Marco Sgarbi (Eds.) - Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy-Springer International Publishing (2015)

A
Abraham ben Isaac Shalom scholar of the period, who combined his Jewish
learning with deep proficiency in the current phil-
Born: Date unknown, Catalonia osophical trends. His thought integrated three
Died: 1492, Catalonia traditions: medieval Jewish philosophy, mostly
Maimonides, Gersonides, and Hasdai Crescas;
Abraham Melamed Muslim philosophy, mostly Averroes, as he was
Department of Jewish History, The Center for the translated into Hebrew; and Scholastic
Research of Jewish Culture, University of Haifa, philosophy.
Haifa, Israel Shalom’s main writing is Neveh Shalom
(Abode of Peace), a collection of homilies based
on aggadic passages from the Talmudic tractate
Berakhot (twice published, Constantinople,
1539; Venice, 1574). Into this traditional literary
Abstract genre, he interpolated various philosophical dis-
cussions, influenced by the abovementioned phil-
Abraham ben Isaac Shalom, active in Catalonia osophic sources. His main aim here was to prove
in the late fifteenth century, belongs to the last that “Moses [=Maimonides] is true and his teach-
phase of medieval Jewish philosophy. He typi- ing is true.” He endeavored to prove the veracity
cally combined his Jewish learning with influ- of Maimonides’ teachings against his many
ences of medieval philosophy – Jewish, Muslim, critics. In this, he joined the fierce Maimonidean
and Scholastic. His main writing is Neveh Shalom controversy which raged in Jewish scholarly cir-
(Abode of Peace), a collection of homilies cles throughout the late Middle Ages. He fiercely
infused with these philosophic influences. defended the equilibrium Maimonides endeav-
ored to create between the Torah and Aristotelian
philosophy. He critiqued Gersonides’ extreme
Biography position which criticized Maimonides for
compromising philosophy, on the one hand, and
Shalom was active in the second part of the fif- Crescas’ position which criticized Maimonides
teenth century, one of the last Jewish philoso- for compromising the Torah, on the other, and
phers in Spain before the great expulsion of the identified with what he considered to be Maimon-
Jews (1492). Little is known concerning Sha- ides’ true balanced position. Attempting this, he
lom’s life. He was active in Catalonia and died often got into difficulties in his quest to harmo-
there in 1492. Shalom was a typical Jewish nize these conflicting authorities. His staunch
# Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
M. Sgarbi (ed.), Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_2-1
2 Abraham ben Isaac Shalom
belief in the authority of Maimonides led him at philosophy on contemporary Jewish scholars.
times to read him allegorically, thereby solving Shalom translated two philosophical writings
theological problems caused by the plain reading from Latin to Hebrew: a compendium of the
of Maimonides’ views. This was also the tactic physical sciences by Albertus Magnus,
which he employed in order to answer the criti- Philosophia Pauperum, under the title
cisms which both Gersonides and Crescas hurled Ha-Filosopyiah ha-Tivit (i.e., “Natural Philoso-
at Maimonides, each from the opposite angle. phy”), extant in manuscript form (Hamburg
Neveh Shalom reveals a careful study of medi- Ms. 266), and a discussion of certain problems
eval Jewish thinkers, mainly Maimonides, of Aristotle’s Organon by Marsilius of Inghen,
Gersonides, and Crescas, and non-Jewish philos- under the title She’elot u-Teshuvot (“Questions
ophers, such as Averroes; through him, he was and Answers”), partially published during the
influenced by the Platonic political thought. Sha- nineteenth century.
lom, however, is not considered an original
thinker. His main motivation was not the revela-
tion of philosophical truth, but apologetic, to References
defend the theological doctrines of the Jewish
faith. Davidson, H. 1964. The philosophy of Abraham Shalom:
A fifteenth-century exposition of and defense of Mai-
Another important facet of Shalom’s scholarly
monides. Berkeley: University of California Press.
activity was the translations of Scholastic trea- Melamed, A. 2003. The philosopher-king in medieval and
tises from the Latin into Hebrew. This is another Renaissance Jewish political thought, 125–134.
example of the increasing influence of Scholastic Albany: SUNY Press.
A
Abraham ben Shem Tov Bibago can lead to human perfection, but so can faith.
Often, he suggests that the perfection obtained
Born: Possibly in Huesca, uncertain date perhaps through faith is superior to that attained through
around 1420 human intellect. These views, however, are not
supported by the philosophical and scientific
Died: Saragossa, 1489 works, where Bibago presents Aristotelian phi-
losophy as the only way to achieve human per-
Yehuda Halper fection. He even suggests in these works that the
Jewish Thought, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, true purpose of Judaism is to allow the elite to
Israel study philosophy. Bibago’s two contradictory
views, which he gives in different kinds of
works, mark him firmly as a Jewish Averroist.
Abstract Alternate Names
Abraham Bibago was a Jewish Averroist, whose ▶ Bivagch, ▶ Bivach, ▶ Bichai, ▶ Vivachi, or
work treats the connection between Judaism and ▶ Bibachi. Father’s name given variously as
philosophy as well as Aristotelian logic, physics, Shem Tob or Yom Tob
and metaphysics. His numerous writings can
essentially be divided into two groups: (1) philo-
sophical and scientific works and (2) religious Biography
works. The first group consists of interpretations
of Aristotle’s works taking into account inter alia Abraham Bibago lived, wrote, and taught in Ara-
several of Averroes’ commentaries. He also gon in the turbulent years that led to the Expul-
addressed current scholastic issues and in general sion of the Jews from Spain. Bibago grew up in
strove to promote the Aristotelian approach. His the aftermath of the widespread destruction of the
religious writings, most prominently the Derekh Jewish communities of Castile and Aragon
Emunah (“Way of Faith”), strive to present a between 1391 and 1412. As an adult he witnessed
unified portrait of the world, which preserves a the widespread unification of much of Iberia by
place for science and philosophy alongside Tal- Ferdinand and Isabella in 1479 and the subse-
mudic based religious life. In general, Bibago quent establishment of the Inquisition in 1480.
says in these works that philosophy and science He lived through the expulsion of the Jews from
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_3-1
2 Abraham ben Shem Tov Bibago
Andalusia in 1483, but died about 3 years before Bibago generally presents these thinkers by
the expulsion of Jews from all of Iberia in 1492. name, but he does not always state when he is
In addition to a classical Jewish education, quoting Aristotle and Averroes. Indeed, he often
involving study of Bible, Talmud, and a wide substitutes Averroes’ words for Aristotle’s with-
range of Jewish mystical, theological, and philo- out indicating this and presents Averroes’ words
sophical works, Bibago was well versed in the as though they were Bibago’s own. This is most
Greek works available to him (mostly Aristotle), evident in certain sections of his commentary on
Arabic works including Averroes, Avicenna and the Metaphysics, where Bibago quotes from
Al-Ghazzali, and Christian scholasticism. Bibago Averroes’ Middle Commentary on the Metaphys-
certainly read the scholastic works in Latin, but ics as if it were the text on which he comments
his study of the Greek and Arabic thinkers seems and then presents text from Averroes’ Long Com-
to have relied on Hebrew translations (it is not mentary on the Metaphysics as if it is Bibago’s
certain whether he knew Arabic; he probably did own commentary. That is, Bibago sometimes
not know Greek). While in Huesca, he had some uses Averroes’ Long Commentary to explain
dealings with King John II of Aragon and seems Averroes’ Middle Commentary. This confusion
to have been involved in a public discussion with may be deliberate. In his introduction in rhymed-
a Christian scholar. It seems he left Huesca some- prose to the Commentary on the Metaphysics,
time in 1466–1470 under suspicion of heresy. Bibago says that “necessity” brings him to
Despite this, he seems to have led an academy speak in “the language of the author or according
at Saragossa by 1471 and to have been involved to his views” even when those views run counter
in communal life, delivering public sermons in to religion. As a result, Bibago notes, anywhere
the synagogue and working with Jews who had his commentary departs from religiously accept-
been forcibly converted to Christianity. He seems able views may reflect the voice of Aristotle or
to have died before the 1489 trial against promi- Averroes. That is, Bibago’s Commentary on the
nent Aragonian Jews who helped forced converts Metaphysics, like his other philosophical com-
return to Judaism. mentaries, presents philosophy as it is without
apologetics and leaves to the readers the task of
sorting what is religiously acceptable from what
Works and Themes is not, and of attributing the latter to Aristotle and
Averroes, but not to Bibago. Yet, Bibago sees his
The majority of Bibago’s works are philosophical commentaries as fulfilling a religious function.
and scientific in character, and while they may Especially in the Commentary on the Metaphys-
make reference, usually in introductions, to Jew- ics, Bibago describes philosophical speculation
ish religious texts, their primary content is not such as he undertakes in that work in religious
religious. Nevertheless, his writings are all in terms as leading to salvation and redemption.
Hebrew for a presumably Jewish readership that That is, despite acknowledging philosophy’s
was educated and interested in science and phi- occasional differences with Judaism, he casts
losophy. His most important philosophical works philosophy as the ultimate task of religious life
are his Commentaries on Aristotle and Averroes: and, in other sections, as true human happiness.
he wrote on the Posterior Analytics, on the Phys- Nevertheless, Bibago’s religious works depict
ics (now lost), on the Metaphysics, on the De faith as the ultimate purpose of human life, per-
Anima (which survives as marginal notes to haps even above intellectual thought. In his most
Averroes’ Middle Commentary), and on widely read work, Derekh Emunah (“Way of
Averroes’ medical compendium known as the Faith”), Bibago attempts to fuse an essentially
Colliget (now lost). In those commentaries that Aristotelian view of the world with one that he
are extant, we see Bibago make use of a vast sees as acceptable to regular Jews of his time.
number of scholars, Greek, Arabic, Jewish, and Derekh Emunah approaches this fusion through
Christian, in addition to Aristotle and Averroes. an analysis of central theoretical and theological
Abraham ben Shem Tov Bibago 3
issues, such as God’s providence, the role of He had a more marked influence on other Jewish
human intellect and faith, and fundamental reli- thinkers, particularly Isaac Arama and Isaac
gious principles. Bibago’s approach to these Abravanel. In particular, Abravanel’s discussion
issues is most frequently to bring and then inter- of principles of faith in Rosh Amana is a response
pret numerous statements from the Bible, Tal- to part iii of Derekh Emunah, even though
mud, Midrash, and even Jewish folk legends. Abravanel does not mention Bibago by name
The interpretations he gives are clearly philo- there. Unlike Bibago, Abravanel does not include
sophical and, indeed, quite obviously Aristote- philosophical interpretations of traditional texts
lian. That is, Bibago’s interpretations of in his Rosh Amana, and it is possible he found
traditional texts are with a view to an outside, those interpretations to be overly fanciful. Bibago
philosophical standard: Bibago makes religious is vehemently criticized by Jacob Ibn Habib in his
texts conform to a view of philosophy, rather than En Yakob for his philosophical interpretations of
vice versa. Moreover, Derekh Emunah adopts the Talmud, which Ibn Habib states that even
intellectual conjunction as the ultimate end of Bibago himself did not believe. The En Yakob
human life. Like Maimonides, Bibago identifies strove to derive theological notions from the Tal-
this conjunction with prophecy and prophetic mud, rather than read philosophical ideas into
activity and generally with human spiritual hap- it. We find mention of Bibago in a number of
piness. Yet, he recognizes that the traditional other important Jewish thinkers including
Jewish texts do not describe intellectual conjunc- Shelomo Alqabeṣ, Jacob Luzzatto, Joseph Solo-
tion in sufficient detail and accordingly sends his mon Delmedigo, Judah Moscato, Moses Mat, and
readers to Aristotle’s De Anima and Metaphysics Samuel David Luzzatto.
as well as Averroes’ Epistle on the Possibility of
Conjunction. Most importantly, Bibago claims in
Derekh Emunah that Faith can imitate intellec-
References
tual thought and together with Revelation, which
comes with conclusions of scientific notions, can
Primary Literature
create conjunction between humans and divine Abraham Bibago. 1521. The way of faith (Derekh
intellect, even without full performance of the Emunah). Constantinople.
human intellect. That is, faith and revelation pro- 1522. This will comfort us (Zeh yenaḥamenu). Salonica.
Halper, Yehuda. 2014. Commentary on Aristotle’s Meta-
vide a substitute for intellect that can allow
physics [Introduction], trans. Bibago’s introduction to
nonintellectual Jews to attain ultimate human his commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Zutot:
happiness, viz. conjunction. Whereas in the phil- Perspectives on Jewish Culture 10: 1–15.
osophical works, the emphasis is on the activity Nuriel, Abraham, ed. 2000a. The tree of life (‘eṣ ḥayyim)
[Hebrew, selections]. In Concealed and revealed in
of philosophy with somewhat open-ended con-
medieval Jewish philosophy, 184–185. Jerusalem:
clusions, Derekh Emunah focuses on alleged con- Magnes Press.
clusions of philosophy and utilizing them to form Nuriel, Abraham, ed. 2000b. Letters to Moses Arondi
a pseudo-intellectual conjunction. [Hebrew, selections]. In Concealed and revealed in
medieval Jewish philosophy, 186–188. Jerusalem:
Magnes Press.
Nuriel, Abraham, ed. 2000c. Commentary on Aristotle’s
Impact and Legacy Posterior analytics [Hebrew, selections]. In
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phy, 188–190. Jerusalem: Magnes Press.
Bibago’s significance is in promoting an Aristo-
Nuriel, Abraham, ed. 2000d. Philosophical discussions
telian/Averroist view of the world after such a [Hebrew, selections]. In Concealed and revealed in
view had already been called into question by medieval Jewish philosophy, 191–192. Jerusalem:
such important thinkers as Crescas and Albo. Magnes Press.
Zonta, Mauro. 2006. Treatise on the plurality of forms
His community building efforts at Huesca and
[English Paraphrase]. In Hebrew scholasticism in the
Saragossa were ultimately not fruitful, no doubt fifteenth century: A history and sourcebook, 41–107.
due to the expulsion of the communities in 1492. Dordrecht: Springer Press.
4 Abraham ben Shem Tov Bibago
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Ackerman, A. 2003. Jewish philosophy and the Jewish- Middle Ages, 384–389. Cambridge:Cambridge
Christian philosophical dialogue in fifteenth century University Press.
Spain. In Cambridge companion to medieval Jewish Steinschneider, M. 1883. Abraham Bibago’s Schriften.
philosophy, 371–390. Cambridge:Cambridge Univer- Monatsschrift f€ur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des
sity Press. Judethums Kommissionsverlag des Bibliographischer
Halper, Y. 2014. Philosophical Allegory in Bibago: Bureas. 32:79–96 and 125–144.
Exegetical duplicity for the sake of open inquiry. Steinschneider, M. 1893. Die hebräischen Übersetzungen
Jewish Studies Quarterly. 21(3):261–276. des Mittelalters, 168–171. Berlin: Kommissionsverlag
Kellner, M. 1986. Dogma in medieval Jewish thought: des Bibliographischer Bureas.
From Maimonides to Abravanel. Oxford.
Lazaroff, A. 1981. The theology of Abraham Bibago. Tertiary Literature
University: University of Alabama Press. Jospe, R. 2007. Bibago, Abraham ben Shem Tov. In Ency-
Nuriel, A. 2000. Concealed and revealed in medieval clopaedia Judaica, ed. M. Berenbaum and F. Skolnik,
Jewish philosophy, 181–312. Magnes Press. 3.570–571. Detroit:Macmillan Reference USA.
Jerusalem.
A
Abū’l-Fazl Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
Born: 14 January 1551, South Asia Abu’l-Fażl ‘Allāmī (14 January 1551 to
22 August 1602) was the most important courtier,
Died: 22 August 1602, South Asia advisor, spiritual devotee, and close friend of the
powerful Mughal (also called Timurid) emperor
A. Azfar Moin Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Akbar (r. 1556–1605).
Religious Studies, The University of Texas at He played a central role in the emperor’s articu-
Austin, Austin, TX, USA lation of a cosmopolitan and religiously inclusive
vision of empire that endured for nearly two
centuries in South Asia.
Born into an influential scholarly family that
traced its origins over six generations to Sind and
Yemen, Abu’l-Fażl joined Mughal imperial ser-
Abstract
vice in 1574 at the age of 23. His accomplished
father, Shaykh Mubārak, and older brother, Abu’l
Abu’l-Fażl ‘Allāmī (14 January 1551 to
Faiż Faiżī, already held key appointments at court
22 August 1602) was the most important courtier,
as religious advisor and poet laureate
advisor, spiritual devotee, and close friend of the
respectively.
powerful Mughal (also called Timurid) emperor
Abu’l-Fażl’s intellectual pursuits and
Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Akbar (r. 1556–1605).
religiopolitical outlook were shaped by his father
He played a central role in the emperor’s articu-
who was known for his vast learning, spiritual
lation of a cosmopolitan and religiously inclusive
eclecticism, and innovative interpretations of
vision of empire that endured for nearly two
Islamic law. Early in Akbar’s reign, Shaykh
centuries in South Asia.
Mubārak’s enemies had accused him of heresy
and sedition because of his links with a millenar-
ian Sufi movement called the Mahdawīyya (lit.
Synonyms/Alternate Names messianists) that had swept northern India in the
first half of the sixteenth century. To escape per-
Abu’l-Fażl ibn Mubārak; Abu al-Fażl; Abul Fazl secution, Shaykh Mubārak and his sons had to go
into hiding. Yet by the time Abu’l-Fażl was
presented at the Mughal court, the family’s
honor and influence stood restored. This change
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_5-1
2 Abū´l-Fazl
in fortune occurred because their free-thinking feet of his Majesty, I wrote a commentary to the
views on religion and their experiments with A’yat al-Kursi, (Quran 2:256) and presented it
when the emperor was at Agrah. I was favourably
various Muslim and non-Muslim spiritual, philo- received, and his Majesty graciously accepted my
sophical, and occult systems of thought had come offering. (Abu’l-Fażl paraphrased in Blochmann
into alignment with the inclusive principles on 2003, 33)
which Akbar desired to consolidate his empire in
India.
When, two decades later, he composed the Impact and Legacy
grand chronicle of Akbar’s reign, Abu’l-Fażl
wrote into the imperial text his own biography. In his long years of service, Abu’l-Fażl’s
There he stated that even before he met Akbar, he crowning achievement was the rationalization
was beginning to see the vanity of dogmatic and enunciation of Akbar’s grand imperial
scholastic pursuits and the chauvinism of vision. While Akbar’s grandfather, Babur
depending on only one philosophical or religious (d. 1530), and father, Humayun (d. 1556), had
point of view. Instead, he wanted to explore the moved to South Asia from ancestral Central Asia
sacred traditions of the entire world. When he met and founded a conquest state, it was under Akbar
Akbar, he realized that to serve the emperor that a stable administrative imperial structure
would allow him to pursue these desires. In his took shape. After he had achieved military dom-
own words, Abu’l-Fażl described how Akbar inance, Akbar created a successful system of
became for him a spiritual guide: imperial recruitment that incented warrior groups
[As a young scholar] I almost became selfish and and their leaders in India, Iran, and Central Asia
conceited, and resolved to tread the path of proud to join his growing empire. In doing so, he did not
retirement. The number of pupils that I had gath- discriminate based on religious identity but made
ered around me, served but to increase my ped- loyalty to the emperor the key criterion for impe-
antry. In fact, the pride of learning had made my
brain drunk with the idea of seclusion. Happily for rial service. It was this new style of sovereignty
myself, when I passed the nights in lonely spots that Abu’l-Fażl articulated in the massive Book of
with true seekers after truth, and enjoyed the soci- Akbar (Akbarnāmā).
ety of such as are empty-handed, but rich in mind The Book of Akbar was a chronicle of chron-
and heart, my eyes were opened and I saw the
selfishness and covetousness of the so-called icles written in a highly stylized form of court of
learned. The advice of my father with difficulty Persian, the third volume of which was called the
kept me back from outbreaks of folly; my mind “Institutes of Akbar” (Ā‘īn-i Akbarī), a detailed
had no rest, and my heart felt itself drawn to the gazetteer and manual for running the empire.
sages of Mongolia or to the hermits of Lebanon;
I longed for interviews with the lamas of Tibet or These texts, illustrated by the leading painters of
with the padris (lit. fathers, refers to Catholic India and Iran, had no precedent in content or
priests) of Portugal, and I would gladly sit with form in India or elsewhere in Muslim Asia.
the priests of the Parsis and the learned of the Through them, Abu’l-Fażl monumentalized a
Zendavesta. I was sick of the learned of my own
land. My brother and other relatives then advised major feat of state-building in the early modern
me to attend the Court, hoping that I would find in world.
the emperor a leader to the sublime world of However, Abu’l-Fażl’s success and his close
thought. In vain did I at first resist their admoni- alliance with the emperor came at a price. Like
tions. Happy, indeed, am I now that I have found in
my sovereign a guide to the world of action and a his father, Shaykh Mubārak, he too was accused
comforter in lonely retirement; in him meet my of straying from Islam when he lent his support to
longing after faith and my desire to do my a religious scheme initiated by Akbar that resem-
appointed work in the world; he is the orient bled, among other things, the messianism of the
where the light of form and ideal dawns; and it is
he who has taught me that the work of the world, Mahdawīyya. There is much to indicate that to
multifarious as it is, may yet harmonize with the build an imperial polity on universal principles,
spiritual unity of truth. I was thus presented at Akbar had decided to move beyond the legal
Court. As I had no worldly treasures to lay at the tenets of Islam (Moin 2012, 130–169). Instead,
Abū´l-Fazl 3
he turned to a cosmology of sacred kingship that signed by other senior Muslim scholars, affirming
drew upon the saintly customs of Sufi Islam and Akbar as the chief jurisconsult or mujtahid of the
forms of cabbalistic and Hermetic knowledge. age, a supreme authority capable of using reason
Driven by such forms of custom and knowledge, in matters of scriptural law. That the emperor was
Akbar chose the end of the first Islamic millen- not even literate was considered no obstacle in
nium, which coincided with his reign, to style this case for, as Abu’l-Fażl explained, he was the
himself as a universal saint and sovereign, a mes- most spiritually accomplished being of the world
sianic being above the distinctions of all religion. and as such enjoyed a status far above the “paper-
Members of the court and all others who wanted worshipping scholiasts” of his land (quoted in
to devote themselves to the emperor were invited Moin 2012, 139).
to accept him as a spiritual guide. Although this Abu’l-Fażl justified Akbar’s status as chief
millennial scheme was merely called discipleship jurist of Islam by placing the position itself
(murī dī ) in Akbar’s official chronicle, it was later lower in a spiritual hierarchy at the apex of
remembered as an attempt at a new religion, the which stood the saint of the world. The emperor,
so-called Dīn-i Ilahī or Tawhīd-i Ilahī (Divine he explained, had simply kept his true spiritual
Religion or Divine Monotheism). Abu’l-Fażl, status hidden behind a veil and unveiled it only
his brother, and his father were instrumental in gradually, first as prime thinker and judge, and
giving Akbar’s spiritual program coherent cos- then as the foremost saint. In the court chronicle,
mological and ritual shape. Indeed, Abu’l-Fażl Abu’l-Fażl depicted Akbar as the saintlike mes-
can be considered the chief ritual specialist of sianic being and traced his genealogy to an
the Mughal imperial cult. ancient fatherless birth involving a divine light:
Soon after Abu’l-Fażl’s appointment at court . . .which took shape, without human instrumental-
in 1574, the emperor had begun to hold debates ity or a father’s loins, in the pure womb of her
among scholars of religion in a hall constructed Majesty Alanquva, after having, in order to arrive
especially for the purpose, the House of Worship at perfection, occupied during several ages the holy
bodily wrappings of other holy manifestations, is
(‘Ibādat Khāna). Abu’l-Fażl participated in these manifesting itself at the present day, in the pure
discussions and apparently embarrassed Muslim entity of this unique God-knower and
scholars much senior to him. He also described God-worshipper (Akbar).
some of these discussions which involved not How many ages have passed away!
only Muslims of various sectarian and Sufi per- How many planetary conjunctions occurred,
suasions but also Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians, and That this happy star might come forth from heaven!
(Abu’l-Fażl ibn Mubārak and Beveridge 2005,
Jesuit missionaries invited from the coastal
1–2: 45)
region of Goa for this express purpose. According
to Abu’l-Fażl, Akbar took a particularly keen
interest in the religious learning and painted Such descriptions were not mere
icons of the Jesuits. The emperor also invited panegyric. They were part of a pragmatic pro-
them to challenge their Muslim rivals by under- gram in which the emperor ended discrimination
going an ordeal by fire. Notably, Abu’l-Fażl based on religious and sectarian affiliation and
described the Christian priests in a positive light opened the doors of imperial service based on
by stating that it was his Muslim coreligionists ability and loyalty. This program was enshrined
who were too cowardly to take up the challenge. and articulated in the principle of “universal
By 1579, under the combined onslaught of the peace” (ṣulḥ-i kull), which Abu’l-Fażl outlined
emperor and his savant, the conservative old in the imperial chronicle. Under this principle,
guard of Muslim intellectuals lost its status and the state protected the religious beliefs and cus-
influence at court. The emperor declared himself toms of all Muslim sects and non-Muslim reli-
better qualified than any scholar of Islamic scrip- gions. This could only be done, in Akbar and
ture to interpret the law. A decree (maḥżar) to this Abu’l-Fażl’s opinion, by raising the body of the
effect was drafted by Abu’l-Fażl’s father and
4 Abū´l-Fazl
emperor above the constraints of any one scrip- future emperor Jahangīr. When Akbar recalled
tural tradition, including Islam. By this time, the Abu’l-Fażl to help him deal with his troublesome
emperor had already forged marriage alliances heir, Jahangīr had him waylaid and murdered.
with Rajput warrior houses in which Hindu prin- That he was assassinated by the crown prince in
cesses became power Mughal queens without the struggle for the throne showed the heights to
converting to Islam. He had also broken from which this court scholar had risen in power and
Islamic custom by abolishing the poll tax on influence.
non-Muslims (jizya) as well as the tax on Hindu
pilgrims. These steps were resisted by certain
factions of his Muslim nobility, a resentment
References
that his half brother in Kabul, Mirzā Hakīm, and
other rebels tried to capitalize on. However, the Abu’l-Fażl ibn Mubārak. 1872. Ruq‘āt-i Abu’l-Fażl.
emperor subdued his opponents and successfully Cawnpore, Navalkishor.
institutionalized his imperial vision. Since Abu’l- Abu’l-Fażl ibn Mubārak. 1877. Aʾin-i Akbari, vol. 2. Cal-
Fażl was the key intellectual force behind cutta, Bibliotheca Indica.
Abu’l-Fażl ibn Mubārak. 1877–1886. The Akbarnāmah,
Akbar’s millennial scheme, he too had to face 3 vols. Calcutta, Bibliotheca Indica.
the brunt of controversy that followed in which Abu’l-Fażl ibn Mubārak. 1913. Mukātabāt-e ‘Allāmī .
Akbar was accused of trying to replace Islam with Cawnpore.
his own religion. Abu’l-Fażl ibn Mubārak. 2005. Aʾī n-i Akbarī . Aligarh, Sir
Syed Academy.
During and after the inauguration of Akbar’s Abu’l-Fażl, and H. Beveridge. 2005. The Akbar Nama of
millennial imperial program, Abu’l-Fażl served Abu-l-Fazl: History of the reign of Akbar including an
as his chief secretary. It is from Abu’l-Fażl’s pen account of his predecessors, 3 (1 and 2 bound in one)
that the most important imperial correspondence vols. Lahore.
Abu’l-Fażl ‘Allāmī, H. Blochmann, D.C. Phillott,
and edicts were issued. We have thus echoes of H.S. Jarrett, and Jadunath Sarkar. 2003. The Aʾin-i
his thought and deeds preserved in the writings to Akbari. Lahore, Sang-e-Meel Publishers.
and by Portuguese Jesuit priests, Safavid Iranian Blochmann, H. 2003. Biography of Shaykh Abu ‘l-Fazl
chronicles, and works composed in Uzbek ‘Allami. In The Aʾin-i Akbari, ed. Abu’l-Fażl ‘Allāmī,
H. Blochmann, D.C. Phillott, H.S. Jarrett and Jadunath
Central Asia. Sarkar, 27–52. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publishers.
The connection with Safavid Iran is the most Eaton, R. M. Abu‘l-Fazl Allami. In Encyclopædia Iranica,
noteworthy, for it is in competition with the I/3, 287–289. An updated version is available online at
Safavid dynasty, which was of Sufi origins and http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abul-fazl-allami-
historian. Accessed 31 Jan 2014.
had conquered Iran in the sixteenth century that Fekrat, M., and S. Rahimi. 2014. Abū al-Faḍl ‘Allāmī. In
the Mughals of India shaped their vision of Encyclopaedia Islamica, Editors-in-Chief: Wilferd
empire. The Safavids knew of Akbar’s innovative Madelung and Farhad Daftary. Brill Online. http://
religiopolitical program and that it was being led referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-
islamica/abu-al-fad-l-alla-mi-COM_0058. Accessed
by Abu’l-Fażl. When a group of cabbalistic Sufis 7 Oct 2014.
called the Nuqtavīs (pointillists), who also Islam, Riazul. 1979. A calendar of documents on Indo-
espoused a millennial worldview, escaped perse- Persian relations, 2 vols. Tehran/Karachi: Iranian Cul-
cution in Iran to find refuge and favor at Akbar’s ture Foundation/Institute of Central & West Asian
Studies.
court in India, a Safavid court historian blamed Moin, A. 2012. The millennial sovereign: Sacred
Abu’l-Fażl for making the Mughal emperor a kingship and sainthood in Islam. New York: Columbia
“libertine” (wasī ‘al-mashrab) in matters of reli- University Press.
gion (Iskandar Beg Munshī quoted in Islam 1979, Nizami, K. 1989. Akbar & religion. Delhi: Idarah-i-
Adabiyat-i-Delli.
1: 124). Rizvi, S. 1975. Religious and intellectual history of the
Abu’l-Fażl served his final years as a senior Muslims in Akbar’s reign, with special reference to
military commander, leading the Mughal cam- Abu’l-Fażl, 1556–1605. New Delhi: Munshiram
paigns in the south. By this time, he had made Manoharlal.
enemies with the rebellious heir-apparent, the
A
Akindynos, Gregorios names do not correspond to energies but just

denote divine nature. Regarding man’s participa-
Born: ca. 1300, Prilapos, Northern Macedonia tion in God as a means for deification, Akindynos
Died: ca. 1348, Macedonia refuses Hesychast’s claim that man is capable of
participating in divine energies and even seeing
George Zografidis them in a spiritual manner. The divine light which
Department of Philosophy, School of Philosophy humans experience is a symbol and, together with
and Education, Aristotle University of the created world and reason, a way to the knowl-
Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece edge of God. Given this kind of knowledge, it is
only in divine love that the inexplicable union of
man and God occurs and deification is possible.
Akindynos influenced anti-Palamite writers, and
his works have been severely criticized by
Abstract Hesychast theologians.
Gregorios Akindynos was a Byzantine theolo-

gian of the fourteenth century (ca. 1300–1348), Biography
learned in patristic literature and Greek philoso-
phy, and leader of the anti-Palamite party in the Gregorios (his baptismal name is unknown) was
second phase of Hesychast Controversy born in Prilapos, Northern Macedonia, at
(1341–1347). Based on his interpretation of the ca. 1300. He studied in Thessaloniki under the
Greek patristic tradition, he wrote extensive ref- humanist Thomas Magistros and the monk
utations of Gregorios Palamas’ works and espe- Bryennios, and he was trained in theology and
cially of the Hesychast theological justification of secular learning. Between 1326 and 1330 he met
the essence-energies distinction within God. For Gregorios Palamas who appreciated his talents
Akindynos simplicity is a major attribute of the and guided him to monastic spirituality though
tripartite God, and everything separated from finally he was not accepted in Mount Athos. He
God’s essence is created; so there can be no returned to Thessaloniki (1332), where he met
distinction between incomprehensible uncreated Barlaam of Calabria, and before 1334 he dwelled
divine essence and comprehensible and inferior in Constantinople.
uncreated divine energies. Any such theory sub- When the Hesychast Controversy started,
verts the unity of the Trinity and leads to Akindynos, being a friend of both Palamas and
ditheism, for which he accused Palamas. Divine Barlaam (the leaders of the rival sides), tried to
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_6-1
2 Akindynos, Gregorios
reconcile them and to bring peace to the Ortho- personal originality but inscribes himself within
dox Church. Putting aside his theological dis- the patristic tradition, and he constantly relies on
agreement with Palamas, Akindynos attempted patristic texts and recurs to their authority while
to persuade Barlaam not to insult the psychoso- accusing Palamas for dangerous theological ren-
matic technique of monks and defended Palamas ovations on account of textual misinterpretations.
from Barlaam’s accusations for heresy. But when His opus magnum is the Antirrhetics against
an ecclesiastical Council (1341) condemned what he calls Palamite heresy. He is methodically
Barlaam and accepted the essence-energies dis- citing by paragraph Palamas’ text and then com-
tinction in God, he entered the anti-Hesychast ments on it. The main problem of the Controversy
party. was not (as it was in its first phase) the dispute
At the second phase of the Controversy, after over the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit and
Barlaam departed for Italy (1341), theology was filioque but the possibility and the nature of
mixed with politics: Akindynos became himself man’s participation in God as a means for deifi-
the leader of the anti-Palamite party, and during cation (theosis).
the Civil War (1341–1347), he took the part of Akindynos reduces his opponents’ doctrines
Emperor John V Palaiologos against John VI in two main theses: (1) the existence of uncreated
Kantakouzenos, the co-emperor and theologian energies (God’s operations) that are “infinitely
who had supported Palamas. He cooperated with infinite” inferior to divine essence and (2) man’s
Patriarch John Kalekas and started to gain eccle- ability to participate in these energies and even to
siastical power; he charged Palamas for ditheism see them “in a spiritual manner through his cor-
and a Council (1344) condemned his once friend. poreal eyes.”
When John VI got back to power (1347),
Akindynos lost the Court’s favor and left the 1. The first thesis puts in question the very nature
capital, while a new Council restored Palamas. of God in himself. For Akindynos and all those
He died soon after (1348) and he was officially who take simplicity to be a major attribute of
condemned together with Barlaam (1351). the tripartite God, such a distinction under-
mines the unity of the Trinity and lets to
intrude a substantial separation and hence
Doctrine inferiority in God; so he accuses Palamas for
ditheism and Messalianism, as if the
Akindynos had a fair knowledge of Greek philos- Hesychast was influenced by the dualist her-
ophy and of the patristic literature as it can be esy of Bogomils.
attested in his theological works and the numer-
ous letters written in a short period of time. He is For Akindynos divine names do not corre-
a competent writer although sometimes his argu- spond to separate uncreated energies but are
mentative style is loose and unmethodical mostly mere names that humans attach to God to denote
because of its polemical tone and the intentional divine nature; what we call uncreated energy is
repetitions. divine essence because “every uncreated is
Hesychast writers created a totally negative essence” (Antirr. 5.2.5). It is the human episte-
picture of a heretic Akindynos insensitive to mological condition that constrains man to grasp
monastic spirituality, influenced by Greek philos- the whole at once; so when we divide the whole in
ophy and exponent of erroneous or even pagan smaller unities, we risk to take them as being self-
beliefs. Palamas presents him as an agnosticist existing. Thus within the divinity, as simple and
and some modern scholars as a rationalist who is as a whole, there can be no distinction between
more concerned with secular wisdom and is using incomprehensible divine essence and compre-
its tools to comprehend theological issues and hensible divine energy. The divinity itself is
especially the triadic dogma. Akindynos’ self- either inconceivable as a whole or entirely con-
image is quite different: he does not claim ceivable. Palamas’ distinction introduces a
Akindynos, Gregorios 3
hierarchical partition between essence (a higher References

divinity) and energies (a lower divinity), thus
leading to a ditheism. In addition it implies two Primary Literature
different ontological levels that render impossi- Confession to the Empress: Candal, M. 1959. La
Confesión de fe antipalamı́tica de Gregorio Acı́ndyno.
ble for the energies to be uncreated
Orientalia Christiana Periodica 25: 215–264.
(as Hesychast’s claim). So every divine energy, Discourse to monk Ierotheos: Pitsakes, K. 1972.
if separated from God’s essence, is created; the GrZgorίou Ἀkindύnou a᾿ nekdotZ pragmateίa perὶ
only uncreated energies (of the Father) are the (Konstantίnou;) Ἀrmenopoύlou. Epeteris Kentrou
Historias Hellenikou Dikaiou 19: 188–206.
Son and the Holy Spirit.
Discourse to Patriarch John [Kalekas]. . . on how the
Controversy between Palamas and Barlaam started:
2. The second issue about man’s participation in Nadal Cañellas, J. 2002. Discurso ante Juan Kalekas.
God has serious impact on anthropological In La théologie byzantine et sa tradition, vol. 2, ed.
C.G. Conticello and V. Conticello, 257–314.
and ethical matters. If we suppose that man
Turnhout, Brepols.
acquires the uncreated grace and thus partici- Gregory Palamas, Antirrhetics I-VII Against Akindynos:
pates in the divine essence, then man is uncre- Kontogiannis, L., and B. Fanourgakes. 1970.
ated and coeternal with the Creator, something Grgorίou toυ̃ Palamᾶ Suggrάmmata, vol. 3:
Ἀntirrtikoὶ prὸB Ἀkίndunon. Thessaloniki. Italian
absurd. It is only in divine love that the union
translation: Perrella, E., ed. 2005. Gregorio Palamas,
of man with God occurs – something inexpli- Dal sovraessenziale all’essenza, xx–xcvii, 3–881.
cable to human reason. Milano, Bompiani.
Gregory Palamas, Epistles I-III to Akindynos: Chrestou,
P., and J. Meyendorff. 1962. Grgorίou toυ̃ Palamᾶ
As for the experience of the divine light (the
Suggrάmmata, vol. 1, 176–187, 196–224, 296–312.
Taborian light of transfiguration), Akindynos Thessaloniki. Italian translation: Perrella,
calls it mysterious and beyond human explana- E., ed. 2006. Gregorio Palamas, Che cos’è
tion, but Palamas argues that for Akindynos it is l’Ortodossia, 386–431, 574–605. Milano, Bompiani.
Letters: Constantinides: Hero, A. 1983. Letters of Gregory
created (ktiston). This light is sensible; in fact it is
Akindynos, Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae 21.
a symbol. And such symbols, as well as the cre- Washington, DC, Dumbarton Oaks.
ated world and reason, are ways to the knowledge Refutation of Palamas’ Confession: Candal, M. 1963.
of God. This knowledge is what man should Escrito de Pálamas desconocido: su ‘Consfesión de
fe’ refutada por Akı́ndino. Orientalia Christiana
pursue and not an unattainable view of God; it
Periodica 29: 360–406.
is a means to deification made possible by God Refutation of Palamas’ Third Epistle to Akindynos: Nadal,
himself and incarnation. J. 1974. La rédaction première de la Troisième lettre de
Akindynos’ views had influenced the anti- Palamas à Akindynos. Orientalia Christiana
Periodica 40: 233–285.
Palamite writers of the fourteenth century, and
Refutations of the “Dialogue between an Orthodox and a
his works have been criticized or refuted in detail Barlaamite” of Gregory Palamas: Nadal Cañellas,
by numerous Hesychast theologians as his friend J., ed. 1995. Gregorii Acindyni refutationes duae
Gregorios Palamas, Matthaios Blastares, Patri- operis Gregorii Palamae cui titulus Dialogus inter
Orthodoxum et Barlaamitam, Corpus Christianorum.
arch Theophilos Kokkinos, David Disypatos,
Series Graeca 31. Turnhout/Leuven, Brepols. French
and Joseph Kalothetos. translation: Nadal Cañellas, J. 2006. La résistance
d’Akindynos à Grégoire Palamas: Enquête historique,
avec traduction et commentaire de quatre traités édité
s récemment, Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense: Études
Cross-References et documents 50–51, 2 vols. Leuven, Peeters.
▶ Barlaam of Calabria
Secondary Literature
▶ Gregoras Nikephoros Boiadjiev, T. 2000. Gregorios Akindynos als Ausleger des
▶ Palamas Gregorios Dionysios Pseudo-Areopagita. In Die Dionysius-
Rezeption im Mittelalter, Rencontres de philosophie
médiévale 9, ed. T. Boiadjiev, G. Kapriev and
A. Speer, 105–122. Turhnout, Brepols.
4 Akindynos, Gregorios
Boiadjiev, T. 2005. Meriston symbolon. Gregorios Nadal Cañellas, J. 2002. Gregorio Akı́ndinos. In La thé
Acindynos and the debate on tabor light. Synthesis ologie byzantine et sa tradition, ed. C.G. Conticello
Philosophica 39: 57–71. and V. Conticello, vol. 2, 189–256. Turnhout, Brepols.
Nadal, J. 1974. La critique par Acindynos de Nadal Cañellas, J. 2007. Le rôle de Grégoire Akindynos
l’herméneutique patristique de Palamas. Istina 19: dans la controverse hésychaste du XIVeme siècle à
297–328. Byzance. Ιn Eastern crossroads: Essays on medieval
Nadal, J. 1990. Gregorio Akindinos, ¿eslavo o bizantino? Christian legacy, ed. J.P. Monferrer-Sala, 31–60.
Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici 27: 259–265. Piscataway, Gorgias Press
Nadal, J. 1996. Denys l’Aréopagite dans les Traités de Phanourgakis, B. 1972. Άgnosta antipalamikά
Grégoire Akindynos. In Denys l’Aréopagite et sa posté suggrάmmata tou GrZgorίou Αkindύnou
rité en Orient et en Occident, ed. Y. De Andia, (Unknown Antipalamite works of Gregory
553–562. Paris, Brepols Akindynos). Kleronomia (Thessaloniki) 4Β: 285–302.
A
Al-Ījı̄ Biography
Born: 1281, Īj, near Shīrāz Born in 1281 or shortly thereafter in the town of Īj
Died: 1355, Īj, near Shīrāz near Shīrāz, al-Ījī flourished during the troubled
end-times of the Īlkhānid dynasty. He served the
Jari Kaukua regime in influential jurisprudential positions but,
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, as the political tide changed, was ultimately
University of Jyväskylä/Academy of Finland, imprisoned and executed at his hometown
Jyväskylä, Finland in 1355.
Al-Ījī received his theological education in
Shīrāz under a second-generation pupil of the
Ash‘arite scholar ‘Abdallāh ibn ‘Umar
al-Bayḍāwī. In jurisprudence, he followed the
Shāfi‘ite school. As a prolific writer, he produced
Abstract
widely read works in theology, jurisprudence,
Qur’ānic exegesis, ethics, rhetoric, linguistics,
A major theologian from the early fourteenth-
and historiography. His most important theolog-
century Iran, al-Ījī is one of the last representa-
ical work is the summa al-Mawāqif fī ‘ilm
tives of the classical Ash‘arite theological tradi-
al-kalām, followed by the much shorter Jawāhir
tion. His summa al-Mawāqif and his Ash‘arite
al-kalām, and the popular creed al-‘Aqā’id
creed have been crucial in Sunnī teaching and
al-‘aḍudī ya that he wrote toward the end of his
commentary down to our day.
career. His ethical work al-Risāla al-shāhī ya fī
‘ilm al-akhlāq follows the tradition of Naṣīr
al-Dīn al-Tūsī’s Akhlāq-i nāṣirī .
Alternate Names ˙
In his theological magnum opus, al-Ījī builds
on the model, adopted from his lineage to
Also known as ▶ Qāḍī Abū al-Faḍl ‘Abd al-Bayḍāwī, which goes back to Fakhr al-Dīn
al-Raḥmān ibn Rukn al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ‘Abd al-Rāzī’s and Sayf al-Dīn al-Āmidī’s earlier sum-
al-Jaffār ibn Aḥmad al-Bakrī al-Muṭarrizī mae. By the same token, al-Ījī’s work has many
al-Shabānkārī al-Shīrāzī. of the features common to the mature theological
writing of his time: it builds largely on the wealth
of accumulated material but does not shy away
from completing an unsatisfactory treatment of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_7-1
2 Al-Ījı̄
the disputed questions or collecting together and Cross-References

rearranging the received discussion in a more
systematic fashion. In particular, he tries to incor- ▶ al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī
porate the points of critique made at ▶ Sa‘d al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī
al-Bayḍāwī’s work by the Māturīdite theologian
Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī. Following the
Rāzīan tradition, he has a high opinion of the
References
supreme value of systematic theological inquiry
and structures his work along the lines of a phil-
Primary Literature
osophical summa that deals with all the most Anon, ed. n.d. Al-Mawāqif fī ‘ilm al-kalām ta’lī f ‘Aḍud
important fields of knowledge of God and Allāh wa al-Dī n al-Qāḍī ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad
creation. al-Ījī . Beirut: ‘Ālam al-kutub.
Despite his debt to the tradition, al-Ījī comes 1958. Al-‘Aqā’id al-‘aḍudīya. In Al-Shaykh Muḥammad
‘Abduh bayna al-falāsifah wa-al-kal-
across as a thinker with considerable systematic āmī yī n, ed. S. Dunya. Cairo: Dār iḥyā’ al-kutub
ambitions. He aims at defending the Ash‘arite al-‘arabīya.
doctrine against its critics and in so doing renders ‘Afīfī, ‘A.‘A., ed. 1934. Jawāhir al-kalām. Bulletin of the
the doctrine more precise and complete. An Faculty of Arts of the University of Egypt 2: 133–243.
exemplary case in point is his defense of such
traditional doctrines as atomism or occasionalism Secondary Literature
and the inclusion of an extensive discussion and Eichner, H. 2009. Towards the construction of Islamic
refutation of the Avicennian counterarguments orthodoxy: Philosophy in the post-Avicennian period
and Islamic theology as literary traditions. Habilita-
that had by and large been accepted by al-Rāzī tion thesis. Martin Luther Universität.
and al-Bayḍāwī. He also engages in an extensive van Ess, J. 1966. Die Erkenntnislehre des ‘Aḍudaddī n
critical discussion of astronomy, here again al-Īcī : Übersetzung und Kommentar des ersten Buches
guided by the overarching Ash‘arite doctrine of seiner Mawāqif. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag
GMBH.
a Creator whose omnipotence is not to be van Ess, J. 1978. Neue Materialien zur Biographie des
compromised by any necessities in the created ‘Aḍudaddīn al-Īğī. Die Welt des Orients 9: 270–283.
world. van Ess, J. ‘Ażod-al-Dīn Ījī. In Encyclopedia Iranica III/3,
Al-Ījī’s most important follower was Sa‘d 269–271. Available online at http://www.
iranicaonline.org/articles/azod-al-din-iji
al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī, who adopted a reserved Sabra, A.I. 1994. Science and philosophy in medieval
stance to the teacher’s doctrine, possibly due to Islamic theology: The evidence of the fourteenth cen-
his Māturīdite leanings. More important for the tury. Zeitschrift f€ ur Geschichte der arabisch-
subsequent fate of al-Ījī’s theological magnum islamischen Wissenschaften 9: 1–42.
Sabra, A.I. 2006. Kalām Atomism as an Alternative Phi-
opus was the commentary by al-Sayyid al-Sharīf losophy to Hellenizing falsafa. In Arabic theology,
al-Jurjānī. For subsequent generations until the Arabic philosophy: From the many to the one: Essays
modern times, the Mawāqif, like the much more in celebration of Richard M. Frank, ed. J.-
concise creed, remained an influential and much- E. Montgomery, 199–272. Leuven/Louvain: Peeters.
commented textbook. Indeed, in many ways, it
can be seen as the last ambitious summa of the
golden era of Ash‘arite theology.
A
Al-Jāmı̄ early education in his hometown of Jām, he

moved to Herat and later on to Samarqand to
Born: 1414, Khurāsānī village of Kharjerd pursue his studies in the Islamic as well as some
of the rational sciences. From early on, Jāmī was
Died: 1492, Samarqand noted as an exceptionally gifted but arrogant stu-
dent. At some point in his 30s, Jāmī was initiated
Jari Kaukua into the Naqshbandī Sufi order by the shaykh Sa‘d
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, al-Dīn Kāshgharī. Facilitated by the intimate
University of Jyväskylä/Academy of Finland, relations between the Naqshbandīs and the
Jyväskylä, Finland Timurid court, Jāmī was promoted to the status
of a semiofficial representative of the rulers. He
maintained a close connection to political power
throughout his career, but this did not hinder him
from acquiring wide renown as a scholar. Jāmī
Abstract died in 1492 as one of the most famous authors of
the Persian-speaking world.
A famous Sufi scholar and poet of the fifteenth Today, Jāmī’s fame rests mainly on his volu-
century, Jāmī’s most important philosophical minous poetic inheritance. Although his poems
contributions are his commentaries on Ibn contain plenty of philosophical ideas, from the
‘Arabī. point of view of philosophy, more important are
his prose works. Many of these are devoted to the
practice and teaching of Sufism, such as the series
Full Name of mystical meditations titled Lawāyeḥ, the
famous hagiography Nafaḥāt al-uns min
▶ ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Nūr al-Dīn ibn Niẓām al-Dīn ḥaḍarāt al-quds (based for a great part on a Per-
Aḥmad Dashtī Jāmī sian translation of Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmān
al-Sulamī’s Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfī ya), or the treatises
on dhikr and the question of the unity of exis-
Biography tence, a prominent theme in the school of Ibn
‘Arabī. The latter’s influence is clear also in
A famous Sufi scholar and poet, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Jāmī’s prolific work as a commentator; he wrote
Jāmī was born to a notable family in the commentaries on the Andalusian’s famous Fuṣūṣ
Khurāsānī village of Kharjerd in 1414. After al-ḥikam as well as its epitome, the Naqd
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_8-1
2 Al-Jāmı̄
al-nuṣūṣ, and on a great amount of Sufi poetry, Cross-References

including works by Ibn al-Fāriḍ, Fakhr al-Dīn
‘Irāqī, Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Amīr Khosrow, as ▶ al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī
well as his own. Jāmī also wrote a number of ▶ Sa‘d al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī
treatises in a more traditional theological vein,
including the famous al-Durra al-fākhira fī
taḥqī q al-madhāhib, an interesting comparison References
of Sufism, kalām, and philosophy on certain doc-
trinal questions. Reflecting his activity as a poet, Primary Literature
Jāmī authored several works on poetics. He also Afṣaḥzād, A. 1379. Bahārestān va rasā’il-i Jāmī . Tehran:
Markaz muṭāli‘āt īrānī. AH l.
wrote on music and grammar and compiled an
Chittick, W., and J.D. Āshtiyānī (eds.). 1977. Naqd
anthology of his own correspondence. al-nuṣūṣ fī sharḥ Naqsh al-fuṣūṣ. Tehran: Anjuman-i
In his poetry, Jāmī was a neoclassical conser- Shāhanshāhī-i Falsafah-i Īrān.
vative, and his veneration has varied according to Heer, N., and A.M. Bihbihani (eds.). 1979. Al-Durrat
al-fākhira fī taḥqī q madhāhib al-ṣūfī yya wa
literary trends. In his philosophically oriented
al-mutakallimī n wa al-ḥukamā’ al-mutaqaddimī n.
works, he is a learned follower of Ibn ‘Arabī’s Tehran: University of McGill & University of Tehran.
school who shows thorough familiarity with the
most important commentators of the master’s Secondary Literature
works, from Mu‘ayyid al-Dīn al-Jandī to Dāwūd Algar, H. 2013. Jami. New Delhi: Oxford University
Qayṣarī. As becomes clear from the Durra Press.
Chittick, W.C. 1979. The perfect man as the prototype of
al-fākhira, Jāmī knew theology and philosophy,
the self in the Sufism of Jāmī. Studia Islamica 49:
referring at length to Sa‘d al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī, 135–157.
al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī, and Naṣīr al-Dīn Heer, N.L. 1979a. The precious pearl: al-Jāmī ’s
al-Tūsī. The most extensive example of Jāmī’s al-Durrah al-Fākhirah with the commentary of ‘Abd
˙ al-Ghafūr al-Lārī . Albany: State University of New
own thought is his commentary on Ibn ‘Arabī’s
York Press.
epitome of the Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. The picture it Heer, N. 1979b. Al-Jāmī’s treatise on ‘existence’. In
gives is not of a decidedly original thinker; rather, Islamic philosophical theology, ed. P. Morewedge,
Jāmī stands firmly in the tradition of philosophi- 223–256. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Losensky, P. Jāmi i. Life and works. In Encyclopedia
cal commentaries on the master’s works, a tradi-
Iranica XIV/5, 469–475. Available online at http://
tion which he perceived as being largely www.iranicaonline.org/articles/jami-i
unanimous, with differences between the com- Mojaddedi, J.A. 2001. The biographical tradition in
mentators concerning exclusively details of Sufism: The ṭabaqāt genre from al-Sulamī to Jāmī .
Richmond: Curzon Press.
minor importance. In many ways, Jāmī can be
Murata, S. 2000. Chinese gleams of sufi light: Wang
considered as the last great representative of this Tai-y€u’s great learning of the pure and real and Liu
tradition. He played a crucial role in the dissem- Chih’s Displaying the concealment of the real realm.
ination of Ibn ‘Arabī’s thought in Persia, Central Albany: State University of New York Press.
Rizvi, S.H. 2006. The existential breath of al-Raḥmān and
Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. This was
the munificent grace of al-Raḥī m: The Tafsī r Sūrat
despite the fact that his strong Sunnism was not al-Fātiha of Jāmī and the School of Ibn ‘Arabī. Jour-
always well received in the Safavid dynasty that nal of Qur’anic Studies 8: 58–87.
˙
seized power in Iran soon after his death.
A
Al-Jurjānı̄ as-Sayyid ash-Sharı̄f Biography
Born: 1339/1340, Tājū near Astarābādh/ Born in 1339/1340 in Tājū near Astarābādh in
Southeast Iran Southeast Iran, al-Jurjānī studied in Herat,
Kirmān, Egypt, and Asia Minor before settling
Died: 1413, Shīrāz to teach in Shīrāz in the 1370s. After Timur’s
conquest of the city, he was called to the latter’s
Jari Kaukua court in Samarqand. There he met with the older
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, colleague Sa‘d al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī, which
University of Jyväskylä/Academy of Finland, resulted in a famous scholarly rivalry out of
Jyväskylä, Finland which al-Jurjānī is alleged to have come out as
the victor – perhaps somewhat unwillingly, for he
seems to have held a genuine respect for
al-Taftāzānī. After Timur’s death, al-Jurjānī
returned to Shīrāz where he died in 1413.
Already as a student, al-Jurjānī was famed for
Abstract
his brilliance, and he grew to become a major
authority in a number of fields of knowledge.
One of the most celebrated theologians and juris-
His initial education seems to have been
prudents in the fourteenth-century Iran, al-Jurjānī
Mu‘tazilite, but through his later affiliations, he
had a major influence on subsequent Iranian phi-
veered toward the more prominent Ash‘arite
losophy through his commentaries and teaching
view, albeit not by a strict commitment for he
activity.
continued to comment and teach both Mu‘tazilite
and Shī‘ite texts. He is also said to have been
involved in Sufism, in particular the study of
Alternate Names works from the school of Ibn ‘Arabī.
Al-Jurjānī wrote on grammar, logic, jurispru-
Full name Zayn al-Dīn Abū al-Hasan ‘Alī ibn dence, Qur’ānic exegesis, theology, and astron-
˙
Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī al-Husaynī al-Jurjānī; the omy. His writing consists mostly of brief
˙
title of al-Sayyid al-Sharīf is due to al-Jurjānī’s summary works and commentaries and seems to
alleged descent from a tenth-century Zaydī have been largely motivated by his activity as a
prince. teacher. Despite his influence, al-Jurjānī is com-
monly considered as belonging to the beginning
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_9-1
2 Al-Jurjānı̄ as-Sayyid ash-Sharı̄f
of the era of Islamic theology in which the com- point being the question of whether perceived
position of original theological summae is largely astronomical regularities are due to real causal
given up in favor of commentaries and supercom- connections or merely to a contingent custom
mentaries. Indeed, one of al-Jurjānī’s most (‘āda) in God’s free agency.
important theological works is the commentary Al-Jurjānī was a very influential author, which
he wrote on ‘Aḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī’s Mawāqif. He is attested by the number of surviving manu-
also commented on texts by theologians and phi- scripts of many of his works. He was an important
losophers such as Avicenna, Shihāb al-Dīn influence on the Shīrāzī philosophy of the late
al-Suhrawardī, ‘Abdallāh ibn ‘Umar al-Bayḍāwī, fifteenth and early sixteenth century and thereby
Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī, and al-Taftāzānī and com- on the entire later development of philosophy in
˙
posed a widely read book of definitions simply Iran. Two students of his, Qawām al-Dīn
titled al-Ta‘rī fāt. al-Kurbālī and Sharaf al-Dīn Hasan Shah Baqqāl,
˙
In his commentary on al-Ījī’s theological were the teachers of the two rival protagonists in
summa, al-Jurjānī makes extensive use of philos- the philosophical scene of the city, respectively,
ophy and the rational sciences. This is not an Sadr al-Dīn al-Dashtakī and Jalāl al-Dīn
˙
entirely novel feature in the later Ash‘arite theo- al-Dawānī.
logical tradition; indeed, the impact of philoso-
phy is decisive already in al-Ījī as well as
al-Jurjānī’s senior colleague al-Taftāzānī, but he Cross-References
seems to have taken the tendency a step further,
which is also highlighted by the fact that ▶ ‘Aḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī
within two generations, we witness an upsurge ▶ Jalāl al-Dīn al-Dawānī
of philosophical activity in Shīrāz that can be ▶ Philosophy in Safavid Persia
traced back directly to al-Jurjānī and his students. ˙
▶ Sa‘d al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī
Through his commentaries, al-Jurjānī also played
an important role in the transmission of philoso-
phy in the teaching done in the theological sem-
inaries (sing. madrasa), for texts like al-Ījī’s References
Mawāqif were often studied, indeed up to our
own time, with the accompaniment of his Primary Literature
‘Umayra, ‘A (ed.). 1997. Kitāb al-Mawāqif li ‘Aḍud
commentary. al-Dī n ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad al-Ījī bi sharḥ
Despite his philosophical refinement, ‘Alī ibn Muḥammad al-Jurjānī , 3 vols. Beirut: Dār
al-Jurjānī was a staunch defender of al-Ījī’s con- al-Jīl.
ception of theology as parallel to but independent
of philosophy. Like philosophy, theology studies Secondary Literature
the entire creation, but unlike philosophy, it does Pourjavady, R. 2011. Philosophy in early Safavid Iran:
this under the revealed assumption of a unique Najm al-Dī n Maḥmūd al-Nayrī zī and his writings.
Leiden/Boston: Brill.
omnipotent and omniscient Creator. In particular,
Sabra, A.I. 1994. Science and philosophy in medieval
the basic principles of theology are independent Islamic theology: The evidence of the fourteenth cen-
of the sort of proofs of God’s existence that the tury. Zeitschrift f€ ur Geschichte der arabisch-
philosophers had presented and that some earlier islamischen Wissenschaften 9: 1–42.
van Ess, J. 2009. Jorjāni, Zayn-al-Din Abu’l-Hasan ‘Alī.
theologians had perceived as equally formative
In Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. XV/1, 21–29.˙ Available
for theology. However, al-Jurjānī’s commitment online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/jorjani-
to the natural sciences occasionally causes him to zayn-al-din-abul-hasan-ali
depart from al-Ījī’s strict Ash‘arism, a case in
A
Al-Taftazānı̄ of his education is scant. He is said to have been a

student of al-Ījī but this is unlikely, al-Taftāzānī’s
Born: 1322, Taftāzān, Khurāsān open admiration of the older colleague notwith-
Died: 1390, Samarqand standing. Similarly, he was probably not a student
of Qutb al-Dīn al-Rāzī either, although he may
Jari Kaukua well have benefited from the latter’s philosophi-
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, cal erudition at a more mature stage of his career.
University of Jyväskylä/Academy of Finland, At the apex of his career, al-Taftāzānī was
Jyväskylä, Finland attached to courts of the Kart dynasty and the
Golden Horde and, after Timur’s ascent to
power, was favorably received in his court at
Samarqand. However, the veneration dwindled
due to a scholarly rivalry against the much youn-
Abstract ger al-Jurjānī. Indeed, al-Taftāzānī is said to have
been hastened toward his end in 1390 by a public
A famous fourteenth-century theologian and defeat to the junior colleague in an exegetical
jurisprudent, al-Taftāzānī is one of the last repre- debate.
sentatives of the high tide of Ash‘arite philosoph- In jurisprudence, al-Taftāzānī commented on
ical theology. sources from both Hanafite and Shāfi‘ite schools.
˙
In theology, he mainly endorses the Ash‘arite
doctrine although in some question he leans
Full Name toward Māturīditism. Apart from theology and
law, he also wrote on logic (notably the popular
Full name Sa‘d al-Dīn Mas‘ūd ibn ‘Umar ibn epitome Tahdhī b al-manṭiq wa al-kalām), gram-
‘Abd Allāh; subsequently also quoted simply as mar, rhetoric, and Qur’ānic exegesis. His most
al-‘Allāma. substantial theological work is the manual
al-Maqāṣid as well as his own commentary to it
that bears the title Maqāṣid al-maqāṣid. He also
Biography wrote a commentary on Najm al-Dīn al-Nasafī’s
Māturīdite creed, which was widely used in
A theologian and jurisprudent of considerable teaching and later became the subject of several
renown, al-Taftāzānī was born in 1322 in the supercommentaries. Also noteworthy are his
village of Taftāzān in Khurāsān. Our knowledge
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_10-1
2 Al-Taftazānı̄
Persian commentary on the Qur’ān and a polem- strong critique of the doctrine of the creation of
ical treatise on Ibn ‘Arabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. the Qur’ān or the denial of God’s omnipotence
Al-Taftāzānī’s theology latches on to the phil- and omniscience in favor of human freedom.
osophically influenced tradition that leads by way Together with al-Ījī, al-Taftāzānī is a representa-
of al-Ījī back to Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī. In tive of the most mature point of the comprehen-
al-Maqāṣid and his own commentary, he sive theological summa tradition; subsequent
describes his project in terms familiar from centuries devoted a considerably greater effort
Avicennian philosophy; parallel in purpose and to commenting on the achievements of earlier
structure to theoretical philosophy, theology generations.
(kalām) differs from it by being practiced within
a religious community and being informed by a
number of revealed premises. Al-Taftāzānī also Cross-References
describes the structure of the science of theology
in terms of the Platonic scheme of origination and ▶ ‘Aḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī
return (al-mabda’ wa al-ma‘ād), following ▶ al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī
thereby the outlines of the philosophical curricu-
lum. Moreover, the relation between theology
and jurisprudence is described as analogous to References
that between theoretical and practical philoso-
phy. Yet despite these similarities between the Primary Literature
two ventures, al-Taftāzānī insists that in the end, Salāma, K. ed. 1974. Sharḥ al-‘aqā’id al-nasafī ya.
theology is independent of philosophy. The same Damascus: Wizāra al-thaqāfa wa al-irshād al-qawmī.
Shams, I. ed. 2001. Maqāṣid al-maqāṣid. Beirut: Dār
principles, albeit with some differences, are evi- al-kutub al-‘ilmīya, (Contains also al-Maqāṣid).
dent also in al-Taftāzānī’s commentary on
al-Nasafī’s creed, which comes across as a
strongly rationalistic interpretation of the central Ansari, Z.I. 1969. Taftāzānī’s views on taklī f, gˇabr, and
principles of Islam. Although al-Taftāzānī was qadar: A note on the development of Islamic theolog-
widely read by subsequent generations of ical doctrines. Arabica 16(1): 65–78.
Eichner, H. 2009. Towards the construction of Islamic
scholars, it is an interesting fact that in light of
orthodoxy: Philosophy in the post-avicennian period
the manuscript tradition, the particular combina- and Islamic theology as literary traditions. Habilita-
tion of philosophical logic and kalām presented in tion thesis. Martin Luther Universität.
Tahdhī b al-manṭiq wa al-kalām seems not to Elder, E.E. 1950. A commentary on the creed of Islam:
Sa‘d al-Dī n al-Taftāzānī on the Creed of Najm al-Dī n
have been unanimously accepted; though the
al-Nasafī . New York: Columbia University Press.
two parts were copied profusely, they seem to Knysh, A.D. 1999. Ibn ‘Arabi in the Later Islamic tradi-
have led largely separate lives. tion: The making of a polemical image in Medieval
His vacillation between Ash‘arite and Islam. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Madelung, W. 2000. Al-Taftāzānī. In Encyclopedia of
Māturīdite doctrine notwithstanding,
Islam (New Edition), vol. X, 88–89. Leiden: Brill.
al-Taftāzānī can be characterized as belonging Wolfson, H.A. 1976. The philosophy of the Kalam. Cam-
to the mainstream of anti-Mu‘tazilite Sunnism. bridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press.
This stance is clearly reflected, for instance, in his
A
Albo, Joseph increasing pressure on Jews to convert, Albo

actively participated in the Jewish anti-Christian
Born: c. 1380, Aragon/Spain polemics of his period. Although Albo is not
Died: c. 1444, Castile/Spain considered an original thinker, and much of his
book consists of summaries of the ideas of previ-
Abraham Melamed ous scholars, still he significantly contributed to
Department of Jewish History, The Center for the the history of Jewish philosophy in two areas: the
Research of Jewish Culture, University of Haifa, theory of principles and the theory of law. He
Haifa, Israel condensed Maimonides’ 13 principles of faith to
the fundamental three: the existence of God, the
divine origin of the Torah, and reward and pun-
ishment. In his legal theory, he was the first to
introduce the scholastic notion of natural law to
Abstract Jewish philosophy, thereby revolutionizing it.
Joseph Albo (c. 1380–1444) was a Jewish philos-

opher active in Christian Spain during the first Biography
half of the fifteenth century. His main opus Sefer
ha-Ikkarim (Book of Principles) was completed Little is known concerning the details of Albo’s
in Soria, Castile, in 1425. Albo was active in the life. He was born in Aragon around 1380 and died
last phase of medieval Jewish philosophy and in Castile around 1444. He studied in the acad-
thus was strongly influenced by his predecessors, emy of the great scholar of the period, Hasdai
mostly Maimonides, his teacher Hasdai Crescas, Crescas in Saragossa, Aragon, and was strongly
and Simeon ben Zemah Duran. He was well influenced by his thought. In 1413–1414 he
acquainted with the Muslim philosophic heritage, played a dominant role in the public Christian-
mainly Averroes, as it was translated into Hebrew Jewish disputation at Tortosa, in which Geronimo
during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. de Santa Fe (formerly Joshua ha-Lorki), a Jew
Being active in Christian Spain, he was appar- who converted to Christianity, represented the
ently also acquainted with scholastic philosophy, Pope and delegates from many Jewish communi-
mostly Aquinas, which influenced the formation ties in Spain represented Judaism. Albo
of this thought. Facing the Catholic Church per- represented the Jewish community of Daroca, in
secution of the Jews in Spain, especially since the Aragon. Later he moved to Soria, in Castile,
anti-Jewish riots of 1391, and the Christian where he apparently spent the rest of his life.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_11-1
2 Albo, Joseph
Albo’s important contribution to Jewish philoso- Jewish philosophy distinguished between two
phy is his Book of Principles, Albo (1929–1930) kinds of law only, human and divine (for
composed in medieval Hebrew and completed instance, Maimonides, the Guide for the Per-
around 1425. Albo apparently knew Spanish plexed 2: 40). Albo was the first Jewish scholar
and Latin. He apparently made a living as a who introduced natural law, in the political sense,
Rabbi and preacher, and possibly also as a into Jewish philosophy and thus revolutionized
physician. the Jewish theory of law. He was directly
The Book of Principles is essentially an influenced here by the scholastic theory of natural
apologetic treatise; its main aim is to prove that law, as exemplified by Aquinas. Albo most prob-
Judaism is the true divine religion, since it is the ably knew Aquinas’ legal theory, although he
only one which fulfills the criteria of divine law. never mentions him.
In this respect it was an integral part of the Jewish The theory of principles is thus superimposed
anti-Christian polemics of this period. It was by Albo on his theory of law. The principles of
written in order to address the deep social and faith are derived from divine law. Albo endeav-
religious distress of the Jews residing in Christian ored to create a new system of principles of faith
Spain, strengthen their spirits and their Jewish in Judaism. He followed in Maimonides’ path,
identity, and provide them with arguments to but challenged him in the same time. Maimonides
counter the Christian anti-Jewish polemics. The was the first Jewish scholar ever to create a sys-
intended reading public of this book were not tem of obligatory dogmas of faith. One should
only a small group of scholars but also the remember that Judaism, unlike Christianity, is
broader audience of lesser educated Jews, who traditionally not based upon dogma, but upon
needed this kind of support. This is why it was the obligation to obey the practical command-
written in a relatively simple and clear manner, ments. Maimonides argued that a Jew should
unlike most medieval philosophical books in not only obey the Mosaic commandments but
Hebrew, which are difficult to decipher. This is should also hold the essential minimum of true
also why its impact was quite considerable during theological opinions. His 13 principles, thus,
the consequent centuries. introduced a novelty into the conception of Juda-
Albo developed in the first part of the treatise ism. In later medieval Jewish thought, there was a
an elaborate theory of law, as a logical basis for fierce debate concerning Maimonides’ rational-
his system of principles. On the basis of the ism, in general, and his system of principles, in
Aristotelian theory of the political nature of particular. The question was twofold: Is it per-
humans, he argued that the rule of law is essential missible at all to create a system of principles in
for the existence of an ordered society. Following Judaism, and if so, which and how many such
scholastic influences, he distinguished among principles should be included in the system? Albo
three kinds of law, which appear in an ascending was quite critical of Maimonides’ radical ratio-
order: natural law, which is the inherent human nalism, being more of a traditionalist. He agreed
understanding that political association is essen- with Maimonides that principles of faith are
tial for sheer survival; human law, which fulfills essential for a Jewish identity, but strongly dif-
the urge for a better and more refined human fered with him concerning their selection and
society; and finally, divine law, which aims to number. In the first part of the Book of Principles,
direct humans to the knowledge of God, through he debated and rejected the various systems of
the obligation to fulfill the divine commandments principles which were proposed since Maimoni-
as elaborated in the Mosaic constitution. Natural des. Contrary to Maimonides’ 13 principles, Albo
law stems from the understanding of the natural condensed the number of principles to the bare
processes; human law is created by humans in the minimum, three essential principles without
political association, while divine law is which Judaism cannot exist in his view: the exis-
bestowed upon humans by verified divine revela- tence of God, the divine source of the Torah, and
tion. The traditional position found in medieval reward and punishment. There is a logical order
Albo, Joseph 3
here: The first principle is the cornerstone of the Torah is more or less important; they are all
whole system. The divine origins of the Torah are equally essential.
based on the belief in the existence of God, and The book was popular in the following centu-
reward and punishment is based upon the duty to ries, especially after the first printed edition
obey the Torah. All other beliefs are presented as appeared in 1485, one of the first Jewish books
necessary logical derivations thereof. Each of the of Jewish philosophy to be printed. The fact that it
principles (ikkarim) logically leads to further was written in a relatively simple style, contained
beliefs stemming from them, called “roots” summaries of earlier Jewish thinkers, and
(shorashim); these lead to a third layer of less appeared in print very early made it popular
important beliefs, called “branches” (anafim). among Jewish scholars of subsequent generation,
Albo thus proposed a semi-logical structure in practically up to the Jewish Enlightenment. The
which the whole theological system is necessarily book was later translated into Latin, German,
derived from the minimal most essential true Italian, and other languages, which made it acces-
opinions. sible to Christian scholars also.
Each of the following parts of the Book of
Principles is devoted to the discussion of one of
the three essential principles. Concerning the References
existence of God (second treatise), Albo intro-
duces a prolonged discussion of divine attributes; Primary Literature
concerning the divine origins of the Torah (third Albo, Joseph. 1929–1930. Book of principles (Sefer
ha-Ikkarim). Trans. and ed. I. Husik, Hebrew text and
treatise), Albo discussed human perfection,
English translation, 5 vol’s. Philadelphia.
prophecy in general and Mosaic prophecy in par-
ticular; concerning reward and punishment
(fourth treatise), he discusses divine providence, Erlich, D. 2009. The thought of R. Joseph Albo: Esoteric
the problem of evil, repentance, and the world writing in the late middle ages. Ramat Gan, (Hebrew).
to come. Bar Ilan U. Press.
Kellner, M. 1986. Dogma in Medieval Jewish thought
The Book of Principles was practically the last
from Maimonides to Abravanel. Oxford: Oxford Uni-
great theory of principles of faith produced in versity Press.
Jewish thought. Isaac Abravanel, who was active Lerner, R. 1964. Natural law in Albo’s book of roots. In
in the late-fifteenth century, completely rejected Ancient and moderns: Essays on the tradition of polit-
ical philosophy in honor of Leo Strauss, ed. J. Cropsey,
the validity of such systems, arguing that the
132–147. New York.
whole Torah is one big principle; it is not for Maeso, D. 1971. La Juderia de Soria y el Rabino Jose
humans to decide which of the beliefs of the Albo. In Miscelaneade Estudios Arabes y Hebraicos,
vol. 20, 2, 119–141.
A
Almosnino, Moshe (Moises) ben expulsions. Sources refer to an Abraham

Baruch Almosnino, a physician and grandfather of
Almosnino’s mother, who was burned at the
Born: 1510 or 1515, Salonica stake by the Inquisition at some point during the
Died: 1580, Istanbul fifteenth century. Almosnino’s other maternal
great grandfather, Abraham Conombrial, was
K. E. Fleming also burned at the same auto-da-fe. This suggests
Department of History, New York University, that members of the family were probably forced
New York, NY, USA to convert to Christianity in the wake of the 1391
pogroms and returned to Judaism thereafter – for
which they clearly paid dearly. Another
Almosnino, Isaac, is known to have translated
Aristotle’s ethics. The translation is no longer
Abstract available today and is often (mis)attributed to
Moshe Almosnino.
A rabbi, political leader, diplomat, physician, The Almosninos likely arrived in Salonica
scientist, mathematician, philosopher, and bibli- shortly after the expulsion from Spain in 1492,
cal exegete, Moses ben Baruch Almosnino was part of the great wave of Jewish migrant to the
one of the most important Jewish leaders in the city, which was rapidly becoming a Jewish
post-expulsion period and was the central intel- haven. Conquered from the Venetian Empire in
lectual figure in sixteenth-century Jewish the second half of the fifteenth century, the sanjak
Salonica. Well versed in rabbinic literature, sci- (district) of Salonica was part of the Ottoman
ence, and philosophy, Almosnino was also a pro- eyelet (province) of Rumeli, which encompassed
lific writer. All around, he was an exemplary most of the Balkans and the capital of which was
“chacham kolel” (lit., “general erudite,” or Edirne (Adrianople). Jewish migration to the city,
“well-rounded scholar”) and a great Jewish which was somewhat depopulated after the Otto-
Renaissance man. man conquest, transformed its demographics,
with Jews becoming one of its most important
communities. As is well known, the Ottomans
Biography encouraged Jewish migration to the city: first of
Jewish refugees and later of conversos fleeing the
The Almosnino family originated in Aragon and Spanish Inquisition. In 1519, soon after
was well known in Spain already before the Almosnino’s birth, Jews made up about 54 % of
# Springer International Publishing Switzerland (outside the USA) 2015
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_12-1
2 Almosnino, Moshe (Moises) ben Baruch
the city’s inhabitants, with more than 15,000. The diplomats were the rabbis. Almosnino enjoyed a
city’s textile industry was the basis of Jewish high level of status and prestige in the city from
economic life. In 1537, an imperial decree made this moment until his death.
Salonican Jews the main suppliers of uniforms to Another significant outcome of Almosnino’s
the Ottoman army, which further strengthened 18 months in Constantinople was a unique trav-
their status in the city. The community was elogue/Ottoman history, written in Spanish: the
socially and culturally diverse and intellectually Cronica de los Reyes Otomanos, a detailed
vibrant. Being born into a Jewish community that description of the city. Almosnino, who was
was in effect a local majority shaped among many other things also a physician, even
Almosnino’s later political thought. dedicated a large section to the city’s public
Having received a “classical” rabbinic educa- health and sanitation. Almosnino described his
tion from Salonica’s great rabbis, Almosnino mission to the capital in this way: “When the
began his career as a marbitz torah (teacher) Great Sultan Suleiman passed through the city
and a rabbi in two of the city’s many congrega- [Salonica] he. . .have many privileges to [its
tions. His first appointment began in 1553 in the Jews], which disappeared during the great fire in
Neveh Shalom congregation, and from 1560 until 1545 and thereafter are not respected by the local
his death, he led the Livyat Hen congregations. governor, who imposes even more taxes and lev-
Throughout the period, he was a prominent com- ies upon us. This has become too much to bear
munal leader in the city as a whole. and for this our noble republic [nuestra noble
Almosnino rose to political prominence in the republica de Salonique] chose me to come here
course of the economic crisis that plagued to the city.”
Salonica’s Jewish community after 1545. That “Republica,” or republic, a term Almosnino
year, fires destroyed life and property and uses with some frequency, probably refers to the
brought disaster to the textile industry. At the fact that he was representing the entire commu-
same time, global changes (shortages in raw nity, not just his own congregation. But one can
materials, growing competition with English also read the term as a signal of the great auton-
and Italian merchants) caused further economic omy that Salonica’s Jews enjoyed at the time, a
decline. During the early 1560s, things further condition that in Almosnino’s mind was trans-
worsened because of changes in Ottoman policy, lated into “republic.” The text, written in Ladino
which revoked privileges the community had while in Constantinople, was transliterated and
hitherto enjoyed and which forced it to pay higher translated into “proper” Spanish and published in
taxes. Almosnino, already a leader in the city, Madrid in 1638, by a non-Jewish press
was a member of a three-man delegation sent on (an indication of its import), as Extremos y
behalf of the community to Constantinople to Grandezas de Constantinopla. The rest of
please with Sultan Selim II for the reinstatement Almosnino’s non-rabbinic works were published
of lost privileges; he spent 18 months in the by Jewish publishing houses, most in Salonica.
Ottoman capital. The delegation met with the Most of his work was rabbinic, mostly homi-
sultan five times, without success. The two other letic (midrash) exegetic and commentary (rather
members of the delegation – Rabbi Yaacov Ben than law); he also wrote several commentaries on
Nahmias and Rabbi Moshe Baruch – died while biblical and Talmudic texts (most notably Pirkei
in Constantinople. Almosnino remained in the Avot). Steeped in the then-recent new age of
capital and ultimately, after much maneuvering, print, he also published all of his sermons.
was able to meet the sultan once more, in 1568, As a Renaissance man, Almosnino was also
and regained the privileges the community had engaged in philosophy and education – which is
lost. The success of the mission not only revived probably the main reason for his focus on ethics
Jewish economic life in the city but also ushered and science. In this regard, he is part of a cohort of
in an era of centralized communal life, organized Mediterranean rabbis of the time, among them
under rabbinic leaderships – as now, the are Italian Abraham ben Mordechai Farissol
Almosnino, Moshe (Moises) ben Baruch 3
(1455–1525) and Joseph Solomon Delmedigo References

(1591–1655) of Crete. Like these men,
Almosnino drew on a wide variety of Jewish Primary Literature
and non-Jewish sources, in Greek, Latin, Arabic, Moshe ben Baruch Almosnino. 1563. Tefillah le-Moshe.
Salonika: Yosef ben Yitshak ben Yosef Ya‘avets
and other languages. His other most famous ˙
ha-doresh.
non-rabbinic book is the Regimiento de la Vida, Moshe ben Baruch Almosnino. 1571/1572. Yedei Moshe.
a moral philosophy of conduct, good will, educa- Salonika: Yosef ben Yitshak ben Yosef Ya‘avets
ha-doresh. ˙
tion of the young, and other ethical and moral
Moshe ben Baruch Almosnino. 1588. Meammez Koach.
issues, written at the behest of Don Yosef Nasi.
Venezia (Vinitsyah) : Z. Digara.
The book was also published in Hebrew as ˙
Moshe ben Baruch Almosnino. Extremos y Grandezas de
Hanhagat ha-Hayyim and can be easily com- Constantinopla.
pared to the “guides to life” genre of Early Mod- Zemke, John M. ed. 2004. Moses ben Baruch Almosnino.
Regimiento de la vida and Tratado de los suenyos
ern Europe. In 1564 Almosnino also wrote a
(Salonika, 1564). Tempe: Medieval and Renaissance
shorter book Dreams, Their Origin and True Texts and Studies.
Nature (Tratado de los suenyos), in which he
discusses the interpretation of dreams; it was
later appended to the Regimiento. Secondary Literature
Benaya, M.S. 1996. Moshe Almosnino, Ish Saloniki. Tel
Like many other Mediterranean Renaissance Aviv: Ha-katedra Le-heker Yahadut Saloniki ve-
rabbis, Almosnino also wrote extensively on Yavan.
geography and astronomy. Regev, Shaul. 2004. Secular and Jewish studies among
Thus Almosnino was at once a typical Renais- Jewish scholars of the Ottoman empire in the sixteenth
century. In Frontiers of Ottoman studies, Library of
sance man and a Salonican Jew – and functioned Ottoman studies No. 5, vol. 1, ed. Colin Imber and
fully as both. A key diplomat on behalf of Keiko Kiyotaki. New York: I.B. Tauris.
Salonica’s Jewish community, he helped usher
in a new era of political power for the city’s
Jews, even as he maintained an exemplary and
wide-ranging, intellectual life.
A
Al-Nasafı̄ theologian who was active during the latter half

of the thirteenth century. Apart from systematic
Born: First quarter of the thirteenth century (?), treatises in jurisprudence (fiqh) and theology
Nasaf (kalām), he is also known to have written a vol-
Died: 1310, Baghdad ume of Qur’ānic exegesis (tafsī r). Al-Nasafī
made the major part of his teaching career in
Jari Kaukua Kirmān but came to Baghdad toward the end of
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, his life and died there in 1310.
University of Jyväskylä/Academy of Finland, In theology, al-Nasafī is commonly character-
Jyväskylä, Finland ized as a Māturīdite. He is best known as the
author of a creed titled al-‘Umda fī al-‘aqā’id li
ahl al-sunna and a commentary on the same
Abstract creed titled al-I‘timād fī al-i‘tiqād. Both of
these works bear a strong influence of Abū
A Māturīdite theologian and jurisprudent who al-Mu‘īn al-Nasafī’s (d. 1114) Tabṣira al-adilla.
flourished in the turn of the thirteenth century, As most Māturīdite theologians, al-Nasafī
al-Nasafī is best known for his jurisprudential belonged to the Hanafite school of jurisprudence.
˙
textbooks and a creed that became subject to a His jurisprudential masterpiece is said to be the
number of commentaries by subsequent genera- Kitāb al-manār fī uṣūl al-fiqh, which he
tions of theologians. appended with his own commentary titled Kashf
al-asrār. Other famous jurisprudential works are
an extremely concise treatise titled Kanz
Full Name al-daqā’iq, a compendium of rulings that seems
to have been directly based on his teaching activ-
▶ Hafīẓ al-Dīn Abū al-Barakāt ‘Abdallāh ibn ity in Kirmān and a book titled al-Wāfī, which
˙
Aḥmad ibn Maḥmūd al-Nasafī developed from a commentary on Burhān al-Dīn
al-Marghinānī’s (d. 1197) celebrated work
Hidāya and to which al-Nasafī later appended a
Biography commentary titled al-Kāfī , also originating from
lecture notes. Apart from these original composi-
Born in the city of Nasaf (the present-day Qarshi, tions, al-Nasafī wrote commentaries on jurispru-
or the Persian Nakhshab, in southern Uzbeki- dential and theological works, including texts by
stan), al-Nasafī was a famous jurisprudent and Najm al-Dīn Abū Hafs al-Nasafī (d. 1142) and
˙
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_14-1
2 Al-Nasafı̄
Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Samarqandī. His commentary on References

the Qur’ān is known as Madārik al-tanzī l wa
ḥaqā’iq al-ta’wī l. Heffening, W. 1993. Al-Nasafī IV. Hafīẓ al-Dīn Abū ’l-
Barakāt ‘Abd Allāh b. Aḥmad b.˙ Maḥmūd. In Ency-
Although not a strikingly original thinker,
clopedia of Islam. New Edition, vol. VII, 969.
al-Nasafī remains a considerable authority in Madelung, W. 1991. Māturīdiyya. In Encyclopedia of
jurisprudence. His jurisprudential works as well Islam. New Edition, vol. VI, 847–848.
as his creed have been the subject of commentar- Meron, Y. 1969. The development of legal thought in
Hanafi texts. Studia Islamica 30: 73–118.
ies by a number of jurisprudents and theologians
Wisnovsky, R. 2004. The nature and scope of Arabic
at least down to the eighteenth century, and the philosophical commentary in post-classical
Kanz al-daqā’iq is known to have been used as a (ca. 1100–1900 AD) Islamic intellectual history:
textbook in al-Azhar in the nineteenth century. Some preliminary observations. In Philosophy, sci-
ence and exegesis in Greek, Arabic and Latin com-
mentaries, Bulletin of the institute of classical studies
47: S83, vol. 2, ed. P. Adamson, H. Balthussen and
M.W.F. Stone, 149–191.
A
Angelikoudes, Callistos mentioned in a sigillum – an official decree of

Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos
Born/Died: Melenikon 14th Century (1300–1374) – Callistos was a monk at 1371,
and he was highly appreciated by religious and
Michail Mantzanas political figures of his time.
Ecclesiastical Academy of Athens, Athens,
Greece
Innovative and Original Aspects
Abstract Callistos is the author of a vast amount of works

on neptic theology, which includes 30 chapters
Holy Father and saint, author of numerous uncon- and has not yet been published, except for a
ventional works. However, there is little informa- small excerpt, attributed to him, which was
tion about his life, apart from the fact that he published in Patrologia’s Graeca volume 147.
practiced the monastic life at a monastery in Neptic theology is a religious movement focused
Meleniko and wrote his works during the second on ascetic experience, which flourished during the
half of the fourteenth century. Callistos was pri- thirteenth and fourteenth century in Mount Athos
marily concerned with Thomas Aquinas’ scholas- and its spiritual practice relied on endless
tic philosophy and theology, which he tried to (uninterrupted) praying and spiritual work, sin-
oppose. cere repentance, and internal purification.
Callistos’ treatise Trianta Logoi isihastikis
parakliseos is, most probably, the second part of
Biography another work which bears the title called Isihastiki
Agogi but has not survived in its entirety. Callistos
Callistos lived and flourished near Meleniko in Angelikoudes’ literary skills are evident mainly in
Eastern Macedonia, during the second half of the his polemical writing Peri tis outo kaloumenis
fourteenth century. Living in a period when siggrafis Thoma tou Akinatou kata Ellinon,
Hesychasm was glorious in the Byzantine which criticizes on the basis of rather weak argu-
Empire, he himself was so deeply influenced by ments of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa contra Gen-
it that he was considered one of the most impor- tiles, which was translated in Greek by Demetrios
tant representatives of the Hesychast mysticism. Cydones. Although, Alain de Libera thought of
Being a supporter of Hesychasm, he was favored Angelikoudes arguments’ as sound and convinc-
by the Serbian despot John Oungliesa (†1371). As ing. Aquinas’ Summa contra Gentiles, which
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_15-1
2 Angelikoudes, Callistos
reflected the efflorescence of Latin Aristotelian with it. In his short treatise Peri isihastikis trivis,
Christianity, enjoyed broad circulation in the Byz- he praises spiritual prayer, its spiritual illumina-
antine world thanks to Demetrios Cydones’ trans- tion, and elaborates on the conditions which allow
lation. The importance of philosophical realism the Hesychast to be united with God. In his Eklogi
on the development of Christian theology was apo ton agion Pateron Peri prosefhis kai
doubted in this controversial work of Callistos prosohis, he suggests that the heart should be
Angelikoudes. Namely, the general outline of the shielded with caution, rigor, and vigilance, in
conflict between Hesychasts and Byzantine Tho- order to avoid the traps of evil lurking throughout
mists was reflected in Angelikoudes work. its struggle to reach its destination, that is, eternal
Demetrios Cydones and the Byzantine Thomists life. Callistos also emphasizes the inherent auton-
were Callistos’ targets. Callistos refuted Aquinas’ omy of religious experience as opposed to scho-
philosophical realism arguing that, from a moral lastic intellectualism and challenges the scholastic
point of view, theological truth is based on con- method of seeking the divine truth by reflection
sciousness, rather than on intellect and epistemol- and syllogisms.
ogy. According to Callistos, human intelligence
can perceive, besides God, humanity in its totality.
References
Impact and Legacy Primary Literature

Migne, J. P. 1865. Patrologia Graeca, vol. 147, 817–826
(Peri isihastikis trivis). Typographi Brepols Editores
Callistos sought not only to highlight the early
Pontificii
dispute between intellectualism, giving promi-
nence to rational thought, and mysticism which
promoted experience and religion but also to dis- Arabatzis, G. 2005. Alitheia kai eudaimonia sto Kata
sociate the Eastern Orthodox tradition from the Thoma Akinatou ergo tou Kallistou Angelicoudi. In
Western scholastic one. He dealt with issues Theologia, vol. 76, 121–128. Athinai. Arabatzis:
Hiera Synodos tis Eklissias tis Hellados
related to spiritual experience and the theory of
De Libera, Alain. 1995. La Philosophie médiévale, 45.
the divine, as well as the individual experience of Paris: PUF.
the divine through the divine eros, spiritual and Miklosich, -I., and F. M€uller. 1860. Acta Patriarchatus
inner prayer, and divine radiance. Callistos held Constantinopolitani. Acta et diplomata graeca
mediiaevi sacra et profana, I, Vindobon K.
that beatitude (theoptia) is not a theoretical point
Papadopoulos, S. 1967. Ellinikai metafraseis thomistikon
of view, as suggested by Thomas Aquinas; on the ergon. Philothomistai kai antithomistai en Byzantio,
contrary, it is the vivid experience of the uncreated 156–172. Athinai.
light. Moreover, according to Callistos, it is not Papadopoulos, S. 1970. Kallistos Aggelikoudis, Kata
Thoma Akinatou. Athinai. Patriarchiko Idryma
possible for human intelligence to conceive of the
Paterikon Meleton
divine essence through an analogical relationship
A
Argyropoulos, John Synonyms/Alternate Names
Born: Constantinople c.1393/1394, 1405, 1410, Ioannis Argiropoulos; Giovanni Argiropulo;

1415 Giovanni Argyropulos
Died: Florence c.1487
Georgios Steiris Biography

Department of Philosophy, School of Philosophy,
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, John Argyropoulos was born in Constantinople or
Zografou, Greece in Crete. His date of birth is dubious, although
modern scholarship accepts 1393–1394 as the
most probable year of his birth. Instead John
Monfasani proposed 1405 as the year of his
birth. Older sources placed his birth in 1410 or
1415; according to a dubious epistle, he was
Abstract
76 when he died. His family was wealthy and
respectable in Constantinople. Argyropoulos’
John Argyropoulos was a famous Greek scholar
parents died when he was a child and his relatives
of the fifteenth century, whose contribution in
sent him to Salonika to study under Alexios
classical letters and philosophy was praised by
Phorvinos, a famous teacher. A few years later
his fellow humanists. He shared his time between
he returned to Constantinople and continued his
Constantinople, Crete, mainland Greece, Italy,
studies under John Chortasmenos (1370–1437),
and other European countries. Argyropoulos’
an ardent philosopher, mathematician, and
career in Constantinople and Italy was remark-
astronomer. In a letter to Georgius Trapezuntius
able, as his teaching and broader scientific activ-
(1395–1472), a Cretan scholar who made a con-
ities in both these places were admirable and of
siderable career in Italy, Argyropoulos praised
top quality. Argyropoulos was a leading fifteenth-
the famous teachers of his youth, who instructed
century Aristotelian philosopher. His research
him ancient wisdom. It is possible that Georgius
focused on Aristotle’s natural philosophy and
Gemistus Pletho (1355–1454) was among
ethics.
Argyropoulos’ teachers. During the
1420s – probably 1424 – Argyropoulos moved
to Crete, although he claimed that he was already
a successful scholar in Constantinople. There, he
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_19-1
2 Argyropoulos, John
engaged in a dispute with Georgius Trapezuntius. Argyropoulos thought that it would be useful for
At times, Argyropoulos and Trapezuntius worked his future plans to have studied in one of the best
as tutors in Crete. In 1425, Emperor Manuel II European universities. It seems probable that he
Paleologus assigned him the direction of a public planned to move to Italy even before the fall of
school in Constantinople. Within the same year, Constantinople. After the completion of his stud-
he became a priest and was appointed as an impe- ies in Padua, he returned to Constantinople and to
rial judge. According to the historian Ducas, his students. Among them, we should distinguish
Argyropoulos participated in the Council of Constantine Laskaris (1434–1501), Michael
Ferrara – Florence (1438–1439), although his Apostolis (1422–1478), Antonios Pyropoulos,
role in the Council was not crucial. For the rest Manuel Pyropoulos, John Panaretos, Demetrius
of his life, Argyropoulos remained a pro-unionist Angelos, and others. Argyropoulos mentioned
and at a later point he probably converted to that even people from Italy came to attend his
Catholicism. After the end of the Council, lessons. He taught Aristotelian logic, Galenic
Argyropoulos probably returned to Constantino- medicine, and philosophy of nature at the
ple with the rest of the Byzantine delegates and Xenon of Kral. He was a leading figure in a circle
continued his teaching activities. Among his stu- of physicians at Constantinople. Moreover, there
dents was Francesco Filelfo’s (1398–1481) son. are several testimonies that Argyropoulos was
The Italian humanist lived in Constantinople and also a successful copyist. Before the final Turkish
worked in the emperor’s court. Filelfo entrusted siege of Constantinople, Argyropoulos accompa-
his son to Argyropoulos because the latter’s rep- nied Cardinal Isidore to his delegation to Pope
utation as a scholar was high in Byzantium and Nicholas V. Cardinal Isidore worked as a media-
Italy. Around the same time, he wrote the Com- tor between the Orthodox and the Catholic
edy of Katablattas, a very interesting text in Church in order to reinforce the Byzantine army
which he gave useful information about his per- against the Turks. Besides the Catholic Church
sonal life. Specifically, he ridiculed Demetrios and the Western Christian leaders, Argyropoulos
Katadokeinos or Katadoukinos who was a judge sought the salvation of the empire in classical
in Constantinople. Katadokeinos accused heritage, a possible aura of Pletho’s influence on
Argyropoulos of impiety and atheism. him. Namely, he exhorted the last Byzantine
Argyropoulos was brilliant enough to reply indi- Emperor Constantine XI Paleologus to proclaim
rectly in order to doubt Katadokeinos’ integrity himself King of the Hellenes. Argyropoulos
and moral status. It is possible that the serious wrote an oration entitled Basilikos e peri
accusations against him forced him to leave his basileias in which he grabbed the chance to
successful teaching career and seek his fortune in declare his political views and exhort the emperor
Italy. In 1441, he traveled to Italy and settled in to seek help in Western Europe. Argyropoulos
Padua. He became the protégé of Palla Strozzi held that kingship was the best form of govern-
(1372–1462), a Florentine exile in Padua who ment. In order to strengthen his views, he resorted
was interested in ancient Greek language and to arguments taken from ancient Greek philo-
culture. With the aid of Andronicus Callistus sophical texts. According to the correspondence
(1400–1486) – another Greek humanist who between the Pope and his prelates in Constanti-
built his career in Italy – Argyropoulos taught nople, Argyropoulos was an active pro-unionist
the youth and elder citizens of the city Greek in the last days of the Byzantine Empire. As a
language and philosophy. Palla’s support was result of the fall of Constantinople, Argyropoulos
crucial for Argyropoulos, since Palla was wealthy lost his possessions and his family was captured.
and influential. During his stay in Italy, he studied He was obliged to spend the next 3 or 4 years
philosophy and medicine at the University of collecting money so as to set his family free. It
Padua and in 1444 he obtained the degree of was a really difficult period for him because
doctor from the same University. Despite his simultaneously he was trying to find a job in
career and reputation in Constantinople, Italy and move there. During a trip to Italy, he
Argyropoulos, John 3
was introduced to Donato Acciaiuoli extremely popular and influential in Florence.

(1429–1478), a relative of Argyropoulos’ patron The Florentine youth sought his teaching and
Palla Strozzi. Acciaiuoli encouraged him to sub- guidance. Among his most illustrious students,
mit his candidacy for a professorship at the Flor- we mention Vespasiano da Bisticci, Donato
entine Studium. Although his candidacy was not Acciaiuoli, Bernardo Platina, Alamanno
accepted with excitement since the local author- Rinuccini, and Angelo Poliziano. Besides his
ities preferred a native Italian for the position, his teaching activities, Argyropoulos was an excel-
supporters in Florence were able to assure his lent translator. He translated from Greek to Latin
election as professor of Greek language and phi- numerous works of Aristotle, including: Catego-
losophy in 1456. Meanwhile, Argyropoulos vis- ries, On Interpretations, Posterior Analytics,
ited Pope Calixtus III (1378–1458) as a delegate Prior Analytics, On Sophistical Refutations,
of Thomas Paleologus (1409/10-1465) – the des- Physics, On Heavens, On the Soul, Metaphysics,
pot of Mystra, who aspired to get aid from the and Nicomachean Ethics. In addition, he trans-
Europeans in order to defend Peloponnese from lated Porphyry’s Isagoge. The translations were
the Turks. From Rome, he headed to Milan, dedicated to Cosimo and Piero Medici and were
where he met the Sforza family, France, and probably completed between 1464 and 1469.
England. Besides his mission, it is probable that Argyropoulos’ close ties with the Medici are
he sought support in order to reunite and liberate proven by the fact that Lorenzo Medici was his
his family which remained captive. Before his student. Between 1467 and 1469, Argyropoulos
installation in Florence, he visited Greece and suffered the loss of his two or three sons. Further-
managed to bring his family to Italy. more, Piero Medici died in 1469. These unfortu-
Argyropoulos started to give his lectures in nate events led him to leave Florence. It seems
1457. Instead of the standard Italian humanistic that he planned to move to Hungary, but suddenly
preference of rhetoric and bene dicendi, changed his mind and preferred to stay in Rome.
Argyropoulos chose a more philosophical In 1471, Argyropoulos arrived in Rome. It is
approach because he insisted on the superiority highly probable that the appointment of Pope
of philosophy, especially metaphysics and phi- Sixtus IV (1414–1484), who was Argyropoulos’
losophy of nature. He instructed his students former colleague, and Bessarion’s (1408–1472)
Aristotelian Ethics and Politics; then he taught presence in the Curia induced him to choose
the De anima and lectured on physics and meta- Rome as his new residence. Both the Pope and
physics. In addition to his morning courses, he Bessarion wished to reestablish Rome as the cul-
taught private lessons to selected students in the tural center of Renaissance Italy. Argyropoulos
afternoon at his home. In these private lessons, he stayed in touch with the leading Florentine fam-
expounded Aristotelian logic and even Platonic ilies, especially the Medici, since, as a result of
dialogues, such as the Menon. There are several his hasty departure, he left behind his books and
testimonies that his lectures on Plato were of several unsolved disputes. Upon his arrival in
extraordinary quality. Argyropoulos managed to Rome, he associated with scholars and artists of
stay for the most neutral in the heated debate the Curia. According to several sources, he
between Renaissance Platonists and Aristotelians taught, besides Aristotle, Thucydides’ History.
concerning the philosophical primacy of either As a result of Bessarion’s death and his personal
one. He held that the philosophy of Plato and of turmoil, Argyropoulos decided to leave Rome
Aristotle do not differ so much, let the fact that and looked for a new destination somewhere in
their differences are fruitful for philosophy in the Western Europe. During the same period,
broader sense. He was so friendly to Plato that Andronicus Callistus (1400–1486) – a renowned
even Michael Apostolis thought of him as a Pla- Greek scholar who taught in Florence and other
tonist and admirer of Georgius Gemistus Pletho. Italian and European cities – abandoned the Flor-
The students accepted with enthusiasm his entine Studium and accepted a position in Milan.
approach and soon Argyropoulos became In addition to Argyropoulos, another important
Greek scholar, Demetrius Chalcocondyles find a wide range of subjects. Argyropoulos

(1423–1511), applied for Callistus’ position. In disagreed with the Platonic insistence on the pri-
his return to Florence, Argyropoulos shaved his macy of mathematical explanation of nature, a
beard as a proof of his Latinization. That was not rather predictable reaction since he, as an Aristo-
so common for someone in his age. Finally, in telian, gave preponderance to physical explana-
1477, Argyropoulos was reappointed in his for- tion. Aristotle, the successor in that chain of
mer position as professor in the Florentine knowledge, spoke about the principle of things
Studium. The Florentines also hired as natural. In addition, he presented the world as
Chalcocondyles, an indication of their interest unified. Argyropoulos admitted that even Aris-
in classical letters. Argyropoulos taught in Flor- totle retained some obscurity in his texts. It is
ence till 1481, contrary to Chalcocondyles who obvious that Argyropoulos divided ancient phi-
retained his position till 1491. In 1481, losophy into Presocratic, Platonic, and Aristote-
Argyropoulos was in Rome. There are lian eras. It is of great importance that
contradicting testimonies concerning his later Argyropoulos did not follow common trends of
life. In several sources, he seemed to spend a lot Florentine Platonism, which included ancient
of money and live a luxurious life, while others mystical traditions, such as the Chaldean Ora-
attested that he was poor and struggled to over- cles, the Corpus Hermeticum, etc., in the history
come his problems. According to Laskaris, he of philosophy. According to Argyropoulos,
was obliged to sell his books in order to buy Anaxagoras, despite his poetical tone, was prob-
food. He died in Rome. According to not reliable ably the first true philosopher. Despite his posi-
sources, the cause of his death was the consump- tions, we have to bear in mind that Argyropoulos
tion of watermelon. was an admirer of Plato’s hidden doctrines and
even his faithful students acknowledged that his
style was extremely learned and difficult in
Innovative and Original Aspects understanding. Moreover, Argyropoulos argued
against Averroes on the debated issue of the soul.
Argyropoulos was able to present to the Latin He admitted that Christian truths could not be
audience a comprehensive and unified version proven logically, but are of greater value in com-
of Aristotelian philosophy. Moreover, he parison to the philosophy of Averroes. This is a
instructed to the Italians the Presocratics, the proof that Argyropoulos did not share the pagan
proper knowledge of whom was crucial for the tendencies of the rest of the Florentine philoso-
understanding of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. In phers of his times. Rather, he got embroiled in the
his lectures on Aristotle’s Physics, he supported debate between Greek and Latin scholars about
that the sciences were invented in Greece, after Cicero. Namely, Renaissance scholars appreci-
Deucalion’s flood, despite the fact that there were ated Cicero and thought of him as equal to the
sciences all over the world. According to great thinkers of ancient Greece. Cicero held that
Argyropoulos, the Egyptians did not suffer from the Greek language is poorer than the Latin.
the flood and were capable of assisting the Argyropoulos felt the need to reply to Cicero
Greeks; the latter accepted their help pleasantly. and accused him that he was ignorant of philoso-
But in that early period, science was in an infan- phy. In addition, Cicero did not know any Greek.
tile stage. Scientific truths were expressed in Argyropoulos commented on Cicero’s views
poetic form and were inaccurate. Philosophers about entelechia and proved that Cicero
knew a lot of things, but they were not able to misinterpreted the term. Several Latin scholars
communicate them with precision and accuracy. felt offended by Argyropoulos’ and other Greek
Pythagoras was the first who was able to widen scholars’ attack on Cicero. Poliziano
philosophy. Furthermore, Plato achieved to set (1454–1494) defended Cicero and Giovio
poetry aside, despite the beautiful language he (1483–1552) found it to be a good reason to
used. In the Platonic dialogues, the reader could ridicule Argyropoulos. After his oration
Argyropoulos, John 5
addressed to Emperor Constantine Paleologus, treatise entitled Antirrheticon against

Argyropoulos’ political views were further elab- Argyropoulos’ claims. In it, Gaza attempted
orated in the dedicatory prefaces of his transla- vainly to confront Argyropoulos’ positions. Yet
tions, made after Cosimo Medici’s bequest. he did not succeed since Argyropoulos’ remarks
Although the Florentines presented Cosimo as a were valid.
man of action, Argyropoulos preferred to depict
him as a virtuous Aristotelian ruler, who guided
the Florentines toward eudaimonia. Cosimo’s
Impact and Legacy
wealth was not a goal in itself; rather it was a
means for the achievement of ideal goods, such as
Argyropoulos lectures and translations impacted
happiness. Argyropoulos compared Cosimo to
Renaissance scholars. His teaching renews the
the Platonic and Aristotelian ideal rulers. Despite
way the Latin West understood and appreciated
the fact that Argyropoulos had ties with
Aristotle. His student and friend Donato
Bessarion, he engaged in a dispute with
Acciaiuoli published a humanistic commentary
Theodorus Gaza (1398–1475) about Bessarion’s
of the Nicomachean Ethics (1478) based on
In Calumniatorem Platonis. When the latter’s
Argyropoulos’ work on Aristotle. Several others
work was published (1469), the author sent a
used his translations in order to comment on
copy to Argyropoulos, who replied with a long
Aristotle. Erasmus frequently praised him for
letter in Greek and a small one in Latin. In the
the quality of his translations.
former, Argyropoulos praised Bessarion and
seemed to agree with his arguments against
Trapezuntius. Despite the fact that he was an
ardent Aristotelian, Argyropoulos did not under- References
estimate Platonic philosophy and did not partici-
pate actively in the heated debate between Greek Primary Literature
ΕkklZsiastikά poiZmata (Eklesiastika poemata)
scholars concerning the preponderance of Plato
Perί sullogismoύ (Peri sylogismou)
or Aristotle. Despite his appreciation for Perί ΑristotelikZB jilosojίaB (Peri aristotelikis
Bessarion and his work, he pointed out an error filosofias)
to him and expressed his views which led Perί ekporeύseoB tou Αgίou PneύmatoB proB ton
Doύka Νikólao Νotarά (Peri ekporeuseos tou
Bessarion to correct his text. The disputed issue
Agiou Pneumatos pros ton Douka Nikolao Notara)
was a paraphrased Porphyry’s passage LógoB perittZB sunódou tZB FlorrentίaB (Logos peri
concerning whether forms are separable or insep- tis sinodou tis Florentias)
arable, which Bessarion and Porphyry refused to LύseiB jilosojiko n zZtZmάton proB touB ek
Kύprou proteίnantaB (Liseis filosofikon zitimaton
answer in depth. Argyropoulos disagreed with
pros tous ek Kyprou proteinantas)
certain words in the translation of the In Swólia eiB ta Ηyikά Νikomάweia tou ΑristotelouB
Calumniatorem Platonis from Greek to Latin. (Sxolia eis ta Ethika Nikomahia tou Aristotelous)
Furthermore, he found Bessarion’s argument log-
ically defective. Moreover, Argyropoulos argued
that Bessarion should have wondered whether Cammelli, G. 1941. I dotti Bizantini e le origini dell’
forms subsist or reside only in simple concepts. umanesimo: Giovanni Argiropulo. Florence,
Finally, he disagreed with the cardinal on the Vallecchi.
Field, A. 1987. John Argyropoulos and the “Secret Teach-
forms being separated and being subsistent.
ings of Plato”. In Supplementum Festivum: Studies in
Argyropoulos found the chance to argue against Honor of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. J. Hankins, J.
Aristotle: he supported the scholastic view that Monfasani and F. Purnell Jr, 299–326.
imagination resided in the heart and not in the Binghamton, Medieval & Renaissance Texts &
Studies.
brain, as the Stagirite held. Bessarion did not
Ganchou, T. 2008. Ioannes Argyropoulos, Georgios
reply directly to Argyropoulos’ letter; instead, Trapezountios et le patron cretois Georgios Maurikas.
he ordered Theodorus Gaza to compose a short Ysaurίsmata 38: 105–211.
Garin, E. 1960. Un trattatello inedito di Giovanni Geburtstag, ed. C. Scholz and G. Makris, 223–250.
Argiropulo. In Prospettive storiche e problemi attuali Munich/Leipzig, K.G. Saur.
dell’educazione, Studi in onore di Ernesto Codignola, Monfasani, J. 1993. The Averroism of John Argyropoulos
28–35. Florence, La Nuova Italia. and his Quaestio utrum intellectus humanus sit
Geanakoplos, D.J. 1989. Constantinople and the West: perpetuus. I Tatti Studies: Essays in the Renaissance
Essays on the Late Byzantine (Palaeologan) and 5: 157–208.
Italian Renaissances and the Byzantine and Roman M€ullner, K. 1899. Reden und Briefen italienischer
Churches. Madison, The University of Wisconsin Humanisten. Wien, Holder.
Press. Oikonomides, N., and P. Canavet. 1982–1983. La
Lampros, S. 1910. Argyropouleia. Athens, P. D. Comedie de Katablattas. Invective Byzantine du XVe
Sakellariou. s. Diptycha 3: 5–97.
Mondrain, B. 2000. Jean Argyropoulos professeuri a Con- Seigel, J. 1969. The teaching of Argyropoulos and the
stantinople et ses auditeurs medecins, d’Andronic rhetoric of the first humanists. In Action and conviction
Eparque a Demetrios Angelos. In PolύpleuroB in early modern Europe, ed. T. Rabb and J. Seigel,
nouB: Miscellanea fur Peter Schreiner zu seinem 6o 237–260. Princeton, Princeton University Press.
B
Bartholomew of Bruges B.’s six extant Aristotle commentaries date

from around that period. They include a commen-
Born: 1286 tary with questions on Aristotle’s De anima (1306
Died: 1356 or before), an extensive quaestio commentary on
Aristotle’s Physics (1307), as well as undated
Pavel Blažek quaestiones on De generatione et corruptione.
Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of His main contribution to the medieval recep-
Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic tion of Aristotle is his commentaries on three
marginal texts of the medieval Latin corpus
aristotelicum. His 1307 commentary on Averroes’
paraphrase of Aristotle’s Poetics (translated into
Abstract
Latin in 1256) is the only medieval commentary
on this work and one of the rare specimens of the
Aristotelian philosopher, medical scholar, and
reception of Aristotle’s Poetics before the fif-
physician active in Paris and Montpellier in the
teenth century. Following the tradition of
first half of the fourteenth century and author of
Al-Farabi and Gundissalinus, Bartholomew
philosophical sophismata and Aristotle commen-
defines Poetics as a part of logic and an aid to
taries, including commentaries on marginal and
moral philosophy.
previously uncommented texts of the contempo-
Equally unique among medieval and renais-
rary Aristotelian corpus (De inundatione Nili, ps.-
sance Aristotle commentaries is his uncompleted
Aristotelian Economics, Averroes’ paraphrase of
commentary, surviving in a shorter and longer
Aristotle’s Poetics).
version, on De inundatione Nili, a (pseudo?-)
Aristotelian treatise on the causes of the annual
Nile flood. Bartholomew argues, on stylistic and
Biography doctrinal grounds, for the authenticity of the text
which he considers an appendix to Aristotle’s
The philosopher, medical scholar, and physician Meteorology.
Bartholomew of Bruges may be considered to be The most influential of his works on Aristotle
one of the most important representatives of the is an extensive commentary with quaestiones on
early fourteenth-century Parisian Aristotelianism. the pseudo-Aristotelian Economics (1309), an
He began his career at the Faculty of Arts of the ancient philosophical treatise on the household
University of Paris where it is recorded that he and marriage attributed to Aristotle that was trans-
was magister artium between 1306 and 1309. lated twice into Latin in the thirteenth century. The
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_24-1
2 Bartholomew of Bruges
commentary served as model for the Economics medicine. In 1329, he resurfaces in the sources as
commentary of Albert of Saxony (1359), and it a private doctor of Guy I of Châtillon, the Count
was partially translated into French by Nicole of Blois, in whose services he shall remain until
Oresme (ca. 1372). Bartholomew defines the Eco- the count’s death in 1342. In 1333, he is at the
nomics as Aristotle’s textbook of the “science of University of Montpellier as a regent Master of
the household community” (scientia de Medicine. His medical writings probably date
communitate domestica) which he considers to from that period. Less numerous than his works
be a fully fledged Aristotelian scientia and a of philosophy, they include commentaries on
branch of practical/moral philosophy. The com- Avicenna’s Canon and on Galen’s Tegni as well
mentary contains an extensive philosophical dis- as a tract on the pest. As Cornelius O’Boyle has
cussion of the structure of the household and its shown, some medical writings formerly attributed
relationship to the political community, of the to him (such as a commentary on the Isagoge of
natural and monogamous character of marriage, Johannitius, or a commentary on the Hippocratic
as well as of the relationship between husband and Prognostics) belong to his older namesake, the
wife and their respective roles and duties within twelfth-century Italian medical scholar
and outside the household. Bartholomew of Salerno.
B. also wrote ca. fifteen shorter philosophical
treatises on logic, epistemology, and metaphysics.
At least four of these sophismata are the outcome References
of philosophical disputes with colleagues from the
Arts Faculty. This is also the case of his best- Blažek, P. 2007. Die Rezeption der aristotelischen
known sophisma, the Sophisma de sensu agente, Philosophie der Ehe. Von Robert Grosseteste bis
Bartholomäus von Br€
ugge. Boston: Leiden.
going back to a controversy with the Averroist O’Boyle, C. 1996. Un Updated Survey of the Life
John of Jandun (d. 1328) and addressing the ques- and Works of Bartholomew of Bruges (†1356).
tion about the sensation of material objects by the Manuscripta 40: 67–95.
sensitive faculty of the soul. Pattin, A. 1988. Pour l’histoire du sens agent. La
controverse entre Barthelemy de Bruges et Jean de
After 1309, evidence of Bartholomew’s activ- Jandun. Ses antécédents et son évolution. Leuven:
ity at the Arts Faculty disappears. The next period Leuven University Press.
of his life is marked by a radical career shift to
B
Bessarion, Cardinal and Against the Calumniator of Plato. In Against

the Calumniator of Plato, he defends Plato against
Born: 2.01.1399/1400/1403/8, Trebizond a number of charges which Georgios of Trebizond
had formulated against Plato in his treatise
Died: 18.11.1472, Ravenna Comparatio philosophorum Platonis et
Aristotelis et de praestantia Aristotelis. In On
Sergei Mariev Nature and Art he evinces an agreement between
Institute of Byzantine Studies, Byzantine Art the Platonic and the Aristotelian philosophies and
History and Modern Greek Philology, Ludwig- also suggests an accord between Platonic philos-
Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, ophy and Christian theology.
Germany
Alternate Names
Abstract
Also known as “John Bessarion” or “Basileios
Bessarion was a Byzantine scholar, theologian, Bessarion.” He was baptized with the name
philosopher, and cardinal of the Roman Church. Basileios and not John (Bianca 1999,
He was born in Trebizond on the Black Sea and pp. 141–149) and adopted the name of an Egyp-
was brought to Constantinople where he received tian anchorite Bessarion upon becoming a monk.
a literary and philosophical education. In He frequently referred to himself as “Bessarion
1430–1431, he joined the circle of Georgios Nicenus” and, on rare occasions, “Bessarion
Gemistos’ (Plethon’s) students. in 1438–1439, Venetus.” Since the monastic name is meant to
he participated in the council of Ferrara/Florence replace the baptismal name, the combination
as a speaker of Byzantine delegation. After the “Basileios Bessarion” is misleading and should
council, he was made cardinal of the Roman be avoided.
Church. In 1455, he nearly became pope. He
was a legatus a latere to Germany, Republic of
Venice, France, Burgundy, and England. Almost Biography
all of B.’s political activities were directed
towards advancing the preparations for the cru- The year in which he was born is disputed; the
sade against the Turks. In addition to a number of month and date, on the contrary, are certain. While
theological works, Bessarion composed two most of the older secondary literature (Vast 1878;
major philosophical treatises, On Nature and Art Mohler 1923–1942; Labowsky 1967, 1979)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_25-1
2 Bessarion, Cardinal
follows the testimony of Capranica and gives safe to conclude that B.’s education, as he himself
1403 (cf. also Coluccia 2009) as the year of his stressed on several occasions, took place in Con-
birth, Saffrey (1964) puts it as early as 1399 or stantinople. B. became a deacon on 8 December
1400, and Monfasani (1986) has convincingly 1425 and a priest on 8 October 1430. In
demonstrated that B. was born in 1408. Our 1430–1431, he left the Byzantine capital for the
knowledge of B.’s early years is mainly derived Peloponnese, where he joined the circle of
from the following sources: Niccolò Capranica’s Georgios Gemistos’ (Plethon’s) students and
funeral oration (text in Mohler 1923–1942, vol. remained until 1436. In his letters dating from
III, pp. 404–414), Bartolomeo Platina’s panegyric this period, he refers with considerable reverence
of B. (PG 161, 104–116), Michael Apostoles’ to his teacher Plethon, calling him “most godly
funeral oration (PG 161, 127–140, material for a leader” and “admirable master” (cf. letters 1, 4 and
new critical edition in A. Riehle’s unpublished 8 in Mohler 1923–1942, vol. 3). This stay proved
master thesis, LMU Munich 2006), and Pietro extremely beneficial not only for his intellectual
Ronsano’s essay, composed ca. 1470 development but also for his career: B. was soon
(cf. Termini 1915, pp. 163–167). It is very likely included, together with his teacher Plethon, in the
that all of these sources, with the exception of Byzantine delegation to the Council of Ferrara/
Michael Apostoles, were influenced by or indi- Florence (cf. also Ronchey 2002). In fact, B. was
rectly derive their information from the biography made bishop of Nicaea on 11 October 1437,
of B. that had been composed by Niccolò Perotti, shortly before the Greek delegation departed
but which was never published and is now lost from Constantinople. Later B. assembled his
(cf. Monfasani 1986). own early works written during this period in a
According to these sources, B. was born in single manuscript, now known as Cod.
Trebizond on the Black Sea and was brought to marc. gr. 533.
Constantinople by Dositheos (PLP 5642, cf. - The Byzantines traveled to Italy to negotiate
Laurent 1933, pp. 153–155) in 1415–1416. the Union of the Churches, but above all they
There he received a literary and philosophical were seeking military assistance from the West.
education under John Chortasmenos (PLP Their delegation comprised such important intel-
30897) and Georgios Chrysokokkes (PLP lectual figures as Georgios Scholarios, Mark
31142). From the autograph curriculum vitae pre- Eugenikos, Georgios Gemistos (Plethon),
served in Cod. marc. gr. 14, we know that he Georgios Amiroutzes, and many others. Not all
entered the Basilian order on 30 January 1423 members of the Byzantine delegation were in
and became a monk on 30 July 1424, taking favor of the union with the Latin Church, and
upon himself the name of the Egyptian anchorite even fewer were disposed to make any conces-
Bessarion. In reference to B.’s early years, Platina sions to the Latins. Mark Eugenikos, for instance,
and Capranica mention a certain archbishop of viewed the council as a kind of tribunal at which
Selymbria who was in charge of B.’s education. he would denounce the heresies of the Latin
This information inspired the hypothesis about Church and thought that the Union was only pos-
B.’s sojourn in a monastery in Selymbria (cf. sible if the Latins were ready to accept the teach-
Mohler 1923–1942, vol. 1, pp. 43–45). However, ings of the Greeks. For B. participation in the
the fact that B. studied under John Chortasmenos, council was a turning point in his life and a first
who is identical with the archiepiscopus step towards a brilliant ecclesiastical career in the
Selymbriensis mentioned by Platina and West. Soon after his arrival in Italy he was chosen
Capranica, does not necessarily imply that to be one of the two spokesmen of the Byzantine
B. had actually stayed in Selymbria. As demon- delegation (the other being Mark Eugenikos) and
strated by Loenertz (1944, p. 129) and Hunger was accorded the privilege of pronouncing the
(1969, p. 18), John Chortasmenos, who was in opening discourse on 8 October 1438. In it he
charge of several monasteries at the time, in fact encouraged the participants of the council to
continued to live in Constantinople and so it is seek the truth and try to suppress the natural
Bessarion, Cardinal 3
tendency of man to wish to prevail. The most B. himself in a dogmatic letter addressed to
controversial issue debated at the council was Alexios Laskaris (text of the letter in PG
the question of filioque, which was considered 163, 321–406, research into the manuscripts of
both by the Latins and the Byzantines to be a Basil mentioned in col. 325).
significant impediment to the Union. Next in the B.’s presence in the West is securely attested on
order of importance and closely connected to it 05 February 1442, when he signed the decree of
was the debate about the legitimacy of additions to Union between the Coptic and the Roman
the Nicene Creed, followed by discussion of the Churches, even though he must have been present
implications of the primacy of the pope and a in Italy much earlier, possibly as early as
series of other minor questions. B. played a central 10 December 1440. The bull of Eugenius IV
role in finding and negotiating solutions to each of granted B. the possession of houses and gardens
these issues. On 13 April 1439 and 14 April 1439, adjacent to the Basilica of the Holy Apostles in
he delivered his Oratio dogmatica to the assem- Rome, which must have increased the cardinal’s
bled Greeks (text in Candal 1958, cf. also Lusini financial means. In the same year, he became
2001). In it he tried to demonstrate that the teach- protector and apostolic visitator of the Basilian
ings of the western saints on the issue of the Monasteries in southern Italy and Sicily. It was
filioque do not in fact disagree with those of the not until 1450, however, that he was entrusted
eastern saints. He also discussed the differences with an important ecclesiastical mission on Italian
between the prepositions dia (through) and ek soil, when Pope Nicholas V made B. his legate to
(from), thereby envisaging a solution that was Bologna, Romagna, and the March of Ancona.
approved by the Byzantine patriarch on 04 June The objective of B.’s legation was to put an end
1439 and eventually accepted by the Greek dele- to the ongoing unrest in Bologna and to reinforce
gation. The remaining issues, such as the doctrine the ties between that city and the Vatican.
of purgatory and the use of leavened and B. arrived in Bologna on 16 March 1450 and
unleavened bread in the Eucharist, were discussed was to remain there for the next 5 years. During
with much more haste as the Byzantine emperor this time, he implemented a number of important
urged that the negotiations be brought to a suc- regulations and reorganized the University of
cessful conclusion. The Byzantines signed the Bologna, establishing the chair of rhetoric. It
decree of Union on 05 July 1439. In a ceremony was in Bologna that he finished his Latin transla-
which took place in the cathedral of Florence, tion of Aristotle’s Metaphysics (Mioni 1960) and
Cardinal Cesarini read the text of the decree in came to know Niccolò Perotti, who later became
Latin and B. in Greek. The Union was achieved his secretary and close friend. It was also in Bolo-
and the Byzantine delegation prepared to return gna that he received the sad news of the capture of
home. B. left Florence for Venice on 20 July 1439. Constantinople (1453) and the death of his teacher
Either on his way back from Florence to Venice or Georgios Gemistos (Plethon). On 23 March 1455
already in Venice he received a breve of Pope B. was informed about the grave illness and the
Eugenius IV, who invited him to collaborate imminent death of Pope Nicholas V and departed
with the Roman Church. B. accepted the papal immediately to Rome. He stood a fairly good
offer and departed for Constantinople on 19 Octo- chance of becoming the new pope. In fact, during
ber 1439. On his way to Constantinople, B. was the conclave he was supported by 8 cardinals out
made a cardinal. The Byzantine fleet reached Con- of 15, and during the night of 04 April 1455 the
stantinople on 01 February 1440. B. participated probability of his being elected seemed very high.
in the election of the new patriarch of Constanti- On 08 April 1455, however, Alfonso De Borja
nople on 04 May 1440 and used his time in was elected as Calixtus III. In the same year,
Byzantium to undertake research in libraries, B. departed for Naples, seeking to obtain the
seeking proofs for the Latin doctrine of the support of King Alfonso V for a crusade against
filioque in the oldest manuscripts of Basil he the Turks. In the course of the following years,
could find. This work was described by B. was appointed to a number of important
ecclesiastical offices. In 1456 he was nominated succession in Hungary. In spite of a number of

archimandrite of the monastery of San Salvatore important results that B. was in fact able to
di Messina; in 1458 he was nominated Bishop of achieve in Germany, his mission as a whole is
Pamplona (he renounced this title in 1462, in rightly considered a failure as he was not able to
which year he became perpetuus administrator obtain the support of the German princes for the
sive commendatarius of the monastery of war against the Turks. After prolonged stops in
Grottaferrata); in 1458 he also became protector Nuremberg in February 1460 and in Worms,
of the Order of Friars Minor. B. proceeded to Vienna, which he reached on
The year 1458 marked the beginning of B.’s 04 May 1460 and where he remained until autumn
polemics against Georgios Trapezuntios (cf. of 1461, when he returned to Italy (he arrived in
Monfasani 1976, 2008, 2012, 2013a). It was in Bologna on 23 October 1461 and in Rome on
this year that B. was informed about the pamphlet 20 November 1461).
distributed by Georgios in which he attacked B.’s Next important diplomatic mission with which
views on the role of deliberation in art and nature B. was entrusted was an embassy to Venice. He
and about Georgios’ publication of the departed for Venice as a legatus a latere on
Comparatio philosophorum Platonis et 05 July 1463 and arrived there on 22 July 1463.
Aristotelis et de praestantia Aristotelis After only a week of negotiation, the Republic of
(henceforth cited as Comparatio). In response to Venice declared its intent to break off diplomatic
these publications, B. composed his two major relations with the Turks; the crusade was
philosophical treatises, On Nature and Art (De proclaimed in the Piazza San Marco on 28 August
Natura et Arte, henceforth cited as NA) and 1463. B. firmly believed that the outbreak of war
Against the Calumniator of Plato (In was imminent and worked fervently on the final
Calumniatorem Platonis, henceforth cited as preparations. The pope asked Cristoforo Moro,
ICP), which were completed and published the doge of Venice, to place himself at the head
10 years later in 1469 (cf. also Hankins 1991). of the fleet, and the doge confirmed his intent to
Following the death of Calixtus III on lead the crusade. However, these preparations
14 August 1458 and the election of Enea Silvio came to an abrupt end with the death of Pope
Piccolomini as Pius II, B., who in the conclave of Pius II on 14 and 15 August 1464. During the
1458 opposed his candidature mostly in consider- conclave of 1464, Pietro Balbo was elected as
ation of his ill health, was able to quickly gain Pope Paul II on August 30. The newly elected
confidence of the new pope. Almost all of B.’s pope declared that the “chapters” or binding
activity during this time was directed towards agreements that determined the conduct of elected
advancing the preparations for the crusade against prelates were only advisory rather than obligatory,
the Turks. This political project had occupied B.’s which antagonized some the cardinals and in par-
attention from the time of his participation in the ticular B., who had played an important role in
Council of Ferrara/Florence, but had become even drafting this document. For this reason and on
more important to him after the capture of Con- account of his ill health, B. chose to reduce his
stantinople in 1453. In January 1460, at the end of political engagement and decided to dedicate
the Council of Mantua, which had been convened more time to his studies (cf. Monfasani 2011).
by Pius II in 1459 and in which B. had taken an However, he did not retire completely from public
active part, he was appointed legatus a latere and life but continued to fulfill a number of important
entrusted with a difficult if not impossible diplo- ecclesiastical functions. In 1468 he successfully
matic mission of communicating the decisions of interceded with Paul II on behalf of Platina who
the Council of Mantua in favor of war against the had been imprisoned together with other members
Turks to the German princes and gaining their of the Roman Academy (Palermino 1980). After
support. His other objective was to mediate in the death of Paul II on 26 July 1471, the human-
the conflict between the Holy Roman emperor istic circles of Rome favored the candidacy of B.,
Frederick III and Matthias Corvinus over dynastic and in the conclave of that year B. could count on
a number of votes. However, Francesco della down the principles of any art. B. does not limit
Rovere was elected as Sixtus IV. The newly himself to an explanation of Plato’s motives, but
elected pope continued the policy of his predeces- also praises his wisdom by demonstrating Plato’s
sors towards the Turks and decided to send five mastery of every art and science, from rhetoric to
legates to a number of European rulers in order to dialectic, from mathematics to physics, and,
negotiate a new alliance against the Turks. B. was above all, theology. In particular, B. adopts a
nominated legatus a latere to France, Burgundy, conciliatory strategy which had been characteris-
and England. One of his main objectives was to tic of Simplikios: on the one hand, he praises Plato
negotiate between King Louis XI of France and as theologian while, on the other hand, he
the Dukes of Burgundy and Brittany. B. was also describes Aristotle as an excellent physicist, who
supposed to obtain their support for a crusade focuses on natural beings (ICP I, III.1; cf. e.g.,
against the Turks and to discuss several questions Simpl. In Phys., 404.21–405.5).
of importance to the Pope. B. was initially hesitant In the second book of the ICP, B. states explic-
to accept this charge, but finally agreed, leaving itly his own intentions (ICP II, I.1): since both
Rome on 20 April 1472. On his way to France, he Plato and Aristotle were far removed from Chris-
made frequent stops (in Urbino, Cesena, Bologna, tian religion, he is certainly not going to demon-
Modena, Reggio Emilia, Parma) and reached strate that Plato was a Christian, but to show
Lyon on 20 June 1472. After a period of waiting, instead that Platonic philosophy is in closer har-
he was finally received by the king in Château mony with Christian doctrine than is Aristotelian
Gontier on 23 and 24 August 1472, but his philosophy, so that it is easier to corroborate the
encounter with the king failed to bring the desired truth of Christian religion using Plato’s writings
results. B. refused the king’s request to excommu- rather than using those of Aristotle. Since
nicate the Dukes of Burgundy and Brittany and Georgios of Trebizond, on the contrary, dares to
was obliged by the king to return to Italy without present Aristotle as a Christian, B. intends to
meeting the dukes. B. died in Ravenna on demonstrate that Aristotle had in fact never
18 November 1472 on his way back from France. defended the theses characteristic of the Christian
His corpse was transferred to Rome and a funeral doctrine which Georgios attributes to him. B. aims
service was held on 03 December 1472 in the to show that Georgios’ conviction that Aristotle
Basilica of the Twelve Apostles in the presence had defended Christian theses is simply due to a
of the pope. Niccolò Capranica gave a funeral misunderstanding and to his ignorance of the
oration in B.’s honor. B. was buried in the grave principles of Aristotelian philosophy (ICP II,
he had prepared for himself in advance, decorated III.2). It is important for B. to stress that it is not
with his emblem showing two hands upholding his intention to offend Aristotle in any way,
the cross. because he honors both Aristotle and Plato (ICP
II, III.2); B. also declares that he is aware of the
fact that some aspects of Platonic philosophy are
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition incompatible with Christian doctrine (ICP II,
III.3) and cannot, therefore, be approved or shared
In addition to a number of theological works by Christians. Nonetheless, Platonic philosophy
(Rigo 1994, 2012), Bessarion composed two exhibits a closer affinity with Christian doctrine
major philosophical works, NA and ICP, which than does Aristotelian, and B. intends to demon-
appeared in print in Latin as one book in 1469. For strate this by confuting point by point each of
a partial translation and summary of the content of Georgios’ theses. In the Comparatio II 3,20,
the ICP cf. Del Soldato (2014). In the first book of Georgios makes reference to a passage from On
the ICP, B. defends Plato against a specific charge the Heavens I,1 in which Aristotle introduces the
which Georgios of Trebizond had formulated concept of the triad (De cael. I 1, 268 a 9–13), and
against him in his Comparatio, namely of being he uses this passage to prove that Aristotle had
an ignorant person who was incapable of writing arrived at the idea of the Trinity; he then contrasts
Aristotle with Plato and maintains that Plato not that matter has been produced by God and is,
only had never known or grasped the Trinity, but therefore, “generated” in the sense of having a
had even professed the most abominable polythe- cause (ICP II, VI.5; II, VII). In order to demon-
ism. B. replies that the Aristotelian passage strate that for the Platonists matter does not con-
referred to by Georgios in no way has the meaning stitute an independent principle or a cause which
which George wishes to attribute to it; this is made is equal to God and itself uncaused, B. relies on
evident by the interpretation of the same passage the Proklean doctrine according to which matter,
by such authorities as Thomas Aquinas (ICP II, as ultimate unlimitedness, proceeds both from the
V.1). In this way, B. succeeds in showing both One and from the primary Unlimitedness, and
Georgios’ lack of skill as an interpreter of cites almost verbatim passages from Proklos’
Aristotle’s thought and Georgios’ superficial Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus (cf. ICP II,
knowledge of Scholastic authors. B. is convinced VI.11, p. 120, 15–21 Mohler; cf. Prokl. In Tim.
that neither Plato nor Aristotle had arrived at I 384, 30–385, 10). B. is aware that Plato himself
knowledge of the Trinity, since the human mind declared in the Timaeus that “there are Being and
is unable to acquire by itself such knowledge. This Space and Becoming [. . .] even before the
knowledge is in fact acquirable only by faith and heavens were created” (Pl. Tim. 52d 2–3; ICP II,
through divine instruction (ICP II, V. 3). And yet, VI.7, p. 114, 12–13), which had led some to
B. makes reference to Plotinos’ treatise On the believe that for Plato matter is uncaused and pre-
Three Primary Hypostases and to those passages cedes the generation of the universe. However,
in the Platonic dialogues which had been used by B. explains that this interpretation is erroneous.
Plotinos himself in this context in order to prove Taking up a well-known Proklean argument, he
that his theory was the true doctrine of Plato (ICP explains that it is only the account (lógoB) that
II, V. 4–9; cf. Plot. Enn. V.1,8), and he shows that divides things that have been set up together and
Plato and the Platonists – and not Aristotle, who introduces a succession where all is at once
never speaks about the Trinity (ICP II, (cf. Prokl. In Tim. I 382, 30–32; II 101, 5–7;
V. 10) – had somehow arrived at an understanding cf. ICP II, VI.7, p. 114, 17–19, where B. quotes
of the Trinity, even though their comprehension of verbatim Prokl. In Tim. II 101, 5–7). This means
it was far removed from the teachings of the for B. that in Plato’s view matter and cosmos are
Christian religion (ICP II, V. 3). B. has no diffi- distinct merely conceptually (epinoia) and with
culties in dismissing Georgios’ accusation of respect to the account, but not in reality
polytheism too: he points out that Aristotle also (pragmati) (ICP II, VI.7). It is true that matter
assumed a plurality of Gods, which becomes evi- constitutes a principle of things that come to be,
dent if one considers the Aristotelian doctrine of but it is not the principle simpliciter. Moreover, for
the 55 movers (Arist. Metaph. XII 8, 1073a37ff.). B., who takes up here the Neoplatonic distinction
Thus, both Plato and Aristotle are guilty of an between the causes, properly so-called, and the
error that Georgios would like to ascribe to Plato by-causes (cf. Prokl. El.Th. prop. 75), matter is not
alone (ICP II, V.12–13), and both are extraneous even conceived by Plato (and the Platonists) as a
to the Christian religion. In Comparatio II 10–11, cause, but as a by-cause (ICP II, VI.16). In order
Georgios maintains that while in Plato’s view all to define its essence, B. basically reassumes
beings come to be only through a process of Simplikios’ doctrine (cf. ICP II, VI.16 e
production out of a preexistent matter, Aristotle cf. Simpl. In Phys. 227, 23–231, 30).
arrives at the idea of creation out of nothing and in Since Georgios also criticizes the Platonic doc-
virtue of the sole will of God (ICP II, VI.1). trine of soul (Comparatio II, 12), B. felt the need
B. replies that the opposite is true: Aristotle denies to demonstrate that Plato had a “sublime” opinion
that something can come into being absolutely out on this issue. B. admits that some of Plato’s opin-
of nothing (Arist. Phys. 191 a 30–31) and teaches ions are unacceptable for a Christian (e.g., the idea
that matter is eternal and nongenerated (Arist. of the preexistence of souls, cf. ICP II, VIII.16),
Phys. 192 a 25ff.), whereas Plato is of the opinion but he points out that Plato’s teaching is
nonetheless in accord with Christian doctrine. Trinity was known neither to Plato nor to Aristotle
Against Georgios who criticizes Plato’s idea that even if some hints suggesting a vague inkling of
souls transmigrate into the bodies of irrational the Trinity may be found more frequently in Plato
animals, B. points out that Plato had spoken of than in Aristotle (ICP III, XV. 1). In reply to
the bodies of wild beasts only in order to instill Georgios’ assertion that Aristotle had fathomed
fear into the common people and to keep them the Trinity from vestiges of it found in the created
away from vice. Moreover, B. remarks that even if world (Comparatio II 4, 17–20), B. stresses that
Plato had admitted this kind of transmigration, it all theologians (from Augustine to Aquinas, from
should not be understood in the way Georgios Basil the Great to Gregory of Nazianzos) uphold
understands it (ICP II, VIII.23). Georgios also the impossibility of knowing the Trinity by natu-
contends that Plato had denied providence ral reason alone (ICP III, XV. 2). Additionally
(Comparatio, II, 17). So B. lists all passages in B. emphasizes that according to these theologians
which Plato speaks of divine providence, pointing the created world allows one to obtain knowledge
out that especially in Book X of the Laws Plato of the essential attributes of God, but neither of the
accuses of impiety anyone who denies providence personal properties nor of the essential attributes
and presents a doctrine of providence that in many associated with persons (i.e., ascribed to the per-
respects is quite similar to Christian teachings on sons by appropriation), insofar as they are associ-
the same subject (ICP II, IX.11). What is more, ated with them (ICP III, XV.4; cf. Thom. S.Th., I,
B. points out that it is Aristotle who seems to deny 32,1; S.Th. I, 39,7). This means that if Aristotle
providence, since he conceives the divine intellect had had some knowledge of God through his
as thinking only of itself (Arist. Metaph. XII 9), knowledge of God’s creatures, he could have
which could lead to the conclusion that for Aris- known only the essential attributes of God (ICP
totle God is not concerned with human matters III, XV.6). B. goes even further and makes an
and, therefore, does not exercise providence over attempt to demonstrate that the idea of the Trinity
them, given that it is not possible to care about that itself does not accord with the principles of Aris-
which is unknown (ICP II, IX.2). B. also employs totelian metaphysics (ICP III, XIX.3–5). Finding
many arguments in order to confute the accusation support in the testimonies of Albertus Magnus and
that Georgios formulates in Comparatio II, Thomas Aquinas (ICP III, XX.11 e XX.14),
17, according to which Plato had supposedly B. even shows that the concept of the creatio ex
stated that everything happens of necessity. In nihilo is at variance with the principles of
particular, B. refers to the theory of divine knowl- Aristotle’s metaphysics and concludes that
edge formulated by Proklos in the Elements of Georgios was able to find this concept in Aristotle
Theology (Prokl. El.Th., prop. 124), in order to only because he was not familiar with Aristotle or
demonstrate not only that the Platonists had because he misinterpreted his thought. In the
admitted divine providence and the divine knowl- Comparatio II 16, 13–14, Georgios states that if
edge that is connected to it, but also that they had God creates everything out of nothing, then the
even been able to form such a concept of the soul too must have been created by God, and he
divine knowledge that does not annihilate contin- remarks that according to Aristotle himself the
gency (ICP II, X. 9–10). soul comes into being together with the body
In the third book, B. directs his attention to the because of God who creates it ex nihilo and
same subjects that he had already addressed in the infuses it into the body (that is, by virtue of
second book (such as the Trinity, matter, soul, God’s creation out of nothing). In response,
providence, fate, and necessity) and supports his B. demonstrates that the idea of a creatio ex nihilo
arguments with evidence taken from Christian is entirely foreign to Aristotle as well as the idea
and especially Scholastic sources, and he demon- that the soul comes into being together with the
strates how weak is Georgios’ knowledge of both body in virtue of an act of divine creatio ex nihilo
these sources and Aristotle. With regard to the (ICP III, XXVII, 1–3).
Trinity, B. points out that the mystery of the
In the fourth book of ICP, B. defends Plato Gemistos (Plethon) had defended in his treatise
against the accusation formulated by Georgios in De differentiis: in this work Plethon had criticized
the third part of the Comparatio, i.e., the charges Aristotle’s idea that nature produces its products
of voluptuousness and depravity. Book V lists for the sake of an end, even if it does not deliber-
several errors which B. was able to identify in ate. In Chapter II, B. demonstrates that it is true
Georgios of Trebizond’s Latin translation of that Aristotle attributes purposiveness to nature
Plato’s Laws (cf. also Pagani 2011). In this but denies that nature deliberates, whereas Plato
“review,” B. first cites the original passages from and the Platonists believe that nature not only acts
Plato’s Laws that, in his view, had been translated for the sake of an end but also deliberates. And
incorrectly by Georgios, then provides observa- yet, Aristotle and Plato (and the Platonists) are not
tions on semantics, syntax, different readings of in disagreement. If Plato and the Platonists ascribe
the manuscripts, and various possibilities for deliberation to nature, they do not intend thereby
translating these passages into Latin, and finally to maintain that nature exercises its own proper
suggests his own solution. In this way he lists reasoning. On the contrary, nature’s deliberation is
from the Laws 76 problematic words, phrases or in fact the deliberation which is exercised by the
passages, 46 from the first book, and 30 from the intellect that governs nature and directs it towards
second book. In some cases, B. includes longer an end. So nature is not the highest cause but only
comments or observations on Plato’s text or an instrumental cause. In this way, B. finds a
attacks Georgios ad personam, for instance, by solution that evinces an agreement between the
mentioning some details about Georgios’ busi- Platonic and the Aristotelian philosophies and he
ness or private life that serve to discredit him. also suggests an accord between Platonic philos-
The sixth book of ICP was actually composed ophy and Christian theology. The concept of
prior to books I–V (Mariev 2013). It was written nature as instrumental cause is indeed Platonic
after Georgios had published the Comparatio but (cf. Simpl. In Phys. 314. 9–14), but it perfectly
before B. had had the chance to read it. In 1458, accords with the Thomistic idea of nature as
Georgios of Trebizond had published a refutation instrumentum dei (Thom., S.Th., I–II, 1,2).
of a letter which B. had written to Theodoros B. refers to Thomas Aquinas not only in
Gazes, who in turn had previously asked for B.’s Chapter II, where he quotes Aquinas’ text without
opinion regarding some observations that mentioning his name, but also in many other
Georgios Gemistos (Plethon) had made in his De passages of this treatise where he explicitly advo-
differentiis. When B. heard of the letter written by cates the authority of “our theologians, especially
Georgios of Trebizond in which he was attacked, the Latin ones” (ICP VI, VIII.4). The treatise NA
he decided to compose a comprehensive reply. contains the letter of Georgios of Trebizond
This must have been completed, or at least initi- addressed to Jesaiah of Cyprus (Chapter III) in
ated, prior to B.’s participation in the Council of which Georgios tries to demonstrate the various
Mantua and his legation to Germany and was later weaknesses of B.’s standpoint – it was this letter
added as the sixth and last book of the ICP. Crit- that had prompted the composition of the
ical edition of the Greek and two Latin versions of NA – and harshly criticizes the central concept
this book (with German translation) is found in which B. had employed in order to prove that
Mariev et al. (2015), an often unreliable Italian nature deliberates, namely the concept of nature
translation based on Mohler’s text in Accendere as an instrumental cause, i.e., an instrument of the
and Privitera (2014). In Chapter I of NA, intellect. Georgios argues that if nature were an
B. recapitulates the position of Theodoros instrument, it would be separated from its prod-
Gazes, who defends the Aristotelian standpoint ucts and not connected with them in an insepara-
regarding the relationship between nature, finality, ble way and intrinsically conjoined with them as
and deliberation, and maintains that neither art nor nature is supposed to be according to Aristotle. In
nature deliberates. Theodoros invites B. to offer a Chapters IV–X of NA, B. replies to the accusa-
demonstration of the thesis which Georgios tions of Georgios and demonstrates Georgios’
incompetence in Aristotle’s metaphysics, corrob- Kulturen, ed. C. M€artl, Ch. Kaiser, and Th. Ricklin,
orating his own interpretation of Aristotle by the 367–389. Berlin/Boston, De Gruyter.
Mariev, S., M. Marchetto, and K. Luchner (eds.). 2015.
reference to the exegesis of famous Aristotelians Bessarion: Über Natur und Kunst. Hamburg, Felix
such as Alexander of Aphrodisias. In the third Meiner.
book of ICP (ICP III, XX.17), B. refers again to Mioni, E. 1960. Contributo del cardinale Bessarione
Georgios’ criticism of the concept of nature as an all’interpretazione della Metafisica aristotelica. In Atti
del XII Congresso internazionale di filosofia,
instrument found in George’s letter to Jesaiah IX. Aristotelismo padovano e filosofia aristotelica,
(which forms part of NA), and he points out the 173–181. Firenze.
surprising and even ironical fact that Georgios Mohler, L. (ed.). 1923–1942. Kardinal Bessarion als
himself makes use of the very same concept in Theologe, Humanist und Staatsmann, I. Darstellung; II.
Bessarionis in calumniatorem Platonis libri IV; III.
the Comparatio (II,10) in order to praise Aristotle, Aus Bessarions Gelehrtenkreis. Abhandlungen, Reden,
which constitutes for B. yet another proof of Briefe von Bessarion, Theodoros Gazes, Michael
Georgios’ incoherence and incompetence (cf. Apostolios, Andronikos Kallistos, Georgios
also Del Soldato 2008). Trapezuntios, Niccolò Perotti, Niccolò Capranica.
Paderborn.
Monfasani, J. 1976. George of Trebizond: A biography and
a study of his rhetoric and logic. Leiden, Brill.
Monfasani, J. 1986. Platina, Capranica and Perotti:
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Accendere, P.D., and I. Privitera (eds.). 2014. Bessarione: P. Medioli Masotti, 97–136. Padova, Antenore.
La natura delibera – La natura e l’arte. Milano, Monfasani, J. 1995. Byzantine scholars in Renaissance
Bompiani. Italy: Cardinal Bessarion and other emigrés. Selected
Bianca, C. 1999. Da Bisanzio a Roma. Studi sul Cardinale essays. Aldershot.
Bessarione. Roma, Roma nel Rinascimento. Monfasani, J. 2004. Greeks and Latins in Renaissance
Candal, E. (ed.). 1958. Bessarion Nicaenus, Italy: Studies on humanism and philosophy in the
S.R.E. Cardinalis: Oratio dogmatica de unione. 15th century. Aldershot.
Romae, Pontificium institutum orientalium studiorum. Monfasani, J. 2008. A Tale of Two Books: Bessarion’s In
Coluccia G.L. 2009. Basilio Bessarione. Lo spirito greco e Calumniatorem Platonis and George of Trebizond’s
l’occidente. Firenze, Olschki. Comparatio Philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis.
Del Soldato, E. 2008. Platone, Aristotele e il Cardinale. Il Renaissance Studies. Journal of the Society for Renais-
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C
Cydones, Demetrius Biography
Born: 1324, Thessalonica The biographical sources for the life of Demetrius
Cydones are primarily his own writings, espe-
Died: 1397, Crete cially his extant letters and autobiographical
discourses.
Denis Michael Searby He was born c. 1324 in Thessalonica where he
Department of Romance Studies and Classics, also received his formal education, studying
Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden under Nil Kabasilas, among others. After his
father’s death in 1341, the family estate was
destroyed in 1342 during the Zealot uprising,
eventually leading D. to turn to his father’s friend
John Cantacuzenos for protection. When the lat-
ter took control in Constantinople in 1347 as
Abstract
Emperor John VI, the young D. assumed the
post of mesazon (chief minister) at the imperial
Demetrius Cydones (c. 1324–1397) was a domi-
court. He began at this time to receive instruction
nant intellectual as well as a leading statesman of
in the Latin language from a priest at the Domin-
fourteenth-century Byzantium. In foreign policy
ican monastery in Pera, though he had not yet
he consistently and unsuccessfully sought the
embraced Roman Catholicism, as his letter to
support of Western European powers in the
Barlaam c. 1347 makes clear.
Empire’s struggle with the Ottomans. He pro-
Like his brother Prochorus, D. was hostile to
duced influential Greek translations of Thomas
the spread of the doctrines of Gregory Palamas.
Aquinas, Augustine, and other Latin theologians.
The official acceptance of Palamism at the Synod
The substantial corpus of his correspondence is
of Constantinople in 1351 pushed D. further in
an important source for the history of the period.
the direction of the Latin Church. By this time,
D. was studying the works of Thomas Aquinas
and, with the emperor’s encouragement, began to
Synonyms translate some of them into Greek. By his own
admission, D. greatly admired the wisdom, sanc-
Demetrios Kydones tity, and lucid reasoning of Aquinas and, not
least, his understanding of the Greek philosophi-
cal tradition. To make Thomas better known to
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_36-1
2 Cydones, Demetrius
Greek speakers became one of the driving goals both ideological allies and opponents. Highly
of his life. literate and educated, keenly interested in politics
A renewal of the civil war between John VI and and theology, D. is in some ways the quintessen-
his nephew John V Palaeologus forced John VI to tial Byzantine statesman. Nevertheless, he was a
abdicate in December 1354. D. accompanied him daring nonconformist: implacably opposed to
into retirement to the monastery of St George in accommodation with the Ottomans, rejecting
Mangana, and it was in there that D. completed his Palamism as irrational, enthusiastically embrac-
translation of the Summa contra gentiles on ing Latin scholasticism, scornful of prejudice
Christmas Eve 1354. In the years to come, he against non-Greek speakers.
was to continue translating Thomas as well as
other Latin theologians (Anselm, Gregory the
Great, works attributed to Augustine).
In 1356 John V recalled D. to imperial service,
again in the office of mesazon. Not much later,
Though controversial, D. was a unifier, consis-
probably in 1357, D. entered the Latin Church.
tently seeking ecclesial, European, and intellec-
From then on, his theological position and his
tual unity. He learned Latin well and loved it,
foreign policy went hand in hand. He was con-
rendering Latin works into elegant Greek, trans-
vinced of the need of a Western crusade against
lating ad verbum and ad sensum. A self-declared
the Turks in order to save the empire and consis-
Thomist before Thomism was quite accepted
tently advised the emperor to seek Western sup-
even in the West, he adamantly maintained the
port and oppose the Ottomans, a dangerous
unity of faith and reason.
position to maintain in the circumstances. His
speech On not surrendering Gallipoli
(1370) was aimed against those who sought
accommodation with the Turks. The overall fail- Impact and Legacy
ure in obtaining Western aid, along with D.’s
close association with the emperor’s son (the One may count among D.’s numerous disciples
future Manuel II Palaeologus), in disfavor at the and/or admirers the Chrysoberges brothers,
time, eventually led to his fall from the emperor’s Manuel Chrysoloras, Manuel Kalekas, and even
good graces in 1371, although he returned to the Gemistus Pletho. His most lasting legacy lies in
imperial court in 1375. He declined to serve his introducing Aquinas and scholastic modes of
under the usurper Andronicus IV (1376–1379) argumentation to the Greek East. By the time of
and eventually resigned from the government of the Council of Florence-Ferrara, his compatriots
John V around 1386. D. sailed for Venice in were well acquainted with the Latin positions.
1389/1390, receiving honorary citizenship there The extensive corpus of his extant letters is a
in 1391, but later returned to Constantinople, substantial source for the latter half of the four-
maintaining his friendship with Manuel II teenth century.
(emperor 1391–1425).
With Manuel Chrysoloras he travelled to Italy
in 1396, but, as Ganchou has shown, moved to
Cross-References
Crete to join members of the Chrysoberges fam-
ily and died there at the end of 1397.
▶ Andreas Chrysoverges
▶ Barlaam
▶ Manuel II Palaiologos
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition ▶ Nil Kabasilas
▶ Prochorus Cydones
A gifted diplomat and sympathetic by nature,
D. was able to win the esteem and friendship of
Cydones, Demetrius 3
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Constantinum Asanem]. Orientalia Christiana e postbizantini di Venezia.
Periodica 28: 75–120. Glycophyrdi-Leontsini, A. 2003. Demetrius Cydones as a
Cydones, Demetrius, and H. Deckelmann. 1901 (repr. translator of Latin texts. In Porphyrogenita. Essays on
1987). Demetrii Cydoniii De contemnenda morte. the history and literature of Byzantium and the Latin
Leipzig. East in honour of Julian
Cydones, Demetrius, and D. Kalamakes. 1996. Chrysostomides, ed. C. Dendrinos, et al., 175–185.
Ἀnyológion ἐk tῶn ε῎ rgon Αὐgoustίnou ἹppῶnoB Aldershot.
ἐxellZnisyὲn ὑpὸ DZmZtrίou toυ̃ Kudo nZ. Athens: Jugie, M. 1928. Démétrius Cydonès et la théologie latine a
Ekdosis Filologikou Sillogou Parnassos. Byzance. Ećhos d’Orient 27: 385–402.
Cydones, Demetrius, and R.-J. Loenertz (eds.). Kapriev, G. 2006. Kydones, Demetrios and Kydones,
1956–1960. Démétrius Cydonès. Correspondance, Prochoros. In Thomistenlexikon, ed. D. Berger, and
I-II [Studi e Testi 186, 208]. Vatican City: Bibliotheca J. Vijgen, 346–358. Bonn.
Apostolica Vaticana (BAV). Kianka, F. 1980. The apology of Demetrius Cydones:
Cydones, Demetrius, and G. Mercati. 1931. Notizie di A fourteenth-century autobiographical source. Byzan-
Procoro e Demetrio Cidone, Manuele Caleca e tine Studies 7: 51–71.
Teodoro Meliteniota, ed altri appunti per la storia Kianka, F. 1982. Demetrius Cydones and Thomas
della teologia e della letteratura bizantina del secolo Aquinas. Byzantion 52: 264–286.
XIV [Studi e Testi 56]: Contains Demetrius’ so-called Kianka, F. 1985. Byzantine-Papal diplomacy: The role of
apologies, inter alia. Vatican City: Bibliotheca Demetrius Cydones. International History Review 7:
Apostolica Vaticana (BAV). 175–213.
Cydones, Demetrius, and F. Tinnefeld. 1983. Vier Kianka, F. 1992. The letters of Demetrios Kydones to
Prooimien zu Kaiserurkunden, verfaßt von Demetrios empress Helena Kantakouzene Palaiologina. Dumbar-
Kydones. Byzantinoslavica 44(13–30): 175–195, Bib- ton Oaks Papers 46: 155–164.
liotheca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV). Kianka, F. 1995. Demetrios Kydones and Italy. Dumbar-
ton Oaks Papers 49: 99–110.
Loenertz, R.-J. 1947. Les recueils de lettres de Démétrius
Secondary Literature Cydonès [Studi e Testi 131]. Vatican City: Bibliotheca
Beck, H.-G. 1935. Der Kampf um der thomistischen Apostolica Vaticana (BAV).
Theologiebegriff in Byzanz. Divus Thomas 13: 3–22. Papadopoulos, S. 1982. Thomas in Byzanz. Thomas
Blum, W. (tr.). 1973. Furcht vor dem Tod: Die Schrift des Rezeption und Thomas Kritik in Byzanz zwischen
Demetrios Kydones Über die Verachtung des Todes. 1354 und 1435. Theologie und Philosophie 49:
Aschendorff, M€unster. 264–286.
Bouvy, E. 1910. Saint Thomas: Ses traducteurs byzantins. Plested, M. 2012. Orthodox Readings of Aquinas. Oxford:
Revue Augustinienne 16: 401–408. Oxford University Press (OUP)
Buda, C. 1056. Influsso del Tomismo in Bisanzio nel
secolo XIV. Byzantinische Zeitschrift 49: 318–331.
4 Cydones, Demetrius
Rackl, M. 1915. Demetrius Kydones als Verteidiger und Wechselbeziehungen, ed. A. Speer and
Übersetzer des heiligen Thomas von Aquin. Der P. Steinkr€uger, 439–451. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Katholik 1: 21–40. Setton, K. 1956. The Byzantine background to the Italian
Rackl, M. 1920. Die ungedruckte Verteidigungsschrift des renaissance. Proceedings of the American Philological
Demetrios Kydones f€ ur Thomas von Aquin gegen Society 100: 1–76.
Neilos Kabasilas. Divus Thomas 7: 303–317. Tinnefeld, F. 1981–2003. Demetrios Kydones. Briefe.
Rackl, M. 1923–1924. Die griechische Übersetzung der Übersetzt und erläutert von Franz Tinnefeld. 5 vols.
Summa Theologiae des hl. Thomas von Aquin. Stuttgart: Hiersemann.
Byzantinische Zeitschrift 24: 48–60. Tinnefeld, F. 2003. Intellectuals in Late Byzantine
Russell, N. 2003. Palamism and the circle of Demetrius Thessalonike. Dumbarton Oaks Papers 57: 153–172.
Cydones. In Porphyrogenita. Essays on the history and Tinnefeld, F. 2010. Die Briefe des Demetrios Kydones.
literature of Byzantium and the Latin East in honour of Themen und literarische Form. Wiesbaden:
Julian Chrysostomides, ed. C. Dendrinos, et al., Harrassowitz.
153–174. Aldershot. Trapp, E (ed.). 1983. Prosopographisches Lexikon der
Ryder, J.R. 2010. The career and writings of Demetrius Palaiologenzeit, vol. 6, 13876. Vienna:
Kydones. A study of fourteenth-century Byzantine pol- Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
itics, religion and society. Leiden/Boston: Brill. Tyn, T. 1964. Prochoros und Demetrios Kydones: der
Searby, D. 2012. Demetrios Kydones: Defending Thomas byzantinische Thomismus des XIV Jahrhunderts. In
or defending himself? In Knotenpunkt Byzanz. Thomas von Aquino: Interpretation und
Wissensformen und kulturelle Rezeption, ed. W. Eckert, 837–912. Mainz: Matthias-
Gr€unewald.
C
Cydones, Prochorus Biography
Born: 1335, Thessalonica The chief sources for the life of Prochorus
Cydones are his older brother Demetrius’ writ-
Died: 1371, Great Lavra on Athos ings, the Synodal Tome Against Hieromonk
Prochoros Kydones composed by Philotheos
Denis Michael Searby Kokkinos, and P.’s own extant letters.
Department of Romance Studies and Classics, P. was born in Thessalonica in 1335. His
Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden father died in 1341, and the family became
impoverished under Zealotic revolutionary rule
(1343–49). P. displays the education of a Byzan-
tine humanist of his class. At the age of 15 or
16, he became a monk at the Great Lavra on
Mount Athos. There, according to Philotheos,
Abstract
he applied himself “maniacally to the vanity of
Hellenic studies.” It is not known how he learned
Prochorus Cydones (c. 1335–1371) was a monk
Latin, but he became proficient and was able not
of the Great Lavra on Mount Athos. A prominent
only to help his brother in translating the Summa
anti-Palamist, he was condemned and
Theologiae but also translated other works on his
excommunicated at a Synod in 1368. Younger
own, among them Augustine’s De vera religione
brother of Demetrius Cydones, he is chiefly
and De libero arbitrio.
known for his anti-Palamite writings as well as
After Gregoras’ death in 1361, P. emerged as
for translations of Thomas Aquinas and
the intellectual leader of the anti-Palamites. Other
Augustine.
monks, including his superior Jakovos Trikanas,
denounced him to Patriarch Philotheos. “Hereti-
cal writings” were found in his possession.
Synonyms P. wrote to Philotheos to defend himself, sending
along his refutation of the Synodal Tome of 1351
Prochoros Kydones and (apparently) his treatise On Essence and
Energy. Instead of proving his orthodoxy, these
works convinced the patriarch that P. had fallen
into worse errors than either Barlaam or
Akindynos.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_37-1
2 Cydones, Prochorus
In late 1367, with characteristic imprudence, treatise on the kataphatic and apophatic ways in
P. accelerated his own condemnation by issuing a theology. P. argued that Christ was free from
manifesto (pittakion) against the veneration of original sin because he assumed human nature
Palamas as a saint. Philotheos convoked the and not a human person and that Christ’s light
synod in the spring of 1368 and led the interroga- on Tabor was created, though also uncreated,
tion. The outcome of the trial was determined by because Christ was both created and uncreated.
P.’s pittakion and, especially, by his confusing Though generally following a more Platonist tra-
interpretation of the light of the Transfiguration dition, P. explained deification (theosis) in terms
which appeared to border on an heretical Christol- of analogy rather than participation.
ogy. Thus P. was formally excommunicated and
condemned in April 1368. In 1369 John
Kantakuzenos wrote a detailed response to the Impact and Legacy
difficulties (aporiae) P. raised in regard to
Palamism, claiming that for P., enlightenment P.’s Thomistic methodology came to be associ-
came through logic rather than grace. Some years ated with anti-Palamism, though this was not the
later, Theophanes, the metropolitan of Nicaea, pro- case originally. His aporiae concerning the the-
vided more profound replies to the aporiae in his ophany stimulated theological discussion and
Five Discourses on the Light of Tabor. spurred a new debate on the Christian appropria-
P. died in 1371 at the age of 36. A century later tion of pagan philosophy. His translations of
the Kydones brothers were still being condemned Latin authors helped to prepare the way for the
in the Synodikon of Orthodoxy in their native Council of Florence.
city. P. is called a false monk
(pseudomonachos), a fighter against God and
against the light of truth. Cross-References
▶ Barlaam of Calabria
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition ▶ Demetrius Cydones
▶ Gregorios Akindynos
Intelligent and charismatic, P. had the misfortune ▶ Gregorios Palamas
to be a convinced anti-Palamite in an age of ▶ Nikephoros Gregoras
Palamite ascendancy. P.’s opposition to
Palamism was socially motivated in part but
depended more on his conviction that Palamism References
went against Orthodox tradition and opened the
way to polytheism. P. never expressed a desire to Primary Literature
leave the Greek Church and does not seem to Candal, M. 1954. El libro VI de Prócoro Cidonio [sobre la
have followed his brother into the Latin Church. luz tabórica]. Orientalia Christiana Periodica, vol.
20, 247–296. (See also De essentia et operatione 1–2
attributed to Akindynos in Patrologia Graeca 151:
1191–1242).
Innovative and Original Aspects Hunger, H. 1984. Prochoros Kydones, Übersetzung von
acht Briefen des Hl. Augustinus [Wiener Studien 9].
Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der
Though both brothers translated Aquinas, P. was
Wissenschaften (= publisher of the journal Wiener
the one to adopt Thomas’ methodology in theol- Studien).
ogy. In On Essence and Energies, he freely Hunger, H. 1990. Prochoros Kydones’ Übersetzungen von
excerpts from Aquinas in Books 1–5 but presents S. Augustinus, De libero arbitrio I 1–90, und
Ps.-Augustinus, De decem plagis Aegyptiorum [Wie-
his own novel ideas on the light of Tabor in Book
ner Studien 14]. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie
6, maintaining the style of the Summa. Another der Wissenschaften (= publisher of the journal Wiener
work in which he developed his ideas was his Studien).
Cydones, Prochorus 3
Loenertz, R.-J (ed.). 1956–1960. Démétrius Cydonès. Secondary Literature

Correspondance, I-II [Studi e Testi 186, 208]. Vatican Kapriev, G. 2006. Kydones, Prochoros. In
City: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV). Thomistenlexikon, ed. D. Berger and J. Vijgen,
Mercati, G. 1931. Notizie di Procoro e Demetrio Cidone, 354–358. Bonn: Nova & Vetera.
Manuele Caleca e Teodoro Meliteniota, ed altri Papadopoulos, S. 1982. Thomas in Byzanz. Thomas
appunti per la storia della teologia e della letteratura Rezeption und Thomas Kritik in Byzanz zwischen
bizantina del secolo XIV [Studi e Testi 56]. Vatican 1354 und 1435. Theologie und Philosophie 49:
City: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV). 264–286.
Nikitas, D. 1990. Boethius, De topicis differentiis kaὶ Plested, M. 2012. Orthodox Readings of Aquinas. Oxford:
oἱbuzantinὲB meta’rάseiB toυ̃ Manouὴl Ὁlobo lou Oxford University Press.
kaὶ toυ̃ Prowórou Kudo n[Corpus Philosophorum Podalsky, G. 1977. Theologie und Philosophie in Byzanz.
Medii Aevi. Philosophi Byzantini 5]. Athens/Paris/ Der Streit um die theologische Methodik in der
Brussels: Academy of Athens (ΑΚΑDΗΜΙΑ spätbyzantinischen Geistesgeschichte (14./15.
ΑYΗΝOΝ). Jahrhundert), 207–209. Munich: De Gruyter [sereis
Rigo, A. 2004. Gregorio Palamas e oltre: studi e = Byzantinisches Archiv 15].
documenti sulle controversie teologiche del XIV Russell, N. 2006. Prochoros Cydones and the fourteenth-
secolo bizantino (contains improved edition of the century understanding of orthodoxy. In Byzantine
Synodal Tome against Hieromonk Prochoros Kydones Orthodoxies: Papers from the thirty-sixth Spring Sym-
who thinks like Barlaam and Akindynos as found in posium of Byzantine Studies, ed. A. Louth and
Patrologia Graeca 151 994B f.). Florence: Istituto A. Casiday, 75–91. Aldershot: Ashgate Variorum.
Venezia e l’Oriente [series = Orientalia Venetiana 16]. Siniossoglou, N. 2011. Radical Platonism in Byzantium.
Sotiropoulos, Ch. 1990. Theophanous III episkopou Illumination and utopia in Gemistos Plethon. Cam-
Nikaias Peri Thabôrou Phôtos logoi pente. Athens. bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tinnefeld, E. 1994. Ein Text des Prochoros Kydones in Tinnefeld, F. 1981. Demetrios Kydones. Briefe, vol. I:
Vat. Gr. 609 €uber die Bedeutung der Syllogismen f€ ur 1, 237–244. Stuttgart: Hiersemann.
die theologische Erkenntnis. In Philohistôr: Miscella- Trapp, E (ed.). 1983. Prosopographisches Lexikon der
nea in honorem Caroli Laga Palaiologenzeit, vol. 6, 13883. Vienna:
septuagenarii, ed. A. Schoors and P. van Deun, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
520–523. Louvain: Peeters [series = Orientalia Tyn, T. 1964. Prochoros und Demetrios Kydones: der
Lovaniensia analecta 60]. byzantinische Thomismus des XIV Jahrhunderts. In
Voordeckers, E., Tinnefeld, F. 1987. Iohannis Thomas von Aquino: Interpretation und
Cantacuzeni. Refutationes duae prochori cydonii et Rezeption, ed. W. Eckart, 837–912. Mainz: Matthias-
disputatio cum Paulo Patriarcha Latino epistulis Gr€unewald.
septem tradita [Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca
16]. Turnhout.
D
Dawānı̄ jurisprudence, Qur’ānic exegesis, and the rational

sciences in his hometown with his father Sa‘d
Born: 1426, Dawān al-Dīn As‘ad and a certain Maẓhar al-Dīn
Died: 1502 Muḥammad al-Murshidī al-Kāzirūnī, both of
whom prided themselves in belonging to a line-
Jari Kaukua age of disciples that could be traced through
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī all the way back to
University of Jyväskylä/Academy of Finland, Avicenna. During his early education, al-Dawānī
Jyväskylä, Finland was also initiated to the Murshidīya silsila of
Sufis. Later on, he continued his studies in Shīrāz
where he subsequently rose to prominence as one
of the leading scholars and jurisprudents of his
time, holding some of the most prominent reli-
Abstract gious appointments. Despite the uneasy political
conditions of the fifteenth century, al-Dawānī
An important philosopher and theologian in the managed to stay in intimate terms with a number
late fifteenth century Shīrāz, al-Dawānī’s teach- of rulers of his time from the Qaraquyunly,
ing and commentaries were formative for subse- Aqquyunly, Timurid, and Ottoman dynasties
quent philosophical development in the Ottoman (dedicating three works to sultan Bāyazīd II)
Empire, the Safavid Iran and the Muslim India. and also enjoyed the patronage of certain Indian
˙
political authorities (notably sultan Maḥmūd I of
Gujarat to whom he dedicated several works,
Full Name among them the Unmūdhaj al-‘ulūm, a kind of
encyclopedia that covers questions in a wide
▶ Muḥammad ibn As‘ad Jālāl al-Dīn al-Dawānī range of both Islamic and rational sciences).
al-Kāzirūnī al-Siddīqī This, however, did not prevent his sizable prop-
˙
erty from being confiscated during an uproar in
1498–1499, subsequent to which al-Dawānī left
Biography Shīrāz, according to some sources in order to
migrate to India where two of his students had
Born around 1426 in Dawān, a village near the established some fame. Originally a staunch sup-
city of Kāzirūn southwest of the Iranian plateau, porter of Sunnism, the reports about al-Dawānī’s
Jālāl al-Dīn al-Dawānī first studied hadī th, attitude to the emerging Shī’ite cause of the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_38-1
2 Dawānı̄
Safavid shāh Ismā‘īl are conflicting. However, turn from earlier works by al-Miskawayh and
˙
having passed away in 1502, he did not live to al-Fārābī as well as the Persian “mirror for
witness Ismā‘īl’s final conquest of Fārs. princes” tradition, in a terminology more conso-
Although al-Dawānī was active in a number of nant with Islamic revelation. Interesting exam-
fields of the sciences, he made his most important ples of this tendency are his interpretation of the
contributions in philosophy and theology. Aristotelian doctrine of the mean in terms of the
A highly venerated teacher, he is known to have Qur’ānic idea of moderation and his consistent
lectured widely on works belonging to different use of the loaded Islamic term sharī ‘a in the
schools of philosophy and theology, including the general discussion of the institutional basis of
Avicennian Peripatetic tradition (the Kitāb the just society. He also differs from al-Tūsī by
˙
al-ishārāt wa al-tanbī hāt with Naṣīr al-Dīn adopting a decided ishrāqī approach in place of
al-Tūsī’s and Qutb al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s commentar- the latter’s relatively mainstream Avicennism.
˙
ies), the ishrāqī tradition founded by Shihāb Despite the relative unoriginality, al-Dawānī’s
al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (most notably the epony- rewriting of the Tūsīan treatise seems to have
˙
mous Ḥikma al-ishrāq) to which he seems to have had an important role in the consolidation of the
been particularly affiliated, the mature fourteenth philosophers’ ethical and political ideas (such as
century Ash‘arite theology (exemplified by the hierarchical classification of different types of
al-Jurjānī’s commentary on ‘Aḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī’s societies, the isomorphic relation between types
Kitāb al-mawāqif), as well as al-Tūsī’s philo- of society and types of personality, and the clas-
˙
sophically oriented Shī’ite theology (the Tajrī d sification of different groups of citizens
al-i‘tiqād). A prolific writer from early on, he according to their natural tendencies) as parts of
composed several theological commentaries and mainstream Islamic thought, especially in the
supercommentaries on works such as ‘Abdallāh Ottoman and Mughal empires.
ibn ‘Umar al-Bayḍāwī’s Ṭawāli‘al-anwār, Sa‘d Al-Dawānī’s philosophical career was
al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī’s Tahdhī b al-manṭiq wa strongly marked by a sustained, and occasionally
al-kalām, and ‘Alī al-Qūshjī’s commentary to heated, written and oral debate with another
al-Tūsī’s Tajrī d al-i‘tiqād, al-Ījī’s creed, and Shīrāzī philosopher, Sadr al-Dīn al-Dashtakī.
˙ ˙
al-Jurjānī’s commentary on his Mawāqif. His This exchange, which was later carried on by
philosophical treatises and commentaries, such Dashtakī’s son Ghiyāth al-Dīn, would determine
as the Shawākil al-ḥūr on Suhrawardī’s Hayākil the philosophical scene in Shīrāz, and Iran in
al-nūr, signal a thorough familiarity with the general, for decades or even centuries to come
ishrāqī and the Avicennian commentary tradi- as people would define their own positions in
tions. He also wrote on various Sufi topics, for philosophy by taking sides in the debate or by
example in the work titled al-Zawrā’ which further developing ideas first spawned in it. Apart
shows a decisive influence from the school of from public debate, the discussion mainly took
Ibn ‘Arabī. Arguably his best known work is the shape in the form of layered superglosses on
Persian Lawāmi‘al-ishrāq fī makārim al-akhlāq, selected theological and philosophical texts,
also known as Akhlāq-i jalālī , a primer on prac- including al-Qūshjī’s commentary on al-Tūsī’s
˙
tical ethics, economics, and politics modeled on Tajrī d al-i‘tiqād, al-Jurjānī’s glosses on works
al-Tūsī’s Akhlāq-i nāṣirī. by ‘Aḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī and Qutb al-Dīn al-Rāzī,
˙
and Suhrawardī’s Hayākil al-nūr, but both par-
ticipants also composed brief treatises on strictly
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition determined philosophical questions.
One particularly heated topic of debate was
In his practical philosophy, as witnessed by the the correct solution to the logical problem of the
Akhlāq-i jalālī , al-Dawānī comes across as a liar paradox, a question tackled by most of the
relatively unoriginal thinker who seems satisfied major figures in later Islamic theology.
with rerendering al-Tūsī’s treatise, derived in Al-Dawānī’s solution was to deny that the
˙
Dawānı̄ 3
utterance “whatever I say at this moment is a lie” al-Dawānī subscribed to mainstream Avicennian
constitutes a genuine statement. In order to be a substance dualism.
proper statement ascribable with a truth value, he
stipulated that a sentence must have a semantic
relation of reference to the external world – a Impact and Legacy
condition which the convoluted self-referential
sentence at the heart of the liar paradox fails to The debate between al-Dawānī and the elder
satisfy. Dashtakī on questions like the relation between
Another debate revolved around the meta- essence and existence, or the question of mental
physical question of the relation between God as existence, can clearly be seen to determine the
absolute existence and the created things as deter- positions of such major philosophers of the
mined existents; here al-Dawānī held to a strict Safavid era as Mīr Dāmād or Mullā Sadrā. In
distinction according to which God alone is exis- ˙ ˙
al-Dawānī’s case, the influence took place mainly
tence in an absolute sense of the word while all through his presence in the minutes of the debate,
other things are merely existents, that is, essences which was recorded in various layers of glosses
that have existence as an accidental relation to on the works listed above. He did have a number
something other than themselves. Interestingly, of students who were instrumental in carrying on
al-Dawānī introduces his position as having been his influence although no school adamantly
instigated by the ishrāqī commentator Ibn defending his position, comparable to that initi-
Kammūna’s famous “sophistical” argument for ated by al-Dashtakī’s son, seems to have
the possibility of two necessary existents; holding emerged. Yet some of al-Dawānī’s students,
that the argument hinges on conceiving of God as such as Jālāl al-Dīn al-Astarābādī, rose to prom-
an existent, al-Dawānī’s conclusion was to deny inent religious positions and were capable of
the validity of attributing this term to Him. influencing the cultural policies of the new rulers.
Another interesting feature of this debate is that Another chapter in al-Dawānī’s posthumous
in formulating his case, al-Dawānī liberally influence would have to be situated in India and
employs concepts and ideas derived not only the Ottoman empire, where he wielded a major
from the traditions of philosophy and theology influence through his students such as Muẓaffar
but also from the Sufi tradition of Ibn ‘Arabī and al-Dīn ‘Alī al-Shīrāzī and Mu’ayyadzāde ‘Abd
his disciples. al-Raḥmān Efendī.
Al-Dawānī’s critical remarks concerning the
Avicennian idea of mental existence also gave
rise to a dispute. According to him, mental exis-
tence violates the idea of formal identity, crucial Cross-References
to Avicenna’s Aristotelian epistemology. This is
because if we suppose that objects of knowledge ▶ al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī
exist mentally as accidents in the soul, we will ▶ Mīr Dāmād
have no way of accounting for an adequate ▶ Mullā Sadrā
˙
knowledge of substances, for no formal identity ▶ Philosophy in Safavid Persia
˙
can be established between objects falling in two
different categories – the extramental form of the
substance to the category of substance and the References
corresponding mentally existing and therefore
accidental form to the category of quality. Primary Literature
A fourth major point of content concerned the Qarāmaleki, A.F. (ed.). 2007. Dashtakī , Davānī , Khafrī ,
Bokhārī : 12 Treatises on Liar Paradox in Shirāz
question of God’s knowledge of particular things
School. Tehran: Iranian Institute of Philosophy.
and a fifth the question of the separability of the Tūysirkānī, S.A. (ed.). 1991. Thalāth rasā’il. Mashhad:
human soul from its body; in the latter case, Majma‘Baḥth Islāmī Īrān: (Contains al-Dawānī’s
4 Dawānı̄
exegesis of Q 109, his commentary on Suhrawardī’s Fakhry, M. 1991. Ethical theories in Islam. Leiden/
Hayākil al-nūr, and the Unmūdhaj al-ulūm). New York/København/Köln: E. J. Brill.
Tūysirkānī, S.A. (ed.). 2002. Sab‘rasā’il. Tehran: Mīrāth-i Nasr, S.H. 2006. Islamic philosophy from its origin to the
Maktūb: (Contains al-Dawānī’s treatises on God as the present: Philosophy in the land of prophecy. Albany:
Necessary Existence as well as his Sufi treatise State University of New York Press.
al-Zawrā’ accompanied by his own commentary). Pourjavady, R. 2011. Philosophy in early Safavid Iran:
Najm al-Dī n Maḥmūd al-Nayrī zī and his writings.
Secondary Literature Rosenthal, E.I.J. 1958. Political thought in medieval
Corbin, H. 1976. Sohravardı̂: L’Archange empourpré. Islam: An introductory outline. Cambridge:
Quinze traités et récits mystiques. Paris: Fayard. Cambridge University Press.
E
Ebu’s-su‘ud in various medreses in Istanbul, Bursa, and other

towns from 1516 on. In 1527/1528 he became a
Born: 30 December 1490 [?], M€
uderris, near teacher in the Sem^ a niye medreses in Istanbul, the
Istanbul highest educational post at the time, and then
jumped to the judicial career with his appoint-
Died: 23 August 1574, Istanbul ment as judge of Bursa in 1533. Only 6 months
later he became judge of Istanbul and 4 years later
Marinos Sariyannis military judge (kazasker) of Rumili. Finally, in
Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FORTH 1545 Ebussuud was appointed by the Sultan
(Foundation for Research and Suleyman the Magnificent as şeyh€ ulislam or
Technology – Hellas), Rethymno, Greece chief m€ ufti, i.e., the head of the religious hierar-
chy who gave definitive responsa (fetva) on ques-
tions regarding the Holy Law. He kept this post
under two Sultans till his death in 1574. Apart
from his fetvas, which virtually formed Ottoman
Abstract law in the Suleymanic era, Ebussuud also wrote
commentaries on juristic issues and the Quran, as
Ebu’s-su‘ud, son of Mehmed son of Mustafa well as legal treatises.
al-‘Imad (M€uderris, near Istanbul, 30 December
1490 [?]–Istanbul, 23 August 1574), was one of
the most prominent Ottoman jurists and contrib- Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
uted greatly to what we came to regard as
Ottoman law. By the time Ebussuud became şeyh€ ulislam, there
was already a huge literature on fiqh or Islamic
jurisprudence regulating everyday aspects of the
Biography şer’iat or Holy Law; on the other hand, Ottoman
Sultans from the late fifteenth century onward
Son of an Anatolian scholar and dervish with had issued several codes of law (k^ a nûnn^
a mes),
strong links to the Ottoman palace and intellec- especially on landholding, tax, and penal issues,
tual elite, Ebussuud studied under his father and which in various ways departed from the precepts
other scholars and begun his own teaching career of the şer’iat. Ebussuud’s task became to

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_41-1
2 Ebu´s-su‘ud
reconcile the religious law with the kanun or redefined the relevant terminology (and taxation)
secular law, in order to produce a coherent body on the basis of traditional Hanefi theorizing on
of legal precepts which would respond to the rent and loan.
needs of a quasi-feudal empire as the Ottoman As for religious endowments (waqf), he
was in this period. In practice, what Ebussuud did argued that the Sultan maintains the ultimate
was to create Islamic foundations for a secular control over the endowed land, but also defended
legal building, i.e., to provide justifications based the legitimacy of donation of cash, i.e., of using
on şer’iat-based stratagems and precepts for lending money with interest for charitable pur-
institutions and practices which had a clearly poses. Ebussuud’s arguments in this case are of
secular basis; the emphasis on the enhanced special interest: he stressed that such endow-
authority of the Sultan was facilitated by ments had been legitimized by constant usage
Ebussuud’s redesignation of the former as for centuries and also that a possible annulment
Caliph. Moreover, Ebussuud’s rulings had often of these established endowments would jeopar-
clearly political goals, justifying the Sultanic pol- dize the welfare of the community. On this issue
icies in various disputable issues (such as the he embarked on a bitter debate with Birgivı̂
executions of Princes Mustafa in 1553 and Mehmed b. Pir Ali (1523–1573), a scholar who
Beyazid in 1559, or the breaking of the peace insisted that such endowments would constitute
treaty with Venice in 1570). usury and thus should be condemned (another
issue of debate with Birgivı̂ was Ebussuud’s per-
mitting remuneration for religious services).
Ebussuud brought important transformations in Impact and Legacy

the posts he served: as a Rumili kazaskeri, he
organized the system of rotation and promotion Ebussuud’s legal edifice dominates over Ottoman
of judges, which prevailed for the period to come; law of (at least) the century following his death,
as a şeyh€
ulislam, he institutionalized this office all the more so since his period came to be con-
and the production of fetvas. His most important sidered a “Golden Age” for the empire, devia-
contribution, however, was the identification of tions from which were held responsible for any
Sultanic rule with the rule of şer’iat and of the signs of “decline.” Only in the 1670s, under the
Sultan as a guardian of the faith and of the Holy influence of Birgivı̂’s successors (the followers of
Law; under his rulings, the competence of judges Kadızade Mehmed, q.v.), did the Ottoman
was to depend on the Sultan who appointed them, administration begin to experiment with a revival
and thus their applying the şer’iat was bound to of purely Islamic law, especially in land and
the Sultan’s directives. With his legal devices, taxation systems.
and in close collaboration with Suleyman (and
perhaps less with his successor, Selim II), he
legitimized current Ottoman practices under
Cross-References
Islamic terms. In landholding, Ebussuud
established state ownership over the land (a key
▶ Kadızade
notion for the Ottoman feudal and taxing system)
using an elaborate distinction between dominium
eminens and possession and usufruct and
Ebu´s-su‘ud 3
References İnalcık, H. 1992. Islamization of Ottoman laws on land

and land tax. In Festgabe an Josef Matuz:
Osmanistik – Turkologie – Diplomatik, ed. Ch. Fragner,
Primary Literature and K. Schwarz, 101–118. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz
D€uzdağ, M.E. 1972. Şeyh€ ulisl^
a m Ebussuûd Efendi Verlag
fetvaları ışığında 16. asır T€urk hayatı. Istanbul: Mandaville, J.E. 1979. Usurious Piety: The Cash-Waqf
Enderun Kitabevi controversy in the Ottoman Empire. International
Journal of Middle East Studies 10: 289–308.
Secondary Literature Repp, R.C. 1986. The M€ ufti of Istanbul. Oxford: Ithaca
Imber, C. 1997. Ebu’s-su‘ud. The Islamic legal tradition. Press
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
E
Eugenikos, Ioannis his first teacher at the school founded by their

father. John continued his studies in Mistra,
Born: Constantinople 1394 under the supervision of the Neoplatonic philoso-
Died: Sparta 1454/5 pher Gemistos Pletho. Eugenikos, during his stay
in Constantinople, was appointed notary, as well
Michail Mantzanas as chartophylax; later he was appointed
Ecclesiastical Academy of Athens, Athens, nomophylax at the service of the rulers of Mistra.
Greece He maintained the office of nomophylax after he
returned to Constantinople, around 1431, most
probably in order to take over the management
Abstract of a school. He was a member of the Patriarchal
delegation to the Council of Ferrara-Florence in
Ioannis Eugenikos was a theologian and prolific 1438/39. Eugenikos was the first to leave the
writer. He took part at the Council of Ferrara- Council, when he realized that there were no
Florence in 1438/39. His bother Marc Eugenikos chance the Catholics would support the Byzantine
was the leader of the anti-Unionists and refused to Empire. Like his brother Marc, he was a strong
sign the Union of the Eastern Orthodox Church opponent of the Union of the two churches, i.e.,
and the Roman Catholic Church. Ioannis followed the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic
his brother and became a radical anti-Unionist. Church, and as soon as he returned to Constanti-
nople, he engaged in a fierce polemic against the
Unionists and the advocates of the Latins, namely,
Emperor Ioannis VIII Palaiologos (1392–1448)
Alternate Names and Patriarch Mitrophanis (died 1443). As a
result, Eugenikos was exiled in Trebizond, from
▶ John Eugenikos or Metaxopoulos where he later moved to Peloponnese
(1442–1447). Despite his persecution from the
official Church, he did not stop to fight against
Biography the Union of the two Churches.
He authored a number of polemical writings,
Ioannis Eugenikos was a cleric and ecclesiastical letters, and treatises, the most influential of which
writer. He was born in Constantinople. He died in is considered to be Antirrhetikos kata tou Orou tis
Sparta 2 years after the fall of Constantinople. His Florentinis Sinodou (Against the Decree of Union
brother, Marc Eugenikos, Bishop of Ephesus, was of 1439). Ioannis’ efforts to attack the Union
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_43-1
2 Eugenikos, Ioannis
gained Georgios Gennadios Scholarios attention. References

Scholarios, who was the first patriarch of Con-
stantinople after its fall to the Turks, favored Primary Literature
Eugenikos. He passed his last years in the Pelo- Lambrou, Sp. 1912. Letters: Palaiologeia kai
Peloponnisiaka, Typ. P.D. Sakellariou, vol. I, 47–218,
ponnese, where he was appointed guardian of the
vol. II, 271–289. Athens-Lipsiae.
Metropolis of Lacedaemonia (Sparta). He was in Migne, J.P. 1866. Patrologia Graeca, Apud Garnier
Constantinople just before the fall and was cap- Fratres et J.-P. Migne Successore. vol. 160, 530–534
tured by the Turks. After his release, he wrote a (Pros ton Sholarion tou Efesou). Apud Garnier Fratres
et J.-P. Migne Successore.
lament (threnos) on the fall of Constantinople.
Eugenikos was well known for his anti-Unionist
attempts. Secondary Literature
Boissonade, J.-F. 1844. Anecdota Nova, Paris: apud
Dumont Bibliopolam.
Diamantopoulos, A. 1923. Silvestros Syropouloskai ta
Innovative and Original Aspects Apomnimonevmata autou. In Nea SionIH0 , Typ. Ierou
Koinou tou Panagiou Taphou, 241–277, 337–353,
Eugenikos’ most significant treatise was the afore- 434–440, 475–491, 528–546, 578–597. Typ. Ierou
mentioned Antirrhetikos kata tou Orou tis Koinou tou Panagiou Taphou.
Dositheos, Tomos Katallagis, Iasion 1692, 206–273.
Florentinis Sinodou, in which he analyzes the Gioblakis, Ath.1982. Ioannis Eugenikos. Thessaloniki:
causes for the dispute between the two churches. private edition.
He also wrote the Apologies pros ton Autokratora, Lambrou, Sp. 1908. Tou nomofylakos Ioannou diakonou
as well as Parainetikos peri tis kata Christon tou Eugenikou monodia epi ti alosi tis megalopoleos. In
Neos Hellinomnimon, E΄, 219–226.
Politeias. Ioannis composed a vast corpus of writ- Petit, L. 1927. Studi Byzantini, Acolouthie de Marc
ings consisting of paramythetikoi, ekphrasis, Eugénikos, archevêque d'Ephèse », in Studi bizantini
proseuxai, kanones, omilies, akolouthies, hymns, 2, Roma: Anonima Romana, p. 193–235.
as well as monodies that were devoted to certain Rosenqvist, J.O. 2007. Die byzantinische Literatur vom
6. Jahrhundert bis zum Fall Konstantinoples 1453.
persons or historical events. His works also Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter.
include the Oration of Thanksgiving, Monodia Stiernon, D. 1974. JEAN EUGÉNICOS, écrivain byzantin,
eis tin Marian Palaiologinan, Monodia epi ti vers 1400–1455, in DictSpir, vol. 8, Paris: Beauchesne,
alosi tis Konstantinopoleos, and the narration of 501–506.
Tomadakis, N. 1952. Ioannou tou Eugenikou Epigramma
a shipwreck he experienced in 1438 in the eis Iosif Bryennion. In Athina, vol. 56, 5–8. ek Typ. P.
Adriatic Sea. D. Sakellariou.
Trapp, E. 1976. Prosopographisches Lexikon der
Palaiologenzeit (no 6189). Wien. Verlag der Osterrei-
chischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Legacy Tsirpanlis, C. 1978. John Eugenicus and the council of
Florence. Byzantion 48: 264–274.
His letters, which were addressed to ecclesiastical
and political figures, point to a prolific scholar
with a consistent devotion to Eastern Orthodox
dogmas.
E
Eugenikos, Marc Biography
Born: Constantinople c.1391/1392 He was born Manuel Eugenikos. His father

Died: Constantinople c.1444/1445 George was chief judge and deacon of the Great
Church. His mother’s name was Mary and she
Georgios Steiris was daughter of Luck the doctor. Despite his
Department of Philosophy, School of Philosophy, father’s sudden death when he was a child,
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Eugenikos’ mother cared for his education. He
Zografou, Greece studied theology and philosophy under John
Chortasmenos (1370–1437), a renowned mathe-
matician and astronomer, and Georgius Gemistus
Pletho (1355–1454), the famous neo-pagan
philosopher. Chortasmenos instructed him in
Aristotelian logic and syllogistic. It is probable
Abstract
that one of his future rivals, Cardinal Bessarion,
was his schoolmate. Macarius Macres
Mark Eugenikos was a leading Byzantine scholar
(1386–1431), a well-educated monk, introduced
and theologian. He participated in the Council of
him to theology, including the works of Latin
Ferrara-Florence (1438–1439). He declined to
authors, especially Aquinas. In his early adult
sign the conciliatory agreement between the
life, he chose to teach rhetoric. Among his stu-
Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church.
dents were Georgios Gennadios Scholarios
Because of his refusal he became a key figure in
(1398/1405–1472), who after the fall of Constan-
the anti-unionist movement and enjoyed high
tinople became Patriarch; Theodore Agalianos;
popularity among the Orthodox clergy and
Theophanes, bishop of Medea; and his young
people.
brother John Eugenikos. When he was 25 years
old, Eugenikos decided to become a monk and
joined a monastery on the Princes’ Islands, near
Synonyms Constantinople, where he studied the Scriptures
with the famous monk Symeon. After 2 years
Mark of Ephesus they both moved to the famous monastery of
Mangana and Eugenikos was ordained a priest.
The monastery of Mangana was a prominent
cultural center in the fourteenth and fifteenth
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_44-1
2 Eugenikos, Marc
century. In 1436 Eugenikos was elected bishop of which carried him made a stop at the island of
Ephesus. When the Emperor John VIII Lemnos, where Eugenikos was arrested by the
Palaeologus (1392–1448) persuaded the Pope to local authorities, at the emperor’s order. He
organize a council in order to achieve the union of remained imprisoned in Lemnos for the next
the Churches, Mark Eugenikos accompanied him 2 years. During his imprisonment he composed
in Ferrara and Florence. The emperor and the and published a letter to the Orthodox people
Byzantine delegates solicited the assistance of blaming those who accepted the union of the
the Westerners against the Turkish threat. Orthodox and Catholic Church. Once again he
Although Mark was the most ardent anti-unionist accused the Catholics for heresy and exhorted
and the leading figure of the party, he assisted his fellow Orthodox to not socialize with the
Cardinal Nicholas Cusanus (1401–1464) in pro-unionists. After he was released from prison,
obtaining Greek manuscripts. Eugenikos was he returned to Constantinople. But his health was
not preoccupied and his attitude toward the Cath- seriously damaged as a result of his hardships.
olics was moderate. Yet the Catholic delegates In 1444 he died. Before his death he addressed his
were in continuous disputes with him and asked former students and collaborators asking them to
the Byzantine emperor to appoint Bessarion continue the opposition to the Catholics. Among
(1403–1472) the official spokesman of the Ortho- them was Georgios Scholarios, who delivered the
dox Church because he was more suitable on the funeral speech. Eugenikos addressed a letter to
occasion. Certain Byzantine officials shared the Scholarios, in which he named him his heir in the
same view. Namely, Eugenikos argued that, anti-unionist party. When Scholarios became
despite conciliatory dogmatic formulas, the Patriarch of Constantinople, he canonized
Roman Church was schismatic and heretic. He Eugenikos and his feast day is the 19th of Janu-
also refuted the doctrine of the Purgatory, and his ary. The Great Synod of 1484 included him in the
objections led the members of the Council to omit list of Father Saints.
from the Acta of the Council any reference to the
purgatorial fire. According to the sources, Pope
Eugene IV (1383–1447) said that since Mark did Innovative and Original Aspects
not agree, the Council was a failure. The Pope
tried to dissuade Eugenikos, but his attempts Eugenikos considered himself a disciple of
failed. Yet there are several Orthodox officials, St. Gregory Palamas (1296–1359), the leading
like the bishops of Lakedemona and Lesvos, who figure of the Hesychasm movement, a kind of
did not endorse Eugenikos’ views and attitude philosophical and theological mysticism, which
and moved against him. Eugenikos returned to was very popular during the fourteenth century
Constantinople together with the rest of the Byz- and gradually became the core dogma of the
antine delegates and the emperor. The people of Orthodox Church. Eugenikos defended the dis-
Constantinople cheered him, while the tinction between divine essence and energies,
pro-unionists were hooted. Joseph, the bishop of which is crucial for Hesychasm. During the
Methone and a leading pro-unionist, records that Council of Ferrara-Florence, his role was signif-
the crowd kneeled before Mark and called him a icant, since he was responsible for the preparation
saint. The scene reminded Joseph of the reception of the Orthodox. He gathered the required texts
made by the Jews for Moses and Aaron after they and analyzed their grammatical precision and
received the Ten Commandments from God. In authenticity. He did not accept any conciliatory
1440 Eugenikos faced serious threats against his solution concerning the Filioque, even if this was
life and he was forced to leave Constantinople. expressed in Greek language. Eugenikos argued
He resorted to Ephesus, which was under the that the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the
Turks in order to guide his folk. After a short Father. In the opening speech he accused the
while he was forced to leave Ephesus and he Latin delegates and Pope Eugenius IV for their
decided to recede in Mount Athos. The ship attempt to prevent him from reading the Acts of
Eugenikos, Marc 3
the Ecumenical Councils because that would Impact and Legacy

have weakened the argumentation of the Catholic
Church. Eugenikos also rejected all the Latin Besides his theological and philosophical works,
authorities and texts that the Catholic delegates Eugenikos is highly appreciated for his stance
attempted to bring into notice during the council. during and after the Council of Ferrara-Florence.
Unlike Byzantine Platonism, especially Plethon, He is considered as one of the pillars of the
Eugenikos articulated a philosophical anthropol- Orthodox Church. Pope Eugenius IV, according
ogy that focuses on the embodied life. He did not to certain sources, demanded from the Emperor
give preponderance to the soul regarding human John VIII Palaeologus to dismiss Eugenikos from
beings. Despite his dogmatic hostility against his duties. Despite the emperor’s desire for the
Catholic Church and Latin Fathers and scholars, success of the Council, he chose not to succumb
Eugenikos was influenced by Scholastic philoso- to the papal demands, and he did not deprive
phy. Schmemann has proved that Eugenikos Eugenikos of his rank.
resorted to Aquinas’ hylomorphism and Summa
Contra Gentiles in order to defend some of his
key doctrinal positions concerning resurrection References
and afterdeath punishment. Eugenikos avoided
condemning Aquinas in his treatises, despite the Primary Literature
fact that he launched fervent attacks on the Eugenikos, M. 1840. Pere gymnastikes. De gymnastica
quae supersunt, primum edidit et interpretatus est
Byzantine Thomists, especially Manuel Kalekas
C. L. Kayser. Accedunt Marci Eugenici Jmagines et
(d. 1410). It is also noteworthy that Eugenikos epistolae nondum editae. Heidelbergae, Mohr.
spent several years in the monastery of St. George Migne, J.P. ed. (1866). Marcus Eugenisu. In Patrologia
of the Mangana, where the Byzantine Thomist Graeca, vol. 160, p. 1071–1200. Paris.
Petit, L. ed. Marci Eugenici Metropolitae Ephesi opera
Demetrios Kydones (1324–1398) studied and
anti-unionistica, Concilium Florentinum Documenta
translated Aquinas’ works. Despite his insistence et Scriptores. Roma, Patrologia Orientalis, 1923–1927.
on the preponderance of Byzantine philosophy
and theology, Eugenikos did not underestimate Secondary Literature
Aquinas and Western Scholasticism. Rather he Alexakis, A. 1996. Codex Parisinus Graecus 1115 and its
juxtaposed the Byzantine and Latin intellectual Archetype. Dumbarton Oaks, Dumbarton Oaks
Studies.
traditions. Aristotle was the common ground for
Chrysoberges, A. 1937. Testimonium ineditum Andreae
Aquinas and Eugenikos. Moreover, he was inter- Archiepiscopi Rhodi de Marco Eugenico. In Acta
ested in the works of Augustine, and during his Academiae Velebradensis, vol. 13, ed. G. Hoffman,
stay in Italy, he purchased a number of manu- 13–20.
Constas, N. 2002. Mark Eugenikos. In La théologie
scripts in order to familiarize himself with his
byzantine et sa tradition. II (XIIIe-XIXe s.), ed.
theological and philosophical ideas. Eugenikos C.G. Conticello and Vassa Conticello, 411–467.
believed that Augustine’s texts contained argu- Turnhout, Brepols.
ments and positions in favor of Orthodox Papadopoulos-Kerameus, A. 1902. Markos o Eugenikos
os Pater Agios tes Orthodoxou Katholikes Ekklesias.
theology. It is rather interesting that Eugenikos
Byzantinische Zeitschrift 11: 50–69.
studied and used Bernard of Clairvaux’s works in Schmemann, A. 1957. St. Mark of Ephesus and the
order to support his arguments in favor of beatific theological conflicts in Byzantium. St. Vladimir’s
vision, a significant aspect of Palamas’ theology. Theological Quaterly 1: 11–24.
Tsirpanlis, C.N. 1974. Mark Eugenicus and the Council of
His philosophical education is obvious in his
Florence. A historical re-evaluation of his personality.
treatises since he frequently presents his syllo- Thessaloniki.
gisms in the form of aporiae.
G
Gans, David cutting-edge astronomer as Kepler, who

advanced the heliocentric model of the universe.
Born: 1541, Lippstadt Gans endorsed conservative, traditionalist posi-
tions in historical and astronomical questions.
Died: 1613, Prague Nevertheless, his works were important cultural
innovations within the context of early modern
Tamás Visi Ashkenazi Jewish culture. His books on histori-
Kurt and Ursula Schubert Centre for Jewish ography and astronomy enriched the Ashkenazi
Studies, Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci Jewish cultural repertoire by introducing subject
(Palacky University), Olomouc, Czech Republic matters to the Jewish public which were usually
ignored in Ashkenazi tradition. Therefore, some
scholars consider Gans as a forerunner of modern
Jewish culture that began to emerge during the
second half of the eighteenth century.
Abstract
David Gans (1541, Lippstadt – 1613 Prague) was Biography

an Ashkenazi Jewish polyhistor active chiefly in
Prague at the turn of the sixteenth and seven- David ben Shlomo Gans was born in Lippstadt,
teenth centuries. He is known first and foremost Westphalia, in 1541. He received education in
as the author of two books: (1) Tsemah David, a traditional, religious sciences in Bonn, Frankfurt
Hebrew chronicle describing Jewish history and a. M. and later in Krakow. Natural sciences and
general history from the beginnings to the philosophy were usually not taught in Jewish
author’s days (published in Prague, 1592), and schools during this period; nevertheless, Gans
(2) Nehmad va-na‘im a manual of astronomy studied Euclid’s Elements on the basis of a medi-
based on the Ptolemaic system but quoting some eval Hebrew version of that work which he found
of the opinions of Nicholas Copernicus, Johannes in a manuscript in the city of Nordheim
Kepler, and Tycho Brahe (published in (Germany). In Krakow, Gans studied at the
Jessnitz, 1743). yeshiva (religious academy) of Moses Isserles,
Gans was not a cutting-edge historian such as one of the greatest rabbis of the age. Unlike
his Italian Jewish contemporary, Azariah de’ most Ashkenazi rabbis, Isserles valued scientific
Rossi, who questioned the historicity of some knowledge, and he composed some (not very
post-biblical Jewish legends. Neither was he a significant) scientific works. It is likely that
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_46-1
2 Gans, David
Isserles encouraged Gans’s interest in natural Prague that encouraged Gans’ endeavor
sciences (Neher 1986). Around 1564, Gans (Greenblatt 2014).
moved to Prague, where he became a disciple of In Gans’s perception, historiography was first
R. Judah Löw ben Betsalel, the famous “Maharal and foremost chronography, a discipline of
of Prague.” Mordecai Maisel, the leader of describing and measuring time, and as such it
Prague Jewry, may have been Gans’ patron was closely related to astronomy. Accordingly,
around 1592 when he published his first book, Gans’ chronicle offers a chronological outline of
Tsemah David (Greenblatt 2014). Around 1600, the past rather than a continuous narrative of
Gans spent few days with Johannes Kepler, human history. In the introduction of Tsemah
Johannes M€ uller, and Tycho Brahe in the latter’s David, Gans emphasizes that the work was
observatory in Benatek (Benátky nad Jizerou) intended for a wide, laic, and uneducated reader-
near Prague. He published a short astronomical ship. The chronicle itself is divided into two
treatise entitled Magen David in 1612. David parts: one of them treats general history, whereas
Gans passed away on 22 August 1613 in Prague. the other focuses on events and persons that were
especially important for Jews. Since similar divi-
sions between “sacred” and “profane” histories
Works I: Tsemah David
appear in contemporary Christian historical
Gans’s most influential work is a Hebrew chron-
works as well, it has been suggested that the
icle entitled Tsemah David [also spelled Zemah
structure of Tsemah David may have been
David, Tzemach David, Hebrew “Branch of
inspired by Christian historiography (Greenblatt
David” cf. Jeremiah 23:5] and printed first in
2014).
Prague, 1592 (and many more times afterwards).
Both parts are organized as long series of brief
Historiography was not a prestigious literary
entries each recording the major events of a sin-
genre in premodern Jewish culture; in fact, very
gle year. The entries are arranged in a linear
few historical works had been written by Jews
chronological sequence from the creation of the
since antiquity (Yerushalmi 1982). This situation
world to Gans’s own time. Gans’s scientific curi-
changed slightly during the sixteenth century,
osity is evidenced by his occasional inclusion of
when a dozen of historical texts, mostly by
scientific materials at the beginning of the book,
Sephardi Jews, were written and published.
where the creation of the world is discussed, and
Gans’s chronicle is an exceptional, Ashkenazi
at some other places, e.g., an account of a comet
instance of the same intellectual trend. It is
that was visible in 1572. Remarkable is the entry
debated how far Gans’s enterprise was connected
on the invention of print which Gans praised
to Sephardic precedents (Yerushalmi 1982;
enthusiastically. The prominence of Prague-
Breuer 1983b; Bonfil 1988).
related material in the content of both parts of
It has been suggested that Tsemah David was
the chronicle is also conspicuous. Tsemah David
intended as a response to an Italian Jewish
probably preserves some of the oral histories of
humanist, Azariah de’ Rossi (Breuer 1983b).
Jews living in Prague (Greenblatt 2014).
De’ Rossi wrote a Hebrew book entitled Me’or
A critical edition of the Hebrew original has
‘enayim (1575) which critically reassessed
been published by Mordecai Breuer (1983a); an
ancient Jewish legends (aggadot) on the basis of
English translation of the work and a study iden-
non-Jewish sources (Weinberg 1982, 2001;
tifying Gans’ sources is under way (Šedinová
Veltri 2009). De’ Rossi’s work was heavily crit-
et al. in preparation). A later edition of Tsemah
icized by Maharal of Prague (Ruderman 1995;
David (Frankfurt a. M., 1692) includes an addi-
Veltri 2009); perhaps, Gans’s intention was to
tional part on historical events from 1592 to 1692.
support Maharal’s criticism by providing a tradi-
The work has been translated to Yiddish and Latin
tionalist narrative of Jewish history (Breuer
(see Steinschneider 1852–60, no. 4805/3-8).
1983b). Other scholars underline the specific
intellectual and cultural milieu of Rudolphine
Gans, David 3
Works II: Nehmad ve-na‘im sciences and rationalism, a step toward Haskalah,
A second important work by Gans is a manual of a specific Jewish version of enlightenment that
astronomy and related sciences entitled Nehmad was to come during the second half of the eigh-
va-na‘im. It includes a section on cosmology, a teenth century (Freudenthal 2007). A critical edi-
section on the structure of the celestial spheres, a tion and an in-depth study of Nehmad ve-na‘im is
section on geography, a section on the measure- a desideratum. (For an annotated edition of the
ment of time, and several sections on the move- introduction, consult Bolag 2008.)
ment of the Zodiac, the Sun, and the Moon (Alter
2011 [1958]; cf. Freudenthal 2011). The text is
Other Works
accompanied with illustrations and tables
In Nehmad va-na‘im, Gans mentions other scien-
containing geographical and astronomical data.
tific works on astronomy, geography, mathemat-
Gans must have begun writing this book
ics, geometry, and the Jewish calendar he wrote
before December 1596 when a scribe copied an
or planned to write. Only one of them seems to
early version of it (see below, next section). At
have survived: Magen David (Hebrew, “The
this time, the book bore the title Magen David,
Shield of David”) is a short introduction to
and thus it has often been confused with a later
astronomy. It was printed in Prague in 1612; a
work bearing the same title. Most of the book had
unique copy has been preserved in the Bodleian
been finished by 1600; further sections were
Library in Oxford (cf. Steinscneider 1852–60,
added to it in 1610 and 1613 (Alter 2011 [1958]).
no. 4805/1). In the introduction, Gans mentions
The cosmological lore included in the work is
two pupils, one of them being his son, who
based on medieval Jewish Aristotelian and Neo-
demanded him to write a book on astronomy. It
platonic texts. Gans complains in the book that he
has been suggested that Gans published this
was unable to access important medieval Hebrew
work, because he failed to raise money for the
astronomical texts by Abraham Ibn Ezra (1091/2-
publication of Nehmad va-na‘im (Neher 1977).
1167) and Levi ben Gershon (Gersonides
Magen David is the first printed Hebrew text
1288–1344). In astronomy, Gans follows the
mentioning Copernicus and summarizing his the-
Ptolemaic model despite the fact that he was
ory (Neher 1977).
personally acquainted with Tycho Brahe and
Another astronomical work also entitled
Johannes Kepler. It has been suggested that Kep-
Magen David but different from the previous
ler developed his heliocentric model only after
one is attested in a manuscript which a scribe
Gans finished his work and thus the former could
copied on 6–9 December 1596 in Bischitz
not influence the latter (Neher 1977). Neverthe-
(Byšice, Czech Republic, near Prague)
less, Nehmad va-na‘im includes reports about
(Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek,
Gans’s conversations with Brahe, Kepler, and
Cod. Hebr. 273; cf. Steinschneider 1878,
M€uller and about their work at the observatory
no. 299; note that the Hebrew date of the manu-
(Alter 2011 [1958]).
script is converted incorrectly in Steinschneider’s
The book was printed for the first time as late
catalogue). This work seems to be an early ver-
as 1743 in Jessnitz by R. Joel b. Jekutiel Sachs,
sion of Nehmad va-na‘im (cf. Alter 2011 [1958]).
rabbi of Austerlitz in Moravia. It also circulated
An early modern bibliographer mentions a
in manuscripts among few Jewish intellectuals,
geographical book entitled Tsurat ha-arets
who formed a “scientific subculture” among Ash-
(Hebrew: “The forms of the earth”) by David
kenazi Jews during the seventeenth and eigh-
Gans which was supposedly published in Istan-
teenth centuries. The printing of Gans’s
bul. No copy of this work is known to have
astronomical manual in 1743 is considered an
survived (see Steinschneider 1852–60, no. 4805/
event of some significance in Jewish intellectual
1 and no. 4965/3).
history: it was a sign of an increasing interest in
4 Gans, David
Cross-References Moses Halevi of Zamość. In Sepharad in Ashkenaz:

Medieval knowledge and eighteenth-century enlight-
ened Jewish discourse, ed. Resianne Fontaine, Andrea
▶ Azariah de’ Rossi Schatz, and Irene Zwiep, 25–67. Amsterdam: Royal
▶ Johannes Keller Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
▶ Maharal of Prague Freudenthal, Gad. 2011. Dossier: Georg Alter
▶ Moses Issereles (1891–1972) on David Gans (1541–1613). Aleph
11(2011): 59–61 and 114–156; cf. Alter, 2011 [1958].
▶ Tycho Brahe Greenblatt, Rachel. 2014. To tell their children: Jewish
communal memory in early modern Prague. Stanford:
Stanford University Press.
References Neher, André. 1977. Copernicus in the Hebraic literature
from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Journal of
the History of Ideas 38(1977): 211–226.
Primary Sources Neher, André. 1986. Jewish thought and the scientific
David Gans. 1592. Tsemah David. Prague: Kohen – see revolution of the sixteenth century: David Gans
also Breuer, 1983a. (1541–1613) and his times. Trans. David Maisel.
David Gans. 1612. Maggen David. Prague: Katz. Oxford University Press.
David Gans. 1743. Sefer Nehmad ve-na‘im, ed. R. Joel Ruderman, David B. 1995. Jewish thought and scientific
b. Jekutiel Sachs. Jessnitz: Yisrael bar Avraham. discovery in early modern Europe. Wayne State Uni-
David Gans. 1596. Magen David, Hamburg, Staats- und versity Press.
Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Hebr. 273. Šedinová, Sládek, Boušek, Jiřina Šedinová, Pavel Sládek,
and Daniel Boušek, Annotated English translation of
Secondary Sources David Gans’s Tsemah David, in preparation.
Alter, Georg (Jiřı́). 2011 [1958]. David Gans: Steinschneider, Moritz. 1852–1860. Catalogus librorum
A renaissance Jewish astronomer. Aleph 11 (2011): hebraeorum in bibliotheca Bodleiana. Berlin:
61–114. [Originally: in George Alter, Two Renais- A. Friedlaender.
sance Astronomers:David Gans, Joseph Delmedigo Steinschneider, Moritz. 1878. Catalog der Hebräischen
(Prague: ČSAV, 1958); cf. Freudenthal, 2011]. Handschriften in der Stadtbibliothek zu Hamburg und
Bolag, Shimon. 2008. From the introduction to Neḥmad der sich anschliessenden in anderen Sprachen. Ham-
we-naʿim by Rabbi. David Gans. Ha-Ma’ayan 48: burg. 1878; reprint Cambridge: Cambridge University
9–24. Press, 2013.
Bonfil, Robert. 1988. How golden was the age of the Veltri, Guiseppe. 2009. Renaissance philosophy in Jewish
renaissance in Jewish historiography? History and Garbs. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
Theory 27(1988): 78–102. Weinberg, Joanna. 1982. The Me’or ‘Enayim of Azariah
Breuer, M. 1983a. David Gans. In Tsemah de’ Rossi: A critical study and selected translations.
David, ed. Mordecai Breuer. Jerusalem: Magnes Press. Ph.D. dissertation, London.
Breuer, Mordechai. 1983b. Modernism and traditionalism Weinberg, Joanna. 2001. Azariah de’ Rossi, The light of
in sixteenth-century Jewish historiography: A study of the eyes. Trans. Joanna Weinberg. New Haven: Yale
David Gans’ Tzemach David. In Jewish thought in the University Press.
sixteenth century, ed. Bernard Dov Cooperman, Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim. 1982. Zakhor: Jewish history
49–88. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. and Jewish memory. Seattle/London: University of
Freudenthal, G. 2007. Hebrew medieval science in Washington Press.
Zamość, ca. 1730: The early years of rabbi Israel ben
G
Gaza, Theodore Biography
Born: Salonica c.1398/1410/1415 Theodore Gaza was born in Salonica, as his sig-
Died: Calabria 1475/1476 nature (Theodorus Graecus Thessalonicensis)
implies. His family was probably well known
Georgios Steiris and influential in the local community. When
Department of Philosophy, School of Philosophy, the Turks invaded his home city, Theodore fled
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, to Italy. According to certain, not totally reliable,
University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, sources, Gaza, before his trip to Italy, spent a few
Zografou, Greece years in Constantinople, where he entered
monastic orders. In Constantinople he befriended
Francesco Filelfo (1391–1481) who probably
encouraged him to migrate to Italy. Several
sources attest Gaza’s presence in the Council of
Ferrara – Florence (1438–1439), although that is
Abstract
doubtful. Upon his arrival in Italy he spent a few
years in Pavia (1440–1443) and then he moved to
Theodore Gaza was a fifteenth-century Byzantine
Mantua, where he became a student of the famous
scholar and translator. He was highly respected as
humanist Vittorino da Feltre (1378–1446), who
an expert on Aristotle. His work influenced
in turn improved his Greek under Gaza’s guid-
Renaissance and early modern scholars interested
ance. During his stay in Mantua, Gaza perfected
in Aristotle’s biological works. Gaza introduced
his Latin, while he delivered lessons in Greek and
a new method of translating and editing ancient
translated manuscripts from Greek to Latin and
texts which influenced translators and editors. He
studied medicine. In 1446 he became professor at
was associated with some of the most famous and
the University of Ferrara, where he enjoyed high
influential Italians.
esteem and appreciation from his students. Soon
his courses on Greek language became the main
attraction of the University. Cosimo de’ Medici
Synonyms offered him the chair that belonged to Manuel
Chrysoloras in the University of Florence, but
Teodoro Gazahumanists of his time; Teodorus Gaza rejected the offer. By 1449 he was a well-
Gazes; Theodore Gazis renowned humanist and Pope Nicholas
V welcomed him in the Holy See and entrusted
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_47-1
2 Gaza, Theodore
him with the translation of several works of Aris- Gaza corresponded with Bessarion and kept him
totle and other Greek authors to Latin. Cardinal posted about Trapezuntius’ activities in the city.
Bessarion (1403–1472) encouraged Gaza to The same period Trapezuntius published the In
move to Rome, since Bessarion was persuaded Perversionem Problematum Aristotelis a quodam
that Gaza’s knowledge and efficiency would be Theodoro Cage editam et problematice
helpful for other scholars who sought to improve Aristotelis philosophiae protectio. The work’s
the quality of their translations. Gaza’s texts were title is indicative of Trapezuntius’ dismissive
the standard for the translation for scholarly attitude toward Gaza. Trapezuntius maintained
works. During his stay in Rome, he continued that Gaza rearranged the structure of the text
his teaching activities. He also engaged with and did not alert his readers to the fact that he
Aristotle’s Libri Naturales, especially his biolog- deviated from the Greek original on a number of
ical writings. Gaza devoted many years of the rest occasions. Gaza also introduced new technical
of his life to the editions and translations of terms, which made the text tricky in certain
Aristotle’s Libri de animalibus, the first version cases. While Gaza was interested in bene dicere,
of which was completed by 1458. Before engag- Trapezuntius prioritized scientific precision.
ing with Aristotle, he had translated Theophras- Gaza took into account Trapezuntius’ remarks
tus’ botanical treatises (Historia plantarum and and revised his translation. Trapezuntius blamed
De causis plantarum). Soon Pope Nicholas Bessarion that he initiated a plot against him and
V (1397–1455) acknowledged Gaza’s compe- Gaza was acting as Bessarion’s front man.
tence in ancient languages and asked him to cor- Trapezuntius derides Gaza by misquoting his
rect Georgius Trapezuntius’ (1395–1472/1473) surname: he called him Cages and his admirers
translations, when the latter fell out with the Cagulei. In addition, he warned king Alphonso of
Pope because of the poor quality of his commen- Naples that Gaza and his followers threatened
tary on Ptolemy’s Almagest and the translation of Christian faith and were allies of the archetypal
Aristotle’s Problemata. After that Gaza and Antichrist, namely, Pletho (1355–1454).
Trapezuntius became rivals. Cardinal Bessarion, Trapezuntius’ accusations were obviously false.
Trapezuntius’ main opponent, supported and pro- It is noteworthy that Gaza, in the early 1450s, felt
moted Gaza’s translations to the literate audience victim of the accusations of Michael Apostolis
of the period. In his translations Gaza used to (1422–1478), a Greek émigré and Bessarion’s
scorn previous translators and commentators in protégé. Apostolis argued that Gaza
an attempt to highlight his contribution to classi- misinterpreted Pletho’s views on substance in
cal education. According to Trapezuntius, Gaza’s an attempt to defend Aristotelian metaphysics
choice was indicative of his low appreciation for and distorted Pletho’s thought. Andronicus
scholastic philosophy and theology. But that was Callistus (d.1478), Gaza’s relative and student,
not Gaza’s and Trapezuntius’ first public dispute. replied to Apostolis in support of Gaza and Aris-
When Gaza arrived in Rome, he attended totle. Bessarion felt the need to intervene in the
Trapezuntius’ lectures on rhetoric and blamed dispute and defended Gaza and Aristotle, as well
him that he employed false examples and as Plato. A few years later (1460), Demetrius
misinterpreted the end of oratory. Gaza held Chalcocondyles (1423–1511), another Gaza’s
that, besides persuasion, the orator ought to aim student, composed an additional defense of
at beautiful expression. Trapezuntius bitterly Gaza, which elicited a bitter response from
remarked that Gaza simply reproduced Roman Apostolis. The dispute lasted almost a decade.
sources, namely, Quintilian. After the Pope’s Gaza was a devoted Aristotelian, but he did not
death, Gaza moved to Naples, where he contin- downplay the significance and value of Platonic
ued his work under the patronage of King philosophy. In addition, his works display his
Alphonso. He translated texts of John high esteem for Stoic and Christian philosophy.
Chrysostomos and he contributed in the edition Despite their disputes, both Gaza and
of Arrian’s Tactica. During his stay in Naples, Trapezuntius agreed that Pletho’s works
Gaza, Theodore 3
threatened Christianity. Gaza refuted Pletho’s De insulted him, when he rewarded Gaza with a
fato and composed the De mensibus, a short trea- small amount of golden coins for his work, prob-
tise in reply to Pletho’s Nomoi. Yet Gaza’s and ably the translation of Historia Animalium. Gaza
Trapezuntius’ rivalry never ended. Gaza got felt offended and threw the money into the Tiber.
embroiled in another dispute between Bessarion Although Gaza felt dissatisfied with Pope Sixtus’
and Trapezuntius about the purpose of nature. ingratitude, the story about the money seems to
Pletho, after reading Aristotle on nature, con- be false. According to Raffaele Maffei, Gaza also
cluded that the latter did not hold that God directs translated Cicero from Latin to Greek, while in
the universe, because nature does not deliberate. his early years in Italy he had translated from
Gaza, during the period 1455–1458, rejected Greek to Latin works of Michele Savonarola.
Pletho’s argumentation and supported Aristotle.
He urged Bessarion to write a short treatise in
order to express his views on the issue. Innovative and Original Aspects
Trapezuntius did not miss the chance and
attacked Bessarion on the basis of Aristotelian Gaza introduced a new method of translating and
philosophy. Bessarion replied with his famous editing Aristotle’s texts, which influenced subse-
treatise De natura et arte, in which he attacked quent translations and commentaries. He was
Trapezuntius. The latter thought that Gaza was aware of the fact that ancient and medieval edi-
the author of the treatise since he had access to the tors and scribers had distorted the original
text before its first publication. As a result, sources. As a result, the primary and most crucial
Trapezuntius once again launched a fervent task of the translator and editor was to restore the
attack on Gaza. After 1458 Cardinal Bessarion text to its original form. That required drastic
offered Gaza a benefice in Calabria, where Gaza interventions and changes, including the omis-
receded until his death. In his personal correspon- sion of passages or even books and the complete
dence he confessed to his friends that he was rearrangement of the rest of the text. According to
confronted with financial problems, because the his associates, such as Nicolaus Gupalatinus,
Roman Curia was not generous with scholars like Gaza kept him occupied sometimes over than a
him. But he did not refrain from taking part in year with the restoration of the text before he
philosophical debates. When Bessarion decided started the translation. Of special importance
to reply to Trapezuntius’ Comparatio was Gaza’s GrammatikZ ΕisagogZ , since it
Philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis, he asked was more popular than similar attempts in the
Gaza to review the first draft of the work. Gaza same century.
accepted and sent him his comments and views,
which in fact influenced the final version of
Bessarion’s In Calumniatorem Platonis. A few Impact and Legacy
years before his death, probably just before 1470,
Gaza defended Bessarion against John Gaza was held in high esteem by his fellow
Argyropoulos’ (d.1487) criticisms. Argyropoulos humanists for the quality and originality of his
did not agree with Bessarion’s views about con- works. After his death, Ermolao Barbaro wrote a
cepts and published a short work, which is no letter to Pope Sixtus IV praising Gaza. His trans-
longer extant. Gaza replied with his Antirrheticon lations on Aristotle’s biological works were by
and held that Argyropoulos misunderstood far the most influential during the sixteenth cen-
Bessarion’s argumentation. The truth is that tury. Despite the fact that Trapezuntius also trans-
Gaza attempted to justify Bessarion, although lated the same works, Gaza’s translations were
Argyropoulos’ arguments were accurate. Gaza published more than forty times in the fifteenth
was buried in the monastery of San Giovanni a and sixteenth century. The availability of the
Piro. According to several reports, a few years texts led humanists to study and comment these
before his death, Pope Sixtus IV (1414–1484) specific Aristotelian treatises. Gaza evinced
4 Gaza, Theodore
interest in biology as well since he corroborated Gaza, A. 1967b. ἈntirrZtikón-Antirrheticon. In

with Bussi in the edition of Pliny’s Historia Kardinal Bessarion als Theologe, Humanist und
Staatsmann, ed. L. Mohler, vol. III, 204–235. Aalen,
naturalis. Gaza’s translations were appreciated Scientia-Verlag.
by almost all the key Renaissance humanists. Gaza, A. 1967c. Perὶ ἑkousίou kaὶ a᾿ kousίou-De fato.
Aldo Manuzio admitted that Pico della In Kardinal Bessarion als Theologe, Humanist und
Mirandola, Poliziano, Barbaro, and Donato Staatsmann, ed. L. Mohler, vol. III, 236–246. Aalen,
Scientia-Verlag.
improved their knowledge of Greek language by
studying Gaza’s works. Erasmus, Sylburg,
Camotius, and Casaubon appreciated his work Beullens, P., and A. Gotthelf. 2007. Theodore Gaza’s
on Libri de animalibus and followed his correc- translation of Aristotle’s De Animalibus: Content,
tions. Erasmus praised also Gaza’s Grammatica, influence, and date. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine
which he considered of superior quality to that of Studies 47: 469–513.
Geanakoplos, E.J. 1989. Constantinople and the west:
Ianus Lascaris (1445–1535). The German math- Essays on the late Byzantine (Palaeologan) and Italian
ematician and astronomer Regiomontanus renaissances and the Byzantine and Roman churches.
acknowledged Gaza’s contribution in his work, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
since Gaza introduced him to Ptolemy. The Monfasani, J. 1976. George of Trebizond: A biography
and a study of his rhetoric and logic. Leiden: Brill.
famous humanist and logician Rodolphus Agric- Monfasani, J. 2004. Greeks and Latins in renaissance
ola (1444–1485) was probably among his stu- Italy. Studies on humanism and philosophy in the
dents. Andronicus Callistus and Demetrius 15th century. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Chalcocondyles, the influential Greek humanists Monfasani, J. 2006. George of Trebizond’s Critique of
Theodore Gaza’s translation of the Aristotelian
and translators, were also Gaza’ students. Problemata. In Aristotle’s Problemata in different
times and tongues, ed. P. De Leemans and
M. Goyens, 275–294. Leuven: Leuven University
References Press.
Perfetti, S. 2000. Aristotle’s zoology and its renaissance
commentators (1521–1602). Leuven: Leuven
Primary Literature University Press.
Gaza, A. 1967a. PrὸB PlZ yona ὑpὲr Ἀristotelou-
B-Adversus Plethonem pro Aristotele. In Kardinal
Bessarion als Theologe, Humanist und
Staatsmann, ed. L. Mohler, vol. III, 151–158. Aalen,
Scientia-Verlag.
A
Architect and innate talent (ingegno), and as such, was

said to belong within the realm of the liberal
Elizabeth Merrill arts (artes liberales). Distinct from the anony-
Art and Architectural History, University of mous master masons and building supervisors of
Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA the medieval period, the Renaissance architect
was to assume the position as authorial,
supremely learned master in the art of building.
Abstract This new conception of the architect was articu-
lated in a series of architectural treatises – those
In Renaissance Europe, the role of the architect of Leon Battista Alberti, Antonio Averlino
was unfixed. Unlike painting, sculpture, and met- “Filarete,” Francesco di Giorgio, and Andrea Pal-
alwork, where there were organized systems of ladio, among others – which taking various
apprenticeship, for the architect there was no forms, sought to structure the modern profession.
established curriculum of training or standard
mode of practice. Every one of the period’s lead-
ing architects – individuals like Filippo Brunel- Synonyms
leschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Donato Bramante,
and Michelangelo Buonarroti – assumed a differ- Architect; Chief of works; Engineer; Mechanic
ent role, both in relation to his patrons and in the
technical and design work he undertook. As
reflected in contemporary commentaries and Essay
municipal records, the appellation “architetto”
was inconsistently used to refer to a range of In fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe, there
individuals involved with the building was no distinct profession of architecture, and as
process – from patrons to construction adminis- reflected in the contemporary commentaries,
trators to material suppliers – even when they municipal records, building patents, and treatises,
were not necessarily involved in building design. the conception of the architect varied consider-
Beginning in the fifteenth-century, learned ably depending on context. Patrons, building
practitioners became increasingly vocal about administrators, on-site supervisors, and crafts-
the need to elevate the status of architecture. men often received the appellation “architetto”
Spurred by the rediscovery of Vitruvius’ recon- even if they were not necessarily involved in
dite De Architectura, architecture was recast an building design. Such was the case with Lorenzo
intellectual endeavor, requiring science, math, de’ Medici, who was often referred to as architect
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_50-1
2 Architect
due to his great interest and investment in build- the Florentine humanist Poggio Bracciolini, De
ing (Brown 1993). There are also numerous Architectura was considered the definitive text on
examples in which an individual who was work- architecture in the Renaissance; its abstruse
ing as an architect was referred to by another Greek-Latin prose was thought to hold the secrets
title – painter, sculptor, engineer, or chief of of superior classical building design. The tract’s
works (pittore, scultore, ingegnere, or proposed program – to reformulate Roman archi-
capomaestro) (Hollingsworth 1984). Luca tecture, liberating it from what he considered an
Fancelli, for example, was accustomed to sign inferior position in respect to Greek
himself “lapicida” or “squltor” (“stonecutter” or architecture – also resonated with the early-
“sculptor”) even when working on building modern practitioners (Pagliara 1986; Vitruvius
design (Vatovec 1979). Similarly, in his contract 1999). Although Alberti did not accept Vitruvius’
for the position of operaio dei bottini, overseer of theory in full, and was considerably less dog-
Siena’s extensive system of aqueducts, Francesco matic on the extreme breadth of the architect’s
di Giorgio is designated as pittore (Weller 1943). education, he was equally emphatic that the
The undefined nature of the early-modern architect was to be distinguished from the crafts-
architect was in part the manifestation of the man or builder. The architect, according to
contemporary cultural shifts and the extraordi- Alberti, was a learned individual, who used his
nary degree of social mobility of the Renaissance ingenuity, along with his knowledge of site con-
period. It was also a product of the desire to ditions, building materials, classical building
impose an idealized, classical conception of forms, and social practices to conceive and
architecture on a discipline which for centuries design beautiful structures suitable for the
had been ruled by unlettered practitioners. Begin- “noble needs of man.” The Albertian architect
ning in the first half of the Quattrocento, learned was all authoritative and controlled the entirety
practitioners and humanists became increasingly of the building’s design. The craftsman, by con-
vocal about the need to elevate the status of trast, was a manual operator, nothing more than
architecture. Leon Battista Alberti was among the “hand of the architect.” He implemented the
the first and most notable proponents of this building concept but was not involved in ques-
reconception of the profession, writing a theoret- tions of design (Alberti 1998).
ical tract which presented architecture as intel- Alberti supported his lofty vision of the archi-
lectual endeavor, requiring science, math, and tect using examples drawn from the texts of
ingegno, and placing it in the realm of the artes ancient authorities – not only Vitruvius but also
liberales. The heightened status of architecture, Democritus, Archimedes, Theophrastus, Hippoc-
Alberti asserted, meant that the individual archi- rates, Servius, Pliny, Plato, and Aristotle, among
tect also gained prominence. But unlike its sister others. In taking up these models, Alberti gave
arts, painting and sculpture, where organized sys- architecture a learned, theoretical foundation but
tems of apprenticeship prevailed, there was no also one that was highly idealistic and in large
established mode of architectural training or part devoid of practical applications. In content
even a universally accepted definition of what and prose, Alberti’s erudite Latin De re
architecture entailed. aedificatoria was far better suited for the
As the first published and widely circulated humanist patron than for the working architect,
tract on architecture in the Renaissance, Leon and ultimately the text had limited impact on
Battista Alberti’s De re aedificatoria (c.1450) fifteenth-century architectural practices.
had a marked impact on how architecture was With few exceptions, architectural design and
conceived in the fifteenth- and sixteenth-centu- construction practices in the Renaissance were
ries. Alberti took as his model Vitruvius’ De largely the same as those of the medieval period.
Architectura (c.15 BC), the only surviving tract The typical Renaissance architect rose from the
from antiquity dedicated solely to the art of build- ranks of artistic and building trades. Educated in
ing (Krautheimer 1969). Rediscovered in 1414 by abbaco, or practical geometry, he received the
Architect 3
appellation of architetto late in his career, after others, developed original designs, tested inven-
demonstrating his excellence in design and his tions, and communicated his ideas with workers
ability to administer and supervise large building and patrons. Knowledge of the natural environ-
projects. Although the architect possessed greater ment, and the ability to modify a building design
cultural and artistic authority than his artisan according to the local topography and site condi-
peers, his training and skill sets were much the tions, is another major theme which runs through-
same, and in keeping with the highly conserva- out the writings.
tive, entrenched modes of construction, his work In their diversity, the Renaissance treatises
as building designer remained highly collabora- testify to the degree to which architecture
tive in nature. Rarely, if ever, did the Renaissance remained uncodified. There is no consensus, for
architect assume the consummate authority example, on the dimensions of the columnar
Alberti bestowed upon him (Ackerman 1991; orders, and the authors do not agree on a curric-
Goldthwaite 1980; Trachtenberg 2010). ulum of architectural education. Moreover, the
Following Alberti, learned architectural prac- tracts reveal significant discrepancies in regard
titioners of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-centuries to the essential duties and design responsibilities
continued to seek to define the diffuse profession. of the architect. Whereas Francesco di Giorgio
The outpouring of architectural treatises and and Pietro Cataneo assign to the architect projects
Vitruvian commentaries written in the involving defensive and mechanical design, such
vernacular – those of Antonio Averlino Filarete, technical works are entirely absent from the trea-
Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Cesare Cesariano, tises of Serlio and Palladio (Cataneo 1985, Mar-
Pietro Cataneo, Sebastiano Serlio, Andrea Palla- tini 1967, Palladio 1997, Serlio 1996). The design
dio, Philibert de l’Orme, and Vincenzo of fortifications became increasingly specialized
Scamozzi – reveal the continued desire to bestow in the sixteenth-century, and as delineated in
order and prestige to architecture where it Giovanni Battista Belluzzi’s Trattato di
remained absent (Cataneo 1985, Filarete 1972, Fortificazioni (c. 1550), there was an increasing
L’Orme 1981, Martini 1967, Palladio 1997, distinction between military and civil architects
Scamozzi 1997, Serlio 1996, Vitruvius 1981). (Lamberini 2007). For others, however, the dif-
At their core, every one of these tracts questions fuse definition of the architect as general “master
the essential definition of architecture, offering builder” endured. In Tomaso Garzoni’s widely
rules and formulae that might structure the archi- popular La Piazza Universale di Tutte le
tect’s training and practice. Although the books Professioni del Mondo (1585), a text which
vary considerably in breadth and content, taken sought to order all early-modern social functions
together, they uphold a set of fundamental prin- into distinct professional categories, architects
ciples. Good architecture, it was unanimously are still defined as “masters of buildings, fortifi-
agreed, was that which applied classical building cations and fortresses, and masters of machines,
forms and proportions. All the Renaissance mechanics and engineers” (Garzoni 1996). Over
authors read Vitruvius, and although like Alberti a century after Alberti’s De re Aedificatoria,
they may not have followed his theory in full, therefore, the definition of architecture remained
they all relied upon De Architectura in uncertain; the qualifications and duties of the
deciphering the difficult parts of architecture architect still largely determined on a case-by-
(Kanerva 2006; Pagliara 1986). In order to be a case basis.
successful architect, it was said, it was necessary
to study ancient Greek and Roman building
models, both in text and firsthand. The Renais- Cross-References
sance theorists were also in agreement on the
importance of geometry and drawing (disegno). ▶ Andrea Palladio
Drawing was considered the fundamental tool of ▶ Antonio Averlino Filarete
the architect, by which he studied the works of ▶ Cesare Cesariano
4 Architect
▶ Francesco di Giorgio Martini Vitruvius. 1999. Ten books of architecture. Trans.

▶ Giovanni Battista Belluzzi I. Rowland. New York.
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▶ Luca Fancelli Secondary Literature
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▶ Pietro Cataneo renaissance. In Distance points. Essays in theory and
renaissance art and architecture, 361–384. Cam-
▶ Poggio Bracciolini
bridge, MA: The MIT Press.
▶ Sebastiano Serlio Betts, R. 1971. The architectural theories of Francesco di
▶ Tomaso Garzoni Giorgio. PhD Diss. Princeton: Princeton University.
▶ Vincenzo Scamozzi Biagi, M.L.A. 1965. Vile Meccanico. Lingua Nostra 26:
1–12.
▶ Vitruvius
Brown, B.L. 1993. An Enthusiastic Amateur: Lorenzo
de’Medici as Architect. Renaissance Quarterly 46:
1–22.
Carpo, M. 2003. Architecture in the age of printing: Oral-
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Cataneo, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola: con l’aggiunta Galluzzi, P. 1996. Gli ingegneri del Rinascimento da
degli scritti di architettura di Alvise Cornaro, Brunelleschi a Leonardo da Vinci. Florence: Giunti.
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Finoli and L. Grassi. Milan: Il Polifilo. 2 vols. neering? London: Thames and Hudson.
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Maestri d’Edificii, e Fortificatori di Fortezze, e Maestri rise of the renaissance architectural treatise. New
di Machine, et Mecanici in Commune, overo Haven: Yale University Press.
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C
Catena, Pietro Guidobaldo del Monte and Bernardino Baldi,

two of the most prominent authors of mechanical
Born: 1501, Venice/Italy treatises of the age, attended Catena’s lessons on
Died: 1576, Padua/Italy pseudo-Aristotelian Mechanical Problems,
respectively, in 1564 and in 1573. They both
Michele Camerota expressed a low opinion of Catena’s teaching.
Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Pietro Catena died from the plague in 1576.
Philosophy, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

Abstract
Professor of mathematics at the University of Catena’s most important works are related to the
Padua, Catena is significant for being one of the debate on mathematical certainty. In that context,
authors who contributed to a debate pertaining to he tried to develop a Platonic reading of
the certainty of mathematics, known as quaestio Aristotle’s logical works (Catena 1556, 1561b).
de certitudine mathematicarum. The debate In accordance with his Platonic attitude,
mainly focused on the relationship between Catena viewed mathematical objects as universal
mathematics and syllogistic logic. Catena intelligibles existing in the intellect. As such, they
defended the certainty of mathematics, do not depend on the senses and cannot be derived
maintaining that mathematical demonstrations via abstraction from particulars, but are known to
were superior to syllogisms as tools to acquire us through a pure rational process.
knowledge. Remarkably Catena believed that those ideal,
purely rational entities (i.e., the mathematical
objects) played a role in acquiring a scientific
Biography knowledge of the natural world. In fact, particular
things of the perceived world also participate in a
Little is known about Catena’s life, only that he universal nature. Starting from the premise that
taught mathematics at the University of Padua mathematics allows us to recognize universal (i.e.,
from 1547 to his death in 1576. In alternating geometrical) properties of empirical individuals
years Catena lectured on mathematics texts (the and since “science is the knowing of the univer-
Elements of Euclid) and astronomical texts sal” (Catena 1556: 97), one must conclude that
(Sacrobosco’s Sphaera and the Geography of mathematics is able to transform particular things
Ptolemy). He also lectured on mechanics. into scientific objects. Hence, a true knowledge of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_52-1
2 Catena, Pietro
the empirical world can only be possible through ▶ Syllogistic

the application of mathematical procedures. ▶ Methos
From this point of view, Catena affirmed, in ▶ Platonism
general, that mathematical disciplines were “most
certain” (certissimae), and for this reason “they
are usually used to give light and certainty to the References
other parts of philosophy, both speculative and
practical” (Catena 1563: 2v). Primary Literature
While defending the epistemological value of Catena, Pietro. 1549. Astrolabii quo primi mobilis motus
deprehenduntur canones. Padua: Fabriani.
mathematics, Catena also emphasized the power
Catena, Pietro. 1556. Universa loca in logicam Aristotelis.
of its demonstrative procedures. He maintained Venice: Marcolini.
that geometrical demonstrations were different Catena, Pietro. 1561a. Sphaera. Padua: G. Perchacinum.
from the most powerful form of syllogistic dem- Catena, Pietro. 1561b. Super loca mathematica contenta in
Topicis et Elenchis Aristotelis. Tridinum: Venice: C. de.
onstration (the so-called demonstratio potissima).
Catena, Pietro. 1563. Oratio pro idea methodi. Padua:
Unlike syllogisms, mathematical demonstrations G. Perchacinum.
had heuristic capacity, as they could provide us Catena, Pietro. 1565. Translation of Proclus Diadochus,
with new truths. Sphaera, Padua: L. Pasquatus.
In his work on method (Oratio pro idea
methodi), issued in 1563, Catena also praised the Secondary Literature
Carugo, Adriano. 1984. L’insegnamento della matematica
excellence of mathematical method, which he
all’università di Padova prima e dopo Galileo. In Storia
identified with “the very same Idea of method.” della cultura veneta. Il Seicento, vol. 4/II, eds.
In his words: “You can see how admirable is the Girolamo Arnaldi and Manlio Pastore Stocchi,
order by which mathematics is treated, consider- Vicenza: Porziuncola. 151–199: 164–169.
De Pace, Anna. 1993. Le matematiche e il mondo,
ing that [. . .] mathematics itself is used as a per-
187–242. Milan: Angeli.
fectly similar model of the Idea of Method, or Giacobbe, Giulio Cesare. 1973. La riflessione
rather as the very same Idea of method” (Catena metamatematica di Pietro Catena. Physis 15: 3–69.
1563: 6v). Giacobbe, Giulio Cesare. 1981. Alle radici della
rivoluzione scientifica rinascimentale: le opere di
Pietro Catena sui rapporti tra matematica e logica.
Pisa: Domus Galilaeana.
Cross-References Jardine, Nicholas. 1988. Epistemology of the sciences. In
The Cambridge history of renaissance
philosophy, ed. Charles B. Schmitt and Quentin Skin-
▶ Mathematical Semonstration ner, 685–711. Cambridge: Cambridge University
▶ Logic Press: 695–697.
C
Clavius, Christophorus Other suggestions for Clavius’ original name are

“Nagel,” which is Latin clavus, or “Klau(e).”
Johanna Biank
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science,
Berlin, Germany
Biography
Little is known about Clavius’ early life (Lamalle

Abstract
1957). He was born in Bamberg on 25 March
1537 or 1538. In 1555, at nearly 17 years of age,
Christophorus Clavius (25 March 1537/8 – 6 Feb-
Clavius entered the Roman Jesuit order (Romano
ruary 1612) was a Jesuit mathematician from
1996), and the following year began his studies at
Bamberg who defended Ptolemaic astronomy. At
the University of Coimbra in Portugal under
the same time, he confirmed Galileo’s
Pedro Nunes, where he excelled in mathematics.
contradicting observations, such as the moons of
While in Coimbra, Clavius witnessed the solar
Jupiter and the phases of Venus. However, he was
eclipse on 21 August 1560, which probably
hesitant to interpret them. As an expert mathema-
inspired his later career as astronomer. He is
tician, he contributed to the reform of the Grego-
recorded as having been in Rome in 1561 and
rian calendar. His largest success was the
1562, where he studied physics, metaphysics,
promotion of mathematical studies in European
and theology. In 1567, Clavius became a profes-
and even Chinese Jesuit chairs and colleges. Dur-
sor of mathematics. In the same year, he observed
ing his life he was famous for his commentary on
the total eclipse of the Sun with the telescope.
Euclid’s Elementa.
Aside from a brief stint as a professor in Naples
between 1595 and 1596, Clavius taught at the
Collegio Romano until his death. However, his
Synonyms/Alternate Names
theological career had a slower start: ordained in
1564, he only became a full member of the Jesuit
Christoph or Christopher Clavius. The origin of
order in 1575. On 6 February 1612, Clavius died
the first name is uncertain. The Allgemeine
in Rome (http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/clavius.html).
Deutsche Biographie (Bruhns 1876) suggests
that “Clavius” is derived from the Latin word
clavis meaning “Schl€ ussel” (“key”), whereas the
Catholic Encyclopedia (M€ uller 1908) assumes
that the original surname was “Christoph Clau.”
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_54-1
2 Clavius, Christophorus
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition Galileo’s abnegation when Galileo was first tried
by the Inquisition in 1616.
Clavius followed the medieval tradition of
Ptolemaic-Aristotelian astronomy (Lattis 1994,
2–7). For that reason he upheld the geocentric Innovative and Original Aspects
cosmos: the theory of solid spheres and of uniform
planetary motions, against the increasing attempts Clavius was not so much an innovative mathema-
to replace Ptolemy and other ancient astronomers tician (Knobloch 1995a, 41–54), but a promoter
with new theories (Jardine 1979). In 1581, of mathematical studies (Smolarski 2002). He
Clavius published Gnomonices libri octo, an eval- revised the mathematics curriculum at the
uation of rival cosmologies. Here, he addressed Collegio Romano, where he taught for almost
the theories of medieval and Renaissance philos- 50 years. The textbooks he wrote at the Collegio
ophers, such as Agostino Nifo, Bartolomeo Romano were read by Jesuit chairs throughout
Amico, and Clavius’s colleague in Rome, Benito Europe and also China. For example his early
Pereira, who believed that Ptolemaeus’ astronomy commentaries on Sacrobosco’s Sphaera
was not compatible with Aristotle’s physics. (1570) (Clavius 1999a), in which clavius gives
Clavius instead supposed the epicycles and eccen- a precise account of mathematical problems
trics were derived from reality, since they (Pantin 2013, 93) and on Euclid’s Elements
explained the celestial phenomena. Moreover, he (1574) Clavius 1999b were published in multiple
tried to save Ptolemaic cosmology by combining editions during his lifetime (Sommervogel 1891;
it with Copernican mathematical devices. How- Knobloch 1990a; Knobloch 1995b Snow 2005,
ever, Clavius failed to draw physical or philosoph- 3f.).
ical conclusions from his observations. In his work on the Astrolabium (1593), Clavius
April 1611, he confirmed Galileo’s observa- was the first to use the decimal point in goniomet-
tions to Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino of the Holy ric tables (O’Connor and Robertson 2008), a sys-
Office, but he did not follow Galileo’s interpreta- tem to study the phenomena in luminous
tions (Snow 2005, 3). These findings are men- reflection. With his Algebra (1608), Clavius
tioned in Clavius’ last version of the Sphaera attempted to elevate the status of this discipline,
(1611–1612) and included the following: the referring to the late ancient mathematician
lighting on the surface of Venus (named “phases Diophantus (Sasaki 2003, 74–76). At the end of
of Venus”), the moons of Saturn (known today as his life, Clavius collected his works in five vol-
Saturn’s ring), and the moons of Jupiter. Referring umes entitled Opera mathematica, published
to Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius (1610), Clavius between 1611 and 1612 in Mainz (Bruhns 1876;
doubted that the lunar surface was uneven or Delambre 1827; http://libray.nd.edu/mathematics/
mountainous, because he maintained the Aristo- clavius). Moreover, he also intended to write a
telian concept of the perfect spherical shape of the Theorica planetarum, which he never completed
celestial bodies. Moreover, the phases of Venus and of Clavinus solar theory only.
observed by Galileo contradicted Ptolemy’s plan- Clavius was one of the first to make telescopic
etary order (http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/clavius. observations verifying Galileo’s phenomena. He
html). observed eclipses of the Sun in Coimbra on
Clavius had been acquainted with Galileo 21 August 1560 and in Rome on 9 April 1567,
since his visit to Rome in 1587, and from then and he experienced the novas of 1572, 1600, and
on exchanged letters and books with him (Clavius 1604. Moreover, Clavius was a constructor of
1992a, vol II, 1, no. 42-45, vol V, 1, no. 240, vol astronomical instruments; in particular, he
VI 1, no. 318, 319, 327). He had a large influence constructed an instrument used to determine frac-
on Galileo’s thinking and methods. There have tions of angles, sundials, and quadrants. He also
even been suggestions that Cardinal Bellarmino improved and described the Nonius, a system of
was influenced by Clavius in testifying to concentric circles used to improve the measuring
Clavius, Christophorus 3
of angles. This instrument made a scale more textbooks for mathematicians and astronomers for
sensitive so that subdivisions of a distance could almost 200 years. They were, for example men-
be determined. tioned by René Descartes, Tycho Brahe (Lerner
Furthermore, Clavius introduced the globe 1995, 145), Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and
composed of land and water into Scholastic theory Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and René Descartes,
(terra firma), combining Aristotelian physics with (O’Connor and Robertson 2008) in their works.
the evidence of the Earth being above sea-level Also the critics of Copernicus and Galileo learned
(Baldini and Casanovas 1996; Echeverría and mathematics partly from Clavius’ textbooks.
Amunátegui 2013). In particular, he analyzed the These commentaries were even introduced in
physical relation between the four elements in China, for example by Clavius’ student Matteo
detail to develop a structure of the sublunary Ricci, who translated Clavius’ Euclid, Geometria
world. Practica, and Trigonometrica into Chinese (Lattis
Another great achievement lies in the calendar 1994, 5; Sigismondi 2013).
reform (1577–1582) (Lattis 1994, 20f.). Clavius The missing 11 days in Clavius’ new calendar
took part as the oldest member of the commission were opposed by scholars such as François Viète,
selected by Pope Gregory XIII, which also Joseph Scaligar, Michael Maestlin, and the Prot-
included names of other noteworthy individuals. estants for confessional and political reasons.
As a consequence of the inaccuracies in the Julian However, despite these criticisms, the Gregorian
calendar, Christian holidays were changing over calendar was quickly introduced in Spain, Portu-
the years in relation with the seasons. The prob- gal, and most of Italy, as well as the other Catholic
lem was that there were three more leap years countries 1 or 2 years later. In Germany, the Gre-
within 385 years. For this reason, the spring equi- gorian calendar was adopted in 1700, in Great
nox, which is the date from which Easter and the Britain in 1752, in Russia in 1918, and in Turkey
subsequent holidays had been calculated, was not in 1927. Today it is used worldwide and it is
compatible with the calendar. In 1579, Clavius fragments survived (Clavius 1992b) assumed
computed the basis for a modern “Gregorian” that it will function correctly for over
calendar, modifying a proposal by Luigi Lilio. 3,000 years until an error occurs.
Clavius’ solution was that 4 October 1582 should Bernardino Baldi (Baldi 1998), a younger con-
be followed by 15 October so that 11 days of the temporary of Clavius, wrote Clavius’ biography.
calendar could be skipped. Moreover, he intro- He probably knew Clavius personally; at least in
duced the idea that all years divisible by four are one letter he requested information on his life
leap years, as well as years ending with 00, if they (Clavius 1992a, vol II, 1, 128–130, no. 52). Fur-
are divisible by 400. For this he used Erasmus thermore, Johannes Kepler mentioned Clavius’
Reinhold’s Prussian Tables along with Luigi Sphaera in the dedicatory letter to his Epitome of
Lilio’s book. His calendar reform was prescribed Copernican Astronomy (written 1617–1621)
in 1582 in the bulla Inter gravissimas by Pope (Kepler 1866, 117). The English clergyman and
Gregory XIII. natural philosopher John Wilkins cited the words
that Clavius spoke on his deathbed in his Dis-
course Concerning a New Planet (1640). Here,
Impact and Legacy Clavius expressed the need for a new theory
besides Ptolemy’s to explain the phenomena
Clavius’ fame remained untouched in the seven- observed by Galileo. In this treatise, Wilkins
teenth century, because his writings were not dan- tries to prove that the Moon is inhabited.
gerous to the Catholic Church. Clavius owes his There are also two personal judgments by con-
epithet, “Euclid of the sixteenth century,” to his temporaries. First was Franciscan Pope Sixtus V,
commentaries and editions of Euclid and and judged Clavius with these words: “If the
Sacrobosco (Rommevaux 2005; Claessens Jesuit order had not achieved more than Clavius,
2009). His works became the standard university it should have been praised for his sake alone.”
4 Clavius, Christophorus
Second was Joseph Justus Scaliger, a Dutch reli- éducatif et production du savoir; ed. L Grand,
gious leader and scholar, who had suggested an 263–283. Paris.
Sommervogel, C. 1891. Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de
alternative calendar reform, and mentioned that “a Jésus; ed. A. Backer (description of Clavius works and
critique by Clavius was for him more worthy than editions). Vol. II. Bruxelles-Paris.
an appraisal by any other man.” 2. Digital Editions:
http://library.nd.edu/mathematics/clavius/
3. Modern Reprints:
Clavius, C. 1999a. Commentaria in Euclidis Elementa
Cross-References geometrica (ed. and pref. E. Knobloch. Repr. 1611).
Hildesheim.
Clavius, C. 1999b. In Sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosco
▶ Academies commentarius (ed. and pref. E. Knobloch. Repr. 1611).
▶ Algebra Hildesheim.
▶ Amico, Bartolomeo 4. Critical Editions:
▶ Aristotelianism Baldi, B. 1998. Le vite de’ matematici. Edizione annotata e
commentata della parte medievale e rinascimentale
▶ Astronomy (a cura di Elio Nenci), 558–577. Milano (an annotated
▶ Bellarmino, Roberto and commentated edition of Baldi’s description of
▶ Copernicus, Nicolaus Clavius’ life).
▶ Cosmology Clavius, C. 1992a. Corrispondenza (edizione critica a cura
di Ugo Baldini e Pier Daniele Napolitani. 7 Volumes).
▶ Court Pisa (a critical edition of Clavius’ correspondence).
▶ Court Philosophy http://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/content/mpiwglib/clavius
▶ Diophantus Clavius, C. 1992b. Theorica solis. In Legem impone
▶ Elements, Natural subactis. Studi su filosofia e scienza dei Gesuiti in
Italia, 1540.1632 (U. Baldini). Rome (a collection
▶ Geocentrism including the surviving text of Clavius’s solar theory).
▶ Meteorology – Renaissance Philosophy Kepler, J. 1866, Operd omnid, ed. C. Frisch, vol. VI.
▶ Nifo, Agostino
▶ Optics
▶ Pereira, Benito 1. Biographies:
▶ Science Bruhns, K.C. 1876. Clavius, Christoph. Allgemeine
▶ Science and Religion Deutsche Biographie 4, 298–299. https://de.
wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=ADB:Clavius,_
▶ Scientific Academies
Christoph&oldid=1699378
▶ Teleology – Renaissance Philosophy Freudig, D. 1996. Christoph Clavius. Lexikon der
▶ Textbook Naturwissenschaftler. Heidelberg.
▶ Translation – Renaissance Philosophy Knobloch, E. 1990b. Christoph Clavius – Ein Astronom
zwischen Antike und Kopernikus. Vorträge des ersten
▶ Treatise
Symposions des Bamberger Arbeitskreises „Antike
Naturwissenschaft und ihre Rezeption“(AKAN) (eds.
K. Döring and G. Wöhrle.), 113–140.
Lamalle, E. 1957. Clavius, Christoph. Neue Deutsche
References Biographie (NDB) 3, 279. http://www.deutsche-
biographie.de/pnd118880632.html
Primary Literature Lattis, J. M. 1994. Between Copernicus and Galileo:
1. Lists of Clavius’ Works: Christoph Clavius and the collapse of Ptolemaic Cos-
Delambre, J. – B. J 1821 Histoire de l’astronomic moderne, mology. Chicago. (a detailed overview of Clavius’ life
t 2, 48–75 (analysis of Clavius works) and work in connection with the cosmological debates
M€uller, A. 1908. Christopher Clavius. The Catholic Ency- of his time).
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C
Copernicanism Moreover, “Copernicanism” is evocative of the

idea of the Scientific Revolution as a major cul-
Pietro Daniel Omodeo tural, epistemic, and epistemological shift, which
History of astronomy and philosophy, Max occurred between the sixteenth and the seven-
Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, teenth centuries. According to the historian of
Germany science Alexandre Koyré, astronomy, in particular
the Copernican system, was crucial to the forma-
tion of the modern scientific outlook hinged on a
Abstract mathematized view of nature, space infinity, and
cosmological homogeneity. The philosopher and
The historiographical category of Copernicanism historian of science, Thomas Kuhn, reinforced
is here discussed from the viewpoint of the recep- this narrative treating the “Copernican Revolu-
tion of Copernicus’s work in the cultural debates tion” as the paradigmatic case revealing of the
of the Renaissance. First, an account of “structure” of scientific advance in general. “Sci-
Copernicus’s De revolutionibus (1543) is offered. entific revolutions,” he argued, are intellectual
Then, different strands of reception and the most shifts undermining well-established knowledge
visible actors of this cultural process are consid- systems, just like how the Copernican theory
ered: mathematical and astronomical (Reinhold exploded the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic worldview.
and the Wittenberg School), natural philosophical This narrative looked verisimilar in the light of
and physical (Bruno, Galileo, and Kepler), and Renaissance reflections on Copernicus’s achieve-
ethical and theological (up to the effects of the ment, such as Giordano Bruno’s celebration of the
Catholic censure of 1616). historical meaning of Copernicus as “the dawn
which must precede the rising of the Sun of the
ancient and true philosophy, for so many centuries
The Historiographical Problem entombed in the dark caverns of blind, spiteful,
arrogant, and envious ignorance” (Bruno 1995,
“Copernicanism,” like most “-isms” in historiog- p. 87). Additionally, Galileo Galilei’s Dialogo
raphy, is an anachronistic interpretative category. sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo (1632) con-
It refers to a particular aspect of the reception of veyed the sense of a radical opposition between
the Renaissance astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, “Two Chief World Systems,” the Ptolemaic and
namely, to his heliocentric theory, and to the phil- the Copernican. The Catholic prohibition of the
osophical and cultural impact of his major work, heliocentric system (1616) and the persecution of
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543). Galileo for its dissemination (1633) suggested to
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_55-1
2 Copernicanism
later historians the sense of an irredeemable con- Four: Lunar theory; distance, parallax, and appar-
trast between scientific advance and tradition qua ent diameter of the Sun and the Moon; and
religion. eclipses
Recent historiography has casted into doubt Five: Planetary theory of longitude
many points of this narrative of the Copernican Six: Planetary theory of latitude
discontinuity, since they rested on oversimplifica-
tions. First, no unity existed between Aristotelian The comprehensiveness of this synthesis of
and Ptolemaic approaches to the heavens; thus, astronomical knowledge was perceived as a valu-
the very idea of an Aristotelian-Ptolemaic para- able achievement. It is precisely on this account
digm to be undermined and superseded is that Copernicus was often mentioned during the
problematic. In the Middle Ages, natural explana- Renaissance as Ptolemaeus alter, referring to his
tions versus mathematical accounts of heavenly capacity of standing comparison with the most
phenomena dependent on the two auctoritates of authoritative astronomer of antiquity.
Aristotle and Ptolemy were often perceived to be De revolutionibus had also other qualities that
in strong contrast. Second, early mathematical were universally acknowledged. As Copernicus’s
readers of Copernicus often neglected the cosmo- pupil Rheticus stressed in the Narratio prima
logical issue (heliocentric astronomy and its phys- (1540), the first printed report on the astronomical
ical implications). Many mathematicians were novelties of De revolutionibus brought together
rather interested in the computational problems ancient and medieval astronomical data with new
regardless of planetary hypotheses. Third, there observations gathered by Copernicus himself, fol-
is much continuity between Copernicus and his lowing a “geometrical method” (Rheticus 1959,
ancient and medieval precedents. Most impor- pp. 109–110). This permitted him to offer updated
tantly, he followed the Ptolemaic approach to or improved parameters for the precession of the
mathematical astronomy. equinoxes, for the solar and lunar theory, as well
For these reasons, it is convenient to abandon as for planetary motions.
the Koyrean and the Kuhnian narratives and to A theoretical aspect Copernicus paid particular
address in the following the issue of Renaissance attention to was the construction of planetary
“Copernicanism” from the viewpoint of the mul- models in accordance with the so-called axioma
tifaceted receptions of Copernicus. astronomicum. According to it, planetary motions
shall be uniformly circular around their centers or
result from the composition of circular uniform
Copernicus’s Astronomical Proposal: motions. Copernicus’s models were in fact so
Strengths and Weaknesses designed as to substitute the Ptolemaic equant by
means of epicyclical devices. His solution had
Copernicus’s De revolutionibus is an wide success among German scholars, especially
all-encompassing astronomical work, composed thanks to the work of the Wittenberg astronomer
according to the example of Ptolemy’s Almagest. Erasmus Reinhold and of his pupils.
Its structure is the following: Moreover, Copernicus’s heliocentric (or,
rather, heliostatic) model offered simple and intel-
Book One: Foundational book, with discussion of ligible accounts for features that needed special
general cosmological and natural issues, plus constructions from the viewpoint of Ptolemaic
trigonometry theory, such as retrograde motions and planetary
Two: Spherical astronomy and catalogue of the elongations. Furthermore, assuming the unifor-
fixed stars mity of speeds of the celestial bodies on their
Three: Precession of the equinoxes and solar circles, the heliocentric theory permitted to estab-
theory lish the proportion between planets’ annual
periods and their distances from the cosmological
Copernicanism 3
center without ambiguities (while in a geocentric and that natural motions are simple (and can-
perspective, the periods of the inferior planets do not result from the composition of two
not correspond to their order). Copernicus used in motions as would be the case for falling
fact the Earth-Sun distance as the yardstick to objects on a moving Earth, displaced at the
determine all planets’ distances and to establish same time vertically toward the terrestrial
the order of our system. center and circularly about the same center).
While Copernicus’s contemporaries and direct (d) Theological difficulties: Several Biblical pas-
followers were ready to acknowledge the inclu- sages refer to the immobility of the Earth and
siveness of his work as well as his observational the motion of the Sun (e.g., Joshua 10.12–14
and computational improvements, the excitement and 2. Kings 20:8–11). In order to reconcile
for the respect of the principle of circular unifor- Copernican theory and the Bible, one ought to
mity was less universal even though it was shared abandon a literal exegesis of these passages
by a very visible scientific community, namely, by and therefore to dismiss the interpretations of
scholars stemming from the so-called Wittenberg the Fathers of the Church and of the most
School (i.e., scholars trained in mathematics at credited theologians.
Melanchthonian universities). As to planetary the-
ory, terrestrial motion, and solar centrality and In the face of these problems (cognitive, math-
immobility, these issues remained the most con- ematical, physical, and theological), the
troversial of the Copernican proposal due to many geokinetic and heliostatic thesis met with strong
difficulties, the most relevant of which can be opposition, despite the general appraisal of
grouped as follows: Copernicus’s geometrical models and improved
parameters.
(a) The contrast with common sense: The motion
of the Earth, in spite of its velocity, is not
perceived by our senses. The Astronomical Reception
(b) Astronomical shortcomings: The Earth is of Copernicus
apparently always located in the center of
the celestial “sphere.” Its de-centration should Reinhold’s Prutenicae tabulae (1551) inaugurated
trouble celestial appearances. For instance, the mathematical-astronomical reception of
the horizon of an observer on Earth always Copernicus. These first “Copernican” tables met
appears to bisect the heavens into two equal with immense success, first in Germany and then
hemispheres. Copernicus claimed (De rev. on a European scale. They constituted a valid
I,6) that the Sun-Earth distance is negligible alternative to the earlier Alfonsine tables (from
relative to the dimensions of the heavens. In the thirteenth century) and offered a basis for
other words, the annual revolution of the new tables and ephemerides – such as Johannes
Earth around the Sun forces a heliocentric Stadius’s Ephemerides novae et exactae (1556),
astronomer to greatly enlarge the distance of Antonio Magini’s Ephemerides coelestium
the stars from the last planet of our system motuum. . . secundum Copernici hypotheses,
(and to momentously augment the extension Prutenicosque canones (1582 and later editions),
of cosmic space). and David Origanus’s Ephemerides novae
(c) Physical shortcomings: Terrestrial motion (1599) – until Johannes Kepler’s Tabulae
subverted existing explanations (embedded Rudolphinae (1627) supplanted the Reinholdian
in the Aristotelian theory of natural places) computational tradition.
accounting for physical phenomena on Earth Besides, mathematical astronomers discussed
such as the fall of heavy bodies. Terrestrial and reworked Copernicus’s planetary theory
motion was at odds with the Aristotelian along two diverging lines, geocentric and
assumption that the gravitational center and heliocentric. In fact, the systematic character of
the cosmological center (almost) coincide, Copernicus’s theory could be maintained also in a
4 Copernicanism
geocentric perspective, to be exact, in a was usual, but rather in “physical” ones. In other
geo-heliocentric. Therefore, many scholars words, he offered a causal explanation, individu-
found it expedient to translate Copernicus’s the- ating the forces out of whose action planets’ paths
ory into a geocentric, as was the case for reputed result, in particular a vital force emanating from
geo-heliocentrists such as Nicolaus Raimarus the Sun (▶ Astronomy).
Ursus and Tycho Brahe (▶ Geocentrism). In the
Astronomia nova (1609), Kepler, who was aware
of the intricacies of post-Copernican transforma- The Natural Reception
tions of planetary theory, regarded
geo-heliocentric systems not in radical opposition Copernicus was well aware of the natural philo-
to heliocentrism. Rather, they appeared to him as sophical questions raised by his planetary theory.
alternative options directly descending from Therefore, in the first book of De revolutionibus,
Copernicus’s theory. As he wrote, he treated the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic objec-
[One] should be aware that there are two schools of tions against terrestrial motion in detail. In partic-
thought among astronomers, one distinguished by ular, he hinted to a possible alternative physics,
its chief, Ptolemy, and by the assent of the large discarding the theory of natural places and the
majority of the ancients, and the other attributed to related idea that sublunary bodies can be naturally
more recent proponents [. . .]. The former treats the
individual planets separately and assigns causes to moved only along straight lines, upward or down-
the motions of each in its own orb, while the latter ward. Rather, he based on Neoplatonic and Plu-
relates the planets to one another, and deduces from tarchian insights his redefinition of circular
a single common cause, those characteristics which motion as the only natural one (especially the
are found to be common to their motions. The latter
school is again subdivided. Copernicus, with Aris- circular motion of the terrestrial element and of
tarchus, of remotest antiquity, ascribes to the trans- our terraqueous globe) and reduced vertical
lational motion of our home the Earth the cause of motion to the violent tendency of the parts to
the planets’ appearing stationary and retrograde. rejoin their whole.
Tycho Brahe, on the other hand, ascribes this
cause to the Sun, in whose vicinity he says the Besides, Copernicus’s cosmology opened up a
eccentric circles of all five planets are connected series of natural possibilities that only later sup-
as if by a kind of knot (not physical, of course, but porters of his theory fully assessed. First, the axial
only quantitative). Further, he says that this knot, as rotation of the Earth made it possible to conceive
it were, revolves about the motionless Earth, along
with the solar body. (Kepler 1992, p. 47) of the heavens as infinite, since the principal Aris-
totelian argument in favor of cosmological fini-
In other words, heliocentrism and tude was based on the observation that the starry
geo-heliocentrism developed as systems geneti- sphere could not accomplish the daily rotation if it
cally related but mutually exclusive, which is a were not finite. Second, the annual revolution of
situation that often emerges in the history of the Earth around the Sun implied its celestial
science. location and its transit through the heavens like
As far as heliocentrism is concerned, Kepler’s the other planets. This virtually discarded the dis-
work marked a fundamental step. Whereas tinction between a corruptible sublunary realm
geo-heliocentrists stuck to the astronomical and an unalterable superlunary, suggesting cos-
axiom of circular uniformity but renounced ter- mological homogeneity. Third, the momentous
restrial motion, Kepler, the other way round, enlargement of the distance of the stars from our
maintained the heliocentric thesis while renounc- system raised the question about the existence of a
ing the astronomical axiom about the uniformity physical void. All of these theses were in stunning
of speed of circular motions in planetary theory. In contrast with the dominant Aristotelian doctrines
the Astronomia nova, he presented his theory of about nature and the heavens.
the elliptical orbit and nonuniform speed of Mars Giordano Bruno was the first philosopher who
and then extended to the other planets. He fully developed these perspectives. Space infinity,
accounted for that not in geometrical terms, as cosmological homogeneity, and the existence of
Copernicanism 5
the intra-atomic void along with heliocentrism humankind and a new image of it. This
were pillars of his vision of nature. In addition to de-anthropomorphizing tendency did not neces-
this, he asserted the infinite plurality of heliocen- sarily entail negative consequences as far as the
tric systems, on the basis of an equation between conception of human beings is concerned and the
the Sun and the other stars. Bruno presented his assessment of its place in nature. In fact, as Arthur
doctrines in several publications, in particular in Lovejoy remarked, the novel world vision eman-
the philosophical dialogues La cena de le ceneri cipated humanity from the theologically tinged
(1584), De l'infinito, universo e mondi, and in the and “diabolocentric” cosmology of the Middle
Latin poem De innumerabilibus et immenso Ages that confined it in the (physically and mor-
(1591). His views had a lasting impact on the ally) lowest place of Creation. Drawing on
conceptions of the next century, beginning with Cusanian suggestions (▶ Nicholas of Cusa),
Descartes’s multicentric, homogeneous, in-de- Bruno was particularly emphatic on the freeing
finite, and corpuscular cosmology. potential of the celestial transposition of the Earth,
Through telescopic observations, Galileo as well as of his cosmological infinity. Yet these
Galilei reinforced the thesis of celestial homoge- novelties were not easily reconcilable with the
neity (e.g., through observation of the lunar asper- letter of the Bible and the theological tradition.
ities) and multi-centrism (testified by the Jovial Copernicus and his entourage were aware of
satellites). The observation of the phases of the the tensions between heliocentrism and Biblical
inner planets indisputably showed their solar exegesis. Reconciliation was only possible at the
orbit. Therefore, Ptolemaic geocentrism was dem- expenses either of Biblical literalism or of physi-
onstrated to be untenable on empirical basis. cal realism. Copernicus and his friends and col-
Moreover, in his Dialogo sopra i massimi sistemi laborators chose the first path, that is,
(1632), Galileo rejected the most important accommodating the Scriptures to natural knowl-
geostatic arguments on the basis of his proto- edge. The Bishop of Chełmno, Tiedemann Giese,
inertial physics and pointed to the phenomenon authored a lost apology, Hyperaspisticon, in favor
of the tides as evidence for terrestrial motion. He of heliocentrism, while Rheticus penned a defense
also extended the application of Renaissance of the scriptural tenability of the Copernican plan-
mechanics to cosmological problems (e.g., etary theory, which is today known as De Terrae
through the treatment of the terrestrial globe by motu et Scriptura Sacra. The Lutheran theologian
analogy with a turning wheel). In this manner, Andreas Osiander chose a different path. He
Galileo furthered the alliance between mechanics inserted an anonymous introduction in the first
and Copernican astronomy initiated by his direct edition of De revolutionibus in which he invited
forerunner, Giovanni Battista Benedetti. the reader to take Copernicus’s planetary theory as
Kepler’s physicalization of mathematical purely hypothetical and as solely aimed at
astronomy (already mentioned) was fundamental computation.
in the assessment of the natural dimension of the In spite of these cautions, theological reactions
heliocentric theory. For the treatment of the solar accompanied the earliest reception of the Coper-
system as a mechanical system of interacting nican hypotheses. Luther is reported to have
forces, his work paved the way to later syntheses commented on him: “That fool wants to distort
such as the Newtonian. the entire astronomy.” Additionally, his close
associate Philip Melanchthon rejected
heliocentrism for physical and theological rea-
Ethical and Theological Concerns sons, as is evident from his criticism in the text-
book of natural philosophy, Initia doctrinae
Many scholars in cultural and intellectual history physicae (15491 and 15502). In Rome, the Master
pointed out the moral implications of the Coper- of the Sacred Palace, Bartolomeo Spina, and his
nican system. The loss of centrality of the Earth in Dominican brother Giovanni Maria Tolosani were
the cosmos implied, in fact, the decentralization of the first Catholic critics of Copernicus’s theory.
6 Copernicanism
The latter’s anti-Copernican objection, De coelo References

supremo immobili et Terra infima stabili,
ceterisque coelis et elementis intermediis General accounts on the historical meaning and early
reception of Copernicus’s work:
mobilibus, remained unpublished only due to an
Kuhn, Thomas S. 1957. The Copernican revolution: plan-
untimely death in 1549. etary astronomy in the development of Western thought.
In the Cena (1584), Bruno tackled the scrip- Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
tural problem and proposed to read the Bible Koyré, Alexandre. 1961. La révolution astronomique.
Paris: Hermann.
according to the principle of accommodation.
Goddu, André. 2010. Copernicus and the Aristotelian Tra-
Accordingly, the Bible is written in a manner dition: Education, Reading, and Philosophy in
that is comprehensible for the common people; it Copernicus’s Path to Heliocentrism. Leiden/Boston:
does not deal with natural issues, but only with Brill.
Westman, Robert S. 2011. The Copernican question: prog-
moral ones. Galileo later affirmed the same prin-
nostication, skepticism, and celestial order. Berkeley/
ciple in reaction to religious opponents, in a letter Los Angeles/London: University of California Press.
(21 December 1613) to his friend and collabora- Omodeo, Pietro Daniel. 2014. Copernicus in the cultural
tor, the Benedictine Benedetto Castelli, and in the debates of the renaissance: reception, legacy, transfor-
mation. Leiden: Brill.
revised and extended version of this text,
A useful deepening of the Kuhnian perspective is Noel
addressed to his protectress, the Grand Duchess M. Swerdlow, “An Essay on Thomas Kuhn’s First
Christina of Lorraine (1615). In parallel, the Cala- Scientific Revolution, The Copernican Revolution,”
brian Carmelite Antonio Foscarini published his Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
148/1 (2004): pp. 64–120.
Lettera sopra l’opinione de’ Pitagorici e del
A fundamental instrument for the investigation of
Copernico (1615), in which he argued that the Copernicus’s reception is Owen Gingerich, An Anno-
doctrine “of the mobility of the Earth, and stability tated Census of Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus
of the Sun, held in ancient times by Pythagoras, (Nuremberg, 1543 and Basel, 1566) (Leiden-Boston:
Brill, 2002). On the epistemological tension between
and then put into practice by Copernicus,” was not
Ptolemy and Aristotle, cf. Pietro Daniel Omodeo and
at odds with philosophy or with theology. Irina Tupikova, “Aristotle and Ptolemy on
In spite of these efforts toward reconciliation, the Geocentrism: Diverging Argumentative Strategies and
Catholic censure arrived in 1616. On 24 February Epistemologies,” Preprints of the Max Planck Institute
for the History of Science 422 (2012).
1616, three Father Theologians of the Holy Office
The standard source on the technical aspects of
declared that solar immobility and centrality is Copernicus’s achievement is N. M. Swerdlow and
“foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally Otto Neugebauer, Mathematical Astronomy in
heretical,” whereas terrestrial motion is “at least Copernicus’s ‘De revolutionibus’ (New York-Berlin,
1984). See also N. M. Swerdlow, “The Derivation and
erroneous in faith.” On this basis, the Sacred Con-
First Draft of Copernicus’s Planetary Theory:
gregation of the Index decreed on 5 March 1616 the A Translation of the Commentariolus with Commen-
prohibition of all books defending the “Pythago- tary,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Soci-
rean” cosmology and suspended De revolutionibus ety 117/6 (1973): 423–512. On the axioma
astronomicum, cf. Owen Gingerich, The Book Nobody
“donec corrigatur.” The Cardinal Inquisitor Roberto
Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus
Bellarmino, who had played a major role also in the (New York-London: Walker, 2004), pp. 53–55. On the
condemnation of Bruno to death for heresy, imme- mathematical reception of Copernicus, in particular on
diately communicated the ban to Galileo and for- Reinhold and Kepler, see: Owen Gingerich, The Eye of
Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler (New York:
bade him to teach and circulate impious
American Inst. of Physics, 1993), and “Reinhold, Eras-
cosmologies. These events, followed by the trial mus,” in Dictionary of Scientific Biography xi (1975):
against Galileo and his abjuration of the Copernican pp. 365–367.
system in 1633, produced a confessionalization of On the natural and physical issues related to Copernican
astronomy, see Seidengart, Jean: Dieu, l’univers et la
astronomy and a bifurcation of the discussion of
sphère infinie (Paris: Michel, 2006). Earlier studies on
planetary theory and of the scientific culture in these topics are: Alexandre Koyré, Études galiléennes
Catholic and protestant countries. (Paris: Hermann, 1939), and idem, From the Closed
World to the Infinite Universe (Baltimore, 1957).
Copernicanism 7
On neo-Platonic and Plutarchan influences on G. J Rheticus’ Treatise on Holy Scripture and the
Copernicus’s natural views, see Dilwyn Knox, “Ficino, Motion of the Earth (Amsterdam-New York: North-
Copernicus and Bruno on the Motion of the Earth,” Holland Publ. Comp., 1984); Heinrich Bornkamm,
Bruniana & Campanelliana 5 (1999): pp. 333–366, “Kopernikus im Urteil der Reformatoren,” in Das
idem, “Copernicus’s Doctrine of Gravity and the Nat- Jahrhundert der Reformation (Göttingen:
ural Circular Motion of the Elements,” in Journal of the Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1961), pp. 177–185, Walter
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 48 (2005): Th€uringer, “Paul Eber (1511–1569): Meanchthons
pp. 157–211, and Anna De Pace, “Plutarco e la Physik und seine Stellung zu Copernicus,” in Melanch-
rivoluzione copernicana,” in L’eredità culturale di thon in seinen Sch€ ulern, ed. Heinz Scheible
Plutarco dall’Antichità al Rinascimento, ed. Italo (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997), pp. 285–321;
Gallo (Naples: D'Auria, 1998), pp. 313–351. On Michel-Pierre Lerner, “Aux origines de la polémique
Bruno’s cosmology, see Paul-Henri Michel, La anticopernicienne (I). L’Opusculum quartum de
Cosmologie de Giordano Bruno (Paris: Hermann, Giovanni Maria Tolosani [1547–48],” in Revue de sci-
1962) and Miguel A. Granada, “Synodi ex mundis,” ences philosophiques et théologiques 86/4 (2002):
Bruniana & Campanelliana 13 (2007): pp. 149–156. pp. 681–721. On the Catholic censure and the events
For Descartes, see Eric John Aiton, The Vortex Theory preparing it, cf. Richard Blackwell, Galileo,
of Planetary Motions (London-New York: MacDonald- Bellarmine and the Bible (Notre Dame, IN: UP,
Elsevier, 1972). 1991); Massimo Bucciantini, Contro Galileo: Alle
On Galileo’s and Kepler’s roles in the reception of Coper- origini dell’affaire (Florence: Olschki, 1995), Ernan
nicus, see Massimo Bucciantini, Galileo e Keplero: McMullin (ed.), The Church and Galileo (Notre
Filosofia, cosmologia e teologia nell’Età della Dame, IN: UP, 2005), and Luigi Guerrini, Galileo e la
Controriforma (Turin, 2003), and the sources quoted polemica anticopernicana a Firenze (Florence:
in the entry Astronomy. Polistampa, 2009).
Concerning the ethical dimension of post-Copernican cos- Giordano, Bruno. 1995. In The Ash Wednesday supper
mology, it is useful to consult two classics of intellec- [La cena de le Ceneri], ed. E.A. Gosselin and
tual history: L.S. Lerner, 87. Toronto/Buffalo/London: University
Cassirer, Ernst. 1927. Individuum und Kosmos in der of Toronto Press.
Philosophie der Renaissance. Leipzig: Teubner. Georg Joachim, Rheticus. 1959. Narratio prima. In Three
Lovejoy, Arthur O. 1936. The great chain of being: a study Copernican treatises, ed. Rosen Edward, 107–196.
of the History of an idea. Cambridge, MA: Harvard New York: Dover Publications, pp. 109–110.
University Press. Chapter IV. Kepler, Johannes. 1992. New astronomy (trans: Donahue,
Among countless sources on the theological debates on William H.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
Copernicus, it is worth mentioning Reijer Hooykaas, p. 47.
F
Fibonacci, Leonardo Leonardo himself said that his father

Guglielmo had called him to Bugia (Bejaı̈a, Alge-
Gunthild Peters ria) to study calculation with Indian-Arabic
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, numerals and that he improved his mathematical
Berlin, Germany skills during business travels around the Mediter-
ranean. It follows from Leonardo’s writings that
he had close contact to the court of Frederick II
Abstract during the emperor’s stay in Pisa in July 1226 and
to associate scholars, for example, Michael
Innovative mathematician or representative of a Scotus and Giovanni of Palermo.
tradition? Although Leonardo Fibonacci is consid-
ered one of the most important exponents of medi-
eval mathematics, his originality, his expertise in Writings and Sources
knowledge originating from Arab and Latin envi-
ronments, and his influence on the medieval Ital- The Liber abaci (1202, revised 1228) is a unique
ian writings on the abbaco remain controversial. collection of mathematical problems. It begins
with an introduction to the positional system
and to calculation with Indian-Arabic numerals
Synonyms (without an abacus). The textbook presents many
problems concerning trade (e.g., price of goods,
Leonardo of Pisa, Leonardo (Bigollo) Pisano; calculation of interest, partnerships) and includes
“Fibonacci” is a nineteenth-century form of an elaborated section on algebra (see Boncompagni
“filius Bonacci” or “de filiis Bonaccii”. (1857) and Sigler (2002)). Leonardo collected
mathematical knowledge also from Arabic
sources of the ninth and tenth centuries that
Biography were probably available in Latin translation.
The Practica geometriae (ca. 1220) is dedi-
There is little evidence of Leonardo’s life. A charter cated to problems of measurement, with or with-
of 1226 establishes him as procurator for his brother out instruments (e.g., perpendicular, quadrant, at
in the purchase of real estate and in 1241 his home- sight), and to theoretical geometry (see
town began to pay him an annual salary for admin- Boncompagni (1862) and Hughes (2008)). One
istrative counseling. His date of birth is estimated of its main sources is Plato of Tivoli’s Liber
on the basis of the dates of his writings. embadorum.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_63-2
2 Fibonacci, Leonardo
Leonardo’s shorter writings Liber arithmetica of 1494 and by Girolamo Cardano in

quadratorum, Flos, and Epistola ad Magistrum Ars magna of 1545. Only in the nineteenth cen-
Theodorum deal with various problems, for tury did researchers first begin to undertake thor-
example, in algebra and number theory (see ough investigations into Fibonacci’s texts.
Boncompagni (1862) and Sigler (1987)).
A commentary on Book X of Euclid’s Ele-
ments concerning irrational magnitudes and a Cross-References
treatise on commercial arithmetics Liber de
minore guisa have not been preserved. ▶ Algebra
▶ Court
▶ Court-Philosophy
Innovative and Original Aspects ▶ Textbook
▶ Treatise
The originality of Fibonacci’s Liber abaci did not
lie in the use of Arabic numerals, which was not
new in Europe at that time, but rather in the
References
breadth of its sources and the compilation of
many examples resulting from his experience in
Primary Literature
trading. Leonardo presents innovative ideas in his Boncompagni, B. 1857/1862. Scritti di Leonardo Pisano.
shorter treatises, for example, the Liber Matematico del secolo decimoterzo, 2 vols. Tip. delle
quadratorum where he solves problems by com- Scienze Matematiche e Fisiche, Roma.
Hughes, B. 2008. Fibonacci’s “De Practica Geometrie”.
bining algebra with Euclidean arithmetic in a way
New York: Springer.
not found in other writings so far. Leonardo’s Sigler, L. 1987. The book of squares. An annotated trans-
creativity and proficiency may be estimated lation into modern English. Boston: Academic.
more adequately when further research provides Sigler, L. 2002. Fibonacci’s Liber abaci. A translation
into modern English of Leonardo Pisano’s book of
more details concerning Arab textual traditions
calculation. New York: Springer.
and their transmission.
Germano, G. (ed.). 2013. Studies on Fibonacci’s Liber
Impact and Legacy abaci. Reti Medievali 14(2): 153–239.
Giusti, E. and R. Petti. (eds.). 2002. Un Ponte sul
Since the beginning of the thirteenth century, a Mediterraneo. Leonardo Pisano, la scienza araba e
la rinascita della matematica in Occidente.
large number of vernacular abacus books have
Polistampa, Firenze.
appeared in Italy. The texts focus on commercial Leonardo Fibonacci: Matematica e società nel
arithmetics and reflect a teaching tradition in the mediterraneo nel secolo XIII, 2 vols. (2003, 2, and
abbaco schools for merchants. The extent to 2004, 1, of Bollettino di storia delle scienze
matematiche) 23/24: 2005. Istituti editoriali e
which abacus books refer to Leonardo’s work
poligrafici internazionali, Pisa-Roma.
remains an open question. Leonardo’s achieve- Vogel, K. 2008. Art. Leonardo Fibonacci. In DSB, vol. IV,
ments were later acknowledged by talented math- 604–613. Scribner, New York.
ematicians such as Luca Pacioli in his Summa de
G
Gardens, Botanical illustrations, and the invention of the herbarium

in form of a collection of dried plants accompany
Simone Kaiser this development and reflect the growing range of
Abt. Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Hessisches specimens cultivated in BG. The scientific
Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany approach in ordering these living, dried, and illus-
trated botanical collections had great impact on
the history of botany. It led to a change of interest
Abstract in plants, studied no longer exclusively for their
healing properties but as an independent subject
A botanical garden (BG), also called botanic gar- matter. Europe’s colonial history bringing more
den, is an institution and a piece of land marked and more new species to the attention of
off for the cultivation of a systematically ordered pioneering botanists is another decisive factor
collection of living plants. It serves purposes of for this change. In the seventeenth century, the
scientific research, conservation, display, enjoy- main interest shifted definitely from medicinal
ment, and education. Gardens dedicated specifi- plants to new exotic plant imports. These came
cally to the study of plants go back to antiquity. first in form of diplomatic gifts from distant
Nevertheless, the emergence of the BG type as an empires or as trophies from the European colo-
institution is a Renaissance phenomenon closely nies. Parts of princely gardens also displaying
linked to the gradual development of the science botanical collections had often been among the
of botany into a discipline independent from med- first to display such novelties. Early botanists
icine. First BGs as such were founded in associa- maintained extensive networks for the exchange
tion with medical schools of European of plants to amplify their collections. Along with
universities in the sixteenth century. Professors the increasing success in cultivating foreign spe-
of medicine and apothecaries were the proto- cies in European climates masses of new material
botanists of that time, i.e., specialists of medicinal entered BG via laborious collecting expeditions.
plants. Being rooted in the humanist culture of the
Renaissance demanded new forms of investigat-
ing nature and teaching knowledge on plants with Origins
the result that gardens increasingly began to serve
as additional open-air studies. There species could The precursor of the botanical garden (BG) is the
be directly observed and compared respectively to medieval medicinal garden, called herb garden or
traditional codified knowledge. A growing num- physic garden or garden of simples. “Simples”
ber of herb books, collections of plant was used as another word for herbs in medieval
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_65-1
2 Gardens, Botanical
and early modern times because herbs constituted of traditional herbs and new foreign plants in the
the simplest ingredients of medicinal composi- sixteenth century. In the early founding period of
tions (remediae compositae) mixed by apothecar- BG, when medicine, pharmacy, and botany were
ies and physicians. In the Middle Ages, not distinct disciplines yet, there is no clear
monasteries contained gardens with collections notional distinction between evolving types of
of medicinal herbs and preserved ancient botani- gardens. Thus, BGs were labeled by various
cal knowledge. Since the fourteenth century, also names, among others hortus medicus, hortus
universities kept such gardens for the use of phar- botanicus, or hortus academicus.
macists. Herbal manuscripts of antiquity were the
most influential reference works on botanical
questions. Besides the writings of the Greek phy- Early Examples
sician Galen (second century AD), the De Materia
Medica of the Roman physician Dioscorides (first The first BGs were those established in Padua and
century AD), a description of physical and reme- in Pisa in the early 1540s. Plant identification had
dial properties of plants written in Greek, then become a pending problem due to conflicting
remained the most authoritative book on botany opinions on translating Dioscorides and finding
until the seventeenth century. Although the the matching species. At the University of Padua,
monastic orders in Medieval Europe mainly per- Francesco Bonafede (1447–1558) had instituted a
petuated Dioscorides-based knowledge, a change chair of simples (lectura simplicium) in 1533. At
of value in reference to plants and a desire for their the end of the year 1543, he pleaded for the
observation becomes palpable in the thirteenth establishment of an associated garden. The Vene-
century, e.g., with regard to the writings of the tian republic supported the proposal, and the
Dominican friar and natural philosopher Albertus desired didactic garden of simples arose in 1545.
Magnus (1193/1206–1280). In particular, Arabic From then on direct observation of living plants
physicians made progress in botanic matters. The (ostensio simplicium) complemented the botani-
Andalusian Ibn al-Baytar, (1179–1248) e.g., cal lessons. Soon exotic species also entered the
based his writings on Materia Medica not only garden thanks to the Venetian trade relations with
on Dioscorides and Galen but also on his personal the Eastern Mediterranean, and Padua became an
observations of ca. 1,400 plants. Furthermore, important center for the study of botany. The
Andalusian (Muslim) Spain had ever since been engraver Girolamo Porro published the first
a forerunner in experimenting with the cultivation guidebook to this BG for the use of students in
of exotic plants. When Christian Spain finally 1591 (L’Horto dei semplici di Padova, including a
reconquered al-Andalus toward the end of the ground plan, Fig. 1). In Pisa, the Medici princes
fifteenth century its gardens became famous and patronized the development of botanical studies.
better known among the growing number of villa In 1543, Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici
enthusiasts. This may have influenced the gardens (1519–1574) invited Luca Ghini (1490–1556), a
and gardening of these humanists in various ways. naturalist, herbalist, and physician from Bologna,
A renewal of horticulture had followed Pietro de to give lectures on simples in Pisa. Ghini had just
Crescenzi’s (1230/35–1320) pivotal treatise on invented a new method for studying simples by
agriculture, the Liber Ruralium Commodorum starting the first collection of pressed dried plants
(1304–1309), and intensified during the revival (hortus siccus) in 1540. He could use a garden
of ancient villa culture based on literary knowl- near the Arsenal for teaching his students in Pisa
edge of antiquity in the fifteenth century. The since 1544. Ghini also chose plantings for another
central stage of this movement and cradle of the BG that Cosimo I instituted in Florence in 1545.
first BG was the Apennine Peninsula. Gardens of His pupil Andrea Cesalpino (1525–1603)
simples were often included within (Italian) succeeded him in Pisa relocating the BG to the
Renaissance villa gardens. Princes, physicians, east of town in 1563, but the site proved
and pharmacists alike became ardent collectors unsuitable as well. Ferdinand I entrusted Lorenzo
Gardens, Botanical 3
Gardens, Botanical,
Fig. 1 Botanical garden of
Padua. Engraving from
Porro 1591. Wolfenb€uttel,
Herzog August Library,
A 146.2 Ph. In the public
domain, photo: wikimedia
commons
Mazzanga, probably a pupil of Cesalpino, and the leading botanist of his generation, became its
then the Fleming Joseph Goedenhuize scientific director. Arriving in 1593, he set up the
(1535–1595), alias Giuseppe Casabona, to create BG of Leiden with the help of Dirck Outgaertsz.
the third and remaining BG next to Pisa’s baptis- Cluyt (1546–1598), its first gardener. Clusius
tery from 1591 to 1595. Michelangelo Tilli, direc- maintained one of the biggest networks for plant
tor of the BG of Pisa since 1683, published an exchange and brought with him a large tulip col-
extensive catalogue on the plants cultivated there lection becoming the base of the tulip trade in the
in 1723 (Catalogus plantarum horti Pisani, includ- Netherlands. A first catalogue of this BG appeared
ing a map of the garden, Fig. 2). as early as 1601 under the direction of the physi-
In the later sixteenth century and first half of cian and botanist Peter Pauw (1564–1617) head-
the seventeenth century followed important new ing the management together with Bontius since
establishments of BG in Bologna, Leiden, Leip- 1598 (Hortus Publicus Academiae Lugduno-
zig, Heidelberg, Basel, Montpellier, Oxford, and Bataviae, including a map of the garden, Fig. 3).
Paris. In Bologna, Ghini had already wanted to German humanist centers had become, after
institute a BG. One of his pupils, the influential Gutenberg’s invention of printing around 1455,
natural scientist and philosopher Ulisse important places for the diffusion of early illus-
Aldrovandi (1522–1605), finally realized this trated botanical treatises like Konrad von
idea in 1568. The curators of Leiden University Megenburg’s Puch der Natur (Augsburg, 1475),
founded the oldest BG in the Netherlands, the the Hortus Sanitatis (Mayence, 1491), or Otto
Hortus Academicus Lugduno-Batavus. Charles Brunfels’ Herbarium vives eicones (Strasburg,
de l’Écluse, called Carolus Clusius (1526–1609), 1536). BGs comparable to the Italian models,
University of Basel in 1589. France’s oldest BG is

the one in Montpellier. Well-known naturalists
like Clusius and Lobelius (Matthias de l’Obel)
had studied at the University of Montpellier
under the popular teacher Guillaume Rondelet
(1507–1566) who had a special interest in botany
and zoology. A BG following the model of Padua
came into being only in 1593 under the surveil-
lance of Pierre Richer de Belleval (1564–1632),
professor of botany and anatomy. It inspired the
Jardin du Roi (later called Jardin des Plantes) in
Paris. Guy de la Brosse, botanist and physician to
King Louis XIII, achieved to found the latter in
1626; it did not open to the public before 1640
though. The royal herbalist Jean Robin
(1550–1629) had designed an earlier BG on the
Île de la Cité for the faculty of medicine in 1597.
In England, Henry Danvers (1573–1643), later
Earl of Danby, patronized the construction of the
first BG for the University of Oxford. Founded in
1621, its first prefect became the German botanist
Jacob Bobart (1599–1680).
Ordering Structures
Renaissance gardens, especially in the sixteenth

century, generally constitute an intricate interplay
Gardens, Botanical, Fig. 2 Botanical garden of Pisa.
between art, science, and nature, a complex con-
Engraving from Tilli 1723. Heidelberg University
Library, O 3060-4 Folio RES. In the public domain, ceptual system often combining various functions
photo: wikimedia commons or even types of gardens in metastructures (e.g.,
villas). In contrast to pleasure gardens or kitchen
however, came into being only in the later six- gardens, the main function of the BG was the
teenth century. In Leipzig, Moritz of Saxony study of botany. Therefore, practical and scientific
(1521–1553) reassigned a secularized monastery aspects prevailed in designing this type of garden.
garden to the university for didactic purposes as The basic form used in the Renaissance for BG is
early as 1543, but a proper BG was probably only that of the quadripartite quadrangle: The space
installed when the mathematician Moritz Stein- divides into four sectors by two main paths cross-
metz became the first lecturer of botany in 1580. ing each other. Familiar models of this basic struc-
The University of Heidelberg obtained its first BG ture are the medieval cloister garden or also
thanks to the professor of medicine Henrich Smet ancient Roman military camps and cities. In addi-
(1535/37–1614) in 1593. The eminent physician tion, the idea of the chahar bagh, the “four gar-
and natural scientist Conrad Gesner (1516–1565) den” form in Islamic culture, may have been
created a hortus medicus in his hometown Z€ urich another factor for adopting the quadripartite quad-
in 1556, not continued after his death though. The rangle in the Renaissance BG. Smaller planting
earliest BG of Switzerland became then the one units subdivided each sector of the basic square.
instituted by Gaspar Bauhin (1560–1624) at the Margins (of stone or wood) had to surround the
compartments because the species needed clear
Gardens, Botanical,
Fig. 3 Jacques de Gheyn
II, Plan of the Botanic
Garden of Leiden
University. Engraving from
Pauw 1601. Amsterdam,
Rijksmuseum, RP-P-1895-
A. In the public domain,
photo: wikimedia commons
separation. The partitioning of planting beds became soon common. When Goedenhuize
should rationally display the classification of became director of the third BG in Pisa he used,
botanical species so that the students could inves- e.g., such a handbook for the layout of geometri-
tigate inherent similarities and differences. In use cal patterns for the eight squares of his garden
were simple rectangular beds, e.g., at the BG of (Libro di compartimenti di giardini di Giuseppe
Leiden (Figs. 3 and 4), but also complex geomet- Benincasa, ms. 464, University Library of Pisa).
rical patterns, e.g., at the BG of Padua and Pisa Circular or octagonal fountains, often situated in
(Figs. 1 and 2). Simple rectangular beds had the center of a main square, facilitated irrigation.
already structured the medieval herb garden as In addition to the functional aspects, these lay-
documented in the monastery plan of St. Gall outs transported also symbolic significance illus-
(ninth century). Geometric patterns for trating the analogical connection of the four
flowerbeds appear first in illustrations of elements, the planetary constellations, and the
Francesco Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili temperaments of the human body. The encyclo-
(1499) and in Sebastiano Serlio’s books on archi- pedic collecting activity of botanists also stands in
tecture (1537); Islamic sources may have inspired the salvific context of naming and classifying
them as well. The design of Padua’s BG, devised God’s creation in an attempt to repatriate paradise.
by the Venetian humanist and architectural con- In terms of plant classification, early botanists
noisseur Daniele Barbaro (1513–1570), was an experimented with various possibilities before
influential role model. Its unique feature is the the binominal nomenclature of Carl Linné
circular shape of its surrounding wall, putting (mid-eighteenth century) asserted itself. The asso-
the usual quadripartite quadrangle within. Hand- ciated herbaria of BG were important scientific
books on designs of planting compartments instruments for comparing the affinities and
Gardens, Botanical,
Fig. 4 Willem
Swanenburgh after Jan
Cornelis. Hortus botanicus
Leiden. Engraving. 1610. In
the public domain, photo:
wikimedia commons
differences of species and thus establishing order the seventeenth century. The first glass house was
in the plant world. Cesalpino as well as the Bauhin supposedly that of the BG in Leiden built in
brothers, e.g., made innovative contributions in 1599–1600. This prototype still comprised the
that respect. Cesalpino stopped grouping plants natural history collection and thus functioned as
according to their healing properties and focused cabinet of curiosities as well.
on their seeds and fruits instead. Gaspard Bauhin
listed 6,000 plants in his Pinax theatric botanici
(1623) and classified them in genera and species.
Plants
Printed plant catalogues for the orientation of
students document the didactic display of order
At the end of the fifteenth century, there were
in the living collections, giving a list of species
around 1,000 different plant species known and
and their exact location in the garden (e.g., in
cultivated in European gardens, mostly varieties
Leiden). In the BG of Padua, the geographical
native to the continent. Some exotic species were
origin of species seems to have played a role for
familiar through travelogues (e.g., of Marco
their display (according to Girolamo Porro’s
Polo). Thanks to the progress in navigation and
description of 1591).
the stabilization of routing, the interest in accli-
Vital parts of the structure of early modern BG
matizing plants from extra-European expeditions
were also cabinets of curiosities, the precursors of
started to grow. Among the first to experiment on
natural history museums. Pisa had a “galleria”
acclimatizing exotic plants were rich families like
with a large natural history collection that
the Medici in Florence who tried to cultivate pota-
attracted many tourists. It displayed cabinets
toes, mulberry, and pineapple in their gardens as
ordered after the proposals of the German physi-
early as the end of the fifteenth century. However,
cian Samuel Quiccheberg (1529–1567), who
the early founding phase of BG still classifies as
wrote the first treatise on museology
“European” with regard to the history of plant
(Inscriptiones vel Tituli Theatri Amplissimi) in
imports. Until the mid-sixteenth century, the
1565 inspired by the ideas of Giulio Camillo
plant collections consisted almost exclusively of
Delminio. Glasshouses became common only in
specimens that were already native in Europe at
that time, medicinal plants in focus. Important Porro, G. 1591. L’horto dei semplici di Padova. Venice.
was the cultivation and diffusion of Mediterra- Girolamo Porro.
Tilli, M., ed. 1723. Catalogus plantarum horti Pisani.
nean species like lily, peony, laurel, oleander, as Tartinius & Franchius.
well as citrus plants. The following period from
1560 to 1620 is characterized “oriental phase” for
the enormous amount of plant influx from the Secondary Literature
Arber, A. 1938. Herbals. Their origin and evolution, a
Levant. Notably varieties of tulips, narcissi, hya-
chapter in the history of botany, 1470–1670. First ed.
cinths, lilies, and anemones came via the Apen- 1912, rewritten and enlarged. Cambridge. University
nine peninsula to Europe. Imperial ambassadors at Press.
the Sublime Porte in Istanbul played a significant Azzi-Visentini, M. 1984. L’Orto botanico di Padova e il
Giardino del Rinascimento. Milan. Il Polifilo.
role for bringing about the transfer of plant mate-
Barlow Rodgers, E. et al. 2007. Botanic gardens. A living
rial. Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq (1522–1592) pro- history. London. Black Dog Publ.
vided, e.g., the first tulip for the Occident. Imports De Koning, J. 1995. Lo sviluppo della botanica nel XVI
from South America entered Europe via the secolo. In L’Orto botanico di Padova 1545–1995,
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cal significance would be economic plants like Geschichte, technische Einrichtungen, Anlagen,
corn, potato, sunflower, and tobacco. North Sammlungen und Aufgaben. 2 Vols. Halle (Saale).
American plant imports became dominant in the Martin-Luther-Universität.
Garbari, F. et al. 2002. Giardino dei Semplici – Garden of
“Canadian phase” after 1620 and were at that time
simples. First ed. 1991, now revised and updated. Pisa.
mostly diffused via the Jardin du Roi in Paris. PLUS.
Around the mid-seventeenth century, the devel- Hill, A.W. 1915. The history and functions of botanic
opment of heating techniques for hibernation gardens. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden II
(1/2): 185–240.
architecture would give way to future South Afri-
Hobhouse, P. 1992. Plants in garden history. London.
can plant imports from the Dutch colonies via the Pavilion Books.
botanical gardens of Leiden and Amsterdam. Hyde, E., ed. 2013. A cultural history of gardens in the
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▶ Alchemy 1545–1995. Venice. Marsilio.
▶ Cosmology Minelli, A., ed. 1996. The botanical gardens of Padua
▶ Delminio, Giulio Camillo 1545–1995. Transl. Gus Barker. Venice. Marsilio.
Ogilvie, B.W. 2006. The science of describing: Natural
▶ Elements, Natural history in Renaissance Europe. Chicago. University of
▶ Galen and Galenism Chicago Press.
▶ Garden, Ethics Prest, J. 1981. The garden of Eden: The botanic garden and
▶ Science the recreation of paradise. New Haven. Yale Univer-
sity Press.
▶ Scientific Academies Schiebinger, L., and C. Swan., eds. 2005. Colonial botany:
▶ Studia Humanitatis Science, commerce and politics in the early modern
▶ Villas world. Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Tjon Sie, L., ed. 1991. The authentic garden: A symposion
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G
Gardens, Ethics Western garden culture. In medieval Europe, the

cloister garden developed as a place for contem-
Simone Kaiser plation on moral life and metaphysical questions.
Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Hessisches Its symbolic representation of the earthly para-
Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany dise refers to the heavenly paradise that may be
regained through the grace of God. Therefore, the
garden also became an emblematic attribute of
Abstract the Virgin Mary for her giving birth to Christ
whose sacrifice redeemed the original sin. In
Gardens were favorite places for discussing eth- monastic literature, the garden appears further-
ical problems concerning the relationship of more as a metaphor of the human soul fighting the
nature and man in the Renaissance. What is battle of Virtues and Vices. Garden allegories
more, moral-philosophical aspects accompanied emerged in profane literature as well. The French
the very idea of the garden. Gardens were sup- poem Roman de la Rose (~1230–1275) of Guil-
posed to reflect an image of the world, the view of laume de Lorris and Jean de Meung, an allegor-
the world as conceived by its creator, and thus ical dream vision of love set in a garden, exerted
their order shed light on the virtues and character great influence on the imagination of the secular
of the latter. The ethical dimension of gardens is garden as a place for the development of the soul
closely related to their emblematic identification and the quest for happiness. It was highly popular
with paradise found expressed in literature, the in the Renaissance preceding allegorical poems
visual arts and garden architecture alike. Moral like Francesco Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia
meaning applied to gardens increased according Poliphili (1499), Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando
to the growing importance of their representa- Furioso (1516–1532), and Torquato Tasso’s
tional and didactic function tended to increase. Gerusalemme liberata (1575), which cross-
fertilized also the creation of actual gardens.
Tradition
Whereas the idea of paradise in Islamic culture is
one of pure pleasure, the Christian tradition con- An important innovative element changing the
nects the earthly paradise, the Garden of Eden, appearance and use of gardens is constituted by
also with the Fall of Man. The latter concept had the reference to the ethics of classical antiquity
tremendous influence on the moral perception of and their combination with Christian teleology.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_66-1
2 Gardens, Ethics
Reviving the ancient ideal of a simple life in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the
country and following the example of Plato’s and didactic impetus and moral meaning of gardens
Cicero’s academies, humanists – the vanguard gained in importance. New garden designs
Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) and the Neopla- became subject of elaborate philosophical inter-
tonist Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) among the pretation as proves, for example, Francesco de
first – fashioned the villa garden as the place Vieri’s exegesis of the Medici garden in Pratolino
par excellence for philosophical debate. It was (Delle Maravigliose Opere, 1587). They could
appreciated, in a stoic perspective, for offering also invite to demonstrate one’s confession as
peace of mind in contemplation of the fortunes of support, for instance, the descriptions of ideal
life – a subject treated in form of villa dialogues, gardens in Erasmus’ Convivium religiosum
the most notable examples of which are Taegio’s (1522) and Bernard Palissy’s Recepte veritable
La Villa. Dialogo (1559) and Gallo’s Vinti (1563). The relationship of man and nature
Giornate (1572, preceded by several shorter ver- changed profoundly from 1300 to 1650: from an
sions since 1550). Villa idealists of the sixteenth increasingly sensual attitude toward nature via
century like Bartolomeo Taegio (1520–1573) the ethos of improvement to the demonstration
and Agostino Gallo (1499–1570) merged ancient of man’s dominion over nature.
and Christian moral examples to legitimize their
growing enthusiasm for the useful pleasures of
the garden. Garden laws and moralizing inscrip- Cross-References
tions henceforth often expressed the humanist
attitude of a villa garden’s patron. The notion of ▶ Academies
choice and free will, with regard to the narrative ▶ Allegory
of the Fall of Man as well as to ancient philoso- ▶ Ariosto, Ludovico
phy, became central to the perception of the self ▶ Contemplation
in the Renaissance. The associated salvific idea of ▶ De Vieri, Francesco
the repatriation of paradise marked the humanist ▶ Erasmus, Desiderius
endeavor of collecting, cultivating, and ordering ▶ Ethics
the world. New garden designs started to reflect ▶ Fortune
these concepts, for example, by integrating laby- ▶ Gardens, Botanical
rinths that offered a choice of paths or by staging ▶ Happiness
the rhetoric of transforming wilderness into civ- ▶ Life
ilization. In particular, the rediscovery of the ▶ Tasso, Torquato
Tablet of Cebes, a Socratic philosopher’s moral ▶ Teleology
allegory of human life and the path to virtue, ▶ Vice
influenced the imagination and creation of gar- ▶ Villas
dens in the second half of the sixteenth century, ▶ Virtue
popularizing temples of virtue and wisdom. ▶ Will, Free
Impact and Legacy References

The academic villa idealism, legitimized by
Primary Literature
moral-philosophical exaltation, spreads from Gallo, A. 1572. Le Vinti Giornate dell’Agricoltura et de’
Italy across Europe promoting gardens as places Piaceri della Villa. Venice: Camillo & Rutilio
of otium philosophicum, self-improvement, and Borgomineri.
Taegio, B. 1559. La Villa. Dialogo. Milan: Francesco
education. At first reserved to elitist circles of
Moscheni.
humanist scholars, gardens were increasingly Vieri, F. 1587. Delle Maravigliose Opere di Pratolino, &
opened to the public. Particularly during the d’Amore. Florence: Giorgio Marescotti.
Gardens, Ethics 3
Secondary Literature Kosmer, E. 1978. Gardens of virtue in the middle ages.

Coffin, D. 1982. The “Lex Hortorum” and Access to Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 41:
Gardens of Latium during the Renaissance. Journal 302–307.
of Garden History 2(3): 201–233. Lauterbach, C. 2004. Gärten der Musen und Gärten der
Comito, T. 1978. The idea of the garden in the renais- Grazien. Mensch und Natur im niederländischen
sance. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Humanistengarten 1522–1655. M€ unchen/Berlin:
Fr€uhe, U. 2002. Das Paradies ein Garten – der Garten ein Deutscher Kunstverlag.
Paradies. Studien zur Literatur des Mittelalters unter Lauterbach, C. 2007. Hafen der Ruhe, Schule der
Ber€ucksichtigung der bildenden Kunst und Weisheit. Der Garten im humanistischen
Architektur, EHS XVIII, vol. 103. Frankfurt: P. Lang. Tugenddiskurs. In Gartendiskurse. Mensch und
Horowitz, M.C. 1998. Seeds of virtue and knowledge. Garten in Philosophie und Theologie, ed. A. Moritz
Princeton: Princeton University Press. and H. Schwillus, 43–59. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Hyde, E. (ed.). 2013. A cultural history of gardens in the Morford, M. 1987. The stoic garden. Journal of Garden
renaissance. London: Bloomsbury. History 7(2): 151–175.
Kaiser, S.M. 2011. Garden design as an artistic form of Mosser, M., and G. Teyssot (eds.). 1991. The architecture
organized knowledge: The Villa d’Este in Tivoli and of western gardens. A design history from the renais-
its dragons of 1572. Fragmenta 5: 39–62. sance to the present day. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
G
Geocentrism which all or some of the planets rotate around the

Sun, while the Sun remained Earth centered along
Pietro Daniel Omodeo with the Moon and the fixed stars. The Inquisition
History of astronomy and philosophy, Max prohibition of Copernican astronomy in 1616
Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, gave new impetus to geocentrism, in its
Germany geoheliocentric form, among Catholics.
Abstract The Aristotelian Legacy
“Geocentrism” refers to a cosmological and plan- Aristotle’s arguments in favor of terrestrial cen-
etary theory, in which the Earth occupies the centrality, especially those in De coelo II 12–13, were
tral position of the world system. In antiquity and particularly influential during the Middle Ages
in the Middle Ages, geocentrism was the most and the Renaissance. They was especially due to
common cosmological view, although some Aristotle’s acknowledged authority and to their
astronomers and philosophical schools embraced integration in a systematic vision of nature. In
alternative visions about worldly order. During particular, geocentrism was compatible with the
the Renaissance, debates following Nicolaus elemental theory according to which the four sub-
Copernicus’s proposal of a heliocentric planetary lunary elements – earth, water, air, and fire – are
theory prompted a reexamination of traditional ordered according to a concentric scheme beneath
geocentric (and geostatic) arguments (see the sphere of the Moon (the first of the celestial
“▶ Copernicanism” and “▶ Astronomy”). This bodies). They were thought to have innate tenden-
also led to their reworking and expansion. cies to move toward their “natural places.”
Aristotle’s and Ptolemy’s arguments were atten- According to this doctrine, the earth, as the
tively reconsidered. Many scholars deemed them “heaviest” element, strives toward the cosmolog-
conclusive and therefore stuck to terrestrial cen- ical center, which coincides with the center of
trality even after parallax computation (in the gravity.
1580s, especially Tycho Brahe) and telescopic Against this philosophical backdrop an ad hoc
evidence (after 1610, especially Galileo Galilei) explanation had to account for the fact that the
demonstrated the impossibility of geocentric orbis terrarum – the three continents, Africa,
paths for Mars and the inferior planets. Asia, and Europe – was not submerged in the
Geo-heliocentrism thus emerged as the only via- water. During the Middle Ages, this explanation
ble solution. It was a planetary theory according to was sought in the providential intervention of God
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_67-1
2 Geocentrism
at the moment of the Creation. In the sixteenth Therefore Ptolemy only mentions it but does not
century, the oceanic explorations and the discov- treat it extensively.
ery of continents thus far unknown to the Concerning the first case, Ptolemy argues,
Europeans – especially the so-called If we imagined [the Earth] removed towards the
antipodes – undermined traditional cosmography zenith or the nadir of some observer then, if he
and proved the fundamental unity of the globus were at sphaera recta [at the equator], he would
terracquaeus (the earthly watery globe). This new never experience equinox, since the horizon would
always divide the heavens into two unequal parts,
evidence and its theoretical consequences for one above and one below the Earth; if he were at
geography were a mortal blow to medieval cos- sphaera obliqua [at an arbitrary latitude], either,
mology, as astronomical innovators such as again, equinox would never occur at all, or [if it
Copernicus stressed. The latter mentioned the epi- did occur], it would not be at a position halfway
between summer and winter solstices, since these
stemic discontinuity in geographical knowledge intervals would necessarily be unequal, because the
in his first book of De revolutionibus orbium equator, which is the greatest of all parallel circles
coelestium (I 3) in order to make his heliocentric drawn about the poles of the [daily] motion, would
theory acceptable in spite of its novelty. Coperni- no longer be bisected by the horizon; instead [the
horizon would bisect] one of the circles parallel to
cus claimed that astronomy ought to be emended the equator, either to the north or to the south of
just like geography. it. (Toomer 1984, p. 41)
In spite of Copernicus’s claim, the Aristotelian
tradition lived long after him, as witnessed by the Ptolemy additionally observes that, if the Earth
were “removed towards the east or west of some
countless editions and commentaries of
observer,” the sizes and the distances of the stars
Sacrobosco’s standard textbook, which began
with reference to the theory of the elements and would be different at eastern and western hori-
zons. Moreover, the time intervals between rising
the “two-physics” distinction between the sublu-
and culmination and between culmination and
nary realm of corruption and the quintessentially
incorruptible heavenly realm. The most authorita- setting would be unequal.
In the second case – that the Earth is displaced
tive Renaissance commentary on this book was
along the axis toward the north or the south – the
composed by the Jesuit mathematician Christoph
plane of the horizon would divide the heavens into
Clavius. It was widely circulated during the
unequal parts for any observer (at the equator or at
Renaissance, especially as a textbook for the
any other latitude). Furthermore, the shadows of
teaching of spherical astronomy at Jesuit colleges.
sundials would be altered. At equinoxes the
shadows of a gnomon at sunrise and at sunset
would not form a straight line in a plane parallel
The Ptolemaic Legacy
to the horizon.
These were the main Ptolemaic arguments for
By far the most important astronomical defense of
geocentrism based on geometrical reasoning and
geocentrism from antiquity is Ptolemy’s. The Hel-
empirical evidence. According to Ptolemy a dis-
lenistic astronomer, who was still regarded as the
placement of the Earth from the center would not
“prince of astronomy” during the Renaissance,
be compatible with the heavenly phenomena.
refutes the eccentricity of the Earth in Almagest
Copernicus and the supporters of the heliocentric
I 5 (standard modern numbering). He bases his
system solved these inconveniences by simply
objection on considerations of how a hypothetical
assuming that the dimensions of the annual
displacement of the Earth in different directions
“orbit” of the Earth around the Sun are negligible
would alter celestial phenomena. He considers in
relative to the distance of the starry heaven, as
particular the cases of terrestrial eccentricity on
stated in De revolutionibus I 5.
the equatorial plane or along the rotational axis.
Copernicus’s claim about the immensitas of the
A “third” case, that the Earth is neither on the axis
heavens persuaded only a few among his contem-
of the daily rotation nor on the equatorial plane,
porary and immediate followers. Particularly
cumulates the disadvantages of both dislocations.
Geocentrism 3
revealing of the post-Copernican endurance of Aristarchus’s cosmos in a handy manner through

geocentrism is Erasmus Reinhold’s edition with a new numerical system solving the major short-
commentary of the first book of the Almagest comings of Greek mathematical symbolism. This
(15491). This was a textbook directed to Witten- reference to Aristarchus’s cosmos is a hint at the
berg students. In it, Reinhold not only explained conspicuous enlargement of the world implied by
and illustrated the Ptolemaic arguments but also the passage from a geocentric to a heliocentric
expanded and strengthened them. He appreciated theory, as a consequence of the fact that terrestrial
Copernicus’s mathematics but not his violation of revolution produces no observable stellar paral-
acknowledged physical principles. lax. Several Renaissance scholars perceived this
difficulty as insurmountable. In particular, the
“useless” vastness of the space between Saturn
Ancient and Medieval Alternative and the fixed stars looked impossible to critics of
Systems Reassessed heliocentrism such as Brahe, and this formed part
of their criticism against heliocentrism.
Ancient and medieval scholars also produced cos- It should be stressed that the thesis of the
mologies that were neither geocentric nor motion of the Earth is not incompatible with
geostatic. In De coelo II 13, Aristotle reported geocentrism. Among others, Plato defended
the Pythagoreans’ worldview as one such case. geokinetic geocentrism: in Timaios 40b–c, he
According to them, a “fire” occupies the center of ascribed to the Earth the axial rotation as the
the cosmos. Based on this reference, there was a cause of the succession of days and nights. In
tendency in the early reception of Copernicus to the fifteenth century, Nicholas Cusanus argued
ascribe his system to Pythagorean forerunners. for terrestrial motion in the second book of De
However, there was no compelling evidence that docta ignorantia. In the following centuries, the
their “central fire” corresponded to the Sun nor thesis of terrestrial centrality-cum-mobility was
that the terrestrial rotation around the center endorsed by several scholars, among whom were
referred to the annual revolution. Aristotle only the imperial mathematician Nicolaus Raimarus
reported that the Pythagorean model could Ursus in Fundamentum astronomicum (1588),
account for the same celestial phenomena as the Brandenburg mathematician David Origanus
geocentrism: in his ephemerides and Brahe’s pupil Christian
Most of those who hold that the whole Universe is Longomontanus in Astronomia Danica (1622).
finite say that it lies at its center, but this is During the Middle Ages geocentrism was
contradicted by the thinkers of the Italian school never cast into doubt. It was linked to theological
called Pythagorean. These affirm that the center is conceptions of divine Providence and Creation, as
occupied by fire, and that the Earth is one of the
stars, and creates night and day as it travels in a witnessed in Dante Alighieri’s synthesis of late-
circle about the center. . . . Since the Earth’s surface medieval thought in the Divina Commedia. The
is not in any case the centre, they [the Pythagoreans] Earth rested at the center as the place of change
do not feel any difficulty in supposing that the and corruption, encircled by the ethereal perfec-
phenomena are the same although we do not occupy
the centre as they would be if the Earth were in the tion of the heavenly spheres surrounded by the
middle. For even in the current view [that is, empyrean heaven, which was the abode of the
geocentrism] there is nothing to show that we are blessed souls and the contemplating God. Plane-
distant from the center by half the Earth’s diameter. tary order was less standardized. In the twelfth
(Aristotle 1986, p. 217)
century Andalusia al-Bitruji argued for the sublu-
A proper heliocentric theory had to wait until nary location of Mercury and the superlunary of
the third century BC, when Aristarchus of Samos Venus in his work of homocentric astronomy,
developed and defended it as a viable astronomi- Book on Astronomy, which had large dissemina-
cal thesis. Archimedes referred to it in The Sand tion among Jewish and Latin philosophers. Medi-
Reckoner. He asserted that he could express the eval commentaries on Macrobius, Pliny the Elder,
number of grains of sand encompassed by Martianus Capella, and Calcidus also displayed
4 Geocentrism
qualitative heavenly diagrams in which planetary renouncing geocentrism. However, he could not
motions are not perfectly circular or the two infe- complete his geocentric revision of Copernican
rior planets encircle the Sun instead of the Earth. astronomy due to an untimely death.
The latter model (geocentrism with heliocentric Reinhold’s follower as a professor of mathe-
paths for Mercury and Venus), ascribed in antiq- matics in Wittenberg and Melanchthon’s son-in-
uity to Herakleides of Pontus, became known as law, Caspar Peucer continued his “translation” of
the Capellan system. Copernicus would refer to the Copernican models by showing that his model
the diverging opinions of his ancient and medieval for the precession and the trepidation of the starry
forerunners in the beginning of De revolutionibus heaven could easily be adapted to a geocentric
to claim his right to an independent and innova- frame. Far from a conventionalist approach to
tive inquiry into this matter: astronomy, that is to say, an approach only inter-
Therefore, having obtained the opportunity from ested in “saving the phenomena” without any
these sources, I too began to consider the mobility consideration about the physical tenability of the
of the Earth. And even though the idea seemed models employed by the astronomers, his and his
absurd, nevertheless I knew that others before me master’s efforts bear witness to a shared desire to
had been granted the freedom to imagine any circles
whatever for the purpose of explaining the heavenly reconcile physics and mathematical astronomy.
phenomena. Hence I thought that I too would be Peucer’s astronomical hypotheses, or
readily permitted to ascertain whether explanations “hypotyposes,” published anonymously in Stras-
sounder than those of my predecessors could be bourg in 1568 (as Hypothyposes) and then with
found for the revolution of the celestial spheres on
the assumption of some motion of the Earth. the author’s name in Wittenberg in 1571
(Copernicus 1978) (Hypotheses astronomicae, seu Theoriae
planetarum), exerted a conspicuous influence on
the cosmological and philosophical post-
Copernican debate at the end of the century. The
Post-Copernican Geocentrists Strasbourg mathematician Conrad Dasypodius
carried out the first anonymous edition. In the
The mathematical reception of Copernicus never
preface he ascribed this work to Reinhold
implied adherence to heliocentrism as a physical
reinforcing the conviction, among learned
reality. At Wittenberg, one of the most important
scholars, that the author of the Prutenicae tabulae
irradiating centers of his astronomical work, the
was also the designer of a geocentric revision of
leading intellectuals opposed this realist option.
Copernicus, the details of which had not yet been
Martin Luther is reported to have reacted with
developed.
skepticism to the new system because it was in
Among those who reworked De revolutionibus
contrast with the Bible. Philip Melanchthon
with a geocentric perspective, the Silesian mathe-
condemned Copernicus’s hypotheses on the
matician Paul Wittich occupies a special place. In
basis of natural-philosophical considerations. In
two preserved copies of De revolutionibus, he
his and the philosopher Paul Eber’s introduction
developed geometrically equivalent planetary
to physics, Initia doctrinae physicae (Introduction
models, which varied Copernicus’s theory. In
to Physics, 1549), the Copernican theory was
these diagrams he illustrated how to pass from
rejected and its teaching was prohibited.
Sun-centered models to equivalent Earth-centered
The Wittenberg mathematician Reinhold was
ones. Those displaying the “theory of the three
enthusiastic about Copernicus’s geometrical
superior [planets] accorded with the immobility of
models, for they respected the so-called astronom-
the Earth” are accompanied by a claim for author-
ical axiom (celestial motions are circular and uni-
ship: “I found this new genre of hypotheses on
form about their centers). In his manuscript
13 February 1579.” Wittich also accommodated
commentary on Copernicus, Commentarius in
the inferior planets within a geocentric (and
opus Revolutionum Copernici, he hinted at the
geostatic) framework, remarking that “[. . .]
possibility of accepting his devices without
Copernicus’s theory of the two inferior [planets]
Geocentrism 5
can be in agreement with the immobility of the Brahe required him to write against Ursus as a
Earth, in accordance with Ptolemy’s words.” condition for his appointment in Prague as his
Wittich’s geometrical considerations acquired assistant in 1600. Brahe was notoriously jealous
a strong physical meaning a decade later when of his theory and deemed other scholars dealing
geoheliocentric systems proliferated, following with it without appropriate reference to his author-
the seminal publications by Ursus and Brahe, ship to be plagiarizers. For instance, in 1591, after
who were both acquainted with the ideas of the he was informed that the Scottish mathematician
talented Silesian mathematician. However Duncan Liddel was teaching his theory to Rostock
Ursus’s and Brahe’s models were slightly differ- and Helmstedt students, he accused him of unduly
ent. The former maintained that the central Earth appropriating his doctrines, as emerges in his cor-
rotates producing the apparent daily rotation of respondence with Kepler (2001, pp. 91-92.).
the heavens. In Brahe’s system, the solar and The geo-heliocentric theory was long lived. In
Martian “orbits” intersected. The reason he gave northern Europe, Brahe’s pupils picked it up, in
for this intersection was the alleged observation, particular Longomontanus who proved one of the
in 1582, of a Martian parallax larger than that of most strenuous opponents to Kepler’s
the Sun. This demonstrated that the planet is heliocentric-and-elliptical planetary theory. After
closer to the Earth in opposition. Ptolemy could the Inquisition prohibited heliocentrism,
not explain this proximity, as Brahe explained in a geoheliocentrism remained the only system a
writing, Apologia de cometis (Apology on Catholic astronomer could adhere to. Students of
[My Theory of] Comets), directed to the Scottish Jesuit Colleges were taught the details of this
mathematician John Craig (1589). He added that theory alongside anti-Copernican arguments.
only two systems could account for it, namely the A telling document of this anti-heliocentric resis-
Copernican or a geoheliocentric one. The latter, tance is the extensive refutation of the Copernican
however, presupposed that the heavens are fluid. system in the second volume of Giovanni Battista
Hence, Brahe attached great importance to the Riccioli’s Almagestum novum (New Almagest,
observation of comets demonstrating that celestial 1651). The author embraced a hybrid system.
bodies freely traverse cosmic space: According to this Jesuit astronomer, the two infe-
Hence, there is no doubt that Mars is closer to the rior planets plus Mars encircle the Earth while the
Earth in opposition than the Sun can ever be. Thus, Sun, the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and the sphere of
the ancient Ptolemaic hypotheses, which were the fixed stars turn about the cosmologically cen-
accepted up to present, can never agree with reality. tral Earth.
By necessity, either the Earth accomplishes an
annual revolution and the Sun is immobile at the
center of the universe, as Copernicus asserted with
conviction in modern times; or—if this appears to
be absurd, as it is—there remains no other possible References
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of] Mars implies this consequence [i.e., the rejec- omnia, ed. John Louis Emil Dreyer (Havniae: Libraria
tion of the solid spheres], so that no impossible Gyldendaliana, 1913–1929, repr. 1972), Vol. 4,
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off a polemic over the priority in the “discovery” Copernicus, Nicolaus. 1978. On the revolutions, ed. Jerzy
of geoheliocentrism that lasted more than one Dobrzycki, transl. and comm. by Edward Rosen. Bal-
decade. Even Kepler was co-opted by Brahe in timore/London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Toomer, G.J. 1984. Ptolemy’s Almagest, 41. London:
his struggle for the recognition of his priority. Duckworth.
6 Geocentrism
Secondary Literature idem, “Three Responses to the Copernican Theory:

On Ancient cosmological models, see Michel-Pierre Ler- Johannes Praetorius, Tycho Brahe and Michael
ner, Le monde des sphères (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, Maestlin,” in The Copernican Achievement (Berkeley:
2008) and Otto Neugebauer, A history of ancient math- University of California Press, 1975) pp. 285–345);
ematical astronomy (Berlin: Springer, 1975). Owen Gingerich, “Erasmus Reinhold and the Dissem-
On Aristotle’s geocentric arguments, see Pietro-Daniel ination of Copernican Theory,” in The Eye of Heaven:
Omodeo and Irina Tupikova, Aristotle and Ptolemy Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler (New York: American
on geocentrism: diverging argumentative strategies Inst. of Physics, 1993), pp. 221–251, and idem,
and epistemologies (Berlin: Max-Planck-Institut f€ ur “Reinhold, Erasmus,” Dictionary of Scientific Biogra-
Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 2012), Preprint 422. phy 11 (1975): pp. 365–367; and Walter Th€ uringer,
On the impact of the idea of an earthly-watery globe and its “Paul Eber (1511–1569): Meanchthons Physik und
meaning for Copernican astronomy, see Klaus Vogel, seine Stellung zu Copernicus,” in Melanchthon in
“Das Problem der relativen Lage von Erd- und seinen Sch€ ulern, ed. Heinz Scheible (Wiesbaden:
Wassersphäre im Mittelalter und die kosmographische Harrassowitz, 1997), pp. 285–321. Reinhold manu-
Revolution,” Mitteilungen der Österreichischen script commentary of Copernicus has been published
Gesellschaft f€ur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 13 (1993): in Nicolaus Copernicus, Gesamtausgabe, vol. VIII/1,
pp. 103–143 and, by the same author, “Cosmography,” Receptio Copernicana (Berlin: Akademie Verlag,
in The Cambridge History of Science, vol. 3, Early 2002), pp. 189–358. On Puecer and Dasypodius, see
Modern Science, ed. by Karin Park and Lorraine Peter Barker, “The Hypotyposes orbium coelestium
Daston (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 469–96. (Strasbourg, 1568),” in Nouveau ciel nouvelle terre:
On Sacrobosco and his commentators in the Middle Ages La révolution copernicienne dans l’Allemagne de la
and the Renaissance, see Lynn Thorndike, The Sphere Réforme (1530–1630), ed. Miguel Angel Granada and
of Sacrobosco and Its Commentators (Chicago: UP, Edouard Mehl (Paris: Les Belles Lettre, 2009),
1949), James M. Lattis, Between Copernicus and Gali- pp. 85–108.
leo. Christoph Clavius and the Collapse of Ptolemaic For Wittich, cfr. Owen Gingerich and Robert S. Westman,
Cosmology (Chicago: UP, 1994) and Isabelle Pantin, “The Wittich Connection: Conflict and Priority in Late
“Francesco Giuntini et les nouveautés célestes,” in Sixteenth-Century Cosmology,” Transactions of the
Dario Tessicini and Patrick Boner, Celestial Novelties American Philosophical Society 78/7 (1988). On the
on the Eve of the Scientific Revolution, 1540–1630 controversies over the priority of the geo-heliocentric
(Florence: Olschki, 2013), pp. 85–104. system, see Nicholas Jardine, The Birth of the History
On Ptolemy’s astronomy and its the Renaissance reception, and Philosophy of Science: Kepler’s A Defence of
see Olaf Pedersen, A Survey of the Almagest (Odense: Tycho against Ursus with Essays on its Provenance
Odense Press, 1974), Liba Chaia Taub, Ptolemy’s Uni- and Significance (Cambridge: UP, 1984); Edward
verse: the Natural, Philosophical and Ethical Founda- Rosen, Three Imperial Mathematicians: Kepler
tions of Ptolemy’s Astronomy (Chicago: Open Court, Trapped between Tycho Brahe and Ursus (New York:
1993), and Pietro Daniel Omodeo and Irina Tupikova, Abaris Books, 1986); Miguel Angel Granada, El
“Post-Copernican Reception of Ptolemy: Erasmus debate cosmológico en 1588: Bruno, Brahe,
Reinhold’s Commented Edition of the Almagest, Rothmann, Ursus, Röslin (Naples: Bibiopolis, 1996);
Book One (Wittenberg, 1549)”, Journal for the History and Nicholas Jardine and Alain Segonds, La guerre des
of Astronomy (2013): pp. 235–256. astronomes: La querelle au sujet de l’origine du
On ancient and medieval cosmological views alternative to système géo-héliocentrique à la fin du XVIe siècle
geocentrism, see Giovanni Virginio Schiaperelli, I (Paris, 2008), 2. vol. On the triangulation Brahe-
precursori di Copernico nell’antichità (Milano: Liddel-Craig, see Adam Mosley, “Tycho Brahe and
U. Hoepli, 1873), Thomas Little Heath, Aristarchus of John Craig: The Dynamic of a Dispute,” in Tycho
Samos, the Ancient Copernicus: a History of Greek Brahe and Prague: Crossroads of European
Astronomy to Aristarchus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, Science, ed. John Robert et al. (Frankfurt am Main:
1913), D’Alverny, Marie-Thérèse: “Survivances du Deutsch, 2002), pp. 70–83 and Pietro Daniel Omodeo,
‘système d’Héraclide’ au Moyen Age,” in Semaine de “L’iter europeo del matematico e medico scozzese
Synthèse, Avant, avec, après Copernic (Paris: Duncan Liddel,” (Berlin: Max-Planck-Institut f€ ur
Blanchard, 1975), pp. 39–50 and Bruce S. Eastwood, Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 2013), Preprint 438 (2013).
Ordering the Heavens: Roman Astronomy and Cosmol- On the reasons for the Jesuit adhesion to geoheliocentrism,
ogy in the Carolingian Renaissance (Leiden: Brill, see “L’entrée de Tycho Brahe chez les jésuites ou le
2007). chant du cygne de Clavius,” in Luce Giard, Les jésuites
The Wittenberg School of astronomy has been studied by à la Renaissance: Système éducative et production du
Robert S. Westman, “The Melanchthon Circle, savoir (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1995),
Rheticus and the Wittenberg Interpretation of the pp. 145–186.
Copernican Theory,” Isis 66 (1975): pp. 163–93 and
O
Organism organisms, which was then consolidated during

the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Georg Toepfer
Center for Literary and Cultural Research Berlin,
Berlin, Germany Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
In ancient philosophy, a clear-cut model of the

Abstract organism as a system of interdependent parts did
not exist. There was, however, a concept of the
Since antiquity, living beings have been defined living being in Aristotle’s writings. It was
as organic bodies able to perform certain com- established as a particular ontological category
plex activities, including nourishment, growth, defined by the possession of a soul and by the
and reproduction. These activities, or basic capacity for particular activities such as nourish-
organic functions, were attributed to the soul ment, growth, reproduction, and, to a certain
and its parts. According to ancient physiological extent, locomotion and perception (following
theory, the soul is linked to the organization of Aristotle, De anima 412a). But these faculties
the body, but is not a direct cause or result of were not analyzed or explained in terms of an
it. Renaissance authors adopted this view of the “organism,” i.e., as the organization of the body
soul as the principle of life. In various instances as a decentralized structure whose unity relies on
they emphasized the interaction and the interdependence of its parts.
interdependence of the organic parts as the pre- This nonorganismic view of living beings is
condition for the performance of typical activi- especially true for Aristotle. The term “organic
ties. Such an explanation was often achieved by body,” as introduced by Aristotle, should not be
comparing the body of a living being with the translated (as is often the case) as a “body
cosmic order, complex artifacts, man-made con- endowed with organs,”, but should be understood
structions, or the interaction between individuals in the sense of an “instrumental body” (Bos
in social groups. By stressing the 2003), for in all other contexts where the expres-
interdependence of parts as well as the resulting sion “organic” appears in Aristotle’s writings, it
functional closure as the scientific foundation of is used in lieu of “instrumental.” The living body,
understanding and explaining organic systems, according to Aristotle, is essentially character-
Renaissance conceptual models have paved the ized as an instrument for the soul; in his thinking
way for a materialistic and at the same time the soul alone is the life-bearing principle. The
holistic understanding of living beings as modern understanding of “organic body,”
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_76-1
2 Organism
meaning a body consisting of diverse functional concept of the soul gradually transformed in
parts, appeared in late Antiquity (e.g., with John such a way that it could be identified with the
Philoponus in the sixth century). But it was not functional organization of the body – its parts
until scholastic times that it acquired the status of depending on the influence of other parts (Siegel
a technical term. In the writings of Thomas 1973, p. 129).
Aquinas, the term holds a special place and is Since late medieval times, the organic body
defined with the aid of an incorrect interpretation has increasingly been understood as a system of
of Aristotle’s writings as “a body having a diver- organs whose complex functions resulted from
sity of organs” (Commentarius in libros de anima the interaction of their parts. In his discussion of
II et III 2, 1, 20; No. 230). Aristotle, Marsilius of Padua describes living
There were, however, some ideas in ancient bodies as composed of distinct parts that stand
thought that were conceptually related to the in a definite relation to each other and whose
modern view of living beings as systems of functions result from their communication with
interdependent parts. This applies especially to one another as well as with the whole system
the analogy of organisms and societies. Organ- (1324, I, 1, §3). Marsilius applied this model to
isms and human societies consist of a multitude both living bodies and societies.
of diverse components, but their interactions
result in homogeneous outcomes, such as the
preservation and propagation of the whole system Innovative and Original Aspects
(in the case of the organism). Following the prin-
ciple of the division of labor, the stomach and The most innovative development by Renais-
hands, for example, bear a relationship of sance scientists was their systematic practice of
interdependence in an analogous way as the clas- empirical investigation combined with system-
ses of a society depend on each other – this being atic description. A prime example of this dual
the message of the famous fable of Menenius movement is typified in the work of the
Agrippa (Livius, Ab urbe condita II, 32). This scientist-artist Leonardo da Vinci. After
comparison laid the foundation for viewing living dissecting many human corpses, he provided
beings as complex and organized systems; but the detailed drawings of the inner organs and their
basic principle of these systems – the anatomical connectivity. In these visual represen-
interdependence of parts – never acquired a key tations, every organ was shown as an integral part
position in the definition of living beings. It was of the body, suggesting that the body is a func-
the possession of a soul that made living beings tionally closed system or a whole comprised of
what they were, not their internal composition. interacting parts. Leonardo explained the func-
The conception of living beings as organisms tioning of the organs through reference to
only emerged later through the rise of physiolog- mechanical models such as pillars, levers, and
ical knowledge and the use of metaphors from the pulleys. The aim was to integrate the anatomical
human sphere. Thus, the Roman physician Galen, observations into a physiological model of the
who probably possessed the best knowledge of body’s system. A similar approach, systemati-
human physiology in the ancient world, cally extended to all parts of the human body, is
described the relationship between the parts of evident in Andreas Vesalius’s monumental De
the human body as sympathy (Galen, De usu humani corporis fabrica (1543).
partium corporis humani I, 8) and compared the From a theoretical perspective, one of the
body to a symphony (Galen, De methodo challenges faced by Renaissance philosophy
medendi, ed. K€ uhn X, p. 643). Thinking about was how to adapt traditional metaphysics to the
physiological processes also provided a func- mechanistic thinking of the emerging experimen-
tional understanding of the soul as being diffuse tal sciences. On the one hand, there was the
and possessing diverse interacting parts. By Aristotelian conception of living beings as sub-
connecting it to physiological knowledge, the stantial forms unified and individuated by the
Organism 3
influence of particular souls. On the other hand, human society or the cosmos as a whole without
there were materialistic approaches for which studying its internal structure in its own right.
every composed substance, including living One example is provided by Marsilio Ficino,
beings, had to be explained beginning from their who in 1469 proposed to interpret the friendly
atomic parts while abiding to the universal laws interaction of our body parts as a model for the
of motion. The theoretical challenge involved for world because “in us” the inner organs “draw
many authors was how to reconcile these two something from each other, and help each other,
perspectives with regard to living beings. and sympathize with any one of them when it
One innovative approach put forth in the mid- suffers” (Ficino 1469, VI, 10; pp. 81r–82r) – as
dle of the sixteenth century by Girolamo do the parts of the world.
Fracastoro (1550) and Julius Caesar Scaliger This conceptualization of organic bodies as
(1557) sought to combine the medieval theory mere models for the cosmos changed with the
of minima naturalia with a theory of natural establishment of mechanistic philosophy and the
mixture. According to this view, complex bodies natural sciences in the seventeenth century. A key
are composed of a multitude of minute material element of this approach was to explain the pro-
bodies, but these natural minima retain their form cesses and activities in living beings through
even if they surrender their boundaries within the mechanistic laws and by reducing them to the
complex whole. Thus, they combine elementary movements of organic parts. The
corpuscularian and non-corpuscularian proper- aim was to replace the soul as an unexplained
ties (Blank 2010). Scaliger also stresses the principle that could not be embedded within the
immaterial character of the substantial forms by mechanistic program with concepts like “compo-
conceiving them as effective powers that can sition,” “structure,” or “organization.”
constitute living bodies. Even the “transmuta- Replacing the soul with these concepts
tion” of living organisms from one biological resulted in a decentralized picture of the causal
species to another, which Scaliger supposes to structure in living systems. In 1628, William
be possible, is explained within the framework Harvey made an important contribution to this
of his conception of substantial forms. His idea picture, when he described the cyclical move-
was that transmutation occurs through a shift in ment of blood in the body. Although Harvey
the power relation between the various substan- imagined the heart as the central part of the
tial forms within one organism. By allowing for a body and compared it to a sun which governed
plural and variable combination of substantial all vital processes, his model of cyclical move-
forms as elementary bodies of an organism, Scal- ment emphasized the important role of the other
iger combined the Aristotelian metaphysical body parts as well. It is in line with this view that
framework of substantial forms with atomistic Harvey conceived of the movements of animals
elements. Aristotle’s substantialism for visible not as the result of a central governing agent such
living creatures is thus transformed into a as the soul or the brain, but as an interaction of
“microsubstantiality” (Smith 2006, p. 9) with a diverse components of the body (Harvey 1628).
diversity of microsubstances on a level below Mechanical laws were not the only explana-
visible objects. tory principles within this program – emphasis
With regard to these microsubstances, living was also placed on their interaction and the func-
beings were not necessarily seen to differ from tional unity of causal systems. Even for mecha-
nonliving composite bodies. In the mechanistic nistic thinkers like René Descartes, living beings
framework that was emerging at the time, the were not just mechanisms. Thus, Descartes
specificity of living organisms was increasingly stressed the unity and correlation of the parts
derived from their internal structure, particularly within them. For him “the body [. . .] is one and
the interaction of their parts. However, until the in some manner indivisible”, and he explicitly
mid-seventeenth century, the concept of the stated that it is the arrangement or “disposition
organism was most often used as a model for of the organs” on which the functions of life
4 Organism
depend (Descartes 1649, p. 351; 1632, p. 202). this model, dispersed control by heterogeneous
Therefore, Descartes also had a kind of holistic parts.
conception of living beings as systems of It comes as no surprise that materialist thought
interdependent parts. played a large role in developing early models of
In his mechanistic understanding of living the organism as a concept. Dispensing with the
beings, Descartes mainly aims at an explanation concept of the soul as the central principle for
of organismic movements. In this approach he organizing and regulating living beings, they
follows classical authors. But, in contrast to were forced to explain complex life functions
ancient accounts, he does not explain the capacity through an intricate interaction of body parts.
of living beings to move by themselves with Terminologically, this is demonstrated by an
reference to the powers of a soul. Instead, he influx of vocabulary from the field of architecture
uses the mechanical and hydraulic devices of and the realms of industry and craftwork. Talking
his time, such as clocks, mills, and fountains, as about the body of a living animal, for example,
models for explaining self-movement. In this Giordano Bruno, at the end of the sixteenth cen-
view the organism appears as a complex hydro- tury, uses an architectural metaphor
mechanical system of springs, tubes, openings, (»composizione d’uno animale«; »architettura«;
and pulleys. In their interaction, these devices »edificio«; Bruno 1584, p. 23). In the seventeenth
generate the movement of the whole system, century, the watch and clockwork became
and in their interdependence they form one another leading metaphor to describe life pro-
coherent body. cesses (Descartes 1632, p. 202; Locke 1689,
Taking their lead from Descartes, many early p. 331), after having been already used by
natural scientists used the model of the machine Thomas Aquinas (1266–1273, II/I, 13, 2).
to express the interdependence of parts in living With the metaphor of the clock and other
beings as organized systems. For example, technical devices, organic processes were not
Kenelm Digby applied this analogy explicitly in only explained on the basis of mechanistic
1644 – with the aim of not only reducing vital thinking – for example, self-movement as a result
phenomena to the mechanical level but also of stored energy – the integration of these systems
emphasizing the interdependence of their parts also provided a model for the functional closure
and the integrity of the whole. Digby simulta- and unity of living beings. During the seven-
neously emphasizes the heterogeneity of the teenth century, “organization” gradually became
parts in a living being along with their unity and the central term for specifying the arrangement of
harmony. He explicitly mentions the reciprocity matter characteristic of living beings. This was
of the parts that establishes this unity. The iden- done to the point of identifying “life” with “orga-
tity of the whole and of the parts will be destroyed nization”: In 1662, the botanist Joachim Jungius
if one part is removed, he explains. Digby calls explicitly replaced “soul” with “organization” as
this the “correspondence” of the parts and writes the central principle in explaining life functions.
“the one [part] not being able to subsist without With the explanatory principle of “organization,”
the other, from whom he deriveth what is the soul becomes superfluous: “true organization
needefull for him; and again being so usefull alone suffices,” as he writes (Jungius 1662, part.
unto that other and having its action and motion 2, Sect. 3, Fragm. 5).
so fitting and necessary for it, as without it that
other can not be” (Digby 1644, p. 205). The
machine model allowed Digby to conceptualize Impact and Legacy
the organism as a harmonious unity of diverse
parts contributing – or “conspiring,” as he calls During the seventeenth century, the principle of
it – toward a common goal. So, instead of one mutual dependence had become central to most
unitary soul as a regulatory center, we have, in definitions of living beings as organisms. One
prominent example is Nicolas Malebranche’s
Organism 5
definition of an “organic body” as a whole Digby, K. 1644. Two treatises in the one of which the
consisting of infinite parts “that mutually depend nature of bodies, in the other, the nature of man’s
soul is looked into. Paris: John Williams.
on each other” (1675, p. 75). In this conception it Ficino, M. 1469. De amore. Engl. S. Jayne, transl. Com-
is the mutual dependence of the parts that is mentary on Plato’s Symposium on Love. Columbia;
responsible for the system’s unity and closure. 1944.
The common principle is based upon the unity Fracastoro, G. 1550. De sympathia & antipathia rerum
liber primus. De contagione et contagiosis morbis &
of a complex by the interdependence of its parts. eorum curatione, libri tres. Lugduni.
In this way it was possible to reconstruct living Harvey, W. 1628. Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et
beings as intrinsic units of nature on a mechanis- sanguinis in animalibus. Francofurti.
tic basis. Accordingly, the function of the soul as Jungius, J. 1662. Doxoscopiae physicae minores.
Hamburg.
lending a natural body complex capacities and Locke, J. 1689/1700. An Essay Concerning Human
unity is fulfilled by the principle of interaction Understanding, ed. P.H. Nidditch. Oxford; 1979.
and interdependence. By the end of the seven- Malebranche, N. 1675. De la recherche de la vérité, vol.
teenth century, Georg Ernst Stahl and Gottfried 2. Paris; 1721.
Marsilius of Padua. 1324. Defensor pacis, ed. H. Kusch.
Wilhelm Leibniz were calling such a system of Berlin; 1958.
mutually dependent parts an organism. Indeed, Scaliger, J.C. 1557. Exotericarum exercitationum liber xv.
Stahl was the first to do so in 1684 (Cheung Lutetiae.
2006). Thomas Aquinas. 1266–1273. Summa theologiae. In:
R. Busa, ed. Opera omnia, vol. 2, 184–926. Stuttgart-
Bad Cannstatt; 1980.
Vesalius, A. 1543. De humani corporis fabrica. Basileae.
Cross-References
▶ Generation Secondary Literature

Blank, A. 2010. Biomedical ontology and the metaphysics
▶ Life of composite substances 1540–1670. Munich:
Philosophia Verlag.
Cheung, T. 2006. From the organism of a body to the body
of an organism: Occurrence and meaning of the word
Primary Literature ‘organism’ from the seventeenth to the nineteenth cen-
turies. British Journal for the History of Science 39:
Bos, A.P. 2003. The Soul and its Instrumental Body. A 319–339.
Reinterpretation of Aristotle’s Philosophy of Living Duchesneau, F. 1998. Les modèles du vivant de Descartes
Nature. Leiden. à Leibniz. Paris.
Bruno, G. 1584. Spaccio de la bestia trionfante, Epistola Siegel, R.E. 1973. Galen on psychology, psychopathol-
esplicatoria. In G. Aquilecchia, ed. Œuvres complètes, ogy, and function and diseases of the nervous system.
vol. V/1. Paris; 1999. Basel: Karger.
Descartes, R. 1632. Traité de l’homme. In C. Adam and Smith, J.E.H. (ed.). 2006. The problem of animal genera-
P. Tannery, eds. Œuvres de Descartes, vol. XI, tion in early modern philosophy. Cambridge: Cam-
119–202. Paris; 1986. bridge University Press.
Descartes, R. 1649. Les passions de l’ame. In C. Adam and
P. Tannery, eds. Œuvres de Descartes, vol. XI,
291–497. Paris; 1986.
P
Peurbach, Georg of (1423–1461) the works of Johann of Gmunden (c. 1380–1442)

and by epistolary contacts with Giovanni
Born: 1423, Peurbach Bianchini (c. 1410–c. 1469) and Nicholas of
Died: 1461, Vienna Cusa (c. 1401–1464). In the 1450s, Peurbach
accepted positions as court astrologer to the
Giorgio Strano King Ladislaus V of Hungary and, later, to the
Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Firenze, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III.
Italy In 1450, while teaching at the University of
Vienna, Peurbach met Johann M€uller of
Königsber, or Regiomontanus (1436–1476),
Abstract who was one of his pupils. Within just a few
years, the two formed a tight astronomical col-
The teacher of Regiomontanus, Georg of laboration. Their observations of comets and
Peurbach was one of the beginners of a thorough eclipses made them aware that the existing astro-
process of modernization of the traditional math- nomical tables were unreliable.
ematical astronomy. Along with several humanistic essays, in 1454
Peurbach completed the Theoricae novae
planetarum. The work (published by
Synonyms Regiomontanus around 1474) was written to
emend the so-called “Theorica Planetarum”, a
Peuerbach, Georg of thirteenth-century treatise erroneously attributed
to Gerardo of Cremona (1114–1187). Peurbach
represents the geocentric cosmos as a system of
Biography solid spheres carrying the three inferior planets
(Moon, Mercury, and Venus), the Sun, and the
Georg of Peurbach was born in the village of three superior planets (Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn)
Peurbach (or Peuerbach), near Linz, Austria. He around the immovable Earth. Inspired by the
matriculated at the University of Vienna in 1446 Liber de mundo et coelo – the Latin translation
and in 1453 was enrolled in the Faculty of Arts. of an astronomical treatise of Ibn al-Haytham
Between 1448 and 1453 he traveled through (c. 965–1039), who in turn derived his theories
France, Germany, and Italy (especially in the from the Hypotheses on the Planets of Claudius
Republic of Venice). Peurbach’s interest for Ptolemy (second century) – Peurbach describes
astronomy matured during this period by reading each planetary sphere as a compound of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_77-1
2 Peurbach, Georg of (1423–1461)
concentric and eccentric orbs. In this way, he the first six chapters of the Almagest abridgment.
provides a physical explanation for the planetary In fact, the Epitome in Almagestum Ptolemei was
movements theoretically described in Ptolemy’s completed by Regiomontanus in 1463 and
masterwork, the Almagest. Due to its clearness, published in 1496. These first six chapters are
the Theoricae was commented upon and reedited actually for the most part a readaptation of
more than 50 times up to the seventeenth century another thirteenth-century text, the Almagesti
and also translated into French, Italian, and minoris libri VI. Notwithstanding such limita-
Hebrew. tions, up to the early seventeenth century, the
Completed around 1459, Peurbach’s Tabulae Epitome became one of the primary reference
eclipsium (published in 1514) was in a minimal texts used by scholars interested in Ptolemaic
part the result of new observations. The work is geocentric astronomy.
based on the same astronomical parameters of the
so-called “Alphonsine Tables”, dating back to the
mid-thirteenth century. Nevertheless, the Cross-References
Tabulae eclipsium has the remarkable advantage
of providing much more user-friendly computa- ▶ Bessarion, Johannes (1408–1472)
tional procedures. ▶ Geocentricism
Peurbach’s and Regiomontanus’s program to ▶ Johann M€uller of Königsber, or
renovate astronomy received a strong encourage- Regiomontanus (1436–1476)
ment by Johannes Bessarion (1408–1472), Arch-
bishop of Nicaea, who arrived in Vienna in 1460
for a diplomatic mission. When the three met, References
Bessarion proclaimed his intention of promoting
the writing of both a new translation and an Secondary Literature
abridged version of the Almagest. Peurbach had Hellman, C. Doris, and Swerdlow, Noel M. 1981.
a good knowledge of Ptolemy’s masterwork, Peurbach (or Peuerbach), Georg. In Dictionary of sci-
entific biography, ed. Charles Coulston Gillispie and
mainly through its two Latin translations pre-
Frederic L. Holmes, 473–479. New York: Charles
pared by Gerardo of Cremona and George of Scribner’s Sons. “Supplement”.
Trebizonde (1395–1473). He immediately agreed Hoskin, Michael, and Gingerich, Owen. 1997. Medieval
to personally take over the burden of preparing Latin astronomy. In The Cambridge illustrated history
of astronomy, ed. Michael Hoskin, 68–97. Cambridge,
the abridgment. In addition, Peurbach and
MA: Cambridge University Press.
Regiomontanus made plans to follow Bessarion North, John. 2008. Cosmos: An illustrated history of
on a trip to Italy. Their aim was to study the Greek astronomy and cosmology. Chicago: The University
astronomical manuscripts which the Archbishop of Chicago Press.
Swerdlow, Noel M. 1996. Astronomy in the renaissance.
had with him and other manuscripts that might be
In Astronomy before the telescope, ed. Christopher
found in that country. B.F. Walker, 187–230. London: Trustees of the British
Unfortunately, Peurbach died in 1461 before Museum.
starting the trip. At that time he had prepared only
S
Scientific Academies process that science underwent in order to be

autonomous from an organic and homogeneous
Giulia Giannini view of knowledge, a view that was exactly the
Max-Planck-Institut f€ur Wissenschaftsgeschichte hallmark of that model in which the academies
(Berlin), Berlin, Germany were born.
Abstract
The expression “scientific academies” tradition-
The first Renaissance academies developed ally refers to those state-supported learned socie-
around the middle of the fifteenth century and ties that, from the second half of the seventeenth
had a primarily encyclopedic character. The century, carried out collective, experimental
main trait of the knowledge cultivated in their research and were regulated by a system of
first phase was the revival of the classical culture. norms or by a formal charter. The emergence of
On the one hand they, fostered a renewed interest academies such as the Royal Society in London
especially in Platonic philosophy, and on the (1660), the Académie Royale des Sciences in
other hand they cultivated the dream of a some- Paris (1666), or the Kurf€
urstlich
what all-embracing knowledge. Brandenburgische Societät der Wissenschaften
Vernacular literature, liberal arts, music, in Berlin (1700) is closely connected with a pro-
mathematics, and the study of nature were all gressive specialization of the different types of
parts, within the fifteenth to sixteenth-century learning that was largely foreign to the Renais-
academies, of a wider landscape of interests. sance conceptions of knowledge. And yet, it is
It is exactly this tension and strife towards a precisely during the Renaissance that the Acad-
unifying and organic picture of knowledge that emy model developed and spread.
threatens any attempt at formulating a classifica- Starting especially with the groups that origi-
tion of themes and contents that were addresses nated c. 1440 around renowned humanists such as
by the first renaissance academies. Ottaviano Rinuccini and Marsilio Ficino
The question of the scientific academy in the (▶ Ficino, Marsilio) in Florence or Pomponio
Renaissance should thus be posed and defined Leto and Cardinal Bessarione (▶ Bessarion,
considering on the one hand the relation with Basil Cardinal) in Rome, hundreds of various
the wider academic phenomenology and on the types of academies flourished and thrived
other hand with the birth and rise of the “new throughout the Renaissance (▶ Academies).
science,” in particular when it comes to the very Many such learned societies entertained close
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_79-1
2 Scientific Academies
connections with the courts, with their dynamics, entertain an organic relationship with more clas-
and with the unstable political and dynastic lives sical forms of learning. Only from the
of the signorie; and all of them depended on the mid-sixteenth century do academies begin to
initiative and the patronage of a prince or an focus on specific disciplines and thus evolve
aristocrat to survive. For this reason, academies into increasingly more formalized and structured
were not only numerous, but also quite ephem- institutions. This process began with literary
eral, often lacking a structure and a defined academies and later developed among scientific
program. institutions – not only were the latter significantly
An almost exclusively Italian phenomenon, fewer than the former but at least until the end of
Renaissance academies are de facto a product of the seventeenth century they often lacked an
humanistic culture, of aristocratic patronage, and organized structure and a program.
of the polycentric cultural life of the time in Italy. The academies devoted to figurative arts and
The first scientific academies were born in this drawing are in this respect an exception. Besides
context and represent, at least at the beginning, a being considered among the most specialized
variation on the humanistic academies of the scientific academies, they were also some of the
Renaissance. most regulated and institutionalized ones. The
In his monumental Storia delle accademie year 1563 marked the foundation of the
d’Italia (5 vol., Bologna, 1926–1930), Michele Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence,
Maylender identifies the Accademia dei Fenici, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari (▶ Vasari,
founded in Milan around 1550, as the first “sci- Giorgio). The academy’s main purpose was to
entific” academy. The activities carried out by foster collaboration between artists, and from
this academy are documented, according to 1569 it also officially included mathematics,
Maylender, in Book I of Bartolomeno Taegio’ Il anatomy, and perspective among its fields of
Liceo (Milan, 1571), which discusses “the order study.
of the Academies and the Nobility.” The ency- The belief that mathematical sciences played a
clopedic program described by Taegio is struc- fundamental role in the new political and military
tured around ten monthly meetings or organization of the state brought Cosimo I to
congregations, each devoted to a different subject create one of the first academies endowed with a
and entirely carried out in the vernacular: dialec- legal status and financed by the state. Like the
tic, rhetoric, poetry, natural philosophy, meta- Académie Royale de Peinture et de
physics, arithmetic, moral philosophy, Sculpture – founded in France in 1648 and
household and state government, and reading of reorganized by Louis XIV in 1661 – the Floren-
academic works. Although it is difficult to deter- tine academy of drawing had a formal charter,
mine whether Taegio is actually referring to the was directly supported by the king and, more
Accademia dei Fenici, the program of activities importantly, included teaching among its activi-
described in Il Liceo appears to provide a faithful ties, something that academies both in the
picture of the relationships between science and Renaissance and in modern times did not nor-
the academies around the mid-sixteenth century. mally offer.
Signs of interests that nowadays would be On the other hand, information regarding the
defined as scientific are also found in other academies devoted to the study of nature is very
“mixed” academies of the time, such as the scarce at least until the Lincean experience.
Accademia degli Infiammati in Padua In the proem to his Secreti nuovi di
(1540–1550), the Accademia Fiorentina maravigliosa virtù (Venice 1567), Girolamo
(Florence, 1541), the Accademia degli Affidati Ruscelli (c. 1518–1566) describes an academy
in Pavia (1562), or the Accademia degli Unanimi “kept and called secreta” that he helped to estab-
in Salò (1564). Among their activities are topics lish in Naples. With the exception of his state-
connected with arithmetic, cosmography, geom- ments, there is no evidence that the Accademia
etry, or philosophy of nature, which in turn Segreta ever existed but it was probably founded
Scientific Academies 3
in the early 1640s when Ruscelli moved to mechanics. Not unlike many other Renaissance
Naples. According to Ruscelli, the aim of the academies, the Linceans had an emblem (the
academy was “to make the most diligent inquiries lynx) and a motto (Sagacius ista). A set of rules
and, as it were, a true anatomy of the things and similar to those found in religious or chivalric
operations of Nature itself.” Even though the orders defined the selection criteria for new appli-
activity of Ruscelli’s group was meant to be cants as well as the ideals and lifestyle to which
kept secret, the members devoted themselves the members would have to conform.
“equally to the benefit of the world in general The Lynceographum (2001), which Cesi
and in particular, by reducing to certainty and began in 1605, regulated every aspect of the
true knowledge so many most useful and impor- Linceans’ life and called for a radical reform of
tant secrets of all kinds for all sorts of people, be learning and customs. The academy was initially
they rich or poor, learned or ignorant, male or designed as a sort of lay confraternity in which
female, young or old.” The Secreti nuovi contains scientific activity was driven by religious enthu-
1,245 recipes that Ruscelli claims were only a siasm. Every work published by one of its mem-
fraction of the “experiments” carried out within bers had to display the title “Lincean” next to the
the academy. Most of them dealt with medicine, name of the author; moreover, members were
the others ranged from alchemical processes and forbidden to belong to any religious order and to
cosmetics to various technical recipes. discuss matters connected with politics or reli-
A similar academy, the Academia Secretorium gion. Cesi put forward a model of knowledge in
Naturae, was founded by Giambattista della which a disinterested form of knowledge
Porta (▶ della Porta, Giambattista) at his home contrasted with the “bookish” learning of the
in Naples in the 1650s. As William Eamon schools as well as with courtly worldliness. In
pointed out, “the nearly identical names of the his project, explained in the Discorso del natural
two academies, their proximity in time and place, desiderio di sapere (1616), the study of nature is
and the similarity of their experimental method- articulated into observation and experimentation.
ologies, was surely no coincidence.” Della Porta However, this emphasis on the value of direct
only mentioned the academy in the preface to the observation of nature and of experimental prac-
second edition of his Magia Naturalis (1589), tice, which became even stronger in 1611 when
which largely consists of a vast collection of Galileo joined the academy, was often relegated
recipes and experiments ranging from medicine to a theoretical level rather than being adopted as
to optics, from crafts to distillation. At least two a real research model. The academy was in fact
artisans, the distiller Giambattista Melfi and the more an ideal community of scholars than a place
herbalist Flavio Giordano, were involved in the for regular meetings. The exchange between
academy’s activity. Nevertheless, not much is members mainly took place in written form,
known about the Accademia dei Segreti, proba- through their correspondence, and the irregular
bly also because of Della Porta’s concerns with academic sessions took mostly the shape of “lec-
secrecy. tures,” presentations of new works, discussions,
Mainly inspired by Della Porta’s work as well and speeches. The Lincean experience, which
as by Paracelsian philosophy and by the encyclo- ceased to exist after Cesi’s death in 1630, was
pedism of the late sixteenth century is the foun- therefore essentially another expression of the
dation of what is probably the most renowned traditional communicative patterns of the Renais-
scientific academy of the Renaissance, the sance academic model.
Accademia dei Lincei. The academy was created Throughout the Renaissance, observation and
in Rome in 1603 by the young nobleman Federico experiments remained mostly a moment of pri-
Cesi (▶ Cesi, Federico) with the help of the math- vate investigation that did not belong to the aca-
ematician Francesco Stelluti, of the Dutch physi- demic sessions in which the results were
cian Johannes van Heeck, and of his relative presented and discussed. It is only around the
Count Anastasio De Filiis, a scholar in second half of the seventeenth century that
4 Scientific Academies
academies finally leave behind the project of an in Germania dal Cinquecento al Settecento. Bologna:
all-encompassing type of learning and the model Il Mulino.
Boschiero, Luciano. 2007. Experiment and natural phi-
of erudite conversation and become a place in losophy in seventeenth-century Tuscany. The history of
which experiments are designed, refined, and the Accademia del Cimento. Dordrecht: Springer.
then communicated through the means of a Brown, Harcourt. 1967. Scientific organizations in
printed publication. seventeenth-century France, 1620–1689. New York:
Russell & Russell. (1. ed.: The Williams and Wilkins
The Accademia del Cimento, founded in Flor- Company, Baltimore 1934).
ence in 1657 by Prince Leopoldo de Medici, is Burke, Peter. 1986. The Italian renaissance: Culture and
probably the first academy of this kind, though it society in Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
lacked a formal charter and official rules. The Cochrane, E. (ed.). 1970. The Late Italian renaissance,
1525–1630. London: Macmillan.
experience of this academy, followed by the Eamon, William. 1996. Science and the secrets of nature:
long lasting and more renowned ones of the Books of secrets in medieval and early modern culture.
Royal Society in London (1662) and of the Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris (1666), Eamon, William, and Paheau Françoise. 1984. The
Accademia Segreta of Girolamo Ruscelli: A sixteenth-
opened a new institutional phase. Academies thus century Italian scientific society. Isis 75(2): 327–342.
ceased to be an almost exclusively Italian phe- Galluzzi, Paolo. 2014. Libertà di filosofare in Naturalibus.
nomenon and gradually became a locus of pro- I mondi paralleli di Cesi e Galileo. Rome: Accademia
duction and dissemination of technical and Nazionale dei Lincei.
Garin, Eugenio. 1992. Fra ‘500 e ‘600: scienze nuove,
scientific learning, thus also opening up to new meodi nuovi, nuove accademie. In L’Accademia dei
knowledge challenges and institutional forms. Lincei e la cultura europea nel XVII secolo:
manoscritti, libri, incisioni, strumenti scientifici, ed.
A.M. Capecchi, C. Forni Montagna, and P. Galluzzi.
Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
References Hall, Marie Boas. 1962. The scientific renaissance,
1450–1630. New York: Harper Torchbooks.
Maylender, Michele. 1926–1930. Storia delle accademie
Primary Literature d’Italia, vol. 5. Bologna: Cappelli.
Cesi, Federico. 2001. Lynceographum: quo norma McClellan, James E. 1985. Science reorganized: Scientific
studiosae vitae Lynceorum philosophorum societies in the eighteenth century, Ch. II: “Origins:
exponitur, ed. A. Nicolò. Roma: Accademia Nazionale Scientific societies in the seventeenth century”, 41–66.
dei Lincei. New York: Columbia University Press.
Cesi, Federico. 1616. Discorso del natural desiderio di McNeely, Ian F. 2009. The renaissance academies
sapere. In Opere scelte, eds. C. Vinti and A. Allegra. between science and the humanities. Configurations
Perugia: Fabrizio Fabbri Editore. 2003. 17(3): 227–258.
Della Porta, Giambattista. 1589. Magia Naturalis, Middleton, Knowles W.E. 1971. The experimenters:
2nd ed. Naples: Horatius Salvianus. A study of the Accademia del Cimento. Baltimore/
Ruscelli, Girolamo. 1567. Secreti nuovi di maravigliosa London: John Hopkins Press.
virtù. Venice: eredi di Marchiò Sessa. Moran, Bruce T. (ed.). 1991. Patronage and institutions:
Taegio, Bartolomeno. 1571. Il Liceo. Milan: Appresso Science, technology, and medicine at the European
Pietro & Francesco Tini. court. Rochester: Boydell.
Rossi, Paolo. 1988. Le istituzioni e le immagini della
scienza. In Storia della scienza moderna e
Secondary Literature contemporanea, ed. Paolo Rossi. Turin: UTET. 5 v.;
Biagioli, Mario. 1996. Etiquette, interdependence, and v. I.
sociability in seventeenth-century science. Critical Waźbiński, Zygmunt. 1987. L’Accademia medicea del
Inquiry 22(2): 193–238. disegno a Firenze nel Cinquecento. Florence:
Bohem, Letizia, and Ezio Raimondi (eds.). 1981. L.S. Olschki.
Università, Accademie e Società Scientifiche in Italia e
T
Tartaglia, NIccolò tells a story about having to interrupt his educa-

tion when he got to the letter “K” in the alphabet.
Born: Brescia, Italy, 1499 or 1500 From then on he was self-taught and studied “the
works of dead men” (Quesiti, bk. VI, question 8).
Died: Venice, Italy, December 13, 1557 During the pillage of Brescia in 1512, he was
seriously injured by Gastone di Foix’s soldiers:
Andrea Bernardoni a sword blow to the face caused permanent dam-
Institute and Museum of the History of Science, age to his jaw and as a result he stammered for the
Museo Galileo, Florence, Italy rest of his life. It was for this reason that he was
called “Tartaglia” – which means stammer in
Italian. In his career as mathematician, he taught
Abstract Abacus in Verona and Mathematics in Venice
where he died in 1557.
Considered one of the greatest Italian algebraists
from 500, he is principally known for his contri-
bution to the solution of cubic equations and the Heritage and Rupture
dispute with Lodovico Ferrari and Girolamo with the Tradition, Innovative
Cardano. Known are his studies of ballistics and and Original Aspects, Impact,
his works as editor and translator of Euclid and and Legacy
Archimedes.
Tartaglia’s name is linked to the history of Alge-
bra, Topography, and Military Science.
Synonyms His most important contribution to Mathemat-
ics concerns the solutions of cubic equations. The
Tartalea; Nicolò Fontana; Tartaia formula was first discovered by Scipione del
Ferro (1465–1526) during the first 20 years of
the sixteenth century, but was never disclosed.
Biography Tartaglia rediscovered the same method in
1535, but he communicated the formula in his
Nicolò Fontana, the real name of Tartaglia, was Quesiti in 1546 after it had been published with-
born into a poor family; his father died when he out the author’s approval by Girolamo Cardano in
was 6 years old and his childhood was beset with his Ars Magna. This led to a dispute between
difficulties. In his Quesiti et inventioni diverse, he Tartaglia and the mathematician Lodovico
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_81-1
2 Tartaglia, NIccolò
Ferrari (1522–1565), a disciple of Cardano. themes were also dealt in Quesiti and in General
Between February 1547 and August 1548, Ferrari trattato di numeri et misure (Venice,
published six Pamphlets (cartelli) which pro- 1556–1560). In the brief treatise Travagliata
voked six replies from Tartaglia (Risposte a invenzione, Tartaglia finally presents a method
Lodovico Ferrari, Venice 1547 [1–4] and Brescia for the salvaging of shipwrecks in addition to
1548 [5–6]). various topics of Technology, Meteorology, and
The mathematical areas developed in the Physics.
replies to the Pamphlets are multiple and refer
to topics such as Calculus, Extraction of Root
Numbers, Calculation of Denominators, Combi- Cross-References
natorial Analysis, and the Calculation of the
Coefficients of the Binomial which culminates ▶ Archimede
in the definition of the so-called Tartaglia ▶ Euclides
triangle. ▶ Galileo Galilei
Tartaglia developed an important role in the ▶ Giordano of Nemore
spread of classical geometrical and mathematical ▶ Girolamo Cardano
theories, publishing the first Italian translation of ▶ Lodovico Ferrari
the Elementi di Euclide (Euclide Megarense, ▶ Scipione del Ferro
Venice 1543) and a collection of writings by
Archimedes edited by William of Moerbeke in
the thirteenth century (Opera Archimedis, Ven-
References
ice, 1543). In 1551 he returned to the works of the
Syracuse scientist and wrote for the Venetian
Primary Literature
editor Curtio Troiano Navò, the commented Ital- Archimedes, Opera Archimedis Syracusani philosophi et
ian translation of part of the first book of De mathematici ingeniosissimi… (Venice, 1543); Archi-
insidentibus aquae, in addition to Opusculum de medes, De insidentibus aquae (Venice, 1565); G.
Cardano, Artis magnae…. (Norimbergae, 1545)
ponderositate by Giordano of Nemore.
Euclide, Euclides Magarense philosopho, solo
Tartaglia also made important contributions in introduttore delle scientie mathematice…. (Venice,
the field of Mathematics to the Military Arts. In 1543) L. Ferrari, Cartelli di sfida matematica (Milano
1537 he published La nuova scienza, a treatise 1547-1548) Jordanus Nemorarius, Iordani Opusculum
de ponderositate (Venice, 1565).
traditionally considered to be the first work deal-
N. Tartaglia, Nova Scientia (Venice, 1537); Quesiti ed
ing with the science of external ballistics based inventioni diverse (Venice, 1546); Risposte to
on Mathematics. Ludovico Ferrari (1–4, Venice, 1547; 5–6, Brescia,
The author presents the new science as a dis- 1548); Travagliata inventione (Venice, 1551);
General trattato di numeri et misure, 6 pts (Venice,
cipline for the use of artillery; however, refer-
1556–1560).
ences to technology and the phenomena
connected to the use of firearms are marginal
compared to those on the movement of bullets Secondary Literature
Antonio, Favaro. 1913. Tartaglia. In Archivio storico
which is the main topic of the book. Tartaglia italiano, vol. 71, 335–372. Roma: E. Loescher.
concludes that, leaving aside air Arnaldo, Masotti. 1969. Tartaglia. In A biographical dic-
resistance – negligible element for heavy bodies tionary of scientists, ed. Trevor I. Williams. London:
Adam & Charles Black.
like artillery bullets in his opinion – the trajectory
Baldi, Bernadino. 1998. Le vite de’ matematici. Milano:
described by them is always curved, and the Franco Angeli.
maximum range can be reached with an elevation Drake, Stillman, and I.E. Drabkin. 1969. Mechanics in the
of 45 . In the treatise some measuring instru- sixteenth-century Italy. Selections from Tartaglia,
Benedetti, Guido Ubaldo, & Galileo. Madison: The
ments are described including the gunner’s quad-
University of Wisconsin Press.
rant which facilitated positioning and elevation Gabrieli Giovanni Battista. 1986. Nicolò Tartaglia:
of the cannon and the ballistic tables. These invenzioni, disfide e sfortune. Siena: Università degli
Tartaglia, NIccolò 3
studi di Siena, Bibliografie e saggi/Centro studi della Matteo, Valleriani. 2013. Metallurgy, Ballistics and Epi-
matematica medioevale; 2. stemic Instruments. The Nova scientia of Nicolò
Tartaglia. A New Edition. Berlin: Edition open access.
B
Brucioli, Antonio Biography
Born: 1498 Brucioli was born in Florence in 1498 into a well-

Died: 1566 established family. He befriended Luigi
Alemanni and was introduced as a young man
Eva DEL Soldato to the meetings of the Orti Oricellari, where he
Romance Languages/Italian Studies, University developed literary and philosophical interests.
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA Despite some sources made of him a pupil of
Francesco Cattani da Diacceto, it is not possible
to connect the two men in a precise relationship
(Dionisotti 1980). In 1522, some members from
the circle of the Orti were involved in a conspir-
Abstract acy against cardinal Giuliano de’Medici: Brucioli
was among them and he left Florence, traveling
Printer and writer, Antonio Brucioli never around Europe and establishing contacts particu-
received a formal philosophical training but larly in France. He went back to Florence in 1529,
developed nonetheless one of the most remark- during the second republic, but he was forced to
able editorial program of vernacular philosophy: leave the city for good when he was accused of
he translated Cicero, Pliny, and most importantly being a follower of Luther. He went therefore to
Aristotle, and composed a series of dialogues, Venice, where he opened a printing press
which recovered motifs from many ancient and together with his brothers and soon devoted his
modern philosophers. His philosophical efforts to a well-known vernacular version of the
achievements – in any case – have been usually Bible, first published in 1532 (Spini 1940a). This
shadowed by his reputation as a heretic and a was not, in any case, Brucioli’s first printed off-
political opponent of the Medici family. Raised spring: in 1526 he had already published the first
in the context of the Orti Oricellari meetings in volume of a series of philosophical dialogues, the
Florence, Brucioli spent the better part of his life Dialogi. Brucioli worked intensely, also in col-
in Venice. laboration with other printers, producing editions
of Petrarch and Boccaccio, but also a vast array of
religious texts, which included commentaries on
Synonyms/Alternate Names the Scriptures and booklets (Spini 1940b).
A significant – and dramatic – turning point of
‘il Bruciolo’ or ‘Bruccioli’ his life happened in 1548, when he had to close
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_89-1
2 Brucioli, Antonio
his printing shop and leave temporarily Venice, (Allen Del Soldato 2014), which were all printed
because of a trial for heresy. When he went back by Bartolomeo Imperatore, the only exception
to the lagunar city, he desperately looked for being the Politics, which was issued by the
patrons and was forced to work even more Brucioli brothers before the forced closing of
intensely than in the past. In 1558, he faced his their printing press. Brucioli was therefore the
third and final trial for heresy (the second hap- first author to translate a vast selection of the
pened in 1555): old and poor, he was granted scientific works of Aristotle in the vernacular, a
home arrest and he died in 1566 (Grendler, Del choice that, as he himself declared in the preface
Col 1980, Barbieri 2007). to the Physics, was largely dictated by circum-
Brucioli was not a professional philosopher, stances, because Bernardo Segni had just finished
but certainly a man of great erudition. This is translating the ethical and rhetorical works of the
clear from his Dialogi, which were devoted to Stagirite at the time. Brucioli needed in fact to
every branch of philosophy (ethics, politics, and work on texts that – until then unattended to aside
economy in the first volume; natural doctrines in from the Politics and the Meteorology – could
the second and in the third; metaphysics in the have earned him the appreciation of patrons and a
fourth; a selection of witty dialogues discarded place in the burgeoning market for vernacular
from the other four volumes in the fifth) and books (Del Soldato forthcoming). His need to
presented a vast array of sources. In certain produce these translations as quickly as possible
passages – and particularly in the first probably explains why – despite the fact that he
book – Brucioli even plagiarized other authors declared that his versions were taken directly
(e.g., Erasmus, see Seidel Menchi 1979; Leushuis from the Greek – they are in reality based on
2013), while showing a preference for utopian Latin translations of the Aristotelian works (Del
topics (Lastraioli 2012): the perfect captain, the Soldato forthcoming). Brucioli’s
perfect city, etc. Despite the scarce originality of translations – which were probably intended for
the doctrines expressed in the books, where both a university audience – did not meet with wide
Platonic and Aristotelian traditions play an appreciation and circulation. The reputation of
important role, the Dialogi were one of the first Brucioli as a heretic made him a controversial
philosophical work to appear in the vernacular, a author, to the extent that his opera omnia was
primacy that Brucioli constantly emphasized in condemned in the Index of Prohibited Books.
the prefaces to each book. The Dialogi, further- Aside from Brucioli’s biographical misadven-
more, offer a fresh outlook on the conversations tures, the absence of commentaries that accom-
that animated the Orti Oricellari (Machiavelli panied the translations weakened their editorial
appears as a character and his ideas are alluded impact as well. Nonetheless, despite the commer-
to from time to time in the dialogues) and some of cial nature of these works, Brucioli achieved the
Venice’s cultural organizations (Procacci 1995, most important corpus of philosophical
Bausi 2015). Between 1526 and 1544 Brucioli vernacularizations of the entire sixteenth century.
constantly revised the dialogues, changing and
adding passages, and modifying the names of
the interlocutors. The other philosophical
Cross References
achievements of Brucioli were mainly transla-
tions. Those of Cicero (the Dream of Scipio and
▶ Bernardo Segni
the spurious Ad Herennium) and Pliny are signif-
▶ Francesco Cattani da Diacceto
icant, but his most important efforts were his
▶ Niccolò Machiavelli
vernacularizations of the Aristotelian corpus
(Boillet 2008). Brucioli translated the Politics
(1547), the Physics (1551), On the Heavens
(1552), On Generation and Corruption (1552),
the Meteorology (1555), and On the Soul (1557)
Brucioli, Antonio 3
References Landi, A. 1988. A proposito di Antonio Brucioli. Archivio

Storico Italiano 149: 331–339.
Allen, G., and E. Del Soldato. 2014. A ghost vernacular Lastraioli, C. 2012. Utopies célestes et terrestre dans la
translation by Antonio Brucioli. Notes & Queries 61: production d’Antonio Brucioli. Morus. Utopia e
353–355. Renascimento 8: 233–245.
Bausi, F. 2015. Il Principe dallo scrittoio alla stampa. Leushuis, R. 2009. Dialogical Strategies,
Pisa. Volgarizzamento, and Ciceronian Ethos in Antonio
Barbieri, E. 2007. Giovanni delia casa e il primo processo Brucioli’s Dialogi Della Morale Filosofia. Quaderni
Veneziano contro Antonio Brucioli. In Giovanni della d’Italianistica 30: 39–66.
Casa, ed. S. Carrai, 31–69. Rome Leushuis, R. 2013. Antonio Brucioli and the Italian recep-
Boillet, E., ed. 2008. Antonio Brucioli. Humanisme et é tion of Erasmus: The Praise of Folly in dialogue. In
vangélisme entre Réforme et Contre-Réforme, Actes The reception of Erasmus in the early modern
du colloque de Tours, 20–21 Mai 2005. Paris. period, ed. K. Enenkel, 237–260. Leiden.
Brucioli, A. 1526. Dialogi. Venice (then edited by Pierno, F. 2005. L’ultimo è stato il Bruccioli. . .: Antonio
A. Landi, Naples: Prismi, 1982). Brucioli et le rôle de la langue vulgaire. In Perspec-
Brucioli, A. 1528–1529. Dialogi. Venice. tives franco-italiennes-Prospettive italo-francesi. Sé
Brucioli, A. 1537–1538. Dialogi. Venice. minaires du CEFI 2000–2002, ed. L. Badini
Brucioli, A. 1544–1545. Dialogi. Venice. Confalonieri, 243–259. Rome.
Cantimori, D. 1937–1938. Rhetoric and politics in Italian Pincin, C. 1984. Antonio Brucioli. Simulatore cartaginese.
humanism. Journal of the Warburg Institute 1: Un portolano cinquecentesco. Belfagor 29: 531–544.
83–102. Procacci, G. 1995. Machiavelli nella cultura europea
Corsaro, A. 2009. Manuscript collections of spiritual dell’età moderna. Rome/Bari.
poetry in sixteenth century Italy. In Forms of faith in Richardson, B. 1994. Print culture in renaissance Italy:
sixteenth-century Italy, ed. A. Brundin, M. Treherne, The Editor and the Vernacular Text 1470–1600.
33–56. Aldershot-Burlington. Cambridge.
Del Col, A. 1980. Il controllo della stampa a Venezia e i Seidel Menchi, S. 1979. La circolazione clandestina di
processi di Antonio Brucioli. Critica storica 17: Erasmo in Italia. I casi di Antonio Brucioli e di
457–510. Marsilio Andreasi. Annali della Scuola Normale
Del Soldato, E. (forthcoming). The best works of Aris- Superiore di Pisa 9: 573–601.
totle’: Antonio Brucioli as a translator of philosophy. Spini, G. 1940a. Tra Rinascimento e Riforma. Antonio
In Vernacular Aristotelianism in Italy from the Four- Brucioli. Florence.
teenth to the Seventeenth century, ed. L. Bianchi, Spini, G. 1940b. Bibliografia delle opere di Antonio
S. Gilson, J. Kraye. London Brucioli. La Bibliofilia 42: 129–180.
Dionisotti, C. 1980. Machiavellerie, Turin. Ventura Avanzinelli, M. 1986. Il “luterano” Brucioli e il
Grendler, P. 1977. The Roman inquisition and the venetian suo commento al libro della Genesi. Bollettino della
press, 1540–1605. Princeton. Società di Studi Valdesi 159: 19–33.
Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_90-1
Cajetan, Thomas de Vio

Born: 20 February 1468, Gaeta
Died: 10 August 1534, Rome
Simone Guidi*
SAPIENZA University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Abstract
A Dominican philosopher and theologian, among the main representatives of sixteenth-century
Aristotelianism and perhaps the greatest Renaissance commentator on St Thomas’s works. He is
known for his restatement of the doctrine of the analogy of being and for his innovations in
psychology.
Caietano; Cajetan; Gaetano
Biography
A Dominican philosopher and theologian. Born in Gaeta on 20 February 1468. Died in Rome on
10 August 1534. Among the most notable representatives of Dominican Aristotelianism, De Vio
entered the Order at the age of 16 and studied in Naples, Bologna, and Padua. He became Padua
University’s professor of Thomist metaphysics, a post he held from 1494 to 1497. In Padua, where
he was known as Cajetan, he came into contact with, and often debated with, the followers of Scotus,
like Trombetta, and of Averroes, like Vernia, Pomponazzi, and Nifo. He later taught theology in
Pavia (1497–1499) and philosophy at La Sapienza University in Rome (1501–1508). He was a
senior official in the Dominican Order and in 1508 became its General Master. He was made a
cardinal in 1517. From then until 1519, he was a legate in Germany, where he was involved in
debates with the Lutherans (Cossio 1902; Groner 1951). In 1523–1524 he was in Hungary, where he
dedicated his last years to study and writing.

