo Visconti, ruler of Milan. In an address congratulating King John on his return from his English imprisonment, Petrarch deeply impressed his audience, including the future Charles V.[17]
Completed by 1356, Bersuire's translation of the first, third, and fourth Decades of Livy's History of Rome is the first word-for-word translation of a classical work executed on French soil.[18] In his prologue addressed to the king, Bersuire emphasizes that Livy's narrative contains valuable information for contemporary princes. The war between France and England may have increased the practical appeal of Livy's text in its account of Rome's policy on defense of native territory, conquest of foreign lands, and aid to allies.[19] On another level, Bersuire's emphasis on the Roman rise to world dominance from humble beginnings had particular relevance because of the mythical descent of French rulers from the Trojans, legendary founders of Rome. The appropriation of Livy's work by French royalty sounds the theme of the translatio studii , the transfer of linguistic, military, and cultural dominance.[20]
From a practical standpoint, Bersuire's compilation of the text shows his understanding of the need to re-present the work for his lay audience. To make Livy's text easier to follow, the translator breaks up the three main sections (Decades) into short chapters introduced by titles. Intermingled with the texts are sets of notes or comments, entitled Incidens , that furnish the reader with information about unfamiliar Roman place names, terms, people, events, and institutions.[21] To aid the reader in comprehending the many new terms he introduces into French, Bersuire provides a glossary of some eighty terms arranged at the beginning of the text in rough alphabetical order.[22] Also influential on later translations is Bersuire's method of transforming Latin words into French ones by changing the endings or spelling.[23] By this method of calques , Bersuire added forty-three neologisms to French.
King John's commission provided an important precedent for Charles's translation project, particularly for Oresme's French version of Aristotle's works. The French translation of such an authoritative classical text as a guide to political rule is noteworthy. Also significant are the linguistic methods and compilation features configured to re-present the work to a new lay readership.
Political and Cultural Implications
The increasing linguistic preference for the vernacular had political and cultural implications. By the last third of the fourteenth century, French had gradually replaced Latin as the language used for many types of administrative records and documents. During the reign of Charles V, members of the chancellery prepared drafts for the king's approval written in cursive script.[24] Charles V wrote and signed letters in French and annotated and corrected documents in the vernacular.[25] This increased use of French in royal administration gave the language greater prestige and helped to break down the traditional distinction between literate Latin-reading clerics and laymen, who were considered illiterate because they had at most limited knowledge of Latin. This statement does not imply that knights, lawyers, and social groups involved in public administration knew no Latin at all. Recent studies indicate that groups used Latin for business or professional purposes
and for religious observance.[26] The existing evidence indicates, however, that the Latin proficiency of Charles V, his court, and high officers was insufficient to understand classical or medieval authors whose works interested them.[27] Indeed, in their justifications of producing vernacular versions of antique texts, the translators' complaints about the difficulties of classical Latin style, syntax, and terminology go beyond topoi of their inadequacy.[28]
The increased use of the vernacular in public life also shows a nationalistic aspect.[29] Pride in the beauty of the French language is a theme of Oresme's prologues in translations commissioned by Charles V.[30] The first phase of the Hundred Years' War undoubtedly heightened consciousness of the French language as a distinctive national characteristic. Many prologues written by Charles V's translators refer to current political issues, especially to the natural superiority of the French nation to their English enemies.[31] A related motif in Oresme's prologues is his compliment to the lay audiences he addresses. He identifies them in two ways. First, he names the officers of government, including the king and princes. His second category is a vague, broader grouping of Frenchmen of high intellect.[32] Oresme's positive attitude toward the French language also appears in the prologue of his translation of the Politics when he observes: "As Cicero puts it in his Academica , authoritative works on weighty matters are delightful and most agreeable to people when written in the language of their country."[33]
Oresme's claim of the broad appeal of French translations to a lay public receives confirmation in Monfrin's study of the numbers of manuscripts of vernacular translations and their owners from the thirteenth century to early printed editions of these texts.[34] While some of these readers came from royal and aristocratic circles, also represented are lawyers and other professionals, government officials, members of the Parlement of Paris and the haute bourgeoisie who had personal libraries.[35] Finally, as Charles V's program indicates, French translations also had a political function.
