The origins of the “Lac de Sorbone” (P, XXXIII)

This article concerns the origins of the “Lac de Sorbone”, mentioned by Rabelais in Pantagruel, XXXIII. It is a question of a play on words between the Sorbonne and the Serbonis marsh in Egypt, which was affirmed for the first time in a letter from Guillaume Budé to Erasmus. The author suggests that by comparing the Sorbonne to the Serbonis marsh, Budé wanted to refer to a specific characteristic of the marsh.