Subject: Le bout de lan de Mr. Gautier

From: "Stewart McCoy" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2015 22:19:57 +0100

Martin,

Le bout de lan literally means the end of the year. There is an apostrophe 
missing - it would be Le bout de l'an in modern French.

Stewart.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Antony M Eastwell
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2015 9:32 PM
To: Baroque Lute List
Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Le bout de lan de Mr. Gautier

Dear All,

I’m wondering about the meaning of this title. Could anybody whose French is 
better than my 30 year old schoolboy Franglais, enlighten me?

With many thanks in advance

Martin

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From: "Jean-Marie Poirier" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2015 23:55:15 +0200

Exactly Stewart. It is the end of a year of mourning actually. "Bout de l'an" was a religious service for the anniversary of someone's demise.
In the dictionary by Nicot, Thresor de la langue française (1606), we find this definition : "Faire le bout de l'an, ou l'anniversaire, Feralia vel parentalia annua celebrare." which means (my translation) "annual celebration of a burial or funerals"

Best wishes,

Jean-Marie

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