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.