DES PERIERS, BONAVENTURE (c. 1500-1544), French author, was born of a noble family at Arnay-le-duc in Burgundy at the end of the 15th century. In 1533 or 1534 Des Periers visited Lyons, then the most enlightened town of France, and a refuge for many liberal scholars. He gave some assistance to Robert Olivetan and Lef evre d'Etaples in the preparation of the vernacular version of the Old Testament, and to Etienne Dolet in the Comrnentarii linguae latinae. In 1536 he put himself under the protection of Marguerite d'Angouleme, queen of Navarre, who made him her valet-de-chambre. He acted as the queen's secretary, and transcribed the Heptameron for her. It is prob able that his duties extended beyond those of a mere copyist, and some writers have gone so far as to say that the Heptameron was his work. The free discussions permitted at Marguerite's court encouraged a licence of thought as displeasing to the Cal vinists as to the Catholics. This free enquiry became scepticism in Bonaventure's Cymbalum Mundi . . . (1537), and the queen of Navarre disavowed the author, though she continued to help him privately until 1541. The book consisted of four dialogues in imitation of Lucian. Its allegorical form did not conceal its real meaning, and the Sorbonne secured the suppression of the edi tion (c. 1S38) before it was offered for sale. The book was re printed in Paris in the same year. It made many bitter enemies for the author. Henri Estienne called it detestable, and Etienne Pas quier said it deserved to be thrown into the fire with its author if he were still living. Des Periers prudently left Paris, and settled at Lyons, where in 1544 he put an end to his existence by falling on his sword. In 1544 his collected works were printed at Lyons. The volume, Recueil des oeuvres de feu Bonaventure des Periers, included his poems, which are of small merit, the Traite des quatre vertus cardinales apres Seneque, and a translation of the Lysis of Plato. In 15 58 appeared at Lyons the collection of stories and fables entitled the Nouvelles recreations et joyeux devis, the work on which his fame rests. Some of the tales are attributed to the editors, Nicholas Denisot and Jacques Pelletier, but their share is certainly limited to the later ones. The stories are models of simple, direct narration in the vigorous and picturesque French of the i6th century.
His Oeuvres francaises were published by Louis Lacour (Paris, 2 vols., 1856) . See also the preface to the Cymbalum Mundi . . (ed. F. Franck, 1874) ; A. Cheneviere, Bonaventure Desperiers, sa vie, ses poesies (1885) ; and P. Toldo, Contributo allo studio della novella francese del XV. e XVI. secolo (Rome, 1895).