author
André Dacier
1651–1722
A leading French classical scholar of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, he helped bring Greek and Latin writers to a wider readership through editions, translations, and commentary. His work moved easily between careful scholarship and clear explanation, making ancient texts feel newly accessible.
1 Audiobook
The Preface to Aristotle's Art of Poetry
by André Dacier
About the author
Born in Castres on April 6, 1651, André Dacier became one of France's best-known classical scholars. He studied at Saumur under the humanist Tanneguy Lefèvre, then built his reputation in Paris as an editor and interpreter of ancient texts.
He worked on the celebrated ad usum Delphini series of Latin classics prepared for the education of the Dauphin, and he produced editions or translations of authors including Festus, Horace, Aristotle, Sophocles, and Hippocrates. He is often remembered alongside his wife, the scholar Anne Dacier, with whom he shared a remarkable literary and scholarly partnership.
Dacier was elected to the Académie française and later became its permanent secretary. He died in Paris on September 18, 1722, leaving behind a body of work that helped shape how classical literature was read in France.