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La Confrérie des chasseurs de livres
François Villon, poète rebelle et brigand condamné à mort, est gracié par le roi Louis XI qui l’envoie en Terre sainte, à la rencontre des chasseurs de livres de la Jérusalem d’en bas, tenter une alliance contre l’omnipotence de Rome. Entre thriller et picaresque, aussi joueur qu’érudit, l’auteur de Sauver Mozart met en marche les forces de l’esprit contre la toute-puissance du dogme et des armes, pour faire triompher l’humanisme.
315 pages, Paperback
First published August 21, 2013
13 people are currently reading
285 people want to read
About the author
Raphaël Jerusalmy
20 books11 followersRaphaël Jerusalmy, né en 1954 à Paris, au pied de la Butte Montmartre, de mère russe et de père turc immigrés en France et brocanteurs de profession, la famille turque de son père fut déportée et exterminée à Auschwitz.
Diplômé de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure et de la Sorbonne, a fait carrière au sein des services de renseignements militaires israéliens avant de mener des actions de caractère humanitaire et éducatif. Il est aujourd'hui marchand de livres anciens à Tel-Aviv.
Diplômé de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure et de la Sorbonne, a fait carrière au sein des services de renseignements militaires israéliens avant de mener des actions de caractère humanitaire et éducatif. Il est aujourd'hui marchand de livres anciens à Tel-Aviv.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
May 13, 2021
Легкое авантюрное чтение на тему таинственных манускриптов и всяческих интриг. Увлекательно, красиво, где-то натвно - а в целом получилось похоже на сказку, которая принесет удовольствие, если не придираться)
January 5, 2015
Early in this novel the author describes a Renaissance Madonna and Child painting, pointing out that the realistic landscape in the background is the true focus of the composition rather than the human figures in the foreground. Ironically, he might just as well be describing his own novel. Though the jacket blurb promises a sophisticated thriller on the order of Eco or Dan Brown (yes, I know that equating those two disparate talents was a warning signal,) what we have here is a murky tale replete with historical and literary allusions populated by two dimensional characters who perform in front of a poetically rendered ancient landscape. It is as if the author lives for the opportunity to describe the hills of Galilee and pastes human figures in the foreground to give the reader an excuse to move from one landscape to the next. As if producing characters the reader can neither identify with nor care about wasn't bad enough, the author offers an historical conspiracy so badly plotted that this reader is still a bit confused about who was plotting to do what to whom. Was the entire Renaissance the result of a fiendish scheme of a secret sect of Essenes aiming to reintroduce classical learning to a benighted world? Or did these Jewish "book hunters" merely spark the Protestant Reformation? I could never decide which the author intended, and ended up not really caring.
The only reason I care enough to offer this review is that the protagonist, Francois Villon, truly deserves to live again in a much better historical novel. We know just enough about him (educated ruffian, lyrical but bawdy poet) to inspire a talented novelist to bring him alive again as a complex, clever and unpredictable anti-hero. Perhaps this mess of a novel will motivate someone to do a better job.
The only reason I care enough to offer this review is that the protagonist, Francois Villon, truly deserves to live again in a much better historical novel. We know just enough about him (educated ruffian, lyrical but bawdy poet) to inspire a talented novelist to bring him alive again as a complex, clever and unpredictable anti-hero. Perhaps this mess of a novel will motivate someone to do a better job.
May 20, 2020
J'ai débuté ce livre pendant le confinement et l'ai fini après. Est-ce pour cela que j'ai ressenti une cassure dans le rythme et que j'ai eu l'impression que l'histoire s'étirait inutilement à un moment donné ?
La puissance évocatrice de Raphaël Jerusalmy et son érudition font mouche, comme dans "La rose de Saragosse", même si l'histoire n'a parfois rien à envier au "Da Vinci Code" (en beaucoup mieux écrit). Au bout du compte, la lecture était vraiment agréable et j'ai beaucoup aimé le personnage de François Villon, même s'il a manqué de quelque chose pour en faire un coup de cœur.
La puissance évocatrice de Raphaël Jerusalmy et son érudition font mouche, comme dans "La rose de Saragosse", même si l'histoire n'a parfois rien à envier au "Da Vinci Code" (en beaucoup mieux écrit). Au bout du compte, la lecture était vraiment agréable et j'ai beaucoup aimé le personnage de François Villon, même s'il a manqué de quelque chose pour en faire un coup de cœur.
December 20, 2014
From my review in the New York Times:
The action takes place in a past that’s so unfamiliar it’s not just a foreign country; it’s practically another planet. Slavery is normal and torture blandly accepted. Prisoners are fed a diet of live rats. One of the joys of such a novel is the promise to transport you to an alien world — in this case a world of Mamluks and Saracens, forgotten technologies and abandoned traditions. The trifle of a story hinges on the idea that Villon’s pardon depended on his participation in a plot against the Vatican, though the narrative grows satisfyingly tangled with subplots and counterplots along the way. Villon will set out from a nearly unrecognizable Paris to a Holy Land familiar only in its religious divisions on orders from Louis XI, whose true intentions the hero must hope to deduce before the novel’s end.
And yet The Brotherhood of Book Hunters is carefully constructed to be not so unfamiliar as all that. The translation from Jerusalmy’s native French bobs cheerfully along on a raft of shorthand and cliché familiar to those who enjoy quick-paced fiction: People rot in prisons, anyone surprised gives a start, coats of arms are resplendent, a man listening is all ears and so on. The story is told in what might be called “third-person promiscuous,” jumping into as many as three characters’ minds per paragraph, with the result that all of them think in an identical voice. The uniformity is compounded by a heavy reliance on exposition, sometimes pages long, of the background to the many counterplots. Various celebrity cameos (a young Christopher Columbus makes a short appearance, for example) do little to drive the story, but give readers a sense of being in the know.
The action takes place in a past that’s so unfamiliar it’s not just a foreign country; it’s practically another planet. Slavery is normal and torture blandly accepted. Prisoners are fed a diet of live rats. One of the joys of such a novel is the promise to transport you to an alien world — in this case a world of Mamluks and Saracens, forgotten technologies and abandoned traditions. The trifle of a story hinges on the idea that Villon’s pardon depended on his participation in a plot against the Vatican, though the narrative grows satisfyingly tangled with subplots and counterplots along the way. Villon will set out from a nearly unrecognizable Paris to a Holy Land familiar only in its religious divisions on orders from Louis XI, whose true intentions the hero must hope to deduce before the novel’s end.
And yet The Brotherhood of Book Hunters is carefully constructed to be not so unfamiliar as all that. The translation from Jerusalmy’s native French bobs cheerfully along on a raft of shorthand and cliché familiar to those who enjoy quick-paced fiction: People rot in prisons, anyone surprised gives a start, coats of arms are resplendent, a man listening is all ears and so on. The story is told in what might be called “third-person promiscuous,” jumping into as many as three characters’ minds per paragraph, with the result that all of them think in an identical voice. The uniformity is compounded by a heavy reliance on exposition, sometimes pages long, of the background to the many counterplots. Various celebrity cameos (a young Christopher Columbus makes a short appearance, for example) do little to drive the story, but give readers a sense of being in the know.
September 23, 2015
7 de 10*
Assim que li a sinopse deste livro, entrou de imediato para a wishlist. O simples conceito de haver Caçadores de Livros, deslumbrou-me!
