Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance

DLVIII

JEAN DE LANGEAC

Letters and Papers

Edition, commentary and notes by Jan PENDERGRASS

LIBRAIRIE DROZ

11, rue Massot

GENÈVE

Année de publication

Mentions légales

Résumé

Jean de Langeac, homme d’Eglise originaire d’Auvergne, était à l’époque de François Ier un diplomate de premier plan et jouissait d’une bonne réputation internationale. Ayant inauguré sa carrière politique comme conseiller au Parlement de Toulouse en 1511, il fut nommé, aux alentours de 1516, à l’office de maître des requêtes de la maison royale et eut par la suite ses entrées au Grand Conseil du roi. Entre 1516 et 1541, il remplit pas moins de seize missions diplomatiques à l’étranger, notamment au Portugal, en Pologne, à Venise, en Suisse, en Ecosse, en Espagne, à Ferrare, en Angleterre et à Rome. Etienne Dolet, ancien secrétaire à l’ambassade de France à Venise et auteur d’un traité Sur la fonction d’ambassadeur, le tint pour un modèle hors pair de tous ceux qui pratiquent la diplomatie. Tout en étant abbé de monastères richement dotés, Langeac fut successivement aussi évêque d’Avranches et de Limoges et joua en matière de gouvernance ecclésiastique un rôle à la fois discret et ferme. Cette première édition de ses Lettres et Papiers réunit missives diplomatiques actives et passives, discours, rapports de mission, divers écrits protocolaires et comptables, mémoires juridiques, certificats de tonsure et autres échantillons de littérature administrative. Ainsi illustre-t-elle non seulement l’orientation générale de la diplomatie française des premières décennies du XVIe siècle, en particulier à l’égard de l’Italie, mais elle met en évidence aussi les formalités administratives courantes incombant aux officiers de la couronne et membres du clergé de l’époque.

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Abstract

Jean de Langeac, a French clergyman from Auvergne, was a prominent diplomat of international stature during the reign of King Francis I of France. He began his political career as a councilor in the Parliament of Toulouse in 1511 and, sometime around 1516, received appointment to the office of royal master of requests and, soon afterward, to the king’s Grand Council. Between 1516 and 1541, he performed no less than sixteen diplomatic missions to foreign states, including Portugal, Poland, Venice, Switzerland, Scotland, Spain, Ferrara, England and Rome. Étienne Dolet, a former secretary at the French embassy in Venice and author of a treatise On the Office of Ambassador, considered him an unparalleled model for all who engage in diplomacy. As a member of the Church, Langeac also administered well-endowed monasteries and served successively as bishop of Avranches and Limoges, whereby he assumed in matters of ecclesiastical governance a discreet, yet assertive role. This first edition of his Letters and Papers includes active and passive diplomatic correspondence, orations, mission reports and a variety of administrative documents ranging from financial records and form letters to certificates of tonsure. Its pages not only illustrate the general orientation of French foreign diplomacy during the early sixteenth-century, in particular with regard to Italy, but also afford insight into many of the mundane administrative duties incumbent on French royal officers and clergymen of that era.

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Volume published with the assistance of the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia), in partnership with the President’s Venture Fund, the Dean’s Office of Franklin College and the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts.

www.droz.org

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Références papier

ISBN : 978-2-600-01955-2

ISSN : 082-6081

Copyright 2016 by Librairie Droz S.A., 11, rue Massot, Genève.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche or any other means without written permission.

Distribué en France par de Boccard :

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ISSN : 0082-6081

Copyright 2016 by Librairie Droz S.A., 11, rue Massot, Genève.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abbreviations

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Chronological Table

Travel for Church and State, 1511-1541

Letters and Papers

1. Jean de Pins to Jean de Langeac — Toulouse, 20 October 1512

2. Jean de Pins to Jean de Langeac — Toulouse, 4 April 1513

3. Jean de Pins to Jean de Langeac — Toulouse, 30 December 1514

4. Jean de Langeac: Oration before King Manuel I of Portugal — Almeirim, [July] 1516

5. King Francis I to King Sigismund I of Poland — Paris, 27 January [1519]

6. Instructions for Jean de Langeac and Antoine Lamet, envoys to Poland — [c. 27] January 1519, n.s.

7. Sigismund I of Poland to Jean de Langeac and Antoine Lamet — [Kraków, c. early March 1519]

8. Andreas Krziczki to Jean de Langeac and Antoine Lamet — [Kraków, March 1519]

9. [Guillaume Gouffier and Charles Guillart] to Jean de Langeac and Pierre de La Guiche — Lunéville, 2 May [1519]

