Marot, Clément - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VIII, p. 136

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

MAROT, CLÉMENT. - French poet, b. at Cahors on 23 Nov. 1496, d. at Torino on 12 Sept. 1544. Page to Villeroy, he subsequently became valet de chambre to Francesco I, enjoying the king’s favour, who intervened on his behalf whenever he found himself in difficulties caused by his biting satire.

Accused of adhering to the reform movement, he left France (1534), taking refuge in Italy, subsequently at Ferrara and Venice. Having returned to his homeland in 1536, he was again received at court, where he remained until 1542, when, once more under suspicion because of his translation of the Psalms, he was compelled to flee first to Switzerland and then again to Italy, taking refuge with the Savoia at Torino, where he died shortly thereafter. A sensitive and refined poet, he felt the disturbances of an age fraught with religious “unrest.” Although his fame is essentially linked to his lyric poetry, M. is a typical figure of the French “reforming” groups.

BIBL.: D. Magrini, C. M. e il petrarchismo, in Miscellanea di studi critici pubblicati in onore di G. Mazzoni, I, Firenze 1907, pp. 485-502; W. de Lerber, L'influence de C. M. aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Lausanne 1920; P. Villey, Recherches sur la chronologie des oeuvres de M., Paris 1923; id., Les grands écrivains du XVIe siècle, I; M. et Rabelais, ibid. 1923; P. A. Becker, C. M., sein Leben und seine Dichtung, Munich 1926; J. Plattará, M., au carrière poétique, son oeuvre, Paris 1938; Ch. E. Kinch, La poésie satirique de C. M., ibid. 1941; P. Jourda, M., ibid. 1950.

Niccolò Del Re