Chapter 4 - Plutarch in Early French Renaissance Public Humanism: Desiderius Erasmus and Claude de Seyssel

Summary

In Chapter 4, I continue my study of the reception of Plutarch’s work in the French Renaissance. First, I discuss how Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) was introduced to Plutarch’s work at the press of Aldus Manutius in Venice and his subsequent work translating several of Plutarch’s texts into Latin. I demonstrate how the subsequent vernacular translations of Erasmus’s Latin work, including his Education of a Christian Prince, and his translation of Plutarch’s Apophthegmata or Sayings of Kings and Commanders had a different presence in the French and English contexts. I also explore the interesting case of Claude de Seyssel (1450–1520) who drew on the Latin translations of Plutarch by Jean Lascaris of the Lives of Antony and Demetrius to complete his vernacular translations of Appian and Diodorus Siculus. I demonstrate connections between Seyssel’s work on these translations and his later political reflections in his treatise The Monarchy of France while deepening my analysis of the contours of public humanism.