Thomas Billon

Thomas Billon (fl. 1617–1647) was a celebrated French anagrammatist.

Title page for Billon's 1617 pamphlet Les presages du bon-heur du roy, et de la France.

In 17th-century Europe, anagrams were a literary passion.[1][2] In France, the Bourbon king Louis XIII appointed Billon, a Provençal, to the position of Royal Anagrammatist.[3][4] His responsibilities at court were the composition of anagrammatic prophecies, and of amusing or mystical anagrams of people's names.[5][6] These included numerous anagrams in French and Latin on Louis's royal style ("Louys tresiesme de bourbon roy de France et de Navarre")[4][7] and various other anagrams and poems glorifying Louis and Anne of Austria, past kings of France, popes, emperors, and nearly all the Christian saints.[8][9][10]

Billon served as Royal Anagrammatist from 1624 to 1631, and again from 1640 to 1647,[11] and received a pension of 1200 livres.[2][3]

Bibliography
  • Billon, Thomas (1617). Les presages du bon-heur du roy, et de la France. Paris: A. Savgrain.
  • Billon, Thomas (1624). Sibylla gallica, anagrammaticis magna praedicens oraculis.

References
  1. Dobson, William T. (1882). Poetical Ingenuities and Eccentricities. England.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. Moustalon, M. (1810). Le lycée de la jeunesse, ou Les études réparées. Vol. 2 (3rd ed.). Paris, France: Lebel et Guitel. p. 384.
  3. Richelet, Pierre, ed. (1735). "Anagrammatiste". Dictionnaire de la langue françoise, ancienne et moderne (New ed.). Basel, Switzerland: Jean Brandmuller.
  4. Bryson, David M. (1999). Queen Jeanne and the Promised Land: Dynasty, Homeland, Religion and Violence in Sixteenth-century France. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill. p. 226. ISBN 90-04-11378-9.
  5. Burstein, Dan (2004). Secrets of the Code. CDS Books. ISBN 9781593150228.
  6. Otiosus (1824). "Leisure Hours, No. III: Anagrammatism". In Timbs, John (ed.). The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Vol. 3. J. Limbird. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  7. Billon, Thomas (1617). Les presages du bon-heur du roy, et de la France. Paris: A. Savgrain.
  8. Billon, Thomas (1624). Sibylla gallica, anagrammaticis magna praedicens oraculis.
  9. Martin, Henri-Jean (1996). The French Book: Religion, Absolutism and Readership, 1585–1715. Translated by Paul Saenger; Nadine Saenger. Baltimore, Maryland, US: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 92–93. ISBN 0-8018-5179-3.
  10. Société rouennaise de bibliophiles (1883). Publications, Vol. 21–22, p. xvi.
  11. Catin, Paul (1912). État de la maison du roi Louis XIII. Paris: Eugène Griselle. p. 109.
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