Page "Charles V of France" Paragraph 28

Of great importance to Charles V's cultural program was his vast library, housed in his expanded Louvre, and described in great detail by the 19th century French historian Leopold Delisle.

Containing over 1, 200 volumes it was symbolic of the authority and magnificence of the royal person, but also of his concern with government for the common good.

Charles was concerned to possess copies of works in French, in order that his councellors had access to them.

Perhaps the most significant works commissioned for the library were those of Nicole Oresme, who translated Aristotle's Politics, Ethics and Economics into eloquent French for the first time ( an earlier attempt had been made at the Politics, but the manuscript is now lost ).

If the Politics and Economics served as a manual for government, then the Ethics advised the king on how to be a good man.