François Rabelais
‘The Great Jester of France’
Richard CooperA vivid biography of Rabelais and the world that shaped him
François Rabelais was one of the Renaissance’s most extraordinary figures: comic author, physician, teacher, editor, monk and tireless intellectual. Best known for the exuberant adventures of Gargantua and Pantagruel, he transformed French literature with a style that combined satire, folklore, fantasy and learning. Yet the details of his life have long remained obscured by myth and anecdote.
Drawing on the latest research, this biography reconstructs Rabelais’ remarkable career, tracing his religious vocation, medical practice, work in the early printing industry, travels in Italy, connections at court and repeated encounters with censorship. Alongside the story of his extraordinary works, Richard Cooper shows how Rabelais navigated the intellectual, religious and political tensions of sixteenth-century Europe, illuminating the world that helped shape one of literature’s most inventive and enduring voices.
Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Young Monk
Chapter 2. Student of Law and Medicine and Apostate (1527–32)
Chapter 3. The Move to Lyons (1532)
Chapter 4. First Comic Chronicle: Pantagruel (1532)
Chapter 5. The Astrologer
Chapter 6. First Journey to Rome (1534)
Chapter 7. Second Comic Chronicle: Gargantua (1535)
Chapter 8. Second Journey to Rome (1535–6)
Chapter 9. New Opportunities (1536–8)
Chapter 10. Turin and Guillaume Du Bellay (1539–43)
Chapter 11. The Tiers Livre and Exile in Metz (1543–7)
Chapter 12. Third Journey to Rome (1547–9)
Chapter 13. Rabelais in Paris and the Quart Livre (1549–51)
Chapter 14. The Final Year (1552–3)
Chapter 15. Post-Mortem
References
Further Reading
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index
Richard Cooper is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. His books include Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515–65 (2013).