François Rabelais [fʁɑ̃.swa ʁa.blɛ] (c. 1494, perhaps 1483, in La Devinière near Chinon, Touraine; † April 9, 1553, in Paris) was a French Renaissance writer, humanist, Roman Catholic friar and secular priest, practicing physician, and lecturer. He is one of the most important prose writers in French literature; of his works, the novel cycle Gargantua and Pantagruel is most well-known.
Rabelais began his novitiate as a religious priest in the Franciscan monastery of La Baumette, Couvent des Cordeliers de la Baumette, near Angers. He received his sacraments of ordination around 1511. In 1520, he is documented as a religious priest in the Couvent des Puy-Saint-Martin in Fontenay-le-Comte (Vendée department).[5] Here, through an older confrere, he came into contact with the humanism radiating from Italy and began to learn ancient Greek.
From 1528 onwards, he was in Paris, presumably after stops at the universities of Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Orléans. He appears to have assumed the status of diocesan priest, which gave him greater freedom to continue his medical studies and cultivate scholarly contacts. His marriage to a widow produced two illegitimate children, François and Junine. This did not keep him in Paris; rather, in September 1530, he enrolled at the famous medical school in Montpellier, where Rabelais earned a baccalaureate degree on November 1.
In the summer of 1532, Rabelais lived in Lyon, where he practiced medicine and published various scholarly works with the printer and publisher Sebastian Gryphius. He also wrote a novel, which was also published in Lyon at the end of 1532: The Horrible and Poisonous Things Made and Proud of the Very Renowned Pantagruel, King of Dipsodes, Son of the Great Gargantua. Composed Newly by Master Alcofrybas Nasier. The title alone made the work recognizable as a parody, especially of the chivalric romance genre.
The Very Excellent and Entertaining History of François Rabelais – Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGbh2q1lohE
When the Quart livre was published in its entirety in early 1552, now in Paris, the attitude of the rulers changed. The king and the pope had come to an agreement; criticism of the latter was no longer welcome. Accordingly, the Sorbonne did not hesitate to condemn the book. Subsequently, the Paris Parliament also banned the work. It did not help that Cardinal Odet de Châtillon had previously accepted Rabelais’s dedication. The ban did not diminish the book’s success. However, at the beginning of 1553, Rabelais himself had to give up a benefice in Meudon near Paris and another in the diocese of Le Mans, which he had received through Jean du Bellay. Nothing more is known of him after this. However, he was apparently still working on a further volume until shortly before his death in April 1553. This volume was completed by an unknown hand, presumably at the instigation of his printer. It was published in 1563 under the title “Le cinquième livre” and was included in the complete editions of the cycle, which began publication shortly after the author’s death and continued to appear with great regularity.
The very excellent and entertaining story of François Rabelais – Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-7nRjqe-dQ
The François Rabelais University of Tours[14] (French: Université François Rabelais de Tours or simply Université de Tours) is a public university in the French city of Tours and was named after François Rabelais after its founding on March 27, 1969. A plant genus, Rabelaisia Planch, in the rue family (Rutaceae), is also named after Rabelais.