Clément Marot, evangelical translator of Petrarch's Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta [Clément marot, traducteur évangélique des rerum vulgarium fragmenta de pétrarque]

Clément Marot was the first French translator of Petrarch’s Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta. His translation, entitled Six sonnetz de Petrarque sur la mort de sa dame Laure, was intended as a celebration of the langue françoyse, in keeping with the ideals of Francis I’s court and the creation of a “royal Italianism” considered the founding element of the translatio studii et imperii. The refinement of this edition, together with a style derived in part from the tradition of the rhétoriqueurs, is reminiscent of courtly translation, which aimed at poetic ornamentation. A closer look also reveals Marot’s deep evangelical inspiration, as well as his innovative way of translating at a time when the distinction between translation and imitation was not yet clear.