HUET (HUETIUS), PIERRE DANIEL bishop of Avranches, French scholar, was born at Caen. He was educated at the Jesuit school of Caen, and also received lessons from the Protestant pastor, Samuel Bochart. In 1652 Samuel Bochart took Huet with him to Stockholm. This journey, in which he saw Leyden, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, as well as Stockholm, resulted in the discovery, in the Swedish royal library, of some fragments of Origen's Commentary on St. Matthew, which gave .Huet the idea of editing Origen, a task he completed in 1668. He eventually quarrelled with Bochart, who accused him of hav ing suppressed a line in Origen in the Eucharistic controversy. In Paris he entered into close relations with Chapelain. During the famous dispute of Ancients and Moderns Huet took the side of the Ancients against Charles Perrault and Desmarets. Among his friends at this period were Conrart and Pellisson. His taste for mathematics led him to the study of astronomy. He next turned his attention to anatomy, and, being himself short-sighted, devoted his inquiries mainly to the question of vision and the formation of the eye. In this pursuit he made more than 80o dis sections. He then learned all that was then to be learned in chemistry, and wrote a Latin poem on salt. All this time he was no mere book-worm or recluse, but was haunting the salons of Mlle. de Scudery and the studios of painters; nor did his scientific researches interfere with his classical studies, for during this time he was discussing with Bochart the origin of certain medals, and was learning Syriac and Arabic under the Jesuit Parvilliers. He also translated the pastorals of Longus, wrote a tale called Diane de Castro, and defended, in a treatise on the origin of romance, the reading of fiction.
On being appointed assistant tutor to the Dauphin in 1670, he edited with the assistance of Anne Lef evre, afterwards Madame Dacier, the well-known edition of the Delphin Classics. This series was an edition of the Latin classics in about 6o volumes, and each work was accompanied by a Latin commentary and verbal index. Huet was admitted to the Academy in 1674. He issued one of his greatest works, the Demonstratio evangelica, in 1679. He took holy orders in 1676, and two years later the king gave him the abbey of Aulnay, where he wrote his Questiones Aletuanae (Caen, 1690), his Censura philosophiae Cartesianae his Nouveau memoire pour servir a l'liistoire du Cartesian isme (1692), and his discussion with Boileau on the Sublime. In 1685 he was made bishop of Soissons, but after waiting for in stallation for four years he took the bishopric of Avranches in stead. He exchanged the cares of his bishopric for what he thought would be the easier chair of the Abbey of Fontenay, but there he was vexed with continual law-suits. At length he retired to the Jesuits' House in the Rue Saint Antoine at Paris, where he died in 1721. His great library and manuscripts, after being bequeathed to the Jesuits, were bought for the royal library.