Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (31 May 1597 – 18 February 1654) was a French

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

in Baroque

Précieuses The ''Précieuses'' ( , i.e. "preciousness") was a 17th-century French literary style and movement. The main features of this style are the refined language of aristocratic salons, periphrases, hyperbole, and puns on the theme of gallant l ...

style, best known for his epistolary

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

s, which were widely circulated and read in his day. He was one of the founding members of the .

Life and career

Guez de Balzac was born at

Angoulême Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; ) is a small city in the southwestern French Departments of France, department of Charente, of which it is the Prefectures of France, prefecture. Located on a plateau overlooking a meander of ...

. Originally thought to have been born in 1595, the date was revised in 1848 upon the discovery of a baptismal certificate dated June 1, 1597, although this is still controversial because his birth certificate contained several irregularities. He was born in a well off

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...

family, which also had acquired

noble title Traditional rank amongst European imperiality, royalty, peers, and nobility is rooted in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Although they vary over time and among geographic regions (for example, one region's prince might be equal to anoth ...

s. In his youth, he studied at two

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

colleges in Angoulême and

Poitiers Poitiers is a city on the river Clain in west-central France. It is a commune in France, commune, the capital of the Vienne (department), Vienne department and the historical center of Poitou, Poitou Province. In 2021, it had a population of 9 ...

, where he learned Latin well, especially

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

. In 1612, he met

Théophile de Viau Théophile de Viau (159025 September 1626) was a French Baroque poet and dramatist. Life Born at Clairac, near Agen in the Lot-et-Garonne and raised as a Huguenot, Théophile de Viau participated in the Huguenot rebellions in Guyenne from 1615– ...

when de Viau's troupe visited Angoulême, and fled from home with the troupe. Antoine Adam, ''Théophile de Viau et la libre pensée française en 1620'', Slatkine, 2008, H. Stanley Schwarz, ''An Outline History of French Literature'', READ BOOKS, 2007, p. 43 The two traveled together with the troupe for some time, but when the troupe arrived at

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

, they enrolled as students at the city's university in May 1615, although it's possible that they visited the university in 1613 as well. His letters to his acquaintances and to important courtiers gained him a great reputation. Compliments were showered on him, and he became an ''habitué'' of the Hotel de Rambouillet. In 1624 a collection of his ''Lettres'' was published, and was received with great favour. From Chateau de Balzac, where he had retired, he continued to correspond with

Jean Chapelain Jean Chapelain (4 December 1595 – 22 February 1674) was a French poet and critic during the '' Grand Siècle'', best known for his role as an organizer and founding member of the . Chapelain acquired considerable prestige as a literary critic, ...

, Valentin Conrart and others. In 1634 Balzac was elected to the . He died at

twenty years later. Guez de Balzac's fame rests chiefly upon the ''Lettres'', a second collection of which appeared in 1636. ''Recueil de nouvelles lettres'' was printed in the next year. His letters, though empty and affected in matter, show a real mastery of style, introducing a new clearness and precision into French

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

and encouraging the development of the language on national lines by emphasizing its most idiomatic elements. Balzac has thus the credit of executing in French prose a reform parallel to

François de Malherbe François de Malherbe (, 1555 – 16 October 1628) was a French poet, critic, and translator. Life He was born in Le Locheur (near Caen, Normandie), to a family of standing, although the family's pedigree did not satisfy the heralds in terms o ...

's in verse. In 1631 he published a

eulogy A eulogy (from , ''eulogia'', Classical Greek, ''eu'' for "well" or "true", ''logia'' for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person, especially one who recently died or retired, or as a term o ...

of King

Louis XIII of France Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown. ...

entitled ''Le Prince''; in 1652 the ''Socrate chrétien'', and ''Aristippe ou de la Cour'' in 1658. Since 1962, his name is given to the Lycée Guez-de-Balzac in

(

Charente Charente (; Saintongese: ''Chérente''; ) is a department in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It is named after the river Charente, the most important and longest river in the department, and also the r ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Guez De Balzac, Jean Louis 1597 births 1654 deaths Writers from Angoulême Members of the Académie Française University of Poitiers alumni 17th-century French writers 17th-century French male writers French male essayists French historiographers French male non-fiction writers People from the Angoumois