Giovanni Pontano

Giovanni Pontano (1426–1503) was an Italian humanist and poet, born at Cerreto in the Duchy of Spoleto. After his father was killed in a street brawl he grew up in Perugia and around 1448 settled in Naples, where he entered the chancery of Alfonso the Magnanimous.

He tutored the king's sons and served the Aragonese dynasty as political adviser and chancellor. From 1471 he led the Accademia Pontaniana, which took his name, and wrote Latin treatises such as De liberalitate. In 1495 he welcomed Charles VIII of France into Naples, and he died in Naples in 1503.