CORTESE, PAOLO. - Humanist, born in Rome in 1465 to a family originally from S. Geminiano, died in 1510. A friend of Pico della Mirandola and Poliziano, he was apostolic secretary under Alessandro VI and Pio III, succeeding Platina in 1481.
He was called the “scholastic Cicero”; but as regards his theological work, he is scholastic neither in spirit nor in form; indeed, he is anti-scholastic, and, as pompous in form as he is, he is equally poor in content. A committed Ciceronian in his Latin style, he intended to give a classical dress to canonical theological subjects, particularly in the work De cardinalista, printed in 1510; in it he sought to set forth what a cardinal ought to know and how he ought to act. Literary in character, on the other hand, is the De hominibus doctis dialogus, written in 1489 and published by A. Politi (Florence, 1734).