best-known text on astrology from classical antiquity,
Ptolemy’s Quadripartitum.
John appears to have ventured also into the fi eld of
medicine, for he is credited with a translation of the
medical portion of Pseudo-Aristotle’s Secret of Secrets,
On the Regimen of Health, and Qusta ibn L ̄aq ̄a’s On
the Difference between the Spirit and the Soul. These
medical texts are the only works that put their author
into a historical context, since the fi rst is dedicated
to a queen of Spain with the initial T.—often identi-
fi ed with Tharasia, daughter of Alfonso VI of Castile
and León, who married Henry of Burgundy, count of
Portugal (1057–1114), and the second is dedicated to
Raymond, archbishop of Toledo (1125–1152), and
thereby is the earliest text to have some connection
with the cathedral.
John’s astrological translations are pedantically
literal, suggesting that Arabic may have been his fi rst
language. The medical translations are more fl uent, and
the excerpt from the Secret of Secrets is preceded by a
preface in which the translator justifi es departing from
the literal sense of the original. Both the astrological
and the medical texts remained popular throughout the
Middle Ages and several of the astrological texts, includ-
ing the Epitome, were printed in the Renaissance.
Further Reading
Lemay, R. Ab ̄u Mashar and Latin Aristotelianism in the Twelfth
Century. Beirut, 1962.
Thorndike, L. “John of Seville.” Speculum 34 (1959): 20–38.
Charles Burnett
JOHN, DUKE OF BERRY
(1340–1416)
The son of John II the Good of France and Bonne de
Luxembourg, John was born in the castle of Vincennes
on November 30, 1340. His father named him count
of Poitou in 1356, but when this territory was ceded
to England by the treaty of 1360 John became duke of
Berry and Auvergne. During the years 1360–64, he was
one of the hostages sent to England after the release of
his father from captivity.
In 1369, John was charged with guarding the western
frontier to keep the English contained within Poitou, and
his brother Charles V reassigned him this county as an
incentive to recover it from the English. His ineptitude
at military strategy soon became clear. In 1374, Charles
V’s attitude toward John changed, perhaps because of
a distaste for his private life. In October, when arrang-
ing for the succession, Charles V ordered that John not
be one of his son’s guardians if the dauphin, the future
Charles VI, should succeed to the throne as a minor. De-
spite some rapprochement between the brothers in 1375
and 1376, John never regained Charles’s full confi dence.
With the accession of Charles VI in 1380, however,
John was offi cially accorded a place in the government
and began to act as mediator between his two surviving
brothers, the dukes of Anjou and Burgundy.
In November 1380, John was named royal lieuten-
ant-general in Languedoc, where his offi cers and his
policies soon made him unpopular. He rarely visited
the Midi personally, and his lack of direct involvement
produced near-anarchy in the province. When the king
resolved to go to the south in person in 1389, John
resigned his lieutenancy. The details of John’s political
behavior, especially in the years following the assas-
sination of his nephew Louis of Orléans in 1407, show
him to have been unethical, unreliable, and selfi sh.
Despite this evidence, contemporaries viewed him as
gregarious, eloquent, and philanthropic. He did show
both consistency and determination in his ecclesiasti-
cal policy, being the French prince most committed to
ending the papal Schism.
After April 1404, as the king’s sole surviving pa-
ternal uncle, John enjoyed a prestigious position and
important role at court, serving as mediator between the
Burgundian and Armagnac parties, particularly after the
murder of the duke of Orléans. He was married twice:
in 1360 to Jeanne d’Armagnac and, after her death, inJOHN, DUKE OF BERRYJean de Cambrai (fl. 1397–1438). John, Duke of Berry,
life-size statue. © Erich Lessing/Art Resource, New York.