Jean Dorat

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Early modern portrait

Jean Dorat (Latin Auratus , actually Jean Dinemandi ; born April 3, 1508 in Limoges , † November 1, 1588 in Paris ) was a French writer and scholar.

Life

Although he came from a humble background, he was evidently able to obtain sufficient training to begin studying at the Paris Artistic Faculty in 1537 . He impressed early on with his phenomenal memory and distinguished himself not only as a Latinist , but also as a Graecist .

In addition, he made a certain name for himself as an author of poems, which he wrote initially in French, later mainly in Latin and (ancient) Greek.

In 1544 he was hired by the noble Lazare de Baïf, who was interested in humanism , as tutor for his son Jean Antoine and his young secretary and relative, who later became an important poet Pierre de Ronsard . Both students praised Dorat's teaching and followed him to the Collège de Coqueret when he was appointed rector there in 1547, after the death of L. de Baïf.

Jean Dorat married on December 21, 1548 in the church of Saint-André-des-Arts Marguerite de Laval.

Dorat was undoubtedly involved as a discussion partner in the development of the programmatic work La Défense et illustration de la langue francaise , which another famous student, Joachim du Bellay , published in 1549 . A little later he was one of the members of the informal poets' association La Pléiade around Ronsard and Du Bellay.

In 1560 he was appointed professor of (ancient) Greek at the exclusive Collège des lecteurs royaux (= College of the Royal Lecturers), later the Collège de France . He is one of the founders of modern Greek teaching in France. Charles IX. appointed the adept of Pindarian metrics in Neo-Latin language as poet at court.

A collective edition of his scattered poems did not appear until 1586, shortly before his death, published by students and friends under the title Poemata .

expenditure

  • Geneviève Demerson (ed.): Jean Dorat: Les odes latines. Presses Universitaires, Clermont-Ferrand 1980 (Latin text and French translation)

literature

  • Geneviève Demerson: Dorat en son temps, culture classique et présence au monde. Clermont-Ferrand 1979.
  • Christine de Buzon, Jean-Eudes Girot: Colloque Dorat de Limoges. Droz, Genève 2002.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David R. Slavitt: Introduction , in: The Latin Odes of Jean Daurat. Orchises 2000, p. 7.
personal data
SURNAME Dorat, Jean
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dinemandi, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French man of letters and scholar
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1508
PLACE OF BIRTH Limoges
DATE OF DEATH November 1, 1588
Place of death Paris