Budé, Guillaume

Budé, Guillaume

(gēyōm` büdā`), 1467–1540, French humanist, b. Paris. Budé, known also by the Latinized form of his name, Budaeus, was a towering figure of the Renaissance. He was secretary to Louis XII, coming to power and prestige under Francis I. With the latter's patronage he established the study of classical works. Budé persuaded Francis to found the Collège de FranceCollège de France
, institution of higher learning founded in Paris, France, in 1529 by Francis I at the instigation of Guillaume Budé. It was founded to encourage humanistic studies and has always been independent of any university and free from supervision.
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 and to amass a library at Fontainebleau, which became the nucleus of the Bibliothèque nationaleBibliothèque nationale
, national library of France, in Paris, a government archive, and one of the foremost libraries of the world. It originated with the collections of writings made by early French kings, including Charlemagne.
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. Acquainted with nearly all the great minds of his age, Budé carried on a voluminous correspondence in several languages. His treatises on language helped to establish the discipline of philology. He translated and commented on Greek literature.