Thomas Platter

author

Thomas Platter

1499–1582

A shepherd’s son who taught himself his way into the world of Renaissance learning, he became known for one of the era’s most vivid autobiographical life stories. His journey from deep poverty to the humanist circles of Basel still feels remarkably immediate and alive.

1 Audiobook

The Autobiography of Thomas Platter, a schoolmaster of the sixteenth century.

The Autobiography of Thomas Platter, a schoolmaster of the sixteenth century.

by Thomas Platter

About the author

Born around 1499 in the Swiss canton of Valais, Thomas Platter rose from an extremely poor childhood to become a noted scholar, schoolmaster, and writer. As a boy he worked as a goatherd and spent years wandering in search of education before eventually reaching Basel, where he built a life in the city’s lively world of printing and learning.

Platter is remembered above all for his autobiographical account of his early life, which gives a rare, firsthand picture of hardship, travel, study, and ambition in the 16th century. Written in old age, it has lasted because it is both historically valuable and deeply human, full of practical detail and personal voice.

He later became an important figure in Basel’s humanist culture and the father of another well-known scholar, Thomas Platter the Younger. He died in 1582, leaving behind a life story that remains one of the most engaging windows into everyday experience during the Reformation era.