Laurent de Premierfait

Laurent de Premierfait (c. 1370 – 1418) was a Latin poet, a humanist and in the first rank of French language translators of the fifteenth century,^[1] during the time of king Charles VI of France.^[2] 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),^[3] 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.

^ "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.
^ Bozzolo, Carla (1984) Laurent de Premierfait et Terence, Vestigia. Studi in onore di Giuseppe Billanovich, Rome: Edizione di storia di Litteratura, 1, 93-129
^ 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).

[1] "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.

[2] Bozzolo, Carla (1984) Laurent de Premierfait et Terence, Vestigia. Studi in onore di Giuseppe Billanovich, Rome: Edizione di storia di Litteratura, 1, 93-129

[3] 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).

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