SOURCE: Cherpack, Clifton. “Le Petit Jehan de Saintré: The Archetypal Background.” The Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 5, no. 2 (fall 1975): 243-52.

In the following essay, Cherpack evaluates the problem of unity in Little John of Saintré, averring that the archetypal stories at the core of the myths of Pygmalion and Prometheus inform the characterization and development of the work.

The reasons why Le Petit Jehan de Saintré is the most studied French work of its day are not hard to identify. Works of doubtful attribution which, at the same time, seem to be romans à clef are bound to attract the attention of historically oriented scholars, and much ink was spilled before it was decided that the work in question is, indeed, by Antoine de la Sale, composed around 1456, and that the lists of real persons to whom the text may refer defy further refinement or validation. Works that...