Bartolomeo Maranta, also Bartholomaeus Marantha (1500 – 24 March 1571[1]) was an Italian physician, botanist, and literary theorist.

"[11] Among Maranta's most-referenced works is his treatise on antidotes to poisons, Della theriaca et del mithridato, in two volumes (1572).

[12] Maranta conducted experiments in the natural history museum of Ferrante Imperato on the proportion of wine needed to dissolve the ingredients for theriac, claiming that "it preserves the healthy" and "cures the sick."

[16] But of the Italian literary critics, only Maranta makes a point of insisting on the superiority of poetry to both rhetoric and history.

[17] Maranta believed that poets were more powerful teachers than philosophers because their discourse is made vivid, rather than abstract, by moving the passions and demonstrating behavior.