Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

ETIENNE DOLET (1509-1546)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 388 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

ETIENNE See also:DOLET (1509-1546)  , See also:French See also:scholar and printer, was See also:born at See also:Orleans on the 3rd of See also:August 1509 . A doubtful tradition makes him the illegitimate son of See also:Francis I.; but it is evident that he was at least connected with some See also:family of See also:rank and See also:wealth . From Orleans he was taken to See also:Paris about 1521; and after studying under See also:Nicolas Berauld, the teacher of See also:Coligny, he proceeded in 1526 to See also:Padua . The See also:death of his friend and See also:master, See also:Simon de See also:Villanova, led him, in 1530, to accept the See also:post of secretary to See also:Jean de Langeac, See also:bishop of See also:Limoges and French See also:ambassador to the See also:republic of See also:Venice; he contrived, however, to attend the lectures of the Venetian scholar See also:Bat See also:tista Egnazio, and found See also:time to write Latin love poems to some Venetian Elena . Returning to See also:France soon afterwards he proceeded to See also:Toulouse to study See also:law; but there he soon became involved in the violent disputes between the different " nations " of the university, was thrown into See also:prison, and finally banished by a See also:decree of the See also:parlement . In 1535 he entered the lists against See also:Erasmus in the famous Ciceronian controversy, by See also:publishing through Sebastien Gryphe (See also:Gryphius) at See also:Lyons a Dialogus de imitatione Ciceroniana; and the following See also:year saw the See also:appearance of his two See also:folio volumes Commentariorum linguae Latinae . This See also:work was dedicated to Francis I., who gave him the See also:privilege of See also:printing during ten years any See also:works in Latin, See also:Greek, See also:Italian or French, which were the product of his own See also:pen or had received his supervision; and accordingly, on his See also:release from an imprisonment occasioned by his justifiable See also:homicide of a painter named Compaing, he began at Lyons his typographical and editorial labours . That he was not altogether unaware of the dangers to which he was exposed from the bigotry of the time is shown not only by the See also:tone of his mottoes—Preserve moi, Seigneur, See also:des calomnies des hommes, and Durior est spectatae virtutis quam incognitae conditio—but also by the fact that he endeavoured first of all to conciliate his opponents by publishing a See also:Cato christianus, or See also:Christian moralist, in which he made profession of his creed . The catholicity of his See also:literary appreciation, in spite of his ultra-Ciceronianism, was soon displayed by the works which proceeded from his See also:pressSee also:ancient and See also:modern, sacred and See also:secular, from the New Testament in Latin to See also:Rabelais in French . But before the See also:term of his privilege expired his labours were interrupted by his enemies, who succeeded in imprisoning him (1542) on the See also:charge of See also:atheism . From a first imprisonment of fifteen months See also:Dolet was released by the advocacy of See also:Pierre Duchatel, bishop of See also:Tulle; from a second (1544) he escaped by his own ingenuity; but, venturing back from See also:Piedmont, whither he had fled in See also:order that he might See also:print at Lyons the letters by which he appealed for See also:justice to the See also:king of France, the See also:queen of See also:Navarre and the parlement of Paris, he was again arrested, branded as a relapsed atheist by the theological See also:faculty of the See also:Sorbonne, and on the 3rd of August 1546 put to the See also:torture, strangled and burned in the See also:Place Maubert . On his way thither he is said to have composed the punning See also:pentameter—Non dolet ipse Dolet, sed pia turba dolet .

Whether Dolet is to be classed with the representatives of Protestantism or with the See also:

advocates of See also:anti-Christian See also:rationalism has been frequently disputed; by the See also:principal Protestants of his own time he was not recognized, and by See also:Calvin he is formally condemned, along with See also:Agrippa and his master Villanova, as having uttered execrable blasphemies against the Son of See also:God; but, to See also:judge by the religious See also:character of a large number of the books which he translated or published, such a condemnation is altogether misplaced . His repeated advocacy of the See also:reading of the Scriptures in the vulgar See also:tongue is especially noticeable . A statue of Dolet was erected on the Place Maubert in 1888 . See J . F . Nee de la Rochelle, See also:Vie d'1~ tienne Dolet (1779); See also:Joseph Boulmier, E . Dolet, sa vie, ses ezuvres, son martyre (1837) ; A . F . See also:Didot, Essai sur la typographic (1852) and See also:article in the NouvellelBiographie generate; L . See also:Michel, Dolet: sa statue, place Maubert: ses amts, ses ennemis (1889) ; R . C . See also:Christie, See also:Etienne Dolet, the See also:Martyr of the See also:Renaissance (2nd ed., 1889), containing a full bibliography of works ublished by him as author or printer; O .

Galtier, Etienne Dolet ((Paris, 1908) . The proses, or trial, of Dolet was published (1836) by A . H . See also:

Taillandier from the registers of the parlement of Paris .

End of Article: ETIENNE DOLET (1509-1546)
[back]
DOLERITE (from Gr. SoXepos, deceptive)
[next]
DOLGELLEY (Dolgellau, dale of hazels)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.