The Merrie Tales of Jacques Tournebroche by Anatole France

IN the days of King Louis XI there lived at Paris, in a matted chamber, a citizen dame called Violante, who was comely and well-liking in all her person. She had so bright a face that Master Jacques Tribouillard, doctor in law and a renowned cosmographer, who was often a visitor at her house, was used to tell her:

"Seeing you, madame, I deem credible and even hold it proven, what Cucurbitus Piger lays down in one of his scholia on Strabo, to wit, that the famous city and university of Paris was of old known by the name of Lutetia or Leucecia, or some such like word coming from _Leuke_, that is to say, 'the white,' forasmuch as the ladies of the same had bosoms white as snow, -- yet not so clear and bright and white as is your own, madame."