Cosimo Bartoli was an Italian diplomat, mathematician, philologist

Philology

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

, and humanist

Humanism

Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....

. He worked and lived in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 and Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 and took minor orders. He was a friend of architect and writer Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, writer, historian, and architect, who is famous today for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.-Biography:...

, and helped him to get his Vite ready for publication.

Bartoli worked in diplomatic circles, including as secretary to Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici and as diplomatic agent for Duke Cosimo I. Bartoli wrote Ragionamenti accademici (Venice, 1567), which was mainly a criticism of Dante

DANTE

Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...

. One chapter, however, gave descriptions of composers and instrumentalists. He cited the composers Johannes Ockeghem

Johannes Ockeghem

Johannes Ockeghem was the most famous composer of the Franco-Flemish School in the last half of the 15th century, and is often considered the most...

 and Josquin Des Prez

Josquin Des Prez

Josquin des Prez [Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez] , often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance...

 as equal to Donatello

Donatello

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...

 and Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...

 in their respective arts, and stated that Ockeghem and Donatello were the precursors to Josquin and Michelangelo. In this book he also critiques architecture and painting, mainly focusing on the arts of his native Florence. He extolled the concept of invenzione in all the arts.

He also published a collection of translations of works by Leon Battista Alberti under the title Opuscoli Morali di Leon Batista Alberti, gentil’huomo firentino. Venice, 1568. These included:

• Momo, ovvero del Principe,
• De’ discorsi de senatori, altrimenti Trivia,
• Dell’amministrare la regione,
• Delle commodità e delle incommodità delle lettere,
• Della vita di S. Potito,
• La cifra
  Alberti cipher
  - Leon Battista Alberti :Created in the 15th century , it was the peak of cryptography at that time. Its inventor was Leon Battista Alberti, an illegitimate son of an Italian nobleman. He was also interested in painting and writing, though he is probably best known for his architecture...
  
  ,
• Le piacevolezze matematiche,
• Della repubblica,
• Della statua,
• Della mosca,
• Del cane,
• Cento apologi,
• Hecatomphila,
• Deiphira.