No entanto, achei a leitura bastante confusa, não sei se sou eu que ando mais cansada e não consigo captar tudo o que a leitura me dá à primeira, ou se é de facto confuso. Certamente será um livro a ser relido no futuro, porque gostei muito da história, mas senti-me baralhada e perdida inúmeras vezes...
A escrita do autor baseia-se muito em começar a contar uma nova parte da narrativa sem ligação (aparentemente) directa com o que vem detrás, mas que acaba por fazer sentido depois. O problema, é o meio tempo entre o início de cada capítulo e a percepção do fio condutor da história.
Comentário completo em:
http://abibliotecadajoao.blogspot.pt/...
Assim que li a sinopse deste livro, entrou de imediato para a wishlist. O simples conceito de haver Caçadores de Livros, deslumbrou-me!
No entanto, achei a leitura bastante confusa, não sei se sou eu que ando mais cansada e não consigo captar tudo o que a leitura me dá à primeira, ou se é de facto confuso. Certamente será um livro a ser relido no futuro, porque gostei muito da história, mas senti-me baralhada e perdida inúmeras vezes...
A escrita do autor baseia-se muito em começar a contar uma nova parte da narrativa sem ligação (aparentemente) directa com o que vem detrás, mas que acaba por fazer sentido depois. O problema, é o meio tempo entre o início de cada capítulo e a percepção do fio condutor da história.
Comentário completo em:
http://abibliotecadajoao.blogspot.pt/...
August 9, 2015
I was seduced into reading this because of the presence of two attractive elements: the main character is a fictionalized Francois Villon, the French rebel poet whose life has always interested me; and the other is a secret society of world-transformers. These are not supernatural agents. They are the book copiers and publishers, written tract preservers, and curators of the remains of all literature not destroyed by the Spanish Inquisition and its sympathizers. Their goal is to protect themselves and their community by spreading revolutionary ideas throughout a Europe painfully breaking free of institutional control at the end of the Middle Ages. The way Jerusalmy describes it, you can smell the intoxicating perfume of the Renaissance, waiting patiently in the wings for its cue. I'd like to avoid spoilers, so I will answer the question as to how creating intellectual curiosity could possibly protect any group by saying: this particular group has long suffered persecution, prejudice, vicious rumors and isolation in ghettos. Broadening minds has, of course, always been a feature in the character of many book lovers. This time, the goal is a bit more concise than merely assuring the growth of human intellectual and attitudinal progress.
January 7, 2015
Filled with mystery and cunning plots, this is definitely a quick and interesting read. It's historical in nature though, so if the papacy, crusades, and Holy Wars in the fifteen century isn't something you are familiar with you might want to get some basic wiki background so you aren't lost!
December 18, 2023
review of
Raphaël Jerusalmy's The Brotherhood of Book Hunters
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 16-18, 2023
I might've picked this up in a bk store in Roanoke. Whenever I go somewhere outside the city where I live I like to go to all the used bkstores. Of course, sometimes they're good, sometimes they're mediocre (as in this case).. but there's usually a 'find', a bk of interest that I wasn't specifically looking for. That's the case here.
The main character is François Villon, a poet whose work I like (at least in the translation by Jean Calais published as Number One in "The Pick Pocket Series" (Duende Press) - highly recommended). It centers on the later yrs of his life, historically undocumented &, therefore, open to fantasy. He's saved from execution & becomes embroiled in a conspiracy of the titular The Brotherhood of Book Hunters. Their goal is to free humanity from the Catholic Church & its Inquisition - not thru military means but by using the newly invented printing press to spread 'heretical' works far & wide that the Catholic Church has banned. Their punishment for making these texts public being torture & execution. Such a plot appeals to me enormously.
I watch Catholic horror movies. There're quite a few of them & it seems to me that in the past couple of yrs there've been more than usual. I went to the drive-in to see "The Pope's Exorcist". When I bought a ticket I was given a rosary, I thought that was an inspired movie memorabilia trinket. The thing that interested me about "The Pope's Exorcist" is that it was a brazen attempt of the Catholic Church to disclaim responsibility for the Inquisition, for them to neatly sidestep responsibility for 400 yrs of robbery, kidnapping, torture, & murder of at least 1,000,000 victims. "Goya's Ghosts" is a much better film to see on the subject (although I can't exactly recommend it b/c it's very realistic & very upsetting).
The conclusion of "The Pope's Exorcist" is that the Inquisition started b/c the devil took over a highly placed Catholic priest who then convinced other people in high positions that theft, kidnapping, torture, murder, & the suppression of intellect were 'for the good of the church & fulfilled God's mission' & that sort of crap. Hence, you see, the Catholic Church wasn't responsible for the Inquisition, the devil made them do it. A particularly neat further sidestepping informs the viewer that this is why the Catholic Church is so desperately needed still today b/c they have the exorcists to fight the devil! Wow. If I didn't find that so despicable, I'd almost be impressed by how absolutely diabolical it is.
The thing is, the Inquisition was 'for the good of the church & fulfilled God's mission' b/c it absolutely completely terrorized all of its enemies & made it accumulate enormous wealth. 400+ yrs of robbery yields quite a bundle. What this nifty avoidance of responsibility fails to address is how, after the possessed priest died, the Church justifies the ensuing 380+ yrs of continuing the devil-prompted crimes. One might think that a reasonable person wd say that all this twaddle 'proves' is that the Vatican Exorcists were absolutely useless against the devil &, in fact, furthered the devil's plans w/ the earnestness of directors of Enron or AOL, etc. If you believe in the Devil, wch I don't. Who needs the devil when you've got the Catholic Church?
The bk begins w/ a short bio of Villon:
"Born at the end of the Middle Ages, François Villon is the first modern poet. He is the author of the famous Ballad of the Hanged and Ballad of Dead Ladies. But Villon was also a notorious brigand. In 1462, at the age of thirty-one, he was arrested, tortured, and sentenced "to be hanged and strangled." On January 6, 1463, the Parliament quashed the sentence and banished him from Paris. Nobody knows what happened to him subsequently . . ." - p 13
Now, by quoting the above I don't mean to endorse poetry. Poetry can be very harmful, inducing all sorts of vague thinking & unsubstantiated fantasies of talent. But I make an exception in Villon's case.
"The King of France was trying to weaken the power of the Vatican in order to consolidate his own. As it happened, a growing industry had begun to undermine Papal supremacy. Unlike the copyist monks, printing was not subject to the Church. Cleverly used, it might confer a lot of power on those who were able to control it. It was therefore regrettable that there was as yet no printing press in France." - p 19
Villon, being the hero, is presented as having a sense of humor. Remember that? That was something that existed before politically correct people started flexing their inherited wealth muscle & changing the name of "Book 'Em" to "Pittsburgh Books-to-Prisoners Program" or some such. Why am I such a fool that I think that a sense of humor is more subversive than imitating missionaries is? Villon responds to being offered release from his prison cell:
""Tell Louis the Prudent that his loyal subject Villon, although otherwise engaged, will forego all other commitments with the sole intention of being agreeable to him."" - p 20
&, yes, there are moments when the writing pleases me:
"The door of the tavern opened suddenly, blown inwards by a gust of wind. Spray and hail crashed onto the flagstones, sprinkling the sawdust and the straw. The dogs growled, the drinkers bellowed, the cats threw themselves under the tables. Their shadows swayed in the red light of the newly fanned flames of the hearth. Threats and curses rang out. Framed in the doorway, dripping with rain, a man stood, silhouetted against the whiteness of the hail. He was motionless for a moment, ignoring the tumult. A black velvet cloak floated around his shoulders like beating wings." - p 22
That certainly does the job of setting the scene. Colin is François's partner-in-grime, between the 2 of them they get the dirty work done.
