What do you think?
Rate this book
François Villon
Un homme comme les autres, dans le futur quartier Latin des années 1450. Il ressemble à quelques milliers d'écoliers plus riches d'illusions que de bagage ou d'emploi. En ce temps de dynamisme retrouvé au sortir de la guerre, il y a des places à prendre, mais la société, déjà, se défend des nouvelles beaucoup de places sont prises, ou réservées.
Clerc et célibataire par opportunité, amoureux par tempérament et misogyne par résignation, il hésite entre les femmes et les filles. Il n'hésite pas moins entre l'école et la taverne. Sa science est courte, tout juste propre à fournir les références indispensables en une époque où mieux vaut s'appuyer sur les autorités que faire preuve d'originalité.
Le malheur fond sur l'écolier sans emploi. Il tue, il vole, il s'essaie à la vie de cour et se retrouve sur les grands chemins. On veut le prendre. Est-il un bandit? Est-il un amuseur qui joue au truand?
Villon est en tout cas le témoin passionné d'un temps et d'un monde. Un historien ne pouvait qu'être tenté de l'interroger. Comprendre Villon, c'est comprendre ceux qu'il a côtoyés, entrevus, jalousés. Pourquoi ne pas écouter un poète lorsqu'il parle de lui et des autres, lorsqu'il règle son compte avec la société et avec son propre personnage?
Des écoles aux tavernes, du port en Grève au cimetière des Innocents, de la cour chevaleresque du roi René au bouge de la Grosse Margot, les véritables héros de ce livre sont la vie et la mort, Dieu et la Fortune, l'amour et la haine, la justice et la misère. Mais l'oeil du poète est malicieux, et il a cent facettes.
Jean Favier est né en 1932. Membre de l'Institut, directeur général des Archives de France, il est aussi professeur à l'université de Paris-Sorbonne et directeur d'études à l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. Il s'est fait connaître par de nombreux travaux sur les finances médiévales et sur les structures économiques et sociales de Paris à la fin du Moyen Age. Ses livres La Guerre de Cent Ans, Philippe le Bel, La France médiévale, De l'or et des épices ont tous connu un grand succès. Il a dirigé l' Histoire de France (Fayard), dont il a lui-même écrit le tome II, Le Temps des Principautés.
Clerc et célibataire par opportunité, amoureux par tempérament et misogyne par résignation, il hésite entre les femmes et les filles. Il n'hésite pas moins entre l'école et la taverne. Sa science est courte, tout juste propre à fournir les références indispensables en une époque où mieux vaut s'appuyer sur les autorités que faire preuve d'originalité.
Le malheur fond sur l'écolier sans emploi. Il tue, il vole, il s'essaie à la vie de cour et se retrouve sur les grands chemins. On veut le prendre. Est-il un bandit? Est-il un amuseur qui joue au truand?
Villon est en tout cas le témoin passionné d'un temps et d'un monde. Un historien ne pouvait qu'être tenté de l'interroger. Comprendre Villon, c'est comprendre ceux qu'il a côtoyés, entrevus, jalousés. Pourquoi ne pas écouter un poète lorsqu'il parle de lui et des autres, lorsqu'il règle son compte avec la société et avec son propre personnage?
Des écoles aux tavernes, du port en Grève au cimetière des Innocents, de la cour chevaleresque du roi René au bouge de la Grosse Margot, les véritables héros de ce livre sont la vie et la mort, Dieu et la Fortune, l'amour et la haine, la justice et la misère. Mais l'oeil du poète est malicieux, et il a cent facettes.
Jean Favier est né en 1932. Membre de l'Institut, directeur général des Archives de France, il est aussi professeur à l'université de Paris-Sorbonne et directeur d'études à l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. Il s'est fait connaître par de nombreux travaux sur les finances médiévales et sur les structures économiques et sociales de Paris à la fin du Moyen Age. Ses livres La Guerre de Cent Ans, Philippe le Bel, La France médiévale, De l'or et des épices ont tous connu un grand succès. Il a dirigé l' Histoire de France (Fayard), dont il a lui-même écrit le tome II, Le Temps des Principautés.
- GenresNonfiction
540 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
3 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Jean Favier
82 books4 followersJean Favier was a French historian, who specialized in Medieval history. From 1975 to 1994, he was director of the French National Archives. From 1994 to 1997, he was president of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
He was a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
He was a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 16, 2021
І наче серйозна книжка - в смислі трагічна і історична, а якесь няняня виривається, коли захотілось написати відгук. Франсуа Війон усе більше дебоширив, а між тим писав вірші, а його знають зараз більше, ніж сучасних йому традиційних поетів (Ален Шартьє anyone? а пристойно ж римував). Фав'є з розмахом описує все від свиней до таверн, а між цими описами звучать рядки Війона - для мене вперемішку російською та українською, спасибі Загребельному, який любив запхати то Жоашена дю Белле у "Роксолану", то Війона у, здається, "Я, Богдан". Я знаю всі шляхи і манівці (тм)
June 19, 2013
Comment écrire une biographie d’un poète dont il ne reste très peu de repères ? Il faut le faire comme l’a fait Jean Favier : à partir de ces repères, ses poèmes et l’histoire de l’époque. Si on veut, comme moi, mieux comprendre la poésie de François Villon, ce livre offre bonne chemin.
