Thomas Billon

In 17th-century Europe, anagrams were a literary passion.

[1][2] In France, the Bourbon king Louis XIII appointed Billon, a Provençal, to the position of Royal Anagrammatist.

[3][4] His responsibilities at court were the composition of anagrammatic prophecies, and of amusing or mystical anagrams of people's names.

[5][6] These included numerous anagrams in French and Latin on Louis's royal style ("Louys tresiesme de bourbon roy de France et de Navarre")[4][7] and various other anagrams and poems glorifying Louis and Anne of Austria, past kings of France, popes, emperors, and nearly all the Christian saints.

[8][9][10] Billon served as Royal Anagrammatist from 1624 to 1631, and again from 1640 to 1647,[11] and received a pension of 1200 livres.