"Colin went closer. It was the first time he had approached the man he had been watching for months. With a hesitant hand, he held out his list. The old merchant first glanced negligently at it. Then, genuinely taken aback, he looked at Colin for some time, incredulous." - p 26
"The monarch's true motives were much more down-to-earth. It was a simple matter of finance. At this time, everything coming from Byzantium, Alexandria or the Levant had to pass through the valley of the Rhone. The Pope having sovereignty over Avignon and the Comtat, the papal legate reaped huge profits from imposing rights of passage and taxes on foodstuffs, which went to fill the coffers of Rome rather than those of Louis XI. The king wanted to force the Vatican to cede this source of revenue to him." - p 36
Remember when Europeans believed that sea monsters awaited them if they went on long sea journeys? Now, one might say it's [COVID-19] so let's have some fun inserting that.
"Colin had not stopped cursing François since they had left Paris. He owed Chartier nothing. His mission was over. Fust had opened his printing works. He didn't see why he should go halfway across the world and throw himself into the jaws of the [COVID-19] and [COVID-19,000,000] that were surely awaiting him in those distant lands. He imagined those ancient sea monsters salivating with pleasure at the thought of devouring a nice pink Frenchman, all soaked in brandy and good wine. And besides, he hated the sea." - p 41
When I think of giving a nice pink Frenchman [COVID-19,000,000,000,000] I tend to imagine thinking the tiniest heretical thought & having his coating of wet chocolate suddenly fissure, don't you? Macron be w/ you. 'But what about the Jews?' you ask:
"Cosimo de' Medici's instructions, even though uttered from his deathbed, were categorical. More than that, they were his last will, his testament: to save the painting and the clandestine manuscripts he had been hiding in the cellars of the Platonic Academy. The mission would not be at all easy, but fortune smiled on the young merchant when a decree from Lorenzo II, known as the Magnificent, made Florence a veritable protectorate for the Jews. Not only did Lorenzo lift all the humiliating prohibitions against the Jews of Florence but in addition, running counter to Papal censorship, he exhorted scholars to once again take up the study of Talmudic works, Judeo-Arab treatises on medicine, and even the kabbalah." - p 57
What kind of a text is banned by dogmatic control freaks? Well, it's not just things that claim that humans, made in imitation of god w/o any of the perqs, aren't the center of the universe:
""Three manuscripts from the hand of Bishop Nicholas of Cusa, also known as Cusanum, concerning the composition of the universe. From algebraic deductions and observation of the skies, it has apparently been established that, and I quote, terra non est centra mundi . . . It seems there are thousands of stars and planets hovering in the ether. We are merely a grain of sand in the midst of that vastness."
"Brother Médard gave a start, almost falling off his stool. "You can't solve the mystery of Creation with an abacus," he growled.
""My most Catholic lord Medici thinks the papacy has become trapped in the swamps of dogma. It persists in following Aristotle for fear of shaking beliefs that ensure it the blind submission of its flock. It even rejects zero, which both Arabs and Jews use without in any way losing faith in their God."
""Zero? Neither Pythagoras nor Euclid needed that phantom number. They established the world on solid foundations, not on a fortune-teller's symbols!"
""How can an empty, worthless number threaten the Almighty?"" - p 66
Yeah, try frightening a trio of bullies w/ NOTHING & see how far it gets you!
There're some couplets from Villon, presented as from his Ballad of the Hanged Man. I was hoping to compare the translation here to one by Callais but I didn't find it in his bk.
"Brother men who live when we have gone
Against us do not let your hearts grow stern . . ." - p 97
"For if some pity on us poor souls you take,
The sooner then God's mercy you will earn"
[..]
"The wind changes, and we are blown
Hither and yon, at its behest without . . ." - p 98
Do you love secret societies? Are you in at least one? Do you wish you were?
"Then came the turn of the brotherhood of which Gamliel was a member. It had its headquarters here, where it had been training an invisible army for almost twelve hundred years. This clandestine command post was neither a government in exile nor a den of rebels. It ran the many networks that ensured the cohesion of a dispersed people, providing supplies to communities in distress, keeping an eye on hostile governments, trying to ward off the perils constantly threatening the Jews. The existence of this secret organization was mentioned many times, surreptitiously, in the annals of various periods, in travelers' tales, in pious manuals. This was the "invisible Jerusalem" of which Talmudists and commentators spoke—taking care never to describe it, nor to say exactly where it was located." - p 119
Just imagine! You're in an invisible army for almost twelve hundred years & you decide to finally retire! Yr retirement pay wd be enuf to buy an entire country!
"After the fire that ravaged Alexandria, the Brotherhood of Book Hunters went and sold its services elsewhere"
[..]
"Heretics, alchemists, and bold scholars employed them to save their writings from the flames."
[..]
"And so it was that, from generation to generation, these mercenaries became, of necessity and without having ever wanted it, the guardians of wisdom." - p 121
"But Gamliel was not demanding anything like that from the French. He did not even require an exemption from the wearing of the rouelle, a piece of yellow material that the few Jews in the kingdom had to sew on the front and back of their clothes. This surprised François, given the risks they were incurring." - p 127
What? The "rouelle"?! A precursor to the yellow star that the nazis made Jews wear 600+ yrs later?!
"Mark placed on the dress of Jews to distinguish them from others. This was made a general order of Christendom at the fourth Lateran Council of 1215. At the instigation of Innocent III., the decision of the Council ordered the Jews, in the following terms, to bear a Badge:
""Contingit interdum quod per errorem christiani Judæorum seu Saracenorum et Judæi seu Saraceni christianorum mulieribus commisceantur. Ne igitur tam damnatæ commixtionis excessus per velamentum erroris hujusmodi, excusationis ulterius possint habere diffugium, statuimus ut tales utriusque sexus in omni christianorum provincia, et omni tempore qualitate habitus publice ab aliis populis distinguantur."
"From this it would appear that the motive of the order was to prevent illicit intercourse between Jews and Christian women; but it is scarcely doubtful that this was little more than a pretext, the evidence of such intercourse being only of the slightest (see Abrahams, "Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," pp. 93-95). It was no doubt the general policy of the Church to make a sharp line of demarcation between the true believer and the heretic; and the Badge came as the last stage in a series of enactments in the twelfth century, intended to prevent social relations between Jews and Christians, the chief of these being the prohibition of Christians becoming servants of the Jews. The Badge had a most deleterious effect upon their social relations; and the increasing degradation of the position of Jews in Christendom was due in a large measure to this outward sign of separation, which gave the official stamp of both Church and state to the discrimination of social status against the Jew. The idea of such a discrimination seems to have been derived from Islam, in which the dress of the Jews was distinguished by a different color from that of the true believer as early as the Pact of Omar (640), by which Jews were ordered to wear a yellow seam on their upper garments (D'Ohsson, "Histoire des Mogols," 1854, iii. 274). This was a distinct anticipation of the Badge. In 1005 the Jews of Egypt were ordered to wear bells on their garments and a wooden calf to remind them of the golden one (S. Lane-Poole, "History of Egypt," 1901, vi. 126). Later on, in 1301, they were obliged to wear yellow turbans (ib. pp. 300, 301). It may have been some sort of retaliation for a similar restriction placed upon the Christians in Islam, since the order of the Council applied to Saracens as well as to Jews." - https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/ar...
