Isidoro Isolani was born around 1480, probably in Milan (in his works he defines himself as "Mediolanensis" or "de Mediolano"). At the end of the fifteenth century he wore the Dominican habit in the convent of S. Maria delle Grazie in Milan, belonging to the Congregation of Lombardy. Here he completed his philosophical and theological training. In 1514 he was in Fontanellato, near Parma; here, in March, he began the composition of his most famous work, the Summa de donis s. Ioseph, ended Nov 20. 1521 in Pavia, where it was printed the following year in G. Pocatela's printing house, with a dedication to Pope Adrian VI. In the three-year period 1516-18 the I. he settled in Milan, where in 1517 he published the De imperio militantis Ecclesiae (Gottardo Da Ponte), considered his theological masterpiece. In 1518 the general chapter of the Lombard Congregation of Dominicans, meeting in Milan, entrusted him with the celebratory speech, De patriae urbis laudibus panegyricus, delivered on 11 May in the presence of the city authorities and published in 1519.