The Return of Martin Guerre

Davis gives the reader a detailed description of Jean de Coras in this chapter. She also mentions Guillaume Le Sueur, the writer of Historia, or the “Admirable History of the Pseudo-Martin of Toulouse.” Very little is known about Le Sueur, but Davis asserts that he had ambitions as a lawyer and a writer.

Jean de Coras, on the other hand, was somewhat well-known during his lifetime, so quite a bit of his biography has been recorded. He was a prodigy, “interpreting the civil law from a podium in Toulouse” (96) from the age of thirteen. After studying law and winning accolades for his academic work, he enjoyed a celebrated career as a university lecturer. Coras also had direct experience with the law. When his mother died, she left Coras everything, but his father did not allow Coras full access to the goods and property. Coras sued his father, and his inheritance was validated, though his father was given access to all goods and property until he died.

Coras was a popular instructor of civil law, and he was also known as a competent writer of “Latin commentaries on the Roman law” (97). He married and had a daughter and a son, and then, after he lost his first wife, he remarried.