World geography, historical time, and political vision: Disseminating Orosius’ knowledge at the beginning of the <i>Volume d’Orose</i> (1491)

Abstract In 1491, the author of the Volume d’Orose presented his text as a translation of Orosius’ Historiae. But he was reworking another text: the first French-written universal history, the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, which already offered an initial reception of Orosius. My paper aims to study how, in the first part of his work, he modifies the text of the Histoire ancienne by referring to the Historiae, in particular in his long description of the world, his evocation of the plagues of Egypt, and his choice of division of historical time, from the six ages to the theory of the four kingdoms. As far as their insertion is concerned, he seems to have been inspired by Orosius. But the specificity of his approach is that he is rediscovering Orosius’ text without translating it. These are thus very particular modes of indirect reception.