Pierre Moreau de Loches, Frère Hervé de la Queue, Guillaume Postel — Unique Renaissance Manuscript Miscellany, Loches 1538, Regional Chronicle, Important Postel Letter, French Poetic Grammar
Unique manuscript miscellany in French and Latin, over 200 pages on paper in a contemporary vellum binding, in-folio, excellent condition throughout. Four distinct works produced within a single humanist circle at Loches, Touraine, circa 1538 — one of the most remarkable provincial intellectual communities of Renaissance France, connecting a regional chronicler, a polymath advocate, a Benedictine abbot, the greatest French orientalist of the age, and a cardinal patron of Rabelais, all within a single manuscript that was never printed and has never been published.
THE CHRONICLE
The principal text is a regional history of the Loire valley attributed to Frère Hervé de la Queue, a Dominican friar, in 18 chapters. Its scope is far wider than its title suggests: opening with Julius Caesar’s crossing of the Alps and his peaceful reception by the Allobroges, the text traces the foundation of Lyon by the Prince of Vienne, the subjugation of the peoples of Gaul down to the Loire, the origins of local place names including Ville Louppe (modern Villeloin, on the Indre near Loches), the annals of Amboise, Loches, Beaulieu, Blois, and Châteaudun, the Hun invasion of 451 and Saint Aignan’s miraculous defense of Orléans — with the striking annotation that the name France itself derives from Attila’s conquests, a humanist etymological theory seriously debated in the period — through to Pope Urban II’s preaching of the First Crusade at Clermont in 1096 and the taking of the cross by Loire valley lords including Hue de Chaumont and Haymen de Chinoy in the church of Saint Martin de Meremonstrée. Frère Hervé writes throughout in the first person, drawing on things seen with his own eyes, heard with his own ears, and gathered from various writings, closing modestly: selon mon petit engin je l’ay assez convenablement ordonné — according to my small wit I have arranged it sufficiently.
The manuscript carries extensive scholarly annotations in several hands and inks — systematic historical indexing identifying persons, dates, place names, and etymologies, consistent with sustained learned engagement by multiple readers across multiple generations from the moment of copying onward.
THE DISCOVERY AND THE LOCHOIS CIRCLE
A detailed prefatory note — Advertissement aux lecteurs en quel temps et Lieu et par qui fut trouvee et transcripte premierement ceste Histoire de Frere Herui de La queue Jacobin — explains the text’s origin with unusual precision. An old parchment book, its cover entirely worm-eaten, was found at the castle of Le Chastellier and given by the noble Jacques Lemargnay, Seigneur de la Tourmelière, to Maître Jehan Moreau, Advocat de Loches, who recognized that it contained antiquities of Touraine and surrounding regions worthy of being known to many, and had a copy made in 1538. The text claims a 12th-century original — a claim noted and scrutinized in later annotations, consistent with the humanist practice of asserting medieval antiquity to lend authority to regional chronicles.
In the same year, Moreau made a second remarkable discovery: an Arabic manuscript found in his own lodgings, which he sent to Guillaume Postel for identification.
THE POSTEL LETTER
The manuscript’s most extraordinary component is a Latin letter — 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 — written from Basel in October 1538 and closing with the personal subscription tuum postellu ama — “love your Postel.”
