Tres utile et compendieulx Traicte de l'art et science d'orthographie gallicane dedans lequel sont comprinses plusieurs choses necessaires, curieuses, nouvelles et dignes de scavoir non veues auparavant. Avec une petite introduction pour congnoistre a lire le chiffre

This compact treatise explores the art and science of French orthography as it stood in the late sixteenth century. Its author, a learned jurist, opens with a plea to restore the language’s original clarity after centuries of careless abbreviations and misguided spellings. The work surveys the alphabet, the role of vowels and consonants, and proposes a systematic way to eliminate the irregularities that have crept into printed and manuscript texts.

Written in the elegant, though occasionally convoluted, prose of its era, the guide doubles as a practical manual for teachers, scribes, and curious readers who wish to master correct spelling. It includes a brief introduction to reading numbers, a rarity in early linguistic manuals, and offers numerous examples that contrast flawed forms with the author’s suggested corrections. Listeners will gain a vivid sense of how language reform was imagined in a time when French was still forging its literary identity.