L’usage du latin et du français à la chancellerie de Philippe VI

Abstract

It was during the 13th century that vernacular languages began to compete with Latin in administrative documents, but it has often been noticed that the French royal Chancery was comparatively slow in adopting the French language. An important change in linguistic usages took place in the reign of Philip VI: a systematic analysis of chancery registers shows that, from October 1330 onwards, for unknown reasons, the proportion of charters in French to that of charters in Latin was clearly reversed. From that time, French became the almost exclusive language for charters in common law areas, whereas Latin kept its prominent posi tion in Roman law areas, while both languages competed in the in-between territory extending from Saintonge to Auvergne. On the other hand, a study of letters written by local royal administrators shows that those in common law areas used French exclusively, whereas those located in Roman law areas stuck fast to Latin, as they had at least from the time of Philip the Fair.