Jacques chiffoleau gilles de rais biography

Works of fiction featuring Gilles de Rais

Gilles de Rais, Joan of Arc's comrade-in-arms, Marshal of France and confessed child murderer, has inspired a number of artistic and cultural works.

As early as the 15th century, the character appeared in a mystery play and a prose poem. He then underwent a long eclipse in cultural representations, before folklore transfigured him into Bluebeard.

From the 19th century onwards, literature revived the character, and cinema followed with films dedicated to the Maid of Orléans. Finally, comics and anime illustrate contemporary visions of the Marshal de Rais.

Iconography

All effigies of Gilles de Rais are posthumous and imaginary.

An engraving purporting to represent him was published in 1731 in DomBernard de Montfaucon's Les monumens de la monarchie françoise, qui comprennent l'histoire de France, avec les figures de chaque règne que l'injure des tems a épargées. Captioned "Gilles de Laval", this equestrian figure reproduces a 15th-century miniature on parchment captioned simply "Laval", included in the Armorial [fr] of Gilles Le Bouvier [fr], herald of King Charles VII of France.

Whether in the fifteenth-century Laval illumination or the eighteenth-century engraved "Gilles de Laval" copy, the knight's facial features in armor are concealed by his closed helmet, while his shield and mount cover prominently display the arms of the Counts of Laval - not those of the Barons of Retz. Although Dom Bernard de Montfaucon believes he recognizes Rais in the illumination, the equestrian figure cannot be identified with certainty since it's an "abstract" representation of the Counts of Laval, a heraldic image rather than an individual portrait. Montfaucon's disputed identification was nonetheless later taken up by other authors, starting with Abbot Eugène Bossard [

Micrologus Nature, Sciences and Medieval Societies «Dicitur». I bianca All manuscripts, books and off-prints should be mailed to the SISMEL, Via Montebello 7 – I-50123 Firenze tel. +39.055.2048501/2049749 – fax +39.055.2302832 e-mail: segreteria.sismel@sismelfirenze.it / agostino.paravicini@unil.ch http://www.sismelfirenze.it Layout: Giorgio Grillo ORDERS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS SISMEL · EDIZIONI DEL GALLUZZO c.p. 90 I-50023 Tavarnuzze-Firenze phone +39.055.237.45.37 · fax +39.055.237.34.54 galluzzo@sismel.it · order@sismel.it www.sismel.it All articles of Micrologus are available online: www.mirabileweb.it «Micrologus» is indexed in ESCI Emerging Sources Citation Index (Web of Science, Clarivate). It is included in Scopus (Elsevier B. V.) and SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) Editor: Agostino Paravicini Bagliani (Firenze) © 2024 – SISMEL - EDIZIONI DEL GALLUZZO All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher iv TABLE OF CONTENTS vii Francesco Santi, Introduction «DICITUR». HEARSAY IN SCIENCE, MEMORY AND POETRY 3 Renzo Tosi, La diceria nei proverbi antichi (e moderni) 23 Bruna Pieri, «Ut fama est»: la voce del poeta tra diceria e asseverazione. Sondaggi nella letteratura latina antica e tardo antica 41 Jean-Yves Tilliette, La fortune littéraire du portrait de «Fama» par Virgile (Aen. 4, 173-190) jusqu’à la fin du Moyen Âge 65 Lucia Castaldi, La leggenda della dannazione di Carlo Martello e la sua attestazione all’interno di un ramo francese della Vita Gregorii di Giovanni Immonide 113 Roberto Gamberini, Diceria, testimonianza, percezione e rappresentazione della realtà in Rodolfo il Glabro 131 Jeroen Deploige, «Caculatores ac susurratores». Rumeurs, ragots et ouïdire dans l’hagiographie des abbaye

Economie et religion. L’expérience des ordres mendiants (XIVe - XVe siècle),

Implacable dans son refus de l'enrichissement et dans sa dénonciation du pouvoir de l'argent, Fra... more Implacable dans son refus de l'enrichissement et dans sa dénonciation du pouvoir de l'argent, François d'Assise a légué sur ce plan à ses frères en religion un message singulier et vivace. Bientôt, cependant, son ordre allait se rapprocher de beaucoup d'autres, aussi fondés au XIIIe siècle. Confondus sous le qualificatif générique de «Mendiants», quatre d'entre eux - les Dominicains, les Franciscains, les Carmes et les Ermites de saint Augustin - furent même officiellement désignés comme tels par les plus hautes instances de l'Église en 1274. Le mode de dépendance à l'égard des autres que la mendicité induit a fourni à ces ordres un principe identitaire fondamental, qui affleure dans leurs expériences concrètes comme dans leurs écrits. Demander en quêtant et recevoir de la main à la main l'aumône spontanée ou organisée en collecte, vivre au jour le jour en privilégiant, face à l'afflux des dons, l'usage immédiat des aumônes en nature et la vente des surplus et des biens immobiliers? Ces indices forts d'un choix de vie précaire et du rapport constant aux réalités du marché se combinent de manière fascinante dans les pratiques des ordres mendiants avec l'incitation à tester en faveur des frères, leur prévision réaliste des dépenses récurrentes, et finalement, le compromis accepté des rentes et du confort relatif qu'elles assurent, en phase avec une économie de l'Au-delà qui encourage les célébrations de messes anniversaires pour le salut des défunts. D'emblée, amis et parents, bienfaiteurs et protecteurs souvent haut placés ont été mis à contribution pour assurer aux couvents prioritairement établis en ville le nécessaire et davantage, et pour gérer leurs possessions. Par des ajustements calculés

Medieval French nobleman and convicted serial killer

"Gilles de Retz" redirects here. For the racehorse, see Gilles de Retz (horse).

Gilles de Rais, Baron de Rais (French:[ʒildəʁɛ]; c. 1405 – 26 October 1440) was a knight and lord from Brittany, Anjou and Poitou, a leader in the French army during the Hundred Years' War, and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known for his reputation and later conviction as a confessed serial killer of children.

An important lord as heir to some great noble lineages of western France, he rallied to the cause of King Charles VII of France and waged war against the English. In 1429, he formed an alliance with his cousin Georges de La Trémoille, the prominent Grand Chamberlain of France, and was appointed Marshal of France the same year, after the successful military campaigns alongside Joan of Arc, but little is known about the relationship between the two comrades in arms. He gradually withdrew from the war during the 1430s. His family accused him of squandering his patrimony by selling off his lands to the highest bidder to offset his lavish expenses, a profligacy that led to his being placed under interdict by Charles VII in July 1435. He assaulted a high-ranking cleric in the church of Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte before seizing the local castle in May 1440, thereby violating ecclesiastical immunities and undermining the majesty of his suzerain, John V, Duke of Brittany. Arrested on 15 September 1440 at his castle in Machecoul, he was brought to the Duchy of Brittany, an independent principality where he was tried in October 1440 by an ecclesiastical court assisted by the Inquisition for heresy, sodomy and the murder of "one hundred and forty or more children." At the same time, he was tried and condemned by the secular judges of the ducal court of justice to be hanged and burned at the stake for his act of force at Saint-Étienne-de-Mer-Morte, as well as for crimes committed agains