Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian architect, painter and writer. Considered one of the first art historians, he is famous for his biographies of Italian artists, a collection of data, anecdotes, legends and curiosities compiled in his book The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Architects, Painters and Sculptors [Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori italiani, da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri] (1550; second edition, enlarged, 1568). He is credited with coining the term Renaissance.