Pedro Damião

Pedro Damiano (Pedro Damião in Portuguese) was a Portuguese apothecary (pharmacist) who lived from 1470 to 1544. A native of Odemira, he was generally considered the world's strongest chess player in the early 1500's. 

These are the 8 editions of Damiano's Book Published in the 16th Century

He wrote "Libro da impare giocare a scacchi" (Book to Learn to Play Chess), published in Rome, Italy, in 1512. Written in Italian and Spanish, It was the first bestseller of the modern game of chess, and went through eight editions in the sixteenth century.

A Mate in 3 Puzzle from Damiano's Book

It is the oldest book that definitely states that the square on the right of the row closest to each player must be white. He also offers advice regarding blindfold chess principally focused on the need to master notation based on numbering the squares 1-64.

A Mate in 5 Puzzle from Damiano's Book

There's no King in the Diagram as it was also not in the Book

In ten chapters and 124 pages, Damiano describes the rules of the game, offers advice on strategy, presents a selection of 72 chess problems, analyzes a few openings and introduced the smothered mate.

In this book Damiano suggested chess was invented by Xerxes which would be the reason why it was known in Portuguese as Xadrez and in Spanish as Ajedrez. In fact, these words come from Sanskrit caturaṅga via Arabic šaṭranj.