The Ballade des pendus — Facsimile of the Pierre Levet Edition (1489)

This page is a facsimile of the first printed edition of the works of François Villon, published in Paris in 1489 by the printer Pierre Levet. It reproduces the celebrated Ballade des pendus, also known as the Épitaphe Villon, composed by the poet around 1462 while he awaited execution. Written in Middle French, the poem addresses passersby from the gibbet, inviting the living not to despise the condemned and to recognise their shared humanity. Considered one of the masterworks of medieval French poetry, the Ballade des pendus embodies the lucidity of the condemned before death, the power of the vernacular tongue, and the tragic consciousness of an author who had himself experienced the prisons of the kingdom. This edition by Pierre Levet represents the first printed testimony of Villon's work, inaugurating its transmission within French literate culture.