Aspects linguistiques de l’humanisme aux XIVe et XVe siècles : les constructions infinitives en moyen français et en moyen-haut allemand (Denis Foulechat et Niclas von Wyle)

This paper is meant to present a thorought description of the infinitive clauses in the Middle French translation of Denis Foulechat (Le Policratique, 1372) and to examine most precisely how the translator reacts to the Latin text (John of Salisbury's Policraticus, 1159). The syntactic comparison with a humanistic text written in another language (the translations of Niclas von Wyle) should throw a new light on the influence of Latin syntax. Denis Foulechat and Niclas von Wyle obviously occupy a particular place in the history of medieval humanism : both carried as far as they could the adaptation of the Latin infinitive clause to the syntactic system of their languages.