Thomas Billon (
fl. 1617–1647) was a celebrated French anagrammatist.
In 17th-century Europe,
anagrams were a literary passion.[1][2] In
France, the
Bourbon king
Louis XIII appointed Billon, a
Provençal, to the position of Royal Anagrammatist.[3][4] His responsibilities at court were the composition of anagrammatic
prophecies, and of amusing or mystical anagrams of people's names.[5][6] These included numerous anagrams in
French and
Latin on Louis's
royal style ("Louys tresiesme de bourbon roy de France et de Navarre")[4][7] and various other anagrams and
poems glorifying Louis and
Anne of Austria, past
kings of France, popes, emperors, and nearly all the Christian saints.[8][9][10]
Billon served as Royal Anagrammatist from 1624 to 1631, and again from 1640 to 1647,[11] and received a pension of 1200
livres.[2][3]
^
abMoustalon, M. (1810). Le lycée de la jeunesse, ou Les études réparées. Vol. 2 (3rd ed.). Paris, France: Lebel et Guitel. p. 384.
^
abRichelet, Pierre, ed. (1735). "Anagrammatiste". Dictionnaire de la langue françoise, ancienne et moderne (New ed.). Basel, Switzerland: Jean Brandmuller.
^
abBryson, David M. (1999). Queen Jeanne and the Promised Land: Dynasty, Homeland, Religion and Violence in Sixteenth-century France. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill. p. 226.
ISBN90-04-11378-9.
^Otiosus (1824).
"Leisure Hours, No. III: Anagrammatism". In Timbs, John (ed.). The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Vol. 3. J. Limbird. Retrieved October 26, 2014.