Editing Francis I of France (section)

===Man of letters===
Francis was also renowned as a [[man of letters]]. When he comes up in a conversation among characters in [[Baldassare Castiglione]]'s ''[[Book of the Courtier]]'', it is as the great hope to bring culture to the war-obsessed French nation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Castiglione |first=Baldassarre |url=https://archive.org/details/bookofcourtier0000cast_j3z8/mode/2up?q=magnifico |title=The book of the courtier |date=2003 |publisher=Mineola, N.Y. : Dover Publications |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-486-42702-7 |pages=56}}</ref> Not only did Francis support a number of major writers of the period, but he was also a poet himself, if not one of particular ability. Francis worked diligently at improving the royal library. He appointed the French humanist [[Guillaume Budé]] as chief librarian and began to expand the collection. Francis employed agents in Italy to look for rare books and manuscripts, just as he had agents looking for artworks. During his reign, the size of the library greatly increased. Not only did he expand the library, but there is also evidence<ref>{{Cite web |title=francis-i-prince-of-the-renaissance |url=https://malevus.com/francis-i-of-france/#francis-i-prince-of-the-renaissance |access-date=2 November 2024 |website=Malevus |date=22 December 2022 |language=en}}</ref> that he read the books he bought for it, a much rarer event in the royal annals. Francis set an important precedent by opening his library to scholars from around the world in order to facilitate the diffusion of knowledge.

In 1537, Francis signed the {{lang|fr|[[Ordonnance de Montpellier]]|italic=no}}, which decreed that his library be given a copy of every book to be sold in France. Francis's older sister, [[Marguerite de Navarre|Marguerite]], [[List of Navarrese monarchs|Queen of Navarre]], was an accomplished writer who produced the classic collection of short stories known as the ''[[Heptaméron]]''. Francis corresponded with the abbess and philosopher [[Claude de Bectoz]], of whose letters he was so fond that he would carry them around and show them to the ladies of his court.<ref>{{Cite book |title=A New Universal Biography: Forming the first volume of series III |last=Plats |first=John |year=1826 |publisher=Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper |page=301}}</ref> Together with his sister, he visited her in [[Saint-Honorat Abbey (Tarascon)|Tarascon]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Marguerite de Navarre: mother of the Renaissance |last1=Cholakian |first1=Patricia Francis |last2=Cholakian |first2=Rouben Charles |year=2006 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=0-231-13412-6 |page=49 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Faillon |first=Étienne-Michel |author-link=Étienne-Michel Faillon |date=1835 |title=Monumens de l'église de Sainte-Marthe à Tarascon, département des Bouches-du-Rhône |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oL0AAAAAcAAJ |language=French |location=Tarascon |publisher=Élisée Aubanel, Imprimeur-libraire|page=57}}</ref>