Maurice Scève

Maurice Scève (c. 1501–c. 1564), was a French poet active in Lyon during the Renaissance period. He was the centre of the Lyonnese côterie that elaborated the theory of spiritual love, derived partly from Plato and partly from Petrarch. This spiritual love, which animated Antoine Héroet's ''Parfaicte Amye'' (1543) as well, owed much to Marsilio Ficino, the Florentine translator and commentator of Plato's works.

Scève's chief works are ''Délie, objet de plus haulte vertu'' (1544); five anatomical blazons; the elegy ''Arion'' (1536) and the eclogue ''La Saulsaye'' (1547); and ''Microcosme'' (1562), an encyclopaedic poem beginning with the fall of man. Scève's epigrams, which have seen renewed critical interest since the late 19th century, were seen as difficult even in Scève's own day, although Scève was praised by Du Bellay Bellay, Ronsard, Pontus de Tyard and Des Autels for raising French poetry to new, higher aesthetic standards.

Scève died sometime after 1560; the exact date of his death is unknown. Provided by Wikipedia