BALZAC, JEAN-LOUIS GUEZ de. - French writer, b. in 1597 and d. in 1654, and one of the most brilliant writers in the French literary world of the first half of the 17th century. A pupil of the Jesuits, later agent of Cardinal de la Vallette in Rome, on his return to Paris he was appointed by Cardinal Richelieu councillor of state, academician, and historiographer of France. His fame is linked to the Lettres (the first collection of which appeared in 1624), exchanged with the leading figures of the time, and on account of whose oratorical and sonorous form he has been regarded as the reformer of French prose; but, too often emphatic and precious, he was soon forgotten.
Nevertheless, his limited imagination is compensated for by a very refined taste, which enabled him to achieve lucid insights: he revealed nothing new or profound, but, taking up the tradition of the Renaissance, in his effort to popularize culture, he strove to «civiliscer la doctrine en la dépayant des collèges et la délivrant des mains des pédants».
B. wrote wisely on politics and morality in the 67 dissertations of the Entretienes: Le Prince (1631) is a panegyric of Luigi XIII and a refutation of Machiavelli; in Aristippe ou la Cour (1658) he discusses court customs and politics, while in the Socrate Chrétien he exalts, as a fervent believer, the Catholic religion and liturgy, urging the reading of the Gospels. He also wrote Latin verses collected in Tres libri carminum.
His complete works were printed for the first time in Paris in 1665. A recent edition (Paris, 1933–36) of the Premières lettres (1618–27) was edited by H. Bibas and K. T. Butler.