L’ Histoire du grand empereur Tamerlanes de Jean du Bec (1595) entre fausse biographie et vraie épopée

Abstract This article identifies the heterogeneous corpus that Jean du Bec mobilized for the writing of his fictional biography of Tamerlane and explains the roles he attributed to his character. Far from seeking to construct a faithful portrait of the “Tartar” sovereign, the author delivers political and military advices to French nobility in the midst of religious wars. As such, this novel demonstrates the strategies for mobilizing knowledge about the Orient in France at the end of the 16th century.