BONET, HONORÉ. — French Benedictine who lived in the second half of the 14th century and is generally known by the name “prieur de Salon,” after an abbey in the Basses-Alpes.
Author of a work of vernacularization on military tactics entitled Arbre des batailles, not lacking a certain human interest, and of the Somnium super materia scismatis (composed ca. 1394), a polemical work in Latin prose in which he proposes methods to be adopted in order to put an end to the schism without, however, resorting to rigor and harshness, he is better known for his final work, the Apparicion maistre Jehan de Meun, an original construction in verse with brief prose passages interspersed, which reveals him as an ardent admirer of the Roman de la Rose, and through which, as a prudent censor animated by a lively humanitarian spirit, he intended to help remedy the moral disorder of the age. Critics are unanimous in recognizing him as holding a notable place among the thinkers and writers of his time.
BIB.: N. Valois, Un ouvrage inédit de H. B., prieur de Salon, in Annuaire-Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de France, 27 (1890), p. 139 ff.; id., H. B., prieur de Salon, in Bibl. de l'Ec. des Hautes Etudes, 52 (1891), pp. 265–68; W. Koch, s. V. in L'ThK, II, col. 449; I. Arnold, L'Apparicion maistre Jehan de Meua et Samnium super materia scismatis (texts and extensive introductory study), Paris 1926. Jole Scudieri Ruggieri