Facetious Sayings and Subtle Words of Certain Excellent Wits and Very Noble Lords
Domenichi, Lodovico, 1515-1564Project Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023
Rating 3.0- Word count
- 222K words
- Chapters
- 23
Tags
Motivation and Growth Portrait GalleryLight ReadingHumor ReliefShort StoriesSatirical StyleEclectic ReadingExotic CultureRenaissanceFolk LegendSummary
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Facecies et motz subtilz, d'aucuns excellens esprits et tresnobles seigneursAuthor: Domenichi, Lodovico, 1515-1564,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: May 7, 2008Editor's review
This collection of French jokes and witticisms compiled by the sixteenth-century Italian humanist Domenichi is an important window into Renaissance European court culture and urban humor. It gathers witty replies, puns, and satirical short pieces attributed to "excellent talents and noble lords," offering both indirect remonstrance to the powerful and humorous observations of daily life. As a free electronic edition from Project Gutenberg, it gives modern readers low-cost access to this rare early French text. Readers should note that the language bears early modern French spelling and syntax and that some humor depends on the context and allusions of the time; using notes or an introduction is recommended. It suits readers interested in Renaissance literature, the history of the French language, and European traditions of humor, and also serves as primary material for comparative literature or historical linguistics research.Who it's for
A good fit for
- Scholars and students studying Renaissance European literature and court culture
- Readers interested in the history of the French language and the evolution of early modern French texts
- General readers who enjoy short jokes, witticism collections, and satirical literature
- Interdisciplinary researchers who need primary sources for comparative study of humor traditions
Not a good fit for
- Beginner readers expecting modern fluent French or a Chinese translation
- Those impatient with sixteenth-century historical background and allusions and seeking immediate utility
Reading tips
- Read the preface or introduction first to learn about Domenichi's life and the compiling tradition of Renaissance joke collections.
- While reading piece by piece, note unfamiliar allusions and archaic words and consult a historical French dictionary.
- Choose short pieces and read a few each day to avoid fatigue from the linguistic distance.
- Read alongside contemporary Italian joke collections to appreciate the transmission of humor across the Alps.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
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FAQ
Is this book in French or Italian?
According to Project Gutenberg metadata, the book's language is labeled French. Although the author Domenichi was Italian, this edition is presented in French and belongs to the French literature classification PQ. Readers need some ability to read French.What language foundation is needed to read this book?
The text is sixteenth-century French, and its spelling and syntax differ considerably from modern standard French. Upper-intermediate or advanced French reading ability is recommended, or at least the ability to grasp the general meaning with a dictionary and notes. Complete beginners will find it difficult.Is this book suitable for learning modern French?
Not very suitable. The language is early modern French, with spelling, vocabulary, and grammar significantly distant from modern French; as modern French learning material it can cause confusion. It is better suited as supplementary reading for language history or literary research.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Domenichi, Lodovico, 1515-1564 Author · Italian · 1515–1564Lodovico Domenichi (1515–1564) was an Italian humanist, translator, and publisher active in Florence. Public information about his life is limited, yet his cultural identity is clear: he moved within the literary networks of late Renaissance Italy and worked as a translator and publisher, making classical and humanist works available to readers of his time. The library holds his Facecies et motz subtilz, d'aucuns excellens esprits et tresnobles seigneurs, a collection of witty sayings and amusing anecdotes that reflects his interest in humor, cleverness, and human conduct. Such material circulated widely in early modern Europe, offering both entertainment and practical wisdom, and is therefore commonly classified under inspirational growth.