The Scope of Charles V's Program of Translations
Charles V commissioned more than thirty translations of authoritative classical and medieval works as part of a conscious policy to legitimate the new Valois dynasty. He placed his encyclopedic library, housed in a tower of the Louvre, at the disposal of the intellectuals in his employ. His carefully organized collection included Mirror of Princes texts on the moral and political education of rulers as well as political treatises and historical writings.[36] Among the histories was the king's copy of the Grandes chroniques de France , written at court and updated through Charles V's own reign with an emphasis on political issues.[37]
A social and moral justification of Charles V's program of translations occurs in Nicole Oresme's prologue to his French version of Ptolemy's Quadripartitum . As models, Oresme alludes to two principal translations commissioned by John the Good: the French version of the Bible by Jean de Sy and Bersuire's vernacular rendition of Livy.[38] In her biography of Charles V and other writings, Christine
de Pizan also stresses the moral and educational functions of the translations, citing the king's concern for future generations. Executed by the most qualified masters, these translations provide moral instruction in all the arts and sciences.[39] In her poem entitled the Chemin de long estude , Christine specifies even more clearly the ethical intent of the king's program of translations:
Et moult fu noble oeuvre et perfaitte,
Faire en françois du latin traire,
Pour les cuers des François attraire
A nobles meurs par bon exemple.
(And it was a noble and perfect action to have [them]
translated from Latin into French to attract the
hearts of the French people to high morals by good
example.)[40]
Various prologues to the translations commissioned by Charles V make similar points about the social and political value of the enterprise. In the preface to his translation of St. Augustine's City of God , Raoul de Presles states: "vous avez voulu estre translaté de latin en francois pour le profit et utilité de votre royaume, de votre peuple et de toute crestienté" (you have desired [it] to be translated from Latin into French for the benefit and advantage of your kingdom, and all Christendom).[41] As Delisle points out, the phrase "l'utilité du royaume et de toute la crestienté" also appears in the official document which states that Charles V paid the translator for his work.[42] Repeated in other acts of Charles's reign, such language places the translations in the context of an articulated public policy.[43]
Yet it would be a mistake to ignore Christine's many references to Charles V's translation program to substantiate his intellectual character and his taste for books and learning. Charles's earliest commissions reveal his personal interests and approach to ruling. Sponsored by Charles before his accession to the throne, these earliest translations are astrological treatises. The texts date from about 1360, when as regent he faced serious challenges to the survival of the monarchy. Consistent with the practice of medieval rulers, Charles sought knowledge of the immediate and long-range outcome of events through astrological prediction. For example, a section of Robert de Godefroy's French version of the Liber novem judicum (Le livre des neuf anciens juges d'astrologie ) contains a timely discussion of the disposition of the territory that once belonged to a king who has now lost his lands.[44]
Several translations dating from the years after Charles's accession to the throne in 1364 show a broadened subject matter. Among this group are French translations of two religious works, the Homilies of Saint Gregory and the Treatise on the Soul (Traité de l'âme ) by Hugh of St. Victor;[45] the French versions by Pierre Hangest date from 1368. The manuscript appears in all the inventories of Charles V's library and was written by Raoulet d'Orléans, the scribe of the king's second set of the Ethics and Politics translations.[46] Historical works were translated at the end
of the 1360s by the Carmelite Jean Golein. Golein, along with Nicole Oresme and Raoul de Presles, is one of the three translators most favored by Charles V. In 1369 Golein completed a French version of the shorter works of the influential Dominican Bernard Gui. (A year earlier an unknown translator produced Gui's Les fleurs des chroniques .) Before 1373 Golein also translated a massive universal history, Les chroniques d'Espagne ou de Burgos , written by Gonzalo of Hinojosa, bishop of Burgos.