10. Andreas Krziczki to Jean de Langeac and Antoine Lamet — [Kraków] 4 May 1519

11. Piotr Tomicki to Jean de Langeac and Antoine Lamet — [Kraków, July 1519]

12. Piotr Tomicki to Jean de Langeac — [Toruń, c. 3 July 1520?]

13. Instructions for Jean de Langeac, envoy to Switzerland — Troyes, 6 September [1521]

14. Jean de Langeac and Antoine Lamet to King Francis I — Bern, 30 September [1521]

15. A Royal Letter Patent to Jean de Langeac and Antoine de Saint- Gelais: Commission to seize, itemize and auction merchandise confiscated at sea — [c. November 1521]

16. Report on Langeac’s and Saint-Gelais’s Mission to Saint-Pol-de- Léon — Nantes, February 1522, n.s

17. King Francis I to Jean de Langeac: Commission to retrieve Françoise de Bouliers — Lyon, 1 June 1522

18. Instructions regarding the deliverance of Françoise de Bouliers — [ Lyon, c. 1 June 1522]

19. King Francis I: Commission to inspect the fortifications of Corbie — Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 13 September 1522

20. Jean de Langeac to King Christian II of Denmark — Edinburgh, 12 April [1523]

21. King Francis I to Jean de Langeac — [Blois, 30 May 1523]

22. King Francis I to the Lords of the Estates, Council and Parliament of Scotland — Blois, 30 May 1523

23. King Francis I: Letter patent confirming Langeac in the office of Master of Requests — Plessis-lès-Tours, June 1524

24. Deliberations of Parliament—Parliament of Paris, 27 July 1524

25. Louise de Savoie to the Ambassadors of the Twelve Cantons — Lyon, 26 October [1525]

26. Louise de Savoie: Instructions for Jean de Langeac, envoy to the Twelve Cantons — Lyon, October 1525

27. Jean de Langeac: Speech before the deputies of the Twelve Cantons — Lucerne, [c. 3 November] 1525

28. Clement VII: Papal bull appointing Langeac as bishop of Avranches — Rome, 20 [October] 1526

29. King Francis I: Placet in favor of Jean de Langeac — Saint-Germain- en-Laye, 6 January 1527, n.s

30. King Francis I: Letter of sufferance in favor of Jean de Langeac — Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 6 January 1527, n.s.

31. King Francis I: Mainlevée in favor of Jean de Langeac — Saint- Germain-en-Laye, 6 January 1527, n.s.

32. King Francis I: Another mainlevée in favor of Jean de Langeac — Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 8 January 1527, n.s.

33. King Francis I: Letter patent in favor of Jean de Langeac — Saint- Germain-en-Laye, 17 February 1527, n.s.

34. Claude de La Croix: Ratification of Langeac’s petition for mainlevée — Paris, 19 February 1527, n.s.

35. The Parisian Court of Finances: Instructions to officers of Le Cotentin — [Paris] 19 February 1527, n.s.

36. Minutes of the King’s Grand Council — Paris, 23 November 1527

37. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Vic-le-Comte, 10 February [1528]

38. Jean de Langeac [to Anne de Montmorency] — Lyon, 10 April [1528]

39. Jean de Langeac to King Francis I — Le Pont-de-Beauvoisin, 13 April [1528]

40. Jean de Langeac [to Anne de Montmorency] — Sant’Ambrogio di Torino, 18 April [1528]

41. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency—Asti, 21 April [1528]

42. Jean de Langeac to François de La Tour and Balthazar Hercule de Jarente — Venice, 14 May [1528]

43. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 15 May [1528]

44. Jean de Langeac to François de La Tour and Balthazar Hercule de Jarente — Venice, 19 May [1528]

45. François de La Tour and Balthazar Hercule de Jarente to Jean de Langeac — Orvieto, 20 May 1528

46. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 23 May [1528]

47. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 6 June [1528]

48. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 14 June [1528]

