I have just put my “history of Brittany” in digital format for less than $5. You can get it on Amazon. https://www.amazon.fr/History-Brittany-Breton-Celtic-English-ebook/dp/B0BN27VZBZ/
This ebook has a strange history. Over twenty years ago, I wrote a History of Brittany in English for a Belfast’s publisher. The book was entitled “The sons of the Ermine”. The Irish publisher warned me: the book must be readable for people who do not know the history of France. So, I had to find original correspondences to Breton events. At the beginning of each chapter, I recalled the highpoints, in Western Europe and on the other continents. Our king Nominoë was living at the time of the first king of the Basques, Eneko Arista. Duchess Anne was living at the time of Christopher Columbus, Caesar Borgia, the Turkish expansion in Central Europe.
My book was subsequently translated into French for a Breton publisher and the title was “Les Cent Vies de l’Hermine”, the Hundred Lives of the Ermine. Then, for a second Breton publisher, the book was reworked and published under the title “Histoire de Bretagne, le point de vue breton”. The aim of the Irish edition, written in English, was to make Breton history understandable for people who are not familiar with the French culture. The Breton edition, translated into French, then back into English, added a disturbing truth: an historian is always from somewhere. His origin, his education, his social status, his hierarchical position ascribes him a point of view, partly conscious, partly unconscious, whatever evidence and prestigious archives he uses. An history of France written by using English archives, will be different from our usual “Histoire de France”
My “History of Brittany” is the result of a double translation, first from English to French, then from French to English. My aim, with this little book which is now in a digital form, is to fit my strange Breton community in human history.
