La «Vie de Demetrius» (ms. BN Fr. 1395) come primo nucleo della traduzione delle “Vite parallele” di Amyot

The rediscovery of ancient biography as a literary genre and the diffusion of the model of the Parallel Lives of Plutarch in France take place, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, mainly thanks to the great project of Francis I, aimed at the translation of the entire Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, which will end with the translation of Jacques Amyot in 1559. This study focuses on the comparative analysis of some anonymous and undated manuscripts, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and containing French translations of some Plutarch’s lives preceding Amyot’s work. This analysis made it possible to formulate the hypothesis, supported by scientific data, according to which only the Vie de Demetrius can be attributed with certainty to Jacques Amyot, while the other translations would belong to different authors. The Vie de Demetrius could therefore represent a first version and the first nucleus from which the overall project, leading to the imposing work published by Jacques Amyot, could be developed.