BCCCAP00000000000000000000835

292 IGNATIUS BRADY surname 4 • Such a decision rested on a single document of the year 1441, or rather on a synopsis thereof in which it is not absolutely clear that this was the form of the name in the original archival material5. Langlois is likely right, as far as modern spelling is concerned, though other forms have as equally solid a basis. In both contemporary and later documents the name assumes a variety of forms; and we may even venture to suggest that William himself used more than one form. To pinpoint his birthplace it will prove useful and even necessary to examine the question at length and discuss the various spellings. a) De Valle Rouillonis This is the first known form of the name, since it is used in a letter of Martin V (1428) granting William the right to precede another friar as sententiarius at Paris 6 • It is the form employed by George le Maalot, his disciple at Poitiers (Paris, B.N. lat. 6684, f.73r); and appears again in B.N. lat. 5657a (Chartularium Univ. Paris. IV, p.678 note) 6 a. Variants, some of which may be uneducated guesses on the part of scribes: de Valle Reullon (Chartularium IV, n.2330, p.485), de Valle Rullain (ibid., n.2347, p.498), de Valle Roulonis, Rulonis, Rullonis (all in Chartularium Univ. Paris.), Rellonis (Bullarium Fran– ciscanum, n.s. I, n.1810), Cellonis (ibid., II, n.120 and 774), Roullonis (n.937), Rollonis (n.1016), Rouillonie (B.N. fran9. 22327, p.154). b) Vaurouillon This is the French spelling closest to what seems to be the original Latin form used by William himself: de Valle Rouillonis. It appears in two documents of 1441. Since it is the form used by Francis I, count of Montfort, in granting William land for a hermitage 4 Charles-Victor LANGLOIS, Franr;ois de Meyronnes, Frere Mineur, in Hist.Litt.France 36(1924) 312 n.1: « Tel [G. de Vaurouillon] est le vrai nom de ce personnage, designe jusqu'ici comme 'G. de Vorillong', qui s'appelait en Iatin 'G. de Valle Rouillonis', et que !'on a recemment propose de nommer desormais 'G. de Vaurouaut' ... R. Blanchard a publie... ». s Rene BLANCHARD, Lettres et Mandements de Jean V Due de Bretagne (Archives de Bretagne, VIII), Nantes 1895, p.2, n° 2469. See below, note 60. a Bullariwn Franciscanum VIII, Romae 1904 n.1834, p.710b. Documentation for most examples offered here will appear in the course of this article. ea This is also the form used in cod. Rennes, Bibi. publ. 41, a fifteenth-century man– uscript of William's commentary on the Sentences. This interesting piece, which bears further study (discovered only after this article had been submitted to the editors), lacks the Paris principia and epilogue, and carries instead a new preface: « Dixit mihi amicus: Scriptum tuum super sententias aut corrige aut videas. Aut enim deffecisti scribendo aut homo ini– micus superseminavit zizania aut lolium. Et qui loquebatur erat sacre theologie doctor egre– gius, frater Petrus Benedicti, amicissimus ex veteri... » (fol. lv). At the end of this prologue the same hand adds: « Ponatur in principio lecture super Sententias Guillelmi de Valle Rouillonis » (fol. 3v). - Cf. [A. VETAULT], Manuscrits de la Bibliotheque de Rennes, in Catalo– gue general des mss. des bib/. publiques de France. Departments XXIV, 29.