Guillaume Postel (1510–1581) was professor at the Collège Royal, the first holder of the chair of Arabic in Europe, orientalist, mathematician, cosmographer, Christian Kabbalist, and one of the towering figures of French Renaissance learning. His letter to Moreau, running to several pages of densely written humanist Latin, is a document of exceptional scholarly significance. In it Postel:
- Identifies Moreau’s Arabic manuscript as Islamic legal text (legis Muhametanae partem), drawing on his unrivalled expertise as the leading French Arabist of the period
- Describes his own vast collection of oriental manuscripts acquired in Asia and Africa at great personal expense — consistent with his known role acquiring eastern manuscripts for the royal library
- Mentions a Koran manuscript given to him by Cardinal Jean du Bellay — patron of Rabelais, intimate of Erasmus, ambassador of Francis I, and one of the greatest cultural figures of the French Renaissance — which the Cardinal had obtained from Tunisian spoils
- Describes his Arabic grammar then being prepared for the press — the Grammatica Arabica of 1538–1539, the first Arabic grammar printed in France — placing the letter with extraordinary precision in October 1538 when Postel was in Basel with his printer Johannes Oporinus
- Opens with a sustained meditation on humanist friendship transcending distance — the body as ergastulum(prison), the soul penetrating both heavens and earth — characteristic of Postel’s known philosophical register
- Explicitly names Loches (Lochiae) in the context of the regions of Gaul, attesting genuine familiarity with the town and its intellectual circle
- Closes warmly and personally — tuum postellu ama — suggesting a genuine friendship between the Paris professor and the provincial advocate
THE GRAMMAIRE GALLIQUE
Following the chronicle and the Postel letter, the manuscript contains a fourth work: Apographe ou Extrait de la Grammaire Gallique de Jan Moreau de Loches demonstrant la maniere de composer Vers François les quantitez des Syllabes obseruees — a treatise by Jehan Moreau himself on the application of classical quantitative meters to the French language, with:
- Dedicatory verses from Moreau to the Reverend Abbot of Beaulieu-lès-Loches — the very Benedictine abbey whose chronicles appear in the Frère Hervé text and one of the subjects of the regional chronicle
- The Abbot’s verse Response praising Moreau’s enterprise and encouraging him to continue despite those who dismiss vernacular versification as humble work
- A Corollaire de l’autheur addressing the reader, arguing that quantitative French verse is neither impossible nor too difficult
- Worked examples including an Exastiche ou Sixain Elegique Gallique, a prophetic verse opening Le siecle doré s’approche: les brebis / Un pastre auront seul: toutes en Union, and a French rendering of the opening of Virgil’s first Eclogue: Tityre tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi rendered as Titire, toy patieux couchant sous abry de fouteau / Sauvage chansonnette en tenure recordes avoine
This work places Moreau squarely within the most important intellectual debate of French Renaissance literature — the application of classical meters to the vernacular — more than a decade before the Pléiade’s Défense et Illustration de la Langue Française of 1549. Moreau was a provincial pioneer of what would become the defining poetic movement of French Renaissance culture, working in direct correspondence with the Abbot of one of the Loire valley’s oldest Benedictine foundations.
THE CIVIC DONATION
A presentation colophon dated 1604 records the manuscript’s subsequent history: acquired at the Feast of Saint Michel at Loches — the annual Michaelmas fair — by Michel Bastard, purchased from Pierre Moreau of Loches (almost certainly a descendant of Jehan Moreau, the 1538 copyist and grammarian), and by him formally offered to the Royale République Lochoise — the royal civic commonwealth of Loches, République here in its classical humanist sense of res publica, the community as a whole — praying Monsieur Pierre Daloneau, Lieutenant General at Loches, to keep and communicate it until the first opportunity of printing. That publication never came. The colophon is a formal act of civic donation: a private citizen entrusting his community’s intellectual heritage to its institutions at the annual town fair, for safekeeping and eventual publication. Dalomeau, untraced in published sources, may be known only from this colophon.
PROVENANCE
Later owned by Claude Aubron (d. 1839), chief clerk in the Département des titres et généalogies at the Bibliothèque Royale in Paris under René François Pierres (known as Delacour), whose classification work laid the foundation for what became the Cabinet des titres. Aubron’s career spanned the final years of the Ancien Régime (1763) and the Revolution: his department was suppressed in 1792 with the abolition of the nobility; his director, Le Fèvre d’Ormesson, was arrested and executed in 1793. Aubron survived, retired into private life, and continued building his library — a quiet survivor of one of the most violent episodes in French cultural history, whose lifelong immersion in French genealogical and historical records made his ownership of a Loire valley chronicle of claimed medieval origin entirely natural. His library of 1,721 lots was sold at the Maison Silvestre, Paris, 16–30 November 1840, where this manuscript appeared as lot 890, described as Histoire écrite par frère Hervé de la Queue, jacobin, trouvée près Loches, l’an 1538 — manuscrit du xvie siècle, in-fol., vél.
