Rabelais, François (c. 1483–1553) French satirist,
humanist, and physician
The son of a wealthy lawyer, Rabelais was born near Chi-
non. He may have studied law before entering the Church,
becoming a Franciscan novice at La Baumette, near
Angers, and subsequently moving to the convent of Puy-
St.-Martin at Fontenay-le-Comte, where he was ordained
priest. Suspected of heretical tendencies on account of his
study of Greek, he transferred to the Benedictine convent
of Maillezais (1524) and became secretary to Geoffroy
d’Estissac, bishop of Maillezais.
By 1530 Rabelais had abandoned religion for medi-
cine, which he studied at Montpellier; in 1532 he was ap-
pointed physician to the hospital of the Hôtel-Dieu in
Lyons. The same year saw the publication of his edition of
Hippocrates’ Aphorismes; the satirical Pantagruel, the first
novel of his GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUELcycle (which ap-
peared under the anagrammatic pseudonym Alcofribas
Nasier); and the Pantagruéline Prognostication, a parody of
the almanacs that were fashionable at the time. As physi-
cian to the brothers Jean and Guillaume du Bellay (see DU
BELLAY, JOACHIM), Rabelais accompanied the former on
diplomatic missions to Rome and the latter to Piedmont,
relinquishing his post at the Hôtel-Dieu. After the publi-
cation of Gargantua in 1534 he appears to have written
nothing until the Tiers Livre (1546), the third and finest
novel of the cycle, which was dedicated to MARGUERITE
DE NAVARRE. The Sorbonne’s condemnation of this work
on grounds of heresy forced Rabelais into temporary exile
at Metz; his Quart Livre, which first appeared in its en-
tirety in 1552, was also banned on publication. Rabelais
died in Paris, probably in 1553, having resigned his
benefices at Meudon and Jambet. The authenticity of the
Cinquième Livre, published posthumously in 1564, has
been disputed.
One of the most influential French writers of the Re-
naissance, Rabelais combined insight and imagination
with a talent for verbal invention that made a profound
impression on his contemporaries and has been a valuable
and lasting source of inspiration for subsequent satirists
and humorous writers in France and beyond.
Further reading: Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His
World, transl. Helene Iswolsky (Bloomington, Ind.: In-
diana University Press, 1984; repr. 1988); Jean-Claude
Carron (ed.), François Rabelais: Critical Assessments (Bal-
timore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995);
Michael A. Screech, Rabelais (London: Duckworth, 1979).racism The attitudes of early modern Europeans toward
the people of other races that they encountered during
their voyages of exploration were generally of a kind that
would now be considered blatantly racist. Expectations
of the strangeness of peoples living in distant climes were
fed by medieval yarns such as Sir John Mandeville’s Trav-
els, and xenophobia, particularly directed against non-
Christians, was fueled by the menace of Islam on Chris-
tendom’s eastern and southern flanks. The cruel and
treacherous “paynim” (literally, “pagan” but often used of
a Turk) was a commonplace villain in medieval romance
and Renaissance epic. SHAKESPEAREgives a nuanced pic-
ture of Renaissance racism in his portrayal of Venetian at-
titudes toward the Moor Othello; as a soldier Othello is
admired and necessary to the state but it is nonetheless a
matter for incredulity and revulsion that the white girl
Desdemona should love and marry him. Dark skin was
considered at best undesirable, at worst an indicator ofR i
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