Guy Du Faur, Seigneur de Pibrac (1529–1584) was a French jurist and poet.

Life

He was born at

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

to an old family of the magistracy. He studied

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

there with

Jacques Cujas Jacques Cujas (or Cujacius) (Toulouse, 1522 – Bourges, 4 October 1590) was a French legal expert. He was prominent among the legal humanists or ''mos gallicus'' school, which sought to abandon the work of the medieval Commentators and conce ...

, and afterwards at

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

. In 1548 he was admitted to the bar at

, at once took high rank, and rose to be ''juge-mage'', an office in

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (; , ; oc, Lengadòc ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately ...

ian cities about equal to that of ''privat''. He was selected in 1562 as one of the three representatives of the king of France at the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has been described a ...

. In 1565 he became general advocate to the parlement of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, and extended the renaissance in

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

which was transforming French justice. Guy Du Faur de Pibrac

In 1573 he was sent by

Charles IX of France Charles IX (Charles Maximilien; 27 June 1550 – 30 May 1574) was King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574. He ascended the French throne upon the death of his brother Francis II in 1560, and as such was the penultimate monarch of the ...

to accompany as chancellor his brother Henry (afterwards Henry III) to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, of which country Henry had been elected king. Pibrac's fluent

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

won much applause from the Poles, but his second visit to Poland in 1575, when sent back by Henry III to try to save the Crown he had deserted, was not so successful. Then he was employed in negotiations with the so-called ''

politiques During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, ''politiques'' () were those in a position of power who put the success and well-being of their state above all else. During the Wars of Religion, this included moderates of both religious faiths ( ...

'', and he managed to keep them quiet for a while. In 1578 he became the chancellor of Marguerite of France, queen of Navarre. Although he was fifty, her beauty and intellectual gifts led him to aspire to win her affection; but he was rejected with disdain.

Works

His oratorical style was rather pedantic, but quotations from the classics had a fresher meaning in his day. He was the friend of

Ronsard Pierre de Ronsard (; 11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a French poet or, as his own generation in France called him, a "prince of poets". Early life Pierre de Ronsard was born at the Manoir de la Possonnière, in the village of ...

, de Thou and l'Hôpital, and left, among other literary remains, elegant and sententious quatraines. Boni 1582.JPG, Title page of ''Quatrains'' by Pibrac set to music by Guillaume Boni (Paris : Le Roy et Ballard, 1582). Château de Pibrac (18).jpg, The Quatrains' cabinet (french: Cabinet des Quatrains) at the Château de Pibrac, where tradition has it that he composed his works. Château de Pibrac (11).jpg, The castle of Pibrac (

Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country' ...

, France).

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Du Faur, Guy, Seigneur de Pibrac 1529 births 1584 deaths 16th-century French lawyers French poets Participants in the Council of Trent French male poets Writers from Toulouse