BONET, HONORÉ. - French Benedictine who lived in the second half of the 14th century and is generally known under the name of "prieur de Salon," from the name of an abbey in the Basses-Alpes.
Author of a work of popularization on the subject of military tactics entitled Arbre des batailles, not without 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 severity and harshness, he is better known, however, for his last work, the Apparicion maistre Jehan de Meun, an original construction in verse with short prose passages interspersed, which reveals him as an ardent admirer of the Roman de la Rose, and through which, a prudent censor animated by a lively humanitarian spirit, he intended to contribute to remedying the moral disorder of the age. Criticism is unanimous in granting him 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