CHARTIER, ALAIN. - Canon of Notre-Dame from 1420; loyal subject and secretary of the dauphin and later King Carlo VII; he lived in a truly difficult period for his country (c. 1385-1430).
He wrote extensively, in Latin and French: La belle dame sans merci, a poem in octosyllabics, won him renown as a polished erotic and chivalric poet; but he revealed himself above all as an eloquent political writer and fervent patriot in the Quadrilogue invectif (1422), which enjoyed wide circulation and deserved success. Some time before his death he had the good fortune to greet in Giovanna d'Arco the inspirer of the future resurgence (Lettre sur Jeanne d'Arc adressée à l'empereur Sigismond, 1429).
BIBL.: A. Duchesne, Les oeuvres de maistre A. C., Paris 1617. Cf. A. Thomas, A. C. chanoine de Paris, in Romania, 33 (1904), pp. 387-402. P. Champion, Histoire poétique du XVᵉ siècle, I, Paris 1923, pp. 1-165. Further bibliographical references on A. C. are found in the edition of the Quadrilogue invectif edited by E. Droz, Paris 1923. Ruggero M. Ruggieri