Joachim du Bellay

• 1. Childhood And Legal Studies

  ›

  Joachim du Bellay was born at the Castle of La Turmelière, not far from Liré, near Angers. His father Jean du Bellay served as Lord of Gonnor and stood as first cousin to Cardinal Jean du Bellay. Both parents died while he remained a child, leaving him under the guardianship of his elder brother René. This arrangement neglected his education and allowed him to run wild at La Turmelière until age twenty-three. He then received permission to study law at the University of Poitiers. The goal likely involved securing preferment through his kinsman the Cardinal. At Poitiers he encountered humanist Marc Antoine Muret and Latin poet Jean Salmon Macrin. There too he probably met Jacques Peletier du Mans, who had published a translation of Horace's Ars Poetica with a preface outlining later Pléiade programs.

• 2. Founding The Pleiade Movement

  ›

  In 1547 du Bellay met Pierre de Ronsard in an inn on the way to Poitiers. This event marked the starting-point of the French school of Renaissance poetry. They returned to Paris together to join students of humanities attached to Jean Dorat at the Collège de Coqueret. While Ronsard and Jean-Antoine de Baïf focused on Greek models, du Bellay remained a Latinist. His preference for a language connected to his own influenced the national note of his poetry. In 1548 Thomas Sébillet published Art poétique enunciating ideas Ronsard and followers held but presented differently. The group dissented violently from Sébillet and felt resentment finding their ideas forestalled. The famous manifesto Défense et illustration de la langue française appeared in 1549 as both complement and refutation of Sébillet's treatise. Although Ronsard led the group, redaction was entrusted to du Bellay. The book aimed to promote French as an artistic language equal to Greek and Latin.

• 3. Roman Exile And Antiquities

  ›

  The next year he went to Rome as secretary to Cardinal du Bellay. He spent four and a half years in Italy performing duties like meeting creditors and funding household expenses. To the beginning of this residence belong forty-seven sonnets of Antiquités de Rome published in 1558. Sonnet III titled Nouveau venu qui cherches Rome en Rome reflects direct influence of a Latin poem by Renaissance writer Janis Vitalis. These sonnets were more personal than Olive sequence and struck a note revived later by Volney and Chateaubriand. His stay constituted a real exile despite forming friendships with Italian scholars. He developed close friendship with exiled poet Olivier de Magny whose circumstances mirrored his own. Towards the end of sojourn he fell violently in love with Roman lady Faustine appearing in poetry as Columba. Her husband guarded her jealously yet du Bellay eventually conquered her affection before departing for Paris at end of August 1557.

• 4. Evolution Of Sonnet Form

  ›

  Olive first appeared in 1549 as collection of sonnets modeled after Petrarch, Ariosto, and contemporary Italians published by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari. It included thirteen odes entitled Vers lyriques alongside the main sequence. The work has been supposed anagram for name Mlle Viole though little evidence supports real passion in poems. They may be regarded Petrarchan exercise especially since second edition dedication to Marguerite de Valois replaced one to his lady. Du Bellay did not introduce sonnet into French poetry but acclimatized it. When fashion of sonneteering became mania he was among first to ridicule its excesses. In 1552 he published version of fourth book Aeneid plus translations and occasional poems. Later works like Regrets showed movement away from Défence theories while retaining simplicity and tenderness characteristic of his style. These sonnets told of unlucky passion for Faustine and nostalgia for banks of Loire.

• 5. Satire And Courtly Poetry

  ›

  In 1559 du Bellay published La Nouvelle Manière de faire son profit des lettres at Poitiers. This satirical epistle translated from Latin of Adrien Turnèbe arrived with Le Poète courtisan introducing formal satire into French poetry. Both works appeared under pseudonym J Quintil du Troussay. The courtier-poet generally supposed Mellin de Saint-Gelais though du Bellay always friendly terms with him. Nouvelle Manière believed directed at Pierre de Paschal elected royal historiographer who promised Latin biographies but wrote nothing. Last works included Discours au roi dedicated to Francis II in 1559 detailing duties of prince. It secured tardy pension though remained unpublished until 1567 after death. His intimate relations with Ronsard were not renewed but formed close friendship with scholar Jean de Morel whose house became center learned society.

• 6. Final Years And Death

  ›

  Joachim quarreled with Eustache du Bellay bishop of Paris during exercise of lay patronage functions. This conflict prejudiced his relations with Cardinal less cordial since publication outspoken Regrets. Chief patron Marguerite de Valois had gone to Savoy while he remained in employ of cardinal. Health grew weak and deafness seriously hindered official duties. On the 1st of January 1560 he died at age thirty-eight. No evidence exists that he held priest's orders though clerk status allowed various preferments. He once served canon of Notre Dame of Paris and accordingly buried there. Statement nominating archbishop Bordeaux during last year life unauthenticated by documentary evidence extremely improbable. Traces bone tuberculosis chronic meningitis found skeleton leave little doubt identity deceased according Éric Crubézy professor anthropology Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier University.

• 7. Modern Archaeological Discovery

  ›

  Remains reportedly identified in 2024 within lead coffin found April 2022 during excavations National Institute Preventive Archaeological Research Inrap after Cathedral fire 2019. Isotope analysis contradicted conclusion suggesting remains belonged person west France while du Bellay grew up east. Some excavators think remains actually those sixteenth century French knight Édouard de la Madeleine. Skeleton showed symptoms matching poet's final years including bone tuberculosis chronic meningitis. These findings left little doubt regarding identity despite conflicting isotopic data. The debate continues among scholars examining whether skeletal evidence aligns with known biographical details or points toward alternative historical figure.