Amyot, Jacques

Amyot, Jacques bishop of Auxerre and grandalmoner of France, was born at Melun, Oct. 20, 1514, and studied philosophy at Paris in the college of the cardinal Le Moine. Here he took the degree of A.M. at nineteen, and afterwards continued his studies under the professors appointed by Francis I. He went to Bourges at the age of twenty-three, and was made professor of Greek and Latin in the university there. It was during this time that he translated into French the Amours of Theagenes and Chariclea, with which Francis I was so well pleased that he conferred upon him the abbey of Bellozanne. He went to Rome and translated. Plutarch's Lives and Morals. Henry III conferred upon him the Order of the Holy Ghost, and at the same time decreed that all the grand-almoners of France should be commanders of that order. He did not neglect his studies in the midst of his honors, but revised all his translations with great care, compared them with the Greek text, and altered many passages. He died Feb. 6,1593. Some of his other works are, his translation of Heliodorus (1547, fol.; 1549, 8vo) and of Diodorus Siculus (Paris, 1554, fol.; 1587): — Daphnis and Chloe (1559, 8vo).