How Panurge covered himself in Hibernian saffron or the last word of Rabelais’s Quart livre

“It is saffron of Hibernia!” To interpret Panurge’s expression at the end of the Quart livre, it is necessary to explore the knowledge about saffron in Rabelais’s time. According to the botanist Jacques Daleschamps, there is an excellent saffron plant in Hibernia. But, since antiquity, all scholars have recognized this spice’s contradictory virtues: from then on, Panurge’s formula appears as much a Promethean exaltation as a simple deception on the part of its speaker.