ABSTRACT
Recounting preparations for a delicate meeting between a French delegation and the Ottomans in 1559, Jean Yversen notes that his superior, Ambassador La Vigne, did a fair amount of rewriting prior to the reception and negotiations. La Vigne, in anticipation of the mission, had been composing a message to the sultan, but upon receiving specific orders from King Henri II, he revised his original statement in order to reflect better the monarch's wishes for this particular assignment. This episode showcasing La Vigne as masterful editor and successful diplomat is included in the lengthy and undated 'travel journa' written by Jean Yversen in the later part of his life, long after his return to France. Jean Yversen was first posted in Ragusa, a city that in the early modern period enjoyed a special and privileged status. As troubles in Gaillac subsided in the 1570s, Yversen went much further than using a competence acquired abroad: he embarked on a vast program of self-refashioning.
