Octavien de Saint-Gelais

Octavien de Saint-Gelais (1468-1502), French churchman, poet, and translator. He translated the Aeneid into French, as well as Ovid's Heroides.

Related Topics:
1468 - 1502 - French - Aeneid - French - Ovid's - Heroides

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Born in Cognac, he studied theology at the Collège de Navarre, and became a member of the court of Charles VIII of France. A terrible sickness led him to abandon a formerly frivolous lifestyle and he took holy orders. Charles appointed him bishop of Angoulême in 1494. In this capacity, he reformed the monastic rules, visited the poor, decorated churches, and composed original poems, besides translating the works of the ancients.

Related Topics:
Cognac - Theology - Collège de Navarre - Charles VIII of France - Angoulême - 1494

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An outbreak of the plague forced him to abandon his post as bishop in 1502, and he died the same year.

Related Topics:
Plague - 1502

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The French poet Clément Marot praised his work, and wrote that Saint-Gelais had made his own birthplace, Cognac, eternal.

Related Topics:
Clément Marot - Cognac

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His nephew was the poet Melin de Saint-Gelais.

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