First Martyr of the Renaissance

Etienne Dolet

"place Maubert, or the Maub, as it was known in criminal circles (formerly the center of university life in the Middle Ages, when students flocked there from the Faculty of Arts in Vicus Stramineus, or rue de Fouarre, and later a place of execution for apostles of free thought such as Etienne Dolet)"  -  Umberto Eco, The Prague Cemetary, Chapter One, p 1.


Étienne Dolet,  (born Aug. 3, 1509, Orléans, France—died Aug. 3, 1546, Paris), French humanist, scholar, and printer whose Commentarii linguae Latinae contributed notably to Latin scholarship. He is often described as “the first martyr of the Renaissance.”

After studying at Paris and the universities of Padua and Venice, Dolet settled in Toulouse, France. His quarrelsome temperament, unrestrained enthusiasm for Renaissance learning, and anticlericalism involved him in personal and public controversies. He was banished from the University of Toulouse and moved to Lyon, where for a time he was imprisoned for the justifiable homicide of a painter; he was released by royal pardon.  He began his career as correcteur for the printer Sebastian Gryphius at Lyon in 1534. Having established his own press there four years later, he produced more than 80 volumes, including works by several classical authors, Marot, Rabelais, Calvin, and himself.   In 1536 published the first volume of his Commentarii; the second followed in 1538. This work was dedicated to Francis I, who gave him permission to set himself up as a printer. His first publication, Cato Christianus (“The Christian Cato”), was a profession of his creed as a Christian moralist. Cato was followed by Dolet’s translations and editions of classical authors, Erasmus, the New Testament and Psalms, and Rabelais.  He contributed significantly to the growth of humanism through his encouragement of neo-Latin poets in Lyon, his printing and editing of classical works, and his own writings.
He was accused of atheism three times on the double charge of having published Calvinistic works and a dialogue by Plato denying the immortality of the soul, and he was imprisoned in 1542, 1544, and 1546. He was finally condemned by the theological faculty of the Sorbonne and, having first been tortured, was burned at the stake.  Whether Dolet was a Protestant or an anti-Christian rationalist and freethinker is debatable. He was condemned by both Calvin and the Roman Catholic church, but he published many religious books and repeatedly advocated the reading of the Scriptures in the vernacular. It seems likely that his fate was the result of his capacity to make enemies rather than the result of his opinions.