Claude Gaspar Backet Sieur de, one of the most ingenious men of the 17th century, was born at Brete, of an ancient and noble family. He was a good poet in French, Italian, and Latin; an excellent grammarian, a great Greek scholar, and an admirable critic. He was well versed in the controversies, both in philosophy and religion; and was deeply skilled in algebra and geometry, of the former of which he gave proof by publishing the fix books of Diophantus, enriched with a very able commentary and notes. In his youth he spent a considerable time at Paris and at Rome; at which last place he wrote a small collection of Italian poems, in competition with Vaugelas, who was there at the same time; among which there are imitations of the most beautiful similes contained in the first eight books of the Aeneid. He also translated Ovid's Epistles; a great part of which he illustrated with very curious commentaries of his own. While he was at Paris, they talked of making him preceptor of Louis XIII. upon which he left the court in great haste, and afterwards declared that he had never felt so much pain upon any occasion of his life; for he seemed to have already upon his shoulders the important weight of the whole kingdom. He undertook the translation of all Plutarch's works, with notes; which he had brought nearly to a conclusion, when he died at Bourg, in Brefle, anno 1638, at 45 years of age. He left behind him several finished works, that were not printed.