Louis Des Masures et la réforme poétique : la conversion d'une Muse latine

Louis Des Masures (Tournai, c. 1510 – Saintes-Marie-aux-Mines, 1574) is best known for his French translation of the Aeneid. However, his conversion to Reform (c.1563) induced him to abandon his profane Muse, and to compose sacred poetry. So he tried, under the inspiration of Théodore de Bèze (contributor of the famous “psautier de Genève”), to create a new Poetry that would celebrate the Lord and promote his new faith. The thesis consists of a philological analysis of Louis Des Masures’ sacred Latin poems, which remain little studied. Specifically, it aims to identify the poetical strategies employed by the author to adapt a ‘classical’ form to devotional purposes. It also includes an edition and an unprecedented French translation of a large corpus: the Carmina (1557); the Poemata (1574); the Borbonias (unpublished).