Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Baïf, Jean Antoine de
Lazare de Baif and an Italian girl. He was born in 1532 at Venice, where his father was residing as French ambassador. Thanks, perhaps, to the surroundings of his childhood, he grew up a fanatic for the fine arts, and surpassed in zeal all the leaders of the Renaissance in France. Besides writing an immense number of short poems of an amorous or congratulatory kind, he translated or paraphrased various pieces from JBion, Moschus, Theocritus, Anacreon, Catullus, and Martial. He resided in Paris, enjoyed the continued favour of the court, and founded the Academie Royale de Musique ; his house became famous for the charming con certs which he gave, entertainments at which Charles IX. and Henry III. frequently flattered him with their presence. He was a dear friend of Konsard and the other members of the Pleiad. His works were published in 4 thick volumes, entitled Amours, Jeux, Passetemps, et Poemes (1571-74), containing, among much that is now hardly readable, some pieces of infinite grace and delicacy. He died in 1589 or 1591. His father, Lazare de Bait, pub lished a translation of the Electro, of Sophocles in 1537, and afterwards a version of the Hecuba, was an elegant versifier in Latin, and is commended by Joachim du Bellay as having introduced certain valuable words into the French
language.