La “Laus Pisonis” traduite par Simon de Hesdin: la première traduction française d’un texte très rare. Quelques problèmes d’orientation du premier humanisme français

Abstract

Simon de Hesdin cites his translations of several classical Latin texts, but is only known to us through his translation and extensive commentary of the first books of Valerius Maximus’ Factorum dictorumque memorabilium libri, with its dedication to Charles V, based in part on the commentary by Dionigi da Borgo Sansepolcro. Some years later Nicolas de Gonesse completed the translation and commentary, citing Boccaccio and Petrarch, considered to be the fathers of Italian Humanism. A widely held view holds that Simon de Hesdin is emblematic of mediaeval culture, whereas Nicolas de Gonesse is considered to display the marks of a nascent Humanism originating in Italy. Evidence is provided that shows that Simon de Hesdin shares the same points of view and very similar methods, and that these originate not in Italy but in northern France, some found in Vincent de Beauvais, and others in lesser known sources. Such for instance is the Laus Pisonis, an extremely rare text of remarkable literary quality: Simon de Hesdin drew it from a source similar to the Florilegium Gallicum. The text is not cited by Vincent de Beauvais in France, nor is it referred to by either Petrarch or Boccaccio. A number of scholars in Northern France began to explore and recognize the value of old and rare texts such as the Laus Pisonis, also translating them: a kind of Humanism before Humanism, which suggests that we need to re-consider some over-rigid historiographical models.