Marc Lescarbot - Early Career

Early Career

After graduating as a Bachelor of Laws in 1598, he took a minor part in the negotiations for the Treaty of Vervins between Spain and France. At a moment when the discussions seemed doomed to failure, Lescarbot delivered a Latin discours in defence of peace. when the treaty was concluded, he composed a "Harangue d’action de grâces", wrote a commemorative inscription, and published Poèmes de la Paix.

In 1599 he was called to the Parlement of Paris as a lawyer. He also translated into French three Latin works: le Discours de l’origine des Russiens and the Discours véritable de la réunion des églises by Cardinal Baronius, and the Guide des curés by St. Charles Borromeo, which he dedicated to the new bishop of Laon, Godefroy de Billy. It was published in 1613, after that dignitary's death.

Lescarbot lived in Paris, where he associated with men of letters, such as the scholars Frederic and Claude Morel, his first printers, and the poet Guillaume Colletet, who wrote a biography of him, since lost. Interested in medicine, Lescarbot translated into French a pamphlet by Dr. Citois, Histoire merveilleuse de l’abstinence triennale d’une fille de Confolens (1602). But he also travelled and maintained contact with his native region, where he had relatives and friends, such as the poets the Laroque brothers, and where he attracted law clients.