49. Odet de Foix-Lautrec to Jean de Langeac — Naples, 22 June [1528]

50. Jean de Langeac to Pope Clement VII—Venice, 25 June [1528]

51. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 5 July [1528]

52. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 1 August [1528]

53. Federico II Gonzaga of Mantua to Jean de Langeac — Marmirolo, 18 August 1528

54. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 23 August [1528]

55. Jean de Langeac to Pope Clement VII — Venice, 29 August [1528]

56. François de La Tour to Jean de Langeac — Viterbo [c. 10-12 September 1528]

57. François de Bourbon to Jean de Langeac — Pavia, 12 September [1528]

58. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 15 September [1528]

59. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 18 September [1528]

60. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency Venice, 23 September [1528]

61. Pope Clement VII to Jean de Langeac — Viterbo, 1 October 1528

62. Jean de Langeac to King Francis I — Venice, 13 October 1528

63. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 13 October [1528]

64. Jean de Langeac to Jean Breton — Venice, 13 October 1528

65. Geoffroy Tavelli to Jean de Langeac—Chur, 9 November 1528

66. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 11 November [1528]

67. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 22 December [1528]

68. François de Bourbon to Jean de Langeac — Alessandria, 24 December 1528

69. Marco Aurelio Arborsani to Jean de Langeac—Venice, 3 January 1529

70. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 14 January [1529]

71. Lorenzo Anguillara da Ceri to Jean de Langeac — Barletta, 20 February 1529, n.s

72. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 27 February [1529]

73. Jean de Langeac to King Francis I — Verona, 18 March 1529, n.s.

74. Jean de Langeac to Jean Breton—Verona, 18March 1529, n.s.

75. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 15 April [1529]

76. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 23 April [1529]

77. Jean de Langeac and Giovan Gioachino da Passano to King Francis I — Venice, 6, 10 and 11 May 1529

78. Jean de Langeac to Anne deMontmorency—Venice, 7May [1529]

79. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 11 May [1529]

80. Jean de Langeac and Giovan Gioachino da Passano to King Francis I — Venice, 12 May 1529

81. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 12-13 May [1529]

82. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Venice, 19 May [1529]

83. Andrea Gritti to the Doge, Council and Elders of Genoa—Venice, 22 May 1529

84. Jean de Langeac to [Jean Breton?] — Venice, 23 May [1529]

85. Jean de Langeac to King Francis I — Venice, 23 May [1529]

86. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Les Echarlis, 12 November [1529?]

87. King Francis I to Jean de Langeac—Angoulême, 22 April 1530

88. Langeac, Meigret and Dangerant to the Chief Officers of Bern and Zurich — Bremgarten, 31 October [1531]

89. Langeac, Meigret, Dangerant et al. to the League of Five Cantons — Bremgarten, 5 November 1531

90. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Bremgarten, 12 November [1531]

91. Jean de Langeac and Louis Dangerant to Anne de Montmorency — Bremgarten, 24 November [1531]

92. Langeac, Meigret, Dangerant et al. to Hans Golder and the Council of Lucerne — Bremgarten, 24 November 1531

93. The Council of Bern to Jean de Langeac — Bern, 8 December 1531

94. Jean de Langeac and Guillaume de Bonas: Appointments of a vicar general and substitute vicar of Limoges — Paris, 1 June 1532 / Limoges, 22 June 1532