Unfuckingbelievable. I didn't know about that, I thought all this yellow badge business started w/ the Nazis.
"Federico was deep in conversation with Médard, who still disapproved of the choice of books to be taken to France and Italy. Above all, he was critical of Master Villon's Testament, finding it frivolous and insubstantial. He was also offended by the pompous title. There were two Testaments, the old and the new. What need was there of a third?" - p 159
What about a Testament 2.5? A half a testament?
My most recent bk is called Mike Film - A Mail (Art) Epic. In a sense, it documents a project of mine that started in 1978 the subversiveness of wch parallels that of The Brotherhood of Book Hunters. As such, I saw fit to quote the next section:
"The best trained agents could fail, make mistakes, but Cato and Averroes would not falter in the face of the enemy, nor would a noose ever be put around Homer's neck. Sea maps did not yet interest the censors. And yet the enormous distances they covered would soon make Rome tiny and insignificant. The recent auto-da-fés revealed the panic that was already gripping the clergy. But the more treatises on astronomy they burned in the public square, the more the onlookers would watch the smoke rising from the pyres. Eventually they would look up and see the stars." - p 160
"Ever since the clandestine republication of the seditious writings of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus, an unhealthy wind of reform had been blowing through the German, English, Czech, and Dutch dioceses, as well as everywhere that the Inquisition did not have a grip as strong as in Italy or Spain." - p 173
It's worth noting here that while I blame the Catholics for having the most organized & largest terror campaign in its Inquisition the Protestants also had witch-hunters & deserve at least a little credit for jumping on the terror band-wagon.
The Brotherhood of Book Hunters's characters are mainly historical figures. That sort of thing is fun for me.
"Cristoforo mutely applauded the jokes of this somewhat mad cartographer. By thus remolding the planet as he wished, he had made it more beautiful, more mysterious, an invitation to adventure and dream." - p 188
The choice of Villon as the hero is, of course, an excellent one, the story is very neatly wrapped around his legend.
"Two thieves were crucified on Golgotha, by the sides of the Savior. Two criminals, just like Villon. If not for the sweet Lord, then at least for those two a good peasant must take offense and show all those sanctimonious zealots what a bold Coquillard was made of." - p 207
Wars are never my idea of a good time - but, then, I'm not a sadist.
"A woman lay moaning amid the smoking ruins. She was struggling with an invisible demon, clawing at the air with her bloodstained fingers, her legs shaking convulsively. Around her lay corpses covered in rubble and flies. Some had been dismembered. Hanged men swung from the branches of a big oak. One of them wore a sign nailed to his chest: "Louis is my King."" - p 208
Religion is a main component of this novel. Given that I'm anti-religious that makes it tricky territory for me. Still, the ultimate thrust is accessible even to me.
"That very evening, soldiers of the Vatican guard would round up all the scholars who had had access to Annas's notes and put them to the sword.
""Write this. There is a beginning and there is an end. The temple will be destroyed. And Rome will fall. In the last resort, God will die with man . . ."
""You blaspheme!"
""What father would want to survive his child?"" - p 248
But what's the last resort? Surely it's not Ocean City, MD! Surely not Banwa in the Philippines! Probably somewhere in the French Riviera. The thing is, all the hotels wd turn Jesus away there - & then.. WATCH OUT!
Raphaël Jerusalmy's The Brotherhood of Book Hunters
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 16-18, 2023
I might've picked this up in a bk store in Roanoke. Whenever I go somewhere outside the city where I live I like to go to all the used bkstores. Of course, sometimes they're good, sometimes they're mediocre (as in this case).. but there's usually a 'find', a bk of interest that I wasn't specifically looking for. That's the case here.
The main character is François Villon, a poet whose work I like (at least in the translation by Jean Calais published as Number One in "The Pick Pocket Series" (Duende Press) - highly recommended). It centers on the later yrs of his life, historically undocumented &, therefore, open to fantasy. He's saved from execution & becomes embroiled in a conspiracy of the titular The Brotherhood of Book Hunters. Their goal is to free humanity from the Catholic Church & its Inquisition - not thru military means but by using the newly invented printing press to spread 'heretical' works far & wide that the Catholic Church has banned. Their punishment for making these texts public being torture & execution. Such a plot appeals to me enormously.
I watch Catholic horror movies. There're quite a few of them & it seems to me that in the past couple of yrs there've been more than usual. I went to the drive-in to see "The Pope's Exorcist". When I bought a ticket I was given a rosary, I thought that was an inspired movie memorabilia trinket. The thing that interested me about "The Pope's Exorcist" is that it was a brazen attempt of the Catholic Church to disclaim responsibility for the Inquisition, for them to neatly sidestep responsibility for 400 yrs of robbery, kidnapping, torture, & murder of at least 1,000,000 victims. "Goya's Ghosts" is a much better film to see on the subject (although I can't exactly recommend it b/c it's very realistic & very upsetting).
The conclusion of "The Pope's Exorcist" is that the Inquisition started b/c the devil took over a highly placed Catholic priest who then convinced other people in high positions that theft, kidnapping, torture, murder, & the suppression of intellect were 'for the good of the church & fulfilled God's mission' & that sort of crap. Hence, you see, the Catholic Church wasn't responsible for the Inquisition, the devil made them do it. A particularly neat further sidestepping informs the viewer that this is why the Catholic Church is so desperately needed still today b/c they have the exorcists to fight the devil! Wow. If I didn't find that so despicable, I'd almost be impressed by how absolutely diabolical it is.
The thing is, the Inquisition was 'for the good of the church & fulfilled God's mission' b/c it absolutely completely terrorized all of its enemies & made it accumulate enormous wealth. 400+ yrs of robbery yields quite a bundle. What this nifty avoidance of responsibility fails to address is how, after the possessed priest died, the Church justifies the ensuing 380+ yrs of continuing the devil-prompted crimes. One might think that a reasonable person wd say that all this twaddle 'proves' is that the Vatican Exorcists were absolutely useless against the devil &, in fact, furthered the devil's plans w/ the earnestness of directors of Enron or AOL, etc. If you believe in the Devil, wch I don't. Who needs the devil when you've got the Catholic Church?
The bk begins w/ a short bio of Villon:
"Born at the end of the Middle Ages, François Villon is the first modern poet. He is the author of the famous Ballad of the Hanged and Ballad of Dead Ladies. But Villon was also a notorious brigand. In 1462, at the age of thirty-one, he was arrested, tortured, and sentenced "to be hanged and strangled." On January 6, 1463, the Parliament quashed the sentence and banished him from Paris. Nobody knows what happened to him subsequently . . ." - p 13
Now, by quoting the above I don't mean to endorse poetry. Poetry can be very harmful, inducing all sorts of vague thinking & unsubstantiated fantasies of talent. But I make an exception in Villon's case.
