Dolet

Etienne Dolet, 1509-1546, son of a cloth merchant, studied under the eminent humanist and Ciceronian Latinist, Nicolas Brault, and later with Simon Villanovanus. He then studied Law at the University of Toulouse. In two public Latin orations, he denounced the city authorities for persecuting his fraternity and for burning a favorite professor at the stake. Imprisoned and then expelled from the city, he fled to Lyon. After apprenticing with the noted printer, Sebastien Gryphius, he became an independent printer, licensed by King Franois I. He published innovative works on language, history and theology as well as the Bible in translation-something forbidden by the Church at that time. He married a printer's daughter, Louise Giraud, and had a son, Claude. In an impromptu duel provoked by Henri Guillot, Dolet killed his opponent by lucky chance. Imprisoned for murder, he escaped and spent weeks in hiding in the Piedmont, acting as a village printer's assistant. He procured the pardon of king Francis. In the struggle of the workers in printing establishments in Lyon for fair wages that had not been raised since the Middle Ages, Dolet took their part and won the enmity of many printers. They framed him by sending boxes of "heretical" books to Paris under his name. He was captured, Imprisoned, the king's pardon held to be invalid, since it was never ratified by Parliament. Tried and convicted for heresy by the Inquisition together with Parliament, he was burned at the stake on his 37th birthday.