Laurent de Premierfait

Infobox Person
name = Laurent de Premierfait


image_size =
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birth_date = c. 1380
birth_place = Premierfait near Troyes
death_date = 1418
death_place =
occupation = Latin poet
spouse =

Laurent de Premierfait (c. 1380 - d. 1418) was a Latin poet, a humanist and in the first rank of French language translators of the fifteenth century, ["If we are to judge by the number and the length of his translations he is the most significant translator of fifteenth century France," wrote Patricia M. Gathercole in introducing him (Gathercole, "Laurent de Premierfait: The Translator of Boccaccio's De casibus virorum illustrium" "The French Review" 27.4 (February 1954:245-252) p 245.] during the time of the mad king Charles VI of France. [Bozzolo, Carla (1984) "Laurent de Premierfait et Terence, Vestigia. Studi in onore di Giuseppe Billanovich," Rome: Edizione di storia di Litteratura, 1, 93-129] To judge from the uses made of "Du cas des nobles hommes et femmes " in England, and the sheer number of surviving manuscripts of it (sixty-five in a 1955 count), [Patricia M. Gathercole, "The Manuscripts of Laurent de Premierfait's 'Du Cas des Nobles' (Boccaccio's 'De Casibus Virorum Illustrium')" "Italica" 32.1 (March 1955:14-21).] it was extremely popular in Western Europe throughout the fifteenth century. Laurent made two translations of the Boccaccio work, the second considerably more free. A large percentage of surviving manuscripts are carefully written and illuminated with illustrations.

Biography

Laurent was born in Premierfait, a small village near Troyes. He lived at the papal court at Avignon for a while and came shoulder-to-shoulder with other humanists while being employed by the Papal Court. Laurent was well known for translating Aristotle, [For Aristotle he worked from a Latin translation.] Cicero, and Livy. He was also the first French translator of Giovanni Boccaccio's works. [ [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-3020(196923)46%3A3%3C300%3ATFTOB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C The French Translators of Boccaccio] ] [ [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-111X(195402)27:4%3C245:LDPTTO%3E2.0.CO;2-H Laurent de Premierfait: The Translator of Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustribus] ] He states in one of his works that he, like his interlocutor Jean de Montreuil, was a "clerc du diocese de Troyes" and secretary-notary to Jean-Allarmet de Brogny, Cardinal of Saluces. Laurent worked as well for Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, Jean Chanteprime, "contrôleur général des finances", and for king Charles VI. He made a living as a translator for such nobles as Louis de Bourbon, Bishop of Liège and the great collector-connoisseur, Jean, Duke of Berry, [ [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0951-0788(190506)7%3A27%3C198%3ATRMITB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I The Rothschild MS. in the British Museum of "Les Cas des Malheureux Nobles Hommes et Femmes"] ; Laurent wrote a third prologue to Jean, duc de Berry (Gathercole 1955:15).] both being relatives to Charles VI. [ [http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/medethum.html 'Jhesu Nichil Est Commune Ligurgo': A French Humanist Debate of ca. 1405 by Grover C. Furr] ] Jacques Monfrin states that Laurent's translations were not done for the general public but more for wealthy aristocratic patrons. [Jacques Monfrin, "Traducteurs et leur public en France au moyen-âge," "Journal des Savants", January-March 1964:5-20.]

He died probably of the Black Death that wiped out about half of the European population recurring repeatedly from the mid fourteenth century. There is a possibility however that he was murdered in the struggles of the Armagnac and Bourguignon political factions which had followed the Battle of Agincourt of 1415 and divided France. [Henri Hauvette, "De Laurentio de Primofato" (Paris, Hachette, 1903)]

A portrait of Laurent, considered to be an authentic representation, figures among the illuminations in the manuscript of "Du cas des nobles hommes et femmes" that was dedicated to the duc de Berry and has come with the former royal library to the Bibliothèque Nationale. [B.N. fr. 226. Paulin Paris, in "Les manuscripts français de la Bibliothèque du Roi", noted by Gathercole 1955:16.]

Works of translations

* Aristotle [Jacques Monfrin. "Humanisme ct traduction au moyen-âge," in "L'Humanisme médiéval dans les Littératures Romanes du XIIe au XIVe siècles" (Paris: Fourrier. 1964), pp. 217-46. esp. 233 ff.; R. H. Lucas, "Medieval French Translations of the Latin Classics to 1500," Speculum 45 (1970):225-53] :: "Economics" (1418)

* Seneca [G.S. Purkes attributed this translation to Laurent in "Laurent de Premierfait", "Italian Studies IV" (1949).] :: "De quattuor virtutibus"

* Cicero [Lucas, R. H. "Medieval French Translations of the Latin Classics to 1500," Speculum 45 (1970):225-53] :: "De amicitia" (1416):: "De senectute" (1405) [Paris, BnF, MSS lat. 7789]

* Giovanni Boccaccio [Ornato, "Per la fortuna," p. 261, n.5 ] :: "De Casibus Virorum Illustrium" (1400 and again in 1409) :: "De mulieribus claris" (1405) [Whether the French translation is due to Laurent has been a matter of contention; H. Hauvette, Laurent's biographer, maintains that he did not.] :: "Decameron" (1410) In this, Laurent worked from a Latin version.

Footnotes

References

* [http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/diss/disstoc.html Grover C. Furr, "The Quarrel of the Roman de la Rose and Fourteenth Century Humanism." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, January 1979.]
* Coville, Alfred "Gontier et Pierre Col et l'Humanisme en France au temps de Charles VI" (Paris: Droz) 1934:175-86
* Areford, David S. "Excavating the Medieval Image", (Ashgate Publishing) 2004:59-75, 341-62 ISBN 0754631435
* Gathercole, Patricia May "Fifteenth-century translation. The development of Laurent de Premierfait." "MLQ" 21 (1960:365-90)
* Bozzolo, Carla (1973) "Manuscripts des traductions francaises d'aeuvres de Boccacce: XV stecle" (Padua: Antenore) (1973)
* Famiglietti, Richard "Laurent de Premierfait: The Career of a Humanist in Early Fifteenth Century Paris", "Journal of Medieval History" (1983)
*Hauvette, Henri. "De Laurentio de Primofato" (Paris: Hachetrte) 1903. Still the only full-scale life.