In 1519 Guillaume Budé, "universally acclaimed as the greatest French humanist and recognised as the inspiration behind the Collège de France", offered a collection of apophthegms to Francis i.1 Mostly inspired by Plutarch, they had been translated into French by Budé who used them to demonstrate to the King the usefulness of letters and the lettered. Despite the perceived importance of the work, there has been little scholarly research into the different versions of the text. Interest has concentrated on the luxurious original manuscript preserved at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal. For a long time, it was thought to be the only text that could be attributed to Budé with a degree of certainty.2 However, Guy Gueudet has since discovered other manuscripts. One of these, the 'Colbert' copy, presents a short version of the text and is almost identical to the original copy.3 In contrast, seven others offer a much expanded version. Over twice the size of the original, they clearly all belong to the same family, though the Rouen manuscript seems to be an intermediary state. Though it is unclear whether the additional material can be attributed to Budé, all the copies were probably created prior to his death in 1540.4 1 "Unanimement salué comme le plus grand humaniste français, reconnu par l'histoire comme l'inspirateur du Collège de France": Marie-Madeleine de La Garanderie, 'Budé (Guillaume) (1468-1540)' , in Colette Nativel (ed.), Centuriae Latinae. Cent une figures humanistes de la Renaissance aux Lumières offertes à Jacques Chomarat (Geneva: Droz, 1997), p. 221. 2 Louis Delaruelle, Guillaume Budé. Les origines, les débuts, les idées maîtresses (Paris: Champion, 1907), Chapter vi : 'Le recueil d'apophtegmes offert à François Ier' , pp. 199-220. 3 There are a few variations, mainly orthographic, and some omissions. See Guy Gueudet, 'Guillaume Budé, parrain d'"Encyclopédie", ou le vrai texte de L'Institution du prince' , in Le Génie de la forme, mélanges de langue et littérature offerts à Jean Mourot, (Nancy: Presses universitaires de Nancy, 1982), pp. 87-96. 5 Budé is described as 'secretaire du roy' and 'maistre de sa librairie' , but not as 'maistre des requestes'. Budé was named 'maistre de la librairie' at the beginning of 1522 and became 'maistre des requestes' in August-a position he kept until his death. See Delaruelle, Guillaume Budé, p. 232.