"The King of France was trying to weaken the power of the Vatican in order to consolidate his own. As it happened, a growing industry had begun to undermine Papal supremacy. Unlike the copyist monks, printing was not subject to the Church. Cleverly used, it might confer a lot of power on those who were able to control it. It was therefore regrettable that there was as yet no printing press in France." - p 19
Villon, being the hero, is presented as having a sense of humor. Remember that? That was something that existed before politically correct people started flexing their inherited wealth muscle & changing the name of "Book 'Em" to "Pittsburgh Books-to-Prisoners Program" or some such. Why am I such a fool that I think that a sense of humor is more subversive than imitating missionaries is? Villon responds to being offered release from his prison cell:
""Tell Louis the Prudent that his loyal subject Villon, although otherwise engaged, will forego all other commitments with the sole intention of being agreeable to him."" - p 20
&, yes, there are moments when the writing pleases me:
"The door of the tavern opened suddenly, blown inwards by a gust of wind. Spray and hail crashed onto the flagstones, sprinkling the sawdust and the straw. The dogs growled, the drinkers bellowed, the cats threw themselves under the tables. Their shadows swayed in the red light of the newly fanned flames of the hearth. Threats and curses rang out. Framed in the doorway, dripping with rain, a man stood, silhouetted against the whiteness of the hail. He was motionless for a moment, ignoring the tumult. A black velvet cloak floated around his shoulders like beating wings." - p 22
That certainly does the job of setting the scene. Colin is François's partner-in-grime, between the 2 of them they get the dirty work done.
"Colin went closer. It was the first time he had approached the man he had been watching for months. With a hesitant hand, he held out his list. The old merchant first glanced negligently at it. Then, genuinely taken aback, he looked at Colin for some time, incredulous." - p 26
"The monarch's true motives were much more down-to-earth. It was a simple matter of finance. At this time, everything coming from Byzantium, Alexandria or the Levant had to pass through the valley of the Rhone. The Pope having sovereignty over Avignon and the Comtat, the papal legate reaped huge profits from imposing rights of passage and taxes on foodstuffs, which went to fill the coffers of Rome rather than those of Louis XI. The king wanted to force the Vatican to cede this source of revenue to him." - p 36
Remember when Europeans believed that sea monsters awaited them if they went on long sea journeys? Now, one might say it's [COVID-19] so let's have some fun inserting that.
"Colin had not stopped cursing François since they had left Paris. He owed Chartier nothing. His mission was over. Fust had opened his printing works. He didn't see why he should go halfway across the world and throw himself into the jaws of the [COVID-19] and [COVID-19,000,000] that were surely awaiting him in those distant lands. He imagined those ancient sea monsters salivating with pleasure at the thought of devouring a nice pink Frenchman, all soaked in brandy and good wine. And besides, he hated the sea." - p 41
When I think of giving a nice pink Frenchman [COVID-19,000,000,000,000] I tend to imagine thinking the tiniest heretical thought & having his coating of wet chocolate suddenly fissure, don't you? Macron be w/ you. 'But what about the Jews?' you ask:
"Cosimo de' Medici's instructions, even though uttered from his deathbed, were categorical. More than that, they were his last will, his testament: to save the painting and the clandestine manuscripts he had been hiding in the cellars of the Platonic Academy. The mission would not be at all easy, but fortune smiled on the young merchant when a decree from Lorenzo II, known as the Magnificent, made Florence a veritable protectorate for the Jews. Not only did Lorenzo lift all the humiliating prohibitions against the Jews of Florence but in addition, running counter to Papal censorship, he exhorted scholars to once again take up the study of Talmudic works, Judeo-Arab treatises on medicine, and even the kabbalah." - p 57
What kind of a text is banned by dogmatic control freaks? Well, it's not just things that claim that humans, made in imitation of god w/o any of the perqs, aren't the center of the universe:
""Three manuscripts from the hand of Bishop Nicholas of Cusa, also known as Cusanum, concerning the composition of the universe. From algebraic deductions and observation of the skies, it has apparently been established that, and I quote, terra non est centra mundi . . . It seems there are thousands of stars and planets hovering in the ether. We are merely a grain of sand in the midst of that vastness."
"Brother Médard gave a start, almost falling off his stool. "You can't solve the mystery of Creation with an abacus," he growled.
""My most Catholic lord Medici thinks the papacy has become trapped in the swamps of dogma. It persists in following Aristotle for fear of shaking beliefs that ensure it the blind submission of its flock. It even rejects zero, which both Arabs and Jews use without in any way losing faith in their God."
""Zero? Neither Pythagoras nor Euclid needed that phantom number. They established the world on solid foundations, not on a fortune-teller's symbols!"
""How can an empty, worthless number threaten the Almighty?"" - p 66
Yeah, try frightening a trio of bullies w/ NOTHING & see how far it gets you!
There're some couplets from Villon, presented as from his Ballad of the Hanged Man. I was hoping to compare the translation here to one by Callais but I didn't find it in his bk.
"Brother men who live when we have gone
Against us do not let your hearts grow stern . . ." - p 97
"For if some pity on us poor souls you take,
The sooner then God's mercy you will earn"
[..]
"The wind changes, and we are blown
Hither and yon, at its behest without . . ." - p 98
Do you love secret societies? Are you in at least one? Do you wish you were?
"Then came the turn of the brotherhood of which Gamliel was a member. It had its headquarters here, where it had been training an invisible army for almost twelve hundred years. This clandestine command post was neither a government in exile nor a den of rebels. It ran the many networks that ensured the cohesion of a dispersed people, providing supplies to communities in distress, keeping an eye on hostile governments, trying to ward off the perils constantly threatening the Jews. The existence of this secret organization was mentioned many times, surreptitiously, in the annals of various periods, in travelers' tales, in pious manuals. This was the "invisible Jerusalem" of which Talmudists and commentators spoke—taking care never to describe it, nor to say exactly where it was located." - p 119
Just imagine! You're in an invisible army for almost twelve hundred years & you decide to finally retire! Yr retirement pay wd be enuf to buy an entire country!
"After the fire that ravaged Alexandria, the Brotherhood of Book Hunters went and sold its services elsewhere"
[..]
"Heretics, alchemists, and bold scholars employed them to save their writings from the flames."
[..]
"And so it was that, from generation to generation, these mercenaries became, of necessity and without having ever wanted it, the guardians of wisdom." - p 121
"But Gamliel was not demanding anything like that from the French. He did not even require an exemption from the wearing of the rouelle, a piece of yellow material that the few Jews in the kingdom had to sew on the front and back of their clothes. This surprised François, given the risks they were incurring." - p 127
What? The "rouelle"?! A precursor to the yellow star that the nazis made Jews wear 600+ yrs later?!
"Mark placed on the dress of Jews to distinguish them from others. This was made a general order of Christendom at the fourth Lateran Council of 1215. At the instigation of Innocent III., the decision of the Council ordered the Jews, in the following terms, to bear a Badge:
""Contingit interdum quod per errorem christiani Judæorum seu Saracenorum et Judæi seu Saraceni christianorum mulieribus commisceantur. Ne igitur tam damnatæ commixtionis excessus per velamentum erroris hujusmodi, excusationis ulterius possint habere diffugium, statuimus ut tales utriusque sexus in omni christianorum provincia, et omni tempore qualitate habitus publice ab aliis populis distinguantur."