“890. Histoire écrite par frère Hervé de la Queue, jacobin, trouvée près Loches, l’an 1538, en laquelle, sous ombre des antiquités d’Amboise, Loches, Beaulieu, Blois, Chateaudun, y a un ample discours sur les annales de France et d’Anjou; manuscrit du xvi siècle, in-fol., vél.
(J. Moreau, avocat de Loches, copia ce livre, en 1538, sur un manuscrit plus ancien).”
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Over 200 pages on paper. Contemporary vellum binding, spine lettered in ink. Text block in excellent condition throughout with minor age toning consistent with a manuscript of this date. Ruled pages. Multiple annotating hands in ink throughout the chronicle section; one later hand in pencil. Folio format.
“This copy was acquired at the Feast of Saint Michel at Loches, 1504, by Michel Bastard, purchased from Pierre Moreau of Loches, and by him given and offered to the Royal republic Lochois, his sacred patrie, praying Monsieur Pierre Dalomeau (Dalomian?), Lieutenant General at Loches, to keep and communicate it until the first opportunity of printing.”
Bias
Omnia quae dixi mecum porto, videtur
sapientem, non habuisse Bias.
Pro mortuo epitaphium
quid fuit, est et erit? si quis vult dicere, dicam:
spuma fuit, fumus est, putrefiet humus.
Translation
Bias
“All that I have said, I carry with me,” it seems—
the wise man Bias possessed nothing.
Epitaph for the dead
What was he, is he, and will he be? If anyone wishes to say it, I will say it:
He was foam, he is smoke, he will decay into earth.
Histoire de Frere Hervé de la Queue Jacobin, trouvé pres Loches l’an
M.D.XXXVIII.
En laquelle sont contenues des antiquités
d’Amboise, Loches, Beaulieu, Blois, Cangy,
Chatauden etc. y a un ample discours
sur les annales de France et d’Amien.
History of Brother Hervé de la Queue, a Jacobin, found at Loches in the year 1538.
In which are contained the antiquities of Amboise, Loches, Beaulieu, Blois, Cangy, Châteaudun, etc., and in which there is an ample discourse on the annals of France and of Amiens.
To René Rocher,
a gift from Gobreau,
vicar ordinary of Loches,
1740.
Dedicatory sonnet
of this old historian newly discovered
To the learned Dalonéans and their four noble brothers,
To all magistrates and citizens of Loches,
Indeed to all natives of Touraine and good Frenchmen,
By the great Henry IV, returned from miseries,
This work is dedicated, wherein are many histories
And accounts, in a brief style conforming to Aquinas.
For its themes (according to common understanding and voice)
By divine testimony are of ancient brethren,
Heroic, in shadow, both
of Amboise and of Loches,
And other such captains and faithful men,
Setting forth this collection of histories and deeds,
Above all of the holy prelate of Touraine, Gregory,
Who founded and caused to be engraved, preserving memory
Of our kings, so that nothing should be lacking.
Gobreau addition
Of the town, castle, and royal seat of Loches.
The town of Loches, situated in Touraine on the river Indre, is a place belonging to the ancient patrimony of the first counts of Anjou; the castle served as their residence, the keep as its guard, and the lodging for their prisoners, where all their dignities were once seen.
Now the castle is so spacious in its site, so remarkable in beauty, so pleasant in its situation, and so strong in its defenses, that it has scarcely its equal in the whole kingdom. Artifice and nature together have given this fortress the reputation of being one of the strongest, finest, and best positions in France.
It was held in such esteem during the height and authority of the English among us, as if it had belonged to England itself, for fear of harm, sheltered alike from the blows of the sky and the violence of the earth. The king of England himself, to whose fortune even impossible things were for a time made possible, admitted and confessed frankly that it was impregnable. It stands upon the summit of a high rock; its ditches fall steeply on all sides, and especially on one side where the mountain of Vignemont, which formerly lay contiguous to it, is now removed at a distance of about three hundred paces in length and twenty in width. Its defenses consist of several large towers and bastions.
