Jean Daurat

Jean Daurat (Occitan: Joan Dorat; Latin: Auratus) (3 April 1508 – 1 November 1588) was a French poet, scholar and a member of a group known as The Pléiade.

His son, Louis, showed great precocity and at the age of ten, translated into French verse one of his father's Latin pieces.

Joachim du Bellay was added by Ronsard to this group, and these five young poets, under the direction of Daurat, formed a society for the reformation of the French language and literature.

They increased their number to seven by the initiation of the dramatist Étienne Jodelle, and thereupon they named themselves La Pléiade, in emulation of the seven Greek poets of Alexandria.

The election of Daurat as their leader proved his personal influence, and the value his pupils set on the learning to which he introduced them, but as a writer of French verse he is the least important of the seven.