"From this it would appear that the motive of the order was to prevent illicit intercourse between Jews and Christian women; but it is scarcely doubtful that this was little more than a pretext, the evidence of such intercourse being only of the slightest (see Abrahams, "Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," pp. 93-95). It was no doubt the general policy of the Church to make a sharp line of demarcation between the true believer and the heretic; and the Badge came as the last stage in a series of enactments in the twelfth century, intended to prevent social relations between Jews and Christians, the chief of these being the prohibition of Christians becoming servants of the Jews. The Badge had a most deleterious effect upon their social relations; and the increasing degradation of the position of Jews in Christendom was due in a large measure to this outward sign of separation, which gave the official stamp of both Church and state to the discrimination of social status against the Jew. The idea of such a discrimination seems to have been derived from Islam, in which the dress of the Jews was distinguished by a different color from that of the true believer as early as the Pact of Omar (640), by which Jews were ordered to wear a yellow seam on their upper garments (D'Ohsson, "Histoire des Mogols," 1854, iii. 274). This was a distinct anticipation of the Badge. In 1005 the Jews of Egypt were ordered to wear bells on their garments and a wooden calf to remind them of the golden one (S. Lane-Poole, "History of Egypt," 1901, vi. 126). Later on, in 1301, they were obliged to wear yellow turbans (ib. pp. 300, 301). It may have been some sort of retaliation for a similar restriction placed upon the Christians in Islam, since the order of the Council applied to Saracens as well as to Jews." - https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/ar...
Unfuckingbelievable. I didn't know about that, I thought all this yellow badge business started w/ the Nazis.
"Federico was deep in conversation with Médard, who still disapproved of the choice of books to be taken to France and Italy. Above all, he was critical of Master Villon's Testament, finding it frivolous and insubstantial. He was also offended by the pompous title. There were two Testaments, the old and the new. What need was there of a third?" - p 159
What about a Testament 2.5? A half a testament?
My most recent bk is called Mike Film - A Mail (Art) Epic. In a sense, it documents a project of mine that started in 1978 the subversiveness of wch parallels that of The Brotherhood of Book Hunters. As such, I saw fit to quote the next section:
"The best trained agents could fail, make mistakes, but Cato and Averroes would not falter in the face of the enemy, nor would a noose ever be put around Homer's neck. Sea maps did not yet interest the censors. And yet the enormous distances they covered would soon make Rome tiny and insignificant. The recent auto-da-fés revealed the panic that was already gripping the clergy. But the more treatises on astronomy they burned in the public square, the more the onlookers would watch the smoke rising from the pyres. Eventually they would look up and see the stars." - p 160
"Ever since the clandestine republication of the seditious writings of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus, an unhealthy wind of reform had been blowing through the German, English, Czech, and Dutch dioceses, as well as everywhere that the Inquisition did not have a grip as strong as in Italy or Spain." - p 173
It's worth noting here that while I blame the Catholics for having the most organized & largest terror campaign in its Inquisition the Protestants also had witch-hunters & deserve at least a little credit for jumping on the terror band-wagon.
The Brotherhood of Book Hunters's characters are mainly historical figures. That sort of thing is fun for me.
"Cristoforo mutely applauded the jokes of this somewhat mad cartographer. By thus remolding the planet as he wished, he had made it more beautiful, more mysterious, an invitation to adventure and dream." - p 188
The choice of Villon as the hero is, of course, an excellent one, the story is very neatly wrapped around his legend.
"Two thieves were crucified on Golgotha, by the sides of the Savior. Two criminals, just like Villon. If not for the sweet Lord, then at least for those two a good peasant must take offense and show all those sanctimonious zealots what a bold Coquillard was made of." - p 207
Wars are never my idea of a good time - but, then, I'm not a sadist.
"A woman lay moaning amid the smoking ruins. She was struggling with an invisible demon, clawing at the air with her bloodstained fingers, her legs shaking convulsively. Around her lay corpses covered in rubble and flies. Some had been dismembered. Hanged men swung from the branches of a big oak. One of them wore a sign nailed to his chest: "Louis is my King."" - p 208
Religion is a main component of this novel. Given that I'm anti-religious that makes it tricky territory for me. Still, the ultimate thrust is accessible even to me.
"That very evening, soldiers of the Vatican guard would round up all the scholars who had had access to Annas's notes and put them to the sword.
""Write this. There is a beginning and there is an end. The temple will be destroyed. And Rome will fall. In the last resort, God will die with man . . ."
""You blaspheme!"
""What father would want to survive his child?"" - p 248
But what's the last resort? Surely it's not Ocean City, MD! Surely not Banwa in the Philippines! Probably somewhere in the French Riviera. The thing is, all the hotels wd turn Jesus away there - & then.. WATCH OUT!
December 4, 2014
L’incipit di questo romanzo ci porta in una prigione, a partire dal dialogo tra il protagonista e il vescovo di Parigi, Guillame Chartier. La proposta, per il condannato a morte, è allettante e irrinunciabile: una missione vaga ma avventurosa in cambio della libertà.
Il re in persona gli affida un compito delicato: indebolire il potere del Papato e rafforzare il proprio, attraverso i libri ,gli stampatori e i librai, che sembrano viaggiare attraverso canali che nessuno, nemmeno la censura, nemmeno l’Inquisizione possono controllare.
Francois e l’amico Colin vanno a Genova. La città, rumorosa e piena di odori, viene resa con una sintassi piana e regolare che punta molto su un lessico ricercato, talvolta un po’ pretenzioso:
I cambi di scena, nella narrazione sono velocissimi e, talvolta, destabilizzanti; da Genova si passa ad un monastero in Terrasanta, difeso dai mamelucchi. Nel monastero, la prevedibile biblioteca e l’incontro con alcuni personaggi che mi sembrano, più che altro delle caratterizzazioni; manca,infatti, lo spessore psicologico del carattere, non c’è verità narrativa, c’è solo un bel po’ di mestiere e una scrittura che scivola via indolore.
Continua su:
http://www.lastambergadeilettori.com/...
Il re in persona gli affida un compito delicato: indebolire il potere del Papato e rafforzare il proprio, attraverso i libri ,gli stampatori e i librai, che sembrano viaggiare attraverso canali che nessuno, nemmeno la censura, nemmeno l’Inquisizione possono controllare.
Francois e l’amico Colin vanno a Genova. La città, rumorosa e piena di odori, viene resa con una sintassi piana e regolare che punta molto su un lessico ricercato, talvolta un po’ pretenzioso:
Genova è una città rumorosa e febbrile. La gente non la smette mai di sbraitare, da una finestra all’altra, dal fondo dei portoni, dall’alto dei terrazzi. Migliaia di eco inopportune volteggiano tra i vicoli, rimbalzano sulla pietra, si infilano negli abbaini, apposta per perforarti i timpani, senza mai involarsi verso un cielo troppo sereno, troppo azzurro, distante.
I cambi di scena, nella narrazione sono velocissimi e, talvolta, destabilizzanti; da Genova si passa ad un monastero in Terrasanta, difeso dai mamelucchi. Nel monastero, la prevedibile biblioteca e l’incontro con alcuni personaggi che mi sembrano, più che altro delle caratterizzazioni; manca,infatti, lo spessore psicologico del carattere, non c’è verità narrativa, c’è solo un bel po’ di mestiere e una scrittura che scivola via indolore.
Continua su:
http://www.lastambergadeilettori.com/...
February 4, 2015
"The Brotherhood of Book Hunters is one wild and ancient ride - emotionally, physically (for the characters) and literarily. I did find the characters hard to keep track of at times, and the many twists and schemes did get somewhat confusing. Aside from that, this is a beautifully written novel and a truly compelling read. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction with a good quest (religious or otherwise) and doesn't mind some poetry thrown in for good measure." - Davida Chazan, BookBrowse.com. Full review at: https://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/in...
