Stunning 1582 Secretary Script Middle French Financial Document Mentioning Jacques Bellot

On offer is a fabulous document from the late 1500s in France. The document is titled Contract de Consultation or Annuity Agreement and is dated 1582.
An excerpt from the document follows:

... Contract de Consutation de quinze livres de rente [] hypotheque a l'un reparthe Sieur [] sur Simon Morin

[Translation: …Contract of fifteen pounds annuity [] mortgage [between or on] the one hand Sieur [] [and] on [the other hand] Simon Morin].

The document is written in middle French and uses a script that appears very much as ‘Secretary’ script which had been in wide use in France at that time. For these reasons, we have not been able to translate the document. However, there are several tantalizing hints within it.

The document was found with other documents from Normandy, including from around the area of the city of Caen. And, in the last sentence, the name of Jacques Bellot is mentioned. This is important because Jacques Bellot came from the Caen region and lived there in 1582. And Jacques Bellot was an important writer and teacher. Years earlier, he had fled the religious persecutions of France for England. There, he taught French to English speakers, and wrote and published a number of pedagogical language texts. However, unlike other contemporary immigrant language teachers in London, Bellot also taught English to the French refugee community in London.

Bellot’s Familiar Dialogues catered to the immediate language needs of refugees and dealt with everyday interactions. This was very different from other works and in fact anticipated the refugee phrasebooks of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Accompanying the document is a smaller list of surnames that appears to have been written much later. Included on the list is the name “Bellot”. To be clear, these are very circumstantial pieces of evidence. The document however, is beautiful.

For a historian, there is a likely a wealth of information contained within about the manner in which agreements were struck. Framed, it would look magnificent on a wall.

This document measures approximately 13.25 inches by 11.25 inches. It is made from vellum. Other than a small notation on the reverse, it is written on one side only. For its age, it is in excellent condition. There is some staining due to its age. The document was folded into thirds and the notation on the reverse appears to be the title of the document. There are a few small holes as a result of wear marks at corner folds.