Jean Salmon Macrin was a Neo-Latin poet of French nationality.
Background
Macrin was born in Loudun, and retained an intimate attachment to the countryside of his youth throughout his life. His father supported him in his poetic vocation, and in his teens he was sent to Paris to study under Jacques Lefèvre d"Etaples.
Career
His poetry sold massively well, and was thought of as quite influential during his lifetime. However his fame did not live on, and his poetry was never republished after the 16th century. There he mastered Greek and Latin, and honed his poetic art alongside Quintianus Stoa.
When his studies ended, he became secretary to Antoine Bohier, and later entered Court life as tutor to the sons of René de Savoie.
The poet found that Court life was not well-suited to his temperament, and he composed little during this period. Macrin"s poetry met with great success in his later years, and he enjoyed the favour of the king, Francis I.
Macrin boasted of having been the first to introduce Catullus and Horace into French poetry.
His principal Neo-Latin models were the Italians Pontano, Marullus, Poliziano and Sannazaro. Du Bellay, in his "Amores Faustinae", mentions Macrin in his list of great contemporary love poets, alongside Pontano, Sannazaro, Marullus, Petrarch, Bèze, Tyard and Baïf.
Politics
Patriotism and nostalgia for his "patria" feature as prominent themes in his poetry.