March 31, 2015
fun historical/speculative novel about 'what happened to villon"? after he left (escaped?) prison in paris he disappeared. did he actually get a job with the 'brotherhood'.
so story stretches from france, to Florence, to dead sea caves. set in 1460's, if you recall, a huge power play between louis XI and pope, er whatshisname, and in this novel, the idea is medici;s spread the idea of free books for all and humanism to combat the cra cra fundamentalism of vatican. they do this spreading by using the new invention of the printing press.
there is a last testament in this novel, but is it of villon? or jesus?
perfect for easter gifts!!
so story stretches from france, to Florence, to dead sea caves. set in 1460's, if you recall, a huge power play between louis XI and pope, er whatshisname, and in this novel, the idea is medici;s spread the idea of free books for all and humanism to combat the cra cra fundamentalism of vatican. they do this spreading by using the new invention of the printing press.
there is a last testament in this novel, but is it of villon? or jesus?
perfect for easter gifts!!
November 28, 2014
"I cacciatori di libri" è un grande libro. Senza dubbio il migliore che io abbia letto in quest´anno, e certamente tra quelli che conserverò con piacere. Non solo perché condivide l´entusiasmo per i testi antichi e per i libri ma perché lo usa per creare un intreccio semplice da comprendere ma complesso nella sua fattura che rende la trama, unita ai fatti storici, una bella possibilità nella fantasia del lettore.
Continua a leggere su http://www.leggereacolori.com/letti-e...
Continua a leggere su http://www.leggereacolori.com/letti-e...
February 12, 2020
I really really really wanted to like this one. Love the era and the premise, even enjoyed the characters. But it was sooo hard to read. Barely any paragraph breaks for speech. A whole block of text would have several "he said he agreed"or "so and so told me this and that"along with how all the characters are thinking inside the same paragraph. Very hard to digest. I'm sorry!
January 26, 2014
Un livre de normalien, érudit, cultivé, une belle écriture..et une jolie imagination. Sur le thème de "Qu'est devenu le testament de François Villon. Racontez...." Bel exercise, mais il manque de la chair, de l'âme.
March 28, 2014
L'écriture n'est pas déplaisante mais les clichés trop nombreux.
Dans la veine du Da Vinci Code, on en vient à spéculer sur une Église romaine toute puissante et surtout à accréditer, maladroitement, un peu le complot juif...
Dans la veine du Da Vinci Code, on en vient à spéculer sur une Église romaine toute puissante et surtout à accréditer, maladroitement, un peu le complot juif...
May 15, 2015
Aussitôt lu, aussitôt oublié.
December 2, 2021
Cuando por fin consigues acostumbrarte a la peculiar forma de escribir de Jeusalmy te das cuenta de que el argumento es casi inexistente...
February 1, 2021
This book came highly recommended to me by the staff at the book shop where it was purchased. The cashier could not say enough praise. I made it a quarter of the way in, when the main character is running giggling across a library being chased by an irate dwarf monk. Then I admit, with that image in my head, I had to give up.
I found the story to be missing any elements of plot or character development. No background is provided for the main character Francois Villon, who is based on a real person by the same name. However, other than a very short six sentence introduction, the story leaps into its being at the point in time at the end of those six sentences and never touches on Villon's past again. As such, his motives and idiosyncrasies are unexplained and, as a result, hard to understand or sympathies with.
The plot is treated in the same way, characters move from location to location with no rhyme or reason or intervening travels. Apparently you could travel from France to the Holy Land in the 15th Century with as little adventure as flying today. The characters have very little difficulties in accomplishing their goals or reaching their destinations. And for people who are living in an era where you could be jailed, tortured, and killed in a multitude of slow and painful ways, they show little regard for the forces that may want to stop them, such as elements of the church, powerful lords, or even kings.
There is a presumption of prior knowledge about the characters and era serving as the backdrop for this book that would seem to be a bit on the arrogant side, given the time period and subject matter. The lady at the bookshop that sang this book's praise was actually familiar with the story of the real Francois Villon, hence her greater understanding and enjoyment. For the rest of us, I think the author could have taken some time to provide more background to provide greater clarity to a book that otherwise comes across as silly and a bit amateur. Which is a shame, as the premise of the book does sound interesting.
I found the story to be missing any elements of plot or character development. No background is provided for the main character Francois Villon, who is based on a real person by the same name. However, other than a very short six sentence introduction, the story leaps into its being at the point in time at the end of those six sentences and never touches on Villon's past again. As such, his motives and idiosyncrasies are unexplained and, as a result, hard to understand or sympathies with.
The plot is treated in the same way, characters move from location to location with no rhyme or reason or intervening travels. Apparently you could travel from France to the Holy Land in the 15th Century with as little adventure as flying today. The characters have very little difficulties in accomplishing their goals or reaching their destinations. And for people who are living in an era where you could be jailed, tortured, and killed in a multitude of slow and painful ways, they show little regard for the forces that may want to stop them, such as elements of the church, powerful lords, or even kings.
There is a presumption of prior knowledge about the characters and era serving as the backdrop for this book that would seem to be a bit on the arrogant side, given the time period and subject matter. The lady at the bookshop that sang this book's praise was actually familiar with the story of the real Francois Villon, hence her greater understanding and enjoyment. For the rest of us, I think the author could have taken some time to provide more background to provide greater clarity to a book that otherwise comes across as silly and a bit amateur. Which is a shame, as the premise of the book does sound interesting.
December 8, 2025
Babel est une maison d’éditions dont j’apprécie les choix de publication. Je ne connaissais Raphaël Jerusalmy que de nom, notamment pour l’avoir aperçu à la télé dans un tout autre registre.
📚 Le récit débute dans les prisons de Louis XI, où François Villon, condamné à mort, se voit offrir une échappatoire inattendue : une mission secrète menée par un émissaire du roi. Sa tâche consiste à convaincre un libraire-imprimeur de Mayence d’ouvrir un atelier à Paris de faciliter la circulation d’idées peu appréciées du pape.
C’est un roman d’aventure sur un fond historique mêlant espionnage, poésie et action. Villon entame un périple le conduisant jusqu’à la mystérieuse « Jérusalem d’en bas » où se cache la Confrérie des chasseurs de livres. Il traverse la méditerranée puis un désert, déjoue des complots, croit remplir une mission qui en est en réalité une autre. Mystère et imprévus sont au menu de ce roman. Villon n’est pas un héros comme les autres et derrière son aspect simple et pouvant sembler bourru, c’est un érudit et un amateur de livres, d’autant plus qu’ils étaient rares à l’époque.
💬 J’ai bien aimé la trame du roman qui nous tient en haleine ainsi que les notes d’humour. Entre roman historique et roman policier, si vous aimez le suspens et les rebondissements, vous serez servis.
📚 Le récit débute dans les prisons de Louis XI, où François Villon, condamné à mort, se voit offrir une échappatoire inattendue : une mission secrète menée par un émissaire du roi. Sa tâche consiste à convaincre un libraire-imprimeur de Mayence d’ouvrir un atelier à Paris de faciliter la circulation d’idées peu appréciées du pape.
C’est un roman d’aventure sur un fond historique mêlant espionnage, poésie et action. Villon entame un périple le conduisant jusqu’à la mystérieuse « Jérusalem d’en bas » où se cache la Confrérie des chasseurs de livres. Il traverse la méditerranée puis un désert, déjoue des complots, croit remplir une mission qui en est en réalité une autre. Mystère et imprévus sont au menu de ce roman. Villon n’est pas un héros comme les autres et derrière son aspect simple et pouvant sembler bourru, c’est un érudit et un amateur de livres, d’autant plus qu’ils étaient rares à l’époque.
