Jean Bayet (12 November 1892 – 5 December 1969) was a French Latinist. A Professor of Latin Language and Literature at the Sorbonne, he was Director-General of Education in 1944 and Director of the
École française de Rome from 1952 to 1960. In 1948 he was elected a member of the
Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres. A specialist of Latin literature and
Religion in ancient Rome, Jean Bayet, through his works and the theses he directed, played a decisive role in the development of a French school of history of the Roman religion, particularly active in the second half of the twentieth century.
Biography
His grandfather was mayor of
Commentry Allier
Allier ( , , ; oc, Alèir) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region that borders Cher to the west, Nièvre to the north, Saône-et-Loire and Loire to the east, Puy-de-Dôme to the south, and Creuse to the south-west. Named afte ...
from 1871 to 1873. His mother, Louise Villain, was the daughter of (1830–1907) deputy mayor of Sedan at the end of the 19th century.
François Bayet, his son, died in deportation.
As a child he was overwhelmed with an infirmity in his legs, which made walking painful and made him suffer all his life; he had to give up the military career his father had followed.
He entered the
École normale supérieure in 1912, obtained his
agrégation of letters and was a member of the
École française de Rome from 1917 to 1920.
In 1915, he was awarded one of the
Montyon Prizes by the Académie française and the Marcelin Guérin Prize in 1933.
He taught first in secondary education (at the
Lycée Charlemagne and the Lycée de
Laon), while continuing the preparation of his doctoral theses on ''Les Origines de l'Hercule romain'' and the critical study of the main monuments related to the Etruscan Hercules, which he defended in 1926. He was then appointed to the Faculty of Arts of Caen, before moving to the Sorbonne in 1932.
[On his attitude of opposition to Vichy and the occupying forces during the Occupation and in particular on his vote of opposition to the application of the status of the Jews in a preliminary vote at the Sorbonne Faculty Assembly of December 1940, we have the testimony of a colleague, ]Georges Mathieu
Georges Mathieu (27 January 1921 – 10 June 2012) was a French abstract painter, art theorist, and member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He is considered one of the fathers of European lyrical abstraction, a trend of informalism.
Bi ...
, only recently published.
At the Liberation of France, he was appointed Director-General of Education and took part in the work of the .
He was elected a member of the
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 3 December 1948. He was also a member of the
Accademia dei Lincei
The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...
and of the Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia.
Jean Bayet was director of the École française de Rome from 1952 to 1960 (where he succeeded
Albert Grenier
Joseph Jacques Albert Grenier (born 31 August 1939, in Shawinigan) is a Canadian pianist, academic, and university administrator. From 1979–1998 he was director of the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal (CMM).
Life and career
Gren ...
and was in turn succeeded by
Pierre Boyancé). In 1954-1955, he presided the Unione internazionale degli Istituti di archeologia, storia e storia dell'arte in Roma.
Upon his return, he retired (1961). His last years were obscured by the disease which gradually froze him in immobility.
Works (selection)
*1926: ''Les Origines de l'Hercule romain'' (« Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome », n° 132), Paris, E. de Boccard
*1934: ''Littérature latine. Histoire, pages choisies'', Paris,
Armand Colin; numerous reprints.
*1957: ''Histoire politique et psychologique de la religion romaine'', Paris, Payot; numerous reprints.
Sources
*
Christophe Charle Christophe may refer to:
People
* Christophe (given name), list of people with this name
* Christophe (singer) (1945–2020), French singer
* Cristophe (hairstylist) (born 1958), Belgian hairstylist
* Georges Colomb (1856–1945), French comic ...
, ''Les Professeurs de la Faculté des lettres de Paris : dictionnaire biographique, 1909-1939'', Paris, Éd. du CNRS, 1986.
*
Georges Rougeron, ''Les Bourbonnais Ă l'Institut de France (an IV-1965)'', Moulins, 1966.
*
Michel Lejeune, « Éloge funèbre de M. Jean Bayet, académicien ordinaire », ''Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres'', 113e année, n° 4, 1969,
online
* Pierre Boyancé, "Jean Bayet, directeur de l'École Française de Rome (1952-1960)", ''Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire'', 82, 1970.
online
References
External links
Jean Bayeton the site of the Académie française
Jean Bayet. Histoire politique et psychologique de la religion romaine (compte rendu)on Persée
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayet, Jean
People from Versailles
1892 births
1969 deaths
École Normale Supérieure alumni
French Latinists
Latin–French translators
University of Paris faculty
French scholars of Roman history
Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
20th-century translators