Cajetan’s work mainly belongs to the tradition of scholastic commentary (developing the ideas of
previous authors), of which he is perhaps the greatest representative. His philosophical and spiritual
guide is mainly Thomas Aquinas, most of whose works he commented on thoroughly. He became
the main defender of Aquinas’s ideas against those of Scotus and Averroes’s followers, which were
becoming prevalent in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Although his thought is set out
*Email: simoneguidi@live.it
Page 1 of 5
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_90-1
as comments on Thomas’s, De Vio’s Aristotelianism has its own original features which in some
cases reinterpret or even modify Aquinas’s doctrines. It is in this respect in particular that Cajetan’s
work was to become a constant point of reference for the doctrines (and the debates) of Spanish
Aristotelians, especially Jesuits, who discussed his positions in depth. The most important and
original concepts put forward by De Vio are to be found in metaphysics and psychology.
Metaphysics, The Doctrine of Analogy

Concerning metaphysics, Cajetan is well known for his views on the doctrine of analogy, which
emerges in particular in his commentary on Thomas’s De Ente et Essentia (see Cajetan 1558) and is
founded on the prior distinction between the “formal” concept and the “objective” one, through
which De Vio develops two senses of the very concept of a being (Gilson 1953; Reilly 1971; Porro
1995; Riva 1995). The first sense, the formal one, is the concept of the representation, generated by a
possible intellect, of the thing understood. In this sense then, the being serves as a single represen-
tation that brings together substance and accident, God and His creatures, all sharing the status as
beings. The second sense, the objective one, is the concept of the thing itself represented by the
formal concept, taken as the thing that is known through representation. In this second sense then,
the being is not something general and shared by all realities, but is actually a real something that
may be assigned to types and categories. By denying the being the possibility of representing in
general something objectively common to all realities – substances and accidents, Creator, and
things created – De Vio thus puts himself, with Thomas, in opposition to the view put forward by
Duns Scotus, whose concept of a being was as a definite objective reality above any incidental
categories. Scotus, according to the Dominican, makes the mistake of confusing the formal concept
of a being with the objective concept, thus making the being, in its most general sense as a
representation, into an objectively real something preexisting in any particular being. From there,
Cajetan had to give an account of whether it was possible for a being or its essence to represent
something analogically or univocally stable of the substance or of the accident or of God or His
creatures, a question De Vio answered by formulating a proposal that was to have great influence on
later scholars (McCanles 1968; Ashworth 1995; Porro 1995; Krause 1999). He distinguished
between “equivocal” concepts, i.e., those cases where the same word has different meanings, and
“univocal” concepts, where one word has the same meaning, and “analogous” concepts, those where
the same word has a meaning that is in a sense the same but in a sense different. Where and when are
terms considered analogous? Analogy can be meant in two different ways: one is in “attribution,”
i.e., based on the fact that different terms share a relationship to a term that is primary and
paradigmatic for the whole set, while the other is in “proportionality,” where a relationship between
two terms can be established only in that there is a proportion between them. As far as essence and
being are concerned, only this latter form of analogy is possible, since between God and His
creatures, there is no sharing of essence or reality in a univocal sense, but only a parallelism based
on a proportion. So the formal concept of a being represents what is generally understood to be the
essence of whatever it is, including substance and God, whereas in the objective sense, a being can
be considered a being in common with other beings only by the nonunivocal means of proportion-
ality. The doctrine of analogy put forward by Cajetan then goes together with his positions
concerning the real distinction between being and essence, set out by the Dominican still in
opposition to Scotus and Trombetta and in accordance with what Thomas’s teaching on the matter
was believed to be (Porro 1995). De Vio was among the supporters of the reality of that distinction,
because essence, he argued, always owes its existence to reality independent of it. Being therefore
has to be understood in an essentialistic sense, since existence is not, except in God’s case, a
predicate of essence, and everything that has being is made up of characteristics defining its essence.
Page 2 of 5
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By taking this turn toward admitting a real distinction between essence and existence and allowing
an essentialistic view of reality, in a way far removed from the primacy of actus essendi that had
seemed to emerge here and there in Thomas’s work, Cajetan actually opened the way toward the
deeply essentialistic version of Thomism (Gilson 1953; Krause 1999) that was to typify Spanish
scholasticism (Ashworth 1995, 2008).
Psychology
From the psychological point of view (Cajetan 1938; Laurent 1938; Gilson 1961), De Vio again
stayed close to Thomas Aquinas, whose thought he “tidied up” and restated. Cajetan held, like
Aquinas, that the act of understanding should be thought of as an “objective” illumination and that
the first principles of the intellect are known through sense experience, like the whole of human
experience. On the other hand, concerning the human soul, De Vio gave a proof of its immortality
and asserted its individuality in disagreement with the materialists, the skeptics, and the Paduan
followers of Averroes (Gilson 1961). Like Aquinas in De Unitate Intellectus, he held that the
immaterialness of mental operations – volition and cognition – revealed the simplicity of the soul
and its separability from the body. It is worth noting, however, that on this point Cajetan’s
interpretation actually parts company with the doctrines that Aquinas had set out in various versions
not always consistent with each other, contributing again to creating a reworked version of Thomism
that was to be popular over the following decades and finding in a sense a compromise with the
major attacks it had been subjected to by Franciscans and by followers of Averroes from the
thirteenth to the fifteenth century.
Cajetan supersedes Thomas’s doubts (and his inconsistencies) about, for example, the separability
of the soul by considering it “praeternaturalis,” i.e., supernatural, rather than, as Thomas had said in
his Contra Gentiles IV, 79 “anti-natural” (a description he would himself move away from in his
Summa Theologiae I, 89). Practically then, De Vio thought of the soul, as some of the main Jesuit
thinkers would, not just as potentially separable and capable of continued existence outside the body
but as separate from it by its very nature, thus breaking with the identification of the soul with the
form of the body in Thomas’s thought in opposition to Averroes’s and Plato’s. Accordingly, De Vio
himself ended up arguing that the separate soul is more or less the same as an angel-like intellect,
which practically paves the way toward thinking of the soul in its separated state as identical with the
person’s intellect – a position that would naturally lead into the kind of intellectualistic concept of
mind that would steadily, right through to Descartes, become consolidated among the eclectic
thinkers in the Aristotelian school, eating away at the foundations of the strong hylomorphism of
the Champion of the Dominicans. Lastly, it should be remembered that De Vio, while clearly an
opponent of Averroism as has been said, nevertheless explicitly denied, as a matter of history, that
Aristotle’s De Anima had meant to defend the immortality and uniqueness of the soul, thus
conceding victory to Averroes on the question of interpretation, though not that of doctrine, a
position that was to be used against the Aristotelians themselves a few years later by Pomponazzi in
his Tractatus de immortalitate animae (Gilson 1961).
Cross-References
▶ Agostino Nifo
▶ Pietro Pomponazzi
▶ Thomism-Renaissance Philosophy
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_90-1
References
Primary Literature
Cajetan T (1506) Commentaria super tractatum de ente et essentia Thomae de Aquino; super libros
posteriorum Aristotelis et praedicamenta. Simon de Luere, Venice
Cajetan T (1512) Super libros Aristotelis de Anima. Rome
Cajetan T (1558) Opuscola omnia. Portonarius, Leiden
Cajetan T (1587) In praedicabilia Porphyrii praedicamenta et libros posteriorum analyticorum
Aristotelis castigatissima commentaria. Joannam Jacobi Juntae, Venice
Cajetan T (1888) Summa Theologiae cum commentariis Thomae De Vio Caietani Ordinis
Praedicatorum S. R. E. Cardinalis cura et studio Fratrum eiusdem ordinis. Ex Typographia
Polyglotta, Rome
Cajetan T (1938) Commentaria in De Anima Aristotelis. Institutum Angelicum, Rome
(1935) Il Cardinale Tommaso De Vio Gaetano nel quarto centenario della sua morte. Milano.
Addition to Rivista di filosofia neo-scolastica
Allaria, Giovanni, et al. (1969) 5 Centenario della nascita del cardinale Tommaso De Vio. Roma-
Gaeta
Ashworth EJ (1992) Analogical concepts: the fourteenth-century background to Cajetan. Dialogue
31:399–413
Ashworth EJ (1995) Suárez on the analogy of being: some historical background. Vivarium
33:50–75
Ashworth EJ (2008) Les théories de l’analogie du XIIe au XVIe siécle. J Vrin, Paris
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and Neumann, W€ urzburg
Cossio A (1902) Il cardinale Gaetano e la riforma. Fulvio, Cividale
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Gilson É (1953) Cajetan et l’existence. Tijdschr Philos 2:267–286
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du XVIe siècle. Arch Hist Doctrin Litt Moyen Age 36:163–279
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Fribourg
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Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, M€ unster
Krause A (1999) Zur Analogie bei Cajetan und Thomas von Aquin: eine Analyse. Hallescher, Halle
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Scholasticism 56:51–79
Laurent MH (1938) Le Commentaire de Cajétan sur le “De Anima”, Introductio to Thomas De Vio
Cardinalis Caietanus, Commentaria in De Anima Aristotelis. Institutum Angelicum, Rome
Maurer A (1966) Cajetan’s notion of being in his commentary on the sentences. Medieval Stud
28:268–278
McCanles M (1968) Univocalism in Cajetan’s doctrine of analogy. New Scholasticism 42:18–47
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Meagher R (1970) Thomas Aquinas and analogy: a textual analysis. Thomist 34:230–253
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Nominum Analogia”. Vrin, Paris
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Porro P (1995) Il commento del Gaetano al De Ente et Essentia, Appendix to Tommaso d’Aquino
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Page 5 of 5
C
Cattani da Diacceto, Francesco Synonyms/Alternate Names
Born: 1466 il Diacceto; il Ghiacceto; il Pagonazzo
Died: 1522
Biography
Eva Del Soldato
Romance Languages/Italian Studies, University Cattani was born in Florence in 1466 into an
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA ancient and prosperous family. From 1487 he
studied in Pisa under Oliviero Arduini, an Aris-
totelian who also cultivated an interest in Plato.
Cattani never finished his university studies, and
in 1492 he returned to Florence, where he joined
the circle of Marsilio Ficino. During this period,
Abstract
and after Ficino’s death, Cattani taught several
courses on Aristotelian philosophy, first in
Francesco Cattani da Diacceto was the most
the Studio Fiorentino and then at the
beloved student of Marsilio Ficino and a leading
University of Pisa. He attracted the attention
personality in Florentine cultural and political
of Gasparo Contarini, who repeatedly
life at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
attempted – unsuccessfully – to bring him to the
Despite his clear preference for Platonism, he
University of Padua (Jedin 1959). In the mean-
was also trained in Aristotelian philosophy. His
time, Cattani began corresponding with Pietro
most important works are devoted to the prob-
Bembo and Girolamo Querini, a relationship
lems of beauty and love, framed in a canonical
that was probably born out of their common asso-
Neoplatonic structure. He was also interested in
ciation to the Camaldolese order (Lackner 2002),
literary and linguistic matters, as testified by his
and he became a prominent member of the circle
participation in the meetings of the Rucellai Gar-
of the Orti Oricellari (the Rucellai Gardens)
dens and his network of correspondents, which
where he exercised a strong influence on younger
included Pietro Bembo, Girolamo Querini, and
Florentines and met Gian Giorgio Trissino, who
Gian Giorgio Trissino.
greatly admired him. He also associated with the
members of the Accademia Sacra, where he
entered into contact with Michelangelo, who
may have been influenced by his doctrines.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_94-1
2 Cattani da Diacceto, Francesco
Cattani even held important public offices after celestial grace has to be sought in the angelic
the return of the Medici to Florence: a few nature, and not above, because the One is
months before his death, he was named deprived of beauty for its absolute simplicity.
Gonfaloniere di Giustizia. This motif is recovered, as Cattani himself
Cattani had a deep knowledge of Aristotelian declares, from Plato’s Parmenides and from the
philosophy because of his own intellectual for- negative theology of Dionysius the Areopagite.
mation and his experience as a teacher. His atti- The motion of the soul from beauty to God is
tude toward the relationship between Aristotle what we call love, and the soul itself is the knot of
and Plato, a subject of intense debate at the the universe, which must maintain an equal dis-
time, is therefore complex. According to Cattani, tance from the Angel – which is superior – and
modern philosophers abused Aristotle, distorting the body, which is inferior. According to Cattani,
his ideas and neglecting Plato. Cattani reacted by therefore, the human soul is of an ambiguous
attempting to revive Platonic doctrines and argu- nature, capable of inclining up or downward.
ing that Aristotle and Plato in fact agree on almost None of Cattani’s works were printed during
everything, in particular on the existence of his lifetime, though numerous copies circulated
demons, the fifth essence, and even the immor- in manuscript form. The fact that Cattani never
tality of soul (Kristeller 1946). Nonetheless, published anything while alive, together with the
Cattani was probably interested in demonstrating imposing presence of Ficino as a teacher of Pla-
the harmony between Plato and Aristotle only tonism, significantly limited the influence of his
insofar as it helped to legitimize Platonism. philosophical doctrines in both the short and the
Cattani never composed a treatise devoted to the long term. Apart from Florentine Platonists (such
harmony between Plato and Aristotle, despite as Francesco Verino the Elder) and a handful of
having announced several times that he would exceptions (most notably Mario Equicola,
do just that, and he rejected the solution offered Baldassare Castiglione, and, at the end of the
in the De ente et uno by Giovanni Pico della century, Francesco Verino the Younger and
Mirandola (with whom he polemicized on more Paolo Beni), Cattani is usually assigned a mar-
than one occasion). When engaging with another ginal role, even in contemporary lists of authors
vexata quaestio, the relationship between Plato- who wrote on love. Nonetheless, the degree of
nism and Christianity, Cattani emphasized the posthumous fame that Cattani did not receive as a
similarities between the two, but when they con- philosopher was granted to him as a vernacular
flicted declared that Christian truth was inevita- author (Del Soldato 2013). In the 1550s, the
bly superior. Cattani was nonetheless very vernacularizations of the Panegyricus and De
faithful to Neoplatonic exegesis, to the extent of amore gained the admiration of a number of
not including in his works the innovations pro- members of the Accademia Fiorentina: this
posed by Ficino. His ideas are expressed in texts renewed interest in Cattani led to the publication
related to his university lessons (paraphrases and of a printed edition of his works, edited by
prolusions); in his letters; in the Panegyricus accademici like Frosino Lapini, Benedetto
(ante 1508) and the De amore (1508), of which Varchi, and Francesco Cattani the Younger
Cattani made a vernacular version as well (a grandson of the philosopher). Among the
(Panegirico allo amore and I tre libri d’amore, members of the Accademia, Cattani was evi-
both around 1511); and, mainly, in his most sig- dently regarded as a pioneer because of his early
nificant work, De pulchro (1496–1514). In the interest in the vernacular, an interest which was
Panegyricus, De amore, and De pulchro, Cattani founded on a reasoned attempt to reconcile the
argued for the traditional Platonic association linguistic theories of Aristotle and Plato. In the
between exterior beauty and interior goodness. dedicatory letter to the I Tre libri d’amore,
Following Ficino’s exegesis of the Symposium, Cattani had in fact stated that since exterior dis-
Cattani advocated physical beauty as the first step course is an image of interior discourse, which is
toward the divine, despite the fact that the universally immutable, there is no reason why
Cattani da Diacceto, Francesco 3
one exterior artificial language should be pre- Della Torre, A. 1902. Storia dell’Accademia Platonica di
ferred to another. That is why secrets of philoso- Firenze. Florence.
Dionisotti, C. 1980. La testimonianza del Brucioli. In
phy cannot be expressed more appropriately in Machiavellerie: Storia e fortuna di Machiavelli,
Latin or Greek rather than in volgare, since the 193–226. Turin.
choice of writing philosophy in the vernacular Ebbersmeyer, S. 2002. Sinnlichkeit und Vernunft: Studien
does not imply a renunciation of its elitist char- zur Rezeption und Transformation der Liebestheorie
Platons in der Renaissance, 136–46. Munich.
acter: philosophy is selective by nature, regard- Fabroni, A. 1791–1795. Historia Academiae Pisanae,
less of the language used to express it. 3 vols. Pisa.
Fellina, S. 2014. Francesco Cattani da Diacceto: la
filosofia dell’amore e le critiche a Giovanni Pico
Della Mirandola. Noctua 1: 28–65.
Cross-References Furlan, F., and S. Matton. 1993. Baptistæ Alberti Simiæ et
de nonnullis eiusdem Baptistæ apologis qui nondum in
vulgus prodiere: Autour des intercenales inconnues de
▶ Accademia Fiorentina
Leon Battista Alberti. Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et
▶ Antonio Brucioli Renaissance 55: 125–35.
▶ Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Garin, E. 1952. L’umanesimo italiano: Filosofia e vita
▶ Marsilio Ficino civile nel Rinascimento, 33–36. Bari: Laterza.
Jedin, H. 1959. Contarini und Camaldoli. Archivio
▶ Orti Oricellari
italiano per la storia della Pietà 2: 59–118.
▶ Platonism Kristeller, P. O. 1946. Francesco da Diacceto and Floren-
tine Platonism in the sixteenth century. In Miscellanea
Giuseppe Mercati, vol. 4, 260–304. Vatican City
(repr., Studies in renaissance thought and letters,
References 4 vols. [Rome, 1956–96], 1:287–336).
Lackner, D. F. 2002. The camaldolese academy:
Primary Literature Ambrogio Traversari, Marsilio Ficino and the Chris-
Cattani da Diacceto, F. 1526. Panegirico allo amore. tian Platonic Tradition. In Marsilio Ficino: His theol-
Rome. ogy, his philosophy, his legacy, ed. Michael J. B. Allen
Cattani da Diacceto, F. 1561. I tre libri d’amore, con un and Valery Rees, with Martin Davies, 15–44. Leiden.
panegirico all’amore; et con la vita del detto autore, Scapecchi, P. 1998. Tra il Giglio e l’Ancora: Uomini, idee
fatta da Benedetto Varchi. Venice. e libri nella bottega di Manuzio. In Aldus Manutius and
Cattani da Diacceto, F. 1563. Opera omnia Basel (repr. renaissance culture: Essays in memory of Franklin
2009), ed. S. Toussaint. Enghien-les-Bains. D. Murphy; Acts of an international conference, Ven-
Cattani da Diacceto, F. 1986. De pulchro libri ice and Florence, 14–17 June 1994, ed. David
III, ed. Sylvain Matton. Pisa. S. Zeidberg, with Fiorella Gioffredi Superbi, 17–30.
Florence.
Toussaint, S. 2014. Francesco Cattani da Diacceto
Secondary Literature commentateur du Banquet. Note néoplatonicienne. In
Ammirato, S. 1615. Delle famiglie nobili fiorentine, Commenter et philosoper à la
2 vols., vol. 1, 5–20. Florence. Renaissance, ed. L. Boulegue, 163–170. Lille.
Bowd, S. D. 2002. Reform before the reformation: van den Doel, M. J. E. 2010. Ficino, Diacceto and
Vincenzo Querini and the religious renaissance in Michelangelo’s presentation drawings. In The making
Italy. Leiden. of the humanities. I, ed. Rens Bod, Jaap Maat, Thijs
Celenza, C. 2007. Francesco Cattani da Diacceto’s ‘De Weststeijn, 107–132. Amsterdam.
pulchro,’ II.4, and the practice of renaissance Plato- Varchi, B. 1561. Vita di Francesco Cattani da Diacceto.
nism. Accademia 9: 87–98. In I tre libri d’amore, con un panegerico
Del Soldato, E. 2013. The elitist vernacular of Francesco all’amore, ed. Francesco Cattani. Venice.
Cattani da Diacceto and its afterlife. I Tatti Studies in Verde, A. F. 1973. Lo Studio fiorentino 1473–1503, II,
the Italian Renaissance 16: 343–362. 218–222. Florence.
P
Pietro Pomponazzi De fato, or the De incantationibus (both of

these published posthumously): in all of
Born: Mantua 1462 them, Pomponazzi denied that the immortality
of the soul, human freedom, or supernatural
Died: Bologna 1525 explanations for certain events, like miracles,
could somehow go well with Aristotle, the
José Manuel García Valverde paradigm of rationality still in the early six-
Departamento de Estética e Historia de la teenth century.
Filosofía, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
Biography
Abstract
Pietro Pomponazzi (Mantua 1462–Bologna Pietro Pomponazzi was born into a prominent
1525) was undoubtedly one of the most impor- family of Mantua in 1462. Probably influenced
tant philosophers of his time. After receiving by his familiar context, he was always proud to be
his doctorate in arts from the University of a Mantuan: this could be seen in his own writings,
Padua in 1487, he spent most of his life there where he never missed an opportunity to cite the
as well as in Bologna teaching natural philos- verses of another famous Mantuan, Vergilius
ophy and commenting the books of Aristotle Maro – usually called by him “Vergilius noster.”
with great success. His work went beyond the In 1484, Pomponazzi entered the University of
purely scholastic realm and caused an enor- Padua. There, he was lectured by three important
mous controversy which finally did not culmi- scholars who played a decisive role in the forma-
nate in an official process against Pomponazzi tion of his own thinking (Pomponazzi always
because of the intervention of Cardinal Pietro professed great affection for them). Francesco
Bembo, among others. Pomponazzi’s main Neritone taught him the metaphysics of
intention was to analyze thoroughly the most St. Thomas and gave him the theoretical bases of
important premises and elements of Aristote- Thomism. Pietro Trampolino taught him natural
lianism in order to determine whether or not it philosophy, imbuing him with the elements of
could fit in with the great dogmas of Christian Aristotle’s psychology. And, finally, Pietro
thought about the world and human beings. Rocobonella, professor of medicine, showed him
The result of this analysis was a handful of the interconnection between the body and soul
writings of great historical significance such and made him well aware of its importance to
as the De immortalitate animae (1516), the get effective therapeutic procedures.
# Springer International Publishing AG 2017
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_100-1
2 Pietro Pomponazzi
In 1487, Pomponazzi obtained his doctorate in Antonio Surian, and the humanist Lazzaro
arts and almost immediately lectured on natural Bonamico. Over these years, the academic suc-
philosophy in Padua, soon achieving the respect cess of Pomponazzi was enormous: in 1504, the
and consideration of his students: in a letter to senate granted him the exemption to be subject to
Tommaso Lippomanno dated October 4, 1489, students vote at the end of the course. As a matter
Francesco Gonzaga – illustrious countryman of of fact, thanks to the work of his disciples, a
Pomponazzi – precisely mentioned the “opinione collection of courses delivered in this transitional
grande già concepta e stabilita” that the students period has come down to us: among other manu-
had of the knowledge and personality of his scripts, we have those which compile his com-
teacher. According to the curriculum of this uni- ments on Book III of Aristotle’s De anima, a
versity, Pomponazzi had to expose the natural Quaestio de materia caeli, a Lectura super
books of Aristotle (De anima, Physica, De 8 Physicorum, and some Quaestiones de
caelo, and De generatione et corruptione) and immortalitate animae, de unitate intellectus,
the commentaries of Averroes; on holidays, he quomodo fiat intellectio (Pomponazzi 1966).
discussed the Meteorologica and the Parva In 1509, Pomponazzi, who had lost his first
naturalia. woman, was claimed by the Duke of Ferrara,
In 1492, Pomponazzi held the chair of ordinary Alfonso d’Este, to take up a professorship at the
philosophy “secundo loco”; 3 years later, he university of that city. Pomponazzi achieved the
received his doctorate in medicine, which pro- dispensation of his contract at the University of
moted him to the chair of ordinary philosophy Padua from the Venetian Senate, and head to
“primo loco.” His concurrens was Agostino Nifo Ferrara, where he stayed only 1 year since the
(Suessanus), who would eventually become a war between Venice and the League of Cambrai
powerful opponent in the debate on the immortal- forced to close those Studia (a little before also the
ity of the soul. Pomponazzi always felt for him a University of Padua had to suspend all its
deep aversion that he could barely hide behind activities).
academic courtesy. From Mantua, where he had lived for nearly
After 8 years of teaching in Padua, 2 years, Pomponazzi went to Bologna to lecture at
Pomponazzi moved to the court of Alberto Pio its university as ordinary professor of philosophy.
in Carpi, where he served as professor of logic He remained in Bologna until his death in 1525.
and, together with Alberto Pio himself, studied the In 1516, Pomponazzi published his Tractatus
English mathematician Richard Swineshead de immortalitate animae, which immediately
(Calculator). As a result of the confrontation caused a bitter controversy from which
between Alberto and his brother, the former was Pomponazzi tried to defend over the next 3 years
forced to leave his city and head into exile in (Pomponazzi 2013b). Ambrogio Fiandino, Suf-
Ferrara, where his court stayed. Pomponazzi fragan Bishop of Mantua, was the first to lead a
remained there until 1499, when he was sum- severe criticism from the pulpit against the doc-
moned from Padua to succeed Nicoletto Vernia, trine contained in the De immortalitate animae.
who had just passed away. Despite this, in a face-to-face interview in Bolo-
In this second Paduan period, Pomponazzi had gna that year, Fiandino denied Pomponazzi hav-
illustrious concurrentes like Achillini, Nifo him- ing attacked him and announced that Agostino
self, Francanziano, and Bacilieri. Also, at this Nifo was preparing a text against the De
time, Pomponazzi had some brilliant students immortalitate. At the same time, some Dominican
who shone in different areas afterwards, such as friars in Venice denounced Pomponazzi as heret-
Gasparo Contarini –future Cardinal – with which ical to the Patriarch of Venice, Antonio Contarini.
Pomponazzi always maintained a cordial and He resolved the complaint condemning
affectionate relationship beyond their doctrinal Pomponazzi. The sentence was approved by the
differences over the immortality of the soul; dis- Senate of Venice, which also instigated a public
ciples of him were also Andrea Mocenigo, burning of his book, whose sale was banned. In
Pietro Pomponazzi 3
addition, the book was sent to Cardinal Pietro Vicar, ordered that the book of Pomponazzi had to
Bembo so he would take action, but he did not be accompanied by a formal rebuttal of the mortal-
find any heresy in it, nor did Silvestro Mazzolini, ity of the soul. Then, the latter wrote to Crisostomo
Master of the Apostolic Palace. In the meantime, Javelli – a prominent Dominican theologian – ask-
in Bologna, some prominent theologians attacked ing him to redact some Solutiones to reaffirm the
Pomponazzi’s book in their lectures, but did not idea that the immortality of the soul was an article of
write any work against him. Among those theolo- faith. In this letter addressed to Javelli, Pomponazzi
gians, Vincenzo Colzade ran the Dominican protested about the fact that his position had been
school of Bologna and was Master of Bartolomeo completely misunderstood: he had never tried to
Spina, who would become one of the fiercest demonstrate the mortality of the soul, but only
opponents of Pomponazzi. Likewise Pietro wanted to highlight that this was the position that
Manna, renowned Thomist theologian, criticized better fit Aristotle’s doctrine. Furthermore, he
Pomponazzi and shared an important epistolary accepted without reservations the immortality of
relationship based on the question of immortality. the soul as an article of faith. Apparently convinced
Over the next 3 years, Pomponazzi was the of Pomponazzi’s fideism, Javelli accepted his
object of very harsh criticism. One of the attacks request and wrote those Solutiones which
came from Silvestris of Prieras, a theologian at the guaranteed the publication of the Defensorium. In
court of Leo X who probably did much to ensure any case, neither in the Apologia nor in the
that the Pope publicly recriminated Pomponazzi. Defensorium did Pomponazzi retracted the doctrine
Indeed, this finally happened on June 13, 1518; exposed in his previous Tractatus de immortalitate
Leo X ordered him to keep his teaching in accor- animae (Nardi 1965, p. 27).
dance with the doctrine of the Lateran Council. Throughout 1520 and probably the beginning
However, the discreet intervention of Cardinal of 1521, Pomponazzi worked in two of his most
Pietro Bembo, Papal Secretary, succeeded in important books: the De naturalium effectuum
revoking the warning and aborting the process causis sive de incantationibus and the Libri
before it could begin. Meanwhile, the scandal quinque de fato, de libero arbitrio et de
failed to undermine the academic authority of praedestinatione (Pomponazzi 2004a, 2011b). In
Pomponazzi, for that year he was released from the first, the author addressed the analysis of por-
the obligation to teach with a concurrens and tentous events under the assumption that they
allowed to choose the books and passages he were simple deceits or must be explained as nat-
would comment on his public readings. Besides, ural events whose very raison d’etre is in the
in 1518, Pomponazzi published his Apologia in course of nature and in natural laws. In the second,
Bologna on February 3, although it is likely that Pomponazzi tried to prove that Aristotelianism
he had completed it at the end of 1517 represented not only a hostile domain for the
(Pomponazzi 2011a, 2013a). The work is com- immortality of the soul but also for individual
posed of three books of variable length. Very freedom. Probably fearing that the controversy
interesting from the biographical point of view, over the De immortalitate animae would inten-
the third narrates in first person the different epi- sify, Pomponazzi decided to leave unpublished
sodes of the controversy over the immortality of the manuscripts of these two works. They were
the soul happened hitherto. edited posthumously, both in Basel: the first in
Even in 1519, the difficulties related to the con- 1556 and the second in 1567. Also in 1520, his
tention did not stop. The Defensorium, i.e., the brother, Pier Giovanni, passed away and
extensive response that Pomponazzi had written to Pomponazzi took charge of his two children,
Agostino Nifo’s De immortalitate animae adversus Marco and Giulio, whose maintenance and edu-
Pomponatium (published in Venice in October cation were carefully looked after.
1518), was blocked by ecclesiastical authorities In 1521, the De nutritione et augmentatione
(Valverde 2010). The inquisitor Giovanni was edited in Bologna (Raimondi 2013). It is an
Teorfinnis and Alessandro de Peracinis, General extensive writing on the issues which the title
4 Pietro Pomponazzi
announces. Pomponazzi had finished it in early service of theology to explain, clarify, and defend
September: it was his last work. In 1524, the principles of the Christian doctrine; this way,
Pomponazzi got sick from kidney stones. He the Philosophi were invited to sustain the dogma
was forced to interrupt his lecture of the De of the immortality of the individual soul, to do so
partibus animalium (Pomponazzi 2004b; Perfetti by means of compelling and persuasive argu-
2004). In the manuscript, collected by a disciple, ments, and to refute those who were against this
the disruption of Pomponazzi’s teaching is dogma (Di Napoli 1963, pp. 220–221; Nardi 1965
recorded. Given the worsening of the disease, p. 25; Kristeller 1979, p. 192–194).
Pomponazzi issued his will in May. Just 1 year In the background of the Bull, there was pre-
later, on May 18, 1525, Pietro Pomponazzi died. sent a tradition – especially consolidated at the
Two days after that, a direct witness of his last universities of Northern Italy – by which their
period, Antonio Brocardo, related the terrible suf- teachers publicly commented on the texts of Aris-
fering of his Master in a letter, stating that he totle aiming to make them understandable to their
refused to eat and speak. Finally, on his last students and scrutinize the consequences of these
night, he dared to say he was leaving happy. One texts as well as those of their most outstanding
of his disciples asked him where he was going, to commentators. In this sense, Averroes was in a
which he responded: “where all mortals go.” Just privileged position, as is known. This purpose
a month earlier, the Tractatus acutissimi had was explicitly carried out in the field of natural
been published in Venice: this volume collected reason, not in that of faith, whose superiority was
all his edited writings, except for the aforemen- recognized beforehand, thus leaving the way open
tioned De incantationibus and the De fato, and his to philosophical discussion.
Dubitationes in quartum meteorologicorum, which With regard to the question of the nature of the
appeared posthumously in 1563 (Pomponazzi soul, a debate which had been started by Italian
2013c; Perfetti 2012; Valverde 2013). Aristotelians from the late fifteenth century
became heated during the early sixteenth century
in spite of the Bull of Leo X. Among the different
The De immortalitate animae: interpretations of the psychology of Aristotle,
A Naturalistic Vision of Aristotle’s those which came from the Averroists were
Psychology doubless many and widespread, but the alterna-
tive via of Alexander of Aphrodisias gradually
In December 1513, the Fifth Lateran Council, at gained general agreement: his paraphrase of
its eighth session, finally approved the promulga- Aristotle’s De anima was translated into Latin
tion of the Bull of Leo X entitled Apostolici for the first time in 1495 (Kessler 2011,
regiminis. The text reissued the condemnation of pp. 49–81). In any case, it is true that the variety
the Council of Vienna in 1311 against all those of approaches to the texts of the Master was enor-
who dared to deny or doubt the immortality of the mous, specially throughout the sixteenth century,
rational soul or considered it as unique for all men. with the result that they are barely covered under
It dictated that all those authors or supporters of the headline “Renaissance Aristotelianism.” Such
any doctrine which might suppose an attempt a variety was also the motor of an interesting
against the Christian dogma of the soul should exegetical and doctrinal polemic around the ques-
be pursued as heretics. Likewise, the text ordered tion of what had been the real thinking of Aristotle
professors of philosophy to refute these doctrines with respect to the immortality of the soul
in their university teaching. This last mandate (Di Napoli 1963, pp. 179 ff.; Poppi 1970, p. 22;
really forced the philosophers to play the role of Pine 1986, pp. 55 ff.). Some commentators, in
theologians and second the ecclesiastical task of fact, stressed those texts in which Aristotle had
preventing the spread of teachings which could explicitly stated the special character that the
turn off toward fields unacceptable for the theo- intellect had with respect to other psychic powers;
logical orthodoxy. Philosophy was then at the others emphasized the unquestioned hylomorphic
Pietro Pomponazzi 5
character that, in Aristotle’s opinion, the structure Now, was Aristotle categorical about denying
of living beings had. So, what appeared to be, after the human soul a separate entity? Did he consider
all, the perfecting factor of something could not be that rational thought and the knowledge that came
separated from that of which it was the perfection. from it could be understood as any other activity
In short, this was a discussion – not free from of a living being? Aristotle had definitely
influences coming from outside Aristotle’s own approached this question in a problematic man-
texts – that reflected a living and dynamic Aristo- ner: “In most cases it seems that none of the
telianism (Schmitt 1983). affections, whether active or passive, can exist
Clearly, in this area, the texts of Aristotle not apart from the body. This applies to anger, cour-
only were not hospitable to a perfectly finished age, desire and sensation generally, though possi-
and seamless doctrine, but also the brevity and bly thinking is an exception. But if this too is a
lack of clarity with which he sometimes expressed kind of imagination, or at least is dependent upon
his own thought gave rise to different lines of imagination, even this cannot exist apart from the
interpretation regarding the question of the sepa- body” (De anima, I.1, 403a6-10). This is the dis-
rable nature of the human soul (at least, with junctive hypothesis from which Aristotle sets out
respect to its most perfect manifestation, thought). the question of the separability of the soul: if the
This question had a double character, epistemo- human soul is separable, it must possess an activ-
logical as well as biological. From this second ity that properly belongs to it, carried out without
perspective, the soul is – in Aristotle’s opinion – the assistance of the body and labeled as immate-
only the principle of the activity of a living being. rial. May thought be such an activity? In this
Thus, in this, we may differentiate (perhaps only passage, Aristotle seems to postpone the answer,
conceptually) inert matter from this principle but he clearly states the condition on which it
which organizes matter, gives it biological func- depends: it is necessary to verify that thought
tions, and this way allows to develop a series of has not any sensory dependence. Pomponazzi
activities that go from a lesser to a greater range of turned his attention to the cited text and affirmed
perfection. This is the famous hylomorphism of that, taking into account what Aristotle said in De
Aristotle, a concept prominently manifested in anima III (“when one contemplates one must
this general definition of the soul given in De simultaneously contemplate an image”), the
anima II.1, 412a29: “The soul may therefore be answer that Aristotle finally gave was absolutely
defined as the first actuality of a natural body negative: human intellectual activity, like the rest
potentially possessing life.” Therefore, every of the activities we are able to execute, is linked to
activity of a living organism lies in its soul as the the body, in this case, through sensory perception.
very principle of such an activity, since all living Pomponazzi’s view of this question, which had
beings, from plants to men, are unified under that an illustrious precedent in Alexander of
common definition beyond the degree of com- Aphrodisias, did not exhaust its enormous com-
plexity of their activities. It was obviously an plexity. If we appropriate here Husserl’s famous
effective conception, but it closed, or seemed to noesis-noema distinction, we can say that to think
close, the road to the possibility that the soul is in a certain aspect a paradoxical fact: it is
might be a separate entity from that matter to individual but its result can be universal; it is the
which it brings life. The soul must be understood, product of a temporarily defined process, but it
then, as the true source of the vital functions of a can transcend all limits of time. Every cognitive
living being, and if this living being – of which the act has a structure whose base is inevitably linked
soul is a part – dies, it dies, too. This is valid both to sensory perception, never common, and yet, in
for plants and for animals, and eventually also for the end, the building to be erected is unique and
men, even though the human soul possesses a valid for all, that is to say, science. Theoretically,
relative greater complexity and the activities of a the man who thinks does not do it only for him-
human being are more perfect. self. In fact, he wishes to get a truth that belongs to
all men in every historical moment. Thinking is, in
6 Pietro Pomponazzi
short, an immanent activity that all men are able to that principle is transcendent and unique for all
do, since we are, after all, biological entities. Its men, or rather a single principle belonging to the
own nature responds to a biological scheme: it is a faculties of the subject. The beginning of the
process that progressively actualizes the possibil- aforementioned fifth chapter seems clear with
ities that are present in an individual human being, respect to the fact that Aristotle points out that
so that it is only a continuous improvement for a this principle is present in the human soul. All the
man who keeps in himself future perfections: same, despite this, the attributes he subsequently
nothing is more biological. However, despite gives to it suggest a transcendent nature: it is
this, to think is also a transcendent act because it described as separable, unmoved, without any
gives us the opportunity to rise above our own mixture, and in a state of continuous activity by
existential limits and allows us to project our its very essence (De anima, III.5, 430a18-19).
activity onto a universal level. Many have considered that from the perspective
Given this ambiguity, many philosophers have of Aristotle, these attributes can never belong to a
wondered to what extent the act of thinking principle completely immanent to an individual
belongs to the individual who exercises it. For thinking subject so as to speak of a transcendent
sure, the person who does it is this man, the one active intellect.
who is perfected and the acquired perfection first Moreover, around this debate on the transcen-
belongs to him. Nevertheless, can it be ensured dence or immanence of the agent intellect, another
that this act has been done by him with only his equally problematic debate was raised with con-
own intellectual instruments, or must he perhaps sequences far more important than those located
share his authorship with a higher reality? From exclusively in the epistemological field: can we
the textual information we have at our disposal, it situate some kind of immortality in the thought of
is evident that Aristotle faced this problem, and Aristotle beyond that which he explicitly attrib-
the solution he found had the incredible potenti- uted to separate entities in Metaphysics XII? Or, in
ality to compensate the reader for its lack of clarity other words, is it conceivable that the extraordi-
by being an endless source of stimulus to nary nature Aristotle gives to the poiētikós noûs
reflection. involves some kind of immortality for our own
Hence, the problem to be solved was twofold: advantage? If many participated in the discussion
first, it was necessary to explain how it is possible on the external or internal nature of the active
for the material world to act on us and produce intellect, many more debated whether or not, on
intellectual knowledge, that is, how this world can the basis of its immortality, we may aspire to some
be at the origin of an activity which has an intan- sort of individual immortality from an Aristotelian
gible nature. On the other hand, Aristotle also had point of view. The question was really difficult to
to explain how we may be able to exceed the resolve. Those who decided to confront the opin-
knowledge of the individual and take hold of ion of Alexander of Aphrodisias could do so only
universal structures, namely, how to transcend by emphasizing the intrinsic nature of the active
the realm of the particular sensory experience intellect (as is known, in his De anima, Alexander
and achieve with (rather than in spite of) it uni- of Aphrodisias identified the agent intellect with
versal concepts. Aristotle said basically that the the first cause and stressed the perishable nature of
passage from the thing sensorily perceived to the the human soul. Like Pomponazzi eventually,
intelligible concept, from the particular to the Alexander regarded intellective activity as one of
universal, was possible only through the interven- the operations linked to the body since it required
tion of an active principle which he called images from the senses). These Aristotelians had
poiētikós. It is true that the style of the text in to face not only Alexander of Aphrodisias in his
which Aristotle mentioned this principle (De role of renowned commentator of Aristotle’s
anima, III.5) is particularly laconic. Those who works but also those others like Themistius,
have commented on it in the course of history Simplicius, or much later, Averroes himself, who
have questioned whether, in the mind of Aristotle, had held a collective noetic and rejected more or
Pietro Pomponazzi 7
less explicitly the possibility of an individual our soul depends on the corporeal and material,
immortality (Nardi 1958). The grand champion and due to its plurality, it can be understood only
of anti-Averroism placed St. Thomas, but among from its relationship to the body, never as an
Arabs Avicenna had tried to reconcile, in an independent entity. Finally, Pomponazzi sustained
unusual pirouette, the immortality of the individ- that the origin of the soul can only belong to the
ual soul with the common nature of the active same process of natural generation that produces
intellect. the compound of which the soul is itself an insep-
The question of the origin of the soul was also arable part. Only this way can Aristotle’s text be
linked to this issue as an indivisible part of saved, as well as the intermediate position attrib-
it. Cardinal Bessarion had already emphasized uted to man between the upper beings and merely
that, according to Aristotle’s approach, it was earthly creatures. Rereading the Platonic topos of
necessary to establish full reciprocity between man as a microcosm, Pomponazzi considered the
the terms “immortal” and “ungenerated” as well human soul as the most perfect of material forms
as between “corruptible” and “generated,” which since it possesses some activities that bring it
made the immortality of the soul a parte post a closer to the Intelligences, which were the only
conception alien to the Aristotelian principles. entities Aristotle recognized as pure forms sub-
Pomponazzi echoed this argument at the begin- sisting by themselves. However, this resemblance
ning of his De immortalitate animae and put it of activities between the soul and the celestial
directly in the Debits column of St. Thomas’ doc- Intelligences is always limited: “since it is the
trine: “Beloved teacher, in former days when you noblest of material things and lies at the boundary
were expounding the first book of De caelo to us, of immaterial things, it savours somewhat of
and had come to that place in which Aristotle tries immateriality, but not unqualifiedly. Whence it
to show by many arguments that the ungenerated possesses intellect and will, in which it agrees
and the incorruptible are convertible, you set forth with the gods; but rather imperfectly and equivo-
the position of St. Thomas Aquinas on the immor- cally, since the gods themselves are completely
tality of the soul. Although you were in no doubt abstracted from matter, while it knows always
that it is true and most certain in itself, yet you with matter, since it knows with phantasms, with
judged that it is in complete disagreement with succession, with time, with discursiveness, with
what Aristotle says” (Pomponazzi 1956, p. 281). obscurity. Whence in us intellect and will are not
St. Thomas, in fact, had to go to the direct inter- truly immaterial things but relatively and to a
vention of God to explain that the rational soul slight extent.” (Pomponazzi 1956, p. 322).
does not have its origin in the same process of This was for Pomponazzi the only way one can
natural generation which produces the other souls, bridge the enormous gap between those beings
but it is created by God and introduced into the who operate completely independently of matter
compound at the culmination of that process. and those whose being is totally sunk in matter.
In his De immortalitate animae, Pomponazzi Indeed this bridge cannot be built from an impov-
formulated his own idea of the nature and destiny erishment of the first beings, but rather from a
of the soul from the criticism that he had previ- kind of sublimation of the second by the intellec-
ously made of Averroes and St. Thomas’ doctrine. tual activity that only men are capable of exerting
In opposition to both, Pomponazzi thought that (Perrone 2005). Notwithstanding, this activity,
the human soul is in itself mortal and immortal certainly able to go up into the abstract and uni-
only in a certain aspect or, in other words, it is versal natures, was subjected to a process which in
essentially mortal and only relatively immortal. the case of men inevitably departed from the
Also, in contrast with Averroes and St. Thomas, images of the senses. Hence, Pomponazzi insisted
Pomponazzi affirmed that, if the soul is to be the that the human intellect required bodily organs
form of human beings in the full sense, it has to which provided the initial object of its activity.
lack a separate and distinct entity. This is because This does not mean, as he himself pointed out, that
in all its activities, including those of the intellect, the intellect must be identified with the corporeal
8 Pietro Pomponazzi
sense or that it must be placed in a specific organ limitations of those conditions to grasp universals
as vision in the eye: “Whence we say that the and truth. Knowing demands a body, though it
intellect does not need the body as subject in its does not take place in any localized part of the
knowing, not because knowing is in no wise in the body (Randall 1956, p. 273; Kessler 1988, pp.
body, since if the intellect is in the body it cannot 485–534).
be that its immanent operation is not in it in some Thence, Pomponazzi probably wanted to stay
fashion. For where the subject is, there must be the away from the reductionism of Galen, who had
accident of the subject. But knowing is said not to already considered the intellect as a mere organic
be in an organ and in the body only in so far as it is principle. Yet, doing so, he had to set up a difficult
not in it in a quantitative and corporeal manner. doctrinal equilibrium: the soul is essentially mate-
Wherefore the intellect can reflect upon itself, rial and only in an incidental way immaterial.
think discursively, and comprehend universals, Naturally, this could be accomplished only by
which organic and extended powers cannot do at minimizing the importance of those texts in
all. But all this comes from the essence of the which Aristotle (following Anaxagoras) clearly
intellect, since as intellect it is not dependent on claimed the unmixed nature of the intellect in the
matter or on quantity. But if the human intellect sense that the material elements do not interfere in
depends on matter, this is as it is joined to sense; its activity or expressly said (De anima, III.4–5)
whence as intellect it is accidentally dependent on that it is immaterial and immortal or that it origi-
matter and on quantity. Wherefore its operation nally comes from a source external to natural
also is no more abstracted than its essence. For, generation (De generatione animalium, II.3).
unless the intellect possessed something that Without doubt, Pomponazzi was aware of these
could exist by itself without matter, its knowing texts and the difficulties that their interpretation
could not be exercised except in a quantitative and involved, as well as of the apparent hesitations of
corporeal way.” (Pomponazzi 1956, p. 318). Aristotle himself: “From all of which’ it is obvi-
The theoretical framework of this discourse is ous that many things said by Aristotle about the
placed on the conception that there are three intellect seem mutually contradictory, when they
modes of separation from matter corresponding really are not at all. For he says at times that it is
to the three ways of knowing that we can find in material and mixed, or not separable, but at times
the universe: there is (a) the total separation from that it is immaterial and separable. For in the
matter by which the Intelligences know and, on definition of the soul it is said that it is the act of
the other hand, there is (b) the lowest separation an organic body; but at times it is said that it is not
from matter by which the sensitive powers know, the act of any body. These seem indeed contradic-
in need of a body both as their subject and as their tory. Whence different men have turned into dif-
object and limited to particulars. But there is (c) a ferent paths, and some think that Aristotle did not
third and intermediary kind of separation in which understand himself” (Pomponazzi 1956, p. 324).
the body is required as object, but not as subject: Pomponazzi estimated that when Aristotle
the human intellect. It is a material form, a bodily expressed his own opinion about the intellect in
function generated by the parents and not by spe- this way, he did so by referring to an intellect per
cial divine creation. Certainly, it represents the se different from that present in man. The intellect
supreme and most perfect of material forms, qua human depends on images, and because this
though unable to operate in any way or existing dependence is linked to the body by close bonds,
without the body. However, in conclusion, the its possible separation is therefore precluded. The
soul’s essential operation of knowing shows that intellect qua intellect belongs to the celestial Intel-
in a certain manner, it participates in immortality, ligences, which occupy the highest hierarchy of
as it can grasp the universal and the immaterial. In the universe. However, Pomponazzi did not want
short, while knowing requires material condi- to enter upon a discussion on the type of relation-
tions, and is thus the activity of a human body, it ship between that intellect per se and our intellect.
does not function materially, but rises above the He simply states that the human intellect is moved
Pietro Pomponazzi 9
to the reception of all the images by an active Pomponazzi thought that the only mediation
intelligence that is not a part of it. With regard to between animals’ sensory perception and the
our own intellectual activity, this separate noûs pure and separate intellect is that which makes
has the same causality as the universal motor possible the human intellect, but this mediation
with respect to the reception of forms by prime does not involve the immortality of our soul.
matter. It has already been indicated (Pine 1986, Undoubtedly, Pomponazzi made a courageous
p. 77; Valverde 2012) that there is a certain reading of Aristotle’s texts; despite the fact he had
Averroist tone in this assumption, which involves some precedents (Gilson 1961, pp. 173–183; Di
that knowledge is something imposed rather than Napoli 1970, pp. 214–226; Perrone 1999,
the product of human creativity. In the Peripatetic pp. xxvii–xxix), we must recognize that he went
tradition, the function of abstracting universal further than anyone else in the thesis that, from the
concepts from sensory perception belonged to Aristotelian discourse, the nature of the human
the active intellect, so if, as Pomponazzi seemed soul in its totality is mortal. He also wanted to
to opine, man lacked this power, then it lacked the examine and refute all the extraneous moral and
capacity to abstract the intelligible forms from pragmatic arguments for immortality. To know
perceptible data. It is possible, in fact, that the soul is mortal is in fact a great achievement
Pomponazzi had to sacrifice on the altar of coher- since it makes possible a secular and human
ence something as important as the creative capac- morality at last, corroborating this way those
ity of the human mind. This was the toll that he values the humanists held dear. The whole
had to pay for defending the idea that the active human race is like a single man with differing
intellect is alien to the natural constitution of members. All men should communicate in three
human beings, an idea crucial to build his thesis intellects – the theoretical, the practical, and the
of the integral materiality and mortality of man. productive – for no man fails to possess some-
He tried to explain (or maybe mitigate) this posi- thing of each. The general end of mankind is to
tion by means of that ontological scale where participate relatively in the theoretical and pro-
human beings occupy such privileged position ductive intellects, but perfectly in the practical. If
that permits them to have a soul which, not ceas- man is mortal, every man can have the end which
ing to be a material form, is capable of giving suits man from a universal point of view, though
them the highest activity in the universe: abstract not what suits the most perfect part. And this
thinking. In that imperfect version we are able to power can make almost everyone blessed. For
pursue, this activity can only be a very pale imi- the rewards and punishments of the hereafter,
tation of that fullness of Intelligences, for Pomponazzi has only scorn. The essential reward
Pomponazzi strongly denied any ontological link of virtue is virtue itself, and the real punishment of
between men and the divine. Indeed, he openly vice is vice itself. As he says in Chap. 14 of his De
criticized Averroes for placing human happiness immortalitate, if one acts virtuously with hope of
in the union of the active intellect with the possi- reward, his act is not considered as virtuous as that
ble. Pomponazzi built this criticism by turning to of one who expects no external reward. And he
common experience: how many men were who is punished externally, thereby, diminishes
engaged in the study? It was evident that many that guilt which is the greatest and worst punish-
more lived as if they did not have any interest in ment of vice (Randall 1956, p. 274).
science and knowledge (Bianchi 2003). Further- This courageous statement, strongly
more, the way men reach the knowledge of the influenced by Stoicism, is one reason among
universal, that is, through a slow and uncertain others which emphasizes Pomponazzi’s historic
discursive process, demonstrated by itself, importance (Kristeller 1983). Ernest Renan cor-
according to Pomponazzi, that our nature is quite rectly stated that Pomponazzi really represented
another of the separate intelligences, which can the living thought of a time, a brave spirit who
reach such knowledge immediately and intui- adapted scholastic teachings to a new age (Renan
tively. From an Aristotelian point of view, 1852, p. 281). But in his eagerness to offer his
10 Pietro Pomponazzi
students and readers a firm alternative to Tho- The De incantationibus

mism and in his zeal to observe strictly the basic
principles of Aristotelianism, he brought to light This naturalistic perspective addressed by
its inconsistencies, these of a philosophy that was Pomponazzi to explain Aristotle’s psychology
gradually losing its supremacy in the face of new was also applied to other natural fields. He
ways of thinking. One can say, as Pine did (Pine showed that in nature, there is an orderly unifor-
1986, p. 345), that Pomponazzi unwittingly mity of law which does not admit miracles nor
staged the intimate contradiction which the Aris- demons or angels or even any direct divine inter-
totelian explanation of the intellect and the intel- vention. This conception had some precedents
lectual activity involved because it is remarkable precisely in the ranks of Mediaeval and Renais-
that, even if Pomponazzi emphatically affirmed sance Aristotelians. For them, the universe is
that corruption of the organic functions produced moved by the Prime Being, i.e., the first of the
the disappearance of the human intellect, he did separated Intelligences which generate the motion
not dare to openly state its organic nature; other- of the heavenly spheres; just under them, the
wise, he preferred to hide behind that immaterial- sublunary field is the arena of birth and decay.
ity secundum quid, whose lack of definition was As Pine says (Pine 1986, p. 235), this entire ema-
criticized later. This latent conflict appeared in nation proceeds through an eternal, necessary
Pomponazzi in a double form: first, the more he structure controlled by the Prime Mover Himself.
analyzed all the psychic functions, the more he From a strict Peripatetic point of view, the multi-
found their essential unity and continuity. Thus, it plicity of natural effects needs a multiplicity of
was impossible to attribute organic characteristics intermediary causes, not the direct activity of the
to the lower faculties without also doing so to the Prime Mover. These intermediary causes can only
highest. In contrast to this, he was aware that, if be the Intelligences which move the heavenly
the intellect was considered as an organic and spheres. But, as the activity of these Intelligences
material entity, its activity would also be limited is eternal, constant, and necessary, it is clear that
in space. This had very dangerous consequences the possibility of miraculous suspensions of natu-
since, how is it possible to explain that an organic ral processes must be laid aside. However, those
faculty is able to generate a universal and objec- Aristotelians, as Christians, were able to recog-
tive knowledge? How can it be possible that what nize that God is the real creator of nature; as such,
is limited in time and space is able to produce He can impede or suspend natural laws at will.
conceptually knowledge unlimited in time and These two perspectives – one denying miracles
space? At this crossroad, we find a Pomponazzi and the other admitting them – can be formulated
not fully defined between a materialistic natural- by the same Aristotelians, but taking into account
ism and a peripatetic tradition that in one way or that each of them belongs to a different plan.
another emphasized the essentially immaterial Rather that affirming a kind of “double truth,”
nature of our mind. This tension between the they subordinated the Aristotelian view to the
organic and the immaterial, the corporeal divisi- Christian view noting that science produced prob-
bility and the spiritual indivisibility, between able theories rather than absolute truths, which are
mind and body in short, was in fact a constant present only in the realm of faith and sacred
feature of many Renaissance Aristotelians. On the revelation.
one hand, they tried to explain the psychology of When Pomponazzi wrote his De
Aristotle defending the integral unity of all the incantationibus (which remained unpublished),
faculties of the living being. On the other, they he took the path that Albert the Great, Roger
wanted to explain the special character of human Bacon, Siger of Brabant, or Pietro d’Abano had
beings by integrating an external and superior previously mapped out, but once again, he went
principle in that unity. further. He sought to explain all miraculous cures
and events through purely natural causes, through
natural powers and the constant and regular
Pietro Pomponazzi 11
influence of the heavens. When such events really Confronted with these effects of the occult, it is
occurred, they had to be understood as natural not surprising that the rude ascribed them to God
phenomena rather than miracles. Therefore, and demons, even if their cause was perfectly
Pomponazzi tried to incorporate them into a uni- natural. The existence of these natural and occult
versal law conforming to the normal processes of properties in mineral, plant, and animal life leads
nature. Some of these strange things could be inevitably to the conclusion that they must also
tricks of unscrupulous people or mere figmenta exist in man. “As a microcosm combining and
of imagination. Nevertheless, it is impossible – uniting the vegetative, sensitive, and intellective
Pomponazzi admits – to explain all them as effect powers found in nature, man’s own being must
of trickery or credulity: many reputable historians also possess, in some degree, the same properties
have reported them as true stories. No doubt, such which his constituent parts possess in nature”
things happened, Pomponazzi said, but they were (Pine 1986, p. 242).
caused by conjunctions of the heavenly planets Pomponazzi also gives a naturalistic account of
guided and directed by the divine Intelligences. the origin and development of religions: “Those
Unlike Pico’s denial of astrology as incompatible men who are not philosophers, and who indeed
with human freedom, Pomponazzi tried to make are like beasts, cannot understand how God and
an orderly and rational science of the stars, the heavens and nature operate. Therefore, angels
opposed to all superstition. In his Apologia, edited and demons were introduced for the sake of the
for the first time in 1518, he stated: “All prophesy, vulgar, although those who introduced them knew
whether vaticination, or divination, or excess, or they could not possibly exist. For in the Old Tes-
speaking with tongues, or the invention of arts and tament many things are alleged which cannot be
sciences, in a word, all the effects observed in this understood literally. They have a mystic sense and
lower world, whatever they be, have a natural were said because of the ignorant vulgar, which
cause.” Thus, the recorded and related miracles cannot understand anything not bodily. For the
of religion are not events contrary to the natural language of religions, as Averroes said, is like
order, but they are merely unaccustomed and rare. the language of poets: poets make fables which
The very conception of an immaterial spirit pre- though literally impossible yet embrace the truth
cludes any particular operation: “In vain do we of the intellect. For they make their stories that we
assume demons, for it is ridiculous and foolish to may come into truth and instruct the rude vulgar,
forsake what is observable, and what can be pro- to lead them to good and withdraw them from evil,
ved by natural reason, to seek what is as children are led by the hope of reward and the
unobservable, and cannot be proved with any fear of punishment. By these bodily things they
verisimilitude” (Apologia, II, Chap. 7). “No effect are led to the knowledge of what is not bodily, as
is produced upon us by God immediately but only we lead infants from liquid food to food more
through the means of his ministers. For God solid.” (De incantationibus, Chap. 10). All reli-
orders and disposes everything in an orderly and gious phenomena are thus products of the eternal
smooth manner and imposes an eternal law on laws of motion. In this view, religions are seen as
things which it is impossible to transgress” (De governed by the eternal cycle of birth, growth, and
incantationibus, Chap. 1). decay. Controlled by heavenly powers, these
Many wondrous events, as for example the cycles produce the new religions from within the
miraculous cures, can be explained as natural if dying forms of the old religions. With the intro-
we understand the special properties inherent in duction of new religious ceremonies, old ceremo-
all natural beings, many of which used in medi- nies and usages corrupt, “just as with the
cine. The properties of herbs, stones, minerals, introduction of the male sperm, the menstrual
and parts of animals can affect the body in three cycle disappears” (De incantationibus,
ways: by direct alteration of the body, by indirect Chap. 12). Therefore, religions are born and die
alteration through the transformation into vapors, like all things human; for their renewing, striking
and finally, by invisible or occult properties. signs are needed among men. And powers are
placed in nature, whose exercise is rarely called existence of different moral dispositions, are just
for. “Since a change of religion is the greatest of evident expressions of the diversity present in
all changes, and it is difficult to pass from the nature, which is necessary for its coherence no
familiar to what is most unfamiliar, for the new less than the divergence of animal, plant, and
religion to succeed there is need that strange and mineral natures. There can be no question here
surprising things be done. Whence on the advent of justice or injustice and cruelty or kindness for
of a new religion men making ‘miracles’ are pro- two reasons: the universe requires this diversity
duced by the heavenly bodies and are rightly for its order and the fixed compositions of all
believed to be sons of God. It is with religions as natures indicate, again, that God cannot alter the
with other things subject to generation and cor- smallest aspect of the universal order. Thence,
ruption: we observe that they and their miracles within human history, the oppression of the poor
are weak at first, then they increase, come to a by the rich, the weak by the aggressor, and the
climax, then decline, until they return to nothing. martyr by the tyrant is all a necessary working out
Whence now too in our own faith all things are of human dispositions. A balance is, nevertheless,
growing frigid, and miracles are ceasing, except achieved by historical cycles which will insure
those counterfeit and simulated, for it seems to be that one day the oppressed will be oppressors,
near its end.” (De incantationibus, Chap. 12). the strong weak, and so on: “Humana enim
natura – Pomponazzi said – est quoddam
universum” (De fato, II, Chap. 7). We see that
The De fato just like some men live veluti Dii (e.g., all the
prophets and saints), others live like animals and
In the De fato, libero arbitrio, et de show the same habits as lions, vultures, or wolves.
praedestinatione (written in 1520 though But this should not to be imputed to a perverse
unpublished like the De incantationibus), will in God himself. The greatest advantage of the
Pomponazzi made his choice between human Stoic system, Pomponazzi concluded, was that it
freedom and natural law. After a detailed survey removed such imputation of evil from God. The
of the attempts to reconcile freedom and provi- varying dispositions of men, which under the
dence, he concluded that none of them had heavenly influence produce the saint, hero, and
succeeded. Not being a satisfactory answer to warrior, are not the result of a free divine act.
this dilemma, only the Stoics had the most con- Rather, they are part of an eternal, universal struc-
sistent theory in this regard. Accordingly, the ture, unalterable in its very nature. Therefore,
order and structure of the universe is the result of good and evil exist as an integral part of the
direct divine intention; therefore, having eternal, unalterable structure of the universe, and
established the most rational order possible, God the human will is simply an element in this eternal
will not change it since any change would imply a process.
destruction of the eternal coherence of nature. As Anyhow, this Stoic determinism that
Pomponazzi himself declared, God is “crippled by Pomponazzi extracted from the core of Aristote-
nature” (De fato, II, Chap. 7). So, even God’s lian physics (Perrone 2004, p. lxiii) is not his final
freedom is limited by the order that He has word. In books III through V, he proposed a novel
established. At the same time, the movement of Christian solution to the problem of divine prov-
the heavens, stemming from the Prime Mover idence versus free will. This was nothing less than
Himself, gives rise to a chain of causes which an attempt to develop a rational Christian theol-
controls man by establishing the disposition of ogy as an alternative to this Aristotelian-Stoic
his nature and the directions of his actions. In determinism and involved a great shift in method
conclusion, God and man are chained to an eter- for Pomponazzi. All his earlier treatises stressed
nal, cyclical order of causes and neither is truly the opposition between reason and faith. Indeed,
free (Pine 1986, p. 297; Perrone 2004, p. xi). The they maintained the opposition of these two
great variety in human habits and customs, and the modes on the ground that faith is either
superrational or irrational. Now, one could find independent theological system which sought to
that Pomponazzi explicitly wanted to defend the protect the essentials of faith and illuminate cer-
religious view of providence after accepting the tain aspects of it through dialectic. Thus, the pro-
assumptions of faith. As Pine and later Perrone posal to do theology was for Pomponazzi a pose
said, the complexity of the De fato consequently which allowed him to ridicule the wisdom of God
made it entirely different from Pomponazzi’s by reducing it to a series of theological absurdities
other works. The previous opposition between a whose emptiness was revealed through philo-
rational philosophy and a superrational faith was sophical examination (Di Napoli 1970,
then dissolved. In its place, we find a dialectic pp. 185–186; Pine 1986, p. 306).
between two different rational arguments. The More recent scholars, as the aforementioned
first, based on pure reason alone, defends the strict Pine and Perrone, have stressed, on the contrary,
Stoic-Aristotelian determinism, while the second the complex and problematical character of the
seeks to discover, within the givens of revelation, last books of Pomponazzi’s De fato, which cannot
a basis for divine and human freedom (Pine 1986, be reduced to a mere trick to discredit the Chris-
p. 302). tian theologians’ attempt to demonstrate human
This dramatic change of perspective in freedom. In fact, he never rejected the basic attri-
Pomponazzi’s procedure has been interpreted in butes of the Deity as given by Christian revela-
very different ways. Giovanni Di Napoli, for tion: an omniscient, omnipotent Deity who freely
example, says that Pomponazzi played the role created the universe out of His own goodness.
of the theologian only to deride Christian doc- What he vehemently excluded were all the tradi-
trine, proclaim the absurdity of predestination, tional attempts to square these characteristics of
and in the end reduce the Christian God to an the Deity with human freedom. In other words, he
immoral monster. The first question we must condemned the traditional theological formula-
ask – says Di Napoli – is: does Pomponazzi seri- tions of Thomism, Scotism, and Ockhamism.
ously present a theological study in the last three Since none of these was the equivalent of faith,
books of the De fato? Di Napoli’s answer is neg- one must hold that in his exploration of Christian
ative: such a study would indicate full acceptance theology, Pomponazzi did not refuse or attack
of the basic elements of faith as a mystery beyond faith directly. He immodestly argued that all pre-
philosophic inquiry and would then attempt to vious solutions to the issue of divine power and
illuminate certain aspects of this faith through human freedom involved absurdities which his
rational inquiry. The result would be a systematic own position eliminated. Whether Pomponazzi
science of faith as a sacred science which is the was successful where others had presumably
organization of certain aspects of faith into com- failed is certainly debatable. In any case, we
prehensible formulas, not faith itself. Thus, in must grant that he made a serious attempt to save
theory, there could be as many formulas or theol- human freedom within the traditional modes of
ogies as theologians, although the greatest theo- Christian theology (Pine 1986, p. 309).
logians have made their presence felt by attracting
followers and creating schools.
As Pine says referring to Di Napoli’s interpre- Impact and Legacy
tation, Pomponazzi did not proceed in this theo-
logical mode: he simply equated the Thomistic As we have seen in the biography, the De
position with faith itself. And, while professing immortalitate animae – published in 1516 – gen-
great admiration for Thomas’ profundity, he pro- erated an enormous scandal which made
ceeded to make a mockery of his conclusions Pomponazzi not to want to edit his last two
calling them absurdities, involutions, and irratio- works, the De incantationibus and the De fato.
nalities. So, what Pomponazzi’s discussion pro- In spite of this polemic, Pomponazzi was never
duced was a quarrel with certain theologies, condemned, even if the De immortalitate was
notably the Thomist one, rather than an temporarily banned in the city of Venice. As
Perrone has remarked, this could be a proof of the that he was the most original and influential
fact that his fideism was perceived as sincere by sixteenth-century Aristotelian philosopher. The
the majority of his contemporaries, including school to which he belonged flourished for
some high authorities in the Roman Curia another 100 years or more after his death, and
(Perrone 1999, p. xcvi). within this tradition, his name remained famous
Other scholars, on the contrary, have stressed and his views on such questions as the immortal-
that, by breaking the link between reason and faith ity of the soul and the unity of the intellect con-
so openly, Pomponazzi’s fideism could hardly tinued to be cited, discussed, and even admired.
avoid some paradoxical consequences (Biard The posthumous publication of several of his
and Gontier 2009; Sgarbi 2010). Surely, he has writings later in the century also gives testimony
left the path open for natural reason and scientific to his continued fame. As Kristeller says, the
research, setting them free from all external and number of manuscripts that copied his lectures
alien intromission. He emphasized the rigorous and questions was quite large compared with
order of natural laws and the natural and temporal other professors of philosophy at the time, an
dimension of human existence, which was dem- indication of his popularity among his students.
onstrated by the indivisible unity of the body-soul Moreover, the considerable number of manu-
compound that constituted our reality and by the scripts containing the De incantationibus and the
substantial connection between all its functions De fato proves that these works circulated widely
(Vasoli 1988, p. 71). But, at the same time, he (Zanier 1975).
belittled the fruit of that method to an irremediable
inferiority with regard to a truth to which it could
not aspire. For this reason, some as Pine and Di
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P
Porzio, Simone Porzio was also a skilled philologist, and as a

member of the Florentine Academy, he made a
Born: Naples 1496 contribution to the literary debates of his time.
Died: Naples 1554
Eva DEL Soldato Biography

Romance Languages/Italian Studies, University
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA Simone Porzio was born into a prominent family
in Naples in 1496. He studied in Pisa under the
guidance of Agostino Nifo, with whom he
Abstract returned to Naples around 1525. He began teach-
ing at the local university in 1529, and he quickly
Simone Porzio was the most important Aristote- gained the esteem of the city’s intellectual elites
lian of his generation. He spent his life in Naples and in particular of the Viceroy Pedro de Toledo,
and Pisa, but he earned an international reputation who named Porzio his personal physician.
for his works. As a student of Agostino Nifo, he Despite these honors, Porzio was not satisfied
preferred to endorse the exegesis of Alexander of with his position in Naples, where he felt
Aphrodisias, though correcting it when he found it restrained by the restrictions imposed by the Vice-
incoherent (Vasoli, C. 2001. Tra Aristotele, roy on cultural life, a sentiment that was probably
Alessandro di Afrodisia e Juan de Valdés: note accentuated by Porzio’s ties to members of the
su Simone Porzio. Rivista di storia della filosofia evangelical circle led by Juan de Valdés. In 1544
56: 561–607; Del Soldato, E. 2010a. Simone he found an excuse to leave the city and started
Porzio. Un aristotelico tra natura e grazia. teaching at the University of Pisa as professore
Rome. This attitude was particularly clear in sopraordinario, a position which granted him a
Porzio’s interpretation of the De anima and also high salary and a number of other benefits (Del
in his De rerum naturalium principiis (Porzio Soldato 2010a). Porzio quickly became one of the
1553). Other works by Porzio were devoted to favorites at the court of the Duke Cosimo de’
ethical and theological problems and testify to Medici, who shared his interest in natural philos-
the sympathy of the philosopher for heterodox ophy. During this period in Tuscany, Porzio began
religious ideas. Interestingly, these two sides of a collaboration with Giovan Battista Gelli, a
Porzio – the loyal Aristotelian and the respected member of the Florentine Academy, an
theologian – never interfered, and he considered institution patronized by the Duke and devoted to
philosophy and faith two independent realms. the promotion of the vernacular as a language of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_102-1
2 Porzio, Simone
elevated discourse. In harmony with the program Porzio was repeatedly published and praised
of the Academy, Gelli translated in the vernacular even by Goethe, and the De mente humana was
a wide selection of Porzio’s works, especially discussed by Giulio Castellani, Giacomo
those dealing with ethics, religion, and miranda Zabarella, and Fortunio Liceti. The De rerum
naturae (Perrone Compagni 2003; Puliafito 2011; naturalium principiis was reprinted in Germany
Del Soldato 2015a). Most of Porzio’s books were and then quoted by George Berkeley, and refer-
published while he was in Tuscany, a further ences to the Parva Naturalia booklets appear in
confirmation of his uneasiness with the repressive works by Giovan Battista della Porta and
environment in Naples. The works published in Francesco Lana de Terzi. The crisis and then the
Tuscany include the edition/commentary of the implosion of Aristotelianism nonetheless
De coloribus by Ps.-Aristotle (Porzio 1548); the condemned Porzio to a long oblivion, which was
medical De dolore (Porzio 1551b); the An homo interrupted only at the end of the nineteenth cen-
bonus vel malus volens fiat, on ethics (Porzio tury, thanks to the pioneering studies by
1551a); and the controversial De mente humana, Francesco Fiorentino, who had the merit of restor-
which did not cause him problems at the time of ing and highlighting the significance of Porzio for
its publication (Porzio 1551c). In 1552, ill and early modern philosophy and of attracting the
prematurely aged, the philosopher left Tuscany attention of other scholars to the “most important
for good and went back to Naples, where he Renaissance Alexandrist.”
spent his final days in Posillipo together with his Porzio’s books are characterized by a rigid
friend Girolamo Seripando. He died in 1554. separation between philosophy and theology: he
Porzio had many students both in Naples and does not tolerate reciprocal interferences between
Pisa who became prominent university profes- the two disciplines, and this clear distinction
sors, but none of them endorsed the revised makes it unnecessary for him to make an explicit
Alexandrism of their teacher, preferring a more appeal to the doctrine of the “double truth.” It is
traditional Averroistic allegiance: among them notable that in his theological works, such as the
were Francesco Storella, Girolamo Balduino, commentary on the Pater Noster, Porzio never
and Giovan Bernardino Longo (Del Soldato quotes philosophical sources. At the same time,
2010a). Furthermore, his teaching style was con- in his philosophical texts, he declares his hostility
sidered too complex and unappealing to large toward the attempts of certain theologians to mix
groups of students. Even though he did not leave “different broths.” In his view, both philosophy
behind a school, Porzio was still praised and and theology share an ambiguous idea of man, a
admired throughout Europe in the years following being composed of matter and soul and therefore
his death: thinkers and collectors such as Ulisse divided between high and low. The ambiguous
Aldrovandi, Gian Vincenzo Pinelli, Claude nature of man represents therefore a fil rouge in
Dupuy, and Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc all the works of the Neapolitan philosopher,
searched for unpublished works of the philoso- regardless of the context he was working in: it
pher or even just for pieces of information about was useful for praising the theoretical balance of
his life. Nonetheless, his posthumous reputation Aristotle, the only philosopher capable of describ-
quickly deteriorated: thanks to a biographical leg- ing the human being in all its complexity, for
end that described Porzio as a pupil of confining man inside the finite and material
Pomponazzi because they both propagated a world and, paradoxically, for allowing him to
mortalistic exegesis of the De anima, he was become closer to God as well. Such a double
incorrectly reduced to an epigon of Pomponazzi standard is particularly evident when Porzio dis-
(Fiorentino 1911). By the seventeenth century, cusses two crucial topics: the question of the soul
Porzio’s name appeared almost exclusively in and the human will.
association with that of Peretto. Some of the Porzio’s De mente humana is one of the most
works of the philosopher, however, still enjoyed radical readings of the Alexandristic exegesis of
circulation. The edition of the De coloribus by the De anima and represented the culmination of
Porzio, Simone 3
reflection on the topic lasting at least 20 years. The Alexander of Aphrodisias in his De fato,
Neapolitan philosopher affirms the mortality of according to which fate affects humans ad
the individual soul by offering a number of argu- speciem, rather than ad individuum, and rejects
ments, mostly based on an analysis of the ambi- the solutions to the problem offered by theolo-
guity of human nature, divided between divinity gians. The De rerum naturalium principiis was
and bestiality, which anchors men to their finite discussed and debated even after Porzio’s death,
materiality. Most importantly, he corrects Alexan- in particular by Francesco Vimercato, and
der of Aphrodisias about the nature of the active possibly influenced the thought of Giordano
intellect. According to Alexander the active intel- Bruno about matter (Badaloni 1955). The same
lect was in fact God, but Porzio finds this solution loyalty to Aristotelian principles is present in
too abstract and metaphysical because it would minor works by Porzio, such as the booklets on
place the active intellect beyond the sphere of the De puella germanica (Porzio S.L.D.) – the expla-
Moon. To explain a direct action of the active nation of an apparently miraculous fast under-
intellect on the possible intellect, Porzio moved taken for months by a German young girl, which
it below the Moon, and he considered it a vis the philosopher conceived while teaching the sec-
scattered in the sublunar material forms. At a ond book of the De anima – and the epistle De
certain point, he even suggests, without endorsing conflagratione agri puteolani (Porzio 1539), in
it, the identity of active and possible intellect. The which he discusses the terrible earthquake that
distance from Pomponazzi’s De immortalitate is destroyed Pozzuoli in 1537. In order to undermine
evident, since Porzio prefers to stay completely astrological readings of this natural disaster, he
faithful to the paradigm offered by Alexander, to relied on arguments found in the Meteorology.
the extent of making the interpretation of the Porzio also wrote some short texts on love, often
Aphrodisius more coherent. Nonetheless, when as commentaries to Petrarchan lyrics. The most
discussing human will from an ethical perspec- significant of these, the De amore, was originally
tive, Porzio prefers to put his mortalistic interpre- composed during the period spent in Salerno and
tation of the De anima aside. Making an exception then completed when Porzio entered the
to his typical hostility to any fusion of philosophy Accademia Fiorentina. These works deal with a
and theology, Porzio claims that the Nicomachean traditional Platonic topic from an entirely Aristo-
Ethics is in fact central to theology, and his read- telian perspective and share almost nothing with
ing of the text in the An homo bonus vel malus works on the same arguments composed by
volens fiat has a clear theological subtext. In the Porzio’s teacher Agostino Nifo. These writings
An homo, the emphasis on the ambiguity of were never printed, like the catalogue of fishes
human nature is not meant to demonstrate the (De piscibus) that Porzio began, but never fin-
mortality of the soul, but rather to justify the ished. The De piscibus was intended to be accom-
need for salvific grace to guide the actions of panied by drawings by the painter Bacchiacca.
men, who cannot be absolutely free nor absolutely Despite the fact that it was never finished and
slaves. The implicit interlocutor of Porzio hews closely to Aristotelian schemes, the De
throughout the work is Erasmus, an author with piscibus puts Porzio together with Rondelet,
whom the Neapolitan philosopher was well Belon, and Aldrovandi among the pioneers of
acquainted, as demonstrated by his commentary early modern zoology and attracted the interest
on the Pater Noster (where he seems to rely also of a young Giovan Battista della Porta, who
on Valdés and the Beneficio di Cristo). A different assisted Porzio while he was collecting material
approach to the problem of the human freedom is for the work (Del Soldato 2008). Porzio’s medical
offered in Porzio’s final work, the De rerum expertise is evident in texts like the De coloribus
naturalium principiis: here Porzio comments on oculorum (Porzio 1550) and the De dolore: the
the first two books of the Physics and, while first one intertwines anatomy and physiognomy,
rescuing the matter from the traditional label of and the second one takes position against Galen
prope nihil, accepts the solution proposed by and insists on an Aristotelian hylomorphic
4 Porzio, Simone
conception of men in order to explain the nature of Badaloni, N. 2005. Fermenti di vita intellettuale a Napoli
pain. Porzio was also a refined philologist: he dal 1500 alla metà del”600. In Id., Inquietudini e
fermenti di libertà nel Rinascimento italiano,
edited and translated the pseudo-Aristotelian De 127–175. Pisa.
coloribus into Latin, offering sophisticated obser- Benvenuti, P. 1993. Simone Porzio e il “Trattato d’amore”
vations about the paternity of the work. However, di un aristotelico. Annali del Dipartimento di filosofia:
this was no surprise: familiarity with Greek com- Università di Firenze 9: 33–61.
Castelli, D. 2008a. Il De’ sensi e il Del sentire di Simone
mentators and the Greek Aristotle is a feature of Porzio: due manoscritti ritrovati. Giornale critico della
his entire body of work as a philosopher. filosofia italiana 38: 255–280.
Aldrovandi, Ulisse-Bruno, Giordano- Floren- Castelli, D. 2008b. Un bilancio storiografico: il caso
tine Academy- Della Porta Giovan Battista- Gelli Simone Porzio. Bruniana & Campanelliana. 14:
163–177.
Giovan Battista – Nifo, Agostino-Pomponazzi, Del Soldato, E. 2005. Aristotelici, accademici ed eretici.
Pietro-Seripando, Girolamo- Castellani, Pietro- Simone Porzio e Giovan Battista Gelli. In An homo
Storella, Francesco – Zabarella, Giacomo bonus vel malus volens fiat, ed. S. Porzio and E. Del
Soldato, V–XXIX. Rome.
Del Soldato, E. 2006. La preghiera di un alessandrista: i
commenti al “Pater noster” di Simone Porzio.
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interpretatio. Naples. 2008), ed. E. De Bellis, 149–176. Soveria Mannelli.
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(Translated into vernacular by O. Rizzuti, Trattato del natura e grazia. Rome.
fuoco apparso in li luochi de Puzolo del magnifico Del Soldato, E. 2010b. Simone Porzio in biblioteca. In Atti
Simone Portio. Naples, 1539). del convegno “Biblioteche filosofiche private in età
Porzio, S. s.l.d. De puella germanica, quae fere biennium moderna e contemporanea”, (Cagliari, Università di
vixerat sine cibo, potuque. Naples (Made vernacular by Cagliari – Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa,
G.B. Gelli, Disputa dello eccellentissimo filosofo 21–23 Aprile 2009), ed. F.M. Crasta, 75–87. Florence.
M. Simone Portio napoletano, sopra quella fanciulla Del Soldato, E. 2011. Aristotele mediatore: un’immagine
della Magna, la quale visse due anni o più senza ambigua tra Gemisto Pletone e Simone Porzio’. Lo
mangiare, et senza bere. Florence, 1551). Sguardo 5: 113–119.
Porzio, S. 1548. De coloribus libellus. Florence. Del Soldato, E. 2012. Simone Porzio. In Il contributo
Porzio, S. 1550. De coloribus oculorum. Florence. italiano alla storia del pensiero. Filosofia, 183–188.
(Translated into vernacular by G.B. Gelli, Trattato de Rome.
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R
Rao, Cesare Biography
Born: 1532 Cesare Rao, an Italian philosopher and writer

Died: 1588 from Alessano, in the Otranto area, was born in
1532. His writings include Sollazzevol convito
Donato Verardi (1562a), a text in which he addresses the usual
CRHEC, Université Paris Est – Créteil, themes of Ficinian Neoplatonism and the “philos-
Paris, France ophy of love”; L’Argute e facete lettere (1562b), a
Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy literary work that enjoyed considerable and last-
ing publishing success; a paper entitled De
eloquentiae laudibus (1577a); two physico-
meteorological works, Dell’origine de’ Monti
Abstract
(1577b) and Meteori (1581–1582); and Invettive,
orationi et discorsi (1587) (Vacca 1948).
Cesare Rao, an Italian philosopher and writer
He left his parent’s home at the age of 18, when
from Alessano, in the Otranto area, was born in
he decided to study at the University of Naples.
1532. We know for sure that the philosopher was
A year later, he set off for Pisa, partly attracted by
awarded an Arts degree by the University of Bolo-
the fame of the renowned Aristotelian professor,
gna on 10 September 1556. He returned to his
Simone Porzio. Rao completed the second year of
hometown after 1573, where he lived until his
his studies in Pisa, but, due to an ongoing war in
death, most probably in 1588. Rao’s works are
the area, he was forced to move to Pavia in 1553.
representative of some important phenomena that
It was most probably in this city that he began to
were occurring in the second half of the sixteenth
write his first works. After some time, he returned
century. The first was the vernacular translation of
to Alessano, where he spent a few years from
the scientific doctrines of Aristotle, particularly
between 1553 and 1560. We know for sure that
the medieval and Renaissance Peripatetic meteo-
the philosopher was awarded an Arts degree by
rological tradition. The second phenomenon in
the University of Bologna on 10 September 1556.
which Rao participated was the creation of an
Some of his letters from Rome, Florence, Genoa,
Italian philosophical lexicon.
Bologna, Milan, Pavia, Ferrara, and Mantua can-
not be accurately dated, but were certainly written
before 1562. He was in Lucca for a short period in
1562 and in Venice the following year. We have
no information about Rao’s place of residence for
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_103-1
2 Rao, Cesare
the following decade. In 1573, the philosopher causes of extraordinary phenomena, which were
was living in Pavia, where he was probably a mistakenly regarded as supernatural by the
member of the Academy of Illustrators, to which “uncouth.” Thus the translation of science into
he read or arranged a reading of his Orazione in the vernacular assumed a specific social role in
lode della Filosofia. He finally returned to his the struggle against superstition (Vianello 1988;
hometown after 1573, where he lived until his Verardi 2014a).
death, most probably in 1588 (Vacca 1948; Papuli
1967; Figorilli 2004).
Impact and Legacy
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
The result is a view of the philosopher’s activity as
a radical struggle against every form of supersti-
Rao’s experience was deeply influenced by his
tion, pursued not in the narrow confines of the
university education, which contributed to his
university, but in the living fabric of society, under
brilliant activity as a writer in the Italian language.
the banner of a new Italian philosophical language
He dedicated two important works in Italian to
(Verardi 2013, 2014a, b).
questions of physics: Dell’Origine de’ Monti and
Meteori, in which he interestingly adopts an
“eclectic” approach to the Aristotelian physical
tradition, revealing the influence of various tradi- Cross-References
tions of thought. With regard to meteorology, for
example, he uses a combination of elements from ▶ Aristotelianism
the tradition of Aristotelian Meteorologica, ▶ Porzio Simone
together with others from the al-Kindi Arab tradi-
tion of (astrological) meteorology. It should be
borne in mind, however, that Italian Arts and
References
Medicine curricula at the time (even in Bologna,
where Rao studied for his master’s degree) Aristotelianism, Meteorology, Italian language
included a highly conspicuous selection of texts
from the medieval Arabic tradition (Verardi
2012a, 2012b, 2013, 2014a, b). Primary Literature
Rao C. 1562a. Sollazzevol Convito del RAHO, nel quale si
contengono molti leggiadri motti, et piacevoli
ragionamenti. Pavia: Girolano Bartoli.
Innovative and Original Aspect Rao C. 1562b. L’argute, e facete lettere . . . Nella quali si
contengono molti leggiadri Motti, e sollazzevoli
Discorsi. Bressa: Lisandro Bozzola.
Rao’s works are representative of some important Rao C. 1577a. De Eloquentiae laudibus . . . Alexanensis
phenomena that were occurring in the second half Philosophi Oratio, Neapoli: Oratium Salvianum.
of the sixteenth century. The first was the vernac- Rao C. 1577b. Dell’origine de’ Monti. Napoli: Oratium
ular translation of the scientific doctrines of Aris- Salvianum.
Rao C. 1581–1582. Meteori. I quali contengono quanto
totle, particularly the medieval and Renaissance intorno a tal materia si può desiderare. Ridotti a tanta
Peripatetic meteorological tradition (Bianchi agevolezza, che da qual si voglia, ogni poco negli studi
2009; Sgarbi 2014). The second phenomenon in esercitato, potranno facilmente e con prestezza esser
which Rao participated was the creation of an intesi. Venetia: Giovanni Variscoet Compagni.
Rao C. 1587. Invettive, Orationi, et Discorsi fatte sopra
Italian philosophical lexicon. He considered this diverse materie, et à diversi personaggi: dove si
“effort” comparable to Cicero’s work of translat- riprendono molti vitij, et s’essortano le persone
ing Greek knowledge into Latin. Through the all’essercitio delle virtù morali, et alle scienze, et arti
creation of an Italian philosophical lexicon, Rao liberali. Vinegia: Damiano Zenaro.
intended to explain to a broader public the rational
Rao, Cesare 3
Secondary Literature Verardi, D. 2012b. L’influenza delle stelle in un trattato in

Bianchi, L. 2009. Per una storia dell’aristotelismo volgare volgare del Cinquecento. Dell’Origine de’ Monti di
nel Rinascimento: problemi e prospettive di ricerca. Cesare Rao. Philosophical readings 2: 15–23.
Bruniana & Campanelliana XV: 367–385. Verardi, D. 2013. Lingua italiana e divulgazione scientifica
Figorilli, M.C. 2004. L’argute, et facete lettere di Cesare nel Rinascimento. L’esperienza intellettuale di Cesare
Rao: paradossi e plagi (tra Doni, Lando, Agrippa e Rao. Esperienze Letterarie XXXVIII(3): 57–64.
Pedro Mexìa). Lettere italiane 3: 410–441. Verardi, D. 2014a. ‘In lingua nostra italiana’. Sul greco e il
Papuli, G. 1967. Platonici salentini del tardo Rinascimento. latino nel lessico filosofico vernacolare di Cesare Rao.
Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia Rinascimento LII: 243–250.
dell’Università degli studi di Bari XII: 5–21. Verardi, D. 2014b. La laurea in artibus di Cesare Rao. Con
Sgarbi, M. 2014. ‘The italian Mind’. Vernacular Logic in documenti inediti dell’archivio di Stato di Bologna.
Renaissance Italy (1540–1551). Leiden/Boston: Brill. Bruniana & Campanelliana XX: 259–264 (co-author
Vacca, N. 1948. Cesare Raho da Alessano detto De Carli M.).
‘Valocerca’. Archivio Storico Pugliese I: 3–28. Vianello, V. 1988. Il letterato, l’accademia, il libro.
Verardi, D. 2012a. I Meteori di Cesare Rao e l’aristotelismo Contributi sulla cultura veneta del Cinquecento.
in volgare nel Rinascimento. Rinascimento Padua: Antenore.
Meridionale III: 107–120.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_105-2
Savonarola, Girolamo
Born: 21 September 1452, Ferrara
Died: 23 May 1498, Florence
Lorenza Tromboni*
Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino, Firenze, Italy
Abstract
Girolamo Savonarola was one of the most important Italian preachers of the Late Middle Ages. He was a
Dominican friar who lived in fifteenth-century Italy, between Ferrara and Firenze, where he died
following his death sentence on 23 May 1498. His fame is due to his intense preaching activity which
reached its acme between 1494 and 1498. His message had theological, moral, and political contents and
spoke to every social class; indeed, he addressed people in the vernacular Italian language and often, for
his theological and philosophical treatises, opted to employ the vernacular rather than Latin (e.g., Trattato
contro gli astrologi, Trattato circa el reggimento e governo della città di Firenze). He also wrote Latin
works that he translated into Italian himself (e.g., De simplicitate christianae vitae, Triumphus crucis,
Compendium revelationum) (Savonarola 1959; Savonarola 1961; Savonarola 1974) and genuine Latin
treatises and sermons (e.g., Triumphus fidei abbreviatus, Sermoni sul salmo “Quam bonus,” Sermoni sul
principio della Cantica) (Savonarola 1976; Savonarola 1999).
Savonarola launched a strong, violent attack against the corruption of the Roman Church and papacy,
especially Pope Alexander VI Borgia; he endlessly invited his followers to repent and atone and to recover
the fundamental importance of the Holy Writ in Christians’ life; he also promoted institutional and social
reforms, becoming a prominent figure in Florentine political life of the late Quattrocento. In 1494, he was
sent by the Signoria to negotiate with Charles VIII of France and obtained the king’s promise that the
French troops would be allowed to pass through the city without violence.
Savonarola claimed to be a prophet, as he explicitly stressed in his Compendium revelationum, a work
in which he explains the content of his past visions related to the corruption of clerics (the so-called
tiepidi), to the flood of sins and vices, and to the descent of Charles VIII of France, “the new Cyrus.”
He pursued his aims until he was captured, tried, and (following a confession extorted through torture)
condemned to death: this all happened in Florence, the same city that a few years before had looked to him
as a leader.
Biography
1452–1482
Girolamo Maria Francesco Matteo Savonarola (Ferrara, 21 September 1452–Florence, 23 May 1498) was
born in Ferrara, the third of seven sons of Niccolò Savonarola and Elena Bonacossi: the family moved
from Padua to Ferrara in 1440, when Michele Savonarola (Padua, 1384–Ferrara, 1468), Niccolò’s father,
*Email: lorenza.tromboni@gmail.com
*Email: lorenza3tdr@hotmail.com
*Email: lorenza.tromboni@fau.de
Page 1 of 13
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_105-2
was appointed court physician to the Este, at the time of Niccolò III d’Este. Michele, Girolamo’s
grandfather, played a very special role in his grandson’s life: he had taught medicine in Padua and written
several medical treatises, such as the Practica medicinae, the Speculum phisionomiae, and the vernacular
work De regimine pregnantibus, which is considered one of the first modern texts on pregnancy and
childhood (Crisciani and Zuccolin 2011; Pesenti 1977). Michele gave Girolamo his first instrument for
studying logic and grammar and introduced him to the school of liberal arts of Battista Guarino, son of the
famous humanist, Guarino Veronese (Verona, 1374–Ferrara, 1460). Michele also represented for
Girolamo a moral guide and, together with humanistic culture, taught him moral and religious principles:
he died in 1468, when Girolamo was sixteen. Following his father’s wishes, Girolamo obtained the title of
magister in artibus at the University of Ferrara, as a first step toward becoming a physician, like his
grandfather; he started to attend the Este’s court but was disgusted by the luxury and vice he witnessed
there. During these years, he began to change his attitude toward life: all of his biographers and
Savonarola himself, in several later occasions, state that a new conscience took root inside his soul, and
he grew daily more sensitive to corruption, sin, vice, and the low moral stature of the clergy, the tiepidi
(lukewarms), as he later called religious men. From this juvenile period, we have two poems that testify to
the change that was taking place within Savonarola: the De ruina mundi (1472) and the De ruina
Ecclesiae (1475) are his earliest works, containing, in nuce, all his major themes (Savonarola 1968,
3, p. 6). At the beginning of May 1475, he visited Faenza (a small town in central Italy, close to Ferrara)
where he heard a friar preaching; he was strongly impressed by a sentence from the book of Genesis:
Egredere de terra tua! (Leave your Land!): this was the seed of his new life as a friar, as he relates in one of
the sermons on the book of Ezekiel (Savonarola 1955b, I, p. 374). Less than a year later, in April 1476, he
decided to go to Bologna, to assume the Dominican habit in the convent of San Domenico: he left home
without a word but, the day after his departure, wrote to his father, outlining his reasons; his decision
created a fracture within the family, but he never looked back. During his first years in Bologna, he was
particularly obedient and humble, gladly practicing fasting and prayer, but soon his superiors invited him
to prepare for pastoral care and preaching, so he devoted himself to his theological studies. In 1479, for the
first time since he left, he returned to Ferrara, as a teacher of novices; it is probable that he had the
opportunity to witness a dispute of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (Mirandola, 1463–Florence, 1494).
A few years later, on 28 February 1482, Savonarola met Pico again, during the chapter of the Lombard
Congregation of the Dominican Order in Reggio: here, Savonarola carried on a dispute in Pico’s presence.
During this chapter, Savonarola was assigned to the convent of San Marco in Florence as a lector, and this
constituted his first Florentine sojourn (Ridolfi 1997; Burlamacchi 1937).
1482–1487
This period was important for several reasons: during the Advent and Lent preaching in San Gimignano
and Florence, Savonarola began to elaborate a three-stage prophecy concerning the destiny of the Italians,
i.e., the flagellum (plague), repentance and atonement, and a final rebirth as a new blessed community. He
also experienced the rhetorical taste of the Florentines, a precious background that enabled him to refine
and improve his preaching style. Moreover, Savonarola came into contact with the Medici’s environment
and constructed his own image of this political and cultural community, an image that was to be developed
in the following years, mostly during his second Florentine sojourn (1490–1498) (Cattin 1973).
Savonarola’s first Florentine sojourn began with a cycle of sermons attended in the church of
Benedictine nuns in Florence, the so-called Murate (walled in) for the seclusion: the friar preached at
the Murate for Advent, 1482, and Lent, 1483. For Lent, 1484, he was assigned to the cathedral (basilica)
of San Lorenzo, one of the most important churches in Florence which was closely connected to the
Medici family: the attendants did not like the way Savonarola spoke. His accent revealed his northern
origin, and he was considered rough and inelegant by the Florentines, who were used to a more gentle,
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literary rhetorical discourse, even in a religious context. Placido Cinozzi, a faithful Savonarolian follower,
recorded this event in his Epistola De vita et moribus reverendi patris fratris Hieronimi Savonarolae
(Cinozzi 1898). In the same year, Pope Sixtus IV died and Innocent VIII was elected: the election was
dominated by the obscure action of Rodrigo Borgia, the future Pope Alexander VI; on this occasion,
Savonarola wrote the Oratio pro Ecclesia and a hymn, O anima cecata (blinded soul), both in the
vernacular, inspired by the moral crisis into which the church was sinking (Savonarola 1968, 4, p. 13). The
preaching of the following years, 1485 and 1486, in San Gimignano (small towns between Siena and
Florence), was crucial for Savonarola because he introduced into his discourse prophetical themes,
particularly during Lent, 1486 (Verde 1989). In 1487, Savonarola preached in the church of Santa
Verdiana in Florence before returning to Bologna and Ferrara (1488–1490). He preached in several cities
in central-northern Italy at that time (Modena, Piacenza, Brescia, Pavia, and Genoa), but his destiny was,
once again, decided by the chapter of the Dominican Order, held in Como in 1490. He was appointed
lector to the convent of San Marco in Florence, but this assignment was not random; we have a letter from
Lorenzo de’ Medici, dated 29 April 1489, in which the Magnifico asked for frate Hieronymo da Ferrara
to Florence. The request came from Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, who still remembered the friar he met
in 1482, during the Reggio chapter; Pico had been in Florence, at Lorenzo’s court, since 1488; Lorenzo
himself may have had several reasons for recalling Savonarola to Florence related to his personal spiritual
condition and the role of the convent of San Marco (Weinstein 2011)
1490–1494
Savonarola arrived during May 1490 and took up his role as lector at the convent of San Marco. During
Girolamo’s absence, Lorenzo de’ Medici had increased his power, and, by that time, the members of the
Medici circle controlled all of the most relevant commissions and institutions in Florence: the
accoppiatori, for instance, who selected the members of the government, which was now closer to a
Signoria than a republic (Rubinstein 1977). The first cycle of sermons was about the Apocalypsis (Verde
1988), from August to the beginning of January, and, in the mornings of public holidays, he preached on
the first letter of St. John (Savonarola 1998): his aim was to “say new things in a new way” (nova dicere et
novo modo), indicating that he meant to address the public in a new, simple manner, avoiding the complex
structure of the scholastic sermon and focusing on the Holy Writ. The tone of the sermons was harsh and
firm, and the content was a critique of society based on the eight reasons he had already identified in 1486.
Savonarola was invited to preach in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, where he attended for Lent,
1491, urging his audience to repent and recalling the forthcoming troubles (tribulazioni) in the light of
human sin (Savonarola 2001); he identified himself with the Old Testament prophets like Elijah, Amos,
and Isaiah.
On 16 May 1491, Savonarola was elected prior to the convent of San Marco; a consequence, which was
surely appreciated by Lorenzo de’ Medici, was the increasing number of novices, especially among the
eminent Florentine families, since the convent was losing the important role it had played at the time of
Cosimo de’ Medici; Niccolò Seratico (a future secretary of Savonarola) entered the convent in 1494,
Zanobi Acciaiuoli in 1496, Giorgio Antonio Vespucci in 1497, and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola in
1494, just before his death.
On 2 April 1492, Lorenzo de’ Medici died in Florence, and his son, Piero, replaced him as leader of the
Florentine government; unfortunately, he did not possess his father’s capacity. The death of Lorenzo
precipitated the alliance between Ludovico Sforza and the French king, Charles VIII, considering that the
Magnifico had always urged the necessity for an inner Italian league, without external influences, as
ratified by the peace treaty of Lodi (1454). Ludovico supported the Italian descent of Charles VIII, who
announced his advent in 1491 claiming the reign of Naples. In August 1492, Rodrigo Borgia was elected
Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503).
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In 1492 and 1493, Savonarola described his visions and prophecies about the destiny of the Italian
nation: we have mostly indirect statements for these years, since we do not have the reportationes of his
sermons but merely his memoirs gathered in the Compendium revelationum and several sermons from
1494 to 1495, especially the predica della renovatione, held on 13 January 1495 (Tromboni 2013). The
Lent preaching of 1492 started with the idea of a separation from the Lombard Congregation of the
Dominican Order and the foundation of a new Tuscan autonomous congregation, accomplished in 1493
(Verde 1994b).
1494–1498
In the meantime, Charles VIII, after the death of Ferrante, king of Naples (on 25 January 1494), was
preparing his Italian enterprise, when Savonarola began to report to the Florentines that the flagellum was
coming: during Lent, 1494, in Sermones quadragesimales super archam Noe (ed. Venetiis 1536), he
advised his followers to build a new arch in order to ensure their safety. The whole of Italy was frightened
by the reports of the disasters caused by the French army, and Piero de’ Medici, unlike Ludovico Sforza,
refused to support Charles VIII. In June 1494, the French king expelled from France all Italian bankers
and merchants, thereby striking a harsh blow to the Florentine economy; Piero, stuck between an anti-
French league, led by the pope and the king of Naples and the approaching king of France, thought that
perhaps he could face the French army with his own resources. In September, Savonarola decided to face
the situation, recalling the theme of the new arch: at this point, it was natural for all to regard the coming of
Charles VIII as the biblical universal flood. Savonarola introduced another metaphor also: Charles VIII
was a new Cyrus, who came to purify the whole of Italy and the Church and restore the political balance.
From 1 November, Savonarola preached on the book of Haggai, one of his most important cycles of
sermons, with which he accompanied his people through the flood, i.e., the descent of Charles VIII
(Garfagnini 1997). The diplomatic initiative of Piero de’ Medici was disastrous, since he ceded the cities
of Pisa and Livorno, the strategic ports for Florence, and a remarkable amount of money. The Signoria
decided to organize another expedition, guided by Savonarola, who benefited from the trust of the
Florentines; the group left Florence on 5 November 1494. During his conversations with Charles,
Savonarola was able to obtain a promise that the French troops would be allowed to pass through Florence
without violence which, in the sermons of early 1495, Savonarola would call “a miracle.” In the
meantime, Piero de’ Medici was banished from the city as the popularity of the friar increased. Charles
VIII arrived in the city on 17 November (the day on which Giovanni Pico della Mirandola died) and
departed on the 28th. Firenze was eventually free of the tyranny of the Medici and that freedom was
obtained without bloodshed. Many chroniclers, including Pietro Parenti and Luca Landucci, claimed that
this was entirely thanks to Savonarola. The friar continued preaching and his authority increased: he
finally had a chance to promote institutional and political reform, to enlarge popular participation in
government and reduce taxes. The supporters of the friar were called Piagnoni and his opponents
Arrabbiati.
The main concerns of Savonarola at that time reflected the situation in the city: there was a strong
contrast between the partisan and the opponents of the Medici, and the new Florence needed peace and
stability in order to develop into a mature society. To extend popular participation in the field of Florentine
politics, Savonarola promoted many reforms and also the establishment of the Maggior Consiglio (Great
Council), according to the Venetian model, as the major political organ of the Florentine Republic. The
Maggior Consiglio was officially recognized on 23 December 1494, and Savonarola also supported the
building of a new political space for the new Council, the Salone dei 500, in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio.
In January 1495, he started to preach on the Psalms: the sermon on 13 January was the so-called predica
della renovatione (sermon of the renovation) against the preacher Domenico da Ponzo who questioned
the truth of his visions and predictions. Between 1 March and 24 April 1495, Savonarola preached on the
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book of Job (Savonarola 1957), stressing the themes of struggle and penitence and the destiny of Florence
as a New Jerusalem. He kept pushing for the two reforms: an amnesty for the former supporters of the
Medici and the Six Beans’ authority.
In the meantime, Pope Alexander VI constituted the Lega Santa (Holy League) with Venice and Milan,
to expel Charles VIII from Italy, and the figure of Savonarola was increasingly criticized, considering his
role in the alliance between France and Florence. On 21 July 1495, the offended Alexander VI summoned
Savonarola to Rome to question him about his visions. The friar refused to go to Rome and indicated that
the Compendium revelationum was the most complete summary of his prophecies. The pope suspended
his preaching, but at that time the friar had the Signoria on his side and he decided to return to the pulpit on
11 October 1495. A few days later, on 16 October, another Papal Brief arrived and Savonarola suspended
his preaching activity until 17 February 1496, when he started to preach on the books of Amos and
Zacharias (Savonarola 1971). He composed the De simplicitate christianae vitae (Savonarola 1959) in
Latin and the vernacular and other spiritual writings. During summer 1496, Savonarola was invited to
become a cardinal of the Roman curia: the pope was seeking to put a stop to his strong preaching activity,
which was clearly directed against the clergy and papacy. Girolamo categorically refused the offer,
claiming that the only red hat he wanted was a blooded martyrial one (uno cappello rosso, uno cappello
di sangue, questo desidero). On 7 November 1496, the pope intimated the dissolution of the Savonarolian
congregation, threatening excommunication to all opponents; in Florence, Savonarola was still continu-
ing his reformation process, and, in February 1497, the first bonfire of the vanities (bruciamento delle
vanità) took place, in Signoria Square, involving a giant stake surrounded by singing children. This was
another significant representation of the purity by which Florence should be inspired, but in the meantime
the Italian political situation was changing, and the hurried return of King Charles VIII to France
compromised the Florentines’ hopes of seeing Pisa return under Florentine domination. On 25 February
1497, Charles VIII signed a truce with the Holy League and took a step back from Italian politics, leaving
sufficient space for the other forces to claim their role. Savonarola did not agree to dismantle his
congregation and join a Tuscan-Roman one, considering all of the energy he spent on this institutional
reform; due to his disobedience, he was excommunicated by Alexander VI on 12 May 1497. In the same
year, he composed Dialogus de veritate prophetica (Savonarola 1997), to stress the truth of his prophecy,
since his opponents were becoming increasingly aggressive and accused him of being a false prophet.
1498 was the last year of Savonarola’s life: he composed Trattato circa el reggimento e governo della città
di Firenze and continued preaching at Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral. On 26 February 1498, the pope
sent two Briefs, to the Signoria and to the Chapter of the cathedral, to stop him from preaching, and, on the
same day, many supporters of the friar, the Piagnoni, met in the church, fighting with the Arrabbiati. On
28 February, a new Signoria, hostile to Savonarola, was elected, but he continued to talk to his people, still
accusing the pope of moral sickness: Savonarola was banned from the pulpit of the cathedral, and he
returned to the convent of San Marco. The Signoria was still defending him but they asked him to fall
silent; on 17 March 1498, the pope ordered the arrest of all Florentine merchants and bankers in Rome. It
was the last blow in the 3-year fight between the pope and the friar: Florence could not bear the
economical repercussions of the papal decision and the Signoria decided to intervene. On 18 March
1498, Savonarola spoke for the last time to the Florentine people on Exodus (Savonarola 1955a; Cervelli
1998), and, a few days later, on the 25th, friar Domenico da Pescia was challenged to a fire test by the
Franciscan, Francesco di Puglia. The test failed because of heavy rain (it was 7 April 1498) amid disorder
and protests. The following day, Savonarola, Domenico da Pescia, and Silvestro Maruffi were captured in
San Marco and brought to the Signoria’s palace. From the beginning of April to the end of May, the friar
was questioned and tortured repeatedly (Viti et al. 2001), and, at the end of the trial, the three friars were
condemned as heretics and separatists. On 23 May 1498, the friars were hung in Signoria Square. Their
bodies were then burned and their remains carefully scattered on the river Arno. Luca Landucci provided a
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detailed description of the execution: Savonarola was hung third, without uttering a word, a circumstance
that disappointed his followers; as the chronicler says, many among them lost their faith (onde non fu
sanza loro amaritudine. . . molti caddono dalla lor fede).
Prophecy and Preaching

Starting from the sermons’ cycle attended in San Gimignano (Lent, 1486), Savonarola elaborates a
well-structured prophecy concerning the destiny of human beings. Year after year, sermon after sermon,
the prophecy changes, according to the historical events and the preacher’s priorities. This is why, at the
beginning of his career, Savonarola formulated a wide, general warning about sin and vice, and, at the end,
when the general picture was clear, he gave a precise formula for the prophecy concerning the destiny of
Florence, meant to be the New Jerusalem. In 1486, in San Gimignano, Savonarola explicitly listed the
eight reasons for the forthcoming plague: the sins and vices of human beings, including sodomy, simony,
and lust, the moral sickness of priests, the lower quantity of good men, the lack of faith in human hearts,
the spiritual disintegration of the Roman Church, and the excessive importance given to exterior
ceremonies in divine worship rather than internal disposition (Ridolfi 1935, 1997, p. 21). He was in
Tuscany for the first time and was appointed as lector at the convent of San Marco. His priority at that time
was to speak about sin and vice and to urge Christians along the right path. On returning to Florence in
1490, he had changed and so has his manner of preaching; he is now aware of his mission and determined
to accomplish it. Therefore, when he starts to speak about the Apocalypsis in 1490, he stresses the theme
of the forthcoming flagellum. After Lorenzo’s death (1492), the picture changes even more rapidly, since
he wished to maintain the Florentine and Italy’s political balance. Moreover, in 1492, Rodrigo Borgia
became Pope Alexander VI and continued his action against Charles VIII and his dynastic claims to the
rule of Naples. Savonarola defines his prophecy according to the Florentine situation; he starts to speak
about his visions publicly and gains popularity due to the separation of the convent of San Marco from the
Lombards. 1494 is the turning point in his life as a preacher and prophet: the Italian campaign of Charles
VIII gives Savonarola an opportunity to see the historical realization of his predictions and the concrete
beginning of the renewal process of Florence as the New Jerusalem; the king of France represents for
Florence what Cyrus represented for Israel, the key element to be born again as the Elect Nation through
the flagellum. At this very moment, Savonarola introduces new elements into his sermons, changing the
mood of his discourse from a “negative” to a “positive” phase: Charles VIII arrives in Florence on
17 November 1494, and, from December onward, Savonarola included promises of material assets, such
as wealth, prosperity, and the reconquering of the cities of Pisa and Livorno that had been lost during the
French campaign (Weinstein 1970). Now, the prophecy becomes the reality and is actualized: the prophet
and his people are actually living the prophet’s announcement. This is why, for Savonarola, it is
fundamental to affirm repeatedly the truth of his prophecy, a theme strictly related to his social, pastoral,
and political activity in Florence. Apart from being treated in several sermons, the prophetic issue is
the main object of two treatises: Compendium revelationum (1495) and Dialogus de veritate prophetica.
The first was also translated into the vernacular by the author, a circumstance that leads us to consider the
importance of the Italian vernacular language as a communication tool in Savonarolian activity, chosen to
reach a wide number of followers. In Compendium revelationum, Savonarola’s visions are described
accurately, visions he also recalls in his sermons. During the sermon of 13 January 1495, Savonarola
related to the Florentines explicitly the vision he had had back in 1484, when Pope Innocent VIII died: a
black cross standing above Rome-Babylon, symbol of sin and vice, with Ira Dei written on it and raining
swords and a golden cross standing above Jerusalem with Misericordia Dei written on it. On top of Italy
was a trembling sword, while the angels gave to humans a red cross to kiss and white dresses. Those who
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accepted the gifts could drink sweet wine, while those who refused them drank the lees. The trembling
sword is the sword of Charles VIII, and the angels are the preachers who announce his coming. This
sermon met with huge success; it was printed separately and spread, becoming a manifesto of the
Savonarolian prophecy. Girolamo’s claim to have the gift of prophecy is the critical basis of his actions:
he clashes with the pope; he fights with several contemporary preachers, such as Mariano da Genazzano,
Domenico da Ponzo, and Giovanni Caroli; and he is strongly criticized by the Florentine Arrabbiati.
On the prophecy, he built an institutional and social reform system, promoted from 1494 onward, for his
adoptive homeland by means of his preaching activity, and the regularity of his sermons clearly reflects
the depth of his commitment:
• Sermons, 1494–1498
• Sermons on Haggai: 1 November 1494–28 December 1494
• Sermons on Psalms: 6 January 1495–25 October 1495
• Sermons on Job: 1 March 1495–24 April 1495
• Sermons on Amos and Zechariah: 17 February 1496–10 April 1496
• Sermons on Ruth and Micah: 8 May 1496–27 November 1496 (Savonarola 1962)
• Sermons on Ezekiel: 27 November 1496–27 March 1497
• Sermons on Exodus: 11 February 1498–18 March 1498 (and 4 May 1498)
Political Commitment
The political commitment of Girolamo Savonarola was intended to be a continuation of his moralizing
action and was strictly linked to his prophetical vein: we may say that these two things are closely
connected. For the friar, reforms were the means of rebuilding a new identity for the city of Florence,
intended to be the new center of Christianity. Based on charity and loyalty to the Holy Writ, the
reformatory action of Girolamo Savonarola is far from being merely an inspiration: on the contrary, he
has a definite, concrete project related to the historical circumstances. The first institutional initiative
involved the status of the convent of San Marco and the organization of the Italian congregations:
the separation of the convent from the Lombard Congregation of the Dominican Order (1492–1494).
The cardinal Oliviero Carafa was involved in the separation process, but the Dominican Vincenzo
Bandelli referred it to Ludovico Sforza, who strongly opposed this reformative initiative: therefore, a
Dominican internal issue became an Italian political question, with consequences for the relationship
between Florence, Milan, and the papacy. Savonarola considered that a more rigid rule of life was
necessary to accomplish his reformation project and strongly insisted on the necessity of distinguishing
the San Marco convent from the rest of the Italian Dominican convents: Cardinal Carafa played a key role,
succeeding in inducing the pope to sign the bull. In June 1493, the separation process was accomplished,
and in November, Savonarola was elected Provincial Minister of the newborn Tuscan congregation; in
August 1494, the convent of San Domenico of Fiesole and the convent of Santa Caterina of Pisa joined
it. The most important innovations that he was able to introduce into the Florentine system are related to
the banishment of the Medici in 1494 and the restoration of a proper republican government in Florence:
he promoted the enlargement of popular participation in the city government through the foundation of the
Maggior Consiglio (Great Council) and the progressive dissolution of the Medicean judiciaries, such as
the Consiglio dei Settanta (Council of the Seventy), created by Lorenzo in 1480 (Rubinstein 1966; Cadoni
1999). The Consiglio del Popolo and del Comune (Popular and Civic Councils) were the two organs that
oversaw the election of the members of the Great Council. Savonarola promoted also the foundation of the
Monte di Pietà in Florence in 1497, a charity institution that was relatively common in late medieval Italy,
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based on the principle of financial loans under favorable terms, mostly fostered by Mendicant orders.
He successfully pushed for the reform of the Six Beans law, which granted the authority to condemn a
citizen without the possibility of appeal. Savonarola was deeply involved in moral reform; he invited
people to moderate their habits and (mostly women) dress properly; taking advantage of the confraternity
network in Florence, he organized communities and groups of children according to Biblical and religious
values (Polizzotto 2004; Eisenbichler 1998): during Carnival 1496, there was the first touching procession
of children along the streets of Florence, a sacred representation showing how much Savonarola and his
friars had invested in youth education (Ciappelli 1996), attempting to stop the violent inclinations of
young people, so common in Italian Renaissance cities (Niccoli 1995).
We have a compendium of his idea of a republican state in Trattato circa el reggimento e governo della
città di Firenze, written in 1498, a political treatise in the vernacular devoted to Florentine politics, as a
result of his experience in the city (Savonarola 1965; Leonardi 1997). He felt the need to stress the danger
posed by an oligarchic or, even worse, monarchist government for Florence, two institutional systems that
lead necessarily to tyranny, as the Medici system has shown (Garfagnini 1998). The only form of
government that could derive from Christian principles is a popular government. In the second part of
Trattato, Savonarola emphasizes the description of the tyrant, which seems to have been inspired by the
figures of Piero de’ Medici and his father, Lorenzo, especially with regard to the continuous suspicion of
betrayal by family members and fellow citizens. Recently, a new element has been discovered, that is, that
the description of the tyrant is taken directly from Book V of Aristotle’s Politics (Tromboni 2012,
pp. 278–279). The tyrant is the political symbol of sin and corruption, representing the corruption of
the monarchy, as Aristotle himself stated. Since he is interested only in his own good and does not
consider the common good, he is the exact opposite of a good governor: for this reason, a Christian
government must avoid the threat posed by tyranny (Cadoni 1999, pp. 196–201; Leonardi 1997).
Philosophy, Theology, and the Holy Writ

The cultural profile of Girolamo Savonarola is formed by conventional elements and peculiar ones, as
far as his status as a preacher is concerned. As a Dominican friar, he had a traditional education inspired
by Thomism (see Thomism, http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/187919.html),
and it is relatively easy to feel recurring echoes of Thomas Aquinas’ (see Thomas Aquinas,
http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/187913.html) doctrines and works in his
sermons and treatises. Thomas’ presence is substantial in two texts written by Savonarola during his
first sojourn in Florence (1482–1487) for the friars in San Marco, where he was sent as lector:
Compendium philosophiae moralis and Compendium philosophiae naturalis (Savonarola 1988). These
texts are handbooks devoted to the explanation of philosophical concepts (moral and scientific issues)
with the help of the doctrines of Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great. Difficult to date, the two
handbooks are associated with a third compendium about logic, Compendium logicae (Savonarola
1982). The Thomistic paradigm of Savonarola’s thought is often evident in Girolamo’s works, and the
same can be said for Aristotelianism, a model to which Savonarola often resorts: recently, it has been
highlighted that he had a direct knowledge of classical philosophy. The friar was very familiar with
Aristotle’s works, which he possibly studied during his youth, and also the Platonic dialogues: the proof of
this direct knowledge is preserved in two collections of notes that have recently been edited, De doctrina
Platonicorum and De doctrina Aristotelis (Tromboni 2012; Garin 1961; Verde 1998). Girolamo gathered
notes, quotations, and brief summaries related to Aristotle’s works, mostly according to the translation of
William of Moerbeke (see Aristotelianism in the Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew Traditions,
http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/187474.html), and Platonic dialogues (see
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Platonism, Renaissance, http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/187828.html),

according to the translation by Marsilio Ficino (first edition, 1484): all of the original texts which
Savonarola studied and worked on were preserved in the Library of San Marco in Florence. Among the
Platonic notes, we find also a paragraph on Commento sopra una canzone d’amore di Girolamo Benivieni
by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, a polemical unfinished treatise written in response to Ficino’s
commentary on Symposium (Hankins 1990). Thanks to the study conducted on De doctrina Aristotelis
and De doctrina Platonicorum, we can find several parallel passages in which the philosophical notes are
employed, such as the description of the tyrant taken from Book V of Aristotle’s Politics within Trattato
circa el reggimento e governo of 1498. Savonarola’s interest in classical philosophy needs to be well
defined; it would be incorrect to present Savonarola as a pure philosopher, but we can turn up the light on
his philosophical culture, so that the traditional image of a rude friar devoted uniquely to censure,
penitence, and biblical preaching is prominently reshaped. The friar employs, on many occasions
(sermons, vernacular, and Latin treatises), quotations and passages taken from, e.g., Metaphysics,
De caelo, Ethics, and also pseudepigraphical texts, such as Mundo and De proprietatibus, to enrich
his discourse and often explain and facilitate the understanding of theological and religious concepts.
He often mentions the figures of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle as the major intellects of antiquity and
models of self-control and virtue.
Savonarola’s concept of literature and poetry is clearly described in many of his best-known, most
widespread works. In 1491, he wrote Apologeticus de ratione poeticae artis, a Latin treatise devoted to the
learned segment of his public about the status of poetry and the difference between sacred and profane
poetry (Savonarola 1982, I, pp. 209–272). Apologeticus was a response to Carmen de christiana religione
ac vitae monasticae foelicitate, composed in 1491 by Ugolino Verino and dedicated to Savonarola, in
which the author theorizes about the difference between these two kinds of poetry. Girolamo, however,
was determined to retain his position and, in his work, affirms decisively that poetry and religion cannot
share any common ground and that the place of poetry, as a discipline, is far removed from that of
theology and religion. Savonarola’s answer was directed not only toward Verino but also toward Marsilio
Ficino, who celebrated the poetic furor of Plato’s Io (Bausi 1996). For the friar, the sole text on which
human beings are allowed to rely is the Holy Writ, and his whole action, the political, the pastoral, and the
social one, derives from this belief: Ficino’s attempt to integrate religion and philosophy was inconceiv-
able for Savonarola. This rigid perspective seemed limited to many of his contemporaries, but Savonarola
intended it to be a safe path to salvation to avoid sin and temptation. Despite that, many Florentine
intellectuals got close to him, fascinated by the prophetical destiny of reform and rebirth he predicted for
Florence, including Marsilio Ficino who, on several occasions before 1498, affirmed that Savonarola was
a genuine prophet (Vanhaelen 2012). Giovanni Nesi (1456–1506), disciple of Ficino, composed
Oraculum de novo saeculo, inspired by the friar (http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giovanni-
nesi_(Dizionario-Biografico)); full of astrological and kabbalistic doctrines, the Oraculum de novo
saeculo announced the beginning of a new era, as claimed by Savonarola. Girolamo and Domenico
Benivieni, Benedetto Luschino (2002), Giorgio Benigno Salviati, and Zanobi Acciaiuoli were also among
the friar’s supporters. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Girolamo Savonarola were very close, espe-
cially in the last years of Pico’s life; the Count of Mirandola took the Dominican habit in 1494 and was
buried in the church of San Marco. His nephew, Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, was a
fervent Piagnone and wrote a biography about friars that widely spread, Vita Hieronymi Savonarolae
(Vasoli 1996).
This intellectual affinity with Pico is evident in Trattato contra li astrologi (1497), which Savonarola
wrote to illustrate his precise position regarding one of the most common tendencies in Renaissance
culture: astrology. Girolamo spoke often about the mistakes that men who believe in astrology can make
and, in 1497, composed the Trattato (Savonarola 1988) which is, as claimed at the beginning of the text, a
Page 9 of 13
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_105-2
vernacular, simplified version of Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem, a treatise by Giovanni

Pico della Mirandola that was published posthumously in 1494. There are two key points in Trattato:
astrology cannot foresee single contingent events and, in no case, can it replace divine prophecy;
since antiquity, the major thinkers, e.g., Aristotle and Plato, condemned astrology and its use
(Garfagnini 1992, 2004).
Impact and Legacy

Since 1490, fluctuating groups of supporters of Girolamo Savonarola have been born in Florence. As the
friar gained importance and authority, the position of these groups crystallized, and they became
incompatible with the opponents of the friar. On the one hand, the Piagnoni affirmed the sanctity of
Savonarola and the reality of his prophecy: after his death, they considered him a martyr to a republican-
ism inspired by Christian religion. On the other hand, the Arrabbiati and Savonarola’s detractors accused
him of being a deceiver of the Florentine people, uniquely devoted to the pursuit of his own interests.
Many people changed their attitude toward Savonarola and his reformation after his death: we recall here
the example of Marsilio Ficino, who got very close to Savonarola during 1494 and 1495 and changed his
opinion radically a few years later. In Apologia contra Savonarolam (Kristeller 1937, pp. 76–79), Ficino
hurled abuse at the friar, claiming that he was a false prophet, a deceiver, and an antichrist, who seduced
the Florentines with lies and false promises. The Apologia was written immediately after the execution in
Piazza della Signoria and was addressed to the Cardinal College (Collegio dei Cardinali) explicitly to
dissociate himself from the Savonarolian movement.
In March 1498, Niccolò Machiavelli heard Savonarola preaching in Piazza della Signoria: he devel-
oped a complex (Reason of State, http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/187856.
html), refined opinion of the friar and included the Dominican in many of his works, such as Discorsi
sopra la prima Deca di tito Livio and Principe, besides making several mentions of him in private letters
and documents. Machiavelli was aware of the political appeal of Savonarola, and he included him among
the prophets and legislators, such as Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus, the founder of Rome.
Nonetheless, they succeeded and Savonarola failed, since he was unarmed (profeta disarmato) and
unable to control his followers once he constituted his new republic.
In later decades, several religious movements inspired by the Savonarolian reform grew in Italy,
France, Germany, and later England. Martin Luther knew the works of Savonarola and translated some
of his theological works into German.
For the Savonarolian movements in Italy and Europe, we refer to the studies of Polizzotto (1994) and
Dall’Aglio (2006a, b, 2010).
Cross-References
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Ficino, Marsilio
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T
Tafuri, Matteo Biography
Born: Soleto, 1492 Matteo Tafuri, lover of Greek and Latin literature,
Died: 1584 philosophus, physician, and skilled astrologer,
was born in 1492 in Soleto, a small town in the
Donato Verardi Otranto area, where he died in around 1584. As a
CRHEC, Université Paris Est – Créteil, Paris, young boy, he imbibed the teachings of Sergio
France Stiso, at whose school he learned Greek and
Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy Latin literature. He later spent various periods in
Naples, where he studied the art of astrology and
rubbed shoulders with Neapolitan scholars of
medicine, natural magic, and physiognomy. The
Abstract
Neapolitan experience proved decisive for him.
His relationship with Giovan Vincenzo Della
Matteo Tafuri, lover of Greek and Latin literature,
Porta, elder brother of the more renowned
philosophus, physician, and skilled astrologer,
Giovanni Battista, was of particular significance
was born in 1492 in Soleto, a small town in the
(Badaloni 1960; Rizzo 2014).
Otranto area, where he died in around 1584.
Tafuri’s talent blossomed so rapidly that his
From the Aristotelian tradition, he adopted ele-
teachers urged him not to stay in Naples but to
ments of physica, understood as knowledge of
immerse himself in the most advanced schools of
celestial and terrestrial phenomena in relation to
European culture. Thus Tafuri frequented not only
their natural causes, whereas Plato’s Timaeus was
the most renowned centers of Italian culture, such
a particular inspiration for his Commentary on the
as Rome, Padua, and Venice, but also went to
Orphic Hymns, where, as in the Pronostico, Ptol-
England, France, and Spain. In 1525 he was in
emy also proved to be a decisive source of influ-
Venice. This was the period of his astrological
ence, reinterpreted in the light of Plotinus’
dispute with Luca Gaurico, who dedicated to
concept of star signs.
him a short section of his Tractatus astrologicus,
While the Pronostico confirms Tafuri’s ability
which also features his native chart. Tafuri later
to read horoscopes, his Commentary on the
went to England, where he was suspected of
Orphic Hymns is a fairly bold attempt to combine
Lutheranism and indulged in some misguided
Orphic, Platonic, and Hermetic elements with
prophecies, predicting the imminent death of
Aristotelianism, as well as Counter-Reformation
Charles V. It appears that Tafuri may have been
Thomism.
drawn toward certain shamanistic magical-
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_106-1
2 Tafuri, Matteo
religious practices there. Thus, on his release from Impact and Legacy
prison, he went to Ireland, where he was accused
of practicing magic and condemned by the Inqui- His great ability to forecast future events, certainly
sition. However, papal intervention led to the frowned upon in the ecclesiastical circles of the
charges being dropped, and Tafuri was able to late sixteenth century, earned him an extravagant
return to Venice. mention in Giovan Battista Della Porta’s Coelestis
In the following years, the philosopher was in physiognomonia, in which the philosopher from
Paris, where it appears that he graduated in Soleto is remembered as a man of excellence in
Artibus from the Sorbonne. He then went to every field of learning (Della Porta 1996).
Spain, Greece, and probably also Asia Minor
(Manni 1997; Di Mitri 2001; Papuli 2001; Rizzo
2001; Galante 2005; Rizzo 2014).
Cross-References
▶ Astrology, Greek literature, natural magic,

Orphic Hymns
▶ Della Porta Giambattista
He is reputed to have written several works of
natural magic, physics, physiognomy, and astrol-
ogy. However, only two manuscripts still survive:
a Commentary on the Orphic Hymns (pre-1537), References
written in Byzantine Greek, and Pronostico del
nascimento di Hemilio Del Tufo (1571), in Italian Primary Literature
vernacular. From the Aristotelian tradition, he Tafuri, M. 1537. Commentary on the Orphic Hymns, Vat.
gr. 2264, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.
adopted elements of physica, understood as Tafuri, M. 1571. Pronostico del nascimento di Hemilio Del
knowledge of celestial and terrestrial phenomena Tufo, Biblioteca della Badia di Cava dei Tirreni.
in relation to their natural causes, whereas Plato’s
Timaeus was a particular inspiration for his Com-
mentary on the Orphic Hymns, where, as in the Secondary Literature
Badaloni, N. 1960. I fratelli Della Porta e la cultura magica
Pronostico, Ptolemy also proved to be a decisive e astrologica a Napoli nel Cinquecento. Studi Storici I:
source of influence, reinterpreted in the light of 677–715.
Plotinus’ concept of star signs. Della Porta, G.B. 1996. In Coelestis
physiognomonia, ed. A. Paolella. Napoli. Edizioni
Scientifiche Italiane
Di Mitri, G.L. 2001. Le ricerche su Matteo Tafuri, mago ed
Innovative and Original Aspects eretico salentino. Bilancio degli studi recenti.
Aprosiana IX: 147–158.
Galante, L. 2005. Bagliori documentali su Matteo Tafuri
While the Pronostico confirms Tafuri’s ability to
(1492–1585) filosofo, medico, astrologo e matematico
read horoscopes, his Commentary on the Orphic di Soleto. Bollettino Storico di Terra d’Otranto 14:
Hymns is a fairly bold attempt to combine Orphic, 45–50.
Platonic, and Hermetic elements with Aristote- Manni, L. 1997. Dalla guglia di Raimondello alla magia di
messer Matteo. Galatina. Torgraf
lianism, as well as Counter-Reformation
Papuli, G. 2001. Platonici salentini del tardo
Thomism. Rinascimento, Nardò. Besa
Thus, although he adopted aspects of Renais- Rizzo, L. 2001. Umanesimo e Rinascimento in Terra
sance Platonism, permeated by Hermeticism and a d’Otranto: il platonismo di Matteo Tafuri. Nardò. Besa
Rizzo, L. 2014. Il pensiero di Matteo Tafuri nella
certain mystagogical tendency, he also partici-
tradizione del Rinascimento meridionale, Rome.
pated in the most advanced upheavals in the cul- Aracne
tural environment of southern Italy, helping to
reestablish natural magic on a new basis.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_107-1
Vasari, Giorgio
Born: 30 July 1511
Died: 27 June 1574
Eliana Carrara*
University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy
Abstract
Giorgio Vasari, painter and architect from Arezzo, who obtained many important commissions
during his long artistic career (1532–1574), is the author of the Lives, published in Florence in 1550
(Vasari 1550) and reedited in 1568 (Vasari 1568b).
The text is the first example of modern artistic literature: after analyzing the three arts
(architecture, sculpture, and painting), Vasari traces the biographical profile of the artists from the
Middle Ages to his era and focuses on their works.
Cited, imitated, translated, the Lives represented a model of artistic historiography for at least two
centuries and still remain an essential source for the documentation and information provided as well
as for the careful reading of the works of art.
The role of Vasari as a man of letters, and also as an important artist, it is already clear in the letter
that he sent to Benedetto Varchi during the survey launched by the latter in 1547 (and published in
Florence by Lorenzo Torrentino in January 1550 with the title Due lezzioni di M. Benedetto Varchi,
nella prima delle quali si dichiara un sonetto di M. Michelagnolo Buonarroti. Nella seconda si
disputa quale sia più nobile arte, la scultura o la pittura, con una lettera d’esso Michelagnolo, et più
altri eccellentissimi pittori et scultori, sopra la quistione sopradetta).
Introduction
Giorgio Vasari, painter and architect from Arezzo, is the author of the Lives, published in Florence in
1550 and then reedited in 1568.
The Lives is the first example of modern artistic literature: after a general introduction of the three
arts (architecture, sculpture, and painting), Vasari traces the biographical profiles of artists from the
Middle Ages up to his own time and analyzes their works. In his opinion, the revival of the arts
begins only with Cimabue and Giotto; as he explains in the preface to the Whole Work, art slowly
rose to the height of perfection in antiquity and then decreased gradually from the time of
Constantine onwards and later was completely destroyed after the invasions of the barbarians, the
Goths.
Vasari subdivides the history of art into three phases (and a specific Part of the Lives corresponds
to each one of them) on the basis of an anthropomorphic model, such as representation of childhood,
youth, and maturity; Vasari based his division of history into epochs on a biological concept of
history known since antiquity and present in authors such as Polybius (but also attested in
*Email: eliana.carrara@unimol.it
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_107-1
Machiavelli): the comparison between the age of a human being and the development of a State
(Mattioda 2007).
After the first phase (primi lumi), a period of growth and improvement followed (augumento), and
finally the third epoch arrived, which extended up to Vasari’s time, the time of perfection
(perfezione), reached by Michelangelo. In the first (whose greatest exponent is Giotto), artists had
begun to imitate the colors and forms of nature, the three-dimensional appearance of the figure, and
the expressiveness of the living human body. In the second, datable from ca. 1400 to ca. 1500
(Masaccio was its main exponent), artists had dedicated themselves to a long series of experiments,
especially in perspective and anatomy, leading art to the ability of recording the real world almost
completely, although with an artistic expressiveness still stiff or imposed by the rules. Only in the
third period, which included the Lives of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo, artists not only
showed mastery of nature, but they triumphed over it. Vasari did not invent the idea of the process of
perfection of art through its greater similarity with nature; it was also known in ancient literature, for
example, in a passage of Cicero’s Brutus that Vasari quoted almost word for word (Gombrich 1960).
He applied this model to the art of his age and also used it as a means of classifying the art of the past:
so the artists of earlier times could be judged and ranked according to their proximity to his ideal, the
perfetta regola dell’arte (perfect rule of art). In the third preface (which introduces the third part of
the Lives), Vasari defines the perfetta regola dell’arte as the practice of five precepts in art, that is,
regola (rule), ordine (order), misura (measure), disegno (drawing), maniera (style), this later one
especially when it becomes bella maniera (beautiful style). By borrowing the concepts of regola,
ordine, and misura from the theory of architecture, he applied them also to the other arts. Art attained
perfection in the third epoch – says Vasari – thanks to the contemporary discovery of ancient statues,
which allowed artists to overcome the rules imposed by study and artistic discipline with some
freedom (licenzia) that was not, however, arbitrary, but regulated by the judgment of the eye, the
supreme authority (De Girolami Cheney 2005).
Together with the perfetta regola dell’arte, Vasari, as he explains in the second preface, introduces
another norm, the qualità de’ tempi (the peculiarity of time). That means that the art of earlier times,
which could only be described as imperfect when judged by contemporary criteria, could, however,
be praised. In this way, Vasari established the general principle of his historiography, which was to
evaluate time, place, circumstances, and people in judging historical facts. The Lives is much more
than a chronological sequence of biographies (a literary genre that already existed): it is the first
critical history of style in the arts (i.e., architecture, painting, and sculpture) (Sohm 2000).
The Lives is, in fact, based on the humanistic concept that history can instruct and encourage
through remembering the most important men and their careers and achievements.
Vasari’s book is an important document of the cultural world in sixteenth-century Italy and well
attests that an artist has been able to master the cultured instrumentation hitherto the preserve of the
high social classes in order to draft the first systematic treatise of art history.
In the sixteenth century, its value had been recognized by writers on art such as Raffaello Borghini
(author of Il Riposo) and Francesco Bocchi (and again in the seventeenth century by Giovanni
Baglione and Filippo Baldinucci), but had also become the subject of strong criticism: already in
1557, Lodovico Dolce wrote the dialogue entitled the Aretino, where he argues vigorously against
Vasari’s text and asserts the superiority of Titian even over Michelangelo. Strong allegations of
partisanship in favor of the Tuscan artists were repeated in the seventeenth century by Marco
Boschini (La Carta del navegar pitoresco) and Carlo Cesare Malvasia (Sohm 1995, 2001; Cropper
2013).
The large number of marginal notes in copies of the Lives (Ruffini 2009), written in their own
hand by artists such as Federico Zuccaro, Annibale Carracci, Francisco de Holanda, and El Greco, or
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by connoisseurs, such as Sebastiano Resta, testifies to the interest with which Vasari’s work was read
and the controversies that followed (Spagnolo 2007).
The numerous histories of art modeled on Vasari’s book, as well as the new editions of the Lives in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, are the clearest evidence of the impact that the work has
had on European culture: from the Netherlands (Karel van Mander, Schilder-boeck, 1603–1604) to
Spain (Francisco Pacheco, Arte de la pintura, 1649) and Germany (Joachim von Sandrart, Teutsche
Academie, 1675).
Cited, imitated, translated, the Lives has represented a historiographical model for at least two
centuries and still today remains an essential source for the documentation and information provided
as well as for the careful reading of artworks.
Biography
Vasari was born in Arezzo, the son of Antonio Vasari (d. 1527) and Maddalena Tacci (d. 1558). His
family came from Cortona, where his great-grandfather, Lazzaro di Nicolò de’ Taldi, was a
craftsman of saddles and painted scenes: one of his four children, Giorgio, was a potter (in Italian
“vasaio”); Giorgio Vasari, his nephew, inherited his name and patronymic. As claimed by Vasari in
the Life of Luca da Cortona (but only in the second edition published in 1568 by Giunti in Florence),
the painter was his relative, because the father of Luca, Egidio, had married Lazzaro Vasari’s sister.
Vasari studied Latin and the humanities in the late 1510s under Antonio da Saccone and Giovanni
Lappoli (called il Pollastra, 1465–1540). He also became a pupil of Guillaume de Marcillat, a French
master glassmaker at that time working in Arezzo, where he ended his life (1529), and in 1524
Cardinal Silvio Passerini of Cortona, a man of the court of Pope Clement VII, introduced Vasari to
the circle of the Medici family in Florence. While he was living in the house of Niccolò Vespucci, he
received further instruction from the teacher of Alessandro and Ippolito de’ Medici, Pierio Valeriano
(1477–1558), and he met Michelangelo Buonarroti and attended the workshops of Andrea del Sarto,
Vittorio Ghiberti, and Baccio Bandinelli, who taught him draughtsmanship very well. After the
expulsion of the Medici in 1527 and because of the spread of the plague (which reaped among its
victims Vasari’s father), the young artist was called back home by his uncle Antonio to Arezzo,
where he became familiar with the teachings of Rosso Fiorentino, who took refuge in the country-
side to escape the epidemic. Vasari arrived in Rome in 1532 as a member of the retinue of Cardinal
Ippolito de’ Medici (d. 1535): together with Francesco Salviati, he devoted himself to the study and
making drawings of antiquities and works of art kept in the Urbe. After his return to Florence, Vasari
was benevolently received by Ottaviano de’ Medici and then entered the service of Duke Alessandro
(his portrait now in the Uffizi is by the young painter) until his death, killed by his own cousin,
Lorenzo de’ Medici (January 6, 1537) (Plaisance 2013). Shocked and stricken by the assassination
and disgusted by court life, Vasari took refuge in Camaldoli, thanks to the good offices of the Aretine
scholar Giovanni Lappoli (il Pollastra, his former teacher), and Don Miniato Pitti, with whom he had
been familiar since his stay in Pisa in 1529, when the Olivetan monk was in charge as abbott at the
monastery of St. Jerome in Agnano Pisano. Thanks to the Olivetan patronage, Vasari got assign-
ments that took him to other monasteries and Italian cities: he was in Bologna, at S. Michele in
Bosco, in 1539; in Naples, at S. Anna dei Lombardi or Monteoliveto, in 1544–45; in Rimini and
Ravenna in 1547–48; and in Arezzo in 1548 (where he painted the Wedding Banquet of Esther and
Ahasuerus for the Refectory of the Abbey of Saints Flora and Lucilla, now kept in the Medieval and
Modern Gallery and Museum, in Arezzo) (Carrara 2006); in the meantime, he got to meet and work
for people such as Pietro Aretino (who called him to Venice in 1541 to prepare and paint the scenic
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apparatus for his comedy, La Talanta); Bindo Altoviti, the wealthy Florentine banker living in exile
in Rome; and Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the nephew of Pope Paul III, who commissioned from
him the Allegory of Justice, Truth and the Vices (the Farnese Justice, 1543, now in Naples), and the
cycle of frescoes in the Sala dei Cento Giorni in the Palace of the Chancellery in Rome (1546)
(Fenech Kroke 2011).
Vasari had already returned to Rome in 1538 to continue his training by drawing antiquities and
was called again to the Urbe in 1550 by Pope Julius III who appointed him to the building of his
family chapel in S. Pietro in Montorio and, together with Bartolomeo Ammannati, of the
nymphaeum of Villa Giulia. In 1554 Vasari moved to Florence to enter the service of Duke Cosimo
de’ Medici: he worked in Palazzo Vecchio and in Palazzo Pitti (Romby and Ferretti 2002,
pp. 164–196) and built the Uffizi; he also restored numerous churches in the city (St. Maria Novella,
St. Croce) and began the frescoes of the dome of St. Maria del Fiore, the Florentine Duomo (1574).
He was also active in Arezzo (he restored the parish church of St. Maria, 1560–1564, where he
erected also his tomb and built the Lodges of Piazza Grande, 1570–1572) and in Pisa (church and
palace of the Knights of St. Stephen, 1562–1569). He returned again in Rome in 1571–1573, thanks
to the commissions obtained from Pope Pius V for the decoration of three chapels in the Vatican
(Aurigemma 2009–2010).
In 1549 he married in Arezzo the young Nicolosa Bacci, who could not bear children. Vasari had
already fathered, however, a daughter (and perhaps also a son) with Maddalena Bacci, his wife’s
sister, and then later had another son by Isabella Mora, his domestic servant (Lepri and Palesati
2003; Fubini Leuzzi 2014).
In 1563 he founded the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, under the influence of Cosimo de’
Medici, together with Vincenzio Borghini, the Prior of the Foundling Hospital (Ospedale degli
Innocenti), and Lelio Torelli, first secretary of the Duke (Waźbiński 1987; Barzman 2000; Carrara
2008; Zangheri 2013).
His house in Arezzo (via XX settembre 55) is now a museum (Casa Vasari), while his home in
Florence, which was a private residence for a long time, after a total restoration is visitable by
appointment: both the palaces were decorated by Vasari with an ample cycle of frescoes
(De Girolami Cheney 2006; Cecchi 2014). In the Aretine house are still kept some pieces of the
precious collection of Vasari: a plaster statue of Venus by Bartolomeo Ammannati and a terracotta
head of the Emperor Galba by Andrea Sansovino, while the painting by Piero di Cosimo, Venus,
Mars, and Cupid, is in Berlin (Staatliche Museen) (Baldini 2014).
His famous Libro de’ disegni (composed probably at least of seven volumes if not twelve)
(Collobi Ragghianti 1974) is now disassembled, and many of its pages are housed in Paris (The
Louvre) and in Florence (Gabinetto disegni e stampe degli Uffizi); some sheets are even in Oxford,
Stockholm, and other collections. Vasari began to collect drawings during his apprenticeship
(1528–29) with Vittorio Ghiberti, who gave him a group of sheets by Lorenzo Ghiberti and artists
of the fourteenth century, maybe from Lorenzo’s collection. He assembled with great care his
drawings in the book, with marginal decorations along its pages and portraits of the artists who
had drawn them; unfortunately where the characteristic Vasari mount has been removed from the
drawings, as in the Uffizi, their provenance is seldom demonstrable. The dispersal of the Vasari
collection began soon after his death: Francesco I de’ Medici obtained a volume from Vasari’s heirs;
then some others were acquired by Niccolò Gaddi, the wealthy Florentine collector and patron. In
the seventeenth century, the volumes began to be broken up and the sheets were scattered all over
(Forlani Tempesti 2014).
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Works and Themes
The Paragone Debate and the Letter to Benedetto Varchi

In 1547 the philosopher and scholar Benedetto Varchi (1503–1565) launched a survey among the
Florentine artists about the “maggioranza delle arti”, that is, a debate on the competition and rivalry
among the arts: he collected the letters with their opinions, and in January 1550 he published them
together with his own text on the question (Due lezzioni di M. Benedetto Varchi, nella prima delle
quali si dichiara un sonetto di M. Michelagnolo Buonarroti. Nella seconda si disputa quale sia più
nobile arte, la scultura o la pittura, con una lettera d’esso Michelagnolo, et più altri eccellentissimi
pittori et scultori, sopra la quistione sopradetta, Florence, Torrentino) (B€atschmann 2010; Andreoni
2012, pp. 16 and 20). Vasari, together with Agnolo Bronzino, Jacopo Pontormo, and Niccolò
Pericoli, called Il Tribolo, Giovanni Battista del Tasso, Benvenuto Cellini, and Michelangelo,
answered the call, and his letter, very well elaborated and refined, is – not coincidentally – the
first in the Varchi book, while Michelangelo’s closes the list (Varchi and Borghini 1998, pp. 61–66
and 84): Vasari strongly affirms the superiority of painting over sculpture based on the increased
capacity of imitation (“mimesis”) through the use of colors.
Vasari’s letter to Varchi reveals a remarkable skill in writing literary texts, which is the result of the
education, certainly not a poor one, he received in his youth (Carrara 2011a), as well as a tireless
ability to entertain an increasingly larger network of personal relationships, making use of corre-
spondence as a privileged vehicle: the correspondence of Vasari, extensive since his early years (Der
literarische Nachlass Giorgio Vasaris, Frey and Frey 1923–1940; Agosti 2010), testifies to his
continual assiduity and friendship with scholars – Pietro Aretino, Paolo Giovio, Annibal Caro, or
Lodovico Domenichi, just to name a few – while the artist was traveling in Italy, finding hospitality
and commissions in the most important cities and courts, from Florence to Venice and Rome, from
the “familia” of Alessandro de’ Medici to the circle of Aretino and the palace of Cardinal Farnese
(see Agosti 2011, 2013; Carrara 2013).
The “Lives”
First Edition
The aforementioned letter written by Vasari to Varchi was an essential starting point for the drafting
of the Lives, appeared in Florence in 1550, and published by Torrentino (Vasari 1550, 1986). Le Vite
de’ più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, da Cimabue insino a’tempi nostri, descritte in
lingua toscana da Giorgio Vasari pittore aretino is composed of a dedicatory letter addressed to
Cosimo I de’ Medici, the prefaces (one to the Whole Work and the other three before the three
parts – tre età – of the Lives), and the biographies (from Cimabue to Michelangelo, and the latter was
the only artist still living except Benedetto da Rovezzano, a blind sculptor, “dead” for making art),
followed by the conclusion, that is a letter to artists and to readers. It is in the preface to the Whole
Work that Vasari elaborates the thesis expressed in his letter to Varchi, to achieve a new synthesis
whereby the two arts, painting and sculpture, are both daughters of disegno (i.e., drawing, Vasari
1966–1987, I, p. 26), an innovative and successful formulation, which in turn had much in common
with the views expressed by Varchi in his own text (Varchi and Borghini 1998, p. 43). For Vasari the
unity of the arts (which are therefore sisters) was embodied by Michelangelo, the artist who is
excellent not only in painting and in sculpture but also in architecture, and for that reason he can
rightly be called “divine” (Vasari 1966–1987, I, pp. 26–27): Buonarroti by virtue of his exceptional
draughtsmanship and excellence in all fields of art puts an end to disputes between painters and
sculptors.
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Disegno is the common “father” of all the arts a concept which Vasari described with greater
fullness in the second edition of 1568 (Vasari 1966–1987, I, pp. 111–113), and its role is discussed
extensively in the introductions to the three arts, that is the Teoriche, where Vasari explains and tries
to set his technical knowledge: he analyzes in detail what materials can be used, their mode of
utilization, the necessary skills for artists, and how they can learn these ways of proceeding (Vasari
1966–1987, I, pp. 31–172).
Vasari’s insistence on technical terminology is one of the main themes of the entire body of the
Lives, and, as he anticipates and states in the abovementioned preface to the Whole Work, he
apologizes if he had to use nonliterary terms but more suitable and precise words to express the
language of the artistic profession (Vasari 1966–1987, I, p. 29). The use of that technical terminolo-
gy arises from the intent to be fully understood, because the Lives was written for those interested in
art and its history, as artists, collectors, or scholars. This was the aim of Vasari, when he started
collecting copious amounts of material for his book, and he wanted to make sure that, as he states in
the Conclusion of his work, anyone could read his Lives (Vasari 1966–1987, VI, p. 412). Again in
the Conclusion of the Lives, Vasari explains how he collected his data, by trying to verify and check
what he had learned from memories written by artists of the past or from oral stories by older artists
(ibidem, p. 411). Vasari, indeed, in the preface to the Whole Work declares that he dedicated a long
time to the collection of data on artists (Vasari 1966–1987, I, p. 30), and in the Conclusion he affirms
that he had the help and support of many good friends (Vasari 1966–1987, VI, pp. 409–410).
Among the buoni amici, the name of Paolo Giovio cannot be left out, the scholar and bishop from
Como, who met Vasari in 1532, when he was in Rome for the first time (Agosti 2013, pp. 16–17):
Giovio, who began writing in Latin the Lives of some famous artists (Vincii Leonardi, Michaelis
Angeli et Raphaelis Urbinatis vitae, in Giovio 1999, pp. 234–279), recognized the skills of Vasari
also as a writer and encouraged him to write biographies of artists.
In a letter, dated September 2, 1547, Paolo Giovio urged Vasari to present his work to Benedetto
Varchi, in order to have an informed opinion, equal to that of Annibal Caro, to whom Vasari had sent
the Lives by then finished, as a letter written by Caro on 15 December of the same year confirms (see
Frey and Frey 1923–1940, I, pp. 209–210).
The preparation of the text to be printed by Torrentino was begun at least by the end of November
1546, as a letter written by Vasari to Giovio testifies (see Frey and Frey 1923–1940, I, p. 175).
A decisive boost arrived thanks to the writing of a complete apograph (i.e., a copy not by Vasari’s
hand) at the abbey of Scolca near Rimini, where the painter worked for the Olivetan abbot Gian
Matteo Faetani between September and December 1547. On this specimen intervened, by correcting
its mistakes, Pier Francesco Giambullari, in order to proceed with the preparation of the copy to be
sent to the Torrentino workshop; Giambullari then checked the mere typographic work, together
with Don Vincenzio Borghini, who assumed the task of drawing up the indexes and revising the text
to remove as many errors as possible (Scapecchi 1998).
The charge against Vasari – strongly asserted in recent years (Hope 2014) – to be just one of the
many authors of the Lives, which has to be considered only as the result of the collaboration of
several writers, and in particular of Cosimo Bartoli (Frangenberg 2011), as is clear from the diversity
of writing and methodological approach between the prefaces, literally more refined, and the
drafting of the Teoriche and the biographies, more colloquial (Blum 2011, p. 159), fails fatally
thanks to a thorough reading of the correspondence of Vasari, documenting the precise sequence of
events and the real role of the men of letters mentioned (cf. Scapecchi 2011).
An allegation destined to disappear, moreover, thanks to a thorough analysis of the narrative
structure and composition of the Lives, which shows clearly how Vasari reused - just in some
particularly complex and sophisticated passages - historical texts and compendia written in the
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vernacular, widely present in the Italian book market in the mid-sixteenth century (Rubin 1995,
p. 169 note 104; Carrara 2010–2012, p. 161), and so easily accessible to an artist, although the
cultural dimension of this figure has been reduced recently (Hope 2010).
On the contrary, the Lives confirms once more the greatness of Vasari as a writer and author in the
Italian Renaissance and his extensive knowledge of many sources (from Vitruvius to Leon Battista
Alberti, Francesco Albertini and Sebastiano Serlio), sometime no longer preserved (Rubin 1995,
pp. 165–177; Fratini 2012).
Second Edition
The volumes of the first edition of the Lives – which caused both the resentful reaction of
Michelangelo (so much troubled by the lack of firsthand documentation in his Vita that he asked
Ascanio Condivi to write the Vita di Michelagnolo Buonarroti, Blado, Rome 1553) and the
criticisms of Lodovico Dolce, eager to defend the Venetian art and the grandeur of Titian – were
sold out quickly (Simonetti 2005, p. 105).
Vasari decided to draft a second version of the Lives. To this end, in just two months (between
April and June 1566), he faced a long journey that took him from Florence in Central Italy (Rome,
Umbria, and the Marche) and then through Emilia Romagna to Lombardy and Veneto, and finally he
returned to Florence via Ferrara, Bologna, and Pistoia (Davis 1981). The visual and documentary
material collected in his travels was to be used to obtain accurate and reliable information on the
main centers of Italian art and to allow him to see up close the work of the most important artists of
his contemporary period.
Vasari changed in depth and radically, therefore, the 1550 edition, aimed at the celebration of the
greatness of Michelangelo, who died February 18, 1564 (Ruffini 2011, pp. 85–88), by accepting
instances that came from non-Tuscans areas and ultimately to legitimize his work as a painter and
architect of the court of Duke Cosimo de’ Medici, the dedicatee of his book.
The second edition, published by Giunti in three volumes in 1568 (Vasari 1568), presents a greater
number of Vite than the first one printed by Torrentino, but the biographies have almost always lost
the wide introduction expressing thoughts of a moral nature (such as reflections about the good
fortune or misfortune of artistic careers), present in the printing of 1550 (Pozzi and Mattioda 2006,
pp. 310–330). The biographies are coupled with the artists’ portraits: Vasari planned these engrav-
ings already for the first edition of the Lives, but he could realize his project only in the one printed in
1568 (Prinz 1966).
The second edition of the Lives represents a significant extension of the first both in chronological
order and in its contents, as a result of thoughtful reflections by Vasari, thanks to the possibility of
acquiring new information (Carrara 2012) and to a constant comparison with Vincenzio Borghini:
in a letter sent to Vasari on August 11, 1564, Borghini invited him to write a “comprehensive
history of all paintings and sculptures of Italy” (Frey and Frey 1923–1940, II, p. 98), that is, a history
focused more on works than on artists.
As a matter of fact, in the Lives published in 1568, even greater attention is devoted to techniques,
especially for those most neglected like engraving, which became the subject of extensive analysis
in the Vita of Marcantonio Raimondi, as well as a great importance given to the production of
engravings in the Flemish area, much of which is indebted to the letter in Latin sent by Dominicus
Lampsonius to Vasari in April 25, 1565 (Gregory 2012).
Significant additions were made to the Prima Età of the Lives, like the Vita of Nicola and Giovanni
Pisano, sculptors and architects, in a general expansion of information provided in its first section
(Barocchi 2000), and was added the Lettera di messer Giovambatista di messer Marcello Adriani a
messer Giorgio Vasari, which explains Greek and Roman art history, in order to fulfill the
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comprehensive information required by the competent authority of Borghini (Carrara 2011b,

pp. 1–2).
A detailed description of the festivities of 1565–1566 in occasion of the marriage of Francesco
I de’ Medici to Joanna of Austria is printed at the end of Vasari’s paragraph on the Accademia del
Disegno and its artists: the text, attributed in the Lives to “a person of leisure who delights not a little
in our profession” (“persona oziosa, e che della nostra professione non poco si diletta,” Vasari
1966–1987, VI, p. 255), was written by Giovan Battista Cini (Feo 1981; van Veen 2006, p. 93 and
passim).
Other Writings
The vast amount of Vasari’s letters – recently increased by new findings (Carrara 2010; Sottili 2011;
Fratini 2013) – is only a part of the extensive body of his manuscript texts: the Ricordanze
(Vasari 1927) and the Zibaldone (Vasari 1938) are important, in particular, for information provided
about the career and the life of the artist.
In 1588, Giorgio Vasari il Giovane, Vasari’s nephew, published his Ragionamenti (Vasari 1588),
but the text – a long description of the works realized by Vasari and his workshop in Palazzo
Vecchio – had already been in its manuscript form and was mentioned by Vasari himself in the Lives.
The last book published by Vasari was instead the description of the ephemeral apparati for the
baptism of Eleonora de’ Medici in 1568 (Vasari 1568a), which testifies again to his seminal
importance not only as artist at the Medici court but also as author in first person of literary texts
in the Italian Renaissance of the sixteenth century.
Interconnections
People
Leon Battista Alberti, Pietro Aretino, Pierio Valeriano or Valeriano Bolzanio Pierio (born Giovanni
Pietro Dalle Fosse), Vincenzio Borghini, Dominicus Lampsonius (Dominique Lampsone), Paolo
Giovio, Benedetto Varchi.
Topics
Disegno (drawing), Rebirth of Art, Renaissance, Reception of Pliny in Italian Renaissance, Fortune/
Misfortune.
References
Primary Literature
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Abril, Pedro Simón

Born: around 1540, Alcaraz, Albacete, Spain
Died: 1595, Medina de Rioseco (Valladolid)
Alejandro Coroleu*
Faculty of Arts, Department of Catalan Language, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Bellaterra
(Cerdanyola), Spain
Abstract
Pedro Simón Abril’s production included grammars for learning Greek and Latin as well as trans-
lations of classical works, reading and writing primers, and notes for the improvement of teaching.
He is best known for his Spanish version of Aristotle’s Ethics.
Biography
Most probably of Jewish ascendancy, Pedro Simón Abril acknowledged being 41 years of age in his
Latini idiomatis docendi ac discendi methodus, which appeared in 1561. Even though we do not
know where Abril took his university studies or which academic degree he obtained, he must have
studied at least philosophy, rhetoric, and Greek as he referred to himself as “licenciado” in all these
three disciplines in works published in, respectively, 1577, 1584, and 1586. The dedicatory letters
appended to his grammar handbooks and to his translations of the classics, as well as other external
documents, help us to trace Abril’s teaching career, which took him to several institutions through-
out Spain. In 1566 he began his teaching activities in the Studium at Uncastillo (Zaragoza). Four
years later he was sued by the University of Huesca in Aragon for teaching Arts when he was only
allowed to teach Latin. In 1571 he was hired by the local authorities at Tudela, near Pamplona, to
provide teaching in grammar, rhetoric, poetry, Greek, logic, and metaphysics. Three years later Abril
was appointed professor of rhetoric at the University of Zaragoza where he remained until 1576.
After spending several months at El Escorial, where King Philip II praised his translation of Terence,
he relocated to his home town of Alcaraz (Albacete) and became local preceptor. In August 1583 he
was appointed professor of grammar at the University of Zaragoza. Information about later teaching
positions is scarce. He must have been reacted to institutions in Madrid and Alcalá de Henares, cities
where some of his later works were published. Toward the end of his life, he relocated to Medina de
Rioseco in whose Studium he must have taught grammar. In 1594 he was summoned by the
University of Salamanca to prepare a Latin grammar for the use of local students. This grammar
handbook was to be written in Spanish, thus following Abril’s own recommendations to employ the
vernacular in the teaching of classical languages.
Reprinted time and again, Pedro Simón Abril’s Latin grammars and translations of Terence’s
comedies, Cicero’s letters, Aesop, and Greek drama (Euripides, Aeschylus) are closely linked to his
teaching career at different levels in several academic institutions throughout Spain. His teaching
materials were designed to teach the usage of classical authors through translation, parallel texts, and
*Email: alejandro.coroleu@icrea.cat
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comparative grammar. In his best known philosophical translation, his version of Aristotle’s Ethics,
whose preface was addressed to King Philip II of Spain, he outlined his translation methodology:
“el que vierte ha de transformar en sí el ánimo y sentencia del actor que vierte, y decirla en la lengua en
que lo vierte como de suyo, sin que quede rastro de la lengua peregrina en que fue primero escrito.”
References
Abril PS (1569) Methodus Latinae linguae docendae atque ediscendae. Zaragoza, Jorge Coci
Abril PS (1587) Primera parte de la filosofia llamada la lógica. Alcalá de Henares, Juan Gracián
Abril PS (1589) Los dieciséis libros de las epistolas, o cartas de M. Tulio Cicerón. Madrid,
Pedro Madrigal
Abril PS (1918) Los diez libros de las Éticas o Morales de Aristóteles, escritas a su hijo Nicomaco,
traducidos fiel y originalmente del mismo texto griego en lengua vulgar castellana. Madrid, Real
Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas
Abril PS Los diez libros de las Éticas o Morales de Aristóteles, escritas a su hijo Nicomaco,
traducidos fiel y originalmente del mismo texto griego en lengua vulgar castellana (Biblioteca
Nacional de España, Ms. 8651)
Breva Claramonte M (1987) Teaching materials in Pedro Simón Abril. Hist Épistémologie Lang
9(2):27–39
Breva Claramonte M (1995) La didáctica de lenguas en el Renacimiento: J. Luis Vives y Pedro
Simón Abril. Deusto, Universidad de Deusto
Cañigral Cortés L (1988) Pedro Simón Abril: Textos de Humanismo y Didáctica. Albacete,
Universidad de Castilla La Mancha
Morreale de Castro M (1949) Pedro Simón Abril. Madrid, CSIC
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Arias Montano, Benito

Born: 1527, Fregenal de la Sierra, Extremadura, Spain
Died: 1598, Seville
Alejandro Coroleu*
Faculty of Arts, Department of Catalan Language, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Bellaterra
(Cerdanyola), Spain
ICREA-Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Abstract
The Spanish scholar Benito Arias Montano, librarian of El Escorial, was an outstanding translator
of, and commentator on, biblical texts. He was one of the general editors of the Polyglot Bible
published at Antwerp in 1573. He was also the author of a large body of Latin poems of religious
subject matter.
Biography
The son of an inquisitorial secretary, Arias Montano studied grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, and
Oriental languages at the University of Seville. After his father’s death – and upon the advice of the
canon of Badajoz Cristóbal de Valtodano – he transferred to the University of Alcalá, where he
obtained a degree in Arts in 1549. Inaugurated in 1498 by Cardinal Archbishop Francisco Jiménez
de Cisneros, the University of Alcalá applied the program of humanism to its curriculum and to the
study of Scripture, even if conservative positions within it ultimately prevailed. As early as 1508
Jiménez himself initiated a great project of biblical scholarship which resulted in the printing
between 1514 and 1517 (even though they were not actually published until 1522) of the six
volumes of the renowned Complutensian Polyglot Bible (thus called from Complutum, the Latin
name of Alcalá de Henares). The foundation of the University had, moreover, its roots in Jiménez’s
desire for religious reform. The institution became a center for ecclesiastical education and among its
professors and students were the first enthusiastic supporters of Erasmus in Spain.
At Alcalá, after completing his studies in Arts, Arias Montano took courses in Theology and
continued his biblical studies under the guidance of Fray Cipriano de la Huerta between 1549 and
1552. That same year he was appointed poet laureate and moved to Salamanca, where he studied
Law until 1554. Having received his first orders in 1562, Arias Montano became a clerical member
of the Military Order of St. James. He was persuaded by the Archbishop of Valencia, Martín Pérez de
Ayala, to leave his retirement at the Peña de Aracena – where he had been remained after his sojourn
at Salamanca – and join the sessions at the Council of Trento. On his return to Spain, Arias was
appointed royal chaplain by King Philip II. In 1568 his career took a turn, and he became closely
involved in the production of Christophe Plantin’s Polyglot Bible at Antwerp. Despite being
sponsored by the Spanish King, who had authorized the project “given the enormous demand
among scholarly and religious men for the Bible printed by Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros,” since its
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inception the enterprise was met with papal skepticism, and Plantin had difficulty in obtaining papal
approval because of the implicit criticism of the Vulgate underlying the text. The Antwerp Polyglot
was highly innovative because it was accompanied by a large critical apparatus in which the Bible
was treated as a work of literature in its historical context rather as a source of dogma. This, together
with the questionable orthodoxy of many of the editors and the use of the translation by the Italian
Dominican and Hebraist Sanctes Pagnini, led the theologian León de Castro, professor of Oriental
languages at Salamanca, to whose version of the Vulgate Arias Montano had opposed the original
Hebrew text, to denounce Arias to the Roman Inquisition. Arias Montano traveled to Italy, and, after
a series of inquiries and hearings at the Roman curia, he was freed of the charges, and the project
obtained the ecclesiastical imprimatur. On his return to Spain in 1576, Arias Montano became,
however, again the target of severe criticism, this time from the Jesuit Juan de Mariana. The case was
difficult inasmuch as Arias Montano was a well-known enemy of the Society of Jesus. In spite of
this, Arias Montano was declared innocent of suspicion, and the Antwerp Polyglot was finally not
included in the Index of forbidden books.
Developed partly as archives of estate accounts and legal documents, and partly in pursuit of the
humanist interests of their owners, in the Renaissance court, libraries became important centers of
humanist patronage. One of the most ambitious court libraries of the period was the Escorial near
Madrid, monastery and personal retreat for King Philip II. The library was established in the 1570s
and 1580s, and Arias Montano was summoned by the King to superintend the royal collections and
to purchase Greek and Hebrew manuscripts and editions for the library. Among his duties he was
also entrusted with teaching of Oriental languages to the young monks at the monastery. Arias
Montano spent the last years of his life dividing his time between prayer and study, only to interrupt
his seclusion briefly in 1582 when he attended the Council of Toledo as special envoi of King
Philip II.
“One cannot deny that he possessed great learning,” wrote Vigouroux in his Dictionnaire de la
Bible, “and it is certain that he greatly contributed to the progress of Oriental studies.” Apart from his
versions of the Old and New Testament, Arias Montano also had a scholarly interest in Judaism. We
know that he owned, for example, a manuscript copy of part of Flavius Josephus’s Antiquitates and
the entire Bellum Judaicum of the same Greek (the text is now Ms. G II 7 at the Biblioteca de El
Escorial). Moreover, he penned treatises on theological and juridical matters. Yet, alongside his
activity as translator of, and commentator on, biblical texts, he must be remembered as an outstand-
ing poet in Latin. A glimpse of the numerous editions and reprints of Arias Montano’s poems (listed
in Alcina 1995, pp. 40–45) reveals, if only by comparison with his colleague at the University of
Salamanca and vernacular counterpart Fray Luis de León (1527–1591), the wide dissemination of
his Latin poetry throughout the sixteenth century. In his Latin version of the Psalms published in
1574 – “the most demanding and obscure sacred text ever rendered from Hebrew into Greek and
Latin,” as he wrote in a letter to Plantin – Arias Montano recast the Psalm texts in Horatian meters,
following the example of Marco Antonio Flaminio (whose translation of the Psalms had been issued
at Florence in 1546). He even went one step further and opted for Horatian meters for his own
Neo-Latin poetry (best represented by the Humanae salutis monumenta, 1571, and the Hymna et
saecula, 1593).
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References
Alcina JF (1995) Repertorio de la poesía del Renacimiento en España. Salamanca, Universidad de
Salamanca
Arias Montano B (1569) Rhetoricorum libri tres. Antwerp, Christopher Plantin
Arias Montano B (1571a) Humanae salutis monumenta. Antwerp, Christopher Plantin
Arias Montano B (1571b) Comentaría in XII Prophetas. Antwerp, Christopher Plantin
Arias Montano B (1572) Virorum doctorum de disciplinis bene merentium effigies XLIIII. Antwerp,
Christopher Plantin
Arias Montano B (1573) Davidis Regis ac Profetae aliorumque Sacrorum Vatum Psalmi, ex
Hebraica veritate in Latinum carmen Benedicto Aria Montano interprete. Antwerp, Christopher
Plantin
Arias Montano B (1583) De optimo imperio, sive in librum Iosuae commentarium. Antwerp,
Christopher Plantin
Arias Montano B (1588) Elucidaciones in omnia Sanctorum Apostolorum scripta. Antwerp,
Christopher Plantin
Arias Montano B (1589) Poemata in quatuor tomos distincta. Antwerp, Christopher Plantin
Arias Montano B (1592) De varia republica, sive commentaria in librum Iudicum. Antwerp,
Christopher Plantin
Arias Montano B (1593a) Hymna et saecula. Antwerp, Christopher Plantin
Arias Montano B (1593b) Antiquitatum Iudaicarum libri IX. Antwerp, Christopher Plantin
Arias Montano B (1593c) Liber generationis et regenerationis Adam. Antwerp, Christopher Plantin
Arias Montano B (1599) Commentaria in Isaiae Prophetae sermones. Antwerp, I. Moretum
Arias Montano B (1601) Naturae historiae. Antwerp, I. Moretum
Arias Montano B (1772) Benedicti Ariae Montani Rhetoricorum libri III. Valencia, Pedro Bou
Bataillon M (1966) Erasmo y España: estudios sobre la historia espiritual del siglo XV-
I. Mexico–Buenos Aires, Fondo de Cultura Económica
de Landtsheer J (2002) Benito Arias Montano and the Friends from his Antwerp Sojourn. Gulden
Passer 80:39–62
Domenichini D (1986) Scienza biblica e curiosità filologiche in una lettera inedita de Benito Arias
Montano. Humanist Lovan 35:125–136
Gómez Canseco L (1998) Anatomía del humanismo español: Benito Arias Montano. Huelva,
Universidad de Huelva
H€ansel S (1991) Der spanische Humanist Beenito Arias Montano und die Kunst. M€ unster,
Aschendorff
Macías Rosendo B (1998) La Biblia Políglota de Amberes en la correspondencia de Benito Arias
Montano. Huelva, Universidad de Huelva
Rekers B (1972) Benito Arias Montano. London, The Warburg Institute
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Cervantes, Miguel
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Alcalá de Henares, 29 September 1547–Madrid, 22 April 1616)
Hilaire Kallendorf*
Department of Hispanic Studies, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
Abstract
Not normally considered a philosopher, the novelist Miguel de Cervantes nevertheless touched upon
many of his era’s most important philosophical themes. After a representative sampling of what
might be called philosophical moments in Cervantes’s works, we shall proceed systematically to
examine his connection to three distinct philosophical schools or movements: skepticism, cynicism,
and sophistry. We shall then consider some innovative and original aspects of Cervantes’s thinking
by comparing him to first Plato and then to Descartes. Finally, we will conclude with his views of
both epistemology and ontology before saying a word about his legacy and influence on later
philosophers.
Biography
Perhaps the world’s most famous novelist, Miguel de Cervantes did not come from a background of
great privilege. His father, a surgeon, was not wealthy. He spent his boyhood in Valladolid and
Seville before studying with a humanist schoolmaster, Juan López de Hoyos, in Madrid. It is
doubtful whether he ever studied at any university. He travelled to Italy in 1569 before fighting
for his country in the Battle of Lepanto against the Turks. There he lost the use of his left hand,
occasioning the memorable epithet which he bestowed upon himself, “el manco de Lepanto.” He
spent 5 years as a captive in Algiers after having been kidnapped by pirates, before finally being
ransomed in 1580. Once he returned home, he was rewarded only with small and relatively
unimportant government jobs such as supplying the Armada with provisions. He married in 1584
but later separated from his wife. For a while he lived again in Valladolid, where he also spent some
time in jail after a man died at the door of his house under mysterious circumstances. In 1606 he
moved to Madrid along with the royal court, which had previously been located in Valladolid. He
died in 1616 and was buried in an unknown location within the Trinitarian convent, where he had
asked to be interred out of loyalty to the Trinitarian order for organizing his ransom while captive.
His literary production consists primarily of three novels – the pastoral La Galatea, Don Quijote
(published in two parts, 1605 and 1615), and an unfinished romance, the Persiles, the prologue for
which he penned on his deathbed – along with a collection of short stories known as the Novelas
ejemplares. He was also the author of a volume of poetry, Viaje del Parnaso, and eight comedias
with their accompanying entremeses, in addition to his tragedy La Numancia. However, he is
generally considered to have failed as a poet and dramatist, an assessment which he himself might
possibly have shared. His greatest works by far were in prose, with La Galatea and the Persiles also
*Email: h-kallendorf@tamu.edu
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considered by many to be failed experiments. His real legacy resides in the two volumes of Don
Quijote, the world’s first and greatest novel, and in his short stories.
Heritage and Rupture with Tradition

In the famous Prologue to Part I of Don Quijote, Cervantes disavows any connection whatsoever to
Plato, Aristotle, and philosophers in general, to whom the author’s “friend” refers derogatorily as
“the whole horde of philosophers.” At another place in his works, Cervantes offers a playful
definition of philosophy but one that nevertheless shows it to be a preoccupation for him. The two
talking dogs in his Colloquy of the Dogs debate about what the word “philosophy” means:
Berganza: Tell me, if you know, what philosophy is. Though I use the word, I don’t know what it
means. I only know it’s supposed to be good.
Cipión: Here it is in a nutshell – the expression has two Greek roots, philos and Sophia. Philos means
love, and Sophia means science, so that philosophy means ‘love of science,’ and a philosopher, ‘a
lover of science.’
In the course of his fiction, Cervantes refers not only to philosophy in general but also to the work
of specific philosophical texts and thinkers. In fact, explicit references to philosophers and their
ideas abound in Cervantes’s writing. Cascardi points to Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy along
with Petrarch’s De remediis utriusque fortunae as possible sources for some of the sentiments
expressed in Cervantes’s first famous prologue to Don Quijote, while Ihrie traces a fairly exact
parallel between the author’s oft-repeated valedictory words to his second volume and the Essais of
Montaigne. Other, less obvious philosophical allusions also echo through the work, along with
philosophical concepts that would be difficult to trace to any single source. Don Quijote’s freeing of
the galley slaves may echo philosophies of natural law such as that expounded by Francisco Suárez,
who wrote that all men were born free and that no man could claim a “natural” right to dominate
others. Perhaps the quintessential philosophical mandate is “know thyself,” a Delphic maxim
inscribed in stone in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. This nugget of wisdom appears too in Don
Quijote, in the second part when Sancho gets to play at being governor of the Ínsula Barataria.
The most paradigmatic episode, and certainly the most written about, illustrating Cervantes’s
connection to philosophy is the Cueva de Montesinos. The cave is dimly lit, as in Plato’s allegory,
and has been read by Gagliardi as a symbol of the philosopher’s contemplative life. Don Quijote
emerges from the cave and recounts his experiences there in language reminiscent of Montaigne’s
Essays on Experience or Descartes’ Meditations. Cascardi connects this episode to several important
concepts from classical philosophy, including katabasis and nostos.
After the Cave of Montesinos, the second most commented-upon episode in Don Quijote is the
adventure where the knight and Sancho imagine that they “fly” through the air on the wooden horse
Clavileño. The episode of Clavileño has been interpreted in light of various philosophical and
religious concepts, for example, as a burlesque symbol of the mystical flight of the soul toward God.
It may be compared to a similar episode of the Persiles in which a horse owned by the Polish king
Cratilo, who bears the same name as one of Plato’s dialogues, is tamed by the hero Periandro.
Cascardi innovatively relates the episode of Clavileño, the Trojan-like wooden horse on which Don
Quijote and Sancho take a fanciful and utterly imaginary “ride,” to the ancient spectator figure of the
theoros who travelled abroad to witness spectacles in other lands and then returned home to report
what he had seen.
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Skepticism
It is generally accepted that there were two schools of skeptical thought in the classical world, the
Pyrrhonian and the Academic, both active in Greece in the fourth and then third centuries before
Christ. Skepticism was conceived as a reaction to more dogmatic philosophical movements such as
Stoicism. Basically it questions whether any certain knowledge is possible. Skeptical ideas were
diffused in the Renaissance through three fundamental texts – the Academica of Cicero, the
biographies of ancient philosophers written by Diogenes Laertius, and the Outlines of Pyrrhonism
by Sextus Empiricus – and through commentaries written by erudite Spaniards such as Francisco
Sánchez (1552?–1623), known as the Skeptic, who wrote Quod Nihil Scitur (That Nothing is
Known), and Pedro de Valencia (1555–1620), author of Academica sive de judicio erga verum.
Maureen Ihrie, in Skepticism in Cervantes, presents the author as demonstrating skeptical
prudence and caution while avoiding essentialism, always operating on the premise that others
may view reality in a different way. She catalogues the many skeptical qualifications and reserva-
tions voiced by his characters (such as, “if I am not mistaken. . .”) and cites other skeptical rhetorical
“moves” like multiple causation, vacillation as to the correct name of a person or an object
(reminiscent of Montaigne’s essay “Of Names”), the proliferation of consequences, and the chipping
away at absolute certainty by systematically substituting synonyms or other labels. She concludes
that Don Quijote as a text is infused with skeptical attitudes, preoccupations, vocabulary, and
procedures, with no single character ever attaining a full grasp of the entire truth of any situation.
Such is the skeptical model expressed by Montaigne when he writes “I do not see the whole of
anything” (“Of Democritus and Heraclitus”). Michael Nerlich has studied the synchrony he sees
between Michel de Montaigne and The Colloquy of the Dogs. Further work in this area has been
done by Barbara Mujica, who published an essay on Cervantes’s use of skepticism in his comic
interlude El retablo de las maravillas.
The skeptical literary atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion in Don Quijote is heightened by the
knight’s lack of confidence in the morisco chronicler Cide Hamete Benengeli, who in turn voices
doubts about the accuracy of the text he is allegedly translating. Ihrie further traces the modes of
skepticism in the Persiles, where she notes that the protagonists interpret appearances and experi-
ences with caution, resist their passions, and avoid hasty impulses. They also go by multiple names
(Persiles/Periandro, Auristela/Sigismunda), a technique which both Cervantes and Montaigne
employ to avoid essentializing (Leo Spitzer calls this polyonomasia). If she is right, then skepticism
is one bond uniting rather disparate poles of the Cervantine canon. She finds further evidence of
skeptical philosophy in the stuff of grammar, notably Cervantes’s heavy use of the subjunctive in
La Galatea.
Cynicism
This strand of Cervantes’s philosophical thought was studied independently by both Edward
C. Riley and Alban Forcione, both of whom argue for the influence of Diogenes Laertius (author
of The Lives of Eminent Philosophers), particularly upon his short story The Glass Licentiate. Riley
sees the protagonist of this story, Tomás Rodaja, as embodying the negative qualities of the cynical
philosopher Diogenes of Sinope. Forcione even sees Rodaja’s 6-month-long illness as a possible
parallel to the purifying askesis demanded of initiates into the Cynic sect and explains that Cervantes
recreates in Rodaja’s speeches the extemporaneously delivered Cynic diatribe or chria, which he
describes as a loose combination of invective, anecdotes, maxims, and sententiae. It is this rhetorical
aspect of Cynicism to which Cervantes refers in the Colloquy of the Dogs when, in reference to the
etymology of the word “cynics,” the dog Berganza alleges, tongue in cheek, that the name “quiere
decir perros murmuradores” (“means ‘dogs who murmur’”).
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Sophistry
The sophists were famous for arguing both sides of any question with equal vehemence, an ability
Charles Presberg has studied in relation to paradoxical discourse in Don Quijote. Plato opposed the
sophists, proposing instead that truth does exist and is knowable, even if our access to it while on
earth remains limited. The scholarship on Cervantes’s relation to sophistry is divided, but critics
seem to agree that this ancient philosophical and rhetorical movement does appear explicitly in his
works. The most important study in this area is Heinrich Merkl’s Cervantes anti-sofista: Sobre
Platón, Ficino, y los tres Quijotes (1605, 1614 y 1615), which covers both parts of Cervantes’s
magnum opus as well as the spurious sequel by Avellaneda. Merkl argues for Cervantes’s familiarity
with the Platonic dialogues as well as the sophist Lucian of Samosata, although Plato’s ideas would
have also been available to him by way of contemporaneous Spanish authors such as León Hebreo
and Juan Huarte de San Juan. Merkl’s basic thesis is that Cervantes contradicts what he calls “el
conjunto ideológico sofista” (the sophists’ ideological conglomerate), a philosophical grab bag
containing, among other elements, the famous “man is the measure of all things” along with the
assertion that all opinions are equally true (a corollary to which is the impossibility of error). Merkl
sees the priest and the barber in Don Quijote as sophistical and therefore targets of Cervantes’s attack
on sophistry.
At other points in the novel, however, sophistry appears in ways that are more subtle. Anthony
Cascardi sees the picaresque autobiographer Ginés de Pasamonte, who later becomes the puppet
master Maese Pedro, as imbued with sophistical ideals and strategies. Cascardi mentions that a
specific text, The Sophist, written by Plato, had been discussed by Pico della Mirandola and was the
subject of a detailed commentary by Marsilio Ficino. Cascardi presses the analogy even further
when he calls Don Quijote himself an “amalgam of philosopher and sophist.” In doing so, Cascardi
seems to refute Heinrich Merkl’s claim that Cervantes is anti-sophistic. But perhaps a compromise
position between their two views may be reached by virtue of the fact that Plato associates poetry
with sophistry, while Cervantes – according to Cascardi – follows the Neo-Aristotelian Torquato
Tasso in distinguishing clearly between poetry and sophistry, in particular by citing the possibility of
the so-called “legitimate marvelous.”

Contrast to Plato
Cervantes may well have sided with Plato in denouncing the sophists, although it would be a mistake
to assume he embraced Platonism as a satisfactory alternative to their deviousness; indeed, Merkl
claims that the second part of Don Quijote may be designated both anti-sophistic and anti-Platonic.
If this is so, it would mark an evolution in Cervantes’s thought in the years subsequent to the
publication of his Galatea, a pastoral novel often said to be steeped in Neoplatonism. Cervantes’s
ambiguous and often vexed relationship to Plato and Renaissance Neoplatonism has been dissected
most shrewdly by Anthony Cascardi, who makes the important distinction that Cervantes, unlike
Plato, does not present us with any way to distinguish between true and false myths. Any sense in
which Cervantes could be considered a Platonist would have to be limited to a handful of discrete,
fully contextualized, and non-generalizable examples, which may well be seen as coming almost
exclusively from his early works.
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Contrast to Descartes
When seeking to attribute to Cervantes some form of philosophical innovation, some critics contrast
him with Plato but far more compare him to René Descartes. Scholars such as Américo Castro have
long seen in Cervantes a precursor of Descartes, although with the obvious qualification that the
novelist made no pretense to any sort of systematicity. Cascardi contrasts and then compares
Cervantes with Descartes, ultimately concluding that out of fear of the Inquisition, Cervantes
employs strategies of masking – similar to the ones Descartes found – to speak obliquely about
controversial topics.
These alleged similarities to Descartes and his method may hold some validity. With regard to the
Cueva de Montesinos, however, Cascardi regards Cervantes as anti-skeptical – in other words, he
thinks knowledge is possible but “not submissible to reason.” In fact Cascardi views the cave
episode as a possible critique of Descartes’ dream argument avant la lettre. In a different version of
the same argument, in which he emphasizes Anselmo’s frustrated demand for tangible proofs and
empirical tests of his wife’s faithfulness in the intercalated tale of “El curioso impertinente,”
Cascardi states categorically that the Quijote is both anti-skeptical and antirational.
Epistemology and Ontology

If Cervantes critiqued, at least implicitly, the epistemological assumptions of his day, what would he
propose to fill the void left by their absence? He seems to validate intuitive ways of knowing, or
epistemes, which may be more appropriate for the literary world than cold scientific analysis. This
form of philosophizing, sometimes called “noetic” (from Aristotle’s Greek word for intuition, or
nous), privileges figurative language, for which it finds a place within the reasoning process. Noetic
philosophy insists that not all knowledge is demonstrable, but it remains valuable nonetheless.
Indeed, Emilio Hidalgo-Serna sees in Don Quijote a condemnation of rationalist metaphysics.
Cervantes may have condemned rationality, but he often concocted unique linguistic solutions to
ontological questions, as with his much-commented-upon neologism baciyelmo. In this and other
instances, he betrays a preoccupation with ontology, what Alban Forcione has aptly called
“the nature of truth itself.” Forcione emphasizes Cervantes’s affinities with Aristotle and the
Renaissance Neo-Aristotelians who shared the belief that art must deal responsibly with truth.
While Neo-Aristotelians such as Torquato Tasso, arguing for Christian humanistic concepts like the
legitimate marvelous, tried to push the concept of verisimilitude as far as possible toward literal
truth, Forcione argues that Cervantes employs reason to undermine the rational system. But it is
actually a very different thing to say there is no truth than to say there is truth, but it may not be
knowable. Maureen Ihrie believes that Cervantes’s fideism kicked in right at the point where his
skepticism ran out – in other words, there are some things he (as a devout Catholic) was just willing
to take on faith. This was a common combination of belief systems during this time period, including
for other Christian Humanist authors in Spain such as the slightly later picaresque novelist and poet
Francisco de Quevedo.
Impact and Legacy

E. C. Graf sees the influence of Don Quijote on the English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes.
He notes that Hobbes refers to Don Quijote explicitly in Human Nature (1650), which argues for a
skeptical approach as the solution to fallible human perceptions, and claims that Hobbes had the
knight errant in mind when he wrote his more famous Leviathan 1 year later. Graf further traces the
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influence of Cervantes through Hobbes to David Hume (1711–1776), who is considered to be the
father of pragmatism.
To follow what is perhaps a less circuitous line of descent, Cervantes is known to have influenced
later Spanish philosophers Miguel de Unamuno and José Ortega y Gasset. The existentialist
Unamuno in particular believed the Quijote to be representative of what he saw as a uniquely
Spanish philosophy. Ortega y Gasset in turn proclaimed the doctrine of quijotismo, which may
merely be a synonym for perspectivism. Ortega urged Spaniards to live quixotically, which for him
meant to “decide not to be satisfied with reality.”
Cross-References
▶ Aristotle
▶ Cynicism
▶ Descartes
▶ Epistemology
▶ Montaigne
▶ Ontology
▶ Plato
▶ Skepticism
▶ Sophistry
References
Primary Literature
Cervantes M (1980) El coloquio de los perros. In: Novelas ejemplares (ed Sieber H), vol 2. Cátedra,
Madrid
Cervantes M (1997) Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (ed Romero Muñoz C). Cátedra, Madrid
Cervantes M (2002) El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (ed Rico F). Biblioteca Clásica.
Crítica, Barcelona
Ortega y Gasset J (1961) Meditations on Quixote (trans: Rugg E, Marín D; ed: Marías J).
W.W. Norton, New York
Unamuno M (1968) Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho. In: Obras completas (ed García Blanco M).
Nuevos ensayos, vol 3. Escelicer, Madrid, pp 49–256
Cascardi AJ (1983) Cervantes and skepticism: the vanishing of the body. In: Molloy S and
Fernández Cifuentes L (eds) Essays on Hispanic literature in Honor of Edmund L. King. Tamesis,
London
Cascardi AJ (1982) Skepticism and the problem of criteria in the Quixote. Revista de estudios
hispánicos 9:31–37
Cascardi AJ (1984) Cervantes and Descartes on the dream argument. Cervantes 4:109–122
Cascardi AJ (1986) The bounds of reason: Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Flaubert. Columbia University
Press, New York
Cascardi AJ (1987) The theory of the novel as philosophy: Lukács, Unamuno, Ortega. Rev can stud
hisp 11(2):223–241
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Cascardi AJ (2000) Two kinds of knowing in Plato, Cervantes, and Aristotle. Philos Lit
24(2):406–423
Cascardi AJ (2010) Indirect discourse in Cervantes and philosophy: persecution and the art of
writing. Arena Romanistica 6:20–35
Cascardi AJ (2012) Cervantes, literature, and the discourse of politics. University of Toronto Press,
Toronto
Castro A (1972) El pensamiento de Cervantes (ed Rodríguez-Puértolas J). Noguer, Barcelona
Chen Sham J (1999) Política y filosofía en la interpretación noventayochista del Quijote. Anu
Estudios Filológicos 22:99–111
Close A (1972) Don Quixote and Unamuno’s philosophy of art. In: Glendinning N (ed) Studies in
modern Spanish literature and art presented to Helen F. Grant. Tamesis, London, pp 25–44
Forcione AK (1970) Cervantes, Aristotle, and the Persiles. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Forcione AK (1982) Cervantes and the humanist vision: a study of four exemplary novels. Princeton
Gagliardi A (2003) Cervantes filosofo: averroismo e cristianesimo. Tirrenia, Turin
Gagliardi A (2004) Cervantes e l’umanesimo: Don Chisciotte della Mancia. Tirrenia, Turin
Graf EC (2004) Martin and the ghosts of the Papacy: Don Quijote 1.19 between Sulpicius Severus
and Thomas Hobbes. Mod Lang Notes 119(5):949–978
Ihrie M (1982) Skepticism in Cervantes. Tamesis, London
Merkl H (2011) Cervantes anti-sofista: sobre Platón, Ficino, y los tres “Quijotes”. Academia del
Hispanismo, Vigo
Mujica B (1993) Cervantes’ use of skepticism in El retablo de las maravillas. In: Mujica B et al (eds)
Looking at the Comedia in the year of the Quincentennial (Proceedings of the 1992 symposium
on Golden Age drama at the University of Texas, El Paso, March 18–21). University Press of
America, Lanham, pp 149–158
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perros. In: Nerlich M and Spadaccini N (eds) Cervantes’s “exemplary novels” and the adventure
of writing. The Prisma Institute, Minneapolis, pp 247–329
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vania State University Press, University Park
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Eustachius a S. Paulo
Born: 1575 (?), Paris
Died: 1640, Paris
Simone Guidi*
Abstract
A seventeenth-century French theologian and philosopher. One of the most important intellectuals and
churchmen of his time. A leading figure in the French Counter-Reformation. The author of a Summa
Philosophiae, published in 1609, which was reprinted many times all over Europe, becoming one of
the most widely used school textbooks of the time, famously favored and used by Descartes himself.
Eustache Asseline
Biography
A French theologian and philosopher. His real name was Eustache Asseline. Born in 1575 in Paris,
where he died in 1640. His father was Lord of Champeaux and attorney to the Paris Parliament. His
mother, Marie Le Grand, was a cousin of the French statesman Claude Mangot. He studied at the
Sorbonne in the same years as Pierre Bérulle and became a Doctor there in 1604. In 1606 he became
devoted to Bernardo di Chiaravalle, who persuaded him to be ordained in the Feuillants Cistercian
Order, where he took the name Eustachius a Sancto Paulo. Because of the Order he belonged to, he
was also known as Le Feuillant. He was one of the most influential church intellectuals of his time
and one of the leading figures of the Counter-Reformation in France. In 1622 Cardinal Francois de
La Rochefoucauld appointed him Apostolic Commissioner, with the task of reforming the religious
orders in France. He worked in cooperation with the main church leaders to restore proper worship in
the Augustinian, Benedictine, Cistercian, and Cluniac orders. He is also known to have supported
the activities of French nuns, in particular the Pontoise Carmelitans, including the mystic Barbe
Jeanne Avrillot Acarie, and the Port Royal nuns, but also the Ursulines of Paris.
Innovative Aspects
Within the Paris Faculty of Theology, Eustachius published his Summa Philosophiae Quadripartita
(first edition Paris 1609) that Descartes is known to have read (Marion 1981; Arbour 1993;
Ariew 1999). There were many later editions all over Europe. His Summa became one of the
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main philosophy textbooks in the seventeenth century, reprinted many times until the middle of the
century. The work is divided into four parts, dialectics, ethics, physics, and metaphysics, in which
Eustachius, following the conventions of the time, sets out his system of doctrines, which were
frequently marked by Scotist tendencies.
Logic
On logic and theory of knowledge, Eustachius held that the mind reaches knowledge through three
stages: (Eustachius a S Paulo 1609: In Logicam, Preface) (1) simple apprehension, or awareness of
the presence of something, without affirmation or negation; (2) judgment, the comparing and
distinguishing of the objects of awareness, culminating in a judgment of agreement or disagreement
about something; and (3) discourse, the result of bringing together various things, leading to the
inferring of something further beyond just their sum, achieved through reasoning. Eustachius also
presents an interesting distinction, which would be taken up by Descartes, between hazy and distinct
understanding of discourse: the former is just understanding of what the words mean in themselves;
the latter is a clear understanding of the nature or essence of the thing discussed. Still concerning his
role as a possible source for Descartes, but in connection with the theory of cognition just described,
it is worth noting that Eustachius put forward these epistemological ideas (which perhaps follow on
from Jean Louis Vives, Pierre de la Ramée, Jacopo Zabarella, and the main sixteenth-century logic
textbooks): any scientific inquiry has to be conducted through three stages, applied consecutively to
two basic elements, the objects of the investigation and the meanings attributable to them. (1) First,
objects of awareness need to be compared to each other, determining an order of importance in the
account given of them, which then makes it possible to understand clearly any terms that presuppose
the correct understanding of other terms; (2) the meanings attributed to the various items should also
be compared with each other, establishing their conceptual closeness to or distance from the object
of investigation; and (3) these meanings must then be compared to the objects of investigation
themselves, working down to the least important objects and to minor meanings (Ibidem).
Physics
On the philosophy of nature, Eustachius, like the Jesuit theologians before him, held that matter
is definable as what has quantity, whereas quality was what enabled form to be received by matter.
It seems moreover that Eustachius, though an orthodox hylomorphist (Fowler CF 1999; Des Chene
2000), believed it is possible for matter to exist independently and, with God’s help, to come into
being without form, whereas form would not be able, without God’s help, either to exist or to come
into existence without matter (Des Chene 1996, 2000).
Metaphysics
In metaphysics Eustachius is known for his opposition to essentialism and essentialistic Platonism.
In his Summa Quadripartita he considers it irreligious to suppose that the essences of things are
eternal and that there is an esse essentiae or esse quidditativum and that the impermanence of
worldly things concerns only their existence but not their essence. In God there is the slightest
possible distinction between existence and essence, since in God’s case existence is essential,
whereas for created things the distinction is neither real nor nominal, but through mediation it is
modal, since existence is something different from essence but a way in which it comes about.
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Finally, according to Eustachius, essences preexist in God before they exist in things, as objectively
real potentialities in the divine mind, which has always known them as eternal (Marion 1981).
Cross-References
▶ Bérulle, Pierre de
▶ Francisco Suárez
▶ Suárez, Francisco
References
Primary Literature
Eustachius a S Paulo (1609) Summa philosophiae quadripartita, de rebus Dialecticis, Ethicis,
Physicis, et Metaphysicis; Authore Fr. Eustachio A S. Paulo, ex Congregatione Fuliensi, Ordinis
Cistercensis Ex Officina Rogeri Danielis. Paris
Eustachius a S Paulo (1613–1616) Summa theologiæ tripartita, de Deo rebusque divinis ac
supernaturalibus apud Carolum Chastelain. Paris
Eustachius a S Paulo (1623) Exercices spirituels, contenant plusieurs méditations très efficaces pour
retirer les âmes du péché et les avancer aux vertus chrétiennes et religieuses, et à la parfaite union
d’amour avec Dieu Paris
Eustachius a S Paulo (1635) Adresse spirituelle, contenant une facile pratique des moyens de se
perfectionner en la voie du salut, augmentée d’un Traité des facultés et puissances de l’âme Paris
Eustachius a S Paulo (1654) Ethica, sive Summa moralis disciplinae, in tres partes divisa Impensis
Guibelmi Morden. Cambridge
Arbour L (1993) Descartes and Eustachius a Sancto Paulo: unravelling the mind-body problem. Br
J Hist Philos 1:3–21
Ariew R (1999) Descartes and the last Scholastics Cornell University Press. Ithaca
Des Chene D (1996) Physiologia: natural philosophy in late Aristotelian and Cartesian thought
Cornell University Press. Ithaca/New York/London
Des Chene D (2000) Life’s form: late Aristotelian conceptions of the Soul Cornell University Press.
Ithaca/New York/London
Fowler CF (1999) Descartes on the human soul: philosophy and the demands of Christian doctrine
Dordrecht. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
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Figueroa, Francisco de
Born: Alcalá de Henares (1520?)
Died: Alcalá de Henares 1589 Spain
Mercedes López Suárez*

Filología Española III, Fac. Ciencias de la Información, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Abstract
Francisco de Figueroa is one of the most representatives poets of the Hispanic petrarquismo who
lived under the reigns of Charles V and Philip II. His singularity resides in a sustained loving poetry
in a syncretism of philosophical sources, Neoplatonic, and fundamentally literary that he learns
during his stay in Italy to the service of the Spanish diplomacy. The reading of treaties and
philosophical texts on the nature and loving process (De amore of M. Ficino, Cavalcanti’s lyric
poems, Dialoghi d’Amore of Equicola, and Asolani of Bembo, among others), plus the stimuli of the
academic circles with their personal relations with intellectuals of the time, conforms the solid basis
of his poetry that, although not very wide, it was sufficiently recognized by its contemporaries,
among them Cervantes, like one of the most important poets of loving Neoplatonism and of the
Italian lyrical tradition that melts with the Hispanic tradition.
Biography
This a Spanish Petrarchan poet (Prieto 1984), was born in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid, Spain) at an
uncertain date (1520 or 1530 Rossi 1993). Probably belonged to a son of an illustrious family of this
town, the Ávila o D’Avila (Portilla 1725), here he received his early education under the private
teaching of the Humanist Ambrosio de Morales (Redel 1908), of whom Figueroa would see himself
years later as his “pupil.” Considering the scarce biographical evidence about the poet, it seems
possible that he did not begin his academic training at the prestigious University of Alcalá since,
according to the (hardly reliable) biographical notes provided by his first editor Luis Tribaldos de
Toledo, “siendo mancebo pasó a Italia donde en parte fue soldado. . ..” At that time, Alcalá was a
source of young soldiers, and many of the sons of noble families swelled the ranks of Charles V’s
army, fighting in the Emperor’s military campaigns. Italy witnessed Figueroa’s intellectual devel-
opment in the course of several stays in cities like Siena, Rome, and Naples, as can be deduced from
the poetical allusions to the rivers (Arbia, Tiber, and Sebeto). In 1559 he leaves Italy for good and
begins a diplomatic career that will result in his withdrawal from the lyrical activity.
In 1560 after the Cateau-Cambresis Peace, he spends some time in France, working as a secretary
to Tomás Perrenot de Granvela, and so attending the negotiations between this country and Spain,
while witnessing the progress of heresy and the Spanish mediation in the Scottish affairs. After his
return to Spain, Figueroa is appointed Philip II’s “contino” in 1561. With a stable job at the court in
Madrid, Figueroa comes into contact with other poets such as Laynez and Cervantes himself, who
immortalized him in his La Galatea. Before his final return to Alcalá, Figueroa will carry out two
*Email: mlsuarez@ccinf.ucm.es
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more diplomatic missions: the first one, at the service of the Count of Benavente (1567–1570),
Viceroy of Valencia for the problems of Moorish insurrection, and the last one on the side of the
Duke of Terranova (1579) for the affairs of the Netherlands, which will result in the failure of the
religious and economic policy of the Spanish empire. He retires permanently to Alcalá de Henares,
where he dies in 1588 (9?).
Heritage and Rupture

His lyrical production, mostly fragmentary love poetry, has not been preserved in autographical
documents but in manuscripts by copyists or compiled in other authors’ printed material, until the
first 1625 edition (Lisbon, Pedro Craesbeck). It is limited to the Italian period and springs from the
intellectual inspiration that Figueroa found there. Written evidence from the period (1544) refers to
the presence of members of the Avila or Dávila family in the area of Orbetello and Porto Ercole
(Tuscany), strongholds of the Spanish domination in that area, so it is possible that Figueroa’s first
Italian stay was in Siena, where Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, the Humanist poet, governed as the
Imperial representative since 1547 (Losi 1997). The sonnet with the epigraphs “Estando Sena en
poder de franceses” and “Lauro que en la ribera deleitosa/un tiempo, agora solitaria y triste/del
Arbia. . .,” written after the fall of the city on French hands and the dismissal of Hurtado de Mendoza
in 1552, and also the poem “Io Bonifacio in questo carnevale” (Gotor 1988) attests to his presence
there. Indeed, there are documents that prove Figueroa's involment with the academic life of Siena
from at least February 1547 to February 1549. Perhaps, after his subsequent stays in Rome and
Naples, Figueroa returned to Siena in 1557. It is possible that Figueroa studied law in the old Studio
of in Siena, whose renown attracted a great number of foreign students. In an epistle that Juan de
Verzosa, the Humanist scholar and diplomatic at the service of Hurtado de Mendoza, addressed to
Figueroa that same year (Rome 20th April 1551), he reproached the poet for his neglect of the duties
as a lawyer and his devotion instead to the ludic and intellectual pleasures of the city, shared with
some friends in common. As a matter of fact, in Siena Figueroa enjoys an atmosphere of courtly
gallantry and genteel evenings (Riccò 1993) where poetical creativity, stimulated by the reading of
the Italian classics (Petrarch, Bembo, Sannazaro, Ariosto), emerges as the social and ludic praxis
(Bargagli 1572, 1587). This explains Figueroa’s lack of editorial concern. Moreover, he is in contact
with the circle of the academies flourishing in Siena at that time (Kosuta 1981; Maylender 1930),
which became another of the cultural centers of the city: the Intronati, founded by Claudio Tolomei,
the Svegliati, the Insipidi, the Travagliati, or the Rozzi, whose members Figueroa entered in contact
with, absorbing the latest literary trends far from his own Spanish tradition. This is the period when
he adopts the pastoral name of Tirsi to develop a lyrical-love and Neoplatonic tension in a bucolic
key. So far, there is no document proving that Figueroa was a member of any of them.
Innovative and Original Aspects of His Poetry

In this context, the poet gained the knowledge informing the main core of most of his lyrical
production, in the light of the poetical standards of the time, where tradition and current literary
practice conflated in Marsilio Ficino’s widespread Platonism. His De Amore or commentary on
Plato’s Symposium inspired the different treatises on love that, in the first half of the fifteenth century
and thanks to the print, spread throughout Italy. They are, mainly, Pietro Bembo’s Asolani (1505),
Leone Ebreo’s Dialoghi d’Amore (1535), and Mario Equicola’s Il libro di Natura d’Amore (1525).
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These were all Figueroa’s first-hand readings, in their original versions, before being translated in
Spain, and possibly, in the copies that made up Hurtado de Mendoza’s well-stocked library.
Figueroa’s training developed therefore from the very beginning in the culture of a country where
he never saw himself as a foreigner. His command of the Tuscan literary language, already given a
status by M. Ficino with his romance version of De Amore and the abovementioned treatises,
allowed Figueroa to write directly in Tuscan lines or to combine in the same composition lines in this
language and in Spanish, thus proving the assimilation of the prevailing metrical patterns
(as madrigals) and the Petrarchan expressivity. This linguistic skill, which would provide him
with the direct knowledge and access to this literary-philosophical culture about love that pervades
his poetry, makes him unique in the face of other Spanish poets and contemporaries, who repeatedly
described him as a “learned” poet.
In this way, Figueroa could work with this first edition of Ficino’s De Amore, published in 1544 in
Tuscan language. The treatise, an organic and commented compilation of the theories of love by
Plotino and Plato (Symposium and Phaedrus) and of the Neoplatonic postulates by Hermias and
Lucretius, probably offered a first approach to the love philosophy that Figueroa would later deepen
with the reading of the abovementioned treatises, which proposed a more contemporary view. De
Amore was a basic text because, apart from providing the Platonic foundation of the love process and
its phenomenology, it formulates a connection with poetry. In this treatise, Figueroa learns about the
definition of love as the desire of the soul to search for true beauty (God, as the center or primary
source) and the theory of the four circles (mind, soul, nature, and matter or four “lights”), on which
the divine beam progressively shines spreading its essence (Or. II, chap. 3). Furthermore, here he
will read, too, about the perception of the dual nature of love, the spiritual one, and the voluptuous
one (Or. II, chap. 7), mythographically represented as Celestial Venus and Earthly Venus, which
became one of the philosophical axioms to explain the theory of love that would lie behind all the
abovementioned treatises (Leone Ebreo, III, “De l’origine d’amore”; M. Equicola, “Libro II”) and,
as a result, behind the poetry of the Cinquecento. Ficino explains and illustrates this with the song by
the poet and Stilnovist “philosopher” Guido Cavalcanti, Donna me prega (Or. VII, chap. 1). Widely
commented on from the fourteenth century onward, it became a major referent for the treatise writers
(G. Pico della Mirandola, M. Equicola, etc.). This emblematic song, which has a controversial
interpretation (Averroist, Platonic, Aristotelian; /Marti 1972/), contains a brief lyrical-philosophical
treatise on the notion of love and the love process. It represents then to Figueroa a key text that, in
general terms, allows him to know Stilnovism. In this text, he learns about the concept of love as an
“accident” that springs from and resides in the (lover’s) sensitive soul after the contemplation of the
beloved, who stands as the representative of harmonic perfection, and whose eyes project the divine
beam of nature. The image of the beloved (“phantasma”) settles in memory (a part of the sensitive
soul), and through a process of abstraction, it will reach the intellective soul. This is the origin of
Figueroa’s series of poems about the myth of Celestial Venus, focusing on the contemplation of the
beloved, the supreme work of nature, where the Ficinian and Cavalcantian readings coexist:
c. “Tomó Naturaleza/ en su mano un pincel/ y quiso hacer perfecta una figura”; “¿Cuál idea o
colores/ de tan sutil manera, pintó jamás pincel o ingenio humano?” or the s. “Alma real, milagro de
Natura . . ./nido de amor. . ./ni es bien que imagen tan divina sea/sino de amor/. . .en las almas se
escriba, allí se lea” (sensitive soul) or also the glose “Desde el corazón al alma quiero señora
mudaros,” as the desire for the transfer or process of abstraction whereby the image or “form” will
move from the sensitive soul (memory) to the intellect (intellective soul). However, according to
Cavalcanti, the evil influence of Mars (animositatis ardor) interferes in this process hindering its
goal. Then the feeling of love becomes the lover’s inner war, in the dichotomy reason/senses
(passion/knowledge) and in melancholy or pessimism. This is the crossroad upon which Figueroa’s
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other compositions are built. Specifically, Mars’ influence is described by Figueroa in s. “Fiero
planeta y duro nacimiento/(si en esto, alguna parte tiene). . .”; (Lopéz Suárez 1985), where the
reading of G. Pico della Mirandola is superimposed over that of Cavalcanti (Disputationes adversus
astrologiam divinatricem), as that influence is rejected on the grounds of its coercion of human
freedom, giving voice to the doubt with Petrarch’s word (“Fera stella (se’l ciel ha forza in
noi/quant’alcun crede”)). From the reading of Cavalcanti and of Stilnovism, with the psychological
and emotional renewal through a new poetical language that reaches the Petrarchan Canzoniere,
Figueroa learns and handles better than any other Hispanic poet, the topos of the “spiritelli d’amore”
(“Per gli occhi fere uno sprito sottile/che fa in la mente spirito destare,/del qual si move spririto
d’amare”). This emerges as a poetical formulation of the philosophical-scientific principle of the
vital spirits, which he recreates in his sonnet “Oh espíritu sutil dulce y ardiente/ que sales de las dos
vivas estrellas. . ..” However, in the rest of the sonnet, following the Cavalcantian principle “sentir
non po’ di lui spirito vile” in Donna me prega, v.5), Figueroa states that “dentro está quien no
consiente”. All in all, this “vile” spirit which our poet, alluding to the “sangre corrompida,” blends
with the Ficinian explanation (Or. VII, chaps. V–IX) condemns the voluptuous love (Earthly Venus).
On these Cavalcantian principles, which portray love as passion, Figueroa’s poetry rests and will
rely on those contemporary treatises on love philosophy, providing a syncretism of sources. One of
such works is L. Ebreo’s Dialoghi d’Amore, a real best seller where Figueroa will find a treatise that
amalgamates different philosophical trends together with the Holy Scripture. In Il Libro di Natura
d’Amore, particularly in “Libro IV,” Figueroa discovers an anti-Platonic theory on the concept of
love: love as a natural instinct and an analysis of the phenomenology of love and its physiological
motivations underpinned with poetical examples. “I poeti” – Equicola will argue – “descrivono i
segni esterni dell’ innamoramento,” and hence, Figueroa will seek a number of love: jealousy
(“Dime Fili,así amor dure en el pecho”), tears (s. “Lágrimas que salís regando el pecho”), lover’s
pallor (check s.“La palidez y la flaqueza mía”), or sleeplessness: “il somno, ocio dell’anima”
(Equicola states), and Figueroa, “Ocio del alma, sosegado sueño.” Figueroa learns through
Equicola, too, the defense of the sense of touch (“De’sensi” 8.“I quattro elementi e i cinque
sensi”;13. . .“l’importanza del tatto”) (in opposition to the Neoplatonics’ and L. Ebreo’s disapproval
of it), and he will recreate this in the song “Sale la aurora de su fértil manto,” partly cut by censorship
already in its first, 1625 edition (“. . .con amoroso fuego/blandamente me toca y bebe las palabras de
mi boca/. . .cogí las tiernas flores /con el fruto dichoso” lines 55–6 and 70–1), which will conclude,
in sum, with sensuous pleasure. This is a sensuous feeling probably rooted in the anti-Platonic and
medico-physiological theories found in De pulchro et amore (1529), by the Aristotelian author
Agostino Nifo, a friend of Equicola associated with Charles V’s politics.
The philosophical framework behind Figueroa’s love poetry has its best representative in
Bembo’s Asolani. Already in his Book I, Equicola provided a highly favorable commentary on
this treatise, describing it as “giocondi per somma arte, ordine, dottrina e peritia nell’argomentare.”
Together with the example of the interspersed canzonette, two main reasons for Figueroa’s view of
this work as the key referent for his lyrical training were, firstly, the courtly love nature of the text
and, secondly, the writing modeled on the Petrarchan lyricism of the Canzoniere, of which Bembo
will be the theoretical and regulating auctoritas until the end of the sixteenth century. Moreover,
Figueroa’s Bembian Petrarchism and Neoplatonism grew stronger through Varchi’s Lezzioni
(Andreoni 2012) in the Florentine circles. He got ahead of the other Hispanic poets in the reading
and success of the Asolani, which were not available until the Salamanca translation in 1552. Here
Figueroa finds the literary topics of love cultivated in the popular lyrical tradition and the process and
concept of love, bringing together its different perspectives through the characters (Perottino’s love-
passion; Gismondo’s sensual love; Lavinello’s Platonic-spiritual love) and concluding with a
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Platonic-Christian version of this concept (Romito). Although in some of his poems Figueroa
recreates Gismondo’s approach (madrigal “Vermigli e bianchi fiori” or “Bendito seas Amor
perpetuamente”), in general he tends to remain faithful to the idea of love-passion (as developed
by Perottino), “disruption” or “fire” as writers call it according to Bembo, amalgamating thus all the
contents that the poet transfers into his poetry as a fragmented practice. From the principle of
“amare senza amaro non si puote” (Asolani, I, XI), Figueroa explores topics such as the effects of
this type of love on the lover: the curses against love (s. “Maldito seas amor perpetuamente”), the
effects or dichotomies created by this (“Come porgerà Amore al mio dolore” /ardo, agghiaccio/”),
the pain and tears, the effects of fortune, and even the confirmation of the Stilnovist trend as the
“spiritelli d’amore” (Asolani, II,XXXI).
Impact of His Poetry

Figueroa gained the reputation of “learned” poet among his contemporaries due to this syncretism of
philosophical sources that coexist in his lyrical-love poetry. The poet Ramírez Pagán, whom
Figueroa could have happened to meet during his stay in Rome and so have a direct access to his
poems, includes in the Floresta de varia poesı́a (1562) some compositions by Figueroa, as well as
others addressed to him, such as the laudatory sonnet “Tirsi honor y gloria desta ribera” or remarks
that: “. . .si desde oy a la cumbre que mereces/como de ingenio el ala más ligera. . ..” Similarly,
Sánchez de Lima in his treatise Arte poética (1580) states that: “Oy dia vive y vivirá. . .el divino
Figueroa, a quien con tanta razón fue dado este título, pues en sus obras tanto lo mostró, que las mas
desechada se puede con justa causa alabar.” Above all, it is Cervantes who will grant Figueroa
greater recognition from La Galatea (Book II) (1581–1583). In a pastoral note, Cervantes acknowl-
edges his well-deserved reputation as a poet experienced in the “sciencia” of love, through his
prominence in this work as an advocate of the Platonic theory of love: “nombrado Tirsi, con lo que tu
valor y discreción en las cercanas y apartadas tierras la parlera fama pregona.” Cervantes puts these
lines, clearly Neoplatonic, in Tirsi’s (Figueroa’s) mouth: “que la memoria puesta en el objeto/ que
amor puso en el alma, representa/ la amada imagen viva al intelecto.” Moreover, he gives voice, as
an evocation, to the incipits in Figueroa’s compositions such as “Ay de cuán ricas esperanzas vengo”
and “La amarillez y la flaqueza mía” and those “so well-known” lines “Sale el aurora y de su fértil
manto.” Figueroa’s renown was, therefore, acknowledged by his contemporaries as it sprang from
his poetical-philosophical knowledge acquired in his youth in Italy. Some years later, it was
confirmed by Cristobal de Mesa in his Restauración de España (1607), next to the praise of
Cervantes: “Figueroa con metros elegantes/iguala los más graves y eruditos. . .”
References
Monographs
Andreoni A (2012) La via della dottrina. Le lezioni accademiche di Benedetto Varchi. Edizioni ETS,
Pisa
Bargagli G (1572) Dialogo de’Giuochi, a cura di P.D’Incalci Ermini. Accademia Senese degli
Intronati, Siena
Bargagli Sc (1587/1989) I Trattenimenti, acura di L.Riccò. Salerno Editrice, Roma
Bembo P (1505) Gli Asolani, Prose e Rime di Pietro Bembo, a cura di C.Dionisotti. UTET, Torino,
pp 312–504
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Ebreo L (1535) Dialoghi D’Amore, a cura di D. Giovannozzi. Laterza, Bari

Equicola M (1525) Libro de Natura de Amore di Mario Equicola secretario del illustrissimo
Federigo II Gonzaga marchese di Mantua. Per Lorenzo Lorio, Venezia
Equicola M (1989) De natura d’Amore. Libro Quarto, a cura di E. Musacchio e G. Del Ciuco. L.
Cappelli, Bologna
Ficino M (2003) Sopra lo amore ovvero il convito di Platone. Edizioni SE, Milano
de Figueroa F.(1625) Obras de Francisco de Figueroa laureado píndaro hespañol publicadas por el
licenciado Luis Tribaldos de Toledo, en Lisboa por Pedro Craesbeeck (1ª ed.) (facs.; 1626’(2ª ed.,
Lisboa, Pedro Craesbeeck; 3ª ed.1661, Coimbra, Mathias Carvalho)
de Figueroa F (1785) Poesías de Francisco de Figueroa llamado el Divino, por don Ramón
Fernández. Imprenta Real, Madrid
de Figueroa F (1804) Poesías de Francisco de Figueroa, llamado el Divino. Imprenta Real, Madrid
de Figueroa F (1943) In: González Palencia A (ed) Poesías de Francisco de Figueroa. La Sociedad de
Bibliófilos Españoles, Madrid
de Figueroa F (1989) In: López Suárez M (ed) Francisco de Figueroa. Poesía edic. Cátedra, Madrid
De Cervantes M (2006) In: López Estrada F, López García-Bardoy T (eds) La Galatea. Cátedra,
Madrid
Losi S (1997) Diego Hurtado de Mendoza. Ambasciatore di Spagna presso la Repubblica di Siena
(1547–1552), Edizioni Il leccio, Siena
Marti M (1973) Storia dello Stil Nuovo, vol II. Milella, Lecce, pp 387–418
Maurer C (1988) Obra y vida de Francisco de Figueroa. Istmo, Madrid
Maylender M (1926–1930) Storia delle accademie d’Italia,5 vl. Cappelli, Bologna
Pico Della Mirandola G (1994) Commento sopra una canzone d’amore, a cura di P. De Angelis.
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Prieto A (1984) La poesía española del Siglo XVI. V.I. Cátedra, Madrid, pp 233–262
Redel E (1908) Ambrosio de Morales:su estudio biográfico, Imprenta del Diario, Córdoba
Riccò L (1993) Giuoco e teatro nelle veglie di Siena, Bulzoni, Roma
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Articles
Fernandez de Navarrete M (1902) Carta de Francisco de Figueroa al Maestro Ambrosio de Morales
sobre el hablar y pronunciar de la lengua española y Apuntamientos de Ambrosio de Morales para
la contestación a la carta de Francisco de Figueroa, Memorias de la R.A.E, Madrid
Gotor JL (1988) Apuntes para una edición crítica de Francisco de Figueroa. In: Homenaje a Eugenio
Asensio. Gredos, Madrid
Kosuta L (1981) L’Académie siennoise: une académie oubliée du XVIe Siècle. In: Bullettino Senese
di Storia Patria, vol LXXXVII. Accademia degli Intronati, Siena, pp 123–157
López Suárez M (1985) Presencia cavalcantiana en dos sonetos de Francisco de Figueroa. In:
Dicenda. Cuadernos de Filología Hispánica, no 4. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid,
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70(2):219–236
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Fonseca, Pedro
Born: 1528 Cortiçada
Died: 4 November 1599 Lisbon
Victor M. Salas*
Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, MI, USA
Abstract
Pedro da Fonseca, S.J., was a Jesuit philosopher in the sixteenth century during Iberia’s second
scholasticism. Known as the “Portuguese Aristotle,” Fonseca helped organize and oversee the
massive project known as the Cursus Conimbricensis that commented on many of the works of
Aristotle. Fonseca also helped devise and implement the Jesuits’ Ratio Studiorum, which was a kind
of ground plan for the nature and dynamics of Jesuit education. Fonseca himself contributed to Jesuit
education with the composition of his Institutionum dialecticarum, which was an eight-volume
treatise devoted to logic and was eventually adopted as an official textbook at a number of Jesuit
universities. Fonseca also produced a critical edition of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, to which he added a
Latin translation and commentary. Later in life, Fonseca authored yet another logical text, a shorter
one this time: the Isagoge philosophica. Fonseca died in Lisbon in 1599.
Biography
Pedro da Fonseca, S.J. (Cortiçada, Portugal, 1528–Lisbon, Portugal, 4 November 1599), also known
as the “Portuguese Aristotle,” was born in Cortiçada (Proença-a-Nova), Portugal. He joined the
Society of Jesus on 17 March 1548 (Solana 1940, p. 339). In 1551, shortly after having completed
his novitiate, Fonseca enrolled in the University of Évora, where he functioned both as a student and
teacher, there studying theology between 1552 and 1555 and teaching philosophy between 1552 and
1553 (Doyle 1998, p. 688). From 1555 to 1561 he taught in the faculty of arts at the University of
Coimbra, which King John III of Portugal had recently placed under the care of the Society of Jesus
(Doyle 2001, p. 15). It was during that time that Fonseca devised the Cursus Conimbricensis, which
was an ambitious project produced by the Jesuit professors of the University of Coimbra (the
Conimbricensis) consisting of several volumes of commentary on the Corpus Aristotelicum. The
texts commented upon included: Physics, De caelo et mundo, Meteorum, Parva naturalia,
Nicomachean Ethics, De generatione et corrputione, De anima, and Organon (Doyle 2001, p. 16).
After his time at Coimbra, from 1561 to 1564, Fonseca’s work was more administrative than
professorial (Doyle 1998, p. 688). Nevertheless, in 1564 the Jesuit published his important
Institutionum dialecticarum, a text that, like the Logica mexicana of Antoñio Rubio, achieved
great popularity and success, underwent several editions, and was eventually adopted as an official
textbook at several Jesuit schools throughout Europe and beyond (ibid.), and likely ended up as an
official text at La Flèche where it could have had an impact upon Descartes (Ashworth 1997,
pp. 47–48). Fonseca returned to Évora where, in 1570, he received his doctorate in theology and
*Email: salas.victor@shms.edu
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became the university’s chancellor (Doyle 1998, p. 688). Throughout the 1570s–1582, Fonseca
once again served the Society of Jesus in a number of administrative capacities, which eventually
lead to his moving to Rome, where he functioned as assistant to the Jesuit provincial of Portugal. In
1581 he contributed to yet another project; together with 11 other Jesuits, Fonseca was charged by
the Superior General, Claudio Acquaviva, to develop the Ratio Studiorum, the Jesuit pedagogical
plan (Doyle 2001, p. 15). A draft of the Ratio Studiorum emerged as soon as 1586, but it was not
until 1599 and after many revisions and adaptations that it was officially adopted for use in all Jesuit
schools (Fichter 1940, pp. 140–144).
While busy devising the Ratio Studiorum, Fonseca was also composing a commentary on
Aristotle’s Metaphysics, which was published in Rome in 1577. The text is remarkable in many
ways. In addition to its comprehensiveness and lasting influence upon other Jesuit intellectuals such
as Francisco Suárez, Fonseca establishes himself as more than a capable philologist (Schmutz 2014).
Included in the commentary is a critical Greek text that Fonseca himself established from both
printed editions and available manuscripts. Not only does Fonseca offer a commentary on the
Aristotelian text but he himself also provides a Latin translation (Solana 1940, pp. 344–345).
In 1582 Fonseca left Rome to return to his native Portugal where he became the superior of the
Jesuit house of San Roque in Lisbon and also served as the Visitor of the Jesuit province in Lusitania
(ibid., p. 339). In 1591 Fonseca composed a second but relatively shorter treatise on logic: the
Isagoge philosophica. Of concern in this text are the nature of universals, the particulars, and the
process of abstraction. A year later in 1592, Fonseca returned to Rome to prepare for the Fifth
General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, which would open in 1593 (Doyle 2001, p. 15). In
addition to addressing various political concerns stemming from tensions between the papacy and
the king of Spain, significantly, the Fifth General Congregation reaffirmed that Thomas Aquinas
would be followed in matters of theology and Aristotle in philosophical issues (Padberg 2006,
p. 29). In 1598 Fonseca, still tending to Jesuit pedagogical concerns, produced yet another redaction
of the Ratio Studiorum. Eventually, Fonseca returned to Lisbon where he died on 4 November 1599
(Solana 1940, p. 339).
Logic
Fonseca’s principle contributions to the history of philosophy reside in logic and metaphysics. By
and large, his most detailed thinking on logic can be found in the eight books of his Institutionum
dialecticarum (ID), and he also composed a smaller treatise, the Isagoge philosophica (IP), which
consists of only 66 folios arranged in 12 chapters.
Isagoge philosophica
The first half of the volume deals with matters related to universals, particulars, and abstraction,
whereas the second portion treats various kinds of universal. Chapter one addresses the nature of
universals in general. A universal of its own nature is apt to be in many things, explains Fonseca, as
“animal” is in several animals and “man” is in several men, and thus it is naturally apt to be
predicated of several things (IP, c. 1; fol. 5). Yet, one should not consider a universal, Fonseca warns,
as some one thing that is in each of the things of which it is predicated (ibid.; fol. 6). Nevertheless, the
universal does point to a more than mere nominal identity among things similarly predicated since
each has the same ratio (ibid.).
In the second chapter, Fonseca goes on to explain that there are four modes of universal, each
following upon the degree of unity that the ratio of the universal has within each particular falling
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under its scope. Here, Fonseca seems to have in mind a sort of analogical unity (though he does not
use the term) as he gives the quintessential example of health (as well as sickness) and the
diverse – but proportionally unified – rationes that emerge among those things denominated
“healthy.” Thus, the first mode of universal pertains to those things having “one and the same
ratio” but in such a way that they are “sometimes excluded from equivocity” (ibid., c. 2; fol. 10).
Fonseca appeals to being – which, though one in itself and most universal, is said in many ways but
not equivocally – as an instance of such universal (ibid.). The second mode of universal, continues
the Jesuit, is such that those things of which the universal is predicated have one and the same ratio
resulting from their sharing in a nature that is located in one of the ten categories (ibid.; fol. 11). The
third mode occurs wherein there is one and the same ratio that is unequally participated so as to
impede univocal predication of the ratio of its participants (ibid.). Finally, with the fourth mode,
there is, again, one and the same ratio, except that only what falls within the definition of the
universal simpliciter and absolutely is considered (ibid.; fol. 11–12).
In chapter three Fonseca discusses particulars and how they can be the “subjects” of various
universals, for example, “Socrates [as the subject of] man, and man [the subject of animal]” and the
like (ibid., c. 3; fol. 13). The relation of a particular to universals results in the latter being subject to
greater or lesser degrees of universality. For example, Fonseca notes that “man and white” are less
universal, while “animal and color” are more universal. Greater still are “substance and quantity,”
which are “maximally” universal (ibid.; fol. 14). Ultimately, as Fonseca sees it, the singular or
individual is that which, of its own nature, cannot be in or predicated of many things (ibid.).
Chapter four – which some regard as the most original element of Fonseca’s Isagoge philosophica
(Solana 1940, p. 342) – pertains to the abstraction of universals from singulars. Abstraction occurs,
Fonseca holds, with the “ministration” or assistance of the senses, which gather certain “species of
natural similitude” – and not common natures themselves – from singular things in which no
individuating differences are represented (IP, c. 4; fol. 19). Fonseca explains that any faculty of
knowledge abstracts certain species from things and separates their own proper objects from the
objects of other faculties (ibid.). This is true not just of intellectual faculties but, significantly, of
sense powers as well. Here, Fonseca gives the example of sight as it perceives butter. Though in
butter there simultaneously exist various sensible qualities such as whiteness, sweetness, particular
odor, and softness, the Jesuit notes that sight “abstracts” the aspect of whiteness from the singular
thing leaving behind, as it were, the other sensible qualities (ibid.; fol. 19). Similarly, yet in a more
noble fashion because of its immateriality, the intellect is able to perceive universals that are
abstracted from singulars that are of a higher nature than sensible species and are called intelligibiles
(ibid.; fol. 20). In short, for Fonseca, abstraction is of two kinds: one made through the sensitive
power and the other made through the intellect. Through the former, an object separated by a sense
power is represented in a species; through the latter, what is separated is known (intelligibly)
precisely as such (ibid.; fol. 23). The remainder of the chapter then discusses in a rather straightfor-
ward Aristotelian fashion the process of abstraction beginning with sensation, moving through
phantasms, to the work of the agent and possible intellects. What is somewhat peculiar about
Fonseca’s account, however, is that he thinks the possible intellect is capable of knowing singular
beings, albeit in a fashion that is much superior than what sensation achieves (Solana 1940, p. 343).
In chapter five Fonseca addresses the relationship between universals-particulars and dialectics.
Of particular interest to the Jesuit here is the relationship that universals have to particulars in terms
of cause and effect. Cause and effect can be considered in three ways: first, inasmuch as they are
things themselves, as the sun inasmuch as it is the sun or gold inasmuch as it is gold – to use
Fonseca’s examples; or, second, either as a cause and or as an effect, as the sun generates gold or as
gold is generated by the sun; or, finally, as cause and effect are referred to one another, as cause to
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effect or effect to cause (IP, c. 5; fol. 25). Fonseca holds that a universal’s relation to a particular can
be understood in the same manner. First, a thing can be considered without reference to having the
character (ratio) of universality or particularity as “animal” or “man” may be considered per se or
simply in themselves. (Here, one is reminded of Avicenna’s teaching when he says equinitas est
tantum equinitas.) Second, these same things can be considered as either universals or particulars,
for, the Jesuit explains, it is one thing to be in an animal (in animali est) or to be an animal (esse
animal) and another thing to be “common to man and beast” or as that which agrees with all animals
(ibid.; fol. 25). Third, universals and particulars can be considered in terms of their mutual
relationship to one another, universals as a certain kind of total community and particulars as certain
parts of a subject (ibid.; fol. 26).
The sixth chapter explores the unity that universals possess. Here, Fonseca holds that there are
two kinds of unity: one “formal” and the other “prescisive” (ibid., c. 6; fol. 28). Formal unity, says
Fonseca, is “nothing other than the undividedness of a universal thing in itself, that is, in its nature or
in its definition [ratio], which is how ‘animal’ is undivided in that which is an animal and ‘man’ in
that which is a man” (ibid.). The undividedness of formal unity is merely negative (ibid.; fol. 30) or
non-exclusionary and results from the community that arises among several individuals that share in
some communicable property such as a nature or form. Fonseca also describes such unity as
pertaining to the properties of universals as things (ibid.; fols. 29–30). Formal unity does not
presuppose an aptitude of the universal thing to be in many of itself (ibid.; fol. 30). In contrast,
prescisive unity, says Fonseca, consists in the privative (ibid.) undividedness of the universal thing,
not in itself, but in its particulars, as occurs, for example, in the undividedness of “animal” as it is
found in a man and a beast or “man” as found in Socrates and other men (ibid.; fol. 29). Prescisive
unity concerns the properties of things as they are apt to be in several things (ibid.; fol. 30).
In chapters seven through eleven, Fonseca treats successively the five Porphyrian universals,
namely, genus (c. 7), species (c. 8), difference (c. 9), properties (c. 10), and accidents (c. 11). The
work then concludes with a chapter (the twelfth) devoted to other kinds of universals “unknown to
heathen philosophers.” Here, of central concern for Fonseca are the implications involved with the
Incarnation in which “God” and “man” are predicated of the singular Christ (ibid., c. 12; fol. 61). The
Jesuit maintains that whenever anything about God is predicated of Christ, such predication has no
character of universality, which is not to say that the divine is merely a singular thing, but is
maximally singular (ibid.; fol. 62). The situation is different, however, when things pertaining to
human nature are predicated of Christ. “Human” and “human attributes” are not predicated of the
divine Word with necessity but only contingently (ibid.; fol. 63). Nevertheless, Fonseca insists,
Christ’s human nature is not united to the Word accidentally (ibid.; fol. 64). Here, the Jesuit notes
that none of the modes of universals known to the “heathen philosophers,” viz., quidditative,
essential, necessary, generic, specific, or difference, will suffice to account for the manner in
which human nature is predicated of Christ, for the two (the divine and human), Fonseca holds,
are united substantially (ibid.; fols. 64–65). Thus, the kind of predication involved is “substantial
predication,” which Fonseca regards as neither essential nor accidental (ibid.; fol. 66).
Institutionum dialecticarum
Substantially longer than the Isagoge philosophica, Fonseca’s earlier work on Aristotle’s formal
logic, the Institutionum dialecticarum, runs throughout eight books. The work has all the classic
characteristics of a textbook intended for classroom instruction; it is precise, clear, and concise
(Solana 1940, p. 340). It is no surprise, then, that the text was adopted by the Jesuits for use in their
courses offered not only within Europe but also in the New World and Far East (Doyle 1998, p. 688).
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The Institutionum dialecticarum opens with a discussion of the necessity, terms, and nature of
logic. Fonseca notes that one and the same art is properly described as either “logic,” as the
Peripatetics called it, or “dialectics” as the ancient philosophers named it (ID, I, c.1; fol. 7).
According to these ancient philosophers, dialectics is rightly defined as a “quasi art” that teaches
formulas of differentiating (differendi) (ibid.). But after having described this art as “dialectics,”
Fonseca immediately distinguishes the nature of the present work from the “dialectics” – which only
concerns probability – that Aristotle articulated in his Topics (ibid., I, c. 2; fol. 8). Over the next
30 chapters, Fonseca addresses various elements pertaining to logic or dialectics, such as its subject
matter – which is the proposition (oratio) – whereby the unknown is made known from what is
known (c. 3); three modes of differentiating, viz., division, definition, and argumentation (c. 4);
nouns and verbs – some of which are fabricated by the mind, some spoken, and others written
(cc. 7, 12, 14); signs and signification (cc. 8–10); middle terms (c. 11); univocal terms (c. 21);
comparison of equivocal, analogical, and univocal terms (c. 22); difference between concrete and
abstract nouns (c. 23); common and singular terms (c. 26); and transcendental and
non-transcendental terms (c. 28), among many other topics. Regarding transcendental terms,
Fonseca follows Thomas in identifying them with what is said of all true beings, viz., ens, unum,
bonum, aliquid, and res. While the Jesuit seems to leave no room for the Scotistic disjunctive
transcendentals or pure perfections, he does open a space for the consideration of supertranscen-
dentality, understanding it as that which is “opine-able, thinkable, apprehend-able, and the like,”
which are affirmed of all beings and not only “true beings” (ID, I, c. 28; fol. 35).
The second book of the Institutionum dialecticarum examines the nature of universals, which
would be revisited in greater detail later in the Isagoge philosophica. As would be the case in that
later text, in the present work Fonseca begins with a general consideration of universals before
examining in the characteristics of the five Porphyrian universals as well as universals found in each
of the Aristotelian categories in successive chapters.
Book three explores the nature of propositions, which Fonseca defines as “a voice [vox] signifying
out of custom, of which some of its parts signify separately, such as: ‘Socrates is a philosopher,’
‘Socrates is wise’” (ibid., III, c. 1; fol. 56). In the remaining chapters of book three Fonseca then
explores various kinds and divisions of propositions. The first division mentioned is that between a
perfect and imperfect proposition. A perfect proposition, he says, is one in which some complete or
express thought (integra sententia) is declared, for example, “God is the highest good” (ibid., III,
c. 2; fol. 57). In contrast, an imperfect proposition is one in which an incompletely expressed thought
is signified (muta sententia), for example, “To be afraid of God” (ibid.). Fonseca then divides
enunciations or judgments into two kinds: simple and conjoined; he further subdivides the former
into simple absolute and simple modal (ibid., III, c. 3). In short, as he sees it, a “perfect proposition”
is such that it is either true or false (ibid.; fol. 58). A simple proposition is one in which “one thing” is
expressed, for example, “Man is an animal,” “Man is a rational animal,” “A just man is prudent,” and
the like. A conjoined proposition (enunciatio coniuncta) is hypothetical, for example, “If it is day, it
is light” (ibid.; fol. 59). An absolute proposition, continues Fonseca, is one that “signifies something
absolutely to belong [inesse] or not belong to [non inesse] something else,” for example, “Man is an
animal,” or “Man is not a rock” (ibid.). Finally, according to the Jesuit, a modal proposition is one
wherein the mode of something’s belonging to (or not) is expressed, for example, “Man is
necessarily an animal,” “Man is, of necessity, not a stone,” “It is necessary for man to be an animal,”
and “It is necessary for man not to be a stone” (ibid.). The remainder of the chapter discusses various
aspects of propositions, quantity, quality, etc., and their relations according to the square of
opposition.
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Book four of the Institutionum dialecticarum studies “division.” Division is treated in a number of
distinct sciences, including metaphysics, but the sort that dialectics or logic is concerned with,
Fonseca says, is with the parts into which a proposition is divided. A whole, for example, “man” or
“animal,” is that which can be divided into parts such as when one says that “Of a human, one part is
the soul and the other the body” or “Of an animal, some are man and others beasts” (ibid., IV, c. 1;
fol. 94). At issue here are logical distinctions (c. 2). This discussion gives Fonseca a reason to
address how distinctions among genera and species and even of reason affect one’s metaphysical
considerations (c. 5).
In the fifth book, Fonseca moves onto an exploration of “definition.” “A definition,” says
Fonseca, “is a proposition that declares some essence or nature: as [for example] ‘rational animal;’
for it [the definition] declares the nature of a name” (ID, V, c. 1; fol. 109). Put simply, a definition
attempts to explain, as it were, an essence or quiddity through placing that thing into its proper
divisions of genus and species (ibid.). A definition is properly a proposition, Fonseca holds, since no
name, being only one word [vox], is adequate for the purposes of a definition, which, at the very
least, requires two concepts that are synthesized in a proposition (enuntio).
The sixth book concerns “consequence,” which, as Fonseca sees it, is a certain kind of argument.
More specifically, “consequence” is a “kind of proposition in which, from something, another thing
is known, as for example, [from the claim that] ‘every man is an animal; therefore some man is an
animal’” (ibid., VI, c. 1; fol. 128). A “consequence,” then, can also be called a “conclusion” as it is
inferred from some antecedent (ibid.). Of particular concern for Fonseca in the present book is the
structure of a syllogistic argument, which, ultimately, results in a conclusion or “consequence,” its
valid as well as invalid forms (c. 2), formal and material consequences, i.e., necessary or probable
conclusions (cc. 3, 4), as well as rules governing arguments in general (c. 5). Fonseca offers a very
lengthy discussion concerning immediate and mediate inference and lays out the nineteen rules for
valid syllogistic inference through the by-then popular mnemonic poem relating universal affirma-
tive, universal negative, particular affirmative, and particular negative (A-E-I-O) propositions:
“Barbara, Celarent, Darii, Ferio, Baralipton/ Celantes, Dabitis, Fapesmo, Frisesomorum/
Caesare, Camestres, Festino, Baroco, Darapti/ Felapton, Disamis, Datisi, Bocardo, Ferison”
(ibid. VI, c. 13; fol. 147).
Book seven treats the division of simple syllogisms into four genera and is concerned with
demonstration. Here, Fonseca treats the material that can be found in the Posterior Analytics,
namely, the demonstrative character of scientia as either propter quid or quia (ibid., VII, c. 2; fols.
182–83). In this book the Jesuit addresses issues such as middle terms (c. 5); dialectical syllogisms
which only yield probable conclusions (c. 6); locus, that is, the position elements have in an
argument (c. 9); and two kinds of loci, viz., maxima and differentia maxima (the former concerns
self-evidence but the latter involves authority (c. 10).
The Institutionum dialecticarum finally concludes with an eighth book devoted to fallacies. After
spending nineteen chapters discussing various kinds of fallacies, such as the fallacies of composition
and division, affirming the consequent, petitio principii, and many others, Fonseca moves onto a
treatment of supposition, which, following Aristotle, he defines as “the acceptance of a name that
signifies a thing” (ID, VIII, c. 20; fol. 286). Fonseca marks a distinction between formal and material
supposition, which distinction basically amounts to the claim that something has formal supposition
when it signifies something other than itself. Material supposition, however, signifies itself, for
example, “‘Man’ is a noun; ‘Blictri’ is a voice [vox] that signifies nothing” (ibid., VIII, c. 21; fol.
288). Fonseca’s treatment of supposition occurs over fifteen chapters, after which he then addresses
“ampliation,” “restriction,” and, finally, appellation (ibid., VIII, cc. 41–42).
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Metaphysics
One is hardly surprised to find that Fonseca’s thought on metaphysics is found most expressly in his
In libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis Stagiritae (In met.), which, as noted above, contains both a
critical Greek edition and Latin translation of the Aristotelian text. The work is contained in four
volumes published over a number of years. The first volume, published in Rome in 1577, covers the
first four books of the Metaphysics. Also published in Rome in 1589, the second volume is devoted
entirely to the fifth book of the Metaphysics. Moving on to a treatment of books six through nine, the
third volume of Fonseca’s commentary was published in Cologne in 1604. Finally, the fourth
volume, which explores books 10–12 and offers a translation of books 13 and 14, was published
in Lyon in 1612 (Solana 1940, p. 344).
The work is organized in a threefold manner. First, as noted above, Fonseca prepares a critical
edition of the Greek text presented side-by-side with a Latin translation. Second, the Jesuit offers an
explanatio of the text, the meaning of certain words, and key phrases through adverting to other
commentaries on Aristotle as well as using other Aristotelian texts to illuminate the Stagirite’s
meaning (Solana 1940, p. 345). Finally, Fonseca concludes with “questions” that arise from the topic
under discussion. The procedure of these “questions” has been described as thoroughly “scholastic”
(indeed one might say they are adumbrations of Suárez’s own Disputationes metaphysicae) in that
they propose a variety of sententiae together with objections as well as reasons for and against the
positions entertained – all before offering his own conclusions (ibid.).
Perhaps that part of Fonseca’s metaphysical commentary which reveals most clearly his own
unique thinking on the nature of metaphysics can be found in the quaestiones pertaining to the fourth
book of the Metaphysics. This particular book, as is well known, attempts to determine both the
scope and nature of the first philosophy. In it, Aristotle states that the first philosophy has being as
being for its proper subject. Yet, in Metaphysics 6.1 he then argues that separate substances or the
gods form the proper subject of the first philosophy. This tension within the text generated not only
obvious interpretive difficulties but also metaphysical debates between not only Avicenna and
Averroes but also succeeding generations of medieval and scholastic philosophers. It is within
that context and its tradition that Fonseca raises his first quaestio which asks whether “being [ens],
inasmuch as it is common to God and creature, is the subject of metaphysics?” (In met., IV, c. 1, q. 1).
In answering this question Fonseca notes and refutes arguments to the contrary, which hold that God
is its proper subject. Somewhat like Scotus, but departing from Thomas, Fonseca maintains that the
proper subject of metaphysics is being insofar as it is common to God and creature (ibid., IV, c. 1,
q. 1, s. 2). Unlike Scotus, however, Fonseca holds that ens commune is analogical.
Naturally, Fonseca explains the analogical character of being in the questions stemming from the
second chapter of Metaphysics book four. Following the standard scholastic practice, he first notes
the opinion that the community arising from being is equivocal – which Fonseca identifies as the
position of Moses Maimonides and also Petrus Aureoli (In met., IV, c. 2, q. 1, s. 1; cols. 689–91)
– followed by the position, famously defended by Scotus and his disciples, which holds that the
concept of being is univocal (ibid., IV, c. 2, q. 1, s. 2; cols. 691–94). The Jesuit rejects both theories.
Being cannot be equivocal, Fonseca thinks, since it would flatly contradict the teaching of Aristotle
who held that, though being is said in many ways, is not said “equivocally” (ibid., IV, c. 2, q. 1, s. 3;
col. 694); this would render knowledge of God through creation impossible, as Thomas argued
(ibid.; cols. 694–95), and it would destroy the scientific unity of metaphysics if being as said of
substance were entirely diverse from being as said of accidents (ibid.; col. 695). Nor is the concept of
being univocal, insists Fonseca. Aristotle says that being is said in many ways but multiplicity is
opposed to the unity that would result from univocity (ibid., IV, c. 2, q. 1, s. 4; col. 695).
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Additionally, the Jesuit argues that if being were univocal, then it must be a genus; but being cannot
be a genus; therefore, it cannot be univocal (ibid.; cols. 695–96). (Apparently, Fonseca was unaware
that Scotus himself held both that being is not a genus and that nevertheless its ratio is univocal.) If
neither equivocal nor univocal, Fonseca concludes that the character of being (ratio entis) is
analogical, which the Jesuit understands to be simply the teaching of Aristotle (ibid., IV, c. 2, q. 1,
s. 5; col. 700).
Though the ratio of being is analogical, Fonseca does admit that being need not always be
predicated analogically of all things, for there are some beings that share being univocally, namely,
those things that have the same nature, whether generic or specific (ibid., IV, c. 2, q. 1, s. 5; col. 700).
In fact, the Jesuit maintains that, in itself, the ratio of being is not one simpliciter but is such that its
unity results from a relation or comparison of many beings (ibid.; col. 701). Here, then, Fonseca
seems to allow for a greater degree of multiplicity in the concept of being than his order brother,
Suárez, who insists on the absolute unity of the concept of being (DM 2.2.36), is willing to admit.
For the medievals and their scholastic successors – especially those following in the wake of
Cajetan, whom the Jesuit cites explicitly (ibid., IV, c. 2, q. 1, s. 6; col. 701) – “analogy” is said in
many ways. Fonseca himself, in the task of explaining the sort of analogy that governs the
community of being that forms the subject of metaphysics, identifies, along with Cajetan, an analogy
of inequality (which, Fonseca says, does not necessarily impede univocity) as well as analogies of
proportion (proportio) and attribution (ibid.). Reminiscent of Boethius’s own distinctions within
aequivoca a consilio, Fonseca further subdivides an analogy of proportion into ad unum and ab uno
(ibid.; col. 702A-B). Then, noting Thomas’s distinctions in Summa theologiae I, q. 13, a. 5, the
Jesuit subdivides analogies of attribution into unius ad alterum and duorum ad tertium (ibid.; col.
702D-F).
With these distinctions in place, Fonseca denies that the community of being extending to God
and creature can be understood in terms of an analogy of attribution duorum ad tertium, for the
reason that there is nothing besides God and creation in virtue of which both can be called “being”
(ibid., IV, c. 2, q. 1, s. 7; col. 704D). The Jesuit also points out that an analogy of attribution unius ad
alterum with respect to a creature cannot obtain either, for God is not called “being” through
attribution to a creature (ibid.). Nor can there be an analogy of attribution with respect to creation’s
relation to God as the prime analogate for the reason that – somewhat as Cajetan had
maintained – such an analogy would imply that “only God is formally being [ens],” which means
that “it would be necessary that, inasmuch as it is a being [ens], a creature would be defined through
God,” which Fonseca thinks is patently false since a creature is properly defined as “that which is
able to exist in reality [rerum natura]” (ibid.; 704E). Accordingly, Fonseca concludes that the
analogy pertaining to common being is one of proportionality or, what is the same, “an analogy of
proportion” (ibid.; col. 705A). “As God is related to His being,” Fonseca explains, “so is a created
substance proportionally related to its own [being]” (ibid.; col. 705C). Similarly, the relationship
between a substance and its accidents is proportionally maintained in the relationship between “one
class [genus] of accident and its own existence,” and, finally, “the character [ratio] of real being is of
the same [proportional relationship] to the character [ratio] of beings of reason” (ibid.). In short,
“there is in all things an equal proportion, although things themselves and also existence itself taken
per se are of diverse modes” (ibid.; col. 705D).
Be that as it may, though he favors proportionality, Fonseca does not abandon attribution but
accords it a critical role in his metaphysical project. While he rejects the claims of those who hold
that only substances have being formally, such as Agostino Nifo and Aegidius Romanus maintained
(ibid.; col. 706A-B), Fonseca grants that accidents are called “being” on account of their relation to
created substance (ibid.; col. 706C). Thus, when what is at issue is the relationship between
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accidents and substance such that the former are called “being” precisely on account of their
relationship to the latter, the analogical community at hand is one of duorum ad tertium. But,
when considering the relationship that one accident has with a substance, Fonseca explains that the
resulting analogy is one of attribution unius ad alterum (ibid.; col. 706C-D). These divisions of
attributions have germinal seat in the text of Metaphysics 4.2 itself as well as in the philosophical
tradition that followed, especially Thomas Aquinas, but what seems to be unique to Fonseca is that
he extends an analogy of attribution to accommodate the relationship between real being (ens reale)
and beings of reason (entia rationis). As he sees it, beings of reason stand in a relation of dependence
upon real being in the same way that accidents stand in relationship to some substance. Fonseca
notes that “beings of reason do not depend upon real being less than accidents [depend] upon
substance” (ibid.; col. 706E). Fonseca’s position regarding beings of reason stands in rather stark
contrast with the position of Suárez; it is worth noting, who only admits an analogy of proper
proportionality, which the Doctor eximius regards as always extrinsic, between real being and beings
of reason (DM 1.1.5; ibid., 54.1.9). Indeed, Suárez thinks that beings of reason do not even fall under
the common objective concept of being (ibid., 1.1.4), for which reason they do not properly pertain
to the adequate object of metaphysics (ibid. 2.2.1).
Fonseca, however, seems more sanguine about the role of beings of reason within metaphysics,
but with this outlook the question naturally arises about the character that the (analogical) concept of
being has with respect to its extension and unity. One is not surprised, then, to find that Fonseca turns
his attention to this important topic in the immediately succeeding question which enquires into
formal and objective concepts. A formal concept, writes Fonseca, “is nothing else than the actual
similitude of a thing, which is understood, produced by the intellect to express the [known] thing”
(ibid., IV, c. 2, q. 2, s. 1; col. 710C). He gives as an example the intellect that understands human
nature by producing a similitude of human nature through which human nature is expressed and
known (ibid.; col. 710D). Fonseca explains that this concept is called “formal” because it is a certain
accidental form inhering in the intellect as a habitus (ibid.). In contrast, the objective concept is “the
thing, which is understood, according to its form or nature, and is conceived through the formal
[concept]” (ibid.; col. 711A).
With respect to the concept of being, then, the question of its unity is at issue since distinguishing
it from an absolute unity that is proper to univocity is critical for Fonseca’s ability to sustain the
concept of being’s analogical character. Again, in contrast to Suárez, Fonseca admits that the unity of
the concept of being is less than absolute but more general than the distinct rationes that constitute
the proper concepts of various kinds of being. To explain his claim, Fonseca marks a threefold
distinction within the formal and objective concepts, viz., an entirely distinct concept, an entirely
confused concept, and a concept that is partly distinct and partly confused (ibid., IV, c. 2, q. 2, s. 3;
col. 714D, 715B). A distinct concept is one that determinately and expressly represents all beings in
their distinctness, but such a concept is unavailable to us, Fonseca notes, and is proper only to God’s
own understanding of all things (ibid.; col. 714E). A confused concept, the Jesuit continues, is, as its
name suggests, one wherein all things are represented by means of a concept that is entirely
indistinct and most imperfect (ibid.; col. 714F). And, finally, there is that concept that represents
one thing or a certain aspect of a thing expressly and determinately and another thing or aspect only
implicitly and indeterminately, such, for example, are the concepts representing the highest genus,
substance, in which a substance is expressly represented, but quantity and other accidents inhering in
it are only implicitly and indeterminately represented (ibid.; col. 715A).
With these distinctions in place, Fonseca explains that any concept can be called one in a twofold
matter, either according to the thing or according to reason (aut re, aut ratione) (ibid.; col. 715C).
Furthermore, there is a twofold manner in which any concept is said to prescind from others: in terms
Page 9 of 10
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_115-1
of the “thing itself” and according “to reason” (a re et a ratione). A concept prescinds a re if the thing
itself is distinct from the prescinded things (ibid.; col. 715D). A concept prescinds a ratione if in its
character (ratio) nothing of those things – that are properly conceivable – from which it prescinds is
included (ibid.; col. 715E-F). For example, the concept of “human” prescinds from, but does not
explicitly exclude, the conceivable elements (e.g., short or tall) that pertain to particular humans.
With respect to the objective concept of being, then, Fonseca argues that it is not one in re, nor does it
prescind from “all the members [i.e., inferiora] that divide the objective [concept]” (ibid., IV, c. 2,
q. 2, s. 4; col. 716B). Nor, adds the Jesuit, is the “objective concept one in reason [in ratione] except
qualifiedly [secundum quid]” (ibid.; col. 716C), for which claim he gives the reason that, where the
objective concept is one simpliciter, it would be univocal (ibid.). Thus, Fonseca concludes that “the
objective concept of being does not rationally prescind from all the objective members that divide it
except secundum quid,” in which its fundamental analogical unity consists (ibid., col. 716F).
The remaining questions addressed in the second chapter of book four pertain to the proper
attributes of being (q. 3), the thorny matter of the relation (or distinction) between essence and
existence (q. 4), and Fonseca’s transcendental theory wherein he discusses unity (q. 5), truth (q. 6),
and goodness (q. 7).
References
Primary Literature
Fonseca P (1591) (IP) Isagoge philosophica. Lisbon
Fonseca P (1614) (ID) Institutionem dialecticarum. Lyon
Fonseca P (1615) (In met.) Commentariorum in libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis Stagiritae.
Cologne
Suárez F (1866) (DM) Disputationes metaphysicae, vol 25–26. Vivès, Paris
Abranches CS (1953) Pedro da Fonseca e a renovação da escolástica. Rev Port Filos 9:354–374
Ashworth EJ (1997) Petrus Fonseca on objective concepts and the analogy of being. In: Easton P
(ed) Logic and the workings of the mind. The logic of ideas and faculty psychology in early
modern philosophy. Ridgeview Publishing, Atascadero, pp 47–63
Doyle JP (1998) Fonseca, Pedro Da. In: Craig E (ed) Routledge encyclopedia of philosophy,
vol 3. Routledge, London, pp 688–690
Doyle JP (2001) The Conimbricenses: some questions on signs. Marquette University Press,
Milwaukee
Fichter JH (1940) Man of Spain: Francis Suarez. Macmillan, New York
Gomes JF (1964) No quarto centenario das Instituções dialécticas de Pedro da Fonseca. Rev Port
Filos 20:273–282
Padberg J (2006) The general congregations and the world around them. Rev Ignatian Spiritual
37(3):22–36
Schmutz J (2014) Scholasticon, URL = http://www.scholasticon.fr/. 9 Apr 2014
Slattery PM (1956–1957) Two notes on Fonseca. Mod Sch 34: 193–202
Solana M (1940) Historia de la Filosofia del Renacimiento (Siglo XVI), vol 3. Asociación Española
Para el Progreso de las Ciencias, Madrid
Page 10 of 10
F
Fox Morcillo, Sebastián de Medina. He subsequently enrolled at the Uni-

versity of Alcalá de Henares and in 1548 he
Alejandro Coroleu moved to Leuven to study at the Collegium Tri-
Faculty of Arts. Building B, Campus UAB, lingue. The prestige of Fox Morcillo’s works,
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Department: chiefly published between 1554 and 1556, led to
Catalan Language, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola), his appointment, in May 1556, as one of the tutors
Barcelona, Spain to Don Carlos, son of Philip II. We know that Fox
Morcillo had returned to Spain by 1558. That
year, whilst in Seville, and due to his stay at
Abstract Leuven, Fox Morcillo became suspicious in the
A political theoretician and philosopher, eyes of the Dominican Baltasar Pérez. He
Sebastian Fox Morcillo was born in Seville, instructed an inquisitorial process against Fox
where he received his early education. He sub- Morcillo, whose life must have taken a turn to
sequently enrolled at the University of Alcalá the worse as shown by the last remaining docu-
de Henares and in 1548 he relocated to Leuven. ment related to Fox Morcillo. In it the Spanish
Fox Morcillo published commentaries on Plato humanist is recorded as having been forced to
as well as tracts on Aristotle’s natural philoso- pawn his collection of Latin and Greek books,
phy, works in which he endeavoured to recon- indisputable proof of his waning fortune. There
cile both philosophers’ teachings. In 1556 Fox is no truth in the assertion that Fox Morcillo died
Morcillo was appointed as one of the tutors to at sea. His death must have taken place in Seville
Don Carlos, son of Philip II. shortly after 1558.
Fox Morcillo’s first works were an examina-
tion of Cicero’s Topica (now lost), and the treatise
Biography De inventione dialectica, which was published in
1550. Several works followed, including a com-
Although traditionally he was said to have been a pendium of moral philosophy, treatises on history
member of the Fox, an aristocratic family stem- and on imitation, as well as commentaries on
ming from Aquitaine, we now know that Fox Plato’s dialogues and a tract discussing a harmo-
Morcillo reverted the order of his family names nization of Plato and Aristotle on natural philoso-
in order to conceal his converso origin. Born into a phy. In 1554 Fox Morcillo published his De
family of prosperous artisans at Seville in the late imitatione, a rhetorical treatise in which he
1520s (possibly in 1528), Sebastián Fox Morcillo explains the art of perfecting one’s style by imi-
studied Latin and Greek there under Fray Alonso tating a model. Divided into two books and
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_116-1
2 Fox Morcillo, Sebastián
portraying a conversation between the author and References

his brother under the pseudonyms of Gaspar and
Francisco Enuesia, Fox Morcillo’s text examines Cortijo Ocaña, A. 2000. Teoría de la historia y teoría
política en Sebastián Fox Morcillo: el De historiae
the chief elements within the art of imitation:
institutione dialogues (1557). Alcalá de Henares.
natura, ars and exercitium, and concludes by Espigares Pinilla, A. 1994. Reflexiones en torno al tratado
arguing that Cicero should be the exclusive De Honore de Sebastián Fox Morcillo. In De Roma al
model for rhetoricians. Dealing largely with poli- siglo XX, ed. Aldama Roy, et al., 697–705.
A.M. Madrid.
tics and with the consequences of moral decisions
Fox Morcillo, S. 1550a. Topica Ciceronis paraphrasis et
in a rhetorical way, in the Renaissance history scholia (written around 1550 but now lost). Antuerpiae:
came to form a fundamental part of the studia Joan Hoeüs.
humanitatis and thus began to be treated for the Fox Morcillo, S. 1550b. De inventione dialectica.
Antwerp.
first time as an autonomous discipline. In 1556
Fox Morcillo, S. 1554a. In Platonis Timaeum conmentarii.
Fox Morcillo published at Antwerp his De regno Basel.
et regis institutione libri III, a dialogue couched in Fox Morcillo, S. 1554b. Compendium ethices philosophiae
terms of the Roman moralists between a spokes- ex Platone, Aristotele, aliisque philosophis collectum.
Basel.
man for monarchy and another for republicanism,
Fox Morcillo, S. 1554c. De imitatione, seu de informandi
in which Fox Morcillo shows great confidence in styli ratione libri II. Antwerp.
the ability of the prince’s educators and advisers to Fox Morcillo, S. 1554d. De naturae philosophia, seu de
maintain a moral outlook on their prince. Theo- Platoniset Aristotelis consensione libri V. Leuven.
Fox Morcillo, S. 1554e. Conmentatio in decem Platonis
retical reflection on history was also the subject of
libros de Republica. Basel.
Fox Morcillo’s last work, his De historiae Fox Morcillo, S. 1556a. De demostrationis necessitate ac
institutione liber, in which history is described as vi; De usu et exercitatione dialecticae; De iuventute;
a “narratio vera, ornata et culta alicuius rei gestae De honore. Basel.
Fox Morcillo, S. 1556b. In Platonis dialogum qui Phaedo
aut dictae ad eius notionem hominum menti
seu de animorum immortalitate inscribitur. Basel.
firmiter imprimendam” (p. 17). In his work Fox Fox Morcillo, S. 1556c. De regno et regis institutione libri
Morcillo offers a set of accepted precepts that III. Antwerp.
could draw on contemporary humanist models as Fox Morcillo, S. 1557. De historiae institutione dialogues.
Paris.
well as on models from Greek and Roman histo-
Kraye, J. 2002. Ficino in the firing line: A renaissance
rians. Particularly important are the limits of dec- Neoplatonist and his critics. In Marsilio Ficino: his
orous historical discourse: historians must theology, his philosophy, his legacy, eds.
maintain a certain degree of “evenness” M.J.B. Allen, V. Rees with Martin Davies, 377–397
(386–387). Leiden.
(aequabilitas) that is consistent with the dignity
Pike, R. 1968. The converso origin of Sebastián Fox
of history. Fox Morcillo also excelled for his Morcillo. Hispania LI: 877–882.
commentaries on classical philosophers. Though Pineda, V. 1994. La imitación como arte literario en el
based on Marsilio Ficino’s Latin versions of Plato, siglo XVI español (con una edición y traducción del
diálogo “De imitatione” de Sebastián Fox Morcillo).
Fox Morcillo’s annotations to the Timaeus,
Seville: Diputación Provincial de Sevilla.
Phaedo and Republic were extremely critical Tellechea Idígoras, J.I. 1963. Españoles en Lovaina en
with the Italian translator. He stated in the preface 1551-1558. Revista española de Teología 23: 21–45.
to the Republic that Plato had not been skilfully or Truman, R.W. 1999. Spanish Treatises on Government,
Society, and Religion in the Time of Philip II: the “De
properly translated by Ficino. In the end, however,
regimine principum” and associated traditions, 39–68.
his corrections of Ficino’s solutions accounted to Boston: Leiden.
only three passages, all of them relating to minor
points of biological or medical terminology.
H
Herrera, Hernando Alonso de of 1481, was designed to replace the medieval

manuals employed at the time at the University.
Born: around 1460, Talavera de la Reina, Toledo, After he graduated, Herrera possibly held a teach-
Spain ing position at Salamanca in the latter years of the
fifteenth century. His friendship with the Arch-
Died: around 1527, Salamanca, Spain. bishop of Granada Hernando de Talavera led Her-
rera and his brother Gabriel – best known for his
Alejandro Coroleu treatise on agriculture – in 1502 to Granada,
Faculty of Arts. Building B, Campus UAB, where he enjoyed the patronage of Íñigo de Men-
Department: Catalan Language, Universitat doza, Count of Tendilla. Around 1508 Herrera
Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola), was invited by Cardinal Archbishop Francisco
Barcelona, Spain Jiménez de Cisneros to join the University of
Alcalá, an institution which applied the program
of humanism to its curriculum and to the study of
Abstract Scripture. While at Alcalá, Herrera produced an
A student of Nebrija (whom he described as annotated Latin translation of George of
“nostrae tempestatis doctissimus”), Hernando Trebisond’s Rethoric (1511). In 1513 Herrera
Alonso de Herrera taught Rhetoric and Gram- moved to the University of Salamanca, where he
mar at the Universities of Alcalá de Henares replaced Nebrija and remained until the end of his
(between 1509 and 1512) and Salamanca (after life. As with his teacher Nebrija, Herrera produced
1513). He was the author of several treatises on an adaptation of Lorenzo Valla’s Elegantiae lin-
grammar, in which he also disputed aspects of guae Latinae entitled Expositio Laurentii
Nebrija’s linguistic methodology. Herrera Vallensis de Elegantia Linguae Latinae.
upheld the humanist against the scholastic Published in Salamanca around 1515 and
approach to philosophy. reprinted in Alcalá some 12 years later, Herrera’s
extract reduced Valla’s text to its most basic useful
form. Herrera’s most important contribution to
Biography philosophy is his treatise Breve Disputa en ocho
levadas contra Aristótil y sus secuaces (A brief
Hernando Alonso de Herrera studied in Sala- Disputation in eight debates against Aristotle and
manca under the famous Antonio de Nebrija his followers), written in Salamanca around 1517,
(1444–1522), whose textbook on Latin grammar, first composed in Latin and subsequently rendered
the Introductiones latinae (Introduction to Latin) into the vernacular by Herrera himself. Disguised
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_117-1
2 Herrera, Hernando Alonso de
as a discussion of a minor problem of Aristotelian de Herrera, H.A. 2002. Sobre la persona grammatical
philosophy, Herrera’s work constitutes a strong (Tres personae: brevis quaedam disputatio de personis
nominum, pronominum et participorum adversus
attack against nominalism and the philosophical Priscianum grammaticum), edición y traducción
and teaching methods employed by the masters of castellana de Antonio Ruiz Castellanos. Universidad
Arts at the University of Paris, particularly the de Cádiz.
group of Scottish philosophers led by John Mair, de Herrera, H.A. 2004. La disputa contra Aristóteles y sus
seguidores, estudio preliminar de María Isabel
who becomes the target of the acerbic criticism of Lafuente Guantes. Universidad de Valladolid.
Herrera. In his defense of Renaissance logic, Her- Hernández Miguel, L.A. 1996. La gramática latina en
rera advocates for rhetorical argumentation over Alcalá de Henares en el siglo XVI. Humanistica
formal syllogistic reasoning. Lovaniensia XLV: 319–47.
Mañas Núñez, M. 2002. La Expositio Laurentii Vallensis
de Elegantia Linguae Latinae de Hernando Alonso de
Herrera. In Humanismo y pervivencia del mundo
References clásico: homenaje al profesor Antonio
Fontán, ed. L. Charlo Brea, J. M.Maestre Maestre.
Baranda Leturio, C. 1992. Un manifiesto castellano en and J. Pascual Barea. 579–92. Cádiz: Ediciones del
defensa del humanismo: la Breve disputa de ocho Laberinto [et al.].
levadas contra Aristótil y sus secuaces, de Hernando Ruiz Castellanos, A. 1993. Hernando Alonso de Herrera:
Alonso de Herrera (Alcalá de Henares, 1517). semblanza intelectual y metodología lingüística. In
Criminalia 55: 15–30. Humanismo y pervivencia del mundo
Bonilla Y San Martín, A. 1920. Un antiaristotélico del clásico, ed. J. M. Maestre Maestre, J. Pascual Barea.
Renacimiento: Hernando Alonso de Herrera y su 965–76. Cádiz: Instituto de Estudios Turolenses.
Breve disputa en ocho levadas contra Aristótil y sus
secuaces. Revue Hispanique 50: 61–189.
L
León, Fray Luis de 1556–1557 academic year studying theology in

the University of Alcalá, where he meets the Cis-
Born: 1527/1528, Belmonte (Cuenca) tercian professor of biblical studies Cipriano de la
Died: August 23, 1591, Madrigal de las Altas Huerga. Scholasticism was strong in the Univer-
Torres (Ávila) sity of Salamanca, whereas the theology taught in
Alcalá was rather founded on biblical studies.
Albert Lloret Fray Luis’s acquaintance with de la Huerga in
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Alcalá would be a crucial formative experience
MA, USA for him, as well as for several other fellow stu-
dents close to the Augustinian friar, including
Hebraists Benito Arias Montano and one of his
Abstract colleagues later in the University Salamanca,
The Spanish Augustinian friar Fray Luis de Martín Martínez Cantalapiedra. De la Huerga
León was a professor of biblical and theologi- was a disciple of Dionisio Vázquez, an Erasmian
cal studies at the University of Salamanca. He professor of biblical studies at Alcalá. De la
authored theological treatises, scriptural com- Huerga’s university lectures explained the literal
mentaries and translations, as well as a note- sense of the Scripture on the basis of not the
worthy corpus of classicizing lyric poetry in Vulgate but the Hebrew and Greek texts. In his
Castilian vernacular. Due to his interpretation rhetorically amplified commentaries, he used clas-
of the Scriptures, he suffered imprisonment sical authors as sources of authority, as well
and trial by the Inquisition. as – though to a lesser extent – the work of rabbis,
cabalists, and the Corpus Hermeticum. Seeking to
balance allegory and literality, his allegorical
Biography interpretations often resorted to the Greek fathers.
Fray Luis’s biblical commentaries, like Arias
Fray Luis de León enters the Augustinian convent Montano’s scriptural scholarship, continue these
in Salamanca probably in 1543. He makes profes- scholarly practices, as becomes evident from the
sion in the order in 1544. Between 1544 and 1546, authors’ knowledge of Hebrew and their use of the
he studies Arts in the convent and, with professors rabbinic tradition of biblical exegesis.
Melchor Cano and Domingo de Soto, theology in By 1558 Fray Luis has graduated with a bach-
the University of Salamanca, off and on between elor’s degree from the University of Toledo. In
1546 and 1560. In 1551, he begins teaching in one 1560, he consecutively obtains the degrees of
of the convents of the order. He spends at least the licentiate and master in theology from the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_118-1
2 León, Fray Luis de
University of Salamanca, where he begins teach- accusers in the Inquisitorial processes are León
ing that same year. In Salamanca he would de Castro and Bartolomé Medina, both faculty
develop his entire academic career. During his members at Salamanca. The imprisonment of
tenure, Fray Luis holds the chair of Saint Thomas Fray Luis and his colleagues only to a certain
(1562–1565), the chair of Durandus (1565–1572), extent follows from the discussions occurred dur-
a special chair of theological studies (1577–1578), ing the review of the Vatable Bible. The three
the chair of moral philosophy (1578–1579), and, independent Inquisitorial processes belonged to
eventually, the Bible chair, which he occupies an ongoing struggle, on the part of the Inquistion,
until his death (1579–1591). The only serious the Dominican order, and some professors at the
interruption in his university duties, before the University of Salamanca, to counter a trend of
last 2 years of his life, occurs between March theological studies that sought to philologically
1572 and December 1576, when he was examine the Bible in view of its Greek and
imprisoned and tried by the Inquisition. Hebrew sources and traditions of scholarship.
In 1561 Fray Luis translates, but does not pub- The charges against de Grajal, Martínez, and
lish, the Song of songs. The text, nonetheless, Fray Luis, in essence, concern four questions:
would circulate handwritten. His Castilian rendi- (1) considering the Song of songs love poetry,
tion is accompanied by a commentary on the not unlike Ovid’s Amores, and explaining it in
literal meaning of the text. His gloss delves into Castilian; (2) considering that the text of the Vul-
the passions of human love and only occasionally gate can be corrected and improved; (3) consider-
tackles the spiritual sense of the Scripture. To ing that Jewish interpretations of the Bible are
clarify the literal sense of the text, Fray Luis uses preferable to those of theologians and the Church
secular writings on love, from Petrarchist to Neo- Fathers, since the literal sense of the text takes
platonic works. In line with Arias Montano’s and precedence over the allegorical; and (4) consider-
de la Huerga’s interpretations of the book, Fray ing that many biblical texts can be understood, not
Luis claims that it belongs to the pastoral genre. against but, regardless of their traditional interpre-
For his gloss, he also draws from rabbinic com- tation deriving from the teachings of the Church
mentaries and Sephardic vernacular translations Fathers. The beginning of the process against Fray
of the Scriptures, on which his own rendition is Luis owes more to his friendship and common
actually based. In 1580, he publishes a reworked intellectual views with Grajal and Martínez, who
Latin version of his commentary, to which he adds have already been enduring Inquisitorial harass-
an allegorical interpretation. This new gloss is ment, than to his own writings. The Jewish ances-
centered on the moral progress of the human try of all three scholars is taken as an additional
soul searching for the love of God. In 1589, he cause for suspicion. Fray Luis’s translation and
further expands his commentary with another alle- commentary of the Song of songs, in fact, contra-
gorical, now ecclesiological, explanation of venes the Spanish Inquisition’s strict interpreta-
the text. tion of the less clear Trentine decrees regarding
In December 1569, Fray Luis is appointed to a the translation and commentary of the Scriptures
committee of theologians created to examine the in the vernacular. Fray Luis’s insistence on the
hermeneutical notes of the Vatable Bible, which multiple senses of the Scripture harms him as
was to be printed by Gaspar de Portonariis. The well. He spends almost 4 years in jail, where he
committee is chaired by Francisco Sancho and writes a number of texts for his defense and per-
includes Fray Luis’s colleagues at the university, haps some of the works he would later publish. In
León de Castro, Martín Martínez de November 1576, the Valladolid tribunal declares
Cantalapiedra, and Gaspar de Grajal. In January him guilty, but the supreme council in Madrid
1571, the committee completes the task. During does not ratify the verdict. On December 1576,
March of 1572, de Grajal, Martínez and Fray Luis Fray Luis is absolved. He receives a recommen-
are arrested, imprisoned in Valladolid, and subse- dation to be moderate and prudent regarding the
quently tried by the Inquisition. The main issues dealt with in the trial and his vernacular
León, Fray Luis de 3
translation of the Song of songs is seized. He then translations is, in fact, his best known and most
triumphantly returns to Salamanca. On June 1577, thoroughly researched literary legacy. Fray Luis is
Martínez is set free. De Grajal died in prison in the first humanistic poet in Castilian vernacular or,
1575 and would not be acquitted of all charges as has been alternatively formulated, the first
until 1578. Fray Luis would be denounced again Neolatin poet in Castilian. He follows the themes
to the Inquisition in 1582, this time regarding his and own imitative techniques of his Greek and
opinions on predestination, but he would not go to Latin sources, seeking to adapt even the original
jail. He is acquitted of all charges in 1584. metrical forms into the vernacular. Fray Luis
In December 1577, the provincial superior of never saw his poetry printed. It circulated pro-
the Augustinians in Spain, Pedro Suárez, requests fusely in manuscripts until, and well beyond,
that Fray Luis begin publishing his works. The Francisco de Quevedo’s edition of 1631. With
first book Fray Luis sees printed contains his Latin the only notable exception of Garcilaso de la
commentaries on the Song of songs and on Psalm Vega’s works, he sets aside the Castilian literary
26 (1580). He also publishes commentaries on the tradition and labors on references from classical
Book of Obadiah (1589), Paul’s epistle to the authors, also in his religious poetry, and particu-
Galatians (1589), fragmentary glosses on a few larly from the works of Virgil and Horace, whom
Psalms, and, posthumously, a full commentary on he too translates. His poetry, thus, shows the influ-
Psalm 51 (1607). Most of his theological treatises ence of Tibullus, Propertius, Cicero, Seneca, and
and exegetical works deriving from his university Boethius, while he translates into Castilian poems
lectures were not printed until the edition of his by Horace, Virgil, Tibullus, Pindar, Euripides, and
Opera (1891–95). In the Castilian language, in Seneca. The psalms, some of which he
addition to editing the works of Theresa of Ávila paraphrased in the vernacular, left a mark in his
(1588), he publishes two prose works that are vernacular poetry. He translates some too, as well
considered a model of Renaissance eloquence: a as a chapter of the Book of Proverbs and, in terza
guide for married women and moral commentary rima, the entire Book of Job.
on the last chapter of the Book of Proverbs (La
perfecta casada, 1583b) and De los nombres de
Cristo (1583a), a dialogue on the interpretation of
References
the names of Christ in the Scripture. His commen-
tary on the Book of Job (Exposición del Libro de
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_119-1
Mas, Diego
Born: 1553, Villarreal
Died: 1608, Valencia
Simone Guidi*
Abstract
A Spanish theologian and philosopher, now partially forgotten, he was a pupil of Bañez and Medina,
among the greatest representatives of the so-called Salamanca School and one of the main intellec-
tuals of the Spanish Counter-Reformation. A great expert on Medieval and Renaissance scholastic
thought, he took a strong stand against the decline of scholasticism and set out to restore Aristotelian
philosophy in line with the interpretation of it given by Thomas Aquinas. In 1587 he published his
Metaphysica Disputatio de Ente et eius proprietatibus, where he deals in a detailed and systematic
way with the main problems of Aristotelian metaphysics.
Biography
Born in Villarreal in 1553 and died in Valencia in 1608, he began studying philosophy at the
University of Valencia in 1566, gaining his bachelor’s degree in 1568. In Valencia he then continued
his studies in theology for five more years under the supervision of Joan Teres i Borrull, gaining the
title of Doctor of Arts and Qualified Theologian in 1573. In 1574 he joined the Salamanca Order of
Preachers. He was ordained a priest in 1579. In the meantime, in 1575–1577 he attended the school
of theology of the University of Salamanca for 3 years. His teachers there included the Dominicans
Domingo Bañez and Bartolomé de Medina. After qualifying as a Master of Arts, he returned to
Valencia, where he taught philosophy. From 1589 until his death, he held the Thomas Aquinas
Professorship of Theology. In 1582 he had founded an Aquinas Academy with the approval of Pope
Gregory XIII in order to continue Aquinas’s teaching and promote intellectual training. In the last
years of his life, he became remarkably influential, even politically. In 1606 he was appointed Prior
of the Monastery of Valencia and in 1607 Vicar General of the Province of Aragon.

In his deep knowledge of Medieval and Renaissance scholastic thought, Mas was deeply influenced
by the Salamanca intellectual world and by Thomas Aquinas’s thought (Robles 1983). He took a
strong stand against the decline of scholasticism. Mas’s aim was to restore Aristotelian philosophy
through a doctrinal renewal of Aquinas’s thought (Gallego Salvadores 1970; Bastit 2004). Accord-
ingly, in 1587 he published his Metaphysica Disputatio de Ente et eius proprietatibus (Mas 1587)
(in which, though, he looks back to the Tractatus de Transcendentibus by the Dominican Crisostomo
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Javelli and to Pico della Mirandola’s De Ente et Uno (Di Vona 1968)) and, in 1599, some of his
Commentaria in Universam philosophiam Aristotelis (Mas 1599a, 1599b), which came several years
before the work by Suárez and the Combricensi (Gallego Salvadores 1970, 1973) and which take their
place alongside other works of his such as his comments on Porfirius and Aristotle’s logic of
1592–1594 (Mas 1592). These are works that contemporary history of philosophy tends to pay little
attention to, but they seem to have been quite influential in their time.
In the five books of his Metaphysica disputatio de ente et eius proprietatibus, Mas deals, in order,
with the (1) problems of the being and its divisions, analogy, and the very concept of a being;
(2) question of the distinction between essence and existence; (3) oneness; (4) truth; and (5) good
(Wundt 1939; Di Vona 1968). In particular concerning the distinction between essence and exis-
tence, Mas, like Thomas, defines essence as “what acts by being,” whereas existence is said to be
“the first act performed by God on any created being, with which at a first it [the being] is placed,
beyond the power of its causes,” which means that, according to Mas, created beings are able to
create other beings only in a secondary sense, whereas God is the real first cause of every being.
Also, while form is preeminent in the physical world, Mas held that in metaphysics individuals
should be considered preeminent: both essence and form come after existence. Mas also held that
existence is logically incidental, since it is something more than the essence of a thing rather than
being an essential part of the thing’s definition or one of its essential attributes. Existence is actually
“the reason why the thing is what it is,” and therefore it is not an extra characteristic independent of
the created thing, but always something created together with it. Like Bañez, Mas argued that
perfection coincides not only with good but also with the purpose of anything, and he considered it
more noble than essence. Existence is the characteristic most commonly found in things, and it is an
act of perfecting whatever receives it. Like Thomas, Mas believed that the distinction between
existence and essence is real and not just a way of thinking or a modality, as many other theologians
believed. Thus, Mas set himself apart from the doctrine of the modal distinction accepted by Duns
Scotus and by the Jesuits, but at the same time, he stayed short of the excesses of the doctrine of a real
distinction as supported by Egidio Romano.
Cross-References
References
Primary Literature
Mas D (1587) Metaphysica Disputatio de Ente et eius proprietatibus apud viduam Petri Huete.
Valencia.
Mas D (1592) Commentaria in Porphyrium et universam Aristotelis Logicam, una cum
quaestionibus, qua a gravissimi viris agitari solent tomi duo Petrum Patricium Mey. Valencia
Mas D (1599a) Commentaria in Categorias Aristotelis Petrum Patricium Mey. Valencia
Mas D (1599b) Commentaria in universam philosophiam Aristotelis, hoc est VIII libros Physicorum
Petrum Patricium Mey. Valencia
Mas D (2003) Disputación metafísica sobre el ente y sus propiedades. EUNSA, Pamplona
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Bastit M (2004) De l’intérêt d’une lecture traditionnelle de saint Thomas: la question de l’esse chez
Diego Mas. Rev thomiste 104:447–468
Di Vona P (1968) Studi sulla scolastica della controriforma La Nuova Italia. Florence
Gallego Salvadores J (1970) El Maestro Diego Mas y su Tratado de Metafísica. La primera
metafísica sistemática. Analecta Sacra Tarraconensia 43:3–92
Gallego Salvadores J (1973) La aparición de las primeras metafísicas sistemáticas en la España del
XVI: Diego Mas (1587), Francisco Suárez y Diego de Zúñiga (1597). Escritos del Vedat
3:91–162
Robles, L. 1983. Professores de la faculdad de teologia de la Universidad de Valencia (1550–1600).
In: Corrientes espirituales en la Valencia del siglo XVI (1550–1600). Actas del II Symposion de
teologia historica Facultad de Teología San Vicente Ferrer. Valencia, pp 91–133
Wundt M (1939) Die deutsche Schulmetaphysik des 17. Jahrhunderts, T€ ubingen
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Mendoza, Hurtado de
Born: 1578, Valmaseda
Died: 10 November 1641, Madrid
Victor M. Salas*
Abstract
Pedro Hurtado de Mendoza, S.J., was a Spanish Jesuit philosopher who lived and worked in Spain.
He joined the Society of Jesus at a relatively early age and took his studies at the University of
Salamanca. After his ordination, Hurtado taught philosophy at Pamplona for a couple of years before
moving to Salamanca where he taught theology for nearly 30 years. During his time as a theology
professor, in 1615 Hurtado published his principal work, the Disputationes a summulis ad
metaphysicam. This work would undergo two revisions and was republished in 1624 as Universa
philosophia. Later in his career Hurtado focused on moral issues and even found himself in a dispute
with the moral extravagances of the theater. In 1631 Hurtado published his Disputationes morales et
scholasticae de fide. Around 10 years later, Hurtado died in Madrid in 1641.
Biography
Pedro Hurtado de Mendoza, S.J. (1578, Valmaseda–10 November 1641, Madrid), was born in
Valmaseda, about 30 km from Bilbao, Spain, in 1578. Given his birth locale, Hurtado was referred to
as “Valmasedano,” which title accompanies his name in certain printings of his works. He remained
in his hometown until 1595 when, only 17 years old, he joined the Society of Jesus at Salamanca on
the 12th of November. Hurtado was also ordained a priest in Salamanca in 1607 (Heider 2014, 87)
but made his Jesuit profession of four vows on 5 February 1612 in Valladolid (Schmutz 2014).
Early in his career Hurtado studied at the Jesuit College of Salamanca, but then from 1608 to
1611, he taught philosophy at the College of Pamplona. After his stint as a professor of philosophy,
Hurtado taught theology for the next 30 years at Salamanca and simultaneously worked for the Holy
Office (or Inquisition) as a censor. During his time as a professor of theology (around 1615), Hurtado
published a complete course on philosophy, the Disputationes a summulis ad metaphysicam, which
addressed various philosophical topics ranging from logic to metaphysics. The work underwent
several editions and had a profound impact on the Protestant world, more so even than Francisco
Suárez, whose influence upon Protestant scholastics is no small matter (Schmutz 2014). Two years
later, in 1617, Hurtado published a second edition of this work called the Disputationes universa
philosophia in Lyon (Heider 2014, 87). Finally, in 1624 the last edition was published in Lyon as
Universa philosophia (Solana 1940).
Over his lengthy teaching career, Hurtado had several important students who would become
famous Jesuit philosophers in their own right, namely, Richardus Lynch, Antonio Pérez, and
Rodrigo Arriaga, to name a few (Schmutz). In 1631 Hurtado published his Disputationes morales
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et scholasticae de fide in which, interestingly, he attacked the permissive moral attitudes that were on
display in theatrical performances of his time. This work generated some controversy between the
Jesuits, who sided with Hurtado, and apologists of theatrical communities (Schmutz 2014).
Universa Philosophia
Hurtado’s Universa philosophia, composed of three tomes, is comprehensive in scope. The first
tome contains his own Tractatus de summulis – running over five disputations – and his logic which
is composed of 11 disputations. In the Tractatus de summulis, Hurtado explores the nature of the
terms of a proposition as well as their union (disp. 1), the properties of terms such as supposition and
appellation (disp. 2), oration (disp. 3), propositions and their character (disp. 4), and the mode of
knowing in which are treated various forms of argument and syllogism (disp. 5).
In the disputations devoted to Hurtado’s logic, not unlike other scholastics such as Soto, Poinsot,
etc., the Jesuit identifies beings of reason as the proper object of logic (Logica, d. 1, 1, 45–52; fol. 52).
Hurtado’s theory of entia rationis represents a significant development in Baroque scholasticism in
general and over Suárez in particular. Hurtado claims that some entia rationis can be actualized in
reality, for example, those beings of reason that result from a false judgment not implying a
contradiction. To this claim he also adds, somewhat counterintuitively, that those beings that are
contradictory yet serve as truth makers in a proposition (e.g., square-circles in the proposition “Square-
circles do not exist”) are not in fact beings of reason for the reason that they presuppose “false
judgments.” These judgments pertain to contradictory being through which some sort of being or
reality is attributed to the contradictory being (Novotný 2013, pp. 116–117). Developing his position
further, Hurtado holds that those entia rationis that stem from erroneous affirmations of contingently
false judgments only have a verbally significative value (ibid., pp. 132–333). The heart of Hurtado’s
position consists, then, in his claim that entia rationis ultimately result from the human intellect’s
“fallibility.”
Regarding analogy, Hurtado agrees with Suárez in many respects and thinks that it is better to
forsake analogy than lose the unity of the concept of being (Logica, d. 9, s. 3.34; fol. 115). Of course,
neither alternative needs to be sacrificed, and so in disagreement with Gabriel Vázquez but, again, in
agreement with Suárez, Hurtado denies that the concept of being is univocal. Hurtado holds that
there is one concept of being that is abstracted from its inferior, viz., from substance, accidents, God,
and creatures (ibid., 3.41; fol. 116). This abstraction from its inferior is crucial in order that the
concept of being may be common to all particular beings (ibid.). Nevertheless, Hurtado denies that
the concept of being is univocal and instead identifies it as analogical. Here, the Jesuit advances
reasons similar to Suárez, who maintains that the concept of being results from a “confused”
cognition of being. That is, the particular rationes of various beings are not really distinct from
being itself; nevertheless, these rationes are not directly grasped themselves when one apprehends
being confusedly. So, for example, just as when one views an animal at a distance, Hurtado explains,
one cannot yet distinguish whether that animal is a man or a mere brute animal. Neither specific
difference (i.e., rational or irrational) is explicitly entertained nor is it expressly denied. Similarly, in
conceiving “being,” Hurtado thinks that one only “conceives an aptitude to being [concipere
aptitudinem ad essendum]” and not the distinct rationes of substance or accident.
As Hurtado sees it, “the concept of being is not outside of [extra] the concept of substance in the
way that rational is outside the concept of animal” (ibid., 5.75; fol. 119). Accordingly, continues
Hurtado, there are not two concepts in the concept of substance (viz., the concept of being and the
proper concept of substance) but one concept. But the concept of being as abstracted from the
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concept of a substance is unequal to that as drawn from an accident, for the former is superior to the
latter (ibid.). This difference, according to Hurtado, constitutes the essence of transcendental
analogy, for, as he says, this transcendental concept (of being) is not entirely the same nor entirely
different. When the concept of being is conceived according to a common character, it is the same
since “no dissimilitude appears,” but when it is conceived from its inferior, there is some dissim-
ilarity that arises, for the concept of being as taken from a substance is superior that drawn from an
accident (ibid., 5.76; fol. 120).
The second tome of Hurtado’s Universa philosophia, by far the longest, is spread out across four
subsections in which the gamut of Hurtado’s natural philosophy is presented. The first section
pertains to corporeal substances in general and particular; the second – and briefest – section
(composed of only three disputations) concerns incorruptible substances (or the heavens); the
third section treats the generation and corruption of substances; and, finally, the fourth section
deals with animate beings. The first subsection explores the basic principles of nature such as prime
matter (disp. 2), privation (disp. 3), substantial forms (disp. 4), the union of form and matter (disp. 5),
composition (disp. 6), causes in general (disp. 8), efficient creative causes (disp. 9), and the first
cause (disp.10). The remaining disputations explore the themes raised in the final books of the
Physics – such as motion, action, passion (disp. 11), infinitude (disp. 13), and place (disp.
14) – together with the properly Christian theme of creation (disp. 12). Hurtado finds it appropriate
to discuss creation within the context of his philosophy of nature since “it is the proper causality of
the first cause” (Phys., d. 12.prol.; fol. 297).
In his discussion of the nature of creation, Hurtado follows Thomas in holding that creation is the
“production of being from nothing [ex nihilo]” (ibid., 12.1.1; fol. 297), but, for Hurtado, the question
here is: What is the meaning of ex nihilo? The Jesuit disagrees with the “common” opinion that it
means repugnance or non-repugnance. It is not repugnant that something should be made, he says,
nor is non-repugnance, Hurtado holds in agreement with Vázquez, since non-repugnance remains
regardless of something’s being created or not. Additionally, nihilo is something more than mere
“non-actuality” or “nonexistence” of a thing. He concludes therefore that ex nihilo signifies to
produce being without some concurrent subject or intrinsic form of something (ibid.). The meta-
physical status of the being prior to its creation is a concern Hurtado will address in his discussion on
possibility in the metaphysical portion of his Universa philosophia.
In the third and last tome of his Universa philosophia, Hurtado develops his metaphysics in a
study of “transnatural being,” those beings distinguished from the objects studied in the philosophy
of matter through their abstraction from matter. This discussion runs throughout 20 disputations.
Perhaps one of the most interesting features of Hurtado’s metaphysics is his understanding of
creaturely possibility, which he unfolds in his discussion of the relationship between essence and
existence in Disputation 8 (Coombs 2003, 19ff). First, he explains that essentia is “an objective
concept which is apprehended by us, when we form a concept of some thing” (Metaph., d. 8, prol.,
} 1; fols. 826–27). Then, he notes that existentia, “drawn from the word existo, is the same as essence
. . . for existere and esse are synonymous” (ibid., fol. 827). In raising the topic of the relationship
between essentia and existentia, Hurtado first inquires what it means for a creature to be possible
(sec. 1). To unfold the question, he considers two kinds of possible creatures: first, an actually
existing creature – Peter, to use his example – who though he exists need not have been, and, second,
an angel – again, to use Hurtado’s example – who “is not created, was not created, and never will be
created” but for whom, nevertheless, it is possible for God to create (ibid., 8.1.2; fol. 827). One might
inquire into what that creature’s possibility stems? Hurtado answers that “the denomination ‘possi-
ble’ is taken formally from God’s omnipotence” (ibid., 8.1.3; fol. 827). Possibility, then, would seem
to be something extrinsic to the creature itself and a matter of God’s own creative power. Yet,
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Hurtado complicates his account when he adds that the possibility of a creature is in a thing “really
distinct from God” (ibid., 8.1.5; fol. 827). Hurtado’s concern here is to differentiate himself from Jan
Hus (c. 1369–1415) and John Wycliffe (1320–1384), who were condemned as heretics for holding
that “all being is God” (Metaph. 8.1.5; fol. 827). If God is not all things, then all must be distinct
from the divine being (and power), even those beings whose being is merely that of possibility
(Coombs 2003, 213–15). The power to produce something physically (e.g., God’s omnipotence) is
directed to something other than and really distinct from itself, explains Hurtado, since “it is in the
definition or character of ‘having-been-made’ [ratio factivae] that it stand in relation to that which is
able to be made [respicit id quod potest fieri]” (Metaph. 8.1.5; fol. 827). Divine omnipotence,
concludes Hurtado, is precisely such a power to create, and thus it is referred to something makeable
(factiblie) as something really distinct from itself (ibid.).
References
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Asoc Esp Para El Progresso De Las Cienc 3:568
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Molina, Luis de
Born: September 1535
Died: 12 October 1600
Victor M. Salas*
Abstract
Luis de Molina, S.J., was a Spanish Jesuit philosopher-theologian who was a prominent figure in the
second scholasticism that flourished in the Iberian Peninsula in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. Born in Cuenca in 1535, Molina eventually studied at some of the most prominent
universities in Spain: Salamanca and Alcalá. He is perhaps most famous for his Liberi arbitrii
cum gratiae donis, divina praescientia, providentia, praedestinatione et reprobatione Concordia, a
work that sought to reconcile human freedom with divine grace and foreknowledge. The work was
fiercely contested by a number of theologians, mostly Dominicans, who accused its Jesuit author of
Pelagianism. The dispute played into the de Auxiliis controversy that was only settled through papal
intervention. In addition to his work on grace and freedom, Molina also authored a commentary on
the prima pars of Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologiae as well as a vast work devoted to law and
moral theology, the De iustitia et iure. Molina died in Madrid in 1600 before the latter work could be
completed.
Biography
Luis de Molina, S.J. (September 1535, Cuenca–12 October 1600, Madrid), was a Jesuit
philosopher-theologian who is most famous for his role in the fierce de Auxiliis controversy that
raged over issues concerning the relationship among grace, human freedom, and divine foreknowl-
edge. He was born in Cuenca, located in central Spain, in September 1535 to Diego de Orejón y
Muela Hidalgo and Doña Ana Garcia de Molina (Solana 1940, 401). As a youth, Molina began his
studies in Cuenca, where he studied Latin for 4 years, but in 1551 he continued his education at the
University of Salamanca, where he studied law (Kaufmann and Aichele 2014, xiv). Molina
remained in Salamanca for only about 1 year before moving to Alcalá where he studied logic (ibid.).
While studying the logical Summulae that were an element of the curriculum at Alcalá, Molina
answered a call to religious life (Solana 1940, 401). Aged only 13 years, on 10 August 1553 the
future Spanish theologian joined the fledgling Society of Jesus, which had just been founded in 1540
(Kaufmann and Aichele 2014, xiv). Molina left Spain for Coimbra by foot and begged along the way
as would be expected of a young man for whom religious poverty would be a way of life (Solana
1940, 401). Molina continued his studies as a novice at the University of Coimbra, where he studied
philosophy between 1554 and 1558 (Kaufmann and Aichele 2014, xv). There is some disagreement
about whom Molina may have studied under at Coimbra; some hold that he had as his teacher none
other than Pedro da Fonseca, the “Portuguese Aristotle” (Solana 1940, 401), while others deny this
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and insist that Molina had Sebastian Morales as his mentor (Kaufmann and Aichele 2014, xv).
Whether it was Fonseca, Morales, or even Ignatius Martins (ibid.), what cannot be doubted is the
outlook of Molina’s philosophical education which would have been thoroughly Aristotelian. He
was at Coimbra, after all, whose association with the Conimbricenses, commentaries devoted to
almost the entire corpus Aristotelicum – ranging from logic to the philosophy of nature, metaphys-
ics, and ethics – is legendary. Molina completed his philosophical formation in 1558 and immedi-
ately began his theological studies. At last, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1561 (ibid., xv).
While still in the midst of his theological studies, Molina would, from time to time, teach philosophy
at Coimbra, a responsibility that was formalized as a professorship there between 1563 and 1567
(ibid.).
Meanwhile, Cardinal Infante Don Enrique, who would later become the king of Portugal, was
busy establishing a university in Évora located in south-central Portugal. As part of Cardinal
Enrique’s plans were to promote Portuguese interests within the Catholic Church and draw the
Jesuits deeper into Portugal, in 1559, he transferred control of the University of Évora to the Society
of Jesus (ibid.). Later, Enrique petitioned the Society of Jesus to send Molina as a professor, which
summons Molina who answered and accepted a position teaching theology at the University of
Évora from 1568 until his retirement in 1583 (ibid.). So successful was Molina’s tenure at the
university that he eventually attained the title “Doctor of Évora” (Solana 1940, 402). Though most of
his philosophical and theological texts had been written during his career at Évora, it was not until
his retirement from teaching that Molina was able to seek their formal publication (Kaufmann and
Aichele 2014, xvi), a task that was beset with difficulties and controversy. He published his
Concordia liberi arbitrii cum gratiae donis first in Lisbon in 1588 followed by a second edition
which responded to several critiques in Antwerp in 1595. In 1592 Molina published his commentary
on the first part of Thomas’s Summa theologiae in Cuenca. Finally, between 1593 and
(posthumously) 1613, he published his De iustitia et iure (ibid.). A disagreement with the chancellor
of the University of Évora sometime between 1584 and 1586 prompted Molina’s departure and
return to Lisbon, where he continued to work on his publications (ibid.). In 1591 Molina returned to
Spain and once again took up residence in his native Cuenca; here, he was able to bring to
publication, as noted above, several volumes of his De iustitia et iure, a second edition of the
Concordia, and his Commentaria in primam divi Thomae partem (ibid.). Finally, in 1600 he was to
teach moral theology at the Colegio Imperial de Madrid, but shortly after taking up his appointment,
the Jesuit died on 12 October 1600 (Solana 1940, 402).
Concordia liberi arbitrii cum gratiae donis

Perhaps one of the most fiercely contested and studied works of all time (Freddoso 1988, viii; Solana
1940, 402), Molina’s work on human freedom and divine grace, known often simply as the
Concordia, unfolds in seven parts mainly as a commentary on several key articles from the prima
pars of Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologiae – more specifically q. 14, aa. 8, 13; q. 19, q. 6; q. 22,
aa. 1–4; q. 23, aa. 1–5 – as well as a series of disputed questions that follow. The first part of the
Concordia raises questions on the power of free choice; the second part discusses God’s concur-
rence; the third part addresses the assistance of divine grace; the fourth part takes up the vexing
question of divine foreknowledge and is the locus of Molina’s discussions on middle knowledge; the
fifth part takes up the divine will; the sixth part wrestles with providence; and the final part deals with
predestination and reprobation (Freddoso 1988, x). Though commentaries on the Summa were a
standard academic practice of Iberian scholasticism, Molina’s work was no mere commentary and it
was opposed from the very beginning by those who took Thomas Aquinas as their philosophical and
theological standard: the Dominicans. Be that as it may, if Molina’s work set off a massive
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conflagration that consumed some of the brightest intellects in the Catholic Church – principally
among the members of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) and of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) – it
is because conditions for such a firestorm had already been set in place not only with Lutheran and
Calvinist interventions on the subjects of grace, freedom, and predestination but also with contro-
versies surrounding Jesuit teachings on grace in Louvain between Michael Baius and the Jesuit
Leonard Lessius. The Council of Trent had already addressed doctrines concerning justification in
reacting to Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism. But, as Pope Paul V noted
in an address to the legate of King Philip III, the Council of Trent, though it affirmed that human
freedom can assent or dissent from the assistance of divine grace, does not explain exactly “how
grace works” (Denzinger 2012).
Molina intended to provide this explanation of just “how grace works” with the Concordia. But
despite its irenic title and purpose, it succeeded only in pitting Dominicans – following the banner of
Domingo Báñez who pushed the “Thomist” account in the fray – against Jesuits, who sought to
exonerate their confrere from the charges of heresy laid at his feet. At the time of the publication of
the first edition of the Concordia – 1588 – the Society of Jesus, having been established less than
50 years earlier, was relatively young and it was no surprise that accusations of theological novelty
should be hurled at Molina’s teaching. Difficulties began as soon as Molina attempted to seek
approval for the publication of his manuscript. Having received the approval of his Jesuit superiors
for its publication, Molina next had to seek permission from the Portuguese Inquisition, which
handed the manuscript over to their censor, the Dominican Bartolomé Ferreira (Solana 1940, 402).
From Ferreira the Dominicans learned of some of the claims made in the Concordia and judged them
to contain significant errors and tried to have their Dominican confrere in the Inquisition prohibit the
volume’s publication. Ferreira, however, was of a different mind and permitted the publication of the
Concordia, which went to press in Lisbon in 1588 and was even dedicated to the Archduke Cardinal
Albert of Austria who was the governor of Lusitania and chief inquisitor (ibid., 403). The Domin-
icans, however, appealed to Cardinal Albert himself to halt the publication of the work until an
investigation could be made into whether the Concordia maintained opinions that the Spanish
Inquisition had prohibited from being taught in the schools. Molina’s own communications to
Cardinal Albert and assurances of orthodoxy disarmed the situation, and publication of the volume
proceeded without obstacle (ibid.).
Even with the Concordia’s publication, the matter was far from settled and questions about
Molina’s orthodoxy were raised by the Dominicans. The Spanish Inquisition was forced to enter the
controversy, but the situation got so out of hand that it required an intervention by the pope himself,
Clement VIII, to restore a relative peace (ibid., 403). In November 1597, the pope convened the
Congregatio de Auxiliis – a commission established in Rome to examine the theological doctrines in
question so that clarity could be attained and, along with it, finally some resolution to the ongoing
dispute – which convened on 2 January 1598 (Vansteenberghe 1929, col. 2154). Fundamentally at
issue was the question of how human freedom could be preserved while recognizing that divine
grace is the cause of any meritorious action whereby one’s salvation could be attained. Complicating
the matter further was the issue of how divine foreknowledge, which surely encompasses one’s
future free contingent choices, is compatible with freedom, which the latter, as far as disputants in
the matter were concerned, is firmly established scripturally. As history recounts, Molina’s effort to
give each aspect of dilemma its own due generated his notion of divine “middle knowledge”
(scientia media), that is to say, the knowledge that God has of future contingents (futuribilia).
For the Dominicans as well as the Jesuits, grace was absolutely necessary for man’s justification.
But the Dominicans were adamant in prioritizing God’s grace above all such that it functions as a
kind of cause of human freedom, that is to say, grace operates with a kind of “physical
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predetermination” (praedeterminatio physica) in bringing about a certain free action (Denzinger

2012). To the Jesuits, however, the Dominican position appeared Calvinistic insofar as it seemed to
undermine and even negate human freedom. Molina sought to reconcile the two (grace and
freedom), which he did on the basis of his larger metaphysical vision of the causal relationship
between God and creation. God is an absolutely necessary being who is the source of all being. What
is more, God creates, not out of any necessity but freely, giving being to creatures that are themselves
entirely contingent. Creation’s contingency does not eviscerate its own efficacy and ability to act,
for, in producing a creature, God thereby gives creatures their own proper natures through which not
only do they have being but also through which they exercise their own proper agency or causal
efficacy (Concordia, II, d. 25–28). One might say, then, that in exercising its own causal efficacy, the
creature imitates in a particular way the absolute and universal causality that God exercises.
For Molina, then, both God and creatures are real – the former necessary and the latter
contingent – and both communicate their being causally, God as a universal cause and creatures
as particular causes. Though their causation can be distinguished, they cannot be separated entirely
for the reason that no creature can exercise its own causality without the simultaneous sustaining
causality of God. Molina describes God’s causal role in creation as a kind of concursus generalis
(ibid., I, q. 14, a. 13). Yet, creaturely secondary causality has its own nature and logic such that the
effects stemming from secondary causes receive their own nature and the powers to act attendant
upon that nature, not immediately from God, but from their immediate particular, secondary causes
(ibid., IV, d. 47, 11–12). So, for example, two human parents act with their own causal efficacy that
stems from the various orders of causality proper to their natures in begetting offspring and
communicate their own human nature to their offspring. God’s general concursus is of course
operative throughout the parents’ begetting their child insofar as the parents would have no reality
whereby to exercise their causal efficacy if God did not sustain them in being. Nevertheless, the
nature the child (effect) has stems immediately from the parents’ nature itself. What is more, any
defect within a secondary cause can also have an impact on its effects. Parents with congenital
defects, for example, can pass hereditary diseases on to their children. In this case, just as God was
not the immediate cause of the effect brought about through secondary causality, He likewise is not
the immediate cause of any defect which might result from secondary causation. In this latter cause,
Molina explains that God’s causal efficacy is always “sufficient” even if not always “efficacious”
(Freddoso 1988, 38–42).
What distinguishes Molina from his Báñezian Thomist opponents, however, is what constitutes
the nature of the difference between “sufficient” and “efficacious” grace in the area of moral action.
When it comes to free secondary causes, their actions, when considered from the perspective of
divine providence, are either intended by God or merely permitted by God. God concurs with the
moral (or immoral) actions that free secondary causes produce in the sense described above, and any
immoral action perpetrated by free creatures, like any creaturely defect, is traceable immediately not
to God but to the moral agent itself. Now, when it comes to humans, given the Christian doctrine of
original sin and the fall of human nature, there is an inclination toward evil actions, yet one can
overcome that inclination with, and only with, the assistance of divine grace, especially as mediated
through the merits of Christ’s death and resurrection. Nevertheless, because humans are free
creatures, they can either choose to cooperate (assent) with that grace or resist it. In the first case,
both Molina and Báñez would agree that the grace free creatures are offered and have accented to is
“efficacious,” which is to say, the grace produces the intended result that God’s providence ordained.
When one resists God’s grace, however, though that grace was present and freely offered, it was only
“sufficient,” which is to say, the grace was sufficient for the person to perform some good act but it
was inefficacious since the moral agent rejected the grace in acting for some inauthentic or immoral
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end. In both circumstances, secondary agents’ moral or immoral actions, God functions as a
concurrent cause, for without that causality, the moral agent would have no being with which to
exercise any kind of moral action whether good or evil (ibid.). But, any defect in the actions caused
by a secondary agent – here a free or moral secondary agent – is still not attributable to God but
instead to a defect within the secondary agent itself (ibid., 17). God’s grace – at least with respect to
free secondary causes – is the constant, but the question is what renders that grace “sufficient” or
“efficacious”? Is there a real metaphysical distinction between the two, which would stem from
God’s own creative initiative, or is the distinction a consequence of the moral agent who received the
grace?
For the Dominicans, the difference between efficacious and sufficient grace was a real distinction
between two different kinds of grace. For Molina, however, the distinction is relative to the free will
of the moral agent. That is to say, grace in itself is neither intrinsically efficacious nor sufficient but is
“neutral” (ibid., 18); if the moral agent cooperates with grace, then it becomes efficacious; if,
however, the agent resists it, then that grace is only sufficient. The deciding factor here is the free
will of the moral agent. To the Dominicans’ eyes, Molina’s positions must have reeked of Pelagian-
ism because it seemed to elevate human freedom above divine grace. Of course, to the Molinists and
those within the Society of Jesus who supported Molina, the Dominican position must have seemed
tantamount to a sort of Calvinist predeterminism. But a theoretical problem existed for Molina as
well. If God’s grace was not in itself efficacious and relied on the contingency of the human will,
how could God be said to have foreknowledge about what contingent actions would result from
God’s offer of grace to free moral agents? Molina’s solution to this problem was his theory of
“middle knowledge.”
To speak of “middle knowledge” here is to locate such knowledge between God’s natural
knowledge and free or volitional knowledge. Both Thomists and Molina agree that God’s knowl-
edge is not dependent upon exterior beings or states of affairs as is the case with humans whose
knowledge stands in potency with respect to the actual existence of some knowable object. Molina’s
Concordia opens precisely with this issue in mind when he expands upon Thomas ’s Summa
theologiae I, q. 14, a. 8 wherein it is asked whether God’s knowledge is the cause of things.
Thomas’s answer of course is “yes,” which accommodates rather nicely the Báñezian theory of
praedeterminatio physica in which God’s grace functions as the cause of human liberty. But for
Molina, God’s (fore)knowledge vis-à-vis His creative causality must be nuanced. On one hand, there
is God’s natural knowledge or, as some have called it, His pre-volitional knowledge (ibid., 3). This is
the knowledge that God has of Himself and of all metaphysically necessary truths including what is
entailed in logical possibilities (i.e., possible worlds). Included in this knowledge is God’s awareness
of all (logically) possible states of affairs that He could freely choose to create. On the other hand,
God has “volitional knowledge” or “knowledge of vision,” which results from His choosing to bring
about one of the states of affairs of which He has pre-volitional knowledge, that is, of things as they
actually do in fact exist (ibid.). Between these two forms of knowledge is the scientia media which
regards futuribilia, that is, metaphysically contingent truths or counterfactuals. With such middle
knowledge, God knows what choice(s) a moral agent would elect if given a certain set of circum-
stances or antecedent state of affairs. In other words, as Molina sees it, God, in addition to knowing
metaphysically necessary truths (pre-volitional knowledge) and what is actually the case or what has
been created (volitional knowledge), also knows contingency itself or conditional truths.
These three moments of divine cognition can be understood along the lines of modus ponens. In
the conditional proposition “if p, then q,” God’s pre-volitional knowledge would correspond to the
antecedent (p), and His middle knowledge would correspond to the consequent (q). The proposition
is itself entirely contingent for it is merely conditional and God need not realize or create “p.”
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Instead, given His absolute freedom, God could choose any number of antecedent conditions, and
since He is omniscient, God knows every possible antecedent. What is more, since God is provident
and acts with foresight, He knows all the consequences that would follow upon all possible
antecedents. Then, through God’s volitional knowledge, He knows “p” (because He has chosen
“p” from among a number of possible antecedents) from which “q” conditionally or contingently
results. Freddoso gives a helpful example to describe the situation explained above: “By His natural
knowledge God knows that it is metaphysically possible but not metaphysically necessary that
Adam will sin if placed in the garden; by His free knowledge He knows that Adam will in fact be
placed in the garden and will in fact sin. What He knows by His middle knowledge, on the other
hand is something stronger than the former but weaker than the latter, namely, that Adam will sin on
the occasion that he be placed in the garden” (Freddoso 1988, 47). Thus, with respect to the
difference between “efficacious” and “sufficient” grace, on Molina’s account, one sees that God
knows what set of circumstances would result in a moral agent’s freely choosing to act in one way or
another (ibid., 66). Thus, God foreknows what circumstances would result in a moral agent’s acting
for the good or those circumstances in which he would act contrary to what is good; that is to say,
God knows in what circumstances His grace would be efficacious and in what circumstances it
would remain merely sufficient.
Eventually, the Congregatio de Auxiliis condemned Molina’s work, but Clement VIII was not
pleased with the hasty manner in which the commission’s conclusions were reached. When the
congregation considered the matter again but with haste, in 1599 Clement ordered that theologians
from both religious orders present their arguments in his presence in a series of conferences (Solana
1940, 403–404). The first debate occurred in the pope’s presence on 20 March 1602
(Vansteenberghe 1929, col. 2159). A series of debates, some 67 in total, occurred between 1602
and 1605 (ibid., col. 2126) in which the Dominicans, especially Diego Alvarez y Tomás de Lemos,
attacked Molina’s position and the Jesuits, namely, Gregory of Valencia, Pedro de Arrúbal, and
Fernando de la Bastida, defended their confrere (Solana 1940, 404). By this time, Molina had been
dead for a number of years and Clement VIII went to join him, passing into eternity on 5 March
1605. After the brief monthlong reign of Leo XI, Paul V ascended to the papal throne and it fell to
him to put an end to the controversy. Finally, on 28 August 1607, nearly 20 years after Molina’s first
publication of the Concordia, Paul V concluded the commission set up to resolve the thorny
question (Solana 1940, 405). No resolution was reached in terms of who held the authentic
Catholic position on grace and free will and who held a heretical view for, according to Paul, both
Dominicans and Jesuits were in perfect accord with Catholic teaching. In essence there could be no
resolution because there was no conflict with orthodoxy. Each religious order could maintain its own
proper teaching, and Paul insisted that neither should accuse the other of heresy (Denzinger 2012).
Commentaria in primam divi Thomae partem

In 1592 Molina published a commentary on the first part of Thomas’s Summa theologiae. Like other
commentaries on the Summa from this time, Molina’s commentary offers an analysis of each article
but also takes the occasion to include his Concordia in the salient sections of the commentary,
namely, in the midst of his commentary on question 14. Yet, what constitutes a unique element of
Molina’s own thought is, as some have pointed out, his understanding of the relationship between
“personhood” and “nature” (Solana 1940, 419).
Insofar as a significant element is Thomas’s account of the Trinity in the prima pars which is the
notion of personhood or, as Thomas puts it, three subsistent relations within the single nature and
being of the Godhead, it is not surprising that Molina would have the occasion to develop his own
ideas in this context. The question he asks, one raised by a number of other scholastics, especially
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within the Dominican tradition, is whether or not “person” adds anything to, or over and above,
nature. Both Capreolus (Defensiones, d. 5, q. 3, a. 3, ad 1) and Cajetan (cf. In ST III, q. 4, a. 2, II) had
insisted that personhood did in fact add an incommunicable element over nature and that this was
simply Thomas’s own teaching on the matter too. These Thomists stood in opposition to others, such
as Bonaventure and Durandus, who maintained that nature and personhood were actually identical
but only rationally distinct (Solana 1940, 419). For Molina, “person” formally and concretely
signifies a rational nature precisely as incommunicable. The Jesuit argues that this is simply what
Boethius and Richard of St. Victor – whom he regards as authoritative in this matter – had
maintained in their own definitions of person. Boethius, Molina notes, holds that a person “is an
individual substance of a rational nature,” and Richard explains that a person “is a rational nature of
incommunicable existence.” These two definitions amount to the same thing for Molina, since, as he
says, Boethius understands by “substance” simply that which is incommunicable (In prim., q. 29,
d. 1; fols. 447–48). But since incommunicability, on Molina’s reckoning, is a negation insofar as it
pertains to something’s indivision from itself but division from others, one may say that it is not so
much that “person” “adds” something, as the Thomists were wont to say, but that it is a negation or
denial of dividedness or communicability (Solana 1940, 420), for, according to the Jesuit, hypostasis
or subsistence is a “certain kind of negation” (ibid.). Molina further adds that “person,” as it is said of
human, angelic, and divine beings, properly signifies something subsisting incommunicably and
also that by which it is distinct from other persons that may share an identical nature (In prim., q. 29,
d. 2; fol. 448). With respect to the Godhead, Molina seems to follow Thomas’s claim that “person”
formally signifies a relation in virtue of which each subsists incommunicably and also obliquely
signifies the divine essence itself (ibid.; fol. 449).
De iustitia et iure
Molina’s political thought is found most explicitly in his De iustitia et iure, a vast work of several
volumes, many of which were published posthumously. In all, the work runs through six
volumes – at least six were originally projected; Molina died before the final volume could be
completed (Solana 1940, 423). The first volume (published in 1593) deals with justice in general as
well as its parts; the second volume (published in 1597) explores commutative justice in relation to
extrinsic goods, whereas the third volume (published in 1600) deals with commutative justice in
relationship to bodily goods and persons who are related to one another. The remaining posthumous
treat spiritual goods, including honor and fame (fourth volume), and justice and its exercise by the
public authority (fifth volume) (Solana 1940, 422–23).
In many ways, owing to its scope, contents, and meticulous attention of the details of various
arguments and their implications, Molina’s De iustitia et iure seems to be a parallel to Suárez’s De
legibus ac deo legislatore. Some have argued that the moral reasoning contained in the De iustitia et
iure develops in a manner somewhat differently from that of Thomas Aquinas as well as contem-
porary theories, such that the work “is neither medieval, nor modern” (Alonso-Lasheras 2011, 53).
In discussing the nature of justice in general in the opening volume of his De iustitia et iure, Molina
explains that justice has a twofold – but interrelated – meaning as we know from Aristotle
(Nicomachean Ethics, book 5) and Thomas Aquinas (Summa theologiae II–II, q. 58, aa. 5, 6).
The first sense of justice, says Molina, pertains to any act of virtue not insofar as it is this or that
virtue, but simply insofar as it is ordained to the common good of many to which that virtuous action
pertains as a part (De iust., I, disp. 1; fol. 2). Or justice can also pertain to that which emanates from
man, not insofar as he is a certain single person, but insofar as he is a part of a republic toward the
total good of which one’s actions are optimally directed (ibid.). Additionally, Molina holds that
justice is likened to and also must ultimately be referred to charity, for although it is a particular
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virtue, through charity, the just man refers all of his actions to God, on account of which charity has a
universal character. Likewise, though justice is a particular virtue, it refers all of one’s actions to the
common good of the republic (ibid.). When it comes to law (ius), Molina, like Suárez (De leg., 1.2),
defines it relative to justice as its object since “when a habitus, act, and power are defined it is
through their [proper] object” (De iust., I, disp. 2; fol. 4). Thus, because law (ius) has as its object
justice, Molina disagrees with Ulpianus and Soto who suggest that justice is so-called (iustitia-ius)
on account of its being derived from law, and maintains, instead, that law stems from justice (ibid.).
Having mentioned “law,” Molina goes into further detail and notes divisions of various kinds of
law: natural, positive, canon, and civil (ibid., I, disp. 3; fol. 5). Interestingly, Molina holds that the
natural and positive laws divide divine law as the latter’s subsets. God is the author of nature which
He has “optimally and maximally” instituted. That recognition of the natural order (i.e., the “natural
law”) is “impressed upon our minds,” says the Jesuit, whereby one can discern good from evil in
evaluating one’s own experience (ibid.). In sum, as Molina sees it, law (ius) is divided as follows:
first, it is divided into divine and human. The divine law is then subdivided into natural and positive
laws. Human law, which the Jesuit holds is entirely positive, is itself divided into the ius gentium,
civil law, and canon law (ibid.; fol. 6).
A matter of sore political contention at the time and reaching well back into the late fifteenth
century were moral and political issues surrounding the colonization of the New World, especially
on the part of Spain and Portugal. The Dominican Francisco de Vitoria had already weighed into the
controversy with his De indis and De iure belli, in which works he came to the basic conclusion that
the conquest of the New World and the despoiling of native peoples of their “dominion” by the
Europeans were largely immoral. Molina himself had a similar outlook. The Jesuit thought that a
loss of dominion could only be had as a punishment deriving from a “just war” (De iust., II,
tr. 2, disp. 98). Needless to say, this raises the question, for Molina: what counts as just war, what are
its conditions? The Jesuit considers the claim that it is always unlawful for the Christian to wage war
(ibid., II, tr. 2, disp. 99; col. 404), but finds that such a position is contrary to what is found in the
Christian tradition itself – especially that articulated by Augustine – and that, moreover, there may be
occasions in which not to wage war would be a “mortal sin” (ibid.; col. 405). Here, Molina has in
mind more than simply repelling force with force, that is to say, a defensive war; he also thinks that
there is justification for an offensive war (ibid.; col. 406).
According to Molina, the first condition for a just war is that it should be waged by one who has
the “proper authority” (ibid., II, tr. 2, disp. 100; cols. 409–10). The authority to declare a war justly
falls only to a republic, more specifically, the prince who has no superior over himself because of the
“self-sufficiency” he possesses (ibid.; col. 410). Thus, to the Jesuit’s eyes, those who have jurisdic-
tion over only a part of the republic lack the authority to wage war justly because they can appeal to
their superiors to redress any injuries they may have suffered (ibid.; col. 411). No such possibility of
appeal exists with sovereigns, however, precisely because of their supremacy. According to Molina,
those who wage war without proper authority are obliged to make restitution for any injuries
suffered (ibid., disp. 101; cols. 413–14). The second condition of a just war is that there be
“sufficient cause” for it (ibid., II, tr. 2, disp. 102). Here, Molina has in mind having some sort of
injury inflicted upon a republic or to recover some good that has been wrongfully taken from the
republic (ibid.; col. 416–17). Furthermore, no war is to be entered rashly or without due consider-
ation. It is necessary that the case for war be carefully weighed by the prince, in consultation with
men of prudence, to determine whether the conditions of a just war exist (ibid., disp. 103). Molina
then identifies seven particular conditions that may be grounds for a just war as indicated within the
scripture itself: (1) when what is owed a prince cannot be attained other than through war, (2) to put
down an unlawful rebellion, (3) to redress a notable insult or injury against the prince, (4) to render
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aid to a republic who has had a war unjustly waged against it, (5) to bring justice to convicted
criminals who are being sheltered by another republic, (6) the violation of a significant treaty, and
(7) the denial of certain rights accorded by the ius gentium, for example, unimpeded travel (ibid.,
disp. 104; cols. 426–27).
References
Primary Literature
de Molina L (1588) (Concordia) Liberi arbitrii cum gratiae donis, divina praescientia, providentia,
praedestinatione et reprobatione Concordia. Lisbon. (Antwerp, 1595)
de Molina L (1592) (In prim.) Commentaria in primam divi Thomae partem Cuenca
de Molina L (1614) (De ius.) De iustitia et iure (Venice)
Alonso-Lasheras D (2011) Luis de Molina’s De iustitia et iure: justice as virtue in an economic
context. E.J. Brill, Leiden
Denzinger H (2012) In: H€ unermann P, Fastiggi R, Nash AE (eds) Enchiridion symbolorum
definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum, 43rd edn. Ignatius Press, San Francisco
Freddoso A (1988) Luis de Molina: on divine foreknowledge, Part IV of the Concordia. Cornell
University Press, Ithaca
Kaufmann M, Aichele A (eds) (2014) A companion to Luis de Molina. E.J. Brill, Leiden
Solana M (1940) Historia de la filosofia española: Época del renacimiento (siglo XVI),
vol 3. Asociación Española para el Progreso de las Ciencias, Madrid, pp 401–424
Vansteenberghe E (1929) Molinisme. In: Vacant A, Mangenot E (eds) Dictionnaire de théologie
catholique, vol. 10. Libraire Letouzey et Ané, Paris
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Pereira, Benito
Born: Ruzafa, 1535
Died: Rome, 6 March 1610
Victor M. Salas*
Abstract
Benito Pereira, S.J., was a Spanish Jesuit philosopher who lived during the sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries. While still in his teens, Pereira joined the Society of Jesus, for which religious
order he would hold a number of educational responsibilities. After helping to establish a college in
San Pablo, Spain, Pereira left for Italy. He eventually found his way to the Jesuit Collegium
Romanum where he held a chair teaching scripture. In addition to his several scripture commentar-
ies, Pereira also authored the De communibus omnium rerum naturalium principium, which, like
many of the cursus at the time, was expansive in scope and detail. The Jesuit died in Rome in 1610.
Biography
Benito Pereira (Pererius), S.J. (Ruzafa, 1535–Rome, 6 March 1610), was born on the east coast of
Spain in Ruzafa, a community near Valencia. Pereira came to be familiar with the Society of Jesus
through his interactions with the Jesuit priest Juan Jerónimo Domenech (1516–1592), who had been
tasked with the responsibility of founding the College of San Pablo (Solana 1940, 373). Pereira
entered the Society of Jesus in 1552 while still in his teens. Domenech left San Pablo and Spain
altogether and headed for Sicily and eventually, beyond that, to Rome. Pereira followed Domenech
throughout all these moves and finally stayed in Rome, where he spent his entire life teaching and
writing. He was a professor of many disciplines and arts including: grammar, rhetoric, philosophy,
theology, and scripture. On at least two occasions, he taught the entire 3-year course of philosophy
which consisted in logic, physics, and metaphysics (Blum 2006, 280). What is more, if Pereira had
his way, he would have extended the 3-year cycle by half a year to allow more time for the study of
metaphysics (ibid., 281). In addition to metaphysics, Pereira developed a reputation as an excellent
teacher of logic (ibid., 282). Beyond his skill in philosophy, Pereira mastered many biblical
languages – including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldean, and Syriac – which made him particularly
outstanding in scriptural studies and led to his attainment of the chair of sacred scripture in the Jesuit
Collegium Romanum. Pereira died on 6 March 1610 (ibid.).
Given Pereira’s diverse teaching interests, one is hardly surprised to find that his writings cover a
large spectrum of subjects ranging from scriptural commentaries (e.g., his Commentariorum in
Danielem Prophetam, Commentariorum et disputationem in Genesim, and Selectarum
disputationum in Sacram Scripturam), polemical theological treatises (e.g., Adversus fallaces et
superstitiosas artes), and, of course, philosophy (viz., De communibus omnium rerum naturalium
principiis et affectionibus). Relatively few of Pereira’s works reached publication and so there are
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quite a few texts that are available only in manuscripts. Though Pereira’s philosophical ideas can be
found throughout all of his texts – for instance, he addresses the nature and creation of the rational
soul in his commentary on Genesis – his principal work that addressed explicitly to philosophical
issues is his De communibus omnium rerum naturalium principium (De comm. omn.). Its title alone,
as some have suggested, indicates that Pereira intends to engage critically Renaissance – and
oftentimes anti-Aristotelian – natural philosophers whose volumes (e.g., Telesio’s De rerum natura
iuxta propria principia, Pomponazzi’s De naturalium effectuum causis, and Portius’s De rerum
naturalium principiis) intended to give an exhaustive account of nature and its principles (Blum
2006, 279).
Pereira’s treatise, first published in Rome in 1562, is expansive in length – extending to 15 books
in total – and in the issues it addresses. Pereira divides his work into two principal parts. The first,
containing books one through nine, pertains to the principles and causes of things. In the second part,
containing the remaining six books, the general properties of all natural things such as quantity,
location, time, and motion are explained (De comm. omn., praefatio, fol. 2). Though Pereira’s
treatment of the philosophy of nature shares many points of continuity with the broader scholastic
Aristotelian tradition, there are some points made in his work unique to the Jesuit himself (Solana
1940, 386–97). Perhaps his most significant methodological uniqueness is a distinction Pereira
draws within metaphysics, that most universal science treating the transcendentals and general
features of being as being (ens ut ens), between two distinct sciences. First, there is that science that
treats the transcendentals and the most universal things. Second, there is that science that deals with
the highest kind of beings, namely, the intelligences (De comm. omn., lib. 1, c. 7, fol. 23). In addition
to this distinction that Pereira draws in metaphysics, I shall consider only two further noteworthy
examples of his originality, viz., his thinking on individuation and the relationship between essentia
and esse.
Pereira explores at length but ultimately rejects the Scotist and Thomistic claims that individu-
ation follows upon haecceitas (De comm. omn., lib. 6, c. 10) and signate matter (ibid., lib. 6, c. 11),
respectively (cf. Solana 1940, 386). The Jesuit, in contrast, thinks that the principle of individuation
stems from both matter and form. Some have suggested that, in a way, Pereira anticipated the
position of later Jesuits, such as Francisco Suárez, who held that, since being and unity are
convertible, the principle of individuation is simply the entity of a thing itself (Solana 1940, 386).
Still, for Pereira, since among the principles of a thing’s entity form holds pride of place as act over
potentiality, he views individuation as following chiefly upon a thing’s form (De comm. omn., lib.
6, c. 12). Pereira’s theory leads to the obvious question: if form is that which serves to individuate
things, how can it also serve as a source of community wherein things are grouped according to the
same species or genus (Solana 1940, 387)? Put another way, one may ask: is a form universal or
particular, for it would seem incapable of functioning in both capacities? Pereira’s answer, somewhat
reminiscent of Avicenna’s essence per se, is that forms are neither: “Form per se is neither universal
nor singular,” Pereira writes, “for if it were universal, there would never be a singular thing” (De
comm. omn., lib. 6, c. 12). But, as Pereira points out, if there were no singular thing, there would be
no generation or corruption – which obviously runs counter to our experience – since it is the
singular that is generated or corrupted (ibid.). Nor can forms per se simply be singulars for if that
were the case, one could never have a science since science always pertains to that which is universal
(ibid.). Rather, the form’s supposed universality results, Pereira holds, solely from the intellect’s
abstractive agency, whereas particularity resides extrinsically in the productive agent’s power to
bring about a particular effect with its own attendant formal determination (Solana 1940, 387).
Beyond the issue of individuation, Pereira also held unique theories about the distinction between
existentia and essentia. As had been the case with individuation, the Jesuit rejected the Thomist
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teaching – in particular, its position on the real distinction and maintained, again in a fashion similar
to other Jesuit philosophers such as Suárez, that there is only a distinction of reason (Solana 1940a,
388). For Pereira, the principal argument used to establish the identity between a creature’s essence
and esse stems from Aristotle’s own insight in Metaphysics 4.2 that being and unity are the same (De
comm. omn., lib. 6, c. 15, fol. 379). What is more, Pereira notes, even for Thomas himself, that
“being [ens] is imposed. . . to signify essence in the order of existence.” Since to exist (existere) is
transcendent, the Jesuit adds, existence is necessarily either the same as being (ens) or some
transcendental attribute of being or a passio entis. But existence is not a passio entis; therefore,
Pereira concludes that it is the same as being itself (ibid.).
Much of Pereira’s argument for the identity between existentia and essentia consists in a sustained
critique of the Thomist position which advocates a real distinction. Pereira offers several noteworthy
arguments for the identity of existentia and essentia of which I shall only discuss two. I discuss these
two because they represent Pereira’s direct engagement with and critique of Thomistic metaphysics
in the establishment of his own doctrine. In one argument Pereira notes that for the Thomists,
existentia is understood in terms of act. But, as the Jesuit points out, act must be understood in terms
of first or second act. If it is first act, then it is identical to the being’s form; if it is a second act, then it
is merely an operation in which case existentia would not in fact be an act (ibid., fol. 380). Pereira
leaves the reader to conclude that if existentia is not an act distinct from form or a being’s essential
determination, then existentia and essentia are not really distinct but instead identical.
In another argument Pereira points out that, for the Thomists, essentia supposedly stands in a
relation of potency to existentia. But, as he also notes, potency is either essential or accidental. Now
essence cannot stand in an order of essential potency to existentia since that would imply that the
essence would not, of itself, be complete since it would need its complement of existentia. But to
hold that essence is incomplete is inconsistent with what the Thomists themselves teach. Nor does
essence have a kind of accidental potency for the reason that “existence [existentia] is not an
accident” (ibid.). Thus, Pereira concludes: existentia and essentia are not really distinct. Rather, if
a distinction is to be found between the two, it can only be a distinction of reason (ibid., c. 16; fol.
382). In defining his position, Pereira meets the objection that if existentia and essentia were
identical in creatures, then creation would have no need of God as its creative cause. He denies
the conclusion and notes that, if anything, maintaining some sort of distinctio in re between the two
would seem to imply the undesirable consequence of creaturely coeternity. Here, Pereira cites Henry
of Ghent who maintains that creatures have esse essentia from eternity but only receive esse
existentiae upon God’s decision to create them in rerum natura. Pereira rejects Henry’s teaching
and maintains instead that when God creates man, for example, He brings man into being together
with his essence simultaneously and not from a coeternal esse essentiae (ibid., fol. 383).
References
Primary Literature
Pereira B (1601) Commentariorum et disputationum in Genesim, tomi quatuor. Cologne
Pereira B (1602) Commentariorum in Danielem libri sedecim. Lyon
Pereira B (1595) De communibus omnium rerum naturalium principiis et affectionibus. Cologne
Pereira B (1612) De Magia, de observatione somniorum et de divinatione astrologica libri tres.
adversus fallaces, et superstitiosas artes. Cologne
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Blum PR (2006) Benedictus Pererius: renaissance culture at the origins of Jesuit science. Sci Educ
15:279–304
Giacobbi GC (1977) Un Gesuita progressista nella ‘Quaestio de certitudine mathematicarum’
rinascimentale: Benito Pereyra. Physis 19:51–86
Lamanna M (2009) ‘De eo enim metaphysicus agit logice’. Un confronto tra Pererius e Goclenius.
Medioevo 34:315–360
Maierù L (1999) Metafisica Ed Enti Geometrici: Benito Pereyra, Pedro Fonseca, Francisco Suárez.
In: Charles Lohr (ed) Sciences et Religions de Copernic à Galilée (1540–1610) École Française de
Rome, Rome, pp 47–67
Solana M (1940) Historia de la Filosofía Española. Época del Renacimiento (Siglo XVI),
vol 3. Asociación Española para el Progreso de las Ciencias, Madrid
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Poinsot, John
Born: Lisbon, 9 July 1589
Died: Fraga, Spain, 17 June 1644
Victor M. Salas*
Abstract
John of St. Thomas, O.P. (Poinsot), was a Portuguese Dominican who was one of the most
significant Thomists of his order during the seventeenth century. Born in Lisbon in 1589 as John
Poinsot, he would take the name “John of St. Thomas” upon his admission to the Order of Preachers
in 1610. Before joining the religious life, Poinsot studied arts at the University of Coimbra where
Jesuit learning and education were in full force. From Coimbra, Poinsot followed his father, liege to
the Archduke Albert of Austria, to Flanders. There Poinsot enrolled in the University of Louvain
where he studied theology. John of St. Thomas Aquinas’s life was spent teaching in the various
houses of studies that the Dominicans oversaw, but perhaps his most significant appointment was to
the University of Alcalá where he held the cátedra de vísperas and then the cátedra de prima. During
his time at Alcalá, John of St. Thomas authored the two texts for which he is most famous: the
Cursus philosophicus thomisticus and Cursus theologicus. John of St. Thomas was forced to leave
his academic life behind when he was chosen to be the confessor of King Philip IV. The Dominican
died in his king’s service at Fraga in 1644.
Biography
John Poinsot (John of St. Thomas), O.P. (Lisbon, 9 July 1589–Fraga, Spain, 17 June 1644), after his
brother Louis Poinsot (d. 1655), was the second son of Peter Poinsot, secretary to the Archduke
Albert of Austria, and Maria Garcez. In addition to such figures such as Johannes Capreolus
(ca. 1380–1444) and Tommaso de Vio Cajetan (1469–1534), Poinsot ranks as one of the most
outstanding proponents of Thomism not only during the golden age of Spain’s second scholasticism
but for all time. In a deathbed pronouncement, Poinsot exclaimed that in the last 30 years of his
life – his entire scholarly career – he had never written nor taught anything that was discordant with
the truth or with the thought of the Angelic Doctor (CT, xii, n. 39).
Poinsot’s academic life began in Coimbra where he, together with his brother Louis, enrolled in
the university that had become one of the leading centers of education on the Iberian Peninsula.
Associated with the Society of Jesus, Coimbra was home to some of the towering Jesuit intellectuals
including the Conimbricenses, who produced several volumes of Aristotelian commentaries, Pedro
da Fonseca (1528–1599) – also known as the “Portuguese Aristotle” – Luis de Molina (1535–1600),
and Francisco Suárez (1548–1617). Concerning this last figure, though Coimbra was Suárez’s home
between 1597 and 1615, it is not likely that the youthful Poinsot had the occasion to study under the
Jesuit since during Poinsot’s stay Suárez was embroiled in a controversy concerning the validity of
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epistolary confession between 1602 and 1604, which ultimately necessitated Suárez’s travel to
Rome to render an account of his (condemned) position to the Holy See. Poinsot in the meantime
was in the midst of his arts studies and was awarded a bachelor of arts in 1605. Though Poinsot did
not study immediately under Suárez, the latter would nevertheless exercise a considerable degree of
influence over the future Dominican as shall be discussed below.
After completing his initial studies in the arts, in October 1605 Poinsot continued with a
theological course of studies that he would be suspended in short order so that in March 1606 he
could accompany his father to Flanders. Poinsot’s academic hiatus was brief and he enrolled in the
University of Louvain to continue his theological studies, where he earned a baccalaureate in biblical
studies in 1608 (Doyle 1998, 117). Concurrent to these studies, Poinsot had been influenced by the
Dominican preacher Thomas de Torres (Deely 1994, 262), and so on 17 July 1609 he entered the
Dominicans at the Convent of Our Lady of Atocha. One year later to the day (17 July 1610) Poinsot
made his formal religious profession and took the name by which he would be known to late
scholasticism: John of St. Thomas.
While at Atocha, Poinsot spent five additional years (1610–1615) with philosophical and
theological studies, and then from 1615 to 1620, he accepted responsibilities as a teacher in the
arts (Doyle 1998, 117–18). His teaching career next took him to the Dominican priory at Plasencia
where he lectured in theology for 5 years before being sent to the University of Alcalá. At Alcalá he
was tasked with mounting responsibilities both within the Order of Preachers and beyond: first, as
regent of studies in 1626 and, then, in 1627 as a consultant to the Supreme Council of the Spanish
Inquisition. Nevertheless, Poinsot’s development as a scholar continued unabatedly, and on 27 July
1630, he attained the cátedra de vísperas, which he held until 1640. Meanwhile, in 1633 Poinsot
completed his doctorate in theology and began work on his Cursus philosophicus thomisticus
(Doyle 1998, 118), which he published in Rome between 1637 and 1638. Upon completion of
that project, Poinsot undertook another project, one that would systematize theology, which he
published as the Cursus theologicus. Eventually, on 1 October 1641, Poinsot assumed the cátedra de
prima after its previous occupant, Peter of Tapia, became the bishop of Segovia (Ramirez and
Combefis 1885, col. 804).
Poinsot had to abandon this final position in 1643 when King Philip IV selected the Dominican as
his confessor. He accompanied Philip on military campaigns, and it was during Philip’s siege of
Lérida that Poinsot fell ill. On 17 June 1644, Poinsot died at the age of 55. His remains were
transferred to the Convent of Our Lady of Atocha, where he had begun his religious career over three
decades earlier.
Logic
Poinsot’s Cursus philosophicus thomisticus opens with a two-part treatise on logic. He begins with
the recognition that “In all arts two things must especially be considered, namely, the matter on
which the art is performed, and the form, which is induced in such matter” (Log., I prol., prae. 2).
With respect to logic – which here Poinsot evidently regards as an art but elsewhere more properly as
a (speculative) science (Log., II, q. 1, a. 4) – there will likewise be a twofold consideration.
Accordingly, the first – and notably shorter – part of his Ars logica is devoted to the study of formal
logic, while the second, longer part takes up his material logic.
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Formal Logic
Poinsot’s discussion of formal logic unfolds according to the three operations of the intellect: simple
apprehension (simplex apprehensio), judgment (or as he puts it composing or dividing), and
reasoning in which one moves discursively and infers some truth from a prior known truth. He
begins with a treatment of the “ultimate terms of resolution” that constitute discursive reasoning,
namely, the terms composing the subject and predicate of propositions, before moving onto a
discussion of signs (signa), names (nomina), and verba. Following the operations of the intellect,
Poinsot examines what pertains to judgment (i.e., composing and dividing) with a look at oratio, the
mode of knowing, definitions, dividing, argumentation, and propositions and their kinds, in addition
to other related issues such as supposition, appellation, opposition, and the square of opposition.
Finally, with respect to the third act of the intellect, reasoning, Poinsot treats induction, syllogisms
(and their modes), fallacies, and various argument forms.
Material Logic
While Poinsot’s formal logic largely parallels the Prior Analytics of Aristotle and Peter of Spain’s
Summulae logicales (Doyle 1998, 118), his substantially longer material logic unfolds what can be
found in the Posterior Analytics, viz., the elements of and requirements for a science (scientia); the
Topics, with matters related to probability; the Sophistic Refutations; and the rest of the works from
the Organon, viz., matters pertaining to demonstration, probability, and dialectics. Among the first
questions Poinsot addresses is whether or not logic is an art or a science. Having already given some
indication that logic functions as an art in the prior section, here Poinsot fills out his account and
explains that because logic performs demonstrative acts, it “is truly and properly a science, and,
however, it is simultaneously a liberal art” (Log. II, q. 1, a. 2). Furthermore, according to Poinsot, the
formal and adequate object of logic is ens rationis, not in all of its extension (e.g., privations and
negations), but in terms of “relations,” which Poinsot understands in terms of the logical intentions
(Log. II, q. 1, a. 3).
Also of note in Poinsot’s material logic is his rejection of Duns Scotus’s teaching on univocity in
support of Cajetan’s theory of proper proportionality. Cajetan, says Poinsot, has “fully and subtly”
addressed the difficulties involved with analogy in the De nominum analogia such that he has left
very little for Poinsot himself to add (Log. II, q. 13, a. 3). Citing the same divisions as Cajetan of
analogy (viz., inequality, attribution, and proper proportion) and finding textual support for this
division in Thomas Aquinas’s Sentences I, d. 19, q. 5, a. 2, ad 1 (ibid.), Poinsot follows Cajetan in
according primacy to proper proportionality (Log. II, q. 13, a. 4).
Occupying questions 21 through 23 is Poinsot’s important treatise on signs which, among the
questions of the Ars logica, perhaps best manifests the influence of the Conimbricenses, for whom
semiotics was a perennial concern (Doyle 1998, 118). Each sign, whether it be formal or instru-
mental, fundamentally represents something other than itself (repraesentat aliud) to a knower (Log.
II, q. 21, a. 1). For Poinsot, characteristic of signs is their relational character, but, he points out, such
relation is not predicamental; rather, it is transcendental or a relation “secundum esse” (ibid.).
Predicamental relations will not suffice since some signs refer not only to things but to entia rationis
or relations of reason, which are not real (i.e., predicamental) beings (ibid.). In sketching out his
semiotic theory, Poinsot concerns himself with real relations (which determine natural signs [Log. II,
q. 21, a. 2]), the nature of the terms involved in the relations (ibid., a. 3), extrinsic relations (ibid.,
a. 4), and the formal and effective causes of signification (ibid., a. 5). Important for Poinsot’s
consideration here is the division of signs into formal and instrumental (Log. II, q. 22). As an
instance of the former, Poinsot holds that concepts or expressed species are most properly signs and
so too are the sensible species expressed in the knower’s sense power (Log. II, q. 22, a. 2).
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Poinsot’s material logic concludes with an examination of science considered as: distinct from
some evident habitus (Log. II, q. 26, a. 1), as subaltern (ibid., aa. 2–3), and the relation of science to
“habitus inevidentes,” i.e., opinion, belief, and suspicion (ibid., a. 4). Of particular concern for
Poinsot is the relationship between science, on one hand, and opinion and faith, on the other, and
whether or not they are incompatible (ibid., a. 5). Finally, Poinsot closes his Ars logica with a
treatment of what constitutes the unity and diversity of sciences (Log. II, q. 27).
Natural Philosophy
The remaining two volumes of Poinsot’s Cursus philosophicus thomisticus contain his philosophy
of nature. These volumes are organized according to a fourfold division: common mobile being,
corruptible mobile being, incorruptible mobile being, and mobile animate being. In its actual
execution, however, Poinsot only brings to publication three of the four divisions. Absent is the
second part, which was supposed to be a tract of “mobile incorruptible being,” that is, a treatise on
astronomy (Doyle 1998, 119). There is some speculation that, aware as he was of Galileo’s 1633
condemnation, Poinsot was not eager to have his own astronomical theory attract the interests of
ecclesiastical observers (Deely 1994, 262).
The first part of Poinsot’s natural philosophy, which considers mobile being in general, consists
largely of an exposition of Aristotle’s Physics. It first treats the principles of nature: prime matter
(Phil. Nat. I, qq. 2–3), form (q. 4), and privation (q. 5), as well as Aristotle’s basic hylomorphic
theory (qq. 6–8). There is a notable exception, however, to the basic Aristotelian program that
Poinsot follows (Doyle 1998, 119). In question seven, Poinsot addresses subsistence and existence,
which, as he notes, do not pertain to the constitution of nature itself, but they come (adveniunt) to the
totality of what nature is. Here, Poinsot follows Thomas Aquinas’s teaching that “existence in
created things is distinguished really (a parte rei) from [their] essence” (Phil. Nat. I, q. 7, a. 4).
Concerning the second book of the Physics, Poinsot addresses the distinction among nature, art,
and the unnatural (violentus) (q. 9). Also of significance is his detailed treatment of the four
Aristotelian causes (qq. 10–13). Some of the other topics treated are motion and action (q. 14),
infinitude (q. 15), place and where (ubi) (q. 16), the void (q. 17), and time (q. 18). The first part
concludes with the reduction of eternal motion to a first mover (qq. 23–26). In his argument for a
prime mover based on the motion of the world, Poinsot holds two things on faith: first, that the world
(and its motion) has no beginning in time and, second, that God produced the world out of no
necessity (Phil. Nat. I, q 24, a. 1). Poinsot follows Aristotle in holding that “from motion a first and
entirely immobile mover can immediately and directly be demonstrated,” and, following upon this,
that certain attributes of this first mover can be determined as that which is commensurate with pure
act. Also important to Poinsot here are Thomas Aquinas’s two premises found in the prima via that
“everything that is moved is moved by another” and “an infinite regress in moved movers is
impossible” (Phil. Nat. I, q. 24, a. 3).
The third part of Poinsot’s natural philosophy extends beyond the Physics and elucidates
Aristotle’s De generatione et corruptione and Meteorologica. Poinsot devotes 12 questions to the
former text ranging over issues such as the generation of substances and their corruption, alteration,
intension and remission, action and reaction, mixtures, condensation and rarefaction, nutrition, and
growth. He ends his discussion of the first book of De generatione et corruptione with a discussion
of the principle of individuation, which, Thomist that he is, he identifies with quantified signate
matter (Phil. Nat. III, q. 9, a. 4). The remaining questions deal with elements and first qualities
(q. 10), mixtures (q. 11), and reproduction (q. 12). His work on meteorology is relatively short and
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addresses the standard terrestrial and sublunary phenomena of the day such as the moon and its
phases, meteors, comets, thunder, lightning, and even rainbows, wind, clouds, and rain. His last
tractate in this section concerns metals: their efficient causes, kinds, and specific properties.
Poinsot concludes his exploration of natural philosophy with a 12-question volume on animate
being, which corresponds to Aristotle’s De anima. He begins with a consideration of the soul in
general. Poinsot argues against the Scotistic school and before it Avicenna who maintained a
plurality of substantial forms in one and the same composite substance (Phil. Nat. IV, q.1, a. 3).
He then discusses various kinds of soul and their powers beginning with vegetative souls and
moving to sensitive souls. Poinsot closes his discussion of the soul with an examination of
intellective souls, their immortality, and faculties. Beginning with question nine, Poinsot’s focus
shifts to the intellectual soul together with its faculties, concept formation, and the will.
Cursus theologicus
Poinsot opens his Cursus theologicus with a discussion of the scientific character of theology.
“Theology,” he says, “is knowledge about God which is reasoned to. . .” (CT I, q. 1, d. 2, a. 1, n. 1).
Like Aquinas, Poinsot considers the discursive and syllogistic character of theology to be indicative of
its scientific character. Unique to Poinsot is his understanding of theology as functioning in a mediate,
revelatory capacity whereby that which is virtually contained in the articles of faith – the premises of
theology – is made manifest through reasoning (CT I, q. 1, d. 2, a. 7, n. 11bis). For Poinsot, faith
(supplying at least one if not both of the premises of theology) and reason (the discursive character of
scientific theology) serve as the cognitive matrix where grace and nature meet in an intermingled
synthesis. Additionally, the natural light of reason can itself supply a premise in a theological syllogism
to be united to another premise supplied by the articles of faith. In fact, Poinsot holds that “Many of the
demonstrations which are made in theology are usually reasoned from one premise of faith and another
which is known by the natural light (lumen) [of reason]. . .” (CT I, q. 1, disp. 2, a. 6, n. 1).
Beyond matters that are strictly concerned with theology proper, the Cursus theologicus also
affords Poinsot the occasion to discuss many of his metaphysical theories, for example, proofs for
God’s existence (ibid., I, q. 2, disp. 3, a. 2), the divine science (ibid., I, q., 14, disp. 17), the Thomistic
understanding of the relationship between esse and essence as act and potency, etc. It is within these
more metaphysical contexts that Suárez’s influence (noted above) is perhaps most keenly observed.
For instance, Poinsot, when reflecting upon the relationship between esse and essence understood in
terms of act and potency, holds fast to Thomas Aquinas’s teaching that act is limited by potency
(ibid., I, q. 7, disp. 7, a. un., n. 2), yet at times seems to do so only tentatively. For instance, when
arguing for God’s infinity, Poinsot, though he takes exception to Suárez and Gabriel Vázquez – who
argue that esse is not limited by potency since esse and essence are not distinct – does not find
maintaining a real distinction between the two as essential. That is, while Poinsot himself holds to
the real distinction, he thinks it sufficient that to hold that a creature can be limited “objectively,”
which is to say, in terms of its metaphysical dependence upon God. Accordingly, a creature’s
limitation need not be attributed to its being subjectively limited through its being received into
some subject. God, of course, is not dependent in any way and so experiences neither objective nor
subjective modes of limitation. The upshot of this argument is that the centrality of the Thomistic
real distinction is seemingly displaced (Pereira 2007, 159–64).
Another area of Suárez’s influence is Poinsot’s consideration of God as “subsistent intellection”
(ibid., 166–71). Thomas consistently describes God as subsistent being itself (ipsum esse subsistens)
(cf. Summa theologiae I, q. 3, a. 4). Suárez, in contrast, is much more concerned with accommodating
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the Trinitarian processions within the Godhead (DM 30.15.15), and so, while he too understands God
as subsistent being (ibid., 28.1.13), the Doctor eximius speaks of God in terms of “subsistent
intelligence” (ibid., 30.15.15). Poinsot follows suit and, without gainsaying Thomas Aquinas’s
understanding of God as subsistent being, through which the divine being can be differentiated from
created being, such a description is insufficient to the task of signifying, let alone differentiating, the
divine Persons within the Godhead (CT I, q. 14, disp. 16, a. 2, n. 9). God’s “primary principle of
operation,” which is intellection, does, however, serve precisely as a means to identify difference
within the Godhead (ibid., I, d. 16, a. 2, n. 19). Accordingly, Poinsot follows Suárez in holding that
God is properly understood as subsistent intellection (Pereira 2007, 169–70).
References
Primary Literature
Poinsot J (1930–1937) Cursus philosophicus thomisticus (CP) (ed: Reiser B). Marietti, Turin
Poinsot J (1885) Cursus theologicus (CT), vols 6–8 (eds: Ramirez D, Combefis F). Louis Vivès,
Paris
Poinsot J. Ars logica (Log), vol 1
Poinsot J. Philosophia naturalis (Phil. Nat.), partes I–III, vol 2
Poinsot J. Philosophia naturalis (Phil. Nat.), pars IV, vol 3
Poinsot J (1931–1946) Cursus theologicus (CT), vols 1–4 (ed: Solemnes). Desclée, Paris
Poinsot J (1964) Cursus theologicus (CT), vol 5. Protat Frères, Matiscone
Ashworth EJ (1988) The historical origins of John Poinsot’s treatise on signs. Semiotica 69:129–147
Bellerate B (1958) Conceito De Existência Em João De S. Tomás. Filosofia 5:154–169
Beuchot M (1980) La Doctrina Tomista Clásica Sobre El Signo: Domingo De Soto, Francisco De
Araújo Y Juan De Santo Tomás. Critica 12(36):39–60
Bondi E (1966) Predication: a study based on the Ars logica of John of St. Thomas. The Thomist
30:260–294
Coombs JS (1994) John Poinsot on how to be, know, and love a non-existent possible. Am Cathol
Philos Q 68:321–335
Deely J (1994) A morning and evening star: editor’s introduction. Am Cathol Philos
Q 68(3):259–278. [Special Issue: John Poinsot]
Doyle JP (1998) John of St. Thomas. In: Craig E (ed) Routledge encyclopedia of philosophy.
Routledge, London, pp 117–120
Pereira J (2007) Suárez: between scholasticism and modernity. Marquette University Press,
Milwaukee
Santaella-Braga L (1991) John Poinsot’s doctrine of signs: the recovery of a missing link. J Specul
Philos 51:151–159
Solana M (1928) Los Grandes Escolásticos Españoles De Los Siglos Xvi Y Xvii: Sus Doctrinas
Filosóficas Y Su Significación En La Histoire De La Filosofia. Jaime Ratés, Madrid
Suárez F (1866) In: Berton C (ed) (DM) Disputationes metaphysicae, vols 25–26. L. Vivès, Paris
Wells NJ (1994) John Poinsot on created eternal truths vs. Vasquez, Suárez and Descartes. Am
Cathol Philos Q 68:425–446
Wolicka E (1979) The notion of truth in the epistemology of John of Saint Thomas. New Scholas-
ticism 53:96–106
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Quevedo, Francisco de
Born: Madrid, 14 September 1580
Died: Villanueva de los Infantes, 8 September 1645
Hilaire Kallendorf*
Department of Hispanic Studies, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
Abstract
Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas was the most popular Spanish author of his century. He was also a
consummate humanist and pioneer of the literary movement known as Baroque conceptismo. His
primary contribution to philosophy falls into the realm of Neostoicism. When seeking classical
models for his own Neostoical works, he showed a strong preference for Latin Silver Age authors.
His legacy is a unique blend of classical pagan philosophy and Christian teaching, a synthesis most
appropriately described by the label Christian Humanism.
Biography
Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas was the most popular Spanish author of his century. Before 1634,
his work had already appeared in 78 editions – more than twice the number of any other author.
Quevedo was also a man of vehement opinions. As one prominent quevedista has remarked, he
attacked Cicero, Tacitus, the Genovese, Protestants, Jews, Moriscos, women, and homosexuals
while defending Homer, Epicurus, the Stoics, Spain, its patron saint Santiago de Compostela, and
his own patron the Duke of Osuna. As a result of his violent loyalties, there has been much critical
discussion of the “two Quevedos”: one lyrical, long-suffering, and devout and the other nasty,
cynical, and abusive. Without entering into inconclusive posthumous psychoanalysis, it is nonethe-
less possible to see his massive corpus of works as including writings relevant to both ends of this
spectrum.
Clubfooted and shortsighted, Quevedo was born in 1580 to a family of minor nobility; his parents
were secretary and lady-in-waiting to Princess María. When his father died 6 years later, he became
the pupil of Agustín de Villanueva, a noble government official. As a young man, he studied with the
Jesuits at the Colegio Imperial in Madrid, where he was able to escape from his mother whom he
hated. He later went on to study classical and modern languages and philosophy at the University of
Alcalá (1596–1599) and theology at the University of Valladolid (1601–1605). It was during his
time in Valladolid that he began both his enmity with the poet Luis de Góngora and his Latin
correspondence with Justus Lipsius. It was also during this time that his first poems appeared in
print. From 1605 to 1609, he participated in various poetic academies at court, such as that of Count
Saldaña, and wrote several of his satirical prose works, including the picaresque novel the Buscón. In
1610, he was denied the permission to print his Sueño del juicio final; the censor, Father Antolín
Montojo, called its style “imprudent.” In 1613, he seems to have suffered a personal crisis in which
*Email: h-kallendorf@tamu.edu
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he resolved to write more “prudent” works based on the Bible or the classics, a decision which
resulted in such endeavors as Lágrimas de Hieremı́as castellanas and Heráclito cristiano.
From 1613 to 1618, Quevedo’s so-called Italian period, he served in various government
functions – particularly under the Viceroy of Naples, the Duke of Osuna – in Palermo, Sicily,
Rome, and Naples. His Italian period had a profound impact on his humanistic ambitions. We know
from Lope de Vega’s detailed description of the literary atmosphere at court in 1608–1609 that
Quevedo had been making no secret of his project of imitating Statius and other Silver Age authors.
His stay in Italy strengthened this preference in his reading and the tendency in his writing to imitate
these classical figures. During this time, he participated in the activities of the Accademia degli
Oziosi in Naples, and since the Silver Age poet Statius himself had been a Neapolitan, Quevedo
undoubtedly enjoyed the opportunity to continue working on his own silvas in this setting.
Upon his return to Spain, Quevedo became a knight of the Order of Santiago, but following
quickly upon the heels of this honor were several tokens of political disgrace. His fortunes fell with
those of his mentor, the Duke of Osuna; after trying to defend the Duke in 1618 before the Council of
State against the charge of having participated in the Conspiracy of Venice, Quevedo was banished
to his country estate, the Torre de Juan Abad. He was imprisoned for some time in Uclés but then
allowed to return to his country home under house arrest. When he became ill, he was allowed to go
to a monastery in Villanueva de los Infantes. In 1623, he was back at court, trying to salvage his
political career by writing overtly political works in favor of the king’s new minister, the Count-
Duke of Olivares. In 1626 and 1627, to his great distress, three of his most popular works – the
Polı́tica de Dios, the Buscón, and the Sueños – were pirated by the booksellers Roberto Duport and
Alonso Pérez, in Zaragoza and Madrid, respectively. In 1628, he was banished again, perhaps
because of his active involvement, through the publication of pamphlets, in the controversy over
which saint – Teresa or Santiago, with Quevedo favoring the latter – would be the patron of Spain.
Refusing to learn his lesson about engaging in pamphlet wars, in 1631, he published two satirical
pamphlets denouncing the deliberately obscure style and irrelevant classical allusions of his
foremost literary rival, Luis de Góngora. These two pamphlets, La culta latiniparla and Aguja de
navegar cultos, argue against the elaborate, obfuscating culterano style in favor of conceptismo, a
more direct humanistic attempt to imitate the classics in terms of concepts or matter as well as
manner. Quevedo’s use of his pen to participate in the political as well as literary controversies of his
day (in all, he wrote 19 overtly political works) did not escape the attention of the authorities. In
1632, he was appointed to the nominal post of secretary to the king, but in the same year, his
pre-1631 works, in both authorized and unauthorized editions, appeared on the Index of Prohibited
Books “until such time as their true author recognizes them as his own, corrects them accordingly,
and republishes them” (the 1640 Index would later continue the ban on his festive and satirical
works, with only one exception). In 1634, the Duke of Medinaceli persuaded him to marry an older
noble widow, Esperanza de Mendoza, who wished to escape scandal; this unhappy marriage, which
was more of a political alliance, would be dissolved a short 2 years later. In 1635, he was attacked
viciously by his literary and political enemies in the anonymous Tribunal de la justa venganza, the
title page of which called him “Maestro de Errores, Doctor en Desverguenças, Licenciado en
Bufonerias, Bachiller en Suciedades, Cathedratico de Vizios, y Proto-Diablo entre los Hombres.”
Quevedo continued to be persecuted by his literary and political enemies throughout the rest of his
life. Finally, at 11 o’clock on the night of 7 December 1639, he was arrested in the house of the Duke
of Medinaceli with a letter from Olivares to the king accusing him of being “unfaithful and an enemy
of the government and a slanderer of it and ultimately a confidante of France and a correspondent of
the French.” He was seized with such abruptness that he did not even have time to get dressed.
Quevedo was imprisoned in the convent of San Marcos in León for 4 years, during which time he
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suffered repeated bouts of ill health; the prison conditions were so wretched that he even had to
cauterize his open sores with his own hands. Nonetheless, he continued to write such religious works
as Vida de San Pablo. After his erstwhile enemy Olivares fell from power in 1643, he was released
and allowed to return home. His health destroyed, his spirit permanently wounded, he spent a year in
Madrid revising some of his manuscripts for publication. Increasingly ill, he retired to his country
home for the last time. He died in a cell of the convent of Santo Domingo in Villanueva de los
Infantes in 1645.

Quevedo imitated the Latin classics in terms of style as well as content, sometimes engaging in
serious mimesis and other times using the classical texts as points for parodic departure. He knew
and valued the Latin Golden Age authors: Ovid’s mannerism appealed to his stylistic taste, and the
elegists such as Tibullus and Propertius provided material for his love poetry. Even the sober Horace
makes an occasional intertextual appearance in Quevedo’s works. For example, his “Sermón estoico
de censura moral” is composed on the model of Horace’s satirical sermones, while his “Epístola
satírica y censoria,” written in tercets, is likewise written after the fashion of the Horatian Epistulae.
Virgil, too, is represented in his humanistic imitatio, as the Dido story reappears in Quevedo’s
“Imitación de Virgilio.” But while he seems to have admired Virgil’s poetry as a source for linguistic
purity, mythological material, and the Stoic thought he believed was there, he also parodied this most
serious of poets.
Ideologically and stylistically, Quevedo showed a strong preference for Silver Age authors such
as Tacitus, Petronius, and especially Seneca, the classical Spaniard whom he patriotically chose to
see as a literary and philosophical role model. He crafted his style in the Marco Bruto after the Latin
prose style of Seneca, Tacitus, and Lucan, with its hyperbaton, repetition, and opposition of terms.
At least 70 of his shorter poems are elaborations of quotations or epigrams from Martial, Persius, or
Juvenal. The satura form of these latter two authors was also influential for Quevedo when he wrote
his longer satirical works. Quevedo’s Sueños fall within the tradition of Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis
but also bear some resemblance to Lucian’s Dialogues. Some themes from Seneca’s tragedies and
Lucan’s Pharsalia are also evident in Quevedo’s amorous poetry. Quevedo’s translation of the
Letters to Lucilius and his epitome De los remedios de cualquier fortuna (1638) show the depth of
his direct knowledge of Seneca (or, in the latter case, pseudo-Seneca), but he also learned about
Stoicism from Epictetus, whose Enchiridion he adapted and published in 1635.
By modeling many of his writings closely on the works of classical authors, Quevedo opted for
the traditional philological approach to literary creation. In his Sueño del infierno, Quevedo shows
himself well enough informed about the practices of contemporary scholarly method to condemn
Julius Caesar Scaliger and other contemporaneous humanists to hell for sins that were fundamen-
tally philological. Quevedo himself, however, was guilty (by modern standards) of one egregious
philological “sin”: he tried so hard to reconcile pagan and Christian philosophy that he insisted, in
his Doctrina estoica, on tracing a direct influence of the Old Testament book of Job upon the Stoic
thinkers Epictetus and Seneca. Quevedo cites these two Stoics as well as Juvenal and Persius as
being compatible with Christianity. Lucan, like the other Silver Age authors whom Quevedo
favored, lived after the birth of Christ and therefore had the opportunity to come into contact with
Christian truth. But not all the Silver Age authors were as sympathetic to Christianity as Quevedo
felt they should have been. Martial, for example, uttered many commendable sentiments “con
profana boca” (“with a profane mouth”), while Tacitus is severely criticized by Quevedo for being
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anti-Christian at a time when he could – and in Quevedo’s eyes, should – have been sympathetic to
the new religion. Quevedo stopped short in most instances of asserting that pagan writers actually
converted to Christianity. But his synthesis of classical with Christian philosophy was typical of the
Christian Humanism of his day.

Much has been written about Quevedo’s Neostoicism. One of the most influential factors in shaping
Quevedo’s synthesis of Christianity with classical Stoic philosophy had been his youthful exchange
of letters in Latin with the Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius. Quevedo’s correspondence with Lipsius
had begun early, in 1604, but the effects of their relationship lasted for several decades. Quevedo’s
interest in Stoic themes was probably reinforced by his banishment as well as his successive political
and social disasters. As a result of his personal misfortunes, along with the Inquisitorial suspicion
cast upon him by his ongoing placement on the Index, Quevedo wrote almost exclusively serious
works beginning in the mid-1630s. In rapid succession came his translation of the Introduction à la
vie dévote, his Neostoic work La cuna y la sepultura, his adaptation of a work attributed to Seneca,
De los remedios de cualquier fortuna (completed in 1633; published in 1638), and his Providencia
de Dios... (1641–1642). His Neostoic manifesto was published in 1635 as Nombre, origen, intento,
recomendación y descendencia de la doctrina estoica, but other moralistic works of his, such as
Virtud militante, La constancia y paciencia del santo Job, and Doctrina moral del conocimiento
propio y del desengaño de las cosas ajenas, bear strong Neostoic overtones. From the mid-1630s on,
he seems to have wanted to change his image from that of a brilliant but heretical satirical writer to
that of a sage and erudite humanist.
Impact and Legacy

Quevedo’s writings in almost every conceivable genre make him one of the foremost Spanish
intellectuals of all time. But few of his more than 875 poems, including sonnets, Pindaric odes,
silvas, jácaras, and letrillas, were published during his life, although many were later collected for
publication by his nephew and his editor, Pedro de Aldrete Quevedo and Jusepe Antonio González
de Salas. His humanistic accomplishments included translations of classical authors as well as
imitations of their style and subject matter in both Spanish and Latin. An early example of his ability
to imitate Seneca’s Latin is an epitaph for his friend and fellow poet, Luis Carrillo y Sotomayor.
Typical of the early praise for Quevedo’s accomplishments is that of his editor González de Salas,
who wrote in 1648 that “Hasta hoy no conozco poeta alguno versado más, en los que viven, de
hebreos, griegos, latinos y franceses; de cuyas lenguas... tuvo buena noticia” (“Until today I do not
know any poet alive who is more well-versed in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French; of which
languages... he possessed a good knowledge”). On the basis of his translation of such authors and
works as the Greek anthology, pseudo-Phocylides, Anacreon, and Plutarch’s life of Marcus Brutus,
Quevedo’s contemporaries regularly praised his Greek in particular, although a discordant voice was
raised by his enemy Luis de Góngora. Modern scholars have tended to agree with the latter’s
assessment of Quevedo’s Greek abilities, but his scholarly procedure in other areas met or exceeded
the standards of his day.
Recent work on Quevedo and philosophy has emphasized his politico-moral stance as anti-
Machiavellian. There have also been efforts to qualify his Neostoic doctrine as having been
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influenced to some degree by the Sophists. His Stoic Doctrine appears in English translation in the
Moral Philosophy volume of the Cambridge Translations of Renaissance Philosophical Texts, and
he is likewise highlighted in the “Moral Philosophy” chapter of The Cambridge History of
Renaissance Philosophy. By any measure, Quevedo is a major figure within the pantheon of
Renaissance philosophers and also one of the clearest examples of the intersection of philosophy
with literature. His Christian Humanism represents a unique synthesis of pagan philosophy with
religious belief.
Cross-References
▶ Neostoicism
References
Primary Literature
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Academia Española, Madrid
Quevedo F de (1997) Defence of Epicurus against commonly held opinions. In: Kraye J (ed)
Cambridge translations of Renaissance philosophical texts. Cambridge University Press, Cam-
bridge, pp 245–266
Quevedo F de (2001) Edición de las Controversias de Seneca, texto inédito de Francisco de Quevedo
(ed Plata F). Perinola 5:207–276
Quevedo F de (1946) Epistolario completo (ed Astrana Marín L). Instituto Editorial Reus, Madrid
Quevedo F de (1974) Obras completas, vol. 1: Obras en prosa (ed Buendía F). Aguilar, Madrid
Quevedo F de (1963) Poesía original (ed Blecua JM). Planeta, Barcelona
Quevedo F de (1988) Sentencias filosóficas (ed Ebersole AV). Albatros, Valencia
Quevedo F de (1997) Stoic Doctrine. In: Kraye J (ed) Cambridge translations of Renaissance
philosophical texts. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 210–225
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belicista de Nicolás Maquiavelo. Bajo Palabra Rev Filosofía 2(5):331–348
Bl€uher KA (1979) Sénèque et le ‘desengaño’ néo-stoïcien dans le poésie lyrique de Quevedo. In:
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Humanistes, Tours, 5–17 juillet 1976. Vrin, Paris, pp 299–310
Castanien DG (1961) Quevedo’s translation of the pseudo-Phocylides. Philol Q 40:44–52
Castanien DG (1964) Quevedo’s Version of Epictetus’ Encheiridion. Symposium 18:68–78
Chiappini G (1994) Lucano en Quevedo: ‘Labios divinos’ e ‘Infernal médula’. In: Cerdan F (ed)
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Crosby J (1976) Guía bibliográfica para el estudio crítico de Quevedo. Grant & Cutler, London
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Granada, Granada, vol. 1, pp. 357–375
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Naumann W (1968) Staub, entbrannt in Liebe: Das Thema von Tod und Liebe bei Properz,
Quevedo, und Goethe. Arcadia 3:157–172
O’Connell P (1972) Francisco de Quevedo’s study of philosophy in the University of Alcalá de
Henares. Bull Hisp Stud 49(3):256–264
Peraita C (2003) Comercio de difuntos, ocio fatigoso de los estudios: libros y prácticas lectoras de
Quevedo. Perinola 7:271–296
Roncero López V (1990) Quevedo y Tácito. Cuadernos Aldeau 6(10):59–76
Roncero López V (2000) El humanismo de Quevedo: Filología e historia. Universidad de Navarra,
Pamplona
Rothe A (1965) Quevedo und Seneca: Untersuchungen zu den Fr€ uhschriften Quevedos. Librairie
Droz, Geneva
Schwartz Lerner L (1986) Quevedo: Discurso y representación. Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona
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Ribadeneyra, Pedro
Born: 1 November 1526
Died: 22 September 1611
Victor M. Salas*
Abstract
Pedro de Ribadeneyra, S.J., was one of the earliest members of the newly founded Society of Jesus.
Born in 1526 in Toledo, Ribadeneyra spent most of his youth without a father. When he was
introduced to Ignatius of Loyola at the age of 13, Ribadeneyra found in the Spanish saint a kind of
spiritual father. In 1514 Ribadeneyra joined the Society of Jesus and made a career teaching rhetoric
and composing biographies of some of the earliest members of the Society of Jesus. One of his most
famous biographical pieces is the Flos Sanctorum, which details the lives of many saints within the
sanctoral cycle of the Church’s liturgical seasons. In addition to being a hagiographer, Ribadeneyra
also touched upon matters of political philosophy. His Tratado de la religion y virtudes argued
against Machiavelli-inspired politics in support of a monarchy that rules according to true Christian
virtues. Ribadeneyra died in 1611.
Biography
Pedro de Ribadeneyra, S.J. (Born 1 November 1526, Toledo– Died 22 September 1611, Toledo),
was among the first members of the newly founded Society of Jesus. He was born of a rather noble
family in Toledo, but lost his father at a young age (Bilinkoff 1999, 180). Lacking a father,
Ribadeneyra would eventually come to fill the void and experience the tumultuous dynamics
involved in the father-son relationship with his spiritual father, Ignatius of Loyola. His education
as a youth was mostly humanistic and transpired first in Toledo and then in Louvain and Padua
(Schmutz 2014). When he was only 13 years old, Ribadeneyra’s mother arranged for him to be a
page of the Italian Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, which meant the boy’s move to Rome in 1539. It
was in Rome – and not long after his move there – that Ribadeneyra made the acquaintance of
Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. At this point, Ignatius was in the process of
obtaining papal sanction for his new religious order, and, only 8 days before he received official
approval, Ignatius inducted Ribadeneyra into the fledgling society on 18 September 1540 (Bilinkoff
1999, 181; Schmutz 2014). Made a Jesuit at the age of 13, Ribadeneyra would – with all the ups and
downs, some more dramatic than others, that constitute life – remain a Jesuit for around 71 years
until his death in 1611.
Ribadeneyra began his studies in Paris before moving Louvain and eventually Padua. His early
formation proved to be fraught with various challenges. As Ribadeneyra was still a child when he
joined the Society of Jesus, one is hardly surprised to learn that he experienced the same turmoil and
growing pains that accompany anyone’s passage into maturity. Growing up for anyone can be a
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difficult matter for anyone but the task rendered twice as difficult, if not more so, when one grows up
in the regimented confines of a religious order. Ribadeneyra himself tells us that he was “restless,
naughty and impetuous, free-spirited and spoiled” (Bilinkoff 1999, 190). His Jesuit brethren’s
opinion was no better, as he was regarded as a terror and “little devil” (ibid.). Evidently, the vexing
demons of youth reached a critical point when he was 17. Studying in Louvain, Ribadeneyra was
summoned back to Rome in 1543. Answering the summons, Ribadeneyra headed back to the eternal
city but succumbed to exhaustion when crossing the Alps; his was an exhaustion that was fueled as
much by mounting anxieties concerning his vocation as by the arduous journey itself (ibid.). Ignatius
of Loyola himself intervened and, after leading the young Jesuit through the spiritual exercises,
helped Ribadeneyra resolve his concerns regarding his vocation. From thence, according to
Ribadeneyra, he had no reservations or doubts about his vocation again (ibid., 191).
Ribadeneyra continued with his formation and studies. In 1549 he traveled to Palermo to help
establish a program in rhetoric and Latin at the new Jesuit College there. Three years later, he was
called to Rome to help establish yet another Jesuit educational venture, namely, Roman College,
where he taught rhetoric (Schmutz 2014). In 1555 Ribadeneyra was sent to Belgium and then in
1558 to England (ibid.). Between 1555 and 1574, Ribadeneyra held various posts within the Society
of Jesus in various locations, for example, Rome, Paris, Brussels, and London. Finally, with his
health weakening because of the fatigue of constant travel, in 1574 Ribadeneyra returned to Spain
and began the work for which he is most famous, namely, hagiography (ibid.).
One of his most famous works is the Flos Sanctorum, a compendium of several saints’ lives
published in Madrid in 1599 (Bilinkoff 1999, 181). Though God is made known throughout all His
creation, explains Ribadeneyra, His omnipotence, wisdom, providence, and goodness are especially
known in the virtues and souls of the saints (FS, prol.). The Flos Sanctorum, then, is organized into
various saints’ feast days and arranged by month through October. It begins with a discussion of the
pedagogical character of Christ’s life, passion, and death, and the importance of emulating him.
Ribadeneyra details the various events of Christ’s life found within scripture and in the early Church
Fathers. After his lengthy introduction concerning the life of Christ, Ribadeneyra then turns to a
discussion of the liturgical feasts celebrating the life of Christ as well as the Godhead, namely, the
Resurrection of the Lord (fols. 23–28), the ascension of the Lord (fols. 28–32), the descent of the
Holy Spirit (fols. 32–39), the feast of the Most Holy Trinity (fols. 39–45), and, finally, the Feast of
the Most Holy Sacrament (fols. 45–56). The life of Mary, the mother of God, then occupies the next
several folios of Ribadeneyra’s work.
The Flos Sanctorum together with a number of other biographical writings established
Ribadeneyra as a biographer par excellence. His service is especially valuable concerning the
histories of the earliest members of the Society of Jesus, many of whom he knew firsthand, having
experienced the inception of the new religious order. Ribadeneyra’s biography of Ignatius of Loyola,
the Vida de San Ignacio de Loyola, is an especially important work since it provides not only an
encomium of the saint’s life but also documents the founding of the order (Bilinkoff 1999, 182).
Accordingly, with its attention to documentary evidence, his almost exclusive use of literary third
person and his shying away from discussions of miracles brought about by the saint, Ribadeneyra’s
work is notably “modern” in character (ibid., 182–83).
Ribadeneyra’s Flos Sanctorum and Vida are also accompanied by yet another biography, the Vida
de Estefanı́a Manrique de Castilla (the story of a devout noblewoman) and his Confessiones, an
autobiography of the Jesuit himself. Beyond his biographies, Ribadeneyra is also known for his
history of the English schism, the Historia del Cisma de Inglaterra, authored in 1588. This work
would cause difficulties between Ribadeneyra and his superiors, who had forbidden him to publish
the volume. Though the volume clearly articulated the Catholic position in its opposition to the
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Church of England in its break from Rome, Ribadeneyra’s superiors were concerned that the
chronicle of heretical events would actually promote heretical ideas themselves. When he appealed
the decision before an advisory committee, the decision to forbid publication of the work was
reaffirmed. Accordingly, Ribadeneyra appealed to Claudio Acquaviva, the general superior, who
finally gave permission for the text to go to print (ibid., 192).
Finally, mention must be made of Ribadeneyra’s political work, the Tratado de la religion y
virtudes which appeared in Madrid in 1595. As the very (sub-)title of the text itself suggests (contra
lo que Nicolás Machı̂avelo. . . de este tiempo enseñan), Ribadeneyra offered it in direct opposition to
Machiavellian values that were in circulation following the aftermath of Machiavelli’s The Prince
(1513). In this work, Ribadeneyra attempts to make clear the principles which must govern the
Christian ruler. In fact, the Jesuit goes so far as to claim that it is impossible for any ruler to maintain
his kingdom or state without fostering religion, which is at once as natural as it is obligatory (c. 1; fol.
1). Even Machiavelli acknowledges the role of religion in conserving the state, Ribadeneyra notes,
but the difference between the Jesuit and Machiavellian politicians is that the latter utilize the
religion of their subjects, “whether true or false” in preserving the state, whereas Ribadeneyra insists
upon Catholicism as the only true religion. Thus the politicians only have the “appearance” of
serving the religious needs of their subjects, but Ribadeneyra maintains that the true ruler should
serve according to the truth of the Catholic faith (ibid.; fol. 4). In short, Ribadeneyra regards political
rule as a vocation, such that the ruler is ultimately accountable to God.
References
Primary Literature
De Ribadeneyra P Flos Sanctorum
De Ribadeneyra P Manual de Oraciones
De Ribadeneyra P Tratado de la religion y virtudes
De Ribadeneyra P Historia del Cisma de Inglaterra.
De Ribadeneyra P Vida de San Ignacio de Loyola
Amezúa LC (2002) Hacia una ética judicial del Estado moderno. Las virtudes del juez según Pedro
de Ribadeneyra. Anu Filos Derecho 19:155–189
Bilinkoff J (1999) The many ‘lives’ of Pedro de Ribadeneyra. Renaiss Q 52:180–196
Iñutirregui Rodríguez JM (1998) La gracia y la república: el lenguaje político de la teología católica
y el “Princípe Cristiano” de Pedro de Ribanadeyra. Universidad Nacional de Educación a
Distancia, Madrid
Schmutz J (26 May 2014) Scholasticon. URL = http://www.scholasticon.fr/
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Rio, Martin del

Born: Antwerp, May 17, 1551
Died: Leuven, October 19, 1608
Peter Maxwell-Stuart*
School of History, University of St Andrews, Fife, UK
Abstract
Martin del Rio was a Spanish-Flemish Jesuit (1551–1608) who was renowned in his own day as one
of the most learned men in Europe. He published several volumes of edited and annotated Roman
authors, but his lasting fame rests upon a massive survey of magic, witchcraft, and allied subject
matter which he published in three volumes in 1599–1600. It is remarkable for the extent of its
inquiries and discussions, and the erudition supporting them, and it became the fundamental
textbook for theologians and lawyers in particular until the middle of the eighteenth century. Its
influence on witchcraft prosecutions was thus immense.
Biography
Between c.1560 and 1660 Europe underwent a terror that evil aspects of the spirit world had been or
were about to be unleashed and that large numbers of human agents were in league with Satan to
subvert and destroy people’s daily life on earth and prospects of ultimate salvation. These agents
were almost any workers of magic, witches especially, who voluntarily made a pact with the Devil to
obtain powers during this life in return for their soul hereafter. To help protect society against this
terror, and to thwart Satan’s malignant designs, secular states, sometimes supported by the various
Churches, set about removing Satan’s human agents via criminal prosecution and subsequent
execution of those found guilty. These widespread and genuinely felt fears were systematized and
given intellectual coherence by a series of writers, both Catholic and Protestant, throughout the most
intense period of prosecution, building upon a tradition of essays and treatises from the 1480s to
1490s when earlier rumblings had foreshadowed the century of prosecution to come. The most
detailed and influential of these earlier works had been the Malleus Maleficarum (“The Hammer of
Women Who Practice Harmful Magic”) by a German Dominican, Heinrich Kramer (also called
“Institoris”). Malleus, divided into three Books, addressed three audiences, the first theologians, the
second preachers, and the third secular and ecclesiastical judges. It thus covered a very broad ground
and gave pertinent advice to those groups and professions most intimately concerned with the
problem of magic and the solution to its perceived threat to society.
After Kramer, the most significant writer in this field was Martin del Rio, a Jesuit, born in Antwerp
on May 17, 1551. He came of a noble Spanish family. His father Antonio was Castilian, his mother
Eleonora Lopez, Aragonese, and via his mother Del Rio was related to the French essayist
Montaigne who later expressed trenchant skepticism with regard to the validity of witchcraft.
*Email: pgm1@st-andrews.ac.uk
*Email: pgm1@st-and.ac.uk
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Antonio was in royal service in the Spanish Netherlands and destined his eldest son for a political
career right from the start. Hence, Martin was afforded every opportunity to get a good education and
early in life showed a gift for languages, acquiring Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and a working knowledge
of Aramaic, along with fluency in Spanish (his native tongue), Flemish (since the family was living
in that part of the Spanish Netherlands during his childhood), German, Italian, and French. Many of
these he seems to have studied in Lierre, a town about 9 miles southeast of Antwerp, before moving
to Paris in the mid-1560s where the appearance of a series of editions of Latin authors, published by
Denis Lambin at this same period, may have encouraged him to embark on his own annotations of
Solinus and Claudian which he published a few years later in 1572. But he cannot have stayed long
in Paris because from there he moved to Douai where he heard lectures on jurisprudence, after which
he went on to the University of Leuven where he studied mathematics under Johann Stadius
(of whose trust in electional astrology he disapproved) and jurisprudence under Pieter Peek the
Elder, receiving his bachelor’s degree in civil law in 1570. After this he took to his travels again, for
at some point during the academic year 1571–1572, he was back at the College de Clermont to hear a
series of lectures on demons by the Jesuit, Juan de Maldonado.
Throughout these years, France in general, and Paris in particular, was in a ferment of religious
hostility between Catholics and Protestants, a turmoil which culminated in a massacre of Protestants
in Paris and elsewhere in August 1572. Maldonado himself took part in a missionary drive in Poitou
for several months between winter 1569 and September 1570, where he witnessed a large success in
eradicating heresy and so returned to the capital filled with the combative enthusiasm which
informed his 1571–1572 lectures. In these he described the link he saw between heresy, demons,
and witchcraft with a fervor which inspired not only Del Rio but several other writers on the same
subject matter. Heresy spawned witchcraft, he said, both being aspects of a single ghastly crime, and
it was people’s blind unwillingness to see and confront these spiritual dangers which opened the
door to Satan. Magic of all kinds, superstitious actions, witches, witches’ meetings known as
“Sabbats,” the murder of infants for their fat, contracts with demons, and a witch’s flight through
the air, all these, denied by heretics, were real and thus offered an urgent challenge to faithful
Christians. Satan encouraged these divagations from the faith, participated in them, and profited by
them. Hence, their eradication would diminish his worldly influence and combat effectively his
assaults on human souls. Del Rio absorbed, remembered, and reproduced these sentiments and
theories when, nearly 30 years later, he came to write his own substantial treatise on the subject. So
too did Pierre de Lancre in treatises published 1612, 1622, and 1627, the fruit not only of his own
experience as a judge in witchcraft trials in 1608–1609 but also of the same formative educational
experiences as Del Rio at the College de Clermont under Maldonado’s tutelage.
By 1573 Del Rio was in Spain, studying for his doctorate at the University of Salamanca,
Maldonado’s alma mater, two of whose most noteworthy alumni were St Ignatius Loyola and St
John of the Cross. There Del Rio continued to pursue civil law and in 1574 was awarded his degree
for a thesis on commercial transactions, an appendix to which included notes and commentaries on
aspects of Greek and Roman law. Returning thereafter to his home province of Brabant, he was made
a member of the province’s supreme court by King Philip II and, while there, produced a weighty
and highly regarded tome on civil law. This was a period of turbulence in the region as King Philip’s
half brother, John of Austria, met resistance as he tried to assert Spanish control. Del Rio’s family,
prominent as it was, did not escape violence, his uncle Luis being arrested during a full session of the
senate in Brussels in 1576 and his father in 1577. Nor did Del Rio himself remain untouched, for he
lost his extensive library to fire when rebel soldiers pillaged his father’s house. John of Austria,
the family’s patron, died in 1578 and Del Rio commemorated his efforts to restore order in a book on
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the rebellion which he published under the pseudonym Rolando Natin Miriteo, an anagram of his
own name.
Deeply affected by events during these latter years, Del Rio went back to Spain where, after a
period of depression, he recovered his spirits and turned to religion in what may seem to have been
an unexpected conversion but which was actually a change of direction fuelled by a lifetime’s devout
adherence to the faith, now sharpened by his experiences in the Spanish Netherlands which had lit in
him an ardor to combat heresy. There were parallels with St Ignatius of Loyola. Both men were
nobly born; both had tasted war and suffered because of it; and both had a period of reflection which
resulted in a commitment to the religious life, St Ignatius at the age of 30 and Del Rio at 29. It is
therefore not altogether surprising that in 1580, Del Rio decided to enter the Society of Jesus,
beginning his novitiate in Valladolid on May 9 that year. After an initial 3 years there, he was sent
back to the Spanish Netherlands by his superiors. His health, however, broke down on the way, and it
was while he was staying in the Jesuit house in Bordeaux that he learned his father had died in
Lisbon. From Bordeaux he went to Calais where he saw roses blooming in winter, a sign, it was said,
of plague to come, and from Calais he passed to Leuven and Mainz where he continued his
theological studies.
By 1589 he was back in Douai, teaching philosophy, although he did not stay there long, for in
1591 he found himself removed to Liege where he taught moral philosophy. Between 1595 and 1597
he seems to have commuted between Leuven and Spain, a series of journeys which could not have
been easy and on one occasion at least in 1597 nearly cost him his life when his ship was caught in a
severe storm off Cap Gris Nez. It was during 1597 in Leuven that he gave a series of lectures on
superstition and the evil arts, clearly the result of his accumulating information on the subject either
while preparing to write Disquisitiones Magicae or actively engaged on them. From 1597 to 1600 he
was in Graz, teaching at the new university which had opened in 1586, but by 1600 his health needed
the warmer climate of Spain and so he returned to Salamanca. (It is noteworthy that on the title page
of Disquisitiones, he describes himself as “formerly of the University of Graz, now Public Professor
of Holy Scripture at the University of Salamanca.”) A final journey in 1608, however, undermined
him completely. On August 18 he left Pintia in the province of Valladolid but was unable to reach
Brussels until October 18, and even then his difficulties were not over, for he was told to make his
way to Leuven at once. The two cities are only about 16 miles apart and so Del Rio was able to arrive
that same evening. But his constitution had been so weakened by fatigue and illness that the next day
he needed to see a doctor. The physician gave him up for lost, so Del Rio made his confession,
received the sacrament, and died quietly at “the seventh hour,” about 1 o’clock in the afternoon.
The 1590s and 1600s saw Del Rio at his most productive. Publications from this time include a
collection of sermons under the title Marian Blossoms (1597); the work for which he is most famous,
Disquisitiones Magicae (“Investigations Into Magic”) (1599–1600); commentaries on the poems of
St Aldhelm (1601) and the Biblical Song of Songs (1604); A Work about Mary (1607); a defense of
Dionysius the Areopagite against Scaliger’s criticism (1607); a commentary on Genesis (1608) and
on Lamentations (1608); and A Lighthouse of Holy Wisdom (1608). A review of these makes it clear
that Disquisitiones stands out from the rest since it is neither a work of religious devotion nor an
essay in literary and textual criticism, although it actually partakes of both via its ultimate intention
and Del Rio’s working methods. The question therefore arises, why did Del Rio write it? If we accept
what Del Rio’s commemorative biographer, fellow Jesuit Heribert Rosweyde, says, Del Rio was
writing and revising it while he was in Leuven between 1595 and 1598. This is just when the
Counter-Reformation, with Jesuits at its spearhead, was consolidating its attack on the Calvinism
which had spread rapidly throughout the region since 1566. Del Rio’s superiors had clearly seen him
as part of the counter to religious upheaval, and Disquisitiones should thus be seen, at least in part, as
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a polemical work intended to provide clarification of the links, indeed near-identity, between
magical activities and the spread of heresy which gave rise to an aggressive warfare, stimulated
and directed by Satan, which was being waged by witches and heretics alike against the Catholic
Church. Fears that the period’s religious wars were heralding the End of Days and final judgement
served only to exacerbate people’s anxiety and intensify their fears of Satan and his demonic and
human agents. Disquisitiones is thus a call to arms, a warning, an explanation, and a remedy, all in
one, set out in the clearest and most prolific detail, leaving no aspect of its subject matter
undiscussed.
The scope of the work, then, is immense. It is divided into three volumes, each consisting of three
“Books,” and covers every aspect of magical belief and practice common in Western Europe at the
time, as well as other subjects such as alchemy, astrology, and divination which bordered upon or
overlapped that general corpus. Book 1 goes straight to the root of the problem as Del Rio sees it,
namely, superstition in all its forms. This he sees as a perversion of religion which takes, deliberately
or not, the form of idolatry, either overt or implicit. Anything other than direct, intentional worship of
God runs the danger, at best, of unintentionally slipping into the worship of something or someone
else. At worst it does so deliberately. (Hence, with the spiritual dangers inherent in every supersti-
tious practice and if one bears in mind the presence of Christian words, symbols, names, and prayers
in much of the popular magic of the day, Del Rio’s point becomes especially clear.) He then proceeds
to magic itself which he divides into three types: natural, “artificial,” and demonic. The first is
derived from knowledge of the natural world and thus includes astrology and alchemy. Whether
practice of natural magic is licit or illicit depends on whether it is used for natural or preternatural
purposes, and its principal danger lies in the ease with which it may tip into demonic magic, the latter
depending, as its name suggests, on overt or tacit assistance from evil spirits. “Artificial” magic rests
upon human ingenuity to produce wonderful effects and so ranges from conjuring tricks and
illusions to the use of incantations, music, written characters, and so on with the intention of causing
magical effects. It thus overlaps with natural magic and superstition.
Book 2 is devoted to the kind of magic which depends on the assistance and cooperation of evil
spirits. At the root of this magic is a pact, explicitly or implicitly made between a human being and an
evil spirit. In return for his or her soul, the human is granted the use of powers beyond those naturally
possessed by humanity, and while magical practitioners cannot stray beyond the laws of nature with
these powers, they can accomplish a great deal with the help of their demon – for demons can move
at more than human speed and their superior knowledge of the inner workings and potentialities of
nature enables them to do things which either appear to be astonishing or to be flat contrary to
anything nature normally intends. Del Rio gives many examples, such as transvection of witches
through the air, appearances of the dead deliberately invited, and bilocation, and discusses not only
how far demonic powers can go but also to what extent their marvels are real or merely illusions
introduced into humans’ heads to deceive and entrap them. Other questions commonly asked at the
time are also considered. Can witches have sexual intercourse with demons and so give birth to
children? Can they really change shape? Do they have any genuine control over the demons they
claim to command? Del Rio’s conclusions vary. He accepts the reality of the flight to the Sabbat and
of the Sabbat itself but has reservations about the other behaviors popularly attributed to witches and
ends by asserting that evil spirits cannot be coerced by human beings, the exception to this being
priests who perform exorcisms sanctioned by the Church.
Book 3 follows the lead of Book 2 and concentrates on harmful magic and superstitious practices.
Del Rio defines what is meant by “harmful magic” (maleficium) and then discusses the range of
behaviors and experiences caused by this type. They include not only obvious acts of hostility such
as causing illness, abusing and killing children, and inflicting impotence but also inflicting demonic
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possession and manipulating people’s emotions via love magic, this last coming under attack not
only for its interference with people’s feelings but also for its frequent resort to the improper use of
ecclesiastical objects such as holy water, candles, incense, priestly vestments, and, much more
seriously, prayers and the Mass itself. God allows Satan to tempt individuals into these practices
partly because the temptation creates opportunities for people to strengthen and increase their virtue
and partly because yielding to these temptations leads to punishment for the underlying proclivity to
sin which made someone vulnerable to temptation in the first place. How easy it can be to slip into
these kinds of sin is illustrated by an extensive discussion of popular superstitious practices. Del Rio
reviews the widespread use of charms and divinatory techniques and weighs their validity or
invalidity, ending with an exhortation to his readers to eschew their use completely.
Book 4 picks up the theme of divination and prophecy, asking what is the difference between
divination and prophecy and how one is to tell the difference between a genuine message from God
and one relayed by the Devil. Del Rio says they have certain aspects in common, but that divination
reveals hidden things from the past as well as from the future and does so as the result of a tacit or
explicit pact between the human agent and an evil spirit. Divination thus depends entirely upon
traffic with evil and is limited in its apparent accuracy, partly because a demon may deceive and
partly because even a demon’s knowledge is limited. Divinatory practices, of which Del Rio
provides many examples, are shot through with blasphemy and idolatry and those used to test a
person’s guilt or innocence, such as swimming a witch, are to be avoided as both insufficient and
blasphemous in as much as on the one hand they are unreliable and on the other they are forbidden
by the Church because one does not tempt God by asking Him to perform a miracle in dubious
circumstances and for somewhat dubious purposes. This discussion of popular purgations brings
Del Rio to Book 5 and the specific case of witchcraft and how it should be dealt with by courts of law.
He is detailed and specific. What kind of a crime is witchcraft, which courts are competent to deal
with it, what is necessary to have a charge of witchcraft brought into court, who may give evidence
and what value can be placed on that evidence, and under what circumstances torture may be used
are only some of the major points he deals with. He also takes into account other considerations: the
possibility that accusers or witnesses could be lying, the difficulties in establishing whether an
accused or a witness has a good or bad reputation, and the weight which should be given to this
point – whether the charges involve heresy or not. Are clerics who are accused and convicted of
practicing magic to be punished the same way as lay folk? Should witches who have not killed
anyone be executed? Should old age in the accused be taken into account when punishment is in
order? In the case of those sentenced to death, can they be given the Holy Sacrament? What should
happen to their corpses? What of those who die in prison before or after sentence has been
pronounced? What happens in the event of an acquittal? On one point, however, Del Rio is decided.
The crimes alleged of witches are not fantasies, so those who raise that possibility are mistaken.
Finally in Book 6 Del Rio turns to the duties of priests faced by the practice of magic by their
parishioners. Confession, both sacramental and legal, and then the questions, first of whether it is
permissible for someone to use counter-magic to alleviate or destroy the effects of hostile magic
directed against her or him and second whether one may ask a magical practitioner to remove or
destroy an object one suspects may be causing effects harmful to oneself or others or whether one
may remove the object oneself, receive detailed consideration. The answer to the former is no, and to
the latter, yes. But the Church herself provides a wide variety of ways with which to counteract and
do away with the effects of hostile magic, and it is to these one should properly turn in the event
of need.
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Thus Del Rio ends his wide-ranging, definitive account of what magic is, what part it plays in human
society, and how it may be dealt with legitimately and effectively. Del Rio spends a great deal of his
time and effort upon “superstition” and what he calls “vain observance,” that is, the performance of
pseudo-religious actions which have no value at all. In this he is at one with his contemporaries, both
Catholic and Protestant, for whom the cluttering of religious worship with verbal and operative
excrescences was one of the main features of their contemporaries’ behavior which needed vigorous
reform. His topics were not new to him, of course. St Thomas Aquinas, for example, had dealt with
this topic earlier, defining superstition as either service to God in a manner which was in some way
incorrect or inappropriate or as service to some false deity expressed in ways which should have
been directed to God alone, and Del Rio repeats this formulation, many of the examples he provides
illustrating one or other of these definitions. Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum, too, had devoted one of
its Books to the technicalities of the court room, although Del Rio goes into more detail, his
discussion being informed partly by his many years’ experience as a jurisconsult in a variety of
different nationalities’ administrations and partly by his extensive knowledge of the relevant legal
literature. But his panoramic approach to the subject is ultimately his own and the skill of his
treatment unmatched by anyone else. Disquisitiones is dedicated to Prince-Archbishop Ernst of
Bavaria, an ardent supporter of the Counter-Reformation, who in the 1580s held several bishoprics
in the northwest of Germany and was active in combatting the spread of Calvinism in the region.
Hence, almost certainly, his attraction for Del Rio. The first edition (1599–1600) is prefaced with
two poems, one (a somewhat perfunctory puff) by Justus Lipsius, recognized in Europe as an
important philologist and historian and a personal friend of Del Rio, the two probably having met
first at Leuven, and the other (a pedestrian attempt at humor) by Heribert Rosweyde. The manuscript
of Disquisitiones must have been completed early in 1598 because the first two Books received the
official approval of Del Rio’s Jesuit superiors on July 6 1598, and this was followed by the censor’s
approval on February 8, 1599. Del Rio’s own dedicatory epistle is dated to the same month, and
publication of that first volume quickly followed. 1599 saw the necessary approvals granted to the
four remaining Books which were published in two more volumes in 1600, all three volumes coming
from the press of Gerard Rivius in Leuven.
Del Rio’s preliminary reading for this major work is impressive, even by the standards of the
scholarship of the time. Apart from references to or quotations from many classical authors, Fathers
of the Church such as St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas, and Medieval theologians and natural
philosophers such as Thomas of Cantimpre, Del Rio made extensive use of contemporary writers
who dealt in some way with magic, and a notably large number of physicians whose views on
witchcraft and its allied phenomena were of increasing importance to theological discussion of the
subject. Andrea Cesalpino, Giovanni Codronchi, Jean Fernel, Giovanni Mercuriale, and Adolf
Scribonius, for example, all contributed to the formation and formulation of Del Rio’s ideas, even
if, as in the case of Scribonius, he disagreed with them. So it is noticeable that when he refers to
magic and witchcraft in his dedicatory epistle, he calls them a disease (pestis) – “I have seen it, been
troubled by it, and, with many people’s approval, have tried to make a medicine for this illness.” Not
that this medical terminology was a cliched metaphor. Rather, Del Rio meant it as an actual
diagnosis. He did not, however, see witchcraft as a product of mental disorder as we might be
tempted to understand it, and he rejected any hint of this from his reading, De praestigiis daemonum
of the Lutheran physician Johann Wier, for example. Rather, he followed where others had gone
before: Giovanni d’Anania, a Calabrian theologian, who maintained that demons can and do cause
human illness, and Heinrich Kramer in Malleus Maleficarum, who had pointed to physical
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infirmities of all kinds – skin disease, blindness, sharp pains, bodily contortions – which demons,
with God’s permission, had both wish and power to inflict. Disease thus served as a metaphor for the
corruption of a person’s soul and as an actual description of its effect upon the body caused by both
heedless and deliberate contact with and use of practices which could and did allow demonic access
to that soul. In both senses, then, disease provided an illustration of how spirit entities could and did
affect the physical world in deleterious ways.
Another group of authors consulted by Del Rio was, not unsurprisingly, given his own past history
and the nature of the subject, writers on the theory and application of the law, both canon and secular.
Del Rio’s acquaintance with their books appears to have been extensive. They include discussions of
the law in general, such as those by Claro, Bossi, Farinacci, Menochio, and Grammatico and those
which dealt specifically with the particular problem of witches. Here many of the writers in question
were known to have had personal experience of witch trials – Paolo Grillando, Nicolas Remy, Jean
Bodin, and Johann Godelman are among the best known names. Some, such as Andreas Alciati and
Gianfrancesco Ponzinibio, had expressed reservations about aspects of witch behavior, a witch’s
flight to the Sabbat and the reality of the Sabbat itself, for example. Del Rio clearly owes much to
these jurisconsults, whether he builds on their propositions, such as Grillando’s careful distinctions
between various kinds of proof, or takes a different view, as when he disagrees with Farinacci about
the extent to which a judge may vary punishments laid down by law. He also makes frequent use of
works by fellow Jesuits. Juan de Maldonado’s lectures on evil spirits had stayed with him,
presumably in the form of notes as well as memory, since the early 1570s, but Peter Binsfeld’s
treatise on the confessions of male workers of harmful magic and witches was more recent (1589), as
was Benito Pereira’s Adversus Fallaces et Superstitiosas Artes (“Against Deceptive and Supersti-
tious Practices”) (1591), both of which actually endorsed certain aspects of magic while casting
doubts on others. Pereira, for example, distinguished between natural and demonic magic, and
Binsfeld was dubious about the so-called Devil’s mark and witches’ ability to change their own
shape. Reports from Jesuit missionaries also gave Del Rio invaluable illustrative and confirmatory
material from remote parts of the world – Luis Froes from the Indies and Japan in 1595 brought him
right up to date – while historians such as Felix Haemmerlin, Olaus Magnus, and Nicholas Sanders
furnished more.
Had Del Rio actually read all these sources? Scholars often tended to reproduce the material they
found quoted by others, thereby providing a ready-made set of references for their literary succes-
sors, but even if one takes this into account, it is clear that Del Rio’s use of his sources was carefully
tailored to the development of his themes and not merely reproduced, relevant or not, from an earlier
work. He is also frequently careful to give exact references, thus letting the reader know exactly
where to turn so that quotations or references can be checked and seen in context. Caveats apart,
therefore, his reputation for extensive learning therefore seems in large measure to be justified. But
Del Rio did not rely entirely upon secondary written sources for his discussions, and every so often
one finds a brief reference to or short anecdote taken from his own experience, as well as material
derived from conversations with others. Thus, he remembers meeting a boy in Madrid in 1575, who
seems to have been acting as a medium for a group of treasure seekers; he tells us of his discussions
with Jean van Helmont on Kabbalah in 1594 and of his hearing, from one of the judges in the case,
the details of the notorious trial of Jean del Vaulx in 1597, a monk who had been accused of
practicing diabolical witchcraft in the Abbey of Stavelot and willingly poured out confessions of his
magical activities. The enormous amount of disparate material which went into making
Disquisitiones raises the questions of Del Rio’s working methods. Without a modern card-index
system, putting that material into comprehensible and useable order must have presented a chal-
lenge. One is reminded of Pliny the Elder who single-handedly wrote an encyclopedia of the natural
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world in the first century AD. He certainly had notebooks of some kind and arranged his references
and quotations therein in such a way that he could draw upon them with relative ease when writing
each book of his magnum opus. Presumably Del Rio had some similar system, for Disquisitiones is
not a rambling or vagrant work, but one which is under the tight control of its author, and therefore,
its readers find it clear and easy to follow.
The structure of Disquisitiones and the arrangement of its material thus bear marks of an
individual approach rather than any working to a formula. Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum, of
course, could have provided a major pattern for any subsequent writer on witchcraft and magic,
such as Del Rio, to follow. It is divided into three parts, the first addressed to theologians, the second
to preachers, and the third to judges. But for the most part, it deals with witchcraft and witches, so its
range is considerably less than that of Disquisitiones, although its acceptance of the reality of
witchcraft as a threat to the spiritual welfare of humanity, its alliance of witchcraft with heresy, and
its provision of detailed consideration of the legal means of eradicating magical practitioners are, in
general terms, similar to Del Rio’s later views. Del Rio, however, is a good deal more subtle than
Kramer, partly because he was more learned and partly because the spacious reading which
contributed to his scholarship assisted him to make more nuanced judgements of the multifarious
problems he was discussing. Malleus thus offered Del Rio an entry into the subject, if he needed one,
and a large amount of illustrative material which he certainly used. But he did not use Kramer’s work
as a blueprint and structured his panoramic view of magic and allied subjects along different lines.
Malleus was not a manual in itself, but rather three extensive essays on witchcraft addressed to three
allied but separate groups of officials. Disquisitiones is arranged according to topic rather than
intended audience and its final addresses (Books 5 and 6) to judges and confessors segue naturally
from Del Rio’s previous wide-ranging, theologically based surveys of magic as a whole, to form a
logical coda to what was clearly conceived as a single work of definition and disputation.
Impact and Legacy

Del Rio’s book arrived just at a point where prosecution of witches in Europe, and in parts of
Germany in particular, had almost reached its height and, as was perhaps inevitable, was beginning
to produce a reaction. Learned debate centered upon the University of Ingolstadt which in 1590 had
issued an official opinion on the best way to suppress witchcraft while avoiding any possible errors
in so doing. Ten years later, in April 1601, the university was invited to consider the question again,
and this time the debate lasted for more than 3 years, ranged more widely, and took opinions from a
variety of institutions and individuals, including the universities of Dillingen (largely a Jesuit
institution), Freiburg, Padua, and Bologna, and prosecuting territories such as Lorraine, Mainz,
Trier, Koln, and Baden. Del Rio, as might be expected now that he had become the latest and most
impressive published commentator on the subject, and Nicolas Remy whose personal experience as
a judge in witchcraft cases was extensive were also asked to contribute, and in subsequent editions of
Disquisitiones, Del Rio included an account of the arguments he and others had offered. These
renewed academic efforts to reconcile varying opinions from both legal and theological standpoints
had an immediate and a long-term impact, for from them developed an increasingly strong
opposition to the wholesale prosecution of witches, although Del Rio’s views remained stern, rooted
in his firm conviction that witchcraft was a real phenomenon and therefore to be resisted with all the
force at the state’s and Church’s command.
The later editions of his work give an indication of its popularity and influence. There were 25 of
them altogether, 4 of which, apart from the original, he was able to revise and expand himself. The
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rest appeared at frequent intervals throughout the seventeenth century, the last coming from Koln in
1755. It largely replaced Kramer’s Malleus as the standard work of reference. Indeed, as early as
1600 it seems to have lain on the desk of the judges who were conducting a witch trial in Bavaria.
Benedict Carpzov whose Practica Nova Rerum Criminalium (1635) became the standard work of
criminal law throughout much of the Holy Roman Empire made use of Del Rio’s arguments in
relation to the prosecution and punishment of witches; Calvinist Scotland deferred to him in 1672
and 1678 as a prime source of information, while in a major witch trial in Edinburgh in 1697, the
defense advocate employed him to support his pleas for the defendant; and Johann Heinrich Zedler’s
68 volume encyclopedia (1731–1754) still regarded him as a weighty figure in the field of occult
studies. Nevertheless, as witchcraft trials gradually disappeared from Europe, so too did the need for
and interest in their proponents and opponents, and so Del Rio’s work and reputation faded, too.
Disquisitiones has remained obscure ever since, while Kramer’s Malleus has been revived and has
acquired fresh notoriety. This is partly because of the comparative lengths of the two works. Malleus
is no longer than the average monograph, whereas Disquisitiones, because of its much broader
canvas, presents a more unwieldy challenge to publishers. Malleus is also a much more sensational
work. Its many anecdotes and forthright hostility to witches lend themselves to misapprehension as
well as enlightenment about this aspect of the past, and the longevity of the Montagu Summers
English translation has allowed Kramer’s work a second life, even if that life has been fraught with
dislike and disapprobation. Locked in Latin in an increasingly Latinless age, Del Rio’s much better,
much more subtle, much better argued, and much more engaging opus has thus largely escaped the
admiration and opprobrium which, it may be thought, are both its due.
References
Primary Literature
Bacigalupe MAE (2003) Die Chronik uber Don Juan de Austria. Oldenbourg, Munich
Maxwell-Stuart PG (2000) Investigations into magic. Manchester University Press, Manchester,
highly abbreviated version
Baroja JC (1968) Martin del Rio y sus Disquisiciones magicas. In: Baroja JC (ed) El senor Inquisidor
y otras vidas per oficio. Alanza, Madrid, pp 171–196, 37–45
Dell’Anna G (1978) L’interpretazione della stregoneria in Vanini e Del Rio‘. Boll Storia Filos
6:79–118
Fischer E (1975) Die Disquisitionum Magicarum Libri Sex von Martin Delrio als gegenreforma-
torische Exempel-Quelle. Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universitat, Hannover
Machielsen J (2011a) Thinking with Montaigne: evidence, scepticism and meaning in early modern
demonology’. Fr Hist 25:427–452
Machielsen J (2011) Demons and letters: aspects of the life and works of Martin Delro, 1551–1608.
Oxford D.Phil thesis
Nagel P (1995) Die Bedeutung der Disquisitionum Magicarum Libri Sex von Martin Delrio fur das
Verfahren in Hexenprozessen. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main
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Schnyder A (1992) Der Malleus Maleficarum. Fragen und Beobachtungen zu seiner

Druckgeschichte sowie zur Rezeption bei Bodin, Binsfeld und Delrio. Arch Kulturgesch
74:323–364
Shumaker W (1989) Martin Delrio, disquisitionum magicarum libri sex. In: Natural magic and
modern science, four treatises, 1590–1657, Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies,
State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, pp 71–93
Thomas W (1998) Martin Delrio and Justus Lipsius. Bull Inst Hist Belge Rome LXVIII:45–66
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Rubio, Antonio
Born: 1548 (La Roda)
Died: 8 March 1615 (Alcalá)
Victor M. Salas*
Abstract
Antonio Rubio, S.J., was a Jesuit philosopher who lived during Spain’s second scholasticism
(1548–1615). A native of La Roda, Rubio, while still only a novice, was sent to the New World
together with a number of other Jesuit missionaries. After his final religious profession and
ordination to the priesthood, Rubio remained in Mexico where he taught both philosophy and
theology. His Logica Mexicana bears the name of his adopted homeland and became a quick success
among various Jesuit colleges where it was adopted as an official text. Eventually Rubio returned to
Spain to assume administrative responsibilities within the Society of Jesus. He died in Alcalá
in 1615.
Biography
Antonio Rubio (Ruvius), S.J. (Born: 1548 (La Roda) to Died: 8 March 1615(Alcalá)), lived during
the Golden Era of Baroque Scholasticism that flourished throughout the Iberian Peninsula and its
provinces in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His early studies began at the University of
Alcalá, where, upon the third year of his philosophical studies, he eventually entered the Society of
Jesus on 18 April 1569, aged 21 years (de Gyvés et al. 1945, p. 5; Romero 1988, p. 10). His
education was centered upon the Thomism of the Baroque period, as was to be expected given
Ignatius of Loyola’s determination that in theology Thomas Aquinas would be normative just as in
philosophy Aristotle would be followed. At this point, the influence of Francisco Suárez
(1548–1617), Rubio’s contemporary, was not yet established among Jesuit scholastics, and so
scholasticism’s Doctor Eximius exercised little influence over Rubio (de Gyvés et al. 1945, p. 8).
After having finished his novitiate, Rubio took his simple vows on 1 May 1571. In 1574, while
still studying for the priesthood, Rubio’s superiors sent him to Mexico to hold a chair in philosophy
(Laurenti 1997, p. 201). Rubio, along with two other Jesuits, Pedro de Hortigosa and Pedro de
Morales, arrived in Mexico sometime in September of 1576 (Romero 1988, p. 11), and there Rubio’s
career and religious life would unfold. Rubio made his religious profession in 1587 (de Gyvés
et al. 1945, p. 5) and remained in Mexico and served as a professor for many years, first teaching
philosophy and then theology. One of his most famous and successful works bears the name of his
adopted home: the Logica Mexicana. A short commentary on Aristotle’s logic, the Logica Mexicana
found quick favor at the University of Alcalá and was adopted in 1610 as an official text (de Gyvés
et al. 1945, p. 6). Given that Rubio, together with Francisco de Toledo and the Conimbricenses, is
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one of the few Jesuits René Descartes mentions having studied at La Flèche, it seems likely that
Rubio’s text enjoyed a good reputation beyond Spain.
The Logica Mexicana features a distinct treatise on analogy, the Tractatus de Nominum Analogia.
Not surprisingly, this text considers Cajetan’s own famous work of the same name, but Rubio’s
teaching on the subject differs in fundamental ways from that of Cajetan. Rubio, for instance, rejects
Cajetan’s claim that all analogies of attribution are extrinsic and that proper proportionality alone
pertains to intrinsic perfections (Ashworth 1999, pp. 52–53). Whereas Cajetan’s preoccupation was
with the semantic conditions for the possibility of analogy, Rubio is much more concerned with
identifying the relationship between semantics and ontology (Ashworth 1999, p. 53). Against
Cajetan, but in agreement with Suárez, Rubio accords primacy to an analogy of attribution over
that of proper proportionality. But, standing against Suárez and allying himself more closely to the
Thomist position, Rubio rejects the claim that the concept of being enjoys an absolute simplicity.
Instead, Rubio argues that the concept of being is distinct as it applies to God and as it applied to
creatures (Ashworth 1999, p. 58).
In his philosophical anthropology, Rubio was largely content to follow the Aristotelian position as
interpreted by Thomas Aquinas. Nevertheless, he did depart from Thomas in certain areas. For
example, in addressing the question whether or not the vegetative soul is “formally” included in both
the sensitive and rational souls, Rubio holds an opinion attributed to the “Recentiores” in opposition
to Thomas, who had himself held that the rational soul “virtually” contains sensitive and vegetative
souls (Summa theologiae I, q. 76, a. 3). Rubio argues that the rational soul “formally” contains both
the sensitive and vegetative souls, which is to say that while man is sensitive and alive essentially, he
is not so characterized specifically. Yet, man cannot be sentient and alive without the actualization
and determination of some form, which is the rational soul, the only form man possesses. But since
the form operates within the order of formal causality, man’s sentience and vegetative powers are the
formal effects of the rational soul which acts within the order of formal causality (de Gyvés
et al. 1945, pp. 15–16).
In 1599 Rubio returned to Spain to publish his works and assume administrative responsibilities
within the Society of Jesus. He remained active for another 15 years or so, teaching both philosophy
and theology at the University of Complutense as well as composing various works on Aristotelian
philosophy. Rubio eventually died at Alcalá on 8 March 1615 (Laurenti 1997, pp. 201–202).
References
Primary Literature
Rubio A (1605a) Poeticarum institutionum liber. Mexico
Rubio A (1605b) Logica Mexicana sive Commentarii in Universam Aristotelis Logicam. Cologne
Rubio A (1605c) Commentarii in octo libros Aristotelis de Physico auditu. Madrid. (Valencia, 1610;
Cologne, 1616)
Rubio A (1607a) Breviores Commentarii in Universam Aristotelis Logicam, Logica mexicana.
Valencia. (Cologne, 1609, 1615; Lyon 1617, 1625)
Rubio A (1607b) In compendium quasi contracti. Valencia
Rubio A (1610) Commentarii in libros de Ortu et Interitu seu de generatione et corruption rerum
naturalium. Cologne
Rubio A (1616) Commentarii in libros Aristotelis de Coelo et Mundo. Cologne
Rubio A (1613/1621) Commentarii in libros de Anima. Cologne
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Ashworth EJ (1999) Antonius Rubius on objective being and analogy: one of the routes from early
fourteenth-century discussions to Descartes’s third meditation. In: Brown S (ed) Meeting of the
minds: the relations between medieval and classical modern European philosophy. Brepols,
Turnhout, pp 43–62
Beuchot M (1991) Los tópicos dialógicos en la Logica Mexicana (1605) de Antonio Rubio.
Philosophica 14:109–118
de Gyvés F, Camilo El P, Antonio R (1945) S.J. Sus Comentarios a los libros De Anima de
Aristóteles. Ábside, Mexico
Laurenti JL (1997) Estudios bibliográficos sobre la Edad de Oro (1474–1699): fondos raros
españoles en la Universidad de Illinois y otras bibliotecas norteamericanas. Fondos raros,
Guadalajara Aache
Laurenti JL (1985) Antonio Rubio, S.J. (1548–1615): Obras Localizadas. Anu Let 23:299–319
Quiles I (1984) Lógica y ciencia en la Logica mexicana de Rubio. Quipú Rev latinoam Hist Cienc
Tecnol 1:55–82
Romero IO (1988) Antonio Rubio en la filosofía novohispana. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México, Mexico City
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Sánchez, Francisco
Born: 1551 Tuy
Died: 1623 Toulouse
Manuel Bermúdez Vázquez*

Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, University of Cordoba, Córdoba,
Spain
Abstract
Francisco Sánchez (1551–1623) was a physician, philosopher, and author of Quod nihil scitur (That
Nothing Is Known in its most accepted translation). He was an original thinker and also a predecessor
of Descartes. The use of the methodical doubt by the French comes directly from Sánchez. He also
coined the term methodus sciendi (scientific method), a half-century before it was popularized by
Francis Bacon. It is a term that will largely determined the philosophical paths of the history of
thought from the seventeenth century onwards. Francisco Sánchez and his philosophical writings
are much more important and original than previously acknowledged. Despite his writings and his
work as a doctor or as singular philosopher and interpreter of skepticism, the question of his
biographical analysis distracted the attention of most scholars. Sanchez’s biography, although
important, is not essential in the analysis of the intellectual or philosophical composition of his
books. More important to our understanding of Sánchez as a philosopher are the aspects of his
scientific or epistemological critiques as well as his use of skepticism that made him an evolutionary
step in the development of skepticism in the Renaissance and in the history of philosophy.
Biography
Francisco Sánchez was born in Tuy, in the region of Galicia (Spain), in 1551, to a family of convert
Jews. Although originally given as 1550, baptism records indicate that Sánchez was baptized on
June 25, 1551 in San Juan Church in Braga. It is therefore thought that Sánchez was born in 1551
rather than 1550, since many scholars consider unlikely such a lengthy delay between his birth and
baptism.
The original homeland of Sánchez is also unclear. Many Lusitanian intellectuals and researchers
have argued that Sánchez was actually Portuguese or, at least, should be considered Portuguese
based on some data and documents about his birth. Raimundo Delassus, Sánchez’s disciple, thought
that his master was Portuguese because he was baptized in the diocese of Braga. Nevertheless,
documentary evidence clearly indicates that Sánchez was born in Tuy, which, despite being under
the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the diocese of Braga at that time, is in Galicia. Sánchez himself
declared his Spanish origin by signing with his own hand in the enrollment document of entry to the
Faculty of Medicine of the University of Montpellier: “Ego, Franciscus Sanctius, hispanus, natus in
civitate Tudensi.”
*Email: manuel.bermudez@uco.es
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The conclusion to which we inevitably arrive is that Francisco Sánchez was born in Tuy, Spain,
and was baptized in the diocese of Braga, Portugal. He received the sacrament of the baptism in
Valença do Minho, a town across the Minho River (and the modern border between Spain and
Portugal) from Tuy where Sánchez’s family used to have friends and relatives.
Aside from the author’s place of the birth, for most of his life, Sánchez lived in France and, to a
lesser extent, Italy. On the other hand, it is necessary to point out that Sánchez was conscious of his
Hispanic origin, which is not an impediment to play down the relevance that in an author such as
Sanchez his origin may have.
Around 1562, Sánchez emigrated to Bordeaux with his family, where he attended the renowned
college of Guyenne. Before this date and his departure to France, his life and academic preparation
are obscure. Bordeaux was, in those years, a city which hosted a wide range of Jewish people and
was a city known for its tolerance as well as being full of open-minded, liberal people. The college of
Guyenne was an organization sponsored by people from the Jewish community and newly
converted Christians; we cannot suppose that they kept any sort of activity related to the so-called
Judaic Spirit (among the features that define the “Jewish spirit” in the sixteenth century, there would
be tendency to be reserved, a somewhat suspicious attitude, absent of patriotism, and a detachment
from Christian customs). It seems that Francisco Sánchez’s father, Antonio Sánchez, either
converted to Christianity or was descended from Jewish converts. Curiously, Antonio Sánchez’s
brother-in-law, Antonio López, was the brother-in-law of Montaigne’s father; thus, Sánchez and
Montaigne, two of the biggest exponents of the skepticism in the Renaissance, were related.
Sánchez’s journey to Bordeaux was probably motivated by anti-Jewish persecution in Spain and
Portugal. The Sánchez family was no longer Jewish, but in this period, many converted Jews were
considered “false Christians,” and the society pressure could become stifling. It is unclear how much
Francisco Sánchez was influenced by Judaism, if at all, and this question seems very difficult to
establish.
Religious beliefs cannot be perceived easily; they belong to the deepest intimacy and the character
of every person. In a period like this, marked by intolerance, people hid their rites as a necessity
imposed by law. This was especially true for people like Sánchez, whose ancestors linked him
directly with the Jewish people. On the one hand, we have a number of details that connected
Sánchez with Judaism or Crypto-Judaism, which was extensive in scale around the whole of Europe
in the sixteenth century. On the other hand, in his public life, Sánchez never showed any sign that
could cast doubt on the sincerity of his Catholic faith. Nothing in his works could make us doubt his
adherence to Catholicism. In addition, it is significant to point out that two of his sons dedicated their
lives to the priesthood.
The atmosphere of the college of Guyenne where Sánchez had studied during his stay in
Bordeaux was quite peculiar. His professors were likely demanding and possibly even quite
intransigent in the application of the most rigorous methods of the philological humanism. This
first training was of paramount importance to Sanchez’s intellectual maturation. The college of
Guyenne worshipped both classical antiquity and an approximation to investigation free of preju-
dices, attempting to distance Sánchez’s and his classmates to any kind of scientific dogmatism. It
was in this early period of the author’s formation when an emergent interest about the study of nature
was planted in his mind and would later approve to have significant influence on his work.
After his father’s and uncle’s death in Bordeaux in 1570, Sánchez went to Rome in 1571, where he
had some relatives and where he remained until 1573. It was in Rome, at Università di “La
Sapienza,” where he obtained his doctorate degree in philosophy. His training as a doctor and
philosopher had here a deciding momentum. The studies of medicine were being completely
renewed in Italy thanks to the great progress in anatomy and physiology. Galenic medicine, which
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had been reinforced with Arabic advances in medicine, was, up to the Renaissance, a practically
sacred school and covered much more than medical issues; it was also a real conception of the world,
the nature, and the human being. However, when Galenism went into crisis in that period, Sánchez
showed one of the strongest characteristics of his character: the opposition to any sort of authority
and tradition that moved away from empiricism in natural issues including in medical ones. The only
effective authority which Sánchez recognized was the one of the nature, against the authority of the
masters of the past.
In Rome, Sánchez initiated contact with the most important intellectual circles from the period
and met Cristóbal Clavio, who was a celebrated mathematician; they became very close friends.
Sánchez, probably, alternated between studies of philosophy and medicine. While in Rome, he also
met his old childhood friend from Tuy, Diego de Castro, who took part in the Battle of Lepanto.
Sanchez’s works, Carmen de cometa and Quod nihil scitur, were dedicated to him.
Sánchez returned to France in 1573 and he registered at the Université de Montpellier, whose
fame as a school of medicine was recognized throughout Europe. The atmosphere in this city was
not as tolerant as Bordeaux. Huguenots controlled the city and were hostile to the Catholic minority.
Nevertheless, Sánchez managed to become a doctor in medicine on June 4, 1574. Sánchez was
forced to leave Montpellier following the rejection by the university hierarchy of Sánchez’s
application to one of the chairs of the Medicine faculty. Part of the critics considered that in the
decision to reject Sánchez’s application influenced enormously the fact that he was not only Catholic
but also suspicious of having Hebrew ancestries. Moreover, the atmosphere of intransigence in
Montpellier was not suited to Sánchez’s antiauthoritarian temperament.
It was after his failure at Montpellier that Sánchez went to Toulouse, where he spent the rest of his
life working as a professor at the Universitè de Toulouse. In was in Toulouse where he obtained
fame, fortune, and admiration.
During the first years of his stay in Toulouse, Sánchez wrote part of his philosophical work. At the
same time his thought was beginning to take shape and develop in the sense that it marked all his life.
It was in January of 1581, the same year Quod nihil scitur appeared, that he started to work in the
hospital of Santiago, in Toulouse. In 1585, thanks to his work and his personal value, he was
designated Professor of Philosophy in the Arts Faculty at the Universitè de Toulouse. In 1610, after a
brilliant examination, Sánchez finally achieved the position of Professor of Medicine. He maintained
the position until his death, November 15, 1623.

