GALATINO, PIETRO. — Franciscan theologian, born in Galatina (Lecce) c. 1460, said by some to be of the Colonna family, by others of the Mongio. He died in Rome c. 1540 and is buried in Aracoeli. A friar in the province of S. Niccolò, of which he was elected minister in 1518, he moved to Rome, where he spent most of his life, as chaplain in the household of Cardinal Lorenzo Pucci and later of Cardinal Francesco De Angelis Quirones. He devoted himself to the study of Greek, Chaldean, and Ethiopic. He formed friendships with learned men in the Roman milieu, such as Giovanni Pock, whom he called his teacher of Chaldean, and had dealings with Leo X and Paul III, corresponding with Maximilian I, Charles V, and others. It is said, though not proven, that he taught at the University of Rome.
He wrote many works, but most remain unpublished, preserved in the codices Vat. lat. 3190, 4582, 5567-81, Ottob. lat. 2366. The De optimo principe, hitherto known to bibliographers only by name, is preserved in codex 1366 of the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome. His principal work is the De arcanis catholicae veritatis in defence of Johannes Reuchlin (several editions). The author is not free from cabalistic and Joachimite ideas, especially in his commentary on the Apocalypse.