Born in Lille in 1561 to Protestant parents (Dominicus Baudius sr and Maria Heems), Dominicus Baudius studied theology and law at Leiden, where he was taught by Justus Lipsius (1547-1606) and Hugues Doneau (1527-1591), and in Geneva under Theodore Beza (1519-1605) and Lambert Daneau (1535-1595). After obtaining his doctorate in law in 1585, Baudius travelled to England and spent several years in France trying to find a stable source of income and occupation as a lawyer or private tutor. In 1603 he returned to the University of Leiden as professor (extraordinarius) of eloquence and – from 1611 – professor (ordinarius) of history.

Baudius’ literary and scholarly work includes a large body of poetry, most notably his Carmina (1587), his Iamborum liber (1591), his collected Poemata (1607) and the love poetry published posthumously in Amores (1638). He published a number of speeches on contemporary events, an elaborate treatise in favour of the Twelve Years’ Truce between Spain and the United Provinces (De induciis Belli Belgici libri tres, 1613), and annotations on Pliny’s Panegyricus (not published until 1675). By far his most frequently printed body of work, however, is his correspondence, which was issued fourteen times between 1615 and 1662, more than any other early modern Latin correspondence of the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries.