The author, Francisco de Holanda (c. 1517-1584), was a distinguished Portuguese painter and writer who had been sent to the papal court as the artistic envoy of the Portuguese king John III. His Dialogues are a polished and thoughtful evocation of the intellectual society he found in Rome. David Hemsoll, a Renaissance art and architectural historian, teaches at the University of Birmingham. Among other specialities, he is an expert on Michelangelo and his artistic theory.