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Plutarch in France Before Amyot

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Plutarch in France Before Amyot PLUTARCH'S LIVES Alain Billault Introduction: Plutarch in France before Amyot Jacques Amyot's translation of Plutarch's Lives was the major event in the destiny of Plutarch's Lives in France. It was published in Paris by Michel de Vascosan in 1559, with the tide: Vies des hommes illus­ tres grecs et romains comparées Vune avec Vautre par Plutarque de Chaeronée, Translatées premièrement de Grec en François par maistre Jacques Amyot. Its publication was the main cause of Plutarch's esteem in modern France and exercised a long-lived influence on French literature, but it was not an isolated event. From the beginning of the sixteenth century ancient Greek texts had become mainstream in French intellectual life. They were edited in their original version or translated into Latin or French. The original editions often bore a relation to courses of public lectures but were also used by people who could not attend the lectures but wanted to learn ancient Greek.1 The Latin transla­ tions were read by educated people who could read Latin, but not Greek. They were published before the French translations that appeared later and gradually became prominent. Plutarch's case pro­ vides a good example of this trend.2 Plutarch's works were unknown in the Middle Ages.3 Italy redis­ covered them in the fifteenth century. The first edition of Plutarch in France was published in Paris by Gilles de Gourmont on April 30, 1509. The book included three texts from the Moralia: De uirtute et uitio, Defortuna Romanorum and Quemadmodum oporteat adulescentem poe- mata audire. They were reprinted with an additional preface from Aldo Manuce's editio pnnceps of the Moralia, which had been pub­ lished in Venice in 1509. The Italian Girolamo Aleandro, known in French as Jérôme Aléandre, wrote this preface. He had been edu­ cated in Padova and in Venice where he had served as an assistant 1 Irigoin 1998: see Fumaroli 1998: 391-404. 2 Aulotte 1965: 21-38. 3 Aulotte 1965: 21-22. Walter 1951: I, XIV-XV. 220 ALAIN BILLAULT of Aldo Manuce. He was a priest and became later Archbishop of Brindisi and Cardinal of the Roman Church. From 1508 to 1513, he was teaching in Paris and working to introduce French people to Greek writers, particularly Plutarch. His edition was part of this endeavour. It was the beginning of a powerful trend of publications of Plutarch's works in France. Those publications were brought out as other ones were issued abroad. In Florence, Junta published the editio pnnceps of Plutarch's Lives in 1517. From 1514 to 1525 in Basel, Erasmus translated into Latin ten texts from the Moralia. In 1542, Froben's edition of the Moralia was released. He provided a better text than Aldo Manuce and inspired a new series of Latin translations. Xylander and Cruserius made their own which was published in Basel by Guérin in 1570. Many French translations of the Moralia were also published at that time. R. Aulotte has listed them.4 They included a wide range of texts, but none of them provides the complete Moralia. More often than not they were based on a Latin or an Italian translation because most translators could not read Greek. Nevertheless, their books were successful. From 1530 to 1540, 27 books by Plutarch were published in France including 15 French translations, six Latin translations, three editions of the original text and three volumes which contained Greek text and facing Latin translation.5 Those figures confirm that Plutarch had indeed become a popular writer in sixteenth-century France. Therefore Amyot's success with his translation of Plutarch's Lives cannot be considered an exception. His book appears as a bright star in a vast Plutarchean galaxy which included already other trans­ lations of the Lives. The first one was by Simon Borgouyn who translated before 1515 a Latin translation of the Lives of Pompey, Cicero and Scipio Africanus.6 In 1519, a reprint of Junta's editio pnnceps was published in France and Françoise de Foix, who was Countess of Chateaubriand and the mistress of King François I asked an anonymous writer to translate the Life of Anthony. Then François I commissioned Lazare de Baïf, a clever diplomat and a genuine scholar, to edit and translate an anthology of Plutarch's Lives. In 1530, the king was presented with the translation of the Lives of Theseus and Romulus. He disliked de 4 Aulotte 1965: 53-128. 5 Bunker 1939, see Aulotte 1965: 34, n. 4. 6 Sturel 1908: 8-9. .
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