« Qu’un fol enseigne bien un saige » Folie et ironie dans le Tiers livre de Pantagruel

Starting with a eulogy to debt, the duel of ironists between Panurge and Pantagruel is crucial for the concerns of the Third Book and, by extension, indicates the intentions of a text dedicated to the power of language. This article aims to elucidate, by way of the notion of madness—an important concept for renaissance epistemology—the stakes and significance of this duel, in particular in the passage from fabula to the argumentum which seems fundamental for this third chronicle.