Raffaele Maffei

Raffaele Maffei OSM (17 February 1451 – 25 January 1522)[1] was an Italian humanist, historian and theologian; and member of the Servite Order.

During his lifetime, Raffaele Maffei was in contact with many humanist philosophers including Pico della Mirandola, Angelo Poliziano, and Michele Marullo.

[2] When Raffaele left the Papal Curia, he remained aware of Roman events due to his correspondence with family members working in Rome.

At Rome Raffaele held himself aloof from the court, devoting his time to the practice of piety and to the study of philosophy of theology and of the Greek language, the latter under George of Trebizond.

The remainder of his life was spent in study, in the practice of piety and of penance, and in the exercise of works of charity; in his own house, he established an accademia, in which he gave lectures on philosophy and on theology, while he founded the Clarisse monastery of Volterra.

He died in the odor of sanctity; and, contrary to his desire, his brother erected to his memory a splendid monument in the church of San Lino, which Raffaele had endowed.

In letters from Raffaele's son-in-law, there are several complaints that Cosini left Volterra to work on another commission prior to completing the tomb.

[4] Camillo Incontri promoted Stagio Stagi as the artist to take over the project, but Cosini returned to Volterra to finish the commission.

[4] Art historian, Rolf Bagemihl argues that Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli worked on Raffaele's tomb as well, based on a distinct shift in style and documents from the time period.

Among the works of Maffei are Commentariorum rerum urbanarum libri XXXVIII (Rome, 1506; Paris, 1516), an encyclopedia of all subjects known at that time.

After the Latin treatise Anthropologium de hominis dignitate, published in 1501 by Magnus Hundt, Maffei authored the first work of the Modern era adopting the word Anthropologia in the title.

While the Spanish humanist Juan Luis Lives mentioned Maffei as an examplar paedogist, Erasmus of Rotterdam criticized his translations of St Basil's works.