Any researcher or lover of 16th century French literature must at some point have encountered the name of Charles Fontaine, saluted by so many of his contemporaries. A poet as well as a translator and a publisher, Fontaine incarnated the multiplicity of the problems that were linked to the French intellectual and literary life of the years 1540-1560, polarized around Paris and Lyon. This Parisian humanist resident in Lyon is indispensable for understanding the circulation of texts and the literary debates and fashions of that time. This volume aims to be a reference tool, shedding light on the various facets of Fontaine's oeuvre: translator, profane and sacred poet, man of the city and of the court. The only collective work to be consecrated to him, this group of ten contributions offers previously unpublished perspectives, both regarding literary analysis and questions of the attribution of texts. More generally, it invites a reconsideration of the creative effervescence of the years 1540-1560 by the metric of exchanges between poets, public figures, and publishers.