95. Jean de Langeac to François de Dinteville — Paris, 8 June 1532

96. Certificate of tonsure for Jean Gay — Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, 8 June 1533

97. Tax notice and receipts — July-August 1533

98. Notice of litigation between Jean de Langeac and Gilbert de Roffignac — Brive-la-Gaillarde, 7 August 1533

99. Antoine Arlier to Jean de Langeac — [Nîmes, c. 24 September 1533]

100. Antoine Arlier to Jean de Langeac — Nîmes, 24 September 1533

101. Etienne Dolet to Jean de Langeac—Toulouse, 8 November [1533]

102. Jean de Langeac to Pope Clement VII — [1 January 1534]

103. Etienne Dolet to Jean de Langeac—Toulouse, 1 January [1534]

104. Etienne Dolet to Jean de Langeac — Toulouse, 1 March [1534]

105. A letter dimissory for Antoine Brunet — Paris, 28 August 1534

106. Etienne Dolet to Jean de Langeac—[Paris, c. early November 1534]

107. Jean de Langeac to Jean du Bellay — Ferrara, 4 August 1535

108. Jean de Langeac to [Jean du Bellay] —Ferrara, 1 September [1535]

109. Jean du Bellay to Jean de Langeac — Perugia, 12 September 1535

110. Jean de Langeac to Jean du Bellay — Ferrara, 19 November [1535]

111. Celio Calcagnini to Jean de Langeac — Ferrara, 27 November 1535

112. Jean de Langeac to Antoine du Bourg — Isle, 1 April [1536]

113. Jean Arnaud: Commission for six statues — Limoges, 9 April 1536

114. Certificate of tonsure for Pierre Benoist — Limoges, 28 April 1536

115. Tax notice and receipts — August 1536

116. Litigation between Jean de Langeac and the municipality of Limoges — Parliament of Bordeaux, 23 December 1536

117. Translation of the relics of Saint Pierre de Chavanon — Pébrac, 2 April 1537

118. Jean de Langeac to Antoine du Bourg — Port of Edinburgh, 23-25 May [1537]

119. Jean de Langeac to Antoine du Bourg — Edinburgh, 30 May [1537]

120. Jean de Langeac to King Francis I — London, July [1537]

121. Jean de Langeac to Antoine du Bourg — London, 6 July 1537

122. Jean de Langeac and Antoine de Castelnau to King Francis I — London, 22 July 1537

123. Jean de Langeac [to Arthur Plantagenet] — Boulogne-sur-Mer, [25 August, 1537]

124. Jean de Langeac: Memorandum regarding annuities from the woods of Les Echarlis — 23 September 1537

125. Litigation between Jean de Langeac and Gilbert de Roffignac — Brive-la-Gaillarde, 22 November 1537

126. Tax notice for the rector of Les Cars — 18 December 1537

127. King Francis I to Guillaume Prudhomme — Moulins, 18 February 1538, n.s.

128. Jean de Langeac: A receipt for wages and expenses as ambassador to Scotland and England — 26 February 1538, n.s.

129. Power of attorney for Jean and Pierre Louvète — Isle, 28 February 1538, n.s.

130. Pierre Boutaud and Etienne Théveny: Act of property tenure — Limoges, 12 March 1538, n.s.

131. Litigation between Langeac and the municipality of Limoges — Parliament of Bordeaux, 5 June 1538

132. Jean du Chasteau: Act of property tenure and investiture — Saint- Léonard-de-Noblat, 29 July 1538

133. Denial of investiture to the Carmelite and Augustinian orders of Mortemart — Isle, 22 August 1538

134. Certificate of tonsure for Jean de La Combe — Allassac, 15 September 1538

135. Certificate of tonsure for Hélie de Roffignac — Allassac, 3 October 1538

136. Usufruct of Allasac’s Hala Communis — Allassac, 5 Octobre 1538

137. King Francis I to the Bishop of Limoges — Paris, 12 December [1538?]

138. A receipt for Bishop Langeac — Paris, 25 January 1539, n.s.

139. Litigation between Langeac and the municipality of Limoges — Limoges, 24 June 1539

140. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency—Rome, 25 November 1539

141. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency—Rome, 28 November 1539

142. Léonard Alesme to Jean de Langeac — Poitiers, 13 December 1539

143. King Francis I to Jean de Langeac — Paris, [c. January 1540]

144. King Francis I [to Cardinal Agostino Trivulzio]—Paris, [c. January 1540]

145. Pope Paul III to King Francis I of France — Castel Sant’Angelo, 8 February 1540

146. King James V of Scotland to Pope Paul III — Holyrood Palace, 20 February 1540, n.s

147. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Rome, February and March 1540

148. Jean de Langeac to Anne de Montmorency — Rome, 28 March 1540

149. Etienne Dolet to Jean de Langeac — Lyon, 1 March 1541

150. Guillaume Pellicier to Jean de Langeac — 14 April [1541]

Bibliography

Manuscripts

Printed material (Early Modern, Modern and Contemporary)

Index of Proper Names

Abbreviations

The following list identifies common abbreviations used in annotations. References to primary or secondary sources appear in full under the author’s name or under the work’s title in an expanded bibliography at the end of this edition.

