AMYOT, Jacques

(1513-1593)

Jacques Amyot was a French humanist, bishop, and scholar famous for his translation of classical texts, most notably Plutarch's Lives,or Les vies des hom­mes illustres. Amyot was born of humble parentage in Melun, France, and was educated at the University of Paris and at Bourges. An excellent scholar, he studied Greek with the humanists Danes and Toussain. Marguerite de Navarre* assisted him in becoming a professor of Latin and Greek at Bourges, where he taught for about six years.

Amyot first came to the attention of Francois I* when he translated Heliodorus's Aethiopica in 1547. As a reward for his accomplishment, Amyot was given the abbey of Bellozane and was commissioned to complete his translation of Plutarch's Lives, which he did in 1559. While Amyot was in Italy, where he studied for the next four years at the libraries of St. Mark and the Vatican, he rediscovered and later translated lost books of Diodorus Siculus. Amyot is also known for playing a small role in the Council of Trent, an ecumenical council convened from 1545 to 1563 with the purpose of reforming the Catholic church. Upon his return to France, Amyot was appointed tutor in 1554 to the sons of Henri II, later Charles IX and Henri III. Upon his ascension in 1560, one of Charles IX's first acts as king was to confer upon Amyot the position of grand almoner, a high dignitary of the church responsible for the clergy attached to the court and for supervising charitable works. Amyot became bishop of Auxerre in 1570, where he remained until his death in 1593. Under the reign of Henri III, Amyot was appointed commander of the Order of the Holy Spirit, an honor usually reserved for members of the nobility. These positions offered Amyot the opportunity to devote himself to classical literature. Through his translations, Amyot made the words of the ancients remarkably accessible to his contem­poraries. Also regarded as an elegant stylist, Amyot is equally recognized for increasing the versatility of the French language.

Amyot's Lives was subsequently translated into English by Sir Thomas North in 1579 and became the source for the Roman plays of William Shakespeare.* The Lives had an immense influence upon French literature as well; this work was a source for the tragedies of Pierre Corneille and was quoted by Montaigne* in his Essais. In addition to the Lives, Amyot also translated The Seven Books of Diodorus Siculus (1554), Daphnis and Chloe of Longus (1559), and the Moralia of Plutarch (1572).

Bibliography

A. Tilley, The Literature ofthe French Renaissance, vol. 1, 1959.

Heather J. Murray