[Lives of the Popes]

Bartolomeo Sacchi, known as Platina, was an Italian Renaissance humanist writer and historian. He served, at various times in his career, under Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, and Popes Paul II and Sixtus IV; the latter appointed him Vatican librarian in 1475. Platina's appointment as Vatican librarian was immortalized in a fresco by Melozzo da Forli (since transferred to canvas and in the collection of the Vatican Museum). Platina's Lives of the Popes, of which USC's copy is a first printing, is considered an innovative and influential history of the papacy.