April 25, 2024
How on earth do you retrace the life of Francois Villon (1431-?) when everything about him has been mostly lost and/ or the only sources that we have are meagrily scarce... to say the least!? Well, like Jean Favier does here: by relying on conjectures. A daring gamble? Not really.
Jean Favier, of course, was no average historian. One of the most eminent and brilliant specialists of the medieval era (e.g he directed the National Archives of France; taught at the Sorbonne; wrote countless books on the period and that embraced no less countless sub-specialised subjects etc.) the author clearly knows his stuff. His is a vast and deep knowledge upon which he fully relies, in fact, to try and sketch Villon's biography, no matter how skeletic. For instance, if we don't know anything about the chaplain who raised him as his son, we know, however, how chaplains used to live then, and so Jean Favier just draws on these other sources to attempt parallels. Sketchy it might be, but it nevertheless offers a wide picture of 15th century Paris which is as engrossing as it can be, from our vantage point, alien.
This, though, is not an history book about medieval Paris, but the biography of a poet living on the margin, a clerc who graduated in arts yet would be dragged down into a life of delinquency and petty criminality, a man who will be sent to jail numerous time, before disappearing from history following a death penalty (by hanging) which was commuted into banishment. What about it?
There is Villon the man. Jean Favier, here, is quick to remind us that, contrary to some later legends and other myths would suggest, he was far from being an hardened criminal or, as was suggested at times, part of the Coquillards, one of these most notorious and infamous gangs of the era. He surely was found guilty of murder at barely 26, and it's his involvement in another murder that would lead to his death penalty commuted into banishment in his later life (his accomplices weren't so lucky...). But, stabbing during fights and scuffles were not uncommon back then, as most people used to carry daggers to walk streets that were everything but entirely safe. Villon, a regular of shaddy taverns, merely got unlucky -so to speak.
There is, then and most importantly, Villon the poet. Jean Favier's passion, here, transpires at every page. If the topics that Villon dealt with (e.g. poverty, death, many unfortunate love, and ridiculing -in his case, virulent- of some contemporaries) and the imageries that he used (relying widely on the literature of the time) were everything but original, what demarcated Villon indeed was his language: the reliance on puns, innuendos, double-entendre, a constant and smart dancing between the 15th century French of the common people and the slang of the then underworld. This, of course, is what makes Villon still difficult 'to get', as most of his in-jokes can only fly past modern readers. Nevertheless, Favier offers some very enlightening explanations, clarifying otherwise obscure allusions when any.
Clocking at 500 pages, needless to say, this is not for the faint-hearted! Having said that, it being an engrossing portrait of medieval Paris as much as an inquisitive biography of a controversial poet, a man who had a life as mysterious and shadowy as the urban legends that will later tail his name, it's an absolute must read for anyone interested in Villon's work and, beyond, French medieval poetry.
Jean Favier, of course, was no average historian. One of the most eminent and brilliant specialists of the medieval era (e.g he directed the National Archives of France; taught at the Sorbonne; wrote countless books on the period and that embraced no less countless sub-specialised subjects etc.) the author clearly knows his stuff. His is a vast and deep knowledge upon which he fully relies, in fact, to try and sketch Villon's biography, no matter how skeletic. For instance, if we don't know anything about the chaplain who raised him as his son, we know, however, how chaplains used to live then, and so Jean Favier just draws on these other sources to attempt parallels. Sketchy it might be, but it nevertheless offers a wide picture of 15th century Paris which is as engrossing as it can be, from our vantage point, alien.
This, though, is not an history book about medieval Paris, but the biography of a poet living on the margin, a clerc who graduated in arts yet would be dragged down into a life of delinquency and petty criminality, a man who will be sent to jail numerous time, before disappearing from history following a death penalty (by hanging) which was commuted into banishment. What about it?
There is Villon the man. Jean Favier, here, is quick to remind us that, contrary to some later legends and other myths would suggest, he was far from being an hardened criminal or, as was suggested at times, part of the Coquillards, one of these most notorious and infamous gangs of the era. He surely was found guilty of murder at barely 26, and it's his involvement in another murder that would lead to his death penalty commuted into banishment in his later life (his accomplices weren't so lucky...). But, stabbing during fights and scuffles were not uncommon back then, as most people used to carry daggers to walk streets that were everything but entirely safe. Villon, a regular of shaddy taverns, merely got unlucky -so to speak.
There is, then and most importantly, Villon the poet. Jean Favier's passion, here, transpires at every page. If the topics that Villon dealt with (e.g. poverty, death, many unfortunate love, and ridiculing -in his case, virulent- of some contemporaries) and the imageries that he used (relying widely on the literature of the time) were everything but original, what demarcated Villon indeed was his language: the reliance on puns, innuendos, double-entendre, a constant and smart dancing between the 15th century French of the common people and the slang of the then underworld. This, of course, is what makes Villon still difficult 'to get', as most of his in-jokes can only fly past modern readers. Nevertheless, Favier offers some very enlightening explanations, clarifying otherwise obscure allusions when any.
Clocking at 500 pages, needless to say, this is not for the faint-hearted! Having said that, it being an engrossing portrait of medieval Paris as much as an inquisitive biography of a controversial poet, a man who had a life as mysterious and shadowy as the urban legends that will later tail his name, it's an absolute must read for anyone interested in Villon's work and, beyond, French medieval poetry.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews