Donato Acciaioli was an Italian writer, politician and humanist, of the famous Florentine family of Acciaiuoli, son of Neri and brother of Pietro. After having brilliantly learned the Greek language, Latin and mathematical studies as a favorite student of Argiropulo, he devoted himself to the translation of classical works from Greek into Latin, as some of Plutarch's Lives, and to the drafting of original works, especially of character historical and philosophical, like the Commentaries to the Ethics of Aristotle, or the biographies of Charlemagne, Hannibal or Scipio the African.
He also held political offices for the city of Florence: Councilor and Master of the Palace of the King of France in 1461 and in 1478, Vicar of Poppi and Casentino (1462), Prior of Freedom in 1463, Commissioner of Pistoia (1464), captain in Volterra (1469 and 1477), podestà in Montepulciano (1470), and responsible for some successful ambassadors (in Milan in 1467, at the Holy See in 1470, 1471, 1476 and 1478, in Siena in 1471) until the gonfalonier of the city in 1473 and later to podestà of Pisa in 1476.
He died in Milan on 28 August 1478, while he was going to Paris to ask the help of King Louis XI for the Florentines against Pope Sixtus IV, responsible for the Pazzi conspiracy. His remains were brought back to the city and buried in the Certosa di Firenze, a family burial place.