Galatino, Pietro

GALATINO, PIETRO. - Franciscan theologian, b. at Galatina (Lecce) ca. 1460, called by some of the Colonna family, by others, of the Mongio. D. at Rome ca. 1540, he is buried in Aracoeli. A religious in the province of St. Nicholas, of which he was elected minister in 1518, he moved to Rome, where he spent most of his life, as chaplain and familiar of Cardinal Lorenzo Pucci, then of Cardinal Francesco De Angelis Quiñones. He devoted himself to the study of Greek, Chaldean and Ethiopic. He formed friendships with the learned men of the Roman milieu, such as Giovanni Pocke, whom he calls his teacher of Chaldean, and had relations with Leo X and Paul III, correspondence with Maximilian I, Charles V, etc. It is said, but not proven, that he was a professor at the University of Rome.

He wrote many works, but most remain unpublished to this day, preserved in codd. Vat. lat. 3190, 4582, 5567-81. Ottob. lat. 2366. The De optimo principe, known until now to bibliographers only by name, is preserved in cod. 1366 of the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome. The principal work is the De arcanis catholicae veritatis in defense of Giovanni Reuelin (several editions). The author is not immune from cabalistic and Joachimite ideas, especially in the commentary on the Apocalypse.

Celestino Piana