''La Défense et illustration de la langue française'' (English: ''The defense and illustration of the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

'') is a

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...

text written during the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

in 1549 by the French poet Joachim du Bellay. It was a manifesto of the ideas of the group originally known as La Brigade, later as

La Pléiade La Pléiade () was a group of 16th-century French Renaissance poets whose principal members were Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Jean-Antoine de Baïf. The name was a reference to another literary group, the original Alexandrian Pleiad ...

. Du Bellay called for “the enrichment of the French language by discreet imitation and borrowing from the language and literary forms of the classics and the works of the Italian Renaissance... In it he asserted that French (was) capable of producing a modern literature equal in quality and expressiveness to that of ancient Greece and Rome.”

Background

The text, a plea in favor of the French language, appeared ten years after the

Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (french: Ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts) is an extensive piece of reform legislation signed into law by Francis I of France on August 10, 1539, in the city of Villers-Cotterêts and the oldest French legislat ...

, which imposed French as the language of law and administration in France. Du Bellay wanted to show his gratitude to

Francis I of France Francis I (french: François Ier; frm, Francoys; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once ...

, who he described as "our good King and father", for his role in the arts and culture: Francis I established the Collège de France, perpetuated the National Library of France, and was a proponent of legal deposit. Du Bellay's goal with the work was to make the French language, considered at the time "barbarous" and "vulgar", an elegant and dignified language. Du Bellay used in his work several passages from

Sperone Speroni Sperone Speroni degli Alvarotti (1500–1588) was an Italian Renaissance humanist, scholar and dramatist. He was one of the central members of Padua's literary academy ''Accademia degli Infiammati'' and wrote on both moral and literary matters. ...

's ''Dialogue on Languages'', a 1542 essay which dealt with the Tuscan vernacular (which gave rise to present-day Italian) as well as the erudite languages,

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and Greek.

Summary

Du Bellay defends the French language and affirms its equal dignity with Latin and Greek. One way he chose to advocate the enrichment of the French language was by means of the imitation of ancient authors in classical languages; but at the same time he criticized direct copying via translation, as he felt that translations did not have the same depth and richness of the original text.

References

{{Authority control 1549 works

Background

Summary

See also

References