Filippo Buonaccorsi

The homo-erotic verses (including one addressed to the then Bishop of Segni, Lucio Fazini) which were found in his papers, while earning him a reputation as a sodomite, seem to have been restricted to his youth.

This seems to have reflected the aims of the Rome Academy to revive the concept of homosexual love as the ideal, drawing on the precedents set by antiquity.

[1] Buonaccorsi later became tutor to the sons of Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon and took part in diplomatic missions.

He is credited with the first Western use of the word “Balkan” (referring to the Bulgarian mountain range), in a 1490 letter to Pope Innocent VIII, writing as Buonaccorsi Callimaco.

[2] Callimaco Buonaccorsi is a recurring figure in Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolo series of historical novels, particularly in volume seven, Caprice and Rondo.