💬 J’ai bien aimé la trame du roman qui nous tient en haleine ainsi que les notes d’humour. Entre roman historique et roman policier, si vous aimez le suspens et les rebondissements, vous serez servis.
July 6, 2017
Comment un auteur sans le sou se voit confier une mission de la plus haute importance pour la diffusion des idées humanistes en Europe, servir de passeur aux livres clandestins, prohibés par l'Inquisition. Voilà comment pourrait être résumer ce roman dont l'idée première est très bonne et captivante.
Un duo de compères qui s'entendent comme deux larrons en foire, des hommes de foi tantôt conspirateurs tantôt bons vivants, une femme mystérieuse et magnifique, des mercenaires. C'est dans ce melting pot de visages que l'on se lance tête baissée.
Je ne sais si c'est le style de l'auteur, alambiqué ou l'intrigue qui traîne un peu en longueurs et en circonvolutions pas toujours compréhensibles, mais j'ai mis énormément de temps à finir ce roman, qui est somme toute assez court (un petit 300 pages).
Je le conseille aux ferveurs amateurs de l'époque humaniste pour les bons mots de Maître Villon et ses compagnons.
Un duo de compères qui s'entendent comme deux larrons en foire, des hommes de foi tantôt conspirateurs tantôt bons vivants, une femme mystérieuse et magnifique, des mercenaires. C'est dans ce melting pot de visages que l'on se lance tête baissée.
Je ne sais si c'est le style de l'auteur, alambiqué ou l'intrigue qui traîne un peu en longueurs et en circonvolutions pas toujours compréhensibles, mais j'ai mis énormément de temps à finir ce roman, qui est somme toute assez court (un petit 300 pages).
Je le conseille aux ferveurs amateurs de l'époque humaniste pour les bons mots de Maître Villon et ses compagnons.
January 25, 2021
This novel starts off very slow, which may be why it was so easy to put down a few years ago. I think it likely that much has been lost in this book in it's translation to English, but, I picked it up again this year, and I am glad that I did. I wouldn't recommend it for those that don't already have an interest, or background, in mideval or European history and/or religion, but if you enjoyed works by Eco, such as The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum, you should find this an interesting read. 3 1/2 stars rounded up to 4.
July 26, 2020
You had better have a background in Western Religious history before tackling this one. I think it’s probably better in its original language. It reads like the author came up with a conclusion about halfway through the voyage. It’s a good idea and avoids getting too bogged down in the politics of the age, but it just doesn’t really live up to its potential. Learned some things. Has its moments. It’s fine, but I can’t see myself saying, “Hey, you really need to read this book!”
August 21, 2017
- Pas de dialogues, personnages pas bien décrits
- Descriptions très réussies quoique répétitives
- Histoire bien alambiquée
Bref, Jerusalmy sait bien écrire, mais ne sait pas encore écrire des romans. C'est la qualité de la prose qui sauve cette œuvre.
- Descriptions très réussies quoique répétitives
- Histoire bien alambiquée
Bref, Jerusalmy sait bien écrire, mais ne sait pas encore écrire des romans. C'est la qualité de la prose qui sauve cette œuvre.
September 2, 2018
Beautifully translated by Howard Curtis but somehow the deception between all characters left me feeling no emotional attachment to any of them- the plot was convoluted and ultimately slowed the pace....somehow I'd hoped for more...This is more Umberto Eco than Dan Brown which was a positive...
January 11, 2019
Confuso e fragmentado.
No entanto contém algumas ideias profundas: o poder do conhecimento, a importância do texto escrito, a ligação entre a igreja e a política...
Não é uma leitura seguida é uma leitura saltitante. Talvez como a natureza do conhecimento...
No entanto contém algumas ideias profundas: o poder do conhecimento, a importância do texto escrito, a ligação entre a igreja e a política...
Não é uma leitura seguida é uma leitura saltitante. Talvez como a natureza do conhecimento...
September 19, 2025
I was intrigued because it’s about François Villon, but I didn’t expect much — and that turned out to be the right approach. It’s very much mass-market literature, a bit better than Dan Brown: book hunters, intrigue, Jews, invisible Jerusalem. Entertaining, but by no means serious literature.
September 22, 2018
Très cliché. Le récit sonne faux, l'écriture est trop artificielle. Un livre creux.
January 27, 2025
First, I’m not a fan of French authors. The promise of adventure, intrigue and books sparked my curiosity. This was about faith and the toppling of authority. And it was weird.
January 25, 2021
I have been reading, not reading, and continuing to read this book for almost a year. I have to ask...Is this book a poor translation?? I want it to be better. It's written so poorly that it numbs my mind. I have set it aside again. Perhaps I'll push myself to read it one night a week until the end. I keep wondering...where is it going? If the ending doesn't get better, it will not deserve even the 2-stars that I have been generous with so far.
March 22, 2016
I should say from the start that I only read 140 pages of this book. Why? Because I was traveling over the holiday and had nothing else to read. Otherwise I would have stopped 50 pages earlier (which is unusual for me).
The book is a fictional account of French poet Francois Villon’s adventures as an agent for the French king and his bishop, in a very confusing conspiracy to undermine the pope--of course, in conjunction with a dead Medici prince (doesn’t that go without saying?). Half-way through, the reader has very little idea what is going on, except that it is a Conspiracy So Vast that even the protagonist cannot figure it out. However, I did not want to figure it out, because the pace was so slow and the entire story so unbelievable as to prevent any suspension thereof.
I guess it could best be compared to Dan Brown, with exotic locales, religious conspiracy, and completely unbelievably plot. However, Brown at least creates a fast-moving story. The best part of the book was the detailed descriptions of the settings, in medieval France and the Holy Land (so called). They provide a vivid picture of the world in that time, but those descriptions also contribute to the dragging plot and feeling that a lot of nothing is happening. Ultimately, the conceit the characters are operating under, that releasing a bunch of banned books is going to undermine Christian civilization, is so absurd that it cannot act as their motivation even though a much vaster conspiracy will probably be revealed at the book’s end. So, I just lost interest and was able to find another book to take its place.
The book is a fictional account of French poet Francois Villon’s adventures as an agent for the French king and his bishop, in a very confusing conspiracy to undermine the pope--of course, in conjunction with a dead Medici prince (doesn’t that go without saying?). Half-way through, the reader has very little idea what is going on, except that it is a Conspiracy So Vast that even the protagonist cannot figure it out. However, I did not want to figure it out, because the pace was so slow and the entire story so unbelievable as to prevent any suspension thereof.
I guess it could best be compared to Dan Brown, with exotic locales, religious conspiracy, and completely unbelievably plot. However, Brown at least creates a fast-moving story. The best part of the book was the detailed descriptions of the settings, in medieval France and the Holy Land (so called). They provide a vivid picture of the world in that time, but those descriptions also contribute to the dragging plot and feeling that a lot of nothing is happening. Ultimately, the conceit the characters are operating under, that releasing a bunch of banned books is going to undermine Christian civilization, is so absurd that it cannot act as their motivation even though a much vaster conspiracy will probably be revealed at the book’s end. So, I just lost interest and was able to find another book to take its place.
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