Thomas Platter (Engraving, c. 1839) Thomas Platter’s (1499-1582) account of his life is one of the most famous autobiographical documents composed in German during the sixteenth century. Drafted late in Platter’s life at the request of his son, Felix, it chronicles Platter’s boyhood as a goatherd in Valais (today southwest Switzerland) and his incredible wanderings as an itinerant scholar. Engraving from The Autobiography of Thomas Platter. London: B. Wertheim, 1839.