Acta Tomiciana

Piotr Tomicki, Stanisław Górski

et al.

Acta Tomiciana

A.D.

Archives départementales

A.N.

Archives nationales de France

Anselme

Pierre de Guibours Anselme de Sainte-Marie.

Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France

Blanchard,

Généalogies

François Blanchard.

Les Généalogies des maistres des requestes ordinaires de l’hostel du roy

BM

Bibliothèque Municipale (Municipal Library)

BnF Paris

Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris)

CAF

Collection des ordonnances des rois de France. Catalogue des Actes de François I

er

CAH

Collection des ordonnances des rois de France. Catalogue des Actes de Henri II

Calendar Spain

Calendar of Letters, Despatches and State Papers relating to the Negotiations between England and Spain preserved in the Archives of Simancas and elsewhere

Calendar Venice

Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts relating to English Affairs existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice and other Libraries of Northern Italy, 1202-1672

Catholic Encyclopedia

Charles G. Herbermann

et al.

, edd.

The Catholic Encyclopedia

CEBR

P. G. Bietenholz and T. B. Deutscher, edd.

Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation

Centuriae Latinae

I-II

Colette Nativel, ed.

Centuriae Latinae

(I, 1997; II, 2006)

DBF

Dictionnaire de biographie française

DBI

Dizionario biografico degli italiani

DHGE

Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques

CCJB

Jean du Bellay.

Correspondance du cardinal Jean du Bellay

Eidgenössische Abschiede

Amtliche Sammlung der ältern Eidgenössischen Abschiede 1245-1798

Erasmus,

Adagia

Erasmus of Rotterdam.

Opera omnia Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami

(published since 1969 by North-Holland Publishing Co.)

Eubel

Conrad Eubel.

Hierarchia catholica Medii Aevi

Gallia Christiana

Gallia Christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa

Gallia Regia

Gustave Dupont-Ferrier.

Gallia Regia ou état des officiers royaux des bailliages et des sénéchaussées de 1328 à 1515

Godefroy

Frédéric Godefroy.

Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française, et de tous ses dialectes du

ix

e

au

xv

e

 siècle

Gougenheim,

Grammaire

Georges Gougenheim.

Grammaire de la langue française du seizième siècle

Greimas and Keane

Algirdas Julien Greimas and Teresa Mary Keane,

Dictionnaire du moyen français

Guicciardini

Francesco Guicciardini.

La Storia d’Italia de Francesco Guicciardini sugli originali manoscritti

Hozier

Jean François Louis d’Hozier.

Recueil historique des chevaliers de l’Ordre de Saint-Michel

Hte-Vienne

Haute-Vienne

Huguet

Edmond Huguet.

Dictionnaire de la langue française du seizième siècle

JLLP

Jean de Langeac.

Letters and Papers

(this edition)

JPLLF

Jean de Pins.

Letters and Letter Fragments

Lapeyre and Scheurer

André Lapeyre and Rémy Scheurer.

Les Notaires et secrétaires du roi sous les règnes de Louis XI, Charles VIII et Louis XII (1461‑1515). Notices personnelles et généalogies. Collection de documents inédits sur l’histoire de France

LB

Erasmus of Rotterdam.

Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami opera omnia, emendatiora et auctiora

. The Leiden edition (Lugdunum Batavorum, 1703-1706)

LPFD

Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII 1509-1547, preserved in the Public Record Office, the British Museum, and elsewhere

LPFS Elizabeth

Calendar of letters and state papers relating to English affairs preserved principally in the Archives of Simancas

.

Elizabeth, 1558-[1603]

Maugis

Edouard Maugis.

Histoire du Parlement de Paris de l’avènement des rois Valois à la mort d’Henri IV

. 3 vols. Paris, 1913‑1916

Mirot and Babelon,

Hommages

Léon Mirot and Jean-Pierre Babelon.

Hommages rendus à la Chambre de France. Chambre des comptes de Paris. Série p. 

xiv

e

-

xvi

e

 siècles. Inventaire analytique

MMGB

Martin and Guillaume du Bellay.

Mémoires de Martin et Guillaume du Bellay

Molini I-II

Giuseppe Molini.

Documenti di storia italiana copiati su gli originali autentici e per lo più autografi esistenti in Parigi

Molini III (

Appendice

)

Giuseppe Molini.

