He was a prolific author in prose and verse, and composed a number of hagiographies of women saints, reworkings of fables, and allegories.
He was, by his own admission, del ordre de freres menours ("of the order of the Friars Minor"),[3] and probably associated with the Nottingham friary, since he refers in his own writings to the Trent and Derwent rivers, and linguistic evidence from the occasional English proverb or word also points to that area.
[4] In the allegorical poem "Char d'orgueil" he specifically calls himself ordeynours, probably indicating the privilege of granting absolution, a privilege (normally reserved for bishops) that had been granted to the Franciscan friars of Nottingham; Bozon's use of the term indicates "a friar who had full authority to hear confession and administer absolution".
His most famous work, the aptly titled Contes moralisés ("Moralising Tales"), probably composed sometime after 1320, is a collection of exempla, probably for use in sermons.
Though Nicholas wrote in Anglo-Norman, he occasionally finished his fables with a proverb in Middle English,[9] such as his version of the fox who attempts to catch an animal by making it believe the reflection of the moon in a well is a cheese.