Guillaume de La Perrière

Guillaume de La Perrière (1499/1503 in Toulouse – 1565) was one of the earliest French writers of emblem books. His work is often associated with the French Renaissance. La Perrière chronicled events in his home city of Toulouse. His best known work is Le Théâtre des bons engins, published in Paris in 1539, and was edited in later editions, published in 1540 and 1585. More recently, La Perrière's Le miroir politique (1555) has received attention, thanks to the work of Michel Foucault. Foucault identifies the work of La Perriere as belonging to Early Modern France and foreshadowing discourses of governmentality.

Images from Le Théâtre des Bons Engins
Six pages from the 1545 edition.

Works

 * Le Theatre des bons engins, auquel sont contenus cent emblemes (Denis Janot, 1539)
 * "Les annalles de Foix" (Nicolas Vieillard, Toulouse, 1539)
 * Les Considerations des quatre mondes (Macé Bonhomme, 1552)
 * La Morosophie (Macé Bonhomme, 1553)
 * Le miroir politique, contenant diverses manieres de gouverner & policer les republiques, qui sont, & ont está par cy deuant: ocuure..., Paris: Pur V. Norment, & I. Bruneau; 1567.