A feature that should be discussed regarding Sanchez’s philosophical stance is the influence of
Jewish culture in his work. In order to analyze this hypothetical Jewish legacy, one of the elements
that stands out is that the Laus deo virginique Mariae which appeared at the end of most of his works
and writings is not included in two of the most important ones: Quod nihil scitur and Carmen de
cometa.
It is clear that an issue like that cannot be trivial, because the praise to Virgin Mary had his
importance and it was included in a great part of the works of his time. Quod nihil scitur appeared in
Lyon in 1581 but, according to the author himself, was written 7 years before. Carmen de cometa
was written in 1578. Both books were early works from a period in which Sánchez might have kept
the influence of his father, Antonio Sánchez, and his uncle, Adán Francisco. The absence of the
praise to the Virgin could be due to a close proximity to the beliefs that were abandoned by his family
not many generations before. Nevertheless, Sánchez’s real religious beliefs, in those early years of
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his philosophical maturation, cannot be known with total certainty. Furthermore, the personal
development of the author once he was accepted in the Toulouse community, having gained prestige
among the citizens, led him to a stronger assimilation with Catholicism, a belief by which he was
forced to leave Montpellier.
It seems that the philosophical Jewish tradition left his mark in some elements of Sánchez’s
thought, especially in his first works. There are some questions, for example, the critic to the analysis
of names as the base of the philosophical investigation. One of Sánchez’s accusations was that the
whole history of philosophy could be summarized in a vacuous crossroad of words. Instead of
occupying their time in the direct investigation of the nature, most philosophers had decided to waste
their time being worried only about words, erecting a huge building of concepts that constituted the
fabric of a fictitious unreal world external to nature. Sánchez accused Aristotle of being the first one
who confused nature with words because he based all his philosophical theory in the definitions of
words. Here appeared another coincidence with the Jewish world: the philosophical Sephardic
tradition did not recognize the link between nature and language. Language was based on conven-
tion, not on nature; it is because of that that the meaning of the words did not reflect the real nature of
things. In the same way, Francisco Sánchez denied the ability of words to reflect the real nature of
things, due to the fact that the different languages are arbitrary and the fruit of convention. Words
that formed the language cannot constitute a reliable source of information about the true and last
essence of the object that they mention.
The influence of Judaism is more than probable. Almost certainly, Sánchez drank from the source
of Jewish philosophy in which he was born and developed himself as a thinker. Jewish thought had a
place in Sánchez’s work in the sense that its ideas were used in the negation of the possibility of
knowledge, which was Sánchez’s goal. On the other hand, it is necessary to avoid exaggerations or
dogmatic assertions. Jewish thought, however it was present in his work, was not a crucial element in
his philosophy because of the innovative and radically new character of his books and because of
Sánchez’s philosophical orientation, which was, on the one hand, markedly scientific and, on the
other hand, a different study of nature.
Philosophical Works
Francisco Sánchez wrote two philosophical books: Carmen de cometa in 1578 and Quod nihil scitur
in 1581 (written 7 years before according to Sánchez’s testimony), both edited in Lyon. The
importance of the latter is greater than any of Sanchez’s other works. Quod nihil scitur was a
preface, a statement of intent to introduce his philosophy. In this book there were several promises of
others books which would complete his philosophical vision.
The importance of this book increases when we acknowledge that it offers a new way of
understanding science and knowledge. Sánchez was the first philosopher who proposed and spoke
about a methodus sciendi (method of science) years before Francis Bacon wrote his Novum
Organum (a work that was in the same direction and had an equal pursuit to that of Quod nihil
scitur, but enjoyed much more success). This fact itself should have placed Sánchez in a more
prominent position in the history of philosophy.
After Sánchez’s death, his sons and his disciple, Delassus, published his other works of philo-
sophical themes: De longitudine et brevitate vitae liber, In librum Aristotelis Physiognomicon
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commentarius, and De divinatione per somnum, ad Aristotelem, all published in Toulouse in 1636
under the title Opera medica, – a great work that included Sánchez’s medical and philosophical
treatises. All philosophical books written by Sánchez, excluding the medical treatises, appeared in
1649 in Rotterdam in an edition entitled Quod nihil scitur. In order to have a complete panorama of
Sanchez’s philosophical works, a letter found in 1940 entitled Epistula ad C. Clavium, addressed to
his friend Cristóbal Clavio and signed with the false name of Carnéades, must be included. Other
philosophical books which were promised but were never produced include: Examen rerum, De
anima, Libri Naturae, and De modo sciendi or Methodus sciendi, the last of which was destined to be
the most important of all had it been written. Sánchez promised to include his theory about science
and knowledge in this book, but he never wrote it.
Thus, we can say that Sanchez’s most important book was Quod nihil scitur. It showed the
philosophical stance of the author and it deserves an important position in the history of thought.

A book such as Quod nihil scitur has countless problems and references, which are challenges not
only for readers but even, it seems, for Sánchez. There is a wide range of philosophical questioning.
Thus, there are intrinsic limitations in the analysis of Sánchez’s work.
Before starting to enquire whether it is possible for a human being to achieve any sort of
knowledge, Sánchez claimed that it was necessary to create a tabula rasa ridding the concepts
learned during the futile and tedious scholastic iter. This critical “cleaning process” of the spirit,
which consisted of “questioning everything as if no one had ever said anything” (as Sánchez wrote in
Quod nihil scitur), presented some analogies with the methodical doubt which was later the basis of
Descartes’ speculation in Discourse on the Method. For Sánchez, however, doubt, even having a
radical scope, is considered and analyzed exclusively in relation with science and wisdom.
In his battle in favor of doubt and against the unconditional acceptation of the authority’s opinion,
Sánchez chose the question as the prime ally. Questions are shown as the best weapon to fight against
the language of his contemporary peripatetic philosophers. Questions are absolutely superior to
whatever kind of articulation of thesis and synthesis, due to their natural ability to instill doubt in the
listener. The fact is that asking ourselves “who can say something is true of all that was, is, or will
be?” presents a superior range when compared to the simple negation of whatever certain fact related
to the past, the present, or the future. And this is so because it places the individual in the face of
variae hominum opiniones and involves at the same time the scientific nature (or according to
Sánchez, no scientific nature), and it goes further, leading to a critical reflection about itself.
Sánchez turned back at his own past and confirmed that what he thought was “science” was
nothing else but simple ignorance. He had no more choices, but claiming that “I don’t even know
this: I know nothing. I suspect, however, that neither I nor the others.” In spite of the patent self-
contradiction, of which Sánchez is completely aware, this formula is the fundamental idea in the
Quod Nihil Scitur. This formula already announces the abandonment of Pyrrhonism and the
approximation to the negative dogmatism of Plato’s Academy under the stewardship of Arcesilas
and Carneades (which is, probably, what is best suited to Sánchez’s philosophical stance). Never-
theless, Sánchez did not hesitate to use arguments taken from Pyrrho. The fact that there are
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Pyrrhonian and academic elements intertwined may lead some to think of some sort of Sanchecian
eclecticism, but the truth is Sánchez’s lack of clarity and his overall strategy to destroy the wisdom of
his time made him to turn to any theory or concept which could help him in his purpose.
Among the several doctrines that Sánchez used, the one which had more scope in Quod Nihil
Scitur was the negative dogmatism which opened and closed the work and was even present in the
title itself. Sánchez claimed that we cannot know anything with certainty, although it is possible to
continue with the tireless search of the truth in spite of the difficulty of achieving any goal. That is
not an obstacle for Sánchez to say that he is confident to establish a certain and easy science. This
stance is far from Pyrrhonism, and closer to the academic skepticism, that showed the impossibility
of the perfect knowledge and admitted a plausible knowledge that approaches to certainty.
On the aim of the book which constituted the pars construens of Sánchez’s thought, that is, to find
what was the “methodus sciendi,” there is no more than the promise. It is easy to collect what it is that
Sánchez understood by method of knowledge by taking what he claimed several times in his book: if
a human being wants to know something, compatible with his abilities, it is necessary to carry out a
conversion. This conversion required the thinker to abandon the previous conception of knowledge
where truth was in the words of the great philosophers of the past and replace it with a personal and
free inquiry of reality. On one hand, the examination of reality is likely Sánchez’s main goal. On the
other hand, however, it is absolutely impossible to reconstruct, except in broad terms, what Sánchez
understood as his method. The method he proposed was based on experimentation and judgment
and was barely developed. In fact, how can we even try to study the reality after the radical
demolition of any possibility of knowledge? For Sánchez, the only thing that can be claimed is
that this demolition should be made in the mind of the scientists, the professors, and the teachers.
Impact and Legacy

Being very interested in science, Sánchez started to use the concept of scientific method long before
this idea was taken into account in the intellectual circles. His work was partially silenced by the
vicissitudes of history that any text has to suffer; furthermore, it was not as successful as it could
have been due to the fact that it was written in Latin. Menéndez Pelayo said that Sánchez was more
quoted than read, which is a sad assessment for an author as original and provoking as him.
Skepticism marks the evolution of the scientific model. Modern science is the heir to the recovery
of skepticism in the Renaissance due to its necessity of providing acceptable reasons to the critiques
that were made to reason, understanding, and perception through skepticism. After all, doubt and the
ability to question, typical features of human beings, are inserted in the deepest part of the
personality of each individual. We cannot allow this ability to rule over us due to the high risk of
being mentally inactive, as we can see in the Buridan’s donkey example – a donkey being tied at the
same distance from a container full of water and another one full of food; as it didn’t feel much
starving than thirsty, it did not eat or drink anything and, finally, it died.
It is not an insignificant fact that Sánchez published in 1581 a book with a remarkable skeptical
tendency. It is not that Sánchez, out of the blue, wanted to use skeptical tropes and arguments of the
academic skepticism. It needed a long process of assimilation, as well as the appearance of a new
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generation of thinkers willing to use these techniques in their critiques. Other thinkers who were in
touch with the skepticism in the sixteenth century, such as Gianfrancesco Pico or Cornelius Agrippa,
adopted a fideistic attitude by placing faith and revelation before any other possibility of knowledge.
This critique was integrated within the religious framework; Sánchez’s critique was more focused in
the aim of obtaining a general vision of the reality of the epistemic possibilities and its reflection was
guided towards the investigation of a methodus sciendi.
Cross-References
▶ Scepticism
▶ Sánchez, Francisco
▶ de Montaigne, Michel
References
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filosofia, vol VII. Vallardi, Milan, pp 228–250
Bermúdez M (2006) La recuperación del escepticismo en el Renacimiento como propedéutica de la
filosofía de Francisco Sánchez. Madrid, Fundación Universitaria Española
Bermúdez M (2007) Elementos de la filosofía de Maimónides en el Quod nihil scitur de Francisco
Sánchez. In: Maimónides y el pensamiento medieval. Córdoba, Servicio de Publicaciones de la
Universidad de Córdoba, pp 141–148
Bermúdez M (2008) Intuiciones de criptojudaísmo en el Quod nihil scitur de Francisco Sánchez.
Contrastes Rev Int Filos XIII:285–294
Bermúdez M (2010a) Escepticismo y medicina: la Opera medica de Francisco Sánchez. In: El
pensamiento político en la Edad Media. Fundación Ramón Areces, Madrid, pp 297–308
Bermúdez M (2010b) La influencia del pensamiento judeo-cristiano en Michel de Montaigne,
Giordano Bruno y Francisco Sánchez. Ámbitos Rev Estud Cienc Sociales Humanidades, El
pensamiento político en la Edad Media. Fundación Ramón Areces, Madrid, 23:19–35
Bermúdez M (2010c) La relación de Francisco Sánchez con dos importantes representantes del
antiaristotelismo renacentista: Juan Luis Vives y Gianfrancesco Pico Della Mirandola. Contrastes
Rev Int Filos, El pensamiento político en la Edad Media. Fundación Ramón Areces, Madrid,
XV:65–83
Bermúdez M (2014) La fuerza de la duda: Francisco Sánchez el escéptico. Madrid, Dionysianum
Cazac HP (1903a) Le lieu d’origin et les dates de naissance et de mort du philosophe Francisco
Sánchez. Bull Hispanique V:327–348
Cazac HP (1903) L’espagnol Francisco Sánchez dit le Sceptique. Bull Com Trav Hist 4:177–199
Cobos J (1983) Deux facettes du scepticisme á la Renaissance: Montaigne et Sánchez. Philosophie
9:29–43
de Carvalho J (1955) Francisco Sanches: Opera philosophica. Coimbra, Ed. da Universidade de
Coimbra
Delassus R (1636) De officio Medici sive de vita clarisssimi viri domini Francisci Sanchez.
Toulouse, Tolosae Tectosagum
Faur J (1992) In the shadow of history. New York, State University of New York Press
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Iriarte J (1935) Kartesischer oder Sanchezischer Zweifel? Ein kritischer und philosophischer
Vergleich zwischen dem Kartesischen “Discourse de la Méthode” und dem Sanchezischen
“Quod Nihil Scitur. Bottrop, Editrice Pontificia Università Gregoriana
Iriarte J (1940) Francisco Sánchez, el escéptico, disfrazado de Carnéades. Gregorianum, 21:413–451
Limbrick E (1988) Francisco Sanches: that nothing is known. Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press
Mellizo C (1982) Nueva introducción a Francisco Sánchez “el escéptico”. Zamora, Montecasino
Miccolis S (1965) Francesco Sanchez. Bari, Tipografia Levante
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Moreira de Sá A, de Carvalho J, Miccolis S (1948) Francisco Sanches. Lisboa, Ediçoes SNI
Popkin R (2003) The history of scepticism from Savonarola to Bayle. Oxford, Oxford University
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Romao R (2003) Quid? Estudos sobre Francisco Sanches. Porto, Campo das Letras
Schmitt ChB (1981) Studies in Renaissance philosophy and science. London, Variorum reprints
Strowski F (1931) Montaigne. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France
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Complutense
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Sepúlveda, Juan Ginés de

Born: 1490, Pozoblanco
Died: 1573, Pozoblanco
Alejandro Coroleu*
Faculty of Arts, Department: Catalan Language, Building B, Campus UAB, ICREA-Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Abstract
Though mainly known today for his polemical writings against Bartolomé de las Casas in defense of
the Spanish conquest of America and for his views on natural slavery, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda was
one of the most distinguished representatives of sixteenth-century Spanish humanism, ranking
alongside Juan Luis Vives and Antonio Agustín. Not only did he write a vast quantity of works
on history, law, politics, and chronology; he also produced important Latin translations of Aristotle
and Aristotle’s third-century AD Greek commentator, Alexander of Aphrodisias. As a translator of,
and commentator on, both philosophers, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda is a notable example of the
intellectual richness and depth of Renaissance Aristotelianism. Although a student of the scholastic
Pietro Pomponazzi, Sepúlveda learned to be sensitive to the humanistic concern for Aristotle
promoted by Alberto Pio and put into practice by many scholars in this period. Unlike his teacher,
Sepúlveda had an excellent command of Greek and was well acquainted with the techniques of the
humanists. In his role as a commentator on, and translator of, Greek philosophical writings, we see
exemplified many of the key features which characterized fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Aristo-
telianism at its best.
Biography
Born in southern Spain, Sepúlveda studied Greek and philosophy at the University of Alcalá.
Inaugurated in 1498 by Cardinal Archbishop Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, the University of
Alcalá applied the program of humanism to its curriculum and to the study of Scripture, even if
conservative positions within it ultimately prevailed. As early as 1508, Jiménez himself initiated a
great project of biblical scholarship which resulted in the printing between 1514 and 1517 (even
though they were not actually published until 1522) of the six volumes of the renowned
Complutensian Polyglot Bible (thus called from Complutum, the Latin name of Alcalá de Henares).
The foundation of the University had, moreover, its roots in Jiménez’s desire for religious reform.
The institution became a center for ecclesiastical education, and among its professors and students
were the first enthusiastic supporters of Erasmus in Spain.
Having received his first orders in 1515, Sepúlveda was recommended by Cisneros for the
Spanish College of Bologna, where he studied under the Pietro Pomponazzi until he received his
doctorate in 1523. It was at Bologna that Sepúlveda met Giulio de’ Medici, the future Pope Clement
VII, who encouraged him to begin translating Aristotle’s Meteorology, Parva Naturalia,
De generatione et corruptione, and the Pseudo-Aristotelian De mundo, a task which he continued
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afterwards when he joined the papal curia. At Rome, Sepúlveda enjoyed a prominent role within the
papal entourage at the time. As an example, in 1524 – also upon Clement VII’s advice – Erasmus
wrote his De libero arbitrio diatribae sive collatio, an answer to the arguments which had been put
forward by Luther in his Assertio omnium articulorum per Bullam Leonis X novissimam
damnatorum of 1520. Luther’s own reply came very soon and, a year later, he published the
De servo arbitrio, a treatise in which the German theologian dismantled Erasmus’s points.
Sepúlveda joined the dispute in 1526 with his own De fato et libero arbitrio contra Lutherum, in
which he drew on Alexander of Aphrodisias’s arguments on the matter. Acting once again in
response to the suggestion of Clement VII, Sepúlveda decided to translate another text by Alexander
of Aphrodisias, in this case his commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics, which was published
in 1527.
While in Bologna, Sepúlveda also enjoyed the company of his patron Alberto Pio de Carpi. In
the following years, Sepúlveda assisted Alberto Pio in the composition of successive attacks on
Erasmus, which culminated in his own Antapologia pro Alberto Pio of 1532. Despite Erasmus’
shrill diatribe against Alberto Pio, Sepúlveda was advised by Pope Clement VII to keep his
Antapologia within conciliatory terms. Alarmed by the progress of Lutheranism and aware of the
pernicious effects which Machiavelli’s thought could have on Christianity, the papal curia
was reluctant to open a third front of hostilities and imposed restraint on Erasmus’ Catholic critics.
Although Sepúlveda’s attacks on Erasmus’ ideas fully came to the fore during his time in Italy,
his attitude encapsulates the complex and at times contradictory nature of Antierasmianism in Spain.
As with other Spanish critics of Erasmus, Sepúlveda was forced to tread a careful path
between his orthodox views, his close ties with prominent members of the imperial court (a center
of Erasmianism until the early thirties), and the demands imposed on him by the
ecclesiastical authorities. Sepúlveda’s frontal opposition to Erasmus (whose scholarship, however,
the Spaniard held in high esteem) is all the more paradoxical given his training at the University of
Alcalá.
Pope Clement’s death in 1534 was the main reason for Sepúlveda’s return to Spain, which
occurred two years later. Sepúlveda’s appointment as official historian to the Emperor in 1536 and
his selection as one of the tutors to the future Philip II six years later were an incentive to prepare his
translation of and commentary on Aristotle’s Politics, which was completed in 1548. Sepúlveda’s
finest contribution to Greek scholarship, his annotated translation of the Politics was reprinted in
1601 and 1775, the latter coinciding with a movement at the end of the eighteenth century to reprint
many Renaissance translations of classical philosophers and scientific writers.

Proof of Sepúlveda’s reputation as a translator can however be traced back to his lifetime and can be
found first and foremost in the various reprints of his Latin versions. Except for his rendering of the
Politics, the whole corpus of Sepúlveda’s translations was reprinted in Paris in 1532. A reprint of the
De generatione et corruptione was further issued in Germany in 1537, and as many as five editions
of Sepúlveda’s version of Alexander of Aphrodisias’s commentary came off European presses
between 1527 and 1561. Further evidence of the centrality of Sepúlveda’s philological activity
within sixteenth-century interest in Aristotle is given by his contribution to establishing the original
texts of Aristotle and Alexander of Aphrodisias. Until 1847, when the Greek text was first published,
Sepúlveda’s version of Alexander of Aphrodisias provided philosophers with a reliable Latin text of
an important ancient commentary on one of Aristotle’s most studied treatises. For its part,
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Sepúlveda’s translation of the Politics, in conjunction with his annotations, became a useful tool for
establishing the text of a handful of passages in Aristotle’s work.
As with many sixteenth-century volumes, Sepúlveda’s translations are often accompanied with
dedicatory letters. Many humanists viewed such dedicatory epistles as opportunities for career
building. They were used by these writers as vehicles for self-promotion, as a means of gaining
financial rewards, and to advance their own humanist cause. Examination of this material (as well as
other “paratexts” such as prefaces, liminary verse, colophons, and so forth) is crucial if we are to
understand fully the way authors, publishers, patrons, editors, and translators prepared a given text
for its readership. Sepúlveda is no exception in this respect and his dedicatory letters help us to
follow his movements in Italy and Spain in the 1520s, 1530s, and 1540s. The texts map Sepúlveda’s
life from his early years at Bologna in the company of Alberto Pio of Carpi and of Giulio de’ Medici,
to whom he dedicated, respectively, his translations of De incessu animalium and the Parva
Naturalia, through his move to Rome in 1523, when he dedicated his version of De generatione
et corruptione to Pope Adrian VI and his translation of De mundo to Ercole Gonzaga. The letters
also bear witness to Sepúlveda’s connection with the intellectual forces of Papal Rome throughout
the 1520s and his links with the Spanish political establishment in the early 1530s. Whereas the
dedicatory letter to Pope Clement VII prefacing his translation of Alexander of Aphrodisias of 1527
shows Sepúlveda’s attempts at securing a prominent role within the Roman curia, his letter to
Charles V accompanying the translation of the Meteorology in 1532 reflects his gradual approach to
the Spanish party.
Sepúlveda’s dedicatory letters therefore seem to have served a very immediate purpose and reflect
Sepúlveda’s efforts to gain patronage from key figures within papal Rome and Imperial Spain at a
very precise time in his life. This is further reinforced by the inclusion, in Sepúlveda’s own edition of
his correspondence published in Salamanca in 1557, of a handful of letters dating back to the
mid-1530s in which Sepúlveda discussed his ongoing translation of Aristotle’s Ethics. Not com-
pleted until the mid-1550s, at a moment when Sepúlveda was collecting his own correspondence,
this version was, however, never brought to the press despite Sepúlveda’s desperate attempts to
obtain permission for its publication.
Sepúlveda’s choice of dedicatees for his translations doubtless owed to a conscious and careful
exercise of self-advertisement. Throughout his life, Sepúlveda was no strange to promoting his
translations even before they appeared. The publication in 1527 of his Latin translation of Alexander
of Aphrodisias’s commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics is a good example of this. Aware of the
expectations caused (as early as 1523) by the publication of this previously unknown work, in his
dedicatory letter to Pope Clement VII, Sepúlveda is keen to highlight the importance of his scholarly
enterprise. He is particularly concerned with showing the Herculean task he had to face when he
undertook the translation of Alexander’s text. Lack of a Greek printed edition and the absence of any
Latin version – Sepúlveda points out several times – made it necessary to establish the source text
before any translation could be carried out. To prove the arduous nature of his task, Sepúlveda states
that he took into account “quattuor antiquissima exemplaria,” full of corrupt passages. Another
example of Sepúlveda’s self-advertisement tactics is the publication of the translation of and
commentary on the Politics. Before the text was published in Paris in 1548, the Spanish translator
had found an ingenious way to publicize his forthcoming version. In his dialogue Democrates
secundus, sive de iustis causis belli apud Indios (The second Democrates, or on the just causes of the
war against the Indians), written three years earlier, one of the characters quotes from Sepúlveda’s
Latin version of the Politics, with only a few slight changes from the printed text. And soon after its
publication, in a letter to his publisher dated August 1549, he boasted of the excellent reception
given to his translation: “From my friends’ letters I learnt that my work has been received by scholars
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in France, Italy, Germany and Belgium with approval and, so they write, applause.” Despite these
claims, Sepúlveda’s translation and commentary were not mentioned at all during his lifetime, and it
was only after his death in 1573 that scholars started to point out the relevance and quality of
his work.
Sepúlveda’s zeal in advertising his own translation is a reflection of the fierce competition posed
by rival translators of Aristotle. In the case of the Politics, Sepúlveda’s words as well as silence on
the part of his contemporaries are to be connected to the controversies, which emerged in the first
half of the sixteenth century, between those Aristotelian translators like Joachim Périon, who
favored a slavish imitation of Ciceronian vocabulary and style, and those, like Sepúlveda, who
were not averse to employing nonclassical terminology. In a long passage from the preface to his
version of the Politics, published not so long after Périon’s translation, Sepúlveda outlined his own
method and acknowledged the difficulties in harmonizing accuracy and a complete fidelity to
Ciceronian vocabulary when translating Aristotle:
And it is not my intention, when translating others’ work or explaining Aristotle, to be more Ciceronian than
Aristotelian. Indeed there is a big difference between translating into Latin the Greek rhetoricians or historians and
the philosophers, particularly Aristotle, who, despite standing out in elegance and correctness, when dealing with
obscure and unknown topics, is compelled to use either new words or words never heard by the people and never
used by learned men. These problems make it very difficult for the translator to be Aristotelian and Ciceronian at
the same time, although it seems to me that I am Ciceronian enough if I have achieved what I attempted, that is to
use a plain and clear speech as much as the contents of the source text allow me.
It is therefore not surprising that the preface to his translation of the Politics is used by Sepúlveda
to prove his credentials as translator. Eager to beat competition from other translators, Sepúlveda
regrets that he has taken up such a task without any appropriate help, due to the unreliable trans-
lations at his disposal. Glossing over the fact that Leonardo Bruni’s elegant translation of the text had
been available since 1438, Sepúlveda dismisses the work of previous Latin translators of the
Politics: “I cannot give the name of translators to those who, with excessive fidelity, have rendered
this text word for word.” Without naming names, Sepúlveda seems to be referring to William of
Moerbeke’s version, which is further criticized in a gloss to his translation (“. . .quem secutus vetus
interpres, qui suo instituto Aristotelem ad verbum convertit”).
Sepúlveda’s decision to dedicate his translation of the De incessu animalium to Alberto Pio
should also be regarded as an attempt to defend his own version against extant translations of the text
(most notably that of François Vatable published in 1518). In order to lend prestige to his work – in
his dedicatory epistle to Alberto Pio, a champion of Aristotelian studies in his own right, as
described by Charles Schmitt – Sepúlveda craftily drops the names of two scholars who have helped
him with his translation of Aristotle. He refers to Niccolò Leonico Tomeo (himself engaged in a
version of the text at that time) and Pietro Pomponazzi (Sepúlveda’s own teacher). He mentions
giving his version to these two famous north Italian philosophers in order to solicit their corrections
and suggestions. Moreover, as with the preface to his translation of the Politics, Sepúlveda employs
the prologue to the De incessu animalium as an opportunity to attack rival translators of the
Aristotelian corpus. In his dedicatory letter, Sepúlveda strongly condemns the method of the
Hellenist and Ciceronian Latinist Petrus Alcyonius (1487–1527?), whose translations of Aristotle
were published in Venice in 1521. He recalls how he first heard of Alcyonius when he was about to
complete his own translation of the Parva Naturalia. Advised by Alberto Pio, after reading
Alcyonius’s version, Sepúlveda decided to write a pamphlet setting out the numerous mistakes he
had found in the text of his rival. Alcyonius is not, however, the only target of Sepúlveda’s criticism
throughout his prefaces. He often censures the carelessness and lack of accuracy shown by previous
translators, a factor which – he claims – drove him to attempt new translations of certain Aristotelian
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texts. As he states in the dedicatory letter to his version of the Meteorology, the main reason for
producing another translation of the text was “the negligence of those who had translated this work
before me.” In Sepúlveda’s eyes, the act of translation goes, however, beyond the merely linguistic
plane. Hence, his scorn – in his preface to the De incessu animalium – of those translators who,
neglecting the study of philosophy as a necessary preliminary to producing a Latin version of
Aristotle’s writings, were confident simply in their knowledge of both Latin and Greek. It was
precisely his superior knowledge of Aristotelian natural philosophy that, Sepúlveda claims, led him
to undertake a revision of his first translation of the Parva Naturalia only ten years after it had
appeared in 1522. Central to Sepúlveda’s attacks on his rivals and to his self-portrait as a solitary
scholar battling against difficulties of all kind is therefore the establishment of his stature as a skilful
translator.
In Sepúlveda’s dedicatory letters, praise of his own exegetical activity goes hand in hand with
grateful tributes to the intellectual milieu within which his work was produced. Alberto Pio’s
contribution to the recovery, dissemination, and editing of the Hellenistic commentators of Aristotle
is commended by Sepúlveda, who, through his close association with the Prince of Carpi, was able
to use this mass of newly available texts for his own translations. In the preface to his version of the
Meteorology, he informs us that, during the process of translation, he has consulted the commen-
taries on the text of Alexander of Aphrodisias and Olympiodorus. Significantly, the manuscript
containing Alexander’s commentary was borrowed from the Vatican Library sometime in 1518 by
Alberto Pio, who kept it until 1524. It is reasonable to assume that, because of the close relation
between Sepúlveda and the Prince of Carpi, the former had frequent access to the text of Alexander
in Albert Pio’s hands.
Sepúlveda is also careful to present his Spanish and Italian patrons’ commitment to scholarship as
part of a long-standing tradition of patronage dating back to antiquity, which the Spanish translator is
eager to partake. By hailing his dedicatee Charles V as a new Alexander, the Great Sepúlveda
implicitly compares himself to Aristotle, who, as recalled by Sepúlveda in his letter to the Emperor,
had dedicated his De mundo to Alexander (except, of course, that it was not Aristotle). The parallels
drawn by Sepúlveda in his prefaces between his patrons and prominent benefactors from the early
years of Humanism also reinforce this idea of continuity. In the dedicatory letter to Adrian VI
prefacing his version of the De generatione et interitu, Sepúlveda links Adrian’s intellectual
patronage to the active role, played by Nicholas V in the first half of the fifteenth century, in
promoting Latin translations of Greek philosophical texts. Likewise, the Roman curia under Giulio
de’ Medici (Clement VII) is compared to the courts of his predecessors Lorenzo and Pietro at
Florence.
Underlying his eulogy of the Medici and of the scholarly initiatives of Pope Adrian are
Sepúlveda’s subtle efforts to model himself upon the illustrious translators patronized by the Medici
family and the Roman Pontiffs in the preceding century. Of all those, the Spanish translator regards
himself as a close follower of the Byzantine scholar Johannes Argyropoulos, a key figure within the
history of philosophical translations and whose versions of Aristotle had been commissioned by
Lorenzo and Pietro de’ Medici. Walking in the footsteps of Argyropoulos, Sepúlveda prides himself
on participating in a new style of translation which – since the early years of the former century – had
been replacing the rough versions of the Middle Ages and renewing the criteria used until then.
Alongside Argyropoulos, he mentions the name of another Byzantine emigré, who dedicated his
translations to Pope Nicholas V, Theodorus Gaza, the only one, according to Sepúlveda, who bears
comparison with Argyropoulos. Sepúlveda’s review of the best fifteenth-century philosophical
translators is, however, not restricted to Latin Aristotelian ones. Well acquainted with other
philosophical traditions and aware of the availability of translations of and commentaries on a
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wide variety of Greek texts, he praises Marsilio Ficino, another protégée of the Medici, comparing
his activity as a translator of Plato with that of Argyropoulos in the Aristotelian tradition.
Argyropoulos, Gaza, and Ficino are enthusiastically described by Sepúlveda as the pioneers in a
new style of translation aiming at replacing the medieval word-for-word method. Yet, the prestige
and skill of these scholars as translators do not prevent Sepúlveda from disagreeing at times with
their translation criteria as can be seen from a gloss to the De sensu et sensilibus. Sepúlveda’s
assessment goes, however, beyond minor criticisms to specific passages in the translations. Despite
his praise of Argyropoulos and Gaza, he exposes some of the shortcomings in their translation
program. When addressing Giulio de’ Medici in the preface to his translation of the Parva Naturalia,
he reminds his dedicatee of the need to undertake versions of those writings not translated by
Argyropoulos: “I thought it would be appropriate for me to offer you the translation of works
overlooked by Argyropoulos.” Moreover, former Aristotelian translators, he points out in the
preface to his version of Alexander of Aphrodisias, neglected the texts of the Greek commentators
on Aristotle: “For Theodorus Gaza, Johannes Argyropoulos, Ermolao Barbaro and Girolamo
Donato all completely kept away from the commentaries on Aristotle.” In Sepúlveda’s eyes, his
translation of Alexander’s commentary would thus contribute to a deeper knowledge of Aristotle
and fill the gap left by Argyropoulos and Gaza. Sepúlveda portrays himself then as the natural heir to
the Byzantine scholars of the fifteenth century:
At the desire of your ancestors Johannes Argyropoulos translated rather fitly and elegantly the great part of
Aristotle. For his part, Theodorus Gaza successfully and brilliantly rendered for Nicholas V both the De natura et
generatione animalium and the Problems. Although we would not dare be compared to these men, according to
the smallness of our mind, we have pursued their remains since we wish to be grateful to you.
Sepúlveda’s versions of Greek philosophy included annotations. Appended only to his trans-
lations of the Parva Naturalia and the Politics, Sepúlveda’s notes vary in length. Whereas in the case
of the Parva Naturalia short annotations appear in the margins of the printed text, the much longer
glosses to the books of the Politics are placed at the end of each chapter. Numbering a total of seven
hundred, of which less than fifty belong to the translation of the Parva Naturalia, the annotations,
according to Sepúlveda, are to analyze a selection of chosen passages. Some of the glosses to the
Parva Naturalia deal with matters of textual criticism and other notes to the text are merely
explanations of Greek words or expressions and their nearest Latin equivalent. Sepúlveda’s anno-
tations to Aristotle’s books on natural philosophy therefore constitute an excellent source which
allows us to gain a deeper knowledge of his critical and exegetical methods.
Nevertheless, the most interesting annotations, which I would briefly like to discuss in the final
part of my entry, are those belonging to the Politics. Arguably, their importance lies in the fact that
they seem to assist Sepúlveda in making his own reputation as a prominent scholar in the Spanish
court. Published in 1548, the version of the Politics must be seen as concomitant of Sepúlveda’s role
as one of the tutors to the future Philip II, a position the Spanish translator had coveted since the early
1530s. His eventual appointment in 1542 seems to be the reason behind his decision to dedicate his
translation to the Spanish Prince six years later and to prescribe the text for his education. The
contents of the Politics – and particularly of those books in which Aristotle reviews the different
political regimes – enable Sepúlveda to make a favorable comparison in his annotations between
antiquity and his own times, as well as to praise the immediate ancestors of his young dedicatee.
Sepúlveda was, however, drafting his dedicatory letter to Philip at a very crucial moment in his
life. In 1548, two of the most prominent theologians from the University of Salamanca, Melchor
Cano and Bartolomé Carranza, were asked by the Crown to examine a work completed by
Sepúlveda three years earlier in dialogue form and entitled Democrates secundus, sive de iustis
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causis belli apud Indios (The second Democrates, or on the just causes of the war against the
Indians). According to its author, the American Indians were like “pigs with their eyes always fixed
on the ground.” Their brutish behavior, cannibalism, and paganism made them slaves by nature to
their Spanish masters. In his Democrates, Sepúlveda issued four main justifications for enslaving
Indians. First, their natural condition deemed them fit for slavery, and it was the responsibility of the
Spaniards to act as masters. Second, Spaniards were entitled to prevent Indians from engaging in
cannibalism as they saw fit. Third, the same went for Indians who sacrificed innocents to their Gods.
Fourth, slavery was an effective method of converting Indians to Christianity. Drawing on
Aristotle’s ideas on natural slavery discussed in his first book of the Politics, he concluded that
war against the Indians was just on the grounds that they had violated natural law and were barbarous
by nature. As Sepúlveda states:
Now compare these qualities of wisdom, inventiveness, magnanimity, temperance, humanity and religion [of the
Spaniards] with those little men in whom one can scarcely find the remains of humanity, who not only lack culture,
but who do not even use or know of the written word, lack written law, have barbaric institutions and customs, and
do not preserve monuments of their history, but only a certain obscure and vague memory of some facts recorded
in certain paintings. As for their virtues, if you want to know of their temperance and meekness, what can one
expect of men given over to all manner of passions and loathsome ficklety and prone to feeding on human flesh?
Do not believe that before the arrival of the Spaniards they used to live in the Saturnian peace sung by the poets; on
the contrary, they used to wage war against each other continuously with such a fury that they considered the
victory null if they did not satisfy their phenomenal hunger with the flesh of their enemies – an atrocity that is so
much more magnificent let alone far removed from the invincible ferocity of the Scythians, who also fed on human
bodies, since the former are so cowardly and timid that they can scarcely resist the hostile presence of our men, and
often thousands and thousands of them have fled like women on being defeated by a small group of Spaniards
whose numbers barely made up one hundred.
Given its inflammatory tone and the arguments it employed, the Democrates secundus was denied
the royal license without which no book could legally be printed in Spain. Convinced that Bartolomé
de las Casas – who in 1542 had written a fiercest critique of Spanish colonialism in the New World,
published ten years later – was ultimately responsible for that decision, Sepúlveda pressed his case
with the Council of Indies, which in August 1550 organized a debate between the two men.
Sepúlveda’s position was supported by the colonists and landowners who benefited from the
encomienda system. In the encomienda, the Spanish Crown granted a person a specified number
of natives for whom they were to take responsibility. In theory, the receiver of the grant was to
protect the natives from warring tribes and to instruct them in the Spanish language and in the
Catholic faith: in return they could extract tribute from the natives in the form of labor, gold, or other
products. In practice, the difference between encomienda and slavery could be minimal. Many
natives were forced to do hard labor and subjected to extreme punishment and death if they resisted.
For his part, Las Casas represented one side of the debate. His position found some support from the
monarchy, which wanted to control the power of the encomenderos, and within the Catholic Church.
Although there was no formal outcome to the affair, the theologians refused to change their minds
about the subversive nature of Sepúlveda’s text.
Sepúlveda must have, therefore, regarded his dedicatory epistle to the future king prefacing his
translation of Aristotle’s Politics as a good opportunity to rebuild his reputation. The annotations
appended to his version could be used by Sepúlveda in order to seek royal endorsement for his views
on natural slavery. A gloss to a passage in the first book of the Politics in which Aristotle discusses
the concept of natural slavery allows Sepúlveda to expound his ideas on the subject before the future
King, in theory the first reader of Sepúlveda’s translation as it was Philip to whom the text was
dedicated and to whom some of the annotations are directly addressed. Significantly, the annotation
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to Politics 1255 a 32–35 follows very closely the argumentation developed by Sepúlveda in his
Democrates secundus.
Sepúlveda’s dedicatory letters and annotations give us an insight into the ways in which not only
he read Aristotle and the text of Aristotle but also he wished to be perceived and read by his
prospective patrons and fellow translators. Fortunately, in the abovementioned 1537 reprint of
Sepúlveda’s De generatione et interitu, we have a first-hand testimony of how Sepúlveda’s
translation method was actually judged by his contemporaries. Published in Leipzig by Nicolaus
Faber, this pocket-sized volume, of which only one copy is known to exist, includes a series of
printed annotations in the margins of the text. Seemingly prepared by the printer, these annotations
constitute a reflection on Sepúlveda’s exegetical criteria. Particularly interesting are a handful of
notes where some of Sepúlveda’s solutions are negatively compared to the proposals offered by one
of his rivals, the Frenchman François Vatable, whose translation of the text had been published in
Paris in 1518. All in all, the commentator seems to prefer Vatable’s version to Sepúlveda’s
translation, which is censured for its freedom and departure from the original Greek. Ironically,
the most common feature of Sepúlveda’s style is his respect for the contents of the texts to be
translated, the pursuit of accuracy, and clarity being a constant theme in his prefaces and dedicatory
letters. Despite Sepúlveda’s conscious efforts to publicize his versions and translation method
during his lifetime, the importance of his contribution to Aristotelian studies would only be fully
appreciated in the centuries to come.
References
Coroleu A (1996a) Ioannes Genesius Sepulveda versus Franciscus Vatablus: A propósito de la
fortuna de las traducciones latinas de Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. Habis 27:277–281
Coroleu A (1996b) The fortuna of Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda’s translations of Aristotle and Alexander
of Aphrodisias. J Warburg Courtauld Inst 59:324–331
de Sepúlveda JG (1522) Libri Aristotelis quos vulgo latini Parvi Naturales appellant e graeco in
latinum sermonem conversi Ioanne Genesio cordubensi interprete. Hieronymus de Benedictus,
Bologna
de Sepúlveda JG (1523a) Aristotelis libri de generatione et interitu interprete Ioanne Genesio
cordubensi. Hieronymus de Benedictus, Bologna
de Sepúlveda JG (1523b) Aristotelis liber de mundo interprete Ioanne Genesio cordubensi.
Hieronymus de Benedictus, Bologna
de Sepúlveda JG (1526) De fato et libero arbitrio contra Lutherum libri III. Silber, Rome
de Sepúlveda JG (1527) Alexandri Aphrodisiei commentaria in Aristotelis Metaphysica Ioanne
Genesio cordubensi interprete. Silber, Rome
de Sepúlveda JG (1532) Opera Aristotelis latina facta Io. Genesio Sepulveda cordubensi. Johannes
Parvus, Paris
de Sepúlveda JG (1548) Aristotelis de Republica libri VIII Ioanne Genesio Sepulveda interprete et
enarratore. Vascosanus, Paris
de Sepúlveda JG (1557) Epistolarum libri septem. Juan de Junta, Salamanca
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de Sepúlveda JG (1601) De Republica libri VIII, interprete et enarratore Ioanne Genesio Sepulveda
Cordubensi. Arnaldus Birckman, Cologne
de Sepúlveda JG (1775) De Republica libri VIII, interprete et enarratore Ioanne Genesio Sepulveda
Cordubensi. Ibarra, Madrid
Hanke L (1959) Aristotle and the American Indians: a study in race prejudice in the modern world.
Hollis & Carter, London
Losada A (1973) Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda a través de su “Epistolario” y nuevos documentos. CSIC,
Madrid
Mechoulan H (1973) L’antihumanisme de Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. Étude critique du “Democrates
primus”. Mouton, Paris
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Soto, Domingo de
Born: Segovia, 1494
Died: Salamanca, 15 November 1560
Victor M. Salas*
Abstract
Domingo de Soto, O.P., was a member of the Order of Preachers and, like many of his order brothers,
was a devoted follower of Thomas Aquinas. Born in Segovia in 1494, Soto studied at various
universities in Spain as well as in Paris before assuming a chair teaching philosophy at the University
of Complutense. The Dominican was a major player in the Council of Trent which gave him the
occasion to author his De natura et gratia, in which Soto attempted to address the errors of his
Lutheran opponents. He also made contributions to logic, the philosophy of nature, and moral-
political philosophy with his publications: In dialecticam Aristotelis, Super octo libros Physicorum
commentaria, Super octo libros Physicorum quaestiones, and De iustitia et iure. Soto died in 1560 in
Salamanca.
Biography
Domingo de Soto, O.P. (Segovia, 1494 – Salamanca, 15 November 1560), following in the tradition
of other Dominicans (such as Francisco de Vitoria) in the School of Salamanca, was one of the
principal proponents of Thomism in Spain’s second scholasticism. Born in Segovia and baptized
originally as “Francisco,” Soto began his initial studies in Segovia but moved to Ochando, where he
was a sacristan of the local parish (Solana 1940, 92). From 1513 to 1516, he continued his studies in
the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alcalá (ibid., 92), which would later be the academic home to
many important Spanish intellectuals of the golden age, most especially the Jesuits Gabriel Vásquez
and Francisco Suárez. Eventually, Soto pursued his education outside of Spain entirely and
graduated from the University of Paris with a baccalaureate in philosophy and a master of arts
(ibid., 92).
After having taught in the arts faculty at Paris (D’Ors 1984, 209), Soto returned to Spain in 1519.
In 1520 he accepted a position teaching philosophy at the College of San Ildefonso at Alcalá (Solana
1940, 92). Shortly thereafter he accepted a chair in philosophy at the University of Complutense
where he lectured against the nominalism that he had learned in Paris (ibid.). While considering
whether he would seek advancement to a chair in theology, Soto began to entertain the idea of a
religious vocation (ibid.). Originally, he considered a vocation with the Benedictines but then in
1524 entered the Order of Preachers. He took the Dominican habit and the name “Domingo” at the
Convent of St. Paul of Burgos where he made his religious profession on 23 July 1525 (ibid.). Soto
continued his teaching career at the convent in Burgos, teaching logic, before being moved to the
Convent of St. Stephen. He was ordered by his superiors to seek the cátedra de vísperas in theology
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at the University of Salamanca, which he filled on 22 November 1532 (ibid.) and kept until 1549
(D’Ors 1984, 210). Meanwhile, on 8 November 1532, he graduated from the University of
Salamanca as a master in theology (Solana 1940, 93).
In 1545 Charles V sent Soto as his imperial theologian to participate in the Council of Trent. From
1545 to 1547, Soto attended the council in Trent until – owing to political difficulties between the
pope and emperor – it was moved to Bologna. Soto followed the transfer, and this time not only did
he serve as imperial theologian, he was also the designated representative for the Dominicans (ibid.).
During his time at Trent, Soto authored his De natura et gratia, which was both a response to
questions being entertained at the council regarding the relationship between original sin and grace
and a sustained critique of Lutheran theology (ibid., 96). In this text, Soto considers human nature in
four states: first, in a state of pure nature considered speculatively (mente excogitatum); second, prior
to the fall in a state of original justice; third, after the fall; and, finally, after the restitution of grace
(De natura et gratia, prol., fol. 2 r-v). Ultimately, for Soto, at the base of dispute between Catholic
and Lutherans is the role human freedom plays in postlapsarian man. Briefly put, for Lutherans, the
fall resulted in the loss of true human freedom and thus necessitated certain consequences such as
election or perdition (Solana 1940, 97–98). Soto, however, argued for a strong sense of human
freedom, perfected by grace of course, but as the condition for the possibility of cooperating with
grace in the first place (De natura et gratia, lib. 1, c. 15).
In 1548 Charles V appointed Soto as his confessor, which necessitated the Dominican’s attending
to the royal court. The emperor held Soto in such esteem that he offered the Dominican the bishopric
of Segovia upon the death of its previous occupant, Antonio Ramírez de Haro (Solana 1940, 93).
Soto, however, declined the offer (ibid.). Finally, in 1550 Soto returned to Salamanca to fill the
cátedra de prima in theology, which had been vacated by Melchior Cano, who had recently been
appointed bishop of the Canary Islands. Cano would resign the position, though, before having filled
it. Soto taught theology at Salamanca until his retirement in 1556 (ibid.). Less than 4 years later, in
1560, Soto died in Salamanca at the Convent of St. Sebastian.
In addition to his significant theological contributions, Soto’s contributions to the history of
philosophy are many yet fall principally under three main categories: logic, philosophy of nature,
and law.
Logic
Soto’s works in logic include his commentary on the Summulae of Peter of Spain, a commentary on
the dialectics of Aristotle, as well as a commentary on Porphyry’s Isagoge. The Summulae, written at
the behest of his superiors and friends, is the first work published by Soto (D’Ors 1984, 211). They
present Soto’s teaching on logic across five books in the course of his commenting on Peter of
Spain’s Summulae logicales (ibid). Book one deals with terms; book two concerns propositions;
books three and four examine opposition; and, finally, book five explores syllogistic argument
forms. Soto begins his In dialecticam Aristotelis with an enquiry into the necessity of logic. Logic,
he says, is the art of defining and reasoning, which operations have a crucial necessity for human
beings in that they alone, among all creatures, are properly rational. That human beings reason,
moving from what is known to what is unknown is entirely natural. What is more, logic is necessary
for the prosecution of the other sciences (In dia. Arist., proem., q. 1). Soto then explores the scientific
character of logic. Here, Soto marks a distinction between logica docens and logica utens. The
former is a habitus that concerns how properly to form definitions, demonstrations, and syllogisms,
while the latter (logica utens) is a habitus whereby those intellectual operations are put to use in
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particular sciences. Soto holds that logica docens is properly a science, whereas logic utens is not a
science but an instrument of science. His reason for this claim is that logica docens is a habitus that
generates necessary and evident assent which is simply the nature of a science (ibid., proem., q. 2).
What is more, in contrast to nominalist teaching, Soto holds that logic, though constituted by several
partial habitus, is nevertheless “absolutely and simply” a single science in the same way that
something can be one in a certain genus but many according to other genera (ibid., proem., q. 3).
Additionally, Soto thinks that logic is speculative rather than practical in nature. Although it does
treat of syllogisms and other operations of the intellect, which would seem to render it practical, Soto
explains that logic is properly a theoretical science since it considers the abovementioned not as acts
of the intellect but considers them in terms of their own natures. That is to say, logic examines the
natures of the predicaments, syllogisms, and, according to Soto, other entia rationis (ibid., proem.,
q. 4). This last point leads to Soto’s final opening claim of the In dialecticam Aristotelis that logic has
as its proper subject matter entia rationis (ibid., proem., q. 5).
Philosophy of Nature
In his Super octo libros Physicorum commentaria and in an additional volume, the Super octo libros
Physicorum quaestiones, Soto presents his philosophy of nature. In the former text, Soto offers a
transcription of the Aristotelian text translated by Francisco Vatablo together with his own com-
mentary on the text. In the quaestiones text, Soto informs the reader that the principle concern is not
simply to discern what Aristotle himself thought – though the philosopher is frequently cited as an
authority – but to point out what the truth itself is with respect to the various points that are discussed
(Solana 1940, 113). Throughout this text, Soto raises numerous questions arising from the eight
books composing the Physics of Aristotle and offers his own answers to those questions. Natural
philosophy, he claims, is “necessary” for humans in the sense that humans have a natural inclination
to know (natural) things (Super oct. lib. quaest., lib. 1, q. 1; p. 4E). Interestingly, Soto claims that
insofar as both science and nature derive from God, one cannot attain to the truth of nature – at least
not with many errors – without the light of faith, for which reason, he says, Aristotle could not
understand that the world had a beginning (ibid., lib. 1, q. 1; p. 11A). Nevertheless, Soto till upholds
the Aristotelian teaching that physics, i.e., natural philosophy, has as its proper subject matter ens
mobile (ibid., lib. 1, q. 1; pp. 14 F-15A). Among the various questions Soto raises concerning book
eight of the Physics, some are particularly noteworthy, for example, whether it is possible for the
world to be eternal (ibid., lib. 8, q. 2; pp. 359ff) and whether the claim “omne quod movetur ab alio
movetur” – so crucial to Thomas Aquinas’s prima via – is true (ibid., lib. 8, q. 3, pp. 364ff). Soto
supports the latter claim, defending it from apparent counterexamples, but answers the former
question affirmatively albeit with qualification. It is possible, Soto thinks, for the heavens and
their motion together with a finite number of angels and rational souls to have been created from
eternity, but he denies that the species of corruptible things and the succession of individuals within
those species could have likewise been created from eternity (ibid., lib. 8, q. 2; p. 364B).
Law
Soto’s treatment of law is chiefly found in his De iustitia et iure, a treatise of ten books that explores
not only the nature and principles of various kinds of law (especially in its relation to justice) but also
particular issues related to the law, e.g., dominion, contracts, property, commerce, oath-taking,
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etc. Book one deals with the nature of law in general as well as its division into eternal law (De ius. et
iur., lib. 1, q. 3), natural law (ibid., q. 4), and human law (ibid., q. 4). Book two explores the “Old
Law,” its precepts, the Decalogue, and ceremonial prescriptions prior to transitioning to a consid-
eration of the “New Law.” In book three, Soto examines law as the object of justice. Book four
pertains to the preambles of justice in general and treats such matters as dominion and restitution.
Book five treats the inverse of the immediately preceding book, namely, injustice and injury. Of
particular concern here – as was the case with Francisco de Vitoria – is the issue of homicide. The
remaining books of the De iustitia et iure narrow to particularities within the law such as usury and
contracts (lib. 6), vows (lib. 7), oaths (lib. 8), simony (lib. 9), and finally matters pertaining to canon
or ecclesiastical law (lib. 10).
Note on Primary Literature Soto’s philosophical works underwent numerous printings and
editions. Those mentioned below represent only those available for the composition of the present
entry and by no means represent an exhaustive list of the various extant editions.
References
Primary Literature
de Soto D (1529) Summularum. Salamanca
de Soto D (1543) In dialecticam Aristotelis commentarii. Salamanca
de Soto D (1545) Super octo libros Physicorum Aristotelis commentaria. Salamanca
de Soto D (1549) De natura et gratia. Paris
de Soto D (1557) Commentariorum Fratris Dominici Soto Segobiensis . . . In Quartum
Sententiarum. Salamanca
de Soto D (1574a) In libros posteriorum Aristotelis absolutissima commentaria. Venice
de Soto D (1574b) In Porphyrii Isagogen ac Aristotelis Categorias absolutissima commentaria.
Venice
de Soto D (1582) Super octo libros Physicorum Aristotelis quaestiones. Venice
de Soto D (1594) De iustitia et iure. Venice
Carro VD (1943) Domingo de Soto y su doctrina jurídica. Hijos E. Minuesa, Salamanca
D’Ors A (1984) Las ‘Summulae’ de Domingo de Soto: Los Limites de la Regla Tollendo Ponens.
Anuario Filosófico 16:209–217
Di Liso S (2006) Domingo de Soto: ciencia y filosofía de la naturaleza. EUNSA, Pamplona
Muñoz Delgado V (1964) Lógica formal y filosofia en Domingo de Soto (1494–1560). Edita Revista
Estudios, Madrid
Solana M (1940) Historia de la filosofia española: Época del renacimiento (siglo XVI). Madrid
Asociación Española para el Progresso de las Ciencias 3:91–130
Wallace W (2004) Domingo de Soto and the Early Galileo: essays on intellectual history. Ashgate
Publishing, Aldershot
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Suárez, Francisco
Born: 5 January 1548 Granada
Died: 1617 Lisbon
Victor M. Salas*
Abstract
Francisco Suárez, S.J., born in Granada, Spain, in 1548, was perhaps one of the brightest luminaries
ever produced by the Society of Jesus. Astonishingly, his early years and youthful academic promise
were mediocre at best. After being initially rejected for admission to the Society of Jesus, scholas-
ticism’s future Doctor Eximius was eventually admitted with probationary status. During his early
formation Suárez experienced an almost supernatural intellectual transformation. Ordained a priest,
the Jesuit went on to hold many teaching positions throughout Spain, Rome, and eventually
Portugal’s University of Coimbra. His literary output was both enormous and systematic. The
Disputationes metaphysicae, published in 1597, put the science of metaphysics on a new footing.
For the first time, metaphysics was treated according to the logical exigencies demanded by the
science itself rather than by the commentarial practice that the haphazardly arranged treatises of the
Metaphysics had generated. Suárez was also drawn into numerous controversies between the Holy
See and various political powers. One such controversy pitted Suárez against James I, which resulted
in Suárez’s Defensio fidei in which the oath of allegiance was roundly critiqued. Suárez’s political
and legal philosophy were spelled out further and more explicitly in his De legibus, which treated
everything from the nature of law (eternal, human, natural, civil, and canonical) and justice to war,
ecclesiastical and temporal powers, and the old and new laws. After teaching at the University of
Coimbra for nearly 20 years, Suárez retired from the classroom and sought a climate that would
accommodate his ailing health. This eventually led him to Lisbon where the Doctor Eximius died
in 1617.
Biography
Francisco Suárez, S.J. (Granada, 5 January 1548–Lisbon, 1617), scholasticism’s Doctor Eximius,
was without doubt one of the most significant and influential thinkers within the Society of Jesus
and, as some have argued, served “as the main channel by which scholasticism came to be known by
modern classical philosophers” (Maurer 1962, p. 356). Be that as it may, Suárez’s beginnings were
rather unremarkable, and his academic aptitude seemed lackluster at best. He was born to Antonia
Vázquez and Gaspar Suárez in the wake of a recently reconquered Spain (Fichter 1940, p. 6). When
still a youth, aged only 13 years, Suárez was sent to Salamanca to pursue studies in canon law.
Amazingly, the man who would decades later become a master of law and author of the De legibus
barely managed to pass his early coursework (ibid., pp. 11–12). Perhaps, more important than his
studies in canon law at Salamanca, at least with respect to Suárez’s future vocation, was his making
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the acquaintance of Juan Ramirez, an Andalusian Jesuit known for his captivating sermons and
encouragement of vocations to the Society of Jesus (ibid., p. 45). Inspired by Ramirez, Suárez
pursued a vocation with the Jesuits, but, much to the astonishment of his biographers, the young man
was rejected, and the reason given was his lack of intellectual aptitude (ibid., p. 38). Though lacking
in academic gifts, at least by the Society’s estimation, Suárez was not lacking in persistence.
Eventually, after at least one unsuccessful appeal to the Jesuit provincial in Castile (ibid., p. 48),
on 16 June 1564 Suárez was granted admission to the Society but only as an “indifferent,” that is, as
one whose future as a priest or lay brother in the Society was left undetermined (ibid., p. 51). After
2 years, Suárez professed his first simple vows in August 1566 (ibid., p. 53).
Suárez’s superiors could hardly be surprised when the young Jesuit’s early studies revealed the
mediocre talent and learning difficulties that they had come to expect from him. What provoked
great astonishment among his superiors, however, was Suárez’s almost instantaneous and complete
intellectual transformation. The same philosophical problems that had only days before (sometimes
just 1 day before) seemed insoluble to the young Jesuit were untangled with an ease proper to a
master (ibid., p. 69). Some of Suárez’s biographers, perplexed at his radical turnaround, find no other
explanation besides divine intervention mediated through the intercession of the Mother of God
(ibid., p. 69). Whatever the cause, Suárez’s future was determined; he would advance to the study of
theology, and he did so at Salamanca from 1566 to 1570 (ibid., p. 74).
While still a student, Suárez was tasked with the responsibility of teaching philosophy to new
members of the Society of Jesus (ibid., p. 70). Among his pupils was Gregory of Valencia, who
would later become famous in his own right as a professor of philosophy and theology at the Roman
College. In 1571, prior to his ordination to the priesthood, the Society moved Suárez to the Jesuit
College in Segovia, where he made his solemn profession of vows on 14 December 1571. Not long
after he was ordained a priest in March 1572 (De Scorraille 1912, I, pp. 130–133).
Though it is an exaggeration to say that Suárez’s priestly activity was exclusively academic and
non-pastoral, his scholarly activity and production are almost without equal. Until 1574 he taught
philosophy at Valladolid and then taught theology until 1580 (Fichter 1940, pp. 149–150). His
scholarly output consisted principally in commentaries upon Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologiae,
as had been the common academic practice at the time. From Valladolid Suárez was called to Rome
to teach at the Roman College (ibid., pp. 111–119). The Roman climate proved to be incompatible
with the Jesuit’s frail constitution, and so at the end of the 1585 school year, Suárez was forced to
return to the more hospitable climate of his native Spain, where he resumed teaching at Alcalá (ibid.,
p. 126).
While at Alcalá, Suárez played a significant role in the creation and implementation of the Ratio
Studiorum, the Jesuit pedagogical plan. Additionally, Alcalá witnessed the first publications of the
budding academic (ibid., pp. 136–138). In 1590 Suárez’s treatise dealing with the Incarnation went
to press (ibid., p. 149), and only 2 years later (1592) he published yet another volume devoted to the
life of Christ, the De mysteriis vitae Christi, in which work was intended for the benefit of scholars
and preachers of the Word alike (ibid., p. 154). In 1593 Suárez’s frail health, exacerbated this time by
tensions with his rancorous Jesuit colleague Gabriel Vázquez, prompted him to leave Alcalá and
seek relief in Salamanca (ibid., pp. 168–170).
By this time, Suárez had already attained celebrity-like status as a theologian, and so Salamanca
was only too happy to receive back its most famous alumnus. The peace that Suárez had begun to
enjoy in Salamanca and the leisure to pursue his scholarly projects served as the perfect environment
for the Jesuit to begin one of his most important and significant works: the Disputationes
metaphysicae. This peace of mind was short-lived, however, since in May 1596, King Philip II
commanded the Society of Jesus to send Suárez to the University of Coimbra were he would assume
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the principle chair of theology (ibid., p. 205). After several futile protests, in 1597 Suárez was finally
obliged to assume the post.
The relative peace that Suárez had enjoyed in Salamanca was replaced with turmoil and conflict in
Coimbra, not the least of which was the De auxiliis controversy that embroiled not only the Spanish
Dominicans (largely following the banner of Bañez) and the Jesuits (chief among whom was Luis de
Molina) but also the entire Church. Only an intervention by the pope (Clement VIII) could calm the
matter, but even then the matter was never really resolved. Beyond controversies over free will and
grace, the black plague, which was afflicting the area in 1599, forced Suárez to seek refuge once
again in Salamanca before he could return to Coimbra to begin lecturing on law between 1601 and
1603 (Fichter 1940, p. 240). These lectures would become the basis for the Jesuit’s massive study on
law published as De legibus. Like its metaphysical counterpart, the De legibus is a systematic and
exhaustive work that examines various types of law (eternal, natural, international, positive) over the
course of ten books.
After his course on law, Suárez turned his intellectual gaze to a study of the sacrament of penance,
which resulted in the publication of his De poenitentia (1602) and De censuris (1603) (Fichter 1940,
p. 249). The speculations contained in these volumes led to a serious conflict between Suárez and the
Holy See over the subject of epistolary confession, which Suárez supported and the Holy See
condemned. After a trip to Rome to give account of his position to the Holy See, a position that
Suárez would end up retracting, the Jesuit returned to Coimbra in 1605 to resume teaching and
writing (ibid., p. 263).
Suárez’s reputation was soon restored, however, when he entered into a dispute between the Holy
See and Venice regarding the extent of papal jurisdiction. He sided with the Holy See and authored
the De immunitate ecclesiastica contra Venetos in support of the pope. The work so endeared him to
Pius V that on October 1607, Suárez received from the pope the title Doctor Eximius et Pius (ibid.,
pp. 272–273). Yet Suárez would soon be swept up into an even fiercer controversy, this time
concerning James I of England. At issue was the oath of fidelity that James required of all his
subjects. Paul V condemned the oath and enlisted the service of his finest theologians, including not
only Suárez but also Bellarmine, to critique the oath. For Suárez’s part the result was his Defensio
fidei catholicae. In it Suárez insisted upon papal authority and claimed that the crown has no primacy
over the pope in spiritual matters. The work was completed in 1610 but, owing to a shortage of
printing materials, was not published until 1613 (ibid., pp. 295–300).
By this time, Suárez’s career as a professor was drawing to a close. After having taught at Coimbra
for nearly 20 years, the Doctor Eximius retired in July 1615 (ibid., pp. 204–208). Though his
teaching duties were abrogated, Suárez remained scholarly active, revising several of his works for
publication, including the De gratia, De religione, De angelis, De opera sex dierum, and De anima
(ibid., pp. 326–327). Ever in search of a more suitable climate that would accommodate his frail
constitution, Suárez moved to Lisbon in order to complete his projects. Yet, once again, the Jesuit
found himself in the midst of political and ecclesiastical turmoil, and, as to be expected, the subject
of dispute was jurisdiction, more specifically, ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction over property
rights. The squabble was so intense that the entire city was eventually placed under interdict (ibid.,
pp. 330–333). After his own investigation into the matter, Suárez himself came to the conclusion that
the interdict was indeed licit according to both canon and civil law (ibid., p. 331).
As the political atmosphere decayed, so too did Suárez’s health. By September 1617 Suárez’s
health declined beyond hope for recovery. Ever industrious, he spent his remaining days dictating
letters of farewell and accepted the ministrations of his fellow Jesuits as they helped prepare him for
death. Early in the morning of 25 September 1617, Suárez serenely slipped into eternity (ibid.,
p. 338). In recognition of the incalculable contributions that Suárez made to the intellectual life of the
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Church, the papal representative, Archbishop Accoramboni, temporarily lifted the interdict in
Lisbon so that proper funeral services could be celebrated for the deceased Jesuit (ibid., p. 338).
Disputationes metaphysicae
Suárez was by his own estimation a theologian. Yet, in the course of developing his theological
doctrine, Suárez, as he explains in the preface ad lectorem of the Disputationes metaphysicae,
recognized that it would be worthwhile precisely for his task as a theologian to make explicit the
philosophical principles employed within his theology. Thus, while in the midst of his commentary
on the tertia pars of Thomas’s Summa theologiae, Suárez paused his theological work to undertake
the composition of what would be a mammoth metaphysical project that went entirely beyond the
commentaries on Aristotle’s Metaphysics that had been the standard practice of the time. Suárez
organized his project according to the logic of the inner exigencies that the science of metaphysics
required of itself: “And so to proceed with the greatest concision and brevity, and finally to be able to
treat the things according to an appropriate method, we shall abstain – in that which concerns the text
of Aristotle – from prolix explanations, and will consider the things themselves to which this
wisdom is directed, with the order of the theory and the exposition that accords with them better”
(DM 2 prol.). Nothing quite like the Disputationes metaphysicae had ever been produced before,
and, while other Renaissance thinkers (such as Agostino Nifo, Crisostomo Javelli, and Diego Mas)
authored texts that explored metaphysical themes explicitly and protractedly, none had produced a
work that had the breadth, systematicity, and exhaustiveness of Suárez’s 2,000-page masterpiece
(Pereira 2007, p. 14).
Its novelty is undeniable, but so too is the Disputationes metaphysicae’s continuity with the
medieval tradition. Étienne Gilson notes that insofar as the Disputationes locate their various theses
against the larger backdrop of the scholastic tradition and only after having evaluated thoroughly the
claims made within that tradition concerning the issue at hand are they properly understood as an
extension of medieval thought (Gilson 1956, p. 96). Indeed, according to Gilson, “Suarez enjoys
such a knowledge of mediaeval philosophy as to put to shame any modern historian of medieval
thought” (Gilson 1956, p. 99). Despite his embeddedness within a continuing tradition, the origi-
nality of a creative thinker shines through clearly. The opening disputatio examines the nature of
metaphysics in general and attempts to determine the proper object of metaphysics. Suárez considers
and rejects six theses concerning the adequate object of metaphysics before advancing his own claim
that metaphysics has its adequate object being insofar as it is real being (ens in quantum ens reale)
(DM 1.1.26). This opinion, notes Suárez, is consonant with the majority of the tradition and agrees
with Thomas Aquinas, Alexander of Hales, Duns Scotus, Albertus Magnus, Alexander of
Aphrodisias, and several who have followed in their wake. What is more, so construed, metaphysics
considers not only the divine being but other immaterial and material substances as well as their real
accidents. Excluded, however, are beings of reason and ens per accidens (ibid.).
In the second disputatio, Suárez treats the character of being in general, its properties, and its
causes, a task which is carried out in the remainder of the first part of the Disputationes metaphysicae
(i.e., disputes 1 through 27). More proximately, Suárez is concerned with the features of being that
allow the natural powers of the intellect to grasp it. Here, he turns to an examination of formal and
objective concepts as they pertain to metaphysics. A formal concept, explains Suárez in agreement
with common scholastic teaching, “is said to be the act itself, or (what is the same) the verbum by
which the intellect conceives some thing or common feature [commune rationem]” (DM 2.1.1). To
this the Jesuit contrasts the objective concept which is “said to be the thing or ratio which is properly
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and immediately known or represented by the formal concept” (ibid.). By way of example, Suárez
explains that when one conceives a man, that act, which is effected in the mind for the purpose of
conceiving a man, is called the formal concept, but the known man represented by that act is called
the objective concept, a “concept,” Suárez adds, that is so called through extrinsic denomination
relative to the formal concept through which its object is said to be conceived (ibid). The latter
concept is of chief importance for Suárez since not only does it pertain to singular things, it also
pertains to universals, confused things, and common features among things as well as privations,
negations, and the like. The second disputation primarily explicates the objective concept of being as
such according to its complete abstraction, in which concept is, for Suárez, the “object of
metaphysics.”
Since an examination of the objective concept is laden with great difficulties, Suárez proposes to
conduct his investigation by turning to the formal concept since it is “more knowable” (notior) than
the objective concept (ibid., 2.1.1). What is more, since the formal concept, objective concept, and
vox signifying them maintain a proportional relationship among themselves, Suárez thinks that one
can argue from the one to the other (ibid., 2.2.24). Some have suggested that the Jesuit’s approach,
though realist in orientation, adumbrates modernity’s epistemological shift, epitomized by René
Descartes who makes an intramental subjective act (consciousness) – the correlate to the formal
concept–the measure and guarantor of the real, the correlate to the objective concept (Pereira 2007,
31, pp. 137–139).
The third disputation concerns the properties and principles of being in general. Here, one finds
Suárez’s transcendental analysis of the concept of being in which he differentiates himself from
Scotus (DM 3.1.1–2), with whom, prima facie, the Doctor Eximius shares many points of similarity.
Perhaps the most significant difference is that unlike Scotus, who regards the concept of being as
simpliciter simplex – and thus as ultimately determinable by its transcendental disjunctive relations
(e.g., infinite-possible, necessary-possible, etc.) – Suárez maintains that the concept of being is a
confused one that “intimately transcends” its inferiora (3.1.6–8). As such, being is not really distinct
from its passiones; it is only conceptually distinct. This conceptual distinction has a basis in reality
(ibid., 3.1.6), which implies, for Suárez, that being really includes its passiones, which are merely
prescinded from in the intellect’s inadequate conception of being (ibid., 3.1.12).
The fourth disputation explores transcendental unity in general. Suárez retains the by-then
traditional claim that “unity adds nothing positive above being, neither in terms of a conceptual
nor real addition, nor [does it stem] from the nature of the thing, nor only from the character of a
distinct being” (ibid., 4.1.6). Rather, unity expresses a being’s indivision by means of the negation of
divisibility. Accordingly, inasmuch as unity is predicated upon a negation, it is conceived in terms of
a relation of reason (ibid., 4.1.16). The fifth disputation narrows Suárez’s transcendental analysis of
unity to a consideration of individual unity and its principle. He explains the character of an
individual or singular being by saying that it is “everything which is an actual being, or which
exists, or is capable of immediately existing” (ibid., 5.1.4). Individuality does not add any real being
to a common or specific nature (ibid., 5.2.8–9). What is fundamentally at issue here is the principle of
individuation. Suárez rejects the Thomistic claim that signate matter functions as the individuating
principle (ibid., 5.3.9–33), nor does the Jesuit accept the claim, attributed to Durandus, that
substantial form serves as the principle of individuation for a material substance (ibid., 5.4.3).
Finally, Suárez settles upon the notion that “in all singular substances, there is nothing lacking for the
principle of individuation besides its own entity, nor beyond the intrinsic principles that are
consonant with its being” (ibid., 5.6.1). The sixth disputation continues Suárez’s exploration of
unity but now with respect to the unity of forms and universals. He considers the Scotistic position,
which holds that there is a formal unity in things that is distinct from a thing’s numerical (individual)
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unity, as well as the Thomistic position, which holds that essence, taken precisively from the
individual, does not have any real entity. Suárez agrees with all insofar as each holds that a per se
formal unity congruent with each and every essence or nature is found in all things (ibid., 6.1.8). He
disagrees, however, in maintaining that the distinction between that formal unity and the individual
is had through reason and does not stem from the thing or its nature (ibid., 6.1.9–10).
Since a recurring theme in the previous disputations is the notion of “distinction,” Suárez devotes
his seventh disputatio to a study of the issue. He first explores the nature of real distinction and then
addresses the nature of a rational distinction. Briefly, a real distinction is basically the distinction of
“a thing from a thing” (ibid., 7.1.1). Here, Suárez adduces the example of the distinctions that is
obtained between and among various supposita and their accidents. A rational distinction, in
contrast, “is that which formally and actually is not in things, which are thus denominated distinct,
just as they exist in themselves, but only as our concepts subsist [in them], and from them they
receive some denomination. . .” (ibid., 7.1.4). As an example of a rational distinction, Suárez points
to the distinction between and among attributes in God and also the relation of identity. The Jesuit
then differentiates among various sorts of rational distinction. That distinction which has no
foundation in a thing or reality is called a distinctio rationis ratiocinantis, which originates solely
from functioning of the intellect. In contrast, a distinction that has a foundation in a thing is called a
distinctio rationis ratiocinatae, in which distinction has some basis in reality prior to the operation of
the intellect (ibid.).
With the basis established for the distinctions thus far employed, Suárez returns to his transcen-
dental considerations and in the next four disputations addresses truth (disputations eight and nine)
and goodness (disputations 10 and 11). Among the passiones entis truth is prior to goodness but is
subsequent to unity. Suárez’s reason for this order stems from the fact that the intellect, to which
corresponds truth, is prior to the potentiality of the will, to which corresponds the good (ibid.,
8 prol.). Following the “common opinion,” Suárez holds that truth – as well as falsity – resides in the
intellect’s composing and dividing. Nevertheless he also admits that transcendental truth is intrin-
sically said of real being itself (ibid., 8.7.24). Ultimately, such truth, while still denoting a relation-
ship between the mind and the thing, consists in a relationship of correspondence to the divine mind
(ibid., 8.7.28–31). Disputation nine treats the opposite of truth, namely, falsity. Unlike truth, Suárez
argues that falsity is not a feature or property of things. In fact, something can only be called “false”
in a kind of metaphorical sense by means of extrinsic denomination (ibid., 9.1.6).
The tenth disputation begins Suárez’s treatment of transcendental goodness. He considers theories
that hold goodness to be a relation of reason and others that maintain it to be a real relation. Goodness
does not add anything to being except the character of agreement (convenientiae), which is not a
relation, Suárez insists, but only connotes the order between some nature and its own inclination,
capacity, or conjunction with a perfection; thus, goodness is rightly said to be the perfection of a
thing (ibid., 10.1.12) and is founded on being (ibid., 10.3.3). The eleventh disputation explores the
converse of goodness: evil. Like the previous scholastic tradition, Suárez holds that evil is not some
thing or a positive form, nor is it merely a negation. Rather, evil is a privation of some perfection that
should be present in a being (ibid., 11.1.3).
Disputation 12 begins a protracted treatment of the causes of being in general, followed by
specific studies on the material cause of substances (disputation 13), the material cause of accidents
(disputation 14), the formal cause of substances (disputation 15), the formal cause of accidents
(disputation 16), efficient causality in general (disputation 17), proximate efficient causes
(disputation 18), and necessity and contingency in efficient causality (disputation 19). Disputations
20 through 22 focus on creation as a specific instance of causality and related themes, namely, the
concurrence of primary and secondary causes and the conservation of being. Returning to his
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treatment of the remaining four Aristotelian causes, the 23rd disputation treats final causality in
general before examining – in disputation 24 – the ultimate end in particular. Suárez studies
exemplar causality in the 25th disputation, and then in the 26th disputation, he considers the causal
community that emerges between causes and their effects, in which it is seen that no effect exceeds
the perfection of its cause. Disputation 27 closes the first part of the Disputationes metaphysicae and
offers a comparison of causes as they relate among themselves.
The second part of the Disputationes metaphysicae opens with the 28th disputation in which
Suárez traces the descent of the common concept of being to its inferiora, namely, the disjuncts’
infinite and finite being. Important here is Suárez’s doctrine of the analogia entis, which attempts to
balance two metaphysical dynamics: the unitary concept of being and the priority-posteriority of that
concept as it descends to its inferiora. While Suárez is committed to the unitary concept of being,
owing to the scientific demands of metaphysics that require a unified subject (DM 28.3.15), he does
not embrace the Scotistic doctrine of univocity (ibid., 28.3.5). Suárez’s disagreement with Scotus
stems from the fact that, according to the Franciscan thinker, a univocal concept descends to its
inferiora equally without an ordering of priority and posteriority. But, in the Jesuit’s eyes, there is an
order in the descent of the concept of being since it pertains first (per prius) to God, who is being
essentially, and secondarily (per posterius) to creatures, which are being per participationem (ibid.,
28.3.17). In noting an ordered relation within the concept of being, Suárez insists upon its analogical
character. Yet the kind of analogy advocated here is far from the standard Thomistic view espoused
by Cajetan and later affirmed by John of St. Thomas. In fact, Suárez’s view of analogy is hardly
Thomistic at all. For Cajetan, analogy was understood in terms of proper proportionality – that is to
say, a four-term relationship in which a:b::c:d – and attribution was inappropriate to a metaphysical
project since, according to the Renaissance Dominican, attribution is entirely extrinsic. Yet, as
Suárez sees it, proportionality is extrinsic and attribution – which denotes an ordered relation of
cause to effect – functions intrinsically, whereby it is capable of accommodating the exigencies
proper to being (ibid., 28.3.11).
The 29th disputation is the locus of Suárez’s argument for God’s existence. He allies himself with
thinkers such as Albertus Magnus and Duns Scotus and, more remotely, with Avicenna, insofar as
they favored an argument that was more metaphysical in character than the physical argument that
had been the choice of Averroes (ibid., 29.1.3). Predisposed to a metaphysical approach, the Jesuit
finds Thomas’s proof centered upon the claim that “omne quod movetur ab alio movetur” is
insufficient for the task of demonstrating God for the reason that there are instances in which the
proposition simply does not hold, for example, actions of the will (ibid., 29.1.7), nor can it attain an
immaterial first cause (ibid., 29.1.8). Accordingly, Suárez reframes the premise metaphysically as:
“omne quod fit ab alio fit” (ibid., 29.1.20). He thus formulates his argument for God’s existence as
follows: “every being is made or not made (i.e., uncreated); but not all beings in the universe can be
made; therefore it is necessary for there to be some being that is not made (or uncreated)” (ibid.,
29.1.21). The major premise, argues Suárez, is evident since its necessity derives from two
contraries; the minor premise argues against the possibility of an infinite regress with respect to
created creator-beings and demands that one arrive at last at an uncreated-creator (ibid.).
After having demonstrated God’s existence, disputation 30 develops Suárez’s natural theology
and proceeds to an examination of what God is. Hardly surprising, Suárez attributes all entitative
perfection to God (ibid., 30.1.1). Additionally, despite the fact that finitude and infinitude have been
understood to be attributes of mass, Suárez argues that God is properly understood as infinite (ibid.,
30.2.2). He disagrees, however, with Thomas Aquinas who attributes infinitude to God on account
of the divine esse’s not being received into some distinct essence or potentiality that would serve as a
limitation (ibid., 30.2.19). Rather, as Suárez sees it, God’s infinity consists in His possessing in His
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own esse the totality of all entitative perfection (ibid., 30.2.21). Only after having established God’s
complete perfection and infinitude does Suárez then conclude that God is pure act and entirely
simple. The Jesuit then demonstrates in succession God’s divine attributes: ubiquity, freedom, unity,
incomprehensibility, ineffability, life, knowledge, and will.
The 31st disputation moves on to a consideration of finite being, in particular, the relationship or
distinction between finite essence and esse. By “esse,” Suárez explains that he means the “actual
existence of a thing” (ibid., 31.1.2). He first considers the (Thomistic) thesis that esse and essence are
really distinct and, then, the (Scotistic) claim that their distinction stems from the nature of the thing,
which is to say they are formally distinct. Suárez, however, describes and affirms a third thesis,
namely, that esse and essence are distinct only according to reason (ibid., 31.1.13). As such, the
Jesuit argues that prior to God’s production of a creature, the creature’s essence is “entirely nothing”
(ibid., 31.2.1).
Disputation 32 focuses on created being in general and considers its division into substance and
accident(s). The next four disputations (33–36) treat the nature of substance in general (including a
discussion about the difference between primary and secondary substances), supposita, subsistence
and its causes, and immaterial substances and their attributes. Of particular note, here, is Suárez’s
claim, supported by several arguments, that the existence of spiritual substances besides God can be
demonstrated (DM 35.1). It is not repugnant, ex parte rei, that they should exist, nor is it impossible
that the power to produce them efficiently should be lacking of the first cause. In effect, Suárez
argues that angels are possible (ibid., 35.1.3). He also maintains that the existence of an immaterial
soul, which is incomplete yet immortal, suggests the possibility of the existence of a spiritual being
that is not incomplete but more perfect than the soul (ibid., 35.1.4). Suárez also argues that the
perfection of the universe requires grades of immaterial beings (ibid., 35.1.5).
The 36th disputation descends from a consideration of spiritual substances to a treatment of
material substances, which are essentially the same, says Suárez, as corporeal substances that are
composed of matter and form (ibid., 36.1.12). Additionally, the Jesuit rejects Averroes’ claim that a
material substance’s essence consists only in its form and follows, instead, Thomas, who argues that
matter must also be reckoned to be part of the essence (ibid., 36.2.3).
The 37th disputation begins Suárez’s treatment of the last nine Aristotelian predicaments,
beginning, first, with a consideration of the nature of accidents in general, then explaining accidents’
relation to substance in terms of priority and posteriority (disputatio 38), accounting for division of
accidents into nine highest genera (disputatio 39), and, finally (disputationes 40 through 53),
moving onto an examination of each accident individually. Disputations 40 and 41 deal with
continuous and discrete quantity, respectively, while disputation 42 examines quality. Potency and
act form the subject of the 43rd disputation. Disputatio 44 treats various habitus. The next two
disputations return to a deeper consideration of quality in terms of contrariety (disputatio 45) and
intensity (intensio) (disputatio 46). The 47th dispute addresses relation in general and in particular
(viz., real, rational, etc.). Disputations 48 and 49 treat action and passion, respectively. Duration is
then examined in disputatio 50. In the next two disputations Suárez attempts to establish a subtle but
nevertheless real difference between place (ubi) (disputatio 51) and position (situ) (disputatio 52).
That difference, he explains, amounts to the fact that ubi pertains to being “present” somewhere in
terms of distance, but situ pertains to a thing’s disposition in itself that results from an ordering of
parts in a location, in which ordering does not include the notion of being “present” (DM 52.1.9).
Then, in the 53rd disputation Suárez returns to habitus, but this time from the perspective of its being
a certain genus of accident, that is, he considers it here as a quality or disposition (or a certain species
thereof) of permanence.
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Finally, Suárez concludes his mammoth Disputationes metaphysicae with a discussion of entia
rationis (disputatio 54). At the onset of his metaphysical project, Suárez had clearly excluded entia
rationis from the scope of metaphysics (DM 1.1.6). His reason was that entia rationis and ens reale
do not fall under the same common concept of being (ibid.,1.1.4), in which concept is the adequate
object of metaphysics (ibid., 2.2.1). Be that as it may, Suárez considers the examination of entia
rationis as beneficial to the study of real being as well as for the successful progress of other sciences
(ibid., prol.1). Beings of reason and real beings, though they have no metaphysical community,
enjoy an analogical community in terms of proper proportionality (ibid., 1.1.5). As Suárez sees it,
the “being” proper to entia rationis is simply that of being thought or esse objectivum. As such they
only have an efficient cause, namely, the intellect that produces them, but none of the other four
causes.
De legibus ac deo legislatore

The legal counterpart to the Disputationes metaphysicae, the De legibus is a massive and systematic
exposition of law in all its categories: divine or eternal, natural, international (i.e., jus gentium), and
positive or human. Composed of ten books, the De legibus begins with a consideration of law in
general, the signification of the name “law,” and related topics of concern (e.g., justice, the necessity
of law, law’s character or ratio, etc.). For Suárez, taken in its most fundamental sense, law is simply
the rule of our operations and measure of their goodness or lack thereof (De leg. 1.1.1). He adverts to
Plato’s discussion of matters related to law the Meno wherein a twofold distinction is deployed
between “art” and “custom,” to which are added the notions of “order” and, with the Timaeus and
Gorgias in mind, “natural propensity” (ibid., 1.1.2). Suárez then approaches law etymologically and
tells the reader that “law” is drawn from the term “binding” (ligando) since law’s “propter effect is to
bind or oblige” (ibid., 1.1.9). Also of concern in the first book is the relationship between law and
justice (jus). Justice signifies fairness and equality, which the law “prescribes” (ibid., 1.2.4); more
specifically, “law” signifies “commanding” or “ordering” (jubendo), which Suárez identifies as the
etymological origin of justice (jus) (ibid., 1.2.6).
In the second book of the De legibus, Suárez identifies and examines the nature of specific kinds
of law, beginning with the divine or eternal law. Despite the claim that there can be no eternal law
since it requires that it be imposed upon someone and there is no creature coeternal with God upon
whom the law could be imposed (ibid., 2.1.1), Suárez cites the common opinion of the theologians as
militating against this position (ibid., 2.1.3–4). To this objection, Suárez responds with a distinction.
Law can be taken in a twofold manner: first, as an internal disposition of the legislator and, second,
as externally constituted through its imposition upon subjects. In the first sense, law can be eternally
attributed to God, though not in the second (ibid., 2.1.5). For Suárez, the eternal law is fundamen-
tally associated with the divine will. He denies that it governs immanent divine actions, such as the
generation of the Word and Spiration of the Holy Spirit, for these actions follow entirely from the
nature of God (ibid., 2.2.2). Rather, the eternal law pertains to God’s free operations toward creation,
that is to say, it pertains to the order God establishes within creation and the providential actions by
which He governs the world (ibid., 2.2.3–4, 12–13).
At this point the concern arises whether the eternal law is principally a matter of the divine mind or
the divine will (ibid., 2.3.1). Suárez emphasizes the divine will and, in so doing, distinguishes
himself from Thomas, who associates the eternal law with divine reason (Doyle, p. 14). For Suárez,
the eternal law concerns the absolutely free decrees of God as they establish order, either generally as
all parts of the universe are ordered to a common good, or immediately as these parts agree with the
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character of the whole universe (ratione totius universi), or specifically with respect to the order by
which intellectual creatures measure their own actions (De leg., 2.3.6). While divine providence, in
terms of its governance, would seem to pertain to the eternal law, Suárez is careful to distinguish the
two and follows Thomas in holding that the eternal law is compared to providence as general
principle to particular conclusions or actions, just as occurs in the case with humans for whom first
practical principles are compared to prudence (ibid., 2.3.12). Moreover, as the eternal law “is God
Himself,” it has no cause over it (ibid., 2.4.1) but is the cause of certain effects that follow from
it. Here, Suárez notes that the eternal law extends to its inferiors, namely, creatures, not so much by
imposing obligation upon them, but by inducing in them an “instinct, inclination, or naturally
determined impetus to one thing” (ibid., 2.4.1).
In relating the eternal law to various other laws, Suárez explains that the eternal law is participated
in by the natural law which concerns the rational order discoverable in nature; in a particular way, the
natural law concerns those beings of a rational nature (ibid., 2.2.1), for it is, he says, “nothing other
than rational nature itself” (ibid.). The reason for this claim stems from the fact that a rational being
has the intellectual power to discern what is in accord (or discordant) with its own nature (ibid.,
2.5.1). In fact, Suárez maintains that the natural law most properly exists in the actual judgment of
the mind (ibid., 2.5.14). Nevertheless, it is distinct from conscience. Natural law pertains to a general
rule regarding action, whereas conscience pertains to a particular situation or practice; in short, the
latter is the application of the law to a particular work. Thus conscience applies not only the natural
law, Suárez says, but other kinds of law (divine or human) as well (ibid., 2.5.15). In its most general
consideration, then, the basic precept of the natural law is do good and avoid evil (ibid., 2.7.5).
Because the natural law is a feature of rational nature itself, Suárez disagrees with those (e.g.,
Navarrus and Sancius) who hold that it can be abrogated or dispensed by any other law or human
power (ibid., 2.14.1). The pope, who is unable to dispense the divine law, is certainly not able to
dispense the natural law (ibid., 2.14.5) nor is the king for that matter (ibid., 2.14.10). What is more,
Suárez thinks that not even the absolute power of God is able to dispense with the natural law.
Though the natural law, he says, includes the precepts and prohibitions of God, there is nevertheless
supposed within nature an intrinsic value or worth (honestum), and, thus, God cannot not prohibit
the rational creature from carrying out that which natural reason shows to be evil and dissonant with
nature which is immutable (ibid., 2.15.4).
Stemming from the natural law is the jus gentium or law of nations. The jus gentium is natural in
the sense that it derives from the dictates of (natural) human reason, but it is not to be confused as it
often is, Suárez thinks, with the natural law. Though the jus gentium is “nearest” to the natural law, it
is actually between the natural law and human law (ibid., 2.17.1). Suárez notes that some distinguish
natural law from the jus gentium insofar as the former is common to brutes as well as humans,
whereas the latter pertains exclusively to the social relations of humans (ibid., 2.17.3). The Jesuit
himself, however, marks a distinction between the two by noting that the natural law pertains to
conclusions that are necessary that follow, not upon the will of individuals or society, but upon the
principles of nature. The jus gentium, however, pertains to those conclusions that, though they
follow from nature, are not absolutely necessary but consider the circumstances attendant upon
human society and its conservation (ibid., 2.17.9). Accordingly, the jus gentium cannot be reduced to
the natural law, nor can it be identified merely with conventional character of human positive law.
Though it stems from the consistent social customs practiced across almost all nations, it does so
with respect to a nature that is diversified across various cultural contexts (ibid., 2.19.6). The upshot
of the jus gentium so construed is that it can serve as common stage of social discourse among
various cultures. To be sure, the Jesuit points out that the jus gentium does not have as its intent or
goal the formation of a global society or single nation. Rather, it serves as a forum for each and every
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republic, whereby each nation can interact justly and, if need be, redress injuries (ibid., 2.18.5). The
jus gentium possesses special competence, then, to address issues such as ambassadorial privileges,
commerce, war, trade, and even marriage (ibid., 2.19.10).
Book three of the De legibus descends from a consideration of the natural character of law to a
treatment of positive human law. One of the main theoretical questions regarding human law is
“whether humans can impose obligations upon themselves through proper laws” (ibid., 3.1.1). There
is some doubt whether such a possibility exists since humans are free beings and, as sacred scripture
itself says, “only God is the king, legislator, and master of men” (ibid.). Be that as it may, Suárez
argues that man is firstly a social animal and naturally and rightly seeks to live in community (ibid.,
3.1.3). The Jesuit then notes that a community can either be familial or political. The former is
“maximally natural and quasi fundamental” (ibid.), but, because of want or needs that could not be
fulfilled within familial society, humans enter into community with others, thereby generating the
state (ibid.). This association, moreover, is a free consequence of the will, and it is from the consent
of its constitutive individuals that the state receives its power (ibid., 3.3.1). Of course, Suárez thinks
that the ability to enter into agreement with the state is ultimately given by God: “In this matter the
common opinion is seen to be that this power [to form political communities and author legislation]
is given immediately by God as the author of nature; therefore men quasi-dispose matter and effect a
capable subject with this power, God, however, quasi-bestows the form giving this power” (ibid.,
3.3.2). God has thus immediately given to humanity the power to punish evil doers (even to the point
of putting them to death), to enact policies encouraging the good, to impose obligations, and to
vindicate injuries of individuals (ibid., 3.3.3). Nevertheless, the state receives its power immediately
from the people, and it is up to them to determine what form of government to adopt (Def. fid. 3.2.9).
One may thus justly consider Suárez to be the progenitor of modern day democracy (Pereira 2007,
p. 20). Still, Suárez himself thinks that monarchies are the best form of government (De leg., 3.4.1).
But even so, the king’s authority and power is not absolute, for that power stems not immediately
from God but is instead derived from the people (Def. fid. 3.2.8). Accordingly, when a king steps
beyond his authority and becomes tyrannical – as was the case with James I, according to Suárez in
agreement with Bellarmine – the populace has the right to defend itself (ibid. 3.3.3). Indeed, Suárez
even holds that it is just for a person attacked by a tyrannical king to defend himself, even if it should
result in the king’s death (Def. fid., 6.4.5; Doyle, p. 347).
The fourth book of the De legibus moves onto a treatment of canon law, that is, Church law. The
Church, Suárez argues, does indeed have the power to rule and govern itself; he cites both biblical
authority – in which Christ gives the keys of the kingdom (i.e., authority) to Peter to bind and loose
sins (De leg., 4.1.2) – and Church tradition (ibid., 4.1.5). The Jesuit marks a distinction between
canon and civil law insofar as each has distinct ends. Canon law pertains to supernatural felicity, the
final unification of diversity, and the sanctification of the soul; civil law, however, pertains to the
temporal governance of the political body (ibid., 4.2.1). The authority with respect to canon law
pertains in a special way to the pope since, according to Suárez, Christ immediately gave Peter
authority (ibid., 4.3.1). Nevertheless, that authority was also extended to the rest of the apostles such
that Peter – the pope – could bestow the authority he received to other members of the Church; here,
Suárez has in mind the rest of the bishops of the Church. Like Bellarmine, Suárez accords primacy to
the pope – the head of the Church – and denies that the rest of the apostles are equal in power or
jurisdiction (ibid., 4.3.4). But inevitably the question arises as to who is superior in jurisdiction and
power: the papacy or the civil ruler; the Church or the state? Not surprisingly, Suárez accords
supremacy to the Church. Nevertheless, Suárez’s answer is far from simplistic and recognizes the
difficulties involved in Church-state relations. The Church, through the ministry of its priests, has
the power to remit sins, ordain other priests, bind and dissolve censures, and dispense from the
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spiritual treasuries of the Church. In terms of its universal extension, then, Suárez holds that ecclesial
power is “clearly . . . far more excellent than civil power” (ibid., 4.8.1). In part, Suárez argues for the
supremacy of the Church over the state because of the former’s unity as a mystical body, which
stands over the diversity of individual states (ibid., 4.9.3). The Church has jurisdiction over its
subjects and thereby over members of the state. The state is related to the Church, in Suárez’s mind,
as the Church is itself related to Christ, namely, “as the body is subordinate to the soul” (ibid.). This
is not to say that Suárez sees no limit to the Church’s authority over the state, for the state retains its
right to immediate jurisdiction over its temporal affairs. The Church’s primacy, in contrast, concerns
a superiority of spiritual over temporal affairs (ibid., 4.11.3, 5).
Book five treats human law in its varieties, both written and non-written, and investigates their
relation to conscience, penalties, and contracts. Book six marks the beginning of the second division
of the De legibus, and in it Suárez considers who counts as the proper interpreter of law and what
those particular circumstances might be in which the law can be abrogated or emended. Book seven
studies the manner in which custom affects the formation of civil law, especially its codification.
Insofar as custom always involves (good) moral character as the source from which its actions
derive, the connection that morality has to the formation of law is examined (ibid., 7.1.4). Privilege
forms the subject of discussion in book eight, whereas the old and new divine laws form the topics of
books nine and ten, respectively. In book nine, Suárez notes that while the Mosaic law is obligatory,
it is a law that is incapable of “saving” (ibid., 9.7.1–14). The new law, however – treated in book
ten – exceeds and completes the old. The old law was necessary, he explains, but only as a
preparation for the new (ibid., 10.8.18). In fact, the two are related, says Suárez, as “truth to shadow”
(ibid., 10.8.18), such that if the old law is to have any salvific function, it is only through being
completed in Christ, whose blood has “opened the gates of heaven” (10.8.18).
De anima
Suárez’s explicit and most developed thought on human nature, the rational soul, and its various
faculties are found across the six books that compose his De anima. The first book examines the
substance, essence, and informing character of the rational soul. In this opening book, a rather
straightforward Aristotelian account of the soul and its nature is presented. Suárez maintains
Aristotle’s teaching that the soul is “the first act of a physical corporeal substance organized so as
to have the power of life,” and “that by which we live, feel, move about, and understand” (DA 1.1.1).
For Suárez, a discussion of the rational soul must be unfolded against the backdrop of Aristotle’s
philosophy of nature, which is ultimately understood in terms of the hylomorphic composition of
form and matter (ibid., 1.1.2). As there are many different kinds of material substances, some living
and some inanimate, and even among those substances that are living there are various grades (e.g.,
plants, animals, humans), the principle of differentiation cannot be matter – that which each kind of
substance has in common. Rather, the differentiation must derive from the formal principle, which is
simply what the tradition or “common opinion” has understood as the soul (ibid., 1.1.3, 4).
Although Suárez principally intends to examine the rational soul ex professo in the De anima, he
does find it necessary to account for its distinction from, but also continuity with, the lower souls,
namely, vegetative and sensitive souls (ibid., 1.4). Here, Suárez holds that that which is less perfect
can be separated from that which is more perfect. And, so, the sensitive soul, which is more perfect
than the vegetative soul, is separate therefrom and, a fortiori, so too is the rational soul. Thus, “when
animals sleep, they live as plants” (ibid., 1.5.1). But, Suárez is noting, here, a distinction between
and among grades of kinds of being, not (substantial) distinctions within one and the same being, for
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he disagrees with the theory, as taught by some medieval thinkers, that there is a plurality of
substantial forms within one and the same being (ibid., 1.6). All three – the vegetative, sensitive,
and rational – are united in one simplicity (ibid., 1.6.13), he says, and their distinction comes about
only through precisive abstraction (ibid., 1.6.14).
In the second book of the De anima, Suárez examines the various powers of the soul, especially its
nutritive and life powers. Here, he argues for a real distinction between the soul and all its powers
(Doyle, p. 13). Suárez locates his own position against the backdrop of four common theses
pertaining to the matter: first, there are those (such as Gabriel Vázquez and Ockham) who maintain
there is no distinction whatsoever between the essence of the soul and its powers; others argue for
only a formal distinction as does Duns Scotus; while still others, for example, Bonaventure, hold
there to be no distinction between the soul and its vegetative powers but maintain a distinction only
between the soul and its sensitive and rational powers; finally, Suárez cites Thomas, who holds that
the soul is “really distinct” from all its powers (ibid., 2.1.2). For example, the nutritive powers, notes
Suárez, whereby a thing exercises the operations attendant to life are accidental and thus distinct
from the substance of the soul (ibid., 2.1.4). Following Anselm, Suárez explains that vital powers,
insofar as they are vital, have a distinct definition (ratio) from the soul precisely as soul. Suárez then
attributes this difference in ratio to follow from a difference on the part of the things (ex parte rei)
involved. In short, the character of the soul, insofar as it is a form, is essentially ordered to a body,
whereas powers are essentially ordered to operation (ibid.).
The third book narrows the discussion to a consideration of the sentient soul and thus cognition,
its nature, and powers. Suárez examines the various external senses and notes what is specific to each
before passing to the next. Of some note here, while in the context of discussing sight, Suárez has
occasion to enter an excursus concerning the nature of light (ibid., 3.14). In such discussions the
limits of the Aristotelian physics, to which Suárez certainly subscribed, are reached. The “old view,”
which the Jesuit dismisses, simply holds the light is the manifestation of color. Others, however,
consider light to be a body. Suárez finds fault with this theory too and follows Thomas’s interpre-
tation of Aristotle, which holds that light is an active quality of the substantial form of fire (ibid.,
3.14.1). For Suárez’s part, he defines light as a “per se visible quality in the air taken just as an object”
(ibid., 3.14.5). Surprisingly absent from Suárez’s consideration here, especially considering the
Jesuit’s exhaustive grasp of the history of philosophy, is any mention of Robert Grosseteste’s De luce
in which the topic of light is treated at length in the latter’s cosmogonical account of the universe.
In the fourth book of the De anima, Suárez explores the nature of the intellectual power. The first
order of business is to determine what counts as the adequate object of the intellect. In this regard
Suárez considers and rejects the claim that the adequate object of the intellect is being in general.
Thomas, he notes, holds that the proper object of the intellect is the quiddity of a material thing, but,
following Scotus, Suárez shows why that theory is lacking. The intellect can know things beyond
that which is material, i.e., the angels and God. Also, the intellect grasps something insofar as it is
intelligible, but whatever has being is intelligible. Therefore, it cannot be the case that the intellect is
restricted to the quiddity of material things (ibid., 4.1.2). Thus, Suárez concludes that the adequate
object of the intellect is “being in its total latitude” (ibid., 4.1.3). Here, the Jesuit faces the question as
to whether or not beings of reason fall under the scope of being “in its total latitude” (Doyle, p. 13).
Despite the fact that real being and beings of reason do not possess a formal unity, Suárez holds that
beings of reason, though they have only objective being, presuppose real being. That is, beings of
reason always entail some order to real being, which is why negations and privations can only be
understood relative to real being (ibid., 4.1.4).
Also of particular note in the fourth book is Suárez’s claim that the intellect knows singular things,
as opposed to just universals (Doyle, p. 13). He notes contrariwise that Aristotle and his followers
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(viz., Alexander of Aphrodisius) insist that one of the chief differences between sensation and
intellection pertains the fact that senses know singular things but the intellect, which trades in
intelligible species, grasps universals (ibid., 4.3.1). Suárez also points out that, according to Thomas,
the intellect does not directly know the singular, but attains knowledge of the individual only
reflexively (ibid., 4.3.2). In contrast, the Jesuit thinks that the intellect forms distinct and proper
concepts of both universals and singular things. As it is the case that the intellect is capable of
forming propositions about both singular (e.g., “Peter is a man”) and universal things, it must be
capable of forming concepts corresponding to both. Additionally, both prudence and faith are
intellectual powers, yet each involves cognition of singular things. One must therefore maintain
the ability to form proper concepts, Suárez thinks, of the singular (ibid., 4.3.3).
Suárez devotes the fifth book of the De anima to a study of appetites. Appetites are shared in
common by both animate and inanimate things. A natural appetite, he says, is the propensity of
something to its own proper good (ibid., 5.1.1). Appetite seems to be a natural joining together, then,
of one thing with some other thing to which the former is ordered. This ordering need not necessarily
presuppose cognition (ibid.), and so the object of an appetite is whatever elicits such an act (ibid.,
5.1.2), but that object is always regarded as something good (ibid., 5.1.5).
The sixth and final book of the De anima is devoted to an exploration of the separated soul. Here,
Suárez notes some of the philosophical difficulties surrounding the matter, for example, whether the
being (esse) that the separated soul retains is the same being (esse) as the whole human (ibid., 6.1.1).
What is at issue is the metaphysical status of personhood since a person has always been understood
as a whole or complete substance. Yet a separated soul obviously lacks completeness. Suárez cites
Cajetan’s claim, which, although “obscure” and “was lacking efficacy” (non vendicabat), held truly
that the separated soul is a “semi-person” (ibid., 6.1.1). This is a position that Thomas Aquinas
himself had made (ST I, q. 75, a. 4, ad 2). Suárez thinks that the separate soul has the same
subsistence that it had in the body and that in experiencing separation, it does not, as Cajetan had
thought, experience a change in being (mutat entitatem) but only a change in a mode of being (DA,
6.1.3). The separated soul, on Suárez’s view, does not itself change or attain a new kind of
subsistence, but simply retains the kind of subsistence it already always had prior to the corruption
of the body (ibid., 6.1.4). Nevertheless, he does agree with Cajetan in calling the separated soul a
“semi-person,” for the reason that the subsistent soul remains only a part of the totality of a human
person (ibid., 6.1.5). “Absolutely speaking, the soul’s status in the body is more natural” (ibid.,
6.9.6), Suárez holds, and so the unnatural status of the separated soul lends credence for a
philosophically meaningful expectation of the resurrection of the body (Doyle, p. 14). After all, it
is maximally consonant with the inclination of the soul to be perpetually united to the body.
Accordingly, Suárez thinks that it falls to the providence of God, who is the author of nature, to
reunite the separated soul with a body that is in some way incorruptible so that one’s complete nature
and perfection can be attained (ibid., 6.9.6).
Suárez’s Legacy
It is impossible to overestimate the profound influence Francisco Suárez’s thought has had both on
succeeding generations of scholastic (especially Jesuit) philosophers and on canonical modern and
even postmodern thinkers. Long considered the father of modern philosophy, René Descartes’
association with Jesuit education, especially at La Flèche, has been well documented. Descartes
himself, in a letter to the French Jesuit Jacques Grandamy, acknowledges his profound intellectual
debt to the Society of Jesus and claims that they prepared the foundation for all his future learning. In
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a subsequent letter to Marin Mersenne, Descartes identifies the Conimbricenses, in particular

Francisco de Toledo and Antoñio Rubio, as especially significant to his intellectual formation.
Nevertheless, Suárez’s own thought is never too far away, and, in replying to Arnauld’s objections to
Descartes’ position on materially false ideas, the French philosopher appeals to the Doctor Eximius
to validate his own claims.
But Suárez’s influence may have had an even deeper, although perhaps subtler, influence on
modernity’s epistemological shift to the cognitive subject. As noted above, Suárez’s second dispu-
tation of the Disputationes metaphysicae addresses the relationship between formal and objective
concepts. The proper and adequate object of metaphysics, Suárez argues, is the common objective
concept of being. But, as he also maintains, since the objective concept of being is “more difficult to
understand” than the formal concept, which, as a product of our own intellect, is more knowable, his
metaphysical project will unfold with special reference to the formal concept (DM 2.1.1). In other
words, Suárez has placed a subjective act (the formal concept) as the criterion and judge of what is
real (the objective concept) (Pereira 2007, pp. 137–139). One might thus argue that the path to
modernity was clearly pointed out, and, though Suárez remained a metaphysical and epistemolog-
ical realist, the inversion of the mental over the real would be accomplished with the Cartesian
cogito’s elevation as the standard for objectivity and Clemens Timpler’s understanding of reality as
fundamentally the “pan noēton” (Doyle 2012 B, pp. 70–71).
Whereas Descartes, much to the frustration of his biographers, seemed reluctant to acknowledge
his sources and debts, Leibniz does not fail to provide an encomium of Suárez. The polymath tells
his readers that, as a youth, he devoured Suárez like a novel (Pereira 2007, p. 27). In fact, Suárez’s
claim that the principles of entity are themselves the principles of individuation (DM 5.6.1) no doubt
helped illuminate a philosophical option that led to Leibniz’s famous monadology. The great esteem
with which Leibniz held Suárez seemed to have been shared by his pupil Christian Wolff. Through-
out Wolff’s Philosophia prima sive ontologia, several scholastic theses are examined, but Suárez is
one of the few scholastics mentioned by name and almost always with appreciation. What seems
clear is that, for Wolff, Suárez represents the epitome of scholastic philosophy. When reflecting on
the character of being, Wolff argues that the meaning of being is ultimately resolved in terms of
essence; what is more, he cites Suárez as having taught the same thing. “Certainly Francisco Suarez
of the Society of Jesus, who among the Scholastics, has meditated more profoundly upon meta-
physical things, as is agreed upon, [holds] in his Disputationes metaphysicae. . . that the essence of a
thing is said to be what is the first, radically and intimate principle of actions and properties that agree
with the thing” (Wolff 1962, I 2.3.169). Finally, to the extent that Suárez helped shape Wolff’s
metaphysics, so would the Jesuit come to define metaphysics as Kant understood and rejected it. As
Gilson put it, “Suarez begot Wolff” (Gilson 1956, p. 112), to which it could be added without too
much exaggeration, and Wolff begot Kant. In short, one could argue, with great qualification and
nuance of course but no less accurately, that Suárez begot not only Wolff but – as Heidegger has
intimated – also modernity and even to a certain extent postmodernity. Heidegger writes, “With the
peculiar character which the Scholastics give it, Greek ontology has, in its essentials, travelled the
path that leads through the Disputationes metaphysicae of Suarez to the ‘metaphysics’ and tran-
scendental philosophy of modern times, determining even the foundations and the aims of Hegel’s
‘logic’” (Heidegger 1962, pp. 43–44).
As remarkable as his philosophical achievements and the lasting influence he has had on the
history of philosophy are, what is more remarkable is the radical contingency of it all. That is, it is
difficult to imagine how philosophy would have been reshaped had Suárez remained a reject of the
Society of Jesus and not given the opportunity to become, and not only for scholasticism (one may
justly argue), the Doctor Eximius.
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References
Primary Literature
Francesci Suarez RP (1856a) De leg.: De legibus ac deo legislatore, vols 5–6. Luis Vìves
Francesci Suarez RP (1856b) DA: De anima, vol 3. Luis Vìves
Francesci Suarez RP (1859a) Opera omnia, vols 28 + 1. Luis Vìves, Paris, 1856–1877 Unedited
Opuscula
Francesci Suarez RP (1859b) Def. fid.: Defensio fidei, vol 24. Luis Vìves
Francesci Suarez RP (1866) DM: Disputationes metaphysicae, vols 25–26. Luis Vìves
Aquinas T (1888) (ST) Summa theologiae. Rome
Coujou J-P (2010) Bibliografía suáreciana. Cuadernos de Pensamiento Español, Pamplona
Courtine J-F (1990) Suarez et le système de la métaphysique. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris
Darge R (2004) Suárez’ transzendentale Seinsaulegung und die Metaphysiktradition. E.J. Brill,
Leiden/Boston
De Scorraille R (1912) François Suarez de la Compagnie de Jésus, 2nd edn. P. Lethielleux, Paris
Doyle JP (2011) Collected studies on Francisco Suárez, S.J. (1548–1617). In: Salas V (ed). Leuven
University Press, Belgium
Doyle JP (2012) (B) On the borders of being and knowing: some late scholastic thoughts on
supertranscendental being. In: Salas VM (ed). Leuven University Press, Belgium
Fichter JH (1940) Man of Spain: Francis Suarez. Macmillan, New York
Gilson É (1956) Being and some philosophers. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies Press,
Toronto
Heidegger M (1962) Being and time (trans: Macquarrie J, Robinson E). Harper Collins, New York
Maurer A (1962) Medieval philosophy. Random House, New York
Noreña CG (1997) Francisco Suárez on democracy and international law. In: White K (ed) Hispanic
philosophy in the age of discovery. Catholic University of America Press, Washington, DC,
pp 257–271
Pereira J (2007) Suárez: between scholasticism and modernity. Marquette University Press,
Milwaukee
Sgarbi M (ed) (2010) Francisco Suárez and his legacy: the impact of Suárezian metaphysics and
epistemology on modern philosophy. Vita e Pensiero, Milan
Wolff C (1962) Philosophia prima sive ontologia. Georg Olms re-print, Frankfurt/Leipzig, 1736
Page 16 of 16
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Toletus, Franciscus
Born: 1532, Cordova (Spain)
Died: 14 September 1596, Rome
Simone Guidi*
Abstract
A Spanish theologian, the first Jesuit cardinal. Known for his influential commentaries on Aristotle’s
logic and physics. His Commentaria were widely used by the Jesuit schools, also influencing later
works such as the famous commentaries by the Conimbricenses.
Biography
A Jesuit theologian and philosopher, born in Cordova (Spain) on 4 October 1532 and died in Rome
on 14 September 1596. He studied philosophy in Valencia and theology in Salamanca, where he was
a pupil of Domingo de Soto. There he later became a professor of philosophy. In 1558 he joined the
Company of Jesus and was sent to Rome, where he taught as a philosophy professor at the Collegio
Romano from 1559 to 1563. Later, from 1563 to 1569, he taught theology there. He received
diplomatic postings and became, in 1593, the first cardinal in the history of the Jesuits.
Innovative Aspects
Influential as a theologian whose commentaries on Aristotle (Toletus 1561, 1572, 1573, 1574, 1575)
were widely used by the Jesuit schools, also influencing later works such as the famous commen-
taries by the Conimbricenses, Toledo was one of the greatest sixteenth century interpreters of the
Stagirite and the Bible. He basically took Thomas Aquinas as his point of reference in his reading of
Aristotle, often taking different positions from Aquinas’s and developing his own personal inter-
pretations characterized by the eclecticism typical of his Order (Giacon 1947).
Logic and Theory of Knowledge

Among Toledo’s important works are his commentaries on Aristotelian logic (Toledo 1572), by
which the Spanish theologian contributed to a reworking of the so-called minor logic as well as
theory of knowledge. Unlike Thomas, Toledo recognizes direct knowledge of the material singular
in its individuality and thus held that the direct object of knowledge is not the thing in its generality
but in its specificity. Taking the same position as Durando of San Porziano, the Cordovan cardinal
denied the existence of an independently acting intellect and thus denied that any universal is
produced by it in the spirit, as Cajetano had claimed (Hurter Stegm€ uller 1935). The acting intellect is
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however the same as the possible one: the act of abstraction is the operation of reaching beyond the
incidental characteristics of things and considering substance in itself.
Metaphysics and Hylomorphism

Concerning metaphysics, Toledo accepted the analogical nature of thing-concepts but disagreed
with Thomas’s doctrines about the distinction between essence and existence (which he denied) and
about the relationship between acts and potentialities, while recognizing three different forms of act:
formal, entitative, and existential. As would be the case with Suárez and other Jesuit Aristotelians,
Toledo did not believe that matter is only potentiality but that it exists in its own right, thus giving it
the status of a complete substance. He also denied, therefore, that it is a principle of identification of
the composite, as Thomas had held, since that role is taken on by form itself Hurter Echarri 1950.
Matter, according to Toledo and according to Thomas before him, has a peculiar inclination to
receive form, which is in a way indistinguishable from its very nature as matter (Des Chene 1996).
According to Toledo, there are three kinds of “appetitus” that matter shows in relation to form:
intellectual, sensory, and natural. The natural ones are those that are spontaneous tendencies shown
by things (neither on a formal nor on a material level) towards Good, assigned to them by God
himself, and matter is in this sense proportioned for any form it may receive, though it has one
already (Des Chene 2000).
Toledo’s thought is also characterized by a probabilistic attitude to a wide range of issues: the
distinction between the faculties and the soul is, he holds, only probable rather than real, as is the
number of categories, which had been set by Aristotle at ten.
Cross-References
▶ Antonius Rubius
▶ Conimbricenses
▶ Pedro da Fonseca
▶ Thomism
References
Primary Literature
Toletus F (1561) Introductio in dialecticam Aristotelis in officina Vincentii Lucchrini. Rome
Toletus F (1572) Commentaria una cum quæstionibus in universam Aristotelis logicam. Rome
Toletus F (1573) Commentaria de physica auscultatione apud Iuntas. Venice
Toletus F (1574) De anima apud Iuntas. Venice
Toletus F (1575) De generatione et corruptione apud Iuntas. Venice
Toletus F (1615–1616) Opera omnia philosophica: Koln 1615–1616. Eingeleitet von Wilhelm Risse
Olms. Hildesheim
Ariew R (1999) Descartes and the last scholastics Cornell University Press. Ithaca
Des Chene D (1996) Physiologia: natural philosophy in Late Aristotelian and Cartesian thought
Cornell University Press. Ithaca
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Des Chene D (2000) Life’s form: Late Aristotelian conceptions of the soul Cornell University Press.
Ithaca
Dvoĕák P (2009) The relational logic of Franciscus Toletus and Petrus Fonseca. Int J Philos 14:87
Fowler CF (1999) Descartes on the human soul: philosophy and the demands of Christian doctrine.
Kluwer, Netherlands
Giacon C (1947) La seconda scolastica. Precedenze teoretiche ai problemi giuridici Bocca, Milano.
Toledo, Pereira, Fonseca, Molina, Suárez
Giard L (1995) Les Jésuites à la Renaissance: système éducatif et production du savoir PUF. Paris
Hurter H, Stegm€uller F (1935) Tolet et Cajétan. Rev Thomiste 39:358–370
Hurter H, Echarri J (1950) Un influjo español desconocido en la formación del sistema cartesiano.
Dos textos paralelos de Toledo y Descartes sobre el espacio. Pensamiento 6:291–323
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Torres Rámila, Pedro de

Born: 1583, Villarcayo
Died: 1658, Alcalà de Henares
Simone Guidi*
Abstract
A Spanish poet and humanist. He owes what little fame he has had to his work Spongia, published in
1617 and now lost, in which he accused Lope de Vega for his distance from Aristotle’s precepts.
Juan Pablo Ricci; Petro de Torres Ramilae; Trepus Ruitanus Lamiva
Biography
A Spanish poet and humanist. Born of humble origins in Villarcayo in 1583. Died in Alcalà de
Henares in 1658. He graduated from the University of Alcalà in 1613 and was ordained in that year.
He was assigned to the church of Saints Justo and Pastor. His works, all lost, were often signed under
the pseudonyms of Trepus Ruitanus Lamiva and Juan Pablo Ricci (Columbario, 1618).
Torres Rámila owes what little fame he has had to his Spongia, a work published in 1617 and now
lost, in which he poured scorn on the works of Lope de Vega for their incompatibility with Aristotle’s
precepts (Entrambasaguas, 1967). It is known about thanks to the reply, Expostulatio Spongiae,
published (perhaps by Lope de Vega himself and some of his friends, probably Francisco López de
Aguilar or Juan de Fonseca y Figueroa) in 1618 under the pseudonym of Julio Columbario, which
quotes some passages from Spongia (Conde Parrado, 2012). It is probable that Expostulatio
damaged Torres Rámila’s literary career, resulting in him being criticized and ridiculed by the
literary community (Tubau, 2009, 2010).
Cross-References
▶ Lope de Vega
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References
Primary Literature
Columbario J (1618) Expostulatio Spongiae. Tricassibus
Conde Parrado P (2012) Invectivas latinescas. Anatomía de la Expostulatio Spongiae en defensa de
Lope de Vega. Castilla Estud Lit 3:37–93
Entrambasaguas J (1967) Una guerra literaria del Siglo de Oro: Lope de Vega y los preceptistas
aristotélicos. In: CSIC (ed) Estudios sobre Lope de Vega. Madrid
Tubau X (2009) El “Appendix ad Expostulationem Spongiae” de Alfonso Sánchez. In: Bellaterra
(ed) Aún no dejó la pluma. Estudios sobre el teatro de Lope de Vega. Barcelona, pp 323–369
Tubau X (2010) Temas e ideas de una obra perdida: la Spongia (1617) de Pedro de Torres Rámila.
Rev Filol Esp 90:303–330
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Valdés, Juan de
Born: 1509
Died: 1541
Terence O’Reillya* and K. Anipab

a
Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
b
Department of Spanish, Modern Languages, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
Abstract
The Spanish humanist Juan de Valdés made a significant contribution to sixteenth-century thought in
the two areas of linguistics and theology. Raised in a family of converso descent, he studied at the
University of Alcalá de Henares, and he spent the last decade of his life in Italy, where he wrote most
of his works. His writings, with one exception, remained unpublished in his lifetime, but they
circulated widely in manuscript during the sixteenth century and exercised a hidden but notable
influence on his contemporaries in Italy, Spain, and Northern Europe.
Biography
Biographical information on Valdés is patchy, fuzzy, and, to some extent, conjectural. There is no
consensus on the year of his birth; the dates that have been considered by scholars range from 1490
to 1510. The year of his death is not known for certain either (it ranges from 1540 to 1542, although
there is a near-consensus on 1541). Even the date of composition of the Diálogo de la lengua is not
known with certainty (it has been placed between 1533 and 1536, even though the vast majority of
scholars agree on 1535). Other types of blurred information about Valdés include the following: the
year in which he left Spain; his early stay in Rome and Naples; whether or not he never again set foot
on Spanish soil for the rest of his life, although recent research has had evidence to the contrary
(Crews 2008; Anipa 2014); and the precise nature of posts that he held during his residence in Naples
(recent archival evidence has shown that he worked, among other things, as a secret agent for
Charles V (Crews 2008). Uncertainties persist about the origins of the Valdés family that settled in
Cuenca, in the Middle Ages; they are believed to have come from either Asturias or Leon, but their
roots have also been traced to twelfth-century England, from where they were constrained to
migrate, due to nasty feuds in the royal circles where they belonged (Calvo Pérez 1991). And
whether Juan was a twin of his brother Alfonso remains uncertain (scholars’ views range from near-
certainty to strong doubts). Thus, the biography of Valdés remains an unfinished business.
The primary biographical information on Valdés that can be said to be known for certain includes
the following: Juan was born in Cuenca to Hernando de Valdés and María de la Barrera (both from
noble family backgrounds); he had ten siblings – six males and four females – (Crews 2008) (earlier
Renaissance scholarship had reported only four siblings); he had a converso ancestry, particularly on
his maternal side but also on his paternal grandmother’s side; he spent his youth in the service of the
Marquis of Villena and was tutored by Pedro Ruiz de Alcaraz; he studied at the University of Alcalá
de Henares under famous humanists, such as Juan de Vergara, and corresponded with Erasmus of
*Email: terence.oreilly@ucc.ie
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Rotterdam. We also know that, in Rome, Juan was a chamberlain to Pope Clement VII and served
three cardinals, roughly between 1531 and 1534, before settling in Naples, where his teachings
attracted a distinguished group of aristocrats, theologians, and humanists. There he composed most
of his major works. He died in 1541.
Writing on Language (K. Anipa)

Presenting the writing of Juan de Valdés (henceforth “Valdés”) on language is not a straightforward
affair. First, almost all of his writings were on religious themes, with the only one on language being
the Diálogo de la lengua (henceforth “the Diálogo”), and second, from the time of its first
publication (Mayans y Siscar 1737), the status, subject matter, and purpose of the Diálogo became
debatable, whereby some scholars believed that it was literature-cum-literary critique, some that it
was linguistics, others that it was both, others that it was neither (but rather only a set of trivial
scribbles not of much intellectual significance), and others that it was a manual on the Castilian
language, but essentially meant to help Valdés’s Italian followers understand his religious teachings
better (Usoz y Río 1860; Perry 1927; Montesinos 1928; Lapesa 1940; Barbolani 1967; Lope Blanch
1984). Over the past couple of decades, however, those uncertainties and undeclared schools of
thought surrounding Valdés’s writing on language have changed substantially. It has gradually
emerged that the Diálogo was, essentially, a sociolinguistic treatise steeped in the ideology of
language and nation and efforts at language standardization, aimed at developing and codifying a
national language for the Spanish Empire; consequently, the work dealt with a number of topics
within macro-sociolinguistics, micro-sociolinguistics, stylistics, and, to a much lesser extent, liter-
ary criticism. From late twentieth century, it has become almost inconceivable, in Valdesian
scholarship, to understand and interpret the Diálogo outside of these key dimensions.
Macro-sociolinguistics
The Renaissance linguistic debate that emerged in fifteenth-century Italy did not take long to spread
to other nascent States in Western Europe. An important aspect of that humanistic fervor was that of
the quest for the origins of nonclassical languages. In Spain, the earliest thoughts on the subject were
those of Alonso Fernández de Madrigal, in the first half of the fifteenth century, and Antonio de
Nebrija (the father of Spanish humanism), toward the end of the century, although those early
thoughts were quite sketchy in their nature and scope. Valdés’s contribution, in contrast, was much
more elaborate, as he carefully thought through the issue, including how his own knowledge of the
subject had had to be modified, with time. And, in spite of drawing largely the same conclusion as his
predecessors (that Castilian was primarily a deformed version of Latin), Valdés made a crucial
difference in his consideration of the linguistic picture of Spain by incorporating into his thought the
linguistic picture of the Iberian Peninsula, prior to the Roman invasion and introduction of Latin; in
other words, he adopted a more holistic approach, as he worked through the diachrony of what
eventually became Castilian.
Later in the sixteenth century, the debate was rekindled and significantly expanded by Florián de
Ocampo and Alejo Venegas del Busto. With time, two main schools of thought developed: first, the
Primitive Castilian Theory (propounded by Gregorio López Madera, which attracted many adher-
ents, including Luis de Cueva, Francisco Bermudez de Pedraza, Tamayo de Vargas, Bartolomé
Ximénez Patón, and Gonzalo Correas). Madera rejected the theory of deformed Latin as a viable
Page 2 of 18
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explanation for the origins of the Castilian language. He firmly believed that Castilian existed in
primitive forms right from the time of the first human settlements of the Iberian Peninsula, traced to
Tubal (fifth son of Japhet, son of Noah). Madera based his theory on archaeological finds (relics,
inscriptions, and manuscripts on parchment, partly written in Castilian) from the Monte Santo of
Granada; the writings were attributed to Saint Cecil, disciple of Saint James, patron saint of Spain.
Later, a fully fledged Deformed Latin Theory (led by Bernardo de Aldrete and his collaborators) was
developed, in order to counteract the Primitive Castilian one. As the sixteenth century wore on, an
offshoot of Madera’s school, the Euskadi Theory (advanced by Lucio Marineo Sículo and such
followers as Fray Domingo Valtanas, Esteban Garibay, and Andrés Poça), entered the fray; their
argumentation was that there was, indeed, a primitive Castilian, but that it was Euskera. The heated
debate lasted decades (Bahner 1966). Eventually, it was the Deformed Latin Theory that won the
day. The significant merit of Valdés’s treatment of the subject is the fact that he reflected on the bulk
of the above aspects, including the Euskadi Theory, several decades prior to their fullest
configuration.
Multilingualism, both as a universal sociolinguistic reality of every society (Hudson 1996) and as
specifically applied to Spain, was a subject of interest to Valdés. He identified five languages in use
in Spain – Castilian, Catalan, Valencian, Portuguese, and Vizcayan – before proceeding to explain a
set of theories, based on geopolitics, linguistic borrowing, and variability caused by everyday
language usage, all of which bring about multilingualism in States. It is to be noted that Valdés’s
inclusion of Portuguese among the languages used in Spain may not have had any imperial motives
(Portugal having been a separate polity, since late eleventh century), but that it had more to do with
the fact that he viewed the geographical area as a single region in the form of the Iberian Peninsula.
The later Iberian Union (1580–1640) can be understood as exemplifying that viewpoint; likewise,
Valdés’s assertion that typical Castilian words used among the nobility could be found in the
language of the king of Portugal (Anipa 2014) must be a testimony to that conceptualization.
Valdés’s thoughts on multilingualism are very much in line with modern sociolinguistic insights;
in that discussion, he transcended linguistic scholarship of his time by covering what modern
sociolinguists characterize as “a-type” and “b-type” levels of multilingualism (Coupland and
Jaworski 2009), as well as “broad diglossia” (Fasold 1984). He, then, shifted his discussion to the
specifics of the languages of his State, characterizing their crosslinguistic features as follows:
Vizcayan, which he duly identified as an isolate, had lexical borrowings from Latin, but subjected
them to such severe phonological nativization that they had become unrecognizable; Catalan had
loaned words from Latin, French, Castilian, and Italian; Valencian was close to Catalan, except for
its phonology, but was still closer to Castilian; Portuguese had borrowed from Castilian much more
than any other language and, as a result, was closest to it, apart from grapho-phonological features;
Castilian was spoken even in Aragon and Navarre, and the linguistic and historico-geopolitical
circumstances of the two kingdoms were comparable to those of Andalusia and Murcia.
With respect to crosslinguistic communication and the task of meaning transfer from one
language into another, Valdés discussed serious difficulties involved in translation. Notwithstanding
his concentration on the national language ideology and well in contrast to Charles V’s famous
proclamation, in Rome, of Castilian as a superior language, Valdés argued for equality of languages,
declaring that all natural languages had the same natural capacity; his linguistic philosophy in that
respect can be acknowledged as impressive, when we take into account the fact that the stance that he
adopted is something that even modern professional linguists still struggle to achieve, as epitomized,
for instance, by the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and its reverberations, during the twentieth century. In
the climate in which Valdés operated, his recognition that linguistic idiosyncrasies did not imply
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superiority or inferiority, or lack of expressivity, showed his independence of thought; he was very
much ahead of knowledge of sociolinguistic reality.
Moreover, the translation difficulties that he outlined were no different from those that modern
translation theorists and practitioners have discussed and grappled with for generations. Moving on
from discussing the issue at a generic level to his mother tongue, Valdés noted that, due to the tricky
nature of translation, he was unable to assess works translated from other languages rather than
written originally in Castilian. That was the thought of a fairly objective individual, who did not shy
away from admitting to his doubts, uncertainties, and weaknesses, in the face of linguistic pluralism
as a phenomenon.
In every emerging State in Early Modern Europe, the nurturing of a national language was an
important one to the ruling elite and intellectuals. In the case of Spain, the main efforts on that front
are credited to Antonio de Nebrija, particularly his pioneering grammar of Castilian (1492) (“I
wanted to lay the foundation stone” were Nebrija’s explicit words). Valdés was among those who
took over the baton, as he became a key player in the effort to engineer a standardized Castilian for
the Spanish Empire. In the context of imperial ambitions and geopolitical realities of the early
sixteenth century, the idea that Valdés’s Diálogo must have been officially commissioned (Crews
2008) is not far-fetched.
In terms of the technicalities of the language standardization process itself, it has been explained
that of the four key stages – Selection, Codification, Elaboration of Functions/Intellectualization,
and Enforcement/Acceptance (Garvin and Mathiot 1953; Haugen 1966, 1983) – Castilian had
already, by the fifteenth century, fully achieved Selection and Enforcement/Acceptance, as well as
a degree of elaboration (initiated by King Alfonso X The Learned, in the thirteenth century), more
than any emerging Western European State at the time (Anipa 2012b). Thus, Valdés’s work on
language represented an essential complement to that of Nebrija (captured in the latter’s (1989,
1492) oft-quoted words “language and empire always went hand in hand”). Evidence that the stages
of selection and enforcement had been accomplished by Valdés’s time can be confirmed by his own
statement to that effect (Anipa 2014, pp. 51–52). Valdés’s aim, therefore, was to underpin Nebrija’s
prescriptive effort with a proscriptive one (the well-known display of hatred by Valdés toward
Nebrija and his works, due to regional rivalry, should be understood to be a relatively superficial
one). In effect, “[n]o Spanish humanist would work harder to make Nebrija’s dream of a Spanish
imperial language a reality than Juan de Valdés” (Crews 2008, p. 29). Valdés took the process to the
level of “ironing out variability, usually by stigmatising as “non-standard” the forms found in
regional or working-class varieties” (Poplack et al. 2002, p. 89). Ascertaining these modern
sociolinguistic facts in his work goes to confirm his close collaboration in the timeless standard
language ideology.
Micro-sociolinguistics
One of the qualities that set apart Valdés’s work on language is the fact that he efficiently backed up
his active engagement in the ideology of standard (“status planning”) with examination of concrete
linguistic data (“corpus planning”). His corpus, in contrast with those of the rest of his (near-)
contemporaries, consisted of a wide range of variable features of Castilian, from graphology,
grapho-phonology, morpho-phonology, morphology, morpho-syntax, syntax, lexico-semantics,
discourse to stylistics. Modern sociolinguists reduce all these levels of linguistic inquiry to two
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major dimensions: (a) codification, comprising graphization, grammatication, and lexication, and
(b) elaboration, which comprises terminological modernization, stylistic development, and interna-
tionalization (Haugen 1983). A display of Valdés’s Table of Contents (below), extracted from the
“front matter” of the Diálogo, reveals quite an extensive project, covering both of these dimensions.
I
DIUIʃION. TOTI’ OPERIS DESCRIPTIONE
(División y Sumario de toda la obra)
Prólogo: De la autoridad lingüística

PRIMERA PARTE: Del origen dela lengua—(‘le preguntaremos lo q sabe del
origen /o principio q an tenido aʃsy la lengua Castellana como
las otras lenguas q oy se hablan e’n España’).
SEGUNDA [PARTE]: Dela Gatica—(‘loq perteneçe a la Gramatica’).
TERÇERA [PARTE]: Delas letras à donde entra la Ortografia—(‘lo q le auemos

notado enel eʃcreuir vnas letras mas q otras’).
QUARTA [PARTE]: Delas ʃylabas—(‘lacauʃa q lo mueue a poner /o quitar en alg.os

vocablos vna ʃylaba’).
QUINTA [PARTE]: Delos vocablos—(‘le pediremos nos diga porq no vʃa de
muchos vocablos q vʃan otros’).
SESTA [PARTE]: Del eʃtilo—(‘le rogaremos nos auiʃe delos primores q guarda
quato al estilo’).
SEPTIMA [PARTE]: Delos libros—(‘le demadaremos ʃu pareçer açerca de los libros

q eʃtan eʃcritos en Castellano’).
VLTIMO: Dela conformidad delas lenguas—(‘haremos q nos diga ʃu

opinion, ʃobre qual lengua tiene’ por mas conforme ala latina la
Castellana o la Toʃcana’).
It is not only the range of features he covered in his corpus planning that made his project
fascinating; it is the manner in which he filtered them through the three paradigms of descriptivism,
prescriptivism, and proscriptivism. The complexity and sophistication of the Diálogo, in terms of the
corpus that Valdés worked with, only fully emerge when one computes these three paradigms with
the variegated levels of linguistic enquiry, then, with the individual linguistic features that he
handled. It is no exaggeration when Calvo Pérez (1991, pp. 103–104) observes that the Diálogo is
like an ambitious linguistic research program, which, even in our day and age, would require the
collaboration of many experts from different areas of speciality to be able to carry it out efficiently.
He also views the work as translinguistic and generic in its scope, which can be easily related to any
historical state of any given language.
Valdés operated with what has become known as Haugen’s (1972) classic formulation of minimal
variation in form versus maximal variation in function, two spheres in which codification and
elaboration of functions are viewed in modern Sociolinguistics. Valdés’s minimal variation in form
is verifiable from how the vast majority of the linguistic features that he discussed had two or more
variants. That, to him, was a problem that needed resolving, and the solution lay in proscriptivism
and prescriptivism. He “set himself up as a lawgiver [. . .] not content to record fact; he pronounced
judgment [as it] seems to have been accepted as self-evident that of two alternate forms of expression
one must be wrong” (Baugh and Cable 1993, p. 272). Consequently, of all the instances of two
linguistic variants that Valdés considered, his formula was to declare one of them to be wrong or
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unacceptable, for one reason or another. He made use of a wide range of expressions in pronouncing
his judgments, either explicitly or implicitly.
Turning his attention on lexication, he assessed a list of 106 items, ranging from abonda to zaque
(Anipa 2014, pp. 86–94). His apparent intention to discuss the words in an alphabetical order and to
provide a replacement lexical item for each of the items was not entirely successful (because 13 of
the words did not have replacements, and there was a mix-up, in a few cases, of the intended
alphabetical order). However, the effort toward minimal variation in form was enthusiastically
displayed.
For his effort toward maximal variation in function, Valdés equally carried out corpus planning.
He considered semantic expansion, via double negation, reiteration, overladen clauses, etc., dwell-
ing on polysemy, in 20 Castilian words (Anipa 2014, pp. 95–100). Since these polysemic words had
not been used commonly enough in Castilian, before Valdés’s time (he referred to them as “half-used
words”), his intention was to prescribe the need to maximize their functions and usage frequency in
the language.
In his effort to forge the intellectualization and internationalization (Kaplan and Baldauf Jr. 1997)
of Castilian, Valdés considered linguistic borrowing to go beyond long-standing earlier Greek,
Hebrew, Arabic, and Italian sources of the Castilian lexicon. He argued that there was no language in
the world that did not benefit from borrowing, both for filling in lexical gaps and purely for
enrichment, and declared his readiness to encourage the use of a variety of lexical items and phrases
from contemporary Greek, Latin, and Italian, noting how technically impossible it was to draw a
neat line between one language and another (Hudson 1996). Once again, the manner in which he
discussed the words that he considered for borrowing, and the fact that they had been in the language
from the Middle Ages, showed that Valdés meant to encourage the expansion of their semantic
fields. Modern sociolinguists agree that a standard language (Valdés’s final goal) is more of an
ideology than a concrete reality: “It seems appropriate to speak more abstractly of standardisation as
an ideology, and a standard language as an idea in the mind rather than a reality – a set of abstract
norms to which actual usage may conform to a greater or lesser extent” (Milroy and Milroy 1999,
p. 19) and that the process inevitably involves having “to make some embarrassing decisions”
(Haugen 1966, p. 932). Interestingly, Valdés’s language philosophy exhibited all these sociolin-
guistic realities.
The question of linguistic accommodation (closely related to borrowing) also featured in his
work. To explain his point, he drew on a list of 32 pairs of words and phrases, with one element in
each pair being Italianate (Anipa 2014, pp. 105–106). It is quite striking that the very concept and
term accommodating that he used to describe the phenomenon, in the early sixteenth century, is the
same one used by modern sociolinguists in our day and age. Once again, there is a degree of mix-up
of three of the items on this list, but the intention and effort invested are very clear to see. He also
treated discourse markers, stylistics, and etymology along the same lines (Anipa 2014,
pp. 106–126), separating polysemy (which he prescribed) from ambiguity (which he condemned
and proscribed).
The idea of language as a living thing that exists independently of its users is associated
historically with the nineteenth-century Neogrammarians. From the twentieth century, however,
sociolinguists have had to work hard to argue vehemently against, and deconstruct, that conceptu-
alization of language as fallacious. J. Milroy (1992, p. 23), for example, has stated that “it is not true
that language is a living thing [. . .] it is a vehicle for communication between living things, namely
human being.” It is fascinating that, nearly half a millennium earlier, Valdés made the same
argument: that a language could not change without the human beings who used it. To the
hypothetical notion (from one of the interlocutors of his dialogue) that a language might change
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naturally, he crisply stated that it was ridiculous to think so, before proceeding to assert that it was
humans who, gradually and subconsciously, over time, brought about linguistic change, through
usage (Anipa 2014, p. 81) – as if he had traveled in a time machine and were addressing the
Neogrammarians and their modern heirs directly.
Renaissance linguistic thinkers were, invariably, confronted with an intriguing paradox. On the
one hand, there was the need to distance nonclassical languages from Latin, in order to assert the
“new” languages’ potentials for self-sufficiency; on the other hand, there was the need to link the
same languages, as closely as possible, to Latin, in order to endow them with the much-needed
prestige that Latin had enjoyed for centuries. Valdés did not shy away from that paradox and the
balancing act that it entailed. In an era of significant resentment, among European scholars, to efforts
by Italians to claim cultural supremacy (for having directly inherited the treasures of classical
scholarship of ancient Rome), Valdés can be commended for having handled that thorny issue in
a most diplomatic manner, as he compared the closeness of Castilian and Tuscan to Latin (see the last
chapter heading of his Table of Contents, above). He largely argued that a careful and objective
etymological analysis would reveal that there was hardly any difference in closeness to Latin
between Castilian and Tuscan, except for the degree of modification to which they subjected
words of Latin origin; and he ended the tricky discussion tactically by leaving the issue open for
further discussion (Anipa 2014, p. 126).
Literary Criticism
As indicated earlier, the long-standing interpretation of the Diálogo as literature or literary criticism
has changed rapidly. But Valdés did not neglect literature altogether. He openly acknowledged the
importance of a body of high-status literature as one of the pillars for a standard language ideology
and devoted about 14 % of the Diálogo to commenting on a number of literary works, written
between the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century.
The relationship between literature and linguistics has been a subject of discussion over the
decades, and there is a broad consensus among sociolinguists that literature is a legitimate data
source on which sociolinguistic behavior can be observed, because even the language of fiction is
somebody’s creation (Anipa 2012a, p. 180). The purely literary aspect of Valdés’s discussion can
only be gleaned from the Diálogo, and it dealt with the need for realism as a fundamental precept in
fiction writing: “los q eʃcriuen mentiras las deuen eʃcreuir de ʃuerte, q ʃe alleguen quanto fuere
poʃʃible ala verdad, de tal manera q puedan vēdē ʃus mentiras por verdades” (Anipa 2014, p. 119).
Beyond that, Valdés focused on word choice, syntax, style, and appropriateness of diction. On this
issue, Romaine (1982, p. 21) has pointed out that “[t]he linguist will be interested in the language as
language in the first instance, while the literary critic is interested in the language as literature.” It is
most interesting that Valdés made an almost identical statement, in the literature part of his Diálogo,
stating that his main interest in discussing literature was language as language: “aqui no hablamos
ʃino de lo ē perteneçe a la lengua” (Anipa 2014, p. 114). Bearing in mind the rather late recognition
of Valdés’s Diálogo as a unique work on language, it may be fair to note that there remains more
about its multifaceted dimensions yet to be unraveled by future generations of Renaissance scholars.
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Writing on Religion (Terence O’Reilly)

The religious writings of Juan de Valdés may be divided into two groups. First there are his works on
certain books of the Bible. His university education in the 1520s, which included Greek and an
introduction to Hebrew, equipped him to study the Scriptures, a task to which he devoted himself
throughout the 1530s. He was the first person of his time to translate the Psalter from Hebrew into
Spanish (Ricart 1964), and he wrote a commentary on the Psalms, only part of which has survived
(Psalms 1–41). He also translated and commented on the Gospel of St. Matthew. These works
remained in manuscript until modern times. Two further translations with commentaries, both on the
letters of St. Paul, were published in the sixteenth century, one on the Epistle to the Romans (c.1556),
the other on the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1557). These biblical writings were edited
piecemeal in the nineteenth century, but scholarly studies of them have been few, and we do not
yet possess a critical edition of them all. The second group consists of Valdés’s writings on the nature
and development of the Christian life (Reinhardt 1990-99). These have been edited in one volume by
Ángel Alcalá (1997). Most of them are short treatises, but three are works of substance in which
Valdés gave detailed expression to his thought: the Diálogo de doctrina cristiana, the Alfabeto
cristiano, and Ciento diez divinas consideraciones.
Diálogo de doctrina cristiana

The Diálogo de doctrina cristiana was printed by Miguel de Eguía in 1529 in the university town of
Alcalá de Henares. Prohibited a short time later by the Spanish Inquisition, it disappeared from view
until the early 1920s, when a copy in the Biblioteca Nacional in Lisbon was discovered by Marcel
Bataillon, who published it in facsimile in 1925 (Bataillon 1925). The book is dedicated by its
anonymous author to the Marquis of Escalona, Diego López Pacheco, in whose household Valdés
had spent a formative period of his youth, and it is cast in the form of a colloquy between three
speakers. Antronio is an unlettered parish priest who wishes to teach children the rudiments of the
Christian faith. He is unsure, however, how to carry out his task. Eusebio is a member of a religious
order who has met and befriended Antronio and wishes to help him obtain the Christian formation he
needs. With this in mind he introduces him to Pedro de Alba, the Archbishop of Granada, who is a
devout and learned man. Alba then proceeds, in the course of a day, to instruct his two hearers on the
main points of Christian faith and practice. His subject matter is traditional. He considers in turn the
Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the Deadly Sins, the gifts of the Holy
Spirit, the Cardinal and Theological virtues, and the Our Father. Such topics formed the substance of
the catechetic literature that became popular in the late medieval Church after the Lateran Council of
1215. The treatment of them in the Diálogo, however, is influenced by two writers who were sharply
critical of late medieval piety: Erasmus and Luther.
When the Diálogo appeared in print, Alcalá de Henares was a center of enthusiasm for the
writings of Erasmus, especially those on prayer and the Christian life. His Enchiridion Militis
Christiani had been printed by Miguel de Eguía 3 years earlier in a lively Spanish translation that
quickly became a best seller (Bataillon 1991). A number of themes in the Enchiridion reappear in the
Diálogo. One of them is that the life of perfection described in the Gospel is the fruit of baptism. It is,
therefore, open to all Christians, and not only to clergy and religious, a point made often by Erasmus
and summed up in the Enchiridion by the phrase monachatus non est pietas (piety is not the preserve
of the monastic state). Another is biting criticism of attachment to the outward forms of religious
practice. True Christianity, it is affirmed, is interior and spiritual and centered on Christ. A dramatic
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contrast between mere externals and a devout interiority runs through the work. The renewal of
Christendom, it is indicated, will be brought about by conversion to Christ and by the study and
practice of his teachings in the New Testament. These themes come together forcibly in the opening
section on the Creed, which is a lightly adapted version of one of Erasmus’s Colloquies, the
Inquisitio De Fide, first published in 1524. Elsewhere the Archbishop urges his listeners to read
Erasmus, whom he describes as “truly a theologian,” and the translation of the Sermon on the Mount
with which the work concludes is based on the Greek text and the new Latin version that Erasmus
had published in 1516.
Erasmus, despite his importance, was not the only influence on the movement of religious renewal
in Alcalá. Its adherents drew inspiration also from other currents, some of them hard to reconcile
with his thought. These included various forms of later medieval spirituality and the teachings of the
Spanish illuminists or alumbrados (Asensio 1952). Protestant works, though banned, circulated
clandestinely in certain quarters, including the circle around the humanist Juan de Vergara to which
Valdés belonged. The Diálogo shows that its author was acquainted with them and in particular with
the writings of Luther, from which numerous passages, mostly brief, are drawn (Gilly 1983). In these
passages, whose source is concealed, a recurrent theme is the damage inflicted by the Fall on the
capacity of human beings to will or perform what is good and their utter dependence as a result on
divine grace, granted through trusting faith in Jesus Christ. Luther’s dark perception of human
nature, which he found confirmed in the writings of St. Augustine, stood in marked contrast to the
outlook of Erasmus, who was influenced by the more optimistic theologies of Origen and the
Florentine Neoplatonists. The divergent views of the two reformers led to the formal break between
them that took place in 1524. The Diálogo shows that in this matter, Valdés sided with Luther. He
was probably disposed to do so by his experience as a young man of hearing the sermons of the
alumbrado Pedro Ruiz de Alcaraz, in which the moral weakness of the human will was underlined
(Nieto 1970, 1979). An Augustinian view of human sinfulness also informs much of the devotional
literature popular in Spain when Valdés was growing up, including two works recommended in the
Diálogo: the Life of Christ by Ludolph the Carthusian and the Imitation of Christ by Thomas à
Kempis.
The influence on the Diálogo of both Erasmus and Luther means that it cannot accurately be
described as either Erasmian or Lutheran (Gilly 2005). Valdés borrows from both writers in order to
articulate a position that is distinctively his own. He implies that justification by faith is an essential
element in religious renewal, but he does not follow Luther in rejecting the structures of the late
medieval Church. Instead he envisages a revival that will take place within them, without disturbing
the unity they underpin. The commandments of the Church are described as human ordinances that
require a formal observance, unlike the divine precepts of the Gospel that engage the conscience
intimately. They are to be observed, with discretion, nonetheless. The speakers in the Diálogo,
moreover, represent the three clerical orders of priests, religious, and bishops, each of which is
accorded a role in the task of reform. This task will begin in the parishes with the instruction of
children and adults by priests and religious who are both educated and devout, and it will be led by
enlightened prelates of whom the Archbishop is a model. Pedro de Alba, who died a year before the
Diálogo appeared, was remembered for the learning and zeal with which he had discharged his
pastoral duties, qualities exemplified also by Hernando de Talavera, his predecessor in Granada
(Pastore 2004, 2010).
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Alfabeto cristiano
The Alfabeto cristiano was composed in Naples, probably in the spring of 1536. In the early 1540s it
was rendered into Italian by Marcantonio Magno, and his translation, which survives in a manuscript
of the Vatican Library (Firpo 1994), was printed in Venice, with minor amendments, in 1545. The
Spanish text on which it was based has not survived. Like the Diálogo de doctrina cristiana, the
Alfabeto offers an introduction to the Christian life. Its focus, however, is not the teachings of the
catechism but the process of inner conversion that the call of the Gospel entails, a process that leads,
it shows, to perfect love in union with Christ. The origin of the work is explained at the start: it
records in dialogue form a conversation that took place 1 day between Valdés and a young aristocrat,
Giulia Gonzaga. They met as she was returning from a sermon by the Capuchin friar Bernardino
Ochino, whose words had disturbed her deeply for reasons she could not understand. Valdés, after
listening, is able to tell her why. Her problems are those of human nature in its fallen state, in which
self-interest reigns supreme. The remedy is to move away from preoccupation with herself and to
turn with faith toward God, a change of heart that he describes in the language of St. Paul as taking
off the Old Adam and putting on Christ, the New Man fashioned in God’s image. To help her he
prescribes certain spiritual exercises. Each day she is to meditate on two subjects: first, her own
moral weakness, which will teach her knowledge of self, and second the goodness of God, made
visible especially in il beneficio della passione di Cristo (the gift of the Passion of Christ). His hope
is that she will pass from a life ruled by fear to one in which her only motive is love: “I want you to
walk along this path as a lady, not a servant, as a free person, not a slave, with love, not fear” (p. 330).
Giulia is willing to comply, but she confesses to a further doubt that holds her back: the teaching of
Ochino that good works performed without pure love have no merit in the eyes of God. This makes
her wonder how she can be saved, for she knows that her own works are inspired by the selfish
motives of fear of Hell and desire for heavenly glory. Valdés explains in reply that God draws us to
himself in stages, beginning with fear of punishment and moving on to gratitude for his gifts and
longing for the joys of Paradise. Eventually we come to know that he is truly good and to love him
with a passion that is disinterested. Then we serve him, “not as slaves but as freemen, not as
mercenaries but as sons; and this is what Christian freedom means” (p. 361).
Despite its distinctive character, the Alfabeto has much in common with the Diálogo de doctrina
Cristiana, whose themes it develops in three ways. First, it underlines that the life of perfection is
open to all. The notion that spiritual progress involves passing from the fear of slaves, through the
self-interest of mercenaries, and on to the love of sons was adumbrated by the Fathers of the Church
and developed in the monastic writings of the Middle Ages. The Alfabeto reveals how familiar
Valdés was with such writings, a familiarity confirmed by his reply when Giulia asks him what she
should read. The works he recommends, in addition to the Bible, are all monastic in provenance: the
treatises of John Cassian, the lives of the early hermits by St. Jerome, and the Imitation of Christ. He
adds that he himself has found them helpful. However, the context of the Alfabeto is not monastic at
all. Giulia is a noblewoman involved in the activities appropriate to her class, and Valdés does not
counsel her as a priest but as a layman. The setting of their dialogue, moreover, is not a monastic
cloister, but urban, feminine, and domestic. This becomes apparent when they discuss the times and
places suitable for meditation. Valdés pictures Giulia in her home and in her bedroom, meditating at
whatever time suits her best. He recommends the highest Christian ideals, but he emphasizes in
doing so that they may be lived in the heart of society. When Giulia asks him to tell her how to lead a
devout life that is private and hidden from the gaze of others, he responds by showing her that to be
perfect one does not have to abandon the world and take religious vows. His words astonish her, for
she had always supposed that the state of perfection was reserved for nuns and friars, but he insists
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that she is mistaken. All Christians, clerical, religious, and lay, will be judged by the same standard:
“those who are friars and those who are not will have as much Christian perfection as they have faith
and love of God, and not a cent more” (p. 292).
Second, the Alfabeto accords a central place in the Christian life to St. Paul’s teaching on
justification. In this respect it reflects a general change in spiritual writings of the time. The initial
wave of Erasmianism in Castile lasted from 1516, when the first translation of Erasmus appeared, to
the early 1530s, when the Inquisition began to take action against individuals with strong Erasmian
and reformist views. In the decades that followed, the process of repression continued, reaching a
climax in the late 1550s. During the same period (c. 1530–1559), the concerns of spiritual writing
moved away from the topics that the Enchiridion had made popular. In the works of contemporaries
of Valdés, such as Juan de Avila, Luis de Granada, and Bartolomé de Carranza, attention came to be
focused not only on the conflict between letter and spirit that the Enchiridion had analyzed
perceptively, but on justification, trusting faith in God, and gratitude for the benefits of Christ’s
Passion. Signs of this development are apparent in the Diálogo de doctrina cristiana, but they are
more prominent in the Alfabeto, where Valdés affirms repeatedly that a person is made just by faith:
“to be a Christian is to be just, and no one can be just except by faith, for the just man lives by faith”
(p. 412). The object of faith is the Passion of Jesus, which reversed the Fall and made possible the
forgiveness of sins. In the Diálogo de doctrina cristiana, there are few references to the Cross and
implied criticism of popular devotions to the Passion that involved reconstructing imaginatively the
events of Christ’s death. Both Erasmus, in the Enchiridion, and the alumbrados of Castile were
critical of such devotions too. In the Alfabeto, by contrast, Valdés advises Giulia to dwell continually
on Il beneficio di Cristo, with confident faith that Jesus died to set her free. The contemplation of
Christ crucified enables one to master temptation, it replaces fear with selfless love, and it helps the
Christian to grow: “we cannot know, believe or love God except by the contemplation of the
crucified Christ” (p. 428). Valdés shows how this principle may be applied in Giulia’s everyday
life. He also indicates its implications for the Church as a whole. The recovery of justifying faith
among Christians, and their release from fear and self-interest, will destroy the attachment to
religious externals in which many have sought salvation. It is for him the key to Church renewal.
Third, the Alfabeto works out in more detail the assumption in the Diálogo de doctrina cristiana
that an interior life animated by justifying faith is compatible with fidelity to the Church. Valdés
encourages Giulia to ponder often, and in the light of her experience, the articles of the Creed that the
Church offers for her instruction. Then she will not just recite the words but will grasp inwardly the
teachings they proclaim. This is true of the articles on the Church itself, which describe it as one,
holy, catholic, and as the communion of saints. She will see that Christ’s Church is universal; that it
shares in the holiness that is his; that its members include the bad and the good; and that to those who
are moved by faith, hope, and love, it offers a union that is spiritual. It is, moreover, protected by
Christ: “He promised that faith would not fail in the Christian Church, and it has not failed” (p. 436).
This positive conception of the Church, which coexists with the conviction that it needs reform,
underlies the advice Giulia receives about how to perform her religious duties. She is to observe the
commandments of the Church, without forgetting the spiritual purpose that underlies them, and she
is to approach conscientiously the sacraments of penance and communion. When she goes to
confession, she should do so with trusting faith in Christ’s promise to give his priests the power to
forgive sins, and once the minister has pronounced the words of absolution, she is to believe firmly
that she has been pardoned, not because she has confessed, for “that would be to attribute to yourself
what is not yours” (p. 465), but because of her faith, hope, and love, centered on Christ. In the same
spirit she should attend mass regularly, not only on feasts but every day, unless prevented by a work
of charity. There she should attend carefully to the readings and liturgical prayers, and she should
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listen to the sermon as if it were Christ’s own words. If the priest talks about worldly matters to the
neglect of spiritual ones, she may choose to leave, as Valdés often does in exasperation, but if she has
the patience to stay, she should beg the Lord to send worthy preachers to the Church. Above all she is
to adore Christ in the Eucharist, where his body and blood are truly present. This will inspire her with
a fervent longing to be incorporated by faith and love into the Passion, for the Eucharist recalls the
death that established a new covenant, a covenant that makes it possible to believe that “we are
justified by the blood of Jesus Christ” (p. 467).
Ciento diez divinas consideraciones

Justification is a recurrent theme in all the religious writings that Valdés penned between 1535 and
1541. They include Ciento diez divinas consideraciones, which was printed in Basle in 1550 in an
Italian translation. It consists of a series of meditations on the Christian life, from its beginnings in
justifying faith to its end in perfect love of God. Valdés composed them week by week for the
gathering of friends that took place in his home in Naples every Sunday. Each meeting began with a
reading out loud of the meditation he had prepared in advance, and it ended with a general discussion
in which he answered questions. He sometimes wrote up afterwards the questions asked and the
answers given, and a number of these records found their way as well into the finished work (Crews
2008). This has come down to us in several redactions. There is the Italian translation, probably by
Mario Galeota, which was printed in the editio princeps of 1550. There are also two contemporary
versions in Spanish, one conserved in the Stadt Bibliotek in Hamburg, the other in the Biblioteca
Vaticana, and a partial Spanish version of 39 meditations, preserved in a manuscript of the National
Library of Vienna. The relationship between these versions and the original Spanish text of Valdés is
not clear, and because the redactions differ among themselves in several ways, including the number
and ordering of the contents, it is not possible to establish on their basis a definitive text. The purpose
of the work is nonetheless clear. Aware of moves in the late 1530s to heal the schism between the
Christian churches, Valdés wrote the Consideraciones in the hope that his approach to the divisive
issue of justification, and in particular to the relation between faith and good works, would win the
approval of both sides (Crews 2008). The book circulated widely within Italy in manuscript, and
along with his other late writings, it came to the attention of those involved in bringing Catholics and
Protestants together. They included two cardinals, Gasparo Contarini and Reginald Pole, who shared
the goal of restoring unity by a double-edged strategy: by convincing Catholic theologians and
churchmen that Luther’s understanding of justification was fundamentally orthodox and by recon-
ciling the Reformers to a Catholic view of the sacraments and the Church (Fenlon 1972). Matters
came to a head in the spring and early summer of 1541 at the Colloquy of Regensberg, when
theologians from both sides assembled to discuss their differences. In the matter of justification, they
found common ground, and they came to a formal agreement that reflected, in its essentials, the
approach that Valdés had pioneered. The talks broke down, however, when they turned their
attention to the sacraments and the structures of the Church, on which their views diverged. The
collapse of the Colloquy was followed, in the August of that year, by the death of Valdés.
The Ciento diez divinas consideraciones tackles the matter of justification by examining three
stages in the life of the person who comes to believe in Christ. First there is the natural state of fallen
humanity, which Valdés portrays in dark, Augustinian terms as the loss of the divine image in which
human nature was made. The person subject to it is ruled by self-interest and a corresponding
abhorrence of God. Second, there is the act of faith by which a person accepts the reconciliation with
God made available by the death of Jesus, who took on himself the punishment of humanity’s sins.
Page 12 of 18
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This is the beneficio di Cristo, the gift bestowed in and by Christ. Third, there is the process of
regeneration by which the divine image lost at the Fall is restored. The faith of the Christian bears
fruit increasingly in hope and love, a love that finds expression in good works, and he comes to serve
God as a loving son rather than as a fearful slave. A feature of this third stage is the experience of
being guided by the Holy Spirit in all things, including the interpretation of Scripture, a theme that
Valdés may have drawn from the teachings of those among the Spanish alumbrados who practiced
dexamiento, the surrender of one’s will to the action of God in the soul (Hamilton 2010; Firpo 1990).
In his discussion of these three stages, Valdés speaks always in his own voice. Though familiar
with the literature on justification composed by Catholics and Protestants of his time, he does not
refer to it directly, and despite his learned interest in the Fathers of the Church, he does not allude to
their writings, which both sides invoked. Nor does he use the language of scholastic theology that
both sides readily employed, though he is aware of its importance in the debate. He seeks instead to
address the issues at stake in a way that is not confrontational by basing his own approach on two
sources whose authority was accepted by all: the experience of life in Christ that baptized believers
share and the testimony of Scripture, especially the letters of St. Paul. His focus is the interior life of
the individual seen as a member of the Church, which is described as the mystical body of Christ. He
does not move beyond justification to consider further contentious matters, such as the sacraments or
the structures of the Church. A concern to avoid dissension, and to preserve Church unity as far as
possible, is evident in other late writings, including the commentary on First Corinthians, composed
circa 1539. There he inveighs against individuals who allow their theological opinions to disrupt the
harmony of the body, and in the teachings of St. Paul, he finds guidelines for reconciling those who
have been seduced by false prophets and have left, or are about to leave, the Church. Preserving
ecclesial unity is a duty incumbent on all (Crews 2008).
Impact and Legacy

Language: The fact that Valdés’s work on language was not published for two centuries might raise
the question as to its possible dissemination and impact during the Renaissance. But there is a
prerequisite to an objective judgment of the issue: proper understanding of the work. “The Diálogo
de la lengua of Juan de Valdés is commonly misunderstood” (Navarrete 2004, p. 3). It is a dense and
multilayered work, best understood through the prism of modern sociolinguistics. This is because
“the primary focus of the Diálogo is sociolinguistic” (Ibid., 2004, p. 11). Calvo Pérez (1991, p. 104)
rightly observes that Valdés’s work on language was several centuries ahead of that of any other
linguistic thinker of his time.
Depending on circumstances, lack of publication may not necessarily be evidence for lack of
dissemination or impact. In the case of the Diálogo, a couple of factors were crucial. First, we know
that a manuscript tradition, alongside the print tradition, remained vibrant among intellectuals,
during the Renaissance (Bouza Alvarez 2004). A second factor is the subject matter of the Diálogo.
A work on language ideology and standardization need not have been read necessarily by a large
number of the populace, in order to have fulfilled its intended aims. This is because language policy
and language planning are mostly a “top-down” operation (Cooper 1989; Kaplan and Baldauf
Jr. 1997). That being the case, some impact of the work among the elite would have been sufficient
for its purpose. This understanding is no mere conjecture on my part, because Valdés himself stated
explicitly in the Diálogo the class of people that the work was meant to serve. Written in Naples, the
Diálogo did not take long to reach Spain, where it was read, passed round, and copied among a group
of humanists (known to Renaissance scholars as the Toledo Circle), who were closely connected
Page 13 of 18
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_134-1
with the ruling elite. Not only did they read the work keenly, but they also took appropriate steps to
shield it from the potential perils of the Inquisition (Anipa 2011). Even after the Diálogo found its
way into print, there was still some interest in copying the manuscript; such was the case of Usoz y
Río, who copied it (MS 7265) and went on a quest for another copy that he had read about, prior to
publishing his edition, in 1860. Through Usoz y Río, interest in the Diálogo reemerged in
nineteenth-century England, where it was well received, read (at least, among the Quakers), and
even translated into English, in 1856–1857. In twentieth-century Spain, the work became required
reading in graduate courses in Spanish, which contributed to the Diálogo being “the best-known
Valdesian work” (Crews 2008, p. 102), although it has attracted less than 10 % of all writings on
Valdés (Calvo Pérez 1991, p. 54). A bilingual Spanish-French edition was published as recently as
2008; and it might not take long before an English edition appears. All in all, the Diálogo has been
the number one source of authoritative reference (multiple times more than Nebrija’s grammar) for
modern Hispanic historical linguists working on Castilian, from the sixteenth century onwards.
Religion: In the course of 1541 the disciples of Valdés in Naples dispersed. Some of them crossed
the Alps after the Colloquy of Regensberg and joined the Protestant Reform. Most of the others
moved north to Viterbo and entered the circle of Reginald Pole (Firpo 1991, 2013), who after the
death of Contarini in August 1542 became the leading figure in the movement to reconcile the
Churches (Edwards 2014). In the run up to the Council of Trent, which met in 1545, the Viterbo
group disseminated the teachings of Valdés in manuscript, translation, and print, and one of their
number, Marcantonio Flaminio, coauthored Il beneficio di Cristo (1543), a treatise that drew
significantly on Valdés’s ideas and expressed them in forthright terms (Caponetto 2009). When
the Council assembled in 1547 to discuss justification, the writings of Valdés were therefore known
not only to the papal legates, who included Reginald Pole, but to many of the bishops, a large
proportion of whom were Italian. In the event the debate in the Council was shaped by the scholastic
theologians present, especially the Thomists and the Scotists, and the prelates who favored a
theological discourse that would be acceptable across the theological divide found themselves in a
minority (Fenlon 1972). The final decree laid emphasis on a number of themes that Valdés had
developed earlier, including the dependence of justification on the merits of Christ, the fruitfulness
of faith in hope and love, and the union of baptized Christians in Christ’s mystical body. It was
careful, however, to avoid terms and concepts that the Reformers had made their own, including a
distinction between imputed justice and regeneration that Valdés had been happy to use. In the
Canons with which it concluded, moreover, the decree spurned explicitly the main tenets of Luther’s
teachings as the Council Fathers understood them (McGrath 1986; O’Malley 2013), and from that
point onwards, pressure grew on Catholic writers to build into their theological language the
affirmations and anathemas that the Canons enshrined. In such circumstances the writings of Valdés
came to be seen in retrospect as heterodox, and in both Italy and Spain, they were included in the
Indices of Prohibited Books by which the decrees of Trent were enforced. In the twentieth century,
however, developments in Catholic theology, and agreements about justification between Rome and
the Protestant churches, made it possible to view Valdés in a different light and to argue that his
teachings, in their pre-Tridentine context, did not mark a break with Catholic orthodoxy (Domingo
de Santa Teresa 1957; Crews 2008).
In the aftermath of Trent, the religious writings of Valdés were preserved by his followers who had
joined the Reform, and through them his teachings became widely known among Protestants (Ricart
1958). Their reception in such circles was mixed. Some were severely critical, including John Calvin
and Theodore Beza, but others found in them a sympathetic statement of their beliefs. In England in
the seventeenth century, for instance, the Ciento diez divinas consideraciones were translated from
the Italian by Nicholas Ferrar, the founder of the Anglican community in Little Gidding, and the
Page 14 of 18
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_134-1
work was praised, despite some reservations, by the poet and pastor George Herbert. Among
Lutherans, Anabaptists, Quakers, and even Unitarians, Valdés found interested readers, and in the
nineteenth century his legacy was restored by Protestant scholars who traced and edited the greater
part of his works. Their patient labors drew attention to his importance, and they laid the foundation
of the modern studies of his thought that began in the 1920s with the work of Marcel Bataillon. He
argued that all the themes of Valdés’s late writings were present implicitly in his first work, the
Diálogo de doctrina cristiana, which he described as “a moderately Erasmian catechism.” Valdés’s
contact with the alumbrados, he held, would have disposed him to read Erasmus with enthusiasm.
The moral pessimism of the text, and its allusions to justification by faith, did not indicate, in his
view, that Valdés at the time had read Luther. He could well have arrived at such convictions himself,
for example, through reading St. Paul (Bataillon 1925). Bataillon’s interpretation held sway until
1970, when it was contested by José Nieto, who argued that the Erasmian elements in the Diálogo de
doctrina cristiana were designed to mask a Protestant theology of justification and the Church.
Valdés, he held, did not draw this theology from Protestant writers directly, but from the alumbrado
teacher Pedro Ruiz de Alcaraz, who had reached, independently, the same conclusions as Luther
(Nieto 1970, 1979). Nieto’s thesis received a mixed response. It was accepted by Bataillon, who
confessed himself persuaded that Valdés had used Erasmus to conceal Protestant beliefs, and it was
carried further by Massimo Firpo, who applied it to the activity of Valdés in Italy during the 1530s.
He detected in the late writings of Valdés a strong alumbrado influence, especially in his teachings
on guidance by the Holy Spirit, and he argued that Valdés was a Nicodemite who held that outward
conformity with Catholic practice was compatible with inner dissent from certain Catholic doctrines
(Firpo 1990). More recent research, however, has called into question the premises on which Nieto’s
argument was based. Studies of the alumbrados have not confirmed that the teachings of Alcaraz
anticipated those of Luther (Hamilton 2010), and an alternative explanation of Protestant elements in
the Diálogo de doctrina cristiana has been provided by Carlos Gilly, who has shown that when
composing it, Valdés was familiar already with the writings of Luther, Johannes Oecolampadius, and
perhaps Philipp Melanchthon too (Gilly 1983). The notion that Valdés used Erasmus as a rhetorical
mask for heresy has been discounted by a number of scholars (Pastore 2004, 2010; Gilly 2005;
Crews 2008) who have concluded, on various grounds, that the theology of Valdés was indebted to
both Erasmus and Luther without being reducible to the thought of either, and the related notion that
the ecclesiology of Valdés was Protestant has been undermined by evidence that Valdés believed it
possible to combine his theological convictions with faithful membership of the Catholic Church
(Crews 2008; Firpo 2013). In spite of these advances, historians continue to disagree about the
precise sources, nature, and impact of Valdés’s religious ideas, and further research into the matter
has been hindered by the lack of a critical edition of his surviving works. The manuscripts and
printed texts necessary for such an edition have been identified (Kinder 1988; Firpo 1993), but the
task of producing it has yet to be carried out.
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Page 18 of 18
K
^de
Kadıza reverted to an austere fundamentalist attitude. He
served as a preacher in various mosques, begin-
Born: 1582, Balikesir ning from the early 1620s, and his career culmi-
Died: 1635, Istanbul nated in 1631, after his appointment as the
preacher of the imperial mosque of Ayasofya
Marinos Sariyannis (St. Sophia). In his highly popular and eloquent
Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FORTH, sermons, he attacked vehemently the dervish
Foundation for Research and Technology - practices and confronted in particular with the
Hellas, Rethymno, Greece Halveti sheikh Abd€ulmecid Sivası̂ Efendi
(1563–1639). Apart from oral sermons, he was
the author of several treatises in Ottoman Turkish
or Arabic. His teachings drew a lot of supporters
and influenced Sultan Murad IV’s harsh policies.
Abstract Kadızade even joined Murad’s campaign against
Iran in 1635; however, he fell ill and had to return
Kadızâde Mehmed Efendi, son of Mustafa to the capital, where he died a little later.
(Balıkesir 1582–Istanbul 1635), was a highly
influential Ottoman preacher whose revivalist
ideas initiated a strong movement named after Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
him, the Kadızadeli; he advocated the abolish-
ment of innovations, especially those favored by Kadızade’s ideas influenced deeply Ottoman pol-
dervish orders, and the return to the precepts of itics throughout the seventeenth century. They
the Islamic Holy Law. have often been characterized as “fundamental-
ist” or “revivalist,” as they emphasized the need
for a moral and social redressing of the Ottoman
Biography Empire through a return to what he considered
strictly Islamic values and the abolition of as
Son of a provincial judge, Kadızade Mehmed many innovating aspects of everyday life as pos-
Efendi took his first training in his native town, sible. Indeed, the main characteristics of
Balıkesir, before moving to the Ottoman capital, Kadızade’s ideology were the opposition to any
Istanbul, where he became a mosque preacher. innovation (bid’at), as opposed to the way of life
Initially, he was under the influence of a sheikh of in the time of Prophet Muhammad, and especially
the Halveti order of dervishes; however, he then the violent struggle against the dervish
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_137-1
2 Kadızâde
brotherhoods and more specifically, the Halvetis. Moreover, Kadızade and his disciples adopted
His forerunner was Birgivı̂ Mehmed b. Pir Ali a much more uncompromising stance against
(1523–1573), an eminent theologian who had innovations, taking them literally to be every
reacted against Ebussuud’s interpretation of the practice that did not exist in the time of the
Sharia and whose books were widely read by prophets. A negative attitude against innovation
both the people and the ulema. Birgivı̂ had writ- (bid’at) is inherent in Islamic thought, but then
ten two highly influential treatises in the form of the concept of “good innovation” (such as the
catechism brochures, stressing among others the building of minarets or the compilation of
dangers of innovation (bid’at) from pious foun- books, for instance) had been developed, and
dations based on cash to the dancing ceremonies the traditional view rejected only innovations in
of the Sufis and the payment of religious func- matters of belief and worship. What constituted
tionaries. In a wider context, both Birgivı̂ and such an innovation, however, could still be a
Kadızade may be viewed as influenced by medi- matter of dispute, and Kadızade tended to expand
eval Salafist philosophy (itself the precursor of the field of “bad innovation” as much as he could.
nineteenth-century Wahhabism), notably Ibn Not all the issues he brought under dispute were
Hanbal (d. 855) and Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328), unprecedented in Islamic history, and some were
who stressed the need for unity of belief among already discussed by Birgivı̂; however, their
the faithful and attacked what they considered grouping as a set of “evil innovations” which
pantheistic and extremist doctrines of most had to be fought against seems to have been a
Sufis. Like the Salafists, moreover, Kadızade policy initiated by Kadızade in his struggle
tended to understand the Koranic verses literally, against the Halveti dervishes and especially
denying any altering of their content by logical against Sivası̂ Efendi. A first group of these
interpretation. issues, indeed, was related to dervishes,
condemning their religious practices and espe-
cially their use of music and dance. A second
group had to do with social life, from the use of
coffee and tobacco (a demand partly satisfied by
the Sultan during Kadızade’s life) to the practice
Kadızade turned Birgivı̂’s teachings into an activ-
of shaking hands or bowing, while quite a few of
ist movement, the Kadızadeli (meaning
issues were related to various religious beliefs
Kadızade’s followers), a movement which dom-
and issues, such as visiting tombs of dervishes
inated the political and ideological scene of the
or saints (a practice Kadızade and his followers
Ottoman Empire throughout the seventeenth cen-
condemned), or whether the Pharaoh or the
tury. Activism was justified due to the old Islamic
Prophet’s parents died in Allah’s faith and so
obligation for “commanding right and forbidding
forth.
wrong” (emr-i ma’rûf ve nehy-i m€ unker), i.e., the
Kadızade was also known to despise philoso-
obligation of a believer to impose righteous
phy and logicians in favor of canonical jurispru-
behavior and to act against impious practices.
dence and Koranic commentary. He stressed the
While the application of this duty is generally
importance of catechism and religious sciences,
considered as incumbent upon the ruler, Birgivı̂
arguing that “all other sciences are like medicine
had extended it to every Muslim, and his fol-
which should be taken only when necessary”
lowers tended to consider themselves entitled to
(Çavuşoğlu, 272). One of the issues in dispute
practice this obligation even by force. Kadızade
between the Kadızadelis and their opponents
himself was more of a preacher and advisor than
concerned Shaikh M€uhyiddin Ibn Arabi
an activist leader, but his successors in the fol-
(1165–1240) and his theory on the “unity of
lowing decades did launch anti-dervish pogroms
being” (vahdet€ u’l-v€ucûd), i.e., the belief that all
and took an active part to the political turmoil of
things existent share the same essence, being all
the era.
part of a varied yet congruent totality that reflects
Kadızâde 3
God’s existence, the latter being the only true especially the Mevlevis. It seems that this time,
reality. Although he does not name Ibn Arabi, fundamentalist ideas influenced more deeply the
Kadızade explicitly attacks his theory: he argues state apparatus; the “classical” Ottoman legal
that it would mean that canonical lawfulness or synthesis, which balanced holy and secular law,
divine punishment is just an imagination and that tilted toward the former, while regulations based
it blurs the borders between worshipped and wor- on customary law were abolished. However, after
shipper, creator and creature. On the contrary, he the failure of the Vienna campaign (1683), which
states, the existence of the creation is real and had been incited by him, Vanı̂ Efendi was exiled
from it God’s existence may be inferred. and the “fundamentalist” movement waned
away. Nonetheless, various reforms instituted
later on continued to be legitimized in terms of
Impact and Legacy a return to the foundations of the holy law, while
individual Kadızadelis were still mentioned in
Murad IV did not adopt the Kadızadeli program the Ottoman provinces well into the eighteenth
against the Sufis and had close relations with century.
Sivası̂ as well; however, it seems that he used The Kadızadeli movement played a predomi-
Kadızade’s ideas and popularity in order to pro- nant role in the shaping of Ottoman ideas and
mote his own measures for public order and policies throughout the seventeenth and well
enhancement of the state power. The ban on into the eighteenth century. Traditionally seen
tobacco and the closing down of coffeehouses as a “fundamentalist” versus Sufism conflict, it
by Murad were, at least in theory, based on has recently been the object of several studies,
these ideas. A second Kadızadeli wave, which focusing on the fluidity of this distinction, the
seems to have been the most popular and massive social and political context of the conflict, or the
one, appeared under the leadership of Üst€ uvanı̂ role that career opportunities for preachers and
Mehmed (d. 1661). In the turmoil of the years dervishes played in its development. At any rate,
after the deposition of İbrahim and during the first its influence was evident to various measures and
years of Mehmed IV’s reign, the Kadızadelis reforms effectuated from the late seventeenth
attracted large masses of the Istanbul populace, century onward in what has been viewed as a
targeting what they perceived as the corruption of gradual abandonment of the Ottoman state law
society and the state due to irreligious innova- statutes (kanun) in favor of a more rigid compli-
tions and especially the dervish orders, mainly ance to the Islamic legal precepts (şeriat), espe-
the Halvetis, until the suppression of the move- cially in landholding and tax law, but also in
ment by the grand vizier Mehmed Köpr€ ul€
u penal issues or the regulation of prices; the incen-
in 1656. tives for these reforms have been the object of
Finally, during the grand vizierates of scholarly debate, but it is sure that their justifica-
Mehmed Köpr€ ul€
u’s son Fazıl Ahmed tion leaned heavily on the Kadızadeli ideas.
(1661–1676) and his successors, the Kadızadeli
movement had its third major wave of influence
under the preacher Mehmed b. Bistam Vanı̂
Cross-References
Mehmed (d. 1685). Here again, as in Murad
IV’s time, the influence of the movement was a
▶ Ebussu’ud
result of its leader’s personal relations rather than
▶ Kâtib Çelebi
mass participation. Vanı̂ Efendi was very close to
Fazıl Ahmed and his successors and succeeded in
implementing part of the Kadızadeli program. He
managed to ban taverns and dervish congrega-
tions, while in 1666 the ban came to include the
ritual dances (sema) of the dervishes and
4 Kadızâde
References Empire, Unpublished PhD dissertation, Princeton

University.
Zilfi, M.C. 1986. The Kadızadelis: Discordant revivalism
Primary Literature in seventeenth-century Istanbul. Journal of Near East-
Chelebi, Kâtib [Kâtip Çelebi]. 1957. The balance of truth. ern Studies 45(4): 251–269.
Trans. G. L. Lewis. London: George Allen and Unwin. Zilfi, M.C. 1988. The politics of piety: The Ottoman
Ulema in the postclassical age (1600–1800). Minne-
Secondary Literature apolis: Bibliotheca Islamica.
Çavuşoğlu, S. 1990. The Kadizâdeli movement: An
attempt of Şeri’at-minded reform in the Ottoman
K
^tib Çelebi
Ka Biography
Born: February 1609 Son of a high-rank financial scribe and soldier,

Died: 6 October 1657 Kâtib Çelebi became his father’s apprentice and
accompanied him in a series of imperial cam-
Marinos Sariyannis paigns to the East from 1624 onwards. After his
Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FORTH, father’s death, he returned to Istanbul and took
Foundation for Research and courses under Kadızade Mehmed Efendi (q.v.),
Technology – Hellas, Rethymno, Greece whose legalist and literal reading of the Koran
impressed Kâtib Çelebi without making him
adhere to his revivalist ideas. While studying,
he took part to three more campaigns, all against
Iran; from 1635 he settled permanently in Istan-
bul and continued with his studies with various
Abstract
teachers, making himself a well-trained scholar
in most topics of the medrese (i.e., the jurispru-
Mustafa son of Abdullah, known as K^ atib Çelebi
dence school) curriculum, including astronomy,
or Hacı Halı̂fe (Hajji Kalfa) (Istanbul,
mathematics, and languages (his own books are
1609–Istanbul, 6 October 1657), was an Ottoman
written in both Ottoman Turkish and Arabic, and
encyclopaedist, historian, and geographer who is
he used sources in Persian as well). Meanwhile he
generally credited with the introduction of
continued working in the imperial chancery,
European-style scientific geography and more
hence his prosonym (Kâtib Çelebi, the “Master
generally with a major attempt to rationalize
Scribe,” or Hacı Halı̂fe (the Hajji Kalfa of West-
Ottoman science and world view.
ern sources), “the Pilgrim Clerk”), while at the
same time spending his mother’s considerable
inheritance in buying books. By 1642 he had
Alternate Names started giving lessons himself, and he was
acquainted with both the intellectual elite of
▶ Hacı Halı̂fe (Hajji Kalfa) Istanbul and Western scholars residing in the
Istanbul embassies. He died peacefully in 1657.
A prolific writer, Kâtib Çelebi was one of the
first Ottoman scholars to have used Western
sources: he had European renegades translate
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_138-1
2 Kâtib Çelebi
for him various chronicles and geographies, of sciences based on Taşköpr€uzade’s (q.v.) and
which he then annotated and published, or else Ibn Khaldun’s works.
used for his own works. Among his works, one Moreover, in an age where “rational sciences”
should note: Keşf€ u’z-z€
unûn ‘an es^ a mı̂’l-k€
utûb (e.g., logic or mathematics) had already started to
ve’l-f€
unûn (“Discovery of the opinions by the decline in favor of “transmitted” ones (i.e., the-
names of books and sciences”), an alphabetical ology, grammar, and law) in the medrese curric-
bibliographical dictionary in Arabic which is still ulum, Kâtib Çelebi emphasized the need and
appreciated as a reference, especially in regard utility of natural sciences, with an emphasis to
with works that are not extant; Takvı̂m€ u’t-tevâ rı̂h geography and astronomy. In the introduction of
(“Chronicle of histories”), a series of chronolog- his polemical work against the Kadızadeli reviv-
ical tables of world history; Fezleke-i tev^ a rı̂h alists, Mı̂z^
a n€
u’l-hakk, Kâtib Çelebi advocates the
(“Summary of histories”), an Ottoman history value of the rational sciences, which pertain to
covering the years 1592–1654; Cih^ a nn€um^ a matter, either only from the external reality, like
(“Mirror of the world”), an ambitious effort of mathematics, or both from external reality and
universal geography, begun twice, the second from the intellect, like natural science. However,
time with extensive use of European geographi- one must not overestimate Kâtib Çelebi’s ratio-
cal works translated for him by a French rene- nalism: he surely was a product of his tradition,
gade; D€ ustûr€
u’l-‘amel li-ısl^
a hi’l-halel (“Course entrenched in the transmitted way of thinking
of measures to redress the situation”), a inasmuch he was prone to relate unquestionably
reworking of a memorandum Kâtib Çelebi traditions or practices that would nowadays
wrote for a meeting studying the fiscal crisis in sound quite irrational. The innovation brought
1653, where he summarizes his views on society about by Kâtib Çelebi was a quest for
and political reform; and Mı̂z^ a n€
u’l-hakk fi unambiguity and a widening of the sources
ihtiy^
a ri’l-ahakk (“The balance of truth for used, upon which the traditional textual critique
selecting the right path”), a treatise on the various tools are applied. The translations of the Atlas
points of dispute between Kadızade (q.v.) and Minor and of similar Western European texts
Sivası̂ Efendi as for the abolishment of various served as an enlargement of the tradition, an
“innovations,” containing also an autobiographi- enrichment with a new source and, all the more
cal note. Moreover, with the help of his convert so, a more authoritative one.
friends, Kâtib Çelebi prepared a series of trans-
lations of European works, mainly from Latin,
among them Atlas Minor (a redaction of Gerard Innovative and Original Aspects
Mercator’s Atlas Major) and chronicles of Byz-
antine and European history. Kâtib Çelebi was not the first Ottoman scholar to
use Western sources; almost simultaneously with
him, the historian Ibrahim Peçuylu (Peçevi,
d. 1650) had made use of historical sources in
Western languages, while a history of France or
an account of the discovery of America had been
One of the major aspects of Kâtib Çelebi’s work
translated in the late sixteenth century. However,
is his impressively extensive knowledge of a vast
Kâtib Çelebi was the first to have sought in so
array of the previous Islamic scientific literature.
systematic a way a deep acquaintance with Euro-
A bibliophile and polymath, he had assembled
pean science, especially history and geography.
what in his lifetime may have been the largest
Apart from his translations and adaptations, he
private library in Istanbul, and his bibliographical
stressed in various works the need for an
compendium contains summaries of more than
unprejudiced approach to European science and
14,000 books in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman
for the application of scientific and rational
Turkish, while its introduction is a classification
methods, e.g., in navigation.
Kâtib Çelebi 3
In the field of political philosophy, Kâtib must these four social classes profit from each
Çelebi may be credited with the first solid intro- other and coexist in moderation and temperance.
duction of Ibn Khaldun’s philosophy of history in His solid political propositions differ from
Ottoman letters; this is done in both D€ ustûr€
u’l- previous Ottoman efforts in that he does not
‘amel li-ıslâ hi’l-halel and the introduction to his argue for a total return to the institutions of an
chronological tables, Takvı̂m€ u’t-tev^
a rı̂h. First of idealized “Golden Age” (usually localized in the
all, he uses a definition of his own for the term first half of the sixteenth century), but rather
devlet (Ar. dawla), which for Ibn Khaldun meant advocates a gradual decrease in the number of
“dynasty” but which Kâtib Çelebi takes for the soldiers under the leadership of a strong vizier, a
human society as a whole. Then he argues that the “man of the sword.” In other parts of his work,
social condition of man resembles the individual. Kâtib Çelebi adopts a balanced stance against
An individual’s life is naturally divided into three political and ideological fractions, arguing that
stages, namely, growth, standstill, and physical what a wise man should do is to get to know the
decline; the coming of each age, in its turn, beliefs and tenets of every class of people in
depends on the disposition of the individual, so every country, rather to try to impose his own.
that a strong man comes to his old age later than a He declares straightforwardly that there is no
weak one. Similarly, now, runs the social state of point in trying to abolish innovations, even bad
man, i.e., society. Thus, Kâtib Çelebi reduces Ibn ones, once established in a community. What is
Khaldun’s five stages to three while maintaining necessary for the rulers is only to protect the order
the usual time span of a society (or dynasty in Ibn of the Muslim people and the principles of Islam
Khaldun’s original) as three generations or among the community, but not to force people to
120 years. He stresses that those officials who comply.
try to mend such problems of the decline in the
same way they would do it in the standstill or
middle period are bound to fail, since each period
Impact and Legacy
requires its own measures. However, God is
all-powerful and may allow its surpassing. For
Kâtib Çelebi seems to have enjoyed a reputation
one thing, a dynasty that forgets its just laws and
of a polymath during his lifetime, and he was
turns to tyranny will fall to decline earlier than the
acquainted personally with H€useyin Hezârfen
usual time span (just like a sick man that takes
(1600–1678/1679), who may be said to have
poison instead of medicine), and a dynasty that
succeeded him in both his wide array of interests
takes wise measures and uses insightful
and the friendly relations with European scholars
statesmen as doctors can extend its days, the
of Istanbul. His works continued to be read long
same as an old man can live till the end of his
after his death: the historian Mustafa Nâ’imâ
days in good health.
(ca. 1665–1716) copied large sections of Kâtib
Kâtib Çelebi takes further the simile of society
Çelebi’s chronicle in his own history of the Otto-
with the human body, drawing on the Galenic
man Empire (including its pathbreaking introduc-
medicine and earlier Persian tradition. According
tion, where he used and expanded Kâtib Çelebi’s
to his analysis, society is constituted by four
Ibn Khaldunist theories), while his geographical
“pillars,” namely, the ulema (jurists), the mili-
material passed on (through the geographer Ebû
tary, the merchants, and the peasants, which cor-
Bekr Behrâm al-Dimişkı̂, d. 1691) to İbrahim
respond to the four humors of the human body
M€uteferrika (ca. 1674–1745), the founder of the
(blood, phlegm, yellow, and black bile – note that
first Ottoman printing house, who supplied the
his Persian and Ottoman predecessors would
second version of Kâtib Çelebi’s Cih^ a nn€
umâ
rather speak of the four elements, namely, fire,
with maps and published it in 1732.
air, water, and earth). Just as the four humors
must be kept in equilibrium, with none exceeding
its defined limits in the expense of the others, so
4 Kâtib Çelebi
Cross-References dicto et nomine Haji Khalfa celebrato compositum. Ad

codicum Vindobonensium Parisiensium et
Berolinensis fidem primum ed. Latine vertit et
▶ Kadızade commentario indicibusque instruxit Gustavus Fluegel.
▶ Tāshkubrī’zādah (Taşköpr€
uzade) Leipzig: Oriental Translation Fund.
˙
References Gökyay, O.Ş., ed. 1957. Kâ tip Çelebi. Hayatı ve eserleri
hakkında incelemeler. Ankara: Turk Tarih Kurumu
Primary Literature Basımevi.
Chelebi, Kâtib [Kâtip Çelebi]. 1957. The balance of truth, Hagen, G. 2003. Ein osmanischer Geograph bei der
trans. G. L. Lewis. London: George Allen and Unwin Arbeit. Entstehung und Gedankenwelt von Katib
Fl€ugel, G. ed. 1835–1858. Lexicon bibliographicum et Celebis Ğihâ nn€
umâ . Berlin: Schwarz.
encyclopaedium/a Mustafa Ben-Abdallah Katib jelebi
K
Kabasilas, Neilos archbishop of Thessalonica (1361–1363) and

leader of the hesychast movement. Kabasilas
Born: 1300 was one of Demetrios Cydones’ teachers and
Died: 1363 one of the great theologians who opposed the
alienation of the Orthodox dogma and Greek
Michail Mantzanas culture.
Ecclesiastical Academy of Athens, Athens, He has often been conflated with his nephew,
Greece Nicholas Kabasilas, who was also a theologian.
Neilos descended from a noble family in Constan-
Abstract tinople, studied classical Greek, and became a
Neilos Kabasilas was born in Thessaloniki. He prominent professor of Greek studies.
was a supporter of hesychasm, and he was the During the religious and political crisis which
first to attempt to disprove of Thomistic scho- took place in 1341, on a theological level,
lastic theology. He has been established as the Kabasilas advocated the hesychast movement,
greatest “polemic” writer, while his treatises on after a period of skepticism toward hesychasm,
Holy Ghost illustrate his profound knowledge and supported Ioannis VI Kantakouzenos on a
of the clerical tradition and his skills in articu- political level. Kabasilas was mentioned in
lating philosophical syllogisms. Ioannis VI’s memoirs entitled Historiai, as an
interlocutor of the emperor in the fictive corre-
spondence presented in the first book. Kabasilas’
Alternate Names theological and philosophical learning was highly
respected even by his intellectual opponents, as he
▶ Neilos Cabasilas; ▶ Nicholas Kabasilas (not to was extremely eloquent in the presentation of his
be confused with his nephew, also an author and philosophical thinking and he had a profound
theologian) knowledge of patriarchical tradition. Demetrios
Cydones commented on Neilos Kabasilas’ erudi-
tion stating that he is inferior to none of those who
Biography are perfect in wisdom.
A staunch advocate of Palamas’ ideas, he
Kabasilas was an ecclesiastical author who was wrote a famous work related to the session of the
born in Thessaloniki at the end of the thirteenth council in 1351, which took place at the Monas-
century (1285) and died around 1363. He was a tery of Vlachernai. During the specific session, the
bishop, and he succeeded Gregory Palamas as council took issue with the views expressed by the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_139-1
2 Kabasilas, Neilos
theologians Barlaam of Calabria and Gregory chapter from De rationibus fidei contra
Akindynos, who endorsed Western theology, as Saracenos, Graecos et Armenos ad Cantorem
well as Nikiforos Gregoras against whom Antiochenum. Neilos raised objections to the
Kabasilas wrote the so-called Antigramma. Latin claim that the essence of God is identified
with His energies and supported the view that
God’s essence is beyond knowledge, while divine
Innovative and Original Aspects energies are the sole way to God. Kabasilas
attempted to defend traditional orthodox theology
Most of Kabasilas’ writings that discuss ecclesi- and monastic spirituality, which was founded on
astical matters pertain to the great issues that sep- the belief that divine essence is inaccessible and
arated the two Churches. Various sources mention cannot be experienced, while divine energies are
that Kabasilas befriended Barlaam of Calabria. reachable and thus potentially communicable. He
His relation with Barlaam enabled him to become sought to elucidate the distinction between
acquainted with Western theological and philo- revealed knowledge and human knowledge, as
sophical thinking. Of particular interest are those this problem had not been discussed extensively
of his writings which criticize the Latin tradition, in patristic literature. According to Thomas
especially those that discuss the reasons behind Aquinas, human intellect and divine revelation
the disputes within the Church, as well as the are the same, in the sense that they both emanate
supremacy of the Pope, which was considered from the same source – God. This was a bond that
by Neilos Kabasilas as the reason for both the was not ruptured in spite of the original sin, as the
schism between the two Churches, and the “image” (kat’ eikona), which is intellect and free
so-called purgatory fire. Kabasilas rejected the will, remained intact. On the other hand,
Latins’ claims that Rome was the only apostolic Kabasilas contends that the original sin obliterated
home and dismissed the Pope’s right to summon man’s natural resemblance to the Creator and
ecumenical councils: the Pope should not be des- deformed the essence of the meaning of
ignated as Peter’s successor, and it is the king or “image.” This is the reason why intellect is a
the emperor who is allowed to convene an ecu- human feature and it is not related to God who
menical council. Furthermore, he examines expelled man from paradise. Kabasilas utilized
49 Latin phrases which he directly contradicts the teachings of Basil the Great and Ioannis
one by one. He also wrote other works which Chrysostomus in order to point out that faith and
were translated into Latin and Slavic languages, syllogisms are not compatible. With regard to the
but have not been translated yet. Kabasilas refuted origin of the Holy Spirit, he notes that Aquinas did
the primacy of Rome by emphasizing the chrono- take into consideration neither the definitions of
logical priority of the mother of all ecumenical councils nor the texts of the Scrip-
Churches – that of Jerusalem – without specifying tures; instead, he developed arbitrary and
de facto or de jure the practical value of this fact. unfounded reasoning, stating that the Holy Spirit
He also stated that Jesus Christ was the first and appears as love and the Son as intellect. Therefore,
absolute head of the Church and that ecclesiastical the Holy Spirit emanates from the Son (filioque),
conflicts should be resolved only by general ecu- in the same way that love emanates from intellect,
menical councils. as what is loved is first conceived by intelligence.
Neilos Kabasilas’ originality lies in the fact Kabasilas’ aim was to disprove Thomas Aquinas’
that he was the first who opposed to the Byzantine scholastic line of thinking which extrapolated
Thomists. More specifically, he sought to refute dogmatic truths through reflection. Kabasilas
the following excerpts from the writing of opposed Latins’ position that reason and love
Thomas Aquinas: three articles from the first were considered as emerging from Son’s birth
chapter of the first part of Summa Theologiae, rather than as a projection of the Spirit, as these
eleven chapters of the first and the fourth book distorted views were dissenting from the content
of Summa contra Gentiles, and the entire second of Scriptures. Kabasilas’ contribution to
Kabasilas, Neilos 3
hesychasm lies in the analysis of the concept of References

divine light and, more specifically, in the analysis
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Holy Scripture, the imparting religious knowl- Allatius, L. 1648. De Ecclesiae Occidentalis atque
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Allatius, L. 1668. Diatriba de Nilis. Roma: typis
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Podskalsky, G. 1988. Griechische Theologie in der Zeit der Terezis, Chr. 1997. Philosophiki anthropologia
T€urkenherrshaft (1453–1821). Die Orthodoxie im stoByzantio. Athina: Hellinika Grammata.
Spannungsfeld der nachreformatorischen Trapp, E. 1981. KabάsilaB NeίloB, PLP, 5 Fasz, 11–12,
Konfessionen des Westens. M€ unchen: C.H. Beck’ sche N 10102. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie
Verlagsbuchhandlung. der Wissenschaften.
L
Laqānı̄, ‘Abd al-Salām jurisprudential authority Ibrāhīm Burhān al-Dīn

al-Laqānī (d. 1631), ‘Abd al-Salām al-Laqānī
Born: Late 16th/early 17th century followed his father’s career, eventually
Died: 1668 succeeding him in the teaching position at the
prominent institution in Cairo. He died in 1668.
Jari Kaukua Al-Laqānī wrote two commentaries on his
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, father’s popular verse form creed Jawhara
University of Jyväskylä/Academy of Finland, al-tawḥī d as well as on his autocommentary
Jyväskylä, Finland Hidāya al-murī d, respectively titled Itḥāf
al-murī d, Irshād al-murī d, and Hadī ya al-murī d.
The two first works were subject to further com-
mentaries at least down to the late nineteenth
century. They, like the elder Laqānī’s original,
Abstract represent a phase of conservative Ash‘arism that
departs from the tradition of philosophically
The son of a famous jurisprudent, ‘Abd al-Salām ambitious summae and commentaries that
al-Laqānī was a seventeenth-century theologian reaches from Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī to ‘Aḍud
and Mālikite jurisprudent who taught at al-Azhar al-Dīn al-Ījī, Sa‘d al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī, and
in Cairo. al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī. In al-Laqānīs’ works, the
extended discussion of systematic metaphysical
and epistemological questions gives way to an
emphasis on an orthodox treatment of traditional
Full Name theological topics, such as God’s unity and its
relation to His attributes, prophecy, human
▶ Nāṣir al-Dīn ‘Abd al-Salām ibn Ibrāhīm agency and responsibility (the question of
al-Laqānī al-Mālikī iktisāb), key moments of early Sunnī history,
and various revealed doctrines, with general
questions on the nature of existence or on the
Biography debate over atoms emerging only sporadically
for a somewhat superficial treatment.
The son of an al-Azhar professor, the conserva-
tive Ash‘arite theologian, and the Mālikite

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_143-1
2 Laqānı̄, ‘Abd al-Salām
References Gardet, L., and M.-M. Anawati. 1948. Introduction à la

théologie musulmane: Essai de théologie comparée.
Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin.
Primary Literature Watt, W.M. 1985. Islamic philosophy and theology: An
Al-Amīr, M. 1304 H. Ḥāshiya ‘alā Sharḥ al-Shaykh extended survey. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
al-Imām ‘Abd al-Salām ‘alā al-Jawhara fī al-kalām. Press.
Cairo. N.P. Wisnovsky, R. 2004. The nature and scope of Arabic
philosophical commentary in post-classical
Secondary Literature (ca. 1100–1900 AD) Islamic intellectual history:
Babu Sahib, M.M.H. 2000. The tenets of Islam [Being a Some preliminary observations. Philosophy, science
translation & extensive commentary on Kitab and exegesis in Greek, Arabic and Latin commentar-
jawharatu’t-tawhid of Imam Burhanu’d-din Ibn ies, eds. P. Adamson, H. Balthussen & M. W. F. Stone,
Harun al-Laqqani]. Singapore: Islamic Religious special issue of Bulletin of the Institute of Classical
Council Singapore/Islamic Centre of Singapore. Studies 47: S83, vol. 2, 149–191.
L
Luzzatto, Simone thoroughly examined by various Jewish and

Christian scholars, thus leaving a still lasting
Born: 1583? impact on the following of Jewish thought. His
Died: 1663 second work, Socrate overo dell’humano sapere,
printed in 1651, is a philosophical work in the
Giuseppe Veltri and Michela Torbidoni tradition of sceptic thought, which still remains
Institut for Jewish Philosophy and Religion, quite enigmatic. The political and philosophical
Hamburg University, Hamburg, Germany thinking of the rabbi explores the relations
between the Republic of Venice and the ghetto,
contributing to a new concept of Jewish identity
and its social and cultural role within Christian
society.
Abstract
Simone Luzzatto was the chief rabbi of the Jew- Biography

ish community of Venice and a renowned scien-
tist whose works were highly praised among A wide range of modern and contemporary
scholars and colleagues of his time. His fame sources helped to paint a more complete picture
increased during his rabbinate, as he became the of the rabbi’s life, not least because his own
author of several critical texts and contributor to writings don’t reveal much information aside
the debates about Jewish law (Halakha), which from short allusions. Only in 2011, the discovery
constitute his works in Hebrew. His immense of his last will and testament dating back to 1662
erudition ranged from the natural sciences to the provided some new information concerning his
humanities: rabbi and intellectual, he had a schol- family and his material possessions. Simone
arly talent for classical Latin and Greek culture Luzzatto was born in Venice between 1580 and
and also was a passionate reader of medieval and 1590. He descended from a very rich and well-
contemporary Italian authors. Luzzatto’s main known Venetian family of great cultural and eco-
works are written in Italian. In 1638, he published nomic prestige, also proven by the fact that
the Discorso circa il stato degli Hebrei, a small Luzzatto’s family members married exponents
apologetic treatise written with the goal to show of the most prominent Jewish families of Venice.
the social, politic, and economic importance and This is also confirmed by the rich heritage he left
usefulness of Jews for Venetian welfare. It is his to his grandchild Moisè Luzzatto in his last will.
first and most known work and has been The Luzzatto family originally came from the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_147-3
2 Luzzatto, Simone
Lausitz region in the northeast of Germany text divided in three parts and introduced by a
(S. D. Luzzatto 1878); therefore, it was probably detailed index of the topics, in which the rabbi
part of the Ashkenazi Jews, who populated the argues in favor of the adequacy of the place of
ghetto of Venice in 1516. According to some ritual.
sources, he received his ordination at the age of
24 (Luzzatto S. 1950/1951) and he acted as rabbi
Responsa
of the synagogue of the “Scuola Grande
Five very short of Luzzatto’s responses are col-
Tedesca,” in attendance of the Jewish-German
lected in the volume Nachalat Ya‘aqov
community, until the end of his life. Documents
(“Ya‘aqov’s heritage”), put together by the
of Inquisition’s processes mention him as having
rabbi Ya‘aqov Heilbronn, whose disciple
been rabbi until 1661 (Ioly Zorattini 1980/1997).
Luzzatto was. Each response starts with a dedi-
We know from a letter of the rabbi and writer
cation to rabbi Heilbronn and debates different
Isaac Cantarini to the Christian Hebraist,
topics, such as transporting a dead body on Sat-
Christoph Theophil Unger, that he died in 1663
urdays, the issue of extramarital relationships,
(Wolfius 1727) and also contains an anecdote
and financial issues, especially concerning
about how his too heavy gravestone submerged
usury. One of the shortest responses, but at the
into the ground of Venice’s Lido cemetery.
same time very important to the rabbi, examines
the controversy between rabbi Heilbronn and
other rabbis, who accused him to be a follower
Writings in Hebrew Language
of the Kabbalah, disapproved by the majority of
the Italian rabbis of early modernity. The last
In accordance with his position as a rabbi,
religious-legal opinion deals with an economic
Luzzatto was the author of a considerable number
argument between two brothers, Shim‘on and
of Halakhic responses about issues concerning
Re’uven. Most of Luzzatto’s responses
the Jewish law (responsa), which constitute the
concerning civil, family, inheritance, and ritual
corpus of his Hebrew works, but his name also
law were discovered in manuscripts of different
appears in several documents as poseq (who has
origin (Luzzatto S. 2013).
decisional power concerning rabbinic laws
issues), as maskin (someone who granted the
nihil obstat), or as a wedding witness (his sign Introduction to the Commentary
was found on some marriage contracts). He of Ecclesiastes and Job’s Books
signed several approvals for Jewish book publi- Although Luzzatto hasn’t left us any biblical and
cations. Some of his contemporaries referred to Talmudic commentary, a short introduction to a
him as the author of some other works commentary of Ecclesiastes and Job’s Books was
(Delmedigo 1629) that unfortunately were never discovered. This introduction was published in
found. 1656 in Tzafnat pa‘neach (“The revelation of
secrets”) by Samuele ha-Cohen from Pisa.
Mish‘an mayim (Venice, 1606) Though it is a very short text, here Luzzatto
The Mish‘an mayim (“The water support”) con- debates the very controversial topic of Job’s
stitutes his most important religious-legal intentional denial of the resurrection of the
response. It is part of a collection of texts printed dead. By examining the biblical and Talmudic
in the volume Mashbit milchamot (“End of the passages, Luzzatto argues in favor of Job’s pro-
virulent discussions”) in Venice in 1606 as the test against God, showing it to be a manifestation
result of a difficult Halakhic dispute about the of the human freedom to criticize mankind’s con-
purity of a miqwe (a bath for ritual washing) in dition on this world.
Rovigo. Luzzatto’s opinion comes as the last of
seven responses written by different Venetian
rabbis. The Mish‘an mayim is a well-structured
Luzzatto, Simone 3
Writings in Italian Language political criticism, in favor of expelling Jewish

communities from European cities. Luzzatto also
Discorso circa il stato degli Hebrei (Venice, praises the notable intellectual engagement of the
1638) Jewish community, describing its active partici-
Luzzatto’s political thought is expressed in a pation in the philosophical debates of the time. In
short treatise, Discorso circa il stato degli Hebrei conclusion, one could say that Luzzatto proposes
et in particolare dimoranti nell’inclita Città di and defends in his treatise a political message of
Venetia (Discourse on the condition of the Jews the trustworthiness of the Jews, confirmed by
with particular reference to the Jews dwelling in their long history of loyal respect for the Venetian
the noble city of Venice), printed in 1638 in Ven- constitution.
ice by Giovanni Calleoni. This book is a refined
apology of the Jewish Venetian community and a Socrate overo dell’humano sapere (Venice,
request of tolerance probably written as a 1651)
response to the crisis which broke out in 1636 Luzzatto published his major work, Socrate
after a robbery committed also by some Jews of overo dell’humano sapere. Esercitio
the ghetto (Shulvass 1949). A pending threat of seriogiocoso di Simone Luzzatto hebreo
expulsion of the Jews seems to be one of the venetiano. Opera nella quale si dimostra quanto
reasons of Luzzatto’s commitment in this work. sia imbecile l’humano intendimento, mentre non
The rabbi seeks to describe and justify the role of è diretto dalla divina rivelatione (“Socrates or on
the Jewish community within Christian society. human knowledge. The serious-playful exercise
By arguing in favor and giving examples of the of Simone Luzzatto, Venetian Jew. A work that
socioeconomic value of the Jewish presence in shows how imbecilic human intelligence can be,
Venice, but implicitly also of broader Christian when it is not led by divine revelation”), in Ven-
society, Luzzatto moves beyond a mere petitio ice in 1651 at the Tomasini’s printing house. The
and starts a real political discourse based on util- book comprises 316 pages of text, followed by a
itarian conceptions. The Discorso is divided into list of the discussed topics. The text is divided
18 chapters called “considerazioni” neither into chapters nor into paragraphs. How-
(considerations) and comprises two separate sec- ever, there are some margin annotations, which
tions. In the first one (consideration I to X), somehow act as guidelines pointing out changes
Luzzatto claims the highly developed economic of topic, interlocutors, and the transition from
skills of the Jews to be necessary presuppositions direct to indirect speech.
for the commercial activity in Venice, defending The purpose of this later treatise is to show the
the importance of their role in Venetian economy. weakness of human knowledge systematically
He deals extensively with issues such as trade, employing the method of sceptic doubt. How-
moneylending, collective wealth, and the role of ever, it is a kind of theological scepticism which
the Jewish community in the city of Venice and only concerns human cognition, exempting
thereby underlines the remarkable aptitudes Jews divine knowledge and revelation from this con-
show in increasing the wealth of the city. Reading cept of sceptic doubt. Luzzatto defines divine
these passages, it becomes evident how proud revelation as the only trustworthy knowledge
and satisfied the rabbi was with the excellent and denies the authority of sciences and the reli-
level of economic and social achievement of the ability of the instruments of human cognition.
Venetian Jews. The second section The rabbi entrusts Socrates and many others phi-
(consideration XI to XVIII) centers on the topic losophers and known figures of classical Greek
of a possible expulsion of the entire Jewish com- thought, with the task to conduct this inquiry into
munity as punishment for the crimes of a few human knowledge in order to show that the only
single individuals and seeks to avoid it. To this acceptable, because not dogmatic, consequence
end, he proceeds to systematically refute all argu- of this thinking is the suspension of judgment.
ments, referring to the Bible or to Christian and The entire book is designed as a new fictional
4 Luzzatto, Simone
apology by Socrates, who had been accused of since there exist only very few copies of the
trying to devaluate human sciences. He defends original book and it was republished again only
himself by enumerating the reasons which led in 2013, after its last publication in 1651. There
him to suspect that human scientific discipline are some allusions to Luzzatto’s Socrate in the
lacked certainty. He claims that the controversial world of scholarship, but no scholars have
opinions of scholars on principles, objects, instru- referred to this work in its entirety. Among the
ments, and functions of knowledge are at the first who paid attention to Luzzatto’s thinking
origin of his doubts about the reliability of the was the historian Henrich Graetz. He examined
human sciences. By adopting the method and the rabbi’s philosophical work in an attempt to
developing the main concepts of ancient and show the necessity of reason and revelation to
modern sceptic philosophy, this work represents complement one another (Graetz 1998), recalling
a refined prove of the Venetian Jewish reception the traditional doctrine of the equilibrium
of the sceptic modern tendencies of the early between fides and ratio. Also, Shmuel David
modernity in Europe. Luzzatto proposed a summary of the Socrate
dealing just in passing with the topic of his scep-
ticism (Luzzatto S.D. 1878). There exist only
Reputation and Cultural Legacy three more recent contributions to the study of
Luzzatto’s Socrate: David Ruderman in his Jew-
The political thinking of the Venetian rabbi was ish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early
well received and also criticized by his followers Modern Europe summarized Socrate’s contents,
and indirect disciples. The originality of his apol- focusing on the difficult problem of Luzzatto’s
ogetic treatise consists in a new approach to the sources and his place in the context of modern
issue of the place of the Jewish community within thinking and Jewish scholarship. The dissertation
Christian society. Luzzatto adopted the Machia- of Ariel Viterbo, partly published in Italian in
vellian concept of utilitas and necessitas to 1997, should also be considered because it deals
strengthen and highlight the economic role and with the book, describing its contents, and pro-
social position of Jews in the society posing to interpret the Socrate as an intellectual
(Veltri 2011a). His ideas and arguments played biography of Luzzatto. The last contributions to
a significant role in the thinking of some Jewish the research also on this still rather enigmatic
and Christian authors. Luzzatto’s Discorso was a book were edited by Giuseppe Veltri, who (S.
source of inspiration to Menasseh ben Israel, who Luzzatto 2013; Veltri 2015) suggests to consider
implicitly adopted it in his De fidelitate et utilitate this work as a unique Jewish contribution
Judaicae gentis libellus anglicus (Ravid 1982), concerning the sceptic tendencies of European
but also for Spinoza, who indirectly criticized his early modernity. This interpretation invites the
political thinking (Veltri 2008). A certain prove recipient to evaluate Socrate as a proof of the
of the influence of Luzzatto’s book is given by the Jewish participation in the philosophical debate
deist John Toland who read it and planned to of the time and thus the Jewish active role for
translate it into English. Considering the interest building the modern European culture.
that Toland and Menasseh ben Israel showed for
the political thinking of Luzzatto, it is probable
that Moses Mendelssohn was influenced by the References
Discorso for his Jerusalem. It’s important to
mention Johann Friederich Herder among the Primary Literature
voices that express a direct acknowledgment of Luzzatto, S. 1638. Discorso circa il stato degli Hebrei, et
Luzzatto’s theory (Veltri 2013). in particular dimoranti nell’inclita città di Venetia.
Venetia: Giovanni Calleoni
The legacy of Luzzatto’s sceptic thinking is
Luzzatto, S. 1651. Socrate overo dell’humano sapere.
more difficult to trace: Socrate overo Esercitio seriogiocoso di Simone Luzzatto hebreo
dell’humano sapere is not very well known, venetiano. Opera nella quale si dimostra quanto sia
Luzzatto, Simone 5
imbecile l’humano intendimento, mentre non è diretto the discorso of Simone Luzzatto. Jerusalem: American
dalla divina rivelatione. Venetia: Tomasini. Academy for Jewish Research.
Luzzatto, S. 1656. Haqdama. In Tsafnat pa‘neach: Be’ur Ravid, B.C.I. 1982. “How profitable the nation of the Jews
ketuvim zarim she-be-sefer Qohelet. 2b–4a. Venezia: are” The humble addresses of menasseh ben Israel and
Vendramina the Discorso of Simone Luzzatto’. In Mystics, philos-
Luzzatto, S. 1947. Discourse on the state of the Jews. ophers, and politicians; Essays in Jewish intellectual
Cincinnati. Dissertation submitted by L.W. Roubey history in honor of Alexander Altmann, 159–180. Dur-
at the Hebrew Union College. ham: Duke University Press.
Luzzatto, S. 1950/1951. Ma’amar‘al yehude Venetsya: Ravid, B.C.I. 1983. Contra Judaeos in seventeenth-
tirgem me-ha-maqor italqi Dan Lattes ‘im mevu’oy century Italy: Two responses to the Discorso of
me’ et Riqardo Baqi u-Moshe A. Shulvass. Simone Luzzatto by Melchiore Palontrotti and Giulio
Yerushalayim: Mosad Bialik. Morosini. AJS Review 7(8): 301–351.
Luzzatto, S. 1976. Discorso circa il stato de gli Hebrei et Romano, G., and E. Morpurgo. 1973. Samuel David
in particular dimoranti nell’inclita città di Venetia. Luzzatto e la sua famiglia. Rassegna mensile di Israel
Bologna: A. Forni Editore 39: 618–632.
Luzzatto, S. 2013. Scritti politici e filosofici di un ebreo Roth, C. 1975. History of the Jews in Venice. Philadelphia/
scettico nella Venezia del Seicento. Milano: Bompiani. New York: Schocken Books.
Ruderman, D.B. 1995. Jewish thought and scientific dis-
covery in early modern Europe. New Haven: Yale
Secondary Literature University Press.
Bachi, R. 1947. La dottrina sulla dinamica della città Sacerdoti, A. 1936. Simone Luzzatto. In La comunità
secondo Giovanni Botero e secondo Simone Luzzatto. israelitica di Roma, 99–113. Roma. S.A. Istituto
Atti della accademia nazionale dei lincei 8: 369–378. romano di arti grafiche di Tumminelli
Barzilay, E. 1969. John Toland’s borrowings from Simone Saracco, L. 2006. Simone Luzzatto. In Dizionario
Luzzatto. Jewish Social Studies 31: 75–81. biografico degli Italiani, vol. 66, 747–749. Roma:
Blau, L. 1906. Venezianische Rabbiner 1550–1650, Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana.
7. Simcha (Simone) Luzzatto. In Jahresbericht der Septimus, B. 1987. Biblical religion and political rational-
Landes-Rabbinerschule in Budapest f€ ur das Schuljahr ity in Simone Luzzatto, Maimonides and Spinoza. In
1905–1906, 119–126. Alkalay & Sohn: Budapest und Jewish thought in the seventeenth century, 257–283.
Pozsony. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Center.
Calimani, R. 1995. Storia del ghetto di Venezia. Milano: Shulvass, M.A. 1949. A Story of the Misfortunes which
A. Mondadori. Afflicted the Jews in Italy. Hebrew Union College
Delmedigo, Y. Sh. 1628–29. Sefer Elim. Amsterdam: Annual 22: 1–21.
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Facchini, C. 2008. Voci dell’ebraismo liberale. Costruire prince and the Italian tradition of reason of state. Rede-
una religione moderna. In Ebraismo. Torino: Einaudi. scriptions. Yearbook of Political Thought and Concep-
Graetz, H. 1998. Geschichte der Juden. Berlin: Arani. tual History 9: 157–182.
Guetta, A. 1999. Le mythe du politique chez le Juifs dans Veltri, G. 2002. Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der j€ udischen
l’Italie des Cités. In Politik und Religion, 119–131. Existenz in der Diaspora: Streiflichter auf Simone
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zehn Bänden. Frankfurt a.M: Klassiker-Verl. Faszination, 97–115. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer.
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Hamburgi-Lipsiae: Felginer
M
Manuel II Palaeologus Biography
Born: Constantinople, 27 June 1350 Manuel was the second son of Emperor John
Died: Constantinople, 21 July 1425 V Palaeologus (1341–1376, 1379–1391) and
Empress Helena Cantacuzene (1333–1396), the
Charalambos Dendrinos youngest daughter of Emperor John VI
Hellenic Institute, Royal Holloway University of Cantacuzenus (1347–1354). Having received his
London, Egham, Surrey, UK early education from his learned mother, Manuel
was subsequently taught by Demetrius Cydones
(ca. 1324–ca. 1398), to whom he repeatedly
Abstract expressed his respect and admiration. Unable to
devote himself entirely to his studies, however, as
Manuel II Palaeologus was one of the most he had to be trained in various skills and disci-
learned and distinguished emperors of Byzan- plines proper to a young prince, Manuel consid-
tium. An enlightened statesman and a skilled dip- ered his early education inadequate. The civil war
lomat Manuel reigned in a critical period for the that followed the usurpation of the throne by his
Empire (1391–1425), when its unity and survival elder brother Andronicus IV Palaeologus
was threatened by internal divisions and external (1376–1379) prevented Manuel from continuing
menaces. His cautious policy towards the union of his studies. His imprisonment, together with his
the Churches was dictated by the political realities father and younger brother Theodore, by
and his own experiences. Under constant pres- Andronicus in the tower of Anemas in Constanti-
sure, Manuel found solace in his studies. nople (1376–1379), where Andronicus and his
Surrounded by a circle of scholars and theolo- son John VII (1390) had been previously incar-
gians, time and official duties permitting, he pur- cerated by John V (1373), proved instrumental in
sued his interests in literature and theology. this respect, for it allowed him to concentrate on
A humane ruler and a thinker, in the eyes of his his studies. Despite his inadequate progress, due
contemporary Manuel embodied the ideal of the to the absence of proper guidance and instruction
Platonic philosopher-king. by a teacher under the circumstances, Manuel was
animated by a passion for learning that was to last
for the rest of his life.
Alternate Names Following John V’s restoration and recogni-
tion of Andronicus IV as the legitimate successor,
▶ Palaiologos Manuel ruled as despot in Thessalonica (1382).
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_148-1
2 Manuel II Palaeologus
There he established his own court, which that reflects the dominant stance among certain
included friends who shared his own cultural Orthodox circles towards Western scholasticism.
and literary interests. Adopting an independent In addition, his position as emperor made it his
stance towards the Ottomans, Manuel initially duty to study theology in order to defend the
managed to restore some territories to the Empire. Orthodox doctrines and the Church, which gave
In response the city of Thessalonica was besieged him also the right to intervene, when necessary, in
by Murad I’s (1362–1389) general, Hayreddin ecclesiastical affairs. Manuel’s determination to
Pasha. It was in this period (1383–1386) that exercise his imperial authority and privileges
Manuel wrote his first rhetorical work, the Coun- over the Church, whose jurisdiction extended to
sel to the Thessalonians when they were besieged Orthodox lands well beyond Byzantine imperial
(SumbouleutikὸB prὸB toὺB YessalonikeῖB territory, did not remain unchallenged.
ἡnίka ἐpoliorkoῦnto) urging them to resist the Manuel’s theological pursuits and involvement
enemy and fight for freedom. His failure to secure in Church affairs were combined with his negoti-
help from Venice and Pope Urban VI ations with the papacy over Church union. After
(1378–1389) resulted to the fall of the city the defeat of the Christian coalition by the
(1387). Banned by his father to the island of Ottomans at Nicopolis (1396) and with Constan-
Lemnos (1387–1389), with his future uncertain, tinople being under siege (1394–1402), Manuel
Manuel found once more refuge in his studies. approached the Roman Pope Boniface IX
After his reconciliation with John V, Manuel (1389–1404), who issued a bull (1398) urging
succeeded him to the imperial throne (1391). the Christian potentates to offer military aid. The
Compelled to accompany Murad I’s successor, expedition led by the French Marshal Jean le
Bayezid I (1389–1402), as his vassal in the Otto- Meingre, also known as Boucicaut (1366–1421),
man campaign in Asia Minor, Manuel spent the in 1399 had limited success. Boucicaut convinced
early winter of 1391 in the vicinity of Ankara. Manuel that the only way to attract serious atten-
There he met a Muslim Sufi teacher (possibly tion of Western monarchs to his cause would be
Haci Bayram Velî [1352–1430]), with whom he by personally visiting them to their courts in
held a series of conversations on Christianity and Europe. After he appointed Andronicus’ son,
Islam. These Manuel later elaborated in his first John VII, as his regent in Constantinople, Manuel
major theological work, his lengthy Dialogues sailed to Venice in December 1399, stopping at
with the Persian (DiάlogoB ὃn ἐpoiήsato metά the Morea, where he left his wife and children for
tinoB Persou tὴn a᾿xίan Mouterίz ἐn Ἀgkύrᾳ safety with his brother Theodore. At that point, he
t˜ B GalatίaB . . .), in which he discusses primarily had already started composing his Precepts on the
the conflicting beliefs of Islam and Christianity. Education of an Emperor (Ὑpoy˜ kai basilik˜ B
Manuel’s love for theology became a source of άgog˜ B), which he reworked during and after his
criticism by an anonymous person (most probably voyage to the West. This work, composed as a
the Latinophrone teacher and theologian Manuel royal speech in the form of a hundred chapters,
Calecas [d. 1410]), on the grounds that he had not epitomizes Manuel’s vision of statesmanship and
received proper theological and philosophical the virtuous ruler. He subsequently elaborated on
training and that his official duties hardly allowed the major themes in his Seven Ethico-political
him to seriously study theology. Manuel Orations, Manuel’s moral testament, which
responded to these criticisms in his long Epistolary expounds on the principles and virtues that lead
discourse on theology addressed to Alexius Iagoup man closer to God and to true happiness. Both
(Τῷ kurῷ Ἀlexίῳ tῷ Ἰagoύp). Though Manuel these works are addressed to John VIII,
acknowledged these facts, he stressed that for him foregrounding Manuel’s concern for the legiti-
they are not sufficient reasons to abstain from macy of his son’s succession to the throne.
discussing theological subjects, provided that one From Venice, Manuel crossed Italy, through
is aware of the proper use and limits of philosoph- Padua, Vicenza, Pavia, and Milan, where he was
ical reasoning in investigating divine truths, a view cordially received by the Duke Gian Galeazzo
Manuel II Palaeologus 3
Visconti (1351–1402). There Manuel was joined the Latin views on the Filioque by presenting the
by Manuel Chrysoloras (1355–1415), his close Orthodox teachings on the procession of the Holy
friend, scholar, and ambassador, who had been Spirit, in the sense of the eternal hypostatic ema-
teaching Greek in Florence. The Emperor contin- nation, from the Father alone. Manuel expounded
ued to Paris where he was ceremoniously received on the Orthodox perception of the Trinity,
by King Charles VI (1380–1422) and his court in stressing the unique and unconfused attributes of
the presence of the people of Paris (3 June 1400). the three consubstantial hypostases, the distinc-
A description of the royal reception and the deep tion between the divine essence and the divine
impression Manuel made is recorded by the anon- energy, the different terms and prepositions used
ymous Religious of Saint Denys. During his stay by the saints to denote the eternal emanation and
in Paris, Manuel resided at the old louver, where the temporal manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and
inspired by a dyed woven hanging tapestry finally examining the question over the nature of
representing scenes of Spring, he composed a the primacy of the Bishop of Rome. The treatise is
short prose work, the Depiction of Spring in a appended by a short discourse On the Order in the
Dyed, Woven Hanging (ἝaroB eἰkὼn ἐn ὑ’antῷ Trinity (Ὅti ὑpὲr tάxin ἡ ΤriάB, kaὶ tὸ yeῖon
parapetάsmati ῥgikῷ), which differs from sim- a᾿swmάtiston, kaὶ oὐk ἐk tῶn ἡmeteron ἡ ἐn
ilar Byzantine ekphraseis of Spring, showing an aὐtῇ tάxiB deίknutai pragmάton te kaὶ
appreciation of art as an image of reality and life. paradeigmάton), in which Manuel provides fur-
At the same time, Manuel continued his diplo- ther arguments in defense of the Orthodox views
matic contacts and negotiations with other West- on the procession of the Holy Spirit. Through his
ern potentates through his ambassadors, who own studies and his close association with emi-
travelled to Margaret I, Queen of Denmark, Swe- nent theologians, notably Joseph Bryennius
den and Norway (1387–1412), as well as to King (1340/50–1431), Nicholas Cabasilas (1319/
Martin I of Aragon (1396–1410), King Henry III 23–1392) and Demetrius Cydones, Manuel was
of Castile (1390–1406), and King Charles III of well acquainted with the Greek and Latin teach-
Navarre (1387–1404). Manuel also personally ings. Albeit not original in his approach and argu-
visited King Henry IV (1399–1413) in England mentation, Manuel proved himself a competent
(December 1400–mid-February 1401), whose theologian, showing a profound understanding
kindness and generous hospitality were much of the main issues that lie behind the doctrinal
appreciated by the Emperor, though his assur- and ecclesiastical divergence between the two
ances for financial and military assistance, which traditions, and expressed his wish for union,
raised Manuel’s hopes, were never materialized. under certain conditions.
During his sojourn in Paris, Manuel was also Comments in the treatise On the Procession of
presented with a theological tract by an anony- the Holy Spirit show that Manuel was informed of
mous Latin theologian, most probably a Benedic- the controversies within the Latin Church and
tine, which defended the Latin doctrine of the events concerning the Western Schism at the
procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father time, namely, the rivalry between the Pope in
and the Son in the form of a syllogism (Latίnou Rome and the Pope in Avignon, and their efforts
tinὸB a᾿skoῦntoB ἐn toῖB proasteίoiB toῦ to secure the allegiance of cardinals and sover-
Parusίou, prὸB tὸn aὐtokrάtora Ῥomaίon eigns, as well as the dispute between the Domini-
Manouὴl tὸn Palaiológon, a᾿pódmon ὄnta ἐn cans and the Franciscans over the doctrine of the
taῖB GalίaiB, ἐn swήmati sullogismoῦ Immaculate Conception. Manuel contacted the
ke’alaio dB ἐpitomὴ perὶ t˜ B toῦ a᾿gίou Pope Benedict XIII (1394–1423) at Avignon and
PneύmatoB ἐkporeύseoB). Manuel responded probably visited Pope Boniface IX in Rome in
by composing a lengthy treatise On the Proces- person. It is possible that these diplomatic contacts
sion of the Holy Spirit (Τoῦ aὐtokrάtoroB tῶn were sanctioned by Charles VI, who was eager to
Ῥomaίon Manouὴl toῦ Palaiológou prὸB convene a general council which would put an end
taῦta lógoB a᾿pologtikóB), in which he refuted to the Western Schism (1378–1418). According to
Macarius Metropolitan of Ancyra (1397–1405), to 1417), added to the manuscript at a later stage.
who accompanied Manuel in his journey, the Some of these works remain unpublished. More
Emperor held discussions also with representa- importantly, the manuscript bears extensive revi-
tives of King Charles on the prospects of an ecu- sions by the hand of the Emperor in several works,
menical council to end the Schism between the including Manuel’s Moral dialogue with the
Greek and the Latin Churches. Manuel seems to Empress-Mother or On marriage (DiάlogoB
have provisionally consented to this plan, in order prὸB tὴn kurίan aὐtoῦ kaὶ despoinan kaὶ
to promote his cause. His cautious attitude towards mtera, ἢ perὶ gάmou), composed after his mar-
Church union, however, is reflected in the personal riage in 1392 with the Serbian princess Helena
advice he gave to John VIII (1425–1448), during Dragaš (b. 1372–d. 1450), which reflects the
the negotiations with the papacy in 1422, which uncertainty over dynastic succession in the early
was recorded by the courtier and historian George years of his reign (1394–1396/7).
Sphrantzes (1401–ca. 1477) who was present at Manuel’s habit of revising his own writings,
this meeting. Aware of the political complexities, many of which were copied by his chief scribe
Manuel advised his son always to discuss union Isidore of Kiev (1385–1463), and sending drafts
with the Latins to keep the Ottomans at bay, but to members of his literary circle before publica-
never bring it about for this would widen the tion is attested in a number of his works, includ-
division in the Byzantine Church and society ing his treatise On the Procession of the Holy
thus exposing the Empire to the Ottomans. His Spirit, sections of which were revised by the
judgment, which was not duly appreciated by his theologian Macarius Macres (1382/3–1431), the
son, proved wise in the end, as the union Confession addressed to his spiritual father on
proclaimed later on in Florence under John VIII the occasion of his own recovery from a serious
(1439) was short-lived and never truly material- illness (PrὸB tὸn ἑautoῦ pneumatikón, ὑpὲr tῶn
ized in the face of the strong opposition of the kay’ ἑautὸn metὰ tὸ ῥaὶsai t˜ B deinῶB
Orthodox Church and people. kataskcάsB aὐtῷ walepotάtB nósou), a
Meanwhile the defeat of the Ottoman army and draft of which was presented in Thessalonica to
the imprisonment of Bayezid by Timur the monks David and Damian of Vatopedi, and
(1370–1405) in the battle of Ankara (28 July his Funeral Oration on his Brother Theodore
1402) were considered as God-sent by Manuel, (LógoB ἐpitά’ioB eἰB tὸn aὐtάdel’on aὐtoῦ
who composed two short rhetorical works, a despótn por’urogennton kῦrin Yeódoron
hymn in the form of a Psalm on the occasion of Palaiológon ῥyeὶB ἐpidmήsantoB eἰB
Bayezid’s defeat, and an ethopoiea, a fictional Pelopónnson toῦ basileoB), which was
address by Timur to Bayezid. Leaving Paris revised several times. Composed on the occasion
(23 November 1402), Manuel traveled to Genoa, of Theodore I’s death (24 June 1407), apart from
possibly Florence, and Ferrara and reached Venice its literary value, reflecting Manuel’s elegance of
(March 1403). From there, he sailed to the Morea, style and sensitivity, the Funeral Oration is an
where he rejoined his family and returned to Con- important historical source of Byzantine policy
stantinople (June 1403). in the Morea under Theodore. The lengthy epi-
Before he left for the West, Manuel commis- taph is preceded by a number of protheoriae,
sioned the copying of his works he had composed among which one by the philosopher George
thus far. This edition is preserved in codex Gemistos (Plethon) (1355–1452), who later
Parisinus graecus 3041. Paleographical and codi- presented Manuel with a Memorandum
cological evidence shows that apart from works expressing his proposals in response to the polit-
which Manuel had written before he left Constan- ical and socio-economic crisis in the Pelopon-
tinople (1399), this manuscript contains in addi- nese and the Empire at the time (1418). The
tion several other works he wrote during his stay Funeral Oration was subsequently sent with an
in the West and after his return to Constantinople, accompanying letter to Manuel Chrysoloras, in
including his selected correspondence (dated prior which the Emperor requested his friend to make
changes and revisions. Chrysoloras responded be better for him if he had never been born?
with a long epistolary discourse (which survives (cf. Matth. 26:24).
in the autograph manuscript Meteora, Monastery Despite his official duties and pressure, Manuel
of Transfiguration, cod. 154), praising the always found time to pursue his intellectual pur-
Emperor for this composition and urging him to suits, which he resembled as his coach training
continue his patronage of education, expressing him for his contest with Tyche. His works demon-
his concern for Greek literature being neglected strate a range of literary interests. Apart from
in Byzantium while studied by Italian humanists. epistolography, ethico-political and philosophical
Similarly, a version of the Funeral Oration was discourses, and theological treatises, he composed
sent to Manuel Chrysoloras’ humanist disciples homilies On the Nativity of the Lord, On the
Guarino dei Guarini of Verona (1374–1460), Dormition of the Mother of God, On Saint John
who was requested by the Emperor to translate the Baptist; a number of rhetorical works including
it into Latin or Italian, and Ambrosio Traversari the Panegyric on the recovery of his father from
(1386–1439). Guarino was the first humanist to illness, Declamation on a drunkard, Response of
travel to Constantinople to learn Greek. After his Antenor to Odysseus, Oration as from a benevo-
return to Italy, he taught Greek in Florence, Ven- lent ruler to his well-disposed subjects in a critical
ice, Verona, and Ferrara and played an important time, verses, Sixteen lines in anacreontic verse
role in humanist circles. His fellow Florentine addressed to a completely ignorant and most gar-
Camaldolese scholar and theologian Ambrosio rulous person; and spiritual compositions, liturgi-
Traversari shared Guarino’s love for Greek lan- cal canons, prayers and hymns, comprising
guage and tradition, translated a number of clas- Chapters of compunction or Prayer before Holy
sical and patristic Greek works, and took an Communion, Morning prayers, and Prayer for
active part in the negotiations over the union of those buffeted by storm or simply at sea adapted
the Churches, which he fervently supported. from the Psalms. Some of these works remain
Another Italian humanist, Rinuccio d’Arezzo hitherto unpublished.
(1395–1459), dedicated his translation of Plato’s After a stroke that left him partly paralyzed
Crito to the Emperor. (1422), Manuel retired from active political life
Information about Manuel’s intellectual pur- having passed on the administration of state affairs
suits and activities is included in his correspon- to John VIII, and according to the historian Ducas
dence with scholars and theologians, including his (ca. 1400–post 1462) he devoted his last years in his
mentor Demetrius Cydones, Manuel Chrysoloras, theological studies. Following the example of his
the theologian Demetrius Chrysoloras (ca. 1360- grandfather, John Cantacuzenus, Manuel assumed
post 1440), the mystic Nicholas Cabasilas, and the monastic habit under the name of Matthew. On
others, with some of whom he collaborated on 21 July 1425 Manuel died at the age of 75. Mono-
joint projects, for example, Isidore Glabas Metro- dies and funeral orations were composed and deliv-
politan of Thessalonica (1397–1418), with whom ered by members of his circle, including Macarius
he co-operated over the composition of Manuel’s Macres and Bessarion (1403–1472), paying tribute
sermon On Sin and Penance or On Saint Mary of to the remarkable and learned Emperor, who
Egypt (LógoB ὅti ἡ mὲn ἁmartίa tὸ pa᾿nton through his life and work embodied the ideal of
weίriston, deῖ dὲ mdena a᾿pogino skein . . .), and the Platonic philosopher-king.
the then priest and later Patriarch of Constantino-
ple Euthymius II (1410–1416), who contributed
together with Manuel to a clarification on the
References
debate between Demetrius Chrysoloras and
Antonio d’Ascoli (Sa’ήneiά tiB tῶn eἰrmenon
Primary Literature
ἐx ἑkatἐrou tῶn ἤd dialewyenton . . .) on the Manuel II Palaeologus’ works (in alphabetical order)
philosophical question If it is better to be than not Abbreviations: PG 156 = Jacques-Paul Migne ed.,
to be, how could Christ say of Judas that it would Patrologia cursus completus: series graeco-latina,
vol. 156 J.P. Migne, Imprimerie Catholique (Paris, Harvalia-Crook and Judith Herrin (Aldershot-Burlington,
1886); Legrand, Lettres = Emile Legrand, Lettres de Ashgate, 2003), pp. 411–421.
l’empereur Manuel Paléologue (Paris, J. Maisonneuve, Dialogues with a Persian, eds. Erich Trapp, Manuel
1893); Löwenclau, Praecepta = Johannes Löwenklau II. Palaiologos. Dialogue mit einem “Perser”, Wiener
(=Leunclavius), Praecepta educationis regiae (Basle, Byzantinistische Studien, In Kommission bei G.
Ex officina Petri Petrae, 1578) Böhlaus, Nachf. II (Vienna, 1966); ed. and trans. Karl
Admonitions leading to conciseness in expression and Förstel, Manuel II. Palaiologos. Dialoge mit einem
tranquility in one’s thought, Cod. Vat. Barb. gr. 219, Muslim, 2 vols, Corpus Islamo-Christianorum,
f. 90v.11-18; an edition is under preparation. Würzburg: Echter; Altenberge: Oros, Series Graeca,
Canon deprecatorius, ed. Legrand, Lettres, pp. 94–102. 4/I-II (Wurzburg-Alterberge, 1993,1995); ed. and
Chapters of compunction, or Prayer before Holy trans. Théodore Khoury, ed., Manuel II Paléologue,
Communion, ed. Löwenclau, Praecepta, pp. 438–442; Entretiens avec un Musulman: 7e Controverse, Édi-
PG 156.575A-576D; see Sebastián Cirac Estopañán, tions du Cerf Sources, chrétiennes, 115 (Paris, 1966).
‘La Eucaristía y la paz del alma en una poesía del Discourse on the Order in the Trinity, ed. Charalambos
emperador Manuel II Paleólogo’, XXXV Congreso Dendrinos, An annotated critical edition (editio
eucarístico internacional. Sesiones de estudio, II princeps) of Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus’ treatise
(Barcelona, 1952), pp. 713–726. ‘On the Procession of the Holy Spirit’ (PhD thesis,
Confession addressed to his spiritual father on the occa- Royal Holloway, University of London, 1996),
sion of his own recovery from a serious illness, Codd. pp. 318–325; the critical text will appear in the Corpus
Crypten. 161 (Z.d.I.), ff. 12-65v, 75-81v; Paris. suppl. Christianorum Series Graeca, Brepols, vol. 71 (in
gr. 1018, ff. 7–52; Pontificio Collegio Greco, Roma, press).
cod. 11, ff. 9-69v; Vat. gr. 1107, ff. 315-320v; a critical Eight hundred and nine lines in political verse addressed to
edition is under preparation. an atheist, ed. Ioannis Vassis, ‘Οi anekdotoi stίwoi
Counsel to the Thessalonians when they were PrὸB ἄyeon ἄndra tou Manouήl Β΄ Palaiológou’,
besieged, ed. Basileios Laourdas, ‘Ὁ Buzantinά 32 (2012), 37–100.
“SumbouleutikὸB prὸB toὺB YessalonikeῖB” toῦ Epistolary discourse on theology addressed to lord Alexius
Manouὴl Palaiológou’, Makedonikά 3 (1955), Iagoup, ed. Charalambos Dendrinos, An annotated
pp. 290–307. critical edition (editio princeps) of Emperor Manuel II
Debate between Demetrius Chrysoloras and Antonio Palaeologus’ treatise ‘On the Procession of the Holy
d’Ascoli on the question: if it is better to be than not Spirit’ (PhD thesis, Royal Holloway, University of
to be, how could Christ say to Judas that it would be London, 1996), pp. 326–373; the critical text will
better for him if he had not been born [Matth. 26:24]?, appear in the Corpus Christianorum Brepols Series
followed by a clarification by the Emperor Manuel Graeca, vol. 71 (in press).
II, ed. Franz Tinnefeld, ‘“Es w€are gut f€ ur jenen Epistolary essay to Andreas Asanes on dreams, ed. Jean
Menschen, wenn er nicht geboren w€are”. Eine Dispu- François Boissonade, Anecdota nova, Apud Dumont,
tation am Hof Kaiser Manuels II. € uber ein Jesuswort Bibliopolam VI (Paris, 1844; repr. 1962), pp. 239–246;
vom Verr€ater Judas. Einleitung, kritische Erstedition PG 156.87-92; see I.R. Alfageme, ‘La epístola perὶ
und Übersetzung (II)’, Jahrbuch der österreichischen ὀneirάton de Manuel Paleólogo’, Cuadernos de
Byzantinistik 45 (1995), 115–158 (text: Version I [from filolología clásica 2 (1971), 227–255.
Vat. gr. 1879], pp. 118–124; Version II [from Crypten. Funeral Oration on His Brother Theodore, ed. and trans.
Z.d.I (161) and Pontificio Collegio Greco, Roma, cod. Julian Chrysostomides, Manuel II Palaeologus,
11], pp. 124–131); cf. idem, ‘“Es w€are gut f€ ur jenen Funeral Oration on His Brother Theodore, Corpus
Menschen, wenn er nicht geboren w€are”. Eine Dispu- Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, Association for Byzan-
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vom Verr€ater Judas. Einleitung, kritische Erstedition Homily on the Dormition of the Mother of God, ed. Martin
und Übersetzung (I)’, in ἈndriάB. Herbert Hunger Jugie, ‘Manuel II Paléologue, empereur de Constanti-
zum 80. Geburtstag (=Jahrbuch der österreichischen nople (1391–1425). Homélie sur la Dormition de la
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M
Margunios, Maximus Biography
Born: Candia 1549 Margunios was born in Candia. His father was a
Died: Candia1602 merchant and spent most of his time in Venice.
His mother was a member of the Colona family,
Georgios Steiris one of the most prominent Roman families.
Department of Philosophy, School of Philosophy, Margunios studied Greek language and letters in
University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis/ the school of the monastery of St. Catherine of
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Sinai at Candia. In addition, Gaspare Viviani
Zografou, Greece taught him Latin. In 1568 he moved to Venice
and studied philosophy, theology, medicine, and
law at the University of Padua. His studies and his
personal readings inclined him toward Aristote-
lian philosophy. In Venice he associated with
Gabriel Severus, Daniel Rourlanos, and Meletios
Abstract
Pegas. Jeremias II, the Patriarch of Constantino-
ple, called Margunios and Severos in Constanti-
Maximus Margunios was a sixteenth-century
nople and assigned them the task of reorganizing
Greek scholar. He devoted his life to Church
Greek education. Margunios rejected the offer,
and got engaged in the intense debate between
returned to Crete, and got embroiled in disputes
the supporters and the opponents of the unifica-
about the Christian dogma. In Crete, he wrote a
tion of the Greek Orthodox and the Catholic
treatise on the filioque in which he expressed
Church with the result of being prosecuted by
conciliatory views. In 1584 Jeremias II nomi-
the Venetian authorities. He also worked as an
nated him bishop of Cythera. The local authori-
editor and teacher in Italy and Greece.
ties did not accept his nomination, and Margunios
had to return to Crete. He attempted to negotiate a
solution with the Venetians and traveled to Ven-
Synonyms/Alternate Names ice. In 1586, the Venetian government gave him
the permission to stay in Venice and teach Greek
Margounios and Latin, but refused once again to let him go to
Cythera and practice his duties. During that
period, he was accused by his former friend
Severos that he supported the positions of the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_149-1
2 Margunios, Maximus
Catholic Church concerning the filioque. in Western Europe. Despite Severos’ hostility,
Margunios held that the two Churches could the reprobation of his views from conservative
comply if they managed to overcome their differ- theologians and the persecutions from the Cath-
ences. Jeremias II and Meletios Pegas mediated olic Church, Margunios was highly esteemed by
between the two men and the dispute ended. In his colleagues.
1591 Margunios was charged by the Roman
Inquisition as a result of his contacts with the
Lutherans. Around 1600 he returned to Crete. References
Primary Literature
Innovative and Original Aspects Margunius, M. 1588. Elucidatio librorum divi Augustini.
Venice, G. Fedalto.
Margunius, M. 1602. Brevis tractatus de consiliis atque
Margunios edited and published numerous theo- praeceptis evangelicis. Venice.
logical and humanist treatises. Margunios was
also a great admirer of Cardinal Bessarion.
Margunios studied thoroughly the works of Astruc, C. 1949. “Ο MάximoB MargoύnioB kai oi
St. Augustine and became his chief admirer and parisineB sulloge B tZB allZlograjίaB tou”.
commentator in the sixteenth-century Greek- Krtikά Χ ronikά: III. 211–261.
Karamanolis, G. 1998. “Αne kdota epigrάmmata tou
speaking world. In his conciliatory texts, he usu-
Mάximou Margounίou se weirógraja kai entupa
ally draws on St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas tZB MarkianZ B ΒiblioyZkZB”. Ysaurίsmata:28.
in order to vindicate the rightness of filioque. 197–207.
Margunios argued that Augustine was the only Mystakides, B. 1892. Ο ieróB klZroB katά ton ΙSΤ΄
aiona, ΑyZ na.
that achieved to incorporate Platonic insights in
Podskalsky, G. 1988. Griechische Theologie in der Zeit
Christian theology. Margunios blamed der Turkenherrschaft 1453–1821. Die Orthodoxie im
Scholarios and Marcus Eugenikos that they Spannungsfeld der nachreformatorischen
misinterpreted Augustine and created confusion Konfessionen des Westens. Munchen, C. H. Beck.
Sathas, K. 1868. ΝeoellnikZ Filologίa: Βiogra’ίa
to their readers.
tῶn ἐn toῖB grάmmasi dialamcάnton ἘllZnon, a᾿pó
tB katalύseoB t˜ B ΒuzantinZB ΑὐtokratorίaB
mewri t˜ B ἘllnikZB ἐynegersίaB (1453–1821).
Impact and Legacy ΑyZna.
Zampakolas, C. 2011–2012. “Η biblioyZkZ tou
krZtikoύ lógiou Mάximou Margoύniou me sa apó
Margunios, like John and Theodosius tZn apograjZ tZB kinZtZB tou periousίaB”.
Zygomalas, corresponded with Martin Crusius Ysaurίsmata: 41–42. 311–328.
and contributed to the spread of Greek thought
M
Maximus the Greek Biography
Born: Arta c.1470/1475 Maximus was born as Michael Trivoles in Arta.

Died: Sergiyev Posad 1556 His family came probably from Mystras, in
Southern Greece. It is indicative that he signed
Georgios Steiris his works as Maximus Grecus Lakedaimon, e.g.,
Department of Philosophy, School of Philosophy, from Lakonia, the era around ancient Sparta. In
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, his youth, after the Turkish invasion in Epirus, he
Panepistimiopolis, Zografou, Greece moved to Corfu. His first teacher was John
Moschos, a scholar known for his hostility to
the Catholic Church. He continued his studies in
Italy, namely, Padua, Vercelli, Bologna, and
Florence. In Florence he studied for 3 years
Abstract under Ianos Lascaris. At the same time, he was
associated with Marsilio Ficino and took part in
Maximus the Greek was a monk, theologian, the activities of the so-called Platonic Academy.
scholar, and translator active in Greece and Russia. For a short period of time, he worked for
He is considered a pioneer of Greek letters after Giovanni Pico della Mirandola who was inter-
the fall of Constantinople. He dedicated his life to ested in classical and patristic Greek texts.
the promotion of theology and education in the Among Maximus’ acquaintances were the
Slavic territories. He was associated with some of famous humanists Angelo Poliziano, Scipio
the most famous and influential Italian humanists Callerges, and Aldo Manutius. While he was
of his times. He suffered persecutions from eccle- staying in Florence, Maximus felt under the influ-
siastical and secular authorities because of his ence of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savona-
views and his work. After his death, the Eastern rola, who shook Florence from 1494 till 1498.
Orthodox Church proclaimed him a saint and he is Maximus admires the friar’s preaching and
commemorated on January 21. ascetic lifestyle. Throughout his life, Maximus
showed his deep respect for Savonarola and
attempted to promote his ideals and views about
Synonyms indigence. After Savonarola’s death, Maximus
worked for Aldo Manutius copying and editing
Maksim Grek; Maximos the Hagiorite; Michael texts. In 1502, with the encouragement of the
Trivoles cardinal Oliviero Carafa, Maximus entered the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_150-1
2 Maximus the Greek
Dominican order and became a cadet monk in the Athos. In the last years of his life, he received the
monastery of San Marco. In 1503 or 1504, he left permission to study and write.
the Dominicans and in 1505 he chose to move to
the monastery of Vatopedi at Mount Athos. He
took the monastic vows and he was named Innovative and Original Aspects
Maximus. His decision marked a shift in his
interests and priorities. He adopted the ideals of Maximus could not accept Russian Church’s vol-
Athonic monasticism and opposed classical untary alienation from the Byzantine Orthodox
Greek and humanitarian letters, despite his for- tradition. When he was called in Russia, he
mer education. Maximus studied carefully the intended to revive the Byzantine tradition and
Greek Patristic tradition. When Tsar Basil III bring together the Greek-speaking Orthodox and
asked a translator of the Holy Bible and the the Russian people in order to confront the Otto-
Patristic literature, Maximus was chosen, man threat. His work is vast and includes 365 trea-
although he did not know any Slavonic language, tises. His polemical works, against the Latins,
because he was esteemed for his theological and prove his disapproval for nominalism. Instead
philosophical background. Moreover, monk Maximus prefers to study the Christian dogma
Sabas, an expert on Slavonic languages, refused based on the Holy Bible and the Patristic texts.
to go to Russia because he was old enough. Maximus blamed the Latins that they care exces-
Maximus went to Constantinople and in 1518 he sively for philosophy and rational syllogism.
arrived in Moscow. Because he did not speak They taught Plato and Aristotle almost exclu-
Russian, he translated from Greek to Latin and sively, and they did not accept anything that did
his associates translated then in Russian, a lan- not comply with Aristotelian logic. They were
guage that was not rich and fully articulated so as prone even to adjust and paraphrase the Christian
to render in it highly sophisticated texts. As a dogma in order to be consistent with science.
result, Maximus’ translations were not accurate. Maximus expressed his annoyance for the fact
Furthermore, Maximus supported the coenobiac that in Western universities some professors
monastic life and indigence. Because Russian instructed their students in Averroism, namely,
church authorities showed a tendency toward the mortality of the personal soul. Maximus did
luxury, Maximus became the leading figure of a not reject totally science and philosophy. He
group of monks who intended to reform the Rus- admitted that they serve as a preparatory stage
sian Church and threatened its autonomy. His for the study of theology, and they offer their
writings and actions provoked the hostility of vocabulary, which is indispensable for the right
the leading figures of the Russian Church. wording of the Christian truths. Philosophy has
Maximus was prosecuted and condemned in value per se, but it should not be connected to the
1525 and 1531. The authorities accused him of core of the Christian dogma. Representative of
heresy, magic, and treason. Maximus replied that his views is his treatise “Against the Errors of the
the mistakes and misinterpretations in his works Hellenes.” Maximus was still under the influence
were the outcome of his poor knowledge of Rus- of Savonarola’s ideas. He was afraid that Renais-
sian. As for magic, in his works he repeatedly sance classicism would affect Russia and would
wrote against astrology and magic. Maximus alienate Orthodoxy. Despite his studies in philos-
supported that the Russian Patriarchate should ophy, he did not accept to be called philosopher
come under the Patriarchate of Constantinople by his contemporaries. Instead he preferred to
and disapproved the politics of friendship identify himself as a monk. Philosophical theol-
between the Ottoman Empire and Russia. Despite ogy was not appealing to Maximus. Moreover, he
the pleas of several Orthodox Patriarchs to the remained faithful to the Greek tradition and did
Russian ecclesiastical and political authorities, not approve disputatio as the most effective edu-
Maximus was never allowed to return to Mount cational method. Instead he argued in favor of the
Platonic method, which consists in questions and
Maximus the Greek 3
answers between teacher and students. At the Morsei. 1910/1911. Sochineniia prepodobnogo Maksima
same time, Maximus rejected the attempt of cer- Greka v russkom perevode. Sergiev Posad, Sviato-
Troitskaia Sergieva Lavra.
tain scholars, like Pletho and his followers, to Τsumpenko, M., & Gkίmon, T. 2011/2012. Άpanta Αgίou
Hellenize the Greek culture. He equated Helleni- Maxίmou Graikoύ, Αgίou Maxίmou Graikoύ Lógoi.
zation with idolatry. Maximus disapproved the Ιerά MegίstZ MonZ Βatopaidίou.
attempts to compromise Orthodox and Catholic
Church on the thorny issue of the filioque. This is Secondary Literature
the main reason for his harsh critique on Augus- Denissoff, E. 1943. Maxime le Grec et l’ Occident. Con-
tribution a l’ histoire de la pensee religieuse et
tine that he considered as the main cause of the philosophique de Michel Trivolis. Paris: Louvain.
problem. We have to admit that his arguments are Denissoff, E. 1944. Maxime le Grec et I’Occident, and
poor; he mainly insisted that the theologians ‘Les Editions de Maxime le Grec’. Revue des etudes
should rest only on the positions of the Holy slaves Xxi: 111–120.
Haney, V. 1973. From Italy to Muscovy. The life and
Fathers. Despite the contacts of Greek Orthodox works of maxim the Greek. Munich: W. Fink.
and Lutherans, which were cordial in the six- Ivanov, Α. 1969. Literaturnoe nasledie Maksima Greka.
teenth century as a result of their opposition to Leningrad: Nauka.
the Pope, Maximus was the first Greek theologian Jugie, M. 1928. Maxime l’Aghiorite, dit le Grec.
Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique 10:461–462.
who argued against the Lutherans, although his Langeler, A.-J. 1986. Maksim Grek. Byzantijn en human-
goals and intentions are not easily discernible. In ist in Rusland. Amsterdam: Jan Mets.
his works concerning political thought, he Medlin, W., and C. Patrinelis. 1971. Renaissance influ-
supported the primacy of the spiritual over secu- ences and religious reforms in Russia. Genève: Droz.
Obolensky, D. 1981. Italy, Mount Athos, and Muscovy:
lar authorities. The three worlds of Maximos the Greek
(ca 1470–1556). Proceedings of the British Academy
67: 143–161.
Impact and Legacy Olmsted, H. 1987. A learned Greek Monk in Muscovite
exile: Maksim Greek and the old testament prophets.
Modern Greek Studies Yearbook 3: 1–73.
Maximus’ work was not really influential in its Podskalsky, G. 1988. Griechische Theologie in der Zeit
totality. Besides his almost hundred translations, der Turkenherrschaft 1453–1821. Die Orthodoxie im
he wrote some 250 treatises on philology, ethics, Spannungsfeld der nachreformatorischen
Konfessionen des Westens. Munchen: C. H. Beck.
theology, politics, and social questions. He was a ΒatopedinóB, I. 1895/1896. Βrawea tinά perί Maxίmou
distinguished ethicist and not a theologian. He tou Graikoύ. ΕkklsiatikZ ΑlZ yeia: per.b’
supported Greek theology from everything he 15:180–183.
considered as a threat. His familiarity with three LaskarίdZB, Χ. 1994. ΒuzantinZ parάdosZ kai
tάseiB tZB moswobίtikZB ekklZsίaB sta wrónia
different cultures and traditions, namely, Greek, tou Mάximou tou Graikoύ. Βuzantinά 17:233–27.
Russian, and Slavonic, enhanced his reputation in PapamiwaZl, G. 1941/1948. Η prosopikótZB
a large part of Europe. He gave primacy to Greek Mάximou tou Graikoύ. Yeologίa 19:466–488,
culture and frequently criticized the other two 561–618.
PapamiwaZl, G. 1947. Η anyellZnikZ monoryodoxίa
cultures. ton Ρo son tou ΙΕ’ aionoB kai MάximoB GraikóB.
Εkklsίa 24:230–232, 243–246, 264–266.
PapamiwaZl, G. 1950. MάximoB o GraikóB, o pro toB
References ’otistZB ton Ρo son. ΑyZna.
PapoulίdZB, K. 1970. MάximoB ὁ GraikóB (1470–1556)
kaὶ ἈyanάsioB PatellάroB (1597–1654). Dύo
Primary Literature ἑllZnikaὶ prosopikótZteB paideuyeῖsai ἐn
Maksim, G. 1860–1862, 1895–1897. Sochineniia Ἰtalίᾳ kaὶ timo menai ὡB Ἅgioi ἐn Ρosίa. Yeologίa
prepodobnogo Maksima Grek. Kazan, Gubernskoe 41:638–644.
pravlenie
M
Mı̄r Damad, Muhammad Bāqir Alternate Names
Born: 1561, Astarābād ▶ Sayyid Muḥammad Bāqir ibn Mīr Shams

Died: 1631, Najaf al-Dīn Muḥammad Husaynī Astarābādī; the
˙
epithet “Dāmād” (“son-in-law”) derives from
Jari Kaukua his father who was married to a daughter of the
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, prominent cleric ‘Alī Karakī.
University of Jyväskylä/Academy of Finland,
Jyväskylä, Finland
Biography
Born in Astarābād in 1561 as the son of a notable

jurist who had married a daughter of ‘Alī Karakī,
one of the most powerful clerics of the early
Abstract
Safavid era, Mīr Dāmād received his early edu-
˙
cation in Mashhad from his maternal uncle ‘Abd
Mīr Dāmād was a leading theologian and jurist in
al-‘Ālī ibn ‘Alī ibn Husayn and Sayyid Nūr
early seventeenth Persia, a context characterized ˙
al-Dīn ‘Alī ibn Abī al-Hasan ‘Āmilī, the son of
by the staunch Shī‘ite cultural policy of the ˙
Zayn al-Dīn ‘Āmilī, another highly venerated
Safavid state. As one of the most prominent Ira-
˙ scholar and a martyr of the Shī‘ite cause. Thus,
nian philosophers in the early modern era, he
Mīr Dāmād was most intimately related by both
drew on the heritage of Avicenna and Shihāb
birth and educational lineage to the highest elite
al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī but was not satisfied with
of the Shī‘ite scholars of his time. Around the turn
merely appending to it by way of commentary.
of the 1570s, he moved to Isfahan where he
Mīr Dāmād is especially known for his original
studied with Fakhr al-Dīn Astarābādī, a student
analysis of the concepts of time and eternity, as
of the Shīrāzī philosopher Ghiyāth al-Dīn
well as for having held the controversial doctrine
al-Dashtakī. In the Safavid capital, Mīr Dāmād
of the metaphysical primacy of essence as ˙
rose to prominence as one of the city’s leading
opposed to existence. He was a mentor and
scholars in theology, jurisprudence, and philoso-
close friend of Mullā Sadrā, whose fame would
˙ phy. In spite of criticism from more traditiona-
later outshine that of the older colleague.
listically inclined jurisprudents, he remained
intimately affiliated to the Safavid court through-
˙
out his life, serving in the very prominent position
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_152-1
2 Mı̄r Damad, Muhammad Bāqir
of shaykh al-Islām from 1621 until his death in Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
1631 in Najaf where he was also buried. In addi-
tion to his scholarly activities, Mīr Dāmād was In philosophy, Mīr Dāmād’s ambition was to
well known for a passion and gift for mystically develop a “Yemenite” philosophy that would
inclined poetry. replace the old Greek paradigm which was noto-
About 50 works survive of Mīr Dāmād’s oeu- riously difficult to reconcile with such basic
vre. Philosophically the most important of these Qur’ānic doctrines as the creation ex nihilo.
is the Qabasāt ḥaqq al-yaqī n fī ḥudūth al-‘ālam, This new approach was to be developed by com-
completed during the last decade of his life. The bining aspects from existing intellectual
book builds heavily on the Avicennian tradition paradigms – most notably the mainstream of
(for instance, the novel notion of ḥudūth dahrī is Avicennian Peripateticism, the Sufi doctrine of
introduced as a natural outcome of the close the school of Ibn ‘Arabī, and the ishrāqī doctrine
analysis of Avicennian texts) but with a strong initiated by Suhrawardī – and critically evaluat-
ishrāqī bent. Notoriously obscure, the work has ing them in the light of reason and mystically
been the subject of several commentaries. Two revealed intuition. This is a procedure that
earlier and incomplete works that develop the shows considerable similarities with
theme of time and eternity are al-Sirāṭ Suhrawardī’s description of his chosen method
˙
al-mustaqī m and al-Ufuq al-mubī n, while the in the preface to the Ḥikma al-ishrāq, and it is
respective positions of Aristotle and Plato on the nowhere manifested as clearly as in Mīr Dāmād’s
question are assessed in a Fārābīan fashion in famous attempt at solving the problem of how to
Risāla fī madhhab Arisṭāṭālī s. Questions related reconcile God’s immutable eternity with His
to God and His creation are also dealt with in allegedly temporal act of creating the world.
shorter treatises, such as Taqwī m al-ī mān fī One of the more obvious sore points in
mabḥath wājib al-wujūd wa taqdī sihi wa interpreting the monotheistic concept of creation
tamjī dihi, al-‘Imādāt wa al-tashrī fāt fī mas’ala in terms derived from Greek philosophy is due to
ḥudūth al-‘ālam wa qidamihi, and al-Īqāḍāt fī the philosophical doctrine of the eternity of the
khalq al-a‘māl wa af‘āl al-‘ibād. Mīr Dāmād’s world. Of course, since the philosophers con-
critical evaluation of Avicennian philosophy, ceded that God alone exists necessarily, they too
especially the theory of emanation, from a held that He was ontologically necessary for the
Suhrawardīan point of view is shown in Jadhavāt world’s existence, and this allowed them to inter-
va mavāqī t, a treatise composed in Persian at the pret the revealed account of creation as a meta-
behest of the Safavid Shāh ‘Abbās I. Apart from phorical version of the same truth. However,
˙
these and other original treatises, he also com- there is little room for any kind of free or volun-
posed commentaries on selected philosophical tary act of creation in a conception of the Creator
and theological texts, including works by Avi- as a mere necessary condition of an eternal world.
cenna, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī, and Sa‘d ibn Thus, the philosophical doctrine could easily be
˙
Manṣūr ibn Kammūna. Apart from philosophy, seen to compromise the monotheistically central
Mīr Dāmād wrote profusely in jurisprudence, a idea of God’s freedom and omnipotence, that is,
field in which he represented the strongly ratio- the idea that had He so preferred, God could just
nalistic school championed by his grandfather as well have left the world uncreated, or have
‘Alī Karakī, as clearly evidenced in his jurispru- created it different in kind or at a different instant.
dential magnum opus al-Sab‘al-shadād as well as An extended theological critique of the philoso-
in minor treatises. He also wrote commentaries phers’ doctrine along these lines had of course
on Shī‘ite ahādī th and biographies. Under the been voiced already by Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī in
˙
pseudonym “Ishrāq,” Mīr Dāmād composed a his Tahāfut al-falāsifa, but prior to Mīr Dāmād
volume of mystical poetry that is collected in a this particular tension between philosophy and
mathnawī entitled Mashriq al-anwār. religion seems not to have provided enough of
an impact for philosophers to revise their concept
Mı̄r Damad, Muhammad Bāqir 3
of creation into one more readily reconciled with relation between the two superior levels in terms
revelation. of genuine ḥudūth, instead of mere logical depen-
Mīr Dāmād’s solution takes its cue from a dence. Despite the fact that in themselves and in
close analysis of the Avicennian distinction their relation to God, the perpetual intellects and
between the different senses of coming to be essences are atemporal and unchanging, Mīr
(ḥudūth). By means of an array of texts, he char- Dāmād insists that they have been created and
acterizes these senses as, first, coming to be in the have come to be from Him, only this coming to be
sense that an essence owes its existence to is dahrī and not situated in time.
another (ḥudūth dhātī ); second, coming to be in The question then is, of course, how the cen-
the sense that an entity has privation or nonexis- tral notion ḥudūth dahrī is to be understood. The
tence as its metaphysical counterpart that needs notion may not be entirely devoid of conceptual
to be overcome in order that the entity can exist mysticism, for Mīr Dāmād himself openly admits
(ḥudūth dahrī ); and, third, coming to be in a that this pivot of his attempted solution is partic-
given moment of time that is preceded by other ularly prone to escape the grasp of our reason. It is
moments of time (ḥudūth zamānī ). He then expli- clear, however, that he is trying to substantiate a
cates these three types of coming to be as distinction between two senses of eternal exis-
entailing three hierarchically related realms of tence, one proper to God, the other to the world,
existence that are distinct in their relation to as well as to elucidate the relation between the
motion and the measure of motion, that is, time. two ways in which we can consider the world,
The highest of these realms is that of eternity namely, as a collection of entities that are in time
(sarmad), and it is a type of atemporality that is (in the sense of existing in the past, present, and
unique to the absolute immovability of God. future tenses) and as an atemporal whole that
Below eternity and ontologically dependent on contains, but is itself not in, time. Indeed, it has
it, Mīr Dāmād posits another atemporal realm been suggested that Mīr Dāmād’s dahr should be
which he calls “perpetuity” (dahr) and which understood as something akin to McTaggart’s
consists of the separate intellects and the essences famous concept of the B-series of time, that is,
of worldly things considered as static atemporal as a whole containing all the created entities in
entities. Finally, the essences existing in the level their various relations to each other, or the line of
of perpetuity are found to unfold in time (zamān), the entire “world history” considered from an
the realm of physical entities that are subject to atemporal perspective (Rahman 1980). Under-
motion and thereby exist in time. Conceived in stood in this way, the realm of dahr can mediate
this way, the realm of perpetuity can be said to between the absolute atemporality of God and the
bring temporal entities to be and to govern their temporality of worldly entities precisely by com-
development in time according to the Neopla- bining the two aspects – atemporality in its own
tonic principles of origination (mabda’) and mode of existence and temporality in its internal
return (ma‘ād), albeit not absolutely, for the per- structure which then gets unfolded in time. On
petual entities themselves owe their existence to such a basis, Mīr Dāmād can say that the initial
the sole eternal existent, God. problem of the eternity of the world vanishes
Under a schematic description, Mīr Dāmād’s once we disequivocate the two senses of “eter-
threefold analysis may appear as strikingly deriv- nal”: the world is “eternal” in the sense that the
ative, spiced perhaps with a slightly renewed flow of time has neither beginning nor end, but
terminology. Indeed, it can duly be claimed that this does not mitigate the fact that the world as an
his description of existence within and without atemporal whole in the realm of dahr, as the very
time is a rephrasing of the Neoplatonic theory of principle of all temporal existence, can only exist
the three hypostases, with sarmad corresponding because God has undone its nonexistence by
to the One, dahr to the Intellect, and zamān to the creating it.
level of Soul. Mīr Dāmād’s novelty, if there is It has been noted that Mīr Dāmād’s solution to
one, is in his sustained attempt to conceive of the the problem of the world’s eternity is intimately
4 Mı̄r Damad, Muhammad Bāqir
connected with other traditional questions, such some time Mīr Dāmād’s philosophy was consid-
as those of God’s knowledge of particular things ered superior to that of his younger colleague.
and of the relation between His omniscience and Especially the Qabasāt was favored by commen-
future contingency. Frustratingly, though, Mīr tators, such as Mīr Dāmād’s students Sayyid
Dāmād leaves many of these implications Aḥmad ‘Alawī ‘Āmilī and Mullā Shamsā Gīlānī,
undeveloped, a fact which may in part explain not least because of the notorious difficulty of the
why the theory was not received with as high text. His works, especially al-Ufuq al-mubī n,
acclaim as Mullā Sadrā’s alternative theory of were also widely studied in India.
˙
the God-world relationship founded on an analy-
sis of existence.
Apart from his analysis of time and eternity, Cross-References
Mīr Dāmād is famous (or notorious) for having
held the metaphysical theory of “primacy of ▶ Mullā Sadrā
˙
essence” (aṣāla al-wujūd). This theory, heavily ▶ Philosophy in Safavid Persia
˙
criticized by Mullā Sadrā, is motivated by the
˙
Avicennian distinction between the essence and
existence of contingent entities. Mīr Dāmād References
argues that although we can make a distinction
in analysis between these two constituents of the Primary Literature
contingent thing, they cannot be really separated Awjabī, ‘A., ed. 2001. Mī r Dāmād. Jadhavāt va mavāqī t.
Tehran: Mīrāth-i Maktūb.
from each other. But since the contingent thing is
Awjabī, ‘A., ed. 2002. Mī r Dāmād. Al-Sirāṭ al-mustaqī m
evidently a unitary whole, and since it is incon- fī rabṭ al-ḥādith wa al-qadī m. ˙Tehran: Mīrāth-i
ceivable that both concepts – that is, “essence” Maktūb.
and “existence” – are mere fictions introduced in Iṣfahānī, H.N., ed. 1997. Sayyid Aḥmad ‘Alawī . Sharḥ
˙
Kitāb al-qabasāt. Tehran: Mīrāth-i Maktūb.
the analysis, one of the two constituents must be
Mohaghegh, M., T. Izutsu, and S. ‘A. Mūsaw-
primary and independent of the analysis. ī-Bihbahānī, ed. 1977. Mī r Dāmād. Kitāb al-qabasāt.
According to Mīr Dāmād, who here seems to be Tehran: McGill University.
following Suhrawardī’s critical discussion of the Nūrānī, ‘A., ed. 2006. Mī r Dāmād. Musannafāt II:
al-Ufuq al-mubī n. Tehran: Anjuman-i Āthār va
concept of existence in the Ḥikma al-ishrāq, the
Mafākhir-i Farhangī.
primary constituent is essence. It is interesting,
however, that he differs from Suhrawardī in the
closely related debate over Platonic forms, hold- Arnzen, R. 2011. Platonische Ideen in der arabischen
ing that the forms are not eternal self-subsistent Philosophie: Texte und Materialien zur Begriffs-
entities but rather structural principles of creation geschichte von ṣuwar aflāṭūniyya und muthul
aflāṭūniyya. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.
subsisting in God’s mind.
Bonmariage, C. 2008. Le Réel et les réalités: Mullā Sadrā
Shī rāzī et la structure de la réalité. Paris: Vrin. ˙
Brown, K. 2009. Mī r Dāmād. Kitāb al-Qabasāt: The book
of blazing brands. A provisional english translation,
Impact and Legacy introduction, and notes. Including selections from
Sayyed Aḥmad ‘Alawī ’s Sharḥ Kitāb al-Qabasāt.
Venerated as the “Third Teacher” (after Aristotle New York: Global Scholarly Publications.
Corbin, H. 1972. En Islam iranien: Aspects spirituels et
and al-Fārābī), Mīr Dāmād wielded considerable
philosophiques. Tome IV: L’Ećole d’Ispahan. L’Ećole
influence in subsequent Persian philosophy shaykhie. Le Douzième Im^ a m. Paris: Gallimard.
through his students, the most important of Dabashi, H. 2001. Mīr Dāmād and the founding of the
whom was without doubt Mullā Sadrā. Although ‘School of Iṣfahān’. In History of Islamic philosophy,
˙ eds. S. H. Nasr, and O. Leaman. London/New York:
Sadrā departs from his mentor in a number of key
˙ Routledge.
questions and would later overshadow him in Newman, A.J. Dāmād, Mīr(-e), Sayyed Moḥammad
renown, this was not always the case, and for Bāqer. In Encyclopedia Iranica VI/6, 623–626.
Mı̄r Damad, Muhammad Bāqir 5
Available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/arti Rizvi, S.J. 2006. Between time and eternity: Mīr Dāmād
cles/damad-mir-e-sayyed-mohammad-baqer-b on God’s creative agency. Journal of Islamic Studies
Rahman, F. 1980. Mīr Dāmād’s concept of ḥudūth dahrī : 17: 158–176.
A contribution to the study of god-world relationship Rizvi, S.J. 2011. Mīr Dāmād in India: Islamic philosoph-
in Safavid Iran. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 39(2): ical traditions and the problem of creation. Journal of
139–151. the American Oriental Society 131(1): 9–23.
M
Moscato, Judah prisca theologia, reflections of which appear in

various traditions. Indeed, his meandering writ-
Born: Osimo, 1532 or 1533 ing style that moves seamlessly between Jewish
and classical Greek, Latin, and Italian sources
Died: Mantua, 20 September 1590 reflects an openness to receiving truth from
diverse sources. His interest in and promotion of
Yehuda Halper Judah Halevi’s Kuzari helped propel that book,
Jewish Thought, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, which is itself heavily Platonic, to the forefront of
Israel Jewish learning for hundreds of years to come.
Alternate Names
Abstract ▶ Judah Aryeh ben Joseph; ▶ Leon de Moscati

Hebreo; ▶ Leon Moscato; ▶ Leone Moscato
Judah Moscato was a Jewish Renaissance philos-
opher, whose writings combine the richness of
the Jewish tradition of Bible, Talmud, Biography
philosophy-theology, and Kabbalah with
neo-Platonic imagery then popular in Italy, espe- Moscato is known as a communal leader,
cially in Florence. While his works treat numer- preacher, Rabbi, and scholar of Mantua promi-
ous themes, including music, rhetoric, Jewish nent in the Jewish community during the years
holidays, among many others drawn from Jewish 1564–1590. Little is known about his early years,
texts, he saw himself primarily as a philosopher but he must have acquired a broad education in
striving for intellectual perfection by uncovering Jewish texts of all periods as well as classical
elusive Platonic ideas from under various kinds philosophy, music, rhetoric, and literature. His
of imagery. Like Marsilio Ficino and Georgio rise to eminence in Mantua came after his flight
Veneto before him, Moscato used such from the Ancona region in the wake of persecu-
neo-Platonic imagery to treat a vast number of tion of Jews. In Mantua, he was taken in by the
subjects, including especially the mythologies of family of a Mantuan banker, Salvatore Joshua
Jewish literature, as philosophical subjects with Minzi-Berettaro, whose son, Samuel, he
hidden intellectual meaning. Moscato also seems befriended, perhaps tutored, and whose daughter
to have been influenced by Ficino’s notion of a he married. Moscato also entered into various
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_153-1
2 Moscato, Judah
business ventures with his father-in-law, through Yehudah (“The Voice of Judah”). Nefuṣot
which he attained financial independence. It is Yehudah is a collection of 52 sermons in elabo-
not clear whether Moscato held an official, paid rate Hebrew each of which treats one major
Rabbinic position in Mantua or an honorific title theme but meanders into numerous subthemes
allowing him intellectual and legal independence dealing with both Jewish and classical notions
from the Jewish communal offices. He seems to and texts. A typical sermon begins with a quote
have held an official title of “Our Teacher and from the Bible, usually from the Pentateuch, and
Rabbi” from 1587 and to have headed an acad- then relates an apparently unrelated midrashic
emy, probably a gathering of senior scholars passage. The greater part of the sermon will
rather than a yeshibah for youth, known as the bring more passages and more Biblical or Talmu-
wa’ad haḥakhamim of Mantua. Moscato’s dic images, occasionally and irregularly referring
esteem in the eyes of the community and quite back to the initial quotes, interpreting and
possibly his personal wealth allowed him to reinterpreting them in light of other insights.
assume positions of leadership, such as These insights generally also take the form of
guaranteeing monetary transactions through the interpretations of other passages or images that
Jewish courts and advocating on behalf of Jews appear in canonical Jewish or classical works.
before Italian government officials. In one case, Moscato moves fluidly and seamlessly from
Moscato was part of a group of prominent Jewish image to image, from passage to passage, all the
figures who successfully convinced the duke of while drawing on any materials that can conceiv-
Mantua, Guglielmo Gonzaga, not to enforce Pope ably be lent to support his interpretations. While
Gregory XIII’s 1581 bull prohibiting, inter alia, Moscato sometimes disagrees with and even crit-
Jewish physicians from treating Christian icizes his sources, his work is for the most part
patients. However, Moscato’s dealings with free from polemics; his use of sources is to sup-
Duke Guglielmo were not entirely positive. In port his ends, rather than to attack enemies.
1587, Moscato was jailed for his role in persuad- Accordingly, even the non-Jews who appear in
ing a prominent Jewish court musician known as the book speak with a Judaized voice. Thus,
Abramino dell’Arpa (also known as Abramino Plato, Aristotle, and even Seneca speak in
Levi) not to convert to Christianity. Abramino, Hebrew phrases taken from the Bible. Indeed,
along with his uncle, did convert, apparently their words are taken to explain the Bible or the
under torture, but Moscato held fast under intense Talmud. So too can the words of the Talmudic
psychological pressure. Moscato was released a sages be explained by appeal to treatises on rhe-
few months later when the duke died. Moscato toric by Quintilian and Cicero. Moscato’s ser-
apparently spent his remaining years preparing mons thus implicitly assume a kind of unity of
his two major works Nefuṣot Yehudah and Qol knowledge which can be expressed by either
Yehudah for publication. The former was printed Jews or non-Jews, but which sees its completion
about a year before Moscato’s death and was in a Jewish context, even a context of Jewish
accompanied by elaborate, innovative indices canonical texts. This knowledge takes the form
and followed by a list of corrigenda, reluctantly of literary allusions (remezim) to intellegibles
included by the printer at Moscato’s insistence. that remain beyond the description of the text of
Moscato did not live to see his Qol Yehudah in the sermon itself. Nefuṣot Yehudah is very care-
print and the subsequent revival of interest in fully written but nevertheless does not purport to
Halevi’s Kuzari that it brought about. be a written work but a spoken work. These
lectures are, however, in a Hebrew that is so
erudite and intricate that it is impossible to ima-
Works and Themes gine a community learned enough to listen to
them. (We might also note that a good number
Moscato wrote two major works: Nefuṣot of them are exceedingly long.) These lectures
Yehudah (“The Dispersed of Judah”) and Qol thus straddle the fence dividing writing from
Moscato, Judah 3
speech, interspersing lengthy and intricate dis- References

cussions that seem suited only for writing, with
references to communal and personal events that Primary Literature
seem suited only for speaking. This method of A. Nefuṣot Yehudah.
Moscato, Judah. 1589. Nefuṣot Yehudah (The dispersed of
writing may reflect a Platonic understanding of an
Judah). Venice Zu’an Digarah.
ideal form of oratory that can better lead souls to Moscato, Judah. 1871. Nefusot Yehudah. Warsaw:
wisdom than writing alone. Since the Y. Golldman. ˙
intellegibles Mosato seeks to point out often Moscato, Judah. 2000. Nefusot Yehudah. Bene Beraq:
Sifre Qodesh Mishor. ˙
defy description, Moscato’s ambiguities in
Moscato, Judah. 2010. Judah Moscato sermons: Edition
speech/writing highlight the inadequacy of both and Translation, volume one. Trans. and eds.
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Moscato’s Qol Yehudah, published 4 years D. Harran, Y. Meroz, B. Ogren and A. Shear. Leiden:
Brill.
after Moscato’s death, is a lengthy line-by-line
commentary on Judah Halevi’s Kuzari that is the and translation, volume two. Trans. and eds.
best known and most commonly printed Hebrew G. Miletto, G. Veltri, Y. Halper and G. Corazzol.
commentary on the Kuzari. Indeed, it was the Leiden, Brill.
only Hebrew commentary on the Kuzari in print
and translation, volume three. Trans. and eds.
until the end of the eighteenth century. Halevi’s G. Miletto, G. Veltri and Y. Halper. Leiden, Brill.
Kuzari is an account of a conversation between an Moscato, Judah. 2015. Judah Moscato sermons: Edition
ancient king of the Khazzars and a Jewish and translation, volume 4. Trans. and Ed. G. Miletto,
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scholar, during the course of which the king con-
B. Qol Yehudah.
verts to Judaism. The conversation opens with a Moscato, Judah. 1594. Qol Yehudah (The voice of Judah).
visit from a mythical philosopher whose Venice.
positions continue to challenge the interlocutors C. Poems, Sonnets, Prayers, and Responsa survive in
manuscript. Some sonnets appear in
even after the king dismisses him after two
D. Bregman. 1997. A bundle of gold. Hebrew Sonnets from
relatively short speeches. As in Nefuṣot Yehudah, the Renaissance and the Baroque, 86–93. Jerusalem/
Moscato emphasizes the importance of intellect Beer-Sheva: Ben-Zvi Institute and Ben Gurion
and theorization throughout the Qol Yehudah and University of the Negev.
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Saperstein, M. 1992. Italian Jewish preaching: An over- dia Judaica, eds. M. Berenbaum and F. Skolnik,
view. In Preachers of the Italain Ghetto, ed. D. vol. 14, 2nd ed, 515–516. Detroit: Macmillan
Ruderman. Berkley/Los Angeles: University of Reference USA.
California Press.
M
Mullā Sadrā grasp of quiddities or essences, and the theory of

˙ substantial motion which holds, pace the Peripa-
Born: 1571/1572, Shīrāz tetic tradition, that motion primarily takes place
in the category of substance. These two theories,
Died: 1635/1636, Baṣra the composite of which has been characterized as
a form of process philosophy, also entail a new
Jari Kaukua concept of the identity of concrete entities, which
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, bears an intriguing resemblance to contemporary
University of Jyväskylä/Academy of Finland, four-dimensionalist theories of substance. After a
Jyväskylä, Finland period of more meager influence, Sadrā’s philos-
˙
ophy was revived by some of the most important
philosophers of the Qājār period in the nineteenth
century. Today, it provides the foundation for the
philosophical curriculum in the Shī‘ite seminar-
Abstract ies in Qum.
Mullā Sadrā is arguably the most important phi-

˙
losopher of Safavid Persia. He wrote extensively Full Name
˙
on all key topics of the philosophy and theology
of his time, drawing equally from both Sunnī and His full name is ▶ Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn
Shī‘ite theology, both Peripatetic and ishrāqī Yaḥyā al-Qawāmī al-Shīrāzī, also known by the
philosophy, and the tradition of theoretical honorific epithets Sadr al-Dīn and Sadr
˙ ˙
Sufism. Sadrā’s eclectic use of sources did not al-Muta’allihīn.
˙
prevent him from treating his material in a
systematical and conceptually rigorous fashion;
indeed, he is a true synthesizer of the most impor- Biography
tant currents of thought of his time in the sense
that his synthesis is a new system of philosophy Born in 1571/1572 to a family that belonged to
that would subsequently overshadow the preced- the scholarly and political elite of Shīrāz, Mullā
ing schools in importance. The most prominent Sadrā enjoyed the best early education his home-
˙
doctrinal features of Sadrā’s philosophy are the town could offer. In addition to the traditional
˙
theory of the foundationality of existence which Islamic sciences and the Arabic and Persian lan-
entails a reductive explanation of our intellectual guages, this involved the study of the rational
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_154-1
2 Mullā Sadrā
˙
sciences of logic, natural philosophy, and meta- later in the midst of an active teaching period in
physics. But although Shīrāz was famous for its Qum. During this time, Sadrā led a migrant exis-
˙
thriving philosophical and theological scene in tence between his native Shīrāz, the increasingly
the previous two centuries, by Sadrā’s time the dear Qum that was home to a successful teaching
˙
students of the fifteenth and sixteenth century career, and the capital Iṣfahān.
masters Jalāl al-Dīn al-Dawānī (d. 1502) and the In 1630/1631, Sadrā settled in Shīrāz to accept
˙
two Dashtakīs, the father Sadr al-Dīn (d. 1497/ a teaching position in the recently established
˙
1498) and the son Ghiyāth al-Dīn (d. 1542), seem madrasa of Imamquli Khan (d. 1633), the pow-
to have dispersed. It is therefore likely that for erful governor of the province of Fars and possi-
much of his early philosophical instruction, he bly an erstwhile student of Sadrā’s. During this
˙
was an autodidact, thus following the almost top- last period of his life, Sadrā is also likely to have
˙
ical example Avicenna had set in his acted as a jurisprudential consultant. He died in
autobiography. Baṣra in 1635/1636, on the way to a seventh
In the beginning of the 1590s, Sadrā moved pilgrimage to Mecca.
˙
first to Qazvīn and then to the new Safavid capital Mullā Sadrā had six children that survived.
˙ ˙
in Iṣfahān, in order to further pursue his studies His three sons studied with him and became
under the guidance of more capable teachers. scholars in their own right, although what little
This brought him into the circle of the so-called is known of their activity suggests that they did
school of Iṣfahān, that is, the famous jurisprudent not share their father’s passion for the rational
Bahā’ al-Dīn al-‘Āmilī (d. 1621), with whom he sciences. Sadrā’s three daughters were also mar-
˙
studied jurisprudence, Qur’ānic exegesis, and the ried to his students, but there is no evidence of
Shī‘ite traditions, and the venerated philosopher him having envisaged his progeny as a dynasty of
Mīr Dāmād (d. 1631), who instructed him in scholars.
theology and both Peripatetic and ishrāqī philos-
ophy. Sadrā seems to have been particularly
˙
affectionate toward the latter, whom he praises Works
lavishly even after the major philosophical dif-
ferences, most notably on the question of meta- The Sadrian corpus consists of more than
˙
physical primacy of essence and existence, had 45 works, which range from multivolume philo-
erupted between the two. sophical summae to brief treatises on strictly
After his studies, Sadrā returned to his native defined topics. His output can be roughly divided
˙
Shīrāz in 1601/1602, only to encounter the vehe- to two main classes.
ment opposition and criticism of the intellectual On the one hand, Sadrā wrote a number of
˙
hegemony of the city. In the face of this adversity, works in the so-called Islamic sciences, that is,
he opted for a retreat to the small village of Kahak Qur’ānic exegesis, the Shī‘ite traditions, and
near the city of Qum, a sojourn that would be theological ethics. Among the most important
prolonged for 6 years. Sadrā himself describes are his four exegetical works, the Asrār al-āyāt
˙
this period as a self-imposed isolation of wa anwār al-bayyināt and the Mutashābihāt
extended ascetic contemplation, clearly modeled al-Qur’ān (“The Secrets of Verses/Signs and the
on the Sufi retreat introduced into the philosoph- Lights of Evidence” and “The Ambiguous Verses
ical practice by Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī of the Qur’ān,” both completed between 1631
(d. 1191), that helped him to clarify the central and 1634), the methodological Mafātī ḥ al-ghayb
philosophical insights underlying his magnum (“Keys to the Unseen,” completed in 1632), and
opus, al-Ḥikma al-muta‘āliya fī al-asfār his incomplete Tafsī r. Sadrā also composed a
˙
al-‘aqlīya al-arba‘a (“The Supreme Wisdom in voluminous but incomplete commentary on
Four Intellectual Journeys”). He began writing al-Kulaynī’s (d. 941) classical hadī th collection
this monumental work in 1606, toward the end al-Kāfī . An interesting perspective to the intel-
of his retreat at Kahak, and finished it 22 years lectual polemics of the time is provided by Kasr
Mullā Sadrā 3
˙
aṣnām al-jāhilī ya fī dhamm al-mutaṣawwifī n composed a number of perspicacious philosoph-

(“Breaking the Idols of Ignorance, on the Admo- ical commentaries. These include works on the
nition of Sufis,” completed in 1618). metaphysical section of Avicenna’s Shifā’, on
The second class of texts consists of Sadrā’s Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī’s (d. 1264) Peripatetic
˙
philosophical works. Among these, the epitome al-Hidāya, and on a number of treatises
uncontested pride of place belongs to the by Mīr Dāmād, as well as a supercommentary on
immense al-Ḥikma al-muta‘āliya fī al-asfār Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī’s (d. 1311) commentary
al-‘aqlīya al-arba‘a composed between 1606 on Suhrawardī’s Ḥikma al-ishrāq, which is wit-
and 1628. Although its broad scope is modeled ness to Sadrā’s full mastery of the ishrāqī tradi-
˙
on earlier philosophical summae, al-Asfār devi- tion. Among his philosophical works, we can also
ates from the classical Peripatetic model by its classify expositions of philosophy that adopt a
decisive emphasis on metaphysics and eschatol- more literary style, such as al-Maẓāhir al-ilāhī ya
ogy at the cost of logic and the natural sciences. fī asrār al-‘ulūm al-kamālīya (“Divine Appear-
Moreover, its account of the system of philosoph- ances on the Secrets of Perfect Sciences”), as well
ical knowledge is constructed along the lines of as more mystically oriented works, such as the
four journeys (an ascent to God, a journey in God, Iksī r al-‘ārifī n fī ma‘rifa ṭarī q al-ḥaqq wa
a descent from God to creation, and a journey in al-yaqī n (“The Elixir of Knowers, on Knowing
creation informed by the prior theological and the Way of Truth and Certainty,” completed by
metaphysical ascent), which begin from theology 1621), which is based on an earlier treatise by
and metaphysics and proceed to natural philoso- Afḍal al-Dīn Kāshānī (d. 1214), and the Persian
phy and ethics on their basis – in the mirror image Risāla-yi sih aṣl (“Treatise on the Three Princi-
of the Peripatetic model that was founded on ples,” composed in the early 1620s).
logic and proceeded from natural philosophy to This heuristic classification notwithstanding
metaphysics as its crowning effort. (indeed, there are texts that are difficult to fit
More abridged summae are al-Shawāhid into either category, most notably Sadrā’s surviv-
˙
al-rubūbī ya fī al-manāhij al-sulūkī ya (“Divine ing poetry and the moralistic treatises directed at
Testimonies on Trodden Paths,” completed the shortcomings of some of the pious people of
before 1631), the predominantly eschatological his day), it is clear that Sadrā considered both
˙
al-Ḥikma al-‘arshī ya (“Wisdom of the Throne,” types of works as constitutive of a single intellec-
completed between 1631 and 1634), and tual effort. Although scholarship on his exegeti-
al-Mabda’ wa al-ma‘ād (“The Origin and the cal works and religious commentaries is still in its
Return,” completed in 1606), an early treatise infancy, it seems evident that they contain plenty
that shows a decisive influence by the Avicennian of philosophically interesting material.
work bearing the same title and is structured in
accordance with its predecessor’s Neoplatonic
model of the origination of the cosmos from Heritage and Departure
God and its return to Him. An important philo-
sophical treatise is also the Kitāb al-mashā‘ir Sadrā is adequately described as having
˙
(“The Book of Penetrations,” completed after performed the greatest intellectual synthesis of
1628), a concise work on Sadrā’s novel concept his time, perhaps indeed one of the greatest in
˙
of existence. Apart from these original texts as all time, from the existing philosophical, theolog-
well as a number of minor treatises on assorted ical, and mystical currents of thought. There is
philosophical and theological topics such as the nothing unheard of in his eclectic method of
nature of knowledge, the relationship between drawing equally from both Sunnī and Shī‘ite
essence and existence, resurrection, and the clas- theology (especially prominent are Abū Hāmid
˙
sical questions of whether the world is eternal or al-Ghazālī [d. 1111], Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī
created in time and whether human acts are [d. 1210], and Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī [d. 1274]),
˙
performed freely or created by God, Sadrā both Peripatetic and ishrāqī philosophy, and the
˙
4 Mullā Sadrā
˙
theoretical Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabī (d. 1240) and his Our intellects can grasp these deficiencies by
followers, though, in fact, an unprejudiced abstracting them from the unity of the original
approach to the entire range of Islamic intellec- act of existence, thereby translating them to
tual endeavor was quite characteristic of the pro- essential and accidental quidditative features,
tagonists of Shīrāzī philosophy in the fifteenth out of which an existing thing is then con-
and sixteenth centuries, such as al-Dawānī and ceived to be composed. In reality, however,
the Dashtakīs, with all of whose work Sadrā was the act and its degree are inseparable, and it is
˙
thoroughly familiar. But Sadrā is quite unique in the act of intellectual abstraction that makes a
˙
the depth of the conceptual revisions he was manifold composite out of what is absolutely
driven to make by his heterogeneous sources. one. Moreover, it does this by means of uni-
Two points in particular bear worth mentioning versal concepts which can by definition be true
here, that is, the doctrines of (1) the primacy of of more than one particular act of existence,
existence and (2) substantial motion. and this is possible only by neglecting certain
aspects of the unique individual act of exis-
1. The term “primacy of existence” (aṣāla tence under consideration. In the end, all of the
al-wujūd) captures Sadrā’s unique stand in above boils down to the claim that we can
˙
the debate about which of the two Avicennian reductively explain quiddities as features
principles, quiddity or existence, is founda- introduced in the intellectual consideration of
tional for the other. The question does not metaphysically primitive acts of existence.
come from Avicenna, who had introduced Sadrā’s arguments for the foundationality
˙
the distinction between quiddity and existence of existence include an interesting analysis of
merely in order to make sense of the difference identity conceived in temporal change. If we
between God and His creation in terms of their consider a certain moment in an individual act
respective modality of existence; whereas all of existence, it may be perfectly legitimate to
created things are essences or quiddities that conceive that individual, this horse here, say,
are merely possible in themselves and that as a horse of particular color, height, gait,
require a cause that makes their existence nec- capacities, and breed – as long as one bears
essary, God’s very essence entails His exis- in mind that this involves subsuming it under a
tence, which means that He is necessary by certain bundle of universals. But what is more,
Himself and not in need of any cause of exis- Sadrā claims that I can grasp the horse thereby
˙
tence. The later tradition, however, raised the presently conceived as being identical to the
question of whether the two principles are colt I encountered 5 years earlier only by
both primitive or whether we can reductively abstracting from some of the features in the
explain one in terms of the other. two respective acts of existence – a clear sign
In brief, Sadrā’s theory of the of cognition by means of universal concepts.
˙
foundationality of existence holds that the This is not to say that the identification of the
reality of each individual thing should be horse with the colt is unwarranted or depen-
described as a unique instantiation of exis- dent on the intellectual operation I perform;
tence, not as an essence having existence. the point is that the basis of the identity, that is,
The temporal variation of its attributes not- the continuity of the creature’s existence, will
withstanding, the creature is one, not because elude my narrow intellectual grasp.
it has an unchanging essence but because its In the debate of metaphysical
existence is a single continuity. But existence foundationality, Sadrā’s theory is often pitted
˙
comes in degrees, and in concrete acts of exis- against Suhrawardī who had criticized the
tence, there are always certain deficiencies or Avicennian concept of existence for being a
privations which vary through the duration of conceptual addition introduced in the human
the act and distinguish them from the pure and intellect’s consideration of the way in which
perfect existence that belongs to God alone. concrete essences appear to it. It is true that in
Mullā Sadrā 5
˙
arguing for the foundationality of existence, the attributes of an unchanging substantial

Sadrā spends a great deal of effort on the essence. However, this departure from the tra-
˙
Suhrawardīan discussion of the “intellectual dition is motivated by an orthodox conviction,
considerations” (i‘tibārāt ‘aqlī ya), but his for Sadrā’s aim in introducing the concept of
˙
more immediate opponent was his erstwhile substantial motion is to make sense of the
mentor Mīr Dāmād, who explicitly held the teleology underlying all natural processes,
theory of the foundationality of quiddity that is, of the notion that all existents strive
(aṣāla al-māhī ya) and whom Sadrā himself by their very nature to exist well, each pursu-
˙
followed earlier in his career. This he asserts ing the perfection proper to it. These teleolog-
explicitly in his mature works, and the early ical processes were traditionally conceived as
treatise Risāla fī sarayān wujūd al-ḥaqq is evolution within the set of the concomitant
witness to his arguing at some length in favor accidents of substances, with the substances
of Mīr Dāmād’s view. themselves remaining static. Sadrā counters
˙
The theory of the foundationality of exis- this by arguing that lest the teleology be
tence is sometimes argued to entail nominal- merely fortuitous, it must concern the very
ism. The debate concerning realism and essence of the beings under development. In
nominalism does not seem to be a major ques- other words, it must be the substance itself that
tion for Sadrā, but there is an element in his develops and thereby comes to exist more
˙
concept of existence that makes it difficult to perfectly. Sadrā also conceives of this devel-
˙
label him as a straightforward nominalist. This opment as a gradual increase in the being’s
is the idea that existence comes in degrees, or uniqueness as it acquires new degrees of per-
entails what has been variously translated as fection which, by being founded upon the ear-
“modulation” or “systematic ambiguity” lier, encompass them within themselves.
(tashkī k), and that the differences in the To illustrate the process of substantial
degree of existence respective to each thing development, let us briefly consider Sadrā’s
˙
determine which quiddities are applicable to favorite example, the human being. We first
them. Since he takes quiddities to be based on come to the world as material forms of the
gradations of existence, Sadrā explicitly embryos in our mothers’ wombs. Once our
˙
denies that existence can be conceptualized cognitive organs have reached a sufficient
arbitrarily. Yet the point about metaphysical stage of development, we begin to actually
primacy stands: the gradation of existence is perceive, which entails an ascent to a new
independent of the quiddities that are applied level of mental existence. Our newly acquired
on its basis, but not the other way round. It is in actuality as immaterial mental substances is,
this sense that quiddities are less real than however, but an initiation into a considerably
existence, for they first come to be in an intel- more grandiose development within the
lectual consideration of existence and its sphere of mental existence. We first ascend
gradations. from perception to imagination, which
2. Substantial motion (ḥaraka jawharī ya) is amounts to an increased independence from
another idea of Sadrā’s invention. According the material constraints of the sublunary
˙
to it, motion takes place not only in the Aris- world. Imagination in turn contains the
totelian categories of quality, quantity, place, potency for intellection, the final ascent in
and position but also, and indeed primarily, in the substantial motion of human being. In
the category of substance. He thus stands in this process, no substantial core of our being
polar opposition to the Peripatetic paradigm, will remain immutable through the successive
according to which stability in the category of steps from lower to higher levels of existence.
substance is a necessary condition for the The motion concerns the human substance,
apprehension of any kind of motion, motion our very selves, and distinct stages in the pro-
being apprehensible only as the variation in cess cannot be unqualifiedly identified with
6 Mullā Sadrā
˙
each other. As we already saw in our brief in Avicenna’s cognitive psychology. At the
discussion of the theory of the foundationality same time, he clearly thought that the theory
of existence, Sadrā thus subscribes to what we of cognitive unity is closely connected to the
˙
can call a perdurance theory of identity: con- broader themes of the foundationality of exis-
sidered as momentary entities, the infant John tence and substantial motion, as becomes clear
and the adult John are two different entities; from his reply to Avicenna’s refutation of the
they are identical only when considered as theory.
phases of a single continuity of existence or According to Avicenna whose cognitive
derivatively by means of a suitable concept. psychology was based on the idea of the cog-
As has been noted by various commentators, nized forms being impressed in the cognitive
this bears a number of similarities to the organs (in the case of sub-intellectual cogni-
so-called four-dimensionalist theories of sub- tion) or in the soul (in the case of intellection),
stance proposed in contemporary analytic the theory of cognitive unity violates our intu-
philosophy. itions of our stability as cognitive subjects
The theory of substantial motion is thus aware of a variety of objects; if I as a subject
intimately intertwined with the primacy of really were identical with the object I am
existence, and their combination has quite aware of, then when I shift my regard from
aptly been characterized as a form of process perceiving a dog to thinking about my grocer-
philosophy. But focus on substantial notion ies, I actually become a different
does bring out an important feature in the thing – having been a dog, I am now a bunch
metaphysically primitive notion of continuous of edible substances. Granting that this is a
existence, that is, its being directed by an genuine problem for a metaphysics based on
internal teleological principle. This principle the notion of a substance that endures intact
is the Sadrian equivalent of the Peripatetic through the change of its attributes, Sadrā
˙ ˙
concept of substance in the sense that like the clearly thinks that the problem vanishes
concept of substance, it provides the founda- when the idea of substantial change is intro-
tion for the identity in change of the individual duced. If any entity subject to change has an
existent. But unlike the Peripatetic substance, identity only in the sense of perduring for a
it does not endure unchanged but can only certain period of time, and if the change from
exist as the infinitely rich continuity of me as perceiving the dog to me as thinking
motion. As a result, it cannot be abstracted about the groceries is understood in a suffi-
from any particular phase in that continuity, ciently nuanced way that enables us to locate a
for even if the abstraction were an adequate number of common features and causal con-
representation of the phase it is derived from, nections between the two temporal phases, we
it cannot adequately represent the whole to can save the intuition and do away with
which the phase belongs. Avicenna’s refutation. In other words, if the
Another departure from the Avicennian two instances of perceiving the dog and think-
Peripatetic paradigm is Sadrā’s subscription ing about the groceries are considered as such,
˙
to the idea that cognition consists in a unity then there really are two corresponding sub-
in the act of existence between the cognizing jects. But once the two cognitions are con-
subject and the cognized object. Although the ceived as belonging to a single continuity of
idea can be read as a reasonable interpretation mental existence, the subject is one, namely,
of Aristotle’s theory of cognition in the De the continuous mental existence as a whole.
Anima, it was vehemently criticized by Avi- One final topic of importance in which
cenna, a fact that Sadrā was well aware of. In Sadrā departs from his predecessors is related
˙ ˙
fact, he clearly thinks that his rehabilitation of to his sustained interest in eschatological
this venerable doctrine is the sole plausible questions. In this field, he is witness to an
solution to a number of problems he perceived interesting development of the Avicennian
Mullā Sadrā 7
˙
and Suhrawardīan theories of an imaginary concrete descriptions of the afterlife found in

afterlife as the lot of those human souls that the Qur’ān. This does not mean that he gives
have been insufficiently developed to enjoy up the philosophical idea of pure contempla-
the sort of contemplative bliss proper to mem- tion as the best lot available to the human
bers of the human species but have neverthe- elect, but clearly he felt the need to address
less developed a set of moral virtues or vices the theological criticism, initiated by
and therefore deserve a certain type of plea- al-Ghazālī in the Tahāfut al-falāsifa,
sure or pain in the afterlife. Since both Avi- according to which the philosophers’ dualism
cenna and Suhrawardī held imagination to be a is incompatible with true Muhammadan
faculty whose activity is dependent on a cor- revelation.
poreal organ, they had to face the question of In broad terms, Sadrā subscribes to the
˙
how we can imagine after the demise of the traditional conception of philosophy as the
body and its cognitive organ, the brain. As a perfection of the human soul through the
solution, they located an ersatz organ in the acquisition of theoretical knowledge. This is
celestial spheres, which the moderately devel- compatible with the revealed goal of the
oped souls could allegedly use in imagining human species, for knowledge alone can ele-
their respective deserts. This was an uneasy vate us above material indigency and thereby
appendix at best in Avicenna, who had else- render us as like to God (ta’alluh) as is possi-
where conceived of the connection of the soul ble for a created entity. But it is important to
and its unique body in more intimate terms notice how broadly Sadrā defines knowledge;
˙
which the ad hoc solution to eschatology was in particular, it cannot be restricted to a series
prone to violate. In the Ḥikma al-ishrāq, of syllogistical inferences from first premises
Suhrawardī makes a number of conceptual but must include intuitive modes and methods
moves that mitigate the tension, but the idea as equally valid. Furthermore, Sadrā holds that
˙
of imaginary afterlife nevertheless remained the proper cultivation of our cognitive capac-
on the level of somewhat undeveloped ities is dependent on a rigorous process of
remarks. Sadrā, however, employs the idea as ascetic and religious discipline, as is evident
˙
the basis of a full-blown theory of quasi- in his own understanding of the importance of
corporeally felt but fully immaterial reward the period of seclusion in Kahak for his phil-
and punishment in the afterlife. This is possi- osophical thinking. In his conception of phi-
ble because in his psychological theory, he had losophy as a special type of unity of theory and
separated the functioning of the Avicennian practice, Sadrā continues the project sketched
˙
internal senses (common sense, formative fac- out in Suhrawardī’s preface to the Ḥikma
ulty, imagination, estimation, and memory) al-ishrāq. This conception also provides the
from their corporeal organs, treating them motivation for his eclectic use of sources and
dualistically as so many modifications of the basis for the breadth of his intellectual
immaterial mental existence. But although endeavors.
imagination thereby no longer needs the
brain as the instrument of its operation, its
contents retain their corporeal appearance for Impact and Legacy
Sadrā. Hence, we do not need a body to ima-
˙
gine bodies, that is, three-dimensional objects As a teacher, Mullā Sadrā was responsible for the
˙
located in space and time. What is more, we do training of a number of the most significant phi-
not need the body to experience ourselves as losophers of the later Safavid period, two of the
˙
embodied, for even the experience of one’s most important of whom were his sons-in-law,
own body can be produced in the incorporeal Muḥsin Fayḍ Kāshānī (d. 1680) and ‘Abd
imagination. Relying on this idea, Sadrā al-Razzāq Lāhījī (d. 1661/1662), who developed
˙
attempts to do justice to the full array of the Sadrā’s philosophy in a more mystical vein.
˙
8 Mullā Sadrā
˙
Other notable students included Muḥammad ibn Chittick, W.C. 2003. Mullā Sadrā. The elixir of the gnos-
˙
tics. Iksī r al-‘ārifī n. A parallel English-Arabic text.
‘Alī Riḍā Aghājānī (d. 1660/1661), the author of
Provo: Brigham Young University Press.
a massive commentary on Mīr Dāmād’s Corbin, H. 1964. Moll^ a Sadra Shirazi (980/1572–1050/
al-Qabasāt, and Shaykh Husayn Tunikābunī 1640). Le Livre des pénétrations métaphysiques (Kit^ ab
˙
(d. 1690 or 1694), the initiator of a chain of al-Mash^ a ’ir). Tehran/Paris: Département d’iranologie
scholars extending as far as the nineteenth cen- de l’Institut Franco-Iranien/Librairie d’Amérique et
d’Orient Adrien-Maisonneuve.
tury. Their work, together with that of subsequent Corbin, H. 1986. Shih^ a boddı̂n Yaḥya Sohravardı̂ Shaykh
Iranian philosophers, ensured the transmission of al-Ishr^ a q. Le Livre de la sagesse orientale Kit^ ab
Sadrā’s philosophical legacy through times Hikmat al-Ishr^ a q. Commentaires de Qoṭboddı̂n
˙ Shı̂r^
a zı̂ et Môlla Sadr^ a Shı̂r^
a zı̂. Paris: Gallimard.
adverse to philosophy, until his thought was
Corbin, H., and J.D.˙ Āshtiyānī. 1971–1979. Anthologie
revived by his Qājār era followers, especially des philosophes iraniens depuis le XVIIe siècle jusqu’à
Mullā ‘Alī Nūrī (d. 1836) and Mullā Hādī nos jours, 4 vols. Paris: Librairie d’Amérique et d’Ori-
Sabzavārī (d. 1873). Since the nineteenth-century ent Adrien-Maisonneuve.
renaissance, Sadrā’s works have been at the fore- Lameer, J. 2006. Conception and belief in Sadr al-Dī n
˙
˙ Shī rāzī (ca 1571–1635): Al-Risāla fī l-taṣawwur wa-l-
front of Islamic philosophical study in Iran, and taṣdī q. Introduction, translation and commentary.
through the sustained effort of ‘Allāma Tehran: Iranian Institute of Philosophy.
Muḥammad Husayn Tabāṭabā’ī (d. 1981) in the Nasr, S.H., and M. Aminrazavi. 2015. An anthology of
˙ ˙ philosophy in Persia, From the school of Shiraz to the
face of theological opposition, they have secured
twentieth century, vol. 5. London: I.B. Tauris.
a place in the philosophical curriculum of the Nasr, S.H., and I. Kalin. 2014. Mullā Sadrā. The book of
Shī‘ite madāris of Qum. This was certainly facil- ˙
metaphysical penetrations. Kitāb al-mashā‘ir. Provo:
itated by the breadth of Sadrā’s intellectual out- Brigham Young University Press.
˙ Peerwani, L.-P. 2008. Spiritual psychology: The fourth
look which perceived philosophy to be
intellectual journey in transcendent philosophy. Vol-
inseparable from the more traditional sciences umes VIII & IX of the Asfar. Mulla Sadra Shirazi.
of theology, exegesis, and jurisprudence, as well London: ICAS Press.
as his adherence to ascetic religious discipline as Peerwani, L. P. 2004, Mulla Sadra Shirazi. On the
a necessary constituent of the philosophical prac- Hérmenentics of the Light Verse of the Qur’an.
London: ICAS Press.
tice. Indeed, Tabāṭabā’ī is still revered for having Toussi, S.K., M. Dasht Bozorgi, and F. Asadi Amjad.
˙
exemplified this unity of the traditional, the phil- 2008. Sadr al-Din Shirazi (Mulla Sadra). Breaking
osophical, and the mystical. Many of the protag- the idols of ignorance: Admonition of the soi-disant
onists of the Islamic revolution in Iran, most Sufi. London: ICAS Press.
For most of Mullā Sadrā’s works, particularly worth con-
notably Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini (d. 1989) sulting are the ˙recent critical editions published by
and Morteza Moṭahhari (d. 1979), were also Sadrā Islamic Philosophy Research Institute in Tehran
˙
strongly influenced by Sadrā’s thought. (www.mullasadra.org).
˙
Cross-References ‘Abd al-Haq, M. 1970. The psychology of Mullā Sadrā.
˙
Islamic Studies 9: 173–181.
‘Abd al-Haq, M. 1972. Mullā Sadrā’s concept of substan-
▶ al-Dawānī, Jālāl al-Dīn tial motion. Islamic Studies˙ 11: 79–91.
▶ Mīr Dāmād, Muḥammad Bāqir Arnzen, R. 2007. The structure of Mullā Sadrā’s al-Ḥikma
˙
▶ Philosophy in Safavid Persia al-muta‘āliya fī al-asfār al-‘aqlī ya al-arba‘a and his
˙ concepts of first philosophy and divine science: An
essay. Medioevo 32: 199–240.
References Shī rāzī et la structure de la réalité. Paris: Vrin. ˙
Corbin, H. 1971. En Islam iranien: Aspects spirituels et
philosophiques IV: L’école d’Ispahan, l’école
Primary Literature shaykhie, le douzième im^ a m. Paris: Gallimard.
Asadi Amjad, F., and M. Dasht Bozorgi. 2010. Divine Dehbashi, M. 2010. Transubstantial motion and the natu-
manifestations concerning the secrets of the perfecting ral world with a translation of volume III, stage
sciences. Mulla Sadra Shirazi. London: ICAS Press.
Mullā Sadrā 9
˙
7, chapters 18–32 of the Asfar of Mulla Sadra. Lon- Moris, Z. 2003. Revelation, intellectual intuition and rea-
don: ICAS Press. son in the philosophy of Mulla Sadra: An analysis of
Eichner, H. 2007. Dissolving the unity of metaphysics: the al-Hikmah al-‘Arshiyyah. London/New York:
From Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī to Mullā Sadrā al-Shīrāzī. Routledge.
Medioevo 32: 139–197. ˙ Morris, J.W. 1981. The wisdom of the throne: An intro-
Jambet, C. 2002. L’Acte d’être: La philosophie de la duction to the philosophy of Mulla Sadra. Princeton:
révélation chez Mollâ Sadr^ a . Paris: Fayard. Princeton University Press.
Jambet, C. 2008. Mort et resurrection en Islam: L’au-delà Nasr, S.H. 1978. Sadr al-Dī n Shī rāzī and his transcendent
selon Mull^ a Sadr^
a . Paris: Albin Michel. theosophy: Background, life and works. Tehran: Impe-
Kalin, I. 2003. An annotated bibliography of the works of rial Iranian Academy of Philosophy.
Mullā Sadrā with a brief account of his life. Islamic Rahman, F. 1975. The philosophy of Mullā Sadrā (Sadr
Studies˙42(1): 21–62. ˙ of New
al-Dī n al-Shī rāzī ). Albany: State University ˙
Kalin, I. 2004. Mullā Sadrā’s realist ontology of the intel- York Press.
ligibles and theory˙ of knowledge. Muslim World 94: Rizvi, S.H. 2003. Process metaphysics in Islam? Avicenna
81–106. and Mullā Sadrā on intensification of being. In Before
Kalin, I. 2007. Mullā Sadrā on theodicy and the best of all ˙
and after avicenna: Proceedings of the first conference
possible worlds. ˙Journal of Islamic Studies 18(2): of the avicenna study group, ed. D.C. Reisman,
183–201. 233–247. Leiden: Brill.
Kalin, I. 2011. Knowledge in later Islamic philosophy: Rizvi, S.H. 2007. Mullā Sadrā Shī rāzī : His life and works
Mullā Sadrā on existence, intellect, and intuition. and the sources for ˙ Safavid philosophy. Oxford:
New York: ˙ Oxford University Press. Oxford University Press.
Kalin, I. 2014. Mulla Sadra. Delhi: Oxford University Rizvi, S.H. 2009a. Mullā Sadrā and metaphysics: Modu-
Press. lation of being. London: ˙ Routledge.
Kaukua, J. 2014. A closed book: Opacity of the human self Rizvi, S.H. 2009b. Mulla Sadra. In The stanford encyclo-
in Mullā Sadrā. Vivarium 52(3–4): 241–260. pedia of philosophy, ed. Zalta, E.N. (Summer 2009
˙
Kaukua, J. 2015. Self-awareness in Islamic philosophy: edition). http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2009/
Avicenna and beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- entries/mulla-sadra/
sity Press. Rustom, M. 2013. The triumph of mercy: Philosophy and
Marcotte, R.D. 2011. Al-Masā’il al-qudsiyya and Mullā scripture in Mullā Sadrā. Albany: State University of
Sadrā’s proofs for mental existence. Journal of Islamic New York Press. ˙
˙
Studies 22(2): 153–182. ‘Ubudiyyat, ‘A.R. 2007. The fundamentality of existence
Meisami, S. 2013. Mulla Sadra. London: Oneworld. and the subjectivity of quiddity. Topoi 26: 201–212.
P
Philagrios, Joseph at Constantinople. Although he had a strong

interest in Aristotelian philosophy, he studied
Born: Candia c.1335 Plato, Porphyry, Antisthenes, Philoponus, and
Died: Candia c.1400 Ammonius. After his studies, Philagrios returned
to Crete. For a short period of time, he stayed in
Georgios Steiris Candia and opposed the Venetian authorities in
Department of Philosophy, School of Philosophy, religious issues. Then he moved to Mount
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Cophinas, south of Candia, where he built the
Zografou, Greece monastery of the Three Holy Hierarchs. In the
monastery, he incorporated a school for religious
and secular education. His reputation as a scholar
and teacher led a lot of students to the monastery,
where Philagrios taught philosophy, theology,
Abstract grammar, medicine, and astronomy. In addition,
he created a scriptorium. His students and asso-
Joseph Philagrios was a Byzantine scholar of the ciates copied ancient codices and he personally
fourteenth century from Crete who wrote against wrote the marginalia. After his death, the school
the rapprochement between the Greek Orthodox declined and was finally closed down. Philagres
Church and the Catholic Church. He was also a got engaged in the intense debate between Greek
copyist of manuscripts. Orthodox and supporters of the Latin Church,
which tormented the Greek-speaking regions in
the fourteenth and fifteenth century. He blamed
Synonyms Demetrius Cydones and Emmanuel Calecas for
their positions concerning the union of the two
Philagres Churches. Philagrios worked together with
Joseph Vryenios, Neilos Damilas, and Anthemos,
the bishop of Athens, in order to repel the offen-
Biography siveness of the pro-Latin party. His oration
“Against the Latins” (Ό katά tῶn Latίnon
Joseph Philagrios was born in Crete, when the dikanikóB) comprises in an excellent manner
island was under the Venetian occupation. His the basic arguments of the Byzantine polemical
original name was John. He studied rhetoric, literature. Calecas replied and accused Philagrios
logic, and ethics probably in the Pandidakterion that he was ignorant and “blind,” whereat he went
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_157-1
2 Philagrios, Joseph
blind his students. In addition to the religious are been kept in Bucharest, Paris, Brussels, and
texts, he produced commentaries on the works the Greek island of Andros.
of Aristotle, especially the Categories.
References
Impact and Legacy
For many centuries, most of his works have been Papazoglou, G. 2008. ΙosZ’ FilάrgB Z FilάrgioB,
ΈnaB lógioB krtikóB ieromenoB kai aristotelikóB
attributed to Marcus Eugenicos. Philagrios’ work
swoliastZB tou 14ou aio na: SumbolZ stn istorίa
is best preserved in a manuscript, which is been tB ΒenetokratίaB stn KrZt. Comotene:
kept in the Angelicum Library in Rome. In addi- G. K. Papazoglou.
tion, works of him are included in codices which
P
Philosophy in Safavid Persia the new power’s cultural policy was its staunch
Shī‘ism. The consolidation of this cause required
Jari Kaukua considerable support from Shī‘ite scholars, many
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, of whom were invited to move to Iran from the
University of Jyväskylä Academy of Finland, Shī‘ite stronghold in Jabal ‘Āmil in Lebanon.
Jyväskylä, Finland Their encounter with the endogenous Iranian tra-
dition of learning gave rise to a sustained compe-
tition for the court’s favor – a situation which
characterizes the activity of most philosophers
of the era. In general, it seems that philosophi-
Abstract cally inclined scholars were relatively successful
in their relations with the Safavid court, for their
˙
Often considered a high point of Iranian culture, philosophical activities were not merely tolerated
the period of rule of the Safavid dynasty but often encouraged by the rulers. The Safavid
˙ ˙
(1499–1720) witnessed the flourishing of some era is indeed often conceived as a golden period
of the most prominent postclassical Islamic phi- of Iranian philosophy and Iranian culture at large.
losophers, most notably Mīr Dāmād and Mullā It witnessed the flourishing of thinkers who
Sadrā. But the wealth of philosophical activity in proved formative for the subsequent develop-
˙ ment down to our day, including the most prom-
the period did not arise from nothing, nor did it
end abruptly at the fall of the empire. Indeed, inent examples of Mīr Dāmād (d. 1631/2) and
Safavid philosophy is a natural outgrowth of the Mullā Sadrā (d. 1635/6). Their work, like the
˙ ˙
fourteenth- and fifteenth-century philosophical results of the Safavid religious policy, thus
˙
and theological debates, especially in Shīrāz, outlived the dynasty that was dethroned effec-
and most of the topics, questions, and solutions tively in 1722 and nominally in 1760.
would continue to be debated down to the
nineteenth-century Qājār era and ultimately to
our own day. Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
The first Safavid Shāh Ismā‘īl I conquered and Safavid philosophy did not arise from nothing.
˙ ˙
united the politically splintered Persia of the post- Iran, and Shīrāz in particular, was the site of vivid
Timurid era in the beginning of the sixteenth philosophical and theological discussion
century. Following Ismā‘īl’s declaration in throughout the fifteenth century. This probably
Tabrīz in the fall of 1501, a constitutive part of dates back to the activity of two famous
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_158-1
2 Philosophy in Safavid Persia
theologians with strong philosophical inclina- philosophy (whether Avicennian or ishrāqī ), the-
tions, namely, ‘Aḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī (d. 1355) and ology, Sufism, and even the natural sciences.
his commentator al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī Another characteristic feature, again shared by
(d. 1413/14). The latter’s role was especially the theologians of the earlier generation, is that
formative for the thriving philosophical scene in the philosophers were mostly active as teachers
Shīrāz, both of the primary actors of which, Jalāl and commentators. For instance, carrying on the
al-Dīn al-Dawānī (d. 1502) and Sadr al-Dīn debate between his father and al-Dawānī, the
˙
al-Dashtakī (d. 1497/8), were his second- younger Dashtakī wrote four commentaries on
generation students. his father’s works, as well as a number of assess-
The philosophical scene in Shīrāz toward the ments on specific points of debate appended to
end of the fifteenth century is dominated by the contestants’ own commentaries, which in
al-Dawānī and al-Dashtakī, whose students some cases make Ghiyāth al-Dīn’s own works
would determine much of subsequent Iranian the fourth-generation commentaries.
philosophy. Most important in this regard is The synthetic approach of the sixteenth-
al-Dashtakī’s son Ghiyāth al-Dīn al-Manṣūr century thinkers is continued by Mīr Dāmād and
(d. 1542), who rose to prominent positions Mullā Sadrā, but at the same time the seventeenth
˙
under the Safavid Shāhs and was even invited to century witnesses a shift from commentary to the
˙
supervise the rebuilding of the Marāgha observa- composition of original treatises and new philo-
tory. Importantly, the senior Dashtakī founded a sophical summae. This approach becomes espe-
philosophical madrasa in Shīrāz in honor of his cially ambitious in Mullā Sadrā, whose magnum
˙
son, an important institution that Ismā‘īl opus, the voluminous al-Ḥikma al-muta‘āliya fī
I recognized by exempting it from taxation al-asfār al-arba‘a al-‘aqlī ya, is an excellent
duties. example of it. It follows in outline the structure
Dawānī and the senior Dashtakī are heirs to a of the earlier theological summae but introduces
tradition of Sunnī learning, which found its material from a wider pool of knowledge, includ-
authority seriously compromised by the introducing not only theology and both Avicennian and
tion of the new Shī‘ite scholars. But Ghiyāth ishrāqī philosophy but also the Sufi tradition,
al-Dīn represents a new generation, who tries to with special prominence given to Ibn ‘Arabī and
gain authoritative ground within the new creed, his followers. Another new feature in the philo-
evitably with some success. Even after falling sophical literature of the period is the increasing
into disfavor as a result of a doctrinal conflict on use of Persian. While this was not unheard of
the direction of prayer with the prominent juris- (indeed, Avicenna had written a summa in Per-
prudent ‘Alī Karakī during the rule of Shāh sian and Suhrawardī produced a number of Per-
Tahmāsb I, he was allowed to continue teaching sian treatises), writing in Arabic was still the
in his madrasa. Similar ambitions were norm, but subsequent authors would increasingly
entertained by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Astarābādī, a stu- opt for Persian.
dent of al-Dawānī, who rose to a prominent posi- The bitter division between the old, philosoph-
tion, functioning as the chief of religious affairs ically inclined intellectuals and the new Shī‘ite
(ṣadr) under the first two Shāhs. Other notable learned elite was relatively short lived. In fact,
students of al-Dawānī and al-Dashtakī were one of the most prominent philosophers at the
Kamāl al-Dīn Mīr Husayn Maybūdī (d. 1504), beginning of the second Safavid century, Mīr
˙ ˙
Shams al-Dīn al-Khafrī (d. 1535), and Najm Dāmād, was the grandson of ‘Alī Karakī, the
al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Nayrīzī (d. after 1536). most authoritative of the Lebanese jurisprudents.
A notable feature of Shīrāzī philosophy, This shows in the status of philosophy, for if the
inherited from similar tendencies in earlier theo- first two Shāhs had been relatively well disposed
logians, is its synthetic preoccupation with a wide toward philosophy, this was definitely the case
array of intellectual traditions. No strict distinc- with ‘Abbās I (1587–1629) during whose reign
tions seem to have been perceived between the new capital Isfahan became the center of
Philosophy in Safavid Persia 3
philosophical life in Iran. The second half of been pivotal to their general veneration as men of
‘Abbās’ reign marks the point of entry of the wisdom.
so-called school of Isfahan, with Mīr Dāmād at A sociologically interesting feature of the
its spearhead, the most important representatives period is also the emergence of dynasties of
of which served in positions at least as close to the learned men, not unlike the parallel dynasties of
court as those of the previous generation. Thus, jurisprudents, some of which intersect with those
although opposition to philosophy from some of philosophers. The Dashtakīs seem to have
jurisprudents continued and although tides seem established a pattern followed by both Mīr
to have varied in this regard (Mullā Sadrā’s self- Dāmād and Mullā Sadrā, who had influential
˙ ˙
imposed exile to the tiny village of Kahak, alleg- sons-in-law that carried on their work and pro-
edly due to intrigues in the scholarly circles of duced philosophically active offspring in turn.
Isfahan, being a case in point), in light of the de
facto power of some of the main philosophical
figures, overarching statements about the philos- Innovative and Original Aspects
ophers’ aversion to politics seem unfounded. This
was still the case during the time of Mullā Sadrā’s One of the most celebrated Safavid contributions
˙ ˙
student Muḥsin Fayḍ Kāshānī (d. 1680), who was to philosophy is Mīr Dāmād’s attempt at the
a major jurisprudent and intimate to Shāh solution of the Avicennian problem of how God
‘Abbās II. is related to His creation. In particular, how can
In fact, it is a genuinely new feature of the an absolutely unchanging and atemporal entity
Safavid era that so many of the philosophers give rise to something that is in time and in
˙
made their profession as religious officials. That constant flux? Mīr Dāmād’s solution is based on
philosophy is a pastime passion is not new in the a meticulous analysis of different senses of com-
Islamic context; the philosophers had always had ing to be (ḥudūth) and different kinds of
to make their living by means of other fields of atemporality, depending on whether we consider
science, and with the exception of late and post- the atemporal in its atemporality or in its relation
Safavid Iran, the teaching institutions in the to time. This analysis gives rise to the celebrated
˙
Islamicate world have traditionally not included notion of “perpetual coming to be” (ḥudūth
philosophy as an independent discipline in their dahrī ).
curriculum. But where earlier generations of phi- A debate characteristic of seventeenth-century
losophers were usually active as professionals in Safavid philosophy hinged on the question of
˙
the rational sciences, the Safavid philosophers which of the two key notions of Avicenna’s meta-
˙
seem to have adopted a somewhat denigrating physics, existence and essence, is metaphysically
attitude to such mundane professions. Character- foundational. Mīr Dāmād is famous for having
istic is Mullā Sadrā’s critical remark in a review represented the allegedly Suhrawardian idea
˙
of Avicenna’s attempted solution to an eschato- (known as aṣāla al-māhī ya) according to which
logical problem: had the great philosopher spent essences constitute the basis of reality, whereas
less time and effort on medicine and invested existence can be explained as a feature derivative
more on philosophy and religious striving, he of the thinking mind. For the posterior Iranian
would have met with greater success in tackling philosophical tradition, however, it would be
the problem. As a result of this bias, the renais- Mullā Sadrā’s diametrically opposed view that
˙
sance of philosophy during the Safavid era seems existence is foundational (aṣāla al-wujūd),
˙
not to have been accompanied by the kind of essences being explicable as features introduced
flourishing of the other rational sciences that by the intellect.
was characteristic of the classical period of Closely related to the foundational status of
Islamic philosophy. The religious credentials of existence is Sadrā’s concept of substantial motion
˙
the major Safavid philosophers must also have (ḥaraka jawharī ya). This is a radical departure
˙
from Avicennian Peripateticism, which had
4 Philosophy in Safavid Persia
specifically denied motion in the category of sub- Muḥammad Bāqir Sabzawārī, and Rajab ‘Alī
stance, claiming that this would make it impossi- Tabrīzī (d. 1669/70). Of particular importance
ble to attribute any kind of stable and knowable for subsequent generations of philosophers was
identity to beings; were it not for substantial Tabrīzī who, emphasizing a strict distinction
forms, everything would be in flux and nothing between the existence of the Creator and that of
could be known. Fully aware of this argument, creation and denying the doctrine of substantial
Sadrā substantiates his theory with a new idea of motion, would provide a critical alternative to
˙
identity. Curiously resembling contemporary Mullā Sadrā down to the Qājār era. He had
˙
four-dimensionalist theories of identity, Sadrā many students, the most important of whom was
˙
seems to suggest that absolute identity conditions the notable philosopher, theologian, and jurispru-
can only be known from God’s atemporal per- dent Qāḍī Sa‘īd Qummī (d. 1691/2). Qummī,
spective, whereas all being and knowledge in however, was also a second-generation student
time is subject to constant flux and development. of Sadrā’s through Kāshānī and Lāhījī, and it is to
˙
Finally, Mullā Sadrā also subscribed to the the latter’s doctrine that he seems to have been
˙
theory of cognitive identity or unity, that is, the inclined in his own writings.
view that in any act of cognition, the act itself An interesting feature of post-Sadrian Safavid
˙ ˙
should be conceived as an identity in being of its philosophy is a decisive turn to a combination of
subject and object. Put another way, subject and mysticism and philosophy (‘irfān), coupled with
object are only analytically distinguishable, not the opening of several Sufi centers, and a strongly
really distinct constituents, of the act of cogni- traditionalist (akhbārī ) take in jurisprudence.
tion. Although this idea is not entirely new This shift culminated especially in Kāshānī but
(in fact, it can be traced back to Aristotle’s also in a more moderate form in Lāhījī, received
description of sense perception and intellection the blessing of the Shāhs Safī (r. 1629–1642) and
˙
in his De Anima), it does mark a significant ‘Abbās II (1642–1666), and made philosophers
departure from the Avicennian mainstream in once again close to the court. This would not
the philosophical psychology of Sadrā’s time. remain the case, however, for hard-line rationalist
˙
(uṣūlī ) jurisprudents would gain the upper hand
in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth cen-
Impact and Legacy tury, which resulted in a drastic decline in the
veneration, indeed legitimacy, of philosophical
Although the generation of Mīr Dāmād and Mullā pursuits. Thus, for example, Qummī would be
Sadrā can be said to represent the high point of imprisoned for a time during the reign of Shāh
˙
Safavid philosophy, philosophical activity by no Suleymān (1666–1694). Philosophy became a
˙
means came to a close after the first half of the largely questionable activity and certainly ceased
seventeenth century. The most important stu- to be part of the mainstream of the Shī‘ite
dents and commentators of Mīr Dāmād were scholars. It is due to the renaissance of Mullā
Sayyid Aḥmad ‘Alawī ‘Āmilī (d. between 1644 Sadrā’s philosophy in the nineteenth and twenti-
˙
and 1650) and Mullā Shamsā Gīlānī. Mullā Sadrā eth centuries that philosophy is featured in the
˙
also had a number of influential students, includ- curriculum of the Shī‘ite seminaries in Iran.
ing his sons-in-law ‘Abd al-Razzāq Lāhījī Such difficulties notwithstanding, philosophi-
(d. 1661/2) and Muḥsin Fayḍ Kāshānī (d. 1680), cal activity continued uninterrupted until the end
Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī Riḍā Aghājānī (the author of of the Safavid era and beyond, but research on
˙
a massive commentary on Mīr Dāmād’s this late period is hardly in its infancy.
al-Qabasāt, of whom little else is known), and A characteristic feature seems to have been the
Shaykh Husayn Tunikābunī (d. 1690 or 1694). gradual increase in importance of Mullā Sadrā’s
˙ ˙
Another important teacher was Mīr Abū philosophy at the cost of the Avicennian and the
al-Qāsim Astarābādī Findiriskī, whose students ishrāqī alternatives. Notable thinkers of the later
include Husayn Khwānsārī (d. 1686/7), Safavid period include Mullā Hasan Lunbānī
˙ ˙ ˙
Philosophy in Safavid Persia 5
(d. 1682/3); Mīrzā Muḥammad Sādiq Ardistānī Secondary Literature

˙ Abisaadb, R.J. 2004. Converting Persia: Religion and
(d. 1721/2); his student Mīrzā Muḥammad Taqī
power in the Safavid Empire. London/New York:
Almāzī who seems to have been the first to teach
I. B. Tauris.
Sadrā’s philosophy in the context of the Shī‘ite Arjomand, S.A. 1984. The Shadow of God and the Hidden
˙
seminary, ‘Ināya Allāh Gīlānī, an Avicennian; Imam: Religion, political order, and societal change in
and Mīr Sayyid Hasan Tāliqānī. Their activity Shi‘ite Iran from the beginning to 1890. Chicago/Lon-
˙ ˙ don: The University of Chicago Press.
was crucial for the second blooming of philoso-
phy during the Qājār period. Shī rāzī et la structure de la réalité. Paris: Vrin. ˙
Dabashi, H. 2001. Mīr Dāmād and the founding of the
‘School of Iṣfahān’. In History of Islamic
philosophy, ed. S.H. Nasr and O. Leaman, 597–634.
Cross-References London/New York: Routledge.
Kalin, I. 2011. Knowledge in later Islamic philosophy:
Mullā Sadrā on existence, intellect, and intuition.
▶ ‘Aḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī New York:˙ Oxford University Press.
▶ al-Dawānī Nasr, S.H. 1986. Spiritual movements, philosophy and
▶ al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī theology in the Safavid period. In The Cambridge
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Nasr, S.H. 2006. Islamic philosophy from its origin to the
present: Philosophy in the land of prophecy. Albany:
State University of New York Press.
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M
Maimonideanism in the Renaissance as false and vane. The Mishneh Torah, the main
juridical work by Maimonides, was also partially
Alessandro Guetta translated into Latin, when the curiosity for Jew-
Institut National des Langues et Civilisations ish laws and rites grew in the Christian world.
Orientales, Paris, France
The Reception of Maimonides’ Work

in Different Ages
Abstract
Moses Maimonides (Cordova 1238–Fustat,
Egypt, 1204; in Hebrew Moshe ben Maimon, in
Moses Maimonides is probably the most impor-
Arabic Musa ibn Maimun) is unquestionably the
tant, certainly the most influential, Jewish philos-
most important author in the history of Jewish
opher of all times. Both his philosophical and
philosophy, as witnessed by the continued inter-
juridical works became fundamental references
est in the most important of his works throughout
of the Jewish culture already in his lifetime, but
the ages, i.e., The Guide for the Perplexed
they also underwent several sharp critiques. Dur-
(Arabic: Dalalat al-hairin; Hebrew: More
ing the Renaissance, his philosophical master-
nevukhim, completed 1190), as well as by the
piece, The Guide for the Perplexed, was either
multitude of reactions that this work has aroused.
read according to the platonic orientation of the
Although it is true that Maimonides was already
time or criticized as the main expression of an
being criticized during his lifetime for what was
extreme rationalistic attitude; in both cases, it was
considered as excessive rationalism, which
universally admired and quoted. This is true also
implicitly denied the validity of certain beliefs
for the representatives of the so-called Jewish
deemed to be tenets of religion (such as the res-
Averroism during the Renaissance; in fact, these
urrection of the dead), it is also true that the Guide
authors were Maimonidean-Averroists.
was immediately translated from Arabic into
The prestige of Maimonides was great among
Hebrew by Shemuel ibn Tibbon from Lunel in
Christian scholars, too. His philosophy inspired
Southern France, with the collaboration of the
some important Christian cabalists, and the
author himself: this alone is a proof of the pres-
Guide was translated into Latin and considered
tige enjoyed by his work among the non-Arabic-
a work important for religious thought in general,
speaking Jews, who wished to read it as soon as
which was exceptional, in a period of widespread
they could.
rebuttal of the Jewish postbiblical doctrines, seen
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_161-1
2 Maimonideanism in the Renaissance
This philosophical work became the pivot Maimonides’ work unfolds in accordance with
around which revolved, during the thirteenth cen- the tenets of Aristotelianism as transmitted
tury, all judgments in favor of or against the study through Arabic philosophic literature: it shares
of philosophy, which agitated the Jewish commu- with it a common background in logic, psychol-
nities in Southern France and Catalonia and ogy, physics, cosmology, and metaphysics. In
ended up with a series of excommunications and accordance with what his Muslim contempo-
counter-excommunications and even with the raries thought, Aristotle was considered by Mai-
burning of some of Maimonides’ writings by the monides as the quintessential philosopher, the
Christian authorities. one who represented the highest point that could
Commentaries on the Guide have been numer- ever be reached by human intellect. The Bible
ous and emerged quite early on: some appeared and the Aristotelian philosophy, according to
already in the thirteenth century, in Spain and Maimonides, agree on essential matters, which
Italy (Shem Tov ibn Falaquera, Moreh ha-Moreh, they express through different languages. In this
“Guide to the Guide”, Moshe of Salerno, light, it is understandable why, during the age of
Zeraḥiah Hen); they reached further elaboration the reorganization of the Jewish thought (from
˙
in the fourteenth century in Southern France and the second half of the sixteenth century until the
Catalonia (Yosef ibn Kaspi, Moshe Narboni, middle of the eighteenth century) following the
Profiat Duran also called Efodi) and then reached decline of Aristotelianism, Maimonides’ work
an apex in the fifteenth century, in Castile and goes through a period of relative eclipse.
Catalonia (Asher Crescas, Yitzḥaq ibn Shem During this period, the thought of Yehuda
Tov, Yitzḥaq Abravanel). In the same periods, ha-Levi (1075–1141), which expressed suspicion
several commentaries were written by Arab- toward philosophical rationalism but also toward
speaking Jews, especially in Yemen. certain forms of Neoplatonism and especially the
Maimonides established, on the one hand, qabbalah in its various versions, constituted the
what will be considered as the fundamental topics main theological and philosophical benchmarks
of the subsequent Jewish thought up until the of the Jewish world. But, although the centrality
modern era, and, on the other, he inspired the of the Maimonidean thought declined, its prestige
methods to approach them. remained unscathed: the Moreh continued to be
Virtually all later authors, no matter whether studied, quoted, and even translated (by the Ital-
in accordance with his stance or dissociating ian Yedidiyah Rimini, at the end of the sixteenth
themselves from it or even harshly criticizing it, century: Erudizione de’ confusi, the first vernac-
will refer to Maimonides, whom they name ular translation after the Spanish one, in the early
ha-Moreh after the title of his chief work, because fifteenth century), and Maimonides’ dogmatic
they consider him as the master par excellence. theology (as defined in other works of his) con-
Even among the cabalists, a priori far from tinued to be considered an essential, even “popu-
being keen on Maimonidean rationalism, his lar,” touchstone for Jews belonging to different
prestige and influence were profound. Avraham communities; Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto
˙
Abulafia (1240–after 1291) was clearly inspired (1707–1746), a cabalist of systematic spirit,
by certain aspects of Maimonides’ thought when explicitly referred to Maimonides several times
developing what has been defined as “ecstatic and throughout his work.
prophetic qabbalah,” and the question that gener- The same can be said of the status of Maimon-
ations of cabalists have been asking themselves ides as a juridical authority. Although in the
was: if the qabbalah represents the authentic course of the sixteenth century the importance
Jewish doctrine, which stems from Sinai’s reve- of his summa Mishneh Torah declined as a source
lation, why a master of Maimonides’ stature does of authority in the Italian Jewish communities,
not even mention it? There is a variety of answers the book continued to be studied, as its many
on this regard: there is even an account of his late editions of this period attest.
conversion to qabbalah.
Maimonideanism in the Renaissance 3
The new printing of the Moreh (1742, near first “modern” authors, who voluntarily kept him-
Dessau, Germany), occurred after an over-two- self far from any religious creed, Maimonides
century-long gap (the previous publication was in constituted an essential reference point. On the
Sabbioneta, Italy, 1553, which followed the one hand, Spinoza harshly criticized him, but, on
printing in Rome, before 1480), ushered in a the other, he adopted some of his basic
new phase of the reception of Maimonides’ phil- assumptions – such as the one regarding proph-
osophical work, which took place mainly within ecy and the relation between imagination and
the Ashkenazi world, i.e., in Germany and intellect – adapting them to his own system.
Poland.
An important author of the stature of Moses
Mendelssohn, for instance, was clearly inspired Maimonides in the Renaissance Within
by Maimonides in his philosophical articulation the Context of the Jewish Culture
between revelation and reason/Jewish particular
and human universal. Salomon Maimon Aspects of Maimonides’ Work That Have Been
(1753–1800), the philosopher critic of Kant, Used in Various Manners
composed a commentary on the Guide (Givath Before being a philosopher, Maimonides was a
ha-moreh). For the maskilim, the Jewish scholars jurist, one of the most important ones throughout
who aimed at achieving the traditional Jewish the history of Jewish religious jurisprudence. In
knowledge through modern culture, Maimonides his Mishneh Torah, written in Hebrew, he gath-
inherently represented an example to be ered the vast array of juridical Talmudic material,
followed, due to his harmonization of religion and, in a more complete and radical manner com-
and science. Within the range of historical and pared to his predecessors, he gave it an order.
philological research, which begins with the Actually, the Mishneh Torah aimed at replacing
nineteenth-century Wissenschaft des Judentums the Talmud for those who did not possess the
and spans until the contemporary university prac- skills to study it – an attitude for which he was
tices, the quantity of studies on Maimonides is harshly criticized. In accordance with what was
incomparably greater than the number of studies customary during the Almohad era, Maimonides
on other authors. started his juridical code with a section dedicated
In more recent years, a great number of biog- to the “rules of belief” (Hilkhoth De‘oth), of a
raphies, monographs, reading guides, conference theological nature, where various subjects that
papers, and articles have been published in will be dealt with later on in his The Guide for
numerous languages. the Perplexed were exposed in a “popular”
Also in the Christian world, the reception of manner.
Maimonides has been significant, especially The ground for the Mishneh Torah had already
when taking into account the widespread suspi- been prepared by a commentary, in Arabic, on the
cion toward the Jewish culture. Mishnah – the body of laws that constitutes the
We will see how, during the Renaissance, Talmud’s own starting point. Also in this text,
various Christian thinkers and scholars read, there are some sections of a philosophical char-
translated, and made use of vast sections of Mai- acter, dealing in particular with the conduct that
monides’ works – of both philosophical and man should follow as well as with the destiny of
juridical nature – and expressed a positive judg- the intellectual soul after physical death.
ment on it. The Moreh had already been trans- His philosophical opus magnum, i.e., his The
lated into Latin toward the middle of the Guide for the Perplexed, is a complex work that,
thirteenth century (with the title Dux neutrorum), stemming from an absolute condemnation of
and it had been explicitly used by authors of the anthropomorphism – the conception of God as
stature of Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. endowed with physical, psychological, or moral
It is important here to mention how, for characteristics typical of the human being – deals
Baruch (Bento, Benedictus) Spinoza, one of the with a great number of topics in a deliberately
nonsystematic manner, leaving them also, in love (hesheq in Hebrew, ‘ishq in Arabic)
some cases, purposely unfinished. which allows him to passively detach himself
The juridical component of Maimonides’ from any bodily or worldly bonds. Moses,
work has been of great significance not only for prophet and philosopher par excellence, died
all generations of Jews but also for the Christian by the “kiss of God,” i.e., the union between
Hebraists from the sixteenth to the seventeenth his own individual intellect and the divine
century and beyond; as for its philosophical com- agent intellect.
ponent, it has generated a variety of conceptions
that are rather different from one another. Below, Maimonides in the Time of Averroism
we list some of Maimonides’ ideas that were As from the end of the fifteenth century and
further developed during the age of Renaissance: throughout several decades of the sixteenth cen-
tury, Averroes became an essential author for the
1. Philosophy should be intended for an intellec- Christian thought. His importance is due to his
tual elite in possession of scientific knowl- philosophical writings as well as his commentar-
edge, besides the religious one, as well as of ies on Aristotle which, at that time, were consid-
speculative capabilities. The mere expert of ered as the essential framework for understanding
religious law (a simple Talmudist with no the thought of the Stagirite. Averroes’ work,
scientific education) has no access to “the however, had to face also a great deal of oppo-
king’s palace,” i.e., to the knowledge of God, nents, who pointed out the dangerous and poten-
in the limits within which such knowledge is tially heretical nature of what was called a
attainable. “twofold path” to reach the truth, the path of
2. There is a reason behind every divine com- reason and the one of faith (or that of revelation
mandment, since it would be absurd to think or prophecy). This traditional theory of the “two-
that God can issue nonsensical orders. When fold path to the truth” might also lead to a theory
read correctly (i.e., allegorically), the Torah of the “twofold truth”: a concept credited to the
contains the truths of physics and metaphys- Arab philosopher, not without stretching the
ics, while in its outward and literal aspect, it interpretation of his thought. The Jews had been
contains several useful precepts of individual early readers of Averroes: they systematically
good conduct as well as rules for the correct translated his writings into Hebrew, and, in
functioning of society. some cases, they were directly inspired by the
3. Some commandments, particularly the ones Arab thinker when formulating the theory of a
related to the sacrifices at the Temple of Jeru- “double path” that can become that of a “double
salem, have a historical/educational purpose. truth,” giving more relevance to the path of rea-
Idolatrous peoples were accustomed to offer son than to that of revelation. Thanks to such an
sacrifices to their gods in any place: by limit- exceptional knowledge of Averroes’ work, the
ing and focusing the sacrificial practice only in Jewish scholars were an outstanding channel for
one place, God meant to educate the Jews in the dissemination of his thought throughout the
unitary worship. Since the highest service of Latin-Christian world between the end of the
God lies in the knowledge of Him and this, on fifteenth and the first decades of the sixteenth
its ultimate level, coincides with silent medi- century, by means of translating (from Hebrew
tation, sacrifices implicitly represent only one into Latin) his original writings.
stage in the development of divine worship. The distinctive trait of the “Jewish
4. “One serves God to the extent to which one Averroism” of that period, as well as of earlier
comprehends Him,” writes Maimonides in his periods, is that it largely developed within a
Guide. This intellectualistic stance entails an Maimonidean frame of reference. The most
outcome that is mystical in nature. The man prominent figure who represents this trend is
who raises himself intellectually is able to Eliah del Medigo from Crete (ca. 1455–1492/
reach the level of the love of God, a passionate 1493), a scholar who was close to relevant
personalities such as Giovanni Pico della On the other hand, it is interesting to note how,
Mirandola and Domenico Grimani, author of throughout the works of an author who may be
philosophical writings in Latin and Hebrew as considered as the last exponent of the Jewish
well as of several translations of Averroes. His medieval thought, ‘Ovadiah Sforno
treatise Behinath ha-dath (The Examination of (1475?–1550), basically there is no mention
Religion) analyzed the fundamental issues of reli- whatsoever of Maimonides, even when he
gion from a rational point of view. This brief approaches certain subjects that would evidently
writing owed much to ibn Rushd’s Fasl al-maqāl lend themselves to it. This important biblical
(The Decisive Treatise) and contained whole commentator and philosopher, who lived in
excerpts from the latter. Del Medigo shows an Rome and Bologna and was one of Johannes
“Averroist” approach when it comes to his sharp Reuchlin’s teachers of Hebrew, wrote a philo-
distinction between the recipients for whom the sophical work in Hebrew, Or ‘Ammym (Bologna
revealed scriptures are meant and those who are 1537), which he translated himself into Latin
capable of reading philosophical texts. Maimon- with several amendments (Lumen Gentium,
ides too had conceived such a distinction; how- 1548) and which deals with fundamental meta-
ever, he had also postulated the identity of physical and theological topics. If, on the one
contents between philosophy and revealed scrip- hand, this work shows a dialectical structure
ture, whose “secrets” are disclosed by religious (it analyzes two opposite theses with their respec-
reading. Del Medigo openly criticized such a tive rationales, and then both of them are
position that remains halfway between theology contested and a synthesis is found), on the other
and philosophy: even though both the Torah and hand, the content of the book is influenced by an
philosophy agree in their conclusions – as it hap- approach that is characteristic of the Renais-
pens in almost all cases – the two paths should be sance: the world, according to Sforno, has been
kept distinct from one another, so to avoid a created for a purpose and man is the ultimate
situation whereby the former would depend purpose of creation. Maimonides, who had
from the latter, which could lead to erroneous denied such finalism, is here criticized without
results. In spite of this strong critique, Maimoni- being explicitly referred to. What is most surpris-
des, the “excellent man,” is nonetheless justified ing is that, apart from Aristotle, Sforno’s main
by del Medigo, and his doctrines are clearly point of reference is Averroes, whose commen-
followed by him, when it comes to the radical taries and writings are mentioned with great fre-
negation of divine anthropomorphism and the quency, even when resorting to Maimonides
ceremonial prescriptions of the Torah as a would have been obvious for a Jewish author: as
means for the enhancement of the soul (through it is the case with the discussion about the relation
the expression of correct opinions) as well as of between God’s knowledge and human knowl-
the body (through the proper functioning of soci- edge, which are merely “homonyms,” i.e., they
ety). Therefore, the divine commandments do have nothing in common but the name and are
have a purpose; “otherwise they would be like totally different in their essence.
the actions of a madman, which are purposeless,” This book was meant to demonstrate to the
as del Medigo wrote, paraphrasing Maimonides. Jews as well as to the non-Jews that the idea of
In light of this, it can be said that the most impor- election of the former is rational in character. As
tant Jewish Averroist of the Renaissance was also Sforno writes, the Jews are possessors, through
a Maimonidean, notwithstanding some important the Torah, of a set of philosophical truths, and it is
distinctions. Indeed, it would have appeared their mission to spread them to the world. Prob-
impossible for a Jewish philosopher not to refer ably it wouldn’t have been appropriate to support
to the writings and the solutions of the “great his demonstrations by quoting another Jewish
eagle,” as Maimonides was called, the true author, who could have been considered
glory of the Jewish thought. non-convincing and dismissed as biased.
However, notwithstanding the almost com- changing partner, so matter, which cannot exist
plete absence of Maimonides in Sforno’s pages, without form, keeps on moving, getting rid of one
which makes of him a philosopher who is perform to take up another one. By using this simile,
fectly in line with the Averroistic tendency of his Maimonides meant to highlight the instable
time, the rationalistic structure of the Lumen nature of matter and its essential condition of
Gentium is undoubtedly of Maimonidean deprivation. Leo literally resorted to the same
inspiration. simile, but he did so in order to exalt the beauty
This is most apparent in his description of the of mundane creation, which presents a wonderful
fundamental relation between knowledge and variety of forms. This shift from a “medieval”
love/fear of God but also in some sections clearly view, characterized by an intellectualistic and
inspired by the Guide (even though the latter is negative approach toward matter, to a Renais-
never mentioned), for instance, the chapter about sance approach, whereby aesthetics play a pivotal
the origin of evil. According to Sforno as well as role and matter reflects the beauty that radiates
to Maimonides, one can love and fear God in a throughout the universe, is also apparent in their
manner that is directly proportional to the knowl- two different conceptions of imagination.
edge of Him; true faith derives from knowledge: According to Maimonides’ thought – as well as
without the latter, faith ceases to be an act of free that of other contemporary or previous Islamic
will and is, therefore, impossible. thinkers – this human capacity has a negative
value: the original sin determined the fall of
Maimonides in the Time of Neoplatonism man from the world of certainty, in which the
Even among those Jewish thinkers of the Renais- option is either true or false, to a world where
sance who lean toward Neoplatonism, the influ- man can only choose between good and evil,
ence of Maimonides’ teachings is present, beauty and hideousness, that is the sphere of
especially, but not only, for what concerns the opinions. According to him, the faculty of imag-
aspiration to union with the Divine that consti- ination is pretty much developed among the
tutes the highest level of human existence. The prophets – although this is not the case with the
most interesting example is that of Yehudah most important among them, Moses “the philos-
Abravanel (Spain, ca.1465; Italy, ca.1523), opher,” who does not need it – as it is necessary in
known in the Christian world as Leo Hebraeus order to transform the communications from the
or Leone Ebreo, who blended in a unique manner divine world into perceivable, intelligible data;
in his Dialoghi d’amore (Dialogues of Love) this is the only way in which the masses of non-
Neoplatonic, cabalistic, and Maimonidean philosophers will be able to comprehend a higher
motives. The worship of God, according to both plane of reality. On the contrary, according to
Leo and Maimonides, reaches its apex in the Leone, imagination is that faculty which allows
activity of intellectual love which, through the man to comprehend the intellectual beauty of the
union with the Divine, grants the worshipper’s cosmos, a systematic whole whose binding agent
soul with immortality. As far as other aspects are is exactly the universal beauty.
concerned, Leone is inspired by Maimonides but The perception of beauty – the
comes to different conclusions. Leone Ebreo aesthetics – therefore becomes in Leone Ebreo
paraphrased Maimonides when exposing several the path that leads to man’s elevation toward God
possible theories about the creation of the world, and no longer the only way forward for those who
but then he opted in favor of a solution – the are not capable of elaborating intellectual con-
attribution of forms to matter, like in Plato’s cepts purified from material impurities.
conception – that differs from the creation ex The intellectual path of union with God – that
nihilo as indicated by Maimonides. In his Guide amor dei intellectualis which will later on repre-
(3.8), Maimonides had compared matter to an sent, for Spinoza, the goal man should strive
adulterous woman: just as the latter is in constant for – has also been a central theme in the works
need of a man and, being unfaithful, she keeps on of later and less-known Jewish authors.
In around 1575, the Italian rabbi Lazzaro da Abravanel, such an interpretation is, first of all,
Viterbo from Rome (in Hebrew: Eliezer Matzliaḥ a violence done to the literal meaning of the
ha-Kohen) wrote a work in Latin with the title biblical text: it is unheard-of that the prophets
Tractatus de Anno Jubilaei, addressed to Pope were philosophers and, on the other hand, no
Gregory XIII in occasion of the Jubilee great philosopher has ever been a prophet. Proph-
proclaimed by the latter pontiff. Lazzaro, in his ecy and philosophy follow two different paths,
writing, goes back to the Jewish origin of the the former characterized by an intuitive and “a
institution of the Jubilee, pointing out its intellec- priori” nature and the latter by a consequential, “a
tual and spiritual value. The true posteriori” approach. Prophecy depends on
liberation – which the biblical liberation of slaves God’s will and addresses everyone; it does not
on a 50-year basis alludes to – is the liberation of entail a philosophical training of those who com-
the senses, such that the soul can rise to the municate it nor of those who receive it. Although
sublime heights of divinity. The commandments he distanced himself from Maimonides in this
of the Bible, according to Lazzaro, encourage respect, Abravanel conceived a great deal of his
man to engage in speculation about the most work as a development of Maimonides’ posi-
elevated intellectual subjects. By getting inspira- tions, which constantly and explicitly constitute
tion from the process performed by Moses, man his starting point as well as his frame of reference.
should enhance his knowledge, which is the only Another important Spanish author, Yitzḥaq
means through which one can aspire to enter into Arama (ca. 1420–1494), whose sermons col-
conjunction with the Divine. lected under the title ‘Aqedath Yitzhaq had a
From this brief description, it can be seen that deep influence in the Jewish culture of the fif-
the Jewish thinkers of the Renaissance, those of teenth century, built his religious, anti-
Averroistic tendency as well as those of Neopla- intellectualistic vision of the relationship
tonic inspiration, referred to Maimonides by uti- between reason and revelation on Maimonides’
lizing different aspects of his thought: the conceptions systematically refuted.
centrality of the intellectual activity and the “out- Other well-known Spanish authors, like
ward” ceremonial laws, considered as being Avraham Bibago (ca. 1420–1488/1489) and
instrumental in achieving the true happiness of Avraham Shalom (d. 1492), though not sharing
society, the separation between the ordinary pub- the extreme rationalistic position of Maimonides,
lic and the philosophers, and the conjunction with consider him the absolute reference of Jewish
God as a result of such an activity; furthermore, religious thought, defend him against his philo-
one can find some other common fundamental sophical adversaries, and see themselves as his
notions – such as the dogmatic theology – and disciples.
matters of great importance, such as the issue
of evil. The Use of Maimonides’ Rationalism
The centrality of Maimonides is confirmed by in the Conflict with qabbalah
the writings of one of his most popular critics, the As a consequence of the gradual change of the
Spaniard Yitzḥaq Abravanel (1437–1508), intellectual reference points in different fields of
Yehudah’s father. Yitzḥaq, one of the most pres- knowledge – such as in the fields of physics,
tigious biblical commentators and thinkers of his cosmology, and logic – also Maimonideanism,
time, openly criticized Maimonides on many which depended on such reference points, suf-
aspects of his philosophical work and particularly fered from a relative decline within the Jewish
regarding his (fundamental) conception of proph- culture. The Guide continued to be read, studied,
ecy. For Maimonides, the prophet must be a phi- and even translated, but there aren’t in this period
losopher, and, moreover, he must possess a strong any intellectual elaborations which are fully or
imagination in order to receive and communicate even partly based on Maimonides’ thought.
to the wider public those intellectual notions that In Safed, an important center for the produc-
are objects of the prophecy. According to tion of cabalistic literature, Maimonides was
worshipped mainly as the great codifier of Jewish conjunction with the divinity as the final scope of
jurisprudence. Yosef Caro (1488–1575) with his intellectual activity, as held by the latter. His
famous Shulhan ‘arukh aimed at creating a new rationalism is moderate in nature, and it aims at
Mishneh Torah: as if he were “Maimonides red- finding reasons behind the data of revelation, in
ivivus,” Yosef Caro considered himself as an which he believes, avoiding any sort of irrational
authority capable of unifying the religious laws dogmatism. His opposition to qabbalah stems
of the various Jewish communities, and his atti- from an outlook on Judaism as a revealed religion
tude betrayed Messianic ambitions. which is also rational or, at least, reasonable.
During the seventeenth century, qabbalah Therefore, Maimonideanism characterizes
took on the role of dominant cultural stream itself – in this period as well as later on – both
within the Jewish world, filling the void left by as a call to reasonableness and the refusal of a
the crisis of philosophy. However, the rise of form of religion that exalts an undisputable tradi-
qabbalah was opposed by some intellectuals of tion, minimizing the value of science.
rationalistic inspiration. One of these is the Italian
polymath Leone (Yehudah Aryeh) Modena
(1571–1648), who attacked the “new” cabalistic
Maimonides in the Renaissance Within
culture by stemming from Maimonides’ work,
the Context of the Christian Culture
which enjoyed undisputed prestige in all streams
of the Jewish thought.
Maimonides from the Viewpoint of “Christian
In his Ary Nohem (A Roaring Lion), the Vene-
Cabalists”
tian rabbi addressed his disciple Yosef Hamitz,
˙ Also some important Christian cabalists read
who was moving away from the rationalistic ori-
Maimonides’ philosophical work and used it for
entation in order to embrace qabbalah. Modena
their own theoretical elaborations. Giovanni Pico
and Hamitz had read the Guide together, and it is
˙ della Mirandola (1463–1494) considered Mai-
actually through the Guide that some crucial
monides as a cabalist, but this judgment depends
points of the Jewish esoteric doctrine are criti-
on the presentation of the doctrine of the cabalist
cized. First of all, the cabalists state that the
Avraham Abulafia made by Pico’s translator,
revealed doctrine cannot be subject to discussions
Flavius Mithridates.
or, least of all, demonstrations, while Maimoni-
The important humanist and “Christian caba-
des had clearly indicated, right at the end of his
list” Johann Reuchlin (1455–1522) has probably
Guide, that the truths transmitted by prophetic
been the first Christian reader of The Guide for
means can and should be studied through the
the Perplexed in its Hebrew version. He quotes
use of reason: thus, qabbalah, according to
from this book explicitly and implicitly in several
Modena, is far from being a science. Further-
works of his, not only of cabalistic nature; but it is
more, the cabalists state that their doctrine repre-
De arte cabalistica (1517) which contains a great
sents the true Jewish esoteric tradition, i.e., the
quantity of references to the Guide, in several
Sitrei Torah (Secrets of the Torah), even though it
contexts: the doctrine of creation as emanation,
is clear that, as categorically stated by Maimon-
the theory of knowledge as union between pas-
ides, such secrets went lost due to the exile and
sive (i.e., human) and active (i.e., divine) intel-
decadence of the Jewish people. There is no other
lect, and the criticism of magic and theurgy.
way but trying to reconstruct, by means of reason,
Maimonides is often – even if not
those lost truths – as Maimonides himself tried to
always – quoted by Reuchlin not under his
do – and in any case, the association of the
name but, anonymously, as a cabalist and as
qabbalah with those truths would be arrogant
such as a representative of the philosophia
and untruthful.
perennis, in contrast with the Talmudists. We
Modena is neither an Averroist nor a Neopla-
can speak, in the case of Reuchlin’s reading, of
tonist: he does not point out the possibility of a
Maimonides in a cabalistic and Neoplatonic garb.
double truth, as the former do, nor he thinks of the
However, Maimonides’ presence is even more The philosophic inspiration of religion as pos-
relevant in the theological conception of Paulus tulated by Maimonides and his outlook on the
Ricius (1480–1541), a converted Jew from ceremonial laws as conducive to the intellectual
Trento who spent his life between Italy and activity and, in some cases, with a historical and
Germany. pedagogical function, all contributed to the inspi-
In his Sal foederis (1507) and Statera ration of this “Christian cabalist.” Maimonides’
prudentum (1530), Ricius refers to the work provided him with the prerequisites for the
Maimonidean idea of Jewish ceremonial laws formulation of a universal and rational religion,
(the mitzwoth) considering them as guidelines which might probably be seen as the trigger of his
issued by the divine wisdom for the sake of keep- conversion to Christianity.
ing man away from idolatry, but then he goes
further, postulating that such laws should now Maimonides’ Work as an Outstanding Means
be considered as obsolete – and this was some- to Access Jewish Thought and Jurisprudence
thing that Maimonides, of course, had never A Latin translation (from the Hebrew version) of
written – and should be replaced by moral laws The Guide for the Perplexed (titled Dux
which are eternally engraved in the human rea- neutrorum) existed from the middle of the thir-
son: these are, according to him, the “Secrets of teenth century (around the year 1240), and it had
the Torah” which the philosopher from Cordova provided some of the protagonists of Scholasti-
repeatedly alluded to and which should now be cism, such as Albertus Magnus and Thomas
disclosed, since humanity is mature enough to Aquinas, with important philosophical topics of
understand their truth. Christianity embodies reflection.
and conveys such eternal rational laws that coin- In the context of a new interest in the Jewish
cide with qabbalah, the philosophical core of culture during the Renaissance, the
esoteric Judaism as well as the archaic tradition abovementioned version was printed, in 1520 in
of philosophical Christianity. Paris, by the humanist and Hebraist Agostino
If it is true that rational and spiritual Christian- Giustiniani, a Dominican, bishop of Nebbio
ity transcends Judaism, the latter, on the other (Corsica), and editor of an important polyglot
hand, presents an important aspect that the true Psalterium.
religion, founded upon the love of God as well as Giustiniani published this text with the title
the intention of the believer irrespective of his Dux seu director dubitantium aut perplexorum,
ritual practices, should preserve: the aversion to affirming that in it “many philosophical reasons
images. Also in this case, Ricius follows that lead to the comprehension of the Sacred
Maimonides: images might have been helpful to Scripture are exposed and demonstrated.” The
those men who were not capable of conceptual author’s great merit, according to Giustiniani,
capacity in getting them to formulate some lies in not being “superstitious” at all but, on the
religious notions; however, their function, just contrary, in being sincere and truth loving, unlike
as that of the commandments, has a merely most more recent Jewish authors.
historical value. Therefore, authentic Christian- One century later, when Hebraic studies in the
ity, for Ricius, is a philosophical religion, indif- Christian world had reached a phase of maturity,
ferent to the positive commandments, and Johannes Buxtorf II published a new Latin ver-
without images (this latter position led his critics sion of the Hebrew text of the Guide, with the title
to accuse him of being protestant and iconoclast). Doctor perplexorum (Basel, 1629). The praise for
The thirteen fundamental beliefs of Judaism as Maimonides in his book was motivated by the
enunciated by Maimonides, according to Ricius, same reasons as Giustiniani’s, which are taken
can be accepted without reserve by the Chris- further by Buxtorf: according to the latter, this
tians, apart from the one relating to Messianism, Jewish author is far from the “Talmudic fables,
which after all will start being omitted in the on the contrary he warns us against wasting too
dogmatic prescriptions of later Jewish authors. much time studying the Talmud” (which was far
from the real intentions of Maimonides who, as a already been translated by Paulus Ricius in his
great Talmudist, had simply criticized the study Opuscula Varia (1515). At a later stage, the
of the Talmud when not associated to the study of Mishneh Torah – a cornerstone book of any
the sciences and philosophy). Maimonides, Jewish library – became the text privileged by
according to Buxtorf, had gotten his ideas “from Latino-Christian translators.
the scripture, from philosophy and from sound Especially in the Netherlands, during the
reason” and was different, under all respects, eighteenth century, some parts of the Mishneh
from his coreligionists, who were devoted to Torah were translated, in particular, Hilkhoth
cabalistic and Talmudic superstitions. Avodah Zarah (Dionysius Vossius, De
The translator admitted that some of the ideas Idolatria. . .), Hilkhoth Yesodey ha-Torah
contained in this book were contrary to the (Guglielmus Vorstius, Constitutiones de
principles of the Christian religion; nonetheless, Fundamentis Legis, Amsterdam 1638), and
as a true humanist-philologist, he did not want to the opening section of this work, which is of a
censure them: “I didn’t want to castrate the theological nature, i.e., the Hilkhoth De‘oth
author.” (Georgius Gentius, Canones Ethici).
Other prestigious Hebraists, such as Josephus All the abovementioned translations were
Scaliger and Isaac Casaubon, admired the Guide, performed by the disciples of the rabbi of Amster-
which they defined “a divine work,” “which one dam Menasseh ben Israel, who played a role of
cannot praise enough, rich in good ideas mediation between the Jewish culture and the
and extremely useful to Christian theology.” In Christian one. Such mediation revolved – once
reality, notwithstanding the admiration aroused again – around the work of Maimonides, who was
in its Christian readers, the reading of the Guide considered, essentially, as the main codifier of the
played a more important role in disseminating Jewish jurisprudence.
knowledge about the Jewish religious thought Thanks to the richness and complexity of his
rather than in stimulating any original work, rabbi Moses ben Maimon has not only
reflections – apart from the examples mentioned prompted reflection among the Jews, which is
in the previous paragraph. evident in the variety of commentaries through-
The Latin translations of Maimonides’ theo- out the Renaissance as well as at the beginning of
logical and juridical writings were actually of the modern era, but also within the Christian
great importance for the comprehension of the culture: through his works as a theologian and
Jewish culture. Such translations were done in jurist, he allowed the Christians to get to know
the sixteenth and seventeenth century and and better appreciate the thought and rules of life
beyond, mostly in Calvinist and Lutheran con- of their Jewish neighbors.
texts, up until the eighteenth century.
One of the most important sixteenth-century
Hebraists, the German Sebastian M€ unster,
References
published in Basel in 1527 the translation of
Shemuel ibn Tibbon’s Hebrew version of Mai-
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monides’ Logic, i.e., the Logica Sapientis Rabbi Del Medigo, E. 1984, Sefer Behinath ha-dath. Tel-Aviv.
Simeonis (sic) and then, 2 years later, in Worms, Maimonides, M. 1520, Rabi Mosei Dux, seu Director
the Tredecim Articuli Fidei Judaeorum, extracted dubitantium aut perplexorum [. . .] summa accuratione
[. . .]Augustini Iustiniani [. . .] recognitus. Paris.
from the Hebrew translation of the commentary
Maimonides, M. 1629, Doctor perplexorum [. . .] in
on the Mishnah. The latter articles were Linguam Latinam conversus a Johanne Buxtorfio,
approached again in 1569 by the French Gilbert Fil. Basel.
Genebrard, who translated the Laws Concerning Maimonides, M. 1963, The Guide of the Perplexed, Trans-
lated with an Introduction and Notes by Shlomo Pines.
Kings (Hilkhoth melahim 1572) from the
Chicago.
Mishneh Torah, as well as the list of 613 com- Sforno, ‘O. 1987, Sefer or ‘ammim, in Kitvei Rabbi
mandments (1584). These commandments had ‘Ovadia Sforno, 399–508, Jerusalem
Secondary Sources Jahrhundert als Beitrag zur Entstehung der modernen

Althshuler, M. 2009. Rabbi Joseph Karo and Sixteenth- Hebraistik: Agostino Giustiniani und Sebastian
Century Messianic Maimonideanism. In The cultures M€ unster. In Gottes Sprache in der philologischen
of Maimonideanism. New approaches to the history of Werkstatt. Hebraistik vom 15. bis zum 19.
Jewish thought, ed. J. T. Robinson. Supplements to the Jahrhundert., ed. G. Veltri, G. Necker, 169–188.
Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy Hughes, A.W. 2004. Transforming the Maimonidean
9, 191–210. Imagination: Aesthetics in the Renaissance Thought
Bonfil R. 1993. Rabbis and Jewish communities in Renais- of Judah Abravanel. Harvard Theological Review
sance Italy. London-Washington. 97(4): 461–484.
Burnett S. G. 2012. Christian Hebraism in the Reforma- Katchen, A. L. 1984. Christian Hebraists and Dutch
tion Era (1500–1660). Leiden-Boston. Rabbis. Cambridge, MA.
Dienstag J. I. 1972. Mishneh Torah le-ha-Rambam. In Leicht, R. 2005. Der erste cristliche Leser des hebraischen
Studies in Jewish Bibliography, History and Literature Moreh Nevukhim. In The Trias of Maimonides/Die
in Honor of I. Edward Kiev, ed. Ch. Berlin, 21–41. Trias des Maimonides, ed. G. Tamer, 411–428. Berlin.
New York, Licata, G. 2013. La via della ragione. Elia del Medigo e
Dienstag J. I. 1974. Translators of Maimonides Mishneh l’averroismo di Spinoza. Macerata.
Torah into Latin. A Bio-Bibliographical Survey. In Pines Sh., 1983. Medieval Doctrines in Renaissance
Salo Wittmayer Baron Jubilee volume. On the occa- Garb? Some Jewish and Arabic Sources of Leone
sion of his eightieth birthday, English Section, vol. Ebreo’s Doctrines. In Jewish Thought in the Sixteenth
1, 287–309. Jerusalem. Century, ed. B. D. Cooperman, 365–395. Cambridge,
Dweck, Y. 2011. The Scandal of Kabbalah. Leon Modena, MA.
Jewish Mysticism, Early Modern Venice. Princeton- Roling, B. 2004. Maimonides im Streit der Konfessionen:
Oxford. Die ‘Statera prudentium’ des Paulus Ricius und die
Feldman, S. 2005. Maimonides. A guide for posterity. In cristliche Neulekt€ ure des Maimonides im 16.
The Cambridge companion to Maimonides, ed. Jahrhundert. In Gottes Sprache in der philologischen
K. Seeskin, 324–359. Cambridge. Werkstatt. Hebraistik vom 15. bis zum 19.
Guetta, A. 2005. La traduzione italiana cinquecentesca del Jahrhundert, ed. G. Veltri, G. Necker, 149–168.
Moreh nevukhim di Maimonide. In Percorsi di storia Leiden-Boston.
ebraica, ed. P.C. Ioly Zorattini, 281–303. Udine. Sáenz-Badillos, A. 2009. Late Medieval Jewish Writers
Hasselhoff, G. K. 2004. Die Drucke einzelner lateinischer on Maimonides. In Traditions of
Übersetzungen von Werken des Maimonides im 16. Maimonideanism, ed. C. Fraenkel, 223–244. Leiden.
R
Roussanos, Pachomios in Mount Athos. He also visited the Holy Lands

and Venice, where he interacted with the local
Born: Zante c.1508 Orthodox community. He was known for his
ascetic way of life. He devoted his life to teaching
Died: Zante c.1553 and delivered lectures in several Greek regions.
His audience was clerics and laics. He died in
Georgios Steiris Zante, in the monastery of Cremnon.
Department of Philosophy, School of Philosophy,
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens,
Zografou, Greece Innovative and Original Aspects
Roussanos applied the Christian doctrines on

every field of knowledge. Furthermore, he stud-
ied Greek philosophy and accepted certain theo-
Abstract ries, such as the Platonic psychology. He opposed
the heretics; among them he included the Catho-
Pachomios Roussanos was a seminal sixteenth- lics and the Protestants. Roussanos was the most
century Greek scholar. In addition to his work as zealous defender of the Orthodox dogma follow-
a copyist and editor of manuscripts, he wrote ing the works of Marc Eugenikos and Gennadios
numerous treatises on religion, ethics, and gram- Scholarios. Most of his works are written in the
mar. He was a leading theologian of his century form of epistles or dialogues. Although he
and throughout his short life he defended the blamed the Protestants, he thought of the Holy
Orthodox dogma from the influences of Western Bible as superior to the Patristic texts and
European theology. refrained from mentioning the Holy Fathers in
his texts. In addition he heavily criticized ancient
Greek philosophy, especially the insistence of
Biography certain philosophers about the eternity of the
world and the role of fate. Roussanos opposed
Roussanos was born in a small village of Zante, a them and defended free will. He promoted edu-
Greek island in the Ionian Sea. His father became cation, since he believed that the study of the
a monk and short after Pachomios followed in his Holy Scriptures, the Holy Fathers, and the
path. He was self-taught. He traveled in mainland Greek language contributes to the development
Greece and stayed for a significant period of time of human nature. His sudden death prevented him
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_162-1
2 Roussanos, Pachomios
from publishing his main contribution, a book of (Pachomios Roussanos and his unpublished dogmatic
grammar, in which he would have expounded the and other works). Athens.
Roussanos, P. Perί Kartanito n airetiko n. In
views of ancient grammarians. Patrologia Graeca, ed. J. P. Migne, vol.
98, 1359B–1362D.
Roussanos, P. Proyeorίa eiB tZn GrammatikZ n. In
Impact and Legacy Patrologia Graeca, ed. J. P. Migne, vol.
98, 1363D–1368D.
Although Roussanos’ texts and lectures were not

so innovative, church authorities and his fellow Allatius, L. 1648. De Ecclesiae Occidentalis atque
monks expressed opposition and pressured him to Orientalis perpetua consensione. Libritres. Ejusdem
render faithfully the spirit of the Holy Scriptures. dissertations, De dominicis et hebdomadibus
He also felt disguise for the way the monks lived. Graecorum, et Demissa praesanctificatorum, Cum
Bartoldi Nihusii ad hanc Annotationibus,
Indicative of his restricted popularity is the fate of deCommunione Orientalium sub specie unica.
his work against Cartanos, a heretic Greek monk Coloniae Agrippinae.
of the sixteenth century, which was reproduced in Argyriou, A. 1971. Pachomios Roussanos et l’Islam.
a few manuscripts, while Cartanos’ texts were Revue d’Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses 51:
143–164.
very popular. His efforts were crucial for the Bees, N.A. 1923. Prosopographisches, Hagiologisches
revival of education in sixteenth-century Greece. und Kunstgeschichtliches € uber denhl. Bessarion, den
Metropoliten von Larissa (†1540). Zur
KirchengeschichteThessaliens im 15.-16. Jahrhundert.
BNJ 4: 351–400.
References DZmZtrakópouloB, F. 1988. Gia ton Pawo mio
Ρousάno (1508–1553). Τrikalinά 8: 89–99.
Primary Literature Se
rgZB, M. 2000. Ο zakύnyioB monawóB Pawo mioB
mioB ΡousάnoB kaὶ tὰ
KarmίrZB, Ἰ. Ν. 1935. Ὁ Pawo ΡousάnoB kai o lai__kóB politismóB tou16ou aio na.
a᾿nekdota dogmatikὰ kaὶ ἄlla ε῎ rga aὐtoυ̃ ΑyZna.
H
Spain toward the end of the fourteenth century.

Ḥanokh ben Solomon ben Ḥanokh Since Langermann (2003, p. 184) refers to a man-
al-Qostantini (fl. before 1384) uscript (MS St Petersburg, Russian National
˙ ˙ Library Evreiskii II A 73) not mentioned by
Görge Hasselhoff Sirat which is dated Aleppo 1384, he must have
Fak. 14 Humanwissenschaften und Theologie, finished the work before that date. His father
TU Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany seems to have been Solomon ben Hanokh
Al-Qostantini, author of the Sefer Megalleh
Amukot (The Revealer of Hidden Things), usually
dated Burgos 1352 (e.g., Vatican Library, MS
Abstract
ebreo 59, cf. Sirat 1985, p. 445).
His only known work is the Mar’ōt Elōhīm
In his well-preserved and well-transmitted treatise
(Visions of God), an allegorical commentary on
Mar’ōt Elōhī m (“Visions of God”), the Iberian
(and comparison of) the visions of the Biblical
Neoplatonic philosopher Ḥanokh al-Qosṭanṭini
prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zachariah. Usually,
(fourteenth century) compares and interprets the
he is counted among the Neoplatonic thinkers.
visions of God by Biblical prophets. His cosmo-
logical reflections are one of the bridge stones
between the Maimonidean philosophy of the
twelfth through the fourteenth century and the
later traditions of the fifteenth century, e.g.,
Ḥanokh remains an unoriginal thinker in the
Ḥasdai Crescas.
Maimonidean tradition. He quotes intensively
from Maimonides’ More ha-Nevukhim (Guide
of the Perplexed in Shmuel ibn Tibbon’s transla-
Synonyms/Alternate Names tion) but also from Ibn Gabirol’s Fons vitae
(Fountain of Life) in Shem-Tov ben Joseph
Ḥanokh ben Solomon al-Kostantini Falaquera’s Hebrew translation. Additionally, he
seems to have used Averroistic writings and per-
haps even Christian texts translated into Hebrew
Biography (cf. Sirat 1985, p. 343).
In one point he seems to correct Maimonides’
Little is known about Ḥanokh’s biography. He cosmology in so far that he interprets the tenth
seems to have been a medical doctor and lived in sphere is not empty as was hold by him in Guide
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_163-1
2 Ḥanokh ben Solomon ben Ḥanokh al-Qostantini (fl. before 1384)
˙ ˙
II, 9. This “correction” might be taken from References

Moshe Narboni (Altmann 1987, pp. 53–54).
Primary Literature
Hanokh, B. Salomon Al-Qostantini, 1976. Les visions
divines. Introduction, traduction et notes par Colette
Impact and Legacy Sirat. Jerusalem: [s.n.].
Although we are not informed about a direct Secondary Literature

impact of his work, it was relatively broadly trans- Altmann, A. 1987. Von der mittelalterlichen zur modernen
mitted. The treatise is preserved in at least 20 man- Aufkl€arung: Studien zur j€ udischen Geistesgeschichte.
uscripts. He was commented on at least by T€ubingen: Mohr (Texts and Studies in Medieval and
Early Modern Judaism, 2).
Menahem b. Jacob Kara (fifteenth century) who Langermann, Y. Tz. 2003. A Judaeo-Arabic Poem Attrib-
wrote a commentary on that work (Suler 1935, uted to Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. MEAH, sección Hebreo
p. 412; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Opp. 585). 52: 183–200.
Schwartz, D. 1996. The philosophy of a fourteenth century
Jewish Neoplatonic Circle (Hebr.). Jerusalem: Bialik.
Sirat, C. 1985. A history of Jewish philosophy in the Middle
Cross-References Ages. Cambridge at al.: Cambridge University Press.
Suler, B. 1935. Ein Maimonides-Streit in Prag im
sechzehnten Jahrhundert. Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft
▶ Ḥasdai Crescas f€
ur Geschichte der Juden in der Čechoslovakischen
▶ Menahem b. Jacob Kara Republik 7: 411–420.
▶ Moses Maimonides Visi, T. 2011. On the Peripheries of Ashkenaz. Medieval
Jewish Philosophers in Normandy and in the Czech
▶ Shmuel ibn Tibbon Lands from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century.
Olomouc Palacky University, 2011
T
Tāshkubrı̄’zādah, Ahmad ibn Biography

˙ tafá
Mus ˙
˙˙ Ahmed Taşköpr€uzade was the son of
Born: 2 December 1495, Bursa Muslih€uddin Mustafa Taşköpr€uzade
(1453–1529), judge, teacher, and the preceptor
Died: 13 April 1561, Istanbul of Prince Selim (afterwards Selim I). After
receiving the first education from his father, he
Marinos Sariyannis studied in various medreses (religious colleges)
Institute for Mediterranean Studies, FORTH in Ankara, Bursa, and Istanbul and then became a
(Foundation for Research and teacher himself. He taught in Skopje, Istanbul,
Technology – Hellas), Rethymno, Greece and Edirne and in 1551 became judge of Istanbul,
one of the highest posts in the ulema (jurist)
hierarchy. He retired due to bad eyesight in
1554 and spent his last years dictating his
works. Among his books, the most celebrated
are aş-Sak^
a ’ik an-nu‘mâ niyya (“The Crimson
Abstract
Peony,” completed in 1558), a biography of
502 Ottoman sheikhs and ulema, and Mift^ ah
Tāshkubrī’zādah, Taşköpr€
uzade, or
˙ as-sa‘^
a de (“Key to Happiness,” completed in
Taşköpr€ uzade, İsam€
ul€ uddin Ahmed son of
1557), an encyclopedia of sciences, both in
Mustafa (2 December 1495 (Bursa) to 13 April
Arabic (the latter was translated by his son into
1561 (Istanbul)) was an Ottoman scholar and
Ottoman Turkish, with some additions).
teacher and author of an encyclopedia of the
sciences and of a collection of biographies of
Ottoman sheikhs and jurists.
In some respects, Taşköpr€uzade epitomizes the

Alternate Names Islamic tradition of rational thought; his career
shows an erudite scholar who had conscience of
▶ Tāshkubrī’zādah; ▶ Taşköpr€
ul€
uzade; the place of his state in Islamic history and tried to
˙
▶ Taşköpr€
uzade justify it from a cultural point of view. From the
aspect of philosophy, his most important work
(yet the least studied so far) is the Mift^ a h, his
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_165-1
2 Tāshkubrı̄´zādah, Ahmad ibn Mustafá
˙ ˙ ˙˙
encyclopedia, where he tried to provide a also as good (those which are auxiliary to reli-
systematical account of the knowledge of his gion) and bad (such as astrology or magic); this
era. Nearly 400 branches of science, from math- distinction, however, mainly depends not on
ematics to grammar and from Koranic sciences to knowledge itself but on the use one makes
magic, were described in this ambitious work. thereof.
Taşköpr€
uzade further attempted to classify these As for his religious views, Taşköpr€uzade fol-
branches along the stages of God’s manifestation lows al-Ghazali (1058–1111) in that in order for a
according to the Sufi doctrine (universal spirit, scholar to attain the greater realities, the mystical
intellect, nature, and man), which correspond to sciences are deemed necessary and these are
different stages of knowledge. Thus he based on esoteric contemplation. Moreover, in
recognized: the old Islamic debate between extreme
mysticists and rationalist “philosophers,” he
(a) The spiritual sciences. These are further adopted al-Ghazali’s moderate stance, insisting
divided into practical and theoretical and that mysticism should be interpreted by its own
again subdivided into those based on reason terms and that practices such as the Sufis’ use of
and those based on religion. This classifica- music or dance are acceptable. However, no one
tion produces eventually four classes: should devote oneself to only one branch of
(1) philosophical (or theoretical-rational) sci- knowledge, since they all complement each
ences (ulûm-ı hikemiyya), which include other; in this respect, Taşköpr€uzade argued that
metaphysics (the science of man’s soul), the- the theoretical sciences, such as theology or
ology (angelology, prophetology, etc.), natu- mathematics, should regain their place (which
ral sciences and medicine (including magic, had started to wane) in the medrese curriculum.
alchemy, or the interpretation of dreams),
mathematics, and music; (2) practical philos-
ophy (hikmet-i ameliyya) or the practical- Innovative and Original Aspects
rational sciences, i.e., ethics and administra-
tion (from household to politics and the Taşköpr€uzade’s encyclopedia may be said to
army); (3) religious or theoretical-religious summarize Islamic knowledge of his era. Fur-
sciences (ulûm-ı şer’iyya), i.e., Koranic exe- thermore, his taxonomy of science seems to be
gesis and jurisprudence; and (4) finally, eso- quite original: its influences from al-Ghazali and
teric or practical-religious sciences (ulûm-ı (possibly) Ibn Khaldun notwithstanding, it does
bâ tiniyya), i.e., mysticism. not follow any of the previous categorizations
(b) The intellectual sciences (makûl^ a t-ı (cf. Gardet–Anawati 1970, 101–124).
sâ niyya), such as logic, dialectics, or the art
of debate.
(c) The oral sciences (ulûm-ı lafzıyya), i.e., those Impact and Legacy
pertaining to language. These include lexi-
cography and etymology, grammar, and rhe- Taşköpr€uzade’s work had a strong influence in
toric, but also literary sciences such as Ottoman letters. His encyclopedia was translated
philology and, interestingly, history or “con- to Ottoman Turkish by his son, Kemal€uddin
versation with rulers.” Mehmed Efendi, under the title Mevzu’^ at
(d) The written sciences (ulûm-ı hattiyya), i.e., al-‘Ulûm (“Subjects of the Sciences”) and had
calligraphy, spelling and orthography, the art great success; Kâtip Çelebi (q.v.)’s bibliographic
of inscriptions, etc. encyclopedia (the Keşf al-Z€ unûn) was compiled
along Taşköpr€uzade’s lines. His biographical
Furthermore, all sciences are to be differenti- work was considered a classic, and many subse-
ated according to their usefulness (politics, for quent authors wrote additions and supplements
instance, is considered a useful science), but well into the seventeenth century.
Tāshkubrı̄´zādah, Ahmad ibn Mustafá 3
˙ ˙ ˙˙
Cross-References 1329 und der Hs. ‘Umûmijje 5207 u€bersetzt.

