Everything about Jacques Amyot totally explained
Jacques Amyot (
October 30,
1513-
February 6,
1593),
French Renaissance writer and translator, was born of poor parents, at
Melun.
He found his way to the
university of Paris, where he supported himself by serving some of the richer students. He was nineteen when he became
M.A. at Paris, and later he graduated doctor of
civil law at
Bourges. Through
Jacques Colure (or Colin),
abbot of St. Ambrose in
Bourges, he obtained a tutorship in the family of a secretary of state. By the secretary he was recommended to
Marguerite de Valois, and through her influence was made professor of
Greek and
Latin at Bourges. Here he translated
Theagene et Chariclée from
Heliodorus (
1547), for which he was rewarded by
Francis I with the
abbey of
Bellozane.
He was thus enabled to go to
Italy to study the
Vatican text of
Plutarch, on the translation on whose
Lives (
1559-
1565) he'd been some time engaged. On the way he turned aside on a mission to the
Council of Trent. Returning home, he was appointed tutor to the sons of
Henry II, by one of whom (
Charles IX) he was afterwards made grand
almoner (
1561) and by the other (
Henry III) was appointed, in spite of his plebeian origin, commander of the
Order of the Holy Spirit.
Pius V promoted him to the
bishopric of Auxerre, and here he continued to live in comparative quiet, repairing his cathedral and perfecting his translations, for the rest of his days, though troubled towards the close by the insubordination and revolts of his
clergy. He was a devout and conscientious churchman, and had the courage to stand by his principles. It is said that he advised the chaplain of Henry III to refuse
absolution to the king after the murder of the
Guise princes. He was, nevertheless, suspected of approving the crime. His house was plundered, and he was compelled to leave Auxerre for some time. He died bequeathing, it's said, 1200 crowns to the hospital at
Orleans for the twelve
deniers he received there when "poor and naked" on his way to Paris.
He translated seven books of
Diodorus Siculus (
1554), the
Daphnis et Chloë of
Longus (
1559) and the
Opera Moralia of
Plutarch (
1572). His vigorous and idiomatic version of Plutarch,
Vies des hommes illustres, was translated into
English by
Sir Thomas North, and supplied
Shakespeare with materials for his Roman plays.
Montaigne said of him, "I give the palm to Jacques Amyot over all our French writers, not only for the simplicity and purity of his language in which he surpasses all others, nor for his constancy to so long an undertaking, nor for his profound learning ... but I'm grateful to him especially for his wisdom in choosing so valuable a work."
It was indeed to Plutarch that Amyot devoted his attention. His other translations were subsidiary. The version of Diodorus he didn't publish, although the manuscript had been discovered by him. Amyot took great pains to find and interpret correctly the best authorities, but the interest of his books today lies in the style. His translation reads like an original work. The personal method of Plutarch appealed to a generation addicted to memoirs and incapable of any general theory of history. Amyot's book, therefore, obtained an immense popularity, and exercised great influence over successive generations of French writers.
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