Florent Chrestien (January 26, 1541 – October 3, 1596) was a French satirist and Latin poet. Chrestien was the son of Guillaume Chrestien, an eminent French physician and writer on physiology, was born at

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Henri Estienne Henri Estienne (; ; 1528 or 15311598), also known as Henricus Stephanus (), was a French printer and classical scholar. He was the eldest son of Robert Estienne. He was instructed in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew by his father and would eventually tak ...

, the Hellenist, at an early age he was appointed tutor to Henry of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV, who made him his librarian. Brought up as a

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

, he became a convert to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. He died on 3 October 1596 in

Vendôme Vendôme (, ) is a subprefecture of the department of Loir-et-Cher, France. It is also the department's third-biggest commune with 15,856 inhabitants (2019). It is one of the main towns along the river Loir. The river divides itself at the ...

. Chrestien was the author of many good translations from the Greek into Latin verse, amongst others, of versions of the ''Hero and Leander'' attributed to Musaeus, and of many epigrams from the Greek Anthology. In his translations into French, among which are remarked those of

George Buchanan George Buchanan ( gd, Seòras Bochanan; February 1506 – 28 September 1582) was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. According to historian Keith Brown, Buchanan was "the most profound intellectual sixteenth century Scotland produced." ...

's ''Jephtha'' (1567), and of Oppian's ''De Venatione'' (1575), he is not so happy, being rather to be praised for fidelity to his original than for excellence of style. His principal claim to a place among memorable satirists is as one of the authors of the ''

Satire Ménippée The ''Satire Ménippée'' () or ''La Satyre Ménippée de la vertu du Catholicon d'Espagne'' was a political and satirical work in prose and verse that mercilessly parodied the Catholic League and Spanish pretensions during the Wars of Religion in ...

'', the famous

pasquinade A pasquinade or pasquil is a form of satire, usually an anonymous brief lampoon in verse or prose, and can also be seen as a form of literary caricature. The genre became popular in early modern Europe, in the 16th century, though the term had ...

in the interest of his old pupil, Henry IV, in which the harangue put into the mouth of cardinal de Pelve is usually attributed to him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chrestien, Florent 1541 births 1596 deaths French satirists Writers from Orléans Converts to Roman Catholicism from Calvinism French Roman Catholics French male writers