Documenti di storia italiana dall’ anno 1522 al 1530 che fanno seguto ai pubblicati da Giuseppe Molini nel 1836-1837

NBG

Nouvelle Biographie Générale

NDB

Neue deutsche Biographie

n.s.

new style (year begins 1 January instead of Easter day)

OER

Hans J. Hillerbrand, ed.

Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation

Ordonnances de François I

er

Ordonnances des rois de France. Règne de François I

er

(published by Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques)

Popoff,

Prosopographie

Michel Popoff. 

Prosopographie des gens du Parlement de Paris (1266-1753)

Ribier

Guillaume Ribier.

Lettres et memoires d’estat des roys, princes, ambassadeurs, et autres ministres, sous les regnes de François premier, Henry II & François II

Rott

HRDF

Edouard Rott.

Histoire de la représentation diplomatique de la France auprès des cantons suisses

Rott

Inv

Edouard Rott.

Inventaire sommaire des documents relatifs à l’histoire de Suisse conservés dans les archives et bibliothèques de Paris

r°

recto

(front side)

Sanuto

Marino Sanuto.

I diarii di Marino Sanuto

Strickler,

Actensammlung

Johannes Strickler.

Actensammlung zur schweizerischen Reformationsgeschichte in den Jahren 1521-1532

Tessereau

Abraham Tessereau.

Histoire de la Grande Chancellerie de France

s.v., s.vv. 

sub voce

,

sub vocibus

(under a designated entry or entries in a dictionary or encyclopedia)

v°

verso

(back side)

Introduction

Jean de Langeac, the third, perhaps fourth male child of a large Auvernat family, was a prominent officer of the French crown, a clergyman and diplomat during the reigns of Kings Louis XII and Francis I of France. Viewed as an important figure of the French Renaissance, he is frequently cited as a patron of the arts. The ornamental pulpitrum and elaborate bishop’s tomb that he commissioned for Saint-Etienne’s cathedral in Limoges rank among the city’s most remarkable artistic monuments dating from that era . He is generally credited with having introduced Léonard Limosin, a ceramic painter, and Giulio Camillo Delminio, an Italian philosopher, into the courtly circles of Parisian society, although such claims are founded largely on circumstantial evidence . The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s anonymous “Portrait of a Man”, painted in 1539, is thought to represent the bishop at the height of his career, when he was serving as a French ambassador to Rome and had come under serious consideration for promotion to the rank of cardinal. The date of the painting, the subject’s venerable beard and the prominent display of a manual signet with the bishop’s embossed seal have all been cited to substantiate the attribution.

Having entered the clergy as a young man, Langeac studied law and received his first major political appointment as a councilor cleric at the Parliament of Toulouse in 1511, only to resign after a brief apprenticeship there in order to pursue a more prestigious career within France’s central government. By 1516 he was a member of the king’s Grand Council and three years later became a royal master of requests. For over twenty-five years he served as a diplomatic emissary to a variety of European states, traveling long distances to Portugal (1516), Poland (1519), Hungary (1519), Venice (1519, 1528-1529), Switzerland (1521, 1525, 1531), Scotland (1523, 1537), Ferrara (1535, 1538), England (1537), Rome (1514, 1525, 1539-1540) and, according to contemporary observers, to the emperor’s court in Spain. He also performed domestic missions to Burgundy (1512), Saint-Pol-de-Léon (1521-1522), Demonte (1522), Corbie (1522), Auvergne (1528), La Rochelle (1530) and Amiens (1532). As a member of the clergy he held title to more than a few ecclesiastical benefices, including seven French abbeys . Named bishop of Avranches in 1526, he transferred to the see of Limoges in 1532, where he then assumed a moderately active role in the administration of his diocese, presiding over ordinations, giving tonsure, issuing dispensations, promoting the Catholic faith and its cult of relics, defending the integrity of the ecclesiastical domain in and out of court and attending to the publication of statutes and missals. Frequently away on one mission or another, however, he relied on vicars, attorneys and delegates of the church to perform most routine administrative tasks under his authority . The extent of his travels for official matters of Church and State can be estimated at something in the order of 50,000 kilometers, mainly on horseback, over the course of about 30 years. In sum, he was a competent administrator, an experienced diplomat, a steadfast partisan of Roman Catholicism and a loyal servant of the French crown.

