The oldest "Life of Saint Rocco" was written in Italian, probably by his friend and follower Gothard Palastrelli of Plaisance. The original is lost, but the Nuremberg library owns the translation of this text in German dating from 1484.

Besides, a Venetian aristocrat and governor of Brescia in Lombardy, Francesco Diedo, collected several oral and written versions in a biography that he published in 1484.

It would be better to call it a "hagiography", that is, an edifying account where legend blends with the supernatural in a story.

In 1494, Hercules Albiflorius, from the town of Udine, published another life. These texts--the oldest, because numerous accounts exist--have allowed modern historians to determine the principal events and dates in the life of Saint Rocco.