Bartolomeo Platina

Bartolomeo Platina (1421–1481), born Bartolomeo Sacchi at Piadena near Cremona, was an Italian humanist writer. After soldiering and tutoring the Gonzaga sons in Mantua, he studied Greek in Florence and entered papal service in Rome. Under the anti-humanist Paul II he was imprisoned in 1464 after losing his papal office, and again in 1468 over the Roman Academy affair, under torture.

Sixtus IV made him the first Vatican librarian in 1475. His De honesta voluptate et valetudine became the first printed cookbook, and his Lives of the Popes appeared in 1479, depicting Paul II harshly.