EPITRE DE MAISTRE GUILLAUME POSTEL
escripte a maistre Iehan Moreau ancien Advocat a Loches touchant ung Livre en Lettres Arabiques que ledict Moreau trouva en son logis L’an mesme que ceste histoyre fut trouvee et ennoya audit Postel
Letter from Master Guillaume Postel written to Master Jehan Moreau, former Advocate at Loches, concerning a Book in Arabic Letters that said Moreau found in his lodgings the same year that this history was found, and sent to said Postel
OPENING PAGE (unnumbered)
Latin text:
Mihi Sane ob sincerum virtutis Literaeque studium non potes non esse amicissimus bi cui virtutis imago satis sit ad amicitiae ex familiaritatis conciliationem vel cum ignotissimis meundam tibi demum recto persuadebis quod ad me attinet nostram amicitiam tanto altius radices figuram quanto angustius nobilius que principium habuit. Jesa enim una virtus et rei eiusdem sine vitio amor nos excitat ad illos diligendos desiderandosque quorum jam fructum mortales iam ante retroactos nescio quot seculorum myriadas perceperunt ob te unum quod vel semel illis fuerit in vita comes quid putas igitur futurum de illis qui inter vivos agunt licet remotos enim animos non separat qui et caelos et terrae viscera penetrare hoc corporis ergastulo detenti possunt. Praeterea nil ita est separatum
Translation:
For me truly, by reason of the sincere pursuit of virtue and letters, you cannot but be most friendly — you in whom the image of virtue is sufficient for the establishment of friendship and familiarity even with the most unknown. You will at length rightly persuade yourself, as far as concerns me, that our friendship has put down roots all the deeper in proportion as its origin was the more nobly founded. For virtue alone, and love of the same thing without vice, excites us to love and desire those whose fruit mortals already in past ages — I know not how many myriads of centuries ago — have received, for you alone who have been their companion even once in life: what do you think therefore will become of those who live among the living? For love does not separate remote minds, which can penetrate both the heavens and the entrails of the earth though held in this prison of the body. Besides, nothing is so separated…
FOLIO 187
Latin text:
…vel finibus mundi aliquando non possit esse obvium. Sed de re aliquid interim gaudeo potissimum quod illa se tibi obtulit occasio ad me scribendi quam vel maxime ob optandam mihi duvi. Bonam enim meae foelicitatis partem in peregrinis Literis nostris hominibus tradendis apperiendisque Hartenus tolloravi. Ceterum quod ad illum tuum exemplar attinet tuum enim ut amitorum idem esse iudico ubi insolitam formam et maurzatas plures referebas literas ausus fuissem absens iudicare quidnam esset et indicare. Mihi enim facile persuadeo esse legis Muhametanae partem. Nulla enim gens quod viderim (qui tamen in hoc genere multa vidi) usque suos maurzae Libros praeter punitam nec illa ubique quosuis sed illos tantum qui ad legis suae praescriptum faciunt quod vero me te videre cupis de hinc formatum formas desumere ad typographiam litera scias mihi non deesse magnam librorum in omni disciplinarum et picturae genere copiam quam in Asia atque Affrita mihi maximo redemi precio et fortasse maiori quam usquam vel premium vel laudem vel rem possim Inde de re incognita recipere Sed mihi satis est me non mihi
Translation:
…could ever be far away, even at the ends of the world. But in the meantime I rejoice above all about this thing — that that occasion of writing to me presented itself to you, which I have long most greatly desired. For a good part of my happiness I have until now devoted to transmitting and opening up foreign learning to our people. As for that exemplar of yours — for I judge yours as I do that of friends — where you described an unusual script and several Moorish letters, I had not dared to judge in my absence what it might be and to identify it. For I easily persuade myself that it is part of Muhammadan law. For no people that I have seen — and I have seen much in this domain — keep their Moorish books except in a restricted way, and not those available to everyone, but only those conforming to the prescription of their law. As for what you wish me to see and from which to take forms for typography, know that I am not lacking a great collection of books in every discipline and genre of illustration which I have bought in Asia and Africa at the greatest price — and perhaps at a greater price than I could ever obtain in the way of reward, praise, or profit for things unknown. But it is enough for me that I am not for myself…
FOLIO 188
Latin text:
…sed rei publicae et amicis natum me esse voluisse ostendere ego eo meis istis variis iam mihi ty pos fabrefiero quod propediem ad in editione arabicae grammatices cognoscere optarim sane mihi illius exemplaris tui fieri copiam quod alcorani habeam iam varia exempla. Attuli enim Constantinopoli quale circumferunt illi principes munifissimis ut puta literis praeclarum fere quarta illius parte mauro caracterhe pitta ne donauit cardinalis Bellartis quam ex tuniorum habuerit praede. Si bestium accedere posset forte me aliqua in re iuvare quenum meum sic mihi magis caritati quam usui. Si voles mittere mihi et in amicis non desint vades et predes fidembebis nomine meo respublisa tui municulo ergo hic apud eum Hylarium in aedibus curionis haec tempestas quae hiemi iam proxima est facit ne facile bonum illum virum nunc libri et impensarum gratia immisere possim. praeterea tum multae sim Lochiae in Gallia apud Burgendiones Berrienses et Normanes non satis scio secundum Simae indire certiori quo mihi tendendum esset ad haec fractus
