Dolet, Étienne

Dolet, Étienne (ātyĕn` dôlā`), 1509–46, French scholar, painter, and printer of Lyons. He wrote treatises on French grammar, poems, a short history of Francis I, and works in Latin about Cicero. In 1538 he issued from his own press the important Commentarii linguae Latinae, which was of great influence on the French Renaissance. The fame and prosperity of his presses and his translation of the Bible and of the Axiochus into French brought him trouble with the authorities. He was arrested, convicted of heresy, and executed. His L'Enfer d' Étienne Dolet is a poem about his life in prison.