Élie Vinet was a French Renaissance humanist, known as a classical scholar, translator and antiquary.

Life

Vinet was born at Vinets, in the commune of Saint Médard

Saint-Médard, Charente

Saint-Médard is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...

, near Barbezieux

Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire

Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France.The commune of Barbezieux, with the neighbouring village of St Hilaire, forms the most important town in Southern Charente....

 in what is now Charente. Brought up at Barbezieux, he studied at Angoulême

Angoulême

-Main sights:In place of its ancient fortifications, Angoulême is encircled by boulevards above the old city walls, known as the Remparts, from which fine views may be obtained in all directions. Within the town the streets are often narrow. Apart from the cathedral and the hôtel de ville, the...

, then at Poitiers

Poitiers

Poitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region. The centre is picturesque and its streets are interesting for predominant remains of historical architecture, especially from the Romanesque...

, where he graduated M.A.. At the court of Cognac he associated with Louise de Savoie, and also Marguerite d'Angoulême. He then went to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 to master Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 and mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

.

In 1539 André de Gouveia

André de Gouveia

André de Gouveia was a Portuguese humanist and pedagogue during the Renaissance.André de Gouveia became one of the first Portuguese to study in the Collège Sainte-Barbe, in Paris, which was then directed by his uncle Diogo de Gouveia...

 invited Vinet to become regent at the Collège de Guyenne, founded in 1533 in Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

. Leaving aside some travels to Coimbra

Coimbra

Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...

 and Paris, he taught there until his death; during much of his time he was principal of the college. He formed its teaching and disciplinee..
Joseph Juste Scaliger was one of his pupils, and he kept up a correspondance with numerous scholars which survives through letters exchanged with Pierre Daniel of Orléans

Orléans

-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...

.

Works

In 1546, he published the first translation into French of the Life of Charlemagne of Eginhard. He worked on the Roman remains at Bordeaux, making attempts at reconstruction. He wrote

• L'Antiquité de Bordeaux et celle d'Angoulême (1567);
• L'Antiquité de Saintes et de Barbezieux (1568); and
• L'Antiquité de Bourdeaus et de Bourg présentée au Roi Charles neufiesme (1574).

His many translations included Ausonius

Ausonius

Decimius Magnus Ausonius was a Latin poet and rhetorician, born at Burdigala .-Biography:Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born in Bordeaux in ca. 310. His father was a noted physician of Greek ancestry and his mother was descended on both sides from long-established aristocratic Gallo-Roman families...

 et Catullus

Catullus

Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet of the Republican period. His surviving works are still read widely, and continue to influence poetry and other forms of art.-Biography:...

. He commented on the De die natali of Censorinus

Censorinus

Censorinus, Roman grammarian and miscellaneous writer, flourished during the 3rd century AD.He was the author of a lost work De Accentibus and of an extant treatise De Die Natali, written in 238, and dedicated to his patron Quintus Caerellius as a birthday gift...

. His other interests covered science, in particular sundial

Sundial

A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, often a thin rod or a...

s, and he wrote a work La Manière de faire le solaire que communément on appelle cadrans.