2 - ‘A vos yeulx, un peu de recreation’: Translation, Translatio Studii and Self-Fashioning in Anne de Graville’s Chaldean Histories

Summary

Anne's manuscript of the Chaldean Historiescontains a unique translation and adaptation of five books, purportedly written by the Chaldean priest Berosus, that formed part of Annius da Viterbo's Antiquities. Written in Latin and first published in Rome in 1498, the Antiquitiesrecounted the history of the world around the time of the Flood through eleven ‘ancient’, ‘lost’ books that Annius claimed to have rediscovered but which were in fact his own work. Despite their fabricated status, the Antiquitiesbecame an important source for subsequent works promoting the French monarchy's ancient lineage. This chapter explores how both text and image in Anne's manuscript served to bring her into a network of writers and readers with a strong interest in promoting France's cultural superiority through translatio studii. It also suggests that, as both a translation and, effectively, a remaniement, the Chaldean Historiesalso anticipated the directions in which Anne's collection and her own writings would develop.

Although the author/translator of Anne's text is never named, an inscription on one of the flyleaves beneath Anne's name, ‘Tout pour le mieux, vostre bon cousin et amy, c’est moy’, have led scholars to assume that Pierre de Balsac had the book made for Anne, even if he did not translate it himself. The manuscript is replete with declarations of love and admiration for Anne in both the prologue and the epilogue, and the mottos, à non plus, à autre non, and à amour, appear in the opening miniature and on nearly all the pages: these mottos pun on the preposition àand Anne's initial A, making them read to/Anne no-one else; to/Anne no other; for/Anne love. Montmorand called the book a ‘singulier cadeau à faire à la femme aimée, et l’étrange moyen de séduction!’ (an odd gift to offer a female beloved, and a strange means of seduction!). In Anne's case, however, the two things are not incompatible and Pierre's gift provides important evidence of Anne's erudition and learning as well as the high esteem in which she was held.