He was born in Paris, to Nicole Fauchet, procureur au Châtelet, and Geneviève Audrey, granddaughter of Jacques III De Thou.

[2] Upon his return to Paris, Fauchet composed a series of short essays based on his wide reading in medieval French literature, much of which had not yet been printed and was only accessible in manuscript.

Fauchet was eventually made second president of the Cour des monnaies (29 March 1569), and subsequently rose to the rank of premier président in 1581.

Henri IV, said to have been amused with an epigram written by Fauchet, supposedly pensioned him with the title of historiographer of France, but there is no official record of this.

[22] The next year, l'Angelier brought out Fauchet's complete translation of the works of Tacitus (the Annals, Histories, Germania, and Agricola, but minus the Dialogue on Orators), which was reprinted in 1584.

Fauchet's personal motto was 'sparsa et neglecta coegi', i.e. 'I have gathered scattered and neglected things', a reference to the obscure and ancient texts he collected (or 'raked in') and used for his historical research.

A Latin motto which appears beneath his portrait of 1599 reads 'Falchetus Francis sparsa & Neglecta coëgi / Lilia queis varium hoc continuatur opus.'

In the Recueil of 1581, Fauchet proudly writes, 'suivant ma devise, j'ai recueilli ce qui estoit espars et delaissé: ou si bien caché, qu'il eust esté malaisé de le trouver sans grand travail' ('following my motto, I have gathered what was scattered and abandoned: or so well hidden, that it would have been difficult to find without much exertion').

[27][28] These three short treatises were only printed for the first time in the posthumous Œuvres[19] of 1610: The following manuscripts contain numerous unpublished writings by Fauchet on a variety of different topics: