Bonaventure des Périers

Bonaventure des Périers (c. 1500 – 1544) was a French author.

He was born of a noble family at Arnay-le-duc in Burgundy at the end of the fifteenth century.

The circumstances of his education are sketchy, but it is known that he was attached to various noble houses in the capacity of tutor. In 1533 or 1534 Des Périers visited Lyon, then the most enlightened town of France, and a refuge for many liberal scholars who might elsewhere have had to suffer for their opinions. He gave some assistance to Robert Olivetan and Lefèvre d'Etaples in the preparation of the vernacular version of the Old Testament, and to Etienne Dolet in the Commentarii linguae latinae.

In 1536 he put himself under the protection of Marguerite d'Angoulême, queen of Navarre, who made him her valet de chambre. He acted as the queen's secretary, and transcribed the Heptaméron for her. It is probable that his duties extended beyond those of a mere copyist, and some writers have gone so far as to say that the Heptaméron was his work.

The free discussions permitted at Marguerite's court encouraged a licence of thought as displeasing to the Calvinists as to the Catholics. This free inquiry became scepticism in Bonaventure's Cymbalum Mundi ... (1537) and the queen of Navarre thought it prudent to disavow the author, though she continued to help him privately until 1541. The book consisted of four dialogues in imitation of Lucian. Its allegorical form did not conceal its real meaning, and, when it was printed by Morin, probably early in 1538, the Sorbonne secured the suppression of the edition before it was offered for sale.

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