Stuttgart: n.p.
▶ Kâtip Çelebi
Flemming, B. 2000. Tashköpr€ uzâde. In Encyclopedia of
Islam, vol. 10, 2nd ed., 351–352. Leiden: E. I. J. Brill.
References Gardet, L., and M.-M. Anawati. 1970. Introduction à la
théologie musulmane. Essai de théologie comparée.
Primary Literature Paris: J. Vrin.
Rescher, O. 1927–1934. Eş-Şaqa’iq en-No’manijje von İnalcık, H. 1973. The Ottoman Empire. The classical age,
Taşköpr€
uzade. Mit Zusätzen und Ammerkungen aus 1300–1600. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
dem Arabıschen u€bersetzt. Constantinople/Stuttgart: Uğur, A. 1988. Taşköprı̂-zâde Ahmed Efendi. Osmanlı
n.p. (repr. Osnabr€uck: Biblio Verlag 1978). Araştırmaları 7–8: 419–437.
Rescher, O. 1934. Taşköpr€ uzade’s Miftâ h es-sa’^
a de: Unan, F. 1997. Taşköpr€ ul€
u-zâde’nin kaleminden XVI.
islamische Ethik und Wissenschaftslehre des 10. y€uzyılın ilim ve âlim anlayışı. Osmanlı Araştırmaları
Jahrhunderts d. H., nach dem Druck Haiderab^ ad 17: 149–264.
T
Theophanes of Medeia Biography
Born: Constantinople 1400 Theophanes of Medeia was a Metropolitan of

Died: Constantinople 1474 Medeia, a renowned scholar and a writer. He
was born in Constantinople around 1400 and
Michail Mantzanas died before 1474. He was a disciple of the Metro-
Ecclesiastical Academy of Athens, Athens, politan of Ephesus Marc Eugenikos, as well as a
Greece close friend of the Patriarch of Constantinople
Georgios Gennadios-Scholarios. He originally
assumed the office of deacon (1425) and
hieromnemon (twice from 1437 to 1440 and
Abstract
from 1443 to 1454). Lastly, during Gennadios’
patriarchal office, he was appointed grand
He was born Theodore Agallianos. He was
chartophylax (1454) and grand oikonomos
appointed official of the Eastern Orthodox Patri-
(1466). He was forced to relinquish these posi-
archate. He was the author of seminal theological
tions because he disagreed with the Patriarch.
works. The value of his letters is priceless, as they
Meanwhile, he changed his name to Theophanes
shed light on the historical events pertaining to the
when he was ordained a Metropolitan of Medeia
period of the fall of Constantinople. Theophanes
in Thrace in 1467. There have been no testimonies
of Medeia condemned the scheming of church
preserved on his actions at the seat of the Arch-
officials, while, as far as the compliance with
bishopric, probably because he had never been
church rules is concerned, he emphasized the
there.
principle of the distinction between needs and
historical conditions.
Synonyms/Alternate Names His writings mirror a person with deep philosoph-

ical and theological expertise, as well as a bright,
Theodore Agallianos literate man, outspoken with commendable force
and critical thinking. In his most influential work
entitled On Soul (Peri psyches), Theophanes
exploits the methodological and conceptual rich-
ness of Greek philosophy in a creative way, so as
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_167-1
2 Theophanes of Medeia
to present the ontological aspects of the soul, was found with the code 6 of the Gymnasium of
according to the Orthodox Church. His work, Mytilini, and (b) Against the Latins (Kata
which was highly praised by the Patriarch, was Latinon), in which he manifests his strong oppo-
published in Leipzig in 1784 in a joint volume sition to the union of the two Churches and in fact
together with Nikiforos Blemmydes’ Logic. braces the views of his teacher and Patriarch.
Theophanes’ treatise On Providence (Peri
pronoias) was written in the form of a dialogue.
The initiator posed the questions and the mystic,
Impact and Legacy
who was Theophanes’ alter ego, responded.
Although in several parts of the specific work he
Agallianos’ works comprise 14 letters which are
admittedly incorporated direct quotes from the
highly commendable, as they shed light on the
respective writings of Gennadios and Marc
turbulent period of the fall of Constantinople,
Eugenikos, he did not hesitate to criticize and
and they reveal Theophanes’ latitudinarianism
argue against the views developed by the latter
and faith in the tradition of the Church.
in his On living conditions. The two apologetic
Logoi, published in 1463, as well as his corre-
spondence with eminent men of his
time – among others the prominent scholar References
George Amiroutzes, who commented on the edi-
tion of On Providence – are not only a living proof Secondary Literature
of the turbulent and complicated situation of the Lambrou, S. 1913. Epanekdosis epistolon tou mitropolitou
Medeias Theophanous. In Neos Hellinomnimon I,
Eastern Church, which was contested by both the Typ. P.D. Sakellariou, 258–275.
intrigues of ecclesiastical officials and the Papadopulos-Kerameus, A. 1882–1883. Episimeiosis
schemes of Ottomanism; they also reflect symplirousa ta peri tvn mitropoliton Vizyis kai Mideias
Theophanes’ broad-mindedness and independent Publisher: ek tou Patriarchikou typographiou. In
Ekklisiastiki Alitheia, vol IV, 418. Constantinople.
spirit, as he expressed the view that the Church Patrineles G. (ed.) 1966. Ho Theodoros Agallianos
should not adopt a rigid and dogmatic approach to tautizomenos pros ton Theophanin Lydias kai hoi
issues related to the administration of the Church anekdotoi logoi tou (thesis). Ho Theodoros Agallianos
(the reason for his disagreement with Gennadios) kai hoi anekdotoi logoi autou. Athens.
Sathas, K. 1868. Neoelliniki Philologia: Biografiai ton en
or issues that do not affect the core of religious tois grammasi dialampsanton Ellinon, apo tis kataliseos
faith, suggesting that the Church should be more tis Byzantinis Autokratorias mexri tis Ellinikis
flexible in resolving emerging problematic mat- ethnegersias (1453–1821). In Tipografia teknon
ters, taking into consideration historical circum- Andreou Koromila, vol. 105. Athens: ek Tipografia
teknon, Andreou Koromila, p. 105.
stances. Theophanes did not abandon Stephanou, E. 1936. Théophanie de Médie Opuscules
Constantinople even when it was conquered by philosophiques. In Echos d’ Orient, vol. XXXI, Institut
the Ottoman. He was imprisoned and was released Francais d'Etudes Byzantines, 165–176.
a year later after the fall to witness the suffering Trapp, E. 1976. Prosopographisches Lexikon der
Palaiologenzeit (no 94.) Wien, Verlag der Osterrei-
and the atrocities the people of Constantinople chischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
suffered by the Turks. He shared this testimony Turner, C.J.G. 1968. Notes on the works of Theodore
in his Chronicon simeioma peri ton ipo ton Agallianos contained in the Codex Bodleianus
Tourkon epenecthenton kakon. Canonicus Graecus 49. Byzantinische Zeitschrift
sonderdruck band 61: 27–35.
His writings also include the following trea-
tises: (a) Against the Jews (Kata Ioudaion), as it
T
Tomaeus, Nikolaus Laonikus Biography
Born: Venice 1456 Nikolaus Laonikus Tomaeus was born in North-

ern Epirus, which nowadays belongs to Albania.
Died: Padua 1531 He spent his life in Italy, where he studied and
taught. After his studies at the University of
Georgios Steiris Padua, he was appointed by the University to
Department of Philosophy, School of Philosophy, the position for Aristotelian philosophy
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, (1497–1509), in an attempt of the University’s
Zografou, Greece authorities to abandon the common Arabic inter-
pretations and commentaries and teach the Greek
original texts. In addition to Aristotelian philos-
ophy, Tomaeus taught science (the Pseudo-
Mechanica of Aristotle) and certain Platonic dia-
logues. From 1504 to 1506 he delivered lectures
Abstract
in Greek at the Cancelleria of San Marco. From
1521 until his death he taught privately in Padua.
Nikolaus Laonikus Tomaeus was a Greek
Renaissance scholar who taught Aristotelian phi-
losophy at Padua for almost 10 years. His lectures
on Aristotle were extremely influential since he
lectured on the Greek text instead of its Latin
Tomaeus’ lectures at Padua were innovative
translation. He was highly accomplished in sev-
since he chose to teach Aristotelian metaphysics
eral fields, including art. His reputation among
with a Platonic blend. In addition, he used several
his fellow scholars, including Desiderius Eras-
sources in order to clarify the Aristotle’s texts,
mus, was high.
such as Thomas Aquinas, Averroes, and John
Philoponus, despite the latter’s harsh critique of
key Aristotelian positions. He wrote a commen-
Synonyms/Alternate Names tary on Alexander of Aphrodisias in which he
defended the immortality of the individual
Leonik Tomeu; Niccolò Leonico Tomeo; Nikollë human soul against several commentators of
Leonik Tomeu Aristotle. His lectures and works marked the
shift of interest from the intellect to the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_169-1
2 Tomaeus, Nikolaus Laonikus
immortality of the soul, an issue that monopo- Impact and Legacy

lized the interest of scholars in Padua for decades.
Tomaeus translated and commented Aristotle’s Among his students was presumably Nikolaus
Parva Naturalia (1523), a work of crucial impor- Copernicus Richard Pace, the influential profes-
tance for the proper understanding and evaluation sor at Cambridge University and secretary of
of Aristotelian natural philosophy. In his transla- King Henry VIII, and many other English noble-
tion he also included De incessu animalium and men, since the Venetian state ordered him tutor of
De motu animalium. Most sixteenth -century the English students in Padua. Tomaeus enjoyed
scholars approved his choice and his work links with Erasmus and Erasmian circles. Eras-
became popular. Later Tomaeus started to trans- mus expressed in various letters his respect for
late and comment on Aristotle’s De partibus Tomaeus’s personality and extraordinary
animalium. In fact he wished to complete the scholarship.
task that Pomponazzi left unfinished because of
his death. Until his death Tomaeus did not
accomplish to finish the translation and the com- References
mentary, which would have completed his previ-
ous work on Aristotle. His nephew Magnus Primary Literature
Leonikus found and published only a small part Tomaeus, N. 1523. Aristotelis Stagiritae, Parva quae
vocant naturalia, Omnia in latinum conversa et
of his uncle’s text. Tomaeus’ texts are character-
explicata a Nicolao Leonico Thomaeo. Vitali, Venice.
ized by elegance, clarity, and philosophical pre- Tomaeus, N. 1532. Nicolai Leonici Thomaei dialogi.
cision. He did not follow the scholastic tradition, Lugduni: Seb. Gryphius, Venice.
which was very strong in the Italian universities
of his times. In addition, he promoted the ancient Secondary Literature
Greek commentaries and reproached the Arabic De Bellis, D. 1975. Niccolo Leonico Tomeo interprete di
Aristotele naturalista. Physis 17: 71–93.
and Latin interpreters who failed to understand
De Bellis, D., and D.J. Geanakoplos. 1985. The career of
properly the meaning of Aristotle’s original texts. the little-known Greek scholar Nicholas Leonicus
He attempted to reconstruct the original text of Tomaeus. Byzantina 13: 355–372.
Plutarch’s Moralia and translated works of Pau- Papanicolaou, M. 2004. Origini e nome di Nicolo Leonico
Tomeo. La testimonianza di Giovanni Benedetto
sanias, Ptolemy, Hippocrates, and Galen. He ren-
Lampridio. Bizantinistica II.6: 217–248.
dered into Latin Proclus’ In Parmenidem. His Perfetti, S. 2000. Aristotle’s zoology and its Renaissance
seminal contribution was the translation of commentators, 1521–1601. Leuven, Leuven Univer-
Pseudo-Mechanica. sity Press.
Z
Zygomalas, John and Theodosius Biography
Born: John Zygomalas: Nafplion 1498 John Zygomalas was born in Nafplio, a small city
in Southern Greece, which at times was occupied
Died: John Zygomalas: Istanbul 1584 by the Venetians. Stavrakios Malaxos and
Arsenios Apostolis took care of his elementary
Born: Theodosius Zygomalas: Nafplion 1544 education and taught him ancient Greek. He con-
tinued his studies at the University of Padua,
Died: Theodosius Zygomalas: Istanbul 1607 where he learned Latin and Italian. He rejected,
despite offers, to stay in Italy and work for the
Georgios Steiris Greek community in Venice. After spending sev-
Department of Philosophy, School of Philosophy, eral years in Italy he returned in Nafplion and
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, worked as ecclesiastical orator and teacher. John
Zografou, Greece was esteemed by the authorities of the Greek
Patriarchate and accompanied the future Patri-
arch Metrophanes III in his trip to Italy. Around
1550 he moved to Adrianople and 5 years
(1555) later to Constantinople, upon an invitation
from the Patriarch Ioasaph II, who was
Abstract
Zygomalas’ former student, in order to assist the
educational plans of the Patriarch. There
John Zygomalas and his son Theodosius were
Zygomalas was proclaimed “Great Orator” of
sixteenth-century Greek scholars. They resided
the Patriarchate. Until his death he lived and
in Constantinople and were active in the contacts
taught in Constantinople, possibly at the
between Protestants and Greek Orthodox Church.
Patriarchical Academy. In 1576 Patriarch
Their contribution to the preservation and further
Ieremias II proclaimed him “Great Interpreter of
development of ancient Greek and Byzantine
the Scriptures.” The same year John traveled to
thought was crucial, since they held key positions
Vienna in order to convert the emperor Maximil-
in the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.
ian II to the Orthodox dogma. John’s son,
Theodosius, was also born in Nafplio and
moved to Constantinople with the rest of his
family. He quickly ascended the hierarchy and
became chief secretary of the Patriarchate
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_171-1
2 Zygomalas, John and Theodosius
(protonotarios). He played a significant role in gave to Western Europeans, through his corre-
the correspondence between German Lutherans spondence with Crusius, the opportunity to know
and the Patriarchate. His personal correspon- and appreciate Modern Greek language. Their
dence with Martin Crusius, the famous professor work and the letter exchange with German Prot-
of ancient Greek and Latin philology at the Uni- estants contributed in the dissemination of post-
versity of T€
ubingen, is important since he encour- Byzantine Greek thought in Western Europe and
aged German intellectuals to study and inflamed philhellenism.
appreciate post-Byzantine culture.
References
Primary Literature
Since his arrival in Constantinople John Crusius, M. 1584. Turcograeciae libri octo : Quibus
Zygomalas started to teach Ethics, Dialectic, Graecorum status sub imperio Turcic, in Politia &
Ecclesia, Oeconomia & Scholis, iam inde ab
and Rhetoric. Patriach Ioasaph II referred to
amissa Constantinopoli, ad haec usq tempora,
Zygomalas when he wrote that “we engaged a luculenter describitur/Martino Crvsio, in Academia.
master of philosophy.” According to Crusius, Basileae: L. Ostenium
Zygomalas’ teaching was of poor quality and Zygomalas, J. 1889. Vie de Stavrakios Malaxos,
protopappas de Nauplie. In Notice biographique sur
his philosophical and philological background
Jean et Théodose Zygomalas, ed. E. Legrand,
mediocre, although he had studied at Padua. 159–175. Paris: E. Leroux.
Despite Crusius’ bitter comments, John Zygomalas, J. Epitome de la grammaire grecque.
Zygomalas was very influential. The vast major- Zygomalas: manuscript form (Codex Taurinensis 321)
ity of the ecclesiastical authorities and scholars in
various fields were his students. Theodosius Secondary Literature
Zygomalas was a productive translator. He ren- Legrand, E. 1889. Notice biographique sur Jean et Thé
odose Zygomalas. Paris: E. Leroux
dered in Modern Greek several works of ancient
Perentidis, S. 1994. Théodose Zygomalas et sa Para-
and Byzantine literature. phrase de la Synopsis minor. Athenes: Éditions Ant.
N. Sakkoulas
Perentidis, S., and G. Steiris (eds.). 2009. Ioannnes
et Theodosios Zygomalas, Patriarchatus –
Impact and Legacy Institutiones – Codices. Athens: Daedalus.
Podskalsky, G. 1988. Griechische Theologie in der Zeit
John Zygomalas was a leading figure in the der Turkenherrschaft 1453–1821. Die Orthodoxie im
Patriarchical Academy, the only notable educa- Spannungsfeld der nachreformatorischen
Konfessionen des Westens. Munchen: C. H. Beck.
tional institute in the Greek-speaking territories
Turyn, A. 1929. De Aelii Aristidis codice varsoviensi
during the sixteenth century. The vast majority of atque de Andrea Taranowski et Theodosio Zygomala.
the ecclesiastical authorities and scholars in var- Cracovie: Sumptibus Academiae Polonae Litterarum
ious fields were his students. Theodosius’ work
K
Kara, Avigdor Biography
Born: Unknown Avigdor Kara passed away in Prague on 25 April

1439 according to the inscription on his tomb in
Died: 1439, Prague the old cemetery of Prague (Muneles 1988). His
birthplace and date is not known; he was probably
Tamás Visi born in the 1360s. His family may have migrated
Kurt and Ursula Schubert Centre for Jewish to Prague from the region of Erfurt; in one of his
Studies, Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci works, he relates an oral tradition about the per-
(Palacky University), Olomouc, Czech Republic secutions following upon the Black Death of
1348/1349 that took place in Erfurt and its vicin-
ity. In 1389 he witnessed a massacre of Jews in
Prague and wrote a famous elegy about it in
Hebrew, which is recited in liturgical commem-
oration of that event in Prague until today. In
Abstract
1409 he spent some time in Regensburg and
wrote a mystical commentary on Psalm
Avigdor ben Yitzhak Kara (?–1439, Prague) was
150 there. In 1413 he was a member of the rab-
an important rabbi, mystic, poet, and philosopher
binic court of justice of Prague together with
in Prague during the last decades of the four-
Menahem Shalem and Yom-Tov Lipmann
teenth and the first decades of the fifteenth cen-
M€uhlhausen (Seibt and Tischler 1995). Some
turies. Since philosophy and Kabbalah arose
Latin documents from Prague dated to the 1420s
almost no interest among Ashkenazi Jews during
and 1430s refer to Avigdor Kara as magister
the Middle Ages, the interest Kara took in these
Victor (Muneles 1988).
subjects was exceptional though not unparal-
He sometimes refers to Menahem Shalem as
leled: Kara belonged to a small circle of philoso-
“my brother.” However, this phrase is not to be
phers in late fourteenth- and early fifteenth-
taken literally, the two had different fathers and
century Prague. Avigdor Kara together with
there is no reason to believe that they were related
other members of that circle (Yom-Tov
in any way. A fifteenth-century chronicle claims
Lipmann-M€ uhlhausen, Menahem Shalem) can
that Avigdor Kara secretly taught the Czech king
be considered a forerunner of the sixteenth- and
Wenceslaus IV the principles of Judaism, and
seventeenth-century Jewish renaissance of
John Hus’ teachings were also influenced by
Prague.
Kara (cf. Yuval 1989). These claims are entirely
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_174-1
2 Kara, Avigdor
baseless. There is no palpable connection philosophy and Kabbalah: Avigdor Kara, just as
between Avigdor Kara on the one hand and Yom-Tov Lipmann M€uhlhausen, believed that
John Hus and his followers on the other hand. Kabbalah and philosophy harmonized in all
A German literary text entitled Der Ackermann essential points, whereas for Menahem Shalem,
aus Böhmen composed in Bohemia around 1400 they were diametrically opposed intellectual tra-
contains an enigmatic dedication to certain “Vic- ditions. By disseminating philosophical and kab-
tor the Jew” (victori judeo). It is possible that balistic ideas, Kara prepared the way for early
Avigdor Kara was meant, although it is far from modern Jewish intellectuals who were to write
being certain (cf. Hausmann 2003). more extensively on philosophical, theological,
mystical, and scientific topics in late sixteenth-
and early seventeenth-century Prague.
Works
Avigdor Kara’s extant works include Hebrew References

poems, such as the aforementioned elegy on the
massacre in Prague, 1389, a poetic resume of Hausmann, A. 2003. Die Ackermann aus Böhmen und die
Prager Juden um 1400. In Beiträge zur Geschichte der
Jewish faith on the basis of Moses Maimonides’s
deutschen Sprache und Literatur, vol. 125, 292–323.
(1138–1204) 13 articles of faith (this poem cir- Hershkowitz R. 2007. “She’elot u-teshuvot / R. Avigdor
culated in Yiddish translation as well), and few Kara” (Questions and Responses by R. Avigdor Kara).
more liturgical compositions. He wrote a long In idem Mazkeret Nisuin Yehudah Vyael Hershowitz
(A keepsake from the wedding of Yehudah and Yael
mystical explanation of Psalm 150, a collection
Hershkowitz) (Jerusalem, private edition,
of responses to theological and philosophical 2007), ed. R. Yehudah Hershkowitz.
questions, and a treatise on Hebrew grammar Kupfer, E. 1972. Li-demutah ha-tarbutit shel yahadut
entitled Midbar sin. Some fragments about Ashkenaz ve-hakhmeha ba-mea ha-14–15 (Towards a
cultural portrait of Ashkenazic Jewry and its sages in
interpreting several biblical verses also survive
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries). Tarbiz 42:
in manuscripts. A writing in which he reconciled 113–147.
philosophy and Kabbalah is no longer extant. Muneles, O. 1988. Ketuvot mi-beit ha-‘alamin ha-yehudi
Contrary to the assumption of some scholars ha-‘atiq be-Prag (Epitaphs from the Old Jewish Cem-
etery in Prague). Jerusalem: Israeli Academy of Sci-
from the previous century, the kabbalistic work
ences and Humanities.
Sefer hapliah was not authored by Kara but by a Seibt, Ferdinand, and Maria Tischler. 1995. Prag. In
Byzantine Jew (see Ta-Shma 2005). Most of GermaniaJudaica, vol. 3, part 2, ed. Arye Maimon,
Kara’s exegetical, mystical, and philosophical Mordechai Breuer, and Yacov Guggenheim,
1116–1151. T€ ubingen: J.C.B. Mohr.
works have not been edited yet (but
Ta-Shma, Israel M. 2005. Heikhan nithabberu sifrei ‘Ha-
cf. Hershkowitz 2007). qane’ ve-‘Ha-plia’? (When were the books ‘Ha-qane’
and ‘Ha-plia’ composed?). In idem Knesset Mehqarim,
vol. 3, 218–228. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute.
Visi, T. 2009. The emergence of philosophy in Ashke-
Legacy nazic contexts – The case of Czech lands in the early
fifteenth century. In Science and philosophy in Ashke-
Kara was one of the first known Jewish intellec- nazi culture: rejection, toleration, and
tual in Central Europe who experimented with accommodation, ed. Gad Freudenthal, 13–315. In
Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook 8, 213–243.
philosophical and kabbalistic ideas (cf. Kupfer
Yuval, Israel J. 1989. Juden, Hussiten und Deutsche nach
1972). In his days Prague became the first verita- einer hebräischen Chronik. In “Juden in der
ble center of philosophical studies among Ashke- christlichen Umwelt während des späten Mittelalters,”
nazi Jewish communities (cf. Visi 2009). Zeitschrift f€ ur Historische Forschung, vol.
13 (1992), ed. Alfred Haverkamp, and Franz-Josef
A disputed question among scholars belonging Ziwes, 59–102.
to the Prague circle was the relationship between
M
€ hlhausen, Yomtov Lippmann

Mu Biography
Born: unknown, ca. 1360 Only few details of his biography can be
reconstructed. At the end of Sefer ha-Nitsahon,
Died: 1421, Erfurt M€uhlhausen relates a public debate he had with a
Jewish convert to Christianity called Peter in 1399/
Tamás Visi 1400. The controversy was followed by a serious
Kurt and Ursula Schubert Centre for Jewish persecution: some 80 Jews were murdered
Studies, Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci according to M€uhlhausen’s account. The location
(Palacky University), Olomouc, Czech Republic of this persecution cannot be identified with cer-
tainty: some scholars assume it took place in
Prague (Kaufmann 1927), others suggest Poland
or Lithuania (Breuer 1995), and yet another opin-
ion is that it must have occurred in Bohemia, but
perhaps outside of Prague (Limor and Yuval 2004).
Abstract
In 1413 M€uhlhausen signed a rabbinic document as
a member of the rabbinical court of justice (beit
Yomtov Lippmann ben Shlomo M€ uhlhausen
din) of Prague. Other members of this court were
(?–1421) was an influential rabbi in Central and
Menahem Shalem and Avigdor Kara, two other
Eastern Europe. He authored a polemical treatise
important Jewish philosophers. In 1417
against Christianity entitled Sefer ha-Nitsahon
M€uhlhausen was in Jena; from 1418 to 1421, he
(“Book of Victory”) which was widely read by
resided in Erfurt. A fifteenth-century Christian
Jews in Europe and known to Christians as well.
source claims that M€uhlhausen visited Cracow in
During the seventeenth century, it was partly
1420 (Kaufmann 1927). He passed away in the
translated to Latin, printed, read, and answered
summer of 1421 in Erfurt (Yuval 1989).
by Christian polemicists, who generated a
subgenre of polemic literature called
“Antilipmanniana.” M€ uhlhausen was a central
Works
figure of a circle of Jewish philosophers who
were active chiefly in early fifteenth-century
M€uhlhausen’s most influential work, the Sefer
Prague. He was one of the first Ashkenazi intel-
ha-Nitsahon, includes a brief summary of Jewish
lectuals who combined Maimonidean philosophy
faith and a detailed refutation of Christian bibli-
with Kabbalah.
cal exegesis in the form of a commentary on the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_177-1
2 M€
uhlhausen, Yomtov Lippmann
books of the Hebrew Bible. In addition to References

defending Jewish faith, M€ uhlhausen argued
against Christian teachings, such as the doctrine Primary Sources
of transubstantiation (Lasker 1984). He utilized Kupfer, Ephraim. 1965. Sefer ha-brit u-ktavim aherim le-
R. Yom Tov Lippmann M€ uhlhausen (The Book of
philosophical arguments taken from medieval
Covenant and other writings by Yom Tov Lippmann
Jewish Aristotelian texts (Lasker 1996). Other M€ uhlhausen). Sinai 56(1965):330–343.
works include Sefer ha-Eshkol (“Book of the Clus- uhlhausen, Yomtov Lippmann. 1644. In Liber
M€
ter”), an explanation of the creation story and the Nizzachon R. Lipmanni editus. Acc. Tractatus de usu
librorum Rabbinicorum, ed. Theodor Hackspan. Alt-
vision of Ezekiel on the basis of Maimonidean
dorf: Wolfgang Endter.
philosophy and Kabbalah; Kavvanot ha-Tefillah M€
uhlhausen, Yomtov Lippmann. 1927. Sefer ha-eshkol.
(“The Intentions of the Prayer”), a spiritual inter- In R. Yom Tov Lipmann Mihlhausen, ed. Yehuda
pretation of prayer; and Sefer ha-Brit (“The Book Kaufmann [Even Shmuel], 117–175. New York: pri-
vate edition.
of the Covenant”), a kabbalistic commentary on
M€
uhlhausen, Yomtov Lippmann. 1927. Kavvanot
divine attributes. Remarkable is that M€ uhlhausen ha-Tefillah. In R. Yom Tov Lipmann
endorsed the Pythagorean thesis about the sounds Mihlhausen, ed. Yehuda Kaufmann [Even Shmuel],
produced by the celestial bodies in spite of the 181–190. New York: n. p.
Aristotelian refutation of that doctrine which he
encountered in Moses Narboni (ca. 1300–1362)’s Secondary Sources
Breuer, Mordechai. 1995. R. Jomtow Lipman b. Salomo
commentary on Maimonides’ The Guide for the
M€ uhlhausen. In Germania Judaica, vol. 3, part 2, ed.
Perplexed (Elior 2013). Arye Maimon, Mordechai Breuer and Yacov
Guggenheim, 1129–1131. T€ ubingen: J. C. B. Mohr
(Paul Siebeck).
David, Abraham. 2011. R. Itzhak Isaac Tirna and his
Legacy Polemical Tract Answer to the Christians – Preliminary
Clarification. In Ta Shma.Studies in Judaica in Memory
Sefer ha-Nitsahon was widely copied and read of Israel M. Ta-Shma, ed. Avraham (Rami) Reiner et al.,
among Ashkenazi Jews in the Late Middle and 2 vols. Alon Shevut: Tevunot Press. vol. 1, 257–280
(in Hebrew).
Early Modern Ages. An abridged version forms
Elior, Ofer. 2013. The conclusion whose demonstration is
the kernel of Eizik Tirna’s polemical work com- correct is believed: Maimonides on the possibility of
posed in Brno in the middle of the 1420s (David celestial sounds, according to three medieval inter-
2011). The first known Christian response to preters. Revue des E´tudes Juives 172(2013): 283–303.
Kaufmann, Yehuda [Even Shmuel]. 1927. R. Yom Tov
M€ uhlhausen’s work is a Latin treatise by Stephan
Lipmann Mihlhausen. New York: private edition
Bodeker (1421–1459) of Brandenburg Lasker, Daniel J. 1984. Transubstantiation, Elijah’s Chair,
(Kaufmann 1927). After some further references Plato, and the Jewish-Christian debate. Revue des
to it during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it E´tudes Juives 143(1984): 31–58.
Lasker, Daniel J. 1996. Jewish philosophical polemics in
caught the attention of Christian polemicists dur-
Ashkenaz. In Contra Iudaeos: Ancient and medieval
ing the seventeenth century. The Hebrew text was polemics between Christians and Jews, ed. Ora Limor,
printed by a Lutheran theologian Theodor Maurice R. Hayoun, A. Gedaliahu, and G. Stroumsa,
Hackspan (1607–1659), professor of Hebrew at 195–213. T€ ubingen: Mohr Siebeck.
Limor, Ora, and Israel J. Yuval. 2004. Skepticism and
the University of Altdorf in 1644. Some of
conversion: Jews, Christians and Doubters in Sefer
Hackspan’s students published extracts from the ha-Nizzahon. In Hebraica veritas? Christian Hebra-
work in Latin translation (Kaufmann 1927). ists and the study of Judaism in early modern
A detailed response to M€ uhlhausen was Europe, ed. Allison Coudert and Jeffrey S. Shoulson,
159–180. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
published by the Calvinist theologian Christian
Press.
Schotan (1603–1671) in 1659. His Yuval, Israel J. 1989. Hakhamim be-doram: ha-manhigut
“Antilipmanniana” was followed by a number ha-ruhanit shel yehudei Germania be-shilhei yemei
of similar works during the later half of the sev- ha-beinayim (Scholars in their time: The religious
leadership of German Jewry in the late middle ages).
enteenth and the eighteenth centuries (Kaufmann
Jerusalem: Magness.
1927).
S
Shalem, Menahem Biography
Born: unknown (ca. 1340-1390) The dates and places of Shalem’s birth and death
are unknown. In 1413 he was a member of the
Died: unknown (after 1413) rabbinic court of justice (beit din) of Prague
together with Yom-Tov Lipmann M€uhlhausen
Tamás Visi and Avigdor Kara. Presumably, he composed
Kurt and Ursula Schubert Centre for Jewish his extant works in Prague. It has been suggested
Studies, Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci that he traveled to Jerusalem once and then he
(Palacky University), Olomouc, Czech Republic adopted the Hebrew name “Shalem,” which may
be understood as “the Jerusalemite” (Reiner
1984; Yuval 1989; Davis 1993). He is referred
to as Menahem Agler in a correspondence he had
with Abraham Klausner, an important rabbinic
authority in late fourteenth-century Vienna. The
Abstract
name “Agler” may indicate that he originated
from Aquileia (in German, Aglar) in northern
Menahem ben Jacob Shalem also known as
eastern Italy (Kupfer 1973).
Menahem Agler (and sometimes referred to,
Menahem Shalem and his colleague, Avigdor
incorrectly, as “Menahem Kara”) was an impor-
Kara, referred to each other as “my brother” in
tant Jewish Aristotelian philosopher in late
their writings. This phrase indicates a close rela-
fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century Prague.
tionship, but it is not to be taken literally: in fact,
He wrote the most sophisticated Hebrew philo-
the two had different fathers and there is no
sophical texts in Central Europe during this
reason to believe that they were related in any
period. Unlike his colleagues in Prague,
way. Nevertheless, misled by this phrase, some
Yom-Tov Lipmann M€ uhlhausen and Avigdor
modern historians refer to Shalem as “Menahem
Kara, he rejected Kabbalah and considered
Kara” despite the fact that the latter name is not
Maimonidean philosophy the most authoritative
attested in any primary sources.
Jewish intellectual tradition. His works paved the
In one of his writings, Shalem refers to hallu-
way for other Jewish philosophers in Central and
cinations he experienced while he was
Eastern Europe in the late middle and early
imprisoned by Christians. Unfortunately, nothing
modern ages.
more is known about this incident (see Kupfer
1973).
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_179-1
2 Shalem, Menahem
Works and Thought Legacy
Menahem Shalem left behind four major writ- Most of Shalem’s works remain in manuscripts
ings: (1) a philosophical compendium treating until today. A single scribe copied most of the
some of the classical themes of medieval Hebrew relevant manuscripts during the second half of the
Aristotelian literature, such as intellectual perfec- fifteenth century in Lesser Poland (Beit-Arieh
tion, prophetic visions, and proofs for the exis- 1981). Shalem is cited in a rabbinic debate
tence of God; (2) a series of glosses to Moses about the possibility of the transmigration of the
Narboni’s (cc. 1300–1362) commentary on Mai- soul in 1466 in Candia, Crete (Kupfer 1973; on
monides’ (1137/8–1204) Guide for the Per- the debate itself, see Ogren 2009). Whether his
plexed; (3) a letter to Abraham Klausner, rabbi works influenced sixteenth-century Jewish
of Vienna, about philosophical and theological thinkers or whether one can speak about a con-
matters; and (4) a polemic fragment against the tinuous tradition of Jewish rationalism among
Christian doctrine of trinity (see Kupfer 1973; late medieval and early modern Ashkenazi Jews
Talmage 1980; Shmeruk 1981; for some other, is a debated question (see Kupfer 1973; Davis
minor works, see Talmage 1983). 1993; Fishman 1997; Reiner 1997; Visi 2011).
Much of Shalem’s thought revolved around
astral powers interfering with the sublunar
world. On the one hand, Shalem held that the
References
movement of the celestial bodies generated astral
influences in a mechanic way; on the other hand,
Primary Sources
he believed that astral spirits had sympathy for Talmage, Frank. 1980. Vikuah anti-Notsri be-Mizrah
human beings, especially for philosophers, and Eiropa be-signon ha-pulmus bi-Sefarad – ketav-yad
they warned them of impending dangers through yahid (An Anti-Christian Polemic in Eastern Europe
dreams and visions (Visi 2009). in the Style of Sephardic Polemics – A Unique Manu-
script). Kiryath Sefer 56(1980): 369–372.
Shalem believed that conjunction of human Talmage, Frank. 1983. Mi-kitvei R. Avigdor Qara ve-R.
mind to the active intellect was possible, and Menahem Shalem (From the writings of Avigdor Kara
such conjunction, once realized, protected and Menahem Shalem). In Hagut u-maase: Sefer
human beings from harmful astral influences. Zikkaron le-Shimon Rawidowicz bi-melot esrim
va-hamesh shanim le-moto, ed. Avraham Greenbaum
Thus, pursuing intellectual perfection one could and Alfred Ivry, 43–53. Tel-Aviv: Tscherikover.
save himself/herself from the fate determined by
celestial movements. Following the
Maimonidean tradition, Shalem argued that Secondary Sources
Beit-Arieh, Malakhi. 1981. Heera le-heerato shel
studying philosophical texts could bring about H. Shmeruk le-maamro shel E. Talmage
the redemptive perfection of the intellect; on the (On Ch. Shmeruk’s note on F. E. Talmage’s Article).
other hand, unlike M€ uhlhausen and Kara, he held Kiryat Sefer 56(1981): 750.
the study of Kabbalah worthless. Shalem also Davis, Joseph M. 1993. Philosophy, dogma, and exegesis
in medieval Ashkenazic Judaism: The evidence of
argued that the Messiah and the prophet Elijah, Sefer Hadrat Qodesh. Association for Jewish Studies
mentioned in traditional Jewish religious texts as (AJS) Review 18(1993): 195–222.
precursor to the Messiah, had allegorical mean- Fishman, David. 1997. Rabbi Moshe Isserles and the study
ings. The former signified allegorically the of science among Polish rabbis. Science in Context
10(1997): 571–588.
redemptive conjunction of the human mind to Kupfer, Ephraim. 1973. Li-demutah ha-tarbutit shel
the active intellect and latter alluded to the yahadut Ashkenaz ve-hakhmeha ba-mea ha-14–15
spiritual-intellectual development preceding it (Towards a cultural portrait of Ashkenazic Jewry and
(Visi 2011). its sages in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries).
Tarbiz 42(1972): 113–147.
Ogren, Brian. 2009. Renaissance and rebirth: Reincarna-
tion in early modern Italian Kabbalah. Leiden/Boston:
Brill.
Shalem, Menahem 3
Reiner, Elchanan. 1984. Bein Ashkenaz li-Yerushalayim: accommodation, ed. Gad Freudenthal, 13–315. in
Hakhamim asheknaziim be-Eretz Yisrael aharei ‘ha- Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook 8 (2009): 213–243.
mavet ha-shahor’ (Between Ashkenaz and Jerusalem: Visi, Tamás. 2011. On the peripheries of Ashkenaz:
Ashkenazic Scholars in Eretz-Israel after the “Black Medieval Jewish philosophers in Normandy and in
Death”). Shalem 4(1984): 27–62. the Czech lands from the twelfth to the fifteenth
Reiner, Elchanan. 1997. The attitude of Ashkenazi society century. Habilitation dissertation, Palacky University,
to the new science in the sixteenth century. Science in Olomouc, 2011. https://www.academia.edu/2045530/
Context 10(1997): 589–603. On_the_Peripheries_of_Ashkenaz_Medieval_Jewish_
Shmeruk, Chana. 1981. Le-maamro shel E. Talmage Philosophers_in_Normandy_and_in_the_Czech_Lands
(A Note on Talmage’s article). Kiryat Sefer _from_the_Twelfth_to_the_Fifteenth_Centuries
56(1981): 549. Yuval, Israel J. 1989. Hakhamim be-doram: ha-manhigut
Visi, Tamás. 2009. The emergence of philosophy in Ash- ha-ruhanit shel yehudei Germania be-shilhei yemei
kenazic contexts – The case of Czech lands in the early ha-beinayim (Scholars in their time: The religious
fifteenth century. In Science and philosophy in Ashke- leadership of German Jewry in the Late Middle
nazi culture: Rejection, toleration, and Ages). Jerusalem: Magness.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_184-1
Bartolus of Saxoferrato
Born: 10 November 1313/1314, Venantura
Died: 10 July 1357
Francesco Maiolo*
University College Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
Abstract
The name of Bartolus de Saxoferrato (1313/1314–1357) is associated with late medieval legal theory and
practice, although a tradition initiated by his pupil Baldus de Ubaldis (1327–1400) portrays him as a man
devoted to practice more than to theory. Bartolus was a brilliant teacher and a prolific writer. Thanks to his
critical insight, which pervades his commentaria, tractatus, quaestiones, and consilia, the hermeneutics
of the Corpus Iuris Civilis became a science aimed at the solution of the practical problems of late
medieval society. In the realm of law, two clusters of questions have been debated, one concerning
Bartolus’ influence on the development of civil law and the other concerning the authorship of a number
of writings attributed to him. Bartolus’ relevance to philosophy is negligible, even if his conceptions of
jurisprudence and truth in legal reasoning correspond to a certain philosophy of law. His ideas are relevant
in the perspective of Renaissance political philosophy: Bartolus paved the way for the modern conception
of territorial sovereignty and for a rejection of tyranny on legal-theoretical grounds.
Biography
Bartolus was born in Venatura, a village close to Saxoferrato in the province of Ancona, territory of the
future Duchy of Urbino. His precise date of birth is unknown but must have been between 10 November
1313 and 10 November 1314. Most likely his father Ceccus, a small landowner of modest means,
belonged to the Severi family, whereas his mother was named Santa Alfani. Two Franciscan friars,
Peter of Assisi and Guido de Perusio, took care of his primary education. The former played an important
role in Bartolus’ formation and presumably provided the financial means enabling him, at the age of
fourteen, to study law at Perugia under the guidance of Cynus de Pistoia (1270–1336/37). Bartolus’
attachment to the Franciscans was notable. Various parts of his commentaria and a number of consilia are
concerned with the problem of the management of the property of Franciscan convents, including
hereditary matters, and the problem of the legal representation of those communities. The Liber
minoricarum decisionum deals with these questions in particular. Cynus encouraged Bartolus to abandon
the old interpretative method and embrace the dialectical techniques developed at the School of Orléans.
Possibly due to the transfer of Cynus to Florence, in October 1333 Bartolus moved to Bologna, where,
under the guidance of Jacobus Butrigarius (1274–1348), on 15 December 1333 he attained the title of
baccalaureus. On 17 September 1334, presented by Butrigarius, Bartolus defended his doctorate before a
commission presided over by the canonist Johannes Calderinus (ca. 1300–1365). Among the ten
members of the commission were the masters Jacobus de Belviso (1270–1335) and Raynerius
(Arsendi) de Forlì (d. 1358). On 10 November 1334, Bartolus received his doctoral degree in the
*Email: f.m.maiolo@uu.nl
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_184-1
Cathedral of St. Peter. During the subsequent 4 years, he exercised judiciary functions in Todi, Cagli, and
Macerata. In either 1338 or 1339, he married Pellina Bovarelli, who belonged to a wealthy family. They
had two sons and four daughters. In 1339 Bartolus moved to Pisa where he initially exercised judiciary
functions and later became professor of civil law. At the end of 1342, or in the early spring of 1343,
Bartolus moved to Perugia. In 1348 the outbreak of the Black Death caused an interruption of all academic
activities. In October 1348 full citizenship was conferred upon him, his two brothers, and their descen-
dants. He was also granted the permission to hold a salaried chair. Supposedly Bartolus served as a
member of the city council. A notable episode concerns his participation as a member of an embassy
representing Perugia to Emperor Charles IV (1316–1378) at Pisa between May and June 1355.
The Emperor received the famous law professor with great honors and made him imperial consiliarius
and familiaris domesticus commensalis. The Emperor is also said to have given him, and any of his heirs
who attained the title of doctor of law, among other privileges, the venia aetatis, whereby a minor was
declared to have attained his majority before the age of 25. In his unfinished Tractatus de insignis et armis,
Bartolus claimed that the Emperor granted him a coat of arms consisting of the image of a red lion with a
twofold tail on a golden field. It is almost certain that the imperial grant never occurred. Moreover, the lion
represented in the coat of arms of the Bohemian kings was two-tailed, but silver on a red field. Bartolus
died presumably on 10 July 1357, but nothing is known of the circumstances of his death (Calasso 1964;
Cavallar et al. 1994; Condorelli 1995; Cortese 1995; Bellomo 1998; Lepsius 2004: Treggiari 2009).
A Contested Legacy
Bartolus was the most famous of the commentators, a juristic school mainly concerned with the potential
for practical application of the Roman law. The commentators sought a harmonization of the Roman law,
local law, customary law, and canon law. Bartolus abhorred the dialectical subtleties in use at Orléans, but
he shared with the French jurists the opinion that the authority of the Accursian gloss had to be questioned
whenever necessary and convenient. He was often referred to as “the lantern of the law” and the “king of
the law.” The maxim “no one can be a good jurist unless he is a Bartolist” (nullus bonus iurista nisi sit
Bartolista) remained of common usage for a long time (Calasso 1964; Feenstra 1972; Cortese 1995).
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in various Italian universities, courses were designed taking
Bartolus’ lecturae and repetitiones as a model. In Spain and Portugal, royal decrees sanctioned that the
opinio Bartoli should be followed where Roman or canon law, as well as certain parts of the Accursian
gloss, was silent. King Philip II, who had associated the throne of Portugal to that of Spain (1580–1640),
continued this tradition of favor by sanctioning the same principle in the Ordenações Filipinas published
in 1603, after his death. This codification was applied to Brazil, where the legislative sanction of the
supremacy of the opinio Bartoli was formally valid until the promulgation of the 1916 Civil Code
(Calasso 1964). The emergence of humanism, and humanistic jurisprudence in France in particular,
marked the beginning of the history of Bartolus’ discredit. Lorenzo Valla (1407–1475) considered
Bartolus guilty of misinterpreting the Roman law due to his ignorance of history and Latin. Guillaume
Budé (1467/68–1540), François Baudouin (1520–1573), and François Hotman (1524–1590) expressed
aversion to scholastic jurisprudence (Feenstra 1972). Bartolus came to be seen as “the plague of the
intellect” and “the assassin of erudition.” Humanistic criticism of the auctoritas Bartoli took brilliant
literary form, thanks to François Rabelais (1494–1553), who in Pantagruel (1532) ridiculed the jurist and
other masters of the mos italicum not only for their ignorance of Latin, Greek, history, and philosophy but
also for their habit of allegedly twisting justice for the sake of private gain. The negative evaluation of
Bartolus among the French culti was not univocal. Jacques Cujas (1522–1590), Hugues Doneau
(1527–1591), and Jean Bodin (1530–1596) praised Bartolus as a lawyer, even though they attacked his
Page 2 of 6
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_184-1
doctrine of the Emperor as “the lord of the world (Maiolo 2007).” The anti-Bartolist tradition was partially
absorbed by the natural law schools of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and subsequently by the
historical school (Lepsius 2003).
Jurisprudence, Truth, and Legitimacy

Medieval jurists were convinced that it was their proper task to concern themselves with problems of
political authority, the main normative argument being that justice and tranquility are the chief subject
matter of law. In opposition to the Aristotelian teaching that saw jurisprudence as a province of “practical
knowledge,” they treated ethical matters as a province of jurisprudence. They revered the idea that the law
had to be the implementation of God-given values, as well as the idea that knowledge for its own sake is
shameful vanity. In order to justify the pre-eminence of jurisprudence, they argued that the fundamental
legal principles of Roman law, the latter being “written reason,” contradict neither the laws of nature nor
divine law, but rather actualize them in concrete situations. The roots of their conception of law as
knowledge divinely founded were in the opening pages of the Digest: law is the art of knowing what is
good and just (Dig. 1, 1, 1), and jurisprudence is awareness of divine and human affairs, as well as
knowledge of what is just and unjust (Dig. 1, 1, 10, 2; Inst. 1, 1, 1) (Woolf 1913; Paradisi 1983; Quaglioni
1983; Pennington 1993). In one doctoral sermon attributed to him and dedicated to his brother
Bonaccursius, Bartolus defined jurisprudence as the “perfect science,” “the queen of the
sciences” – save theology. Borrowing a powerful image from the Revelation of St. John (Rev. 18, 7),
he proclaimed that “she will never be a widow” (Bartholus de Saxoferrato 1576). In order to support this
assertion, he oddly mentioned that the jurists occupied the first position in civic parades and official
ceremonies (Maiolo 2007).
The perfection that Bartolus attributed to jurisprudence is also the consequence of her power to bring
certain entities into existence out of nothing. This particular power implies a certain qualification of truth
in legal reasoning and becomes intelligible through the notion of legal personality. The expression
persona ficta et repraesentata was used to denote public law corporations such as the city-states as
well as private law bodies such as foundations and trusts (Woolf 1913; Ullmann 1962; Segoloni 1980;
Canning 1987). Ulpian established the principle that what is owed to the corporation is not to be owed to
its members, and what the corporation owes to others is not owed by its members directly (Dig. 3, 4, 7, 1).
For Accursius (b. 1181/85), a corporation is a mere collection of men, even though he recognized that
corporations and individuals are conceptually distinct. For the jurists at Orléans, certain bodies could exist
independently of the individuals who are part of them. The canonists developed the idea that crime and
excommunication can be ascribed to collectivities, specifying that each collectivity is a nomen iuris. In
opposition to the Accursian gloss, Bartolus emphasized that what pertains to the whole does not pertain to
its parts. In the Tractatus de regimine civitatis, he compared the city-state with the “artificial and
imaginary man” (Bartholus de Saxoferrato 1576). A legal person is not a person in the ordinary sense
because legal reasoning differs from common sense as well as from philosophical or theological reasoning
(Woolf 1913; Ullmann 1962; Quaglioni 1983; Ryan 2000; Skinner 2002). By means of an inaccurate
generalization, Bartolus asserted that for philosophers and canonists an association is nothing other than
the people making it up; lay jurists found it useful to substitute ordinary truth for fiction under certain
circumstances. At the same time Bartolus believed that the meaning of populus, for example, is the same
under different circumstances. To say that an organized group of people constitutes a populus is to say that
such a group has a certain peculiar quality manifested in some kind of substance. Yet Bartolus promoted
neither the fiction theory nor the realist theory (Bartholus de Saxoferrato 1576). He was not concerned
with the philosophical question of whether the universals are mental constructions of human reason or
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_184-1
extramental entities. Rather he defended the principle that it is proper to the logic of legal reasoning to
replace truth with fiction (Maiolo 2007). He was interested in making it legally possible for the city-state
to recognize no superior, even if ontologically the latter was certainly not that of which no superior could
be conceived. The replacement of truth by fiction was the expression of both juristic virtuosity and
political prudence (Segoloni 1962; Kirshner 1973; Canning 1987; Ryan 2000).
Bartolus defended the validity of the universal lordship (dominium mundi) of the Emperor, a lordship
which was jurisdictional, not patrimonial. To deny it was to fall into heresy (Bartholus de Saxoferrato
1576). Yet he sought to harmonize the imperial ideology with the Christian doctrine that all powers come
from God. Each according to its proper task, temporal and spiritual, respectively, Empire and church had
the function to lead the Christian people toward salvation. To claim that they had distinct and separate
jurisdictions was again to fall into heresy. The advent of Christ had marked a radical change in the
interpretation of the origin of the Empire: God’s providence was its remote efficient cause, whereas the
Roman people were its proximate cause. On account of the Donation of Constantine, which he considered
to be genuine, Bartolus justified the papal control of portions of central and southern Italy that were
formally part of the Empire (Cortese 1995). His conclusion was that the Emperor has no jurisdiction in
spiritual matters, and his jurisdiction in temporal matters can never go beyond the borders of the territories
nominally subject to his authority. The Pope has universal jurisdiction in spiritual matters and a
jurisdiction in temporal matters that is valid only in the territories subject to his direct control. Bartolus
admitted that the Emperor was under the laws by free will, not necessity. Yet he is bound to keep treatises
with the city-states for those agreements have their roots in the laws of the nations (Bartholus de
Saxoferrato 1576; Woolf 1913; Segoloni 1980; Paradisi 1983; Quaglioni 1983; Canning 1987;
Pennington 1993; Ryan 2000; Skinner 2002). In fourteenth-century northern and central Italy, the
Emperor was seen as the ruler of part of Germany rather than the bearer of universal authority. Since
the time of Frederick I “Barbarossa” (1122–1190), some communes had based their autonomy on imperial
consent through acquiescence, although some of them factually recognized no superior. Bartolus pro-
vided a legal justification for the factual political independence of the latter, ascribing to them the totality
of powers hitherto reserved for the Emperor. In this respect Bartolus is said to have paved the way for the
modern conception of territorial sovereignty (Woolf 1913; Canning 1987; Pennigton 1993; Cortese 1995;
Ryan 2000; Skinner 2002; Jonas Cesar 2004). He emphasized the importance of popular government
(Ullmann 1962; Segoloni 1962; Kirshner 1973; Ryan 2000; Skinner 2002). We do not know to what
extent he was a profound reader of both Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas even if he considered both of
them authoritative. According to Bartolus, the up-and-coming seignorial rule was detrimental to the
system of the communal liberties. Seignorial government remained a matter of concern beyond the
fourteenth century. Bartolus’ Tractatus de tyrannia constitutes an antecedent for the humanist treatment of
the matter. This work influenced, among others, Coluccio Salutati (1399–1400), Girolamo Savonarola
(1452–1498), and Francisco Suárez (1548–1617) (Quaglioni 1983; Lepsius 2003; Kirshner 2006).
Bartolus sought to demonstrate the intrinsic illegality of tyranny. He first distinguished between manifest
and concealed tyranny. Then, within manifest tyranny, he distinguished the case of the tyrant who holds
power in the absence of a legitimate title, that is, the usurper of sovereign prerogatives, from the case of the
tyrant who abuses power, that is, the abuser of legitimately assumed sovereign powers. Finally, he defined
concealed tyranny as that of he who abuses sovereign powers under a veil of lawfulness. Concealed
tyranny can be established either through machinations that make one private citizen gain possession of an
office institutionally significant or through the assumption of a position that remains concealed (Bartholus
de Saxoferrato 1576; Woolf 1913; Quaglioni 1983).
Page 4 of 6
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_184-1
Cross-References
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Bodin, Jean
▶ Budé, Guillaume
▶ Cujas, Jacques
▶ Ethics
▶ Justice
▶ Law, Roman
▶ Prudence
▶ Rabelais, François
▶ Savonarola, Girolamo
References
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Bellomo, 181–193. Rome: Il Cigno Galileo Galilei.
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Page 6 of 6
B
Botero, Giovanni between religious ideals and political realism

which reflects to some extent inherent tensions
Born: 1544, Bene (Italy) within Counter-Reformation political thought.
Died: 23 June 1617, Turin (Italy) Botero’s main works have also been regarded as
important stepping stones towards the develop-
Sara Miglietti ment of modern disciplines such as political econ-
German and Romance Languages and Literatures, omy, demography, urban planning, statistics,
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA human geography, and geopolitics.
Alternate Names
Abstract
▶ Jean Botero (French); ▶ Johannes Boterus
Giovanni Botero was an Italian preacher, poet,
(Latin)
diplomat, and political thinker of the late Renais-
sance. Among his most influential works are the
Cause della grandezza e magnificenza delle città
Biography
(Causes of the Greatness and Magnificence of
Cities, 1588), the Ragion di Stato (Reason of
Botero was born in Bene Vagienna, in the Duchy
State, 1589), and the Relationi universali
of Savoy (Northern Italy), in 1544. At the age of
(Universal Relations, 1591–1596). The leading
15, he entered the Jesuit College in Palermo,
question of how States are founded, preserved,
Sicily, which he left in 1560 to continue his stud-
and steered to greatness is explored in his main
ies in the Jesuit Collegio Romano. After several
works by engaging in a complex and not entirely
years spent teaching in various Jesuit schools in
unambiguous confrontation with the thought of
Italy and France, in 1580 Botero was expelled
Niccolò Machiavelli and Jean Bodin. A former
from the Society following an incident in Milan,
Jesuit and a close collaborator of the Congrega-
without having pronounced his final vows nor
tion of the Index, Botero purported to write in
realizing his dreams of being sent on a mission
open reaction against the allegedly irreligious
overseas (Chabod 1969; Firpo 1971). The
ideas of Machiavelli and his followers; at the
disgraced Jesuit found unexpected succor in
same time, he incorporated several of
Charles Borromeo, the archbishop of Milan, who
Machiavelli’s insights into his own political con-
initially offered him a position as a parish priest in
struction, thus achieving a precarious balance
Luino (a small village on Lake Maggiore) and
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_185-1
2 Botero, Giovanni
later hired him as his personal secretary. In the patronage from Philip II of Spain, but his efforts
2 years that he spent in the archbishop’s service, must have been unsuccessful: indeed, by the
Botero published his first important works, De spring of 1596 he had already returned to Milan,
regia sapientia (On Royal Wisdom, 1583) and where he put the final touches on the fourth part of
Del dispregio del mondo (On Contempt for the his Relationi universali. The first complete edition
World, 1584), both of which provide ample evi- of the work, in four parts, appeared in Bergamo
dence of his awakening interest in political affairs shortly afterwards and was almost immediately
(see Botero 1584, 1.17–1.19; Vasoli 1992). In reprinted in Venice. In 1598, Botero published a
1585, following the death of Borromeo, Botero series of Aggiunte (Additions) to the Ragion di
went on a secret mission to France on behalf of Stato, which he had been revising incessantly for
Charles Emmanuel I, duke of Savoy. His nine- the previous 9 years: the definitive edition of the
month stint in Paris, where he worked with the work appeared that same year in Venice, for
duke’s ambassador René de Lucinge to establish Giolito. In 1599, shortly after consigning to the
ties with the Catholic league in the midst of the press his two books Dell’uffitio del cardinale (The
civil wars, was crucial for his intellectual devel- Office of Cardinal; Botero 1599; see Marchetti
opment and gave a new sense of urgency to his 1992 and Zucchini 1992), Botero quit Borromeo’s
ever-growing political interests (Chabod 1969; service and moved to Turin, where he took up a
Baldini 1992b). Shortly after returning to Italy, well-paid position as a preceptor to the sons of
Botero entered the service of the young Federico Duke Charles Emmanuel I (Barcia 1992; Stumpo
Borromeo, Charles’ nephew, and followed him to 1992). He remained in Turin until 1610, oversee-
Rome, where the latter was elected cardinal in ing the education of the three young princes of
1586. The 9 years that Botero spent in Rome Savoy and also joining them on a long journey to
were among the happiest and most productive of Spain, to the court of their uncle, King Philip III
his life. Possibly as early as 1587, he began to (1604–1606). Months after returning to Turin,
work as a consultore for the Congregation of the Botero published his eyewitness account of
Index, among whose members was his erstwhile Spain as an appendix to I capitani (The Captains),
classmate at the Roman College, Cardinal a collection of biographies of great military
Roberto Bellarmino. In 1588, Botero published leaders, and one of Botero’s last works (Botero
Delle cause della grandezza e magnificenza 1607; see Bielański 1992). He died in Turin in
delle città (henceforth Cause), the first of three 1617, bequeathing his patrimony to the Society of
masterpieces that brought him long-awaited fame Jesus and leaving the fifth part of his Relationi
and recognition. The Cause were followed only universali still in manuscript (now in Gioda
one year later by Della ragion di Stato, arguably 1894).
inspired by contemporary discussions of Bodin’s
République within the Congregation of the Index
(Descendre 2009). In 1591, Botero published the Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
first volume of the Relationi universali, a geo-
graphical description of different countries of the The unifying theme behind Botero’s major works
world that purported to lay the groundwork for a is the investigation of how to “found, preserve and
study of the advancement of the Christian religion extend the State” (Botero 1589, 1.1). Far from
worldwide, but also provided a conceptual frame being unproblematic, such a definition of the
for justifying Spanish aspirations to a global essential aims of political rule raises issues of
empire (Headley 2000). Part two, on political which Botero himself was acutely aware. Chief
geography, was released in 1592, whereas part among such issues is that of the rightful bound-
three, on world religions, was completed in 1594 aries of political action. Surely, Botero was careful
and published the following spring. When Cardi- to distinguish between a “good” and a “bad” type
nal Borromeo was appointed archbishop of Milan, of “reason of State”: while the former operates in
Botero sought to remain in Rome, possibly with conformity with Christian values and with the
Botero, Giovanni 3
blessing of the Church, the latter pursues political Botero 1589, 2.11 and 4.6). Additionally, Botero
grandezza (greatness) for its own sake, regardless seems to follow Bodin’s République directly on
of, and often against, the sanction of Catholic many points, concerning (among other things)
authorities. It is this latter type – allegedly taxation, military strategy, demography, colonial
propounded by Tacitus, Machiavelli, and the policy, and climate theory. According to Waley
French politiques – that Botero sets about critiqu- (1956), this makes the French thinker “the most
ing in his own Ragion di Stato (Firpo 1948; important single influence” on Botero’s thought.
Descendre 2009). However, his discussions of Another major problem encountered by Botero
specific cases often complicate this seemingly in his discussion of how to “found, preserve and
straightforward distinction: for instance, his call extend the State” lay in the inherently controver-
for secrecy and dissimulation (Botero 1589, 2.7 sial nature of the third of these objectives. Follow-
and 2.15), his praise of ruthless cunning in foreign ing a tradition dating back to Roman
relations (Botero 1589, 9.22), his heartfelt admi- historiographers, Renaissance political theorists
ration for the greatness achieved by non-Christian often viewed territorial expansion as a double-
empires (see, for instance, his praise of China in edged sword that led first to ephemeral greatness
Botero 1588, 2, and 1596, 2.2), and his utilitarian and then inevitably to decadence and collapse (see
view of religion as a stabilizing force ensuring the classic discussion in Machiavelli, Discorsi,
unity and peace (Botero 1589, 2.16; see Chabod 1.6). Admitting that preservation and extension
1969) seem to suggest that the former Jesuit had can be incompatible aims in the long term, Botero
learnt more from his polemical targets than he was expressed a clear preference for the former over
willing to concede in principle. However, the the latter (see, for instance, Botero 1589, 1.5–1.6,
question of Botero’s “Machiavellianism” still and 1596, 2.2, “Moscovia”). He argued that
remains to a large extent an open question. unchecked expansionism was not only potentially
According to some scholars (for instance, Waley catastrophic for the State but also hardly accept-
1956; De Mattei 1979; Suppa 1992), a profound able on moral grounds, given the dubious legiti-
gap in mentality and intentions separates Botero macy of military aggression (Botero 1589, 2.9).
and Machiavelli beyond any superficial similari- At the same time, he believed that offensive war,
ties; others, however, have underlined the conti- though unjustified against fellow Christians, was
nuities between the two authors, with particular perfectly legitimate and indeed praiseworthy
respect to their conception of power relations against declared enemies of the Christian religion
within and outside the State (for instance, Tenenti such as the Turks (ibidem).
1992; Vasoli 1992; Descendre 2003, 2009). As a safer alternative to territorial expansion-
Botero’s relationship with the thought of Jean ism, Botero recommended intensive development
Bodin has been similarly debated. In particular, it within the country’s fixed borders, by means of
has been suggested (Descendre 2003 and 2009, demographic growth, land improvement, and an
elaborating on earlier insights by Chabod 1969 ever more effective harnessing of local resources.
and Tenenti 1992) that the absence of the language He specifically pointed to the Low Countries
of sovereignty from the Ragion di Stato ought to (Botero 1588, 1, and 1596, 2.2, “Cina”) and the
be taken as an indication of Botero’s attempt to Chinese empire (Botero 1588, 2; 1596, 1.2 and
elaborate a nonjuridical theory of the State: 2.2, “Cina”) as virtuous models in this respect.
according to this interpretation, the Piedmontese Drawing attention to the “added value” produced
deliberately built his idea of political power on by human labor (industria) as a crucial means of
Machiavelli’s concept of dominio (domination or enhancing a country’s wealth, Botero further
power de facto) as opposed to Bodin’s concept of advised that manufacturing and exports be
sovereignty (legitimate rule, i.e., power de jure). encouraged by all possible means (De Bernardi
On the other hand, it should be noted that the 1931; Descendre 2003). However, despite his firm
discourse of sovereignty is not completely miss- conviction that a larger population, an enlightened
ing from Botero’s outlook (see, for instance, use of the territory, and an increased volume of
4 Botero, Giovanni
exports would greatly stimulate national develop- complete yet accessible terms. By aptly capturing
ment, Botero did not believe in unlimited growth. the mutual implications of politics, war, economy,
In memorable pages that have been viewed by geography, culture, and religion in an age of State-
some (for instance, Roncaglia 2005) as an antici- building and colonial expansion, Botero imposed
pation of Malthus’ Essay on Population, Botero himself as one of the most respected political
states that the greatness (grandezza) of a State is writers of his own time and made a significant
essentially tantamount to the size of its popula- contribution to the development of modern disci-
tion, which in turn depends on two things: the plines such as political economy, demography,
“generative power” of human beings, which is urban planning, statistics, human geography, and
relatively constant, and the “nutritive power” of geopolitics. Botero’s main works were highly
a country, namely the maximum amount of people popular in his own day and remained influential
that a given territory is able to sustain. Now, since until the end of the seventeenth century, with
the “nutritive power” of a country can only grow frequent reprints and translations into several
up to a certain point, once this limit has been European languages. Having crucially
reached, stagnation or decline are the only two reformulated the terms in which the political
possible scenarios (Botero 1588, 3). debate was to be framed in the following decades
Botero’s attention for the geographic and envi- (De Mattei 1979; Borrelli 2012), Botero’s Ragion
ronmental conditions of political grandezza condi Stato elicited a number of responses, critiques,
stitutes another major thread in his work imitations, and vulgarizations all over Europe,
(Magnaghi 1906, 1936; Chabod 1969; Descendre both in the form of commentaries (see for instance
2009; Miglietti 2016). While Bodin’s sophisti- Apollinare Calderini’s Discorsi sopra la Ragion
cated theory of climates was possibly the single di Stato del Signor Giovanni Botero [1597] and
most important source for the analysis of environ- Castronovo 1973) and in that of original treatises
mental influence in Ragion di Stato (Botero 1589, (Curcio 1934; Thuau 1966; Firpo 1975; Betti
2.7), Botero’s interest in physical and human 1992; specifically on polemical responses see De
geography was also nourished by a vast corpus Mattei 1979). The Cause, too, circulated widely:
of travel accounts, diplomatic reports (relazioni), in addition to being customarily printed as an
and Jesuit missionary letters that provided him appendix to the previous work, it also occasion-
with ample information for his own Relationi ally appeared in self-standing editions or along-
universali (Chabod 1969; Magnaghi 1936; side treatises that discussed similar topics, as in
Albonico 1990; Frigo 1992). Additionally, Botero the 1665 Helmstedt edition that proposed the
was an eager reader of classical literature and work jointly with Hyppolit von Colli’s
particularly of Roman historians such as Tacitus Incrementa urbium. The Relationi universali
(Schellhase 1992; Stegmann 1992). Although his enjoyed an even greater and more lasting success
use of sources has occasionally been condemned (Albonico 1992), imposing itself as a bestseller
as uncritical (Chabod 1969 – but see Magnaghi for decades to come and reaching the most dispa-
1936), what remains remarkable is Botero’s rate and remote audiences (see Tazbir 1992 on the
capacity to craft such vastly diverse materials Polish translation of 1609). The formerly vexed
into an efficacious synthesis, thereby producing question of the Roman prohibition, in 1624, of the
what has been rightly regarded as the first serious Relationi universali in all editions but the Tarino
attempt at a geopolitical theory of the global world edition of 1601 was definitively solved by Baldini
(Descendre 2009; Perrotta 2012; Prosperi 2013). in an article based on Firpo’s findings (Baldini
1992c). In England, Botero’s thought influenced
authors such as Francis Bacon, Walter Raleigh,
Impact and Legacy Robert Johnson, and Robert Burton (Weber 2003;
De Oliveira 2003; Fitzmaurice 2007; Miglietti
The strength of Botero’s thought lay in his ability 2016), while more generally contributing to the
to describe the complexity of the modern State in emergence of mercantilism and of a modern
Botero, Giovanni 5
“commercial ideology of colonization” ▶ Political Thought

(Fitzmaurice 2007; Perrotta 2012). Botero’s influ- ▶ Reason of State
ence has been detected in French works such as ▶ Travels and Explorations
Antoine de Montchrétien’s pioneering Traicté de
l'oeconomie politique (Treatise on political econ-
omy, 1615: see Lavalley 1903; Panichi 1989) and
References
Pierre Grégoire’s De Republica (On the State,
1596: see Quaglioni 1992); however, a full over-
Primary Literature
view of Botero’s fortune in France, similar to the [for a complete list of Botero’s writings see Assandria 1926
one provided by Michael Stolleis for Germany and 1928; Firpo 1960; Firpo 1971]
(Stolleis 1992), still remains to be written. The Botero, G. 1583. De regia sapientia. Milan: Ponzio.
reception of Botero in the Iberian Peninsula has Botero, G. 1584. Del dispregio del mondo libri cinque.
Milan: Francesco & Simon Tini.
been similarly understudied, with only a few nota- Botero, G. 1588. Delle cause della grandezza delle città.
ble exceptions (Maravall 1975; Fernández- Rome: Martinelli. English translation: Botero, G. 2012.
Santamaría 1992; Puyol 2004; Casas Nadal On the causes of the greatness and magnificence of
2007). cities (trans: Symcox, G.W.). Toronto: University of
Toronto Press.
Botero, G. 1589. Della ragion di Stato libri dieci. Venezia:
Gioliti. English translation: Botero, G. 1956. The rea-
son of state (trans: Waley, P.J., and D.P. Waley).
Cross-References London: Routledge.
Botero, G. 1596. Relationi universali, in quattro parti.
People Bergamo: Comino Ventura.
Botero, G. 1599. Dell’uffitio del cardinale libri due. Rome:
Pelagallo.
▶ Antoine de Montchrétien Botero, G. 1607. I capitani. . . con alcuni discorsi curiosi.
▶ Apollinare Calderini Turin: Domenico Tarino.
▶ Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy
▶ Federico Borromeo
▶ Francis Bacon Albonico, A. 1990. Il mondo americano di Giovanni
▶ Giovanni Battista Ramusio Botero, con una selezione dalle “Epistolae” e dalle
▶ Hyppolit von Colli “Relazioni universali”. Rome: Bulzoni.
▶ Jean Bodin Albonico, A. 1992. Le ‘Relationi universali’ di Giovanni
Botero. In Baldini 1992a, Florence: Olschki, 167–184.
▶ Niccolò Machiavelli Assandria, G. 1926. Giovanni Botero. Note biografiche e
▶ Philip II of Spain bibliografiche. Bollettino storico-bibliografico
▶ Philip III of Spain subalpino 28: 407–442.
▶ Pierre Grégoire Assandria, G. 1928. Giovanni Botero. Note biografiche e
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▶ René de Lucinge subalpino 30: 29–63; 307–351.
▶ Robert Burton Baldini, A.E. (ed.) 1992a. Botero e la “Ragion di Stato”.
▶ Roberto Bellarmino Atti del Convegno in memoria di Luigi Firpo, Torino
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_186-1
Bracciolini, Poggio
Born: 11 February 1380
Hester Schadee*
Historisches Seminar, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
Abstract
Poggio, like many other humanists of his generation, was not a systematic philosopher, and his
works contain many apparent contradictions. This is all the more so since he wrote few expository
tracts, but rather dialogues, a history, numerous letters, and a collection of jokes. He was a humanist
who sometimes ranked the Church Fathers above the classics, denied the exemplary value of the
ancient world, yet balked at the suggestion that the moderns could surpass antiquity or that
modernity be judged by other standards than the classical past. An almost lifelong papal employee,
he agitated against hypocritical clergy, yet fathered 14 children with his common-law wife. If there
was one unifying factor in Poggio’s outlook, it lay in his unflinching observation of human foibles
and frailty, met with good-humored laughter, biting sarcasm, and sometimes deep despair.
Synonyms
Poggius Florentinus
Biography
Gian Francesco di Poggio Bracciolini was born in 1380 as Poggio di Guccio, in Terranuova in the
upper Arno valley; in life he became known as Poggius Florentinus, after his death as Poggio
Bracciolini. His father was a pharmacist; his mother, the daughter of a notary. At the end of the
fourteenth century, Poggio’s studies led him to Florence, where he qualified as notary in 1402. Of
modest means, he supported himself by working as a scribe and, on the basis of Carolingian models,
designed the humanist script (lettera antica), from which modern Roman fonts descend (Ullman
1960; De la Mare 1973). In this way he attracted the attention of Coluccio Salutati, Florentine
chancellor and foremost scholar of his day and mentor of a group of avant-garde humanists
including Leonardo Bruni, Niccolò de’ Niccoli, and Carlo Marsuppini. With Salutati’s patronage,
Poggio was appointed apostolic scribe (1403) and later secretary (c.1410). Poggio was present at the
Church Council of Constance (1414–1418), where he showed himself critical of clerical abuses and
wrote an apology for the burnt Hussite Jerome of Prague (1416). He also wrote a well-known letter
on the public bathing habits of the Germans, whom he praised as Epicureans for their joyful
approach to life and favorably contrasted with his compatriots (Harth 1984–1987; Gordon 1974/
1991). It is unclear how Poggio sustained himself after the deposition of his master pope John XXIII
*Email: hester.schadee@lmu.de
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in 1415 left him unemployed, and the search for ancient manuscripts he undertook from Constance
may well have had a financial motive. With two curial colleagues, he traveled the cathedral and
cloister libraries of France, Germany, and Switzerland – most famously St. Gall – and recovered
Quintilian’s complete Institutes of Oratory, Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things, and many other
texts. Notwithstanding the fame generated by these finds, the new pope Martin V did not reemploy
him at the secretarial level, and Poggio consequently took a position as secretary with Henry
Beaufort, bishop of Winchester (1419). He did not like England’s physical or cultural climate, nor
did he locate the hoped-for classical texts in English libraries; instead, he read the Church Fathers
with new appreciation. In 1423, Poggio returned to the Roman curia and followed pope Eugene IV in
his Florentine exile in 1434. There, at the age of 55, Poggio married Vaggia Buondelmonti, the
18-year-old daughter of a noble Florentine family, who bore him six children. This was the occasion
for the dialogue Should an Old man Take a Wife?, in which Poggio argued for the benefits and
pleasures of female company (Opera Omnia / Bracciolini 1963–1969). The arrangement put an end
to his common-law marriage to Lucia Pannelli, with whom he had 14 children, 3 of whom were
legitimated in 1430; he took care, however, to provide for some of this offspring in his will. Over
time Poggio acquired substantial property, including a country villa near his hometown (1438),
which he furnished with ancient sculpture. Most of his literary output was composed over the next
two decades, including imperfect Latin translations of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia (1443–1447) and
selections of Diodorus Siculus (1449) and Lucian (1455). Yet despite his personal and professional
success, the progress of time was not altogether kind to Poggio. His old Florentine friends died in
quick succession, and the younger generation of curial humanists, epitomized by Lorenzo Valla, was
not to his liking: he could not compete with their knowledge of Greek and found their technical
philology incompatible with the ideals of humanism. Poggio had long been close to Cosimo de’
Medici, the effective leader of Florence from the mid-1430s, and invited to become Florentine
chancellor in 1453 he enthusiastically accepted, only to be disappointed by the realities of incessant
political strife. He retired from the chancellorship in 1458 and died in October 1459. Poggio was
given a state funeral and lies buried in Florence’s St. Croce, alongside his friends and former
chancellors Bruni and Marsuppini (Walser 1914; Martines 1963; DBI 1971; ER 1999).
Works and Themes

Aside from occasional prose such as letters and orations, Poggio did not circulate literary works until
he was in his 50th year. His earlier contribution to the humanist Republic of Letters can be gauged
from the output of others. The last important exchange of Coluccio Salutati was with Poggio
(1406) and concerned the literary and moral value of the ancient authors versus the moderns. Poggio
took a “classicist” position, in that he assumed the automatic literary and perhaps philosophical
superiority of the ancients against Salutati’s contention that, with Christ, the foundation of ethics and
therefore the purpose of literature had permanently changed for the better. This debate forms the
subject of Leonardo Bruni’s Dialogues for Pier Paolo Vergerio (c. 1406), which showed him in
fundamental agreement with Poggio (Fubini 1992). An echo of this querelle is heard in Poggio’s
exchange of invectives with Lorenzo Valla at the very end of his career (1452–1453). Valla’s
endeavor in the Elegances (1441) to replace literary connoisseurship with the systematic study of
Latin grammar, lexicon, and syntax earned him Poggio’s ire for the assumption that a “modern”
could surpass the ancients in their own field. He was especially outraged that Valla applied
philological methods to the study of sacred texts. In like vein, Poggio attacked Valla’s Epicurean
On Pleasure (1431) and On the True and False Good (1434–1441) for the threat their relativism
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posed to established Christian-Stoic morality. Erasmus later opined that, while Poggio could boast
a fluent Latin style, Valla surpassed him in his knowledge of the language (Camporeale 1982;
Trinkaus 1987).
Poggio’s first independent work On Avarice (1428–1429) is of interest for its theme and for the
light it sheds on his methods as an author (Germano 1994, Kohl and Witt 1978). Although the text is
presented as an academic dialogue, there is neither a Ciceronian reconciliation of different views nor
a skeptic suspension of judgment; furthermore, the choice and assertions of the three main speakers
are ironic, so that it is unclear where Poggio stands. The question under consideration is the
evaluation of avarice, which can refer to the sin of usury, but also glosses the impulse toward
commercial activity for the sake of the accumulation of wealth. Pertinent issues are distinctions
between public and private wealth, the Church and secular society, the moral or theological status of
the vice or sin, and their effects. Since the dialogue takes issue with recent sermons of the Observant
Franciscan San Bernardino of Siena endorsing commerce, it also raises the question of the value of
the clergy as model and arbiter of the mores of secular society. Some scholars have seen Poggio as
a spokesperson for a new, guilt-free approach to economic activity (Garin 1965), while others by
contrast read his opposition to San Bernardino as a plea to reinstate the rigor of the patristic Church
(Oppel 1977, but cf. Goldbrunner 1979). In truth Poggio probably approves of what he views as part
of human character – the wish to better one’s position – as long as the ethical and economic costs and
gains are considered carefully. He thus condemns the Church’s arrogation of the right to forbid or
condone, as well as the doubtful example set by the mendicant monks (Fubini 2003). Clerical
hypocrisy is also a theme in Poggio’s anti-monastic dialogue Against Hypocrites (1447–1448)
(Canfora 2008). Poggio notes, however, that hypocrisy is a uniquely human characteristic
and – just like greed – not without societal benefits: the question is, again, under what conditions
hypocrisy is acceptable. On Avarice is indebted to Bruni’s translation of pseudo-Aristotle’s Eco-
nomics (1420), and Against Hypocrites to Bruni’s 1418 treatise of the same name. Themes and
examples from both Poggian dialogues recur in the Prince (1513) and Discourses (1513–1519) of
Machiavelli.
Poggio’s next texts address the triangulation of virtue, honor or glory, and nobility in the context
of political life. In 1435 Poggio wrote a short letter denouncing Julius Caesar’s crimes against the
Roman Republic while presenting Scipio Africanus as the prototype of a leading citizen. An
outraged vindication of Caesar by the Ferrarese humanist Guarino Veronese drove Poggio to
compose a lengthier second treatise, which in turn inspired responses from Ciriaco d’ Ancona
(1436) and Pietro del Monte (1440). Poggio’s text bespeak the political thought of the Roman
Stoa – Cicero and Seneca are frequently cited – and advance virtue, rather than greatness of
achievements, as criterion for evaluating leading men. Scipio deserves praise for putting his
country’s interests above his own, which demonstrates his Stoic self-control. By contrast, Caesar’s
supposed virtues Poggio redefines as vices – his liberality for instance was actually theft: cf.
Machiavelli’s Prince 16 for a similar re-description – since they served his tyrannical desires rather
than the common good. Poggio also blames Caesar for the demise of Latin letters, since literary
culture is incompatible with single rule. Taking up Bruni’s anti-Caesarism in the abovementioned
Dialogues and his Laudation on the City of Florence (1404), Poggio’s contributions to the Caesar-
Scipio Controversy have become key exhibits of Florentine republican “civic humanism” (Baron
1966; Canfora 2001). His juxtaposition of Caesar and Scipio Africanus also inspired Giovanni
Pontanus’ meditations on both men (Schadee 2015). Poggio’s following work, the dialogue On
Nobility (1440), likewise advocates the paramount importance of virtue, this time as criterion for
nobility. Yet in contrast to the political arena studied in the Controversy, the main speaker of On
Nobility asserts that virtue is most plausibly approached through a contemplative life. The nature of
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this virtue is not systematically analyzed, but it again corresponds to the ethics of the Roman Stoa.
The Aristotelian counterargument that virtue is of practical use only in a political life, which itself
depends on external factors such as status and wealth, is certainly not Poggio’s own position.
However, to the other objection, that the Stoic ideal of virtue is unattainable, Poggio must have
been sympathetic, as his following dialogues attest. Subsequent humanists writing on nobility,
including Lauro Quirini, Platina, and Cristoforo Landino, all depend on Poggio’s dialogue (Rabil
1991; Canfora 2002).
On the Unhappiness of Princes (1440), its counterpart On the Vagary of Fortune (1447–1448),
and the rambling On the Misery of the Human Condition (1455) all discuss – with increasing
anguish – man’s vulnerability in the face of fortune. Although Poggio does not define fortune, his
treatment suggests that he conceives of it not as a cosmic necessity, but rather as the uncertainties and
complexities of human existence, which man cannot control and to which god, apparently, is
indifferent (Fubini 1982). While his concept of virtue in these dialogues remains Stoic in the
sense of being internal, autarkic, and founded on self-control, Poggio denies the Stoa’s central
tenet that such virtue equals happiness. In On the Unhappiness of Princes, he shows that power
almost inevitably corrupts – regardless of the political system in which it is held (Canfora 1998,
1999). Yet, no less importantly, even if a prince were to succeed in cultivating virtue, the afflictions
of fortune that come with his position would still result in his unhappiness. On the Vagary of Fortune
extends the latter argument to all men, public and private, as well as peoples and states (Merisalo
1993). In the process it offers reflections on the ruins of Rome and the calamities of contemporary
politics: the classical past was no less wretched than the present, according to Poggio, and the
greatness of Rome’s former glory merely indicates the inevitability of decline. The Misery of the
Human Condition elaborates these themes in combination with a fierce attack on the papacy, which
also revisits Poggio’s previous targets avarice, hypocrisy, and ambition (Kraye 1997). The text
stands in stark contrast to humanist literature on the dignity of man produced at the time by
Bartolomeo Facio, Giannozzo Manetti, and later Pico della Mirandola. As specimens of political
thought, Poggio’s works fit in a tradition stretching from Xenophon’s Hieron, Cicero, Sallust,
Seneca, and John of Salisbury’s Polycraticus to Gian Battista Alberti’s Momus (c.1450), Agostino
Nifo’s On the King and the Tyrant (1526), and again Machiavelli’s Prince (Canfora 1998). As
reflections on fortune, they echo Boccaccio’s On the Fate of Famous Men (1355–1374) as well as
Christian contemptus mundi literature (Fubini 1982; Merisalo 1993).
Arguably, Poggio’s nonphilosophical works, namely, his letters, the Facetiae or Jokes
(1438–1452) and the History of Florence (unfinished), offer the clearest evidence of his mentality
(Pittaluga 1995). In the History, which continues Bruni’s (1415–1444), Poggio dispenses with some
of his predecessor’s partisanship and surpasses him in acute observation of the conduct and motives
of his protagonists (Wilcox 1969; Struever 1970; Krantz 1987). The letters and especially the ribald
Facetiae similarly demonstrate his sharp eye for human interactions, their rights and wrongs from
different perspectives, and their comic potential. About a quarter of the Facetiae have a moral
message; the remainder rather replace exemplarity with exhortations to see the world as it is, adapt to
its conditions, brace oneself against fortune, and in the meanwhile try to live a joyful life (Tateo
1982; Sozzi 1982). This attitude may offer a connective thread through Poggio’s manifold and
seemingly contradictory concerns. Poggio was strongly critical of the Church and set little store by
Christian mores but defended the authority of scripture. Not immune to the value of pleasure and
alert to cultural differences, he nonetheless rejected Epicurean relativism as a threat to any firm
morality. He advocated republican values but favored a contemplative life over politics as a more
plausible path to virtue. This virtue he conceived of in Stoic terms, yet he denied it guaranteed
happiness in life as it is actually lived. Thus, the primacy of virtue and its Christian-Stoic foundations
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were never in question for Poggio. However, he was always aware of the ways in which human
experience falls short of the ideal. This realism, anti-dogmatism, and striving for authenticity,
compared with a belief in absolute, if unattainable, moral standards, reverberates in all the works
discussed, and is the unique voice of Poggio.
References
Primary Literature
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Gordon P (trans) (1974/1991) Two renaissance book hunters: the letters of Poggius Bracciolini to
Nicolaus De Niccolis. Columbia University Press, New York
Harth H (ed) (1984–1987) Lettere. 3 vols. Olschki, Florence
Kohl B, Witt R (trans) (1978) On Avarice. In: The earthly republic: Italian Humanists on Govern-
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University Press, Durham
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59:436–452
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Budé, Guillaume
Born: 26 January 1468, Paris
Died: 22 August 1540, Paris
Luigi-Alberto Sanchi*
CNRS, Institut d’histoire du droit, Paris, France
Abstract
Guillaume Budé’s manifold humanistic production represents a puzzling challenge in today’s specialized
scholarship and makes it difficult to encompass all its aspects. A higher civil servant at the French Court,
Budé never held teaching appointments, but showed in his books how French university teaching should
be renewed through the study of the humanities. He is considered to have been the founder of Collège de
France, whose first lectures were given in 1530. Budé became King Francis I’s counsellor and thus helped
Parisian humanism to develop. His production was wide ranging, including a philological study of
Justinian’s Digest ushering in the Mos Gallicus iuris docendi (a new historical approach to Roman
law), an outstanding monograph on economics in Antiquity, moral essays, and a large Greek prose
thesaurus anticipating that of Henri Estienne. Budé also published some translations from Greek and a
selection of his own letters, written in Greek and Latin. His extensive knowledge was based on a large
personal library, which is still known only partially. From a religious point of view, Budé defended in his
De Transitu hellenismi ad Christianismum a sort of Gallican version of Catholicism against, on the one
hand, the growing French Lutheran movement and, on the other, the conservative Sorbonne theologians
hostile to the humanistic renewal of the University of Paris.
Alternate Names
Budaeus, Guillielmus
Biography
Born in Paris on 26 January 1468, Guillaume Budé came from that milieu of higher civil servants that
would eventually become the French noblesse de robe or “robin” establishment (Delaruelle 1907;
McNeill 1975; Gadoffre 1997; Maillard 1999). His father, Jean, was an educated man, a jurist appointed
as a royal secretary at the King’s court; the family of his mother, Catherine Le Picart, was linked to the
powerful Poncher family. The fourth of 15 siblings, Guillaume received a primary school education in
Paris and then studied law in Orleans, 1483–1486. Some three years later, he went far beyond his father’s
love for books and started a period of intensive and lonesome studies, at first on Roman law, then on
Antiquity as a whole; Jean tried to discourage his son by getting him appointed at the royal court as a
secretary, so that Guillaume could start a career as a court jurist. Instead, Guillaume used any spare time he
had to get in touch with some Italian humanists who came to Paris and with the humanistic circle of
*Email: luigi-alberto.sanchi@u-paris2.fr
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Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples, at that time a successful professor in the Faculty of Arts in Paris, after his
journey to Italy.
Probably in 1494, Budé was taught basic Ancient Greek by Georgios Hermonymos, a scribe and
professor in Paris. As King Charles VIII returned from war in Italy with the famous Greek scholar and
diplomat Janos Lascaris, Budé was introduced to him, became his friend and obtained from him some
advanced Greek lessons which fostered his learning. Thanks to that and to an intensive training, Budé was
now able to read – in addition to ancient and medieval Latin literature – several major Greek authors he
could find either in manuscripts (Hermonymos copied a few for him) or in the first incunabula printed in
Italy. In 1501 and 1505, he also had the opportunity to travel to Italy with the King’s court, visited Venice,
Florence, and Rome and met a few Italian scholars, including Poliziano’s disciple Pietro Ricci, who
showed Budé, in Florence, some of his master’s notebooks.
At this time, Budé started to publish his own productions. A few short translations from Plutarch, Ps.-
Plutarch and Basil of Caesarea (Budé 1505, 1506) marked him as the first Frenchman to translate from
Ancient Greek into Latin in modern times. He soon published his first monograph, a vast and controver-
sial inquiry on Roman laws and institutions grounded on an innovative historical and philological study of
Justinian’s Digest: Annotationes in XXIV Pandectarum libros (Budé 1508; see also Budé 1544). Yet Budé
did not acquire international fame before his 1515 masterpiece De Asse et partibus eius libri V, which
solved some fundamental mysteries in understanding Antiquity’s economic system and was read by key
scholars of the day, like Erasmus and Thomas More.
Under King Louis XII, Budé kept away from the court, dominated by a group that was indifferent or
hostile to the humanistic renewal Budé and his friends wanted to implement in France following the
example of Renaissance Italy. However, when in 1515 a new King, the young Francis I, ascended the
throne. Budé gradually obtained the King’s attention and support. Thus began a prestigious career at his
court, where he became counsellor of the King, then maı̂tre des requêtes, a sort of mayor of Paris, and
maı̂tre de la librairie du roi, the King’s personal librarian. A first step on this path was a French manuscript
work (Budé [1519]) addressed to Francis and containing various counsels on how to be a good monarch
collected from Plutarch, from the Bible and from ancient historians and philosophers (The book is known
under the title of Institution du prince and was printed after Budé’s death with some additions: Budé
1547). Later on, a French summary of De Asse (Budé 1522) enjoyed local success and would be
republished many times. Francis I came to appear in some of Budé’s fictional dialogues; two of his
works were dedicated to him.
On the other hand, Budé addressed the humanist public again in 1520 with the first edition of his Greek
and Latin Epistles, a collection of letters between Budé’s and various French, Italian, and other European
scholars, whose contents indicated international acknowledgement for De Asse (Budé 1531; Gueudet
2004). He wrote a philosophical essay on the concept of chance (Budé 1520; Lecointe 2006) and issued
three other editions of De Asse: in Paris in 1516, in Venice, at the press of the heirs of Aldo Manuzio, in
1522, and then in Paris in 1524, again with his friend the printer Josse Bade.
By this time, Budé and his Parisian humanist friends had reason to believe that the struggle for a
humanist renewal in France would be successful. But the King’s captivity in Spain (1525–1526) as well as
the quick progression of Lutheranism in France and especially among Parisian humanists changed the
situation.
French humanists came more often and more openly under attack by the Sorbonne theologians as they
were suspected of being Lutheran. The danger was such that some of them had to be granted royal
protection, often due to Budé’s interventions. He also launched another ambitious research project on the
lexicography of Greek prose, based on thousands of quotations, which would lead to the publication of the
Commentarii linguae Graecae (Budé 1529) and to the enrichment of earlier books through new editions:
in 1526, he both issued an enlarged edition of Annotationes in Pandectas and a new translation of Philo’s
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and Ps.-Aristoteles treaties De mundo (Budé 1526); in 1527, a fifth, greatly revised edition of De Asse was
published.
The Commentarii enjoyed immediate success and had three international editions in 1530. In order to
protect French humanists, Budé opened his work with a remarkable Greek preface to Francis I, boldly
asking him to found and sponsor a wealthy Royal College meant to disseminate the knowledge of all
sciences through the study of ancient tongues, in particular Greek and Hebrew, and to create a new French
educated élite rivalling that in Italy. The preface was read to King Francis in a French manuscript version.
Printed in September 1529, the masterpiece was followed, at the beginning of 1530, by the creation of the
first two chairs of “Lecteurs royaux” (royal professors) in Greek and Hebrew. This was later recognized as
the starting point of Collège des Lecteurs royaux (now known as the Collège de France).
Budé’s last ten years of life – he died in Paris on 22 August 1540 – were equally restless. He prepared
new editions of his Epistles, of the Annotationes in Pandectas (1535), of De Asse (1532 and 1541,
posthumous) as well as of the Commentarii, fully reworked and enriched by one third (1548). But he had
to keep battling, together with other important French humanists like François Rabelais, Étienne Dolet,
and others, because their enemies, mainly the conservative Sorbonne theologians, would not stop
attacking humanist teachings and books: a trial against the Royal lecturers was launched no later than
1533. Budé gave active support to his friends at the King’s court, also by writing theoretical treatises on
the importance of philology and the humanities, De Studio recte ac commode instituendo and De
Philologia, a dialogue with Francis I (Budé 1532a, b).
The King’s attitude suddenly became much less favourable after the Affaire des Placards, a radical
Protestant provocation against the “papal Mass” which occurred in October 1534; this event unleashed a
general repression including, among others, a ban on printing books. Probably worried about the survival
of French humanism, Budé felt the need to publish his thoughts about scholarship and Christian religion;
he argued that the latter needs to be subject to the former in a scholar’s life. De Transitu hellenismi ad
christianismum (“The Transition from Hellenism to Christianity”) was printed in 1535 with a vibrant
preface to the King, where Budé attempts to make a distinction between the “good” humanists asking for
peaceful discussions and the “bad” radical reformers aiming at subverting the society (Budé 1535; La
Garanderie 1995). The following year, John Calvin opposed this point of view in his own preface,
addressed to the King, of the first edition of his Institutes of the Christian religion (Bohatec 1950).

Like Erasmus, Budé aimed at becoming the heir of the best Italian humanist tradition, represented by
Lorenzo Valla and Angelo Poliziano (Budé 1556; Sandy 2003). For him, the meaning of humanism is
essentially the possibility to study thoroughly Antiquity’s complex universe in order to reform modern
nations. His first approach is that of a jurist: after Valla and Poliziano, he understood the need for a better
grasp of Roman law, taking Justinian’s Digest as an exceptional monument of ancient literature that
reveals several aspects of Greek and Roman civilization. So Budé’s Annotationes (Budé 1508) harshly
criticized the medieval tradition of Digest interpretation to introduce a new, historical way to study it
(Kelley 1970). With De Asse (Budé 1515; Sanchi 2012), he tried to equal Italian humanism in its best
results – Poliziano’s Miscellaneorum Centuria prima (1489) and Ermolao Barbaro’s Castigationes
Plinianae (1492–1493) – by offering emendations to Pliny’s difficult texts and reconstructing features
such as counting and monetary systems, variations of prices and economic value in Antiquity, which his
predecessors did not fully understand. Budé may also be linked to the late Byzantine tradition, thanks to
his friendship with Janos Lascaris and to his relations with Georgios Hermonymos; he thus came to have a
deep knowledge of elevated byzantine Greek, derived directly from Greek speakers and writers.
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Most of Budé’s innovations are to be found in his scholarly production. Together with Andrea Alciato and
before Jacques Cujas, Budé is considered as the founder of the Mos Gallicus iuris docendi, the new
historical school of Roman law interpretation opposed to the medieval, and systematic, Mos Italicus. His
research on Roman law included a large-scale comparison of the institutions in Greece, in Rome, and in
France; in the footsteps of Poliziano, but in a much more intensive way, he focused on the study of rare or
difficult words and on the emendation of textual errors that had occurred during medieval transmission
and interpretation.
If the Annotationes in Pandectas still has the structure of a commentary, De Asse is one of the first
modern scientific monographs, composed like an essay and focused on philological problem solving,
mostly on Pliny and other difficult texts and on reconstructing ancient economic systems. It displays a
modern approach, including a study of primary sources like Hellenistic and Roman coins. Moreover,
Budé explains to his readers the development of his research in minute detail, offering a sort of
philological detective story about his discoveries and the difficulties he had to overcome. This feature
makes De Asse a unique masterpiece. More generally, Budé’s method is described in terms of “philolog-
ical imagination” (Logan 2003).
Budé’s third philological large work, the Commentarii linguae Graecae, includes a collection of some
20,000 quotations chosen to illustrate several semantic nuances in Greek vocabulary, mainly taken from
the prose style of a wide range of authors, from Homer to Ps.-Dionysius (Sanchi 2006). The first Greek
thesaurus produced in the West, the Commentarii was the standard work in this field until Henri Estienne’s
1572 Thesaurus linguae Graecae.
Impact and Legacy

Budé’s work enjoyed a broad influence until the end of the seventeenth century. During his lifetime, his
major works were constantly republished in France and abroad and enjoyed a large success in the
scholarly world of humanists, even though Budé’s prose was seen as harsh and difficult (Wallace 2009;
La Garanderie 2010). After his death, he became the point of reference for the new generation of French
scholars, including Cujas, Lambin, and Casaubon.
His permanent struggle to set French humanism on a solid footing under royal protection reached its
goal with the foundation of the first chairs of “Lecteurs royaux,” an institution given more permanence at
the beginning of the seventeenth century. This achievement derived from a preoccupation reflected in
almost all of his writings, since Budé was wont to insert even in his philological works some long
digressions on French national issues, mostly about the need to develop high-level education in the élites
and to better organize the kingdom. In the area of politics, Budé authored a precocious reflection on the
power of monarchs (“Princeps legibus solutus” in Annotationes, but also in Institution du Prince) which
gave rise to an absolutist point of view, if not to a complete theory of absolutism.
Budé’s sincere Christian faith led him to publish his thoughts on religious matters. He boldly criticized
the established Church, calling for a deep reformation of it, but soon began to oppose the Lutheran and
radical Reformation movements, which he mainly saw as the roots of public disorder (yet Budé and his
sons probably knew John Calvin, born 1509, since the early 1530s; and in 1549 Budé’s widow, Roberte
Le Lieur, joined Calvin in Geneva with a majority of their family). If many reflections about these
religious issues are already within his scholarly works as digressions, a full development of them is given
in De Transitu, which has received recent editions with French translation (see at Budé 1535).
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Even though Budé is far less renowned today than his contemporary Erasmus, his works continue to be
republished and several aspects of his scholarship and intellectual positions are being investigated anew.
Cross-References
▶ Angelo Poliziano
▶ Collège de France
▶ Erasmus
▶ Étienne Dolet
▶ François Rabelais
▶ Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples
▶ John Calvin
▶ Lorenzo Valla
▶ Thomas More
References
Primary Literature
Budé G (1505) Praeclarissima et bonis institutis accommodatissima Plutarchi Chaeronei ex
interpretatione G. B. [. . .] De tranquillitate et securitate animi Lib. I cui accessit [. . .] De vita per
solitudinem transigenda [. . .] De fortuna Romanorum [. . .] Lib. I, De fortuna vel virtute Alexandri
Libri II. Paris
Budé G (1506) Plutarchi Chaeronei [Ps.-] de placitis philosophorum libri a G. B. latini facti. Paris
Budé G (1508) Annotationes [. . .] in quattuor et viginti Pandectarum libros. Paris. Definitive edition:
Paris, 1535
Budé G (1515) De asse et partibus eius libri quinque. Paris. Definitive edition: Paris, 1541
Budé G [1519] (1966) “Institution du prince” (see 1547). Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, ms. 5103. In:
Bontems C (ed) Le Prince dans la France des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, pp 67–139. Paris
Budé G (1520) De contemptu rerum fortuitarum. Paris
Budé G (1522) Summaire et epitome du livre De asse. Paris. In: La Garanderie, M.-M. de, Sanchi L-A
(eds) (2008). Paris
Budé G (1526) Aristotelis [Ps.-] De mundo libellus. Philonis Iudaei itidem De mundo libellus. Paris
Budé G (1529) Commentarii linguae Graecae. Paris. Definitive edition: Paris, 1548
Budé G (1531) Epistolae Latinae et Graecae. Paris. In: La Garanderie M-M (Partial ed) (1967) La
correspondance d’Érasme et de Guillaume Budé. Paris
Budé G (1532a) De studio literarum recte et commode instituendo. Paris. In: La Garanderie M-M de
(ed) (1988) Paris
Budé G (1532b) De Philologia. Paris. In: Lebel M (ed) (1989) Sherbrooke. La Garanderie M-M de (ed)
(2001) Paris
Budé G (1535) De transitu Hellenismi ad Christianismum. Paris. In: Lebel M (ed) (1973) Sherbrooke. La
Garanderie M-M de and Penham DF (ed) (1993). Paris
Budé G (1544) Forensia. Paris
Budé G (1547) “Institution du prince” [three different titles]. Lyon, Paris, L’Arrivour
Budé G (1556) Omnia opera [French writings excepted]. Basel. Reprint Farnborough, 1966–1969
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Bohatec J (1950) Budé und Calvin. Studien zur Gedankenwelt des französischen Fr€ uhhumanismus. Graz
de La Garanderie M-M (1995) Christianisme et lettres profanes. Essai sur l’humanisme français
(1515–1535) et sur la pensée de Guillaume Budé. Paris
de La Garanderie M-M (2010) Guillaume Budé, philosophe de la culture. Paris
Delaruelle L (1907) Guillaume Budé. Les origines, les débuts, les idées maîtresses. Paris. (Reprint
Geneva, 2012)
Gadoffre G (1997) La Révolution culturelle dans la France des humanistes. Guillaume Budé et François
Ier, Geneva
Gueudet G (2004) L’Art de la lettre humaniste. Paris
Kelley DR (1970) Foundations of modern historical scholarship. Language, law and history in the French
renaissance. Columbia University Press, New York
Lecointe J (2006) Éthos stoïque et morale stoïcienne [. . .] dans le De Contemptu rerum fortuitarum de
G. Budé (1520). In: Stoı̈cisme et christianisme à la Renaissance. Paris, pp 35–58
Logan MR (2003) Gulielmus Budaeus’ philological imagination. Modern language Notes
118:1140–1151
Maillard J-F et al (1999) Guillaume Budé. In: La France des Humanistes. Hellénistes I. Turnhout, Brepols,
pp 43–92
McNeill DO (1975) Guillaume Budé and humanism in the reign of Francis I. Geneva
Sanchi L-A (2006) Les “Commentaires de la langue grecque” de G. Budé. Genève
Sanchi L-A (2012) Humanistes et Antiquaires. Le De Asse de Guillaume Budé. Anabases 16:207–223
Sandy G (2003) Guillaume Budé: philologist and polymath. A preliminary study. In: The classical
heritage in France, Leiden, pp 79–108
Wallace J (2009) The merits of being obscure: Erasmus and Budé Debate the style, shape and audience of
humanist scholarship. Moreana 177–178:198–229
Page 6 of 6
C
Carafa, Diomede trust of Alfonso, since he once again fought along-

side him in 1442, during his campaign in Naples
Born: 1406 or 1408, Naples for the conquest of the kingdom.
Died: 17 May 1487, Naples Certainly, Carafa developed close ties to
Alfonso’s son, Ferdinand, becoming his trusted
Enrica Guerra aide once he inherited the Kingdom of Naples.
Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy In return for his loyalty and able leadership in
diplomatic affairs on behalf of Ferdinand, Carafa
obtained considerable political power and distinc-
Abstract tions, including his appointment to the Order of
the Ermine. He also obtained a number of noble
Diomede Carafa, trusted aide of Ferdinand of titles and lands, most importantly that of Earl of
Aragon, was in charge of educating the king’s Maddaloni’s land.
children. He continued to exercise this role even One of Carafa’s preeminent roles was as edu-
when they were adults, writing for each of them a cator of Ferdinand’s children (Alfonso, Giovanni,
Memoriale, a work through which, following the Federico, Eleonora, and Beatrice). He continued
tradition of the Specula principum, as well as the to exercise mentorship over them once they had
thought of the ancient philosophers, he suggested reached adulthood, writing for one of them a
to each of them how to live their lives whether as a Memoriale on good behavior. Carafa is mainly
man of arms or a king or a princess. remembered today for his Memoriali, which also
include instruction manuals for being a good cour-
tier and a good wife and a book dedicated to
Biography Henry of Seville and Toledo. These writings’
dates of composition range from 1467 to 1479.
Diomede Carafa was the youngest son of Antonio The first Memoriale (1467) was dedicated to
Carafa, well known as a warlord with the nick- the older Ferrante’s son, Alfonso of Aragon, Duke
name of “Malizia,” and Caterina Farafalla. At of Calabria, on the occasion of the alliance of
about 20 years of age, once the struggles for the Naples, Florence, and Milan against Venice. In
inheritance of the Kingdom of Naples had been 1470, during the fights of Henry of Castille
resolved, Diomede accompanied Alfonso of Ara- against Alfonso V of Portugal, he composed,
gon to Spain. We do not know exactly what the under the name of Ferdinand of Aragon, King of
role of Carafa in the Spanish royal court was, but Naples, the Memoriale in nome di Ferdinando
we can assume that he had been able to earn the primo re di Napoli ad Arrigo di Siviglia e di
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_188-1
2 Carafa, Diomede
Toledo. Probably between 1472 and 1476, he environment, reflect the moods and political situ-
wrote I doveri del principe, which was dedicated ations of the Kingdom of Naples during the reign
to Eleonora of Aragon, Duchess of Ferrara. In of Alfonso of Aragon and, above all, of his son
1476, he composed two Memoriali: one for Ferdinand, who had been involved, for all of his
Beatrice of Aragon and the other for her brother reign, in fights against the kingdom’s barons and
Francesco who came with her to Hungary, where in the struggles among the Italian states. But it is
Beatrice married King Matthias Corvinus. They surely due to internal political problems that Nea-
are the Memoriale a Francesco d’Aragona and politan literati focused their attention, in the fif-
the Memoriale alla serenissima regina de teenth and sixteenth centuries, on political topics,
Ungheria. Some contents of this last work are giving rise to a series of works in which they
similar to those of the Memoriale et recordo de advised princes and princesses how to live their
quello have da fare la mulglyere per stare ad bene lives and relate to people around them (Sapegno
con suo marito et in che modo se have ab 1984; Villani 1996).
onestare, dedicated to an unknown woman Certainly the main known work that depicts
(Carafa 1988a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m). this Neapolitan tradition of political and behav-
The Memoriale to Giovanni of Aragon (1478), ioral treatises is Giovanni Pontano’s De Principe
cardinal and papal legate in the Kingdom of Hun- (Pontano 2003), whose style may have inspired
gary, was followed by a Memoriale per il capitano Carafa’s treatise I doveri del principe. Like
prudente (1479), dedicated, once again, to Pontano, Carafa lists and describes the moral vir-
Alfonso of Aragon, who in 1479, after the Pazzi tues that a prince should possess in order to create
conspiracy in Florence, helped the pontiff’s army harmony and order among people and between
against the Medici. Carafa’s last treatises also date him and his subjects. Carafa, as well as Pontano
from 1479, the Libro delli precepti o vero before him, follows an established view, which
instructione delli cortesani, which seems to be derives from antiquity, according to which a king-
dedicated to Diomede’s oldest son, Giovanni dom is a mirror of its sovereign. Thus, in his
Tommaso, and a second Memoriale is dedicated Memoriali, he emphasizes the function of a virtu-
to Federico of Aragon who was moving to France ous prince as the main guarantee for an ordered
to marry Anne of Savoy, the niece of King Louis reign.
XI of France. Among all the moral virtues, Carafa gives a
After these years, Carafa seems to have ceased prominent and essential place to the princely vir-
to write, perhaps because he had reached his pur- tue of justice. The high value attributed to this
pose of imparting, through a series of books, a virtue links Carafa’s works not only to Pontano
range of moral precepts or suggestions to the sons but also to the ancient tradition, especially to
and daughters of the King of Naples. After writing Cicero and Aristotle, more than to Plato, probably
these Memoriali, Carafa totally dedicated his life studied by Carafa but certainly known through
to diplomatic affairs until his death on 17 May Pontano and Petrarch’s Epistolario (Patrizi 1984;
1487 (Petrucci 1976a, b). Persico 1899). This kind of knowledge seems to
Despite his literary activity, we do not know have been used, by Carafa, to adapt the ideas
much about Carafa’s studies both during his boy- expressed by the ancient philosophers to the real-
hood and adulthood, even if we can assume, from ity of Carafa’s time. Above all, according to him,
the contents of his works, that he was acquainted justice seems to express the measure of the ability
with ancient and contemporary authors. Probably of a prince or princesses to govern a kingdom and
he attended Naples’ literary circles, and certainly defines their relationships with their subjects. It
he was part of Giovanni Pontano’s Academy, seems that the ability to rule well in everyday life
which exercised a significant influence on is the main characteristic of the modern prince, the
Carafa’s literary activities. one that distinguishes him from the prince
His works, like some others that come from the described by the medieval Specula principum.
fifteenth century’s Neapolitan literary
Carafa, Diomede 3
Carafa was well acquainted with and was in order to be loved by them, but it is enough if
likely influenced by the Specula principum tradi- you do not deprive them of theirs.” And we can
tion, including its evolution during the fourteenth find a sort of application of these words in some
and fifteenth centuries. Originating from a medi- letters of hers addressed to Ercole of Este in which
eval line of thought that made the king’s power she recommends that he must control his soldiers
derive directly from God, the Specula saw God as and that he should punish them if they kill, steal,
the only one to whom the king was responsible for or beat his subjects, because in this kind of actions
his actions. As an intermediary between God and “I see a real danger” (of subversion of his political
the people, the prince was expected to exercise power) (Guerra 2005). It is also notable that
virtue and avoid vice (Sapegno 1984); thus, the Carafa’s texts were written in the vernacular, so
Specula often included a catalogue of virtues and as to meet the needs of his audience more
vices, and Carafa’s Memoriali follow this model, immediately.
both ideologically and stylistically. Furthermore, This focus on real people and situations is also
according to Carafa, God is the source of the characteristic of I doveri del principe, Carafa’s
prince’s misfortunes; he must face them patiently most-studied work. As a counselor to the power-
(Carafa 1988b, e, f, g). In this way, he can be ful, Carafa had a particular insight into what the
considered a good sovereign and gain the obedi- prince needs to consider in his decision-making.
ence of his people. Thus, Carafa emphasized a focus on the needs of
Carafa saw patience and prudence as the foun- the state, leaving aside considerations having to
dation of a way of living that was called the giusto do with relatives and friends (Carafa 1988b).
mezzo (“golden mean”): the ability to live life Four themes of Diomede Carafa’s life and
according to the right measure, whether in actions works are especially significant: his view that
or words. This outlook connects the Memoriali to experience should be the sole guide of policy,
the medieval Specula and, above all, to Aristotle. the importance of wisdom and wit, the role of
Pontano had referred to it often, and Carafa courtesy and humanitas (i.e., the giusto mezzo),
strongly developed it, making it a leitmotiv of and, finally, the obedience and loyalty that the
his entire oeuvre and probably of his life. In all sovereign should be able to elicit from his subjects
his treatises, he explained to his addressees how to by making use of the other three values mentioned
live rightly, within the giusto mezzo, not giving (Miele 1989; Miele 1976). The focus on experi-
them an abstract law, but practical directions that ence underlines Carafa’s emphasis on everyday
they could, immediately and directly, apply in observation of facts, leading to the prince’s ability
their everyday life. to solve problems concretely. According to
The purpose of Carafa’s Memoriali was not, Carafa, this was more important than any abstract
however, to create an exemplary prince, like the law or idea if a man or a woman wanted to have an
one auspicated by the political and pedagogical- ordered reign. As for wisdom and wit, they are the
behavioral treatises that had been written during means through which a sovereign can display his
the fifteenth century. Rather, through his works, ability to solve political problems. A prince who
Carafa depicted concrete life situations, as well as has them is surely able to live his life and to rule
concrete characters that could be found in the his reign according to the giusto mezzo. In this
reality of his time. Carafa’s innovation is his context, words (whether spoken or heard) play a
focus on real characters, in need of practical sug- fundamental role in solving or preventing prob-
gestions. This approach contrasted with political lems and are thus essential to wisdom and wit, as
and pedagogical treatises that had concentrated well as to courtesy and humanitas.
their attention on building a perfect, as well as a Finally, according to Carafa, it is only through
hypothetical, prince or courtier. An example of his moderate gestures and a moderate use of words
practical instructions for deportment is his sug- that a prince can display his wisdom. Although
gestion to Eleonora of Aragon that “it is not true similar features are emphasized in Pontano and in
that you have to give your goods to your subjects Baldassarre Castiglione’s Il libro del Cortegiano
4 Carafa, Diomede
(Castiglione 2000) – a work that is often Carafa, D. 1988l. Memoriale scritto ad Alfonso d’Aragona
connected to Carafa’s courtier – Carafa’s works duca di Calabria primogenito del re Ferdinando per lo
viaggio della Marca d’Ancona. In
differ from theirs because he gives steady atten- Memoriali, ed. F. Petrucci Nardelli, 43–67. Rome:
tion to reality, eschewing the temptation to create Bonacci.
abstract characters. For him, literature offers men Carafa, D. 1988m. Memoriale scritto in nome di
and women concrete guidance, not just Ferdinando d’Aragona re di Napoli ad un cortigiano
di Ferdinando il Cattolico. In Memoriali, ed. F. Petrucci
inspiration. Nardelli, 69–95. Rome: Bonacci.
Castiglione, B. 2000. Il libro del Cortegiano, ed. N. Longo.
Milan: Garzanti.
References Pontano, G.G. 2003. De principe, ed. G.M. Cappelli.
Rome: Salerno.
Primary Literature
Carafa, D. 1988a. I doveri del principe. In Secondary Literature
Memoriali, ed. F. Petrucci Nardelli, 97–209. Rome: Guerra, E. 2005. Lo spazio del potere: Eleonora e Beatrice
Bonacci. d’Aragona nei Memoriali di Diomede Carafa. Annali
Carafa, D. 1988b. Libro delli precepti o vero instructione dell’Università di Ferrara – Sezione Storia 2:
delli cortesani. In Memoriali, ed. F. Petrucci Nardelli, 323–361.
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E
Epicureanism Edmund Spenser, Henry More, Marin

Mersenne, Margaret Cavendish, Isaac Newton,
Ada Palmer Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and others. At
Department of History, University of Chicago, the same time, heterodox Epicurean doctrines
Chicago, IL, USA continued to be stigmatized and associated
with atheism, hedonist sensualism, sodomy,
and general irreligion, so Epicureanism
Abstract appears as an object of fear and a term of
Epicureanism posed a unique challenge to abuse in general accounts of atheism and her-
dominant belief systems in the Renaissance, esy, especially Reformation and Counter-
because of its attacks on Providence, divine Reformation literature, and in specific attacks
action, planned creation, prayer, and the on radical figures, from Luther and Erasmus to
immortality of the soul, its atomist physics Spinoza. Epicureanism’s recovery has received
and self-sufficient materialist model of nature, particular attention from modern scholars
its account of natural selection, its develop- because of the powerful similarities between
mental account of the origin of society and its core doctrines and characteristically modern
government, and its focus on pleasure-seeking secularized science, ethics, and political
as a moral good. After being known in the theory.
Middle Ages mainly through attacks by early
Christian apologists, knowledge of Epicurean-
ism expanded thanks to humanist interest in Synonyms/Alternate Names
reconstructing the classical world and the
recovery of texts. Epicurean content in Atomism; Epicureanismo; Epicureísmo;
Cicero’s philosophical dialogs was followed Épicurisme; Lucretianism
by the recovery of Lucretius (1417) and Diog-
enes Laertius (translated into Latin 1433). In
addition to figures who treated Epicureanism Introduction
extensively, such as Lorenzo Valla, Girolamo
Fracastoro, Giordano Bruno, and Pierre All the ancient philosophical schools revived by
Gassendi, Epicurean influence can be seen in the classicizing efforts of Renaissance humanists
the works of figures including Niccolò Machi- contained some elements which combined easily
avelli, Marcello Adriani, Michele Marullo, with the religious, scientific and moral doctrines
Bartolomeo Scala, Michel de Montaigne, inherited from the late medieval world, and other
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_192-1
2 Epicureanism
elements which challenged them. Epicureanism bond with fellow humans beyond base matter, and
fell on the most radical and controversial end of telling all sinners that they need have no fear of
this spectrum at every stage of its recovery. This posthumous punishment (Divinae Institutiones
was due in part to the deeply heterodox and sec- III.17). These apologists usually presented the
ularizing potential of its core doctrines, and in part Epicurean thesis that pleasure is the highest good
to the paranoia and stigma attached to Epicurean- as advocating sensual pleasure, thus licentious-
ism by early modern stereotypes about the effects ness, sodomy, and gluttony, a stigma it carries to
of certain radical beliefs. Epicureanism’s core this day. Such works predisposed late medieval
doctrines are closely interlinked, but can be scholars to see Epicureanism as a particularly
roughly subdivided by their arenas of influence: wicked enemy, and, while Dante placed other
science, theology, moral philosophy, and political classical philosophers with the virtuous in
thought. Limbo, he reserved a special punishment in hell
for “Epicurus and his followers” who deny the
afterlife. Yet, as Petrarch and his successors gave
Heritage: Pre-Renaissance Knowledge greater weight to Seneca and Cicero, these con-
of Epicureanism tradictory accounts of Epicurus became a point of
confusion and curiosity.
Between the ninth century and 1417, when no
Epicurean authors circulated, Epicureanism was
known primarily through a mixture of passing Heritage: Renaissance Recovery
references in classical works and fierce attacks of Sources
by early Christians. This produced a contradictory
as well as fragmentary portrait of the school. Sen- Knowledge of Epicureanism expanded first in the
eca, Cicero, and other ancient thinkers spoke of fourteenth century, when Petrarch and his peers
Epicureanism with some respect, acknowledging read with renewed interest the dialogs of Cicero
it as a peer of the Stoics and Platonists. Seneca which had already been available in the later Mid-
specifies that the Epicureans believe pleasure dle Ages: De finibus, Tusculanae disputationes,
(voluptas) is the highest good, and describes the De natura deorum, De officiis, as well as De
Epicurean ideal life: enjoying a modest, healthy divinatione, De fato, De senectute, De amicitia,
meal in the tranquility of a garden while Paradoxa and the Topica. These focused on moral
discussing philosophy with friends (Epist. II. philosophy and Epicureanism’s rivalry with the
xx.10). Fragmentary Epicurean voices, mostly Stoics, whom Cicero preferred, so their presenta-
Lucretius, were preserved in single-sentence tion of Epicurean material is highly selective.
chunks by grammarians, who did not comment Petrarch recommended Cicero along with Seneca
on anything but the language of the De rerum as the central textbooks of humanist moral educa-
natura, but still lent Lucretius status by presenting tion, and Cicero’s dialogs were printed as early as
him as a peer of Virgil, Ovid, Empedocles, Varro, 1456 (Hankins and Palmer 2008). Cicero was
and other valuable authorities. In contrast, Chris- interested primarily in moral philosophy, as were
tian apologists including Arnobius, Lactantius, many of his humanist readers, making ethics the
Jerome, Ambrose, and Isidore of Seville first arena in which Epicureanism made a visible
presented Epicureanism as a wicked rival to be impact.
crushed and an exemplar of the folly of paganism. The full text of the De rerum natura first
Lactantius describes Epicurean doctrine in more returned to circulation thanks to Poggio
detail than Seneca or even Cicero, but he claims Bracciolini, who brought his transcription of an
that Epicurus’ aim was to reassure the wicked that unknown manuscript back from the Council of
they could carry on safely in their sins, by telling Constance to Florence in 1417, where it entered
the irreligious that the gods are indifferent to their the library of Niccolò Niccoli. Centers of early
impiety, telling the ungenerous that they share no interest in Lucretius have been identified in
Epicureanism 3
Florence (Brown 2010b), Rome (Palmer 2014a), was completed in 1433 and saw considerable
Naples (Goddard 1991), and Spain (Vera 2009), manuscript circulation before its first edition c.
and manuscripts were owned and used by prom- 1472, while the Greek of Book X was not printed
inent figures including Pietro Vettori, Giovanni until 1533 (Hankins and Palmer 2008).
Sulpizio Verolano, Pomponio Leto, Antonius
Panormita, and Bonifacius Amorbach. The poem
provided much more detail than was previously Innovative Impact: Science and Natural
available, particularly about natural philosophy, Philosophy
but its structure is unsystematic and its poetic
language difficult, more so given the poor condi- Epicureanism’s scientific core is atomism, a the-
tion of the earlier manuscripts, making it far from ory pioneered by Democritus, which posits that
a straightforward overview of the school and its matter is composed of vacuum and of atoms,
doctrines. Yet, the poetic form was a powerful which are the smallest unit of matter, indivisible,
asset to the work’s circulation, since it appealed variable in shape and size, and infinite in quantity
to scholars of poetry and literature even if they had but finite in type, much like the elements of the
no particular interest in the poem’s radical con- modern periodic table. While Epicurean atoms are
tent, especially once it became clear that Virgil too small to be perceived directly, their shapes and
had borrowed lines from the De rerum natura. motions generate color, sound, and all sense
Printed 30 times from 1473 to 1600, the De perception – smoothness generating sweetness,
rerum natura became a focus of controversy roughness bitterness, etc. – and their finite variety
over whether it was safe to teach classics for means that their finite possible combinations form
their literary value even if their content was poten- the recurring patterns visible in nature. By
tially heretical. Starting in the later sixteenth cen- explaining natural phenomena, such as weather,
tury, the poem sparked philosophical rebuttals. planetary movements, tides, and magnets, using
These included the apologetic but critical 1563 the natural properties of atoms, Epicureanism
commentary published by Lucretius’ foremost became the first account of nature which did not
editor, the Parisian Aristotelian Denys Lambin, depend on divine participation, radically different
Girolamo Frachetta’s 1589 Breve spositione di both from pagan accounts of Neptune and Aurora
tutta l’opera di Lucretio, Lucy Hutchinson’s late and from such Christian models as angelic move-
seventeenth-century project to translate the epic ment of spheres or Dante’s belief that gravity
into English for the express purpose of under- reflected the tendency of base things to fall down-
standing and rejecting it, and the 1745 Latin ward toward Satan.
verse epic Anti-Lucretius by Cardinal Melchior Epicurean atomism had few direct followers
de Polignac. in the Renaissance. Girolamo Fracastoro
The only surviving writings of Epicurus him- (c. 1476–1553) taught at the University of
self are letters and a collection of maxims included Padua and is best known as a physician. His
in the life of Epicurus by Diogenes Laertius (Lives work on syphilis, typhus, and other sicknesses
of the Philosophers, Book X). These offer a far pioneered the contagion theory of disease, and
more direct introduction to the Epicurean system he argued that fossils are remains of ancient
than the more ubiquitous Latin sources. Some creatures now extinct, building upon the Epicu-
content from Diogenes Laertius’ lives was rean argument made by Lucretius that in early
known in the high Middle Ages thanks to a times the Earth produced many bizarre species,
twelfth-century translation into Latin by Henricus but only those suited to their environments sur-
Aristippus, which did not circulate but became the vived to the present day (Lucretius V 837–877;
basis of the popular compendium On the Lives Goddard 2003). In addition to his overt appeals
and Mores of the Philosophers once attributed to to atomic theory, Fracastoro’s debt to Epicure-
Walter Burley, which was printed as early as 1470. anism is clear in his general rejection of hidden
A full Latin translation by Ambrogio Traversari and immaterial causes, and in his decision to
4 Epicureanism
follow Lucretius in writing his scientific work Innovative Impact: Theology

Syphilis sive morbus gallicus as an epic poem
(Maurette 2014). Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) Epicureanism is even more radical than Deism in
was burned at the stake for heretical opinions its denial of an afterlife and its rejection of any
including rejection of several Catholic doctrines Providence or design in nature or history, attrib-
traditionally tied to Aristotelian models, and his uting even creation to chaotic natural forces: the
Epicurean-influenced views on astronomy, Earth and other worlds formed when atoms float-
including belief in multiple earthlike worlds. ing in the void collided and clumped together by
Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) was a self- chance thanks to a random “swerve” which ran-
proclaimed “Christian Epicurean” and used Epi- domized their movement. While Epicurus denied
cureanism and classical skepticism to attack the immaterial and the possibility of Heaven or
Aristotle (Lolordo 2007). Gassendi focused on Hades, he did not deny the existence of gods
the Epicurean atomic model of cognition, which directly. His model of cognition posits that
states that we can have no direct empirical thoughts are formed from atomic impressions
knowledge of material things, only of the per- received from real objects, so, just as a chimera
ceptions of things which our sense organs is a jumble of atomic impressions generated by
receive from shells of atoms cast off by objects, lion, goat, and snake, so human ideas of Zeus and
arguing from it that we can never have true Venus must derive in part from an atomic impres-
knowledge of things themselves, against Aris- sion from some real blissful and eternal being – an
totelian claims to offer real knowledge of forms argument not unlike Descartes’ thesis that the
and categories. Gassendi’s project demonstrates concept of God can only derive from an infinite
how the unique form of “constructive skepti- source, i.e. God. However, Epicurus claimed that,
cism” or “weak empiricism” used in Epicurean in order to be happy and eternally unchanging,
denial of direct knowledge of the atomic sub- gods must logically be distant and insensible, free
structure of nature contributed to the foundation from the stresses of heeding prayers and ordering
of the modern scientific method, especially nature.
through his friend Marin Mersenne and his asso- This system is technically theist but function-
ciation with René Descartes, Galileo Galilei, ally atheist, in that removing these gods from the
Tommaso Campanella, Margaret Cavendish, system would have no impact except for requiring
Thomas Hobbes, and others (Popkin 2003; a new cognitive model, which, by the Renais-
Palmer 2014; Wilson 2008), as well as how sance, Ockham and nominalism had already sup-
late Renaissance thinkers strove to harvest plied. Consequently, the reception of
what they saw as the most desirable aspects of Epicureanism is inextricably linked to the history
Epicureanism and combine them with more of atheism, both because Epicurus and those who
orthodox religion. In addition to these overt studied him were frequently accused of atheism
atomists, many more figures expressed interest throughout the early modern period, and because
in atomism as an example proving that it was modern scholars of early atheism can learn much
possible to develop a model accounting for the from Renaissance reactions to and transforma-
operations of nature without divine participa- tions of the first robustly developed philosophy
tion. Its influence can thus be felt as far as the which did not require the divine.
systems of Henry More, Newton, Locke, and The De rerum natura in particular is filled with
Enlightenment clockmaker Deism (Wilson attacks on veneration of the pagan gods, which
2008). can be read as anti-theist, but in the Renaissance
they were more often read as anti-pagan attacks on
superstition, to which the true faith was presumed
to be immune. These were appropriated in their
anti-pagan and anti-superstition spirit by fifteenth-
and sixteenth-century humanists, for example, by
Epicureanism 5
the Florentine literary teacher Marcello Adriani bad based solely on the effect they were likely to
(1464–1521), who used them against Girolamo have on the happiness of the subject during his or
Savonarola (Brown 2010b), and later by such her lifetime. Epicurus defined happiness nega-
critics of dogmatic Christianity as Montaigne tively as the absence of pain. Thus, he
and Voltaire (Screech 1998). recommended, not positive pleasures such as deli-
Denial of Providence and of the afterlife was cious food or sexual pleasure, but tactics designed
more directly problematic. The immensely influ- to avoid long-term pain, such as a healthy diet,
ential Florentine Neoplatonist Marsilio Ficino moderate sexual activity sufficient to satisfy appe-
(1433–1499) later burned in horror a work on tites, and avoiding the stressful arenas of politics,
Lucretius he wrote in his youth, and devoted glory seeking, and romantic love. The positive
large sections of his Platonic Theology to rebut- experiences prescribed to the Epicurean are
ting Lucretius’ attacks on the immortality of the those likely to be stable and long term, such as
soul (Hankins 2013). It was a commonplace of friendship, contemplation, literature, and a retired
Renaissance psychological theory that only fear life in a beautiful garden.
of God and Hell restrained people from wild crim- One of the most innovative steps in moral
inality, to the degree that wantonness, sodomy, philosophy stimulated by Epicureanism was
and public lewdness were in themselves some- made before any Epicurean texts had returned,
times sufficient to invite prosecution for atheism when scholars knew almost nothing about Epicu-
even without any profession of heretical belief. rean ethics apart from the core doctrine, repeated
Political theorists from Thomas More to Thomas by Seneca and Lactantius, that according to Epi-
Paine considered some basic theism mandatory curus pleasure was the highest good. With little
for a good citizen, and Pierre Bayle was accused more than this and a little Cicero at his disposal,
of atheism himself for saying in his Philosophical the pugnacious philologist Lorenzo Valla
Dictionary (1697) that it was possible for an athe- (c. 1407–1457), best known for disproving the
ist (he names Epicurus and Spinoza as examples) authenticity of the Donation of Constantine,
to be a moral person. Reformation and Counter- wrote De voluptate (also called De summo
Reformation literature frequently employs Epicu- bono), which presents a dialog focused on Stoic
reanism as a term of abuse, sometimes using it as a and Epicurean interlocutors based on Cicero’s
label for denial of Providence, but more often Philosophical works. Valla’s supposed Epicurean
equating it generically with whatever position outlines a philosophy of pleasure focused on pos-
the author wishes to condemn. itive pleasures, and boasts of the many delights
nature has designed for human enjoyment, funda-
mentally contradicting Epicurean attacks on Prov-
Innovative Impact: Ethics and Political idence, intelligent design, and the centrality of
Thought humanity in the cosmos, which, lacking Lucre-
tius, Valla did not yet have access to. Valla’s vivid
Just as Epicureanism supplied the first model of and wholly novel “Epicurean” ethics typifies the
self-sufficient nature, so too it supplied the first tendency of humanists to disguise their original
ethical system which had no concern for the creations by framing them as reconstructions of
divine. Epicurus’ goal in promoting atomism ancient systems, a self-presentation which
was eudaemonist, to facilitate happiness by free- increased their desirability and authority in the
ing people from fear of wrathful gods and posthu- Renaissance, but has largely prevented humanist
mous punishment, which he saw as a substantial innovations from being studied or even recog-
source of human suffering. Since the soul was nized by scholars in the post-Descartes world
destroyed at death, long-term consequences were which favors innovators and system builders
meaningless, and no external set of divine laws (Kessler 1988; Nauta 2009).
regulated right and wrong. With pleasure as the The Epicurean developmental account of the
ultimate good, all actions could be judged good or origin of society, religion, and government was
6 Epicureanism
outlined in Lucretius Book V. It combined with and reused it for his own purposes, much as
Epicurean ethics to exert an enormous impact on Gassendi and his associate Mersenne extracted
radical political thought. Lucretius describes how and reused Epicurean empiricism, and as Isaac
early humans lived simply, gathering the fruits of Newton and John Locke later extracted and reused
nature and sleeping beneath the trees, without the Epicurean practice of evaluating natural phe-
language, law, or religious practices, but gradually nomena in isolation from the divine. Both directly
gathered in groups to build cities, develop gov- and through Machiavelli and others, Lucretian
ernments, and acquire luxuries which eventually primitivist accounts of the evolution of society
led to corruption and the necessity of law. Much and government then exerted substantial influence
like Aristotle’s Politics and other classical images on Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
of the four Ages of Man, this passage offered a
strong alternative to the orthodox model of law
descending from Adam and Noah, and kings and
Cross-References
governments as agents of divine will acting out
the script of Providence. This naturalist account of
▶ Alberti, Leon Battista
the origin of society excited considerable attention
▶ Atomism
in late fifteenth-century Italy, fired by attempts to
▶ Bruno, Giordano
understand travelers’ accounts of unknown cul-
▶ Campanella, Tommaso
tures from the New World and elsewhere.
▶ Contagion
Machiavelli transcribed the entire De rerum
▶ De Montaigne, Michel
natura himself (BAV Ross. Lat. 884) and was
▶ Diogenes Laertics
part of a concentration of Epicurean activity in
▶ Elements, Natural
Florence, including his colleagues Marcello
▶ Ethics
Adriani and Donato Giannotti, and the broader
Florentine intellectual atmosphere shaped by fig-
▶ Flow and Ebb
ures including Ficino, the Greek émigré Michele
▶ Fortune
Marullo, Bartolomeo Scala, and Leon Battista
▶ Francis Bacon
Alberti, who had close ties to Machiavelli’s family
▶ Gardens, Ethics
(Brown 2010a). Machiavelli’s innovative
▶ Generation
approach to depicting the human origins and nat-
▶ Giannotti, Donato
ural evolution of governments certainly resembles
▶ Hobbes, Thomas
Lucretian primitivism, as do his radical historical
▶ Law, natural
and utilitarian evaluations of Roman and Chris-
▶ Lucretius Carus, Titus
tian religion. Machiavelli’s annotations in his per-
▶ Machiavelli
sonal copy of Lucretius demonstrate an unusually
▶ Niccoli, Niccolò
keen interest in the technical details of atomic
theory, especially the swerve as the origin of free
▶ Scepticism
will (Palmer 2014). Arguments that Machiavelli
▶ Science and religion
himself was an atomist rely only on indirect evi-
▶ Stoicism
dence (Rahe 2007), but undeniably his pioneering
▶ Studia humanitatis
utilitarian ethics divorces human ethical questions
▶ Syphilis – Renaissance Philosophy
from divine concerns. Thus, Epicurean ethics was
▶ Virtue – Renaissance Philosophy
not Machiavelli’s starting point, but it provided
▶ Will, Free
ammunition for his argument that – contrary to the
common consensus – it is possible to design a
functional ethical system isolated from divine
concerns. Thus Machiavelli isolated Epicurean
secularized ethics from the rest of Epicureanism
Epicureanism 7
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Press. Rerum Natura. Classical and Modern Literature 21(2):
Hine, W.L. 1995. Inertia and scientific law in sixteenth- 45–70.
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Quarterly 48(4 (Winter)): 728–741. University of Extremadura.
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Kraye, J. 2007. The revival of hellenistic philosophies. In
The Cambridge companion to renaissance
F
Fortune Introduction
Timothy Kircher The theme of fortune in human affairs holds a

Guilford College, Greensboro, NC, USA special place in philosophizing, because it is a
constant enigma. Whether treated in Calvin’s
thoughts on predestination, Kant’s pondering
over the forces of nature versus nurture, or con-
Abstract
temporary medical inquiries into whether genet-
ics determine our destiny, fortune is a steady
Renaissance thinking on fortune is complex and
topic of reflection. It addresses the range and
expressed as often in symbol as through concepts.
limits of human freedom; it elicits the feeling of
Drawing on a range of classical, Patristic, and
powerlessness. If toward the close of the Renais-
medieval sources, writers articulated fortune
sance, Shakespeare’s Cassius speaks of the fault
both more abstractly in terms of its place in a
lying not in the stars but in ourselves, still, on
metaphysical ontological hierarchy and more
another occasion, Hamlet senses a “divinity that
concretely with respect to the immediate condi-
shapes our ends, /Rough-hew them how we will”
tions of life that tested one’s virtue. For each of
(V.ii.10–11). Fortune’s riddle is insoluble, pro-
these viewpoints, fortune connoted favorable or
voking schemes to make sense out of accidents
adverse circumstance as well as mutability and
and to build a frame that contains transience. His
temporality. In the course of the Renaissance,
Helena, inspired by Boccaccio’s Giletta,
thinkers focused more intensely on how virtues
expresses the challenge for the early seventeenth
and moral freedom were secured by reason
century with balanced cadence:
against fortune’s sway. Toward the close of the
period, this focus shifted to the nonrational and Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven. The fated sky
amoral qualities required to contest fortune’s
Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull
influence. Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.
(All’s Well that Ends Well, I.ii.216–219)
Since fortune escapes our conceptual grasp,

Synonyms Renaissance writers and artists made of it a met-
aphor. Fortuna is for Petrarch’s poetry the storm
Chance; Fate; Luck the poet faces on the sea of life (Canz. 272.12).

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_194-1
2 Fortune
Fortune, like the Greek Lachesis or Roman virtuous tranquility. If the first view held fast to a
Fortuna, remained feminine and could embody metaphysical grounding in God as the source of
both the virtues and frailties commonly assigned being, the second conception aimed at securing
to women. She became the fertile subject for the safety or happiness of one’s lot through the
numerous artists. She is melded with the virgin imagined clarity of reason or firmness of virtue.
in Olivuccio di Ciccarello’s International Gothic This second conception grew in scope during the
altarpiece of the early 1400s, balancing on her fifteenth century, gradually obscuring, but never
crescent moon. In Pinturicchio’s moral mosaic of eclipsing the first. In the end, however, even this
the Sienese cathedral from 1504, she is a tower- rational clarity became darkened and virtuous
ing nude deity, carrying a billowing sail, with stolidity more labile.
one foot on a sphere and the other in a ship with Each of these visions of fortune embraced in
broken mast. varying measure two different qualities of fortune
As the two examples show, Renaissance for- itself. Fortune was encountered, first of all, as the
tune wears different faces. It ranges in figuration. set of accidents or circumstances that one tra-
What is of interest for Renaissance philosophy is versed on life’s path. These could be positive or
the way writers and thinkers made sense of the negative, for example, wealth or poverty, beauty
riddle it presents. It was one they inherited, but or ugliness, and status high or low and so were
their treatment is innovative. In no way should we often conceived as contraries. The second quality
expect, in their reactions to this existential and of fortune took root in the first, circumstantial
moral quandary, a consistent response or one that one: it emphasized its vacillation and capricious-
followed a uniform development. Considering ness. Circumstances were unstable, a spinning
that dialogue was a favorite form of Renaissance globe or stormy ocean, and here thinkers concen-
exposition, a writer could express the instability trated, with increasing measure, not simply on
of his or her own viewpoint through an exchange change but on the incessant, existential process
among interlocutors, for example, in Poggio of change. Novelty entailed transience in the
Bracciolini’s De varietate fortunae of the late sense not only that accidental goods or perils
1440s. Nonetheless even with the fluctuations of were fleeting but also that a person’s life was
their responses, we can chart the flow of the tide. always in motion as well. Both external circum-
Renaissance thinkers confronted the theme of stance and inner character were in flux, and the
fortune with a double vision. The first view was individual was set out into life at an involuntary,
rooted in medieval metaphysical ontology. It held indeed fortuitous moment, unable to choose the
fortune to be under the sway of providence, conditions into which he or she was born. This
divine foreknowledge, or, as in Olivuccio’s paint- second quality of fortune emphasizing temporal-
ing, heavenly mercy. It offered the bereft or con- ity, mutability, and history, along with the per-
fused the security of divine guidance and care as spective of rational and virtuous contest, became
the anchor of the chain of being. But it also, more pronounced in the course of the Renais-
especially in the wake of catastrophe, raised sance, without ever forgetting fortune’s quality
questions about the transparency of God’s good- of accident or circumstance: this quality was in
ness or the authority of his clerical representa- fact seen in a new light.
tives. The other view looked apart from this
ontological foundation and focused more on the
immediate, sensible conditions and circum- Heritage and Rupture
stances. Here Renaissance writers were with the Tradition: Innovative
concerned not only with the arbitrariness of for- and Original Aspects
tune, in its own agency, but also with the strength
or weakness of human virtue and volition in tak- The classical and medieval sources of these two
ing arms against it. They focused on fortune’s views, both the more abstract and the more
influence on the emotions, which could disturb earthly, have been discussed by the foundational
Fortune 3
studies of Doren (1924), Patch (1927), Courcelle casibus virorum illustrium maintains this subor-
(1967), and Cioffari (1973). The study of provi- dination, in order to cast down the pride of
dence and divine foreknowledge governing for- princes. Coluccio Salutati, friend of Boccaccio
tune developed throughout the Middle Ages from and follower of Petrarch, devoted an entire trea-
the writings of Augustine (De civitate dei), Boe- tise to fate and fortune. Composed after the death
thius (De consolatione philosophiae), Thomas of his wife, De fato et fortuna bases its analysis of
Aquinas (Summa contra gentiles), and also from free will and necessity on authors ranging from
readings of Aristotle’s Physics and Metaphysics. Augustine to Scotus. It upholds a balance
It received its most poetic syntheses in the between heavenly causes and earthly contingen-
Dante’s Inferno 7 and in the closing speech of cies (Witt 1983). What is striking, apart from
Theseus in Chaucer’s “Knight’s Tale,” which their original combinations of sources, are the
was based on Boccaccio’s Teseida. The focus poetic and rhetorical idioms that convey these
on fortune’s more mundane and emotional effects writers’ observations: the tone is often personal,
derived from Cicero (Tusculanae, De officiis) and urgent, and heartfelt. If Salutati claims that the
especially Seneca (Epistulae morales and pre- will is fated to be free, Lorenzo Valla’s dialogue
sumably De remediis fortuitorum). This variety De libero arbitrio delves more deeply into this
of sources, with their range of viewpoints, paradox, rejecting these philosophical reconcili-
allowed Renaissance writers to ground their ations, especially those of Boethius. God’s fore-
own conceptions on different bases and perspec- knowledge, his eponymous interlocutor asserts,
tives; the rediscovery of Lucretius’s De rerum cannot be comprehended by reason. He records a
natura in the fifteenth century, through its atom- discourse by Apollo, in which Jupiter and Fortune
izing agnosticism, provided them with yet are the secret arbiters of destinies: Apollo may
another provocative authority. Regardless of the foresee, but not alter, what is to come.
sources, writers retained throughout the Renais- Valla explodes the conventional treatment of
sance an important legacy of this tradition: that philosophical questions, in a way that Luther
fortune played a crucial role in the investigation would later appreciate. But his analysis did not
of moral freedom. subdue the need to pursue a metaphysical solu-
The Renaissance rupture with this tradition, tion, even if a solution’s foundation now seemed
whereby thinkers and poets expressed their inno- less secure. An early letter of Marsilio Ficino,
vations, can be grasped by noting a number of Della fortuna, declares human prudence a divine
their assessments in chronological sequence, with gift. God grants people both good fortune and the
respect to each of the two viewpoints. moral ability to overcome mischance, so that
With regard to the first perspective sub specie fortune is subordinate to God (Kristeller 1964).
aeternitatis, Petrarch formalizes a vision of the Bartolomeo Scala, like Salutati a Florentine
goddess Fortune in Canz. 325. She describes to chancellor, treated the theme of fortune in 1496,
the poet the heavenly design of the birth of his the year before he died. His Apologia contra
beloved Laura, but this starry messenger also vituperatores civitatis Florentiae challenges the
foretells her death before turning from him on position, abetted by Lucretius, that fortune holds
her revolving wheel. Boccaccio, in his later writ- sway over all creation. While mentioning his
ings, suggests Fortune is the equivalent of sympathies with the opposing view, which pro-
Lachesis and the instigator of all happenstance claims the power of prudence, Scala focuses on
(GDG 1.5), relying on, among other sources, the the way humanity attributes to fortune what is
authority of Apuleius (De mundo) and the more actually the hidden workings of nature, “who is
transcendental notion of Boethius. He cites also God.” Fortune, in other words, is a creature
Boethius’s view again in his commentary on of our ignorance (6–8). A late work by Giovanni
Inferno 7 and refers to Aristotle when asserting Pontano, the Neapolitan humanist, reflects anew
the influence of celestial intelligences over on human frailty before fortune. Published post-
earthly affairs (Esp. VII.lit. 55–91). His De humously in 1512, De fortuna shares the
4 Fortune
melancholy tenor of Machiavelli’s 1513 Il opposing the “circumstance of fortune,” into

principe in the wake of the Spanish and French which each person is born, with the “virtues of
invasions of Italy. In opposition to Giovanni Pico the mind,” which transcend fortune’s influence
della Mirandola, who would liberate human (1.168–69). Lapo da Castiglionchio the Younger
agency from astrological influence, Pontano and Niccolò Perotti reiterate this confidence in
emphasizes the power of the stars. Citing a host reason and virtue’s power over fortune when
of classical and scholastic authorities, he strives dedicating their translations of Plutarch to
to harmonize this power with moral clarity and Cosimo de’ Medici and Nicholas V. Leon
virtue. Thus in the sixteenth century, the tradi- Battista Alberti uses the thematic of virtue and
tional metaphysical hierarchy governing fortune fortune in his vernacular dialogues Della famiglia
perdures, but these later treatises nonetheless and Theogenius. His concerns, too, involve the
manifest a preoccupation with moral virtues and temporal changes fortune brings, whether in
reason as the prime defense against fortune’s one’s personal life or in the histories of the
contingencies. Alberti clan and indeed of entire nations. This
This second perspective on fortune, which temporal and historical sensibility finds meta-
contends with the way we respond directly to phorical expression in his dinner piece Fatum et
fortune’s accidents, receives its most extensive fortuna; here a philosopher recounts a dream
treatment in Petrarch’s De remediis utriusque vision in which shades transverse the river of
fortune. Adapting the psychomachia of Seneca, life, singly or in ships, occasionally buoyed by
Petrarch creates a series of dialogues between planks (tabule) of the liberal arts. Alberti revises
reason and four contrasting emotions (sorrow, the Patristic metaphor of penitence as the salvific
joy, fear, and hope). His Secretum, an imaginary plank after shipwreck in the sea of life, relocating
discourse between the eponymous Franciscus this aid from sacramental to humanist sources.
and the figure of St. Augustine, reinforces this But Alberti revises too the conflict between virtue
moral, often Stoic exchange, in which the life of and fortune, since fortune paradoxically provides
reason is upheld as the bulwark sub imperio for- people with the occasion to embrace liberal stud-
tune against emotional turmoil (2.14). Around the ies as the guide in navigating its currents. Fortune
same time, Boccaccio’s Decameron recounts var- is not only momentary accident or circumstance
ious tales, often derived from Alexandrine but suggests timing as well as time itself.
romances that show the force of fortune or the Poggio’s De varietate fortunae also speaks of
human ingenuity required to overcome it. The both attributes of fortune; the work describes the
narrators and their stories focus on comedy and “theater” and “game of fortune” that affects all,
tragedy in the sublunary realms, apart from celes- especially the powerful, in a way that anticipates
tial influence (days 2–3). Both Petrarch and Boc- Erasmus: fortune “cherishes them, using them
caccio underline fortune’s temporal impetus. Sub according to its rule: first casting them down,
imperio fortune, humanity is subject not only to then unmasking their folly” (Proem.). There is a
happenstance but also to temporal revolution, Lucianic caste to Poggio’s treatment as he strives
aging, and mortality, against which, these works to maintain detached, rational objectivity on
suggest, there is no rational refuge or choice. human foolishness; nonetheless his dialogue
Both qualities of fortune, its circumstantial opens with a long lament over the ruins of
and temporal or historical, are explored almost Rome, its history, too, being subject to
obsessively by later writers. Leonardo Bruni fortune’s sway.
begins his Isagogicon moralis disciplinae by Thus in anticipation of Machiavelli and
asserting how moral enlightenment prevents us Guicciardini’s meditations on fortune, fifteenth-
from “wandering about in the dark on what what- century writers note another of fortune’s quali-
ever by-way fortune should offer us” (Baron ties: its kinship with occasio, in the sense of
1928). Matteo Palmieri’s Della vita civile glosses timing. This kinship becomes an allegorical fea-
Bruni’s position in the Tuscan vernacular, ture in Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini’s Somnium
Fortune 5
de fortuna. Aeneas likens Fortune to the Roman more fortunate properties, than to have a little of
god of opportunity; the dream vision proclaims the fool, and not too much of the honest.” In
the virtue of Alfonso of Naples, who seizes For- Erasmus’s inspired Stultitiae laus, his voice
tune by the hair and holds her still (Warburg piece Folly claims that Fortune, as “directrix of
1999). human affairs,” is hostile to the wise with their
This image of seizing fortune, which was part cautious prudence, favoring instead bold fools.
of Alfonso’s triumphal procession in Renais- Michel de Montaigne, throughout his Essais,
sance Naples, resonates in Machiavelli’s treat- laconically accepts Fortune’s sway: “I have
ment of fortune in chap. 25 of Il principe, where hardly the skill to dodge Fortune and escape or
he calls fortune a woman that the bold ruler must force her, and to direct and lead things foresight-
beat and bend to his will. Despite this show of edly to serve my purpose” for “I owe much to
misogynist bravado, Machiavelli states that even Fortune in that up to this point she had done
able rulers can only determine half of their suc- nothing hostile to me, at least nothing beyond
cess: they might raise the banks surrounding for- my endurance. Might it not be her way to leave
tune’s river and yet see flooding. In his in peace those who do not trouble her?” (2.17;
observations, moral virtue is displaced by virtù, 3.9).
strategic acumen and tactical skill. It has the
amoral quality earlier found in the ingegno of
various characters of the Decameron. The contest
Impact and Legacy
between fortune and virtù remains in doubt;
Cesare Borgia, whom he praises for political
With Montaigne, Renaissance reflections on for-
ability, failed either from malignant fortune or
tune have shifted from their traditional astral
lapse of judgment. Like earlier humanists,
origins and also from their common moral imper-
Machiavelli emphasizes fortunate timing: for
atives. Humanity is seen without either the
example, Julius II’s rash personality suited the
benevolent guidance of the heavens or the confi-
situations he confronted. Francis Bacon provides
dence in reason and virtue that resounded in dia-
a neat formulation of this timing in his essay “On
logues a century earlier. When considering free
Fortune”: for the fortunate, “there be not stonds
will’s contest with fortune, writers emphasize its
nor restiveness in a man’s nature, but that the
relative impotence or political acumen rather
wheels of his mind keep way with the wheels of
than moral strength. But the diminished moral
his fortune.”
discussion is compensated through other equally
Francesco Guicciardini, Machiavelli’s com-
fundamental philosophical inquiries: a renewed
patriot, agrees with these sentiments while ting-
assessment of the limits of human agency, not
ing them with greater pessimism. Recalling
only in terms of what we might do but also with
Petrarch and Alberti’s treatments, he claims it
regard to what we might know. Montaigne’s Que
requires greater skill to resist prosperous than
sçay-je? (2.12) sounds a Socratic note already
adverse fortune (C 164). In general, “fortune has
present in earlier Renaissance writings: it draws
the greatest power in human affairs,” so that our
attention to the personal, historical context in
efforts, if they are to moderate its effects, still
which philosophical assertions are conceived.
require good fortune (C 30). Along these lines he
Fortune may favor or fight us, but she (or it) is
observes that fools often accomplish more than
always with us; we are not born without her
the wise, since they rely more on fortune than on
presence. If her legacy is now overlooked – it is
reason; in sum, he never read anything quite so
ignored, for example, in the New Dictionary of
well expressed as the dictum, “Ducunt volentes
the History of Ideas – that, too, Renaissance
fata, nolentes trahunt” (C 136, 138).
writers remind us, is part of her legacy. We
The turn to folly and fortune finds its place in
need only search for her new face, which we
late-Renaissance rumination. Bacon writes, as if
may see in our DNA.
reading both Italian statesmen, “there be not two
6 Fortune
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F
Friendship inequality. The Christian bond of charity

(caritas, agape), in contrast, does imply an equal-
Ullrich Langer ity enabled by the finality that is the love of God;
Department of French & Italian, University of in contrast to friendship, it is thought to be
Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA nonspecific and is less articulated in the sphere
of moral philosophy itself.
Abstract In the Renaissance, the bond of friendship
Friendship in the Renaissance is an intensive (amicitia, philia) can be understood first of all as
bond between men, within the societas of a general category of beneficent voluntary and
humanity, defined most successfully by Aris- natural relationships, elements of social cohesion,
totle in the Nicomachean Ethics. This article and in this sense it participates in the societas of
rehearses definitions of friendship (and their humanity. This wide-spread loose use of the term
critique) and gives an account of how these is so vast as to frustrate attempts at an exhaustive
definitions were diffused in early modern account. Indeed, various natural
culture. “sympathies” – between elements, between
species – are sometimes called “friendships” (see
Erasmus’ colloquy “Amicitia” [1531]). Political
In distinction to later, post-Hobbesian views, and and business client relationships can be subsumed
in contrast to the presuppositions of Machiavelli’s under the term as well (see Leon Battista Alberti’s
The Prince (1532), the consensus in moral philos- Della famiglia [begun 1432], and in particular the
ophy of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries saw fourth book); from Plutarch’s “How to Distin-
human beings as naturally inclined to social living guish the Friend from the Flatterer” (from his
and as naturally benevolent to fellow human Moralia) to Castiglione’s Libro del cortegiano
beings, on a scale of diminishing intensity from (1528) and the abundant court (and anticourt)
the family to humanity as a whole. The cement of literature of the sixteenth century, the term
this benevolent interdependence is the exchange “friend” has a vague sense of someone who
of goods and services, material and otherwise. wishes you well rather than someone who is
The classic statement of this natural societas of merely pursuing his own interests.
humanity is found in Cicero’s De officiis (I. Renaissance moral philosophy is concerned, in
vii.22). The social-human bond does not imply addition, with a stricter use of the term “friend-
equality of partners; in a way, the imparting of ship,” largely following the most common classi-
duties or services to each other (officium or cal sources. These are Cicero’s Laelius de
beneficium) is predicated on a degree of amicitia, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (books
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_195-1
2 Friendship
VIII and IX) and, to a lesser extent, the Eudemian (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, VIII.3.8,
Ethics (book VII), Seneca’s De beneficiis, and 1156b27).
Plato’s dialogue Lysis (for a discussion of classical Friendship is divided, after Aristotle
friendship in the main sources, see Fraisse 1974; (Nicomachean Ethics, VIII.3.1-4.5, 1156a6-
for medieval understanding and transmission 1157a35), into three types, according to its
especially of Aristotelian notions of friendship, cause: as the Latin tradition formulates it, they
see Sère 2007; for a more elaborate presentation are friendship for the sake of pleasure (propter
of Renaissance friendship, see Langer 1994). delectabile), for the sake of usefulness (propter
Reflection on friendship is usually articulated not utile), and for the sake of moral goodness or virtue
in the form of arguments for propositions (if one (propter honestum). For example, lovers are
excepts scholastic argument on the relation thought to be drawn to each other for the pleasure
between charity and friendship, such as Thomas they provide to each other, but also friends who
Aquinas, Summa theologiae, II-2 qu 23); instead, like to drink or eat together. Business partners or
it is centered on some commonly accepted defini- thieves are friends because of the usefulness or
tions, such as Cicero’s Est enim amicitia nihil gain they procure to each other. Virtuous men are
aliud nisi omnium divinarum humanarumque friends for “themselves,” that is, for the sake of the
rerum cum benevolentia et caritate consensio choices and habits that they make as persons, in
(“For friendship is nothing else than an accord in similar fashion. Indeed, all friendship is based on
all things, human and divine, conjoined with resemblance, not on difference, and if friends are
mutual good will and affection”) (Laelius de unequal (in wealth, in power, etc.), there has to be
amicitia VI.20). One finds innumerable repeti- some element of resemblance that is the basis of
tions and refinements of this definition, insisting, their friendship. Friendship propter honestum can
for example, as does Scipion Dupleix, on the subsume the other types, in the sense that virtuous
voluntary nature of the friendship bond: men can derive pleasure and usefulness from their
[L]’amitié est une conformité des volontez entre friends, as a complement to their friendship,
deux ou plusieurs personnes, laquelle procedant although pleasure and usefulness will never con-
de la mutuelle cognoissance qu’ils ont de leur stitute the finality of their relationship. The most
vertu et integrité des moeurs les conjoint à une important distinction between virtuous friendship
vie honneste (“Friendship is a conformity of wills and the two other types is the temporary nature of
among two or more persons, which, deriving from the latter: when pleasure or usefulness are no
a mutual knowledge that they have of each other’s longer present, the friendship ceases, whereas vir-
virtue and integrity of conduct, binds them tuous friendship is thought to be long-lasting, as
together in a morally honest life”) (Dupleix virtue is not a momentary choice but manifested in
1994, VII.6.viii, p. 441–442; Montaigne in his repeated and quasi-permanent dispositions.
Essais [“De l’amitié,” I.27, 1580, 1588] insists A virtuous friend can become as “another self,”
similarly on the voluntary nature of friendship, hence, also, the relative paucity of such relation-
in contrast to family bonds). Friendship originates ships. Having many friends is a sign of the weak-
in knowledge of the other person, not in physical ness of the relationship (see Plutarch, On Having
desire (and thus is, at this level at least, distin- Many Friends, from the Moralia) or of their status
guished from love, amor, or eros, although espe- as friendships per usefulness or pleasure. Virtuous
cially in Platonic contexts the boundary is less friendship is not always permanent: if the friend
clear). Knowledge of another person’s virtue becomes a worse person, through his choices,
assumes knowledge acquired over time, as virtue then his friend should attempt, by admonishment,
is not punctual but a habitus demonstrated to correct the wayward friend, and if he doesn’t
through repeated deliberate action. Hence the succeed, he can consider that the former friend has
requirement that friends spend time with each become a person “of another sort” (Aristotle,
other, or, as the saying goes, that they have con- Nicomachean Ethics, IX.3.3, 1165b14-23) and it
sumed an amount of salt with each other
Friendship 3
is then not unnatural for the friendship to be humanist (see Lines 2002). These notions are
broken off. also absorbed through the Ciceronian moral cor-
The devotion of such virtuous friends for each pus (usually thought to be compatible with Aris-
other is expressed through a fairly compact series totle), in the study of rhetoric, and generally in the
of examples, although Renaissance compilers do juridical and, depending on the country, aristo-
their best to add to the list. It is important to note cratic milieu of the sixteenth century. On a some-
that they are exclusively male; although there are what less traditional register, intending a wider
lists of examples of “illustrious women” (the most audience, common notions about friendship are
evident examples being Boccaccio’s De claris diffused through vernacular translations or adap-
mulieribus [1374] and Christine de Pizan’s Livre tations of Aristotelian moral philosophy (such as
de la cité des dames [1405]), they do not come in Alessandro Piccolomini’s Della institutione
pairs of friends, as it were, and neither does one morale [1560]) and are elements of the
find examples of female–male friendship, trattatistica in early modern Europe. Platonic
although amicitia can on occasion become a and neo-Platonic notions of friendship filter in
recommended basis for marriage. The classical through translations of the Lysis and in the dia-
examples of (male) friends are the legendary logue literature of the sixteenth century, in uneasy
Orestes and Pylades, Achilles and Patroclus, coexistence with eros.
Aeneas and Achates, Euryalus and Nisus, Second, collections of epistles and the practice
Damon and Phintias (or Pythias), and Jonathan itself of epistolary exchange among intellectuals
and David. Lucian’s Toxaris is a comparison contribute to the availability of classical ideas on
between Greek and Scythian heroic friends. friendship. Examples are Seneca’s Epistulae
They are ever-present in Renaissance moral morales ad Lucilium, Petrarch’s Epistolae de
exempla literature, and versions of them appear rebus familiaribus (1359) (especially 18.8), and
in epic romance (such as Cloridano and Medoro in the vast correspondence of Erasmus (see Eden
Ariosto’s Orlando furioso [1st version 1516], 2001).
Books 18 and 19). They demonstrate their com- Third, the memorable notions about friendship
mitment to each other in the most extreme situa- are reproduced in concentrated form in the collec-
tions, such as epic warfare or struggle against tions of proverbs and apophthegms of the period,
tyranny. The duties of such friends to each other most famously by Erasmus who features two
include protecting the other’s life, detecting and proverbs at the beginning of his Adagia
indicating plots against the other, defending and (1500–1536): Amicitia aequalitas and Amicus
not abandoning the other in dangerous situations, alter ipse (“Friendship is equality” and “The
freeing the other from prison, improving the friend is another self,” I.i.2). More generally, sec-
other’s mores, not revealing the other’s secrets, tions on amicitia are de rigueur in the burgeoning
providing for the other’s children, and regretting literature of “commonplaces,” from the
the friend’s death (according to the summary in Polyanthea (1st ed. 1503) by Domenico Nani
Zwinger 1586, Vol. 18, Lib. 2, p. 3315–3316). As Mirabelli (which was augmented until well into
Cicero, quoting Ennius, says it, amicus certus in the seventeenth century), Ravisius Textor’s
re incerta cernitur (“the true friend is discerned in Officina (1st ed. 1503), to Theodor Zwinger’s
times of trouble”) (Laelius de amicitia, XVII.64; Theatrum vitae humanae (1st ed. 1565) and
see also Ovid, Tristia, I.9.24: in duris remanentem compendia in dialogue form such as Pierre de la
rebus amicum, “a friend steadfast in times of Primaudaye’s Academie francoise (1st ed. 1577).
stress”). Finally, perhaps more interestingly, there are
The diffusion of notions of friendship in critiques of friendship propter honestum. First, at
Renaissance intellectual culture is practiced on the least implicitly, from a theological perspec-
many levels: first, mostly in academic settings, tive. As an element of the virtues, or their most
in commentaries and Latin translations of complete manifestation, friendship should take a
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, scholastic and second place to the love of God and charity.
4 Friendship
Loving another as an end in itself is not a proper Castiglione, B. 1998. Il libro del
relationship to another human being; only God cortegiano, ed. W. Barberis. Turin.
Christine de Pizan. 1976. Livre de la cité des
should be loved for his own sake (see Peter Lom- dames, ed. M. C. Curnow. Ann Arbor.
bard, Sentences, I dist 1 cap 1–3). Then there are Cicero, M.T. 1923. Laelius de amicitia (trans: Falconer, W.
isolated cases of paradoxical treatment of friend- A.). Cambridge, MA.
ship: it is taken, apparently for the sake of argu- Dupleix, S. 1994. L’Éthique ou philosophie morale
[1st ed. 1610, 1645]. Repr. Paris.
ment in utramque partem, as something to be Erasmus. 1965. Colloquies (trans: Thompson, C.R.).
blamed, not praised. Antoine Hotman, in his Chicago.
Deux paradoxes de l’amitié et de l’avarice Hotman, A. 1616. Opuscules francoises des Hotmans.
(in the Opuscules francoises des Hotmans Paris.
Lucian. 2014. Toxaris (trans: Harmon A.M.). Cambridge,
[1616]), argues that friendship is an exclusive MA.
“passion” taking us away from our social and Montaigne, M. de. 1965. Essais [1580–1588], eds.
religious obligations and affections. P. Villey and V.-L. Saulnier. Paris.
Since friendship as a philosophical topic is Nani Mirabelli, D. 1503. Polyanthea: Opus suavissimum
floribus exornatum compositum. Savona.
hardly separable from its representations in the Ovid. 1924. Tristia (trans: Wheeler, A.L.).
literary culture of the time, a further area to be Peter Lombard. 1971. Sententiae in IV libris distinctae.
explored is the motivation for relationships of Grottoferrata.
friendship in literature. Especially newer literary Petrarch, F. 1862. Epistolae de rebus familiaribus et
variae. vol. 2, ed. J. Fracassetti. Florence.
genres such as the novel or the novella step out- Piccolomini, A. 1560. Della institutione morale. Venice.
side the models given to the Renaissance by clas- Plato. 1925. Lysis (trans: Lamb W.R.M.). Cambridge, MA.
sical epic friends. A more modern understanding Plutarch. 1927. Moralia. Vol. 1 (trans: Babbitt, F.C.). Cam-
of friendship is hinted at by narrative scenarios bridge, MA.
Primaudaye, P. de la. 1972. Academie françoise [1581].
that feature friends who are not equals and do not Repr. Geneva.
resemble each other. At times, the representation Seneca, L. A. 1917. Epistulae morales (trans: Gummere,
of friendship begins to exclude it from explana- R.M.). Cambridge, MA.
tion, contrary to classical models, and it becomes Seneca, L. A. 1935. De beneficiis (trans: Basore, J.W.).
Cambridge, MA.
an affective sublime (see in particular Textor, R. [Jean Tixier de Ravisy]. 1532. Officina
Montaigne’s account, or nonaccount, of his [1st ed. 1503]. Lyons.
friendship with Etienne de la Boétie, in “De Thomas Aquinas, St. 1897. Opera omnia. vol. 9, eds.
l’amitié”). Fratres Ordinis Praedicatorum. Rome.
Zwinger, T. 1586. Theatrum vitae humanae. Basel.
References Secondary Literature

Eden, K. 2001. Friends hold all things in common: Tradi-
Primary Literature tion, intellectual property and the ‘Adages’ of Erasmus.
Alberti, L. B. 1960, 1966. Opere volgari. New Haven.
2 Vols, ed. C. Grayson. Bari. Fraisse, J.-C. 1974. Philia: La notion d’amitié dans la
Ariosto, L. 1971. Orlando furioso [1516], ed. L. Caretti. philosophie antique. Paris.
Turin. Langer, U. 1994. Perfect friendship: Studies in literature
Aristotle. 1926. Nicomachean Ethics (trans: Rackham, H.). and moral philosophy from Boccaccio to Corneille.
Cambridge, MA. Geneva.
Aristotle. 1935. Eudemian Ethics (trans: Rackham, H.). Lines, D. 2002. Aristotle’s ‘Ethics’ in the Italian Renais-
Cambridge, MA. sance (ca. 1300–1650): The universities and the prob-
Boccaccio, G. 2001. Famous Women [De claris lem of moral education. Leiden.
mulieribus] (trans: Brown, V.). Cambridge, MA. Sère, B. 2007. Penser l’amitié au moyen a^ge. Turnhout.
G
Giles of Viterbo Biography
Daniel J. Nodes Giles of Viterbo (also known as Egidio da Viterbo

Department of Classics, Baylor University, Waco, or Aegidius Viterbiensis) was born in 1469 in
TX, USA Viterbo, a city at the foot of Mount Cimino in
Tuscany. His parents were Lorenzo Antonini and
Maria del Testa. Little is known of his youth, but
Abstract the details offered in Giuseppe Signorelli’s biog-
Giles of Viterbo (1469–1532), prior general of raphy of Giles have been generally followed,
the Augustinian Hermits, cardinal, church including the suggestion that Augustinian friars
reformer, candidate for the papacy during were among Giles’s early teachers in Viterbo and
papal Rome’s golden age, responded enthusi- that a famous Augustinian preacher, Mariano da
astically to that age’s renewed impulse toward Genazzano, who visited Viterbo in 1485,
classical and patristic learning. He remains a influenced Giles to join the Augustinian Hermits
complex figure for scholars because of the in 1488 (Signorelli 1929, 2). In 1489, his discern-
many posts he held and the diverse cultural ment year for the order, he was sent to Amelia in
traits his thought exhibits. Contrasting ele- Umbria to teach philosophy. The following year
ments in his life, public and private, active he resumed his studies, not in Viterbo but at the
and contemplative, secular and spiritual, com- college of Saints Philip and James, the August-
peted for his attention. Like many of his con- inian studium generale in Padua, a center of
temporaries, Giles had a deep interest in humanism, Averroistic philosophy, and Thomistic
discovering the harmony of Christianity with theology. Giles did not remain neutral within that
ancient religious philosophical and traditions, philosophical diversity; for while in Padua he
both directly and as mediated through Greek published three treatises of Giles of Rome, includ-
and Latin patristic authors like Origen and ing De intellectu possibili contra Averroin, which
Augustine, Ficinian Platonism, and Hebrew has been seen as Giles’s first stand against
mysticism. Averroistic Aristotelianism, a position he would
hold through the rest of his life (O’Malley 1968,
41). There is no record of precisely when he was
ordained to the priesthood.
Giles also attended lectures by Agostino Nifo,
the physician and philosopher who taught at the
Egidio da Viterbo; Aegidius Viterbiensis
University of Padua from 1492 to 1499. From
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_197-1
2 Giles of Viterbo
Nifo he was already learning to develop a broader philosophy and scholastic theology, Ficinian Pla-
philosophical outlook by being exposed to Pla- tonism, ancient Greek literature and Greek patris-
tonic ideas and lore from the mystical teachings tics, Hebrew and Aramaic, and Jewish mysticism
attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. After Padua, from Elias Levita and later Baruch of Benevento.
Giles went to study with Marsilio Ficino in Flor- At his death in 1532, he was probably the most
ence, probably during the winter of 1494–1495, skilled reader of Hebrew among his European
and further cultivated Platonic theology against contemporaries.
Aristotelianism and Aristotle’s Arabic commenta- His diverse interests and keen intellect culti-
tor Ibn Rushd (Averroes), whose writings had vated in the principal cities of Italy including
been translated into Latin in the thirteenth century. Rome, Naples, Florence, and Siena may over-
By 1497, Giles’s Platonic reading of Christian shadow but should not obscure the considerable
theology was in evidence at Rome during his part of his life spent in administrative and pastoral
examination for the magisterium, i.e., teaching service. He was elected prior general of his order
license, in theology. His range of experience con- three times and served as a papal diplomat. In
tinued to widen. He rose to prominence as an 1506, after his appointment as vicar general, he
orator and in 1498 preached before Pope Alexan- again looked to the Augustinian convent at
der VI. He was living in Naples between 1499 and Lecceto but this time to promote his own reform
1501, at first seeking a solitary life but eventually efforts. His interest in scriptural studies also grew
becoming a member of Giovanni Pontano’s liter- steadily, with his election as prior general in 1507
ary circle, where he also worked to present Chris- cited by Francis Martin as bringing about a kind of
tian doctrine to his colleagues by using analogies conversion away from the study of secular litera-
drawn from classical poetry and mythology and ture. When he became prior general, he had to
Plato’s dialogues. He also composed Italian lyrics negotiate with Martin Luther during Luther’s visit
and started working on an extended prose work in to Rome in 1511.
the vernacular titled Cyminia, after the fashion of In 1512, Giles gave the address that opened the
Masuccio Salernitano’s trendsetting Novellino, Fifth Lateran Council. He was well on the way
published in 1476. Marc Deramaix (Deramaix toward his eventual appointment as cardinal in
1990–1991) has shown how Giles influenced the 1517. Giles served as prior general of the August-
poet Jacopo Sannazaro, also a member of the inian Hermits until 1519. In 1523, at the height of
Pontanian circle. the West’s re-enchantment with ancient Greek
On witnessing political intrigue in Naples, language, letters, thought, and art, Pope Clement
Giles resolved to return to the north of Italy, VII (1478–1534) awarded Giles the Latin titular
staying with the friars of Lecceto near Siena in patriarchate of Constantinople. It was a solid
1503. He continued to study the classics, decorat- choice, and while the appointment of a Latin
ing his writings with abundant classical quota- patriarch was something of an affront to Orthodox
tions. He considered it no detriment to Christian Christians, Giles was a philhellene in the broadest
revelation to use classical analogies when illus- sense of the term despite his vision for a new
trating God’s dealings with the human race. Golden Age under Rome. Many considered him
Giles’s modern biographer, Francis Martin, con- papabilis, a worthy candidate for the papacy.
cludes that Giles was firmly committed to Giles of Viterbo is thus a complex figure partly
expounding the Christian message but wished to because of the many roles he played and partly
express himself through classical images and lan- because of the diverse traits his life and works
guage (Martin, 1992, 160). Later in 1503, during a exhibit. Francis Martin’s description of Giles as
retreat on the Martana isle near Viterbo, he studied “a Renaissance person with none of Erasmus's
the Iliad and composed his own eclogues modeled disdain for relics” (Martin 1992, 61) captures
after Vergil’s pastoral hexameters but treating bib- both Giles’s modernity and traditionalism.
lical themes. Over the course of his lifetime, his Owing to Italy’s cultural climate, Giles was
philosophical studies encompassed Aristotle’s revered by some of his contemporaries for his
Giles of Viterbo 3
religious and secular learning and his ability to preparing for publication an index of the errors of
read Christian teachings into the ancient myths. Aristotle where, working from a large miscellany
For others, however, Giles was just another of over 600 folios wherein he had itemized
paganizer of the Gospel. Similarly, despite evi- Aristotle’s teachings, Giles had appended a topi-
dence that Giles took interest in practical matters, cal index of the Philosopher’s “errors” on matter,
as when in 1508 he preached to the prostitutes of time, and eternity from the works indexed in the
Rome, he has commonly been cast as a man of collection: Metaphysics, Physics, De caelo, and
ivory-tower abstractions, “a polished priest of De generatione and corruptione. Giles’s index
Renaissance circles.” A zealous reformer who project does not address Aristotle’s works on the
kept his allegiance to papal authority, Giles has soul, logic, ethics, rhetoric and other topics, and
nevertheless also suffered from neglect in the past Monfasani suggests that at the time Giles was
by Catholic historians largely because as prior occupied with the errors in the four works men-
general from 1511 to 1518, he was Martin tioned and then ordered a copy of Cardinal
Luther’s superior. Francis Martin attempted to Bessarion’s defense of Plato (the In
determine the proper balance among these calumniatorem Platonis) in preparation for the
images, the one that corresponds closest to the publishing of his own index errorum. Monfasani
documentary evidence. In any analysis, Giles is then posits that after reading Bessarion, Giles
seen as a full beneficiary of the intellectual oppor- considered his own project redundant and
tunities of High Renaissance Italy; what he made abandoned it.
of them is disputed. During this time Giles was also busy writing
his commentary on the first book of Peter Lom-
bard’s Libri sententiarum. His particular interest
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition in Lombard’s text, the principal textbook for the-
ology, is also evident in a series of sermons he
Throughout his life Giles’s ever-expanding intel- delivered in 1502, where he followed the division
lectual horizons remained connected to his forma- of the four books of the Sententiae: Book 1 on the
tive theological training in late medieval Trinity, providence, good, and evil; Book 2 on
scholasticism. “Scholasticism” represents the pre- creation, angels, demons, and the fall of man;
vailing method in theology and philosophy in Book 3 on redemption and virtue; and Book
medieval European universities and religious 4 on the sacraments and eschatology. The com-
houses of study. Scholastics approached truth mentary project could have been undertaken as
through dialectical reasoning and sought to routine, a required academic rite of passage for all
address questions of philosophy and theology professional Catholic theologians, as it had
systematically and to distinguish truth presented already been for centuries. Instead it became the
as divine revelation from knowledge derived from first of three major works of Giles which can each
human reason. Aristotle’s writings generally probe considered theological and philosophical at
vided the philosophical foundation; but there was their core. The detail of his treatment of each
an effort to reconcile his teachings with the question is evident in his only having reached
pre-Socratics, Plato, and later philosophical the 18th distinction of Book 1, on the Trinity.
schools. Giles worked on the Sentences commentary
Giles left a record of his use of Aristotle’s intensely from 1506 to 1510. He continued to
writings and acceptance of the Stagirite’s teach- work on it for another 2 years before administra-
ings, but at the same time he expressed overt and tive duties and other interests but also a general
often hostile criticism of many “errors.” Letters he sense of having reached a conclusion of contribu-
wrote in 1503, for example, when he was com- tion to the theology of the divine Trinity, militated
pleting his disputations at Rome for the doctorate against continuation of that project.
in theology, show both practices. John Monfasani Citing Aristotle as an authority but also openly
has recently shown that by 1507, Giles was even criticizing him was a practice that accompanied
4 Giles of Viterbo
the reintroduction of Aristotle’s writings into the systematized for him to be able to tolerate.” Giles,
West, as Luca Bianchi has shown (Bianchi 1994). in his Sentences commentary and elsewhere,
If refuting Aristotelianism in its pagan dimen- rather “follows in a general way the topics treated
sions was a lifelong campaign for Giles, his for- by the great scholastics, and, although his manner
mal theological and philosophical education of argument is different from theirs, his conclu-
nevertheless accommodated Aristotelian concepts sions are not so distinctive as we might have
as mediated chiefly by the writings of Thomas anticipated” (O’Malley 1968, 62). O’Malley
Aquinas and other scholastic theologians. The even notes what he calls a strange anomaly, that
greater complexity of assessing Giles’s philoso- as an administrator, Giles promoted the study of
phy with respect to the Thomistic tradition is scholastic theology “with an insistence truly
evident. As mentioned, early in his theological remarkable for somebody convinced that the
career, Giles edited three works of Giles of properly Christian philosophy was that of the
Rome (ca. 1247–1316), a student of Thomas Ficinian Plato.” Giles was sufficiently versed in
Aquinas who became the first noteworthy theolo- scholastic categories, method, and terminology
gian of the Augustinian Hermits. Why did Giles of early on for it to be a component of all of his
Viterbo devote himself to Giles of Rome? later thought. There is still uncertainty about the
Eugenio Massa interpreted Giles’s intention as degree of Giles’s knowledge of the scholastics,
“to liberate theology from the systematic founda- owing to the scarcity of citations of a scholastic
tion it had under medieval Scholasticism and theologian as an authority and the apparent inabil-
establish a new humanistic theology; and this ity of Giles to distinguish among the detailed
may have been a factor in Giles’s interest in teachings of the various writers. Now that the
Giles of Rome,” since Giles of Rome was not complete text of the Sentences commentary has
completely subservient to Aquinas, but he did been published (Nodes 2010), scholars are able to
build on his teacher’s foundation. Massa, who search for textual parallels with Aristotle and
edited a small portion of Giles’s Sentences com- Aquinas and compare them in detail with the
mentary, considered the Viterbian’s withdrawal many places where Giles either overtly refutes or
from scholasticism in the period of his writing seeks to build upon the scholastic tradition.
that treatise as gradual and only partially success- Here we suggest that Giles’s effort was toward
ful, as he judges from changes in the commentary. a broad and aspirational synthesis that included
Massa suggested that its composition falls into but was not subservient to scholasticism or even
three periods, as he saw reflected in the author’s principally interested in it. To illustrate, the syn-
style and works cited. The first period would be thesis of scholastic and Platonic approaches to
that of the first chapters. There Giles is more theological issues is especially evident in Giles’s
elliptical, more concerned with scholastic prob- writings on the soul and its faculties such as sense
lems. The second and the third periods produce perception, will, intellection, and memory. By the
the chapters concerning the processions of the Son fourteenth century, philosophers and theologians
and of the Holy Spirit, composed between 1509 had in large measure turned their attention away
and 1512. Massa senses an increasing reaction from questions about the soul and its faculties and
against scholasticism in the commentary as it pro- became more interested in questions about human
gresses (Massa 1951, 37–38). cognition. Faculty psychology, however, contin-
John O’Malley has pointed to Giles’s interest ued to prove useful as an analogy. The
in other Augustinian scholastics besides Giles of reintroduction of Aristotelian psychology in the
Rome, including Gregory of Rimini thirteenth century, with commentaries on Aristotle
(c. 1300–1358), James of Viterbo (c. 1250 – c. by Muslim scholars, had brought other images to
1307), and Hugolino of Orvieto (c. 1300–1373). the forefront for later medieval Christians to con-
O’Malley holds that Giles did not, contrary to sider when presenting the soul’s faculties as anal-
what many would expect, “reject the scholastics ogous to the relationship among the persons in the
as too tainted with Aristotle and too rigorously Trinity. Aristotle’s De anima, II.3, identifies three
Giles of Viterbo 5
species or aspects of soul in succession: vegeta- nutritive powers precede the sensory, and the sen-
tive, sensitive, and rational, relating them to the sory the rational. Natural ordering, however,
ordered progression of numbers and geometric reverses that sequence and considers the rational
figures from one to the next. Aristotle’s distinction powers before the sensory powers, and the sen-
among vegetative, sensitive, and rational faculties sory before the nutritive. Each faculty’s domain of
had been reflected in the writings of Augustine of influence reverses the pattern again: the domain of
Hippo but was now reintroduced to the West from the nutritive is the body only and that of the
a non-Christian context. The three aspects still sensory is the body and beyond; then there are
gave Christian theologians the opportunity to rational faculties whose domain is data from the
develop the Trinitarian analogy. sensory world as well as the metaphysical realm
In order to exploit the analogy’s potential, two of being. The scheme of showing multiple per-
questions were mainly discussed. The first asks spectives lays a foundation for preserving in even
whether there is any proper ordering among the greater measure the dynamic aspect of the relation
faculties. The second asks whether one faculty of the persons of the Trinity.
may be said to originate from another faculty. By Giles’s time, scholasticism was increas-
Using analogies from nature to describe the rela- ingly criticized as an exercise in logomachy.
tion of the persons in the Trinity is of limited value Philipp Melanchthon, one of the bitterest critics
since it risks introducing concepts of superiority of scholasticism, for example, summarized the
and subordination on the one hand, and the intro- turmoil over the organic faculties responsible for
duction of time as a factor on the other hand, sense perception as magna et inepta in his own
thereby failing to represent the doctrine of the Liber de anima (Melanchthon 1540, 36). But even
Trinitarian persons as coequal and coeternal, yet Melanchthon continued to speak of will, cogni-
possessing real distinction and an order of origin tion, memory, and judgment as “interior faculties”
among themselves. in that text. The fifteenth-century German Carthu-
The common solution to those limitations was sian Gregor Reisch, author of the influential text-
to present several orderings from different per- book Margarita philosophica, was another
spectives. Thomas Aquinas introduced his scholar who voiced the Aristotelian doctrine that
account of the ordering of the faculties by repeat- “All our knowledge is derived from the senses.”
ing the two basic principles of order that Christian He continued to speak of three sense types in his
doctrine rejects as ways to understand the order- doctrine of the powers: external (the five senses),
ing of the divine persons in the Trinity: namely, internal (serving as a bridge), and intellection
ordering the divine persons according to their (dealing with universals). Giles, like his contem-
coming into being “in time” and ordering in poraries, treats the human faculties not as an issue
terms of a simple causality. When he turns to in itself but insofar as their relationship to one
consider the human faculties, he first acknowl- another can serve as an analogy of the relationship
edges arguments against ordering based on origin among the persons of the Trinity. Particularly in
in time, because all of the faculties are simulta- commentaries on the Sentences, the ongoing use-
neous and present in the soul from its creation. fulness of the faculties as a way to approach a
Thomas then acknowledges arguments against principal mystery of the Christian faith is evident.
their ordering being one of simple causality, Giles, however, adapts elements from the Pla-
since “one faculty is not the subject of another tonic myth to the general framing of the questions
faculty, because an accident cannot be the subject by Aristotelian scholasticism. He introduces a
of an accident. Therefore, one faculty does not moral dimension to the discussion and shows the
arise from another.” Then, to explain how their moral significance of a search for ordering among
ordering can be properly understood as according the faculties by invoking Book 4 of Plato’s Repub-
to origin, Thomas presents a concept of ordering lic. Where Thomas and Aristotle appealed to
by development, where each faculty precedes that logic, Giles (along with Plato) emphasized that
faculty which it prepares for action. Thus the learning the correct ordering of the faculties will
6 Giles of Viterbo
prevent the soul from suffering harm and dialectic on both questions. He begins with scho-
experiencing misery, because the soul will know lastic disputation and ends with poetic exegesis.
which faculties should rule and which should In the final analysis, he does not negate one
serve. Plato had compared the relation of the scheme or another but reinforces a single interpre-
parts of the soul to the functioning of a kingdom. tation of a tradition that connects the human soul
In that analogy, as Giles notes, “Reason is likened and its divine creator amid manifold systems of
to a king, soldiers to self-regard or emotion, and expression. He also presents an eloquent lesson in
the populace to appetite” (Nodes ed. 2010, 203). happiness that comes by learning the proper
But then Giles continues the strategy of presenting ordering of the faculties.
alternative orderings. For example, according to Giles’s reserved attachment to the basic struc-
ordering of action, the senses are the first to act tures of scholasticism continued when he wrote
and they inform reason, and reason in turn stirs the the Historia viginti saeculorum, his second major
will. After several orderings, Giles adds an illus- philosophical work, and the Scechina, his third
tration drawn from poetry and myth, as he does at and last, in which he sought to reconcile Jewish
the end of every question he discusses in the mysticism with Christianity. Even toward the end
commentary. Here he points to Homer’s presenta- of his life when his occupation with the cabbala
tion of Venus/Aphrodite as the goddess had diminished his regard for the Latin theologi-
representing the power of love or the human will cal tradition, Giles was still thinking in terms of
“overcome by Athena, wounded by Diomede, and the traditional scholastic categories. Many of
mocked by Zeus”. This reflects the ordering Giles’s conclusions are not so different from
according to externals, which put reason and those derived by the Scholastics and may even
sense perception above the will. However, in Vir- have been derived from his Renaissance contem-
gil, Giles writes, the divine ordering according to poraries like Ficino. This contributes to findings
nature and perfection is observed, since primacy that have emerged in recent decades, showing
of place and imperium sine fine is given to the more harmony existed between scholastic culture
offspring of Venus, again representing love and and at least the mid- to late Renaissance environ-
will. Giles’s main emphasis in connection with the ment to which Giles belonged than previously
Trinity is well served as he is able to proclaim a acknowledged.
natural ordering of the faculties amid a dynamic
relationship.
That is how Giles prepared the context to pre- Innovative and Original Aspects
sent the second question, one faculty’s origin from
another. As he notes, in order to reflect the Trinity, The divergent views of Giles’s life and work stem
the faculties must originate one from the other, as from his lifelong efforts to discover in Greek myth
the Son and Spirit originate from the Father. Giles and Jewish mysticism the same fundamental
asks “But how will [the faculties] present them- truths he found in the Bible and Christian doc-
selves as an image and likeness of the Trinity, trine. Giles knew that the work of cultural synthe-
unless one proceed from the other?” sis in which he participated was an ancient but
(Nodes, ed. 2010, 206). Giles recalls the Aristote- often controversial tradition. He knew the early
lian procession or generation of one number from Greek allegorizations of Homeric myth. He knew
another and then presents a parallel case of the the writings of Jewish and Christian philosophers
progression from the good, to knowledge of the who, influenced by Neoplatonism, interpreted the
good, to the desire for [love of] the good, again biblical account of humanity’s creation in God’s
recalling Augustine’s highest psychological anal- image as testimony to the rational soul’s transcen-
ogies for the Trinity. dent nature. He admired Origen’s allegorical exe-
Using this pattern of blending Aristotelian and gesis of the Bible as well as Ficino’s mystical
Platonic and scholastic and humanist traditions, allegories. Yet Giles could not inherit a fully
Giles enriches the medieval legacy of abstract formed and universally accepted interpretive
Giles of Viterbo 7
method for scripture, or myth, or mystical writ- again made whole (Nodes 2015). While Thomas
ings, for none existed. He was, moreover, a crea- Aquinas privileged the intellect for its ability to
tive enough thinker to give his own interpretations bring the soul to a contemplation of the divine
to the material he chose to study. He believed that essence which is its end, Giles, true to his August-
pre-Christian arcana held the universal truths inian tradition, privileges the will, since it is what
about the human condition which were more sets the soul in motion toward union with the
fully revealed in the Scriptures. beatific vision. But Giles goes further; true to his
Giles’s Sentences commentary, despite its con- classical humanist worldview, he reads classical
nection to scholastic categories, was nevertheless Greco-Roman myths in a manner so as to illustrate
a reaction to scholasticism in an effort to restore a what the soul’s union with the beatific vision
theology that was literary, alive, and ethical, more looks like, which both Peter Lombard, the scho-
like that of the patron of Giles’s order, Augustine lastic father of the Sentences, and even Augustine,
of Hippo. And although Eugenio Massa who was critical of pagan culture, would never
suggested that Giles only gradually became less have done.
comfortable with scholasticism late in his com- “Eclectic” can be used to describe Giles’s inte-
mentary project, Giles took a distinct stance from grative work, but that both aids understanding and
the earliest pages of the commentary. From the serves as an occasion for disagreement about
first sections of that treatise, there is a conscious Giles’s project. Whenever that term has been
application of its title ad mentem Platonis, which taken as equivalent to “paganizer,” Giles has
attests to Giles’s commitment to a new method been seen as fusing together several different
with mystical and poetic dimensions that grow forms of beliefs and practices into one system of
above the dialectical roots. belief. When it is taken as more akin to “harmo-
Giles’s voluntarism transcending natural law nizer,” Giles’s campaign can be seen as revealing
and his method of interpretation using grammar, the mystery of the Trinitarian Godhead in pagan
myth, and allegory transcending dialectic thus and Jewish texts. The range resembles C. J. de
reflect an eclectic humanistic perspective. In that Vogel’s taxonomy of Christianity as related to
difficult attempt at synthesis, however, there is a Platonism (De Vogel 1985), which spans five
dominant element. In the final analysis, the degrees, from total rejection to fargoing accep-
method Giles prefers is literary rather than dialec- tance joined with transformation. In this schema,
tical and humanistic rather than scholastic. Myth Giles fits best in the fifth category, as corroborated
and allegory are preeminent, and Giles concludes by Giles’s own opinion of Plato as “a philosopher
every section of the commentary by applying who indeed approaches so very closely to divine
them to the topic under consideration. Giles tried matters, so delights in them, so takes our side, that
to bring a scholastic theological exercise like writ- it no longer seems that it should be said about
ing a Sentences commentary into harmony with Philo that ‘either Philo is speaking like Plato,’
Platonic philosophical reflection and to introduce but ‘either Plato is speaking like a Christian,’ or
classical myths to illustrate those theological more truly, ‘is speaking like Moses’” (Nodes
truths. While there is some validity in the afore- 2010, 274; Boriello-Vitale eds. 2016, 485). In
mentioned description of Giles as “a man of ivory his Sentences commentary, Giles validates aspects
tower abstractions” motivated partly by a desire to of ancient Hellenic philosophy’s preliminary con-
display his erudition in papal court circles, he was ceptions of God and God’s relation to humanity.
even more genuinely a sincere promoter of Plato’s He reminds readers, for example, that the Apostle
philosophical idealism as the closest approxima- Paul had pointed out how the Greek philosophers
tion in the pre-Christian world to Christian doc- had received revelation from God: “Paul, speak-
trines of the Trinity, the redemption, and the soul’s ing about the Greek philosophers, interprets what
natural immortality. Giles labored to inject that God revealed to them. Wherefore what God
theological vision into a revitalized contemporary revealed even to the philosophers was not a depar-
culture replete with ancient wisdom and thus ture from the truth, and to those especially whose
8 Giles of Viterbo
philosophy was not at odds with the knowledge of parallel revelations he marks out in Plato, Pythag-
the prophets”(Nodes 2010, 112). Acceptance of oras, Vergil, and even Etruscan lore. Scholars
that relationship does not lead Giles to equate have long known that the Etruscan matter was
Christian theology and ancient Greek religion culled from false information presented in the
but rather to discover elements of Christian mean- Antiquitates of Annio da Viterbo. Giles’s Historia
ings in the ancient Greek myths, as Gemistos still awaits a full critical edition although sections
Plethon had attempted to do. of the work where Giles is critical of the worldli-
Giles’s syncretism is best seen as an effort to ness of Alexander VI’s and Julius II’s pontificates
harmonize philosophical and mythical traditions were published in 1854 by K. A. C. Höfler (1854),
with the Christian mystery, so that they are seen to and extracts are printed in a history of the papacy
bear witness to Christian revelation. Giles saw his by M. Creighton in 1887 (Creighton 1887,
work as finding the same truths about God, and 279–289).
the human soul expressed in the Bible also Giles worked on the Historia until 1518, when
reflected in texts of Homer, Plato, and Vergil. As he turned his attention to this third large project,
the scholastics harmonize current knowledge the Scechina. The word is an Italian transliteration
about Aristotle with the church fathers, so Giles of the Hebrew for God’s glorious presence to the
harmonizes Plato, Homer, and Vergil with them. human race. It is the last of the ten Sefiroth, the
Giles, however, did not quite go as far as some of emanations within the Godhead culminating in his
his contemporaries like Pico della Mirandola, who presence among mankind. Giles derived this
sought to harmonize all religious traditions, knowledge from the Cabbala “tradition,” a form
including Islam. Yet one can speculate that with of gnosis that is expressed as a series of symbolic
a longer life and under less-threatening historical reflections on God. The Cabbala had a great influ-
circumstances, Giles might also have looked more ence on Giles, especially for what it was thought
closely into the Koran and its tradition for those to reveal about the divine nature, and the interpre-
places where there could be discoverable har- tation of the Bible and, to a lesser but still signif-
mony with the message of Christ. icant degree, the coming of the Messiah. This
After 1512, when Giles turned from writing the mysticism stands against the analytical philoso-
commentary on Peter Lombard, he entered his phy of medieval Jewish scholars, chief among
second large project in 1513, the Historia viginti whom was Maimonides, who worked to reconcile
saeculorum, dedicated to Pope Leo X. Again Judaism with Greek philosophy, much as did
Giles envisaged a major undertaking, in this case Gregory Palamas in the Christian Greek East.
a Christian interpretation of human history from
beginning to end, divided into 20 periods. The
autograph copy of this work (Naples, Bib. Naz., Impact and Legacy
Cod. IX. B. 14) contains the subtitle “per totidem
digestis psalma,” reflecting Giles’s intention to John O’Malley pointed out that Giles represented
correlate the history of the work of divine provi- one of the last great figures in the Observantist
dence in each of the ages of mankind with the movement that swept over the mendicant orders in
verses of a psalm. Continuity with scholasticism’s the late Middle Ages. He was a well-regarded
categories of God, creation, good and evil, angels, preacher and orator. He opened the fifth Lateran
and final things is evident in these later works; yet Council in 1512 with a maxim that sounded the
Giles does not present a scientific or documentary fundamental norm for church reform: “Men are to
history but rather a compendium of lore studded be changed by religion, not religion by men”
with moral observations. Marc Deramaix is one of (O’Malley 1968, 14). He was on familiar terms
the recent scholars who have shown aspects of the with several High-Renaissance popes, including
way in which Giles’s Historia points out the traits Leo X, by whom he was raised to the rank of
of a secret divine knowledge whose truth seems cardinal. Was Giles responsible in part for the
perfectly corroborated by the consistent and iconography of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel
Giles of Viterbo 9
ceiling or even Raphael’s Stanza della Segnatura? protection and defense rather than accusation or
The thesis was pioneered by Heinrich Pfeiffer and summoning to trial. Further, they have been the
embraced by present-day art historians including preeminent leaders and teachers even of the Latin
Meredith Gill and Ingrid Rowland. theological writers” (Nodes 2010, 422).
For all his intellectual energy and range of Because of the many influences and complex
talents and interests, however, Giles has remained crosscurrents of traditions, defining Giles’s prin-
more of a marginal figure than his deep learning cipal aims and vision remains elusive. While the
seems to deserve. It could be that his great reach focus on one person may be thought to open only
and eclecticism itself had less impact than if he a small window on the history of Christianity,
had followed one line of inquiry more consis- however, the window in this instance gives view
tently. Although he was the most accomplished of a larger trend in the Church’s complex cultural
Western Hebrew scholar in his day, and was per- history through this high cleric’s appropriation of
sonally responsible for introducing the Zohar ver- Ficinian Platonism and Jewish mysticism into the
sion of cabbalistic tradition to European attention, Roman curia during the High Renaissance and the
he is given less credit than deserved for being a dawn of the Reformation. Had Giles become pope
pioneer in Hebrew studies. He practiced the kind or been more influential in the curia, or even had
of ecumenism with which modern Christians who his writings been made more widely available, the
are comfortable with the relative merits of world course of the Protestant Reformation or Catholic
religions now take for granted. efforts at counterreform might have had a differ-
Giles worked to bring not only the eponymous ent character.
founder of his Augustinian order into greater
prominence but the early church fathers in gen-
eral. Giles’s leadership of the Augustinian order at
Cross-References
the start of the Protestant Reformation as precip-
itated by Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk
▶ Academy, Platonic
himself, was once thought to be a condition for
▶ Allegory – Renaissance Philosophy
Giles to have influenced Luther’s reform theol-
▶ Aristotelianism
ogy. Jules Paquier’s study in the 1920s, however,
▶ Augustinianism
found little correspondence between Luther’s
▶ Bessarion, Basil Cardinal
doctrines and Giles’s. In Giles’s period, however,
Augustine’s writings became increasingly avail-
▶ Hermes Trismegistus and Hermeticism
able through the publication of printed editions
▶ Melanchthon, Philipp
along with Origen, Chrysostom, Lactantius, and
▶ Nifo, Agostino
other early Christian leaders. And while Roman
Catholic theology gradually centered itself on
Aquinas and medieval scholasticism, the move-
ment to revive the Eastern and Western fathers, a References
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Giles was also a Hellenist in the sense that,
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C. Schnaubelt in Martin, Friar, Reformer (see below).
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wrote, “in all the world has been either the dis-
coverers or promoters of every kind of branch of
learning, and they seem therefore most worthy of
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H
Habit acting, and constitutes for the human being, as

Aristotle says, a second nature. Habits can be of
Riccardo Pozzo two kinds, namely, the ones that follow the “ratio-
Department Humanities, Social Sciences, and nal principle in the proper self” and the others that
Cultural Heritage, Consiglio Nazionale delle are “obedient to it as a child to its father” (Eth. Nic.
Ricerche, Rome, Italy I,13, 1103a3-5); the former, Aristotle calls intel-
lectual virtues, the latter moral virtues. “Virtues
are engendered in us neither by nature nor yet in
Abstract violation of nature; nature gives us the capacity to
receive them, and this capacity is brought about
In the Renaissance, habits have provided the key- by habit” (Eth. Nic. II,1, 1103a24-26).
stone for all theories of subjectivity. It is the
knowing subject that posits itself out of itself,
namely, in what it knows, in order to bring back Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
what it has known into the subjectivity of its mind.
The first thinker who thematizes habit is Plato. In
Resp. and De leg., when looking into the issue of
Introduction educating the philosophers-guardians in the ideal
state, he considers the power that good and bad
Habits have been thematized since the very begin- habits exercise on human behavior. Plato con-
ning of philosophy. In ancient philosophy, habit siders habits both as “having of cognition”
indicates the disposition to certain actions or pas- (Theaet. 197a) and the capacity of improving
sions, which can be proper either to the individual one’s dispositions, or abilities, by means of exer-
as a ἕxiB (which is connected with character and cise (Phaedr. 268e). Given that not even reason
attitude) or to the collective as ἦyoB (which is can contrast the power habits have once they have
associated with mores and usages). The know- been acquired, it is important for the lawgiver to
how that is acquired by habit is a take care that the educational system favors the
possession – whose opposite is privation – that acquisition by the future philosophers-guardians
results from repetition and exercise of individual of good habits of body and soul.
actions, i.e., from experience and practice, which The first extended scientific investigation of
confers stability on human behavior. In this sense, habit is provided by Aristotle within practical
the ἦyoB (habitudo, consuetudo) produces a ἕxiB philosophy. It is the mode of knowing of ethics
(habitus), namely, a determined disposition to and politics, the disciplines that consider human
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_198-1
2 Habit
action and its best actualization, which are called Impact and Legacy
practical in as far as they consider what has to be
done in the praxis. Aquinas distinguishes between habits and poten-
Habits have provided the keystone for all the- cies and maintains that habituation is possible on
ories of subjectivity. It is the knowing subject that potential having: “habits differ from potencies,
posits itself out of itself, namely in what it knows, because potencies enable us to do something,
in order to bring back what it has known into the while habits do not enable us to doing something,
subjectivity of its mind. If it is true that both they make us able or unable to act well or bad.
Platonism and Aristotelianism have contributed Habits cannot take away from us anything,
to the genesis of subjectivity, it is important to although we learn by habits to act well or bad”
look more closely into the actual extent of their (Summa contra Gentiles IV, 77). While Aquinas
contribution. A definition of habit has always does not know Eustratius, the latter’s impact is
been seen as twofold: it can be considered as a made possible by Robert Grosseteste’s thirteenth-
human ability and is then to be regarded as a century Latin translation of his Ethics commen-
mental habit (ars interna); it can, however, also tary. Eustratius makes it clear that habits are spir-
be considered as the corpus of doctrines resulting itual substances ordered in a procession
from the use of that ability (ars externa) and is in (próodoB) towards the noῦB. For Eustratius, intel-
this case to be regarded as a system. lectual habits belong to metaphysics, which
unifies intellect and science. All other sciences
presuppose their principles as known, while meta-
physics explains and demonstrates: it is the head
of all sciences (CAG 20, 324).
Philipp Melanchthon expands the use of the
The modern understanding of subjectivity was
Greek and Latin term “method” from medicine
born during the Renaissance out of the relation
into philosophy: “the ancients call method a ἕxiB
between habit and system, or, to put in contempo-
of teaching correctly and in an orderly manner”
rary terms, between psychologism and scientism.
(Melanchthon 1528, fol. Lr-v). According to
Against the Platonic assumption that systems are
Melanchthon, method is a ἕxiB, a disposition of
extra mentem, in rebus, that they are realia,
the intellectual part of the soul that can be predi-
principia, and that they apply to things themselves
cated of a human being as one of the qualities
as primae notiones, the Renaissance Aristotelians,
referred to by the Aristotelian category ε῎ wein,
first and foremost Jacopo Zabarella opposed that
habitus (Melanchthon 1547, CR 13: 561–63). In
every theory presupposes an intellectual habit,
fact, students ought to pick up the habit of “relat-
which is in mente, a rebus seiunctus,
ing everything to method” (Melanchthon 1536,
instrumentalis and considers notiones secundae
CR 11: 281). For method is in itself a habit, “it is
(Zabarella 1578, I,5). In Eth. Nic. II, habits are
a certain habit, or science, or art that makes a way
dealt with in terms that influence the whole
by means of a reason that is certain, i.e., that finds
ancient and medieval philosophy. The problem is
and opens a way through an inaccessible region,
momentous, for while an intellectual virtue is a
which is covered by briers, through the confusion
ἕxiB that is “produced and increased by instruc-
of things, that invents and puts in order things
tion” and requires therefore “experience and
pertaining to what has been proposed”
time,” moral virtues are “the product of habit,”
(Melanchthon 1547, CR 13: 573).
which in this case is ἦyoB (Eth. Nic. II,1,
1103a17).
Interconnections
Jacopo Zabarella states that logic – the discipline

without which no part of philosophy could be
Habit 3
construed – lies in the human mind as a habitus Cross-References

instrumentalis, which is functional to the acquisi-
tion of all other disciplines in its theoretical part ▶ Francesco Piccolomini
(logica docens), and which vanishes or rather ▶ Jacopo Zabarella
becomes identified with the individual sciences
once it is applied to the various kinds of knowl-
edge (Zabarella 1578, I,3–8). Zabarella’s stipula-
References
tions on the definition of science are in themselves
an explanation for views concerning (1) practical
Primary Literature
sciences such as ethics and politics, (2) the arts Aquinas. Summa contra Gentiles.
connected with the narrative and persuasive func- Aristotle. De anima Beta.
tions of language, and (3) the productive tech- Aristotle. Ethica Nicomachea Alpha, Beta, Zeta.
niques, which he stamps as sordidae – with the Aristotle. Metaphysica Delta.
Aristotle. Physica Alpha, Beta.
consequence that it would be unworthy to force Duodo, A. 1577. De habitibus intellectus libri sex. apud
rhetoric and poetics to serve them. Francesco Domenico Nicolini da Sabbio, Venice.
Piccolomini maintains against Zabarella that the Eustratius of Nicaea. In Ethicam Nichomacheam
order of the disciplines and the way of teaching Aristotelis.
Melanchthon, P. 1528. Dialectica. apud Josephum Klug,
are similar in part, though they also differ, for the Wittenberg.
latter is based on the mode of our own cognition, Melanchthon, P. 1536. De philosophia. apud Josephum
“while the former is based on the nature of the Klug, Wittenberg.
things that are dealt with” (Piccolomini 1601, 5). Melanchthon, P. 1547. Erotemata dialectices. pud Chris-
tian Egenolff, Wittenberg.
In fact, Aristotle has meant in Phys. I,57 and De Piccolomini, F. 1583. Universa philosophia de moribus.
an. II,34 “in servando ordine nos debere naturam apud Franciscum de Franciscis, Venice.
sequi, et ordinis primis.” Also when learning Piccolomini, F. 1601. Comes politicus. apud Franciscum
logic, then, we follow an order, “which nature de Franciscis, Venice.
Plato. De legibus.
offers us and which we find out in the nature of Plato. Respublica.
things” (Ibid.). Piccolomini inspires the first com- Plato. Theaetetus.
prehensive treatise on habits of the Italian Renais- Zabarella, J. 1578. De natura logicae. apud Paulum
sance, Andrea Duodo’s De habitibus intellectus Meietum, Venice.
libri sex (Duodo 1577), who follows Eustratius’s
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the ample ascending exposition of habits provided losophers on subjectivity. Topoi 22: 5–13.
by his teacher Francesco Piccolomini in the
Universa philosophia de moribus (Piccolomini
1583).
J
Justice legal texts was confronted by a more thoroughly

historical construction of those texts, most fre-
Thomas J. Kuehn quently associated with the Italian jurist Andrea
Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA Alciato (8 May 1492–12 January 1550). This
gave birth to such a different method of reading
the texts of the Corpus that it came to be called the
Abstract mos gallicus, in contrast to the older mos italicus,
The classical ideal of justice remained vibrant associated in many minds with the fourteenth-
in the Middle Ages because it was embodied in century jurist Bartolus of Sassoferrato
the surviving texts of Roman law, the Corpus (1313–1357). Against the assertion that no pro-
Iuris Civilis. From there, it entered canon law, fessional jurist could operate in any other fashion
where it gained strength from its association (nemo iurista nisi bartolista), lay the argument that
with the divine giver of justice. Justice in the justice lays in appropriate laws that served a peo-
classical tradition was an ideal of distributive ple in their peculiar historical context. The legis-
justice, a socially fair allocation of things, ren- lator (most prominently a king, such as that of
dering to each his due. It was an ideal ostensi- France), rather than the academically educated
bly linked to outcomes, independent of interpreter, was looked to as the font of justice.
process. Ideal and practice were never neces- Justice could thus be reconceived, as it was by
sarily coincident, however, and it was along figures, such as Jean Bodin (1530–June 1596) and
that fissure that humanist critiques of law and John Locke (29 August 1632–28 October 1704),
its practitioners, beginning with Petrarch in terms of a particular state and its ruler and its
(20 July 1304–19 July 1374), launched largely people, and natural law became unhinged from
ethical arguments. Justice, itself an ethical con- the realm of objective patterns of behavior and
struct, was being lost, said humanists, in pro- bound to subjective rights instead.
cedural delays and cascades of citations and
references, and in bad Latin, that seemingly
served only to line the pockets of lawyers, Heritage and Rupture with Tradition
judges, and notaries.
The medieval ideal of justice derived from Aris-
totle (Nicomachean Ethics, Book 5) and Cicero
By the sixteenth century, the ethical arguments (De Officiis, Book 1). It was encapsulated in the
had spilled over into epistemological attacks as great compendium of Roman jurisprudence, the
well. The quasi-sacred quality of the classical Digest, assembled on the orders of the emperor
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_201-1
2 Justice
Justinian I (c. 482–565) in the sixth century, and in The power of this vision in the medieval world
the law school text, the Institutes, composed at the rested on the fact that, in the words of one eminent
same time. The latter begins with the statement historian of law, “medieval society was legal,
that “justice is an unswerving and perpetual deter- because it was described and preserved by law,
mination to acknowledge all men’s rights” its most profound constitution was legal, and there
(“Iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius stood its essential aspect, there stood its ultimate
suum cuique tribuens”: Justinian 1987). The worth” (Grossi 1995, 14).
corresponding passage in the Digest added, from The medieval ideal was a thoroughly ethical
the jurist Ulpian, “the precepts of the law are vision of justice, as a movement of the will
these: live honorably, do not harm another, render (voluntas). Justice was generally classified as
to each what is his” (“iuris praecepta sunt haec: one of the four cardinal virtues, along with pru-
honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique dence, temperance, and fortitude. The location of
tribuere”: Mommsen et al., D. 1.1.10). The ideal justice in the will (Quaglioni 2004), with a sub-
was a form of distributive justice appropriate to jective habit of the soul (habitus animi) (Cortese
civil law, as opposed to retributive justice typical 2000), inserted ethical concerns into any discus-
of criminal law. sion of law. It was also a vision that posited a
Aristotle had treated justice under two head- tension between the effects of laws and their abil-
ings, general and particular. By the first, a just man ity to mirror transcendant justice. Gratian’s treat-
deals fairly with all others; by the second, he ment of ius as iustum immediately raised the
renders what is due (proportional) to their merit distinction between the legal and the equitable.
and worth. Both are distributive. Both leave ample A recurrent object of discussions of justice was
room for justice to vary by social status, gender, the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matt.
age, or any other form of discrimination of per- 20:1–16), as their equal pay over a workday of
sons enshrined in law. Cicero added an emphasis different lengths raised the issue. Justice in that
on the natural law basis to justice, which could case emerged only on an allegorical reading of
then be determined by the rational human being. divine law. But were justice to be considered
He formulated it as suum cuique tribuere, which purely in the realm of human law, then the “con-
was then picked up by the later jurist Ulpian stant” and “perpetual” nature of justice, as empha-
(d. 228) and thence found its way into the Corpus. sized by Gratian, became problematic. Against
It did so because the law (ius in Latin) was such the unchanging ideal of justice lay the malleable
because it was just (iustum); its source was justice. and elastic nature of human laws, and so discus-
Justice belonged in the realm of the sacred as a sions of justice easily turned to equity and the
moral science, and its interpreters were to con- problem of making just resolutions of cases.
sider justice as something more than the simple Law, of course, came in different types. The
certainty of application of particular rules or cus- central distinction was between divine and human
toms. In that regard, in the welter of laws and law. St. Augustine (13 November 354–28 August
customs across medieval Europe, it was the ius 430) drew up the model by which divine law, most
civile that was considered to have claim to being certainly just, sat on top; natural law, as divine law
in fact iustum, to being justice, rendered in writing manifest in nature, came next; and beneath those
(ratio scripta). As a whole and in its many insti- laws was human positive law, legitimate if not in
tutions and provisions, Roman civil law became conflict with the other two (Janin 2004). Justice
the standard by which all others were supposed to was the source of law, not vice versa. Law’s func-
be measured. tion was to bring justice to bear in human society
From its privileged position in the texts of civil (Cortese 2000). Natural law had, by this account,
law, the Ulpianic ideal of justice entered into an objective quality as a creation of God. It could
canon law. Gratian’s pivotal twelfth-century be known through observation of behavioral pat-
Decretum (Dist. 1 c. 2) agreed that law (ius) was terns, and norms could be known as grounded in
such because it was just (iustum: Gratian 1993). the acquired nature of longstanding habit and
Justice 3
custom. Written laws could give precision to such law as a system, the objective of justice (ius), and
norms, but they also carried the danger of remov- law as a way to rationalize (ratio) that justice (lex).
ing them from their origin in the natural. He found as well that one-dimensional senses of
The chief structural complication to the reali- law always ran into problems: a concern to write
zation of earthly justice lays in the confusing and down and fix law would come to difficulties when
overlapping array of positive laws: canon law, there was need for change, whereas every sense of
Roman civil law, statutes, and other written enact- a norm would come to a need to fix it in writing
ments of political entities ranging from kingdoms (Quaglioni 2004). The two virtues, ratio and
to small principalities and cities, rules of corporate aequitas, mitigated the rigor of written law and
bodies such as guilds or universities, and local underwrote the medieval image of justice
customs taken as normative. These were an amal- (Bellabarba 2008).
gam of resources to hand whenever there was The two greatest civilian jurists of the four-
conflict or doubt as to what was suum and to teenth century thus took different approaches to
whom as cuique. Canon and civil law pretended the texts about justice. Bartolus of Sassoferrato
to universality, and in conjunction with some (1313–1357) focused his discussion of the defini-
other elements, chiefly as taught in the law tion of iustitia on the term constans. He noted that
schools, beginning with Bologna in the twelfth another text dealing with a mother’s remarriage
century, came to be seen as a “common law” (ius entertained differing senses of what was just. The
commune: Bellomo 1995). These then most parable of the workers in the vineyard being paid
closely approximated a standard of justice, and the same whether they began work in the morning
their texts were read as such, as ratio scripta. or evening was something to be taken “mysti-
But canon law had its system of courts within cally” and “figuratively,” but it led to the conclu-
the church, culminating (in appellate but also in sion that humans were not by definition
precedential terms) in papal Rome. Civil law had “constant” but had a limited possibility of being
no system of courts but was variously allowed as a so (Bartolus 1560, to D. 1.1.10). The law made up
basis to norms and/or a standard of reasoning and for this limitation by being a systematic form of
justice in local courts (Venice, e.g., notoriously wisdom, arming the best of all the professions
excluded academic jurisprudence from its civic (arti) whose practitioners could ferret out false
courts, though she had to accept the traditions of sentences and arguments. Bartolus’ illustrious
its use in its terra firma empire). In such a legal successor, a man noted for his philosophical
situation, the need for interpretation of norms in approach to law, Baldo degli Ubaldi
relation to case facts and social practices was (1325–1400), gave iustitia a different twist. Jus-
continuous and often pressing. tice could be taken as “perpetual and eternal
The Aristotelian notion of justice treated it as a wisdom” (“perpetua et immortalis sapientia”).
corrective, commutative process to remove imbal- Justice by this account was a type of perfection
ances and disproportions, which derived from of the immortal soul that inhered in the con-
inevitable defects in law from its universality or science. It was not mere opinion, which necessar-
rigor (Berman 1983). To make any given law just ily contained an element of doubt, and which was
(ius dicere) applied equally to drawing up written not in accord with aequitas rationum. But in real-
rules as to pronouncing sentence (Bellabarba ity, a judge was best advised to follow the law of
2008). Thomas Aquinas (1225–7 March 1274), the court, not his own conscience. What was
in elaborating on Aristotle and the suum cuique needed was the judgment of a bonus vir who did
tribuere, saw justice in relation to practices such for another what he would do for himself in the
as the voluntary exchanges of the marketplace circumstances. “He is a good man who is
(Shaffern 2009). Justice was a virtue that ordered furnished with innocence of counsel” (“Est
the interpersonal and social, even if it at times autem bonus vir ille qui innocentia consilii
resulted in inequity. Aquinas took cognizance of pollet”: Baldo 1585, to D. 1.1.10). Thus both
the linguistic and conceptual distinction between jurists, Bartolus and Baldo, by different routes,
4 Justice
drew attention to the variance between absolute disputa delle arti. The disputa was about justice,
justice and what humans at their best might be as it ostensibly gravitated around arguments
able to do. concerning the relative superiority of law or med-
Judges were the ones in the position of icine. Salutati, himself a notary whose produc-
interpreting the laws, but unless their roles were tions in that earlier phase of his life conformed
long term and at least quasi-professional (as the with the very unclassical vocabulary and forms of
justices of the royal courts in England), they were legal Latin, penned a doctoral oration that invoked
not in fact usually well versed in the laws. Aca- Ciceronian themes of law as the fount of amor
demically trained jurists were, to the contrary, bene vivendi, an “expression of the participation
well equipped to serve as the “priests” of the of the human race in divine reason and as the basis
law, upholders of the principle of justice of the forma et ratio vivendi, that is of the political
(Quaglioni 2004). To them jurisprudence was a constitution” (Quaglioni 2004). Salutati was no
vera philosophia for a proper civil society different on the divine origins of justice than the
(Quaglioni 2004; Kelley 1976). Doctors of law jurists he rubbed shoulders with in the streets and
had great authority and an easy involvement in civic buildings of Florence. He expected the
civil political affairs (Ascheri 1999; Kirshner active assistance of trained jurists in framing
1999). The outstanding exception to that rule laws. But he stressed the equitable function of
was Venice, which began from a basis of Byzan- law, its application to changing circumstances
tine law but without a scholastic apparatus to train (Krantz 1971; Manzin 1994). He would be the
judges. In Venice, judges were laymen who were first major figure in what became a Florentine
expected to use discretion in reaching judgments humanistic tradition of criticism of existing laws
and settling conflicts (Shaw 2006). and courts against an the ideal of civic (and
ancient) justice.
Subsequent Florentine chancellors, Leonardo
Innovative and Original Aspects Bruni (1369–4 March 1444) and Poggio
Bracciolini (11 February 1380–30 October 1459)
The elevation of law, of justice, as civil science, brought to law a historicizing vision, less
put it in the crosshairs of anyone discontent with concerned with changes in law but with context
that order and justice. None, it seems, were more and equity. They criticized well-known jurists,
discontent in the Trecento than Petrarch, himself a such as Cino da Pistoia (d. 1336–1337) and
refugee (traitor was his term for it) from the formal Dino del Mugello (d. 1303) for knowing only
study of law in Montpellier and Bologna. His law (not a fair assessment of Cino, a poet among
criticisms were of law, not of justice. His sense other things). The necessity for dealing with
of justice remained profoundly moral and conser- change seemed to reduce the claims of academic
vative, as one might expect from an admirer of legal sciences to any sort of superior eternal truth.
Cicero. Petrarch decried the failures of law’s prac- Humanists read away the professional apparatus
titioners, those pretentious jurists, to be eloquent of textual glosses, arguing in contrast for reading
in their writings and just in their judgments. He the texts of law themselves. Bracciolini
accused them of prolonging cases with arcane complained about the mercenary nature of legal
arguments to wrest more fees and burnish their practice and the plethora of conflicting interpreta-
authority. Deflating the standing of jurists and tions, in contrast to the serene detachment of the
questioning the functioning of law was not to classical scholar. The role of the legislator in
question the notion of justice, but it was to make meeting that need of shifting cases was at least
it central to discussion. as important as that of the academic interpreter,
Subsequent to Petrarch, notably so with the perhaps more, as the legislator arguably knew the
Florentine chancellor Coluccio Salutati immediate local context, in contrast to the aloof
(16 February 1331–4 May 1406), law and medi- standards of the texts of civil law. It is also worth
cine came to figure in what has been called the noting that university-trained lawyers were the
Justice 5
chief rivals of humanists for intellectual and cul- the political theoretician Niccolò, to explore the
tural prestige in civic contexts. The lawyers problems of resolving disputes in the face of law-
enjoyed the institutionalized advantages of the yers’ interminable arguments and piles of books.
law schools and guilds of jurists. The humanists The law as practiced lacked certainty, and that
had whatever prestige their pens and social con- meant it lacked justice. But the fault was not
nections could earn them, and targeting lawyers with the law, Scala concluded, it was with the
was aiming at low-hanging fruit. misguided interpreters of it. “With nature leading
The critiques of Lorenzo Valla (1405–1 August and pointing the way, everyone could arrive at
1457) were different, more grammatical and epis- truth using his own wits; but when arguments
temological. Valla took on Bartolus directly, are piled up to demonstrate or refute conflicting
denouncing him for ignorance of historical mean- claims, no one can distinguish the truth” (Scala
ings and for barbarous Latin style. Valla, however, 2008, 179). A natural and rational ethical standard
was not in a position to anticipate real legal could be lost behind written laws.
change. He could mount an acerbic attack on the Such concerns may have been raised more
iconic figure of Bartolus without having to look to consistently, not to say eloquently, in Florence
the implications for practice and legislation. due to the visibility of the city’s humanists and
One element that made the critiques by human- their ability to find an influential audience, as well
ists so telling was the fact that many had studied as to the parallel issues thrown up by the Arno
law, at least for a while, and worked in close city’s turbulent politics and increasing (and
association with notaries, attorneys, judges, and largely extralegal) dominance of the Medici. But
legislators. Perhaps a most telling critique, but one other cities faced similar issues, and people there
less well known for lack (until recently) of a generated their own debates and keyed in on those
modern critical edition, was that of Leon Battista of Florence. Novelle, as humorous stories,
Alberti (14 February 1404–20 April 1472) in his reaching back to Giovanni Boccaccio
De iure of 1437. Written supposedly at the request (1313–1375) in the mid-Trecento, crafted narra-
of a friend who was a judge in nearby Prato, De tives around the particular justice due to their
iure proceeds to examine a judge’s role through characters, which invariably contrasted to the
the verbal exchanges of the figures in this typical rigors of law. These tales were correctives of
humanist dialogue. The verbal exchanges studded sorts to the law and to philosophical and theolog-
with classical references poke sarcastically at the ical notions of an absolute and unchanging justice
number of books jurists used. They also are (Langer 1999). One historian has drawn a similar
denounced for reducing the law to its dimension contrast between a textually fixed (though revis-
as a lucrative profession, marked by ignorance of able) state law and a justice negotiated on a local
the function of law in disputes. As opposed to scale (Sbriccoli 2001). The reality of court cases
aiming at a science of knowledge and at the appli- was that litigants had to be wary of the processes
cation of first principles, jurists put forth need- and of the rules. As one scholar of litigation has
lessly complex opinions. Alberti, himself the remarked, “they feared the beginning of a penal
holder of a law degree, suggested to reduce the case, an expensive affair, laden with risks and
influence of lawyers in proceedings and to uncertain in results, beyond a possible motive
increase that of judges. Judicial discretion was for retaliation: it was required then to be prudent
needed to quell doubt where controversy had and proceed to a denunciation [to a court] only in
arisen or to bridge the apparent gap between pos- cases in which there was no other remedy to
itive and natural law. pressure an adversary save abandoning the legal
The later Florentine chancellor, Bartolomeo action undertaken, as was indicated by the small
Scala (1430–1497), described in contemporary share of proceedings that were concluded with a
records as doctor and iurisconsulens, in his De formal sentence in the old regime” (Bellabarba
legibus et iudiciis (1483), employed dialogic fig- 2008, 83). The types of procedures employed,
ures, including Bernardo Machiavelli, father to accusatory or inquisitional, and the availability
6 Justice
of less formal, more abbreviated processes, had But the historical account of law had limited effect
something to do with the confidence to take a case on practices, especially in politically fragmented
to court and to see it through (Vallerani 2012; Italy, where the traditions of academic jurispru-
Cerutti 1995). Even then, the judicial conclusion dence and the social prestige of its experts were
might only become a condition for the opening of entrenched.
the next phase of conflict resolution intent on a The Milanese jurist Andrea Alciato was one
negotiated settlement, in which each party might who brought a historical perspective into teach-
more likely see something like his due. ing. He could and did raise distinctions between
Yet, alongside all these criticisms, there Roman legal institutions and what those areas of
endured also a positive image of law and the law had become in the light of scholastic legal
legal professional. “The jurist was the very reasoning and prevailing practices. Alciato’s advi-
model of the secular intellectual” (Kelley 1988), sory consilia, however, as professional interpreta-
and the ideal of the perfect jurist would animate tions for actual cases, continued to conform to
thinkers up to and including Leibniz (1 July prevailing methods and styles of argument,
1646–14 November 1716). It was an ideal that which were largely unhistorical and unclassical.
suited a Platonist approach to justice, merely Still, his academic perspective, rolled out at a time
replacing the philosopher-king with the of rapid political change for the states of war-torn
philosopher-jurist, whose wisdom resided in his Italy, including in spectacular fashion in Milan,
knowledge of canonical texts on a wide variety of gave credence to broad shifts in laws worked out
subjects. By the sixteenth century, this image by conquering princes.
would be set in the outpouring of treatises, That the events of the Italian Wars
which appeared in a number of languages, pre- (1494–1530) presented all sorts of problems for
scribing the education of the perfect jurist who formulating a consistent view of justice is perhaps
was equipped to seek and dispense justice. best seen in the works of the foremost analyst of
the political turmoil, the Florentine Niccolò
Machiavelli (1469–1527), himself the son of a
Impact and Legacy modest doctor of laws. Justice or its lack was
linked with force in his thought. The language of
By the end of the fifteenth century, the epistemo- jurisprudence was the language of power.
logical status of the texts of Roman civil law was Machiavelli’s contemporary, Francesco
under question, among others by Angelo Guicciardini (1483–1540), holder of a law degree
Poliziano (14 July 1454–24 September 1494) in who practiced in Florence in his younger days,
Florence (Krantz 1971). The capture by Floren- easily transposed the professional language he
tines of the litera pisana, an older copy of had learned into his later political and historical
Justinian’s corpus that had some significant vari- writings. But it was a different world than that of
ations from the vulgate version disseminated from his youth. He himself acknowledged that the
Bologna since the twelfth century, had a powerful princes were not as they should be but simply
impact in historicizing the law. Poliziano was able what they were. The language of jurisprudence
to study it firsthand (part of the irony of that text’s (such as the public discourse of pro-et-contra dis-
removal, at the behest of Lorenzo de’ Medici, putations) gave new reflection to manifestations
from Pisa, where the Florentine law school was of absolutism, to a power that no longer pretended
relocated, to Florence, where the humanistic arts to stand beneath the law. Guicciardini remained
curriculum and its teachers remained). Poliziano’s the jurist and looked to jurists for justice, but no
account of the law as historical artifact, along with longer as a certain science of the right. As one
his questioning of certain passages and their historian has said, “discretion for Guicciardini is
meaning, had an effect on those rulers or ruling practical reason, the correct judgment of the jurist,
bodies looking for a way and a justification which takes his unique knowledge as sapientia
around certain limitations of the law as practiced. [wisdom] and prudentia and not as scientia,
Justice 7
because he knows that the legal rule, unable to It was the Dutchman Hugo Grotius (10 April
discipline every particular aspect of reality, 1583–20 August 1645) who postulated a basis for
always has need of interpretation and of the inter- positive law in a natural law that was not the same
preter” (Quaglioni 2004, 118). The way to put that as divine law and yet was not reduced to positive
interpreter into the position where discretion law as the will of a legislator. Grotius’s natural
mattered was to make the doctor of law also the law, however, was not based on reason per se but
judge. The Florentine Ruota of 1502, itself an on the observable contracts among peoples that
imitation of the Roman court of the same name, formed the basis of an international law beyond
was just one example of this new trend, as was the the whims of any one sovereign in any one place.
German imperial Reichskammergericht in 1495. His De iure belli ac pacis (1625) rested on a
But now what made the interpreter effective was secularized sense of natural law, as he wrote
less his systematic education as a doctor of law from the midst of the last great spasm of religious
than his experience as interpreter of situations, warfare in Europe. He examined the issue of jus-
motives, and possibilities in relation to the law tice in going to war (ad bellum) and in its conduct
(Prodi 2000). (in bello) without an eye to matters of sin and
Jean Bodin, in a context of lively discussion of divine law.
the sources of law and the power of the royal With John Locke, who based government on
legislator, and in the context of a France riven by the consent of the governed – the same consent
sectarian conflict, employed the tools of the (will) that made justice a virtue – justice became a
humanistic jurists and arrived at the point of matter of rendering to each his rights. Subjective
contesting the definition of justice and natural rights, inhering in individuals by natural law, had
law of Ulpian that graced the Roman texts. He more than ethical status. They gained a full social
arrived instead at the idea of founding positive law and political dimension, as people tied their rights
in natural reason and the justice of royal legisla- to life and their labor to a social contract with
tion for a particular realm that was not necessarily others. And a figure like Leibniz, who was
applicable everywhere. Now natural law began to drawn to conventional images of jurisprudence,
figure as a set of rights each Frenchman held also contributed powerfully to the new method of
(varying by legal status). These rights were sub- natural philosophy, which left no room for the
jective and deduced a priori. Justice itself was a conventional jurist. The new ideal of a naturalistic
matter of tempering rules to cases, especially in social and political theory looked to legislation
terms of the status of the persons involved – a and codification, rather than interpretation, to
combination of law and equity. Any sense of locate justice.
precedent remained weak. Where natural law
had once been a matter of custom, precedent,
and the reason written into Roman law, it was Interconnections
now in transcendent principles that demonstrated
the deficiencies of the older views. Positive law When the US Declaration of Independence
was to conform to those principles. But that would asserted that king and parliament had been unjust,
also leave justice enmeshed in positive law, not to had transgressed natural law, and had deprived
be questioned, unless it were possible for some- colonists of natural, God-given rights, the notion
one to claim superior understanding of those tran- of justice had come a long way from suum cuique
scendent principles. The royal claims could easily tribuere. There was no weighing of what the col-
become transcendent themselves, as they seemed onists, in turn, might have owed the mother coun-
to be in Bodin’s elevated sense of the sovereign. It try. There was an absolute balance to be taken into
would not be until well into the eighteenth century account. It is the same absolute justice that is
that some plausible critiques of royal laws and supposedly achieved by a trial verdict, a justice
justice could emerge. weighed in terms of the political unit, and not in
terms of compensation for victims of criminal or
8 Justice
wrongful acts, for example. From the social, eth- Cerutti, S. 1995. Normes et pratiques, ou de la legitimité de
ical, ideal of justice in classical and medieval leur opposition In Les formes de l’expérience: une
autre histoire sociale, ed. B. Lepetit, 127–49. Paris.
terms, through a historicizing examination initi- Cortese, E. 2000. Le grandi linee della storia giuridica
ated by humanists, justice came back to an ideal medievale. Rome.
that now ignores, or at best assumes, the social. Fantini, M. G. 1998. La cultura del giurista medievale:
Natura, causa, ratio. Milan.
Grossi, P. 1995. L’ordine giuridico medievale. Laterza:
Bari.
Cross-References Janin, H. 2004. Medieval justice: Cases and laws in
France, England, and Germany, 500–1500. Jefferson:
▶ Alberti, Leon Battista McFarland and Co..
Kelley, D. 1976. Vera Philosophia: The philosophical sig-
▶ Bartolus of Sassoferrato nificance of renaissance jurisprudence. Journal of the
▶ Bodin, Jean History of Philosophy 14: 267–279.
▶ Bracciolini, Poggio Kelley, D. 1988. Jurisconsultus Perfectus: The lawyer as
▶ Ethics Renaissance man. Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes 51: 84–102.
▶ Law, Roman Kirshner, J. 1999. Consilia as authority in Late Medieval
▶ Virtue, Renaissance Philosophy Italy: The case of Florence. In Legal consulting in the
civil law tradition, 107–140. Berkeley: The Robbins
Collection.
Krantz, F. 1971. Florentine humanist legal thought,
References 1375–1450. PhD. Diss., Ithaca.
Kuehn, T. 2006. The renaissance consilium as justice.
Primary Literature Renaissance Quarterly 59: 1058–1088.
Baldo, Ubaldi. 1585. In primam Digesti veteris Langer, U. 1999. The renaissance novella as justice.
commentaria. Venice: Lyon. Renaissance Quarterly 52: 311–341.
Bartolus. 1560. In primam Digesti veteris partem Manzin, M. 1994. Il petrarchismo giuridico: Filosofia e
commentaria. Lyon. logica del diritto agli inizi dell’umanesimo. Padua.
Gratian. 1993. The treatise on laws with the ordinary gloss. Prodi, P. 2000. Una storia della giustizia: Dal pluralismo
Trans. A. Thompson and J. Gordley. Washington. dei fori al moderno dualismo tra coscienza e diritto.
Justinian. 1987. Justinian’s Institutes. Trans. P. Burks and Bologna.
G. McLeod. Ithaca. Quaglioni, D. 2004. La giustizia nel Medioevo e nella
Mommsen, T. H., W. Kroll, P. Krueger, and R. Schoell, eds. prima età moderna. Bologna.
1928–29. Corpus iuris civilis. 3 vols. Berlin. Apud Sbriccoli, M. 2001. Giustizia negoziata, giustizia
Weidmannos egemonica: riflessioni su una nuova fase degli studi di
Scala, B. 2008. Essays and dialogues. Trans. R. N. storia della giustizia criminale. In Criminalità e
Watkins. Cambridge, MA. giustizia in Germania e Italia: pratiche giudiziarie e
linguaggi giuridici tra tardo medioevo et età
moderna, ed. Bellabarba, M., G. Schwerhoff, and
Secondary Literature A. Zorzi, 356–? Bologna.
Ascheri, M. 1999. Le fonti e la flessibilità del diritto Shaffern, R. W. 2009. Law and justice from antiquity to
comune: il paradosso del consilium sapientis. In Legal enlightenment. Lanham.
consulting in the civil law tradition, ed. M. Ascheri, Shaw, James E. 2006. The justice of Venice: Authorities
I. Baumgärtner, and J. Kirshner, 11–53. Berkeley: The and liberties in the urban economy, 1550–1700.
Robbins Collection. Oxford.
Bellabarba, M. 2008. La giustizia nell’Italia moderna. Vallerani, M. 2012. Medieval public justice. Trans. S. R.
Laterza: Bari. Blanshei. Washington, DC.
Bellomo, M. 1995. The common legal past of Europe, Zorzi, A. 1994. The judicial system in Florence in the
1000–1800. Trans. L. G. Cochrane. Washington, DC. fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In Crime, society
Berman, H.J. 1983. Law and revolutions: The formation of and the law in renaissance Italy, ed. Dean, T. and
the Western legal tradition. Vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: K. J. P. Lowe, 40–58. Cambridge.
Harvard University Press.
L
Le Roy, Loys Noble Savage and the Golden Age, and the
theory of the natural differences between peo-
Born: Coutance 151 ple, developed in a broader view of people’s
Died: Paris 1577 characteristics as related to the variety of cli-
mates, down to the idea of a global Republic of
Maria Elena Severini Nations, Le Roy became the herald of a new
Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento, interpretation of history stemming from his
Firenze, Italy instinctual optimism and faith, which were
bound to pave the way for the cultural revolu-
tion of the following century.
Abstract
Translator and classicist at the Collège Royal,
jurist, propagandist, and theorist of history, Biography
Loys Le Roy (1510–1577), also known as
Regius, was an academic whose role at the Born in Coutances, Normandy, to a poor family of
Parisian court in the second half of the XVI very humble circumstances, the young humanist
century is still to be clarified. In 1568, in Paris, studied at the Collège Norman d’Harcourt in
as a member of Michel de Vascosan’s work- Paris, thanks to the support of Bishop Philippe
shop, the humanist published a commented de Cossé, one of the leading figures at the court
translation of Aristotle’s Politics, which was of Francis I. In 1530, under the guidance of Pierre
due to become, in France, the reference text Danès and Jacques Toussain, he started studying
for the Aristotelian ars politica until the end of the Latin and Greek classics; in Toulouse, he was
eighteenth century. In 1575, the academic from taught Law by François Conan and developed an
Coutance printed for Pierre l’Huilier’s press enthusiasm for the subject. In 1540 he returned to
the treatise titled De la vicissitude ou variété Paris, where he had his biography of Budé
des choses en l’univers, one of the most well- published by Roigny; this biography was dedi-
known histoires de la civilisation of the six- cated to the French Chancellor Guillaume Poyet
teenth and seventeenth centuries. Through and earned him a well-deserved reputation as a
unprecedented use of an analysis of history Latinist, allowing him to access the Parisian intel-
grounded on facts, the development of the con- lectual and cultural scene of the time. His role in
cept of veritas filia temporis, the querelle the court also led him to travel throughout Europe:
focusing on the relationship between ancient he spent some time in Melun, Rambouillet,
and modern times, the myth of the so-called Reims, Fontainebleau, and also in Italy, in Turin,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_203-1
2 Le Roy, Loys
as Mr. Errault’s secretary. In October 1550, he the office of royal lecturer of Greek at the Collège
moved to England, where he was met by Lord de France, under circumstances that have not yet
William Paget, Edward VI counsellor. Le Roy been clarified. From then on, he published several
viewed the practice of affaires and a deep knowl- books each year: in 1574 he translated from Latin
edge of people as the essence of science. And it into French the Oration du signeur Jean Zamoscie
was thanks to his personal experiences – in addi- upon the election of the Duke of Anjou to the
tion to the knowledge of Machiavelli and throne of Poland; in the same year, he wrote the
Guicciardini’s works – that he developed the the- essay entitled Excellence du gouvernement royal;
ory according to which studying politics also in 1575 he published the 12 books of the De la
required a deep experience of the things of the vicissitude; finally, in the last years of his life, he
world: “knowledge and experience together” was followed the preparation of a new edition of
his motto, echoing Aristotle. While he carried out Aristotle’s Politica and some new translations of
his tasks at court, he continued to pursue his aim the Timaeus and the Republic by Plato (Becker
of translating into French the most important 1896; Gundersheimer 1962; Sciacca 2007).
Greek authors such as Xenophon, Isocrates,
Plato, Aristotle, and Demosthenes. But Regius
was not only interested in the past but also in his Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
own troublesome time, characterized by the
drama of the failing monarchy, by a strong, mul- In 1568 Le Roy published a new edition in French
tifaceted contestation against religion, by the furi- of the Politics at the printshop of Michel de
ous wars and violent riots that were undermining Vascosan in Paris. With a dedication to the king’s
the solidity of France at the end of the century. In brother, this version, provided with ample com-
the restless and bloody European scenario of the mentary, was to enjoy considerable popularity
time, characterized by civil and religious conflicts, and for two centuries remained the standard French
an intense political debate spread across the coun- translation of Aristotle’s work. As well as
try featuring the strongest of monarchies, follow- addressing specific concerns of the court, Le
ing the identification of a new source of balance, Roy’s editorial operation also fulfilled the declared
the Politiques’s party, and the definition of new aim of injecting new life into political science. In
cultural models that would lead to the develop- translation the work was able to penetrate beyond
ment of the theory of the modern state: Des the academic circles restricted to Latinists. The
differens troubles advenants entre les hommes translation with commentary is prefaced by a ded-
par la diversité des opinions en la religion; icatory letter to Henry Duke of Anjou and a general
Dessein du Royaume de France, Exhortation introduction to the work and the figure of Aristotle.
aux Français pour vivre en concorde et jouir du Here, in addition to extolling the different charac-
bien de la paix (1562) and the unfinished Traité de ters of the various peoples as evidence of the vari-
la Monarchie (1570) are the titles of the pamphlets ety of human nature, Le Roy also alludes to the
in which Le Roy discusses politics. Regius’s pro- relation between natural attitudes and providence,
fessional expectations were all oriented toward underscoring the importance of virtuous education,
the court but were due to be disappointed owing namely, the exercise designed to guide natural
to the aloofness and indifference of the majority of inclination toward true perfection. In Aristotelian
his patrons. The Cardinal of Lorraine, the Duke of terms, the habitus represents the result of the
Guise, and the Duke and the Duchess of Savoy, inclinatio naturalis and of consuetudo. The law
Perrenot; the Bishop of Arras, Pietro Strozzi; Mar- applies indiscriminately (communiter) to all the
shall of France, Jean de Monluc; Bishop of Valen- components of a State, but since not all are virtu-
cia, François Olivier and Michel de l’Hôpital; and ous, it is up to the law to mold the legislative pro-
the Queen herself flattered him with promises that visions to fit the various natures of men. However,
would never be kept. In 1572 he finally received the spheres of ethics and of politics are separate:
his long-expected reward and was appointed to reiterating the political function of the laws and the
Le Roy, Loys 3
distinction between vir bonus and civis bonus, Le of the customs and institutions of modern peoples,
Roy recognizes that ethics and politics each has its including those of the East and of the New World. In
own sphere, although they remain disciplines of terms of sources, Le Roy consults a vast number of
moral philosophy. In the brief overview that fol- works; this explains the enormous variety of the
lows the dedication of the 1568 edition, entitled subjects and nuances of the commentary, as well
D’Aristote et ses oeuvres, the translator emphasizes as his extraordinary capacity for synthesizing and
the fact that Aristotle’s work contains numerous reworking the writers he has read and translated.
examples and arguments conducted with method Compared to the medieval commentators, Regius
and elegance. Consequently, in his own commen- brings Aristotle’s text to life, adding historical exam-
tary, he will faithfully follow the pattern used by the ples to the typically scholastic skeleton of structural
philosopher, alternating and juxtaposing examples analysis. The narrative style was reviled by the
and explanations. The commentator thus appears to medieval scholars, who preferred a demonstrative,
be among the first to grasp and appreciate the scientific, logical-deductive approach. On the con-
peculiar character of the work, which proceeds by trary, the humanist Le Roy enhances it through a
short-circuiting between theory and practice, on the commentary lavish in notes and references to the
one hand supporting the arguments with particular most disparate sources. The medieval commentaries
examples drawn from history and, on the other, attempted to apply a scientific method to the reading
giving theoretical dignity to the specific events of the Politics, leveraging the Aristotelian notions
adopted as demonstrations. As well as describing with which they were already familiar from the
the method, Le Roy also explains the reasons logical, physical, and metaphysical texts. Unlike
behind his work, declaring that he has decided to these, Le Roy’s commentary is characterized by a
offer Aristotle’s work to the reader because he great richness and variety of historical, geographi-
considers it extremely useful for the prince. There- cal, and ethnological references, which make up the
fore, in the courtly circles within which the French connective tissue in which the political theories take
scholar operates, the text acquires instructional shape. Particular facts and events acquire meaning
value in the political education of the duke who is and value in the light of the general theory; the
preparing to become a good sovereign (Gaille- general theory in turn is materialized in the individ-
Nikodimov 2006). The preface concludes with ual events. However, what strikes the modern
several observations regarding the variety of reader most is the recourse to Machiavelli. There
human nature which prefigure the concerns of Le are numerous references to the work of the Floren-
Roy’s last work De la vicissitude ou variété des tine secretary, who according to Regius had drawn
choses en l’univers. Here, perfecting the method the fundamental principles of his book on the
already experimented in the commentary on the prince from the Politics (Severini 2014). If on the
Politics, the scholar puts into practice the procedure one hand Machiavelli clarifies Aristotle, rendering
of comparing politics and law which was to be his thought valid for the present, on the other hand
theorized and applied by Jean Bodin in the theories of the ancient philosopher we can
(1530–1596). Indeed, in the Politiques d’Aristote, discern the foundations of the modern theory of the
each book is introduced by an Argument which is a prince (Céard 2004; Severini 2011a, b, 2013a, b;
sort of introduction to the topics dealt with, broken De Smet 2013).
down into paragraphs, and accompanied by an The dialogue between past and present returns
extensive commentary full of references and comin his masterpiece, the treaty De la vicissitude in
parisons with biblical sources, the works of Aris- which Le Roy integrates a cyclical conception of
totle and those of Plato. Le Roy’s commentary is not time with the notion of the evolution of civiliza-
restricted by respect for tradition and subjection to tion. While admitting a providential design, the
the classics, but engages actively with the text, treatise on vicissitude does not neglect the signif-
adding to it ancient and modern examples to clarify icance of the reciprocity of action between man
the theoretical controversies raised by Aristotle and and nature, between responsibility and necessity,
also introducing extensive comparative descriptions and between human reason and destiny, revealing
4 Le Roy, Loys
the complex interaction between individual exis- constant schema of passions and desires that
tence and universal history. The first four books induce men to repeat the same behavior in differ-
are an accurate display of ancient knowledge ent contexts and situations, and an element of
gathered all over the world: the natural and scien- difference, the hic et nunc in which on every
tific concepts match the linguistic-literary, mili- occasion each individual finds himself acting in
tary, political, and institutional ones. Several, a new and unrepeatable manner. From the reading
different layers of knowledge are addressed both of Machiavelli and Guicciardini, Le Roy derives
from a synchronic point of view (according to both the historian’s characteristic attention to the
which nature and culture are analyzed in their événementielle dimension – which attributes dig-
various manifestations such as writing and the nity to specific cases through the exempla – and
organization of ars militaris) and a diachronic the general definitions and universal rules
one, implying the observation of the evolution of inherited from Aristotelian political science
such subjects over time and across different (Sciacca 2005). On the other hand, supplying
populations. Books V–VII present an overview sources and suggestions, Le Roy’s vicissitudes
of Greek and Latin classics and civilizations com- converge with the ontological revolution of the
pared to all other ancient populations on the basis new philosophy of Giordano Bruno (1548–1660),
of their theoretical and practical cultures with the which reveals in the tension between time and
aim of defining an actual theory of the classic eternity the manifold facets of a single universal
civilization in clear opposition with the barbaric substance, undermining – in the passage from the
one: the comparative analysis carried out by Le unum to the varietas – the opposition between
Roy juxtaposes Greek people and Latin ideal and real, universal and particular, and tradi-
people – the western world and the rest of human- tion and innovation (Severini 2017).
ity. Books VIII and IX are entirely dedicated to the
Arabic-Muslim culture, compared with all other
ancient civilizations in an attempt to corroborate Impact and Legacy
the opposition between the Western (Christian
and pagan) world and the Muslim one. Finally, In 1585, 10 years after the princeps, the Venetian
books X–XII focus on his contemporary society, workshop of Aldo Manuzio published an Italian
analyzed according to three different logics: book translation of De la vicissitude, entitled La
X addresses the theme of the present time at vicissitudine o mutabile varietà delle cose, made
different latitudes, from Europe to Asia and by Ercole Cato (1538–1606), a scholar from Fer-
Africa; book XI, instead, describes the relation- rara who was among the founders of that city’s
ship between present and past and the chances that “Accademia degli Intrepidi” and was famous for
a deep crisis and decadence might threaten to his translation of Bodin’s Demonomania. The
dramatically affect historical events; and book Italian version of the book was to become quite
XII is a leap into the future, with a thorough popular in Italy, as shown by the presence in the
description of the path to be followed. For national libraries of a relevant number of copies of
European culture, the message that the erudite both its original and translated versions (Severini
Frenchman entrusted to the final chapters of the 2014). The book was also translated into English,
treatise has a dual significance (Céard 1977; by Robert Ashley, in 1594. Le Roy’s writings had
Duport 2010a, b, 2011). a huge, overnight success in England and trig-
gered the interest of many authors such as
Edmund Spenser, John Norden, Christopher Mar-
Innovative and Original Aspects lowe, George Hakewill, Gabriel Harvey, and
Francis Bacon. Among the first promoters of the
On the one hand, it takes up the legacy of the modern idea of progress as we intend it, Regius’s
European thinkers whose theories reveal the writings are to be deemed as an important source
encounter between an element of identity, the to better understand the development of some of
Le Roy, Loys 5
the most renowned European writers of his time, Latin Works

such as Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Bruno, Mon- Le Roy, L. 1540. G. Budæi parisiensis viri clarissimi vita
per Ludovicum Regium Constantinum. Paris: Jean
taigne, and Bacon. In addition to the introduction
Roigny.
of the comparative analysis to be applied to both Le Roy, L. 1545. Oratio in funere Caroli Valesii
politics and law, immediately exploited by his Aureliorum Ducis. Paris: Jean Roigny.
contemporary Bodin, Le Roy’s works reflect on Le Roy, L. 1553. De Francisco Connano, consiliario
supplicumque libellorum in pretorio magistro, ac
some of the most crucial points dealt with in
commentariis iuris civilis ab eo scriptis, tum etiam de
Europe during the sixteenth century. iure romanorum, et utrum ars iuris institui posit. Paris:
Adrien Turnèbe.
Le Roy, L. 1559a. Selectiores Aliquot Epistolæ. Paris:
Frédéric Morel.
Cross-References Le Roy, L. 1559b. Oratio ad invictissimos potentis-
simosque principes Henricum ii et Philippum Hispan.
reges, De pace et concordia nuper inter eos inita et
▶ Bacon, Francis bello religionis Christianæ hostibus inferendo. Paris:
▶ Bodin, Jean Frédéric Morel.
▶ Bruno, Giordano Le Roy, L. 1560. Ad Illustrem Reginam D. Catharinam
▶ Guicciardini, Francesco Medicem Francisci ii, Franciæ regis matrem,
Consolatio in morte Henrici regis ejus mariti. Paris:
▶ Machiavelli, Niccolò Frédéric Morel.
Le Roy, L. 1575. Prolegomena politica Inter quæ prima est
Oratio ab eo habita Parisiis initio professionis Regiœ.
Paris: Frédéric Morel.
References Le Roy, L. 1576. Orationes duæ, habitæ Parisiis mense
octobri 1575, Prima est de motu Franciæ et casibus
aliarum gentium, Altera de jungenda sapienter
Primary Literature
sentiendi scientia cum ornate dicendi facultate. Paris:
Frédéric Morel.
Le Roy, L. 1578. Trium disertissimorum virorum
De La vicissitude’s Editions præfationes ac Epistolæ Familiares aliquot: Mureti,
Le Roy, L. 1575. De la Vicissitude ou Variété des Choses
Lambini et Regii. Paris: Gilles Le Maugier.
en l’Univers, et Concurrence des Armes e des Lettres
par les premières et plus illustres Nations du monde,
depuis le temps où a commencé la civilité et memoire French Works
humaine jusques à present. Plus s’il est vray ne se dire Le Roy, L. 1551a. Trois livres d’Isocrates, ancien orateur
rien qui n’ayt esté dict paravant, et qu’il convient par et philosophe. Le premier contient enseignemens pour
propres inventions augmenter la doctrine des anciens, induire les jeunes gens à vivre honnestement. Le second
sans s’arrester seulement aux versions, expositions, traitte de la maniere de bien regner et comment les Roys
corrections, et abregez de leurs escrits. Par Loys le et grans seigneurs se doyvent gouverner. Le Livre
Roy, dict Regius. Paris: Pierre l’Huillier. d’Isocrates intitulé Nicocles ou le Symmachique,
Le Roy, L. 1585. La vicissitudine o mutabile varietà delle c’est-à-dire qui traitte de l’amitié qui doit estre entre
cose nell’universo di Luigi Regio Francese, tradotta le Roy et ses sugetz et comment ils se doivent conduire
dal sig. cavalier Ercole Cato. Venezia: Aldo Manuzio. ensemble. Le Premier Livre de l’institution de Cyrus,
Le Roy, L. 1594. Of the interchangeable course or variety ou du Roy perfet, composé par Xenophon [. . .].
of things, Written in French by Loys Le Roy called Oraison de Xenophon contenant les louanges du
Regius and Translated into English by Robert Ashley. tresvaillant et tressage roy des Lacedemoniens
London: Charles Yetsweirt. Agesilaus. Paris: Michel de Vascosan.
Le Roy, L. 1944. De la Vicissitude ou variété des choses en Le Roy, L. 1551b. Le Timée de Platon, traittant de la
l’univers, selection with an introduction by B.W. Bates. nature du Monde et de l’Homme, et de ce qui concerne
Princeton: Princeton University Press. universellement tant l’^ a me que le corps des deux:
Le Roy, L. 1988. De la vicissitude, texte revu par Philippe translaté de grec en françois, avec l’exposition des
Desan. Paris: Fayard. lieux plus obscurs et difficiles. Paris: Michel de
Le Roy, L. 2014. De la vicissitude ou variété des choses en Vascosan.
l’univers. La traduzione italiana di Ercole Cato, intro- Le Roy, L. 1551c. Trois Oraisons de Demosthene prince
duction et texte édité par M.E. Severini. Paris: Garnier. des orateurs, dittes Olynthiaques, pleines de matieres
d’Estat, deduittes avecques singuliere prudence et
eloquente, translatées pareillement du grec en françois,
avec une Preface contenant la conjonction de
6 Le Roy, Loys
l’eloquence et de la philosophie, par Loys le Roy et civiles, leurs maux, et remedes. Discours de Platon
adressées à Madame la Duchesse de Valentinois. Paris: extraict du troisieme livre de ses Loix, sur le Royaume
Michel de Vascosan. de Perses, et la Seigneurie d’Athenes. Le tout traduit du
Le Roy, L. 1553. Le Phedon de Platon traittant de Grec en François par Loys Le Roy dit Regius. Paris:
l’immortalité de l’^ a me, presenté au Roy treschretien Frédéric Morel.
Henri ii, à son retour d’Allemagne. L’origine, progres Le Roy, L. 1567a. De l’origine, antiquité, progres, excel-
et perfection de la philosophie, avec comparaison de lence et utilité de l’art politique. Ensemble des
Platon et d’Aristote, qui l’ont mise au plus hault qu’elle Legislateurs les plus renommez qui l’ont prattiquée,
fust jamais. Discours de son estat et condition jusques à et des autheurs illustres qui en ont escrit, specialement
nostre temps, par Loys Le Roy. Dixiesme livre de la Platon et Aristote, avec le sommaire et conference de
Republique de Platon, en ce qu’il parle de leurs Politiques, traduittes de Grec en François et
l’immortalité, où la resurrection est confirmée, avec eclarcies d’expositions pour les accomoder aux meurs
lample deduction des loyers et suplices eternelz, selon et affaires de ce temps, par Loys Le Roy, dict Regius:
l’opinion des anciens. De l’^ a me divine et humaine, de Paris: Frédéric Morel.
leurs actions et affections, discours pris du Phedre de Le Roy, L. 1567b. Consideration sur l’histoire françoise,
Platon, traduit de Grec en Françoys par Loys Le Roy. et l’universelle de ce Temps, dont les merveilles sont
Du jugement des trespassez selon l’opinion des succinctement recitées. A Tresvertueuse et Excellente
anciens, autre discours pris du Gorgias. La Remon- Dame Madame Catherine Royne de France, Mere du
strance que feit Cyrus Roy des Perses à ses enfans et Roy treschrestien Charles ix de ce nom. Ensemble trois
amys, un peu paravant que rendre l’esprit, prise de Prefaces: l’une au Roy, l’autre à M. d’Anjou son frere,
l’huitieme livre de son institution escritte par Xeno- sur les Politiques de Platon et Aristote, la troisieme à
phon. Le tout traduit de Grec en Françoys par Loys M. d’Alençon autre frere du Roy sur l’Histoire politique
Le Roy. Paris: Sébastien NyveIle. recueillie des plus illustres estats du monde, anciens et
Le Roy, L. 1555. Le Premier, second et dixiesme livre de modernes. Paris: Frédéric Morel.
Justice, ou de la Republique de Platon. Quatre Le Roy, L. 1568a. Les Enseignemens d’Isocrates et de
Philippiques de Demosthene. Sermon de Theodorite, Xenophon autheurs anciens tres excellens pour bien
Evesque de Cyropoli, ancien philosophe et Theologien, regner en paix et en guerre, traduicts de grec en
de la providence et justice divine. Le tout traduite de françois par Loys le Roy, dict Regius de Costentin, au
Grec en François par Loys Le Roy. Quatre Oraisons de Roy treschretien Charles ix. Paris: Vascosan.
Demosthene Prince des Orateurs, prononcées au Le Roy, L. 1568b. Les Politiques d’Aristote traduittes de
conseil publique d’Athenes, contre Philippe Roy de grec en françois par Loys le Roy dict Regius de
Macedonie, voulant usurper l’Empire de Grece, Costentin, a très hault et excellent prince Henry duc
traduittes de Grec en François par Loys Le Roy. Pref- d’Anjou frère du roy tres chretien Charles ix. Paris:
ace de Loys Le Roy contenant la comparaison de Vascosan.
Demosthene et de Ciceron, de leurs styles et fortunes, Le Roy, L. 1570. Exhortation aux François pour vivre en
de leur estat et condition, des temps esquelz ilz ont concorde et jouir du bien de la paix par Loys Le Roy.
vescu, et comment ilz sont decede. Paris: Sébastien Project ou dessein du Royaume de France, pour en
Nyvelle. representer en dix Livres l’estat entier, soubs le bon
Le Roy, L. 1559. Le Sympose de Platon, ou de l’Amour et plaisir du Roy. Les Monarchiques de Loys le Roy, ou de
de beauté, traduit de Grec en François, avec trois livres la Monarchie et des choses requises à son
de Commentaires, extraictz de toute philosophie, et establissement et conservation, avec la conference des
recueillis des meilleurs autheurs tant Grec que Latins, Royaumes et Empires plus celebres du monde ancien et
et autres, par Loys Le Roy, dit Regius. Plusieurs pas- moderne, en leurs commencemens progrez,
sages des meilleurs Poëtes Grecs et Latins, citez aux accroissement, estendues, revenus, forces par mer et
Commentaires du Sympose, mis en vers François par par terre, diversitez de guerroyer, Trains et Cours de
J. du Bellay Angevin. Paris: Vincent Sertenas, Jehan Princes, Conseils souverains, Polices, Judicatures,
Longis et Robert le Mangnyer. Lois, Magistrats, durées, decadence, et ruine. Paris:
Le Roy, L. 1562, 1563, 1569, 1588. Discours treslegant et Frédéric Morel.
tres grave sur le grave sur le grand et jadis renommé Le Roy, L. 1574. L’Oraison du Seigneur Jean Savius de
Royaume des Perses, et la nourriture de leurs Roys Zamoscie, gouverneur de Belzs et Zamech, l’un des
[. . .] Extraict du Troisieme Livre des Lois de Platon, ambassadeurs envoyez en France par les Estats du
traduit du Grec en François par Loys Le Roy dit Royaume de Poloigne et du grand duché de Lithuanie,
Regius. Paris: Frédéric Morel. au Serenissime Roy eleu de Poloigne, Henry, fils et frere
Le Roy, L. 1562, 1563. Des differens et troubles advenans des Roys de France, duc d’Anjou, sur la declaration de
entre les hommes par la diversité des opinions en la son election et pourquoy il a esté preféré aux autres
Religion: ensemble du commencement, progrez, et competiteurs. Où l’estat present d’iceluy Royaume est
excellence de la Chrestienne. Paris: Frédéric Morel. proposé au vray. Traduite de latin en françois par Loys
Le Roy, L. 1566. Des changemens, ruines, et conserva- Regius, suivant le commandement dudit seigneur Roy
tions des Estats publics avec les causes des Emotions
Le Roy, Loys 7
et à la requeste des seigneurs ambassadeurs. Paris: sortes d’estats, et qualitez de personnes. Paris: Claude
Frédéric Morel. Morel.
Le Roy, L. 1575a. Du bien advenant aux princes freres de Le Roy, L. 1861. Traitté de la Venerie par feu Monsieur
leur amitié mutuelle et bonne intelligence entre eulx, Budé conseiller du roy François premier, et maistre
par le grand Cyrus à Cambyses et Tanares ses filx. ordinaire de son hostel. Traduit du Latin en François
Traduict du Grec de Xenophon par Loys Le Roy, dict par Loys le Roy dict Regius, suyvant le commandement
Regius. Paris: Frédéric Morel. qui luy en a esté fait par Le Roy (1572). Paris: Pairault
Le Roy, L. 1575b. De l’excellence du Gouvernement royal, et fils.
avec exhortation aux François de perseverer en iceluy,
sans chercher mutations pernicieuses, ayans le Roy
present digne de cest honneur, non seulement par le Secondary Literature
droict de legitime succession, mais aussi par le merite Baron, H. 1959. The querelle of the Ancients and the
de sa propre vertu; et le royaume reiglé d’ancienneté Moderns as a problem of Renaissance Scholarship.
par meilleur ordre que nul autre que l’on sçache, estant Journal of the History of Ideas 20: 3–22.
plus utile qu’il soit hereditaire qu’electif, et administré Becker, A.H. 1896. Un humaniste au xvie siècle: Loys Le
par l’authorité du Roy, et de son Conseil ordinaire, que Roy (Lodovicus Regius) de Coutance. Paris: Oudin.
par l’advis du peuple, non entendu ny experimenté és Céard, J. 1976. Le modèle de la République de Platon et la
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des Orateurs, à sçavoir trois Olynthiaques et quatre Vrin.
Philippiques, pleines de matieres d’Estat et de Céard, J. 1977. L. Le Roy et la vicissitude des choses. In La
gouvernement, deduites avec singuliere prudence et Nature et les prodiges, L’insolite au xvie siècle en
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Roy, dict Regius. Paris: Frédéric Morel. (reprint of Trois Céard, J. 2004. Les conceptions de la royauté et
oraisons del 1551 et Quatre Philippiques del 1555). l’institution du prince en France au xvie siècle. In La
Le Roy, L. 1576a. Les Politiques d’Aristote, esquelles est formazione del Principe in Europa dal Quattrocento al
monstree la science de gouverner le genre humain en Seicento, ed. by P. Carile, 59–74. Roma: Aracne.
toutes espèces d’estats publics. Traduites de Grec en Crescenzo, R. 2009. La réflexion sur les langues dans
François, avec expositions prises des meilleurs l’œuvre de Loys Le Roy, traducteur et historien. In Le
auteurs, specialement d’Aristote et de Platon conferez lent brassement des livres, des rites et de la vie,
ensemble, ou les occasions des matieres par eulx Mélanges offerts à James Dauphiné. Paris: Champion.
traitees s’offroyent, dont les observations et raisons De Smet, I. 2013. Philosophy for princes: Aristotle’s pol-
sont eclarcies et confirmees par innumerables itics and its readers during the French Wars of Religion.
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cognoissance par escript, ou par le fidele rapport Roy. Corpus Revue de philosophie 10: 3–21.
d’autruy. Par Loys le Roy dict Regius, de Costentin. Desan, Ph. 2005. Loys Le Roy et l’anthropologie
Paris: Michel Vascosan. historique. In Écritures de l’histoire (xive-xvie
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l’eloquence. Seconde Oraison de Loys Le Roy, sur la vie psychique dans la littérature (Journée d’études de
l’estat de l’ancienne Grece, depuis son commencement l’Université de Caen, 11 avril 2008). Caen: Presses
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Isnardi Parente, M. 1990. Loys Le Roy su Platone e Rivaud, A. 1922. La première traduction française du
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M
Mariana, Juan de the early 1600s. Mariana did not hesitate to

speak his mind and did not spare his own
Born: Talavera de la Reina, Spain 1536 order either, as testified by a critique of the
Died: Toledo, Spain 1624 government of the Society of Jesus first
published posthumously in French in 1625.
Harald E. Braun His monumental work of
Department of History, University of Liverpool, historiography – Historiae de rebus Hispaniae
Liverpool, UK (1592) – was much less controversial and
immediately acknowledged as a major mile-
stone in Spanish historiography. Translated
Abstract and published in the vernacular in 1601, it
The Jesuit theologian Juan de Mariana was the made him a household name in Spain and a
leading historian and one of the most distin- principal authority on Spanish history well into
guished political and economic theorists of the eighteenth century.
early modern Spain. His political and historio- The Jesuit combines great insight and inte-
graphical work earned him fame, even notori- grative understanding of a wide range of sub-
ety already during his lifetime. His intellectual ject matters with sharp political analysis and
legacy is characterized by its endurance and often acerbic critique of governing elites. The
complexity. political thinker, historian, economist, theolo-
Mariana’s political writings – De rege et gian, and philologist in Mariana cannot easily
regis institutione libri III (1599) and some of be separated from one another. He straddles
the essays collected in Tractatus VII (1609) – different fields of knowledge and deliberately
probe, challenge, and widen contemporary intertwines and evolves scholastic and human-
notions of monarchical authority, political ist traditions, terminologies, and modes of
ethics, economic policy, and Spanish identity. enquiry. Mariana is the contemporary of
De rege stands out as a prime example of Giovanni Botero, Jean Bodin, and Justus
Spanish literature of reason of state, especially Lipsius as much as Luis de Molina and
for the way in which the Jesuit blends scholas- Francisco Suárez and can no longer simply be
tic legal and constitutional theory into a lan- aligned as a member of the so-called School of
guage of political prudence. The short treatise Salamanca.
De monetae mutatione (printed in Tractatus
VII) presents an incisive critique of the mone-
tary policies of the Spanish government during
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_204-1
2 Mariana, Juan de
Biography history – a history of the Spanish church from

the beginnings down to the present day and an
Juan de Mariana was born in Talavera de la Reina, edition of the works of Isidore of Seville.
Castile, in 1536, the illegitimate son of Juan Mar- His expertise introduced him to the
tínez, latterly dean and canon of the collegiate contubernium of scholars gathered by Garçia de
church of Talavera, and Bernardina Rodríguez. Loaysa Girón (1541–1599), canon of the cathe-
We know no more about his childhood and dral chapter and later archbishop of Toledo, the
youth than what we can glean from Mariana’s most influential ecclesiastical advisor of Philip II
own sparse remarks. He went to study at Álcala of Spain and tutor to his son, the future Philip III.
de Henares, joined the Society of Jesus in 1554, Members of the group shared a strong interest in
and was ordained in 1561. Jesuit superiors quickly Spanish history, especially the history of the
picked up on his sharp intellect and pedagogical church of Spain, and were dedicated to the docu-
talent and sent him to teach at the Jesuit colleges in mentation and defense of Toledo’s contested
Rome, Loreto, Messina, and Paris. The time in claim to the title of Spain’s primatial see. Loaysa
Paris, where he witnessed the “miserable specta- became a constant and generous patron of
cle” (Mariana 1599) of the St Bartholomew Mariana’s scholarship and made possible the ini-
Night’s Massacre (1572), was in many ways for- tial publication of the Historiae de rebus
mative for his view on issues such as courtly Hispaniae. The work is the result of Mariana’s
politics, religious toleration, and the importance conviction that Spain lacked a Latin history that
of reputation and personal conduct in a ruler. In would familiarize European readers with “the
1574, he successfully engineered his return to beginnings, then the ways, by which [Spain]
Toledo. Ill health, a desire to dedicate himself to achieved the grandeur it has today” (Mariana,
study, and flagrant tensions between French and Historiae, prologue). It is indeed Mariana’s “mon-
Spanish Jesuits as a result of Spanish intervention umental achievement” (Kagan 2009) to have pro-
in the French Wars of Religion provided pressing vided just that.
motives. Loaysa also persuaded the Jesuit to write and
Mariana spent the remaining 50 years of his publish De rege et regis institutione. The treatise
life in Toledo, continuously engaged in study and betrays its didactic origin, the fact that it was
writing, a highly respected member of the Toledan originally conceived as a mirror of princes to
intellectual and cultural scene. He already enjoyed assist Loaysa in preparing the future Philip III
a growing reputation as a historian and biblical for the business of government. Mariana under-
scholar by the time he arrived back in Spain. In stands learning – in particular learning about the
1577, he delivered a judgement for the Inquisition “superhuman challenge” of ruling the monarchy
on the Polyglot Bible published under the direc- of Spain – as a necessarily strenuous exercise. The
tion of Benito Arias Montano (1572). While in treatise confronts readers with hard, sometimes
many ways critical of the philological standards unpalatable truths about monarchs and the insti-
and the team assembled by Arias Montano, tution of monarchy, past and present. His com-
Mariana saw no conflict with Catholic doctrine ments about the damaging influence of a royal
and approved of the polyglot. The detailed cri- favorite on the reputation of a king and the quality
tique cum defense of Arias Montano’s bible of government aimed squarely at the relationship
(printed in Tractatus VII as Pro Editione Vulgata) between King Philip III and the Duke of Lerma.
showed the depth of his philological and theolog- Mariana’s relationship with the government in
ical scholarship. Soon, the Jesuit was extensively Madrid took a further blow with the publication of
involved in the preparation of the new Indices of his essay De monetae mutatione as part of
prohibited and expurgated books published by the Tractatus VII in 1609. The trenchant and convinc-
Inquisitor General Gaspar de Quiroga in 1583 and ing critique of Lerma’s fiscal policies earned
1584. Somewhat paradoxically, Mariana never Mariana a charge of lèse majesté, brief incarcera-
finished his two great projects in ecclesiastical tion at a Franciscan convent, and the attention of
Mariana, Juan de 3
economic historians ever since. It is not clear Mariana is open about his intention to integrate
whether the trial was ever brought to a conclusion. the many existing, separate histories of the Iberian
Mariana appears to have escaped without much kingdoms into a more comprehensive and more
more than a stern reproach for publishing his holistic fabric of historical interpretation. Yet, as
forthright thoughts abroad. Already a cause of the title suggests, he does not amalgamate and
discomfort for the Jesuits in Madrid and Rome, elide the histories of the many communities and
the treatise and trial got Mariana into further trou- peoples of the Iberian Peninsula. He discusses and
ble with his order. A search of his quarters led to compares the distinct political and constitutional
the discovery of a treatise highly critical of the traditions of individual kingdoms and, for
government of the Society of Jesus. Originally instance, shows patent sympathy for the laws of
composed in the context of the stormy General Aragon and how they restricted the power of
Congregation of 1593, the treatise was possibly kings. The Historiae are not an artificial projec-
never intended for publication. One of Mariana’s tion of “Spain” as only ever “one nation.” Rather
major criticisms of the Jesuit General Aquaviva than concocting a fusion of Iberian history that
was the use of “purity-of-blood” legislation as a would neither have reflected contemporary polit-
means to silence and exclude Spanish Jesuits critical consciousness nor stood up to scholarly scru-
ical of his government. Ironically, the decree – a tiny, the Jesuit conceptualized Iberian history as
shadow over the lives of Jesuits of converso or sacred or messianic history.
morisco origin – had been rescinded by the time The 25 volumes of the Historiae read as a
Mariana’s room was rifled. The treatise was first history of sin and redemption from sin, a story
published posthumously in a French translation as that stretches from pagan Spain to conversion to
Discours du Père Jean Mariana Iesuite Espagnol, Christianity, and from the failings and fall of the
des grands defauts qui sont en la forme du last of the Visigothic kings and Moorish occupa-
gouvernement des Jesuites (1625) and much tion to the eventual completion of the Reconquista
exploited in the service of anti-Jesuit polemics. under the Catholic Monarchs and Spanish global
Mariana’s final years saw the completion of his hegemony under their great-grandson Philip
main contribution to humanist theology and bib- II. The Spain of the Historiae is an imagined
lical exegesis – the Scholia in Vetus et Novum community of communities that already existed
Testamentum (1620) – but no further controversy. in Roman times. With the conversion to Christian-
He died a highly respected member of the Society ity, it set itself on a rocky path to greatness and
of Jesus and the European republic of letters at the glory. It is a history as rich in deviation and
house of the order in Toledo on 17 February 1624. setbacks – such as the loss of the first Armada in
1588, which Mariana acknowledges almost in
passing – as it is in achievements. The first edition
(1592) ends with the conquest of Granada, the
Heritage, Innovation, and Originality
Columbian encounter, and the restoration of
“good government” to Spain during the rule of
Mariana’s Historiae de rebus Hispaniae is the first
the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile, and
work to unite the separate histories of the various
Ferdinand II of Aragon.
Spanish kingdoms into one consolidated and alto-
The work reaches deep into a complex past but
gether coherent narrative. It successfully com-
points to the present and future, too. While gener-
peted with the many existing histories of
ally hesitant to address contemporary issues
individual Iberian kingdoms such as the one by
directly, Mariana clearly considers the recent
Jerónimo Zurita (1512–1580) for his native Ara-
annexation of the kingdom of Portugal by Philip
gon. It was clearly the kind of history of Spanish
II (1580) a point of reference. Philip’s accession to
identity and greatness that Philip II and prominent
the Portuguese throne is an act of divine provi-
members of the Royal Council of Castile had been
dence: the unification of the whole of the Iberian
hoping to see published for some time.
Peninsula under one Catholic prince. Like his
4 Mariana, Juan de
contemporary, the Italian ex-Jesuit Giovanni familiar from Renaissance and early modern
Botero in his Relationi Universali, though less mirrors-of-princes literature in the history of
explicitly, Mariana puts the Spain of Philip II in Spain. Alongside a host of classical and Christian
the vanguard of the defense and eventual triumph authors, history (and Spanish history in particular)
of universal Catholicism. is the inspiration for a decidedly pragmatic polit-
The successful completion of such a compen- ical ethics for the preservation of the Spanish
dious work had a methodological price tag. Fel- Habsburg monarchy and the Catholic faith in
low historians like Pedro Mantuano and Antonio Spain. The treatise also includes strident critiques
de Herrera y Tordesillas pointed out that Mariana of what the author perceived as the ills of Spanish
had included historical conjecture such as the government and society as well as his proposals
fabrications of Annius of Viterbo. Mariana in for moral and political reform.
turn readily confessed to shortcomings of his De rege is part of a wider European literature
work and the fact that it contained regrettable on reason of state as well as a Spanish debate on
errors – not always corrected in his own later the state of Habsburg Spain at the turn of the
editions – as a result of the need to rely in several century and her future under a young and inexpe-
instances on the works of his predecessors. In a rienced king. Other significant and paradigmatic
letter from 1596, he justified himself, explaining participants in that debate – at either side of a
that he could not but accept what other historians highly differentiated spectrum – include the vet-
had said “without verifying all of the details, for eran diplomat Baltasar Álamos de Barrientos
otherwise I might never have finished” (Cirot (1555–1640) (Discurso político 1990/1598;
1905, p. 433). The work nonetheless enjoyed Tácito español 1614) and the Jesuit theologian
overall success at court and in scholarly circles, Pedro de Ribadeneyra (1526–1611) (Tratado
which led to royal support for the publication of a 1597). While indebted to scholastic moral theol-
revised and extended Latin version (1596) as well ogy, the treatise is in the “Tacitist”
as a translation into the vernacular by the author camp – alongside authors such as Álamos de
himself (1601), further extended and republished Barrientos, Giovanni Botero, or Justus
in 1623. The translation gained the work a much Lipsius – as long as “Tacitism” is understood in
wider readership and made the Historia general a general sense as the acknowledgement of the
de España a staple on bookshelves from Madrid sombre reality of early modern politics and the
to the far reaches of the Habsburg empire. compromising need to negotiate between moral
History remained the vantage point of ideals and political necessity.
Mariana’s intellectual endeavor, including his De Mariana approaches the moral predicaments
rege et regis institutione libri III (1599) dedicated and salient issues in political ethics in ways that
to King Philip III of Spain. Mariana established are didactically and rhetorically effective as well
the correlation between his treatise on kingship as innovative with regard to the use of intellectual
and the reading of history in the preface of the traditions. One example is the discussion of
Historia general de España. De rege provided a human nature and the origins of civil society that
theoretical discussion of “all the precepts, coun- introduces and underpins the argument of De rege
sels and rules” (Mariana 1601, preface, p. 3) that as a whole. Mariana describes civil society – with
ought to govern the decisions of a good king. private ownership and political power in its
Historical exempla – some included already in wake – as the result of the Fall of Adam and as
De rege, even more in his history of invariably affected by human corruption. The
Spain – showed how maxims of political pru- Jesuit does not share the Thomist-Aristotelian
dence had actually worked in the political arena. view that secular authority is rooted in natural
Though topical, the appeal to history as law largely unscathed by original sin. Elegant
magistra vitae points to one of Mariana’s major humanist prose and creative use of Aristotelian
contributions to Spanish political thought. De terminology sometimes conceal an incisive
rege anchors the discussion of many themes neo-Augustinian critique of major tenets of
Mariana, Juan de 5
Thomist political philosophy, setting Mariana threat to the internal balance of power. His views
apart from the majority of theologians commonly are reflected in the last chapters of each of the
subsumed under the “School of Salamanca.” This three books of De rege, where he extols the role
pessimistic political anthropology determines an of religion as “the sinews that hold society
appraisal of monarchy, especially hereditary mon- together” and of the Castilian episcopate as the
archy, as a manifestation of human corruption in only real “guardians of the realm.” Mariana’s pro-
history and, at the same time, as the only form of posals for a much greater role of the Church of
government able to contain and correct human Castile in imperial government alone still justify
depravity. Cirot’s description of De rege as “the most
Another closely related example and hallmark remarkable and boldest of books in Spanish polit-
of De rege is the blending of scholastic and ical literature” (Cirot 1905, p. 35).
humanist traditions, terminologies, and modes of
reasoning. The brief discussion of tyrannicide in
book one of De rege – the part which has received Impact and Legacy
most attention from historians of political
thought – is one example. It is cast not in terms Mariana is generally acknowledged as the princi-
of natural or positive law but of prudence. pal historian of the peninsular realms – the
Mariana states that monarchical authority histori- Americas hardly feature in any of his
cally derived from the people and turns on rulers work – during the reigns of Philip II and Philip
who aspire to seize “supreme and maximum III of Spain. The 1596 Latin edition and especially
authority without limits” (de Mariana 1599, the 1601 vernacular edition were reprinted
p. 90). While a body politic can freely transfer throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centu-
“full and unlimited authority to a prince,” this is ries, including translations into French and
likely to set prince and people on the road to English. Considerably expanded versions of the
tyranny. A prince deaf to the precepts of political Historia were published in Madrid and Barcelona
prudence and blind to the dangers of tyranny will as late as 1820 and 1839, respectively. The most
always be able to bend or ignore the law. Yet lack extensive study is still Cirot (1905). Kagan (2009)
of respect for his subjects and the lessons from and Olds (2015) embed Mariana in the context of
history might well lead to rebellion, foreign inva- Spanish official historiography from the sixteenth
sion, and violent removal from power, even assas- to the eighteenth century.
sination (as in the case of Henry III of France). De rege has enjoyed the most turbulent and
Mariana is deeply aware of tyrannicide as a com- complex reception among Mariana’s works by
plex constitutional problem, and the argument is far. In Spain, the treatise became a frequent point
rich in references to scholastic legal concepts and of reference for authors participating in the wider
formulae. Yet these are presented no longer as debate on the reform of the monarchy until the
binding juridical principles but as maxims of nineteenth century. In France, on the other hand,
political prudence. Mariana considers laws more Catholic and Calvinist politiques read it as a con-
of a menace to the liberty of subjects than a firmation of Jesuit intentions to secure a Spanish
safeguard. The peace and protection of the com- succession to the French throne. Mariana was
monwealth do not depend on legal-constitutional accused of propagating a radical doctrine of pop-
frameworks but on the prudence of the prince and ular sovereignty including the right of any private
his ability to handle major political stakeholders individual to kill a legitimate king perceived as a
effectively. tyrant, a way of thinking seemingly akin to that of
Personal experience and historical reflection the so-called French Monarchomachs. This inter-
invested Mariana with doubts about the ability of pretation was largely based on a few, frequently
monarchs, laws, and parliaments to preserve distorted citations from chapter 6 of book 1 of De
peace and stability. He is even more suspicious rege and reflects anti-Jesuit feeling rather than
of the nobility, which he sees as a permanent Mariana’s intentions or what he wrote.
6 Mariana, Juan de
Regardless, De rege continued to be a byword for Cross-References

regicide and anti-monarchical subversion and a
liability to the reputation of the Society of Jesus ▶ Arias Montano, Benito
well into the twentieth century. ▶ Bellarmine, Robert
Modern historians of political thought in turn ▶ Botero, Giovanni
saw the treatise as part of the “embryology of ▶ Lipsius, Justus
modern politics” (Figgis 1907, p. 34) and a mile- ▶ Molina, Luis de
stone in the development of medieval scholastic ▶ Princes (and Rulers)
constitutionalism toward parliamentary democ- ▶ Prudence
racy (Lewy 1960). Gradually, the picture became ▶ Reason of State
more differentiated. The modern critical edition ▶ Ribadeneyra, Pedro
and translation of De rege into Spanish still iden- ▶ Salamanca, School of
tifies Mariana as a “humanist precursor of consti- ▶ Soto, Domingo de
tutionalism” (Sánchez-Agesta 1981, title page) ▶ Stoicism
but also identifies modes of reasoning not familiar ▶ Suárez, Francisco
from neo-scholastic contemporaries. Others high- ▶ Tacitus and Tacitism
light neo-Stoic themes that invite comparison
with Justus Lipsius (Oestreich 1989) or single
out “anti-Tacitist” (Skinner 1978) and
References
“imperialist-Tacitist” (Tuck 1993) themes, respec-
tively. More recent and detailed studies situate
Primary Literature
Mariana ever more firmly and sensitively within Álamos de Barrientos, Baltasar. 1614. Tácito español,
his actual discursive environment – the early mod- ilustrado con aforismos. Madrid: Luis Sánchez.
ern European debate on reason of state, the mirror- Álamos de Barrientos, Baltasar. 1990/1598. In Discurso
of-princes literature, scholastic moral theology politico al rey Felipe III al comienzo de su
reinado, ed. Modesto Santos. Barcelona: Anthropos.
and Jesuit political-theological debate, and espe- de Mariana, Juan. 1599. De rege et regis institutione libri
cially the Iberian and Castilian political and cul- III. Toledo: Petrus Rodericus.
tural environment which largely inspired his de Mariana, Juan. 1601. Historia general de España.
writing (Braun 2007, 2013; Höpfl 2004; Merle Compuesta en Latin, despues buelta en Castellano
por Iuan de Mariana. Toledo: Pedro Rodríguez.
2014; Reinhardt 2007; Truman 1999). de Mariana, Juan. 1609. Tractatus VII. Cologne: Anton
There is a rich, mostly Spanish literature on Hierat.
Mariana’s philological and biblical work (Ferraro de Mariana, Juan. 1620. Scholia in Vetus et Novum
1989), especially the censura on the Polyglot Testamentum. Paris: Sonnius.
de Mariana, Juan. 1625. Discours du Père Jean Mariana
Bible (Bujanda 1993; Wilkinson 2007). Mariana’s Iesuite Espagnol, des grands defauts qui sont en la
treatise De monetae mutatione and respective forme du government des Jesuites. n.p. n.n.
contribution to the development of liberal eco- de Mariana, Juan. 1981. In La dignidad real y la educación
nomic theory has received considerable attention del rey (De rege et regis institutione), ed. Luis Sánchez-
Agesta. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales.
since the beginning of the twentieth century Mantuano, Pedro. 1611. Advertencias a la historia del
(Laures 1928) and continues to be the matter of Padre Juan de Mariana de la Compania de Iesus.
a constantly evolving debate. This is perhaps the Milan: Hieronimo Bordon.
area of Mariana studies in most urgent need of Mariana, Juan. 1592. Historiae de rebus Hispaniae libri
XXV. Toledo: Petrus Rodericus.
further attention. Ribadeneyra, Pedro. 1597. Tratado de la religion y
virtudes que debe tener el principe christiano (. . .).
Antwerp: Plantin-Moret.
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Secondary Literature Lewy, Guenther. 1960. Constitutionalism and statecraft

Antonio, Domínguez Ortiz. 1970, 1992. La sociedad during the Golden Age of Spain. A study of the political
Española en el siglo XVII. Madrid: Consejo Superior philosophy of Juan de Mariana, SJ. Geneva: Droz.
de Investigaciones Científicas. Merle, Alexandra. 2014. El De Rege de Juan de Mariana
Braun, Harald E. 2007. Juan de Mariana and early modern (1599) y la cuestion del tiranicidio: un discurso de
Spanish political thought. Aldershot: Ashgate. ruptura? Criticón 120(121): 89–102.
Braun, Harald. 2013. San Agustín, Juan de Mariana, y la Oestreich, Gerhard. 1989. In Antiker Geist und moderner
epistemología política española, siglo XVI. Special Staat bei Justus Lipsius (1547–1606). Der Neo-
Issue Agustín de Hipona en España, CRITICÓN 118: stoizismus als politische Bewegung, ed. Nicole Mout.
99–112. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.
Bujanda, J.M. 1993. Index des livres interdits. Vol. 6: Index Olds, Katrina B. 2015. Forging the past. Invented histories
d’linquisition Espagnole, 1583, 1584. Sherbrooke: in counter-reformation Spain. Yale: Yale University
Centre d’études de la Renaissance, Quebec. Press.
Cirot, Georges. 1905. Études sur l’historiographie Reinhardt, Nicole. 2007. Juan de Mariana: Bibelexegese
espagnole – Mariana historien. Bordeaux: Feret & und Tyrannenmord. In Die bibel als politisches argu-
Fils. ment. Voraussetzungen und folgen biblischer.
Ferraro, Domenico. 1982. Tradizione e ragione in Juan de herrschaftslegitimation in der vormoderne, eds. A.
Mariana: Filosofia e scienza nel Cinquecento e nel Peçar, K. Trampedach, 273–294. München:
Seicento. Milan: F. angeli. Oldenbourg Verlag.
Figgis, John Neville. (1907). Studies in political thought Skinner, Quentin. 1978. The foundations of modern polit-
from gerson to grotius: 1414–1625. 2nd edition. Cam- ical thought. volume 2: The age of reformation. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press. bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Herrman, Christian. 1988. L’Eglise d’Espagne sous le Truman, Ronald W. 1999. Spanish treatises on govern-
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Mariana. New York: Fordham University Press.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_205-1
Palmieri, Matteo
Born: 13 January 1406, Florence
Died: 13 April 1475, Florence
David Marsh*
Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
Abstract
The Florentine apothecary Matteo Palmieri (1406–1475) benefited from a humanistic education, which
inspired him to compose several works of learning. In Latin, he wrote three historical tracts – a chronicle
of his times, an account of the 1406 subjugation of Pisa, and a biography of Niccolò Acciaiuoli – and in
Italian two philosophical works with chiastic titles, the Ciceronian dialogue Della vita civile and the
cosmological poem Città di vita. As a philosopher, Palmieri is scarcely original. His dialogue presents
eminent Florentines expounding ethical doctrines that are largely derived from Cicero, while his poem in
terza rima portrays Dante and the Cumaean Sibyl as they observe the fate of human souls after death. All
the same, Palmieri is important as a lay representative of that strain of Florentine humanism that embraced
both the classical heritage and the vernacular tradition of Tuscan poetry and piety.
Introduction and Biographical Section

Matteo Palmieri, who trained as an apothecary, belonged to the Arte dei Medici e Speziali, and like his
father Marco, he served in various public offices (Martines 1963, pp. 191–198). He also received a
humanistic education, studying with Marsuppini and Filelfo. In Latin, he composed a chronicle De
temporibus, an account of the 1406 defeat of Pisa called De captivitate Pisarum (Palmieri 1995), and a
biography of Niccolò Acciaiuoli (1310–1365; Palmieri 2001). In Italian, he composed the dialogue Della
vita civile (1433–1436; Palmieri 1982) and a poem in Dantean tercets, Città di vita (1455–1464; Palmieri
1927–1928), which was condemned by the church. Like Giannozzo Manetti, he served as an ambassador
for Florence, promoted the learned use of Italian, and was included in the series of lives composed by
Vespasiano da Bisticci. There is a portrait bust of him by Antonio Rossellino in the Museo Nazionale del
Bargello, Florence.

Palmieri’s most important philosophical work is his dialogue Della vita civile (Mita Ferraro 2005;
Palmieri 1997; Tanturli 1996). Dedicated to the Florentine magistrate Alessandro degli Alessandri
(1391–1460), the work consists of four books that discuss the principles of the good life. Its subject
and format resemble those of the contemporary Della Famiglia of Leon Battista Alberti, and Palmieri’s
spokesman Agnolo Pandolfini also appears in Alberti’s Italian dialogue Profugia ab erumna (Mita Ferraro
2005, pp. 298–299). In several passages of the work, Palmieri writes that his purpose is to offer his readers
“the precepts of the ancient philosophers.” His central model is Cicero, who had similarly expounded
*Email: dmarsh@rci.rutgers.edu
Page 1 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_205-1
Greek philosophy to Roman readers, and he draws heavily on the Roman orator, especially the De
inventione, De officiis, and Tusculan Disputations. While adopting concepts from Aristotle’s
Nicomachean Ethics, which had recently been translated into Latin by Leonardo Bruni (1417), Palmieri
also draws upon the Latin authors Aulus Gellius, Sallust, Valerius Maximus, and Macrobius and the poets
Plautus, Terence, and Virgil. Book 1 treats the education of children; Book 2, the three cardinal virtues of
prudence, moderation, and fortitude; Book 3, the fourth virtue, justice; and Book 4, the contrast between
what is useful and what is honorable. The work ends with a Somnium Dantis, in imitation of the
conclusions of the Republics of Plato and Cicero: in it the poet Dante beholds a vision of souls after
death, including noble pagans. Following Origen’s theory of the preexistence of souls, Palmieri asserts
that human souls descend to the earth from heaven and after three incarnations end in either salvation or
damnation. In between these incarnations, the souls travel through the spheres of heaven and wait in the
Elysian Fields.

While Palmieri is essentially a compiler, there is an element of innovation in his ethical thought. Whereas
in Books 2 and 3 of Della vita civile he expounds the traditional categories of the cardinal virtues, in Book
4 he departs from Cicero’s De officiis. Noting that he writes for a popular audience, Palmieri rejects the
notion that utility (l’utile) and honorability (l’onesto) necessarily coincide (Palmieri 1982, p. 151).
Instead, he outlines and sanctions various categories of what is useful, including Renaissance values
such as magnificence (Mita Ferraro 2005, pp. 294–295).
Palmieri makes another contribution to Renaissance philosophy in his poem City of Life (Città di vita).
Like Dante’s Comedy, the work consists of 100 cantos in tercets that narrate the poet’s tour of the afterlife
in the company of the Cumaean Sibyl, who acts as the poem’s Virgilian guide. (The work was supposedly
inspired by dreams that appeared to Palmieri during embassies to Pescia and Naples in the 1450s.) The
three parts of the poem offer a cosmological account of the universe, a description of hell, and a vision of
heaven. Palmieri’s scheme of the heavens follows the Ptolemaic spheres described in Dante’s Purgatorio,
but in reverse order, that is, descending from the empyrean to earth. The description of hell in Book
2 offers reflections on the seven deadly sins. The vision of heaven in Book 3 surveys the cardinal virtues
treated earlier in Della vita civile, establishing a system of rewards for these virtues viewed in two aspects:
civic and purgatorial. A few characters featured in Dante reappear, but in general, the work reads like a
rather colorless cento of the Comedy. One new character is Hermes Trismegistus, who appears in heaven
as a prophet (3.26).
Even though the author had his poem corrected by Leonardo Dati, the bishop of Massa Marittima,
suggestions of Pythagorean metempsychosis and Origen’s preexistence of souls evidently caused
Palmieri’s readers some discomfort. Indeed, rumors circulated posthumously that the poet had been
condemned and even burned by the church (Mita Ferraro 2005, pp. 419–432).
The source of the suspicion is found in Canto 5 of Palmieri’s Book 1, which narrates the lot of God’s
original angels. After Satan’s rebellion, his partisans were forever condemned to hell, while his opponents
remained in heaven (Freccero 1958). The neutral angels remained between heaven and hell to furnish
souls for human beings, who would later be assigned redemption or damnation (City of Life 1.5.34–53, a
passage echoing Dante’s Inferno 34–42.)
Page 2 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_205-1
Impact and Legacy

In the Quattrocento, Palmieri’s Della vita civile enjoyed a certain popularity: some eighteen manuscripts
survive. The first printed editions date from 1529 (Florence: Eredi di Filippo Giunti and an anonymous
publication), while the next four editions date from the nineteenth century. Vespasiano di Bisticci
considered Palmieri important enough to include him in his lives, but the rumors of his heresy led to a
damnatio memoriae that lasted several centuries (Mita Ferraro 2005, pp. 299–304). In the nineteenth
century, Georg Voigt could write that Palmieri’s writings were never known in wider circles (Voigt
1893, 1:291).
Cross-References
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Manetti, Giannozzo
References
Primary Literature
Palmieri M (1927–1928) In: Rooke M (ed) Città di vita. Smith College, Northampton
Palmieri M (1982) In: Belloni G (ed) Della vita civile. Florence
Palmieri M (1995) In: Mita Ferraro A (ed) La presa di Pisa. IL Mulino, Bologna
Palmieri M (1997) The civil life (book 2) (trans: Marsh D). In: Kraye J (ed) Cambridge translations of
renaissance philosophical texts, 2 vols, vol 2. Cambridge, pp 149–72
Palmieri M (2001) In: Mita Ferraro A (ed) La vita di Niccolò Acciaioli. IL Mulino, Bologna
Freccero J (1958) The neutral angels from Dante to Palmieri. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
Marsh D (2013) Cicero in the Renaissance. In: Steele C (ed) The Cambridge companion to Cicero.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 306–317
Martines L (1963) The social world of the Florentine humanists, 1390–1460. Princeton University Press,
Princeton
Mita Ferraro A (2005) Matteo Palmieri: una biografia intellettuale. Name, Genoa
Tanturli G (1996) Sulla data e la genesi della Vita civile di Matteo Palmieri. Rinascimento 36:3–48
Voigt G (1893) Die Wiederbelebung des classischen Alterthums, oder Das erste Jahrhundert des
Humanismus, vol 2, 3rd edn. G. Reimer, Berlin
Page 3 of 3
P
Pole, Reginald achievement was reversed after his death, but

in Catholic Europe he retained a reputation as a
Born: Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, England holy man and a Catholic reformer (Mayer,
March 1500 Cardinal Pole in European perspective. Alder-
shot, 2000; Edwards, Archbishop Pole.
Died: Lambeth Palace, London, 17 November Farnham: Ashgate, 2014).
1558
John Edwards Biography

The Queen’s College, Oxford, UK
Reginald Pole was the fourth child of Sir Richard
Pole (1462–1505) and Margaret Plantagenet
Abstract (1473–1541), who was a niece of King Edward
Reginald Pole was a member of the Plantage- IV (1442–1483) of England and countess of
net royal house of England and graduated in Salisbury. He was educated at Magdalen College,
Arts from Oxford University. In 1521, he was Oxford University, graduating as Bachelor of Arts
sent by King Henry VIII (1491–1547) to study in 1515. In 1521, King Henry VIII sent him to
in Padua, Italy, where he became an enthusiast study at the University of Padua, and although he
of the “Christian philosophy” of the Italian seems not to have matriculated there, he spent
Renaissance. During the 1520s and 1530s, he about 5 years in Italy, forming part of the circle
devoted himself increasingly to biblical study of Niccolò Leonico Tomeo (1456–1531). In
and came to believe that faith in God, as Padua, he continued his studies in Classical and
revealed in Christ, surpassed all human knowl- Renaissance philosophy, as well as becoming
edge and should be the goal of Christians. Pole increasingly interested in theology. In the 1520s,
was able to put some of his ideas into practice, it seemed likely that he would become a courtier
as a cardinal of the Roman Church, from 1536; of Henry VIII, and in 1529, he was sent by the
as papal legate, on several occasions, to king as part of a delegation to the Theology Fac-
England, France, and the Emperor Charles ulty of the University of Paris, which succeeded in
V (1500–1558); and as archbishop of Canter- gaining the theologians’ support for Henry’s
bury (1556–1558). In the last 5 years of his life, divorce from his first wife, Katherine of Aragon
he worked with Queen Mary I (1516–1558), (1485–1536) (Edwards 2014:1–29). After he
and her husband Philip (1527–1598), to restore returned to England from Paris, he turned against
Catholicism in England. Most of his his royal master, opposing both the divorce of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_206-1
2 Pole, Reginald
Katherine and King Henry’s separation from the of Trent (1545–1563) (Pole 2002–2004; Mayer
Roman Catholic Church and Henry’s adoption of 2000a, b; Edwards 2014).
the title and role of Supreme Head of the English
Church.
Pole returned to Italy in 1531 and remained Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
there until 1553. In December 1536, he was cre-
ated a cardinal by Pope Paul III (1468–1549), During Pole’s time as a student at Oxford Univer-
taking part in a papal commission to reform the sity, Oxford retained a medieval Arts syllabus,
Church and to prepare for the General Council based on the trivium and quadrivium, but his
which eventually opened at Trent in December own college, Magdalen, was in the forefront of
1545. In the meantime he was appointed as teaching Classical languages, literature, and phi-
papal legate to France and the Holy Roman losophy, in addition to the prescribed subjects.
Empire, with the aim of securing peace between One of his college tutors, William Latimer
those two major Catholic powers. He was also (c.1467–1545), had previously been a pupil of
named as papal legate to England, and his support Leonico at Padua. Evidence of Pole’s own intel-
of the traditionalist rebellion in the north of the lectual development in Italy, between 1521 and
kingdom in 1536–1537, known as the “Pilgrim- 1526, comes from personal correspondence. No
age of Grace,” led to the execution of his brother doubt building on foundations laid during his time
Henry Pole, Baron Montagu (1492–1539), as well in Oxford; he is known to have read deeply in
as other friends and relatives, who were accused Greek philosophy, including the works of Plato
of conspiring with him against the king. During (circa 428/423 BCE, Aristotle ((383–321 BCE),
these years, Pole made various attempts to return Galen (130–200 CE), the Academics, and the
to his homeland, but it was only Mary I’s acces- Peripatetics. By the early 1530s, when Henry
sion to the English throne, in July 1553, that VIII was trying to divorce his wife Katherine
enabled him to do so. As papal legate to England and beginning to threaten to break with the
once again, now on behalf of Julius III Church of Rome, Pole wrote to his friends, includ-
(1487–1555), he masterminded the restoration of ing Jacopo Sadoleto (1477–1547), bishop of
Catholicism in England, Wales, and Ireland, con- Carpentras, and Pietro Bembo (1470–1547), that
tinuing this process until he and Queen Mary died scholars of their own time were more fortunate
on the same day, 17 November 1558. In the 1540s, than the Classical Greeks and Romans, because
while governor of Viterbo and Bagnoregio, in the they had been given the light of the Christian
Papal States, Pole and his circle had been Gospel and had the Son of God as their guide.
suspected of “Lutheran” views and, during his By this time, Pole’s interest had moved from
last years in England, this suspicion resurfaced, philosophy to theology, and he regarded this as a
in the reign of his former friend, but now his progression to a higher science. By 1534, he had
enemy on theological grounds, Pope Paul IV concluded, as he wrote to Sadoleto, that doctrine
(Gian Pietro Carafa 1476–1559). Pole died under and ethics were far more important than those
threat of trial by the Roman Inquisition, and the favorite pastimes of the Renaissance, poetry and
next queen, Elizabeth I (1533–1603), undid most oratory. He still shared with his humanist friends
of his ecclesiastical work, separating once again the belief that the philosopher Plato was capable
from Rome and restoring the vernacular liturgy of of leading a person to God. Even so, he now
the Church of England, which had been intro- thought that reliance on the human senses and
duced under Edward VI (1537–1553). Neverthe- intellect would have ultimately to be abandoned,
less, Reginald Pole subsequently became an in favor of the recognition that humans, of them-
inspiration to Catholics, in England and Wales selves, could not have any knowledge that was
and on the Continent of Europe, for what was truly sure and certain. Instead, he thought that
regarded by many as his saintly life and for his anyone who sought the truth about the world and
contribution to the reforms decreed by the Council human existence must strive for, and maintain,
Pole, Reginald 3
faith in the Christian Trinitarian God. Only in that discussion of the fundamental question of
way could he (or she?) receive the benefit whether, as the Roman Catholic Church claimed,
(beneficium) of Christ’s saving acts. St Peter, in New Testament times, had superiority
Despite this development of his views in the over the other apostles, hence justifying and val-
1530s, it is still true that, although he would later idating the papacy. Having discussed, in quite a
be primarily associated with the main theological sophisticated way, the meaning of the metaphys-
issues in sixteenth-century Europe, he was ical use of the word “rock” in relation to Jesus’s
steeped in the “new learning” of the Renaissance. famous statement to Simon Peter (“You are Peter,
From his first stay in Padua until his death, he and on this rock I will build my Church”), Pole
would express his religious faith in terms of the followed the principles and method of many bib-
Christian humanism associated with Desiderius lical scholars in the Renaissance, by seeking con-
Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536). In his pre- cord between the four Gospel accounts. In
aching and writing, Pole avoided the scholastic addressing the question of whether there was a
techniques still used by most theologians of his hierarchy among Jesus’s first disciples, Pole
day. Thus, instead of structuring his work as a referred to the commissioning of the original
series of quaestiones, with ample citations from apostles (Matthew 10; Mark 3), but focused par-
medieval compilers and theologians such as Peter ticularly on Luke’s account of the Last Supper
Lombard (1100–1160) and Thomas Aquinas (Luke 22). In his version of Jesus’s rejection, on
(1225–1274), he used a warmer and at times this occasion, of any such notions of supremacy,
almost conversational style, frequently quoting, Pole combined the techniques of medieval glos-
sometimes paraphrasing, or else commenting on sators and Renaissance “Christian philosophers”
Scripture. His emphasis, in both writing and pre- by putting his own words into Jesus’s mouth,
aching, was on the lived experience of the Chris- referring to Christ’s imminent betrayal by Judas.
tian faith – in the Bible, in Christian history, and in Both in De unitate and elsewhere, Pole did not
his own day (Edwards 2014: 85–108). provide a systematic biblical commentary of the
Pole wrote no major or systematic philosophi- kind that would appear in later centuries, but he
cal or theological work, but his most lengthy was clearly fully aware of current scholarly devel-
surviving treatise, generally known as De unitate, opments on the subject, in Italy and elsewhere
contains revealing passages about his intellectual (Pole 1538; Pole and Dwyer 1965).
methodology and confirms the general points
made above. By 1535–1536, when he composed
this somewhat rambling tract, at the request of Innovative and Original Aspects
King Henry VIII of England, he seems to have
fully developed his approach to exegesis, incor- Pole was part of an innovative movement or ten-
porating the humanistic techniques and dency, among Catholic scholars and clergy, rather
approaches which he had learned in Oxford and than producing original philosophical ideas of his
especially in Italy. The fact that Henry and his own. His achievement was largely practical rather
supporters used biblical quotation and arguments than theoretical. He put into practice, while in
to justify his divorce of Katherine enabled Pole to England as papal legate and as archbishop of
deploy his own scriptural study in opposition to Canterbury, some of the ideas about Christian
it. Thus, in various passages of the De unitate, he teaching and worship that were shared and devel-
criticized the methods used by his opponents, oped by his friends in Italy, in the 1520s–1540s.
particularly concerning the nature of authority in Although most of his work, between 1554 and
the Catholic Church. In this lengthy and some- 1558, involved the restoration of traditional Cath-
times rambling treatise, Pole repeatedly built up olic observance and belief in England, his occa-
arguments on the basis of biblical texts, in order to sional sermons, some of which survive, indicate
justify papal authority over the Church and over his Christian humanist approach (Fenlon 2005;
Christian rulers. A fine example is Pole’s Duffy 2006; Edwards 2014, 215–221).
4 Pole, Reginald
Impact and Legacy Cross-References
At his death, Pole’s program of restoration and ▶ Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam

reform was incomplete, and the fact that he and
Queen Mary died on the same day meant that his
legacy depended entirely on the new Queen, Eliz-
References
abeth. She was half sister to her predecessor and
the daughter of Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne
Primary Sources
Boleyn (1501–1536). Elizabeth quickly set about Pole, R. 1538. Ad Henricum Octavum Britanniae Regem
dismantling Mary and Pole’s work in the Church, pro eccesiasticae unitatis defensione. Rome: Antonio
by separating once more from the See of Rome, Blado.
and using Parliament to restore, with a few minor Pole, R. 1562. Reformatio Angliae ex Decretis Reginaldi
Poli Cardinalis, Sedis Apostolicae Legati, Anno
revisions, the 1552 Book of Common Prayer as MDLVI. Rome: Apud Paulum Manutium.
the liturgy of the English Church, and having Pole, R., trans. J. G. Dwyer, 1965. Pole’s defense of the
herself declared its Supreme Governor. Her unity of the Church. Westminster, Maryland: Newman
choice as the new archbishop of Canterbury, Mat- Press.
thew Parker (1504–1575), not only worked to put
Elizabeth’s ecclesiastical policies into effect but Secondary Sources
also did his best to vilify his predecessor and deny Duffy, E. 2006. Cardinal Pole preaching: St Andrew’s Day
his achievement (Edwards 2014:249–262). Yet 1557. In The Church of Mary Tudor, ed. E. Duffy and
D. Loades, 176–200. Aldershot: Ashgate.
things would be very different in Catholic Europe, Edwards, J. 2014. Archbishop Pole. Farnham: Ashgate.
where the decrees of his London Synod, held in Fenlon, D. 2005. Pole, Carranza and the Pope. In
1555–1556, were published as guides for the final Reforming Catholicism in the England of Mary Tudor.
sessions of the Council of Trent (1562–1563) The achievement of Friar Bartolomé
Carranza, ed. J. Edwards and R. Truman, 81–97.
(Pole 1562). In the Roman Catholic Church, he Aldershot: Ashgate.
was primarily remembered as a Catholic reformer, Mayer, T. 2000a Reginald Pole, prince and prophet. Cam-
but in that capacity he nonetheless represented an bridge: Cambridge University Press, UK.
important current in “Erasmian” Christian Mayer, T. 2000b The correspondence of Reginald Pole:
A Calendar, 1518–1558, 1. Aldershot: Ashgate.
philosophy.
S
Sin and overlapping mechanisms (Zemon Davis

2000). By confessing his or her sins, an individual
Risto Saarinen receives forgiveness as an act of divine grace; at
Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki, the same time, this person pays back some of his
Helsinki, Finland or her debt by doing works of satisfaction.
In addition to such economic horizons, the
vocabulary of the lawcourt is often employed.
Abstract The sinful person carries guilt (culpa) and
In late medieval and early modern Western deserves punishment (poena). Forgiveness covers
thought, sin is a religious concept that needs both the forensic and the economic dimension of
to be understood against the background of guilt and debt. The legal vocabulary allows for
biblical writings and the doctrinal traditions sophisticated distinctions. For instance, in the
of the churches. Rather than attempting an Augustinian tradition of original sin, future gen-
in-depth analysis of the most sophisticated erations may receive the punishment of Adam’s
theological and philosophical discussions, the sin even when they have no personal guilt related
present entry offers a basic conceptual frame- to it. The baptism of infants can be explained with
work in which such discussions take place a view to similar considerations: the baptismal
between 1300 and 1650. The positions of Mar- water can cleanse a person from inherited guilt
tin Luther, John Calvin, Johann Eck, and Igna- and punishment even when no personal guilt is
tius of Loyola are briefly described. ascribed to the infant. On the other hand, the
baptized person continues to commit actual sins.
Therefore, his or her later guilt needs to be recon-
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition ciled through the mechanism of confession and
absolution.
In the Latin New Testament, the concepts “sin” The angelic Fall was typically considered to
and “debt” are often interchangeable. For have been the first sin. It was followed by the
instance, the prayer of Jesus “Our Father” original sin of Adam and Eve. While this original
employs “sin” in Luke 11:4 and “debt” in Mat- sin is, according to the Augustinian tradition,
thew 6:12. Sinners need forgiveness of their debts. transmitted sexually, the theme of inheritance is
Forgiveness takes place both as an act of grace and predominantly discussed in legal (rather than sex-
in terms of payment. In the social imagination of ual or corporeal) terms. The sins of an individual
medieval and early modern people, the logic of person are seen in terms of theological and legal
payment and the logic of gift are complementary
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_208-1
2 Sin
continuity with the first sin. At the same time, each powers of death and devil. While Luther strongly
person remains legally responsible for his or her advocates the baptism of infants, he also considers
own sins. that baptized Christians continue to be sinful in
The moral dimension is likewise prominent. some sense. Christians are “righteous and sinful at
The distinction between good works and sin is the same time,” since they cannot eradicate all
analogical to the distinction between virtue and repugnant harmful emotions during their corpo-
vice. According to moral philosophy and theol- real life. For this reason, Luther can say, for
ogy, some moral flaw is found in the sinful person. instance, that Christians commit sin even while
While forgiveness cannot by itself make sinful doing good works. This is because their good
persons virtuous, their future virtue can be trained works remain in some sense contaminated with
by the works of satisfaction, educational efforts, the remnants of their sinfulness (Schneider and
and the effective powers of sacramental grace. In Wenz 2000; Bultmann et al. 2007).
this manner, the ethical vocabulary of virtue is For Roman Catholicism, this is a too pessimis-
connected with the quasi-economic interplay of tic and even Manichean picture of Christian
gift and payment. humanity. In the Leipzig disputation of 1519, the
Standard Catholic theology, in particular Tho- issue of remaining sinfulness was debated
mism, operates with the help of these three between Luther’s adherents and the Catholic theo-
(economic, legal, moral) conceptual frameworks logian Johann Eck. The standard Catholic posi-
of sin. Legal and moral analogies underline the tion, defended by Eck, considers that the basic evil
personal responsibility of an agent for his or her desire of concupiscence can be called sin before
sinfulness. The baptized can, at least in theory, baptism but not after it. After baptism, conscious
avoid sin and cleanse themselves of culpability sinful intention and consent are needed to make
through using the sacraments of the church. Christians truly sinful. Eck grants, however, that
Especially in the monastic traditions, the moral the Church Fathers have dealt with this problem in
and legal picture of sin is regarded as superficial, different ways. He concedes that the Lutheran
as it does not reach the roots of sinfulness. Monas- way of labeling the concupiscence of the baptized
tic theologians often emphasize that emotions and Christians as sin is possible if the word “sin”
even everyday perceptions are already in them- refers to their punishment (poena) rather than to
selves sinful. Sin is not something that takes place their guilt (culpa) (Seitz 1903, 242–255). In this
only after an act of free will; rather, our whole manner, Eck shows some understanding of the
emotional and sensual life is sinful. The words of monastic traditions of the Western church.
Jesus regarding the sinfulness of lust (e.g., Mat- The Council of Trent (1545–1563) defines the
thew 5:28) offer support for such a position. Phil- normative Catholic teaching on sin in its Decree
osophically, many monastic theologians approach on original sin (sessio 5) and Decree on justifica-
the Stoic ideals of a complete eradication of harm- tion (sessio 6) (The Council of Trent 1990). The
ful emotions and a holistic control of one’s own Council condemns, for instance, the Lutheran
inner life. On the other hand, conscious intention view that righteous people sin in their good
and free consent are often thought to be the moral works (sessio 6, canon 25). In this manner, Cath-
and legal prerequisites of culpably sinful action. If olics evaluate the relative importance of
emotions are considered to be judgments in a remaining concupiscence differently from Protes-
Stoic fashion, it may be possible to consider harm- tantism. Basically, Catholics consider that Chris-
ful emotions as sinful in this sense of culpability tians should remain free from sin (sessio 6, cap.
(Knuuttila 2004). 11). John Calvin takes over Luther’s radical view
Like many monastic theologians, Martin of permanently sinful concupiscence (Institutio 2,
Luther maintains that a merely moral and legal 2, 24) (Calvin 2006). He teaches that the human
understanding of sin is theologically inadequate. nature is so corrupted that a total renewal of
For him, sin is a holistic power of corruption human mind and will is needed (Institutio 2, 3,
(Verderbnismacht) that is connected with the 1–5).
Sin 3
In spite of the confessional divide we cannot reader to train his or her cogito, the introspective
draw the conclusion that early modern Roman capacity of thinking one’s own inner world. In
Catholicism merely stuck to the old legal and many ways Ignatius is concerned with how the
moral vocabulary. The most influential early mod- reader appropriates the contents of his or her own
ern treatise on sin is contained in The Spiritual mind. Ignatius is thus close to the later German
Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola (2009). The philosophy of Aneignung, a concept developed by
readers of Ignatius are expected not only to per- Hegel and Kierkegaard.
form the exercises but to compile a training diary, The Protestants also develop techniques to
allowing them to chart their progress in this cope with sinful thoughts and emotions. Johann
healing. Ignatius distinguishes among three Gerhard’s Meditationes sacrae (2010) can in
kinds of morally relevant thoughts: some arise some ways be read as the Lutheran counterpart
from one’s own will, others from external good of Ignatian exercises. As the early modern theo-
spirit, and still others from external evil spirits. logians often connect sin with death, meditating
Resisting evil thoughts is counted as merit. Igna- on death is a major concern of such techniques.
tius admonishes the reader to remember the The modern Enlightenment view, according to
angelic Fall, the sin of Adam and Eve, and the which death and illness belong to the category of
mortal sins of later people. Such remembrance nature, whereas vice, sin, and bad (=corrupt?)
trains the mind to understand the gravity of sin. will belong to the different category of morality,
The introspective dimension belongs integrally is not clearly developed in the seventeenth
to the exercises of the first week, devoted to century.
healing from sin. Readers ask who they really
are and lessen themselves, first by comparing
themselves to other people, second by comparing
References
all humans to angels and saints, and third by
comparing all creation to God. The chain from
Primary Literature
the angelic Fall to human sinfulness is thus Calvin, J. 2006. Institutes of the Christian religion. Louis-
reversed and returned to God. This process affords ville: Westminster John Knox Press.
a truthful grasp of one’s bodily corruption and Gerhard, J. 2010. Meditationes sacrae. n.p. ProQuest
Digital.
foulness. Meditating on hell complements these
Loyola, I. 2009. The spiritual exercises. n.p. Christan
exercises. Readers are invited to visualize the Classics.
flames of hell, hear the laments of the souls Seitz, O., ed. 1903. Der authentische Text der Leipziger
there, smell the odors, taste bitter things, and feel Disputation. Berlin: C. A. Schwetfchke & Sohn.
The Council of Trent. 1990. In Decrees of the ecumenical
the burning of the flames. The body and its five councils, ed. G. Alberigo and N. Tanner. Washington,
senses play an important role in the exercises. DC: Georgetown University Press.
Philosophically, Ignatius’s introspective
emphasis and his constant attention to the corpo-
real and sensual existence of human beings are Secondary Literature
Bultmann, C., et al., eds. 2007. Luther und das
innovative features that have preserved their leg- monastische Erbe. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
acy until our day. Like the early Protestants, Igna- Knuuttila, S. 2004. Emotions in ancient and medieval
tius does not consider sin to consist primarily in philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press Ann Arbor.
Schneider, T., and G. Wenz, eds. 2000. Gerecht und Sünder
moral and legal matters. Rather, the healing from
zugleich? Freiburg: Ökumenische Klärungen.
sin concerns the entire corporeal and spiritual Zemon Davis, N. 2000. The gift in sixteenth-century
existence of human beings. Ignatius wants the France. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
W
Weakness of Will Synonyms
Risto Saarinen Akrasia; Incontinence; Moral weakness

Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki,
Helsinki, Finland
Heritage and rupture with the tradition
Weakness of will, sometimes called with the

Abstract
Greek term akrasia or the Latin term
incontinentia, depicts the phenomenon of acting
Weakness of will (akrasia) continues to be
against one’s better judgment, that is, the situation
actively discussed in the Renaissance and the
in which one knows the good one ought to do but
Reformation. Important treatises are written by
nevertheless does something else. A person who
John Buridan, Petrarch, John Mair, Josse
does the good while also having harmful tenden-
Clichtove, Joachim Camerarius, Francesco
cies is called continent or enkratic. Virtuous and
Piccolomini, and Lambert Daneau. The dominant
vicious people do the good or the evil without any
Aristotelian framework is complemented by
inclinations to the contrary. The concept of akrasia
Neo-Stoic and Platonic considerations. Increas-
has its origins in Book VII of Aristotle’s
ingly voluntarist interpretations gain ground,
Nicomachean Ethics (EN), in which this phenom-
stressing the “clear-eyed” nature of some akratic
enon is discussed. Since knowledge is stronger
choices. While the practical syllogism continues
than opinions or emotions, and since better judg-
to be employed, its overall significance for the
ment represents this knowledge, no rational per-
explanation of human action decreases. Typical
son should act against what he or she considers
of early modern discussions is an inner wrestling
best. Often people nevertheless seem to act
between various rational arguments, or between
akratically. How can this phenomenon be
reason and emotional perturbations, or between
explained?
spiritual and carnal aspects of humanity. The
As one crucial part of his explanation, Aristotle
uncertainty of human knowledge and the decisive
launches the practical syllogism, a calculative
importance of particular facts are emphasized
model of the emergence of human action. The
more strongly than in classical and medieval
practical syllogism consists of a major premise
discussions.
that expresses a general principle and a minor
premise that states a particular observation.
Given the intellectualist framework, rational
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_210-2
2 Weakness of Will
beings should follow the conclusion implied by the worse.” This means, according to the Stoic
the two premises. Aristotle’s famous example view, that she saw that it was better to stay at her
concerns eating: “Sweet things are to be avoided” father’s home, but her love nevertheless caused
(major); “this is sweet” (minor); and “this should her to continue with Jason. Although she intellec-
be avoided” (conclusion). Hence, a person’s acts tually decided to stay with her father, her earlier
result from his or her calculative deliberations in course of life was still so predominant that it led to
terms of practical syllogism (EN 1145a-1147b). a different action. In this manner, the case of
The standard Aristotelian answer to the prob- Medea exemplifies the second Stoic option.
lem of akrasia is that akratic persons know the Plato’s writings also play a role in the interpre-
good in a universal sense, but their grasp of the tation of akrasia. In Protagoras 351–358, Plato
minor premise is impeded or imperfect. Thus, the draws a picture of Socrates that is very similar to
akratic person eats the sweets, knowing that sweet Aristotle’s discussion in EN VII. This Socrates
things should generally be avoided, but fooling defends the view that “no one willingly goes to
himself or herself into ignoring the particular case meet evil or what he thinks to be evil” (358c). In
at hand (EN 1147a-b). Is this ignorance voluntary Republic 431, however, Plato outlines the inner
or not? A great range of different answers has conflict between the better and the worse parts of
been presented. Thomas Aquinas, for instance, human soul, teaching that the better part, or rea-
says that philosophically such behavior is like son, should rule the lower and irrational part.
involuntary forgetting, but theologically it is vol- However, akrasia remains a genuine possibility,
untary (Saarinen 1994, 118–131). as there are situations in which the better part stays
In addition to Aristotle, there is a Stoic tradi- alive but is mastered by the lower one (Hoffmann
tion of akrasia of which scholars have only 2008, 1–22). We may label the option of Republic
recently become better aware (M€ uller 2009, as a/the “commonplace Platonic” view of akrasia,
155–193). The Stoic tradition is fragmentary; we meaning a position in which reason and desire
have some texts of Chrysippus and Galen and struggle in the human soul; desire can sometimes
uncertain mentions from Plutarch, Epictetus and overcome reason. Augustine seems to have
Origen. Augustine is in some ways connected to received some ideas from this tradition as well.
this tradition (Saarinen 2011, 19–27). The Stoic All three traditions – the Aristotelian, Stoic,
tradition survives in some examples, of which the and commonplace Platonic – are relevant for the
two most popular ones are “the runner who cannot understanding of weakness of will in the period
stop running” and the literary figure of Medea between 1300 and 1650. The Aristotelian heritage
who falls in love and kills her children against dominates late medieval and early modern discus-
her better judgment. Both Medea’s love and her sions. Stoic considerations and examples, Medea
rage are used as examples of akrasia. in particular, are increasingly mentioned in the
The Stoics discuss two possible options of sixteenth century. The commonplace Platonic pic-
akrasia. First, there may be so-called ture of inner struggle is often mentioned in the
pre-passions, akratic leanings that emerge before treatment of akrasia; however, this picture is a
(sometimes only immediately before) a judgment general feature of the discussion rather than a
is formed. Second, the agent may be so strongly distinct explanatory tradition.
predetermined by some earlier habits that the new The most important fourteenth-century discus-
information cannot change his or her course of sion of akrasia takes place in John Buridan’s com-
action immediately but only after a delay. After mentary on EN. Buridan teaches that the will is
the assented judgment, for instance, to stop run- prepared for action through three stages. The will
ning, the runner proceeds at least for some meters. first receives a judgment of the practical intellect,
This proceeding might be called acting against informing it of various good and bad aspects of
one’s own better judgment. the alternatives under consideration. This prelim-
In Ovid’s Metamorphoses 7, 20–21, Medea inary judgment does not prompt action but only
claims to “see the better and approve it, but follow generates an act of “complacence” or
Weakness of Will 3
“displacence” in the will. The cluster of first acts is represented for him a typical scholastic view in
followed by the second act of the will, which is the which merit and virtue can be achieved through
actual acceptance or refusal of the judgment’s rational decision-making (Saarinen 2011,
conclusion. The third act of the will is the action 105–132).
itself (Buridan 1968, 41–43). Among early-modern scholastic interpreters of
Akratic conduct occurs in a situation that is weakness of will, John Mair (1470–1550) offers a
characterized by a “twofold inclination”; that is, thorough discussion that both continues Buridan’s
a situation in which a person inclines towards intellectualist leanings and is innovative in its
contrary alternatives. Incontinence is primarily strategy of preserving the idea of free will. He
located in the will, because it is the faculty of the affirms the possibility of akrasia in three ways
soul that can exercise a choice towards one alter- (Mair 1530, 110). First, Mair concludes that a
native or its opposite (Buridan 1968, 141). person’s will can prevent itself from working.
Although the different first acts of the will can This point resembles the Parisian condemnations
exemplify different preliminary judgments, of 1277 and John Buridan that ascribe to free will
Buridan defends the final unity of judgment and the option of remaining in the state of non velle
assent. He therefore refutes the view that a person (refusal to will something??) (Saarinen 1994,
can, strictly speaking, have contrary judgments 168). The second way interprets Aristotle in a
about a particular action. somewhat “commonplace Platonist” manner,
Buridan is both Stoic and Aristotelian in his claiming that the conflict between reason and
emphasis on the unity of the judgment. Although desire features prominently in action theory and
the first act of the will can generate different and that desire can sometimes overcome reason.
contrary viewpoints, the complete situation will The third way compares akrasia with so-called
finally be judged in a unified manner. This is mixed actions, which are discussed in EN III, 1. A
expressed in the second act of the will, which classical example of this kind is the shipping
prompts action. The second act is not, however, merchant who throws his goods overboard to sur-
a voluntarist manifestation of freedom, but an vive a storm. For Mair, Aristotle's mixed actions
intellectualist affirmation of the best option. recall features of akrasia although the person in
Buridan underlines this intellectualist stance in Aristotle’s examples does not ignore or forget
his decisive questions regarding weakness of anything. To make room for such affirmations of
will. In his view, since it is not possible to act akrasia, Mair undertakes an original claim that in
against actual, particular, and perfect knowledge, syllogistic deduction the akratic person can affirm
akrasia is accompanied by some ignorance. He something shameful while also thinking that noth-
further holds that the will necessarily obeys the ing shameful should be followed. This is possible
conclusion of the practical intellect, if this conclu- if the first case refers to some concrete choice at
sion is argued with full clarity and certainty. On hand, whereas the second case pertains to what is
the other hand, Buridan concedes that concrete morally right. In this manner, Mair can combine
decision-making often takes place in uncertain voluntarist conclusions with the overall syllogistic
situations in which weakness of will can occur structure of Aristotelian action theory.
(Saarinen 1994, 178–181). Petrarch’s Secretum is an early example of the
Buridan’s commentary had a vast manuscript humanist reception of the problem of akrasia. In
diffusion (particularly in central Europe) and had Petrarch, a person freely chooses the wrong
several printings in the sixteenth and seventeenth option. While this fundamental choice is not
centuries; it remained influential in the universi- caused by ignorance or disorder, it brings about
ties. Through Martin Luther’s teacher ignorance and disorder as its consequence. These
Bartholomaeus Arnoldi de Usingen, Buridan’s problems of the incontinent person can be
views were familiar to the early Reformers. As remedied in cognitive therapy so that the person
Luther was critical of the scholastic treatment of can see his voluntarist nature in a truthful light.
“good works,” Buridan’s theory of action This picture is not very far from late medieval
4 Weakness of Will
Franciscan voluntarism. When Petrarch’s mask In early modern Catholic thinking, the vocab-
Francesco at the end of Secretum states that he ulary of weakness of will is often replaced with
cannot restrain his desire for study and turn to the other Aristotelian and scholastic discourses. For
spiritual road proposed by Augustine (Petrarch instance, while Francisco Suárez (1548–1617)
1989, 144), he is not making a nonreligious free discusses the influence of coaction, concupis-
choice, but rather continues the tradition of late cence, fear, and ignorance on voluntary action in
medieval voluntarism in an original way. great length, he does not treat these as instances of
Much of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century akrasia (Suárez 1856, 181–233).
humanist philosophy continues the doctrinal pat- The Protestant reception history of akrasia
terns of late medieval Aristotelianism. For this starts with Philip Melanchthon’s scattered
reason, the presentations of akrasia in Donato remarks. Melanchthon (1497–1560) is interested
Acciaiuoli (1428–1478) and Jacques Lefèvre in the case of Medea and speaks frequently of the
d’Étaples (1455–1536) are traditional inner wrestling and struggles that last through a
(Acciaiuoli 1565, Lefèvre d’Étaples 1497). Christian’s entire life (Saarinen 2011, 132–142).
Some important innovations take place in Josse John Calvin (1509–1564) discusses akrasia
Clichtove’s (1514) commentary, in which he pro- explicitly in his influential Institutio (Calvin
vides the above-mentioned example of Medea’s 2006, II, 2, 23). For Calvin, the conscience
conflict as paradigm of akrasia. This example informs even sinful persons of their wrongdoing.
became extremely popular; it is discussed by At the same time, people can go wrong in their
most later commentators of the sixteenth and sev- evaluation of particular facts so that they act
enteenth centuries. As Medea exemplifies “clear- against their better judgment. Calvin’s view is
eyed akrasia,” a situation in which one goes fairly Aristotelian and has some resemblance to
wrong knowingly and willingly, this example cre- that of John Mair.
ates a counterweight to Aristotelian intellectual- Melanchthon’s pupil Joachim Camerarius
ism. Different traditional interpretations of Paul’s (1500–1574) lays out a particularly detailed anal-
struggle in Romans 7 also appear in this context ysis of weakness of the will in his commentary on
(for Romans 7, cf. M€ uller 2009 and Saarinen EN. Camerarius knows well the Platonic and
2011). Stoic traditions, but he adheres to Aristotelianism,
Among later Catholic treatises, the moral phi- which he attempts to harmonize with
losophy of Francesco Piccolomini (1520–1604) Melanchthon’s theological and philosophical
discusses weakness of will in detail. Piccolomini insights. He keeps the structure of the practical
wants to integrate Platonism more strongly with syllogism and argues, in keeping with the Aristo-
the existing traditions of Aristotelianism and telian tradition, that the particular facts of the
Neo-Stoicism. He is aware of the intellectualist minor premise are not grasped properly in the
stance of Protagoras, but stresses also the “com- akratic deliberation. Thus, some ignorance pre-
monplace Platonist” view of inner struggle. He cedes akratic acts. Unlike former Aristotelians,
also analyses the case of Medea. One of his however, Camerarius considers that the uncer-
basic conclusions is that, while Plato focuses on tainty related to our perception of empirical par-
the pure mind, Aristotle pays attention to the ticulars is nothing less than “the cause of all evil”
actual human condition. For this reason, (Camerarius 1578, esp. 325–326).
Aristotle’s views are to be preferred (Piccolomini The error of the akratic person thus concerns
1595, 262–267). As a whole, however, the particular circumstances: the devil is in the
Piccolomini’s discussion remains eclectic and details. While this view is close to the Aristotelian
combines elements from different intellectualist syllogistic model, Camerarius is so focused on the
and voluntarist traditions. As a comprehensive uncertainty of particulars that his discussion
textbook, his work had an extensive reception resembles that of Buridan. The neglect of the
history in both Protestant and Catholic milieus. particulars is also voluntary. Camerarius advances
significantly beyond Melanchthon and Calvin; he
Weakness of Will 5
also departs from the earlier Aristotelian tradition. claim that pure virtue is almost impossible in this
The weight of empirical particulars and the uneas- life; at the same time, conscience points to the
iness provided by small changes is an innovation difference between right and wrong. For this rea-
of Camerarius that we encounter later in Leibniz. sons, Christians remain in the struggle between
Among the early Calvinist authors on akrasia, continence and akrasia. Daneau presents the uni-
Lambert Daneau (1535–1590) is particularly versal version of such innovative claims in his
interesting for several reasons. He is often consid- view that Christian ethics as a whole is concerned
ered the first author who develops a Christian with wrestling virtue.
ethics, understanding ethics no longer as a philo- The cultural and intellectual impact of these
sophical but rather a theological discipline. innovations is considerable. In practical philoso-
Daneau is also the first author who applies Martin phy, the new prominence of uncertainty and vol-
Luther’s view of the Christian as “righteous and untarism means that moral considerations no
sinner at the same time” consistently to ethics. longer appear as universal as they did in earlier
While Melanchthon and Calvin also borrow this Aristotelianism. The inner struggle exemplified
idea from Luther, they do not work it out in detail by Medea and Romans 7 became a fashionable
and do not fully grasp its significance for the literary and theological paradigm in the early
analysis of the human condition. The Reformation modern period. All humans were supposed to
anthropology that has its origins in Luther experience an inner struggle, and there are many
receives its first fully elaborated moral- different variants of such wrestling. Among the
philosophical expression in Daneau’s Christian literary expressions of inner struggle,
ethics (Saarinen 2011, 188–200). Shakespeare’s Sonnets belong to the most famous.
Daneau establishes the picture of inner wres- The philosophical legacy of these themes is
tling as a core doctrine of ethics: Christian ethics visible in the extensive contemporary literature
is concerned with virtus luctans, the virtue that concerning weakness of will. Not unlike Aristotle,
continuously wrestles with harmful affects. The contemporary philosophy often aims at
results of this struggle manifest themselves as explaining human action in terms of rational cal-
continence and, in case of failure, as akrasia. culation. Phenomena like inner struggle and irra-
Daneau points out that no human being can tional behavior can be considered as philosophical
achieve true virtue in this life because the power challenges of such explanatory paradigms (Stroud
and tinder of sin remain active in us. Even the 2014).
apostle Paul could not achieve perfect virtue, as
Romans 7 shows. Romans 7 is an example of
Paul’s continence, not of his virtue nor of his
References
weakness of will (Daneau 1583, 101). Daneau
draws the conclusion that continence is the best
Primary Literature
stage that Christians can achieve in this life. It Acciaiuoli, D. 1565. Expositio super libros Ethicorum
further means that a textbook on Christian ethics Aristotelis. Venice.
has to focus on the so-called wrestling virtue, as it Buridan, J. 1968. Questiones super decem libros
is the option that we really encounter. Christians Ethicorum. Paris 1513, reprint Frankfurt. Minerva.
Calvin, J. 2006. Institutes of the Christian Religion.
thus struggle between continence and weakness Louisville. Westminster John Knox Press.
of will. Camerarius, J. 1578. Explicatio librorum Ethicorum ad
While the early modern period revives the old Nicomachum, Frankfurt.
traditions of Aristotelianism, Stoicism, and Plato- Clichtove, J. 1514, with Lefèvre. Artificialis Introductio in
X libros Ethicorum, elucidate commentariis
nism, this period is also innovative in its treatment Clichtovaei. Paris.
of akrasia. Buridan and Mair pay increased atten- Daneau, L. 1583. Ethices Christianae libri tres. Geneva.
tion to uncertainty and the voluntarist nature of Lefèvre d’ Étaples, Jacques. 1497. X libros moralium
human decision-making; this innovative current is Aristotelis tres conversiones. Paris.
continued by Camerarius. The Protestant authors
6 Weakness of Will
Mair, J. 1530. Ethica Aristotelis Peripateticorum principis. Secondary Literature

Cum Ioannes Maioris Theologi Parisiensi Hoffmann, T. ed. 2008. Weakness of will from Plato to the
Commentariis. Paris. present. Washington. CUA Press.
Petrarch. 1989. Secretum with introduction, notes, and M€uller, J. 2009. Willensschwäche in Antike und Mittelalter.
critical anthology. New York. Peter Lang. Leuven. Leuven University Press.
Piccolomini, F. 1595. Universa philosophia de moribus. Saarinen, R. 1994. Weakness of the will in medieval
Frankfurt. thought: From Augustine to Buridan. Leiden. Brill.
Suárez, Francisco. 1856. De voluntario et involuntario. Saarinen, R. 2011. Weakness of will in renaissance and
Opera omnia, vol. 4. Paris. Vivès. reformation thought. Oxford. Oxford University Press.
Stroud, S. 2014. Weakness of will. In The Stanford ency-
clopedia of philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/
entries/weakness-will/
W
Will, Bondage Of Luther’s book De servo arbitrio (1525) in which

Luther attacks Erasmus of Rotterdam’s view of
Risto Saarinen human free will. Latin Christianity and philoso-
Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki, phy traditionally affirmed a notion of “free deci-
Helsinki, Finland sion” (liberum arbitrium). Luther took his phrase
from Augustine’s Contra Iulianum (2, 8, 23). In
Augustine’s late anti-Pelagian writings, the con-
Abstract tinuing servitude to sin is emphasized. Whether
Luther’s phrase captures adequately Augustine’s
The phrase “bondage of the will” was coined by theology (Nisula 2012) has remained an issue that
Martin Luther in his debate with Erasmus of Rot- continues to create tensions between Protestants
terdam in 1525. Luther’s elaboration of the phrase and Catholics (Schneider and Wenz 2000).
is theological rather than philosophical, elucidat- In early German treatises of the Reformation,
ing his basic conviction of justification by faith. the term arbitrium was often translated with
Later Lutheran teaching on the will affirms its Willen (the will). For this reason, the Latin words
qualified freedom in human affairs and denies arbitrium and voluntas both tend to be translated
the will’s ability to contribute to salvation. Angli- with “will” in early modern vernacular texts.
can and Reformed confessional texts teach in a While Protestants remained sympathetic to the
similar fashion. John Calvin takes over Luther’s basic idea of reducing the freedom of the will in
view of bondage and develops it into a systematic religious matters, the traditional doctrinal posi-
topic that is related to Calvin’s overall view of tions regarding liberum arbitrium were also
divine election and predestination. The Canons of affirmed in qualified ways.
Dort affirm Calvin’s doctrine in a strict manner. The most influential early normative text of the
While Calvinism and Molinism evaluate human Reformation, the Lutheran Augsburg Confession
bondage differently, both early modern currents of 1530, contains an article (§XVIII) “Concerning
interact insofar as they develop complex philo- Free Will” (Vom freien Willen, De libero arbitrio).
sophical theologies that affirm both divine fore- In this article, Lutherans teach “that the human
knowledge and human responsibility. will has some freedom for producing civil righ-
teousness and for choosing things subject to rea-
Impact and Legacy son. However, it does not have the power to
produce the righteousness of God or spiritual
The phrase “bondage of the will” (servum righteousness without the Holy Spirit”
arbitrium) became famous through Martin (Augsburg Confession 2000, 51). Such a
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_211-2
2 Will, Bondage Of
formulation does not deviate much from the over- does not aim, however, at reaching a philosophi-
all anti-Pelagian tradition of Latin Christianity. cal position, but he wants to underline the basic
Recent study on the reception history of De teaching concerning justification by faith and the
servo arbitrio has shown that early Lutherans absolute dependence of all humans on external
understood the bondage of the will in the manner theological powers. Luther’s psychological argu-
of the Augsburg Confession. It was generally con- ments in De servo arbitrio lead more or less to the
sidered in Lutheranism that human beings have normative position adopted in the Augsburg Con-
responsibility of their works and that the fall into fession. The anthropological core of this position
sin does not deprive humans of all freedom of is the Christian’s inner struggle between spirit and
choice (Kolb 2005, 285). flesh.
Philosophically, Luther’s criticism of Erasmus As a rule, incipient Protestantism does not
contains two different sets of arguments that are adopt the phrase “bondage of the will” in its
difficult to reconcile with one another. Luther’s normative texts. Its churches rather speak of
arguments from God’s foreknowledge seem to liberum arbitrium/“free will” and qualify it
lead to a strict and comprehensive determinism, accordingly. Thus, the Thirty-Nine Articles of the
as he argues that divine foreknowledge entails a Church of England (1562) consider in §10 that not
strict predetermination of all later events (e.g., natural powers, but the grace of God makes
Luther WA 18, 615). Such arguments have, how- humans capable of willing and cooperating with
ever, little to do with the psychological origins of God in doing good works. The Puritan Westmin-
human bondage. Luther’s arguments regarding ster Confession (1647) affirms original natural
the origins of human action are more nuanced; freedom in its §9 “Of Free-Will,” saying that
they also leave room for indeterminism in ways “God hath indued [endowed] the Will of Man
that the arguments from foreknowledge seem to with that natural Liberty, that is neither forced,
rule out. nor by any absolute Necessity of Nature deter-
Luther’s psychology of action employs a theo- mined to do Good or Evil.” A sinner loses all
logical dualism between spirit and sinful flesh as ability to will the good, but when God works in
its starting point. Carnal people are ruled by sin; the person, “he freeth him from his natural Bond-
they therefore remain in complete bondage. In age under Sin; and by his Grace alone enables him
Christians, however, a continuous struggle freely to will and to do that which is spiritually
between spirit and flesh takes place. As both of good.” Since the sinful nature does not vanish in
these theological principles are heteronomous, the Christian, such action is not yet perfect; some
Christians are not self-ruling and self-determining evil tendency remains.
persons. They are rather “beasts of burden” that The above-mentioned texts aim at affirming a
are led by either God or sin (WA 18, 634). At the theological compatibility between human respon-
same time, however, Luther’s philosophical psy- sibility and human inability to do good. This
chology assumes that humans are different from compatibility is not argued philosophically;
beasts and inanimate things in at least three ways. rather, the different arguments provide particular
First, Luther affirms man’s so-called natural elucidations of the basic Reformation conviction
aptitude, that is, the intentional capacity to receive that salvation is by faith only and by God’s grace
gifts and even supernatural donations, such as the only. For this reason, the philosophical coherence
Holy Spirit. Second, a person has the freedom of of the diverse arguments is not always
choosing ordinary means, such as “the right to convincing.
use, to do and to leave undone, according to his Probably the first ambitious and philosophi-
own choice.” Third, with the help of God’s grace, cally subtle defense of simultaneous bondage
humans can cooperate in all kinds of things and responsibility is John Calvin’s Institutio of
(WA 18, 636–638 and 753–754). Philosophically 1559 (esp. II, 1–5). Calvin wants to defend
speaking, these three affirmations do not deviate Luther’s reading of the strictly anti-Pelagian
much from those adopted by Erasmus. Luther Augustine, showing that humans sin of necessity
Will, Bondage Of 3
but without compulsion (II, 3, 5) and that the will employed as its classical counterpart liberum
must be made wholly dependent upon grace (II, arbitrium.
3, 14). While Calvin’s final arguments for the Remarkably, Molinist and Calvinist issues
bondage of the will are scriptural rather than phil- regarding the compatibility of determinism and
osophical (II, 5), he clearly aims at a coherent freedom continue to be prominent in today’s phi-
theocentric compatibilism in which everything losophy. Leading Christian philosophers such as
serves the purposes of God. All actions are finally Alvin Plantinga and Peter van Inwagen investi-
caused by God, but Calvin considers that actions gate compatibilist arguments and the Calvinist
can nevertheless be co-assigned to humans. For claim of final divine–human cooperation (Tooley
this reason, humans work willingly and are 2012, ch. 9). In a somewhat paradoxical manner,
responsible beings, although they do not have the early antagonism between Luther and Eras-
any free choice of the will (II, 4, 2). mus has led to later convergences between Cal-
The doctrine of bondage has its most elabo- vinists and Molinists.
rated form and greatest philosophical and theo-
logical impact in strict Calvinism. The Canons of
Dort of 1619 are the most important normative Cross-References
explication of this doctrine. These canons connect
the doctrine of divine election and predestination ▶ Free Will
with the bondage of the will. They refute the view
that humans simply start to employ their own
powers after receiving the grace of God. At the References
same time, they concede that when the renewed
will is moved by God, it also moves itself (a Deo Primary Literature
acta, agit et ipsa: 1619, 3–4, 12). In this manner, Augsburg confession (1530). In The book of
concord, ed. T. Wengert and R. Kolb. Minneapolis
even the strictest form of Calvinism holds that
2000.
renewed human beings are capable of voluntary Calvin, J. 2006, orig. 1559. Institutes of the Christian
action. religion. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.
While the phrase “bondage of the will” is typ- Canons of Dort (1619). In M€ uller 1999, 843–861.
Luther, M. 1525. De servo arbitrio, vol. 18 in his Werke
ically Protestant, the issues of human powerless-
(WA). Weimar et al. 1883–2007.
ness, the omnipotence of God in salvation, and M€uller, E.F.K. ed. 1999. Die Bekenntnisschriften der
predestination were also discussed in early mod- reformierten Kirche. Waltrop: Baker Academic.
ern Catholicism. Catholic spiritual thinkers like Thirty-nine articles (1562). In M€uller 1999, 505–521.
Westminster confession (1647). In M€ uller 1999, 542–612.
Cornelius Jansen, Mme de Guyon, and Francois
Fénelon are relevant in this respect. Philosophi-
cally, Calvin’s attempt to combine predestination, Secondary Literature
Kolb, R. 2005. Bound choice, election, and Wittenberg
bondage of the will, and human responsibility led theological method. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Calvinist theology into the neighborhood of Muller, R. 2006. Post-reformation reformed dogmatics:
Molinism. Luis de Molina’s attempt to show the vol. 3: The divine essence and attributes. Grand Rapids.
Nisula, T. 2012. Augustine and the functions of concupis-
compatibility of God’s foreknowledge and human cence. Leiden: Brill.
free will with the help of the concept of middle Schneider, T. and G. Wenz. eds. 2000. Gerecht und S€ under
knowledge (scientia media) was discussed zugleich? Ökumenische Klärungen. Freiburg:
actively in early Calvinism (Muller 2006). While Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Tooley, M. 2012. The problem of evil. In The Stanford
the issues of bondage and determinism became
encyclopedia of philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/
prominent in the early modern period, the phrase entries/evil/
servum arbitrium was never so frequently
W
Will, Free sometimes approaching Neo-Stoicism. The Coun-

cil of Trent affirms the existence of free will
Risto Saarinen (liberum arbitrium). Luis de Molina’s doctrine of
Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki, “middle knowledge” (scientia media) aims at
Helsinki, Finland proving that God’s foreknowledge does not rule
out human free will. Francesco Suarez and René
Descartes affirm similar positions. At the same
Abstract time, early modern natural science underlines
determinist causality. In Renaissance literature,
Renaissance philosophy receives the patristic tra- authors like Marsilio Ficino and William Shake-
ditions of Augustine and Bernhard of Clairvaux as speare, portray a many-sided will that establishes
well as the scholastic teachings of Thomas flexible individual identities.
Aquinas and John Duns Scotus. In the fourteenth
century, the moderate voluntarism of John
Buridan and the consistent voluntarism of Wil- Synonyms
liam Ockham become dominant new currents.
Along with these, Thomas Aquinas’s view of Free choice; Free decision; Liberum arbitrium
human action continues to exercise a great influ-
ence in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Many
Renaissance authors develop an interest to the
issues of fate and fortune, teaching that human Impact and Legacy
free will is an exception to the general rule of
fate and providence. Fatalist and determinist Augustine and Bernard of Clairvaux continue to
views of John Wycliff and Lorenzo Valla are be philosophical and theological authorities
normally rejected. Erasmus of Rotterdam argues through the Renaissance and Reformation period.
that free will can be defended on both moral and In his De libero arbitrio (e.g., 1, 11, 21), Augus-
biblical grounds. tine teaches that human free decision or choice
Martin Luther and John Calvin want to down- (liberum arbitrium) integrally belongs to the will
play the significance of free will in religious mat- (voluntas) so that the will is in some sense free
ters. After Philip Melanchthon, early Lutheranism (Augustine 1865). While decision and will are
nevertheless affirms free will in nonreligious life. thus conceptually distinguished from one another,
While Calvinism teaches predestination, it also free decision is predominantly considered to be an
wants to affirm human moral responsibility, act of the will in the Augustinian tradition. The
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_212-2
2 Will, Free
vocabulary of free will is, however, complex for Mair still feel the need to state their conformity
many reasons. Sometimes voluntas means for to the Parisian articles (Saarinen 2011, 27–35,
Augustine simply a power or desire. In his late 83–95).
anti-Pelagian writings, he restricts the freedom of Late-medieval Franciscan thought refined the
the will because sinful concupiscence prevents idea of free will. In many ways, John Duns Scotus
people from doing good. Finally, in his and William Ockham constructed that philosoph-
Retractationes (1, 9, 3–6) Augustine considers ical concept of free will which is familiar to us in
that his De libero arbitrio remains compatible modern discussions. Scholars have paid attention
with his later anti-Pelagian stance. to the terminological point that until 1270 writers
Among the many different expressions that discussed liberum arbitrium. After that date, the
Augustine uses to depict the free decision of the expressions voluntas libera and libertas
will, “consent” (consentire, consensio) often voluntatis also came into use. Franciscan authors
means a free and responsible act. He states, for often defended an idea of the will as the ruler of
instance, that we do not sin in feeling the evil the soul; in this view, reason acts as the will’s
desire but in consenting to it (ex prop. Rm 12, 8). adviser (Kent 1995, 98–99).
The dichotomy between inevitable desires and John Duns Scotus takes over from Anselm of
free consent is a recurring feature of later Canterbury the distinction between two affections
Augustinan traditions. of the will, affectio commodi and iustitiae. While
In his De gratia et libero arbitrio Bernard the first affection seeks one’s own advantage and
teaches that the human will inevitably contains happiness, the second seeks universal justice.
an aspect of freedom: “Where the will is, there is Because the will is free and also possesses the
freedom” (ubi voluntas, ibi libertas) (Bernard affection that transcends the quest for one’s own
1993, 1–4). This is so because the person who happiness, free will can prefer justice over happi-
laments his lack of good will already experiences ness. This idea gives voluntarism and free will a
some freedom from necessity. While all rational broader scope than in earlier Augustinian and
creatures possess this kind of freedom, its higher Aristotelian traditions. For Scotus, the will no
degrees, freedom from sin and misery, need divine longer needs to serve the drive for self-realization
help in order to emerge. For such reasons, Paul’s and advantage, but it can freely will what is mor-
lament in Romans 7 does not falsify free will but ally right (Kent 1995, 193–198).
rather proves that the speaker is free from neces- William Ockham’s voluntarism can be consid-
sity. Divine help is, however, needed in order to ered as the apex of late medieval ideas of free will.
accomplish the good. For Ockham, freedom basically means the possi-
The Aristotelian scholasticism of the thirteenth bility to choose between opposite alternatives.
century introduces a theory of human action in While volition requires some sort of cognition in
which rational deliberation is made responsible order to be connected with objects, such cognition
for intentional action. Thomas Aquinas and and belief are not the cause of volition. At most,
many others adopt the so-called practical syllo- cognition may guide or facilitate volition, but the
gism, a calculative model of human action. Within willing agent freely performs the acts of free will.
this framework, the place of free will becomes The possibility to opt for opposite choices means,
again an issue of debate. The so-called Parisian among other things, that the free agent must
articles of 1277, promulgated by the Bishop of always be able to act against what he takes to be
Paris, Etienne Tempier, aim at preserving Augus- the right or good (Panaccio 2012, 90–91). In this
tine and Bernard’s notion of free will within new manner, the positions of Duns Scotus and Ock-
Aristotelian paradigms of action. The articles con- ham enable the conceptual analysis of situations
demn various views according to which reason in which the will freely and consciously chooses
determines the human will so that it cannot act against one’s own interests and contrary to what is
contrary to reason or exercise a freedom of its right.
own. Even sixteenth-century authors like John
Will, Free 3
The standard teaching on free will in the four- the object thus presented. This second act prompts
teenth century is contained in the third book of the action. The agent is morally responsible for
John Buridan’s Questions on Aristotle’s Ethics this second act. In order for the second act to
(1968). This work continued to be printed in the emerge, the first act must have occurred. At the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and its influ- same time, the will can postpone its second act to
ence is visible in many early modern sources. inquire further about the alternatives. This is the
Most importantly, it represents a sort of via freedom of not-willing (Buridan 1968, 42rb-
media that connects the Aristotelian theory of 44vb).
Thomas Aquinas with emerging late medieval The will can choose something that is only
voluntarism. Buridan also pays detailed attention judged to be good “in some sense.” In other
to the Parisian articles and the older tradition of words, the will is free to choose in situations of
Augustine and Bernard. uncertainty and ambiguity. The option of post-
Buridan starts his discussion by stating that we ponement is not unlimited: at some point, it
need to believe in a so-called freedom of opposi- would obviously be irrational to delay decision-
tion (libertas oppositionis) as a doctrine of faith making (1968, 44vb). This means that Buridan
and moral responsibility. While this statement can have a via media position between intellectu-
resembles the position of Ockham, it may, histor- alist Thomism and voluntarist Franciscan think-
ically speaking, simply relate to the necessity, for ing. On the one hand, the will always follows the
a philosophy teacher, to express his agreement rational judgment. On the other, however, the will
with the Parisian articles. For Buridan, the free- is free to postpone its action to an extent; the will
dom of opposition means that “it is possible for is also free to choose one of several options when
the will, everything else being equally disposed, each one of them appears under some aspect of
to choose sometimes one of the opposites and goodness but none of them is compelling. For
sometimes the other.” Buridan interprets this instance, weakness of will can occur in situations
view to mean that in the state of not-willing (non of uncertainty, but not when the case is clear (for
velle) there can be at least two mutually exclusive this, see the entry “▶ Will, Weakness of”). The
options open to the agent (Buridan 1968, 36rb- freedom of opposition pertains to situations in
37va). which the agent can at least for a while stick to
This option of not-willing is affirmed by the the option of not-willing.
Parisian articles as a sufficient condition for the Buridan’s distinction between first and second
will’s freedom. Buridan (1968, 36vb) quotes the acts of the will resembles the Augustinian distinc-
Parisian view stating that it must be possible for tion between inevitable desires and free consent.
the will not to will when other natural conditions At the same time, Buridan develops the distinc-
for its movement are present. Such freedom of tion towards a Scotist view: both acts are acts of
non velle also plays a role in John Duns Scotus the will, and the second act has the capacity to
(Kent 1995, 193). In order to explain what this consider universal reasons that reach beyond
freedom means, Buridan (1968, 41va) asks one’s own advantage. In addition to these features,
“whether the act of volition or nolition is preceded Buridan’s view has a certain affinity to Thomism:
in the will by some other act or any other mediat- the will acts rationally, the decision-making lead-
ing disposition through which the act of volition ing to action is performed through practical syllo-
comes into being in the same will.” gism, and some ignorance inevitably belongs to
Buridan undertakes an important distinction wrong choices – though they cannot be excused
between the first and the second acts of the will. on such grounds.
In its first act, the will judges something under the Martin Luther’s teacher Bartholomaeus
aspect of goodness or badness and develops a Arnoldi de Usingen adopts Buridan’s view of
liking or disliking of its object. This happens human action and considers that the “freedom of
inevitably and does not necessarily lead to an opposition” is the Catholic way to speak of free
action. In its second act, the will accepts or refuses will or decision: “According to both moral
4 Will, Free
philosophy and the Catholic way of speaking the impossible), freedom, that is, in choosing to will or
sinful act proceeds from free decision insofar as nill, which appertains to us so naturally that it were
not wrong to state that, if God would take it away, it
the agent can consider other alternatives. And would not be will anymore. (modified from Blum
according to Augustine, sin is thus free; and if it 2010, 57)
does not come about freely, it cannot be sin”
(Usingen 1499, 63v). One fascinating aspect of In spite of this voluntarism, Salutati teaches
this view is its similarity to economic models of that free will is embedded in God’s providence.
decision-making: after the introduction of a vari- Fate is the totality of cooperation taking place in
ety of available options in the first act of the will, the acts of God and humans (Blum 2010, 59–60).
reason can still calculate their different relative In his treatise De libero arbitrio, Lorenzo Valla
benefits in its intermediate state of non velle. teaches, on the one hand, that God’s foreknowl-
When the agent freely chooses the best option in edge does not entail necessity (Valla 1934). On the
the second act of the will, this rational choice other hand, the work also contains an antiintel-
normally represents the optimal amount of what lectualist defense of a religious view according to
is considered advantageous and/or right (Saarinen which God hardens some hearts but not others.
2013). Salutati and Valla do not aim at reaching a philo-
Recent research on Renaissance philosophy sophical solution to the problems of free will; they
has shown that the new commentaries on Aristotle rather elucidate the issues from various angles
often continue to promote late medieval scholastic (cf. Copenhaver and Schmitt 1992, 212–213;
views, though in more elegant Latin. From 1300 Blum 2010, 55–94). Some late scholastic
to 1650, the views of Aristotle and Thomas thinkers, for instance, John Wycliffe, present a
Aquinas on human action continue to be wide- stronger doctrine of predestination than Salutati
spread and are often regarded as the standard and Valla. The later reputation of Wycliffe and
position in academic teaching (Lines 2002; Valla shows that their views of fate and predesti-
Lines and Ebbersmeyer 2013). This basic fact nation were generally rejected in the Catholic
should be remembered as the background from Church. In this sense, free will was considered to
which new and innovative discussions emerge. be the standard Catholic doctrine.
Some Renaissance authors develop an interest In later Renaissance philosophy, the compati-
towards the issues of fate and necessity. In his De bility of fate and free will could nevertheless also
remediis, Petrarch takes a critical stance towards be defended. In his De fato, de libero arbitrio et de
wishful thinking in general and astrology in par- predestinatione, Pietro Pomponazzi (1957) con-
ticular. He criticizes fortune-tellers (Petrarch siders that contingent natural events in reality
1991, ch. 112) and then remarks to those who follow the laws of nature, being deterministic in
hope for better times that “happiness or sadness this sense. In an analogical fashion, the human
depends not on the times but on you yourself. As will does not initiate its own freedom but is rather
soon as you realize this you will know how to determined by the intellect as Aristotle has shown.
hope for happy things, and how to cope with sad Like Buridan, Pomponazzi thinks that the free-
ones” (1991, ch. 115). In Petrarch’s Secretum dom of the will is not found in any positive exer-
(1989), this voluntaristic stance is investigated cise of choice but rather in the will’s capacity of
more closely. not-willing. While Pomponazzi leans towards a
In his On Fate and Fortune, Coluccio Salutati Stoic conception of fate, he considers that the free
defends a view according to which natural things will can be made compatible with this conception
happen necessarily (Salutati 1985). Will, how- when it is understood as the power to suspend its
ever, is an exception to the general course of own act (Poppi 1988, 659). Deterministic features
nature: of human action were also sometimes supported
with the authority of Aristotle and Thomas
Will alone, the potential of rational creatures, is Aquinas on the grounds that they do not ascribe
bestowed with freedom of decision, so that it were
not at all if it were deprived of freedom (which is the capacity of self-determination to the will.
Will, Free 5
Erasmus of Rotterdam (1969) undertakes an Luther’s closest colleague Philip Melanchthon

extensive defense of free will in his treatise De sides with his mentor in the controversy with
libero arbitrio. Erasmus was writing against the Erasmus. At the same time, the Melanchthonian
early Lutheran Reformation, which was critical of wing of the Reformation accepts many Erasmian
the scholastic view of free will (for this, see the teachings. The basic interest of the early
entry “▶ Will, Bondage of”). Like his Renais- Lutherans is concerned with the “noneconomic”
sance predecessors, Erasmus does not want to mode of understanding human action in salvation:
present an overall philosophical solution, but elu- our works do not merit anything, and we are
cidates the issue from various angles. He first says justified by grace alone. A free will that aims for
that the problem of free will is a profoundly mys- an “economic” gain is thus rejected; however, it is
terious labyrinth (1969, Ia1). The ancient authors obvious that theories of human person and action
give a variety of different opinions in this matter. also have other aims. Melanchthon is clearly
While Erasmus is somewhat uncertain of his own aware of them and develops a differentiated
position, he believes that human free decision is view of free will (Saarinen 2011, 2013).
effective in some sense (Ia5). In his last doctrinal treatise, Responses to the
Erasmus considers that most Church Fathers Articles of the Bavarian Inquisition, Melanchthon
have affirmed free decision. Among those who (1955) lays out this differentiated view. He repu-
have rejected it, he counts Mani, Wycliffe, Valla diates the Stoic and Manichean views of fate and
and Luther (Ib2). Erasmus considers that Pelagius predestination. At the same time, he rejects the
gave too much credit to free decision and Scotus Pelagian view of free will. Melanchthon affirms a
also ascribed a high value to it; compared to these, nontheological free will: “In human beings who
his own position emphasizes grace but neverthe- are not reborn there is some freedom of the will
less leaves some room for free decision (IV16). which is able to perform external works. Achilles
Erasmus grants that we do not know the depths of was able to control his hands, so that they would
God’s providential rule and thus cannot falsify the strike Agamemnon, and he could compel them not
doctrine of predestination. In practice, however, it to strike him” (quoted from Kolb 2005, 98). Phil-
is prudent to teach free decision, since this doc- osophically, Melanchthon opts for a kind of fide-
trine motivates sinful people to improve their lives istic compatibilism: “There is contingency, and
(Ia8-10). The philosophical grounds of free will the source of contingency in our actions is the
are thus moral rather than metaphysical or freedom of the will. . . . Both propositions must
theological. be believed: there is divine determination, and
Erasmus devotes many pages of his treatise to there is contingency, and not every point of con-
discussing biblical verses that speak in favor of tradiction between the two can be explained”
free will. Such verses include, for instance, Mat- (quoted from Kolb 2005, 99).
thew 19:17, 19:21, and 23:37. In these verses, For the history of philosophy, it is important to
Jesus makes an appeal to people’s will. If humans see that Erasmus and Melanchton were tremen-
have no free will, such an appeal makes no sense dously influential as authors of basic university
(IIb1). Erasmus underlines his anti-Pelagian textbooks in the sixteenth century. While they
stance by concluding that God’s grace gives remained on opposite sides of Protestantism as it
human will its effective power. If someone was then emerging, they both represent a via
opposes him by saying that such a weak concept media on the issue of free will, claiming that it is
of free will is useless, Erasmus responds that the free will that allows humans to be considered
ideas of humanity and free will distinguish the something more than mere artifacts. In addition,
divine-human cooperation from the mere produc- free will makes it possible to reject fatalism and
tion of artifacts (IV16). Eramus’ concept of free teach human responsibility. At the same time,
will thus remains modest and moderate when these leading humanists do not teach voluntarism
compared to the voluntarism of Duns Scotus and or human decision-making in terms of economic
Ockham. rationality. Rather, they grant that we do not really
6 Will, Free
know the basic motives of human action and that predetermine all particular possibilities through
free will is, therefore, something that needs to be divine foreknowledge. However, through middle
believed rather than demonstrated. knowledge, God knows all conditionals that relate
The official Roman Catholic teaching on free to possible situations.
will, as defined by the Council of Trent, is fairly To put the doctrine as simply as possible:
similar to the view of Erasmus. As the early mod- because of this knowledge of future conditionals,
ern Catholic authors needed, at least in theory, to God knows in advance what everybody would do,
formulate views that were compatible with the but humans nevertheless choose freely to do
Church, it is instructive to quote the essence of it. Molina argues that such middle knowledge
this official teaching: does not extinguish free will. On the one hand,
If anyone says that a person’s free will (liberum God’s foreknowledge is not directly applied to
arbitrium) when moved and roused by God, gives particular possibilities and thus does not predeter-
no co-operation by responding to God’s summons mine them. On the other, God knows everything
and invitation to dispose and prepare itself to obtain in advance, since the conditional sentences of
the grace of justification; and that it cannot, if it so
wishes, dissent but, like something inanimate, can middle knowledge allow God to know what
do nothing at all and remains merely passive; let A would freely do in every situation that
him be anathema. A encounters.
If anyone says that, after the sin of Adam, Molina’s position was extensively discussed in
human free will was lost and blotted out, or that its
existence is purely nominal, a name without sub- both Catholic and Protestant circles of the late
stance, indeed a fiction introduced into the church sixteenth and early seventeenth century. The pri-
by Satan: let him be anathema. (Council of Trent mary relevance of these discussions does not con-
1990, canons 4–5 concerning justification) cern free will, but themes like theodicy and the
Philosophically, these statements commit a semantics of possible worlds. While Calvinists
Catholic author to affirm free will. Remarkably, rejected Molinism for the most part, they also
the normative Protestant doctrine does not deviate became aware of the need for compatibilist solu-
much from this, at least when considered in terms tions that preserve both God’s foreknowledge and
of philosophy. Lutherans normally affirmed a con- human responsibility. Molina’s views found sup-
cept of “civil righteousness,” according to which port in Arminian and Socinian wings of Protes-
human beings can operate with free will in their tantism, that is, in movements that wanted to
nonreligious behavior. Calvinists, on the other preserve human free will and therefore distin-
hand, tended to evolve towards philosophical guished themselves from orthodox Calvinism
compatibilism: while they affirm predestination (Muller 2003, 411–432).
and human bondage under sin, they also teach Among Catholics, Francesco Suarez adopts a
that actions can be co-assigned to humans. There- modified version of Molina’s middle knowledge.
fore, when the will is moved by God, it also moves Suarez considers that the freedom of the will is not
itself (see the entry “▶ Will, Bondage of the”). an aspect of the will’s rationality; rather, the will
Perhaps the most sophisticated innovation of moves itself and can choose among a variety of
the sixteenth century regarding free will is formu- different options in this fashion (Ramelow 2004,
lated by Luis de Molina in his Concordia liberi 776). René Descartes defends free will and
arbitrii cum gratiae donis. In this work Molina compatibilism in ways that bear a certain resem-
(1876), a Catholic author, introduces his doctrine blance to Molina and Suarez. Descartes writes:
of “middle knowledge” (scientia media), that is, “That there is freedom in our will is so evident
God’s knowledge of future conditionals of the that it must be counted among the first and most
type “If A were in situation S, A would freely do common notions that are innate in us . . . we have
X.” This knowledge is “middle” in the sense of such a close awareness of the freedom . . . which is
existing between necessary truths and all particu- in us, that there is nothing we can grasp more
lar possibilities. To grant A free will, God does not evidently or more perfectly” (Descartes 1644, I,
39, 41, quoted from Sleigh et al. 1998, 1206).
Will, Free 7
The new mechanistic and geometric ideals of facing destiny, for instance, can be understood as
early modern science tend to promote determin- an instance of (iv).
ism or at least postulate a radical gap between In his Ethices christianae libri tres Lambert
human free action and mechanistic course of Daneau (1583) develops a new view of ethics as
nature. Renaissance discussions of fate and for- theological discipline. Daneau argues that Aristo-
tune, discussed above, anticipate these early mod- telian virtue ethics is impossible since all humans
ern solutions to some extent. In the late sixteenth continue to struggle with harmful desires and thus
and early seventeenth century, Neo-Stoic authors cannot reach true virtue. The highest goal that we
support similar views. can reach is continence, a strong-willed continu-
In his De constantia (1586), Justus Lipsius ous struggle. This achievement Daneau calls
summarizes many basic views of Neo-Stoicism. virtus luctans, wrestling virtue. As a Calvinist
Lipsius considers that fate and providence steer and Neo-Stoic he does not really believe in free
the world and that many natural events therefore will, but he teaches that the moral responsibility of
follow their necessary course. People should human beings nevertheless concerns a steadfast
show steadfastness and endurance against the prevailing in this wrestling (Saarinen 2011,
rule of fate. These virtues emerge through active 188–200).
work; at the same time, the free will displayed in Daneau takes over the old Augustinian view of
such behavior is not limitless freedom of choice two wills that struggle within a person. He inter-
but rather the capacity of mastering oneself within prets this idea so broadly that “we then clearly
the limits of natural necessities. The Neo-Stoic perceive as if two persons (homines duo) and two
views regarding fate, fortune, and necessity often wills were active in us.” The continent person can
focused on the interactions between seemingly observe the enemy as another person: “When the
free human will and the deterministic course of virtue and the holy desire to do good, which the
nature. Spirit of God gives, prevail in this wrestling, the
Another typical and distinctive theme in the will remaining repugnant, it is called continence.
Renaissance philosophy of free will concerns the Such is the case of Jacob wrestling with the angel”
inner struggle. This discussion has its roots in (Daneau 1583, 104v-105r). In this manner, the
ancient and medieval philosophy. At least three strong alienates or “outsources” other powers
kinds of inner conflict can be observed in this from itself.
earlier discussion, namely (i) oscillation, a state The change of identity as a result of inner
in which the mind repeatedly changes its decision, struggle (v) is often used as a literary theme of
(ii) vacillation, a state in which the mind cannot the Renaissance. Marsilio Ficino’s De amore
establish a fixed decision, and (iii) lack of self- (1985, II, 8 and VI, 10) depicts love as a passage
control, a state in which the mind fails to maintain through death: when I fall in love, my beloved
autonomy (Price 1994, 3–5). All these variants takes my soul away so that I die. When my
continue to be discussed during the Renaissance beloved gives my soul back, my new life begins.
and the Reformation. They are also influenced by This means, however, that the beloved is also a
the Neo-Stoic ways of dealing with harmful emo- murderer, so that I both love and hate my beloved.
tions (Saarinen 2011). Ficino writes:
In addition, two other variants may be You would not want to be with this murderer of
observed, namely (iv) an inner struggle with pow- yourself, but you do not want to live without his
ers that do not represent the mind or the self, and blessed sight. . . . You would certainly not want to
(v) a struggle in which the old self becomes love, O madman, because you do not want to die.
You would also certainly not want not to love since
replaced with a new self. These two variants are you think that service must be rendered to an image
connected with religious doctrines, as the struggle of heavenly things. (Ficino 1985, VI, 10)
against sin or the conversion event, but they are
also distinctly philosophical views that elucidate When Ficino here uses the Latin word nolles
the powers of the will. Neo-Stoic steadfastness in four times, he underlines the fluctuating identity
8 Will, Free
of the willing person. In some sense, the act of the Ficino and the broader intellectual tradition of
will defines the identity of the person. At the same inner wrestling.
time, the events of willing and “nilling” (nolle) In sum, the innovative and original aspects of
prove to be a source of both joy and sorrow so that Renaissance thought concerning free will do not
a plural identity emerges. constitute a grand narrative but rather a variety of
Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1609) may be the most short stories. There is, first, the story of moderate
prominent Renaissance source in which the plu- voluntarism that comes from Aquinas and
rality of wills (and Wills!) is elaborated and taken Buridan to Pomponazzi and Erasmus, being con-
as a basis of shifting identities. Sometimes Shake- tinued by the Council of Trent. A more radically
speare can describe an inner struggle (in the sense voluntarist trend comes from Scotus and Ockham
iii or iv) in almost Puritan or Calvinist terms, as in to Molina and Suarez; this may be the most ambi-
Sonnet 146: tious story philosophically. The Protestant story
Poore soule the center of my sinfull earth, wants to downplay voluntarism, but finally it
My sinfull earth these rebbell powres that thee affirms free will in the moderate fashion of
array, Melanchthon and Neo-Stoics. The literary story
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth of Ficino and Shakespeare highlights love and
Painting thy outward walls so costlie gay?
flexible identities, while borrowing from philo-
Other traditional instances of inner struggle sophical traditions.
(in the senses i–iii) include, for instance, the The impact and legacy of Renaissance views is
famous verses “Such civill love is in my love also manifold and scattered along diverse paths.
and hate” (35) and “Two loves I have of comfort Philosophically, the Molinist elaboration of con-
and dispaire” (144). tingency and freedom continues to be discussed
The Sonnet 136 employs sexual imagery to until the present day. In contemporary analytic
draw a stunning picture of the interplay of soul philosophy, the semantics of possible worlds
and will. In this interplay, the soul remains little employs ideas that resemble Molinism. In theol-
more than a blind platform on which the various ogy, free will is often seen as an issue that divides
wills exercise their activities so that identities are different Protestants from each other as well as
shifted (v): from Roman Catholics. As the positions of Eras-
If thy soule check thee that I come so neere, mus, Melanchthon, and the Council of Trent are,
Sweare to thy blind soule that I was thy Will, at least philosophically, fairly similar, the differ-
And will thy soule knowes is admitted there, ences in this issue may have been exaggerated in
Thus farre for love, my love-sute sweet fulfill. the teaching of the churches.
Will, will fulfill the treasure of thy love,
I fill it full with wils, and my will one . . . Probably the most important legacy of the
Renaissance at this point concerns the new literary
Shakespeare does not aim to take a philosoph- and artistic ways of understanding human free-
ical stance but presents a playful variation of dom and inner complexity. Authors like Ficino
complex identities that appear as a plurality of and Shakespeare develop creatively various
wills. Sonnet 135 attempts an even greater com- themes that they receive from scholarly traditions.
plexity of identities (v) than Sonnet 136 quoted Due to the literary creativity of the Renaissance,
above. Like many other Renaissance authors, an increasingly individualistic patchwork of love,
Shakespeare is more interested in elucidating the freedom, and many-sided will emerges. This
problems of will from different angles than solv- patchwork is no longer philosophical in itself,
ing them. At the same time, however, the literary but it needs to be understood against the broader
productions of the Renaissance are not completely Western intellectual tradition of free will.
detached from philosophical views.
Shakespeare’s use of inner struggle and his inter-
play of love, hate, and will connect him with
Will, Free 9
Cross-References Shakespeare, W. 1609. Sonnets. London.

Usingen, B. 1499. Parvulus philosophiae naturalis.
Leipzig.
▶ Sin Valla, L. 1934. De libero arbitrio. Florence. Olschki.
▶ Weakness of Will
▶ Will, Bondage Of Secondary Literature
Blum, P.R. 2010. Philosophy of religion in the renaissance.
Farnham. Ashgate.
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philosophy. Oxford. Oxford University Press.
Kent, B. 1995. Virtues of the will. The transformation of
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Descartes, R. 1644. Principia philosophiae. Paris. The divine essence and attributes. Grand Rapids.
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_213-1
Bérulle, Pierre de
Born: 4 February 1575, Cérilly
Died: 2 October 1639, Paris
Simone Guidi*
Abstract
A French cardinal, among the main intellectuals of the French Counterreformation and the founder
of the Oratoire de France. Bérulle’s thought is the fruit of an eclectic meeting between the scholastic
tradition, looking back to its father figures (notably Augustin) and neo-Platonist Hermeticism. He is
known as “the Apostle of the Word Incarnate” for his doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ.
Biography
A French cardinal, one of the main representatives of the Catholic Counterreformation in France
(Dagens 1952), he is the founder of the Oratoire. Born in Cerilly in 1575 and died in Paris in 1629.
Schooled by Jesuits in Clermont, he studied at the Sorbonne and was ordained in 1599. His efforts
concentrated on leadership of the French Counterreformational front. Two events were fundamental:
the introduction of the Carmelite Order of nuns in France (of which he became the Superior in 1604)
and the founding of the Jesus Oratoire (in 1611), designed to assist and encourage the clergy in their
spiritual advancement. He became a cardinal in 1627 and in 1629 was appointed head of the Queen’s
Council. In 1628 he had a meeting with René Descartes (Marion 1981; Rodis-Lewsi 1990), whose
spiritual guide he is said by some scholars to have become.

Bérulle is a perfect example of the Counterreformational eclecticism, often of Jesuit character,
prevalent in the early seventeenth-century France (Dagens 1952). His fundamentally scholastic
doctrinal thought structure embraces and integrates the most varied and wide-ranging influences,
including a strong mystical streak. Accordingly he was nicknamed “the Copernicus of Incarnation”
or “the Apostle of the Incarnated Word” (as he was described by Pope Urban IV), as his work was
centered on a sort of mystical cosmography, quite common at that time, dominated by God’s “solar”
centrality. His best known doctrine, expressed in a kind of oration that Bérulle calls an “elevation,” is
that of the mystical incorporation of Man with Jesus Christ achievable through the work of the Holy
Spirit, whose action reproduces the virtues of the Son in those who turn to it. Bérulle’s thought is an
Augustinian Theory of Man, deeply influenced not only by a thorough knowledge of Hippocrates
but also by readings and doctrines in the Platonic and the Hermetic traditions (Rodis-Lewis 1990),
which his work contributed to reintroducing into the culture of the seventeenth-century France.
Page 1 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_213-1
Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola are particularly relevant, but Bérulle was also
strongly influenced by Montaigne (Bady 1964).
This syncretic Theory of Man emerging from Platonic-Augustinian thought already shows
through in his early Traité des Energumenes (Walker 1981), at the beginning of which Bérulle
celebrates Man as the center of creation by virtue of his analogical ability to be the reflection and
image of the world. It was again from the early sixteenth-century Platonistic Hermeticism that
Bérulle took the idea of Man as a composite being, halfway between spirit and matter, the
battleground in a struggle between animal drives and moral living, in which Man alone is always
driven downwards. While all God’s creatures are characterized by a striving towards their Creator,
Man has become, through sin, the victim of his pride and unable to turn to his Father (Dagens 1952;
Bellemare 1959; Cadoux 2005). But if original sin has taken Man away from God, a connection
between the Creator and his creature has nevertheless been restored by the Incarnation, as expressed
by the Augustinian saying “Si homo non periisset, Filius hominis non venisset.” The whole point of
the Incarnation is thus human redemption and the safeguarding of the perfection of creation. But
Christ, by his very nature, is a quite unique figure, able to be at the same time both human and divine,
as he was really the Son of God and the Son of Man (Dagens 1952; Bellemare 1959; Cadoux 2005).
By the act of restoring the relationship with the Father, he offers Man the opportunity of a real
“creation” within creation, the “creation in Christ” referred to by St Paul. The Incarnation is thus the
highest and yet at the same time the humblest of mysteries, and the ability of Man to embrace
salvation inevitably requires self-denial through the constant repression of his own pride. In the
observance of spirituality, however, Bérulle takes a stand in firm opposition to stoicism: virtue, he
says, must be pursued because it takes us closer to Christ, not because it is good in itself. Man, in
other words, is completely in God’s hands, and his only chance is to open up to the discovery of the
Creator who lives inside his soul (Dagens 1952).
Cross-References
▶ Du Pont, René
▶ Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
▶ Neoplatonism
▶ Silhon, Jean de
References
Primary Literature
de Bérulle P (1644/1960) Oeuvres completes du Cardinal De Berulle. Reproduction de l’edition
princeps (1644) Maison d’Institution de l’Oratoire. Montsoult
Bady R (1964) L’homme et son Institution de Montaigne à Bérulle: 1580–1625 Les Belles Lettres.
Paris
Bellemare R (1959) Le sens de la créature dans la doctrine de Bérulle Desclée de Brouwer. Paris
Cadoux R (2005) Bérulle et la question de l’homme Les editions du Cerf. Paris
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Dagens J (1952) Bérulle et les origines de la restauration catholique: 1575–1611 Desclée de

Brouwer. Bruges
Deville R (1987) L’école française de spiritualité Desclée de Brouwer. Paris
Dupuy M (1964) Bérulle: une spiritualité de l’adoration Desclée. Tournai
Dupuy M (1965) Pierre de Bérulle Bloud et Gay. Paris
Houssaye M (1872–1876) M. de Bérulle et les Carmélites; Le Père de Bérulle et l’oratoire de Jésus;
Le Cardinal de Bérulle et Richelieu Pion. Paris
Marion J-L (1981) Sur la théologie blanche de Descartes PUF. Paris
Orcibal J (1965) Le cardinal de Bérulle: Evolution d’une spiritualité Cerf. Paris
Rodis-Lewis G (1990) L’anthropologie cartésienne PUF. Paris
Rotureau G (1947) Le cardinal de Bérulle Editions Albin Michel. Paris
Walker P (1981) Unclean spirits. Possession and exorcism in France and England in the late
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries Scolar Press. London
Page 3 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_215-1
Chambre, Marin Cureau de la

Born: 1594, Saint-Jean-d’Asse
Died: 29 December 1669, Paris
Simone Guidi*
Abstract
He was a French physician and natural philosopher, a member of the Académie française, and one of
the founders of the Académie des sciences. He is known for his reinterpretation, from a metaphysical
and physiological point of view, of pneumatology, on which he founded his theses on psychology,
optics, and physiognomics. His thought attempted a mediation between scholastic conceptualism
and the science of physics that was taking off at that time, sometimes also using elements originating
in Renaissance Neoplatonism.
Biography
He was born in Saint-Jean-d’Asse in 1594 and died in Paris on 29 December 1669. He studied
medicine in Montpellier and later practiced in Le Mans. In 1634 he became the personal doctor to the
Chancellor Pierre Seguier, enjoying his protection. He later became Louis XIV’s personal doctor and
then in 1635 a member of the Académie française initiated by Richelieu. In 1666 he was one of the
founders of the Académie des sciences. La Chambre was one of the seventeenth century’s most
distinguished doctors and natural philosophers. His output includes, among other works, the
five-volume Les charactères des passions (1640–1662), the ambitious essay L’Art de connaı̂tre
les hommes (1659), and its follow-up, the Système de l’^ a me (1664b), works that were highly
considered at the time.
Pneumatology, Physiognomics, and Anthropology

The most original element in La Chambre’s work is a theory of spirits (Darmon 1985) that shows the
obvious influence of pneumatology (especially Jean Fernel’s) deriving from Galen and Hippocrates,
but at the same time, it finds mediation through the mechanistic thinking that was beginning to take
hold, and it represents in some ways the connecting theme that holds together all his work. The
“spirit” is understood by La Chambre as a being with an intermediate status between material and
immaterial substances, or between the embodied and the disembodied, characterized by extreme
volatility, mobility, warmth, and brightness, and that allows the French doctor to set up
a philosophical system equidistant between animism and materialistic mechanism (Darmon 1985;
Burgio 2005; Wild 2008). From an ontological point of view, then, La Chambre does not seem to
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_215-1
think of his notion of “spirit” as contrasting, as it does in Descartes, with the Ficinian and
Augustinian tradition (Burgio 2005) that flourished throughout the seventeenth century, in spite of
the fact that this author seems to alter his position a few times over the years, shifting between
a doctrine that has spirits actually coming out of people and one that considers spirits in a more
classical sense as an active force that conveys the appetites and manages the body’s inner working
processes (Darmon 1985; Burgio 2005).
An application of his theory of spirits in Cureau’s later work is to be found in his most substantial
text, Les charactères des passions, an essay on physiognomics and psychology in five books, in
which the French doctor, on the basis of an earlier attempt in Nouvelles pensées sur le causes de
l’amour d’inclination (Burgio 2005), describes spirits as the fundamental medium between the soul
and the humors. Spirits allow La Chambre to think of the passions of the soul as states of the soul and
the body at the same time, as if the two entities amounted to one: the emotions of the soul cause
movements of the spirits, which are the soul’s instruments, and these movements in turn cause an
ebbing and flowing of blood and humors, which give us the expressions we read on the body. Based
on this scheme Cureau describes and analyzes every human passion. It should also be noted that by
bringing in spirits as the intermediaries between the mind and the body, La Chambre is also able to
avoid falling into materialism but without having to do without a moderate form of mind-body
ontological dualism.
Gnoseology
La Chambre’s ideas in the theory of knowledge are centered on a concept of “image” (Darmon 1985;
Burgio 2005; Wild 2008) that turns out to be not far removed from that theory of the spirit that is in
turn the foundation of his theory of “immaterial bodies,” which Cureau developed in his studies of
optics (Cureau de la Chambre 1634, 1657, 1650). The French doctor held that knowing is an action
carried out by the intellect on the representations produced by the imagination, but at the same time,
it must be understood as an operation that, while always mediated through material representations,
is of an active and spiritual nature. The soul, which can “read off” sensory representations but can
also create them, does not distinguish inside itself between an agent intellect and a possible one
(Cureau de la Chambre 1664b). The notion of “image” makes it possible to think of the spiritual
representations of the intellect and the material ones of the imagination as opposite from the
ontological point of view, although able to ensure an operative continuity (Darmon 1985; Wild
2008). Cureau’s ideas in the philosophy of mind also extend to a consideration of animal cognition,
in relation to the debate between Chanet, Charron, and Montaigne (Marcialis 1982; Scribano 2010).
Partly taking up Platonistic innatism, Cureau puts forward a theory of mental images according to
which animals have all their actions determined for them from birth by figures impressed on their
imaginations. Animal thinking is therefore only sensory, attending only to particularities, without
any universal concepts, since it arises from imagination, not intellect. Thus, without moving too far
from Aristotle, Cureau manages to find room for Platonistic innatism, allowing in animals for a stock
of innate notions for the imagination to draw on in the memory. This, however, is not able to operate
by itself, but needs powers of reasoning, though inferior to human ones, by which animals can reach
practical judgments, though not actual deliberations of the will (Scribano 2010). By attributing to
animals this “weak” form of reasoning, Cureau goes as far as to credit them with an imperfect but
genuine use of language, as well as the habit of communicating practical thoughts and indications to
each other Cureau de la Chambre (1647).
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References
Primary Literature
Cureau de la Chambre M (1634) Nouvelles pensées sur les causes de la lumière, du desbordement du
Nil et de l’amour d’inclination. Pierre Rocolet, Paris
Cureau de la Chambre M (1636) Nouvelles conjectures sur la digestion. Pierre Rocolet, Paris
Cureau de la Chambre M (1640–1662) Les Charactères des passions. Jacques D’Allin, Paris
Cureau de la Chambre M (1647) Traité de la connoissance des animaux, où tout ce qui a esté dict
pour et contre le raisonnement des bestes est examiné par le sieur de La Chambre. Pierre Rocolet,
Paris
Cureau de la Chambre M (1650) Nouvelles observations et conjectures sur l’iris. Pierre Rocolet,
Paris
Cureau de la Chambre M (1653) Discours sur les principes de la chiromancie. Pierre Rocolet, Paris
Cureau de la Chambre M (1655) Novae methodi pro explanandis Hippocrate et Aristotele specimen,
clarissimis scholae parisiensis medicis, D. D. Marinus Curaeus de La Chambre. Suivi de: La
Physique d’Aristote mise en françois. Pierre Rocolet, Paris
Cureau de la Chambre M (1657) La Lumière. Pierre Rocolet, Paris
Cureau de la Chambre M (1659–1669) L’Art de connoistre les hommes. Pierre Rocolet, Paris
Cureau de la Chambre M (1664a) Recueil des épistres, lettres et préfaces de M. de La Chambre,
publié par Pierre Cureau de La Chambre. Claude Barbin, Paris
Cureau de la Chambre M (1664b) Le Système de l’âme. Jacques d’Allin, Paris
Cureau de la Chambre M (1665a) Discours sur les causes du débordement du Nil. Jacques Dallin,
Paris
Cureau de la Chambre M (1665b) Discours de la nature divine selon la philosophie platonique. Paris
Cureau de la Chambre M (1667) Discours de l’amitié et de la haine qui se trouvent entre les animaux.
Claude Barbin, Paris
Burgio S (2005) Marin Cureau de La Chambre, o dell’agire ecfrastico, Introduction to Cureau de la
Chambre M. 2005. In: Burgio S (ed) I Charactères de l’amour (1640) di Marin Cureau de La
Chambre, italian. Rubettino, Soveria Mannelli
Darmon A (1985) Les corps immatériels: esprits et images dans l’œuvre de Marin Cureau de La
Chambre (1549–1669). Vrin, Paris
Diamond S (1968) Marin Cureau de La Chambre. J Hist Behav Sci 4:40–54
Förster I (1936) Marin Cureau de la Chambre 1594–1675. Ein Betrag zur Geschichte der
psychomoralischen Literatur in Frankreich. Breslau, Wrocław
Marcialis MT (1982) Filosofia e psicologia animale da Rorario a Leroy. STEF, Cagliari
Sabra AI (1981) Theories of light from Descartes to Newton. Cambridge University Press, Canada
Scribano E (2010) Introduzione in Cureau de La Chambre, M. Quale sia la conoscenza degli animali
e fin dove possa estendersi (italian translation). Felici Editore, Florence
Sturdy D (1995) Science and Social Status. The Members of the Académie des Sciences 1666–1750.
Woodbridge, Suffolk, Boydell Press
Wild M (2008) Marin Cureau de la Chambre on the natural cognition of the vegetative soul: an early
modern theory of instinct. Vivarium 46:443–461
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_216-1
Du Pont, René
Born: Unknown
Died: Unknown
Simone Guidi*
Abstract
A French polemicist of the first half of the seventeenth century. He was the author of a Philosophie
des esprits published in two editions (Paris 1602, Paris 1612), in which he defended and developed,
in opposition to the materialists, the concept of intelligent spiritual substance. Du Pont’s views were
close to those of Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, and he put forward a theory of human
nature in the scholastic tradition, with strong influences from Hermetic, Augustinian, and
neo-Platonic thought.

A French polemicist of the first half of the seventeenth century, Du Pont is known mainly as the
author of a Philosophie des esprits published in two editions (Paris 1602, Paris 1612) in which he
defended and developed, in opposition to the materialists, the concept of intelligent spiritual
substance. Here he took up Pico della Mirandola’s anthropocentrism, putting forward a theory of
human nature in the scholastic tradition, with obvious roots in the Hermetic, Augustinian, and
neo-Platonic schools of thought. Du Pont was a fervent Catholic who on various issues fell into line
somewhat uncritically with the Aristotelian-Scholastic orthodoxy. His work is nonetheless an
original and deeply felt appeal for a spiritual life expressed through a theological account of spiritual
realities, notably featuring angels, demons and blessed souls, and the rewards and punishments of
the next world. Throughout his work Du Pont drew abundantly on the imagery of mysticism,
neo-Platonism, and Augustinian thought, often taking positions close to those of the Italian
Renaissance thinkers.
Du Pont’s views are particularly well illustrated by the sixth book of his Philosophie des esprits,
dedicated to the order that, in governing the universe, brings together all God’s creatures under the
sign of His omnipotence. Nature, he argued, considers and brings together within itself all the
possible combinations and patterns of the living, in a kind of universal and reciprocal reflection of
everything. That means, he says, that even living beings are connected to each other by a set of
analogies and that even explains the existence of mythological animals and other wonders and
resemblances among living beings. By contrast, intellectual and angelic substances are quite unlike
the bodily creatures living on earth. In this case too, proceeding from a tradition that we could trace
back to Thomas Aquinas, spiritual and bodily creatures are the opposite sides of a contrasting and
complementary polarity, characterized by completely different attributes.
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Man, the point of connection in this cosmological dualism, is, as he had been in Pico’s thinking, at
the center, as a third element able to reconcile the contrast and as a microcosm summing up the
whole variety of creation. From the point of view of his theory of mind, Du Pont draws on the
hylomorphist tradition, but, as many sixteenth-century neo-Platonists had done, he revived various
elements inspired by Platonistic or dualistic thinking (see Rodis-Lewis 1990) which he reconciled
with the idea of a soul that was clearly identified as forma corporis. In line with Ficino before him
(and with Pascal after him), Du Pont identified Man as an “animal and angel,” a creature between
sense and intellect. It should be noted, however, that to illustrate the spiritual nature of the soul, he
recommends a particular thought experiment of “removal” of the body from the human combination
that perhaps illustrates the transition that had occurred in the sixteenth-century Aristotelian theory of
mind, a shift toward a kind of “moderate” and intellectualistic hylomorphism that looked with
interest at the common spiritual nature of angels and souls. According to Du Pont, by imagining the
body not existing, Man can know what it feels like to be pure intellect (as Aquinas, e.g., could not do,
except as far as the first principles are concerned), which amounts to knowing what it feels like to be
an angel.
Cross-References
▶ Bovelles, Charles de
▶ Pico della Mirandola
▶ Silhon, Jean de
References
Primary Literature
Du Pont R (1602) La philosophie des esprits, divisée en cinq livres et generaux discours chrestiens.
Antoine Mesnier, Paris
Rodis-Lewis G (1990) L’anthropologie cartésienne. PUF, Paris
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_217-1
Paré, Ambroise
Born: 1510, Bourg-Hersent
Died: 20 December 1590, Paris
Simone Guidi*
Abstract
Among the greatest surgeons of his time, Ambroise Paré is universally considered the founder of
French surgery and of modern surgery generally. He was one of the most influential figures in the
development of modern surgery. He reintroduced surgery on the cleft lip, which had already been
pioneered by the Arabs, and worked on the designing of various prostheses to replace amputated
limbs. His most famous book is Des Monstres et Prodiges, dedicated to the monstrous births.
Biography
A physician, philosopher, and writer. Born in Bourg-Hersent (Laval) in 1510. Died in Paris on
20 December 1590. Among the greatest surgeons of his time, Ambroise Paré is universally
considered the founder of French surgery and of modern surgery generally. Of humble origins
(his father seems to have been a barber-surgeon and his mother a prostitute), Paré began his training
as an apprentice barber-surgeon in the late 1520s and served in the French army as a barber-surgeon
from around 1533. His military position gave him the chance to travel in Europe, but above all to
gain comparative experience, which would be decisive for developing his empirical and pragmatic
method of diagnosis. From this point of view, his battlefield experiences during the Piedmont war in
Francois I’s army were particularly significant. Running out of oil, which in those days was used
boiling on wounds, Paré had started using simple bandaging and noticed that that way the wounds
healed more quickly. Rejecting the predominant medical tradition of his time, rooted in an anthro-
pological and metaphysical framework, Paré began promoting a pragmatic and simple approach to
surgery, modernizing its practices and even the theorizing behind them. On returning to Paris he
gained membership of the Barbers’ Corporation and began practicing as a surgeon. In 1552 he
served in the army again and was the first to practice the ligature of the arteries in leg amputations. In
later life he was greatly honored, but also contested. He became Henri II’s surgeon and from 1554
was the Master of the St. Cosma College of Surgeons. In this role, however, he had frequent
disagreements with professors at the Sorbonne. Later he was Chamber Surgeon to François II and
to Charles IX and then First Surgeon to Henri III.
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Innovative Aspects
Dedicated to real-life experimentation and direct surgical practice, Paré was not a man of letters, and
that contributed to his sharp break with the medico-anthropological tradition of his time. He was one
of the greatest innovators and one of the most influential figures in the development of modern
surgery. He excelled in obstetrics and introduced the crown drill. He also reintroduced surgery on the
cleft lip, which had already been pioneered by the Arabs, and worked on the designing of various
prostheses to replace amputated limbs (Poirier 2005; Delacomptée 2007). His first publication, in
1545, was entitled La méthode de traicter les playes faictes par flèches, dards et semblables. In 1572
he published his Cinq Livres de Chirurgie.
Teratology
His most famous book, and the one that was most philosophically influential, was undoubtedly Des
Monstres et Prodiges, of 1573 (Paré 1971). Here Paré distinguishes “monsters” from mere “wonders.”
Wonders come about in nature only in a passive way, whereas “monsters” are natural but unusual
phenomena, occurring beyond but not against the normal course of nature. Often, however, they
foretell sinister events, since they have significance as “signs.” In an innovative etiological approach to
the theme of “monsters” (which highlights the consolidation in the late sixteenth century of specific
attention to “second causes”), Paré recognized various types of causes: supernatural and divine causes,
i.e., the glory or the anger of God, who used monsters for His own purposes, which included punishing
mankind, and natural causes, such as too much seed or not enough, the imagination, the narrowness of
the womb, an unsuitable position of the mother during pregnancy, falls or knocks during pregnancy,
hereditary illnesses, and deterioration or mixing of the seed. To be added to these were the tricks of
charlatans, sorcerers, and the Devil (Céard 1971, 1977; Kappler 1980).
Cross-References
▶ Fernel, Jean
▶ Galen and Galenism
▶ Vesalius, Andreas
References
Primary Literature
Paré A (1575) Les Oeuvres de M. Ambroise Paré, avec les figures & portraicts tant de l’anatomie que
des instruments de chirurgie, & de plusieurs monstres. Gabriel Buon, Paris
Paré A (1971) Des monstres et prodiges. Introduction et traduction par Jean Céard. Droz, Paris
Berriot-Salvadore É – Mironneau P (2003) Ambroise Paré, 1510–1590: pratique et écriture de la
science à la Renaissance: actes du colloque de Pau, 6–7 mai 1999. Champion, Paris
Céard J (1971) Introduction a Paré 1971. Droz, Gèneve
Céard J (1977) La nature et les prodiges. L’insolite au XVIe siècle, en France. Droz, Genève
Delacomptée J-M (2007) Ambroise Paré: la main savante. Gallimard, Paris
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_217-1
Dumaître P (1986) Ambroise Paré, chirurgien de quatre rois de France. Fondation Singer/Polignac,
Paris
Kappler C-C (1980) Monstres, démons et merveilles à la fin du Moyen Age. Payot, Paris
Paget S (1897) Ambroise Paré And His Times, 1510–1590. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York/London
Poirier J-P (2005) Ambroise Paré: un urgentiste au XVIe siècle. Pygmalion, Paris
Valet P (1898) Recherches historiques sur Ambroise Paré. Champion, Paris
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_218-1
Silhon, Jean de
Born: 1596, Sos in Lot-et-Garronne
Died: 1667, Paris
Simone Guidi*
Abstract
A French philosopher and politician of the seventeenth century. Among the founders, in 1634, of the
Académie Française. The author of numerous essays in French noted for their refined style and
lengthy exposition. He was Richelieu’s secretary and later Mazzarin’s Counsellor of State.
Biography
Born in Sos in Lot-et-Garonne in 1596. Died in Paris in 1667. Among the founders, in 1634, of the
Académie Française. The author of numerous essays in French noted for their refined style and
lengthy exposition. He was Richelieu’s secretary and later Mazzarin’s Counsellor of State. A Friend
of Guez de Balzac and René Descartes.

Silhon’s philosophical output concerns two areas: political thought, with works like Le Ministre
d’Etat, and metaphysics, notably with Les deux vérités in 1626 and L’immortalité de l’^
a me in 1634.
Political Thought
Silhon’s political thought (Thuau 1966) argues for mediation between divine and temporal power
based on the idea of an overall balance between the two: natural reason has led people to build for
their needs a hierarchy of power completely compatible with the moral principles handed down by
God through revelation, which are safeguarded by the clergy. The two orders should therefore
develop in parallel, without either hindering the other, so that the good minister will have to
understand and constantly maintain consistency between the interests of the state and the dictates
of conscience, which are essential prerequisites for the proper exercise of political power. Ideally,
therefore, a minister should know how to combine civic and religious understanding. Here Silhon
was explicitly referring to Richelieu, whose political actions he justified even in their most
controversial aspects such as the war against the Huguenots (which he said was waged against
their rebellion, not against their religious belief).
In his work De la certitude des connaissances humaines (Silhon 1661) in particular, Silhon takes
a firm stand in favor of Catholic absolutism and state Catholicism, drastically curtailing the room for
freedom of action of individuals in relation to the political power of the sovereign. Subjects, being
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_218-1
quite unable to manage themselves and the good of society, are relegated to obeying the political
authorities without question. As authority is rooted in the Christian religion, which teaches people to
obey their sovereigns, good or bad, since all power is legitimized by God, obedience is both sacred
and necessary. Authority ultimately derives from the Creator Himself, like a great machine set in
motion by God.
Metaphysics and Christian Apologetics

Because his Christianity is so closely tied in with temporal power, the metaphysical and apologetic
aspect of Silhon’s thought hardly takes us away from his political ideas, in which, especially in the
essay De la certitude des connaissances humaines (Silhon 1661), the fight against skepticism
becomes one of the fundamental starting points (Popkin 2003). Just as his friend Descartes would
later do, Silhon sets out to refute atheism and skepticism and tries, in Les deux vérités (Silhon 1626),
to prove the existence of God and the immortality of the soul (Popkin 2003). His later work would
again be in defense of belief in immortality (Fowler 1999). Silhon held that all human certainty is
based on the idea, which he took to be universally obvious since it is naturally imprinted in all human
beings, that there is a divinity, an idea which he tried to prove in various ways (Popkin 2003). Thus
the immortality of the soul must also, he argued, be proved by referring back to the source of all
being, i.e., the existence of God, which is required for the existence of any kind of substance,
including matter, which has no being in itself, and spiritual substances, which continue to exist after
death because that is the will of their Creator (Fowler 1999). Moreover, Silhon seems to take up the
doctrine of continuous creation, earlier proposed by Suárez, and later held by Descartes: God is the
creator of all things, but He also constantly maintains them as they are, since nothing but God, in this
theory of ontology, is really able to sustain its own existence. About the soul, Silhon, who denies that
animals have an immortal soul, bases his proof of the immortality of the human soul on God’s
goodness, which after creating it keeps it in existence. Silhon may be considered one of the
philosophers whose theory of human nature showed a dualism rich in Platonistic elements but did
not, as Descartes’ dualism would do, break with Aristotelian hylomorphism (Silhon 1634; Gilson
1930). Another interesting aspect of his thought is the distinction he makes between démonstrations
physiques, which lead to certainties that are absolutely evident, and démonstrations morales, which
lead to knowledge that though not absolutely certain is well supported. The latter type makes up
most human belief (Popkin 2003).
Cross-References
▶ Bérulle, Pierre de
References
Primary Literature
Silhon J (1626) Les deux vérités de Silhon. L’une de Dieu et de sa providence, l’autre de
l’immortalité de l’Ame. Laurent Sonnius (new modern edition: Fayard. Paris 1991), Paris
Silhon J (1629) Panégyrique à Mgr le cardinal de Richelieu, sur ce qui s’est passé aux derniers
troubles de France. Toussaint Du Bray, Paris
Silhon J (1634) De l’immortalité de l’âme. Billaine, Paris
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_218-1
Silhon J (1642) Le Ministre d’Estat, avec le véritable usage de la politique moderne, 3e édition.
J. Quesnel et Du Bray, Paris
Silhon J (1651) Esclaircissement de quelques difficultez touchant l’administration du cardinal
Mazarin. Janssonius van Waesberge, Paris
Silhon J (1661) De la Certitude des connaissances humaines, où sont particulièrement expliquez les
principes et les fondemens de la morale et de la politique, avec des observations sur la manière de
raisonner par l’assemblage de plusieurs moyens. Imprimerie Royal (new modern edition: Paris,
Fayard 2002), Paris
Fowler C F (1999) Descartes on the human soul: philosophy and the demands of Christian doctrine.
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht
Gilson E (1930) Études sur le rôle de la pensée médiévale dans la formation du système cartésien.
Vrin, Paris
Popkin R (2003) History of Skepticism. From Savonarola to Bayle. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Thuau É (1966) Raison d’Etat et pensée politique à l’époque de Richelieu. Armand Colin, Paris
Page 3 of 3
A
Aristotle: The Giuntine Edition translated into Latin before. All the commentaries
of Averroes the Cordovan on these works that
Charles Burnett have come down to us, and other books of his on
The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced logic, philosophy, and medicine, of which some,
Study, University of London, London, UK too, having escaped the notice of the Latins, have
recently been translated by Jacob Mantino, others
have been translated by the same scholar in a
Abstract clearer and more faithful way than ever before,
The Aristotle-Averroes edition printed by the and the rest have been most diligently corrected in
Giunta brothers in Venice in 1550–1552 is the almost innumerable places from the manuscripts
most complete edition of the Latin translations and the best printed books of the most celebrated
of the works of Aristotle and Averroes philosophers of our time; each adorned with a
(together with many other related texts) pro- large number of marginal notes. The prefatory
duced up to that time. It represents the high fascicle includes essays by Tommaso Giunta,
point of interest in Averroes in northern Italy, who emphasizes the importance of Averroes, and
especially at the University of Padua. by Marco degli Oddi, who recounts the genesis of
the book, as well as a general introduction to the
transmission of Peripatetic philosophy and indi-
Description vidual introductions to each volume. The fascicle
ends with an index covering all 11 volumes,
In 1550, Tommaso and Giovan Maria Giunta which indicates by asterisks those books which
published a ten-volume Latin edition of the had never been published before. The project had
works of Aristotle with all the commentaries of been initiated by Giovanni Battista Bagolini but,
Averroes; it was issued in Venice, where the intel- after his death, was continued by Marco degli
lectual products of the University of Padua were Oddi and Romolo Fabi.
usually printed. Two years later, in 1552, a prefa-
tory fascicle and the first volume were added to
this publication, which now bore the title: All the Innovative and Original Aspects
works of Aristotle the Stagirite that exist, in choice
translations which have been compared with the The volumes supplement the medieval Latin
most accurate Greek exemplars, illustrated with translations of Averroes made by Michael Scot,
marginal notes and arranged in a new order, with Hermann the German, Theodore of Antioch, and
the addition of some books that have never been William of Luna with more recent ones now made
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_226-1
2 Aristotle: The Giuntine Edition
from the Hebrew versions of Averroes; the trans- no more texts of Averroes were printed until the
lators were Abram de Balmes, Giovanni nineteenth century, and Aristotle was increasingly
Francesco Burana, Vitalis Nisso, Elias being read in Greek with vernacular translations.
Delmedigo, Paolo Ricci (Israelita), and especially The 1550–1552 edition of Aristotle-Averroes
Jacob Mantino, who was charged by the editors is remarkable for the care with which it was pre-
with correcting the older translations and making pared, for the detail in which the editorial method
new ones; the “antiqua translatio” was often is explained, and for the quality of the printed text.
printed alongside the “Mantini translatio.” But It marked the culmination of an interest in
the volumes also included works of Averroes Averroes as a commentator on Aristotle and as a
that were not commentaries, but rather indepen- thinker in his own right, which had begun with the
dent philosophical texts – the Destructio printings of Aristotle with Averroes by Lorenzo
destructionum, De substantia orbis, the De Canozio in Padua in 1472–1475. As Charles
animae beatitudine, and the Epistola de Schmitt has put it (p. 131), the Giuntine edition
connexione – and medical texts: the Colliget, the was a “philosophical reaction to philological
commentary on the Cantica of Avicenna, and a humanism.” Through its carefully edited texts
work on theriac. Short texts by other Arabic phi- and apparatus of notes and commentaries,
losophers, translations of Hebrew “super- indexes, and cross-references, it provided a schol-
commentaries” by Levi ben Gerson, copious arly reference book which reflects the intense
marginal annotations, the Contradictionum debates of the time and is still of use today.
solutiones, and a compendious alphabetical
index of terms in Aristotle and Averroes compiled
by Marcantonio Zimara complete the volumes.
References
Primary Literature
Impact and Legacy Aristotelis Stagiritae Omnia quae extant opera nunc
primum selectis translationibus, collatisque cum
Many Paduan scholars were involved in the enter- Graecis emendatissimis exemplaribus, margineis
prise, including: Marco degli Oddi, a teacher of scholiis illustrata et in novum ordinem digesta, additis
etiam nonnullis libris nunquam antea Latinitate
logic in Padua; Giovanni Battista Bagolino, donatis: Averrois Cordubensis in ea opera omnes qui
whose father, Girolamo, had been a professor of ad nos pervenere Commentarii, aliique ipsius in logica,
philosophy and medicine at the university; Abram philosophia et medicina libri, quorum aliqui non
de Balmes; Jacob Mantino; and Marcantonio amplius a Latinis visi, nuper a Iacob Mantino sunt
conversi; alii ab eodem clarius ac fidelius quam
Zimara. A second Giunta edition, printed in unquam antea ab aliis translati; caetera ex
1562, was even more strongly Paduan, because manuscriptis, optimisque codicibus Philosophorum
of the additions of commentaries and quaestiones hac nostra aetate celeberrimorum, innumeris pene
on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics by Bernardino locis diligentissime castigati; singuli compluribus
margineis scholiis exornati. Levi Gersonidis
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Aristotle: The Giuntine Edition 3
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H
Harmony produce musical consonances, or harmonies.

