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He was born at Orléans. A doubtful tradition makes him the illegitimate son of Francis I; but it is evident that he was at least connected with some family of rank and wealth.

From Orléans he was taken to Paris about 1521, and after studying under Nicolas Bórauld, the teacher of Coligny, he proceeded in 1526 to Padua. The death of his friend and master, Simon de Villanova , led him, in 1530, to accept the post of secretary to Jean de Langeac , bishop of Limoges and French ambassador to the republic of Venice; he contrived, however, to attend the lectures of the Venetian scholar Battista Egnazio , and found time to write Latin love poems to some Venetian Elena.

Returning to France soon afterwards he proceeded to Toulouse to study lawThis article is about law in society. For other possible meanings, see law (disambiguation). Law (a loanword from Danish-Norwegian lov , in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules of conduct which mandate or proscribe (or both) specified relationshi; but there he soon became involved in the violent disputes between the different "nations" of the university, was thrown into prison, and finally banished by a decree of the parlement. In 1535 he entered the lists against ErasmusThis article deals with the Erasmus, the theologian. For other meanings, see Erasmus (disambiguation). Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (also Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam ( October 27, probably 1466 July 12, 1536) was a Dutch humanist and theologian. in the famous Ciceronian controversy , by publishing through Sebastien Gryphe ( Gryphius ) at Lyons a Dialogus de imitatione Ciceroniana; and the following year saw the appearance of his two folio volumes Commentariorum linguae Latinae. This work was dedicated to Francis I, who gave him the privilege of printing during ten years any works in Latin, GreekThe Greek language ( /Elini'k{/) is an Indo-European language which has existed from around the 14th century BC in the Cretan inscriptions called Linear B. Mycenaean Greek of this period is distinguished from later Classical or Ancient Greek of the 8th ce, ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 70 million people, most of whom live in Italy. Standard Italian is based on Tuscan dialects and is somewhat intermediate between the languages of Southern Italy and the Gallo-Romance languages of the North. or FrenchFrench le francais la langue francaise is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered only by Spanish and Portuguese. French is the 11th most spoken language in the world, spoken by about 77 million people (called Francophones) as a mother to, which were the product of his own pen or had received his supervision; and accordingly, on his release from an imprisonment occasioned by his justifiable 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 tone of his mottoes--Preserve moi, Seigneur, des calamities 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 Cato christianus, in which he made profession of his creed. The catholicity of his literary appreciation, in spite of his ultra-Ciceronianism, was soon displayed by the works which proceeded from his press—ancient and modern, sacred and secular, from the New TestamentThe New Testament sometimes called the Greek Scriptures is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus Christ. The term is a translation of the Latin Novum Testamentum which translates the Greek Η &Kappa in Latin to RabelaisFrancois Rabelais (ca. 1493 April 9, 1553) was a Renaissance writer, born in Chinon, Indre-et-Loire, France. Life Rabelais was first a novice of the Franciscan order, and later a monk at Fontenay-le-Comte, where he studied Greek and Latin, as well as scie in French. But before the term of his privilege expired his labours were interrupted by his enemies, who succeeded in imprisoning him (1542) on the charge of atheism.

From a first imprisonment of fifteen months Dolet was released by the advocacy of Pierre Duchatel , bishop of Tulle; from a second (1544) he escaped by his own ingenuity; but, venturing back from Piedmont, whither he had fled in order that he might print at Lyons the letters by which he appealed for justice to the king of France, the queen of Navarre and the parlement of Paris, he was again arrested, branded as a relapsed atheist by the theological faculty of the Sorbonne, and on the 3rd of August 1546 put to the torture, strangled and burned in the Place Maubert. On his way thither he is said to have composed the punning pentameter--Non dolet ipse Dolet, sed pia turba dolet.

Whether Dolet is to be classed with the representatives of Protestantism or with the advocates of anti-Christian rationalism has been frequently disputed; by the principal Protestants of his own time he was not recognized, and by Calvin he is formally condemned, along with Agrippa and his master Villanova, as having uttered execrable blasphemies against the Son of God; but, to judge by the religious character of a large number of the books which he translated or published, such a condemnation is altogether misplaced. His repeated advocacy of the reading of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue is especially noticeable. A statue of Dolet was erected on the Place Maubert in 1889.

See JF Nee de la Rochelle, Vie d'Éienne Dolet (1779); Joseph Boulmier, E. Dolet, sa vie, ses oeuvres, son martyre (1857); AF Didot , Essai sur la typographie (1852) and article in the Nouvelle Biographie generale; L Michel, Dolet: sa statue, place Maubert: ses amis, ses ennemis (1889); RC Christie, Étienne Dolet, the Martyr of the Renaissance (2nd ed., 1889), containing a full bibliography of works published by him as author or printer; O Galtier, Étienne Dolet (Paris, 1908). The proces, or trial, of Dolet was published (1836) by AH Taillandier from the registers of the parlement of Paris.