Dedication
Dedicatory Epistle
To the most noble and most puissant lady, my Lady Jeanne d’Amboise, lady of Renel and of Tifauges, Brother Hervé de la Queue, of the Order and convent of the Friars Preachers of Paris, humbly presents his recommendation to you, wishing that the grace in this world and glory in the next may increase the nobility of your lineage and the devotion which you bear toward the religion of Saint Dominic, desiring that I might, in the service of the said Friars, be able to do something that might please you. Thus, I, your humble friar and obedient servant, most devoted, and because I have understood that you desireto have in French the lineage of the lords of Amboise, and from what time and by which lords and by what merits they were received into this land, I have undertaken to compose and present this present book, divided into sixteen principal chapters (There are actually eighteen chapters), of which the first principally treats of the foundation of the château of Amboise and contains eleven sections.
Discovery
At the castle called Le Chastellier was found an old book written on parchment whose cover was entirely worm-eaten, which by the noble Jacques Lemargnay, Seigneur de la Tourmelière, was given to Master Jehan Moreau, Advocate of Loches, who seeing that it contained many antiquities of Touraine and surrounding regions worthy of being known (which are unknown to many) had a copy made of said book in the year 1538, in which copy no alteration has been made except in the spelling of certain French words which are now written and pronounced differently, though several have been left as written as they were found in said book, and to more easily find the things contained in said book a table has been made which follows.
The Chronicle
Chapitre Premier Opens with Julius Caesar crossing the Alps into Gaul, received peacefully by the Allobroges (now Maurienne and the region to the Saône). Then moves to Lyon, where the Prince of Vienne subjugated all peoples from the Rhône down to the Loire — at that time no castles existed, only earthworks, towers and ditches — and there he found a people called the Auvergnats.
Le Dixhvictiesme Chapitre The heading of chapter 18: contient le voyage d’oultre mer avec tout plain d’aultres choses et contient quatres Parties. — Contains the voyage overseas with much else and contains four Parts.
Opens dramatically: L’an de Grace mil quatre vingt seize Urban ce Pape vint en France et tint concile general en Auvergne avec moult de evesques et d’Abbes de France… — In the year of Grace 1096 Pope Urban came to France and held a general council in Auvergne with many bishops and abbots of France, and preached the word of God, showing the great lords the great suffering of Christians overseas. Many great lords wept and asked leave to take the cross. Among the nobles were Hue de Chaumont and Haymen de Chinoy — both Loire valley lords — who took the cross in the presence of the Pope in the church of Saint Martin de Meremonstrée.
The marginalia
The manuscript is a richly layered historical and genealogical compilation centered on Touraine, particularly Loches and Amboise, and attributed to Frère Hervé de la Queue, a Dominican of Paris. Composed in the sixteenth century and later copied in 1604, the text combines lineage, local antiquities, and legendary historical narrative. It reflects a distinctly early modern antiquarian impulse: to construct a continuous and dignified past for a noble house—here the Amboise family—by weaving together feudal memory, regional topography, and episodes drawn from both history and tradition.
Yet the manuscript’s significance lies not only in its original text but in the visible record of its readership over time, preserved in numerous annotations and inscriptions in different hands. These marginalia transform the volume from a static historical account into a dynamic object of study, revealing successive layers of interpretation.
Several annotations, written in a firm and darker hand, attempt to clarify and correct the narrative historically. These include chronological notes referencing figures such as King Henry I and episodes involving the Huns, often accompanied by precise—if not always accurate—dates. Such interventions suggest a reader concerned with reconciling the manuscript’s semi-legendary material with a more structured historical framework, indicative of a developing critical approach to history in the seventeenth century.
Other marginal notes, in a lighter and more cursive hand, provide learned commentary of an ethnographic or antiquarian nature, linking peoples such as the Huns to broader historical categories like the Scythians or Tartars. These reflect an effort to situate the text within a wider intellectual tradition, drawing on classical and early modern historical knowledge. In contrast, brief annotations identifying places—such as the note locating Montrichard in Touraine—demonstrate a more practical engagement, grounding the narrative in recognizable geography.