Christine de Pizan's discussion of Charles V's translation project concentrates on works dating from the 1370s, when the program took on an overt political and moral tone. In their prologues, which show their exchanges of texts and ideas, the translators are aware that their work corresponds to the ancient and medieval classics chosen by the king for translation: Christine's "les plus notable livres" (the most noteworthy books). Among them are three works by Aristotle rendered in the vernacular by Nicole Oresme: the Ethics , the Politics , and On the Heavens . The first dates from 1370 to 1372; the second, after 1372; and the third, from 1377. Christine does not mention the pseudo-Aristotelian Economics , which Oresme also translated. Since this short work was frequently included with the Politics , she may have thought it unnecessary to name it separately.[47] As famous as the Aristotelian works are two texts of St. Augustine. The City of God (Cité de Dieu ) was translated by Raoul de Presles between 1371 and 1375, and the Soliloquies (Soliloques ), by an unknown translator. Of great importance to a medieval ruler is a classic of political thought, the Policraticus (Policratique ) of John of Salisbury, translated around 1372 by the Franciscan Denis Foulechat. Also a great medieval favorite is the scientific encyclopedia, Bartholomaeus Anglicus's On the Property of Things (Propriétés des choses ), translated in 1372 by Jean Corbechon. By 1375 the first four books of the well-known text by the Roman historian Valerius Maximus, Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri novem (Faits et dits dignes de mémoire ) were translated by the Hospitaller Simon de Hesdin. Christine pays particular attention to a translation of the Bible entrusted to Raoul de Presles around 1375.
Christine's list highlights only the most important translations commissioned by Charles V. She lumps together what she calls a "tres grant foison d'aultres" (a great abundance of others). A varied group of texts dates from the 1370s, including Jacques Bauchant's vernacular version of Les voies de Dieu (1372), a devotional work by St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Also omitted are the French translations of Seneca's De remediis fortuitorum (Des rémèdes ou confors de maulx fortunes ), as well as of Petrarch's De remediis utriusque fortunae (Les rémèdes de l'une et de l'autre fortune ), completed in 1377 by Jean Daudin. Daudin also rendered into French Vincent of Beauvais's De eruditione filiorum nobilium (L'enseignement des enfants nobles ). Jean Golein's translations of the 1370s do not figure in Christine's list either. In 1370 Golein completed his French version of Cassian's Collations and, four years later, the Rational des divins offices (Durandus's Rationale divinorum officiorum ), including the important Traité du sacre . Golein claims that this short but vital text on the procedures and symbolism of coronation ceremonies is a translation.[48] Golein's last certain translation for Charles V, in 1379, is a Mirror of Princes text, L'information des princes .
Also not included in Christine's list is the anonymous version dating from 1372 of Thomas of Cantimpré's Bonum universale de apibus (Livre du bien universel des mouches à miel ). Nor does she cite Jean Daudin's 1374 vernacular rendition of another work by Vincent of Beauvais, the Epître consolatoire . Absent also is one of the most influential political tracts of the period, Le songe du vergier , translated by an unknown person with interpolations from the contemporary—but not identical—treatise entitled the Somnium viridarii . Finally, two other translations of the 1370s need mention. From 1373 there dates a translation (Rustican ) of the Ruralium commodorum libri XII by Peter of Crescenzi. Only fifteenth-century copies survive of this encyclopedic treatise on agriculture. Totally lost is the French version of the astronomical tables of Alphonso, king of Castille (Les tables astronomiques d'Alphonse, roi de Castille ).
Although only a partial guide to Charles V's translation project, Christine's list of over thirty translations is enlightening. It shows Charles's broad vision and boldness in bringing into the orbit of secular French culture the most authoritative Latin works of pagan and Christian origin, encompassing secular moral and religious texts, classics and recent writings on political thought, and works on education, astrology, history, and natural science. Christine rightly emphasizes the royal initiative that promoted and directed the program and outlines its moral and political dimensions. She also provides the clues to determining its broader cultural aims.
