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He was the natural son of the scholar Lazare de Baïf, who was at that time French ambassador at Venice. Thanks, perhaps, to the surroundings of his childhood, he grew up an enthusiast for the fine arts, and surpassed in zeal all the leaders of the Renaissance in France. His father spared no pains to secure the best possible education for his son. The boy was taught Latin by Charles Estienne, and Greek by Ange Vergèce , the Cretan scholar and calligraphist who designed Greek types for Francis I.
When he was eleven years old he was put under the care of the famous Jean Daurat. Ronsard, who was eight years his senior, now began to share his studies. Claude Binet tells how young Baïf, bred on Latin and Greek, smoothed out the tiresome beginnings of the Greek language for Ronsard, who in return initiated his companion into the mysteries of French versification.
Baïf possessed an extraordinary facility, and the mass of his work has injured his reputation. Besides a number of volumes of short poems of an amorous or congratulatory kind, he translated or paraphrased various pieces from BionBion Greek bucolic poet, was born at Phlossa near Smyrna, and flourished about 100 BC. The account formerly given of him, that he was the contemporary and imitator of Theocritus, the friend and tutor of Moschus, and lived about 280 BC, is now generally re, MoschusMoschus Greek bucolic poet and friend of the Alexandrian grammarian Aristarchus, was born at Syracuse and flourished about 150 BC. He was the author of a short epic poem, Europa and a pretty little epigram, Love, the Runaway imitated by Torquato Tasso and, TheocritusTheocritus the creator of bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC. Little is known of him beyond what can be inferred from his writings. We must, however, handle these with some caution, since some of the poems (" Idylls") commonly attributed to, AnacreonAnacreon can refer to: Anacreon (poet), a poet and lyricist from ancient Greece Anacreon (planet), a fictional planet in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series Anacreon (computer game), a computer game inspired by the Foundation series Disambiguation., CatullusGaius Valerius Catullus (c. was one of the most influential Roman poets of the first century B. Of Catullus' life little is known for sure. He was born on the Palatine hill of Rome. He was an offspring of a leading family from Verona, but lived in Rome mo and MartialMartial (Marcus Valerius Martialis Latin epigrammatist, was born in one of the years AD 38 41, for, in book x. of which the poems were composed in the years 95 98, he is found celebrating his fifty-seventh birthday (x. Our knowledge of his career is deriv. He resided in ParisEiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. Paris is the capital and largest city of France. The city is built on an arc of the River Seine, and is thus divided into two parts: the Right Bank to the north and the smaller Left Bank to, and enjoyed the continued favor of the court. He founded in 1567 an academie de musique et de poésie, with the idea of establishing a closer union between music and poetry; his house became famous for the charming concerts which he gave, entertainments at which Charles IXCharles IX ( June 27, 1550 May 30, 1574) was born Charles-Maximilien the son of King Henri II of France and Catherine de Medici. King Charles IX Born in the royal chateau at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, he was crowned King of France in 1561 in the cathedral at and Henry III frequently flattered him with their presence.
Baïf elaborated a system for regulating French versification by quantity. In this he was not a pioneer. Jacques de la Taille had written in 1562 the Manére de faire des vers en français comme en grec et en latin (printed 1573), and other poets had made experiments in the same direction. The 16th-century poets did not realize the incompatibility of the system of quantity with French rhythm. Baïf's innovations included a line of 15 syllables known as the vers Baïfin. He also meditated reforms in French spelling.
His theories are exemplified in Etrenes de poezie Franzoeze an vers mezures (1514). His works were published in 4 volumes, entitled Œuvres en rime (1573), consisting of Amours, Jeux, Passetemps, et Poemes, containing, among much that is now hardly readable, some pieces of infinite grace and delicacy. His sonnet on the Roman de la Rose was said to contain the whole argument of that celebrated work, and Colletet says it was on everybody's lips.
He also wrote a celebrated sonnet in praise of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew. Baïf was the author of two comedies, L'Eunuque, 1565 (published 1573), a free translation of Terence, and Le Brave (1567), an imitation of the Miles Gloriosus, in which the characters of Plautus are turned into Frenchmen, the action taking place at Orleans. Baïf published a collection of Latin verse in 1577, and in 1576 a popular volume of Mimes, enseignemens et proverbes.
His father, Lazare de Baïf, published a translation of the Electra of Sophocles in 1537, and afterwards a version of the Hecuba; he was an elegant writer of Latin verse, and is commended by Joachim du Bellay as having introduced certain valuable words into the French language.
The Œuvres en rime (5 vols., 1881-1890) of J. A. de Baïf form part of the Pléiade française of M. Ch. Marty-Laveaux. See also Becq de Fouquières , Poésies choisies de J. A. de Baïf (1874), with a valuable introduction; and F Brunetière, Hist. de Iangue française classique (1904, bk. iii. pp. 398-422).