Among the rest, I think there is not one of you who has not
read the Hundred Tales of Boccaccio, (11) lately translated from the
Italian into French. So highly were these thought of by King Francis,
first of that name, Monseigneur the Dauphin, (12) Madame the Dauphiness,
and Madame Margaret, that could Boccaccio have only heard them from the
place where he lay, the praise of such illustrious persons would have
raised him from the dead.
11 Margaret here alludes to the French translation of the
_Decameron_ made by her secretary, Anthony le Macon, and
first issued in Paris in 1545. Messrs. De Lincy and
Montaiglon accordingly think that the prologue of the
_Heptameron_ was written subsequently to that date; but M.
Dillaye states that Le Macon's translation was circulated at
Court in manuscript long before it was printed. This
contention is in some measure borne out by Le Macon's
dedication to Margaret, of which the more interesting
passages are given in the Appendix to this volume (A).
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