Background
Laurent was born in Premierfait, a small village near Troyes.
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Laurent Premierfait
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To judge from the uses made of Du cas des nobles hommes et femmes in England, and the sheer number of surviving manuscripts of it (sixty-five in a 1955 count), it was extremely popular in Western Europe throughout the fifteenth century. Laurent made two translations of the Boccaccio work, the second considerably more free. A large percentage of surviving manuscripts are carefully written and illuminated with illustrations.
He lived at the papal court at Avignon for a while and came shoulder-to-shoulder with other humanists while being employed by the Papal Court.
Laurent was well known for translating,, and Livy. He was also the first French translator of "s works.
Laurent worked as well for Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, Jean Chanteprime, contrôleur général des finances, and for king Charles VI. He made a living as a translator for such nobles as Louis de Bourbon, Bishop of Liège and the great collector-connoisseur, Jean, Duke of Berry, both being relatives to Charles VI. Jacques Monfrin states that Laurent"s translations were not done for the general public but more for wealthy aristocratic patrons. He died probably in Paris of the Black Death that wiped out about half of the European population recurring repeatedly from the mid fourteenth century.
There is a possibility however that he was murdered in the struggles of the Armagnac and Bourguignon political factions which had followed the Battle of Agincourt of 1415 and divided France.
A portrait of Laurent, considered to be an authentic representation, figures among the illuminations in the manuscript of Du cas des nobles hommes et femmes that was dedicated to the duc de Berry and has come with the former royal library to the Bibliothèque Nationale.
