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.