Nicolas de Clamanges (also spelled Clémanges, Clemangis, or Clemangiis), in both his writings and his political career, promoted the study and imitation of classical Roman and Greek authors in their original form—bypassing the medieval commentators—as models for understanding and enriching both secular and Christian life. Because of such figures as Clamanges, scholars have come to realize that the cultural renewal known as the Renaissance flourished in France well before the sixteenth century, thus bringing the French into more favorable chronological proximity to the Italian-based humanist movement of the fourteenth century. While several of Clamanges's contemporaries may be judged equal or superior to him in certain areas—such as polemical effectiveness, textual criticism, and philology, or Latin literary style—none achieved his scope and eloquence in political tracts, devotional works and commentary, letters, and poetry. His long lifetime encompassed the political and spiritual upheaval wrought...