Antoine Le Maçon (born c. 1500 at
Buis-les-Baronnies; died 1559) was a French
translator.
Life
A Royal councillor and treasurer for war, Le Maçon became private secretary to
Margaret, Queen of Navarre. To please the princess, who loved letters and novels, he undertook a translation into French of
Boccaccio's
Decameron
''The Decameron'' (; it, label=Italian, Decameron or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old it, Prencipe Galeotto, links=no ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dan ...
, the first made directly from the original Italian,
[The first translation of the Decameron into French was made by Laurent de Premierfait about 1410 and published in 1485, but was made from a Latin text.] which was printed in
Lyon by Roville, and in
Paris by Olivier Harsy, in 1569. This translation retained the strength of the Italian in all the "offensive" episodes, none of which were bowdlerised.
Like later editions of the Italian original, subsequent editions of Le Maçon's translation did, however, censor or omit some words, passages or tales, until the 1757 edition, which is much sought after for its beautiful engravings.
Le Maçon also published an edition of the works of
Jean Lemaire de Belges and of
Clément Marot
Clément Marot (23 November 1496 – 12 September 1544) was a French Renaissance poet.
Biography
Youth
Marot was born at Cahors, the capital of the province of Quercy, some time during the winter of 1496–1497. His father, Jean Marot (c.&n ...
.
He has sometimes, wrongly, been attributed as the author of ''Érotasmes ou les Amours de Phydie et de Gélasine'' (Lyon, 1550, in-8°), which is actually the work of
Philibert Bugnyon.
References
Sources
*
Louis-Maïeul Chaudon
Louis-Mayeul Chaudon (20 May 1737, Valensole – 28 May 1817, Mézin), was a French Benedictine biographer.
Life
After studying in the colleges of Marseille and Avignon, Chaudon decided to become an ecclesiastic, and was admitted to the order of ...
, Antoine François Delandine, ''Nouveau dictionnaire historique'', vol. VII, Lyon, Bruyset ainé, 1804, p. 465.
* Jean-Antoine Rigoley de Juvigny, ''Les Bibliothéques françoises de La Croix du Maine et de Du Verdier'', Paris, Saillant & Nyon ; Michel Lambert, 1772, p. 42.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lemacon, Antoine
1500 births
1559 deaths
French translators
People from Drôme