Alessandro Piccolomini (1508-1579), Italian humanist philosopher. Piccolomini was born in Siena and educated at Padua. He promoted the translation and popularisation of great scientific and philosophical works from their original Greek and Latin into the vernacular. He wrote treatises on astronomy and calendrics and was a noted poet and playwright. This woodcut comes from van Opmeer's Opus chronographicum orbis universi, published at Antwerp in 1611.