The manuscript also contains personal and ownership inscriptions in distinct hands, further attesting to its circulation. The note “don de Gobreau,” identifying a vicar of Loches, and the presentation inscription to René Rocher (1740)indicate ecclesiastical ownership and transmission. A separate inscription dated 1744 naming Gobreau, prior of Saint-Laurent de Loches, reinforces this clerical provenance. Additionally, later scribbles and signatures—some bold and ornamental, others hurried—suggest continued handling, perhaps in a monastic or scholarly setting, where the manuscript remained an object of reference rather than mere preservation.
Notably, the closing pages include annotations in yet another hand, possibly earlier, that comment directly on the act of copying and transmission, including references to the 1604 copy and later additions. These remarks underscore the manuscript’s identity as a copied and recopied text, shaped not only by its original author but by those who preserved, annotated, and reinterpreted it.
Taken together, the presence of multiple hands—differing in ink, script, and intent—reveals a continuum of readership extending across at least two centuries. Each reader approached the manuscript differently: some as historians seeking accuracy, others as scholars contextualizing its content, and still others as custodians marking ownership and transmission. The result is a document that embodies not only the historical imagination of its original composition but also the evolving intellectual engagement of its readers. It stands as both a regional chronicle and a witness to the ongoing process by which historical texts were read, corrected, and understood in early modern France.
Epitaph….
(name partly obscured by heavy penwork)
Of the Austrian princes, here lies the last,
Too late for his honor, too soon for his family.
While awaiting an heir,
This prince found it better to leave to his daughter
An inheritance in the air, rights that are disputed.
A husband stripped of the goods of his ancestors,
Of a hundred brilliant titles, the pompous smoke,
Without money, without counsel, without friends, without an army.
early pencil note erroneously stating: “copie faite en 1604 d’un manuscrit de 1158 environ, XIIᵉ siècle,” indicating the text was believed to derive from a 12th-century source
Contemporary vellum binding stiffened with printer’s waste from a Lyon legal text, circa 1490–1530, probably a commentary on the Digest or the Speculum Iudiciale of Guillaume Durantis — consistent with the professional library of Jehan Moreau, Advocate of Loches, in whose household the binding was almost certainly made.
The collector Claude Aubron fits into the history of the Royal Library during the French Revolution, at the departmental level rather than the directorial one — he was not running the library but working within one of its specialized departments, genealogy. His career maps onto the Revolutionary period as follows:
He worked as chief clerk under Delacour in the Département des titres et généalogies, which had been reinstated in 1763. This means his active career at the library ran through the administrations of Le Noir (1784–89) and Le Fèvre d’Ormesson (1789–92) — the last two directors before the Terror. He would have been a working employee of the library during the opening years of the Revolution, watching the successive upheavals in the directorship from below.
Then in 1792, when Le Fèvre d’Ormesson was still director and before his arrest and execution, the abolition of the nobility brought the direct suppression of Aubron’s own department. His institutional career ended not by the guillotine but by decree — the very subject matter of his department, the genealogical records of the French nobility, was rendered politically toxic overnight.
What makes his story particularly poignant is the fate of those around him. His director Le Fèvre d’Ormesson was executed in October 1793. His department’s collections were barricaded behind a pile of chairs to protect them from destruction. Aubron himself survived, retired into private life, and spent the remaining decades of his long life building the private library that came to sale in 1840 — including, as lot 890, this manuscript. He died the year the library’s governance was finally restabilized under a single administrator, having outlived the entire Revolutionary generation of his colleagues.
He is, in short, together with this manuscript, a quiet survivor of one of the most violent episodes in French cultural history — a man who spent his career organizing the records of a nobility that was abolished, and then spent his retirement collecting the kind of regional historical manuscript that his suppressed department had been designed to preserve.
Guillaume Postel letter to Pierre Moreau
Apographe ou Extrait de la Grammaire Gallique de Ian Moreau Lochois