AMYOT, JACQUES

Bishop of Auxerre, one of the four great French prose stylists of the 16th century; b. Melun, France, Oct. 30, 1513; d. Auxerre, Feb. 6, 1593. His parents, it seems, were of some means, and he studied at the Collège de France, graduating at age 19 more as the result of hard work than brilliance. He was at Bourges from 1534 to 1547, teaching Greek and Latin. Francis I, to whom he dedicated his first works, conferred on him the abbey of Bellozane-en-Bray on March 18, 1547 (N.S.; 1546 O.S.). It is not known when or where he was ordained. He was in Rome (1550–51) and performed a diplomatic mission of a few days to the Council of Trent before he became tutor to the sons of Henry II. Charles IX made him grand chaplain of France on Dec. 6, 1560, an office he held until Henry IV deposed him in 1590. He received other royal favors from Charles, including the See of Auxerre in 1570. In 1578 Henry III made him grand chaplain of the Order of the Holy Spirit. Charges that he held Protestant beliefs have not been established. His literary work consists mostly of translations: Histoire aethiopique d'Heliodorus (1547), Sept livres des histoires de Diodore Sicilien (1554), Amours pastorales de Daphnis et Chloé (1559), and Plutarch's Lives and Morals (1559, 1565, 1579), the translation of which by Sir Thomas North in 1579 was used by Shakespeare. Amyot's translations are quite free and contain errors, but it seems that he used the Greek rather than Latin or Italian translations available. The works became very popular and exerted an influence on French moral thought and literary style for some time. Amyot wrote several original works, including prayers before and after Holy Communion, published after his death.

Bibliography: r. sturel, Jacques Amyot: Traducteur des Vies parallèles de Plutarque (Paris 1908). c. urbain and M. citoleux, Dictionnaire de biographie française (paris 1929) 2:751–761.

[d. r. penn]