Abstract: With an intertextual lens, this first comprehensive study of the epigraphs in the Chronique du règne de Charles IX explores the paradigmatic debate between the novel and the texts quoted in the exergue, which sheds light on the internal struggles in the literary field of the time. From a paratextual point of view, syntagmatic analysis of the relationship between the epigraph and the text reveals Mérimée's intuition about the new possibilities offered by the protean genre of the novel of his time.
