born 1496?, Cahors, France
died September 1544, Turin, Savoy
French poet.
While imprisoned in 1526 for defying Lenten abstinence regulations, he wrote some of his best-known works, including "The Inferno," an allegorical satire on justice. He held several court posts; his long service to Francis I was only briefly interrupted. One of the greatest poets of the French Renaissance, he markedly influenced the style of his successors with his use of the forms and imagery of Latin poetry. When not writing official court poems, he spent most of his time translating the Psalms.