The Translatio Studii
It is significant that Christine de Pizan follows her discussion of the translations sponsored by Charles V with a chapter on his close relationship to the University of Paris. As the seat of the university, a primary center of learning in the Christian West, the city of Paris merits the title of the "new Athens."[49] By presenting one version of the translatio studii , the topos of the transfer of antique culture and military power from Greece to Rome, she takes up the tradition dating from the twelfth century that France had taken possession of the Roman heritage.[50] To emphasize the foundations of French national superiority, the translatio studii theme was absorbed into royal historiography and merged with an allegorical interpretation of a primary monarchical symbol, the fleur-de-lis.[51]
The idea of the translatio studii takes on a new resonance in Oresme's prologue and particularly in the apologia for his translation of the Ethics and the Politics .[52] As noted above, Oresme quotes Cicero in affirming the pleasure of writing in one's native language. Oresme also takes a historical and cultural view of language and notes that, just as Greek letters and power gave way to Latin and the Roman empire, Latin is being replaced by French as the language of learning. Oresme emphasizes the value of French as a "langage noble et commun a genz de grant engin et de bonne prudence" (a noble language shared by people of great discernment) and as the obligation to translate "telz livres en françois et baillier en françois les arts et les sciences" (such books into French and [to] make available the arts and sciences in French) as a legal transmission of culture.[53]
In Christine's version of the translatio studii theme, the prominence of Paris encompasses both the university and Charles V's patronage of art and letters. A personal and dynastic model for the studious and enlightened monarch was the emperor Charlemagne. Several similarly worded prologues of translations commissioned by Charles draw parallels between Charlemagne's love of learning and that of his Valois namesake.[54] For example, Jean Golein's preface to the Rationale of Divine Offices refers to Charlemagne as the "droit patron" (true patron) of the kings of France, especially of Charles V. The translator connects Charles V's Christian faith, shown by the use on his coins of the legend Christus vincat, Christus regnat, Christus imperat (Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ rules), with his "estude et sapience" (study and wisdom) and victories against the English.[55] Thus, the traditional themes of faith, wisdom, and chivalry embodied in the fleur-de-lis are attributed to the kingdom of France and its ruler, Charles V.
In addition to the favorable cultural analogies that Golein makes between Charlemagne and Charles V are the specific political benefits attributed to Charles by association with the Carolingian ruler. Golein asserted that Charles V descended directly through the male line from Charlemagne.[56] Charles V himself encouraged the linking of his rule with that of Charlemagne by various strategies.[57] The so-called scepter of Charlemagne was apparently commissioned for, and used in, Charles V's own coronation. Now in the Louvre, the scepter features a representation of the emperor seated in majesty. Several miniatures from the Coronation Book of Charles V , ordered by the king as a souvenir of, and guide to, the actual ceremony held in 1364, show him holding a scepter that closely resembles the Louvre object.[58] Thus, the effigy of Charlemagne so prominently displayed on the very symbol of monarchic sovereignty represents a bold visual coupling of Charles V's rule with that of the Carolingian emperor. Moreover, Charles collected relics and celebrated the feast day of St. Charlemagne in his chapel.[59]
In a more concrete political context, Charles V cultivated another fiction connected with Charlemagne. Embodied in the formula rex imperator in suo regno (the king is emperor in his kingdom), this argument made by royal apologists contends that the kings of France were not subject to imperial or papal sovereignty. The premise is that Charlemagne did not intend his own patrimony, the kingdom of France, to be subject to himself or to anyone else who held the title of Holy Roman Emperor.[60] Among the many references in the translations sponsored by Charles V to the rex imperator in suo regno formula, three stand out. In the preface to his French version of Cassian's Collations , Golein mentions his patron as he who holds and governs the kingdom and empire of France. Golein's treatise on the coronation ceremony included in the translation of the Rationale of Divine Offices not only speaks of "l'empereur de France" but also asserts that Charlemagne left the sacred banner known as the oriflamme in France "en signe d'empire perpetuel" (as a sign of eternal empire).[61] In outspoken fashion, Le songe du vergier , which in 1378 adapted a Latin text composed three years earlier, adds to the original work an assertion that the king of France is emperor in his own kingdom. Invocation of this formula counters English claims to disputed territory, such as Guyenne,
and more generally, accounts for the legal inability of the king of France to alienate or surrender any part of the realm. These bold interpolations probably reflect Charles V's direct intervention in the writing of the translation.[62]
At about the same time, a visual application of the rex imperator in suo regno formula can be found in an illustration accompanying an account of the visit in 1377 and 1378 of Charles V's uncle, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. Among the novel scenes that explain these events in the king's copy of the Grandes chroniques de France is a representation of the entry into Paris of Charles IV, his son Wenceslas, and Charles V. Leading his imperial visitors, the French king rides on a white horse that symbolizes his sovereignty.[63]
Thus, the translations commissioned by the king emphasize the cultural and political superiority of the French nation under the leadership of Charles V. The translators' prologues contend that this ruler carries on the heritage of piety, learning, and military victories of his namesake and purported ancestor, the emperor and saint Charlemagne. In such a context, Charles V's translation program ushers in a new phase of the translatio studii , in which, under monarchic patronage, a transfer of learning and power is expressed in works written in the French language.
