Charles Cotin

Charles Cotin or Abbé Cotin (1604 – December 1681) was a French abbé, philosopher and poet in the Baroque Précieuses style. He was made a member of the Académie française on 7 January 1655.

Cotin was born and died in Paris. He was a scholar of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac, an advisor to Louis XIV, and renowned in his time for his sermons, poetry, and erudition. He frequented the Paris literary salons, particularly that of the Hôtel de Rambouillet as a friend of Mlle de Gournay, and his translation of the Song of Songs is more notable for its flavor of fashionable salons than of sacred poetry.

Cotin would be completely forgotten in our days if it wasn't for his violent squabbles with Nicolas Boileau and Molière, who gave him a stinging satiric immortality as the character Trissotin in Les Femmes savantes.