Bartolomeo Sacchi

In the succeeding years, he sought, in vain, a permanent position and remained dependent on the patronage of the Gonzaga, until he was imprisoned again in 1468. This time, he was charged with participating in a "conspiracy" allegedly instigated by the circle around Pomponio Leto against the papal government and life of Paul II (the actual existence of which has been neither proved nor disproved). Despite the additional charge of heresy, probably combined with an underlying accusation of Epicureanism, however, it can be assumed that Platina was securely rooted in Christianity. He recovered from the year-long, wearisome imprisonment, and several interrogations under torture, during summer holidays with the Gonzaga at the baths of Petriolo and in Albano. After the death of Paul II (1471), Platina was more than rehabilitated when Sixtus IV, who was friendly to the humanists, made him prefect of the newly-opened Vatican library. His appointment as prefect in 1475 is depicted in a fresco by Melozzo da Forlì, which shows him kneeling before the pope (Vatican Museums). Subsequently, he settled down to a less eventful life, except that in 1477 he participated in a nasty quarrel connected to the trial of Jews at Trent, where, like Pomponio Leto, he sided with the anti-Semitic bishop Johannes Hinderbach. Platina died of the plague in Rome on 21 September 1481.

This lively humanist made his name in the manner of his time by composing biographies, eulogies, and works of history. He wrote the first cookbook ever printed, On Right Pleasure and Good Health (De honesta voluptate et valetudine, Editio princeps: Rome c. 1470), which he counted among his philosophical works. As a moralist, he disdained the worldliness and decried the corruption in the Church. He supported, nonetheless, Sixtus IV's programme of a renovatio of the city of Rome in the style of ancient emperors – an expression of the consolidation of papal power after the end of conciliarism. In his principal work, the Lives of the Popes (Liber de vita Christi ac omnium pontificum, 1475), Platina succeeded in creating "the most effective remodelling of papal history according to humanist ideals of language and values" ("die wirkungsvollste Umformung der Papstgeschichte nach humanistischen Sprach- und Wertvorstellungen": Fuhrmann 1989, 142).

Platina's popes moved in the field of politics like worldly rulers. By including profane historians among his sources, he was "the first author who freed general church history from its religious isolation ("der erste Autor, der die allgemeine Kirchengeschichte aus ihrer geistlichen Isolierung befreite": Fueter 1936, 48). He did not trace the development of the Church as an institution and carried out little original research on sources; however, his scepticism with regard to medieval legends was in some cases influential (as in the case of "Pope Joan"). His self-confessed priorities were moral instruction and elegance of presentation. Platina is regarded as the most important predecessor of the church historians Onofrio Panvinio (1530-68) and Cesare Baronio (1538-1607) who, however, surpassed him greatly in their criticism of sources. Catholics read his Lives of the Popes as the standard work of papal history, especially in the edition which contained notes and continuations by Panvinio (Venice 1562; 2nd ed. Cologne 1568). The book was also broadly received among Protestants because of its open criticism of the morals of churchmen; an example of this is the intensive way in which it was used by Matthias Flacius (1520-75), who counted Platina among the "witnesses of truth". From the beginning of the sixteenth century onwards, translations of Platina's Lives of the Popes were published in five languages and in numerous editions (in French 1519-1651, Italian 1543-1765, German 1546-1627, Dutch 1650, English 1685-1888). Only the Italian translation (editions from 1592 onwards) was censored by the Congregation of the Index, by the controversial theologian Robert Bellarmine and others. Since 1568 the Latin text has been published only north of the Alps; its last edition dates from 1664.

Pomponio read the manuscript of Platina's Lives, at times leaving his characteristic sign in the margins to call attention to certain passages. Such signs are found in both the first known manuscript, Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale, Conventi soppressi, C.4.797 (Scapecchi 1999, 250), and in the presentation manuscript, Vat. lat. 2044 (Gaida 1913, LXXXVI). In addition, Pomponio left his sign in other works by Platina. For example, he marked various passages in Platina's dialogues De principe (1470), in MS Mantua, Biblioteca Comunale, A.I.13 (Zabughin 1909-12, I, 60–61), and De optimo cive (1474), in MS Vat. lat. 2045 (Blasio 1999, XLI-XLII). In both cases, it seems that Pomponio's signs were copied by the scribe. For photographs of such signs from Vat. lat. 3229 (not Platina), see Zabughin, vol. I, tav. II; vol. II.1, tav. VIII. Although Zabughin discusses this habit of Pomponio's (I, 61), it remains to be studied why he pointed out what he pointed out.

Like Pomponio and other members of the "Academy," Platina had an avid interest in antiquities. In his Lives of the Popes he writes about his visits to what he thought were the Catacombs of San Callisto (as we know now, they were actually the Catacombs of San Sebastiano): "Invisi ego haec loca cum amicis quibusdam religionis causa. Visuntur adhuc cineres et ossa martyrum, visuntur sacella, ubi privatim sacrificia fierent [...]" (Liber de vita Christi ac omnium pontificum, ed. G. Gaida [Città di Castello, 1913-1932], RIS², III.1, 33; on the visits to the Roman catacombs by members of the "Academy," see Oryshkevich 2003, 217-323; Occhipinti 2007, 346-349; on the collection of ancient inscriptions at Platina's home, see Magister 1999, 181; Magister 2001, 142).

Platina also came to be seen as an expert on the topic of love (on which he had written in his De amore), so that after his death he was made an interlocutor in Paolo Pompilio's dialogue De vero et probabili amore (1487), dedicated to Pomponio Leto (Vat. lat. 2222, fols 46r-76v). The dialogue, between Platina and Alessio Stati is set in 1476/78; further participants include Antonio Volsco and Papinio Cavalcanti (see Chiabò 1986, 508; Bracke 2002, 434-35.) Marco Antonio Altieri (1450-1532), another friend of Platina and student of Pomponio, mentions his "memories" of conversations between the two humanists about weddings. Both men, according to Altieri, affirmed God's special interest in matrimony. Whether or not this is a true story, Platina was again regarded as an authority on a question related to love (Altieri, Li nuptiali, ed. E. Narducci [Rome: Bartoli, 1873]; repr. ed., M. Miglio and A. Modigliani [Rome: Roma nel Rinascimento, 1995], 30-31. See Kolsky 1987, 77-78).

Regarding his lifestyle, Platina was accused of not practising what he preached. The image of frugality he sought to maintain was mocked, for instance, in a poem by Giovanni Antonio Campano, who acknowledged Pomponio's poverty but juxtaposed it to Platina's snooty avoidance of smelly onions and even good-quality leeks: