Thanks, perhaps, to the surroundings of his childhood, he grew up an enthusiast for the fine arts, and surpassed in zeal all the leaders of the Renaissance in France.

Besides a number of volumes of short poems of an amorous or congratulatory kind, he translated or paraphrased various pieces from Bion of Smyrna, Moschus, Theocritus, Anacreon, Catullus and Martial.

His works were published in 4 volumes, entitled Œuvres en rime (1573), consisting of Amours, Jeux, Passetemps, et Poemes, containing, among much that is now hardly readable, some pieces of infinite grace and delicacy.

His sonnet on the Roman de la Rose was said to contain the whole argument of that celebrated work, and Colletet says it was on everybody's lips.

Baïf was the author of two comedies, L'Eunuque, 1565 (published 1573), a free translation of Terence's Eunuchus, and Le Brave (1567), an imitation of the Miles Gloriosus, in which the characters of Plautus are turned into Frenchmen, the action taking place at Orléans.