The most powerful statement of this doctrine
Jacomien Prins was found in the realm of cosmology, where
Centre for the Study of the Renaissance/Institute the notion of the harmony of the spheres was
of Advanced Study, University of Warwick, IAS, used to designate the harmonious relationships
Millburn House, Coventry, UK between the planets governed by the propor-
tionate speeds of their orbits or by their mutual
distances. In the history of Western thought it
Abstract was not so much the meaning of the term
In music, “harmony” usually refers to two or “harmony” that changed, but the material to
more notes that simultaneously produce a which it was applied, resulting in ever-
pleasing sound. In ancient Greek music, how- changing explanations of the concept in differ-
ever, from which the concept and term origi- ent cultural contexts.
nate, “harmony” stands for a specific
combination or juxtaposition of dissimilar or
contrasting elements, for example, a higher and Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
a lower note. By combining these disparate or
conflicting elements, a unity or harmony arises In the frontispiece of his Musurgia universalis
(discordia concors, i.e., harmonious discord). (1650), a classic in the tradition of the harmony
In a narrower sense, the Greek science of har- of the spheres, Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680)
monics refers to an extensively developed sys- introduces a scheme of world harmony
tem of rules that governs relations between representing a mixture of (neo)Pythagorean,
musical elements. These rules were intended (neo)Platonic, Jewish, and Christian elements,
to control consonance and dissonance, which which had crept into this age-old tradition by
are fundamental aspects of harmony. In a then (Fig. 1). It depicts a harmonious cosmos, in
broader sense, “harmony” was used to explain which planets and angels together are singing the
unity and relationships in all kinds of natural praises of the Creator. The triangle at the top with
and cultural phenomena by analogy with musi- an eye inside represents the Trinity, which is
cal consonances and their proportions. These surrounded by nine angelic choirs, each singing
explanations together constitute the various in four voices a 36-part canon by Romano
theories of world harmony that were based on Micheli, echoing the harmony inherent in all cre-
the Pythagorean-Platonic belief in a universe ation. The middle section is dominated by a globe
ordered by the same numerical proportions that of the world, upon which “Musica” is seated,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_228-1
2 Harmony
numerical basis of musical harmony. This discov-

ery was based on a comparison of the pitches
made by hammers of different weights on an
anvil in a blacksmith’s forge. By pointing with
his right hand to his theorem about the mathemat-
ical law of triangles, Pythagoras illustrates here
that a harmonic master plan underpins the struc-
ture and operation of the whole universe (musica
mundana). The muse on the right may be Polymnia,
who appears surrounded by musical instruments of
various kinds. She personifies the view that through
the imitation of world harmony in earthly music
(musica instrumentalis) man is able to climb a
spiritual ladder (bottom right hand corner), which
will ultimately lead to knowledge of the perfect
harmony of God’s creation. This is the case because
microcosmic man (musica humana), just like the
macrocosm, is made in the image and likeness of
God (Genesis 1:27).
In contrast with many of his predecessors,
however, Kircher rejected the literal existence of
a music of the planetary spheres “for that which
the ancients believed about harmonious order –
that an audible harmony rose from the friction of
the heavenly bodies – has been generally
Harmony, Fig. 1 World harmony. Frontispiece to the first exploded in these most recent times; for neither
volume of Athanasius Kircher’s Musurgia universalis the solidity of the heavens [i.e. the Aristotelian
(Rome, 1650) (Reproduced with kind permission of Glas-
gow University Library, Special Collections) crystalline spheres] nor the order of the planets
remains as the ancients disposed it” (Kircher
1650, II, 376, trans. Haar 1961, 504). As an
holding the lyre of Apollo and the panpipes of
admirer of Johannes Kepler, Kircher aimed at
Marsyas: two musical instruments whose ordered
formulating his astronomical views not in super-
strings and pipes are often used as symbols for
seded musical metaphors but in modern scientific
world harmony. The globe is encircled by the
terms, which, to his mind, were fully compatible
zodiac, indicating that just like the angelic music
with a Christian belief in the harmony of God’s
in the highest realm of the universe, the heavenly
creation. The sources he quoted in illustration of
bodies of planets and stars make up a cosmic
his view of world harmony include the classical
symphony. In this composition, the relationship
treatment of the topic, as well as the most influen-
between the orbits of the six planets (Sun, Venus,
tial Neoplatonic and Christian interpretations,
Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) is expressible in
which will be discussed below.
terms of the whole tone and five consonances,
Among these ancient Greek scholars, Plato
which together constitute a musical scale (tone
(427–347 BCE) figures prominently as the first
9:8; third 5:4; fourth 4:3; fifth 3:2; sixth 5:3; and
philosopher who formulated an all-encompassing
octave 2:1) without the dissonant musical inter-
view of the harmony of the universe. He was
vals of the second and seventh.
clearly inspired by early Pythagoreans, who had
In the bottom left hand corner of the page sits
discovered that the sound of musical consonances
Pythagoras, who proudly points out with his left
was expressible in numbers, and extrapolated
hand that he is the discoverer of the secret of the
from this that the whole universe was ordered by
Harmony 3
the same numerical proportions that determine musical intervals with the spatial intervals
these consonances. In his commentary on Plato’s between the planets. Within the two geometric
Timaeus, the Renaissance philosopher Marsilio series arithmetic and harmonic means are placed,
Ficino (1433–1499) credited Pythagoras with which create proportions of 3:2, 4:3, and (their
having discovered that the principal musical con- difference) 9:8. The proportion 4:3 (fourth) is
sonances result from the sounding of proportion- filled in with two proportions of 9:8 (tone) and
ate weights of hammers or lengths of a stretched one of 256:243 (semitone). This results in a musi-
string, so that within the series 1,2,3,4 (the num- cal scale, which laid the foundation for the Greek
bers constituting the “first figure of numbers,” i.e., science of harmonics, the tuning of which became
the Pythagorean tetractys) simple ratios produce known as the Pythagorean or Timaean scale. Out
the musical intervals of the octave (2:1), fifth of the invisible World-Soul material, the Demi-
(3:2), and fourth (4:3) (Walker 1958; Prins 2014, urge then created the physical world, which was
55–67). The key to understanding the whole uni- set into harmonious motion at the beginning of
verse lay for Plato and his commentators in these time and governed by the Demiurge, like a musi-
proportions, and particularly in the mathematical cian starting to play a musical instrument.
means found in multiples of the duple proportion In the myth of Er (Republic, 617B4–7), more-
(arithmetic mean = 2:3:4; geometric over, Plato described the universe as a set of
mean = 1:2:4; harmonic mean = 3:4:6). Scholars nestled concentric rings around a spindle on the
like Ficino based their world view on the discov- surface of each of which a Siren sits singing.
ery of musical laws underpinning the whole According to this view, the movement of the plan-
world, in which numbers were understood to be etary orbits (represented by the concentric rings)
quantities with spatial existence and symbolic produces an audible harmonious sound that con-
value rather than abstractions. Ficino thus argued sists of the single tones of the Sirens taken
that Plato was right “that the duple and triple together. In the numerous commentaries on the
[proportions] and all the other intervals which myth, this planetary harmony was often
are described in the first figure of numbers are interpreted literally as the music of the spheres
found in the spheres” (Ficino 1496, 74r, trans. (Plato 1937, 87–89). In principle, this heavenly
Prins 2014, 54). music was audible to mortal human beings, but
In his Timaeus, as Cornford (Plato 1937, their souls and ears usually became completely
59–72) explains, Plato formulated a comprehen- deaf to it after incarnation in a human body. In the
sive Pythagorean view of the creation of the uni- commentary tradition, these two Platonic myths
verse by the laws of harmony. In the cosmogonic offered not only a description of the harmonic
myth included in the dialogue (at Timaeus 35 and structure of the world but also a normative philos-
36) a Demiurge creates a World-Soul, a model for ophy of life, in which listening to and making
the physical universe, which is realized through music were seen as means to retrieve the music
the use of Pythagorean proportions. The World- of the spheres. Ficino, for example, followed Plato
Soul is envisioned as a band of invisible matter in arguing that “man is born to contemplate heav-
marked with the double and triple proportions of enly phenomena or, rather, as far as it is in his
the geometric series, before being split and bent power, to imitate the heavenly Mover himself.
into circles that represent the structure of the plan- And what Plato had said about the sense of seeing
etary system, which resembles an armillary he says about the sense of hearing as well: it is
sphere. The structure of the World-Soul consists given to us for the sake of contemplation and
of Pythagorean proportions made up of the num- learning; and also in order to enable us on the
bers 1-2-3-4-9-8-27, a compound of two geomet- basis of audible harmony to bring the movements
ric series (1-3-9-27 and 2-4-8), which taken of our soul, too, into a harmonious order” (Ficino
together determine the harmony of the cosmos. 1496, 77v, trans. Prins 2014, 153).
In the Timaean cosmogonic myth, Plato subse- Despite strong and persistent support enduring
quently presents a musical scale that connects into the Renaissance for Aristotle’s rejection of a
4 Harmony
sonorous universe in favor of his own silent between them, because, to his mind, the tones of a
spheres (On the Heavens, ii.9), as noted by Haar single scale would reduce the mighty polyphony
(1973–4, 40), Plato’s ideas about world harmony of the planetary spheres. He was convinced that
continued to be influential and long-lasting, “we will find that low tones in the heavens are
whether formulated in terms of harmonics or audi- mixed with high [tones], and that the same spheres
ble music (Prins and Vanhaelen 2017). These give out a high tone by the one motion and a low
ideas where often read through the lens of sources tone by the other, [because] from multiple revolu-
such as Cicero’s (106–43 BCE) Dream of Scipio, tions are generated tones in an equal multiple
which is a dream placed at the end of his De proportion” (Ficino 1496, 72r, trans. Prins 2014,
republica in direct imitation of Plato’s myth of 107). Ficino continued to believe strongly in the
Er. In his restatement of musica mundana, existence of a musical universe, yet, instead of the
Gioseffo Zarlino (1517–1590), for example, precise nature of the cosmic scale (musica
quoted, in his Institutioni harmoniche (1558), mundana), he was far more interested in the con-
the answer of Scipio Africanus the Elder, who is cept of musica humana, the harmonious makeup
asked by the younger in Cicero’s Dream of Scipio and working of the human body and soul and their
to report his dream of cosmic harmony: “What is interaction, and for this purpose he consulted var-
this sound, so loud and beautiful, which reached ious sources, including medieval Arab theories
my ears?” Scipio the elder replies that “It is caused about the healing and harmonizing powers of
by the impulse and movement of the spheres music.
themselves . . . distinguished by definite propor- Already in Ptolemy’s (fl. 127–148) Harmonics
tions. The high sounds mixed with low ones make a distinction was made between cosmic and psy-
different harmonies: for so great a motion could chic harmony. This subdivision of “harmony” was
not take place in silence. And Nature has arranged further developed by Boethius (c. 480–525) into
that the extremes of one end should sound low, musica mundana, humana, and instrumentalis,
those of the other end high. Therefore the highest the latter referring to music played and sung by
circuit, that of the starry heaven, which has the men on earth (Boethius 1989, Hammerstein 1962,
fastest revolution moves with a higher and louder 116–144). Till the end of the Renaissance, this
sound: and the lowest, lunar, one with the deepest subdivision of the science and art of music was
sound” (Zarlino 1558, 16, trans. Godwin 1993, used in academic circles. Yet, the medieval study
206). Given the universal law of discordia of music as a branch of the Quadrivium, which
concors, the sound of the spheres is presented was primarily the study of harmonics, that is, of
here as a harmony of carefully proportioned inter- the definitions of musical consonances in terms of
vals, there being seven tones in all. These seven their numerical proportions, was criticized by
planetary tones were equated by Macrobius Renaissance Neoplatonists as being too scholastic
(1952, fl. c. 400) in his Commentary on the and too remote from ancient Greek musical real-
Dream of Scipio and later commentators such as ity, which they sought to revive.
Zarlino with the seven numbers of Plato’s geo- For this purpose, these Renaissance scholars
metric series in the Timaeus. consulted sources such as Aristides Quintilianus’s
Macrobius’s cosmic scale was based on daily (late third–early fourth century) On Music, which
planetary motion and ascribes the lowest tone to provided a cosmic explanation of the musical
the Moon with the other planets following in sensitivity of the human soul and body and the
order. Within the tradition of the harmony of the role of music in education, not only in childhood
spheres, it was juxtaposed with the opposite one but throughout life. During the Middle Ages, the
of Nicomachus of Gerasa (c. 60–120), which is treatise was already regarded by Byzantine and
based on annual planetary motion and ascribes the Arab scholars as a basic work, but its importance
lowest tone to Saturn. Like the majority of Renais- was generally acknowledged by Renaissance
sance scholars, Ficino discussed these two cosmic scholars. Man’s growth, bodily proportions, and
scales, but he could not make a definitive choice behavior were envisioned by Aristides as a
Harmony 5
microcosmic mirror of the macrocosm. Every- Combinations of these criteria result in four
thing in a human life, from the proportions of types of people according to their astrological
man’s body and soul and their interaction, through indications: men born under the sign of Aries,
the human life cycle, until the development of Leo, and Sagittarius are hot and dry, choleric,
human character and behavior was perceived as masculine, and oriental; those born under Taurus,
governed by analogy with, or dependence upon, Virgo, and Capricorn are cold and dry, melan-
celestial harmony (Gersh 1996, 268–273). Aristi- cholic, feminine, and occidental; those of the
des formulated his answer to the question of “what sign of Gemini, Aquarius, and Libra are hot and
coerces the [human] soul to be so readily con- wet, masculine, sanguine, and meridional; while
quered by melody played on instruments” those of Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces, finally, are
(Aristides Quintilianus 1983, 151–157) in terms cold and wet, phlegmatic, feminine, and nordic.
of the Neoplatonic theory of the soul’s descent Ficino’s innovative restatement of the doctrine
through the planetary spheres before its incarna- of world harmony is colored by these kinds of
tion at the birth of a human being: “going through astrological ideas about harmony. In his interpre-
the ethereal orbits [of the planetary spheres], the tation, the correspondences between different
soul partakes of everything so far as it is luminous parts of the macrocosm and man were conceptu-
and adapted for warming and naturally enclosing alized in terms of an analogy to musical strings
the body, plaiting certain bonds from these orbits and their vibrations. In order to update the medi-
for itself as a sort of latticework by irregular eval idea of static harmonies produced by the
movement of the reciprocal lines among the revolutions or distances of the planetary orbs,
movement themselves. . . . This is the root of the Ficino used the concept of cosmic sympathetic
body, and this they named ‘harmonia.’” This kind vibration to account for an ever-changing har-
of “harmony” not only explains the influence of mony produced by the individual movements of
the heavenly bodies on a human being, but also the planets and the conception of spiritual or
formulates the purpose of a human life: during its demonic entities dwelling in the heavens. Sympa-
life on earth, the soul has to strive for a recollec- thetic vibration, as Ficino explained in his
tion of the heavenly harmony that it heard when it Timaeus commentary, is a harmonic phenomenon
dwelt in heaven and fell through the spheres wherein a formerly passive string responds to
before becoming embodied. The individual must external vibrations of an active string to which it
then draw upon this memory to create a better life has a harmonic likeness: “If from one sounding
for himself and his fellow human beings. lyre a tone suddenly is communicated to another
We encounter a similar conception of musica lyre tuned in the same way, then immediately from
humana in many Renaissance sources, for exam- this vibrating string a similar vibration is passed
ple, in an illustration of harmonious man by the on to the [other] string which is equally tuned”
hand of the Limbourg Brothers (Fig. 2). Man is (Ficino 1496, 71r, trans. Prins 2014, 99). In
defined here in terms of a harmonious discord Ficino’s view of world harmony, the heavenly
(discordia concors): composed of the frontal fem- spheres embody a radiating harmonious law
inine blond figure and the masculine dark figure which links everything in the cosmos together.
seen from the back. According to the comments The concept of sympathetic vibration was also
inscribed in the corners of this picture, humanity used by Ficino to update the Platonic view of the
can be divided into several different categories, human soul in terms of a harmony of abstract
which are based on different temperaments, that numbers, in which the relation of soul to body
is, different compositions of the four humors and was envisaged as an organization by a preexisting
their elemental qualities: choleric (fire), sanguine harmony of numbers which outlasts the body. He
(air), phlegmatic (water), and melancholic (earth). combined this theory with a Pythagorean concep-
Man may be further categorized in relationship to tion of the soul as a harmony of the body like the
the cardinal zodiacal points, which correspond to attunement of the strings of a lyre. By embracing
particular parts of the body and soul. the second theory, which avoids the mind-body
6 Harmony
Harmony, Fig. 2
Harmonious man. In: The
Limbourg Brothers, Très
Riches Heures du Duc de
Berry (1400–1416), MS
65, fol. 14v (Reproduced
with kind permission of the
Musée Condé, Chantilly)
dualism of the first theory, Ficino was able to offer but were interested in the question of how man
a comprehensible model of mind-body interac- can discover the influence of heavenly bodies on
tion, which may account for its growing popular- his life. They wanted to employ this knowledge,
ity from the sixteenth century onwards. In this moreover, to counteract this celestial influence or
model, the self was often defined as a taut string to use it for the purpose of becoming a more
and, accordingly, the purpose of life as the pursuit harmonious being. Ficino exploited the scientific
of well-temperedness. possibilities implicit in astrology to the full and
Ficino’s idea of man as cocreator of his own employed them in the context of musical ceremo-
harmonic nature is also in line with a conception nies, which were organized with the purpose of
of human freedom that emerged during the drawing down cosmic harmonizing influences to
Renaissance. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola better life on earth (Ficino 1989, 354–363).
(1463–1494) gave voice to this idea in his Oration In summary, one of the major Renaissance
on the Dignity of Man (1486), where he argued transformations of the tradition of the harmony
that man with his free will stood apart from the of the spheres was the closure of the gap between
great chain of being, was given the ability to theories of the harmony of the world and ideas of
distinguish between good and bad, and thus to a music’s ethical power to affect man’s body and
certain extent was free to choose an edifying har- soul, via ancient Greek and medieval Islamic
monious life. Ficino and Pico did not believe that writings, which humanists sought to revive
man’s destiny was determined for him by his stars (Haar 1961, 328–495; Tomlinson 1993,
Harmony 7
67–100). But the aspects of astrology and magic Augustine (354–430), Pythagorean and Neopla-
that were necessary to close this gap were not tonic beliefs could be adopted as long as they were
appreciated by all scholars interested in world reconcilable with biblical passages concerning the
harmony. Even though there was no real distinc- harmony of God’s creation. In order to be able to
tion between world harmony and astrology for make full use of the Pythagorean doctrine of per-
ancient Neoplatonic, medieval Arabic writers fect harmony, Renaissance scholars such as
and their Renaissance followers, philosophers Ficino, Pico, Francesco Giorgi (1466–1540), and
such as Marin Mersenne (1588–1648) thought Francesco Patrizi (1529–1597) used the narrative
that astrological and magical beliefs threatened of a prisca theologia or pia philosophia.
the established Christian scholarly belief in the According to this belief, a single, true, primordial
creation of a harmonious world. wisdom-religion, which passes through all reli-
Ficino had argued that music produces certain gions and philosophies, was given by God
effects on an individual, depending on the con- to enlightened men such as Zoroaster, Hermes
stellations with which he was associated, i.e., his Trismegistus, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato, and
horoscope, but Mersenne totally rejected this idea Moses. This narrative enabled scholars to use
in his Quaestiones celeberrimae in Genesim pagan texts such as Plato’s Timaeus to explain
(1623; Most Frequently asked Questions about vague and obscure passages in the biblical crea-
Genesis) (which he wrote before his famous tion story. Pico, for example, drew on sources
Harmonie universelle (1636)) and warned: “He from the tradition of the harmony of the spheres
who composes music in the likeness of the to demonstrate the universal truth of some of his
heavens will never succeed in restraining mad- Pythagorean conclusions, such as “6. The three-
ness, either because there are no [harmonies] in fold proportion – Arithmetical, Geometrical, and
the heavens or because, granted there be some, Harmonic – represents to us the three daughters of
they could never by apprehended by us” Themis [i.e. divine universal law], being the sym-
(Mersenne 1623, 1704; transl. Haar 1961, 501). bols of judgment, justice, and peace” (Pico 1486,
This reaction is symptomatic of the emergence of 48, trans. Godwin 1993, 176).
a new musical reality in which beauty and the Jewish, Gnostic, and Christian belief in the
complementary idea of celestial harmony were angelic habitation of the universe, originating
gradually replaced by concepts of expressivity from ideas about angelic hierarchies in sources
and emotion. This transformation into a form of such as Pseudo-Dionysius’s On the Celestial
idealism that is ontologically more subjective than Hierarchy (c. late fifth century), led to a belief in
original Pythagorean and Platonic conceptions of a musica coelestis, angels in heaven making
“harmony” is expressed clearly in Mersenne’s music in praise of God (Hammerstein 1962,
dismissal of Ficino’s astrological interpretation 116–119; Gersh 1996, 199–201). These kinds of
of world harmony: “It is completely objectionable ideas of heavenly harmony persisted even in the
that any kind of influence has been drawn down later Middle Ages, when Pythagorean thinking
from the stars by singing, for a particular song had to make way in academic circles for Aristote-
does not evoke sadness or happiness in us because lian thought. Giorgio Anselmi (c. 1386–1440/3),
it is performed under a particular star, as is indi- presumably inspired by Dante, formulated an
cated by the fact that the same song has the same innovative view of musica celestis in which a
power when heard under various constellations, static music of the spheres produced by the indi-
as experience will confirm” (Mersenne 1623, vidual tones of a musical scale was developed into
1705, my trans.). a dynamic symphony of planetary harmony and
Alongside ancient Greek theories, Jewish and angelic song: “The tireless soul of the whole
Christian beliefs in a harmonious universe shaped world, indeed, sings with the same [harmony] its
Renaissance conceptions of “harmony.” As noted ceaseless praises to the eternal, most high and all-
by Hammerstein (1962, 119–121) and Gersh beneficent Governor by means of the celestial
(1996, 21–27), for Church Fathers such as motions, with which the holy throngs of blessed
8 Harmony
spirits, sweetly echoing, contend in song and in

the ineffable beauty of their rivalling hymns”
(Anselmi 1961, 97, trans. Godwin 1993, 146).
Even though serious earthly music was seen as
an echo of this heavenly harmony, it could be best
perceived in moments of ecstasy or divine enlight-
enment as experienced by St. Cecilia, who is
captured by Raphael in a moment of transcen-
dence of the world of broken and unstrung musi-
cal instruments (Fig. 3).
Francesco Giorgi, whose knowledge of
Pythagorean harmonic proportions was called
upon when he was asked for advice on the har-
monic proportions for the new church of San
Francesco della Vigna in Venice, extended the
doctrine of world harmony with Cabbalistic
ideas, which in a Christianized form underpin
his Harmonia mundi (1525). In this enormous
work on world harmony, Giorgi dealt with the
harmony of the whole creation in terms of the
ten “Sefirot,” i.e., attributes through which God
manifests himself by emanation in his creation.
Giorgi applied Platonic and Cabbalistic number
symbolism to this restatement of the doctrine of
perfect harmony, writing in effect a wide-ranging
commentary on the biblical creation story. This
Harmony, Fig. 3 Raphael, The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia
book in itself was meant to be an echo of the (c. 1515–1516) (Reproduced with kind permission of the
harmony of God’s creation, and the purpose photographic archive of the Pinacoteca Nazionale,
behind the enterprise of writing and reading it Bologna)
was to be reunited with God.
Giorgi, for example, argued along the lines of man’s soul, he was capable of knowing world
the prisca theologia that Ezekiel, when he wrote harmony; but the Inquisition was of the opinion
that the biblical sentence “The spirit of life was in that he made man too harmonious and divine, as a
the wheels” [Ezekiel 1:20] could be understood result of which Giorgi’s occult and mystical work
through the lens of the Timaean narrative of cre- was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books.
ation, equating the wheels with the harmonious The concept of “harmony” continued to be
spheres. Self-knowledge, furthermore, could also elaborated in the late sixteenth and seventeenth
lead into insight in God’s archetypal harmony, centuries by Neoplatonic philosophers, theolo-
because: “Man, as the most perfect image of the gians, astronomers, astrologers, physicians,
world, contains all those things which one finds in music theorists, architects, and poets. In the disci-
the macrocosm in the same proportion. . . . In the pline of music theory, the tuning system outlined
human intellect . . . one finds a purer order of in the Timaeus became the subject of debate dur-
simpler numbers which corresponds to the nine ing this period, because it was incompatible with
choirs of angels and to the nine higher sefirot tuning and temperament as used in musical prac-
[i.e. divine attributes], so that there is within it tices. Ficino’s Timaeus commentary, for example,
the whole image of the Angels and of God” already evinces a certain awareness of the prob-
(Zorzi [=Giorgi], 2010, 536, my trans.). Giorgi lem that what started in the Timaean myth of
was convinced that due to the divine spark in
Harmony 9
creation as a system of consonances involving Institutioni harmoniche (1558), Zarlino expressed

only small whole numbers turns out to be less the belief that this adaptation was fully in accord
simple when applied to Renaissance musical per- with the Holy Scripture: “as when the Lord speaks
formance practice. During the course of the fif- to Job, saying: ‘Who will tell of your ordinances,
teenth century, polyphonic music had started to O voices of the heavens? And who will make their
develop, and in addition to the harmonic use of music sleep?’ [Job 38: 137]” (Zarlino 1558,
octaves (2:1), fifths (3:2), and fourths (4:3) – hith- 16, trans. Godwin 1993, 207). Zarlino did what-
erto, the only harmonic intervals generally defined ever it takes to keep “the music of the voice of the
in a music-theoretical treatise – there was a grad- heavens” awake in order not to lose the cosmo-
ual adoption of thirds (81:64) and sixths (27:16), logical significance of earthly music. All argu-
which involve relatively large numbers. The use ments against the notion of an inaudible music
of these intervals dictated a modification of the of the spheres were countered by an appeal to
Pythagorean tuning in which the major third reason, which for him as a rationalist was ranked
(81:64) became slightly flattened to 80:64, or higher than the sense of hearing. But this led to a
5:4, and the major sixth also became slightly vehement dispute with Vincenzo Galilei
flattened, from 27:16 to 25:15, or 5:3. At the (1520–1591), who demonstrated in his Discorso
same time the fourth as a harmonic interval expe- intorno alle opera di Gioseffo Zarlino (1589) that
rienced devaluation. These changes were reflected the Pythagorean belief in the expressibility of
in the musical thought of Ficino’s Timaeus com- musical sound in terms of simple numerical pro-
mentary: while the octave and fifth are still portions was wrong. Galilei decided to repeat the
defined as primary consonances, Ficino observed experiments that Pythagoras was supposed to
that the fourth “in the sense of hearing is not have conducted at home after his discovery
appreciated as a consonance in its own right.” In about the musical intervals in the smithy (Walker
addition, he recognized the third and the sixth as 1978, 23–26). In order to test his hypothesis, as is
primary consonances, which, in his opinion, were reported in various sources, Pythagoras tied
present in the diatonic scale to temper “with their weights to strings of equal length and found in
more delicate sweetness” the dissonance of the the musical tones this produces the same simple
second and seventh tones of the scale” (Ficino numerical proportions that had been revealed in
1496, 71v, trans. Prins 2014, 65). his original discovery with hammers of different
During the Renaissance, different attempts sizes: the octave being 2:1, the fifth 3:2 and the
were undertaken to update the Pythagorean tuning fourth 4:3. Based on a repetition of this experi-
system, inspired by the desire to defend the very ment, Galilei revealed that this was incorrect: in
foundation of the belief in a harmonic creation. order to get these results, the weights tied to the
The structural problem that the musical intervals strings must be in squared, not simple, inverse
of the Pythagorean tuning system did not quite proportion to the string lengths. Thus, to create
add up, however, became more and more press- the octave-fifth-fourth series, the weight-string
ing. The difficulty arises in the relationship relationship would need to be, respectively, 4:1,
between octaves and fifths: 8 octaves do not 9:4, and 16:9; the squares of the simple numbers
equal 12 fifths. The series of fifths results in a of Pythagoras’s discovery.
note which is a little bit higher than the note In Girolamo Cardano’s (1501–1575) account
produced by the octave series, a mathematical of the sense of hearing, a new concept of harmony
difference which is defined as the Pythagorean emerged which was more subjective than the orig-
comma. After Ficino, Zarlino tried to solve this inal doctrine of Pythagorean harmony. Even
problem by replacing the Pythagorean scale with a though he stressed the importance of Pythagorean
new system called just intonation, which attempts proportion to distinguish between consonance and
to rectify the deficiency of the Pythagorean scale dissonance in the sense of hearing, he
by founding itself upon both pure fifths (3:2) and complemented his definition with far more sub-
pure major (5:4) and minor (5:3) thirds. In his jective criteria. Whether we enjoy a harmony or
10 Harmony
consonance not only depended on its perfect pro- Other aspects of Renaissance culture were also
portions but also on the context within which it influenced by the Pythagorean doctrine of “har-
was presented to us, because “better things are mony,” however. The use of harmonious propor-
always pleasing after worse ones, . . . so light tions in ideas about architecture of Leon Battista
pleases after darkness, sweetness after bitterness, Alberti (1404–1472) and Andrea Palladio
oil of roses after dill, and consonant tones after (1508–1580) was fully consistent with the
dissonances” (Cardano 1966, III, 572, trans. rediscovery of Pythagorean proportions and their
Miller, 1973, 212). sixteenth-century music-theoretical adaptation
The debate about the status of Pythagorean mentioned above. Just like in music, according
proportions also played a role in the context of to Rudolf Wittkower (1949/1973, 142–154), this
the philosophy of nature, with far-reaching con- development ultimately culminated in a break
sequences for arithmetic-driven accounts of har- from the laws of harmonic proportion in favor of
mony (Palisca 1985, Vendrix 2008). For instance, a subjective concept of beauty based on the newly
the Italian philosopher Francesco Patrizi argued in discovered laws of perception, already formulated
his Nova de universis philosophia (1591) that the by scholars such as Cardano.
Pythagorean belief that numbers are the ultimate Although a literal belief in the existence of the
constituents of reality, which is the very founda- harmony of the spheres was jeopardized from the
tion of the Pythagorean doctrine of world har- sixteenth century onwards by new ideas about the
mony, was nothing but superstition: “The cosmos, man and music, restatements of the belief
Ancients based themselves on divination rather in world harmony continued to appear. Universal
than knowing the cause.” As a corrective to harmony was described in seventeenth-century
these ancient unscientific beliefs about number, Italian, French, and especially English poetry,
Patrizi argued that “Continuous quantity [i.- where the evocations of celestial harmony, in the
e. lines] exists by nature, while [the discrete quan- words of John Hollander became “decorative met-
tity of] number is the work of the human mind” aphor and mere turns of wit” (Hollander 1961,
(Patrizi 1591, 68r, trans. Prins 2014, 243). Hence, 19). Yet, ideas from the tradition of the harmony
a philosophy of nature, which includes the natural of the spheres, such as the poet as maker of a
phenomena of sound, could not be based on num- harmonious microcosm continued to flourish
bers, because these were merely conventional (Heninger 1974, 287–324).
constructs. As a consequence, Patrizi abandoned These metaphorical restatements of Pythago-
the Pythagorean belief that the universe was rean harmony were paired with drastic revisions
ordered by numerical proportions that produce in the field of cosmology, where Johannes Kepler
harmonies in earthly music from his philosophy (1571–1630) argued in his Harmonices mundi
of nature. (1619), further developing Ptolemy’s view of
During the Renaissance, occasional attempts world harmony, that not only the Pythagorean
were undertaken to imitate angelic song or plane- tuning of the Timaeus scale, but that the whole
tary harmony in earthly music. Apart from some notion of world harmony had to be updated in line
remarks of a few initiates who witnessed Ficino’s with the emerging view of a heliocentric world
improvised musico-magical practices, regrettably, view (Spitzer 1963; Walker 1978, 34–62).
they left no material trace. Yet a number of poly- Replacing the earth with the sun meant that the
phonic compositions similar to the 36-part canon planetary distances and revolutions needed to be
by Romano Micheli (used in Kircher’s frontis- revised in a drastic way to save the notion of world
piece, Fig. 1) survive in print, as does the tableau harmony. As a solution, Kepler defined the inter-
L’armonia delle sfere, which was designed for the vals between the Copernican planetary spheres by
Florentine intermedi of 1589 – a rendering of the five regular solids of Greek geometry and
Plato’s myth of Er – and Stefano Landi’s religious found these new harmonic proportions express-
opera San Alessio (1634). ible in the musical terms of an old-fashioned con-
trapuntal composition, of which the different
Harmony 11
voices symbolize the movements of the planets ▶ Marin Mersenne

which are orbiting the sun. ▶ Marsilio Ficino
Like Ficino before him, who in a variation on ▶ Music
the dream of Scipio in the form of a letter inspired ▶ Orpheus
a political leader of his day to use the doctrine of ▶ Pico della Mirandola
heavenly harmony as a model for his form of ▶ Plato, (neo)Platonism
government, Kepler was also convinced that har- ▶ Poetics
mony in nature should be used as a point of ▶ Prisca Theologia [or: Pia Philosophia]
departure to create a harmonious society. Yet, ▶ Ptolemy
while he first saw in harmonious nature a coherent ▶ Pythagoras, (neo)Pythagoreanism
unity that might be mimicked in an earthly society ▶ Robert Fludd
adopting one truth, he later emphasized the peace- ▶ Vincenzo Galilei
ful and harmonious coexistence of diverse per- ▶ Well-Temperedness [link: moral philosophy,
spectives (Rothman 2012, 18 and 342). medicine/music therapy]
In sharp contrast with the innovative ideas of
his contemporary Kepler, Robert Fludd
(1574–1637) continued to defend in his Utriusque
References
cosmi... historia (1617) the absolute truth of the
Ptolemaic geocentric view of world harmony.
Primary Literature
Finally, Athanasius Kircher’s Musurgia Anselmi, Giorgio. 1961. De musica, ed. and comm.
universalis (1650), with which this entry began, G. Massera. Florence: Olschki.
was the last great summation of the wide-ranging Boethius. 1989. Fundamentals of music. Trans. introd. and
ideas about “harmony” discussed above, before annot. C. M. Bower, ed. C. V. Palisca. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
the subject went into oblivion as a universal Cardano, Girolamo. 1966. Opera omnia. Facsimile reprint.
theory. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann.
Cardano, Girolamo. 1973. Writings on music. Trans. and
introd. C. A. Miller. Rome: American Institute of
Musicology.
Cross-References Ficino, Marsilio. 1496. “Compendium in Timaeum”. In:
Commentaria in Platonem. Florence. English edition:
▶ Andrea Palladio Ficino, Marsilio. Forthcoming. Marsilio Ficino: Com-
▶ Architecture mentary on the Timaeus (ed. and trans.: Prins, J. W.),
I Tatti Renaissance Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
▶ Aristotle University Press.
▶ Astrology Ficino, Marsilio.1480–1489. De vita libri tres. Florence.
▶ Astronomy 1989. Three books on life. Ed. and trans. C. V. Kaske
▶ Athanasius Kircher and J. R. Clark, Binghamton: Medieval & Renaissance
Texts & Studies.
▶ Augustine Fludd, Robert. 1617. Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et
▶ Boethius minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia
▶ Christian Philosophy . . .. Oppenheim.
▶ Cicero Galilei, Vincenzo. 1589. Discorso intorno alle opera di
Gioseffo Zarlino. In: Collezione di trattati e musiche
▶ Cosmology antiche edite in facsimile. Bollettino bibliografico
▶ Francesco Giorgi [or: Zorzi] musicale. Repr. of Venice, 1991.
▶ Francesco Patrizi Giorgi, Francesco. 1525. De harmonia mundi totius
▶ Gioseffo Zarlino cantica tria. Venice; Italian edition: Zorzi (= Giorgi),
Francesco. 2010. L’Armonia del Mondo (ed. and trans.
▶ Girolamo Cardano Campanini, S.). Milan: Bompiani.
▶ Jewish Philosophy Kepler, Johannes. 1940. Harmonice mundi (1619). In
▶ Johannes Kepler Gesammelte Werke/Johannes Kepler, ed. M. Caspar,
▶ Leon Battista Alberti vol. VI. Munich: C. H. Beck.
▶ Macrobius
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Kircher, Athanasius. 1999. Musurgia universalis (1650, Haar, J. 1973–4. Pythagorean harmony of the universe. In
Rome, 2 vols), facsimile ed. U. Scharlau. Hildesheim: Dictionary of the history of ideas, ed. P.P. Wiener, vol.
Olms. IV, 38–42. New York: Scribner.
Macrobius. 1952. Commentary on the Dream of Scipio Hammerstein, R. 1962. Die Musik der Engel:
(early fifth century). Trans., introd. and annot. W. H. Untersuchungen zur Musikanschauung des
Stahl. New York: Columbia University Press. Mittelalters. Berne: Francke.
Mersenne, Marin. 1623. Quaestiones celeberrimae in Heninger, S.K. Jr. 1974. Touches of sweet harmony:
Genesim. Paris. Pythagorean cosmology and Renaissance poetics. San
Mersenne, Marin. 1965. Harmonie universelle (1636). Marino: Huntington Library.
Facsimile reprint. Paris: Centre national de la recherche Hollander, J. 1961. The untuning of the sky: Ideas of music
scientifique. in English poetry, 1500–1700. Princeton: Princeton
Patrizi, Francesco. 1591. Nova de universis philosophia. University Press.
Ferrara; reprinted with variants: Venice, 1593. Palisca, C.V. 1985. Humanism in Italian Renaissance
Pico Della Mirandola, Giovanni. 1973. Conclusiones sive musical thought. New Haven: Yale University Press.
theses (1486), ed. B. Kieszkowski. Geneva: Droz. Prins, J.W. 2014. Echoes of an invisible world: Marsilio
Plato. 1937. Plato’s cosmology: The “Timaeus” of Plato. Ficino and Francesco Patrizi on cosmic order and
Trans. and comm. F. M. Cornford. London/New York: music theory. Leiden: Brill.
K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. and Harcourt, Brace. Prins, J.W. and M. Vanhaelen, ed. 2017. Sing aloud har-
Quintilianus, Aristides. 1983. On music, in three books. monious spheres: Renaissance conceptions of cosmic
Trans. and ed. T.J. Mathiesen. New Haven/London: harmony, London, New York: Routledge.
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_236-1
Ottoman, Renaissance
Giancarlo Casale*
Department of History, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Abstract
The Ottoman Renaissance refers to the period of Ottoman history coinciding with the European
Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Like its equivalent in Western historiography,
however, the term “Renaissance” in Ottoman history has multiple, overlapping and sometimes
contradictory meanings that vary widely depending on context. Also in common with its Western
equivalent, the term is anachronistic in the sense that it has been applied only retrospectively to the
Ottoman period by modern scholars. While the roughly analogous concept of tejdī d or “renewal”
did play a role in fifteenth and sixteenth-century Ottoman depictions of their own age, the term
“Renaissance” per se was unknown among Ottoman intellectuals until the nineteenth century.
At a conceptual level, the Ottoman Renaissance is therefore analogous to many other moments of
cultural vibrancy and rediscovery that modern scholars have chosen to describe with similar
language, such as the “Carolingian Renaissance,” the “Bengal Renaissance,” or the “Harlem
Renaissance” (Goody 2010). However, unlike such strictly comparative uses of “Renaissance,”
the Ottoman case is unique in that the Ottomans were both contemporaries and neighbors of
Renaissance Europeans, with whom they remained in constant contact throughout their history.
As a result, it is in exploring the possibilities of dialogue and mutual influence between Ottoman and
European intellectuals, artists and patrons – or, alternatively, in the denial of such dialogue or
influence – that modern scholars have found it most useful to speak of the Renaissance with
reference to the Ottomans.

Since the Ottoman Renaissance is a historiographical as much as a historical phenomenon, the
question of its innovative and original aspects is best approached through a discussion of the various
ways it has been employed in modern scholarship. For the sake of clarity, these have been divided
into three dominant scholarly paradigms that are each described separately below. It should be
emphasized, however, that these descriptions are intended as only rough approximations of an
evolving body of scholarship that is in reality a great deal more varied and dialogic than the summary
presented here.
Paradigm #1: The Ottoman Renaissance as “Anti-Renaissance”

The most traditional way to understand the Ottomans’ relationship to the Renaissance is to describe
their role in essentially negative terms: not as participants in the Renaissance per se, but rather as
powerful agents who shaped its contours from without through their military expansiveness and
their implacable hostility to European culture and to Western Christianity. For many generations of
scholars, for example, it seemed self-evident that Ottoman advances into Byzantine territory,
*Email: casale@umn.edu
Page 1 of 6
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_236-1
culminating with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, did not simply coincide with the
flourishing of Italian humanism but were in fact its proximate cause – forcing the flower of
Byzantium’s intelligentsia into Italian exile at precisely the moment in which an interest in Greek
learning had begun to take root there (Geanakoplos 1989).
In more recent decades, scholars have become less likely to assert such a direct, functional link
between Ottoman conquests and the rise of the Renaissance in Italy. But a newer readaptation of this
paradigm can be observed in the burgeoning rise of scholarly interest in Renaissance “representa-
tions” of the Ottomans in realms as varied as history, literature, art, and political theory. A common
aim of such scholarship, despite the considerable diversity of its subject matter, is to reassert the
Ottomans’ negative role in the formulation of certain key aspects of Renaissance intellectual life by
providing Europeans with a concrete example of a neighboring society that was familiar yet
somehow lacked the essential characteristics of Western civilization. In other words, only by looking
at themselves through the lens of the Ottoman “other,” it is argued, could the elites of Renaissance
Europe consolidate a collective identity based on reverence for Greco-Roman antiquity, member-
ship in the Republic of Letters, respect for the traditions of classical philosophy, and other aspects of
a nascent European sense of self that went beyond simple adherence to Christianity (e.g., Merserve
2008; Bisaha 2004; Valensi 1987).
Paradigm #2: The Ottoman Sultan as “Renaissance Despot”

A second and quite distinct understanding of the Ottoman Renaissance characterizes the Ottomans
not as external antagonists but rather as active participants in Renaissance intellectual life, with
a particular emphasis on the Ottoman court as a center of literary and artistic patronage. In its origins,
this idea can be traced back to the foundational nineteenth-century historian Jacob Burckhardt, who
had posited an Islamic ancestry for certain aspects of “Renaissance Despotism,” his term for the
characteristic political culture of fifteenth-century Italy (Burckhardt 1860; Makdisi 1990). By the
twentieth century, elements of Burckhardt’s thesis became a part of Ottoman historiography as well,
notably in the work of the Orientalist Franz Babinger. In his authoritative biography of Sultan
Mehmed “the Conqueror” (r. 1451–1481), for example, Babinger openly invoked Burckhardt in his
portrayal of Mehmed and directly compared the Sultan to Ferrante of Naples, Caesar Borgia, and
other contemporary “despots” of Renaissance Italy (Babinger 1953).
Admittedly, Babinger’s interest in making such comparisons was primarily to explain Mehmed’s
reputed lack of religious scruples and his easy recourse to violence. But an expanding body of
scholarship in more recent decades has focused instead on the cultural aspects of Mehmed’s
“despotism.” As a result, Mehmed’s record as a patron of the arts and letters is now understood, at
least in part, as a self-conscious attempt to use the language and the symbolism of the Renaissance to
present himself as a latter-day Roman emperor (Kaysar-ı Rūm in Turkish) capable of restoring
Constantinople to its rightful place as “the New Rome.”
Even as a child, in fact, it is now known that Mehmed had instruction in both Greek and Latin, and
this early training continued to shape his patronage throughout his later life. Following his conquest
of Constantinople, the numerous Greek manuscripts known to have been commissioned for his
personal library include the Iliad, Arrian’s Anabasis, and Ptolemy’s Geographia. And as his
reputation as a patron grew, he also became of the focus of a number of classicizing, eulogistic
texts composed by literati in the hopes of securing his favor. These include Kritovoulos of Imbros’s
History of Mehmed the Conqueror, a Greek text in which Mehmed is described as “philhellene” in
the model of Alexander the Great, and Giovanni Maria Filelfo’s similarly conceived Amyris,
a 4,000-verse Latin poem that compared Mehmed to Hannibal and Cyrus. Meanwhile, an analogous
set of “humanistic” sensibilities characterized many other areas of cultural production during
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Mehmed’s reign, ranging from the visual arts to architecture (Raby 1983; Brotton and Jardine 2000;
Necipoğlu 2012).
After Mehmed’s death, his two immediate successors to the throne, Bayezid II (r. 1481–1512) and
Selim I “the Grim” (r. 1512–1520), seem to have been comparatively less interested in styling
themselves as “Caesars,” such that the glorification of Greco-Roman antiquity in the mode of
contemporary Italian art and literature became a much less prominent feature of Ottoman court
culture during their reigns. But a noteworthy revival of this style of imperial patronage took place
following the accession to the throne of Mehmed’s great-grandson Suleiman “the Magnificent”
(r. 1520–1566), a movement spearheaded by Suleiman’s supremely powerful grand vizier, Ibrahim
Pasha (d. 1536).
Born a subject of Venice in the eastern Adriatic, Ibrahim’s efforts to associate both himself and his
sovereign with Constantinople’s rebirth as the “New Rome” were perhaps even more overtly shaped
by Italianate ideals of the Renaissance than those of Sultan Mehmed. He was aided in this project by
Alvise Gritti (d. 1534), the illegitimate son of the Venetian Doge Andrea Gritti (r. 1523–1538), who
had sired Alvise while stationed in Constantinople as a diplomat. With Ibrahim’s encouragement,
Alvise’s residence in the Ottoman capital became something of an Italian Humanist court in
miniature, frequented by figures such as Tranquillo Andronico, the brothers Agostino and Giuseppe
Museo, and Francesco della Valle. And as had been the case in Mehmed’s reign, such patronage was
matched in other realms of cultural production as well. Among Ibrahim’s most visible public
gestures as a builder, for example, was to construct a grand personal residence at the Hippodrome,
the long-neglected site of the Emperor Constantine’s own imperial palace, whose garden he
decorated with bronze statues of Hercules, Apollo, and Diana captured from the Hungarian royal
palace in Buda (Finlay 1984; Turan 2007).
Subsequently, for reasons that continue to be debated by historians, Ibrahim Pasha fell precipi-
tously out of favor and was executed by the Sultan in 1536. Although some lingering effects of his
influence would continue to be felt, the Ottoman court’s role as an important center of patronage for
artistic, literary, and scholarly projects directly inspired by the ideals of Western humanism gradually
came to an end. But even in Ibrahim’s absence, Ottoman Constantinople would continue to be the
center of an entirely different “Renaissance,” rooted in the intellectual traditions of Islam rather than
the Greco-Roman world.
Paradigm #3: The Ottoman Renaissance as “Islamic Renaissance”

It is only comparatively recently that scholars have begun to question the essentially “Islamic”
character of Ottoman society, which was long assumed to have been a constant throughout Ottoman
history (at least until the nineteenth century). Far from enjoying a seamless continuity with the
intellectual traditions of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 C.E.), however, it has become increas-
ingly apparent to specialists in the field that the Ottomans were in fact surprisingly unfamiliar with
many aspects of Islam’s classical literary corpus until comparatively late in their empire’s rise to
power. As a result, Ottoman learned elites are now understood to have “rediscovered” this classical
corpus and to have systematically appropriated it as their own through a process of reproduction,
translation, canonization, and emulation that mirrors Italian Renaissance humanism in several
important respects.
The origins of this Islamic Renaissance can be traced to the mid-fifteenth century, and signifi-
cantly, the sultan most closely connected with its early promotion was once again Mehmed the
Conqueror. A surviving inventory of Mehmed’s personal library, for example, features over 8,000
manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, and other eastern languages and includes an especially large number
of titles related to the life of Alexander the Great, to philosophy and political theory in the Arabo-
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Aristotelian tradition, and to related works in the fields of geography and cosmography. As such, the
list reveals a body of interests that are largely complementary to the numerous Latin and Greek texts
that Mehmed collected or commissioned during the same period, and should be understood as the
product of a wider, self-consciously “cosmopolitan” pattern of patronage that sought to combine
Eastern and Western literary and artistic traditions in a new imperial synthesis. Broadly in keeping
with these cultural ideals, it should also be noted that Mehmed showed a consistent preference for
“classical” languages. As such, he showed comparatively little interest in works in the Turkish
vernacular, and even when commissioning translations of Greek and Latin texts, he requested
translations into Arabic rather than Turkish (Necipoğlu 2012; Raby 1983).
Importantly, Mehmed seems to have used this “cosmopolitan” pattern of patronage to both reflect
and legitimize his larger administrative practices, particularly his controversial policy of reserving
top government postings for former Byzantine converts, Western renegades, Iranian immigrants,
and other “outsiders” at the expense of freeborn Turkish-speaking Muslims (Babinger 1953). But in
the decades after Mehmed’s death, a new cadre of madrasa-trained, urban, Turkish-speaking literati
began to flex their collective muscles in opposition to such policies. By the middle of the sixteenth
century, they succeeded in establishing Turkish not only as the primary administrative language of
the empire but also, for the first time in history, as a major medium of literature and scholarship
(Kuru 2012).
Several aspects of this development have striking resonance with the trajectory of the European
Renaissance. Firstly, although the members of this new imperial elite used eloquence in Ottoman
Turkish as a central marker of their collective identity, the moniker that they chose for themselves
was not “Turkish” but rather “Roman” (lit. Rūmī ). As such, they by no means rejected the idea,
originally championed by Mehmed, that the Ottoman state was the New Rome and the Sultan its new
Emperor. Instead, they presented an alternative chronology and taxonomy for this succession,
inspired by the Quranic depiction of Arabs (‛Arab), Persians (‛Acem), and Romans (Rūm) as the
three principle peoples of the world. From this starting point, they constructed a new meta-narrative
of civilization that divided history into three primary ages, the first being the age of the Arabs (i.e.,
Classical Islam), the second being the age of the Persians (i.e., the medieval period), and the third
being the age of the Romans (i.e., the Ottomans’ own age of dominance). This third “Roman” age, in
a manner remarkably evocative of Western humanism, was typically described in terms of “renewal”
(tejdī d) and was linked to a program of remodeling society based on the standards of ethics,
aesthetics, and good governance inherited from Islam’s classical age – to which the Rūmī intellec-
tuals, thanks to their madrasa education and their impeccable knowledge of Arabic and Persian, had
privileged access (Andrews 2006; Kafadar 2007).
To this end, the Rūmī s were greatly aided by the sweeping Ottoman conquests of Syria, Egypt,
and Iraq between 1516 and 1536, victories that provided Ottoman literati with unprecedented
opportunities to travel to the ancient centers of Islamic learning and return home with Arabic and
Persian manuscripts. By the middle decades of the sixteenth century, hundreds of previously
unknown titles had been brought to Istanbul and translated into Turkish for the first time, and
through such translations Turkish itself was transformed into a language of high imperial culture that
reflected the vocabulary, rhetoric, and poetic inflection of a reputed Islamic golden age (Kuru 2012).
Finally, and perhaps most fascinatingly, as these “Ottoman humanists” embraced the project of
remodeling their society based on classical precedents, they did so by developing many of the same
genres as their Western counterparts: biographical dictionaries that glorified the great artists, poets,
and scholars of the past and present; histories that placed the Ottoman Empire at the apex of
a triumphant story of Islamic expansion, decline, and renewal; reformist tracts that offered cures
for the ills of society based on models from an Islamic golden age; and so forth. Eventually, these
Page 4 of 6
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_236-1
became the foundations of an entirely reconstituted cannon of literature and history that permanently
redefined the contours of Ottoman elite society (Fleischer 1986). Thereafter, it would become almost
impossible to imagine that the Ottoman Empire had ever been anything other than an essentially
Turcophone and Muslim state, in much the same way that the European Renaissance made it
impossible to imagine early modern Europe as anything other than the unique heir to Greco-
Roman antiquity.
Impact and Legacy

Perhaps the clearest illustration of the Ottoman Renaissance’s long-term legacy is found not in the
literary arts but rather in the field of architecture. Over the course of the sixteenth century, the
celebrated master architect Mimar Sinan (d. 1588) developed an innovative style of Ottoman
mosque based on a cascading series of half-domes surrounding a central vault. The style was
explicitly designed to reproduce, in an Islamic guise, the imperial grandeur of the Hagia Sophia,
and in a well-known passage from his autobiography, Sinan even boasted of having surpassed the
splendor of the Hagia Sophia’s majestic dome with his buildings, thereby succeeding where
contemporary Italian architects had failed (Necipoglu 2005).
The style proved so architecturally powerful that it was reproduced at countless locations and on
varying scales throughout the Ottoman Empire. Eventually, it became the most universally
recognizable symbol of Ottoman Islam, to the extent that its original association with Romanitas
and Christianity became almost totally obscure (Kafesçioğlu 2009). As a result, among the most
common reactions today of naïve first-time visitors to the Hagia Sophia is to remark that it “looks
like a mosque.”
In a similar way, scholars have been just as powerfully influenced by the Ottoman Renaissance,
which continues to shape – albeit in ways that are all too rarely acknowledged – our contemporary
understandings of Islam, classical antiquity, the Greco-Roman legacy, and the basic contours of
Western civilization.
References
Andrews W (2006) Suppressed renaissance: Q: when is renaissance not a renaissance? A: when it is
the Ottoman Renaissance. In: Schildgen BD, Deen B, Zhou G, Gilman SL (eds) Other renais-
sances: a new approach to world literature. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, pp 17–34
Babinger F (1953) Mehmed der Eroberer und seine Zeit. F. Bruckman, M€ unchen
Bisaha N (2004) Creating east and west: renaissance humanists and the Ottoman Turks. University
of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia
Brotton J, Jardine L (2000) Global interests: renaissance art between east and west. Cornell
University Press, Ithaca
Burckhardt J (1860) Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien. Schweighauser, Wien
Finlay R (1984) Al servizio del Sultano: Venezia, i Turchi e il mondo Cristiano, 1523–1538. In:
Tafuri M (ed) Renovatio Urbis: Venezia nell eta di Andrea Gritti (1523–1538). Officina Edizioni,
Rome, pp 78–118
Fleischer C (1986) Bureaucrat and intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: the historian Mustafa Ali
(1541–1600). Princeton University Press, Princeton
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Geanakoplos DJ (1989) Constantinople and the west: essays on the late Byzantine (Palaeologan)
and Italian renaissances and the Byzantine and Roman churches. University of Wisconsin Press,
Madison
Goody J (2010) Renaissances: the one or the many. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Kafadar C (2007) A Rome of one’s own: reflections on cultural geography and identity in the lands
of rum. Muqarnas 24:7–26
Kafesçioğlu C (2009) Constantinopolis/Istanbul: cultural encounter, imperial vision, and the con-
struction of the Ottoman capital. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia
Kuru S (2012) The literature of rum: the making of a literary tradition. In: Faroqhi S, Fleet K (eds)
The Ottoman Empire as a world power. The Cambridge history of Turkey, vol 2. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, pp 548–592
Makdisi G (1990) The rise of humanism in Islam and the west, with special reference to
scholasticism. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh
Meserve M (2008) Empires of Islam in renaissance thought. Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
MA
Necipoğlu G (2005) The age of Sinan: architecture culture in the Ottoman Empire. Princeton
Necipoğlu G (2012) Visual cosmopolitanism and creative translation: artistic conversations with
renaissance Italy in Mehmed II’s Constantinople. Muqarnas 29:1–81
Raby J (1983) Mehmed the Conqueror’s Greek scriptorium. Dumbarton Oaks Pap 37:15–34
Turan E (2007) The sultan’s favorite: Ibrahim Pasha and the making of the Ottoman universal
sovereignty in the reign of Sultan S€
uleyman, 1516–1526. PhD dissertation, University of Chicago
Valensi L (1987) Venise et la Sublime Porte: La naissance du despot. Hachette, Paris
Page 6 of 6
S
Stoicism together for the first time more or less all the
surviving evidence for Stoic philosophy. His
John Sellars contemporaries Michel de Montaigne and
Department of Philosophy, King’s College Guillaume Du Vair presented Stoic ideas in
London, London, UK the vernacular and reemphasized the practical
orientation of Stoicism. The early seventeenth
century saw a flurry of scholarly studies by
Abstract Adam Bursius, Caspar Scioppius, and Isaac
The ancient philosophy of Stoicism found both Casaubon alongside those of Lipsius.
admirers and critics during the Renaissance. Throughout the period, a continual theme was
Early humanists such as Petrarch and Coluccio the compatibility of Stoicism with Christianity;
Salutati admired many aspects of Stoic philos- by the end of the period, they were firmly
ophy, based on their reading of Cicero and disconnected, paving the way for eighteenth-
Seneca. Seneca attracted much humanist atten- century presentations of Stoicism as a form of
tion and was the subject of biographies and materialism and atheism.
commentaries. However Stoicism also had its
critics, from Lorenzo Valla, adopting an Epi-
curean point of view, to Marsilio Ficino, Introduction
defending his own Platonic position. The
recovery and translation of Greek authors The ancient philosophical school of Stoicism was
such as Diogenes Laertius and Epictetus founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium c. 300 BCE,
expanded knowledge of the Stoa. Whereas and the school developed under his successors
early humanists associated Stoicism with Cic- Cleanthes and Chrysippus. By the first century
ero and Seneca, later generations returned BCE, the Athenian school was no more, but its
Zeno and Chrysippus to center stage. Seneca ideas were already well known in Rome. The
remained important, even after the correspon- works of the Athenian Stoics fell out of circulation
dence with St Paul was dismissed as spurious, in late antiquity, making Cicero’s extended dis-
and attracted the attention of Erasmus, Jean cussions of Stoic ideas in his philosophical works
Calvin, and Justus Lipsius. It was with Lipsius the earliest and most important record of early
that the fortunes of Stoicism changed dramat- Stoic philosophy.
ically. His De constantia founded what has At Rome Stoicism attracted numerous adher-
come to be called Neostoicism, while his two ents, of whom Seneca was probably the most
Stoic handbooks published in 1604 brought significant, along with a number of others with
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_239-1
2 Stoicism
whom he was acquainted, including Cornutus, were unsurprisingly the main sources of informa-
Lucan, and Persius. Around the same time, tion and inspiration.
Musonius Rufus lectured on Stoicism in Rome, Renaissance engagements with Stoicism con-
and his most famous pupil, Epictetus, went on to tinued in this vein, at least at the beginning. It
found a philosophical school in Nicopolis, where would be some time before the full range of
his pupil Arrian recorded his lectures. Epictetus ancient evidence for Stoic ideas became readily
was an important influence on Marcus Aurelius, available, and not until the sixteenth century that
whose notebook reflections composed most likely the most important Greek sources were put into
in the 170s stand as the latest Stoic text to survive. print. Although the important account of Stoic
The Stoics identified God with Nature (or with doctrine in Book VII of Diogenes Laertius’s
the pneuma permeating Nature) and God’s prov- Vitae philosophorum had been translated into
idence with fate, which they characterized as the Latin c. 1433 and first printed in 1472, the Greek
order of causes in Nature. The human soul, they text did not appear in print until 1529. Similarly,
suggested, is a fragment of the divine pneuma in the Enchiridion of Epictetus was translated into
Nature and essentially rational. They dismissed Latin in 1450 and 1479 and first printed in 1497,
the emotions of delight, lust, distress, and fear as but the Greek text did not appear in print until
the products of mistaken judgements and taught 1529. Arrian’s Dissertationes Epicteti, upon
their eradication. They advocated a life in har- which the Enchiridion was based, were first
mony with Nature guided by virtue, which they printed in 1535, and Marcus Aurelius’s notes to
defined as a soul in excellent condition. Only himself were printed in 1559. Other key sources in
virtue is inherently good, they held, and its oppo- Greek included material contained in works by
site, vice, the only thing inherently bad. External Stobaeus, Plutarch, Philo, Sextus Empiricus,
goods and states of affairs may be preferable or Galen, and the Greek commentators on Aristotle
non-preferable depending on whether they con- (in particular, Alexander of Aphrodisias and
tribute to one’s self-preservation, but they cannot Simplicius).
contribute to one’s happiness, for which virtue is Debates about the compatibility of Stoic ethics
the only necessary and sufficient condition. with Christian teaching, as well as about Seneca’s
relationship with Christianity (shaped by Jerome’s
assessment of him and his supposed correspon-
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition dence with St Paul), continued well into the six-
teenth century. Those debates culminated in
In the Latin West Stoic ideas were known primar- Justus Lipsius’s attempt to reconcile Stoic and
ily via the works of Cicero, Seneca, and Church Christian teaching in his De constantia of 1584.
Fathers such as Lactantius, Jerome, and August- The gradually increasing body of knowledge
ine. Further sources of information included Boe- about ancient Stoicism was also transformed by
thius, Calcidius, and Aulus Gellius. In the twelfth Lipsius when he drew it all together for his two
century, before the explosion of interest in Aris- sourcebooks of Stoic philosophy printed in 1604.
totle in the thirteenth, philosophers such as Peter Lipsius’s scholarship marks a definite rupture
Abelard and John of Salisbury engaged with Stoic with the medieval and early Renaissance recep-
ideas drawn from these sources. Although in prin- tion of Stoicism. Later discussions of Stoicism by
ciple it would have been possible to recover Stoic authors such as G. W. F. Leibniz and Pierre Bayle
ideas on a fairly wide range of philosophical would not have been possible without the work of
topics, in practice the focus tended to remain in Lipsius, upon which they relied for their knowl-
the realm of ethics. The most noteworthy exam- edge of Stoicism as a philosophical system.
ples of philosophers engaging seriously with Stoic
ethical ideas were Peter Abelard (in his
Collationes) and Roger Bacon (in his Moralis
philosophia). In both cases Seneca and Cicero
Stoicism 3
Innovative Aspects content of Petrarch’s various remedies draw on a

wide range of sources, the overall structure and
The early Renaissance interest in ancient Latin aim is firmly Stoic (see further Panizza 1991).
texts brought renewed attention to Stoicism. The The influence of Stoicism can also be seen in
most important early figure was Petrarch Petrarch’s Secretum, written in 1347. In this dia-
(Francesco Petrarca, 1304–1374). Petrarch’s logue between Augustine (“Augustinus”) and
knowledge of Stoicism was little different from Petrarch himself (“Franciscus”), Augustine takes
that of his medieval predecessors and was drawn the role of an older and wiser teacher who offers
mainly from Seneca and Cicero. If there was a Petrarch a Christianized brand of Stoic-inspired
difference, it was in his approach to the material. psychotherapy. He argues that the younger
His particular interest in Roman antiquity and his Petrarch’s current unhappiness is ultimately his
practical philosophical outlook combined to make own fault but that it is also within his own power
him take these authors far more seriously than to escape from it. Augustine states that “virtue
most scholastic philosophers tended to do. In De alone makes the mind happy” (Secretum I.3.1;
sui ipsius et multorum ignorantia, Petrarch Petrarch 2016, 16–17), and so we should not be
dismissed Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics as a disturbed by external events and objects, echoing
dry textbook of moral theory, admiring instead fairly standard Stoic doctrine. He goes on to sug-
Cicero, Seneca, and Horace for their inspiring gest that only a Stoic life in accord with reason
ethical maxims (Petrarch 2003, 315). His broadly will cure the young Petrarch of his current dis-
Socratic approach to philosophy, seeing it as the tress. Once again Petrarch the author draws on
art of living well, made him especially interested Cicero’s Tusculanae disputationes III.24–5 for
in the sorts of Stoic therapeutic practice found in the ensuing Stoic analysis of the emotions,
works such as Seneca’s Epistulae and Cicero’s which are presented as the principal impediment
Tusculanae disputationes. This is most evident to a rational life.
in his largest philosophical work, De remediis Given that Augustine is the central character in
utriusque fortunae (Petrarch 1554, 1991), written the dialogue, reflecting his place as the preeminent
in the 1350s. In this text, he offers a series of influence on Petrarch, the discussion also includes
remedies for both good and bad fortune: in Book a number of non-Stoic doctrines, where Petrarch
I “Reason” (Ratio) debates with “Joy” (Gaudium) carefully Christianizes his Stoicism: the soul, for
and “Hope” (Spes) in order to temper happiness instance, is said to be contaminated by the body
with or desire for a whole series of apparent (Secretum I.15.1; Petrarch 2016, 56–7) and must
goods, from good health to fame after death, escape its grossness in order to ascend to heaven
while in Book II “Reason” debates with “Sorrow” (Secretum I.8.3; Petrarch 2016, 34–5). The young
(Dolor) and “Fear” (Metus) about the apparent Petrarch alludes to Augustine’s own doctrine of
evil of things such as ill health, poverty, bereave- grace, claiming that he can hope for nothing from
ment, and death. These four categories of emotion himself, only from God. While Augustine
which “Reason” tries to subdue are taken from acknowledges the role of grace, he continues to
Cicero’s account of the Stoic analysis of emotions insist that Petrarch’s troubles remain entirely
in Tusculanae disputationes III.24–5 where within his own control (Secretum II.1.1; Petrarch
delight (laetitia) and lust (libido) are defined as a 2016, 64–5). However, the final conclusion of the
belief in something good, either present or future, work owes more to Augustinianism than it does to
and distress (aegritudo) and fear (metus) are Stoicism: the way for Petrarch to overcome his
defined as a belief in something bad, either present love for a woman (Laura) is ultimately not
or future. The dialogue form into which this Stoic through Stoic rational psychotherapy but rather
division is cast was, like the title of the work, by replacing that passion with a healthier one,
inspired by a short treatise entitled De remediis namely, the love of God (Secretum III.5.2;
fortuitorum which was thought to be by Seneca Petrarch 2016, 166–7).
(but is now dismissed as spurious). While the
4 Stoicism
In both De remediis utriusque fortunae and 116). The worst possible state of mind happens
Secretum Petrarch drew heavily on Cicero; he when their three opposites are present: false
was also an avid reader of Seneca. He admired judgement, mental darkness, and a maleficent
Seneca’s writings but had doubts about the man, will (Ethica II.7; Hogg 1997, 117). In between
brought on in part by reading Suetonius’s life of these extreme states, there are six further grades of
Nero. In his letter addressed to Seneca (Familiares emotional disturbance, formed by different com-
XXIV.5; Petrarch 2005, III:322–5), written in binations of the absence or presence of these three
1348, Petrarch praised Seneca as the greatest factors. Immediately after presenting this other-
moral philosopher and claimed to read him every wise unknown material, Barlaam then presents the
day. However he also questioned Seneca about his well-known account of four types of emotional
relationship with Nero and what Petrarch took to disturbance recounted in Cicero (outlined earlier)
be various errors in judgement. Petrarch was dis- and explains how these two accounts fit together.
turbed by this mismatch between Seneca’s philos- Barlaam’s treatise is relatively unknown but
ophy and his life, which, in the hands of harsher stands as one of the few technical discussions of
critics, might have been seen as hypocrisy (see Stoic ethical theory from this period.
further Ker 2009, 314–17). A complex set of relationships with Stoicism
While Petrarch’s works drew widely on the can be found when turning to Coluccio Salutati
Latin sources for Stoicism available to him, he (1331–1406), a key figure in the development of
did not attempt to defend or champion Stoicism Florentine humanism. Early in his intellectual
directly. By contrast, his contemporary and some- development, Salutati adopted a broadly Stoic
time Greek teacher Barlaam of Seminara position inspired by his reading of Seneca. He
(c. 1290–1348) wrote a short text outlining Stoic knew both the prose works and the tragedies but
ethics and explicitly defending it from Peripatetic thought they were the work of two different
criticisms. Barlaam’s Ethica secundum Stoicos authors (Epistolario III.8; Salutati 1891–1911,
(Hogg 1997) can probably lay claim to being the I:150–55). In his letters, he commended a range
earliest surviving example of Stoic scholarship. In of broadly Stoic ideas, even if he did not always
it Barlaam claims to draw on a wide range of Stoic mention the Stoics by name (Witt 1983, 63–5). In
sources, although he does not name them. his most substantial work, De laboribus Herculis,
The work is divided into two books. Book inspired by Seneca’s Hercules Furens, Salutati
I responds to the question “what is happiness?” openly championed Stoicism above all the other
and locates it in virtue and virtuous actions, argu- ancient philosophical schools for coming closest
ing against the Peripatetic view that happiness to true virtue (Salutati 1951, 1:311). Elsewhere he
requires other things beyond virtue. Book II asks defines nobility as the product of virtue rather than
the question “in what things does happiness con- high birth (Ullman 1963, 73), implicitly endorsing
sist?” and argues that it consists in having one’s the Stoic claim that true goodness comes only
soul in a good condition, free from emotional from virtue and echoing the famous Stoic para-
disturbances. Here Barlaam argues against the doxes discussed by Cicero.
Peripatetic doctrine of the moderation of emo- Yet he was also sensitive to the need to qualify
tions. It is within this context that he outlines a his admiration for Stoicism in the light of Chris-
distinction between different degrees of emotional tian teaching. Like Barlaam, Salutati identified the
disturbance that may record an element of Stoic distinctively human good as a life guided by vir-
doctrine otherwise unknown (Hogg 1997, 9). It is tue. However, unlike Barlaam, he denied that this
possible that he may have had access to Stoic was completely within one’s control, suggesting
material now lost during his time in Constantino- in a letter of 1369 that a good life required not only
ple. The ideal state of mind is constancy virtue but also the grace of God (Epistolario II.18;
(constantia). This requires three things: true Salutati 1891–1911, I:110). This moderate, Chris-
judgement about goods and evils, mental equabil- tianized brand of Stoicism echoes the views of
ity, and a beneficent will (Ethica II.5; Hogg 1997,
Stoicism 5
Petrarch, with whom Salutati corresponded in the between Seneca and St Paul and comment on the
same year. virtuous character of Seneca’s moderate life
Later in life Salutati became critical of Stoi- (continentissimae vitae fuit). Interest in Seneca’s
cism, openly acknowledging the shift from his life increased in the wake of Boccaccio’s discov-
earlier views. After the death of his son in 1400, ery at Monte Cassino of a manuscript preserving
a well-meaning correspondent, Franceso the Annales of Tacitus; if Jerome had described
Zabarella, sent a letter of consolation based on Seneca as a pagan equivalent of St Paul, Tacitus
the Stoic principles which Salutati himself had presented his death as a heroic martyrdom on a par
previously embraced. But in the wake of bereave- with that of Socrates. Boccaccio drew on both of
ment, he no longer found these arguments con- these accounts in his commentary on Dante’s
vincing and responded with a lengthy attack on Divina Commedia, written in 1373–1374. There,
this attempt at Stoic consolation (Epistolario Dante had placed Seneca in Limbo as an
XII.4; Salutati 1891–1911, III:456–79; Kraye unbaptized pagan (Inferno IV.141). Boccaccio
1997, 179–91). He challenged the claim that tried to rescue Seneca from this fate by arguing
because only virtue is good and vice is evil, that the correspondence with St Paul suggested
death is not an evil. Although morally death is that the apostle saw Seneca as a Christian and that
not evil, it remains a genuine evil because it is the Jerome confirmed this judgement. The newly dis-
privation of the goodness of life. Salutati draws on covered testimony of Tacitus showed that Sen-
Aristotle for support, calling him “the prince of eca’s death was not really suicide but an
philosophers,” while castigating the “cold- execution ordered by Nero, although one carried
heartedness and unattainable logic of the Stoics” out by Seneca’s own hands. Not only that, the
(Salutati 1891–1911, III:463; Kraye 1997, 182). pool in which Seneca opened his veins became,
The various forms of Stoic philosophical conso- on Boccaccio’s reading, a baptismal font in which
lation reported by Cicero do nothing to soothe the Seneca was baptized before his death (Boccaccio
mind; only the passage of time can heal 2009, 234–5). Thus, Seneca could be saved.
it. Salutati’s firsthand experiences of grief had A number of writers elaborated on these matters
taught him some hard lessons. His dismissal of and wrote their own lives of Seneca, the most impor-
Stoicism in this late letter appears to have been an tant of whom were Gasparino Barzizza, Sicco
attack primarily on the sort of Stoic therapeutics Polenton, Giannozzo Manetti, and Paolo Pompilio
outlined by Cicero in the Tusculanae (Panizza 1977, 317; see further Panizza 1984).
disputationes. Cicero was himself skeptical of The earliest of these, Gasparino Barzizza
the efficacy of the cold and technical way in (1360–1431), wrote not only a biography of Sen-
which the early Stoics presented their views eca but also a commentary on the Epistulae
(Tusculanae disputationes IV.9; De finibus IV.7). morales and on the correspondence with St Paul.
Salutati’s earlier enthusiasm for Stoicism, by con- Although his commentaries on Seneca never
trast, relied more on the rhetorical presentation of made it into print, his biography was often
their ideas in Seneca, whom he had often praised included in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century edi-
as the greatest of moral philosophers (e.g., tions of Seneca’s works, although shortened and
Epistoloraio II.2; Salutati 1891–1911, I:57, either anonymously or mistakenly attributed to
cf. Ullman 1963, 87). Polenton (Panizza 1977, 337). These works were
In his admiration for Seneca, Salutati was by the by-product of lecturing on Seneca at the Uni-
no means alone. Seneca’s reputation during the versity of Padua, sometime between 1407 and
Middle Ages and early Renaissance was shaped in 1421. In his biography of the Stoic, Barzizza
large part by Jerome’s judgement in his De viris followed Boccaccio in claiming that Seneca was
illustribus, which was often reproduced in manu- baptized moments before death but then went one
scripts containing Seneca’s works (Ker 2009, step further by claiming that the mixture of Sen-
182). Although brief, Jerome’s remarks implicitly eca’s own blood with the water constituted bap-
affirm the authenticity of the correspondence tism by blood, i.e., martyrdom (Panizza 1977,
6 Stoicism
323–4). In the introduction to his commentary on period approached it, not as an abstract theoretical
the Epistulae morales, he praises Seneca as pre- system but rather as a philosophical way of life.
eminent among ancient philosophers for guidance However, elsewhere Manetti was skeptical about
about how to put theory into practice (Barzizza the benefits of Stoic consolation (McClure 1991,
1977b, 352), comparing him with Socrates. Sen- 100–3).
eca’s moral philosophy offers both medicine for Seneca’s fortunes were to change, however, in
the soul and spiritual guidance which is second to the wake of the much closer attention paid to his
that of no other ancient author (Barzizza 1977b, texts. For humanists such as Petrarch, Salutati,
352–3). Indeed, Seneca’s preeminence above all and Manetti, the name “Seneca” was associated
other Greek and Latin authors is precisely because with a collection of moral essays and letters, a
his philosophy is focused on practical questions whole series of shorter pieces including the corre-
about how to live well (Barzizza 1977a, 349). spondence with St Paul, rhetorical works, and a
Toward the end of his career, Barzizza shifted collection of tragedies. While some thought the
his attention to Cicero at the expense of Seneca, moralist and tragedian were different people, it
but this did not indicate a turn away from Stoicism was some time before the rhetorical works were
conceived as a practical guide to life. Among identified as the work of Seneca’s father. Central
other Ciceronian works, he lectured and wrote in all this was inevitably the question of the
on De officiis and presented Cicero as a Stoic authenticity of the correspondence with St Paul.
(Panizza 1977, 303–4). The first person to challenge its status was
In the case of Giannozzo Manetti Leonello d’Este in the 1440s, probably inspired
(1396–1459), we find a life of Seneca paired by the humanist Guarino Veronese. He may have
with a life of Socrates, explicitly modelled on been preempted by Lorenzo Valla in a now lost
Plutarch’s parallel Greek and Roman lives work written in the 1420s (Panizza 1977, 334–6).
(Manetti 2003, 166–7). For Manetti, Seneca is Valla himself had little time for Stoicism. In his
the prince of Latin philosophers (Manetti 2003, dialogue De voluptate (first completed 1431,
164–5) and the greatest moral philosopher expanded as De vero bono in 1433, and eventually
(Manetti 2003, 244–5). He was a friend of St re-titled De vero falsoque bono), he compared
Paul and the author of not only those works now Stoic and Epicurean views regarding pleasure
attributed to Seneca but also a range of other and virtue. Ultimately Valla opted for a Christian-
writings since judged to be spurious (such as the ized form of hedonism, but along the way he
De quattuor virtutibus, by Martin of Braga), as outlined and criticized the Stoic position. Despite
well as the rhetorical works by Seneca’s father. claiming to follow Nature, the Stoics attempted to
Manetti drew on a wide range of pagan and Chris- reform it, by trying to overcome our completely
tian authors for his biography, from Plutarch and natural emotions (Valla 1977, 72–3). Moreover,
Tacitus to Lactantius, Jerome, and Augustine. He their remedies against misfortune fail to help. The
explicitly presents Seneca as a Stoic, whose views antidote to grief is not resignation but rather a
he champions over those of the other philosophi- healthy dose of its opposites: delight, pleasure,
cal schools, and he even suggests that Seneca was and cheerfulness (Valla 1977, 140–1). Stoic virtue
the master and leader (magister et princeps) of the does not cultivate happiness; instead, like the head
Stoics (Manetti 2003, 266–7). Manetti also of Medusa, it turns people into marble. For Valla,
defended Seneca against criticisms of his behav- pleasure and suffering are necessary parts of a
ior, such as his great wealth, by showing that human life, and Stoicism fails to accept this
possession of a mere “indifferent” does not con- basic fact. Elsewhere, in his Retractatio totius
tradict Stoic doctrine (Manetti 2003, 270–1). This dialecticae, Valla describes Stoic doctrine in
focus on the practical value of Seneca’s philoso- terms which might commend it to a Christian
phy alongside sustained defenses of his actions by reader: the sect held that the world was made by
Barzizza, Manetti, and others highlight the way in God for the sake of men and that human souls
which many of those drawn to Stoicism in this survive after death (Valla 2012 I:100–3). Both of
Stoicism 7
these claims involve a partial reading of the they denied the value of the body (Scala 2008,
ancient evidence, to say the least, and for Valla 94–5). Rather than challenge this claim, Poliziano
merely show that some of the time some pagan follows Simplicius in arguing that, like Plato,
philosophers get some things right. Epictetus held that a human being essentially con-
The humanist Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459) sists of a rational soul and that the body is merely
is remembered for his long-running literary dis- an instrument of the soul. Poliziano goes on to
pute with Valla. He also disagreed with Valla draw a number of other parallels with Platonic
about the value of Stoicism. In his dialogue De doctrines concluding that although Epictetus
vera nobilitate, composed around 1440, he has his does not state these himself, the Enchiridion
friend Niccolò Niccoli champion the Stoic claim takes them all as given. Throughout the letter
that true nobility derives from virtue rather than Poliziano calls Epictetus a Stoic; but the aim of
external goods (§69; Poggio 2002, 30). Stoic the letter as a whole is to show that this Stoic is in
themes also appear in Poggio’s De varietate many respects a Platonist. As he puts it, “our Stoic
fortunae (1447) and De miseria humanae fights boldly, using Platonic arguments as his
conditionis (1455). His friend, Leon Battista shield” (Garin 1952, 924; Kraye 1997, 198). In
Alberti (1404–1472), grappled with similar topics short, someone committed to Platonism can com-
in his own dialogues, especially the way in which fortably embrace the Enchiridion, even though its
virtue might offer some kind of protection against author happened to be a Stoic. While both trans-
the vicissitudes of fortune (Kircher 2012, lators admired Epictetus (Perotti calls him
111–64). In this, both Poggio and Alberti nobilissimus philosophus; Oliver 1954, 68), nei-
followed Petrarch in turning to Stoicism and, in ther had wider interests in Stoicism.
particular, Seneca for philosophical consolation In one respect this interest in Epictetus
(on Alberti see further Schöndube 2011). expanded the range of Stoic material available to
Seneca was not the only Stoic whose works readers, adding a newly translated Greek Stoic
survived the end of antiquity. The gradual process text to the familiar Latin ones. However, in
of rediscovering Greek texts during this period another respect it did not; for Epictetus was, like
brought to light a work by another Roman Stoic: Seneca, a late Roman Stoic whose works focused
the Enchiridion of Epictetus. This short text was on practical ethical guidance. It is true that readers
translated into Latin by Niccolò Perotti of Cicero could learn much about Chrysippus and
(1429–1480), probably in 1450, and again later the doctrines of the Hellenistic Stoa, but a fuller
by Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494) in 1479. In picture of early Stoicism would require access to a
both cases Epictetus was read in the light of the much wider range of Greek doxographical
Neoplatonic commentary on the Enchiridion by sources. One person who had access to such
Simplicius of Cilicia. Perotti translated the preface sources was Francesco Filelfo (1398–1481), who
of Simplicius’s commentary alongside the Enchi- spent a number of years in Constantinople,
ridion and may have intended to translate the became proficient in ancient Greek, and brought
entire commentary by papal commission (Oliver Greek manuscripts back to Italy. It has been
1954, 25). Poliziano made use of the commentary suggested that his consolatory dialogue De exilio
to supplement his defective Greek manuscripts of was modelled on Cicero’s Tusculanae
the Enchiridion and had significant recourse to it disputationes and perhaps Seneca’s works of con-
when interpreting the text as well. In both his solation (Filelfo 2013, ix). What is most striking,
dedicatory letter to Lorenzo de’ Medici and a however, about Filelfo’s work is that his Stoics are
letter in defense of Epictetus written to not Seneca and Cicero, but rather Zeno and
Bartolomeo Scala, Poliziano follows Simplicius Chrysippus; and the Stoic doctrines which he
in making a connection between Epictetus’s discusses are ones that we now associate with
Enchiridion and Plato’s First Alcibiades. One of the Greek founders of Stoicism rather than its
Scala’s criticisms of Epictetus and other Stoics, later Roman exponents. Following his sources,
repeated in his Dialogus de consolatione, was that he also tells us the titles of the works by Zeno
8 Stoicism
and Chrysippus from which his quotations come. existence of an immutable human soul
In fact, he follows his sources very closely, and a (Theologia Platonica I.1; Ficino 2001–2006,
number of the passages where he discusses Stoic I:14–15; cf. II:124–5). The Stoic soul, immanent
doctrine in detail are more or less translations of within matter, is subject to division and change
sections from Sextus Empiricus (cf. De exilio and as such is irredeemably corrupted (Theologia
I.227–9 with Adversus mathematicos XI.190–4; Platonica I.3; Ficino 2001–2006, I:28–9). The
De exilio 2.95–106 with Adversus mathematicos Stoics also identify this soul within nature with
XI.22–38; De exilio III.23–6 with Adversus God, a claim that Ficino rejects because it makes
mathematicos XI.3–17). Filelfo supplements this God dependent on the matter that he supposedly
heavy reliance on Sextus with material from permeates (Theologia Platonica IV.1; Ficino
Diogenes Laertius and Plutarch’s Moralia. 2001–2006, I:258–9). Although Ficino’s remarks
Given that the topic of the dialogue was exile, on Stoicism are brief, they are important because
Filelfo was especially interested in the Stoic atti- they form one of the first attempts to articulate the
tude toward external circumstances. This led him fundamental incompatibility between Stoic and
to recount the Stoic theory of “indifferents” Platonic-Christian metaphysics.
(adiaphora) more than once (De exilio Ficino’s Platonist attempt to demonstrate the
II.112–13; Filelfo 2013, 260, and De exilio immortality of the soul on rational grounds was
III.23–5; Filelfo 2013, 324–6). The early Stoics challenged a few decades later by the Aristotelian
(veteres Stoici) are aligned with followers of Pietro Pomponazzi (1462–1525), who argued in
Christ (Christi imitatores), both being uncon- his De immortalitate animae that it was impossi-
cerned with material goods. The (Stoic-Christian) ble to offer such a proof. Although Pomponazzi
wise man who possesses virtue wants for nothing, was a committed Aristotelian, he also made use of
and so is always serene in the face of the vicissi- Stoic arguments. In response to the concern that
tudes of fortune (De exilio III.69–70; Filelfo 2013, denial of the immortality of the soul would
362). Filelfo draws on Stoic, Cynic, and Christian remove the possibility of postmortem punishment
praise of poverty as part of a polemic against the and so undermine virtuous behavior, he argued
material excesses of the Medici. along Stoic lines that virtue is its own reward
It was relatively easy for authors like Filelfo to and vice its own punishment (De immortalitate
point to common ground between Stoic ethics and animae 14; Pomponazzi 2012, 180–1). He also
Christian teaching. It was much harder, however, pointed to Seneca as an example of someone who
to reconcile Stoic physics and metaphysics with held the soul to be mortal while remaining morally
the doctrines of the Church, a point noted by upright, motivated by the Stoic doctrine that “vir-
Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) in the opening chap- tue alone is happiness, and vice misery,” and
ter of his Theologia Platonica (Ficino pursuing only those external goods which serve
2001–2006). Ficino’s project in this work was to virtue, while avoiding those which hinder it (De
demonstrate, by the use of reason, the immortality immortalitate animae 14; Pomponazzi 2012,
of the soul, belief in which he took to be founda- 202–5). In a later work Pomponazzi was more
tional for human happiness. His broadly Neopla- explicit, stating that there is nothing disadvanta-
tonic metaphysics involved a hierarchy of five geous to agreeing with the Stoics that the soul is
levels of being: body, quality, soul, angel, and mortal (Pomponazzi 2004, II:892–5).
God, with the human soul located at the center The contrast between the views of Ficino and
and holding nature together (Theologia Platonica Pomponazzi is worth underlining and offers a
I.1; Ficino 2001–2006, I:16–17). The ancient window into wider debates about Stoicism both
atomists limited themselves to belief in just the then and since. For Ficino, Stoicism is
first of these levels. The Stoics and Cynics do a compromised by its metaphysics because human
little better by acknowledging the existence of an happiness ultimately depends on the existence of
active quality or power within nature, reaching the an immortal soul. For Pomponazzi, by contrast,
second level, but they too fail to admit the Stoic ethics stands autonomously and remains
Stoicism 9
attractive independent of one’s view about the Barzizza had tried to do. Seneca was not a Chris-
nature of the soul. Not only that, the fact that it tian and ought not to be read as if he were one.
is possible to combine this with belief in the Notwithstanding Jerome’s view, Erasmus rejected
mortality of the soul shows that Stoic materialism the authenticity of the correspondence with St
and other positions like it ought not to be rejected Paul, based in part on a stylistic comparison with
simply on moral grounds. On this Pomponazzi Seneca’s other works. It was still included in both
prefigures later debates about the possibility of a of his editions of Seneca but with a preface
virtuous atheist. With regard to Stoicism, both discussing its dubious status added in 1529
philosophers present opening positions in what (Erasmus 1906–1958, VIII:40–1). The earlier
was to become a long-running debate about the Renaissance image of a Christianized Seneca
interdependence of ethics and physics in the Stoic was no longer tenable, and this inevitably had an
system. impact on the wider reception of Stoicism.
Elsewhere Pomponazzi himself engaged with In his own works, Erasmus had no qualms
other parts of the system. In his De fato, de libero about criticizing Stoic doctrine and the idealized
arbitrio et de praedestinatione (published posthu- image of the Stoic sage. In Praise of Folly (written
mously in 1567), he defended Stoic determinism in 1509, publ. 1511), for instance, he ridiculed the
against the criticisms of the ancient Peripatetic Stoic’s negative attitude toward the emotions,
Alexander of Aphrodisias, arguing that the Stoic suggesting instead that emotions can act as guides
theory was more consistent and coherent than and incentives to morally good behavior. The
either the Aristotelian position or the Christian image of the Stoic sage is “a kind of marble statue
doctrine of divine providence (Pomponazzi of a man, devoid of sense and any sort of human
2004, 1:414–17; with Kraye 2016). His use of feeling” (Erasmus 1979, 106). Although there
material from a Greek Aristotelian commentator remained valuable moral guidance in the works
like Alexander (even though in a Latin translation of a Stoic like Seneca, it was important to reject
by Gerolamo Bagolino, 1516) marked a step for- those doctrines which conflicted with Christian
ward in the recovery of ancient sources of infor- teaching. Erasmus’s contribution to the reception
mation about Stoic doctrine. of Stoicism in this period was effectively to
Despite these small advances, in the early six- unpick the attempts by some Italian humanists to
teenth century, Seneca remained the most famous smooth over the differences between Stoic and
of the Stoics and a key point of reference. Works Christian thought. This formed an important step
of his had already been printed over 70 times by forward toward the recovery of ancient Stoicism
1501 (Goff 1964: 555–8). A number of figures on its own terms.
engaged with his works in various ways, produc- A similar move can be seen in the work of Jean
ing editions and writing commentaries. The most Calvin (1509–1564), although this time more
important of these were Erasmus, Calvin, and concerned with Stoic physics rather than its ethics.
Lipsius, although Celio Secondo Curione and Calvin’s intellectual career began with an edition
Marc-Antoine Muret might also be noted. of and commentary on Seneca’s De clementia,
Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1467–1536) edited published in 1532. In his preface, he defended
Seneca’s works twice, in 1515 and 1529. both Seneca’s style and his philosophy from his
Unhappy with his work the first time around (or, recent critics. In the realm of ethics, Seneca reigns
to be more precise, the work of his collaborator), supreme (potissimum regnat); in Roman philoso-
he decided to prepare a second edition (Erasmus phy and literature, he stands second only to Cic-
1906–1958, VIII:26–7). This did not, however, ero; and reading his works gives one both profit
indicate unconditional admiration for his subject. and delight (Calvin 1969, 10–13). However,
Although he was drawn to Seneca by the value he Calvin’s most important engagements with Stoi-
placed on Jerome’s endorsement (Erasmus cism came later, and the topic of Stoic fate preoc-
1906–1958, II:53), Erasmus had no desire to cupied him throughout his subsequent works. In
save Seneca in the way that Boccaccio and particular, he repeatedly distanced his own view
10 Stoicism
of divine providence from the Stoic position in events. It opens with the Stoic claim that human
order to undermine the charge that he himself was suffering is ultimately the product of our judge-
a Stoic. Calvin argued in the Institutio Christianae ments rather than external events. It goes on to
religionis that his own doctrine differed from Sto- offer arguments against the existence of external
icism in that he did not share the Stoic view that evils: they are imposed by God; they are the
there existed a necessity in nature connecting all product of necessity and fate; they, in fact, benefit
things (Calvin 1539, 265). Instead he insisted that us; and they are neither grievous nor unusual
God was master of all natural events. In fact, this (Lipsius 1584, 38). Much of this draws inspiration
view differed little from Seneca’s own position from Seneca, especially the claim that apparently
(cf. De beneficiis VI.23.1), especially as evil events are, in fact, good for us, which repeats
interpreted by Augustine (in De civitate Dei a line of argument developed in Seneca’s De pro-
V.8). This is especially clear in his De aeterna videntia. The most philosophically significant part
Dei praedestinatione of 1552, where Calvin of Lipsius’s dialogue is the discussion of fate, in
repeats the view of Seneca that God “always which he both drew on and distanced himself from
wills the same thing, and this is the praise of his the Stoic theory of fate, just as Calvin had done
constancy” (Calvin 1552, 934). His repeated half a century earlier. Lipsius’s explicit line is that
polemics against Stoic fate were necessary pre- Stoic fate ought to be modified in the light of
cisely because his own position was so close to Christian doctrine before it can be embraced.
theirs (although on other topics, such as the emo- The problem with the Stoic position is that it sub-
tions, he was more critical; see, e.g., Institutio ordinates God to fate, insists on an eternal succes-
Christianae religionis III.8.9; Calvin 1961, sion of natural causes, denies contingency, and
708–11). His argument was not so much with inflicts a violent force on our will (Lipsius 1584,
Stoicism as it was with a contemporary image of 65). However, the details of Lipsius’s account
the Stoics which downplayed their commitment to suggest that he thought there was no great dispute
divine providence. Either way, Calvin’s contribu- between the Stoic and Christian views of fate and
tion to these debates about Stoic physics and that the Stoic position could be embraced
theology, focused on precise differences between unaltered (Sellars 2014, 657–63).
Stoicism and various forms of Christian doctrine, Twenty years later, in 1604, Lipsius revisited
marked another step toward grasping Stoicism on the topic, and this time was unequivocal in his
its own terms. embrace of Stoic fate. Central to the discussion
These debates about the relationship between was a problematic passage in Seneca’s De pro-
Stoicism and Christianity and about the precise videntia (5.8) which seemed to imply that God
nature of Stoic fate were to become important was himself bound by fate. Drawing on other
themes in the work of Justus Lipsius passages in Seneca, along with the authoritative
(1547–1606). Like Erasmus and Calvin, Lipsius judgement of Augustine, Lipsius argued that the
is also remembered for his editorial work on Sen- Stoics do not subordinate God to fate; rather, fate
eca. In his case, however, it came at the very end is the expression of God’s will. And if fate is
of his career and stood as a final monument to a inevitable even for God, it is only because his
long-standing fascination with Stoicism. Lipsius perfection means he never changes his mind
was one of the few people during the Renaissance (Lipsius 1604b, 31–2). Although Seneca is some-
(or any other period since antiquity) to identify times clumsy in the way he expresses this, there is
himself openly as a Stoic. Yet he also remained a nothing in the Stoic theory which requires modi-
Christian and grappled with the ongoing issue of fication. Any apparent conflict is, as Augustine put
the extent to which the two worldviews might be it, merely a verbal difference (De civitate Dei V.8).
reconciled. He first tackled this in his De This second, more decisive, discussion of Stoic
constantia, published in 1584. This consolatory fate appeared in Lipsius’s Physiologia Stoicorum,
dialogue drew on Stoic material to offer remedies printed in 1604, and one of a pair of volumes
for emotional disturbances caused by external devoted to Stoicism published that year. The
Stoicism 11
Physiologia Stoicorum and its companion the grief lies not in nature but in our opinion
Manuductio ad Stoicam philosophiam (Lipsius (de Montaigne 1962, 61). When denying the
1604a, b) were both conceived as aids to the value of riches, he quoted from Seneca
study of Seneca, whose complete works Lipsius (Epistulae LXXIV.4) while also drawing on his
was editing at the same time (and published a year own experience. His conclusion presented a
later in 1605). In these two volumes, he gathered straightforwardly Stoic view: each person’s ease
together the ancient evidence for Stoicism from a or indigence (l’aisance et l’indigence) depends on
wide range of Greek and Latin sources, arranged it their opinion. External goods such as health,
by topic, and added his own interpretive commen- fame, and wealth only have the value we give to
tary (see further Saunders 1955). It was in these them. Fortune does us neither harm nor good, and
two books that for the very first time a reader it is our soul that is the only cause of our happiness
could access more or less all the ancient evidence or unhappiness (de Montaigne 1962, 67).
for Stoicism as a philosophical system in one Although Stoicism is never mentioned by name
place. This marked a watershed in the recovery in his discussion, he knowingly drew on Stoic
of ancient Stoicism in the Renaissance. texts in order to develop his argument. However,
All of Lipsius’s works were written in Latin the final arbiter for Montaigne here and elsewhere
and intended for scholars. At the same time that he is how well something accords with his own
was preparing these, other writers attracted to experience. He presented Stoic ideas with
Stoicism were among the first to present Stoic approval only to the extent that they agreed with
ideas in the vernacular. One of the earliest of his own.
these was Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592), The Frenchman Guillaume du Vair
who was an avid reader both of works by (1556–1621) stood somewhere in between
Roman Stoics (Seneca, Epictetus) and of texts Lipsius and Montaigne. He shared with Lipsius a
which were rich sources of information about philosophical commitment to Stoicism, with
early Stoicism (Cicero, Plutarch). His reading of Epictetus taking the place of Seneca as the major
Stoic material was certainly an important influ- influence. Like Montaigne, he wrote in the ver-
ence on him, but he never became an advocate of nacular; and he translated Epictetus’s Enchiridion
Stoicism as Lipsius had been. Even so, the impact into French for the first time (1585, published
of Stoicism can be seen throughout his Essais. In 1591). His work De la constance et consolation
Essai I.14, for instance, he took as his theme the es calamitez publiques, published in 1594, offered
saying of Epictetus that people are troubled not by a vernacular counterpart to Lipsius’s De
things but by their judgements about things constantia. In the present context, his most impor-
(Enchiridion 5). He argued in support of the tant work was his Philosophie morale des
Stoic claim that death, pain, and poverty are not Stoı̈ques of 1585. This work, Du Vair says in the
evils in themselves by appealing to the diversity of opening letter to the reader, was his attempt to
human opinion on these topics: some people present the same material as in his translation of
embrace death or pain for the sake of a higher Epictetus but taken to pieces and rearranged in a
ideal; some people are happier without riches than more systematic fashion (Du Vair 1945, 61). The
they are with them, including himself. Although result is more organized but far from technical;
he briefly granted the Epicurean claim that pain is and Du Vair runs through the central doctrines of
the worst thing which can happen to someone, he Stoic ethics concerning the role of external goods,
went on to qualify this by saying that the only the emotions, and the importance of living in
reason we think this is because we overvalue the accordance with reason, virtue, and nature.
body and neglect the importance of the soul when Modern scholars have often labelled the
assessing our well-being (de Montaigne 1962, revival of Stoicism in this period “Neostoicism,”
56–7). He cited with approval from Cicero’s in order to indicate the ways in which it differs
account of the Stoic theory of emotions in the from ancient Stoicism (see, e.g., Oestreich (1982);
Tusculanae disputationes (III.71) the claim that Morford (1991); Lagrée (2010)). It is often
12 Stoicism
claimed that “Neostoicism” differs from “Stoi- complement to Lipsius’s handbooks on Stoic
cism” by involving various amendments to Stoic ethics and physics published in the same year,
doctrine intended to make it acceptable to a Chris- although it was probably far less well known. In
tian audience. The founder of “Neostoicism,” on the following year, Isaac Casaubon published his
this account, was Lipsius. Yet, as we have seen, celebrated edition of the Stoic poet Persius
Christianized versions of Stoicism were common- (Casaubon 1605) which included a vast commen-
place well before Lipsius, and the details of his tary discussing many aspects of Stoic doctrine.
account of Stoicism are on the whole faithful to Caspar Scioppius’s Elementa philosophiae
the ancient Stoa. Even so the label is well Stoicae moralis (Scioppius 1606) was printed
established and is often applied to Lipsius, Du the year after. Scioppius, a German humanist
Vair, and a number of others indebted to Stoicism who corresponded with Lipsius, argued for the
in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centu- educational benefits of Stoic moral philosophy,
ries (Lagrée 2010, 20–1). Among these one might in an attempt to reform Catholic education and,
mention Pierre Charron (1541–1603), Francisco in particular, to challenge the Jesuits’ Aristotelian
de Quevedo (1580–1645), and Hugo Grotius curriculum. Echoing Petrarch, he contrasted Aris-
(1583–1645). These Neostoics all drew on and totelian moral theory, which merely teaches what
adapted Stoic ideas within a broadly Christian goodness is, with Stoic practical philosophy,
context just as others had done in the preceding which trains people to become good. Stoic philos-
centuries. If there was a difference, it was simply a ophy is not contemplative but rather, like music
reflection of the quite different cultural contexts in and medicine, is an art which must be put into
which early and late Renaissance readers of Stoi- practice. As such, mastery of this art will require
cism were working: late fourteenth-century Italy not only the study of philosophical doctrines but
was not the same as early seventeenth-century also mental exercises (Scioppius 1606, 18r). He
Northern Europe. also claimed that Stoicism was, in fact, more
compatible than Aristotelian doctrine with Chris-
tianity. For these reasons, Stoicism ought to be
preferred over Aristotle when looking for a foun-
Impact and Legacy
dation for a moral education (see further Kraye
2008). Just a few years later, Daniel Heinsius
Lipsius’s Stoic handbooks were published in
praised Stoicism in his oration “De Stoica
1604, followed by his edition of Seneca in 1605;
philosophia” (Heinsius 1612, 131–92). This text
he died the following year. That decade also saw
was not really a contribution to Stoic scholarship
the publication of a number of other early works
but rather simply an exhortation to Stoic wisdom.
of Stoic scholarship. In Poland, Adam Bursius
Nevertheless, it reflected the increased interest in
produced a comprehensive study of Stoic episte-
Stoicism at the beginning of the seventeenth cen-
mology and logic in his Dialectica
tury (Santinello 1993, 131). By this time, then, all
Ciceronis. . .maxime ex Stoicorum sententia
the relevant Greek and Latin sources for Stoicism
(Bursius 1604). In it he covered topics from the
were available in print, and there was a small but
definition of logic and its place in the Stoic sys-
expanding body of secondary literature offering
tem, through epistemology (aisthêsis, katalêpsis,
readers a guide through the intricacies of the Stoic
sunkatathêsis), to modal logic and Stoic syllo-
system. At the same time, the popularity of works
gisms. Although presented as a commentary on
by Lipsius, Du Vair, and Montaigne continued to
passages from Cicero, Bursius made full use of a
remind readers that Stoicism also offered very
wide range of Greek and Latin sources in his
practical guidance about how to live.
discussion, including Diogenes Laertius, Plu-
The most important legacy of the Renaissance
tarch, Galen, and the Greek commentators on
interest in and recovery of Stoicism was the
Aristotle. Bursius’s volume formed a natural
Stoicism 13
confirmation that Stoic philosophy and Christian Cross-References

doctrine were ultimately incompatible. The foun-
dations for this were laid by philological work on ▶ Barlaam of Calabria
the texts of Seneca by many hands, eventually ▶ Coluccio Salutati
separating out Seneca from his father, identifying ▶ Francesco Petrarca
the moralist with the tragedian, and dismissing a ▶ Guillaume Du Vair
whole range of minor works as spurious. Most ▶ Justus Lipsius
important was the rejection of the supposed cor-
respondence between Seneca and St Paul. The
recovery of ancient biographical accounts of Sen-
References
eca which were not always flattering challenged
the medieval image of Seneca as a proto-Christian
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_241-1
Subject/Object
Riccardo Pozzo*
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Cultural Heritage, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy
Abstract
The pair of concepts subject/object derives from the Greek hupokeímenon and antikeímenon and
from medieval usages of the verbs subiicio and obiicio, which actually mean the opposite of their
post-Cartesian usages.
Synonyms
Hupokeímenon/antikeímenon; Soggetto/oggetto; Subiectum/obiectum; Subjekt/objekt; Sujet/
objet
Introduction
The couple of concepts subject/object involves philosophical approaches that are relevant to the
intertwinement of logic, metaphysics, ethics, and psychology (Kobusch 1984; Karskens et al. 1998;
Kible et al. 1998). During the Renaissance, some major contributions were proposed by the Aquinas
commentator Tommaso de Vio Cardinal Cajetan, the humanist Petrus Ramus, the pure Aristotelian
Cornelius Martini, the semi-Ramist Bartholomaeus Keckermann, and the lexicographer Rudolf
Goclenius. Mostly, however, the discussion was led by Ramus and his followers, the Ramists,
because of the role they played in exacerbating a discussion on the constitution of objectivity that
was to have an impact on Cartesian and post-Cartesian theories of subjectivity. Finally, keeping in
mind that Kant was familiar with the secunda Petri, i.e., with the second part of Ramus’s logic,
namely, the theory of judgment, some common ground is recognizable on subject/object between
Ramus and Kant as well. Decades and decades before Descartes, the issue of subjectivity arose as
a consequence of the setting of domains of objects, which brought the momentous change that
logic’s foundations were not in nature (as Plato and the Stoics assumed), but as a habit, within
a thinking subject. Subject/object is about three questions: (1) Is logic a system based on nature or is
in the human understanding as a habit? (2) What are the form and the matter of the object to be
considered? (3) How does the human subject elaborate semantic models in accordance with the
heuristic of each science (Pozzo 2012)?
Etymology. The concepts derive from the Greek hupokeímenon and antikeímenon and from
medieval usages of the verbs subiicio and obiicio, which actually mean the opposite of their post-
*Email: riccardo.pozzo@cnr.it
*Email: direttore.dsu@cnr.it
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Cartesian usages (Risse 1963). The former refers to the logical discernment of the intellect and the
latter to the investigative activity of the senses. In other words, the former designates what we today
call a formal approach and the latter is close to what we call today the subjective conditions of
experience. Several studies have investigated the history of this pair of concepts, and scholars have
become again familiar with the pre-Cartesian understanding of the terms. There is still much to be
considered, however, about the motives that led Renaissance philosophers to switch from the
Aristotelian notion of a logical or metaphysical subject to the Renaissance idea of a human subject
who aims at using reason in the most consequential way (Pozzo 2002). Finally, it needs to be kept in
mind that we are looking into the works of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century philosophers who
talked of concepts instead of terms, of judgments instead of propositions, and of reasoning instead of
arguments. They were philosophers who openly relied on psychology and, less openly, but just as
effectively, on metaphysics (Easton 1998, i). A subject is what accidents subject to and is grasped by
the intellect. An object is what one looks at and is felt by the senses. One has first to deal with the
subject rather than with the accidents, because the accidents presuppose the subject. As a matter of
fact, nothing is without subject, and the subject is either what the accident is in or that upon which the
accident falls or inheres. Aristotle teaches in Categories 1a20-1b7 that something is either referen-
tially (de re) in the subject (en hupokeímenon, in subiecto), in which case the predicate is in an
individual subject, or something is said attributively (de dicto) upon the subject (kath’
hupokeímenon, de subiecto), in which case the predicate is said to be of whatever substance is its
subject. In the latter case, what matters is that a human being has posed a question and that his or her
subjectivity has the responsibility of isolating a determinate domain. The task of providing attrib-
utive predication was taken over in the Renaissance by the operator thema, a characteristic feature of
humanistic logic, which turns out to be pivotal for understanding the constitution of objects. In fact,
it is up to the human subject to focus on domains of objects and to thematize them according to his or
her operative conditions (Pozzo 1999).

The opposition of subject/object concerns intensional semantics. It focuses on the question of how
we approach the subject we are speaking about or referring to (Hintikka 1975; Jardine 1988; Popkin
1988). In his De natura logicae, which appeared in 1578, Jacopo Zabarella gave a new interpretation
of the question about the subject of logic and of the individual sciences by connecting semantics with
the epistemic questions related to the completeness of Aristotle’s five intellectual habits. His goal is
to formulate a general model for the semantics of a complete system of the sciences (Zabarella
1597). The particular logical theories to be presupposed here are abstraction and reduplication. The
problem of the subiectum becomes relevant in traditional and in humanistic logic in connection with
the task of providing a renewed approach to science based on the triad of res significata, discursus,
and conceptus (Ashworth 1974, pp. 42–49). Gabriel Nuchelmans has referred to some occurrences
of modus concipiendi in Arnauld and of modus considerandi in Leibniz (Nuchlemans 1982,
pp. 74, 224) and Massimo Mugnai to occurrences of modus concipiendi in Leibniz (Mugnai
1979, p. 85), thus indicating to the later history of this problem up to Kant.
The following is the text by Zabarella in De natura logicae I,15 that constitutes the basis of the
discussion:
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In fact the subject of a science has two parts: one namely matter, which is called the thing considered subiectum [res
considerata], the other form, which is said ratio and mode of consideration [modus considerandi]; the thing
considered is not proper to some science, but can be common with others; the mode of consideration however is
proper and it restricts the thing considered, which was for itself common: e.g., in operative disciplines we use to name
the subject in as far as it is restricted by the goal: so we say that in the medical art the subject is the human body in as
far as it must be healed; we see then that the subject of an operative discipline is the same thing considered in the
contemplative discipline, and the goal of the operative discipline corresponds to the mode of consideration of the
contemplative discipline according to a certain proportion; with which similarity however a dissimilarity is
connected: for that mode of consideration in the medical art is not a determinate thing that exists and that is proposed
for consideration; it signifies instead something that do not exist, which is proposed to be effected: for this reason we
do not speak correctly when we say that the subject of the medical art is the human being in as far as it must be healed,
almost as it were constituted by two parts, namely by matter and form; correctly speaking the former is called subject,
i.e., the human body, the latter not subject, but rather goal. (Zabarella 1597, pp. 39–40)
Determination and Reflection. Looking at dictionary entries on determination and reflection from the
Greeks to Spinoza, one cannot fail to mention Aristotle’s description of the role played by prósthesis in
Analytica posteriora Alpha 27 in the passage “from the unity, which is a substance without position, to
the point, which is a unity with a position: this passage is the result of a determination” (87a34-36).
Reflection, instead, does not occur in Aristotle. It does not occur in any Greek thinker – and in fact, in
the Differenzschrift, Hegel declares he was wondering what the ancient philosophers ever thought in
terms of consciousness (GW 5: 11). It is true that in De anima Gamma 3, Aristotle admits that the
“intellect can think itself” (429b9), but he leaves it there, so that one has to wait until Aquinas for an
elaboration of the matter. In the Summa theologica, Aquinas observes that since “the intellect reflects
upon itself, by such reflection it understands both its own act of understanding, and the species by which
it understands. Thus the intelligible species is secondarily that which is understood; but that which is
primarily understood is the thing, of which the species is a likeness” (Pars I, Quaest. 85, Art. 2). The
modern understanding of reflection goes back to Locke’s Essay. Locke writes, “the second fountain
from which experience furnisheth the understanding with ideas is the perception of the operations of
our own minds within us, as it is employed about the ideas it has got: which operation. . .I
call. . .reflection, the ideas it affords being such only as the mind gets by reflecting on its own operations
within itself” (Book II, ch. 1, } 4). But it is Spinoza’s connection of determination and reflection with
negation that attracts our attention, as it attracted that of Kant, Schelling, and Hegel. In the letter of June
2, 1674 to Jarich Jelles (no. 50), Spinoza talks about conceiving geometric shapes as negations, not as
positions, because as long as one considers matter indefinitely, matter cannot have any shape. Shapes
can take place only in finite and determinate bodies. Given “that a shape is determination,” he argues,
and given “that all determination is negation (omnis determinatio est negatio), it follows that a shape is
nothing but a negation” (W 5: 121). Thus, every position of a new note to the list of intensions, i.e.,
every position of the list of properties contained by a concept, implies (in accordance with the theorem
of Port Royal about the inverse proportionality of the intension and extension of a concept) that in
consequence of a determination, the concept is negated of some of the extensions, i.e., of some of the
objects of which it used to be affirmed. In the Ethica, Spinoza introduces determination in terms of
causal efficiency (a Deo determinatur; E1 P27-28), while whatever we conceive to be in the power of
God (a Deo concipitur) necessarily exists (E1 P35).

The question is whether or not one is entitled to translate the Greek term sképsis (from sképtomai or
episképtomai) in the first line of Analytica Priora Alpha 1 (24a10) with the Latin consideratio. In
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fact, Metaphysica Alpha elatton 3 (995a14) provides the syntagm trópos epistémes, whose Latin
translation with modus cognoscendi has a large diffusion in the eighteenth century due to Christian
Wolff’s interpretation of the cognitive difference between forma and materia. When introducing the
distinction between res and modus considerandi, Zabarella explicitly refers to Analytica Priora, to
Ethica Nicomachea, and to Averroes in Analytica Posteriora (Zabarella 1597, pp. 38–39).
Averroes. The most important source for modus considerandi is indeed to be found in a passage in
Averroes’ commentary of Aristotelis. . .Posteriorum Resolutorium Libri Duo: Cum Averrois. . .Magnis
Commentariis, where the philosopher from Cordoba takes up the example given by Aristotle in Ethica
Nicomachea Alpha 7 and compares perspective and geometry (1097a20-34). The latter “considers the
line insofar as it is a line”; the former “considers instead the line is as far as it is an irradiating line.” In
fact, “considering the matter absolutely. . .is closer to truth,” for “the science that considers its subjects
in abstraction of the matter is more certain than the science that is depending on the matter” (Averroes
1562–1574, Vol. I/2: fol. 375B).
Averroes introduces modus considerandi in the section in his Epitome in Libros Logicae
Aristotelis while delving into the distinction between artes/scientiae universales and artes/scientiae
particulares on the basis of the forma-materia distinction (Averroes 1562–1574, Vol. I/2b: fol. 59C).
Averroes begins with those artes et scientiae speculativae, which can be divided according to the
universality or particularity of their objects. On the one hand, there can be a “universal art, which
considers being absolutely [quae considerat ens simpliciter], and whose properties are only those
that follows from being, such as plurality and unity, potency and.” On the other hand, there is also
a “particular art, which considers being as it is [quae considerat esse quid sit] and the properties that
follow from its parts, what this thing is, such as natural sciences and the other arts” (Averroes
1562–1574, Vol. I/2b: fol. 60C). Any individual discipline, according to Averroes, can thus be
considered in a twofold way, namely, either “according to its subjects” or “according to the
difference of modus considerandi in them. . ..In as far as they differ according to consideration,
certain sciences are universal arts, and they are of three parts: metaphysics, logic and rhetoric [ars
primae philosophiae, ars topica, et ars sophistica” (Averroes 1562–1574, Vol. I/2b: fol. 60D).
Cajetan. Thomas de Vio, Cardinal Cajetan was the most influential Aquinas commentator of the
Renaissance (Vio 1503). For the sake of the argument, I refer to the exposition of Cajetan’s theory
that something can be in the intellect either subiective, or obiective, or obiective consequenter
provided by Cornelius Martini in his metaphysics course of 1597, which was the first course on
metaphysics ever to be held at a German Protestant university (Martini 1597):
In the first mode, subjectively, the intelligible species and the act of understanding are in the intellect, as accidents
are in their carrier. In the second mode, which is objectively, the object is directly known by the intellect. In this
mode, the thing that is subjectively external is objectively intelligible. When, e.g., a color is offered to vision, the
color is subjectively not in vision but in the colored body; it is nonetheless said to be objectively in vision, because
it is thrown to vision, insofar as it is in its perspective. The intelligible thing that is offered to the intellect is the
object of a potential cognition, and it is at the same time subjectively in the intellect, although the thing is outside
it. In fact, the stone is not in the soul, but rather the species or idea of the stone, as it is given upon the soul. The
species is said to be objectively in the intellect insofar as it is thrown to it and the species is thrown to the intellect’s
potency. The third, inferentially objective mode, is that in which one infers the essence of the thing insofar as it is
known by the intellect. Essences, however, are outside reason, for the things do not correspond by their own
essence, but rather because they are represented to the intellect, or, in other words, because the intellect reflects
about them. This happens, e.g., to the human being when the intellect reflects upon him or her. It is the mind that
investigates the correspondence between subjects and predicates, minor and major terms. This correspondence,
however, does not lie in the human being itself insofar as it exists in nature, but rather insofar as the intellect is
occupied about him or her. So correctly, wrote Cajetan. (Martini 1597, fol. 4r)
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Just like Aristotle and Aquinas, Cajetan makes it clear that dealing with objects belongs to the
realm of psychology. In fact, “for a given knowable object, there must necessarily be a certain habit,
by means of which we can perceive it” (Martini 1604a, th. 12). Cajetan’s exposition is connected
with what Aristotle says in books Beta and Gamma of De anima (especially 424a17-424b20,
427a20-427b27). What is new is the stress on the workings of the mind, which determine the
domain of both the subjective and objective modes, while the formal approach of cognition to truth,
which used to be all pervading for Aristotle and Aquinas, is for Cajetan confined to the objectively
consequent mode.
Ramus. In his groundbreaking papers on Ramus and Descartes, Wilhelm Risse has pointed out
that for Ramus, the principles of logic are known a priori, which means that Ramus relies on the
Platonic standpoint that there is an ideal systema that provides mankind with necessary and universal
truths. This kind of proto-idealism is quite the opposite of the Aristotelian stance that logic is rather
a habit of the mind and that its principles are the results of generalizations of experience, just like the
principles of any individual sciences (Risse 1960, 1963, 1964). From Ramus on, then, the theory of
subjectivity developed itself into the positions of Descartes and Berkeley (Wilson 1997).
Ramus submitted late scholastic semantics to a sharp critique. His tools were the operator thema
and the theory of the tópoi or loci. For Ramus, the spontaneity of the human subject displays itself by
means of the operation of making a domain of objects the theme of one’s investigation. Philosoph-
ical investigation is not based on the experience of the subject, but rather on nature itself, which
provides the human subject with eternal and necessary structures (the loci), for him to be made
a theme of. Already in Topica Alpha 1 (100a19-20) Aristotle had explained that the object of an
argument depends on the scope of its subject matter, insofar as it argues about every problem that has
been proposed. But it was only in the Renaissance that thema was used to determine an objective
and public content of thought, as opposed to the subjectivity of private ideas and images. In this
spirit, Rudolf Agricola identified the object of logic with the discussion “about whatever one can talk
of with order and propriety” (Agricola 1526, II, 6, 226). Eventually, however, it was Melanchthon
who in his Compendiaria dialectices ratio put thema at the core of logic, which he defined as “the
artifice of speaking orderly and appropriately of whatever theme” (CR 20: 711).
In Ramus’s logic, there is no mention of the term obiectum, and the same holds for his
metaphysics. One can, however, trace back the concept by looking at the loci of subiectum and
adiunctum (Ramus 1572, p. 16). The latter is that to which something is subjected to (subiicitur); it is
the argument, and if the subject is a light one, then the argument is more abundant and frequent
(Ramus 1572, p. 18). What Ramus did not address explicitly, the Ramist Friedrich Beurhaus did.
Beurhaus admits that his master has obliterated the role played by obiectum within the notion of
adiunctum, which is undoubtedly wrong, and he proposes to configure obiectum as a locus that
works as the exact complement of subiectum (Beurhaus 1588, p. 583). In fact:
There is a similarity between subject and object insofar as both exist and are not figments of the imagination. There
is an important difference, however, namely that the object can be effective and the subject cannot. Colors
stimulate the eye to see, sounds stimulate the ear to hear, other sensible things stimulate the corresponding senses,
and, generally, the things that are thrown stimulate our faculties to act. (Beurhaus 1588, p. 585)
Instead, the subject cannot be the efficient cause of its accidents, because its role reduces itself to
merely offering a topical space for arguments. This is because the power by means of which the
subjects occupy the accidents cannot be the same as an efficient cause. The subjects do not produce
their accidents on the basis of a determinate matter. The subjects offer to the accidents only an
occasional power of coming to be, but it is always the accidents that throw (obiiciunt) themselves to
the intellect (Beurhaus 1588, p. 585). It is consequently not true, as Ramus has maintained, that all
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sensible things and whatever is proposed for discussion on behalf of their virtues and vices are
subiecta, while all virtues, vices, and the arts that deal with them are their adiuncta. What is true is
that “all obiecta and materiae are related to the corresponding subiecta, and cannot be simply
identified with the adjuncta” (Beurhaus 1588, p. 596).
Zabarella. Zabarella indicates the basis for the distinction between res considerata and modus
considerandi rem in the operations displayed by the scientists when they investigate. Zabarella’s
systematization has a quadripartite shape. One has to consider four species of subiectum. In fact, “the
first is when the subject is taken most amply for whatever thing considered in whatever; second,
when it is taken for a subject of demonstration, which have contemplative sciences; third when it is
metaphorically understood as a subject while being the goal of an operative faculty, e.g., when we
say that health is the subject of medicine; and finally forth when it is taken for a subject of operation,
which is properly said of the subject of operative disciplines, such is the human body in medicine
and iron in carpenting” (Zabarella 1597, p. 40).
The prima significatio does not need any commentary, because one finds it also in everyday
language (Zabarella 1597, p. 34). The secunda significatio is more determinate and refers to specific
conditions: “subject is taken more properly when not everything that is treated in a certain faculty is
called subject, but only what satisfies certain conditions” (Zabarella 1597, p. 34). The separation
between theoretical (speculativae) and practical (operativae) becomes relevant. First, because of the
goals to be pursued, “operative disciplines have operation as a goal while speculative disciplines
have science as a goal” (Zabarella 1597, p. 34). Second, according to the point of view of the subject.
The conditions of the investigation and the scope of its application (scopus) apply only to
a determinate kind of subjects, “the subject must be necessary being, which is preknown by us
and signified by a name; it must have also its proper affections and principles, for the affections are
demonstrated of the same by means of its principle” (Zabarella 1597, pp. 34–35). Zabarella calls this
occurrence subiectum demonstrationis (de quo). He reminds the reader that it deals only with
contemplatio:
And no other should be the end of the philosopher that contemplates in such subject but knowing the affections of
his subject and the principles, in case they are hidden; the subject of a science ca thus be subject of demonstration,
i.e., subjects de quo, while accidents are demonstrated as soon as they are known; the subject of contemplative
sciences is of this kind. (Zabarella 1597, p. 35)
With regard to the tertia significatio, Zabarella first calls attention to a misunderstanding. It is true
that the subjects of the operative sciences are constituted with regard to the goal (finis) to be
accomplished by an operation, “Operative disciplines have a subject under a different condition:
namely that in some way they can do without a subject, for they do not depend on the subject, they
are constituted by the goal, whose generation in required” (Zabarella 1597, p. 35). Also Aristotle
states, “art is constituted by its goal, while scientia is constituted by its subject” (Zabarella 1597,
p. 35). Unfortunately, Zabarella remarks, it often happens that the goal of an operative discipline is
confused with its subject, “in these discipline often the goal is called metaphorically subject; e.g.,
when we say that health is the subject of the medical art” (Zabarella 1597, p. 35). Therefore, the need
to stress that the identification, “the subject is the goal,” is neither legitimate nor precise, “for beyond
their goal these disciplines have a subject that is properly taken and that is distinct from the goal: e.g.,
the medical art has the human body, in quo it aims at effecting or preserving health; so that if we want
to speak correctly, we ought to call the human body the subject of the medical art, and we ought to
call health not subject, but goal” (Zabarella 1597, p. 35).
The quarta significatio defines the subiectum operationis (in quo). This is the actual subject of the
artes, insofar as one can correctly perceive it without being misguided by the metonymical usage of
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subject qua goal, “such is in the medical art the human body, in the moral discipline the human soul,
in the art of carpenting iron or wood” (Zabarella 1597, p. 38). This subject is distinguished from the
subiectum demonstrationis because “the scope of an operative discipline is not knowing, it is
operating; i.e., its subject is not proposed for knowing, it is proposed for operating, so that
a certain form is generated in it, which is the goal of the discipline, e.g., the moral philosopher
generated virtue in the human soul, the physician health in the human body, the smith the form of the
key in the iron” (Zabarella 1597, p. 38).
The subject of a scientia or ars can be defined insofar as its application or scope (scopus) is
distinctive and with it the conditions which we must observe before treating it: “the scope of
contemplative sciences is the perfect cognition of the proposed subject, which makes it possible
that all its principles and its proper accidents be known without gaps; while the scope of operative
discipline is not knowing, it is operating” (Zabarella 1597, p. 38). Zabarella concedes however
“there is a certain similarity between the subject of science and that of an operative discipline”
(Zabarella 1597, p. 39).
These explanations permit Zabarella to generalize his theory so that the twofold point of view of
res and modus considerandi can be applied to every discipline. From a systematic point of view, the
complementarity involved in any scientia or ars is expressed by the following formula: “the subject
that sciences have we call the subject of demonstration, or subiectum de quo: of which even the
affections are demonstrated in accordance with principles; the subject of operative disciplines we
call instead subject of operation or subiectum in quo; for in it one operates and something is brought
to effect” (Zabarella 1597, p. 40). For an example, Zabarella recalls the distinction between logic and
philosophy, because it can be explained following the criterion of forma and materia, “according to
which distinction the logician discords from the philosopher in considering things” (Zabarella 1597,
p. 48). The problem of the distinction of logic from other disciplines with regard to forma is
summarized by Zabarella with the help of a formula taken from Averroes, “all things are the subject
of both philosophy and logic, although in different modes” (Zabarella 1597, p. 49). This enables
Zabarella to accomplish a fundamental determination of the subject of logic, which is threefold:
(1) in quo, according to the nature of logic’s own instruments, i.e., concepts of concepts; (2) ex fine,
according to its goal, i.e., the knowledge of things; and (3) de quo, ex scopo, according to the
peculiarity of logic’s own modus considerandi” (Zabarella 1597, p. 50).
Ramism. Another Ramist, Anton Nothold, took a stance on subjectivity. Nothold charged the
Aristotelians – he addressed himself first and foremost against Martini – of psychologism. He
maintained that the respect shown by the Aristotelians for objectivity is an inadmissible hypostasis:
Either concepts are simple, if they are grasped without composition and division, or they are complex. Complex
concepts are called propositions. If true, propositions have grounding in the things, and are caused by the things.
At the same time, they are in the soul. How? Subjectively. For it is clear that no composition and division of
concepts can take place outside the intellect. (Nothold 1597, fol. D6v-D7r)
Against the Aristotelian notion that the first intentions are concepts or images of the actual things,
Nothold objects that if one accepts that the first intentions correspond to the things themselves, the
status of the second intentions poses irresolvable problems. Would the second intentions correspond
to the things only after a while? Or would they correspond outside the intellect, given that the first
intentions correspond inside it? Or would they not correspond to the things at all? The expressions
“first intention” and “second intention” are a convenient way of distinguishing, e.g., what the
predicable genus “animal” is from what an animal is. We first observe that there are animals of
different kinds and that “animal” can be said of them all and that while a horse is an animal, we do
not say that an animal is a horse – rather that some animal is a horse – nor do we say that “horse” is
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this particular one. In this way, we notice that our mind has related one thing to many in a special
way. This is how we come to know in a reflexive way what a predicable genus is. What animal
is – however vaguely known – a first intention, but the particular type of relation our mind conceives
as we predicate it of different kinds is a second intention. Moreover, the Aristotelians maintain that
the formalitas of a concept inheres immediately to the things themselves. But, Nothold observes,
taking a hint from Ramus, it is not clear whether this holds for both first and second intentions. In
fact, Ramus had refused to distinguish between notiones primae and secundae (Risse 1960, p. 49).
Would first intentions inhere immediately and second intentions only mediately? Or would second
intentions not inhere at all? These are the doubts that the Aristotelian position leaves the reader with
(Nothold 1598, pp. 19–20). The distinction between first and second intentions is not only useless, it
is wrong. The Aristotelians contradict themselves when they maintain that the first intentions are not
the product of our mind while the second intentions are such, because the former would not receive
existence from the mind. Granted that every concept is neither a first nor a second intention, then,
there is no more need to rely on experience. The time has come, concludes Nothold, to abandon the
Aristotelian theory of concepts and switch to Ramus’s proto-idealism.
Severin Sluter summarized the point of view of the Ramists: “the subject of all philosophical
disciplines dealing with what is and inheres formally is the human mind” (Sluter 1610, th. 107). For
Ramus and the Ramists, the accidents come to the human mind on behalf of the mind’s own powers.
The mind is ready to know the accidents, not insofar as they come to it from experience, but rather
insofar as they are part of what the mind knows innately. In a word, Ramus and the Ramists stress the
spontaneity of the mind when acquiring cognitions, while the Aristotelians stress the receptivity of
the human subject.
Impact and Legacy

Aristotelianism. Against the Ramists, the Aristotelian Cornelius Martini claimed that the constitu-
tion of an object takes place by means of abstraction, not of thematization:
Whenever we conceive something that is thrown to our intellect, we first grasp it as something we can define as
a whole, although it is still confused. . ..Thus, when the intellect apprehends the universal object, it apprehends it
first as something definable, but which is still in a confused manner. (Martini 1607, th. 9, 49)
Martini maintains that second intentions are entia rationis, “for they are given only to reason, and
nothing actual corresponds to them outside the intellect” (Martini 1604b, th. 11). Being the result of an
operation of the mind, the ens rationis is accidental. It cannot be being itself, then, “because being
cannot depend from accidents” (Martini 1604b, th. 13). The ens quatenus est ens reale is the opposite
of this, and it provides the subject matter of metaphysics (Martini 1604b, th. 15). On the other side, the
non ens cannot be the subject matter of metaphysics “because it is conceived by the intellect
accidentally in the same way that the intellect conceives the ens rationis” (Martini 1604b, th. 16).
For his definition of the subject matter of metaphysics, Martini relies on the Late Scholastic (precisely
Scotist) and post-Tridentine (especially Suárezian) distinction between conceptus formalis et
obiectivus. E. J. Ashworth has written on Descartes’s reception of the Scotist distinction through
Pedro de Fonseca and Francisco Suárez (Ashworth 1997). First we know the objective concept of
being (conceptus entis obiectivus), which is thrown by the things to the mind (a rebus menti obiectus)
and which is then abstracted into a formal concept inside the mind (Martini 1604b, th. 17):
A formal concept expresses the similarity with the thing itself expressed in the act of the mind by means of which it
represents the form. . .an objective concept expresses the thing itself insofar as it is known by means of a formal
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concept. . .. For example, when I know a human being, the formal concept is the idea in my mind that expresses the
form of the human being, and as such it is an accident of my mind; the objective concepts express instead the
human being itself, i.e., the common and universal nature that is present in whomever human beings as it is derived
from his or her formal concept. (Martini 1604b, th. 19–21)
In other words, when we grasp a conceptus realis, we imply that a certain thing be thrown
(obiiciatur) to the mind and be conceived in it. Such a concept is in the mind subjectively
(subiective) (Martini 1604b, th. 23).
For Martini, an object is what determines the domain of human cognition, i.e., the scope (scopus)
of the human mind, while a subject is determined by the way the mind gets hold of being.
Metaphysics, says Martini, deals with the ens quatenus ens, which is ens reale as opposed to the
ens rationis. The subject matter of metaphysics has being outside the intellect, because its first
causes are God, the angels, the heavens, and the elements, which nobody denies to be ens realia.
Besides, it is produced by an actually effective cause and it is in something subjectively (subiective),
because the mind’s concepts and habits are all formed by means of the intelligible species and the act
of intellecting. Finally, metaphysics is a scientia realis, because it does not consider anything but
actual subject matters. There is no doubt, then, that metaphysics is an objective science of the
intellect (obiectiva intellectus scientia) (Martini 1605, pp. 15–16).
The subject matter of metaphysics is being, which is a formal concept that is posited in the
intellect and becomes subsequently an objective concept in the things in the following threefold way.
First, formal concepts are in our intellect “subjectively just like the intelligible species are formally
in the intellect.” A formal concept is the idea of the thing itself expressed by an act of the mind,
whereby it is always the thing, which constitutes the idea that the mind represents to itself, i.e., the
thing itself is thrown to the mind. Second, concepts are in our intellect “objectively, because the
object or the thing itself is known by means of formal concepts.” So, when the color is offered to
vision, it is subjectively not in the vision but in the colored body. However, when the color is thrown
to the vision and generates a species in it, we say that it inheres to the vision objectively. Therefore,
when the intelligible things are offered to our intellect as objects of its intellective potency, the
intelligible things are not subjectively in the intellect, but only objectively. It is not necessary to give
many examples, because it is easy to see that what is in the things, i.e., what causes my formal
concept, i.e., the essence that is the cause of thousands of individuals reunited under one concept,
cannot be in the intellect unless insofar as it is thrown to it as the object of its potency. Third,
“concepts are in the intellect in an inferentially objective way insofar as they follow from the essence
of the thing, i.e., insofar as the thing is thrown to the intellect” (Martini 1622, p. 64).
For Martini and the Aristotelians, the subject is not only the carrier of the accidents; it is also that
without which there would not be any accidents; it is what gives them a formal structure. The object
is the result of our elaboration on the subject, although the concept of an object, an objective concept,
comes about merely by chance. The human subject is thus passive when constituting objectivity, and
the principal roles it plays are to host the cognitive process and to support it by means of the
intellectual habits.
Interconnections
Keckermann. At the close of the Renaissance, the semi-Ramist Bartholomaeus Keckermann
reformulated the discussion on subject and object in the following terms. A “subject” is what
accidents subject to. One has first to deal with the subject rather than with the accidents, because
the accidents depend on the subject, i.e., “nothing is without subject, and the subject is that against
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which the accident falls or inheres, i.e., it is what the accident is in,” which is what Aristotle teaches
in Categories (1a20-21) about something being en hupokeímenon, being in subiecto (Keckermann
1614, p. 190). Instead, the
Object is what a function of the soul is occupied with. We say that the object of vision is the color or the light and
the object of hearing the sound, because vision is occupied with light and colors and hearing with sound. In the
same way, a scholar is occupied with the study of languages and of virtuous things, which are his proper object,
just like a farmer is occupied with cultivating, plowing, hoeing, and cutting his field. (Keckermann 1614, p. 195)
Keckermann thinks primarily of the Aristotelian use of hupokeímenon as subiectum in quo. He

has, however, also the Ramist position in mind that the subject is not inert and passive, but rather
spontaneous and active in specifying settings. This is what connects Keckermann’s theory of
subjectivity to Descartes. Keckermann does not mention Aristotle’s antikeímenon, and this is no
surprise. In fact, his understanding of objectivity is entirely active. He considers objects to be the
result of determinate operations made possible by the faculties of the soul. It is clear that such
a notion of objectivity can be constituted only on the basis of an active subjectivity, because nothing
is without subject (nihil sit sine subiecto), as Keckermann says. Moreover, an object cannot be in
quo, because it does not rely on an essence of its own. An object can only be de quo, i.e., it can be
thematized, i.e., it is the effect of a cause to be determined. On this basis, Keckermann proposed
a new division of the sciences in obiectivae and directivae:
The former deal with the things themselves posited in nature insofar as they are thematized by our intellect (like
theology, law, medicine, and philosophy), the latter neither deal with the things themselves that are to be known,
nor do they inform and perfect the human intellect with the things themselves, they only prepare operations of the
intellect while directing and ordering it by means of certain norms and instruments (like arts and skills).
(Keckermann 1614, p. 77)
Although he relied on Aristotle for the notions of logical subject and intellectual habits,
Keckermann opened up the path toward the full evaluation of the spontaneity of human subjectivity
when constituting objects that was to be achieved by Descartes.
Goclenius. Goclenius’s Lexicon philosophicum, the first philosophical dictionary ever to be
printed, which was published in 1613, presented the pair of concepts “subject” and “object” in its
full complexity. Goclenius distinguished first the subiectum metaphysicum sive topicum from the
subiectum axiomaticum. The former refers to being, “insofar as the subject of predication refers to
the external world,” the latter to the theory of judgments, “according to which the subject is the
carrier of the predicates” (Goclenius 1613, pp. 1086–1087). As regards the subiectum metaphysicum
sive topicum, Goclenius distinguishes between the obiectum as such and the subiectum pressius
acceptum. The obiectum as such, says Goclenius, is the subject matter of psychology, while the
subiectum pressius acceptum is that of logic. As a subiectum inhaesionis, finally, the subject
expresses the determinate thing, i.e., its partial concept and the medium of its reception
(Goclenius 1613, p. 1087). The subiectum inhaesionis, says Goclenius, is the subiectum quo, i.e.,
that in which the accidents are received immediately, while the subiectum denominationis is the
subiectum quod, which is actually the essence that sustains the accidents, because it subsists on its
own and not on behalf of others (Goclenius 1613, p. 1087). The pairs of concepts subiectum
denominationis and subiectum inhaesionis or subiectum quo and subiectum quod correspond to
the two methodical ways of analysis and synthesis. The subiectum quo, which is a second intention
that results from an abstraction, represents the effects, and the subiectum quod, which is a concrete
and a first intention, the cause. For example, Goclenius indicates one of the divine persons, which is
affected as a subject quod in a concrete meaning, while the human nature is affected as a subiect quo
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in an abstract meaning – in other words, God is affected in His own flesh and is the principle of what
the human being feels (Goclenius 1613, p. 1087).
Speaking about the subiectum topicum et metaphysicum, Goclenius opposes hupokeímenon,
subiectum in specie and antikeímenon, obiectum. The hupokeímenon can be divided into ex quo,
materia/permanens-transiens, and in quo, recipiens. The antikeímenon depends on how we become
aware of a state of affairs. Accordingly, it can be divided into partiale and totale. The obiectum partiale
is either principale or minus principale, while the obiectum totale is either mediatum seu commune vel
remotum or propinquum, proprium, i.e., immediatum and adaequatum. The parts of the obiectum
proprium are twofold, namely, matter (res considerata) and form (modus considerandi) (Goclenius
1613, p. 1087). The last one is an epistemic distinction that was conclusively elaborated by the
Aristotelian Jacopo Zabarella and found widespread discussion in early modern philosophy until
Immanuel Kant (Zabarella 1597, pp. 39–40). Goclenius’s composition of the approaches of Ramus
and Zabarella is the proof that the analysis of an object requires the epistemic distinction between res
and modus considerandi. Goclenius is clear that obiectum does not belong to logic, but rather to
psychology. Consequently, he requires that an acting subject carry out a thematization of a domain of
objects. For Goclenius, “Thema is a position” (Goclenius 1613, p. 1131).
Descartes. The Ramist position had a fallout on Descartes’s understanding of the workings of the
mind. In fact, one can say that Descartes’s distance from Aristotle was due at least in part to the
impact of Ramus and especially of Ramus’s idea that scientific method ought to be freed from the
distinction between first and second intentions and thus from the requirement of being connected
with experience. For Ramus, science does not consist of a series of progressive abstractions, but
rather of a series of formally derived propositions that can be defined with clarity and divided with
distinction; and scientific cognition must be based on universal and necessary, homogeneous and
reciprocally convertible concepts. This, reminds Risse, is exactly what Descartes was eventually
going to formulate in his four rules of method: (1) to accept nothing as true which one is not aware of
being so; (2) to divide every question with sufficient precision; (3) to carry out one’s reflections by
proceeding from the standpoint of cognition, i.e., to go from simple to complex concepts, while
avoiding the standpoint of the thing itself, which goes from what is elementary to what is derived;
and (4) to review that nothing has been omitted (AT 6: 18). Ramus, says Risse, provided for
Descartes’s first rule when he maintained that logic should not limit itself to the proof of objective
truths and rather extend to the proof of the consequentiality of methodical procedures. Rationality, in
a word, has intelligibility as its domain, not actuality, because only the intellect determines what is
thinkable and because scientific cognition is the product of clarity and distinction (Ramus 1570,
p. 157). The second rule is contained in Ramus’s principle of logical division. The third is implied in
the maxim of methodical order, and the fourth derives from Ramus’s idea that the universality of
a concept is a guarantee of the completeness of its extension (Risse 1963, pp. 280–282).
Burgersdijk. There is some probability that Descartes, concludes Risse, knew Ramus, at least
through the mediation of Ramists such as first and foremost Franco Burgersdijk. With Ramus had
begun that “subjectification” of logic, which Descartes was going to accomplish (Risse 1963,
pp. 281–283). For Burgersdijk, exactly as for Ramus and Descartes, the object of a definition is
not the objective data on the essence of the thing, but rather its conceptual illumination; the object of
a division is not factual diversity, but rather our subjective ability to distinguish; the object of an
argument is not formal consequentiality, but rather the material elimination of our ignorance; and the
object of method is not a systematic order, but rather the systematic elimination of disorder
(Burgersdijk 1626, p. 4; Risse 1963, p. 284).
Kant. In conclusion, a word on the role played by Renaissance philosophers on Kant. The
philosopher from Königsberg was a product of eighteenth-century German scholastic philosophy,
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which was a curious blend of Aristotelianism, Cartesianism, Lockeanism, and Leibnizianism

(Kuehn 1997). With him, the issue of subjectivity became centered on a transcendental theory of
consciousness (Kitcher 1997). Without doubt, Kant had the Aristotelian distinction between
hupokeímenon and antikeímenon in mind, when he specified that “objects are given to us by
means of sensibility, and sensibility alone affords us intuitions; but objects can be thought only
through the intellect, and from it arise concepts” (KrV B33). He did not go as far as to say that
concepts are in the intellect subjectively, though, because he needed to keep the word for phrases
such as space and time being the “subjective conditions” of all outer appearances (KrV B42, B52),
which, in a way, is close to the position maintained by Martini. On the other side, Kant’s notion of
objectivity is in agreement with the stress on spontaneity made by the Ramists. In fact, Kant used
thema as well, which for him means so much as the setting (positio) of a thesis, which eventually
takes the form of a Satz (propositio) (AA 8: 193–194). Lastly, Kant knew Ramus, if not directly, for
much of hearsay. In a passage reported in the Logik Philippi (a students’ notebook from 1772), Kant
mentioned that:
Ramus began by declaring war against Aristotle in Paris. He proposed a dissertation in which he intended to
contradict every proposition Aristotle had said. In this way he eliminated the blind and servile tyranny of
Aristotelianism and awakened the spirits out of their lethargy. He wrote a logic whose first part dealt with de
inventione, the second de iudicio. (From Ramus originates the way of saying that one is in lack of secunda Petri,
i.e., which one is in lack of judgment.) (AA 24: 337)
Cross-References
▶ Cognition
▶ Dialectic
▶ Ethics
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T
Treatise wealth of forms and formats and different ways

of presenting arguments and collecting of evi-
Anja-Silvia Goeing dence, all connected under the headings “phi-
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA losophy” and tractatus. Authors in this period
University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland were highly experimental, trying out new
forms for reasoning and explaining.
Abstract
The Renaissance treatise (Latin, tractatus) is Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
an explanatory text presenting descriptions,
arguments, and evidence to formulate a valid The Renaissance treatise (Latin, tractatus) is an
opinion about an object of knowledge. The explanatory text presenting descriptions, argu-
variety of topics in this format covers the entire ments, and evidence to formulate a valid opinion
range of scholarly disciplines. Renaissance about an object of knowledge (Latin, res). The
authors used the notion of tractatus in philos- variety of topics in this format covers all the
ophy, broadly defined, to present the following scholarly disciplines and includes encyclopedic
types of reasoning: encyclopedic overviews of works such as an illustrated compendium about
a discipline; interpretations and reorganiza- the identification of herbs, the Tractatus de herbis
tions of ancient and medieval texts; mathemat- (1440), today in the British Library, as well as
ical, astrological, and cosmographical juridical discussions such as those about the juris-
descriptions; and logical thinking. Whereas diction of matrimony in the Tractatus de
these forms evince different aspects of reason- matrimonio regis Anglia (1530), and displays of
ing and modes of discussion, the term tractatus architectural forms organized by category
was also employed merely as an organizational (Tractatus de architectura, c. 1250).
element, in the manner of the late ancient In order to stay as close as possible to the
notion of separate essays on the same subject Renaissance notion of tractatus and also to
within the same volume. embrace the whole of Europe, the following char-
The notion of a philosophical treatise with acterization of treatises is based on a thorough
which we are nowadays familiar through, for study of all – not just philosophical – Latin
example, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus European treatises in print that have tractatus in
of Ludwig Wittgenstein (1922), was not the their title and that have been catalogued by the
sole form that Renaissance philosophical trea- Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC), the most
tises assumed. On the contrary, there were a comprehensive database of Renaissance writing
# Her Majesty the Queen in Right of United Kingdom 2017
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_245-1
2 Treatise
available on the Internet, with a chronological by using other title key words. This would explain
range from the beginning of print in the 1450s to why, at least during the sixteenth century, the term
the end of the sixteenth century. There are cur- tractatus was used less in the British Isles and in
rently 3,860 treatises that match these criteria. the Protestant parts of the Holy Roman Empire
Philosophy in the context of the Renaissance and of the Low Countries than in Southern
included a number of different topics, and, to get Europe. Jurisprudence and religion are not, how-
to grip with the specifics of the philosophical ever, among the disciplines covered by Reisch’s
tractatus as it was understood at the time, it will definition of philosophy, and medicine (296) is
be helpful to work with the notion, which derives also excluded. The remaining titles (1,357) repre-
from Gregor Reisch’s Margarita Philosophica sent the liberal arts along with ethics and natural
(1503), of an enhanced curriculum of the seven philosophy. The format of the tractatus was
liberal arts plus ethics and natural philosophy. developed in different ways over the centuries,
Leaving aside the often-contradictory disciplinary according to the preferred methods of reasoning
borders and developments of contemporary phi- adopted by the various philosophical disciplines,
losophy, the samples considered here are repre- with the help of the learned community known as
sentative of various aspects of topics and formats the “Republic of Letters.”
connected to the Latin treatise of the Renaissance.
As regards the geographical distribution of the
3,860 books with tractatus in their title, 1,479 Innovative and Original Aspects
were printed in the Italian peninsula, 995 in
France, 946 in the Holy Roman Empire, 138 in Throughout the period from 1450 to 1600, authors
Spain, 129 in the Low Countries, 96 in the Swiss used the notion of tractatus in philosophy, broadly
Confederation, 28 in England, 26 in Poland, defined, to present the following types of reason-
17 without any indication of country, and nine in ing: encyclopedic overviews over a discipline;
Portugal. Measured against the Latin print pro- interpretations and reorganizations of ancient
duction of these countries or regions, the Italian and medieval texts; mathematical, astrological,
peninsula leads with 3.85%, followed by Spain and cosmographical descriptions; and logical
(2.85%) and France (2.52%). Portugal (1.86%) thinking. Whereas these forms evince different
and the Holy Roman Empire (1.74%) are next, aspects of reasoning and modes of discussion,
and the last group consists of England (1.12%), the term tractatus was also employed merely as
Poland (0.99%), the Low Countries (0.95%), and an organizational element, in the manner of the
the Swiss Confederation (0.92%). These figures late ancient notion of separate essays on the same
also show that the Latin term was not used as subject within the same volume such as in the
frequently in German-, English-, Dutch-, and treatise on alchemy attributed to the legendary
Polish-speaking countries as in lands where Hermes Trismegistus, Septem tractatus seu capit-
Romance languages were spoken (with the trilin- ula ... aurei, published in Strasbourg in 1566.
gual Swiss Confederation as an exception). This An example of the type of layout found in the
raises the question of whether choosing the title Renaissance tractatus is an early printed encyclo-
tractatus was a purely linguistic decision or, pedia of natural history entitled Ortus Sanitatis
instead, was influenced by the spread of Protes- (c. 1507) and attributed to the Frankfurt town
tantism. Given that Protestantism had an effect physician Johannes Wonnecke of Kaub
especially on juridical and religious texts, the (Johannes of Cuba). A version of this book,
latter possibility seems more likely, since over containing only the section on herbs, first came
50% of all titles containing the term tractatus are out in Latin in 1484 and then a year later in
found in the fields of jurisprudence (1,370) and German (Hirsch 1876); the last edition was
religion (837). It seems that authors of Protestant published in 1538. The 1507 Latin edition sepa-
jurisprudence and religion may have preferred to rates the book into different tractatus: one each on
erase any link to the medieval scholastic tractatus herbs, animals, birds, fish, stones, and – showing
Treatise 3
that it is a medical reference book – types of urine. Franciscan John Duns Scotus before 1295 were
Each tractatus has encyclopedia-style entries used in the second half of the sixteenth century as
arranged in alphabetical order and called chapters university texts. The Paduan professor Gaspare
(capitula), most of which have identifying wood- Torri (1531–1595), who adopted the Franciscan
cut illustrations. Each chapter contains the physi- convent name of Costanzo Boccadifuoco, or
cal description and medical use of one species. In Sarnano (Moroni 1840; Dreyer et al. 2013),
this way, many short chapters combine to make explained these questions to his students and
one treatise, and six treatises make one book. The published his lectures in 1576 in Venice
treatise on herbs is the most comprehensive, with (Boccadifuoco 1576). In this volume, he refers
more than 200 leaves, over 500 illustrations, and to Duns Scotus’ chapters as a sequence of
530 chapters, accounting for more than half of the quaestiones in order to highlight the scholastic
entire book. An alphabetical index for each part of format of late medieval syllogistic argumentation.
the book, placed at the end of the volume, indi- Boccadifuoco added one tractatus of his own to
cates the medical use of the different species, thus the volume, in which he introduced his young
helping the practitioner to find the right plants, students to the methods of constructing a syllogis-
animals, or stones for medical recipes. The devel- tic quaestio and thus provided them with a man-
opment of encyclopedic printed reference books ual, not only for understanding Duns Scotus’ way
on natural history starts with works such as this of constructing logical deductions but also for
which use the term tractatus in their title. formulating their own. (Boccadifuoco 1576,
Another characteristic example is Heinrich 503–525). Seven years later, in 1583,
Glarean’s new and annotated edition of Donatus’ Boccadifuoco finally published an emended text
Latin grammar, first published in 1535, together of Duns Scotus’ treatise, prefaced by a short biog-
with eight tractatus of his own covering the main raphy of the “Doctor subtilis” (Duns Scotus
topics dealt with by the ancient grammarian: 1583).
generic nouns, their declension, comparative
forms, irregularities, conjugation, grammatical
rules, syllables, and figures of speech such as Impact and Legacy
tautologies or enigmas (Donatus 1535, 1540; see
also Donatus 1527). Glarean’s eight treatises The Tractatus Logicus-Philosophicus by the
deploy many examples in order to explain how Austrian-born philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein
to understand and apply Donatus’ rules. This was a milestone in the new twentieth-century
entailed a radical extension and transformation direction taken by philosophical argumentation,
of the ancient grammarian’s approach. While which aimed to understand and criticize the use of
Donatus’ grammar was designed to be short, so language in relation to the perception of the world
that children could memorize the declensions of (Wittgenstein 1922). In Bertrand Russell’s words:
nouns and conjugations of verbs, Glarean had a “Mr Wittgenstein is concerned with the conditions
very different pedagogical aim: at more than for a logically perfect language ... that the whole
100 folios in length, his treatises were not function of language is to have meaning, and it
intended to be memorized, but were instead only fulfills this function in proportion as it
explanatory statements to be consulted. From a approaches to the ideal language which we postu-
dictation manual for teachers of small children, late” (Russell 1922). The predecessors of Witt-
Glarean’s edition of Donatus had become a refer- genstein were philosophers of the Holy Roman
ence book for independent scholars of all ages. Empire in the seventeenth century who used the
His eight tractatus had turned an ancient grammar title tractatus logicus in works they produced for
text into an accessible manual for self-study and a universities. Two examples of this highly stylized
repertory of grammatical information. genre, both exercises in syllogistic argumentation,
The questions about universals (Quaestiones were published in Giessen near Frankfurt am
de universalibus) written by the Oxford Main by Christoph Scheibler, a Lutheran
4 Treatise
philosophy professor at the University of Giessen: References

one on propositions and axioms and the other on
syllogisms (Scheibler 1619a, b). Scheibler first Primary Literature
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and presuppositions and then the methods of log-
Manuscripts
ical thinking, referring back to Aristotle and the Palladius, Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus. Tractatus de
medieval tradition of the quaestio (Roncaglia architectura. c. 1250. Philadelphia, University of Penn-
2003). Another example of a tractatus logicus sylvania Library, MS SCHOENBERG_103870.
was a published examination for philosophy doc- Tractatus de Herbis. 1440. London, British Library, MS
Sloane 4016.
torate in logic at the Lutheran University of Wit-
tenberg: the student respondent was Christoph
Boehm, and the philosophy professor Martin Printed Books
Caselius presided over the examination (Caselius Boccadifuoco, Costanzo. 1576. Expositiones quaestionum
Doctoris Subtilis Joannis Duns Scoti in Universalia
and Boehm 1633). Published dissertations were Porphyrii. Venice: Francesco De Franceschi.
also quite common in the Holy Roman Empire Caselius, Martin, and Christoph Boehm. 1633. De
from the seventeenth century onward (Marti accurato disputandi genere tractatus logicus. Witten-
2011). berg: Rothius.
Donatus, Aelius. 1527. Grammaticae methodus ut
Although there are no sixteenth-century works succinctissima, ita et utilissima, eruditissimaque vide-
called tractatus logicus in the USTC database, licet, Donati De octo orationis partibus libellus. Stras-
there are 1,008 Latin entries with titles containing bourg: Johann I Knobloch.
the term dialectica – that part of logic which Donatus, Aelius. 1535. Methodus primum scholiis
utilissimis D[omini] Henrici Glareani P[oetae] L
explained how to formulate an argument (Brown [aureati]. Deinde octo eiusdem epitomis sive
1966, 26) – mostly without tractatus. With the tractatibus aucta. Freiburg im Breisgau: Johannes
appearance of the tractatus logicus, however, the Faber aus Emmich.
seventeenth century witnessed a revival of medi- Donatus, Aelius. 1540. Methodus scholiis D[omini]
Henrici Glareani P[oetae] L[aureati] illustrata, ac
eval scholastic forms emphasizing the syllogistic eiusdem subsequentibus octo tractatibus aucta. Zurich:
quaestio, a trend which was connected to a revival Froschauer.
of metaphysics (Posy and Ferejohn 1993; Johannes of Cuba. 1507. Ortus sanitatis. Strasbourg:
Hartbecke 2006; Smith 2010.) Johann I Prüß.
Reisch, Gregor. 1503. Margarita philosophica. Freiburg:
The notion of philosophical treatise we are Johann Schott.
now familiar with, the tractatus logicus, was not Scheibler, Christoph. 1619a. Tractatus logicus de pro-
the only form that Renaissance philosophical trea- positionibus sive axiomatibus. Giessen: Chemlinus.
tises assumed. On the contrary, the fifteenth and Scheibler, Christoph. 1619b. Tractatus logicus de
syllogismis & methodis. Giessen: Chemlinus.
sixteenth centuries devised a wealth of forms and Scotus, John Duns. 1583. In universam Aristotelis logicam
formats, along with different ways of arguing and exactissimae quaestiones quibus singulis perutiles
of collecting of evidence. Even though most trea- quaedam adiectae sunt dubitationes cum earum
tises referred in one way or another to writings solutionibus, nec non, et tractatus de secundis
intentionibus... nuper a fratre Constantio Sarnano,...
from antiquity and from the Middle Ages, Renais- editus. Venice: Francesco De Franceschi.
sance authors were highly experimental, trying Trismegistus, Hermes. 1566. Ars chemica, quod sit licita
out new forms of reasoning and explaining. recte exercentibus, probationes doctissimorum
iurisconsultorum. Septem tractatus seu capitula ...
aurei. Eiusdem Tabula Smaragdina, in ipsius sepulchro
inventa, cum commento Hortulani Philosophi. Studium
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Samuel Emmel.
▶ Commentary Virués, Alfonso. 1530. Tractatus de matrimonio regis
Angliae. Salamanca: [Alfonso de Porras].
▶ Scheibler Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1922. Tractatus logicus-
▶ Scotism philosophicus. London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner &
▶ Textbook Co., Ltd.; and New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.
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Frühneuzeitlichen Universitätsgeschichte: Typen,
Bestände, Forschungsperspektiven. Wolfenbütteler
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Universal Short Title Catalogue: USTC Database. 2015. Moroni, Gaetano. 1840. Dizionario di erudizione storico-
http://www.ustc.ac.uk. Accessed 4 July 2015. ecclesiastica. V: 261–62. Venice: Tipografia Emiliana.
Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Mulsow, Martin, ed. 2009. Spätrenaissance-Philosophie in
Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts (VD 16): https://opacplus. Deutschland, 1570–1650: Entwürfe zwischen
bib-bvb.de/TouchPoint_touchpoint/start.do?SearchProfil Humanismus und Konfessionalisierung, okkulten
e=Altbestand&SearchType=2. Accessed 20 Sept 2015. Traditionen und Schulmetaphysik. Tübingen:
Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Niemeyer.
Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts (VD 17): http://www. Pettegree, Andrew. 2010. The book in the Renaissance.
vd17.de/; integrated into VD 16. Accessed 20 Sept New Haven: Yale University Press.
2015. Posy, Carl J., and Michael T. Ferejohn, eds. 1993. Logic
and metaphysics in Aristotle and early modern philos-
Books and Articles ophy: Robert Leet Paterson Conference. Dordrecht:
Brown, Sister Mary Anthony. 1966. The role of the Kluwer.
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logic. Franciscan Studies 26: 26–35. beginning of the seventeenth century: Christoph
Dreyer, Mechthild, Édouard Mehl, and Matthias Vollet, Scheibler’s Opus logicum. In The medieval heritage
eds. 2013. La réception de Duns Scot=Die Rezeption in early modern metaphysics and modal theory 1400–-
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Hartbecke, Karin. 2006. Metaphysik und Naturphilosophie Philosophicus, ed. Ludwig Wittgenstein, 8. London:
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in ihrem ideengeschichtlichen Kontext. (Frühe Neuzeit: Harcourt, Brace & Co.
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A
Alchemy significantly reconfigured. Moreover, medical

uses of the alchemical elixir were strongly empha-
Matteo Martelli sized by fourteenth- to fifteenth-century alche-
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany mists, who anticipated the development of
Paracelsian iatrochemistry. After Paracelsus’s
medical reorientation of alchemy, the fierce debate
Abstract on his system left its mark in sixteenth- to
seventeenth-century alchemical and medical writ-
Between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, ings, which led iatrochemistry to find a new insti-
alchemy reached its full maturity in the West. tutional home, namely, early modern universities.
Alchemists mastered high professional skills,
being able to handle a wide set of natural and
artificial substances: they developed techniques Synonyms
aimed at transmuting base metals into gold and
silver and were expert in the production of medi- Chemistry; Chymistry
cines, tinctures, pigments, and glasses. These
practices were embedded in a complex and diver-
sified natural philosophy, which relied on specific Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
theories of matter and was to different degrees
influenced by contemporary religious and medical In the fourteenth century, the main streams of
ideas. Although never included in the curriculum Arabic alchemy had been already assimilated in
of medieval universities, alchemy was an impor- the West through the medieval translations of the
tant and controversial topic in the Middle Ages. treatises of Balīnās, Jābir b. Ḥayyān, or Abū Bakr
Metallic transmutation was a matter of philosoph- al-Rāzī. The authors of the first Latin works on
ical discussion, part of the wider scholastic debate alchemy – often ascribed to the same writers of the
on the relations between art and nature. translated texts, such as Geber (the Latinized
Fourteenth-century alchemical treatises show an Jābir), Rhazes, and even Avicenna (despite Ibn
increasing influence from religious themes and Sīnā’s well-known critique against transmutation
imagery, which start molding the very descrip- in his Kitāb al-Šifā’) – recombined and reshaped
tions of alchemical operations. A century later, earlier theories and practices (Principe 2013,
elements of Ficino’s Neoplatonic philosophy and pp. 27–58), thus paving the way for the develop-
Christian cabala had a significant impact on the ment of new and influential lines of thought, as
humanistic writings on alchemy, which was they are found in wide-ranging corpora of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_249-1
2 Alchemy
alchemical texts falsely attributed to the Catalan Comparable operations based on mercury are
scholar Ramon Llull (ca. 1232–1315) and the described in Guillaume Sedacer’s Sedacina (end
doctor Arnald of Villanova (1240–1311). 14th c.; it includes a large section on glassmaking;
One of the earliest works of the ps.-Llullian see Barthélémy 2002) and in the Liber lucis by the
corpus (Pereira 1989), the Testamentum Franciscan John of Rupescissa (Halleux 1981),
(ca. 1330), defines alchemy as the hidden part of who thought that apocalypse was about to come.
natural philosophy that teaches how to produce the Rupescissa strongly believed that the secrets of
philosophers’ stone or elixir (Latin translation of alchemy were to be revealed in order to provide
the Arabic al-iksī r). As the highest product of the Church and its followers with the gold they
alchemical operations, the philosophers’ stone would have needed to contrast the Antichrist.
was considered capable of perfecting any kind of Such an intertwinement between alchemy and
“body”: it could turn base metals into gold and religion is well attested in fourteenth-century
silver, convert stones into gemstones, and bring alchemical treatises, such as Petrus Bonus’ scho-
human bodies to their healthiest condition. lastic defense of alchemy titled Margarita
Embedded in a strong philosophical framework pretiosa novella (1330; Crisciani 1976) and ps.-
(with clear influences from the scholastic tradi- Arnald’s writings. Petrus expanded the earlier
tion), ps.-Llull’s account represents an influential idea of alchemy as donum dei: only God may
and sophisticated version of the elixir theory, a reveal to alchemists the real knowledge about
cornerstone of medieval and early modern the transmutation of matter, as He already did to
alchemy (Pereira 1995). While the Jābirian ancient prophets (such as Adam, Moses, David)
method (as inherited, e.g., in ps.-Avicenna’s De and poets (Ovid and Virgil), who all allegorically
anima in arte alchemiae; see Moureau 2013) spoke about alchemy. On the other hand, ps.-
instructed the practitioner to make the elixir by Arnald’s Tractatus parabolicus (1350) developed
processing vegetal, organic, and mineral sub- a close comparison between the transformation of
stances, most fourteenth-century alchemists con- mercury and the passion of Christ, in which quo-
sidered only minerals among the valuable tations from the Old Testament were read as hid-
ingredients of this alchemical compound par den alchemical instructions.
excellence. This approach is clearly adopted in Both ps.-Llull and ps.-Arnald clearly empha-
some prominent treatises of the ps.-Arnaldian cor- sized the medical properties of the alchemical
pus (Calvet 2011), such as the Rosarius elixir, thus contributing to establish a new and
philosophorum: here the role of mercury is long-lasting interplay between alchemy and med-
strongly emphasized in accordance with the icine. The quest for a universal medicine, identi-
so-called theory of “mercury alone,” already fied by the abovementioned authors with the
developed in ps.-Geber’s Summa perfectionis elixir, intensified in the fourteenth and fifteenth
(Newman 1991). The liquid metal, as primary centuries. Inheriting and expanding Francis
constituent of metals (according to the mercury- Bacon’s ideas on the prolongation of life, alche-
sulfur theory), is the prime matter to which they mists and physicians attributed great properties to
must be reduced: after being purified and subli- gold as the perfect metal and started discussing the
mated many times, mercury is divided (through medical uses of alchemical gold (Crisciani 2003).
distillation) into the four elements, which are each Ps.-Llull’s Testamentum (II.18) and ps.-Arnald’s
processed in order to obtain liquid, oily, or earthy De vita philosophorum (X) include similar recipes
products. These products are mixed together and for the so-called potable gold: the first gives
reduced either to a white or to a red powder. After instructions to reduce gold to a dry powder and
being respectively combined with a small amount dilute it in the spirit of a plant called Lunaria; the
of silver or gold (acting as ferments), the two second describes how to make gold as soft as
powders can both transmute base metals into silver butter and dilute it in aqua vitae. John of
or gold and heal any disease in the human body. Rupescissa emphasized the centrality of aqua
vitae, basically a distillate of wine already
Alchemy 3
discovered by medieval doctors. In his influential to make the elixir (Timmermann 2013) along with
treatise De consideratione quintae essentiae the alchemical corpus ascribed to George Ripley
omnium rerum, he identified the “water of life” (d. ca 1490), heir and interpreter of the ps.-
with the quintessence: by distilling wine several Llullian tradition (Rampling 2010). Jean de la
times, he believed to extract its quintessence, i.e., Fontaine’s didactic poem Fontaine des amoureux
a substance corresponding to the Aristotelian eter- de science (1413) combined practical instructions
nal matter of the heaven. Similar procedures were with allegorical elements, while in fifteenth-
applied to many substances, such as gold and century Germany, a new genre of alchemical writ-
other metals traditionally considered toxic (e.g., ings was developed, namely, the Bildgedicht, well
mercury, lead), which could be alchemically represented by the anonymous poem Sol und
transformed into powerful medical tinctures. An Luna.
expanded version of the treatise was later incor- Despite the criticisms expressed by many
porated into the ps.-Llullian corpus under the title humanists – such as Petrarch, Erasmus, and
of Liber de secretis naturae seu de quinta Leon Battista Alberti (Matton 1995) – alchemy
essentia, which emphasized the role of quintes- was well received by the Neoplatonic philosopher
sence in the preparation of the philosophers’ stone Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), who identified the
and contributed to identify to a certain extent the alchemical elixir or quintessence with the cosmic
two alchemical compounds. principle he called spiritus mundi. This identifica-
tion, which presupposed the possibility of
extracting the “spirit of the world” through
Innovative and Original Aspects alchemical operations, led to an important
reorientation of alchemy (Matton 1993; Newman
Between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 2008). Under Ficino’s influence, Giovanni
alchemy became widespread in Western Europe, Aurelio Augurello (ca. 1456–1524) composed
and hundreds of alchemical manuscripts were his poem Chrysopoeia (1515), written in an ele-
copied down and started circulating among gant classical style (mainly inspired by Virgil’s
princes, scholars, and practitioners. Along with Georgics), which quickly became a reference
the “classical” treatises attributed to medieval work for Renaissance alchemists and bequeathed
alchemists, new alchemical compendia were an enduring legacy until the end of the seven-
handed down. For instance, in the second half of teenth century (Kahn 2010). Augurello expanded
the fifteenth century, the Elucidarius artis the elixir-spiritus mundi equivalence with con-
transmutationis metallorum by the Italian alche- cepts and practices he probably drew from “clas-
mist Christophorus Parisiensis still identified the sical” alchemical treatises, such as ps.-Geber’s
three main goals of alchemy with the preparation Summa perfectionis and Petrus Bonus’ Margarita
of medicines, glassmaking, and metallic transmu- pretiosa novella. Moreover, he presented alchemy
tation (Crisciani and Pereira 2001). The same as part of the prisca sapientia that had been
author is credited with writing two alchemical already revealed by classical authors and pro-
works in Italian, Violetta and Sommetta: indeed, posed alchemical interpretations of many classical
European vernacular languages started being mythological accounts (e.g., Jason’s quest for the
increasingly used to compose alchemical prose Golden Fleece). Alchemy was progressively inte-
texts and poetry (Pereira 1999; Kahn 2010). Occi- grated in a new conceptual framework including
tan and Catalan translations or adaptations of natural magic, astrology, and Christian cabalistic
Latin alchemical texts are already attested in the ideas. Strongly influenced by Pico della
second half of the fourteenth century, such as the Mirandola (1463–1494), the Venetian priest
Catalan Cantinena that accompanied ps.-Llull’s Giovanni Agostino Panteo developed a “cabala
Testamentum (Pereira and Spaggiari 1999). of metals” in his two works Ars transmutationis
Alchemical Middle English collections include, metallicae (1519) and Voarchadumia contra
for instance, anonymous verses explaining how alchimiam (1530; Forshaw 2013). Moreover,
4 Alchemy
Ficino’s ideas were received by the German magi- properties of a large body of mineral substances:
cian and astrologer Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa any mineral, even if toxic as such, could be
von Nettesheim (1486–1535): in his De occulta alchemically processed and transformed into a
philosophia (1531), he described metals as ani- healthy remedy. This attitude contributed to test
mated elements, permeated by a celestial spirit the properties of new minerals, such as antimony,
that could be extracted and used for transmutation. which entered the laboratory also of those authors
He is probably the author of the short tract De arte who reintegrated chrysopoeia in their practice,
chimica – often attribute to Ficino between the such as the alchemist Basil Valentine (Principe
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries – where the 2013, pp. 138–153).
philosophers’ stone is prepared by treating gold
with philosophical mercury, able to release the
divine spirit embedded in the precious metal Impact and Legacy
(Matton 2014).
The chemical medicine (also called Already at the end of the sixteenth century, the
chymiatria, iatrochemistry, or spagyria) devel- earliest Paracelsians began editing and
oped by Theophrastus Bombastus von interpreting Paracelsus’s works, few of which
Hohenheim, commonly known as Paracelsus were published during his lifetime. The first edi-
(1493–1541), caused another dramatic shift of tion of a large selection of his writings appeared in
perspective in the history of alchemy. Heir of a the 1590s (published by Johann Huser under the
long tradition of skepticism against metallic trans- title of B€ucher und Schriften), and Paracelsus’
mutation, he denied that alchemy could transform system soon became a matter of fiery debate
metals into gold or silver. On the other hand, he among physicians and alchemists (Kahn 2007).
strongly emphasized the role of alchemy as a The efficacy of the new alchemical pharmacology
fundamental pillar of his anti-Galenic medical was largely discussed along with various aspects
system, which included also astrology and natural of Paracelsus’s theory of matter. Petrus Severinus
philosophy. Precise correspondences between (1540/42-1602), Joseph Du Chesne (1546–1609),
macrocosm and microcosm guided the practice Oswald Croll (1560–1608), and Jean Baptiste van
of physicians, who had to learn how to handle a Helmont (1579–1644) reassessed the role and
complex set of pharmacological compounds (e.g., nature of the three principles in relation to the
arcana and magisteria). Paracelsus reshaped the semina and the four Aristotelian elements (Hirai
traditional mercury-sulfur theory and added salt as 2005). This debate on elements and principles
the third basic constituent of metals. These tria interacted with the development of modern atom-
prima are cosmic principles, but they are not ism and corpuscular theories of matter (Clericuzio
unique. Since they give account of the qualities 2000), as emerging, for instance, in the works by
of each mineral (and in general, of all things), each Andreas Libavius (1555–1616) and Daniel
mineral is formed by a particular kind of mercury, Sennert (1572–1637), professor of medicine at
sulfur, and salt, which determine its specific fea- the University of Wittenberg (Newman 2006).
tures. These principles are contained in the seeds Critical of Paracelsus’s magic and many fraudu-
(semina) that, after being planted in a matrix lent and sacrilegious aspects of his doctrines,
(mainly composed of water), grow up and pro- Sennert and Libavius had a deep knowledge of
duce their “mineral fruits” (Hirai 2005). Through medieval alchemy. Libavius’ work Alchemia
alchemical operations (distillation, sublimation, (1597; second expanded edition 1606) describes
putrefaction), it was possible to isolate/purify the the preparation of hundreds of medicines, by
three principles and recombine them in new and emphasizing the medieval origins of
powerful medicines. Paracelsus inherited the tra- iatrochemistry, deeply rooted in ps.-Arnald’s,
dition of alchemical medicines linked to the prep- ps.-Llull’s, and John of Rupescissa’s alchemical
aration of distilled quintessence and potable gold, works. With his vigorous prose, Libavius strove to
yet substantially expanded it by exploring the cleanse iatrochemistry of its mystical and obscure
Alchemy 5
elements and to define a new chymia founded on References

Aristotelian philosophy and experimental practice
(Moran 2007). A similar effort to ennoble Primary Literature
alchemy (and make it appealing to learned Barthélémy, P. 2002. La Sedacina ou l’Oeuvre au crible:
l’alchimie de Guillaume Sedacer, carme catalan de la
humanists) was shared by Michael Meier
fin du XIVe siècle. S.É.H.A/Archè: Paris/Milano.
(1568–1622), who composed the Atalanta Calvet, A. 2011. Les oeuvres alchimiques attribuées à
Fugiens, a book of alchemical emblems, where Arnaud de Villeneuve: Grand oeuvre, medicine et
alchemy was explained through fifty images taken prophétie au Moyen-Âge. S.É.H.A/Archè: Paris/
Milano.
from earlier alchemical authorities and accompa-
Crisciani, C. 1976. Pietro Bono da Ferrara, Preziosa mar-
nied by pieces of poetry, prose, and music garita novella. Edizione del volgarizzamento con
(Principe 2013, pp. 173–178). introduzione e note. La Nuova Italia: Firenze.
Alchemical theories and practices widely cir- Matton, S. 2014. Henry Cornelius Agrippa (attributable
to), De Arte Chimica (On Alchemy). S.É.H.A/Archè:
culated in the seventeenth century. European
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printing presses issued hundreds of alchemical Newman, W.R. 1991. The Summa Perfectionis of the
treatises, often grouped in famous collections Pseudo-Geber: A critical edition, translation, and
(e.g., the Theatrum Chemicum in six volumes; study. Brill: Leiden.
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(called also alchymia or spagyria) was defined
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both to producing commercial products and to Treccani, vol. IV, chap. 17. Roma.
Forshaw, P.J. 2013. Cabala Chymica or Chemia
exploring metallic transmutation. The influence Cabalistica – Early modern Alchemists and Cabala.
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work (Newman and Principe 2002) exemplifies Halleux, R. 1981. Ouvrages alchimiques de Jean de
the significant contribution that early sixteenth- Rupescissa. In Histoire littéraire de la France, vol.
XLI, 241–277. Imprimerie Nationale: Paris.
and seventeenth-century alchemical theories and Hirai, H. 2005. Le concept de semence dans les théorie de
practices offered to the foundation of modern la matière à la Renaissance: de Marsile Ficin à Pierre
academic chemistry. Gassendi. Brepols: Turnhout.
Kahn, D. 2007. Alchimie et paracelsisme en France
(1567–1625). Droz: Genève.
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modern Europe: A preliminary survey and synthesis,
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▶ Alchemical Medicine and Distillation son influence. In Alchimie et Philosophie à la
▶ Chemistry Renaissance, ed. J.-C. Margolin, S. Matton, 123–190.
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▶ Paracelsus and Paracelsianism
6 Alchemy
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tion alchimique. Le crisi dell’alchimia, Micrologus 3: the fire. Starkey, Boyle, and the fate of Helmontian
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The Cambridge history of science, vol. 3. Early modern Alchemical writings attributed to George Ripley (d. ca.
science, chap. 21. CUP: Cambridge. 1490). Ambix 57: 125–201.
A
Astronomy During the Renaissance, astronomy was one of

the so-called mixed sciences. Like optics,
Pietro Daniel Omodeo mechanics, and music, it used mathematical dem-
History of astronomy and philosophy, Max onstrations to account for physical phenomena.
Planck Institute for the History of Science, These disciplines were distinguished from pure
Berlin, Germany mathematics, arithmetic and geometry, dealing
with quantities per se, discrete and continuous,
respectively. In the university curricula, astron-
Abstract omy counted as one of the liberal arts of the
quadrivium (alongside arithmetic, geometry,
In order to understand Renaissance astronomy, it is and music). Specifically, it was the mathematical
expedient to locate it, as a mixed science, in the discipline dealing with continuous quantities in a
cultural system of the time, in particular among the “comparative manner” and “relative to motion,”
other mathematical disciplines of the quadrivium, since it dealt with the ratios of celestial motions
and in relation to physical astronomy. Moreover, it (Table 1). It was complemented by physical
is worth considering its internal partitions, begin- astronomy, which was the part of natural philos-
ning with the distinction between theoretical and ophy mainly resting on Aristotle’s De caelo.
practical astronomy. In close relation to its univer- Whereas mathematical astronomy dealt with the
sity teaching, a canon of sources was established quia (or tò ὅti), that is, the description of the
(the so-called corpus astronomicum, together with heavens by mathematical means, natural philos-
a corpus astrologicum). During the Renaissance, ophy accounted for the secundum quid (or dióti),
astronomy underwent momentous transformations, that is, it offered causal explanations of the same
initiated by mathematical humanists such as Georg heavenly phenomena. Natural philosophy, or
von Peuerbach and Johannes Regiomontanus. As physica, dealt with cosmology and its fundamen-
major steps in the development of the discipline, tal concepts, such as space, place, time, eternity,
one shall indicate Copernicus’s work and the helio- infinity, celestial matter, and void. During the
centric planetary theory, debates on comets and Renaissance, the boundaries between mathemat-
cosmological space, telescopic astronomy after ics and physics were progressively blurred until a
Galileo, and the physicalization of astronomy unified mathematical celestial physics emerged.
after Kepler. Among wider cultural aspects, the Mathematical astronomy, or the “science of
criticism of astrology and the socioeconomical fac- the celestial bodies” (scientia de rebus
tors that supported astronomical studies are here coelestibus), was constituted of two parts: theo-
mentioned. retical and practical. The former (astronomia
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_251-1
2 Astronomy
Astronomy, Table 1 The place of astronomy within the Beginning in the thirteenth century, university
four mathematical arts of the quadrivium according to a teaching led to the gradual codification and estab-
standard scholastic taxonomy, still adopted by Christo-
pher Clavius in his widespread introduction to spherical lishment of a corpus astronomicum. This is
astronomy witnessed by the standard choice of reference
Divisio mathematicarum sources bounded together in medieval codices
Quantitas Per se, seu Comparative, seu on astronomy. They included De sphaera and
absolute mobiliter Theoricae planetarum as general introductions,
Continua Geometria Astronomia texts on time reckoning (computus), and on the
Discreta Arithmetica Musica calendar as well as tabulae and canones offering
the means for celestial predictions. Similar multi-
textual anthologies were printed in Renaissance.
For instance, the Venetian printer Luca-Antonio
theorica sive contemplatrix) dealt with celestial Giunta issued in 1531 an astronomical collection
motions, their modeling and parameters. It com- bringing together Sacrobosco’s De sphaera,
prised the study of the fixed stars as well as Gerard of Cremona’s Theoricae planetarum
planetary theory and accounted for planetary sta- veteres, Peurbach’s Theoricae novae planetarum,
tions and retrograde motions, conjunctions, and al-Bitrūjī’s physical astronomy, Planetarum
eclipses. It relied on works such as Ptolemy’s theorica physicis rationibus probata, and other
Almagest and Nicholas Copernicus’s De canonical sources. In parallel, especially in the
revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543), as fifteenth century, a sort of corpus astrologicum
well as, to a minor extent, on Georg Peurbach emerged. It especially comprised a great deal of
and Johannes Regiomontanus’s Epytoma in Islamicate sources, among them general summa-
Almagestum (1496). Mathematical astronomers ries such as Haly Abenragel’s De iudiciis
were also concerned with the description and astrorum or shorter texts such as Messahalla’s
perfection of instruments such as astrolabes, De revolutionibus annorum mundi and Zael’s
quadrants, torqueta, and trigonometric measur- De interrogationibus.
ing instruments. Furthermore, these practitioners Mathematical astronomy had momentous
were able to use astronomical tables, for instance, developments during the European Renaissance.
the Alfonsine tables and Erasmus Reinhold’s These began with the Humanistic movement and
Prutenicae tabulae (1551) based on Copernican the recovery of classical sources in astronomy.
parameters, to compute ephemerides and alma- The very influential Greek Cardinal Bessarion
nacs, which were printed in large number. encouraged the study and translation of the Alma-
The other partition of astronomy, the practical gest directly from the original. Under his aus-
one, coincided with judiciary astrology pices, Peuerbach and Regiomontanus realized a
(astronomia practica, judiciaria, seu summary of Ptolemy, the Epytoma, which
prognostica) and dealt with prognostications of expounded the technicalities of the most impor-
celestial effects on sublunary events. It rested on tant source of ancient astronomy. The editio
Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos as well as on a wide range princeps of the Almagest appeared in Basel, in
of Hellenistic and Islamic sources. Its main field 1538, preceded and followed by Latin editions,
of applications was medicine, since the success- among them, Gerard of Cremona’s medieval
ful use of medicaments and medical treatments as translation from the Arabic (Venice, 1515),
well as the course of the illnesses was deemed to George of Trebizond’s fifteenth-century version
depend on astral influences. Meteorology and from the Greek (Venice, 1528), and Reinhold’s
agriculture were also seen as dependent on astrol- Greek-and-Latin edition of the first book
ogy. Predictions (in the form of interrogations, (Wittenberg, 1549). As an accomplished human-
elections, and judgments) could also be used as ist, Regiomontanus also planned to set up a sci-
an advice for action and even for political analy- entific printer in Nuremberg but his editorial
sis and forecasts. projects, aimed at the restoration and
Astronomy 3
improvement of mathematical knowledge, were systematical collection of data at his castle obser-
interrupted by an untimely death. vatory of Uraniborg, on the Danish island of
Regimontanus’s restoration proved funda- Hven. His data served as a basis for Kepler’s
mental for later developments, in particular, for subsequent work, in particular as an empirical
Copernicus’s project of an astronomical reform. basis for the determination and testing of the
His major work, De revolutionibus, is a milestone heliocentric model of Mars’s orbit in the
in the history of science. It improved planetary Astronomia nova (1609). Moreover, the publica-
theory in many respects, offered a new synthesis tion of Galileo’s Sidereus nuncius launched tele-
of the discipline that could stand comparison with scopic astronomy in 1610. It communicated the
Ptolemy, and propounded a modern version of observation of the lunar asperities and of new
the heliocentric planetary theory celestial bodies, namely, the four Medicean sat-
(“▶ Copernicanism”). ellites of Jupiter. The telescopic observation of
To be sure, planetary theory was not the only the phases of Mercury and Venus made Ptole-
controversial issue in the astronomical debates of maic geocentrism definitively obsolete, while the
the Renaissance. Very importantly, heated dis- sunspots confirmed the rotation of the solar body
cussions over the location and nature of comets as well as the “mutability” of the heavens, pace
and novas (“▶ Comets”) had far-reaching cosmo- Aristotle.
logical implications. The debates on the comet of The astronomical work of Kepler deserves
1577–1578 and the stellae novae of 1572 and particular mention as the substitution of a kine-
1604 are particularly well known for the involve- matic treatment of planetary motions through
ment of leading scholars of the time, like Michael geometrical modeling for physical astronomy,
Mästlin, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and that is, the explanation of celestial motions as
Galileo Galilei. Accurate observations of these resulting from the action of forces. After the
phenomena demonstrated their supralunary loca- dissolution of the celestial spheres of the medie-
tion. This undermined the Aristotelian concep- val tradition in the 1580s, the question about the
tion of the heavens as the realm of causes of the celestial motions was raised. Kepler
unchangeable perfection and paved the way to was not satisfied with vitalistic and psychological
new cosmologies assuming the fluidity of celes- accounts allotting to planets (and their souls) an
tial space and the principle of cosmological inner impulse (as was the case for Francesco
homogeneity. Also due to these results, the Patrizi and Bruno, among others) or post-
1580s witnessed to the expansion of natural phil- Aristotelian metaphysical accounts resorting to
osophical debates on the heavens. Among others, “separate intellects” regulating the trajectories
Brahe’s geo-heliocentric system of each planet (as was the case for “Tychonians”
(”▶ Geocentrism”) presupposed the fluidity of like Christian Longomontanus). Rather, Kepler
heavenly space to account for such features as pointed to the motive force emanating from the
the intersection of the deferents of Mars and of Sun as the unitary cause of celestial motions and
the Sun. In the same years, the Copernican phi- the nonuniformity of their speeds.
losopher Giordano Bruno defended the view that In the scientific culture of the Renaissance,
the universe is infinite and populated by countless mathematical astronomy and astrological prac-
heliocentric systems similar to ours. His tice were intertwined and mutually supportive.
infinitism was to influence later conceptions of Still, beginning with the late fifteenth century,
cosmological space, beginning with René the criticism of astrology for philosophical, reli-
Descartes’s indefinite and polycentric universe. gious, and political reasons progressively eroded
An impetuous advance in the techniques of the consensus earlier accorded to astrology.
observation and in observation-based theory Giovanni Pico’s Disputationes adversus
marked the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, astrologiam divinatricem (printed posthumously,
as well. While Copernicus’s observations were in 1496), Jean Calvin’s Advertissement contre
sporadic, Brahe inaugurated teamwork l’astrologie judiciaire (1549), or Jean Bodin’s
4 Astronomy
anti-astrological considerations, in Les six livres at Jesuit colleges, or the influence of

de la république (1576), are landmarks of this Melanchthon’s support of mathematics and of
pre-Enlightenment criticism of superstition. astrology over German reformed universities.
Some religious and political authorities started Moreover, while Catholic censorial practices,
prohibiting astrological practice, for instance, most notably the prohibition of the Copernican
Sixtus V in 1586. In Germany, astrology planetary theory, rebounded on teaching and
benefited from great popularity, also due to the scholarly practices in negativo, it also provoked
lasting influence of the Lutheran praeceptor attempts to reconcile theology and astronomical
Germaniae, Philip Melanchthon, who regarded novelties as a reaction, especially in the reformed
this discipline as the science of Divine Provi- Countries.
dence. Later, the affirmation of mechanistic con-
ceptions of nature and medicine led to the
marginalization of astrology from the culture of
References
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ical concerns underlying the scientific curricula Michel, La Cosmologie de Giordano Bruno (Paris:
Astronomy 5
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On the problem of celestial motions after the dissolution of and Politics in Renaissance Milan (Cambridge,
the celestial spheres, and Kepler’s physicalization of MA-London: Harvard UP, 2013). On the calendar
astronomy, see: Bruce Stephenson, Kepler’s Physical reform, see George V. Coyne, Michael A. Hoskin,
Astronomy (New York: Springer, 1987), James and Olaf Pedersen, Gregorian Reform of the Calendar
R. Voelkel, The Composition of Kepler’s “Astronomia (Vatican: Specola vaticana, 1983). On confessional
Nova” (Princeton: UP, 2001), and Miguel Ángel Gra- aspects of astronomical developments during the
nada, “‘A quo moventur planetae? Kepler et la ques- Renaissance a useful source is Rienk Vermij, The
tion de l’agent du mouvement planétaire après la Calvinist Copernicans: The Reception of the New
disparition des orbes solides,” Galilaeana 7 (2010): Astronomy in the Dutch Republic, 1575-1750
111-141. (Amsterdam: Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie
The impact of Pico’s criticism of astrology has been van Wetenschappen, 2002). On Jesuit and reformed
stressed by Robert S. Westman, The Copernican Ques- scientific education, enlightening case studies are:
tion: Prognostication, Skepticism, and Celestial Order Antonella Romano, La contre-réforme mathématique:
(Berkeley-Los Angeles-London, 2011), pp. 29-47. On Constitution et diffusion d’une culure mathématique
Melanchthon’s support for astrology, see Sachiko jésuite à la Renaissance (Rome: École Française de
Kusukawa, The Transformation of Natural Philosophy: Rome, 1999) and Barbara Bauer (ed.), Melanchthon
The Case of Philip Melanchthon (Cambridge-New und die Marburger Professoren (1527-1627)
York: Cambridge UP, 1995). On the marginalisation (Marburg: Universitätsbibliothek, 1999).
C
Chemistry “alchemical,” and “alchemist.” Both alchymia

and chymia referred to the same discipline mainly
Matteo Martelli concerned with metallic transmutation and the
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany production of medicines. In order to avoid any
anachronism, scholars have recently introduced
the term “chymistry” in reference to these activi-
Abstract ties from the late fifteenth to the end of the seven-
teenth centuries (Newman and Principe 1998).
The recent historiography of alchemy clearly The rise of Paracelsianism and the debate that it
marked a substantial shift away from the view generated greatly contributed to reshape late
held by earlier historians of science, who tended medieval alchemical theories and practices. New
to dismiss the discipline as a pseudoscience that chymists reworked Paracelsian elements and
played no role in the so-called Scientific Revolu- combined them with the teaching of thirteenth-
tion. No longer considered as a kind of mystic or and fourteenth-century alchemists (such as ps.-
spiritual science (as eighteenth- and nineteenth- Geber, ps.-Lull, ps.-Arnald of Villanova), thus
century occultists and psychologists wanted to contributing to lay the foundation of eighteenth-
interpret it; Principe 2013, 94–106), alchemy is century academic chemistry.
now studied as a complex set of theories and
laboratory practices aimed at manipulating natural
substances and producing artificial products, Synonyms
which we would nowadays call chemical. Until
the beginning of the eighteenth century it is Alchemy; Chymistry
impossible to draw a clear-cut distinction between
alchemy and chemistry without retrospectively
applying modern categories and definitions. At Problems of Vocabulary: “Alchemy”
the end of the fifteenth century, Humanists intro- and “Chemistry” as Synonyms
duced the terms chymia, chymicus, or chymista
(“chemistry,” “chemical,” or “chemist”). The terms “alchemy” and “chemistry” share a
Although this new vocabulary was sometimes common etymology, since both stem from the
interpreted as evidence for the existence of two Greek chym(e)ia/chēm(e)ia [wum(e)ίa/ wZm(e)ίa;
distinct areas of expertise (namely chemistry and Halleux 1979, 45–46], which occur in late antique
alchemy), it is now clear that the abovementioned and Byzantine authors in reference to a wide array
terms were used as synonyms of “alchemy,” of technical skills. While the lexicon Souda
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_255-1
2 Chemistry
(tenth century) defines chēmeia as “the prepara- works; see Matton 1995, 293–295): in a letter of
tion of gold and silver,” Byzantine alchemical 1471 he explained chalchimia as the art of
collections mention a chymeutikē biblos corrupting copper, from the Greek chalkos
(wumeutikὴ bίbloB, “alchemical book”) that (walkóB, “copper”) and miainō (miaίno, “to
instructed on how to make gold and silver, how stain”; see Williams 2003, 335–336). The Human-
to solidify mercury, how to produce artificial gem- ist Ermolao Barbaro (1454–1493) surely knew the
stones, pearls, and colors, and how to dye leather lexicon Souda and the Byzantine alchemical writ-
purple (Berthelot and Ruelle 1888, vol. 2, 220). ings collected in the famous MS Marcianus gr.
When Greek alchemical treatises were translated 299 (tenth to eleventh century), belonging to
into Arabic, the Greek term was transliterated Bessarion’s library. In his Castigationes plinianae
(through a Syriac intermediary) as kī miyā’, to (1492) he criticized chymistae (i.e., “alchemists”),
which the Arabic article al- was prefixed. The who adulterate metals: their name, Barbaro
Latin terms alkimia, alchymia, alchemia are argued, stems either from the verb fundo (“to
instances of the different attempts to render the melt”; weo in Greek) or from the term succus
Arabic al-kī miyā’, as attested in twelfth-century (“juice,” wumóB in Greek). The same terminology
Western translations of astrological (e.g., Hugo of occurs in Pandolfo Collenuccio’s Agenoria
Santalla’s translation of ‘Umar’s Book of Ques- (1497), where chymistae species are mentioned
tions, see Burnett 1992) and alchemical Arabic among the useless Greek “sciences” (Matton
treatises (e.g., Robert of Chester’s De 1995). At the beginning of book 2 of De auro
compositione alchemiae, the translation of an libri tres (ca. 1515; published in 1586),
alchemical text attributed to the Umayyad prince Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola
Ḫalīd b. Yazīd). The Latin alchymia (along with (1469–1533) refers back to Barbaro’s explanation
its orthographic variants) became common in the and clarifies that the correct name for the art that
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and was even transmutes metals is chemia rather than alchimia,
transliterated into Greek (e.g., a᾿ rwZmίa or an Arabic term adopted by many Latin writers.
a᾿ rwimίa) in late Byzantine texts, such as the Keen on Greek terminology, he further specifies
alchemical section of MS Parisinus gr. 2419 that Greeks used to refer to gold-making as
(fifteenth century), which preserves a Greek trans- chrysopoeia and to silver-making as argyropoeia.
lation of Albert the Great’s Semita recta and a This “Greek” vocabulary was widely adopted
collection of recipes translated from Latin by sixteenth-century scholars and alchemists.
(Colinet 2010, xiv-xvii). Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (ca. 1456–1524)
Later on, the form chymia was rediscovered gave the title of chrysopeia to his influential
and reintroduced by Humanists, who were alchemical poem. Giovanni Agostino Panteo
intrigued by the etymology of the term alchymia. (mid-sixteenth century) defined his new cabalistic
In his commentary on Dionysius of Halicarnassus alchemy, called vorachadumia, in contrast with
(Lehnerdt 1890, 10–12), John Kanaboutzes the traditional alchemy (in his view, the art of
(mid-fifteenth century) preferred the term chymia adulterating metals), which was referred to as
(wumίa) to the Latin archymia (a᾿ rkumίa) in his alchimia, chemia, or calcimia. Among the Renais-
description of alchemy, which included methods sance commentators of Aristotle’s Meteorology,
for transmuting base metals into gold and silver, Agostino Nifo (ca. 1469–1538) denied the possi-
dyeing stones, and producing artificial pearls. In bility of metallic transmutation advocated by the
his interpretation, the term chymia stems from the experts in alchimia, a vulgar name that he pro-
Greek verb cheō (weo, “to pour”), since the posed to replace with ars fusoria (“melting art,”
alchemical art teaches how to dissolve metals from the Greek weo, “to melt”; Martin 2004,
(Sakorrafou and Merianos 2014). According to 252–253). In his books on mining and metallurgy,
Francesco Filelfo (1398–1481), the correct name Georgius Agricola (1494–1555) speaks of ars
of alchemia was chalchimia (attested also in the chymiae in reference to alchemy, and the Latin
early modern editions of Nicholas of Cusa’s translators of Paracelsus’ treatises used chemia to
Chemistry 3
translate the German Alchimei, namely the art of chemia and the Arabic origin of alchemia, yet he
Alchimisten (Rocke 1985). Moreover, Paracelsus was mistaken (alike other contemporary authors)
introduced the neologism spagyria (a term later in interpreting the Arabic article al as an emphatic
interpreted as stemming from the Greek verbs prefix (Newman and Principe 1998).
spάo, “to draw out,” and a᾿ geίro, “to bring
together”) to emphasize the centrality of
Scheidung, that is, the separation of the three
Chymistry Between Metallic
principles that compose every substance (sulfur,
Transmutation and Spagyric Medicines
mercury, and salt). In his view the term better
explained the basic processes of a medically ori-
A learned interest in the etymology of the Graeco-
ented alchemy, whose aim was to isolate the three
Arabic word alchemia led Humanists to
principles, which were purified and then
reintroduce the “original” form chemia, which
recombined to produce effective drugs.
was used by no means to distinguish a different
Paracelsians usually referred to this medical
(or new) scientific and technological field some-
domain of alchemy as chemiatria or iatrochemia
how closer to modern chemistry. Early modern
(both stemming from chēmia and the Greek term
chymistry was a complex and diversified field:
ἰatróB, “physician”; Schneider 1972).
while it would be a historiographical mistake to
The terms alchemia (or alchymia) and chemia
look retrospectively into it and take just those
(or chymia) continued being used as synonyms
elements that resemble modern chemistry out of
until the end of the seventeenth century, as well
their context, historians of science have more and
exemplified by the title Theatrum chemicum given
more convincingly proved that the development
to the impressive collection of alchemical trea-
of modern academic chemistry is deeply rooted in
tises, which included both medieval and Renais-
medieval and early modern alchemical practices
sance writings (six vols, 1602–1661). Andreas
and theories.
Libavius (ca. 1555–1616) interpreted Paracelsus’
One fundamental step toward the definition of
spagyria in the light of Aristote’s Metereology and
modern chemistry was the disappearance of
defined it as the art of synkresis (“association”)
metallic transmutation, which became an
and diakrisis (“dissociation”), two terms used by
old-fashioned relic of the past in the eighteenth
Aristotle to describe Democritus’ atomism
century. Chrysopoeia was not just denied within a
(Newman 2006, 66–81). Through these opera-
broader philosophical debate on art and nature
tions it was possible to reach the two main goals
(such as in the medieval quaestio de alchimia;
of alchemy (called either alchemia or chemia),
Newman 2004, 34–114), but it was rejected as
namely metallic transmutation and the preparation
something fraudulent and immoral (Principe
of medicines. He also introduced the neologism
2013, 84–89). Within a quite different cultural
chymeion (wumeίon) to refer to the equipped
milieu, some Renaissance scholars and artists
chemical workshop (laboratium chymicum),
already tried to remove chrysopoeia (strictly
where alchemists performed their work. Likewise,
intertwined with the quest for the philosophers’
seventeenth-century authors of chymical text-
stone) from the wide array of chymical operations
books did not distinguish between alchemia and
discovered by alchemists. In his notebooks
chemia and the practices these terms
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) refused the
encompassed. For instance, in his Tyrocinium
claim of alchemists, who pretended to replicate
chymicum (1612; it was reprinted more than
or even perfect natural products, yet praises their
40 times in the seventeenth century) Jean Beguin
useful inventions. Likewise, in his manual on
listed chemia, alchemia, and spagiria as syno-
metalworking De la pirotechnia (1540) the Italian
nyms. He accounted for the Greek origin of
engineer Vanoccio Biringuccio (ca. 1480–1539)
4 Chemistry
denied the possibility of transmuting metals. He led to hundreds of useful discoveries: metallic
first criticized the sophistic and unnatural alchemy alloys, medicines, colors, artillery, glass, and
practised by those who were impious in their many other chemical compounds and instruments
attempts to counterfeit natural products; then he (Perifano 1997). All these different arts continued
praised the practitioners of a “good” alchemy, being practiced in the Casino of San Marco, where
who, despite their vain efforts to make gold, Francesco I de Medici (1541–1587) set a new
greatly contributed to the discovery of very valu- laboratory, or in the Fonderia of the Uffizi Gallery
able technologies, such as the production of (Beretta 2014). Chrysopoeia was discussed and
metallic alloys and colors, cementation, glass- practiced by the authors of seventeenth-century
making, and distillation (Newman 2004, chymical textbooks (a tradition inaugurated by
120–132; Bernardoni 2014). Libavius’ Alchemia), which greatly contributed
The epistemological status of these arts and to the reorganizing of this impressive body of
their relation with alchemy remained quite fluid, knowledge (Hannaway 1975). By combining a
as one can see from the different classifications of deep understanding of medieval alchemy and
artes proposed by Renaissance scholars. The Aristotelian philosophy with a strong emphasis
great contribution that alchemy gave to different on laboratory work, Libavius was successful in
technologies (metalworking, distillation, glass- composing a handbook that clearly explained the
making, production of medicines) was certainly main chymical procedures (both metallic trans-
acknowledged; however, these technologies were mutation and the preparation of chymical medi-
sometimes classified as separate arts, such as in cines) for academic purposes (Moran 2007). The
the small encyclopedia Specchio di scientia academic identity of chymistry was reinforced by
universale (1564) by Leonardo Fioravanti the seventeenth-century textbook tradition, which
(Mandosio 1993). Fragmented pieces of theories brought Paracelsian and alchemical methods and
and practices taken from alchemists were shared theories to a new audience, namely those who
by craftsmen and experts in different fields. In the attended French Paracelsians’ lectures or the stu-
early 1530s, a group of craft manuals known as dents of the physicians who were appointed pro-
Kunstb€ uchlein was printed in Germany. The first fessors of iatrochemisty in North-European
50-page booklet was entitled Rechter Gebrauch universities.
d’Alchimei (The proper use of alchemy): although Although these textbooks were mainly devoted
based on an alchemical treatise by Petrus to the preparation of new spagyric pharmaceuti-
Kertzenmacher, it did not include either cals, they also included more theoretical parts
Kertzenmacher’s theoretical discussions on discussing Paracelsus’ principles and Aristotelian
alchemy or his recipes on metallic transmutation, elements. Their authors tried to match these prin-
yet focused just on recipes for making artificial ciples with the results of analytic practices
gemstones and metalworking procedures, which performed in the laboratory. Joseph Du Chesne’s
could be particularly useful for craftsmen (Eamon theory of the five principles (water, mercury, sul-
1996, 113–116). fur, salt, earth), for instance, was endorsed by the
Metallic transmutation remained, however, a Parisian teacher Étienne De Clave, who identified
fundamental topic in sixteenth- and seventeenth- these principles with five classes of distillation
century Europe (Nummendal 2007). For instance, products (Kim 2003, 17–63; Clericuzio 2006).
at the court of Cosimo I de Medici (1519–1574) Analytic and synthetic operations were already
all the applications of alchemy, including at the basis of medieval alchemy (e.g., in ps.-
chrysopoeia, were studied and put into practice Geber’s Summa perfectionis) and fire distillation
in the Fonderia (“workshop/laboratory”) of became quite popular in the framework of
Palazzo Vecchio. The duke asked Benedetti Paracelsian spagyric alchemy, which emphasized
Varchi to compose his Si l’archimia è vera o no Scheidung procedures to analyze substances into
quistione (1544), where Varchi, alike Biringuccio, their main constituents. Beyond the French tradi-
praised the true alchemy (alchimia vera), which tion, the mid-sixteenth-century Prussian
Chemistry 5
iatrochemist Alexander von Suchten (1520–1575) Cross-References

described his laboratory techniques to assay the
alchemical metals produced by combining anti- ▶ Alchemical Medicine and Distillation
mony compounds with other substances (e.g., sil- ▶ Alchemy
ver and mercury; a method inherited by the ▶ Paracelsus and Paracelsianism
alchemist Starkey): he dissolved these metals in
mineral acids and weighted the products after
distilling them. Fire analysis became a sensitive
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physicians: the Heidelberg professor of medicine
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C
Cosmology they were right. The world as people had known

it for centuries was quickly coming to an end, be it
Rienk Vermij not factually but conceptually. New discoveries
Department of the History of Science, University and new questions forced people to reconsider
of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA their ideas on the universe and in the end led to a
completely new view of the world – arguably one
of the most important conceptual shifts in human
Abstract history.
The new cosmical views went beyond intro-
The Renaissance views of the cosmos largely ducing new theories on the heavens or the stars
followed the medieval pattern. Only by the six- but pertained to the field of “cosmology” as such.
teenth century, some important innovations were Strictly speaking, in the Middle Ages there was no
proposed. These resulted from the increased such thing as cosmology. Of course, people con-
application of mathematical methods. Whereas templated the universe and at the universities,
earlier ideas on the universe depended on meta- philosophers disputed certain questions that we
physical and religious insights; astronomers can regard as cosmological. But the study of the
increasingly discussed the constitution of the uni- cosmos could not be isolated from other topics.
verse referring to empirical facts. Especially the The structure of the universe was considered inter-
work of Copernicus (1543) set the agenda for the esting because it told about creation, about the end
early modern debates on the constitution of the of the world, and about the generation and cor-
universe. It is only in the course of these debates ruption of things on earth. Much that was written
that a field of study arose that can be identified to on the cosmos actually pertained to man, the “little
modern cosmology. world” (microcosmos). The “harmony of the
spheres” concerned both the cosmos and the musi-
cal theory. And many statements on the cosmos
Introduction first of all expressed religious truths. It is ques-
tionable whether we could interpret them as mere
In their considerations on the universe, most peo- sayings about the structure, order, or other prop-
ple in the sixteenth century agreed on at least one erties of the physical universe.
thing: very soon, it would come to an end. The The great innovation of the Renaissance in the
world, as people knew it, would be utterly study of the cosmos is not just the application of
destroyed and would have to make place for a new tools and methods but also the way the field
new heaven and a new earth. And in a sense, was detached from its philosophical meaning.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_257-1
2 Cosmology
However, this was a slow process. Only by the Still, there was a basic agreement upon the
end of the Renaissance, the contours of modern physical outlook of the universe. Although there
cosmological thinking and an identifiable field of were many debates on points of detail, most
“cosmology” became dimly visible. A viable scholars would agree on the following points.
alternative for the traditional view of nature and (1) The world was finite. (2) There was a funda-
the world emerged only around the middle of the mental distinction between the celestial and ter-
seventeenth century. Speaking of the “cosmol- restrial regions, the celestial world (from the
ogy” of the Renaissance, we should realize that moon upward) being perfect and immutable, the
it was something in full flux, and not a well- terrestrial world (under the moon) imperfect and
defined field. Rather, it was a chaotic debate in changing. (3) The celestial world consisted of
which many different positions were held on a crystalline spheres that carried the celestial bod-
variety of issues. ies. Above this region was the place of God and
the Elect. (4) The earth, on the contrary, was at rest
in the center of the universe. Hell was often
thought of as being at the center of the earth.
Heritage
(5) By its motion and light, and perhaps by more
occult influences as well, the celestial world
During the Middle Ages, people were interested
caused the various changes in the terrestrial
in the universe, but their main interest concerned
world, such as meteors and the generation and
theological and metaphysical aspects rather than
passing away of animals, plants, minerals, etc.
physical properties. Actually, the various aspects
It is important to realize that this was not a
were not kept distinct. Physical aspects were
doctrine systematically explained. Information
discussed because they were supposed to express
on the universe can be found, often piecemeal, in
some higher truth. Cosmological information was
a variety of writings on spherics, natural philoso-
found as much in philosophical works, like
phy, and theology. Some topics were the subject
Aristotle’s De caelo, pseudo-Aristotle’s De
of elaborate speculations, others were largely
mundo, or Plato’s Timaeus, as in theological
disregarded. For instance, hardly any medieval
works like pseudo-Dionysius’ On the celestial
scholar bothered to discuss the substance of the
hierarchy and, last but not least, the creation
celestial spheres. Other relevant topics were
account in Genesis.
discussed in a non-cosmological context. So,
So, the “chain of being,” the hierarchical order-
because Aristotle regarded the Milky Way as a
ing of beings, was a philosophical principle which
sublunar phenomenon, medieval authors used to
was supposed to be physically present in the cre-
discuss this phenomenon in commentaries on
ation. Also, several medieval philosophers
Aristotle’s Meteorology. Even though most of
(starting with Robert Grosseteste) wrote elaborate
them would agree that the Milky Way actually
explanations on light, wherein light was taken
had its place among the fixed stars, this insight
both in a physical and a biblical sense. Light was
simply did not make it into works on the heavens
a symbol of the divine essence as it unfolded itself
or on astronomy.
in the creation, but as such, it also was a physical
entity, fundamental for the way God governed the
world. (And then, it also was the means by which
Innovation and Continuity
humans could attain higher knowledge). Even
in the Renaissance
purely physical discussions on the universe, as in
commentaries on the works of Aristotle,
The cosmology of the Renaissance for the most
concerned questions that were relevant foremost
part continues the ideas and theories of the pre-
from a theological point of view: the existence of a
ceding period. It is true that in the sixteenth cen-
world soul, the cause of the motion of the celestial
tury, several important new ideas were proposed
spheres, the finity/infinity of the world, etc.
and discoveries made. Still, they fully bore fruit
Cosmology 3
only in the following period, when natural philos- motion of the earth. It could be a source of inspi-
ophy underwent a complete overhaul, and cos- ration, but also a constraint.
mology was set on a new footing by thinkers A third factor is the growing prominence of
like Descartes and Newton. However, the contri- mathematical methods in studying the world. This
bution of Renaissance thinkers went further than is directly relevant for our purpose, because
just proposing new individual theories and facts. astronomy was regarded as a field of mathematics.
The new philosophy and the new cosmology of Astronomy, in particular spherics, had always
the seventeenth century did not just concern tech- been a source of elementary information on the
nical details but implied a new way of contem- physical outlook of the universe. But the contem-
plating the heavens and the universe. The new plation of the universe was foremost a philosoph-
views could become the focus of intellectual ical or theological affair. Astronomical theories
developments because the study of the cosmos served mainly practical purposes (the casting of
had already become a main field of research. horoscopes, the calculation of calendars, etc.) and
Increasingly during the Renaissance, the cos- were not really taken into account for philosoph-
mos, instead of being understood and studied ical questions. However, in the era of the Renais-
mainly in symbolic and metaphysical terms, was sance, mathematicians imposed themselves in an
looked upon as some other foreign continent that increasing number of fields and tried to put their
could be mapped and investigated by purely nat- discipline on a higher footing. In particular,
ural means. The various disparate questions were astronomers claimed that their theories and obser-
brought together and included into a more or less vations were relevant for the understanding of the
coherent area of physical study, from which other cosmos.
traditional questions, notably the theological ele- One should not exaggerate the innovativeness
ments that hitherto had dominated, came to be of these trends. Neither humanist scholars, nor
excluded. One can say that in this period the theologians, nor mathematicians, were primarily
field of cosmology really came into being. concerned with cosmology in our sense. If they
Obviously, the emergence of the study of the were interested in the cosmos, then it is because
cosmos in physical terms was a slow and far from they still regarded the visible world as an expres-
straightforward process. Ideas on the universe, sion of higher, metaphysical, or biblical truths.
like on other subjects, underwent the impact of They might advance original ideas in metaphysics
the great intellectual shifts of the period. Three or theology but only rarely they contested the
factors should be mentioned here. The first factor basic ideas on the physical constitution of the
is the rise of humanist scholarship and the universe (Copernicus being the obvious excep-
renewed study of classical texts. Philosophies tion). If in course of time their activities came to
like (neo-)Platonism, Pythagoreanism, and Stoi- constitute a new approach to the cosmos and
cism became more widely known, gained new thereby a new field of cosmology, then it is with-
credibility, and thereby became serious competi- out their intent, or even without their being aware
tors to the Aristotelian ideas (including ideas on of it.
the universe) still dominant at the universities. Few examples of the three trends indicated
The second factor is the renewed study of the above are given below. As to the rise of classical
Bible and the emphasis on a literal interpretation. studies, in their ideas on the cosmos humanist
The increased religious sensibility often scholars generally followed the medieval exam-
disqualified Aristotelianism as pagan and opened ples. In contemplating the universe, they were first
the doors to other forms of philosophy that were of all interested in the religious and metaphysical
regarded as more in line with Christianity. Indeed, dimensions. Physical positions were normally
the various factors did not work in isolation but inspired by these larger issues. If their descrip-
often influenced each other in complicated ways. tions of the cosmos entailed new elements, then it
On the other hand, biblical literalism was some- is only on points of detail.
times used to oppose new ideas, such as the
4 Cosmology
The preponderance of a metaphysical outlook application of Genesis to the explanation of the

can well be seen in the neo-Platonism of Marsilio cosmos remained limited, but it did occur. Biblical
Ficino, one of the most important philosophers of texts that touched upon cosmological issues were
the fifteenth century. Ficino regarded the cosmos for instance Genesis 1: 6–7, on the waters above
as the unfolding of God’s order. In his work De the firmament, and 2 Korinthians 12: 2, wherein
sole [On the sun], he gave a detailed description of Paul speaks of being elevated to the “third
the sun and its activity, but in a purely symbolical heaven.” Increasingly, such texts were not just
sense. He described the physical light of the sun, discussed in exegetical works but also in philo-
which at the same time was seen as an image of sophical and astronomical treatises. The division
the Good, the Trinity, and the choirs of angels. of the heavens into three parts became quite com-
Since the sun and the heavens were the image of mon, both in academic and nonacademic texts.
God, they were a life-giving force. Ficino A thorough overhaul of traditional cosmology
maintained the spiritual influence of the heavens in the name of Christianity can be found in the
in the terrestrial world. works of the sixteenth-century physician Paracel-
In his commentary on Plato’s Timaeus, Ficino sus. Again, Paracelsus was not primarily inter-
discussed the harmonic order according to which ested in the world as such. To him, the world
God had created the world. This “harmony of the only made sense in the terms of Christian salva-
spheres” again was thought of as being present in tion. Rather than a division of the universe in a
the world in a very physical way. It was not just terrestrial and a celestial region in traditional
identified with the angelic choirs but with the terms, he saw the world as divided between a
speed and distances of the planets. Ficino even visible, material realm and a spiritual, invisible.
discussed the exact order of the planets, preferring This held true for both man and the universe. For a
Plato’s order above Ptolemy’s. He also discussed true understanding of the cosmos, knowledge of
the exact tonal scale to which the celestial har- the invisible world is more important than of the
mony answered. However, here too his descrip- visible world, as the visible world in the end
tion of the world serves a spiritual aim and is obtains its true nature from the invisible. Paracel-
exclusively informed by a symbolic way of think- sus’ influence was considerable. For instance,
ing. Although he regarded the order of the world Francis Bacon’s cosmological ideas clearly bear
in mathematical terms, Ficino did not try to his impact.
describe the world in a quantitative- By far, the most important trend is the third
mathematical way. one, the growing influence of mathematics. Ini-
Ficino and other neo-Platonist philosophers tially, the impact of mathematics on other fields
felt that their philosophies were better in line was limited. However, the rise of mathematical
with the Biblical message than the dominant Aris- methods did imply that increasing value was
totelianism. In this sense, they also represent the attached to factual and quantitative descriptions.
second tendency, the return to the sources of the This is best seen in the rise of “cosmography.” The
Christian tradition and, in particular, the text of the Cosmographia of Petrus Apianus in particular
Bible. This tendency most clearly manifests itself became an extremely popular work. It combined
in the protestant Reformation. The Protestants, of basic geography and basic spherical astronomy,
course, were first of all moved by religious and thus giving a description of both the terrestrial and
theological considerations, but the principal place celestial regions of the universe. From the six-
they gave to theology had its impact on their view teenth century onward, mathematicians increas-
of the universe as well. They felt that Aristotle’s ingly came to challenge the arguments and the
philosophy was too pagan in character and that a conclusions of traditional philosophers. This
description and explanation of the universe should eventually would result in a complete overturn
be based on the Bible, in particular Genesis. In of people’s views on the universe.
practice, however, they most often took their the- An early example of a mathematical descrip-
ories from some other philosophy. The direct tion of the universe is the Theoricae novae
Cosmology 5
planetarum by Georg Peurbach, first printed in another way, by reintroducing the homocentric
1472. Whereas earlier astronomical descriptions spheres of Eudoxus.)
had a purely practical purpose, Peurbach’s work As to Copernicus’ more fundamental, and also
has an important theoretical component. In the more controversial, claim that the earth is moving
line of Ptolemy’s Planetary Hypotheses, he in an orbit around the sun, his main argument
described the universe as a whole of nested orbs. seems to be that in this way the harmonious pro-
So, he regarded the spheres and epicycles that portions of the solar system and its various
astronomers used to describe the motion of the motions are best preserved. In Copernicus’ helio-
planets as real entities, and he calculated their centric system, the period of the planets increases
dimensions based on the assumption that there regularly with their distance from the center,
was no space left between them. whereas in the system of Ptolemy, Venus and
In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus published his Mercury present an anomaly. So, as in the work
book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium of other Renaissance authors on the universe,
[On the revolutions of the celestial orbs], wherein metaphysical considerations appear very much at
he proposed the revolutionary idea that not the the core of Copernicus’ work. But these demands
heavens are turning around the earth, but that the were not answered by symbolical or religious
heavens are standing still and the earth is turning interpretations but by an exact mathematical
on its axis; moreover, that the earth is not the description of the real world. In this way, Coper-
center of the universe but has an annual motion nicus’ work proved a true game-changer.
in an orbit around the sun. His theory presented a Other mathematicians too did not immediately
decisive turning point in the history of cosmology, abandon the quest for a divine or harmonious
not because it was perfect or was immediately order in the world, but they increasingly
accepted (it was not) but because it started a demanded exact astronomical calculations.
general debate on the constitution of the universe Johannes Kepler, arguable the most important
that would go on for decades, if not centuries, and early follower of Copernicus’ theories, presents
would lead to a general overhaul of natural us with a similar approach of a metaphysical or
philosophy. even religious point of depart that should be
Little is known about Copernicus’ motives to answered by exact mathematical models. Kepler
propose this momentous new idea, but from what left no doubt about his true motivation in describ-
he writes it is evident that he was partly motivated ing the universe. He saw the universe as an
by a strong a priori conviction about the harmoni- expression of the divine Mind. The divers parts
ous and divine character of the universe. He of the universe were an image of the Trinity. By
defended the axiom that all celestial motions mathematics, he hoped to reveal the proportions
were either regular circular motions or composed according to which God had created the world.
of such motions. Regular circular motions were The key to the divine blueprint were the five
regarded as an expression of divine perfection. Platonic solids. Kepler felt that the relative dis-
Both Aristotle and Plato had therefore postulated tances between the planetary spheres as well as
that in the heavens, only regular circular motions the musical intervals could be derived from the
could exist. This was a generally accepted idea, proportions implied in the five Platonic solids.
but it was violated in the astronomical hypotheses The divine harmony of the world, in which Kepler
of Ptolemy. One of Copernicus’ main aims there- firmly believed, could be discovered by studying
fore was the construction of astronomical theories the empirical data.
that were in line with cosmological demands. This So, the mathematical approach initially was
ideal was more widely shared at the time and this not intended to replace the more metaphysical
aspect of Copernicus’ theories was quickly considerations. On the contrary, in so far mathe-
accepted by other scholars. (Some other astrono- matics was used, it was in the service of
mers, by the way, tried to obtain the same aim in establishing the harmonious relations that were
required by a view of the universe as God’s
6 Cosmology
creation. The difference between the views of In particular, the Danish nobleman Tycho
Paracelsus, on the one hand, and those of Coper- Brahe started a campaign of systematic astronom-
nicus and Kepler, on the other, is not that the latter ical observations, achieving an accuracy that far
were not interested in describing the universe in surpassed that of earlier observers. Especially rel-
Biblical and religious terms, for they definitely evant for the view of the cosmos were his parallax
were. It is rather that Paracelsus tried to achieve measurements. In 1572, Tycho observed a new
this aim without referring to mathematics, star (a nova) that remained visible for several
whereas to Copernicus and Kepler this was a months. In a brilliant campaign, Tycho deter-
main instrument. Both Copernicus and Kepler mined the parallax of this nova and found that it
created a vision of the world determined by a was above the moon, thus in the celestial region.
mathematical order. What ultimately inspired This violated the traditional view that there was no
them were metaphysical considerations, but their change in the heavens. The technique was
vision had to be in agreement with the empirical repeated, with similar outcome, with comets,
facts. first of all the big comet of 1577. Aristotelian
philosophers had always maintained that comets
were atmospheric phenomena, but astronomers
Developments After Copernicus now proved mathematically that they were celes-
tial objects. The nature of comets and new stars
Copernicus’ work had far reaching consequences. (other novae were observed in 1600 and 1604)
The geocentric cosmos was no longer self- gave rise to much debate, without for the moment
evident. Astronomers had to make a choice a consensus being reached.
between two very dissimilar alternatives. This Tycho also propagated a new model of the
gave the study of the cosmos a new urgency. planetary system. Although very few people
Whereas up to that time, astronomers had largely could swallow the motion of the Earth, other
relied on the work of classical authors, by now aspects of Copernicus’ innovation were more
they felt the need to start from fresh observations. readily accepted. That Venus and Mercury
Mathematicians and astronomers increasingly set moved around the sun instead of the Earth, an
the debate on the universe on a new footing, not idea already defended in late antiquity, made
by speculations on the harmony of the spheres or very good sense to many scholars. In the wake
the divine order (although, as stated, this element of Copernicus, astronomers wondered whether
remained important) but, on the one hand, by the same could hold for other planets as well.
demanding that all models of the universe should Tycho made the radical step of postulating that
answer to the empirical data and, on the other, by all the planets, except for the moon, moved
collecting ever more, and more accurate, of such around the sun. The whole system of sun and
data. The interpretation of the universe in sym- planets moved around the earth, which was still
bolic terms was not abandoned, but faded into the at rest in the center of the universe. In order to
background. make his system physically plausible, Tycho had
An idea that was now quickly abandoned was to abandon the solid spheres which carried the
the idea of fire as the upper element in the terres- planets. In his view, the planets moved freely
trial world, forming a sphere of its own. The idea through space. By and large, the idea of solid
that fire was an element had been disputed earlier planetary spheres would be abandoned by
by philosophers. But in 1557, the French mathe- philosophers.
matician Jean Pena refuted the idea of a sphere of Tycho’s system gained many adherents in the
fire referring to astronomical observations: a course of the following century, although seen
sphere of fire should result in a notable atmo- from a traditional perspective, it made only lim-
spheric refraction. More generally, for studying ited sense. Tycho strove above all to maintain the
the world he defended the use of mathematical rest of the Earth, which was deemed important for
over philosophical considerations. reasons of physics, common sense, and, above all,
Cosmology 7
biblical exegesis. But in order to achieve this goal it demonstrates that it became increasingly diffi-
and still do full justice to the astronomical data, he cult to accommodate the ancient symbolic inter-
had to sideline the principle of divine order or pretation of the world with the new mathematical
harmony. demands. Patrizi was a neo-Platonist, very much
Most mathematicians were more cautious. influenced by Ficino, and like his predecessor, his
Innovations were accepted only piecemeal and aim was to describe the world in terms of cosmic
hesitantly. Still, the quest for the true constitution harmony. However, he was much more interested
of the universe became a core business of astron- in natural science than Ficino and tried to found
omy. An interesting case is the cartographer his ideas on “divine prophecies, geometrical
Gerard Mercator, who represents many of the necessities, philosophical reason, and conclusive
trends described above. Mercator stood in the experiments.” So, although convinced of the har-
tradition of writing cosmographies, but instead monious order of the world, he had trouble apply-
of writing short overviews, he aimed at a massive, ing the concept of the harmony of the spheres,
multivolume work, his Atlas, describing all the because he regarded music not in terms of abstract
parts of the visible universe. It remained unfin- proportions but as a manifestation of physical
ished, but in 1595, the first part was published, a sound. In the end his work proved a dead alley,
description of the creation following the 6 days. mainly because he distrusted astronomical calcu-
As a mathematician, Mercator was critical of phi- lations and insisted on philosophical principles.
losophy and found fault with both Aristotle and A philosopher whose ideas did have a certain
Plato. He claimed that his description was impact was Giordano Bruno. His main contribu-
founded on biblical principles, but, in practice, tion to the cosmological debate was his defense of
one finds many Stoic elements. He rejected the infinity of the universe. The idea was not
heliocentrism, but he accepted the heliocentric completely new. Already in the fifteenth century,
orbits of Venus and Mercury. Referring to Genesis cardinal Nicholas of Kues (Cusanus) defended the
1: 6–7, he felt that the planets are moving in some view that the universe should be infinite, as it had
kind of water. He also felt that from this water, been created by an infinite God. For the time
God had created the angels and the human souls. being, he got few followers. Since the universe
Astronomy and mathematics were thus creat- was believed to turn on its axis, Aristotle’s argu-
ing a new idea of the universe. The impact was felt ment that in an infinite universe the outer parts
in the field of philosophy as well. Philosophers would have to move with infinite speed seemed
increasingly felt the need to incorporate the new invincible. However, in Copernicus’ system, the
discoveries into their philosophical systems. heavens were at rest, so this argument no longer
Although they normally started from metaphysi- held water. The English mathematician Thomas
cal principles, they had to take the empirical facts Digges was the first to propose a sun-centered
much more seriously than before. The physical universe wherein the sphere of the fixed stars
constitution of the universe became an object of (which he identified as the heaven of the elect)
philosophical study in its own right. extended itself infinitely upward.
A heroic attempt to bring the philosophical Bruno however, in his dialogue De l’infinito,
ideas on the universe in line with the new scien- universo e mondi, went considerably further by
tific discoveries was undertaken by the Italian maintaining that there is neither center nor bound-
philosopher Francesco Patrizi in his Nova de aries in the universe. Space extends indefinitely
universis philosophia (1591). He remained a into all directions. The universe is one, but it is full
geocentrist, but he rejected the existence of solid of an infinite number of stars. Each star is a sun
planetary spheres and did not believe in a qualita- like our own, each with its own planets similar to
tive difference between the celestial and the ter- our Earth. Those planets are inhabited by rational
restrial realm. Also, he believed that space is beings like us. Bruno was a philosopher, not an
infinite: the visible universe is at the center of an astronomer, and his arguments were metaphysi-
infinite space. Patrizi’s case is interesting, because cal, not mathematical. Like Cusanus before him,
8 Cosmology
be referred to God’s infinite power. Still, he also Copernicans, who could not refer to the motion
referred to Copernicus’ ideas. In a sense, he car- of the heavens as the ultimate cause of change,
ried the new approach to its logical conclusion. this offered a new source of life and motion in the
His ideas would have considerable influence on world. However, very few people doubted the
the cosmological thinking of the seventeenth crucial role of celestial influences (even though
century. they became increasingly critical of astrological
predictions).
The new discoveries were still interpreted in a
Legacy religious framework. Apart from stars and planets,
many authors discussed angels, the empyreum,
A decisive blow to the old world system came prodigies, and the divine order. Some authors
with the introduction of the telescope in 1608 and speculated that stars were “clarified” planets and
the subsequent discoveries by Galileo and others. that the earth too would return to a luminous state
The mountains and valleys discovered on the after the Day of Judgment. Similar ideas were still
moon demonstrated that the moon was more of upheld in the work of Thomas Burnet of
an earth-like body than conceived in traditional 1681–1689. However, these religious elements
philosophy. This had been argued earlier on theo- became less and less important in the cosmologi-
retical grounds, but the testimony of the telescope cal debate. To establish the true constitution of the
was harder to dismiss. Likewise, the discovery of universe, in principle only mathematical or phys-
sunspots gave fresh arguments to those who ical arguments were acceptable, although biblical
claimed that the heavens are not perfect, as even arguments too for a long time would remain
the seemingly perfect body of the sun showed important (and to many even decisive). Mathe-
spots. These discoveries made the division of the matics became the foundation of a gradually
universe in a celestial and a terrestrial world pretty evolving field, wherein people discussed each
much untenable. The possibility that the celestial other’s results and methods. A body of standard
bodies were inhabited like the earth no longer questions was gradually put together, so that
seemed really far-fetched. In the following years, around 1600, one can indeed speak of a field of
Copernicus’ heliocentric ideas would slowly gain “cosmology.” (Academic teaching, however, was
more adherents. lagging behind. Here, the new questions only
For a long time, there was no consensus on became leading in the second half of the seven-
basic questions regarding the constitution of the teenth century.) The metaphysical dimensions that
universe, although some general trends can be had been crucial in the earlier debates were rele-
discerned. As the counterreformation gained gated to the sidelines and became the domain of
pace, religious authors generally felt the need to purely personal speculation. The results of Coper-
keep as much of traditional learning intact as they nicus or Kepler could be used by people who had
possibly could. Authors outside the universities no patience with their metaphysical inspiration.
felt lesser constraints and ventured many specula- However, metaphysics and religion were still
tions about the constitution of the universe. Many what mattered most to most people in their under-
came up with explanations drawn from analogies standing of the world. A new standard view of the
with existing terrestrial physics. Comets and new universe therefore could not arise until some form
stars were no longer regarded as the results of of consensus had been reached on these very
terrestrial exhalations, as Aristotle had taught, issues. It is only with Descartes and Newton that
but as the result of exhalations from the planets the mathematical view of the world obtained a
or the fixed stars. Many authors referred to the solid religious and metaphysical underpinning
ideas of William Gilbert (1600), who had argued and thereby could become the core of an inte-
that the earth was a big magnet and that all the grated view of the cosmos.
other celestial bodies were likewise magnets. The
magnetic force was a life-giving soul. For
Cosmology 9
Cross-References References
▶ Astrology Boner, Patrick J. (ed.). 2011. Change and continuity in

early modern cosmology. Dordrecht: Springer.
▶ Astronomy
Donahue, William H. 1981. The dissolution of the celestial
▶ Bruno spheres 1595–1650. New York: Arno Press.
▶ Comets Grant, Edward. 1994. Planets, stars, and orbs, The medi-
▶ Copernicanism eval cosmos, 1200–1687. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press.
▶ Copernicus
Heninger, Simeon K. 1974. Touches of sweet harmony.
▶ Ficino Pythagorean cosmology and Renaissance poetics. San
▶ Galileo Marino: Huntington Library.
▶ Kepler Heninger, Simeon K. 1977. The cosmographical glass:
Renaissance diagrams of the universe. San Marino:
▶ Paracelsus
Huntington Library.
▶ Patrizi Prins, Jacomien. 2009. Echoes of an invisible world.
▶ Peurbach Marsilio Ficino and Francesco Patrizi on cosmic
▶ Tycho Brahe order and music theory. Utrecht, Leiden: Jacomien
Prins
Westman, Robert S. 2011. The Copernican question. Prog-
nostication, skepticism, and celestial order. Berkeley/
Los Angeles: University of California Press.
G
Generation processes. The displacement of the form-giving

forces into the material itself leads to, among other
Georg Toepfer things, depicting an embryo as having much
Center for Literary and Cultural Research Berlin, greater autonomy when it comes to creating new
Berlin, Germany lifeforms even to the extent of completely exclud-
ing the soul. The milestones set by Renaissance
scholars were not merely due to their role in
Abstract developing the first approaches to alternative, the-
oretical frameworks for thinking about generation
Following ancient authors, generation is seen in processes (preformation vs. epigenesis), but they
the Renaissance as one of the central, characteris- were moreover responsible for establishing exper-
tic features of living beings. Likewise, during the imental methods for the emerging field of
Renaissance, Aristotelian premises and principles embryology.
continued to be influential in explaining genera-
tion processes. In this respect, many authors made
their arguments based on spiritual forces and for- Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
mative virtues. Such efforts become increasingly
concerned with connecting the immaterial forces The Latin expression generatio is the old techni-
with the material basis of living things and the cal term for the propagation of organisms. In
simple movements of particles that can be classical Latin, in the writings of Pliny for exam-
described physically. In the wake of these devel- ple, it is used to refer to animal reproduction and
opments, numerous attempts were made at relat- later expands to become a general term in this
ing Aristotelianism to mechanistic philosophy as subject area. Similarly, Aristotle’s writing on the
in the understanding of Aristotelian substantial reproductive methods of animals together with his
forms as causal principles that can be other zoological works were translated into Latin
reconstructed mechanically or in the presumption in the early thirteenth century by Michael Scotus
that there are a number of substantial forms that from the Arabic and around 1260 by William of
exist below the level of our perception of things Moerbeke from the Greek both under the title De
that can be seen with the naked eye. The generatione animalium.
“technomorphous” model would continue to Since antiquity, a second meaning has been
establish itself as the basis for such explanations. associated with the expression alongside its sig-
According to the model, life processes can be nificance as related to the reproduction of organ-
described based on patterns of technical isms: the portion of individuals in a population
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_259-1
2 Generation
that belong to the same age group (cohort). Homer philosophy, for example, in the works of Albertus
and Herodot were already using the term in this Magnus. For Thomas Aquinas, this force is not
sense, for example, when they claim that a man limited specifically to living beings because any
witnesses the passing of two generations body that can come into existence and fade from it
(“geneai”) or by dividing a century into three partakes in propagation (“generatio”). On the
generations. other hand, Thomas, following Aristotle, sees
Throughout the ages, reproduction has served reproduction as the ultimate goal of living beings.
as one of the defining characteristics of living With this capacity for reproductive force, the veg-
beings alongside the need for nourishment. All etative soul gains something of the virtue of the
living beings, Plato claims, strive for conception sensitive soul because reproduction means that
and generation. Supposedly, they would even living beings do not only exist in relationship to
accept hunger and their own death before their own bodies but also in relationship to others
renouncing reproduction (Plato, Symposium (1266–73, I, 78, 2). The scholastic philosophers,
207b). Reproduction enables the prolonged lon- like Aristotle before them, argue that reproduction
gevity of living beings, indeed even immortality, allows all living beings access to immortality.
according to Plato. Aristotle sees it similarly and Because all movements are ultimately directed
deems breeding and consuming nutrients as the towards obtaining perfection and the eternal, and
most natural activities performed by all living because reproduction has something of this eter-
beings (De anima 415a). Aristotle accords feeding nity through the infinite sequence of generations,
and reproducing their very own part of the soul, the living being’s struggle to reproduce finds an
the nutritive soul, which, in contrast to other psy- explanation in the context of this metaphysics of
chic faculties like perception and intellect, is also eternity.
found in plants. Up into the early modern period no one
Following Aristotle’s doctrine of the soul, doubted the functional understanding of repro-
reproduction is often discussed in conjunction duction as one of the highest goals among various
with nutrition and growth. For Aristotle, repro- activities conducted by living beings. Accord-
duction consists in “producing another being that ingly, in 1583 Andrea Cesalpino repeats the con-
is the same” and is a procedure by which a living ceptualization of life from antiquity, when, in
being incorporates itself into an infinite process. reference to plants, he once again states that the
Through reproduction, a living being preserves goal of life resides in reproduction (De plantis I,
itself (or at least its organization) in the potentially vi).
infinite chain of its offspring and thereby partakes
to some extent in the “eternal and divine.” Aris-
totle differentiates between different forms of pro- Innovative and Original Aspects
creation. In addition to the sexual reproduction
characteristic among sanguiferous land animals, The innovative elements within theories of repro-
for which the two sexes couple, he also mentions duction from the Renaissance consist in slowly
asexual reproduction, which he explains by posit- shifting the explanatory framework.
ing the primal propagation of organisms out of A “technomorphous” model established itself as
inorganic matter. the physiological basis for explanations. Early
Medieval theories of nature, like Aristotle, also indications of this development can be found in
saw reproduction as the primary objective of a Thomas Aquinas’ writings, in which he creates
living being. Avicenna traces reproduction back analogies between biological creation and con-
to a special “generative force” that he describes as cepts taken from technical terminology (Mitterer
the “ultimate goal” among vegetative life and as 1947). In contradistinction to later understandings
pertaining to the “priority of the final cause.” The of the term, Thomas Aquinas considers an actual
recourse to a reproductive force (“virtus generation (“generatio”) to occur only when a
generativa”) is firmly anchored in scholastic living substance (i.e., a living thing) produces
Generation 3
another living substance from some part of itself Jean Fernel already formulated an extensive
that is not living (in humans, for example, that mechanistic theory of generation in the
might be the blood of the uterus) (1266–73, I, mid-sixteenth century. His theory states that
114). Because generation always involves a male and female seeds are made up of material
nonliving substance giving something life, it is particles that mix together during fecundation and
also always a kind of spontaneous creation. consequently produce fermentation that enables
When a (new) living substance is produced by the ordered movement of the particles necessary
its own kind, Thomas considered that develop- for fetal development (Physiologiae libri VII, vii,
ment, not generation. 9, 1554). Fernel’s ideas set a precedent insofar as
Aristotle’s explanation of substantial forms they lend seeds a far-reaching autonomy in terms
remained influential during the Renaissance and of constituting life forms. Indeed, he sees them as
the early modern period with its emphasis on the independent of the soul. The mechanistic philos-
efficaciousness of psychic faculties and formative ophers of the seventeenth century, among them
virtues. These immaterial forces would, however, most notably Descartes, would adopt these mate-
become more and more incorporated into rialist ideas (V. Aucant, in Smith 2006). Des-
mechanical processes through their recourse to cartes’ own experimental research into the
the material basis of living things. Julius Caesar development of chickens lead him to repeatedly
Scaliger’s understanding of Aristotle’s substantial revise his answer to the question as to which organ
forms as active principles points in this direction: forms first: from his initial conviction that the
They give shape to a body and can exist multiply, lungs and liver come first, his opinion shifts
together in one body (Exotericarum back to the Aristotelian idea that the development
exercitationum liber xv, 1557). Fortunio Liceti’s of the fetus begins with the heart (Description du
theory of imagination and its influence on heredity corps humain, 1648). Putting great faith in the
also includes an attempt to reconcile Aristotelian- deterministic character behind the process of
ism and mechanistic philosophy (De perfecta development, Descartes claims that precise
constitutione hominis in utero, 1616): Imagina- knowledge on the structure of the seed might
tions contain mechanicistic elements insofar as allow one to “deduce” the structure of the fully
they are conceived of as bodily operations that developed body and calculate it with mathemati-
are especially significant in (abnormal) hereditary cal certainty (1648, p. 277). In this respect, he
processes. His explicit position as part of an Aris- proves to be an early representative of a theory
totelian tradition can be seen in the extent to which that proposes that the form of the organism to
he formulates his premises based on traditional come is already completely contained within the
conceptions of the soul, for example, with the seed (preformationism).
idea that the vegetative soul extends throughout In contrast to Descartes, William Harvey
the entire body. In spite of himself, Liceti’s theory belongs to those authors who continue to formu-
of extension and his materialist theory of the late their arguments within the framework of Aris-
imagination and hereditary characteristics both totelian substantialism. But unlike Aristotle and
provide building blocks to help overcome Aristo- his orthodox followers, Harvey accepts that there
telian ideas (Smith 2006; Blank 2010). Kenelm are a number of substantial forms that exist on a
Digby’s theory of animal reproduction also pre- level below those things that are perceptible to the
sents a similar attempt to bring together Aristote- eye (“microsubstantiality,” Smith 2006, p. 9).
lianism and mechanistic philosophy: In Digby’s Among these forms, he postulates the existence
opinion, living beings are made up of tiny parts of eggs from which all higher life forms develop.
that maintain their form, as well as existing as Harvey thoroughly studied the development of the
individual beings with a cohesive and substantial chicken embryo in its shell using experimental
form that results from the interdependence of their methods. He followed methods used by Aristotle
parts (Two Treatises, 1644; Cheung 2008; Blank as well as Renaissance scholars such as Ulisse
2010). Aldrovandi, Volcher Coiter, and Hieronymus
4 Generation
Fabricius: After cracking open chicken eggs at resides, while actuality comes about only once the
various stages of their development, the succes- organism is fully developed.
sive appearance of organs in the fetus can be
observed. The interpretation of such observations
was, however, accompanied by a lot of specula- Impact and Legacy
tion. Fabricius, for instance, postulated that a
chick’s development starts with its skeletal In numerous points, Renaissance scholars pre-
framework – analogous to the building of a ship pared the way for later developments in the scien-
(De formatione ovi et pulli, 1621). tific study of generation. Among them were the
Increasingly, direct observations would establishment of the experimental method, the
become the standard for evidence used to back effort to renounce metaphysical explanatory prin-
up claims: Thus, Harvey assumed that the heart ciples and to instead use mechanistic principles to
was the first organ to develop in the fetus, because explain the organic formation of life, as well as the
it was the first one that was visible. Even Harvey’s development of alternative theoretical frame-
opinion that both sexes contributed to the forma- works for thinking about generation processes
tion of offspring with qualitatively similar contri- (preformation vs. epigenesis). Intense debates
butions had an empirical basis because the concerning these explanatory frameworks would
offspring resemble both the mother and the father. dominate discussions on the topic over the centu-
This ran counter to the old opinion going back to ries to come.
Aristotle, which states that the female part alone The model that was first favored posits devel-
provided the matter while the male part provided opment as based on preformed structures. This
the form (Cole 1930). Finally, Harvey’s argument perspective gained credence with the introduction
that all higher-level animals develop from eggs of the microscope in studying processes of
has an experimental basis: In his dissections of organic development, for microscopic analysis
mammalian uteruses, he was unable to detect could provide an image of a surprisingly differen-
masses of semen and concluded that eggs, there- tiated embryo in which it appeared that later
fore, originated in the female. And yet in other organs could be seen as miniaturized structures.
concerns Harvey remained loyal to Aristotelian Another factor that spoke for the preformation
conceptualizations, especially in his tenacity theory could be found in the work of Francesco
when it came to the terminology of the soul: He Redi (Esperienze intorno alla generazione
explained the emergence of a new individual as degl’insetti, 1668), whose experimental research
the unification of the vegetative soul (located in refuted the theory of spontaneous generation.
the amorphous female egg) with the animal soul After the spontaneous creation of life from inor-
(carried by the male sperm), which provided the ganic matter was disproved, the notion that spon-
stimulus and configurational force for the progres- taneous differentiation could take place in an
sive development of the egg into the specific form undifferentiated seed seemed problematic. The
of that species. Harvey especially emphasized the decisive reason, however, as to why preformation
way that structures in embryos come into exis- theory took hold was due to the fundamental
tence; namely, they gradually accumulate and cre- mechanistic orientation of seventeenth-century
ate new structures based on other structures (for scientists’ approach to research: From a mecha-
which Harvey coined the term epigenesis). Addi- nistic standpoint, it made more sense (and caused
tionally, Harvey was also aware of another way less difficulties) if the theory presumed the exis-
that forms come to exist, namely, as based upon a tence of a seed that was already differentiated in
preformed material from the start (Anatomical the first place rather than to assume that there was
Exercitations, Concerning the Generation of Liv- a regular regeneration of ordered structures taking
ing Creatures, 1653). Thus, Harvey evokes the place. Another dominant idea (with theological
Aristotelian idea that the seed is where potentiality backing) was that nature could not organize itself,
or as Charles Perrault states, the soul of animals
Generation 5
cannot be created naturally but must be passed on Cesalpin, A. 1583. De plantis libri XVI. Florentiae: Apud
from a seed that precedes it (Essais de physique, Georgium Marescottum.
Descartes, R. 1648. Description du corps humain. In
1680, vol. 2, pp. 273 ff.). Œuvres de Descartes ed. C. Adam and P. Tannery,
The lack of adequate models posed a signifi- Vol. XI, 223–86. Vrin: Paris 1986.
cant problem to the efforts of mechanistic thinkers Digby, K. 1644. Two treatises in the one of which the
in the seventeenth century who were trying to nature of bodies, in the other, the nature of man’s
soule is looked into. Paris: Gilles Blaizot.
explain the formation of structures as part of a Fabricius, H. 1621. De formatione ovi et pulli. Padua:
theory of life. This lack was responsible for inspir- Bencius Patavii.
ing various people to posit specific organic, imma- Fernel, J. 1554. Physiologiae libri VII. In Medicina. Paris:
terial principles and “vitalist” forces as, for André Wechel.
Harvey, W. 1653. Anatomical exercitations, concerning
example, in the figure of a human master work- the generation of living creatures. London: James
man, as conceived by Jan Baptist van Helmont, Young.
which he termed “archeus faber” (Ortus Liceti, F. 1616. De perfecta constitutione hominis in utero.
medicinae, 1648). According to van Helmont’s Bertellius: Padua.
Perrault, C. 1680. Essais de physique, 4 vols. Paris:
theory, the archeus resides within every “seed” Coignard.
and transforms it into a differentiated organism. Redi, F. 1668. Esperienze intorno alla generazione
The life processes of the adult organism are also degl’insetti. Firenze: All’insegna della Stella.
organized and regulated by a hierarchy Scaliger, J.C. 1557. Exotericarum exercitationum liber xv.
Paris: Vascovani Lutetiae.
established by the archeuses according to this van Helmont, J.B. 1648. Ortus medicinae. Amsterdam:
theory. Towards the end of the seventeenth cen- Elzevirius.
tury and into the eighteenth many arguments were
held between the “vitalists” and those scientists
with a stronger leaning toward mechanicism Secondary Literature
Blank, A. 2010. Biomedical ontology and the metaphysics
regarding the existence and location of a central of composite substances 1540–1670. Munich:
organizing principle. Philosophia.
Cheung, T. 2008. Res vivens. Agentenmodelle organischer
Ordnung 1600–1800. Freiburg i.Br: Rombach.
Cole, F.J. 1930. Early theories of sexual generation.
Cross-References Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
Mitterer, A. 1947. Die Zeugung der Organismen,
▶ Life insbesondere des Menschen nach dem Weltbild des
hl. Thomas von Aquin und dem der Gegenwart. Wien:
▶ Organism
Herder.
Smith, J.E.H. 2006. The problem of animal generation in
early modern philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
References versity Press.
Primary Literature
Aquinas, Thomas. 1266–73. Summa theologiae. In Opera
omnia, ed. R. Busa, Vol. 2, 184–926. Frommann-
Holzboog: Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1980.
L
Life opened their minds to the knowledge of craftsmen

and artisans such that the concept of life devel-
Georg Toepfer and Uta Kornmeier oped within a complex network of communica-
Zentrum f€ur Literatur- und Kulturforschung, tion between individuals from theoretical and
Berlin, Germany more practical backgrounds. By this movement,
physiology was gradually taken out of theological
and medical contexts and considered in its own
Abstract right. With the emergence of the natural sciences
in the early seventeenth century, mechanistic and
The concept of life has always served as an idea quantitative analyses were introduced into the
integrating thoughts on this world and the after- study of living beings. While trying to explain
life, on the physical and the spiritual existence. the processes of life mechanically, most authors
Thus, it has been a subject in the humanities as of the time retained the Aristotelian idea of living
well as in the natural sciences. As a consequence, beings as substantial forms.
the term has always been ambiguous. For the
natural sciences, Aristotle laid the foundation by
identifying functions such as nutrition, growth, Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
reproduction, and perception as criteria for the
definition of life, while recognizing that this plu- The concept of life has a long-standing tradition of
rality of criteria resulted in “being alive” meaning gathering and absorbing many disparate aspects
different things to different beings (thus turning of (human) existence. It is a subject of the natural
the term into a “homonym”). In the Middle Ages, sciences as much as of philosophy, history, and
the concept was integrated into Christian theolog- religious thought. Since Antiquity, “life” has been
ical thought and took on a strongly dualistic a well-established category in the natural sci-
meaning: the “real” or “true life” was now the ences, and, at the same time, a widely used con-
eternal life, while the “mortal life” of animals cept for the description of individual human
and nonbelievers became a second, lesser cate- biographies as a unity connected to aspirations
gory. Consequently, Christian thinkers showed and values. Aristotle, for example, already
little interest in the efforts to explain the phenom- touched on the descriptive-evaluative ambiguity
ena of life by the natural sciences. This situation of the concept when he claimed in his Politics that
changed in the twelfth century with translations of “there is some element of value contained even in
Aristotle’s works into Latin which brought atten- the mere state of being alive” (Politics 1278b26).
tion back to the organic aspects of life. Scholars This value was expressed, according to Aristotle,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_262-1
2 Life
in the fact that in their desire for life, humans were the “real” or “true life” was now the life in God,
willing to suffer as if life in and of itself included the eternal life, while the “mortal life” of animals
some kind of happiness. Thus, Aristotle attaches and nonbelievers became a second, lesser cate-
value not only to an individual course of life (bios) gory, that meant solely being alive without the
but to sheer life itself (zoe). Within the natural hope of salvation (also called the “life of the
sciences, the concept carries further ambiguities, flesh” in Christian texts). This devaluation of
describing, for example, a general mode of being earthly existence led some Medieval thinkers
(a form of existence depending on the activities of such as Meister Eckhart to even deny “true life”
the existing entity), a state of an individual being to all earthly creatures because their origin and
(alive vs. dead), or a sum of actions and experi- purpose was external to them (due to the act of
ences (the life of X). creation by God), whereas true vitality was con-
The Renaissance concept of life draws heavily ceived to be self-sufficient, with cause and effect
on Aristotelian thought. In De anima, Aristotle within itself. Thus, the concept of “life” as derived
established living beings as a distinct ontological by Aristotle from the vital functions of the body
category – they were not conceived as bodies with dissolves into the idea of a Christian soul and
the accidental property of being alive, rather “life” divine principle. This subtraction of the organic
was their essence, or irreducible mode of being. functions has been called “divinization” or, in a
Therefore, inanimate machines and man-made secular context, even “depletion” of the concept of
automata could not serve as explanatory models life (Ingensiep 2001, p. 141).
for living beings. Aristotle generally agreed with This shift towards the divine sphere is remark-
Plato in that the ability to move was a key sign of able because it means that the concept no longer
life, and that movement and therefore life was serves to describe actual objects in nature – living
made possible by the soul. However, the soul is beings – but has gained a strong evaluative aspect;
not life itself, it rather is the principle that moves life was seen as a divine gift rather than an explan-
the body and thus makes life possible; its relation atory principle. This may help to understand why
to the body, as Aristotle wrote, is like the relation earlier Christian thinkers showed little interest in
of a wax figure’s shape to the wax which gives the efforts to explain the phenomena of life by the
expression to the shape without actually being the natural sciences.
shape. The life of a being was described as not
existing independently of the bodily functions but
as anchored in them in an analogous way in which Innovative and Original Aspects
seeing is connected to the eye (De anima 412b10).
Thus, the soul of a living being has been From the twelfth century onwards, Latin trans-
interpreted as its organization or organizing prin- lations of Aristotle’s works led to a long period
ciple (Quarantotto 2010). of philological and philosophic debate on Aristo-
Furthermore, Aristotle determined certain telian thought. This brought attention back to the
bodily functions such as nutrition, growth, repro- organic aspects of life and paved the way for a
duction, and perception as criteria for a definition new type of thinking more interested in the secular
of life. Since animals and plants do not share all workings of the world. Scholars opened their
the life-functions – for example, plants were not minds to the knowledge of craftsmen and artisans
seen to have perception – life means something organized in guilds who traditionally passed on
different to different beings. To Aristotle, the con- their knowledge orally. At the same time, those
cept of life was fundamentally heterogeneous, and confronted with the practical side of the medical
he explicitly called the term “homonymous” faculties, namely pharmacists and surgeons,
(Topics 148a). began writing encyclopedic treatises, first of all
In the Middle Ages, this heterogeneous con- on herbs and anatomy. Now, the concept of life
cept was integrated into Christian theological developed within a complex network of commu-
thought and took on a strongly dualistic meaning: nication between individuals from theoretical as
Life 3
well as from more hands-on backgrounds. From Early in the seventeenth century, physiology
this exchange of knowledge and ideas between was taken out of theological and medical contexts
“practitioners” and academics emerged new and considered in its own right. Galileo’s friend
models to explain the functioning of living beings. Santorio Santorio was the first to introduce quan-
By 1500, this combination of practical needs titative methods into the study of human physio-
and scientific accuracy resulted in a new figure, logical processes (De medicina statica, 1614).
the scientist-artist, with Leonardo da Vinci as a William Harvey followed his lead by measuring
prime example. The detailed, almost technical the amount of blood flowing within the body,
drawings he made of the internal organs which which led him to discover the circulation of
he studied by actually dissecting human bodies set blood in humans and animals (Exercitatio
a precedent for an empirically tested and precisely anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in
described anatomy, which provided the basis for animalibus, 1628). This revolutionary new idea
calling traditional physiology into question. was confirmed by Marcello Malpighi by use of a
A milestone in this critical revision was new piece of technology, the microscope,
Andreas Vesalius’ illustrated anatomy book De enabling him to see and describe red blood cells
humani corporis fabrica (1543). Drawing on his and capillary vessels (De pulmonibus, 1661).
hands-on experience as a dissector and anatomist Consequently, seventeenth-century physiol-
at the University of Padua, he found and corrected ogy became dominated by a mechanistic interpre-
hundreds of errors in the anatomical teachings of tation of the processes of life, programmatically
the antique authority Galen. Antique tradition, formulated by René Descartes. By comparing
however, held such a sway over European learn- physiological processes with simple mechanical
ing that Vesalius did not initially dare to doubt and hydraulic devices such as levers, gears, pipes,
Galen’s description of blood passing through the and pumps, he replaced the idea of life as sub-
septum of the heart, although he could not find stance with the image of life as clockwork. Thus,
any passage ways. Only in the second edition of living beings could be analyzed just like any other
the Fabrica, 1555, did he privilege his own obser- material body. Descartes explicitly declared in his
vation before tradition even in such an important posthumously published Traité de l’homme that
matter. organic functions are the result of the disposition
In general, the classical Greek concept of life of the organs the same way the movement of a
lost some of its importance during the Renais- clock or machine results from the arrangement of
sance. Self-preservation was now seen as the its cogs and wheels (1632, p. 202). This also
main characteristic of all living beings. Paracel- meant that living beings were no longer regarded
sus, for example, called life a “certain embalming as a unified body or entity, but as a structured
substance” (mumia balsamita) that keeps the body system with distinct parts working hand in hand
from deteriorating (De vita longa, 1526–1527, to sustain the functioning of the system. As a
p. 249). Thus, the individual body itself is not consequence, the concept of life as an ontological
alive as such, but retains life as something which category or an irreducible mode of being, in this
resides and grows in the body and is eventually mechanistic view, disappears from the natural
passed on. This notion of life not as organized sciences.
structure or as a property, but as matter, like a
chemical substance, was widespread during the
sixteenth century. It formed the basis for the think- Impact and Legacy
ing in analogies and harmonies, which meant that
the human body was a “microcosm” that Descartes’ renunciation of the soul as an explana-
corresponded with the whole of the universe, the tion for life was immensely fertile as it liberated
“macrocosm,” since both were made from the the scientific research of life from the obstacles of
same substance and were governed by the the traditional metaphysics of the soul. During the
same laws. seventeenth century, the idea that it is the
4 Life
reciprocal relationship between the parts of the For much of the Middle and early-modern
organic body that really constitutes life processes ages, the position of the concept of life either as
gained popularity. Matter was considered alive an object of the natural sciences or a qualitative
only in as much as it was well-organized like an value in a religious or cultural view remained
automaton. The analogy between living beings undecided. Johannes Clauberg in his Logica
and machines was not necessarily meant to be vetus et nova (1654) calls the concept explicitly
deprecatory, as it was also used to point out the “vague” and “uncertain” (1654, p. 877). He cau-
admirable smooth cooperation between the vari- tions his readers to examine the term critically as it
ous parts of the living body. In 1644, Kenelm did not differentiate accurately between a physical
Digby marveled at the “variety [that] should be and spiritual or intellectual dimension; it was
in one thing; whose unity and being what it is, applied to too many heterogeneous phenomena
should depend on the harmony of the severall and did not suit the Cartesian ideal of clear and
differing partes, and should be destroyed by their precise cognition. In general, it can be observed
separation.” He stresses the necessity of the parts that the concept of life underwent an increasing
to “conspire together” in order to uphold the com- secularization during the seventeenth century: its
plex functions of the living body as a whole religious and transcendent aspects lost momen-
(1644, pp. 205, 208). All in all, this is an analysis tum and seemed to disappear behind the rise of a
that works without a central life principle, such as purely natural scientific meaning of the term.
the soul, because life is not an effect of the work- However, there was also an increasing secular
ings of a higher power but of a causality distrib- use of the term in its former theological sense as
uted across the components of a system. can be seen in Clauberg when he calls the act of
However, the functional organization of differ- thinking “life” (1656, p. 679) – as do other authors
ent parts of a machine-like system was not the such as Spinoza who defines intelligence as the
ultimate condition of life for all seventeenth- “life of the mind” (1677, IV, App. c. 5).
century authors. In 1659, Henry More, a Platonist
from Cambridge, emphasized the role of specifi-
cally predisposed physical matter in the genera-
Cross-References
tion of life. The “plastical power,” as More called
the vivifying principle, needs “duly-prepared
▶ Generation
Matter” in order to organize it into life (1659,
▶ Organism
p. 46).
Late seventeenth century post-Cartesians
searched for a middle ground between Descartes’
mechanical reductionism and the Aristotelian sub- References
stantial dualism of living and nonliving beings.
Charles Perrault, for example, in his Mécanique Primary Literature
des animaux (1683) explained the animals’ life Clauberg, J. 1654. Logica vetus et nova. In Opera omnia
philosophica, vol. II, 765–904. Amsterdam: Blaeu
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separated animals from mere machine as beings Clauberg, J. 1656. De cognitione Dei et nostri,
with emotions and a soul – a soul that drives the Exercitationes centum. In Opera omnia philosophica,
animal machine and enables it to function as a vol. II, 585–764. Amsterdam: Blaeu 1691.
Descartes, R. 1632. Traité de l’homme. In Œuvres de
living being (1683, p. 329). Thus, by retaining the Descartes, eds. C. Adam, and P. Tannery, vol. XI,
idea of living beings as essential substances, the 119–202. Paris: Vrin 1986.
dualism of the living and the nonliving was Digby, K. 1644. Two treatises in the one of which the
maintained on an ontological level, while it has nature of bodies, in the other, the nature of man’s
soule is looked into. Paris: Blaizot.
been given up on the level of explaining the pro- Harvey, W. 1628. Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et
cesses of life. sanguinis in animalibus. Francfurt: Fitzer.
Malpighi, M. 1661. De pulmonibus. Bononiae: Ferronius.
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More, H. 1659. The immortality of the soul. Dordrecht: Ingensiep, H.W. 2001. Geschichte der Pflanzenseele.
Springer 1987. Philosophische und biologische Entw€ urfe von der
Paracelsus. 1526–1527. De vita longa. In Sämtliche Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Stuttgart: Kröner.
Werke, ed. K. Sudhoff and I. Abt, vol. 3, 247–92. Perfetti, S. 2000. Aristotle’s zoology and its renaissance
M€unchen: Oldenbourg 1930. commentators (1521–1601). Leuven: University Press.
Perrault, C. 1683. Mécanique des animaux. In Oeuvres Pichot, A. 1993. Histoire de la notion de vie. Paris:
diverses de physique et de mechanique, vol. 1. Leiden: Gallimard.
van der Aa 1721. Quarantotto, D. 2010. Aristotle on the soul as a principle of
Santorio, S. 1614. De medicina statica. Venetiis. biological unity. In Was ist,Leben‘? Aristoteles
Spinoza, B. 1677. Ethica, ordine geometrico demon-strata. Anschauungen zur Entstehung und Funktionsweise
Amsterdam. von Leben, ed. S. Föllinger, 35–53. Stuttgart: Steiner.
Vesalius, A. 1543. De humani corporis fabrica. Basileae: Schaede, S., and P. Bahr. (eds.). 2009. Das Leben,
Oporinus. I. Historisch-systematische Studien zur Ge-schichte
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ubingen: Mohr Siebeck.
Toepfer, G. 2011. Historisches Wörterbuch der Biologie.
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Des Chene, D. 2000. Life’s form. Late Aristotelian concep-
Grundbegriffe, 3 vols. Stuttgart: Metzler.
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Duchesneau, F. 1998. Les modèles du vivant de Descartes
à Leibniz. Paris: Vrin.
S
Scientia knowledge and the standards of intelligibility

changed, the idea of scientia would be gradually
Tamás Demeter1, Benedek Láng2 and abandoned. Syllogistic inference had been
Dániel Schmal3 increasingly criticized as incapable of producing
1
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, University of useful knowledge, and explanations that appealed
Pécs, Budapest, Hungary to Aristotelian essences started to be perceived as
2
Budapest University of Technology and empty or unintelligible. The increasing commit-
Economics, Budapest, Hungary ment to observation and experimental practices
3
Péter Pázmány Catholic University, Budapest, and an ensuing “culture of fact” replaced the con-
Hungary viction that in natural philosophy there is room
only for universally and necessary true proposi-
tions, and the development and usefulness of
Abstract mathematical practices shed doubt on syllogism
as the only way through which demonstrative
“Scientia” is a long-standing heritage of Aristote- certainty could be achieved.
lian logic and denotes an epistemic ideal pursued
through several centuries. According to
Aristotle’s (1984) Posterior Analytics, knowledge Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
that conforms to this ideal must consist of propo-
sitions that are universally and necessarily true. The ambiguity and heterogeneity of the modern
This necessity can be demonstrated through syl- term “science” is undeniable. Some put more
logistic inferences that proceed from premises emphasis on the instrumentality of potential tech-
containing the cause of the conclusion. Accord- nological output, some on the nature-controlling
ingly, scientia consisted in a systematic, demon- aspect, some on the universal laws, some on
strative presentation of why things behave the experimental foundations and empirical method-
way they do, and not in the discovery of the causes ology, others on the institutional settings involv-
from which demonstrations followed. This ideal ing laboratories, funding schemes,
started to erode in the Renaissance period. Its professionalization, and academies. None of
various aspects had been challenged and alterna- these approaches is helpful in understanding
tive ideals of inquiry had been proposed. As the what scientia meant in the period between 1350
emphasis shifted from the demonstration of phe- and 1650. Scientia in the first part of this period
nomena in accordance with Aristotelian logic and referred to any body of certain theoretical knowl-
metaphysics to the production of useful edge which approached its subject (not
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_266-1
2 Scientia
necessarily nature) in a systematic way and relied been increasingly criticized as incapable of pro-
on apodictic demonstration. Thus scientia, unlike ducing useful knowledge, and explanations that
today, involved theology as well, because it was appealed to Aristotelian essences started to be
demonstrable knowledge (Lindberg 1978, 1992). perceived as empty or unintelligible. The increas-
What we understand by the term “science” ing commitment to observation and experimental
today, that is, the systematic investigation of practices and an ensuing “culture of fact” replaced
nature, would be better described in the Renais- the conviction that in natural philosophy there is
sance by the term philosophia naturalis, natural room only for universally and necessary true
philosophy. Even this is not coextensive, how- propositions, and the development and usefulness
ever, with the present-day scope of science, of mathematical practices shed doubt on syllo-
because to the category of natural philosophy gism as the only way through which demonstra-
“mathematical sciences” should also be tive certainty could be achieved.
added – a sometimes overlapping but sometimes Questioning various elements of the ideal nat-
separate category, which included arithmetic, urally led to the emergence of new ideals of
geometry, and “mixed mathematics,” such as inquiry and knowledge. Towards the end of the
optics, astronomy, harmonics, and the science of period competing ideals emerged that would
weighs (Lindberg and Shank 2003). prove to be especially influential for the centuries
The term “scientia” is a long-standing heritage to come. An alternative ideal of inquiry was put
of Aristotelian logic and denotes an epistemic forward by René Descartes, whose method of
ideal pursued through several centuries. analysis and synthesis prescribed intuitively
According to Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics, clear steps, replaced the Aristotelian standards of
knowledge that conforms to this ideal must con- intelligibility. Francis Bacon’s proposal for the
sist of propositions that are universally and nec- advancement of learning focused on inductive
essarily true. This necessity can be demonstrated practices such as various ways of collecting facts
through syllogistic inferences that proceed from and their theoretical processing in order to pro-
premises containing the cause of the conclusion. duce useful and only intelligible knowledge. In
This procedure leads to certain knowledge and several respects, Bacon’s vision served as a source
understanding of the necessary cause of the phe- of justification for Royal Society apologists and as
nomena and an explanation of why it is the way it such it proved influential in forming the image of
is and cannot be otherwise. Being necessary and modern science.
universal, this knowledge is focused on the essen- By the end of the period, almost all crucial
tial structure of things, and through their essences elements of the Aristotelian ideal had been effec-
it accounts not only for how they actually behave, tively undermined, but the aspiration for certain
but also for how they would behave in a variety of and systematic knowledge persisted. In this vein,
circumstances. Accordingly, knowledge or suggestions and rediscoveries from the preceding
scientia consisted in a systematic, demonstrative Renaissance period would be further refined and
presentation of why things behave the way they put to use by Isaac Newton, and many of his
do, and not in the discovery of the causes from followers, who tried to infuse certainty into natu-
which demonstrations followed. ral philosophy by deploying mathematical
This ideal started to erode in the Renaissance methods. Nevertheless, the limits of the applica-
period. Its various aspects had been challenged bility of mathematics repeatedly surfaced in vari-
and alternative ideals of inquiry had been pro- ous controversies in optics, chemistry, and the life
posed. As the emphasis shifted from the demon- sciences, and forced even Newton to put con-
stration of phenomena in accordance with straints on the degree of certainty achievable in
Aristotelian logic and metaphysics to the produc- natural philosophy.
tion of useful knowledge and the standards of Any understanding of late medieval, renais-
intelligibility changed, the idea of scientia would sance, and early modern science depends greatly
be gradually abandoned. Syllogistic inference had on whether we envisage a drastic rupture in the
Scientia 3
middle of this period, or rather certain kind of follow (Duhem 1913–1959; Lindberg and
continuity. The debate has started a century ago, Westman 1990; Cohen 1994).
when the French physicist, philosopher, and his- Still, advocates of the discontinuity thesis
torian of science Pierre Duhem could argue that modern science was not a simple
(1861–1916) – who literally blew off the dust of outgrowth of the medieval scientific achievement
medieval scientific codices – argued convincingly and that the late sixteenth and the seventeenth
against the ruling nineteenth-century paradigm century marked a genuinely revolutionary period
(exemplified by the influential William Whewell) (to be called the “Scientific Revolution”). The
that saw the medieval period as stationary and Russian émigré Alexandre Koyré (1892–1964)
scientifically unprofitable. In his master work of wished to show that it was not the experimental
ten volumes (Le système du monde: Histoire des or empirical nature of Galileo’s and Newton’s
doctrines cosmologiques de Platon à Copernic) discoveries that made the seventeenth century a
relying on a large corpus of medieval manuscripts, revolutionary period but rather a shift in perspec-
Duhem documented that science was not a tive, a change in the theoretical outlook on the
seventeenth-century invention. Leonardo da world. As he phrased it: “founders of modern
Vinci, Galileo, and the other early modern scien- science (. . .) had to destroy one world and replace
tists, he argued, had intellectual precursors among it by another.” That the revolution took place on a
the natural philosophers of fourteenth-century conceptual level was supported by the influential
universities, particularly in Paris. For specific his- work of the historian and philosopher of science
torical reasons – paradoxically as a result of the Thomas Kuhn who argued in his The Structure of
1277 condemnations of Aristotelian principles by Scientific Revolutions that a whole series of para-
the Church (to be discussed below) – university digm shifts took place in the sixteenth- and
masters were forced to seek non-Aristotelian ways seventeenth-century history of science (Koyré
of solving scientific problems. Their alternative 1968; Kuhn 1962).
ideas about the motion of the earth, the plurality Today, most medievalists are moderate sup-
of the worlds, the infinitely small and infinitely porters of the continuity. Both Edward Grant and
big quantities, and the void, thus paved the way David Lindberg reject that late medieval and
for the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century scien- renaissance science should be celebrated as antic-
tists to find anti-Aristotelian notions of space, ipations of later developments; they do not see,
time, and motion. Duhem’s positive impact is however, any sharply definable moment when the
undeniable even though his continuity thesis was revolutionary period would have started. As
far from being accepted by everyone, his enthusi- Lindberg puts it: “in order to demand respect for
asm to identify precursors of the modern science the medieval scientific achievement, we need not
has become a famous methodological mistake in denigrate or diminish that of the sixteenth and
the historiography of science, and he was also seventeenth centuries. We need merely under-
criticized for putting too much emphasis on stand that the former shaped the latter and is
French masters as compared to the British. therefore part of the ancestry of modern science”
Among his followers (usually challenging his (Lindberg 1992, 368; Grant 1996).
more extreme claims), Lynn Thorndike, Charles As a consequence of the decisive impact of
Haskins, E. J. Dijksterhuis, Anneliese Maier, Mar- Aristotelian philosophy – and this is an often
shall Clagett, Alistair Crombie all contributed misunderstood issue – late medieval and renais-
with decisive monographs, critical editions, and sance science was predominantly theoretical and
translations to the history of science supporting in many ways nonexperimental. Scientists sought
some – usually more moderate – claim for the theoretical knowledge for its own sake, that is, for
continuity. After Duhem, no historian could ima- making the world intelligible, and they did not
gine that modern science was born on purely late focus on its instrumental aspects. Theoretical
antique grounds and that “the jump over the Mid- knowledge was categorically separated from any
dle Ages” would be a possible methodology to technological application and craftsmanship; its
4 Scientia
aim was not to produce better tools or more effi- metallurgy, meteorology); this does not imply,
cient industry but to be reflected upon and to be however, that different types of professional sci-
disputed. Natural philosophy had a certain book- entists (specialists of biology, physicists, etc.)
ish, that is, textual character, and its content relied existed. Science (with the exception of the medi-
on a corpus of authoritative (Greek, Roman, Ara- cal career and courtly astronomy and astrology)
bic, Hebrew, and Latin) authors. was not a separate profession. In the first part of
The medieval pupils of Aristotle accepted the the period under study, scientists were trained in
methodological principle that logic preceded nat- universities, but one could not have a degree in a
ural philosophy (demonstration preceded obser- specific science, only in all of the liberal arts.
vation) and that the universal had priority over the Consequently, scientific facts, results, and argu-
particular (not the exceptions, but the naturally mentations were presented not only in treatises
flowing usual processes and phenomena consti- devoted to specific subbranches of science but
tuted the subject of scientia). In the Aristotelian also in biblical commentaries, theological tracts,
tradition, ars and natura, the artificial and the metaphysical, philosophical, logical, and other
natural were believed to belong to two separate treatises (Lindberg and Shank 2003).
realms, the first not being informative about the Late medieval scholastic science can be rightly
second. In such a perspective, controlled and characterized as the Latin reception and
repeatable experiments could not obviously play rearticulation of the Greek scientific heritage
the same role as they do in contemporary science. transferred and modified by Islamic civilization.
In addition, experience and experiments were not This heritage (Aristotelian philosophy, Platonic
consistently distinguished in the Middle Ages, cosmology, Ptolemaic astronomy and astrology,
and curiosity – being a sin in the Christian and the medicine of Galen) provided an elaborate
framework – had a low reputation. account of the cosmos and how it should be inves-
All this does not mean, however, that science tigated, and it thus gave a huge impetus to the
was exclusively theoretical and lacked purposeful evolution of Latin scientia. But – as the Aristote-
experimentation. Empirical observation, measur- lian corpus contradicted in some important points
ing, and to a certain extent experiments played an the teachings of the Church, particularly in respect
important role in medicine, astronomy, astrology, to the eternity of the world, the nature of the soul,
optics, and botany. Authors of natural philosophy and the determinism of the universe – the Chris-
often claimed that a given claim was tried and tian rearticulation was not without conflicts.
tested (probatum est; expertus est), even though Although the hostility of some influential Church
experiments had more a confirmational and illus- fathers, most notably, Tertullian, towards Greek
trative, than a discovering, role. Alchemy, not philosophy and scientific tradition is undeniable,
being a university subject but available on the Augustine’s (1958) handmaiden formula pro-
bookshelves of both medieval masters and mem- vided justification to the pursuit of philosophy
bers of religious orders, represented a serious and science. The idea that the classical scientific
challenge to the Aristotelian notion of science. tradition could be seen as the handmaiden of
With its interfering attitude into natural processes religion and theology was further elaborated by
and its experimental ambitions, alchemy argued Roger Bacon, Robert Grosseteste, Albert the
explicitly against the sharp ars-natura separation Great, and Thomas Aquinas (1967, 1987), who
and against the generally accepted idea that artifi- worked hard on rendering Aristotle compatible
cial experiments (constraint motions) could not with religion. Thanks to these attempts at recon-
produce relevant knowledge in regard to natural ciliations, and also to the fact that the trainings,
phenomena (Lindberg 1978; Eamon 1994). practices, and careers of theologians and
Various branches of natural philosophy were scientists – as well as these very persons – were
clearly distinguished in the texts (physics, optics, not always distinct, sometimes overlapped, and
medicine, astronomy, astrology, natural history, sometimes even identical, and that all scholars
science of motion, science of weighs, geography, were informed in both theology and science,
Scientia 5
classical science got successfully appropriated by artificial experiments, and the new habit of gath-
the Church and was to a large extent Christianized ering together in scientific societies and later in
(Grant 2001; Lindberg and Numbers 1986). academies are all central characteristics of
This was the notion and practice of science seventeenth-century science inherited from the
inherited by the renaissance era. In the course of philosophical-magical tradition based on the
the period under study, the above characteristics texts of the legendary Hermes Trismegistos and
underwent serious modifications. The authority of represented by Marsilio Ficino (1989), Cornelius
Aristotle in the methodology of scientific Agrippa, John Dee, and other protagonists whose
endeavor, as well as the Aristotelian dichotomies names hardly appeared in earlier histories of sci-
(ars-natura, general-particular) organizing the ence. Although far from being accepted, Yates’
content of science gradually subsided. Simulta- theses rendered the neoplatonic, magical, and her-
neously, the variety of institutions as well as the metic intellectual currents of the Renaissance an
number of the roles associated to scientific activity indispensable topic in the summaries on early
drastically increased, due to the differentiation of modern science, including Nicolaus Copernicus,
subdisciplines within science and the growing Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, the national acade-
specialization and mobility of its practitioners. mies, and the new methodology (Yates 1968;
Instead of the restricted attitude towards applica- Merkel and Debus 1998; Westman and McGuire
tion of scientific theories that characterized the 1977).
Middle Ages, more space was given to coopera-
tion between science and crafts.
Experience – never completely missing from the Innovative and Original Aspects
scientific practice – got new forms and new roles
in scientific demonstration and confirmation. While there is a continuous debate on what
These changes led to the modern notion of science exactly changed in the content of scientia during
on the grounds of the heritage of the Middle Ages. the Renaissance, there is a common agreement on
By the time Aristotelian understanding of what how the scenes and roles of scientia modified.
science is and what it is not, how it is supposed to “Scientists” in the late middle ages were all uni-
be done, and what differentiations it encompasses versity professors or university trained court intel-
(universal vs. particular, artificial vs. natural) was lectuals, usually – with the exception of
properly appropriated, first signs of the rupture medicine – trained in all scientific fields. While
with the tradition appeared. The 1277 anti- disciplines interpenetrated each other, the possible
Aristotelian condemnations in the Paris Univer- career paths as well as the possible scenes of
sity, so central to Duhem’s precursor hypothesis, scientific activity were very limited. This is prob-
mark the beginning of the quest for new solutions. ably the field where the early modern era brought
But the process was slow; the following 300 years the most serious modification: the range of roles,
can be described as a period of gradual alienation career options, and scenes of scientific activity
from the received tradition. There are many dif- dramatically broadened. Besides the university,
ferent theories about the causes. One is particu- the royal or princely court, and the monastery,
larly relevant to Renaissance science, not because during the renaissance the laboratory, the library,
it is widely accepted but because of its inspiring the academy, the botanical garden, the anatomy
nature. Frances Yates put forward the idea in a theater, and to a certain extent the piazza, the
series of influential monographs in the 1960s and market, and the coffeehouse have also become
1970s that modern science was not born on the possible scenes. Instead of multidisciplinary intel-
grounds of late medieval scholastic science but lectuals and universal savants of the Medieval
rather as a result of the impact of the hermetic universities (such as Grosseteste, Roger Bacon,
tradition. The heliocentric model, the intense use Jean Buridan, or Nicole Oresme), specialists of
of mathematics, the idea that the scientist should particular fields populated early modern science
interfere in natural processes and construct (like Niccolò Tartaglia in ballistics, Andrea
6 Scientia
Cesalpino in botanics, Conrad Gesner in zoology, expected to meet when aspiring to the highest
Georgius Agricola in mining and metallurgy). ranks of the sciences. (This is one of the reasons
Genres of scientific literary production also behind the rejection of Copernic’s heliocentric
changed (Lindberg 1978). view in spite of its undeniable mathematical
In the Renaissance period, there were many advantages in the description of the planetary
aspects of theoretical innovation that existed system.)
together with more traditional currents in the A decisive step was made in Padua by some
field of natural philosophy. Beyond doubt, one commentators who struggled for a thoroughgoing
of the most provocative new insights concerned mathematical reading of Aristotle’s physics.
the status of mathematics. The vigorous revival of These dialecticians insisted on the highest status
the Platonic and neopythagorean traditions in the of the Mathesis against their Aristotelian col-
fifteenth century, fueled by the stream of Greek leagues of strict obedience who maintained that
manuscripts and scholars arriving in Italy after the scientific explanation must be based on demon-
fall of Constantinople, brought with it the strations (i.e., on proofs accounting for the phe-
reappraisal of the studies of mathematics which nomena through their natural causes). One of the
was to develop into a powerful alternative to the best expositions of the new claim was the afore-
scholastic logic in the centuries to follow. The mentioned inaugural speech held by Petrus
humanist rediscovery of the Hellenistic mathe- Catena (1563). The same view is echoed in the
matical texts (Archimedes, Pappus, and others), famous preface to the first English translation of
the commerce of previously unknown Greek man- Euclid’s Elements (1570), written by John Dee
uscripts, the Latin and vernacular translations all (1527–1608/1609). Exploring the respective
contributed to the process of reshaping the map of values and the hierarchy of the scientiae, Dee
the scientiae by reclaiming the high esteem and gave prominence to mathematics over all physical
ancient pedigree of mathematics. Nevertheless, its disciplines not only for the utmost certainty pro-
eminent position in the hierarchy of the disci- duced by mathematical deductions but also for the
plines was anything but self-evident. metaphysical nature of its subject matter (the
According to the 1563 Oratio pro idea Thynges Mathematicall as he termed them). The
methodi, a famous speech delivered by Petrus theory of the middle status of the mathematical
Catena (1501–1577) in Padua, the excellence of objects represents an important shift in the con-
any discipline has to be assessed from three dif- ception of the physical world. A similar debate
ferent points of view: its certainty, the nobility of took place in the context of late scholasticism both
its subject matter, and its usefulness. As regards in the Iberian peninsula and in Italy (where the
mathematics, its deductive method based on def- issue loomed large in the writings of Christopher
initions and axioms – self-evident propositions Clavius, a Jesuit professor of mathematics in the
regarded as common knowledge (koinai Collegio Romano, cf. Blum 2012, 117;
ennoiai) – had served as the most rigorous Armogathe 2007, 58 sqq).
model of certainty for all other sciences ever Another important challenge to the traditional
since its first systematic elaboration in the antiq- view came from the new classification of certain
uity. This did not mean, however, that arithmetic studies known as middle sciences (scientiae
or geometric arguments were supposed to lead up mediae), a category that allowed for positioning
to physical conclusions. Traditionally minded a whole range of “mixed” studies between physics
peripatetic commentators maintained that mathe- and mathematics (Blair 2007, 289–290). The
matical abstractions failed to do full justice to the association with mathematics endowed these dis-
complexity of the nature and stopped short of ciplines (e.g., mechanics, ballistics, navigation)
allowing for perfect demonstration in the Aristo- with a new prestige, in virtue of which the sharp
telian sense of the word. The reason is that they difference between sciences and arts blurred and
did not provide causal explanations, a necessary yielded the place to less rigorous demarcations.
condition that all bodies of knowledge were John Dee, for instance in the preface to Euclid,
Scientia 7
speaks indiscriminately of Mathematicall sci- of the philosophy of nature as a discipline that is

ences and Artes Mathematicall. not supposed to provide the description of a uni-
In many respects, this mixture, composed of tary cosmos as it unfolds before our senses but
Pythagorean and empirical elements, set the consists of the search of unitary laws that obtain
stage for the new scientific outlook of the early everywhere in the universe. Thus the emphasis
modern age. It was typical of the work of Gali- shifted from more or less spontaneous observa-
leo Galilei (1564–1642), who made an enor- tions that should have given access to the nature of
mous impact on his contemporaries by his things, to experiments documenting merely phe-
refined way of joining together the mathemati- nomena, or appearances that require further inter-
cal and the experimental aspects of the inquiry. pretation and rational reconstruction if their latent
On the one hand, he famously compared Nature structure and the governing laws are to be
to a book whose characters were written in the spelled out.
language of mathematics (Galileo 1623), but on Galileo was also innovative in two further
the other hand, he equally stressed that the con- aspects. First, he resolutely maintained that the
tent of the book cannot be grasped without observation of nature cannot possibly interfere
empirical observations. The ensuing amalgam with religious tenets since these two fields of
of the “reasoned facts” was emphatically not interest are engaged in different projects
meant to facilitate either a priori speculations (McMullin 1997). As he stated succinctly in a
or the naive empirical reliance on the deliver- letter to the grand duchess Christina: what the
ances of the senses. Viewed against this back- Bible teaches us is not how the heavens go but
ground, Galileo’s frequent appeal to the how to go to heaven (Galileo 1615). This strategy,
observation of the facts to which preference is albeit proved unsuccessful in his personal life
always to be given over the idle speculation (cf. with his trial), became one of the standard
might be misleading. Some of the problems positions in the debates of the centuries to follow.
involved are reflected in the worries Galileo’s Another innovative aspect of his thought worth
critics expressed about the intrusive nature of mentioning is the way in which he captured the
his observations and the active role played by imagination of his age by his exceptional ability to
the experimenter who, not content with being advertise his achievements. His Sidereus Nuncius
relegated to the position of a passive recipient, and the Letter on Sunspots (Galileo 1610, 1612),
manipulated either the situation observed (as in texts that can be regarded as the first scientific
the case of the free fall of bodies) or the process bestsellers of the modern era, are masterpieces of
of gathering information (as in the case of succinct but powerful exposition of facts coupled
celestial observations based on artificial with the visual rhetoric of the images. Galileo was
instruments – telescopes, optical lenses, mirrors very talented in making credit to his views by
etc.). reaching a wider audience through his books and
A similar issue concerned Galileo’s ignoring extended correspondence by selling or presenting
the traditional division of the universe into two self-made optical devices, making use of the
different physical realms, the sublunar system existing network of scientists all across Europe,
(dealing with finite and mostly linear motions) and finding princely patronage (Biagioli 2006).
and a supralunar one (in which the relevant The latter point draws the attention to a com-
motions are circular). Galileo’s crossing this line mon phenomenon since practical and mathemati-
of demarcation required to give up the ideal of the cal approach championed in one way or another
direct empirical stance attached to the point of by many of Galileo’s contemporaries and prede-
view of the observer in favor of an indirect cessors was given a lift in prestige from the six-
approach in which the meaning of the “facts” teenth century onward by its technical and
must be spelled out in terms of mathematics. The military applicability (Devries 2006). It was espe-
importance of this move cannot be cially through this practical aspect that middle
overemphasized. It gave rise to a new conception sciences gained the highest esteem among the
8 Scientia
“military gentlemen” and enjoyed generous tracts. Nowadays, this problem settled either by
princely patronage throughout the early modern denying that the syllogistic method (put forward
age. In fact, they were perceived as part and parcel in the second Analytics) was meant to provide a
of a larger group of arts requiring mathematical true theory of demonstration, or by minimizing
skills in a wide range of technical applications the differences between the two approaches. The
(cartography, military engineering, painting, gar- same issue gave rise to competing methodologies
dening, architecture, and so on). in the Renaissance, the most important of which is
Nevertheless, the joining of the mathematics known as demonstrative regress. This theory of
with other subjects was far from being demonstration tried to combine the two separate
uncontroversial in the epoch. One of the most components of the Aristotelian method into one
popular approaches to scientiae, elaborated by coherent scheme. The first component of the
the Huguenot scholar Petrus Ramus amalgam was the demonstration of fact, an a
(1515–1572) as part of his general reform of the posteriori demonstration that commentators
higher education, sought to set the boundaries of opposed to the second step that called a demon-
each discipline in such a way that precluded any stration of reasoned fact. Whereas the first pro-
blending of the terms used in one or another vided an argument without giving the proximate
branch of the sciences. Because he regarded phi- cause of the phenomena concerned, the latter
losophy as an aggregate of well-defined and referred to their causes in the middle term of a
autonomous disciplines, each based on its distinc- syllogism. Put together, they provided a complex
tive axioms and theorems and allowing for no circle of demonstration whose first step was an
overlap, he was against trespassing the boundaries inductive proof which, on the basis of empirical
of the mathematical and physical studies, a move observations, established the causes of an effect.
inherent in Copernic’s results. He condemned the This step was called resolution (or analysis) since
mathematical physics of the De revolutionibus as the initial state of affairs was decomposed into its
a clear instance of what he regarded as a metabasis simplest constituents thereby. The second step of
in the Aristotelian sense. With this theory in mind, the reasoning takes the opposite direction; it con-
Ramus’s aim was more to arrange and systemize sists of a syllogistic reasoning supposed to deduce
the scientific propositions (running in his schemes the effects from which the causes had been spelled
from more general to more specific ones) for out in the first phase. This second step is called
educational purposes than providing a method of compositio (composition or synthesis) since it
invention enhancing scientific advance. Though allows for the reconstitution of the phenomena
in this sense he did not engage in the epistemology via their causes. What prevents this double
of the sciences, he had an enormous impact on method from degenerating into a vicious circle is
subsequent generations of scholars by his insis- the logical necessity inherent in the process of
tence on the right method. His pedagogical con- deduction. While in the first place the causes are
cerns complied with the need of the modern state established by mere observation, the second step
demanding well-educated officers, businessmen is preceded by a meditation on the nature of the
and craftsmen, and his pragmatic approach gave causes detected (this was called consideratio or
a new impetus to the practical side of the sciences. negotiatio), so that the subsequent deduction does
One of Ramus’s methodological devices was not merely produces the effects but it shows that
the extensive use of the analytic and synthetic they are logically connected to or contained in the
ways of reasoning characteristic of the Renais- nature of the causes.
sance period. The combination of these methods A further aspect of novelty is closely
stems from a major problem well known from the connected to this point. As a result of the geo-
late antiquity onwards, the discrepancy between graphical discoveries and the abundant flow of
the theory of demonstration as can be found in information made available by the printing press,
Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics and the scientific this period was especially marked by a new pas-
practice exposed in his physical and biological sion for the empirical investigation into the secrets
Scientia 9
of nature (Shapiro 2000). The new appetite for the thought,” a process of mechanical reasoning
rarities; the practice of anatomical dissection, (something that even the early modern calculating
collecting, and dressing up inventories; and machines were supposed to realize), unaccompa-
founding museums, cabinets of curiosity, and nied by attention and consciousness.
wunderkammers all reflected the desire to capture On the level of practicalities, the ideal of the
the cosmic harmony reflected in the particular Mathesis Universalis went hand in hand with an
beings (specimens of herbs, minerals, animals, “art of memory,” and a project of educational
etc.). This interest contributed to the effort of the reform, both based on the methods, arrangement,
methodical arrangement of the material in combi- and processing of symbols much in the same way
natorial schemes, diagrams, or in the form of as a calculating machine can manipulate them.
universal encyclopedias. The whole effort resulted in an ambitious political
This feature of the Renaissance science is par- program aiming at social, religious, and political
ticularly marked in the philosophy of Gottfried peace warranted by a universal jurisprudence
Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), who – in sharp whose task was to harmonize different point of
contrast with Descartes, Malebranche, and other views and opposing interests. Influenced by some
Cartesians – expressed a clear preference for the scientists of millenarist leaning who, in one way
formal criteria of knowledge over the role of the or another, were associated with the reformed
intuition in the quest of certainty. Leibniz’s life- university of Herborn (Alsted, Bisterfeld, Come-
long preoccupation with the mathematical and nius, and other “Herborn encyclopedists”), Leib-
experimental facets of the new natural philosophy niz believed that the proponents of the various
along with his constant appeal to combinatorial philosophical and religious groups, engaged in
method and universal harmony shows that no fierce debate throughout the history, all glimpsed
sharp dividing line existed between Renaissance the same truth which, in its rich totality, could only
and early modern scientific concerns. be comprised in encyclopedias.
His project of the science was based on the Nevertheless Leibniz’s preoccupation with the
dream of a “universal language.” In accordance formal aspects of knowledge was only one of the
with the efforts of Athanasius Kircher, George possible ways of arranging the huge amount of
Dalgarno, John Wilkins, and others, he attempted information emerging in the various fields of
to set up a comprehensive vocabulary whose well- inquiry. Another powerful method was that of
defined terms ruled out all ambiguity inherent in Francis Bacon (1561–1626), who at the beginning
the natural languages. Inspired partly by Ramon of the seventeenth century initiated a full-scale
Lull’s Ars magna and partly by Thomas Hobbes’ revision of the Aristotelian ideal of knowledge.
view that true reasoning is nothing else but a He proposed a new classification of knowledge
calculation, Leibniz assumed that through the sys- with an intention to turn natural philosophy from a
tematic recombination of the symbols attached to theoretical enterprise into a productive one whose
the terms of the universal language, reliable chief virtue is not so much intelligibility, but
knowledge can be achieved (Leibniz 1666). He instrumentality. In order to do so, Bacon stepped
insisted that in this systematic way, one can pur- outside the framework of Aristotelian division of
sue both theoretical and practical goals. On the knowledge and its emphasis on metaphysics as its
theoretical level, the method promised an ars foundation that provided the unifying categories
inveniendi, a practical way of acquiring new of natural philosophy and thereby blocked the
pieces of knowledge. Since the primitive way of methodological innovation. Particularly,
terms – like the letters of an alphabet – were con- the Aristotelian requirement of deriving explana-
ceived to refer to the elements of the human tions from “essences” posed a constraint that
thought, their combination according to logically made irrelevant the study of things in contrived
correct rules provided a means to elicit the conse- situations.
quences implicit therein (Buzon 1998, 619–620). With his new division of knowledge, Bacon
This gave rise to the Leibnizian concept of “blind gave a new orientation of inquiry in which
10 Scientia
emphasis on the demonstration of phenomena educational purposes through strengthening men-

gave way to discovery as the central focus of tal capacities, and in De Augmentis he explicitly
knowledge production. In Bacon’s division, warns against mathematics taking over natural
knowledge of nature is divided into natural history philosophy and confines it to an auxiliary role.
and natural philosophy. He conceived natural his- Though providing an abundant source of inspi-
tory as a descriptive enterprise aiming at ration, Renaissance scholarship also bequeathed
collecting and organizing observations of phe- its latent tensions to the subsequent generations,
nomena, and natural philosophy as an explanatory and one fissure, becoming more and more palpa-
enterprise aiming at distilling the principles ble throughout the sixteenth century, concerned
underlying phenomena so that they could be the mathematical and the empirical components of
manipulated for the benefit of mankind. In the the amalgam that composed the new natural phi-
context of natural history marvelous, preternatural losophy. These elements gave rise to different
and contrived experiences gained a significance epistemologies depending on the emphasis
that could not be accommodated in scientia, scholars put on one or the other of part of the
because only the normal course of behavior can mixture. According to Agostino Nifo
be demonstrated from essences – abnormal phe- (1473–1538/1545), the knowledge of the causes
nomena or experimental findings has nothing to in the explanation of the natural effects through
do with the essence of things as they arise from methodic resolution (via resolutiva) is always
contingent circumstances. Bacon’s “experimental conjectural and, for this reason, the subsequent
natural history” was conceived as producing situ- deduction of further effects (via compositiva)
ations that would not exist in nature without counts as a demonstration only in a very limited
human intervention, that is, it increasingly meant and improper sense. Claiming that the whole pro-
an artificial step in knowledge production. On cess is based on probable conjectures, Nifo’s
these grounds, natural philosophy was liberated approach underscores the lower status to the phi-
from the constraints the ideal of scientia had losophy of nature which, on this interpretation,
placed upon it and thus opened up the possibility cannot attain the highest level of mathematical
of transforming natural philosophy into the instru- certainty. Hence, Nifo insists that “the science
mentally useful enterprise that Bacon envisaged. concerning nature is not science absolutely as is
Studying and accounting for the natural as well mathematical science, but is science propter quid,
as unnatural behavior of things is at the heart of because the discovery of the cause, which is
Baconian natural philosophy as this gives the key obtained through conjectural syllogism, consti-
to transforming nature to our benefit – an aim that tutes the reason for the effect” (Jardine 1988,
again alien to the Aristotelian ideal that seeks to 689). By some scholars, Nifo’s view has been
provide contemplative understanding by demon- alluded to as one of the first expressions of a
stration. Correspondingly, inductive inference moderate skepticism which, according the thesis
replaces demonstration in the Baconian ideal: the of Richard Popkin, was on its way to evolve into
“ways of true and good induction . . . can help the one of the standard epistemological positions of
frail and crippled faculty of human intellect the seventeenth century (Popkin 2003). In Jacopo
towards the sciences” (Bacon 1609, 4/5). Far Zabarella (1533–1589), we find an opposite
from being a never-ending enterprise, fact approach to the problem. He did not regard induc-
collecting for Bacon is “the only enterprise that tion as an inferential method necessary for gath-
allows us to proceed with certainty” (Bacon 1609, ering scientific knowledge, rather the role he
6/7). assigns to it is just to produce images that dispose
And although the quest for certainty remains the intellect to receive the universal forms pro-
very much in the focus of sixteenth-century epi- duced in the human mind by a transcendent active
stemic ideal, for Bacon this certainty did not arise intellect. Demonstrations, Zabarella insists, rely
from the mathematical treatment of facts col- on transcendent principles.
lected. Mathematics for him served primarily
Scientia 11
Descartes (1596–1650), though in his thought truths depend on divine will, so strictly speaking
the role of the active intellect is replaced by innate they are not necessary. This illustrates again the
ideas, would take the same stand some fifty years crucial role God plays in the Cartesian ideal of
later. Descartes in his Principles of Philosophy knowledge, and this gives a further distinctive
(1644) presented an influential vision of the sys- feature if compared to the Aristotelian ideal.
tem of sciences as a tree, the branches of which God also plays a different and increasingly
grow out of the trunk of metaphysics. Descartes’s important role in the period. Roger Bacon in the
original vision of method that underpinned this thirteenth century vindicated philosophy as a rem-
unity prescribed analysis into intuitively clear and edy from the unfortunate consequences of the fall,
infallibly known metaphysical principles, the and this vindication had remained valid for many
world’s basic constituents, “simple natures” even in the eighteenth century. Besides, a further
whose knowledge is innate and from which vindication of natural philosophy had become a
deductive knowledge in physics and other fields commonplace by the end of the Renaissance
of knowledge is attainable. period. As several humanist works on anatomy
The Cartesian ideal of knowledge diverges in and nature, or for example as Melanchton’s pro-
several respects from the Aristotelian ideal while gram for education and Bacon’s vision for knowl-
preserving some of its characteristics. Descartes edge production make it clear, knowledge of God
was still devoted to the ideal of scientia insofar as emerged as an increasingly important aim of
far as the aspiration to certainty is concerned. This inquiry natural theology, or physicotheology as it
certainty, however, was not supposed to be is sometimes called, it was unquestionably an
reached through demonstration by syllogistic important part of natural inquiry, and its signifi-
inference that Descartes severely criticized as a cance would be preserved and even increased in
useless logical instrument for discovery. Instead the century to come. The need for a discipline that
he advocated a method of analysis and synthesis, aimed at an understanding of God through the
that is, by breaking down complex questions into study of his creation arose from the widespread
simple ones to which intuitively clear and distinct conviction that the world is the product of God’s
answers can be given and then to proceed from handwork. As such, God’s intentions, attributes,
these intuitive answers to answering complex and purposes were naturally taken to be reflected,
questions. The demonstrativity of this process is to some significant degree, not only in the Bible
preserved by intuitive insight: each step in the but in his creation as well: God had written two
process follows intuitively from the previous books to be studied by different means, that is, the
one, and the reliability of this process is not due Bible and the “Book of Nature” (see Shapin
to rule of syllogistic logic but the benevolence of 1996). Being the two books ascribed to the author-
God. God’s benevolence entails that he does not ship of God, knowledge about the world per-
intend to deceive, and it guarantees the reliable ceived as God’s creation had to be reconciled
functioning of our faculties in the process of with knowledge contained in Holy Scripture per-
cogitatio. ceived as God’s word. In this enterprise, the
The Cartesian ideal also diverges from the resources of natural philosophy and theology
classical in that it does not consist exclusively of had to be combined so as to reach a joint cognitive
universal and necessary truths. A robust system of purpose: a Christian understanding of the world.
metaphysical knowledge is built upon Descartes’s
cogito, “I think therefore I am.” So it is part of a
systematic body of knowledge (i.e., Cartesian Impact and Legacy
metaphysics); it is necessary and its certainty can-
not be doubted. However, it is a singular proposi- Much of the further transformation of scientia into
tion and as such it cannot meet the standards of “science” as we know it today has taken place
Aristotelian scientia. A further complication under the aegis of The Royal Society, founded in
arises for necessity as in Descartes necessary 1660, and within the framework of what its
12 Scientia
apologists labeled as “experimental natural phi- unavoidable part of the framework of intelligibil-
losophy.” The knowledge making practices asso- ity and not external to knowledge claims them-
ciated with this label had been vindicated by a selves (Shapin 1981).
Baconian ideology focusing on producing benefi- Behind the curtains of this ideology, the actual
cial knowledge and making the world intelligible practices of knowledge production had been
through the collection of empirical and the pro- focused on inductive methods that could only
duction of experimental facts. yield probable, but not certain and demonstrative,
With the Baconian ideology, the Royal Society knowledge by the standards of scientia. Such
also inherited the aspiration to understand the prominent figures as Robert Hooke and Robert
world as God’s creation. This orientation of early Boyle deemed both syllogism and mathematics
modern natural philosophy is one of the most unsuitable to introduce demonstrative certainty
contested issues that arise concerning the continu- into experimental philosophy, whose aspirations
ity of natural philosophy and modern science. As would thus be constrained to the realm of proba-
Stephen Gaukroger points out, Royal Society bilities and not certainties. But this seemed less
apologists like Robert Boyle and Thomas Sprat and less a shortcoming to many naturalists of the
“were talking of natural philosophy in terms of a time: as the received Baconian ideology of inquiry
religious office,” and natural philosophy was emphasized the value of instrumental knowledge,
taken as a non-partisan way – that is, one free of the cognitive merit of probabilities also increased
sectarian confessional issues – of engaging reli- as they promised potential, even if as yet
gious questions of divine nature and purpose unforeseeable, utility. So, even if probabilities
(Gaukroger 2010, 30). Andrew Cunningham cannot meet the standards the ideal of scientia
(1991), in a similar vein, sees the role of natural set for the products of inquiry, their cognitive
theology in early modern natural inquiry as so benefits are increasingly admitted.
central that on this basis he denies the continuity The ideal of scientia is still lurking behind this
of natural philosophy and modern science. Natu- process, as knowledge claims are typically evalu-
ral philosophy is about God even when its practi- ated against the background it defines. John Locke
tioners are not talking about him, a feature entirely in his influential Essay Concerning Human
uncharacteristic of modern science: “no-one ever Understanding distinguishes three kinds of
undertook the practice of natural philosophy with- knowledge: “intuitive,” “demonstrative,” and
out having God in mind, and knowing that the “sensitive.” The first two kinds are different only
study of God and God’s creation – in a way in degree, as demonstration consists of a series of
different from that pursued by theology – was intuitive steps in reasoning as in mathematics.
the point of the whole exercise.” And even if Sensitive knowledge concerns “the particular
John Henry’s verdict in the debate surrounding existence of finite Beings” (Locke 1690, 4.2.14)
Cunningham’s thesis may very well be true, and as such it is different in kind because it is
namely, that “[n]atural philosophers, after all, incapable of certainty. As such, sensitive knowl-
were not theologians, and would have seen it as edge is sufficient for practical purposes, “for the
a betrayal of their natural philosophical principles use of Life,” but it is not sufficient for a “perfect,
to invoke God’s direct intervention in their expla- clear, comprehensive Knowledge of things free
nations” (Henry 2009, 110n65), the conviction from all doubt and scruple” (Locke 1690,
that natural philosophers are studying God’s cre- 4.11.8). Accordingly, the knowledge derived
ation provided the basic ideological framework of from experimental philosophy is founded on sen-
early modern science: this was a background pre- sitive knowledge and as such it can only be prob-
supposition against which significance of the able. But this is not a shortcoming that should
enterprise was perceived and the ultimate mean- prevent us from conducting inquiry on this
ing to its findings was ascribed. This ideology of ground: in the Essay Locke himself admittedly
knowledge was not superadded to the works of followed a Baconian “historical, plain method”
knowledge production: it was an intimate and (Locke 1690, 1.1.2) in producing what is in effect
Scientia 13
a natural history of human understanding: a suggests. Hume’s division is tripartite just as

description and classification of various cognitive Locke’s from some 50 years earlier, but it is
capacities. divided differently into “demonstration,”
Many early Royal Society apologists thought “proof,” and “probability” and seems to be in
that mathematical demonstration can yield cer- concert with Newton’s use of “demonstrations”
tainty, but they saw its sphere limited. Trust in and “proof” (see Stein 1990). Demonstration is
what mathematics can achieve increased with the the field of a priori reasoning, i.e., paradigmati-
publication of Newton’s Principia (1687) with its cally of mathematics. Proofs and probabilities fall
project of introducing certainty into experimental into the category that Locke labeled as the field of
natural philosophy through mathematical princi- “sensitive” knowledge, but proofs, albeit fallible
ples. As Newton claims in his early papers, as in principle, come close to certainty because they
long as phenomena are treated by mathematical are founded on uniform experience.
reasoning, the science of them is mathematical as According to Hume’s division, natural philos-
well, and consequently, it can reach the same ophy can aspire to a degree of certainty that falls
degree of demonstrative certainty as mathematics. short of being demonstrative, but still certain
Initially, many Newtonians, including John Keill, enough to be unanimously reliable and instrumen-
John Friend, and Archibald Pitcairn, adopted this tally useful. These features are easily discernible
mathematical outlook on various phenomena and in the self-image of modern science that emerged
attempted to provide mathematical theories of gradually as a result of putting forward, and put-
phenomena in chemistry and physiology. Several ting into use, alternative conceptions and practices
decades later, however, as a result of the ensuing of knowledge production. This has been a long
controversy with Anthony Lucas and Robert process, and its several crucial steps have been
Hooke concerning the degree of certainty to be taken in the Renaissance period that, as a conse-
ascribed to such reasoning, Newton’s (1704) com- quence, also witnessed the demise of the ideal of
mitment would soften when he claimed in Query scientia.
31 of the Opticks that “arguing from Experiments
and Observations by Induction be no Demonstra-
tion of general Conclusions; yet it is the best way
Cross-References
of arguing which the Nature of Things admits of,
and may be looked upon as so much the stronger,
▶ Aristotelianism
by how much the Induction is more general.”
▶ Cartesianism
Unlike the strong tendencies to mathematize
▶ Certainty
nature, the emphasis Newton placed on the signif-
▶ Empiricism
icance of experiment never diminished. It is New-
▶ Mathematics
ton’s enduring aspiration to insulate experimental
▶ Natural Philosophy
philosophy from metaphysical challenges, no
▶ Natural Theology
matter if they come from Aristotelian, Cartesian,
▶ Newtonianism
or whatever denomination. A chief epistemic
▶ Syllogism
commitment he repeatedly made clear is that
experimental findings should not be exposed to
other than experimental criticism.
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_271-1
Burgersdijk, Franco
Born: 3 May 1590 at De Lier
Died: 19 February 1635 at Leiden
Henri Krop*
Faculteit der Wijsbegeerte, Erasmus Universiteit, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract
Burgersdijk’s reputation in the seventeenth century rested on his well-ordered manuals dealing with all
parts of philosophy. They adapted the Corpus Aristotelicum to the standards of humanist method.
Burgersdijk’s so-called neo-Aristotelianism is related to the Contra-Remonstrant movement in the
Dutch Reformed Church, which triumphed at the Synod of Dordt (1619) and at Leiden University caused
the dismissal or suspension of all philosophy professors with Arminian sympathies, such as Caspar
Barlaeus and Gilbertus Jacchaeus, and a reform of philosophy teaching in the Dutch Republic, which had
to be in harmony with the newly established reformed orthodoxy. In accordance with the 1625 School
Order of the States of Holland, his textbooks were aimed at creating uniformity in the preuniversity
curriculum. His logical writings in particular remained in use at the Latin schools till nearly the end of the
seventeenth century. Although abhorred by students, these manuals lingered in the curriculum of the
British universities well into the eighteenth century. Due to the influence of both the manual of
metaphysics and of logic on the early works of Spinoza in particular, Burgersdijk and his pupil and
successor at Leiden University Adriaan Heereboord play a minor part in Spinoza research.
Synonyms
Burgersdicius; Burghers-dyk; Franco; Frank
Biography
Burgersdijk, a farmer’s son, was born in 1590 at De Lier in the Delfland region. The family name derived
from a hamlet in the same region. According to his first biographer, Johannes Meursius in Athenae
Batavae, Burgersdijk’s father had some knowledge of Latin. Between 1606 and 1610 Burgersdijk
attended the Latin school at Amersfoort and the Delft Gymnasium, where besides the classical languages,
he learned logic and rhetoric. In 1610 he went to Leiden University in order to study theology. He attended
the lectures of Franciscus Gomarus and Gisbertus Voetius and unwaveringly adhered to the Contra-
Remonstrant faction. However, in that centre of humanist learning, Burgersdijk received a complete
humanist formation, attending lectures on Latin, Greek, Roman history, and rhetoric. Moreover, he
attended private lectures on practical logic and the art of disputation given by Voetius, at that time the
vice-principal of the Staten College, a boarding school for students of theology established by the States of
Holland. In 1614 Burgersdijk left Leiden in order to make a grand tour. He stayed at the Protestant
Academy of Saumur, where he continued his theological studies with Gomarus, who in 1611 had left
*Email: krop@fwb.eur.nl
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_271-1
Leiden because of the ascendancy of the Remonstrant party in the Reformed Church. In 1615 he was
appointed professor of philosophy. Due to his “deep affection toward philosophy” and his progress in that
discipline, according to Meursius, the governors “deemed him fit to become master in the liberal arts and
to obtain a doctorate in philosophy.” Burgersdijk took this degree on 29 March 1620, only 2 days before
he delivered his inaugural address on the use of logic in one of the vacancies caused by the purges of the
universities after the Synod of Dordt. In November 1620 ethics was added to Burgersdijk’s teaching
assignment. In 1623 he completed his theological education by defending a disputation entitled “The
Clarity of the Bible and Its interpretation.”
In 1621 he married a mayor’s daughter. After 2 years, his son Pieter was born, who later studied law and
was to become an important civil servant. The recommendations of the Synod of Dordt included the call
for a reform of the Latin schools. In 1625 new regulations were promulgated. In the final year, some
ethics, physics, and geography would be taught and Burgersdijk was asked to raise the medieval
“barbaric” Latin of Johannes de Sacrobosco’s De sphaera to humanist standards by making “astronomy”
perspicuous and easy to understand. This schoolbook aimed at making the pupils familiar with the “first
principles” of the subject, which were to be dealt with more fully at the university, as is observed in the
introduction of the compendium.
In 1628 Burgersdijk exchanged moral philosophy for physics, but well before that date he lectured on
physics. In 1624 a first series of fifteen disputations dealing with the Aristotelian corpus of natural
philosophy was held, and in 1627 the next series was organized. Although his funeral orator, Petrus
Cunaeus in his Oratio habita in funere Franco Burgersdicii, recorded that several of the deceased’s friends
were amazed by this step, for “moral philosophy is the most excellent part of philosophy,” he noted the
humanist ambition of Burgersdijk “to uncover the truth hidden in nature.” He therefore made the
Aristotelian philosophy taught “by public authority” more perspicuous by clearing away “its scholastic
obscurities.” In 1629 and 1630, Burgersdijk served as Rector Magnificus, and he was in this capacity
when Descartes matriculated on 27 June 1630 as student of mathematics. During his rectorate, he helped
to formulate new rules for the teaching of philosophy at the Staten College, which included the teaching of
metaphysics. In 1634 Burgersdijk was elected Rector for the third time. Eleven days after the end of his
office, he died, on 19 February 1635. He was buried in the choir of the Leiden Pieterskerk.
Notwithstanding his theological education, Burgersdijk’s teaching contributed to raising the status of
philosophy at the Dutch universities. Through his manuals, he transformed philosophy into a discipline
independent of theology and philology. In the early disputation Utrum quod est verum in theologia possit
esse falsum in philosophia, he had the inalienable rights of philosophy with respect to theology defended
and adopted Aquinas’s view of the relationship between the disciplines by observing that both sciences
deal with the same object. Its final conclusion is neat: Although theological dogma may exceed the limits
of human reason, philosophy may be free from error. That is why the pagan Aristotle was the greatest
philosopher. So Burgersdijk fully acknowledged the authority of Iberian neo-Scholasticism and of other
Roman Catholic philosophers. Due to Burgersdijk’s teaching, the confessional neutrality of philosophy
was generally taken for granted in the Dutch Republic, which attitude facilitated the quick acceptance of
Cartesianism.
Works on Logic
In the dedication of the Institutionum logicarum libri duo to the States of Holland, Burgersdijk in a
humanist way opposed arms to letters. The study of both is imperative for the well-being of the state. In
order to be effective, the study of the arts should be methodical. This manual of logic contains all the
useful rules of the art of reasoning, which means that the advanced student only needs to practice them.
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The beginning student should start with an excerpt of this manual, which had been added to the
Institutiones and was published separately in 1632. It uses the catechetical form of questions and answers.
In the preface, Burgersdijk attempts to justify the publication of the new schoolbook. He distinguishes
between three groups of manuals. The first group consists of manuals, which adhere closely to Aristotle’s
text – Burgersdijk uses the Greek expression kata podas. Such philological textbooks are insufficient as
manuals of logic, since the Organon is without order. Moreover, while focusing on the syllogism, Aristotle
does not deal with many logical instruments. The second group is formed by Petrus Ramus, Rudolph
Agricola, and Lorenzo Valla. They reject the Aristotelian tradition and follow Cicero and the Stoics. Their
textbooks are well ordered, and their precepts are useful in order to interpret famous authors, but “in one
stoke” they wipe out the demonstrative syllogism. That is why we should follow the example of
Bartholomaeus Keckermann – the last group consists of only one manual – and adopt “the method of
Ramus and use the material of Aristotle.” The main difference between the Institutiones and
Keckermann’s Systema is that Burgersdijk replaces the traditional tripartite structure of logic – simple
terms, proposition, and argument – by a bipartite one. He distinguishes between the thema, i.e., all the
things presented to the mind in order to acquire knowledge of it (book 1), and the instruments, i.e.,
definition, division, syllogism, and method (book 2). Moreover, contrary to the Systema, the text consists
of a series of propositions called theoremata, often followed by a commentary in which the theorems are
explained and sources and illustrations given. The book summarizes the material with ten diagrams
according to the model of Ramus.
Works on Physics
Physics is the most noble part of philosophy, since it leads man from the manifold things in nature we
perceive by the senses to their hidden causes and finally to God. To physics, Burgersdijk devoted two
manuals. The Idea is conceived as a “guide” to be used in disputations, presenting the subject matter in
definitions and short theses. By referring only to “new” authorities such as Jacopo Zabarella, Benedict
Pereira, Franciscus Toletus, and the commentators of Coimbra, Burgersdijk stated as his goal to open the
debate on the “text of Aristotle.” In the more extensive Collegium, the same doctrinal tradition is
elaborated in a synthetic order. The first section of the thirty-four disputations deals with basic topics
such as “the subject of the science”: the natural body, its principles – matter, privation, and form – and the
final and efficient causes. This section continues with the properties of natural body – magnitude, place,
motion – and time and reflects Aristotle’s Physics. The second section deals with more specific and
concrete topics, such as the heavens and the stars. The Collegium continues with the elements, the origin
and destruction of things, the atmospheric phenomena, and what we would now call chemistry and
mineralogy. Here the corresponding parts of the Corpus Aristotelicum are De Coelo and the Meteorology.
From disputation 20 onward, the soul, its functions, and faculties are treated. These are themes Aristotle
dealt with in his books on generation, parts of animals, and the soul.
It is obvious that the structure of Burgersdijk’s manuals on physics is not simply a matter of didactic
convenience, but mirrors the complexity of nature, which requires a study by means of the golden
principles of Zabarellian method. These new ideas on the order of nature, however, conceal a framework
of the traditional concepts of scholastic physics: motion arising from an internal principle, generation and
corruption, the beginning and the end of motion, and locomotion, which was produced by the principles of
the natural body. What is more, Burgersdijk did not take much notice of important discoveries such as the
sine law of light’s reflection made some years before by his colleague Willebrord Snellius, which prepared
the way for the mathematical calculation of natural phenomena. Burgersdijk, however, acknowledged a
primitive form of the circulation of the blood discovered by William Harvey in 1628. Other examples of
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_271-1
his readiness to accept new observations are his acknowledgement of the appearance of new stars,
notwithstanding Aristotle’s doctrine of the incorruptibility of the heavens, and his acceptance of the
plausibility of the “Copernican hypothesis.” If the diurnal motion is attributed to the celestial bodies and
not to the earth, the speed of the diurnal motion observed by Philippus van Lansbergen would imply that
Saturn in 5 min traverses more than 900 German miles and the fixed stars more than 643.000 miles. This is
hardly conceivable.
Burgersdijk never pondered the theoretical implications of these observations. Apparently he did not
see how these new discoveries could be integrated into the Aristotelian framework of physics. Within a
generation after his death, the majority of Dutch scholars had embraced Cartesianism.
Manual of Metaphysics
In 1645, 10 years after Burgersdijk’s death, the Leiden professors of theology asked the Governors to
establish a chair for the teaching of metaphysics. This concern corresponds with the argument that
Adriaan Heereboord, Burgersdijk’s successor, developed in the preface to his posthumous edition of
Burgersdijk’s manual the Institutiones metaphysicae. Metaphysics clarifies the concepts the theologians
use and teaches them “all the natural intellect is able to know about God, the angels, and the rational soul.”
Therefore, metaphysics is properly called natural theology. The edition of his lectures shows that
Burgersdijk in defiance of the statutes of the humanist university already taught metaphysics well before
1645. In defining the object of metaphysics as ens reale qua immateriale [real being in its immaterial
aspects], Burgersdijk attempted to distinguish the discipline from (Christian) theology and physics.
Although he did not adopt definitions of a Scotian and Suarezian type metaphysics in his view is
essentially a general science of being, and does not refer to substances only, but also to all beings
which are not absolutely nothing. In accordance with the Aristotelian theory of science as developed in
the Middle Ages, Burgersdijk continues with the principles of being – essence and existence, definitions,
and axioms – and its affects. Under this heading, the Suarezian theory of the transcendental terms is dealt
with. In the second book, special metaphysics is discussed: God, angels, and rational soul. Burgersdijk,
however, does not only divide being into created and uncreated, but uncomfortably also into substance
and accident, which is dealt with in the last chapter.
Manual of Moral Philosophy

In the Idea philosophiae moralis a humanist vein, Burgersdijk elaborates upon the preeminence of ethics.
The use and necessity of the discipline is obvious, since it teaches us the end of all human endeavor.
Moreover, we learn – as far as possible in post-Fall conditions – the means to acquire this ultimate human
felicity: the virtues. Their main categories are probity, which composes our passions and rules our
relations with other humans, and piety, which consists of our knowledge and love of God. In this sense
ethics is even more than metaphysics a natural theology. According to Burgersdijk, Socrates, Plato,
Epictetus, Plutarch among the Greeks and Seneca and Cicero among the Romans were just as important
scholars in the field of morality as Aristotle, so Burgersdijk discusses the text of the Ethica Nicomachea
together with the works of these other authors. Like his Leiden predecessors Petrus Bertius and Justus
Lipsius, he reserves an important part of the manual to the theory of the passions. In general, the material is
substantially, but freely, taken from Aristotle, as the subtitle states. Burgersdijk, for example, rejects the
traditional Aristotelian distinction between poiesis and praxis made on account of its effect and observed
that the making may be an end in itself, while the moral nature of an action depends on the appetite.
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According to Burgersdijk, moral philosophy is divided into three chapters: (1) the final felicity resulting
from attaining the ultimate good; (2) moral actions, the object it studies, outlining their differences and
immediate causes such as the affects and pleasure and pain; and (3) the means to achieve felicity, that is to
say virtues and friendship. So also this manual methodically presents the Aristotelian material in order to
be pedagogically effective.
Manual of Politics
Burgersdijk’s manual of politics and economics the Idea oeconomicae et politicae doctrinae was also
edited posthumously. The first edition was anonymous, but done by Heereboord, the second edition by
Georgius Hornius, at that time professor of history, who added extensive notes, but skipped the section on
economics. These notes are partly in the form of additional theses, partly in the form of questions, and
include elucidating schemes. The manual is special, being one of the few works on these topics written by
a philosopher. – At Leiden as a rule historians dealt with politics. – It was conceived as specifying the
universal rules of the general practical science, ethics, and applies them to the life of man in a family and in
a state. Burgersdijk’s politics has been called a “humanist mirror of the prince.” After an introductory
chapter on the body politic in general and the different forms of government, he elaborates on the
knowledge and the virtues of the “good” prince. He has to be familiar with languages, Latin in particular;
mathematics, which is extremely useful, both in war and peace; the philosophical disciplines, with the
exception of metaphysics; the principles of law and of theology; and ancient and modern history. The
virtues the prince requires are the traditional prudence and justice, but also piety toward God and toward
man, i.e., the love of the citizens, veracity, and the ability to participate in social life. In the second part of
the treatise, Burgersdijk deals with the means of government: laws, advisors, health care and schooling,
the administration of justice, the maintenance of a monetary system and taxation, the protection against
natural disasters, and the preparation for war. Moreover, good government is impossible without the
preservation of true religion. The prince is the protector of the church, which implies that he possesses the
ius circa sacra. Notably, the Contra-Remonstrant Burgersdijk does not specify the proper rights of the
church. Although the good prince will punish blasphemy and will prevent the propagation of a false
religion, he is not obliged to enforce religious unity at all costs. In the remaining four chapters,
Burgersdijk discusses aristocracy and democracy. Living in a Republic, Burgersdijk’s preference for
monarchism caused much surprise. Commentators are inclined to explain this curious phenomenon by
referring to the force of tradition. However, Burgersdijk argued that in the commercial cities of Holland,
the best form of government is a combination of aristocracy and democracy. The predominance of the
nobility in a monarchy would be detrimental to commerce and industry, he observes, anticipating similar
comments by Pieter de La Court.
References
Works by Burgersdijk
Burgersdijk. Problema utrum quod est verum in theologia possit esse falsum in philosophia aut vice
versa. (Leiden, 1620).
Burgersdijk. Idea philosophiae naturalis, sive methodus definitionum et controversiarum (Leiden, 1622,
16575; Amsterdam 1649, 1657; Dutch trans. A.L. Kók, Amsterdam, 1648).
Burgersdijk. Idea philosophiae moralis, sive Compendiosa institutio (Leiden Ex Officinâ Elzeviriana,
1623, 16445, Oxford 1631, 1657).
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_271-1
Burgersdijk. Institutionum logicarum libri II decreto D.D. Ordinum Hollandiæ et West-Frisiæ, novâ
methodo ac modo formati, atque editi (Leiden Commelinus, 1626,1645; Cambridge 1637, 1668,
Amsterdam 1658, 1658; Dutch trans. A.L. Kók, Amsterdam, 1646; English translation with the title
Monitio Logica or an abstract and translation of Burgersdicius his Logick, London 1697).
Burgersdijk. Sphaera Joh. de Sacro-Bosco sic recensita, ut et Latinitas, et methodus emendata sit,
multaque addita, quae ad hujus doctrinae illustrationem requirebantur (Leiden Apud Bonavent &
Abrahamvm Elzevirium, 1626, 16473).
Burgersdijk. Institutionum logicarum synopsis, sive Rudimenta logica (Leiden Commelinus, 1632, 1645,
Cambridge 1637, 16684, Amsterdam, 1659, 17163; Dutch trans. A.L. Kók, Amsterdam, 1646).
Burgersdijk. Collegium physicum disputationibus XXXII absolutum (Leiden Ex Officinâ Bonaventvræ &
Abrahami Elzvir, 1632, 16504, Oxford 16644; Dutch trans. A.L. Kók, Amsterdam, 1648).
Burgersdijk. Institutionum metaphysicarum libri II (Leiden Apud Hieronymum de Vogel, 1640, 16545;
London 1651; Oxford, 1675).
Burgersdijk. Idea oeconomicae et politicae doctrinae (Leiden Apud Hieronymvm de Vogel, 1644, 16573;
Tiburi 1723).
Burgersdijk. Idea politica. Cum annotationibus Georgii Hornii (Leiden Apud Felicem Lopez de Haro,
1668).
Cunaeus, Petrus. 1640. Oratio XVI habita in funere Franconis Burgersdicii. In Orationes varii argumenti.
227–239. Leiden: ex officina Isaaci Commelini.
Meursius, Johannes. 1625. Franco Burgersdicius. In Athenae Batavae, sive de urbe Leidensi & Academia.
339–342. Leiden: Apud Andream Cloucquiu[m] et Elsevirios.
Bos, E.P. and H.A. Krop (eds.). 1993. Franco Burgersdijk (1590–1635): Neo-Aristotelianism in Leiden.
Amsterdam, Rodopi.
Krop, H.A. 2003. Burgersdijk. In The dictionary of 17th and 18th century Dutch philosophers,
vol I. 181–190. Bristol, Thoemmes Press.
Page 6 of 6
K
Keckermann, Bartholomaeus Biography and Publications
Born: Danzig (Gdańsk) in 1571, 1572, or 1573 Bartholomaeus Keckermann was born in Danzig
Died: Danzig, 25 July 1609 (Gdańsk) in 1571, 1572, or 1573 to German
Reformed Protestant parents. He attended the
Joseph S. Freedman Gymnasium Athenaeum in Danzig (enrolling
Department of History and Political Science, there in August of 1587). He then studied briefly
Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL, at the Universities of Wittenberg (enrolling in
USA May 1590) and Leipzig (enrolling in the spring
of 1592) prior to moving to the University of
Heidelberg, where he enrolled as a student on
October 22, 1592.
Abstract
Keckermann received his Master of Arts degree
at Heidelberg on February 27, 1595. He then
Bartholomaeus Keckermann (d. 1609) was a
became assistant supervisor (regens secundus) at
Reformed Protestant who taught at the University
the contubernium student dormitory there on April
of Heidelberg and thereafter at the Gymnasium
23, 1595, and its principal supervisor (regens pri-
Athenaeum in Danzig (Gdaήsk). Innovative was
mus) on October 9, 1595. He resigned that posi-
the publication of his writings on logic in multiple
tion on August 10, 1596, in order to take a
formats and his use of the concept of the system-
teaching position (third grade) at the
atic textbook (systema). Although he did not pub-
paedagogium, at a university preparatory school
lish an encyclopedia, his publications cover a very
in Heidelberg. In 1597 he then moved to become a
wide range of subject matters; most of his
teacher at the Collegium Sapientiae, a theological
monograph-length publications are included
academy in Heidelberg under the auspices of the
within two separate two-volume collections
Palatine Electoral Prince; Keckermann continued
(in 1613 and 1614) of his publications as well as
to teach there after he became the Professor of
a separate collection (in 1617) of his publications
Hebrew in the University of Heidelberg Philoso-
falling within the parameters of mathematics.
phy Faculty on February 4, 1600.
Keckermann’s writings were widely read for
He was considered but rejected for a professor-
many decades after his death.
ship in theology at the University of Heidelberg in
the year 1599. He received Licentiate of Theology
degree there on March 23, 1602. In 1602
Keckermann left Heidelberg to become Professor
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_272-1
2 Keckermann, Bartholomaeus
of Philosophy at the Gymnasium Athenaeum in discusses history and logic, and it focuses primar-
Danzig, where he remained until his death on July ily on politics and history. This treatise was
25, 1609. intended to serve as a practical handbook for
those students who were preparing for careers in
public life.
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition Very worthy is Keckermann’s treatise on his-
tory. Although he claims that history is not an
Bartholomaeus Keckermann utilized a wide range academic discipline, his work raises a number of
of authorities in his writings on logic, rhetoric, important points pertaining to this subject matter.
ecclesiastical rhetoric, Hebrew grammar, practical Very interesting is his systematic presentation of
philosophy, ethics, family life (oeconomica), the subcategories of history, including the history
metaphysics, physics, mathematics (geometry, of disciplines (individual academic disciplines as
astronomy, optical, “naval mathematics” well as the history of books and libraries) and
(nautica), geography, arithmetic), history, theol- genres of historical writings. The treatise con-
ogy, and an introduction to the study of Cicero’s cludes with a lengthy, annotated, and well-
writings. Keckermann was among those authors organized commentary and bibliography of
at the beginning of the seventeenth century that ancient, medieval, and recent historical writings.
published encyclopedic philosophical writings or
published a wide range of works which – when
taken together – constituted the same. While
Impact and Legacy
Keckermann profusely praises Aristotle, he also
notes that Aristotle’s writings must be read and
Keckermann’s writings had a substantial impact
studied within the context of recent authors.
during his lifetime and for at least a half a century
following his death. One factor contributing
thereto was that many of Keckermann’s writings
were published posthumously with the assistance
of his Danzig students. Johann Heinrich Alsted
Exceptional were the multiple formats of his text-
(1588–1638), who also made substantial use of
books on logic. These include a prolegomena to
Keckermann’s writings, edited a two-volume col-
logic (Praecognitorum logicorum tractatus III,
lection of Keckermann’s writings published in the
1599 ff. containing a history of logic and an out-
year 1613.
line of his full-length textbook on logic (Systema
A second two-volume collection of
logicae, tribus libris adornatum, 1600 ff). He also
Keckermann’s writings was published in 1614; a
published an abbreviated version of that full-
collection of his writings on mathematics was
length textbook (Systema logicae, compendiosae
published in 1617. Most of Keckermann’s writ-
methodo adornatum, 1601 ff. and a treatise on
ings were reprinted two or more times; the last
applied logic (Gymnasium logicum, 1605 ff).
known published imprint was his collected writ-
Rudolph Goclenius published a tabular summary
ings on mathematics in the year 1661.
(84 tables on 46 pages) of Keckermann’s full-
It was Keckermann’s writings on
length textbook on logic (Resolutio systematis
logic – followed by his writings on rhetoric – that
logici maioris in tabellas pleniores, quam quae
appear to have had the largest impact. A number of
antehac fuerunt). His writings on logic were able
commentaries on Keckermann’s logic and rhetoric
to be utilized for logic instruction at many aca-
were published during the three decades following
demic levels.
his death. Attacks directed specifically against
Unusual was Keckermann’s treatise on practi-
Keckermann were published – as monographs
cal philosophy, his Apparatus Practicus (1609).
and disputations – beginning in 1599 and continu-
While according to its title it discusses ethics,
ing for the following four decades; Keckermann’s
family life (oeconomica), and politics, it also
Keckermann, Bartholomaeus 3
writings on logic and his views on theology were Systema logicae, compendiosa methodo adornatum. 1601,
the principal foci of these attacks. 1602, 1603, 1606, 1608, 1621.
Systema logicae, tribus libris adornatum. 1600, 1602,
Keckermann used the term systema – in the 1603, 1606, 1607, 1610, 1611, 1613, 1615, 1616,
title of his full-length textbook on logic in the year 1620, 1628.
1600. This apparently was the first use of the term Systema physicum. 1610, 1612, 1617, 1623.
systema in the title of a published monograph. The Systema rhetoricae. 1608, 1612, 1618.
Systema SS Theologicae. 1602, 1603, 1605, 1607, 1610,
term systema was frequently used in the titles of 1611, 1615, 1644.
monograph-length publications during the seven- Systema systematum . . . 2 Vols. Hanau 1613.
teenth century. Systematis logici pleniors, pars altera, quae est specialis.
1609, 1612, 1625.
References Much of the secondary literature on Keckermann appearing
prior to 1997 is cited in Freedman, Joseph S. The Career
Primary Literature and Writings of Bartholomew Keckermann (d. 1609),
A substantial portion of Keckermann’s published and Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society,
unpublished writings are cited in Freedman, vol. 141, no. 3 (September 1997): 305–364. [Reprinted
“Keckermann” (1997), with library locations and call as article VIII in Freedman (1999)]
numbers of all editions and imprints that were utilized. Also refer to the following more recent literature.
Here the following writings are cited in abbreviated Conley, Thomas M. Rhetoric in the European Tradition.
form: Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press,
De natura et proprietatibus historiae commentarius. 1610, 1994.
1621. Danneberg, Lutz. Keckermann und die Hermeneutik : ein
Goclenius, Rudolph. Resolutio systematis logici maioris Kommentar zu den hermeneutischen Regeln in seinem
(Keckermanni) in tabellae pleniores, quam quae Werk ‘Systema Logicae’, Borner, Ralf
antehac fuerunt. 1610, 1612, 1614, 1617, 1620, 1621, Georg, ed. Realität als Herausforderung : Literatur in
1628, 1631. ihren konkreten historischen Kontexten. Festschrift f€ur
Gymnasium logicum . . . de usu et exercitatione logicae . . . Wilhelm K€ uhlmann zum 65. Geburtstag (Berlin 2011),
libri tres. 1605, 1606, 1608, 1621. pp. 161–179.
Introductio ad lectionem Ciceronis. 1610, 1615. Freedman, Joseph S. Philosophy and the Arts in Central
Operum omnium quae extant tomus primus (secundus). Europe, 1500–1700. Variorum Collected Studies
2 Vols. Genevae 1614. Series. CS626 (Aldershot et al.: Ashgate/Variorum,
Oratio de Aristotele et philosophia Peripatetica . . . in 1999), Articles I through VII.
concesso . . . Academiae . . . Heidelbergensis habita Freedman, Joseph S. Ramus and the Use of Ramus at
cum ex designatione . . . senatus philosophici 9 . . . Heidelberg within the Context of Schools and Univer-
adolescentibus primum philosophici honoris agradum sities in Central Europe, 1572–1622, Strohm,
ad 26. Octob. anni 1595 publica solennitate promotor Christoph, Freedman, Joseph S., and Selderhuis, Her-
conferret. Heidelbergae: Typis Smesmannis, 1596. man, eds. Späthumanismus und reformierte
[Budapest, Piarista Központi Library: B/1/9aa] Konfession. Theologie, Jurisprudenz und Philosophie
Praecognitorum logicorum tractatus tres. 1599, 1604, in Heidelberg an der Wende zum 17. Jh, Spätmittelalter
1606, 1613. und Reformation. 31 (T€ ubingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 2006),
Praecognitorum philosophicorum libri duo. 1607, 1608, pp. 93–126.
1612. Jenson, Derek, Bartholomew Keckermann, Hockey,
Rhetoricae ecclesiasticae . . . libri duo. 1600, 1604, 1606, Thomas, Trimble, Virginia, and Williams, Thomas R.,
1616, 1619. eds. Bibliographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers
Scientiae metaphysicae compendium systema. 1609, 1611, (New York: Springer, 2007), pp. 615–616.
1615, 1619. Lamanna, Marco. Theology in psychology : The impact of
Systema astronomiae compendiosum. 1611, 1613, 1617. theology in the early modern debate on rational psy-
Systema compendiosum totius mathematices. 1617, 1621, chology (1500 – 1660) / Marco Lamanna. In:
1661. Wolfenb€ utteler Renaissance Mitteilungen, 32 (2011):
Systema disciplinae politicae .. Synopsis disciplinae 163–183.
oeconomicae. 1607, 1608, 1698, 1610, 1613, 1616, Meerhof, Kees. Bartholomew Keckermann and the Anti-
1625. Ramist Tradition at Heidelberg, Strohm, Christoph,
Systema ethicae. 1607, 1610, 1613, 1619, 1625. Freedman, Joseph S., and Selderhuis, Herman, eds.
Systema geographicum. 1611, 1612, 1616. Späthumanismus und reformierte Konfession.
Systema logicae minus. 1606, 1612, 1618, 1641. Theologie, Jurisprudenz und Philosophie in Heidel-
berg an der Wende zum 17. Jh, Spätmittelalter und
4 Keckermann, Bartholomaeus
Reformation. 31 (T€ubingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 2006), pp. der Stadt Bretten, 12 (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt:
169–205. Frommann-Holzboog 2012), pp. 337–369.
Salatowsky, Sascha. De persona : philosophisch- K€
uhlmann, Wilhelm. Bartholomaeus Keckermann, Killy
theologische Debatten zwischen Keckermann und Literatur Lexicon, 2. Auflage.
Goslav. Frank, G€unter and Selderhuis, Herman J., eds. Band 6 (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009),
Philosophie der Reformierten, Melanchthon-Schriften pp. 335–337.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_273-1
Marulić, Marko
Born: 1450, Split, Croatia
Died: 1524, Split, Croatia
Erna Banić-Pajnić*
Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Marko Marulić was the most important Croatian writer in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, who
wrote in Latin, Croatian, and Italian. He was a poet, prose writer, and a translator, who left behind
some 50 works, most of which were published. Some of his writings are known only by their titles.
He is known as the “father of Croatian literature.”
Synonyms
Marko Marulić; also: Marko Marulić Splićanin; Marcus Marulus Spalatensis; Marko Pečenić;
Marcus Marulus Dalmata
Biography
Marko Marulić, born in Split in 1450, was a humanist, philosopher, poet, the founder of Croatian
literature, and the most prominent representative of Humanism. He was a descendant of the old
aristocratic family of Pečenić (Pecinić) from Split. He received his primary education in Split and
then went to Italy to study law. After he had finished his studies abroad, he returned to Croatia and
worked in his hometown Split. This humanistic Latinist and great erudite was actively engaged in
the public life of his town. He died in Split in 1524.
He is the author of the epic Davidias (1516–1517?; first edition 1954), the Biblical epic Judita in
Croatian (published in Venice in 1521), epics Suzana (Susannah), Molitva suprotiva Turkom
(Prayer Against the Turks), and others. He wrote in Latin, Italian, and Croatian. Many of his
works remained only in handwriting and many of them got lost. He is notable for his translation
of the work by Thomas à Kempis De Imitatione Christi (about 1500). He was also the first to
translate Dante and Petrarch into Croatian.

From a philosophical point of view, his most important works are Evangelistarium (first known
edition 1516), in which he discusses the fundamentals of Christian ethics; De institutione bene
*Email: bp.erna@xnet.hr
*Email: erna@ifzg.hr
Page 1 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_273-1
vivendi per exempla sanctorum (the first known edition 1506–1507 in Venice), in which he glorifies
Christian virtues; and the collection of parables Quinquaginta parabolae. His work De institutione
had several editions and was translated into several European languages during his lifetime. In these
works he discusses the fundamental moral issues with continual reference to real-life situations. This
reveals his sense for subtle psychological analyses. The principal preoccupation of M. was spiritual
revival. He belonged to a very important European movement the Devotio Moderna. He saw the
potential for spiritual revival primarily in the restoration of the basic Christian virtues. In promoting
the practice of these virtues in his work De institutione, he often favors the ascetic tradition. M. does
not deal with virtues in theory, but gives practical instructions for life, referring to the saints from the
Bible as role models. Due to his humanist education and knowledge of classical traditions, he often
contrasts classical and Christian moral principles, opting for the latter, deeply convinced that only
Christianity can provide a solid foundation for a moral life. He rejects any form of moral relativism
and puts religion above any philosophical debate on moral issues. Although the starting point in the
elaboration of moral questions is his Christian worldview, he advocates the genuine Christian
doctrine urging the restoration of Christianity. Comparing the differences in Greco-Roman and
Christian morality, he acknowledges some of the Stoic postulates, attempting to bring them into line
with the Christian ones.
His zeal in defending Christian moral principles was provoked by the political-historical circum-
stances of his time, with most of Bosnia and Croatia under Turkish rule. The political alternative for
the Croatian people of the time was either Islam or Christianity. M. advocated for “unio et pax
omnium Christianorum.” He appealed to the European nations to join their forces and support his
nation that formed the first line of defense in the battle against the Turks.

He represents the generation of Croatian writers who were forced into bilingualism. M. writes in the
universal language of the time, Latin, to address the European scientific community, while in his
poetic works on moral topics he addresses the wide audience of readers in his national language.
Although deeply immersed in Christian worldview thinking, M. can be considered a Renaissance
thinker, primarily because he promoted the idea of individualism.
Impact and Legacy

Marulić influenced many Croatian poets from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. His writings,
translated into many European languages, were very popular, especially in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. They were read by distinguished European intellectuals (St. Francis Xavier,
St. Francis de Sales, Thomas More, Francisco de Quevedo, Pierre Bayle, and others).
References
Badalić J, Majnarić N (1950) Zbornik u proslavu petstogodišnjice rođenja Marka Marulića
1450–1950. HAZU, Zagreb
Bratislav Lučin B (2008) The Marulić reader. Književni krug Split, Split
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M
Melanchthon, Philipp Biography
Born: 16 February 1497, Bretten Philipp Schwarzerdt was born on 16 February

1497 in the town of Bretten in the German region
Died: 19 April 1560, Wittenberg of Palatinate. After his father’s death, his mother
moved to Pforzheim with her children. There,
G€unter Frank Melanchthon attended Latin school learning
Europ€aische Melanchthon-Akademie Bretten, Greek from Georg Simler, who was the first pro-
Bretten, Germany fessor of Greek at the University of Leipzig from
1515 onward, and also from Johann Hiltebrant.
Reuchlin supported his young relative Melanch-
Abstract thon and awarded him with the humanist name
Melanchthon (melan-wyónoB) on 15 March 1509.
Melanchthon delivered commentaries on almost On 14 October 1509, he enrolled at the University
all contemporary philosophical disciplines with of Heidelberg, graduating 3 years later as bachelor
the exception of Aristotle’s metaphysics besides of the “artes liberales.” During his studies he read
his achievements in theology, church politics, and poems by Conrad Celtis, while the theologian and
school reforms. Although he was known as an rector Pallas Spangel introduced him to the think-
Aristotelian, he drew heavily on Plato, Neoplato- ing and the œuvre of Rudolf Agricola. In 1512,
nism, Cicero, and the humanists to advocate a after Spangel’s death, Melanchthon continued his
“Christian philosophy.” He was influential studies at the University of T€ubingen. On 25 Jan-
through his discussion of the academic disci- uary 1514, he graduated as “magister artium.” In
plines, scientific method, and epistemology. His T€ubingen, Melanchthon studied philosophy under
rediscovery as a philosopher began with Wilhelm Georg Simler and discovered his interest in
Dilthey and Hans-Georg Gadamer. Within the last Aristotle’s original writings. Johannes Stöffler
three decades, the interest increased in examina- introduced him to astronomy and to the study of
tions of Melanchthon’s writings in the history of the calendar. Together with Franciscus Stadian,
science. professor of philosophy, and with the participation
of Reuchlin, Willibald Pirckheimer, Georg
Simler, and others (MBW 17), Melanchthon
Alternate Name decided to provide a paraphrase of Aristotle’s
original text. The first academic accomplishments
▶ Schwarzerdt included the Terenz-edition, a Greek grammar
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_274-1
2 Melanchthon, Philipp
that appeared in May 1518 and received much Cambridge that he received some years later in
acclaim, as well as his speech De artibus 1553 however got refused. Having written curric-
liberalibus (CR 11, 5–14) that bears importance ula and schoolbooks, Melanchthon’s importance
for his early philosophical understanding. With for schools and universities cannot be
this he strived toward a reform of the traditional overestimated. So, he was also personally present
canon of subjects of the liberal arts, at the opening of the first Protestant grammar
complemented by literature and history. school in 1526 in Nuremberg, which was being
Relayed through Reuchlin, Melanchthon led by his close friend Joachim Camararius. But
received a call to the newly established Greek other cities, such as Magdeburg and Eisleben, also
chair at the University of Wittenberg, which he sought his advice. Melanchthon was of great
accepted by moving there on 25 August 1518. influence to the reform of Wittenberg University
With that, a diverse academic field opened up to that had suffered from the consequences of
him. At the same time, he came within the sphere Luther’s appearance. From 1522 onward, the
of influence of Martin Luther and his theological numbers of students and graduations had
reformation ideas. This showed not least in certain decreased drastically. As rector in the winter
philosophical critics, for which Melanchthon semester of 1523/1524, he reformed the study
received renown during his first years in Witten- guidelines, reduced the traditional disputations,
berg. However, this aspect should not be and established obligatory declamations. These
overestimated. With Melanchthon’s annotation exercises were not only meant to encourage for-
to the Epistle to the Colossians in 1527 (MSA mal logical thinking but, more in general, to
4, 209–303), the critical philosophical motives advance the ability to give a persuasive speech
came to an end causing a great sensation and led about a specific topic. On special occasions,
to several reprints and a German translation by Melanchthon himself used these declamations to
Johan Agricola. The commentary, in which an rise to speak. However, significantly more
elaborate excursion to Col 2, 8 (“See to it that no speeches are known from others (Koehn 1985).
one takes you captive through hollow and decep- In 1533 Melanchthon wrote statutes for the theo-
tive philosophy [. . .]”) can be found (MSA logical faculty and in 1545 for the theological and
4, 230–243), is a plea for philosophy as long as the philosophical faculty and for the entire univer-
it is separated from (revelation) theology. Espe- sity. Moreover, he participated personally in the
cially the declamation De Philosophia from 1536 reforms of the universities of T€ubingen and Hei-
was programmatic for Melanchthon’s own philo- delberg as well as in the Königsberg, Marburg,
sophical understanding. and Jena. Through his students his influence also
Within the years from 1521 to 1536, he worked showed at the universities of Rostock and
as a church reformer in the Electorate of Saxony. Greifswald.
Melanchthon – ultimately unsuccessfully – took Considering all these diverse religious, cleri-
over the role of the leading commissioner at the cal, scholarly, and university activities, the inten-
Diets and theological disputes in Speyer and Mar- sity of the amount of Melanchthon’s writings is
burg (1529), as well as in Augsburg (1530). More- remarkable. They most often emanated from his
over, he wrote important evangelical confessions lectures that were – partly by himself – reviewed,
like the first confessional document Confessio edited, and reedited. Although he held the chair
Augustana from 1530. In all the talks and negoti- for Greek in Wittenberg and in spite of his degree
ations, Melanchthon proved to be a much sought- “baccalaureus biblicus,” his writings also com-
after and nimble negotiating partner in the reli- prise topics from the higher faculties’ theology,
gious disputes of his time. In 1535 the French king medicine, and jurisprudence. They can be found at
Franz I invited him to mediate the French reli- many European universities and they have
gious disputes, although this was in vain. King had – despite all contemporary polemics – an
Henry VIII wanted to offer Melanchthon a chair in impact across all confessions. This also holds
England as well. The call to the University of true for Melanchthon’s theological writings. His
Melanchthon, Philipp 3
diverse annotations to biblical texts are worth philosophy (in the Aristotelian ethics and politics,
mentioning beside his manifold confessional doc- the goal eὐdaimonίa of the inner world) through
uments that gained confessional character in the dividing between law and Gospels. He did this to
Corpus Doctrinae from 1560 (MSA 6, 5–377) secure the autonomy of revelation theology and
followed by the so-called Book of Concord. soteriology. Aristotle’s ethics had been revised
Beside the commentary on the Epistle to the from 1529 onward, and edited to extended ver-
Colossians, especially the excursus to Col 2, 8, sions, until they eventually took shape in the big
his two commentaries on the Epistle to the tractates Philosophiae Moralis Epitome from
Romans from 1532 to 1540 are crucial for his 1538 and Ethicae Doctrinae Elementa from
philosophical perspective (Wengert 1997: 1550. First, Melanchthon’s interest in Aristotelian
106–148, especially 133–139). There, in line physics led to the short Commentarius de Anima
with the tradition of philosophical theology, a in 1540 that was completely revised and
discussion can be found about the classical topic published with complements in the De Anima
of natural notion and of a philosophical proof for from 1553. Moreover, in 1549 the textbook Initia
God’s existence (Rom 1, 19 f., CR 15, 564–568; Doctrinae Physicae about Aristotelian philoso-
831–833). This also holds true for his main theo- phy of nature was published together with his
logical writings in 1521 called Loci communes coauthor Paul Eber. His writings about Cicero’s
rerum theologicarum seu hypothyposes texts and other classical authors are numerous and
theologicae and since the second edition in 1535 he was devoted to these all of his life. From 1532,
Loci theologici (the third edition initially appeared when he began revising the chronicles of the
in 1543). The first main theological writing from astrologer Johann Carion, he first started giving
1521 was still biblical hermeneutics, i.e., an talks about world history before the Chronicon
instruction to the exegesis of the Holy Scriptures Carionis was published, one of the most impor-
oriented toward the reformatory theology from tant history books of his time, continued by his
Erasmus’ fundamental concepts. The later main son-in-law Caspar Peucer after his death. It has to
theological writings can rather be depicted as a be stressed that Luther never criticized his philo-
sum of theologies. There once again, apart from sophical efforts. From time to time, however, he
creation theology, it is the philosophical notion of accused Melanchthon of “his philosophy”
God and the arguments of a natural theology that (WA Br 5, 399, 16; 406, 56 ff.; 412, 51 ff.).
are important for his philosophical perspective With Luther’s death in 1546, Melanchthon
(CR 21, 351–370; 607–643). Moreover, the sys- became more and more mixed up in the internal
tematic versions of the theory of free will have to Protestant teaching disputes, which – beside his
be mentioned that Melanchthon had elaborated on university duties – characterized the last period of
an intense debate between Luther and Erasmus his life. Struck by the enormous controversies,
(CR 21, 274–282; 373–378; 652–665). Melanchthon awaited to be freed from “theolo-
With the exception of metaphysics in the sense gian contentiousness” (rabies theologorum) to be
of the Aristotelian onto-theology, Melanchthon able to see the divine secrets (CR 9, 1098).
wrote about all philosophical disciplines of his Melanchthon died on 19 April 1560 as a result
time. The Greek (1518 and 1520) and Latin of a feverish cold that he had caught on a journey
(1525) grammar have often been reprinted. His from Leipzig.
rhetorics, that still had its origin in T€
ubingen, was
revised in 1521 until its final version in 1531. It is
the corpus of Aristotelian writings that belonged Melanchthon’s Philosophical Concept
to the most important fields that Melanchthon
handed down through his own paraphrases and In a letter to Veit Dietrich in Nuremberg on
commentaries. It is crucial for this teaching tradi- 22 June 1537 (MBW.T 1914, 16–18), Melanch-
tion that Melanchthon took off the burden of the thon said about himself to be seen as Peripatetic
theological problem of a fusion of theology and (homo peripateticus). Undoubtedly, this has led to
the Aristotelian interpretation of his philosophy was the same in his inaugural speech at Witten-
that prevails in research. The didactic lessons in berg from 1518. Here, too, the subjects of the
his philosophical œuvre following the Platonic trivium and the quadrivium that Melanchthon
and Ciceronian tradition were considered too. It described as either disciplinae humanae or philos-
often happened that this type of philosophy was ophy, respectively, were complemented by Greek
characterized as eclectic (about this difficulty, and Latin literature (Poetry, MSA 3, 38), as well
cf. Frank 1995, 15–29). The question about how as historiography (MSA 3, 39). Although this
philosophy is to be understood according to philosophical concept was important in
Melanchthon can only be answered internally by Melanchthon’s first academic years, since the
asking how he himself understood it. In general, publications of the 1530s, it has become clear
three concepts of philosophy can be determined in that his concept of philosophy did not only com-
Melanchthon’s writings: (for the following see prise an extension of subjects of the artistic faculty
Frank 2012, 1–10) by adding poetry and history. His idea was to
reach the higher faculties with medicine and juris-
Philosophy in the Sense of Erasmus prudence as well. As long as philosophical theo-
as “Philosophia Christi” or as “Philosophia ries were discussed in theology, such as a
Christiana” philosophical concept of God, a philosophical
In Melanchthon’s Pauline texts of the early 1920s, proof of God’s existence, and the Aristotelian
we find the Erasmian idea of a “Christian philos- doctrine about the world’s eternity and about
ophy” (CR 11, 276–278; here: 276), also free will, such a concept of philosophy would
described as “Pauline” (CR 11, 34), “sacrosanct” also stretch out to theology.
(CR 11, 36), or “holy” (CR 1, 22). This notion of
the “philosophia christiana” was limited to the The Universal Scientific Concept
first few years of the second decade of the six- of Philosophy
teenth century. It was determined by Erasmus’ In the substantial philosophical writings of this
idea of a religious ethics life of all Christians as œuvre, philosophy can be understood as a univer-
well as by an aggravation of the theological doc- sal scientific concept. It goes beyond the canon of
trine of justification in the Pauline theology. subjects of the artes liberales and characterizes
Melanchthon’s rather productive œuvre since the
The Philosophical Concept in the Sense 1530s. He had programmatically formulated such
of Melanchthonian Humanism a universal scientific program in his speech De
Melanchthon presented his reform program of the Philosophia from 1536 and thus had laid its foun-
classical artes liberales in his speech De Artibus dation (CR 11, 278–284). Here, philosophy does
Liberalibus in T€ubingen from 1517 (MSA not only comprise knowledge of the grammar
3, 17–28) and also in his inaugural lecture De (i.e., the trivium of the artes liberales) but also
Corrigendis Adolescentiae in Wittenberg from that of the science (scientia) of philosophy and a
28 August 1518 (MSA 3, 29–42). There, he also lot of other arts. Philosophy of nature and moral
clearly formulated his idea of an extensive philo- philosophy are as important to this comprehensive
sophical canon. Apart from the subject of the science of philosophy as a scientific methodology
trivium (grammar, dialectics, rhetorics) and of (dialectics) and rhetorics (CR 11, 280) with a
the quadrivium (arithmetics, geometry, music, whole field of sciences being interconnected and
astronomy) relating to seven out of nine muses, referring to each other. Apart from the humanist
the canon is complemented by the literary figures subjects of the artes liberales, psychology, moral
Klio and Kalliope. Melanchthon, in line with the philosophy, and philosophy of law are also signif-
tradition from Hesiod onward but especially in icant. Aristotle’s metaphysics, however, is
line with the Italian humanists, identified these excluded from this universal scientific concept of
two with historiography and poetry (MSA philosophy. Even if a multitude of philosophical
3, 26). The canon of subjects of the artes liberales lessons (the concept of God, the immortality of
the soul, etc.) must be treated in theological dis- connection between the traditional philosophical
course, according to Melanchthon, he neverthe- term of the soul and the epistemological principles
less drew a clear line between philosophy and (notitiae naturales, cf. the chapter De potentia
theology as long as he motivates theology with rationali seu Mente, CR 13, 137–142).
biblical revelation, i.e., theology being either a Melanchthon’s theory of these epistemological
scriptural interpretation or essentially argumenta- principles given to the human mind through crea-
tively based on the Holy Scriptures. The strict tion has its terminological origin in Epicure’s
division of theology and philosophy is expressed experiential epistemology (prólZciB) and in
in the lexical differentiation of Gospel and law. Stoicism (koinaὶ ἐnnoίai). These epistemological
theories are connected with both the notion of a
preconception and the mutual terms implicating
Philosophy of Mind and Epistemology an experiential realism. Cicero and Boethius had
already interpreted them in an a priori
The Neoplatonic philosophy of the mind is the new-platonic way (Horsley 1978; Frank 2008).
center of the universal scientific understanding of They can also be found in Melanchthon’s review
philosophy developed in Melanchthon’s Liber de of certain passages in the text of the Ciceronian
Anima. Moreover, it is also fundamental to ethics topics with a commentary by Boethius (CR 16,
and politics (for more information, see Frank 820 f.). Melanchthon attributes a polyvalent func-
1995, 86–95). This becomes clear from tion to the theory of the notitae naturales that is
Melanchthon’s description of the soul. Contrary crucial for his philosophizing. First of all, this
to Aristotle’s ἐnteleweia, he depicts it in line with theory is about elements from the philosophy of
Cicero’s diction following Plato as ὲndeleweia the mind. The epistemological principles are the
(CR 13, 12–14, cf. Salatowsky 2006, 91–103). concrete place at which the human mind partici-
Firstly, this definition exposes the Aristotelian pates with the divine mind; they are “rays of
hylomorphism in which the soul is related to the divine wisdom” (CR 13, 138) in the human
physical body. Secondly, it lays the foundation for mind. Moreover, these epistemological principles
the independent and immortal soul (more about form the cognitive psychological noetic aspect of
the philosophical line of reasoning of the immor- epistemology. In the disputes about the origin of
tality of the soul can be found in Frank 1993 all understanding between Plato and Aristotle, to
[*195]). In the context of the theological doctrine which Melanchthon refers here (CR 13, 143 f.), he
of God’s own likeness, the relation between the chooses the Platonic epistemological apriorism.
divine mind and the human mind is interpreted as Since these principles are the a priori basis of all
Platonic exemplarism. That means that the human understanding, “all sciences originate in the
being participates with his mind and especially understanding of the soul” (CR 13, 167). Conse-
with the epistemological principles (notitiae quently, Melanchthon reflects the Aristotelian
naturales) that are inherent to it in the divine epistemological realism in his premise, “nothing
mind (CR 13, 5; 11, 941) and also in his reign is in the intellect that is not in the mind before.”
over the world (CR 11, 942). Melanchthon’s clas- The notitiae naturales exist independently from
sification of the properties of the soul only super- perception and are thus a prerequisite of all under-
ficially follows an Aristotelian-Thomasian standing (CR 13, 144). At the same time, they are
position. In addition to the three levels of the criteria of certainty of knowledge and thus form
soul, the vegetative, sensitive, and rational pow- the epistemological aspect of his theory of sci-
ers, the soul possesses five properties: potentia ence. This is not only about geometrical principles
vegetativa, sentiens, apetitiva, loco motiva, and like “The whole is greater than any of its parts,”
rationalis. It is the potentia rationalis, the soul’s but it is also about principles of formal rationality
highest property, that Melanchthon explicitly prerequisites like “Something is or is not.” As
identifies with the human mind (mens). What is such, the criteria of certainty do not only provide
specific about this idea of the mind is the the basis for anthropology (CR 13, 149–153),
philosophy of nature (CR 13, 185–190), and Melanchthon considers rhetorics as a method
moral philosophy (MSA 3, 158 f.). They are that ensures comprehension (of texts from classi-
equally important for theology that finds another cal authors, the Holy Scriptures) and moves rhe-
criterion of certainty in the divine revelation that a torics more into the direction of hermeneutics
human being had to acknowledge even if revela- (Knape 1999). Dialectics can then be integrated
tion differed from judgment by reason (CR 13, into rhetorics as a method for textbooks wherever
650). This is the fourth gnoseological aspect of specific factual questions in the former are raised
the theory of the notitiae naturales. These princi- and one cannot do without the latter. In addition to
ples will find proof only in relation to the theory of the classical genres of the genus demonstrativum,
the lumen naturale, the natural light of the human deliberativum, and iudicale, Melanchthon intro-
mind through knowledge. The epistemological duces in his rhetorical system the genus
principles are inherent and evident because of didaskalikón (didacticum) as the most important
this light and are in fact in accordance with the innovation. Its goal is the transfer of knowledge,
divine mind (CR 13, 648 f.). i.e., how knowledge that is inherent in a text can
reach the listener. J. Knape appropriately defined
this rhetorical concept as a text-theoretical double
Dialectics, Rhetorics, Epistemology, perspective combining traditional rhetorics
and Scientific Theory (aiming at production) with Melanchthon’s rhe-
torics (aiming at reception). This is according to
Dialectics as Fundamental Science the humanist goal according to which texts do not
and Rhetoric consist of dead language or mere theory but are
For Melanchthon, dialectics is connected with the rather understood as something that has to be
claim of a fundamental science. This is in line reanimated.
with Petrus Hispanus and against Rudolph
Agricola’s program. “Dialectic is the science of The Two Parts of the Dialectics: Iudicative
all sciences (ars artium, scientia scientiarum) Analysis and Topical Invention (Loci
[. . .], since here the path to the principles to all Communes)
methods can be found” (CR 13, 515). The funda- In the first version of the dialectics from 1520,
mental scientific claim has two perspectives: on Melanchthon still mainly follows the methodo-
the one hand, it refers to dealing with all topics logical concept of Agricola’s art of finding, the
and questions about which human beings must be inventio and the iudicium (CR 20, 749). In the
apprised of and on the other hand, dialectics offers main dialectical text from 1547, the methodolog-
a general method for the examination of all ical steps are reversed. Here, the iudicative analy-
objects (CR 13, 514 f.). As in other humanist sis is applied first before secondly, invention that
dialectics, here too, it is the dialogue can be ascribed to topics takes place. Iudicative
(colloquium), the argumentation where dialectics analysis serves the evaluation of terms in syllo-
takes place so that Melanchthon’s translation of gism or in other argumentative figures, while
dialegomai consequently is “unterredkunst” (the invention belongs to the finding of things and is
art of speaking) or “unterrichtkunst” (the art of thus subject to the doctrine of the loci (CR 13,
teaching). This pragmatic argumentative interpre- 641). The reversion of the methodological steps in
tation of dialectics makes clear that it naturally the dialectic procedures emphasizes its redefini-
forms the other part of rhetorics. While “Dialec- tion. According to Agricola, topical invention is
tics is concerned with all matter and depicts the no longer art of finding as such but as an evalua-
highest of all things without any embellishment,” tion and explication of all things, it is subordi-
“Rhetorics adorns substance with the jewellery of nated to iudicium, the first step in the justification
oration” (CR 13, 515). This classic positional of knowledge. Melanchthon’s dialectics as a gen-
description is just one superficial aspect between eral theory of science can be seen as topically
rhetorics and dialectics. At the same time, extended analytics, with as formal evidences as
the demonstrative, dialectic, and sophistic syllo- (more detailed in the Dialectics, CR 13, 647 f.).
gism, as well as the enthymeme as developed in However, Melanchthon does not account for the
Aristotle’s Prior Analytics. systematic difficulty arising through such a theory
While the first part of the dialectic forms the of principles of certainty of knowledge, i.e., of
analytical procedure with which an evaluation of how to mediate between the prerequisite of
terms and propositions in syllogisms and other knowledge that is related to experience and
argumentative forms is possible, the second part aprioristic as laid out in the epistemological prin-
of the loci doctrine offers an index of all things ciples of the notitiae naturales. Melanchthon’s
that can be discovered and selected. Here too, own solution, developed thoroughly in the doc-
Melanchthon’s statement (cf. CR 20, 698) holds trine of intellect of his psychology, however, is
that these loci are not found arbitrarily but made clear. In opposition to the position of the episte-
up of places closest to nature (“ex intimis naturae mological realism that he discusses with respect to
sedibus”). Melanchthon’s understanding of loci the Aristotelian dictum “Nothing is in the intellect
shows three different meanings (cf. Mertner that is not given in the sensory experience before,”
1956; Wiedenhofer 1976, Vol. 1, 373–376): Pri- he stresses that the epistemological principles as
marily, loci are seen as sedes argumentorum, i.e., aprioristic prerequisites of all understanding are
the place where arguments are found. Secondly, rather not to be found in sensory experience. Both
the notion loci is used as general understanding philosophy of the mind and an epistemological
for general thoughts. Thirdly, being especially theory corresponding to this theory make clear
interesting, they bear a content-related signifi- that all knowledge is conceptualization from the
cance since they refer to the relevant fundamental perspective of the human mind in consequence of
concepts of all sciences. Especially on this level of the a priori given epistemological principles
meaning, it becomes clear that loci are not merely (notitiae naturales).
arbitrary terms and citations as Melanchthon
stresses in this rhetorics from 1531 (CR 13, Geometrical Mathematical Ideal of Methods:
451–454). They are, in a modern way of speaking, Synthesis and Analysis
semantic substrates obtained from abstraction of a To Melanchthon the method is a habitus, i.e., the
text (such as the Bible or history). As an example science or the art of finding a way of presenting
for this extraction from a narrative text, Melanch- things in an ordered way. Its formal evidence is a
thon mentions Cicero’s Oratio pro Milone twofold syllogism: the understanding that is
(CR 13, 451). There, Cicero narrates that God drawn on the basis of known principles or general
has punished Clodius for his crimes against reli- experience in an ordered process of drawing con-
gion. From that it may be concluded that God clusions or, as Melanchthon briefly notes, the
exists and reigns over the world. “It is thus about method that develops from a reversed process,
a semantic-analytical procedure where proposi- i.e., it is reducible to the principles from the con-
tions are extracted from texts and consolidated sequences (CR 13, 652). Melanchthon himself
categorically” (translation of Knape 1999, 130). calls these two methodological procedures
As such, loci communes are prominent elements compositio or synthesis referring to geometry
(praecipua capita) of all sciences. and resolutio or analysis, respectively. His meth-
odological claim follows exactly that of the ideal
The Importance of the Criteria of Certainty geometrical methods: Firstly, that of synthesis, the
for the Philosophy of Science procedure that brings proofs from the principles to
The formal evidence of syllogism is found in the the conclusions. Secondly, he also uses the
criteria of certainty of all knowledge. Melanch- method of analysis as the deduction from the
thon regularly taught three criteria of understand- conclusions to the principles, where these princi-
ing certainty: general experience, the ples (of geometry, of philosophy of nature, and of
epistemological principles (notitiae naturales), moral philosophy) claim to be free of reason and
and the realization of a syllogism consistency evidence and to be independent from a specific
revelation (CR 13, 654). This explains why reformatory theology. By means of the inherent
Melanchthon chooses Aristotle from all the avail- dialectic between law and Gospel and under con-
able authorities. He empathically calls him the sideration of the theological concepts of finis
“one and only builder of method” (CR 11, 348 f.). hominis, virtus, and iustitia, he discusses funda-
Melanchthon’s ideal geometrical method must mental ethical and political questions. It is theol-
be seen in the historical context of Proclus’ edition ogy that shapes ethics and politics and especially
of the commentary on Euclid. In 1533, Luther’s dialectic of law and Gospel that
Melanchthon’s friend Simon Grynaeus published Melanchthon applied to all scientific disciplines.
it in Basel (CR 2, 815). Melanchthon was fulsome To Melanchthon, the structural principle, devel-
of his praise of his friend because of this œuvre oped out of this dialectic, which refers to whatever
and other editions. Such a methodology free of a human being ethically or politically wants to or
metaphysics, as applied in Euclid’s Elementa, can do is without any soteriological importance.
immediately suggested itself, especially since The central theological perspective of practical
Melanchthon’s writings reflect a rejection of philosophy also illustrates the determination of
Aristotle’s onto-theology. Here, Melanchthon the purpose of human life, i.e., the question of
realized that the origins of all sciences lie in the the Aristotelian eὐdaimonίa. In the chapter “Quis
ideal methodology of geometry (CR 11, 291). He est finis hominis?” of his Moral Philosophy from
explicated this realization in his Praefatio in 1538, Melanchthon differentiates between the
Geometriam from August 1536 (CR 3, fines principalis, the goal found in the knowledge
107–114). In line with this ideal, knowledge in of God and the obedience to Him, and the fines
sciences is motivated on the basis of primary and minus principales being the subordinated goals
evident sentences that are free of reasoning. The that can be achieved through acts of virtue
procedure of gaining evidence from geometry is (CR 16, 30 f.). In order to understand the fines
generally considered a model for a scientific pro- minus principales with respect to the human acts
cedure of taking evidence (CR 3, 108). In the of virtue, it is important to know that
sixteenth century, it was right this reception of Melanchthon – in a supposed Aristotelian
these classical mathematical methodological manner – relates them to the law of nature
models that had had a deep impact on the discus- (cf. chapter “Quae est ratio sententiae
sions about the methods until the Enlightenment Aristotelicae?” CR 16, 31). Similarities to the
as Engfer’s study from 1982 (esp. 72–88) shows. law of nature can indeed be found here (NE V
10, 1134 b 18–21). Central in his ethos, however,
is the way of habituation (NE II 1103 a 17).
Practical Philosophy and Law of Nature Although – as Melanchthon admits – ethical rea-
soning in Aristotle is obtained from the principles
Despite all critical remarks that Luther expressed of the philosophy of nature, the argumentation has
about the Aristotelian ethics, it was Melanchthon to follow these true and solid principles of the
who effectively established his ethics and politics philosophy of nature that are constituted in the
in Protestantism with the central concepts of refor- divine mandate: the law of God. This is nothing
matory theology. In line with his topic procedures, else than laws of nature (leges naturae) than
that are characteristic for scientific disciplines, divine laws (leges divinae), and thus the practical
Melanchthon’s writings about the Aristotelian principles established by God’s order in nature
ethics and politics are paraphrases of selected (CR 16, 31). Therefore, natural law theory has a
lessons. He illustrates these with the classical sci- prominent role in the establishment of practical
entific consensus and explicates them in the con- philosophy. Melanchthon’s attempt is thus one out
text of contemporary practical questions. This is of several in the sixteenth century trying to newly
reflected in the fact that he never revisited all texts establish a law of nature. As Scattola’s study on
about ethics and theology. His paraphrases are Melanchthon has shown, what all these efforts
determined by topoi or central concepts of have in common is that they explicate the “law
of nature as doctrine of natural law and its inte- equates with the divine law (ius divinum). It is
gration in a general understanding of a cosmic remarkable that Melanchthon reveals the tradi-
order.” Moreover, the law of nature is understood tional determination of the human aim as
as an objective norm and “valid for all human eὐdaimonίa in general and that of politics as
beings to which it is innate, obtaining its validity utilitas. “Since the state is,” as Melanchthon
from God’s will” (translation from Scattola 1999, defines it, “a lawfully built community of citizens
37). The law of nature is justified – and thus the with the goal of having mutual benefits, most
concept of a law of nature cannot be essentially with the aim to defend” (CR 16, 435).
secularized – by the lex dei and the lex divina or With this he unambiguously avoids the theologi-
as their manifestations the leges divinae, respec- cal problem of how to bring in harmony the
tively, as passed on in the books of Moses and in eὐdaimonίa as the state’s aim, as understood by
the Gospel. Melanchthon calls these leges divinae Aristotle, with the goal of revelation theory that
leges mosaicae and divides them into three the human being cannot achieve himself but that it
groups: the leges morales, unfolding most clearly is given to him through belief.
in the decalogue; the leges iudicales or forenses,
referring to positive laws such as marriage, claims
of ownership, and punishment; and the leges Philosophy of Nature, Theology
ceremoniales, meaning cultural and ritual rules of Nature, and Natural Theology
(Melanchthon’s natural law theory is elaborated
in the two loci theologici from 1535 [CR 21, Melanchthon’s Initia Doctrinae Physicae from
388–406] and from 1543 [CR 21, 685–719]). 1549 are paraphrases about the natural philosophy
Melanchthon’s schoolbook on books I–III of Aris- that are explicated by means of the central con-
totelian politics shows the same topic procedure cepts (loci) loaned from the topics. Moreover,
that also characterized his writings on ethics. It central concepts from anthropology (the doctrine
deals with paraphrases of particular lessons that he of intellect) and ethics (de fine hominis) also have
discusses under the guideline of theology and to be included in the loci (CR 13, 195–197).
with respect to contemporary political events. However, the philosophy of nature is separated
Here it is Wycliff’s rise, the Anabaptists, and from revelation theology along the lines of the
several theologians from Switzerland and Stras- law-Gospel dialectic. Although natural philoso-
bourg that are worth mentioning. Melanchthon phy opens with the lesson of a philosophical
accuses them of not differentiating clearly knowledge of God and philosophical proofs of
between state and Gospel (CR 16, 419). Funda- the existence of God, Melanchthon stresses that
mental to his understanding of the state is its basis natural philosophical knowledge of God means
in the law of nature. Thus, as Melanchthon knowledge of the law and not of the Gospels
stresses, “the Politica deals with the civil society (esse Legis notitiam, non Evangelii), and that
and the duties stretched out over society whereby these – being the dialectic’s scope – are without
the reasons for society are derived from nature” any importance for soteriology (CR 13, 198).
(CR 16, 421 f.). Like all scientific disciplines, Melanchthon himself claims his natural philoso-
politics, too, originates in the primary, most gen- phy to be Aristotelian (CR 13, 183 f.), an evalua-
eral principles inherent in nature. Primary political tion that has only a limited scope of application. It
principles are the following: the human being is is tightly connected with what recent research has
naturally made to live in a community, with the shown (Kusukawa 1995; Frank 1998; Bellucci
first community as the lawful association between 1998; Groh 2003): natural philosophy has to be
man and woman (CR 16, 423). From these prin- looked at in the light of the transformation process
ciples others could be obtained. Melanchthon – in from late scholasticism toward early modern nat-
line with the justification of the state according to ural philosophy. Melanchthon specifically
the law of nature – identifies these general princi- reformulates the central philosophical categories
ples of politics with the law of nature that he of the Aristotelian philosophy of nature against
the background of classical and medieval discus- Melanchthon differentiates between law and Gos-
sions. According to Aristotle the notion of motion pel and thus clearly delineates the philosophy of
comprises a distinction between accidental nature from revelation theology and soteriology, a
motion and substantial motion where the latter certain tension is built up between creation theol-
does originate in itself while the former does not. ogy and the theology of salvation since, according
Melanchthon reduces the notion to accidental to Melanchthon, outside of revelation, nature too
motion that he identifies with “endelechy,” the is a book or mirror in which God manifests Him-
Aristotelian term modified by Cicero, and that he self (CR 13, 198).
understands as the principle of motion as such (for That Melanchthon’s philosophy of nature is
Melanchthon’s discussion about the notion of ultimately a theology of nature, prefiguring the
motion, see CR 13, 354–361). This reformulation early modern tradition of the theologia naturalis
of the motion term aims at visualizing the world as also becomes clear since the independent treatise
a continuous causal nexus that can be seen as de deo precedes it. There, the specific implications
qualities in the motion itself. Besides, the tran- of the philosophy of the mind in his own philos-
scendental principle of motion does not follow the ophy also gain importance for a theory of God
Aristotelian interpretation of the “prime mover” within the philosophy of nature. There, too, it is
but the platonic meaning as being created by an the Platonic concept of God that Melanchthon
architectural mind (mens architectatrix, CR borrowed from Plato’s Timaios and that he explic-
13, 373). The different versions of the proof of itly prefers over the Aristotelian foundation of
God’s existence of the “causa prima efficiens” philosophy of nature (CR 13, 195): “God is an
show that the causal concept is also formulated eternal mind, the cause of all good things in
theologically and identified with the concept of nature,” (CR 13, 199). As with the Pythagorean
God as such. Finally, his discussion of the final Timaios who described the world’s composition
causation as the immanent teleology of nature in terms of mathematical numbers, in line with
shows that he eliminates this causation as an onto- Plato, Melanchthon talks about God as a geome-
logical fundamental category (CR 13, 307 f.) trician who exhibits the divine architect’s wisdom
relocating it in the transcendent, goal-setting (CR 12, 246 f.). These numeral metaphysical con-
mind. The organizing mind thinks the “fines,” siderations, which in the following are also
toward with things strive naturally then (CR 13, reflected in the respective proof of God, unmis-
346 f.). That means that only a God-given incli- takably correspond to the importance of the geo-
nation (inclinatio) into the body remains from the metric mathematical method as a model for a
entelechian structure of nature (CR 13, 349). general methodology as postulated for all sciences
Therefore, the teleology of nature eventually by Melanchthon.
does not eventuate in its entelechian structure The philosophical concept of God, however,
but in a transcendental, goal-setting mind or in does not result from the knowledge of being based
short: the teleology of nature becomes the theol- on ontology, but it is an epistemological principle
ogy of nature. All in all, Melanchthon’s view of (notitia) inherent to the human being. It is not just
nature boils down to a metaphysical optimistic proof of God’s existence as the world’s designer
view of the world, exhibiting three aspects: but also the attributes of his being: wisdom,
(1) the idea of a continuous causal nexus of nature, benevolence, justice, and others (more detailed
with the human mind as its counterpart that can in CR 13, 198). Melanchthon teaches nine proofs
make true statements about nature, (2) the idea of of God’s existence that can be divided only super-
a world machine (machina mundi, universa ficially into cosmology and anthropology (CR 13,
machina, CR 13, 206; 294) as the achievement 200–202; commentary to the Epistle to the
of ordering and intelligent reason, and (3) the idea Romans from 1540: CR 15, 564–568, cf. Frank
that results in a theological anthropocentrism 1995, 227–333). Eventually, all proofs of God’s
insofar as the whole nature is made for the existence result from the intellect’s activity on the
human benefit (CR 13, 204 f.; 213 f.). Although basis of inherent epistemological principles
(notitiae naturales, prólZciB): causality, In the nineteenth century, Melanchthon almost

motion, and finality; the “ordo naturae” and the entirely became the subject of the history of
numbers, providence, astronomy, and astrology; dogma and of ecclesiastical history. Even if he
the human mind; the ability to distinguish was discussed in relation to the criticism on scho-
between good and bad; and conscience. lastic philosophy that he himself supported, this
criticism – according to Hegel – refers “more to
the literary, to the history of education, of religion
Influence on Modern Thought than to the history of philosophy” (translation of
Schneider 2003 [MSB Vol. 7, 112, An Melanch-
When regarding the size and the distribution of thon 2]). To Schelling, too, according to whom
Melanchthon’s philosophical œuvre of the six- “Reformation which left open the discussion
teenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe, the about the speculative dogmas as passed on by
fact that his philosophy has mostly been church [. . .]” that has shifted “preferably to the
disregarded in the philosophical historiography side of the inner process” (translation of
calls for an explanation. The reason for the neglect Schelling’s System der Weltzeitalter XIV, 333;
that basically still holds true until today lies in the cf. MSB Vol. 7, 133–145), Melanchthon’s philo-
duographical perspective “Luther and Melanch- sophical sources of knowledge at most are evi-
thon.” Although already present in Melanchthon’s dence for a “natural, also just as little free
theology, it was especially fatal for his philoso- knowledge” (translation of Philosophie der
phy. This perspective was formulated as early as Mythologie 260–262). With Dilthey’s attempts to
the eighteenth century when Melanchthon found a methodological basis of humanities,
received renown as Protestant Aristotelian in the Melanchthon received attention again for the
big philosophically historiographical œuvres. In development of a natural system of humanities
1743 the law professor Johann Gottlieb in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (1892/
Heineccius from Halle claimed with regard to 1893).
Melanchthon’s philosophical ambitions: Although in the twentieth century some mono-
“Lutherus surely did notice this and used to say: graphic studies about Melanchthon’s philosophi-
I push scholastic philosophy out of the front door cal understanding exist (Petersen 1921; Wundt
and Philippum lets it in through the back door 1939; Ratschow 1964–1966), they did not have
again” (the difficulty is elaborated in Schneider a great impact on research of the history of phi-
2003 [MSB, Vol. 7, 11–131; here: 112]). It is losophy. Even the intensified research from the
unclear when this perspective in its consequence second half of the twentieth century about the
came up for Melanchthon’s philosophy. philosophy of humanism and renaissance – as
According to Sparn (1976, 206) it is a product of for example in the Institut f€ur Geistesgeschichte
the “pietistic conception of history.” However, it und Philosophie in Munich – Melanchthon’s phi-
is already historically present in the well-known losophy is treated more as a side issue. It was not
Hoffmann’s dispute from 1593 to 1600 at Helm- until the last three decades that his philosophy
stedt University (Frank 2003, 79 f.). Daniel Hoff- again received more attention in research.
mann and his scholar Caspar Pfafrad, drawing on
Luther’s doctrine of the double truth and with
respect to Melanchthon’s philosophical theology, Natural Theology
let themselves get carried away in this contro-
versy. It culminated in Hoffmann’s work Pro Research in Melanchthon’s importance for the
Duplici Veritate Lutheri in which they claimed formation of natural theology in the early modern
that “philosophers” were the “fathers of all here- age resulted from a controversial theological dif-
sies.” It is at least there where Melanchthon’s ficulty of the twentieth century. It was Karl Barth,
philosophy starts being discussed in relation to an influential theologian, who made the claim “of
the “legitimate matter” of reformation. the church-dividing character of natural theology”
(Kraus 1987, here: 19). According to him, natural could become the basis of a natural concept of
theology was church specific and thus religion in Anglican deism.
non-Protestant as the dogmatization of a natural,
i.e., philosophical knowledge of God at Vatican
I in 1870 showed (DS 3004). Contrary to Barth’s Innatism
prominent thesis, K. Feiereis’ studies pointed the
way by revealing that until the Enlightenment the In this context the epistemological status of the
early modern tradition of natural theology, epistemological principles, as Melanchthon
neology, and theology of physics referred to the adopted it in the Platonizing, a priori manner of
late medieval predecessors Raimund of Sabunde Cicero and Boethius (notitiae naturales, koinaὶ
(Theologia naturalis sive liber creaturarum, ἐnnoίai, prólZciB), plays an important role for
1496) and the Jesuit Benedictus Pererius the foundation of philosophy. In Melanchthon
(Physicorum sive de principiis rerum naturalium, these general epistemological principles are seen
1562), being an influential tradition in the late as natural, inherent to the human mind, and an a
reformatory Protestant and reformed theology. priori condition of all knowledge. In research such
Only through I. Kant’s critic this tradition was a position is denoted unflatteringly as “innatism.”
overcome before being transformed eventually The theory of the “notitiae naturales” figured
into philosophy of religion. It was Melanchthon prominently in the second half of the seventeenth
then who was fundamental to the natural theolog- century in the discussions about the metaphysics
ical tradition in Protestantism (Frank 1995). With of ideas (Nicolas Malebranche: Recherche de la
his distinction between law and Gospel, he pro- vérité, Paris 1674–75; Antoine Arnauld: Des
vided the opportunity of a, though beneath the vrayes et des fausses idées, Cologne 1683).
level of revealed theology, theologically insuffi- Under the term of the “common notions,” they
cient but philosophically legitimate theologia also played a role in Herbert Cherbury’s philoso-
naturalis. With the late differentiation of the phy of religion as well as in the philosophical
notitia dei naturalis as innata or aquisita, respec- foundation of the so-called Cambridge Platonists
tively, as prevalent in Protestant orthodoxy, his (Frank 2003, 221–260). They were also used in
theory made it possible to integrate the natural Descartes as such axioms or eternal truths being
knowledge of God as a philosophical element immediately certain from the intuition of the
both into Lutheran and into reformed dogmatics “lumen natural” (Principia philosophica I, 49 f.).
(Ratschow 1964–1966). Melanchthon still strictly In the meantime attempts were found to transform
separated the theory of the theologia naturalis the natural and thus naive uncritical innatism into
from the theology of revelation. However, this a dispositional one. In the metaphysics of ideas,
theory paved the way for deism and the the English Platonist Ralph Cudworth did pre-
eighteenth-century idea of a religion of reason. It cisely this in his main writing The True Intellec-
ultimately resulted from a systematic difficulty tual System of the Universe (London 1678) where
that Melanchthon himself did not solve. Since he tried to explicate ideas as human consciousness
philosophy cannot function as a rational under- on the basis of a priori given abilities against the
standing of religious truths (such as Trinity or background of his Platonism (Frank 2003, esp.
soteriology) – being the essence of the criticism 281–292). John Locke’s main epistemological
on medieval metaphysics as well as the result of text Essay Concerning Human Understanding
the Protestant scriptural principle – philosophy (London 1689) meant a radical criticism for this
and theology complement each other (more tradition. In his criticism on innatism, he devel-
detailed in Frank 2003, 79–87). Its concrete phil- oped an empiristic doctrine of forms so that all a
osophical explication was due to the emphasis that priori epistemological theories became obsolete.
the theology of revelation was given in each case. In response to Locke’s empiristic doctrine of
Therefore, Melanchthon’s philosophical theology, forms, Leibniz’s continuous commentaries,
to the exclusion of the theology of revelation, published in 1765 as Nouveaux essais sur
l’entendement humain, tried to renew the meta- theology is depicted in tables of “definitions”
physics of ideas with his theory claiming that and “distributions” according to the loci method.
ideas were structural factors of consciousness For some time now, the scientific historical
itself. Due to the so-called critical turn in Kant’s status of this understanding of science, oriented
philosophy in 1769, philosophical interest had at the rhetorical topics, has been brought up in
changed fundamentally in this later publication. early modern research. The comprehensive study
Europ€ aische Literatur und lateinisches
Mittelalter by E. R. Curtius from 1948 tended
Rhetorical Topics/Loci Communes toward the claim of understanding occidental cul-
and the History of Science ture as a process in which topics itself is part of the
history of science. That means that the rhetoric
A specific program of the understanding of sci- topical knowledge management is to be under-
ence is connected with Melanchthon’s “loci” the- stood as the central criterion of scientificity. The
ory. Especially the third meaning of the “loci alteration of knowledge from the Middle Ages to
communes,” that exceeds the interpretation as the early modern age can be described with the aid
“sedes argumentorum” as already present in of this (Frank et al. 2007). Against the background
Agricola, means a radical change of the notion of an Aristotelian conception of science that is not
of “loci.” According to this, “loci communes” do about the collection of “topoi” of knowledge but
not denote the notion found through invention but more about a general analytical conceptualization,
are content-related and subject-related guiding this process of making science rhetorical is not
concepts of every science (“in omni doctrinae undisputed. This is shown in the thesis of the
genere praecipua capita”), this being the reason humanists’ “loci communes” tractates: the possi-
why the iudicium is to be preferred over the bilities of statements in the single disciplines
inventio. Interestingly, they are treated in the rhe- depend on specific “topoi” and they firstly consti-
torics and not in the dialectics (CR 13, 451–454, tute them as such. Besides this topical tradition of
cf. also the separate writing De locis communibus, understanding science, Aristotelianism remained
CR 20, 695–698). Moreover, since they are sub- the predominant scientific concept at the Euro-
ject-related conditions they are also discipline pean universities of the early modern age.
related. Thus, as Melanchthon stresses, different
guiding concepts and fundamental concepts hold
true for theology compared to philosophy (CR 13, Hermeneutics
453 f.). Therefore, the “loci communes” lose their
formal traces of their roots in the topics (more Recent research is increasingly interested in
detailed in Schmidt-Biggemann 1983, 19 f.). Melanchthon’s importance for the development
However, since in rhetorics they are treated as of (early modern) hermeneutics. W. Dilthey
epistemological, subject-related formal central (1900) and H. G. Gadamer (1976, esp. 148 f.)
concepts constituting single sciences, they receive considered sixteenth-century Protestant theology
a primary, categorical status again. In the early to be the origin of hermeneutics as the art or
modern age, such a model of equal sciences, science of text interpretation. Subsequent to
based on subject-related central concepts Dilthey the hermeneutic problem is interpreted
according to each discipline, had had great as a consequence of a realignment of theological
impact. Before Melanchthon’s death, Johannes dogma originating in the so-called Protestant
Nysaeus (†1599), a scholar from the German scriptural principle or the “sola scriptura” princi-
region of Baden, published his Tabulae Locorum ple. It resulted from Luther’s insight that the Holy
Communium Theologicorum Philippi Scriptures was “her own interpreter” (sui ipsius
Melanchthonis in 1560 that Melanchthon himself interpres). In his essay Rhethorik und
had authorized through having written the text’s Hermeneutik, Gadamer, in connection with this
prologue. In this work, Melanchthon’s whole not undisputed assumption that the early history
of hermeneutics eventually resulted from the theo- loci communes from 1521. In a letter to his friend
logical controversies about the scriptural principle Johannes Heß (MBW.T 84, 70–74) on 27 April
in the sixteenth century, had renewed Dilthey’s 1520, Melanchthon admits to having borrowed
approach. He interpreted the “history of herme- from the rhetorics while working on this system-
neutic theory [. . .] as resistance of the anti- atic theology. For the early history of hermeneu-
reformationist, Tridentine attack on Lutheranism” tics, this note and the fact that the so-called
(translation of Gadamer 1976, 149). Although T€ubinger rhetorics was not printed until January
recent research on hermeneutics extensively 1519 implies that it had basically been completed
made corrections and more precise statements of before Melanchthon moved to Wittenberg in
the paradigm, it becomes obvious that August 1518 and before he came into contact
Melanchthon’s theory of rhetorics has a special with Luther’s theological ideas. This means that
status. As pointed out by Gadamer, this concerns the early history of hermeneutics is not just due to
especially the most important realignment of his the impulse of the Protestant scriptural principle
rhetoric theory: the introduction of the “genus but to the new concept of Melanchthon’s rhe-
didaskalicon” as a lecture (newer studies can be torics, which was unmistakably suitable to expli-
found in Knape 1999). cate the scriptural principle scientifically.
In his so-called chapter on hermeneutics in the Melanchthon’s theory of rhetorics was highly
T€ubinger Rhetorik from 1519, Melanchthon popular, both among his students and especially
already developed an extensive theory of the also beyond the boundaries of the developing
understanding of texts in the chapter On confessions.
Interpreting Genus (De Enerratorio Genere). As
its dual procedure, he had proposed the explica-
tion of the text’s content as well as that of the
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Rationalit€at. Philipp Melanchthons (1497–1560) Philosophie im protestantischen Deutschland. Leipzig:
Konzept der Geistphilosophie. In Stoicism in European F. Meiner. Reprint: Stuttgart 1964. Leipzig. F. Meine.
Philosophy, Literature, Art, and Politics. Stoizismus in Ratschow, Karl-Heinz. 1964/1966. Lutherische Dogmatik
der europ€aischen Philosophie, Literatur, Kunst und zwischen Reformation und Aufkl€ arung, I-II. G€
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des 13. bis 17. Jahrhunderts. Göttingen. Vandenhoeck- Wissenschaft. Hamburg. F. Meiner.
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Gadamer, Hans-Georg. 1976/1977. Rhetorik und ontologische Frage in der lutherischen Theologie des
Hermeneutik. In Kleine Schriften IV, ed. H.-G. G., fr€
uhen 17. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart.
148–163. T€ubingen. Mohr-Siebeck. Wengert, Timothy. 1997. The bilblical commentaries of
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Deutungen der Natur und des Menschen von der Gen- commentary. Sheffield Acad. Pr., 106–148.
esis bis zur Reformation, 599–639. Frankfurt a.M. Wiedenhofer, Siegfried. 1976. Formalstrukturen
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neueren Hermeneutik und theologischen Topik. In Jahrhunderts. T€ ubingen: J.C.B. Mohr.
R
Rheticus, Georg Joachim Opus Palatinum de Triangulis (1596) fathered

generations of trig tables not superseded until
Born: 16 February 1514 the twentieth century.
Died: 4 December 1574 Rheticus’s impact was principally in astron-
omy and in closely related areas of mathematics.
Dennis Danielson His theologically grounded belief in “God’s
Department of English, University of British geometry in heaven and on earth” supported his
Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada realism about the philosophical truth status of
Copernicanism and a rejection of the instrumen-
talism according to which astronomy’s claims
Abstract (in Andreas Osiander’s words) “need not be true
nor even probable.”
Rheticus (b. Feldkirch, 1514) in his early twenties
became a professor at the University of Witten-
berg, where Philipp Melanchthon declared
he “was born to the study of mathematics.” In Rheticus was the son of Georg Iserin, the town
1539, having heard rumors of a new sun-centered doctor of Feldkirch. He enjoyed a humanistic
cosmology, he sought out the elderly, little- grammar-school education in Feldkirch and in
known astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in Z€urich, then a center of Swiss Protestantism. In
Frauenburg (Frombork), remaining there for two 1532 he enrolled at Martin Luther’s University of
and a half years. In 1540 Rheticus published his Wittenberg, becoming a protégé of the Reformer
own first account (Narratio prima) of Philipp Melanchthon (who wrote that Rheticus
Copernicus’s cosmology, according to which “was born to the study of mathematics”; Danielson
earth is a planet rotating on its axis and revolving 24, 233). He became a professor there in 1536, and
annually about a central sun. He later delivered in May 1539, having heard rumors of a new
Copernicus’s manuscript of De revolutionibus to sun-centered cosmological theory, he journeyed
Nuremberg, where it was published in 1543. to Frauenburg (Frombork), where the elderly ama-
After the death of Copernicus, Rheticus served teur astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus served as
as the “apostle” of heliocentrism, developing canon, administrator, and doctor. Rheticus stayed
mathematical tools to aid its hoped-for confirma- with Copernicus for two and a half years, encour-
tion. His 1551 Canon doctrinae triangulorum aging the completion of the astronomer’s great
contained the first tables of all six trigonometric heliocentric treatise, De revolutionibus. In 1540
functions, and his much larger (posthumous) he published his own first account (Narratio
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_275-1
2 Rheticus, Georg Joachim
prima) of Copernicus’s cosmology, according to to produce real knowledge about both geophysics
which earth is a planet rotating on its axis and and astrophysics. His theologically grounded
revolving annually about a central sun. And in belief in “God’s geometry in heaven and on
the autumn of 1541, he left Frauenburg with the earth” (Burmeister 3:139) in turn produced a
finished manuscript of Copernicus’s work, carry- realism about the philosophical truth status of
ing it first to Wittenberg and then to Nuremberg, astronomical claims and a rejection of the instru-
where it was published in 1543. mentalism according to which astronomy’s task
In the decades following the death of Coper- was merely to “save the appearances.” This
nicus that same year, Rheticus served as principal instrumentalist position was asserted by Andreas
“apostle” and defender of his master’s cosmol- Osiander’s notorious unsigned preface to De
ogy. Although his own career was impeded by revolutionibus alleging that astronomers offer
restlessness, distraction, and ill fortune (he spent merely a hypothetical “basis of computation”
time in Wittenberg, Milan, Switzerland, Leipzig, that “need not be true nor even probable.” In
Prague, Krakow, and Košice), Rheticus strove to printed copies of De revolutionibus that came
refine – and provide computational tools for – the into the hands of Rheticus, he angrily defaced
astronomically essential “science of triangles” Osiander’s unauthorized preface (Danielson
later known as trigonometry. In 1551 he pro- 109–112).
duced and published Canon doctrinae Methodologically, Rheticus is notable for his
triangulorum, containing the first ever tables of commitment to both observation and mathemat-
all six trigonometric functions – to which was ical analysis combined with a rejection of dog-
appended a dialogue announcing that Rheticus matism. According to him, scientific obscurity
was delivering “fruit from the most delightful should be tackled “by means of inquiry, not asser-
gardens of Copernicus” (Danielson 143). Later, tion” (non affirmando, sed quaerendo). Although
during twelve of his years spent in Krakow, and he could not prove Copernican heliocentrism, his
while working as a physician so that he could pay conviction concerning its philosophical
the bills, he employed five computers – human verifiability – in addition to his heroic achieve-
assistants performing computations – to calculate ments in discovering, publicizing, and supporting
ever more accurate results for his trig tables. In Copernicanism – formed a significant component
1574, an eager student from Wittenberg, Valentin of the cosmological revolution whose later and
Otho, discovered the 1551 Canon and traveled to more famous champions were Kepler, Galileo,
Košice to learn more from Rheticus. Although and Newton.
Rheticus died in his arms late that year, Otho
pressed on with the trigonometry project and in
1596 published his and Rheticus’s work – almost References
1500 folio pages, mainly in tabular form, roughly
a hundred thousand ratios calculated to at least Primary Literature
ten decimal places – as Opus Palatinum de Burmeister, Karl Heinz. 1967–1968. Georg Joachim
Rhetikus, 1514–1574: eine Bio-Bibliographie, 3 vols.
Triangulis. Despite its manifold errors, this work
Wiesbaden: Guido Pressler. Vol. 3 includes numerous
formed the foundation for Bartholomew Pitiscus’s original letters, dedications, and prefaces by Rheticus,
Mathematical Treasury: or Canon of Sines including German translations from the Latin.
(Frankfurt, 1613), and thus fathered generations Copernicus, N. 2002. Nicolaus Copernicus
Gesamtausgabe, ed. H.M. Nobis et al. VIII/1: Receptio
of tables only superseded in the twentieth century.
Copernicana. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
Rheticus’s impact was thus principally in Rheticus, G.J. 1984. De motu terrae (posthumous). Utrecht,
astronomy (as impresario of the cosmology of 1651. Rpt. in Reijer Hooykaas, G.J. Rheticus’ Treatise
Copernicus) and in the closely related field of on Holy Scripture and the Motion of the Earth. Amster-
dam: North-Holland Publishing.
mathematics. His work was undergirded by the
Rheticus, G.J. 1971. Narratio prima (First Account).
conviction that mathematics – particularly geom- Gdańsk, 1640; Basel, 1641. In Three Copernican
etry and its offspring trigonometry – could serve Treatises. Trans. Edward Rosen, 3rd ed. New York:
Rheticus, Georg Joachim 3
Octagon Books. The Narratio further appeared as an Danielson, Dennis. 2006. The first Copernican: Georg
appendix to Copernicus’s De revolutionibus, 2nd edn Joachim Rheticus and the rise of the Copernican Rev-
(Basel, 1566) as well as to Johann Kepler’s Mysterium olution. New York: Walker.
Cosmographicum (T€ ubingen, 1596). It was thus possi- Schöbi, Philipp, and Hermut Sonderegger (eds.). 2014.
bly the most widely read Copernican work of the Georg Joachim Rheticus 1514–1574, Wegbereiter der
sixteenth century. Neuzeit: Eine W€ urdigung. Hohenems/Vienna/Vaduz:
Rheticus, G.J., and Valentin Otho. 1596. Opus Palatinum Bucher.
de Triangulis. Neustadt. Van Brummelen, Glen. 2009. Breaking the circle:
Rheticus, Otho, Pitiscus and the Opus Palatinum. In
The Mathematics of the heavens and the earth: The
early history of trigonometry, ed. Glen Van
Archibald, R.C. 1949. Rheticus, with special reference to
Brummelen, 273–283. Princeton: Princeton University
his Opus Palatinum. Mathematical Tables and Other
Press.
Aids to Computation 3(28): 552–561.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_276-1
Schegk, Jacob
Born: 7 June 1511 Schorndorf
Died: 9 May 1587 T€

ubingen
G€
unter Frank*
Europ€aische Melanchthon-Akademie Bretten, Bretten, Germany
Abstract
Schegk was the first Lutheran Aristotelian at T€
ubingen. Because of his broad learnedness, he became
involved in many philosophical-theological disputes in his lifetime. With Petrus Ramus he was
struggling over Aristotle’s understanding of science. Whereas he was debating over the subject area
of metaphysics with the Italian philosopher Simon Simonius, he became part of the antitrinitarian
controversy after the critique of the Sorbonne theologian Gilbert Génebrard. At the end he earned
personal animosity among Lutheran theologians in T€ ubingen because of his critique of Luther’s
doctrine of ubiquity.
Alternate Name
▶ Degen
Biography and Oeuvre

Schegk studied ancient literature, history, mathematics, and Aristotelian philosophy at the Univer-
sity of T€ubingen from 1527 (for his biography see Sigwart 1889). Upon completion of his M.A. (-
magister artium) on 26 January 1530, he entered the faculty of theology and studied Thomas
Aquinas and Duns Scotus. Owing to the unrest caused by the introduction of the Reformation in
W€urttemberg in 1534 by Duke Ulrich, Schegk gave up theology and changed to medicine. At the
same time, he was commissioned by the Senate to teach Aristotelian philosophy. Schegk rarely left
T€ubingen and then only to avoid the various plagues. The philosophy of Aristotle became his
lifework around which he based his extensive oeuvre. It was his work with Aristotelian logic that
made him one of the fiercest opponents of Petrus Ramus. In his Perfecta et absoluta definiendi ars in
1556 and more notably in his extensive treatise De demonstratione libri XV in 1564, Schegk
defended the scientific teachings of Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics against the critique of Petrus
Ramus’ dialectics. The arguments used in the various disciplines are set out in the topical section of
the dialectics, whereas the various demonstrations of the sciences are presented in the analytics
(Breidert 2003). Schegk became involved in a dispute over the Lutheran doctrine of ubiquity with
the Lutheran theologians Johannes Brenz and Jakob Andreae, which then broadened to encompass
the debate with the Italian Simon Simonius on the definition of the subject area of metaphysics and
its relation to experience (Frank 2015). In this debate, which spans the publication of Responsum
*Email: info@melanchthon.com
Page 1 of 2
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_276-1
[. . .] ad Simonis Simonii libellum in 1568, Simoni Simonio meliorem mentem in 1571, Anatome in
1572, and his great work Antisimonius in 1573, Schegk regarded himself as the first Thomist
Lutheran who comprehended the unity and universality of metaphysics on the grounds of its
analogous relationship to a prime analogate, defined as pròB ἕn by Aristotle. As a philosopher, he
became similarly involved in discussions on the emerging concept of antitrinitarianism. Triggered
by the criticism of the Paris theologian Gilbert Génebrard, who shifted Schegk closer to the Swiss
antitrinitarians because of his supposedly modalistic doctrine of the Trinity, he developed in his
trinitarian writings Contra Antitrinitarios (1566), Antilogia (1568), and Apologeticus (1573) the
notion that the inner divine hypostases are not accidents, but rather powerful potentiae, a term that
Schegk borrowed from the metaphysics of Aristotle (Met. D 12 a 1f., 1019a). Just before giving his
final lecture at the university on 29 May 1577, the same year he became totally blind, Schegk
completed his great commentary on Aristotle’s Topics on which he had labored for 11 years. When
this commentary finally appeared in print in Lyon in 1584, a storm of indignation once again broke
out among the T€ ubingen theologians. Opponents interpreted this publication as proof that Schegk
saw the Lutheran doctrine of ubiquity as an example of false definitions and conclusions. On 4 July
1585, Schegk made an official confession, professing his belief in the Lutheran doctrine of ubiquity,
under the supervision of the university provost Jakob Andreae, rector Jacob Heerbrand, and four
deans. The confession was then published in the same year under the title Admonito.
References
Breidert W (2003) Jakob Schegks Kommentar zu Peri Hermeneias von Aristoteles. In: Lenk
H et al (eds) Urteil, Erkenntnis, Kultur. Lit, M€
unster, pp 179–186
Frank G (2003) Die Vernunft des Gottesgedankens. Religionsphilosophische Studien zur fr€uhen
Neuzeit. Bad Cannstatt, Stuttgart, pp 89–128
Frank G (2015) Lutherische Aristoteliker im 16. Jahrhundert. In: Grundriss der Geschichte der
Philosophie. Basel
Kusukawa S (1999) Lutheran uses of Aristotle: a comparison between Jacob Schegk and Philip
Melanchthon. In: Blackwell C, Kusukawa S (eds) Philosophy in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. Conversations with Aristotle, Aldershot, pp 169–205
Liebler G (1587) Oratio funebris de vita, moribus et studiis [. . .] Jacobi Schegkii, T€
ubingen,
Gruppenbach
Sigwart CH (1889) Jakob Schegk, Professor der Philosophie und Medicin. In: Sigwart CH (eds)
Kleine Schriften Erste Reihe. Zur Geschichte der Philosophie. Biographische Darstellungen,
Freiburg, 256–291
Page 2 of 2
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_277-1
Skalić, Pavao
Born: 1534 Zagreb
Died: 1575 Gdansk
Erna Banić-Pajnić*
Institute of philosophy, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
A Croatian Renaissance philosopher, theologian, and adventurer, known in the history of philoso-
phy as an ardent follower of Pico della Mirandola and one of the first thinkers who used the term
encyclopedia, Skalić was a typical representative of Renaissance syncretism.
Synonyms
Paulus della Scala; Paulus Scalichius; Paulus Scalicius; Paulus Scaliger; Paulus Scaligius; Stanislav
Pavao Skalić
Biography
Skalić was born in Zagreb in 1534. After he had finished his studies and earned a master’s degree in
the septem artes liberales in Vienna and a doctorate in theology in Bologna, he went to Rome, where
he spent some time in Collegium Germanicum. Afterwards, he traveled through Germany, where he
converted to Protestantism. In the Protestant phase of his life, he subjected the Church politics to
sharp criticism, pleading for the return to the spiritual sources of faith. In this phase, the Protestant
version of his Encyclopedia was published in Basel in 1559. The Catholic version of the same work,
only slightly modified, would be published 12 years later. During his stay among the Croatian and
Slovenian Protestants in Germany, he wrote the foreword for the Glagolitic Catechism and became
the protégé of John Ungnad.
He was a professor of theology at Königsberg and T€ ubingen, but due to forgery of the documents
that he was using to prove his noble origin, he acquired a lot of enemies and was obliged to flee to
Gdansk, Poland. Afterwards, he went to Paris and then to M€ unster. Eventually, he returned under the
aegis of the Roman Catholic Church and wrote Counter-Reformation pamphlets. He died in Gdansk
in 1575.
*Email: bp.erna@xnet.hr
*Email: erna@ifzg.hr
Page 1 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_277-1

Skalić wrote a great number of works that show that he is a typical representative of Renaissance
syncretism. In these works and especially in his main work Encyclopaedia seu orbis disciplinarum
tam sacrarum quam prophanarum Epistemon, he is trying to reconcile diverse traditions – the
Orphic, Pythagorean, Hermetic, Chaldean, Kabbalistic, Platonic, and Aristotelian – and to harmo-
nize them with the Christian doctrine. So he interpreted the doctrines of Prisci Theologi in terms of
the Christian doctrine of Trinity. In philosophy, he was a follower of Pico della Mirandola, also a
representative of Renaissance syncretism. In his works, he sometimes takes over literally the entire
parts of Pico’s texts. In accordance with Pico’s fundamental orientation in philosophy, he too
defends concordism, i.e., the thesis that it is possible to harmonize Plato’s and Aristotle’s philoso-
phies. He sees the relationship between man and the world as the relationship between the
microcosm and the macrocosm. Skalić thinks that man can influence the world around him,
primarily by the use of magic. He associated the thesis on divine providence that governs the
world with the astrological notion of causality. Many of his beliefs, and above all the beliefs in the
existence of a philosophia perennis, were influenced by Agostino Steuco. He was also influenced by
the German humanist Johannes Reuchlin. Encyclopedism and concordism are two main features of
his philosophy.

