Pierre Bersuire
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[[Image:Bersuire.JPG|thumb|left|Detail of Pierre Bersuire at work, from his translation of [[Titus Livius]], ''[[Ab urbe condita]]'', fourteenth century]]
{{French literature (small)}}
'''Pierre Bersuire''' (ca. [[1290]]-[[1362]]), also known as '''Pierre Bercheure''' and '''Pierre Berchoire''' (in [[Latin]], '''Petrus Berchorius''' or '''Petrus Bercorius'''), was a [[France|French]] author of the [[Middle Ages]]. A [[Rule of St. Benedict|Benedictine]], he was a [[translation|translator]], encyclopaedist, and the author of several works, including the ''Ovidius Moralizatus'' (''Ovide Moralise'') ([[1340]]), a work of [[mythography]]. The ''[[Gesta Romanorum]]'', a Latin collection of anecdotes and tales, is sometimes attributed to him.
Born at [[Saint-Pierre-du-Chemin]], in the area of [[Vendée]] in [[Poitou]], he entered monastic orders in his youth rather than take a university degree. He first became a [[Franciscans|Franciscan]] but subsequently joined the Order of St. Benedict at [[Maillezais Abbey]].
In [[1320]] he accompanied his abbot to [[Avignon]], at the time the seat of the [[papacy]]. He remained in Avignon for 12 years as a protégé of the papal vice-chancellor Cardinal [[Pierre des Prés]] (Peter de Pratis), [[bishop of Praeneste]]. He steadily accumulated offices of various monasteries and priories (he was not required to reside at any of them). He met [[Petrarch]] at Avignon; both men mention the other in terms of high praise.
In the 1340s, Bersuire became a student at the [[University of Paris]] and met Petrarch there again. The Italian poet was on an embassy to the French court. Bersuire translated into French Petrarch's reassembly (in Latin) of [[Livy|Livy's]] [[Ab Urbe condita (book)|history of Rome]]. This translation was performed at the command of [[John II of France]] in the 1350s. Around [[1400]], [[Pero López de Ayala]] later translated Livy's ''Decades'' (only books 1, 2 and 4) for [[Henry III of Castile]], working from a French version by Bersuire.[http://www.tinet.org/~apym/on-line/chronology/15.html] It was published at Paris in [[1514]] in three volumes.
Bersuire spent the last dozen years of his life as Prior of St. Eligius (Saint-Éloi) (from [[1354]]), on the [[Île de la Cité]], close to [[Notre Dame de Paris|Notre-Dame]].
==Works==
Bersuire was an eloquent preacher and a voluminous [[homily|homiletical]] writer. His most important work is the ''Repertorium morale'', for the use of preachers, a kind of Biblico-moral [[dictionary]], in which the principal words of [[Scripture]] are arranged alphabetically and moral reflections attached thereto.
It appeared some time before [[1355]] and was dedicated to Cardinal de Pratis. The ''Repertorium'' proved to be one of the most popular books of its kind and was frequently printed first at [[Cologne]] in 1477, and again at [[Nuremberg]] (1489), [[Lyon]] (1517), [[Paris]] (1521), [[Venice]] (1589), [[Antwerp]] (1609), etc.
Other works by Bersuire include:
*''Ovidius Moralizatus'' (''Ovide Moralisé''), a work of mythography completed in [[1340]]. In some way, Bersuire legitimized the pagan, classical work of [[Ovid]] by transforming it into a literature of "moralization". Bersuire's "moralization" of Ovid in turn influenced [[Geoffrey Chaucer]], who drew on many of its stories for his ''[[Canterbury Tales]]''.[http://www.chilit.org/Ruxin2.htm]
*''Reductorium morale'' to the Sacred Scriptures in thirty-four books, embracing all the books of the Bible, printed at [[Strasburg]] in 1474, [[Basle]] (1515), [[Lyon]] (1536).
*''Inductorium morale biblicum''; sixteen books on God and the world.
==Sources==
*[http://www.polybiblio.com/quaritch/C340.html Polybiblio: BERCHORIUS, Petrus. Liber bibliae moralis]
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02486c.htm Pierre Bersuire] at the [[Catholic Encyclopedia]]
{{Catholic}}
[[Category:1290 births|Bersuire, Pierre]]
[[Category:1362 deaths|Bersuire, Pierre]]
[[Category:French historians|Bersuire, Pierre]]
[[Category:Benedictines|Bersuire, Pierre]]
[[Category:Medieval historians|Bersuire, Pierre]]
[[Category:14th century French writers|Bersuire, Pierre]]
[[Category:Medieval French literature|Bersuire, Pierre]]
[[de:Petrus Berchorius]]
[[fr:Pierre Bersuire]]
[[sl:Pierre Bersuire]]