Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585), a famous French renaissance poet, wrote in in the vernacular and found his subjects in love and nature. In 1552 he wrote Amours de Cassandre with a book of odes dedicated to the 15-years old Cassandre Salviati. In 1555 he dedicated this next Amours to Marie, another of his heroines. His sonnets for Helen were dedicated to Hélène de Surgeres in 1578. The frivolous and sometimes provocative poems are for this edition illustrated with etchings by Staritsky,

that try to contrive the remarkable works by de Ronsard.