Skalić follows the line of Renaissance Platonism that largely relies on Chaldeo-Hermetic-
Kabbalistic sources within the tradition of prisca theologia. Defending the reform of the Church
and the spiritual renovatio in general, he pleads for the return to the sources of faith and knowledge
that are to be found primarily in the Scripture and in the writings of the Chaldean, Egyptian, Arab,
Jewish, Greek, and Latin traditions. He holds all of them compatible with Christianity. The truth
contained within all these traditions is one aeterna sapientia. It cannot be argued that Skalić was an
original thinker, given the fact that the basic feature of his work is syncretism. Skalić is among the
first thinkers who tried to give a synthesis of all sciences according to the Greek idea of enkyklios
paideia. The fundamental intention underlying all his works was scire omnia scibilia. Hence, the
title of his most important work was Encyclopedia seu orbis disciplinarum tam sacrarum quam
prophanarum Epistemon. Skalić, however, was not the first to use this term, as previously often
thought. In none of his works did he present an original and unique doctrine of his own.
Impact and Legacy

Skalić left behind numerous works, in which a number of themes are repeated. His work did not have
much impact on either the European or Croatian Renaissance philosophers. His adventurous and
tumultuous life was of much greater interest to historians than his work.
References
Čvrljak K (2004) Filozofija u enciklopedizmu Pavla Skalića. Ogranak Matice hrvatske Skradin,
Zagreb-Skradin
Page 2 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_277-1
Krabbel G (1915a) Aus Paul Skalichs Leben. Dissertation, Druck und Verlag Borgmeyer u. Co.,
M€unster i. W
Krabbel G (1915b) Paul Skalich, Ein Lebensbild aus dem 16. Jahrhundert. Druck und Verlag
Borgmeyer u. Co., M€ unster i. W
Kukuljević-Sakcinski I (1875) Pavao Skalić. Dionička tiskara, Zagreb
Primary Literature (Selection)

Paulus Scalichius (1553) Conclusiones in omni genere scientiarum, divinas, angelicas, coelestes,
elementares. . .et infernales. Bononiae, Romae
Paulus Scalichius (1556) Occulta occultorum occulta Pauli Skalich de Lika, philosophiae ac
theologiae doctoris, sacrae, Ro. Hung. Boe. etc. Regiae maiestatis capellani. Excudebat Michael
Zimmermannus, Viennae
Pauli Scalich II (1559) Encyclopaediae, seu Orbis disciplinarum, tam sacrarum quam prophanarum,
Epistemon: Pauli Scalich II de Lika, et comitis Hunnorum, et Baronis Zkradini, S.[anctae] T.
[heologiae] Doct.[oris]. Per Ioannem Oporinum, Basileae
Paulus Scalichius (1563) Satirae philosophicae sive Miscellaneorum tomus primus. Acc.
Genealogia praecipuorum Europae regum et principum. Ex officina Ioannis Daubmann. Joh.
Nasi Minoritae, Coloniae
Pauli principis de la Scala et Hun, Marchionis Veronae, Domini Creutzburgi Prussiae (1570–1571)
Miscellaneorum de rerum caussis et successibus & de secretiore quadam methodo qua euersiones
omnium regnorum vniuersi orbis & futurorum series erui possint, libri septem; item certissima
Methodus qua homines palantes & erroribus turbulentis impliciti ad viam veritatis reuocandi & ad
beatitudinem consequendam promouendi veniant, contra Centurias euangelicae veritatis Ioannis
Nasi Minoritae; deinde Oratio de instauranda Romanae Ecclesiae doctrina cum Epistola qua
omnes abditae artes & scientiae perstringuntur & perfectissima ratio prophetandi & miracula
operandi traditur. Ex officina Theodori Graminaei, Coloniae
Pavli principis dela Scala et. Hun, Marchionis Veronae, Crevtzburgi (1571) Miscellaneorum tomus
secundus sive catholici Epistemonis contra quandam corruptam ac depravatam Encyclopaediam
libri XV. Theodorus Graminaeus, Coloniae
Secondary Literature (Selection)

Banić-Pajnić E (1983) Pavao Skalić i tradicija aeternae sapientiae. Prilozi za istraživanje hrvatske
filozofske baštine 17–18:111–122
Bučar F (1910) Povijest hrvatske protestantske književnosti. Matica Hrvatska, Zagreb, pp 135–141
Girardi-karšulin M (1993) Pavao Skalić. Čovjek na razmeđi znanosti. Prilozi za istraživanje
hrvatske filozofske baštine 37–38:31–51
Jembrih A (2011) Pavao Skalić i njegov studij na Bečkome sveučilištu. Prilozi za istraživanje
hrvatske filozofske baštine 73–73:95–132
Page 3 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_278-2
Taurellus, Nikolaus
Born: 26 November 1547 Mömpelgard (Montpellier)
Died: 28 September 1606 Altdorf
G€
unter Frank*
Europ€aische Melanchthon-Akademie Bretten, Bretten, Germany
Abstract
Taurellus was a philosopher and medical scientist at T€ubingen, Basel, and Altdorf. The main thesis
of his first philosophical writing “Philosophiae Triumphus” was met with vehement opposition
among Lutheran theologians because he claimed that philosophy was the foundation of theology. In
his later metaphysical writing, he took up the concept of metaphysics in which the general doctrine
of God was removed from the metaphysics and later passed on to the modern concept of the
philosophy of religion. His definition of God as “substantia absolutissima” made him to a forerunner
of modern metaphysics.
Alternate Name
▶ Oechslein
Biography and Oeuvre

Taurellus studied philosophy in T€ ubingen in 1560 under Jacob Schegk (Degen) (1511–1587) and
Samuel Heiland (1533–1592); 1565 Master of Philosophy and beginning of theology studies. From
1566, he studied medicine in Basel under Theodor Zwinger (1533–1588); 1570 Doctor of Medicine.
1573, saw the publication of his important early work Philosophiae Triumphus, the first draft of a
Protestant metaphysics in three parts: a theological anthropology, the theory of principles in
metaphysics, and the speculative doctrine of God. His main thesis that philosophy is the foundation
of faith itself was met with vehement opposition. Taurellus’ justification for the thesis that philos-
ophy was the foundation of theology postulated that philosophy must be antecedent as: “in Christ he
believeth not who knoweth not God” (Ed. Wels (2012), p. 232). In this respect, i.e., that knowledge
of the existence and power of God precedes faith, he argues that philosophy forms the foundation of
theology as a doctrine of revelation. From 1580, Taurellus taught as professor of medicine and
natural philosophy at the University of Altdorf where his late works were published. The Synopsis
Aristotelis Metaphysices of 1596 takes up the concept of metaphysics found in Late Scholasticism in
Spain (Benedictus Pererius, ca. 1535–1610; Francisco Suárez, 1548–1617) in which the general
doctrine of God was removed from the metaphysical and later passed on to the modern era as natural
theology, ultimately leading to the newer philosophy of religion. Borrowing from Book 12 of
Aristotle’s Metaphysics, which first deals extensively with sensible and changeable substances
*Email: info@melanchthon.com
Page 1 of 2
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_278-2
and then gradually traces them back to an eternal immovable substance, Taurellus reinterpreted the
notion of God: since God is the most perfect being, his being exists in a state of pure reality so that
God, in contrast to all other entities, is the most absolute substance (substantia absolutissima), a
definition that presages modern metaphysics. Taurellus’ outline had a significant influence on the
direction of natural theology in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions. His Alpes caesae of 1597
serves as a critique of the pantheism and world-soul teachings of Italian physician and philosopher
Andrea Cesalpino (1519–1603). Taurellus criticized his theory of anima universalis on the grounds
that it manifested a latent pantheism, as well as Cesalpino’s acceptance of the unity of the intellect,
which seemed to refute the concept of the individuality of the human soul. Both important
cosmological texts published in 1603 presented discussions of contemporary debates on, for
instance, the pseudo-Aristotelian, Apuleian text De mundo as explicated by Francesco Piccolomini;
they are both, however, now thought to be lost. In his Kosmologia, Taurellus developed the theory
that God created the world and all nature in such a way that no further intervention was required.
Creation would not be perfect if what had been created could not subsist of itself. This thesis, which
rejected the concept of the divine conservation of the world (de mundi conservatione), is fully in line
with theodicy as it asserts that God’s goodness cannot be reconciled with an imperfect world. In his
Uranologia, he turns to general questions on the celestial bodies, exploring their materiality and
corruptibility, which he attributes to the prime mover: if the prime mover is eternally both substantia
and actus, it must be capable of moving the celestial spheres. In his De rerum aeternitate from 1604,
Taurellus renewed his endeavors towards a harmony of philosophy and theology, which even found
acceptance in the Enlightenment (Pierre Bayle, 1647–1706; Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz,
1646–1716). This work discusses fundamental questions of cosmology, psychology, and metaphys-
ics, contesting Francesco Piccolomini and Andrea Cesalpino. He establishes the relationship
between theology and philosophy by the theory of three states: philosophica ratio, the first state
of humanity, consists in the perfect knowledge and action of mankind, while the second state, after
the Fall of Man, led to the loss of eternal paradise, ending in despair and eternal misery but not the
abolition of the human cognitive faculty; the third state ultimately refers to theology, the object of
which is divine grace.
References
Primary Literature
Taurellus N (2012) In: Wels H (ed) Philosophiae Triumphus, Latin – German (EFN 3). Fromann-
Holzberg, Stuttgart
Frank G (2003) Die Vernunft des Gottesgedankens. Fromann-Holzberg, Stuttgart, pp 129–174
Frank G (2015) Lutherische Aristoteliker im 16. Jahrhundert. In: Grundriss der Geschichte der
Philosophie. Basel (Lit), Schwabe
Mayer H-C (1959) Nicolaus Taurellus – der erste Philosoph im Luthertum, Göttingen, Univ.Diss.
Schmidt-Schwrzenberg FX (1860) Nicolaus Taurellus, Erlangen, Blaesing.
Page 2 of 2
T
Timpler, Clemens Biography and Publications
Born: 1563/1564, Stolpen (Meissen/Saxony) Clemens Timpler was born in Stolpen (Meissen/
Saxony) in 1563 or 1564. His father, Clemens
Died: 28 February 1624, Steinfurt (Westphalia) (the elder), served as mayor of Stolpen. The
father of his wife (Clara) was Jacob Birckner,
Joseph S. Freedman who served as mayor in nearby Bischofswerda.
Department of History and Political Science, Clemens Timpler (the younger) had at least three
Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL, brothers and at least three sisters. All three of his
USA sisters (Maria, Catherine, and Regine) married
Lutheran ministers. Two of his brothers
(Abraham and Georg) were Lutheran ministers;
the third brother (Andreas) was rector at a
Abstract
Lutheran school. Clemens Timpler appears to
have become a crypto-Calvinist by about the
Clemens Timpler (1563/4–1624) was a
year 1580.
Reformed Protestant and professor of philosophy
Clemens Timpler enrolled at the University of
at the Gymnasium illustre Arnoldinum in
Leipzig in the year 1580. However, he then left
Steinfurt (Westphalia). He was an independent
Leipzig and apparently did not return there until
and innovative thinker. His textbook on meta-
the late 1580s. During his absence, he spent some
physics, first published in 1604 and reprinted at
time at the Gymnasium illustre in Zerbst and
least eight times by 1616, was his most influential
possibly also in Padua. After returning to the
work. He was best known for his view that All
University of Leipzig, he earned his Bachelor of
that is Intelligible (omne intelligible) – and not
Arts (1588) and Master of Arts (1589) degrees.
entity (ens) – is the subject matter of metaphysics.
Timpler was a private teacher there in May 1592
His influence was hampered in part because vir-
when he refused to sign the Lutheran Formula of
tually none of his contemporaries agreed with his
Concord and was therefore expelled from the
views concerning All that is Intelligible. His writ-
University. Timpler went from there – as a
ings were cited – both critically and
Reformed Protestant – to the University of Hei-
uncritically – during his lifetime and for many
delberg, where he enrolled in September
decades following his death.
28, 1592. At Heidelberg, he was an administrator
at the Collegium Casimirianum residence and
was active in academic life at the University.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_279-1
2 Timpler, Clemens
While in Heidelberg, he taught – apparently in the Petrus Ramus (logic), and Jean Bodin (politics),
capacity of a private teacher – Bartholomaeus respectively.
Keckermann (d. 1609). However, Timpler appears to have arrived at
He left Heidelberg in 1595 in order to succeed his own viewpoints independently. When citing
Otto Casmann (ca. 1562–1607) as professor of the writings of individual authors (e.g.,, Aristotle
physics at the Gymnasium illustre Arnoldinum in and Petrus Ramus), he agreed or disagreed with
Steinfurt (Westphalia). By about 1600, Timpler each individual author with respect to a given
was professor of philosophy and served as individual point of doctrine that was being exam-
prorector (1596, 1599, 1605, 1614/1615, 1620/ ined. In the case of Ramus, Timpler disagreed
1621) there. In Steinfurt, he married Elisabeth, with his individual viewpoints more often than
daughter of R€ utger Deichmann, who was mayor not. In the case of Aristotle, Timpler might (in the
and an alderman there. He had a least four chil- course of discussing any given point of doctrine)
dren: Rodoger (1602–1655), Christoph, Clara cite individual passages of Aristotle in support of
(d. 1625), and Clemens (d. 1637). He remained a given viewpoint and also other individual pas-
as professor of philosophy there until his death on sages of Aristotle against that same given
February 28, 1624. viewpoint.
During his 3 years in Heidelberg, he presided
over at least five published disputations and held
at least one published oration. While in Steinfurt, Innovative and Original Aspects
Timpler presided over numerous published dis-
putations; he also published his textbooks on Timpler’s views concerning the subject matter of
metaphysics (1604ff), general physics (1605ff), metaphysics – All that is Intelligible – provide the
“inanimate” physics (Apsychologia) (1605ff), context for much of his innovation and original-
“animate” physics (empsychologia) (1607ff), ity. All that is Intelligible is divided into some-
ethics (1608ff), family life (oeconomica) thing (aliquid) and nothing (nihil). Something is
(1610ff), politics (1611), logic (1612), rhetoric either positive something or negative something
(1613), and optics and human physiognomy (privation). Positive something is either essence
(1617). From 1606 onward, imprints of his text- (essentia) or entity (ens). All that is Intelligible
book on metaphysics also included his short trea- comprises being (est) and non-being (non-est).
tise on liberal arts (technologia). His collection of This distinction lies at the core of the principle
philosophical exercises was published in 1618. of contradiction, thereby linking logic and meta-
physics. Timpler briefly mentions quiddity
(“being”) in his textbook on logic.
Timpler also set himself apart from his aca-
demic contemporaries with his view that there are
three souls in man. Also apparently novel was his
Timpler profusely cites authorities throughout his
distinction between moral good (a subcategory of
published writings. Among ancient authorities,
absolute goodness) and morality (a subcategory
Aristotle and Sacred Scripture are the most
of respective goodness that was apparently also
often cited. Frequently cited are Cicero, Plato,
considered as ontologically basic). Timpler
Quintilian, Seneca, and Plutarch (in that order).
apparently placed both of these two viewpoints
Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo are the
within the contexts of (i) his concept of All that is
most cited medieval authors. The most frequently
Intelligible as well as (ii) his distinction between
cited post-medieval authors overall are
absolute and respective entity.
Bartholomaeus Keckermann, Jacob Zabarella,
In his textbook on inanimate physics
and Francis Suarez, in that order. In his textbooks
(apsychologia), Timpler also departed from nor-
on metaphysics, logic, and politics, the single
mal practice in his time with his view that there
most cited authors are Suarez (metaphysics),
are two elements (water and earth) instead of
Timpler, Clemens 3
four. Also noteworthy was the strong emphasis References

that he placed on the advanced study of
rhetoric. The interdisciplinary importance of the Primary Literature
study of “tropes and allegory” (tropologia) is The following monograph-length publications – cited
briefly below – are cited in full in Freedman (1988):
noted in his textbook on rhetoric. And in his
Metaphysicae systema methodum (Steinfurt 1604).
short treatise on the liberal arts (technologia), he Additional authorized imprints: Hanau 1606, 1608, 1612,
appears to have been the first author to discuss and 1616 – Additional unauthorized imprints: Lich
(in the year 1606) the concept of a “systematic 1604, Marburg 1607, Frankfurt am Main 1607 and
1612. All imprints thereof beginning with the Hanau
textbook” (systema).
1606 imprint included his Technologia . . . de natura et
differentiis artium liberalium.
Physica seu philosophiae naturalis systema methodicum
. . . pars prima, complectens physicam generalem.
Impact and Legacy Hanau 1605. Additional imprints: Hanau 1607 and
1613.
Timpler’s textbook on metaphysics had the Physica seu philosophiae naturalis systema methodicum
. . . pars secunda, complectens apsychologiam: hoc est,
greatest impact among his published writings. doctrinam de corporibus inanimatis. Hanau 1605.
A preface – and in later editions, Additional imprint: Hanau 1609.
commentary – by Rudolph Goclenius the elder Physica seu philosophiae naturalis systema methodicum
(1547–1628) may have contributed to this. Very . . . pars tertia, complectens empsychologiam: hoc est,
doctrinam de corporibus animatis. Hanau 1607. Addi-
controversial was Timpler’s view that All that is tional imprints: Hanau 1610 and 1622.
Intelligible (omne intelligible) – and not entity Philosophiae practicae systema methodicum; in tres partes
(ens) – is subject matter of metaphysics. His view digestum . . . pars prima; complectens ethicam
was rejected – or simply not adopted – by virtu- generalem. Hanau 1608. Additional imprints: Hanau
1612 and Frankfurt am Main 1625.
ally all of his contemporaries. However, the Philosophiae practicae pars altera, complectens
phrase All that is Intelligible was then oeconomicam. Hanau 1610. Additional imprint:
utilized – beginning no later than the year Hanau 1617.
1631 – as the subject matter of gnostologia. Philosophiae practicae pars tertia et ultima complectens
politicam integram . . . adjectae . . . tabulae totius
Gnostologia served as an umbrella concept for philosophiae practicae ideam complecentes. Hanau
the study of all academic disciplines, including 1611.
metaphysics. Logicae systema methodicum. Hanau 1612.
The term ontology (ontologia) was apparently Rhetoricae systema methodicum. Hanau 1613.
Opticae systema methodicum . . . cui subjecta est
first used by Jacob Lorhard in a treatise, the physignomia humana. Hanau 1617.
Ogdoas Scholastica, that was published in the Exercitationum philosophicarum sectiones X. Hanau
year 1606. Timpler does not refer to ontology in 1618.
his writings. However, in his Ogdoas Scholastica, Additional primary sources by and pertaining to Timpler
are cited in full in Freedman (1988).
Lorhard virtually copied basic components of The following five disputations over which Timpler
Timpler’s textbook on metaphysics. presided – which were not discovered and cataloged
The last known imprint of any of Timpler’s until after 1988 – are cited here in full.
writings appeared in the year 1625. His writings A copy of the following disputation is in the Gotha
Forschungs- und Landesbibliothek: Timplerus, Clem-
continued to be cited in academic writings (with ens, praeses and Scheunemann, Johannes, respondens,
gradually decreasing frequency) until the early Disputatio physica de generali concoctione et
eighteenth century. Although Timpler’s writings incoctione corporum perfecte mixtorum . . . ad
did not continue to be utilized as long as the calendas Februarii (Heidelbergae: Apud Abrahamum
Smesmannum, 1595).
writings by some of his contemporaries – for Copies of the following four disputations are to be
example, Bartholomaeus Keckermann – the found in the Erfurt Universitätsbibliothek: Timplerus,
view can be advanced that Timpler’s originality Clemens, praeses and Drupwich, Henricus a,
and his logical ability were exceptional. respondens, Doctrina physica de humoribus et
spiritibus naturalibus corporis humani (Steinfurti:
Excudebat Theophilus Caesar, 1602).
4 Timpler, Clemens
Timplerus, Clemens, praeses and Rhamaccerus, Hellekamps, Stephanie, 77–101. M€unster:

Gerhardus, respondens, Theorematum Aschendorff.
philosophicorum decades tres. Quarum prima est Freedman, Joseph S. 1988. “Die Karriere und Bedeutung
metaphysica, altera physica, postrema politica von Clemens Timpler (1563/4-1624)” 400 Jahre
(Steinfurt: Excudit Theoph. Caesar, 1614. Arnoldinum 1588–1988, 69–77. Greven: Eggenkamp.
Timplerus, Clemens, praeses and Muntze, Johannes, Freedman, Joseph S. 2004. The soul (anima) according to
respondens, Theoria philosophica de natura et Clemens Timpler (1563/4-1624) and some of his Cen-
principiis physiognomiae humanae . . . Die 16. Marii tral European Contemporaries. In Scientia et artes. Die
Juliani (Steinfurti: Excudit Theoph. Caesar, 1615. Vermittlung alten und neuen Wissens in Literatur,
Timplerus, Clemens, praeses and Dornbergius, Gerardus, Kunst und Musik, 791–830. Wiesbaden: Otto
respondens, Theoria physica, de sensu in genere, certis Harrosowitz.
thesibus comprehensa . . . publica censura subjiciet 24. Freedman, Joseph S. 2008. Die Debatte um Frauen und
Julii (Steinfurti: Excudit Theoph. Caesar, 1616. Gender in der Schulphilosophie des 16. und 17.
Jahrhunderts. Der Fall Clemens Timpler (1563/4-
1624), In Friederike. Heißer Streit und kalte Ordnung.
Epochen der “Querelles des femmes” zwischen
Secondary literature appearing prior to the year 1988 is
Mittelalter und Gegenwart, ed. Hassauer, 206–217.
cited in
Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag.
Freedman, Joseph S. 1988. European academic philoso-
Freedman, Joseph. 2009a. The godfather of ontology?
phy in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The life,
Clemens timpler, “All that is Intelligible”, academic
significance, and philosophy of Clemens Timpler
disciplines during the late 16th and early 17th centu-
(1563/4-1624). Studien und Materialien zur
ries, and some possible ramifications for the use of
Geschichte der Philosophie, 2 vols. Hildesheim:
ontology in our time. Quaestio. Yearbook on the His-
Georg Olms.
tory of Metaphysics 9: 3–40.
The following important monograph cited therein is also
Freedman, Joseph S. 2009b. Necessity, contingency,
noted here: Wundt, Max. 1939. Die Deutsche
impossibility, possibility, and modal enunciations
Schulmetaphysik des 17. Jahrhunderts. Heidelberger
within the writings of Clemens Timpler (1563/64-
Abhandlungen zur Philosophie und ihrer Geschichte
1624). In Spätrenaissance Philosophie in Deutschland
29. T€ubingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Siebeck).
1570–1650, Fr€ uhe Neuzeit, vol. 24, ed. Martin
Also refer to the following more recent literature:
Mulsow, 293–317. T€ ubingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Blank, Andreas. 2008. Justice and the eclecticism of prot-
Lamanna, Marco. 2013. La nascità dell’ontologia nella
estant ethics, 1580–1610. Studia Leibnitiana 40(2):
metafisica di Rudolph Göckel (1547–1628). Europaea
223–238.
memoria. Reihe 1, Studien 97. Hildesheim: Olms.
Denningmann, Susanne. 2009. Fr€ uhaufklärung in
Sdzuj, Reimund. 2011. Clemens Timpler. Killy
Steinfurt?: Logik-Unterricht im 17. Jahrhundert, In
Literaturlexikon. 2. Auflage. Bd. 11, 544–545. Berlin:
Zwischen Schulhumanismus und Fr€ uhaufklärung:
Walter De Gruyter.
Zum Unterricht an westfälischen Gymnasien
1600–1750. Westfalen in der Vormoderne 3, ed.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_280-1
Zsámboky, János (Sambucus)

Born: Trnava, 1 June 1531
Died: Vienna, 13 June 1584
Emil Hargittay*
Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Institute of Hungarian Language and
Literature, Department of Hungarian Literature, Budapest, Hungary
Abstract
János Zsámboky (Samboky), by his humanist name Johannes Sambucus (Trnava, 1 June
1531–Vienna, 13 June 1584), a Hungarian-born scholar, philologist, historian, physician, cartogra-
pher, letter-writer, and collector of manuscripts, books, and art treasures. He spent 22 years in
various towns of Europe. From 1564 until his death, he lived in Vienna, in imperial court service.

Sambucus studied at Wittenberg University, but following either the Lutheran or other denomina-
tions is not characteristic of him. Of literary tradition, he was mostly interested in antique culture and
contemporary humanist literature. He did not break with medieval religious heritage spectacularly,
but he preferred philological aspects to anything else. His correspondence contains 340 letters,
which show his orientation. He took part in the intellectual movement of European “respublica
litteraria”; he was in contact with almost every renowned scholar of his age via correspondence or in
person. First these were academic contacts (Vienna, Georg Rithaymer; Ingolstadt, Veit Amerbach
and Peter Apian; Strassburg, Johannes Sturm; Paris, Jean Dorat, Adrien Turnèbe, Petrus Ramus, and
Pascal Duhamel, contact with the Pleiade; Padova, Andreas Vesalius). He was a passionate collector
of books and manuscripts. His library contained 3,327 volumes, mainly Greek and Latin works on
rhetoric, philology, and theory of language. He published several pieces of his highly valued
collection of Latin and mostly Greek manuscripts (c. 600 volumes) partly himself, partly through
other publishers. Thus he came into contact with outstanding philologists, philosophers, and
publishers of his age (Paulus Manutius, Christophe Plantin, Piero Vettori, Theodor Zwinger, Fulvio
Orsini, Antonius Muretus, Johannes Oporinus, Conrad Gesner, Abraham Ortelius, Joachim
Camerarius Jr., Carolus Clusius, Justus Lipsius, Johannes Crato von Krafftheim, Hugo Blotius,
Nicasius Ellebodius, and others). As part of his conscious editing program, he published more than
50 works in print, among them important works of humanist writers connected to Hungary (Petrus
Ransanus, Antonio Bonfini, Janus Pannonius, István Werbőczy). Twenty-eight unfinished publish-
ing projects of his are known from the time before his death.
*Email: ehargi@gmail.com
Page 1 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_280-1

In the case of Sambucus, it may not be regarded only as a formula of modesty when he said that his
intellect was just enough for diligent work, so he considered the transmission of antique, mainly
Greek works and their publication more important than writing original works. As a philologist, he
did not favor conjectures worked out from personal ideas, but he tried to find the most authentic
manuscripts and make editions based on them. With his editions, he made efforts mostly for the
revival of Greek literature and culture, which he, like Dorat, considered more valuable than Latin.
He summarized his views in his works titled De imitatione Cireroniana (Paris, 1561). Sambucus
wrote only in Greek and Latin, but he held it important to “defend” Hungarian language, and he
thought to improve it on the model of the Latin language. He wrote about the art of letter-writing, and
he combined Neoplatonic and Aristotelian approach when talking about Horace’s Ars poetica.
Impact and Legacy

The most renowned of his own works is Emblemata, an illustrated volume of Latin poems, which
was edited five times. Geoffrey Whitney translated 50 emblems from it into English, which were
used by William Shakespeare as source material. Sambucus had a significant impact especially on
the science of philology. By publishing the works of Diogenes Laertios, Petronius, Plautus,
Vegetius, and others, he created the basis for editing primary sources in later times. In the last two
decades of his life, he lived a courtly life in the imperial court in Vienna, but scholarly activity was
the most important for him all the time. However, it caused a financial disadvantage for him, so he
sold a great part of his valuable collections to Emperor Rudolf II.
References
Primary Literature
(1965) Aus dem Tagebuch des kaiserlichen Hofhistoriographen Johannes Sambucus. Hrsg. Hans
Gerstinger, Graz-Wien-Köln
(1968) Die Briefe des Johannes Sambucus 1554–1584. Hrsg. Hans Gerstinger, Graz-Wien-Köln
Sambucus J (1981–1982) De Emblemata van Joannes Sambucus uitgegeven door de Officina
Plantiniana: reproductie van de Latijnse editie van 1564 en van de tekst van de Nederlandse
vertaling van 1566 en van de Franse vertaling van 1567; uitgave verzorgd door Leon Voet en
Guido Persoons, Antwerpen, De Nederlandsche Boekhandel
Sambucus J (1982) Emblemata, Antverpiae 1564. Facsimile reprint of the 1564 edition: Budapest,
Akadémiai Kiadó. Einleitung von August Buck
Sambucus J (2002) Emblemata: et aliquot nummi antiqui operis; mit einem Nachwort von Wolfgang
Harms und Ulla-Britta Kuechen, Hildesheim, Olms, 2002. Facsimile reprint of the 1566 edn
(2013) Humanistes du bassin des Carpates, II, Johannes Sambucus. Eds. Gábor Almási, Gábor
Farkas Kiss, Turnhout, Brepols
Almási G (2009) The uses of humanism: Andreas Dudith (1533–1589), Johannes Sambucus
(1531–1584), and the East Central European Republic of Letters. Brill, Leiden (Brill’s Studies
in Intellectual History, 185)
Page 2 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_280-1
Almási G (2013) Farkas Gábor Kiss, Szöveggondozás és kapcsolatápolás: Zsámboky János
életműve a reneszánsz filológia t€ ukrében Translation: [Textology and Networking: János
Zsámboky’s Oeuvre in the Context of Renaissance Philology]. Irodalomtörténeti Közlemények
117:627–691
Téglásy I (1988) A nyelv- és irodalomelmélet kezdetei Magyarországon Sylvester Jánostól
Zsámboky Jánosig [The origins of the study of language and literature in Hungary from János
Sylvester to János Sambucus]. Akadémiai, Budapest
T€uskés G (2001) Imitation and adaptation in late humanist emblematic poetry: Zsamboky
(Sambucus) and Whitney. Emblematica 11:262–292
Vantuch A (1975) Ján Sambucus. Veda, Bratislava
Visser A (2005) Joannes Sambucus and the learned image: the use of the emblem in late-
Renaissance Humanism. Brill, Leiden
Voet L The Plantin Press, 1555–1589: a bibliography of the works printed and published by
Christopher Plantin at Antwerp and Leiden, Amsterdam, Van Hoeve, 1980–1983, vol 5, p. 2168
Page 3 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_285-1
D’Aubigné, Théodore-Agrippa
Born: 1552, Pons
Died: 1630, Genève
Véronique Ferrer*
Université Michel de Montaigne – Bordeaux 3, Bordeaux, France
Abstract
Agrippa d’Aubigné is a very prolific author: he composed both love and religious poetries, meditations,
satirical tracts, political treaties, historical books, and an autobiography. He is also a man of action, who
played a very important part in the Huguenot Party and a soldier who fought with energy against Catholics
during the religious wars (1562–1629). He is not a philosopher nor a theologian, but all his works lie on a
personal theology which draw on different authorities: the ancient philosophy, the Church Fathers, the
reformed hermeneutics, and especially the Calvinist one. To understand Agrippa d’Aubigné’s thought, it
is necessary to bear in mind the historical context. His religious thought is torn between two opposing
feelings: a radical vision of suffering that lives the persecuted Protestants and a theology of hope which
gives them the assurance of salvation. Affliction is for d’Aubigné the evidence of the election of protestant
people. From the eschatologic point of view, the afflicted ones will triumph and the arrogant ones will be
destroyed. This purifying conception of pain, called tribulation by Paul or “l’épreuve” by Calvin, induces
d’Aubigné to justify war and martyrdom, that are the promises of celestial beatitude. The writer also took
part in the political discussion about tyranny sharing the “Monarchomaques” point of view that consists of
limiting the royal authority if the king exceeds his rights. D’Aubigné is especially in favor of a “monarchie
mixte” under the strict control of nobility.
Biography
Agrippa d’Aubigné’s life cannot be separated from his involvement in the Reform and to the Huguenot
Party. His birth in 1552 in Pons caused his mother’s death: that’s why he called Agrippa (aegre partus).
From 1568 to 1592, he took part in different religious wars with Henri de Navarre until their quarrel. In
1571, he had a short romance with Diane Salviati, who inspired the famous collection of love poetry, Le
Printemps, that had never been published before the nineteenth century. In 1577, after his serious wound
at the battle of Casteljaloux, he dictates “les premieres clauses de ses Tragiques” that had been published
in 1616. In 1583, he married Suzanne de Lezay. After Henri IV’s abjuration in 1593 and after his wife’s
death in 1595, he retired to his property and devoted his time to his works. Meanwhile, he went on
defending Protestants’ interests in the different “assemblées” which prepared the Edict of Nantes. After
Henri IV’s death, he took the struggle again until Louis XIII banished him in 1620. He lived his last
10 years in Geneva, where he married Renée Burlamachi and applied himself to his work without
stopping the political struggle until his death in 1630.
*Email: veronique-ferrer@orange.fr
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_285-1

Agrippa d’Aubigné’s religious thought is inspired by Calvinist doctrine (Calvin, Institution de la religion
chrétienne, Genève, 1536). The profession of faith of the Italian martyr Montalchine (Les Tragiques,
Feux, v. 647–706) gives a summary of his credo, founded on the formula “Seul, seule et seulement” which
characterizes this purified religion: only the holy Bible reveals God (sola scriptura), only faith justifies
(sola fide). This is the assertion of God’s power on man’s salvation: “On appelle prédestination le conseil
éternel de Dieu, par lequel il a déterminé ce qu’il voulait faire de chaque homme. Car il ne les crée pas tous
en pareille condition, mais ordonne les uns à la vie éternelle, les autres à l’éternelle damnation. Ainsi selon
la fin pour laquelle est créé l’homme, nous disons qu’il est prédestiné à la mort ou à la vie” (Calvin,
Institution de la religion chrétienne). According to d’Aubigné, the assurance of salvation is absolute but it
implicates the experience of suffering. The affliction is a proof of purification necessary to access to
salvation, it is the promise of celestial beatitude. All the religious thought of d’Aubigné lies on a theology
of proof and hope, inspired by prophetical and apocalyptical movements, particularly by danielists.

If d’Aubigné is greatly inspired by Calvin’s theology, he combines different authorities – Aristotle, the
Church Fathers (especially Augustine and Tertullian), the pseudo-Denys, Hermès Trismégiste, the
kabbale, and other marginal religious movements of his time – to such a point that he creates an original
religion far from his own confession, between a mystical pantheism, a pragmatic of salvation, and an
obvious pessimism caused by the disorders of the history that he likes to describe in his works, in Les
Tragiques particularly.
Impact and Legacy

The violence and the “rudesse” of his poetry went against the “goût classique” of measure and elegance
defended by Malherbe at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Concerning his radical theological
thought, it did not obtain the favor of a pacified century, first in the reign of Henri IV and then in the
authoritative monarchy of Louis XIII and of Louis XIV, where Protestants were persecuted. That explains
the misfortune of d’Aubigné’s works. Only the Protestants of the “Désert” will recover the prophetical and
violent accents of d’Aubigné’s voice. The romantic authors like Sainte-Beuve, Mérimée, and especially
Hugo will rediscover his works and will publish it.
References
Primary Literature
Complete or selected works
D’ Aubigné, Agrippa. Œuvres complètes, publiées pour la première fois d’après les manuscrits originaux
par MM. E. Réaume et F. de Caussade. Accompagnées d’une notice biographique, littéraire et
bibliographique, de notes et variantes, d’une table des noms propres et d’un glossaire par A. Legouez,
Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1873-1892, 6 vols. contenant respectivement.
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tome II. Traité sur les guerres civiles. Du debvoir mutuel des roys et des subjects. Le Caducée ou l’Ange de
Paix. Méditations sur les Pseaumes. Confession catholique du sieur de Sancy. Le Divorce satyrique.
Lettres diverses.
tome III. Le Printemps, Poésies diverses, Poésies religieuses et vers mesurés. Tombeaux et vers funèbres.
Vers funèbres sur la mort d’Estienne Jodelle. La Création.
tome IV. Les Tragiques, Discours par stances avec l’esprit du feu roy Henri IV. Sonnets et pièces
épigrammatiques. Tombeaux du style de saint Innocent. Appendice: pièces de sources diverses.
tome V. Notice biographique et littéraire. Notice bibliographique.
tome VI. Table des noms de personnes, Glossaire.
Œuvres, éd. Weber, H. J., and M. Bailbé. Soulié. Paris, Gallimard, coll. “Bibliothèque de la Pléiade”,
1969.
Other editions (selection)
Droz, E. (ed.). 1972. Le Printemps, Stances et odes. Genève: Droz.
Fanlo, J.-R. (ed.). 2003. Les Tragiques. Paris: Champion, 1995, rééd [notre édition de référence].
Fanlo, J.-R. (ed.). 2007. Ecrits politiques. Paris: Champion.
Ferrer, V. (éd.). 2004 [1629–1630]. Petites Oeuvres meslees. Paris: Champion.
Gagnebin, B. (ed.). 1948. Le Printemps, l’Hécatombe à Diane. Genève: Droz.
Garnier, A., and J. Plattard. (ed.). 1990 [1616]. Les Tragiques. Paris: Droz, S.T.F.M., 1932-1933, nouveau
tirage.
Goeury, J. (éd.). 2007. Hécatombe à Diane. Presses universitaires de saint Etienne.
Histoire universelle, introduction et notes d’A. Thierry, Genève: Droz, tomes I à X, 1981-1999
[1618–1626].
Lestringant, F. (ed.). 1995. Les Tragiques. Paris: Gallimard, coll “Poésie”.
Schrenck, G. (ed.). 1986. Sa vie à ses enfants. Paris: Nizet, S.T.F.M.
Monographs
Fanlo, J.-R. 1990. Tracés, ruptures. La composition instable des Tragiques. Paris: Champion.
Fragonard, M.M. 2004 [1986]. La Pensée religieuse d’Agrippa d’Aubigné et son expression. Paris:
Champion.
Lestringant, F. 2003. La Cause des Martyrs dans Les Tragiques d’Agrippa d’Aubigné, Mont-de-Marsan,
Editions InterUniversitaires, 1991; nouv éd, Paris: Champion.
Lestringant, F. 2013 [PUF, 1986]. Lire Les Tragiques d’Agrippa d’Aubigné. Paris: Classiques Garnier.
Soulié, M. 1977. L’Inspiration biblique dans la poésie religieuse d’Agrippa d’Aubigné. Paris:
Klincksieck.
Collections
Ferrer, V. 2003. “La Fiction prophétique dans Les Tragiques d’Agrippa d’Aubigné. Livres VI et VII”,
L’Agrégation des Lettres modernes 2004, dir. Gabriel Conesa et Franck Neveu, 99–158. Paris: Armand
Colin.
Pot, O. (dir). 2010. Fiction et Histoire. Actes du colloque de Genève, décembre 2002. Genève: Droz.
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Forsyth, E. 1979. Le message prophétique d’A. d’Aubigné. BHR XLI:29–39.
Forsyth, E. 1984. D’Aubigné, Calvin et le comble des péchés, Mélanges sur la littérature de la
Renaissance à la mémoire de V.-L. Saulnier, 263–272. Genève: Droz.
Soulié, M. 1986. Prophétisme et visions d’Apocalypse dans Les Tragiques d’Agrippa d’Aubigné. RHR
22:5–10.
Tournon, A. 1984. Le Cinquième sceau. Les tableaux des Fers et la perspective apocalyptique dans Les
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Page 4 of 4
B
Bodin, Jean sublimium arcanis abditis (Colloquium of the

Seven about Secrets of the Sublime, written in
Born: 1529/1530, Angers? the 1580s but first published in 1857), and
Universae naturae theatrum (The Theatre of
Died: 1596, Laon Universal Nature, 1596).
Stella Achilleos
University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
Biography
Jean Bodin was born in 1529 or 1530 (perhaps at

Abstract
Angers) to Guillaume Bodin, a merchant in the
This essay presents the French jurist, states-
textile business based at Angers, and Catherine
man, and humanist philosopher Jean Bodin,
Dutertre. He joined the Carmelite order at an early
who was one of the most prominent political
stage in his life, but he was released from his vows
theorists of the sixteenth century. Bodin is
sometime in 1548–1549, possibly on the grounds
more widely known for this contribution to
that he had professed while he was too young.
the theory of sovereignty which he formulated
During his time as a Carmelite, he was sent to
in his monumental treatise published in 1576
Paris where he acquired an impressive humanist
under the title Les Six livres de la République
education studying at the Collège Royal. While in
(The Six Books of the Commonwealth). But
the French capital, he came in contact with various
besides this work, Bodin’s writings include
intellectual trends and controversies and showed
various other texts that reveal his erudition
special affinity for the teachings of Peter Ramus
and profound engagement with a much wider
whose lectures he probably attended and the influ-
range of topics, from natural philosophy and
ence of whom may be traced, as has been argued,
religion to political economy and historical
in a number of Bodin’s writings (McRae 1955).
methodology. His major works include the
He left Paris around 1550 and spent the following
Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem
decade furthering his studies by pursuing law at
(Method for the Easy Comprehension of His-
the University of Toulouse. By the end of the
tory, 1566), La réponse aux paradoxes de
1550s, his ambition for an academic career in
Malestroit (Response to the Paradoxes of
Toulouse was frustrated as he did not manage to
Malestroit, 1568), De la démonomanie des
obtain a professorship at the university there. This
sorciers (On the Demon-Mania of Witches,
also marked the end of this stay in Toulouse.
1580), Colloquium heptaplomeres de rerum
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_287-1
2 Bodin, Jean
Thus, around 1561 he went back to Paris where bien du peuple)’ even at the cost of forfeiting the
he found employment as an advocate at the king’s goodwill” (Lloyd 2013, 5). Perhaps for
parlement. In the following years, he also started Bodin this opposition was not inconsistent with
publishing some of his major works, and this his belief in the king’s sovereign power and
enabled him to establish himself as a prominent authority. However, as a result of this action he
figure in the political and intellectual society of lost the favor of Henry III, and his hopes for a
Paris. Following the publication of his Methodus more prestigious political appointment at court
in 1566, another significant text by Bodin were frustrated.
appeared in print in 1568 under the title Les Par- In the same year, 1576, Bodin moved to Laon
adoxes de Monsieur de Malestroit [. . .] avec la having married the widow of a Laon official.
response de M. Jean Bodin ausdicts Paradoxes in While there, he employed himself in the service
which he analyzes the problem of high inflation of the duke of Alençon whom he accompanied in
that afflicted sixteenth-century Europe. Thus, by 1581 on a trip to England that had the purpose of
the end of the 1560s, he managed to attract the pursuing the duke’s matrimonial suit with the
attention of King Charles IX who assigned him English queen, Elizabeth I. The Duke of
around 1570 with various political and adminis- Alençon’s sudden death in 1584 also marked
trative tasks. In the following year, he also entered Bodin’s definitive disengagement with the world
the service of Francis, duke of Alençon (who was of courtly affairs and high politics, though in 1587
second in line to the throne after Henry III), as he succeeded his deceased brother-in-law coming
counselor, a position that significantly furthered to the office of king’s attorney in Laon, a position
his prospects for a career at court. that he continued holding until his death in 1596.
Bodin continued having a significant role at the Bodin’s last few years in Laon were beset due
very center of French political power after the to the eruption of a new cycle of civil strife in the
death of Charles IX and the accession to the country over succession to the throne following
throne of his brother Henry III in 1574, while his the assassination of the king in 1589. Following
acclaim was more firmly established with the this event and until 1594, Laon fell under the
publication in 1576 of the Les Six livres de la political control of the Catholic League that
République (The Six Books of the Common- opposed the Protestant Henry of Navarre’s claim
wealth), a work that enjoyed much positive recep- to the throne (despite the fact that this claim was
tion within considerable part of the political elite more legitimate on the basis of French law than
of the country. At the time of the République’s that of his opponent, Cardinal Charles of Bour-
publication, France was notably still ravaged by bon). The league clearly violated a number of the
the devastating wars of religion between Catho- ideas advocated by Bodin in his political writings
lics and Huguenots. Within this context, Bodin’s (more prominently, the principle of legitimacy).
advocacy of the idea in the République that order Yet, Bodin appears to have been forced to accept
could best be maintained if the ruler enjoyed its rule and collaborate with it under fear of losing
absolute and indivisible sovereign power was his position, his property, and possibly his life. His
warmly received by many. support for Henry of Navarre was only expressed
However, Bodin’s prospects for a successful in 1594, after Laon came under the control of the
courtly career suffered a setback in 1576 when Protestant forces.
he opposed Henry III’s fiscal policies at the estates Despite the fact that Bodin’s last few years in
general of Blois (himself serving as representative Laon were politically so troubling, the two
for the third estate of Vermandois). Bodin, who decades he spent there until the end of his life
saw the king’s attempt to enforce new taxation as a were immensely productive intellectually, and
measure that overburdened an already heavily some of his most influential works were written
taxed third estate, makes reference in his journal during this period. These include his highly influ-
of the assembly of the estates general to his ential treatise on demonology and witchcraft (De
“determination to serve the ‘public good (le la démonomanie des sorciers) that was published
Bodin, Jean 3
in 1580 and his impressive treatise on religion, his Secrets of the Sublime, written in the 1580s but
Colloquium heptaplomeres, which was finished first published in 1857), a work that advances the
by 1593 but only came to be published decades largely unorthodox for the context of the sixteenth
later (probably due to the fact that it would put century idea of religious toleration. Bodin’s last
Bodin under the accusation of heresy). His major work was Universae naturae theatrum (The
remarkable contribution to the field of natural Theatre of Universal Nature), published in the
philosophy, his Universae naturae theatrum year of his death in 1596. This work provides
(The Theatre of Universal Nature), was published the culmination of some of the ideas previously
posthumously in 1596, the same year of Bodin’s explored by Bodin in the Démonomanie and the
death from the plague. Colloquium heptaplomeres as it brings natural
philosophy into dialogue with the pursuit of reli-
gious knowledge. The rest of this section provides
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition a survey of Bodin’s heritage by introducing his
major works and the central questions they
Bodin’s acclaim as a philosopher is largely based engage with.
on his contribution to the field of political theory
and, more specifically, on his contribution to the Bodin’s Methodology of History: The
theory of sovereignty which he formulated in his Methodus
monumental treatise published in 1576 under the First published in 1566, Bodin’s Methodus ad
title Les Six livres de la République (The Six Books facilem historiarum cognitionem (Method for the
of the Commonwealth) – a work that also includes Easy Comprehension of History) was written with
one of the earliest treatments of slavery as an the purpose of advancing a clear and concise
unnatural institution that is not only contrary to method for the study of history. The book – that
the dignity of human beings but also a constant run through thirteen Latin editions from the year
threat to political stability. Besides this work, of its publication to 1650 – provided Bodin’s first
Bodin’s writings include various other texts that important work and laid the basis for the exami-
reveal his erudition and profound engagement nation of a number of ideas that he was subse-
with a much wider range of topics, from natural quently going to develop in greater detail in other
philosophy and religion to political economy and works. (See Couzinet 1996.)
historical methodology. His first important work As Beatrice Reynolds suggests, Bodin’s writ-
was his Methodus ad facilem historiarum ing of the Methodus reflects his engagement not
cognitionem (Method for the Easy Comprehen- only with “the universal and eternal question of
sion of History, 1566), which provides an attempt the interpretation of history” but also by “the
to advance a clear and concise method for the narrower and more timely problem of the nature
study of history. Another important work of government in France” during the period in
published by Bodin in this early stage of his career which he wrote (Reynolds, “Introduction,” in
was La réponse aux paradoxes de Malestroit Bodin 1945, x). Further, in the Methodus Bodin
(Response to the Paradoxes of Malestroit, first “revealed the trends of his era in that his philoso-
published in 1568 and in a revised version in phy of history moved away from the authoritarian
1578), in which he produced one of the earliest toward the natural – in this case, toward the pseu-
formulations of the quantity theory of money. doscientific” (Reynolds, “Introduction,” in Bodin
Other important works followed the publication 1945, xi). The book consists of ten chapters in
of the République in 1576. These include De la which Bodin exposes his theory on how history
démonomanie des sorciers (On the Demon-Mania should be studied. Chapter 1 starts with the asser-
of Witches, 1580), a treatise that examined the tion that history may be divided in three types:
topic of demonology and witchcraft, and the Col-
Of history, that is, the true narration of things, there
loquium heptaplomeres de rerum sublimium are three kinds: human, natural, and divine. The first
arcanis abditis (Colloquium of the Seven about concerns man; the second, nature; the third, the
4 Bodin, Jean
Father of nature. One depicts the acts of man while Chapter 5 of the Methodus also presents
leading his life in the midst of society. The second Bodin’s formulation of his climate theory by
reveals causes hidden in nature and explains their
development from earliest beginnings. The last advancing the idea that the temperament of people
records the strength and power of Almighty God is influenced by such factors as climate and geog-
and of the immortal souls, set apart from all else. raphy. As noted by M. J. Tooley, in his develop-
(Bodin 1945, 15) ment of this theory (that ultimately found its
The Methodus foreshadows Bodin’s engage- source in Aristotle), Bodin drew “upon some
ment with all three types of history, containing common stock of scientific notions familiar to
ideas that were later developed in the République, his contemporaries,” on the basis of which he
the Theatrum, and the Colloquium hepta- offered “a masterly summary of about two thou-
plomeres: these three works addressed human, sand years of speculation” (Tooley 1953, 64). This
natural, and divine history, respectively. However, climate theory suggests that the form of a state as
the Methodus concentrates on the first type of well as its legal system should be adjusted
history, on “human actions and the rules according to the characteristics of its people as
governing them,” this being considered by those are defined by its climate and geographic
Bodin, the first necessary step in a process toward location and features.
the examination and full understanding of the These ideas would subsequently be developed
history of nature and God. As he further high- in greater detail by Bodin in the République. This
lights, the study of human history is essential also applies to the ideas presented in Chap. 6 that
“for acquiring prudence . . . because episodes in is entitled “The Type of Government in States.”
human life sometimes recur as in a circle, repeat- This chapter, which is notably the largest taking
ing themselves” (Bodin 1945, 17). up more than one third of the book, laid the basis
Bodin then proceeds in Chaps. 2 and 3 to estab- for Bodin’s exploration of many of the issues
lish his methodology for the proper study of his- addressed the République. Chapter 7 of the
tory. Here he talks about the need to establish a Methodus provides a refutation of the Biblical
certain order in the study of historical events, narrative of four monarchies as well as a rebuttal
pointing to the merits of a sequential reading of of the classical myth of a golden age which is
history that starts from earlier accounts and pro- criticized for its naiveté. Following Chap. 8 that
ceeds in chronological order to more recent is entitled “A System of Universal Time,” Bodin
periods. Also he refers to the significance of read- then proceeds in Chap. 9 to address the origins of
ing history within the context of other related races and introduce criteria by which to define
fields, such as geography and cosmography, and these. The book concludes with a bibliographical
suggests the method of proceeding from an exam- chapter entitled “The Order and Collection of
ination of more general accounts to more detailed Historians.”
ones as a means of comprehending the whole.
Further, he highlights the need for systematic
note-taking. But before notes are taken, one Bodin on Sovereignty: The République
needs to make a correct choice of historians and
a good assessment of one’s material. Chapters Bodin’s treatment of the concept of sovereignty in
4 and 5 thereby concentrate on these issues, citing Les Six livres de la République was his most
Aristotle’s advice to students of history: that they important contribution to the field of political
should neither believe all they read nor discredit science. The work was first published in French
sources outrightly. Bodin also emphasizes the sig- in 1576 and a Latin version of the text by Bodin
nificance of reading history without having any himself first appeared in print 10 years later (with
emotional bias, something that is more easily extensive revisions). In English, it was first made
achieved when one examines from a certain chro- available in 1606 in a translation by Richard
nological or geographical distance. Knolles. This was preceded by the publication of
Bodin, Jean 5
translations in various other languages that made not be revoked but is “perpetual” in the sense that
the text more widely available to European audi- it lasts “for the life of him who has the power”
ences: an Italian one in 1588, another one in (Bodin 1992, 6). Likewise, sovereign power is
Spanish in 1590, and one in German in 1592. unlimited with regard to its functions. Sovereignty
Bodin’s famous definition of sovereign power being both “perpetual” and “absolute,” Bodin
appears at the beginning of Chap. 8 of the first highlights, it “is not limited either in power, or in
book of the République, following chapters that function, or in length of time” (Bodin 1992, 3).
concentrate on such issues as the primary ends of Bodin’s definition of the term “absolute”
a commonwealth, the difference between a com- employs his understanding of the concept of a
monwealth and a family, and the power of fathers, “true gift,” as opposed to a gift which is not true
and husbands, as well as the power of masters and or authentic. A “true gift,” he suggests, is a gift
the institution of slavery. As Bodin asserts in this that “carries no further conditions, being complete
highly influential formulation of the concept: and accomplished all at once, whereas gifts that
Sovereignty is the absolute and perpetual power of a carry obligations and conditions are not authentic
commonwealth, which the Latins call maiestas; the gifts. And so sovereignty given to a prince subject
Greeks akra exousia, kurion arche, and kurion to obligations and conditions is properly not sov-
politeuma; and the Italians segniora, a word they ereignty or absolute power” (Bodin 1992, 8).
use for private persons as well as for those who have
full control of the state, while the Hebrews call it Sovereignty is only absolute in the proper sense
tomech shévet – that is, the highest power of com- when no obligations or conditions are attached to
mand. (Bodin 1992, 1) it as such elements would compromise its func-
tion. On the basis of this idea, a ruler becomes
Having provided this definition of sovereignty,
sovereign when those who possess sovereignty
Bodin then proceeds to define the terms “abso-
(e.g., the people or the aristocracy) “purely and
lute” and “perpetual.” As he suggests in his anal-
simply give [him] absolute and perpetual power to
ysis of the latter, a person that is given absolute
dispose of all possessions, persons, and the entire
power for a limited period of time cannot be called
state at his pleasure and then to leave it to anyone
a sovereign prince, but a mere trustee or custodian
he pleases, just as a proprietor can make a pure
of that power, lawful possession of which always
and simple gift of his goods for no other reason
remains with the person or persons who gave it to
than his generosity” (Bodin 1992, 7–8). As Bodin
him. For example, if a sovereign prince gives
clarifies, the power given to such a ruler is not in
power of command to a regent for a certain time
any way compromised “if the conditions attached
(for instance, as a means of relieving himself of
at the creation of a prince are of the law of God or
the burden of certain part of government), this
nature” (Bodin 1992, 8). For, while sovereignty
does not compromise his own power as a sover-
carries no other obligations or conditions, it is
eign as he remains in possession of the power he
always subject to the laws of God and the laws
has assigned to the regent, and the regent merely
holds that power in trust. This “lieutenant,” Bodin of nature as well as “to various human laws that
are common to all peoples” (Bodin 1992, 10).
comments, “has nothing of his own and remains
answerable for his charge to the person of whom
he holds the power to command, unlike a sover-
eign prince who is answerable only to God” Sovereignty and Law
(Bodin 1992, 4). Accordingly, the person who
holds power in trust goes back to being a private Another issue that is central to Bodin’s definition
citizen when the definite period of time for which of sovereignty concerns the relation between the
he was assigned this power expires. Unlike this sovereign and law. As he points out in his discus-
limited form of power that is “revocable at the sion in Chap. 8 of the first book of the République,
good pleasure of him who granted it,” sovereign the ability of the sovereign to give law to his
power is not limited with regard to time and may people as well as the ability to change or repeal
6 Bodin, Jean
laws when he deems it necessary is one of the 1992, 52). Here, the sovereign’s lawmaking
defining characteristics of sovereign power: capacity is presented as having such central sig-
persons who are sovereign [. . .] must be able to give nificance that it is described as the first and fore-
the law to subjects, and to suppress or repeal disad- most mark of sovereignty that provides the basis
vantageous laws and replace them with others – for all the rest of the sovereign’s rights:
which cannot be done by someone who is subject
to the laws or to persons having power of command This same power of making and repealing law
over him. (Bodin 1992, 11) includes all the other rights and prerogatives of
sovereignty, so that strictly speaking we can say
On the basis of this idea, he draws the conclu- that there is only this one prerogative of sover-
sion that the sovereign “is not subject to the law” – eignty, inasmuch as all the other rights are
comprehended in it – such as declaring war or
just as he “must not be subject in any way to the making peace; hearing appeals in the last instance
commands of someone else” (Bodin 1992, 11). As from the judgements of any magistrate; instituting
a means of supporting this, Bodin argues that the and removing the highest officers; imposing taxes
idea of making laws for one’s own self carries a and aids on subjects or exempting them; granting
pardons and dispensations against the rigor of the
contradiction in terms or an impossibility, “for law; determining the name, value, and measure of
although one can receive law from someone the coinage; requiring subjects and liege vassals to
else, it is as impossible by nature to give one’s swear that they will be loyal without exception to
self a law as it is to command one’s self to do the person to whom their oath is owed. These are the
true prerogatives of sovereignty, which are included
something that depends on one’s own will” in the power to give law to all in general and to each
(Bodin 1992, 12). This, for Bodin, highlights the in particular, and not to receive law from anyone but
incompatibility between the role of the sovereign God. (Bodin 1992, 58–59)
as lawmaker and the position of someone who is
As Bodin also emphasizes in this chapter, the
subject to the law. Thus, the sovereign is said to
sovereign does not simply have the power to make
hold a position above the law, and this covers not
laws but to do so “without the consent of any
only his own laws but also the laws of his pre-
other, whether greater, equal, or below him”
decessors: the sovereign is not subject to the latter
(Bodin 1992, 56).
as this would compromise his absolute power.
Accordingly, a sovereign prince is free either to
ratify or to change and repeal the laws of his pre-
decessors as he pleases. On the Indivisibility of Sovereignty
As Bodin further clarifies in this chapter, it may
be advisable for sovereign princes to obey their Following from Bodin’s discussion of sovereignty
own laws. However, this is not because they have and its main attributes (and especially the sover-
any obligation to do so but because that is an eign’s prerogative to make law without the con-
effective means for them to secure the submission sent of anyone else) is the conclusion that this
of their subjects: “for there is nothing,” he argues, supreme type of power cannot be divided but
that makes a sovereign prince “more feared and has to reside with a single person or group. As
revered by his subjects” than his keeping of his Bodin clearly asserts, “the prerogatives of sover-
own laws, “whereas, on the contrary, there is eignty are indivisible” (Bodin 1992, 104), and on
nothing that more abases the authority of his law the basis of this notion, he further suggests that the
than his own contempt for it” (Bodin 1992, 31). idea of a mixed state (i.e., a state that combines the
The power of the sovereign to make law is principles of different constitutional forms, such
further discussed by Bodin in Chap. 10 of the as monarchy with aristocracy or democracy) is not
first book of the République, where he analyzes simply contradictory but also highly untenable:
the marks of sovereignty. As he reiterates in this But [really] to combine monarchy with democracy
chapter, “it is only sovereign princes who can and with aristocracy is impossible and contradic-
tory, and cannot be even imagined. For if sover-
make law for all subjects without exception,
eignty is indivisible, as we have shown, how could
both collectively and individually” (Bodin it be shared by a prince, the nobles, and the people at
Bodin, Jean 7
the same time? The first prerogative of sovereignty limited – for, at the same time that he defines
is to give the law to subjects. But who will be the sovereign power in terms of the sovereign’s posi-
subjects and who will obey if they also have the
power to make law? (Bodin 1992, 92) tion above positive law – Bodin also highlights
that the sovereign always remains subject to the
As Bodin argues here, the division of sover- laws of God and nature. These, he notes, are laws
eignty (and thereby also of the power to make that sovereign princes have no right to disregard
law) can only lead to political instability, consti- or override.
tutional chaos, and ultimately the failure of the
unless they wish to be guilty of treason against God,
state – a failure that can only be remedied if and to war against Him beneath whose grandeur all
sovereignty returns to a single agent (be it to a the monarchs of this world should bear the yoke and
king, the nobility, or the people – in which case the bow the head in abject fear and reverence. The
constitution would be monarchy, aristocracy, or absolute power of princes and of other sovereigns
lordships (seigneuries souverains), therefore, does
democracy, respectively). “Hence,” he suggests, not in any way extend to the laws of God and of
“it must always come to arms until such time as nature. (Bodin 1992, 13)
sovereignty resides in a prince, in the lesser part of
The laws of God and of nature introduce cer-
the people, or in all the people” (Bodin 1992,
tain limits to sovereign power which are discussed
104). Out of the three constitutional forms avail-
by Bodin with closer reference to such issues as
able, Bodin clearly positions himself in favor of
property and human life. For instance, as he
monarchy as the most tenable form that avoids the
argues, the prohibition to murder may apply to a
possible ambiguities and contradictions that he
sovereign prince as much as to his subjects. How-
traces in the other two forms. Irrespectively of
ever, this is not due to the sovereign prince’s
which constitutional form may be chosen though,
obligation to any relevant positive laws, but
Bodin highlights the significance of preserving
because that is dictated by the law of God and of
the sovereign power indivisible: as he empha-
nature:
sizes, this indivisibility is a necessary prerequisite
for the preservation of unity in the state and a sine But if the prince forbids killing on penalty of death,
qua non for its continuation. is he not then bound by his own laws? I say that this
law is not his law but the law of God and of nature,
As Julian H. Franklin has pointed out, “the idea to which he is more strictly bound than any of his
that concentration of power in the ruler is an subjects, from which he cannot be dispensed either
essential condition of the state as such might by the Senate or the people, and for which he is
seem at first sight to be deliberately absolutist.” always answerable to the judgement of God, whose
inquiry, said Solomon, is very rigorous. (Bodin
Indeed, Bodin’s discussion in the République sug- 1992, 31)
gests that “apparent restraints on royal power were
not constitutional requirements, but mere recom- Likewise, Bodin suggests that the sovereign
mendations of prudence and good government.” has no right to lay hands on the private property
However, Franklin notes, Bodin’s earlier writings of his subjects without their consent as the law of
point to a somewhat position. In his Methodus, for God dictates that “it is illicit to take, or even to
instance, he does not appear to have been an covet, another person’s goods” (Bodin 1992, 39).
absolutist. The République therefore registers a This rule, which safeguards the inviolability of
certain shift in Bodin’s political thought (“Intro- private property vis-à-vis the voracious drives of
duction,” in Bodin 1992, xiii). ruthless rulers, has one possible exception
according to Bodin. Normally, he says, a ruler is
not entitled to take his subjects’ property “without
just and reasonable cause,” but such reasonable
The Laws of God and Nature and How
cause may be said to exist when the common-
They Limit Sovereign Power
wealth is under threat and such an action is
required “for the preservation of the state”
Even the République though contains traces of
(Bodin 1992, 39). In such a situation (that might
how the sovereign’s power may be in some ways
8 Bodin, Jean
involve, for instance, emergency taxation for the opposition to slavery was above all shaped by his
needs of warfare), Bodin notes that subjects views on sovereignty and the state: while others
should be expected by “natural reason” to place “regarded the emergence of the strong state as a
the public good above their personal interest and threat to human liberty, Bodin held that a strong
thereby to willingly give up their possessions “for state was the trustee of a citizen’s rights and pos-
the welfare of the commonwealth” (Bodin sessions,” and “slavery not only robbed a whole
1992, 40). class of humanity of such civic rights, but in so
doing represented a permanent threat to the sta-
bility of the state” (Heller 1994, 54). Indeed, as
Bodin on Slavery Bodin suggests (in a point that reveals the rele-
vance of his discussion in this chapter to his
Bodin’s treatment of the question of slavery broader treatment of political power and sover-
appears in the fifth chapter of Book 1 of The eignty in The République), the long history of
République. This chapter, which significantly slavery and violent slave insurrections clearly
interrogates slavery as an unnatural institution shows that far from being a useful institution,
that contravenes human dignity, firmly slavery in fact undermines the state as it poses a
established Bodin as one of the earliest abolition- continual threat to political order and stability.
ists during this period. Bodin’s discussion here Thus, for a state to enjoy long-lasting stability no
challenges the well-known Aristotelian treatment such institution should exist, and slaves should be
of slavery as a natural condition: for Aristotle, given rights of citizenship (a point that he also
who advances this idea in the Politics extends to wage laborers).
(1254a–1255b), some people are born to be mas-
ters while others – those who are “capable of
belonging to another” as they “participate in rea- Bodin on Economics: Malestroit’s
son so far as to apprehend it but not to possess it” – Paradoxes and Bodin’s Quantity Theory
are born to be slaves and obey others. This dis- of Money
tinction is also reflected, according to Aristotle, in
the bodily attributes of each group, with slaves Even though Bodin’s fame is largely based on his
naturally made “strong for necessary service” and writings in the field of political philosophy, he
masters made “erect and unserviceable for such also made a significant contribution to the field
occupations” (Aristotle 2005, 23). On the con- of economics and has been credited as the “pio-
trary, for Bodin, slavery is not simply a disgrace- neer formulator” of the quantity theory of money
ful condition that is against the dignity of the (O’Brien 2000 and 2007). Bodin’s introduction of
human kind but also a violation of the law of this idea may be found in La réponse aux para-
God and an affront to reason. doxes de Malestroit (Response to the Paradoxes
As has been argued, Bodin’s hostility to slav- of Malestroit) that was first published in 1568 and
ery may be said to reflect a broader set of attitudes then in a revised edition 10 years later. This text
toward slavery in sixteenth-century France, where was written in response to a treatise published in
great part of the population was only set free from 1566 under the title The Paradoxes of the Sei-
personal servitude about a century earlier. On the gneur de Malestroit on the Matter of Money – a
basis of this reading, the memory of serfdom, as treatise that sought to address the issue of infla-
well as the fear of returning to that condition, tion, the unchecked growth of which was becom-
produced a largely negative set of attitudes toward ing a pressing problem for the economies of many
slavery – this despite the fact that the development European countries in the sixteenth century,
of the slave trade and New World slave labor including France. The central argument of this
would subsequently contribute to the establish- treatise was that in the last 300 years the prices
ment of France as a colonial power (Heller 1994, of commodities had remained constant in terms of
53–54). But, as has also been suggested, Bodin’s the precious metals. The main example used in
Bodin, Jean 9
support of this claim was that of velvet which was Spain as gold and silver were mainly drawn from
presented as having a constant price in terms of Spanish colonies, but, as has been noted, “France,
the precious metals since the fourteenth century. as an immediate neighbor, linked both by trade
Attempt was also made to extend this argument and by labour mobility,” also “felt the impact quite
over perishable commodities, such as corn and soon” (O’Brien 2007, 13). Bodin’s analysis of the
wine. Thus, according to Malestroit’s paradoxes, significance of this abundance of gold and silver
the rises in the prices of commodities were “sim- laid the framework for this formulation of the
ply changes in the unit of account, resulting from quantity theory of money, which in simple terms
debasement” (O’Brien 2007, 19) – debasement involves the idea that the supply of money has a
being a process that “involved adding low-value direct impact on the level of prices and, thereby,
metals to the coinage, spreading the supply of that the increase in the supply of money may
gold and silver further” (O’Brien 2007, 12). cause the prices of commodities to rise.
Bodin’s Response refuted Malestroit’s argu-
ments first of all by challenging the validity of
his data which he exposed as erroneous.
Bodin on Witchcraft: De la démonomanie
According to Bodin’s own argument, for instance,
des sorciers
it was highly doubtful whether velvet actually
existed in the fourteenth century – so, Malestroit’s
In 1578 Bodin served as judge in the proceedings
whole argumentation regarding its price in rela-
against a woman called Jeanne Harvillier who was
tion to precious metals during that period could
accused of witchcraft. The woman was found
not but be mistaken. Further, Bodin pointed out
guilty of the offense and was thereby sentenced
that the factor of debasement that was so central in
to death. Upon this occasion, Bodin wrote his
Malestroit’s analysis could not, on its own, ade-
treatise on witchcraft that was first published in
quately account for the rampant inflation
French in 1580 under the title De la démonomanie
witnessed in France and other European countries
des sorciers (On the Demon-Mania of Witches).
in the sixteenth century. While Bodin’s refutation
In his preface to this text, Bodin makes refer-
of Malestroit’s claims was in itself a remarkable
ence to the Harvillier case which is used as a
achievement that exhibited his outstanding grasp
starting point for his analysis in the rest of the
of economic data, his contribution to economics
book of his views on the world of spirits and the
in the Response is primarily distinguished due to
subject of witchcraft. As he explains, he was pro-
his own analysis of the causes of inflation. Besides
mpted to write his treatise “because there were
debasement (which he acknowledged as a possi-
some who found the case strange and almost
ble cause of inflation), Bodin identified four other
unbelievable” (Bodin 1995, 37). The main pur-
possible causes: (1) the abundance of gold and
pose of the book – the title of which was chosen
silver, (2) monopolies, (3) scarcity caused by fac-
“on account of the madness which makes
tors such as export trade and waste, and (4) fash-
[witches] chase after devils” – is “to serve as a
ionable demand by the upper social and economic
warning to all those who read it, in order to make it
classes for luxury goods (O’Brien 2007, 22). Out
clearly known that there are no crimes which are
of these five causes, Bodin identified the abun-
nearly so vile as this one, or which deserve more
dance of gold and silver as the most significant
serious penalties” (Bodin 1995, 37). Also, citing
one, aptly noting that in the sixteenth century the
the example of the Italian Pietro d’Abano “who
supply of these two precious metals was far
tried to teach that there are no spirits” but finally
greater than it had ever been in the past
proved to be one of his country’s greatest witches,
400 years. Indeed, this observation appears to
Bodin says that he wrote his book so as “to
have been valid as the development of coloniza-
respond to those who in printed books try to
tion led to a constant and unprecedented influx of
save witches by every means, so that it seems
precious metals in European countries. The great
Satan has inspired them and drawn them to his
impact of this influx was more directly seen in
10 Bodin, Jean
line in order to publish these fine books” concentrates, in particular, on how to investigate
(Bodin 1995, 37). cases of witchcraft and proposes how to proceed
As Bodin further informs his readers in his against witches, outlining the evidence that is
preface, the Démonomanie is divided into four required in order to prove the crime. Proof may
books which aim to facilitate the comprehension be found, according to Bodin, in such evidence as
of this difficult subject. The first book starts by the testimony of reliable witnesses but also in the
providing his definition of a witch, a term that is voluntary confession of the person accused of
broadly employed to refer to someone who has witchcraft. This, he suggests, may be considered
allied himself to the devil and has espoused as indisputable proof, as opposed to forced con-
demonic practices, the main purpose of which is fession that does not provide sufficient proof.
to destroy the works of God. Then, the book Finally, this fourth book examines the kind of
proceeds to talk about the association of spirits punishment witches should receive, with Bodin
with men, the difference between good and evil clearly taking a position in favor of the death
spirits (or angels and demons, as they are called), penalty. This sentence, he clarifies, should only
as well as the difference between lawful and law- be reserved for those cases where there is solid
ful means to learn hidden things and accomplish proof of guilt, and he emphasizes the need for
something one wants. This book also refers to competent and well-trained judges who will be
certain practices associated with witches, such as able to properly evaluate the evidence. Indeed,
teratoscopy, haruspicy, ornithomancy, and as he firmly advocates pointing to the significance
hieroscopy. The second book refers to the differ- of solid and indisputable proof, it is far more
ent types of magic and to the tacit and formal ways preferable to acquit someone who is guilty than
in which evil spirits may be invoked. Further, it to condemn someone who is innocent. However,
examines various questions, such as whether as he points out, for those cases where solid proof
those who expressly renounce God and their reli- is provided, the person accused of witchcraft
gion are bodily transported by evil spirits, whether should be punished with nothing less than painful
evil spirits can transform men into beasts, whether death. At this point, he also returns to the case of
witches copulate with demons, and whether Jeanne Harvillier that is cited as an indisputable
witches can inflict illness, sterility, sexual dys- example of a witch who allied herself with Satan
function, or death on men and beasts. As Bodin and therefore merited the death penalty.
clarifies in the preface, this book discusses “the The Démonomanie enjoyed considerable pop-
illicit arts and methods of witches,” without yet ularity following its publication in 1580, and
offering anyone “the opportunity to use it for besides its numerous editions in French it was
wicked gain.” The purpose of this information, also soon translated into various other languages
he explains, is to “show the traps and snares (into Latin and German in 1581 and then in Italian
which one must avoid, and assist judges who do in 1587). It has been considered by scholars as a
not have the leisure to research such matters, but highly influential book that contributed to the
wish nevertheless to be instructed in order to increasing persecution of witchcraft in the
establish a judgement” (Bodin 1995, 44). The decades that followed its publication. Many of
third book refers to various lawful and unlawful its readers have been puzzled by the intolerance
ways to prevent or drive away spells and witch- Bodin expresses here, an element that is seen as
craft and addresses questions such as whether largely inconsistent with the views expressed by
witches may use their practices so as to earn the him elsewhere. Indeed, as has been pointed out, a
favor of people or obtain such things as beauty, number of scholars “have been shocked and per-
wealth, and learning. plexed at the apparent contrast between the ‘mod-
The fourth book of the Démonomanie encap- ern,’ ‘rational’ political Bodin” found in the
sulates Bodin’s overall condemnation of witch- République, or “the ‘tolerant’ religious Bodin”
craft and reveals the extreme severity with which found in the Colloquium heptaplomeres, “and
he countenanced this practice. This part the ‘intolerant’ and ‘superstitious’ Bodin of the
Bodin, Jean 11
Demon-Mania.” For others, this apparent incon- publish this text “because he knew his age too
sistency is merely “the result of applying well.” The work, according to this interpretation,
nineteenth- and twentieth-century mental catego- may be considered as his “religious testament for
ries to a thinker of a very different age” (Jonathan a later age, which he worked out only for this inner
L. Pearl, “Introduction,” in Bodin 1995, 11). On satisfaction.” Another view expressed more
the basis of this interpretation, Bodin’s severe recently is that Bodin must have intended to pub-
condemnation of witchcraft in the Démonomanie lish the Colloquium heptaplomeres and would
is not inconsistent with his overall views on the have done so if he had lived longer, as this text
role of religion in human existence, God’s relation provides the key to great part of his work and
to the universe and to man and further to his wish especially to the Démonomanie and Universae
for the majesty of God to be honored: demonism naturae theatrum (Kuntz, “Introduction,” in
and witchcraft (very much like atheism) were a Bodin 2008, xxxviii).
direct affront to this idea and acts of treason The Colloquium heptaplomeres – a work that
against the glory of God. has been considered as one of the earliest texts of
comparative religion – provides a dialogue among
a group of guests who have met in the home of a
Bodin on Religion: The Colloquium man called Paulus Coronaeus in Venice. The
Heptaplomeres and Religious Tolerance seven men who take part in this discussion all
represent different faiths or religious beliefs.
Bodin’s engagement with the issue of religion and Besides the host who is a Catholic, the partici-
its role in human existence may be found in a pants include Salomon Barcassius, a Jew; Diegus
number of his writings, but more prominently in Toralba, a natural philosopher; Fridericus
the Démonomanie, as well as the Colloquium Podamicus, a Lutheran; Antonius Curtius, a Cal-
heptaplomeres, and Universae naturae theatrum. vinist; Hieronymus Senamus, a Skeptic; and Octa-
It is also revealed in the République where the vius Fagnola, a convert from the Catholic faith to
question of religion is discussed within the con- Islam. During the dialogue, each man provides his
text of his views on sovereignty and the signifi- views on the various points discussed.
cance of political stability in the state. The question of true religion is of central sig-
The Colloquium heptaplomeres de rerum sub- nificance in the text, and it is introduced from the
limium arcanis abditis (Colloquium of the Seven very beginning through a story narrated by Octa-
about Secrets of the Sublime) is believed to have vius in Book 1. The story concerns a sea voyage
been written by Bodin during the 1580s, but it was Octavius has once embarked on, during which the
not published until 1857 even though numerous ship was cast in the middle of a terrible tempest.
copies of the book circulated in manuscript. Even Terrified by the dangerous situation, the captain
though Bodin’s authorship of the book has been urged all aboard to pray to God – and so they did,
questioned, scholars in recent years have pointed though as crewmen and travelers were a diverse
more firmly to the validity of his authorship by group of people who came from many different
drawing attention to the various connections it places and had different faiths, each man prayed to
shares with other works he wrote, especially the God he believed in. When Octavius finishes
with the Démonomanie and Universae naturae the story and describes how the ship eventually
theatrum (Kunz, “Introduction,” in Bodin 2008). arrived safely to port, Coronaeus raises a series of
Perhaps the reason why Bodin did not publish questions the last one of which is perhaps the most
this text during his lifetime may be found in the central: “with such a variety of religions
awareness of how deeply radical and unorthodox represented, whose prayers did God heed in bring-
many of his contemporaries would consider the ing the ship safely into port?” (Bodin 2008, 14).
idea of religious tolerance that he introduced in The complexity of this as well as the other ques-
the Colloquium heptaplomeres. As has been tions raised here by Coronaeus is marked by the
suggested, Bodin never had the intention to silence of all his interlocutors who are unable to
12 Bodin, Jean
respond on the spot. Yet, Coronaeus’s questions An attempt to define Bodin’s personal views on
are set as topics for discussion for their following religion suggests that these actually fluctuated
meetings. Thus, the question of which religion is during the course of his life and, as Kuntz has
the true one becomes one of their central points of argued, they became increasingly more liberal as
consideration and special emphasis to it is given in he grew older and developed as a thinker. Thus, in
the last three books of the Colloquium. his Discours au senate et au people de Toulouse in
No doubt, Bodin’s engagement with this ques- 1559, he held that “people should be brought up
tion in this work had special currency within the publically in one religion” and gave emphasis to
historical context of the sixteenth century when the element of religious unity as a means of pre-
Christianity itself was divided by intense religious serving the unity and cohesiveness of the state
conflicts (with the wars of religion in Bodin’s own (“Introduction,” in Bodin 2008, xliii). This is a
country being a prime example), but also when position that is also reflected in his discussion of
Christian Europe came into contact (increasingly religion in the République (1576) that emphasizes
so through travel and exploration) with a diverse the significance of political stability and the unity
set of religious beliefs outside Christianity. of the state. In the years that followed, according
Bodin’s response to the question of true religion to Kuntz, Bodin’s “liberal views became even
involves the idea of religious tolerance: on the more apparent, until they reach a climax in the
basis of this idea, it is possible to approach God Colloquium heptaplomeres, in which his religious
through different religious paths as true religion opinions seem to have developed into a kind of
basically involves the purging of the soul and its theism which leaves each man’s religion, pro-
turning toward true God. These views in many vided he has some, to his own personal con-
ways express Bodin’s overall theorization of the science” (“Introduction,” in Bodin 2008, xliv).
relation between God and the universe: for him, In this respect, Bodin advanced a view of true
the unity of God is reflected in the harmony of religion as a profoundly personal matter that did
nature and “the nature of true religion . . . reveals not necessarily require commitment to any partic-
and accepts the multiplicity of ways to approach ular church or established religion. This highly
God and the multiple revelations of God to man. unorthodox for the standards of the sixteenth cen-
True religion is tolerant, for it sees the harmonious tury view on religion must have been one of the
multiplicity of religions. No religion is true whose elements that served to put Bodin under suspicion
point of view is not universal, whose expression is of heresy at different points in his life: he was
not free, and whose center does not reflect the suspected not only of being a heretical Catholic,
intimate harmony of God and nature” (Kuntz, but also of being a Calvinist and a Jew. Besides
“Introduction,” in Bodin 2008, xliii). these, he was also considered by some as an
A number of scholars have tried to provide an atheist, though his writings clearly express the
answer as to which speaker in the Colloquium view that atheism is utterly unacceptable and
heptaplomeres may be said to represent Bodin’s intolerable. This is an idea that is consistently
own religious beliefs. In response to this debate, expressed in his writings throughout his career:
Marion Leathers Kuntz has aptly remarked that it most explicitly in the République, the
is perhaps “nearer to the truth . . . that all the Démonomanie, the Colloquium heptaplomeres,
speakers represent Bodin’s thinking at one time and Universae naturae theatrum.
or another. No one represents his thinking exclu-
sively, but Bodin is sympathetic to some views of
each as the dialogue develops. The point seems to Bodin on Natural Philosophy: The
be, however, that regardless of Bodin’s approval Universae Naturae Theatrum
or disapproval of the religious views represented
in the dialogue, he constantly stresses the need for Bodin’s engagement with natural philosophy and
toleration of all religions” (“Introduction,” in his systematic exposition of his views on the
Bodin 2008, xliv). universe culminated with the writing of Universae
Bodin, Jean 13
naturae theatrum (The Theatre of Universal As has been pointed out, one of Bodin’s main
Nature). This work of natural philosophy, which purposes in the Theatrum was to refute various
was published in the year of Bodin’s death in ideas found in ancient philosophy, one of those
1596, is also a continuation of his attempt to being the Aristotelian notion concerning the eter-
understand the relation between God and the uni- nity of the world (Blair 1997). According to
verse, as “the main theme of the Theatrum is that Bodin, the world cannot be eternal because it
God can best be known from the theater of uni- was created based on the voluntary decision and
versal nature” (Kuntz, “Introduction,” in Bodin free will of God, whereas eternal things have no
2008, xl). In his preface to the Theatrum, Bodin first cause and their existence cannot be the prod-
refers to the reasons why one has to turn to an uct of another’s free will or decision. Unlike the
examination of nature in order to better underworld he made, God alone is infinite and eternal.
stand God. Marion Leathers Kuntz outlines these God is therefore described as the prime mover of
reasons: “man’s laws are often irrational and full the universe, the principle which is eternal and
of error, but the laws of nature are logical and singular, as nothing can be like it or equal to
fixed, for God himself is the author. The contem- it. As the principle, that is, God cannot be com-
plation of nature is of prime importance, for it pared to anything else; it can also not be under-
often leads a man to thoughts of God” (“Introduc- stood in comparison to anything else. Therefore,
tion,” Bodin 2008, xxx). Thus, as Bodin points human beings that are finite cannot comprehend
out: God and can never get a full grasp of his infinite
the Theater of Nature is nothing other than the mind. On this basis, human beings may question
contemplation of those things founded by the various dire happenings they see around them, but
immortal God as if a certain tablet were placed they should always have in mind that the world is
under the eyes of every single one so that we may governed based on divine providence and, even
embrace and love the majesty of that very author, though they may not be able to understand it, God
his goodness, wisdom, and remarkable care in the always purposes their welfare. Further, God made
greatest matters, in moderate affairs, in matters of all things in the world good and, in this respect,
least importance. For as Aristotle writes, the one evil is merely the lack of good.
who doubts whether there is God or not must be As has also been suggested, perhaps “Bodin’s
refuted by no weak arguments. (as quoted in most noteworthy innovation” in the Theatrum
Bodin 2008, xxx). may be found in his treatment of the soul (Blair
The Theatrum, which is divided in five books, 1997, 137). This significantly departs from other
is written in the form of a dialogue between two treatments of the soul as it advances the largely
figures, Theorus and Mystagogus. The first book unorthodox view that the soul is immortal but also
concentrates on proving that nature is governed by corporeal. According to this theory, the soul is
a single principle and that is God who also created corporeal, even though the body it has is not
the world. This book also analyzes the form and material but spiritual, and separable from the cor-
causes of nature and things therein, as well as the poreal body of the flesh. Thus, the human soul is
processes of generation, movement, growth, and presented as an intermediate form, a form that
decay. The second book examines various natural stands somewhere in between the following two
elements, such as rocks, meteors, metals, and extremes: that of form that is completely
minerals. The third one concentrates on plants disembodied and separated from matter (as in
and animals, while the fourth focuses on the the case of angels and demons) and that of form
world of spirits (Bodin’s discussion of the soul that is completely concrete and cannot be sepa-
may also be found here). The fifth and final book rated from matter, like the natural bodies of
examines the planetary system, with Bodin being human beings. On the basis of this analysis, spirits
dismissive of Copernicus’s notion of a heliocen- (angels as well as demons) are corporeal beings,
tric system. even though their bodies are purely spiritual and
separated from matter – and the body of the soul is
14 Bodin, Jean
akin to the body of these forms, even though it is Harvey’s observation suggests, Bodin’s signifi-
not always separated from matter. cant impact was largely based on the wide circu-
Of course, Bodin’s concept of the corporeality lation of the République that was edited at least
of the soul has an important set of political impli- twenty-four times by 1600 and was translated into
cations that may be read within the broader con- various other languages – including a Latin trans-
text of his political ideas: i.e., if human souls were lation by Bodin himself, published in 1586 with
considered as incorporeal, it would be difficult to extensive revisions – that made the work more
define how rewards and punishments could be broadly available to audiences across Europe.
distributed after death. And yet, belief in such Among the rest of Bodin’s works – besides the
distribution might contribute to the preservation République – the Methodus and the
of social order and political stability, elements that Démonomanie were those that enjoyed greater
are central in Bodin’s political thought. However, circulation in the years that followed their publi-
his highly unorthodox views on the corporeality cation and may therefore be assumed to have been
of the human souls as well as spirits met with the read more widely. For this reason, Howell
condemnation of the Catholic Church. Indeed, A. Lloyd’s recent edition of an illuminating col-
quite ironically, despite its repeated references to lection of essays on The Reception of Bodin con-
the figure of God and his role as the creator and centrates on these three works.
prime mover of the world, the publication of the As Lloyd notes in his “Introduction” to this
Theatrum served to spark afresh the accusations volume, Bodin’s immediate contemporaries in
of atheism that had previously been launched France were relatively slow in their response to
against Bodin (especially after the publication of his writings. Of course, the reception of his works
the Colloquium heptaplomeres). by his fellow countrymen was unavoidably
The Theatrum was published in French trans- shaped by the social, political, and intellectual
lation in the year following Bodin’s death, in context of his time – especially by the political
1597, but it has never been made available in and ideological controversies that marked the
English translation. Despite the work’s great French civil wars – with “opinion agitated often
ambition and the fact that it provides the culmina- to the point of frenzy and yet already coloured
tion of Bodin’s thought on the relation between with the rudiments and certainly the terminology
things human and divine, the Theatrum largely of some of his leading ideas” (Lloyd 2013, 11).
remains the least celebrated and least studied of Within this context, Bodin’s works received an
Bodin’s major works in our days – though the often contradictory set of responses and interpre-
publication of Ann Blair’s excellent study (The tations. This varied reception is testified by the
Theater of Nature) in 1997 somehow served to different interpretations given to his theory of
make amends for the broader scholarly neglect. sovereignty that ultimately came to be used by
royalists and monarchomachs – i.e., those who
opposed monarchy and the power of kings –
Impact and Legacy alike to support their widely contrasting views
on this issue. More broadly, the views on Bodin’s
As one of Bodin’s twentieth-century readers once scholarly contribution ranged from sharply nega-
remarked, Bodin may be considered as “the Aris- tive and critical ones to others that were more
totle, the Montesquieu of the sixteenth century” approbatory or laudatory. Thus, while some of
(qtd. in Lloyd 2013, 2). His impact during his his contemporaries in France doubted his reliabil-
lifetime is perhaps best testified by the comment ity as a scholar and accused him of plagiarism
of his contemporary writer Gabriel Harvey that (a charge that pursued Bodin throughout his
“you cannot stepp into a scholars studye but (ten life), many others expressed admiration for his
to one) you shall litely find open either Bodin De works – including Michelle de Montaigne whose
republica or Le Royes Exposition upon Aristotles essays suggest his debt to Bodin’s thinking (Lloyd
Politique Discourses” (qtd. in Lloyd 2013, 2). As 2013, 15–16). As it appears, Bodin’s contribution
Bodin, Jean 15
to the theory of sovereignty was duly recognized sovereignty as an indivisible form of power, an
in France in the years after his death when his idea that is expressed by Hobbes in such works as
formulation of sovereignty had a significant his The Elements of Law (1640), De cive (1642),
impact within the absolutist movement. French and Leviathan (1651).
thinkers who engaged with his ideas in the seven-
teenth century include Charles Loyseau
(1564–1627), Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642), Cross-References
and Gabriel Naudé (1600–1653). Thus, “Bodin’s
critics notwithstanding,” the decades after his ▶ Hugo Grotius
death “manifested as lively a reception at least of ▶ John Locke
his masterpiece as that which Gabriel Harvey had ▶ Robert Filmer
observed in Elizabethan England half a century ▶ Thomas Hobbes
before” (Lloyd 2013, 17).
Of course, as Lloyd aptly reminds us, “the
reception of Bodin was not just a French, but a
References
Europe-wide phenomenon” as his ideas had an
impact well beyond France to various other coun-
Primary Literature
tries, such as England, Germany, Italy, Spain, and
the Netherlands (Lloyd 2013, 17). For example,
the German jurist Johannes Althusius List of Bodin’s Works (in Chronological Order
(1557–1638) employed Bodin’s theory of sover- of First Publication)
Bodin J. 1555. Oppiani De venatione.
eignty in his treatise Politica methodice digesta Bodin J. 1559. Oratio de instituenda iuventute [. . .]
(1603) to suggest that sovereignty always belongs Bodin J. 1566. Methodus ad facilem historiarum
to the community – an argument that was used in cognitionem.
this text to justify the Dutch revolt. Further, the Bodin J. 1568. La réponse aux paradoxes de Malestroit.
Bodin J. 1573. La harangue de Messire Charles des Cars.
Italian thinker Giovanni Botero (1544–1617) Bodin J. 1576. Les Six Livres de la République
appears to have been influenced by Bodin in his Bodin J. 1577. Recueil de tout ce qui s’est négocié en la
treatment of the concept of “reason of state” compagnie du tiers état [. . .]
(in French, raison d’état) in his Della ragion di Bodin J. 1578. Juris universi distributio
Bodin J. 1580. De la démonomanie des sorciers
Stato (1589), while a number of references to Bodin J. before 1581. Apologie de Réne Herpin pour la
Bodin were also made by the Dutch jurist Hugo République
Grotius (1583–1645) in his De jure belli ac pacis Bodin J. 1586. De republica libri sex
(1625). In England (where the idea of sovereignty Bodin J. 1588. Sapientiae moralis epitome
Bodin J. 1596a. Paradoxon.
came under increasing debate, especially within Bodin J. 1596b. Universae naturae theatrum.
the context of the civil war in the mid-seventeenth Bodin J. 1602. Consilia de principe recte instituendo
century), Bodin’s ideas had a significant impact Bodin J. 1841a. Colloquium heptaplomeres
on Sir Robert Filmer (1588–1653) who often cites Bodin J. 1841b. Epı̂tre de Jean Bodin touchant l’institution
de ses Enfans de 1586
the French jurist in advancing his theory of mon-
archy as an absolute and divinely sanctioned type
of power in his book Patriarcha (1680). John Modern Editions and Translations of Bodin’s
Locke’s (1632–1704) refutation of Filmer’s argu- Works
Bodin J. 1945. Method for the easy comprehension of
ments in his Two Treatises of Government
history. Trans. Beatrice Reynolds. New York: Colum-
(1689) may thereby be seen to provide also a bia University Press.
response to Bodin’s theory of sovereignty. Bodin J. 1955. Six books of the commonwealth,
Another important English philosopher who Abr. ed. Trans. Marian J. Tooley. Oxford: Basil
Blackwell.
appears to have been influenced by Bodin is
Bodin J. 1962. The Six Bookes of a Commonweal. Trans.
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679). Hobbes’s affinity Richard Knolles and ed. Kenneth Douglas McRae.
with Bodin may best be seen in his treatment of Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
16 Bodin, Jean
Bodin J. 1965. Address to the Senate and People of Tou- Franklin, Julian H. 1973. Jean Bodin and the Rise of
louse on education of youth in the commonwealth. Absolutist Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Trans. George Albert Moore. Chevy Chase: Country Press.
Dollar Press. Heinsohn, Gunnar, and Otto Steiger. 1999. Birth control:
Bodin J. 1992. On sovereignty. Trans. and ed. Julian The political-economic rationale behind Jean Bodin’s
H. Franklin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Démonomanie. History of Political Economy 31(3):
Bodin J. 1995. On the Demon-Mania of witches. Trans. 423–448.
Randy A. Scott. Abr. ed. and intro. Jonathan L. Pearl. Heller, Henry. 1994. Bodin on slavery and primitive
Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance accummulation. The Sixteenth Century Journal 25(1):
Studies. 53–65.
Bodin J. 1997. Response to the Paradoxes of Malestroit. Keohane, Oisín. 2015. Bodin on sovereignty: Taking
Trans. Henry Tudor and ed. Henry Tudor and R. W. exception to translation? Paragraph 38(2): 245–260.
Dyson. Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum. Krause, Virginia. 2005. Confessional fictions and demon-
Bodin J. 2008. Colloquium of the seven about secrets of the ology in renaissance France. Journal of Medieval and
Sublime. Trans. Marion Leathers Kuntz. Princeton: Early Modern Studies 35(2): 327–348.
Princeton University Press, 1975 Second edition. Uni- Lloyd, Howell A., ed. 2013. The Reception of Bodin.
versity Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
McRae, Kenneth D. 1955. Ramist tendencies in the
thought of Jean Bodin. Journal of the History of Ideas
16(3): 306–323.
Andrew, Edward. 2011. Jean Bodin on Sovereignty.
O’Brien, Denis P. 2000. Bodin’s analysis of inflation. His-
Republics of Letters: A Journal for the Study of Knowl-
tory of Political Economy 32(2): 267–292.
edge, Politics, and the Arts 2(2): 75–84.
O’Brien, Denis P. 2007. The development of monetary
Aristotle. 1932. Reprint. 2005. Politics. Trans.
economics: A modern perspective on monetary contro-
H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard Univer-
versies, 9–36. Cheltenham/Northampton: Edward
sity Press.
Elgar. Especially Chapter 2: Bodin’s Analysis of
Bartelson, Jens. 2011. On the indivisibility of sovereignty.
Inflation.
Republics of Letters: A Journal for the Study of Knowl-
Pearl, Jonathan L. 1982. Humanism and Satanism: Jean
edge, Politics, and the Arts 2(2): 85–94. http://rofl.
Bodin’s contribution to the witchcraft crisis. Canadian
stanford.edu.node/91.
Review of Sociology and Anthropology 19(4):
Blair, Ann. 1997. The Theater of Nature. Princeton: Jean
541–548.
Bodin and Renaissance Science.
Remer, Gary. 1994. Dialogues of toleration: Erasmus and
Brown, John L. 1939. Reprint 1969. The Methodus ad
Bodin. Review of Politics 56(2): 305–336.
facilem historiarum cognitionem of Jean Bodin.
Rose, Paul Lawrence. 1980. Bodin and the Great God of
Washington, DC/New York.
Nature. Genève: The Moral and Religious Universe of
Couzinet Marie-Dominique, 1996. Méthode et histoire à la
a Judaiser.
Renaissance. Une lecture de la Methodus ad facilem
Salmon, J.H.M. 1996. The legacy of John Bodin: Absolut-
historiarum cognitionem de Jean Bodin. Paris.
ism, populism or constitutionalism? History of Political
Engster, Daniel. 1996. Jean Bodin, scepticism and absolute
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sovereignty. History of Political Thought 17(4):
Tooley, Marian J. 1953. Bodin and the mediaeval theory of
469–499.
climate. Speculum 28(1): 64–83.
Engster, Daniel 2007. La logique divine dans Les six livres
Ulph, Owen. 1947. Jean Bodin and the Estates-General of
de la République de Jean Bodin; La philosophie morale
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de Jean Bodin dans le Paradoxe de 1596; Jean Bodin et
Wolfe, Martin. 1968. Jean Bodin on Taxes: The
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au XVIe siècle:83–124;225–236. Paris.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_288-1
Bouju Théophraste
Born: unknown (16th century?)
Died: unknown (17th century?)
Violaine Giacomotto-Charra*
Université Bordeaux Montaigne, UFR Humanités, Pessac, France
Abstract
Théophraste Bouju was a Catholic controversialist, an outspoken opponent of Pierre du Moulin, and
an author of a major comprehensive work entitled Corps de toute la Philosophie,which, in the wake
of individual publication of the works of Dupleix, provides the reader with an overarching synthesis
of Scholastic philosophy in French and clearly bears the stamp of Jesuit thinking.
Synonyms
Bouju de Beaulieu, Bouju-Beaulieu; Bonju, Théophraste
Biography
Little is known of Bouju’s life. He was born into a Protestant family in the Anger region of France,
the son of Jacques Bouju, President of the Parliament of Brittany. He later converted to Catholicism
and was ordained into the priesthood. The title pages of his works indicate that in 1604 he was
chaplain to French King Henry IV, while in 1603 he describes himself as simply “Catholic.” By
1613, he had become “Adviser and Ordinary Chaplain to the King.” Little else, beyond what his
books tell us, is known about his life.
Works
Bouju is renown for two reasons. The first is related to the theological controversy which brought
him into conflict with the Protestant Pierre du Moulin, from 1603 on. One of his earliest publications
is perfectly explicit on this point: “Methode de convaincre par la saincte escriture, tous
schismatiques et heretiques. Selon laquelle est demonstrée la fausseté de la doctrine des pretenduz
reformez Calvinistes, Zwingliens et Lutheriens, contraire à celle des Catholiques [. . .] contre le
sieur du Moulin, ministre de la pretendue Eglise reformée, continuant à renier sa confession de Foy”
[On the Method of convincing all schismatics and heretics through the holy scriptures. According to
which the falseness of the professed reformist doctrine of the Calvinists, Zwinglians and Lutherans
is thereby demonstrated, unlike the true Catholic doctrine [. . .] and in opposition to Monsieur du
Moulin, minister of the professed reformed Church and who continues to recant his confession of
*Email: violaine.giacomotto@u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr
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Faith]. This work is dedicated to the “King of England, Scotland, and Ireland” whom Bouju rather
sheepishly admonishes thus: “A raison dequoy, vostre Majesté venant à s’apercevoir, que
l’instruction qu’on luy a donnée, ne conduict pas à son but, et à ses desseings, elle sera obligée de
choisir une meilleure voye”[By reason of which, if His Majesty should come to recognize that the
instruction he has received does not guide him to his own end and designs, then His Majesty should
choose a better path].
Moreover, over and above these theological controversies, Bouju is the author of Corps de toute
la Philosophie (1614), a voluminous appraisal (1,500 pages in folio) of Aristotelian philosophy:
Corps de toute la Philosophie divisé en deux parties. La premiere contient tout ce qui appartient à la
sapience [. . .], la seconde contient tout ce qui appartient à la Prudence [. . .], le tout par demon-
stration et auctorité d’Aristote, avec esclarcissement de sa doctrine par luy-mesme [The corpus of
all philosophy divided into two parts. The first contains all which belongs to knowledge [. . .], the
second contains all which belongs to Prudence [. . .], and both are demonstrated by the authority of
Aristotle, with explanations of his doctrine by himself]. The work is dedicated to the King and Queen
regent. In the preface, Bouju points to his desire to make philosophy accessible to all, with a view to
promoting unity and peace across the French kingdom. His main target was the largely ill-educated
old nobility whom he wished to convert to reason as a means of curbing their entrenched bellicosity:
“En somme la philosophie est necessaire à un Estat, pour le conserver sans troubles” [Philosophy is
necessary for the State, to protect it from unrest].
The Corps de toute la Philosophie provides a highly didactic synthesis (Bouju uses educational
innovations present in the work of Dupleix) of a generally rather conservative vein of Scholastic
philosophy, indicative of Thomism and Jesuit influences. Like Dupleix, Bouju’s work by far
surpasses mere compilation – he takes a stand on a number of points, both in the physics and
metaphysics (see Ariew).
Cross-References
▶ Dupleix
▶ Jesuits
References
Ariew R (1999) Descartes and the last scholastics, 50–51, 61–64, 80, 107–108, 111, 113, 146, 164,
171. New York
Bouju T (1603) Destruction des faux arguments et sophismes du sieur de Montigny, premier
Ministre de la pretenduë Eglise reformée de Paris. Par lesquels il veut prouver sa confession de
foy du sacrement de l’Eucharistie, defendre les contradictions, dont elle se destruit elle-mesme, et
reprouver la croyance des Catholiques. Plus les lettres de refus du sieur du Moulin, second
Ministre, n’osant venir à la conference, selon lesquelles, ou il est convaincu en sa confession de
foy, ou il la renonce. Paris
Bouju T (1603) Cartel de deffy du sieur de Bouju surnommé de Beaulieu, envoyé au Sieur du
Moulin, avec les responces et repliques de part et d’autres. Sur le point de la Cene, et des Marques
de la vraye Eglise. S.l
Bouju T (1604) Methode de convaincre par la Saincte Escriture, tous schismatiques et heretiques.
Selon laquelle est demonstrée la fausseté de la doctrine des pretenduz reformez Calvinistes,
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Zwingliens et Lutheriens, contraire à celle des Catholiques: ès points de l’Eglise, De la Parole de

Dieu, ou tradition Apostolique non escrite, De la presence reelle du corps et du sang de Jesus-
Christ, au S. Sacrement de l’Eucharistie, De la Transsubstantiation, Du Sacrifice de la Messe, De
la communion souz une espece, Du Purgatoire, Des Indulgences, De la veneration et invocation
des saincts, De la veneration de leurs reliques, et De la veneration des images. Contre le sieur du
Moulin, ministre de la pretendue Eglise reformée, continuant à renier sa confession de Foy. Paris
Bouju T (1604) La honteuse Fuite du sieur Du Moulin, ministre, après avoir renié sa confession de
foy. Paris
Bouju T (1613) Deux advis, l’un sur le livre de M. Edmond Richer Docteur en Theologie de la
faculté de Paris : intitulé, De la puissance Ecclesiastique et Politique, l’autre sur un livre dont
l’autheur ne se nomme point, qui est intitulé : Commentaire sur l’auctorité de quelque Concile
General que ce soit, sur le Pape : De la Responce Synodale à Basle, etc.
Bouju T (1614) Corps de toute la philosophie. Paris
Demonet ML (2010) Bouju. In: Foisneau L (ed) The dictionary of seventeenth-century French
philosophers. Thoemmes-Continuum, London, pp 192–195
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Canaye, Philippe
Born: Paris, 1555
Died: Paris, 25 February 1610
Abstract
Philippe Canaye was a jurist, initially brought up according to Calvinist principles before converting
to Catholicism. He played an important political and diplomatic role under French Kings Henry III
and Henry IV. In the field of philosophy, he produced a paraphrase of the Organon in French, the first
vernacular adaptation of the text, and spoke out in favor of instrumental logic.
Alternate Names
Canaye, Philippe, sieur de Fresne
Also known as: Philippe du Fresnes Canaye
Biography
Philippe Canaye was the son of Jacques Canaye, a lawyer at the Parliament of Paris. He trained as
a jurist and chose Protestantism as his religion. In 1572–1573, he was in Italy and accompanied the
French ambassador to Constantinople. In his account of travels, his Ephemerides (published only in
1897), he reflects on the religious tolerance practiced in Constantinople and levels criticism at
French intolerance. He in turn became a lawyer at the Parliament of Paris (he was a friend of Du Vair
and De Thou), and, under French King Henry III, he purchased a position as Conseiller d’État. He
grew in eminence when Henry IV sent him as an ambassador to several European Protestant
countries (England, Switzerland, and Germany). In 1595, he presided over the bipartite chamber
of Languedoc, established in Castres. He was also one of the judges at the 1600 “Conférence de
Fontainebleau” between the Catholic Du Perron and Protestant Du Plessis-Mornay. He himself
converted to Catholicism in 1601. He was then appointed ambassador to Venice, a post in which he
remained until 1607. He returned to Paris and died in 1610. He distinguished himself throughout his
career for his efforts to promote peace, goodwill, and religious tolerance across the kingdom.
Works
Philippe Canaye’s most distinguished contribution to the history of philosophy is his publication in
1589 of L’Organe, c’est-à-dire l’Instrument du Discours. This text is a paraphrase rather than
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a translation of Aristotle’s Organon. As M.L. Demonet has shown, it was probably inspired by
a paraphrase penned in Latin by Claude Aubery - Organon, id est Instrumentum doctrinarum
omnium (1584). As the title indicates, the text defends logic as an instrument or tool of reason and
science, rather than as a science per se. Canaye considers that analytical philosophy is the most
important element in logics and he asserts that “l’art du discours donc ne consiste pas à trouver
l’ornement du langage, mais à fonder et establir la raison par laquelle on puisse contempler
clairement la vérité” [the art of discourse does not then consist in uncovering the ornaments of
language, but rather in founding and establishing reason as a basis for plainly contemplating truth]
(L’Organe, Préface).
The Preface to L’Organe is a key element of the work. In it Canaye defends a highly political
conception of the role of logic. He sees logic as a means of promoting goodwill, national unity, and
religious tolerance and also as a means of harmonizing opposing modes of reasoning and thereby
bringing appeasement to controversy.
References
Canaye P (1573) Hauser H (1986) Le Voyage du Levant : de Venise à Constantinople,
l’émerveillement d’un jeune humaniste (1573). Ferrières
Canaye P (1589) L’Organe, c’est-à-dire l’instrument du discours, divisé en deux parties, sçavoir est,
l’analytique, pour discourir véritablement, et la dialectique, pour discourir probablement. Le tout
puisé de l’Organe d’Aristote. Genève
Canaye P (1598) Remonstrances et discours faicts et prononcez en la Cour et Chambre de l’edict
establie à Castres d’Albigeois, pour le ressort de la Cour de Parlement de Tholose, par messire
Philippe Canaye, seigneur de Fresnes [. . .] et president en laditte Cour, Paris
Canaye P (1635–1636) Lettres et ambassade de messire Philippe Canaye, seigneur de Fresne [. . .]
avec un sommaire de sa vie, et un recit particulier du proces criminel fait au marechal de Biron.
Paris
Demonet ML (1991) La nouvelle logique française: L’Organe de Philippe Canaye. In: Demonet et
ML, Tournon A (eds) Logique et Littérature à la Renaissance. Paris, pp 89–100
Dubail I (1998) L’éthos du controversiste (1560–1600): d’un sophiste à l’autre”. In: Clément
M (ed) Les fruits de la dissension religieuse : fin XVe – début XVIIIe siècles. Institut Claude
Longeon, Saint-Etienne, pp 37–42
Griffiths C (2013) Confessional Conflict and ‘Turkish’ Tolerance? Philippe Canaye, Sieur de
Fresnes, Huguenot and Catholic Convert”. In: McKee J, Vigne R (eds) The Huguenots: France,
Exile & Diaspora. Brighton, Portland, and Toronto: Sussex Academic Press
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Champaignac, Jean de
Born: unknown (15th century?)
Died: unknown (16th century?)
Abstract
Jean de Champaignac was one of a number of erudite magistrates who, in the late sixteenth and early
seventeenth century, undertook the popularization of Aristotelian philosophy for an elite readership
unwilling to read in Latin. While his ideas were not the most original (his work is mainly
compilation), he is the author of the first French Physique and Sommaire des Quatre Parties de la
Philosophie, bringing together the four branches of Scholastic philosophy.
Alternate Names
Champeynac
Biography
Very little is known of the life of Jean de Champaignac, as almost no archive research has been carried
out into the subject. What is known for sure are the dates of publication of his works and their
titles – his first texts, La Physique Françoise and Traité de l’Immortalité de l’Ame, were published in
1595. At this time, he was a lawyer with the Parliament of Bordeaux and held a position as Master of
Requests for “Madame la Princesse, sœur unique du Roy” (Madame la Princesse, only sister to the
King), Margaret of Valois. One deduces from this that he was born some 25 or 30 years prior to this
date. In 1607, when his Sommaire des Quatre Partie de la Philosophie was published, he presented
himself as Equerry, sieur Dumas, Councilor to the King, Lieutenant assesseur at the Présidial tribunal
of Périgueux. He was still officiating as Margaret of Valois’s Master of Requests. The Sommaire was
reedited in both 1607 and 1610. After this, all editorial trace of Champaignac is lost for good.
Works
The work of Jean de Champaignac has the merit of being the first attempt on the part of a Jurist at
penning a synthesis of Scholastic philosophy in French. This project, which only came to fruition in
1606, is explicitly mentioned in the preface to La Physique in 1595. Before Champaignac, the reader
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could turn only to the Œuvres de Philosophie, à Sçavoir Dialectique, Phisique, et Ethique d’Aristote
Reduictz en Epitome (1583), a concise manual produced by Noël Taillepied, a schoolmaster,
intended for educational purposes.
Champaignac’s project targeted an entirely different readership. In the preface to the Physique,
Champaignac leaves the linguistic dimension aside, although he does introduce a number of elements
borrowed from Scholastic Latin. He describes himself rather as a man who, however committed to his
work as a magistrate, does not neglect “good sciences,” even if he lacks the time and energy they might
merit – “un vray courtisan [. . .] qui ne peut vo€uer tout son esprit à un project” (a true courtier [. . .] who
may not devote his spirit entirely to a single project). This translates Champaignac’s desire to educate
the kingdom’s elite in a comprehensive, swift, and efficient way. The identity of the dedicatees of his
texts is also worthy of note. La Physique and the Traité de l’Immortalité de l’Ame are dedicated to
a woman, Jacquette de Montbron, a member of the new female elite. She was born into a noble family
from southwest France, was well educated, and was a cousin of Brantôme. The Sommaire is dedicated
to Margaret of Valois. Champaignac’s work, before that even of Dupleix and Bouju, thus marks an
important stage in the development and popularization of philosophy.
Only the two treatises on physics are fully developed works. Champaignac completed his initial
project in order to publish the Sommaire, but in doing so cut his subject matter short. In terms of
content, his Physique and Traité de l’Immortalité de l’Ame are are lacking in originality – they set
forward Aristotelian doctrine as it was taught at the arts faculty, firmly rooted in the Thomistic tradition
(particularly the Traité de l’Immortalité de l’Ame), but delving also into a number of available manuals
in Latin and clearly Christianized (see, e.g., the chapter establishing that the world was created, a fact
which could be proven through reason). Like other manuals aiming to provide swift and comprehen-
sive edification, Aristotle’s text is elaborated upon in a number of areas. Champaignac takes his
inspiration from the model of the “Tractatus de sphaera” to develop his explanation of astronomy.
One passage from his treatise on the soul is celebrated for its critique of the hypothesis of animal
intelligence, in response to Montaigne’s position.
Cross-References
▶ Bouju de Beaulieu
▶ Theophraste Dupleix
▶ Scipion
References
Busson H (1971) Le rationalisme dans la littérature française de la Renaissance (1533–1601). Vrin,
Paris, pp 507–508
Champaignac, J. de (1595a) Physique françoise expliquant universellement la cognoissance de
toutes choses naturelles. S. Millanges, Bordeaux
Champaignac, J. de (1595b) Traité de l’immortalité de l’âme. S. Millanges, Bordeaux
Champaignac, J. de (1606) Sommaire des quatre parties de la philosophie : logique, ethique,
phisique et metaphisique. F. Bourriquant et J. Gesselin, Paris
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Demonet ML (2008) Champeynac. In: Foisneau L (ed) Dictionary of XVIIth century French
philosophers. Thoemmes Continuum, New York
Gontier T (1998) De l’homme à l’animal: Montaigne et Descartes ou les paradoxes de la philosophie
moderne sur la nature des animaux, 105. Vrin, Paris, pp 191–192
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Collège de France
Abstract
A long-lasting Renaissance creation, the Collège de France was precariously founded under King Francis
I thanks to Parisian humanists who asked the monarchy to protect free studies on ancient and oriental
tongues against the powerful, traditional Sorbonne University. The professorship of Petrus Ramus, from
1551 to his assassination in 1572, set the acme of sixteenth century’s Institution des Lecteurs Royaux. Its
building was not officially decided before King Henri IV and was opened after 1610, under Louis
XIII. Less brilliant during the seventeenth century, and then called Collège royal, it still allowed new
disciplines, ranging from languages and history to maths through medicine, to be taught in stable
conditions and at international standards by French or foreigner scholars.
Synonyms
Collège royal; Institution des Lecteurs Royaux
The Background: A Long Struggle for Humanism in Paris

Thanks to the spread of Italian Humanism, early sixteenth-century Western Europe was in conditions to
start permanent university teaching in ancient and oriental tongues. This was no longer meant for practical
purposes, such as obtaining religious conversions by Orientals, but for building and spreading a scientific
knowledge in itself. More than in Italy, ancient Greek and Hebrew interested many European scholars
aiming to better understand biblical texts, a cultural movement known as “Christian Humanism.” Towns
with important theological universities, like Oxford and Cambridge, launched chairs in Greek and
Hebrew; Louvain opened in 1517 its “Collegium Trilingue” (dedicated to the “Three Tongues”: Greek,
Hebrew, and classical Latin); Rome itself had a college for Greek studies, founded by Janus Lascaris in
1515; new universities were founded, like Vienna’s Collegium Poetarum et Mathematicorum in 1501 or
Alcalá de Henares, Spain, in 1508.
Medieval Paris was par excellence the theological capital with its Faculté de Théologie, also called La
Sorbonne, and was bound to keep traditional university practice without changes. That is probably the
main reason why the Parisian equivalent for Louvain’s Collegium Trilingue took until 1530 to be
established – and that in a precarious way. Attempts to charge Erasmus, in 1517, and Lascaris, in 1518,
of founding this kind of new “college” in Paris were not successful (Lefranc 1893, 1932; Gadoffre 1997;
Tuilier et al. 2006; La Garanderie 2010).
Led by Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples and, later, by Guillaume Budé (La Garanderie 1995; Fumaroli 1998;
Maillard et al. 1999, 2010), the Parisian humanist movement struggled during King Louis XII’s reign to
be recognized but obtained the Court’s favors only after 1515, with King Francis I, who will be afterward
*Email: luigialberto.sanchi@virgilio.it
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remembered of as the “Father of Arts and Letters.” Budé introduced his philological masterpiece
Commentarii linguæ Græcæ, printed in September 1529 (Budé 1529), with a Greek Preface to the
King which is considered to be the starting point of Collège royal, because he vibrantly asked the
King, to whom the preface was read in a French version (Paris, B.n.F., ms. fr. 25445), to fulfill an old
promise to finance the construction of a majestic building for the teaching of the “two languages” (Greek
and Hebrew) and to appoint French and international scholars in order to educate the French (Sanchi
2006). Shortly after, beginning of 1530, the first scholars were given the professorship, but no building
was started; this will officially be decided only by King Henri IV and opened after 1610, under Louis XIII
(Chamard and Girot 2001).
Humanists in Paris took full advantage of such important protectors and sponsors as the King’s sister
Marguerite de Navarre, Paris’ bishop Étienne Poncher, the King’s confessor Guillaume Petit, and a few
others, like Jean Du Bellay, the future cardinal, who represented an enlightened wing of the French
catholic Church as decisive as the Parisian humanist movement for the survival of Collège de France
during its first years (Bulæus [Du Boulay] 1673; Lefranc 1932; Tuilier et al. 2006). Such protections were
really necessary. Defined as the chief of the intellectual “Conservative Party” (Farge 1992), No€el Béda,
the dean of the theological Faculty from 1520 to 1533, actively menaced any scholar in Paris who tried to
teach biblical Greek or Hebrew or criticize Jerome’s Vulgate, without a Ph.D. degree in Theology. The
trial that Beda called in 1533 against the first “lecteurs royaux” is a famous moment in Collège de France’s
history and a fundamental, if silent, humanist victory on the theological faculty (Lefranc 1893, 1932;
Tuilier et al. 2006). That guaranteed the Institution even from the prosecutions which took place the next
year, after the “Affaire de Placards” scandal (October 1534), a radical anti-Catholic bill-sticking which
provoked emotion in Paris and potentially endangered every humanist or printer in France, systematically
suspected of being a Lutheran.
Textual Approach, Scientific Horizons

Founded on a thorough study of ancient tongues, pushed at the best time’s standards, the teaching of the first
“lecteurs royaux” extended quickly to all the sciences, since the proficiency in Ancient Greek opened the
way to enlarge knowledge in many scientific areas, ranging from medicine to mathematics. That is why the
first chairs in 1530, allowed to the French Pierre Danès and Jacques Toussain in Greek and to the Italians
Agathias Guidacerius and Paulus Paradisus (Paolo Canossa) in Hebrew, came together with one in
mathematics, offered to the French Oronce Fine (Parenty 2009; Kessler-Mesguich 2013). Because of
the opposition of the university, the Institution had to wait until 1534 to get a chair in Latin Eloquence
(Bulæus 1673), appointed to Barthélémy Latomus, from Luxembourg. In 1538, Guillaume Postel was
appointed with a new chair dedicated to the “Oriental Tongues” (Arab and others) which also helped
developing the study of sciences; in 1540 a second chair in mathematics was created, and, in 1542, the new
medicine teaching was opened by the Italian surgeon and anatomist Guido Guidi (Vidus Vidius). The lectures
were announced by billposting in the Latin Quarter and open to the public, as it is attested by a register of
the Paris Parliament, where the contents of some bills are quoted (Paris, Archives Nationales, X1A 4895).
An important step forward to strengthen the legal existence of the Institution was done in 1546 with a
“Committimus,” a King’s letter setting the Royal Professors out of the reach of ordinary justice – a
privilege giving them a prestigious status. After that, the second half of sixteenth and early seventeenth
century made the glory of the Collège with key scholars as Adrien Turnèbe, Denis Lambin, and Isaac
Casaubon in Greek and Léger Du Chesne and Fédéric Morel in Latin; new chairs in surgery, Arab,
anatomy, and botany were founded (see a list of professors in Lefranc 1932). Jean Dorat, professor in
Greek, educated the poets of the Pléiade group, like François Ronsard and Jean Du Bellay.
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It was ordered in 1566 that any new candidate for professorship be elected after a public examination by
the other Royal Professors and, in 1594, that they take the loyalty oath to the King, after the Civil War.
The most successful as well as revolutionary teaching was Petrus Ramus’ teaching in Greek and Latin
philosophy, which was characterized by a bold anti-Aristotelian point of view, from 1551 to his
assassination in 1572 (Couzinet et al. 2004). In his 1568 testament, Ramus also left an amount of
money to fund a chair in sciences, called “Ramus chair,” which lasted until the French Revolution
(Lefranc 1893; Chamard and Girot 2001).
A Still Living Heritage

The Institution of the Royal Professors was the central organization for what has been called a “Cultural
Revolution” in France (Gadoffre 1997): it operated the long-term shift in the selection of French élite from
mainly military or merely legal to scientific and erudite. The educational strategies of families who wanted
to have power and government responsibilities in France mirror this major change. The renewal of French
and European universities as well as general culture received an important contribution from the first
Parisian humanists. These scholars took the legacy of Italian Renaissance, then, in a more mature phase,
by sixteenth-century Royal Professors and finally by the Collège Royal as it was established in the
seventeenth century. These professorships were narrowly associated to the activity of the most celebrated
French printers – and, among them, the Royal printers, such as Robert Estienne (Stephanus) or Morel,
aiming to give Europe a new generation of Classical editions in all fields, after the first, mostly Italian,
generations of humanist printers.
Collège Royal’s impact needs to be measured more precisely by adding each professor’s teaching and
legacy during his period of activity at the Collège, especially for the most famous of them. It can also be
said that fields of Classical and Oriental philology, medicine, and physical sciences took a great advantage
from the existence of the Collège, given the King’s protection it had in an era of heavy control on public
teaching in Catholic Counter-Reformation countries, when several intellectuals and scholars were pushed
to leave France and its censorship. The privileged status that was granted to Collège Royal ensured its
survival also through the French Revolution and until today. A characteristic point of its legacy is the call
for scientific innovation and excellence and for the creation and fostering of new disciplines, which
became a major feature from the nineteenth century on.
Cross-References
▶ Ramus, Petrus
References
Primary Literature
Budé G (1529) Commentarii linguæ Græcæ. J. Bade, Paris
Paris, Archives Nationales, série X1A 4895 (Registres du Parlement de Paris, matinées, 1533, Nov
12–1534, Apr 2), f 221r-225v
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. français 25445
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_292-1
Bulæus [Du Boulay] C (1673) Historia Universitatis Parisiensis, vol VI. F. Noel - P. De Bresche, Paris
Chamard H, Girot J-E (2001) Collège royal. In: Dictionnaire des Lettres françaises. Le XVIe siècle.
Librairie générale française, Paris, pp 278–283
Couzinet M-D et al (2004) Ramus et l’Université. Editions Rue d’Ulm, Paris
de La Garanderie M-M (1995) Christianisme et Lettres profanes. Essai sur l’humanisme français
(1515–1535) et sur la pensée de Guillaume Budé. H. Champion, Paris
de La Garanderie M-M (2010) Guillaume Budé, philosophe de la culture. Classiques Garnier, Paris
Farge JK (1992) Le Parti conservateur au XVIe siècle. Université et Parlement de Paris à l’époque de la
Renaissance et de la Réforme. Collège de France, Paris
Fumaroli M (ed) (1998) Les Origines du Collège de France. Klincksieck - Collège de France, Paris
Gadoffre G (1997) La Révolution culturelle dans la France des Humanistes. Guillaume Budé et François
Ier. Librairie Droz S.A., Genève
Kessler-Mesguich S (2013) Les Études hébraïques en France de François Tissard à Richard Simon
(1508–1680). Librarie Droz S.A., Genève
Lefranc A (1893) Histoire du Collège de France depuis ses origines jusqu’à la fin du Premier empire.
Hachette, Paris. Reprint 1970, Slatkine, Genève
Lefranc A (1932) La fondation et les commencements du Collège de France. In: Le Collège de France
(1530–1930), livre jubilaire. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, pp 27–58
Maillard J-F et al (1999) La France des Humanistes. Hellénistes I. Brepols, Turnhout
Maillard J-F et al (2010) La France des Humanistes. Hellénistes II. Brepols, Turnhout
Parenty H (2009) Isaac Casaubon helléniste. Des studia humanitatis à la philologie. Librairie Droz S.A.,
Genève
Sanchi L-A (2006) Les “Commentaires de la langue grecque” de G. Budé: l’œuvre, ses sources, sa
préparation. Librairie Droz S.A., Genève
Tuilier A et al (2006) Histoire du Collège de France, vol. 1: La Création. Fayard, Paris
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Connan, François
Born: 1508
Died: 1 September 1551
Xavier Prévost*
Faculté de droit et science politique, Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France
Abstract
François Connan, French jurist of the sixteenth century, is one of the greatest representatives of the
legal humanism. His only book, called Commentarii juris civilis libri X, applies a systematic
method, which criticizes both the structure of the Corpus juris civilis and the work of the medieval
jurisconsults.
Synonyms
Franciscus Connanus
Biography
François Connan was a French jurist of the sixteenth century, born in 1508 and died in 1551 in Paris.
During his studies, he has been the pupil of two great figures of the Renaissance. First, he studied at
the Collège du Cardinal-Lemoine in Paris, where Raoul Spifame taught him Aristotelian philoso-
phy. Second, he followed the lectures of Andrea Alciato in Bourges around 1529. The Milanese was
then laying the foundation of legal humanism in France. Moreover, Connan was also influenced by
Jean Calvin, who was his friend during their legal studies in Orléans and Bourges. Connan became
a lawyer at the Parliament of Paris, before being appointed maı̂tre des comptes by Francis I in 1539.
The following year, he was promoted maı̂tre des requêtes de l’Hôtel. His career allowed him to
further expand his circle of humanist friends: statesmen, such as Michel de l’Hospital and Christofle
de Thou, but also the poets of La Pléiade. The unique and unfinished book of Connan is then
published by another of his humanist friends, Louis Le Roy, who made printed the Commentarii
juris civilis libri X in 1553, two years after Connan’s death (Connan 1553).
Because of the new method used by its author, this book is certainly one of the most important
works of the legal humanism. Indeed, Connan appears as one of the first representatives of the
systematist current of legal humanism, which was influenced by Cicero and his famous expression
jus ad artem redigere (Bergfeld 1968). According to Connan and all the systematist jurists of the
sixteenth century, the classical Roman law formed a coherent and rational system, unlike the
compilations of the Byzantine Empire. Thus, they aim to expound the law in a logical order
according to a deductive approach, going from general to specific. They have not rediscovered the
ancient Roman law – which was not systematic – but their works have deeply transformed the
*Email: xavier.prevost@ens-cachan.org
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European legal orders of the modern times. The Commentarii juris civilis libri X have taken part in
this major break with the previous jurisprudence.
Connan criticizes both the structure of the Corpus juris civilis and the work of the medieval
jurisconsults. Like all the humanists, he rejects the scholastic method of the Commentators. Contrary
to the Bartolists, he tries to come back to the sources. But, in Connan’s view, the sources are also
distorted and the Justinian’s compilations are incoherent. So, in order to find the true sense of the
Roman rules, he deconstructs the Corpus juris civilis and reassembles it according to a rational
method (Piano Mortari 1966). Thus, the Commentarii juris civilis libri X are built on the framework
of the Institutes of Justinian. In fact, only this book of the Justinian’s compilations is deemed
coherent by Connan. Consequently, the French humanist begins his commentaries with the sources
and the legal history (book I). Then, he resumes the tripartite division of the Institutes: persons (book
II), things (books III and IV), and actions (books V to X). Connan develops all his commentaries
from Roman law, by gathering together the texts scattered in the Corpus juris civilis. Besides, he
mentions some French customs.
After Connan, numerous jurists have used the division of the Institutes in order to build their own
commentaries. So, even if they are still unrecognized, the Commentarii juris civilis libri X represent
an important break in the history of legal thought; and Connan’s work has had a real legacy. His
original method has given rise to a prolific movement. Especially thanks to Hugues Doneau, the
systematist current of legal humanism has had a big influence on Grotius and the school of
natural law.
References
Primary Literature
Connan F (1553) Commentarii juris civilis libri X. Paris
Bergfeld C (1968) Franciscus Connanus (1508–1551). Ein Systematiker des römischen Rechts.
Köln/Graz, Böhlau.
Piano Mortari V (1966) “La sistematica come ideale umanistico dell’opera di Francesco Connano”.
In: La Storia del diritto nel quadro delle scienze storiche. Atti primo congresso internazionale
della Societa italiana di storia del diritto. Firenze. L.S. Olschki. pp 521–531
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Cujas, Jacques
Born: 1522
Xavier Prévost*
Faculté de droit et science politique, Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, Cedex, France
Abstract
Jacques Cujas, French jurist of the sixteenth century, is one of the greatest representatives of the legal
humanism. Cujas is a prolific author: his Opera omnia represent ten volumes in folio, which concern
mainly Roman law, but also canon law and feudal law. He applies a historical method, which
represents one of the biggest divide with medieval jurisprudence.
Synonyms
Jacobus Cujacius
Biography
Jacques Cujas was a French jurist, born at Toulouse in 1522, where he did all his studies. When his
master, Arnaud Du Ferrier, left the university in 1544, Cujas decided to deepen on his own side his
knowledge in classics. However, he did not neglect law, and he became lecturer in charge of
Justinian’s Institutes at the University of Toulouse in 1547. Since he did not manage to get a chair
of Roman law in Toulouse, he left for Cahors, where he succeeded as a professor to Antonio de
Goveia in 1554. Then, his career was more on travelling. He stayed in Cahors less than a year, thanks
to Margaret of France, Duchess of Berry, who offered him a chair in the renowned University of
Bourges, which was then the centre of the legal studies reform. Confronted to the opposition of a part
of the university, Cujas resigned himself to leave in 1557. He spent less than two years in the
University of Valence and came back to Bourges in November 1559, after the death of Le Douaren.
His first books have then established his repute. When Margaret of France – become Duchess of
Savoy – called him to teach at Turin in 1566, he was already one of the most renowned jurisconsults
in Europe. But Cujas stayed only a few months in Italy. He was back in Valence in September 1567,
covered with honour and money. However, due to a financial conflict, he accepted the offer of the
University of Bourges in 1575, after a few months in Paris where the prohibition of teaching civil
law was suspended in his favour. Cujas ended his career at Bourges, where he died on the fourth of
October 1590, celebrated as the greatest jurist of the time (Berriat-Saint-Prix 1821; Spangenberg
1822). Ten volumes in folio in Latin are the result from this long and brilliant career, which was
devoted to the humanist reform of legal studies (Cujas 1658).
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Cujas is indeed one of the greatest representatives of legal humanism. More precisely, he belongs
to the historicist current of legal humanism, which considers that the concept of evolution is central
to legal analysis. The law does not exist in a vacuum but is created within a specific historical
context. This approach represents one of the biggest divide with medieval methods. In part thanks to
their extensive knowledge of the sources, especially of ancient times, the humanists thus removed
the Corpus juris civilis from timelessness, underlining the different stages of the construction of the
legal system. Cujas’s method seeks both to restore the texts in their original version and to take into
account the whole history of the texts. To this end, the French humanist uses not only his knowledge
of the medieval and modern legal thought but also his vast literary and philosophical culture. So,
Cujas might be considered as the first legal historian. Besides this historical reading of the texts,
three stumbling points distinguish Cujas from the medieval jurisprudence: the consideration of
Greek sources, the better command of the language and the search for a “classical” Latin, and the
discovery of interpolations and transcription errors.
Nevertheless, Cujas does not completely break with his predecessors. If, as all the humanists,
Cujas rejects the scholastic method and the authorities, his works borrow some features to the first
exegetes of the Corpus juris civilis. Especially, he does not hesitate to confirm some interpretations
of the glossators and commentators. Indeed, the absence of dogmatism is certainly one of the most
distinctive characteristics of Cujas’s writings (Prévost 2014).
Maybe, this is one of the reasons of its incredible posterity. Cujas has influenced a great part of the
jurists, from the middle of the sixteenth century to the promulgation of the French “code civil”.
Though he despised authorities, Cujas has become – before his death – the authority, quoted in
courts and books. Today, even if his books are no longer read, he is still a reference notably for his
editions of the ancient legal sources.
References
Primary Literature
Cujas J (1658) Opera Omnia, in decem tomos distributa. . . Editio nova emendatior et auctior cæteris
omnibus quæ ante prodierunt, opera et cura Caroli Annibalis Fabroti IC. Paris
Berriat-Saint-Prix J (1821). Histoire du droit romain suivie de l’histoire de Cujas. Nêve, Paris
Prévost X (2014, forthcoming) Jacques Cujas (1522–1590), Jurisconsulte humaniste. Droz, Geneva
Spangenberg E (1822). Jacob Cujas und seine Zeitgenossen. Sauer und Auvermann, Leipzig (rep.
Frankfurt, 1967)
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Dolet, Etienne
Born: 3 August 1509, Orléans
Died: 3 August 1546, Paris
Michèle Clément*
Faculté des Lettres, Sciences du Langage et Arts, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
Abstract
Etienne Dolet represents the complexity of intellectual life in the first half of the sixteenth century: before
his imprisonment in Paris in 1544, he is intensely active in Lyon between 1534 and 1544; orator, poet,
historian, grammarian, linguist, translatologist, editor, publisher, and printer, he made the most of each of
his competencies to build a very diversified oeuvre in only 10 years. The determination of his intellectual
and religious positions is much more complex and uncertain. It would be a mistake to pin a simple label on
them. The question whether Dolet was a “freethinker” or a “Gospel propagator” is not the right one.
Etienne Dolet was a humanist; he died for being a humanist. Language will be at the heart of his thinking;
he is a philologist and a philosopher because of language.
With Etienne Dolet, we touch the complexity of intellectual life in the first half of the sixteenth century:
orator, poet, historian, grammarian, linguist, translatologist, editor, publisher, and printer, he made the
most of each of his competencies to build a very diversified oeuvre in only 10 years. The determination of
his intellectual and religious positions is much more complex and uncertain. It would be a mistake to pin a
simple label on them. The question whether Dolet was a “freethinker” or a “Gospel propagator” (Febvre
1957, p. 231) is not the right one. Etienne Dolet was a humanist; he died for being a humanist. Language
will be at the heart of his thinking; he is a philologist and a philosopher because of language.
His polemical first book, Orationes duae in Tholosam, (Lloyd-Jones and Van Der Poel 1992) published
in Lyon in 1534, opens his intellectual carrier, which will develop under the sign of Ciceronian Latin that
he will defend, against Erasmus, among others. From 1536, he becomes a popularizer of the French
language, quickly understanding the political, historical, medical, and religious stakes. Before his
imprisonment in Paris in 1544, he is intensely active in Lyon between 1534 and 1544. He is simulta-
neously a poet with the Carmina (Langlois-Pézeret 2009), the author of a dictionary with the
Commentariorum linguæ latinæ (Dolet 1536-1538), a translator, a historian of the reign of Francis I, a
scientific publisher, and a printer (Cicero, Terence, Virgil, Suetonius, Sophocles, Aesop, Galen, Marot,
Rabelais, Castiglione, Erasmus, the Psalms, the New Testament, etc.). However, his admiration for the
pagans, his studies in Padua, and his problematic Christianity will lead him to the stake. At the end of a
first trial by the Inquisition in 1542, he is condemned as a heretic for publishing prohibited books and
using the word “fatum” “non comme devait le faire un chrétien” (Longeon 1977, p. 26); King Francis
I grants him his clemency in 1543. Dolet backslides willfully in 1544 with the publishing of the Second
Enfer (Dolet 1544) as well as two of Plato’s dialogues dedicated to the king. One of the dialogues contains
the sentence that will kill him. One sentence from the Axiochus (ascribed at the time to Plato) enables the
Sorbonne to accuse him on 4 November 1544 of denying the immortality of the soul: “Quant à ce dialogue
*Email: michele.clement@univ-lyon2.fr
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mis en français intitulé Axiochus, ce lieu et passage, c’est à savoir “attendu que tu ne seras plus rien du
tout” est mal traduit, et est contre l’intention de Plato, auquel n’y a, ni en grec, ni en latin, ces mots rien du
tout [. . .] “attendu que tu ne seras plus rien du tout” est dictum epicuraeum” (Longeon 1977, p. 71). The
Parlement of Paris condemns him to death on 2 August 1546. The sentence is executed on 3 August.
Using a word that questions Christian providentialism (fatum), translating a sentence in a radical way, and
printing forbidden books, these are the reasons for his execution. Like Berquin in 1529, Michel Servet in
1553, or Giordano Bruno in 1600, Dolet dies an intellectual, because he contributed to the richness of
public space without self-censorship or caution.
Providing the texts from antiquity without Christianizing them is one of the risks that Dolet takes, just
as he risks the printing and circulating texts which have been condemned by the Sorbonne. Dolet
is defined by the intellectual risk that combines philological strictness and audacious transmission.
The risk was covered by the king until 1544 (“privilège” of 1538; “lettres de rémission” of 1543)
(Longeon 1977, p. 41). Did Dolet overestimate the king’s authority in the face of the power of the Church
and the Parlement? In his jail, the philosopher is naked.
Cross-References
▶ Ciceronianism
▶ Eloquence
▶ Fate-Renaissance Philosophy
▶ Translation-Renaissance Philosophy
References
Dolet, E. 1536–1538. Commentariorum linguæ latinæ tomus primus, Lyon, S. Gryphe, 1536 et tomus
secundus, Lyon, S. Gryphe, 1538.
Dolet, E. 1544. Axiochus in Le second enfer d'Estienne Dolet avec deux dialogues de Platon, l'ung intitulé
Axiochus, item ung aultre intitulé Hipparchus, Lyon.
Febvre, L. 1957. Au Cœur religieux du XVIe siècle. Paris: S. E. V. P. E. N (chapter: “Un cas désespéré ?
Dolet propagateur de l’Évangile”).
Longeon, Claude (ed.). 1978. Le Second Enfer, (1544). Genève: Droz.
Longeon, C. 1977. Documents d’archives sur Étienne Dolet. Publications de l’U. de Saint-Etienne.
Lloyd-Jones, K., and Van Der Poel, M. 1992. Les Orationes Duae in Tholosam d’Etienne Dolet (1534).
Introduction. Fac-similé de l’édition originale. Traduction et Notes par. Genève: Droz.
Primary Literature
Dolet, E. 1536–1538. Commentariorum linguæ latinæ tomus primus, Lyon, S. Gryphe, 1536 et tomus
secundus, Lyon, S. Gryphe, 1538.
Dolet, E. 1540. La maniere de bien traduire d’une langue en aultre. A Lyon, chez Dolet.
Langlois-Pézeret, Catherine (ed.). 2009. Carmina (1538) de Dolet. Genève: Droz.
Lloyd-Jones, K., and Van Der Poel, M. 1992. Les Orationes Duae in Tholosam d’Etienne Dolet (1534).
Introduction. Fac-similé de l’édition originale. Traduction et Notes par. Genève: Droz.
Longeon, Claude (ed.). 1978. Le Second Enfer, (1544). Genève: Droz.
Telle, Émile V. (ed.). 1974. L’Erasmianus sive Ciceronianus d’Étienne Dolet (1535). Genève: Droz.
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Christie, R. C. 1880. Etienne Dolet. The Martyr of the Renaissance (1508–1546). London: Macmillan.
Clément, M. (ed.). (2012). Étienne Dolet 1509–2009. Genève: Droz.
Collective. 1986. Étienne Dolet (1509–1946), Cahiers V.-L. Saulnier n° 3, Paris.
Febvre, L. 1957. Au Cœur religieux du XVIe siècle. Paris: S. E. V. P. E. N (chapter: “Un cas désespéré ?
Dolet propagateur de l’Évangile”).
Longeon, C. 1977. Documents d’archives sur Étienne Dolet. Publications de l’U. de Saint-Etienne.
Worth, V. 1988. Practising translation in Renaissance France: the example of Etienne Dolet. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Page 3 of 3
L
Le Douaren, François Guillaume Budé, one of the greatest figures of

humanism in France, who had a huge influence
Born: 1509 on Le Douaren. Thanks to him, he studied in
Died: 1559 Paris, but it is not known where he learned law.
After his studies, he taught in Paris, where he was
Xavier Prévost notably the master of the sons of his famous
Faculté de droit et science politique, Université protector. From 1538, he was a professor of
de Bordeaux, Pessac France, France civil law in the prestigious university of Bourges,
which was however less brilliant since the depar-
ture of Andrea Alciato. François Le Douaren
Abstract contributed to rebuild the faculty as the center
of the legal studies reform. Indeed, Marguerite de
François Le Douaren, French jurist of the Navarre, duchess of Berry, tried to draw to
sixteenth century, is one of the greatest represen- Bourges the best humanist jurisconsults. None-
tatives of the legal humanism. In his books (four theless, the harmony with each other was often
volumes in folio for his opera omnia), he applies disturbed, due to methodological and personal
a systematic method, which criticizes the struc- disagreements. Thus, Le Douaren quarreled
ture of the Corpus Juris Civilis and breaks with with his colleague, Éguiner Baron, that led him
the scholastic method of the medieval to leave the university in 1547. He became then a
jurisprudence. lawyer in Paris, but he came back in Bourges in
1550 after Baron’s death. Then, he came quickly
into conflict with another humanist, François
Synonyms Baudouin, who had replaced him two years
before. This time, his opponent left, but Le
Franciscus Duarenus; François Duaren Douaren opposed the new professor, namely,
Jacques Cujas. So, Cujas resigned himself to
leave in 1557, two years after his appointment.
Biography Le Douaren ended his career at Bourges,
renowned in Europe as one of the greatest jurists
François Le Douaren was a French jurist of the of the time.
sixteenth century, born in 1509 in Moncontour In his works, François Le Douaren applies
(Brittany) and died in 1559 in Bourges (Berry). humanist principles to the legal studies. Conse-
His father – judge in Brittany – was linked with quently, he breaks with the scholastic method of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_296-1
2 Le Douaren, François
the medieval jurisprudence. He wants to come knowledge of the Institutes is an essential prereq-
back to the sources of the Roman law. But, uisite for the study of the Digest and the Code.
according to him, the Corpus Juris Civilis pre- The prolific works of François Le Douaren
sents the sources in an incoherent way. He criti- (four volumes in folio in the edition of
cizes Justinian’s compilations and tries, in his 1765–1768) are recognized, during his life, as
writings, to study the Roman law following a innovative and very erudite. After his death, his
rational method. So, he appears as one of the opera omnia has been reprinted numerous times,
greatest representatives of the systematist current what proves their spreading through Europe.
of legal humanism. This current was influenced Moreover, his method has been improved by
by the famous passage “jus ad artem redigere” of his pupil Hugues Doneau, who has influenced
Cicero. Its upholders, as Le Douaren, want to Grotius. Consequently, Le Douaren had a legacy
expound the law in a logical order according to in the European legal orders of the modern times
a deductive approach. Thus, the French humanist thanks to the school of natural law.
considers that law has to be studied and taught
from general to specific.
Among the humanist features of Le Douaren’s References
works, his search for a perfect “classical” Latin
should be noted. He reproaches to his predeces- Primary Literature
sors, i.e. the glossators and commentators, their Le Douaren, F. 1765–1768. Opera Omnia. Lucca. J.
Rocchii
poor knowledge of the language, which led to
misunderstand the sense of the Roman texts. In
a humanist manner, he also uses the Greek Secondary Literature
Jobbé-Duval, É. 1912. François le Douaren (Duarenus),
sources. The systematist approach is indeed 1509–1559. In Mélanges P. F. Girard, E´tudes de droit
coupled with a critical analysis of the sources in romain dédiées à M. P. F. Girard à l’occasion du 60e
order to find the true sense of the texts of the anniversaire de sa naissance (26 octobre 1912), t. 1,
573–621. Paris. A. Rousseau
Corpus Juris Civilis. The method of Le Douaren
Vogt, W. 1971. Franciscus Duarenus (1505–1559), Seine
explains also the importance given to the Insti- didaktisches Reformprogramm und seine Bedeutung
tutes of Justinian. For instance, he wants to f€
ur die Entwicklung der Zivilrechtsdogmatik. Stuttgart.
improve their teaching. According to him, the W. Kohlhammer
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_297-1
Dupleix, Scipion
Born: Condom, 1569
Died: Condom, 1661
Université bordeaux montaigne, UFR Humanité, Pessac, France
Abstract
Scipion Dupleix was a magistrate born in the southwest of France and renowned for his historiog-
raphy of the Bourbons. He was also a pioneer in the popularization of scholastic philosophy in
France. Between 1600 and 1610, he produced four works, his Logique (Paris, Salis, 1600), Physique
(Paris, Vve Salis et Sonnius, 1603, followed in 1604 by the Suitte de la Physique, dealing with the
question of the soul), Métaphysique (Paris, Vve Salis et Sonnius, 1610), and Éthique (Paris, Vve
Salis et Sonnius, 1610), along with two other works, the first entitled Les Causes de la Veille et du
Sommeil, des Songes, de la Vie et de la Mort (Paris, Vve Salis et Sonnius, 1606), inspired by
Aristotle’s Parva Naturalia, and La Curiosité Naturelle Redigée en Questions (Paris, Vve Salis et
Sonnius, 1606), inspired by the Problemata genre and classifying each “problem” in alphabetical
order, a singularly new idea at the time. These texts were later brought together and published under
the title Corps de Philosophie. This was a commercial, mass circulation edition, free of royal
censorship, first printed in Lyon by Rigaud in 1620 and subsequently in Rouen and Geneva.
A further edition, entitled Cours de Philosophie, was published with the author’s approval by his
customary publisher, Sonnius. Dupleix’s complete works met with resounding success up until 1645
and his Curiosité Naturelle was even translated into English (The Resolver or Curiosities of Nature,
London, 1635).
Short Biography
Scipion Dupleix became an orphan at the age of 11. He was educated at the Collège de Guyenne,
where he followed the teaching of Scottish scholastic philosopher Robert Balfour to whom he
claimed he owed his learning. Contrary to popular opinion, he was not appointed preceptor to the
Comte de Moret (there is no historical proof to corroborate this (Blanquie 2008a)) and did not
embark upon his career in philosophy on the instigation of Queen Margaret of Valois, first wife of
King Henry IV of France. Dupleix had published La Logique and La Physique before meeting her
and put his work to good use in winning the Queen’s favors (Blanquie 2008a, 2008b). She took him
into her service in 1605 and encouraged him to pursue his philosophical reflections. In 1619, he
published his Memoires des Gaules and became king’s historian, in the service of King Louis XIII
and Cardinal Richelieu. Despite the fact that he entered into the King’s service, he remained
a magistrate until his death (he became “Premier consul” of Condom in 1626 and State Councillor).
Page 1 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_297-1

Dupleix was both a philosopher and pioneering figure in the popularization of philosophy. In the
latter role, he was the first person to produce a complete work on scholastic philosophy in French
that was more than the mere digest or abridged version like those hitherto penned by Noël Taillepied
(Œuvres de philosophie, à Sçavoir Dialectique, Phisique, et Ethique d’Aristote, 1583) or Jean de
Champaignac (or Champeynac: Sommaire des Quatre Parties de la Philosophie, Logique, Ethique,
Phisique et Metaphisique, 1606). Dupleix was also keenly interested in pedagogical questions and
takes great care to accompany his reader, even the novice, step by step down the path towards
philosophical enlightenment. He coined or disseminated a number of philosophical terms in French
directly borrowed from scholastic Latin and peppered his treatise with numerous quotations from
Aristotle which he translated into French, at a time when not a single of the treatises of the corpus
naturale had as yet been translated. His writing is characterized by the values of humanism and
clearly expresses a desire to please those most bookish among his readers – his texts are enriched
with snippets of Latin or Greek poetry, and he refers abundantly to the work of the great French poet
Guillaume du Bartas who worked in the field of science in the 1580s (Balsamo 2004; Giacomotto-
Charra 2014). Dupleix unites his desire to disseminate a philosophical train of thought, faithfully
translating scholastic works and drawing its inspiration directly from Latin manuals, with that of
striking a happy medium between the scholarly idiom of French philosophy and a more amiable
style capable of winning over readers with no natural predilection for philosophy.
In many ways, Dupleix was a true philosopher. He resolutely adopted instrumental logic and, in
his other works, made clear philosophical choices. He regularly (albeit not systematically) voiced his
opposition to Thomist interpretations, preferring Duns Scot or Durand de Saint-Pourçain (Ariew
1992; Faye 1986, 1998). He discussed the philosophy of his day and was a vehement critic of Jean
Bodin and his Universæ Naturæ Theatrum, integrating contemporary ideas on medicine formulated
by Jean Fernel into his treatise and correcting Aristotle on certain points. He explored such questions
as metempsychosis and demonomania, thereby directly responding to commonplace concerns of his
day. While Roger Ariew considered him a scholastic philosopher, in Wonder and the Order of
Nature, L. Daston and K. Parks regarded him as a preternatural philosopher, providing ample proof
if any were needed that his philosophy, hitherto so little studied, is worthy of far greater exploration.
Cross-References
▶ Bouju de Beaulieu, Théophraste
▶ Champaignac, Jean de
References
Ariew R (1992) Scipion Dupleix et l’anti-thomisme au xviie siècle. Corpus 20/21:295–302
Balsamo J (2004) Dire le monde ‘selon l’expérience et la raison’. La Physique de Scipion Dupleix.
In: Gorris Camos R (ed) Macrocosmo/Microscosmo. Scrivere e pensare il mondo nel Cinque-
cento tra Italia e Francia. Schena Editore, Verona, pp 279–288
Blanquie C (2008a) Un magistrat à l’âge baroque, Scipion Dupleix, 1569–1661. Éditions Kimé,
Publisud, Paris
Page 2 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_297-1
Blanquie C (2008b) Les épîtres dédicatoires de Scipion Dupleix. Une carrière en épîtres? Éditions
Kimé, Paris
Dupleix S (1600) Logique ou art de raisonner, Reduite en preceptes puisés d’Aristote et de ses plus
signalés interpretes: avec telle facilité et brieveté, que les studieux François y puissent profiter.
Dominique Salis, Paris
Dupleix S (1603). La Physique. Vve Salis et L. Sonnius, Paris
Dupleix S (1604) La suite de la physique. Vve Salis et L. Sonnius, Paris
Dupleix S (1606a) Les causes de la veille et du sommeil, des songes et de la vie et de la mort. Vve
Salis et L. Sonnius, Paris
Dupleix S (1606b) La curiosité naturelle redigée en questions, selon l’ordre alphabetique. Vve Salis
et L. Sonnius, Paris
Dupleix S (1610a) La Metaphysique. Vve Salis et L. Sonnius, Paris
Dupleix S (1610b) L’Ethique. Vve Salis et L. Sonnius, Paris
Dupleix S (1620) Corps de philosophie. Rigaud, Lyon
Dupleix S (1626) Cours de philosophie. Sonnius, Paris
Dupleix S (1635) The resolver, or cusiosities of nature. Nicholas Okes and John Okes, London
Faye E (1986) Le corps de philosophie de Scipion Dupleix et l’arbre cartésien des sciences. Corpus
2:7–15
Faye E (1998) Philosophie et perfection de l’homme: de la Renaissance à Descartes. Vrin, Paris
Giacomotto-Charra V (2014) Scipion Dupleix, passeur de textes savants et poétiques. In Diu I,
Bénévent C, Lastraioli C (ed) Gens du livre, gens de lettres à la Renaissance. Turnhout, Brepols,
pp 171–183
Page 3 of 3
F
Fernel, Jean Biography
Born: c. 1497, Montdidier, France Fernel was born at Montdidier (near Amiens) but
raised in Paris from the age of 12. After taking an
Died: 26 April 1558, Fontainebleau, France MA in 1519 at the Collège de Sainte Barbe, of the
University of Paris, he turned down the immediate
John Henry offer to teach dialectic there and embarked instead
Science Studies Unit, University of Edinburgh, on a rigorous course of autodidacticism. He devel-
Edinburgh, UK oped such a profound interest in mathematics that
he considered mathematics alongside divinity and
jurisprudence as possible careers. He decided
Abstract upon medicine, however, because his love of sol-
Jean Fernel was one of the leading physicians itude made him unsuited to the public perfor-
and medical writers of his age, who not only set mance required in law and in the church, and
out compendious synoptic accounts of Galenic mathematics had no clear opportunities. Fernel
theory for the first time but also offered his own taught philosophy at the Collège de Sainte Barbe
major reforms of medical theory in order to while pursuing his MD, but he also published his
deal with contagious and other infectious dis- first works at this time: three short mathematical
eases (which were not adequately dealt with in treatises.
ancient medicine). He stands, therefore, along- Fernel achieved his doctorate in 1530, but he
side Paracelsus (1493–1541) and Girolamo continued his autodidactic course, particularly in
Fracastoro (1483–1553), as the only would- mathematics. Fernel’s devotion to mathematics
be medical reformers of the sixteenth century. absorbed much of his time and money, to the
detriment not only of his medical studies but
also of his recent marriage. Fernel’s wife and his
father-in-law, a senator of Paris, finally prevailed
Alternate Name
upon him to give up mathematics and concentrate
on medicine (Henry 2011).
▶ Johannes Fernelius
He now embarked on his chosen career in
earnest. After 6 years of teaching Hippocrates
and Galen at the Collège de Cornouailles, he
was forced to stop teaching to concentrate on his
burgeoning practice; but he also now embarked on
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_301-1
2 Fernel, Jean
writing the major medical works for which he matters. It also gives instruction in casting horo-
became renowned. His reputation was so high by scopes. In the Cosmotheoria, Fernel suggests that
1542 that he was summoned by Prince Henri even the sphere of the primum mobile, which he
(1519–1599) to treat the serious illness of his agrees is starless, exerts an occult influence on
mistress, Diane de Poitiers (1499–1566). Believ- earth. Given these interests, it is hardly surprising
ing that Fernel saved his beloved mistress’s life, that Fernel’s first medical work should also draw
Henri wanted to appoint Fernel his physician-in- heavily upon astrological theory. It was a major
chief. Fernel managed to avoid this obligation premise of the De abditis rerum causis (On the
until 1556, when he finally ran out of excuses Hidden Causes of Things, written around 1538,
and became royal physician for the last years of although not published until 1548) that many of
his life. At first, Fernel believed this post would the phenomena of life derive from a nature in
allow him more time to pursue his studies, away things which corresponds in some way to the
from his crowding patients, but war with Spain nature of the stars and that there is a “celebrated
and England rudely intervened. Fernel in his heavenly power, diffused into the whole universe,
sixties had to march with the army. When he [which] makes its way right into the remotest
returned to court at Fontainebleau, he fetched his recesses of the earth, penetrating the most close-
wife from Paris, but after a few days there, she knit and solid bodies” (Fernel 2005, Book I, Ch. 8,
developed a fatal illness. Fernel was overwhelmed p. 313) (Henry 2013).
by the death of his wife and was himself taken ill
and soon followed his wife to the grave. It is
recorded that before he became a royal physician, Fernel, Reformer of Medical Theory
his practice generated an annual income that often
exceeded twelve thousand French pounds and The De abditis rerum causis was a major study of
rarely fell below ten (Sherrington 1946, p. 170). the nature of contagious and pestilential, or epi-
demic, diseases which seemed anomalous
according to ancient theory. Fernel’s new theory
From Mathematics to Medicine was closer to what historians of medicine, follow-
ing Owsei Temkin (1977), call an ontological
Fernel’s three mathematical treatises mark his concept, rather than a physiological concept of
early efforts to forge a career for himself in math- disease. Hippocratic and Galenic theory saw all
ematics. Monalosphaerium (1527) was a descrip- disease in terms of a disturbance of the patient’s
tion of a new mathematical instrument (based on four humors such that the normal healthy temper-
the astrolabe). Cosmotheoria (1528) included ament (the balance of the humors in the body) was
Fernel’s description of how he measured the dis- disrupted. It follows from this that diseases do not
tance on the ground of a degree of latitude have a separate existence in their own right. It was
(accurate to within 0.8 percent of today’s value), recognized, of course, that diseases can be char-
and De proportionibus libri duo (1528) was a acterized and can be seen to have their own spe-
simple instructor on proportions (Henry 2011). cific natures: scabies is easily distinguished from
The transition to medicine, however, would not rabies, for example. But for the Hippocratic or
have been a major wrench in intellectual outlook. Galenic physician, the nature of disease remains
On the contrary, medicine and mathematics were rooted in disturbance to normal human physiol-
closely affiliated in his day. An obvious associa- ogy. The difficulty with this individualistic phys-
tion occurred through the juxtaposition of astron- iological approach to sickness, seeing every
omy and astrology and the taken-for-granted illness as the special problem of one patient, is
assumption that astrology was useful in progno- that it cannot easily explain conditions which
sis. The Monalosphaerium includes material on seem to be infectious. Why should one patient’s
“critical days” in fevers and the effect of the lunar physiological disruption be capable in some cases
cycle and the motions of the zodiac on medical of being passed on to others with different
Fernel, Jean 3
constitutions or temperaments? The difficulty is taught to medical students through the summary
especially severe for Galenic theory in the case of and commentary provided in the Canon of the
epidemic diseases, such as plague. Infectious dis- Persian polymath, Avicenna (980–1037) (Siraisi
eases, especially epidemic ones, strongly seem to 1987). So, there was no systematic treatment of
suggest that diseases have a kind of life of their physiology until Fernel’s. Accordingly, the
own; they seem to be real, distinct entities, which Physiologia is probably the fullest and most
can pass from one person to another. It was the clearly organized exposition of Renaissance
increasing prominence of this kind of disease Galenism that was ever written and represents
which led some thinkers to develop an ontological the high-water mark of European Galenism. Its
theory of disease. appearance also coincided with changes in
Fernel did not reject humoral pathology but demand for published works. During the Renais-
saw his own theory as an extension of ancient sance, the systematic textbook came to be seen as
theory, an addition to it, specifically for dealing a more useful commodity than the commentaries
with infectious, and pestilential conditions, as on ancient authorities and the compilations of
well as what he calls “poisonous diseases” Quaestiones which had been more typical in the
(by which he meant those bodily disturbances medieval period. One way and another, the
brought about by those poisons which evidently Physiologia was a book which made its author’s
do not operate by upsetting the balance of the reputation (Fernel 2003).
humors). This was written up in the form of a Fernel followed this up with would-be compre-
Ciceronian dialogue in De abditis rerum causis hensive surveys of pathology (Pathologia), and
and was already finished by 1538, but withheld therapeutics (Therapeutice), and gathered all three
from the press. together in the compendious Medicina (1554). It
Fernel decided that before publishing his seems likely that Fernel intended to withhold the
refinement, or addition, to the standard medical De abditis rerum causis until after the appearance
theory, he should clarify what he took to be the full of this full survey of all of ancient medicine, but in
extent of the standard medical theory. By 1538, the event, he published it after the De naturali
therefore, he had already begun writing De parte medicina, in 1548. It is possible that he
naturali parte medicina (On the Natural Part of decided to publish at this time as a result of the
Medicine), which was published in 1542 and publication of Girolamo Fracastoro’s De
which offered a compendious account of the contagione in 1546, which also offered a new
structure, powers, and functions, of the healthy theoretical understanding of contagious diseases
human being. Fernel subsequently appropriated (Fernel 2005). After Fernel’s death, the Medicina
the term physiologia (which then signified the and De abditis causis were included together in
study of nature in general) as the title of this his Universa medicina (1567).
work and so gave rise to the modern usage of
“physiology” as the study of living systems.
The Physiologia was extremely useful and On the Hidden Causes of Things (1548)
made Fernel one of the most renowned medical
writers of the day. Its importance lay in the fact De abditis rerum causis is divided into two parts.
that it was the first serious attempt to present the The first is concerned with the natural philosophy
prevailing assumptions about the nature of the of generation, or animal reproduction, and the
human body, which underlay the Renaissance means by which the soul enters into a newly
system of medical theory, in a comprehensively created human. The second part is concerned
synoptic way. The medical theory of Fernel’s day with three sorts of “hidden disease,” which is to
was based mostly on the eclectic system of med- say, diseases with hidden causes: “poisonous,
icine propounded by the prolific Hellenistic phy- contagious, and pestilent.” The linking factor
sician and philosopher, Galen of Pergamum between these two parts is the role of the stars or
(129–199 AD). Galen’s own accounts were the heavens. Fernel argues that the stars do not
fragmented and diverse; accordingly, they were send any material substance down to earth, but
4 Fernel, Jean
they can send down a part of their power which The problem with this theory, of course, was
can then work on correctly organized and consti- that its recourse to occult qualities and powers
tuted bodies to make those bodies produce within would have been dissatisfying to many of his
themselves life and a soul or in pathological cir- readers – no better than a confession of ignorance
cumstances one of the “hidden diseases” (Fernel (the position later satirized by Molière when he
2005, Henry 2013). made a doctor in one of his plays pompously
All three kinds of hidden disease present the intone that opium puts patients to sleep because
standard physiological concept of disease of the of its occult “dormitive virtue”). Consequently,
Galenic tradition with severe difficulties. The Fernel devoted much of the De abditis causis to
unvarying pattern of such diseases, so that all explaining as fully as he could what these partic-
patients irrespective of type or temperament ular occult qualities or powers were, where they
respond in essentially the same way, seemed to come from, where they reside, and what they
offer evidence that the physiological view of dis- could do (Hirai 2002). It is evident, however,
ease, based on an individual’s humoral imbalance, that Fernel did not believe that his arguments
was misconceived. Consequently, Fernel offered about these matters were sufficient to persuade
his own alternative account. Diseases of these all his contemporaries, and as a consequence,
types were held to act, not on the humors but on another major effort of the book is directed to
what Fernel called the “total substance” of the justifying in more general terms recourse to occult
body. The “total substance” seems to be equiva- powers. One aspect of this was to throw doubt on
lent to the scholastic notion of substantial form, the validity of the distinction between so-called
and it is not clear why Fernel did not simply call it manifest qualities (hot, cold, dry, and wet) and
that. Perhaps it was simply because he did not occult qualities (Fernel 2005). Another was to
want to become involved in contemporary debates extol the virtues of empiricism as a way of dis-
about the validity and usefulness of the concept of covering the operations of occult qualities and
substantial form. processes (Henry 2013). Fernel also drew exten-
The diseases with hidden causes were all held sively upon two influential aspects of the occult
to act by means of some occult power. The model tradition: astrology and alchemy. Interestingly, his
for all of them was essentially disease caused by use of alchemy to help make his case was taken up
poison. A substance entering the body from out- in turn by contemporary alchemists who used
side, either through a bite or a wound, or simply Fernel’s views to bolster alchemical theory
through contact with the skin (and the ability to (Matton 2002). It is these nonmedical aspects of
soak through), or by ingestion or inhalation, could the book which made it a major contribution not
wreak havoc in the healthy body and could work just to medical theory but also to current natural
with such immediacy that it was impossible to philosophy.
believe that it acted through an accumulation of
corrupt humor, which would have been required
on the precepts of humoral pathology. A poison is Impact and Legacy
a material thing, but by working immediately on
the whole body, it was considered to work by During, and immediately after, his own lifetime,
occult means. It was not such a big step, therefore, Fernel was immensely influential. As one of the
to claim that pestilential diseases were caused by prime movers in the development of theories
the occult influence of the stars. The stars did not suggesting an ontological, as opposed to a physi-
send anything material to earth, but merely trans- ological, view of disease, Fernel’s works attracted
mitted part of their power, which could then enter a lot of attention. One reason for his success,
into the body and cause it to break down, analo- among his contemporaries, was the modest way
gously with the way a poison caused the body to in which he introduced his reforms – often seeking
break down. A poison has an occult power, and to show that his innovatory ideas can either be
the stars have occult powers. found in, or at least can be seen to emerge from,
the works of Aristotle and Galen. This contrasted
Fernel, Jean 5
sharply with the iconoclastic approach of Paracel- ▶ Contagion

sus and his followers, whose dismissal of Aristotle ▶ Galen and Galenism
and Galen seemed to contemporaries to be not just ▶ Generation/Embryology
arrogant but also absurd (since everyone knew ▶ Girolamo Fracastoro
that the works of Aristotle and Galen were “tried ▶ Occult Properties
and true” and had been for hundreds of years). ▶ Paracelsus and Paracelsianism
Fernel did not reject Aristotle and Galen but
seemed to want to build from their works,
extending and refining them (Hirai 2005). His
References
influence upon his contemporaries was at least as
great as Fracastoro’s, and rivalled that of Paracel-
Primary Literature
sus, particularly among more conservative Fernel J. 2003. Physiologia (1567). Trans. J. M. Forrester.
thinkers. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.
Even so, Fernel has failed to attract the kind of 93, American Philosophical Society: Philadelphia.
attention from historians accorded to either Fernel, J. 2005. In Jean Fernel’s on the hidden causes of
things: Forms, souls and occult diseases in Renais-
Fracastoro or Paracelsus. Perhaps this lack of sance medicine, ed. John Forrester and John Henry.
interest stems from the fact that Fernel’s theory Leiden: Brill.
of occult diseases has no easy association with
modern ideas. On the face of it, Fernel seems
less interesting than Fracastoro, because Henry, J. 2011. “Mathematics made no contribution to the
Fracastoro’s seeds of disease can easily be likened public weal”: Why Jean Fernel became a Physician.
to “germs,” while nothing in Fernel’s works Centaurus 53: 193–220.
seems to prefigure modern ideas (Hirai 2002). Henry, J. 2013. Jean Fernel on celestial influences and the
reform of medical theory. In Celestial novelties, science
On the contrary, because Fernel’s ideas were and politics on the eve of the scientific revolution
bound up with Renaissance theories of the occult, (1540–1630), ed. Dario Tessicini and Patrick J. Boner,
they have been treated by his modern commenta- 133–157. Rome: Olschki.
tors, until very recently, with some embarrass- Hirai, Hiro. 2002. Humanisme, néoplaonisme et prisca
theologia dans le concept de semence de Jean Fernel.
ment. It is important, however, to judge Fernel’s Corpus 41: 43–69.
theories according to the standards of his own Hirai, Hiro. 2005. Alter Galenus: Jean Fernel et son inter-
time. Fernel’s explanations, drawing heavily pretation platonico-chretienne de Galien. Early Science
upon supposed occult properties, were controver- and Medicine 10: 1–35.
Matton, Sylvain. 2002. Fernel et les alchimistes. Corpus
sial, but they were not regarded as in any way 41: 135–197.
absurd or ridiculous. Indeed, the Renaissance was Sherrington, Sir Charles. 1946. The endeavour of Jean
a time of reassessment of the validity of the notion Fernel, with a list of the editions of his writings. Cam-
of occult qualities, and Fernel’s claims about bridge: Cambridge University Press (reprinted Folke-
stone and London: Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1974).
occult diseases undoubtedly fed into that wider Siraisi, Nancy. 1987. Avicenna in Renaissance Italy: The
debate. Canon and medical teaching in Italian universities
after 1500. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Temkin, Owsei. 1977. The scientific approach to disease:
Specific entity and individual sickness. In The double
Cross-References face of Janus and other essays in the history of
medicine, ed. O. Temkin, 441–455. Baltimore: Johns
▶ Alchemy Hopkins University Press.
▶ Astrology
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_302-1
1 La Boétie
2 Born: 1530, Sarlat
3 Died: 1563, Germignan
4 Laurent Gerbier*
5 Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance, Université François Rabelais, Tours, France
6 Abstract
7 Born in 1530 to a family of wealthy merchants in Sarlat, Périgord, Étienne de La Boétie was trained in the
8 humanities and law and became a councillor in the Parlement of Bordeaux, where he met Michel de
9 Montaigne, who was to become his closest friend. He died in 1563 near Bordeaux, at the age of 33. His
10 famous Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, probably completed it around 1554, was only published in
11 1574, in a Protestant collection of anti-monarchical essays. However, the critical analysis of domination
12 developed by the Discourse does not concern the sole French Catholic monarchy: La Boétie rather
13 expands the classical analysis of tyranny and applies it to any form of individual power. This political
14 radicalism defined the way La Boétie was to be read and published from the sixteenth century to the
15 present: the Discourse offers a model to link the rejection of any kind of servitude with the constant
16 reminder of the part the subjects themselves always take in it. Indeed, by forging the concept of “voluntary
17 servitude,” La Boétie underlines that no individual may ever reduce any people to servitude without their
18 active consent. He then endeavors to understand the root of this actual corruption of the human nature:
19 “custom” is the force that led humanity to forget its native impetus toward freedom, and friendship seems
20 to be the only antidote against the habituation to servitude.
21 Article
22 His father Antoine de La Boétie, a civil magistrate from a wealthy family of merchants of the Périgord,
23 had married Philippe de Calvimont, whose father and brother had both been appointed as presidents of the
24 Parlement of Bordeaux. Their son Étienne was born in Sarlat in 1530; he was trained in the humanities in
25 Sarlat and, maybe, in a Parisian college, before receiving his law degree at the University of Orléans, in
26 1553. As a brilliant student, he became a councillor in the Parlement of Bordeaux as early as 1554, and the
27 same year he married Marguerite de Carle, a young widow from a family of noblemen and magistrates. In
28 Bordeaux, he developed a close friendship with a young colleague, Michel de Montaigne, who was later
29 to celebrate his friendship with La Boétie in his Essays. Beyond his career as a legal officer in Bordeaux,
30 La Boétie took part in several diplomatic negotiations between Catholics and Protestants in Périgord and
31 Guyenne during the early 1560s. In 1563 he died in Germignan, near Bordeaux, from a sudden dysentery.
32 Montaigne relates his friend’s last days in a letter to his father.
33 Étienne de La Boétie is the author of several pieces of French and Latin poetry and of a Mémoire sur la
34 pacification des troubles (Report on the pacification of the disorders). He also translated Xenophon’s
35 Œconomicos (La Mesnagerie de Xénophon) and Plutarch’s Marriage Advice (Les Règles du Mariage).
36 But La Boétie is best known for his Discours de la Servitude Volontaire (Discourse on Voluntary
*Email: laurent.gerbier@sfr.fr
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_302-1
37 Servitude), maybe written as early as 1548 (according to Montaigne), but obviously completed in
38 1553–1554, when his dedicatee Guillaume de Lur left Bordeaux to Paris, offering to La Boétie the
39 opportunity to take his seat at the Parlement of Bordeaux.
40 While the Discourse could be read as one of the many anti-tyrannical treatises produced during the
41 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, La Boétie actually breaks up with this tradition: his point is not against
42 tyranny in a classical sense, but against any kind of individual domination among men. Abandoning the
43 classical debate about the best political regime, La Boétie deems them all corrupted, as they all proceed
44 from a corruption of men’s natural freedom. But this corruption would be impossible without the
45 cooperation of the people themselves: they may be subject to domination if and only if they willingly
46 adhere to their own servitude. The first aim of the Discourse is to evidence this scandal of the voluntary
47 servitude; its second aim is to understand the cause of this situation. After having rejected many of the
48 classical causes of servitude and domination (Aristotle’s natural hierarchy as well as Augustine’s original
49 sin), La Boétie eventually discovers the one power that causes humans to get used to servitude, which is
50 “la coutume” (custom).
51 After a thorough analysis of the way custom operates and ruins the desire for freedom which can be
52 observed in any living creature, the Discourse ends up with a clever and precise condemnation of the
53 “chain of tyranny”: the domination is indeed never based upon a single individual, as smart or strong as he
54 may be. Around the tyrant lay circles of relatives, servants, and councillors, who act as relays and transmit
55 the power of tyranny to a continuous chain of subjects. Thus, the chain of tyranny holds a whole society
56 that lends its collective power to one man alone. But the purpose of the Discourse is not to incite revolt
57 against the power, but rather to challenge us, its readers: are we able to resist the power of custom and to
58 refuse to take part in the mechanism of tyranny? Are we able to recall our native freedom and build upon it
59 uncorrupted moral and social links among us?
60 Though he originally intended to publish his friend’s Discourse in the center of the first book of his
61 Essays, following the essay I, 28 “On friendship,” Montaigne eventually abandoned this project, as the
62 Protestants had seized upon the Discourse and published it in two collections of anti-monarchical texts, in
63 1573 and 1574. From then on, the Discourse has constantly been published in highly ideological contexts,
64 continuously demonstrating its strength as a keen and virulent critic against any kind of political
65 domination.
66 References
67 Primary Literature
68 La Boétie, É. 1976. Le Discours de la servitude volontaire. Ed. M. Abensour. Paris: Payot.
69 La Boétie, É. 1987. Discours de la servitude volontaire ou Contr’un. Ed. M. Smith. Genève: Droz.
70 La Boétie, É. 1991. Œuvres Complètes. Ed. L. Desgraves. Bordeaux: William Blake. This edition
71 includes La Boétie’s translations of Xenophon and Plutarch, as well as his French and Latin poetry.
72 La Boétie, É. 1993. De la servitude volontaire ou Le contr’un, suivi du Mémoire touchant l’édit de janvier
73 1562. Ed. N. Gontarbert. Paris: Gallimard.
74 La Boétie, É. 2002. Discours de la Servitude Volontaire. Ed. A. L. Tournon. Paris: Vrin.
75 Montaigne, M. 2007. Les Essais. Eds. J. Balsamo, M. Magnien, and C. Magnien-Simonin. Paris:
76 Gallimard.
77 Secondary Literature
78 Cahiers La Boétie, n 1. 2012a. Amitié et compagnie. Autour du Discours de la servitude volontaire. Ed.
79 S. Geonget, and L. Gerbier. Paris: Garnier.
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80 Cahiers La Boétie, n 2. 2012b. Les Figures de la coutume. Ed. L. Gerbier, and O. Guerrier. Paris: Garnier.
81 Cahiers La Boétie, n 3. 2013. Lectures politiques de La Boétie. Ed. L. Gerbier. Paris: Garnier.
82 Cahiers La Boétie, n 4. 2014. Nature et naturel. Eds. L. Gerbier, and O. Guerrier. Paris: Garnier.
83 Cocula, A.-M. 1995. Étienne de La Boétie. Bordeaux: Sud-Ouest.
84 Delacomptée, J.M. 1995. Et qu’un seul soit l’ami. La Boétie. Paris: Gallimard.
85 Gerbier, L. 2015. Un sujet vulgaire et tracassé ? Notes pour une lecture philosophique du Discours de la
86 servitude volontaire de La Boétie. Seizième Siècle 11: 331–348.
87 Guerrier, O. 2008. Aux origines du Discours de la servitude volontaire. Autour d’un mot de Plutarque. In
88 Moralia et Œuvres morales à la Renaissance, ed. Guerrier, O, 237–251. Paris: Garnier.
89 Guerrier, O., M. Boulet, and M. Thorel. 2015. La Boétie. Discours de la servitude volontaire. Paris:
90 Atlande.
91 Knop, D., and J. Balsamo. 2014. De la servitude volontaire. Rhétorique et politique en France sous les
92 derniers Valois. Rouen: PURH.
93 Magnien, M. 1997. Bibliographie des écrivains français : Étienne de la Boétie. Paris: CNRS.
94 Magnien, M. (ed.). 1999. La Boétie. Montaigne studies, n. 1–2 vol XI. Chicago: The University of
Chicago.
Magnien, M. 2003. Pour une attribution définitive du Memoire à Étienne de La Boétie. In Cité de Dieu,
cité des hommes, ed. Céard, J., C. Gomez-Géraud, M. Magnien, and F. Rouget, 133–142. Genève:
Droz.
Palayret, G. 1994. L’énigme et le détour. Le pouvoir dans le Discours de la servitude volontaire de La
Boétie. In Le Pouvoir, ed. Goddard, J.C., and B. Mabille, 88–108. Paris: Vrin.
Panichi, N. 2008. Plutarchus Redivivus? La Boétie e i suoi interpreti. Roma: Edizione di Storia e
Letteratura.
Podoksik, E. 2003. La Boétie and the Politics of Obedience. Bulletin d’Humanisme et de Renaissance 65:
83–95.
Ragghianti, R. 2010. Rétablir un texte. Le Discours de la servitude volontaire d’Étienne de La Boétie.
Firenze: Leo S. Olschki.
Tetel, M. (ed.). 2004. Étienne de La Boétie. Sage révolutionnaire et poète périgourdin. Paris: Champion.
Page 3 of 3
L
La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de medicine with Gourmelen and Riolan between

1582 and 1585, in Paris, where he seems to have
Born: 1560, in Guise established himself as early as 1579. In 1587 or
1588, he qualified as a medical doctor at the
Died: 1636, in Reims faculty of medicine in Reims. He became one of
French King Henry IV’s doctors in 1600, and
Violaine Giacomotto-Charra went on to officiate under Louis XIII, before
Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Pessac, France becoming Professor at the Collège Royal and
professor and doyen of the Faculty of Medicine
at Reims University. He devoted also an important
Abstract part of his career to military medicine and became
Nicolas Abraham de la Framboisière was one “premier des Bendes de France” (Chief Medical
of French King Henry IV’s physician and Officer) in 1610 (see: Bamforth, “La carrière de
advisers. Along with other doctors at the Nicolas Abraham de la Framboisière, conseiller et
French court, among whom Joseph du Chesne, médecin du roi (1560–1636))”.
he defended a moderate form of Paracelsian
medicine rooted in the Hippocratic-Galenic
tradition. He also penned a number of philo- Works
sophical texts, from his first years as a student
onward. de La Framboisière was a physician first and fore-
most, and the vast majority of his work comprises
medical texts, but he also studied philosophy. His
Alternate Name interest in philosophy, especially in ethics, sprang
from his conception of medicine as surpassing a
▶ (Latin) Frambesarius purely medical framework. Hence, his first book,
published in 1587, was a philosophical treatise:
Methodicæ institutiones Philosophiæ rationalis,
Biography naturalis, moralis. Medicine was an integral part
of his general overview of man, a stance to which
Son of a surgeon (Hector Abraham – Abraham the internal organization of his Œuvres complètes,
being his real name, as Stefen Bamforth explains published in French in 1613, bears ample witness
it in “La carrière de Nicolas Abraham de la (he wrote only in Latin until 1595). His works are
Framboisière”), de La Framboisière studied classed in such a way as to reflect the political
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_303-1
2 La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de
structure of society: “principality” (Principautez Cross-References

de l’homme: “principality of Man). “Govern-
ment” (Le gouvernement necessaire à chacun ▶ Ramus
pour vivre longuement en santé, a branch of
health), “Laws” (Les loix de la medicine – “The
Laws of Medicine”), “Ordinances,” “Crown,”
References
“State”. . .. La Framboisière adopts ideas also
prevalent in the work of Joseph Du Chesne and
Selected References (for a Complete
the Paracelsian physicians in general. He firmly
Bibliography, See Bamforth 2010)
believes that all physicians should receive proper Bamforth, S. 2008. “Médecine et Philosophie dans
training in philosophy and defends a universal l’Œuvre de La Framboisière”. In Esculape et Dionysos.
vision of medicine in which the physician, an Mélanges en l’Honneur de Jean Céard, 177–202.
expert in a variety of disciplines, also cares for Geneva: Droz.
Bamforth, S. 2010. “La carrière de Nicolas Abraham de la
the soul (L’Estat des vertus desquelles doit estre Framboisière, conseiller et médecin du roi
ornée l’ame chrestienne pour vivre eternellement (1560–1636)”. In Écoles et université à Reims, ixe-
bienheureuse. Avec l’estat des parties du corps). xviiie sècle, 65–79. Reims.
He was also very interested in logics (see for La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de. 1587. Methodicæ
institutiones philosophiæ rationalis, naturalis, moralis.
example : Idæa Frambesarianæ Academiæ, in Eiusdem Abrahami de artium instituendarum methodo
qua celebrentur scholiæ artium ad humanitatem dialogus. Paris.
excolendam pertinentium, dialecticæ, rhetoricæ, La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de. 1595a. Canonum
grammaticæ, scholæ philosophicæ, cum ethicæ) medicinalium libri tres. Quibus aphoristica methodus
medendi affectibus corporis partium, primo
and dialectics and more generally in questions animalium, secundo vitalium, tertio naturalium
about the order and method to be employed in continetur. Paris.
the arts and sciences (see the titles of his La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de. 1595b. Les Canons
books: Les Canons requis pour practiquer requis pour practiquer methodiquement la chirurgie
[...]. Paris.
methodiquement la chirurgie, Canonum La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de. 1600. Le
medicinalium libri tres. Quibus aphoristica gouvernement nécessaire à chacun pour vivre
methodus medendi affectibus corporis partium, longuement en santé. Paris.
primo animalium, secundo vitalium, tertio La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de. 1601. Ordonnances
sur la composition des medicamens, que les
naturalium continetur, Les loix de medecine apothicaires doivent dispenser en leurs boutique [...].
pour proceder methodiquement à la guarison Paris.
des maladies, Ordonnances sur la composition La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de. 1608a. Les loix de
des medicamens, que les apothicaires doivent medecine pour proceder methodiquement à la guarison
des maladies: pratiquées sur toutes sortes de malades
dispenser en leurs boutique, etc.), in medical es consultations faites avec les plus celebres medecins
education (L’estat des parties du corps humain, de ce temps. Paris.
methodiquement dressé en faveur des estudians La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de. 1608b. La
en medecine et chirurgie), and in education in Principauté de l’homme, où la Grammaire, la logique
et la physique sont methodiquement descriptes en
general (La Principauté de l’homme, où la françois, pour apprendre aisement et en peu de temps
Grammaire, la logique et la physique sont les langues principales, l’usage de raison et l’histoire
methodiquement descriptes en françois, pour du monde. Paris.
apprendre aisement et en peu de temps les La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de. 1609. L’estat des
parties du corps humain, methodiquement dressé en
langues principales, l’usage de raison et faveur des estudians en medecine et chirurgie [...].
l’histoire du monde). Stephen Bamforth’s Paris.
research clearly demonstrates the influence of La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de. 1613. Les Œuvres
Ramus on his work (see S. Bamforth, “Médecine de Nicolas Abraham de la Framboisiere [...]. Paris.
La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de. 1618. L’Estat des
et Philosophie dans l’Œuvre de La vertus desquelles doit estre ornée l’ame chrestienne
Framboisière”). pour vivre eternellement bienheureuse. Avec l’estat
des parties du corps [...]. Reims.
La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de 3
La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de. 1619. Idæa La Framboisière, Nicolas Abraham de. 1628. Scholæ
Frambesarianæ Academiæ, in qua celebrentur scholiæ medicæ, ad candidatorum examen pro laurea
artium ad humanitatem excolendam pertinentium, impetranda subendum [...]. Leiden.
dialecticæ, rhetoricæ, grammaticæ, scholæ
philosophicæ, cum ethicæ [...]. Paris.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_304-1
Le Fèvre, Tanneguy (1615-1672)

Abstract
Father of the celebrated French scholar Madame Dacier, Tanneguy Le Fèvre was a professor of
Greek and a classical scholar at the Protestant academy in Saumur, France. He published and
translated several Greek and Latin works and proposed bold emendations to Greek and Latin
texts. He also wrote essays, of which the Lives of the Greek Poets became notorious for his tentative
to defend Sappho’s morals was attacked by a Saumur theologian.
Synonyms
Faber; Lefebvre; Lefèvre; Tanaguidus; Tanaquil; Tanaquillus
Biography
Tanneguy Le Fèvre was born in Caen in the year 1615, the exact date being unknown (Bourchenin
1882; Hemmerdinger 2009), in the parish of Saint Jean (Segrais 1723; Hemmerdinger 2009). The
son of a grave digger, he had the opportunity to study under the supervision of an uncle of his,
a highly educated churchman. Le Fèvre was only trained in music until the age of twelve; he was
then taught Latin, which he quickly learned to a good proficiency, and pretended he learned ancient
Greek alone (Weiss 1819; Itti 2012). Thus, Le Fèvre was admitted at the demanding Jesuit school
“Collège de La Flèche.” His professors, his father, and uncle would have him staying in La Flèche
and becoming a churchman, in vain (Weiss 1819); upon other sources, Le Fèvre spent some time as
a clergyman in Caen’s Saint Jean parish (Huet 1702).
Thanks to a friend of his, François Sublet de Noyers, a higher civil servant, Le Fèvre was
introduced to Cardinal Richelieu, who appointed him at the Louvre printing works as a “general
editor” (Graverol 1686; Weiss 1819; Itti 2012), maybe a low-level task (Ribard 2008). However,
after Richelieu’s death (1642), Le Fèvre went to Langres, following a new patron, the Marquis of
Francières, and became a Huguenot (Weiss 1819; Bury 1991).
The Saumur Protestant Academy offered him to be a professor. There he taught ancient Greek,
published several Greek and Latin editions and translations, wrote original essays (see list in Weiss
1819), and attended to the education of the children he had from his marriage with Marie Olivier.
The most famous and brilliant of them is Anne Le Fèvre, future Madame Dacier. Tanneguy Le Fèvre
died from a severe fever on Sept. 12, 1672, aged 57 and while considering whether to move to
Heidelberg, since he was offered a chair at the local Academy by the Elector of the Palatinate (Huet
1702; Hemmerdinger 2009).
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Posterity remembers various aspects of Le Fèvre’s legacy. His controversial defense of Sappho’s
morals published in his Les Vies des poètes grecs (Le Fèvre 1665b) was attacked by an Academy of
Saumur theologian (R€ udiger 1933), but it has to be regarded as a pioneer effort to understand ancient
Greek way of life and literature. Le Fèvre successfully translated Machiavelli’s comedy Le Mariage
de Belphégor (Le Fèvre 1665b; Le Fèvre et al. 1969). His bold emendations to Greek and Latin texts
were discussed by letter (Le Fèvre 1659, 1665a) and through literary revues during his lifetime
(Weiss 1819) and still convinced such great a scholar as Richard Bentley (Hemmerdinger 2009). Le
Fèvre’s most celebrated successor is his daughter Anne, who chose many of her scholarly subjects
from his father’s work (Itti 2012).
Cross-References
▶ Academies
▶ Ethics and Politics
▶ Sexuality and Gender
▶ Studia Humanitatis
References
Primary Literature
Le Fèvre T (1659) Tanaquili Fabri Epistolae, quarum pleraeque ad emendationem scriptorum
pertinent. Saumur
Le Fèvre T (1665a) Tanaquili Fabri Epistolae. Pars altera. Saumur
Le Fèvre T (1665b) Les Vies des poètes grecs en abrégé. Le Mariage de Belphégor. Paris
Le Fèvre T et al (1969) L’Enfer burlesque, Le Mariage de Belphégor et Les Épitaphes de M. de
Molière. Genève
Bourchenin P-D (1882) De Tanaquili Fabri vita et scriptis. Paris
Bury E (1991) Tanneguy Le Fèvre. In: Saumur, capitale européenne du protestantisme. Fontevraud,
pp 197–209
de Segrais J-R (1723) Œuvres diverses. Amsterdam
Graverol F (1686) Mémoires pour la vie de Tanaquil Le Fèvre. Avignon
Hemmerdinger B (2009) Lefèvre (Tanneguy). In: Dictionnaire de biographie française.
Lefèvre – Legrand, vol. 20/118. Paris, pp 792–794
Huet P-D (1702) Les Origines de la ville de Caen. Rouen
Itti E (2012) Madame Dacier, femme savante du Grand Siècle (1645–1720). Paris
Ribard D (2008) Le ‘petit maître de Saumur’: Tanneguy Le Fèvre et la socialisation de l’érudition
portestante. Bulletin de la SHPF 154(1):41–59
R€udiger H (1933) Sappho. Ihr Ruf und Ruhm bei der Nachwelt. Leipzig
Weiss C (1819) Lefebvre, Tanneguy. In: Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, vol 23.
LAA-LEI, Paris
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Masson, Jean Papire

Born: 6 May 1544
Died: 9 January 1611
Xavier Prévost*
Abstract
Jean Papire Masson is a French humanist born in 1544 and died in 1611. His works embrace
numerous areas of knowledge, especially history, law, geography, and poetry. He is notably
renowned for his historical books and his biographies.
Synonyms
Johannes Papirius Massonus; Namossius
Biography
Jean Masson, known as Papire Masson, was a French humanist, historian, geographer, and jurist of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He was born at Saint-Germain-Laval (Forez) on the sixth of
May 1544, in a family of merchants. He studied in Billom (Auvergne), where the first Jesuit college
of France was founded in 1556. In 1562, Masson became himself a member of the Society of Jesus.
He travelled in Italy between 1563 and 1567, where he greatly enriched his humanist knowledge.
Then, he taught in Parisian colleges, before leaving the Society of Jesus in 1569. He then befriended
with the jurist François Baudouin, who became his master in the University of Angers from 1571.
Masson graduated as doctor utriusque juris (doctor of canon and civil law) and was elected rector of
the university. Nevertheless, he left Angers for Paris, where he became the secretary of Philippe
Hurault, who was then the chancellor of the Duke of Anjou. Consequently, he was close to the circle
of Catherine de Medici. In 1576, he became lawyer at the Parliament of Paris and, eight years later,
surrogate of the attorney general. He died at Paris on the ninth of January 1611.
Jean Papire Masson appears as one of the figures of the second part of the sixteenth century in
France, due to both his career and his writings. The variety of his works reflects his extensive culture.
Masson is a real humanist, who embraces numerous areas of knowledge. First, he is renowned for
his historical books and his biographies. He has written about forty elogia and vita, which relate the
life of some of the great names of the Renaissance (Masson 1638). They concern state dignitaries
(Charles IX of France (Bourgeon 1996), Pomponne de Bellièvre, Sebastian I and Henry I of
Portugal, Lorenzo de Medici, etc.), poets (Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Pierre
de Ronsard, etc.), religious men (Charles Cardinal of Lorraine, John Calvin, Charles II of Bourbon-
Vendôme, etc.), or also jurists (his master François Baudouin, Jacques Cujas, Pierre Pithou, Charles
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_305-1
Du Moulin, etc.). His most famous historical book is the Annales Francorum, which sum up the
French history from the Franks to Francis I (Masson 1577). Masson tries to implement a precise
historical method, avoiding medieval legends.
Second, Masson is the author of a legal and political work. If his legal books (mainly historical)
present a minor interest (Masson 1588), his response to François Hotman has to be mentioned
(Masson 1575). Masson defends the institutions of the French monarchy against the monarchomach
theories of the Franco-Gallia. He especially supports the prerogatives of the Parliament.
Third, Masson edited several ancient and medieval texts. For instance, he published ninety-
one letters of Fulbert of Chartres and one hundred and twenty-seven of Lupus Servatus. He also
published in Greek and Latin a writing of Synesius. Among other editions, the one of the Histoire de
Louis II de Bourbon illustrates the wide range of his interests.
He wrote also poetic pieces, geographic descriptions (Masson 1618), and speeches. Even if some
of his books were first published after his death, an important part of his works stays manuscript.
Finally, Jean Papire Masson appears as an accomplished humanist, influenced by Italian thought.
That is why he has been described as an “Italianate humanist” (Ronzy 1924a, b). If his work is not
flawless, it is impressive due to its diversity and its historical significance.
References
Primary Literature
Masson J-P (1575) Ad Franc. Hotomani Franco-Galliam Antonii Matharelli responsio. Paris
Masson J-P (1577) Annalium libri quatuor, quibus res gestae Francorum explicantur. Paris
Masson J-P (1588) Justinianei Cæsares, quorum nomina et constitutiones Justinianus in Codicem
retulit. Paris
Masson J-P (1618) Descriptio fluminum Galliae, qua Francia est. Paris
Masson J-P (1638) Elogiorum, quae imperatorum, regum, ducum, aliorumque insignium heroum,
superioribus et nostro sæculo virtute bellica maxime illustrium, vitam complectitur. Paris
Bourgeon J-L (1996) Comment naissent les légendes: un libelle de Papire Masson contre la mémoire
de Charles IX (1575). In: Sociétés et ideologies des Temps Modernes, Hommage à Arlette
Jouanna, vol 2, Université de Montpellier 3. Montpellier, pp 503–510
Ronzy P (1924a) Un humaniste italianisant, Papire Masson (1544–1611). E. Champion, Paris
Ronzy P (1924b). Bibliographie critique des œuvres imprimées et manuscrites de Papire Masson
(1544–1611). E. Champion, Paris
Page 2 of 2
P
Pasquier, Étienne to Henry III and later to Henry IV, taking up ranks
against the League on behalf of the latter. He
Born: Paris 1529 distinguished himself in particular for the part
Died: Paris 1615 played in the trial between the Jesuits and the
University of Paris, which refused to accept
Maria Elena Severini them. In 1557 he married a wealthy young
Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento, widow whom he had defended in court. Wishing
Florence, Italy to contribute to the reconciliation between Protes-
tants and Catholics during the wars of religion, he
engaged in a reconstruction of the historic origins
Abstract of the unity of the French nation, going back to the
A jurist, humanist and historian, a precursor of country’s pre-Christian past. In 1560 he fell ill as a
modern historiography, Etienne Pasquier stud- result of accidental poisoning and withdrew to
ies the past to furnish practical responses to convalesce in Amboise and Cognac, where he
contemporary crises. In the Recherches de la began to work on the ten volumes of the
France (1560–1621), Pasquier applies a Recherches de la France (1560–1621); this was
marked national sentiment to his exploration his most important work, which continued to
of the origins of French history: his aim is to occupy him for the next 40 years. Whereas the
demonstrate to the French the glory of their first generation of humanists had spent all its
history and their national institutions, without eloquence on the glorification of antiquity,
lapsing into fanatic patriotism. showering contempt on the literary attempts of
French writers, Pasquier in the Recherches de la
France instead applies a marked national senti-
Biography ment to his exploration of the origins of French
history. His is indeed a veritable apologia for
Pasquier studied in Paris, Toulouse, and Bologna France, operating on three levels. Firstly he claims
under illustrious teachers such as Hotman, Bau- that the French language has equal merit with
douin, Cujas, and Alciato. He was a lawyer in the Latin and more than Italian. Secondly, he argues
French Parliament, an office which led him to take that the French church succeeded in withstanding
part in the Estates General of Blois in 1588. In the Reformation and Papal imperialism. Thirdly
Antoine Loisel’s Dialogue des avocats, he was and finally, he argues that in the French constitu-
defined as the ideal model of lawyer, on a par tion, royal power and moderate parliamentarism
with Guillaume du Vair. He was a counselor first are harmoniously complementary.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_308-1
2 Pasquier, Étienne
The Recherches is a work of history in the Pasquier, E. 1586. Les Lettres d’Estienne Pasquier. Paris.
fullest sense: Pasquier consults original sources, Pasquier, E. 1596. Les Recherches de la France, Reveuës &
augmentées de quatre Livres. Paris.
court documents, and chronicles of the period. His Pasquier, E. 1602. Le Catéchisme des jésuites, ou Examen
aim is to demonstrate to the French the glory of de leur doctrine. Ville-franche.
their history and their national institutions, with- Pasquier, E. 1607. Les Recherches de la France d’Estienne
out lapsing into fanatic patriotism. A precursor of Pasquier, reveues et augmentées d’un livre et de
plusieurs chapitres par le mesme autheur. Paris.
modern historiography, he studies the past to fur- Pasquier, E. 1610. Jeus poétiques. Paris.
nish practical responses to contemporary crises. Pasquier, E. 1619. Les Lettres d’Estienne Pasquier. Paris.
Pasquier also wrote a book called Pasquier, E. 1621. Les Recherches de la France d’Estienne
L’Interprétation des Institutes de Justinien Pasquier augmentées en ceste dernière édition de trois
livres entiers, outre plusieurs chapitres entrelassez en
(which was not published until 1847), in which chacun des autres livres, tirez de la bibliothèque de
he analyzes both French law and Roman law. He l’autheur. Paris.
devoted the last years of his life to biblical exege- Pasquier, E. 1677. Le Catéchisme des jésuites, ou le
sis. He also wrote some minor poems in the style Mystère d’iniquité révélé par ses supposts, par
l’examen de leur doctrine, mesme selon la croyance
of La Pléiade and some excellent pieces of literary de l’église romaine. Villefranche.
criticism. He was also known for the amorous Pasquier, E. 1723. Les œuvres d’Estienne Pasquier.
dialogue entitled Le Monophile (1554) and for Amsterdam.
several political works including the Anti-Martire Pasquier, E. 1849. Œuvres choisies d’Étienne Pasquier.
Paris.
(1590), a pamphlet in which he attacked those Pasquier, E. 1966. Écrits politiques, ed. Thickett
who saw the assassination of Henry III as martyr- D. Genève-Paris.
dom, and Autorità regale (1615), an essay in Pasquier, E. 1971. Œuvres complètes. Genève.
defense of the political rights of the king. His Pasquier, E. 1974. Lettres familières. D. Thickett (ed.).
Genève-Paris.
correspondence, which reads almost like a diary Pasquier, E. 1995. Pourparlers, ed. Sayhi-Périgot B. Paris.
of the events of the time, was published in 1619 Pasquier, E. 1996. Les recherches de la France, eds. Fra-
and offers a vivid commentary on the political and gonard et M.M, Roudaut. Paris.
military episodes of the wars of religion Pasquier, E. 2001. Les jeus poétiques, ed. Dupouy
J.P. Paris.
(1562–1598) as well as extensive discussions of
historic and literary matters.
Bouteiller, P. 1989. Recherches sur la vie et la carrière
d’Étienne Pasquier, historien et humaniste du XVIe
References siècle. Paris.
Dahlinger, J.H. 2007. Étienne Pasquier on ethics and his-
tory. New York.
Primary Literature Dahlinger, J.H. 2014. Saving France in the 1580s: Writings
Pasquier, E. 1555a. Le Monophile. Paris. of Etienne Pasquier. New York.
Pasquier, E. 1555b. Recueil des rymes et proses. Paris. Huppert, G. 1968. Naissance de l’histoire en France; les
Pasquier, E. 1560. Des recherches de la France, livre Recherches d’Étienne Pasquier. In Annales. Écono-
premier. Paris. mies, sociétés, civilisations, vol. 23, 69–105.
Pasquier, E. 1567. Le Second livre des Recherches de la Langer, U. 2002. La Rhétorique de la conciliation dans la
France. Orléans. Congratulation sur la paix générale faite au mois de
Pasquier, E. 1574. Les ordonnances généralles d’amour, mars 1598 d’Étienne Pasquier. In Thierry Wanegffelen
envoyées au seigneur baron Myrlingues, chancelier des (dir.). De Michel de L’Hospital à l’édit de Nantes.
isles Hyères, pour faire estroictement garder par les Politique et religion face aux Églises, 407–418.
vassaux dudict seigneur, en la jurisdiction de la Pierre Clermont-Ferrand: Presses University Blaise-Pascal.
au laict et autres lieux de l’obéissance dudit seigneur. Thickett, D. 1976. Estienne Pasquier (1529–1615), The
Enveres. Versatile Barrister of 16th-Century France.
Pasquier, E. 1582. Stephani Paschasii Epigrammatum libri London/New York.
V. Paris. Trocmé Sweany, S. 1985. Estienne Pasquier (1529–1615)
Pasquier, E. 1585. Apologie de la paix. Representant tant et nationalisme littéraire. Paris.
les profficts & commodités que la paix nous produict, Vivanti, C. 1986. Les Recherches de la France d’Étienne
que les malheurs, confusions, & desordres qui naissent Pasquier. L’invention des Gaulois. In Pierre Nora (dir.).
durant la guerre. Paris.
Pasquier, Étienne 3
Les Lieux de mémoire, II. 2 La Nation. Paris: Thierry Wanegffelen (dir.). De Michel de L’Hospital à
Gallimard. l’édit de Nantes. Politique et religion face aux Églises,
Yardeni, M. 2002. La Pensée politique des «Politiques»: 495–510. Clermont-Ferrand:Presses University Blaise-
Étienne Pasquier et Jacques-Auguste de Thou. In Pascal
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_310-2
Pléiade
Born: 1549, Deffence et Illustration de la langue françoise
Died: 1585, Death of Ronsard
Anne-Pascale Pouey-Mounou*
Université Charles-de-Gaulle – Lille 3, Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France
Abstract
We have come to call “Pléiade” a group of French poets of encyclopedic learning [Joachim du Bellay
(Deffence et illustration, 1549), Pierre de Ronsard, Pontus de Tyard, Jean-Antoine de Baïf, Jacques
Peletier du Mans, Rémi Belleau, Etienne Jodelle] who aimed to revitalize the classical arts and to argue for
a demanding poetry in the vernacular, both erudite and inspired. Their high-handed style contrasted with
that of their predecessors (the Grands Rhétoriqueurs and Marotic poets), and their poetic production was
varied.
The Pléiade had an important lexical and poetic impact. Its principles were inseparably literary and
philosophical, due to a humanist trust in language’s capacity to reveal the hidden qualities of things as well
as in the signifying power of classical, allegorical myth (cf. Jean Dorat’s teachings). They attracted
criticism because of their erudition, but also because of Reformist rejection of pagan myth and “useless”
profane poetry.
The Pléiade poets embraced philosophy and the sciences, especially mathematics, cosmology and
meteorology, astrology, music, bestiaries, and lapidaries. They played a pivotal role in two Academies and
some contemporaneous philosophical dialogues featured them on poetry or natural philosophy. As
regards the philosophy of love, they explored the philosophical and literary innovations arriving from
Italy (Neoplatonism, Petrarchism), at least temporarily; these influences were, however, enmeshed with
the dominant Aristotelianism.
The influence of the Pléiade was so powerful that Ronsard came to represent negatively the Renais-
sance legacy for the following century. It also extended in other vernacular languages in Europe.
Introduction
Although Ronsard himself used the term “Pléiade” (Elegie à Chr. de Choiseul, 1556), the group of poets
we have come to identify with this name was not an official entity nor a school. Moreover, as Ronsard’s
various lists suggest (Bacchanales, 1552, Isles Fortunées, 1553, etc.), its membership fluctuated, as did its
name, the more combative term of “Brigade” sometimes being preferred to this metaphor drawn from the
seven-starred constellation in which the great Alexandrian poets were supposedly reincarnated. Broadly,
though, “the Pléiade” in the sixteenth century referred to a group of French poets which formed under
Henry II (1547–1559), centered around du Bellay and Ronsard, whose overt aim was to break new
aesthetic ground. The group is taken to include, additionally, Pontus de Tyard, Jean-Antoine de Baïf,
Jacques Peletier du Mans, Rémi Belleau, and Etienne Jodelle; but many friends and imitators were also
associated with it.
*Email: anne-pascale.pouey-mounoufritsch@univ-lille3.fr
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These young Paris-based poets were united by a whole series of shared experiences
Chamard (1939–1963): they studied under the inspiring figure of the Hellenist Jean Dorat, who had
been Baïf’s and Ronsard tutor, and then at the Coqueret and Boncourt Colleges (Simonin 1990); Peletier
du Mans and others such as Marc-Antoine Muret facilitated their contact, and Pontus de Tyard provided
the link between the poetic worlds of Lyon and Paris. Ronsard rallied everyone round him and was the
group’s leader, while Du Bellay’s Deffence et Illustration de la langue françoise (1549) provided it with a
sort of Manifesto.
The Pléiade’s poetic production was varied, ranging from minor classical genres to the “noble” genres
of the ode and the epic. It included theater (Baïf and Jodelle), treatises on poetics and on science, and
philosophical dialogues in prose (Peletier and Tyard). The life paths of the individuals involved were
equally diverse. Ronsard was spectacularly successful: he was protected by the Guise and Odet de
Coligny (cardinal of Chastillon) and was appointed as the king’s ordinary chaplain (1559), consorting
with the great (from Marie Stuart to the royal family) to the extent of earning the epithet of “prince of
poets.” Du Bellay, despite being born into one of the most prestigious families in France and serving as
secretary to the Cardinal Jean du Bellay, became disenchanted with his post in distant Rome, as expressed
in Les Regrets (1558). Then there was Jodelle, whose later life was embittered by a fall from grace. The
high-handed style of these aristocratic poets contrasted starkly with that of their immediate predecessors
(the Grands Rhétoriqueurs and Marotic poets), even though most of them (except Pontus de Tyard) still
depended on patrons for protection and ecclesiastical office. Ronsard and others never missed an
opportunity to remind their benefactors of the fame and immortality it was theirs to bestow.
The Pléiade poets were humanists of encyclopedic learning. While embracing both philosophy and the
sciences, especially mathematics – practiced by Peletier and Tyard to a high standard – they were versed in
the allegorical interpretation of classical myth, thanks to Dorat’s teachings (Dorat 2000), and eager to
explore the philosophical and literary innovations arriving from Italy, such as Neoplatonism and
Petrarchism. Their poetic aim was to revitalize the classical arts and learning and to argue for a demanding
poetry in the vernacular, both erudite and inspired.
The Classical Heritage and the Break with Tradition

These were the ambitions expressed in Du Bellay’s Deffence et Illustration de la langue françoise (1549).
In the wake of the Edict of Villers-Cotterêts (1539), by which French became the official administrative
language of the kingdom, the Deffence championed a national literature in the vernacular capable of
rivaling with its classical predecessors. It claimed that French was adequate to all knowledge areas, just
like Greek and Latin. In opposition to the neo-Latin authors, who despised the vernacular as too
impoverished, Du Bellay’s work spelt out how the French language should be defended and made
illustrious.
Du Bellay was not the first advocate of the merits of the vernacular compared to Latin. His work was
preceded by Thomas Sébillet’s Art poetique françois (1548, Goyet 1990) and the Dialogo delle lingue
(1542) written by Sperone Speroni in the context of the questione della lingua, which emerged out of
Ciceronianism and Bembism in Italy, in which Speroni argued against Bembo’s precepts of linguistic
purism (Speroni 1978). However, the Deffence et Illustration had the particularity of giving a coherent
and provocative vision of language and literature, on which most of the early Pléiade’s experimentation
was based. Unlike Sébillet, whose examples were drawn from early sixteenth-century French poetry, Du
Bellay rejected the previous generation (the Grand Rhétoriqueurs and the Marotic poets) and criticized
their obsession with form, their practice of translation, and implicitly their courtly focus. The desire to
break with the past was motivated not only by generational conflict but also by a certain aristocratic
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arrogance which was quick to be condemned in an anonymous counterattack, Quintil Horatian (1550),
attributed to Barthélémy Aneau (Goyet 1990).
The Deffence’s yardstick was antiquity and the proposed “defense” of the French language had the
theory of imitation at its core. One should imitate the ancients, but in conformity with the unique character
of one’s own language. This idea that each language has a specific “property” can be understood in the
context of the contemporary controversies about translating “for sense” or “word for word.” Translation,
Du Bellay argued, should give way to imitation and personal assimilation of sources (“innutrition”),
which fosters creative invention. Formally speaking, Du Bellay advocated redeploying classical poetic
forms and the Petrarchan sonnet; and among the stylistic ornaments he recommended were tropes such as
periphrasis, comparison, metaphor, and hyperbole. He advocated combining inspiration (furor) with the
more technical “labor” of the poet, whose aim was to move the reader. Above all, for French to become
“illustrious,” as intended, it must be enriched: it was still feeble, but full of unexplored potential and
promise, which should be identified and cultivated, in line with a certain idea of nature and the
corresponding ideal of abundance (copia), as theorized in the Renaissance. “Nature” remained mostly
inscrutable, except as a sign of the Creator’s infinite inventiveness, and was no less compatible with a
Plinian or Augustinian ideal as with the Aristotelian concepts of potentiality and actuality. In order to
achieve this enrichment lexically, Du Bellay advocated the use of archaisms and dialectical expressions,
technical terms and neologisms, particularly compounds and derivational affixes on the basis of existing
roots (“provignement”), grecisms and latinisms, and the nominalization of infinitives and adjectives. It
was this neologistic activity which would characterize the Pléiade for the ensuing generations, as much as
its scholarly aspirations or inspired tone. With the advent of seventeenth-century classicism, Pléiade
poetry, which had been so extensively imitated throughout the second half of the sixteenth century,
became discredited and, after Malherbe’s assault, was dealt a death blow by Boileau’s condemnation of
Ronsard’s conceited ambitions, his stylistic “disorder,” and the fact that his poetry “in French [speaks]
Greek and Latin” (Art poétique, I, 1674). It was not until Sainte-Beuve, as representative of Romanticism
and its particular agenda, that the Pléiade partially found favor again.
Original and Innovative Aspects

The Pléiade had an important and lasting influence, beyond its brash claims. Its impact on the French
language was not only lexical, but also concerned spelling, the grammatical structure of words, and
syntax. The Pléiade poets took an interest in spelling reform (cf. Louis Meigret, 1550), and they gave
explanations of their choices of spelling and agreement in order to further linguistic standardization.
Peletier du Mans wrote a Dialogue de l’Ortografe e Prononciation Françoese (1555), which was not
taken up, and proposed spellings which he used in his own works.
The Pléiade made a significant contribution to the French vocabulary. Although its detractors focused
on the neologisms which were finally not adopted, many words, whose novelty we no longer notice, were
naturalized into French. Such successful transplants were a tribute to the Pléiade’s attention to the
development of the language, which was far greater than Classicism gave it credit for. Ronsard stands
as the prime example of an emergent authorial awareness in the Renaissance precisely in the care he took
to assemble his writings into a Complete Works, a “monument” he constantly revised (from 1560 to 1584,
not to mention the posthumous edition of 1587), and above all in his responsiveness to changes in the
language, suggested by a whole series of corrections of detail he made. This was his way of aspiring to
immortality. Moreover, the Pléiade’s linguistic principles were inseparably literary and philosophical: the
Pléiade poets were criticized for their excesses, but they were actually seeking to fashion a total poetics,
through their meticulous attention to language, including current usage. This poetics was informed by a
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certain idea of language’s dynamic signifying movement and its capacity to reveal the hidden qualities of
things through hitherto unsuspected interrelations produced by wordplay. The defense of the French
language was thus inseparable from a new poetics which aspired to reveal the latent potential of words and
of the world and to actualize things through words, as expressed in the idea of “perfection” (based on
Aristotle’s articulation of potentiality and actuality) (Pouey-Mounou 2002). Despite its apparent diversity,
the Pléiade’s vision was thus extremely coherent, combining lexical and stylistic innovation with poetic
and political goals, a new status for the inspired poet, a revitalization of learning, and theories of language
and the world.
For example, the value placed on diversity was based on an idea of natural diversity, which poetry was
to imitate. Ronsard in particular adhered to this principle (Castor 1964) and wrote in a wide range of
genres, which are highlighted by the architecture of his Complete Works: in the “monumental” 1584
edition, the books of Amours (to which Ronsard’s work has often been reduced) come first, then the other
sonnets, bawdy verse (the Gayetez, partly derived from the Folastries of 1553), La Charite, the Odes, the
unfinished epic La Franciade (1572), Le Bocage royal which reworks and perfects previous attempts at a
mixed-genre volume (Bocage and Meslanges), the eclogues, masquerades, Combats and Cartels, the
Elegies, the Hynnes, the Poemes, the Epitaphes, and lastly the Discours. Ronsard was always
experimenting, from his first Odes (1550), which found favor with scholarly circles (but not with the
Court), to his first book of Amours (1552), which earned him notoriety, through to the maturer love
expressed in the Sonnets pour Helene (1578) and the funeral sonnets of the Derniers Vers (1585). He used
classical literary genres (the ode, elegy, epigram, epistle, eclogue, epithalamium, epitaph, and epic) and
the genre of the sonnet; but he also wrote pieces of court entertainment and bawdy and learned verse
Folastries (1553), the cosmological and mythological Hymnes (1556–1557), as well as political writings,
the Discours des Miseres de ce temps, in which he defended the Catholic royalist cause in the first War of
Religion (1562–1563). The inventiveness of his Odes (Laumonier 1909), which combine both Pindaric
and Horatian models, and particularly the inspired and digressive development, and the extremely
complex metrical and stanzaic patterns of the Pindaric odes, amply illustrate his aesthetics of diversity,
which aimed at “resembling nature” (Preface to the Odes, 1550). This ideal of diversity was later
embodied more systematically in the books of Amours, which Ronsard worked on throughout his life.
Changing the order of his poems and their distribution between the different volumes, and changing the
name of his muse, as though better to advertise a new stylistic departure, Ronsard thus broadcasted his
right to stylistico-amorous renewal: the Amours proceeds from the inspired and platonizing Petrarchism
of the first book (1552), which became Amours de Cassandre in 1560; moves on to the “low” style of the
Continuations (1555–1556), which in 1560 became the Amours de Marie; and then chooses a quieter,
platonizing vein for the Sonnets pour Hélène (1578). Ronsard laid claim to absolute poetic freedom and
defended diversity as the epitome of his poetic art. To this end he often destroyed the image he had built up
in preceding poems, perhaps also out of irritation with his imitators. Another way in which this freedom is
expressed is in the mixed genre compositions, which are placed in different parts of the Complete Works
depending on the edition and which espouse the aesthetics of the silva. And although Ronsard soon
distinguished himself within the Pléiade for his “noble” genres (the ode and the epic) and learned poetry
(the Hymnes), the Folastries (1553), published anonymously but immediately attributed to Ronsard, was
a field of experimentation in a lighter, neo-Catullan vein, with richly inventive lexical, generic, and
metrical choices, mixing odelettes, epigrams, and Bacchic Dithyrambes in free verse containing impres-
sive series of Greco-Latin epithets and exuberant flourishes of poetic “furor,” as well as two blasons of the
male and female genitalia in sonnet form.
This experimental aspect is a general feature of the Pléiade. Although not all the poets of the group were
equally wide-ranging, their work taken as a whole gives a very varied picture and is certainly not restricted
to love poetry. One need only mention Belleau’s Anacreontic odes (1556), blasons (Petites Inventions,
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1554–1556, Les Amours et Nouveaux Eschanges des pierres precieuses, 1576), and Bergerie
(1565–1572); Baïf’s lists of proverbs in the genre of the coq-à-l’^ a ne (Mimes, Enseignemens et Proverbes,
1576–1597); Jodelle’s classicizing tragedies (Cléop^ a tre captive, 1553, Didon se sacrifiant, [1557?]) and
comedies (Baïf, Le Brave, 1567); Pontus de Tyard’s philosophical dialogues (1552–1558), and the
treatises and learned poetry of Peletier du Mans; and lastly the Roman works of Du Bellay
(1553–1558), including the lyrical and satirical sonnets of the Regrets, the Divers Jeux rustiques, and
the Poemata, written in Latin despite the Deffence.
As regards poetic technique, the Pléiade innovated around the line and the stanza. Ronsard deserves a
special mention here. In naturalizing the Pindaric ode into the French language, he introduced its stanzaic
and metrical flexibility, including enjambements, its digressions and obscure mythological periphrases
running over several lines, and even the structure of triadic series which he explored in his experimental
Pindaric ode, A Michel de L’Hospital (1552). He additionally worked on short forms such as the Horatian
ode, the odelette and the epigram, as well as longer forms inherited from classical literature. His Books of
Amours enriched the sonnet form in France, made it more regular, and brought about its gradual
transformation from decasyllables to alexandrines. He was still preoccupied with the issue of the
comparative merits of these types of verses in La Franciade (1572) and explained in his Preface why,
after all, he used decasyllables in this poem. The Pléiade was also a key protagonist in the controversies
arising out of Ciceronianism and Bembism and influenced by Ramism, concerning the capacity of a
vernacular language without prosodic features, such as French, to be a match for Latin cadences
(Meerhoff 1986). The Pléiade frequently considered rhyme to be an inadequate remedy for this defect
of the French language, especially as it had been the focus of the previous generation’s poetic production.
Through its work on “significant” rhymes (Du Bellay), as well as on rhythm (Du Bellay’s Deffence had
explored the interconnection between the two), on sound (Peletier), homeoteleuta, tropes, and all sorts of
experimental cadences, not forgetting Baïf’s metrical patterns “mesurés à la lyre,” the Pléiade thoroughly
explored the potential of the French language. Certain forms became more regular, the French ear was
gradually trained to accept certain patterns of rhyme, rhythm, and sound, particularly through intensive
work on the sonnet form, and countless usages, which we no longer notice, were systematized.
Unlike the Pléiade’s more provocative features, which took center stage, these innovations required
subtlety. Ronsard in particular, but more generally all the Pléiade, was playing a double game, pandering
to the tastes of the Court while actually aiming at fashioning their public’s taste. In the first book of the
Amours (1552), for example, the contemporary fashion for love sonnets was the vehicle for an ambitious,
mythological, and prophetic type of poetry, which the Court had spurned in the earlier Odes (1550). The
second edition, in 1553, contained a commentary by Marc-Antoine Muret designed to elucidate its more
obscure aspects and thus win over the public, and also musical settings, so that the sonnets could be sung
in the order of their rhyme schemes. The series of corrections which Ronsard made to the Odes and
Amours in his Complete Works (Terreaux 1968) bear out this negotiation with a public’s evolving tastes,
which must be both flattered and transformed. These ambitious new goals, and the Pléiade’s real
contribution to the French vocabulary and French poetic forms, explain the publication in the second
half of the sixteenth century of anthologies (Gilles Corrozet, Le Parnasse des po€etes françois modernes,
1571) and of dictionaries of rhetorical technique (La Porte’s Epithetes, 1571, 2009) in which this poetry
was championed as a model for poetic composition in French, just as Homer and Virgil had been models
for Greco-Latin literature. The collaboration of Pléiade poets, already in 1555, on the translation into
French of the Latin verse quotations in Ramus’s La Dialectique was a true sign of their consecration and
also, of course, of the effectiveness of their self-promotion (Ramus 1996).
Their growing acclaim was also amplified by the dynamics within the group, which took the form of
joint ventures or, conversely, of individual members marking out their particular territory. Joint ventures
included Baïf’s bawdy verse (the second book of Amours de Meline, 1552), Ronsard’s Folastries (1553),
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Magny’s Gayetez (1554), Tahureau’s Mignardises (1554), and Vauquelin de La Fresnaye’s Foresteries
(1555). One should also mention the Bacchic festivities crowning the success of Jodelle’s Cléopâ tre
captive in 1553, which incorporated Baïf’s and Ronsard’s free-verse Dithyrambes, published in Po€emes
and Folastries respectively, and also featured a ram adorned for sacrifice on the altar of Bacchus, which
was still controversial a decade later, reemerging in the Protestant polemic sparked by the Discours des
Miseres de ce temps (1562–1563, Pineaux 1973). As for relations between the Pléiade members, there was
the exchange of blasons between Belleau and Ronsard and Du Bellay and Ronsard’s well-known rivalry,
which was one of the reasons for Du Bellay’s emphasis on the supposedly “simple” style of his Regrets in
opposition to Ronsard’s learned and inspired poetry. More generally, these relations shaped the Pléiade
poets’ and their imitators’ self-promotional strategies, under the acknowledged leadership of Ronsard.
The “Brigade” claimed a new status for the poet, on the basis of the Deffence’s theory of imitation; the
provocative gestures with which it often accompanied its inventive reworkings; the foregrounding of
inspired “furor,” giving a flattering image of the poet; and Ronsard’s decision to create a poetic
“monument,” as well as his assertion in the Discours that the poet should carry a certain weight in public
affairs. These were precisely the ambitions for the poet – considered inflated – for which Ronsard would
later be criticized.
Interconnections
Another characteristic of Pléiade poetry was its self-conscious erudition, for which it was also criticized.
Its scholarly and recondite references to classical mythology, for example, embodied both an elitist
address to the learned, who were indeed the first to recognize the young Ronsard’s talent, in the Odes and a
fascination with the suggestive potential of little-known myths, often inspired by contemporary annotated
editions and influenced by Dorat’s allegorical approach in his teachings (Dorat 2000). These references
also reflected a humanist trust in the signifying power of “the fable” (myth), understood as the locus of the
secrets glimpsed by the ancients. The corresponding aesthetic, with its valorization of periphrasis, erudite
epithets, and metaphor, favored circuitous indirection attuned to the fleeting revelation of the hidden
mysteries of nature. It understandably had a certain prestige, linked to the aura surrounding antiquity and
to the figure of the inspired poet-prophet (vates), at once an initiate and a discoverer, whose oracular style
expressed his privileged status among men. However, not all the Pléiade poets were as erudite in their use
of mythology. While Ronsard’s later work was a little more straightforward, he was initially the most
obscure, especially in the Odes and the first book of the Amours, in which his muse Cassandra is named
after the Trojan prophetess with whom Apollo, the god of inspired prophecy, fell in love, but also after a
particularly obscure version of the same myth, Lycophron’s Alexandra, which Dorat had taught. Overall,
however, the Pléiade poets unapologetically drew on pagan and classical themes in abundance.
This attracted criticism on two fronts. The first emerged with the publication of the Odes and resurfaced
in the seventeenth century, as the aesthetics of clarity took hold. It targeted the obscure, learned references
that Muret’s 1553 critical edition of the Amours had sought to elucidate. However, even if Ronsard later
aimed for greater transparency, after the exuberance of the Odes and the first book of the Amours, he
remained unrepentant, since his poetic program was inseparable from this work on vocabulary and the use
of tropes and erudite allusions: the aesthetics of “illustration” implied exploring the world through
language and using the unexpected interconnections between words to reveal the nature of things. The
Pléiade also espoused the humanist idea of the richly suggestive layers of meaning latent in the “fable”:
this was embodied in Ronsard’s image (Hymne de l’Autonne, 1563) of the shimmering “fabuleux
manteau” – a version of the integumentum – which both veil and reveal the mysteries glimpsed by the
inspired poet. This approach to myth is derived from the notion of prisca theologia, the “first theology”
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considered to be present in pagan myth before the Christian Revelation, which justified the Neoplatonist
and humanist return to Antiquity. Ronsard alluded to this in his Hymne de l’Hercule Chrestien (1555), one
of his few overtly Christian pieces, in which he christianized the myth of Hercules, and again at the end of
the controversy around his Discours (Responce aux injures, 1563), when he poured scorn on the criticisms
of his Protestant adversaries. Such attacks relate to the second type of criticism leveled against Ronsard’s
poetry, this time by Reform poets who rejected pagan myth (in favor of Biblical myth) and condemned the
spiritual “uselessness” of profane poetry. This was what caused the rift between the Pléiade and the newly
converted Théodore de Bèze after 1550, when, in the Preface to his Abraham sacrifiant, he criticized the
Pléiade’s use of pagan myth and their emphasis on love (Smith MC 1995). The differences on these issues
were irreconcilable.
The affair of the ram (sacrificed or not) in the Dithyrambes of 1553 resurfaced for the same reasons in
the polemic generated by the Discours, namely, its explicit paganism which seemed to call into question
Ronsard’s Catholic commitment (Pineaux 1973). In their politico-religious leanings, the Pléiade poets
were in the Catholic camp and sometimes expressed this through satirical pieces (Jodelle), or more
substantial forms, but over a limited period, such as Ronsard’s Discours des Miseres de ce temps
(1562–1563). The claim to a political status for the poet is what makes the Discours particularly striking,
to the extent that some critics have labeled it – wrongly, and somewhat anachronistically – as the first
example of “committed” literature in the French language. Be that as it may, the positions adopted are
derived as much from a certain idea of the person of the king, the kingdom (Ménager 1979), and the place
of man in the world as from properly religious convictions; they conveyed a world view, in which religion
occupied a particular place. This global vision explains the coherence of the different elements comprising
Ronsard’s poetics, both the politico-religious choices and the humanist inspiration. It also explains the fact
that at the end of the first War of Religion and the polemic sparked by Ronsard’s Discours, it was one of
the most brilliant defenses of his poetics, the Responce aux injures (1563), which could put an end to the
debate.
The Pléiade were also interested in natural philosophy (Schmidt 1938). Peletier du Mans and Pontus de
Tyard in particular were drawn to scientific ideas, as expressed in their treatises and dialogues as well as in
their love poetry. Peletier, for example, who was known for his contribution to mathematics, wrote
treatises on arithmetic, algebra, and geometry and his L’Amour des Amours (1555) draws on astronomy.
Tyard’s Petrarchist and Platonizing vision of love guides at once his translation of Judah Abravanel
(Leone Ebreo, 1551) and his philosophical writings (1552–1558). The scientific frames of reference were
of their time – a vulgarized Aristotelianism blended with Neoplatonism and other classical theories – but
many of the writings and debates associated with these figures at the time prove that they were also
familiar with Copernicus’s De Revolutionibus (1543). Less consistently, the poets showed an interest in
meteorology, such as Baïf’s Les Météores (1567) and Ronsard in many poems and metaphors. Belleau’s
blasons show another facet of this scientific focus: his sources are Pliny, Albertus Magnus, the major
bestiaries and lapidaries, and various contemporary encyclopedias. As for Ronsard, his Hymnes
(1555–1556) and many aspects of his work express a world view which, within the cosmological
frameworks of his time, borrows eclectically from atomism, Empedocles (order and disorder), and
Neoplatonism. The image which emerges is one of a coherent universe dominated by the tension between
order and disorder (concordia discors), by the transmutation of elements into each other, and by a
movement oriented toward the revelation of the concealed potential of the world, which is the task of
poetry (Pouey-Mounou 2002). His Hymne de la Philosophie (1555) and several exordia to the hymns of
the IIII Saisons de l’an (1563) illustrate his encyclopedic conception of poetry; according to which, by
sifting through all knowledge, the poet may restitute for mankind fragments of divine mysteries which
take the veiled form of myth.
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The Pléiade’s encyclopedic concerns are also evident in their pivotal role in two Academies (Yates
1988). The Académie de Poésie et de Musique presided by Baïf with Thibault de Courville (under Charles
IX, 1570) worked with musicians to experiment with “quantitative verse [vers mesurés] set to music.”
Music was considered to have an encyclopedic value – capable of including all the arts and sciences – and
philosophical, social, moral, and mystical “effects.” In the second of these Academies, the Académie du
Palais, Henry III invited Ronsard, Baïf, and Tyard, among others, to his private apartments in the Louvre
to discuss problems of morals and natural philosophy in his presence. The attention given to these sorts of
issues was already evident in Tyard’s two Solitaires (1552 and 1555), which contained a theory of
inspiration and a theory of music, respectively. Tyard’s other philosophical writings, such as L’Univers
(1557) or Mantice (1558), engaged with contemporary scientific debates. Other philosophical dialogues
featured Pléiade poets on poetry or natural philosophy: Louis Le Caron’s Dialogue IV (“Ronsard, ou de la
Po€esie,” 1556) (Le Caron 1986) had Ronsard and Jodelle debating the relations between poetry and
philosophy, the influence of Plato, the sociopolitical role of poetry, and the different aspects of poetic
creation. Guy de Bruès’s Dialogues (1557, Bruès 1953) set a dogmatic Ronsard against a relativist Baïf on
questions of natural philosophy, in relation, among other things, to Copernicus’s model. These dialogues
are fictional, but they reflect the freedom of tone and the keen involvement in contemporary philosophical
debate, which can be found in some of these authors’ poems: thus, one of Ronsard’s corrections to his
sonnets alludes to a debate opposing contemporary readings of Cicero and Aristotle around the question
of endelechy or entelechy. The Douze fables de fleuves ou fontaines (1586) which, according to its
publisher Tabourot, Baïf composed to decorate the Château of Anet, is one of the many examples of
collaboration between the arts, which were all to be united within encyclopedic learning. It is significant in
this respect that the logician, mathematician, and rhetorician Petrus Ramus took such a close interest in the
Pléiade’s debates.
Lastly, as regards the philosophy of love, the Pléiade was initially influenced by Petrarchist and
Platonizing trends. These were introduced by Tyard (Erreurs amoureuses, 1549) and redeployed by Du
Bellay (L’Olive, 1549), Ronsard (First Book of Amours, 1552), and Peletier (L’Amour des Amours, 1555).
The development of Ronsard’s Amours, with the “low” style of the Amours de Marie in counterpoint to
the First Book, and then the Sonnets pour Helene which alludes to the Platonizing culture of his muse, but
in a less pronounced way, correspond partly to an aesthetic of variatio. This aesthetic is also a hallmark of
Baïf’s poetry, in the range of subjects from which he drew his inspiration, and the formal diversity of the
two books of the Amours de Meline (1552) and the Amours de Francine (1555). But it was also part of a
more general development in which certain Pléiade poets began to reject Petrarchism, at least temporarily.
Du Bellay, for instance, criticized Petrarchizing clichés (in his elegy “A une Dame,” 1553, rebaptized
“Contre les pétrarquistes,” 1558), as did Ronsard in the opening text of the Amours de Marie (“Elegie à
son Livre,” 1567). Tyard, by contrast, remained exceptionally faithful to Petrarchist and Platonizing
influences throughout his work. Neoplatonic influences were, moreover, enmeshed with the dominant
Aristotelianism, which was itself hospitable to new developments from Italy (Petrarchism and Neopla-
tonism), as well as, occasionally, to other systems of thought.
Impact and Legacy

The influence of the Pléiade in the second half of the sixteenth century was so powerful that Ronsard,
along with the Protestant poet Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, came to represent negatively the
Renaissance legacy for the following century. Although this image is something of a caricature, the
idea of language and the relation to the world embodied in Pléiade poetry is indeed typical of this period
and was influential well beyond it, despite the disrepute into which the Pléiade fell in France from the
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seventeenth century onwards. The Pléiade’s influence also extended beyond the borders of France
through the defense and illustration of other vernacular languages in Europe and through foreign trans-
lations and imitations by poets, theorists, lexicographers, and members of foreign Academies.
The Pléiade’s significance certainly went further than the group of seven poets one usually associates
with the name. There was a whole nebulous of individuals – poets, playwrights, prose writers, artists,
historians, moralists, lexicographers, and printers – “adopted” by and loosely attached to this core group.
The Pléiade were thus associated with a significant proportion of the artistic production of the second half
of the sixteenth century in France (Raymond 1927): with the theater of La Péruse, Garnier and Grevin,
Des Autels’s poetry, and the paintings of Nicolas Denisot du Mans, called by his anagram “le conte
d’Alsinois.” Among the different groups, and generations of imitators, some are distinguished by age, for
example, the youngest group comprising Magny, Tahureau, Vauquelin de La Fresnaye, and Scévole de
Sainte-Marthe. Philippe Desportes deserves a special mention, because he in certain respects eclipsed
Ronsard’s fame in the latter’s declining years. One should also remember that certain major sixteenth-
century poets, such as Du Bartas and Agrippa d’Aubigné, were not associated with the Pléiade, although
they admired Ronsard and to an extent were influenced by him – for example, Agrippa d’Aubigné’s
Printemps or Du Bartas in his cosmological themes, his notion of enthusiasm, and his use of learned
epithets. After Ronsard’s death, some of those who inherited the Pléiade’s serious and profane vein
distanced themselves from its linguistic model and produced a more polished, courtly style (Bertaut, Du
Perron). Du Monin, by contrast, typified a philosophical approach which reproduced all the Pléiade’s
excesses, while Du Bartas embodied a Christian approach different from that of the Pléiade, but shaped by
the latter’s cosmological ambitions and linguistic enrichments. As regards love poetry, Petrarchist poetry
influenced by the italianizing style of Desportes – with his inflamed lyricism, his aesthetics of the
“pointe,” and his taste for verbal artifice – and, in a less noble vein, “Catullian” poets, exemplified the
general “disintegration of the aesthetic ideal of 1550” (Raymond 1927), despite the existence of a few
faithful followers.
The Pléiade’s influence persisted in seventeenth-century France among neo-Petrarchist followers of
Desportes, in pastoral poetry, and also in a “black,” anguished neo-Petrarchism, of almost baroque
sensibility, of poets such as Nuysement and Motin (Jarrety et al. 1997). To a lesser extent its poetics
informs licentious libertine writings, which drew copiously on Ronsard’s Folastries and Du Bellay’s
Divers Jeux rustiques. Yet, as Classicism took hold, with its ideal of clarity and rationality, its linguistic
purism, and grammaticalization, most of the salient features of Pléiade poetry came to be condemned, and
Ronsard was paraded as a linguistic counterexample. Criticism was leveled primarily at the mythological
and pagan themes, the neologisms – particularly compound adjectives – dialectal usage, archaisms,
grecisms, and latinisms; the technical, prosaic and “base” terms, nominalizations, and inversions; and
every form of poetic license, erudition and scientific and specialized language, as well as the figure of the
inspired poet, which was abundantly caricatured. All these Pléiade features came to define the pedantic
pedagogue pursuing Court favor in his affected language. The Pléiade style had additionally become less
striking and more stereotyped due to increasingly mediocre imitations and the appearance of various
glossaries, manuals, and commonplace books. More fundamentally, the rejection of this legacy was a
rejection of modes of thought: the poetic choices reflected social divisions, between the Latin sphere of the
Colleges and the world of the salons and the Court; a changing relation to the past, most spectacularly
illustrated by the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes; a strongly normative and dogmatic world view,
whose moral order, as imposed by Richelieu, was also a reaction to the recent past of religious conflict and
of scientific and libertine challenges. These choices also expressed a relation to language, which could
almost be called ontological: what counted henceforth was conceptual clarity, syntactical coherence, the
ideal of a perfect fit between language and thought, and the value of appropriateness, increasingly
interpreted as bienséance. First Malherbe, then Boileau, consigned the Pléiade to oblivion, while at the
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same time, they were heavily indebted to the enriched lexis and the systems of versification and rhyme the
Pléiade had developed.
The Pléiade’s influence in Europe was linked to the struggle for vernacular languages and also,
historically, to the large number of French Protestant émigrés in the countries of Northern Europe. In
the Netherlands, for example, poets, theoreticians, and lexicographers imitated Ronsard, Du Bellay, and
Du Bartas (Smith PJ 2010). The context of Anthoni Smyters’s translation of de La Porte’s Epithetes
(1571) in 1620 was that of claims for the use of the vernacular in Dutch poetry among Flemish refugees
and particularly around Karel van Mander, a painter and literary mentor, and around the literary society De
Witte Angieren (“the White Carnations”) in Haarlem. The Dutch poet Jan van der Noot, who modeled his
work on Du Bellay, Ronsard, Marot, and Du Bartas, and introduced the alexandrine into Dutch poetry,
helped bring the Pléiade to England and Germany, during the spells of exile which his changing religious
affiliations brought upon him. Spenser, and most of the great English poets of the time, reflects this
influence. Martin Opitz in Germany, whose treatise on poetics (1624) owed much to the Pléiade, had a
unifying role which was crucial for German poetry. A member of the Fruitbearing Society
(Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft), and in contact with the Italian Crusca, his literary choices illustrate the
highly paradoxical nature of this legacy: his recasting of the Platonic theory of enthusiasm; his preoccu-
pation with technique (genres, versification, and rhetorical devices); his praise of the vernacular, which he
sought to unify while rejecting dialectal usage; his advocacy of compound neologisms to which Germanic
languages are so conducive; and the new metrical patterns he introduced in order to simplify, but also
standardize, versification – all these changes led the Pléiade’s influence, as transmitted by Opitz, to be
interpreted in Germany as a new form of academicism, in the footsteps of Luther, just when
French Classicism was rejecting this tradition for the opposite reasons. When he came into contact with
French literary circles during his stay in Paris (1630), Opitz was thus both disconcerted and disappointed
(Opitz 2009).
So, as we have seen, the relation to language depended on the specific context of reception. The
linguistic unification sought by Opitz and both the German (Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft) and Italian
(Crusca) Academies was intolerant of dialecticisms, whereas French, which was more solidly structured
as a national language, had less to fear from these at the time of the Pléiade. Ideological and religious
factors were also crucial: the Protestant convictions of the Pléiade’s Dutch and German imitators made
them suspicious of its paganism, despite Du Bartas’s successful reworking of the topics of enthusiasm.
Such curious inverted trajectories, by which outside France the Pléiade’s contribution was understood in
terms of linguistic standardization and academicism, in such stark contrast to the terms of its reception
(and rejection) by French Classicism, illustrate just two aspects of a complex influence, from which each
literary history has retained only what suited it.
Cross-References
▶ Academies
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Atomism
▶ Neoplatonism
▶ Tyard (Pontus de)
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References
Primary Literature
Dorat, Jean. 2000. Mythologicum, ed-trad: Ford Ph. Genève: Droz.
Goyet, F. (ed.). 1990. Traités de poétique et de rhétorique de la Renaissance. Paris: Librairie Générale
Française.
Bruès G. de. 1953. Les Dialogues, ed. Morphos, P.P. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
Le Caron L. 1986. Dialogues, ed. Buhlmann, J.A., Gilman, D. Genève: Droz.
La Porte M de. 2009. Les Epithetes, ed. Rouget, F. Paris: Champion.
Opitz. 2009. Le Livre de la poésie allemande, ed-trad: Rothmund, E. Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du
Mirail.
Pineaux, J. (ed.). 1973. La Polémique protestante contre Ronsard. Paris: Didier.
Ramus [La Ramée P. K]. 1996. Dialectique, ed. Bruyère, N. Paris: Vrin.
Speroni S. 1978. Dialogo della retorica et Dialogo delle lingue. In Trattatisti del Cinquecento, ed. Pozzi,
M. t I. Milan-Naples: Riccardo Ricciardi.
Castor, G. 1964. Pleiade poetics: a study in sixteenth-century thought and terminology. Cambridge:
University Press.
Chamard, H. 1939–1963. Histoire de la Pléiade, 4 vols. Paris: Didier.
Jarrety, M., et al. 1997. La Poésie française du Moyen Age jusqu’à nos jours. Paris: PUF.
Laumonier, P. 1909. Ronsard, poète lyrique: étude historique et littéraire. Paris: Hachette et Cie.
Meerhoff, K. 1986. Rhétorique et Poétique au XVIe siècle en France. Du Bellay, Ramus et les autres.
Leyde: Brill.
Ménager, D. 1979. Ronsard : le roi, le poète et les hommes. Genève: Droz.
Pouey-Mounou, A.-P. 2002. L’Imaginaire cosmologique de Ronsard. Genève: Droz.
Raymond, M. 1927. L’Influence de Ronsard sur la poésie française (1550–1585). Paris: Droz.
Schmidt, A.-M. 1938. La Poésie scientifique au XVIe siècle. Paris: Albin Michel.
Simonin, M. 1990. Pierre de Ronsard. Paris: Fayard.
Smith, M.C. 1995. Ronsard & Du Bellay versus Beze. Allusiveness in Renaissance Literary Texts.
Genève: Droz.
Smith, P.J. 2010. Paix et poésie en pays d’exil : les réfugiés flamands lecteurs de la Pléiade à Haarlem
autour de 1600. In Chemins de l’exil, havres de paix: migrations d’hommes et d’idées au XVIe siècle,
ed. Balsamo, J., and C. Lastraioli, 289–301. Paris: Champion.
Terreaux, L. 1968. Ronsard correcteur de ses œuvres : les variantes des Odes et des deux premiers livres
des Amours. Genève: Droz.
Yates, F. 1988. The French academies of the sixteenth century. Londres: Routledge.
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Rabelais, François
Born: 1483 or 1494
Died: 1553
Myriam Marrache-Gouraud*
HCTI (Héritages et constructions dans le texte et l’image, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, France
Abstract
François Rabelais is a major French figure of the Renaissance. Active in his time as a physician, humanist,
monk, and scholar of Greek, Rabelais was well-known in humanist circles, but it is his reputation as a
writer of novels that has sustained his renown over the centuries. The protagonists of his most famous
novels are two giants, Gargantua and Pantagruel; their fantastic and grotesque adventures, along with
Rabelais’ characteristic coarse and lewd humor and satirical tone, have become the distinctive features of
his work. However, it was not always plain sailing for Rabelais, as his works were banned and
systematically condemned by church authorities. His writings have multiple meanings, and the reader
is constantly urged to go beyond the text’s surface meaning to discover the other levels of interpretation.
Rabelais’ novels and their success are a testament to his literary prowess, and his influence on literature
has been acknowledged by critics who recognize him as one of the creators of the modern European novel.
Today, he is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time.
Biography
François Rabelais was born in La Devinière, near Chinon, in either 1483 or 1494. Little is known about his
family; he was one of three sons of a landowner who was a lawyer by profession. Around 1520, Rabelais
entered a Franciscan monastery in Fontenay-le-Comte, which was the busy capital city of the region of
Lower Poitou at the time. There, he met Pierre Amy, who would become one of his closest friends, as well
as the famous jurists André Tiraqueau and Amaury Bouchard. Like them, Rabelais was interested in
topics such as natural history, medicine, religion, and the social organization of marriage. He read Latin
and Greek and, following humanist philological methods, turned to ancient texts to enhance his knowl-
edge. He first came to attention as a correspondent of Guillaume Budé and soon after was recognized as an
eminent specialist of the Greek language. In 1524, he left the Franciscan monastery where Greek books
had been forbidden and fled to his friend Geoffroy d’Estissac, abbot of Maillezais, where he found shelter
among the Benedictine monks. Geoffroy d’Estissac had an enlightened mind and was open to new ideas.
Rabelais became his secretary and traveled with him throughout the region of Poitou, discussing issues for
debate with other scholars. In his narrative works, traces of place names from both this region and the area
around his birthplace, near Chinon, can be found.
In 1530 and 1531, Rabelais studied medicine at the famous university of Montpellier. There, he met
Guillaume Rondelet, the naturalist and physician who would later find renown for his treatise on fish
(Histoire naturelle des poissons, 1558). In 1532, Rabelais worked as a physician at the Hôtel-Dieu public
hospital in Lyon. At that time, the town was a flourishing center of commerce, trading mainly with Italy
*Email: myriam.marrachegouraud@yahoo.fr
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and Switzerland. Alongside his job in the hospital, he met publishers and carried out several important
translations: Greek medical treatises (Hippocrates’ Aphorisms, Ars parva by Galen, 1532) and Italian
texts (1532, Epistolarum medicinalium by Manardi and 1534, Topographia antiquae Romae by
Marliani). In 1532, he also published his first great novel Pantagruel (Pantagruel, roi des Dipsodes,
avec ses faits et prouesses épouvantables); this first part was followed in 1534–1535 by the first edition of
Gargantua (La vie très horrifique du grand Gargantua, père de Pantagruel), the story of Pantagruel’s
father; both books were revised in 1542. The narratives were published under the anagrammed pseudo-
nym Alcofribas Nasier, who served as the story’s narrator and was referred to on the title page as an
“abstracteur de quintessence,” a metaphorical designation of the author’s function. Clearly, this pseudo-
nym acted as a protective mask that not only shielded Rabelais from personal attacks but also came to
suggest that the role of the author was not so different from that of an alchemist: to abstract quintessential
matter. It should be noted here that this period of his life was marked by two directions in his writing: he
published both scientific books and fantasy novels (the former with publisher Sebastien Gryphe and the
latter with Claude Nourry and François Juste).
Between 1534 and 1536, Rabelais had the opportunity to travel to Rome on three occasions, each time
accompanying the Archbishop Jean du Bellay, who served as the king of France’s ambassador to the Pope.
As a confirmed humanist, Rabelais took advantage of his travels to meet Italian scholars interested in
painting, art, architecture, antiques, ancient books, and modern innovations. He explored the wonders of
Rome and Florence; in Rome, he made a supplication to the Pope to be forgiven for his apostasy. He
completed his studies in Montpellier in 1537 as a Doctor of Medicine where he practiced anatomy and
taught Pronostics by Hippocrates. In 1538, Guillaume du Bellay, brother of Jean du Bellay, became the
governor of Piedmont, and his political strategies in Italy inspired Rabelais to publish Strategemata in
1539. This last book has unfortunately been lost to time.
In 1541, he wrote an almanac under his own name, as well as a fake prognostication for the year 1541
under the pseudonym of Seraphino Calbarsy. In 1532, he had already published A Pantagruéline
Prognostication for the Year 1533 under his own name, “François Rabelais, doctor of medicine and
professor of astrology.” These real or fake prognostications were repeated every year until 1544. In 1542,
he published a second edition of his first two novels, Gargantua and Pantagruel. The Faculty of Theology
at the Sorbonne placed both works on its Index of Prohibited Books. While the books continued to be
published under a pseudonym, the author still made many significant corrections and additions in order to
sound less offensive.
In 1543, Rabelais suffered a great loss with the death of two of his closest friends and protectors:
Guillaume du Bellay, whose death was evoked in two different episodes of the Third and the Fourth
Books, and Geoffroy d’Estissac.
In Paris, in 1546, Chrétien Wechel published Rabelais’ Third Book (Tiers Livre des faits et dits hé
roı̈ques du bon Pantagruel) under the author’s real name, “M. François Rabelais, Doctor of Medicine.”
Soon after, the Faculty of Theology banned this book as well, and Rabelais left for Metz for his own
safety. He likely went to Rome as Jean du Bellay’s personal physician.
A first version of the Fourth Book (Quart Livre) was published in Lyon in 1548, with a final and
complete edition published in Paris in 1552. Between these two dates, Jean Calvin, in his book Scandals
(Des Scandales), protested against Rabelais’ immorality. In the same period, Rabelais was appointed
priest at Meudon, near Paris. At this time, his first three books were still banned.
Rabelais died in 1553. The Fifth Book (Cinquième Livre), first published in a short version under the
title of L’isle sonante (1562), was published in 1564 and presumably was not entirely authentic. In 1564,
François Desprez published Les songes drolatiques de Pantagruel, inspired by the works of Rabelais.
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Heritage and Breaking with Tradition
At the Crossroads of Different Writing Traditions

The stories and main characters of the first two novels, Pantagruel and Gargantua, are inspired by
different traditions. First, the tradition of the “great chronicles” (Grandes et inestimables Chronicques de
l’enorme geant Gargantua), which is quoted in Pantagruel’s Prologue: “those who liked the Great
Chronicles would appreciate the new book,” says the author. In ancient books written in epic medieval
prose, heroes, who were also giants, had to overcome difficult ordeals at King Arthur’s Court. The book of
these “chronicles” was a real success. Rabelais then dedicated his own book to the passionate readers of
such stories, claiming to belong to this tradition and to continue it, which he did, or at least appeared to.
In addition to the literary tradition, Rabelais drew a great deal on French folklore, in which Gargantua
was already a well-known character, as was the fairy Melusine. Rabelais was fond of borrowing such
characters and sometimes transformed them in his own way. Pantagruel, for example, is a little devil at
first. In popular legends and in farces of fifteenth-century mysteries, he plays tricks on people by
sprinkling salt in their throats while they sleep so that they wake up terribly thirsty. Rabelais kept these
notions in his novel, but the little man becomes a giant endowed with humanist and Christian principles
that compel him to do good deeds.
Furthermore, being deeply familiar with antiquity, Rabelais’ writings echo the comic tradition of the
burlesque of Lucian of Samosata. This inspiration is very important, as it guides the narrative in the
direction of a false yet apparently true story in which fantasy is told as perfect truth. This launches a sort of
game with the reader who is challenged to believe the unbelievable, not only with settings on imaginary
islands or in fantastic places but also with strange allegorical creatures and many bizarre encounters with
different marvels.
Finally, bearing in mind that Rabelais was also a physician and keenly aware of the latest innovations
and discoveries in natural sciences, the strong presence of science within his fiction cannot be overlooked.
Epic battles, for instance, are written with the vocabulary of anatomic dissections, and imaginary plants,
such as the Pantagruelion, are described in the style of a botanical treatise.
The Echo of Humanist Ideas

Rabelais’ fiction not only strives to entertain but also aims to convey ideas. Rabelais was particularly fond
of Erasmus’ idea of the “dignitas hominis” and of the major role that formal education plays in an
individual’s personal education. Humanist or Erasmian principles are at stake in the childhood episode of
the giant Gargantua, in which the young hero has to change teachers in order to experience new education.
At first, he had to learn all kinds of idle knowledge by rote, understanding nothing, and taking no
advantage of it to mature and gain experience. Even his innate qualities were repressed or stifled under his
instructors. Once placed in the care of humanist teachers, he learned at last to read, understand, and
comment on his readings. Acquiring such a fine education, he was finally able to come into his own and
fulfill his potential: to show his true mind and to improve and achieve his real nature and capacity of being
a prince. In Pantagruel (Chapter 8), a letter from Gargantua to Pantagruel betrays similar
priorities – “knowledge without conscience is but the ruin of the soul” (“science sans conscience n’est
que ruine de l’â me”) – and sums up the requirements for a complete humanist education. The student will
focus on learning languages, both ancient tongues and modern vernaculars. This ideal education is then
illustrated in the next chapter by Pantagruel’s encounter with Panurge, a stranger who speaks 13 different
languages fluently. It is only evident much later on when Panurge speaks in French that, in fact, this
language is his mother tongue.
Education is not the only humanist idea Rabelais introduces in his narrative works. He also discusses
the need for an appropriate diet, essential for good health, and stresses the importance of peace-keeping
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between different states, especially if they are neighboring ones. When Erasmus wrote about the rules of
good government, he underlined the horrors of war and stressed the need for peace. Rabelais, in turn, told
the story of the Picrocholine Wars to demonstrate the monstrosity and injustice of imperialism.
Rabelais’ novels can rightfully be considered a mirror of humanist thought. This “serious” interpreta-
tion ought not to be considered antagonistic to the “joyful” or “humorous” one: each is complementary,
since the stories always contain both aspects simultaneously.
Inside the Novels

The five-book cycle forms an ensemble, and the same heroes reappear in different adventures.
The first published book, Pantagruel, tells the story of Pantagruel’s miraculous birth, youth, and life.
Although the novel follows the medieval tradition of epic chronicles, the hero is now presented as a
perfect humanist and Christian character, a very wise person – yet this does not prevent him from getting
into trouble. Discovering Paris with his companions, Pantagruel meets several strange characters: a
student from the region of Limousin, the perfect caricature of a stupid pedant, and Panurge, a fascinating
trickster who does not care about morality and likes to show off his skills as a cheater and a laughing
prankster. The war against the Dipsodians shows the interest of wit and tricks; interactions with ladies
underline the fact that the medieval sense of “courtly love” had become old-fashioned. This book contains
the famous letter from Pantagruel’s father about an ideal education (including the aforementioned
“knowledge without conscience” quotation) and a curious episode at the end in which the gigantic hero
swallows his own narrator, Alcofribas, who finds a “new world” in the throat of the hero where peasants
live peacefully, convinced that they are living in the “ancient world.” This episode is very revealing about
the idea of the relativity of our conceptions of the world.
Gargantua, the second book, is structured along a similar biographical pattern. This time, the narrative
focuses on Pantagruel’s father, Gargantua, who tells the story of his extraordinary birth and curious
adventures during his youth and into adulthood. The novel is meant to mislead the reader or at least toy
with their expectations. After a miraculous birth through his mother’s left ear, the young hero apparently
spends his childhood like all of the other children in his country: eating and drinking, sleeping, and
playing. But his games are quite special, for example, he invents an ingenious “torchecul” (arsewipe),
plays tricks on his father’s friends, steals the bells from the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, and takes
revenge on Parisians by making his horse urinate so abundantly that it drowns part of the city. The first
third of the book includes amusing episodes linked to Gargantua’s gigantic. Later on, a war is sparked
from a misunderstanding. New characters come into play like Picrochole (literally, the “bilious”), the
imperialist king of the neighborhood who cannot help getting angry and fighting. His officers are all
ridiculous, whether for their names or their actions. Another important character of this war is Friar Jean, a
monk who defends his abbey against enemy pillaging before joining Gargantua’s company, where he
takes part in both the fights and the feasts, always playing a very active, prominent, and stimulating role.
At the end of the book, Picrochole is defeated, and Gargantua awards Friar Jean the opportunity to found
an abbey according to the monk’s own ideas. The Abbey of Thelema is a magnificent place, looking much
more like the castles of the Loire than a cloistered monastery. All the rules and habits of a monastery are
reversed: men and women can live together in perfect harmony, and the main principle is to “Do what thou
wilt” (“fais ce que voudras”). This episode is considered as a utopian attempt to describe an ideal society.
The Third Book begins with a very different purpose. Panurge is eager to get married, but not before
making sure that his future wife will be faithful to him. He first asks his friends for advice, but remains
uncertain and so then refers to different authorities, including a prophet, a philosopher, a physician, a man
of law, and finally. . . a fool! The story proceeds from one piece of advice to the next, from one kind of
knowledge to another, most of the time uttered in the most obscure specialist language that requires an
explanation. Pantagruel always offers his interpretation of the answer, while Panurge, providing his own
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understanding, always contradicts him. It becomes apparent that the meaning of words depends on the
listener and that the book demonstrates a kind of hermeneutic crisis: confronted with the universal
ambiguity of language, the reader never knows where to stop interpreting as any interpretation invalidates
a previous one, and none of them are especially convincing. Panurge’s quest for a final answer remains the
central plot in the Fourth Book. He has convinced his friend Pantagruel to depart on a voyage to find “the
bottle’s word” (“le mot de la bouteille”), which he thinks will be decisive in his search for answers. The
narrative thus continues at sea, traveling from one land to another. While each of the islands visited by the
protagonists is surprising and purely fictional, nonetheless, their inhabitants represent some social
stereotypes of Rabelais’ time. Travel is thus to be understood in the allegorical sense of passing from
one satire to another. Panurge’s sheep is one of the book’s most famous episodes. The trickster wants to
take revenge on a stupid merchant selling sheep at an exorbitant price, but when the merchant does
eventually sell him an overpriced sheep, Panurge throws it into the sea; the rest of the flock follow it
eventually all the sheep drown. Having punished the pretentious merchant, Panurge laughs heartily.
As the “bottle’s word” has still not been found at the end of the Fourth Book, the story of the Fifth
Book – whose attribution to Rabelais is called into question – tells the concluding episodes of the quest.
Once again, the heroes stumble into strange encounters in extraordinary or frightening fictional places.
Finally, they meet the female priest Bacbuc, who reveals the long-awaited word, but only at the end of a
complex ceremony. It comes in the form of a poetic calligram, written in the shape of a bottle. The
characters are then invited to drink from a marvelous fountain, the “water” of which tastes like wine, but
only like the wine the drinker thinks of while drinking; the priest’s magic formula is “Now, imagine and
drink.” The magic water also gives the power to speak in verse. The final lesson of the book seems to rest
squarely within the power of imagination, as the famous word they were looking for is simply “trinch,”
which can mean the imperative “drink” in German or simply the sound of a breaking bottle. The
interpretation that an individual gives to strange messages cannot be taken for granted, i.e., it is subjective,
and in this case, it is called into question: is “trinch” a real message to be deciphered (and what does it
mean in relation to the rest of the story?) or is it, literally, merely the sound of a bottle breaking by
accident?

The summaries of the books show how Rabelais profoundly changed French narrative prose in the early
sixteenth century. His stories are meant to be amusing, but they are also so much more. The dialogue,
instead of opening relationships between the characters and revealing aspects that could help to advance
the plot, leads to misunderstanding and perplexity, slowing down any advancement in this respect.
A commentary would be necessary for a single understanding, but nothing conclusive or convincing is
provided, so the reader is typically confronted by double meanings. With different interpretations, the
reader has to choose for himself as the text only exposes a hermeneutic dilemma, without one unique or
satisfying solution.
For Rabelais, paradox is a guideline to fiction. Within the story, both serious and comical tones are
combined, contradictory interpretations presented, and medieval traditions merged with the latest human-
ist ideas. Every book both begins and ends with several questions, but never offers an explicit conclusion.
When reading such books, it should be born in mind that there is never one single meaning. Such
hermeneutic potential shows that Rabelais’ fiction addresses the problems and issues of his time, such as
the investigation into the power of words and the tragedy of misunderstanding (i.e., the censorship of
much of Rabelais’ work), yet without denying the epic or adventurous settings that make it fiction.
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Therein lies a kind of explosive confrontation between past traditions and a new form of fiction that
reinvents itself through provocation.
The Paradoxical Image of the Author

The author, who included encyclopedic content within a fantasy story, did not stand before his reader as an
erudite scholar. On the contrary, he preferred to present ridiculous aspects of himself, especially in the
Prologues. He claims that drinking, eating, and joking with merry companions are what can help him
achieve perfection in writing. His main purpose, as he says in Gargantua’s Prologue, is to fill every reader
with joy and laughter, “Because to laugh is proper to man” (“parce que rire est le propre de l’homme”).
The tendency to portray himself as a laughing figure culminates in the Third Book, in which he adopts a
specific persona following the example of Diogenes, whose apparent vanity and idleness were
condemned by his contemporaries. What he does, however apparently useless and risible, is paradoxically
regarded as essential, and Rabelais assumed the identity of a grinning figure to prove this. In the Fourth
Book, in an epistle to his protector Odet de Châtillon, Rabelais explains how he had decided to quit writing
because he could no longer endure so many attacks. He was close to retiring from literature when he found
reassurance that his paradoxical posture was the device that enabled him to create his works. In fact, in all
of his Prologues, Rabelais seems not to care about good manners and prejudices, addressing his reader
brusquely, sometimes even crudely. This peculiar writing style can be explained by two different
hypotheses, depending on the representation of the reader.
The Awakening of the Reader

First, the reader can be seen as a good companion, hardly different from a guest, as someone the author
wants to talk to and who he cares about. Rabelais’ dedication of his books to forgotten parts of the
population, such as the victims of syphilis or gout, serves as compelling evidence. All of them are
outcasts, familiar to Doctor Rabelais, and more than any other readers, they need comfort. Reading is thus
to be understood as a skilful therapy: all worries can be forgotten with a happy story, thus allowing jokes
with the reader, who is to be treated like a friend. Hence, the apparent brusqueness is really a way of
showing how close the author and the reader truly are. However, a second hypothesis is also possible. If
the author skips a polite captatio benevolentiae, it is because he wants to provoke the reader, setting the
right tone for the entire work. In a way, the prologues are meant to be a jolt to the system, a “shaking up” of
the reader’s mind so that he will be ready for any possible situation, however incredible it may be. Indeed,
there will be plenty of unbelievable things, not only in relation to the characters’ actions, but especially in
terms of language and interpretation. The reader could be surprised or shocked: he is warned from the
beginning that however strange the situations may be, they are not meant to be outrageous: “Readers,
friends, if you turn these pages / Put your prejudice aside / For, really, there’s nothing here that’s
outrageous / Nothing sick, or bad – or contagious” (Gargantua, “To the readers”).
Very early on, from Gargantua’s Prologue, Rabelais insists on the need to literally open the book along
with one’s mind, stressing the need to look inside the book to see what is hidden as there is something to be
found which is not clearly visible. It might be hidden by a contradictory appearance, when a facetious
episode turns out to be full of wisdom – if the reader is able to understand. The skill of “sens agile” (agility
of the mind) is required. Rabelais asserts the need for interpretation and compels the reader to start
thinking as this is the only way for him to be able to reach the essence, the “substantifique moelle” (“Then
you must, by a curious reading and frequent meditation, break the bone and suck out the substantial
marrow. . .”). His metaphors – bones to break, dogs cautiously biting them, the bottle to be opened, a
funny box revealing a precious drug inside . . . – all convey the idea that the title of the book and the
appearance (the “literal sense”) of an episode are but a beginning; they need to be followed and refined by
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true reflection to be useful to the readers, who could then have access to the “plus haut sens” (the highest,
or deepest, meaning).
The disconcerting endings of many episodes – and even of the book Gargantua itself – split between
opposite interpretations of a single situation and illustrate this need for a meditative reader. If two possible
meanings are presented, it is ultimately the reader’s duty to choose between them.
Rabelais’ novels all play with reader expectations, provoking surprise, delaying resolution, casting
heroes who are not necessarily heroic, telling tales of strange travels, and introducing many possible
worlds and many impossible conclusions. In short, the author presents a thorough exploration of many
potential devices for fiction and for hermeneutics. To the early modern reader, all this would have been
terribly disconcerting and fascinating.
Stepping into Modernity

The invention of the concept of “Pantagruelism” is a good example of a newly created feature in early
modern prose. Rabelais formed this word from the name of the hero Pantagruel and then went on to define
it several times throughout the five books. Pantagruelism is a moral quality, close to Pantagruel’s mood: a
so-called philosophy described in the Prologue of the Fourth Book as “a certain gaiety of mind pickled in
the scorn of fortuitous things.” The giant, whose reactions are always measured and wise, displays an
attitude of calmness and security toward the exterior circumstances (“fortuitous things”) that do not
depend on his will.
On one level, Pantagruelism can be defined as a philosophy derived precisely from the specific
character of the novel’s hero and his very name. Moreover, it refers to a pragmatic attitude applied not
only to Pantagruel himself but also to many situations covered in the work. It can therefore be considered
as a kind of behavioral feature, affecting relationships between good people: by following this kind of
optimism and receptiveness, they can call themselves “Pantagruelists.”
On another, more general level, all five books make reference to Pantagruelism as the word can be used
to describe an attitude toward both writing and the act of reading (Gargantua is said to be a “book full of
Pantagruelism”). It is an open-minded attitude, never in position to argue with rage (contrary to the
censors) or to be upset (see the aforementioned “put your prejudice aside”).
In light of all this, Pantagruelism is naturally recommended as a remedy against the poisonous attitude
of the “agelastes” (agelasts), literally “those who do not laugh” or do not know how to laugh and who are
therefore banned from the utopian Abbey of Thelema or even from reading the book itself. As a
philosophy, Pantagruelism is not confined to fiction as it transcends this boundary and is also related to
writing, reading, and acting. This philosophy, based on fiction, is all the more original, as fiction invents
its own referential pattern, without referring to existing models of readers, thereby creating its ideal reader.
This means that roles can shift. The hero, Pantagruel, the model for such an attitude, can be considered as
the best reader of his own adventures, which are themselves written by an author declaring himself to be a
Pantagruelist. The metaleptic movement of this entire system shows how fiction is on the brink of changes
to come, where the boundaries between author, reader, and characters disappear or become blurred.
Parallels are often drawn between Rabelais and Cervantes in this respect, as they were both two important
sixteenth-century authors in the process of inventing a new satirical style of writing.
The character of Panurge also represents a great renewal in the typology of characters. Firstly, anything
but epic, he is not a hero; he cannot fight, hates weapons, and always prefers fleeing, cunning, or craftiness
to bravery. Still, however cowardly he may seem, he is not a meaningless character. On the contrary, he
instantly becomes Pantagruel’s best friend and is the most relevant figure capable of shedding light on all
the others. He fails to meet expectations and contradicts the most famous character types. Disconcerting
and apparently irrelevant, he is made of imperfections, but due to his constitutive ambiguity, he is a very
modern and audacious character. By himself, Panurge is impertinent; he is one of the risks taken by
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Rabelais with respect to traditions. He is also, for this reason, the very symbol of adventure. This
character’s role is twofold: as an instrumental literary device that moves the narrative forward and, at
the same time, as a tool enabling the author to add an important layer of intellectual depth.
Finally, the creative use of language is one of the most important devices and originalities of Rabelais’
writing. He introduces many languages in his fictional works. First, there are no less than 13 foreign
languages in Chapter 9 of Pantagruel, including imaginary ones (e.g., the Utopian language). Within the
French language, the net is cast wide: for example, the regional terms for navigation in the Fourth Book
are taken either from the Mediterranean or the Atlantic coast of France. The reader can also recognize
many words from the region of Tours and Chinon, the author’s birthplace, especially concerning wine and
drinking. On the lexical side, not only did Rabelais use a vast lexicon, but he also created many
neologisms by making unexpected, humorous combinations of existing words put together in monstrous
and hilarious combinations. He also wrote long chapters consisting only of dizzying lists of words, the
most famous being Gargantua’s games (Gargantua, Chapter 22), the parodic list of the books of the
Library of Saint-Victor (Pantagruel, Chapter 7), and the different lists of insults between Friar Jean and
Panurge (Third Book, Chapters 26 and 28). All are epic moments of language jubilation and can be either
read as parody, poetry, burlesque, or profound jokes and word games.
Impact and Legacy

With its numerous feasts, drinking episodes, and gluttony, and because Rabelais’ prose was based on
comic features, jokes, and scatology, a rather mythical image of Rabelais has taken hold in people’s
minds. His fiction was considered immoral, joyful, but shameful and generally reduced to the idea of
gigantic meals and feasts. Some so-called “ugly” parts were even censored and withheld from young girls
until the first half of the twentieth century. All of these ideas originate in seventeenth- and eighteenth-
century readers, who generally read Rabelais this way. Thanks to Victor Hugo, who celebrated the
author’s enormous and magnificent use of the French language, the nineteenth century approach to his
work differed. With the same level of fascination as Hugo, Gustave Doré also magnified the epic scope of
Rabelais’ fiction through a visionary interpretation in his engravings. On the other hand, Louis-Ferdinand
Céline, while paying tribute to Rabelais’ sublime use of oral language inside written prose, contended that
he “failed,” because nobody had followed or adopted his style, and the French language had, in the end,
not profited from this literary experience.
With respect to the history of the French language, apart from Céline’s extreme viewpoint, the studies
of Rabelais’ use of language have highlighted lexical creation and its benefit for the enrichment of the
dictionary. Many words remaining in common use come from Rabelais’ first experiments, when he
introduced Greek words into French (including “exotic,” for instance).
Regarding the realm of ideas, many studies have pointed out Rabelais’ evangelism, his use of Plato’s
philosophy, or of Greek philosophers in general. Mikhail Bakhtin had some merit in the “rehabilitation” of
Rabelais, when he showed that the treatment of the lower part of the body is linked not to a perverse
tendency for scatology nor to immoral purposes, but rather to the celebration of a form of carnival, of an
upside-down image of society, as a way to question the organization of social hierarchies. Although this
thesis has been much disputed, it has proven important for understanding Rabelais differently. Since the
1990s, what seems to be essential for readers and scholars is to consider both sides of his fiction together,
that is, the serious ideological side and the merry amusing one, as the literal sense (on the joyful side)
sounds as important as the allegoric or the symbolic one, both parts making an equal contribution.
Rabelais’ fiction has the strength of introducing science into adventure stories, and creating compelling
characters who are neither good nor bad, neither totally praiseworthy nor blameworthy. They are
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essentially ambiguous, and their status must be interpreted by the reader. Thus, Rabelais places interpre-
tation at the center of reading so as to convey the constant need for vigilance. His growing concern in the
novels with fixed meanings comes to its culmination in the 56th chapter of the Fourth Book. The episode
of the frozen words perfectly illustrates this: frozen words, looking like magnificent colored pearls on the
deck of the boat, need to be picked up and warmed in the hands of good Pantagruelists to release their
sounds and reveal their meanings.
Cross-References
▶ Alchemy
▶ Allegory - Renaissance Philosophy
▶ Anatomy - Renaissance Philosophy
▶ Architecture - Renaissance Philosophy
▶ Astrology - Renaissance Philosophy
▶ Book
▶ Censorship and Censorship
▶ Cervantes, Miguel
▶ Dialogue
▶ Diogenes Laertius (in the Renaissance)
▶ Erasmus, Desiderius
▶ Folengo, Teofilo
▶ Humanism - Renaissance Philosophy
▶ Humors
▶ More, Thomas
▶ Navarre, Marguerite de
▶ Neoplatonism
▶ Ockhamism
▶ Printing and Publishing
▶ Prose
▶ Reformation - Renaissance Philosophy
▶ Satire
▶ Scepticism
▶ Science
▶ Utopia - Renaissance Philosophy
References
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Langer, U. 1994. Perfect friendship. Geneva: Droz.
Le Cadet, N. L’Evangélisme fictionnel. Paris: Garnier.
Lestringant, F. 1988. L’Insulaire de Rabelais, ou la fiction en archipel. In Rabelais en son demi-millénaire,
ed. J. Céard, 249–274. Geneva: Droz.
Marrache-Gouraud, M. 2003. Hors toute intimidation… Panurge ou la parole singulière. Geneva: Droz.
Menini, R. 2014. Rabelais altérateur. Paris: Garnier.
Rigolot, F. 1972. Les langages de Rabelais. Geneva: Droz.
Saulnier, V.-L. 1982–1983. Rabelais. Le dessein de Rabelais. Rabelais dans son enquête. SEDES-CDU.
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Tournon, A. 1995a. En sens agile. Les acrobaties de l’esprit selon Rabelais. Paris: Champion.
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Page 10 of 10
R
Ramus, Petrus attended the lectures of humanist educator

Johannes Sturm, German humanist Bartholomew
Born: Cuts (village in northern France), circa Latomus, and Jacques Omphalius, who was later
1515 appointed imperial advisor. The courses were
based on Rodolphus Agricola’s De inventione
Died: Paris, 26 August 1572 dialectica (1515), which describes the character-
istics of a discourse based on probability. At the
Véronique Montagne age of 21, Ramus argued in his master’s thesis that
CNRS, BCL, UMR 7320, Université Nice Sophia Aristotle’s doctrines were false (“quaecumque ab
Antipolis, Nice, France Aristotele dicta essent commentitia esse”), which
shocked and embarrassed his jury, who were
accustomed to relying on the authority of the
Abstract Greek philosopher.
Petrus Ramus was a French logician and phi- Having obtained his master’s degree, Ramus
losopher who was against scholastic logic and started teaching in 1537 at the Collège du Mans in
Aristotle. He is considered to be the precursor Paris, and then at the Collège de l’Ave Maria in Le
to Descartes. Mans (France), where he advocated for the com-
bined study of philosophy and eloquence: orators
and poets were featured in this popular course,
Alternate Names which was inspired by Johannes Sturm. He met
French humanist Omer Talon and Barthélémy
▶ La Ramée; ▶ Pierre de Alexandre, a Hellenist eager to disseminate
Greek texts in their original language. The three
men became friends and taught courses open to
Biography and Works the public, which were based on the works of
Greek and Latin authors. Throughout his life,
Born in Cuts, Petrus Ramus moved to Paris at the Ramus continued to support the study of Greek
age of 11. In 1527, he attended the Collège Sainte- alongside Latin.
Barbe and Collège de Navarre, where he served a In 1543, Ramus published his first two works
rich student, Sieur de La Brosse. There, he met the on logic and dialectic: Dialecticae partitiones ad
future Charles of Lorraine and discovered Aris- Academiam Parisienem (1543a) – he gave a copy
totle with Jean Hennuyer, who later became to Francis I, likely in the hopes of becoming
Bishop of Lisieux (Normandy, France). He one of his protégés – and Aristotelicae
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_312-1
2 Ramus, Petrus
Animadversiones (1543b), dedicated to Charles of Quintilian. In 1548, Omer Talon published

Lorraine, in which he attacks Aristotle’s logic Rhetorica ad Carolum Lotharingum, based on
more specifically and, indirectly, the masters of Ramus’s criticism of Cicero and Quintilian; the
the Faculté des arts in Paris who taught Aristotle’s work was then translated by Antoine Fouquelin in
works. Ramus explains for the first time his idea 1555 (La Rhétorique française) with several ter-
of one universally applicable method (contrary to minological changes and examples from French
Aristotle who makes a distinction between the literature instead of Virgil.
apodictic and dialectic methods), which “consists Thanks to Henri II, Ramus obtained the post of
of proceeding from the whole towards the parts by “royal professor of eloquence and philosophy” in
defining, dividing, giving examples” [Bruyère, August 1551, a new position that he alone would
1984: 76]. These works caused outrage and occupy. He championed the union between rhe-
angered people such as Joachim Périon (doctor toric and dialectic, the former being strictly sub-
from the Sorbonne), Antoine de Gouvéa ordinate to the latter. The principles of this
(Goveanus, a Portuguese legal advisor), and the “conjunction” are laid out in Oratio de studiis
regents of the Université de Paris. Ramus was philosophiae et eloquentiae conjungendis
therefore prosecuted. His Aristotelicae (1549a), which states that doing well and speak-
Animadversiones was presented to the Faculty of ing well go hand in hand. Ramus started teaching
Theology, which banned the work. Members of classes at the Collège de Presles that were
the faculty wanted to defend teaching theology extremely popular, combining once again the
using Aristotelian physics and metaphysics, com- works of poets and orators with philosophical
bining (human) philosophy and theology. In 1544, texts. There, he met Nicolas de Nancel, who
Ramus’s works were banned by decree of King became his student and secretary, and published
Francis I, who forbade him from teaching philos- his biography in 1599 (Nancel 1599).
ophy. Omer Talon took over his position, In 1551, Ramus proposed a reform in Latin
defending Ramus in his work on rhetoric pronunciation, particularly concerning the “q.”
published in January 1545 (Institutiones His interest in grammar led him to publish a
orotoriae). Ramus began teaching eloquence and Latin grammar manual in 1559, a Greek one in
mathematics and was the first to translate Euclid 1560, and a French one in 1562 (revised and
into Latin (1545). That same year, while Paris was reissued in 1572). He is best known for advocat-
affected by another episode of the plague, he ing for the distinction between “j” and “i” and “v”
became the head of the Collège de Presles (one and “u” in French spelling. During this period, he
of the colleges of the Université de Paris). continued pursuing his work on rhetoric and
In 1547, Francis I died: Charles of Lorraine attacked Cicero and Quintilian in a collection of
(now Cardinal of Guise) asked Henri II to annul texts later published under the title Scholae
the decree of 1544. Under Henri II, Ramus was rhetoricae. His Institutiones dialecticae (1554)
given more leeway and could devote himself to and Dialectique (1555) focus on dialectic; he
writing, leading to a new edition of Aristotelicae leaves elocutio and actio to his friend and col-
Animadversiones, toning down the virulence that league Omer Talon, looking instead at inventio
had been so controversial. He also published and dispositio, as applied to dialectic (the art of
Brutinae quaestiones in Oratorem Ciceronis reasoning methodically). While Rodolphus
(1549b) and Rhetoricae distinctiones in Agricola proposed an interpersonal conception
Quintilianum (1549c), in which he criticizes Cic- of dialectic in De inventione dialectica, Ramus
ero and Quintilian. He once again incurred the advocated a monological method, foreshadowing
wrath of Joachim Périon, as well as Jacques the work of Descartes a century later. While
Charpentier, professor of philosophy at the Agricola considers persuasion to be the aim of
Collège de Boncour. Pierre Galland – who was dialectic, Ramus believes dialectic seeks truth,
appointed professor of Latin eloquence from 1542 and he considers the Aristotelian distinction
to 1543 by Francis I – revived Ramus’s edition of between logic (the art of the real) and dialectic
Ramus, Petrus 3
(the art of the probable) to be pointless. The “pre- From 1568 to 1570, he traveled to Germany –
cautionary approach” mentioned in his text – where he spent time with Johannes Sturm – and
which cannot be applied to “assured” Switzerland, before his assassination in 1572,
dispositions – completes the ideal and apodictic 2 days after the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre
“method of nature”; however, it demonstrates that in Paris.
eliminating subjectivity, rhetoric and passion
might not be feasible in all circumstances. Divid-
ing rhetoric in two fields – dialectic (logic), which Cross-References
deals with inventio and dispositio, and rhetoric,
with elocutio and actio – contributes to the “wide- ▶ Charpentier, Jacques
spread restriction” of rhetoric. ▶ Fouquelin, Antoine
With the support of Henri II, in 1557, Ramus ▶ Latomus, Bartholomew
was appointed to a commission that was given the ▶ Lorraine, Charles of
task of proposing reforms for the Université de ▶ Nancel, Nicolas de
Paris. This reflection led to Advertissemens sur la ▶ Omphalius, Jacques
reformation de l’université de Paris in 1562a, ▶ Périon, Joachim
which criticizes and considers the consequences ▶ Sturm, Johannes
of having an unlimited number of professors, ▶ Talon, Omer
namely, the excessive cost of education.
A protégé of Francis II and Charles IX, Ramus
very effectively defended the privileges enjoyed
References
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However, the union between Aristotle and the de La Ramée. Paris: Vrin.
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selon Pierre de La Ramée et Omer Talon. Sképsis, n
sixteenth century – meant that anyone who did
10, p. 86–107.
not adhere completely to Aristotle’s philosophical Couzinet, Marie-Dominique. 2015. Pierre Ramus et la
opinions was considered to be a heretic, and critique du pédantisme. Paris: Honoré Champion.
Ramus was no exception. Alienated from the de La Ramée, Pierre. 1543a. Dialecticae partitiones, ad
celeberrimam et illustrissimam Lutetiae Parisiorum
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Academiam. Paris: Jacques Bogard.
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Ramus converted to Protestantism at the Poissy de La Ramée, Pierre. 1543c. Dialecticae institutiones, ad
celeberrimam, et illustrissimam Lutetiae Parisiorum
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Lorraine since 1550). His conversion renewed Richard.
his desire to confront theological texts with the de La Ramée, Pierre. 1549a. Oratio de studiis philosophiae
et eloquentiae conjungendis. anno 1546. Paris: Martin
precepts of dialectic. In 1562, the French Wars of
Le Jeune.
Religion broke out with the Massacre of Vassy; de La Ramée, Pierre. 1549b. Brutinae Quaestiones in
Ramus moved to Fontainebleau but failed to oratorem Ciceronis. Paris: Jacques Bogard.
escape prosecution. He returned to Paris in 1563, de La Ramée, Pierre. 1549c. Rhetoricae Distinctiones, ad
Carolum Lotharingum, cardinalem Guisianum. Paris:
following the signing of the Edict of Amboise,
Matthieu David.
and resumed teaching grammar, rhetoric, and de La Ramée, Pierre. 1550. Institionum dialecticarum libri
logic. In 1566, Jacques Charpentier and Ramus tres. Paris: Matthieu David.
clashed once again; having taken an interest in de La Ramée, Pierre. 1551. Pro Philosophica Parisiensis
Academiae disciplina oratio, ad Carolum Lotharingum
mathematics since 1545, Ramus contested
cardinalem. Paris: Matthieu David.
Charpentier’s legitimacy as the recently appointed de La Ramée, Pierre. 1554. Institutiones dialecticae.
professor of mathematics at the Collège Royal. Valencia: s.n.
4 Ramus, Petrus
de La Ramée, Pierre. 1555. Dialectique de Pierre de La Meerhoff, Kees et Moisan, Jean-Claude (éd.). 2005b.
Ramée à Charles de Lorraine, cardinal, son Mécène. Autour de Ramus: Le Combat. Paris: Honoré
Paris: André Wechel. Champion.
de La Ramée, Pierre. 1562a. Advertissemens sur la refor- Nancel, Nicolas de. 1599. Declamationum liber. Addita est
mation de l’université de Paris. Paris: André Wechel. Petri Rami vita ab eodem conscripta. Paris: Claude
de La Ramée. 1562b. Gramère. Paris: André Wechel. Morel.
de La Ramée, Pierre. 1572. Grammaire de Pierre de la Ong, Walter J. 1958. Ramus, Method and the Decay of
Ramée, lecteur du Roi en l’Université de Paris. Paris: dialogue. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
André Wechel. Ramus et l’Université. 2004. Cahiers V-L. Saulnier n 21.
Genette, Gérard. 1972. Figures III. Paris: Le Seuil. Paris: Presses de l’ENS.
Meerhoff, Kees et Moisan, Jean-Claude (éd.). 2005a. Waddington, Charles. 1855. Ramus, sa vie, ses écrits et ses
Autour de Ramus. Paris: Honoré Champion. opinions. Paris: Meyreuis.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_313-1
Tiraqueau, André
Born: 1488
Died: 1558
Xavier Prévost*
Abstract
André Tiraqueau was a French jurist of the sixteenth century, who was notably counselor of the
Parisian Parliament. His works deal with many topics and concern both Roman law and Canon law
but also French customs and judgments of the courts. His method applies humanist principles to the
study of the law, without a complete break with the techniques of the medieval jurisprudence.
Synonyms
Andreas Tiraquellus
Biography
André Tiraqueau was a French jurist of the sixteenth century born at Fontenay-le-Comte (Poitou) in
1488 and died at Paris in 1558 (Brejon 1937). He certainly studied law at the University of Poitiers,
which allowed him to become judge in his hometown. In 1512, he married Marie Cailler, daughter of
the “lieutenant criminel” (legal officer) of Fontenay-le-Comte. Then Tiraqueau became himself
“lieutenant général.” He declined an office of counselor of the Parliament of Bordeaux, but became
counselor of the Parisian Parliament in 1541. There, he tied friendship with famous jurists, such as
Charles Du Moulin, Michel de l’Hospital, and Christofle de Thou. The end of his career was notably
marked by a trip to Rome in 1552–1553. Throughout his career, Tiraqueau published numerous law
books. Moreover, after his death in 1558, his son – who succeeded him in his office of counselor of the
Parliament of Paris – brought out several unpublished writings.
The works of Tiraqueau are very various (Tiraqueau 1574). They concern both Roman law and
Canon law but also French customs and judgments of the courts. Besides, his books deal with many
topics, such as matrimonial law (De legibus connubialibus (Tiraqueau 1546)) , property law (De jure
constituti possessorii), nobility (De nobilitate et jure primigeniorum), succession law (Le mort saisit
le vif), criminal law (De pœnis temperandis (Tiraqueau 1986)), or also procedure (De judicio in
rebus exiguis ferendo). These books made Tiraqueau famous among the jurists of the modern times.
They have been reprinted numerous times during the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. They
have also led to disputes. For example, Tiraqueau quarreled with his friend, Amaury Bouchard,
about the famed “querelle des femmes.” The De legibus connubialibus portrayed women in an
unflattering way, which relegated them exclusively to domestic duties (Veillon 2001). In response,
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Bouchard wrote in 1522 a genuine praise of women, entitled Feminei sexus apologia. Tiraqueau
then fleshed out his argument over the numerous reissues, which indicate the spreading of his works.
This success is especially due to the method of André Tiraqueau (Rossi 2007). He does not
completely break with the techniques of the medieval jurisprudence. Consequently, although
humanist, Tiraqueau is sometimes considered as one of the last French Bartolists. Thus, his
commentaries borrow several features to the method of the Glossators and Commentators. He
quotes about 100 medieval jurists, particularly Bartolus de Saxoferrato, Baldus de Ubaldis, and
Panormitanus. The formal appearance of his treatises may be compared to those of some of his
predecessors. Nevertheless, he divides from the medieval scholastic due to his extensive humanist
culture. He tries to combine new ideas with traditional methods. So, his writings have both a
practical relevance and great erudition, not only legal but also literary. He uses obviously many
ancient sources, both Greek and Latin. The influence of Erasmus is particularly noticeable and he
quotes numerous Italian humanists, notably Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. His literary scholarship
serves constantly the study of legal sources.
The humanist culture of Tiraqueau flourished in “cénacle de Fontenay-le-Comte,” which grouped
great figures of the time. For instance, there, he befriended Pierre Lamy, who certainly taught him
Greek. Moreover, François Rabelais belonged to this famous circle. The books of Rabelais offer
probably the best illustration of Tiraqueau’s fame and innovations. The character Trinquamelle is
traditionally identified with the French jurist. Above all, Rabelais criticizes vehemently the medieval
jurisprudence, but he praises the method of legal humanism, then represented by André Tiraqueau.
The influence of the jurist was really important, so much that some passages of the Third Book of
Rabelais are inspired by Tiraqueau’s writings (Perrat 1954).
References
Primary Literature
Tiraqueau A (1546) Ex commentariis in Pictonum consuetudines sectio de Legibus connubialibus et
jure maritali. Paris
Tiraqueau A (1574) Tractatus varii. Lyon
Tiraqueau A (1986) In: Laingui A (ed) Le De pœnis temperandis de Tiraqueau (1559). Paris
Brejon J (1937). André Tiraqueau (1488–1558). Paris
Perrat C (1954) Autour du juge Bridoy: Rabelais et le De nobilitate de Tiraqueau. In: Bibliothèque
d’Humanisme et Renaissance, vol XVI. Geneva, pp 41–57
Rossi G (2007) Incunaboli della modernità. Scienza giuridica e cultura umanistica in André
Tiraqueau (1488–1558). Turin
Veillon D (2001) Le De Legibus Connubialibus d’André Tiraqueau. In: Études rabelaisiennes,
vol XLIII. Geneva, pp 195–213
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Tyard, Pontus de
Born: 1521/1522, Bissy-sur-Fley
Died: 1605, Bragny
Anne-Pascale Pouey-Mounou*
Université Charles-de-Gaulle – Lille 3, Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France
Abstract
Pontus de Tyard, a scholar of encyclopedic learning and a bishop (Chalon-sur-Saône), was a Petrarchist
and Platonizing poet, associated with the “Lyon School” and the “Pléiade,” and a theoretician of poetry,
music, and the sciences. He was, like Peletier du Mans, particularly interested in mathematics and in the
potential of French as a literary and scholarly language.
In his poetry, Tyard successively sings the praises of two mysterious muses, linking human to divine
love [Erreurs amoureuses (1549–1555), Vers liriques (1552–1555), Nouvell’œuvres poetiques (1573),
Douze fables de fleuves ou fontaines (1585)]. In his scientific work, he investigated a series of knowledge
areas and their applicability to issues of faith, the philosophy of language, and political thinking. He
translated Judah Abrabanel’s Dialoghi d’amore (Leone Ebreo, 1551) and composed six Discours
philosophiques (1552–1558), the Solitaire premier (on poetic frenzy), the Solitaire second (on music),
the Discours du temps, de l’an et de ses parties (on time), L’Univers (Premier and Second Curieux, on
cosmology), and Mantice (on astrological divination), and later he wrote some more treatises on science,
faith, onomastics, and political writings.
He was an active member of two academies – the Académie de poésie et de musique presided by Baïf
(under Charles IX) and the Académie du Palais (under Henry III). He contributed to contemporary
debates around music and its primacy, the legitimacy of human curiosity, and the conception of language,
in an allusive, dialogic way.
Biography
Born into the Burgundian aristocracy, Pontus de Tyard, a scholar of encyclopedic learning, entered the
priesthood (Bishop of Chalon-sur-Saône). He was a Petrarchist and Platonizing poet, associated with the
“Lyon School” and the “Pléiade”, (Saulnier 1948, Kushner et al. 2008) and a theoretician of poetry, music,
and the sciences.
In addition to his links with the great poets of his time, Tyard was, like Peletier, interested in the
sciences, particularly mathematics, and in the potential of French as a literary and scholarly language
(Kushner 2001). In his religious functions, he was independent during the Counter-Reformation, as a
Gallican and a shrewd politician, for example, when the League seized power in Chalon after the
assassination of the Duke of Guise. Following a polemic with some Jesuits (Father Charles Suger), he
resigned his office in 1593, devoting the rest of his days to study (Kushner 2001).
In his Petrarchist and Platonizing poetry, Tyard sings the praises of a mysterious Pasithée and then later
extols a different muse, probably Claude-Catherine de Retz. His poetic oeuvre includes the three books of
*Email: anne.pascale.Pouey-Mounoufritch@univ-lille3.fr
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the Erreurs amoureuses (1549–1555), the Vers liriques (1552–1555), the Nouvell’œuvres poetiques
(1573), the Douze fables de fleuves ou fontaines (1585, Marek 2006), and occasional verse in Latin.
His motto, Amour immortelle [“Immortal Love”], links human to divine love.
Tyard translated Judah Abrabanel’s Dialoghi d’amore (Leone Ebreo 1551) and composed six Discours
philosophiques (1552–1558): the Solitaire premier (on poetic frenzy, Baridon 1950); the Solitaire second
(on music, Yandell 1980); the Discours du temps, de l’an et de ses parties (on time); L’Univers,
comprising the Premier and Second Curieux (on cosmology, Lapp 1950) and Mantice (on astrological
divination, Bokdam 1997); later he wrote Ephemerides octavae spherae (1562), De coelestibus asterismis
poematium (1573), some Homilies (1585–1586), a treatise on onomastics (De recta nominum
impositione, 1603), some Annotationes in libros Philonis Judaei, and some political writings (1604).
He thus investigated a series of knowledge areas and their applicability to issues of faith, the philosophy of
language, and political thinking (Roudaut 2008, Bokdam 2003).
Tyard was an active member of two academies – the Académie de poésie et de musique presided by Baïf
(under Charles IX) and the Académie du Palais (under Henry III) – and his contributions to contemporary
debates drew on a vast range of ancient and modern sources, including Boetius, Gafurio, Glarean,
Alessandro, Champier, Pico della Mirandola and Ficino, Plotinus, Lucian, Peucer, Origen, Melanchthon,
and Cardano, as well as exegetical, ecclesiastical, and lexicographical works (Kushner et al. 2004–).
The Solitaires discusses the theurgic effects of music, the workings of the universe as musical harmony,
and the primacy of music within the hierarchy of knowledge. The Universe and Mantice examine human
curiosity, its legitimacy, and modes of operation. Tyard’s work, which throughout displays a humanist
confidence in humankind, is varied, allusive, and dialogic, making it difficult to circumscribe. He brings
an extra dimension to contemporary debates by juxtaposing different systems – for example, the debate in
Mantice on divination conflicts with his own Premier Curieux, which affirms man’s vocation for
knowledge (Bokdam 1997). Lastly, in his conception of language, he espouses a “second Cratylism”
(Kushner et al. 2004–), which is closer to Plato’s Socrates than to Cratylus himself.
Cross-References
▶ Pléiade
References
Primary Literature
Baridon SF (ed) (1950) Solitaire premier. Droz, Geneva-Lille
Bokdam S (ed) (1997) Mantice., Droz, Geneva
[Juda Abravanel] Leone Ebreo (2006) Dialogues d’Amour (trad. de Tyard P (1551), eds Dagron T,
Ansaldi S). Vrin, Paris
Kushner E et al. (eds) (2004–) Œuvres complètes. Champion, Paris
Lapp JL (ed) (1950) The Universe of Pontus de Tyard. Cornell University Press, Ithaca
Yandell CM (ed) (1980) Solitaire second. Droz, Geneva
Bokdam S (ed) (2003) Pontus de Tyard, poète, philosophe, théologien. Champion, Paris
Kushner E (2001) Pontus de Tyard et son œuvre poétique. Champion, Paris
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Kushner E, Haverkamp CP, Rouget F (eds) (2008) Pontus de Tyard: errances et enracinement. Champion,
Paris
Marek H (2006) Le Mythe antique dans l’œuvre de Pontus de Tyard. Champion, Paris
Roudaut F (2008) La Bibliothèque de Pontus de Tyard. Champion, Paris
Saulnier VL (1948) Maurice Scève (ca. 1500–1560). Paris, re-ed. slathine, Geneva-Paris, 1981
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Vinet, Élie (1509–1587)

Abstract
Professor at the Collège de Guyenne, Élie Vinet was a scholar with a manifold knowledge: he
pioneered archaeological studies, wrote innovative books on antiquities in Bordeaux and its
surroundings as well as on sundials and on land surveying; prepared editions or translations of
classical and medieval texts, especially Ausonius; and exchanged philological matters with the best
scholars in his time, like de Thou, Cujas, and Scaliger. His international experience includes a period
in Coimbra, Portugal, with André de Gouveia and other professors, invited by King John III.
Synonyms
Elias; Helies; Vinetus Santonensis
Biography
Vinet’s birth year, 1509, is obtained by deduction, since we know he died in 1587 at the age of 78.
His birthplace, Les Planches, is in Barbezieux – Saint-Hilaire, in the ancient Saintonge area, which
explains the form “Santonensis” in his name. As he recalls (Vinet 1568), his ancestors came from the
Poitou region and turned the village’s name into “Les Vinets.”
After studying at the Poitiers University, Vinet had the opportunity to stay in Paris and learn Greek
and mathematics to a high level. In 1539, he was appointed as a professor at the Collège de Guyenne,
in Bordeaux, by its principal, the famous humanist André de Gouveia (Gaullieur 1874).
Vinet took soon a pause from teaching, 1542–1547, in order to prepare classical text editions for
his students and colleagues (Desgraves 1977a); he thus published his first edition, Theognis, with
a Latin translation (Vinet 1543). Then, André de Gouveia proposed him and other professors at
Guyenne like George Buchanan and Diogo de Teive to found a College at Coimbra, Portugal, on the
demand of King John III. This appointment lasted until Gouveia died, in June 1548, and Vinet
returned to France the next year. During his stay, Vinet visited Evora’s site (Vinet 1565) and met the
mathematician Pedro Nunes, from which he learned how the sundial’s theory; later on, he wrote
a treaty on this subject (Vinet 1564).
In 1556, the town council chose Vinet to become principal at his Collège de Guyenne, but he had
to wait until 1562 to obtain the appointment (Desgraves 1977a); in the meantime, he retired and
wrote essays on his area’s antiquities (Vinet 1565, 1567, 1568). He kept working on his philological
editions and other historical research (see full bibliography in Desgraves 1977a); the discovery of
a new Ausonius manuscript, acquired by Jacques Cujas, stimulated the critical work on the ancient
Gallo-Roman poet. After a first edition (Vinet 1551), Vinet prepared a new one (Vinet 1580), which
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will be published only after Joseph Scaliger set out his one, incomplete but with several “silent
borrowings” from Vinet’s scholarship (de La Ville de Mirmont 1917–1919; Desgraves 1977a;
Grafton 1983), as it happened for other ancient authors Vinet studied (Grafton 1993). On his
death in 1587, the best French scholars honored his memory.
Vinet’s manifold scholarship and industrious work set new standards for historical and archaeo-
logical research (Cooper 2005) and for the study of ancient and modern sciences and techniques, like
land surveying (Vinet 1577). His editions and translations into Latin or French were often reprinted
and obtained international success; his letters (Desgraves 1977b; Banderier 2004; Girot 2004) show
the range of his philological discussions with scholars of the day, like Pierre Daniel, Cujas, or Henri
de Mesmes. Vinet published the first French translation of Eginhard’s Life of Charlemagne (Vinet
1546) and of Proclus’ Sphaera (Vinet 1544).
Cross-References
▶ Cujas, Jacques
▶ de Gouveia, André
▶ Textbook
References
Primary Literature
Banderier G (2004) Une lettre inédite d’Élie Vinet. Revue d’Humanisme et Renaissance 56:117–118
Desgraves L (ed) (1977b) La Correspondance d’Élie Vinet. In: Id., Élie Vinet, humaniste de
Bordeaux (1509–1587). Vie, Bibliographie, Correspondance, Bibliothèque, pp 99–152. Genève
Girot J-E (2004) Deux lettres inédites d’Élie Vinet. Revue française d’histoire du livre
121–125:99–106
Vinet E (ed) (1543) Theognidis Megarensis Sentientiae elegiacae. Paris
Vinet E (1544) La Sphaire de Procle. . . translatee de grec en françois. Poitiers
Vinet E (1546) La Vie du roy et empereur Charle-Maigne composee jadis en langaige latin par
Eginhart. Poitiers
Vinet E (ed) (1551) Ausonii. . . Opera diligentius iterum castigata. Paris
Vinet E (1564) La maniere de fere les Solaires, que communement on appelle Quadrans. Poitiers
Vinet E (1565) L’Antiquité de Bordeaus. Ibid
Vinet E (1567) Recherche de l’antiquité d’Engoulesme. Ibid
Vinet E (1568) L’Antiquité de Saintes [et de Barbezieus]. Bordeaux
Vinet E (1577), L’Arpanterie, livre de geometrie, enseignant à mezurer les champs. Ibid
Vinet E (ed) (1580) Ausonii. . . Omnia opera. . . ad varia vetera novaque exemplaria emendata
commentariisque illustrata. Ibid
Cooper R (2005) Histoire et archéologie de la Gascogne antique au XVIe siècle. In: Bohler D,
Magnien C (ed) Écritures de l’histoire (XIVe–XVIe siècle). Genève, pp 143–166
de La Ville de Mirmont H (1917–1919) Le Manuscrit de l’Île Barbe et les travaux de la critique sur le
texte d’Ausone, 3 vol. Bordeaux/Paris
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Desgraves L (1977a), Élie Vinet, humaniste de Bordeaux (1509–1587). Vie, Bibliographie,

Correspondance, Bibliothèque. Genève
Gaullieur E (1874) Histoire du Collège de Guyenne d’après un grand nombre de documents inédits.
Paris
Grafton A (1983) Joseph Scaliger: a study in the history of classical scholarship. Textual criticism
and exegesis, vol. 1. Oxford
Grafton A (1993) Joseph Scaliger: a study in the history of classical scholarship. Historical
chronology, vol. 2. Oxford
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Conimbricense, Collegium
Cristóvão S. Marinheiro*
Bibliothèque nationale de Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Abstract
The time frame covered by this article goes from 1548 to 1606, i.e., the year of the foundation of the
Collegium Artium by King John III of Portugal (1502–1557) to the year the last commentary on
Aristotle was published. The main focus is given to the period from 1555 onward, when the college
was entrusted to the Jesuits. A detailed study on the pedagogical discussions leading to the Jesuit
Ratio Studiorum and the link to the Cursus Conimbricensis on the main works of Aristotle is then
disclosed. The structure of the commentaries combining the Aristotelian text, a prose comment and
up-to-date quaestiones on philosophical issues, creating thus a hermeneutic circle, a Corpus
Aristotelicum Interpretumque, is explained, as well as the development it led to. Although the
Jesuits chose to edit these commentaries as a group of authors, they could partly be identified.
Finally, the legacy of these commentaries on the main European philosophical traditions up to the
twentieth century is summarized.
Synonyms
Colégio das Artes (Collegium Artium); Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis e Societate Iesu in
[opera] Aristotelis Stagiritae; Conimbrans; Conimbricenses; Jesuit Aristotelianism of Coimbra;
Jesuit Commentaries of Coimbra on Aristotle; Colégio Real in Coimbra
Introduction
The term Collegium Conimbricense refers in the first place to the College of Arts (Collegium
Artium) founded by King John III of Portugal (D. João III) (June 7, 1502–June 11, 1557) at Coimbra
City (Portugal) in 1548 in order to prepare young men in Latin and philosophy for their eventual
admission to university studies. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, however, this College
became famous for the commentaries on Aristotle that were produced there by the Jesuits, who had
taken charge of the college in 1555. Actually, the term Collegium Conimbricense was a recurrent
feature in the titles given to these commentaries, which were issued between 1592 and 1606
(Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu in . . . libros . . . Aristotelis Stagiritae) and
quickly worked as a “brand” (Casalini 2012, p. 11) for unrivaled Catholic Counter-Reformation
textbooks on Aristotle. The strategy of choosing a brand name for a collection, unheard of in those
days, had such an impact on the history of philosophy that this college has ever since been
remembered as the very school which produced these commentaries, thus leading to an
*Email: Christophe.Marinheiro@bnl.etat.lu
*Email: c.s.marinheiro@gmail.com
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identification between Collegium and Cursus. In a narrower sense, the expression Collegium
Conimbricense usually refers to the Cursus Conimbricensis, viz., the following eight commentaries
on Aristotle:
– Collegium Conimbricense. 1592. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu in octo

libros physicorum Aristotelis Stagiritae. Coimbra. António Mariz
– Collegium Conimbricense. 1593a. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu in
quattuor libros de coelo Aristotelis Stagiritae. Lisbon. Simão Lopes
– Collegium Conimbricense. 1593b. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu in libros
meteorum Aristotelis Stagiritae. Lisbon. Simão Lopes
– Collegium Conimbricense. 1593c. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu in libros
Aristotelis, qui parva naturalia appellantur. Lisbon. Simão Lopes
– Collegium Conimbricense. 1593d. In libros ethicorum Aristotelis ad Nicomachum, aliquot
Conimbricensis cursus disputationes in quibus praecipua quaedam ethicae disciplinae capita
continentur. Lisbon. Simão Lopes
– Collegium Conimbricense. 1597. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu, in duos
libros de generatione et corruptione Aristotelis Stagiritae. Coimbra. António Mariz
– Collegium Conimbricense. 1598. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu, in tres
libros de anima Aristotelis Stagiritae. Coimbra. António Mariz
– Collegium Conimbricense. 1606. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu, in
universam Dialecticam Aristotelis. Coimbra. Didaco Gomes Loureiro (The works of Pedro da
Fonseca, the commentary on Aristotle’s Rhetoric by Cipriano Suarez, and the Grammar of
Manuel Alvares (1523–1586) could also to a certain extent be considered as works belonging
to this school, since they were the first results of the pedagogical thoughts that would lead up to
the editorial work; see below. The works by Francisco Suárez (January 5, 1548–September
25, 1617), written after these commentaries had been published, can be considered as the finest
developments these comments led to. The commentaries on the Nicomachen Ethics and the one
on the Parva naturalia do not use the text of Aristotle, but only consist of quaestiones).
These comments are intimately linked to the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum and can be considered to be
its first tangible result. Moreover, they were also consciously written with a political scope in mind:
to strengthen the Catholic faith within Europe (against the Reform movements) and to spread it all
over the world. The close link to the Portuguese maritime expansion is evidenced by the fact that
these commentaries were translated into Chinese in the first half of the seventeenth century,
constituting thus the first expression of Western philosophy translated into an oriental language
(Zhang 1999, pp. 364–379; Carvalho 2010, p. 16).
In 1759 the Jesuits were dispossessed of their College, which was integrated into the University in
1772 through the Pombaline University Reforms.
In 1836, the College was finally closed, having as its successor the Liceu Nacional de Coimbra.

By the mid-sixteenth century, preparing students for university admission in philosophy meant
providing them with a solid basis in Latin, rhetoric, and Aristotelian philosophy. Instead of sending
pupils abroad, as was usual in his time, King John III chose to found the Collegium Artium at
Coimbra, where the University was already based. The first Principal chosen was the humanist
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André de Gouveia (1497–June 9, 1548), who had been Principal of the Collège de Guyenne at
Bordeaux (France). His uncle, Diogo de Gouveia the Elder (1471–December 8, 1557), had been
Principal to the College of Sainte Barbe, a college initially intended to prepare young Portuguese
pupils for university and which became best known as the school where Ignacio de Loyola (May
31, 1491–July 31, 1556) studied theology. When André was appointed Principal to the C. C. in 1548,
some teachers of his crew came with him to Coimbra, among them the Portuguese Diogo de Teive
(1514–1569), João da Costa, the French Nicolas Grouchy (1510–1572), and the Scot George
Buchanan (1506–September 28, 1582). Very quickly the rivalries between Diogo de Gouveia the
Younger (✝April 2, 1576) (the nephew his homonym uncle would have preferred as Principal in
Coimbra) and André provoked a quarrel involving the recently founded Inquisition, as the teachers
coming from Bordeaux were alleged to have sympathized with the Reform. The teachers from
Bordeaux were accused of heterodoxy by the ones brought in from Paris (Brandão 1969, pp. 1–107;
Pereira 10,430 sq.). This led the King to entrusting the responsibility of the college to the recently
founded Order of the Jesuits in 1555.
When considering the many translations Nicolas de Grouchy, who taught Greek and philosophy,
left behind, it is clear that Aristotelian philosophy was already represented in the college. When the
Jesuits took over the college, however, the question of how to read Aristotle in order to tighten the
knots of the Catholic faith was the main problem they were faced with. Hence, the question about
how to comment on that author was their most pressing.
Idea and Development of the Commentary

Humanism brought major innovations into the Aristotelian tradition inherited from the Middle Ages
(Kessler 2008, pp. 139–142; Copenhaver and Schmitt, 1992, pp. 65–76; Schmitt 1992, pp. 31–34).
Although the Latin Aristotle continued to be studied at European universities, the renewed philo-
logical interest compelled more and more readers to go back to the Greek sources. The first edition of
the Greek Aristotle, the Aldine edition, published in Venice at the end of the fifteenth century, gave
rise to various Latin translations as well as to editions of most of the ancient commentators on
Aristotle. By the end of the 1530s, all texts of Aristotle and his ancient commentators were available
in print, be it in Latin or in Greek (Grafton 1988, pp. 767–791). Most of the Aristotelian texts went
through various translations into Latin, thus weaving ever new interpretative threads throughout
Europe (Schmitt 1992, 13). This is the reason why Schmitt chose to speak about the Aristotelianisms
of the Renaissance, preferring the plural to indicate these different interpretative threads). Hence,
when the Jesuits took over the C. C. in 1555, they were confronted with a variety of Aristotelian and
anti-Aristotelian interpretative lines to be refuted in order to comply with Catholic Aristotelianism.
Moreover, the European maritime expansion made it urgent to have trustworthy textbooks in order
to school not only Europeans but also Asians (Zhang 1999, pp. 364–379) and, to a lesser extent,
natives of South America, mainly Brazil.
The Rise of the Textbooks

The choice made by the Conimbricenses to publish their textbooks as the works of a group of authors
instead of signing them individually is certainly unique for that time and needs to be explained, since
it is highly relevant for understanding their strategy.
The idea of assembling textbooks was first suggested in a letter written February 9, 1560, by
Father Torres, praepositus of the Portuguese Province, to Jeronimo Nadal (1507–April 2, 1580),
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Father General of the Order. He recorded that two lecturers (lectores) of the Arts had given some
dictations accurate enough to be published, one of them having been on rhetoric (cf. De arte
rhetorica libri tres ex Aristotele, Cicerone et Quintiliano deprompti published by Cipriano Suarez
that very same year in Coimbra). This, Torres suggested, would benefit teachers as well as students
and lecturers: both would have more spare time in order to concentrate on the important topics; the
former to write and read their lectures, the latter to write them down and to assimilate them. (The
letter can be found in Lukács 1974, II 59–64. Cf. also Lukács 1974, III 317: “Uno de los lectores de
artes ha hecho buena parte de unos ditados en ellas con diligencia para poderse imprimir; y otro hizo
otros en la retórica. [. . .] Nos an escrito que haríamos un gran beneficio a esta tierra, si
imprimiéssemos estos ditados de las artes. Y en la verdad ansi lo creemos. Por lo menos sería
gran alivio y descanso ora los nuestros que leen, y para los que oyen; porque los unos gastan mucho
tiempo y estudio en hazer los ditados y escrivirlos, y después en ditarlos en la cáthedra a los oyentes;
y los otros en recibirlos; y aviéndolos impresos, quedavan todos con más tiempo libre y descanso.”)
In 1561, Jeronimo Nadal visited Portugal and asked some of the professors of this country, and first
of all Pedro da Fonseca (1528–November 4, 1599), to write a course on philosophy (Lukács 1974,
III 317; cf. also Rodrigues 1931, II.2 103), since the lack of one such course was perceived even by
the professors of the Roman College (Collegium Romanum). (Although this lack will only be
explicitly expressed 2 years later, see Lukács 1974, II 317.)
Nadal’s instructions of 1561 already set the course for the disposition of the commentaries:
1. At the beginning of the cursus, when reading the introduction, read carefully what concerns the Prior Analytics,
the Perihermeneias and the Sophistici elenchi, so that this may serve the students for the whole cursus and help
them pass more easily through the books. [. . .] 3. Aristotle should be read in such a way that many parts he treated
diffusely [difusamente] and that are not important for the science be read in summary [compendium], indicating
only their substance without reading the text [letra], so that there is more time left for reading the Metaphysics and
the De generatione and the De anima and the Parva naturalia and especially the Metaphysics, since this is the most
profitable for scholastic theology. (Lukács 1974, III 59: “1. Al principio del curso, quando se lee la introductión, se
lea con diligencia lo que toca à Priores, Perihermeneias y Elenchos, para que se ayuden dello los estudiantes por
todo el curso, y después passen más facilmente por los libros. [. . .] 3. Aristóteles se lea de manera, que muchas
partes que él trató difusamente, y no son de importancia para la sciencia, se lean en compendio, diziéndosse la
substancia solamente dellas, sin se leer la letra, para que quede más tiempo para leer Metaphysica y De
generatione y De anima y Parvos Naturales, y especialmente la Metaphysica, que es lo que más aprovecha
para la theología scholástica.”)
In the same year, the Masters of Coimbra answered Nadal’s proposition by listing the exact
passages that should be read in detail, those only to be commented on by a scholium (glosa), as well
as the ones to be summarized (en summa) (Lukács, Monumenta paedagogica III 66 sqq.: “Porphyrio
todo, Predicamentos todos, De interpretatione todos los libros, excepto el último cap del 2 libro
con summa. Priores: los 7 capítulos del primero, 8 9 10 11 con summa, el 12 letra con glosa, 13 14
15 con summa breve, 16 hasta donde dize “hoc autem monstrato”, letra y glosa; de lo demás del
mismo cap summa breve hasta el cap 21, summas brevíssimas, y assí hasta el 29, y en este
29, summa extensa sin letra, en lo que queda del libro, ni summa ni letra. En el 2 libro hasta el cap
18 exclusive, dexar lo de todo, dando una summa breve. Las 6 potestades de los syllogismos; el 18 se
lea el principio, donde pone los modos petitionis principii. Lo que se sigue, se dexe todo, sin summa;
si no el 23 y 24 y 27 con summas. Posteriores : 8 capítulos primeros con glosa y letra, y assí el 10 11
23 24 26; en todos los demás se dé, en cada uno summa; en el 2 libri, primero cap y ultimo con
glosa y letra; los demás con summa. De Tópicos los diez capítulos primeros con letra y glosa; en los
demás capítulos summa. El 4 y 6 libro, con letra y sin glosa, colligiendo solamente, en cada libro,
un argumento breve de cada uno. Elenchos : los 4 capítulos, con letra y glosa; y el 5 , con summa sin
letra; y el último capítulo de los Elenchos, la letra solamente. El primero de los Physicos, todo con
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letra y glosa. El 2 libro, todo con letra y glosa, excepto el quarto cap en que se dará summa. En el 3
libro, los 3 capítulos primeros con letra y glosa; y los demás capitulos, hasta el fin, en cada uno, una
buena summa que ponga las razones en forma, excepto el 7 capítulo que se leerá con letra y glosa.
El 4 lib., el 10 cap por summa, sin letra; y de la mesma manera el 6 y el 9 . Los demás capítulos,
con letra y glosa. El 5 , todo con letra y glosa, excepto el último cap en que se dé summa. Del 6
libro, primero y 2 capítulos, con letra y glosa. En los demás capítulos, summas buenas que declaren
bien la sustancia de Aristóteles con tratar las q€ uestiones ordianarias. El 7 libro se leerá todo, con
letra y glosa, excepto el 4 cap , en que se dará summa. En el 8 , todo con letra y glosa, excepto el 2
cap en que se dará una buena summa. El primero De Coelo en el cap 5 6 y 7 , con summas y
letras; los demás con letra y glosa. Del 2 libro, los primeros 8 capítulos y el 10 y 11, con letra y
glosa. El 9 y los demás, con summa. El último cap con letra y glosa. El 3 libro se dexe todo, dando
un argumento breve dél. En el 4 libro se dexe el 2 cap , con un breve argumento; los demás
capítulos, con letra y glosas. Los De generatione, en el primero libri, se dexe la letra del 2 y 8 y 9 ,
dando summas; lo demás con letra y glosa. Del 2 libro, se dexa el 6 y 9 , con summa breve. Lo
demás, con letra y glosa. Los De anima del primero libro, se leerá el primero cap , con letra y glosa;
lo demás se dexará, dando un argumento de todo. El 2 y 3 libro, todo con letra y glosa.” Lukács,
1974, III 67).
On January 14, 1562, Fonseca was ready to provide Nadal with an outline of the course. He
proposed to choose “two or three serious interpreters of Aristotle” without naming them, in order “to
point out the doubts and the good explanations, clarifying the passages by one another” (Lukács
1974, III 319: “Assímismo me parecía que yo fuesse en este tiempo viendo todos los libros de
Aristóteles que no tengo vistos y pueden servir (o no tam vistos) apuntando las dudas y buenas
expositiones con dos o tres graves interpretes como cifras, exponiendo unos lugares por otros, etc”).
He thus suggested to create a hermeneutic circle, a Corpus Aristotelicum Interpretumque that would
work like a closed reference system within these texts only, allowing the obscure passages to be
explained by clearer ones. But Fonseca was aware of the fact that the texts retained did not give an
answer to all the problems Aristotle had pointed out, nor did they explain the whole tradition the
Conimbrans lived in. Hence, he proposed that Cipriano [Suáres] should focus primarily on the
mathematical problems raised by Aristotle, for example, those pertaining to geometry and demon-
strations. In addition to this, he added that one should also cover the passages dealing with
cosmography, astrology, and perspective (the latter being a pet subject of the Jesuits) that can be
found in De Coelo and the Meteors. On top of all this, the theory of the planets, as presented in the
fourth chapter of Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Sphaera, should also be included, since this work was
already being lectured on in Coimbra. Finally, one should include those passages in Pliny and in
some others that could be used for explaining the Meteors, such as those dealing with the winds or
the sources of rivers (Lukács 1974, III 319: “[Y] que el P. Cypriano attendiese especialmente a las
cosas de mathemáticas que ay en Aristóteles, como son exemplos de geometría, demonstrationes,
lugares que hablan de lo que pertenece a cosmographía, astrología y perspectiva, como ay muchos
en los libros de coelo y metéoros; y allende desto hiziesse por traer algo de las theóricas de los
planetas al 4 cap. de la sphaera de Sacrobosco que acá se lee, qunto buenamente se pudiesse hazer, y
se compadeciesse con el tiempo que se daa a estas cosas. Finalmente que leyesse en Plinio y otros
algunos lo que puede servir para materia de metéoros, como de vientos, de origine fontium, etc.”).
Neither must the works of Cicero be omitted, for they taught one how to write and argue (modos de
hablar y tratar) (Lukács 1974, III 319). Marcos Jorge (1524–1571) (Sommervogel 1869-1876,
col. 821) was singled out to deal with some questions relating to Scotist philosophy and others
that he considered important with a view to pointing out their difficulties and their resolutions. The
same held for the Natural Questions of Seneca and for Alexander of Aphrodisias, as well as for some
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other ancient authorities that would serve the point. (Lukács 1974, III 319: “[Y] que el P. Marcos
Jorge podría ver algunas questiones (que sabe seren altercadas en el curso) por Scoto y otros que le
pareciesse, apuntando brevemente lo que ay de difficuldad o de resolución, y leyesse las questiones
naturales de Séneca, Alexandro Aphrodiseo, et de alguno otro antiguo que hiziesse al caso.” To the
third quoted in this letter, P. Pero Gómez, there is no specific task mentioned. Cf. Lukács 1974, III
318.)
This letter is interesting on many counts, the most significant one perhaps being the authors and
works that it does not mention. Fonseca establishes a plan for his fellow teachers by providing them
with a precisely defined framework. A handful of canonical authors, both from Antiquity and the
Middle Ages, are named, among them Alexander, Cicero, Seneca, Pliny, Scotus, and John of
Holywood. But only two works are explicitly referred to – the Natural Questions and The Sphere
of the Universe. The staff is left with only a moderate degree of independence to add some other
authors related to the questions and authors already listed. Nonetheless Fonseca does not specify
whether these authors should be contemporaries, or classical, or both, leaving the choice open.
Another striking point is the absence of Thomas Aquinas. António M. Martins argues that the Doctor
Angelicus was implicitly present in this outline without there being any need to mention him
explicitly. This problem will be indirectly addressed by Ariew (1998), when he tries to prove that
the Conimbrans were Scotists, not Thomists, as the French historian of philosophy Etienne Gilson
had already maintained.
When we consider the Aristotelian works to be commented on, we notice that they follow the
medieval canon, leaving aside the Mechanics and the various biological writings that were being
rediscovered in Northern Italy (e.g., by Ulisse Aldrovandi [September 11, 1522–May 4, 1605]). The
works retained in order to comment on Aristotelian problems could also hardly be considered as up
to date, mirroring as they did a medieval tradition. Nonetheless, this all-in-one strategy of presenting
the Aristotelian text – a prose commentary followed by questions in the tradition of medieval
treatises, both together creating a Corpus Aristotelicum Interpretumque – was the major pedagogical
innovation in textbooks at the time. These encyclopedia Aristotelian treatises became best and long
sellers in their time, when we consider the many reeditions issued all over Europe. (The most striking
difference to be noted is the use of the Greek Aristotle in several reeditions, whereas the Portuguese
editiones principes only use Latin. The question of the translations used is not yet resolved. A census
of these foreign editions was first established by A. A. de Andrade (1957), which is more recently
revised by Mário Santiago de Carvalho and is available from the site <http://www.saavedrafajardo.
org/Archivos/Conimbricenses_Bibliografia.pdf>. This census is not meant to be exhaustive.) Not
only were students and teachers spared the labor of dictating and writing down the lessons, but they
were also provided a complete textbook that could be used as a reference work.
The Authors Chosen to Comment on Aristotle

Fonseca thought that, by joining forces, this common task could be accomplished within the span of
2 or 3 years’ time, as it was split up among a group and everyone would work on it on a daily basis in
order to complete it. After this preliminary work, the gathering of the manuscripts and the revisions
for editing could then be done by one single person (Lukács, Monumenta paedagogica III 319:
“Creo que a cabo de dos o tres annos, si esto procede deste modo y los otros maestros y theólogos
ayudan en lo que tengo dicho, estaraa la materia tan dispuesta, que se haga mui en breve el curso
todo, y con ocupación de quasi no más que una persona”). Although this is not stated in the sources
known to us, it is plausible to assume that Fonseca wanted the whole course to be ready for 1565, the
year in which the College of Arts was integrated into the University of Coimbra. At that time, the
new statutes that would also affect the didactical disposition of the courses were probably already
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being prepared. The 3-year course approved in 1552 by the College of Arts (the College of Arts
existed since 1548, but the leadership was only given over to the Jesuits in 1555 by King João III)
was extended to a 4-year course (the eight semesters of the course were organized according to the
works of Aristotle in the following way: first and second semester, dialectics; third semester,
Physics; fourth semester, Ethics; fifth semester, Metaphysics; sixth semester, Parva Naturalia;
seventh semester, De anima; eight semester, review and preparation for the degree).
When we consider the time frame set by Fonseca and the publication years (i.e., 1592–1606), we
understand that his fellow Jesuits did not meet the deadline aimed for. The only work published
during that time slot was Fonseca’s own Institutionum Dialecticarum Libri Octo of 1564. Even his
Commentarii in libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis were only published during the next two
decades, when he spent his time in Rome. After having promised these commentaries in the first
edition of his Institutionum Dialecticarum Libri Octo (Fonseca 1964, p. 10: “[U]t ego, quod in
profitenda Philosophia aliquot annos posuissem, qua possem brevitate, et perspicuitate eos libros
Aristotelem exponerem, qui auditoribus Philosophiae explicari consueverunt”), Fonseca explained
in the “Preface” in the second edition of 1574 the reasons that had kept him from his work and the
choice finally to publish his commentary on Metaphysics:
Concerning the remaining commentaries on Philosophy I promised to write in the first edition, there is no reason
for anyone to accuse me of having published none of them until now. But no sooner had I concluded the
interpretation of Porphyry’s Isagoge and on Aristotle’s Categories that I was compelled for quite some years to
deal with things which left me with no spare time to write. But finally delivered, I decided to comment first of all
the books of the Metaphysics and even to publish them. (Fonseca 1964, 10 sqq.: “Quod verro attinet ad reliquos
Philosophiae commentarios, quos in prima editione, me conscripturum pollicitus sum, non est quod me quisquam
iure accuset, quod nihil hactenus ediderim. Vix enim absoluta explicatione Porphyrianae Isagoges,
categoriarumque Aristotelis eas res non paucis annis obire coactus sum, quae nihil otii ad scribendum
permittebant. Mihi vero tandem aliquando redditus, in eam sententiam sum adductus, ut ante omnia, constituerim
libros primae philosophiae enarrare, atque adeo in publicum emittere.” Cf. also Rodrigues 1931, II 2 109 sqq.)
The first commentary finally to be edited displaying a common position of the Coimbra Jesuits
under the title Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu . . . would only be issued in
1592 in Coimbra. This delay was certainly related to Fonseca’s appointment in Rome as Assistant to
the Father General in 1572 (Martins A. M. “Pedro da Fonseca”; in Logos, II, 657; Rodrigues 1931, II
2 105 sqq.). But this was not the only reason.
Fonseca had turned his attention to the Metaphysics, as he said in the second edition of his
Dialectics, but he had not imagined that this work was destined to become his opus magnum.
Although the first volume was published in 1577 and the others were ready by 1579, he only saw the
second volume published in 1589, the others being issued after his death in 1606 and in 1612,
respectively.
As early as 1575, however, the first critiques of Fonseca’s accuracy were raised by the Provincial
Manuel Rodrigues (1549–1612) (cf. in Sommervogel 1869-1876, col. 1940). The detailed treatment
suggested, so Rodrigues said, would need too much study time and was not suited for school reading
(Rodrigues 1931, II 2 110). The best solution therefore would be to print the manuscript commen-
taries already in use at Coimbra, since one needed succinct and summary explanations (Rodrigues
1931, II 2 110). The commentaries written by Fonseca would be of use to scholars, not to students.
In 1579, the same request was sent anew to Rome with the following arguments: the students were
still forced to write down the course, and their teachers to dictate it. More important than this
however was the evidence that this course was not only useful but even necessary to finally achieve
the desired consistency on philosophical issues within the Company (Rodrigues 1931, II 2 111: “Por
fim com êsse Curso se alcançaria finalmente a tão desejada uniformidade nas opiniões entre os
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Padres da Companhia. Por estas razões se persuadia a Congregação que era não só útil, mas
necessária a publicação do Curso de Artes”). One year later the Provincial for the Portuguese
Province came from Rome with the publishing order. A new chief editor had to be sought for this
task. Luis de Molina (1536–1600) (Sommervogel, 1869–1876, col. 1167 sqq.) seemed to position
himself as the right man for this. It seems however that his difficult and litigious character led the
company, and first of all Fonseca, to reject him as the general editor. (The only evidence we have are
the letters by Molina addressed to Claudio Aquaviva in Rome, published in Stegm€ uller 1935,
548 sqq. In the introduction to this work, Stegm€ uller also evinces his character traits on
pp. 78 sqq. A more crucial issue, though one we cannot deal with in this article, is the fact that
Molina was a Spaniard in the midst of Portuguese colleagues. He himself refers to this in a letter to
Aquaviva from August 29, 1582: “[. . .] propongo lo que en ella se contiene, no dexaré para más luz
de advertir a V. P. la aversion, que en muchos, etiam superiores, e sentido, y el poco favor que an
dado para que luzgan y se impriman mis cosas, parece que por estrangero; y aunque no uviera de ser
tenido por tal, pues a veinte y nueve años que estoy y me crié entre ellos” (Stegmuller 1935, p. 558).
In other letters he points out the malevolence of Fonseca in the latter’s dealings with him. This may
be relevant as the letter was written exactly 2 years after Philippe II of Spain had reclaimed the
Portuguese crown, since Philippe II of Spain was the uncle of the heirless king D. Sebastião
(1554–1578). (This political change led to the messianic movement known as Sebastianism in the
Portuguese culture. We do not know how the Jesuits positioned themselves in this movement, since
it was a company founded by a Spaniard and coming from the neighboring country. Moreover, the
jesuits were firmly established in the political power since 1542, and the Spanish Queen D. Catarina
(1507–1578), sister of Carlos Vof Spain (1500–1558), always knew how to unite the policy of these
two countries against part of the parliament (Cortes) (cf. Cruz 2009)). The dedication of Fonseca’s
Metaphysics to King D. Sebastião in 1577 may denote some nationalistic feelings. Yet we would
overinterpret it if we considered this a Sebastic dedication. We do not follow Rodrigues 1931, II,
2, 114, here, who contends that Molina was a “too easily suspicious, demanding and difficult [. . .]
character with his pretensions.” This too seems to us a nationalistic argument of the early twentieth
century.)
It was finally Manuel de Góis (1543–February 13, 1597) who was appointed to the task, as he was
considered to be a good philosopher writing good Latin. Moreover he was well prepared by a
continuous teaching experience covering two complete courses (i.e., 8 years), which he had taught at
the College from 1574 to 1582. In 1584 the commentary on the Physics was almost ready, since the
Father General in Rome was asked whether this commentary should be printed in Portugal or not
(Lukács 1992, p. 302; Rodrigues 1931 II 1 115). Around that time, the commentary on the De Coelo
likewise seemed to be ready, and in October 1585, Góis was working on the commentary on the De
Generatione et Corruptione. Although Góis wanted these to be already sent to the printer’s, the
Father General Aquaviva (1542–1615) (Sommervogel 1869-1876, col. 480 sqq.) suggested to wait
until the whole course was completed. The insistency of Góis and of the whole Portuguese Province
finally prompted Aquaviva to send his imprimatur to Coimbra. The first volume of the Coimbra
commentaries was then sent to the press in March 28, 1592 (Rodrigues 1931, II 1 116).
Nonetheless, Góis cannot fully be considered to be the author of these commentaries. As
stipulated by Fonseca since the very beginning of the enterprise, the chief editor had to collect the
manuscripts used in the lectures and arrange them for publication. Evidence of this is given us in a
letter written by Molina to the Praepositus Claudio Aquaviva in 1582 (Stegm€ uller 1935,
pp. 548–557). He complains that his course in the Arts, which had to be printed, was still being
used in Coimbra but in an unacceptable way: “A great part was taken from the glosas I had put
together, cutting many things out and retaining opinions that are shown by experience to be quite
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hard to understand. And these glosas do not deal with the topics as coherently as should be done”
(Stegm€ uller 1935, p. 550: “[. . .] que en gran parte fueron sacadas de las que yo hize, cortando
muchas cosas, y metiendo opiniones que se experimentaron asaz duras. Y hallaronse aquellas glosas
no tener las cosas coherentes como convenia”).
We have no clue as to why the treatise De Anima separate and the passage from the Problems on
the five senses, included in the commentary on the De Anima, were written by Cosme de Magalhães
(1551–1624) or by Baltasar Álvares (Stegm€ uller 1959, p. 96; 461; Carvalho 2010, p. 11) (Carvalho
(2010, p. 11) believes in an “editorial collaboration” by Cosme de Magalhães, as the commentary on
the De Anima was issued after Góis’ death in 1597).
The commentary on Logic was finally issued in 1606, when the Coimbra Jesuits came to know
that a commentary using the title Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu. . . had been
published in Frankfurt in 1604. This logica furtiva forced them to assert their position on logic; it
was Sebastião do Couto who was entrusted with this task. (Despite many conjectures advanced to
this day, the printing history remains unclear. Rodrigues asserts that this Frankfurt edition recycles a
text by a former teacher of his that he used to dictate to his students. One of them would have sold it
to the editor, who in turn would have used the title as a marketing strategy. Cf. Rodrigues 1931, II
1, 119.)
In the end, no commentary on the Metaphysics would ever be printed. Rodrigues says that, in
1592, Fonseca was asked to complete a commentary on logic and metaphysics, although the Jesuits
from Coimbra could see that Fonseca was a bad choice if they wanted to have it done quickly. In
1606 a letter exchange between Rome and Coimbra suggests Sebastião do Couto as the editor of
these commentaries. As we know, only one of them would ever appear in print (Rodrigues 1931, II
1 118).
The time these commentaries took until their first appearance in print and the way in which they
were composed clearly show us the problems the Jesuits of Coimbra were facing. The first one is
obvious to anyone who has ever worked in a university department: managing the different
characters and ambitions of faculty members. The second one is less obvious but philosophically
relevant: the positions held in the commentaries had to be in accordance with the positions of the
group in general. Moreover, the hierarchical structures obliged them to develop a via media on
Aristotle, thereby eschewing the actual problems the Aristotelian text led to. Actually, the Jesuits not
only had to respect the ideological positions of their time, they also had to respect the decisions of the
Councils and of the See of Rome. Striking examples for these commitments are the questions on
Natural history about the torrid zone and the antipods (Marinheiro 2012, pp. 395–424), as well as
the question about the eternity of the world, which had to respect the Paris condemnations of 1277 by
Etienne Tempier and the challenges of the Copernican Revolution.
One must not lose sight of the fact that by that time, the positions Peter Ramus (1515–1572) had
developed in his Aristotelicae animadversiones of 1543 got more and more appreciated, although
they were leading away from Aristotle. In this perspective, the Jesuits of Coimbra are the last
philosophers trying to save Aristotle from his critics in Catholic countries. The way they chose to do
this was the most arduous: rejecting any position on Aristotle that was irreconcilable with their
Corpus Aristotelis Interpretumque, whatever period it was from.
Impact and Legacy

Textbooks are hardly intended to be innovative, their scope being to disclose and vulgarize the
information already known to the specialists. Nonetheless, the Conimbran commentaries presented
Page 9 of 13
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certain aspects that were innovative and would have a certain impact on the authors of the following
centuries.
The main innovation was of course the didactical presentation of the textbooks and the greater
importance given to the development of the quaestiones. The availability of these comments in print
would allow other authors to address the philosophical topics present in the quaestiones directly and
in a systematic manner, leaving aside the narrowly philological sentence by sentence commentary
and the explanation about how Aristotle would have considered the issue. (The best example can be
found in Francisco Suarez’s Disputationes Metaphysicae, also a teacher at Coimbra. Since the
comment on Metaphysics by Fonseca was already available in print, he could focus on the different
topics and dispute them.)
Hence, the major innovation of these textbooks lies in their capacity to bring together all the
positions known in the Aristotelian tradition on the different topics, including recent discussions and
controversies. Even if they mostly prefer not to name names, classifying them as schools (e.g., the
Averroists in psychology) or referring to them as “more recent authors” (recentiores) [cf. Marinheiro,
2012], the latter’s positions are considered, discussed, and in many cases also refuted. Hence, the
commentators’ positions on many issues force them to remain up to date and to acknowledge the
existence of other authors.
Early modern philosophy will lead away from Latin to vernacular languages; philosophers are no
longer university teachers but gentlemen (e.g., Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Vico) founding new
philosophical systems that will be known as rationalism and empiricism. Nonetheless, the com-
mentaries continued to be read in schools and universities (their importance cannot be overestimated
when one considers the reeditions published all over Europe), giving an Aristotelian hue to modern
philosophy (Descartes’ reference to them in a letter dated September 30, 1640, to M. Mersenne can
be considered as the most striking example). It will be in Germany that this legacy will be most
palpable. The followers of Luther had to call upon Aristotle in order to put the reformed theology on
a solid philosophical ground, using for this purpose the most up-to-date textbooks, even if they had
been written by their confessional enemies (Lewalter 1925). The Jesuit commentaries will thus
bequeath upon modern philosophy antique and medieval concepts and problems, which Christian
Wolff (1679–1754) would translate into German, thus creating the background of the German
tradition (de Carvalho 2001). (The concepts of tempus et spatium imaginarium found in Kant’s
Dissertation of 1776, leading up to the Transcendental Aesthetics in the Critique of Pure Reason,
could be found in Christian Wolff’s Physics, concepts which were passed on from the medieval
tradition through the Jesuit commentary on Physics. See Carvalho 2001).
Modern history of philosophy has shown a certain difficulty in getting to grips with this school
and the textbooks that came out of it. In metaphysical issues, the most recurrent name in nineteenth-
and twentieth-century German philosophy is that of Francisco Suárez (Carvalho 2010, p. 16), as the
highest representative of the tradition in which the commentaries had their roots. Suárez is mostly
referred to as the head of the school of what they called the “Spanische Barockscholastik” (Spanish
Baroque Scholasticism). (This antiquated denomination, which is still in use, is absolutely unfit to
describe the school: the term Baroque is taken from art history; the term Scholasticism refers to the
medieval Thomistic heritage. The term Spanish may fit if we consider it in its wider and antique
sense, as a synecdoche to describe the Iberian Peninsula.) The Italian and Spanish historiographies
use the term Seconda Scolastica (Second Scholasticism), thus evidencing the clear medieval
Thomistic heritage.
A renewed interest in the commentaries has arisen through the semiotics as developed by Charles
S. Peirce (September 10, 1839–April 19, 1914), whose notion of sign (signum) goes back to
Sebastião do Couto’s comment on Logic (The Conimbricenses 2001).
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Cross-References
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Buchanan, George
▶ Ethics
▶ Grouchy, Nicolas de
▶ Jesuits
▶ Metaphysics - Renaissance Philosophy
▶ Soares, Cipriano
▶ Teive, Diogo de
▶ Textbook
References
Primary Literature
(Couto, S.D.) Collegium Conimbricense (ed.). 1606. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis
Societatis Iesu, in universam dialecticam Aristotelis. Coimbra: Didaco Gomes Loureiro.
(Góis, M) Collegium Conimbricense (ed.). 1592. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis
Iesu in octo libros physicorum Aristotelis Stagiritae. Coimbra: António Mariz.
(Góis, M) Collegium Conimbricense (ed.). 1593a. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis
Iesu in quattuor libros de coelo Aristotelis Stagiritae. Lisbon: Simão Lopes.
(Góis, M) Collegium Conimbricense (ed.). 1593b. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis
Iesu in libros meteorum Aristotelis Stagiritae. Lisbon: Simão Lopes.
(Góis, M) Collegium Conimbricense (ed.). 1593c. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis
Iesu in libros Aristotelis, qui parva naturalia appellantur. Lisbon: S. Lopes.
(Góis, M) Collegium Conimbricense (ed.). 1593d. In libros ethicorum Aristotelis ad Nicomachum,
aliquot Conimbricensis cursus disputationes in quibus praecipua quaedam ethicae disciplinae
capita continentur. Lisbon: Simão Lopes.
(Góis, M) Collegium Conimbricense (ed.). 1597. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis
Iesu, in duos libros de generatione et corruptione Aristotelis Stagiritae. Coimbra: António Mariz.
Lukács, L. (ed.). 1965. Monumenta paedagogica Societatis Iesu. I: 1540–1556. Rome: Institutum
Historicum Societas Iesu.
Lukács, L. (ed.). 1974a. Monumenta paedagogica Societatis Iesu. II: 1557–1572. Rome: Institutum
Lukács, L. (ed.). 1974b. Monumenta paedagogica Societatis Iesu. III: 1557–1572. Rome:
Institutum Historicum Societas Iesu.
Lukács, L. (ed.). 1981. Monumenta paedagogica Societatis Iesu. IV: 1573–1580. Rome: Institutum
Lukács, L. (ed.). 1986. Monumenta paedagogica Societatis Iesu. V: ratio atque Institutio Studiorum
Societatis Iesu (1586 1591 1599). Rome: Institutum Historicum Societas Iesu.
(Magalhães, C) Collegium Conimbricense (ed.). 1598. Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis
Societatis Iesu, in tres libros de anima Aristotelis Stagiritae. Coimbra: António Mariz.
Sommervogel, C., et al. 1869–1876. Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus. Brussels/Paris: Oscar
Schepens and Alphonse Picard.
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To a Certain Extent, the Following Works Belong to the Entourage of the Cursus
Conimbricensis
Alvares, Manuel. 1572. De institutione grammaticae Libri tres. Lisbon: João de Barros.
Fonseca, Pedro. 1564. Institutionum dialecticarum libri octo. Lisbon. Portuguese translation. 1964:
Instituições dialécticas. Institutionum Dialecticarum libri octo. Coimbra: Coimbra University
Press.
Fonseca, P. 1615. Commentariorum in Libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis Cologne, reprinted by
Olms, Hildesheim 1964.
Fonseca, Pedro. 1591. Isagoge philosophica. Lisbon. Portuguese Translation: 1965. Isagoge
Filosófica, by J. F. Gomes. Coimbra.
Soares, Cipriano. 1560. De arte rhetorica libri tres. Ex Aristotele, Cicerone, et Quintiliano
praecipue deprompti. Coimbra.
Suárez, F. 1856. De legibus ac Deo legislatore, Vols. 5–6. Paris: Louis Vivès.
Suárez, F. 1866. Disputations metaphysical, Vols. 25–26. Paris: Louis Vivès.
Ariew, R. 1998. Descartes and the last scholastics. New York: Ithaca.
Brandão, M. 1924. O Colégio das Artes. I (1547–1555). Coimbra: Coimbra University Press.
Brandão, M. 1933. O Colégio das Artes. II (1555–1580). Coimbra: Coimbra University Press.
Brandão, M. 1948–1969. A Inquisição e os professors do Colégio das Artes, 2 vols. Coimbra:
Coimbra University Press.
de Carvalho, M.S. 2001. The concept of time according to the Coimbra commentaries. In The
medieval concept of time. Studies on the scholastic debate and its reception in early modern
philosophy, ed. P. Porro et al., 353–382. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
de Carvalho, M.S. 2010. Introdução Geral. In ed. Magalhães, C., 9–157 (with an excellent
bibliography).
Casalini, C. 2012. Aristotele a Coimbra. Colégio das ArtesIl Cursus Conimbricensis e l’educazione
nel Collegium Artium. Roma (with an excellent bibliography).
Copenhaver, B., and C.B. Schmitt. 1992. Renaissance philosophy. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Coxito, A.A. 1990a. Álvares (Baltasar). In Logos. Enciclopedia Luso-Brasileira de Filosofia 2, cols
199–201. Lisbon: Verbo.
Coxito, A.A. 1990b. Couto (Sebastião do). In Logos. Enciclopedia Luso-Brasileira de Filosofia 2,
cols 1213–1215. Lisbon: Verbo.
Coxito, A.A. 1990c. Góis (Manuel de). In Logos. Enciclopedia Luso-Brasileira de Filosofia 2, cols
Coxito, A.A. 2005. Estudos sobre filosofia em Portugal no século XVI. Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional-
Casa da Moeda.
Grafton, A. 1988. The availability of ancient works. In ed. Schmitt, Charles B., et al., 767–791.
Kessler, E. 2008. Die Philosophie der Renaissance. Das 15. Jahrhundert. Munique: C.H. Beck.
Lewalter, E. 1935. Spanisch-jesuitische und Deutsch-lutherische Metaphysik des 17. Jahrhunderts.
Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Iberisch-deutschen Kulturbeziehungen des 17. Jahrhunderts und
zur Vorgeschichte des deutschen Idealismus. Hamburg: Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut.
Lohr, C.H. 1995. Les Jésuites et l’Aristotélisme du XVIe siècle. In Les Jésuites à la Renaissance.
Système éducatif et production du savoir, ed. L. Giard, 79–92. Paris: PUF.
Marinheiro, C.S. 2012. The Conimbricenses: the last scholastics, the first moderns or something in
between? The impact of geographical discoveries on late XVIth century Jesuit Aristotelianism. In
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Portuguese humanism and the republic of letters, ed. M. Berbara and K. Enenkel, S. 401–S. 430.
Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Martins, A.M. 1989. Conimbricenses. In Logos. Enciclopedia Luso-Brasileira de Filosofia 2, cols
Martins, A.M. 2006. The Conimbricenses. In Intellect et imagination dans la philosophie
médiévaale/Intellect and Imagination in Medieval Philosophy/Intelecto e Imaginação na
Filosofia Medieval. Actes du XIe Congrès International de Philosophie Médiévale de la S. I. E.
P. M. (Porto, du 26 au 31 août 2002, ed. Maria, C., de Pacheco, and J. Meirinhos. Turnhoult, 101–
117 (available at http://www.saavedrafajardo.org/Archivos/Conimbricenses_Presentacion.pdf).
O’Malley, J.W., et al. (ed.). 1999. The Jesuit Cultures, Learning and the Arts 1540–1773. Toronto:
Toronto University Press.
Pereira, J.E. 1989. Colégio das Artes. In Logos. Enciclopedia Luso-Brasileira de Filosofia 2, cols
Pereira, J.E. 1989. Colégio das Artes (Ensino da Filosofia no). In Logos. Enciclopedia Luso-
Brasileira de Filosofia 2, 1043–1049. Lisbon: Verbo.
Rodrigues, F. 1931–1938. História da Companhia de Jesus na Assistência de Portugal, 4 vols.
Porto.
Schmitt, C.B. 1988. The rise of the philosophical textbook. In The Cambridge history of renaissance
philosophy, ed. C.B. Schmitt et al., 792–804. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Schmitt, C.B. 1992. Aristote et la Renaissance. Paris: PUF.
Schmitt, C.B., et al. 1988. The Cambridge history of renaissance philosophy. Cambridge/New York:
Stegmüller, F. 1935. Geschichte des Molinismus. Erster Band. Neue Molinaschriften. Münster:
Aschendorff.
Stegmüller, F. 1959. Filosofia e Teologia nas Universidades de Coimbra e Evora no século XVI.
Coimbra: Coimbra University Press.
Zhang, Q. 1999. Translatio as cultural reform: Jesuit scholastic psychology in the transformation of
the confucian discourse on human nature. In The Jesuit Cultures, Learning and the Arts 1540–
1773. ed. O’Malley J. W., et al., 364–379. Toronto: Toronto University Press. Reprinted 2010. In
Revista Portuguesa de História do Livro XIII, 26, 365–393.
Translations into Modern Languages: Into Portuguese

Góis, M. 1957. Curso Conimbricense I. Pe Manuel de Góis: Moral a Nicómaco, de Aristóteles, by
António Alberto de Andrade. Lisbon: Coimbra Editora.
Góis, M. 2009. Tratado da Felicidade. Disputa III do Comentário aos Livros das Eticas a Nicómaco.
Lisbon: Edições Sílabo.
Magalhães, C. 2010. Comentário do Colégio Conimbricense da Companhia de Jeus. Sobre os três
livros do Tratado Da Alma de Aristóteles Estagirita, Lisbon, by Maria da Conceição Camps,
Introduction, Appendixes and Bibliography by Mário S. de Carvalho. Lisbon: Edições Sílabo.
Translations into Modern Languages: Into English

Kraye, J. (ed.). 1997. Cambridge translations of renaissance philosophical texts. I: moral philos-
ophy, 81–87. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
The Conimbricenses. Some Questions on Signs. 2001. Translated with introduction and notes by
John P. Doyle, Milwaukee.
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de Gouveia, André
Born: 1497, Beja, Portugal
Died: 1548, Coimbra, Portugal
Catarina Fouto*
Department of Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, King’s College London, London, Great Britain, UK
Abstract
André de Gouveia was a Portuguese humanist and one of the most outstanding sixteenth-century
pedagogues, having occupied distinguished positions in important educational institutions in France
and Portugal. A man of singular character and personality, Gouveia’s progressive views influenced
the educational programs and the ethos of these institutions.
Alternate Names
Andreas Gouveanus, Andre de Gouvea
Biography
André de Gouveia (1497 (Beja, Portugal) to 1548 (Coimbra, Portugal)) was born into a family of
humanists: his uncle was Diogo de Gouveia (diplomat, theologian, and principal of the College of
Saint-Barbe), and he was brother to António de Gouveia (famous for his polemic with Pierre de la
Ramée, defending Aristotelianism, and a teacher in France and Italy) and Marcial de Gouveia (who
corresponded with both Erasmus and Melanchthon and later became a teacher in Coimbra).
His education was the fruit of royal initiatives to send Portuguese young men to study in Paris with
scholarships (Matos 1952): in 1524, Gouveia became one of the first generation of Portuguese to
study at the College of Saint-Barbe (Paris), which was under the leadership of his uncle (Pellerin
2009; Serrão 1966, 1967). His intellectual trajectory, however, is intimately linked to the interna-
tional Republic of Letters, especially in France, and to the Reformation movement which spread
across Europe in the first half of the sixteenth century. A master in arts in 1528, he became a doctor in
theology in 1530 and was asked by his uncle to direct the College, which he did by opening the
institution to more progressive forms of humanist training (Quicherat 1860–1864).
Soon, however, in 1534 Gouveia was invited by the municipal authorities of Bordeaux to become
the principal of the local College of Guienne and to reform the institution. Under Gouveia’s
leadership (1534–1547), the College flourished to become one of the most prestigious educational
institutions in Europe (Dezeimeris 1970; Gaullieur 1874) – rivaling with the College of Saint-Barbe
in Paris – and one of the most progressive: the democratic running of the school, the religious
*Email: catarina.fouto@kcl.ac.uk
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_317-1
tolerance promoted by the College (no religious differences were to be recognized among tutors and
pupils until 1535), and the quality of the teaching staff (including Budin, Mathurin Cordier, Nicholas
de Grouchy, and George Buchanan) and of the program of study (recorded by Élie Vinet in his
Schola Aquitanica, 1583 – Vinet 1886, 1944) made it alma mater to some of the most influential
intellectuals of the time, like Montaigne, Etienne de la Boetie, and Joseph Justus Scaliger
(Woodward 1965). It was while at the College of Guienne that the rumors about Gouveia’s
Protestant sympathies began to gain consistency (Bataillon 1952, pp. 121–129; Gorris Camos
2001).
Between 1546 and 1547, Gouveia traveled continuously between France and Portugal, as he was
asked by King John III to launch a newly founded Colégio das Artes in Coimbra (Brandão 1933).
This royal institution was designed along the same lines as the Trilingual College of Louvain
instituted by Busleyden and was intended to provide the country’s youth with a solid humanistic
training (Silva Dias 1969; Saraiva 1955). The Colégio opened in 1547, with a cosmopolitan group of
eminent scholars: George and Patrick Buchanan, Nicolas de Grouchy, Élie Vinet, Arnould Fabrice,
Guillaume Guérente, Diogo de Teive, and João da Costa. The Colégio provided teaching in the areas
of grammar, rhetoric and poetics (Pinto de Castro 1984), Latin, Greek and Hebrew, theology, as well
as logic, philosophy, and mathematics, its program being very similar to that in place at the College
of Guienne in many ways (see Vinet 1944 and Anon 1944). The Colégio was home to the
intellectuals mentioned above but also to the mathematician and cosmographer Pedro Nunes and
an important tradition of commentary to Aristotle by Jesuit scholars developed there between 1592
and 1606.
This was, however, after Gouveia’s death in 1548. In 1555 the Colégio was handed over to the
Society of Jesus: motivated by envy and orthodoxy, Gouveia’s uncle complained to the King that
André had Lutheran sympathies and denounced some of the staff (Buchanan, Teive, and da Costa) to
the Portuguese Inquisition as Protestant (Brandão 1948–1969). This rivalry between the Bordeaux
staff members and the more traditional Parisian teachers eventually caused damage to the institution,
and the Colégio became the battleground for the dispute between a more orthodox group of Parisian
intellectuals and the more progressive Bordeaux group (Silva Dias 1960): the three humanists were
convicted, and in 1555 the Society of Jesus took over the Colégio das Artes founded by André de
Gouveia (Brandão1948–1969).
Cross-References
▶ António de Gouveia
▶ Arnould Fabrice
▶ College of Guienne
▶ College of Saint-Barbe
▶ Diogo de Gouveia
▶ Elie Vinet
▶ Etienne de la Boetie
▶ George Buchanan
▶ Guillaume Guérente
▶ Jérôme de Busleyden
▶ João da Costa
▶ Joseph Justus Scaliger
▶ Michel de Montaigne
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_317-1
▶ Nicolas de Grouchy
▶ Patrick Buchanan
▶ Pedro Nunes
▶ The Conimbricenses (commentary to Aristotle)
▶ Trilingual College of Louvain
References
Primary Literature
Anon (1944) Estatutos do Colégio das Artes de Coimbra [1548]. In Leitão Ferreira F (ed). Notícias
Chronológicas da Universidade de Coimbra. Vol. 3, Part 1, Imprensa da Universidade de
Coimbra, Coimbra, pp 295–308
Vinet E (1886) Schola Aquitanica [1583]. In Massebieau L (ed). Schola Aquitanica: Programme
d’Études au XVIe siècle, Librairie Ch. Delagrave, Paris
Vinet E (1944) Schola Aquitanica [1583]. In de Carvalho J (ed). Notícias Chronológicas da
Universidade de Coimbra, 89 vol 3. Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, pp 248–28
Bataillon M (1952) Sur André de Gouvea. In: Études sur le Portugal au temps de l’Humanisme,
Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, pp 109–129
Brandão M (1933) O Colégio das Artes. Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra
Brandão M (1948–1969) A Inquisição e os Professores do Colégio das Artes. Imprensa da
Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra
Dezeimeris R (1970) De la Renaissance des Lettres a Bordeaux au XVIe siècle. Slatkin Reprints,
Geneva
Gaullieur E (1874) Histoire du Collège de Guyenne. Sandoz et Fischbacher, Paris
Gorris Camos R (2001) “Toujours il a frayé avec des homes de cette farine”: André de Gouvéa,
principal du Collège de Guyenne et ses “Bordaleses”. Montaigne Studies 13:13–43
Matos L (1952) Les Portugais en France au XVIe siècle. Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra,
Coimbra
Pellerin A (2009) Rue Valette: Le Collège Sainte-Barbe & les Gouveia au XVIe siècle. In: Les
Portugais à Paris: au fil des siècles et des arrondissements. Éditions Chandeigne & Librairie
Portugaise, Paris, pp 46–49
Pinto de Castro A (1984) La poétique et la rhétorique dans la pédagogie et dans la littérature de
l’Humanisme portugais. In: (ed), L’Humanisme Portugais et l’Europe, Fundação Calouste
Gulbenkian & Centre Culturel Portugais, Lisbon - Paris, pp 699–722
Quicherat J (1860–1864) Histoire de Saint-Barbe: Collège, Communauté, Institution. Hachette,
Paris
Saraiva AJ (1955) História da cultura em Portugal. vol 2. Editora Jornal do Foro, Lisbon
Serrão JV (1966) António de Gouveia e o seu tempo (1510–1566). Boletim da Faculdade de Direito
42:25–224
Serrão JV (1967) António de Gouveia e o seu tempo (1510–1566). Boletim da Faculdade de Direito
43:1–131
Silva Dias J (1960) Correntes de sentimento religioso em Portugal, séculos XVI a XVIII. Imprensa
da Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_317-1
Silva Dias J (1969) A política cultural de D. João III. Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra,
Coimbra
Woodward WH (1965) Le Collège de Guyenne. Mathurin Cordier. In: Studies in education during
the age of the Renaissance, 1400–1600, vol 2. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
pp 139–166
Page 4 of 4
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_319-1
Soares, Cipriano
Born: 1524, Ocaña, Spain
Died: 1593, Plasencia, Spain
Catarina Fouto*
Department of Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, King’s College London, London, Great Britain, UK
Abstract
Soares was the author of one of the top best-selling rhetoric manuals from the Renaissance. His De
arte rhetorica libri tres (Coimbra, 1562), containing a summary survey of the discipline, decisively
influenced the teaching and learning of rhetoric in southern Europe. The De arte rhetorica was later
adopted as a rhetoric manual in the Ratio studiorum of 1599.
Alternate Names
▶ Cipriano Suárez; ▶ Cypriano Soarez; ▶ Cyprianus Soarius
Biography
Cipriano Soares (Ocaña, Spain, 1524–Plasencia, Spain, 1593) was born into a New-Christian family
but entered the Society of Jesus in Portugal in 1549. Having studied and taught rhetoric and the
studia humanitatis, he was made a master in arts in 1560. Soares taught Latin, Greek (and even
rudiments of Arabic), and rhetoric at the College of St Anthony in Lisbon (1553–1555), where he
was appointed prefect, and the Colégio Real in Coimbra (1555–1560). Years later became a master
in theology and dedicated the rest of his life to the study and teaching of the Holy Scriptures and
natural philosophy. He later served as the director of the Jesuit Colleges of Évora and Braga
(1570) in Portugal up until his retirement in 1580, when he definitively returned to Spain (Moss
and Wallace 2003, pp. 115–117). Thus, both the composition of the De arte rhetorica and its
tremendous publication success are linked to the Jesuit educational system.

The book’s appeal resides in the clarity of the exposition, the identification of the sources of the book
in the margins (mainly Cicero, Quintilian, Aristotle, and Rhetorica ad Herennium), and the use of
examples from Cicero’s speeches to illustrate the exposition of theory (Mack 2011, p. 178; Albu-
querque Garcia 1992: passim; Flynn 1957). There is equal evidence in the structure and treatment of
topics that Soares’s book is indebted to the work of Northern European rhetoricians like Agricola,
Erasmus, and Melanchthon, who had been read more extensively by Portuguese and Spanish
*Email: catarina.fouto@kcl.ac.uk
Page 1 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_319-1
intellectuals than Italian rhetoricians (Mack 2011, p. 176; Pereira 2012, pp. 576–582; 707–749). The
De arte rhetorica libri tres is, therefore, an important work of humanistic synthesis.
Soares’s manual denotes his extensive knowledge of the corpus of classical rhetoric, and his
work’s structure illustrates this. Moss and Wallace (2003, pp. 130–186) offer a useful translation of
Ludovico Carbone’s complete Tabulae or guide to Soares’s book (itself printed countless times up
until the eighteenth century). The following overview of the De arte rhetorica libri tres owes much
to the work of Mack (2011) and Pereira (2012, pp. 795–809). Book I is dedicated to the definition of
rhetoric, a discussion of the three types of rhetoric and an explanation of rhetoric as ars (informed by
De inuentione and Aristotle), the importance of inventio (influenced by northern European rhetori-
cians), and a detailed exposition of the topics of invention based on Aristotle’s Topica; book II opens
with a discussion of the significance of dispositio with a particularly detailed exposition of the
exordium (indebted to Aristotle), followed by a section on argumentation (which suggests that
Soares saw a close link between rhetoric and dialectic, again showing the influence of North-
European authors); book III focuses mainly on the theory of style, with much briefer sections on
memory and actio. In book III, the chapters dedicated to tropes are indebted to Quintilian and the
Rhetorica ad Herennium, while Soares bases his sections on prose rhythm on Cicero’s Orator.
Though Soares praises the Church Fathers in his De arte rhetorica, he never uses them as
examples and quotes instead often from Cicero (chiefly, but also), Horace, Livy, Vergil, Sallust,
and Ovid. His detailed discussion on style denotes a preference for Ciceronian oratory at the expense
of the low style of Christian eloquence endorsed at the Council of Trent (1545–1563). In the De arte
rhetorica, Soares illustrates to what extent the Jesuit educational system was more permeable to
Ciceronianism (Pereira 2012, pp. 806–809) in contrast to the Senecanism promoted, among others,
by Justus Lipsius, and akin to the style of rhetoric advocated by Carlo Borromeo and his followers
(Fumaroli 1980, pp. 135–152; Mouchel 1990).
Impact and Legacy

Mack (2011, p. 179) identifies 78 editions of the book between 1562 and 1620 and a further
51 abbreviated editions up to 1700, proving the popularity of Soares’s book. Its second edition
(Venice, 1565), revised by the Jesuit Peter Perpinian who had worked side by side with Soares in
Portugal, underwent some alterations, notably the inclusion of a section discussing rhetoric as
imitation (1565, I.11). Soares’s De arte rhetorica was later adopted as a manual of the Jesuit
Ratio studiorum in 1599 and continued to be read until the eighteenth century.
Cross-References
▶ Agricola
▶ Borromeanism
▶ Carlo Borromeo
▶ Christian Eloquence
▶ Ciceronianism
▶ Colégio Real in Coimbra
▶ College of St Anthony in Lisbon
▶ Dialectic
▶ Imitation
Page 2 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_319-1
▶ Jesuit College of Évora

▶ Jesuit College of Braga
▶ Justus Lipsius
▶ Ludovico Carbone
▶ Melanchthon
▶ Oratory
▶ Ratio studiorum of 1599
▶ Reception of Aristotle, the Topica
▶ Reception of Cicero
▶ Reception of Quintilian
▶ Reception of Rhetorica ad Herennium
▶ Rhetoric
▶ Senecanism
▶ Society of Jesus
References
Primary Literature
Flynn LJ (1955) The De arte rhetorica (1568) of Cyprian Soarez S. J.: a translation with Introduction
and Notes. Unpublished doctoral dissertation presented at the University of Florida
Garrido Gallardo MA (2004) Retóricas españolas del siglo xvi escritas en latin, edición digital.
Madrid [CD-ROM]
Soares C (1562) De arte rhetorica libri tres, ex Aristotele Cicerone, atque Quintiliano praecipue
deprompti. João Barreira, Coimbra
Soares C, Perpinian P (1565) De arte rhetorica libri tres. Michele I Tramezzino, Venice
Albuquerque Garcia L (1992) La retórica de la Universidad de Alcalá. Contribución al estudio de la
teoría literaria hispánica del siglo xvi. Unpublished doctoral dissertation presented to the
Universidad Complutense. Madrid
Flynn LJ (1956) The De Arte Rhetorica of Cyprian Soarez, S.J. Q J Speech 42:367–374
Flynn LJ (1957) Sources and influence of Soarez’ De Arte Rhetorica. Q J Speech 43:257–265
Fumaroli M (1980) L’âge de l’éloquence: rhétorique et “res literaria” de la Renaissance au seuil de
l’époque classique. Droz, Geneva
Mack P (2011) A history of renaissance rhetoric 1380–1620. Oxford University Press, Oxford –
New York
Moss JD, Wallace WA (2003) Rhetoric & dialectic in the time of Galileo. Catholic University of
America Press, Washington, DC
Mouchel C (1990) Cicéron et Sénèque dans la rhétorique de la Renaissance. Hitzeroth, Marburg
Pereira BF (2012) Retórica e Eloquência em Portugal na época do Renascimento. Imprensa
Nacional-Casa da Moeda, Lisbon
Page 3 of 3
D
Della Porta, Giambattista In addition to the two important editions of

Magia naturalis, Della Porta also published
Born: 1535, Naples three significant physiognomical works: De
Humana Physiognomonia, Phytognomonica, and
Died: 14 February 1615, Naples Coelestis Physiognomonia. He intended to follow
these works with a Chirophysiognomy, which,
Donato Verardi however, was only published posthumously, and
CRHEC, Université Paris Est – Créteil, Paris, a Metoposcopy.
France His demonology plays a particularly important
Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy role in his thought, as the result of a coherent
examination of the Latin philosophical tradition,
which he reread in the light of his inclinations as a
Abstract man of science, as well as that of the particular
historical, political, and cultural climate of
Giambattista Della Porta was born in Naples in Counter-Reformation Italy.
1535. His first teachers were his maternal uncle, In a universe structured “according to
who had a well-endowed museum and a large degrees,” from the first heaven it is possible to
library, and his brother Giovan Vincenzo. Della ascend to the intelligences (which Della Porta,
Porta became involved in the study of nature at an following Avicenna and the Author of Liber de
early age. He was a promoter and member of causis, identifies with angels), and on up to God
several academic societies. He founded the Aca- himself, who is the creator of form, as well as the
demia Secretorum Naturae, and in his later years universal cause of every natural entity. The same
was one of the most prominent members of both demons, if they acted, would only operate in
the Lincean Academy and the “Accademia degli accordance with the inviolable “physical laws”
Oziosi” (Academy of the Idle). He died on 14 Feb- of ordo naturae. The secrets, although they cannot
ruary 1615, attended to by his daughter Cinzia. be explained by the criteria of Aristotle’s rational-
The two editions of Magia naturalis (1558, ity, are nevertheless attributed by Della Porta to
1589) preserve the most significant aspects of within the known. They, in fact, are simply the
the scientific thought of the contemporary Nea- effects of the “particular properties” of things,
politan culture: an “analogical” view of man and “buried” by God in the “nature’s womb.”
the universe and a method of investigation
directed toward experimental verification of the
auctoritates.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_320-1
2 Della Porta, Giambattista
Biography 1959; Badaloni 1960; Balbiani 2001; Verardi

2015).
Giambattista Della Porta was born in Naples in In addition to the two important editions of
1535 of Leonardo Antonio and a Calabrian Magia naturalis, Della Porta also published
mother who was a sister of Adriano Gugliemo three significant physiognomical works: De
Spadafora. He had three siblings, Giovan Humana Physiognomonia, Phytognomonica, and
Vincenzo, Ferrante, and a sister, whose name is Coelestis Physiognomonia. He intended to follow
not known. He married and had a daughter called these works with a Chirophysiognomy, which,
Cinzia. His first teachers were his maternal uncle, however, was only published posthumously, and
who had a well-endowed museum and a large a Metoposcopy (Trabucco 2003).
library, and his brother Giovan Vincenzo, who His physiognomical works form a sort of ency-
was a scholar of astrology, natural philosophy, clopedic corpus, in which Della Porta addresses
and antiquity. Della Porta became involved in both the Physiognomonics of pseudo-Aristotle, as
the study of nature at an early age. He was eclec- well as several other ancient and medieval phys-
tic, curious, and as committed to “experimental- iognomical works, and attempts to study and
ism” as to the study of antiquity, and he investigate the “great book of nature” per signa
surrounded himself with both scholars and crafts- externa, in a world conceived of as the “creative”
men, alongside whom he often worked. He was a work of God (Della Porta 1588, 1996, 2011).
promoter and member of several academic socie- With regard to his natural magic, it should be
ties. He founded the Academia Secretorum noted that his position was distinct from that of
Naturae, and in his later years was one of the certain medieval magicians, such as Michael
most prominent members of both the Lincean Scotus (c.1175–c.1232) and Cecco d’Ascoli
Academy and the “Accademia degli Oziosi” (1269–1327), as well as that of the Hermetic
(Academy of the Idle). He also travelled exten- magicians of the Renaissance. His universe is
sively throughout Italy and Europe, thanks to closer to that of most thirteenth-century natural
which he came into contact with the leading cul- philosophers than to the Neoplatonic-Hermetic
tural exponents of his time. He died on 14 Febru- universe of Marsilio Ficino or Agrippa of
ary 1615, attended to by his daughter Cinzia Nettesheim, which was pervaded by celestial
(Fiorentino 1880; Gabrieli 1927; Sirri 1968; spirits and demons. In the physical realm, many
Muraro, 1978; Piccari 2007). of his positions were similar to those of Albert the
Great (c.1206–1280), particularly in regard to
Aristotle’s doctrine of natural places, which
Albert had reinterpreted in an astrological key
that Della Porta adopted with explicit reference
to the master of Cologne. His hierarchical struc-
Giambattista adopted both his method for study-
ture of the universe, ordered “according to
ing analogies between the macrocosm and the
degrees,” was taken from Avicenna and the author
microcosm and his inclination to put the “secrets”
of Liber de Causis, as was his identification of the
of the ancients directly to the test from the Nea-
angels with heavenly intellects. The sublunar
politan scientific circles of his time. The two edi-
world was governed “by the inviolable law of
tions of Magia naturalis (1558, 1589) preserve
nature,” i.e., by precise physical and astrological
the most significant aspects of the scientific
laws that did not affect the freedom of man’s
thought of the contemporary Neapolitan culture:
rational soul in any way. The stars were consid-
an “analogical” view of man and the universe and
ered as physical bodies that acted on the human
a method of investigation directed toward exper-
material plane through motion and heat. It should
imental verification of the auctoritates (Corsano
Della Porta, Giambattista 3
be noted, however, that Della Porta’s thought also Della Porta’s position seems to oscillate between
contains aspects that are not found in his medieval that of theologizantes like William of Auvergne
sources: (1) a tendency to discard certain meta- and that of rationalists like Vitellione, and he
physical presuppositions that hindered natural seeks a subtle and difficult compromise (Valente
research; (2) a vision of nature in “vital” and 1999; Verardi 2013, 2014, 2015).
“harmonic” terms.
His demonology plays a particularly important
role in his thought, as the result of a coherent
examination of the Latin philosophical tradition,
which he reread in the light of his inclinations as a
The pages of Magia naturalis in which Della Porta
man of science, as well as that of the particular
explains his theory of nature are of particular signif-
historical, political, and cultural climate of
icance for grasping the originality of his thought and
Counter-Reformation Italy.
in turn provided the basis for a specific view of
The topic, as already mentioned, is fully
natural occult forces. The elements, Della Porta
addressed in Criptologia, the fifth book of the
writes, are the “first parents,” the “seed” of all
unpublished Taumatologia. In this text, by taking
things. They are the “material principle of the natu-
some opinions held by William of Auvergne and
ral body” they reside in the sublunary world and can
inserting them in the context of the Platonic-
be altered “by a perpetual permutation.” The earth is
Augustinian tradition, Della Porta does not
the only fixed element and is placed at the center of
exclude that demons may act in the world. Both
the world. The others, instead, are moved in circles
of them sustain that the damnation of human
by the motion of the sky. These four “bodies” have
beings is always the aim of such action. Della
four corresponding elementary qualities: hot, cold,
Porta, as a philosopher, puts greater faith in
wet, and dry. Of these qualities, two are active: the
man’s cognitive abilities, so much so as to state,
hot and the cold, and two are “passive,” the wet and
in the Index to book V, that he boasts to have spent
the dry. Then, there are the “secondary” qualities:
his whole life unveiling the deceptions of demons
they “serve” the first and operate afterwards. Not
by studying nature. Della Porta states that
always do the virtues of things come from the
demons, in order to confuse men, add words and
mixture of the “qualities” of the elements. Besides,
spells to the natural processes which are totally
there are three “efficient causes” of a natural sub-
ineffective as these words and spells are nothing
stance: matter, form, and quality of the elements.
but blasphemies and curses. In fact, the effects of
The action of form is not completely cognizable by
those alleged spells simply derive from natural
the philosopher. In this sense, it is “occult.”
causes (Della Porta 1982).
According to Della Porta, the action of form in the
Hence, the demons, although endowed with
production of a given phenomena cannot be known,
particular wisdom, are, in Della Porta’s opinion,
but by its effect it is always possible to locate the
creaturely beings. As such, Della Porta’s position
“particular property” that the effect produces. Such
seems partially similar to that of Vitellione,
property depends, in turn, on the complexity of the
according to whom, although rarely, demons
qualities of elements that make up the natural sub-
may perform actions that are apparently miracu-
stance, as well as on the “occult” action of form.
lous, however are usually caused by optical illu-
Although the “occult” is unknown, the action of
sions or the hallucinatory phenomena of sick
form comes from the starry sky: interpreted by
minds. It is nevertheless important to remember
Della Porta in the physical (Aristotelian) sense,
that Della Porta is a careful student of perspective,
and not as populated by celestial demons as in the
by means of which, already in the first Magia, he
Neoplatonic-Hermetic cosmologies. In fact, the
rationally explains some optical illusions. So,
heavenly bodies act upon the things in the world
4 Della Porta, Giambattista
because of their motion and heat. The form allows Cross-References

the celestial influences to be transposed, giving as a
remedy its specific, “peculiar property.” How this ▶ Agrippa of Nettesheim
happens – Della Porta writes – we are not allowed to ▶ Ficino Marsilio
know, at least according to the canons of Aristote- ▶ Tafuri Matteo
lian rationality (that is, with probable or evident
demonstrations). The action of form, despite being
“occult,” is however an action of physical nature, References
and so its location is physical: the first heaven. This
is not in contrast with the fact that form ultimately Primary Literature
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Della Porta, G. B. 1996. In Coelestis
cenna and the Author of Liber de causis, identifies physiognomonia, ed. A. Paolella. Napoli Edizioni
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can always be attributed to the first universal Rinascimento. III G. B. Della Porta. Giornale critico
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Herbalists, philosophers, doctors, and intellec- 423–31.
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tion. His works were widely read and reprinted scienziato. Milano Feltrinelli.
Piccari, P. 2007. Giovan Battista Della Porta. Il filosofo, il
numerous times until the eighteenth century retore, lo scienziato. Milano franco Angeli.
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Porta. Napoli De sihone.
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569–599. tarantism. In Magie, Tarantismus und Vampirismus.
Valente, M. 1999. Della Porta e l’Inquisizione. Nuovi Eine interdisziplinäre Annäherung, ed. M. Genesin
documenti dell’Archivio del Sant’Uffizio. Bruniana and L. Rizzo, 147–154. Hamburg: Verlag.
& Campanelliana V: 415–434. Verardi, D. 2015. Giovan Battista Della Porta e le
Verardi, D. 2013. Le radici medievali della demonologia di “immagini astrologiche”. Bruniana & Campanelliana
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Bruniana & Campanelliana XIX: 249–258.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_324-1
Mastri, Bartolomeo
Born: 7 December 1602
Died: 11 January 1673
Marco Forlivesi*
Dipartimento di Scienze Filosofiche, Pedagogiche ed Economico-Quantitative, Università degli Studi “Gabriele
d’Annunzio” di Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
Abstract
Among the seventeenth-century promoters of Scotism, Bartolomeo Mastri (1602–1673) was con-
spicuous for the scope of his work, his knowledge of the authors and debates of his time, and for his
refined interpretations of the philosophy and theology of John Duns Scotus. These qualities make
him a precious source for an accurate understanding of seventeenth-century university thought.
They have also made him an important, though not always explicitly mentioned, point of reference
for more than a few modern readers of Scotus.
Biography
Bartolomeo Mastri was born in Meldola, near Forlì, Italy, on 7 December 1602 into a family
belonging to the town’s minor nobility. We only have general information about his life and studies
as a child. In one of his works, he wrote that he came to learn about the doctrine of John Duns Scotus
even before he entered the Order of Minor Conventuals. His younger confrère Giovanni Franchini
from Modena, who knew Mastri personally, reports that at the time of his investiture, Mastri had
already concluded his studies on grammar, rhetoric, and poetry.
Mastri entered the Order of Minor Conventuals in about 1616. The following year he was
transferred to the Order’s studium in Bologna, where he attended all the courses on philosophy
and some of those on theology. From 1621 to 1623 he was in the Order’s studium in Naples. Here he
studied theology under the guidance of his confrère Giuseppe La Napola (or Napoli) Jr. from
Trapani; it was from La Napola that he acquired the systematic view of Scotism and the rudiments
of the style he was to adopt in his own works. In November 1623, he was appointed Master of
Studies (i.e., lector of logic) in Parma and in October of the following year Master of Studies in
Bologna. In 1625, he was assigned as a student to the Collegio di S. Bonaventura in Rome. Here he
struck up a lasting friendship with his confrère Bonaventura Belluto from Catania, with whom he
was to share both his career and his published works for the next 13 years. Mastri and Belluto
graduated from the Collegio di S. Bonaventura in 1628, with doctorate degrees and the plan to write
a systematic course on Scotist philosophy.
From 1628 to 1631, Mastri and Belluto were regents of the Order’s studium in the convent of
St. Francis in Cesena, where they taught physics and metaphysics. From 1631 to 1638, they were
regents of the Order’s studium in Perugia, where they taught theology. In 1638, they were appointed
*Email: marco.forlivesi@tiscali.it
*Email: marco.forlivesi@unich.it
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regents at the Collegio di S. Antonio, in Padua, after a bitter clash for the control of these chairs
between the highest authorities of the Order and two other members of the Order, Matteo Frće from
Veglia (today Krk) and Francesco Maria Vaccari from San Giovanni in Persiceto, supported by some
of the Veneto Senate. Mastri and Belluto kept these posts until 1641, when each returned to the
convent of his hometown. After a few months, Mastri became private theologian to Cardinal Luigi
Capponi in Ravenna. In 1645, Capponi left Ravenna to settle definitively in Rome, and Mastri
returned to Meldola. In 1646, he ran the risk of being exiled from his hometown following a political
clash he had become involved in, but the storm passed that year. In 1647, he was elected minister
provincial for the province of Bologna. From 1650, the year that marked the end of his mandate, to
1659, he was – as he himself writes in the preface to one of his later works – “almost a second
Diogenes” in Meldola.
His frustrated longing for offices and honors was partly satisfied after Giacomo Fabretti from
Ravenna, a friend of many years, was elected minister general of the Order at the end of May 1659.
During Fabretti’s generalate, Mastri often spent time in Rome. In the same year he succeeded in
personally offering the pope, Alexander VII, his most recent volume. In the second half of 1662,
during a prolonged absence on the part of Fabretti, who was visiting the central European convents
of the Order, Mastri became the minister general’s vicar for Italy and the nearby islands for several
months. In 1665, he did not succeed in having himself elected as the Order’s minister general:
Andrea Bini from Spello edged his way in between Mastri, supported by the fathers from Ravenna,
and Lelio Spada, supported by the fathers from Faenza, and became the winning candidate. Bitter
about the lost election, Mastri returned to Meldola. Here he worked on the completion of his last
work and on the restructuring of the convent. He died in Meldola on 11 January 1673.
Works
Mastri was the author of four works. The first, in order of publication, was a cursus on Scotist
philosophy articulated into logic, physics, anthropology, and metaphysics. It was planned and, to a
great extent, drawn up together with his colleague, Bonaventura Belluto, from 1628 to 1646. It was
published, divided by subject, in seven volumes in 4 from 1637 to 1647 and partly republished from
1644 to 1652 with integrations by Mastri alone. After the death of its authors, it was reprinted several
times with the general title of Philosophiae ad mentem Scoti cursus integer. A second work, written
in collaboration with his confrère and friend Ottaviano Camerani Jr. from Ravenna and directed
against Matteo Frće, was published in 1650 in a single volume in 4 entitled Scotus et scotistae
Bellutus et Mastrius expurgati a probrosis querelis ferchianis. A third work, formally on theology
but rich in philosophical elements, was published in four volumes in folio from 1655 to 1664. On the
basis of some elements in the text, it is correct to indicate this work by the general title of
Disputationes theologicae in quatuor libros Sententiarum. The last work published by Mastri is
an extensive Theologia Moralis, printed in a single in-folio volume in 1671.
Philosophical and Theological Thought

Mastri intended to be a follower of John Duns Scotus and he undoubtedly was, to the extent that he
can be held to be one of the most refined champions of Doctor Subtilis in the baroque age.
Nonetheless it would be incorrect to take his works as a simple exposition of Scotus’ doctrine.
Being a Scotist in the seventeenth century did not simply mean repeating and propagating the
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medieval master’s doctrines. First of all, Mastri inherited a whole set of standpoints that were the
outcome of three centuries of friction between Latin Aristotelians, nominalists, Scotists, and
Thomists. In Mastri’s day, there was a long history of the effects of Scotus’ theories, and Mastri
repeatedly recalls the long series of “interpreters” that had come before him. Moreover, what he
proposed was fully immersed in the debate of his time within the context of the university, a debate
which actively involved a great number of highly innovative authors, many of whom Jesuits, who
cannot be traced back to a single traditional school. Lastly, Mastri was also well informed about the
sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century developments in empirical scientific research. He
presented and evaluated these developments on the basis of the flimsy physical doctrines which were
part of his own tradition and were acceptable to the Roman curia and Catholic theologians, but he
also perceived with honesty that they were the results of competencies and instrumental abilities that
he did not possess.
Mastri’s vast work ranges from logic to metaphysics and from ethics to supernatural theology. On
the whole, he created a synthesis of the views of a minority line of Scotism – a line that dated back at
least to Antonio Trombetta – and the positions of Francisco Suárez, elaborating it by means of a
careful reading of Scotus’ works and an extensive knowledge of the doctrines advanced by
university level thinkers, especially those from the first decades of the seventeenth century.
Following Zaccaria Pasqualigo’s developments of a theory formulated by Peter Auriol, Mastri
distinguishes between knowledge (be it a concept, a judgment, or a science) as a real state of the
cognitive faculties and knowledge as cognitive content. Knowledge in the first sense is a real being
(an accident, in the case of a finite cognitive faculty) and therefore can be more or less similar to the
real being, or the set of real beings, to which it possibly refers. Truth consists precisely in this
similarity. Knowledge in the second sense is what one bears in mind and considers. Actually,
knowledge as a cognitive content is not something real: it is a representation, a pure “known,” whose
entire reality lies in the state of a cognitive faculty and in the extramental basis of this state. Between
a state of a cognitive faculty and what consequently appears to it, there is a biunique and necessary
connection; thus, the correspondence between knowledge taken as a real state of the cognitive
faculties and knowledge taken as cognitive content occurs anyway and is always perfect. Moreover,
this correspondence is not a similarity between two (or more) real things. Consequently, it is not
what is called “truth” (be it the truth of a concept, of a proposition, or of a science). Due to the fact
that a cognitive content is not a real being, no direct comparison can be established between it and
the object that is known; conversely, the relationship between a cognitive content and the object of
which it is supposed to be the representation is mediated by the actual state of the cognitive faculties.
Mastri does not consider the detachment of cognitive contents from the things as a simple limitation
of the mind; indeed, he also considers it as an expression of the strength of the cognitive faculties,
i.e., the mind’s power to besiege and capture somehow the real beings it is confronted with.
As far as the nature of concepts (taken as cognitive contents) is concerned, Mastri distinguishes
between predicamental concepts (“finite being” included) and transcendental concepts (first of all,
“being” taken as common to God and creatures). Mastri’s distinction is traditional, but his treatment
of it is not. According to Mastri, predicamental concepts regard things not radically different from
one another and such as can be made up of a potential principle and an active principle. This means
that they always concern finite things. Consequently, predicamental concepts are adequate concepts,
i.e., they are founded on a distinction endowed with reality independently of the work of the mind,
and they can represent things as these things actually are. By contrast, transcendental concepts
regard things radically different from one another of which at least one is infinite. This means that
they always concern things of which at least one cannot be made up of a potential principle and an
active principle. Consequently, transcendental concepts are inadequate concepts, i.e., they are
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founded on a simple embryonic likeness, which is conceived by the mind in the form of a conceptual
content which appears as common to different things exclusively through the work of the intellect
itself. In other words, transcendental concepts – and the concepts contracting them – are the
objectified expression to the mind of the work performed by the mind itself in order also to grasp
something that a finite mind cannot grasp as it is in reality. From a historical point of view, Mastri’s
theory of transcendental concepts is an endeavor to identify a subtle middle way between nominal-
ism, Thomism, and the Scotism professed by most of Scotus’ followers, in a field already crowded
with attempts at mediation. As regards the formation of the ratio entis (i.e., the cognitive content
“being”) and its contraction to infinite being and finite being, Mastri, against most Scotists,
maintains that the ratio entis is formed not by the grasping of a formalitas (i.e., something real
and possibly common to several individuals; in this case, something real and common to God and
creatures), but rather by confusing abstraction; against the nominalists, he maintains that such
abstraction takes place not by reasoning reason (i.e., by means of the sole work of the mind), but
rather by reasoned reason (i.e., by means of a work of the mind that is founded in reality); against
both the nominalists and the Thomists (even the eclectic ones, like Francisco Suárez), he maintains
that the ratio entis is contracted not by explicitation, but rather by composition; finally, against most
Scotists he maintains that the composition in question is not a real one, but rather a composition of
reasoned reason. Indeed neither transcendental being nor the modes contracting it, i.e., infinity and
finitude, are representations of something existing as such in reality; nonetheless the transcendental
being, the mode of infinity, that of finitude, and the compositions of the former with the latter are the
manifestations to the mind of the work with which the mind itself grasps reality, i.e., the infinite
being, the finite being, and their actual likeness and difference. Consequently, being is neither
perfectly univocal nor simply analogical. Mastri rejects the Thomistic theory of the analogy of
being, i.e., the theory according to which, since the created being has a dependence on the supreme
being, the human intelligence grasps that dependence, albeit in a confused way, as soon as it
conceives being. According to Mastri, on the other hand, being is an absolute concept that also
extends to God but in itself does not include an actual reference to God any more than it includes an
actual reference to the creature. Thus, Mastri maintains that being is both univocal and analogical: it
is univocal because, taken as distinct from its inferiors, its contractors do not induce any inequality in
it; notwithstanding, it is analogical because, even if it is taken in a state of abstraction, it is
intrinsically – although only potentially – orientated to being contracted to inferiors that are unequal
in perfection and disposed according to a certain order. A final remark has to be made. Mastri
distinguishes between extrinsic modes and intrinsic modes. Extrinsic modes are, actually, accidents;
intrinsic modes are not accidents, and the distinction between intrinsic modes and what they modify
is weaker than the distinction between extrinsic modes and what they modify. Notwithstanding, a
clarification concerning intrinsic modes also has to be made. Intrinsic modes have the same nature as
what they modify: if they modify something represented by a predicamental concept, they are
endowed with reality independently of the work of the mind; if they modify something represented
by a transcendental concept, they are only manifestations to the mind of the work with which the
mind grasps the difference between the things that are referred to by that transcendental concept.
In order to appraise Mastri’s theory on being, his statements concerning the nature of the reality of
real being should also be taken into consideration. Real being does not simply refer to existence and
is not the same as actual being; in fact, it is the same as possible being. However, Mastri maintains
that the possibility of possible being can be considered from two different points of view: as far as
the rationale of possible being is concerned, possible being is possible just because of itself, whereas
far as the foundation of possible being is concerned, possible being is possible only because it is
grounded in God’s science.
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A well-known divergence between nominalists, Scotists, and Thomists concerns the nature of
freedom. As far as the metaphysical side of this subject is concerned, Mastri – following his master,
Giuseppe La Napola Jr. – rejects both Domingo Báñez’s Thomistic theory and Luis de Molina’s
Ockhamist doctrine: the contingency of contingent futures is founded neither on God’s almightiness
nor on God’s sublime knowledge; it is founded on the supereminent freedom of God’s will, which
virtually holds and renders all possible created acts of free will. As far as the anthropological side of
freedom is concerned, Mastri states that it consists in the dominion of the will over one’s acts. This
dominion exists both with respect to the intellect, which has a merely advisory power, and with
respect to the object, which is merely the extrinsic formal cause of the choice. Indeed, the will
dominates the very exercise of its act. This, writes Mastri, explains the fundamental reason for
rejecting the Thomists’ attempt to demonstrate a priori the freedom of the will on the basis of the fact
that some objects are such as not to attract it necessarily: no object is such as to attract the will
necessarily; hence, freedom can be demonstrated only a posteriori.
As far as the nature of morality is concerned, Mastri writes that moral goodness consists in the
conformity between rational nature and the object of a certain act. A few considerations must be
added to this definition, however. First of all, the object in question is one of the extremes of the
relation of conformity not for what that object is in reality, but rather for what it is in the mind;
secondly, the moral quality of an object is decided not simply by its own nature, but rather with
reference (i.e., subordinately) to a rule, that is, a law. By means of this doctrine, Mastri attempts to
take into account the multiple moments of moral activity that do not simply mirror real connections.
The object whose conformity to the norm must be judged is a cognitive content; moreover, the
judgment on the conformity between norm and object is also the work of the mind, which, when
judging, has to take into account a plurality of factors and the concrete possibility of making a
mistake. Furthermore, Mastri holds that at least some norms – including some divine norms – are
arbitrary or conventional. These considerations do not lead Mastri to deny the existence of a
connection between obligation, rational nature, and the nature of things; nevertheless, he puts
forward a refined conception of the connection in question. Firstly, the metaphysical concept of
“end” can be employed to found morality only to the extent to which it becomes a “duty,” a step that
requires the introduction of the concept of law. Secondly, he transposes the scheme that he uses
regarding the distinction between nature and foundation of possible beings to possible moral objects:
the rationale of the goodness of objects that are good depends on the objects themselves, but the
foundation of that goodness lies in God’s law.
As far as supernatural theology is concerned, Mastri denies that, for the viator, theology is a
science: its principles are not evident to the theologian; thus, it lacks one essential requirement for
science. Notwithstanding, he also denies that theology is a form of opinion. Theology, Mastri argues,
is explicit faith; but faith is certain and is a constant and reasonable state of man; therefore, theology
also possesses the same degree of certainty and reasonableness as faith. To this must be added the
fact that theology does not coincide, even partially, with philosophy: even though some theological
truths are materially identical to some philosophical truths, the reason for assent is, in the two cases,
formally different. Mastri’s theory on the nature of theology clearly opposes the Thomistic one, and
indeed we can find the same opposition on a number of other issues. According to Mastri – and to
Scotists in general – justification consists in a state of friendship between man and God. According
to the Thomists, grace is an accident whose very physical nature makes it capable of uniting man to
God. Like all Scotists, Mastri holds such a thesis to be untenable: as a created accident, grace has no
connection in its being with God; hence, grace is not able, of itself, to produce any real unifying
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effect. It follows from this that the reason for the effectiveness of grace lies elsewhere. Grace unites
God and man not because of what it is in its being, but rather because of a free divine decision: the
decision to accept as a friend he who possesses that quality. Nonetheless, the presence of this quality
is both insufficient and, absolutely speaking, unnecessary.
Impact and Legacy

Although at the present state of research it seems that, outside the Catholic clerical milieu, the work
of Mastri and Belluto enjoyed little fame, inside that environment its diffusion was significant and
long lasting. In the 1660s and 1670s, the Sicilian Capuchin Illuminato Oddo declared his allegiance
to them. After Mastri’s and Belluto’s death, their Philosophiae ad mentem Scoti cursus integer was
reprinted six times, Mastri’s Disputationes theologicae in quatuor libros Sententiarum was reprinted
six times too, and Mastri’s Theologia moralis even saw seven reprints. As late as in 1750, Veremund
Gufl, a Bavarian Thomist Benedictine, though rejecting Scotism, presented this school relying on
Mastri and Belluto’s work. However, one should not believe that Mastri’s interpretation of Scotus’
thought was accepted without opposition. As stated above, this interpretation was a synthesis of the
views of a minority line of Scotism and the positions of Francisco Suárez. Already during his
lifetime, Mastri was attacked both by “orthodox” Scotists such as the Conventual Franciscan friars
Francesco Pontelonghi, Alessandro Rossi, and Bonaventure Columbi and by the conceptualist
Recollect Franciscan John Punch. After his death, Mastri was once again criticized by the Spanish
Observant Franciscan Manuel Pérez de Quiroga, who published his works in the early decades of the
eighteenth century, and, in the 30s and 40s of the same century, by the Austrian Reformed
Franciscan Crescentius Krisper. Nevertheless, within the Conventual Franciscan Order, Mastri’s
thought met with increasing approval, reaching the height of its fame in the 1750s.
References
Primary Literature
Mastrius B (1646–1647) Disputationes in XII libros Metaphysicorum, vol 2. Typis Marci Ginammi,
Venetiis
Mastrius B (1650) Scotus et scotistae Bellutus et Mastrius expurgati a probrosis querelis ferchianis.
Apud Franciscum Succium thypographum cameralem, Ferrariae
Mastrius B (1655–1664) Disputationes theologicae in quatuor libros Sententiarum, 4 vols. Venetiis
(1655: vol 1. Apud Ioannem Iacobum Hertz, Venetiis; 1659: vol 2. Apud Franciscum Stortum,
Venetiis; 1661: vol 3. Apud Valvasensem, Venetiis; 1664: vol 4. Apud Valvasensem, Venetiis);
Reprints of the previous work: 1675, 1684, 1698, 1719, 1731, 1757. Venetiis
Mastrius B (1671) Theologia moralis. Apud Ioannem Iacobum Herz, Venetiis; Reprints of the
previous work: 1683, 1688, 1700, 1709, 1723, 1731, 1758. Venetiis
Mastrius B, Bellutus B (1637) Disputationes in libros Physicorum. Typis Ludovici Grignani, Romae
Mastrius B, Bellutus B (1639) Disputationes in Organum. Tÿpis Marci Ginami, Venetiis
Mastrius B, Bellutus B (1640a) Disputationes in libros De coelo et Metheoris. Tÿpis Marci Ginami,
Venetiis
Mastrius B, Bellutus B (1640b) Disputationes in libros De generatione et corruptione. Tÿpis Marci
Ginami, Venetiis
Mastrius B, Bellutus B (1643) Disputationes in libros De anima. Typis Marci Ginammi, Venetiis
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Mastrius B, Bellutus B (1644) Disputationes in libros Physicorum, 2nd revised edn. Typis Marci
Ginammi, Venetiis
Mastrius B, Bellutus B (1646) Disputationes in Organum, 2nd revised edn. Typis Marci Ginammi,
Venetiis
Mastrius B, Bellutus B (1648 ca.) Disputationes in libros De coelo et Metheoris, 2nd revised edn.
Typis Marci Ginammi, Venetiis
Mastrius B, Bellutus B (1652) Disputationes in libros De generatione et corruptione, 2nd revised
edn. Typis Marci Ginammi, Venetiis
Mastrius B, Bellutus B (1660–1664) Disputationes in Organum, unauthorized reprint of the 1st edn.
Ex typographia Novelli de Bonis – Ex officina Novelli de Bonis typographi archiepiscopalis,
Neapoli
Mastrius B, Bellutus B (1671) Disputationes in libros De anima, 2nd revised edn. Sumptibus
Francisci Brogiolli, Venetiis
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integer. Venetiis; Collective reprints of the second editions of the previous works
Forlivesi M (ed) (2006) “Rem in seipsa cernere”. Saggi sul pensiero filosofico di Bartolomeo Mastri
(1602–1673). Padova. (It contains a complete retrospective bibliography); Gli scotisti secenteschi
di fronte al dibattito tra baneziani e molinisti: un’introduzione e una nota. In Perfetti S (ed) (2008)
Conoscenza e contingenza nella tradizione aristotelica medievale, 239–282. Pisa
Heider D (2014) Universals in second scholasticism. A comparative study with focus on the theories
of Francisco Suárez S.J. (1548–1617), Joao Poinsot O.P. (1589–1644) and Bartolomeo Mastri
da Meldola O.F.M. Conv. (1602–1673)/Bonaventura Belluto O.F.M. Conv. (1600–1676).
Amsterdam/Philadelphia
Novotný DD (2013) Ens rationis from Suárez to Caramuel. A Study in Scholasticism of the Baroque
Era. Fordham University Press, New York
Porro P, Schmutz J (eds) (2008) Quaestio 8 (The Legacy of John Duns Scotus)
Schmutz J (2014) Mastri da Meldola, Bartolomeo. In: Schmutz J (ed) Scholasticon. http://
scholasticon.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Database/Scholastiques_fr.php?ID=890
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Soncino, Paolo Barbo

Born: ca. 1458
Died: 5 August 1495
Efrem Jindráček*
Department for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Thought, Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague,
Czech Republic
Abstract
Paolo Barbò da Soncino was an Italian Roman Catholic priest, friar of the Order of Preachers
(Dominicans), Thomist philosopher, and Doctor of Theology (Kaeppeli T, Panella E (1970–1993)
Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum Medii Aevi, Rome, III, 203; IV, 218). His life and work fall within
the ambit of Italian Renaissance Thomism of the fifteenth century. Among his masters were probably
Peter Maldura of Bergamo (d. 1482) and Dominic of Flanders (d. 1479). His principal work, the
exposition of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, proceeds from a particular synthesis of the Arabic commentator
Averroes, Thomas Aquinas, Hervaeus Natalis (d. 1323), and John Capreolus (d. 1444). Soncinas’ work
and position were frequently discussed from the sixteenth to the seventeenth century.
Alternate Names
Paul of Soncino/Soncinas/Paulus Barbus de Soncino/Paulus Soncinas/Paulus Barbosus
Biography
Soncinas was born around 1458 in the small Italian town of Soncino, near Cremona in Lombardy
(Jindráček 2008, pp. 80–87). As a young man in 1472, he entered in the Dominican Priory of St. James
in Soncino which belonged to the Observant Congregation of Lombardy. After initial formation, he was
from 1474 a student at the Dominican studium in Bologna and from 1481 a formal student at the
Dominican studium generale, integrated in the University of Bologna. Among his schoolfellows in this
period were Silvestro Mazzolini da Prierio (d. 1527) and Girolamo Savonarola (d. 1498), who succeeded
him in 1487 as the Master of Students (Jindráček 2008, p. 97). During this time, Soncinas probably wrote
his first philosophical work Elegantissima expositio in artem veterem Aristotelis (printed in 1499), a
scholastic exposition of Porphyry’s Isagoge and Aristotle’s Categories (Ars vetera). After 1485, he was
teaching and preaching in Milan and Landriano in Lombardy (in two convents of the same name Santa
Maria delle Grazie), and at the same time, he was preparing an edition of Aquinas’ Opuscula and Vincent
Ferrer’s Sermones, printed in 1488. In this period we can also place his edition of Peter of Palude’s
commentary on the fourth book of Peter Lombard’s Sentences, printed in Venice in 1493. In 1493,
Soncinas returned to St. Dominic’s priory in Bologna, where he taught theology in terms of Peter
*Email: efrem@volny.cz
*Email: efrem@pust.it
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Lombard’s Sentences as a formal bachelor, and on 30 May 1495, he graduated at the University of
Bologna as a Doctor (Magister) of Sacred Theology. To this period also, we can date two or three of his
works: the edition of Aquinas’ commentary on the Second Book of Sentences in collaboration with a
Benedictine monk Marco da Benevento (d. ca. 1524), printed in Bologna in 1494, and the completion of
the most important and most widely read of Soncinas’ works, the Acutissimae Quaestiones
Metaphysicales, first printed posthumously in Venice in 1498. The compendium, which Soncinas called
Divinum epitoma quaestionum in quatuor libros Sententiarum, an extract of John Capreolus’
Defensiones, likewise first printed posthumously in Pavia from 1521 to 1522, is difficult to date but
also probably comes from this last stay in Bologna together with his correspondence with the noted
Renaissance thinker Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola (d. 1533), the nephew of the more famous
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (Picus 1573, II, pp. 1284–1285, 1313–1314). After his doctoral promo-
tion, Soncinas was appointed as prior of St. Dominic’s priory in Cremona where he died soon after on
5 August 1495 (Jindráček 2008, pp. 108–109).

Soncinas is one of the classic examples of a Thomist of the fifteenth century living in the ambience of the
Italian Renaissance and following the observant religious reform whose intellectual formation was
profoundly rooted in the scholastic method and Aristotelian-Thomist tradition. In addition to the works
of the Stagirite and Aquinas, he had a very good knowledge of Averroes’ commentary and other classical
and scholastic authors like Cicero, Boethius, John Duns Scotus, Hervaeus Natalis, Gregory of Rimini,
Antonio Andrea, Giles of Rome, Francis of Mayrone, et al. Among the Latin translations of Aristotle’s
Metaphysics, he evidently preferred William of Moerbeke’s (d. ca. 1286) version but also took into
account that of Michael Scotus’ (d. ca. 1235). Soncinas distinguished very precisely between theological
and philosophical knowledge or method, and in philosophy he used only rational arguments. In general he
was convinced that the best interpretation of Aristotle was to be found in Averroes’ commentary and that
Aquinas’ interpretation was largely reconcilable with it.
Soncinas’ works can be divided into three groups: In the first, there are editions of other authors like
Vincent Ferrer’s Sermones (1488) and Aquinas’ Opuscula (1488). Soncinas’ edition of the Opuscula is
appreciated as one of the better versions, compared to earlier printed editions (Summa opusculorum 1485/
1488), as is noted in the introduction to the critical Leonine edition (Thomas de Aquino 1976,
pp. 117–118, 176, 222, 273–274). The edition presents 51 opuscula of which modern critics today
consider only 16 to be inauthentic. Two other books, Peter of Palude’s In quartum Sententiarum (1493)
and Aquinas’ Scriptum super secundo libro Sententiarum (1494), await critical evaluation.
With those editions is connected another interesting category of Soncinas’ literary production, typical
of the Renaissance culture: his scholarly or philosophical epistolary. There are introductions or dedica-
tions to editions such as the letter Cum nuper Mediolanum venissem of 29 February 1488 addressed to
Ludovico of Calabria, the General Vicar of the Observant Congregation of Lombardy (1487–1489),
published with Vincent’s Sermones, the Qui gratulatum of 15 May 1488 for Cardinal Ascanio Maria
Sforza (d. 1505) in Aquinas’ Opuscula, and the Constitueram magnis amniti viribus of 1 July 1493 for
Tommaso Donato (d. 1505), the Dominican Patriarch of Venice in Paludanus’ In quartum Sententiarum.
Finally, here are three speculative works. The dating is not sure, but the first was probably the
commentary on Ars vetera called variously as Elegantissima expositio in artem veterem Aristotelis
(ed. Venice 1499) or Lucida et subtilis expositio in Porphyrii Isagogen et Aristotelis Praedicamenta
(ed. Venice 1587) or Expositio in Porphyrii Isagogen et Aristotelis Praedicamenta (ed. Venice 1600).
This is a classical scholastic commentary on Aristotelian “old” logic in two parts: an exposition of
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_325-2
Porphyry’s Isagoge in seven chapters and an exposition of Aristotelian Categories, subdivided in three
parts De antepraedicamentis, De praedicamentis, and De postpredicamentis. The work was very prob-
ably intended as a manual for students of philosophy (in Bologna?).
The second work is his Divinum epitoma quaestionum in quattuor librum Sententiarum a principe
thomistarum Ioanne Capreolo (ed. Pavia 1521–1522; Lyon 1528, 1529, 1580; and Salamanca 1580). This
book also most likely comes from his teaching activities and is mentioned in his correspondence with Pico
(Picus 1573, II, 1313; cf. Paulus de Soncino 1521, I, a4v-a5r). The whole work is in fact an abbreviated
extract from the monumental work Defensiones theologiae divi Thomae Aquinatis of John Capreolus
(Bedouelle 1997, pp. 201–204). Because it is an “epitome” – an extract from another author, as is the case
with Silvestro da Prierio’s Opus in Capreolum in 1498 – its relationship to Soncinas’ own thinking is
somewhat problematic. This difficulty applies especially to the doctrine of the eternal truths which
Soncinas later does not defend but in the Epitoma probably only expresses the opinion of Capreolus
(cf. Wells 1994a, pp. 19–29, 1994b, p. 199, 1997, pp. 264–268; Mahoney 2004, pp. 630–631; Jindráček
2012, pp. 165–166).
The most important of Soncinas’ works is his commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics [Acutissimae
quaestiones metaphysicales = AQM [ed. Venice 1498, 1505, 1526, 1576, 1588 (photo reprint Frankfurt
1967), ed. Lyon 1579 by Petrus Landry and another by Carolus Pesnot, ed. Oberursel 1622] where his
own mature views are presented, together with relevant arguments and polemics. The dating in this case is
also uncertain, but from the correspondence with Pico, it is evident that at the beginning of 1495, the work
was considered to be complete (Picus 1573, II, 1313). This is a scholastic commentary in the form of
questions and includes 8 of 14 of Aristotle’s metaphysical treatises: books IV–X and XII. Soncinas
explains this selection in his preface mainly on the grounds of the repetitive nature of the omitted books.
Among Soncinas’ characteristic views, we should note here especially his understanding of the common
being to include God and separated substances as parts and not only principles (cf. AQM, IV, q. 10). This
is a synthesis of Averroes’ and Aquinas’ arguments directed against Dominic of Flanders. Even more
interesting is his view on the concept of the unity of being. Together with the classic analogical unity and
predication, Soncinas defended the concept of being as a disjunctive term (“ens” expresses immediately
the substance or accident = conceptus disjunctus); this view is probably taken from Hervaeus (cf. AQM,
IV, qq. 3 and 4). On the question of distinction between essence and existence, Soncinas defended the
fairly widespread Thomistic position of a real distinction, which he himself considered as “the most
fundamental part of Aquinas’ doctrine,” even using the terms res ad rem (AQM, IV, q. 12). But in this
work, we can also find some other less traditional ideas such as the identity of a relation with its
fundamentum (AQM, V, q. 28) and the exclusive competence of physics in the demonstration of the
existence of God (AQM, IV, q. 9). Some of these ideas even led Cardinal Cajetan (d. 1534) to write a now
lost polemical treatise called Super erroribus Soncinati (Von Gunten 1969, pp. 341–344; Jindráček 2008,
p. 137).
Impact and Legacy

Although Soncinas’ work is today known primarily for its role in the controversies with Francisco Suárez
(d. 1617), he had some direct disciples and admirers. Among these can be mentioned Andrea da Perugia
(d. 1548); Gaspare di Baldassare da Perugia (d. 1531), the author of the Apologia Pauli Soncinatis olim
magistri sui, a polemical answer to Cajetan, which is itself now lost (Tavuzzi, 1996, p. 601); and Isidorus
de Isolani da Milano (d. ca. 1528), his first biographer (Paulus de Soncino 1521, I, A2r-A6r) and editor of
the Epitoma. With reference to Soncinas, we should also note Chrysostomus Javelli (d. 1538) and several
other scholastic philosophers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Jindráček 2008, pp. 134–142)
Page 3 of 5
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_325-2
like Francesco Silvestri da Ferrara (d. 1528) or Domingo Bañez (d. 1604) and even Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz (d. 1716).
Cross-References
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Cajetan, Thomas de Vio
▶ Incunables
▶ Letter – Renaissance Philosophy
▶ Logic – Renaissance Philosophy
▶ Thomism – Renaissance Philosophy
References
Primary Literature
Paulus de Soncino (1498) Acutissimae quaestiones metaphysicales. Venice
Paulus de Soncino (1499) Elegantissima expositio in artem veterem Aristotelis. Venice
Paulus de Soncino (1505) Acutissimae quaestiones metaphysicales. Venice
Paulus de Soncino (1521–1522) Divinum epitoma quaestionum in quattuor libros Sententiarum a principe
thomistarum Ioanne Capreolo Ordinis Praedicatorum disputatarum. Pavia
Paulus de Soncino (1526) Quaestiones metaphysicales acutissimae. Venice
Paulus de Soncino (1528) Divinum epitoma quaestionum in quatuor libros Sententiarum a principe
thomistarum Joanne Capreolo Tholosano disputatarum. Lyon
Paulus de Soncino (1576) Quaestiones metaphysicales acutissimae. Venice
Paulus de Soncino (1579a) Quaestiones metaphysicales acutissimae. (Carolus Pesnot) Lyon
Paulus de Soncino (1579b) Quaestiones metaphysicales acutissimae. (Petrus Landry) Lyon
Paulus de Soncino (1580a) Divinum epitoma quaestionum in quatuor libros Sententiarum. Salamanca
Paulus de Soncino (1580b) Epitomes quaestionum Joannis Capreoli super libros Sententiarum. Lyon
Paulus de Soncino (1586) Quaestiones metaphysicales acutissimae. Lyon
Paulus de Soncino (1587) Lucida et subtilis Expositio in Porphyrii Isagogen et Aristotelis Praedicamenta.
Venice
Paulus de Soncino (1588) Quaestiones metaphysicales acutissimae. Venice. [photo reprint Frankfurt
1967]
Paulus de Soncino (1600) Expositio in Porphyrii Isagogen et Aristotelis Praedicamenta. Venice
Paulus de Soncino (1622) Quaestiones metaphysicales acutissimae. Oberursel
Petrus de Palude (1493) In quartum Sententiarum. Venice
Picus Mirandula IF (1573) Opera omnia. Basel
Thomas de Aquino (1488) Opuscula. Milan
Thomas de Aquino (1494) Scripta super secundo libro Sententiarum. Bologna
Thomas de Aquino (1976) Opuscula. Rome
Vincentius Ferrerius (1488) Sermones de Sanctis. Milan
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Bedouelle G-T (1997) Les éditions “humanistes” de Capreolus. In: Jean Capreolus et son temps
(1380–1444). Editions du Cerf, Paris, pp 195–207
Jindráček E (2008) Paolo Barbò da Soncino: La vita ed il pensiero di un tomista rinascimentale. Archivum
Fratrum Praedicatorum 78:79–148
Jindráček E (2012) Téma univerzálií v italském tomismu 14. a 15. století. In: Heider D, Svoboda D (eds)
Univerzálie ve scholastice. TF JU, České Budějovice, pp 153–171
Kaeppeli T, Panella E (1970–1993) Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum Medii Aevi. Rome
Kaeppeli T, Panella E (1970) Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum Medii Aevi. Ad S. Sabinae, Rome
Kaeppeli T, Panella E (1993) Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum Medii Aevi. Istituto Storico Domenicano,
Rome
Mahoney EP (2004) The accomplishment of Jean Capreolus, O.P. Thomist 68:601–632
Tavuzzi M (1996) Gaspare di Baldassare da Perugia O.P. (1465–1531). Thomist 60:595–615
Von Gunten F (1969) Sur la trace des inédits de Cajétan. Angelicum 46:341–344
Wells NJ (1994a) Javelli and Suárez on the eternal truths. Mod Sch 72:13–35
Wells NJ (1994b) Soncinas on essence and existence. In: Greek and medieval studies in honor of Leo
190 Sweeney. SJ. Peter Lang, New York, pp 191–209
Wells NJ (1997) Jean Capreolus et ses successeurs sur les vérités éternelles. In: Jean Capreolus et son
temps (1380–1444). Editions du Cerf, Paris, pp 259–273
Page 5 of 5
S
Storella, Francesco Biography
Born: 1529, Alessano Francesco Storella was born in Alessano in

around 1529 (Antonaci 1966). He was introduced
Died: 1575, Naples to philosophical studies by his father Giovanni,
who was a disciple of Pomponazzi. In Padua,
Donato Verardi Francesco listened to the lectures of Bernardino
CRHEC, Université Paris Est – Créteil, Paris, Tomitano, Panfilo Monti, and Marcantonio de’
France Passeri (known as Genua); he studied under excel-
Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy lent teachers and was a fellow student of other
important figures, including the surgeon from
Modena, Gabriele Falloppia.
In 1548, at 24 years of age, he was elected by
Abstract
the students as Rector of the University of
the Arts.
Francesco Storella was born in Alessano in
In 1549, at the end of his year as rector, he
around 1529. Close adherence to the text, exege-
received the academic degree of Doctor Artium
sis, and criticism were the characteristic features
and discussed the one hundred and fifty
of Storella’s philosophical research, which was
Conclusiones to earn the title of “public lector.”
animated by a constant polemic against Girolamo
In 1550, the philosopher moved to Naples,
Balduino. His works insist greatly on the impor-
where he became friends with Simone Porzio
tance of recovering the classical world through
and Giovan Bernardino Longo, to whom he ded-
direct, unmediated study of Greek and Latin
icated his work Logicalium Capitum Decas
texts. His thought is permeated by a certain eclec-
Prima. In Naples he wrote De Definitione
ticism, with references to aspects from Plato,
Logices, his Explanatio in digressione undecimi
Averroes, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham.
commenti Averrois, and De inventore Logices; he
The most significant aspects of Storella’s intellec-
also republished and provided a commentary for
tual experience are his activity as a publisher of
the pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum Secretorum. In
works from the ancient and medieval philosophi-
1557, Storella taught at the Studium in Salerno
cal tradition, the texts of which had become diffi-
and published Lybellus an singulare syllogismus
cult to find, together with his commitment to a
ingredi, against Girolamo Balduino. The follow-
strictly rational foundation for the study of nature.
ing year, he was back in Naples. Storella’s numer-
ous stays in Alessano are a constant feature
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_326-1
2 Storella, Francesco
throughout his life. He completed some of his importance of recovering the classical world
main works during these periodic stays in the through direct, unmediated study of Greek and
area around Otranto, including: De inventore Latin texts. His thought is permeated by a certain
Logices, Tractatulus quintaginta eclecticism, with references to aspects from Plato,
contradictionum, and De Utilitate logicae. He Averroes, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham.
died of apoplexy in Naples, on December Storella’s predilection for the study of logic can be
18, 1575 (Storella 1549; 1553a, b, c; 1557, noted from the titles of his works alone, which are
1561a, b). barely transliterated from Greek. He considered
logic as both the science of thought and the sci-
ence of the real, as it allows us to grasp things and
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition to then study their nature. Logic was both a prac-
tical and a speculative science. One the one hand,
Storella’s publishing activities are of great impor- it had the characteristics of a theoretical discipline,
tance for understanding his relationship with the and on the other, it provided cognitive tools for all
preceding philosophical tradition. Among the the other sciences (Antonaci 1966; Longo 1996;
numerous works he republished, particular men- Paladini 2009).
tion should be made of Secretum Secretorum
Aristotelis ad Alexandrum Magnum, a long letter
reputedly sent by Aristotle to Alexander the Great, Impact and Legacy
in which he discusses issues concerning politics,
medicine, and astrology. Storella’s edition, the last The most significant aspects of Storella’s intellectual
Latin edition of the text to be printed, is the only experience are his activity as a publisher of works
one with a preface and a substantial body of foot- from the ancient and medieval philosophical tradi-
notes, which shows a clear tendency to discuss tion, the texts of which had become difficult to find,
topics concerning the good government of the together with his commitment to a strictly rational
State (Schmitt 1982). Another characteristic fea- foundation for the study of nature (Schmitt 1982;
ture of Storella’s work was his attention to medi- Verardi 2012). He receives little mention in schol-
cal and scientific studies, which he cultivated in arly historical reconstructions of Italian culture dur-
particular during his years in the Studium of ing that period, and recent academic interest in his
Salerno. This interest explains his republication cultural activity has been focused on his role in the
of Secreta secretorum Hippocratis and Libellus de debate on logic in Padua and, above all, on his
venenis Averrois. Storella is also credited with work as a publisher, particularly of the pseudo-
reprinting Dante’s Quaestio de aqua et terra, Aristotelian Secretum secretorum and Dante
two works on the extent and authenticity of the Alighieri’s Questio de aqua et terra. His commit-
Aristotelian corpus and a work on the arrangement to republishing texts of unquestionable philo-
ment of the corpus of Tomas Aquinas (Antonaci sophical and literary interest is the aspect that best
1966). represents his contribution to the cultural debate of
sixteenth-century Italy (Antonaci 1966).

Cross-References
Close adherence to the text, exegesis, and criti-
cism were the characteristic features of Storella’s ▶ Girolamo Balduino
philosophical research, which was animated by a ▶ Marcantonio de’ Passeri (Genua)
constant polemic against Girolamo Balduino ▶ Pietro Pomponazzi
(Papuli 1967). His works insist greatly on the ▶ Simone Porzio
Storella, Francesco 3
References Storella, F. 1561b. Libellus de utilitate Logices. Neapoli.