Humanistic Currents
While the retrospective, political aspects of Charles V's program of translations are important, his policy of encouraging works in the vernacular also reflects a personal interest in and contemporary taste for the classical past and early Italian humanism. An important precedent is John the Good's sponsorship of Bersuire's translation of Livy. Although King John's copy does not survive, in an inventory of 1373 the custodian of Charles V's library describes in unflattering terms the writing, illumination, and illustration of this manuscript.[64] Indeed, the oldest extant illustrated copy of Bersuire's translation is one from Charles V's collection. The colophon in the king's hand states that he was responsible for having the book written, illuminated, and brought to completion. The elaborate cycle of illustrations attests to the king's taste, an analogue of his preference for the vernacular.[65]
Ties with Petrarch and Avignon may also have influenced Charles's interests. Perhaps the king recalled his encounter with Petrarch in Paris. In 1361 during a diplomatic mission, the Italian humanist failed to deliver to the French court a scheduled discourse on Fortune. To compensate, Charles V may have commissioned in 1376 the first translation of Petrarch's work: the French version by Jean Daudin of the De remediis utriusque fortunae .[66] In another direction, Petrarch's devotion to St. Augustine's City of God may have spurred Charles V to order Raoul de Presles's translation of this text.[67] This hypothesis seems plausible in view of Presles's reliance on the Latin commentaries on the City of God by two English friars, Nicholas Trevet and Thomas Waleys. Both men were longtime residents of Avignon with strong humanist interests.[68] Presles focused on the wealth of infor-
mation about ancient Greek and Roman culture provided by the first half of the City of God and the later Latin commentaries. Indeed, Presles writes that because theology was not his specialty, he does not comment on the second half of the text, and Laborde states Presles's translation was popular precisely because of its wealth of anecdotes about classical heroes and other subjects from ancient history rather than its religious content.[69] In addition, the elaborate cycles of illustrations that often accompany the popular translation by Presles made the texts more accessible and appealing to lay audiences.[70]
In the French version of the first four books of Valerius Maximus's medieval favorite, the Faits et dits dignes de mémoire , the translator, Simon de Hesdin, depends heavily on the earlier commentary of 1342 written in Naples by Fra Dionigi da Borgo San Sepolcro. Fra Dionigi's patron was King Robert the Wise of Anjou, whose court was an early center of Italian humanism.[71] The illustrations of the French translation, executed between 1375 and 1379, clearly indicate this interest in classical culture. A French version of Seneca's letter to Lucilius commissioned by a high official of the Angevin court also found a place in Charles V's library.[72] King Robert also commissioned a copy of the missing fourth Decade of Livy's History of Rome .[73] Two of three manuscripts associated with the Angevin court in Naples that later belonged to Charles V and his brother the duke of Berry also deal with Roman history.[74] Thus, the relationship between the French court in Paris and that of Naples suggests another channel to early humanistic currents in Italy.
The sponsorship by Charles V of illustrated manuscripts of Bersuire's translation of Livy, as well as those of Simon de Hesdin's vernacular version of Valerius Maximus and of Presles's influential rendition of St. Augustine, contributed to their popularity and dissemination among lay audiences. Although it is difficult to separate the humanistic elements of these translations inspired by contacts with Petrarch, Avignon, and Naples from traditional French medieval classicism, both strands may have motivated the original and subsequent demands for these texts. And while the translations of classical works from just one part of Charles V's program, they constitute a distinctive aspect of his personal taste and that of his generation. With their extensive, if not always correct, explanations of classical allusions, Nicole Oresme's translations of Aristotle's Ethics and Politics exhibit a similar fascination with the culture of the ancient world.