Regimes of Historicity and Regimes of Authority in Guillaume Cretin’s Chronique française

Abstract This article focuses on the five books of the Chronique française that Guillaume Cretin successively presented to King Francis I, in the form of richly ornate manuscripts, between 1515 and 1525 (Paris, BnF, MSS fr. 2817 to 2822). Through an analysis of the structure of the books, it first examines how the historical narrative moves from a regime of historicity essentially based on continuity between the origins of the French monarchy and the present day, to a mainly mythical regime of historicity in which the kings and queens represented functions like mirrors for the prince. The latter regime of historicity is based on a biblical typology in which events and characters echo and illuminate each other. Second, through a more detailed study of the paratext (whether attributable to Cretin or not), the text’s thresholds, and the paintings adorning the royal manuscripts, the article argues that this change in the regime of historicity is accompanied by a change in the regime of authority over the work, the figure of the royal patron being gradually replaced by the one of the historiographer, whose judgments and even life structure the narrative.