Jean antoine de baif biography channel

Biography Jean Antoine de Baif

Poet Biography

French poet and member of the Pléiade, was born at Venice in 1532. He was the natural son of the scholar Lazare de Ball, 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.

Jean antoine de baif biography channel youtube

The boy was taught Latin by Charles Estienne, and Greek by Ange Vergêce, 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 (q.v.). Ronsard, who was eight years his senior, now began to share his studies. Claude Binet tells how young Baif, bred on Latin and Greek, smoothed out the tiresome beginnings of the Greek language for Ronsard, who in retur