Author Description

Pierre Boaistuau's 1560 Histoires prodigieuses inaugurated the popular genre of illustrated books on monsters and prodigies. While claiming to instruct and edify, the work is as much concerned with entertaining through tales from Satan's deceits and the deaths of powerful people to sea monsters and love. A recently discovered manuscript has finally made possible this much-awaited critical edition, with extensive bibliography and copious notes that trace the author's efforts to demonstrate his own erudition and knowledge. French text.