Excudebat Raymundus Amatus.
Primary Literature
Storella, F. 1549. Conclusiones publices disputande. Secondary Literature
Patavii. Iacobus Fabrianus Excudebat. Antonaci, A. 1966. Francesco Storella, filosofo salentino
Storella, F. 1553a. De definitione Logices. Neapoli. del Cinquecento. Galatina.
Matthias Cancer. Longo, C. 1996. Il pensiero logico di Francesco Storella.
Storella, F. 1553b. Explanatio in digressione undecimi Bollettino di Storia della filosofia dell’Università degli
commenti Averrois. Neapoli. Cilium Allifanum. Studi di Lecce XV: 307–324.
Storella, F. 1555a. Logicalium capitum Decas Prima. Paladini, A. 2009. Il pensiero logico di Francesco Storella.
Neapoli. In Platea Sancti Laurentii Excudebat Galatina.
Raymundus Amatus. Papuli, G. 1967. Girolamo Balduino. Ricerche sulla logica
Storella, F. 1555b. De inventore Logices. Neapoli. della scuola di Padova nel Rinascimento. Manduria.
Matthias Cancer. Schmitt, C. B. 1982. Francesco Storella and the Last
Storella, F. 1555c. Secretum secretorum Aristotelis ad Printed Edition of the Latin Secretum secretorum
Alexandrum Magnum. Venietiis. (1555). In Pseudo-Aristotle. The Secret of Secretis.
Storella, F. 1557. Libellus quo ad peripateticas aures, Sources and Influences, ed. W. F. Ryan, and
singulare verum syllogismum. Neapoli. Matthias Can- C. B. Schmitt, 124–131. London. Excudebat Matthiam
cer et Thomas Riccionus socij excudebat. Cancer.
Storella, F. 1561a. Tractatus quinquaginta Verardi, D. 2012. L’influenza delle stelle in un trattato in
contradictionum. Neapoli. Excudebat Raymundus volgare del Cinquecento. Dell’Origine de’ Monti di
Amatus. Cesare Rao. Philosophical Readings 2: 15–23.
Z
Zimara, Marcantonio including his surviving manuscripts. Following

Aristotle, he reaffirms the superiority of diffinitio
Born: 1470, San Pietro, Galatina over demonstratio and, within the latter, the pri-
ority of demonstratio propter quid over
Died: ca. 1529 demonstratio quia. However, he recognizes that
the complexity of nature eludes the absoluteness
Donato Verardi of logical reconstruction, which is more suited to
CRHEC, Université Paris Est – Créteil, Paris, metaphysics.
France
Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Biography
Abstract
Marco Antonio Zimara was born in San Pietro in
Galatina in around 1470 and died sometime after
Marco Antonio Zimara was born in San Pietro in
1529, the last year for which we have certain
Galatina in around 1470 and died sometime after
information regarding his life. He completed his
1529, the last year for which we have certain
studies in Padua, receiving a doctorate in artibus
information regarding his life. He completed his
in 1501 and obtaining a degree in medicine. His
studies in Padua, receiving a doctorate in artibus
teachers at the Studium of Padua included the
in 1501 and obtaining a degree in medicine.
Scotists Antonio Trombetta and Maurizio
Marcantonio’s fame is linked in particular to the
Ibernico, the Averroist Nicoletto Vernia, and
compilation of his Tabula, but he was also a
Pietro Pomponazzi. In 1507, in Padua, he was
prominent figure in the world of Renaissance pub-
appointed to the extraordinary chair of philoso-
lishing. This can be seen, for example, in the wide
phy, and later, in 1525, to the chair of ordinary
circulation of his works throughout Europe for
philosophy in primo loco. Between his first and
most of the seventeenth century and his efforts
second teaching periods in Padua, he continued
as an editor of the works of Aristotle and his
with his didactic activities, moving first to Salerno
medieval interpreters, as well as in his attempts
(1520) and then to Naples (1523), and he also
to resolve the most debated contradictions
became involved in the political life of his native
between the teaching of Aristotle and that of
town, where he held the office of mayor in 1514
Averroes. This endeavor gave rise to the
(Antonaci 1970; Paladini 2001; Rugge 2004).
Theoremata and the Solutiones contradictionum
and can clearly be discerned in all his work,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_328-1
2 Zimara, Marcantonio
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition including his surviving manuscripts (Antonaci
1970; Rugge 2004).
Zimara’s commentaries on the Aristotelian corpus Zimara’s Tabula was published posthumously,
and on editions of Aristotle by medieval inter- with the first edition dating to 1537. The encyclo-
preters are important for understanding his rela- pedic nature and organization of the work, which
tionship with the preceding philosophical was one of the earliest and most successful exam-
tradition. In addition to Aristotle, Marcantonio ples of a dictionary of philosophical terms, made it
also commented on and republished the works of extremely useful in Italian and foreign centers of
Themistius, John of Jandun, and Albert the Great. study. An examination of the various editions,
Zimara’s interest in the works of Aristotle went which were also gradually improved in terms of
hand in hand with his teaching activities. Close their layout and the prominence given to the most
examination of the chronology of Zimara’s edi- important entries, allows the development of par-
tions of Aristotle reveals that the focus of his ticular topics and the new features they assumed
interests was related to the centers of study in to be traced, particularly with regard to physics
which he was lecturing. Thus, in the early six- (the concepts of motion, time, and space) and
teenth century, during his first teaching period in medicine (the circulation of the blood, the func-
Padua, he was concerned with publishing logical tion of the liver, and the anatomy of the heart and
and metaphysical works, without neglecting the the arteries), which now attracts the attention of
more important commentaries, such as those of teachers and students in the Faculty of Arts.
John of Jandun and Albertus Magnus. In Salerno, The Tabula would be sufficient, in itself, to
however, already towards 1520, he gave greater provide an overview of the history of thought in
importance to Aristotelian physics and medical the period spanning the fifteenth and sixteenth
questions, which were gaining ground in that cen- centuries. Marcantonio had a particular propen-
ter, traditionally more inclined toward problems sity for synthesis, which was the result of his
of medical science, due to the diffusion of the careful examination of the questions.
apocryphal Problemata. His time in Naples and The Theoremata was also a fundamental work
the second period in Padua, however, were taken with a broad scope, and was as widely read as the
up with more specialized works, which reflect his Tabula. Its topics range from logic, physics, and
mature thought (Antonaci 1970; Garin 1973; metaphysics to medicine. The latter is given much
Papuli 1991; Spruit 1995). importance because, although the Theoremata
was completed and published for the first time in
Naples in 1523, when Marcantonio Zimara was
teaching metaphysics at the University of San
Lorenzo, it was greatly influenced by his time in
Salerno and the speculative interests of the Studio
Marcantonio’s fame is linked in particular to the
there, where he had not only taught philosophy
compilation of his Tabula, but he was also a
but also theoretical medicine during the previous
prominent figure in the world of Renaissance pub-
years. Zimara remained in Salerno for a number of
lishing. This can be seen, for example, in the wide
years (probably from 1518 to 1522) and left a
circulation of his works throughout Europe for
lasting impression there. Many additions were
most of the seventeenth century and his efforts
made to the subsequent editions of the work
as an editor of the works of Aristotle and his
(from 1539 onwards), particularly by his son
medieval interpreters, as well as in his attempts
Teofilo, without, however, deviating from the
to resolve the most debated contradictions
genuine text and thought of the Teoremata.
between the teaching of Aristotle and that of
Yet another, equally significant work by
Averroes. This endeavor gave rise to the
Zimara was his Solutiones contradictionum. The
Theoremata and the Solutiones contradictionum
original version of this dates back to Zimara’s first
and can clearly be discerned in all his work,
teaching period in Padua, in around the first
Zimara, Marcantonio 3
decade of the sixteenth century. It reflects the making Zimara a figure of unquestionable impor-
richly polemical and often tumultuous environ- tance in both the teaching of Padua and in Renais-
ment that stimulated the minds of the pupils and sance publishing (Mahoney 1971; Verardi 2012;
teachers, both in and out of school, centered on De Carli 2013).
one essential issue: the correct interpretation of
Aristotle by Averroes.
Zimara took a stand against the Arab philoso- Cross-References
pher’s detractors. Nevertheless, as he himself
stated, his intention was not an indiscriminate ▶ Girolamo Balduino
and preconceived acquittal of Averroes, but a ▶ Marcantonio de’ Passeri (Genua)
careful examination of the text and the commen- ▶ Pietro Pomponazzi
tary, which was not to be forced or led toward ▶ Simone Porzio
interpretations that reflected neither Aristotelian
nor Averroistic thought.
The detractors of Zimara’s position included
his teacher, and then bitter rival, Pomponazzi, References
who used his authority and prestige to hamper
his assignment to the ordinary chair of philosophy Primary Literature
Zimara, M. A. 1508. Quaestio de primo cognito eiusdem
for a long time, as is well known (Nardi 1958; Solutiones contradictionum in dictis Aristotelis et
Bianchi-Randi 1982; Bianchi 2003). Averrois. Per heredes Octaviami Scoti impresse per
Bometum Locatelium bergomemsem prsbyterum,
Venetiis.
Zimara, M. A. 1523. Sanctipetrinatis Philosophi
Impact and Legacy Solertissimi Theoremata seu memorabilium
Propositionum Limitationes ad illustrissimum
In both Solutiones contraddictionum and the Ferdinandum Sanseverinum Salernitorum Principem.
Tabula, as well as in the Theoremata, Zimara Per Antanium De Friziis coumaldensem expersis
domini petri de Domimico bibliopode meapolitami,
admits the possibility of regressive demonstration Neapoli.
in scientia. Following Aristotle, he reaffirms the Zimara, M. A, 1537. Philosophi Consummatissimi Tabula
superiority of diffinitio over demonstratio and, dilucidationum in dictis Aristotelis et Averrois opus
within the latter, the priority of demonstratio iamdiu expectatum, et nunc primum summa diligentia
in lucem editum. Apuol Octdviamum Scotum, Venetiis.
propter quid over demonstratio quia. However, Zimara, M. A, 1549. Contradictiones ac solutiones in
he recognizes that the complexity of nature eludes dictis Averrois librorum Colliget. Apuol Octdviamum
the absoluteness of logical reconstruction, which Scotum, Venetiis.
is more suited to metaphysics. The cognitive sub- Zimara, M. A, 1557. Sanctipetrinatis Problematum Liber.
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safeguarded by logical procedures that are indis- Pagamum, Lugduni.
pensable for scientific progress, due to their dis-
cursive and argumentative nature. Logic, as can
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to John of Jandun’s Metafisica, has a formal and Zimara. Galatina, Lacaita.
instrumental nature and is strictly distinct from Bianchi, L. 2003. Rusticus mendax: Marcantonio Zimara e
la fortuna di Alberto Magno nel Rinascimento italiano.
metaphysics. Logical rigor is in fact the means
In Studi sull’aristotelismo rinascimentale, 209–223.
by which the subject involved in study gains Padova, IL Poligrafo.
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Filosofia XXXVII: 218–222.
this centrality of the cognitive subject as his most
De Carli, M. 2013. La teoria dell’intelletto e il confronto
interesting contribution to the philosophical con Simplicio nel commento al De anima di Teofilo
debate of the fifteenth and sixteenth century, Zimara. Rinascimento Meridionale IV: 123–140.
4 Zimara, Marcantonio
Garin, E. 1973. M. A. Zimara e le sue ‘Quaestiones’. Papuli, G. 1991. Sulla fortuna di G. Balduino: la polemica
Rivista Critica di Storia della Filosofia XXVIII: col Nifo e con lo Zimara. In Ethos e cultura. Studi in
341–342. onore di Ezio Riondato, 233–263. Padova, Antenore.
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of Aristotle by Marcantonio Zimara. The Library 26: Zimara. Galatina, Congedo.
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H
Harriot, Thomas: Renaissance Biography

Philosophy
The earliest item of the incomplete record of
Born: Oxford (?), ca. 1560 Harriot’s life is an entry in the matriculation reg-
Died: London, 2 July 1621 ister of Oxford University, where he, the son of a
commoner, began his studies at the age of 17.
Matthias Schemmel Sometime after his graduation in 1580 he entered
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, the service of Walter Ralegh for whom he worked
Berlin, Germany as a scientific advisor, working, among other
things, on problems of navigation. In 1585, he
joined Ralegh’s expedition to the New World
Abstract where he studied the language and habits of the
native Algonquians as well as the local geogra-
Harriot was an English mathematician and philos- phy, flora, and fauna. After his return to Europe in
opher working in diverse fields of contemporary 1586, he spent some time in Ireland, where he was
knowledge such as algebra, astronomy, naviga- again charged with surveying and map making. In
tion, cartography, architecture, mechanics, optics, the 1590s, Harriot acquired the patronage of
alchemy, linguistics, and biblical chronology. Henry Percy, Ninth Earl of Northumberland, and
Besides a small book on the New Found Land of moved into Syon House on the Thames, where he
Virginia and a posthumously edited work on alge- had his own laboratory and library. In 1621 he
bra, his work is handed down to us solely in the died from a nasal ulcer. In the final decades of his
form of about 5,200 sheets of working notes, a life, Harriot’s social position was precarious.
fact that complicates the appraisal of his From the first years of the seventeenth century
achievements. on and up to the years around his death, both his
patrons were imprisoned. Harriot himself was
accused of atheism several times and was
imprisoned for a couple of weeks in the aftermath
Synonyms of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
Thomas Hariot; Thomas Harriott

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_330-1
2 Harriot, Thomas: Renaissance Philosophy
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition correspondence with Kepler testifies, his failure
to publish made him virtually vanish from the
Harriot was one of the early modern engineer- later history of science. It is therefore up to mod-
scientists in whose work, as in Galileo’s, there is ern historians to reconstruct his work from his
a confluence of traditions of practical mathematics manuscripts and use it as a means to probe into
and ancient and medieval (natural) philosophy. the field of early modern knowledge and its devel-
The integration of a growing body of practical opmental dynamics.
knowledge eventually lead to ruptures within the
philosophical tradition. Thus, based on geometri-
cal diagrams and using his own elaborate alge- Cross-References
braic formalism, Harriot developed a theory
describing the collision of round bodies and ▶ Algebra
claimed that it was “among the principal elements ▶ Atomism
which lead to the understanding of the inner ▶ Copernicanism
secrets and mysteries of natural philosophy,” ▶ Galileo
obviously subscribing to an atomistic agenda
and explicitly breaking with Aristotelianism. Cor-
respondingly, Harriot’s astronomical work is References
known to have been informed by Copernicanism.
Primary Literature
British Museum Add MS 6782–9, Petworth House (Sussex),
HMC 240–1; see http://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/con
Innovative and Original Aspects tent/scientific_revolution/harriot/harriot_manuscripts
Harriot, Thomas 1588. A briefe and true report of the new
The confluence of practical and theoretical tradi- found land of Virginia. London: s.n.
tions implied the use of experiments and mathe- Har[r]iot, Thomas. 1631. Artis analyticae praxis, ad
aequationes algebraicas noua, expedia, & generali
matics in the systematic treatment of questions of
methodo, resoluendas: tractatus. London: Barker.
philosophy. Harriot was highly innovative in this Harriot, Thomas 2007. Thomas Harriot’s Artis analyticae
context and arrived at many results which were Praxis: An English translation with commentary, trans.
later independently obtained and published by and ed. Muriel Seltman and Robert Goulding. New
York: Springer.
others. Thus, in mechanics, he performed fall
experiments and arrived at the law of fall and the
insight into the parabolic shape of projectile tra-
Fox, Robert (ed.). 2000. Thomas Harriot: An Elizabethan
jectories. He performed optical experiments and man of science. Aldershot: Ashgate.
arrived at the law of refraction, today known as Fox, Robert (ed.). 2012. Thomas Harriot and his world:
Snel’s law. He constructed telescopes indepen- Mathematics, exploration, and natural philosophy in
early modern England. Farnham: Ashgate.
dently of and prior to Galileo and used them to
Schemmel, Matthias. 2008. The English Galileo: Thomas
observe the moon and the sun spots. He made Harriot’s work on motion as an example of preclassical
original contributions to algebra and number the- mechanics. Dordrecht: Springer.
ory and invented one of the earliest systematic Shirley, John W. (ed.). 1974. Thomas Harriot: Renais-
sance scientist. Oxford: Clarendon.
phonetic alphabets. Shirley, John W. (ed.). 1981. A source book for the study of
Thomas Harriot. New York: Arno Press.
Shirley, John W. 1983. Thomas Harriot: A biography.
Impact and Legacy Oxford: Clarendon.
Stedall, Jacqueline A. 2003. The greate invention of alge-
bra: Thomas Harriot’s treatise on equations. Oxford:
While, in his lifetime, Harriot was widely known Oxford University Press.
in England and also on the continent, as his
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_331-1
Martini, Cornelius
Born: 1568, Antwerp
Died: 17 December 1621, Helmstedt
Sascha Salatowsky*
Forschungsbibliothek Gotha, Studienst€atte Protestantismus, Universit€ats- und Forschungsbibliothek Erfurt/Gotha, Gotha,
Germany
Abstract
The Lutheran philosopher Cornelius Martini is considered to be the first to teach Aristotelian metaphysics
at a Protestant university. The absence of a metaphysica specialis including natural Theology is a
prominent feature in Martini’s metaphysical outlook as well as his doctrine of the angels and separated
souls. Over the question of the relationship between philosophy and theology, he came into dispute with
his Helmstedt colleague Daniel Hofmann, a supporter of the double-truth thesis. Among his most
important students were Georg Calixtus, Jacob Martini, and Henning Arnisaeus.
The Lutheran philosopher C. Martini was born 1567/8 in Antwerp. He studied in Rostock with David
Chytraeus and John Caselius. He was appointed Professor of Logic in 1591 in Helmstedt where he
worked until his death in 1621. As an authority in Italian Aristotelianism, he began his fight against Peter
Ramus. Ramus had heavily polemicized against Aristotelian philosophy, especially against logic and
metaphysics. Martini defended Aristotelianism, which he found to be compatible with the Christian
religion and its teachings.
Over the question of the relationship between philosophy and theology, he later came into dispute with
his Helmstedt colleague Daniel Hofmann, a supporter of the double-truth thesis. A few years later, Martini
was in trouble with the Wittenberg theologian Balthasar Meisner. The question was whether theological
arguments should be given in a syllogistic form or not. In his definition of logic, Martini followed Jacopo
Zabarella, the prime representative of Renaissance Paduan Aristotelianism: Logics is an intellectual habit
using terms of the secondary order. Logic is concerned with concepts derived from the first order – which
includes the natural and contingent things – to structure thinking and to reach right propositions.
Martini is known as the first to teach Aristotelian metaphysics at a Protestant university. The lecture
took place from November 1597 until October 1599 in Helmstedt. This was an important innovation of
late Humanism, a movement which was still dominated by Melanchthon's anti-metaphysical sentiment.
Martini’s groundbreaking lecture ensured his legacy as the founder of Protestant academic Metaphysics in
Germany. His lecture was distributed throughout numerous manuscripts. Unlike Ramus, Martini stressed
the need for a philosophical science based on realism, and that was the task of Metaphysics. He defined the
ens qua ens, the being qua being, as that which exists independently of the mind (ens reale or mind-
independent being). The part of being which only exist in the mind (ens rationis, being of reason), a
chimera, for example, is therefore not a part of metaphysics. To support his case, Martini pointed to the
fact that being is the first thing really known (primum cognitum). Every human cognition, be it ever so
vague, takes its initial step from the first thing.
*Email: sascha.salatowsky@uni-erfurt.de
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Martini’s Metaphysica Commentatio starts with an introduction to Aristotle’s metaphysics, even before
Martini develops the concept of being. The transcendentals one, true and good, act and potency, whole
and part, and the like are described in detail. The absence of metaphysica specialis including natural
Theology is a prominent feature in Martini’s metaphysical outlook, as well as his doctrine of the angels
and separated souls (animae separatae). Here, Martini followed Benito Pereira’s distinction between first
philosophy as the science of being (later labeled ontology) and metaphysics as the science of God.
A student of Martini published the lecture in 1605 and labeled it Metaphysica Commentatio. In addition to
logic and metaphysics, Martini also taught physics and ethics. The disputation series were only published
posthumously. Among his most important students were Georg Calixtus, Jacob Martini, and Henning
Arnisaeus.
Cross-References
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Fonseca, Pedro
▶ Martini, Jakob
▶ Pereira, Benito
▶ Ramus, Petrus
References
Primary Literature
Martini C (1596) Adversus Ramistas disputatio de subiecto et fine logicae. Lucius, Helmstedt
Martini C (1599) De analysi logica tractatus. Rixner, Helmstedt
Martini C (1601) De statibus controversis primi et accessorii Helmstadii agitatis, inter Dn. Danielem
Hoffmannum SS. Theologiae Doctorem et Professorem primarium & quatuor Philosophos ididem.
Helmstedt. Gr€aber, Halle
Martini C (1605) Metaphysica commentatio compendiose, succincte, et perspicue, comprehendens
universam Metaphysices doctrinam. Carolus, Strassburg
Martini C (1621) Responsio ad primam et miserabilem vexatam quaestionem Balthasari Meisneri.
Raben, Helmstedt
Martini C (1647) Disputationes physicae, ab interitu vindicatae. Richter, Helmstedt
Martini C (1647) Disputationes ethicae XVI, ex X. Ethicorum ad Nic. libris. M€ uller, Helmstedt
Friedrich M (2004) Die Grenzen der Vernunft. Theologie, Philosophie und gelehrte Konflikte am Beispiel
des Helmstedter Hofmannstreits und seiner Wirkungen auf das Luthertum um 1600. Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, Göttingen
Haga J (2012) Was there a Lutheran Metaphysics? The Interpretation of communicatio idiomatum in
Early Modern Lutheranism. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_331-1
Leinsle UG (1985) Das Ding und die Methode. Methodische Konstitution und Gegenstand der fr€uhen
protestantischen Metaphysik. Maroverlag, Augsburg
Lohr C (1988) Metaphysics. In: Schmitt CB, Skinner Q (eds) The Cambridge history of Renaissance
Sparn W (2001) Die Schulphilosophie in den lutherischen Territorien. In: Holzhey H, Schmidt-
Biggemann W (eds) Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Die Philosophie des 17. Jahrhunderts.
Band 4. Das Heilige Römische Reich Deutscher Nation. Nord- und Ostmitteleuropa. Schwabe, Basel,
pp 555–556; 559–562
Wundt M (1939) Die deutsche Schulmetaphysik des 17. Jahrhunderts. Mohr (P. Siebeck, T€ ubingen).
Reprint in 1992: Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_332-1
Martini, Jakob
Born: 16 October 1570, Langenstein (near Halberstadt)
Died: 30 May 1649, Wittenberg
Sascha Salatowsky*
Germany
Abstract
Jakob Martini is one of the most famous German Lutheran philosophers and theologians of the seven-
teenth century. His books on logic and metaphysics were very important for the new Lutheran style of
Aristotelian Philosophy. Martini was, oddly enough, influenced by the content and methodology of the
Philosophy of the Jesuits. He wrote also one of the first philosophical works in the German language to
fight against a radical group of anti-philosophers.
After he had finished his school education in Halberstadt and Aschersleben, the German Lutheran
philosopher and theologian Jakob Martini began studying philosophy in Helmstedt and Wittenberg in
1590. Cornelius Martini and Daniel Cramer were his teachers. They were firmly rooted in the late
humanistic, Aristotelian tradition. After teaching at Wittenberg and working as rector at the Gymnasium
in Norden (East Friesland), Martini became professor of logic in Wittenberg in 1602.
As early as 1603, he published his first collection of disputations on logic. Martini adopted Jacopo
Zabarella’s recent established understanding of logic as an intellectual and instrumental habit for all
scientific disciplines (including theology), against Ramistic and semi-Ramistic tendencies on the part of
the Reformed. He also opposed efforts to establish a “Christian logic.”
Martini did not regard logic as an invention of the Holy Spirit. He rather considered it to be a natural
capability of the human mind to distinguish the truth from what is false by a syllogistic process.
Nevertheless, there is the need, in theological contexts, to modify natural logic in order to adapt it to
the “holy things.”
Martini prepared the way for his student Balthasar Meisner, who established a “logic of mystical
predications” to solve particular Christological problems. In Wittenberg, during the same year, 1603,
Martini gave a lecture on metaphysics. This collection, published under the title Theorematum
Metaphysicorum Exercitationes, is the first one in which the direct influence upon the content and
methodology of the Disputationes Metaphysicae of the Jesuit Francisco Suárez, which was published
in a second edition in Mainz in 1600, can be noted.
Martini’s division of metaphysics into a Metaphysica generalis on the one hand and a Metaphysica
specialis on the other had a long-term influence on Lutheranism. In a collection of disputations from 1611,
he tried to give metaphysics a specifically Lutheran character. Martini vehemently rejected the attempt of
the Reformed Philosopher Clemens Timpler to make not-being (non ens, nihil) a subject matter of
metaphysics. According to Martini, it is neither intelligible nor anything at all.
Within a short time, he published other books on ethics, psychology, and physics. Thus, he became the
leading head of the Lutheran high schools and universities. His writings replaced textbooks of
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Melanchthon, which appeared outmoded at that time. The philosopher Martini also had an impact on
theology, particularly in his fight for what he considered to be the right relationship between philosophy
and theology. The religious opponents were not only the Catholics and the Calvinists but also the anti-
Trinitarians and Socinians, whom he accused of an unreflective use of reason in theological questions.
Also significant is his Vernunfftspiegel (Mirror of reason), published in 1618, one of the first philo-
sophical works in the German language; it was directed against the “enthusiastic fighters against reason,”
especially Wenzeslaus Schilling and Johann Angelius von Werdenhagen. He campaigned for a prudent
philosophizing, preserving the peculiarities of theology. Georg Gutke, Balthasar Meisner, and Johannes
Scharf were among his most important students.
Cross-References
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Calov, Abraham
▶ Fonseca, Pedro
▶ Jesuits
▶ Keckermann, Bartholomaeus
▶ Martini, Cornelius
▶ Timpler, Clemens
References
Primary Literature
Martini J (1603) Logicae peripateticae per dichotomias in gratiam Ramistarum resolutae, libri duo.
Sch€urer, Wittenberg
Martini J (1604) Theorematum Metaphysicorum exercitationes quatuordecim. Sch€ urer, Wittenberg
Martini J (1605) Disputationes ethicae. Schmidt, Wittenberg
Martini J (1606) Exercitationes nobiles de anima. Gormann, Wittenberg
Martini J (1607) Collegium Physicum Generale. Gormann, Wittenberg
Martini J (1611) Disputationes Metaphysicae viginti octo: in quibus omnium terminorum
Metaphysicorum distinctiones accuratè enumerantur & explicantur; nec non praecipuae Quaestiones
ex FR. Suarez & CL. Timplero partim resolvuntur, partim examinantur & refutantur. Sch€urer,
Wittenberg
Martini J (1614, 1615, 1619) De tribus Elohim liber primus-tertius. Sch€
urer, Wittenberg
Martini J (1618) Vernunfft-Spiegel, das ist gr€undlicher und unnd unwidertreiblicher Bericht/was die
Vernunfft/sampt derselbigen perfection, Philosophia genandt/sey/wie weit sie sich erstrecke.
Seuberlich, Wittenberg
Appold K. Academic life and teaching in post-reformation Lutheranism. In: Kolb R (ed) Lutheran
ecclesiastical culture 1550–1675. Brill, Leiden, pp 65–115
Kathe H (2002) Die Wittenberger Philosophische Fakult€at 1501–1817. Köln
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Lewalter E (1935) Spanisch-jesuitische und deutsch-lutherische Metaphysik des 17. Jahrhunderts. Ibero-
Amerikanisches Institut, Hamburg. Reprint in 1967: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt
Risse W (1964/1970) Geschichte der Logik, Two Volumes. Frommann-holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad
Cannstatt
Salatowsky S. De Anima. Die Rezeption der aristotelischen Psychologie im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert.
B.R. Gr€uner Publishing Company, Amsterdam
Sparn W (1976) Wiederkehr der Metaphysik. Die ontologische Frage in der lutherischen Theologie des
fr€uhen 17. Jahrhunderts. Calwer, Stuttgart
pp 475–587
Wundt M (1939) Die deutsche Schulmetaphysik des 17. Jahrhunderts. Mohr (P. Siebeck), T€ ubingen.
Page 3 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_333-1
Scheibler, Christoph
Born: 6 December 1589, Armsfeld (near Bad Wildungen)
Died: 10 November 1653, Dortmund
Sascha Salatowsky*
Germany
Abstract
The German Lutheran philosopher and theologian Christoph Scheibler is considered to be “the Protestant
Suárez.” Among his main works are the collected logical works Opus logicum (1620) and his Opus
metaphysicum (1617), one of the most comprehensive writings on metaphysics in Protestantism. He was
well known for his recourse to the entire philosophical tradition, which encompassed not only the
Aristotelian but also the Platonic tradition. Although Scheibler did not found his own school, he paved
the way for an international reception of the Lutheran school of philosophy through the publication of his
works in Switzerland and England.
The German Lutheran philosopher and theologian Christoph Scheibler studied in Marburg and Giessen
where he acquired his master’s degree in 1607. In 1610 he became a professor of Greek, later of logic and
metaphysics. Scheibler wrote many philosophical writings in the Aristotelian tradition before, in 1624, he
became superintendent and gymnasiarch in Dortmund where he died. Particularly important are his works
on logic and metaphysics.
Between 1613 and 1619, Scheibler published four works on logic (Introductio logicae, Topica, De
propositionibus sive axiomatibus, De syllogismis et methodis), which he collected under the title Opus
logicum in 1620. Scheibler’s recourse to the entire philosophical tradition is particularly significant.
Another feature is his attempt to combine the rather antithetic theories of Peter Ramus and Jacopo
Zabarella in a synthesis.
Scheibler defined logic, which he considered to be an equivalent to dialectic, in the Ramistic tradition as
“the art of discussion of any being” (ars bene disserendi de quovis Ente). Nevertheless, he integrated
Zabarella’s description of logic as an instrument and intellectual habit in his own definition. Scheibler’s
contribution to modal logic is important. He considered it necessary to judge the status of
statements – whether they should be regarded as true or false, necessary or contingent, possible or
impossible. This was not only applied to the field of philosophy but also to theology. In his Opus
metaphysicum, published in 1617, Scheibler also underlined the benefits of metaphysics, in particular
for theology, due to its use of philosophical concepts (nature, substance, character, cause, etc.) for specific
theological explanations and doctrines. Scheibler utilized Jakob Martini’s division of metaphysics into
metaphysica generalis and metaphysica specialis.
The first part examines being in general and its properties, whereas the second part covers the
dichotomy of substance and accident. The classification of substances into corporeal and incorporeal
opens the field for natural theology, where Scheibler is discussing God, angels, and the separated soul
(anima separata). As a result, Scheibler ignored Benedictus Pererius’s proposed separation of
Page 1 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_333-1
metaphysics as natural theology from first philosophy as a pure ontology. For the Lutheran tradition,
Abraham Calov came to this conclusion a few years later.
Scheibler defined metaphysics in the spirit of Francisco Suárez as a “science of being, insofar as it is
abstracted from its materiality.” He counted not only the real being but also the mere being of reason (ens
rationis) to the subject matter of metaphysics. The desire to clarify important Trinitarian and Christolog-
ical terms is a striking feature of Scheibler’s work.
As early as 1611, Scheibler published a systematic treatise on the doctrine of the soul (De anima). In
that treatise, Scheibler as a philosopher stated that “our soul is transitory and mortal by its nature,” more or
less as in the wake of Pietro Pomponazzi, whereas Scheibler as a theologian postulated the soul’s
immortality “from grace” (ex gratia). A complete edition of the most important philosophical writings
appeared posthumously in 1657. Scheibler did not found his own school. However, his writings were
printed not only in Germany but also in Switzerland and England, and it could be argued that Scheibler
paved the way for an international reception of the Lutheran school of philosophy through the publication
of his works.
Cross-References
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Calov, Abraham
▶ Jesuits
▶ Martini, Jakob
▶ Pereira, Benito
▶ Ramus, Petrus
▶ Timpler, Clemens
References
Primary Literature
Scheibler C (1611) Synopsis methodica Philosophiae. Chemlin, Gießen
Scheibler C (1614) Liber de anima. Chemlin, Gießen
Scheibler C (1617) Opus Metaphysicum: Duobus libris universum huius scientiae systema
comprehendens; tum omnium facultatum tum inprimis Philosophiae & Theologiae Studiosis utile et
necessarium. Chemlin, Gießen
Scheibler C (1620) Opus logicum, quatuor partibus, universum hujus artis systema comprehendens.
Chemlin, Gießen
Scheibler C (1657) Opera philosophica. Ut sunt I. Logica. II. Metaphysica. III Liber de anima. Chemlin,
Gießen
Haga J (2012) Was there a Lutheran metaphysics? The interpretation of communicatio idiomatum in early
modern Lutheranism. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen
Page 2 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_333-1
Lewalter E (1935) Spanisch-jesuitische und deutsch-lutherische Metaphysik des 17. Jahrhunderts. Ibero-
Amerikanisches Institut, Hamburg. Reprint in 1967: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt
Risse W (1964/1970) Geschichte der Logik, Two Volumes. Frommann-holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Canstatt
Roncaglia G (2003) Modal logic in Germany at the beginning of the seventeenth century: Christoph
Scheibler’s Opus Logicum. In: Friedman RL, Nielsen LO (eds) The medieval heritage in early modern
metaphysics and modal theory 1400–1700. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 253–307
Salatowsky S (2006) De Anima. Die Rezeption der aristotelischen Psychologie im 16. und 17.
Jahrhundert. B.R. Gr€
uner Publishing Company, Amsterdam
pp 475–587
Wundt M (1939) Die deutsche Schulmetaphysik des 17. Jahrhunderts. Mohr (P. Siebeck), T€ ubingen.
Page 3 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_334-1
Scherb, Philip
Born: 1553, Bischofszell
Died: 11 June 1605, Altdorf
Sascha Salatowsky*
Germany
Abstract
The philosopher and physician Philipp Scherb is considered to be an important representative of
Renaissance Paduan Aristotelianism at the Altdorfer High School. Scherb taught the whole branches of
philosophy (including logic, ethics, politics, and metaphysics) and medicine. During his academic life,
Scherb published just a few texts, but had a far stronger impact on his students, including Michael Piccart
and Caspar Hofmann. He was particularly known for his teaching skills and for interpreting the
Aristotelian writings.
The philosopher and physician Philipp Scherb is considered to be an important representative of

Renaissance Paduan Aristotelianism at the Altdorfer High School (Academia Norica). He was born in
Bischofszell in Switzerland and studied in Heidelberg, Basel, and particularly Padua where he met
Francesco Piccolomini and Jacopo Zabarella. Scherb taught logic, ethics (as successor to Thomas
Erastus), and medicine in Basel from 1581 to 1586. In 1586, Scherb was appointed professor of medicine
in Altdorf where he remained until his death in 1605. He taught courses in logic, politics, physics, and
metaphysics. During his academic life, Scherb published just a few texts, but had a far stronger impact on
his students, including Michael Piccart and Caspar Hofmann. He was particularly known for his teaching
skills and for interpreting the Aristotelian writings. They were regarded as obscure and difficult in clarity,
but Scherb defended the “pure” Aristotle against all deviations and distortions. In his Dissertatio pro
philosophia peripatetica from 1590, he fought against Peter Ramus’ critique of Aristotle. Ramus had
reduced Aristotelian logic, with its categories and doctrine of proof, to a dialectic and claimed that the
Aristotelian metaphysics was a pile of logical tautologies. As a consequence, Scherb blamed Ramus for
blurring the difference between the arts and sciences, and he defended philosophical freedom against a
premature commitment to a “sacred truth.” Perhaps it was this libertas philosophandi (freedom to
philosophize), the refusal to accept theological restrictions, that reminded Nicholas Taurellus, Scherb’s
philosopher colleague in Altdorf, too much of Andreas Cesalpino. Such an influence, however, can hardly
be reconstructed from Scherb’s writings. Scherb published the Theses philosophicae in 1603, and his
commentary to Aristotle’s politics was published after his death, in 1610.
Although Scherb did not establish a separate school in the strict sense of the term, his influence can be
traced quite a few places. Piccart’s Isagoge in lectionem Aristotelis from 1605, for example, provided an
introduction to the entire Aristotelian work. It contained, among other things, the important speech De
ratione interpretandi and a rearrangement of the books of Aristotle’s metaphysics. It is undoubtedly
influenced by Scherb.
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Piccart emphasized the autonomy of philosophy, too; it should not be “twisted” by theological dogmas.
In addition, Hermann Conring had on occasion emphasized the importance of Scherb’s philosophy. The
existence of a specific Altdorf philosophy was made evident by Johann Paul Felwinger with his
eponymous anthology, containing the disputations of Scherb, Piccart, and Ernst Soner. A full appreciation
of Scherb’s philosophy is still pending.
Cross-References
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Piccolomini, Francesco
▶ Ramus, Petrus
▶ Taurellus, Nikolaus
References
Primary Literature
Felwinger JP (1644) Philosophia Altdorphina, hoc est, Celeberrimorum quorundam, in incluta
Universitate Altdorphina Professorum, nominatim, Philippi Scherbi, Ernesti Soneri, Michaelis Piccarti,
disputationes Philosophicae. Endter, N€
urnberg
Piccart M (1605) Isagoge in lectionem Aristotelis. Körber, N€urnberg
Scherb P (1590) Dissertatio pro philosophia peripatetica adversus Ramistas. Lochner, Altdorf
Scherb P (1603) Theses philosophicae, in unum corpus redactae. Schönfeld, Amberg
Scherb P (1610) Discursus politici in Aristotelis de republica libros, quibus non modo universa civilis
prudentia, sed arcana quoque imperii ac regnorum et res praesentis reipublicae status accomodate
pertractantur. Schönwetter, Frankfurt
Brucker J (1743) Historia critica philosophiae. Tomus IV, pars I. Christoph Breitkopf, Leipzig
Lohr C (1988) Metaphysics. In: Schmitt CB, Skinner Q (eds) The Cambridge history of Renaissance
M€ahrle W (2000) Academia Norica. Wissenschaft und Bildung an der N€ urnberger Hohen Schule in
Altdorf (1575–1623). Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart
Band 4. Das Heilige Römische Reich Deutscher Nation. Nord- und Ostmitteleuropa. Basel, Schwabe,
pp 475–587
Wundt M (1939) Die deutsche Schulmetaphysik des 17. Jahrhunderts, Mohr (P. Siebeck), T€ ubingen.
Reprint in 1992: Georg Olms Verlag, Hildeheim
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Accademia degli Infiammati

Maria Teresa Girardi*
Facoltà di Scienze Linguistiche e Letterature Straniere, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy
Abstract
The Accademia degli Infiammati (Academy of the Burning Ones) was founded in Padua, on June 6, 1540,
by Leone Orsini, in partnership with Florentine humanist Benedetto Varchi and Venetian humanist
Daniele Barbaro, who drafted the academic statute. The choice of name stems from the impresa adopted
by the Academy: the image of an inflamed Hercules on Mount Oeta, along with the motto “once burned,
the mortal will go to heaven eternally,” which was meant to signify the search for immortality by means of
devotion to scholarship. The head of the Academy was a prince, whose election occurred generally every
4 months and whose duty was to schedule lectures, which were usually held on Thursdays and Sundays.
The Academy remained active at least until May of 1542. Despite its brief existence, it is considered
one of the most important sixteenth-century academies, because its influence on the culture of that century
was ongoing and reached well beyond the Venetian area. This was primarily due to the fact that it absorbed
the great philosophical-scientific tradition of the University of Padua; the influence of Pietro
Pomponazzi’s mentorship, especially by means of his pupil Sperone Speroni; the heritage Pietro
Bembo had bequeathed to that area; and the culture contributed by such eminent Tuscan figures such as
Benedetto Varchi and Alessandro Piccolomini, who along with Speroni were the leading figures of the
Academy. The Infiammati pursued a program inspired by a philosophically based system of knowledge
that preferably hinged on ethics, rhetoric, and literature, a program to be divulged specifically through the
use of the Italian vernacular language and culture. By actively working in order to extend the use of the
vernacular to all aspects of knowledge, including philosophy and science, the Academy did not just adjust
to new requirements for the dissemination of knowledge; it also set the foundation for a universal
vernacular language.
Innovative and Original Aspects and Legacy

The specificity of the long-lasting influence of the Academy on the developments of late Renaissance
culture derives from the peculiar cultural physiognomy of Padua: home to a University that had
established itself as a prestigious hub of philosophical studies and stronghold of the Aristotelian-
scholastic tradition, but also adoptive home of Pietro Bembo, who in that city had completed his Prose
della vulgar lingua and gathered some of the best Venetian humanists of the time. The scientific-
philosophical interests cultivated at the University of Padua and the literary and humanistic interests
pertaining to Bembo’s heritage were, then, the two characterizing aspects of Paduan intellectual life that
found in the Academy their ideal meeting place.
As a matter of fact, among the Infiammati, there were famous humanists and literati, prominent faculty
of the University, along with promising students of various disciplines. Notable members of the Academy
include Cola Bruno, most faithful follower of Bembo, Piero Valeriano, and Girolamo Fracastoro, all of
whom joined the Academy in its early days, and literati and poets of the next generation such as Luigi
Alamanni, Lodovico Dolce, Pietro Aretino, Paolo Manuzio, Francesco Querini, and philosopher Antonio
*Email: mariateresa.girardi@unicatt.it
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Lapini. Fellow members and professors at the University of Padua were Giovanni Battista da Monte,
professor of practical medicine and humanist as well as friend and colleague of the famous Andrea
Vesalio, who occasionally also attended the meetings of the Infiammati; the illustrious Sienese jurist
Mariano Sozzini; Lazzaro Bonamico, professor of Classics; philosopher Vincenzo Maggi; and young
philosopher Bernardino Tomitano, professor of Logic, following in the footsteps of a far more prominent
fellow Paduan such as philosopher, literary critic, and poet Sperone Speroni, who had held that same
position until 1528 and who was also the last prince of the Academy, from November 1541 to the first
months of the next year. Joining the ranks of the Academy and actively linking it to the University of
Padua were also graduate students of natural philosophy, mathematics, medicine, and law, many of whom
with brilliant careers ahead of them: an erudite Hellenist and prospective translator of Vitruvius like
Daniele Barbaro, patriarch of Aquileia; Sienese philosopher and literary critic Alessandro Piccolomini,
who had already joined the famous Accademia degli Intronati in his hometown and who served as prince
of the Infiammati; Venetian Matteo Macigni who is expert in math and ancient Greek and Latin, Michele
Barozzi, and Luca Girolamo Contarini; the jurist Celso Sozzini, son of Mariano; hailing from Istria
Latinist Giovanni Battista Goineo and from Vicenza Conte da Monte, soon to become a luminary
professor of medicine, with a passion for literature; hailing from Brescia, Fortunato Martinengo, Ippolito
Chizzola, and Vincenzo Girello; and Giovanni Andrea dell’Anguillara, Giuseppe Betussi, and Francesco
Sansovino. Among the most active members during the Academy’s first year of life, there was a small
group of young Florentine law students: they were Hellenist and Latinist Ugolino Martelli, who became
interested in the Italian vernacular during his Paduan years, as well as Lorenzo Lenzi, Alberto del Bene,
and Carlo Strozzi. They were all protégées of fellow citizen of Florence Benedetto Varchi, who had left the
city in 1537, because of his republican sympathies, and had made Padua his temporary home and place for
study, until March 1541. After returning to his hometown with Martelli and Strozzi, he would have
brought to bear his Paduan experience as Infiammato on the Florentine Academy, thereby allowing for a
fruitful exchange between Venetian and Florentine cultures of the mid-sixteenth century.
The Academy, then, gathered professionals and specialists of various disciplines, such as physicians,
jurists, and literati, all with parallel interests in the sciences, philosophy, poetry, and different forms of
prose and with a sound humanist education. This allowed the Academy to configure itself as an active
interdisciplinary circle. The result was a cultural program placed under the aegis of
interdisciplinarity – lectures ranged from philosophy and poetry (Classical and modern) all the way to
theology – and bilingualism (Latin and Italian vernacular), especially in the early stages of the Academy’s
activity, under the rule of principi such as Leone Orsini (June–July 1540), Venetian aristocrat Giovanni
Cornaro della Piscopia (August–November 1540), Galeazzo Gonzaga (December 1540–March 1541),
and Alessandro Piccolomini (April–September 1541). That notwithstanding, it was Benedetto Varchi who
inspired the cultural tendencies and initiatives of the Academy, up to Gonzaga’s leadership. As a matter of
fact, the responsibility for public lectures rested almost entirely on his shoulders. Between September
1540 and the first months of 1541, Varchi held public lectures in Latin, on ancient Greek and Latin lyric
poetry and in the vernacular, on Petrarchan sonnets and canzoni (Rvf CCX, CLXXXII, XXIX, LIII), and
on contemporary poetry (sonnets by Bembo, Giovanni della Casa, Lodovico Dolce, and Daniele
Barbaro). Besides Varchi, there were two fellow Tuscan lecturers: Ugolino Martelli, who devoted two
lectures to Petrarch (on Rvf LIII and Triumphus Cupidinis I) and one to Bembo’s sonnet Se la più dura
quercia, while Alessandro Piccolomini lectured on the sonnet Ora t’en va superbo, by fellow citizen of
Siena Laudomia Forteguerri.
While the record of lecture tiles and extant texts is still incomplete, at least two observations are in
order. The first concerns the canon of modern authors and texts: if Petrarch is obviously preeminent,
nevertheless the avant-garde-like choices of the Infiammati also suggest a particular interest for coeval
lyric poets, from Bembo all the way to a poet like della Casa, who, although still little-known at the time,
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was bound to going head to head with the great Venetian or even substitute his example of lyric poetry.
Varchi’s lesson on della Casa’s sonnet on jealousy (Cura, che di timor ti nutri e cresci) started to circulate
almost instantly, especially in Tuscany, and appeared in print already in 1545 in Mantua, contributing to
the poet’s popularity. As far as Varchi’s referenced texts are concerned, the choice fell on examples of lyric
poetry characterized by technical difficulty, lofty style, and elaborated conceit (thus pertaining to a less
orthodox kind of Petrarchism) and appropriate for an interpretive reading particularly keen on the aptness
of modern poetry and of the Italian vernacular to convey also doctrinal content. The second observation
has to do with the methodology of Varchi’s lessons, where a focus on the content, which is explained in the
light of Florentine neo-Platonic philosophy, is made to interact, as is typically the case for Bembo, with
particular concerns about form (style and rhetoric). The result is a new typology of an academic
lesson – on poetic texts – documenting the quest for a new prose and language for literary criticism. It
will be widely popular also in Florence, in the Florentine Academy.
Varchi’s methodological innovations also had an impact on academic lectures of philosophical content.
The cycle of lectures on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics was held from October to November of 1540;
also in that case, his method focused on a direct approach to the text, in opposition to many scholastic
commentators, whom he considered useless and pedantic and whom he accused of substituting empty
exercises with the primary source, obscuring rather than illustrating it and like sterile grammarians placing
all their attention on elocution. Varchi instead advocated a direct relationship with the primary source, in
order to comprehend it at the literal level and thus explain it clearly and faithfully to the original intended
meaning, so as to enable the audience to participate in the search of the truth and thus achieve real
knowledge of the content. Varchi’s greatest revolution, however, was that of contributing a vernacular
translation and comment to the original Greek text of the Nicomachean Ethics: he succeeded in the first
lesson centered on the meaning of philosophy, but then was forced to give the following lectures in Latin,
both due to the high number of foreign students in the audience and perhaps most importantly because of
criticism on behalf of uncompromising classicist fellow members, who did not find it acceptable that one
would discuss philosophy in the vernacular. Varchi’s trailblazing choice was part of a wider program of
translation into the vernacular of ancient philosophical texts, particularly Aristotle’s works, in an attempt
to coin a modern philosophical language that would in turn prove the Italian vernacular to be competitive,
also in this field, with respect to the languages of Classic antiquity: during his Paduan years, he attended to
a translation and commentary of Aristotle’s work on logic (specifically the first book of the Analytica
Priora), a discipline for which Padua was a prominent center of studies. It was a project that had met the
opposition of Florentine humanists and that the Paduan entourage instead encouraged him to pursue,
principally Speroni, the person responsible for the favorable orientation of the Infiammati with respect to
the development of the vernacular language and culture. In his Dialogo delle lingue – written in the 1530s
and widely read by learned Paduans, before it was edited along with the other dialogues by the Infiammato
Daniele Barbaro (Venice, 1542) – Speroni, who features Pietro Pomponazzi as the principal interlocutor,
has him first affirm the primacy of thought and concepts (res) over words (verba) and then logically justify
the substantial equivalence of the different languages for the purpose of scientific and philosophical
communication.
Such program – for which Varchi had been inspired by Speroni acting under the influence of
Pomponazzi – was later carried on, still under the Infiammati banner, by Alessandro Piccolomini,
whose experience in the Academy led to a challenging translation project of Classical works, specifically
of philosophical and scientific content. It was a project founded on the conviction that divulging
knowledge also to those who did not know ancient Greek and Latin had become a necessity. Moreover,
the project aimed at elaborating a philosophical vernacular language that could be comprehensible and
communicative, not at the expense of scientific accuracy and effective exchange of information. During
that same period, in Padua, Piccolomini wrote two tracts De la sfera del mondo and Delle stelle fisse (both
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published in 1540 in Venice), which are the first scientific works in the Tuscan language. Other
philosophical works in the vernacular ensued (once he had come back to Siena, in 1543, and then to
Rome): first and foremost, L’instrumento della filosofia was published with the La prima parte della
filosofia naturale (Rome, 1551), a great philosophical tract focused on logic, where he implemented the
teachings of the Infiammati, not just with respect to the choice of language but also by electing logic as the
basic means to acquire any kind of knowledge.
During his semester-long tenure as prince of the Academy, Piccolomini managed to finally put
together, with Varchi’s help, a cycle of lectures on Aristotle’s Poetics. The project had been initiated by
Leone Orsini, the first prince: he had tasked a famous philosopher like Vincenzo Maggi, who, however,
had to renounce. The task was eventually assigned to Bartolomeo Lombardi, a prominent Veronese
neo-Aristotelian philosopher. Several impediments, however, including Lombardi’s bad health, post-
poned the schedule between November and December, when Piccolomini had already passed on the baton
to Speroni. Lombardi’s sickness (which eventually caused his death) did not allow him to go past the
prolusion to the cycle of lectures, which was eventually held by Maggi. Nine years later, Maggi himself
accomplished a great commentary to the Poetics (In Aristotelis librum de Poetica communes
explanationes, Venice, 1550), which was born in collaboration with Lombardi and preceded by his
prolusion delivered to the Infiammati. The Academy, then, was on the cutting edge also with respect to
the interest for Aristotle’s Poetics that exploded halfway through the sixteenth century. To be sure,
Piccolomini began an ongoing reflection on poetry and rhetoric that would eventually lead, in the
1560s and 1570s, to translations into the Italian vernacular of the said Aristotelian work (along with a
substantial commentary) and of the Rhetoric.
Sperone Speroni’s tenure as prince of the Academy – beginning on October 14, 1541, but made official
only one month later (November 13), due to Speroni’s own hesitations – marked a turnaround in its
history: specifically, a separation from the University of Padua. Such separation was manifested by a
program contemplating the exclusive use of the vernacular in formal lectures as well as a notable
reduction of the disciplinary scope of the Academy’s interests, which were limited to just philosophy,
eloquence, and Tuscan poetry. The new course of action was made apparent since Speroni’s induction
speech, which he delivered in the vernacular. Some highlights of Speroni’s leadership were, besides the
already mentioned lectures on Aristotle’s Poetics, lectures on the Nicomachean Ethics as well as on the
Rhetoric, respectively, by Piccolomini and Ugolino Martelli; as for poetry, the interest shifted from lyric
poetry to more extensive genres such as tragedy. Sperone himself read excerpts of his Canace, which was
in progress at the time, to his fellow members. A precious source documenting the new tendencies in the
program of the Academy is Ragionamenti della lingua toscana (Venice, 1545 and 1546). A tract cast in
the form of a dialogue by Bernardino Tomitano, this work summarizes conversations held at the
Academy, after Speroni’s election, between Speroni himself, some fellow members, and a group of
students of the University of Padua. Following in the footsteps of his teacher (Pomponazzi), Speroni
justifies the preeminence of philosophy in the Academy’s program by postulating that philosophy has a
primary role in the quest for truth and wisdom, which are goals that also professionals dealing with words,
such as orators and poets, strive for, in order to achieve, through the specificity of their own
language – which differs from philosophy – the civic duties assigned to them. This also applies to modern
poets and orators, who use the vernacular, which in turn needs to be promoted and developed, so that it
may be able to become more sophisticated conceptually and thus equal to the ancient languages; the part
of Speroni’s academic program devoted to rhetoric and Tuscan poetry intends to serve precisely to that
purpose. Thus, Speroni’s reflections, as formulated under the auspices of the Infiammati and formalized
by his pupil Tomitano, bring to the fore the distinction of languages – the proper language of philosophy
and the proper language of poetry and oratory art. Similarly, coeval Infiammati readings of Aristotle’s
Poetics focus on comparing and contrasting philosophy, poetry, and history. This is one more aspect that
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reveals the impact of the Infiammati, given that the process eventually leading to the specialization of
disciplines did begin halfway through the sixteenth century, exactly by defining the specificity of different
languages serving different purposes.
Cross-References
▶ Academies
▶ Bembo, Pietro
▶ Piccolomini, Alessandro
▶ Pomponazzi, Pietro
▶ Tomitano, Bernardino
▶ Varchi, Benedetto
References
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A
Aconcio, Jacopo and at the end of 1556 arrived in Milan to work

as secretary to Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo,
Born: 1520, Trento/Ossana, Italy who had recently become governor of Milan.
However, in June 1557 his adherence to the
Died: 1567, London, England reformed religion – an adherence matured during
his years in Trento and Vienna – prompted him to
Fabrizio Meroi flee Italy to reach the land of the Reformation.
Department of Literature and Philosophy, Thus, he went first to Basel and Zurich (where he
University of Trento, Trento, Italy befriended Bernardino Ochino) and then to Stras-
bourg (where he met several English exiles) until
in 1559, following the death of Mary Tudor and
the ascent of Elizabeth I to the throne, he decided
to settle in London. In England, he alternated his
Abstract work as religious reformer with his activity as
expert in military fortifications, until his death
Jacopo Aconcio was one of the most important in approximately 1567.
religious reformers of the Renaissance. His Aconcio’s commitment as a religious
works, in which his religious interests are reformer is characterized overall by his harsh
intertwined with philosophy and science, encom- criticism of the errors and excesses of Roman
pass a critique of Catholicism as well as certain Catholicism, but at the same time, also by his
aspects of the Reformation, in a perspective strong condemnation of the dogmatic and abso-
where an affirmation of the idea of tolerance is lutist consequences of Reformed confessions. His
accompanied by the rejection of all dogmatism. first work, the Dialogo di Giacopo Riccamati
(previously written in Vienna but later published
in Basel in 1558), depicts a close comparison
Biography between the character of Muzio, a Catholic
totally convinced of his faith, and that of James
Jacopo Aconcio was born around 1520 in the city Riccamati, a good Christian who aspires to know
of Trento or in the nearby village of Ossana. He the truth of Christ beyond any confessional rigid-
studied law and practiced as a notary until ity, and also through the exercise of doubt. In this
(probably in 1551) he followed the Archduke work, Aconcio aims to explain the reasons for his
Maximilian, son of Emperor Ferdinand I, to rejection of the Church of Rome and at the same
Vienna. A few years later he returned to Italy time, rather than set it in opposition to the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_336-1
2 Aconcio, Jacopo
reformed religion, to simply indicate two essen- with great originality – a new foundation for the
tial principles of the search for truth in matters of means of gathering and transmitting knowledge,
religion: on the one hand, the use of the word of based on the analytical method. Moreover, this
God – that is, Scriptural text – as the sole criterion strong interest in logical and epistemological
for verification of individual opinions, and on the issues is by no means foreign to the religious
other hand, a willingness to deal with those problem. Aconcio’s philosophical, religious,
whose beliefs are different. His identification of and technical-scientific interests spring from a
the reformed religion as a landing place during single, fundamental need: to find a solution to
the journey in search of truth becomes explicit in the practical, theoretical, and spiritual problems
the Somma brevissima della dottrina cristiana, that daily life presents to man, who is always at
also published in Basel in 1558. In this work, the center of his perspective. And thus, Aconcio
Aconcio continues to lash out against Catholics finally appears as a figure whose sincere adher-
and their errors (first of all the unjustified multi- ence to the Reformation does not cancel out a
plication of sacraments, which according to the basic concept of purely humanistic inspiration
Scriptures should be kept to only Baptism and the (Rossi 1952).
Eucharist) and outlines the contours of a
reformed religion that is more Lutheran than Cal-
vinist, mainly based on direct reading of the Cross-References
Bible, reducing the value of good works, and on
the absolute centrality of Christ’s sacrifice for the ▶ Aristotelianism
salvation of man. Finally, in his most famous ▶ Ochino Bernardino
work, the Stratagemata Satanae, which was ▶ Science and Religion
printed in Basel in 1565 and would enjoy great
fortune in the following decades, Aconcio con-
tinues his anti-Catholic polemic but now also
criticizes the Reformed Churches, to which he References
imputes an increasing dogmatic rigidity, frequent
internal conflicts, and repeated manifestations of Primary Literature
Aconcio, G. 1944. De methodo e opuscoli religiosi e
intolerance. To combat these wrongs, he pro- filosofici, ed. G. Radetti. Florence, Vallecchi.
poses a twofold remedy: on one hand, to abandon Aconcio, G. 1946. Stratagematum Satanae libri
any theological subtleties and reduce dogmatic VIII, ed. G. Radetti. Florence, Vallecchi.
apparatus to a few essential truths, that is, those Aconcio, G. 2011. Trattato sulle fortificazioni,
ed. P. Giacomoni et al. Florence, L.S. Olschki.
deriving directly from the Scriptures that must be
known in order to obtain salvation; on the other
hand, constant application of the principle of Secondary Literature
Caravale, G. 2013. Storia di una doppia censura. Gli
tolerance – a principle based not on denial of
Stratagemmi di Satana di Giacomo Aconcio
the existence of a single truth, but on the belief nell’Europa del Seicento. Pisa, Edizioni della
that the truth cannot but reveal and assert itself Normale.
when sought through dialogue based on rational Cristofolini, P. 1984. Aconcio e l’Anticristo.
Rinascimento 24: 53–79.
persuasion rather than violent coercion (Rossi
Giacomoni, P., and Dappiano, L., eds. 2005. Jacopo
1952). Aconcio. Il pensiero scientifico e l’idea di tolleranza.
However, Aconcio’s importance in the cul- Trent, Università degli Studi di Trento.
tural landscape of the sixteenth century goes O’Malley, Ch.D. 1955. Jacopo Aconcio. Rome, Edizioni
di Storia e Letteratura.
beyond the sphere of religious issues. Among
Rossi, P. 1952. Giacomo Aconcio. Milan, Bocca.
his major works should also be recalled De White Jr., L. 1967. Jacopo Aconcio as an engineer. The
methodo (Basel 1558), in which he sets American Historical Review 72: 425–444.
up – following Aristotelian logic interpreted
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_342-1
Brandolini, Aurelio Lippo

Born: 1454
Died: 1497
Annalisa Ceron*
Department of Philosophy, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
Abstract
Aurelio Lippo Brandolini was an Italian poet and teacher of rhetoric who briefly attended the court of
King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. While in Budapest, he wrote the most interesting of his
humanistic prose works, a political treatise, written in the form of a dialogue, in which he made
analytical and original comparisons between kingdoms and republics to assert that the former
constituted the better form of government. Because of its anti-republican arguments, this dialogue
has been considered one of the most important works of Renaissance political thought.
Biography
Aurelio Lippo Brandolini was born into a middle-class family in Florence in around 1454. When, in
1466, they faced financial difficulties, his parents moved the family to Naples. That was the year in
which an anti-Medicean coup took place in Florence.
Despite being almost blind (“Lippo” means to have blurred vision), Brandolini completed his
education in studia humanitatis, became a poet of a certain renown, and obtained a position teaching
rhetoric in a school in Capua. His skill as a poet earned him the favor of King Ferdinand I of Naples,
who was a staunch supporter of humanistic culture and a patron of the arts.
In addition to his poems in Latin and the Italian vernacular, during his stay in Naples, Brandolini
wrote a number of eulogies in tribute to such personages as Lorenzo de’ Medici and Federico da
Montefeltro and two works in prose: an Italian translation of Pliny’s panegyric of Trajan, which he
dedicated to the king in 1478, and the De rei militaris litterarumque dignitate affinitate et laudibus,
an oration on the dignity of arms and letters, completed in 1479.
The following year, Brandolini moved to Rome, where he taught rhetoric at the university. There
he composed a collection of poems dedicated to Pope Sixtus IV, a commentary on Virgil’s Georgics
(after 1480), a work influenced by the new humanistic approach to classical texts, and an oration in
defense of Antonio Lauredano (1486), a rare example of Renaissance judicial oratory. Since his
efforts to obtain Lorenzo de’ Medici’s patronage and thus return to Florence proved fruitless, in 1489
he accepted the invitation of the Hungarian ambassador to Rome to take up a post-teaching rhetoric
at the University of Budapest.
Hungary was then ruled by Matthias Corvinus, who had married the daughter of Brandolini’s
former patron, Beatrice of Naples, in 1474. Matthias was the first non-Italian monarch to promote
the spread of Renaissance culture in his realm: a learned man, educated in humanistic studies, he was
*Email: annalisa.ceron@unipmn.it
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an extremely generous patron, and many artists from the Italian city states and Western Europe
frequented his court.
Although Matthias died mysteriously in April 1490, Brandolini had time to dedicate a moral
dialogue on the human condition to him, the De humanae vitae conditione et toleranda corporis
aegritudine (1490). In the same year, he completed the aforementioned political dialogue on the best
form of government, De comparatione reipublicae et regni. While the former work was printed in
Basel in 1498, the latter survived in only two manuscript copies: one dedicated to Lorenzo de’
Medici (copied in around 1492) and the other dedicated to the future Pope Leo X (copied in the first
decade of the sixteenth century).
After the death of Matthias, Brandolini returned to his natal city and taught Latin at the university
for 1 year. He then came under the influence of the preacher Fra Mariano da Genazzano, an adherent
of the Medici and critic of Savonarola; in 1491 he joined the Augustinian order and dedicated his life
to preaching in various cities of Italy. He did not, however, entirely give up writing humanistic
works, as evidenced by De ratione scribendi libri tres, an adaption of classical rhetoric used for
Christian purposes, written in around 1495 and published in Basel 3 years later. Having contracted
the plague while on a visit to Rome, Brandolini died in Florence in 1497.
Heritage and Break with Tradition

Although Brandolini was celebrated by his contemporaries for his skill as a poet and teacher of
rhetoric, he was also a writer of humanistic works in prose, which, like his poems, were written in
both Latin and the Italian vernacular. He played no part in the humanistic controversy about the
literary merits of the Italian vernacular, but in the dedicatory letters of his translation of Pliny’s
panegyric, and in the preface to his oration on arms and letters, he made clear his belief that Italian
should be preferred to Latin in order to expand the readership of literary works.
The translation of Pliny’s panegyric was intended as a eulogy of the King of Naples, who was
described in accordance with the humanistic depiction of the perfect prince. Like other Neapolitan
humanists such as Antonio Beccadelli (De dictis et factis Alphonsi regis, 1455), Giovanni Pontano
(De principe, c. 1465), and Diomede Carafa (De boni principis officio, after 1480), Brandolini
claimed that a good prince should be endowed with all the virtues necessary to be a beloved ruler and
faithful servant of his subjects.
The oration on the dignity of arms and letters dealt with another typical humanistic theme:
Brandolini did not limit himself to extolling the importance of humanistic studies, but went as far
as to say that moral wisdom and eloquence were required to become good citizens, create sound laws
for the city, engage prudently in war, support soldiers, and make peace with enemies. Thus he
showed that humanistic studies lay at the core of political life.
Brandolini’s Georgicorum carminis commentarii is worthy of particular attention, since the
author, in the wake of Pomponius Laetus’s philological approach to classical texts, focused on the
literal meaning of Virgil’s Georgics rather than the allegorical one and peppered the commentary
with erudite quotations drawn from Greek and Latin works in order to impart maximum information
on the history and way of life of the ancients.
Also of interest is De humanae vitae conditione et toleranda corporis aegritudine, a treatise
conceived as a dialogue between King Matthias Corvinus and the ambassador of Ferdinand I of
Naples in Hungary. While the king deplored the physical suffering and spiritual anxiety of men,
echoing the De miseria humanae conditionis, a highly successful treatise written by Lotario di Segni
(the future Pope Innocentius III) in 1195, the ambassador gave voice to Brandolini’s ideas in praise
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of the greatness of men as described in Giannozzo Manetti’s De dignitate hominis. Manetti wrote his
masterpiece between 1448 and 1450, at the insistence of the King of Naples, Alfonso V of Aragon.
His aim was to complete Bartolomeo Facio’s De excellentia ac prestantia hominis (1448–1449),
which challenged Lotario di Segni’s view that the human condition was one of unrelenting miseries.
To pay tribute to the greatness of man, Manetti added many quotations drawn from classical sources,
such as Cicero’s On the Nature of the Gods, Aristotle’s On the Soul, and Aristotle’s ethical works, to
all the traditional religious arguments on the dignity of the human being. Like Manetti’s work,
Brandolini’s dialogue used both religious arguments and classical sources to celebrate man’s
extraordinary ability to act in imitation of his creator and in accordance with his divine, immortal,
and rational soul.
But the other dialogue written in Hungary, De comparatione reipublicae et regni, was without
doubt the most original and influential of all Brandolini’s writings. It compared monarchies and
republics, Matthias Corvinus himself championing the former, while Domenico Giugni, a Florentine
merchant in the Hungarian court, sought in vain to defend the latter.

Brandolini’s political dialogue was so innovative in form and content that it has been recently
considered by James Hankins “the most fascinating work of humanistic political theory written
before Machiavelli” (Hankins 2009, p. ix). As noted by Brandolini himself in the preface, De
comparatione reipublicae et regni was written in the Socratic style. Unlike a Ciceronian dialogue,
the form most commonly used by humanists from Petrarch onward, it was a series of questions and
answers aimed at cross-examining naïve opinions and debunking uncritical assumptions. Matthias
Corvinus took the role of Socrates, and, in response to a question from his (illegitimate) son, John
Corvinus, about the ideal form of government, demolished one by one all the republican arguments
advanced by his Florentine interlocutor.
The Socratic dialogue between the King of Hungary and Domenico Giugni spanned 3 days,
which were dedicated, respectively, to liberty, justice, and effective government. It provided a direct,
analytical comparison between kingdoms and republics unequaled in Renaissance political thought.
From Nicolai Rubinstein (1991, pp. 30–65) to Quentin Skinner (Skinner 2002, pp. 368–413),
scholars have in fact highlighted how for humanists good governance depended on the moral virtues
of good rulers rather than on the political particularities of constitutions. Apart from Niccolò
Machiavelli, only a few of them, such as Bartolomeo Platina and Francesco Patrizi of Siena,
wrote about kingdoms as well as republics, but they did so in separate treatises in order to avoid
making overt comparisons between the two forms of government (Platina’s De principe, 1470, and
De optimo cive, 1474; Patrizi’s De regno et regis institutione, 1481–1484, and De rei publicae
institutione, 1465–1471). Lauro Quirini’s De republica (1450) was no exception, since it dealt only
with the republican form of government. It is true, however, that Baldassarre Castiglione explicitly
juxtaposed kingdoms and republics in the fourth book of his The Book of the Courtier (1513–1529),
but this comparison followed the Ciceronian style of dialogue, leaving readers free to draw their own
conclusions. By contrast, Brandolini’s dialogue made it clear that Matthias’s commendation of
kingdoms was the correct point of view to be accepted and supported without reserve. It is therefore
unsurprising that at the end of the dialogue, the merchant was forced to admit that he would leave the
Republic of Florence, which he had used as an example in his analysis, to live in a kingdom as good
as the one described by his interlocutor.
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To convince Domenico Giugni that the kingdom was indeed the best form of government, the
King of Hungary referred to Plato’s Laws and Statesman, which had become available only a few
years earlier when Marsilio Ficino’s Latin translations were printed in Florence (1484), rather than to
Aristotle’s Politics, which was still the most popular reference for humanists. He also made hints
about the sixth book of Polybius’s Histories to thereby develop a criticism of the mercenary system,
a negative comment rare among humanists before the circulation of Machiavelli’s works. During the
fifteenth century, Polybius’s theory of the evolution of constitutional forms, according to which
kingdoms degenerate into tyranny, tyranny into aristocracy, aristocracy into oligarchy, and so on,
was almost unknown. Even so, Brandolini’s dialogue built on this theory to contend that kingdoms
were the most natural and therefore most common type of government. Yet his work did not present
the ancient Republic of Rome as a form of mixed government able to avoid the spiral of political
decline: instead, several historical examples proved that all republics were inherently unstable,
whereas kingdoms always guaranteed order and peace.
The idea that kingdoms represented the ideal form of government was demonstrated through a
series of arguments that appear to be antithetical to those used by civic humanists such as Leonardo
Bruni and Matteo Palmieri, even though they were not explicitly mentioned. For instance, the notion
that the principal feature of a republic was autonomy or self-rule was challenged by the claims that
citizens nevertheless had to obey the law in any event and that there was no difference between
citizens imposing laws on one another and a king doing so. If anything, it was better if laws were
emanated by kings chosen for their virtue, as proved by a kingdom as perfect as Hungary, rather than
by citizens who become rulers by chance, as in the Republic of Florence where citizens attained
public office by lot.
In the course of his analysis, Brandolini offered a highly idealized image of the royal constitution,
which maintained that kings were virtuous by definition. And since kings were flawless, they were
able to adapt laws to different people and circumstances in the interests of the common good. On the
other hand, as the case of Florence unquestionably demonstrated, the rulers of republics were bound
hard and fast to the letter of the law, which became the expression of the interests of the most influent
and powerful citizens. In Brandolini’s view, hunger for power was closely connected to lust for
money, and the pursuit of wealth was the main and most dangerous problem that beset republics.
In the wake of John Pocock’s studies (Pocock 1975), many scholars have remarked that Floren-
tine civic humanist and, more generally, early modern republican thinkers believed that the search
for private wealth should be subordinated to the defense of the common good. The Florentine
interlocutor of Brandolini’s dialogue shared this belief with Florentine civic humanists, but the king
proved that it was false, arguing that only in kingdoms the search of private wealth did not conflict
with the defense of the common good. What is more, he disclosed that the sumptuary laws that were
intended to guarantee egalitarian practices in the Republic of Florence concealed economic inequal-
ities that were absent in any kingdom as the mass of wealth was concentrated in the hands of the king
while the subjects enjoyed more or less the same level of prosperity. Once again, the Republic of
Florence was depicted as the negative pole of the comparison, whereas kingdoms represented the
positive pole due to the fact that they were highly idealized. Clearly the comparison between
kingdoms and the Republic of Florence was partial and unfair, but if it had been conveyed in
more balanced terms, it would not be as interesting as it is.
In contrast with another commonplace belief of civic humanists, who made Florence a case in
point to show that the Renaissance in arts and letters depended on republican institutions,
Brandolini’s dialogue drew attention to the fact that the Naples of Ferdinand I and the Rome of
Sixtus IV housed a greater number of artists and writers than republics like Lucca and Siena. The
extraordinary excellence of Florence in the arts was not denied but viewed as a corollary of the
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Tuscan climate, the physical weakness of its inhabitants, and other such factors. In other words, the
flourishing of culture in Florence was viewed as a product of nature, not of politics.
Since Brandolini maintained that kingdoms promoted culture, equity, and liberty better than
republics, his dialogue stood out from the mass of more conventional works on the virtues of the
perfect rulers. Moreover, the arguments he used to demonstrate that kingdoms constituted the best
form of government shed a new and interesting light on the republican claims generally developed
by civic humanists.
Impact and Legacy

As already noted, only Brandolini’s dialogue on the dignity of men and his final work on the subject
of rhetoric ever made it to print, and since they were reprinted many times during the sixteenth
century, the De humanae vitae conditione (Basel, 1540, 1541, 1543; Wien 1541; Paris 1562) and the
De ratione scribendi (Basel 1543, 1549, 1565, 1585; Cologne 1573) had a certain impact on
Renaissance thought.
However, his most compelling and original work, the De comparatione reipublicae et regni,
survived in only two manuscripts and remained undiscovered until the end of the nineteenth century
when it came into print for the first time (Brandolini 1890). The editor of the most recent edition has
considered it the most fascinating work written prior to Machiavelli. If that is true, there can be no
doubt that the legacy of Brandolini is truly exceptional.
Cross-References
▶ Bruni, Leonardo
▶ Carafa, Diomede
▶ Castiglione, Baldassarre
▶ Dialogue
▶ Dignity of Man
▶ Machiavelli, Niccolò
▶ Manetti, Giannozzo
▶ Palmieri, Matteo
▶ Platina, Bartolomeo
▶ Pontano, Giovanni
▶ Quirini, Lauro
References
Primary Literature
Brandolini, A.L. Georgicorum carminis commentarii. Bibl. Apost. Vat., Vat. lat. 2740.
Brandolini, A.L. Oratio de rei militaris litterarumque dignitate affinitate et laudibus. Paris: Bibl.
Nazionale, cod. Lat. 7860.
Brandolini, A.L. Oratio pro clarissimo viro Antonio Lauredano, Bibl. Apost. Vat. Reg. Lat. 1368.
Page 5 of 6
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Brandolini, A.L. Traductione dil panegirico di Plinio al serenissimo Re don Ferrando d'Aragona.
Parigi, Bibl. Naz., cod. Ital.616. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8433304h.r.
Brandolini, A.L. 1498a. De humane vitae conditione et toleranda corporis aegritudine ad Mathiam
Corvinum dialogus. Basileae.
Brandolini, A.L. 1498b. De ratione scribendi libri tres. Basileae.
Brandolini, A.L. 1719. De laudibus Laurentii Medicis libellus. In Carmina illustrium poetarum
italorum, 439–453. Florentia.
Brandolini, A.L. 1890. De comparatione reipublicae et regni. In Irodalomtörténeti emlékek, ed.
Abel, J., 77–183. Budapest.
Brandolini, A.L. 1910. Elegia in onore di Federico da Montefeltro. In Il cod.Urb. lat. 1193. Classici
e neolatini, ed. Cinquini, G. 6:26–28.
Brandolini, A.L. 2009. Republics and kingdoms compared, ed. and Trans. J. Hankins. Cambridge.
Farbaky, P. (ed.). 2008. Matthias Corvinus, the King: tradition and renewal in the Hungarian Royal
Court, 1458–149. Budapest.
Hankins, J. 2009. Introduction. In Republics and kingdoms compared, ed. Brandolini, A.L., ix–xxvi.
Cambridge.
Mayer, E. 1938. Un umanista italiano della corte di Mattia Corvino: Aurelio Brandolini. Rome.
Mitchell, S.M. 1985. The De comparatione rei publicae et regni of Aurelio Lippo Brandolini.
London.
Pocock, J.G.A. 1975. The machiavellian moment. Princeton.
Rotondò, A. 1972. Aurelio Lippo Brandolini. In Dizionario biografico degli italiani, vol 14. Rome.
http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/aurelio-lippo-brandolini.
Rubinstein, N. 1991. Italian political thought: 1450–1530. In The Cambridge history of political
thought 1450–1700, ed. Burns, J.H. Cambridge.
Skinner, Q. 2002. Renaissance virtues. Cambridge.
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B
Bruno, Giordano: Renaissance from all other beings). Bruno’s thought – also
Philosophy linked in many ways to tradition, especially
pre-Socratic philosophy and Platonic and Neo-
Born: 1548, Nola, near Naples/Italy platonic philosophy – is based instead on the
Died: February 17, 1600, Rome/Italy idea of matter itself as generator of forms, the
primary source of life and of all that exists; on a
Fabrizio Meroi cosmological vision that conceives of an infinite
Department of Literature and Philosophy, universe in constant motion; on a concept of man
University of Trento, Trento, Italy that while not acknowledging any specificity of a
substantial nature, exalts his practical skills to the
highest degree, the ethical aspects and the civil
Abstract vocation (also through the development of disci-
plines such as mnemonics and natural magic);
Giordano Bruno is one of the most important finally, on a concept of religion, able to maintain
philosophers of the Renaissance. His thinking is the unbridgeable distance between the human and
characterized, on one hand, by a very close rela- the divine, but at the same time, encouraging the
tionship with tradition, from which it veers mark- formation and preservation of forms of solid and
edly in several essential aspects, but to which it fair society.
also owes a great debt; on the other hand, it pre-
sents some highly original features that, taken
together, constitute the mainstay of a new con- Biography
cept of man and a new world view. Bruno’s
criticism of tradition has three main objectives: Filippo Bruno (who would take the name
Aristotelian philosophy (of which he rejected Giordano upon entering the monastery) was
both the idea of matter as pure power without born in Nola, near Naples, in 1548, the son of
act, and that of a finite world structured in rigid Fraulissa Savolino and Giovanni Bruno, a sol-
hierarchies), the Christian religion (in particular dier. In 1562 he went to Naples, where he initially
several fundamental dogmas, and more generally studied under two teachers: Giovan Vincenzo da
the passive and defeatist attitude of the faithful Colle called the Sarnese, of Aristotelian-
who entrust themselves totally to divine will), Averroean orientation, and Teofilo da Vairano,
and humanistic culture itself (of which he primar- Augustinian friar. In 1565, more to be able to
ily rejects the celebration of man, based on an continue his studies than due to a real religious
ontological peculiarity that distinguishes man vocation, he entered as a novice into the Order of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_343-1
2 Bruno, Giordano: Renaissance Philosophy
Preachers (that is, the Dominicans) at the Nea- lectures which were soon interrupted due to an
politan convent of San Domenico Maggiore. In accusation of plagiarism. Between 1584 and
1573 he was ordained as a priest, and in 1575 he 1585, he composed and published the Italian
earned a degree in theology. In 1576, due to his philosophical dialogues (in 1584 Cena de le
heterodox opinions and especially his doubts on Ceneri, De la causa, principio et uno, De
the dogma of the Trinity, he was forced to leave l’infinito, universo e mondi, and Spaccio de la
the monastery of San Domenico Maggiore and bestia trionfante; in 1585 Cabala del cavallo
fled to Rome, where he settled at the convent of pegaseo and De gli eroici furori), a group of
Santa Maria sopra Minerva. However, in the works in which he puts forth the essential princi-
same year he also fled from Rome and began a ples of his thought, between ontological and cos-
long journey that, over the years, led him to stay mological research on one hand and ethical-
in many towns, wandering all over Europe. religious inquiry on the other.
Between 1576 and 1581 he moved between From England Bruno returned to Paris in
Italy, Switzerland, and France; this period is October, 1585. This second sojourn in Paris was
especially memorable for his short stay shorter than the first and during it (in 1586) he
(in 1579) in Geneva, during which he adhered to published several works including Centum et
Calvinism, and a longer one (1579–1581) in Tou- viginti articuli de natura et mundo adversus
louse, where he taught philosophy at the Peripateticos, a work with an anti-Aristotelian
university. bent; he also participated in a public dispute at
Between the summer and autumn of 1581 the Collège de Cambrai. Also after the contro-
Bruno reached Paris, where he would stay for versy raised by this dispute, Bruno decided to
about a year and a half. During this first stay in leave France for good and began a new phase in
Paris he came into contact with the court of Henry his long European pilgrimage, which would bring
III of Valois; he obtained by the sovereign’s him to the territories of the German region. In
decree a temporary post teaching philosophy at 1586 after passing through Mainz, Wiesbaden,
the University; above all, he composed and and Marburg, he arrived at Wittenberg where he
published his first important works: De umbris settled and with the help of Italian jurist Alberico
idearum and Cantus Circaeus, two works on Gentili, began teaching at the university
mnemonics that also addressed complex episte- (lecturing especially on Aristotle’s Organon and
mological issues, as well as Candelaio, a comedy Rhetorica ad Alexandrum). Between 1587 and
in which several cornerstones of his philosophy 1588 he composed a series of works on Aristote-
emerge (from the idea of universal vicissitude to lian and Lullian topics, some of which would be
criticism of what he considered to be some of the published posthumously (among them Artificium
worst traits of the Christian religion, beginning perorandi, Lampas triginta statuarum, and Libri
with excesses of superstition on the part of the physicorum Aristotelis explanati). In March 1588
faithful). This first visit to Paris was followed by he left the University of Wittenberg writing the
an important period in England. Bruno arrived in Oratio valedictoria (a short but intense text, in
London in April 1583, in the train of the French which he expresses his gratitude to the academic
ambassador, Michel de Castelnau, at whose home environment that had welcomed him), and after a
he stayed. He came into contact with the circles 6-month stay in Prague, where he published,
of the court of Queen Elizabeth and became among others, Articuli adversus mathematicos,
friends with Philip Sidney, one of the foremost Bruno arrived in Helmstedt. Here he began to
figures of sixteenth century British culture. In the compose the set of works dedicated to magic
summer of 1583, he published other writings on that would all be published only posthumously
the art of memory (among them Sigillus in the late nineteenth century, and joined the
sigillorum stands out) and went to Oxford twice: university, but also as a result of excommunica-
the first time he participated in a public debate, tion by the local Lutheran church decided to
while during the second he began a course of move in June 1590 to Frankfurt, where he lodged
Bruno, Giordano: Renaissance Philosophy 3
at the Carmelite convent. The year 1591 was Heritage and Rupture with Tradition
especially intense for Bruno, who went for a
few months to Switzerland and in Frankfurt Bruno’s thought develops and defines itself in
published both De imaginum, signorum et direct opposition to Aristotelian tradition on the
idearum compositione, another work on mne- more strictly philosophical level, to the Christian
monics, and the so-called Latin poems, which tradition on the religious level, and to the human-
are in some ways the culmination of his thought: istic tradition itself in terms of the specific under-
De triplici minimo et mensura, De monade, standing of the knowledge and understanding of
numero et figura, and De immenso et man. In all three cases, the central category is
innumerabilibus. But 1591 was also the year “pedantry,” which Bruno often used to indicate
that saw Bruno’s return to Italy: at the end of the intellectual attitude of representatives of these
the summer he accepted the invitation of the traditions. In a philosophical context, the “ped-
Venetian patrician Giovanni Mocenigo, to move ants” are those who interpret Aristotle’s thought
to the city of the Doges. in order to repeat and perpetuate his countless
Bruno arrived in Venice the following fall, but errors, thus becoming the main cause of the
almost immediately went on to Padua, where he decline of philosophy which Bruno identifies as
taught a short course for German students of the one of the negative traits of his era. In the reli-
university and composed some minor works. gious sphere, the “pedants” are the followers of
However, at the beginning of winter he returned Christianity, a form of religion from which Bruno
to Venice, and by the end of March 1592 he began to distance himself, on several key points,
settled in the abode of Mocenigo. But on May since his formative years spent in the convent of
23 the latter reported him to the Inquisition, San Domenico Maggiore in Naples; and from
accusing him of having beliefs contrary to the which he would depart definitively as soon as
Christian religion and Bruno was imprisoned on his thought took on precise contours. Finally, in
the same day. Thus began a long legal procedure Bruno’s eyes humanists also appear “pedantic,”
that consisted of a first phase in Venice and a or more precisely, those humanities scholars who
second phase in Rome. The first part of the trial favor the most empty and inconclusive knowl-
concluded with a formal retraction by Bruno, edge, which is – according to Bruno – erudition
who on July 30 declared he repented of his mis- for its own sake, the arid investigation of gram-
takes and was willing to ask for forgiveness. But mar and language, and a kind of fetishistic cult
the Roman Inquisition required the transfer of the for words (i.e., the form), whereas what really
trial from Venice to Rome and on February matters are the concepts (i.e., content). Bruno’s
27, 1593 Bruno entered the Roman prison of criticism of these three kinds of “pedantry” is
Sant’Uffizio. The second part of the trial, which very broad and diverse and at least the most
lasted for several years, had many ups and downs important aspects should be explored.
and accelerated over the course of 1599; Bruno, As regards the criticism of Aristotle and the
who on January 12 was asked to recant eight Aristotelian tradition, the issue is primarily onto-
propositions – judged heretical – taken from his logical and cosmological, and individual points
writings and his testimony during the trial, said he on which Bruno focuses concern the idea of mat-
was willing to do it at first but then changed his ter on one hand and the concept of the physical
mind, until on December 21 he said he did not world on the other. According to Aristotle and his
wish to repent and, indeed, did not know what he followers, matter is a prope nihil (an “almost
should repent about. The sentence was inevitable nothing”), mere power without act, which can
at this point, and on February 17, 1600, Bruno reach perfection only by receiving a form from
was burned at the stake in the Roman square of the outside and expressing itself in it. Bruno, in
Campo de’ Fiori. the pages of De la causa, principio et uno,
completely reverses this idea and – partly
inspired by the medieval philosopher David de
Dinant – conceives of matter as something that great firmness, especially in the pages of Cena de
already contains in itself, implied, all possible le Ceneri and those of De l’infinito, universo e
forms; as an entity, that is, which does not receive mondi, Aristotelian cosmological vision. First of
from time to time its form from the outside but all, the whole of reality as understood by Bruno,
generates it itself, power which in a sense is all given life and all governed by the
already act, inexhaustible source of reality and vicissitudinal principle, is obviously in constant
reality itself. For Bruno, moreover, matter is a motion; thus even the motion of the earth, which
universal and disembodied entity that arises at the is a being like any other, must be recognized and
basis of both the bodily and the disembodied affirmed, against all evidence of the senses and
substance, depending on whether it is to be car- contrary to the opinion of Aristotle. Then, reality
ried out in a dimension of multiplicity or unity, according to Bruno is also characterized by a
temporality or eternity, and the extended or profound unity and substantial homogeneity,
unextended. And – most importantly – it is finally resulting from the fact that beyond any formal
possible to also identify in matter as well as the difference and any specific peculiarity, any being
root of life itself in all its shapes and ways, a may be placed on the same footing as the others
principle of divine nature, whose existence and by virtue of its participation in substance and
whose presence in reality permit one to think of universal life; for which any hierarchical distinc-
infinite matter, infinite life, and infinite universe. tion regarding the Aristotelian cosmos falls away.
It is, in short, the idea that is the basis of all Finally, due to the continuous and eternal produc-
Bruno’s philosophy, which has been rightly tion of forms of life by matter – as previously
defined as the idea of “infinite Life-matter” mentioned – it is impossible not to imagine an
(Ciliberto 1990), an idea to which are indissolu- infinite universe and, within it, the existence of
bly bound some other theoretical acquisitions of infinite living worlds; and it is precisely this the-
paramount importance. First, to a perspective oretical fact that made Bruno famous in the his-
such as this, dominated by the idea of a matter tory of Western thought, and which – as far as is
endowed with its own life that eternally and con- relevant here – distances him from Aristotle’s
tinuously produces different shapes, compounds, cosmological concept in general and his idea of
and individuals, the concept of death is quite a unique, finite world in particular.
alien, if by death one means the total end of life, Regarding instead the critique of Christianity,
the exhaustion of the vital principle; that which it must immediately be said that Bruno believes
“dies,” that which ends, is only the compound, some basic tenets are unacceptable, especially
i.e., the single form taken from the material on those of the Trinity and the Incarnation. We
any particular occasion, while the life inherent in have just seen that Bruno admits the presence of
it and propagated by it never ends. Secondly, the a divine principle at the very heart of reality; this
idea of “infinite Life-matter” is closely related to does not mean, however, that he was not firmly
that of “vicissitude,” a true underlying structure convinced of the existence of an actual deity,
of being at every level; all beings – thus all those unique, belonging to the realm of the supersensi-
endowed with life, so-called living beings as well ble and separate from the scope of the human and
as that which is apparently inanimate – are the tangible by an unbridgeable distance. From
governed by a single vicissitudinal principle this point of view, it is evident that a theological
which determines the various events and contin- perspective such as that of the Trinity, which
uous transformations, in an overall scenario in effectively splits the divine entity into three dif-
which, then, life does not have to deal with ferent (though coessential) parts, cannot be
death but rather, simply, with mutation. Thirdly shared; and indeed Bruno, also influenced by
and most importantly, the idea of “infinite Life- the Aryan heresy, already expressed his doubts
matter” produces the decisive consequences that about this dogma in his youth and later repeats
drive Bruno – and so we come to the other side of them, even before the inquisitors during the
the criticism of Aristotelianism – to reject with Venetian phase of the trial (Firpo 1993).
Equally – and even more so – it is clear that even united, indeed rent internally by innumerable
the dogma of the Incarnation cannot be shared, fragmentations; to have turned Europe into a
which is the belief that God could become man, vast battlefield, by provoking the wars of reli-
that the distance between the divine and the gion; having unlawfully taken possession of
human could somehow be overcome; and indeed those structures – churches, libraries,
Bruno, in the final pages of the Dialogo terzo of universities – which had been previously created
Spaccio de la bestia trionfante, makes the figure by others; and more than any other thing, to have
of Christ himself, half man and half God, subject taken to the extremes the fundamental error of
to a merciless parody and ironically likens it to Christianity (which consists in having spread a
that of the mythological centaur Chiron, half man doctrine that prevents any independent initiative
and half animal. More generally, however, there by humans) through a marked accentuation of the
are several other aspects of the Christian religion Pauline concepts of “justification by faith alone”
which fall under the ax of Bruno’s criticism. First (i.e., salvation without the need to do good
of all, on several occasions – such as in works) and “predestination.” Important, in rela-
Candelaio, the Neapolitan comedy written dur- tion to the latter point, is the fact that Bruno found
ing his first stay in France, a work that stigmatizes himself in a head-on conflict both with a funda-
various forms of human stupidity – Bruno attacks mental text from the origins of Christianity, the
with ferocious satire the more exterior and ques- letters of Paul of Tarsus, referred to several times
tionable aspects of Christianity, behaviors that in his works (Meroi 2003), and with one of the
make authentic devotion degenerate into mere most significant texts of sixteenth century
superstition, intellectual poverty, and corruption Reformed Christianity as De servo arbitrio
of the morals of the clergy and religious orders. (1525) by Martin Luther, lurking in the back-
Then, especially in the early sections of Cabala ground in many pages of the Spaccio (Ciliberto
del cavallo pegaseo, Bruno’s criticism focuses on 1985).
the attitude of Christians as a whole: an attitude Thus Bruno severely criticizes two traditions
that is systematically defined as “asininity” and thousands of years old, the Aristotelian and the
that translates, in fact, into a state of total passiv- Christian; but he also distances himself, with his
ity, lived in the renunciation of the use of the thoughts and his work, from a far more
properly human powers and prerogatives and in recent – but no less solid – tradition, humanism.
the perennial waiting and docile acceptance of Again, he criticizes humanism for empty erudi-
the decisions of the divine will. Finally, special tion and philological excesses, i.e., a maniacal
attention is given to that part of Christianity attention to the purely formal aspect of texts, so
represented by Protestantism. The sixteenth cen- as to lose sight of the more important part, con-
tury, as is well known, is a century profoundly tent. And in doing so, Bruno captures very well
marked by the advent of the Reformation and what actually is a limit, at least of a certain
religious and cultural debate as well as by the humanism; but his criticism does not stop at this
historical events that originate from it. And unique aspect. Obviously, humanistic culture was
Bruno, who in the first phase of his European not only scholarship and philology in the worst
pilgrimage came into direct contact with the dra- sense; it was also – and most importantly – a
matic reality of the wars of religion and the bitter sincere and convinced appreciation of the role
religious, social, and political clashes related to that humanity can – and should – play in its
them, took up his precise position condemning in most intimate context, namely that of a compar-
no uncertain terms, especially in the pages of ison at the same time conscious and ambitious
Spaccio de la bestia trionfante, the Christianity with nature, with history, with one’s own kind,
of the Reformation, to which he imputes – among and also with God. But then, such an appreciation
other things – remaining tied to a barren and ended very often in a celebration, sometimes rich
misleading purely literal interpretation of the in rhetorical tones, of the objective greatness of
Scriptures; to be a religious front anything but the human being and his absolute centrality in the
context of the natural and animal world; a cele- Moreover, the fact that Bruno elaborates his
bration made possible mainly by the fact that man philosophy in direct opposition to most preceding
was attributed – even based on an anthropological knowledge and doctrines does not mean that
model of Aristotelian origin – with the exclusive many threads do not bind him closely to various
possession of certain faculties (first and foremost, other aspects of the tradition, from antiquity to
the intellect) considered lacking in other living the Renaissance itself. Regarding ancient and late
beings. So it is against a concept of this sort that classical thought, we must recall the frequent
Bruno above all argues, and his distance from the presence in Bruno’s writings of hints and refer-
humanistic tradition is greatest at this point. In ences, explicit or implied, to the pre-Socratic
common with the humanistic perspective – it thinkers, from Parmenides and Pythagoras to
must be said – Bruno certainly has, on one Empedocles and Heraclitus. But we must also
hand, the idea that man should be well aware of recall that Bruno was greatly influenced by Her-
his limitations and on the other hand simulta- metic texts, that is, by the corpus of writings of
neously recognizes his privileged status, but this the Hellenistic period on magical-astrological
recognition – as we shall see – is based on and religious-philosophical subjects, that Renais-
completely different grounds, not on the posses- sance thinkers – and Bruno with them – believed
sion of substantial characteristics that in other to be the work of Hermes Trismegistus, a legend-
beings – indeed, other entities – are lacking. As ary figure of wisdom, with almost divine traits,
we have seen, the idea of “infinite Life-matter” whose authority was considered equal, if not
leads Bruno to conceive of a universe populated superior, to that of the greatest sages of the
by beings and entities that all participate equally, ancient world; in particular, Bruno takes from
although to a greater or lesser extent, in the same the hermetic text Asclepius – a part of which
life and the same matter, so that it is impossible to appears, translated from the Latin in an almost
imagine any real differences in quality among literal way, in the Dialogo terzo of Spaccio de la
them – if there are differences, they are only of bestia trionfante – the idea of an apocalyptic
quantity. And, since unique and universal matter dimension in the sense of the imminent coming
is both corporeal and incorporeal, there can be no of new times and new worlds that would put an
substantial differences either on the material or end to an age of decadence (Ciliberto 2002). Nor
on the spiritual plane. Finally, it follows then that can we forget Bruno’s great debt to Plato himself
a faculty such as that of the intellect cannot in any and Neoplatonism (as we will also see shortly,
way constitute a sufficient reason for declaring dealing with the Renaissance thinkers who con-
the superiority of man over other beings, since tinued this line of thought): basic ideas such as
they too possess it in some way. Bruno’s anti- the existence of an intangible world clearly dis-
humanism thus consists precisely and essentially tinct from the tangible yet in close relationship
of this radical reassessment of exquisitely human with it, or that of a reality divided into several
prerogatives, reaching its peak in the first part of levels, from unity to multiplicity and vice
the Dialogo secondo of Cabala del cavallo versa – although reworked in an original
pegaseo, where a heated confrontation between way – are real cornerstones of Bruno’s philoso-
man and beast occurs, culminating in a paradox- phy. And finally, we cannot neglect to emphasize
ical and provocative alternative: or one is the fact that even in the face of criticism that
willing – considering what some of them are could be called “global” of the entire Christian
able to do – to admit that also animals have an tradition, from its origins to its most recent man-
intellect, or one must recognize – if one does not ifestations, Bruno frequently draws inspiration
wish to abandon the traditional distinction from the content of biblical books such as Job
between intellect and instinct, which guarantees and the Song of Songs (Tirinnanzi 1999; Bassi
the specificity of man – that animal instinct is 2008). Regarding later medieval thought, we
worth more than human intellect. have already mentioned the role played by
David de Dinant in the development of Bruno’s
idea of matter; and we must add here that, despite develop their thinking to its ultimate conse-
Bruno’s overall detachment from a quence, which should have been unconditional
tradition – such as the medieval one – that for adhesion to a genuine vision of an infinite uni-
him represented precisely the set of theoretical verse: in fact, Nicholas of Cusa would come to
orientations to which he intended to oppose his imagine an infinite universe, but only in a nega-
new philosophy, his sincere appreciation for tive sense, due to deprivation and lack of preci-
some other thinkers belonging to it must be men- sion, that is, simply because he thought it was not
tioned. This is the case, for example, with certain possible to define it exactly; and Copernicus, on
Arab authors such as Avicebron (also called upon his part, would in fact remain linked to the
for his views on the concept of matter) and Aristotelian-Ptolemaic theory of a finite universe
Averroes; but it is also the case of Thomas bounded by the motionless sky of the fixed stars
Aquinas, the highest representative of that scho- (which, however, is objectively true). Bruno also
lastic philosophy of Aristotelian imprint which profoundly reworks Copernican heliocentrism,
was for Bruno the main obstacle to overcome, but turning it in the direction of the infinite, which
whose intelligence and wisdom he held in the in fact is totally foreign to Copernicus: in Bruno’s
highest regard (as he also reminded his Venetian new universe the heliocentric idea remains, of
inquisitors: Firpo 1993). Finally, regarding the course, but applied – inevitably, one might
thought of the Renaissance, it is necessary to say – in an infinite number of suns and solar
dwell briefly on the relationship between Bruno systems. In any case, despite these criticisms,
and at least four authors of the fifteenth and Bruno’s debt to these two Renaissance thinkers
sixteenth centuries, who beyond his aforemen- is great, and no less, certainly, than to the other
tioned negative judgment on the humanistic con- two thinkers named above. Ficino, as is well
ception of man, were for him of undoubted and known, is the leading exponent of the Platonic
remarkable importance: Nicholas of Cusa, and Neoplatonic school of thought that flourished
Marsilio Ficino, Desiderius Erasmus, and in Italy, in Florence of the Medici, in the second
Nicolaus Copernicus. half of the fifteenth century (known as the Pla-
Bruno often refers explicitly to the first and tonic Academy). In the culture of the time, this
last of these authors, considering them both intellectual phenomenon was a kind of reaction
thinkers who had taken decisive steps on the distancing itself from Aristotelian tradition and in
path to overcoming Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cos- that sense it was almost natural for Bruno to turn
mology and, especially, geocentrism. Nicholas of his attention to the works of Ficino, in which he
Cusa especially had the merit – according to could find, replicated in an abundance of topics
Bruno – of anticipating several key points of the and illuminated by a new light, themes and motifs
new cosmological vision, particularly in his work belonging to a theoretical orientation to which he
De docta ignorantia (1440): the nonexistence of too looked with great interest. Among the many
fixed stars, the absence of an absolute center, the points of contact between the thought of Ficino
resulting equivalence of all points in space, the and of Bruno we can highlight two in particular
motion of the Earth, the possibility that other (though closely related): first, the idea of a uni-
planets are inhabited, the relativity of motion verse that while characterized by obvious differ-
and the infinite nature of the universe; while ences and varying degrees of perfection, appears
heliocentrism as illustrated by Copernicus in his to be substantially homogeneous, marked by an
famous De revolutionibus orbium coelestium indelible divine imprint, and all animated by
(1543), a work in which the motion of the Earth active forces and deep spiritual affinities; second,
is also affirmed and explained, would be the absolutely central role attributed to love,
truly – according to Bruno – the cornerstone of which conceived of as a vital principle and as an
a new cosmology. But then, Bruno believes that existential category rather than as mere senti-
neither Nicholas of Cusa nor Copernicus ment, has the task of raising man from the mere
followed through to the end, that is, they did not desire for worldly sensuous beauty to the highest
contemplation of beauty in itself and the divine perspective that was exquisitely anti-Christian
splendor that illuminates all things. Finally, and anti-humanistic. Thus, we must now inte-
regarding Erasmus, the European humanist par grate what has already been mentioned, taking
excellence, his influence on Bruno can be divided up some of the issues already addressed and
into two stages: at first, coinciding with Bruno’s examining further elements of originality in
years in the convent of San Domenico Maggiore, Bruno’s philosophy, taking into account – in
reading Erasmus’ works was decisive in Bruno’s order – the ontological, anthropological, episte-
abandonment of a Christianity oriented in a pre- mological, and ethical-religious aspects.
dominantly devotional direction and weighed Regarding the ontological aspect, it must first
down by strictly theological subtleties; at a later be specified that the concept of “infinite Life-
time, coinciding instead with the more mature matter,” essentially established in the pages of
phase of Bruno’s theoretical reflection, then the London dialogue De la causa, principio et
when the final separation from the Christian reli- uno, is taken up and carried in a direction decid-
gion was accomplished, Erasmus was still, for edly atomistic in one of the three Frankfurt
Bruno, a valuable source – and virtually limitless, poems, specifically De triplici minimo et
considering the copious production of the Dutch mensura. In this work of fundamental importance
humanist – on which he drew to take up and Bruno, after having distinguished between the
develop individual motifs of various kinds. But, minimum in the metaphysical sense (consisting
also concerning Ficino and Erasmus, along with of the monad), the minimum in the physical sense
notable elements of proximity, one must also take (consisting of the atom), and the minimum in the
into account their fundamental distance from geometric sense (consisting of the point), focuses
Bruno: on the one hand, Ficino’s Platonism is in particular on the second, making the atom, the
decidedly Christian in nature and the universe smallest indivisible physical entity, the ultimate
he imagines is totally dependent on God, which foundation of all reality. Bruno’s concept of a
coincides with the God of the Christian religion; living, eternal, unique, and infinite matter, is
on the other hand, Erasmus’ humanism itself, thus completed with the identification of an infi-
although highly critical of certain aspects of nite number of physical particles that make it up,
Christianity (and this is, more than anything, a all identical and eternal, which, combining with
sure reason for agreement with Bruno), cannot one another according to infinite possibilities and
even be conceived outside of it. Evidently, in infinite ways, give origin – and life – to infinite
both cases, they deal with general points of bodies and infinite entities. The infinite produc-
view that the Bruno of the English dialogues tion of “infinite Life-matter” thus coincides with
and later works could not share at all as a whole. the incessant movement and action of individual
and innumerable atoms; and this further determi-
nation of the Bruno’s ontology – one may
Innovative and Original Aspects observe – still moves in a radically anti-
Aristotelian direction: on one hand, the existence
As we have seen, from the moment Bruno was of atoms, which are all strictly indivisible, shows
forced from the very outset to confront preceding the profoundly erroneous nature of the Aristote-
philosophical and religious doctrines and at the lian theory of the infinite divisibility of matter
same time develop his theoretical reflections in (a theory, which however already contradicts the
close dialectical relationship with them, it would idea of a finite world, since it is absurd – Bruno
have been difficult, dealing with the main points notes – that a finite amount can be divided into
of his departure from tradition, to do so without infinite parts); on the other hand, the fact that the
treating some of the most innovative aspects of atoms are all strictly identical removes any
his thought, from the idea of “infinite Life- legitimacy – more than the idea of “infinite
matter” and that of “vicissitude” to the new cos- Life-matter” itself already does – from the hier-
mological vision and the development of a global archical distinctions that Aristotle introduces in
reality, instead attesting to the constitutive units specific faculties. It is precisely in these pages
of the universe and the substantial identity of all that it is revealed why man can dominate animals
its parts. This atomistic outcome is, in short, a and therefore be defined, at least in a sense, “the
very significant development of Bruno’s concept god of the earth”; the superiority of man does not
of matter; but, at this point, it must be pointed out depend on substantial grounds, but only on the
that this concept is directly linked to a highly factor, purely accidental, of his “complexion,”
qualifying aspect of Bruno’s thought: the theory i.e., his exterior constitution. In particular, if
of metempsychosis. Even before De minimo, man can perform certain operations that allow
with the consequences we have just seen, the him, objectively, to occupy a position of preem-
reflections in De la causa are taken up in Cabala inence in the realm of nature and, above all, to
del cavallo pegaseo, a short but very complex dominate other living beings, it is only because he
text in which Bruno presents his ideas with par- can count on the contribution of the hand, that is,
ticular energy. In the first part of the Dialogo of a single component of his purely physical
secondo of the penultimate London structure (which could also have been different);
dialogue – previously mentioned regarding the a component that ultimately turns out to be the
confrontation between man and animal true element to which he owes his greatness.
concerning the possession of intellect – the abso- However, we must make two clarifications in
lute identity of both the bodily substance and the this regard. First, it must be said that in spite of
incorporeal substance is reaffirmed with extreme this unique celebration of the hand that we find in
decision. From this derives above all the essential the Cabala, in a work of just a few months earlier,
equality of all beings, which in these pages is Spaccio de la bestia trionfante, instead we find a
amply illustrated through a rich set of references joint celebration of hand and intellect. In the first
to the almost total absence of differences between part of the Dialogo terzo of the fourth London
the nature and behavior of men on one hand and dialogue, in fact, Bruno also identified in the
those of animals on the other. But from the par- possession of the intellect, as well as that of
ticular identity of incorporeal substance, that is hand, the datum at the origin of the peculiarities
the spiritual, also derives the possibility that indi- of the human being. But although this might seem
vidual souls incarnate all the same in any body, in like a contradiction, it is explained, on one hand,
the universal rhythm of “vicissitude” and without by the fact that compared to the Cabala, Spaccio
hindrance of any kind. That is why Bruno, in a is a text in which Bruno, struggling with ques-
manner fully consistent with the ontological pre- tions that are essentially moral, does not draw the
suppositions of his thought, firmly believes in the most extreme consequences from the ontological
transmigration of souls, as suggested in the afore- premises of his thought (as he does, in fact, in
mentioned section in Cabala, in which he also Cabala); on the other hand, by the fact that on
appeals to the Pythagorean doctrines and the nar- closer inspection, Bruno’s entire reflection is
rative of Virgil in the sixth book of Aeneid; and as characterized by a nearly constant variation of
he argues explicitly – distinguishing, however, the same basic reasons that determine its com-
between the religious and philosophical plexity and richness; Bruno’s thought is truly one
levels – before his Venetian inquisitors (Firpo that develops in an original and creative way,
1993). from time to time confronting different issues
It is also necessary to refer to the same section and continually reorganizing the theoretical
of the Cabala to better delineate the contours of material that accompanies it. The second clarifi-
Bruno’s anthropology, that is, Bruno’s concept of cation refers to a fundamental aspect of Bruno’s
man. By treating his anti-humanism, we have philosophy, also concerning his relationship with
already hinted that Bruno indeed recognizes the humanism. The praise of the hand, whether
privileged status of man in relation to other living accompanied by that of the intellect or not, fits
beings, but that this recognition is not based on perfectly – and indeed provides a crucial
his higher nature or the exclusive possession of element – with the exquisitely practical vocation
of Bruno’s thought. In reality, if the theme of the in its true essence and eternal glory, as well as to
hand, as presented in Spaccio and especially in be illuminated by the essential causes of things,
Cabala, helps to clearly reduce the claim of human knowledge seems hopelessly limited and,
human excellence at every level (and, in this in fact, shadowy. This does not mean, however,
sense, the position taken by Bruno radically sur- that to the man is not granted any form of knowl-
passes the typically humanistic idea of dignitas edge. This shadow is not total darkness, but rather
hominis, as proposed, for example, by Giovanni an intermediate state between full light and dark-
Pico della Mirandola in his famous Discorso ness. And before man, in reality, infinite possi-
sulla dignità dell’uomo, 1486), on the other bilities of knowledge open up, as infinite as the
hand, this issue has also – and probably most world in which he is living. In this sense, Bruno’s
importantly – the function of enhancing the perspective, far from being a vision that annihi-
aspect of the praxis, i.e., those operational capa- lates man’s cognitive abilities, strictly functions
bilities and the freedom of action which, if prop- as a true celebration of them: in fact, Bruno is
erly exploited, allow people to play an active and firmly convinced of the possibility and need, on
constructive role in both civil and political (and the part of man, to take full advantage of all the
from this point of view, Bruno seems to be quite intellectual faculties in his possession, even with
in tune with the call to agere et intelligere, seam- full awareness of his limitations. For that matter,
lessly, which is done by an author such as this explains his critique of skeptical philosophy
Giannozzo Manetti, in his treatise De dignitate that took shape in the third part of the Dialogo
et excellentia hominis, 1452). secondo of Cabala del cavallo pegaseo. Among
Regarding Bruno’s refusal of the Christian the various forms in which “asininity” (that is,
dogma of the Trinity, we have already had occa- ignorance) manifests itself, skepticism is without
sion to mention the idea of the unbridgeable gap a doubt the most insidious: the skeptics, by saying
which separates the human from the divine, the that nothing can be known with certainty, pro-
sensible from the supersensible, and the finite grammatically waive any type of knowledge; and
from the infinite. It is true that the divine is worse, they do so by arguing their reasons at
present in the world in a substantial way, both length and presenting their intellectual attitude
as a generative principle of life and reality, and as as an authentic form of philosophy – i.e., using
a condition of possibility of the infinite nature of those same cognitive tools that they question.
the universe; but, considered in itself, in its unity Instead, for Bruno philosophy is, in the highest
and in its purity, it remains unattainable by man, degree, free and continuous aspiration to
who is a constitutionally finite being and basi- knowledge – in spite of its constitutively shad-
cally bound to sensible reality. This idea is owy nature. However, this picture would be
another cornerstone of the ontological conception incomplete if we did not mention another aspect
of Bruno; but at the same time, it is also the basis of Bruno’s epistemological reflection, an aspect
of his epistemological concept, namely, of his that changes – at least in part – the scenario so far.
theory of knowledge. Just as man is unable to In De gli eroici furori, the last of the London
establish a direct contact with the deity, he is dialogues, Bruno clearly distinguishes the figure
not able, in fact, to arrive at a full and complete of the “wise” from that of “furious,” characteriz-
knowledge of the truth. Drawing inspiration from ing them as follows: the wise man stops at a
ancient philosophy (in particular the “myth of the degree of knowledge which has its highest point
cave’” in Plato’s Republic), as well as from ideas in the intellectual contemplation of the
of biblical origin (in particular the figure of the vicissitudinal mutation that structures all planes
“beautiful Shulamite” in the Song of Songs), of reality, thus reaching a level of wisdom that
Bruno treats this fundamental subject recurring perfectly embodies the shadowy dimension; the
in many of his works (from De umbris idearum to furious, however, is not content with this and tries
De gli eroici furori) to the symbolic motif of the to push his knowledge beyond the limits granted
“shadow”: structurally unable to grasp the divine to man, relying not only on the senses and the
intellect but also the will and, above all, idleness and disengagement, rather than exhort
abandoning himself to the bond of love in an men to an ongoing, constructive, and just activity.
attempt to arrive at a deeper and more authentic In this sense, it is no coincidence that – as we
vision of reality. That connected to fury is thus an have seen – in Spaccio itself Bruno polemicizes
extraordinary experience, in which intellectual in the most direct and violent way against Prot-
energies merge with those of feeling, allowing estants who, resting on theological positions that
the furious to catch a momentary glimpse of lead them to believe that everything is already
unity in diversity, the complicated in the decided (“predestination”) and deprive good
explained, the supersensible light and truth deeds of any actual weight (“justification by
behind shadows and sensible appearances. But it faith alone”), are thus proponents of a worldview
is also an experience destined ultimately to fail: profoundly fatalistic and idle. Nor is it a coinci-
human and divine planes cannot meet in a com- dence that in Spaccio itself Bruno proposes a
plete, definitive way; and the condition of the practical alternative of a religious sort. In the
furious remains inevitably fleeting, a state of con- face of faults and damages caused, in his opinion,
sciousness that is absolutely impossible to stabi- by Christianity in general and reformed Chris-
lize. At the same time, what he manages to do is tianity in particular, he looks positively to the
extraordinary; and the pages that Bruno devoted religion of the Egyptians as well as that of the
to the experience of fury and the figure of the Romans. The first is a religion of purely natural
furious are one of the highest pinnacles of his origin. The inhabitants of ancient Egypt were
work and thought. well aware of the presence of divinity in nature
But now we come to the ethico-religious and therefore represented and worshiped their
aspect. Strictly speaking, the absolute substantial gods in animal form, thus establishing an organic
identity of entities established on an ontological relationship – beyond the ontological distance
level and the consequent total confirmation of the that separates them – between the divine world
human events and destinies determined by the and the natural world and at the same time,
rhythm and cycle of vicissitude should leave no between divine justice and human justice. That
room for a qualitative differentiation of the of ancient Rome, on the other hand, is a heroic
behaviors of individuals. Yet, despite this, religion with a marked civil vocation. The
Bruno still wants to preserve the ability to Romans deified heroes in fact, as those who
recognize – and reward – the value of right stood out for their virtues, and were able to per-
action, and in the pages of Spaccio de la bestia form feats of exceptional greatness; in doing so,
trionfante, expends greater effort to achieve this they established very high standards of behavior,
goal. Spaccio is a magnificent fresco with a myth- to be imitated by aiming at the construction and
ological background, in which imagining that maintenance of a just and organized society (for
Jupiter wants to cleanse the world of the gods, this exploitation of Roman religion Bruno also
marked by a profound moral decay, Bruno lays drew inspiration from Discorsi sulla prima deca
the foundation for a general reform, first of all of di Tito Livio by Niccolò Machiavelli, 1531). Thus
ethics, but also of political and religious society. for Bruno the ideal religion is one founded on
The purpose of Jupiter – and Bruno – is the natural bases and aiming at the development of
systematic replacement of each vice with a spe- civilization. And this all in all instrumental idea
cific virtue, and in this context, moral values such of religion – that is, a religion must be judged not
as commitment, merit, and justice are enhanced. so much for itself, but for its consequences on a
Bruno fights a dual battle: on the one hand, civil level – is confirmed by Bruno’s substantial
against any conception that includes a universe indifference to the historical religions. If Bruno
dominated by pure chance and blind luck, in momentarily adhered to Calvinism when he was
which every action is equivalent to another, and in Geneva in 1579, and if, before the inquisitors
every attitude is lawful; on the other hand, against during the Venetian phase of the trial, he was
those who consider the greatest virtue to be willing to at least partially put into question his
beliefs, it was not a form of inconsistency but (“liking”) or repulsion (“dislike”) stand out, thus
because for him the validity of individual reli- creating a network of connections that pervades
gious denominations was purely relative and the whole of reality, and that the magician can
depended, in the final analysis, not on choices of precisely manipulate and direct to his liking;
faith but on strictly philosophical reasons, or even magical knowledge, in the light of all this, does
simple reasons of expediency. This explains as not in any way conflict with the Christian reli-
well that sort of recovery of Catholicism that gion, since its practical outlet, the magic act,
takes place in the final pages of Spaccio itself, being based on strictly natural assumptions, is
in which Henry III of France is celebrated as a clearly distinguishable from the miracle, which
perfect Christian king: before the theological instead is supernatural and can be accomplished
errors of Reformed Christianity and the social only by God or by those with divine powers. On
unrest it provoked, Catholic Christianity is the whole, this is Bruno’s perspective, while he
preferable – as a “lesser evil,” one might introduces some variants of absolute importance.
say – purged of its faults and exclusively for the First, he insists in a particular way and with great
benefits it can offer society, by virtue of the value originality (especially in works such as De magia
attributed to doing good works. naturali and De vinculis in genere) on the theme
This is the overall picture of Bruno’s philoso- of “bond”: the magician is one who acts not so
phy, considered in its essential features and in its much on things as on people, binding them to
internal articulations. However, this view would himself and thus being able to pursue his aims
be incomplete if one did not mention in conclu- in essentially social and political terms, such as
sion, the other two sides of theoretical – and laying the foundations for a reform of customs
practical – Bruno’s thought, very peculiar and and institutions; and, in this sense, the practice of
themselves very relevant: that of magic and that natural magic is the culmination of the aforemen-
of mnemonics, or the art of memory. A large part tioned practical aspect of Bruno’s philosophy
of Bruno’s production consists of the so-called (Scapparone and Tirinnanzi 1997). Second, a
“magic works,” a series of writings that place fundamental emphasis is placed, in the context
Bruno in the tradition of Renaissance natural of the magical performance of the act, to the role
magic, where he reproposes and reformulates played by fides (“faith and trust”): showing him-
various aspects independently. That of natural self to be perfectly aware of the psychological
magic is a very important strand in Renaissance aspects of the relationship between men, Bruno
thought, with one of its principal founding texts theorizes about the impossibility of a successful
in De vita coelitus comparanda (1489) by magical act in the absence of a positive predispo-
Marsilio Ficino and developing in the sixteenth sition on the part of the onlookers, so if they do
century through the work of authors such as Cor- not believe in the ability of the magician, he
nelius Agrippa, Girolamo Cardano, and Giovan cannot exert any suggestion on them and is
Battista Della Porta. Beyond the differences that doomed to failure (Meroi 2007). Thirdly, in
characterize the approaches of individual Bruno’s view natural magic lacks any religious
thinkers, it is possible to identify some common tinge: Bruno, unlike most Renaissance authors
and distinctive features: magic, if properly under- who deal with natural magic, does not even
stood, has nothing supernatural about it, and con- bother to reconcile his position with the Christian
sists simply in the knowledge of natural vision of the world and thus has no problem
principles and in their use for beneficial purposes; distinguishing the magic act from the miracle;
the magician, then, is nothing more than the in fact, for him Christ was a simple wizard who
supreme sage, that is, one who is able to grasp as such could perform his alleged miracles in the
and exploit all the properties of the natural ele- appropriate circumstances, but could not do so in
ments, even those that remain hidden to other their absence (Scapparone 2007).
men; of these properties, those that combine enti- If the “magic works” are concentrated in a
ties on the basis of relationships of attraction chronologically advanced stage of Bruno’s
activity (around 1590), the mnemonic effects. And one can clearly see, finally, that in
writings – from De umbris idearum and Cantus this way the exercise of mnemonics and theory
Circaeus to Sigillus sigillorum and De imaginum, related to it are anything but secondary in the
signorum et idearum compositione – are located complex and rich philosophy of Bruno.
throughout his entire intellectual production,
confirming the great importance he attached to
this particular field of knowledge. The art of Impact and Legacy
memory, that is the set of techniques for better
remembering concepts by linking them to a Bruno’s works were included in the Index of
sequence of images arranged in a specific order, forbidden books of the Catholic Church in 1603,
is rooted in classical antiquity when authors such i.e., shortly after his death; despite this, they
as Cicero and Quintilian made it an integral part enjoyed considerable circulation throughout
of rhetoric; and it enjoyed particular fortune dur- Europe over the following centuries, ensuring
ing the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, when it that Bruno’s ideas were widely discussed and
was used mainly by religious preachers, espe- were the subject of often conflicting opinions.
cially Franciscans and Dominicans. Bruno, edu- During the seventeenth century the debate
cated in a Dominican convent, was quite familiar focused mainly on ontological and cosmological
with these techniques and made extensive use of issues, as well as on the problem of Bruno’s
them; although, as in the case of natural magic, atheism. Let us see some examples. In a letter to
even in this case his approach was not limited to a Galileo Galilei on April 19, 1610 Johannes Kep-
simple passive recovery of tradition. From a ler, while not hiding a certain sympathy for the
purely technical point of view, Bruno’s mnemon- figure of Bruno, decidedly distances himself from
ics is actually not very different from the tradi- his infinitist cosmological hypothesis. And an
tional one, since it also relies on the use of images orthodox thinker like the Franciscan friar Marin
and their ideal locations; but what changes, com- Mersenne, in his polemical work entitled
pared to tradition, is the very concept of the art of L’impieté des Deistes (1624), condemns Bruno
memory and its aims. In Bruno the cognitive in no uncertain terms because he believes that his
value of the art of memory is not limited to better concept of an infinite universe, and in particular
management of knowledge already gained his belief that from an infinite cause must neces-
through the enhancement of mnemonic activity, sarily derive an infinite effect, lead inevitably to
but it can also be considered a means of acquiring assume the coincidence in God of freedom and
new knowledge. For Bruno, in fact, if the creation necessity, and thus deprive God of his own free-
of a system of relations between concepts, dom. Instead a positive judgment is made by
images, and locations does not occur in an exter- Gabriel Naudé, who in Apologie pour tous les
nal manner (that is, based on more or less random grands personnages qui ont ésté faussement
combinations) but in an organic way (i.e., taking soupçonnez de magie (1653) recognizes Bruno’s
into account the actual connections between the merit in having contributed in a decisive way,
different components of the system and giving through his research, to setting humanity on a
rise to new horizons of meaning), then the pro- path toward knowledge of nature on purely ratio-
found analogy appears obvious between the art of nal bases and free from any kind of constraint or
memory and the action of nature itself, which coercion. On the other hand Pierre Bayle, in the
constantly produces new entities from existing pages of the article on Bruno in his famous
ones and continually transforms the appearance Dictionnaire historique et critique (1697), criti-
and configuration of reality. The art of memory is cizes Bruno’s anti-aristotelianism, considering
thus an absolutely privileged tool for penetrating him an unrepentant atheist, and creating a com-
the secrets of nature and better understanding the bination that in time would become almost pro-
dynamics of the progress of the real, since it verbial, identifies in the ontology of De la causa,
reproduces nature’s mechanisms and creative principio et uno the roots of Spinoza’s pantheism.
This alternation of positive and negative can from Bruno; but, above all, Bruno would have
also be found in the eighteenth century. The great been, along with Spinoza, the greatest exponent
philosopher Leibniz, for example, did not have a of an atheist pantheism which, in spite of its
high opinion of Bruno; while John Toland was a contradictory aspects (especially, conferring
great admirer, especially appreciating the rigor- freedom on the human spirit without recourse to
ously natural imprint of Bruno’s philosophical faith), is also a crucial moment in the history of
reflection and the critique of revealed religions modern thought.
that follows, found in the pages of the Spaccio de The nineteenth century began with another
la bestia trionfante. Bruno was held in some important interpretation of Bruno’s philosophy,
regard by historians of astronomy Johann Frie- which moreover moved in the wake of that
drich Weidler and Jean Sylvain Bailly, who dis- already provided by Jacobi. In 1802, Schelling
cuss him in their writings, setting out the main published the philosophical dialogue Bruno, oder
points of his cosmology. Similarly, Bruno’s name u€ber das göttliche und nat€ urliche Prinzip der
is frequently mentioned in impressive works of Dinge, in which the idealist thinker, while
scholarship of the time: writers such as Jean- expressing some differences compared to
Pierre Niceron, Jacques Georges de Chaufepié, Bruno, sees him as a philosopher who was able
Johann Jacob Brucker, and David Clément to capture and illustrate in an exemplary manner
reserve for Bruno plenty of space in their dictio- various essential theoretical points, such as the
naries or in their historiographic and biblio- fundamental unity of everything, the presence of
graphic texts, acknowledging some merit, but life throughout all nature, the relationship
also insisting on his mistakes (beginning with between the finite and the infinite, and the sub-
atheism) and underlining the analogy between stantial identity of opposites. Still within the con-
his ideas and those professed by Spinoza. How- text of German idealism, Hegel himself devoted
ever, of the eighteenth century, we must espe- considerable attention to Bruno’s philosophy,
cially recall two very important interpretations reserving for it a prominent place in his
that contributed not a little to raising awareness Vorlesungen u€ber die Geschichte der
about and appreciating Bruno’s thought. The first Philosophie (1836), and recognizing the deep
is that of Diderot, who admired Bruno greatly and bond that would unite it with that of Spinoza;
wrote an entry dedicated to him in the Encyclopé- however, he finally passed a judgment that was
die (1765). The Enlightenment thinker summa- on the whole negative, finding Bruno’s philoso-
rizes the essential principles of Bruno’s phy representative of a still-imperfect state, in its
philosophy, and seeing it as a real anticipation purely objective dimension, of the development
of that of Spinoza and Leibniz makes Bruno the of the universal spirit. But the nineteenth century
true founder of modern thought, the first to break was also the century of the first modern editions
free from the theoretical constraints of Aristote- of Bruno’s writings: that of his Italian works
lian concepts (such a positive judgment must be edited by Adolf Wagner (1830), that of the
counterbalanced, within the Enlightenment, by Latin works edited by August Friedrich Gfrörer
that of Voltaire, who in the Lettre sur François (1836), the Italian works edited by Paul de
Rabelais of 1767 presents Bruno as a fool, who to Lagarde (1889), and especially the Italian
defend his own ideas could not avoid death at the national edition of Latin works (including the
stake). The second interpretation is that of the “magic works”) edited by Francesco Fiorentino,
German philosopher Jacobi, who in the appendix Felice Tocco, Girolamo Vitelli, Vittorio
to the second edition of his work Über die Lehre Imbriani, and Carlo Maria Tallarigo, distin-
des Spinoza. Briefen an Herrn Moses Mendels- guished from all others for its great philological
sohn (1789) translates, publishes, and comments rigor (1879–91 = Bruno 1962). Nor can we for-
on an extract from De la causa. According to get, finally, that in the second half of the century
Jacobi, philosophers of the likes of Gassendi, several scholars who studied Bruno were active
Descartes, and Leibniz also drew inspiration in Italy: Bertrando Spaventa considered him one
of the leading philosophers of modernity – a pre- Cross-References

cursor, in particular, of Spinoza – and as a true
hero of freedom of thought, though he could ▶ Academy, Platonic
never completely resolve the problem of the rela- ▶ Aristotelianism
tionship between God and nature; Francesco ▶ Astronomy
Fiorentino, while recognizing its greatness, criti- ▶ Atomism
cizes his pantheism as a form of unfinished dia- ▶ Copernicanism
lectic and he too connects his thought to that of ▶ Copernicus, Nicolaus
Spinoza; Felice Tocco mainly studies Bruno’s ▶ Cosmology
complex concept of religion, the relationship ▶ Dignity of Man
between Bruno’s works and their ancient and ▶ Erasmus, Desiderius
modern sources, as well as the relationship ▶ Ethics
between the set of Latin writings and the Italian ▶ Ficino, Marsilio
writings. ▶ Geocentrism
In the twentieth century the thought of ▶ Hermes Trismegistus and Hermeticism
Bruno – now universally recognized as one of ▶ Life
the greatest thinkers of the modern age – is at ▶ Manetti, Giannozzo
the center of a lengthy new period of study and ▶ Neoplatonism
research, on the one hand taking up and develop- ▶ Nicholas of Cusa
ing traditional exegetical grounds with a more ▶ Scepticism
pronounced historiographical sensitivity com- ▶ Sidney, Philip
pared to the past; on the other hand leading to ▶ Virtue: Renaissance Philosophy
innovative and original interpretations, highlight-
ing previously somewhat neglected aspects of
Bruno’s work, such as those related to magic
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and the art of memory. In this sense, one must
recall the research of Frances Yates, who
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di storia e letteratura.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_346-1
Decembrio, Pier Candido

Eleonora Gamba*
Dipartimento di Scienze storiche, geografiche e dell’antichità - DiSSGeA, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padova,
Italy
Abstract
A leading figure of the Lombard humanism with Francesco Filelfo, Pier Candido Decembrio was a
prolific, but not gifted author. He used to write to ingratiate himself with powerful figures or directly
on demand of his patrons, the Visconti in Milan, the papacy, the Aragons in Naples, and the House of
Este in Ferrara. His major work was an encomiastic biography of Filippo Maria Visconti, but his
translations of classics, especially Plutarch, the historians, and Plato, had a fair circulation too. His
renderings were similar to medieval ones, because Decembrio preferred to preserve the meaning of
the original texts and not to make his prose elegant, as is clearly shown by his versions of Platonic
dialogues Republic and Lysis. In spite of this, he felt free to remove some philosophical passages that
were too difficult to understand or could offend moral standards.
Alternate Names
Decembrius, Petrus Candidus
Biography
Pier Candido was born in Pavia on the 24th of October 1399 and owes his name to the Candiot
bishop Pietro Filargis, whom his father Uberto worked for and who stood as godfather to him. In
1402 he moved to Milan, where Uberto began to serve the duke Gian Maria Visconti. In 1419 he
became himself the secretary of Filippo Maria Visconti and began to travel in Italy and Europe on
diplomatic missions. This period was tormented because of the loss of two of his sons, of his father
(1427), and of both his mother and his brother Modesto in the same year 1430. When Filippo Maria
died in 1447 and the Ambrosian Republic was constituted, he showed himself loyal to the city he
always regarded his land and became secretary to the new government. With the advent of Francesco
Sforza in 1449, he was discharged and compelled to wander in search of a new patron. The Pope
Nicholas V received him as magister brevium, but soon after his death and the election of Calixtus
III, he left the Papal Court and went to Naples to Aragon family. In 1459 a new troubled decade
began: in straitened circumstances, he turned to the Gonzagas, the Sforzas, the Estes, and to the
Pope, but his desires were never fulfilled. Furthermore, in 1464, he lost his wife Caterina and 1 year
later married Battistina. At last, in 1467 he was received at the court of Ferrara and remained there
happily until March 1476 serving Borso and Ercole. Coming back to Milan, he died there in
December 1477 and was buried in S. Ambrogio cathedral. His library, left to his second wife
*Email: eleonora.gamba@tin.it
Page 1 of 5
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_346-1
Battistina, passed afterwards to the Milanese monastery of S. Maria delle Grazie, but has been
dispersed at its suppression (Viti 1987; Hankins 1991).
Works and Themes

Only a small part of the huge literary production of Pier Candido has survived, but it is enough to
reconstruct his skills and interests. Omitting some minor works of humanistic inspiration (orations,
verses and epigrams, a grammar textbook, etc.), he wrote historical works to celebrate his patrons.
The most successful was the Life of Filippo Maria Visconti, a biography that he did not benefit from
during his life, but became afterwards quite famous. Other less known titles are the biography of
Francesco Sforza (1461–1462), the Vita Herculis Estensis (1471), and the tardy Opuscula historica
(Pyle 1988), which he dedicated to Borso d’Este.
The relationships with international leaders and with contemporary humanists are well depicted in
his correspondence (Zaccaria 1952; 1967; Zaggia 1993b), never completely published, but written
in three different manuscript collections: the first one covers the years 1419–1433 and was offered to
the archbishop of Milan Bartolomeo Capra, with the title Epistolae iuveniles (1433); the second one
is a choice of letters dated 1433–1443, with some later additions, dedicated to the secretary of the
Viscontis Simonino Ghilini; and the last selection (1440–1468) is dedicated to the Este referendary
Ludovico Casella (1468).
Some works are simply compilations of ancient sources, such as the Historia peregrina (Zaccaria
1956) and the De animantium naturis (Pyle 1984). The Historia is divided into three books, entitled
Cosmographia, De genitura hominis, and De muneribus Romane reipublice, respectively. They are
a revisiting of Orosius, Aristotle’s Historia animalium, Avicenna’s De animalibus, Pliny, and
Macrobius. The other work, composed at the end of the 1450s and dedicated to marquis Ludovico
Gonzaga, is an illustrated bestiary focused on marvelous creatures, animals, and monsters and
founded prevalently on medieval authors (Albertus Magnus, Thomas of Cantimpré, Vincent of
Beauvais), although Aristotle and Pliny are often quoted as well.
Most of his efforts were directed to Latin and vernacular translations of classical authors, among
which must be mentioned the Historia Alexandri Magni by Curtius Rufus, the Corpus Caesarianum
(Ponzù Donato 2012), and Leonardo Bruni’s De primo bello Punico (1438), dedicated to Filippo
Maria Visconti and Inigo de Avalos, respectively. Between 1440 and 1442, he translated books I–IV
and X of Iliad and drew up a Vita Homeri, which is not an original work, but the result of the
juxtaposition of what he could find in the ancient sources. At the Papal Court, on demand of
Nicholas V, he translated Appian (1450–1454; Zaggia 1993) and then was involved in a project
around Diodorus Siculus (1455): Poggio Bracciolini had the first books to translate, George of
Trebizond the central section, and Decembrio was charged with books XVI–XX, but he could carry
out just the first 49 chapters of book XVI. One of his favorite authors was Plutarch: after 1460, he
composed the Ex illustrium comparationibus in Plutarcum Cheronensem libri quattuor, an abridged
Latin version of the Lives, which remained unfinished. In spite of his criticism of the translations
made by Leonardo Bruni, Jacopo Angeli, and Guarino, he used them extensively to write his
epitome (Resta 1962; Gionta 2005).
He had never shown any particular attitude toward philosophy, but he dealt with Platonic texts
such as Republic and Lysis, of which he proposed Latin renderings.
His Celestis Politia was written between 1437 and 1440, drawing from the rendering produced by
Manuel Chrysoloras and embellished by his own father Uberto, which he found in the manuscript
now Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, B 123 inf. Its readings were amended with the Greek text of
Page 2 of 5
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_346-1
Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, E 90 sup. (Fera 2005). These supplements and the rendering of
political terms were Decembrio’s greatest merit (Gusmini 2012).
In 1437 he faced the book V, which touches the discussed theory of the common possession of
women and property. Pier Candido solved it modifying the meaning of the Platonic thought in the
Latin text so that the subordination of individual conscience to reason of State and the consequent
admission of incest were dissimulated. The fifth book was sent in 1438 to Humphrey of Gloucester,
who was the dedicatee mentioned in the prefatory letter, and was followed by books I–IV in 1439.
The translation of the whole work was completed in August 1440, books I–IV and VII–IX given to
Humphrey, V to Giovanni Amideo, VI to Alfonso de Cartagena, and X to Francesco Pizolpasso.
Whereas it was spreading in Italy, England, Switzerland, and Spain, Angelo Decembrio picked a
quarrel with his brother Pier Candido and accused him of copying their father and Chrysoloras’
rendering (Zaggia 1993b). The relationship between the two brothers cooled, and the Celestis Politia
did not find great success, because of the diffusion of the translations by Uberto, Antonio Cassarino,
and Marsilio Ficino.
Between the end of 1454 and March 1455, he devoted himself to the translation of Lysis, which he
dedicated to Ottaviano degli Ubaldini. Decembrio could read the Greek text in the manuscript
Wroclaw, Biblioteka Uniwersytecka, Ack. 1949/60, which he had bought in Siena on the 13th of
September 1442. The two extant manuscripts (Ferrara, Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea, II 66 [= F]
and Madrid, Universidad Complutense, Biblioteca Historica, Mss. 129 [= M]) bear versions a little
different, because both derive from the same (now lost) model, but M shows traces of a revision by
Decembrio himself on the basis of a new inspection of the Greek text (Gallego Moya 2001;
Martinelli Tempesta 2010). As Decembrio had done with Republic, here as well he tried to improve
the meaning of the text, when it was not completely clear to him, modifying the Greek text with
corrections and conjectures. As a result, the original Platonic thinking was often distorted and
lacunae or small errors of the Greek model were amended only in some isolated cases. In his preface,
he openly stated that he had done an excerption, as Cicero and Virgil did. His major aim was to make
Plato acceptable to the Christian moral view, and in order to do so, he moralized and censored those
passages that sounded improper and particularly those explicitly related to pederasty or homosex-
uality. Sometimes, instead, he cut off passages he could not understand. His translational technic
shows a literal adherence to the Greek model, with the rendering of technical terms with calques
from Greek, according to the position he had taken up at the end of the so-called controversia
alphonsiana, when he had distanced himself from the technic ad sententiam, which Leonardo Bruni
had previously supported in his rendering of the Nicomachean Ethics. Decembrio’s prose therefore
seems literal, clumsy, and similar to medieval translations, from which he inherited the rendering of
the participle of the verb to be with the Latin ens o existens (Martinelli Tempesta 1997; Hankins
2003; Martinelli Tempesta 2009).
Decembrio’s philosophical interests can be seen also in his seemingly original works: after a
careful exam, they prove to be inspired by classical or medieval auctoritates, not always explicitly
quoted. This is what happens in his juvenile dialogue De vitae ignorantia, written after 1428 on the
basis of the Dialogus de dispositione vitae suae by Lombardo della Seta, a friend and follower of
Petrarch. Pier Candido supports the hedonistic-epicurean theory that happiness and spiritual plea-
sures coexist with a quiet life and a moderate pleasure coming from worldly things: if you want to be
happy, first of all you need riches which free you from everyday cares (Viti 1987).
The Platonic doctrine is clearly recognizable in the dialogue De humani animi immortalitate
(1460), dedicated to Francesco Visconti and depending on the pseudo-Augustinian De spiritu et
anima. There Decembrio reflects upon the human soul: unique of its kind and not consisting of
several parts, it has a vital force unconnected to the contingent human forms it may have and is
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therefore immortal; it has been created by God; there are differences among rational, irascible, and
concupiscible soul, as well as its behavior differs if it is directed at the flesh or God. The conclusion
is that men have to strive to live as spiritual as possible. This is in contradiction to the theories
proposed in the De vitae ignorantia, due to the different sources they stand upon, but the work itself
“is noteworthy for its attempt to show the large area of agreement between Plato and Christianity on
the subject of the immortality of the soul” (Hankins 1991, II, p. 418).
References
Fera V (2005) Filologia in casa Decembrio. In: Vegetti M, Pissavino C (eds) I Decembrio e la
tradizione della Repubblica di Platone tra Medioevo e Rinascimento, Bibliopolis, Napoli,
pp 144–175
Gallego Moya E (2001) La versión latina de Pier Candido Decembrio del “Lysis” de Platón. In:
Körkel B, Licht T, Wiendlocha J (eds) Mentis amore ligati: lateinische Freundschaftsdichtung und
Dichterfreundschaft in Mittelalter und Neuzeit: Festgabe f€ ur Reinhard D€ uchting zum 65.
Geburtstag, Heidelberg, pp 93–114
Gionta D (2005) Tra Filelfo e Pier Candido Decembrio. In: Vegetti M, Pissavino C (eds)
I Decembrio e la tradizione della Repubblica di Platone tra Medioevo e Rinascimento,
Bibliopolis, Napoli, pp 341–401
Gusmini F (2012) Le traduzioni della “repubblica” platonica di Uberto e Pier Candido Decembrio:
primi accertamenti testuali. Filologia italiana 9:77–108
Hankins J (1991) Plato in the Italian Renaissance, I-II. E.J. Brill, Leiden/New York/København/
Köln
Hankins J (2003) Humanism and Platonism in the Italian renaissance, I. Edizioni di storia e
letteratura, Roma, pp 193–239
Martinelli Tempesta S (1997) La tradizione testuale del Liside di Platone. La Nuova Italia, Firenze,
pp 145–155
Martinelli Tempesta S (2009) Platonis Euthyphron Francisco Philelfo interprete. Lysis Pietro
Candido Decembrio interprete, Firenze, pp 109–139
Martinelli Tempesta S (2010) Ancora sulla versione del Liside platonico di Pier Candido Decembrio.
ACME 63(2):263–270
Ponzù Donato P (2012–2013) Il Bellum Alexandrinum e il Bellum Africum volgarizzati da Pier
Candido Decembrio per Inigo d’Avalos. Interpres 31:97–149
Pyle CM (1984) Pier Candido Decembrio and Rome: his hand and the Vatican manuscript of his
treatise on natural history (MS Urb. Lat. 276). In: Umanesimo a Roma nel Quattrocento, Roma/
New York, pp 295–308. [= Pyle CM (1997) Milan and Lombardy in the Renaissance: essays in
cultural history. Roma, pp 31–44]
Pyle CM (1988) Harvard MS Richardson 23: a “pendant” to Vatican MS Urb. lat. 276 and a
significant exemplar for P.C. Decembrio’s Opuscula Historica. Scriptorium 42:191–198.
[= Pyle CM (1997) Milan and Lombardy in the Renaissance: essays in cultural history. Roma,
pp 45–56]
Resta G (1962) Le epitomi di Plutarco nel Quattrocento. Antenore, Padova
Viti P (1987) Decembrio, Pier Candido. In: Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, vol 33. Istituto della
Enciclopedia italiana, Roma, pp 488–498
Zaccaria V (1952) L’epistolario di Pier Candido Decembrio. Rinascimento 3:85–118
Zaccaria V (1956) Sulle opere di Pier Candido Decembrio. Rinascimento 7:14–74
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Zaccaria V (1967) Pier Candido Decembrio e Leonardo bruni. Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto
Medioevo (s. III) 8:504–554
Zaggia M (1993) La traduzione latina da Appiano di Pier Candido Decembrio: per la storia della
tradizione. Studi medievali (s. III) 34:193–243
Zaggia M (1993b) La versione latina di Pier Candido Decembrio della Repubblica di Platone. Per la
storia della tradizione. Interpres 13:7–13
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Leone, Ambrogio
Born: Nola, 1458/59
Died: Nola, 6 March 1525
Leen Spruit*
Center for the History of Philosophy and Science, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Abstract
Ambrogio Leone (1458/1459–1525), Italian humanist and physician, friend to Erasmus of Rotter-
dam, studied in Padua where he graduated in philosophy and medicine and then returned to Nola; his
most important works are a historical treatise about his place of birth (De Nola, 1514) and a
polemical work against Averroes (Castigationes in Averroem, first edition 1517).
Ambrogio Leone (Nola, 1458/1459–Nola, 6 March 1525), son of Marino and Marchisella Balletta,
was educated in one of the monasteries of Nola or by a private teacher. In 1477 he moved to Padua,
where he studied medicine and philosophy with Nicoletto Vernia and Agostino Nifo and where he
graduated in both in 1484. After his return to Nola, he practiced as a physician in villa Schivacura
(near Mount Cicala), which soon became a meeting place for men of science and letters. He became
acquainted with Gioviano Pontano, whom he hosted during the plague in 1493. Nearly nothing is
known about his life between 1490 and 1498, with exception made for his love story with Beatrice
de Notariis, who died in 1491 and whom he intended to honor with a collective poem (involving
E. Strozzi, A. Tebaldeo, G. F. Caracciolo, and J. Sannazaro), entitled Beatricium, never published.
Between the end of 1499 and the beginning of 1500, he moved to Padua, where he attended the home
and the coterie of friends of Aldo Manuzio. Before 1504 he returned to Nola, but in 1505 he settled in
Venice, where he practiced medicine and started to study Greek, gaining a reputation with the
members of the Aldine Academy and Erasmus, with whom he had befriended when he supervised
the printing of the Adagia in Venice in 1508.
In 1514 he published De Nola, which, based on ancient rather than on recent sources, was the first
product of Neapolitan humanist historiography. In 1517 Leone published the Castigationes in
Averroem, in a first edition of 30 books (then followed two editions: in 1524 of the third part only
and an integral edition in 1532), containing a long list of abuses. In his critique Leone combines two
principal anti-Averroist responses: humanist historicism and pristine Aristotelianism. His agenda is
both rhetorical and metaphysical. In the dedicatory letter to Leo X, he presents Averroes as a liar, an
unreliable interpreter, a corruptor of epistemological and ethical norms, a defiler of the truth,
impious, a weak logician, an uncouth philosopher, and a braggart. But worse of all was that Averroes
hoped to make a name for himself in philosophy by ridiculing all religion.
On July 19, 1518, he wrote a long letter to Erasmus, in which he mocked his friend for his tireless
and multifaceted activity, calling him a novel Proteus and reviving Ulysses. In the same year, he
published an edition of the works in prose of Gioviano Pontano and published a translation of
Johannes Actuarius’ De urinis. At the end of 1519, he received a letter from Erasmus who
*Email: leendert.spruit@fastwebnet.it
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congratulated him for the publication of the works, particularly the one against Averroes. In August
of 1523, he published the ponderous Opus Quaestionum seu problematum, where he discussed, in
addition to ethical issues, physiological and medical questions, including problems in physics,
geometry, optics, and music. His last published work in life was De nobilitate rerum dialogus
(Venice 1525). From information about some unpublished works, we know that Leone also carried
out research in antidotes against the poison of serpents and in the care of nephrology, diseases of the
kidney, and meteorological issues. The dedicatory letter of De nobilitate rerum inform about
manuscript works, including “Libellus de Bisexto,” “De vi ridendi,” “Lucubrationes in VI
Methaphisices,” “Libellus de signis pluviarum et ventorum,” and “Adnotationes in theriacam.”
On the evening of March 6, 1525, after 2 days of agony, he died, hit by a stroke.
Cross-References
▶ Aristotelianism
References
Primary literature
Leone A (1514) De Nola. Opusculum distinctum, plenum, clarum, doctum, pulchrum, verum, grave,
varium, et utile. Venice (reprints: Francfurt 1600; Venice 1614; Leiden 1723; The Hague 1725;
Naples 1735/8; Italian translation: Naples 1934)
Leone A (1517) Castigationum adversus Averroem, ad Augustissimum Leonem X. Venice
Leone A (1519) In Actuarium Io. Zacchariae filii de Urinis liber primus. Venice
Leone A (1523) Novum opus quaestionum, seu problematum, ut pulcherrimorum, ita utilissimorum
tum aliis plerisque in rebus cognoscendis tum maxime in philosophia et medicina scientia. Venice
Leone A (1525) De Nobilitate rerum dialogus (. . .) eiusdem ex Aristotele translatum opus de
Virtutibus. Venice
Leone A (1553) Disputatio Alexandri Aphrodisii (. . .) in qua scitur quarum rerum sint diffinitiones.
Venice
Secondary literature
entry in DBI, vol. 64, also for further bibliographic references; see http://www.treccani.it/
enciclopedia/ambrogio-leone_%28Dizionario_Biografico%29/
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Leonico Tomeo, Niccolò

Born:1456, Venice
Died:1531, Padua
Eleonora Gamba*
Dipartimento di Scienze storiche, geografiche e dell’antichità – DiSSGeA, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padova,
Italy
Abstract
Niccolò Leonico Tomeo was a Paduan humanist who devoted his long life to classical scholarship.
Excellent connoisseur of Greek language, he studied and translated Plato and Aristotle directly from
the original texts, refusing to resort to scholasticism and medieval annotators. He amassed a vast
library of Greek philosophers and scientists and surrounded himself with young men who went to
Padua from all over the Europe to follow his lessons. After lecturing on Aristotle in Padua and
Venice until 1509, he privately taught Plato, because – as other humanists were – he was persuaded
that Platonic and peripatetic theories had to be conciliated against the spreading Averroism. This
perspective is well shown by his major philosophical work, the Dialogi.
Biography
Son of Biagio and Polissena, Niccolò was born in Venice in 1456 and moved to Padua with his
brother Bartolomeo, called Fusco; his surname must be probably retraced to his family’s place of
origin, which was the town Ithomi in Messenia. As he was young, he learned Greek in Florence with
Demetrios Chalkondyles and afterwards completed his education in Padua, with a degree in artibus
on 7th May 1485. In this period, he shared the goliardic life of Padua with his friends Tifi Odasi and
Domizio Parenzo. Then he turned to ancient medicine and philosophy, becoming quickly very
expert; from 1497 to 1509, he held the lectureship of Aristotle on the Greek text in Padua. From 1504
to 1506, he taught Greek and Latin in Venice, after winning in competition Marcus Musurus. When
he came back to Padua, he went on teaching privately to foreign intellectuals who met in his house:
William Latimer, Thomas Linacre, Thomas Lupset, Richard Pace, Reginald Pole, and Cuthbert
Tunstall. The Italian Pietro Bembo, Lazzaro Bonamico, Paolo Canale, Giovanni Benedetto
Lampridio, and Giovanni Calfurnio frequented him too. Relationships with them are known, thanks
to the collection of Tomeo’s letters, testified by the ms. Vat. Ross. lat. 997, related to the years
1521–1531. Erasmus of Rotterdam knew and appreciated him. In 1519, his sister Agostina with her
children Magno, Paolo, Angelo, and Laura joined Leonico in Padua. He died there in 1531, when he
was 75 years old, and was buried in S. Francesco church (De Bellis 1980; Geanakoplos 1985; Russo
2005). His nephew Magno inherited his library and kept it until the beginning of the 1540s. Pietro
Bembo, who had known Tomeo as a master and a friend, acquired almost the whole collection. Later
on his death (1547), Torquato Bembo sold it together with the library of his father and several
collectors like Gian Vincenzo Pinelli, Fulvio Orsini, and Jean-Jacques and Henri de Mesmes bought
*Email: eleonora.gamba@tin.it
*Email: eleonora.gamba@studenti.unipd.it
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some portions. Tomeo’s manuscripts are therefore today dispersed in libraries all around the world,
such as the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, the Vatican library, the Bibliothèque nationale de
France, and the Burgerbibliothek in Bern. About 50 exemplars have been found so far (Gamba
2014).
Works and Themes

The most famous works by Tomeo are his Latin translations of Aristotelian treatises, which he chose
among those not yet available to the Latin world or not studied neither at university level. Although
he had been making them since he was young, most were published in the last decade of his
lifetime, when his friends persuaded him to do so. Their value resides in Tomeo’s wide knowledge of
Greek and his philological and philosophical accuracy, which are also the reasons for his success.
In 1523 was published the Parva naturalia, destined to become the edition used in school
teaching and to have several reprints in the succeeding centuries. In the preface, he stated that he
had decided to imitate ancient commentators and to ignore medieval and contemporary ones (Kraye
2002).
In 1525, he collected under the title Opuscula various works: the translations of three Aristotelian
treatises, on zoology (De animalium motione and De animalium incessu) and physics (Mechanica);
a translation of Plato’s Timaeus with Proclus’ commentary (De animorum generatione, cum
explicatione et digressione Procli Lytii [sic]), which shows Tomeo’s attraction to Neoplatonic
metaphysical theories; and Quaestiones amatoriae and Quaestiones naturales, two original works
inspired by the peripatetic tradition and focused on the etiology of lovers’ behavior and problems
about zoology, human physiology and anatomy, botany, and mineralogy (De Bellis 1975).
Two other less known translations are the astronomic Ptolemaic treatise Inerrantium stellarum
significationes (1516) and the De puero epileptico by Galenus, edited posthumously in 1541, which
testify Tomeo’s passion for scientific topics.
In 1531 was published a juvenile miscellaneous and erudite work, De varia historia. Tomeo
collected there mythological episodes, etymologies of geographical names, and other curios he
found in ancient authors, so that the work seems more an adaptation and translation of excerpts than
a genuine product of his pen.
After his death, his nephew Magno Tomeo found a manuscript with Leonico’s Latin translation of
the first book of the Aristotelian De partibus animalium and had it published in 1540. Tomeo wrote it
in the late 1520s, with the declared purpose of doing a complete translation of the zoological work
that Pietro Pomponazzi had previously begun to gloss on the behalf of Ercole Gonzaga, but had left
incomplete for his death (Perfetti 2004). Tomeo too died before finishing the work and we nowadays
can read only his version of the first book: Conversio atque explanatio primi libri. It is a translation
with commentary, very graceful in its Latin style, which paraphrases and sums up the Aristotelian
argumentations and clarifies the line of reasoning when it seems too tortuous. Tomeo tried to act as
an ancient commentator, dealing directly with the Greek text and refusing to use either the scholastic
jargon or its fixed formulas of textual exposition (Perfetti 1999); his authorities were just Theodorus
Gaza, who had made a good humanistic translation of the same text, and Alexander of Aphrodisias.
Besides, he reflected upon the methodological foundations of this zoological work, which follows an
inductive logic according to his genre, and noted that it was different from the deductive method
Aristotle supported in his Analytics. Even though he was always very careful in referring Aristotle’s
thought, he contaminated some passages with Platonic elements (Perfetti 2000).
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Among his original works, it is worth mentioning the Dialogi, a collection of dialogues of
Ciceronian-Platonic form on several topics, published in 1524. Their guiding thread is Tomeo’s
effort to prove that Plato and Aristotle agree about the major philosophical matters, as many other
humanists did. Some dialogues deal with the soul and reveal Tomeo’s closeness to the Neoplatonic
positions developed in Florence, above all those by Marsilio Ficino (De Bellis 1979): in Bembus,
sive de animorum immortalitate, for example, he used the Platonic Phaedrus’ arguments to show
that Plato’s and Aristotle’s seeming contradiction about the soul’s immortality was just terminolog-
ical. In Alverotus, sive de tribus animorum vehiculis, he discussed the afterlife, vehicles of the soul,
possibility to expiate sins, and existence of fate (De Bellis 1981). Trophonius, sive de divinatione
and Sadoletus, sive de precibus are about religious matters. In the first one, the last ancient oracle,
visited and described by Pausanias, is the pretext to talk about divination, which is thought to be an
expression of natural religiousness, because the divine issues directly from earth disguised as the
spirit (Carabelli 2002). The second one compared anthropomorphic paganism with Christian
providence and discussed how human prays could influence divine willing (D’Ascia 1990).
Interesting themes touched in the dialogues are also: the naturalness of language; the conflict with
contemporary philosophers, who are similar to the Sophists and sell their knowledge; the logical
relation of a relative term and its correlative; and the role of grammarians.
Tomeo’s contribution to the history of the culture is also linked to some editions of classical
authors, which were prepared with manuscripts belonged to his vast library. This is the case of
Aldine editions of Aristotle and Theophrastus (1495–1498), John Philoponus (1504), Plutarch
(1509), Pedanius Dioscorides (1518), and Galen (1525), of the Aristotle published by the Giunta
typographers (1527) and Plutarchan Moralia by Froben (1542). Before the printing of the mentioned
Plutarch of 1509, Tomeo helped the editors Marcus Musurus and Demetrios Doukas in revising the
Greek text. Besides, his corrections of the Greek text of Moralia were well known in the Italian
Renaissance, because circulated in manuscript form, his autograph emendations written in the
margins of his 1509 edition (now detected as the Ambrosian exemplar pressmarked S R 67) were
copied in many other editions, such as those belonged to Donato Giannotti and Fulvio Orsini
(Martinelli Tempesta 2004).
References
Carabelli G (2002) Oracoli pagani nel Rinascimento: la riscoperta di Trofonio. I castelli di Yale
Quaderni di filosofia 5:51–64. [= Simonutti L (2007) Forme del neoplatonismo: dall’eredità
ficiniana ai platonici di Cambridge. Atti del convegno (Firenze, 25–27 ottobre 2001), Firenze,
pp 117–132]
D’Ascia L (1990) Un erasmiano italiano? Note sulla filosofia della religione di Niccolò Leonico
Tomeo. Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa 26:242–264
De Bellis D (1975) Niccolò Leonico Tomeo interprete di Aristotele naturalista. Physis 17:71–93
De Bellis D (1979) ‘Autokineton’ e ‘Entelechia’. Niccolò Leonico Tomeo: l’anima nei dialoghi
intitolati al Bembo. Annali dell’Istituto di filosofia della facoltà di lettere e filosofia
dell’Università di Firenze 1:47–68
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De Bellis D (1980) La vita e l’ambiente di Niccolò Leonico Tomeo. Quaderni per la storia
dell’Università di Padova 13:37–73
De Bellis D (1981) I veicoli dell’anima nell’analisi di Niccolò Leonico Tomeo. Annali dell’Istituto
di filosofia della facoltà di lettere e filosofia dell’Università di Firenze 3:1–21
Gamba E (2014) Un nuovo manoscritto copiato da Niccolò Leonico Tomeo (Par. gr. 1833). Appunti
per la ricostruzione della sua biblioteca. Eikasmós – Quaderni Bolognesi di Filologia Classica
25:329–360
Geanakoplos DJ (1985) The career of the little-known Renaissance Greek scholar Nicholas
Leonicus Tomaeus and the ascendancy of Greco-Byzantine Aristotelianism at Padua University
(1497). Byzantina 13:357–372
Kraye J (2002) La filosofia nelle università italiane del XVI secolo. In: Vasoli C (ed) Le filosofie del
Rinascimento. B. Mondadori, Milano, pp 350–373
Martinelli Tempesta S (2004) Un postillato di Niccolò Leonico Tomeo perduto e ritrovato. Studi
medievali e umanistici 2:347–352
Perfetti S (1999) Three different ways of interpreting Aristotle’s De partibus animalium: Pietro
Pomponazzi, Niccolò Leonico Tomeo and Agostino Nifo. In: Aristotle’s animals in the Middle
Ages and Renaissance. Leuven University Press, Leuven, pp 297–316
Perfetti S (2000) Aristotle’s Zoology and its Renaissance Commentators (1521–1601). Leuven
University Press, Leuven, pp 65–84
Perfetti S (2004) (cur) Pietro Pomponazzi. Expositio super primo et secundo De partibus animalium.
L. S. Olschki, Firenze
Russo E (2005) Leonico Tomeo, Niccolò. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol 64. Istituto
della Enciclopedia italiana, Roma, pp 617–621
Page 4 of 4
P
Pendasio, Federico Biography
Born: ca. 1525, Mantua, Italy Federico Pendasio of Mantua was born around
1525. As a colleague of Jacopo Zabarella, he was
Died: 19 December 1603, Bologna one of the most influential Aristotelians in Padua
during the second half of the sixteenth century,
Simone De Angelis despite practically not having published any
Zentrum f€
ur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Karl- works in print. Pendasio’s renown was most of
Franzens-Universität Graz, Graz, Austria all based upon his teaching philosophy as a pro-
fessor at the universities of Padua and Bologna,
but it was also rooted in his relationship to the
Mantuan House of Gonzaga, especially to the
Abstract
later Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga. Prior to studying
philosophy under Ludovico Buccadiferro in
Pendasio taught natural philosophy at the univer-
Bologna (before 1545), he underwent his initial
sities of Padua and Bologna. He commented on
training in Mantua, home also to Pomponazzi. In
Aristotle’s works on physics but also on the
1548, he obtained his doctor philosophiae in
books of De Anima, in which he followed Alex-
Mantua. At the age of 23, he already taught
ander of Aphrodisias. The peculiarity of
logic in Pavia, and in 1552/1553, he was accepted
Pendasio’s commentaries lies in his textual exe-
at the Mantua Collegium Physicum. He also
gesis of De Anima, which on the one hand com-
taught at Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga’s court in
plied with the restrictive directions of the bull
Mantua, where he served in the diplomatic
Apostolici regiminis (1513) and which on the
corps, when the Cardinal unsuccessfully tried to
other hand was open toward an innovative empir-
advocate comprehensive clerical reforms at the
ical investigation of the human body. In particu-
ecumenical Council of Trient (1562). From 1564
lar, his interpretation of the material intellect
to 1565, Pendasio held the second Chair of Phi-
promoted the study of the human brain, which
losophy at Padua (on equal terms with Francesco
obtained remarkable results by the work of the
Piccolomini) and was subsequently – once more
young anatomist Costanzo Varolio on the origin
as competitor to Piccolomini – appointed first
of the optic nerve.
Chair of Philosophy (1565–1571), following
Marc’ Antonio Genova. During those years,
Jacopo Zabarella was teaching logic in Padua,
while Girolamo Capodivacca (a follower of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_352-1
2 Pendasio, Federico
Galen’s) lectured practical medicine, and on De Anima). Thus, the respective passages of
Girolamo Fabrici d’Acquapendente taught sur- Pendasio’s Lectiones de anima point out that
gery and anatomy. Between 1571 and 1603, Aristotle was mistaken and that his opinion was
Pendasio was Professor of Philosophy at Bologna not in accordance with the Christian truth, there-
University (counting Cesare Cremonini among fore needing to be corrected. However, this did
his students). In Bologna, he also fostered the not hinder Pendasio from interpreting Aristotle’s
study of anatomy. This was coherent with his De Anima along the lines of Alexander, who set
interpretation of Aristotle’s theory of the soul, forth a naturalist theory of the intellectus
in which he followed Alexander of Aphrodisias. materialis or intellectus possibilis. Pendasio’s
Pendasio died on 19 December 1603 in Bologna. Lectiones de anima of 1566–1567, which have
been preserved as manuscripts, explicitly verify
this practice of interpretation.
Teachings and Impact The core element of Pendasio’s Alexander
exegesis is the theory concerning the form of
At the end of the sixteenth century, lecturing “simple” and “complex” bodies put forward in
philosophy at Padua primarily meant teaching Lectio 28. This theory of Alexander, based on the
natural philosophy, also because the discipline combination of as well as the interaction of forces
was becoming increasingly specialized and was between matter and the primary qualities
no longer taught in conjunction with medicine. (“warm,” “cold,” “moist,” and “dry”), does not
Thus, Pendasio most notably commented on only explain how the entire corporeal world of
Aristotle’s works on physics – De coelo, minerals, metals, and even more complex organ-
Meteorologica, and De generatione et isms pertaining to the fauna and flora came into
corruptione – but also on the books of De existence; it also provides an explanation of the
Anima, which Paduan students read in the 3rd emergence of intellective capability. As opposed
year of the cursus artium in the context of to the Platonists, Alexander advocates the thesis
Aristotle’s Parva Naturalia, i.e., his writings on that the soul does not exceed the body’s capabil-
the psychology of the senses. ities and powers (dynameis). Pendasio’s com-
The philosophical and historico-cultural sig- mentary also significantly deviates from the
nificance of Pendasio’s commentaries lies in his commentary of Averroes, who criticized Alexan-
textual exegesis of De Anima, which on the one der’s theory of form and interpreted the
hand complied with the restrictive directions of intellectus materialis as a “simple substance” or
the bull Apostolici regiminis (1513) and which on pure potentiality detached from matter. Other
the other hand was open toward an innovative than Averroes, who discusses Alexander’s thesis
empirical investigation of the human body. The of the emergence of material intellect from the
Paduan “theory of the twofold (i.e. philosophical body’s complexity by referencing another pas-
and theological) truth” (Baldini 1998, p. 624) sage from Alexander’s De intellectu and who
therefore results in a specific practice of textual thus adheres to the textual level of the commen-
exegesis, which Pendasio – in the eyes of the tary, Pendasio points beyond the textual level
theologians and judges of the Sanctum toward the practice of dissecting the body,
Officium – exemplified in his commentaries on which had been established in Padua since Vesa-
Aristotle (Poppi 1993, p. 101): In accordance lius: According to Pendasio – who directly para-
with the abovementioned bull, it was neither per- phrases Alexander’s repeatedly edited treatise De
mitted to teach the mortality of the individual Anima (1495, 1538) – those who want to gain
soul (following Alexander of Aphrodisias) nor understanding of the material intellect have to
the notion that the anima intellectiva were a sin- practice the anatomy of the human body (Alex-
gle one in all human beings (as Averroes claims, ander of Aphrodisias 1538, p. 8). This indicates a
who adopted the neo-platonic interpretation pro- notable change in the method as to how knowl-
vided by Themistios in his famous commentary edge claims were generated, which also
Pendasio, Federico 3
illustrates the close relationship that existed in Averroesian Neoplatonist one, Pendasio is also
Padua between the study of anatomy and the convinced that Aristotle’s philosophy does not
Aristotelian theory of the soul: The students present the whole truth, but only that part of it
who attended Pendasio’s lectures on De Anima in which the Stagirite was able to comprehend as
and possibly also Fabrici d’Acquapendente’s lec- natural philosopher who analyzes phenomena by
tures on anatomy indeed possessed well-founded taking sensual perception as his starting point. In
knowledge of the soul (De Angelis 2008). the third lecture cycle on De animae
Pendasio starts discussing De intellectu only immortalitate, Pendasio thus switches to the
in Lectio 29, where he characterizes Alexander’s argumentative mode of scholastic Aristotelian-
concept of the vis intellectiva as a faculty of the ism which had been renewed at the beginning of
material intellect which is able to integrate intel- the sixteenth century by Dominican theologians
lective forms (species intelligibilis) and which Tommaso de Vio and Crisostomo Javelli, and the
also has a physiological substratum that is natural aim of it was to re-Christianize the theory of the
warmth (calor naturalis). Thus Pendasio embeds soul. Central concepts of the “re-Christianized”
thinking processes into a more comprehensive Aristotle were, firstly, the creatio nova, which
organicist concept, since, according to Aristotle’s explained the recreation of the individual human
de Juventute et Senectute, Vita et Morte, preserv- soul as a creationist act of God and which caused
ing or destructing the calor naturalis leads to the the biological part of the body’s generation
general preservation or destruction of organic (generatio) to be transcended; the context of
life. At the same time, Alexander in De intellectu this creationist logic, secondly, sustained the
also clarifies the instrumental character of the idea of a mode of thinking which relinquishes
material intellect. He understands it as a mere the notion of mental images and is thus dissoci-
reservoir for the intelligible forms (eideis) ated from the body: “ut possit separata a corpore
which enter the human intellect via mental sine phantasmate intelligere.” By that, it also
processing of sensory data. He considers the actual became possible to argue in favor of the intellec-
acts of thinking to be performed by the intellectus tive soul’s immortality. However, as Pendasio
agens which, however, he (as opposed to Aristotle points out at the end of his lecture, such a line
in De Generatione Animalium II, 3) does not con- of argumentation is better suited for a theologian
sider as coming from “the outside” or as Divine than for a philosopher (De Angelis 2010,
intellect. Due to its capacity of being active pp. 120–122).
(poietikós), the intellectus agens, in Alexander’s Contrary to what older scholarship occasion-
view, rather belongs to the human intellect itself. ally suggests, Pendasio considering the naturalist
It is against this backdrop that Pendasio can dismiss and scholastic lines of reasoning to be on a par is
Averroes’s critique of Alexander and has his stu- by no means contradictory. Rather it is gives
dents consider that “Averroès non intelligit expression to rules of exegesis and commenting
Alexandrum” (Pendasio, Ms 1264, f. 449). This is practices applied to the theory of the
because Averroes alleged that Alexander had sub- soul – secundum theologos and secundum
sumed the intellectus materialis under the Aristo- philosophos – which Pendasio exercises in both
telian definition of the soul (anima) as an actus directions. Yet, these practices also reflect the
corporis organici and that he had attributed active two prevailing schemes in the Italian educational
properties to the material intellect which, however, system of the sixteenth and seventeenth centu-
it cannot possess according to Alexander’s theory ries: academic Aristotelianism at the universities
of the intellect (which defines the material intellect and scholastic Aristotelianism at the monastic
as pura potentia, i.e., as a mere disposition for schools (Baldini 1998). In this context, it appears
perceiving intelligible forms) (ibid. f. 446). plausible to suppose that Aristotelianism suffered
To the same extent as he presents himself as the most severe damage from within, through the
exegete of the Aristotelian text in these instances, discrepancy between those two discordant forms
favoring Alexander’s naturalist reading over the of Aristotelianism (Gaukroger 2002, p. 48).
4 Pendasio, Federico
However, looking back at the many years of Interprete Hieronymo Donato, Patritio Veneto.
Pendasio’s professorship of natural philosophy Locaque librariorum vitio partim depravata/partim
pernitus omissa/Nuperrime per doctissimum virum
in Padua and then in Bologna, it were most nota- recognita/restitutaque. Venice: Apud Octavianum
bly the lectures on De Anima, in which he rea- Scotum.
soned secundum philosophos, that took the Pendasio, Federico. MSS: Padova, Biblioteca
strongest effect in the 1570s. In Bologna, the Universitaria BU 1264: Lectiones excellentissimi
Philosophi Federici Pendasii in Libros de Anima,
young anatomist Costanzo Varolio (1543–1575) 1–224; Federici Pendasii Mantuanii Philosophi, in
was to particularly profit from Pendasio’s author- Gymnasio Patavino primo loco Philosophiam
ity: Since the Bolognese anatomists doubted their profitentis in Librum tertium de Anima lectiones
younger colleague’s knowledge claim, instead of dictatae 1577 quas ego Aloysius Quirinus excepi,
225–860; Federici Pendasii in Gymnasio Patavino
giving a lecture on Aristotle, Pendasio had a brain atque Bononiensi primi Professoris de Animae
dissection conducted in his lecture hall, during immortalitate, 861–997. [Complete catalogue of the
which Varolio was able to demonstrate to the manuscripts in Lohr 1988 II, 305–311].
assembled academic audience that he had discov- Varolio, Costanzo. 1573. Constantii Varolii Medici
Bononensis. De Nervis Opticis nonnullisque aliis
ered the origin of the optic nerve in the rear part of praetor commune opinionem in Humano capite
the spinal cord (Varolio 1573, f. 14v; De Angelis observatis. Ad Hieronymum Mercurialem. Padua:
2011, p. 254). What this significant episode finally Apud Paulum & Antonium Meiettos fratres.
shows is that this sort of “proof,” which is consid-
ered to be “the standard of proof” at the London Secondary Literature
Royal Society, e.g., in Robert Boyle’s experimen- Baldini, Ugo. 1998. Die Philosophie an den Universitäten.
In Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Die
tal philosophy, already existed at the sixteenth- Philosophie des 17. Jahrhunderts, ed. Jean-Pierre
century Italian universities in the context of ana- Schobinger, Bd. 1. Allgemeine Themen, Iberische
tomical practice (De Angelis 2010, p. 255). Halbinsel, Italien. Zweiter Halbband. Ch. 2: Die
Schulphilosophie, 621–668. Basel: Schwabe.
De Angelis, Simone. 2008. From text to the body. Com-
mentaries on De Anima, anatomical practice and
Cross-References authority around 1600. In Scholarly knowledge. Text-
books in early modern Europe, ed. Campi Emidio
▶ Alexander of Aphrodisias et al., 205–227. Genève: Droz.
De Angelis, Simone. 2010. Anthropologien. Genese und
▶ Aristotelianism Konfiguration einer ›Wissenschaft vom Menschen‹ in
▶ Buccadiferro, Ludovico der Fr€ uhen Neuzeit. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter.
▶ Cremonini, Cesare De Angelis, Simone. 2011. Demonstratio ocularis und
▶ Genova, Marc’ Antonio evidentia. Darstellungsformen von neuem Wissen in
anatomischen Texten der Fr€ uhen Neuzeit. In Spuren
▶ Piccolomini, Francesco der Avantgarde: Theatrum anatomicum. Fr€ uhe
▶ Pomponazzi, Pietro Neuzeit und Moderne im
▶ Zabarella, Jacopo Kulturvergleich, ed. Schramm Helmar et al.,
168–193. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter.
Gaukroger, Stephen. 2002. Descartes’ system of natural
philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
References Lohr, Charles H. 1988. Latin Aristotle commentaries II
Renaissance authors, 305–311. Florence: Olschki.
Primary Literature Poppi, Antonino. 1993. Cremonini, Galilei e gli
Alexander of Aphrodisias. 1538. Alexandri Aphrodisei inquisitori del Santo a Padova, 62–63. Padua:
Enarratio De Anima ex Aristotelis institutione. Antenore.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_354-1
# © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of United Kingdom 2015
Piccolomini, Francesco
Born: 25 January 1523, Siena
Died: 22 April 1607, Siena
David A. Lines*
Italian Studies, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
Abstract
A professor of philosophy who spent most of his career at the University of Padua, Francesco Piccolomini
was one of the most important and influential Italian interpreters of Aristotle in the second half of the
sixteenth century. He was involved in a number of controversies, concerning the soul with Federico
Pendasio and concerning the proper order of philosophical education with Jacopo Zabarella. His work on
moral philosophy is possibly the most significant Italian treatment of that area of philosophy for the
Renaissance period. Piccolomini is also important methodologically for his attempt to marry Aristote-
lianism and Platonism.
Alternate Names
Franciscus Carolus Piccolomineus
Biography
Of noble Sienese family, Piccolomini (biography in Baldini 1980b) studied and graduated in artibus et
medicina at the local university (1546), where he probably studied under his distant relative Alessandro
Piccolomini. He then taught philosophy at the University of Siena (1546–1549) and joined the Sienese
Accademia degli Intronati (as “Il malinconico”) around 1549. He subsequently taught philosophy in
Macerata (1549–1550) and Perugia (probably 1550–1560) before receiving an appointment at the
University of Padua, where he taught for most of his career (1560–1598). Already in 1565 he was
given the first chair of natural philosophy, initially in concurrence with Federico Pendasio. His differences
with Pendasio eventually led the latter to seek employment elsewhere (he moved to Bologna in 1571);
Piccolomini became the main teacher of philosophy in Padua, attaining an unprecedented salary for his
subject (1,000 gold scudi in 1589). He was enormously influential on both Italian and foreign students,
who included personalities such as Torquato Tasso (on whom see Kraye 2002, pp 79–80). Although he
continued to be listed on Padua’s teaching rolls until 1600, in 1598 he retired to Siena, where he continued
to be active in the production of philosophical works up to his death.
Of fairly elevated lineage himself and of a highly cultured family (his father was doctor in utroque iure
and held important political offices), throughout his lifetime Piccolomini cultivated close contacts with
those in power. He dedicated several of his works to the Venetian Senate (Jardine 1997) and, both before
and after his retirement, to the Medici. He also maintained strong connections to his hometown, where he
*Email: d.a.lines@warwick.ac.uk
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_354-1
usually spent the summer holidays. In 1572 Piccolomini married a Sienese noblewoman, Fulvia Placidi,
with whom he had two sons and two daughters. In September–October 1579 he held the office of prior in
the terzo of S. Martino. After his retirement from teaching, in September–October 1599, he served as
capitano del popolo for the terzo of Camollia. He joined and was active in the Sienese academy of the
Filomati (taking the name “Unico”). He was buried in the church of S. Francesco.

Despite portrayals (particularly in the older literature) of Piccolomini as fundamentally a Platonist (as in
Garin 2008) or even a Scotist (Lewis 1978, 1980), recent literature has stressed his Aristotelian orienta-
tion, also as a university professor of philosophy (Kessler 1987, 1988; Poppi 1976). Piccolomini must be
seen within the context of the sixteenth-century attempts to reconcile various philosophical schools, and
several times he emphasizes the importance of taking into account both Aristotle and Plato in one’s views
(Saitta 1961, pp 427–29; Plastina 2002) against the practices of some who declared allegiance to only one
of the two. Toward Stoicism he held a highly ambivalent attitude, disagreeing with it on various points,
but at the same time using it to support his philosophical framework (Kraye 2002). Although he is
sometimes referred to as an Averroist (Nardi 1958; Saitta 1961), the label needs to be used with great
caution.

Among the most notorious episodes of Piccolomini’s career was his long-standing dispute with Jacopo
Zabarella, his colleague in Padua, on the proper order of knowledge and education (Ragnisco 1885–1886;
Scattola 2002, pp 278–84; Lines 2002a, pp 256–63, 2002b, pp 311–21 for more recent bibliography). The
exchanges between the two men were not the most temperate, and modern scholarship has tended on the
whole to favor Zabarella’s position (well described in Poppi 2004). Piccolomini’s reputation has not been
enhanced by his insistence on having the last word, after his adversary’s death. Nonetheless,
Piccolomini’s position is one of great interest; responding to Zabarella’s Opera logica (and especially
the De natura logicae and De methodis) of 1578 through his Universa philosophia de moribus (1583) and
again to Zabarella’s De doctrinae ordine apologia (1584) through his Comes politicus (1594),
Piccolomini promoted a view of teaching that, in certain cases, should feel free to adopt either the ordo
compositivus or the ordo resolutivus depending on a teacher’s preference. Zabarella instead thought that
teaching depends on our order of apprehension and that those disciplines (including moral philosophy)
that have action as their object should be taught according to the ordo resolutivus (starting, i.e., from a
notion of the particular subject’s end, as Aristotle does in the first paragraph of his Nicomachean Ethics). It
should be emphasized that the discussion about the order of teaching was not original with Zabarella and
Piccolomini (for pointers and bibliography on German antecedents, Scattola 2002, pp 284–287; Lines
2002a, p 258 n. 68), but their controversy certainly accelerated a debate that continued into the early
seventeenth century and which echoed many of their concerns while also drawing on their approaches and
solutions. From Piccolomini, for instance, German interpreters drew their idea that politics can be
properly studied and taught only if one has determined the subject’s subiectum and ordo (Scattola
2002, p 288); his use of the synthetic approach in moral philosophy became influential in the second
half of the seventeenth century with Hermann Conring and his increasingly prevailing view of politics as a
science (Scattola 2002, pp 305–309), although in the intervening period Zabarella’s views had been more
strongly embraced.
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Piccolomini’s Universa philosophia de moribus (A Comprehensive Philosophy of Morals), first

published in 1583 but reissued in a revised edition in 1594, was a major achievement and has been
described as the greatest theoretical effort with regard to ethics in the Italian Renaissance (“l’opera più
consistente nella teorizzazione dell’etica durante tutto il Rinascimento italiano”; Poppi 1976, p 124). In
addition to its pedagogical theory, the work is important for its view of the relationship between the
branches of moral philosophy (ethics is viewed as the major, theoretical part, which is closely intertwined
with politics, which however is practical; economics, the component of moral philosophy that concerns
the household, is considered an appendage to politics) and for its combination of Aristotelian, Platonic,
and Stoic elements under the banner of Christianity (Kraye 2002; Plastina 2002). But the work is also
significant for its reorganization of the discussion in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (although the
Universa philosophia is essentially a philosophical commentary in the scholastic vein, Piccolomini
abandons the linear approach that was traditionally associated with commentaries), for its sustained
consideration of the views of past and present interpreters, for its treatment of topics such as the freedom
of the will (Saitta 1961, pp 431–33), and for its unusual insights into the possible development of
Aristotle’s thought (Lines 2002a, b). This is the only work that Piccolomini chose to translate (or, rather,
adapt) into Italian, as testified by his two manuscript works dedicated to the Medici, the Istituzione del
principe and especially the Compendio della scienza civile, both of which enjoyed a fair circulation (Lines
2015).
Piccolomini’s works on the soul, on natural philosophy, and on the theory of mathematics have not been
studied in sufficient detail (but see Nardi 1958; Saitta 1961; Kessler 1987, 1988; Michael 1993; Claessens
2012, 2014), but it is clear that in several instances he made contributions (both in these fields and in moral
philosophy) whose originality has not been properly recognized. He also gave more attention to the Greek
commentators (especially Simplicius) than several of his contemporaries; he could read Greek, although
he was not in any sense a philologist. These qualities have often been obscured by the tortuousness of
Piccolomini’s prose and his relentless use of the scholastic distinguo, but he is a figure who needs to be
appreciated for his own merits and not simply as the competitor of Pendasio or Zabarella.
Impact and Legacy

Piccolomini was an influential teacher (as can be seen from the numerous surviving manuscripts of his
lectures; see Lohr 1988) and an important participant in various areas of philosophical discussion in
the second half of the sixteenth century, including moral and natural philosophy (his works on ethics and
the soul are especially important), logic, and the issues of the method in knowledge and order in
education. His writings were significant both in Italy and beyond it – particularly in Germany (Kuhn
2002; Lines 2002b), where his works were well known and received several editions, although his
solutions were not necessarily followed, and in Scandinavia (Mikkeli 2002).
Cross-References
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Ethics
▶ Jacopo Zabarella
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▶ Platonism
▶ Politics
▶ Psychology
▶ Stoicism
Bibliography
Primary Literature
Manuscript Works
Note: for Piccolomini’s numerous Latin lectures and other similar works that have remained in ms., see
Lohr 1988, 332–342.
Piccolomini, F. 1602. Instituzione del principe. Work completed and sent to Florence; dedicated to prince
Cosimo (the future fourth Grand Duke of Tuscany). MSS: Florence, BRicc. 2589, ff. 1r–40r (presen-
tation copy) and 7 further mss. Edited in Piccolomini 1858, 1–40; for the dedication only see also
Battistini, M. 1915. Francesco Piccolomini e un suo scritto educativo per il Gran principe di Toscana.
Bullettino senese di storia patria 22:334–338. Further comments in Lines 2015 (mss and further
references in n. 15).
Piccolomini, F. 1604. Compendio della scienza civile. Work completed and sent to Florence; dedicated to
the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Christina of Lorraine. MSS: Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. E.5.867, 110
folios (autograph presentation copy) and 8 further mss. Edited in Piccolomini 1858, pp 41–194. Further
comments in Lines 2015 (mss and further references in n. 26 and n. 56).
Printed Works
Note: this listing is derived from Lohr 1988, 332–342, which in several cases provides further details.
Duodo, P., (=Piccolomini, F.) 1575. Peripateticae de anima disputationes. Venice.
Piccolomini, F. 1583. Universa philosophia de moribus. Venice (rev. ed. in 1594). Subsequently printed
in 1596 (no place) and Frankfurt 1627 (see Lohr 1988, 342). Partial English translation in Kraye, J.
1997. Francesco Piccolomini. In Cambridge translations of Renaissance philosophical texts. Moral
philosophy, vol 1, ed. Kraye, J., 68–88. Cambridge.
Piccolomini, F. 1594. Comes politicus pro recta ordinis ratione propugnator. Venice: Apud F. de
Franciscis.
Piccolomini, F. 1596. Librorum ad scientiam de natura attinentes pars prima [ quinta]. Venice. Further
eds. in Venice and Frankfurt as well; that of Frankfurt 1628 bears the title Naturae totius universi
scientia perfecta atque philosophica (see Lohr 1988, 341; comments in Claessens 2012).
Piccolomini, F. 1600. De rerum definitionibus liber unus. Venice (also Frankfurt 1600 and 1611, the latter
with title De arte definiendi et eleganter discurrendi). Some comments in Lines 2015.
Piccolomini, F. 1602a. Librum Aristotelis De ortu et interitu lucidissima expositio, multiplici
annotationum varietate amplificata. Venice. Further eds. in Frankfurt and Mainz under various titles
(see Lohr 1988, 337–338).
Piccolomini, F. 1602b. In III libros Aristotelis De anima lucidissima expositio, multiplici annotationum
varietate amplificata. Venice. Further eds. in Frankfurt and Mainz under various titles (see Lohr 1988, p
340).
Piccolomini, F. 1603. Discursus ad universam logicam attinens. Marburg: Egenolph.
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annotationum varietate illustrata, nunc primum in lucem edita. Venice: Apud Ioan. Antonium &
Iacobum de Franciscis.
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Piccolomini, F. 1607. In libros Aristotelis De caelo lucidissima expositio, multiplici annotationum

varietate amplificata. Venice; rpt. Mainz 1608 with title Commentarii in libros Aristotelis De caelo,
Ortu et interitu, adiuncta lucidissima expositione in III libros eiusdem De anima.
Piccolomini, F. 1858. In Breve discorso della instituzione di un principe e Compendio della scienza civile
di Francesco Piccolomini con otto lettere e nove disegni delle macchie solari di Galileo Galilei, ed.
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Tiepolo, S., (=Piccolomini, F.) 1576. Academicarum contemplationum libri decem. Venice.
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mathematics and imagination in the Academicae contemplationes. Br J Hist Sci 47(3): 421–431.
Garin, E. 2008. History of Italian philosophy. Trans. Giorgio, Pinton, 437–441. Amsterdam, Rodopi.
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Kuhn, H.C. 2002. Chartaceous presence, material impact: works by Paduan Aristotelians in German
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Pio, Alberto III

Born: 1475
Died: 1531
Fabio Forner*
Dipartimento di Filologia, Letteratura e Linguistica, Università degli Studi di Verona, Verona, Italy
Abstract
Alberto Pio, Prince of Carpi, had a humanistic education under the direction of Aldo Manuzio. He
promoted the studies on the Aristotelian corpus, supporting the works of many young scholars on
Aristotelian texts. He gave a key contribution to the publication by Aldo Manuzio of the editio
princeps of the works of Aristotle. Moreover, Alberto Pio wrote two pamphlets against Erasmus of
Rotterdam and Martin Luther. The success of his works in Catholic countries greatly influenced the
creation of a collective image of Erasmus as the father of the Reformation and friend of Luther.
Biography
Alberto Pio, the son of Leonello and Caterina Pico, was born on July 23, 1475, in his ancestral castle
in Carpi (Braghirolli 1877, p. 342; Semper et al. 1882, p. 3; Semper et al. 1999, p. 257, footnote 4).
Only 2 years later, in 1477, he lost his father and was then entrusted to the protection of the other lord
of Carpi, his father’s brother, Marco Pio. Alberto’s relative favored his son Giberto in the succession
of the principality of Carpi (Semper et al. 1882, p. 3). However, since early childhood, Alberto had
an exceptional educational experience, which was to leave an indelible mark on his personality
(Silingardi 1876, pp. 66–69; Semper et al. 1882, p. 3; Morselli 1939, p. 7). He did not have a military
education. At the express wish of his mother Caterina and on the suggestion of Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola, Aldo Manuzio became the tutor of Alberto. The learned Marco Musuro (1470–1517)
was Alberto’s teacher of Greek for some time during his stay at Carpi, probably until 1502 (Sch€uck
1862, p. 107; Dionisotti 1975, p. 343 footnote 3; Vasoli 1978, p. 14; Sabattini 1994, p. 10; cf. Lowry
1986, p. 377; Pagliaroli 2004, pp. 213–93; Vasoli 2008, pp. 17–25; Pellegrini 2012, pp. 576–582).
Probably as early as in the mid-1480s, Alberto Pio was able to make numerous trips to Ferrara,
where he had the opportunity to study and further his cultural interests.
Alberto was unable to devote his entire life to his studies, since, as heir of a part of a small Italian
state, he was involved in the complex events that troubled the political structure of the peninsula
between the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. In 1490, with the support
of the Gonzaga and Pico families, Alberto received the investiture of half the domain of Carpi from
the Emperor Frederick III, but clashes with Marco Pio and his sons, who wanted to rule over the
whole Carpi, incessantly continued (Svalduz 2001, pp. 62–135). After 1494, with the death of his
legal guardian Marco Pio, Alberto intensified his administrative activities, becoming more inde-
pendent, as revealed by numerous letters, which he used to weave a subtle web of diplomatic
relations. The young lord’s influential connections in pursuing this policy were the Marquis of
*Email: fabio.forner@univr.it
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Mantua, Francesco Gonzaga, and the Este family, in particular Duke Ercole I. The skillful diplo-
matic plots woven by the young Alberto obtained him imperial benevolence and reached the goal of
preventing Giberto to steal his possessory rights to Carpi. However, on July 16, 1499, Giberto
transferred the rights to his half of Carpi to the Duke of Ferrara. From that moment on, Alberto was
forced to divide his power over Carpi with Ercole I d’Este. It is no coincidence that, at that time,
Alberto began to function as a true diplomat. He realized then that the fate not only of Carpi but of
the whole peninsula was to be decided between Paris and the imperial court (Sabattini 1994;
cf. Forner 2005, p. 69). Upon request of Francesco Gonzaga, between 1505 and 1506, Alberto
began a diplomatic mission at the court of King Louis XII of France. The mission failed, but from
then on, Alberto Pio became one of the most prominent Italian diplomats (Rombaldi 1977,
pp. 15–16). In 1507 he met Pope Julius II, who appreciated his eloquence, his culture, and, above
all, his ability in handling political affairs. In April 1507, he was in France on behalf of the Holy See;
in August of that year, he returned to Rome as a French ambassador. As result of his diplomatic
activity, on June 14, 1509, Emperor Maximilian dispossessed the Duke of Ferrara of his half of Carpi
and made Alberto sole ruler of the town, also bestowing on him the title of count and the right to coin
money and to confer degrees (Semper et al. 1882, p. 6; Rombaldi 1977, pp. 17–18; Sabattini 1994,
pp. 35–36). However, clashes with the Duke of Ferrara continued relentlessly. They ended only
when the imperial troops in 1512, ousting the Duke of Ferrara, rapidly occupied the town and
returned it to Alberto, who, from that moment on, became again the only master of Carpi (Sabattini
1994, p. 46). The years between 1513, with the election to the papacy of Giovanni de’ Medici (Leo
X), and 1519, when Charles of Habsburg was elected emperor, marked the heyday of Carpi and its
lord. At that time, Alberto resided mainly in Rome, where, in 1518, he had married Cecilia Orsini, a
relative of Leo X, thereby consolidating his relationship with the Pope (Sabattini 1994, p. 49).
His situation changed abruptly in 1519 with the election of Emperor Charles V. He was driven by
strong distrust of the Prince of Carpi, who was considered unreliable because of his previous
dealings with the French. Alberto’s failed confirmation as imperial ambassador inaugurated his
inexorable decline and fall. The Prince of Carpi, however, remained in Rome, officially at the service
of Leo X, but secretly working in the service of the French. On January 3, 1523, Alberto was
officially ousted from his possessions by the commander of the imperial army, Prospero Colonna,
who confiscated all of Pio’s assets. Alberto was then forced to link his fate to the King of France, in
an attempt to save his property. However, the disastrous defeat of the French army at Pavia (February
24, 1525) greatly weakened the French influence in Italy and with it the hopes of Alberto Pio
(Semper et al. 1882, pp. 13–15; Rombaldi 1977, pp. 32–36; Sabattini 1994, pp. 71–72). From Rome,
the deposed Prince of Carpi still tried to regain his possessions, but without success. During the Sack
of Rome (1527), his palace was sacked, and Alberto, after a short stay at Castel Sant’Angelo with the
Pope, was forced to take refuge in France, first at Lyon and then in Paris. There he dedicated the last
years of his life to the controversy with Erasmus of Rotterdam. He died on January 8, 1531. He
published a first Resposio paraenetica (1529) and the posthumous Tres et viginti libri (1531)
(Minnich 1996; Forner 2009a; Forner 2014).

The education of Alberto Pio, led by Aldo Manuzio, is fully placed in the humanistic tradition,
geared to the study of classical languages. However, Alberto cultivated a strong interest in the works
of the philosophers of every age and later on was also a promoter of philosophical studies and in
particular of Aristotelianism.
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Alberto was educated to the inherent familiarity with the great literary and philosophical tradition
of the classical world and had a sure knowledge not only of Latin but also of Greek. An essential part
of his education was represented by the reading of medieval philosophical texts, which revealed the
influence on his education of the cultural interests of his maternal uncle Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola. Alberto Pio made profitable use of all this knowledge in his controversy with Erasmus
of Rotterdam (Dionisotti 1964, 220 ff; Vasoli 1978, pp. 16–19; Kristeller 1965, pp. 84–107; Forner
2002 passim). Throughout all his life, Alberto collected numerous Greek and Latin manuscripts
(Mercati, 1938; Di Pietro Lombardi, 2004, pp. 215–227). The last decade of the fifteenth century
was particularly important in the intellectual formation of Alberto Pio. In that period, he lived in
Carpi (where, as mentioned above, he had exceptional tutors) and in wealthy Ferrara. Duke Ercole
I d’Este had led the city at the height of its development and attracted artists and scholars among the
most learned men of that time. In Ferrara, Alberto met and established friendship, among the others,
with Ludovico Ariosto, Jacopo Sadoleto, Pietro Pomponazzi, Celio Calcagnini, Pietro Bembo,
Thomas Linacre, and Ercole Strozzi (Morselli 1931, pp. 93–112 on the teachings of humanities at
the University of Ferrara; Sottili 1998, xv–xvi). From 1513 onwards, Alberto lived mainly in Rome.
There he was close to the circles of the Roman Academy and formed very friendly relations with
Pietro Bembo, Jacopo Sadoleto (whom he already knew from the time of his stay at Ferrara),
Girolamo Aleandro, Paolo Giovio, and Baldassarre Castiglione, as well as with renowned artists
such as Bramante, Baldassare Peruzzi, and Raphael (Vasoli 1978, pp. 42–43).
During his last years in Paris, despite his age and illness, Alberto resumed his beloved studies,
particularly in theology and philosophy. He needed a more in-depth knowledge of these disciplines
in order to sustain his polemic against Erasmus of Rotterdam (Guaitoli 1877, p. 295; Solana Pujalte
2003, pp. 122–132).
Throughout his life, Alberto cultivated a great interest in classical wisdom, an interest, however,
by no means confined to the belles lettres, and indeed all concentrated on the works of the ancient
philosophers and also open to their medieval commentators. In this manner, he broke with the part of
the humanistic movement that preferred to concentrate its attention on grammar texts or on poetic
and historical works, expressing disdain for much of the medieval tradition. It should be pointed out
that the only works of Alberto Pio that appeared in print were those related to the controversy with
Erasmus of Rotterdam: the first was the Epistola paraenetica ad Erasumum Roterodamum,
published in Paris in 1529, followed, shortly after the death of Alberto, by the Tres et viginti libri,
also published in Paris in 1531.
In these two works, Alberto argued that the origin of the thought of Luther was to be found in the
ancient conflict between theologians and humanists. Moreover, in his opinion, humanists gave too
much importance to the study of ancient rhetoric at the expense of more robust studies in philosophy
and theology. This emphasis on ancient rhetoric, according to Alberto Pio, created the fertile ground
on which the Lutheran doctrine could take root. Thus, he compared the followers of Luther and their
fate to those who promoted belles lettres in the German-speaking lands. Alberto had carefully and
patiently collected the charges against Erasmus that had already been used in the previous years by
many theologians, although with little success and somewhat limited influence. In the first letter
printed in 1529, Alberto, while listing all similarities between Luther’s and Erasmus’s thought, also
seemed to hope for a recantation and clear disowning of Protestant doctrine on Erasmus’s part. In the
Tres et viginti libri, the tone of accusation against the learned Dutchman prevailed, and the work took
the form of a pamphlet against Luther and all his supporters, Erasmus among them (Kristeller 1970;
Gilmore 1975; Seidel Menchi 1987, pp. 43–63; Minnich 1988; Heesakkers 1993; Forner 2002,
pp. xxiii–xxx).
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Erasmus answered repeatedly and forcefully to these works, rightly accusing Alberto of using old
had already answered. Moreover, Erasmus accused Alberto of having been secretly helped in the
composition of his books by a scholar under his protection, namely, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda.
Sepúlveda, however, denied the accusation of being the ghost writer of the works of the Prince of
Carpi (Solana Pujalte 2005).
Yet, Alberto Pio should not be remembered only as the author of treatises against the doctrines of
Erasmus of Rotterdam and Martin Luther, even though of primary importance. A proper evaluation
of the activity of Alberto Pio must consider not only the works actually published under his name but
also all those works that he, thanks to his role as a patron of the arts, helped publish. The prefaces to
the cinquecentine of Aldus Manutius provide an example of his patronage. Not only did Alberto
finance the publication of the editio princeps of Aristotle in Greek (Dionisotti 1975) but also aided a
large number of philosophers and theologians, such as Pomponazzi, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda,
Joannes Montesdoch, Graziano da Brescia, and Andrea Barro (cf. Solana Pujalte 2003, pp. 124–26).

Impact and Legacy
Alberto Pio was one of the few Italian scholars who openly took sides against Erasmus and Luther as
early as the 1520s. Alberto Pio’s arguments against Erasmus did not shine out for their originality.
However, he raised the cultural level of the charges against Erasmus that were previously confined
within the walls of some theological school. The success of his works in the Catholic countries
inseparably tied, for better or worse, the thought of Erasmus with that of Luther and laid the
theoretical foundations for the painful and controversial inclusion of the works of Erasmus in the
Index librorum pohibitorum after the Council of Trent (Seidel Menchi 1987, 2000; Forner 2012,
2013).
Equally important, though mediated, was Alberto’s role in the field of philosophical studies,
especially because of his efforts to promote studies on the Aristotelian corpus. Alberto Pio himself
did not take an active role in the Aristotelianism of his time. Although he mentioned Aristotelian
texts in his works, Alberto did not leave us any translations, editions, or expositions of Aristotelian
texts. “However he was a patron of proponents for several different varieties of Aristotelian studies.
If he was not at the forefront of Aristotelian studies himself [. . .] he was operating steadily and
effectively behind the scenes. For that reason he must be seen as one of the more important
Aristotelians in Italy during the years from the editio princeps to the Sack of Rome” (Schmitt
1981, p. 64). In this sense, the legacy of Alberto Pio for the Aristotelian studies and for the medieval
philosophy and theology is conspicuous.
Cross-References
▶ Ariosto, Ludovico
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Bembo, Pietro
▶ Erasmo da Rotterdam
▶ Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda
▶ Pomponazzi, Pietro
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Quirini, Lauro
Born: Venice or Candia, 1420
Died: Candia, c. 1480
Annalisa Ceron*
Abstract
Lauro Quirini was a Venetian humanist, educated at the University of Padua, who took part in
disputations with Leonardo Bruni, Lorenzo Valla, and Poggio Bracciolini. He made a key contri-
bution to one of the most important debates of fifteenth-century humanism by using Aristotelian
arguments against Bracciolini to defend the claim that nobility was based on descent. Around 1450
he wrote a political treatise in which he combined Aristotle’s analysis of the best form of government
with Cicero’s idea of the republic. He may therefore be considered one of the leading figures of the
Italian Renaissance.
Biography
Quirini was born into a patrician family in 1420 either in Venice or Candia, the first city of the
administrative district of Crete then under the control of the Republic of Venice. In 1440 he
graduated in liberal arts from the University of Padua, one of the main centers of Renaissance
Aristotelianism. He went on to spend a year in Florence hosted by Cardinal Bessarion. As
Vespasiano da Bisticci noted in his biography of Quirini, during his stay in Florence, he met
Leonardo Bruni and other leading humanists of the city. Despite becoming well established in
Florentine society, in 1442 he returned to Padua to study civil and canon law.
Between 1443 and 1448, Quirini gained a reputation as an orator, among his addresses being the
funeral eulogy of a famous mercenary known as Gattamelata, and in 1449 he gave public lessons in
the city of Venice on Aristotelian ethics. Two years later, he became a lecturer in rhetoric and moral
philosophy at the University of Padua. However, in 1452 he abandoned his academic career and
moved to Candia, where his family had extensive business interests, and there he devoted himself to
such profitable activities as the trade in alum, wine, and textiles.
Quirini remained on the island of Crete from 1452 until his death in around 1480. Although a
merchant in the second part of his life, he never gave up his humanistic studies and served for a
number of years as an agent to Cardinal Bessarion, procuring and transmitting important Greek
manuscripts.
While living in Candia, Quirini also wrote a number of historical letters on the fall of Constan-
tinople and on Turkish expansionism in the Aegean Sea. Two of his letters are noteworthy insofar as
they were addressed to Pope Nicholas V (1454) and Pope Pius II (1464) and insisted on the need for
a crusade (Quirini 2014, pp. 104–108). However, the letters of his earlier years are far more
interesting since he corresponded with such humanists as Leonardo Bruni, Lorenzo Valla, and
*Email: annalisa.ceron@unimi.it
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Poggio Bracciolini, disagreeing on certain theoretical issues. He also corresponded with the
noblewoman Isotta Nogarola, to whom he gave advice on refining her knowledge of humanistic
studies (Quirini 2004, pp. 107–113).

All of Quirini’s works were written before moving to Candia and were essentially based on
Aristotelian arguments. His debt to Aristotle was already evident in his first work of 1440, the
Latin dialogue De politia, in which he imagined himself discussing moral and political questions
with the Greek philosopher. Like other humanists, he was attempting to recover the authentic
meaning of Aristotle’s philosophy. Moreover, in line with the early, pre-Ficinian and pedagogical
readings of Platonism, he attempted to show that Aristotle’s teachings were not at variance with the
ideas of Plato. As recently remarked (Craig 2014, pp. 50–53), the letter that he wrote to the captain of
Padua, Andrea Morosini, in 1440 helps to clarify his approach to Aristotelianism. In it he refused to
express absolute faith in Aristotle’s authority, drawing a distinction between orthodox Christian
belief and the views of ancient philosophies. Hence he argued that Aristotle’s thought should be
analyzed without reference to theological arguments, and thus it is unsurprising that he has been
considered a Renaissance Averroist (Marwan 2006, pp. 700–714).
During his time in Florence, Quirini’s interest in Aristotelianism did not wane, even though he
also wrote more humanistic works: a lost commentary on the poem composed by Cyriacus of
Ancona for the poetry competition organized by Leon Battista Alberti (the first “certame coronario”)
and two moral dialogues in the style of Lucian, the De pace Italiae and the Dialogus in gymnasiis
Florentinis, the latter being a compendium of Aristotle’s moral philosophy. He also tackled
Aristotle’s moral philosophy in his epistolary controversy with Leonardo Bruni, circa 1441. Bruni’s
replies to Quirini’s lost letters reveal that he had brought into question the traditional construal of
Aristotle’s concept of virtue, maintaining that temperance, justice, and other virtues should be
considered extremes rather than means between two extremes (Griffiths et al. 1987, pp. 298–300).
This view recalls the critique of Aristotle’s account of virtue developed by Lorenzo Valla in the De
voluptate ac de vero bono (1432) and later in the De vero falsoque bono (1441). Yet one should bear
in mind that around 1445 Quirini wrote several polemical letters to Valla, accusing him of writing in
opposition to Aristotle. Moreover, in the De sacerdotio Christi, the Latin translation of a Greek
document of the Suda Lexicon that Quirini dedicated to Pope Nicholas V in 1447, he defended the
legitimacy of the Donation of Constantine and made critical allusions to Valla’s Declamatio.
However, the dispute between Quirini and Poggio Bracciolini is of far greater significance than
any other. It was Bracciolini’s De nobilitate (1440) that became the main polemical target of three
works in which Quirini sought to define the concept of nobility. The first of these was a letter written
in 1446 to Pietro Tomasi by Quirini and two of his friends, Francesco Contarini and Niccolò Barbo.
The second was the De nobilitate contra Poggium Florentinum, a philosophical treatise on nobility
that Quirini finished around 1449. The third work, the De nobilitate responsio, quid iuris, was a legal
treatise, written about 1450, in which he addressed the issue of nobility in juridical terms. About
1450 Quirini also finished his last work, the De republica, a political treatise in which he discussed
Aristotle’s analysis of the ideal form of government. The three works on nobility and the De
republica advanced an original, free interpretation of Aristotelian theses and were without doubt
the most innovative and far reaching of Quirini’s works, which is probably why they were not left in
manuscript form but were published together in the second half of the twentieth century (Quirini
1977).
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Quirini’s role in the fifteenth-century dispute over nobility has been investigated in considerable
depth (Kristeller 1985, pp. 321–339; Rabil 1991, pp. 143–181; Finzi 2010). As is well known,
Bracciolini’s De nobilitate initiated a debate on the issue in which many humanists took part. While
Florentines like Carlo Marsuppini and Cristoforo Landino and also Bartolomeo Platina agreed with
Poggio that nobility consisted in moral and intellectual excellence and thus was to be found only in
virtue, Quirini and other non-Florentines, such as Leonardo from Chio and Tristano Caracciolo,
maintained that it depended on descent rather than virtue and was inherited.
At stake in the dispute was a new view of political aristocracy, according to which men should
have access to public office on the basis of their personal qualities, irrespective of their social status.
Bracciolini and his followers, it may be said, were trying to demonstrate that men of low birth could
aspire to government office, if they were virtuous and had sufficient learning. To support this thesis,
Bracciolini castigated the avidity and rivalry of noblemen who had risen to power by virtue of their
lineage in such cities as Genoa, Naples, and Venice. In his letter to Tomasi, Quirini described the
impact that Bracciolini’s De nobilitate had had on its readership more clearly than other humanists
by giving voice to Venetian, Genoese, Neapolitan, and even Greek merchants who had denounced
Bracciolini’s ideas on nobility while conducting their business near the Rialto Bridge.
Quirini’s De nobilitate contra Poggium Florentinum got to the heart of the matter. The author did
not deny that nobility could be based on virtue and, indeed, tried to show that virtue depended on
nature. The subordination of virtue to nature was possible because he understood the latter in
Aristotelian terms and thus consistently used the word to denote inclinations and dispositions that
affect men from birth. It is therefore no surprise that he maintained that virtue could evolve by nature
only in the most eminent men.
Like Aristotle, Quirini did not believe in natural equality among men and claimed that the
distinction between nobles and common men was grounded on natural hierarchies of power that
ordered the whole universe. Nobility was thus described as a natural phenomenon, but at the same
time the questions it raised were considered in essentially political terms. According to Quirini, in
fact, men were to be considered nobles if they were born to govern themselves and the political
community. He was stretching Aristotle’s thesis on citizenship, and when moving from Aristotle’s
distinction between citizens and other inhabitants of the city, he did so in order to claim that nobility
was the only criterion according to which men should be considered worthy of public office. In this
way he offered a philosophical justification for the role of nobility in the Republic of Venice, where
political participation was traditionally limited to a finite body of patrician families. But to defend
the political prerogatives of his class, Quirini also quoted the Lex Cornelia and other ancient Roman
laws that forbade marriages between patricians and plebeians.
The fact that Quirini’s rejection of Bracciolini’s ideas was a defense of Venetian institutions
becomes evident in the passages where he challenged Bracciolini’s description of Venetian aristoc-
racy as a faction and emphasized that the Republic of Venice was the only city that had never known
internal conflicts. However, unlike Pier Paolo Vergerio (De republica veneta, c. 1412) and other
fifteenth-century humanists who created the “myth of Venice” (Robey and Law 1975), he refrained
from disclosing that Venice was free from factions because it had a form of mixed government that
combined the monarchic power of the Doge, the aristocratic power of the Senate, and the democratic
power of the Great Council. Moreover, unlike Leonardo of Chio, he did not consider Venice superior
to Florence: in accordance with the new foreign policy pursued by Doge Francesco Foscari, Quirini
maintained that both Venice and Florence were heirs to the greatness of the Roman Republic (King
1986, pp. 118–131).
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Bracciolini’s dialogue is also mentioned in the legal treatise of 1450, although in that work Quirini
wondered whether a man could legitimize the son of a fellow noble citizen without breaking the law
of the Emperor. To answer this question in the negative, he touched on the distinction between
nobility by virtue and nobility by birth, merging Aristotle’s theses and legal arguments. By contrast,
in his De republica Aristotle’s theses were combined with Ciceronian arguments.
Quirini’s political treatise aimed to demonstrate which was the best form of government. While
humanists such as Giovanni Pontano (De principe, c. 1465), Bartolomeo Platina (De principe, 1470;
De optimo cive, 1474), and Francesco Patrizi of Siena (De rei publicae institutione 1465–1471; De
regno et regis institutione, 1481–1484) focused on the virtues needed to be a perfect prince or perfect
citizen (Skinner 2002), Quirini directed his attention at political constitutions and analyzed them in
Aristotelian terms. As he admitted in the dedicatory letter to Doge Francesco Foscari, the De
republica was conceived as a digest of Aristotle’s Politics but ended up being a very different
work, the chief disparity being his attempt to fit Cicero’s arguments into an Aristotelian framework.
Impact and Legacy

Like the treatise on nobility, Quirini’s work on the best form of government offered an original, free
reading of Aristotelian moral and political arguments (Lines 2002). As in Aristotle’s Politics, in
Quirini’s De republica, the analysis of correct and deviant forms of government preceded a section
on education clearly influenced by Pier Paolo Vergerio’s pedagogical treatise on the importance of
humanistic studies (De ingenuis moribus et liberalibus studiis, c. 1402) and was followed by an
explanation of human sociability in which his debt to Cicero was unmistakable. To explain why men
are by nature political animals, Quirini in fact drew on Cicero’s idea of social ties that join all men by
nature and also referred to Cicero’s On Duties, On the Commonwealth, and On the Laws. On the
basis of Ciceronian arguments that would resurface in Pontano’s and Platina’s De principe, he
asserted that the prince should be considered as the guardian of the law. Unlike Aristotle, he
criticized hereditary monarchies, which he viewed as naturally destined to decline, and praised
elective monarchies, in which only the noblest and most virtuous men could become kings. He
followed Cicero’s theses rather than Aristotle’s ones even when describing the slaying of a tyrant as
an honest act. Furthermore, unlike other humanists, he used the Latin term respublica to denote not
all political constitutions, but a specific form of government: as recently noted (Hankins 2010) by
respublica, Quirini meant polity, the form of government by the many which Aristotle considered to
be the best and which he contrasted to democracy.
In Aristotle’s Politics, polity was the best form of government since its constitution established
that public offices would be assigned partly by lot and partly by election and declared the ruling class
to be the “middle” group of citizens—that is, a moderately wealthy class between the rich (the ruling
class of the oligarchy) and the poor (the ruling class of democracy). By contrast, Quirini’s ideal form
of government was essentially an aristocratic republic in which noblemen ruled by turn, and nobility
was the only criterion used to select those worthy of public office.
As in the De nobilitate, in De republica nobility was a question of birthright rather than character,
but the distance between the noble and common man was wider since Quirini held that people
without rank or title should only ratify decisions aimed at ensuring that liberty did not turn into
anarchy and that political unity did not give way to discord. Moreover, the distinction between
noblemen and common men conflated into that between patricians and the plebeians because Quirini
used the Roman Republic as an example alongside Aristotle’s polity. There is no doubt that his
model of the Roman Republic was a Ciceronian one since he referred to Cicero’s definition of the
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republic as something belonging to a people (res publica, res populi), pointing out that not all human
assemblies could be defined as a people and that the term “the people” was applicable only to a body
of persons united in agreement over rights (Cic. De rep. I, 39).
Although Quirini made no direct reference to the Republic of Venice, it is probable that he turned
to Cicero’s notion of republic because it appeared to match more closely the political institutions of
Venice than Aristotle’s polity (Cappelli 2010). Thus in both his political treatise and his treatise on
nobility, he interpreted Aristotle’s ideas in a highly original way, with one eye on the Roman
Republic and the other on that of Venice. This way of reading Aristotle constitutes the principal
legacy left to us by Quirini.
Cross-References
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Bracciolini, Poggio
▶ Bruni, Leonardo
▶ Law, Roman
▶ Platina, Bartolomeo
▶ Turks
▶ Valla, Lorenzo
▶ Virtue
References
Primary Literature
Quirini, L. 1977. “Epistola ad Petrum Thomasium”, “De nobilitate contra Poggium Florentinum”,
“De nobilitate responsio, quid iuris” (ed. by K. Krautter, P.O. Kristeller, H. Robb), “De republica”
(ed. by. C. Seno and R. Ravegnani), “Epistole storiche sulla caduta di Costantinopoli” (ed. by A.
Pertusi). In V. Branca, ed. Lauro Quirini umanista: testi e studi. Firenze.
Quirini, L. 2004. Letter to Isotta Nogarola. In Isotta nogarola. Complete writing, ed. M.L. King and
D.M. Robin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Quirini, L. 2014. Letter to Nicholas V. In Renaissance humanism, ed. M.L. King. Indianapolis.
Vespasiano da Bisticci. 1995. The vespasiano memoirs: lives of illustrious men of the XV century.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Cappelli, G. 2010. Aristotele veneziano. Il De republica di Lauro Quirini e la tradizione politica
classica. Parole Rubate 1: 5–35.
Craig, M. 2014. Subverting aristotle: religion, history, and philosophy in early modern science.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Finzi, C. 2010. “La polemica sulla nobiltà nell’Italia del Quattrocento”, Cuadernos de Filología
Clásica. Estud Latinos 2: 341–380.
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Griffiths, G., J. Hankins, and D. Thompson. 1987. The humanism of leonardo bruni: selected texts.
New York: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies in conjunction with the Renaissance Society
of America.
Hankins, J. 2010. Exclusivist republicanism and the non-monarchical republic. Polit Theory 4: 452–
482.
King, M.L. 1986. Venetian humanism in an age of patrician dominance. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
Kristeller, P.O. 1985. Studies in renaissance thought and letters II. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e
letteratura.
Lines, D. 2002. Aristotle’s ethics in the Italian renaissance (ca. 1300–1650). Leiden: Brill.
Marwan, S. 2006. Der averroismus des lauro quirini. In Wissen über grenzen, ed. A. Speer and L.
Wegener. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Rabil, A. 1991. Knowledge, goodness, and power: the debate over nobility among quattrocento
Italian humanists, 143–181. New York: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies.
Robey, D., and J. Law. 1975. The venetian myth and De republica veneta of pier paolo vergerio.
Rinascimento XV: 3–59.
Segarizzi, A. 1905. Lauro quirini: umanista veneziano del secolo XV. Turin: Clausen.
Skinner, Q. 2002. Renaissance virtues. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Sacchi Bartolomeo, Detto il Platina

Born: Piadena, 1421
Died: Rome, 1481
Annalisa Ceron*
Abstract
Bartolomeo Sacchi, better known as Platina, was an Italian humanist who lived an eventful life.
Starting out as a mercenary soldier, he moved to the court of Mantua, spent some years in Florence,
before transferring to Rome where he was arrested twice by Pope Paul II, and finally became prefect
of the Vatican librarian.
Before 1475 he wrote many works, including a very popular cookbook. His compendium of the
lives of the popes broke with medieval historical writing on the papacy. He developed original ideas
and innovative arguments in his dialogues exploring the themes of love and nobility, as well as in his
political works where he analyzed the virtues required by a perfect prince and an ideal citizen. His
writings made him a leading figure of the Renaissance.
Biography
Bartolomeo Sacchi was born in 1421 in Piadena, a small town near Cremona from whose Latin name
he derived the pseudonym Platina. Between 1445 and 1449, he served as a mercenary soldier under
the condottieri Francesco Sforza and Niccolò Piccinino but gave up his military career to acquire
proficiency in studia humanitatis under Ognibene da Lonigo, who had replaced Vittorino da Feltre
(1378–1446) as teacher of the humanistic school of Mantua.
In 1453 Platina himself succeeded Ognibene da Lonigo and in this capacity served as the tutor to
Francesco and Federico Gonzaga, the sons of the marquis of Mantua, Ludovico Gonzaga, who had
been his patron for many years. Platina’s first work, Divi Ludovici Marchionis Mantuae Somnium,
was written between 1454 and 1456 to celebrate his patron’s interest in the works of Virgil and in
humanistic culture.
In 1457 Platina obtained authorization to travel to Greece to study Greek, but upon hearing that
the Byzantine scholar John Argyropoulos had accepted a post teaching the ancient language (and
moral philosophy) at the Studium Florentinum, he chose instead to study under him. During his stay
in Florence, between 1457 and 1462, he enjoyed the patronage of the Medici family and spent time
with Marsilio Ficino and other eminent Florentine humanists. However, he neither taught Greek to
Ficino (Kristeller 1956) nor became a member of the so-called Platonic academy, a group of
humanists fascinated by the philosophy of Plato who gathered around Ficino after 1462 (Field
2002, pp. 365–372), as has sometimes been claimed. In addition to an oration in praise of Ludovico
Gonzaga, while in Florence Platina wrote the Vita Nerii Capponi (1457–c.1460) and a Latin
translation of Capponi’s Commentari, two works which confirm his closeness to the Medici.
*Email: annalisa.ceron@unimi.it
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Platina moved to Rome to follow Federico Gonzaga, who had been made cardinal, but his hopes
of becoming Gonzaga’s secretary came to nothing. Instead, in 1464 he became a member of the
College of Abbreviators, a body of writers whose task was to draft bulls and briefs for Pope Pius II.
When Pope Paul II decided to dissolve the college, Platina opposed his decision in such a manner
that the pontiff had him imprisoned in the Castel Sant’Angelo for 4 months (1454–1455).
In 1468 Platina, together with other members of the so-called Roman academy – a fraternity of
humanists gathered around Pomponius Laetus (Hankins 2011, pp. 31–46) – was again imprisoned
by the pope who felt sure that their interest in Roman antiquity had deteriorated into heretical belief
and in a republican conspiracy against his life. Although the actual existence of that conspiracy has
neither been proved nor disproved by scholars (Dunston 1973; Medioli Masotti 1982), and although
Platina was acquitted of heresy (Mitarotondo 2005), he remained in prison until 1469.
His rehabilitation came only in 1475, when Pope Sixtus IV appointed him Prefect of the Vatican
library. His appointment was depicted by Melozzo da Forlì in a famous fresco in the Vatican
museums.
The majority of Platina’s works were written in Rome between 1464 and 1475. Prior to his first
imprisonment, he wrote a biography of Vittorino da Feltre (after 1461) and two works by which he
sought to curry favor with the pope and obtain a position in the Curia: a eulogy of the liberal arts
dedicated to Pope Pius II (De laudibus bonarum artium, c.1463) and a biography of Pius II (1464),
which became the nucleus of his compendium of the lives of the pontiffs.
After his first arrest, Platina started De falso et vero bono, the consolatory dialogue dedicated to
Pope Sixtus IV in 1472, and the Historia Mantuana, a historical work in which he celebrated his first
patron, Ludovico Gonzaga, as the ruler of a new golden age. Shortly after his release, he began work
on De amore, a consolatory dialogue on love that was given the title, in 1471, of Contra amores.
While the date of Platina’s epitome of Pliny’s Natural History is still uncertain, there is no doubt that
De flosculis quibusdam linguae Latinae, a compendium in the form of a dialogue on Lorenzo Valla’s
De linguae Latinae elegantia (1434–1435), was written between 1465 and 1466. In the same period,
Platina completed De honesta voluptate and valetudine, a very successful cookbook unparalleled in
the fifteenth century.
During his second imprisonment, Platina turned his attention to a very different subject: war. In
the oration De pace Italiae, he praised the role of Pope Paul II in the pacification of Italy and in
defending Europe against the Turks. But in the dialogue De laudibus pacis, he rejected the
commendation of war made by his interlocutor, the prefect of the Castel Sant’Angelo.
On his second release from prison, Platina sought the patronage of Cardinal Bessarion, to whom
he addressed a panegyric in 1470. In 1471 he completed De principe, a humanistic portrayal of the
perfect prince dedicated to Francesco Gonzaga, a son of his first patron who had assumed the
government of Mantua. In the same year, Platina started the De optimo cive, a humanistic depiction
of the perfect citizen, which he presented to Lorenzo de Medici in 1474. Also in that year, he offered
to Sixtus IV the De vita Christi ac omnium pontificum, a compendium spanning papal history from
Saint Peter to his own day. In 1475 he wrote his final work, the dialogue De vera nobilitate, by which
he took part in the humanistic debate on nobility.
Platina devoted the final years of his life to the reorganization of the Vatican library. He died in
Rome in 1481, having contracted the plague.
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Heritage and Break with Tradition

The works through which Platina made a key contribution to Renaissance thought were written in
Rome between 1464 and 1475.
Platina’s main historical work was of course the De vita Christi ac omnium pontificum, a
collection of the lives of the popes that marked a turning point in medieval historical writing on
the papacy. Unlike Jacopo Zeno, who made the first attempt to recast the medieval Liber pontificalis
in the light of the humanistic idea of historical works, Platina not only described the lives of the
popes in elegant and straightforward Latin but also displayed an interest in political history. His
biographies were thus enhanced by frequent references to wars, negotiations, and effective govern-
ment. In addition, he strove “to blur the lines between pagan and Christian antiquity” by depicting
the popes as successors and heirs to the Roman emperors (D’Elia 2008, p. ix). In the course of his
analysis, he drew from modern sources, including Flavio Biondo’s Decades of History from the
Deterioration of the Roman Empire (c.1453), and combined a variety of ancient sources, without,
however, giving a critical evaluation of them. In spite of this limitation, his work enjoyed extraor-
dinary success. After the editio princeps was published in Venice in 1479, the Vita Christi ac
omnium pontificum was reprinted dozens of times, was translated into several languages, and was
revised and updated in both Catholic and Protestant countries (Bauer 2006). Its popularity was partly
due to the fact that Platina had measured modern churchmen against the standard of Christian
antiquity and humanistic ideals.
Platina’s Contra amores held a prominent position among Renaissance works on the theme of
love. Conceived as a consolatory dialogue to relieve a lovesick friend, it contrasted erotic love (amor
inhonestum) with an open form of love in which sensual pleasure was subordinated to virtue (amor
honestum). Like other humanists, such as Leon Battista Alberti (Deifira, before 1428), Pietro Edo
(Anterotica, 1492), and Battista Fregoso (Anteros, 1496), Platina considered the negative effects of
love and recalled Platonic arguments (drawn especially from Plato’s Symposium) to define it as a
form of sickness that interfered with the exercise of reason. At variance with this view, Marsilio
Ficino intertwined Platonic and Neoplatonic arguments to describe love as the means through which
the human soul rejoined God. Mario Equicola, a supporter of Ficino’s philosophy of love, summa-
rized Platina’s Contra amores in his popular Libro de natura de amore (1494–1496), and Thomas
Sebillet included it in his Contramours (1581).
Platina’s De falso et vero bono had nothing to do with Valla’s De vero falsoque bono (1441).
Whereas Valla had argued that pleasure was the goal of human life and tried to conciliate Epicure-
anism with Stoicism and Christian morality, Platina claimed that fortitude should help man to bear
any hardship. What is of particular interest is that, when writing De falso et vero bono, Platina drew
extensively form the main Stoic sources for consolatory works used during the Renaissance:
Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations and On the Ends of Good and Evil and Seneca’s Moral Letters.
In De vera nobilitate, Platina contended that nobility did not spring from lineage or wealth but
from virtue alone. As noted by several scholars (Tateo 1974, pp. 355–421; Skinner 1978,
pp. 117–130; Rabil 1991, pp. 262–275), Platina played a key role in the fifteenth-century disputation
on nobility, echoing the ideas that Poggio Bracciolini’s De nobilitate (1440) had advanced 35 years
earlier. Like De nobilitate, Platina’s De vera nobilitate was widely circulated in both manuscript
form and printed editions and thus contributed to popularizing the humanistic view that true nobility
hinged on virtue.
Platina’s De principe belonged to the wide and heterogeneous genre of the mirror for princes
written during the fifteenth century. It focused on the moral virtues required for a perfect ruler rather
than on the constitutional aspects of princely government (Skinner 2002, pp. 132–135). Platina’s De
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principe resembled the structure of Giles of Rome’s De regimine principum, the most popular
medieval mirror of princes produced during the Renaissance, and therefore consisted of three books,
each dealing with the prerequisite qualities for self-governance, government, and military matters.
Nevertheless, the books were quite different in content: while Giles of Rome based his analysis on
Aristotelian arguments and biblical sources, Platina defined the virtues of the prince by entwining
quotations drawn from Aristotle’s Ethics and Politics and from Cicero’s works (in particular,
On Duties, On the Ends of Good and Evil, and Tusculan Disputations). He then used a long stream
of historical evidence from a variety of classical sources to illustrate how they should be applied. In
the course of his analysis, Platina also made reference to Plato’s Republic and described the prince
who was loved by all his subjects for his good qualities as a philosopher king. Since the beginning of
the fifteenth century, many humanists had used Plato’s image of the philosopher king to argue that
power was justified when combined with moral knowledge based on humanistic education (Vasoli
1980, pp. 151–187). But Platina went further, asserting that power and knowledge were indissolubly
linked.
As recently noted (Ceron 2011), one of the most intriguing sections of Platina’s De principe deals
with the issue of friendship. Like Giovanni Tinto Vicini (De institutione regiminis dignitatum,
before 1406), Pontano (De principe, c.1465), and Francesco Patrizi of Siena (De regno et regis
institutione, 1481–1484), he made use of the Aristotelian and Ciceronian ideal, according to which
true friendship was based on virtue, in order to advise the prince to choose honest and trustworthy
friends on whom he could rely to manage and administer his power. In other words, he employed the
language of friendship to solve the problem of selecting the governing elite. Unlike the aforemen-
tioned humanists, Platina stated that the friends of the prince should be chosen from among the
noblest of his subjects, since nobility was based only on virtue. Moreover, by insisting that virtue
consisted of intellectual excellence as well as moral greatness, De principe emphasized that the
governing elite was also an intellectual elite, a point made less clearly in De vera nobilitate.
As demonstrated by Nicolai Rubinstein, De optimo cive was an abridged version of De principe
(Rubinstein 1985, pp. 375–388). With just a few changes, Platina turned his treatise on the perfect
prince into a dialogue in which the old Cosimo de’ Medici explained to his grandchild Lorenzo how
to become an ideal citizen. Platina substituted the first chapter, extolling the virtues of monarchy for
a preface, which celebrated active participation in public life. He then added a section on patriotism,
removed the chapter on the unhappiness of the prince, modified some historical references, and
omitted the book on military matters. In the remaining parts of the work, he simply replaced optimus
princeps with optimus vir.
Since Platina’s catalog of virtues remained unchanged, De optimo cive displayed more clearly
than other works of the humanist belief that citizens needed to possess the same qualities as princes
to become perfect rulers; it thereby suggested that the humanism of the court should not be opposed
to civic humanism. Yet, given that the dialogue between the pater patriae and Lorenzo de’ Medici
was made up of a long analysis of civic virtues, Platina’s De optimo cive has often been compared to
Matteo Palmieri’s Vita civile (c.1430–1438), with which it was published in a joint edition in the
middle of the twentieth century (Platina 1942). As observed by Hans Baron, Platina revised
Palmieri’s ideal of active participation in public life and placed it within a cultural context where
the life of contemplation had superseded civic life in terms of popularity owing to the so-called
“return of Plato” (Baron 1966, pp. 564–566). Moreover, whereas Palmieri’s work made no reference
to the Medicean rise to power, in the section on patriotism in De optimo cive, Platina portrayed the
Medici as the guardians of the freedom of Florence, seeking to conciliate their power with the
republican tradition of the city. As recently remarked (Hankins 2010), one of the most interesting
aspects of his work on the perfect citizen was its description of the Republic of Florence as a popular
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republic (popularis respublica), which was not so much threatened by external enemies or internal
factions as by the political ambition of unworthy and imperfect citizens.

While it is clear that Platina developed innovative theses in many of his writings, there can be no
doubt that the most original of his works was De honesta voluptate et valetudine. Far more than a
mere cookbook, this was a real literary work that had gastronomic pleasure as its main theme
(Larioux 2006). Moving from medical considerations based on Galen’s theory of the humors and the
medieval dietetic tradition, Platina provided a long list of recipes that allowed dining companions to
combine enjoyment with good health.
The contents were modern for, of his own admission, Platina derived most of his recipes from the
Libro de arte coquinaria (1450–1467) by Martino of Como, a culinary expert and chef at the Roman
palazzo of the papal chamberlain. However, the structure of De honesta voluptate et valetudine was
ancient for Platina modeled his cookbook on that of Apicius. In the course of his study, he also drew
on Pliny’s Natural History and a variety of lesser known classical sources, creating a new Latin
vocabulary of food (Milham 1998).
It should also be noted that Platina attached to his recipes many anecdotes on the eating habits and
tastes of his fellow members of the Roman academy for two reasons. On the one hand, the anecdotes
gave prominence to the (Stoic) precept of self-restraint when dining. On the other hand, they
illustrated how after-dinner talk could enhance the pleasure of a meal, in line with the Greek and
Roman tradition of symposia and the Renaissance ideal of civil conversation.
Impact and Legacy

Like De vita Christum ac omnium pontificum and De vera nobilitate, De honesta voluptate et
valetudine was a highly successful work, being reprinted many times between the end of the fifteenth
and the beginning of the sixteenth century (Rome 1475 and 1517; Venice 1484, 1487, 1498, 1508,
1516, and 1517; Cologne 1529 and 1537; Paris 1530).
Platina’s other works considered here were less successful, though equally far reaching. Contra
amores gave a decisive contribution to the Renaissance philosophy of love, and De principe and De
optimo cive developed an intriguing reflection on the perfect prince and the perfect citizen, thereby
shedding new light on the nature and relationship of the humanism of the court and civic humanism.
For these reasons Platina has been considered one of the leading figures of the Italian Renaissance.
Cross-References
▶ Academies
▶ Academy, Platonic
▶ Argyropoulos, John
▶ Bracciolini, Poggio
▶ Friendship
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▶ Palmieri, Matteo
▶ Valla, Lorenzo
▶ Virtue
References
Primary Literature
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huius nominis 3. Eiusdem item Platinae, De falso & vero bono Dialogi tres. Contra amores 1. De
uera nobilitate 1. De optimo ciue 2. Panegyricus in Bessarionem doctiss. Patriarcham Constanti-
nopolitanum. Oratio ad Paulum 2. Pont. maximum, de bello Turcis inferendo. Coloniae. http://
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Platina, B. 1887. Divi ludovici marchionis mantuae somnium. Mantova: Eredi Segna.
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detto il Platina, ed. F. Battaglia. Bologna
Platina, B. 1948. Vita di Vittorino da Feltre, ed. G. Biasuz. Padova
Platina, B. 1979. De principe, ed. G. Ferraù. Palermo
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his legacy, ed. M.J.B. Allen, V. Rees, and M. Davies. Leiden: Brill.
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452–482.
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letteratura.
Larioux, B. 2006. Gastronomie, humanisme et société a Rome au milieu du XVe siècle. Autor du ‘De
Honesta voluptate’ de Platina. Florence.
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platina. Bari: Adriatica.
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Sarpi, Paolo
Born: Venice, 1552
Died: Venice, 15 January 1623
Antonella Barzazi*
Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies, University of Padua, Padova, Italy
Abstract
With The History of the Council of Trent, published in London in 1619, the Venetian Paolo Sarpi
established himself as both the greatest Italian historian in the seventeenth century and the most
formidable adversary of the Counter-Reformation in Italy. His life changed decisively in 1606 when
Pope Paul V laid Venice under the Interdict. A friar in the order of the Servants of Mary, Sarpi was a
staunch defender of the Republic, playing a key role in the “war of words” that lasted for a whole year
between the two contenders, much to the amazement of the major European men of letters and rulers. He
was 54 when he first entered the political scene and began writing for the press. Prior to that, he had
concentrated on philosophical and scientific studies. In his Thoughts he discussed in the form of notes and
aphorisms the most current themes of the scientific revolution; he also offered a disillusioned review of the
natural and human world, reappraising with radical skepticism the development of society and religion.
The Interdict made him venture onto the field of politics and history, and this engrossed him more and
more for the rest of his life. Writing thus became for Sarpi an instrument of political warfare to defend the
sovereignty of the State and a means for a controversial reconstruction of the history of the Roman
Church.
Biography
Born in Venice in August 1552, Pietro Sarpi changed his baptismal name in Paolo in 1565, when he joined
the order of the Servants of Mary in the Venetian convent of S. Maria. The son of a Venetian mother and a
merchant from Friuli who died at a young age, he was educated in grammar and rhetoric by his maternal
uncle who was a priest in the parish of San Marcuola. He then attended lessons in logic and philosophy
held by Giovanni Maria Capella from Cremona, a friar from the Servants and an expert on Duns Scotus.
Pietro’s religious decision as an adolescent was probably a result of Capella’s influence. Sarpi continued
his studies in the Observant convents in Cremona, where probably he took his vows in 1572, and in
Mantua. Thanks to the presence of Jewish scholars from the Gonzaga court, it was here that he was able to
further his studies of Hebrew and sustained successful public discussions on philosophical and theolog-
ical theses, obtaining his baccalaureate in 1574. The archbishop Carlo Borromeo invited him to Milan, but
he did not remain there long. In 1575 he was already back in the convent in Venice teaching philosophy,
and in 1578 he was awarded the degree of doctor in theology at Padua University (Micanzio 1974; Cozzi
1979; Branchesi 2006). In the same year he began writing notes on scientific and philosophical subjects,
called Thoughts (Cozzi and Sosio 1996). His career in the order progressed rapidly: the provincial in
Venice from 1579 to 1582 and procurator-general in the Apostolic See from 1585 to 1588, the second
*Email: antonella.barzazi@unipd.it
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highest post in the order after prior general. In Rome he initially attracted the admiration of the cardinal
protector of the Servants of Mary, Giulio Antonio Santoro, as well as of Pope Sixtus V, but he also
frequented more marginal or dissenting figures such as the Jesuits Nicolás de Bobadilla and Robert
Bellarmine and Cardinal Giovan Battista Castagna, who was to become Pope Urban VII. As can be seen
in the Thoughts he wrote in this period, he continued to cultivate his mathematical and theoretical
interests. On a travel to Naples, he visited Giambattista Della Porta whom he might have already met in
Padua. Although there is no clear documentation, he could have met the mathematician from the Roman
College, Cristoforo Clavio, and might have collaborated in the complex undertaking of transporting the
Vatican obelisk (Cozzi and Sosio 1996, XLI). However, he was later to have a very negative memory of
the contact he had with the Roman Curia, at a moment in which considerable measures were taken to
reinforce the Counter-Reformation Church. Once his term as the procurator-general had finished, his rise
up to the top of the order came to an end.
Back in Venice, he returned to his studies with renewed vigor, intensifying his relations with the
political-cultural circles of the capital and the university city. He participated in meetings that took place at
the house of the patricians Andrea and Nicolò Morosini – in which Giordano Bruno also took part in
1592 – and at Gian Vincenzo Pinelli’s home in Padua, a reference point for Venetian patricians, university
professors, and clergymen with both classical-humanistic and scientific interests. Here he met the
mathematician Marino Ghetaldi from Ragusa and Galileo Galilei with whom he held discussions about
optics and dynamics (Cozzi 1979; Cozzi and Sosio 1996; Bucciantini 2000). His network of contacts – not
yet studied in detail – also included physicians and anatomists: Girolamo Fabrici d’Acquapendente and
Santorio Santorio, both university professors in Padua, and Pierre Asselineau, a French Calvinist and
probably the go-between for Sarpi’s relations with the French ambassadors André de Maisse and Philippe
Canaye de Fresnes. The latter, in turn, both aided Sarpi’s correspondence with Isaac Casaubon and
Jacques-Auguste De Thou (Cozzi 1979). At the end of the 1980s, he also began to be a frequent visitor at
the mercers’ shop at the Golden Ship, run by Dutch Calvinists, which was a meeting place for foreign
merchants and travelers and a crossroad for news from all over the world. At the beginning of the
seventeenth century, Sarpi was therefore a friar with multiple skills and an authoritative interlocutor with
men of science, noblemen, and foreign diplomats, curious about the novelties of contemporary politics
(De Vivo 2006). He was, however, also a friar who was becoming increasingly ill at ease in his order, now
divided into factions by the forceful intervention of cardinal protector Santoro, who had become his open
enemy (Barzazi 2012). To escape these disputes, Sarpi asked the government for support twice, once in
1600 and again in 1601, to be appointed bishop of a minor Veneto bishopric. Paul V refused his request
both times. The doubts the papal nuncio in Venice expressed on his own religious beliefs did not help him
at all.
In April 1606 the tension overshadowing the relations between the Venetian Republic and the papacy
exploded: Paul Vordered the senate to repeal several laws aimed at limiting the acquisition of property by
the Church and the detention of two delinquent clerics. Faced with a refusal, Paul V proclaimed the
excommunication of the Doge and of the Venetian leaders and the Interdict of the entire dominions of the
Republic, prohibiting the clergy from celebrating all religious functions and sacraments. By the end of
January, Sarpi had already been appointed consultant in theological matters and canon laws, which was a
new office in the Venetian government system. It was in this role that he drafted the “protest,” the official
reply signed by the Doge, which declared the Roman censures invalid and unlawfully proclaimed and
ordered the clergy to continue their church services as usual. During the following months, he organized
the Venetian resistance to the attacks from polemicists in Rome such as Baronio and Bellarmine, writing
advices for the senate and pamphlets that were to be broadly diffused in both Italy and Europe (Pin 2001;
Tutino 2010; De Vivo 2007).
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The diplomatic settlement of the controversy, achieved thanks to French mediation in April 1607, left
him both disappointed and in an awkward position. In October of the same year, he was injured in an
assault that was said to have been carried out by circles close to Paul V; in vain, emissaries of the Roman
Curia and even the general of the order tried to convince him to submit to Paul V (Barzazi 2006). His role
as consultant became less important. Considered a troublesome figure in the more moderate groups of the
ruling class, he was summoned very rarely by the senate in the two years following the Interdict and only
on matters that were of little significance (Pin 2006b). Progressively isolated from Venetian politics, Sarpi
was, however, at the center of attention of European political and religious circles. They regarded him
essential in their plans to counteract Italian politics dominated by the axis between the papacy and Spain.
Their scheme was the formation of a vast confederation of countries from the north of Europe and France
under Henry IV, which would ideally make in post-Interdict Venice its possible base. Sarpi tried to support
these plans and acted accordingly with the patricians he was closest to, while also taking independent
initiatives. Together with the brother and future biographer Fulgenzio Micanzio, he made contact with the
chaplain of the English embassy in Venice, William Bedell. He entered into correspondence with
outstanding figures in the Gallican world – Jacques-Auguste De Thou, Jacques Leschassier, and Jacques
Gillot – and with French, Swiss, and German Calvinists such as Jerôme Groslot de l’Isle, Philippe Du
Plessis Mornay, Jean Hotman de Villiers, Jean Diodati, and Christoph and Achatius von Dohna. He
expressed his aversion to the Apostolic See freely – to the Protestants in particular – voicing his hopes that
the papacy’s incumbent presence and the supremacy of Habsburgs’ Spain would be brought down by a
clash with the powers on the other side of the Alps (Busnelli 1931; Ulianich 1961; Cozzi 1979). It is
unclear whether these clandestine ties were simply aimed at giving the Venetian Republic an influential
role alongside the political and economic powers of the north or were also intended to remove the
Venetian Church from Rome. In the summer of 1609, agents of the Protestant Union of Halle and the
United Provinces of the Netherlands arrived in Venice, but the correspondents were by then disappointed
with Sarpi’s excessive caution in taking any action. Any hopes of a great political-religious upheaval were
dashed when Henry IV was assassinated in 1610. However, Sarpi’s letters to the Gallicans and the
Protestants continued until 1612, successively becoming less frequent before ceasing altogether in
1616–1617. From 1612 he was equally in touch with the English ambassador in Venice, Dudley Carleton,
with whom he exchanged letters till 1615, when Carleton had already moved to the Netherlands. At the
same time, Micanzio, for his part, entered into correspondence with the latter as well as with William
Cavendish, son of the Earl of Devonshire. Thomas Hobbes, Cavendish’s tutor, translated Micanzio’s
letters from Italian into English (Cozzi and Cozzi 1969/1997; Barzazi 2010).
It was from 1609 to 1610 that Sarpi’s role in the Venetian government was gradually consolidated and
his activity as consultant was intensified. The range of the issues he was asked to examine expanded,
going beyond the ecclesiastic and jurisdictional fields – controversies on church benefices and clerical
immunity, disputes regarding the Inquisition, the press and censorship, and relationships with the Greek
and Jewish communities – to those of more strictly political importance: regulating ecclesiastic and lay
fiefs, border conflicts, dominion over the Adriatic Sea, international relations, and foreign policy. Some
advices were in the form of short treatises regarding specific subjects, for example, On the Office of the
Inquisition (1613), On the Immunity of the Churches (1620), or Jurisdiction in the Patriarchs’ Lands of
Friuli (1621), in which Sarpi denounced the faults of the Republic in arousing the controversy over the
feudal rights of the Aquileian Patriarchate (Gambarin 1958; Pin 1985). The new position of the consultant
meant compromise and mediation. During the eve and outbreak of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) – a
very difficult period for Venice – Sarpi’s relations with the ruling class had their ups and downs. In fact,
those patricians who supported the anti-Habsburg line and a more decisive stance toward the Church
found themselves up against a prevailing pacifistic and moderate tendency. However, Sarpi’s counsel was
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in considerable demand, and in the last two years of his life, he even presented to the senate as many as two
advices a week (Pin 2006b, p. 357).
Committed to replying day in, day out to the questions of the Venetian government, he did not
completely abandon his scientific studies and philosophical meditations. In 1609 he collaborated with
Galileo in developing the telescope (Bucciantini 2000). In the following years, he had his Thoughts on
Religion transcribed; he also continued to record his astronomic observations and calculations (Cozzi and
Sosio 1996). He was, however, more focused on history. From 1607 onward, in response to solicitations
from J.-A. De Thou, he had written the History of the Interdict, which he completed under the supervision
of Doge Leonardo Donà (Pin 2006a); he had also composed the Treatise on Benefices, an extensive study
on the revenues’ regime in the Church (Gambarin 1958). In the same period, the project on the history of
the Council of Trent began to take shape. In a letter dated March 1608 to J. Gillot, Sarpi said he already
had a considerable amount of documentation on the council, both originals and copies. Perhaps already
started in 1611 (Pin 2006b, p. 393), most of the History of the Council of Trent was written between 1614
and the beginning of 1616 before being finally completed in 1617. These developments were followed
with particular attention by the English ambassador D. Carleton as well as by King James I, who invited
Sarpi to move to London more than once. It was the archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbot, who
organized the publication of the History: in the spring of 1618, one of his fiduciaries had the manuscript
transcribed in Venice and sent it to England, one gathering after the other, using the commercial network
run by Daniel Nis, a Dutch merchant who lived in Venice and an old friend of Sarpi’s. In May 1619 the
work was published in London by the printer John Bill with the pseudonym Pietro Soave Polano, an
anagram of the author’s name (Paolo Sarpi Veneto), with a subtitle and a dedication to James I, both added
by Marc’Antonio De Dominis. The author was extremely annoyed by the additions. In November the
History was placed on the Index (Cozzi and Cozzi 1969/1997). In the meantime Sarpi had been asked to
write other historical works by the Venetian government, engaged in the unsuccessful war against the
Habsburg archdukes of Austria on the eastern borders in 1615–1616 and in the following diplomatic
negotiations. He penned the Addition and the Supplement to the History of the Uskoks by M. Minucci
(1617–1618) and the unfinished Treatise of Peace and Settlement, likened to The History of the Council of
Trent owing to its lucid analysis and rigorous argumentation (Cozzi and Cozzi 1965, 1969/1997, p. 1022).
Sarpi died on 15 January 1623 in the Venetian convent of S. Maria dei Servi. The senate made Micanzio
compile an official report on his death. The faithful brother wrote that he had died at peace and with the
comfort of the sacraments (Cozzi 1979; Barzazi 2010). The public funeral rites were celebrated amid
fervent protests from the papal nuncio. The corpus containing more than one thousand advices by Sarpi
was transcribed into large parchment volumes and deposited in the secret chancellery to be used by the
Venetian magistracies and by his successors in the office of the consultant.
Works and Themes

“Even before the events of the world induced me to think about serious things [. . .] my natural inclination
was already towards the natural and mathematical subjects,” Sarpi wrote to Jerôme Groslot de l’Isle in
July 1608 (Busnelli 1931, I, 22). The long-lasting attraction that most current scientific themes in the late
sixteenth and early seventeenth century had for him can be seen by his Natural, Metaphysical and
Mathematical Thoughts, an extensive corpus with 655 notes, survived only in eighteenth-century copies.
Not intended for publication, these notes are actually an intellectual diary, most of which was written
between 1578 and 1597 and also continued until the beginning of the 1620s (Cozzi and Sosio 1996). In the
series of Thoughts dating back to the period between his degree in theology and the years of his
provincialate, Sarpi dealt mainly with problems regarding optics: the mechanisms of vision, refraction,
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and the effect of light on celestial bodies, discussed on the basis of the masters of Medieval optics, Roger
Bacon, Alhazen, and Witelo. Other notes are on acoustics, the propagation of heat, and local motion; he
studied the latter from a philosophical and qualitative perspective, according to the approach of late
Scholasticism. Sarpi also showed a keen interest in the theory of knowledge and this was to be one of the
main lines of his reflections. Already in his very first Thoughts, he was dwelling on the uncertainty of the
path that leads from sense perception to the understanding of the causes of phenomena; similarly, he took
up the arguments of nominalist critics to Aristotelian science, also using corpuscular theories, drawn on
Lucretius and Diogenes La€ertius and an important author in the mathematical Renaissance in the Veneto,
Hero of Alexandria. His mechanistic vision became more articulate in the notes on the sense of matter, its
composition, and continuous changes, believed to be the origin of all things (Wootton 1983; Frajese 1994;
Cozzi and Sosio 1996). Between the provincialate and his appointment as the procurator- general of the
order, Sarpi’s speculations went together with chemical experiments and dissecting animals with the aim
of studying the circulatory system and the structure of the eye in greater detail from an anatomical and
physiological point of view (Micanzio 1974, pp. 1291–1294). During the three years he spent in Rome,
his scientific attitude developed significantly. His Thoughts reflects the relations with a lively scientific
milieu and his contact with the mathematical and astronomical investigations originated by the calendar
reform carried out by Pope Gregory XIII. It was at this moment that Sarpi overcame the close association
between optics and astronomy and began tackling cosmological problems with mechanical and quanti-
tative reasoning, which actually also reveal a closer study of the heliocentric theories. Several great
themes – motion of projectiles, acceleration and fall of bodies, and movement of the tides – all appeared in
his notes. They were later to be at the center of his intense discussions with Galileo, which began just after
the latter arrived in Padua in 1592 (Ernst and Canone 1994, p. 363). The correspondence between them
and their writings show they agreed and disagreed on certain aspects, but Sarpi’s contribution to Galileo’s
theories and inventions, as in the case of discoveries in other fields such as vein circulation and
magnetism, is not specifically documented, thus resulting in conflicting interpretations (Sosio 2006). In
fact, although Sarpi grasped the importance of the mathematical explanation of physical phenomena, he
was never able to abandon the qualitative analysis of dynamics and the traditional scholastic instruments.
Moreover, his reflections continued to cover a great variety of different fields: from optics – where he
achieved the highest levels of expertise – to the states of matter, human physiology, biology, and animal
metabolism. Nevertheless, he continued to read a vast range of the latest scientific works; in 1602 he
commented on William Gilbert’s De Magnete (1600) with Galileo; in 1615 a correspondent sent him two
posthumous writings by François Viète; he drafted extracts and comments on various works by Kepler,
including the second edition of the Mysterium Cosmographicum, dated 1621 (Cozzi 1979, p. 162; Cozzi
and Sosio 1996, LXXIII, CXC).
Sarpi’s criticism of the Aristotelian categories of knowledge equally remained founded mainly on
nominalism, Ockham’s doctrine in particular, but he did grant Epicurean mechanistic philosophy greater
room. It was on this basis that his study of sensory perception and the action of human mind gradually
expanded to ethical subjects: happiness, conceived as a state of peace compared to the motion of passions,
according to a stoic vision modified with references to animal behavior as described by Cynics, and the
law, defined as the assumption as a rule of the habits of the majority, in a more relativistic and merely
positive perspective. His reflections on the moral and political-religious world were particularly original
and scathing in a dozen Thoughts he wrote between 1588 and 1591, after his return from Rome (Cozzi and
Sosio 1996, pp. 289–320; Pin 2012). Sarpi’s starting point in these was the nature of “true philosophy,”
which he called the “food of the soul.” If, thanks to philosophy, men had been able to achieve peace of
their souls – he said – they would have rather lived “in anarchy.” However, as that was not possible, they
had always sought the help of two “natural medicines” of human weakness and imperfection: the
“republic,” or political community, and the “torà,” religion; the latter was designated with a Hebrew
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word emphasizing Sarpi’s familiarity with the tradition of the Mosaic Law (Frajese 2006). The “torà” was
actually a human institution, subject to change and deterioration, and was a “worldly thing,” “property” of
the “republic,” which used it to reinforce its political power. Such opinions on the political use of religion
offered nothing new and were variously discussed in the “reason of state” literature of that time. Sarpi,
however, went further. He objected that it was not true that the “torà” was needed to reinforce the states
and unite society, as could be seen by the fact that someone who had abandoned religion deep down did
not necessarily change his behavior. The “torà” was therefore the same as any other means that generated
fear and subjection in mankind, and its effectiveness would vary depending on the time and place. In fact,
Sarpi concluded, “the torà is more influential in the South and the East, honour more in the North, and
ambition in the countries in the Middle.” Thus the ideas of ancient and modern writers – including
Lucretius, Averroes, Machiavelli, Pomponazzi, Bodin, and Montaigne – were revisited in a libertine
vision that deprived religion of its most traditional function, separating it from civilization on the basis of
anthropological and climatic considerations and contemplating the possibility of an atheistic society
(Wootton 1983; Tuck 1993, pp. 98–99; Frajese 1994).
The research he carried out in a fragmentary form in Natural[. . .]Thoughts was developed in three
short essays that were also not intended for publication and were probably written between the end of the
sixteenth century and the first decade of the seventeenth. The first, known with the eighteenth-century title
The Art of Good Thinking, is connected to Sarpi’s deep interest in the structures of human knowledge,
which he believed only differed from those of animals regarding quantity. In this small treatise, Sarpi
analyzed the limits of cognitive processes: he classified the errors in the intellect’s elaboration of data from
senses; he cataloged the sources of error that were due to experience; he finally indicated the skeptic
suspension of judgment as an obligatory step in view of a gradual correction of the false opinions of the
intellect, which was forced to proceed by trial and error. Among the false opinions conceived by the
human mind, Sarpi also included the idea of the immortality of the soul (Frajese 2006, p. 96). Probably
fueled by the continuous attention he paid to the scientific explanation of natural phenomena, Sarpi’s plea
for methodical training of the human faculties was no more than a claim, to be developed fully by the
seventeenth-century thinkers. It therefore prompted Sarpi’s eighteenth-century apologists to suggest an
unfounded comparison with Locke (Tuck 1993, p. 98; Cozzi and Sosio 1996, pp. 561–562).
The second essay, with the title – given later – Medical-Moral Thoughts, discussed the related subjects
of happiness and taking care of the passions, inserting them in the pattern of therapeutic advice that was
common in Hippocratic-Galenic medical literature. Sarpi quoted numerous classical authors – Epictetus,
Plutarch, and Seneca – filtered through Montaigne’s writing and Charron’s De la sagesse, recommending
to the wise man the path of a moderate composition of pleasure and pain, which took into account the
relativity of each choice and man’s intrinsic fragility, avoiding any excessive rigor. Follow Socrates rather
than Cato, Sarpi suggested. The message in the text could be interpreted in different ways. Indeed, some
precepts expressed a lack of faith in the possibility of influencing traditional values and customs,
suggesting the wise man to detach himself totally from civil and political life, while other maxims
prefigured the possibility of a prudent, cautious commitment, bearing in mind the limits of human action
(Pin 2012).
In the philosophical notes written in 1588–1591, Sarpi had dealt with religion in its abstract social and
political aspects. In his third essay, Thoughts on Religion – of which a copy made after 1609 survives with
additional comments by the author – the subject was tackled from a different perspective. Sarpi put
forward a genetic, historical analysis that used the reasoning in chapter V, book II, of Charron’s De la
sagesse, integrating it with passages from Lucretius’ De rerum natura (Frajese 1990). In a lapidary and
elliptic style, Sarpi claimed that the religious sentiment and the very idea of divinity had developed in
mankind via a process of “amplification of the idea of oneself,” facilitated by fear and the ignorance of the
causes of natural phenomena. This process resulted in religions that rationed different “operative” and
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“speculative” components and that attributed different positions to God and man. Sarpi strived to identify
the most suitable of these to support the action of political authorities and to satisfy the needs of both
“unrefined” and more “subtle” minds. His reply was clear: the “best” religion was the one that raised God
up to an extremely high sphere, distant from man in order to evoke reverence but not fear and to
discourage the proliferation of rites and doctrines. In the final part of his essay, Sarpi reviewed the
Greek and Roman religions, Judaism and Christianity, to conclude that the latter had originally been close
to the “ideal” model previously outlined. Christianity had therefore been subjected to gradual corruption:
the articles of faith had multiplied and its relationship with politics had become more difficult. In fact, after
Emperor Constantine, the Christian Church had claimed its own political role, concurrent to that of civil
authority. The libertine-style vision put forward in Natural[. . .]Thoughts, which seemed to be indifferent
to the variety of historical religions, was thus outpaced by a classification of religions based on a principle
of functionality and sociopolitical use; Sarpi linked it to a reconstruction of the centuries-old development
of Christianity that he was to present in greater detail in his historical works (Tuck 1993, pp. 99–100).
While he was revising these reflections, Sarpi became part of public life, taking advantage of a concrete,
sensational dispute between Venice and Rome. The Interdict led him to experiment with a different
writing style that was aimed at political communication and to tackle themes that were unlike his previous
notes and essays. In the most comprehensive work he wrote in 1606 – Considerations on the Censures
[. . .] by Pope Paul V against the Venetian Republic, published in Italian and Latin – he presented the
Venetian cause while also defending the Republic’s profound loyalty to Catholicism. By issuing laws
regarding church property and punishing criminal clerics, the Venetian Republic – he claimed – had
exercised a fundamental right and duty that God entrusted to secular authorities: that of protecting its own
subjects and the authenticity of religious piety. Paul V accusation of Venice violating “ecclesiastic
freedom” was merely an excuse. In fact, Paul V used the expression “ecclesiastic freedom” to refer to
the economic and personal privileges the clergy had acquired, attributing a new, unheard-of meaning to
the Christian freedom that Saint Paul had claimed and had been practiced in the church during the early
centuries. At the same time, in his advices for the senate and in other printed pamphlets, Sarpi urged
Venetian clergymen to respect the government’s orders about the Interdict, suggesting the patricians to
appeal for a general council; he argued in favor of the divine investiture of the princes and contrasted the
spirit of Christianity in its beginnings with the wealth and wish for power of the Church in his days, citing
the Gospels, the patristic texts, and the ancient councils. He now also openly tried his strength on the
terrain of the theological controversy (Cozzi and Cozzi 1969/1997; Pin 2001; Ulianich 2006).
In the critical two-year period, 1607–1609, his studies on ecclesiastical history intensified. The
correspondence with the Gallicans spurred Sarpi on: he was encouraged to reappraise recent political
and diplomatic affairs in his History of the Interdict; he could approach French legal culture and study
church institutes in France that were linked to the royal power and independent of the Roman Pope. In a
letter to Gillot dated 8 December 1609, he stated with clarity the idea of the profound separation between
civil and ecclesiastic authority; the former invested with the exercise of political sovereignty and power of
coercion, while the latter operated in a merely spiritual sphere (Ulianich 1961; Vivanti 2010). The parallel
correspondence with the Calvinists gave him greater insight into the internal contrasts within the
Protestant churches. Sarpi always supported the most intransigent Calvinism. In addition to its decisive
role in European politics, he probably appreciated the convergence between ecclesiastical and civil
institutions that Calvinism supported and its declaration of the unbridgeable distance between man and
God. In 1618 he thus approved when the synod of Dordrecht sentenced the Remonstrants (Ulianich 1956).
Other elements of his ethical-political vision emerged in his letters to the foreign correspondents: the
controversy against the Jesuits, indicated as the columns of papacy, the disdain for the spread of exterior
devotion and ceremonies, and the hypocrisy that Roman Catholicism imposed on Italians, forcing them to
“wear a mask” (Pin 2010). His Treatise on Benefices clearly represents his confrontation during these
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years with both ancient and modern ecclesiastical structures. In this work, probably incomplete, Sarpi
showed how poverty and the Church’s original community organization had gradually been abandoned
owing to the transformation of the episcopacy and monasticism – enriched by bequests and
donations – the affirmation of papal centralism, and the system of tithes and benefices. In an effort at
concision, he described the decay the Christian Church had attained over the course of an entire
millennium (Gambarin 1958; Cozzi and Cozzi 1969/1997). The comprehensive ambitions of Sarpi the
“theologian” are also palpable in On the authority of Princes, a draft of a work that was only partially
developed (Cannizzaro 2006). Mentioned with high appreciation by the biographer, but only recently
discovered in a seventeenth-century handwritten copy, this work was meant to be a reply to Bellarmine’s
De potestate Summi pontificis in rebus temporalibus, published in 1610. Combining theses by Bodin,
William Barclay, and James I, the divine right of the prince is reaffirmed here, leading to an exaltation of
the unlimited “majesty” of an absolutist and almost Hobbes-like sovereign. The text also clearly
emphasizes the prince’s obligation to impose laws on the church.
In 1610 Sarpi was, however, abandoning his “theoretical” and “systematic” ambitions of the post-
Interdict period; in fact, the most intense phase of his activity as consultant had already begun. In the
previous years, his strong ideological commitment had driven him to recommend that the government
undertook radical reforms on benefices’ provision and projects focused on the autonomy of the Venetian
Church from Rome. These plans had been refused by patricians who were more devoted to Paul V and
interested in ecclesiastic positions. It was at this point that Sarpi changed strategy. Once he had set aside
his unrealistic projects and the ardent anti-Roman tones, he dedicated himself to adapting the style and
approach of his advices to a more concrete and everyday battle to defend the sovereignty of the Republic
against the clergy’s jurisdictional claims (Pin 2006b). Instead of linking his proposals to theoretical
schemes and general principles, he strived to associate them to traditional legal practice in Venice,
indicated as a source of valid examples for the correct division of spheres between the State and Church
and the restraint of the invasiveness of the latter (Frajese 1994; Pin 2006b). These examples were gathered
following a careful study of the documents preserved in the Venetian archives. The historical-
documentary research thus became a central element of Sarpi’s work as consultant; his advices had the
characteristic structure of concise dissertations intertwining historical account, legal analysis, and careful
political appraisal. Sarpi repeatedly laid claim to the particular characteristics of the consultant’s work in
comparison to that of legal professionals (Cozzi 1969/1997; Povolo 2006). At this moment the office had
the structure that remained unchanged until the fall of the Venetian Republic.
The new course of action resulted in Sarpi’s final change in direction and the writing of his masterpiece,
The History of the Council of Trent. Shelving the model of the Treatise on Benefices, he concentrated on
the key contemporary event in Catholicism, reconstructing its “causes and intrigues” by means of a
variety of sources: diplomatic correspondence, private memoirs, council registers, and votes (Vivanti
1974). He described the Council of Trent as the conclusion of a centuries-old process aimed at the
separation of the clergy from lay society, and the concentration of the power in Paul V hands, to the
detriment of the bishops. It was therefore an unheard-of “deformation” that marked the triumph of papal
monarchy and not a response to hopes of the Church reform. Inspired by Guicciardini, Sarpi portrayed
with painstaking accuracy and polemic vigor an entirely political affair of the fight for power (Cozzi and
Cozzi 1969/1997; Asor Rosa 1993).
Sarpi has always been a highly controversial figure. An excommunicated friar at the service of a
Catholic state and author of works that circulated extensively in Protestant countries, he was constantly
attacked by the Roman Curia as a heretic, an unbeliever, and a champion of hypocrisy (Infelise 2006;
Infelise 2010). The Venetian Republic defended him and countered his profound morality as a public man
and his integrity of life backed by several members of the Servite Order (Barzazi 2004). The revival of his
writings by eighteenth-century jurisdictionalism was marked by bitter dispute that was repeated in the
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nineteenth century (Frajese 1994). The multiplication of critical studies after the middle of the twentieth
century also gave rise to debate, resulting in divergent interpretations based on Sarpi’s manifold and at
times contrasting stances formulated in his Thoughts, in the letters, in the advices, and his historical
works. A variety of images of Sarpi have therefore been put forward that are difficult to reconcile: the
Calvinist, the Pauline-spirited religious reformer, the “moral atheist” who tended to dissimulation, the
“agnostic,” and the skeptic philosopher. The relationship between some of Sarpi’s positions and the
rationalistic attitudes connected to anti-Trinitarianism has not yet been studied in depth (Trebbi 2006).
The difficulty in suggesting coherent and comprehensive interpretations is confirmed by a recent eccentric
portrait of Sarpi the “fideist” and passionate believer, who became a servant of both “God and State,”
thanks to his profound desire for reform (Kainulainen 2014). The problem of Sarpi’s religious beliefs is
still open and might always remain so. However, research carried out in recent decades confirms that the
consultant of the old Patrician Republic was a key figure in the European political culture itself in
transition between “reason of state” and absolutism and a man able to offer an original insight on the
philosophical-scientific and religious stimuli circulating in an epoch of great confessional conflicts.
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Page 10 of 10
S
Segni, Bernardo Biography
Born: 21 February 1504, Florence Born into a rich merchant family with interests in
the wool and silk industry (his father Lorenzo had
Died: 3 April 1558, Florence also held office, both in the Florentine Republic,
occasioned by the expulsion of the Medici, and in
David A. Lines the Medicean government after 1530), Bernardo
Italian Studies, School of Modern Languages and Segni enjoyed a fairly comfortable childhood
Cultures, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK (biography in Lupo Gentile 1905, 11–34; supple-
mentary details in Lupo Gentile 1903; Ridolfi
1962, 511, n. 1; Baiocchi and Albonico 1994).
He may have spent part of his early years in
Aquila, involved in one of the branches of the
family business, but returned to Florence by
Abstract
1520. We know little about his education,
although he may have studied with Francesco
Bernardo Segni was a prominent figure in the
Verino, a professor of philosophy at the Univer-
cultural landscape of Florence and an active par-
sity of Pisa (1497–1525) and later (1541) a dis-
ticipant in the Accademia Fiorentina in the 1540s
cussant of the Platonic theory of love in the
and 1550s. He published several significant trans-
Florentine Academy. In December 1526 he
lations of and commentaries on Aristotelian
went to Venice together with Paolo Antonio
works in the vernacular, attempting to match the
Soderini, entertaining good relationships among
sophistication of previous Latin interpretations,
others with Alessandro dei Pazzi, the ambassador
on which he heavily relied. He was also an active
of the Florentine Republic. By March 1527 he
political figure and penned acute observations on
was in Padua, where he came to know (and pos-
the events of his time (and in particular on the role
sibly study with) Niccolò Leonico Tomeo, for-
of Duke Cosimo) in his Istorie fiorentine,
merly a professor of philosophy who had recently
published only long after his death. He also pre-
taken up private tutoring. By the start of 1528
pared a translation of Sophocles’ Oedipus.
Segni was back in Florence, where he opposed
the popularist Arrabbiati in favor of a more aris-
tocratic form of government. From May to
December 1528 he accompanied his father, who
had been sent as ambassador to Ferrara, but then
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_360-1
2 Segni, Bernardo
returned to Florence. In 1529 and 1530 his (Segni 1583). He also wrote historical works,
father’s financial affairs received several set- notably the Istorie fiorentine (Segni 1723a) and
backs and in 1531 Bernardo married Costanza the Vita di Niccolò Capponi (Segni 1723b) in
Ridolfi, partly to help the family situation through addition to his own Ricordanze.
her dowry. The family’s finances improved Although it is his historical works that have
somewhat after the return of the Medici in 1530, caught the eye, Segni’s greatest achievement was
but after the death of his mother and father as an interpreter and disseminator of Aristotle’s
(in 1534 and 1535 respectively) Bernardo sought works in the vernacular (see Ridolfi 1962;
further economic stability by entering in the favor Rolandi 1996; Langer 1999; Bionda 2001,
of the dukes. First under Alessandro and then 2002a, b, 2014, 2015; Blocker 2008; Lines 2013
under Cosimo de’ Medici, Bernardo held various and forthcoming). His publication in 1549–1550
offices, both in Florence and in other parts of the of the four Aristotelian works listed above was
Duchy, including Anghiari. He also participated the fruit of several years of labor and was the
in the Accademia Fiorentina (Rilli 1700; Salvini expression of one of the earliest cultural pro-
1717), where he was invited to give public and grams to offer a unified perspective of the Philos-
private lectures and which he served as consul opher in the Italian language. He availed himself
(appointed 24 September 1542). At the same time of a number of Latin models (including the com-
he continued his political service: in December mentaries of Donato Acciaiuoli and Jacques
1546 he was made part of the Senato dei Lefèvre d’Étaples, the translations of Leonardo
Duecento; between December 1546 and March Bruni, Johannes Argyropoulos, and Francesco
1547 he was at the Roman court; until shortly Robortello, the expertise and insights of Pier
before his death, Duke Cosimo continued to give Vettori) and was not himself a philosopher or
him political assignments (in Cortona, Volterra, greatly original; nonetheless, he offered an intel-
Anghiari, and elsewhere), allowing Segni to pass ligent synthesis of various interpretations that
on a much-improved inheritance to his two sur- spoke to the cultural climate of Florence in the
viving sons. He died in April 1558 and was buried 1540s. In particular, he offered his fellow mem-
in Santo Spirito in Florence. bers of the Florentine Academy accessible trans-
lations and high-level commentary in a way that
complemented the approaches of Benedetto
Impact and Legacy Varchi and Giambattista Gelli. His Ethics com-
mentary, for instance, makes numerous refer-
Bernardo belonged to a lively circle of Florentine ences to Dante and to Italian historical events
youth who had a passion for literature and (Rolandi 1996; Lines 2013). His commentary on
(at times) Greek; these included Gian Battista the Politics is obsequious toward the Academy’s
Strozzi, Roberto Strozzi, the Antinori family, patron, Cosimo I (Toste 2011, 191–195; Lines
several members of the Pazzi (especially impor- forthcoming). Segni’s activity, however, must
tant is the relationship with Alessandro Pazzi), be seen within the context of the interest of
the Capponi, the Soderini, and Donato Giannotti. other contemporary figures (including Sperone
He was in close contact with some of the best Speroni, Antonio Brucioli, Alessandro
Hellenists of his time, including Pietro Vettori Piccolomini, and others) in encouraging the
and Francesco Robortello, and although he was study of philosophy in the volgare, which had
not himself an expert in Greek, he was capable of recently attained new status in Italy after the
reading it and making sense of it. long debates on the questione della lingua.
Segni published translations of and commen- Also of considerable interest are Segni’s his-
taries on Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics (Segni torical works: the Vita di Niccolò Capponi (Lupo
1549a), Politics (Segni 1549b), and Gentile 1905, 36–47; Montevecchi 2004,
Nicomachean Ethics (Segni 1550), along with 120–144) narrates the life and downfall of
one of De anima that appeared posthumously Segni’s maternal uncle, who was deposed as
Segni, Bernardo 3
gonfaloniere in Florence in 1529. Its authenticity Cross-References

was questioned (Sanesi 1896), but the attribution
now seems secure (Lupo Gentile 1904). The ▶ Accademia Fiorentina
Istorie fiorentine, in XV books, were written ▶ Aristotelianism
between 1553 and 1558 and cover both Floren- ▶ Cosimo I
tine and Europe-wide events from 1527 to 1555 ▶ Francesco Robortello
(Cavalcanti 1723; Lupo Gentile 1905, 34–85; ▶ Historiography
Fueter 1911, 86–87; Rossi 1941; Ridolfi 1960, ▶ Pietro Vettori
1963; von Albertini 1970, 329–34; Cochrane ▶ Vernacular
1981, 278–82; Grassini 1982; Viroli 1992,
245–47; Baiocchi and Albonico 1994, 679–683;
Piquet 2002; Capata 2009). Like the Vita, this References
work was not published until 1723, whereupon
the Sacred Congregation in Rome in 1725 Primary Literature
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view of the work’s unflattering descriptions of di greco in lingua vulgare fiorentina. Florence: L.
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Florence, Bib. Marucelliana, C. 333 for the Rhetoric
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Istorie were dismissed by Lupo Gentile as a Vatican, BAV, Regin. lat. 1602, ff. 299v-381r
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their antimedicean sentiment, accompanied by (Kristeller 1963–1987, II, 599).
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(Baiocchi and Albonico 1994, 681–682) but L. Torrentino, (rpt. Venice: B. Imperatore, 1551,
have been better appreciated by others, particu- Milan: G. Daelli 1864, Milan: Sonzogno 1905). MS:
larly von Albertini and Viroli. They are a private Archivio di Stato di Firenze, ms. Cerchi 838 (olim 94),
402 folios (copy, with autograph annotations, prepared
expression of Segni’s unhappiness with Duke for the printer; see Bionda 2002b, esp. 416–20;
Cosimo, who is very much depicted as an Aris- Kristeller 1963–1987, I, 65a).
totelian tyrant (Genzano 2004; Lines Segni, B. 1550. L’Ethica d’Aristotile tradotta in lingua
forthcoming). vulgare fiorentia et comentata per Bernardo Segni.
Florence: L. Torrentino, (rpt. Venice: B. Imperatore,
Other works of Segni including the 1551).
Ricordanze and his translation of Sophocles’ Segni, B. 1583. Il trattato sopra i libri dell’anima
Oedipus (first published in 1778) have received d’Aristotile. Florence: Giorgio Mareschotti. MS:
hardly any attention. It would be very helpful to Palermo, BN, II B 6. misc. (XVIII) (Kristeller
1963–1987, II, 28).
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Of fundamental importance for understanding Augsburg: David Raimondo Mertz and Gio. Jacopo
Segni’s cultural activity is the climate of the Majer (rpt. Augsburg-Palermo: dalle stampe del
Accademia Fiorentina and the role played within Rapetti a pie di Grotta, 1778 in 2 vols., Milan: Società
Tipografica de’ classici italiani, 1805 in 3 vols.,
it by Cosimo. All of Segni’s works were Livorno: dai torchi di Glauco Masi, 1830 in 4 vols.,
published by Torrentino, the ducal printer, and Milan: Nicolò Bettoni 1834 in 2 vols., Florence: G.
they were clearly directed to a public that Vanni, 1835–1837 in 3 (sometimes 6) vols.);
included that of the Accademia. Although the rev. ed. Florence: Barbèra, Bianchi e Comp., 1857
(ed. G. Gargani). Commented selections from Books
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remain unclear, including what its relationship Massaro (PhD student, Università di Napoli, Federico
was exactly with scholars such as Vettori and II). For MSS, see Ridolfi 1960 and especially Baiocchi
and Albonico 1994, 1062–72 (which also offers a
Robortello, who taught at the university. detailed analysis of the printed editions).
4 Segni, Bernardo
Segni, B. 1723b. Vita di Niccolò Capponi. Augsburg: repubblicana fiorentina (1494–1570),ed. J.J.Marchand
David Raimondo Mertz, e Gio. Jacopo Majer, part and J.-C. Zancarini, Florence, 355–367.
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a pie di Grotta, Milan 1805: Società tipografica de’ Segni. In Sette assedı̂ di Firenze, ed. E. Scarano,
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Segni, B. 1778. Translation of Sophocles, Oedipus. In uncatalogued or incompletely catalogued manuscripts
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L’Edipo principe, tragedia di Sofocle, già volgarizzata iour: Bernardo Segni on friendship between unequals.
da Bernardo Segni ed ora data in luce per le fauste In Philosophy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centu-
nozze del sig. Gino Capponi colla signora Giulia ries: Conversations with Aristotle, ed. C. Blackwell
Riccardi (ed. Giovan Batista Zannoni), Florence: and S. Kusukawa, 107–125. Aldershot: Ashgate.
appresso Niccolò Carli, 1811. Lines, D.A. 2013. Rethinking renaissance Aristotelian-
Segni, B. Ricordanze. Florence: BRicc. 1882 (s. XVI), ism: Bernardo Segni’s Ethica, the Florentine academy,
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Bionda, S. 2001. La ‘Poetica’ di Aristotele volgarizzata: Segni. Giornale storico e letterario della Liguria 4(3):
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Rinascimento, 2a serie, 42: 409–442. Rinascimento italiano. Bologna.
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Aristotele tradotta da Bernardo Segni. Tesi di Adriani: quelle historiographie pour Florence?
dottorato, Facoltà di Lettere, University of Fribourg Letteratura italiana antica 3: 411–422.
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volgare: Tradizione aristotelica e cultura volgare nel della Retorica. Belfagor 17: 511–526.
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T
Tignosi, Niccolò Alternate Names
Born: 30 March 1402, Foligno ▶ Nicolaus Tignosius de Fulgineo

Died: 14 September 1474, Pisa
David A. Lines
Biography
Italian Studies, School of Modern Languages and
Cultures, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
Little is known about the education of Niccolò
(the son of Iacobus, a doctor of law), who hailed
from Foligno, but whose university studies may
Abstract have taken place in Bologna, Siena, and/or Peru-
gia (the following sketch is based mainly on Sensi
Niccolò Tignosi was a physician and professor of 1971–1972; see also Thorndike 1927, 1929,
medicine active in Tuscany (especially Florence) pp. 161–170; Rotondò 1958; Barale Hennemann
in the second and third quarters of the fifteenth 1974, pp. 33–111; Field 1988, pp. 136–158).
century. More or less at the same time in which Rotondò maintains that he was taught by Ugo
Johannes Argyropoulos began his famous activity Benzi and Gaspare Sighicelli in Siena, but several
of interpreting Aristotle there, Tignosi published a times Tignosi describes himself as a student of
commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Paul of Venice (who taught in Perugia from
which received a rather hostile response from his November 1424 and in Siena in 1427). For at
contemporaries, prompting him to defend himself least 1 year (1426–1427), Tignosi taught logic in
in a very interesting opusculum. He also wrote on Bologna. In 1428, he was engaged in military
Aristotelian logic and psychology and penned a activities in Milan. We then find him studying
series of historical and political treatises, and teaching medicine in Perugia (1428 to c.
displaying a desire to remain close to the Medici 1438). He also taught medicine (“theorica”) and
family. His works point to the numerous intersec- philosophy in Florence from c. 1439
tions between humanism and scholasticism in (an important time in Florence because of the
Renaissance Florence. presence of the Church Council there between
January 1439 and September 1443). Probably

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_361-2
2 Tignosi, Niccolò
early on, he lectured there on Aristotle’s Posterior pp. 140–145, 148–150; Kraye 1995,
Analytics, for which he requested a fresh transla- pp. 101–102; Lines 1999a, b, 2001, 2002,
tion from his humanist friend Giovanni Tortelli. pp. 192–206, 490–491) is based on Leonardo
Shortly afterward, Tignosi moved to Arezzo, Bruni’s translation of the text (1416/1417),
where by 1442 he had married Angela, the daugh- reflecting Tignosi’s interest in recent translations
ter of Count Domenico de Marsuppini and had (used also for his commentaries on the Posterior
acquired Aretine citizenship. A new period of Analytics and De anima). The presentation copy,
teaching in Florence started around 1450 and dedicated to Piero de’ Medici, must date to 1461,
lasted until 1464. During this time, Tignosi when Piero was the gonfaloniere, but the work
authored the Expugnatio Constantinopolitana, was probably written earlier. The Commenta is
published his commentary on Aristotle’s unusual in terms of its approach. While treating
Nicomachean Ethics (with relative defense trea- philosophical issues, the work is obviously
tise), and supposedly instructed Marsilio Ficino. directed to a mixed audience, a good portion of
(The evidence for the latter, uncomfortably slen- which has no formal training in philosophy. It
der, is summarized in Field 1988, p. 140, n. 43.) therefore explains fairly elementary philosophical
He was called to teach in Arezzo in 1464 (Vasoli concepts while also offering elements that make
2006); we then find him in Todi (1468–1471) and the work less scholastic. Indeed, Tignosi eschews
in Narni (1472) before his teaching career resumes quaestiones, neglects the traditional practice of
in Pisa (where the Florentine studio had just been divisio textus (i.e., of breaking down the text into
transferred) in 1473–1474 (the year of his death). its constitutive elements), occasionally uses
To this later period belong Tignosi’s remaining Greek, and provides abundant historical examples
works, including De origine Fulginatum, De (from both classical and contemporary times) as
ideis, and the commentary on De anima, com- well as quotations from poetry (Kraye 1995,
pleted shortly before his death. pp. 101–102). It is thus quite different from
Although it is difficult to reconstruct Tignosi’s many contemporary Florentine commentaries on
intellectual network outside of Florence (except the same work (e.g., Guglielmo Becchi, Donato
for his ties to Paul of Venice), in Florence he had Acciaiuoli). In terms of its main sources, it
numerous friendly contacts (deserving further depends strongly on Averroes, Albertus Magnus,
exploration) with the intellectual avant-garde, and St. Augustine (Lines 2002, p. 193).
including Tortelli, Poggio Bracciolini, Benedetto Tignosi evidently misjudged the expectations
Accolti, Carlo Marsuppini, as well as Donato of his commentary’s audience; reactions to it were
Acciaiuoli and Ficino. It is unclear what Tignosi’s strong. Tignosi was forced to defend himself
relationship was, if any, with Johannes against his detractors (which included both
Argyropoulos, who in February 1457 started lec- humanists and scholastics) in a treatise entitled
turing publicly on Aristotle’s Ethics in Florence Nicolai Fulginatis ad Cosmam Medicem in illos
and whose interpretation Tignosi opposed in the qui mea in Aristotelis commentaria criminantur
dedication letter to his Ethics. opusculum (see Rotondò 1958, pp. 233–241;
Sensi 1971–1972, pp. 388–395; Lines 2002,
pp. 206–214). In this work, Tignosi had to answer
Impact and Legacy both for his practice of providing strongly philo-
sophical explanations of the text and for his use of
Other than being (supposedly) Ficino’s teacher, historical examples and poetical quotations. The
Tignosi is best known for a controversy that work, which is sophisticated and deeply interest-
erupted in Florence, probably between 1461 and ing, offers a glimpse into the cultural climate of
1464, after the publication of his Latin commen- Florence in a period in which the tastes of some
tary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. The com- tended to be very much confined either to litera-
mentary (studied in Rotondò 1958, pp. 228–233; ture and history or to philosophy. Tignosi presents
Sensi 1971–1972, pp. 385–388; Field 1988, himself as wishing to bridge the two: his appeals
Tignosi, Niccolò 3
to poetry and history are actually, he says, an Cross-References

imitation of what Aristotle himself had done. His
example is not, however, one that is immediately ▶ Aristotelianism
embraced by his contemporaries, although it ▶ Bracciolini, Poggio
makes for interesting comparisons with the ▶ Ethics
approach of the Frenchman Jacques Lefèvre ▶ Ficino, Marsilio
d’Étaples a few decades later (Kraye 1995; Lines ▶ Lefèvre d’Étaples, Jacques
1999b, p. 266, 2007, p. 289) and with that of ▶ Logic-Renaissance Philosophy
Bernardo Segni in 1550 (Lines 2013, ▶ Paul of Venice
pp. 845, 852, 856–858). ▶ Psychology-Renaissance Philosophy
Other aspects of Tignosi’s work that have been ▶ Renaissance Averroism
examined but merit further attention include his
exaltation of medicine over law and his “philoso-
phy of ends” (Field 1988, pp. 142–158); his views
References
of friendship, his relationship to the Medici fam-
ily, and his political statements (Sère 2007,
Primary Literature
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tary, published in 1551, it seems that Tignosi an priscorum hominum mores et ingenia antecellant
accepted some of Averroes’ views; see Hasse viventium. Two MSS: Florence, BLaur., Plut LIII,
11 (XV), ff. 42–60 and LIV, 10 (XV), ff. 60–73; datable
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nism (his treatise De ideis suggests that Tignosi 1971–72, 382–85; edition on 447–65).
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Bracciolini’s dialog on the relative merits of 306; Barale Hennemann 1974, 218; Field 1988,
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T
Tomitano, Bernardino fundamental logical tool for progressing in

the knowledge of natural facts, in the instru-
Born: 1517, Padua mental conception of logic, and in the defini-
tion of sermocinal arts (grammar, rhetoric,
Died: 1576, Padua poetics) as logical arts.
From his participation in the Accademia
Maria Teresa Girardi degli Infiammati of Padua, in the first part of
Facoltà di Scienze Linguistiche e Letterature 1540, the rhetorical and linguistic treatise
Straniere, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Ragionamenti della lingua toscana originated,
Milan, Italy which was extended in 1570 into the Quattro
libri della lingua thoscana, in which the main
interlocutor was his master Sperone Speroni.
Abstract The work was intended to promote oratory
Philosopher, physician, and humanist, prose and “high” genre writing in Italian in
Bernardino Tomitano became a doctor in general and gathered together several issues
artibus et medicina at the University of concerning the arts of the word in an organic
Padua, where he was professor of logic from synthesis that had at its core the theme of
1539 to 1563. Tomitano was one of the greatest the relationship between philosophy and
representatives of humanistic Aristotelianism, eloquence.
which was affirmed in the Paduan school in the
middle of the sixteenth century. His work was
an important link between the speculation of Biography
the beginning of the 1500s and the more
mature and systematic work of his famous Born in Padua, Tomitano started his regular edu-
disciple Jacopo Zabarella. His teaching was cation at Padua University at the age of 13: he
characterized by the choice of reading Aristotle studied logic with Marcantonio Zimara, philoso-
in the original Greek with philological exper- phy with Marcantonio Genua, and medicine with
tise, by the preference reserved for ancient Francesco Frigimelica and Ludovico Carensio
Greek commentators and modern humanists, (the Tosetto). Great physicians and humanists
and by the frequent recourse to Plato’s author- active in Padua at the time, such as Girolamo
ity. Tomitano’s contribution to logical thought Fracastoro and, years after, Giovanni Battista da
consisted in the centrality of the questions of Monte, contributed to his medical formation. In
method, in the theory of regressus as a July 1538, he became Doctor in artibus, receiving
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_362-1
2 Tomitano, Bernardino
the title from Genua and being promoted by the principles (Tomitano 1820). In the meantime, he
eminent Paduan Sperone Speroni, with whom dedicated himself both to Tuscan lyric, writing
Tomitano maintained a lifelong affective bond. rhymes in the Petrarchan style, and to Latin
Soon after, he became a Doctor in medicina as poetry, becoming an epic poet and apologist of
well. The year after his degree, Tomitano received the Venetian Republic and achieving considerable
the office of lecturer of the Aristotelian Organon artistic results.
at the University, and in 1543 he was promoted to Starting in 1547, Tomitano abandoned his
the First Chair of Logic. He retained this Chair poetical engagement in favor of an increasingly
until 1563, when he renounced it, probably intense practice of medicine, for which he became
because of he was disappointed at not having renowned both in Padua and in Venice. Venetian
been offered the Chair of Natural Philosophy, magistrates, for example, turned to him for expert
which had been vacant after the death of his old advice on the outbreak of plague in Venice in
master, Genua. Jacopo Zabarella then became the 1556: his Consiglio sopra la peste di Venezia
Chair of Logic in 1564. The teaching publications was published the same year and in 1567 a
of Tomitano were the Introductio ad Sophisticos demanding work on syphilis, De morbo gallico,
Elenchos Aristotelis, published in 1544 (Tomitano followed.
1544), and a more significant comment on In 1555, Tomitano was put on trial before the
Aristotelic logic, the Animadversiones in Primum Venetian Inquisition because of his translation of
Librum Posteriorum Resolutoriorum. Erasmus’s Parafrasi on Matthew’s Gospel,
Contradictionum Solutiones [...], comprising printed in 1547. He successfully defended himself
notes from his lectures and gathered in the 1562 with two orations addressing Alli Signori della
Venetian edition of Aristotle’s work (Tomitano santissima Inquisitione. Together with a celebra-
1562). There was also a remarkable corpus of tive speech, he pronounced in 1554 in favor of the
lectures, still handwritten, consisting of both election of the doge of Venetia, Marcantonio
reportationes of his students and his own prepa- Trevisan, and provided a Prefazione to the first
ratory notes. book of the Prediche of the popular Franciscan
His main commitment as teacher and scholar of preacher, Cornelio Musso. Written in the same
the Aristotelic Organon did not prevent him from year, these two court orations bore witness to
cultivating his humanistic interests, mainly rhe- Tomitano’s engagement on the side of eloquence,
torical and poetical, that originated in his youth both sacred and profane, and in rhetoric in gen-
while attending Pietro Bembo’s house, and eral. He had already shown engagement and inter-
flourished under his friendships with scholars est as a theoretical arrangement in his
and educated fellow citizens, such as Speroni Ragionamenti della lingua Toscana, which then
and the Venetians. Tomitano thus appeared deepened in the later Quattro libri. Oratory dec-
among the most active members of the Academies lamation was mixed with historical narration and
that were created in Padua during that century, with the biographical and historiographical work
from the Accademia degli Infiammati to which Tomitano dedicated his years: an almost
(1540–1542) to the Elevati, Eterei, and Animosi. completely unpublished life, in volgare, of the
The linguistic–rhetorical treatise, Ragionamenti great condottiero Astorre Baglioni, who was
della lingua Toscana, dated back to his participa- killed in the battle of Famagosta in 1571.
tion in the most important one, the Accademia In 1576, a new outbreak of plague spread in
degli Infiammati; it was published in 1545 and Veneto and this time Tomitano was unable to
1546 and then again revised and vastly expanded avoid the infection: he died of the plague in the
in 1570, with the title Quattro libri della lingua same year.
thoscana (Tomitano 1545/1546, 1570, 1984). In
1550, he wrote a very interesting letter, in volgare,
to Francesco Longo, a young Venetian nobleman,
which was a short treatise on pedagogical
Tomitano, Bernardino 3
Heritage and Break with Tradition Innovative and Original Aspects
Both Tomitano and his work fitted perfectly into The core of Tomitano’s speculation is the meth-
the Venetian and Paduan culture of the sixteenth odological doctrine, addressing not only the logi-
century, characterized by the convergence of the cal structures in themselves but connected to them
Aristotelism professed in the prestigious univer- “in a whole that is Logic as the method of truth”
sity and the humanist tradition, whose influence (“in un tutto che è la Logica intesa come metodo
had by then spread throughout the School and, della verità”) (Riondato 1964, p. 69). In particular,
outside it, was cultivated in the lively city acade- it was the truth relative to the knowledge of
mies that had reaped the benefits of Pietro nature, according to the main trend of the Paduan
Bembo’s heritage. school and of Tomitano himself, to whom “lacked
This double character of the Paduan intellec- a specifically philosophical and metaphysical
tual environment was evident first in Tomitano’s interest, that could overcome the problem of
philological teaching method, which was intro- method [. . .] or that it could insert the problem
duced by his master Genua and was specific to of method into the same context of metaphysical
the Paduan Aristotelians of the new generation questions” (“mancò un interesse specificamente
who had assimilated the humanist lesson together filosofico e metafisico, che oltrepassasse il pro-
with the contribution that the knowledge of the blema del metodo [...] oppure che inserisse il
Greek annotators of Aristotle brought to it. The problema del metodo nel contesto stesso delle
first formulation of an instrumental concept of questioni metafisiche”) (Riondato 1964, p. 71).
logic was made by those annotators: updated by In his juvenile Introductio ad sophisticos
Marcantonio Zimara, this conception was adopted elenchos Aristotelis he had already devoted an
by Tomitano, who also assumes from his master a entire chapter to the de methodis question, “the
prevailingly Averroist orientation in the interpre- most challenging, on a doctrinal level, of the
tation of Aristotelian texts. In general, in the pan- entire treatise, so much so to be judged by modern
orama of logical thought of the sixteenth century, critics as a brief, but complete and original, treat-
Tomitano was acknowledged by scholars to be an ment of the subject” (“il più impegnativo, sul
important channel between the speculation of the piano dottrinale dell’intera operetta, tanto da
beginning of 1500s, still inspired by the fifteenth venire giudicato da critici moderni come una
century, and the more mature and systematic one breve, ma compiuta e originale trattazione
of Jacopo Zabarella and of Francesco dell’argomento”) (Davi 1995, p. 83). Here, he
Piccolomini. affirmed the supremacy (or primacy), among the
Tomitano also continued the Paduan school Aristotelian ways of solving sophist deceits, of the
tradition in the field of medicine, as a follower of method of division (distinctio) that deconstructed
the Galenian method based on the union between the genre into differences and was also useful for
reason and experience. practical disciplines, such as medicine.
The systematic nature of academic work char- Mainly didactical and close to the linguistic–
acterized the linguistics and rhetoric of Tomitano rhetorical interests of his, Ragionamenti della lin-
for which he was particularly indebted to Sperone gua Toscana, the work “focuses on the logic deal-
Speroni, who was himself inspired on the one ing with the forms of elocution, aiming to identify
hand by Pietro Pomponazzi’s theories and on the the figures and verbal artifices that make the dis-
other by Bembo’s teachings. Tomitano acted in course false and captious” (“verte su quella parte
line with the contribution brought to the develop- della logica che si occupa delle forme
ment of modern language and eloquence by the dell’elocuzione, allo scopo di individuare le figure
Paduan Accademia degli Infiammati. e gli artifici verbali che rendono il discorso falso e
Tomitano’s work was characterized by some capzioso”) (Davi 1995, p. 17). From Tomitano’s
aspects of innovation and originality, rather than humanist sensitivity, at least two aspects of orig-
by an actual break with tradition. inality were derived both in the Introductio and,
above all, in the more mature comment to the plausibility and opinion: the first is typical of the
Analitici: the first was the philological cure philosophical knowledge whose objective were
reserved for Aristotle’s Greek text, and for he absolute, immutable, and necessary laws, and the
interpretative effort of controversial passages, second is pertinent to the rhetorical discourse that,
and the second was the wide recourse to Plato’s regarding the changeable, contingent, and
authority, mainly in the methodological dialogues verosimile sphere of morals and politics, did not
and in the Animadversiones, on the relation require demonstrative procedures, but tools of
between science and opinion. In the Quattro persuasion. In social life and civil community,
libri della lingua thoscana, not only the tendency the primacy therefore belonged to the rhetoric.
to conciliate Plato and Aristotle was frequent, but These are the conceptual requirements at the
a reform of the Paduan study that might introduce basis of the Ragionamenti, then the Quattro libri
Plato’s readings into the program is wished for della lingua thoscana, the treatise in the form of a
through the words of Speroni. dialogue that offers an account of the conversa-
Tomitano’s contribution to the history of logic tions that occurred among a large group of mem-
can be found in the published and unpublished bers of the Academies, students of the University
commentary on Analytica posteriora. of Padua, and Sperone Speroni in the aftermath of
First, the concept of logic as an instrumental his election, in November 1541, as principe of the
faculty, necessary and applicable to all arts and Accademia degli Infiammati. The main interlocu-
sciences, was expressed. Its sphere of relevance tor was Speroni himself, who led the discussion
were the intentiones secundae, conceptual forms on the trace of the ideas already expressed in his
functional to the demonstrative syllogism that, dialogues, especially in Delle lingue and Della
interacting with the distinct but similar proceeding retorica, inspired by the thoughts of Pietro
of the definition – such as Tomitano argued in his Pomponazzi.
Contradictionum solutiones – led to knowledge The main theme of the first part was the rela-
and was therefore the goal of logic. The theory of tionship between philosophy and rhetoric, which
demonstration constituted most of the comment, defined their respective spaces and specificities,
with particular attention paid to the but showed how the former was necessary to the
resolutive–compositive method in scientific pro- orator – and to the poet – who wanted to be
cedure and, more importantly, identifying in the perfect. The strength of science could indeed
regressus (the method that ranged from the help the weakness of opinion, and the certainty
effects, the nobis notiora, to the causes, and thus of absolute and immutable concepts could
to the conceptual structures, which, based on approach the probable to push the probable
these, explained the data) the fundamental logic toward the truth: the speaker who, in addition to
tool for progress in the knowledge of natural facts. strong dialectical tools, ethics, and politics, was
Treating human discretions, Tomitano located familiar with speculative knowledge, was the
in the ratio (or cogitatio), intended as the ability to author of eloquent speech, able to decline philo-
argue, the peculiarity of the human being. On this sophical truths in the human and civil group.
basis, he considered the various arrangements of Founded on the indisputable primacy of specula-
the arts, and in line with the trend of the Paduan tion, Tomitano’s intent was to protect the cogni-
school and the intellectual philosophers of the tive and veritative dignity of the artes
Accademia degli Infiammati (Sperone Speroni, sermocinales, distancing himself from the actual
Benedetto Varchi, Alessandro Piccolomini), he thought of Speroni who, skeptical about the abil-
proposed placing grammar, rhetoric, and poetics ity even of contemplative disciplines to fully draw
(Averroè’s artes sermocinales) together with logic from the truth, pushed the rhetoric toward
among rational disciplines, all with discourse as sophistry.
their objective. In this regard, along with other But the innovative value of Tomitano’s
Aristotelian humanists, he distinguished between rethinking of the Ciceronian binomial “wisdom
the logic of truth and science and the logic of and eloquence” mainly lay in the fact that it
Tomitano, Bernardino 5
concerned the modern eloquence in the vernacu- languages and disciplines, helped to set off along
lar. The greatness and dignified utility of oratory that path of specialization of knowledge that
increasingly practiced through writing in the free would become established in the following
Venetian Republic testified to how it was by then century.
capable of matching the quality of the Latin
oratory. Consistent with the thought of Speroni
and of the Infiammati, Tomitano recognized the Cross-References
suitability of the vernacular for becoming the lan-
guage of culture and extending its use to the ▶ Accademia degli Infiammati
“high” genres of oratory, philosophy, and sci- ▶ Bembo, Pietro
ences. For this reason, he considered it necessary ▶ Piccolomini, Alessandro
to provide it with adequate rhetoric and linguistic ▶ Piccolomini, Francesco
rules, and in the second part of the Ragionamenti- ▶ Pomponazzi, Pietro
Quattro libri, he treated the relationship between ▶ Varchi, Benedetto
Latin and Volgare, the “questione della lingua” ▶ Zabarella, Jacopo
and of imitation, the styles, the nature, and the ▶ Zimara, Marcantonio
function of literary writing, especially the oratory
prose, of its rules for rhetoric and elocution,
among which his observations on prose rhythm References
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_364-1
de’ Vieri, Francesco

Born: 1524
Died: 1591
Craig Martin*
Department of History, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA
Abstract
Francesco de’ Vieri II was a proponent of Platonism, who aimed to reconcile pagan thought with
Catholic theology. Most of his printed works were written in the vernacular and include meditations
on Plato’s theology, a treatment of Aristotelian meteorology, and lectures on ethics, love, and
literature. He taught at Pisa and gave lectures at the Accademia Fiorentina.
Biography
Francesco de’ Vieri II, 1524–1591, also known as “il Verino Secondo,” taught philosophy at Pisa,
from 1554 to 1590, where he held chair in Platonic philosophy beginning in 1576 (Kristeller 1956,
292–43). He was the first holder of the chair. De’ Vieri’s grandfather, Francesco de’ Vieri I, had been
a professor of first logic then natural philosophy at Pisa and had lectured at the Accademia Fiorentina
on Dante in 1547 (Grendler 2002, 255, 259).
Most of de’ Vieri’s printed works were composed in the Tuscan vernacular, although he published
a defense of philosophy in Latin in 1586. His commentaries, in Latin, on portions of Aristotle’s
Physics and De anima and on the tenth book of Plato’s Laws are extant in manuscript (Lohr 1988,
477). His vernacular treatises address a range of learned topics, many related to his Platonism.
Charles Schmitt has characterized him as a proponent of perennial philosophy (Schmitt 1966, 530).
De’ Vieri had the explicit goal of showing the compatibility of Platonic philosophy with
Christianity in several of his works. His 1577 Compendio della dottrina di Platone used Platonic
concepts to demonstrate God’s existence and providence. In the 1590 Vere conclusioni di Platone,
he attempted to show that Plato’s philosophy demonstrated a number of theological truths including
that God is the one, unchanging, and all powerful, creator of the universe. Furthermore, according to
de’ Vieri, Plato’s philosophy bolsters arguments for the efficacy of prayer, the existence of angels,
and that divine justice is meted out in the afterlife to humans’ immortal souls. In the second part of
the book, de’ Vieri outlined 15 points where Aristotle and Plato were in agreement (Martin 2014,
107–11).
De’ Vieri maintained that his interpretations of Aristotle conformed to those of Thomas Aquinas.
In 1582 the Roman Holy Office accused de’ Vieri’s son, Giovanni Battista, along with Giulio Libri
and Girolamo Borri (or Borro), also a professor of philosophy at Pisa, of possessing forbidden books
and entertaining heretical ideas. In a letter to Cardinal Giacomo Savelli, asking for the release of his
son, de’ Vieri emphasized that in his 29 years of lecturing, he had always sided with Thomas
Aquinas’s interpretation of Aristotle over Averroes’. His son was eventually released. Two years
*Email: martin@oakland.edu
Page 1 of 2
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_364-1
later, once again de’ Vieri vowed his fidelity to Thomas Aquinas in Liber in quo a calumniis
detractorum philosophia defenditur. In this work he determined that Aristotelian and Platonic
philosophy present solutions that conformed to Catholic conceptions of God, angels, demons, and
the human soul. De’ Vieri’s Platonism put him at odds with the physician Andrea Cesalpino and
Borri, who favored an Aristotelian stripped of Platonism and who was in many cases partial to
Averroes (Schmitt 1972).
De’ Vieri’s other printed works, all in the vernacular, addressed numerous learned subjects,
including psychology, ethics, history, literature, aesthetics, and natural philosophy. His Trattato
delle Metheore, 1573, explains sublunary phenomena, following, for the most part, the first three
books of Aristotle’s Meteorology. The second edition, printed in 1582, includes the subject matter of
Meteorology 4. This work is similar in its scope and content to university teachings on meteorology
(Martin 2012, 10–11).
Some of his other works seem distant from the setting of Renaissance universities. For example,
his 1587 discourse on gardens, Discorsi delle maravigliose opere di Pratolino, includes a history of
gardens, comparing contemporary ones to ancient examples, before moving to a discussion of
Aristotle’s and Plato’s views on the function of myth in philosophy. Several of his works derive from
lectures given at the Accademia Fiorentina, including a lecture on ideas and beauty, Lezzione dove si
ragiona delle idee et delle bellezze, 1581. In this work, de’ Vieri considered not only Plato’s and
Aristotle’s views but also meditated on the concepts of beauty found in Petrarch’s sonnets. Petrarch’s
Laura is the subject of another treatise from the same year that looks at greatness and fortune.
De Vieri’s works show him participating in some of the major movements of Renaissance
philosophy, including Neoplatonism, the interpretation of humanist literature, and vernacular
Aristotelianism.
References
Baldini U and Spruit L (2009) Catholic Church and Modern Science: Documents from the Archives
of the Roman Congregations of the Holy Office and the Index. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Rome
Grendler P (2002) The Universities of the Italian renaissance. Johns Hopkins University Press,
Baltimore
Kristeller P (1956) Studies in renaissance thought and letters. Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Rome
Lohr C (1988) Renaissance authors. Latin Aristotle commentaries, vol 2. Olschki, Florence
Martin C (2012) Meteorology for courtiers and ladies: vernacular Aristotelianism in renaissance
Italy. Philos Read 4:3–14
Martin C (2014) Subverting Aristotle: religion, history, and philosophy in early modern science.
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
Schmitt C (1966) Perennial philosophy: Agostino Steuco to Leibniz. J Hist Ideas 27:505–532
Schmitt C (1972) The faculty of arts at Pisa at the time of Galileo. Physis 14:243–272
Page 2 of 2
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_372-1
Bellarmine, Robert
Born: 1542
Died: 1621
Franco Motta*
Dipartimento di Studi storici, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy
Abstract
Robert Bellarmino (Montepulciano, Siena, 1542–Rome, 1621), Jesuit and cardinal, was among the
leading theologians of the Counter-Reformation. A specialist in controversialist theology, he taught
at the Roman College of the Society of Jesus and then had his lectures printed as his main work with
the title Disputationes de controversiis (1586–1593). Appointed cardinal in 1599, he acted as
adviser in theological matters to Popes Clement VIII and Paul V, resulting decisive in preventing
an official condemnation of Jesuit Molinist theology in the controversy on grace with the Dominican
Order. As a member of the Congregation of the Index and the Holy Office, he played a key role in the
affairs of Francesco Patrizi’s Platonism, the condemnation of Copernicanism, and of Giordano
Bruno’s trial. Bellarmino’s fame is mostly associated with the theory of the potestas indirecta in
temporalibus, “the indirect power of the popes over temporal matters,” a theory he defended in the
Disputationes and in later polemics with Anglican and Gallican theologians.
Biography
One of the most influential theologians of the Counter-Reformation, B. (born Roberto Francesco
Romolo Bellarmini, latinized as Bellarmino, Montepulciano, Siena, 4 October 1542–Rome, 17 Sep-
tember 1621) entered the Society of Jesus in 1560, mostly as a consequence of the close relationship
between the order and his uncle Marcello Cervini, who held the office of pope for a brief 22 days
(April 1555) under the name of Marcellus II.
B.’s preaching in Latin was so effective that General Francisco Borja chose to send him to
Leuven, in Flanders, the hub of dissemination for Catholic culture in the Southern Netherlands,
before he had even finished the cursus to earn the degree in theology. The Jesuit resided there from
1569 to 1576, alternating between preaching and lecturing on Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae.
These years spent in a borderland between Catholicism and Calvinism were fundamental to B.’s
intellectual development, as a result of his contact with reformed theology and radical Flemish
Catholic Augustinianism, as well as for the peculiar doctrinal tone he granted to his sacred rhetoric:
indeed, more than one of his homilies took on the air of veritable lessons in Tridentine dogmatics,
shaped on the basis of the methodological legacy of Melchor Cano’s De locis theologicis.
After returning to Rome, B. was given the chair of controversialist theology at the Collegio
Romano, a position he occupied until 1588; the classes he held there went on to form the backbone
of his most famous enterprise, the Disputationes de controversiis christianae fidei adversus huius
temporis haereticos (first edition Ingolstadt, 1586–1593). This huge work, which enjoyed multiple
*Email: franco.motta@unito.it
Page 1 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_372-1
reprints and an extraordinarily long-lived success, can probably be qualified as the most exhaustive
compendium of Tridentine orthodoxy, articulated through an intense dialectic between the Catholic
and heretical thought that runs through all the matters of faith, from biblical hermeneutics to
ecclesiology, from theological anthropology to Christology, and from sacramental to liturgical
questions.
B.’s work as a doctrinal expert peaked under the reign of Clement VIII – who appointed him to
draft the official Catechism of the Catholic Church and elevated him to the rank of cardinal (1599) –
as well as that of Paul V. His appointment in the commission charged with solving the controversy
on grace and free will that opposed Jesuit Molinist theologians, and the Dominican Order was
decisive in preventing an official condemnation of his own order.
Sponsored by the Society of Jesus as early as 1622, his process of canonization was interrupted
multiple times precisely because his name was associated with the thesis asserting the absolute
primacy of the Roman See over the council and matters of temporal power; the process was finally
concluded three centuries later (canonized in 1930; declared Doctor of the Church in 1931).
Impact and Legacy

B.’s fame remains historically associated with his thesis regarding the Roman pontiff’s indirect
sovereignty over civil authority (potestas indirecta), which represented the theoretical cornerstone
of the papal project to gain a worldwide ideological and political hegemony at the turn of the
sixteenth century. This theory triggered long polemics throughout the European confessional
context, which witnessed B. defending it against Anglican and Gallican theologians in his Tractatus
de potestate Summi pontificis in rebus temporalibus (1610).
B.’s work as part of the Congregation of the Index and the Holy Office intersected with some of
the most significant theological and philosophical themes of the first two decades of the seventeenth
century. He played a key role in multiple cases: his opinion regarding Francesco Patrizi’s Platonism
turned out to be decisive – indeed, he explicitly warned Clement VIII of its inherent dangerousness;
in the inquiry mounted against Giordano Bruno, B. managed to unblock the process by extrapolat-
ing, from the philosopher’s writings and the records of the process, the eight specific instances of
unquestionable heresy that the accused was then asked to recant; finally, he was decisive in ascribing
a status of heterodoxy to Copernican theory, which B. had come to know by reading Paolo Antonio
Foscarini’s Lettera sopra l‘opinione de’ pittagorici and, almost certainly, Galileo Galilei’s Letter to
Christina of Lorraine as well. In relation to Copernicanism, B. introduced the idea of a distinction
between the true nature of revealed knowledge and the hypothetical nature of experimental
knowledge, a principle that continues to underlie Catholic interpretations of the relationship between
science and faith even today.
Cross-References
▶ Bruno, Giordano - Renaissance Philosophy
▶ Copernicanism
▶ Jesuits
▶ Molina, Luis de
Page 2 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_372-1
References
Primary Literature
Bellarmino R (1586–1593) Disputationes de controversiis christianae fidei adversus huius temporis
haereticos, I edn. David Sartorius, Ingolstadt
Bellarmino R (1610) Tractatus de potestate Summi pontificis in rebus temporalibus adversus
Gulielmum Barclaium, Bartholomaeus Zannettus, Rome
The most widespread edition of B.’s collected works is his Opera omnia published in Venice,
Iohannis Malachinus (1721); the most complete one is the edition of Paris, Louis Vivès
(1870–1874)
Biersack M (1989) Initia bellarminiana. Die Pr€adestinationslehre bei Robert Bellarmin SJ bis zu
seinen löwener Vorlesungen 1570–1576. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart
De Maio R et al (eds) (1990) Bellarmino e la Controriforma. Centro di studi sorani “Vincenzo
Patriarca”, Sora
Dietrich T (1999) Die Theologie der Kirche bei Robert Bellarmin (1542–1621). Systematische
Voraussetzungen des Kontroverstheologen. Bonifatius Druck-Buch-Verlag, Paderborn
Galeota G (ed) (1990) Roberto Bellarmino Arcivescovo di Capua teologo e pastore della Riforma
cattolica, vol 2. Archidiocesi di Capua, Istituto superiore di scienze religiose, Capua
Godman P (2000) The Saint as Censor. Robert Bellarmine between Inquisition and Index. Leiden-
Boston-Köln, Brill
Motta F (2005) Bellarmino. Una teologia politica della Controriforma. Morcelliana, Brescia
Tutino S (2010) Empire of Souls. Robert Bellarmine and the Christian Commonwealth. Oxford
University Press, Oxford
Page 3 of 3
O
Ochino, Bernardino Alternate Names
Born: Siena, 1487 ▶ Bernardino Ochino da Siena; ▶ Bernardino

Died: Slavkov, Moravia, 1564 Tommasini
Lorenza Tromboni
Dipartimento di Storia, Archeologia, Geografia, Life and Works
Arte e Spettacolo, SAGAS, University of
Florence, Florence, Italy Bernardino Tommasini “Ochino” was born in
Siena in 1487. On the origins of his name, different
hypotheses have been formulated: for some, such
Abstract as Aonio Paleario, the nickname “Ochino”
Defined as “the Savonarola of the 16th century” depends on the physical features of Bernardino,
(Bainton 1940) and as “one of the fathers of such as his beauty or tiny sharp eyes; others
scepticism” (Gotor 2013), Bernardino Ochino thought that “Ochino” could refer to the contrada
is undoubtedly one of the most representative of the city of Siena where he was born (contrada
historical figures of the Italian history of the dell’Oca) or simply be a family name. We have
reformation due to his charming and fascinating little information about his childhood but know
preaching, as well as his doctrines concerning quite a lot about him after 1503/1504, when
the sacraments, predestination, and salvation. Ochino took the Franciscan habit in the famous
Banished since 1542, Ochino was forced to Senese convent of “la Capriola”: it was built on the
move across Europe for the rest of his life ruins of Bernardino da Siena’s shelter, thanks to
because of the radicality of his ideas (Benrath the interest of Pandolfo Petrucci (1452–1512).
18922). Many important studies have been Ochino spent a few years in Perugia, where he
devoted to Ochino, and Pierre Bayle studied medicine and may have known Giulio de’
(1647–1706) also dedicated one article of his Medici, the future Pope Clement VII (1478–1534).
Dictionnaire Historique et Critique to the
Senese preacher.
Ochino, a Capuchin Friar
Between the end of the 1520s and the 1530s,

Ochino entered the newborn order “della vita
heremitica” friars of Saint Francis, the so-called
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_374-1
2 Ochino, Bernardino
Capuchins, due to the shape of the habit worn by Venice, and Naples, among other places
Matteo Bascio (1495–1552) (Gotor 2008), one of (Camaioni 2009; Gotor 2013): in Naples in
the founders of the new order: on 3 July 1528, 1536, when Ochino arrived for the first time, the
with the bull Religionis zelus, Pope Clement VII Theatines – the religious order founded by Gian
formally approved the new congregation, oriented Pietro Carafa (1476–1559) and Gaetano di Tiene
to a stronger rule, compared to the Franciscan (1480–1547) in 1524 – were already active and
rule. Matteo, elected in 1529 general vicar of the criticized Ochino’s approach to religion. From
Capuchins, decided to leave the new congregation 1535, Juan de Valdès (1509–1541) visited Naples
and return to the Observant Franciscan. Ludovico and Ochino was strongly influenced by his spiri-
of Fossombrone (1490–post 1555) followed tuality, characterized by charity and the mystical
Bascio in the new congregation, but he had diffi- experience of the presence of God inside the
culties handling the new shape that the order was human soul: Ochino joined the circle, later called
assuming. There was a real exodus of Observant the “spirituali” around Valdès, as is clearly under-
friars and, for this reason, the Franciscan asked the standable from the works Dialoghi quattro
Pope to banish the new Franciscan family, (Ochino 1540) and Dialoghi sette (Ochino
between 1529 and 1534 (Gotor 2005). 1985). He deepened his relationship with the car-
With the protection of the Pope and support of dinals Gasparo Contarini and Reginald Pole; in
influential personalities such as Caterina Cybo 1541 in Venice, he published his Prediche nove
(1501–1557), the new order continued to evolve including a series of sermons held in Lucca
and expand: also Ochino, during these years, (Ochino 1541). As early in Naples, in Venice,
entered the Cappuccini, wishing – like many the Theatines attempted on several occasions to
others – to distance himself from the internal obstruct Ochino’s preaching, who enjoyed the
fighting that affected the Observant congregation. protection of Pope Paul III and the cardinals
The entrance of Franciscan observant theologians (Fragnito 1972), at least for a time: in 1542,
and preachers among the Capuchins gave to the while in Verona, Ochino was invited to Rome by
new order a particular shape, with the focus Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. From this moment,
mainly on study and preaching: Ochino was the his situation changed irrevocably: Pietro Martire
most important exponent of this new trend, and in Vermigli (1499–1562) received a communication
1535, he requested and obtained the summon of too, and in Rome, six new cardinals were desig-
the general chapter of the order, with the support nated for the newborn “Santo Uffizio.” Ochino
of Vittoria Colonna (1490–1547) and Pope Paul received a second letter, this time containing a
III Farnese (1534–1549). This move placed him in peremptory summons, and for the two theolo-
sharp contrast with Ludovico of Fossombrone gians, it was clear that, in the Roman Curia, the
who, shortly afterward, left the order (Camaioni balance had definitely changed: the harmoniza-
2015; Busolini 2006). The chapter of Saint tion of reformist tendencies with the catholic tra-
Eufemia was held in 1536 and ratified the success dition was now no longer an option. During his
of Ochino’s side. In 1538, he was elected general trip to Rome, Ochino visited Bologna to attend the
vicar of the Capuchins and so for Ochino began a sickbed of Cardinal Contarini, and shortly after-
period of intense preaching activity all over the ward, in Florence, he met Vermigli who con-
Italian peninsula: his sermons had elements drawn vinced him to flee from Italy (Solmi 1908;
from the Franciscan and Bonaventurian context, Fragnito 1972).
especially with regard to the condemnation of
vice, sin, and luxury; Ochino recalled also
Girolamo Savonarola, whose memory was still
strong in Italy. Between 1538 and 1542, he visited
Rome, Florence, Perugia, Bologna, Milan,
Ochino, Bernardino 3
The Escape of 1542 and the Exile Ochino and Vermigli in England
Ochino decided to run away to Switzerland: both In Strasbourg, Ochino met Pietro Martire
during his escape and afterward, when he was Vermigli, but they both left the city because of
safely in Geneva, Bernardino wrote several letters the harsh conditions imposed by the emperor on
to his Italian friends to explain the reasons why he religious life, and went to England, responding to
left (Ochino 1985). He wrote to Vittoria Colonna the invitation of Archbishop of Canterbury
on 22 August 1542, clearly stating his intention to Thomas Cranmer: they touched English soil on
avoid the tribunal of the Inquisition. With regret, the night of 20 December 1547 (Overell 2008).
Ochino describes how much he misses Vittoria Preceded by his reputation as a major preacher,
and Reginald Pole’s advice. The marquise did Ochino soon became the core of the Italian com-
not write back to Bernardino and instead showed munity in London, with a salary and a vicarage.
the letter to the inquisitor Matteo Cervini, the Princess Elisabeth, the future Queen Elisabeth I,
future Pope Marcello II (1501–1555) (Fragnito had a special interest in Bernardino’s theological
1972). The protectors of Ochino, intellectuals, production, and she translated from Italian into
nobles, and exponents of the Roman Curia, felt Latin his Sermo di Christo (Gabrieli 1983). In
threatened by his escape and by the letters he kept 1549, Ochino published two works: the Dialogus
sending them, because this correspondence de regis et populi and the Tragoedie or dialogue of
represented evidence of their personal connection the iniuste usurped primacie of the Bishop of
with Ochino. During this Swiss period, the Rome (Ochino 1549), a controversial text, trans-
preacher engaged in theological disputes with lated into English – and published only in
Ambrogio Catarino Politi and Girolamo Papini English – by John Ponet. The Tragoedie consists
(Prosperi 2003), among others, and published of nine dialogues between 18 speakers, including
many of his works: in 1542, in Geneva, the Ima- Lucifer and Beelzebub, who are the main charac-
gine de Antechristo (Ochino 1542a) and a collec- ters of dialogues I and VI. This work was entirely
tion of 20 Prediche (Ochino 1542b), sermons in conceived and written in London, with characters
which the author melded Calvinism, Valdesian and a context of English inspiration: no clue
spirituality, and Joachimitic millenarism, and, in remained of the original manuscript of the
1545, the Sermones and the Expositione sopra la Tragoedie, which was supposedly in Italian rather
epistola di san Paulo alli Romani, all included on than Latin as stated on the frontispiece of the
the List of Prohibited Books. In Geneva, the inte- editio princeps. Among the sources of the
gration of Ochino into the local community of Tragoedie, scholars have easily recognized the
Calvinists was dissatisfactory, but he managed to Tragoedia nova Pammachius, written by Thomas
have a family by marring an Italian woman in Kirchenmeier called Naogergus (1508–1563): the
exile from Lucca (Tuscany), where Ochino had work also had a Polish version, which was con-
preached a few years before, who bore him several siderably modified (McNair 1991). Later, in 1555,
children. Still, in 1545, Ochino visited Basel and with the restoration of the catholic Maria Tudor,
Augusta and published the Espositione sopra la Ochino’s books were prohibited in England
epistola di san Paulo alli Galati and the Risposta (McNair 1991), but their memory remained
alle false calumnie et impie biastemmie di frate alive, as the first book of Paradise Lost by John
Ambrosio Catharino (Ochino 1546; Firpo 2001). Milton proves: Milton was probably inspired by
After the defeat of the Schmalkaldic League by the Dialogus de polygamia of Bernardino, espe-
Emperor Charles V, Ochino was compelled to cially in outlining the character of Beelzebub.
move – again – and went to Strasbourg. Charles The other English work of Ochino, the
V had listened to Ochino several years before, in Dialogus de regi et populi, was translated into
Naples. English from Latin in 1657 by an anonymous
translator, defined as “a person of quality” in the
frontispiece; Ochino remained in England until
1553, when he returned to Switzerland, passing a simple solution to the free will question and
through Strasbourg where he left his family. leads the way to a skeptical attitude toward the
theological discussion that, through Valla,
Giovanfrancesco Pico and Lelio Sozzini will
The Works of the Last Decades Between find its climax in the Ars dubitandi et confidendi
Geneva and Austerlitz of Castellione (Ochino 2004; Bracali 2000;
Cantimori 1929).
In Switzerland, Ochino found the situation more The religious authority of Zurig could not tol-
complex than had been the case in 1547 when he erate the position expressed by Ochino, which
left: in Geneva, he watched Michel Servet being contrasted with the doctrine of absolute predesti-
burned at the stake and, before leaving for nation of the protestants (Taplin 2003); moreover,
Chiavenna and Basel, managed to publish a with the publication of the Dialogi XXX by
work that remains one of the most interesting of Ochino in 1563, the situation collapsed and he
his writings, the Apologi (Ochino 2012): by fled. Because of certain statements in the Dialogi,
means of sketches and brief tales, Ochino mocks Bernardino was accused of defending polygamy
clerics, bishops, and the ecclesiastical environ- but also his claim against the execution of Michel
ment, roughly criticizing the Petrine primacy and Servet and the Anabaptists in Zurich, the discus-
the papal authority, a critique that culminates in sion on tolerance, on the freedom of thought and
the figure of the Pope antichrist (Pierno 2007). religion, which came from the valdesian and fran-
In 1556, Ochino published more works in ciscan root of the primacy of interior inspiration.
Zurich, where he was shepherd of the Italian com- Basically, the impossibility of reducing Ochino to
munity of refugees (in Locarno): the Dialogo del a defined and unique religious and theological
purgatorio and the Syncerae et verae doctrinae de context made him what we may refer to as a
Coena Domini expositio, concernig the dispute freethinker (Gotor 2013; Firpo 2001).
between Zwingli and the Luterans on the Eucha- Banished from Zurich, Ochino went to Basel
rist and, in 1561 in Basel, the Disputa intorno alla and Nuremberg, where he published the Dialogo
presenza del corpo di Giesù Christo nel Sacra- autoapologetico, a self-defensive treatise in
mento della cena, the Catechismo o Institutione which he discussed the accusations issued against
Christiana, and the Laberinti del libero arbitio him. After other transfers – some of his children
(Ochino 2004). Printed in Basel and translated died from the plague during the travels – Ochino
into Latin by Sebastiano Castellione arrived in Austerlitz by the Venetian Niccolò
(1515–1563), the sermons of the Laberinti show Paruta, and here he died between the end of
a strong influence of spiritualism and several con- 1564 and the beginning of 1565, leaving behind
temporary authors. They are 19 sermons, 16 of a veil of mystery about the circumstances of his
which can be matched, since to every “labyrinth” death: a few years later, Marcantonio Varotta, an
or problem in the first part (sermons 1–8) corre- Italian Calvinist who took refuge in Austerlitz,
sponds a solution in the second part of the work affirmed that Ochino burned to death while
(sermons 9–18). Eight questions on free will and sleeping lying on a stove.
enslaved will (de libero arbitrio, de servo
arbitrio) have corresponding solutions, but these
solutions are often labyrinths and the last sermon The Relationship with the “Spirituali”
(19) expresses plainly the Ochinian concept of Between Valdès and Pole
salvation, followed by all the doubts that make it
difficult to find a genuine solution. Such a skepti- The relationship with Valdès and his influence on
cal vision does not question the moral obligation Ochino started in Naples in 1536 (Firpo 2015). As
to lead a right and decent life. The Laberinti, Delio Cantimori (Cantimori 1929, 1939) has
strongly influenced by the De fato of Pietro already noticed, several representatives of the Ital-
Pomponazzi, shows the impossibility of finding ian spiritualism shared a common thought about
the possibility of integrating the reformation and Preaching and Social Reforms
continuity with Catholicism (Firpo 2001; Gotor
2013; Camaioni 2015). It is certain that Ochino Ochino began his activity as a preacher in the
had in mind the Alfabeto cristiano of Valdès dur- 1530s and visited many Italian cities: some stops
ing his preaching of the 30s, even if later he on his itinerary were particularly important to
referred to Valdès’ preaching as “predicar Christo him, such as Naples. Here, the theme of predesti-
mascarato in gergo,” i.e., cautious and careful nation arises in his sermons, especially between
preaching, rhetorically structured to be persuasive 1539 and 1540 (Gotor 2013). During this time, the
and to hide strong theological positions. Later, in doctrine of the justification by faith was not offi-
1542, with the death of Cardinal Contarini, the cially condemned (until 1547), but the preaching
hopes of a resolution between the need for refor- of Ochino was enough for the Theatins to doubt
mation and the catholic tradition also died. deeply his thought’s orthodoxy. In Venice, where
With the papal bull Licet ab initio and the he went for the first time in 1539, the Venetian
constitution of the Inquisition, Cardinal Carafa branch of the Theatins attacked Ochino,
obtained permission from Pope Paul III to carry questioning the rightness of his religious beliefs,
out a policy of repression of the unconventional but he continued to preach and defend himself
doctrines, with the help of the control measures of from the pulpit, inspiring immense passion
the Theatines. Ochino and Vermigli were among among his followers (Bainton 1951). In Perugia,
the first targets: Contarini stressed the possibility his sermons focused on the condemnation of the
of a peaceful settlement and protected Ochino iniquity and tyrannical impositions of the rulers, a
until his death. He wrote a letter to Bishop Matteo preaching characterized by apocalyptic and evan-
Giberti in which he stated that Contarini, on his gelical tones, that influenced the political balance
deathbed, warned him about the Roman summons of the city and caused the reaction of Perusian
in 1542; Giberti himself waited a few days before people against Paul III Farnese, the so-called
telling Cardinal Carafa of Ochino’s escape, so that War of Salt, because of the salt tax imposed by
the he could reach safety in Switzerland. Farnese (Stanislao da Campagnola 1993). After
The relationship between Ochino and Conta- all, as shown by Camaioni (2013), the Constitu-
rini is described in the sermons published in 1542 tions of the Capuchin order of 1536 envisaged a
in Geneva, where everything hinges around the close cooperation between the friars and the civil
Bolognese meeting at Contarini’s house. The and religious authorities, often expressed in char-
Spirituali, members of the so-called Ecclesia ities and, sometimes, in social and political reac-
Viterbiensis of Reginald Pole, did not suffer any tions. During his regency of the Capuchin order,
consequences due to Ochino’s escape but, in the Ochino promoted several charity initiatives, in
following years, something changed. Pietro line with the Observant Franciscan tradition, also
Carnesecchi, for example, had problems around in order to place his preaching near Bernardino da
1546 and during the summer had to face a trial that Siena and Girolamo Savonarola’s actions. In
fortunately ended well, thanks to the intervention 1535, Ochino convinced Pope Paul III to create
of Cardinal Reginald Pole and Paolo Farnese. a shelter for unmarried women in Rome; in Peru-
Others, such as Vittoria Colonna – who was very gia and Bologna, Ochino established and pro-
close to Ochino both intellectually (Bardazzi moted the foundation of charities for orphans
2001) and by giving him material and women; in Ferrara, with the help of Vittoria
support – distanced themselves from the preacher Colonna, he founded a convent of the Order of
and changed their orientation. Undoubtedly, the Saint Claire; in Mantua, Lucca, and Venice, he
pope did not spare any effort to protect the preached in favour of hospitals and assistance for
Viterbese group, composed of many relevant the poor. In 1540, Ochino organized in Siena the
personalities – also ecclesiastical – whom he had liturgy of the Forty Hours’ Devotion or
supported in the previous years (Fragnito 1972). Quarantore (devotional exercise of continuous
prayer that celebrates the time between death
resurrection of Jesus Christ), linking it to the Camaioni, M. 2013. Riforma cappuccina e riforma urbana.
citizens’ service at the hospital of Santa Maria Esiti politici della predicazione italiana di B.O. Rivista
di storia della Chiesa in Italia 67: 55–98.
della Scala (Gotor 2013). Camaioni, M. 2015. Non c'è altra vera religione che quella
The complete list of Ochino’s works is given in di Christo. Bernardino Ochino e il francescanesimo
Benrath (1874), Nicolini (1939), and Tedeschi radicale di fronte alla Riforma: una ricerca in corso.
et al. (2000). Studi Francescani 112: 441–510.
Cantimori, D. 1929. Bernardino Ochino. Uomo del
Rinascimento e riformatore. Atti della Scuola Normale
Superiore di Pisa. Classe di lettere e filosofia, 30.
Cantimori, D. 1939. Eretici italiani del Cinquecento.
References Ricerche storiche. Firenze: Sansoni, Chapter XIII.
da Campagnola, Stanislao. 1993. Un Crocifisso di legno
Primary Literature contro Paolo III Farnese durante la guerra del sale del
Benrath, K. 1874. Catalogo deli scritti di Bernardino 1540. Laurentianum 34: 45–66.
Ochino. Rivista Europea 5: 465–475. Firpo, M. 2001. «Boni christiani merito vocantur
Ochino, B. 1540. Dialoghi quattro. Venezia: N. Zoppino. haeretici». Bernardino Ochino e la tolleranza. In La
Ochino, B. 1541. Prediche nove. Venezia: N. Zoppino; formazione storica dell’alterità. Studi di storia della
Venezia: B. Viano. tolleranza offerti ad Antonio Rotondò. Tomo I: Secolo
Ochino, B. 1542a. Imagine di Antechristo. Genève: XVI, ed. H. Mechoulan, R.H. Popkin, G. Ricuperati,
J. Gerard. and L. Simonutti, 161–244. Firenze: Olschki.
Ochino, B. 1542b. Prediche di Bernardino Ochino da Firpo, M. 2015. Juan de Valdés, Italy and the Reformation.
Siena. Genève: J. Gerard. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Ochino, B. 1546. Risposta alle false calumnie et impie Fragnito, G. 1972. Gli spirituali e la fuga di Bernardino
biastemmie di frate Ambrosio Catharino. Augusta [s. Ochino. Rivista storica italiana 84: 777–813.
n.]. Gabrieli, V. 1983. Bernardino Ochino: Sermo de Christo.
Ochino, B. 1549. Tragoedie or dialogue of the iniuste Un inedito di Elisabetta Tudor. La cultura 21: 151–174.
usurped primacie of the Bishop of Rome. London: Gotor, M. 2005. «Un paradosso ombreggiato da oscuro
G. Lynne. enigma»: il mito delle origini e Bernardino Ochino
Ochino, B. 1985. I «dialoghi sette» e altri scritti del tempo nella storiografia cappuccina tra Cinque e Seicento. in
della fuga, a cura di U. Rozzo. Claudiana. Brescia. Nunc alia tempora, alii mores. Storici e storia in età
Ochino, B. 2004. Laberinti del libero Arbitrio, a cura di postridentina, a cura di M. Firpo, 211–231. Firenze:
M. Bracali. Firenze: Olschki. Olschki.
Ochino, B. 2012. Apologi, a cura di F. Pierno. Manziana: Gotor, M. 2008. Bascio, Matteo, in Dizionario Biografico
Vecchierelli. degli Italiani, vol. LXXII. Available at: http://www.
treccani.it/enciclopedia/matteo-da-bascio_(Dizionario_
Biografico)/
Secondary Literature Gotor, M. 2013. Ochino, Bernardino, in Dizionario
Bainton, R.H. 1940. Bernardino Ochino esule e Biografico degli Italiani, vol. LXXIX. Available at:
riformatore senese del Cinquecento (1487–1563). http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/bernardino-ochino_%
Firenze: Sansoni. 28Dizionario_Biografico%29/
Bainton, R.H. 1951. The travail of religious liberty: Nine McNair, P. 1991. Bernardino Ochino in Inghilterra. Rivista
biographical studies. Philadelphia: The Westminster storica italiana 103: 231–242.
Press, Chapter VI. Nicolini, B. 1935. Bernardino Ochino e la Riforma in
Bardazzi, G. 2001. Le rime spirituali di Vittoria Colonna e italia. Napoli: Ricciardi.
Bernardino Ochino. Italique 4: 63–101. Nicolini, B. 1939. Il pensiero di Bernardino Ochino. Bolo-
Benrath, K. 18922. Bernardino Ochino von Siena. Ein gna: Ricciardi.
Beitrag zur Geschichte der Reformation. Braun- Overell, A. 2008. Italian Reform and English Reforma-
schweig: Schwetschke. tions, c. 1535–c. 1585. Aldershot: Ashgate, ad nomen.
Bracali, M. 2000. Aspetti radicali del dibattito eucaristico Pierno, F. 2007. Un capitolo minore della narrativa
nel ‘500: Castellione e Ochino. Rivista di storia della cinquecentesca: gli Apologi di Bernardino Ochino
filosofia 55: 565–586. (Ginevra, 1554). Appunti in vista di un’edizione.
Busolini, D. 2006. Ludovico da Fossombrone, in Cahier d’études italiennes 6:193–207. Available at:
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. LXV- http://cei.revues.org
I. Available at: http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ Prosperi, A. 2003. Girolamo Papini e Bernardino Ochino:
ludovico-da-fossombrone_(Dizionario_Biografico)/ documenti per la biografia di un inquisitore. In
Camaioni, M. 2009. Note su due episodi del periodo Prosperi, L’Inquisizione romana : letture e ricerche.
italiano di B.O. Bullettino senese di storia patria 116: Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura.
121–148.
Solmi, E. 1908. La fuga di Bernardino Ochino secondo i Tedeschi, J., et al. 2000. The Italian reformation of the
documenti dell’Archivio Gonzaga di Mantova. sixteenth century and the diffusion of renaissance cul-
Bullettino senese di storia patria 15: 3–78. ture: A bibliography of the secondary literature
Taplin, M. 2003. The Italian Reformers and the Zurich (Ca. 1750–1997). Bologna.
Church, c. 1540–1620. Aldershot: Ashgate, ad nomen.
P
Paleario, Aonio Alternate Names
Born: 1503, Veroli ▶ Antonio della Pagliara; ▶ Antonio Paleari
Died: 3 July 1570, Rome

Life and Works
Lorenza Tromboni
Departement SAGAS, Storia, Archeologia, From Veroli to Padua
Geografia, Arte e Spettacolo, Università degli Antonio della Pagliara, son of Matteo della
Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy Pagliara and Clara Jannarilli, was born in Veroli
(now in the province of Frosinone, South of
Rome), in 1503 or 1504. The Latin version of
Abstract his name, “Aonio Paleario,” was adopted by the
author following the humanistic fashion. His
Aonio Paleario is known as an exponent of the father was a craftsman, but Aonio’s mother came
Italian reformation movement of the sixteenth from a wealthy family, and her patrimony allowed
century. His major work is the Actio in Romanos their son to have a proper humanistic education,
pontifices, published about 30 years after his first in Veroli – by a local notary – then in Rome,
death, in 1600. He was born in Veroli, in central- where he remained for 9 years, from 1520 to 1529.
southern Italy, and during his entire life was in Several documents concerning the Pagliara family
contact with major Italian intellectuals; his philo- and their property are still preserved in the local
sophical poem De animorum immortalitate put archive of Veroli (D’Onorio and Gabriele 2008).
him at the core of the sixteenth century discussion We have little information about his Roman stay,
on the immortality of the soul. Admired by his but it is known that, starting from 1525, he
contemporaries for the elegance of his Latin, attended classes by Ludovico Boccadiferro, who
Paleario got close to concepts and ideas of the was engaged in a dispute over the immortality of
evangelical movement, to Martin Luther, Zwingli, the soul, arguing against the position expressed by
and the Conciliarist movement. He was accused Pietro Pomponazzi (1462–1525). Later, Paleario
of heresy for the first time in 1542 but was shall stressed this topic, by composing a poem on
released from the charge; thereafter, in 1567, he the immortality of the soul. In Rome, he met
was again charged with heresy and was arrested in Bernardino Maffei, who would assist him when
Milan. He refused to deny his faith and was exe- he was charged with heresy for the first time. After
cuted in Rome in 1570. a short stay in Perugia, Paleario went to Siena,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_375-1
2 Paleario, Aonio
where he got in touch with important families, know for the excellence of his Latin. His life
such as the Spannocchi, Tolomei, and Bellanti. fluctuated between Siena and Florence, and his
Aonio became a tutor to Antonio Bellanti’s chil- activity in the sense of the reformation was
dren, and when their father was prosecuted, increasing. In 1542, indeed, while Paleario was
Paleario composed an oration, Pro Bellante in Rome, charged with heresy, he was able to
(1533), through which he became known in the defend himself thanks to the intervention of his
cultural circles of Siena. old friends, Bernardino Maffei, Pietro Bembo,
Although based in Siena, Paleario continued to Reginald Pole, and Iacopo Sadoleto. After this,
travel throughout Italy. From 1532 to 1536, he Paleario wrote the oration Pro se ipso (1543 or
was in Padua (returning for a while to Siena for 1544), in which he recalls his experience,
Bellanti’s trial), a city where he met Pietro Bembo stressing the ideas of freedom of thought and
(1470–1547) and Benedetto Lampridio religion. In the text, Paleario mentioned the sum-
(1478–1540) and started his itinerary through the mons of Bernardino Ochino to Rome and the
ideals of the reformation. Paleario dedicated him- attack on Sadoleto’s works, as examples of the
self to the learning of Erasmus, Luther, and abuse of power by the Roman Church. With this
Melancton. He wrote a letter addressed to Eras- suspicious mood, Paleario still had hopes for the
mus on 5 December 1534, which showed how general council call, and as he did in 1534 with
deeply he admired Erasmus’ work, especially his Erasmus, he wrote a letter to Luther, outlining his
Declarationes ad censuras Lutetiae vulgatas sub wishes. His opinions on the reformation impeded
nomine facultatis Parisiensis; Paleario hoped for his carreer in the Studium of Siena, and in 1546,
a general council summons after the election of he decided to accept a job as a teacher in Lucca,
Alessandro Farnese as Pope Paolo III (1534), where he remained until 1555. In Lucca, he wrote
which would spark a genuine reformation of the the Dialogo intitolato il grammatico, ovvero delle
whole Church (Caponetto 1979, 211–214). In the false essercitationi delle scuole (Venezia,
following years, Paleario intensified his relation- F. Franceschini 1567, Paleario 1726) and several
ships with Venetian intellectuals: Marcantonio orations. Once back in Siena, Plaeario composed a
Flaminio (1498–1550), Alvise Priuli (early vernacular work entitled Dell’economia o vero
16thc. -1560) and, in a roundabout way, Cardinal governo della casa, where he engaged with sev-
Reginald Pole (1500–1558). During this period, eral female issues, especially education and
Paleario composed his three-book poem, De marriage.
animorum immortalitate, which was published
for the first time in 1535 without any indication Milan and the Second Trial
of the printer and, later, in 1552, in Lyon, thanks to Without a stable occupation, Paleario continued to
the support of Iacopo Sadoleto (1477–1547), seek jobs and protection. He was called in Milan
Bishop of Carpentras (Paleario 1552, 1992). The to teach humanities, but these Milanese years are
most relevant characteristic of this work is its mostly significant for his relationships with Celio
deeply anti-Lucretian, antimaterialistic attitude: Secondo Curione (1503–1569), Theodor
Paleario stands in sharp contrast to the idea that Zwinger, and several printers from Basel. Paleario
the immortality of the soul cannot be harmonized was charged with heresy for a second time during
with Aristotelian philosophy, as Pomponazzi did his Milanese sojourn, in 1559, but the accusation
in his De immortalitate animae (1516). Echoes of was again dropped. He realized, though, that he
Lutheran and Erasmian lectures are easily recog- was in danger and the increasing repression of the
nizable too (Gallina 1989, II, 96–121). ecclesiastical authority, especially after the end of
the Council of Trent (1545–1563), pushed him to
From 1537 to 1567 hide his last work, the Actio in Romanos pontifi-
Back in Siena, Paleario married Marietta Guidotti ces. Paleario gave custody of his work to Zwinger
in 1537. In the following years, he grew closer to who kept it for the rest of his life. The Actio was
the Florentine environment, where he was already published for the first time only 30 years after
Paleario, Aonio 3
Paleario’s death, in 1600. Paleario’s fear had solid convinced that the intervention of the imperial
grounds. In 1567, he was arrested and forced to go authority was necessary to realize a true reforma-
to Rome. He refused to defend himself or to deny tion of the Church, as he stated in the Actio.
his religious and personal beliefs. For these rea- During his Florentine years (from 1538 to 1546),
sons, he was executed in Rome on 3 July 1570 Aonio established several friendships and cooper-
(Quaranta 2014). ative relationships. In Florence, he was preceded
by his reputation as a great Latin poet, so that the
members of the cultural circles linked to Cosimo
Paleario and the Tuscan Reformation I admired him. More important was his friendship
Movement with Pier Vettori (1499–1585) – interpreter of
Aristotle and author of a famous commentary on
With the end of the second Savonarolian republic Ethics – Francesco Verino il Vecchio, and
in 1530, Florence came back under the govern- Bartolomeo Panciatichi (1507–1582), a wealthy
ment of the Medici party and the hopes of an Florentine merchant, with cultural and religious
approaching reform required another form of interests, who publicly declared his Calvinistic
expression. The Lutheran movement and the ref- faith (Caponetto 1979).
ormation movement found fertile ground in the
city of Florence, as testified by works such as
Storia in dialogo della mutazione di Firenze by The “querelle des femmes” and the
Bartolomeo Cerretani (1475–1524). Moreover, Governo della casa
Valdesianism started to grow: this was a religious
tendency inspired by the theologian and reformer An interesting vernacular work by Aonio Paleraio
Juan de Valdès (1505–1541), who stressed the is the dialogue Dell’economia overo del governo
importance of the Gospel in Christian life. From della casa (Paleario 1983). It was finished in 1555
1533, Valdès was in Naples, where he raised a in Colle Valdelsa and is the second part of a bigger
circle of intellectual reformers, among whom was work, the first part of which was Del governo delle
Bernardino Ochino, who took part in the diffusion città. Paleario wanted to dedicate this two-part
of Valdesianism in Tuscany in Paleario’s time. work to men and women: the government of the
Among the works blooming in Naples, we can cities for men and the government of the house for
mention the famous Trattato del Beneficio di women. Unfortunately, the first part was lost dur-
Cristo by fra Benedetto da Mantova, attributed ing the conflicts in which the city of Siena was
at an early stage to Paleario. The Beneficio was involved at that time. The dialogue takes place in
published anonymously and on the title page was 1531, in the fortress of Aiole, where many women
written “you should care more about the content, discuss the domestic environment, without the
than the importance of the author” (“più la cosa vi presence of men. The topics raised in the Del
muova che l’autorità dell’autore”). Florentine governo della casa are keen and unusual, mostly
intellectuals, although reassured by the patronage because Paleario focused on the specific role of
of Cosimo I, continued to consider their the wife in the marriage and the education of
Savonarolian heritage. It would be an exaggera- young women. We can recall here the figure of
tion to assert that every academic in Florence had Cassandra Spannocchi, wife of the aforemen-
a Lutheran attitude, but we can say with no doubt tioned Antonio Bellanti, and Porzia Petrucci, the
that many of them were looking for a religious and Erasmian character of the dialogue. Porzia talks
intimate freedom, as a possible counterbalance to about her cultural interests and also leads a severe
their lost political freedom. It is important to point critique of masculine behavior: selfish, ruthless
out that Paleario was not a follower of men do not feel affection, they just act in order
Valdesianism, even if he was close to many to achieve money and power. Paleario demon-
Valdesians. He shared with them a firm belief in strated through this work a remarkable modernity,
the basic importance of the Gospel but was especially stressing the subordinate role that the
4 Paleario, Aonio
Church reserved for women by preventing them Cross-References

from gaining a proper education. In any case,
several preceding authors dealt with the feminine ▶ Agrippa of Nettesheim
issue: Francesco Barbaro in the De re uxoria, ▶ Curione, Celio Secondo
Leon Battista Alberti in the Libri di famiglia, ▶ Ochino, Bernardino
and Agrippa of Nettesheim in the De nobilitate ▶ Pole, Reginald
et praeccellentia foeminei sexu, a text printed in ▶ Pomponazzi, Pietro
Venice in 1545. ▶ Savonarola, Girolamo
▶ Valdès, Juan de
▶ Vettori, Piero
The Actio in Romanos pontifices
The Actio in Romanos pontifices is the most References

important work by Aonio Paleario, at least with
regard to the history of the reformation in Italy. Primary Literature
The title and intention of the author recalls Paleario, A. 1552. Aonii Palearii Verulani Epistolarum
Lib. IV. Eiusdem orationes XII, De animorum
Cicero’s Actio in Verrem. The text is divided into immortalitate Lib. III. Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe.
20 chapters or theses, through which Paleario Paleario, A. 1567. Dialogo intitolato il Grammatico overo
aims to demonstrate that the Roman Popes are delle false essercitationi delle scuole. Venezia:
responsible for the corruption of the Catholic F. Franceschini.
Paleario, A. 1600. Aonii Palearii Verulani, Iesu Christi
Church. He started to work on the Actio in 1536 martyris, Actio in pontifices Romanos et eorum asseclas.
and decided to give custody of it to Theodor Lipsiae: Voegelin. http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/
Zwinger, well aware of the danger and the risk de/fs1/object/display/bsb11002931_00005.html perma-
he was running. This is what the preface to the first link: http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?
urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb11002931-8
Latin edition states (Paleario 1600), where we can Paleario, A. 1726. Dialogo intitolato il grammatico ovvero
read that the work was discovered in 1596, almost delle false essercitazioni delle scuole. Venezia: Pietro
30 years after Paleario’s death. He also begged his Marchesan.
friend to deliver – somehow – his work and his Paleario, A. 1728. Aonii Palearii Opera omnia. Jena:
F.A. Hallbauer.
message to Emperor Charles V, convinced that the Paleario, A. 1861. Atto di accusa contro i papi di Roma ed i
emperor and the German princes should be loro seguaci formulato da A. P. da Veroli ed indirizzato
involved in the reformation process. The preface all’imperatore de’ Romani, ai re, ai principi cristiani
to the 1861 edition (Paleario 1861), provides ed ai presidenti del concilio generale di Trento, trad. a
cura di L. De Sanctis. Torino: Stamperia dell’Unione
interesting evidence of the durability of Paleario’s Tip.-Editrice.
image throughout the centuries. Aonio is placed in Paleario, A. 1983. Dell’economia overo del governo della
an imaginary line of continuity with other enemies casa, testo, introduzione e commento a cura di
of the corruption of the Catholic Church, such as S. Caponetto. Firenze: Olschki.
Paleario, A. 1992. Aonii Palearii Verulani De animorum
Dante, Machiavelli, and Campanella. Then, the immortalitate libri III, introduction and text by
editor mentions several authors who stressed the D. Sacré. Brussel: Kawlsk.
importance of the Gospel in Christians’ lives:
Pietro Carnesecchi, Pietro Martire Vermigli,
Celio Secondo Curione, and Girolamo Secondary Literature
Caponetto, S. 1979. Aonio Paleario (1503–1570) e la
Savonarola. riforma protestante in Toscana. Torino: Claudiana.
The corpus of Paleario’s works was edited in D’Onorio, G., and A. Gabriele. 2008. Aonio Paleario.
1626 and 1728 (Paleario 1728). Lineamenti di vita e di pensiero. Sora: Centro di studi
sorani V. Patriarca.
Gallina, E. 1989. Aonio Paleario, 3 vols. Sora: Centro
Studi Soriani Patriarca.
Paleario, Aonio 5
Morpurgo, G. 1912. Un umanista martire. Aonio Paleario Quaranta, C. 2014. Paleario, Aonio. In Dizionario Biografico
e la riforma teorica italiana del secolo XVI. Città di degli Italiani, vol. LXXX. http://www.treccani.it/
Castello: Lapi. enciclopedia/aonio-paleario_%28Dizionario_Biografico
%29/
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_378-1
Traversari, Ambrogio
Born: 16 September 1386, Portico di Romagna
Died: 21 October 1439, Florence
Marzia Pontone*
Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana, Milan, Italy
Abstract
Ambrogio Traversari was a Camaldulian monk and humanist who lived in Florence during the first
part of the fifteenth century. At the age of 14, he entered the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli,
where he devoted his time to studying and translating Greek literature. The peculiarity of Traversari
was to choose texts coherents with his Christian vocation, first of all the works of the Church Fathers,
and his plan of Latin versions aimed to a didactic and ideological purpose coherent with it. In 1431
Traversari became General of his order and had no more time to devote himself entirely to the
patristic translations, but he had the opportunity of putting into practice what he had theorized
before. During the few years of his public life (he died in 1439), three fundamental moments can be
recognized. From 1431 to 1434, he traveled through the Camaldulian and Vallombrosian monas-
teries, making all his efforts to restore the original monastic rule. In 1435 he took part as ambassador
to the council of Basel to avoid a new schism. Finally, from 1438, he took part to the council in
Ferrara and Florence, where he worked to support the union of the Eastern and Western Churches.
The consequences of Traversari’s diplomacy would have vanished after few years, but his trans-
lations had a different fortune. Read, copied, and later printed, his translations offered to the readers
of his time that did not understand Greek the opportunity to read in Latin a huge variety of patristic
texts.
Ambrogio Traversari: Life and Culture

Ambrogio Traversari, Camaldulian monk and humanist in Florence during the first part of the
fifteenth century, was born of a noble family of Ravenna in Portico di Romagna on 16 September
1386. At the age of 14, he entered the order of Camaldoli in the monastery of Santa Maria degli
Angeli in Florence. There he devoted his time to studying and translating Greek literature, until he
became General of his order in 1431 because of Eugenius IV’s will. To reconstruct Traversari’s
biography is still of primary importance the Vita Ambrosii Traversarii Generalis Camaldulensium
written by Lorenzo Mehus in 1759 to introduce the edition of his correspondence (Mehus 1759).
Among the more recent works on this subject are Stinger (1977), Somigli and Bargellini (1986),
Frigerio (1988), and Pontone (2010).
From the few letters written before he became General of his order, Ambrogio Traversari shows a
huge knowledge of classic and patristic literature and appears entirely devoted to the patristic
translations from Greek, a language that he learned, probably with the support of the older monk
Demetrio Scarano, about 15 years after he entered the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli. On the
*Email: marzia.pontone@comune.milano.it
Page 1 of 5
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_378-1
contrary, in his letters ante 1431, there are no expressed references to Traversari’s theological and
juridical studies, even though the library of the monastery preserved many books of these two
subjects (Magheri Cataluccio and Fossa 1979, pp. 82, 98–100). It is possible that Traversari, during
his early education, studied them as well, as it was common in the Camaldulian order, but in the
correspondence selected years later, he decided to propose to the posterity an image of humanist free
from the cultural heritage of the Middle Ages.
In fact, in the case of Traversari, the proximity to the new humanistic trend is clearly revealed by
his activity of translator from Greek. The idea – widely shared among the humanists of the fifteenth
century – was to renew the contemporary society (renovatio) looking back to the example of the
ancient word handed down by the texts of the classic authors. The peculiarity of Ambrogio
Traversari, humanist and Christian militant, was to choose texts coherent with his ecclesiastical
vocation, first of all the works of the Church Fathers.
Traversari’s translations are not always philologically acceptable, because of the large number of
mistakes, but gave to the readers of his time that did not understand Greek the opportunity to read in
Latin a huge variety of patristic texts. Before he became General of his order, the Camaldulian
translated about twenty works (full list in CALMA I. 2, pp. 204–207). The amount of his Latin
versions is quite impressive. In detail, during his early years (from 1416 to 1420), he translated the
second letter De vita solitaria of Basil of Caesarea; the short treatise Adversus vituperatores vitae
monasticae of John Chrysostom; the Scala paradisi of John Climacus; the first part of the
Theophrastus of Aeneas of Gaza (finished within 1431; see Pontone 2011, pp. 81–82); another
work of John Chrysostom, De providentia Dei ad Stagirium; and perhaps the first sermon De statuis.
During the following years, Traversari translated other patristic works: Manuel Kalekas,
Contra errores Graecorum; John Chrysostom, Sermones contra Judaeos and Quod deus
incomprehensibilis sit; Basil of Ancyra, De vera integritate virginitatis; Ephrem the Syrian,
Sermones; Gregory the Presbyter, Vita Gregorii Nazianzeni; and Palladius, Vita sancti Johannis
Chrysostomi.
For some of these translations ante 1431, the manuscript tradition preserved the autograph
versions as well: the so-called Vitae Patrum, a miscellany of hagiographic and ascetic works,
translated between 1423 and 1431 (MS Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Conventi Soppr.
G. IV. 844), some sermons of John Chrysostom on St. Paul’s letters (MS Firenze, Biblioteca
Nazionale Centrale, Conventi Soppr. J. VI. 6), and some texts of, or attributed to, Athanasius of
Alexandria (the treatises Contra Gentiles, De incarnatione Verbi and Disputatio contra Arium,
MS Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Conventi Soppr. J. VIII. 8).
In the coherent group of patristic translations made by Ambrogio Traversari during his early
years, there is only one exception: the Latin version of the Vitae philosophorum of Diogenes
Laertius, begun between 1424 and 1425, but finished only in 1433. Even though this translation
presents many stylistic problems, it was one of the most widely spread translation made by the
monk, because of the concise survey of the lives and thought of the ancient Greek philosophers.
Traversari had many difficulties in translating the Vitae philosophorum. It is true that the
Camaldulian found many linguistic and rhetorical problems, because Diogenes Laertius’ Greek
was very different from the Byzantine Greek he was used to. But – most of all – Ambrogio Traversari
met a lot of ideological and theological obstacles, especially in reading the tenth book on Epicurus’
philosophy that in fact remained unfinished for years, from 1425 to 1433. It was only to satisfy
Cosimo de’ Medici’s and Pileo de’ Marini’s will that the monk completed the Latin version of the
Vitae philosophorum. Or, at least, this is the justification that he presented in his letters. Anyway, it
seems clear that the pagan subject of Laertius’ work struggled with the Christian vocation that
moved the monk in choosing the patristic texts to translate (Gigante 1988, pp. 367–404). It does not
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mean that Traversari did not recognize the high educational value of the Classics, but he feared to
make them easily comprehensible through Latin versions, as he wrote in his preface to the Vitae
philosophorum. Even so, the translation was finished, because the Camaldulian was persuaded that it
was necessary to understand the historical root of the sapientia Graeca to understand the contem-
porary East as well (Vasoli 1988, pp. 83–84, 87).
It appears therefore clear that the plan of Latin versions realized by Ambrogio Traversari aimed to
a didactic and ideological purpose coherent with his Christian vocation. Even though the choice of
translating patristic texts seems to remove the monk from the humanistic group, he agreed thor-
oughly to the renewal of studia humanitatis in the field of the style. In the dedicatory letter to the
Scala paradisi of John Climacus, the Camaldulian polemizes with Angelus Clarenus (the medieval
translator of this text) and commends his new Latin version, no more de verbo ad verbum but ad
sententiam (Stinger 1977, pp. 100–113). The result was much less innovative of what was expected
(Sottili 1981, pp. 170–177; Varalda 2004, pp. 51–52, 56–61), but it is plain that Traversari tried hard
to translate ad sensum, following the Ciceronian style and respecting the meaning of the text as well,
as a Humanist had to do (Cortesi 1995, pp. 470–484). The choice of translating patristic texts is
therefore a peculiarity of the Traversarian Humanism, coherent with the religious aptitude of
the monk.
From 1431, Traversari’s life changed completely. When he became General of his order, the
Camaldulian was forced to leave the peacefulness of Santa Maria degli Angeli and begin a new
frenetic life. During the few years of his public life (he died in 1439), three fundamental moments
can be recognized. From 1431 to 1434, he traveled through the Camaldulian and Vallombrosian
monasteries, making all his efforts to restore the original monastic rule. In 1435, he took part as
ambassador to the council of Basel, where he supported Eugenius IV’s interests; for the same reason,
he met the emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg as well. Finally, from 1438, he took part to the
council, moving to Ferrara and then Florence, where he worked hard to support the union of the
Eastern and Western Churches.
Ambrogio Traversari had no more time to devote himself entirely to the patristic translations as
during his cloistered life, but he had now the great opportunity of putting into practice what he had
theorized before. For example, during his long journey through the Camaldulian and Vallombrosian
monasteries (1431–1434), he tried to restore the original monastic rule, in accordance with Martinus
V’s and Eugenius IV’s will (Frigerio 1988, pp. 60–63). All his efforts ended in a failure, but in this
project, we can recognize Traversari’s idea to pursue a renovatio of the Church, free from excess of
wealth, as the monk had theorized in the patristic translations of his early years. The Camaldulian
wrote a hodoeporicon (or commentariolum) too, in order to tell in a journey diary his moralizing
experience and offer to the readers a modern exemplum of monastic virtue (Dini-Traversari 1912;
Tamburini 1985; Iaria 2005).
During the council of Basel, to which Traversari took part as ambassador in 1435 to support
Eugenius IV’s interests, the Camaldulian worked hard to protect the union of the Latin Church,
probably because he considered the peril of a schism the worst danger that the Church could suffer,
even worse than the display of wealth condemned by the council (Stinger 1977, p. 192; Caby 1999,
pp. 675–682). During the days in Basel, he translated three orations entitled De pace of Gregory of
Nazianzus (No. 6, 23, 22) to theorize what he was trying to put into practice through the diplomatic
relations (Way 1961, pp. 91–96; Gentile 2000, pp. 95–102).
Coming back from Basel, Traversari tried to translate other two long patristic works, the entire
corpus of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and ninety sermons of John Chrysostom on Matthews’
Gospel (Stinger 1977, pp. 154–156), but in 1437, Eugenius IV moved the council to Ferrara and the
Camaldulian had to leave another time his peaceful life in the cluster. The pope wanted to reunite the
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Eastern and Western Churches under his supremacy in exchange for the military support offered in
the war against the Turks (Proch 1990, pp. 300–319). Therefore, Ambrogio Traversari was called to
have a part in the completion of the historic event.
Supporter of the Churches’ union (Somigli 1964; Rao 1994), Traversari followed the council from
Ferrara to Florence, where it was moved to avoid plague and assure political stability thanks to
Cosimo de’ Medici’s help (Fubini 1994, pp. 62–86). The wide knowledge of the Greek patristics and
the unremitting efforts as translator were the wider contribution that the Camaldulian gave to the
success of this event. For example, he translated part of the Adversus Eunomium of Basil of Caesarea
that Giovanni da Montenero used during the meetings of the council in Florence (Stinger 1977,
pp. 216–217). Moreover, Traversari deepened personal relations with a lot of Byzantine prelates,
thanks to his knowledge of spoken Greek (Pontani 1994, pp. 762–765).
Finally, on 6 July 1439, the text of the union between the Eastern and Western Churches, the bull
Laetentur coeli, was signed (Proch 1988). Traversari himself signed it, and then he retired to
cloistered life in the hermitage of Camaldoli to keep on with his studies. Unfortunately, on
21 October 1439, he died in the monastery of San Salvatore in Florence. It has never been
understood why. The consequences of Traversari’s diplomacy would have vanished after few
years, but his translations had a different fortune. Read, copied, and later printed, a lot of his Latin
versions became part of the most important humanistic libraries during the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries and offered to the readers that did not understand Greek the opportunity to read a huge
variety of patristic texts.
References
Primary Literature
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ricostruito. Hodoeporicon. Succ.B.Seeber, Florence
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de eodem Ambrosio Latinae Epistolae a domno Petro Canneto abbate camaldulensi in libros
XXV tributae [. . .]. Adcedit eiusdem Ambrosii vita in qua historia litteraria florentina ab anno
MCXCII usque ad annum MCCCCXL ex monumentis potissimum nondum editis deducta est a
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Gentile S (2000) Traversari e Niccoli, Pico e Ficino: note in margine ad alcuni manoscritti dei Padri.
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(Firenze, 6–8 febbraio 1997). SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo, Florence, pp 81–118
Gigante M (1988) Ambrogio Traversari interprete di Diogene Laerzio. In: Garfagnini GC
(ed) Ambrogio Traversari nel VI centenario della nascita. Convegno Internazionale di Studi
(Camaldoli-Firenze, 15–18 settembre 1986). Olschki, Florence, pp 367–459
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camaldolese. Italia Medioevale e Umanistica 46:91–118
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all’umanesimo. Editrice Anselmiana, Rome
Pontani A (1994) Firenze nelle fonti greche del Concilio. In: Viti P (ed) Firenze e il concilio del
1439. Convegno di Studi (Firenze, 29 novembre-2 dicembre 1989), vol 2. Olschki, Florence,
pp 753–812
Pontone M (2010) Ambrogio Traversari monaco e umanista. Fra scrittura latina e scrittura greca.
Nino Aragno Editore, Turin
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Medioevale e Umanistica 52:71–102
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coeli (6 luglio 1439). In: Garfagnini GC (ed) Ambrogio Traversari nel VI centenario della nascita.
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Florence, pp 147–163
Proch U (1990) L’unione al secondo concilio di Lione e al concilio di Ferrara – Firenze – Roma.
In: Alberigo G (ed) Storia dei concili ecumenici. Queriniana, Brescia, pp 283–319
Rao IG (1994) Ambrogio Traversari al Concilio di Firenze. In: Viti P (ed) Firenze e il concilio del
1439. Convegno di Studi (Firenze, 29 novembre-2 dicembre 1989), vol 2. Olschki, Florence,
pp 577–593
Somigli C (1964) Un amico dei greci. Ambrogio Traversari. Edizioni Camaldoli, Arezzo
Somigli C, Bargellini T (1986) Ambrogio Traversari monaco camaldolese. La figura e la dottrina
monastica. EDB, Bologna
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der Antike. Zum Problem der Kontinuit€at zwischen Mittelalter und Renaissance. Vortr€age
gehalten anl€aßlich des ersten Kongresses des Wolfenb€ utteler Arbeitskreises f€
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forschung in der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenb€ uttel vom 2. bis 5. September 1978. Dr. Ernst
Hauswedell & co., Hamburg, pp 165–185
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Christian Antiquity in the Italian Renaissance. State University of Newyork Press, Albany
Varalda P (2004) Per la conoscenza di Giovanni Climaco nell’Occidente latino fra Trecento e
Quattrocento. In: Cortesi MR (ed) Padri greci e latini a confronto (secoli XIII-XV). Atti del
Convegno di studi della Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino (Firenze, 19–20
ottobre 2001). SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo, Florence, pp 37–61
Vasoli C (1988) La cultura fiorentina al tempo del Traversari. In: Garfagnini GC (ed) Ambrogio
Traversari nel VI centenario della nascita. Convegno Internazionale di Studi (Camaldoli-Firenze,
15–18 settembre 1986). Olschki, Florence, pp 69–93
Way AC (1961) The lost translation made by Ambrosius Traversarius of the Orations of Gregory
Nazianzene. Renaissance News 14:91–96
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Vanini, Giulio Cesare

Born: Taurisano (1585)
Died: Toulouse (1619)
Francesco Paolo Raimondi*

Classical Lyceum, Lecce, Italy
Abstract
With his restless spirit, feeling himself vested with the civil task of a profound political and cultural
renewal of human beings and society, Vanini, at the dawn of the modern age, conducts a systematic
demolition of Medieval and Renaissance theological learning from the perspective of radical
rationalism, almost pre-Enlightenment, and paves the way for a refoundation of learning on the
basis of the autonomy of reason and nature, with often subversive outcomes of the ethical and
cultural values of the Christian tradition.
Biography
Born in Taurisano (Lecce) between January 19 and 20, 1585, of Giovan Battista and Beatrice Lopez
de Noguera, in 1603, Giulio Cesare Vanini took vows under the name of Gabriel in the Neapolitan
convent of Carmine Maggiore; a few years later, on June 1, 1606, he graduated in civil and canon
law at the College of Doctors, then joined to the Studium in Naples. After February 1610, he moved
to Padua in order to attend the academic courses in Theology or perhaps in Artibus. But on January
28, 1612, his expectations were rudely interrupted by a severe disciplinary measure from the General
of the Carmelite Order, Henry Silvio, which aimed at relegating him in a dark convent of Cilento. In
association with his brother Giovanni Maria Ginocchio, Vanini preferred to escape to England,
where perhaps he hoped to establish himself as a philosopher – theologian, critic of the principles of
the Council of Trent. The escape route was carefully planned by the English Ambassador in Venice,
Dudley Carleton, who entrusted him to the care of his friend John Chamberlain and placed him
under the protection of the mighty Primate of England, George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury,
which gave him hospitality at Lambeth Palace after he arrived in London, on June 20, 1612. On July
8 of the same year, Vanini pronounced the abjuration of Catholicism in Mercers Chapel.
The difficult relation with Abbot induced Vanini to come into contact with the Catholic world
again by means of the Spanish ambassador in London, Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, and the
Nuncio of France, Roberto Ubaldini. In March of 1613, he had sent a memorial to Paul V,
unfortunately lost, the contents of which are made known to us by a report from the Congregation
of the Holy Office (Archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, S. O., Decrees, 1613,
ff. 166 and 168). We thus know that with his brother Ginocchio, he asked the Pope for absolution in
foro fori, to be released from the vows of the religion of Carmel and for the opportunity to wear
secular clothing or priestly cassock. His proposals were examined by the Holy Office in its sessions
on April 11 and August 22, 1613 (Decrees 1613 ff. 413–414), in which the Pope granted them
*Email: frapraimondi@libero.it
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pardon on condition of their spontaneously appearing and of formally renouncing of the Anglican
religion.
Having become aware of his attempt to leave England, on February 2, 1614, Abbot placed Vanini
under arrest first in Lambeth Palace and later (from February 14) in the Gatehouse. On February
15, 1614, he brought him to trial before the High Commission. From the minutes of the Second
examination (Archives of the Archdiocese of Westminster, Series A, XII, no. 23 ff. 49–52), we learn
that he was suspected of having had contacts with a few Catholics imprisoned in Newgate, to have
charged with antitrinitarism and Arianism Calvinism and British Puritanism, and to be a miscreant
because he left in his cell the books by Machiavelli and Pietro Aretino “super institutiones”
(with obvious reference to the Prince in the case of the first and to The reasoning of the courts in
the latter case).
Having escaped the Gatehouse with the support of the Spanish Ambassador and with the secret
consent from King James I of England, Vanini goes to Ubaldini, asking to publish with the
permission of the Congregation of the Holy Office the Apologia pro Concilio Tridentino, in
18 books, unfortunately lost. But the Church authorities show some interest, rather than in exam-
ining the text, in bringing the ex-apostate to Rome for trial before the court of the Holy Office. This
is, in fact, the hint of the Apostolic Nuncio (letter of July 31, 1614, to the Roman Inquisitor,
Giovanni Garzia Millini), and this is also the proposal of the Pope (decree of the Holy Office, dated
August 28, 1614, Archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, SO, Decrees 1614,
ff. 420–421). But Vanini is careful not to get to Rome and stops in Genoa, where he makes friends
with Scipione Doria, who entrusts him with the task of teaching philosophy to his son Giacomo. On
January 19, 1615, following the arrest of Ginocchio ordered by the Genoese inquisitor, he feels
targeted by the Holy Office. He hastens to leave the Republic and goes to Lyon, where he publishes
the Amphitheatrum.
After a further meeting with Ubaldini in July of 1615, he finally breaks the connection with the
Nuncio and seeks protection and success in the milieu of kingly courts and in the libertine circles
which proliferated in the French capital. Paris opens to him the doors of the coveted success and
offers the protection of leading personalities such as Arthur D’Epinay de Saint-Luc, François de
Bassompierre, Nicolas Brûlart, the Earl of Cramail, and lastly the Duke of Montmorency. Within this
cultural milieu, Vanini was able to breathe the atmosphere of intellectual freedom which led him to
editing the De admirandis reginae deaeque Mortalium arcanis, published by Adrien Perier on
September 1, 1616. The book had an immediate succès de scandale, but just one month after
publication, the Theological Faculty of the Sorbonne intervened with a sentence (Archives
Nationales de France, Reg MM 251, 1608–1633, f. 68). Forced to seek a safer refuge, Vanini
moved in the strongly Catholic Toulouse under the protection of Cramail.
On February 9, 1619, by which time the normalization policy of Louis XIII could no longer
tolerate the extremes of Vanini’s radicalism, Toulouse reserved him the tragic end of the stake.
Arrested by the Capitouls Paul Virazel and Jean d’Olivier on August 2, 1618, and submitted to the
Cour de Parlement, he was sentenced under the guise of Pomponio Usciglio, perhaps because the
Court became convinced that the name Julius Caesar had been adopted by the philosopher in order to
rise as a new Caesar, conqueror of Gaul to the word of atheism. On that same day in the Place du
Salin, the executioner performed carefully the sentence: cut off the tongue of the condemned with
pincers, hung him from the gallows, burned him on the stake, and, finally, scattered his mortal ashes
to the wind.
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Vanini’s Atheism Between Criticism of Tradition and Civil Engagement

The introductory pages of the Amphitheatrum and De admirandis lead us to suppose that the
philosopher developed his own thinking in close correlation with his own historical time. The
experience of living in London, in contact with the intransigence and the rigorism of the most
extreme wing of English Puritanism, and the Parisian stay, which occurred during the most tragic
years of the regency of the Queen Mother, who did not hesitate to unleash a bloody civil conflict,
placed the Salentino face to face with the heavy moral, political, and religious crisis which gripped
Europe in the early seventeenth century.
He identifies the roots of this European crisis in the cultural tradition of Christian theology of the
Middle Ages and Renaissance, which, subjected to critical investigation, appears to him interwoven
with lies and deceit, fraud and falsehoods, and imposture and superstitions. Unlike other spirits of
the time, who stick to the generic, deistic (e.g., the libertines), or irenistic formulas that remained, at
any rate, within that tradition, Vanini arrives at a theoretical atheism, understood as a liberating and
emancipatory philosophy, able to close a historical process and usher in a new set of values for the
modern age. So he presents himself as an innovator, the bearer of a new philosophy marking
discontinuity and a sharp break with the past. He is convinced that the battle for the liberation and
emancipation of humanity can assume only the anti-historical function of demolition of the
ideological-cultural heritage of the Christian West. In this attitude, which could be defined as
pre-Enlightenment, we find the deepest motivation for that critical and destructive dimension of
his thinking, often mentioned by its interpreters. The legacy of medieval and humanist-Renaissance
ages crumbles shattered: he demolishes the myth of anthropocentrism; unhinges the principles of
Christianized Platonism; shakes the pillars of concordistic Aristotelianism; dismantles the construc-
tion of a compact, finite, harmonized universe, having at its summit God and the choir of angelic
Intelligences; crushes any form of teleology; discredits the myth of human supremacy among the
living beings; shatters the most established principles of Christian ethics; and unmasks the illusions
of magic and of astrology.
The dismantling of the cornerstones of Christianity is accompanied by a return to ancient times for
at least two reasons. The first is that Vanini feels the need to reconnect modern atheism and the
ancient approach (“Veteres philosophi [. . .] ut qui illorum praesidio innituntur moderni athei,”
Amph., 1615, p. n.n. 17). It is no coincidence that he mentions in the album atheorum especially
thinkers such as Cicero, Protagoras, Diagoras, Diodorus of Sicily, Luciano, Pliny, and among the
moderns, Machiavelli and Cardano. The second reason is that the ancient philosophy is the ground
on which it is possible to recover the natural reason which Vanini identifies with Aristotelian
pre-Christian ratio, not yet bridled by the chains of religious categories. It follows that his thinking
takes a rationalistic and radical shape because it does not detract from the critical scrutiny of natural
reason any domain or privileged object. Excluding any supernatural or metaphysical dimension,
modern atheism coincides, according to Vanini, with the construction of a new learning based on the
two pillars of the autonomy of reason and autonomy of nature. In this perspective, he assigns to
himself and to the emerging new century a subversive function of civil and intellectual emancipa-
tion. The introductory pages of the Amphitheatrum and of De admirandis insist on a drastic reversal
of values: the age of ideological conflicts resulting from the proliferation of sectarianisms and
heresies, emerging from the crucible of the Reformation, is finally closed. The novelty that advances
is a secretior philosophia, which coincides with atheism, represented by the metaphor of a lush
vegetation that expands and invades the whole European world. The term secretior should not
mislead: it has nothing to do with theosophical, platonizing, or neoplatonizing mysticism. The
terminology of Platonic origin has in Vanini’s texts a mere function of coverage. Atheism is for
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Vanini the antidote to mysticism. It is secretior because, in order to escape the watchful censorship of
the inquisitors, it disguises itself in the chiaroscuro of the technique of textual composition in which
ambiguity and irony alternate with the mimetic game of simulation and dissimulation. In any case,
Vanini’s key for understanding the modern world is quite clear: the age of the ideological predom-
inance of religion, in his view, is superseded by a radical secularization process of political and social
values. It is significant that in the nuncupatoria to Bassompierre he presents his talent as a sapling
that, having grown up in the barren soil of traditional philosophy, was unlikely to produce significant
results, but revived under the action of the turgid and vigorous seed (“protuberante, turgenteque
semine”) of atheism; this allowed him to go beyond the goals of ancient philosophers and to
overcome the difficulties of modern ones (“Veterum philosophorum metas transiliens et recentiorum
obstacula superans,” De adm., 1616, p. nn 4).
But even more insightful are the pages of Dialogue I, where the new philosophy (i.e., atheism) is
presented as a sudden light that hurts the eyes of those who have long lived in darkness (“Fit laesio
repentina, illata luce ijs, qui diu in tenebris commorati sunt,” De adm., pp. 2–3). Even here the
terminology is influenced by Platonic reminiscence, but in Vanini, it has connotations in the opposite
direction, because darkness is metaphorically traditional learning, and the theme of sudden enlight-
enment suggests the idea of a philosophical turn destined to fundamentally alter the sensitivity of
modern humanity. The metaphor of the light alludes to a Renovatio which nevertheless no longer has
colorings of a religious character but coincides with liberation from the lies and the frauds of the
Christian tradition (“fraudes detegere, figmenta patefacere,” De adm., pp. 369, 392, 442, 474). And
the historical, moral, and civil task of the philosopher is to transmit at least one drop (“gutta”) of his
own renewed learning to the younger generations (De adm., 1616, p. 3).
Vanini’s atheism is thus outlined on the basis of a new conception of humanity and the world. His
universe is autonomous in its material composition and its constitutive principles of motion and rest.
Vanini has in mind a mechanistic model; the world is understood, according to Lucretius, as a
machina that has inside it and in the structure of its gears, not unlike those of a watch produced by
German craftsmen, reliable and stable laws referring to an internal principle of movement. Just as
materialistic and mechanistic is the model used to explain the functioning of living organisms,
including humans. The physical and mental life of humans is in a symbiotic relationship with the
natural and human environment. The psychological characteristics depend on the food, habits, social
customs, and transmission of the seed. The physical and mental life of humans is entirely internal to
nature and to society not only in the sense that it is their product, but also in the most radical sense
that nature and society are the only horizon within which human life develops and dissolves with the
exclusion of any other extranatural dimension. The reasons for concluding in favor of the mortality
of the soul are more consistent and stronger than those in support of immortality. The life of the mind
is rooted in the materiality of the body and in the mechanistic motion of vital and natural spirits. The
soul itself is nothing but spiritus which coincides with a€er because spiritus springs from spirare,
which is the material act of breathing (De adm., p. 345).
The autonomy of reason and of nature is not real if it is not autonomy from the supernatural.
Vanini severs at the root of the relationship between God and nature: he not only denies the creative
act but also excludes the assistential, providentialistic, and teleological activity of a supernatural
intelligence. God is not the ultimate aim of the universal order. Being autonomous, the cosmos is
eternal and has no beginning and no end; it is not perfect, but it is, according to the famous paradox
of Empedocles, perfectible precisely because of its imperfection. The Amphitheatrum is the text in
which the most radical refutation of the idea of providence is conducted: in it all sorts of teleologism
is rejected; there are no extraordinary interventions by divinity in the world, the distribution of good
and evil is totally random, and miracles are either attributable to causae naturales or turn out to be
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frauds of priests and politicians; in the natural order, there is no trace of an intelligence or of an
organizing will, as evidenced by the deformity studied by teratology. All is reduced to living and to
vivifying matter, without hierarchies and degrees of reality, since the matter of which heavenly
bodies and earthly ones are made is only one, down to the humblest such as the scarab. Life is the
random effect of spontaneous generation. Human beings are no exception; strictly rooted in the
animal kingdom, they are also a random and spontaneous production of matter: their past is on all
fours and in their soul there is no trace of the divine imprint.
If God is not the ultimate aim, He is not even the first cause, neither in the sense of a free and
contingent causality nor in the sense of a necessary causality. Vanini excludes, on the one side,
Scotian voluntarism and contingentism and, on the other, Thomistic necessitarism. If God were a
free cause, or an absolute will, or an infinite might that has no limits or obstacles to His power, He
would compromise the order of nature, and vice versa if the natural order were preserved in its rigid
regularity, God’s free and absolute power would remain, in fact, inactive and without effect. On the
other hand, free causality coincides with contingent acting. But if God can act or not act, if He can be
determined now in one way or another, this means that He is from time to time, now indeterminated
and now determined and that in Him there is, as in us, the shift from indetermination to determina-
tion or the shift from one determination to another. But this implies imperfection and it is not
compatible with the immutable essence of God. Nor is it possible that God is necessary causality,
because otherwise the world would have been created from the time immemorial and would
necessarily be co-eternal with God with the further consequence that the necessary causality
would rule out human free will.
Vanini’s next step is dismantling the traditional evidence of God’s existence, from the cosmolog-
ical a posteriori to the ontological a priori. The refutation of the ontological proof is not directed only
against Anselmo, but also against Suarezian scholastic which had replaced the old question An sit
Deus? with quid sit Deus? Vanini closely links the two questions of the theologian and shows how
the response to the latter constitutes implicitly an answer to the former: defining the quid of divine
essence means to emphasize its inner contradiction and thus the impossibility of its existence. The
same fate obviously concerns cosmological evidence. Evidence ex motu or e pulchritudine universi
is null and void. They all clash with the impossibility that the eternal and immutable entity is
compatible with motion or with the novelty of Creation.
Of course, the athéisme de théorie does not fail to be accompanied by peaks of an irreverent nature
which turn Vanini’s philosophy into a philosophy of unmasking: to expose the frauds and lies is its
most subversive feature. Its privileged targets are the religions that, having originated from fear
(Primos in orbe deos fecit timor, De adm., p. 366), belong to the world of the fiction. And Vanini’s
weapon is derision, to the points of sarcasm, subtle irony, and the intention to demystify and
desacralize everything. He does not save even the biblical text, equated to Aesop’s fables; indeed,
he points out, not without a mischievous satisfaction, that no one has ever found its original. The
Solomonic verses, far from being discoverers of divine wisdom, are lascivious, inelegant, devoid of
any rational value just full of popular proverbs. The narration of the creation of the world by Moses
is worthy of sponge and of coal; biblical resurrections are stories embellished fuco sanctitatis or are
related to apparent death phenomena.
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Human Knowledge and Divine Knowledge: The Antimetaphysical

Structure
Vanini’s philosophical horizon is not only anti-theological, but it is also antimetaphysical. This
means that he not only excludes the existence of a free and intelligent will but also the complex array
of necessary and eternal essences of classical metaphysics. The test bench for the antimetaphysical
battle is that of gnosiology or better of the opposition between human and divine knowledge. The
instruments of human knowledge are ratio and experimentum, that is to say reason and sense.
Reason is, as already mentioned, the ratio naturalis which is autonomous, anti-dogmatic, and
critical; it is not of divine origin nor is it absolute and abstract; it is a flexible and malleable tool,
able to capture the multiform variety of nature in its own becoming. Fitted entirely within the human
and mundane horizon, reason is no longer opposed to sensitivity and to animal appetites. Nothing is
more foreign to Vanini’s thinking than a speculative and contemplative, pure and passionless,
activity. If the human mind were of divine origin – he writes – it should always think in terms of
divine or at least human truths (“Si divina mens nostra est [. . .] divina semper vel humana saltem
vera cogitaret,” De adm., p. 491). On the contrary, according to Vanini, human rationality is concrete
and follows the same procedures and techniques of argumentation and reasoning which in turn
require material tools (“Materialia instrumenta ad ratiocinandum requiruntur.” De adm., p. 382). In
order to avoid escaping towards metaphysics, Vanini states that rationality is inherent in the
materiality of the body and in continuity with the animal instinct. Overturning the Stoic philosophy,
which draws a sharp demarcation line between humans and animals, he brings back reason to
instinct. What in us is called “reason” – he writes – coincides in animals with what we call “natural
instinct” (“Quod in nobis vocatur ratio, in brutis naturae instinctus a nobis dicitur,” De adm., p. 343).
In other words, ratio belongs to the scope of natural and animal reality. Whereas instinct guides
animal life, reason guides human life. The only difference is that the former determines in brutes a
univocal and repetitive behavior, while the latter gives humans a wider range of choices. But in both
cases, these are behaviors which related solely to the environment, purely physical for animals and
physical and cultural for humans.
Being natural, human rationality belongs to the time, because it is part of nature’s becoming; the
eternal and absolute truths are precluded to it. Vanini rejects the Aristotelian concept of duality of the
intellect, active and passive. Human knowledge does not depend on an intellect that intuitively
grasps the intelligibles, but it depends on direct contact with the contingent order of nature. The
intellectual intuition of the eternal essences is rejected because it does not have any impact on
scientific knowledge. Scientific truths are for Vanini hard to conquer, because our theoretical
faculties are discoursive and marked by subjective components such as assensus or dissensus,
credulitas, fides, and consuetudines. Consequently, the scientia Dei is rejected, which, on the one
hand, may not have access to the varietas of the natural world and, on the other, cannot be the cause
of things, because in either case, it is incompatible with natural becoming. If the divine mind knew
individual, changing, and contingent things, it would, like the human mind, be subject to change and
error, and vice versa, if it had no knowledge of them, divine wisdom and divine power would suffer a
restriction incompatible with the nature of divinity.
The logical principle, of Aristotelian derivation, from which Vanini moves, is that the nature of
science depends on that of known objects. The object of science – he observes on the basis of
Aristotelian posterioristics – cannot be of a different nature from that of the cognitive faculty. You
cannot have any certain knowledge of what is inherently uncertain. Vanini uses this principle to draw
a sort of demarcation line between the divine science and human science. Theology has done
nothing other than transferring into the divine mind the intelligible essences of Aristotelian origin.
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Divine science is certain because it relates to necessary and universal essences but has as its
counterpart the impossibility to incorporate as its own objects the individual and particular entities
that are subject to becoming and changing. Not surprisingly Aristotle had said that if God were
aware of those, He would be degraded. With a hint of radicalism, Vanini infers that God does not
have knowledge of all things; rather of the individuals. He does not even have the knowledge of
them which brutes have (Amph., p. 243).
Demolished theology, also the epistemic ideal of Aristotelianism that has its foundation in the
science of the universal collapses. What is the use – Vanini notes – of knowing that Socrates, Plato,
and Aristotle are “men” if you ignore the specific individuality whereby each one differs from the
other? Essentialist metaphysics is inadequate to building scientific knowledge. The parameters of
science should be redefined starting from the real conditions in which human knowledge is
produced. For Vanini our intellectual faculty is operational and is constantly moving and constantly
becoming something else, like all other natural beings. This means that his gnosiology is shaped in
the subjectivistic sense: our intellect is not concerned with eternal truths that precede experience;
we – writes the philosopher – are circumscribed within the limits of time and space; our knowledge
changes with the changing of things; it does not have the stability of divine knowledge but moves
from agreement to dissent, from truth to error or vice versa.
Vanini does not push his analysis to on the limits of phenomenalism or even worse of skepticism.
Unlike the libertines, he is confident in science. The human intellect is indeed caught within the
meshes of time, but it is also a conjectural and operational faculty, which, acting on the material
provided by the senses, increases its knowledge indefinitely, just as in the process of indoctrination
(Amph., pp. 138, 253), which produces organic accumulations of knowledge. But the basic problem
is to determine what are the conditions for the certainty of human knowledge. And in this respect, he
has in mind a change in the epistemological model of science, no longer anchored to the needs of
universal essences, but to the necessity inherent in the causal relationship. The size of certainty in
human knowledge is not precluded because natural order coincides with the causal chain that links
events and things. The conjectural faculty is to predict the possible effects from present or past
causes. In short, the necessity inherent to causal connection is a guarantee of order and knowability
of the things and therefore also of the certainty of human knowledge (Amph., p. 131). In the light of
this change in perspective, the continued insistence of the Salentino on the natural causes that take
away from things or events the enamel of arcanum and of admirandum is explained. Removed from
divine nature, causality, as a necessary and intrinsic connection to things, is lowered into the physical
world; it is indeed a kind of its internal law or rule on which the certainty of human knowledge is
based. The natural world is no longer subject to the whim or to the will or to the power of an external
agent, but it is a self- sufficient order, governed by its own principles.
Unfortunately Vanini takes a step towards the foundation of modern science only in view of a
purely theoretical frame, from which mathematics is absent which, however, constitutes its main
tool. He is even less equipped at the level of experimental research, because his concept of
experience is mostly equivalent to mere empirical observation. It follows that he conducts the
identification of proximate causes with a good dose of approximation. This means that his scientific
research remains in many ways conjectural; most of his results are fleeting and often, in the absence
of an accurate identification of proximate causes, he is lost in a farraginous jumble of assumptions
sometimes inadequate, sometimes even elementary and simplistic, sometimes perhaps excessively
influenced by irreverent or subversive purposes. The exceptions are some brilliant insights in the
field of biology which some scholars considered forerunners of Darwinism and which perhaps
would fit more appropriately within the frame of a naive or primeval biological transformationism.
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Politics and the Unmasking of Power. Secularized Ethics

