French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. J. Gosse, Le Surprenant Manuscrit de Lyon - Roland Furieux (1607)
Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Albert Jean Gosse, Le Surprenant Manuscrit de Lyon - Roland Furieux (1607)

Paris: L'Harmattan, "Chemins de la mémoire" collection, 2014.

108 pp.

EAN 9782343038759 (EAN Ebook PDF format: 9782336359496)

15.00 EUR (digital version: 10.99 EUR)

Publisher's Description:

Manuscript Ms. 745, a verse translation into French of the first two cantos of Ariosto's Roland Furieux, held at the Lyon Municipal Library and long considered anonymous, is the work of the poet Jean Bertaut, Bishop of Sées. The steganographic method he used to ensure he could be identified testifies to how discreet he was.

This volume examines Manuscript Ms. 745, housed in the Lyon Municipal Library, which contains a French verse translation of the first two cantos of Ludovico Ariosto's epic masterpiece Orlando Furioso. Long thought to be the work of an anonymous hand, the text is here attributed to the poet and churchman Jean Bertaut, who served as Bishop of Sées. The study highlights the intriguing steganographic techniques Bertaut employed to embed his identity covertly within the verses, reflecting the delicate discretion required by courtly and literary life during the period.

Published in the Chemins de la mémoire series by L'Harmattan, this scholarly investigation offers valuable insights into early seventeenth-century translation practices and French-Italian literary exchanges. It will particularly interest researchers of Renaissance and Baroque literature, specialists in comparative poetry, and historians of the book who seek to understand the complexities of attribution and textual transmission. By shedding light on Bertaut's hidden signature, the work enriches our understanding of poetic identity and clandestine authorship in the early modern era.