Nicolas Bérauld, laissé pour compte des « Bonnes Lettres ». Monographie sur l’humaniste orléanais Nicolas Bérauld (c. 1470-c. 1555)
This monography intends to highlight the fundamental contribution which was brought by Nicolas Berauld (c. 1470- c. 1550), humanist born in Orleans at the beginning of the XVIth century, for the benefit of the establishment of a specific french humanism. Teacher, publisher, printer, librarian, jurist and even writer, this multitalented humanist, very famous during his time, has fallen in oblivion nowadays: he is, as the title of this work points it off, a laisse pour compte des « Bonnes Lettres » who needs to get back the appreciation he deserves. He relentlessly intervened in many fields of activity. He brought on a deep thinking about languages, as he was interested in latin improvisation and contributed to the rise of greek, still very little studied at the beginning of the XVIth century. The model of the grammaticus inspired his activities, exactly the way Quintilian figured it in his Institutio Oratoria, which means that he could be at the same time encyclopaedist, publisher, commentator and teacher. This versatile grammaticus was bound to tangle with every field of his time knowledge. This made Berauld either to pay attention to the aesthetic and creative dimension of language, its « poietic », or to get involved into the great ideological debates which stired up his time (as for politics, law or religion). To study the career of this humble teacher is also a way to pay tribute to the early stage of humanism, more or less put in the shade by the bright time of the Royal Lectors and of the Pleiade.