User:Jahsonic/Dubious anecdotes: Suetonius, Brantome and Tallemant  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

Writers and chroniclers such as Suetonius and Brantôme are generally held to be unreliable. However, their anecdotal history tends to give an accurate picture of the cultural climate.

"Chief among these writers is Gideon Tallement des Reaux ( 1619-1692) whose Historiettes is of the first importance for a knowledge of the manners and morals of the time. What Brantome was to the age of Francis I, Tallement is for that of Henry IV and Louis XIII. While Brantome is lengthy and detailed, the later writer is brief, succinct, and hence pleasant to read. --The Erotic History of France

"It was not until the eighteenth century that Brantome's reputation, one of not very high order, was established. His writings are regarded, above all, as a collection of dubious anecdotes. From him the chroniclers of scandalous stories, the Tallemants des Réaux and the Bussy-Rabutins, are descended." --Catholic Encyclopedia

See also

• Anecdotes Historiques et Litteraires racontées par L'Etoile, Brantôme, Tallement des Réaux, Saint-Simon, Bachaumont, Grimm, etc, published by L. Hachette, 1858
• The Love-Affairs of the Condés (1530 - 1740) (1912)
• Scandals of the Medici
• Table talk literature
• Vita sexualis