AMYOT, JACQUES. – French writer, born in Melun on 30 October 1513, died there on 6 February 1593. He studied in Paris, rapidly excelling in his knowledge of the classical world; as a priest, he taught Latin and Greek for six years at the University of Bourges; he also carried out various diplomatic missions. Charles IX appointed him grand almoner of France and councillor of state in 1560; elected bishop of Auxerre, he died there embittered by religious discord and persecuted because of the unjust accusation that he had advised the assassination of the duke of Guise.
An excellent connoisseur of Greek, he translated the novel by Heliodorus, Théagène et Chariclée, and that of Longus Sophista, Les Amours pastorales de Daphnis et Chloé, seven books of the History of Diodorus Siculus, and Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, to which he added the Moral Works. The translation of Plutarch was completed on the basis of manuscripts sought out in Rome and Venice and
carefully examined with regard to their variants; it is not literal, but carried out with a freedom of interpretation intended to highlight the magnanimity of the characters. The simple and clear style, adopted as a model by his contemporaries, made him deservedly famous and helped spread knowledge of the ancient heroes.