This present edition of letters and ancillary administrative papers is intended to offer historians a better, more complete understanding of the Frenchman’s role in European affairs than would a standard collection of correspondence only. Obviously many of the archival papers that have been selected for publication here will resist classification as political or personal letters. Among them are mission instructions, mission reports, speeches, expense statements, letters of appointment to office, financial receipts, minutes of a French Grand Council meeting, various acts of property tenure (

actes de reconnaissance

) and investiture, estate memoranda, records of litigation, powers of attorney, certificates of tonsure, a certificate of translation of relics, a contract for artistic services and, finally, samples of pre-printed administrative

cartelli

issued by the bishop’s tax assessors in Limoges. Most were prepared by administrative personnel. Inasmuch as this category of documents could have been expanded almost

ad infinitum

, it became necessary to limit their number to a handful of representative samples. In particular, it should be noted that the bishop of Limoges was one of the region’s traditional feudal lords, and that extant acts of property tenure are far more numerous than our limited selection might suggest. While some readers may view the addition of such documents as a distraction, others will find them no doubt enlightening for the insight that they provide into some neglected quarters of Renaissance society.

At less than one hundred letters, a majority of which are devoted to the discussion of diplomacy and military affairs, Langeac’s combined active and passive correspondence can hardly be considered extensive. Remnants of his contact with humanist scholars are infrequent and suggest that his interaction with them, as a group, was perhaps not sustained. Readers will find nonetheless letters and letter-prefaces addressed to him by Etienne Dolet in a neoclassical Renaissance style three letters of similar grain from Jean de Pins, a councilor in the Parliament of Toulouse two from Antoine Arlier of Nîmes, who offered to publish under the bishop’s aegis a commemorative book of emblems a dedicatory letter from the Venetian lawyer Marco Aurelio Arborsani; another from Celio Calcagnini, and a preface to a contemporary legal work by Léonard Alesme containing praise of Langeac’s “expertise” in Greek and Latin . Unfortunately, none of the missives that Langeac addressed to any of them has come to light.

More numerous are the bishop’s extant political and administrative letters. For the most part unpublished and in some cases unexamined, they have been preserved as

disjecta membra

in various public libraries and archives in France and elsewhere in Europe. In letters to King Francis I, Grand Master Anne de Montmorency, Jean Breton, Antoine du Bourg, Cardinal Jean du Bellay and others, the author frequently refers to additional missives now presumed lost. This suggests to us that only a small portion of his cumulative correspondence remains today. Most of his letters appear to have been professionally transcribed from drafts, notes or dictation before they were presented to him for his signature. Consistencies in the characters and flourishes of his single-authored letters dispatched from Edinburgh, Venice, Verona, Les Echarlis, Paris, Ferrara, Isle, London and Rome point to the silent presence of one scribe or another who accompanied him on multiple journeys.

When dealing with political and administrative letters of this sort, historians of past generations have in some cases resorted to the formation of repertoires, thereby extracting information that modern readers would find interesting or even “palatable”, while discarding elements viewed as verbose, redundant or merely rhetorical. Some second-hand manuscript copies and résumés preserved in today’s archives fall into that category. But whenever we censure the vapid formulas, abstruse syntax, run-on sentences, obscurities and erratic spelling of such letters, we also risk overlooking some of the distinctive stylistic qualities present in the early development of French epistolography. Based on what we now observe, Langeac and his writing staff were familiar with some of the finer etiquette involved in corresponding on important matters and could write effectively in the vernacular, but they were certainly not brilliant stylists. The bishop’s letters are clearly administrative documents, far removed from any kind of epistolary literature that might lend itself to feats of verbal agility and ingenuity. Classical rhetoric and, in particular, ambiguity, considered by some to be essential components of Literature, are things that Renaissance ambassadors and their secretaries were generally cautious to avoid.

In fact one particular manual prepared for the instruction of public notaries,

Le Prothocolle des notaires

, warns against the intrusion of

amphibologies

(ambiguous meaning) into official documents, stating:

“All notaries must also avoid placing in their writings and instruments any kind of amphibology, that is to say ambiguous statements that can be interpreted in various ways. It is an error and a vice into which often fall young notaries who have studied the humanities and, coming straight from the schools, believe that they can reach out and touch the stars […]”

Thus, when reading vernacular diplomatic correspondence of this period, we must remember that we are dealing with official documents whose authors in most cases do not seek to impress their correspondents with a display of classical rhetoric, but rather to accurately inform them of recent events, and at the same time, signify their ability and desire to serve.

