Marcantonio Flaminio (winter 1497/98 – February 1550), also known as Marcus Antonius Flaminius, was an Italian humanist poet, known for his Neo-Latin works.

His editing of the popular devotional work, the "Beneficio di Cristo" illustrated a hope that the Catholic Church would move closer to some of the thinking of the Protestant reformers.

All the poems follow the tradition of Neo-Latin secular verse, taking up the subjects of the famous classical poets (such as Virgil, Ovid, and Catullus).

He survived, and in the same year, accompanied by his patron Domenico Sauli, he visited Rome to witness the coronation of the new Pope, Clement VII.

Rome, by that time, was a place where the plague had free rein, the river Tiber overflowed its banks, and a war was in progress.

That year, Flaminio became a member of the Oratorio del Divino Amore, "a group of 60 clerics and laymen who met on Sunday afternoons in the church of Saints Silvestro and Dorotea in Trastevere to discuss theology and to practise spiritual exercises".

When he came back to Rome, he gained the favour of the rich and influential Farnese family, which provided some protection despite his strong and controversial interest in church reform.

During the stay, he became part of several literary circles and notably fell under the influence of the religious group around Juan de Valdes.

Flaminio was offered a secretaryship by the Pope but was forced to decline it (he did so in an elegy to Alessandro Farnese) because of ill health.

During his life, Flaminio was always a purist poet: in his Latin poetry, he referred only to the best classical writers; he specialised in pastoral poems, which were about pure love and nature.

This idea also fits with his religious views, which stressed purity and the importance of a personal relationship with God, de-emphasizing the intermediary role of the Church.