Pierre Boaistuau

Pierre Boaistuau, also Pierre Launay (c. 1520 in Nantes, † 1566 in Paris ) was a French editor, writer and translator. He had great influence on the literature of his time and subsequent generations. He was the first editor of a later became known under the title " Heptaméron " short story collection of Margaret of Angoulême. His story " Rhomeo et Julietta " inspired William Shakespeare to to whose famous tragedy " Romeo and Juliet".

Life

The life of Pierre Boaistuau is known only very sketchy. He was probably born around 1520 ( according to some sources even in 1500 ) in Nantes in Brittany, which belonged to the Kingdom of France only since 1532. Presumably he studied from 1543 in Poitiers Jurassic and later in Rome medicine. 1554 he went to Paris and entered temporarily into the diplomatic service. 1559/1560 he took a trip to England ( ostensibly there monsters and wonder to behold ), on which he is said to have also had an audience with Queen Elizabeth. 1566 is Boaistuau died in Paris.

Work

Boaistuau is considered the inventor of two distinct genres of French literature of the 16th century, namely, the " tragic history" ( " histoire tragique " ) and " extraordinary story " ( " histoire prodigieuse "). His 1558 published short stories collection " Théâtre du Monde " ("Theater of the World") was one of the most successful releases of his time.

In 1558 he was the first editor of a collection of stories of the French nobility and literary figure Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre ( 1492-1549 ). The later under the title " Heptaméron " became known collection was of Boaistuau but under a different title ( " Histoires the amans Fortúnez "). He also took on only 67 of the original 72 stories and the overall story changed greatly.

His 1559 published under the title " Histoires Tragiques " collection " tragic stories " in which it was translations and adaptations of short stories by the Italian poet Matteo Bandello, included the story " Rhomeo et Julietta ". It was used ( in addition to the 1562 published narrative poem "The tragicall historye of Romeus and Juliet " by the English playwright Arthur Brooke ) probably as a template for William Shakespeare's famous tragedy " Romeo and Juliet".

In 1560 he published under the title " Histoires prodigieuse les plus memorables " a collection of " extraordinary stories " of ancient Greek and Latin authors, which revolve around mythical creatures and monsters of all kinds. In addition, he pretended to be an important translator of ancient and contemporary authors point ( such as Erasmus of Rotterdam).