Langeac’s typical diplomatic letter contains as many as five parts, six if we consider the external address, not unlike divisions commonly observed in the

artes dictaminis

of the Middle Ages. After a brief address and some form of

exordium

or

pretext

, such as an enumeration of prior letters sent or received, one finds in the main body of each a report on affairs of State followed by a paragraph somewhat more personal in nature, with details on the author’s health, an appeal for money or some other form of request. Barring exception, affairs of State take precedence over any personal items that the ambassador may wish to include. A final salutation is then followed by his signature at the bottom right-hand corner of the final page.

The location of the ambassador’s signature is not without significance. According to Pierre Fabri’s

Grand art de rhetorique

, which contains the earliest complete manual on the art of letter writing in the French vernacular, writers must distinguish between three ranks of addressees:

les grans

(the elevated such as popes, emperors and kings),

les moyens

(the intermediate class, described by Fabri as that of priests and bourgeois), and finally

les bas

(a lower class composed of servants and manual workers). When speaking to someone of higher rank, Fabri recommends that one sign

très humblement

(very humbly) in the lower right-hand corner of the page . As a mark of courtesy, then, Langeac and his peers almost invariably inscribe their names in just such a fashion in their reports to members of the royal court. King Francis I, on the other hand, typically signed his royal letters patent in a higher position, toward the left or center, thereby signifying his authority and rank, while attending secretaries added their names to the same document in a lower position toward the right. This spatial arrangement is not without cause reminiscent of many hieratic dedication scenes of late medieval art in which kneeling authors are depicted humbly presenting their book to some magnanimous prince.

Narrative sequence is another epistolary matter to consider. Again, according to Fabri’s

Grand art de rhetorique

, one should always begin letters of mixed content (

lettres missives meslees

) with more important matters before introducing lesser ones. “And”, he adds, “take note that one must always place one’s friend’s affairs first and one’s own afterward, in order to show that we do not neglect them.” This explains why, in Langeac’s diplomatic correspondence, affairs of State generally take precedence. He first discusses matters of official concern, such as the progress of negotiations, the movement of troops (both friendly and enemy), military exploits and intelligence garnered from contacts with local authorities, ambassadors, military officers, friendly travelers or enemy letters. During his mission to Venice (1528-1529), he speaks in some detail of negotiations with the member states of the Holy League (as he calls it), the loss of Pavia, the Imperials’ tightening grip on Milan, the defeat of the French army in Naples, Andrea Doria’s entente with the emperor and the liberation of Genoa from French rule . Once matters of State have received due attention, he is then at liberty to introduce personal items into his letters.

The fifteen months that he spent as an ambassador in Venice are marked by two recurrent personal themes, insolvency and illness. The composition and humble language of the letters that he wrote during that period underscore his desire to serve the French crown and its principal minister of foreign policy, Anne de Montmorency, unwaveringly. In particular, he shows considerable discretion in the way that he formulates requests, suggestions and recommendations. His constant use of the expression

il vous playse

is just one example, but a significant one common to most diplomatic letters of the same period. Again, Fabri advises that one should never use the imperative mood when addressing one’s superiors, but rather humble terms (

termes humiliez

) such as: “Sire, your viscount is a man of merit; may it please you to look upon him with favor” (

plaise vous l’avoir pour recommandé

) . The only noteworthy use of the French imperative in Langeac’s active correspondence occurs in a letter addressed to colleagues in Rome, when he writes: “Messieurs, for the love of God take care that the pope adheres to our league […].” The use of an imperative is permissible in this case, not only because he addresses colleagues and equals rather than superiors, but also because it assumes the form of a wish rather than a command. Yet as his frustration with the contigencies of seemingly fruitless politics and war grew, he turned increasingly to the use of mildly prescriptive expressions such as the impersonal “one should” (

il convient

) to voice recommendations. In October 1528, when the Venetian Signory refused to honor a perceived debt to the league’s war effort, he suggested that the king “should speak sharply of the matter” with the Venetian ambassador in Paris to make...