CORTESE, PAOLO. - Humanist, born in Rome to a family originally from S. Geminiano in 1465, died in 1510. Friend of Pico della Mirandola and Poliziano, he served as apostolic secretary under Alexander VI and Pius III, succeeding Platina in 1481.
He was called the “schoolroom Cicero”; yet as regards his theological work, he was neither scholastic in spirit nor in form, indeed he was anti-scholastic, and as pompous in form as he was meagre in content. A resolute Ciceronian in his Latin style, he sought to give classical dress to theological and canonical subjects: particularly in the work *De cardinalatu*, printed in 1510; in it he intended to set forth what a cardinal ought to know and how to act. Of a literary character instead is the *De hominibus doctis dialogus* written in 1489, published by A. Politi (Florence 1734).