Salmon Macrin was born in Loudun in 1490,[2] and retained an intimate attachment to the countryside of his youth throughout his life.
His father supported him in his poetic vocation, and in his teens he was sent to Paris to study under Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples.
When his studies ended, he became secretary to Antoine Bohier, and later entered Court life as tutor to the sons of René de Savoie.
It was his marriage to Guillone Boursault ('Gelonis') that reignited his passion for poetry, and his two most famous works (the 'Epithalamiorum liber' of 1528–1531 and the 'Carminum libri quattuor' of 1530) contained many poems dedicated to her.
Du Bellay, in his 'Amores Faustinae', mentions Macrin in his list of great contemporary love poets, alongside Pontano, Sannazaro, Marullus, Petrarch, Bèze, Tyard and Baïf.