John, in Latin Brodeus, a critic, on whom Lipsius, Scaliger, Grotius, and all the learned, have bestowed great encomiums, was descended from a noble family in France, and born at Tours in 1500. He was liberally educated, and placed under Alciat to study the civil law; but soon forsaking that pursuit, he gave himself up wholly to languages and the belles lettres. He travelled into Italy, where he became acquainted with Sadocet, Bembo, and other famous wits; and here he applied himself to the study of mathematics, philosophy, and the sacred languages, in which he made no small proficiency. Then, returning to his own country, he led a retired but not an idle life, as his many learned lucubrations abundantly testify. He was a man free from all ambition and vain-glory, and suffered his works to be published rather under the sanction and authority of others than under his own. His chief works are, 1. Commentaries on the Antologia, Basel, 1549; 2. Several books of miscellanies; 3. Notes on Martial, Euripides, &c. Basel, 1558, Paris, 1561. He died in 1563, aged sixty-three.