Pontus de Tyard

Tyard, Pontus de (1521-1605). Initially influenced by Scève and later a member of the Pléiade, Tyard was not only a poet, the translator of Leone Ebreo's Dialoghi d'Amore (1551), and a writer of philosophical treatises (often in dialogue form), but a man of science, a Christian Platonist, and a distinguished ecclesiastic (he was bishop of Chalon-sur-Saône from 1578 to 1589). His three books of Erreurs amoureuses (1549, 1551, 1555) employed the Petrarchist canon together with a personal note of Platonic idealism, whilst his Vers lyriques (1552, 1555) revealed the developing influence of Ronsard. The Œuvres poétiques (1573) collected together these previously published collections and added the Recueil des nouvelles œuvres poétiques, predominantly Petrarchist poems addressed to the maréchale de Retz, whose prestigious salon Tyard had frequented from about 1568.

Tyard's philosophical treatises (several of which are Platonic in inspiration) discuss poetry (Solitaire premier, 1552), music (Solitaire second, 1552), time (Discours du temps, de l'an, et de ses parties, 1556), the physical and spiritual universe (L'Univers, 1557), and astrology and divination (Mantice, 1558). These treatises, which received a collective edition in 1587 (Discours philosophiques), bear witness to an encyclopaedic mind and a robust prose style with a mastery of rhetoric.

[Malcolm Quainton]

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Pontus de Tyard (c. 1521 - September 23, 1605) was a French poet and priest, a member of "La Pléiade".

He was born at Bissy-sur-Fley in Burgundy, of which he was seigneur, but the exact year of his birth is uncertain. He became a friend of Antoine Héroet and Maurice Scève. His first published work, Erreurs amoureuses 1549, was augmented with other poems in successive editions till 1573. His work anticipated that of Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay, but on the whole his poetry is inferior to that of his companions. However, he was one of the first to write sonnets in the French language (preceded by Mellin de Saint-Gelais). He is also said to have introduced the sestine, originally a Provençal invention, into French poetry.

In his later years he devoted himself to the study of mathematics and philosophy. He became bishop of Chalon-sur-Saône in 1578, and in 1587 published his Discours philosophiques. He was a zealous defender of King Henry III of France against the claims of the House of Guise. This attitude led to his persecution; he was driven from Chalon and his château at Bissy-sur-Fley was plundered. Nevertheless, he survived all the other members of the Pléiade and lived to see the onslaught made on their doctrines by François de Malherbe. Pontus resigned his bishopric in 1594, and retired to the Château de Bragny, where he died.

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