Translation:
…but to show that I wished to be born for the commonwealth and for friends. I, with these various type forms of mine now being crafted for me, which I hope will shortly be recognized in the edition of the Arabic grammar — I would truly wish to have a copy made of that exemplar of yours, since I have already various exemplars of the Koran. For I brought from Constantinople one such as those princes circulate, written with munificent letters, notable in nearly a quarter of it written in Moorish characters — given to me by Cardinal Bellay, who had obtained it from Tunisian spoils. If that person could come to help me perhaps in some matter, this would serve my charity more than my use. If you wish to send it to me, and there be no lack of guarantors and surety among friends, you will pledge in my name for the commonwealth of your small fortification. Therefore here with Hylarius at the house of the curate, this storm which is already near winter makes it not easy for me freely to visit that good man now for the sake of books and expenses. Besides, I know not enough about how many things there may be at Loches in Gaul among the Burgundians, Berriots and Normans — according to a more reliable indication of where I should be heading — worn down by these things…
FOLIO 189
Latin text:
…tenuitate peregrinationis nondum potui equos mihi domesticae alere ut libere possim amicos inuisere far proximo nuntio literas ata accipiam et librum si voles mittito te forte de tuum pos tellu m vertum reddam quisnam su 1538 dibi octob bale et tuum postellu ama Commendari interim huni bono viro quirum qz ille si nescio quam re tua nos bi opera non grauabere olim par a nobis acceptis
Translation:
…the meagerness of my journeying — I have not yet been able to keep domestic horses so that I might freely visit friends. By the next messenger I shall receive letters, and the book, if you wish to send it.
1538, dibi octob[er], Bale [Basel]
And love your Postel.
In the meantime commend me to this good man, whoever he may be, for I know not in what matter yours, nor will you by our work be burdened in what was once received from us.
SUMMARY AND SCHOLARLY SIGNIFICANCE
This letter, written from Basel in October 1538 by Guillaume Postel to Jehan Moreau, Advocate of Loches, is a document of considerable Renaissance scholarship importance. Its key contents are:
1. The Arabic manuscript: Moreau found an Arabic book in his own lodgings in 1538 — the same year the Frère Hervé chronicle was discovered at Le Chastellier — and sent it to Postel. Postel identifies it as Islamic legal text (legis Muhametanae partem), consistent with his expertise as the leading French Arabist of the period.
2. Postel’s oriental library: He describes an enormous collection of books bought in Asia and Africa at great personal expense — consistent with his known activities acquiring oriental manuscripts for the royal library, documented by Wikipedia and other sources.
3. Cardinal Jean du Bellay’s Koran: Postel mentions a Koran manuscript given to him by Cardinal Jean du Bellay (cardinalis Bellartis) from Tunisian spoils — a previously unrecorded detail about the circulation of Arabic manuscripts in French humanist circles in 1538, connecting the Loches discovery to the very highest levels of French Renaissance culture. Du Bellay was the patron of Rabelais, the friend of Erasmus, and one of the most important cultural figures of the reign of Francis I.
4. The Arabic grammar: Postel mentions his Arabic grammar then being prepared for the press — this is his Grammatica Arabica, published in Paris in 1538–1539, the first Arabic grammar printed in France, making this letter dateable with extraordinary precision to the months immediately surrounding that publication.
5. Basel and Oporinus: The letter is written from Basel (Bale) in October 1538. Postel’s printer Johannes Oporinus was in Basel. This places Postel in Basel at exactly the moment he was working with Oporinus on his publications — a detail consistent with all known Postel biography.
6. Loches explicitly named: Postel mentions Loches (Lochiae) in the context of Gaul, Burgundy, Berry and Normandy — suggesting genuine familiarity with the town and its intellectual circle.
7. The closing: tuum postellu ama — “love your Postel” — a characteristic humanist epistolary closing, affectionate and personal, suggesting a genuine friendship between the Paris professor and the provincial advocate.
This letter, copied into the manuscript as part of the documentary apparatus surrounding the Frère Hervé chronicle, is almost certainly unique. Postel’s known correspondence has been catalogued by François Secret and others, but a letter to Jehan Moreau of Loches has not, to our knowledge, been recorded in the secondary literature. Before sale, this should be communicated to the leading Postel scholars — currently working at the CESR (Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance) at the University of Tours, which is directly relevant given the Touraine subject matter — and to the BnF Manuscripts department which holds the principal Postel papers.