The common thread of Vanini’s political thought is given by a Machiavellism widely contaminated
by the theory of imposture derived from Lucian and by a strong challenge of the power of the courts
of Aretinian origin. Therefore, in the hands of the Salentino, Machiavellianism is translated into a
kind of useful tool to unmask the connection between religious power and political power. The task
of the philosopher is to denounce the absolute arbitrariness of both; indeed, it is, more precisely, to
reveal the intimate intertwining whereby the former appears to be the ideological support of the
latter, both of which are based on a system of lies that affect civil and intellectual liberties which are
vital for the free expression of art and science.
This explains the subversive nature of Vanini’s thought, who is obviously not interested in
safeguarding or preserving the political-social order, but rather in its demolition through the
demolition of the Leges. If the libertins érutits are aligned up on the ideological positions of the
conservative bourgeoisie and if the libertinism of the poets that move in the entourage of Théophile
de Viau feeds on the rebellion of the aristocratic classes and trespasses into forms of wickedness and
unbelief mostly gratuitous and without theoretical consistency, Vanini theorizes a law of nature,
which has a double meaning, ethical and political, and is alternative to religion and to historical-
positive law.
Everything that moves away from the law of nature is arbitrary and is a violence perpetrated on
men. The unmasking of power passes through a close confrontation between the divine government
and the human government that are mirror images of each other, and both arbitrary. The emphasis is
often on the theme of revenge. Both divine justice and human justice appear more like revenge than
as fairness. The God of the Sacred Code (note the substitution of religious with legal terminology) is
the avenger of crimes; the earthly judges are his ministers. Since he derives its power from a divine
origin, the sovereign legitimates his own power to administer justice. The punitive actions of the
earthly prince have immediate effect, those of divine justice postpone rewards and punishments to a
fictional future life so that political-religious deception is not easily exposed (“ne fraus detegi
possit,” De adm., p. 366) and helps perpetuate the status of slavery and psychological subjection
of the people (Amph., pp. 82–83, 85–86; De adm., p. 366).
Removing from the power of the prince the material and spiritual foundation means for Vanini
revealing its arbitrary nature. All power, whether divine or earthly, is arbitrary, not bound by any law,
because the law is nothing more than the will of God or of the earthly prince itself. This means that
any power, divine or human, everything is permissible: if God makes us all sinners, he does not act in
violation of any rule, simply because he acts in accordance with his will (Amph., p. 103). The same
applies to the earthly prince. But if power is arbitrary, it means that it is no longer of divine origin and
is therefore questionable. What prevents people from rebelling is not the fear of divine punishment,
but that of a violent and persecutory reaction from the prince. The philosophers themselves had to
bow their head and take refuge in silence, spurred by the fear of public power. The example of
Socrates was a warning to all. Aristotle left Athens to prevent a new crime against philosophy from
being committed. The free expression of ideas is always opposed by the religious power; the books
by Protagoras were burned in the public square, in a climate of intolerance not unlike that of the age
of the Counter-Reformation (De adm, 1616, p. 367; Amph., p. 90).
Political power as much as religious power is based on cunning, on fiction, and on deception. Not
even Christianity is free from them. The figure of Christ is drawn by Vanini according to the
parameters of the fox-like cunning of Machiavellian mould: pretending to preserve or to complete
the Jewish religion, Christ subverts its foundations and establishes in its place the Christian religion.
Then, to protect it from the risk of inevitable corruption, he starts circulating the prophecy of the
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Antichrist. The new prophet, namely, behaves in the same way as a new prince: to consolidate his
power, which in the initial phase is weaker, he uses cunning or weapons. Christ chose to found the
Christian law, exposing and sacrificing himself to an ignominious death, so that his example was not
attractive to other self-proclaimed Messiahs; Moses always carried weapons and sowed carnages
and blood in his path. The religions, Mosaic and Christian, had a long life because of their link with
the dominant power; Apollonius of Tyana founded a short-lived religion because he preached
poverty and came into conflict with vested interests (De adm., pp. 357–359, 454).
But it is not enough to denounce that religions are based from the outset on deception and lies. The
objective of Vanini is to emphasize that they also exert psychological tyranny. Deception – he
notes – in order to be lasting must affect basic human needs and must relate to hopes and fears: only
these exert a psychological, intellectual, and social tyranny over believers. This explains, therefore,
how the action of the prince or of the prophet on the people is one of seduction and plagiarism (De
adm, 1616, p. 453). The stratagem which they commonly use is to make people believe they have a
direct and privileged relationship with divinity, so that the opposition to their power is immediately
perceived as a violation of divine will. All acts of the prophet are intended to reinforce this belief.
Political domination and priestly power, to perpetuate themselves over time, are formed so as not to
be susceptible to challenge. To perpetuate the religion which he founded, the new prophet seeks to
exert a cultural domination that extends beyond his death. The stratagem of resurrection or
ascending to heaven is functional to this. Moses threw himself into an abyss so that the people
believed him resurrected. So did Empedocles and the prophet Elijah. And the implication, not even
so veiled, is that Christ did the same to consolidate the newly born “Christian slavery” (De adm,
1616, pp. 390, 361).
No positive religion, no historic civilization has an infinite lifespan: Vanini has a strong sense of
the historicity of civil and religious institutions – cities, kingdoms, and religions are subject to the
iron law of natural becoming. He tends to place strong emphasis on the natural law of generation and
corruption of all things: “Omnia orta occidunt” – all that is born is bound to perish. Nothing lasts
forever – values, customs, traditions, ways of thinking, beliefs, ethical rules, and civic and religious
organizations – everything is swept away by the law of becoming. What was holier and more noble
than the name of Jupiter according to the faith of the Gentiles? And what is the meaner and more
execrable than this in the Christian faith? Kingdoms and religions are historical products: they are
born, they grow, they reach the peak of their vitality, but then they begin their inexorable process of
senescence and exhaustion. In the birth phase of the new religion, miracles abound, because the
prophet wants to appear as the son of God or as an envoy, and then decrease steadily until they
disappear altogether. Finally a religion replaces another. And since the world is eternal, rituals
periodically return: the ones currently in force have been activated thousands of times and will come
into force again, not according to the individual, but according to the species, i.e., not in the form of
their individuality, but in that of their specific essence (De adm., pp. 386–389).
Radical and de-theologized is also Vanini’s ethics, which has a strong naturalistic inclination
almost flattened in a medical-scientific or physiological investigation of human passions and
affections, traced mostly to a mechanistic motion of the vital spirits. The most relevant data is that
it is ethics autonomous from the metaphysical considerations, either from theological assumptions
or religious evaluations. As in political thinking, the parameter of an ideal State is absent, in ethical
thinking are the dimensions of the absolute absent. Moral behavior is seen only from a relativistic
viewpoint in relation to the composite structure of the subject agent. Of course it is unprejudiced
ethics in the dual sense that it is free from conditioning prejudices and unrelated to morals, and it is
also an effort, a propensity, and a fight against any free prejudices that mortify natural human life.
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It is therefore primarily ethics liberated and emancipated from the connotation of sin, full of
epicurean traits, strongly aimed at the evaluation of the pleasure.
In Vanini’s ethical reflection, sexual pleasure plays a central role, not least because it is what
presides and ensures the perpetuation of the species. Life on earth would run the risk of becoming
extinct if nature had not endowed us of the coupling instinct. Therefore, sexuality is freed from any
negative connotation: sexual organs do not deserve the name pudenda, because they are authors and
masters of reproduction: “procreationis magistrae [. . .] et opifices” (De adm., p. 311). The Dialogue
XLVIII is a full and radical reevaluation of sexual pleasure, proposed as a sixth sense and a very sweet
thing (“res dulcissima”) because it is a function of reproduction. Vanini’s ethical hedonism is far
from taking spiritualistic veins: pleasure is not viewed as an affection of the soul, but of the
compound, i.e., of the synolon, understood in line with Aristotelianism as a union of soul and
body. Pleasure, therefore, cannot but have a bodily and material component.
This means that felicitas consists neither in the Averroistic copulation nor in a vision-
contemplation of transcendent deity, it is rather an all-earthly felicitas which Vanini with caution
projects in the rarefied celestial sphere of a Respublica in a sort of social-political, reversed utopia,
where the negative values of the existing social model are overturned: “A Republic in which
participation is without envy. . . all men want others to partake in what is there. . . because he who
wants wants others to want the same things and makes sure that we also want what he wants”
(Amph., p. 196).
And it is precisely on the subject of happiness or bliss, understood as the enjoyment of the highest
good, that the claims of an ethics of religious origin collapse. Vanini, in fact, insists on the
impossibility of a unification of finite and infinite. Only the infinite God can identify with himself
as the infinite being. So only God can be blessed. Even more radical is the observation that the act
can have an aim provided that the aim does not exceed the power of the operator. In other words, the
purpose generally cannot exceed the material conditions of the actor. As the coach, which is the final
term of the operation, does not exceed the potentialities of the carpenter, the aim of the will cannot
transcend its potentialities. The human will does not immediately want the highest good, because it
is taken with the desire of being. So if good is the being, our will desires the being, not because is
devoid of it, but because it possesses it. We do not desire the being which we already are, but we want
its preservation. Having embarked on this path, there is no supernatural finality. In fact, we do not
desire God’s being, because those who desire, desire their own perfection. If we wanted God’s being,
we would want our corruption and our destruction (Amph., pp. 189–196).
References
Primary Literature
Works
Vanini GC (1615) Amphitheatrum aeternae providentiae divino-magicum, christiano-physicum, nec
non astrologo-catholicum. Adversus veteres Philosophos, Atheos, Epicureos, Peripateticos, et
Stoicos. Apud viduam Antonii de Harsy, Lugduni (rist. fotom.: Galatina 1979)
Vanini GC (1616) De Admirandis Naturae Reginae Deaeque Mortalium Arcanis Libri quatuor.
Apud Adrianum Perier, Lutetiae (rist. fotom.: Galatina 1985)
Critical Editions
Vanini GC (1990) In: Papuli G, Raimondi FP (eds) Opere. Galatina, Congedo, 1990
Vanini GC (2010) In: Raimondi FP (ed) Tutte le opere. Milano, Bompiani, 2010
Italian Translations
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Vanini GC (1981) In: Raimondi FP, Crudo L (eds) Anfiteatro dell’eterna provvidenza. Introduction
by A. Corsano. Galatina, Congedo, 1981
Vanini GC (1990) In: Raimondi FP (ed) I meravigliosi segreti della natura, regina e dea dei mortali.
Galatina, Congedo, 1990
Biographical Essays
Raimondi FP (2005) Giulio Cesare Vanini nell’Europa del Seicento, Con una appendice
documentaria. Pisa-Roma
Essays on the Thought
Cavaillé J-P (2002) Dis/simulation Jules-César Vanini, François La Mothe Le Vayer, Gabriel Naudé,
Louis Machon et Torquato Accetto. Religion, morale et politique au XVIe siècle, Paris
Corsano A (1958) Per la storia del pensiero del tardo Rinascimento, II. G. C. Vanini. Giornale Critico
della Filosofia Italiana 37:201–244
Marcialis MT (1992) Natura e uomo in Giulio Cesare Vanini. Giornale Critico della Filosofia
Italiana 71:227–247
Namer É (1970) L’Oeuvre de Jules-César Vanini (1585–1619): Une anthropologie philosophique.
In: Studi in onore di Antonio Corsano, Manduria, Lacaita, 1970, pp 465–494
Nowicki A (1975) Centralne Kategorie filozofii Vaniniego. Warszawa (it. transl Le categorie centrali
della filosofia di Vanini. In: Papuli G, Le interpretazioni di G.C. Vanini, Galatina, Congedo, 1975,
pp 153–316)
Papuli G (1990) Introduzione a Vanini GC. In: Papuli G, Raimondi FP (eds) Opere. Galatina,
Congedo, 1990, pp 11–156
Raimondi FP (2010) Monografia introduttiva. In: Vanini GC (ed) Tutte le opere, Milano, Bompiani,
2010, cit., pp 7–313
Conference Proceedings
Raimondi FP (2000) Giulio Cesare Vanini e il libertinismo, Atti del Convegno di Studi 28–30
ottobre 1999. Galatina
Raimondi FP (2002) Giulio Cesare Vanini: dal tardo Rinascimento al Libertinisme érudit, Atti del
Convegno di Studi Lecce-Taurisano 24–26 ottobre 1985. Galatina
Raimondi FP (2011) Filosofi del Rinascimento: Archivio Vanini. 4 novembre 2011. http://www.
iliesi.cnr.it
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S
Sidney, Philip their faults and to embrace virtuous action. Sid-

ney draws on a wide array of classical and conti-
Born: 30 November 1554 nental sources, and critics have identified a
Died: 17 October 1586 variety of intellectual currents running through
the work. Although critics have argued that one
Michael Mack or another programmatic allegiance was decisive
The Catholic University of America, for Sidney, no consensus has emerged. What is
Washington, DC, USA clear is that Sidney departs from the older con-
ception of poetry as veiled theology to a new
understanding of poetry as distinctive and valu-
able in its own right. Throughout the work Sidney
displays such wit and charm that it is difficult to
Abstract imagine a more winning presentation of his
position.
Sir Philip Sidney helped usher in the great literary
flourishing of the late sixteenth century in
England. His posthumously published lyric Biography
poetry, prose fiction, and literary theory had an
immediate impact on his contemporaries, includ- Philip Sidney (1554–1586), courtier, soldier, and
ing Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare, poet, was a leading figure in the great literary
and have exerted a shaping influence on the flourishing that produced, in addition to his own
course of English literature to the present day. works, those of Spenser and Shakespeare. He was
In his own lifetime, he was widely admired as the born on November 30, 1554, at Penshurst in Kent,
embodiment of the ideals of the era, and upon his England, the eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney and
death from wounds sustained in battle, his life Lady Mary Sidney. Sidney’s father’s family had
became legendary. Of his literary works, the long provided the crown important service. Sir
Apology for Poetry is the most Henry served as Lord Deputy in Ireland and Lord
philosophical – notwithstanding the fact that in President in Wales and was enrolled in the Order
the work Sidney explicitly pits poetry against of the Garter in 1564. As H.R. Woudhuysen
philosophy (as well as history). In the Apology points out (556), the connections on his mother’s
Sidney argues for the ethical and political value side were even more important: his mother was a
of fiction, contending that fiction can bring about childhood friend of Princess Elizabeth. Her
self-knowledge that moves readers to repent of brother, Guildford Dudley, married Lady Jane
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_389-1
2 Sidney, Philip
Grey and, with her, was executed by Queen Elector of Saxony, and then William of Orange,
Mary. No doubt due in part to his uncle’s failed and he acted as a guide for Sidney throughout his
attempt to secure a Protestant succession, Sidney European tour and continued to mentor Sidney
was named after Mary’s new husband, Philip II of afterward through visits and an extensive
Spain, who was Sidney’s godfather and, ironi- correspondence.
cally, against whose troops Sidney was to die Although the Protestant-Catholic marriage of
fighting. At the court of Elizabeth, Sidney’s Henry and Margaret was supposed to ensure
mother attended the queen, famously nursing peace, its outcome was quite the opposite. Five
Elizabeth to health during her battle with small- days after the wedding the St. Bartholomew
pox in 1562, a service from which Lady Mary Day’s massacre began, and Sidney and the rest
emerged badly disfigured. Of Sidney’s two sur- of the English party took refuge in the residence
viving Dudley uncles, one was made Earl of of the English ambassador, Francis Walsingham,
Warwick and served as Master of Ordnance, his future father-in-law. From Paris, Sidney trav-
and the other, Robert Dudley, who became Earl eled to Frankfurt and then on to Heidelberg,
of Leicester, was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth Strasbourg, Hungary, Vienna, Venice, Padua,
and for many years her suitor. Florence, Genoa, and back to the Imperial Court
Sidney had an outstanding education for his in Vienna, returning to England by way of
time. He attended Shrewsbury Grammar School Poland. Because of his family connections, Sid-
in Wales, where Thomas Ashton was master and ney was received at the great courts of Europe
where he met Fulke Greville, who would become and treated as a prince-in-waiting. The King of
his devoted friend, fellow poet, and admiring France, Charles IX, had been so impressed by
biographer. At Christ Church, Oxford, his con- Sidney that he made him a baron; William of
temporaries included numerous future luminaries: Orange tried to arrange Sidney’s marriage to his
Walter Raleigh, the historian William Camden, sister. In addition to princes, statesmen, diplo-
the great promoter of exploration Richard Hak- mats, and humanists, Sidney formed friendships
luyt, the Anglican theologian Richard Hooker, with the botanist Charles de l’Écluse, the physi-
and the future Jesuit missionary-martyrs Edmund cians Camerarius and Crato von Krafftheim, and
Campion and Robert Parsons. To complete his the printer Henri Estienne. During his 3 years on
education, Sidney made a 3-year grand tour of the continent, Sidney practiced his French,
the continent, beginning in July 1572 when he became fluent in Italian, learned some Spanish
was part of the English party that traveled to and German, worked on his Latin, and studied
Paris for the wedding of Henry of Navarre (the Greek.
future Henry IV) and Margaret of Valois. Sidney On his return to England, Sidney waited on the
was already aligned with the Protestant cause Queen at court. In addition to assisting his father
through his father, who had arranged aid for the with his administrative duties, Sidney partici-
Huguenots, and through his uncle Leicester, who pated in tilts and entertainments, and he quickly
was the leading figure of the pro-Protestant bloc in distinguished himself as a courtier. At Leicester
the court of Elizabeth. The friendships he made House, where Sidney lived, there arose an infor-
with fervent Protestants in Paris confirmed and mal literary academy, which included Edward
enlivened Sidney’s commitment to the cause of Dyer, Edmund Spenser, and Abraham Fraunce,
European Protestantism. He met Admiral de Coli- all of whom were in Leicester’s service. For the
gny, the Huguenot leader; Phillippe du Plessis Queen’s visit to Leicester’s country house in
Mornay, the first part of whose book De la Verité 1578 Sidney composed an elaborate masque,
de la religion chrétienne Sidney would translate; The Lady of May, in which the queen is called
François Hotman, the monarchomach political on to decide which of two suitors should be given
theorist; and, most important, the scholar and dip- the hand of the maiden.
lomat Hubert Languet, who had been converted Sidney led a diplomatic mission to Prague in
by Melanchthon. Languet served Augustus, 1578, on the occasion of the death of Maximilian
Sidney, Philip 3
II and the succession of Rudolf II, but otherwise was buried at St. Paul’s Cathedral in one of the
he never received the kind of responsibility for most elaborate and costly funerals of the age, and
which he was educated and that he deeply his death occasioned numerous literary tributes.
desired. Sidney wanted Elizabeth to be more
robustly supportive of European Protestantism. Works
Elizabeth, however, was wary of the When Sidney left the court in 1580, he retired to
antimonarchical constitutionalism that leading Wilton, the estate of his sister Mary, the Countess
European Protestants advocated. Sidney’s lack of Pembroke. While rusticating at Wilton Sidney
of advancement was certainly due in part to his embraced his “unelected vocation” and dedicated
outspoken support for political alliances with himself to writing. Sidney wrote for a select audi-
Protestant countries – rather than France – to ence, and there is no indication that he intended
counter the threat posed by Spain. In 1580, Sid- any of his works for print. For his sister, he wrote
ney was forced to retire from court after writing a the Arcadia, a massive pastoral romance that
letter opposing the Queen’s potential marriage to introduced the form to England. Sidney later
the French duc d’Alençon and quarreling with the revised the work, and the unfinished revision,
Earl of Oxford, probably over the same issue. published posthumously in 1590 by his sister,
Sidney served as a Member of Parliament in became a seminal work of English narrative fic-
1581 and 1584–1585. In 1582 Elizabeth called on tion. Sidney builds into the work the tensions that
him to be part of the escort for Alençon when he we now take to be commonplace, such as that
traveled to Antwerp, and in 1583 she knighted between the individual and society. Pastoral had
Sidney, though not in reward for his merits or long been used as a vehicle to air philosophical
service but so that he could stand in for his friend debates and to comment on political and social
Count Casimir, who was being awarded the Order matters, and in the Arcadia Sidney explores ques-
of the Garter in absentia. In that same year, Sid- tions of government. Unlike Thomas More, Sid-
ney married Frances Walsingham, a daughter of ney does not advance a radical or utopian vision.
Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s Secretary of Nor does he offer an imaginative version of the
State and a close political ally of Leicester. radical antimonarchical constitutionalism of his
In 1585 Sidney was appointed to assist his mentor Languet. Indeed, the political order he
uncle Warwick, the Master of Ordnance, helping imagines is a monarchy very much like that of
England prepare for the anticipated war with contemporary England. Sidney’s fiction presents
Spain. In this capacity, he oversaw the production the pathologies of monarchical government and a
of maps and the manufacture of cannons and vision of how those pathologies are overcome
gunpowder and as a result was involved with and political health is restored. It is a work that
mathematicians, engineers, geographers, and gets its start, like King Lear, when Basilius, the
astronomers, men including Thomas Bedwell, king of Arcadia, sheds his royal responsibilities.
Thomas Digges, and Thomas Blundeville, who This fictional treatment of good government and
with others would go on to form Gresham Col- its absence had a special urgency for Sidney and
lege (out of which later would be born the Royal his contemporaries since they could see mirrored
Society). in it their own worries about their monarch not
Elizabeth reluctantly entered into the war in having named a successor. Like Shakespeare,
the Low Countries, and in 1584 she sent Sidney to who borrowed from the Arcadia, Sidney believed
serve as the Governor of Flushing and to fight good government did not arise naturally but was
under the military leadership of Leicester. In an art that had to be cultivated with care, an art
1586, Sidney was wounded in a skirmish at Zut- necessary for guiding an often unruly nature.
phen and died of the subsequent infection 25 days In addition to introducing the pastoral
later at Arnheim, at the age of 31. The nation held romance to England, Sidney gave the nation its
Sidney as a hero, as the ideal gentleman and first great sonnet sequence. Astrophil and Stella
soldier, and in his death he became a legend. He along with Certaine Sonnets were composed
4 Sidney, Philip
probably in 1582. Astrophil and Stella is, like reform that would lead to ethical, political, and
Petrarch’s Rime Sparse, one of the period’s religious reform – and like Erasmus, he includes a
greatest and most influential collections of lyric long digression on the disappointing contempo-
poetry. Its publication in 1591 set off a decade of rary state of affairs, though Sidney’s is less biting.
sonnet sequences, including those of Spenser and A dazzling rhetorical performance, the Apology
Shakespeare. is a piece of literary theory that is itself an impor-
Sidney’s correspondence reveals a broad but tant work of literature, one that has had a lasting
earnest attitude, great energy, and a deep faith. impact on the understanding of literature and its
The serious temper of Sidney’s mind is evident in relationship to life.
the works he chose to translate into English. In the Apology, Sidney defines poetry not as
Sidney translated the Psalms with his sister; part verse but as fiction making. Poetry figures forth
of Philipe de Mornay’s theological treatise De la an imagined world that mirrors the reader’s
Vérité de la religion chrétienne; and, according to world, especially in its ethical and political
Joshua Sylvester, Guillaume de Salluste du dimensions. In that heterocosm, readers can rec-
Bartas’s La Sepmaine; ou, creation du monde. ognize the truth about themselves and their
All were certainly motivated by Sidney’s desire world – what they are and what they should
to advance the Protestant cause – and, in the case be – and are inspired by the experience to
of du Bartas’s hexameral poem, to advance it embrace their better selves in the real world.
through poetry. Undoubtedly the best example Sidney gives special emphasis to heroic poetry,
of the kind of poetry that Sidney advocates in which brings forth idealized types that not only
the Apology is Spenser’s great epic, The Faerie instruct and delight readers but also move them to
Queene, in which Spenser used Sidney himself as imitate their heroic examples in their own lives.
the model for Sir Calidore, the hero of Book VI The ideal examples of poetry for Sidney are
and the exemplar of Courtesy. When William Virgil’s Aeneid and Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. It
Pitt, one of Britain’s greatest statesmen, made was with an eye to emphasizing heroic action that
Spenser’s epic his vade-mecum, he was putting Sidney was revising the Arcadia, and it was very
the fictional work to use in just the way Sidney much this idea of poetry that Spenser produced in
would have wished – for virtuous political action the Faerie Queene. Spenser, like his patron Sid-
(Shepherd 1). ney, believed that artistic imitation could inspire
Any claim for Sidney’s contribution to philos- moral imitation and that a great poem could shape
ophy must rest principally on his Apology for the ethical and political life of a nation.
Poetry. As with most of Sidney’s works, the
Apology is difficult to date precisely. It was writ-
ten around 1582 and published posthumously in Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
1595 in two versions that are substantially the
same: the Defence of Poesie and An Apologie Sidney marshals a wide range of classical and
for Poetrie. Highly allusive and effortlessly continental authorities to mount his defense of
inventive, the Apology deploys extraordinary poetry. Many of these had already been brought
learning with a light, often self-deprecating together by Julius Caesar Scaliger in his Poetices,
touch, and the reader cannot but be charmed by the most important single source for the Apology.
the persona that Sidney creates. The form of the In the syncretistic manner characteristic of the
Apology is that of an epideictic oration, and period, Sidney’s copious and well-advertised
Sidney’s praise of the art of poetry has the stan- borrowings are synthesized rather than distin-
dard seven parts. Like Erasmus in his oration in guished, sometimes doing violence to the actual
praise of folly, Sidney employs serio ludere, positions of the authors he cites. Witness his
though not in as sustained a fashion as Erasmus. definition of poetry as “an art of imitation, for
Like Erasmus, he was motivated by the overarch- so Aristotle termeth it in his word mimesis, that is
ing desire for reform – in Sidney’s case, a literary to say, a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring
Sidney, Philip 5
forth – to speak metaphorically, a speaking Plotinus’s argument that the artist does not imi-
picture – with this end, to teach and delight” tate Nature but, rather, the immaterial principles
(Sidney 101). Sidney quickly segues from Aris- from which Nature is herself derived (Ennead,
totle on poetry as imitation to poetry as a speak- V. viii). Sidney’s poet does not copy the objects
ing picture, a commonplace that can be traced found in nature – the traditional objects of artistic
back to Simonides, and to the Horatian ends imitation – but draws only on his “Idea or fore-
dulce et utile. conceit.” In this pre-Lockean usage, “Idea” has
Despite the literary accomplishments of Chau- not yet descended from the divine to the human
cer and the Tudor patronage for humanists mind, and Sidney is claiming for the poet access
including Thomas More, John Colet, Desiderius to nothing less than the divine ideas. Sidney gives
Erasmus, and Juan Luis Vives, imaginative liter- the poet the power to use these ideas to inspire
ature was often held in suspicion in Elizabethan and regenerate “when with the force of a divine
England. The semantic range of the term “poet” breath” the poet “bringeth things forth far sur-
was wider than it is today, and the term could be passing [Nature’s] doings” (Sidney 101). This is a
used as a synonym for “rhymer”; it also covered bold claim in sixteenth-century England, where
playwrights, and was thus associated with the Augustine’s distinction between divine creation
public theater, a lightning rod for moral outrage (by definition ex nihilo) and human making
in Sidney’s day. As Sidney acknowledges in the (always out of preexisting matter) was still reli-
long digression at the end of the Apology, the giously observed and the only human activities
derision of contemporary poetry was largely jus- that were dignified with the word “create” were
tified. Plato’s arguments against imitation and the special legal or official acts, such as someone
stirring of base passions were very much alive in being created a duke. Though avoiding the use
the works of contemporary antihumanist detrac- of the word, Sidney formulates a theory of human
tors, including the work partially responsible for creativity that is a landmark in the history of
eliciting Sidney’s Defense, Stephen Gosson’s European self-understanding.
School of Abuse (1579), which characterized Sidney’s elevated idea of poetry is both a
poets as “Caterpillars of a Commonwelth” continuation of and departure from the tradition
(Maslen 3). Although England did not have a of allegorical poetics. Plutarch had likened poetry
single figure such as Savonarola, it did have to mother’s milk, providing appropriate nutrition
many influential writers who, in the spirit of for those not yet ready for the solid food of
St. Augustine of Hippo, deeply mistrusted fiction philosophy. Boccaccio and Coluccio Salutati
for its power to lead souls astray and to weaken sought to elevate poetry from the lowly status
the national character. These are the fundamental given it by medieval theologians, and they pro-
critiques that Sidney rebuts. Distinguishing the moted a program of serious yet delightful
art from the often defective products of that art, allegory – poetry as veiled theology. Sidney
Sidney defends the art itself by showing how its advances this humanist program, but he does so
best products have the power to move individual by radically reframing the debate between the
souls and the soul writ large to embrace virtue. arts. Whereas the arts had been ranked according
To assert the great dignity of the name “poet,” to the dignity of their object, with theology being
Sidney draws on the tradition of praising God as a the queen of the arts because her object is God
maker and Nature as his work of art. For Sidney himself, Sidney ranks the arts in terms of their
(as for Scaliger), the divine likeness is seen ability to bring about the architectonic knowl-
nowhere as clearly as in the human accomplish- edge “of a man’s self, in the ethic and politic
ment of poetry, and the poet is not just any artist consideration, with the end of well-doing and
but, rather, a “maker” made in the likeness of “the not of well-knowing only.” Giving priority to
heavenly Maker” (Sidney 100). When Sidney the knowledge not of how the heavens go but,
claims that the “wit” of the poet has the “efficacy rather, of how to go to heaven, Sidney argues that
of Nature [natura naturans],” he is following the highest art is therefore the one that best brings
6 Sidney, Philip
about virtuous action, the “ending end of all Castiglione’s praise of the courtier (especially in
earthly learning” (Sidney 104). the speech attributed to Bembo). Newman’s char-
To determine the human endeavor that most acterization of the gentleman is a later example of
effectively promotes self-knowledge and virtu- idealized presentations meant to move readers to
ous action, Sidney rehearses the old battle of the become what they read. Sidney speaks of this
arts and pits the poet against the moral philoso- dynamic ironically in the opening of the Apology,
pher, on the one hand, and the historian, on the in which he facetiously claims that an expert
other. In Sidney’s personified treatment, the Phi- equestrian’s praise of horsemanship almost per-
losopher and the Historian each lacks what the suaded Sidney to wish himself a horse. Sidney’s
other has. The Philosopher teaches what virtue is, serious point is that heroic poetry has the poten-
but he offers only a wordish description. The tial to shape the lives of readers and move them to
Historian has lively examples that appeal to the know, love, and aspire to heroic virtue – to wish
senses, but he does not have the Philosopher’s themselves not horses or horsemen but heroes.
mastery of the principles from which virtuous For Sidney, the ultimate purpose of poetry is to
actions spring. In short, the Philosopher has the engender virtue. The end of artistic imitation is
precept, the Historian the example, but neither ethical imitation, and through an effective poem,
has both. The Poet, however, is able to unite what begins as an “Idea or fore-conceit” in the
general truths to particular examples and, in “wit” of the poet can become the reader’s Idea for
doing so, brings virtue to life – in a way that not his or her own life. Xenophon’s idealized version
only shows what is good but moves the reader to of the historical Cyrus is thus “a Cyrus to make
embrace that good. many Cyruses” (Sidney 100). For Sidney, the
The rhetorical underpinnings of Sidney’s overarching justification of poetry is that it has
poetic theory are nowhere more evident than in the power to transform England into a nation of
his assertion of the power of poetry to move heroes for whom self-knowledge and virtuous
readers. Like the antipoetic polemicists, Sidney action are one.
believed in the persuasive power of poetry: he
differed only in that he believed that it could
move readers toward virtue as well as vice. Fic- Innovative and Original Aspects
tion has the power, according to Sidney, to pre-
sent a “golden world,” an ideal reality whose Because Sidney’s Apology is so replete with tra-
dazzling images of virtue move the reader to ditional material, scholars have debated whether
embrace those ideals in his or her own life. what Sidney presents is a coherent, let alone orig-
Acknowledging the fallen state of humanity, in inal, theory. Citing Sidney’s reliance on his Ital-
which we can perceive the good with right ian predecessors, Spingarn famously declared, “it
reason – our “erected wit” – but fall short of can be said without exaggeration that there is not
reaching it because of our “infected will,” Sidney an essential principle in the Defence of Poesy
claims for poetry the power to cure the general which cannot be traced back to some Italian trea-
infection of the human will. Whereas Augustine tise on the poetic art” (257–258). Since Spingarn,
was cured of his divided will by reading sacred however, a long list of critics have claimed to
scripture, Sidney says that we can be cured by have found a key to Sidney’s thought in one or
reading pagan literature. For Sidney no less than another philosophical, political, or religious pro-
for the early Michelangelo, the classical and gram, including the synthesis of Plato and
Christian were fundamentally harmonious, and Aristotle’s idea of the Idea, the Cusan art of
he had no doubt that the examples of classical conjecture, Ramist visual epistemology, Protes-
heroes could make Englishmen better Christians. tant poetics, Aristotelian rhetorical theory, and
Sidney’s idealizing approach owes something Plato’s myth of creation in the Timaeus. This
to earlier persuasive performances, including author has argued that Sidney models his theory
Cicero’s description of the orator and on accounts of divine creation such as that
Sidney, Philip 7
presented by DuBartas. These interpretations all Those who want to know where their ideas of
assert that the Apology offers an original synthe- literature come from should pursue their lumi-
sis that is more than the sum of its many borrowed nous originals in Sidney.
parts – while differing on the nature of that syn-
thesis. That Sidney’s Apology is susceptible to so
many diverse and weighty interpretations is in Cross-References
itself remarkable, and it certainly would seem to
confirm Geoffrey Shepherd’s claim that what the ▶ Action
work embodies are nothing less than “moments ▶ Aesthetics
of European self-consciousness” (11). It may ▶ Allegory: Renaissance Philosophy
well be that the most original aspect of the Apol- ▶ Aristotelianism
ogy is not its argument but its author, who draws ▶ Boccaccio, Giovanni
seemingly new conclusions out of traditional ▶ Courtesy
material and carries out this weighty task with ▶ Dignity of Man
his characteristic sprezzatura. Indeed, Sidney’s ▶ Duplessis-Mornay
winning persona and extraordinary wit are ▶ Ethics
everywhere apparent in the Apology, such that ▶ Neoplatonism
the work has the compelling coherence of the ▶ Rhetoric (in the Renaissance)
man himself. ▶ Studia humanitatis
▶ Ut pictura poesis
▶ Virgil (in the Renaissance)
Impact and Legacy
Posthumously, Sidney was at the head of the References

literary flourishing that would include Spenser,
Marlowe, and Shakespeare. His impact, indirect Kinney, Arthur. 1997. Sir Philip Sidney. In Major Tudor
as well as direct, is nothing less than monumen- Authors: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical
Sourcebook, ed. Alan Hager. Westport, Conn. Green-
tal. His sonnet sequence made him the “English wood Press.
Petrarch,” and his great pastoral romance not Maslen, R.W. 2002. Introduction to an apology for
only helped inspire a great tradition of English poetry, ed. Geoffrey Shepherd. Revised and expanded
pastoral poetry but also provided a rich store of by R.W. Maslen. Manchester, Manchester University
Press.
material on which subsequent writers would Shepherd, Geoffrey. 1965. Introduction to an apology for
draw. Shakespeare borrowed from the Arcadia, poetry, ed. Geoffrey Shepherd. London, Nelson.
and Charles I is said to have made Pamela’s Sidney, Philip. 1965. An apology for poetry, ed. Geoffrey
famous prayer his own while awaiting execution. Shepherd. London, Nelson.
Spingarn, Joel E. 1908. A history of literary criticism in
Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, a foundational the renaissance. New York, Columbia University
work in the history of the novel, drew the name Press.
of his protagonist and much else from the Arca- Woudhuysen, H.R. 2004. Sidney, Philip. In Oxford
dia. Even in the twentieth century the continuing Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H.C.G. Matthew
and Brian Howard Harrison. Oxford, Oxford Univer-
importance of the Arcadia was felt by Virginia sity Press.
Woolf, who declared that in it “all the seeds of
English fiction lie latent” (Kinney 423). And no
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_399-1
Innate Heat
Elisabeth Moreau*
Department of History, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique – FNRS/Université Libre de
Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
Abstract
Innate heat is a fundamental concept in Galenic medicine, referring to a physiological heat proper to living
beings. Originating in the heart, it takes part in the vital and organic functions of the human body. As
instrument of the soul, it animates the body in a similar way to a bodily flame. Its nature and role is bound
up with the definition of life within a theoretical framework combining natural philosophy and medicine.
Consequently, physiological debates on innate heat often converged on cosmological, chymical, and
embryological considerations on the origin, composition, and transmission of life.
In Renaissance Galenism, innate heat is traditionally described as a bodily substance of a subtle nature,
transported by the spirit, and transmitted at birth through the seed. It is also related to the radical moisture,
so that the calidum innatum often refers to the vital substance formed by the spirit, the innate heat, and the
radical moisture. Within the human body, the innate heat is sourced in the heart and cooled down by the
inspiration of air in the lungs during breathing. At the same time, it is spread through the whole body to
operate the vital functions. In particular, it is the instrument of the vegetative soul in order to achieve the
physiological operations of generation, growth, and nutrition – mainly digestion and coction. It is also in
charge of forming the vital spirit in the left ventricle of the heart.
Synonyms
Calidum innatum; Calor innatus/nativus/vitalis; Vital heat

Galen systematized the notion of heat in his medical theory built upon Hippocratic, pre-Socratic, Platonic,
Aristotelian, and Stoic philosophies (Solmsen 1957). In this respect, the Galenic physiological system
owes a significant debt to Aristotelian biology, which theorized the nutritive functions of the innate heat
(Freudenthal 1995). It is also rooted in the Stoic pneuma responsible for the sensory and motive functions
(Debru 1996).
The Galenic definition of innate heat was transformed by Fernel’s physiology, influenced by Ficinian
Platonism (Fernel 1567). Fernel developed a medical theory of spirit and innate heat grounded in the
Aristotelian definition of vital heat as a substance analogous to the element of the stars and contained in
the foamy part of the seed (Aristotle 736b30). While the Galenic interpretation suggested innate heat as an
elemental substance, Fernel defined it as non-elemental and akin to solar heat. It is then transported by a
celestial resident spirit (spiritus insitus), which is distinct from the three Galenic flowing spirits and plays
the role of a bond between soul and body. This spirit is composed of ether – the Aristotelian fifth
element – whose subtle nature allows it to host the bodily heat and to be the soul’s first instrument
*Email: emoreau(at)ulb.ac.be
Page 1 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_399-1
performing the physiological functions. In addition, it is connected with the total substance of the living
body, whose properties are occult and cosmological (Fernel 1548).
Fernel’s theory of innate heat sparked long-lasting debates in late Renaissance Galenic medicine
(Walker 1958). Moreover, the discussion of the existence of a cosmic innate heat often slid into the
nature and role of the spirit insitus, initiating further medical debates on the generation of living beings
and the plastic virtue of the seed (Hirai 2011). By contrast, Paracelsian medicine disregarded the concept
of innate heat, whose subtle nature and physiological functions were attributed to the animal or vital
“balsam” protecting the body from putrefaction (Severinus 1571; Hirai 2005; Bianchi 1982).
In the first half of the seventeenth century, the Renaissance concept of innate heat was challenged as to
the chymical and physiological aspects of its vital status and nutritive function. Harvey called into
question the physiological triad of the spirit-heat-moisture by disqualifying Fernel’s definition of spirit
and by minimizing the role of the heart (Harvey 1628). Only vital heat and radical moisture remained as
mere properties of the blood, which in turn took the role of the vital substance inherent to the seed and
analogous to the stellar element (Bono 1990). Later on, the concept of innate heat would be reshaped by
mechanistic and chymical theories of combustion and fermentation, illustrated by Descartes and van
Helmont (Mendelsohn 1964).
Cross‐References
▶ Aristotelianism
▶ Elements, Natural
▶ Fernel, Jean
▶ Generation/Embryology
▶ Harvey, William
▶ Physiology: Renaissance Philosophy
▶ Radical Moisture
▶ Stoicism
References
Primary Literature
Aristotle (1965) De generatione animalium, ed. H.J. Drossaart Lulofs. Clarendon Press, Oxford
Fernel J (1548) De abditis rerum causis. Apud Christianum Wechelum...apud Carolum Perier, Paris
Fernel J (1567) Universa medicina. Apud Andream Wechelum, Paris
Harvey W (1628) Exercitatio anatomica de Motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus. Sumptibus Guilielmi
Fitzeri, Frankfurt
Severinus P (1571) Idea medicinae philosophicae, fundamenta continens totius doctrinae Paracelsicae,
Hippocraticae et Galenicae. Ex officina Sixti Henricpetri, Basel
Bianchi ML (1982) Occulto e manifesto nella medicina del Rinascimento: Jean Fernel e Pietro Severino.
Atti e Memorie dell'Accademia Toscana di Scienze e Lettere La Colombaria 47:183–248
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Bono JJ (1990) Reform and the languages of renaissance theoretical medicine: Harvey versus fernel.
J Hist Biol 23:341–387
Debru A (1996) Le corps respirant : la pensée physiologique chez Galien. E.J. Brill, Leiden
Freudenthal G (1995) Aristotle’s theory of material substance: heat and pneuma. Form and Soul, Oxford
Hirai H (2005) Le concept de semence dans les théories de la matière à la Renaissance. de Marsile Ficin à
Pierre Gassendi, Turnhout
Hirai H (2011) Medical humanism and natural philosophy: renaissance debates on matter. Life and the
Soul, Leiden
Mendelsohn E (1964) Heat and life: the development of the theory of animal heat. Harvard University
Press, Cambridge
Solmsen F (1957) The vital heat, the inborn pneuma and the aether. J Hell Stud 77:119–123
Walker DP (1958) The astral body in renaissance medicine. J Warburg Courtauld Ins 21:119–133
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Radical Moisture
Elisabeth Moreau
Department of History, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique – FNRS/Université Libre de
Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
Abstract
The radical moisture is a Galenic physiological concept developed by medieval Arabo-Latin medicine,
referring to an inborn moisture specific to living beings. Illustrated by the metaphor of the oil lamp, it is
compared to an oily wick consumed by the flame of innate heat, whose extinction is synonymous with
death. The vital moisture is involved in the physiological discussion on spirit and innate heat regarding the
conservation of life. It also provides abundant parallels in chymistry developed by Platonic and
Paracelsian physicians.
Synonyms
Humidum radicale/primigenium; Primitive moisture/humor

The definition of radical moisture is based on a medieval concept from Arabic medicine, inspired by
Aristotelian natural philosophy and Galenic medicine (McVaugh 1974). In the tenth century, Isaac Israeli
and Haly Abbas shaped the notion of secondary humors, including the alimentary humors and the radical
moisture (Jacquart 2006; Lyndon Reynolds 1999). Avicenna theorized the idea of the radical moisture in a
general account of life, fever, aging, and death in his Canon of Medicine. The Galenic and Avicennian
theory was then transmitted to Western Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries through Latin
translators from Salerno and Toledo, e.g., Constantine the African and Gerard of Cremona. In the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the medical debate on the radical moisture was explored in natural
philosophy, alchemy, and theology, especially in the works of Albert the Great, Bonaventure, Thomas
Aquinas, Arnold of Villanova, and Ramon Llull (Crisciani 2005; Crisciani and Ferrari 2010). From this
medieval context, the decisive role of radical moisture in the conservation of life has given rise to various
debates on its possible maintenance, decreasing or storing, in order to preserve the innate heat.
Scholastic physicians defined the radical moisture as a fatty humor feeding the spirit and innate heat.
Received at birth alongside the spirit and innate heat, it is derived from the airy portion of the seed and
the fleshy maternal blood substance. Within the human body, the vital moisture is in charge of fueling the
innate heat, while the spirit is maintained and refreshed by breathing. Given its fixed quantity received at
birth, the radical moisture undergoes a slow consumption, reflected by the aging process and mortality
(Marinozzi 2010; Sch€afer 2012). Moreover, corruption or premature consumption of the radical moisture
may lead to specific diseases such as withering and hectic fever (Demaitre 1992; Niebyl 1971).
Among the traditional medieval topics related to the radical moisture, late Renaissance physiology
concentrated on the metaphor of the oil lamp, as well as the relation between longevity, aging, and the
inexorable consumption of the radical moisture (Fernel 1567; Hall 1971). Fernel underplayed
the possibility of restoring the vital moisture through dietetic or chymical means, though he conceded
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the influence of nutrition on the preservation of radical moisture. Nevertheless, the chymical question of
prolongevity through the restoration or the extraction of a vital substance would continue through
Paracelsian medicine, as evidenced by the concept of balsam and vital sulfur (Severinus 1571; Hirai
2005; Bianchi 1982).
Cross‐References
▶ Fernel, Jean
▶ Innate Heat
▶ Physiology: Renaissance Philosophy
References
Primary Literature
Fernel J (1567) Universa medicina. Apud Andream Wechelum, Paris
Severinus P (1571) Idea medicinae philosophicae, fundamenta continens totius doctrinae Paracelsicae,
Hippocraticae et Galenicae. Ex officina Sixti Henricpetri, Basel
Bianchi ML (1982) Occulto e manifesto nella medicina del Rinascimento: Jean Fernel e Pietro Severino.
Atti e Memorie dell’Accademia Toscana di Scienze e Lettere La Colombaria 47:183–248
Crisciani C (2005) Aspetti del dibattito sull’umido radicale nella cultura del tardo medioevo (secoli XIII-
XV). In: Perarnau J (ed) Actes de la II Trobada Internacional d’Estudis sobre Arnau Vilanova. Institut
d’Estudis Catalans, Barcelona, pp 333–380
Crisciani C, Ferrari G (2010) Introduzione. In: McVaugh MR (ed) Arnaldi de Villanova opera omnia, V.2.
Tractatus de humido radicali. Publicacions de la universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, pp 319–571
Demaitre L (1992) The medical notion of ‘withering’ from Galen to the fourteenth century: the treatise on
marasmus by Bernard of Gordon. Traditio 34:259–286
Hall TS (1971) Life, death and the radical moisture: a study of thematic pattern in medieval medical
theory. Clio Med 6:3–23
Hirai H (2005) Le concept de semence dans les theories de la matière à la Renaissance, de Marsile Ficin à
Pierre Gassendi. Brepols, Turnhout
Jacquart D (2006) La nourriture et le corps au Moyen Age. Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et
Humanistes 13:259–266
Lyndon Reynolds P (1999) Food and the body: some peculiar questions in high medieval theology. Brill,
Leiden
Marinozzi S (2010) Umido radicale ed invecchiamento nel primo evo moderno. Med Secoli 22:531–552
McVaugh M (1974) The ‘humidum radicale’ in thirteenth-century medicine. Traditio 30:259–283
Niebyl PH (1971) Old age, fever, and the lamp metaphor. J Hist Med 26:351–368
Sch€afer D (2012) More than a fading flame. The physiology of old age between speculative analogy and
experimental method. In: Horstmanshoff HFJ (ed) Blood sweat and tears: the changing concepts of
physiology from antiquity into early modern Europe. Brill, Leiden, pp 241–266
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Seed Concept
Hiro Hirai*
Center for the History of Philosophy and Science, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Abstract
In Renaissance and early modern “chymistry” (alchemy/chemistry) and biomedical sciences, ideas
derived from “seeds” (semina) were frequently used: “seeds of things” (semina rerum), “seeds of reasons”
(semina rationum), “seminal reasons” (rationes seminales), “seminary” (seminarium), and “seminal
principle” (principium seminale). These notions can be grouped together under the name of the “concept
of seeds.” Widely diffused under the authority of the “Platonists,” this concept aimed to explain the
formation and organization of natural bodies and even the origin of their forms in matter. It first took shape
in the cosmological metaphysics of Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) and then was developed by physician
philosophers such as Jean Fernel (1497–1558), Paracelsus (1593/1594–1541), and Petrus Severinus
(1540/1542–1602) during the sixteenth century. It was finally reinterpreted in a corpuscular perspective,
culminating in the notion of “molecule” (molecula) as the “seeds of things” (semina rerum) by French
atomist Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655). The concept of seeds can be regarded as a missing link in the chain
which bridged between the medieval scholastic doctrine of substantial forms and the mechanistic
corpuscular theories of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Closely connected to Renaissance
chymical philosophy, it played a significant role in the rise of early modern science.
Synonyms
Concept of seeds; Semina; Seminal principle; Seminal reason; Seminal reason principle

In his philosophical works, Marsilio Ficino adopted various terms derived from the seed so as to designate
the formative cause in the sensible world: “seeds of reasons” (semina rationum), “seminal reasons”
(rationes seminales), “seminary” (seminarium), and “seminary reason of the world” (ratio seminaria
mundi).
Following Neoplatonists such as Plotinus and Proclus, Ficino elaborated the theory of hypostatical
substances in his interpretation of Plato’s works (Allen 1982). According to the version developed in his
Commentary on Plato’s Symposium (written before 1482), the divine “mind” (mens) derives from the
good, which is the preeminent being of God, in the concentric metaphysical universe. It is followed by the
“soul” (anima) of the universe, then “nature” (natura), and finally “matter” (materia). Nature is an
intermediate hierarchy between the soul and matter. Ficino attributes “divine species” (species divinae) to
each of these five hypostases: “ideas” (ideae) to the mind, “reasons” (rationes) to the soul, “seeds”
(semina) to nature, and “forms” (formae) to matter. Ideas turn around God and connect Him with the
mind. Reasons gravitate around the mind and communicate it with the World-Soul. Seeds revolve around
the soul and link it to nature. Finally forms turn around nature and make the bridge between nature and
*Email: hhirai2@gmail.com
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matter. Forms in matter are the ultimate vestiges of the divine species, all of which are incorporeal and
spiritual. Thus seeds share the same source with superior species (ideas and reasons) and inferior species
(forms). Beauty, regarded as the ray emanating from God, embellishes the divine mind with ideas, fills the
soul with reasons, impregnates nature with seeds, and dresses matter with forms (Ficino 1956).
Ficino further identified nature with the “power of generation” (potentia generandi). He also qualified
as “seminary” or “seedbed” (seminarium) the vivifying power, which is diffused in the whole world.
Comparing the emanation of these hypostases with the sun’s rays, Ficino connected nature with “heat”
(calor), which is responsible for the generation of bodies. Generation is linked to a biological notion of
fertility. This fecundity is introduced into nature through the invisible ray of the World-Soul, which
conveys the spiritual seeds. Ficino thus incorporated the concept of seeds as the integral part of his
metaphysical universe. For him, these invisible and spiritual seeds are the vestiges of forms, which were
introduced in formless matter so as to generate diverse beings in the sensible world (Ficino 1956).
In his masterpiece, Platonic Theology (Theologia Platonica) (Florence 1482), Ficino even went further
by combining the Thomistic doctrine of substantial forms to his concept of seeds. According to him,
nature encloses the invisible and spiritual seeds, endowed with the power to extract the substantial forms
of the elements from the depth of matter. These seeds are superior to the elemental forms, and under their
control, the elemental qualities bring about properties such as colors in natural things. Ficino’s seeds were,
therefore, able to make Aristotelian physics subordinate to Platonic metaphysics and are not identical with
the seminal reason principles of the ancients (Stoics, Neoplatonists, and Augustine) (Ficino 2001; Hirai
2002).
Jean Fernel of Paris was the first academic physician to introduce Ficino’s teachings into the foundation
of learned medicine. In his major philosophical dialogue, On the Hidden Causes of Things (De abditis
rerum causis) (Paris 1548), calling upon the belief in the “ancient theology” (prisca theologia), Fernel
established the basis of his natural and medical philosophy through the harmonization of ancients such as
Plato and Aristotle. In doing so, he adopted Ficino’s concept of seeds. According to Fernel, the seeds of
the forms of natural things were sown by God at the moment of the creation of the world. Now these seeds
fall from heaven, being carried by the World-Spirit diffused everywhere in the universe. Fernel connected
Ficino’s theory of the universal spirit with the Biblical idea of the spirit (breath) sent from God’s mouth as
is seen in Psalm 32 (33). Fernel thus tried to place his concept of seeds in a Christian perspective (Fernel
2005).
Parallel to Fernel, Paracelsus also contributed much to the elaboration of the concept of seeds.
Although he might initially have been inspired by the ideas of Ficino, he radically Christianized its
contents. According to him, God sowed the archetypal word “fiat” as the primordial seed of the universe
in the creation of the world. This divine seed enclosed within itself the seeds of the four elements
(Paracelsus 1922-1933, XIII: 9, 12–13). Paracelsus did not see the elements as the material causes of
natural bodies but as their cosmological receptacles, called “mothers” (m€ uter). These matrices contain all
natural beings under the form of particular seeds and foster them until their maturation as “fruits” (fr€uchte)
(Paracelsus III: 32–33). Thus all creatures are born from their own spiritual seeds. Each being in nature
lives its biological time and grows toward its definite end according to the “predestination”
(praedestinatio) which was determined by God. At the time of “harvest,” natural things are consumed
by human beings as food or medicine (Paracelsus III: 34–35).
In Paracelsus, universal nature is depicted as the divine Sower’s enormous bag, which contains the
spiritual seeds of all natural beings mixed together. Each seed encloses the three principles (salt, sulfur,
and mercury). These are not the natural substances bearing these names but the symbolical denominations
based on their functions. They should not be understood as the material causes from an Aristotelian
perspective. These three principles in the spiritual seed determine the development (life) of each
individual through the intervention of administrator “workers,” conceived in the guise of internal
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alchemists. Paracelsus referred to them as “vulcanus” when they are in nature and as “archeus” when
inside the human body (Paracelsus III: 35 and XI: 187–88).
Under the influence of Ficino, Fernel, and Paracelsus, Petrus Severinus established his unique system,
which can be qualified as the “philosophy of seeds.” Indeed the concept of seeds occupied the central
place of his natural and medical philosophy. In his masterpiece, The Idea of Philosophical Medicine (Idea
Medicinae Philosophicae), he built a synthesis upon the prisca theologia belief so as to defend the
teachings of Paracelsus. Among his immediate forerunners besides Paracelsus, he owed much to Fernel
although he tried to eclipse the Frenchman’s name by that of Paracelsus (Severinus 1571; Shackelford
2004; Hirai 2005).
Severinus’s theory of the four elements largely depends on that of Paracelsus. They are not conceived as
the material causes of natural bodies but as the cosmological receptacles of all creatures. According to
Severinus, God implanted future fruits under the form of invisible and spiritual seeds in these matrices.
The elements foster these seeds in their bosom so as to produce their fruits and nourish them. This process
is programed according to a determined delay for each individual. The spiritual seeds assure the presence
of life’s vestige everywhere in the world and guarantee the continuity of natural species. They are the
source of all kinds of action in nature since they provide all the properties of sensible things. In
Severinus’s favorite expression, everything in nature is regulated by the seeds’ tide-like ebb and flow.
Severinus placed the “principles of the bodies” (principia corporum) in the invisible and spiritual
seeds. Identified with Paracelsus’s salt, sulfur, and mercury, these principles are subordinated to the seeds’
incorporeal components: “reasons” (rationes), “knowledge” (scientia), and “gifts” (dona). These com-
ponents regulate the flows of the seeds in the world to produce corporeal bodies in the process of
generation with the help of inner instrumental agents. Severinus called these agents the “mechanical
spirits” (spiritus mechanici), the invisible and spiritual workers or craftsmen conceived upon the model of
Paracelsus’s archeus. They produce individuals thanks to the scientia given to the seeds. According to
Severinus, the spirits deprived of scientia are merely sterile vapors, while the mechanical spirits endowed
with scientia are fertile and productive. If they have the scientia of the heart, they construct the heart; if
they possess the scientia of the brain, they build the brain (Severinus 1571; Hirai 2005).
Severinus’s work was venerated by many physician philosophers of the turn of the century and exerted
a considerable impact on the matter theories of the next generations. His fervent followers included
Joseph du Chesne (1546–1609), Oswald Croll (ca. 1560–1608), and Jan Baptista van Helmont
(1579–1644). Especially under the influence of du Chesne, the concept of seeds became widespread in
the early seventeenth century to explain the generation of living beings (animals and plants) and the
formation of nonliving things (stones, minerals, and metals) (Hirai 2005; 2010). Heavily influenced by
Severinus in his youth, van Helmont long struggled to establish his own system of the seminal principle.
Pierre Gassendi also considerably relied on Severinus’s theory for his concept of molecules, identified
with the “seeds of things” (semina rerum) (Hirai 2003). These figures, whose perspectives seem to
diverge, shared the same source for their own concepts of seeds and their respective matter theories. Other
prominent figures such as Francis Bacon (1561–1626) came to know this concept developed in the steam
of chymical philosophy. Although Daniel Sennert (1572–1637) himself preferred forms and souls to
spiritual seeds, Severinus’s ideas led him to develop the notion of the “seminal principle” (principium
seminale), to which the young Robert Boyle (1627–1691) and others were to pay considerable attention in
the late seventeenth century (Clericuzio 1990; Anstey 2002; Hirai 2011). Thus the concept of seeds bears
witness to the lively impacts exerted by chymical philosophy on the emergence of new matter theories
during the scientific revolution.
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References
Primary
Fernel J (2005) Jean Fernel’s on the hidden causes of things: forms, souls, and occult diseases in
Renaissance medicine. Brill, Leiden
Ficino M (1956) Commentaire sur le Banquet de Platon. Les Belles Lettres, Paris
Ficino M (2001–2006) Platonic theology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Paracelsus (1922–1933) S€amtliche Werke, Abteilung 1. Oldenbourg, Munich/Berlin
Severinus P (1571) Idea medicinae philosophicae. Sixti Henricpetri, Basel
Secondary
Allen MJB (1982) Ficino’s theory of the five substances and the Neoplatonists’ Parmenides. J Medieval
Renaissance Stud 12:19–44
Anstey PR (2002) Boyle on seminal principles. Stud Hist Philos Biol 33:597–630
Clericuzio A (1990) A redefinition of Boyle’s chemistry and corpuscular philosophy. Ann Sci
47:561–589
Hirai H (2002) Concepts of seeds and nature in the work of Marsilio Ficino. In: Allen MJB, Rees V (eds)
Marsilio Ficino: his theology, his philosophy, his legacy. Brill, Leiden, pp 257–284
Hirai H (2003) Le concept de semence de Pierre Gassendi entre les théories de la matière et les sciences de
la vie au XVIIe siècle. Med Secoli 15:205–226
Hirai H (2005) Le concept de semence dans les théories de la matière à la Renaissance: de Marsile Ficin à
Pierre Gassendi. Brepols, Turnhout
Hirai H (2010) The world-spirit and quintessence in the chymical philosophy of Joseph Du Chesne. In:
Lopez M (ed) Chymia: science and nature in early modern Europe (1450–1750). Cambridge Scholars,
Cambridge, pp 247–261
Hirai H (2011) Medical humanism and natural philosophy: renaissance debates on matter, life and the
soul. Brill, Leiden
Shackelford J (2004) A philosophical path for Paracelsian medicine: the ideas, intellectual context, and
influence of Petrus Severinus, 1540–1602. Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen
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Signatura Rerum Theory

Yohei Kikuchiharaa* and Hiro Hiraib
a
Kyushu Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, Japan
b
Abstract
Natural things sometimes resemble each other. From antiquity to today, either in the East or the West, such
similarity is often considered to be a hidden key toward important knowledge for human beings. To
recognize this similarity needs a sort of index, which measures resemblance between things. A general
index can be the external figure of natural things. This is the foundation of the theory called “signature/
sign of things” (signatura rerum). According to a typical understanding of the sixteenth century, the
invisible internal essence or force of natural things was visibly coined on their external figure as a sign.
Human beings could decipher such signs by analogy and approach to the universal knowledge of nature or
even to the will of God who engraved these signs in nature. The doctrine of signatura rerum was a
manifestation of this way of reasoning and approach to nature. French philosopher Michel Foucault
(1926–1984) addressed it in Les mots et les choses (The Order of Things), Chapter 2, and made it well
known (Foucault. Les mots et les choses: Une archéologie des sciences humaines. Gallimard,
Paris, 1966).
Synonyms
Sign; Signature
Major Aspects
Historically speaking, this kind of analogical reasoning can be observed everywhere in the world,
especially in the field of medicine. A plant, whose figure resembles hands, was often considered to be
efficient for the diseases of hands. If the external appearance of some plants (or sometimes even animals
and minerals) resembles the organs of the human body, those plants were believed to be efficient to the
diseases and injuries of the corresponding organs.
In Europe, a portion of this doctrine can be observed in the Materia medica of Dioscorides, who
synthetized the knowledge of pharmacological botany in the ancient Greek world, and in the Natural
History of Pliny of Rome. Their Western followers of the Middle Ages widely used to acknowledge
morphological analogies between medicinal natural things and sick or wound parts of bodily organs.
Externally resembling plants were applied for the remedy of the bites by beasts such as snakes and
scorpions. Thus, the morphological analogy among natural things was often used in medicine.
In the Renaissance, the doctrine of signatura rerum became popular and was discussed widely more
than ever. Two major actors contributed to this move: Giambattista Della Porta (1538–1615) and
Paracelsus (1493/1494–1538).
*Email: kikubrille@yahoo.co.jp
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Della Porta devoted an entire monograph, entitled Phytognomonica (Naples, 1588), to this doctrine. In
this work, he enumerated medicinal plants by way of the morphological analogy with the bodily organs.
Citrus fruits, by their resemblance with the heart, were considered to be efficient to cardiac diseases.
A plant called “pulmonaria” would be efficient for the sicknesses of the lungs. Corydalis was regarded as a
medicine of the liver by its external resemblance to the organ. As pomegranates and toothworts resembled
the teeth, they were taught to be good for the pains of the teeth. Likewise, he enumerated medicines for the
hand, bones, hairs, head, eyes, ears, genital organs, spleen, kidneys, uterus, bladder, etc. (Della Porta
1588).
Not only the shapes of plants but also colors, smells, and other properties were taken into account.
Long-life plants were believed to be good for longevity; plants having yellow flowers or saps would cure
jaundice; the red petals of roses would purify the blood by purging heat. More curiously, animals having
big ears were said to be efficient to bad hearing capacity; plants growing on the rocks would break
calculus; summer plants would be good for summer diseases. Animals, which slept well, would be good
for the problem of sleep (Thorndike 1923–1958). By compiling the sum of knowledge about various
plants and their signs, Della Porta claimed to follow the tradition which ran from antiquity through the
Middle Ages (Della Porta 1588). For him, to understand the correspondence between the human being
and medicinal natural things was to reveal the secret of nature, which was also the ultimate goal of his
masterpiece, Magia naturalis (Naples, 1589).
As for Paracelsus, he tried to approach this doctrine in a more practical aspect. As a medical
practitioner, he dealt with plants as medicines according to the analogy with the bodily organs. He
believed that each disease had its own remedy which lay hidden as an invisible faculty or power in plants.
For him, physicians had to extract this faculty and learn which plant had which faculty. The privileged
way to seek such faculties of plants was an analogical thinking, and the signs of things held the key to such
knowledge. For example, as Eufrasia resembled the eye, Paracelsus considered it to be efficient for eye
diseases; he regarded melissa to be good for cardiac diseases since it resembled the heart to his eyes. In the
case of johanniskraut, he emphasized the importance of deciphering the veins and fine holes of its leaves
as well as the whole shape of its leaves and flowers. For him, the external figures of diverse plants and the
particular shapes of their parts were the signs to discover and justify medicines (Paracelsus 1922–1933).
Paracelsus extended his theory from the kingdom of plants to the whole field of nature. He went even
further to relate it with celestial bodies on the basis of the correspondence between macrocosm and
microcosm. As he was not satisfied with the application of this doctrine to medicine alone, he elaborated it
to the level of an overall natural philosophy. By this system, he wanted to find out the useful knowledge
for human beings and to understand the truth of the world through the study of nature (M€ uller-Jahncke
1984, 1985; Bianchi 1987; Bono 1995). Later in his career, Paracelsus tried to transform his theory into a
tool to craft a better society. For him, if shoemakers do a better job by learning the signs of leather,
carpenters by those of wood, potters by those of clay, the life of those who use their products would be
made better. Each profession would contribute to society as a whole by gaining its professional knowl-
edge through a better understanding of the signs of things. In this scheme, Paracelsus’s doctrine of
signatures was a practical technique as well as practical philosophy (Paracelsus 1922–1933).
Thanks to Paracelsus’s followers such as Joseph Du Chesne (1544–1609), Oswald Croll (1580–1609),
Jacob Böhme (1574–1624), Jacques Gaffarel (1601–1681), and Wolfgang Fabricius (1625–1653), the
doctrine of signatura rerum knew the vague in the seventeenth century (Du Chesne 1603; Croll 1609;
Böhme 1621; Fabricius 1653; Hirai 2014). Its afterlife continued in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. In this connection, it is possible to say that Kepler (1571–1630) and Leibniz (1646–1716)
were under the influence of Paracelsus (Bianchi 1987). Although historian of botany Agnes Arber
(1879–1960) criticized it as an obstacle for the development of modern botanical science, the doctrine
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served as the intellectual foundation of natural philosophy more strongly in that era than in antiquity and
the Middle Ages (Arber 1919).
This kind of reasoning based on analogies had a problem. If the thorough knowledge about the world
was sought by analogy through such signs, the world and its knowledge would share the essentially same
structure and become a complex tapestry of interwoven analogies. This correspondence did not signify the
identity of the world and its knowledge. Even if similarity between plants and human organs was
acknowledged, these plants could not cure the sickness of the corresponding organs.
However, such a gap between the world and its knowledge did not lead to the total rejection of
analogical reasoning. The divergence between both demanded another analogy to justify the first analogy.
As plants similar to the heart were not only citrus but also melissa or lemon, one analogy required another
analogy. By this, the network of analogies in the world became stronger. At the same time, the gap
covering nature with a veil of mystery sometimes brought forth an unexpected cognition. In his Natural
Magic, Della Porta described mysterious connections of natural things: pigeons would use the leaves of
laurel to protect their babies against magic; elephants would use wild olives as antidotes when they ate
chameleons by error.
Since signs were regarded as the words inscribed onto nature by God, they bore the absolute certificate
of trueness. Thus, the truth had to be sought by tracing the endless chain of these signs (Bianchi 1987;
Bono 1995). As everything in the world was believed to be connected by analogy and full of signs to
decipher, the world itself was “magical.” Paracelsus emphasized the necessity to experience the natural
world endowed with this endless chain of signs. What he called “experience” was the very “magic”
(magia), which aimed to reveal the concealed relationship among natural things. The doctrine of
signatura rerum necessarily comprised magic and experience, both of which were very important in
the Renaissance (Kikuchihara 2013).
References
Primary Literature
Böhme J (1621) De signatura rerum. [s. l.]
Croll O (1609) Basilica chymica. Frankfurt
Della Porta G (1588) Phytognomonica. Naples
Du Chesne J (1603) De simplicium signaturis externis tractatus. Saint-Gervais
Fabricius W (1653) De signaturis plantarum. Nuremberg
Arber A (1919/1986) Herbals, their origin and evolution: a chapter in the history of botany, 1470–1670.
Bianchi ML (1987) Signatura rerum: segni, magia e conoscenza da Paracelso a Leibniz. Edizioni
dell’Ateneo, Rome
Bono JJ (1995) The word of God and the languages of man: interpreting nature in early modern science
and medicine. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison
Foucault M (1966) Les mots et les choses: Une archéologie des sciences humaines. Gallimard, Paris
Hirai H (2014) Images, Talismans and medicine in Jacques Gaffarel’s Unheard-of Curiosities. In Hirai
H (ed) Jacques Gaffarel between magic and science. Serra, Rome
Kikuchihara Y (2013) Paracelsus and the Magical Renaissance. Keiso Publishing, Tokyo
Page 3 of 4
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_405-1
M€uller-Jahncke W-D (1984) Ordnung durch Signatur: Analogiedenken und Arzneischatz im 16. und 17.
Jahrhundert. Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung 124:2184–2189
M€uller-Jahncke W-D (1985) Astrologisch-Magische Theorie und Praxis in der Heilkunde der fr€uhen
Neuzei. Steiner, Stuttgart
Thorndike L (1923–1958) A history of magic and experimental science. The Macmillan, New York
Page 4 of 4
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_406-1
Syphilis - Renaissance Philosophy

Yohei Kikuchiharaa* and Hiro Hiraib
a
Kyushu Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, Japan
b
Abstract
The attack of syphilis in Europe was first reported in July 1495 in connection with the Italian invasion of
French King Charles VIII (1470–1498). During the war, many soldiers were contaminated with a new
type of disease. As the army of Charles VIII was composed not only of Frenchmen but also of foreign
mercenaries, the disease was spread in Italian cities and then in other European towns once those men
returned. Going beyond the Alps, syphilis reached France and Switzerland by 1496, England by 1497,
and the Northern European countries by 1499 (Quetél. Le mal de Naples: Histoire de la syphilis.
P. Seghers, Paris, 1986). Because France was regarded as responsible for this calamitous spread of the
disease, it was called “French disease” (morbus Gallicus) in most countries and “Neapolitan disease”
(morbus Neapolitanus) in France.
Synonyms
French disease; Neapolitan disease
Major Aspects
Italian physician Girolamo Fracastoro (1478–1553) wrote a long poem entitled Syphilis or French
Disease (Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus) (Verona, 1530). In this work, he adopted the name of Syphilis,
who was a shepherd contaminated by a sexual transmissible disease in Virgil’s Georgica (Fracastoro
1530).
Even before Fracastoro, since the early stage of its diffusion, diverse possible causes were speculated
for syphilis. Soon after its mode of transmission was identified with sexual relations, a religious
explanation became dominant: the disease was the sign or result of God’s anger against the perverted
behaviors of human beings. At the same time, astrological arguments also gained popularity: celestial
phenomena such as the conjunction of planets were its causes. A small book written by Joseph Gr€unpeck
(ca. 1470–1531) about syphilis devoted nine of its ten chapters to the disease’s connection with planetary
conjunctions. In his Prediction on Epidemic Scabies (Vaticinium in epidemicam scabiem) (Nuremberg,
1496), Theodericus Ulsenius (ca. 1460–1508) adopted woodcut engravings by Albrecht D€urer
(1471–1528). One of them depicted a man contaminated with syphilis and a heavenly sphere with an
inscription of 1484 above him. This meant that the disease was produced by the great conjunction of Mars,
Jupiter, and Saturn of that year (Ulsenius 1496).
Following this line of astrological reasoning, Swiss physician Paracelsus (1493/1494–1541) elaborated
his complex theory for the cause of syphilis. In his treatise, On the Origins and Causes of French Disease
(Vom Ursprung und Herkommen der Franzosen sampt Rezepten Heilung) (written in 1529), Paracelsus
*Email: kikubrille@yahoo.co.jp
Page 1 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_406-1
argued that celestial phenomena were not the sole cause for its appearance. Although its transmission is
due to sexual relations, the disease itself was produced by the transformation of the pathogens, which
already existed in the human body. These pathogens of an old type of disease were “transmuted” into
syphilis by the influence of human perverted imagination and desire as the internal agents and by the
power of the planet Venus which governs love and sex as the external agent. Using this idea of the
transmutation from an old disease to a new disease, Paracelsus tried to explain the diversity of symptoms
(Paracelsus 1922–1933, VII: 183–366; Keil and Daems 1977; Kikuchihara 2013).
As the sixteenth century went on, the view that syphilis was brought from America to Europe became
dominant. It was because the outbreak of the hitherto unknown disease coincided with the return of the
expedition led by Christopher Columbus (1450/1451–1506). According to this view, if Columbus’s crew
members had sexual relations with local people contaminated with syphilis, they would be its first
European patients. Those contaminated crew members came back to Europe and provoked the secondary
contamination, leading to the outbreak of syphilis. Besides the theory of the American origin, there were
also other opinions (including the theory of the African origin), which advanced that the disease already
existed in Europe before the beginning of commerce with the New World. There had been lively debates
on the American origin of syphilis over centuries, namely, at the end of the nineteenth century, when a
historian of medicine Karl Sudhoff (1853–1938) used historical evidence to criticize dermatologist Ivan
Bloch (1872–1922), who supported the American origin (Quetél 1986).
As syphilis spread in Europe during the first decades of the sixteenth century, many curing methods
were tested while searching for its cause. Among others, the wood of a tropical plant called “guaiac”
(Guaiacum) gained popularity, as it was believed to be used by Native Americans for skin diseases. Since
syphilis also produced skin wounds, the medicine produced from this wood was regarded as its specific
cure. Guaiac was called by diverse names such as “sacred wood” (lignum sanctum) and “wood of life”
(lignum vitae). Although it was unclear when guaiac was first imported to Europe, it was used for syphilis
in Spain as early as ca. 1508. Its use was spread all over Europe by the 1520s. The Fugger family of
Augsburg contributed much to this wide diffusion. Not only did they have an exclusive right to import
guaiac into Germany but also they promoted its use in the hospital they were running (Munger 1949;
Arrizabalaga et al. 1997).
The first writings on guaiac appeared in the 1510s. German physician Ulrich von Hutten (1488–1523)
wrote a small treatise On the Guaiac Medicine and French Disease (De guaiaci medicina et morbo
gallico) (Mainz, 1519). Hutten, who himself was sicken by syphilis, defended guaiac’s healing power and
contributed to its large-scale popularity. His work was a global guidebook on syphilis and guaiac. It aimed
to explain not only guaiac’s properties and usage but also syphilis’s nature, origins, symptoms, curing
methods, and even prognosis. It was more than a medical treatise since it also reported Hutten’s personal
experience of the guaiac remedy as a patient. His book was very successful and was translated into several
European languages (Benedeck 1992).
The guaiac remedy started to lose popularity in the second half of the sixteenth century. Despite its
sporadic resurgence in the seventeenth century, it totally disappeared from the medical scene in the
nineteenth century (Munger 1949). But what explains its vogue during the first decades of the sixteenth
century? First, there was a resistance to the abuse of the mercury remedy. Although it was traditionally
used by physicians, including Paracelsus, the mercury remedy was dangerous. Patients were confined in a
room with a high temperature for many days and weakened by sweating and vomiting (Munger 1949;
Quetél 1986). The guaiac remedy, by contrast, did not provoke as much pain or side effects as the mercury
remedy.
Second, the guaiac remedy respected the norms of the orthodox medicine of Hippocratic-Galenic
school. Its efficacy was believed to be at the highest degree if a patient with an empty stomach orally
absorbed guaiac rendered in power and diffused in water, while a bad regime of a patient would diminish
Page 2 of 3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_406-1
its efficacy (Munger 1949). A regime based on food restriction was advised, which naturally fit the
traditional medical precepts. Although the plant was recorded nowhere in the works of the ancients, the
remedy followed a typical perspective adopted in the medical tradition of Europe.
Third, there was the impact of the Age of Discovery and the natural history vogue that followed. With
the expansion of commerce with Asia and America, a plethora of rare or unheard-of specimens and goods
were brought to Europe. Among those specimens, medicinal plants used by native peoples were most
appreciated because they inspired hope for curing diseases hitherto considered to be incurable. Physicians
were interested in foreign drugs and medicinal plants and animals, which led to the vogue of natural
history, including botany and zoology. The wood of guaiac was closely connected to this gain of interest in
exotic products.
References
Primary Literature
Fracastoro G (1530) Syphilis sive morbus gallicus. Verona
Ulsenius T (1496) Vaticinium in epidemicam scabiem. Nuremberg
von Hutten U (1519) De guaiaci medicina et morbo gallico. Mainz
Arrizabalaga J et al (1997) The great pox the French disease in Renaissance Europe. Yale University
Press, New Haven
Benedeck T (1992) The influence of Ulrich von Hutten’s medical descriptions and metaphorical use of
medicine. Bull Hist Med 66:355–375
Keil G, Daems WF (1977) Paracelsus und die Franzosen: Beobachtungen zur Venerologie Hohenheims,
Teil 1: Pathologie und nosologisches Konzept. Nova Acta Paracelsica 9:99–151
Kikuchihara Y (2013) Paracelsus and the magical renaissance. Keiso Publishing, Tokyo
Munger RS (1949) Guaiacum, the holy wood from the New World. J Hist Med Allied Sci 4:196–229
Quetél C (1986) Le mal de Naples: Histoire de la syphilis. P. Seghers, Paris
Page 3 of 3
D
D’Afeltro, Pietro physician and to whom he dedicated his book De

fato in 1508. During this period he published a
Born: 1463, Naples Questio de subiecto naturalis philosophie
(between 1485 and 1490). On the restoration of
Died: After 1526, probably Naples the studio in 1507, D’Afeltro took up his old
position again, teaching alternately philosophy
Charles Burnett and natural science, this time with a stipend of
The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced 50 ducats. He immediately published a series of
Study, University of London, London, UK short texts, including the Prohemii Averroys in
libros phisicorum Aristotelis, which he said was
the result of the demands of students attending his
Abstract “ordinary” lectures on the Physics of Aristotle. At
some time he added to his teaching “filosofia de
Pietro d’Afeltro was a teacher of philosophy and anima,” but in 1518 his chair was transferred to
medicine at the University (Studio) of Naples. He that of the “practice of medicine.” In 1523–1524
probably belonged to the circle of Giovanni he held the “extraordinary” chair of the “Liber
Pontano. He took an anti-Scotist position in phi- Noni Almansoris” – i.e., the teaching on illnesses
losophy. He published works principally on the from head to toe. While this is the last reference
Physics and Metaphysics of Aristotle, accompa- to his teaching in the studio, in 1526 he published
nied by the Long Commentaries of Averroes. his Lectio prima in Metaphysica et Questiones in
duodecim libris Methaphysice which resumed
his early teaching and elicited praise from his
Biography colleagues. This text was the culmination of the
life-work of d’Afeltro, who must have died
Pietro d’Alfetro was born in Naples in 1463. shortly afterward.
In 1487 he was appointed by King Ferdinand of
Aragon to the chair of metaphysics at the Studio
of Naples at the age of 24 with a salary of Heritage and Cultural Affiliation
36 ducats, but within a year the studio was closed
because of the baronial wars and the invasions of D’Afeltro was clearly proud of belonging to
the French. He (together with his brother Naples, whose classical connections he hints at
Niccolò) became part of the familia of cardinal in his description of himself as “Parthenopei
Oliviero Carafa, whom he served as his personal Philosophorum ac medicorum minimus” (title of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_409-1
2 DÁfeltro, Pietro
his Lectio prima in Methaphisica). His teaching creation, is the subject of the science of meta-
in the studio coincided with the presence in physics,” “whether it is true that ‘All men natu-
Naples of Egidio da Viterbo, and among his col- rally desire to know,’” “whether among all the
leagues were Augostino Nifo; Girolamo Galeota, senses, sight makes us know most,” and “whether
brother of Francesco Galeota; Cola Santillo, with brute animals have prudence.” For many of the
whom he shared the teaching of philosophy and questions d’Afeltro starts by putting forward the
natural science; and his brother (?) Giulio opinions of Duns Scotus and Antonius – i.e.,
d’Afeltro. The accompaniment of the Lectio by Antonio D’Andrea, who had published his
eulogistic poems by the Neapolitan writers, Quaestiones in Metaphysicam Aristotelis in
Girolamo Carbone, Pietro Gravina, and Pietro Naples in 1475. D’Afeltro then criticizes both
Summonte, suggests that d’Afeltro was these authors and puts forward his own views,
acquainted with members of the Aragonese Nea- based rather on Averroes and Albertus Magnus.
politan Academy of Giovanni Pontano. Already His commentary on Averroes’s Prohemium to his
in 1483 d’Afeltro is mentioned in an epigram Long Commentary on the Physics of Aristotle
addressed by Pontano to Carbone, in which addresses the problem of philosophical method.
Pontano urges Carbone to bring Afeltro to his D’Afeltro tries to reconcile the view of Aristotle,
Accademia. The dedications, however, to the that demonstration was of two kinds – “quia” and
cardinals, Oliviero Carafa and Bernardino “propter quid” – with that of Averroes who
Carevajal, were probably due to his function as believed that there was a third kind: demonstratio
a learned physician within their households. simpliciter. He does this by suggesting that
demonstratio simpliciter is really a subspecies
of demonstratio propter quid. D’Afeltro con-
Innovative and Original Aspects fesses that Averroes’s text is difficult and obscure
but nevertheless accepts him as the most reliable
As far as we know, d’Afeltro wrote no book on interpreter of Aristotle. His works make allusion
medicine. His printed works are on the Physics to recent historical events and pour scorn on
and Metaphysics of Aristotle, as commented on contemporary philosophers. In his De fato he
by Averroes, with the exception of De fato. In his lumps together heretics, followers of Epicurus,
Questio de subiecto naturalis philosophie, he and those interested in astrology whom Averroes
asks “utrum ens mobile in quantum mobile sit had attacked in his commentary to the
subiectum naturalis philosophie” and gives the Metaphysics, XII, commentum 45, while in his
opinions of the Thomists, the followers of Lectio prima in Metaphysica, he rails against
Albertus Magnus and Egidio Romano, the followers of all the mantic arts.
“scotizantes,” and the “modernus doctor”
Nicoletta Vernia, to conclude that Aristotle’s nat-
ural philosophy had been handed down errone- Cross-References
ously and insufficiently. In his Lectio prima in
Metaphysica et Questiones in duodecim libris ▶ Agostino Nifo
Methaphysice, d’Afeltro puts into print, late in ▶ Giovanni Pontano
life, the lectures he gave 39 years earlier, when he
was 24. It consists of an introduction to the his-
tory of philosophy and the divisions of science, References
leading on to the encouragement to students to
study metaphysics. This is followed by questions Primary Literature
arising out of each of the twelve books of De fato. Quaestio omnium expectatissima, 1508. Naples:
Giovanni Antonio de Caneto of Pavia. Dedicated to
Aristotle’s work. The first four questions, each
Cardinal Oliviero Carafa.
discussed over several pages, are “whether being Lectio prima in Metaphysica et Questiones in duodecim
taken simply, which is shared by God and His libris Methaphysice, 1526. Naples: Evangelista da
DÁfeltro, Pietro 3
Pavia, eredo di Sigismondo Mayr, Naples 1526. Ded- Burnett, Charles, and Mendelsohn Andrew. 1997. Aris-
icated to Pope Clement VII. Reprinted in 1529 in totle and Averroes on Method in the Middle Ages and
Naples by Giovanni Sultzbach. Renaissance: the “Oxford Gloss” to the Physics and
Passionis domini nostri Iesu Christi meditatio Pietro d’Afeltro’s Expositio Proemii Averroys.
devotissima. Printed anonymously with De fato, q.v. In Method and Order in Renaissance Philosophy of
Prohemii Averroys in libros phisicorum Aristotelis Nature, ed. Daniel A. Di Liscia, Eckhard Kessler, and
expositio, probably printed 1507-8. Probably Naples: Charlotte Methuen, 53–111. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Giovanni Antonio de Caneto of Pavia. Dedicated to Index Aureliensis, prima pars. 2014. Baden-Baden:
Bernardino Lopez de Carvajal. Koerner, 17: 405–406.
Quaestio an de rebus naturalibus possit haberi scientia. Manzi, Pietro. 1971. La tipografia napoletana nel ’500:
Printed anonymously with De fato, q.v. Annali di Sigismondo Mayr, Giovanni A. De Caneto,
Questio de subiecto naturalis philosophie, 1485-90. Ven- Antonio de Frizis, Giovanni Pasquet de Sallo
ice: Mattia Moravo. Dedicated to Girolamo Galeota. (1503–1535). Florence: L. S. Olschki, 135–138.
Utrum de rebus naturalibus possit haberi scientia, 1508. Rhodes, Dennis E. 1965. A Note on Petrus Feltrus.
Naples: Giovanni Antonio de Caneto of Pavia. Dedi- Beiträge zur Inkunabelkunde, 3rd series 1: 111–112.
cated to Bernardino Lopez de Carvajal. Veneziani, Paolo. 1982. Miscellanea Incunabulistica. La
Bibliofilia 84: 23–27.
Bianca, Concetta. 1985. D’Afeltro, Pietro. In Dizionario
biografico degli Italiani, vol. 31, 645–646. Rome:
Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
M
Mantino ben Samuel, Jacob Animals in 1521. In the same year he dedicated
his translation of the Compendium (Epitome) of
Born: Late fifteenth century Aristotle’s Metaphysics to another patron, Ercole
Died: 1549, Damascus Gonzaga, bishop of Mantua. This marks the
beginning of a lifetime devoted to the translation
Charles Burnett of Averroes (both his philosophical commentar-
The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced ies and his medical work, the Colliget) and Avi-
Study, University of London, London, UK cenna. At the time of the Fall of Rome (1527),
Mantino moved to Verona, where he continued to
be held in high esteem. The new pope, Clement
Abstract VII, consulted him concerning Henry VIII’s
appeal to Rome concerning the legality of his
Jacob Mantino was one of the most important marriage to Catherine, in which Mantino quoted
Jews in the sixteenth century who spent his life the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud to claim that
working for Christian patrons, teaching in Chris- Henry should not have divorced his queen (Katz).
tian institutions, and translating philosophical Mantino returned to Rome to be the personal
and medical texts in Latin for the advancement physician to Pope Paul III (Alessandro Farnese;
of those subjects among his Christian, Latin- 1534–1549). At the same time he played an
reading, audience. His key role was in providing important role in the Jewish community there
clear and up-to-date translations of the principal and taught at La Sapienza University. He was
Arabic/Islamic authorities on philosophy and consulted by Jews on legal matters and showed
medicine, Averroes and Avicenna. off his linguistic knowledge by deriving the
pope’s name from Etruscan, which he claimed
was the same as Syriac, in which “pharnes”
Biography means “shepherd.” In 1544 Mantino left Rome
to return to Venice. Several documents survive
Jacob Mantino’s parents originated from Tortosa which renew the permission given to him to wear
in Spain, where he himself may have been born. the black beret of the scholar rather than the
He states that he studied medicine and possibly yellow Jewish cap, although he continued to
the arts at the University of Padua. He practiced live in the Jewish ghetto there. Already when he
as a doctor in Bologna and became an intimate of was in Bologna, he had showed an interest in
Pope Leo X, to whom he dedicated a translation learning Arabic. He obtained the collaboration
of the Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s On of Leo Africanus (al-Hasan al-Wazzan) to draw
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_410-1
2 Mantino ben Samuel, Jacob
up an Arabic vocabulary for which he started to without his commentator Averroes. Hence, it was
find the equivalents in Hebrew and Latin (Davis). very necessary to present Averroes’s words cor-
In 1549 he arranged to accompany the Venetian rectly. Similarly, Avicenna was “first in renown
ambassador to Damascus, as his doctor, in pursuit among the Arabs in the art of medicine” (Mantino
of Arabic texts. But, unfortunately, he died soon did not pay attention to Avicenna’s philosophical
after he arrived. works) and, again, had to be understood cor-
In the preface to his translation of Averroes’s rectly. In turn, in a Jewish document from
Epitome on the Physics, Mantino promised Rome, Mantino is called “the prince of the phy-
Ercole Gonzaga that, when he had finished trans- sicians”, and the editor of the 1562 printing of the
lating a collection of medical works (first the Giunta edition of Aristotle-Averroes calls his
Colliget of Averroes and then the paraphrases of translation “golden” (“aurea translatio”: vol. I,
several works of Galen, made by fol. 319r). In addition to translating works by
Iohannitius – Hunayn ibn Ishaq), he would Aristotle and Averroes, he translated an ethical
“obtain all those commentaries of Averroes work by Maimonides (Eight Chapters on Ethics
which are in the Hebrew language and, with dedicated to Guido Rangoni) as well as the
God’s leadership, and your favour, translate “supercommentaries” on Averroes’s Middle
them into the Latin idiom.” His motivation for Commentaries on Aristotelian logic by Levi ben
doing this was that the earlier translations into Gerson.
Latin (usually directly from Arabic) were written
in such a barbarous style that they were impossi- Significance
ble to understand, and people blamed Averroes Unlike other Jews of the Renaissance, Mantino,
for doctrines that he did not hold. When the as far as we know, did not write works in Hebrew
Giunta brothers undertook to publish “all the for his coreligionists. His significance is that he
works of Aristotle with all the commentaries on was consulted by Christian scholars as a reposi-
those works that have come down to us” in Ven- tory of Jewish learning and as someone who
ice in 1550, they mentioned, already on the title could reveal to Latin readers the works of Ara-
page in capital letters, that “some of these bic/Islamic authorities in philosophy and medi-
<commentaries>, having never been seen by cine that had been preserved in Hebrew
the Latins before, have recently been translated translations, as well as to improve, through
by Jacob Mantino, while others have been more these same Hebrew sources, the existing Latin
clearly and faithfully translated by him than ever translations of these Arabic texts. He was held
before.” The fact that the editors could only in the greatest esteem by Christian scholars, for
include the first four books of the Middle Com- the study of Averroes in particular. His transla-
mentary on the Topics is an indication that this tions held a key position in the interpretation of
was as far as Mantino could reach before he died Averroes of the mid- to late-sixteenth century, at
in Damascus. Both Mantino and his admirers a time when Averroes’s interpretation of Aris-
emphasize the clarity of his Latin translations, totle was most in vogue.
in spite of their having been written by a Jew.
Sometimes he only translated the most important
and/or controversial parts of works, such as the Works
3rd and 56th chapter of Averroes’s commentary
on the third book of Aristotle’s On the Soul, MSS: There are no manuscripts of any works by
which propose the unity of the possible intellect, Mantino.
and the three parts (“fen”) of the Canon of Med-
icine of Avicenna that were most studied in the Printed Works
schools of medicine. Mantino regarded Aristotle Translations of Averroes (most of the following
as being indisputably the greatest philosopher but texts are included in Aristotelis Stagiritae Omnia
that it was not possible to understand Aristotle Quae extant opera. . .Averrois Cordubensis in ea
Mantino ben Samuel, Jacob 3
opera omnes qui ad nos pervenere Commentar- Translation of Avicenna:

ii. . .Quorum aliqui . . . nuper a Iacob Mantino
sunt conversi. . . Venetiis apud Iuntas, • Avicenna, Canon of Medicine, Book I, fen
1550–1552): 1, and Book IV, fen 1 (possibly also Book I,
fen 4 and other parts of the Canon), Paris,
• Paraphrase (Middle Commentary) of 1538.
Aristotle’s On the Parts of Animals (four
books) and On the Generation of Animals Translation of Maimonides:
(five books) (dedicated to Pope Leo X),
Rome, 1521. Eight Chapters on Ethics, Bologna, 1526.
• Compendium (Epitome) of the Metaphysics,
Rome, 1521; Bologna, 1523; Venice, 1542;
Venice, 1550/2
• Middle Commentaries on the Peripatetic log-
References
ical corpus: Porphyry’s Isagoge, Aristotle’s
Burnett, Charles. 2013. Revisiting the 1552–1550 and
Categories, On Interpretation, Topics (books 1562 Aristotle-Averroes Editions. In Renaissance
one to four only), and Poetics, Venice, 1550/2 Averroism and its aftermath: Arabic philosophy in
• Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics early modern Europe, eds. Anna Akasoy and Guido
Giglioni, 55–64. Dordrecht, Springer. (Mantino’s
(first three books), Venice, 1550/2
translations in the Giunta editions of Aristotle-
• Paraphrase (Middle Commentary) of Plato’s Averroes).
Republic (dedicated to Pope Paul III) Rome Davis, Natalie Zemon. 2006. Trickster travels:
1539. A sixteenth-century Muslim between worlds, 82–86.
New York, Hill and Wang. (Mantino and Leo
• Proemium to the Long Commentary on
Africanus).
Aristotle’s Physics, Venice, 1550/2 Hissette, Roland. 1990. Guillaume de Luna – Jacob
• Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s De anima, Anatoli –Jacob Mantinus. A propos du commentaire
Venice, 1550/2 moyen d’Averroès sur le “De interpretatione”. Bulletin
de Philosophie Médiévale 32: 142–158.
• Book III, chapters 5 and 36 of the Long Com-
Katz, David S. 1994. The Jews in the history of England
mentary on Aristotle’s De anima (apparently 1485–1850, 32–41. Oxford Clavendon Press.
translated from a Hebrew translation from (Mantino and Henry VIII).
Latin), Venice, 1550/2 Kaufmann, David. 1893. ‘Jacob Mantino: Une page de
l’histoire de la Renaissance’, Revue des etudes juives,
• Proemium to book 12 of Aristotle’s
26, 30–60 and 207–238. (The most comprehensive
Metaphysics study of Mantino, which includes the primary sources
• The Long Commentary to Aristotle’s Poste- for Mantino’s life, 220–238).
rior Analytics (the first 150 comments of the Steinschneider, Moritz. 1893. Die hebraeischen
Uebersetzungen des Mittelalters und die Juden als
first book), Venice, 1562.
Dolmetscher, 685. Berlin, Kommissionsveslag des
• Proemium to the Long Commentary on bibliographischen Bureaus. (Avicenna) and 976–977
Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Venice, 1550/2 (bibliography).
• Colliget, Venice, 1550/2
• Supercommentaries of Levi ben Gerson on
Averroes’s Middle Commentaries on Aristo-
telian logic, Venice, 1550/2
B
Bramhall, John Biography
Born: Pontefract, 1594 John Bramhall was born in Pontefract, south

Died: Dublin, 1663 Yorkshire, the eldest of six children. He attended
King Edward VI Grammar School until the age of
Jack Cunningham thirteen when he went up to Sidney Sussex Col-
Department of Humanities, Bishop Grosseteste lege, Cambridge. He graduated MA in 1616, the
University, Lincoln, UK same year as he was ordained a priest in the
Anglican Church. His first parish was at
Micklegate, York, in 1617, and the following
year he married Helen Collingwood who pro-
Abstract
vided with a good library.
In the archdiocese of York Bramhall’s indus-
Archbishop John Bramhall’s first significant
try soon brought him to the attention of Thomas
appointment was in 1633 when he was made
Wentworth who had been made Lord Deputy of
Bishop of Derry. Bramhall was a Laudian and in
Ireland. It was his remit to fix what was regarded
his new role he was mandated to bring the Irish
as the broken Church of Ireland, and clearly he
Church in a more Catholic direction. His efforts
saw in Bramhall a potentially able assistant. Very
to do so were interrupted by the Civil Wars.
shortly after he arrived in Ireland in 1633,
As a Royalist, he fled to the continent when
Bramhall was made Bishop of Derry, in apparent
Parliament gained the upper hand. Here, his
disregard of the fact that at 39 he was a year too
famous arguments with Thomas Hobbes took
young for the episcopate. Working closely with
place firstly at a Royalist gathering and then
Bishop William Laud, who was at this stage
Later in print. Against Hobbes’ determinism,
leader of the Church in England in all but name,
Bramhall’s thesis rested on the principle that
their mission was twofold. Firstly, they would
man is capable of choice. In addition, his positive
reform the rather Calvinist protestant ethos of
assessment of the human condition led him to
the Irish Church then under the primacy of Arch-
assume that we are capable of choosing good
bishop James Ussher. Secondly, they would
and therefore, in part at least, able to work out
restore to it its lost fortunes. In both they managed
our own salvations.
some success until the English Civil War made
martyrs of both Wentworth and Laud; Bramhall
escaped with his life but only by fleeing to
Brussels.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_414-1
2 Bramhall, John
On the continent, he formed part of a Royalist Calvinistic theology in the English Church
circle in exile which included Charles II. He regarded man as so marred by the fall of Adam
moved around a great deal including a risky that he was incapable of his own salvation. Heed-
visit to Catholic Spain. He also penned seven less of this, Laudians like Bramhall believed that
books which were largely controversies with mankind retained something of a spark of good-
either Catholics or Protestants from a more ness, a spark that eventually drew them to God.
reformed stable. His most famous exchange When he translated this into philosophical terms,
came about after an incident in 1645 at the Pari- it made him a proponent of “Libertarianism,”
sian residence of the Marquis of Newcastle where which argues that man has the freedom and abil-
Bramhall engaged in a debate on free will with ity to make real moral choices (Cunningham
Thomas Hobbes. Afterward, their arguments 2007). There is much riding on this for Bramhall
were continued in print with three books from since according to him Hobbes’ determinism
Bramhall and two from Hobbes. brings down the entire Christian edifice. If we
At the Restoration in 1660, Bramhall arrived cannot choose, we cannot help what we do and
back in England with the royal household. He in the eyes of God and mankind we can subse-
was rapidly made Archbishop of Armagh and quently be neither good nor evil.
Primate of Ireland. He continued, as much as he
was able, his previous effort to drag the Anglican
Church in Ireland in a more Catholic direction, Cross-References
but he managed only 3 years in the role. In 1663
he died after a number of strokes. ▶ James Ussher
Bramhall’s reputation as a thinker rests largely ▶ Thomas Hobbes
on his exchange with Thomas Hobbes about “lib- ▶ William Laud
erty and necessity,” a discussion that has been
characterized as the most famous of the seven-
teenth century (Chappell 1999). Bramhall’s three References
volumes, A Defence of True Liberty from Ante-
cedent and Extrinsecal Necessity (1655), The Primary Literature
Castigation of Mr. Hobbes’ Last Animadversions Hadden W.A. ed. 1842–45. John Bramhall, The whole
(1658), and The Catching of the Leviathan works, 5 vols. The Anglo Catholic Library.
(1658), set out to defend man’s ability to choose
between right and wrong. Hobbes’ Secondary Literature
counterargument maintained that humans were Chappell, V. 1999. Hobbes and Bramhall on liberty and
necessity.
compelled by a series of imperatives. As the
Cunningham, J.P. 2007. James Ussher and John
arguments progressed, they became more heated Bramhall: The theology and politics of two Irish eccle-
and have been described as going “beyond sober siastics of the seventeenth century. Aldershot.
philosophizing (Thomas 1971).” Bramhall brings McCafferty, J. 2007. The Reconstruction of the Church of
Ireland: John Bramhall and the Laudian Reforms.
to his philosophy an optimistic assessment of the
Cambridge.
human condition. His theological circle has now Thomas, K. 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic.
become known as Laudianism after the London.
abovementioned William Laud. The prevailing
B
Browne, Sir Thomas introspective life writing, medicine, and the prob-
lem of error – helped to establish the forensic
Claire Preston relation to phenomena that characterizes the
School of English and Drama, Queen Mary mid- and late-seventeenth century, especially
University of London, London, UK among practicing scientists.
Born into a comfortably secure merchant fam-
ily in London, he was educated at Winchester and
Abstract then at Oxford, where he was exposed to the rising
Thomas Browne, physician, philosophical scientific culture that prompted his interest in
prose writer, and natural philosopher of pro- medicine. After completing his M.A. there in
found and unique literary power, was highly 1629, he sought his medical training on the Con-
influential in seventeenth-century England and tinent, at Montpellier, Padua, and finally Leiden,
in the European Republic of Letters. His works where he was awarded his degree in 1633. In these
blend scientific and theological insights to very distinct medical regimes, he encountered and
meditate on the nature of religious belief, the learned medical botany and natural history, holis-
empirical pursuit of truth and the banishment tic clinical approaches and advanced anatomical
of error, the frailty of human enterprise, and the training, as well as intensely practical, profes-
marvelous richness of the natural world. His sional guidance.
writings, persistently influential in the Western Returned to England, he eventually settled in
tradition, have inspired writers as diverse as Norwich in 1637, where he remained for the next
Coleridge, Melville, Thoreau, Woolf, and half century as a practicing doctor, learned savant,
Borges. and internationally acclaimed writer. His major
works, Religio Medici (1643), Pseudodoxia
Epidemica (1646–1672), and Urne-Buriall and
Biography The Garden of Cyrus (1658), all draw on personal
experience, of religious belief and controversy, of
Thomas Browne (born London, October/ erroneous belief and empirical corrections, of
November 19, 1605 – died Norwich, October mortuary customs, and of local botany. He
19, 1682) could never be described straightfor- corresponded with some of the most celebrated
wardly as a “philosopher,” and yet his influential figures of the learned republic, who were admirers
meditative and investigative writings in an enor- of his work. In Norwich, however, although the
mous range of early-modern categories – natural city was second only to London in wealth and
philosophy and natural history, theology, population, he was remote from the convivial
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_417-1
2 Browne, Sir Thomas
intellectual communities of the metropolis: he was Innovative and Original Aspects

made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of
Physicians only in 1664 and had no formal asso- His most important philosophical work is
ciation with the Royal Society. That removal is undoubtedly Pseudodoxia Epidemica, also
fortunate for students of Browne, who thereby known as Vulgar Errors. This exceptionally suc-
have a surviving, mainly learned, correspondence cessful work, an encyclopedia of errors that he
that might have been far less voluminous had he systematically corrects – in the natural world, in
lived in close proximity to his peers. history, and in superstition – is perhaps the
clearest application of Francis Bacon’s proposed
instauration of learning, a work structured as a
series of searching questions about commonly
believed “fact.” In clearing the debris of ignorance
and misapprehension from the landscape of
Browne exemplifies a broadly bipartisan address
knowledge, Browne demonstrates not only what
to investigation during the period when the long
is to be done in each case but how to do it. This is
reign of Aristotle and the remnants of Scholastic
by no means original, for Bacon had many enthu-
philosophy were yielding to Baconian principles
siastic followers at mid-century, but it is compre-
of the reestablishment of fundamental knowledge
hensive beyond anything else produced in the
by empirical means. If the textual authorities of
period. Its most important section, moreover, is
the High Middle Ages (which was still featured in
his extended disquisition on error and misbelief:
the university curriculum) were in competition
part theological, part anthropological, and part
with the empirical practices of the anatomy the-
psychological; Book 1 of Pseudodoxia is a pow-
atre, the physic garden, the telescope, and with the
erful interrogation of our propensity to error and
developing culture of clinical observation,
most significantly our adherence to received
Browne’s writings portray both an intellectual
authority. It is not too much to claim that this
engagement with the new learning and a justifi-
discussion best summarizes the empirical tenor
able reluctance to jettison everything that had
early modernity.
come before it. Thus, he observes an unimpeach-
ably Galenic medical regime while practicing a
patient-specific bedside manner that is far more
Impact and Legacy
typical of early-modern departures from
Galenism; he is astronomically and mathemati-
Leading writers and natural philosophers of his
cally learned and is yet skeptical of heliocentrism;
own day acknowledged Browne’s ideas and
he is a powerful apologist for Anglican toleration
influence – Robert Boyle and John Evelyn were
while advocating civility to the Pope and keeping
two of his English admirers. His work, its style as
clear of English Republicanism; he investigates a
well as its subjects, has animated succeeding gen-
strange disease of children in the south of France
erations, and those who cite him with great
like an open-minded clinician and testifies in a
approval include Pepys, Johnson, Coleridge, Mel-
local witch trial with similar latitude. Nothing in
ville, Thoreau, Poe, Dickinson, Woolf, and Bor-
Browne’s writing strictly breaks with his inherited
ges. But he has suffered, at least until recently in
traditions nor does he slavishly follow them. What
the academy, as a “quaint” rather than a substan-
is striking is his consistent refusal to be governed
tive writer, notable for his bien pensées, attractive
by any but his own conclusions, which naturally
especially to the belletristic tradition of the nine-
varied between the old and the new. He is both an
teenth and early twentieth centuries. In a famously
ancient and a modern, “Janus in the field of
rebarbative (and misapprehending) essay, Stanley
knowledge.”
Fish attempted to demolish Browne in compari-
son with more meaningful work of Donne, Her-
bert, and Milton. But Browne has colluded in his
Browne, Sir Thomas 3
own demolition: too various and polymathic to fit Browne, T. 1981. In Pseudodoxia Epidemica, ed. Robin
easily into one or another thematic or generic Robbins. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Browne, T. Date unknown. Christian morals.
category; his writing is in some respects fissile,
digressive, and contingent, his style at once gor-
geous and opaque. His prose is metaphysical and Barbour, R. 2013. Sir Thomas Browne: A life. Oxford:
forensic, conceitful, and empirical, and these Oxford University Press.
qualities now interest scholarship and even lay Barbour, R., and C. Preston (eds.). 2008. Sir Thomas
readers as they have not done since Browne’s Browne: The world proposed. Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press.
own lifetime. Huntley, F.L. 1968. Sir Thomas Browne: A biographical
and critical study. Ann Arbor: Paperbacks.
Johnson, S. 1756. ‘Sir Thomas Browne’ in lives of the
poets.
References Murphy, K., and R. Todd (eds.). 2008. A man very well
studyed: Contexts for Sir Thomas Browne. Leiden:
Brill.
Primary Literature
Nathanson, L. 1967. The strategy of truth: A study of Sir
Browne, T. 1643. Religio Medici.
Thomas Browne. Chicago: University of Chicago
Browne, T. 1646–1672. Pseudodoxia Epidemica.
Press.
Browne, T. 1656. A letter to a friend.
Patrides, C.A. (ed.). 1982. Approaches to Sir Thomas
Browne, T. 1658. Hydriotaphia or Urne-Buriall and The
Browne: The Ann Arbor tercentenary lectures and
Garden of Cyrus.
essays. Columbus: University of Missouri Press.
Browne, T. 1684. Miscellany tracts.
Post, J.F.S. 1987. Sir Thomas Browne. Boston: Twayne
Browne, T. 1964a. Religio Medici and other works, ed. L.-
Publishers.
C. Martin. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Preston, C. 2005. Thomas Browne and the writing of early-
Browne, T. 1964b. The works of Sir Thomas Browne,
modern science. Cambridge: Cambridge University
4 vols, revised edition. ed. Geoffrey Keynes. Chicago:
Press.
University of Chicago Press.
F
Floyd, John Biography
Born: 14 October 1572, Cambridgeshire, Floyd received his schooling at the English col-
England leges in Reims (1588) and Rome (1590) and
joined the Society of Jesus in 1592. He began
Died: 16 September 1649, Saint Omer-France his scholarly career in Rome, instructing clergy
in philosophy and theology at the Collegio
Elizabeth Mazzola Romano. Sent on the English mission, Floyd
Department of English, The City College of New was captured when he visited a fellow Jesuit
York, City University of New York, New York, Edward Oldcorne and jailed for his alleged
NY, USA involvement in the 1605 gunpowder plot. Floyd
was imprisoned for a year and banished from
England upon his release, although he returned
Abstract to England several times and was repeatedly
arrested. Floyd taught at the English College,
John Floyd is an English Jesuit priest, militant Louvain, from 1607 to 1616, and spent the rest
defender of the faith, and Counter-Reformation of his life at the French Jesuit college of Saint-
author, also known under the pseudonyms Daniel Omer, a setting which supplied him with “conve-
ả Jesu, I. R., A.C., Fidelis Annosus, and nient access to the printing press” (Milward 2004).
Hermannus Loemelius. Although nothing is Floyd’s works are written in Latin or in an
known of his parentage, Floyd was the brother earthy vernacular and are notable for their harsh
of Henry Floyd, also a Jesuit priest. Like other wit and sometimes caustic rhetoric. His theology
Jesuits with a mandate to teach and preach, Floyd is pragmatic and polemical, its terminology both
traveled across the continent, wrote prolifically legalistic and vividly imagistic. His Apology for
on a range of subjects addressed to a wide audi- the Holy See produced in support of papal author-
ence of clerics and lay readers, and published ity incited the ire of French bishops (Basset
many works, challenging Protestant thinking 79–80), but his writings continued to receive the
and defending a Counter-Reformation papacy. support of Rome, and nearly two dozen works
Heavily influenced by scholasticism and the prac- articulate Counter-Reformation positions on
tices of medieval piety, Floyd’s writings empha- issues at the center of reformist debate, including
size church teachings alongside scripture, but priestly apostasy, the role of devotional images,
also maintain the active, visible, bodily presence the belief in Christ’s real presence in the
of God.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_418-1
2 Floyd, John
Eucharist, and the existence of purgatory biblical doctrine as well as “happy purgation
(O’Malley 84). They respond to criticisms of from heathenish superstition.” Floyd also cites
Catholic superstition, defend the prerogatives of as proof of purgatory’s existence “the miracles
papal authority, and seek to explain how the done at the Reliques & by the Intercession of
antiquity and authority of the Catholic church Martyrs.” This epistemology is influenced by
are established through the sacraments (Mazzola the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola
55, Dudley 279). English writers such as Sidney, (founder of the Jesuits), which similarly expound
Spenser, Donne, Shakespeare, and Milton were the ways devotional practices enable believers to
similarly influenced by reformation debates over “taste, smell, and feel internally” the truths of
“speaking pictures” and the efficacy of sacred doctrine.
signs. Floyd’s writings contribute to a post-
Floyd’s writings were intended for a wide Reformation Catholicism more clearly centered
readership including fellow Jesuits, Catholic in Rome and an epistemology grounded in the
clergy, and university theologians, as well as lay literalness of church teaching, the efficacy of
readers, for whom Floyd provided more popular sacred objects, and the authority of the pope.
formulations of post-Tridentine refinements of
church teachings. In The Overthrow of the Prot-
estants Pulpit-Babels (1612), Floyd proposes that References
although sacred images should not be
worshipped, there “doth redound some kind of Allison, A.F. 2003. Floyd, John. In New catholic encyclo-
pedia, 2nd ed, vol. 5. Detroit: Gale.
honour unto the very image” “represent[ing] him
Basset, Bernard. 1967. The English Jesuits, from campion
whom we worship with diuine worship, whom, to Martindale. London: Burns & Oates.
did not the image resemble, we would not wor- Dudley, Scott. 1999. Conferring with the dead: Necro-
ship before it.” Other works confront Floyd’s philia and nostalgia in the seventeenth century.
English Literary History 66(2): 277–294.
opponents more directly, such as the Latin Deus
Mazzola, Elizabeth. 1998. The pathology of the English
et Rex (1619), which parodies Floyd’s Anglican renaissance: Sacred remains and Holy Ghosts. Lei-
critics. den: Brill.
Floyd’s works affirm Catholic teachings as Milward, Peter. 2004. Floyd, John (1572–1649). In Oxford
dictionary of national biography. Oxford.
providing sure access to the sacred past and to
O’Malley, John. 1993. The First Jesuits. Cambridge: Har-
truth. In Purgatories Triumph over Hell (1613), vard UP.
Floyd links belief in purgatory with adherence to
F
Fotherby, Martin Whitgift. In 1592, Fotherby married Margaret,

the daughter of John Winter, a prebendary of
Born: c.1560, Grimsby Canterbury. He was appointed chaplain to King
Died: 11 March 1620, London James I and installed as Bishop of Salisbury in
1618, but seems to have made very little impres-
Giovanni Tarantino sion on his diocese. Fotherby died in London on
School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, 11 March 1620 and was buried 2 days later in All
University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Hallows, Lombard Street, where his brother-in-
Australia law Francis Dee was rector. Three years later, his
daughter Cecily (the third of ten children, only
five of which survived their father) married
Abstract Henry Clifford in the same church. Their first-
born son, named after his eminent forefather, was
Bishop of Salisbury from 1618, a former protégé Martin Clifford (1624–1677), who later became
of and chaplain to Archbishop John Whitgift and master of Charterhouse and wrote the deistic
also, ironically, the grandfather of the author of Treatise of Humane Reason (1674) (Tarantino
the deistic Treatise of Humane Reason (1674), 2000, pp. 15–18).
Fotherby’s intellectual legacy comprised a trea-
tise attacking atheism, published posthumously
as Atheomastix in 1622, and a collection of four Impact and Legacy
sermons, which appeared in 1608.
Fotherby’s unfinished Atheomastix: Clearing
Four Truthes, Against Atheists and Infidels: 1.
Biography That, There is a God. 2. That, There is but one
God. 3. That, Jehovah, our God, is that one God.
Martin Fotherby (c.1560–1620), Bishop of 4. That, The Holy Scripture is the Word of that
Salisbury, was born in Grimsby, the second son God, was published posthumously in 1622. In
of Martin Fotherby and his wife, Isabell. After this treatise, packed with erudite references, first
studying at Cambridge and becoming a Fellow of and foremost to classical philosophy, the bishop
Trinity, he took holy orders and was appointed declared himself to be persuaded of the universal
Archdeacon of Canterbury in 1596 and Dean in assent to the existence of God. Although
1615. He is regarded as having been a protégé of Fotherby noted that “this is the worst kinde of
Elizabeth I’s last Archbishop of Canterbury, John Atheisme of all other, when as Atheisme is
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_419-1
2 Fotherby, Martin
grounded, not so much upon Ignorance, as it is “leadeth a man to God.” It is impossible for any
upon the opinion of Knowledge” (Atheomastix, one person to have a command of all the arts
sig. B3), he seems to exclude the possibility that (“they all doe make one single Ring, in that
there might exist speculative atheists, that is, ἐgkuklopaideίa, whereof the Philosophers doe
those who believe “generally and constantly” so pleasantly dreame”), and so we rely on an
(p. 99) that there is no God and who reiterate it omniscient God to tie together the chain of
to the end, “of which sort there can be none, knowledge (Atheomastix, pp. 362, 187). Fotherby
though many have been so reputed and taken” significantly preempts the objection that in his
(p. 107). Instead, he defends the appropriateness work there is “so much Philosophie, and so little
and urgency of an offensive against “the prag- Diuinitie,” arguing that for the “adversaries”
matic atheists” of his time (“men of the sharpest against whom his book is prevalently directed,
wits, the greatest spirits, and the richest endow- the philosophy of pagans has much more impor-
ments”), explaining that by them he means only tance than the theology of Christians (sig. B4).
those who outwardly deny (“by outward profes- Ironically, some English freethinkers (aka
sion”) the existence of God and not in their hearts Fotherby’s “Naturalists”), most notably Martin
(“by inward persuasion”) and, even when they Clifford and Anthony Collins, would employ a
were inwardly persuaded, that was due only to similar – albeit reversed – rhetorical strategy in
some “sodaine and passionate eruptions.” How- their own writings, skillfully amassing textual
ever, some passages of his work reveal a certain references to unquestionably orthodox Christian
disquiet that the worm of unbelief might in truth authors in order to convey their own deistic if not
be acting on various fronts and having much more yet atheistic convictions (Tarantino 2014,
devastating and pervasive effects on his age pp. 93–94).
(cf. Berman 1988, pp. 33–34). It is quite simply
erroneous, Fotherby comments, “to thinke, that
either amongst Christians there can be no Athe-
References
ists; or, that secret Atheists are not to be con-
vinced, as well as the publique: or that the Berman, D. 1988. A History of Atheism in Britain: From
principles of Religion . . . ought not to be prooued Hobbes to Russell. London/New York/Sydney: Croom
unto those men, of whom they bee already Helm.
Fotherby, M. 1622. Atheomastix: Clearing foure Truthes,
beleeued. . . . For besides the two fore-named
Against Atheists and Infidels. London: Printed for
sorts of Atheists, the one both in word, and heart Nicholas Okes.
denying God; the other in word confessing him, Tarantino, G. 2000. Martin Clifford, 1624–1677. Deismo
but in heart renouncing him; there is yet a third e tolleranza nell’Inghilterra della Restaurazione. Flor-
ence: Olschki.
sort of them . . . who though both in word and in
Tarantino, G. 2014. Collins’s Cicero, Freethinker. In
heart they confess him, yet doe they in their Atheism and Deism Revalued: Heterodox Religious
works deny him.” As for those “acute Naturalists, Identities in Britain, 1650–1800, ed. Wayne Hudson,
who hold it a seruility to be led with brutish- Diego Lucci, and Jeffrey R. Wigelsworth, 81–99.
Farnham: Ashgate.
beleeuing, and will therefore entertain no more
of Religion then they find to be consonant unto
Reason,” they would find in his treatise, he con- Further Readings
fidently asserted, “reason for their Religion” (sig. Barbour, P.L. 1962. Captain John Smith and the Bishop of
Sarum. Huntington Library Quarterly 26(1): 11–29.
B2). Fotherby’s apologetic arguments are rather
Hunter, M. 1985. The Problem of ‘Atheism’ in Early
more original in the second book, Of the Grounds Modern England. Transactions of the Royal Historical
of Arts. Here he affirms that every art, whether Society 35: 135–157.
metaphysical or mechanical, liberal or illiberal,
U
Ussher, James groundbreaking in its attention to primary

sources and sedulous in its attention to detail.
Born: Dublin, 1581
Died: Reigate, 1656 James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of
Ireland, and scholar was born in Dublin. The
Jack Cunningham Usshers were a prominent Anglo-Irish family,
Department of Humanities, Bishop Grosseteste Protestant, and well placed; his father was one
University, Lincoln, UK of the clerks of the chancery and his uncle pre-
ceded him as Archbishop of Armagh.
Ussher entered Trinity College, Dublin in
Abstract 1594 as one of its first scholars. Trinity was,
from the outset, a decidedly Calvinist institution,
James Ussher was one of the first students at the and Ussher’s theological formation left a stamp
newly established Trinity College, Dublin. He on not only his future writings but his approach to
quickly went on to become the university’s most ecclesiastical administration. Ussher was
highly regarded graduate in the seventeenth cen- ordained in 1601 and awarded his Doctorate of
tury. An early appointment as Professor of Theo- Divinity in 1612. At this stage, he had already
logical Controversies largely set the tone for the been appointed as Professor of Theological Con-
rest of his life, which was dedicated to winning troversies. This role meant that Ussher’s initial
the denominational argument with Catholicism focus was on anti-Catholicism and his lines of
by making reference to history. As a product of attack were primarily theological and historical.
Trinity, he was a Ramist, and his encyclopedic Already the country’s most prominent Protestant
approach to writing reflected this approach. theologian, he was largely responsible for draw-
Ussher would gather sources together in order to ing up the Church of Ireland’s Articles of Faith
frame an argument, and his knowledge of ancient in 1615.
literature and languages was justly admired. In 1621, Ussher was made Bishop of Meath
Ussher is perhaps most well-known for his and he resigned his professorship. If Ussher was a
Annales veteris testamenti (1654) which rather reluctant Church leader, he was even more
contained a dating of creation at 4004 BC that indisposed to a political life. However, he did
proved resilient up until the modern era and in manage to continue his scholarly activities, and
some cases beyond. If Ussher’s reputation suffers in 1622, he published A Discourse of the religion
from this, then it is to be regretted because there is anciently professed by the Irish and British which
much historical work in Annales that is sought to establish that the Celtic Church’s
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_420-1
2 Ussher, James
practices were congruent with those of the During the Interregnum, Ussher was one of the
Reformed Churches. Ussher’s fortunes continued few bishops allowed to continue their lives
to rise and he was elevated to the See of Armagh largely unmolested. When he died in 1656, it is
in 1625. In spite of his promotion, Ussher contin- testimony to his standing among his political
ued to write, and his 1631 book on the nine- enemies that Oliver Cromwell paid for a state
century monk Gottschalk, who advocated a the- funeral (Cunningham 2007).
ology of double-predestination, was a thinly Ussher’s contemporary notoriety, for the most
veiled attack on the Arminianism that was part, rests on his dating of Creation in Annales
establishing a hold on the English Church (Ford veteris testamenti (1654). The date 23 October
2007). In 1632, he produced Sylloge veterum 4004 BC remained as a footnote to the Genesis
epistolarum Hibernicarum, an outstanding work account in Bibles for many centuries. That this
of antiquarian scholarship which brought notoriety is now almost exclusively negative is
together sources relating to the medieval Irish hardly surprising, but it is also a pity. The birth-
Church. The educational ethos of Trinity had day of the world aside, Annales represents a con-
been Ramist; this left an impression on Ussher’s siderable academic achievement demanding the
methodology which often involved him gathering ability to manage an impressive array of sources
his encyclopedic knowledge and collating it into as well as a grasp of several ancient languages. It
well-organized categories in order to establish his is worth noting that he is largely accurate in the
points. His 1639 Britannicarum ecclesiarum dating of other significant events.
antiquitates is a history of Christianity from its
arrival in Britain to the seventh century. Although
inclined to be over accepting of certain legendary Cross-References
accounts, the work has a good deal of historical
merit. Once again, Ussher’s great achievement is ▶ Arminian
editorial as he managed to marshal an impressive ▶ Calvinist
variety of material. ▶ Ramist
Though well established as a Calvinist church-
man, Ussher was also an ardent Royalist. This put
him in a rather paradoxical situation in the 1630s
References
as the two sides in the emerging civil wars can be
roughly divided into Calvinist Parliamentarians
Primary Literature
and Arminian Royalists. Something of Ussher Ussher, James. 1847–1864. The whole works, ed. C.R.
represented both sides and his tract Reduction of Elrington and J.H. Todd, 17 vols. Dublin.
Episcopacy set out a compromise solution. When
it emerged that few in England had much appetite Secondary Literature
for compromise, Ussher threw his lot in with the Cunningham, J.P. 2007. James Ussher and John
King’s cause; in 1640, he left Ireland for England, Bramhall: The theology and politics of two Irish eccle-
siastics of the seventeenth Century. Aldershot.
never to return (Cunningham 2007). In England,
Ford, A. 2007. James Ussher: Theology, history and
Ussher was made Bishop of Carlisle and he con- politics in early-modern Ireland and England. Oxford.
tinued his role as mediator between the warring Snoddy, R. 2014. The Soteriology of James Ussher. Oxford.
factions.
V
Virgil (in the Renaissance) compendious learning in Macrobius’ Saturnalia),

and this tendency continued through the Middle
Born: 70 BCE Ages and into the early modern period. In his
Died: 19 BCE treatise on the study of literature, Leonardo
Bruni quotes Virgil’s lines on the inner spirit
L. B. T. Houghton pervading all things from the speech of Anchises
Department of Classics, University of Reading, in the underworld in the sixth book of the Aeneid,
Reading, UK before going on to ask, “When we read these
things, what philosopher do we not hold cheap?
Who has ever spoken of the nature of the soul
Abstract with such clarity and knowledge?” (De studiis et
litteris 22). Cristoforo Landino, who also wrote a
The Roman poet Virgil played an important part commentary on the Aeneid, devoted the third and
in the thought and writings of Renaissance phi- fourth books of his Disputationes Camaldulenses
losophers, largely as a result of the enduring place to a Platonizing exegesis of the poem, the alle-
held by his poetry in Renaissance education and gorical thrust of which bears some similarities to
the long tradition of philosophical interpretations the readings of Virgil’s epic expounded in earlier
of Virgil’s works. centuries by (pseudo-) Bernardus Silvestris and
others (Kallendorf 1989, 129–165).
The poetry of Virgil occupied a central position The Aeneid, in particular, was often seen as
in educational curricula throughout the period of providing not only a model of literary eloquence
the Renaissance. Language and imagery from the but also a guide to moral and virtuous behavior
works of the Roman poet consequently perme- (Kallendorf 1989). Petrarch, who in one of his
ated almost every aspect of Renaissance culture, later letters (Seniles 4.5) advanced an elaborate
and philosophy was no exception (Zabughin moralizing interpretation of the narrative of the
1921–1923; Basewell 1995; Wilson-Okamura poem, asserted that in his presentation of the
2010; Usher and Fernbach 2012; Hardie 2014; figure of Aeneas, Virgil had intended to offer
Houghton and Sgarbi; Forthcoming). From late his readers a portrait of the perfect man (vir
antiquity, Virgil’s poems had been regarded as a perfectus). Likewise, Landino maintained in a
repository of philosophy and other wisdom (see lecture delivered in Florence in the 1460s that
especially the late antique commentary of the poet’s aim had been “to encourage us not
Servius, Fulgentius’ Expositio Virgilianae only to good speaking but to upright living, that
continentiae, and the disquisitions on Virgil’s he might advise the human race as best he could”
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_423-1
2 Virgil (in the Renaissance)
Nor was the poet’s sphere of authority limited to fourth eclogue, with its predictions of the return
matters of individual morality; in the city-states of the Virgin, the birth of a divine child who will
of Renaissance Italy, Virgil was also enrolled restore the Golden Age, and peace and abundance
among the champions of civic and constitutional in the natural world (expressed in terms reminis-
values, his famous words on the mission of Rome cent of the prophecies of Isaiah) as a conscious or
to spare the conquered and war down the proud unconscious anticipation of the birth of Christ
from Aeneid 6.853 appearing beneath the person- (Ziolkowski and Putnam 2008, 487–503).
ification of Magnanimity in Taddeo di Bartolo’s Famously affirmed by Dante’s Statius
frescoes in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena. Virgil (Purgatorio 22.64-73), this conception finds
himself is depicted as one of a series of famous expression in the works of Coluccio Salutati,
men from antiquity, scripture, and mythology in a Leonardo Bruni, and Antonio Mancinelli,
series of fifteenth-century frescoes in the Palazzo among others.
Comunale of the small Tuscan commune of
Lucignano, displaying on the pages of his book
the same passage from Aeneid 6, with the word References
Romane (Roman) altered, consciously or other-
wise, to ratione (by reason) – a significant mod- Baswell, C. 1995. Virgil in medieval England: Figuring
the Aeneid from the twelfth century to Chaucer. Cam-
ification, in view of the importance of “ragione”
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
(reason) in late medieval Italian civic discourse. Hardie, P. 2014. The last Trojan Hero: A cultural history
Craig Kallendorf has demonstrated how Virgil’s of Virgil’s Aeneid. London/New York: I. B. Tauris.
works were later used to reinforce the distinctive Houghton, L.B.T., and Sgarbi, M. (eds.) (forthcoming
2016) Virgil and renaissance culture. Tempe: Arizona
emphases of the “Myth of Venice,” promoting
Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
civic cohesion and suppressing possible sources Kallendorf, C. 1989. In praise of Aeneas: Virgil and
of challenge and dissent (Kallendorf 1999). epideictic rhetoric in the early Italian renaissance.
Various attempts were made to accommodate Hanover/London: University Press of New England.
Kallendorf, C. 1999. Virgil and the myth of Venice: Books
Virgil’s poetry within formal philosophical sys-
and readers in the Italian renaissance. Oxford: Oxford
tems. The adoption of the classical author as a University Press.
forerunner and figurehead by Landino (for whom Usher, P.J., and I. Fernbach (eds.). 2012. Virgilian identi-
Virgil was “altogether a Platonist”) and other ties in the French renaissance. Cambridge:
D. S. Brewer.
exponents of Neoplatonism has already been
Wilson-Okamura, D.S. 2010. Virgil in the renaissance.
noted; the Ferrarese scholar Nascimbene Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nascimbeni set out to produce a commentary on Zabughin, V. 1921–1923. Vergilio nel rinascimento
the first six books of the Aeneid “according to the italiano, da Dante a Torquato Tasso, 2 vols.
Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli; reprinted Trento: Editrice
thought of Aristotle and Plato” (Zabughin
Università degli Studi di Trento, 2000.
1921–1923, 2:79–81). The Roman poet was also Ziolkowski, J.M., and M.C.J. Putnam (eds.). 2008. The
widely revered as a conduit of theological truths, Virgilian tradition: The first fifteen hundred years.
mainly thanks to the long tradition of seeing his New Haven/London: Yale University Press.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_451-1
Chelčický, Petr
Born: 1380
Died: 1460
Jan Čížek*
Faculty of Arts, Centre for Renaissance Texts, Department of Philosophy, Palacký University Olomouc, Olomouc,
Czech Republic
Abstract
Petr Chelčický was a Czech medieval thinker who became famous primarily due to his rejection of
all physical forms of violence and also his criticism of the contemporary society and most
importantly its division into three states.
Biography
Until recently, historians considered the date of birth of Petr Chelčický to be approximately around
1390. Currently, researchers are coming to the opinion that this Czech philosopher and theologian
probably more likely was born around 1380. We are able to reconstruct the biography of Chelčický
only partially. The most certain chronology can be gathered from his treatises, some of which can be
reliably dated. Furthermore, we have at our disposal a few allusions to Chelčický’s character, which
were written by his contemporaries in their works. Finally, we do not even have reliable information
about Chelčický’s death. Another item of significance is the hypothesis which states that the name
Petr Chelčický is only a pseudonym of the Czech yeoman Petr Záhorka from Záhorčí (near
Strakonice in Bohemia, now Czech Republic). It can be said with a high degree of probability that
Chelčický was a layman, a member of the lower aristocracy, and according to what we know did not
attend university (evidence of this is his limited knowledge of Latin).

The most significant feature of the considerably original teaching of Petr Chelčický was his almost
unconditional rejection of all forms of violence. This question is addressed in his first (preserved) writings,
O boji duchovnı́m (On Spiritual Warfare). In his argumentation, he relies primarily on theological
reasoning. He cites, first of all, the Commandments, and then various passages of the New Testament.
Chelčický is also well known for his criticism of the contemporary society. In his contemplations,
he proceeds as a matter of principle from comparing the current state of society with the state
demanded by the New Testament. In his writings O trojı́m lidu řeč (On the Triple Division of Society)
and O cı́rkvi svaté (On the Holy Church), he arrives at the very harsh criticism of the power and
property conditions prevailing in society at that time. The most space in his critical contemplations is
focused on his rejection of the worldly powers of the church. A result of his criticism is finally a
*Email: hon.cizek@gmail.com
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radical attack on the division of society into three states. Chelčický rejects the idea that one fights, the
second prays, and the third works. God, according to Chelčický, did not form a king, a magistrate, a
town councilor, or a judge and executioner.
Impact and Legacy

Even though Petr Chelčický was not the founder of the new Czech church, the Unity of the Brethren,
he is historically considered to be its spiritual father. It was under the influence of his treatises that the
new religious groupings in the years 1467 and 1468 were founded by Řehoř Krajčí (died 1474).
Historically, the possible influence of Chelčický can be seen on the later irenicism of Jan Amos
Komenský (Comenius; 1592–1670). Regarding this matter, it is obviously necessary to remember
the different roots of the attitudes of Chelčický and Komenský and stress that Komenský in his
rejection of violence arrived at this through his own and original journey.
The legacy of Petr Chelčický had a great influence among others on L. N. Tolstoy and his attitude
to faith and his rejection of all forms of violence.
References
Primary Literature
Chelčický P (1966) O boji duchovním (On spiritual warfare). In: Petrů E (ed) Drobné spisy (Small
writings). Prague, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
Chelčický P (1940a) Traktáty Petra Chelčického. O církvi svaté (On the holy church). In: Holinka
R (ed). Prague, Melantrich
Chelčický P (1940b) O trojím lidu řeč (On the triple division of society). In: Holinka R (ed). Prague
Chelčický P (1900–1903) Postilla. In: Smetánka E (ed). Prague, Comenium
Chelčický P (2012) Sieť viery pravé (The net of true faith). In: Smetánka E (ed). Prague, Historický
ústav AV ČR
Bartoš FM (1958) Petr Chelčický, duchovní otec Jednoty Bratrské. Prague, Edice Kalich
Boubín J (2005) Petr Chelčický. Myslitel a reformátor. Prague, Vyšehrad
Čížek J (2011) The teachings of Petr Chelčický and its reception in the tradition of the Czech
philosophical thought. Czech Slovak J Humanit Philos 1:49–59
Goll J (1916) Chelčický a Jednota v XV. století. Prague, Klementinum
Goll J (1882) Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Böhmischen Br€ uder. II.: Peter
Chelčický und seine Lehre. Prague, J. Otto
Halama J (2003) Sociální učení Českých bratří 1464–1618. Brno, Centrum pro studium demokracie
a kultury
M€uller JT (1923) Dějiny Jednoty bratrské I. Prague, Jednota bratrská
Navrátil FO (1929) Petr Chelčický: národohospodářsky sociologický rozbor náboženské osobnosti.
Kdyně, Okresní osvětový sbor
Petrů E (1957) Soupis díla Petra Chelčického a literatury o něm. Prague, Státní pedagogické
nakladatelství
Říčan R (1957) Dějiny Jednoty bratrské. Prague, Kalich
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Vossius, Gerardus Joannes

Born: Spring 1577, Heidelberg
Died: 17 March 1649, Amsterdam
Jan Bloemendala* and Henk J. M. Nellenb

a
Huygens Institute Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Hague, The Netherlands
b
Huygens Institute and Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, The Netherlands
Abstract
Gerardus Joannes Vossius (1577–1649), a professor at Leiden University and the Athenaeum illustre
in Amsterdam, was a philosopher in a limited sense only: he was a polymath who wrote about
history, poetry, culture, theology, and philosophy in a very systematic, encyclopedic, and eclectic
way. As such, he was not so much an original thinker as an author who made topics easily accessible
for fellow scholars, students, and well-educated patricians and merchants. Vossius made an impor-
tant contribution to philosophy, by publishing his De theologia gentili sive Physiologia christiana
(1642), a much acclaimed introduction to the natural knowledge of God.
Biography
In the early spring of 1577, Gerardus Joannes Vossius was born in Heidelberg as the son of a
merchant-preacher. In 1583, the family settled in Dordrecht, where both his parents died. Vossius
stayed in Dordrecht and attended the Latin school. At the age of 18, he was granted a scholarship that
enabled him to study artes and theology at the Leiden University (he matriculated on 21 September
1595 and obtained his MA on 13 March 1598). First he served as a teacher and rector at his former
school in Dordrecht, but in 1615, he was nominated regent of the Leiden “States College,” the
academic institute where future ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church received their theological
training. In 1619, the quarrels on predestination and grace that shook the foundations of the Dutch
Republic came to an end. Vossius was dismissed on the grounds that he was a “modern” theologian
who advocated the “Arminian,” i.e., Remonstrant theology. The scholar’s stance in this opaque
controversy is not easy to fathom. Although he pictured himself in a letter to Franciscus Gomarus as
a rather unflagging orthodox believer who managed to keep his distance from innovative Arminian
theology, he actually endorsed a view on grace and free will that, to say the least, positioned him as
an outsider in the Contra-Remonstrant camp. Just like his friend Hugo Grotius, Vossius refused to
wholeheartedly endorse harsh Contra-Remonstrant views, which he saw as a one-sided interpreta-
tion of the authoritative Church Father Augustine, who in his anti-Pelagian polemics had bequeathed
a legacy to the Church which had caused much internal strife throughout the centuries. Nonetheless,
in 1622, Vossius overcame all difficulties by gaining a professorship in eloquence at Leiden
University. His task was to teach Latin language and literature, and world history. In 1631, he
moved to the newly created Athenaeum Illustre in Amsterdam, after attempts to offer him a
professorship in Cambridge had come to nothing. As the first rector of the Athenaeum, he taught
history and political science. With his colleague Caspar Barlaeus (1584–1648), who took care of the
*Email: jan.bloemendal@huygens.knaw.nl
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courses in philosophy and rhetoric, he maintained a lifelong friendship. It was during the Amsterdam
period that he wrote and published most of his works, which cover a broad spectrum of disparate
disciplines: history, rhetoric, linguistics, and literary, cultural, religious, and philosophical subjects.
In the international world of scholarship, he distinguished himself as a prolific letter writer. His vast
correspondence encompasses 3,388 letters, 1,296 of them written by Vossius himself and 2,092
addressed to him. He married twice, in 1602 with Elisabeth van den Corput, daughter of a minister,
and after her death with Elisabeth du Jon, daughter of Franciscus Junius (Sr.). Of his ten children,
only Isaac Vossius (1618–1689) would survive him. His brother-in-law was the philologist, theo-
logian, and writer on art Franciscus Junius Jr. (1591–1677); they worked together on books of art
theory. On 17 March 1649, Vossius died of an erysipelas infection that had forced him to stay in bed
for 5 days. Quite symbolically, another story claims that the scholar met his fate when he climbed an
unstable ladder, reaching for a book on the upper shelves of his library, and had some hefty folio
volumes come down on him.
Introduction
At first sight, it seems strange to rank Vossius among the philosophers of the seventeenth century, for
he hardly wrote on philosophy or philosophical topics in the modern sense of the word, and his few
works on the subject were certainly not original. However, as an author of systematically ordered
surveys and reference works, he elaborated on many subjects regarding poetry, culture, theology,
and philosophy. He often wrote about the “character” and “arrangement” of the subjects he treated,
terms that are used in the title of some of his works, for example, De artis poeticae natura ac
constitutione (1647). As such, he was not so much an original thinker, let alone an innovator, but
rather an industrious polymath, who systematically applied traditional distinctions, divisions, and
arrangements to the subjects he discussed, in an attempt to create a didactically sound program of
learning. He unfolded a topic by dividing it into subtopics, dealt with its history, listed its main
representatives, and went into many aspects related to it. Thus he tried to make the topics accessible
for scholars, teachers, and students in an “encyclopedic” way. “Encyclopedic” has to be understood
in two senses here: knowledge was analyzed and presented in an array of items as a (modern)
encyclopedia does, treating all relevant details related to a particular subject, and it was synthesized
as a part of the “entire circle of learning and education” as in the original meaning of the Greek
“ἐgku´ klioB paideίa.” Thus Vossius’s books, which together form the ideal curriculum of universal
humanist learning, amply contributed to the erudition and conversational skills of the Dutch
patricians, notably the elite of officeholders and merchants in a metropolis like Amsterdam, where
Vossius concluded his impressive career. Not long after that, at the end of the seventeenth century,
the wish to encompass all human knowledge in a more or less coherent frame lost its appeal. Trying
to assess Vossius’s work as a historiographer, Wickenden reached the verdict that he was “not a fount
of inspiration, but a quarry of materials.”
Beyond any doubt, Vossius made an important, albeit indirect, contribution to philosophy, by
publishing his De theologia gentili sive Physiologia christiana (1642). In this work, he not only
traced the origins of pagan mythology and cults, including those of the Far East and the newly
discovered Americas, but he also delivered a detailed description of the natural world, God’s
creation, and thus composed an introduction to the natural knowledge of God. In the mythographical
part, Vossius tied pagan deities to Biblical figures and historical heroes and explained supernatural
phenomena in a rational way. His approach was purely literary: as in other works, he relied on
previous authoritative works.
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Vossius wrote three books on philosophy proper: the theses he defended for his academic
promotion in 1598 (Universalis philosophiae a᾿ krotZriάsmoB), briefly treating grammar, rhetoric,
poetics, logic, metaphysics, physics, astronomy, and ethics, the posthumously published De
philosophia et philosophorum sectis (1657), which discusses the philosophic currents and schools
in antiquity, giving their main characteristics, and De logica (1658).
In De artium et scientiarum natura ac constitutione libri quinque (first published in 1697 in the
Opera omnia), Vossius draws up an overview of humanistic knowledge. In this work, he takes logic
not as a part of philosophy, but as an essential instrument for a philosopher. He defines philosophy in
the medieval tradition as “knowledge of all things through causes, as far as a man can understand
them by the light of nature” (cf. the scholastic definition: “philosophy is the science of all things
through the highest causes, obtained by natural reason”). The work contains a summary of
Aristotle’s works about logic. Vossius’s practical attitude is demonstrated by his division of
philosophy into “philosophia naturalis” (including “prima philosophia” and metaphysics), leading
to “sapientia,” and “philosophia activa” (including ethics, politics, and eloquence) that should lead
to “prudentia.”
Heritage, Innovative Aspects, and Legacy

That Vossius does not rank as an innovative philosopher also comes to the fore in many of his works
on other subjects where he upheld the preponderance of Aristotelian thought in the academic
curriculum. In this respect, however, he was not very rigorous. His main goal was to collect all
human knowledge and divide it into clear-cut pieces. In his opinion, knowledge should be assembled
and conveyed in a coherent and clear way, by means of ramification and eclectic procedures, in
accordance with his concept of philosophy as knowledge by understanding the causes of phenom-
ena. As an omnivorous reader, Vossius also stressed the paramount importance of a critical approach
to the written sources. In his view of history, he was certainly original, stressing the use of
historiography as an independent discipline that should also serve as the basis of other disciplines
of knowledge and science. The historian should first of all aim at a thorough knowledge of those
facts that were useful for a comfortable and happy life. Furthermore, historical knowledge helped to
understand the true character of the outside world and was – as a consequence – an auxiliary tool for
philosophical understanding. But historical facts must be collected not only for their practical
relevance or the insight they provide into natural phenomena but also for their use in ethics: history
served as an arsenal for ethical rules. Historical research, therefore, should be accompanied with
philosophical reflection.
Vossius applied the same approach to poetics: a literary genre can only be understood by delving
into its origin and by dissecting it into several parts and aspects. In this way, Vossius distinguished
himself as a predecessor of German positivism that equally claimed that insight in a phenomenon’s
causes implied understanding it. For Vossius, the ethical aspect was highly important in all spheres
of knowledge, including those of poetics, music, and painting. Works of literature and of art should
inspire high moral standards, instead of corroding them. He developed his views on this particular
topic in his rhetorical works, where he expressly stated that the virtuous impression one makes on
one’s audience is of paramount importance. Understandably enough, most of his work has to do with
ethics as the preeminent branch of philosophy. Furthermore, it is important to note that in all of his
works, Vossius comes to the fore as an eclecticist, assembling knowledge from everywhere to an
encyclopedic whole. In chapter V “De graphice” of his De quatuor artibus popularibus (1650), for
instance, he founds the theoretical section about “the nature and constitution” of painting on ancient
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authorities such as Aristotle, Philostratus, Horace, Pliny, and Philo and on “topoi specific to the
history of painting and art theory,” as Colette Nativel has shown. His division of the popular arts is
based on categories taken from Aristotle’s Politica, whereas in De philosophia, many human
activities, including painting, physics, and medicine, are explained as philosophical arts.
Vossius’s significance for philosophy can be illustrated by his De theologia gentili, because it
informed the later discussion on natural religion and Deism to a large extent. Vossius’s legacy,
however, is not easy to assess, because as a polymath, he stuffed his books with observations that
others had already made before him; this encyclopedic way of collecting information served the goal
of “Bildung” (education) and helped to understand the world. In this way, his oeuvre marks the end
of Renaissance thought. Paul Sellin dubbed his introduction to the art of poetry, the Poeticae
institutiones (1647), “the last of the Renaissance monsters.” Vossius wholeheartedly endorsed the
idea that it was within everybody’s reach to “learn” to write poetry or to produce a painting. This
rather formal, mechanical conception of art was at first acclaimed by contemporaries. Later on, it
also exerted great influence, for instance, on French dramatic theory, but around 1800, it was
superseded by Romantic ideas on “divine” inspiration. Hence the Romantic poet Samuel Taylor
Coleridge found his poetics “thoroughly worthless.” But it seems rather unfair to conclude in such a
negative vein. In the international scholarly world of the Late Renaissance, Vossius continued to
exert a thorough influence that stretched well into the eighteenth century. His later fame was greatly
stimulated by the careful way in which the eminent printing firm Blaeu in Amsterdam published
many of his works, especially the Opera omnia.
References
Primary Literature
Vossius GJ (1606) Oratoriarum institutionum libri sex. Andreas Cloucquius, Leiden
Vossius GJ (1621) De rhetorices natura ac constitutione et antiquis rhetoribus, sophistis ac oratoribus
liber. Joannes Maire, Leiden
Vossius GJ (1623) Ars historica, sive de historiae et historices natura historiaeque scribendae
praeceptis commentatio. Joannes Maire, Leiden
Vossius GJ (1623) De historicis Graecis libri quatuor. Joannes Maire, Leiden
Vossius GJ (1627) De historicis Latinis libri tres. Joannes Maire, Leiden
Vossius GJ (1635) De arte grammatica libri septem (= Aristarchus). Blaeu, Amsterdam
Vossius GJ (1657) De philosophorum sectis liber. Adriaen Vlacq, The Hague
Vossius GJ (1658) De logices et rhetoricae natura et constitutione libri duo. Adriaen Vlacq, The
Hague
Vossius GJ (1658) De philosophia et philosophorum sectis libri duo. Adriaen Vlacq, The Hague
Vossius GJ (1695–1701) Opera in sex tomos divisa. Blaeu, Amsterdam
Vossius GJ (1641) De theologia gentili et physiologia Christiana, sive de origine ac progressu
idololatriae, deque naturae mirandis quibus homo adducitur ad Deum, libri quatuor. Blaeu,
Amsterdam. Reprint New York, 1976
Vossius GJ, Bloemendal J (ed) (2010) Poeticarum institutionum libri tres/Institutes of poetics in
three books. Brill, Leiden/Boston
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soutenue à l’université de Leyde le 23 février 1598: Thèses et défense. Brill, Leiden
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Genua, Marco Antonio

Born: 1491
Died: 1563
Leen Spruit*
Center for the History of Philosophy and Science, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Abstract
Marco Antonio Genua (1491–1563), an Italian philosopher, studied arts and philosophy in Padua,
where he taught philosophy from 1517 till his death in 1563; in his commentary on Aristotle’s De
Anima, he sought to harmonize Simplicius’ psychology with central insights of Averroes’ noetics; he
left manuscript commentaries on De Anima, Physica, De Caelo, and De Generatione et Corruptione
as well as a Disputatio de Intellectus Humani Immortalitate (1565).
Marco Antonio Genua was born in 1491 in Padua from the noble family de’ Passeri who, having
held positions of great prestige in Mantova and Modena, was forced to take refuge in Genoa. They
finally settled in Padua. After the stay in Genoa, the family changed also the surname adding
“Genua” to the original. Son of Nicholas, a physician, philosopher, and professor of medicine at the
University of Padua, Marco Antonio graduated in arts and medicine in 1511/1512 and began his
career in 1517, holding the second chair of extraordinary philosophy. In 1518 he became the first
professor of extraordinary philosophy, in 1523 he occupied the second ordinary chair of philosophy,
and in 1525 he found himself to be a competitor of Marco Antonio Zimara. In 1531 he left this chair
to pass to the first chair which he occupied until his death. His education in liberal arts allowed him to
deepen the study of the Greek commentators, especially Simplicius. Among his students are eminent
names like Jacopo Zabarella, Bernardino Tomitano, Agostino Valier, and Giovanni Fasolo who
translated the commentary of Simplicius in Latin in order to allow for a wider spread. Genua died in
Padua in 1563. His production is limited in print, amounting mainly to De vita tranquilla (1545),
reports from his university lectures on the De Anima (published in Aristotle 1574), his commentary
on the De Anima (1576), and Nauicula Petri opusculum principibus, baronibus, pauperibus,
alijsque Christi fidelibus apprime vtile (1624). The handwritten production consists of commentar-
ies to the texts of De Anima, Physica, De Caelo, and De Generatione et Corruptione, for the most
part preserved in the Ambrosian Library and the Vatican Library.
In the Disputatio de Intellectus Humani Immortalitate (1565), Genua presented a detailed rebuttal
of the views of Pomponazzi, Alexander of Aphrodisias, and John Duns Scotus. Genua argued for an
“analogical” definition of the human soul, drawing an “essential” distinction between the intellect
and the senses, viewed as different species. That the intellect is able to know abstract entities, itself,
and the separate substances, definitely proofs its immateriality and by consequence its immortality
(Disputatio, pp. 48–53).
In his commentary on De Anima (posthumously published in 1576), Genua sought to harmonize
Simplicius’ interpretation of Aristotle’s De Anima with central insights of Averroes’ psychology.
*Email: leendert.spruit@fastwebnet.it
Page 1 of 4
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_453-1
Genua based himself on the Simplician theses that the essence and cognitive activity of the rational
soul should be analyzed in terms of the relation between the separate intellects and sensible reality,
and the substance of the soul is essentially one and many (In de anima, fol. 23vb). From Averroes he
took over the view that the specific nature of man depends on the “cogitativa” (In de anima, 37ra-va;
cf. 139va). The soul, which informs the body, uses this as an organ. Elsewhere, he argued that man
knows through the intellectual soul, but he excluded that the (unique) intellect endows man with his
specific being (In de anima, fol. 132vb). Thus, Genua wanted to bring together Simplicius’ view of a
dynamic rational soul and Averroes’ notion of a unique intellect.
Using the terminology developed by Simplicius, Genua referred to the active and potential
intellect as “intellectus perfectus” or “manens” and “intellectus progressus,” respectively (In de
anima, 146rb, 152vb, and 157vb). Descending toward the “secundae vitae,” the unique intellect
undergoes essential change (In de anima, fol. 127ra). Genua observed that Simplicius’ noetic
terminology should be preferred to the traditional denominations of agent and possible intellect.
Following Simplicius, the “intellectus progressus” was said to have two states, one potential and the
other in act (In de anima, 157vb). Elsewhere, Genua integrated this dynamical view of the intellect
with a somewhat more traditional classification of the cognitive faculties.
Like Averroes, Genua believed that the cognitive act depends on the body as its conditio sine qua
non. The intellectual soul is not the form of the body, however, but the formal principle by virtue of
which man has knowledge (In de anima, 132vb and 138rb). In this construction the intellect needs
phantasms for its acts (In de anima, 135ra). From Simplicius Genua took over the view that the
intellect is not completely passive or potential, as appears from the platonizing definition Genua
gave of the Aristotelian “pati.” Intellectual knowledge does not depend on incoming forms or
representations. Indeed, the description of the intellectual soul as a “locus formarum” holds only for
contents “a se ipsa fluxa,” since the idea that intelligibles may penetrate the soul from without
involves a contradiction (In de anima, 127vb). However, by claiming that the “intellectus
progressus” as such is dependent on phantasms, Genua expressly departed from Simplicius, who
restricted this dependence to the practical intellect.
Genua thought that the rational soul is moved by the “intentiones imaginatae” (In de anima,
130ra), but he rejected the idea that sensory representational devices may determine the contents of
intellectual cognition. When the phantasy forms the phantasm of a stone, for example, this is at best
an occasion for the agent intellect to provide the possible intellect with a “species lapidis,” produced
by virtue of one of its own ideas (In de anima, 145vb-146ra).
On the basis of a detailed analysis of the concept of illumination in Latin, Arab, and Greek
commentators, Genua concluded that an intellectual apprehension of natural reality does not
presuppose that the (agent) intellect endows sensory representations with a capacity to move the
(possible) intellect; it only means that the intellect projects itself onto the material world (In de
anima, 155rb). Both nature and scope of human cognition are dominated by the agent intellect,
which perfects the progressing intellect by virtue of its forms or species, the mental presence of
which is compared to that of images in a mirror (In de anima, 144vb). The sensory images are just
occasional causes for the acquisition of knowledge (In de anima, 155rb). Hence, the intellect does
not receive anything from the phantasms, nor does it endow them with a special capacity.
Genua developed an innovative view of mental representation which anticipates later
occasionalist and innatistic accounts of the acquisition of knowledge. In his cognitive psychology,
the intelligible species served as the basis for the connection between the human soul and the
separate intellect, as well as for our knowledge of the sensible world. Genua rejected the traditional
view of the species as accidental representations originating from perceptual capacities. Since only
innate contents (which may be characterized as species, notions, or ideas) ensure intellectual
Page 2 of 4
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_453-1
knowledge of material reality, self-knowledge is the source of all empirical knowledge. The role of
the phantasms in cognition is nonetheless crucial. The mind needs to be incited to generate actual
cognitive representations of material reality; moreover, there is no such thing as an intellectual
memory. In sum, then, mental acts consist in the mind’s projecting itself onto sensible reality.
In a continuous polemic with Agostino Nifo and Pietro Pomponazzi, Genua argued that psychol-
ogy neither belongs to metaphysics nor to natural philosophy and is a scientia media in the strict
sense of the word, for which he uses the term scientia animastica (In de anima, f. 4va). On the one
hand, the psychologist is supposed to study the intellectual soul from a natural point of view, insofar
as it depends on sensory images. On the other hand, his job is to study the active intellect from a
transcendental point of view, as a subsisting and immaterial intelligence (In de anima, f. 5rb). Genua
attempted to give psychology an independent, intermediary status, but he did not succeed in
safeguarding the unity of the scientia animastica (Bakker 2007).
Marc Antonio Genua took a special place in the Aristotelian psychological tradition, a position we
may call sense-dependent nativism: cognitive acts express innate contents, but they occur only when
triggered by sensory representations. The human mind grasps material reality by means of repre-
sentations; these representations are already present potentially, but they require corresponding
phantasms to be actualized. This idea of the human mind as “applying itself” to the capacities of the
body will return, in a different context, in Descartes’ psychology of cognition (Spruit 1999).
Cross-References
▶ Aristotelianism
References
Primary Literature
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integritati restituta. His accessit eorundem librorum noua tralatio (. . .) Michaele Sophiano
interprete. Adiecimus etiam Marci Antonii Passeri Ianuae disputationem ex eius lectionibus
excerptam. Venetiis, apud Iuntas
Genua de’ Passeri MA (1545) Della vita tranquilla. In: Brevio G (ed) Rime e prose volgari. Per
Antonio Blado Asolano, Roma
Genua de’ Passeri MA (1565) Disputatio de intellectus humani immortalitate, ex dissertationibus
Marci Antonii Genuae Patauini peripatetici insignis. In: Monte Regali, excudebat Leonardus
Torrentinus
Genua de’ Passeri MA (1576) In tres libros Aristotelis de anima exactissimi commentarij: Iacobi
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alijsque Christi fidelibus apprime vtile. In quo de varijs operibus charitatis, ac de populorum
regimine late discutitur. Authore Marco Antonio Genuense Neapolitano V. I. episcopo Iserniensi.
Neapoli, ex typographia Constantinij Vitalis
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Bakker P (2007) Natural philosophy, metaphysics, or something in between? Agostino Nifo, Pietro
Pomponazzi, and Marcantonio Genua on the nature and place of the science of the soul. In:
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del secolo XVI. In: Saggi sull’aristotelismo padovano dal secolo XIV al XVI. Firenze,
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Paladini A (2006) La scienza animastica di Marco Antonio Genua. Congedo Editore, Lecce (with
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de’ Passeri detto il Genua. In: Studi e ricerche sul neoplatonismo. Guida Editori, Napoli, pp 89–96
Spruit L (1999) Applicatio mentis. Descartes’ philosophy of mind and Renaissance noetics. In: Faye
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1996, Paris, pp 271–291
Page 4 of 4
A
Alumbrados justification, be considered to be part of the gath-

ering momentum towards reformation of Roman
Jean Andrews Catholic practices that crystallized in the one-time
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK Augustinian, Martin Luther’s public declaration
of his 95 Theses in 1517.
Abstract
Keywords
The term alumbrados was applied by the Inquisi-
tion or Holy Office in Spain to denote a group of Alumbrados; Alumbradismo; Dejados
devout people who developed a new form of
devotional practice in the province of Guadala-
jara, to the west of Madrid, at the beginning of the Article
sixteenth century. The name alumbrado comes
from the verb alumbrar, to light up. The implica- From about 1512, in Guadalajara province in
tion is that those who consider themselves Spain, worshippers who became known as the
alumbrado are lit up from within by their sense alumbrados began to come together informally
of spiritual intimacy with God. It was first invoked to develop new devotional practices, much of
in an Edict of Faith proclaimed in Toledo on this in response to the mood for reform latent in
23 September 1525 in response to the identifica- the Catholic Church in the early sixteenth century.
tion by the Holy Office of heresy among the Most of the participants were conversos or New
Guadalajara worshippers, though they themselves Christians, that is, those who had converted from
would neither have used nor recognized the term Judaism prior to or in the wake of the Catholic
alumbrado. The Edict of Faith listed the heretical Kings’ edict of 1492 ordering Jews to leave Spain
practices associated with the so-called or convert to Catholicism. One of the reasons they
alumbrados and called for evidence and denunci- may have resorted to establishing their own man-
ations. The word, and the related term ner of intense devotional practice is that there
alumbradismo, would subsequently be used for were strict limits on the number of New Christians
almost two centuries within Roman Catholicism accepted into the major religious orders. Statutes
in Spain to describe groups of people suspected of were issued by the Spanish-founded
engaging in a wide variety of heretical activities. Hieronymites in 1486, the Dominicans in 1496
Most of these had very little in common with the and 1531, and the Franciscans in 1525 limiting
Guadalajara movement which can, with numbers. A century later, the most significant
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_454-1
2 Alumbrados
Spanish-founded order, the Jesuits, under General movement. Pedro Ruiz de Alcaraz, an accountant
Claudio Aguaviva, enacted a similar statute. In the to various noble households in Guadalajara, a
Guadalajara area, those of a devout inclination married man with several children, and María de
who were New Christians but unable or unwilling Cazalla, originally from Andalusia but married to
to join conventional religious orders found them- a rich merchant from Guadalajara town, who had
selves drawn to informal prayer groups called influential friends amongst the local aristocracy
conventicles which were being set up in the and at the nearby humanist-influenced university
early years of the new century. The approach of of Alcalá de Henares, were her two most notewor-
these conventicles was inspired by the growing thy collaborators. All three were conversos or
interest in Erasmianism in Spain in the early six- New Christians; all three had close ties to the
teenth century, with its emphasis on the autonomy Franciscans, an order then undergoing substantial
of the human subject; the direct study of the Bible reform, and whose mystical practices – those of
as a text, unmediated by the devotional literature the Friars Minor – were already seen as suspect by
and books of sermons encouraged by the Catholic the Holy Office, and Cazalla moved in university
Church; and a form of meditation known amongst circles, where in the 1520s the works of Erasmus,
these worshippers as dejamiento, letting oneself and for a limited period, those of Luther, were in
go in contemplation and thus falling into the arms free circulation, first in Latin, then in the vernac-
of God. This prayer method was very close to and ular. In the eyes of the Holy Office and those who
partially based on the Franciscan practice of would denounce them, their converso heritage left
recogimiento, a more structured form of mental them open to the accusation of being Judaizers or
prayer which involved identifying appropriate crypto-Jews and their concentration on commu-
times and places on which to meditate in silence nion with God the Father and on reading the
on a particular aspect of Christian faith. Bible, to accusations of Protestant heresy. Indeed,
Dejamiento was more adaptable and its adherents, the dejados proselytized freely only between 1512
the dejados, believed that one could abandon one- and 1519. Two years after the posting of Luther’s
self to the love of God anywhere and in the midst theses, the first denunciations were made to the
of any degree of activity. The dejados believed Holy Office.
that the primary relationship of the contemplative The movement was very much oriented
was directly with God, not Jesus Christ, and that towards the spirituality of lay people and women
study of the Bible was the primary means of in particular, though there was also a significant
enlightenment. They had little time for involve- number of friars and ordained priests among them.
ment in good works as a means towards salvation At its peak, the dejados’ influence spread over an
in tandem with repentance. In a very Protestant area encompassing contacts in Valladolid, the uni-
and reformist sense, they saw much of this as versity city of Alcalá de Henares, and the estate of
distracting. To them, holy images, for example, the Admiral of Castile, in Medina de Ríoseco. The
used universally in Catholicism as devotional vast majority of the dejados were New Christians
aids, were mere pieces of wood, unworthy of and they represented a valid but, in their time,
attention. They had a strong preference for mental much distrusted and denigrated converso tradition
or silent prayer and were unwilling to take part in of nonheretical Christian contemplation and prac-
formal church rituals. Their objective was to con- tice within mainstream Spanish Catholicism.
centrate, in the purest possible way, on coming A series of trials took place over the next
ever closer to God by means of dejamiento and 20 years and the leaders of the movement were
autonomous study. imprisoned and punished, though not severely.
Isabel de la Cruz, a Franciscan tertiary in the The Holy Office became much more interested
towns of Pastrana and Cifuentes, a beata or mid- in countering Lutheranism from the late 1520s
dle or lower class laywoman devoted to living onward. Throughout the sixteenth century, it fre-
independently but as if she were a professed reli- quently used the label alumbrado to attack those it
gious, is considered to be the leader of the suspected of Protestant tendencies, including
Alumbrados 3
some of the most luminous names in the history of first of the Llerena trials in 1575 but also went on
the Spanish Catholic Church, such as Teresa of to accuse the saintly preacher Fray Luis de Gra-
Avila, John of Avila, and St Ignatius Loyola. nada and the entire Jesuit order of alumbradismo
Two sets of trials took place in southwestern and heresy in a letter written in 1576 to the Por-
and southern Spain later in the century, in the tuguese authorities. Though Fray Alonso was
province of Extremadura (Llerena) in the 1570s essentially discredited by the time of his death in
and in Seville in the 1620s. These trials targeted 1592, the identification of alumbradismo with
groups of mystics who professed to emulate, with- demonic possession and sexual misconduct had
out much of the intellectual underpinning, the become entrenched. The 1623 Edict of Faith in
abandonment to God style of meditation espoused Seville added fifteen new articles to those listed in
by Isabel de la Cruz and her disciples. Whereas Llerena in 1574, broadening the definition of
the early dejados in general upheld the highest alumbradismo so that it encompassed everything
standards of propriety and earnestness in their from atheism, witchcraft, and blasphemy to big-
meditational practice, going so far in their heyday amy. An accusation of alumbradismo could
as to condemn what they saw as the vulgar exhi- thereby be made in relation to almost any conceiv-
bitionism of some Franciscan recogidos all too able social or religious transgression. In Seville,
willing to be witnessed in histrionic trance states, there was a new emphasis on the eradication of
many of the alumbrados of Llerena were report- imposture, that is, false mystics purporting to have
edly just as publicly demonstrative as the exhibi- visions of the persons of God or the saints, usually
tionist Franciscans. Most of those indicted were in public or in front of witnesses. The number of
either uneducated beatas or poorly-educated and beatas and indeed enclosed nuns claiming visions
doctrinally suspect priests who appeared to exer- of the divine grew exponentially under the reign
cise minute control over how the women lived and of the devout Philip III (1599–1621) and the time
displayed their acts of meditation, often presented had come to exercise some form of control. By
as visionary transports, in public. Though the 1623, the Holy Office was no longer concerned
Edict of Faith issued in Llerena in 1574 listed a with fighting Protestantism, as it had been in 1525
similar series of practices to those mentioned in in Guadalajara but in governing the religious and
the Toledo edict of 1525, there was a much greater social conduct of Catholics in a nation which was
focus on aspects of social behavior. However, in by then almost wholly orthodox in terms of
this instance, understanding of the degree of mal- dogma and religious observance.
practice, especially sexual misconduct or episodes Accusations of alumbradismo would surface
of demonic possession, engaged in by the over the rest of the seventeenth century and
alumbrados of Extremadura is entirely dependent beyond but by then the relationship between the
on the trial transcripts and a significant proportion errors denounced to the Holy Office and the ideals
of the evidence for the 1579 trials was obtained of Isabel de la Cruz and her followers in Guada-
through the use of torture. lajara was nonexistent, and alumbradismo was a
The auto da fe which followed the trials of vague catch-all term for any form of deviation
1579 in Llerena saw nine men (priests) and ten from the norm.
women (beatas), tried and punished. The most
severe female punishment was 400 lashes while
several of the priests were sentenced to 4–6 years
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Toledo suggests a more aggressive approach to alumbrados: historia y filosofía, de Castilla a Extre-
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B
Baconianism Innovative and Original Aspects
Andrea Strazzoni The reception of Bacon’s philosophy was mani-

Gotha Research Centre, University of Erfurt, fold, as one can distinguish between political,
Gotha, Germany utopian, experimental, and metaphysical
Baconianisms (Giglioni 2012). In England, the
appropriation of Bacon’s philosophy had a rele-
Abstract vant social and religious character. For Samuel
The philosophy of Francis Bacon was Hartlib and Jan Amos Comenius, Bacon’s pro-
interpreted in various ways in the seventeenth gram of renovation of philosophy served as the
century. In England, his utopian project and basis for a religious pacification of society based
natural history became the basis for the pro- on scientific learning and on improvement of
jects of religious pacification, pedagogical ref- techniques as husbandry and mining. Such learn-
ormation, and scientific cooperation of Hartlib, ing would have been made possible by the appli-
Comenius and Charleton. In the hands of Eve- cation of Bacon’s natural history and
lyn, Wilkins, and Wren, moreover, Bacon’s substantiated in a pansophical collection of all
ideal of cooperative science engendered the knowledge (Bacon 1857a, b, c, 2000; Hartlib
birth of the Royal Society, and his natural 1970). On a metaphysical level, Comenius and
history guided the experimental activities of Francis Glisson endorsed Bacon’s theory of mat-
Boyle and Hooke. In France and the Nether- ter as provided with life and appetites (Comenius
lands, attention was paid to Bacon’s natural 1668; Glisson 1672; Giglioni 2010, 2012). More-
history especially within the circle of friends over, Bacon’s program of establishing a commu-
of Descartes. In the second half of the seven- nity of scientists (“Salomon’s House”) and his
teenth century, though Bacon’s historical natural history were the basis of the pedagogical
approach was gradually supplanted by reform of Walter Charleton for the College of
mechanical-mathematical science in Europe, Physicians in London, a group of virtuosi aimed
Baconianism still served as a source of argu- at the exchange of learning, active in 1650s
ments in the Dutch Cartesian context, as to his (Charleton 1657; Jalobeanu 2009). Eventually,
theory of error and as a source of criticisms to Baconianism engendered the foundation of the
Aristotelianism. Royal Society: according to the official history
of the early Royal Society by Thomas Sprat
(Sprat 1667), Baconianism inspired the activities
of the “Oxford group” of natural philosophers,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_458-1
2 Baconianism
including John Evelyn, John Wilkins, and Chris- 1665; De Raey 1654; De Volder 1681; Elena
topher Wren, who assumed a “pure” form of 1991; Strazzoni 2012). Eventually, the emergence
Baconianism, i.e., they relied on Bacon’s induc- of a mathematical natural philosophy expounded
tive method and theory of error (Bacon 2004a), by the Newtonians supplanted Baconianism in
opposed to the “vulgar” Baconianism of Hartlib European science (Anstey 2015).
and the London group (Purver 1967). This
account has been corrected in more recent years,
as also this group was largely relying on the Baco- Cross-References
nian ideal of a cooperative science and natural
history (Hunter 1981; Agassi 2013; Gaukroger ▶ Bacon, Francis
2001; Jalobeanu 2009, 2015). Also, Bacon’s nat- ▶ Boyle, Robert
ural history influenced the experimental philoso- ▶ Comenius, Jan Amos
phy of Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke, using the ▶ Descartes, René
Baconian distinctions between luciferous, ▶ Education
fructiferous, solitary and in consort experiments, ▶ Hartlib, Samuel
and the notion of crucial experiment (Boyle 1665; ▶ Matter
Hooke 1679, 1705; Bacon 1996a, b, 2004b, 2007; ▶ Natural History
Anstey 2014). Moreover, Baconianism inspired ▶ Observation
the failed attempt of Sprat, Joseph Glanvill, and ▶ Technology
Abraham Cowley of establishing a College for the ▶ Wilkins, John
Society modelled on the “Salomon’s House” in
1660s (Hunter 1984).
In France, Nicolas Fabri de Peiresc planned to
translate Bacon’s natural histories, and Pierre
References
Amboise abridged Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum by
the technique of commonplacing (Yeo 2007; Primary Literature
Bacon, Francis. 1857a [1623]. De augmentis scientiarum.
Jalobeanu 2014). Moreover, Marin Mersenne In The works of Francis Bacon, vol. I, ed. J. Spedding,
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after having first rejected his empirical method as Longman et al.
Bacon, Francis. 1857b [1626]. Sylva sylvarum. In The
atheist and skeptical. Under the influence of Des-
works of Francis Bacon, vol. II, ed. J. Spedding,
cartes, who asked him empirical data for the study R.L. Ellis, and D.D. Heath, 325–686. London:
of meteorology, Mersenne deepened Bacon’s his- Longman et al.
torical study of sound (Mersenne 1648; Buccolini Bacon, Francis. 1857c [1626]. New atlantis. In The works
of Francis Bacon, vol. III, ed. J. Spedding, R.L. Ellis,
2013). In the Netherlands, Bacon’s natural history
and D.D. Heath, 119–166. London: Longman et al.
was commented by Isaac Beeckman in his Jour- Bacon, Francis. 1996a [1612]. Descriptio globi
nal, though he criticized Bacon’s relying on the intellectualis. In The Oxford Francis Bacon, vol.
qualitative properties of matter rather than on VI, ed. G. Rees. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bacon, Francis. 1996b [1611]. Phaenomena universi. In
mechanism and mathematics (Beeckman
The Oxford Francis Bacon, vol. VI, ed. G. Rees.
1939–1954; Gemelli 2013, 2014). With the emer- Oxford: Oxford University Press.
gence of Dutch Cartesianism in 1650s, Bacon’s Bacon, Francis. 1996c [1623–1624]. De principiis atque
philosophy offered a theory of error and an originibus secundum fabulas Cupidinis et Coeli. In The
Oxford Francis Bacon, vol. VI, ed. G. Rees. Oxford:
account of past philosophical theories which
Oxford University Press.
served to criticize the Scholastic approach to sci- Bacon, Francis. 2000 [1605]. The advancement of learn-
ence, as by Johannes de Raey and Burchard de ing. In The Oxford Francis Bacon, vol.
Volder. Also, it served as a medicina mentis in the III, ed. M. Kiernan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bacon, Francis. 2004a [1620]. The Instauratio Magna: Part
introduction of students to philosophy, as in the
II. Novum Organum. In The Oxford Francis Bacon,
works of Johannes Clauberg and Arnout Geulincx vol. XI, ed. G. Rees and M. Wakely. Oxford: Oxford
(Clauberg 1691; Bacon 1996c, 2004a; Geulincx University Press.
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Bacon, vol. XI, ed. G. Rees and M. Wakely. Oxford: Francis Bacon and Robert Boyle. Heidelberg: Springer.
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Bacon, Francis. 2007 [1622]. The Instauratio magna Part modern England: The case of Bacon, Boyle and
III: Historia naturalis et experimentalis: Historia Hooke. Early Science and Medicine 19(2): 103–132.
ventorum and Historia vitae & mortis. In The Oxford Anstey, Peter. 2015. Experimental pedagogy and the
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Oxford: Oxford University Press. tory Review 25(1): 115–131.
Beeckman, Isaac. 1939–1953. Journal tenu par Isaac Buccolini, Claudio. 2013. Mersenne translator of Bacon?
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Baconianism and natural history in seventeenth-
century England. History of Science 45(1): 1–46.
B
Baxter, Richard fronts: his theology of justification, his political

thought, and his work in the area of ecclesiology.
Born: 1615 Baxter’s writings on justification emphasize
Died: 1691 human moral responsibility, in contrast to the
Lutheran free-grace position espoused by John
Jason A. Kerr Saltmarsh and others (Cooper 2001). For Baxter,
Department of English, Brigham Young justification requires an act of faith that he figures
University, Provo, UT, USA as a peppercorn given by a defaulting tenant as a
token of homage allowing him to remain on the
land (Baxter 1649; Boersma 1993).
Abstract Baxter’s political thought appears chiefly in A
Richard Baxter (1615–1691) was an English Holy Commonwealth (1659), which opposes both
Puritan minister and prolific author of works the republicanism of James Harrington’s Oceana
on primarily religious subjects. His contribu- and the godly popular sovereignty of Henry
tion to late Renaissance thought lies at the Vane’s A Healing Question. For Baxter, sover-
intersection of religion and politics, on three eignty derives from God, not the people, and yet
fronts: his theology of justification, his politi- the same human moral accountability to God
cal thought, and his work in the area of found in the writings on justification means that
ecclesiology. the obligation to obey the powers that be cannot
be as absolute as in mainstream Calvinist teach-
ing. Baxter insists that people do not owe obedi-
ence to magistrates per se, but to magistrates as
Biography
officers of God. In keeping with the Calvinist
allowance that inferior magistrates can legiti-
Richard Baxter (1615–1691) was an English Puri-
mately resist sovereigns, Baxter acknowledges
tan minister and prolific author of works on pri-
that in practice Parliaments might be better situ-
marily religious subjects. He rose to prominence
ated to determine when public resistance might be
during the 1650s Interregnum and remained influ-
appropriate, and yet he still allows that individual
ential to the end of his life, although in diminished
subjects can engage in personal, private resis-
circumstances with his loss of ministerial employ-
tance. Political circumstances necessitated that
ment following the 1662 Act of Uniformity. His
Baxter retract A Holy Commonwealth in 1670,
contribution to late Renaissance thought lies at the
but a 1686 manuscript treatise demonstrates his
intersection of religion and politics, on three

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_459-1
2 Baxter, Richard
continued adherence to its principles (Lamont Baxter’s significance for twentieth-century

1979; Argent 2014). philosophy lies in the important role that he
Baxter’s major significance lies in his work as a plays in Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and
churchman. During the Interregnum he became an the Spirit of Capitalism, which presents him as an
influential ministerial example of a political influential early articulator of the Puritan work
Presbyterian – someone who had sided with Par- ethic.
liament against King Charles I and yet opposed
the regicide in 1649. He resisted attempts on the
part of Oliver Cromwell and John Owen to
References
remake the national church on an Independent
model. At least until the mid-1670s, Baxter con-
Primary Literature
sistently preferred comprehension, or a broadly (For a complete bibliography of Baxter’s works, see Mat-
inclusive church, to toleration, or the idea of a thews 1932 and Keeble 1982)
narrower church that allowed for the existence of Baxter, R. 1649. Aphorismes of justificiation. London.
other churches (Lamont 1979). He expressed this Baxter, R. 1650. The Saints everlasting rest. London.
Baxter, R. 1656. Gildas Salvianus; The reformed pastor.
preference for comprehension by calling himself a London.
“mere catholic Christian,” a phrase that gave Baxter, R. 1658a. Of justification. London.
C. S. Lewis the title for Mere Christianity. Baxter, Baxter, R. 1658b. The Grotian religion discovered.
however, resolutely opposed Hugo Grotius’s London
Baxter, R. 1659. A holy commonwealth. London.
defense of the idea that Christendom might be Baxter, R. 1670. The cure of church-divisions. London.
united under a universal human sovereign Baxter, R. 1673. A Christian directory. London.
(Keeble 1982). Baxter, R. 1679. The nonconformists plea for peace.
Baxter’s career as a churchman has two major London
Baxter, R. 1696. Reliquiae Baxterianae. London.
phases. During the Interregnum and in the nego- Harrington, J. 1656. The commonwealth of Oceana.
tiations that produced the Restoration church set- London.
tlement, he consistently advocated for Vane, H. 1656. A healing question. London.
comprehension. A model for a comprehensive
church could be found in the county association Secondary Literature
movement that he founded as a mechanism for Argent, A. 2014. Calendar to the Baxter treatises. http://
local ministers of varying persuasions to collabo- archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb123-dwl/rb.html?page=1
rate on pastoral goals. After the Act of Uniformity, Black, J. 2004. Reformation pastors: Richard Baxter and
the ideal of the reformed pastor. Carlisle.
Baxter became a nonconformist. His activities Boersma, H. 1993. A hot pepper corn: Richard Baxter’s
during these years consisted largely of doctrine of justification in its seventeenth-century con-
writing – his 1673 A Christian Directory put in text of controversy. Utrecht.
print the pastoral advice he would give if permit- Coffey, John. 2000. Persecution and toleration in Protes-
tant England, 1558–1689. Harlow.
ted to hold ministerial office – and occasional Cooper, T. 2001. Fear and polemic in seventeenth-century
preaching. These activities culminated in a trial England: Richard Baxter and antinomianism.
and imprisonment during the 1680s (Lamont Aldershot.
1979). Baxter’s continued pressing for compre- Cooper, T. 2011. John Owen, Richard Baxter, and the
formation of nonconformity. Farnham.
hension, against the toleration urged by Owen and Keeble, N. 1982. Richard Baxter: Puritan man of letters.
other Congregationalists, meant that nonconform- Oxford.
ists were never able to make common cause when Keeble, N. 1987. The literary culture of nonconformity.
the opportunity arose (for instance, in 1667–68, Avon.
Keeble, N., and G. Nuttall. 1991. Calendar of the corre-
1672–73, and 1680–81; see Cooper 2011). His spondence of Richard Baxter. Oxford.
Reliquiae Baxterianae (1696) remains an impor- Lamont, W. 1979. Richard Baxter and the millennium.
tant historical resource for the last half of the Totowa.
seventeenth century. Lim, P. 2004. In pursuit of purity, unity, and liberty: Rich-
ard Baxter’s Puritan ecclesiology.
Baxter, Richard 3
Matthews, A. 1932. The works of Richard Baxter: An Powicke, F. 1924. A life of the reverent Richard Baxter,
annotated list. London. 1615–1691. Boston.
Nuttall, G. 1946. The Holy Spirit in Puritan faith and Schlatter, R. 1957. Richard Baxter and Puritan politics.
experience. Oxford. New Brunswick.
Nuttall, G. 1965. Richard Baxter. London. Weber, M. 1930. The Protestant ethic and the spirit of
Packer, J. 1954. The restoration and redemption of man in capitalism. Trans. Talcott Parsons. New York.
the thought of Richard Baxter. D.Phil thesis, Oxford. Wood, A. 1963. Church unity without uniformity. London.
B
Blackloism of Charles I in 1649, Digby actively negotiated

with Cromwell for toleration, and in 1655, White
Han Thomas Adriaenssen published his Grounds of Obedience, in which he
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen, effectively advised his fellow-Catholics to sup-
Groningen, The Netherlands port the Cromwellian regime (see also Southgate
1993, 34–41).
The political aim of securing toleration for
Abstract Catholics went hand in hand with a theological
The Blackloists were a group of English Cath- programme, which sought to bring Catholicism
olics aiming to secure toleration for Catholi- closer to English Protestantism. Thus although
cism in Protestant England. They were critical the tradition of the Church provided the rule of
of what they saw as the sceptical tendencies of faith, the Blackloists denied papal infallibility, and
early modern philosophers. Admirers of they rejected those aspects of the doctrine of pur-
Aristotle’s philosophy, some of the Blackloists gatory which had been most objectionable to the
believed that Aristotelianism could go hand in Protestants. Thus in his De Medio animarum statu
hand with the new mechanical philosophy. of 1653, White criticized the idea that the living
could do anything to alleviate the suffering of
souls that are being purged from their sins, thereby
Political and Philosophical Programme denying that it was in the church’s power to grant
indulgencies (see Henry 1982, 227).
Blackloism was a school of thought in In spite of these concessions, the Blackloists
seventeenth-century English Catholicism, owing remained critical of the Protestants’ idea that the
its name to Blacklo, an alias of its leading figure, Bible could function as a rule of faith. The text and
the English priest and philosopher Thomas White. meaning of the scriptures were too uncertain to
Among its members were such men as Henry provide certainty in religious matters. To claim
Holden, Kenelm Digby, and John Sergeant. Polit- that we could be “morally certain,” or certain
ically, the Blackloists aimed at securing toleration beyond a reasonable doubt about the scriptural
for Catholics in Protestant England. In exchange texts and their meaning, as, for example, William
for toleration, they promised that leaders of the Chillingworth had done, was to open the doors to
Catholic Church in England would renounce all scepticism. In White and Sergeant, this claim went
worldly powers, and among other things proposed hand in hand with a general quest for certainty.
the installation of bishops who would operate Thus White’s 1663 Scire, sive Sceptices et
independently from the Pope. After the execution Scepticorum a jure Disputationis Exclusio
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_462-1
2 Blackloism
charged Joseph Glanvill with scepticism for argu- hand in hand with the new mechanistic philoso-
ing that absolute certainty is not humanly attain- phy. Although, metaphysically, bodies were com-
able, and the aim of Sergeant’s 1697 Solid pounds of matter and form, in physics we should
Philosophy was to beat down the scepticism that aim for mechanistic explanations of their opera-
he believed to be inlaid in the philosophy of ideas tions (Digby 1644, 345).
of Descartes and Locke.
Although in philosophy the most important
among the Blackloists shared a broadly Aristote-
Cross-References
lian outlook, they also believed that scholasticism
had perverted Aristotle’s true meaning. In partic-
▶ Digby, Kenelm
ular, they criticized the scholastics for inferring
▶ White, Thomas
from our capacity to think of accidents indepen-
dently of their substance that accidents have an
ontological status of their own over and above that
of the substances in which they exist (Digby References
1644, 2). For Digby, accidents were but modifica-
tions of the substances to which they belong, and Primary Literature
White too argued that “it implyes a contradiction Digby, Kenelm. 1644. Two treatises, in the one of which,
the nature of bodies, in the other, the nature of mans
that any Accident should exist out of its own soule is looked into. Paris: Gilles Blaizot.
Subject,” even if theologians may have claimed White, Thomas. 1656. Peripateticall institutions. In the
otherwise to account for transubstantiation (White way of that eminent person and excellent Philosopher
1656, 196). Sr. Kenelm Digby. London: R.D.
By purging it from real accidents and other
scholastic accretions, Digby and Sergeant hoped Secondary Literature
to bring Aristotelianism in harmony again with Henry, John. 1982. Atomism and eschatology: Catholicism
common sense or with the “common notions” and natural philosophy in the interregnum. British
Journal for the History of Science 15: 211–239.
with which all men by nature grow up to under-
Southgate, Beverley. 1993. ‘Covetous of Truth’. The life
stand the world. According to Digby and White, and works of Thomas White. 1593–1676. Dordrecht:
moreover, a modernized Aristotelianism could go Kluwer Academic Publishers.
B
Blundeville, Thomas most influential of these was a popular technical

guide entitled M. Blundeville, His Exercises, first
Born: Ca. 1520s, Newton Flotman, Norfolk published in 1594.
A member of the Norfolk gentry, Blundeville
Died: Early 1600s, Unknown inherited his father’s estate of Newton Hall in
1568 but seems to have spent much of his life in
Amir Alexander court circles in London. Educated at Cambridge,
Department of History, University of California by the 1560s and 1570s, he was a member of the
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA humanist entourage of Queen Elizabeth’s favorite,
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (Ball and
Rouse1889, p. 21; Dick 1940, p. 153). By the
Abstract 1590s, following the earl’s death, Blundeville
Thomas Blundeville (c. 1522–c. 1606) was an was associated with Francis Wyndham, judge
English humanist writer and mathematician and MP from his native Norfolk; Sir Nicholas
who supported a policy of maritime expansion. Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Seal; and, through
He wrote practical manuals on navigation, car- him possibly with his son, Sir Francis Bacon
tographic projection, arithmetic, and astron- (Jacquot 1953, p. 195). At some point in the
omy, as well as learned treatises on logic, early part of his career, Blundeville likely traveled
history, education, and horsemanship. Many in Italy, where he learned the language and
of his earlier works were based on Italian became familiar with local humanist scholarship
originals. (Dick 1940, p. 154).
Blundeville’s early works were very much in
the continental humanist tradition, including
Biography translations from classical sources and an empha-
sis on practical advice over high philosophy. In
A prominent English humanist who, in the span of 1561 he published Three Moral Treatises, which
a four-decade career, published works on a broad was a translation of segments of Plutarch’s
range of topics. In his early years, he focused on Moralia. He followed this 5 years later with The
traditional humanist topics, including moral phi- fower chiefyst offices belonging to
losophy and advice to princes. Then, after a Horsmanshippe, an adaptation of an Italian work
15-year hiatus, he published three works with a by Federico Grisone, which emphasized the mil-
very different emphasis, intended as practical itary use of horses. In 1570 he published a trans-
handbooks for mapmakers and navigators. The lation from Italian of a book of advice to “a prince
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_463-1
2 Blundeville, Thomas
that will governe well” that was originally written defeat of the Spanish Armada, when enthusiasm
by Federigo Furio in Spanish, as well as an advice in England for all things naval ran high. He
book called “A Ritch Storehouse or Treasure for followed this 5 years later with his Exercises,
Nobilitye and gentlemen” translated from Latin which was likely his most widely read and influ-
(Bullen 1886). A book on The Arte of Logike, ential work. The Exercises is a collection of six
though published only in 1599, also dates from treatises on topics ranging from elementary arith-
this period. Following Erasmus and most conti- metic to the geometry of the sphere, geography,
nental humanists, Blundeville, throughout these and cartographic projection. Despite the diversity
works, recommended virtue as both the right and of topics, however, the overall purpose of the
most effective path for a ruler to follow (Jacquot work is never in doubt. It is, as he states on the
1953, p. 190). title page, to be “read and learned by all young
In 1574 Blundeville published what may have gentlemen” who desire to learn “the Arte of Nav-
been the first work in English on the theory of igation.” The Exercises, in other words, is a prac-
history entitled The True Order and Methode of tical handbook for use by leaders of maritime
Wryting and Reading Hystories. Once again the expeditions.
book is largely a translation of two Italian trea- The Exercises was notable for its comprehen-
tises: One Della historia diece dialoghi by the siveness and its clear and accessible style, which
leading Platonist Francesco Patrizzi; The other made it indeed a useful textbook for navigators.
was an unpublished work known as Delle But it also contained a novel and important con-
osservationi by Giacomo Concio, an Italian expa- tribution naval cartography: Edward Wright’s
triate and, like Blundeville, a member of Leices- tables of meridional parts. The problem for navi-
ter’s circle. Following his sources, Blundeville gators is that a ship sailing at a fixed direction
advocates for a broad view of history, which is creates a complex spiral on the surface of the
not limited to the deeds of great and good men of Earth, called a “rhumb.” The challenge is to pro-
the past, but also recounts the stories of the world, duce a map which would show mariners where
of empires, of individuals, and even of the present. they would make landfall if they sail in a fixed
In writing such works, one should take into direction. Gerard Mercator (1512–1594) appar-
account not only men’s actions but also for their ently solved the problem with what became
motives, which may be deduced from their char- known as the “Mercator projection” but did not
acter, their upbringing, their education, and so explain his method. The first to do so was
on. Such histories, Blundeville insisted, would Blundeville’s fellow Englishman, also from Nor-
be of immense practical value to men of affairs, folk, the cartographer and voyager, Edward
who can use them to experience the great events Wright (1561–1615), who produced tables show-
of the past and learn from them (Dick 1940). ing how to gradually increase the distance
We do not know the reasons for Blundeville’s between latitude lines in order to preserve true
silence in the next 15 years, but when he resumed directions. These tables, critical for the production
publishing, his work had a distinctly different of large-scale naval maps, were first published in
cast. As a longtime protégé of the Earl of Leices- Blundeville’s Exercises (Alexander 2002,
ter, he was already associated with the court fac- pp. 60–61; Ball and Rouse 1889, p. 22).
tion that viewed Queen Elizabeth as the leader of Blundeville followed the Exercises with The
the Protestant cause and advocated for an aggres- Theoriques of the Seven Planets, a book on astron-
sive anti-Spanish stance. Now, however, he omy that closely follows Georg von Peuerbach’s
focused on directly implementing this general (1423–1461) Theoricae novae planetarum,
attitude by providing practical support to English adhering to a traditional geocentric view of the
maritime expansion (Taylor 1954). cosmos. To reinforce the practical uses of astron-
Blundeville’s first work in this vein was A omy for mariners, Blundeville once again
Briefe Description of Universal Mappes and included novel navigational tables, produced by
Cardes, which was published 1 year after the Henry Briggs in accordance with theories
Blundeville, Thomas 3
developed by William Gilbert (1544–1603) in De References

Magnete (1600). Gilbert argued that the precise
dip of a magnetized needle was an indication of Alexander, Amir R. 2002. Geometrical landscapes: The
voyages of discovery and the transformation of mathe-
geographic latitude, thereby freeing sailors from
matical practice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
reliance on astronomical observations that are Ball, W., and W. Rouse. 1889. A history of the study of
often impractical. Briggs calculated the required mathematics at Cambridge. Cambridge: Cambridge
tables, and Blundeville published them in The University Press.
Bullen, Arthur Henry. 1886. Blundeville, Thomas. Dictio-
Theoriques, believing them to be a groundbreak-
nary of national biography, vol. 5, 271–272. London:
ing contribution to the art of navigation. As it Smith, Elder, and Co.
happened Gilbert’s theory was soon discredited, Dick, Hugh G. 1940. Thomas Blundeville’s “The true
and The Theoriques, unlike the Exercises, proved order and methode of wryting and reading hystories”
(1574). Huntington Library Quarterly 12: 149–170.
to be of little practical use to mariners (Jacquot
Jacquot, Jean. 1953. Humanisme et science dans
1953; Sonar 2006). l’Angleterre élisabéthaine: L’oeuvre de Thomas
Blundeville, who in all his books relied heavily Blundeville. Revue d’histoire des sciences et de leurs
on the works of others, was hardly an original applications 6: 189–202.
Sonar, Thomas. 2006. Henry Briggs and the dip table.
author, yet the overall tenor of his opus is dis-
Seminar, IREM de la Reunion. http://irem.univ-
tinctly modern. He was a firm believer in the reunion.fr/calculsavant/Seminaires/Resources/Sonar_
advancement of knowledge and did his best to Briggs.pdf. Accessed 16 Apr 2016.
encourage and disseminate the latest Taylor, E.G.R. 1954. The mathematical practitioners of
Tudor and Stuart England. Cambridge: Cambridge
works – whether humanist or
University Press.
mathematical – that could advance the cause of
his countrymen. He did so because he never
doubted what his contemporary Francis Bacon
reputedly stated: knowledge is power.
B
Buchanan, George Biography
Born: 1506, Killearn, Scotland Buchanan was born in 1506 in Killearn, a Gaelic-
Died: 1582, Edinburgh, Scotland speaking community (Erskine and Mason 2012;
McFarlane 1981, 19) between the Campsie hills
David McOmish and the western highlands of Scotland.
School of Humanities, University of Glasgow, After completing his early education in
Glasgow, Scotland, UK local schools, he moved east to St Andrews
University, where he studied until 1525. He
left Scotland for Paris, where he gained a BA
Abstract in 1527. He began his career in education at
George Buchanan was a humanist writer and Paris at the Collège Sainte-Barbe, where he
educationalist. His prolific literary and admin- taught and latterly held an administrative role
istrative activities exerted a significant influ- as the curator of the German Nation
ence upon intellectual culture in Scotland and (McFarlane 1981, 23–25). For the following
Europe. He played a central role in the imple- 10 years, he also tutored members of the Scot-
mentation of humanist educational reforms in tish nobility in Paris and Scotland (Buchanan
France, Portugal, and Scotland. An accom- 1598).
plished Neo-Latin writer, he produced works After a brief period of incarceration in 1538 for
in a remarkable variety of Neo-Latin genres religious transgressions (Buchanan 1582, 14.45),
and forms. Often addressing political and phil- he returned to formal education a year later at the
osophical volatility across early-modern Collège de Guyenne in Bordeaux, at the invitation
Europe, his works are pervasively informed of the principal André de Gouveia. At Bordeaux,
by a stabilizing prescription of Stoic moral he taught, among others, the French philosopher
and natural philosophy. Michel de Montaigne. In 1547, Buchanan trav-
eled to Coimbra in Portugal with many of his
colleagues from Bordeaux, including André de
Gouveia, Elie Vinet, and Buchanan’s brother Pat-
Alternative Name
rick (Buchanan 1598). At Coimbra both
Buchanan and Vinet befriended and worked with
▶ Buchananus, Georgius
the Portuguese mathematician and educationalist
Pedro Nunes (Desgraves 1977, 7). Buchanan’s
time at Coimbra was brought to an end when he
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_465-2
2 Buchanan, George
was detained and interrogated by the inquisition in genres and their continued use in political (Mason
1550 in relation to his confessional disposition 1982; Mason and Smith 2004; McGinnis and
(Aitken 1939). Williamson 1995; Smeesters 2013), scientific
Between Buchanan’s eventual departure from (King 1616; Ruddiman 1715), and religious dis-
Portugal in 1552 and 1556, he published his first course (Sharrat and Walsh 1983; Green 2011) in
collection of verse paraphrases of the biblical Scotland and Europe. He died in Edinburgh
psalms (Green 2011, 24–5). Many of these poetic in 1582.
renderings highlight the influence that both astro-
nomical conjecture and pedagogy (didactic tradi-
tion) had upon Buchanan’s presentation of the
Cross-References
universe’s guiding divinity (especially Psalm
104). Buchanan had developed his interest in
▶ De Gouveia, André
and understanding of natural philosophy during
▶ De Montaigne, Michel
his period at Coimbra, where his colleagues Vinet
▶ Nunes, Pedro
and Nunes were refashioning Sacrobosco’s
▶ Vinet, Élie
Sphaera into a humanist educational tool
(McFarlane 1981, 370) and intellectual response
to the recent publication of De Revolutionibus by
Copernicus. In 1555, Buchanan was appointed References
tutor to the son of the Count De Brissac, at
which time he began working on his monumental Primary Literature
didactic explication in verse of stoic moral and Aitken, J. (Ed. and Trans.). 1939. The trial of George
Buchanan before the Lisbon Inquisition. Edinburgh:
natural cosmology, De Sphaera, which he would Oliver and Boyd.
ultimately never finish (Naiden 1952). Buchanan Buchanan, G. 1582. Rerum Scoticarum Historia. Edin-
returned to formal education again in 1566, acting burgh: Robert Arbuthnet.
as a reforming principal at the University of St Buchanan, G. 1598. Georgii Buchanani Vita ab ipso
scripta biennio ante mortem. Frankfurt: Boissard and
Andrews (St Leonard’s College) until 1570, at de Bry.
which time he earned his ultimate pedagogical Green, R.P.H. (Ed. and Trans.). 2011. George Buchanan,
reward when appointed tutor to the young King Poetic Paraphrase of the Psalms of David. Geneva:
James VI of Scotland (McFarlane 1981, 224). Droz.
King, A. 1616. De Sphaera Georgii Buchanani.
During his time at St Andrews, and then as Unpublished: Edinburgh.
tutor to the young king, Scotland experienced Mason R.A. and M.S. Smith (Eds. and Trans.). 2004. A
significant political turmoil. It was at this time dialogue on the Law of Kingship among the Scots:
that Buchanan produced two major works: the A critical edition and translation of George Buchanan’s
De Iure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus. Aldershot:
De Iure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus, a dialogue Ashgate.
on good kingship, and Rerum Scoticarum McGinnis, P.J and A. Williamson (Eds. and Trans.). 1995.
Historia, a monumental history of Scotland. As The Political Poetry of George Buchanan. Edinburgh:
with his earlier work De Sphaera, Buchanan Scottish History Society.
Naiden, J. (Ed. and Trans.). 1952. The Sphera of George
manipulated his literary forms to present a stabi- Buchanan (1506–1582). Washington, DC: Self-
lizing philosophical message heavily influenced published.
by stoic moral and natural philosophy (Mason Ruddiman, T. (Ed.). 1715. Georgii Buchanani Opera
1982). The mid-sixteenth-century natural philos- Omnia, 2 vols. Edinburgh: John Arnold Langerak.
Sharrat, P. and P. Walsh (Eds.). 1983. George Buchanan’s
ophy that Buchanan advocated was eventually Tragedies. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
swept aside by the advances of the Scientific Smeesters, A. (Ed. and Trans.). 2013. Le Genethliacon
Revolution. However, his reputation lived on in Jacobi Sexti Scotorum Regis de George Buchanan.
the literary and educational value of his forms and Renaissance et Réforme 36(4): 122–144.
Buchanan, George 3
Secondary Literature Mason, R.A. 1982. Rex Stoicus: George Buchanan, James
Desgraves, L. 1977. Élie Vinet, humaniste de Bordeaux VI and the Scottish polity. In New perspectives on the
(1509–1587). Geneva: Droz. politics and culture of early modern
Erskine, C. and R.A. Mason (Eds.). 2012. George Scotland, ed. J. Dwyer, R.A. Mason, and
Buchanan: Political thought in early modern Britain A. Murdoch. Edinburgh: John Donald.
and Europe. Aldershot: Ashgate. McFarlane, I.D. 1981. Buchanan. London: Duckworth.
B
Burton, Robert out in six separate, seventeenth-century editions,

which attest to its popularity with contemporary
Born: 8 February 1577, Lindley, Leicestershire, readers. Its popularity may have been a conse-
England quence of the Renaissance’s fascination with mel-
ancholy, since feigning its symptoms offered
Died: 25 January 1640, Oxford, England courtiers, like Hamlet and As You Like It’s
Jacques, a fashionable posture through which
Grant Williams they could express their individuality, if not
Department of English Language and Literature, affected unsociability. The Anatomy was also
Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada famous on account of its learnedness, supplying
readers with a storehouse of ready anecdotes and
sayings from approximately 1000 different
Abstract authors.
Robert Burton was an English clergyman and Burton pushes to a baroque extreme the
fellow of Christ Church College, Oxford. humanist predilection for quoting authorities,
Although he was appointed vicar of and, though the text has been said to defy generic
St. Thomas’s Oxford in 1616 and vicar of classification, it may be called, at least in its
Seagrave, Leicestershire, in 1630, he led a method, a cento – what the period regarded as a
rather scholarly and bookish existence at the patchwork composition of citations. The term
university. His significance rests solely on his appropriately captures Burton’s scholarly practice
treatise The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), of plundering Latin and English sources for tex-
the largest and most comprehensive treatment tual rags and ribbons to stitch into his own motley
of the disease in English. fabric. At Oxford, he had, indeed, considerable
material to work with. He made use of the
Bodleian, while, as a student of Christ Church,
Biography he had at his disposal his college’s library, to
which he was named Keeper in 1626. And he
From the time of his admission, Robert Burton was an avaricious bibliophile too, having amassed
remained a student of Christ Church College for a personal collection of 1700 volumes, an excep-
his entire life, earning only a Bachelor of Divinity tional cache for an Oxford Don.
as well as a BA and MA. Burton is known chiefly The Anatomy’s title page gives Burton the alias
for his book, and this book is strongly bound up of Democritus Junior, associating him with the
with its author. The Anatomy of Melancholy came pre-Socratic philosopher who sought to discover
# Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada 2017
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_466-1
2 Burton, Robert
the seat of melancholy through dissecting animal utterances foster further parallels with Erasmus’s
carcasses. But, whereas his namesake chose an avatar insofar as the former paradoxically betrays
empirical route to the problem, Burton figura- melancholic symptoms and signs in his
tively anatomizes books to uncover as many com- preface – perhaps fueling the posthumous legend
monplaces about the disease as possible. Besides that he moved his hand to self-slaughter, render-
representing his cento method, “anatomy” could ing him a victim of the disease that he devoted so
also mean in the period the analytical process of much of his life to studying.
dividing something into its constituent parts, and
Burton’s treatise accordingly articulates a desire
both to master melancholy in its various manifes- Cross-References
tations and to gain control over his book’s massive
bulk, the revisions of which led to its continual ▶ Erasmus
expansion. Burton performs these two anatomies ▶ Galen and Galenism
by leveraging the Ramist method, a pedagogical ▶ Humanism
practice of progressively dichotomizing a topic ▶ Ramism
from the general to the particular so that it can ▶ Shakespeare
be easily comprehended. Headings break down
the text into “partitions” and three types of smaller
division, namely, “sections,” “members,” and References
“subsections.” Each of the book’s synoptic charts
maps out one of the three overall partitions, the Burton, Robert. 1989–2000 [1632]. The anatomy of mel-
ancholy, 6 vols, ed. Rhonda L. Blair, Thomas
first containing melancholy’s causes and symp-
C. Faulkner, and Nicolas K. Kiessling.
toms, the second covering its cures, and the third Oxford/New York: Clarendon Press/Oxford University
recursively reproducing the former two partitions Press.
in examining its three species – love melancholy, Fox, Ruth A. 1976. The tangled chain: The structure of
disorder in the anatomy of melancholy. Berkeley: Uni-
jealousy, and religious melancholy. The metalan-
versity of California Press.
guage of medical discourse that determines many Gowland, Angus. 2006. The worlds of Renaissance mel-
of the headings conforms to Galenic categories; ancholy: Robert Burton in context. Cambridge: Cam-
however, Burton’s playful commentary, espe- bridge University Press.
Gowland, Angus. 2013. Robert Burton and the anatomy of
cially in his preface and long formal digressions,
melancholy. In The Oxford handbook of English prose,
troubles these distinctions with a reflexive and 1500–1640, ed. Andrew Hadfield, 646–668. Oxford:
skeptical attitude. Throughout the text, symptoms Oxford University Press.
can slide into causes, and causes slip into cures, Grose, Christopher. 2002. Theatrum libri: Burton’s anat-
omy of melancholy and the failure of encyclopedic
while his humanist amplification of exempla,
form. In Books and readers in early modern England:
commonplaces, and quotations often leaves him Material studies material texts, ed. Jennifer Andersen,
exclaiming upon the infinite nature of Elizabeth Sauer, and Stephen Orgel, 80–96. Philadel-
melancholy’s signs in addition to the never- phia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Kiessling, Nicolas K. 1988. The library of Robert Burton.
ending production of the printing press.
Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society.
Burton does not confine his encyclopedic sub- Lund, Mary Ann. 2010. Melancholy, medicine and religion
ject to the aegis of medicine but allows it to in early modern England: reading “the anatomy of
metastasize into a universal condition afflicting melancholy.” New York: Cambridge University Press.
O’Connell, Michael. 1986. Robert Burton. Boston:
everyone and everything, while its pursuit pro-
Twayne Publishers.
vides him with a hermeneutic key to understand- Richards, Jennifer. 2013. Commonplacing and prose writ-
ing the fabric of all texts and knowledge, even the ing: William Baldwin and Robert Burton. In The
cosmos itself. In its capacity as a metaphor for the Oxford handbook of English prose, 1500–-
1640, ed. Andrew Hadfield, 43–58. Oxford: Oxford
malaise of existence, Burton’s approach to melan-
University Press.
choly takes some of its satirical prompts from The Sawday, Jonathan. 1997. Shapeless eloquence: Robert
Praise of Folly. Democritus Junior’s madcap Burton’s anatomy of knowledge. In English
Burton, Robert 3
Renaissance prose: History, language, and Williams, R. Grant. 2001. Disfiguring the body of knowl-
politics, ed. Neil Rhodes, 173–202. Tempe: Arizona edge: Anatomical discourse and Robert Burton’s the
State University. anatomy of melancholy. ELH 68(3): 593–613.
Schmelzer, Mary Murphy. 1999. Tis all one: “The anatomy Williams, Grant. 2003. Resisting the psychotic library:
of melancholy” as belated copious discourse. Periphrasis and paranoia in Burton’s anatomy of mel-
New York: P. Lang. ancholy. Exemplaria 15(1): 199–221.
Shirilan, Stephanie. 2015. Robert Burton and the transfor- Williams, Grant. 2012. ‘The Babel event’: Language, rhe-
mative powers of melancholy. Burlington: Ashgate. toric, and Burton’s infinite symptom. In Rhetoric and
Vicari, Eleanor Patricia. 1989. The view from Minerva’s medicine in early modern Europe, ed. Nancy
tower: Learning and imagination in the anatomy of S. Struever and Stephen Pender, 229–249. Burlington:
melancholy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Ashgate.
C
Campion, Edmund Alternate Names
Born: 25 January 1540, London ▶ Edmund Campian; ▶ Edmundus Campianus

Died: 1 December 1581, London
Clarinda E. Calma Biography

Department of Applied Linguisitics, Tischner
European University, Krakow, Malopolski, Edmund Campion was an English Jesuit and
Poland martyr, eminent scholar, and eloquent orator
admired and called by his contemporaries as the
“English Cicero” (Alfield 1582; Bombino 1620;
Abstract Turner 1602). He was born on 25 January 1540 to
Edmund Campion SJ was a Jesuit and martyr, a bibliopola (stationer), who died before he was
eminent scholar, and orator who worked as twelve, so, after starting his education at St Paul’s
lecturer of Rhetoric in Oxford and professor School, he was sent to the newly founded orphan-
of Rhetoric and Philosophy in the age, Christ’s Hospital, in 1552 (Alfield 1582;
Clementinum in Prague. Deeply admired by Bombino 1620; Kilroy 2015). Even at a young
his contemporaries as an eloquent and elegant age, he excelled himself in school debates and
orator, he is best remembered for his powerful literary competitions.
sermons, which he delivered to crowds in In 1561, Campion was admitted as a fellow to
many parts of England and Bohemia. In the newly restored St John’s College in Oxford
1580, he moved back to England to begin the (Kilroy 2011; 2015). Here he read philosophy and
English mission and minister the Catholics. theology, and completed his Bachelor of Arts in
During the last year of his life, he published 1564. On September 1564, Campion was made
Decem Rationes, an apologetical work lecturer in Rhetoric from 1564 to 1570. While at
addressed to the theologians of the Established Oxford, Campion spoke before Queen Elizabeth
Church of England, which immediately spread I during her visit to Oxford on 3 September 1566
across Europe and became his most popular and wrote his first Latin epic poem, Sancta
work. He also wrote the first history of Ireland Salutiferi nascentia semina verbi (The birth of
in the English language and many poetical and the sacred seeds of the Word that brings salvation)
dramatical works. in which he contrasts the transience of the Roman
Empire to the permanence of the Early Christian
Church (Kilroy 2005). In 1569, Campion became
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_468-1
2 Campion, Edmund
a deacon of the Church of England, ordained by court (Kilroy 2015; McCoog 2007, 2013). In
Bishop Richard Cheney, Bishop of Gloucester, 1577, Campion delivered the Oratio in funere
and accepted a benefice (Simpson 1896; Pollen Mariae Cardonae, a funeral sermon for Maria
1905; Kilroy 2015). Cardona y Requesens, and, after his ordination
In 1570, Campion traveled to Ireland, invited in 1578, wrote the play Ambrosia that was
by his former pupil, Richard Stanihurst, whose performed in the presence of Rudolph II and of
father, James Stanihurst, was Recorder of Dublin the Dowager Empress, Maria Augusta (Campion
and Speaker of the Irish lower house (Alfield 1970; Kilroy 2015; Campion 1631; Turner 1602).
1582; Bombino 1620; Simpson 1896; Kilroy In 1579, Campion was called back to Rome to
2015). During his brief stay here in Dublin, Cam- lead the first English Mission and minister to the
pion wrote, The Two Bookes of the Histories of Catholics in England (Reynolds 1980). He turned
Ireland, the first systematic history of Ireland in down the request to be superior but created a
English (Campion 1633, 1963). It was most prob- sensation preaching in southern shires of Berk-
ably also during his stay in Ireland living with shire, Oxfordshire, Northhamptonshire, York-
prominent Irish Catholics, such as the Stanihurst shire, and Lancashire (Alfield 1582; Bombino
and Barnewell Families, that Campion decided to 1620; Kilroy 2016). He then printed his famous
convert to Catholicism, which at this point was polemical work, Decem Rationes (The Ten Rea-
outlawed in England. Facing serious threats of sons), which was distributed at the Commence-
arrest for high treason, Campion departed for ment in St Mary’s Church, in Oxford (Lake and
England in June 1571 and arrived at the English Questier 2000; Lennon 2007; Kilroy 2011). He
College of Douai later that month. At Douai, he was arrested, put on trial, and hanged at Tyburn on
studied scholastic theology and passed the Bach- 1 December 1581. Campion’s work, Decem
elor of Theology. After only 18 months, still Rationes, quickly spread across the Channel and
undecided in his vocation, Campion made a soli- was printed in over 80 subsequent early modern
tary pilgrimage to Rome, dressed as a beggar editions and translated into 12 languages (Pollen
(Simpson 1896; Kilroy 2015). Here he decided 1905; Waugh 1935; Kilroy 2016; Campion 1581,
to enter the “newly formed” Society of Jesus and 1631, 1632). He was canonized by Pope Paul VI
was allotted to the Austrian Province (McCoog on 1970 as one of the 40 Martyrs of England.
2007). Campion was then sent to the novitiate in
Prague in 1573, which then moved to Brno. A year
later, he was re-assigned to Prague to work at the References
Jesuit College, the Clementinum. He served as
Kilroy, Gerard. 2005. Edmund Campion: memory and
spiritual director of the Sodality of the Salutation
transcription. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
of the Blessed Virgin and was made a professor, Kilroy, Gerard. 2015. Edmund Campion: A scholarly life.
first of Rhetoric and later of Philosophy, teaching Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.
Aristotle’s Logic and Physics after his ordination Kilroy, Gerard. 2017. A cosmopolitan book: Edmund
Campion’s Rationes Decem. In Publishing subversive
in 1578 (Alfield 1582; Bombino 1620; Simpson
texts in Elizabethan England and the Polish Lithuanian
1896; Kilroy 2015). Here Campion delivers his Commonwealth, ed. Teresa Bela, Clarinda Calma, and
speech on De Iuvene Academico (On the Young Jolanta Rzegocka, 186–216. Boston/Leiden: Brill.
Scholar) a discourse, in which he sets out his Kilroy, Gerard. 2011. Edmundus Campianus Oxoniensis.
http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20111130_1.
views on education and the ideal student. It was
htm. Accessed 30 June 2012.
also during these years that Campion wrote Lake, Peter, and Michael Questier. 2000. Puritans, papists,
Tractatus de Imitatione Rhetorica (Tract on Rhe- and the “public sphere” in early modern England: The
torical Imitation), a treaty, which discusses the Edmund Campion affair in context. The Journal of
Modern History 72: 587–627.
models of rhetorical invention and the imitation
Lennon, Colm. 2007. Campion and Reform in Tudor Ire-
of the Ciceronian style (Campion 1631; Turner land. In The reckoned expense: Edmund Campion and
1602). He also received prestigious royal engage- the early English Jesuits, 2nd ed, ed. Thomas McCoog,
ments for the new emperor, Rudolph II, and his S.J. Rome: Institutum Historicum.
Campion, Edmund 3
McCoog, Thomas M., S.J. (ed.). 2007. The reckoned Journal of Jesuit Studies 4: 589–606. doi:10.1163/
expense: Edmund Campion and the early English 22141332-00104011.
Jesuits, 2nd ed. Rome: IHSI. Hunt, Arnold. 2010. The art of hearing: English preachers
McCoog, Thomas M., S.J. (ed.). 2013. “And touching and their audiences, 1590–1640. Cambridge: Cam-
upon our society”: Fashioning Jesuit Identity in Eliza- bridge University Press.
bethan England. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medi- Hunt, Arnold. 2011. Preaching in the Elizabethan settle-
eval Studies. ment. In The Oxford handbook of the early modern
Pollen, John Hungerford, S.J. 1905. Blessed Edmund sermon, ed. Peter McCullough, Hugh Adlington, and
Campion’s “Decem Rationes”. The Month 105: 11–26. Emma Rhatigan, 366–386. Oxford: Oxford University
Reynolds, E.E. 1980. Campion and Parsons: The Jesuit Press.
mission of 1580–1581. London: Sheed and Ward. Kelly, James E. 2013. Conformity, Loyalty and the Jesuit
Simpson, Richard. 1896. Edmund Campion: A biography, Mission to England in 1580. In Religious tolerance in
2nd ed. London: John Hodges. the Atlantic World: Early modern and contemporary
Waugh, Evelyn. 1935. Edmund Campion. London: perspectives, ed. Eliane Glaser. London: Palgrave
Longmans, Green & Co. Macmillan.
Kilroy, Gerard. 2005. Edmund Campion: Memory and
transcription. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
Primary Literature Kilroy, Gerard. 2013. The queen’s visit to Oxford in 1566:
Alfield, Thomas. 1582. A true reporte of the death and A fresh look at neglected manuscript sources. Recusant
martyrdom of M. Campion Jesuit and preiste, & History 31(1): 331–373.
M. Sherwin, & M. Bryan preistes, at Tiborn the first Kilroy, Gerard. 2014. “Paths coincident”: The parallel lives
of December 1581 Observide and written by a of Dr Nicholas Sander and Edmund Campion,
Catholike preist, which was present thereat Whereunto S.J. Journal of Jesuit Studies 1: 530–541.
is annexid certayne verses made by sundrey persons. doi:10.1163/22141332-00104014.
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Bombino, Paolo S.J. 1620. Vita et Martyrium Edmundi Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.
Campiani Martyis Angli. Mantua: Fratres Osannas. Kilroy, Gerard. Edmundus Campianus Oxoniensis. http://
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Campion, Edmund. 1631. Decem Rationes Propositae in and the “public sphere” in early modern England: The
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Petra Sancta, S.J. Antwerp: Plantin Moretus Press. Modern History 72: 587–627.
Campion, Edmund S.J. 1632. Campian Englished or a Lake, Peter, and Michael Questier. 2002. The Antichrist’s
translation of the ten reasons in which Edmund Lewd Hat: Protestants, papists and players in post-
Campian of the society of Jesus Priest insisted in his reformation England. London/New Haven: Yale Uni-
challenge to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. versity Press.
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Campion, Edmund. 1633. In Two histories of Ireland. The land. In The reckoned expense: Edmund Campion and
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by Edmund Campion, S.J., ed. Joseph Simons. Assen: McCoog, Thomas M., S.J. (ed.). 2013. “And touching
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ed, ed. Thomas McCoog., S.J., 119–137. Rome: Longmans, Green & Co.
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2nd ed. London: John Hodges. ed, ed. Thomas McCoog., S.J., 371–387. Rome:
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C
Cavendish, Margaret Alternate Names
Born: 1623, Colchester, England ▶ Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; ▶ Margaret

Died: 15 December 1673, Welbeck (London), Cavendish; ▶ née Margaret Lucas
England
Andrea Strazzoni Biography

Dipartimento di antichistica, lingue, educazione e
filosofia (ALEF), Università degli Studi di Parma, Margaret Cavendish was born as Margaret Lucas
Parma, Italy in Colchester (Essex) in 1623. Her life was
Gotha Research Centre, University and Research impacted by the English civil wars as early as
Library Erfurt/Gotha, Erfurt-Gotha, Germany 1642: being a member of a royalist family, her
house was seized by parliamentary forces and she
looked for the protection of the Queen consort
Abstract Henrietta Maria, whom she followed in exile in
Margaret Cavendish was a philosopher and Paris in 1644. The next year, she married the
writer active in mid-seventeenth century royalist exile William Cavendish, who hosted
England. She is important not just as one of the “Newcastle Circle,” which was attended,
the first women active in philosophy in early among the others, by René Descartes, Thomas
modern age but as the expounder of an original Hobbes, and Pierre Gassendi (Kargon 1966,
scientific theory based on vitalism and materi- 68–76). After having moved to Antwerp, in
alism, by which she rejected the mechanical 1651 she temporarily came back to England to
philosophy of Descartes and Hobbes and the compound her family’s properties and started
experimental philosophy of Boyle and Hooke. there her publishing activity in 1653 (Cavendish
Also, while not developing a theory of gender 1653). Being steadily back to England with her
equality, she envisaged a form of emancipation husband in 1660 (following the Restoration), she
of women based on intellectual activity as a continued her writing and publishing from their
way to social recognition and to the exercise of manor in Newcastle, where she died in 1673. In
influence on society and politics. the course of her life, she wrote a twenty-three
volumes corpus covering diverse topics, from
autobiography to natural philosophy and politics,
and including literary pieces and novels.
(Battigelli 1998, 1–5; Schiebinger 1999, 2–4).
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_471-1
2 Cavendish, Margaret
An Independent Figure in the Age Naturalism and Feminism

of Mechanical and Experimental
Philosophy As to her views in moral philosophy and politics,
these entail a natural philosophical normative
As she did not attend university – as a conse- ideal: the highest ends to be pursued in life and
quence of the conditions of women at her time society are stability and peace, just as nature tends
and of her temperament (Battigelli 1998, 7) – her to the same aims (Cavendish 1664b, 389–391,
participation to the Newcastle Circle did not bring 2001, 128; Boyle 2006, 253–259). In turn, self-
her much contact with philosophers (Schiebinger preservation leads to the desire of recognition of
1999, 2). Margaret Cavendish was a self-educated the self by the others, as by writing itself (Boyle
thinker. Striving to develop her own philosophy, 2006, 262). Indeed, given the separation of natural
she engaged the main positions in natural philos- and spiritual domains, no concept of afterlife can
ophy at stake in mid-seventeenth century be used as a foundation of morality (Wright 2014).
(Sarasohn 2010). Besides Aristotelianism, she Also her views on the condition of women bear
criticized the expounders of “mechanical philos- witness of this normative ideal, as chastity is
ophy” and of “experimental philosophy” propos- regarded by Cavendish as the highest virtue for
ing her own synthesis (Cavendish 2001, x–xv, women, since it preserves peace and stability in
7–10; Lewis 2001). As a main tenet in natural society. Women, however, may find the way to
philosophy, she argued for the identity of “Matter, political power by exercising influence on men and
Self-motion and Self-knowledge” (Cavendish by their intellectual achievements (Cavendish
2001, 137; Schiebinger 1999, 4–8). On this 1664b, 27, Cavendish 2003b, I; Boyle 2006,
basis, she could propose a natural philosophical 276). In politics, such normative ideal is reflected
account alternative to Hobbes’ and Descartes’ and by her royalism and the rejection of social con-
expounding a form of organicism or vitalism tracts as the foundation of the absolute sover-
aligned with materialism (Hutton 1997; Caven- eignty of the King, since democracy would lead
dish 2001, xiv–xxxiii), capable to explain the to chaos (Cavendish 2003a, 276–278; Boyle
stableness of nature itself (Cavendish 1668, 7; 2006, 282–283). Though considered as part of
Michaelian 2009, 33–36), as well as its freedom nature, for Cavendish all political bodies act as a
(Detlefsen 2007), and requiring no active role of republic (Walters 2014, 159).
God on matter (Cavendish 1664a, 13–17; James
1999; Broad 2004, 46–49). Against Henry More’s
and Jean Baptiste Van Helmont’s vitalism, on the Cross-References
other hand, she argued for the complete distinc-
tion of extension and spirit. The latter cannot be ▶ Boyle, Robert
truly conceived by mind, which is material in ▶ Descartes, René
itself (Cavendish 1664a, 526; Cunning 2006). ▶ Materialism
Also, she criticized the expounders of the experi- ▶ More, Henry
mental philosophy, Robert Boyle and Robert ▶ Spirit
Hooke, as for Cavendish philosophy is to be ▶ Women Writing
grounded on reason rather than on senses, insofar
as reason is more reliable than empirical evi-
dences and can ascertain the regularity of nature References
(Cavendish 1668, 56; Hutton 1997, 422–423;
Schiebinger 1999, 4–8). Primary Literature
Cavendish, Margaret. 1653. Philosophicall fancies. Lon-
don: printed by Tho. Roycroft for J. Martin and
J. Allestrye.
Cavendish, Margaret. 2003a [1662]. Orations of divers
sorts, accommodated to divers places. In Political
Cavendish, Margaret 3
writings, ed. Susan James, 111–292. Cambridge: Cam- Cunning, David. 2006. Cavendish on the intelligibility of
bridge University Press. the prospect of thinking matter. History of Philosophy
Cavendish, Margaret. 1664a. Philosophical letters. Quarterly 23(2): 117–136.
London: s.n. Detlefsen, Karen. 2007. Reason and freedom: Margaret
Cavendish, Margaret. 1664b. Sociable letters. London: Cavendish on the order and disorder of nature. Archiv
W. Wilson. f€
ur Geschichte der Philosophie 89: 157–191.
Cavendish, Margaret. 2003b [1666]. The description of a Digital Cavendish Project. A collaborative independent
new world, called the blazing world. In Political writ- scholarly project. http://www.digitalcavendish.org.
ings, ed. Susan James, 1–110. Cambridge: Cambridge Accessed 8 Feb 2016.
University Press. Hutton, Sarah. 1997. In dialogue with Thomas Hobbes:
Cavendish, Margaret. 1996 [1668]. Grounds of natural Margaret Cavendish’s natural philosophy. Women’s
philosophy, ed. Michael V. Colette. Cornwall West: Writing 4(3): 421–432.
Locust Hill Press. James, Susan. 1999. The philosophical innovations of
Cavendish, Margaret. 2001 [1666]. Observations upon Margaret Cavendish. British Journal for the History
experimental philosophy, ed. Eileen O’Neill. Cam- of Philosophy 7(2): 219–244.
bridge: Cambridge University Press. Kargon, Robert Hugh. 1966. Atomism in England from
Cavendish, Margaret. 2003. In Political writings, ed. Susan Hariot to Newton. New York: Oxford University Press.
James. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lewis, Eric. 2001. The legacy of Margaret Cavendish.
Sarasohn, Lisa. 2010. The Natural Philosophy of Margaret Perspectives on Science 9(3): 341–365.
Cavendish. Reason and Fancy during the Scientific Margaret Lucas Cavendish. Stanford encyclopedia of phi-
Revolution. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University losophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/margaret-
Press. cavendish. Accessed 8 Feb 2016.
Michaelian, Kourken. 2009. Margaret Cavendish’s episte-
mology. British Journal for the History of Philosophy
Secondary Literature 17(1): 31–53.
Battigelli, Anna. 1998. Margaret Cavendish and the exiles Schiebinger, Londa. 1999. Margaret Cavendish, Duchess
of the mind. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. of Newcastle. In A history of women philosophers.
Boyle, Deborah. 2006. Fame, virtue, and government: Volume III. Modern women philosophers, 1600–-
Margaret Cavendish on ethics and politics. Journal of 1900, ed. Mary Ellen Waithe, 1–16. Dordrecht: Kluver.
the History of Ideas 67(2): 251–289. Walters, Lisa. 2014. Margaret Cavendish. Gender, science
Broad, Jacqueline. 2004. Women philosophers of the sev- and politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
enteenth century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Wright, Joanne H. 2014. Darkness, death, and precarious
Press. life in Cavendish’s sociable letters and orations. In God
Cavendish (1623–1673). Project Vox. http://projectvox. and nature in the thought of Margaret
library.duke.edu. Accessed 8 Feb 2016. Cavendish, ed. Brandie R. Siegfried and Lisa
T. Sarasohn, 43–57. Farnham: Ashgate.
C
Chillingworth, William 1629 converted to Roman Catholicism and in

1630 travelled to the Catholic seminary of
Born: October 1602, Oxford Douai, France. Perhaps influenced by letters sent
to him by his godfather William Laud, the later
Died: 30 January 1644, Chichester archbishop of Canterbury, Chillingworth at Douai
soon came to doubt the Roman church’s claim to
Han Thomas Adriaenssen infallible authority and returned to England in
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen, 1631, reconverting to Protestantism in 1634. In
Groningen, The Netherlands 1635, Chillingworth became prebendary of Ches-
ter Cathedral and in 1638 was nominated chancel-
lor of Salisbury Cathedral. After the outbreak of
Abstract the English Civil War, Chillingworth joined the
William Chillingworth was an English Protes- Royalist party. A chaplain to the Royal army, he
tant theologian. In his 1638 Religion of the was taken prisoner at the surrender of Arundel
Protestants, he argued that the scriptures are Castle in 1643. In poor health, Chillingworth
our rule of faith. Although we may not be able was held at the bishop’s palace at Chichester,
to establish their text and meaning with abso- where he died 30 January 1644 (See also Chernaik
lute certainty, we can have moral certainty or 2004).
certainty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Religion of Protestants

Biography
Soon after his return to England in 1631,
William Chillingworth was born in Oxford in Chillingworth had begun to frequent the meetings
1602. Having attended a grammar school there, of scholars and intellectuals that were held at
he was admitted to Trinity College in 1618, where Great Tew, the country house of his friend Lucius
he graduated B.A. in 1620 and M.A. in 1624. In Cary, the second Viscount Falkland (On the Great
1628, Chillingworth was elected a Fellow of Trin- Tew Circle, see Mortimer 2010, 63–87). At Great
ity. During his years at Trinity, Chillingworth Tew, Chillingworth and Cary discussed the ideas
came into contact with the Jesuit John Percy, of Grotius and of the Socinians, who insisted that
alias Fisher, who convinced him that an infallible Christians should take their own critical reason,
church was needed to guide Christians in their not ecclesial authority, as a guide in reading the
faith. Under Fisher’s influence, Chillingworth in scriptures. This insistence on individual reason
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_473-1
2 Chillingworth, William
would become a major theme in Chillingworth’s will still believe in a triune God, which, though
most important work, his 1638 The Religion of above our understanding, does not contradict it.
Protestants a Safe Way to Salvation. Chillingworth believed that scripture read in
The Religion was written in response to the the light of reason was “sufficient to informe us
Jesuit Matthew Wilson, alias Edward Knott. what is the faith” (Chillingworth 1838, vol. 1, 71).
Between 1630 and 1634, Knott had been engaged Yet he admitted that we could not be absolutely
in a controversy with the English clergyman certain about the text or meaning of the scriptures.
Christopher Potter, attacking Protestantism on In general he denied that absolute certainty was
the ground that without the infallible authority of humanly attainable. For the most part, we have but
the church to decide on the correct interpretation a “moral certainty,” or a certainty beyond a rea-
of scripture, “every man is given over to his own sonable doubt. Thus we are morally certain that a
wit and discourse” (Chillingworth 1838, vol. given scriptural passage has been preserved
1, 10). This was dangerous, Knott reasoned, for uncorrupted or that we correctly understand its
at least two reasons. First, the scripture is hard to meaning. But just as certainty beyond a reason-
understand, and so we cannot expect the untrained able doubt suffices for a judge to convict a crim-
to discover its true message without a guiding inal, moral certainty is certainty enough to guide
authority. Second, if every man is to decide on us in religion (Van Leeuwen 1970, 15–32).
the meaning of scripture for himself, subjectivism
looms large.
To the first point, Chillingworth responded that
References
those biblical truths that were necessary for salva-
tion were “plain and easy,” so that with regard to
Primary Literature
these, every reader is “a competent judge for Chillingworth, William. 1838. The works of William
himself” (Chillingworth 1838, vol. 1, 172). To Chillingworth in three volumes. Oxford: Oxford Uni-
the second, he responded that reason must guide versity Press.
all scriptural reading. Our rationality we share
with all other men, and it is “public” in the sense Secondary Literature
that rational arguments are open to trial and exam- Chernaik, Warren. 2004. William Chillingworth. In Oxford
ination (Chillingworth 1838, vol. 1, 282). There- dictionary of national biography. Oxford: Oxford Uni-
fore, readings that meet the standards of reason versity Press
Mortimer, Sarah. 2010. Reason and religion in the English
will enjoy more than just an individual validity. revolution: The challenge of Socinianism. Cambridge:
When reason guides us in our faith, we will Cambridge University Press.
“believe many things above reason, but nothing Van Leeuwen, Henry. 1970. The problem of certainty in
against it” (Chillingworth 1838, vol. 2, 453). For English thought 1630–1690. The Hague: Martinus
Nijhoff.
example, we will not accept the doctrine of tran-
substantiation, which goes against reason. But we
C
Claymond, John Erasmus, who later spoke admiringly of

Claymond’s moral probity, and dedicated to him
Born: c. 1468, Frampton, Lincolnshire an edition of Chrysostom’s On fate and divine
Died: December 1536, Oxford providence (1526). In 1507 Claymond was
appointed as president of Magdalen and lectured
Grantley McDonald on Peter Lombard’s Sentences. In 1517, Bishop
Institut für Musikwissenschaft, Universität Wien, Richard Fox appointed Claymond as first presi-
Vienna, Austria dent of Corpus Christi College, a trilingual insti-
tution intended to promote humanistic education,
like similar institutions at Alcalá (1508), Leuven
Abstract (1518), and Paris (1530). Claymond held several
John Claymond was a prominent representa- benefices and used their income to support stu-
tive of early Tudor humanism and the first dents at Magdalen, Brasenose, and Corpus Christi
president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Colleges. Besides his own extensive (and exten-
His most extensive scholarly work is a sively annotated) library, Claymond built up the
20-volume commentary on the Natural His- college library at Corpus Christi College, for
tory of Pliny the Elder (Corpus Christi College, example, with books from the estate of the
Oxford, MSS 178–181; Basel, English Hellenist William Grocyn. Corpus Christi
Universitätsbibliothek, MS K I 4). His com- College would train many prominent figures in
mentaries on Plautus and Aulus Gellius sixteenth-century England. Its strength in medical
are lost. learning was probably a result of the influence of
Thomas Linacre on Claymond and other early
Keywords members of the college, such as John Clement
Commentaries; Oxford; Pliny; Tudor and Edward Wotton.
humanism The earliest curriculum of Corpus Christi is
somewhat unclear. Fox prescribed seventeen
authors whose works were to be expounded by
the lecturer in humanities, an office that
Biography Claymond apparently held until the end of his
life. Among these was Pliny, whose encyclopedic
Claymond was admitted to Magdalen College, but uncritical writings on political and natural
Oxford, in 1484, and appointed fellow in 1488. history – astronomy, geography, zoology, botany,
In 1499 he was ordained as priest and perhaps met and mineralogy – were known throughout the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_474-1
2 Claymond, John
Middle Ages. Despite the strong reception of Two plans to publish Claymond’s Pliny com-
Pliny in the Middle Ages, the received text in mentary foundered. The first was initiated by the
print, based principally on continental manu- Basel humanist Simon Grynaeus and the printer
scripts, was partially corrupt. Although the Johannes Bebel, who gathered manuscript mate-
accuracy of some of Pliny’s statements was rials in England in 1531 and 1532. Sixteen
questioned in the fifteenth century – in 1492, volumes of Claymond’s commentary are pre-
Niccolò Leoniceno published a refutation of served in Basel, presumably brought in prepara-
Pliny’s errors in medicine – many scholars tion for this edition, which never appeared. In the
remained hopeful that improving the text of 1560s, the Basel printer Johannes Oporinus tried
Pliny or gaining further insight into his technical to revive the project, soliciting further materials
vocabulary would resolve these apparent from the English medical humanist John Caius,
difficulties. but this plan also failed, probably because the
Several important early manuscripts of Pliny work was simply too long. Among the few con-
were preserved in England, and some medieval temporaries who cited Claymond’s commentary
British writers – Aldhelm, Bede, John of was Edward Wotton, who drew upon it for his
Salisbury, and Roger Bacon – had commented commentary on Aristotle’s On the parts of ani-
upon his work. Claymond used manuscripts at mals (1552). Despite its limited reception,
Oxford to improve the received text by using the Claymond’s commentary on Pliny represents a
philological methods developed by Poliziano and peak of early Tudor humanist erudition.
Beroaldo. He mined the works of ancient
authorities – Galen, Hippocrates, Dioscorides,
Celsus, Paul of Aegineta, Ptolemy, Strabo,
Cross-References
Pomponius Mela, Columella, Varro, Cato,
Aelianus, Solinus, Aristotle, and
Theophrastus – and modern writers – Barbaro,
▶ More, Thomas
L’Aigue, Rhenanus, Budé, and Tunstall – to verify
▶ Natural History
Pliny’s assertions. (It was not until later in the
sixteenth century that readers of Pliny tested his
assertions more persistently against natural obser-
vations.) However, he sometimes heaped up References
authorities uncritically and occasionally repeated
their errors of citation. Claymond was perhaps Fowler, Thomas. 1893. The history of Corpus Christi Col-
lege. Oxford: Oxford Historical Society.
prompted to pursue philology rather than engage Woolfson, Jonathan. 1997. John Claymond, Pliny the
with the controversies of the vita activa after Elder, and the early history of Corpus Christi College,
witnessing the fall of the political humanist Oxford. English Historical Review 112: 882–903.
Thomas More.
C
Compton, Thomas eventually took his fourth religious vow on

21 May 1628. He returned to France to teach
Born: Cambridge, 1591 literature in the Jesuit College at St. Omer, near
Calais. Late in 1639 Carleton left for the Jesuit
Died: Liege, 24 March 1666 College in Liege where he was a professor of
philosophy, then theology, followed by sacred
Victor M. Salas scripture (Doyle, p. 4).
Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, MI, USA During his time in Liege, Carleton authored
his Philosophia Universa [PU] (which would
later be republished posthumously in 1697 as
Abstract the Cursus philosophicus universus [McCormick,
p. 80]). As the title suggests, this work covered
Thomas Compton Carleton, S.J., was a the entire spectrum of philosophical topics
seventeenth-century English Jesuit philosopher- including logic, metaphysics, physics, genera-
theologian. His major philosophical work, the tion, corruption, the heavens, and the soul. After
Philosophia Universa, is a model of Jesuit peda- giving some preliminary definitions of logical
gogical practice insofar as it stays true to a fun- terms such as subject, predicate, copula, discus-
damentally Aristotelian vision of philosophy, as sions of kinds of proposition, and rules for syllo-
required by the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum, but gistic reasoning (fols. 1–27) in his introduction to
expresses originality in its theses and tenor. logic that runs for seven disputations, Carleton
composes a much lengthier Disputationes in
universam Aristotelis Logicam, which ranges
Biography over 50 disputations (McCormick, p. 80). As the
nature of the topics Carleton treats indicates, he
Thomas Compton Carleton, S.J. (Cambridge, was largely taking his direction from Aristotle’s
1591; Liege, 24 March 1666), was a Jesuit own philosophical outlook, although the Jesuit is
philosopher-theologian who was born at the end by no means a slavish commentator on the Stag-
of the sixteenth century in Cambridgeshire, irite’s work. Rather, as some have suggested,
England (Doyle, p. 4). In 1617 he joined the Carleton’s pedagogical commitment to the Jesuit
Society of Jesus and began his formation at the Ratio Studiorum, which mandates that in things
English College in Douai, France. Carleton was philosophical the thinking of Aristotle should be
ordained a priest there in 1622 and later, in 1625, followed, is clearly at work (McCormick, p. 80).
returned to his native England where he
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_475-1
2 Compton, Thomas
Like many other Jesuit scholastics from the clarity in expression and Descartes’ ambivalence
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (e.g., in the positions he takes, which philosophical
Fonseca, Suárez, Lynch, Semery, Wietrowski), commitments seem to be more a matter of polit-
Carleton also address the issue of supertranscen- ical expediency rather than philosophical com-
dentality. He does so in the context of his logic, mitment (ibid.). Also, in matters pertaining to
more specifically in his treatment of the nature physics, Carleton thinks Descartes has gone too
and division of terms (de divisione terminorum), far in dissolving the notion of “substantial forms”
which fall into one of the following: “transcenden- and he even offers theological reasons for finding
tal, supertranscendental, and non-transcendental” problematic Descartes’ rejection of accidental
(PU, d. 2, s. 6, n. 5; fol. 8). Transcendental terms, forms (ibid., p. 81).
explains Carleton, are those that can be said of Carleton followed his Philosophia Universa
everything and are the standard six: “res, ens, with a work devoted to ethics in 1653, the Pro-
verum, bonum, aliquid, unum” (ibid.). Supertran- metheus Christianus seu liber moralium, and a
scendental terms, however, are those that can be two-part theological treatise, Cursus theologici:
said of more than only “real things” and can be tomus prior (1659) and tomus posterior (1662).
“affirmed of fictions” (ibid.). Here, Carleton has in Only a few years after his publication of this last
mind the “imaginable” and the “possible” (ibid.). work, Carleton died in Liege on 24 March 1666
Later in his Philosophia Universa in a discussion (Doyle, p. 4).
of ens rationis, Carleton goes so far as to suggest
that beings of reason, though they do not have
“physical” or “real” existence, have “intentional References
existence” effected by the intellect (ibid., d. 15,
s. 3, n. 6; fol. 75). This intentional being would Primary
thus be considered supertranscendental according Cursus theologici: tomus posterior. Liege: Ex Officina
Typographica Ioannem Mathiae Hovii. 1662.
to the divisions established earlier (cf. Doyle).
Cursus theologici: tomus prior. Liege: Ex Officina
Finally, non-transcendental terms are those that Typographica Ioannem Mathiae Hovii. 1659.
have a “limited signification and essence,” such Philosophia universa. Antwerp: Apud Iacobum Meursium.
that they do not extend to all things but only to 1649.
Prometheus Christianus seu liber moralis. Antwerp: Apud
some, such as “man, horse, lion, etc.” (PU, d. 2,
Iacobum Meursium. 1652.
s. 6, n. 5; fol. 8).
Also noteworthy with the Philosophia
Secondary
Universa, published only a year before René Doyle, John P. 1988. Thomas Compton Carleton S.J.: On
Descartes’ death, is the fact that in it Carleton words signifying more than their speakers or makers
offers occasional criticisms of the Father of Mod- know or intend. Modern Schoolman 66: 1–28.
McCormick, J.F. 1937. A Jesuit contemporary of Des-
ern Philosophy (McCormick, p. 80). These criti-
cartes. Modern Schoolman 14: 79–82.
cisms are largely directed to a perceived lack of
C
Conway, Anne Introduction
Born: 1631 Anne Conway (née Finch), Viscountess Conway

and Killultagh (1631–1679), is best remembered
Died: 1679 as the author of a book published posthumously,
The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern
Alvin Snider Philosophy. First translated into Latin as Principia
Department of English, University of Iowa, Iowa philosophiae antiquissimae et recentissimae
City, IA, USA (Amsterdam 1690), it appeared later as a
re-translation into English of the probably lost
original manuscript (Conway 1692). Writing at a
Abstract time when a substantial segment of the market for
Anne Conway (1631–1679) is best remem- printed books centered on devotional subjects and
bered as the author of a single book published when literate women confided their opinions to
posthumously, The Principles of the Most manuscript, diaries, and letters, Conway belongs
Ancient and Modern Philosophy. Conway to a humanist tradition of “the learned lady.” An
worked out a metaphysics to account for the object of satire in comedies by Ben Jonson,
relationship between matter and spirit and Molière, and Aphra Behn, learned ladies also
found models for her writing in the philosoph- won their share of praise and admiration.
ical and theological disputes of the day. Her Conway’s great gift for doing philosophy was
treatise owes a particular debt to Jewish recognized by a few contemporaries and preserved
Cabbalism and English Quakerism. Conway for posterity in a single treatise (Conway 1996).
based her philosophy on a spiritual monism
that has affinities with vitalism while running
counter to the mechanistic theories that shaped Biography
seventeenth-century scientific thought. Her
book offers an eclectic mix that combines a Conway joined the privileges of wealth and ped-
monistic theory of substance with Neoplatonist igree to the benefits of private tutoring. Born to Sir
doctrines on the spirit of nature and sets forth a Heneage Finch and his wife, Elizabeth Craddock,
philosophy that remained in the shadows until her father died a week before her birth in 1631.
its rediscovery in the twentieth century. Considered unfit as a woman to attend university,

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_476-1
2 Conway, Anne
she received instruction in the London mansion encouraged her to make sense of how the mind
that eventually became Kensington Palace. Her and body suffer in conjunction and to develop a
family recruited Henry More (1614–1687), the theodicy justifying the very existence of human
Cambridge Platonist, to teach her religion and suffering. Her life experience, as a result, directly
philosophy, and the two struck up a friendship underwrites important aspects of her philosophy
that lasted from 1650 until her death. Their corre- and its characteristic concerns (Hutton 2004b).
spondence is preserved and available in a
twentieth-century edition (Nicolson and Hutton
1992). More held Conway in the highest regard Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
and in the dedication to one of his books
commended her “singular Wit and Vertues” The anonymous publication of the Principia
(More 1655). In 1651, she married Edward Con- philosophiae, under the supervision of van
way and took up residence at Ragley Hall, the Helmont, brought before the literate public a
family seat in Warwickshire. Fortunate in her thinker well versed in the philosophy of her day.
marriage as in her mentor, Viscountess Conway In it she asserts positions that owes more to the-
assumed a place within an intellectual circle of ology, especially Jewish Cabbalism, than to the
family and friends and gained access to an exten- writings of René Descartes, chosen as a maı̂tre à
sive library assembled by her father-in-law. Her penser by many of her contemporaries. Despite
husband, made a fellow of the Royal Society in its her criticism of Descartes, we find certain com-
first decade and created Earl of Conway in 1679, monalities. Where Descartes posits the existence
moved through the overlapping spheres of poli- of three kinds of substance – God, mind, and
tics, religion, and philosophy. Among the guests body – Conway’s own tripartite hierarchy divides
invited to Ragley were Ralph Cudworth, Joseph among God, a middle term she identifies with
Glanvill, and Jeremy Taylor. Francis Mercury van Christ, and the creation. Conway introduces
Helmont – a physician, Christian Cabbalist, and Christ, or “Middle Nature,” or “Adam Kadmon”
chemist – had a profound impact on her thinking to fill in gaps left by a theory of dualism that she
toward the end of her life, when she also had read critically and found wanting. This middle
conversations with early Quakers such as George type combines properties but occupies a separate
Fox and George Keith. Conway supplied a bridge niche rather than sliding along a continuum.
for members of her circle: van Helmont, for exam- Christ stands as an intermediary between divine
ple, served as her personal physician and began to perfection and a creation regarded as a single
attend Quaker meetings in 1675. Conway’s com- substance comprised of numberless “monads”
mitment to devising a metaphysics to account for (not a term she uses frequently), which combine
the relationship between matter and spirit chimed spirit and matter (Duran 2006). In the last cate-
both with the general European zeitgeist and with gory, she gathers all creation, positing the exis-
more local theological and scientific controversies tence of a unified material world subject to
(Duran 2006). Her conversion to Quakerism at the mutability. If a thing were incapable of corruption,
end of her life, against the wishes of friends and she reasons, it would be, in essence, God, whose
family, inserts her monism into a specifically divine attributes include immutability. Opposed to
English (and non-aristocratic) context. Just as materialism no less than to Cartesian dualism,
Quakers regarded all bodies as replete with spirit, Conway rejects any picture of the world that treats
Conway affirms the presence of spirit in all things, nature as mechanical or machinelike, regarding it
while avoiding any imputation of pantheism by as endued with life and the powers of movement
treating Christ as an intermediary between God and perception. One recent study of Conway
and nature (Byrne 2007). She suffered from locates in her religious naturalism and vitalism
chronic pain throughout her life, particularly an ethos that opposes the domination of nature
from excruciating headaches, and her monism and points toward a philosophy that places
Conway, Anne 3
humanity in a new relation with other sentient Impact and Legacy

beings (White 2008). For some readers, her work
offers hints, if not a model, for a feminist episte- A nineteenth-century commenter described Con-
mology and a conception of nature that breaks way as “the profoundest and most learned of the
with paradigms long dominant in the West. female metaphysical writers of England” (Broad
2002; quoted p. 65). Earlier, Gottfried Wilhelm
Liebniz acquired some familiarity with her work,
Innovative and Original Aspects but the extent of Conway’s influence on his
monadology remains doubtful (Brown 1990,
The influences that molded Conway’s philosophy 83–84). Conway’s book presents a pathway
were varied and eclectic (Hutton 2004a). The diverging from the mechanist materialism that
Platonism of her mentor Henry More remains eclipsed other systems in the seventeenth century,
visible in much of her thinking. More considered while not abandoning natural philosophy alto-
Cartesian dualism unequal to the task of gether. The author of the Principles found the
explaining the interaction of mind and matter moral implications of Cartesian mechanism
and offered a more fluid model of interaction to objectionable and disallowed the sort of material-
take its place. Conway built her system on More’s ism she encountered in modern philosophers such
foundation. The notion of the monad had roots in as Thomas Hobbes and Baruch Spinoza (Hutton
Renaissance Neoplatonist rewritings of the Cab- 2008). In their place she established what one
bala by figures such as Christian Knorr von contemporary student of her writings describes
Rosenroth (1636–1689), whose grounding in as “a clearly argued concern for all of nature,
Jewish learning went far deeper than the dabbling and the place of humankind within that nature”
of his contemporaries. In 1670 van Helmont met (Duran 2006), an intellectual departure that con-
Henry More and introduced him to Knorr’s work, tinues to give rise to new appreciations of
and the combined influence of the men inspired her book.
Conway to undertake a serious study of
cabbalistic texts in translation. Working toward a
synthesis of Quakerism and Cabbalism became a Cross-References
goal of Conway and some of her friends who
wrestled with questions involving the nature of ▶ Cambridge Platonists
God and His creation. For example, the ▶ Henry More
Cabbalistic notion of an indwelling spirit – the ▶ Metaphysics – Renaissance Philosophy
Shekinah (‫ )שכינה‬or presence of God – in some ▶ Renaissance Kabbalah
respects resembles the Quaker idea of the Inward ▶ Women Writing
Light or the Christ within. Conway also broke
with the dualism of much Christian theology by
regarding soul and body as a single substance, References
drawn together by their attraction for one another.
The affinity of soul for body arises from the sim- Primary Literature
ilarity and desire they both have to unite with one Conway, Anne. 1692. The principles of the most ancient
and modern philosophy concerning God, Christ, and
another. Any “body” bereft of spirit and percep-
the creatures... translated out of the English into Latin.
tion becomes dead matter or no body at all, anal- .. and now again made English (trans: J. C.) London.
ogous to the difference between a person and a Conway, Anne. 1996. The principles of the most ancient
corpse. Between soul and body, there exists a and modern philosophy (trans: Allison P. Coudert and
Taylor Corse). Cambridge: Cambridge University
“love” that rests on their shared single nature
Press.
and mutual recognition of goodness in one More, Henry. 1655. An antidote against Atheism: Or, an
another (Broad 2002). appeal to the natural faculties of the mind of man,
4 Conway, Anne
whether there be not a God, 2nd ed. London: William Duran, Jane. 2006. Eight women philosophers: Theory,
Morden. politics and feminism. Champaign: University of Illi-
Nicolson, Marjorie Hope, and Sara Hutton, eds. 1992. The nois Press.
Conway letters: The correspondence of Anne, Vis- Hutton, Sarah. 2004a. Anne Conway: A woman philoso-
countess Conway, Henry More, and their friends, pher. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1642–1684. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Hutton, Sarah. 2004b. Conway, Anne, Viscountess Con-
way and Killultagh (1631–1679). In Oxford dictionary
of national biography, online ed., Sept. 2010, 10.1093/
ref:odnb/6119.
Broad, Jacqueline. 2002. Woman philosophers of the sev-
Hutton, Sarah. 2008. Lady Anne Conway. In The Stanford
enteenth century. Cambridge: Cambridge University
encyclopedia of philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/
Press.
archives/fall2008/entries/conway/
Brown, Stuart. 1990. Leibniz and More’s cabbalistic circle.
White, Carol Wayne. 2008. The legacy of Anne Conway
In Henry More (1614–1687): Tercentenary
(1631–1679): Reverberations from a mystical natural-
studies, ed. Sara Hutton. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
ism. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Byrne, David. 2007. Anne Conway, early Quaker thought,
and the new science. Quaker History 96: 24–35.
C
Cox, Leonard The Art or Crafte of Rhetoryke, the first

English rhetorical handbook based on
Born: c. 1495, Thame, Oxfordshire Melanchthon’s Institutiones rhetoricae.
Through his ambitious, though incomplete,
Died: in or after 1549, England? translation project which meant to cover other
works by Erasmus, Cox intended to expand his
Ágnes Juhász-Ormsby educational mission not only to grammar
Department of English, Memorial University of schools but also to the general public of the
Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada newly reformed English commonwealth.
Abstract Alternate Names

The Welsh humanist scholar, poet, and educa-
tor Leonard Cox is remembered mostly for his Leonardus Coxus
involvement in Erasmian circles in Poland and
the Kingdom of Hungary, as well as his contri-
bution to the educational and religious reforms Biography
of the 1530s and 1540s in England. During his
extended stay in Central Europe, he was instru- Although Cox’s place of birth cannot be
mental in disseminating Erasmus’s and ascertained from extant documents, his matricula-
Melanchthon’s works, and his publications tion record at the University of Tübingen suggests
include educational treatises, editions of and that he was born around 1495 in Thame, Oxford-
commentaries on classical and Neo-Latin shire, to a family of Welsh descent. His early
authors, and occasional poetry addressed to education in England is similarly shrouded in
prominent figures associated with the Univer- mystery. He may have studied at the free school
sity of Kraków and the Polish court of Sigis- at Reading, where he would later return as school-
mund I. After returning to England, Cox master, before he set out on his lengthy peregri-
became an evangelical reformer and continued, nation on the continent, which started in the early
with lasting effect, popularizing continental 1510s and lasted until his return to England
humanist ideas in the vernacular through his around 1529. According to the English humanist,
English translation of Erasmus’s The Para- antiquarian, and royal librarian, John Leland’s
phrase of Erasmus Roterdame upon the Epistle encomium, Cox had spent some time in Paris,
of Saint Paule unto His Discyple Titus and his likely in the early 1510s. Cox may have attended
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_478-1
2 Cox, Leonard
the University of Paris, where he likely befriended the invitation of his humanist friend, Johann
the English humanist and linguist John Palsgrave Henckel, Cox interrupted his stay in Kraków in
and the French scholar, engraver, and first royal 1520 to become schoolmaster first in the town
printer Geoffroy Tory, whose scholarly activities school of Lőcse (Leutschau, Levoča, Slovakia)
he would later commend in two poems appended and in 1521 in Kassa (Kaschau, Košice, Slovakia)
to Palsgrave’s French grammar and English- then both lying within the Kingdom of Hungary.
French dictionary, Lesclarcissement de la langue Cox’s publications during his sojourn in Central
francoyse (1530). Cox’s edition of Jerome’s De Europe, his most productive period, reflect the
virginitatis custodia (Cox 1519) further attests marked influence of Italian educational theorists
that he continued to nurture friendships and Erasmus, with whom he exchanged letters in
established in Paris, particularly with Henri 1527 (Epistles 1803, 1824, 1826; Fantazzi 1974).
Estienne the Elder, the Parisian scholar-printer, Following his return to Kraków in 1526, a number
after leaving France. The most formative influ- of Cox’s educational treatises and grammatical
ence on his education came from his professors handbooks intended for students in grammar
at the University of Tübingen, where he matricu- schools appeared in print: Libellus de erudienda
lated on 12 June 1514. He studied under the iuuentute (Cox 1526a), the probably spurious
grammarian Georg Simler, the astronomer Johann Methodus humaniorum studiorum (Cox 1526c),
Stöffler, and most importantly the Praeceptor and an edition of Donatus’s Grammaticae
Germaniae, the humanist scholar and reformer methodus and De octo orationis partibus libellus
Philip Melanchthon, the main inspiration for his (Cox 1526b). Cox’s prolific publications in the
later works published in England (Murphy 2015). period, furthermore, include editions of Erasmus’s
Having earned a B.A. in 1516, Cox arrived, works, such as the anti-Lutheran Hyperaspistes
most likely via Prague, in Kraków, where he reg- (Cox 1526a), Jerome’s Epistola ad Rusticum
istered at the Jagiellonian University on monachum (Cox 1518b) and De virginitatis
24 September 1518, styling himself, like his custodia (Cox 1519), as well as commentaries
friend from Tübingen, Johannes Alexander on classical and Neo-Latin poets: Statius’s Sylvae
Brassicanus (later professor of rhetoric in Vienna), (Cox 1527c), Horace’s Epodon liber (Cox 1527),
as poeta laureatus. In his widely successful inau- Giovanni Pontano’s De laudibus diuinis opuscu-
gural university oration, De laudibus lum (Cox 1520), and Adriano Castellesi’s Venatio
celeberrimae Cracouiensis Academiae (Cox (Cox 1524) (Breeze 1987–1988; Ryle 1992).
1518a), Cox attributed special place to rhetoric, Influenced by Erasmus’ treatise De duplici copia
poetry, and astronomy among the disciplines. He verborum ac rerum commentarii duo, in his com-
subsequently lectured on Livy and the letters of mentaries Cox upheld the stylistic ideals of copi-
Jerome at the Jagiellonian University (Ryle 2003). ousness or abundance of diction (copia), and the
As one of the chief promoters of Erasmus’s works purity of Latin style (puritas), the latter modelled
and methods in Kraków, Cox was deeply involved on Cicero’s writings. Cox’s commentaries that
in the intellectual circles around the Polish court meticulously explicate the proper meaning of
of Sigismund I and was associated with and Latin words found both in classical and
patronized by such prominent civil and ecclesias- Neo-Latin poems were intended to enrich the
tical figures as the royal secretary Justus students’ vocabulary and help them lay the foun-
Ludovicus Decius; the vice-chancellor, later dations of an abundant style by fulfilling the pre-
bishop of Kraków, Piotr Tomicki; the poet and requisites of copia rerum et verborum.
writer, and later primate of Poland, Andrzej Cox himself composed a number of poems,
Krzycki; the grand chancellor Krzysztof mostly commendatory verses appended to a vari-
Szydłowiecki; as well as Tomicki’s political ety of publications by his friends, patrons, and
rivals, Jan Łaski Junior, the later reformer, and associates, which reflect his interests in philoso-
Jan Łaski Senior, the royal secretary and primate phy, theology, and astronomy. Significantly dur-
of Poland (Glomski 2007; Zins 1973, 1994). On ing this period, Cox was also associated with
Cox, Leonard 3
publications that promoted the use of vernacular Reformation. Unlike his earlier politically uncom-
languages, and his poems appeared in the leading mitted publications, Cox’s subsequent writings
Kraków printer Hieronymus Vietor’s edition of responded directly to the religious and educa-
the Dutch educator Johannes Murmellius’s tional reforms prompted by the English Reforma-
Oratiunculae variae (Cox 1527b) and tion and administered by Cox’s new patron,
Dictionarius (Cox 1528), the latter of which Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s secretary and
contained the first printed Polish dictionary. one of the most influential political figures of the
Cox’s only documented contribution to English 1530s. Cox’s translation of The Paraphrase of
politics during his continental peregrination is his Erasmus Roterdame upon the Epistle of Saint
publication of Luther’s epistle to Henry VIII and Paule unto His Dysciple Titus (Cox 1534), in
the English king’s response to the reformer, particular, demonstrates his acute awareness of
Epistola Martini Lutheri ad Henricum VIII, the changing political climate. His strongly anti-
Responsio dicti inuictissimi Angliae ac Franciae papal preface provides an overt declaration of his
regis, defensoris fidei, ac domini Hyberniae, etc. evangelical leanings and reformed position while
(Cox 1527a), which enhanced the Polish king’s advancing to the general reader the reformation
image as defender of Catholic faith on the inter- statutes, especially the controversial Act of
national stage and advanced Cox’s own position Supremacy, which confirmed Henry VIII’s status
in royal circles in Kraków (Glomski 2007; Juhász- as the supreme head of the Church in England.
Ormsby 2012). Cox’s choice of publishing Erasmus’s paraphrase
In 1529, Cox left Poland and returned to on Paul’s letter to Titus must have been instigated
England, presumably because he did not find sta- by Melanchthon, who lectured on Paul’s epistle in
ble employment at the university or among his 1518. It also meant to appeal to Cromwell, who
private pupils. His first known patron in England, was a known sponsor of translations from Eras-
abbot Hugh Cook Faringdon, secured him a teach- mus. Although Cox seemed to have intended to
ing position at the abbey’s foundation, the free dedicate further Erasmian translations, religious
public grammar school in Reading. Although and educational, to Cromwell, he never completed
Cox consolidated his appointment at Reading by the proposed English versions of Erasmus’s
supplicating for the master’s degree in Oxford in Modus orandi Deum and De pueris instituendis
1530, his headmastership was briefly suspended and his paraphrase on Paul’s first and second letter
at the time of the dissolution of Reading Abbey in to Timothy. However, in the dire situation after the
1539 (Emden 1974; Murphy 2015). It was during dissolution of Reading Abbey and the execution
his tenure at Reading that Cox turned to transla- of Faringdon on charges of high treason in 1539,
tion and aided the promotion of educational and Cox turned again to Cromwell with an edition of
religious writings by reform-minded humanists in William Lily’s and Erasmus’ popular Latin gram-
England. While at Reading, he produced his most mar, De octo orationis partium constructione
significant contribution to scholarship, the first libellus, published by the king’s printer Thomas
English rhetorical handbook, The Art or Crafte Berthelet in 1540. Cox considerably expanded
of Rhetoryke (Cox 1532), which was reprinted Lily’s and Erasmus’s text with annotations
within 3 years of its first publication. Cox’s ele- derived from the Westphalian educator Henricus
mentary rhetoric is largely an adaptation of Primaeus’s popular commentary, which he
Melanchthon’s Institutiones rhetoricae supplemented with his own extensive reading
(1521) with added material from Melanchthon’s notes, explanations, and examples from a wide
De rhetorica libri tres (1519), Cicero’s De range of classical and humanist authors. Although
inventione, and his own reading notes. Cox took its appearance coincided with the royal initiative
great pains, however, to remove Melanchthon’s to produce a uniform grammar for common use in
name and antipapal sentiments from his rhetoric, schools throughout the realm, Cox’s annotated
thus avoiding any religious associations during edition was superseded in the same year by
the precarious times preceding the English Lily’s authorized Latin grammar, Institutio
4 Cox, Leonard
compendaria totius grammaticae. Nor was Cox’s well as the spiritual reformation of the English
plan to compose another rhetorical handbook for commonwealth (Juhász-Ormsby 2012).
students’ use, under the proposed title Erotemata
rhetorica, realized. Within months of the publica-
tion of Cox’s new textbook, Cromwell fell out of Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
power and was executed in July 1540. Notwith-
standing Cromwell’s fall, Cox was reinstituted in Cox’s early publications, especially his theoretical
a royal patent to his former position as headmaster treatise on the education of youth, Libellus de
of Reading school in 1541. In 1546 he sold the erudienda iuventute, reveal his indebtedness to
patent and left Reading only to reappear as a Italian humanist educators, as well as Erasmus
participant in another important royal project dur- and Melanchthon (Glomski 1998, 2000; Breeze
ing the reign of Henry VIII’s successor, the Prot- and Glomski 1991). Influenced by Battista
estant Edward VI. In 1549 Cox’s translation of Guarini’s methods, in Libellus Cox emphasized
Paul’s letter to Titus was reprinted in the officially the moral character of the schoolmaster and advo-
sponsored The Seconde Tome or Volume of the cated for a parallel Greek-Latin program in gram-
Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Newe Testa- mar schools. He also adapted Erasmus’s
ment, which was significant in popularizing eccle- recommended list of authors and his guide to
siastical reforms and was ordered to be displayed textual exegesis in De ratione studii (1512),
in every parish church in England by the royal although he delineated a far more rigorous and
injunctions of 1547. According to the testimony systematic curriculum than either Erasmus or the
of the preface, dedicated to his last known patron, Italian pedagogues had. Like Melanchthon, Cox
Cromwell’s former client John Hales, Cox was a stressed the formation of good grammatical
licensed preacher within this period and, due to habits, which he demonstrated in his annotated
the preaching ban imposed in 1548, was working edition of Erasmus’s and Lily’s grammar De
on Greek patristic texts by Mark the Hermit at that octo orationis partium constructione. In his com-
time. With Hales’s imprisonment and subsequent mentary, Cox provides an alternative to the sys-
exile shortly after the publication of the Para- tematically organized precepts of Erasmus’s and
phrase, Cox also disappears from the records, Lily’s grammar, and his notes constitute an ency-
and nothing can be firmly established about his clopedic manual of the Latin language, illustrating
later life or death. Nevertheless, Cox’s last extant the imitative method of instruction. Following the
publication confirms that he maintained his asso- Italian humanist Lorenzo Valla and Erasmus, Cox
ciation with the English court and was patronized based his study of the Latin language on usage,
by people who continued to advance religious attributing authority not only to classical writers
reforms during the reign of Edward VI (Ryle but also to modern interpreters. Furthermore, Cox
2004; Murphy 2015). assigned a central role to the vernacular in ele-
Cox’s Erasmianism, which placed him at the mentary language instruction which led him to
center of the intellectual circles in Kraków, proved produce an English translation of Melanchthon’s
to be an indispensable asset in England and helped Institutiones rhetoricae. Possibly the first part of
him advance his position under both Henry VIII an incomplete series, Cox’s The Art or Crafte,
and Edward VI. The career path that eventually focuses on invention and arrangement and covers
led Cox to resign from his headmastership at the three types of oration with extended, freely
Reading and to devote himself wholeheartedly to translated examples drawn from a broad range of
preaching resembles that of evangelical humanist humanist and classical Greek and Latin works,
educators who converted their Erasmianism among which Cicero’s orations and rhetorical
simultaneously into the production of new text- treatises feature prominently (Carpenter 1899;
books and the introduction of humanist methods Ryle 2003). Like Melanchthon, Cox stressed the
of instruction into English grammar schools, as speaker’s moral character and the role of dialectic
as opposed to stylistic artifice and ornamentation
Cox, Leonard 5
that characterized contemporary school texts language and their call for a systematic vernacular
composed for elementary rhetorical instruction. grammar.
Cox’s educational handbooks popularized Although it is more difficult to trace how his
Erasmus’s precepts concerning the foundation of The Art or Crafte impacted later rhetorical hand-
an abundant style and Melanchthon’s rhetorical books, Cox’s extensive English commentary that
theories first in Central Europe then in England, supplemented Melanchthon’s rhetorical precepts
where the Erasmian (and to a lesser degree and adapted the Erasmian commonplace book
Melanchthonian) pedagogical ideals would define method and textual analysis would be followed
the Henrician school reforms in the first part of the in subsequent educational textbooks intended for
sixteenth century and would consequently effect a English grammar schools, most notably in Nich-
more broadly based education of the general pub- olas Udall’s popular Floures for Latine Spekinge
lic in the vernacular. (1534) and Palsgrave’s rhetorically oriented
English-Latin edition of the Neo-Latin play
Acolastus (1540). It will be Thomas Wilson,
Udall’s student under the reformed humanist cur-
Impact and Legacy
riculum at Eton College, who would continue
Cox’s work in producing the first English treatise
The direct impact of Cox’s educational activities
to provide a comprehensive treatment of rhetoric,
and his promotion of the use of the vernacular in
The Arte of Rhetorique (1553), which he intended
preuniversity instruction is most discernible in his
for the benefit of the general public. Wilson
disciples’ activities in Central Europe. Cox’s stu-
derived some material from Cox’s The Art or
dent in Kassa, the German educator and reformer
Crafte, but more importantly, Wilson’s work,
Leonhard Stöckel’s humanist curriculum,
like that of Cox’s textbooks and commentaries,
founded on Erasmus’s and Melanchthon’s peda-
was deeply informed by both Cicero’s entire rhe-
gogical methods, in his school in Bártfa (Bartfeld,
torical corpus and Erasmus’s educational writ-
Bardejov, Slovakia), would exert considerable
ings. Through its numerous reprints and
influence especially in Lutheran schools within
extensive English examples, Wilson’s Arte of
the Kingdom of Hungary throughout the sixteenth
Rhetorique would profoundly affect not only the
century, earning Stöckel the reputation of
concepts of rhetorical theory but also sixteenth-
Praeceptor Hungariae (Witt 2008). Similarly,
century English letter writing and literature in
the Hungarian humanist Johannes Sylvester, who
general.
studied under Cox in Kraków and contributed to
his edition of Statius, would become a pioneering
educator and an ardent advocate of the Hungarian
Cross-References
language, producing several influential works:
Christopher Hegendorf’s elementary grammar,
▶ Erasmus
Rudimenta grammatices Donati, with an Hungar-
▶ Lorenzo Valla
ian commentary; a Latin-German-Polish-
▶ Philip Melanchthon
Hungarian phrase book based on Sebald Heyden’s
▶ Thomas Wilson
Colloquia puerilia (1527); the first Hungarian
grammar, Grammatica Hungarolatina (1539);
and an Hungarian translation of Erasmus’s
References
Greek-Latin New Testament, Újszövetség (1541)
(Breeze 1987–1988). Cox’s role in championing
Primary Literature
vernacular languages is also apparent in his pref- Cox, Leonard. 1518a. De laudibus celeberrimae
atory poems appended to Palsgrave’s French Cracouiensis Academiae oratio. Cracow: Hieronymus
grammar, in which he highly praised both Tory Vietor.
and Palsgrave for their promotion of the French Cox, Leonard, ed. 1518b. Hieronymus, Epistola ad
Rusticum monachum qua vivendi formam praescribit,
6 Cox, Leonard
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Cox, Leonard, ed. 1540. De octo orationis partium Witt, Bennett K. 2008. Leonard Stöckel: Docta Pietas in
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British treatise upon education: Leonard Cox’s De
C
Cudworth, Ralph Cudworth opposes an argument of the exis-

tence of God that foreruns Locke’s.
Born: 1617, Aller (Somerset)
Died: 26 June 1688, Cambridge
Biography
Andrea Strazzoni
Dipartimento di Antichistica, Lingue, Educazione Cudworth was born in 1617 in Aller (Somerset),
e Filosofia (A.L.E.F.), Università degli Studi di by Ralph Cudworth the elder, fellow of the
Parma, Parma, Italy Emmanuel College of Cambridge, and was edu-
Gotha Research Centre, University and Research cated by his stepfather Richard Stoughton,
Library, Erfurt/Gotha, Germany another fellow of the College. In 1632, he was
admitted there as pensioner, and took his BA in
1635 and his MA in 1639. As a student, Cudworth
Abstract was acquainted with Calvinist theology and with
Ralph Cudworth was an expounder of “Cam- Scholastic philosophy dominating the milieu of
bridge Platonism.” His main tenet is that natu- the Emmanuel. Moreover, he was introduced to
ral phenomena cannot be explained only by the Platonism by his tutor Benjamin Whichcote (Scott
principles of mechanism; therefore, the exis- 1994, 140–143), whose circle was characterized
tence of a “plastic nature,” which orders the by anti-Calvinist positions inspired by the Dutch
world in accordance with divine decrees, has to theologian Jacobus Arminius (Carter 2010a,
be postulated. The order of creation, in turn, 100–102). In 1639, he became fellow of the
does not depend only on divine will but also on Emmanuel, while in 1647 he gave a sermon (Cud-
the essences present in God’s intellect. These worth 1647) at the House of Commons and
essences can be known through the notions became Regius Professor of Hebrew and Master
innate to human soul, which recollects them of Clare Hall. In the following years, he obtained
by means of its active nature. On this basis, the doctorate in divinity (1651) and became Mas-
Cudworth opposes the Calvinist and the ter at the Christ’s College (1654). During the
Hobbesian voluntarism, for which divine will Interregnum (1649–1660), he was favored by the
is the only source of natural and moral laws. patronage of Cromwell’s secretary of state, John
Hobbes is also attacked as a main expounder of Thurloe, and was consulted by Cromwell on the
atheism, which Cudworth traces back to the readmission of the Jews in England. He held his
idea that matter alone is the source of any position at Christ’s College also during the Res-
activity and phenomenon. To this idea, toration, and in 1678 he became prebendary of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_479-1
2 Cudworth, Ralph
Gloucester. He died in Cambridge in 1688. The He distinguishes between four forms of atheism:
main work published during his life was the True hylozoic (or “Stratonical,” as Spinoza’s),
Intellectual System of the Universe (1678), while cosmoplastic (or “Stoical”), atomist
his Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable (or “Democritical,” as Hobbes’s), and
Morality (1731) and Treatise of Freewill (1838) hylopathian: the main kinds being the hilozoic,
appeared after his death. Cudworth was the father according to which matter is alive (as in the
of Damaris, known as Lady Masham (Birch 1820; cosmoplastic hypothesis), and the atomist, for
Hutton 1996, 2013, 2015, 148–158). which matter is brute (as in the hylopatian, based
on forms rather than on atoms) (Cudworth 1964,
Chap. 2; Armour 2008; Russell 2008, 148–149;
Innovative and Original Aspects Giglioni 2008). In order to refute atheism, Cud-
worth develops an argument anticipating Locke’s:
Together with Whichcote, Henry More, and Anne since something exists from eternity, and it cannot
Conaway, Cudworth was part of the Cambridge be matter (which has no power to create particular
Platonists, as he used various Platonic-inspired things), God is the eternal being (Cudworth 1964,
theories in his philosophy. His overall aim was Chap. 4; Scribano 1989; Russell 2008, 113–119).
to counter Hobbes’s and Spinoza’s materialism, The problem of determinism is dealt with in the
atheism, and determinism, which he traces back to Treatise of Freewill and in the Treatise
the perversion operated by Protagoras of the Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality: to
atomism of Moses (Cudworth 1996a, book II; Hobbes’s determinism Cudworth opposes the idea
Hutton 2008, 147–148) and to the Stoics of to hegemonikon, i.e., the power of self-
(Cudworth 1996b, Chaps. 2 and 3; Sellars 2012). determination which is the very principle of indi-
The main tenet of his Intellectual System is that viduation of the self (Cudworth 1996b, Chap. 16;
the phenomena of motion cannot be accounted for Hutton 1996), and which he appropriates from
only in material terms, i.e., by the principles of Alexander of Aphrodisias (Sellars 2012). More-
mechanism. They are explained by the Platonic- over, he criticizes Hobbes’ idea of justice as based
inspired hypothesis of “plastic nature,” which is on convention instead of on a natural justice that
both an immaterial substance and the summation precedes God’s will (Hutton 2015, 132–133).
of the laws of motion by which God teleologically This criticism entails an attack to the Calvinist
orders the world. This notion discards the idea of a theory of the absolute inscrutability of divine
direct action of God on the world (Cudworth will (Passmore 1951, 11–14; Carter 2010a,
1964, Chap. 3; Jacob 1991; Cunning 2003; 100–102; Carter 2011; Attfield 2008),
Allen 2013; Hutton 2013; Russell 2008, undermining the possibility of morality and of
148–150; Bergemann 2012). It also bears witness knowledge (Hutton 2001a). Cudworth opposes
of the Stoic notion of pneuma, although Cudworth to voluntarism a theory of morality and knowl-
rejects the idea that plastic nature is conscious of edge based on Platonic innatism and on the prin-
itself, as it was for the Stoic conception (Giglioni ciples of archetype (model) and ectype (copy): in
2008). To this regard, Cudworth introduced the the same way as the world is a copy of a divine
modern English notion of “consciousness” as the model, ideas (including moral principles) are cop-
awareness of thoughts and actions (Thiel 1991; ies of divine ideas or essences, which are before
Thiel 2011, 67–71; Carter 2010b). The idea of divine will and are recollected by the mind in
plastic nature would later be used by Jean Le virtue of its active power (Cudworth 1996a,
Clerc to criticize the atheists and would be book 4; Scott 1994; Armour 2008; Hutton
attacked by Bayle as it excludes the knowledge 1996). On this basis, Cudworth’s idea of morality
of its ends (Le Clerc 1703–1713; Bayle 1737; has been labelled as “rationalist” in eighteenth-
Simonutti 1993, 1997; Rosa 1994). century debate between rationalists and sentimen-
Secondly, in the Intellectual system, Cudworth talists, although he admits both the role of reason
addresses the atheism of the materialist positions. and passions in motivating right behavior
Cudworth, Ralph 3
(Cudworth 1969; Darwall 1995, 109–148; Gill with a treatise of freewill, ed. S. Hutton, 153–209.
2004; Hutton 2001b). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cudworth, Ralph. 1647. A sermon preached before the
Honourable House of Commons at Westminster. Cam-
bridge: printed by Roger Daniel.
Cudworth, Ralph. 1678. The true intellectual system of the
Cross-References universe: The first part: Wherein all the reason and
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Birch, Thomas. 1820. An account of the life and writings of
the author. Cudworth, Ralph. 1820. In The true intel-
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Colleagues Press.
D
Davenant, William Biography
Born: 1606 William Davenant (D’Avenant, D’avenant)

Died: 1668 spanned three major phases early-modern
England – the late Renaissance, the Puritan
Ronald Levao Commonwealth, and the early Restoration –
Department of English, Rutgers University, New distinguishing himself as a poet and playwright
Brunswick, NJ, USA as well as an active figure in military and political
affairs. Part of his historical reputation is the
legend, which he apparently encouraged, that he
was not only Shakespeare’s godson but also his
Abstract
illegitimate son and, spiritually, his literary heir.
A successful writer of comedies and tragedies for
Davenant’s philosophical interest is explicit and
Shakespeare’s old company, the King’s Men, and
implicit in his work. Disraeli’s romantic praise of
of court masques (elaborate spectacles including
him as “a poet and and a wit... and at all times a
music and dance), he was appointed England’s
philosopher” (Disraeli 1859, p. 404) signals the
poet laureate in 1638. Living in French exile
two-sided appreciation that has been extended
during the early years of the Puritan Common-
and complicated by later intellectual historians
wealth (later termed the Interregnum), he wrote
and critics. Primarily a literary figure, Davenant
his most influential philosophical work, a Preface
helped theorize the emergence of a logically clar-
to his quasi-epic Gondibert. Publishing it in 1650
ified, empirically chastened neoclassicism in
along with Thomas Hobbes’ sympathetic
opposition to what his friend Thomas Hobbes
Answer, he continued to work on the poem itself
called the “ambitious obscurity” of late Renais-
after being captured at sea later that year and
sance aesthetics. Active during an era of political
imprisoned in England, awaiting possible execu-
upheaval, Davenant emphasized rationalized
tion. Pardoned in 1654, he produced informal
order and conservative, royalist loyalties; none-
“entertainments” as well as England’s first
theless, recent scrutiny has been devoted to the
opera despite the Puritan closing of the theaters.
contradictions and ambivalences within his
His career blossomed during the Restoration of
explicit themes and methods.
the monarchy, which also revived English drama;
he became a transformative theatrical manager,
adapting several major Shakespearean plays for

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_480-1
2 Davenant, William
new tastes and pioneering the use of moveable poem that interweaves a projected five-part dra-
scenery and female actors. matic structure with lyric, epic, and romantic
elements, Gondibert was contested as to its liter-
ary quality in its own day and is rarely defended
Heritage and Rupture with Tradition on such terms today. Even so, it draws respect as
a “philosophical poem,” related to earlier Renais-
Davenant’s early works affirm virtuous reconcil- sance works such as Sir John Davies’ Nosce
iation and mutual love in reaction to an anxiety Teipsum (Gladish 1971, pp. x–xvi) and Fulke
about an impending collapse of order – a dra- Greville’s A Treatie of Humane Learning
matic and productive tension articulated by gen- (Davenant had begun his career under Greville’s
erations of Renaissance thinkers and literary patronage). Echoes of Bacon, Hobbes, Harvey,
forebears such as Spenser, Donne, Shakespeare, and others sound throughout, and in the reluctant
and Milton (Haydn 1950, passim; Greenblatt hero’s retreat to the House of Astragon, an insti-
1980, passim; Bouwsma 1990, pp. 157–189). tute of contemplative study and research ruled
Davenant’s attitudes were also complicated over by a wise man, many readers espy the tem-
across his lengthy career by a skepticism about plate of “Salomon’s House” in Francis Bacon’s
the puritanical zeal or improbable idealizations philosophical-scientific utopia, The New Atlantis
that his contemporaries variously posited as rem- (1627). “This was a poem to delight a philoso-
edies for an unsettled culture (Sharpe 1987, pher,” writes Disraeli (Disraeli 1859, p. 408). Of
ch. 2 passim). In Davenant’s pre-revolution greater interest is The Author’s Preface to his
court masque, Salmacida Spolia, part of a genre Much Honor’d Friend, M. Hobbes, published in
that allegorized broad harmonies triumphing over 1650, in advance of the poem itself, together with
discord, recent critics have discerned strains of the philosopher’s concise, generally sympathetic
hostility, obsession, and coercion lurking behind Answer of Mr. Hobbes to Sir Will. D’Avenant’s
high-minded political theory and idealized civil- Preface Before Gondibert. The independent life
ity (Wilcher 2001, pp. 33–35; Sanchez 2011, of these two documents is an ironic outcome for
pp. 168–175). His late works, too, show complex an author so ambitious of literary fame.
engagement with the problematics of order. Though some regard Davenant’s aesthetic
Readers used to dismiss his revisions of Shake- ideas as “pretexts” for political concerns
speare for the Restoration stage as reductive (Zwicker 1993, p. 26), the Preface retains its
mutilations or ill-considered elaborations, but philosophical importance as a “manifesto of
fresh attention has probed the self-consciousness neo-classicism,” channeling and combining con-
of their aesthetic, political, and epistemological tinental and native theory to chasten the manner-
projects. One study sees Davenant’s Macbeth, ist, metaphysical, and baroque tendencies of
despite its added spectacle and music, reworking Elizabethan and Jacobean poetics (Harbage
the darkly mysterious character of the original 1935, p. 197). At once traditional and innovative
through a rational and empirically minded causal (Gladish 1971, p. 18), it values classical
structure (Kroll 1990, passim). Yet another study epic – above all Homer and Virgil – but also
finds in the same play a rehearsal of anti- aligns itself with Moderns over Ancients,
foundational political theory, celebrating presenting the latter’s supernatural machinery
yet also skeptical of transcendent claims for and other improbabilities, especially when aped
authority (Miller 2008, passim). by Moderns, as errors of a dreamlike imagination.
The polarized world of the Civil War and the For Davenant, the moral function of literature,
Interregnum serve as the background to long a humanist concern, requires a balance of
Davenant’s best known work, the uncompleted, restraint and freedom of the probable and intrigu-
narrative epic Gondibert, including its prefatory ing strangeness.
material, written in French exile and English These caveats prepare for Davenant’s location
prisons. An eclectic, professedly “heroick” of poetic Wit at the confluence of painstaking
Davenant, William 3
labor, “lucky resultances,” and “dexterity of of renewing civic virtues may pander as well as
thought.” Wit is essential to “full comprehen- instruct, enabling vicious as well as virtuous ends
sion,” in distinction to facile cleverness, ostenta- (Kahn 2004, pp. 143–145; Chua 2014, passim).
tious conceits, or the pretense to “inspiration,” The relation of Hobbes’s Answer to
which he calls “a dangerous word... a spiritual Davenant’s Preface has been read variously: as
Fitt” (Gladish 1971, pp. 18–22). Supernatural complement, adjustment, or firmer and more con-
mystification recalls claims to prophetic power, cise rationalization. Like Davenant, Hobbes
which “pretend authority over the people.” The attacks unregulated imagination and the pre-
usefulness of poetry, rather, lies in persuading tenses of inspiration on political and epistemo-
readers to moderation, civility, and knowledge- logical grounds. The vainglory of poetic fantasy,
able obedience – an aesthetic solution to political which Hobbes had compared more than a decade
chaos that Davenant championed, despite the earlier to the delusions of Don Quixote, may well
mockery of contemporary satirists for his appar- impel seditious violence (Kahn 2004,
ent self-importance. pp. 142–145). Hobbes now compares affectations
There do remain, however, troublesome para- of prophetic power to farcical or incompetent
doxes in Davenant’s version of poetic persuasion. conjurers summoning ungovernable spirits or
Renaissance didactic theory often promises to storms. Instead of truth and “Reformation,” dis-
reach a broad audience, but Davenant’s poetry cord and tumult may be the consequence of a
of “Courts and Camps,” with “patterns fit to be “man enabled to speake wisely from the princi-
imitated,” aims only at the elite, “the most nec- ples of nature and his own meditation” yet pre-
essary Men,” with the “common Crowd” tamed ferring “to be thought to speake by inspiration,
by legal precept and punishment or, more opti- like a bagpipe” (Gladish 1971, pp. 48–49). True
mistically, by imitating the rules embodied in knowledge, Hobbes contends, is scrupulous and
their leaders’ imitations (Gladish 1971, p. 13). self-aware. It submits experience of Nature to
Epistemological shifts are likewise tricky in memory (fabled mother of the muses), thence to
their search for scrupulous balance. We must, her twin offspring, judgment, and fancy, which, if
Davenant stresses, eschew fantastical indulgence guided by true Philosophy, produce all that sepa-
for the sake of probability, but we must also be rates civility from barbarity. As in politics and
wary of the “bond to truth” that plagues “austere philosophy, so in literature, the “limit of Poetic
Historians”: “Truth narrative, and past, is the Liberty” constrains the “exhorbitancy” of
Idoll of Historians, (who worship a dead thing) “strange fictions” to a proper resemblance of
and truth operative, and by effects continually truth in a world of matter and motion. And though
alive, is the Mistress of Poets, who hath not her Hobbes’s emphasis alters in other works
existence in matter, but in reason” (Gladish 1971, depending on context, he insists that even the
pp. 10–11). Grafting Philip Sidney’s enthusiasm most delightful poetic fancy must play the role
for poetic fictions onto Bacon’s sharp-eyed, of philosopher as well as poet, “to furnish and
empiricist critique of Idols, Davenant seeks to square her matter” (Gladish 1971, pp. 50–51).
whet the rational appetite, “bringing Truth (too
often absent) home to mens bosoms,” enlivened
“in an unusuall dresse” (Gladish 1971, p. 20). But Impact and Legacy
this project also reflects a complex insight into
the psychology of didacticism, acknowledging While Davenant’s legacy is more conspicuous for
the imaginative power needed to rouse the virtu- the theater than for philosophy, it has resonance
ous, who often have “too little appetite for great- for speculation as well. His Preface, together
ness” to match the ambition of the vicious with Hobbes’s Answer, has shared in the disap-
(Gladish 1971, p. 13). A similar riskiness appears proval sometimes leveled at the new “rationalis-
in his treatment of the affections in poetry and tic spirit” for its “stringent classicism,” its
politics: to raise and direct passions for the sake “confinement of the imagination,” and worse:
4 Davenant, William
“Something had gone out of life... In Davenant Routledge, Warne, and Routledge. Available on Pro-
and Hobbes the fire is gone” (Spingarn [1899] ject Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30745/
30745-h/30745
1963, p. 164; Hall 1963, p. 56.). But restraint in Dobson, M. 1992. The making of the national poet: Shake-
one direction opens range and dexterity in speare, adaptation and authorship, 1660–1769.
another, one sign of which is the tone each takes Oxford: Clarendon Press.
in addressing the other. For both writers, philos- Dowlin, C. 1934. Sir William Davenant’s ‘Gondibert,’ its
preface, and Hobbes’s answer: A study in English
ophizing allows “perspicuity, property, and Neoclassicism. Philadelphia: University Microfilms.
decency” to excite the mind to “curiosity, which Edmond, M. 1987. Rare Sir William Davenant: Poet
is a delightfull appetite of knowledge” (Gladish laureate, playwright, civil war general, restoration
1971, p. 52). Hobbes ends his Answer with a theatre manager. Manchester: Manchester University
Press.
double act of wit as Davenant had defined Gilbert, K., and H. Kuhn. 1953. A history of esthetics.
it. First he reproaches his companion seriocomi- New York: Dover Publications.
cally for his careless repetition of the cliché that Greenblatt, S. 1980. Renaissance self-fashioning.
age is a second childhood. Endless curiosity and Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Harbage, A. 1935. Sir William Davenant: Poet venturer,
openness to the future fends off mental decline, 1606–1668. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
he reminds his much younger friend. The friendly Press.
jab is followed by an ingenious compliment to the Hall, V. 1963. A short history of literary criticism.
notoriously disfigured Davenant, whose nose had New York: New York University Press.
Haydn, H. 1950. The counter-renaissance. New York:
collapsed years earlier because of mercury “treat- Harcourt, Brace & World.
ments” for syphilis. In a “far-fetched” similitude, Kahn, V. 2004. Wayward contracts: The crisis of political
allowable because apt and comely (Gladish 1971, obligation in England, 1640–74. Princeton University
p. 53), Hobbes imagines the characters of Press.
Kroll, R. 1990. Emblem and empiricism in Davenant’s
Gondibert with their multiple virtues as frag- Macbeth. English Literary History 57: 835–864.
ments of their author, all reassembled in the Kroll, R. 1991. The material world: Literate culture in the
mind’s eye of the reader into his perfect portrait, restoration and early eighteenth century. Baltimore:
as if composed in the tube of a multifaceted Johns Hopkins University Press.
Miller, T. 2008. The two deaths of Lady Macduff:
perspective glass (Gladish 1971, p. 55). Antimetaphysics, violence, and William Davenant’s
restoration revision of Macbeth. Political Theory 36:
856–882.
References Raddadi, M. 1979. Davenant’s adaptations of Shake-
speare. Uppsala: Cambridge University Publishers.
Orrell, J. 1985. The theatres of Inigo Jones and John
Primary References Webb. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gladish, D. F., ed. 1971. Sir William Davenant’s Potter, L. 1989. Secret rites and secret writing: Royalist
Gondibert. Oxford: Clarendon Press. literature, 1641–1660. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
Maidment, J., and W. H. Logan, eds. 1872–74; rpt. 1964. University Press.
The dramatic works of Sir William D’Avenant, Sanchez, M. 2011. Erotic subjects: The sexuality of poli-
with prefatory memoir and notes, 5 vols. New York: tics in early modern English literature. New York:
Russell & Russell. Cambridge University Press.
Sharpe, K. 1987. Criticism and compliment: The politics
Secondary References of literature in the England of Charles I. Cambridge,
Bordinat, P., and S.B. Blaydes. 1981. Sir William Dave- UK: Cambridge University Press.
nant. Boston: Twayne. Spingarn, J. 1963. A history of literary criticism in the
Bouwsma, W. 1990. Anxiety and formation of early- renaissance [1899]. New York: Harcourt, Brace &
modern culture. In A usable past: Essays in European World.
cultural history. Berkeley: University of California Wilcher, R. 2001. The writings of royalism, 1628–1660.
Press. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Chua, B. 2014. The purposes of playing on the post civil Zwicker, S.N. 1993. Lines of authority: Politics and
war stage: The politics of affection in William English literacy culture, 1649–1689. Ithaca: Cornell
Davenant’s dramatic theory. Exemplaria 26: 39–57. University Press.
Disraeli, I. 1859. Davenant and a club of wits [1814]. In
Calamities and quarrels of authors. London:
D
Dee, John Biography
Born: London, 13 July 1527 John Dee matriculated at St. Johns, Cambridge, at
aged 15 where most of his teachers were Catholic
Died: London, 26 March 1609 humanists and that study in Britain prepared him
for his advanced work in Europe. Aside from
Noam Flinker logic and mathematics, Dee began to study
Department of English Language and Literature, alchemy at St. Johns. After taking his MA and
University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel becoming an underreader in Greek at Trinity
(Cambridge), he studied advanced mathematics
and civil law at Louvain in the Netherlands. At
Abstract Cambridge and Louvain, he studied alchemy and
Mathematician, geographer and navigational astrology with an emphasis on advanced mathe-
expert, John Dee combined a firm grasp of matics, navigation, and geography. Throughout
sixteenth century science with his occult stud- his career, Dee would integrate these apparently
ies of alchemy and Kabbalah. Intellectually diverse interests. At Louvain he conferred with
attuned to Renaissance Europe, he often European intellectuals such as Gerard Mercator,
found it necessary to defend himself against Gemma Frisius, Antonius Gogava, and later with
accusations of conjuring and the practice of Guillaume Postel in Paris. With his return to Trin-
black magic. He prepared horoscopes for roy- ity (1548), he added to the research the materials
alty and, while highly respected by Elizabeth he brought from Europe and later failed to interest
and many of her courtiers, was likewise feared Queen Mary in establishing a library to gather rare
and even mocked by others. His practice of texts endangered by the dissolution of the monas-
trying to consult with angels in order to extend teries. Dee unsuccessfully petitioned Mary and
his scientific investigations made him depen- then Elizabeth for advancement that would help
dent upon the manipulative assistance of fund his research. Although ordained a Roman
“scryers” or interpreters of mystical appear- Catholic priest (1554), Dee married twice and
ances in special show stones. His lack of social remained relatively unconcerned with the rituals
and political tact generally prevented him from of either the Roman Catholic or a Protestant
gaining any material benefit from Elizabeth’s Church. Elizabeth constantly encouraged Dee
belief in his knowledge and insight. about possible livings, but the politicians required
to facilitate the appointments avoided finalizing
them. His expertise in geography and navigation
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_482-1
2 Dee, John
made him a key resource in the search for a His studies with Mercator made him an expert in
northwest passage. Although he amassed a huge geography and navigation. The vast private
library which he opened to various scholars, many library that he managed to amass allowed him to
of his books and manuscripts were stolen during share and sell knowledge to his contemporaries.
an extended stay in Europe (1583–1589). He
believed that his scientific endeavors had to be
supplemented by his occult research. His exper-
Impact and Legacy
tise in mathematics and navigation was of major
importance for his time but his reliance on com-
Dee’s well-known work on mathematics, geogra-
munication with angels made it possible for others
phy, and navigation made him esteemed yet
to deceive him and distort his material measure-
feared during his lifetime. Meric Casaubon’s pub-
ments and understanding. He claimed that he had
lication of his diaries made Dee a laughing stock
been offered a permanent position by at least one
of the Royal Society, especially the account of
European monarch but preferred to wait for some-
wife swapping required by Edward Kelley.
thing similar from Elizabeth. After her death, Dee
Francis Yates (1969) claims that Shakespeare ide-
received little or no support from James and died
alized Dee as Prospero in The Tempest. Peter
penniless in London at age 82.
Ackroyd’s novel (1993) provides a fascinating
fictional treatment of Dee’s life, while Neil
Gaiman’s graphic novel (2003) clearly presents
Dee in the character of Dr. Strange.
Until recently Dee was considered somewhat
insignificant for Elizabethan culture and politics,
but a recent biography (Parry 2011) makes his References
centrality for the queen and her court unmistak-
able. She consulted with Dee many times, Primary Literature
although she rarely rewarded his advice as he Casaubon, Meric. 1659. A true & faithful relation of what
passed for many years between Dr. John Dee . . .and
desired. In 1555 he cast her horoscope (along some spirits. London.
with ones about Mary and Philip) and was even Dee, John. 1558 & 1568. John Dee on astronomy: Pro-
arrested for a short time thereafter, accused of paedeumata aphoristica (1558 and 1568) Latin and
conjuring. In 1564, when Monas Hieroglyphica English, ed. and trans. W. Shumaker. Berkeley: Uni-
versity of California Press, 1975.
was rumored to defend conjuring, Elizabeth Dee, John. 1564. Monas hieroglyphica. In A translation of
silenced the reports. She consulted with him John Dee’s Monas hieroglyphica with an introduction
about alchemy and gave credence to his ultimately and annotations, ed. C.H. Josten. Ambix 12(1964):
false prediction that Spain would invade England 84–221.
Dee, John. 1570. John Dee: The mathematicall praeface to
in the 1590s. Parry shows that Elizabeth and many the elements of geometrie of euclid of megara, ed. Allen
of her courtiers were firm believers in Dee’s mys- G. Debus. New York: Science History Publications,
tical approach to science. 1975.
Dee, John. 1998. The diaries of John Dee, ed. Edward
Fenton. Oxfordshire: Day Books.
MacMillan, Ken with Jennifer Abeles. 2004. John Dee:
Innovative and Original Aspects The limits of the British empire. Westport: Praeger.
Roberts, Julian and Andrew G. Watson. 1990. John Dee’s
Dee was primarily concerned with a scientific library catalogue. London: The Bibliographical
Society.
account of the material world as a significant
aspect of praising God’s creation. In his “Mathe-
matical Preface” to Euclid (1570), he claimed that Secondary Literature
perspective could be used to measure the cosmos Ackroyd, Peter. 1993. The house of doctor Dee. London:
Hamish Hamilton.
so that astronomy became an aspect of astrology.
Dee, John 3
Clucas, Stephen (Ed.). 2006. John Dee: Interdisciplinary Parry, Glynn. 2011. The arch-conjuror of England: John
studies in English renaissance thought. Dordrecht: Dee. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Springer. Sherman, William H. 1995. John Dee: The politics of
French, Peter J. 1972. John Dee: The world of an Elizabe- reading and writing in the English Renaissance.
than Magus. London: Routledge/Kegan Paul. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Gaiman, Neil. 2003. 1602. New York: Marvell Comics. Yates, Frances A. 1969. Theatre of the world. 1969; rpt.
Harkness, Deborah E. 1999. John Dee’s conversations with London: Routledge/Kegan Paul, 1987.
Angels: Cabala, alchemy, and the end of nature. Cam-
bridge: University Press.
E
Everard, John pleading for clemency, submission, release

and re-offence. If that is not enough, Everard
Born: c. 1584 was also engaged in alchemical experimenta-
tion. He thus offers in miniature an opportunity
Died: 1640/41, Fulham to explore two important questions: the sources
of radical social and religious ideas during the
Ariel Hessayon English Revolution and the possible connec-
Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK tions between that radicalism and what is now
considered to come under the umbrella of
“Western Esotericism.”
Abstract
John Everard is not an obscure figure. He has
been seen as an important Quaker forerunner, Biography
as an anticipator of the Leveller Richard Over-
ton’s unadorned prose style, and as a possible John Everard was born about 1584, possibly in the
influence on the Digger Gerrard Winstanley. county of Northamptonshire. It is difficult to dis-
This Cambridge-educated, multilingual Doctor entangle Everard’s early life from several contem-
of Divinity was a politically radical preacher porary namesakes but is likely that he
who objected to the Spanish Match and also matriculated at Clare Hall (now Clare College),
had a deep interest in alchemical, mystical, Cambridge, in the late sixteenth century. Everard
Hermetic, philosophic, and Rosicrucian may be the man of that name who graduated BA in
texts – several of which he copied and trans- 1601 and MA in 1607. Certainly his signature
lated from Latin into English. Besides having subscribing to the 39 articles attests that John
powerful aristocratic patrons, it is noteworthy Everard of Clare, Cambridge, was conferred the
that Everard also appealed to his poorest title of Doctor of Divinity on 5 July 1619. More-
auditors – “beggarly fellows” “despised by over, he may be the John Everard who was suc-
the world.” He was, moreover, a heretic and cessively ordained by the Bishop of Peterborough
charged in the ecclesiastical Court of High as a deacon (15 June 1606) and then priest
Commission with propagating Familism and (11 June 1609).
Antinomianism. Indeed, his entire career In late November or early December 1616,
followed a recognizable pattern: preaching Everard married Elizabeth, orphaned daughter of
incendiary sermons and disseminating hetero- Otho Mawditt (deceased Merchant Taylor) by
dox doctrines, subsequent imprisonment, license in the parish of St. Dunstan-in-the-West,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_485-1
2 Everard, John
London. Thereafter he was appointed lecturer at connected with the recent Catholic massacre of
St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, on Protestants in the Valtelline (July 1620); had com-
1 January 1617 (replaced 19 May 1623); insti- pleted manuscript transcriptions and translations
tuted rector of Hinton Martell, Dorset, on 1 May of several alchemical and mystical writings (some
1621 (replaced 16 January 1622); and of Wilby, of which would be published pseudonymously);
Northamptonshire, on 11 October 1622 (resigned and had undertaken expensive alchemical experi-
10 February 1626). ments, even employing the services of a renowned
From the outset, Everard’s ecclesiastical career furnace maker. The translations indicate Everard’s
followed a recognizable pattern: preaching incen- extensive command of languages, for besides
diary sermons and disseminating heterodox doc- Greek and Latin he consulted works in French
trines, subsequent imprisonment, pleading for and Italian. Furthermore, it can be demonstrated
clemency, submission, and release and that Everard and Sheffield shared mutual acquain-
re-offence. Thus he condemned the Lord Mayor’s tances such as the physician Robert Fludd, not to
and Aldermen’s administration of the Court of mention a common interest in alchemical, mysti-
Orphans at a Paul’s Cross sermon on 11 January cal, philosophic, and Rosicrucian texts.
1618, for which he was censured by the Bishop of On 26 November 1637, a warrant was issued to
London. Then in February 1621, he preached seize Everard’s papers and a poor young cutler
against Spanish cruelty in the West Indies as named Giles Creech accused of holding heretical
well as the proposed marriage of Prince Charles opinions in the ecclesiastical Court of High Com-
to the Spanish Infanta, for which he was mission. Under questioning Creech claimed that
imprisoned in the Gatehouse next to Westminster he had been mixed up with various sects, namely,
Abbey. In August 1622 Everard was committed Familists, Antinomians, and Anabaptists and that
again for saying something he should not have he had been infected with their pernicious doc-
done (the source is not more specific). Indeed so trines through Everard’s teachings. Although
often was Everard in and out of jail – he recalled Creech’s confession was somewhat sensationalist
six or seven occasions – that his notoriety brought even a little muddled at times, many of its details
him to the monarch’s attention. Thus King James can be corroborated – notably Everard’s transla-
reportedly quipped, “What is this Dr. Ever-out? tion and later transcription of Theologia
his name ... shall be Dr. Never-out.” Germanica, which was intended for the Earls of
Yet at an undetermined date, Everard also Holland and Mulgrave (Henry Rich and Edmund
began enjoying aristocratic support. Thus Sheffield).
according to the publisher of his posthumous col- The action against Creech in the Court of High
lected works, “one Lord or the other” would often Commission was but a prelude, setting the stage
beg the king to grant Everard his liberty. These for proceedings against Everard in the same court.
unnamed noblemen were most likely the courtier These, however, dragged on over several law
Henry Rich, who was created earl of Holland in terms. After more than 6 months, articles were
September 1624 and whom Everard would serve eventually drawn up against him. Even so, by
as chaplain; and the vehemently anti-Spanish 29 November 1638, the court had not yet
future first earl of Mulgrave, Edmund Sheffield. responded to Everard’s answers. Then additional
By the time Sheffield became one of his auditors, articles were drawn up. Among the charges were
Everard was living at Fulham, Middlesex, and had that Everard maintained blasphemous opinions
been appointed lecturer at St. Mary Abbots, which undermined the “foundation of Christian
Kensington. In addition, Everard had published a Religion,” notably that God is everything; that the
sermon at the outbreak of the 30 years’ war with a pains of Hell were not eternal; that there would be
Latin dedication to the philosopher Francis Bacon no resurrection of the material body; that after the
entitled The Arriereban (1618); had issued anon- Last Judgment all things would be turned into
ymously a brief account of a preternatural appari- God again; that all Scripture was false if under-
tion which he interpreted as an ominous portent stood literally; and lastly that he cherished the
Everard, John 3
works of Hermes Trismegistus, saying that Tri- References

smegistus gave a clearer exposition of the doctrine
of the Trinity than Moses. Primary Literature
Sentence was passed on 11 July 1639. Those of Everard, John. 1618. The Arriereban: a sermon preached
to the company of the military yarde at St. Andrewes
Everard’s books deemed to contain heretical and
Church in Holborne at St. Iames his day last. By Iohn
schismatic doctrine, especially the Theologia Everarde student in Diuinity, and lecturer at Saint Mar-
Germanica – which along with the Corpus tins in the fields (London, printed by E. G[riffin] for
Hermeticum contained “matter of dangerous Thomas Walkley, and are to be sold at his shop at the
Eagle and Childe in Brittaines Burse, 1618)
consequence” – were to be seized and publicly
Everard, John. 1622. Somewhat: Written by occasion of
burned. Everard was also suspended from all his three sunnes seene at Tregnie in Cornewall, the 22 of
offices and fined the enormous sum £1000. Hav- December last. With other memorable occurents in
ing failed to defend himself adequately against the other places ([London]: Imprinted [by N[icholas]
Okes and T[homas] W[alkley], M.DC.XXII. [1622])
charges, Everard submitted to the court professing
Everard, John. 1653. Some Gospel-treasures opened.
his belief in the “orthodox doctrine of the Church London: R.W. for Rapha Harford.
of England.” On 18 June 1640, he read his sub- Everard, John. 1657. The Gospel treasury opened.
mission on his knees at the Court High Commis- London: John Owsley for Rapha Harford.
sion. His suspension was swiftly lifted, and
2 weeks later his fine rescinded. Throughout the Secondary Literature
course of these legal proceedings, however, Como, David. 2004. Blown by the spirit: puritanism and
Everard had continued undaunted with his trans- the emergence of an antinomian underground in pre-
lations of alchemical and hermetic writings. He civil-war England. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Hayes, T. Wilson. 1981. A seventeenth-century translation
died at Fulham sometime between 18 December of Nicholas of Cusa’s De dato Patris luminum. Journal
1640 and 12 January 1641. of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 11: 113–136.
Everard has been written about continually Hessayon, A. John Everard (c.1584–1640/41): alchemist,
since the mid-nineteenth century. His historio- translator, copyist (forthcoming).
Hunt, Paul. 1977. John Everard: A study in his life, thought
graphical fortune, however, is instructive. and preaching. Unpublished University of California
Accordingly, Everard has been successively Ph. D. thesis.
regarded as a Christian Platonist, an important Jones, Rufus. 1914. Spiritual reformers in the 16th & 17th
forerunner of Quakerism, a precursor of mystical centuries. London: Macmillan.
Schuler, R.M. 1980. Some spiritual alchemies of
enthusiasm, and a harbinger of the political, seventeenth-century England. Journal of the History
social, and religious radicalism that erupted dur- of Ideas 41: 293–318.
ing the English Revolution. Moreover, Everard Smith, Nigel. 1989. Perfection proclaimed: Language and
has been viewed as an anticipator of the Leveller literature in English radical religion 1640–1660.
New York: Oxford.
Richard Overton’s unadorned prose style and a
possible influence on the Digger Gerrard
Winstanley.
F
Filmer, Sir Robert finer – reputation as a thinker whose contribu-

tion to the history of ideas deserves a place
Born: East Sutton, Kent 1588 only a level lower than that of high-caliber
Died: East Sutton, Kent 1653 authors like Hobbes and his archenemy Locke.
Cesare Cuttica
Université Paris 8, Paris, France Biography
Born in a wealthy and influential gentry family,

Abstract Sir Robert’s formative years were similar to those
Victim of John Locke’s late seventeenth- of many young members of his milieu: after
century searing attack aimed to dismantle his matriculating at Trinity College, Cambridge
patriarchalist political ideas, Sir Robert Filmer (1604), where he never graduated, the following
(1588–1653) was for a long time considered year he was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn and 8 years
the villain par excellence in the history of later he enrolled as a member of the Bar despite
political thought. His works were seen as never practicing as a lawyer. Married to Anne
containing archaic, obsolete, and authoritarian Heton, elder daughter of Martin Heton, the pow-
principles. However, thanks to new scholarly erful Bishop of Ely during James I’s reign, Sir
approaches based on the methodology of Robert is mainly known as the author of the noto-
contextualism, Filmer’s writings have been rious Patriarcha (published in 1680 but ready for
studied in connection with the polemics of the publication in the early 1630s) whose sole merit
time during which they were composed. His for many interpreters was to have been picked by
political ideas have thus been analyzed as a John Locke as the main target in the First Treatise
powerful – even though in the long term (1689). Filmer – who besides political tracts such
unsuccessful – theoretical attempt to shape an as The Anarchy of a Limited or Mixed Monarchy
absolutist vision of sovereignty at the center of (1648) and Observations Concerning The Origi-
which stands the king as father of the father- nal of Government, Upon Mr. Hobs Leviathan,
land. This revisiting of Filmerian works has Mr. Milton against Salmasius, H. Grotius De
also cast light on his less-known tracts on Jure Belli (1652) wrote short works on theology,
important early modern issues such as theol- women and the household, witchcraft, and
ogy, women and the household, witchcraft, and usury – came to be associated with the
usury. Ultimately, Filmer has nowadays patriarchalist theory since he insisted on the polit-
acquired a different – that is, ical role of Adam as first king on earth to whom
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_487-1
2 Filmer, Sir Robert
God had assigned absolute power over all crea- indispensable and irrevocable conditions for the
tures and from whom power had then passed on to working of all good and effective politics. In this
kings through the ancient patriarchs. respect, Filmer is one of the early modern thinkers
who did the most to show the faults of democratic
government in ways which are still employed
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition nowadays to criticize this polity: a careless atti-
tude toward the public good, cumbersome mech-
Filmer has been depicted as a narrow-minded anisms of decision-making, high taxation, and
representative of a patriarchal society; as a con- limited viability (e.g., small territories).
ventional absolutist; or, simply, as the exponent of
archaic beliefs which failed to succeed in the
theater of ideas when confronted by the typhoon
Interconnections
of modern philosophy, empirical science, and
social change. Patriarcha has throughout the cen-
Undoubtedly absolutist, Filmerian ideas have
turies attracted a long list of detractors, including
very often been read out of context, that is, with
the philosophe Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Filmer’s
no relation to the debates and controversies in
treatise has been seen as a strong justification for
which they originated. Victim of Locke-inspired
the dominion of fathers/husband/masters over
mockery, Sir Robert was until recently viewed as,
children/wives/servants. His patriarchalism has
at best, a straw man, when not a plain villain, in
been portrayed as the epitome of a personal
the history of political thought where his opinions
authority antithetical to an artificial and liberal
were reputed to be both absurd and oppressive.
conception of politics, as the quintessence of
This historiographical approach failed to engage
women’s subjugation to men, and as a specific
with Filmer’s forceful theory of absolute and arbi-
structure of production and labor characterizing
trary government as the response to authors who
the household.
supported the idea of an original state of nature in
which people were free and equal (e.g., Thomas
Hobbes) and to a growing number of thinkers as
well as MPs who in the first decades of the sev-
enteenth century in England claimed Parliament’s
His originality lies in that Filmer employed a
patriotic role against the king (e.g., Puritan and
conservative political vocabulary
resistance theorists). In addition to these targets,
(patriarchalism) in a radical fashion to demon-
Filmer attacked Jesuits such as Robert Bellarmine
strate that an all-powerful monarch was the sole
and Francisco Suárez for defending the theory
guarantee of people’s liberties and the nation’s
whereby the Pope could intervene in the temporal
peace against internal conflict and external
sphere.
interference.
Impact and Legacy Cross-References
Always opposed to popular participation in gov- ▶ Bellarmine Robert

ernment, Filmer’s works – where he also stressed ▶ Jesuits
the need for subjects to unconditionally obey their ▶ Suárez Francisco
king represented as protective pater patriae and
argued that politics was a complex domain that
required specific competence – anticipated some
modern reflections on the solitude of the
(unbounded) ruler and the solitude of power as
Filmer, Sir Robert 3
References century political thought. Manchester: Manchester

University Press.
Daly, J. 1979. Sir Robert Filmer and English political
Primary Sources thought. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Sommerville, J.P. (Ed.). 1991a. Filmer: ‘Patriarcha’ and Schochet, G. 1975. Patriarchalism in political thought.
other writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University The authoritarian family and political speculation
Press. and attitudes especially in seventeenth-century
England. Oxford: Blackwell.
Secondary Sources Sommerville, J.P. 1991b. Introduction. Filmer:
Cuttica, C. 2012. Sir Robert Filmer (1588–1653) and the ‘Patriarcha’ and other writings, ed. J.P. Sommerville,
patriotic monarch: Patriarchalism in seventeenth- vii–xxxvii. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
F
Fludd, Robert On his return to England, Fludd undertook further

medical studies at Christ Church College,
(ROBERTUS DE FLUCTIBUS) Oxford, and in 1604 and 1605, he was awarded
Born: Bearsted, Kent, 17 January 1574 his degrees of M.B and M.D, respectively, after
Died: London, 8 September 1673 which he moved to London and attempted to gain
entry to the College of Physicians. He was
Urszula Szulakowska rejected six times due to his offensive remarks
Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies, concerning the medical system of the ancient
University of Leeds, Leeds, UK Greek physician, Galen, whose writings were
the foundation of the university medical curricu-
lum. In his place, Fludd was proposing the med-
ical theories of the notorious sixteenth-century
Abstract
German theosophist, Theophrastus Paracelsus
von Hohenheim. In 1609 Fludd was finally
An English physician, philosopher, and alche-
granted admission to the College of Physicians
mist, Robert Fludd was Welsh in origins. His
and was, thus, duly authorized to practice.
father, Sir Thomas Fludd, M.P., had been
Disregarding his new position in the medical
appointed as treasurer to the court of Elizabeth
establishment, the alchemical medicine and the-
I. Between 1591 and 1598, Robert Fludd was
osophy of Paracelsus and his followers continued
reading for his master’s degree at St. John’s
to provide the foundation for Fludd’s medical
College, Oxford. In 1598–1604, he traveled on
practice as well as his religious and philosophical
the continent where he was employed as tutor to
ideas.
the children of aristocratic French Catholic fam-
Fludd was a prolific writer of vast,
ilies. He also spent a winter in the foothills of the
multivolume encyclopedias that described a uni-
Pyrenees with a group of Jesuit priests, although,
versal range of topics from magical practices
as he publically proclaimed, he was always a
such as alchemy, astrology, kabbalism, and divi-
staunch Anglican. Fludd recorded that the priests
nation to a radical theologized cosmology
taught him various magical practices, not least
concerning the interrelation of God with the nat-
the art of divination. This contact with the Jesuits
ural and human worlds. At the same time, Fludd
probably colored Fludd’s magical, as well as his
proudly displayed his grasp of practical knowl-
religious, concepts to an extent hitherto
edge, such as mechanics, architecture, military
underestimated by later scholars.
fortifications, armaments, military maneuvers,
hydrology, musical theory and musical
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_488-1
2 Fludd, Robert
instruments, mathematics, geometry, optics, the Heinrich Khunrath and Michael Maier, Fludd’s
art of drawing, chemistry, and medicine. Fludd illustrations remain unique and owe absolutely
employed a well-used contemporary metaphor nothing to the visual imagery of his alchemical
for these mundane arts, viz., that human endeavor peers.
was the “ape of Nature.” Fludd achieved notori- Furthermore, Fludd’s cosmological system is
ety after he published his Apologia (1616), one of an inventive reworking of Paracelsian alchemy.
the earliest polemics written in support of the In his first volume of the Utriusque Cosmi . . .
“Rosicrucian Manifestos.” (He expanded this Historia, concerning the “Macrocosm” (1617),
treatise into the Tractatus Apologeticus (1618)). Fludd devised a lavishly illustrated account of
The Rosicrucian Manifestos consisted of two the origins of the universe, describing how its
texts, the Fama Fraternitatis (1614) and the materials were separated out of Chaos by God
Confessio (1615), which had been published acting in the manner of an alchemist, distilling
anonymously in Kassel. They have been the sub- and purifying the different elements. From the
ject of continuing debate among scholars ever outset in the “Macrocosm” (UCH, 1617), Fludd’s
since in respect to their origins and authorship. cosmos was structured by the three generative
The existence of the Rosicrucians as an authentic principles of Paracelsus’s alchemy – those of
grouping has never been proven. Nevertheless, light, darkness, and water. From these were gen-
they were supported by a heterogeneous group erated three further primary elements – first the
of prestigious Protestant religious reformers, “Prima Materia,” or salt; which arose from dark-
among them, Johann Valentin Andreae and his ness; then the soul, or sulfur, which came forth
colleagues in the theology school at Tubingen from light; and, finally, the spirit, or mercury,
University. These may, in fact, have been the which emerged from water. These three ele-
authors of the Manifestos. Other Rosicrucian fol- ments, in turn, produced four qualities (already
lowers included those magical practitioners and established in antique and medieval physics),
alchemists involved in the study of the late those of heat, cold, dryness, and moistness.
antique magus Hermes Trismegistos as well as In the third book of the “Macrocosm,” Fludd
the writings of Jewish and Christian kabbalists. offered yet another, quite unique, interpretation
These further subscribed to the more recent mag- of the structure of the universe, complementing
ical ideas of Cornelius Agrippa and of the reli- his earlier alchemical visions, but, this time,
gious philosophy of Paracelsus. All of these expressed in musical form. He analyzed what he
fellow travelers, like Fludd, may be loosely termed the “Musica Mundana,” the musical
described as “Rosicrucians.” structures underlying the cosmos. Fludd’s musi-
Fludd’s most famous work is the History of the cology and his mathematical theories relied on
Two Worlds (Utriusque Cosmi . . . Historia, those of the ancient Greek, Pythagoras (UCH,
1617–1621) published in five volumes by 1, 1617, pp. 79–81). The fifth chapter of the
Theodore de Bry in Oppenheim. The two worlds “Musica Mundana” included an illustration of
under discussion are those of the Microcosm of the Cosmic Lyre that provided an analogy of the
human life on earth and the Macrocosm of the universal musical forms. Fludd’s musicology has
universe (including the spiritual realm of the attracted much attention from twentieth-century
divine). Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect scholars such as Godwin and Amman and, most
of Fludd’s exhaustive and exhausting output is recently, Hauge. The latter has defended Fludd
the range of copper plate engravings in his texts. against the dismissal by earlier researchers of
Due to the originality of his designs and ideas, Fludd’s musical theories as being outmoded
Fludd’s visual images are likely to be the product already in his own time. Hauge has reexamined
of his own imagination. Kabbalistic elements Fludd’s ideas and has demonstrated that they
were also included in the imagery. In comparison were, in fact, in the vangarde of contemporary
to several other remarkable visionary excursions musicology.
into visual alchemy, most exceptionally, those of
Fludd, Robert 3
Fludd’s medical treatises comprise the principles of light and darkness being represented
Anatomiae Amphiteatrum (Frankfurt: J. T. de by two intersecting cones, or pyramids. The base
Bry, 1623); the Medicina Catholica (Frankfurt: of the “pyramidis formalis” was placed in the
William Fitzer, 1629–1631); the Philosophia Empyreum of God, signifying rays of divine
Sacra (Frankfurt: J. T. de Bry, 1626); the Clavis light shining downward, while the base of the
Philosophiae (Frankfurt: William Fitzer, 1633), “pyramidis materialis” was located on the earth
and the Philosophia Moysaica (Gouda: Petrus pointing upward toward God. Fludd described
Rammazenius, 1638) which was translated into these diagrammatic forms as “pyramides lucis,”
English as the Mosaical Philosophy (London: “cones of light,” claiming to have invented them
H. Moseley, 1659). Another important resource himself, although they are, in fact, based on
for Fludd’s medicine, apart from Paracelsus, was antique and medieval optical theory. Within the
the kabbalism of the Judaic Sepher Yetzirah. lozenge shape created by the intersection of the
(He also mentions the Zohar.) Fludd drew even downward and upward pointing cones, Fludd
more heavily on the Christian kabbalism of the placed the sun who balanced the oppositions of
German humanist, Johannes Reuchlin, as well as spirit and matter, male and female, and sulfur and
on the ideas of Reuchlin’s Italian exemplar, mercury.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Some of Fludd’s In Fludd’s medical theories, the operation of
most extraordinary imagery depicts a kabbalistic the aerial nitre, or quintessence, in the human
universe of letters and names centered on the body was of critical importance to health. The
letter “Vav,” which, according to his ideas, refers essence of the aerial nitre was the celestial light
to the Second Person of the Christian Trinity, that originated in the tabernacle of the sun. It was
Jesus Christ. In these texts, Fludd’s medical breathed in by the lungs and carried to the heart,
practice is almost entirely devoid of chemical where it was separated from the air and dispersed
remedies but rather depends on prayer and the as the vital spirit throughout the body. In his short
use of the name of Jesus (following the example text, the “Tractatus de Tritico” (“Tractate on
of Christ’s exhortation to his disciples to heal Wheat”), which re-appeared in his Anatomiae
the sick in his name.) Accordingly, Fludd Amphiteatrum (1623) and again in the
employed the Hebrew form of the name of Jesus Philosophia Moysaica (1638), Fludd described
since he claimed that this possessed immense the distillation of the aerial nitre from wheat
magical power. He equated Jesus Christ with using the heat and light of the sun’s rays. Fludd
the kabbalistic angel Metatron, the heavenly claimed that this distilled spirit was the Universal
form of the Jewish Messiah (UCH, 2 1621, Panacea, a generative celestial fire drawn out of
pp. 2–5), who was the soul of the world. Fludd the sun. In his account of this particular alchem-
equated Metatron with the late antique Hermetic ical process, Fludd produces an extended exposi-
“anima mundi” or “Anthropos” (UCH, 2 1621, tion concerning the healing power and sacred
Tract II, Sect I, pp. 8–9). nature of wheaten bread in a manner that clearly
Fludd went on to argue that the first manifes- recalls the Roman Catholic doctrine of Transub-
tation of the Godhead in the Jewish kabbalah, stantiation. In fact, from his account Fludd’s Uni-
“Hochmah” (“Wisdom”), was the same Hyposta- versal Panacea seems to be identical with the
sis as the Second Person of the Christian Trinity physical Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Similar
who was Jesus Christ. He was the “Verbum” Eucharistic references are found in the writings of
(“Word”), as in the first verse of the Gospel of another contemporary English Protestant alche-
John. In turn, the Christian “Word” is also the mist, Sir Kenelm Digby, who eventually
first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, “Aleph.” The converted to Roman Catholicism. (There were
“Verbum,” or Metatron-Christ-Messiah, as the more Catholic alchemists practicing in that
form of God resides in the sun. Fludd’s concepts period in England, such as the members of the
of the creative and healing forces of the divine noble Clifford family, practicing at Skipton Cas-
light of the sun were illustrated by diagrams, the tle in Yorkshire, although Lady Anne Clifford,
4 Fludd, Robert
the most famous alchemist, was herself a moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of
Protestant.) twelve stars.” (Another image related to this par-
This Roman Catholic aspect of Fludd’s ticular context is that of the Assumption of Mary
alchemy has not been remarked, hitherto, by into heaven.) In fact, in his text Fludd provides an
scholars. However, the recent study of John alchemical analogy to the unborn child of the
Donne’s Catholic alchemy by Albrecht has Apocalyptic Woman when he refers first to the
opened up the issue of Roman Catholic aspects mercurial spirit living in the virgin’s womb.
in English alchemy. She has examined Marian He further recalls the starry context of the
references in Donne’s poetic imagery, but her Woman when he states that the virgin’s heart
argument is suggestive, rather than conclusive. gives light to the stars. The mercurial spirit,
Comparing other types of Marian references in whom the philosophers call the Spirit of the
Fludd’s works, Szulakowska has identified at Moon, is sent down from the virgin’s womb to
least one visual image with accompanying texts the center of the earth to quicken it into life.
that alludes to Marian Catholic doctrine. In the Catholic dogma taught that it was the Second
first volume of Utriusque . . . Cosmi Historia Person of the Trinity, the Son (later manifested
(!617), there appears a large and very well- as Jesus) who had acted as the Creator of the
known engraved illustration of a naked woman universe.
standing in the midst of the cosmic spheres The right foot of Fludd’s virgin stands on the
(Fludd, UCH, I, pp. 4–5). The engraving is enti- earth, while her left foot is in water which
tled “Integra Naturae Speculum Artisque signifies the conjunction of sulfur and mercury
Imago.” In his textual account text, Fludd in the alchemical art. The alchemical context of
explains that the woman represents “Natura” as Fludd’s “Natura” is equivalent to the Catholic
a virgin existing in the sublunar world of the four dogma of Mary who, like Christ, was an interme-
elements. Although she is not herself a divine diary between heaven and earth, incorporated
goddess, she is the most intimate minister of physically into the spiritual realm after death,
God at whose command she governs the both human and divine. Nonetheless, Fludd’s
subcelestial worlds. In the engraving she is joined virgin has been modified to accord with alchemy
by a chain to the Empyreum above in which there theories, while the figure’s nakedness relates her
shines the Hebrew name of God – the Tetragram- to medieval imagery of Eve. In Catholic dogma
maton “Yahweh,” “YHWH” (Hebr., ‫)יהוה‬. The Mary was the second Eve. In another of his
virgin in Fludd’s image is the Soul of the World, works, the Tractatus Theologo-Philosophicus
the “anima mundi,” who turns the spheres of the (Oppenheim: Johann Theodore de Bry, 1617),
stars and nourishes all creatures. The sun is Fludd also describes the virgin Psyche, daughter
shown resting on her breast, while the crescent of Nature, as a pure bride. She is described in the
moon lies on her belly. Her hair is loose like that context of the Holy Trinity as being a tabernacle
of an unmarried girl. The Marian associations in of the Holy Spirit, an important attribute of the
this picture are, specifically, the halo of twelve Virgin Mary. He states that this noble and most
stars (one hiding behind her hair on the right) and pure virgin is decked with divine light. She is the
the crescent moon. These, along with the loos- minister of life to all creatures, and the airy virtue
ened hair and her pose itself, bear close compar- of the God as the Holy Trinity, the Father and Son
ison to seventeenth-century Roman Catholic through the Holy Spirit of intelligence, has placed
images of Mary as the Immaculate Conception. its tabernacle in her. The Virgin Mary in Catholic
The attributes of the crown of stars and the cres- doctrine is depicted at her coronation in heaven as
cent moon are the primary iconographic attri- the Bride of the Trinity.
butes of the Virgin Mary. They are derived from An imaginatively re-worked copy of Fludd’s
the account in the Book of Revelation, 12, of the Cosmic Virgin is found in Daniel Johann Mylius’
Apocalyptic Woman: “Now a great sign appeared Opus Medico-Chymicum (Frankfurt: Luca
in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the Jennis, 1618). Fludd’s Marian image may have
Fludd, Robert 5
also have influenced the contemporary treatises Maier, but he was also heavily criticized, partic-
of the German Lutheran alchemist Jacob ularly by the astronomer Kepler in the
Boehme, who developed an even more strongly Mathematice (1622) for his faulty and outmoded
focused Catholic Marian presence as Maria- cosmology. Fludd responded publically with
Sophia in his theosophical alchemy. Though it Kepler in his treatises Veritatis Proscenium
would be difficult to trace direct cross-influences, (1621) and Monochordon Mundi Symphoniacum
these certainly exist in the case of the illustrator to (1622). Fludd’s theology was strongly criticized
Boehme’s collected works published later after by Pierre Gassendi in his In Fluddanae
his death in Holland who copied wholeheartedly Philosophiae Examen (1630) at the request of
from Fludd’s illustrations (J. G. Gichtel, ed., the theologican Marin Mersenne, and Gassendi
Boehme Des Gottseeligen Hoch-Erleuchteten rejected Fludd’s typically Rosicrucian syncre-
Jacob Bomens Teutonici Philosophi Alle tism in which he treated alchemy, kabbalism,
Theosophische Wercken, Amsterdam, 1682.) It and Christian doctrine as being of equal impor-
may be the case that the development of the rich tance. Mersenne himself attacked Fludd for his
repertoire of Renaissance alchemical imagery Roman Catholic tendencies and use of magic in
was, in part, a compensation for the loss of Quæstiones Celebres in Genesim (1623.) Fludd
Roman Catholic icons in the Protestant Reforma- replied to Mersenne in Sophiæ cum Moria
tion. Moreover, alchemists required recourse to Certamen (1629) and in Summum Bonum
Catholic Eucharistic doctrine in order to express (1629.). On the other hand, a close supporter
and, more importantly, in order to validate, their and similar Rosicrucian supporter was Michael
own concepts of transmutation of substance. Maier whom he may have encountered at the
There are encountered other Marian references court of James I. (The details of Fludd’s relations
in Lutheran alchemy, namely, an image in with the English king himself remain unknown.)
Michael Maier’s Symbola Aureae Mensae Further, Szulakowska has suggested that there
Duodecim Nationum (Frankfurt: Luca Jennis, may have been some cross-influence between
1617) and in Jacob Boehme’s Aurora Signatura Fludd and Boehme, but this has not been conclu-
Rerum oder Morgenrothe in Anfang (1612.) sively established. There also exists an old tradi-
The standard authority in the secondary tion, according to A. E. Waite, that Fludd was one
resources remains Allen Debus in his extensive of the first Freemasons in Britain, being received
studies of Fludd’s Paracelsian and cabbalistic into the order during the first years of its existence
theology. Fludd’s pictures have been examined in Scotland, prior to its official inauguration in
in some depth by Joscelyn Godwin, though from London.
the point of view of the twentieth-century Theos- It is difficult to find a successive lineage for the
ophy and the psychology of C. G. Jung. influence of Fludd’s kabbalistic theosophy and
According to Yates, Fludd’s visual imagery was his theosophical medicine. His main influence
integral to his theoretical concepts, and has, rather, been on the twentieth- and twenty-
Szulakowska has attempted to redress the lack first-century artists and occultists. The early
of scholarly analysis of the visual imagery. twentieth-century French avant-garde was fasci-
Other research on Fludd includes Amman’s nated by Fludd, and a notable follower was no
musicological study as well as the more recent less than Georges Bataille, the French Surrealist,
one of Hauge. The most extensive discussion of whose own drawings display the influence of
Fludd’s intellectual development has been Fludd’s cosmology. (Bataille was a librarian at
provided by William Huffman, although he pays the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris where he was
the closest attention to those of Fludd’s works undertaking research into the occult tradition.)
published in English, rather than the Latin André Breton also mentioned Fludd in the com-
sources. pany of Heinrich Khunrath and Johann Valentin
Fludd’s main admirer seems to have been Andreae. Joscelyn Godwin’s (now out of print)
another alchemist, the Count Palatine Michael volume in the Thames and Hudson Art and
6 Fludd, Robert
Imagination series popularized Fludd’s imagery Secondary Literature

from the 1980s. Regrettably, in the field of Albrecht, Roberta. 2005–2009. The Virgin Mary as
alchemical and Lullian reference in Donne. Susque-
academic scholarship, Fludd’s work remains
hanna University Press.
relatively little studied by the present generation Amman, Peter J. 1967. The Musical Theory and Philoso-
since his vast volumes have rarely been translated phy of Robert Fludd. The Journal of the Warburg and
out of their original Latin. Courtauld Institutes 30: 198–227.
Debus, Allen G. 1964. The Paracelsian Aerial Niter. Isis
55: 43–46.
Debus, Allen G. 1965a. The English Paracelsians. Lon-
don: Oldbourne.
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Fludd, Robert, Declaratio breuis, unpublished manu- l’Humanisme de l’Universite de Bruxelles: Le Soleil
script, written by amanuensis,London: British Library, a la Renaissance. Brussels: Science et Mythes.
Royal MSS 12 C. ii. Debus, Allen G. 1967. Renaissance chemistry and the
Fludd, Robert, Truth’s Golden Harrow, unpublished man- work of Robert Fludd. Ambix 14: 42–59.
uscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library) Debus, Allen G. 1977. The chemical philosophy.
Fludd, Robert. 1616. Apologia Compendiaria, Paracelsian science and medicine in the sixteenth
Fraternitatem de Rosea Cruce suspicionis . . .. Ley- and seventeenth centuries. London: Heinemann.
den: Gottfried Basson. Debus, Allen G. 1979. Robert Fludd and the philosophical
Fludd, Robert. 1617. Tractatus Apologeticus integritatem key. New York: Science History Publications.
Societatis de Rosea Cruce defendens . . .. Leyden: Debus, Allen G. 1982. Key to two worlds: Robert Fludd’s
Gottfried Basson weather-glass. Annali dell’Instituto e Museo di Storia
Fludd, Robert. 1617. Tractatus Theologo-philosophicus della Scienza di Firenze VII(2): 109–144.
. . .. Oppenheim: Johann Theodore de Bry Debus, Allen G. 1968. Mathematics and nature in the
Fludd, Robert. 1621. Veritatis Proscenium, Frankfurt: chemical texts of the renaissance. Ambix : 1–28.
J. T. de Bry Dickson, Donald R. 1998. The Tessera of Antilia: Utopian
Fludd, Robert. 1622. Monochordon Mundi brotherhoods & secret societies in the early seven-
Symphoniacum Frankfurt: J. T. de Bry teenth century (Brill studies in intellectual history).
Fludd, Robert. 1623. Anatomiæ Amphitheatrum, Frank- Leiden: Brill Academic Publishing.
furt: J. T. de Bry Geissmar, Christoph. 1993. Das Auge Gottes Bilder zu
Fludd, Robert. 1626. Philosophia Sacra et vere Christiana Jakob Boehme (Wolfenbuttler Arbeiten zur
. . .. Frankfurt: J. T. de Bry Barockforschung, 23), Wiesbaden: Herzog August
Fludd, Robert. 1629. Sophiæ cum Moria Certamen, Frank- Bibliothek, 23.
fort: J. T. de Bry Gilly, Carlos. 1988. Iter Rosicrucianum. Auf der Suche
Fludd, Robert. 1629–1631. Medicina Catholica . . ., nach unbekkanten Quellen der fruehen Rosenkreuzer.
Frankfurt: William Fitzer, in five parts; 2nd volume In Das Erbe des Christian Rosenkreutz, ed. Janssen
not published and not known. F. A., 63–90. Amsterdam: In der Pelikaan (Bibliotheca
Fludd, Robert. 1633. Clavis Philosophiae . . ., Frankfurt: Philosophica Hermetica).
William Fitzer. Gilly, Carlos, and Adam Haslmayr. 1994. Die erste
Fludd, Robert. 1638. Philosophia Moysaica . . ., Gouda: Verkunder der Manifeste der Rosenkreuzer
Petrus Rammazenius (1638); English edition: (Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica). Amsterdam:
Mosaicall Philosophy . . ., London: H. Moseley (1659) In der Pelikaan.
Fludd, Robert. 1684.(? attr. to Fludd): (preface signed Godwin, Joscelyn, and Robert Fludd. 1979. Hermetic phi-
J. N. J.), Religio Exculpata . . ., Ratisbon. losopher and surveyor of two worlds. London: Thames
Fludd, Robert. Utriusque Cosmi . . . Historia . . . and Hudson.
metaphysica, physica atque technica Historia . . ., Hauge, Peter. 2010. “The Temple of Music” by Robert
Oppenheim and Frankfurt: J. T. de Bry, “Macrocosm,” Fludd. Farnham: Ashgate.
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“Microcosm,” 2, Part 1 (1619); “Microcosm,” 2, Part the renaissance. London: Routledge.
2 (1621) Huffman, William H. 1978. Robert Fludd’s “Declaratio
Frizius, Joachim (Robert Fludd). 1629. Summum Bonum, Brevis” to James I. Ambix : 69–92.
Frankfurt: J. T. de Bry (1629) Josten, C. H., ed. 1949. Truth’s golden harrow, An
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the Bodleian Library. Ambix 3: 91–150.
Fludd, Robert 7
Josten, C. H., ed. 1963. Robert Fludd’s “Philosophicall Waite, A. E. 1994 [2002]. Robert Fludd and Freema-
Key” and his alchemical experiment on wheat. Ambix : sonry: Being the Rosicrucian and Masonic connection.
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Szulakowska, Urszula. 2006. The sacrificial body and the Yates, Frances A. 1969. The theatre of the world. London:
Day of Doom. Alchemy and apocalyptic discourse in Routledge/Kegan Paul.
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Szulakowska, Urszula. 2013. The cosmic virgin in seven- 1986).
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Ezoteryka”]: 80–99.
G
Grocyn, William Greek collection, mostly in the manuscript

form and partly of Italian provenance, was the
Born: c. 1446, Colerne, Wiltshire (England) best in Britain: the scribes of some of his codi-
Died: 1519, Maidstone (Kent) ces were Joannes Serbopoulos, Emanuel of
Constantinople, Joannes Thessalus Scutariota,
Laura Refe and Petros Hypsilas. Most of these books are
Dipartimento di Filosofia e Beni Culturali, now kept at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia, Venice, Italy
Abstract
William Grocyn was a cleric and a humanist Crosson; Grocene; Grocin; Grooson; Grosone;
educated in Oxford, where he was elected Grosson; Grosun; Grosune; Grosyn; Grosyne;
Divinity Reader at Magdalen College in Groysine; Groysun; Grokιn
1483. Later he held important positions as
canon, prebendary, and rector throughout Brit-
ain; his most important appointments were to Biography
the vicarship of St Lawrence Jewry in London
(1496–1517) and to the mastership of All William Grocyn, cleric and humanist, was born in
Saints’ College, Maidstone (1506–1519). the middle of the fifteenth century (c. 1446: Bur-
From 1488 to at least 1490, he was in Italy rows 1890, 335; c. 1449: Lily 1548, fol. 48v) in
along with Thomas Linacre, studying Greek Colerne (Wiltshire), where his father was a col-
and Latin in Florence under Angelo Poliziano lege tenant. He was educated at Winchester Col-
and Demetrius Chalcondylas. He was in con- lege starting from September 1463. He was
tact with Aldus Manutius, as it is testified by a admitted to New College, Oxford, in 1465 as a
letter addressed to the publisher, which is scholar and was subsequently elected fellow in
Grocyn’s only extant work. His known associ- 1467. He was the tutor of William Warham, who
ates include Desiderius Erasmus Roterdamus, would later become the Archbishop of Canter-
John Colet, and Thomas More. Grocyn owned bury. It is believed that Grocyn became Master
a remarkable library of manuscripts and of Arts by 1474, while it is thought that he could
printed books: it contained works by ancient have taught for Lincoln College in 1477. He was
Latin and Greek authors, contemporary elected Divinity Reader at Magdalen College,
authors, and Italian humanists. Grocyn’s Oxford, in 1483, when he successfully opposed
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_496-1
2 Grocyn, William
Master John Taylor in a disputation held during ps. Proclus’ De sphaera in the edition of
Richard III’s visit. In March 1488, however, he Astronomici veteres. Grocyn recalled Linacre’s
vacated this readership and went to Italy. He collaboration with Aldus and praised the pub-
returned to Oxford by 4 June 1491 (Weiss 2010, lisher both for printing in Greek and for releasing
262 and nn. 35–36); it is now presumed that he an edition of Aristotle instead of Plato. Grocyn
privately taught the humanities rather than giving presented himself as being pleased to know from
the first Greek public lectures at the university, as Linacre that Aldus was contemplating the printing
it has been commonly postulated (Clough 1977, of the Old Testament in Latin, Greek, and
22 n. 5; Clough 2000, 106). While Grocyn held Hebrew, and of the New Testament in Greek and
important positions as canon, prebendary, and Latin, urging him to carry on (Grocyn 1499, fols
rector throughout Britain, his most important Tiv-Tiir). This epistle is Grocyn’s only published
appointments were to the vicarship of St Law- work. A tradition connects the names of Linacre,
rence Jewry in London (from December 1496 Grocyn, and William Latimer (c. 1467–1545)
until his resignation in May 1517) and to the with a project for a joint translation of Aristotle
mastership of All Saints’ (or All Hallows’) Col- into Latin. However, except for the translation of
lege, Maidstone, Kent (from April 1506 until his the Meteorologica in which Linacre seems to
death). He was disabled by an attack of paralysis have been engaged (Manutius 1499, fol. Tiv),
in 1518 and died between 2 June and October there is no evidence to show that the work was
1519, after which he was ultimately laid to rest ever seriously undertaken. In a letter to Erasmus,
in All Saints’ (Emden 1958, 827). datable to 30 January 1517, Latimer stated that
Grocyn and Linacre had studied under
Chalcondylas and Angelo Poliziano, the former
The Italian Trip for a couple of years and the latter for the same
amount of time or even longer (Erasmus
In c. 1488 Grocyn left Oxford for Italy, where he Roterdamus 1910, 441–442). Latimer’s testi-
was said to have studied Greek and Latin in depth. mony seems to be reliable, at least for Linacre:
It is not excluded that he had improved on the Latimer had met Linacre in Padua in c. 1498 and
knowledge of Greek that he had previously had befriended him. Moreover, he was writing
acquired in Britain, possibly with the assistance while Linacre was still alive. The letter appears
of Cornelio Vitelli, who was praelector of New in the collection of Erasmus’ letters published by
College for 2 years from about January 1485 Froben (Basel, 1519) and it is not impossible that
(Clough 2000, 99), or the Greek scholars and this was the source for the same statement by the
copyists Emanuel of Constantinople and John cleric and cosmographer Georgy Lily (†1559),
Serbopoulos (Catto 1992, 780–781). In the dedi- who dedicated a paragraph to both Grocyn and
catory epistle to Marcus Musurus of a treatise on Linacre in his elogia of highly distinguished Brit-
Greek orthography in Statius’ edition, Aldus ish intellectuals. Lily wrote that Grocyn devoted
Manutius remembered that Grocyn, along with considerable efforts to Greek and Latin with
Thomas Linacre, had studied Greek in Florence Chalcondylas and Poliziano after he had learnt
under Demetrius Chalcondylas (Manutius 1502, the rudiments of these languages in Britain (Lily
fol. aiv). Grocyn personally came into contact 1548, fol. 48r). Lily could have also gained
with Manutius: he addressed a letter to the printer, insight as to the education of these scholars from
dated in London on 27 August, plausibly in the his father William (c. 1462–1522/3), who was the
year 1499 (Allen 1903, 515), where he thanked godson of Grocyn and was admitted with Linacre
him for his extraordinary kindness to Linacre, to the English Hospice of St Thomas of Canter-
who had taken part in the work on the Greek bury in Rome on 4 November 1490 (Schmitt
Aldine edition of Aristotle in five volumes, 1977, 40). Latimer did not discuss the date of
which were published between 1495 and 1498. Linacre and Grocyn’s Italian trip. An autograph
This epistle prefaces Linacre’s Latin translation of note by Poliziano in an incunabulum (now
Grocyn, William 3
kept in Oxford) testifies that in 1490 Poliziano Works

held a 7-month-long private course on Pliny the
Elder for English and Portuguese pupils (Cotton Grocyn is said to have written: Tractatus contra
1937, 394–397). According to sources, even if hostiolum Jo. Wyclevi (Wycliffe), Epistolae ad
they are not explicitly mentioned, the English Erasmum et alios, Grammatica, Vulgaria
students were Linacre, whose presence at Flor- puerorum, Not. in Terentium, Isagogicum
ence at the end of 1489 can be proved by John quoddam, and Epigrammata (Wood 1813, 31).
Morer’s will (Bennet 1968, 90), and Grocyn. Although a tradition dating back to Bale’s De
scriptoribus Britannicis attributes a Latin epigram
on Julia – who threw a snowball at her lover – to
him (Fuller 1811, 297), the poem comes from the
Grocyn’s European Network Anthologia Latina (Riese 1906, 173 nr. 706: a
longer version with some different readings;
Visiting England for the first time in 1499, Erasmus Hunt 1980, 106). With the exception of the previ-
found that Grocyn associated with John Colet and ously cited letter to Aldus, none of his other works
Thomas More. His name, with those of Colet, appear to have survived to the present day.
More, Polydore Vergil, and others, is recorded in
the admissions book of Doctors’ Commons in
London (1508; Logan 1988, 156). In two epistles Grocyn’s Library
of c. 1501 and 1504 More defined Grocyn as a tutor
and a master (Rogers 1947, 4; 8–9). In the letter Grocyn owned a remarkable library of manu-
datable to 1501 and addressed to John Holt, More scripts and printed books, reconstructible partly
related that Grocyn began a lecture series in St from an inventory made in 1520 by his executor
Paul’s Cathedral in London on the book De celesti Linacre after his death (Burrows 1890, 321–324;
hierarchia of ps. Dionysius the Areopagite. Allen and Garrod 1928, 47 pl. XXVI; Emden
According to Erasmus, Grocyn initially believed 1958, 828–830; Thomson 2015, 522–572,
that the author of the work was St Paul’s convert UO25-UO32). St Augustine appears to have
(Act. 17:34), but subsequently changed his original been Grocyn’s favorite author. Of the Early
opinion (Trapp 1996, 298–302). In the letter dat- Fathers, he possessed works by Ambrose, Cyp-
able to 1504 and addressed to Colet, More referred rian, Eusebius, Gregory the Great, and Jerome;
to Grocyn as the sole guide in his life in Colet’s writings from the medieval period include
absence. More delivered a series of lectures on St Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, Duns
Augustine’s De civitate Dei (whose text does not Scotus, Nicholas of Lyra, and William of Ock-
survive) in Grocyn’s church of St Lawrence Jewry ham. There were also ancient Latin authors on the
(Burrows 1890, 356–357). In a letter from Antwerp list, like Apuleius, Aulus Gellius, Caesar, Cicero,
to German de Brie, dated 25 June 1520, Erasmus Lucretius, Juvenal, Seneca, Persius, Plautus, Pliny
wrote that More had learnt Greek thanks to the the Elder, Suetonius, Tacitus, Livy, Valerius
teaching of Linacre and Grocyn (Erasmus Maximus, and Virgil. One can also find several
Roterdamus 1922, 294). Praises of Grocyn are works of Italian humanists: Ermolao Barbaro,
frequent in Erasmus’ letters to Aldus, Germain de Giovanni Boccaccio, Pietro Crinito, Marsilio
Brie, Guillaume Budé, Colet, John and Robert Ficino, Francesco Filelfo, Pomponio Leto,
Fisher, Latimer, Linacre, Richard Pace, Joost Francesco Petrarca, Niccolò Perotti, Enea Silvio
Vroye (Gaverius), and Roger Wentford. At the Piccolomini, and Lorenzo Valla. Moreover, Eras-
end of his life, Grocyn was appointed to All Saints’ mus’ printed bilingual New Testament and
College, Maidstone, where he died in 1519. On Adagia are both listed in the inventory. Grocyn’s
2 June of that year he made his will, which was Greek collection, mostly in the manuscript form
executed by his executor and residuary legatee and partly of Italian provenance, was the best in
Linacre on 20 July 1522 (Burrows 1890, 380). Britain: it contained Aristotle (in Greek and in the
4 Grocyn, William
Latin translations by Gaza and Argyropoulos), St Astronomicorum libri quinque . . .; Arati Phaenomena
Basil, much St John Chrysostom, ps. Dionysius Germanico Caesare interprete . . .; Arati eiusdem
Phaenomenon fragmentum Marco T. C. interprete;
(also in Latin), Eustrathius, Origen, Plato, Ploti- Arati eiusdem Phaenomena Ruffo Festo Avienio
nus, Plutarch, Julius Pollux and the Greek lexicon paraphraste; Arati eiusdem Phaenomena graece;
“Suidas,” Porphirius, Proclus, Ptolemy, Theonis Commentaria copiosissima in Arati
Simplicius, Theophylact, and Thucydides. The Phaenomena . . .; Procli Diadochi Sphaera . . .; Procli
eiusdem Sphaera Thoma Linacro Britanno interprete.
copyists of some manuscripts were the Greek fols T1v-T2r. Venice: Aldus Manutius (Hain-Copinger
scribes Joannes Serbopoulos (who produced two *14559; IGI 8846; ISTC if00191000). http://diglib.
of them at Reading Abbey in 1495 and 1499), hab.de/inkunabeln/6-astron-2f/start.htm. Accessed
Emanuel of Constantinople, Joannes Thessalus 9 June 2016.
Scutariota, and Petros Hypsilas. Most of these
books are now at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Secondary Literature
Some were bought by the College upon the Allen, Percy Stafford. 1903. Linacre and Latimer in Italy.
English Historical Review 18: 514–517.
request of its first president, John Claymond;
Allen, Percy Stafford, and Heathcote William Garrod.
others were received by bequest from him (Coxe 1928. In Merton muniments, ed. P. S. Allen and H.
1852 pars II; Thomson 2011; Wilson 2011). One W. Garrod. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
manuscript is now at New College (Coxe 1852 Bennet, Josephine W. 1968. John Morer’s will: Thomas
Linacre and prior Sellyng’s Greek teaching. Studies in
pars I, 93 nr. CCLXI) and one in Liverpool
the Renaissance 15: 70–91.
(Clough 1983; Kristeller 1989, 51a). Burrows, Montagu. 1890. Linacre’s catalogue of books
belonging to William Grocyn in 1520, together with
his accounts as executor, followed by a memoir of
William Grocyn. In Collectanea: Second
Innovative and Original Aspects series, ed. M. Burrows, Oxford Historical Society 16:
317–380. https://archive.org/stream/secondcollectan16
Despite Grocyn’s seemingly conservative lean- burruoft#page/n5/mode/2up. Accessed 9 June 2016.
Catto, Jeremy I. 1992. Scholars and studies in Renaissance
ings in religion and philosophy, his achievements
Oxford. In The history of the University of
in Greek and Latin, the importance of his Euro- Oxford, ed. T. H. Aston, vol. II: Late medieval
pean network, and the wealth of his library make Oxford, ed. J. I. Catto and R. Evans, 767–783. Oxford:
him one of the most significant of the earliest Clarendon Press.
Clough, Cecil H. 1977. Thomas Linacre, Cornelio Vitelli,
Tudor humanists.
and the Humanistic studies at Oxford. In Essays on the
life and work of Thomas Linacre c.
1460–1524, ed. F. Maddison, M. Pelling, and Ch. Web-
ster, 1–23. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
Cross-References Clough, Cecil H. 1983. A treasure of the Sydney Jones
Library: A volume that belonged to William Grocyn.
▶ Chalcondylas, Demetrius The University of Liverpool Recorder 92: 147–150.
▶ Claymond, John Clough, Cecil H. 2000. New light on Cornelio Vitelli and
Humanistic studies at Oxford University in the late
fifteenth century. The Ricardian: Journal of the Rich-
▶ Linacre, Thomas ard III Society 12(150): 94–119.
▶ More, Thomas Cotton, Juliana. 1937. Ex libris Politiani II. Incunabula
▶ Poliziano, Angelo Bodleiana. The Modern Language Review 37:
394–399.
▶ Vergil, Polydore
Coxe, Henry Octavius. 1852. Catalogus codicum mss. qui
in collegiis aulisque oxoniensibus hodie adservantur,
confecit Henricus O. Coxe, pars I and pars II. Oxonii:
E Typographeo Academico. https://archive.org/details/
References cataloguscodicum01coxeuoft. Accessed 14 June 2016.
Emden, Alfred Brotherston. 1958. A biographical register
Primary Literature of the University of Oxford to AD 1500, vol. II: F to O,
Grocyn, William. 1499 [?]. Gulielmus Grocinus Britannus 827–830. Oxford: Clarendon.
Aldo Manutio Romano. In Iulii Firmici Erasmus Roterdamus, Desiderius. 1910. Desiderii Erasmi
Astronomicorum libri octo . . .; Marci Manilii Roterdami Opus epistolarum, ed. P. S. Allen, vol. II:
Grocyn, William 5
1514–1517, nr. 520 (540), 438–442. Oxford: generibus ex variis utriusque linguae autoribus. In
Clarendon Press. Statii Sylvarum libri quinque, Thebaidos libri
Erasmus Roterdamus, Desiderius. 1922. Desiderii Erasmi duodecim, Achilleidos duo. fols air-eviiv. Venice:
Roterdami Opus epistolarum, ed. P. S. Allen, vol. IV: Aldus Manutius. https://archive.org/stream/ita-bnc-
1519–1521, nr. 1117, 291–295. Oxford: Clarendon ald-00000175-001#page/n525/mode/2up. Accessed
Press. 12 June 2016.
Fuller, Thomas. 1811. “Me nive candenti petiit mea Julia”. Riese, Alexander. 1906. Anthologia latina sive poesis
In The history of the worthies of England, ed. T. Fuller, latinae supplementum: pars prior, carmina in codicibus
first printed in 1662. A nex edition with a few scripta, fasciculus 2, reliquorum librorum carmina,
explanatory notes, vol. II. London: John Nichols. editio altera denuo recognita. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner.
https://archive.org/stream/historyofworthi02full#page/ http://www.archive.org/stream/anthologialatin01lomm
n7/mode/2up. Accessed 12 June 2016. goog#page/n444/mode/2up. Accessed 12 June 2016.
Hunt, Richard. 1980. Review of Initia Carminum Rogers, Elisabeth Frances. 1947. The correspondence of
Latinorum Saeculo Undecimo Antiquiorum, bearbeitet Sir Thomas More. nr. 2, 3–5; nr. 3, 5–9. Princeton:
von Dieter Schaller und Ewald Köngsen unter Princeton University Press.
Mitwirkung von John Tagliabue. Vandenhoeck und Schmitt, Charles B. 1977. Thomas Linacre and Italy. In
Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1977. Medium Aevum 49: Essays on the life and work of Thomas Linacre
105–106. c. 1460–1524, ed. F. Maddison, M. Pelling, and Ch.
Kristeller, Paul Oskar. 1989. Iter Italicum, vol. IV: Alia Webster, 36–75. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
itinera II: Great Britain to Spain. London/Leiden: The Thomson, Rodney M. 2011. A descriptive catalogue of the
Warburg Institute and Brill. Medieval manuscripts of Corpus Christi College
Lily, George. 1548. Ad Paulum Iovium Episcopum Nucer. Oxford. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
Virorum aliquot in Britannia qui nostro seculo Thomson, Rodney M. 2015. The University and College
eruditione et doctrina clari memorabilesque fuerunt Libraries of Oxford, ed. R. M. Thomson, and
Elogia. In Descriptio Britanniae Scotiae Hyberniae et J. G. Clark, vol. I: Introduction, University Library to
Orchadum ex libro Pauli Iovii Episcopi Nucer. . . . Ven- Lincoln College. London: The British Library in asso-
ice: Michael Tramezinus. https://archive.org/stream/ ciation with the British Academy.
descriptiobritan00giov#page/n5/mode/2up. Accessed Trapp, Joseph Burney. 1996. Erasmus on William Grocyn
9 June 2016. and ps-Dionysius: A re-examination. Journal of the
Logan, Donald F. 1988. Doctors’ commons in the early Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 59: 294–303.
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Astronomicorum libri octo . . .; Marci Manilii Oxford: Society for the Study of Medieval Languages
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graecarum omnium apud Statium cum accentibus et
H
Haak, Theodore translating foreign correspondence, and commu-

nicating books presented to the Royal Society by
Born: 25 July 1605, Neuhausen foreign authors.
Died: 5 May 1690, London

William Poole
New College, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
Haak was one of the many intellectuals displaced
westwards by the Thirty Years War, and his heri-
tage lay in the continental universities; his mater-
Biography
nal grandfather had been the Rector of the
University of Heidelberg, and Haak attended Hei-
Theodore Haak, born in Neuhausen in the Palat-
delberg and Leiden, as well as Oxford, where he
inate, eventually settled in England in 1638 after
studied some mathematics. He represents not so
a number of earlier academic visits. There
much a rupture with any given tradition as an
he formed an alliance with the intelligencer
example of how the ruptures of war forced
Samuel Hartlib and the irenicist John Dury.
scholars of different academic traditions into con-
When the exiled Moravian Bishop Jan Amos
tact and collaboration.
Comenius arrived in England in the winter of
1641–1642, he was met by a welcoming com-
mittee consisting of Hartlib, Dury, Joachim
Hübner, John Pell, and Haak himself. In 1645, Innovative and Original Aspects
according to the mathematician John Wallis, it
was Haak who instigated the London meetings in As an experimentalist, Haak was not particularly
experimental philosophy and medicine to which original. He did propose to the Royal Society “a
Wallis later traced the origin of the Royal Society compendious way of repertory” (probably some
of London. Haak served the English state as a kind of data storage system) and a way of “recov-
diplomat and translator in the interregnum, and ering and increasing the attractive power of a
after the Restoration he was elected to the Royal magnet.” Magnetism indeed appears to have
Society in 1661, proposed by the President, the been an enduring interest, and Haak’s portrait in
mathematician Viscount William Brouncker. He the Royal Society shows him with what is proba-
remained prominent and active, handling and bly his magnet.

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_497-1
2 Haak, Theodore
Impact and Legacy Frederick Slare (1646/7-1727), FRS, a physician

and chemical experimenter of note, who demon-
As a scholar, Haak’s major impact was as the strated white phosphorus before the society. Haak
translator of The Dutch Annotations upon the bequeathed his goods and chattels to Slare, and
Whole Bible. Commissioned by the Westminster Haak himself developed a five-branched phos-
Assembly of Divines, this work appeared in 1657, phorus lamp. Above all, then, despite his modest
after years of labor. His other important work was personal contributions to natural philosophy,
a translation of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise alongside Henry Oldenburg, Haak was the preem-
Lost into German. Although this was inent “intelligencer” of the first generation of the
unpublished, the first printed German translation, Royal Society and was also a living link to the
by Ernst von Berge (1682), made use of Haak’s pre-Restoration generation of English natural and
manuscript, of which the first three books are experimental philosophers.
extant; they were only published in 1962. But it
was Haak’s international connections that made
him essential to the early Royal Society and a Cross-References
significant figure in the history of early-modern
philosophy. ▶ Experiment
▶ Magnetism
Interconnections
References
Haak was essential to the English experimentalists
because of his international reach. He was also Primary Literature
one of the few men who remained at the center of Haak, Theodore, ed. 1657. The Dutch Annotations upon
the whole Bible, 2 vols. London: John Rothwell et al.
English activities from the earliest days of the
Hartlibians right through to the Restoration. In
his earlier days he corresponded regularly with
Barnett, Pamela. 1962. Theodore Haak, F.R.S.
Marin Mersenne, passing on to the Minim friar (1605–1690): The first German translator of “Para-
news of recent research and publications in dise lost”. The Hague: Anglica Germanica.
England; as a septuagenarian he brokered corre- Hunter, Michael. 1994. The Royal Society and its Fellows,
1660–1700: The morphology of an early scientific
spondence between Robert Hooke and Gottfried institution, 2nd ed. Chalfont St Giles: British Society
Wilhelm Leibniz concerning the viability of an for the History of Science.
artificial universal language, and indeed Haak Poole, William. 2007. A fragment of the library of
remained a constant presence in the diaries of Theodore Haak (1605–1690). Electronic British
Library Journal, Article 6.
Hooke. Haak’s first cousin once removed was
H
Harrington, James his life and very few of his papers and documents
are left. We can only rely upon the accounts of his
Born: 7 January 1611, Upton, Northamptonshire life written by John Aubrey, Anthony Wood, and
Died: 11 September 1677, London John Toland. In 1629, Harrington entered Trinity
College, Oxford, but left 2 years later with no
Alessandro Arienzo degree. For a short time, he also entered the Mid-
Department of Humanities, Università degli Studi dle Temple but he found himself uncomfortable
di Napoli “Federico II”, Naples, Italy with the study of law. He travelled on the conti-
nent, visiting the Netherlands, Denmark, Ger-
many, France, Switzerland, and Italy. In 1635, he
Abstract returned to England, upholding republican ideals
A political theorist, James Harrington and Protestantism. Between 1646 and 1649, he
expressed his ideas in his The Commonwealth served as a gentlemen attendant for Charles I, for
of Oceana (1656), a constitutional utopia whom he felt a sincere friendship. Harrington
through which he drafted institutional and played no significant role during the Civil Wars
political principles meant to guarantee social and the Revolution, and his intellectual and polit-
and political stability. According to Harring- ical activities were later devoted to sustain a sta-
ton, political systems are somehow dependent ble, namely “equal and balanced,” republican
on the distribution of property among the peo- commonwealth. All of his political works were
ple and if property is in the hands of the many, published between 1656 and 1660; among them,
stability will thus require a republican form of the most important is The Commonwealth of
government. Harrington aspiration was to set Oceana (1656), a constitutional utopia through
up the principles of a new “art of lawgiving” which he expressed his political ideas and drafted
based on the equal and balanced distribution of institutional and political principles meant to
property, orders, and offices that is deemed to guarantee social and political stability. Later polit-
be the true reason of the states. ical works represent the attempt to highlight and
clarify the principles expressed in Oceana, and
had a significant impact in republican debate dur-
Biography ing the Protectorate and immediately before the
Restoration. With the return of the Stuarts, James
A political theorist, James Harrington was born in Harrington was arrested on a charge of conspiring
1611 in Upton, Northamptonshire, oldest son and against the government and was jailed into the
heir of Sir Sapcotes Harrington. Little is known of Tower. Due to the imprisonment, his mental and
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_502-1
2 Harrington, James
physical health was greatly weakened. From his orders, and offices. This knowledge is deemed to
release until his death in 1677, he seems to have represent the true reason of the states.
had no significant public life. His intellectual
activity almost stopped and probably his last
effort is the drafting of a treatise of natural philos- References
ophy titled Mechanics of Nature. A collection of
his works was edited in 1699, by John Toland, Primary Literature
who could use the writings, papers, and docu- Harrington, James. 1977. In The political works of James
Harrington, ed. J.G.A. Pocock. Cambridge: Cam-
ments in the hands of Elizabeth Ashton,
bridge University Press.
Harrington’s sister.
Blitzer, Charles. 1960. An immortal commonwealth: The
Political Theory political thought of James Harrington. New Haven:
Yale University Press.
In the opening lines of his Commonwealth of Campos Boralevi, Lea. 2012. James Harrington’s ‘Machi-
avellian’ anti-machiavellism. History of European
Oceana, Harrington opposes “ancient prudence,” Ideas 37(2): 113–119.
the virtuous knowledge of politics and civic life Fink, Zera Silver 19621945. The classical republicans: An
established in ancient Greece, Rome, and Israel, essay in the recovery of a pattern of thought in seven-
and “modern prudence,” or “Gothic balance,” the teenth century England, 2nd ed. Evanston: Northwest-
ern University Press.
feudal politics based on kingship and aristocracy. Pocock, John Greville Agard. 1975. The Machiavellian
The former is the “art whereby a civil society of moment. Florentine republican thought and the atlantic
men is instituted and preserved upon the founda- republican tradition. Princeton: Princeton University
tion of common right and interest” (Harrington Press.
Polin, Raymond. 1952. Economique et politique au XVIIe
1977, 401), while the latter is the rule of one man, siècle: L’Oceana de James Harrington. Revue française
or of the few, according to his or their interest. de science politique 2: 24–41.
According to Harrington, political systems are Raab, Felix. 1964. The English face of Machiavelli:
somehow dependent on the distribution of prop- A changing interpretation, 1500–1700. London:
Routledge.
erty among the people and if property is in the Rahe, Paul. 2008. Against throne and altar. Machiavelli
hands of the many, stability will thus require a and political theory under the English Republic. Cam-
republican form of government. The political con- bridge: Cambridge University Press.
fusions in England are in fact the result of the Russell Smith, Hugh Francis. 1914. Harrington and his
Oceana: A study of a seventeenth century Utopia and
unbalance between distribution in property and its influence in America. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
political superstructure. In his works Harrington versity Press.
thus proposed the establishing of an agrarian law, Scott, Jonathan. 1993. The rapture in motion. James
meant to keep a balance in the distribution of Harrington’s republicanism. In Political discourses in
early modern Britain, ed. Nicholas Phillipson and
property and thus to preserve the stability of the Quentin Skinner, 139–163. Cambridge: Cambridge
republic and to keep a strong citizen army, neces- University Press.
sary to defend the new commonwealth. However, Shklar, Judith. 1959. Ideology hunting: The case of James
institution have their own principles and Harring- Harrington. American Political Science Review 53:
662–692.
ton supported a bicameral legislature, with repre- Skinner, Quentin. 1998. Liberty before liberalism. Cam-
sentative being elected by all “who lived off their bridge: Cambridge University Press.
own” through secret ballot. In order to set up a Tawney, Richard Henry. 1941. Harrington’s interpretation
balanced political system, Harrington is also con- of his age. Proceedings of the British Academy 27:
199–223.
vinced that offices must ordinarily rotate. Harring- Worden, Blair. 1994. Harrington’s ‘Oceana’: Origins and
ton aspiration was therefore to set up the aftermath, 1651–1660. In Republicanism, liberty, and
principles of a new “art of lawgiving” based on commercial society, 1649–1776, ed. David Wootton,
the equal and balanced distribution of property, 111–138. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
H
Hartlib, Samuel commonplace books and artificial languages.

His plan of economic improvement, to be ful-
Born: 1596–1600, Elbing (Elbląg) (Prussia, filled mainly through the amelioration of hus-
Kingdom of Poland) bandry, was motivated by the Puritan
Died: 10 March 1662, Westminster, London Millenarianism to which he adhered.
Andrea Strazzoni
Dipartimento di Antichistica, Lingue, Educazione Alternate Names
e Filosofia (A.L.E.F.), Università degli Studi di
Parma, Parma, Italy ▶ Gartlib, Samuel; ▶ Hartlibius, Samuel;
Gotha Research Centre, University and Research ▶ Hartlieb, Samuel
Library, Erfurt/Gotha, Germany
Biography
Abstract
The main aim of Samuel Hartlib was to provide The life of Hartlib is documented mostly by his
an advancement of learning finalized to the letters and papers, rediscovered in 1933 (Turnbull
amelioration of the material conditions of 1947; HP). He was born in Elbing around 1600
men and the pursuit of a religious peace, i.e., from a German royal merchant and a half-English
the unification of the Protestants. To this aim, woman, whose father was a deputy of the English
inspired by Comenius, he devoted his efforts or Company of trade in the Baltic. Hartlib was edu-
gathering knowledge by the creation of a soci- cated in Brzeg (Silesia) probably until 1621,
ety or office of learned men (in technical fields, although in 1614 he matriculated at the University
philosophy, and theology), and by the estab- of Königsberg (Turnbull 1920, 5). Between 1621
lishment of a network of correspondents (the and 1626 he was in England, where he studied in
Hartlib Circle). The method of discovery Cambridge under John Preston. He settled in Lon-
underlying his program of advancement of don from 1628 (Turnbull 1947, 11–15, 34;
learning was inspired by Bacon’s Novum Dickson 1998, 146), likely under the suggestion
Organum and by Jacopo Aconcio’s method of of John Dury, minister in Elbing between 1625
analysis, while the categorization and trans- and 1630, as part of his efforts to reconcile the
mission of knowledge had to be based on Protestants (Turnbull 1920, 7–13). Moreover, he

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_503-1
2 Hartlib, Samuel
moved to England as a consequence of the Haps- obtained from the Government of the Common-
burg and Catholic conquest of the region of wealth a pension in 1647. Still, he died in needy
Elbing (Trevor-Roper 1967, 231–234). In conditions in 1662 (Turnbull 1920, 48–51, 62).
England Hartlib pursued a program of reform of
learning by establishing a school in Chichester,
although unsuccessfully (Hartlib 1630). More-
Innovative Aspects and Influences
over, he developed a program of reform of all
knowledge, having been acquainted with
Hartlib’s program of reform consisted of (1) the
Comenius’s Janua linguarum (1631) and with
gathering of information and observations, and
the draft of the Pansophia, which he published
(2) their categorization in a unique body of knowl-
in 1637 and 1639 (Hartlib 1637, 1639; Webster
edge (pansophia) (Clucas 1991, 35). This pro-
1970a, 22–25; Čapková 1994, 80–85). This pro-
gram relied on the methodology expounded in
gram was the outcome of a movement of reform
Bacon’s Novum Organum, which Hartlib opposes
set by Ramus, Keckermann and Alsted (Hotson
the “systematic” approach of Cartesian and Scho-
1994, 2011) and served both for the advancement
lastic philosophy (Yeo 2010, 188–194), and on
of learning and for religious peace (Clucas 1991;
Jacopo Aconcio’s method, consisting of the anal-
Houston 2014, 124–131). To these aims, Hartlib
ysis of notions and facts as the main source of
first envisaged the creation of a “Societas
knowledge in science and religion (Clucas 1994,
Reformatorum et Correspondency” (1634) -
58–62). Moreover, Hartlib’s program required a
(Dickson 1998, 148–158), and then (together
method of teaching, learning, and transmitting
with Dury) of an “Office of Public Address in
knowledge: accordingly, he appropriated the
Spiritual and Temporal matters,” i.e., an institute
method of epitomization of John Harrison
intended to the gathering of information and to the
(Clucas 1994, 64–68; Yeo 2007, 2010) and
accomplishment of Bacon’s and Comenius’s sci-
recommended the use of summaries and common-
entific and educational programs (Hartlib 1647,
place as the most viable means in learning and
1648; Slack 2015, 102–116). Moreover, he
disseminating knowledge (Hartlib 1654). This
devoted some short treatises to the attempts of
method, which in Hartlib’s plans had to be taught
unifying the Protestants (Hartlib 1641, 1643) and
to children in order to enhance their memory,
to recollections of others’s essays, mainly in hus-
would inspire William Petty’s pedagogy (Petty
bandry. In developing his project of gathering
1647; Yeo 2007, 11–17 and 2010, 190–191).
knowledge, Hartlib the “intelligencer” came to
Moreover, Hartlib promoted the use of artificial
form a Circle, primarily constituted by himself,
languages and availed the system of abbreviations
Dury and Comenius (Trevor-Roper 1967,
of George Dalgarno (Slaughter 1982, 104–116,
219–271), and involving several experts with
120–122; Strasser 1994; Lewis 2005).
whom Hartlib corresponded in around 4,718 let-
Hartlib’s program was aimed to practice: first
ters (EMLO). The Hartlib Circle included Robert
and foremost, to husbandry, as testified to by his
Boyle, Gabriel Plattes (author of the Utopian dia-
collections of technical essays (Hartlib 1651a, b,
logue Macaria, 1641, 2013), William Petty, John
1653a, b, 1655, 1659) and by Plattes’s Macaria
Milton, Theodore Haak, and Henry Oldenburg.
(Webster 1972), expounding advices for the eco-
Members of the Circle formed in 1646–1647 the
nomic improvement of England. Moreover,
“Invisible College” that would later inspire the
Hartlib supported the reform of teaching by the
birth of the Royal Society, although Hartlib did
creation of new academies centred on technical
not establish or set the program of both (Turnbull
disciplines, such as those one can found in John
1953; Webster 1974, 1975, 58). For his writing
Milton’s Of Education (Milton 1644; Raylor
and projects he spent all his provisions and
1993, 2010). Husbandry was central to Hartlib’s
Hartlib, Samuel 3
interests as it allowed to put in practice his Baco- ▶ Scientific Academies

nian method; moreover, it was a means for the ▶ Textbook
understanding of nature, as husbandry was based ▶ Treatise
on the knowledge of alchemical elements (Hartlib ▶ Utopia: Renaissance Philosophy
1652; Matei 2012, 2013; Houston 2014, ▶ Wars of Religion
129–132). Also, it served to the transformation
of the world that was a main ideal of Puritanism,
to which Hartlib adhered (Jue 2006, 67–68). In his
References
views, the amelioration of the world would lead to
the fulfilment of the providential plan of God and
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1651c; Webster 1979; Mulsow 2001; Jue 2006, Dury, 13 Sept 1630. EMLO, http://tinyurl.com/
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Hartlib, Samuel (ed.). 1637. Conatuum Comenianorum
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Hugh L’Amy and Peter Le Pruvost (Irving 2008, Hartlib, Samuel (ed.). 1639. Comenii Pansophiae
47–68; Leng 2009). Prodromus. London: typis Miles Flesher, sumptibus
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been lately attempted to procure ecclesiastical peace
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Andrew Crooke.
Hartlib, Samuel. 1643. A faithfvll and seasonable advice,
▶ Academies
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▶ Aconcio, Jacopo ment of the Protestant cause humbly suggested to the
▶ Alsted, Johann Heinrich great councell of England assembled in Parliament. S.
▶ Analysis/Resolution l.: printed by Iohn Hammond.
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▶ Bacon, Francis
accomplishment of our rerformation: Tending to shew,
▶ Baconianism that by an office of publike addresse in spirituall and
▶ Chemistry temporall matters, the glory of God, and the happinesse
▶ Comenius, J. A. of this nation may be highly advanced. In Consider-
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▶ Descartes, René: Renaissance Philosophy Honourable Court of Parliament. London: s.n.
▶ Dialogue Hartlib, Samuel. 1648. A further discoverie of the office of
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▶ Encyclopedia and Encyclopedism sowing for corn. London: printed by J.C.
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Clucas, Stephen. 1991. Samuel Hartlib’s ephemerides, Publishers.
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and Timothy Raylor, 51–74. Cambridge: Cambridge language planning in 1650s Oxford. In History of uni-
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Stuttgart: Verlag W. Kohhammer. interest for husbandry in the seventeenth century
Dickson, Donald R. 1998. The Tessera of Antilia. Utopian England. Prolegomena 11(2): 207–224.
brotherhoods & secret societies in the early seven- Matei, Oana. 2013. Macaria, the Hartlib circle, and
teenth century. Leiden/Boston/Köln: Brill. husbanding creation. Society and Politics 7/2 (14):
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Mulsow, Martin. 2001. Who was the author of the Ciavis Turnbull, George H. 1947. Hartlib, Dury and Comenius.
apocalyptica of 1651? Millenarianism and prophecy Gleanings from Hartlib’s papers. Liverpool/London:
between Silesian mysticism and the Hartlib circle. In Liverpool University Press.
Millenarianism and Messianism in early modern Euro- Turnbull, George H. 1953. Samuel Hartlib’s influence on
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R.H. Popkin, 57–76. Dordrecht: Springer. Webster, Charles. 1968. The origins of the royal society.
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wealth of bees. In Culture and cultivation in early Webster, Charles. 1970a. Introduction. In Samuel Hartlib
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and T. Raylor, 91–129. Leicester: Leicester University Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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education of the Aristocracy. In The Oxford handbook Webster, Charles. 1974. New light on the invisible college
of Milton, ed. N. McDowell and N. Smith, 382–406. the social relations of English science in the
New York: Oxford University Press. mid-seventeenth century. Transactions of the Royal
Slack, Paul. 2015. The invention of improvement. Informa- Historical Society 24: 19–42.
tion and material progress in seventeenth-century Webster, Charles. 1975. The great instauration. Science,
England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. medicine and reform 1626–1660. London: Duckworth.
Slaughter, Mary M. 1982. Universal languages and scien- Webster, Charles. 1979. Utopian planning and the puritan
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Strasser, Gerhard. 1994. Closed and open languages: Sam- Medicine.
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and Timothy Raylor, 151–161. Cambridge: Cambridge Samuel Hartlib, John Beale and Robert Boyle. In The
University Press. body as object and instrument of knowledge. Embodied
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Hodder & Stoughton. modern science. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
H
Heylyn, Peter Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations, Voyages, and

Discoveries of the English Nation (1589) were
Born: 1600, Burford, Oxfordshire reused in Purchas his Pilgrimage (1613), and
Died: May 8, 1662, Westminister, Middlesex Heylyn’s Microcosmos (1621) and Cosmographie
(1652, eight editions before 1700). Arguably his
Peter Craft masterpiece, Heylyn’s Cosmographie is a collec-
Felician University, Lodi, NJ, USA tion of voyage narratives from sailors, merchants,
and Jesuits that represented at least a century of
European perceptions of the rest of the world. As
Abstract such, it provided valuable information for
This encyclopedia entry provides information English-speaking seventeenth-century Europeans
about the life, heritage, and rupture with the about the customs, characteristics, and topograph-
tradition, innovative and original aspects, and ical features of the world around them.
impact and legacy of Peter Heylyn, a While he wrote this work, the House of Com-
seventeenth-century theological and geograph- mons tried and executed Charles I, Heylyn’s
ical historian. patron and sovereign, to whom he dedicated
Microcosmus. For Heylyn, this was yet another
tragic incident in a long string of misfortunes.
Alternate Names A few years earlier, Heylyn joined Charles at
Oxford and acted as his historian of the war,
▶ Peter Heylin which led to Parliament’s decision to strip
Heylyn’s house at Alresford of its contents and
plunge him into destitution. Under Cromwell’s
Biography rule, Heylyn went into hiding and roaming in
England in disguise to avoid detection. There
Peter Heylyn (also sometimes spelled “Heylin”) was enough popular interest in Heylyn during
was a royalist geographer, theologian, and histo- and immediately after his lifetime that he was
rian. Heylyn was born in Oxfordshire, attended the subject of at least two seventeenth-century
Magdalen College, and fathered 11 children. biographies, one of which was by his son-in-law
Although Heylyn had a strong interest in geogra- John Barnard. Heylyn’s works were bestsellers in
phy, he personally traveled very little. Instead, he his lifetime, and luminaries such as Samuel Pepys
relied on extant narratives for his information and Richard Head read them. In fact, Richard
about other countries. Portions of Richard
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_506-1
2 Heylyn, Peter
Head copied large sections of Heylyn’s work ver- his association with English royalty, Heylyn was a
batim in his novel The English Rogue. strong champion of the Archbishop of Canter-
Heylyn’s decision to expand the scope of bury: William Laud. Heylyn is of interest primar-
Microcosmus into a Cosmographie and to add a ily for his insight into the complex range of early
religiohistorical “General Introduction” assumes modern British perceptions of non-European peo-
added significance when one views it in light of ples and religious practices. For instance, Heylyn
his personal situation in the middle of the seven- did not find fault with the Muslim religious prac-
teenth century. On the local level in England, tices of the South Asian subcontinent, yet he
Cromwell’s army must have seemed large and abhorred the polytheistic Hindu rituals of India
powerful, much to the royalist Heylyn’s chagrin. such as virginal deflowerings by pagods, sati, and
From the more universal perspective that Heylyn self-mutilation. Heylyn died at the age of 62 and is
adopted, however, the situation was not nearly so buried in Westminister.
bleak. After all, if South Asian empires with hun-
dreds of thousands of troops and seemingly infi-
nite wealth could be subsumed into a biblical References
master narrative of determinate growth, then the
Cromwellian government’s comparatively puny Primary Literature
forces and finances, which had not even lasted a Heylyn, Peter. 1621. Microcosmus. Oxford: John Lichfield
decade at that point, appeared far less threatening. and James Short.
Heylyn, Peter. 1652. Cosmographie in four books. . . .
From Heylyn’s royalist perspective, the cycle of 4 vols. London: Henry Seile.
history would eventually restore the Stuarts to
their rightful throne.
Though on opposite ends of the political spec- Barnard, John. 1683. Theologo-historicus, or, the true life
trum, Heylyn, like his contemporary John Milton, of the most reverend divine and excellent historian
composed some of his most important works Peter Heylyn. London: Daniel Brown.
Heylyn, Peter. 2004. The Oxford dictionary of national
when he was almost completely blind, a testament
biography. Oxford: Macmillan.
to his extraordinary memory. Although Heylyn Vernon, George. 1682. The life of the learned and reverend
was very widely read in his own time, a few Dr. Peter Heylyn. . . . London: C. Harper.
scholars consult his works today. In addition to
H
Hill, Nicholas introduced by a preface dedicated to his son

and a series of 15 questions. To a hierarchical
Born: 1570, London and subordinate view of reality, he opposes an
alternative image of the world that shows
Died: c.1610–1620, Rotterdam strong traces of the complex model of interpre-
tation of reality developed by Paracelsus.
Sandra Plastina
Department of Humanistic Studies, University of
Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende-Cosenza, Italy Biography
Nicholas Hill was born in London and died in

Abstract Rotterdam c. 1610–1620. He was educated at
Nicholas Hill was one of the most intriguing Merchant Taylor’s School and studied at St
and particular personalities of England during John’s College in Oxford. Hill matriculated in
the reign of James I. Details of his life are 1587, graduated and was elected fellow in 1590,
scarce. He is the author of Philosophia but within a year he had been deprived. According
Epicurea Democritiana Theophrastica pro- to some historians, above all John Aubrey, biog-
posita simpliciter, non edocta that was first rapher and member of the Royal Society, the
published in Paris in 1601 and appeared post- philosopher was “an intimate acquaintance” of
humously in a “purged” edition in Geneva in the mathematician and geographer Robert Hues,
1619 (Hill 2007). a member of the Raleigh-Northumberland circle,
His work was considered as one of the first which included the mathematicians Thomas
modern philosophical works containing an Harriot and Walter Warner. According to Hues,
open discussion of the theories of Democritus Hill was in the retinue of Henry Percy, ninth Earl
and Epicurus and an affirmation of the helio- of Northumberland, patron of science, and natural
centric theory. There is also a significative and philosopher, during the 1590s. In 1603 he was
direct convergence between Hill and Giordano involved in an abortive Catholic conspiracy
Bruno regarding the dimensions of the uni- against James I and joined himself with
verse formulated in De immenso. The topics Mr. Basset, who, after Queen Elizabeth’s death,
of the Philosophia Epicurea are discussed in pretended some right to the crown. After the con-
509 sentences or aphorisms – as Hill defines spiracy collapsed, the author of the Philosophia
them – in which a number of Greek philosoph- Epicurea left England and resided in Rotterdam,
ical terms are disseminated. The work is with his son Laurence. According to an account of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_507-1
2 Hill, Nicholas
Hues, recorded by Obadiah Walker, Master of the original synthesis of Paracelsian medicine,
University College, Oxford, Hill’s son died and which the Danish Peder Sorensen had already
he committed suicide. Aubrey reports in his Brief used in Idea medicinae philosophiae (1571), indi-
Lives that he was not only a natural philosopher cates a precise choice of field. In his alchemical
and a practicer of alchemical secrets but also a atomism and in the revival of the great Renais-
great Lullianist and a passionate scholar of ars sance philosophical themes by the works of
memoriae. Ben Jonson refers to the philosopher Francesco Patrizi and Giordano Bruno, there is a
in one of his epigrams as “an Englishman who clue that allows to attribute a more precise histor-
maintained Democritus’ opinions,” and, in a quite ical meaning to the philosophical positions
ironical tone, as the English atomist par excel- expressed in the Philosophia Epicurea.
lence. In the second section of the second part of According to Trevor-Roper, Hill was probably
the Anatomy of Melancholy, A Digression of Ayre, the author of a second treatise, manuscript, titled
added in 1638, Robert Burton lists the defenders De infinitate et aeternitate mundi. A part of this
of the earth’s motion, the infinity of space, and the manuscript poem in Bodleian library has been
plurality of the worlds: among them there is Hill. published (Plastina and Provvidera 2000) and a
In 1622 Tobias Adami in his preface to Tommaso new manuscript of 64 pages, in toto, recently
Campanella’s Apologia pro Galileo lists the found, might be the complete text of the
English philosopher among the supporters of the Hill’s work.
Copernican theory. Following Bruno, Hill
maintained the universe is infinite and alive.
Space and time are infinite and homogeneous:
References
prime matter is formed of atoms, indivisible,
solid particles of various shapes, whose motions
Primary Literature
and interrelations are governed by a Hill, Nicholas. 2007. Philosophia Epicurea Democritiana
force – vis – which radiates in a manner analogous Theophrastica, ed. S. Plastina. Pisa-Roma: Fabrizio
to light. Atoms in Hill scheme are the “end of Serra Editore.
divine actions in nature” (aph. 116) and the sim- Tanner, M.S. Sanctus vere Deus est Bodleian Library,
305, ff. 110 and 112.
plest of all truths is: “natura est deus in rebus” or Plastina, Sandra and Provvidera, Tiziana. 2000. Il ‘De
“nature is God in things.” The philosopher is infinitate et aeternitate mundi’ attribuito a N. Hill
convinced that the infinite creativity of God can- (Wood, M.S. Bodleian Library 42, ff. 174–175),
not but express itself in a physical universe that Bollettino Filosofico, vol. 16, 50–74. Dipartimento di
Filosofia dell’Università della Calabria.
will itself be infinite, since only such a physically
infinite and infinitely varied universe suits an infi-
nite creating power. In many passages of the Secondary Literature
Philosophia Epicurea, the judgement pronounced Aubrey, John. 1949. Brief lives, ed. O.L. Dick and
A. Clark, 253–260. London: Secker and Warburg.
by Hill above all toward Scholastic theology is Clucas, Stephen. 1997. The infinite variety of formes and
implacable: it was primarily the conjunction magnitudes: 16th-and 17th-Century English corpuscu-
between Aristotelian philosophical theory and lar philosophy and Aristotelian theories of matter and
the Christian religion that had compromised the form. Early Science and Medicine III(3): 251–271.
Clucas, Stephen. 2000. ‘Hill, Nicholas’ (1570-c. 1620). In
understanding not only of the essence of God but The dictionary of seventeenth-century British
also, as a consequence, of the natural world. philosophers, ed. A. Pyle, 424–426. Bristol:
According to the Paracelsian astronomy, the inte- Thoemmes Press.
rior and exterior correspond, and they are consid- Jonson, Ben. 1954. Conversations with William Drum-
mond of Hawthorned. In Works, vol. 145, ed.
ered in the supreme science the expression of the E. Simpson, I. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
same substance contained in the unity Plastina, Sandra. 1998. Nicholas Hill: ‘The English
God-nature. The impressive presence in the Campanella?’. Bruniana & Campanelliana IV(1):
Philosophia Epicurea of a terminology typical of 207–212.
Hill, Nicholas 3
Plastina, Sandra. 2001. Nicholas Hill and Giordano Bruno: Trevor-Roper, Hugh. 2004. Hill, Nicholas (1570–c. 1610).
The new cosmology in the ‘Philosophia Epicurea’. In In Oxford dictionary of national biography, online ed.,
Giordano Bruno tra scienza e filosofia, ed. E. Canone, edited by David Cannadine. Oxford: Oxford University
A. Rossi, Physis 38(1–2): 415–432. Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13287.
Trevor-Roper, Hugh. 1989. Nicholas Hill, the English Accessed 11 Jan 2017.
atomist, in Catholics, Anglicans and Puritans: seven-
teenth century essays, 1–39. London: Fontana Press.
H
Hooker, Richard the Temple with Travers on soteriology and

ecclesiology. In the eight books, Hooker deci-
Born: March 1544, Heavitree sively shaped the doctrinal, political, and offi-
cial profile of Anglicanism: the theologian
Dead: 3 November 1600, Bishopsbourne reaffirmed the principle of the sola scriptura,
the legitimacy of the episcopate, and of the
Stefano Colavecchia Anglican liturgical forms adopted in the
Dipartimento di Scienze Umane Sociali e della Church of England. Above all, Richard Hooker
Formazione, Università degli Studi del Molise, argued vigorously in favor of the full legiti-
Campobasso, Italy macy of the laws which were divided into
revelation, reason, and tradition, and they also
accounted the insurmountable limit that the
Abstract royal power could not exceed. His legacy was
Richard Hooker was the most influential theo- changing: from the traditional view of the the-
logian of the late Elizabethan age. He was a oretics of Anglicanism, Hooker’s thoughts
student of theology from 1569 in Oxford, and were interpreted in various ways, through vir-
his tutor was the influential Puritan and theo- tue of the multiplicity of the ideas and theories
logian, John Rainolds. From 1579 Hooker that pervaded his work so that no category
taught Hebrew and was later appointed Master could confirm and contain, once and for all,
of the Temple in London in 1585, where his his thinking which was his major work.
sermons emerged as a vision of a religion
which was far removed from any radicalism
and inspired by the belief of a merciful God. Biography
While he was Master of the Temple, he had a
long dispute with the Puritan Walter Travers, Richard Hooker studied theology at Corpus
who accused him of excessive moderation. The Christi College in Oxford, where he was admitted
most important works of Hooker were the eight in 1569 thanks to the patronage of John Jewel, and
books Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, following the latter’s death in 1571, of Edwin
where the theologian defended the still young Sandys. Hooker’s tutor was the cultured and influ-
Anglican via media of the pressures of the ential Puritan theologian John Rainolds. After
Presbyterian Puritans and the counter- receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1574,
reformed Catholics. The Lawes reflect the Hooker became a fellow of the College in 1579,
theological disputes that Hooker had while at and the same year, he was ordained a deacon, and,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_508-1
2 Hooker, Richard
thanks to the support of Robert Dudley, he was and the region. Underlying this conception did not
appointed deputy professor of Hebrew. In 1585, involve the merger of church and state but was his
following the recommendation of Sandys, he was peculiar conception of what was right (Lynch
appointed Master of the Temple at Church of the 2004). The theologian decided what was law,
Inns Court. His sermons at the Temple did not according to a hierarchy that reflected a Neopla-
focus on a deep theological analysis, but, more- tonic cosmology mold, at the top of which God sat
over, they tended toward accentuating the interior (Torrance Kirby 2008). In this view, laws were
dimension of faith, through which the soul is divided into divine, natural, and “municipal”
approached by a merciful God (Hooker 1612a). (McGrade 2004), a form of territorial law capable
For this moderate view of religion, Hooker was of limiting royal powers. Hooker was the only
attacked at length by the Puritan and preacher of thinker of his time to put such an emphasis, not
the Temple, Walter Travers, who chided him for only on law but also on the “Lawes whereby we
his excessive restraint when dealing with religious live” (Hooker 2013) and looked forward to a
dissidents. In 1591, Hooker was appointed sub- consensual idea of sovereignty. Hooker’s master-
dean of Salisbury and left the Temple and began piece was also the first of its kind written in
working on Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, English to deal systematically with theology, pol-
whose first four books saw the light in 1593, just itics, and legal philosophy (McGrade 2004).
as Parliament exuded its first action against the The richness of the sources and the breadth of
Puritans. The works were to be published in their his thinking, combined with the delayed edition of
entirety in separate posthumous phases: the fifth the last three books of the Lawes, allowed Hooker’s
time in 1579, while the sixth and the eighth were luck and interpretation to change. “Drowned in the
only published in 1648 and the seventh in 1661. torrents of Political and Religious confusion”
The Lawes were conceived by Hooker as an (Brydon 2007), during the English Civil War, in
impressive work in defense of the Elizabethan the course of the eighteenth century, Hooker was
Settlement of 1559 (Collinson 1997). The theolo- attributed a smooth double identity, “as Whig and
gian traced the profile of Anglicanism as midway Tory” (McGrade 2004). Universally considered the
between the extremes of the Catholic counter- most important defender of the via media (Atkinson
reformation and puritanism (Shagan and Shuger 1997), if not the true inventor of Anglicanism (Lake
2016). The spectrum of ideas which inspired 1988), Hooker was also deemed the precursor of
Hooker was very large, as well as the scope of English Enlightenment (Beiser 1996), while in light
his interventions, which included ecclesiology, of manuscripts which resurfaced in recent years, he
adiaphora, soteriology, and he even tackled the was confirmed a defender of the most reformed
sensitive issue of relations between temporal and aspects of the Elizabethan church. However, the
spiritual power (Hooker 1993–1998). Hooker depth and breadth of Hooker’s thoughts meant
reaffirmed the principle of sola scriptura and that no reading matter was able to defend, so com-
defended the emphasis on episcopal authority in prehensively, his belief in the doctrine of justifica-
Anglicanism – and the hierarchical view of society tion by faith in his most important piece of literature
that was implied – the liturgy was the defense of within such a rigid category (MacCulloch 2008).
the principle of royal supremacy over the church.
In the eighth book of the Lawes, which contrasted
with the Puritans, Hooker outlined an inclusive
References
profile of the church in which basically “church”
and “commonwealth” coincided (Eppley 2008).
Primary Literature
Hooker did not theologically justify the
supremacy of the king over the church (Torrance Hooker, Richard. 1612a. A learned and comfortable ser-
Kirby 1990): this was legitimate as it had been mon of the certaintie and perpetuitie of faith in the elect
established with the consent of the community especially of the prophet Habakkuks faith. By Richard
Hooker, sometimes fellow of Corpus Christi College in
and was limited by the laws of God, the kingdom,
Hooker, Richard 3
Oxford. Oxford: Joseph Barnes, and are to be sold by 149–181. Tempe: Medieval & Renaissance TExt &
John Barnes, dwelling neere Holborne Conduit. Studies.
Hooker, Richard. 1612. A learned discourse of justifica- Eppley, daniel. 2008. Royal Supremacy. In A Companion
tion, workes, and how the foundation of faith is over- to Richard Hooker, W.J. Torrance Kirby, 503–534.
throwne. Oxford: Joseph Barnes, and are to be sold by Leiden: Brill.
John Barnes, dwelling neere Holborne Conduit. Lake, Peter. 1988. Anglicans and puritans? Presbyterian-
Hooker, Richard. 1993–1998. The Folger Library Edition ism and English conformist thought from Whitgift to
of the Works of Richard Hooker, ed. W. Speed Hill, Hooker. London: Unwin Hayman.
New York: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies. Lynch, Jack. 2004. Johnson and Hooker on ecclesiastical
7 vols: vols. 1–5, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard and civil polity. Review of English Studies 55: 45–59.
University Press, 1977–1990; vol. 6, Introductions and MacCulloch, Diarmaid. 2008. Reputation and reception. In
Commentary in 2 parts, and vol. 7 Index of Names and A Companion to Richard Hooker, ed. W.J. Torrance
Works, Binghamton Kirby, 563–612. Leiden: Brill.
Hooker, Richard. 2013. A critical edition with modern McGrade, Andrew S. 2004. Hooker, Richard (1554–1600),
spelling. In Of the laws of ecclesiastical Oxford dictionary of national biography. Oxford:
polity, ed. Arthur S. McGrade. Oxford: Oxford Univer- Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13696.
sity Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13696,
accessed 18 Oct 2016.
Secor, Philip B. 1999. Richard Hooker, prophet of Angli-
canism. London: Burns&Oates.
Atkinson, Nigel. 1997. Richard Hooker and the authority
Shagan, Ethan H., and Deborah Shuger, eds. 2016. Reli-
of Scripture, tradition and reason: Reformed theolo-
gion in Tudor England. An anthology of primary
gian of the Church of England? Carlisle: Paternoster
sources. Waco: Baylor University Press.
Press.
Torrance Kirby, W.J. 1990. Richard Hooker’s doctrine of
Avis, Paul. 2002. Anglicanism and the Christian Church:
the royal supremacy. Brill: Leiden.
Theological resources in historical perspective.
Torrance Kirby, W.J., ed. 2008. A companion to Richard
London: T&T Clark.
Hooker. Brill: Leiden.
Beiser, Frederick C. 1996. The sovereignty of reason: The
Vickers, Brian. 1997. Public and private rhetoric in
defense of rationality in the early English enlighten-
Hooker’s Lawes. In Richard Hooker and the construc-
ment. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
tion of Christian community, ed. Arthur S. McGrade,
Brydon, Michael. 2007. The evolving reputation of Rich-
95–145. Tempe: Medieval & Renaissance Texts &
ard Hooker: An examination of responses, 1600–1714.
Studies.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Voak, Nigel. 2003. Richard Hooker and reformed theol-
Collinson, Peter. 1997. Hooker and the Elizabethan Estab-
ogy. A study of reason, will and grace. Oxford: Oxford
lishment, in Richard Hooker and the Construction of
University Press.
Christian Community, ed. Andrews S. McGrade,
J
Jack, Gilbert enrolled at the University of Leiden, where, like

his mentor Howie, the Scotsman took up theol-
Born: Aberdeen, 1578 ogy (ibid.). Leiden would eventually become
Died: Leiden, 18 April 1628 Jack’s academic home, and he was first appointed
as a Professor Extraordinarius of logic in 1605.
Victor M. Salas This was followed in 1617 by an appointment to a
Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, MI, USA chair in physics, which he held until his death in
1628 (ibid.). At Leiden, Jack counted among his
students Cartesians and anti-Cartesians alike,
Abstract including Heidanus, Reneri, Voetius, and
Burgersdijk (Schmutz).
Gilbert Jack was a sixteenth-century philosopher Jack’s first work was his 1614 Institutiones
and physician who was born in Scotland but physicae. The volume opens with a prefatory
eventually attained celebrity in the Netherlands treatment of the nature of philosophy in general
as one of the Low Countries’ most famous (c. 1), which, because of man’s own faculties of
metaphysicians. intellect and will, is subject to division within
itself (fols. 1, 2); the division of philosophy into
natural, moral, and rational or, what is the same,
Biography the more familiar speculative and practical phi-
losophy (c. 2); the nature of “contemplative phi-
Gilbert Jack (Jacchaeus) (Aberdeen, losophy,” which he subdivided into metaphysics,
1578–Leiden, 18 April 1628) was a reformed physics, and mathematics (c. 3); and, finally, the
Scottish philosopher (Schmutz) who left a lasting constitution of natural philosophy or physics
mark on Dutch thought. Both a physician and (c. 4), which has as its main consideration motion
metaphysician, Jack began his studies in Aber- and pursues the principle of motion that all natu-
deen and then continued his education at ral things have in themselves (fol. 7).
Marischal College under the direction of Robert The first book of the treatise De corporis
Howie (Pyle, 463). Jack completed his education naturalis principiis internis, as its title suggests,
at Marischal in 1597 and in the following year explores at length the nature of the principles of
moved to Germany to pursue further education at corporeal things. It begins with a discussion of
the University of Helmstedt in 1598 (ibid.). With the nature of a principle in general (c. 1) before
his philosophical course of studies completed, in taking up in succession the three Aristotelian
1603, Jack moved to the Netherlands and principles of motion: (prime) matter (c. 2), form
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_509-1
2 Jack, Gilbert
(c. 3), and privation (c. 4). Book two of the human being considered in relation to health
Institutiones physicae addresses the concept of (fol. 2). Subordinate to physics as a lower science
“nature,” its definition, activities and passivity, and drawing its principles from the conclusions
distinctions from art, and causality. The third of physics, medicine pertains not only to the
book treats of motion, while the fourth book human body but also to the instruments (e.g.,
explores the nature of time. The fifth book offers plants, metals, etc.) that produce health (fol. 2).
Jack’s astronomical thinking and discusses the The end of medicine is equally as obvious as its
movements of the heavens and celestial orbits. subject, namely, health and its preservation if it is
Book six concerns “mixed bodies” (de corpore already present or its restoration if it is absent
misto) and contains discussions of the number of (fol. 3). The remainder of the work addresses
and nature of the elements, “first qualities,” alter- various illnesses (book 2), different kinds of
ation, generation, corruption, and even putrefac- symptoms and their causes (book 3), physiologi-
tion. Book seven contains Jack’s meteorology in cal signs of health (e.g., pulse, urine) and disease
which there is discussion of meteors, thunder, (book 4), the application of medication and
rain, comets, the Via Lactea or Milky Way medical treatments (book 5), and nourishment
(c. 8), wind, rainbows, etc. In the eighth and (book 6).
final book, Jack addresses the nature of the soul.
Here, Jack discusses embryonic gestation
vis-à-vis vegetative, sensitive, and rational
References
ensoulment.
Ten years later, in 1624, Jack authored his
Primary Literature
final treatise, a medical tract that explores a vari- Jack, Gilbert. 1614. Institutiones physicae. Schleusignae.
ety of topics related to the medical arts across six Jack, Gilbert. 1616. Primae philosophiae sive
books. As is to be expected, the opening book institutionem metaphysicarum libri sex. Lyon.
Jack, Gilbert. 1624. Institutiones medicae. Lyon.
addresses the nature of medicine in general,
which he identifies in a threefold manner,
namely, the “subject. . . division, and end” (fol. Secondary Literature
1). Also unsurprisingly, Jack identifies the cure of Pyle, Andrew (ed.). 2000. The dictionary of seventeenth-
century British philosophers, 463–466. Bristol:
the human body as the subject of medicine (ibid.).
Thoemmes Press.
Thus, he says, while it is certainly the case that Schmutz, Jacob. Scholasticon (29 Sept 2014). http://www.
the human is considered within ethics, physics, scholasticon.fr/
and theology, in none of those sciences is the
L
Liddel, Duncan further education and who remained a lifelong

friend. Liddel studied in Frankfurt and Breslau,
Born: 1561, Aberdeen, Scotland where he learned the Copernican system from
Paul Wittich, before turning his attention to teach-
Died: 17 December 1613, Aberdeen, Scotland ing. Following a brief time at Frankfurt, he began
teaching mathematics and astronomy at Rostock
Tomas Valle University, becoming close friends with the
Russell Kirk Center, Mecosta County, MI, USA renowned humanist Johann Caselius. During this
time, he met Tycho Brahe and learned of his
astronomical hypotheses. Through the influence
Abstract of Caselius, Liddel obtained a position teaching
The Scottish polymath Duncan Liddel has mathematics at Helmstedt University in 1591.
received significant recent attention for his Having pursued an interest in medicine through-
international scholarly career. Trained after out his academic career, Liddel finally received a
the humanist model, Liddel interested himself doctor of medicine degree from Helmstedt Uni-
in contemporary developments in mathematics versity in 1596 and became a professor of medi-
and astronomy. He is considered the first to cine in 1600. He was dean of the philosophy
have taught the astronomical systems of faculty in 1599 and became prorector of the uni-
Tycho Brahe and Nicolaus Copernicus along- versity in 1604. Having accumulated a comfort-
side the older Ptolemaic system. Involved in able fortune, Liddel returned to his homeland in
the Helmstedt Hofmannstreit, he influenced the 1607. Before his death, he bestowed substantial
development of Germany’s Melanchthonian grants upon the University of Aberdeen and
inheritance. He published many successful Marischal College.
medical texts, and his library is still held by Though relatively unknown today, Liddel was
the University of Aberdeen. in his time a renowned professor of mathematics
and of medicine. Having pursued his academic
career in Germany rather than his native Scotland,
Biography Liddel is seen as an example of the scholarly
networks that extended between Scotland and
After his early studies in Aberdeen, Duncan the continent in the late sixteenth century. As a
Liddel traveled to Frankfurt an der Oder by way polymath, Liddel represents the connections and
of Gdańsk. There he met his countryman John conflicts between the various emerging sciences
Craig, who provided him with the means for his of the late Renaissance, especially astronomy and
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_515-1
2 Liddel, Duncan
medicine, as well as the traditional sciences of Cross-References

theology and philosophy. A foreigner seeking
his fortune in Northern Germany, Liddel’s career ▶ Aristotelianism
also highlights the political and economic nature ▶ Astronomy
of scholarly activity, including teaching, publish- ▶ Copernicanism
ing, and patronage. ▶ Cosmology
With his broad quotation of Aristotle, Galen, ▶ Geocentrism
and Hippocrates, as well as of Latin and Greek ▶ Martini, Cornelius
literature, Liddel places himself solidly within the ▶ Melanchthon, Philipp
humanist tradition, but he also maintained an
eager interest in the innovative astronomy and
mathematics of his time. According to a letter
References
written by Caselius, Liddel was the first to teach
Copernicus and Brahe alongside Ptolemy in his
Primary Literature
astronomy lectures. He even mixed these newer Liddel, Duncan. 1590. Theses Logicae. Rostock:
ideas with his own hypotheses, which led to a Möllemann.
charge by Brahe that Liddel was stealing credit Liddel, Duncan. 1592. Disputatio de philosophia eiusque
for Brahe’s work. Liddel seems to have been instrumentis. Helmstedt: Lucius.
Liddel, Duncan. 1596. Disputatio de elementis. Helmstedt:
interested in these systems primarily on a theoret- Lucius.
ical rather than practical level. He taught astron- Liddel, Duncan. 1597. Disputatio de medicina eiusque
omy as a branch of mathematics and considered partibus, et methodis in disciplinis. Helmstedt: Lucius.
the various cosmological schemes from a mathe- Liddel, Duncan. 1598. Disputatio de methodo medendi et
officiis medici. Helmstedt: Lucius.
matical perspective, not according to their physi- Liddel, Duncan. 1601. Epistola Duncani Liddelii Scoti
cal tenability. medicinae doctoris, eiusdemque & superiorum
Liddel became involved in the Hofmannstreit Mathematum Professoris publici in Academia Iulia
at Helmstedt University, a debate over the rela- quae est Helmstadij. In qua respondet ad illa quae
ipsi a reverendissimo et illustrissimo principe ac dom-
tionship between philosophy and theology. ino, Dn. Henrico Iulio postulato Episcopo
Through his writings on that controversy, Liddel Helberstadense, Duce Brunsuicense & Lunaebergense
contributed to the development of Germany’s proposita fuerent. Wolfenbüttel: Typographia Illustri.
Melanchthonian inheritance, especially with Liddel, Duncan. 1607. Ars Medica. Hamburg: Froben.
Liddel, Duncan. 1610. De febribus. Hamburg: Froben.
regard to the role of natural light in philosophy
and the central importance of mathematics among
the disciplines. His medical works were very suc- Secondary Literature
cessful, reprinted in many editions, and highly Friedrich, Markus. 2004. Die Grenzen der Vernunft.
Theologie, Philosophie und gelehrte Konflikte am
regarded long after his death. He never subscribed Beispiel des Helmstedter Hofmannstreits und seiner
to the innovative and popular ideas of Paracelsus, Wirkungen auf das Luthertum um 1600. Göttingen:
though he owned and carefully annotated several Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
of his works, and he put forward the traditional Omodeo, Pietro Daniel. 2014. Copernicus in the cultural
debates of the renaissance: Reception, legacy, trans-
ideas of Galenism. formation. Leiden: Brill.
Liddel is remembered at Aberdeen by a bronze Omodeo, Pietro Daniel, ed. 2016. Duncan Liddel
plaque in St. Nicholas Kirk. The University of (1561–1613): Networks of polymathy and the Northern
Aberdeen holds his personal library, which con- European renaissance. Leiden: Brill.
tains one of the three surviving copies of
Copernicus’s Commentariolus, transcribed by
Liddel himself.
L
Lilly, William (1642–1649), although it took some time for him

to fully commit to the Parliamentarian side. The
Born: 1 May 1602 Diseworth, Leicestershire first edition of his almanac, Merlinus Anglicus
Junior, appeared in 1644 when Lilly was still a
Died: 9 June 1681, Hersham, Surrey moderate, hoping for reconciliation between King
and Parliament. Lilly moved toward the Parlia-
William Burns mentarian side in the following months and years,
George Washington University, Washington, DC, producing horoscopes that hinted at the death of
USA the King – a very risky move. Lilly’s England’s
Propheticall Merline (1644) used the recent great
conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 1642/1643
Abstract and the comet of 1618 to argue that a change of
William Lilly was the best known astrologer of dynasty in Britain was imminent, along with a
seventeenth-century England. He published a great disaster to the house of Stuart, although
popular almanac series, a textbook, and pam- Lilly did not flatly assert that the king’s death
phlets focusing on events of the day both polit- would be soon. He attracted much admiration
ical and celestial. Lilly saw astrology as a with his prediction of Parliamentary victory at
unified tradition stemming from Ptolemy and the battle of Naseby in 1645, one of the turning
invoked the authority of ancient, Islamic, points of the Civil War – a prediction that
medieval, Renaissance, and contemporary appeared the morning of the battle itself.
astrologers without excluding any particular Lilly also denounced people on the Parlia-
group or school. ment’s side, including greedy, tax-raising politi-
cians and power-grubbing Presbyterian ministers.
He was even briefly imprisoned by the Rump
Biography Parliament, England’s rulers after the execution
of Charles I in 1649, when he denounced them in
Lilly was born into a family of yeomen. Frustrated an almanac. Lilly’s almanac, Merlinus Anglicus
of early ambitions of attending university, he Junior, continued to dominate the market
moved to London, where he married a wealthy throughout the interregnum period (1649–1660),
widow. After his wife’s death in 1633, he devoted reaching a peak in sales of approximately 30,000
himself to astrology, a subject in which he was copies a year.
largely self-taught. Lilly supported the Parliament Lilly was the target of much anti-astrological
against King Charles I in the British Civil Wars mockery, particularly when he failed to predict the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_517-1
2 Lilly, William
restoration of King Charles II, in 1660. Although English translation as The Judgements of the
he suffered the confiscation of some of his prop- Starres (1598) as well as other continental
erty and a brief spell of imprisonment, Lilly got authors.
away comparatively lightly – partly because he
had stayed friends with influential Royalists like
fellow-astrologer Elias Ashmole. Lilly continued
References
to produce almanacs, although their sales dropped
considerably after the Restoration. He abjured
Primary
politics except for the obligatory profuse expres- Lilly, William. 2005. Christian astrology. New York:
sions of loyalty to the King. Lilly spent the last Cosimo Classics.
few years of his life in country retirement, Lilly, William. 1681.The last of the astrologers; Mr Wil-
although he continued to produce an almanac. liam Lilly’s history of his life and times from the year
1602 to; reprinted from the second edition of 1715 with
As a working astrologer, Lilly was known for notes and introduction by Katharine M. Briggs.
his mastery of horary astrology, answering ques- London: Folklore Society, 1974.
tions based on the position of the celestial bodies
when he was asked. His skill gave him a thriving
Secondary
practice as an astrological consultant independent Capp, Bernard. 1979. English Almanacs, 1500–1800:
of his almanacs and political work. Lilly’s most Astrology and the popular press. Ithaca: Cornell Uni-
influential text in astrology was Christian Astrol- versity Press.
ogy (1647), a book that influences astrologers in Curry, Patrick. 1989. Prophecy and power: Astrology in
early modern England. Princeton: Princeton University
the English-speaking tradition to the present day. Press.
It is partially based on the work of the French Geneva, Ann. 1995. Astrology and the seventeenth century
astrologer and physician Claude Dariot mind: William Lilly and the language of the stars.
(1533–1594), whose work had appeared in Manchester: Manchester University Press.
M
Mair, John 1518, when he returned to Scotland to serve as the

principal regent of the University of Glasgow until
Born: 1467/68 1523 at which point he took a position at the
Died: 1 May 1550 University of St. Andrews. He remained there
until 1526 when he returned to Paris to teach both
John T. Slotemaker logic and theology. Late in 1530 or 1531, Mair
Department of Religious Studies, Fairfield returned to Scotland and took a position at
University, Fairfield, CT, USA St. Andrews serving as provost beginning in1533.
He died on May 1, 1550 [On Mair’s life see
J.K. Farge in (Slotemaker and Witt 2015), 13–22].
Abstract Mair published extensively between 1499 and
John Mair was a Scottish born philosopher and 1530. The majority of his early works were in logic
theologian who taught at the Universities of and published between 1499 and 1508. Between
Paris, Glasgow, and St. Andrews. He made 1509 and 1530, the majority of his publishing was
significant contributions to logic and theology dedicated to his massive theological commentary
and wrote the first history of Great Britain. on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Mair also
published several biblical commentaries and a his-
tory of Great Britain; he also edited several scho-
Biography lastic treatises, including Adam Wodeham’s
commentary on the Sentences (i.e., his commentary
John Mair was born in Gleghornie, Scotland in on the Abbreviatio of Henry Totting of Oyta), and
1467. His primary education was in Haddington, John Duns Scotus’s Reportatio on the Sentences.
and he enrolled in Cambridge University in 1490.
He resided in God’s House College, later to
become Christ’s Church. In 1491 or 1492, he Innovative and Original Aspects
enrolled in the Collège Sainte-Barbe at the Uni-
versity of Paris where he earned his licentiate in Mair’s early logical works are grounded in a nom-
arts in 1494 and the Master of Arts in 1495. Mair inalist logic that is intimately engaged with works of
studied the liberal arts under John Bolu, Thomas late medieval scholasticism. Thus, Mair’s earliest
Briscot, and Gerónimo Pardo and theology under logical works rely upon an interpretation of Aristo-
John Standonck and Noël Beda at the Collège de telian philosophy that predominated in the late
Montaigu. Mair received his doctorate on medieval period in works such as Peter of Spain’s
November 12, 1506 and remained in Paris until Summulae logicales (Broadie 1985, 2009). In his
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_519-1
2 Mair, John
later logical works, however, Mair breaks with a dialogue has no resolution. Mair leaves the ques-
strict nominalist approach and begins to rework his tion open – his response is his massive commen-
logical texts with an eye to Aristotle’s texts them- tary that follows. And, while it is easy to read the
selves. In this regard, while it is accurate to consider work as the last dying breadth of scholastic theol-
Mair a nominalist logician, he represents a compli- ogy at the beginning of the sixteenth century, what
cated case given that his nominalist approach is not one realizes is that Mair attempts in this work to
strictly synonymous with the nominalists of the seek a via media between the various theological
fourteenth or fifteenth centuries (Slotemaker and positions defended by the nominalists and realists
Witt 2015, 241–287). Further, Mair often attempts and also the distinct positions and methods of the
to reconcile the various competing schools of the humanists. In this regard Mair’s massive theolog-
so-called Wegestreit (e.g., the nominales and reales) ical commentary is similar to his late logical
as well as a strict scholastic methodology with a works that seek to find some common ground
humanist informed method. This complicated meth- between the various schools of thought. In this
odology is found not only in Mair’s logical works respect Mair is a complex thinker who warrants
but is also a significant aspect of his greatest work, further study both as a philosopher and a
his massive commentary on Peter Lombard’s theologian.
Sentences.
The first indication that Mair’s commentary on
the Sentences is not a traditional work is the References
introductory dialogue with which Mair begins
the 1510 edition of his commentary on book The list of primary and secondary scholarship on John Mair
I. Here Mair includes a dialogue – “on the subject is extensive. For a comprehensive list of both primary
and secondary sources see (Slotemaker and Witt 2015,
matter that should be investigated by a
376–389).
theologian” – between two of his students, Broadie, Alexander. 1985. Logic and logicians in
Gavin Douglas and David Cranston (Slotemaker pre-reformation Scotland. In The circle of John Mair.
and Witt 2015, 25–40). Douglas presents a cri- Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Broadie, Alexander. 2009. A history of Scottish philosophy.
tique of scholastic method and even quotes the
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
humanist Lorenzo Valla, while Cranston defends Slotemaker, John T., and Jeffrey C. Witt. 2015. A compan-
scholasticism. And, what is odd is that the ion to the theology of John Mair. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
M
More, Henry enthusiasm (especially that one characterizing

Neoplatonic mysticism) is medical, as he dis-
Born: 12 October 1614, Grantham, Lincolnshire tinguishes between a rational, religious inspi-
Died: 1 September 1687, Cambridge ration, and a melancholic one.
Andrea Strazzoni
Dipartimento di Antichistica, Lingue, Educazione Alternate Names
e Filosofia (A.L.E.F.), Università degli Studi di
Parma, Parma, Italy ▶ Morus, Henricus
Gotha Research Centre, University and Research
Library, Erfurt/Gotha, Germany
Biography
Abstract Henry More was born in 1614 in Grantham from a

Henry More was an expounder of Cambridge Calvinist family. He attended the local grammar
Platonism, as he largely relied on a Platonic- school, before studying at Eton (1628) and from
inspired standpoint in pursuing his aims: the 1631 at the Christ’s College of Cambridge. He
demonstration of the immortality of soul, the took his BA in 1636 and his MA in 1639 and
critique of atheism and religious enthusiasm. became fellow of the College in the same year.
He maintains that soul emanates from God He was acquainted with Platonism from 1635 by
(being therefore not created and pre-existing reading the Theologia germanica (Crocker 1997,
body) and argues for the existence of a spirit 2003, 4–5), and in 1642 he composed his
of nature as means to explain natural phenom- Psychodia Platonica. As he became interested in
ena, which cannot be accounted for only in natural philosophy he started to study Descartes’s
mechanical terms. Moreover, he argues for philosophy and, prompted by Samuel Hartlib, he
the extended nature of God and spirits, as entered in correspondence with the Frenchman
only in this way they can act on the world. (Descartes 1903, 235–647, Descartes 1991,
Accordingly, More rejects Descartes’s theory 360–382), while in 1650–1651 he quarrelled
of immaterial substance, but relies on his onto- with Thomas Vaughan (who embraced Neoplato-
logical argument provide a demonstration of nism and mysticism), as More accused him of
the existence of God. His critique to religious enthusiasm (Crocker 2003, 45–61). In

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_526-1
2 More, Henry
1650, More started a correspondence with the and Origenian conception (Jacob 1985, 1991),
half-sister of his pupil John Finch, Anne (later souls become individuated from a unique world
Conway), which would last until 1677 (Nicolson soul (which is a hypostasis of God) and degrade
1992; Hutton 2004, 73–93). During the Interreg- from their original perfection as they are joined to
num (1653–1659), More published his main phil- three elements (ethereal, aerial, and terrestrial):
osophical works: An antidote against atheism therefore, souls cannot have been created by
(1655), Conjectura Cabbalistica (1653), God, as this would imply that He is responsible
Enthusiasmus triumphatus (1656), and Immortal- for their degradation. Consequently souls
ity of the soul (1659). After the Interregnum he pre-exist bodies and, as they ultimately emanate
mainly published apologetic treatises, as the from God, are immortal (More 1642, 1987, 1998;
Grand Mystery of Godliness (1660), since with Jacob 1987, i–lxxxviii; Crocker 2001; Reid 2012,
the Declaration of Breda (1660) Charles II prom- 349–381). More’s main target in his account of
ised more religious toleration (Gabbey 1982, soul is Hobbes’s materialism, which he rejects
222–230). In 1663, he entered into a quarrel since ratiocination, free will, and apparitions
with the theologians Joseph Beaumont and Sam- (Coudert 1990) cannot be explained by matter
uel Parker, who accused him of being a latitudi- and mechanism alone. Also, More opposes Cal-
narian for his anti-Calvinist positions, and vinist voluntarism, as God is bounded by an abso-
received support by Lord Conway (Anne’s hus- lute goodness (More 1668; Crocker 2001; Henry
band) (Crocker 2003, 69–110). From 1670, he 2012). This position underlies his moral philoso-
was distanced by Lady Conway, as More rejected phy, in which he demonstrates that good and evil
the mystical Kabbalah of Isaac Luria, to which are absolute values, and pursued by a “boniform
Anne had been introduced by Francis van faculty” which includes both reason and sensation
Helmont, and her Quakerism, which More con- (More 1667; Henry 2012; Hutton 2015, 13–14).
sidered as a form of enthusiasm (Crocker 2003, In his critique to atheism (which he relates to
183–198; Coudert 1992; Fouke 1997, 152–156). materialism and mechanism), More uses
In 1681–1682, he entered into another theological Descartes’s ontological argument for the exis-
quarrel, this time with Richard Baxter, who criti- tence of God (More 1655; Gabbey 1982,
cized his antivoluntarism (Crocker 2003, 199–204) and adopts Descartes’s vortex theory
167–181). He died in 1687. (See also Crocker to defend Mosaic cosmogony, in accordance
1990a; Ward 2000; Henry 2012). with the tradition of the Christian Kabbalah
(More 1653; Gabbey 1982, 204–205; Popkin
1990; Coudert 1992; Henry 2012). In dealing
Innovative and Original Aspects with the notion of soul, however, More comes to
criticize Descartes’s account of the motion of ani-
The main objectives of More were theological, as mals by matter alone (which is passive) and pos-
he aimed to (1) demonstrate the immortality of the tulates that such motion is given by immaterial
soul, (2) refute atheism, (3) explain and eradicate souls coextended with matter. Even God, in order
religious enthusiasm (More 1660, v–vi, 1662, to act on the world, has to be extended. As exten-
Preface, 6; Gabbey 1982, 222–226; Hutton sion can be immaterial and void, More argues for
2015, 144). In pursuing these objectives, he the existence of an absolute, infinite space (More
adopted Platonic-inspired arguments (being there- 1668, dialogue 1, 1995; Hall 1990b, 202–223;
fore a main expounder of the “Cambridge Plato- Henry 1986; Reid 2003, 2007, 2008, 2012,
nism”) and confronted with the philosophy of 185–236; Agostini 2011). The idea of an extended
René Descartes. immaterial substance is elaborated into that of
The first concern of More was with the notion “spirit of nature” or “hylarchic principle” which
of individual soul, which he characterizes as is the inferior part of the world soul and serves to
incorporeal and as pre-existing bodies. According account for material causality and for gravitation.
to his Neoplatonic (i.e., Plotinian and Ficinian) This principle explains also the experiments with
More, Henry 3
the air pump performed by Robert Boyle (Boyle ▶ Psychology: Renaissance Philosophy
1672; More 1987, book 3, Chap. 12; Hall 1990a, ▶ Spirit: Renaissance Philosophy
c; Gabbey 1982, 219–222, 1990; Reid 2012, ▶ Substance: Renaissance Philosophy
279–348), who however rejected More’s theolog- ▶ Theology: Renaissance Philosophy
ical use of them (Boyle 2000; Henry 1990). ▶ Vacuum: Renaissance Philosophy
Thirdly, More assumed enthusiasm among his ▶ Will, Free
objectives, as he distanced himself from the Pla- ▶ Witchcraft: Renaissance Philosophy
tonism of Vaughan, who turned to mysticism ▶ World Soul
(Crocker 1990b; Fouke 1997, 50–95), and from
Quakerism (centred on the notion of “inner
light”). More mainly focuses on the physiological
References
causes of enthusiasm, as melancholy, to which he
opposes an illumination identifiable by its sobri-
Primary Literature
ety, rationality, and adherence to Scripture (More Boyle, Robert. 1672. Tracts written by the Honourable
1656; Burnham 1974; Heyd 1995, 92–108; Fouke Robert Boyle containing new experiments, touching
1997, 156–174). the relation betwixt flame and air, and about explo-
sions, an hydrostatical discourse occasion’d by some
objections of Dr. Henry More against some explica-
tions of new experiments made by the author of these
Cross-References tracts. London: printed for Richard Davis.
Boyle, Robert. 2000. An hydrostatical discourse
▶ Animal occasion’d by some objections of Dr H. More in his
Enchiridion metaphysicum. In The works of Robert
▶ Cambridge Platonists Boyle, vol. 7, ed. M. Hunter and E.B. Davis. London:
▶ Causality Pickering and Chatto.
▶ Conway, Anne Descartes, René. 1903. Oeuvres, vol. V, Correspondance V.
▶ Descartes, René: Renaissance Philosophy Mai 1647 – Février 1650, ed. C. Adam and P. Tannery.
Paris: Léopold Cerf. Repr. 1964–1976, Paris: Vrin/
▶ Elements, Natural CNRS.
▶ Ethics Descartes, René. 1991. The philosophical writings of des-
▶ Experiment cartes. volume 3, the correspondence, ed. and trans.
▶ Ficino, Marsilio J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, D. Murdoh and A. Kenny.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
▶ God: Renaissance Philosophy More, Henry. 1642. Psychodia platonica; or, a platonicall
▶ Gravity song of the soul, consisting of foure severall poems.
▶ Hobbes, Thomas Cambridge: printed by Roger Daniel.
▶ Hypostasis: Renaissance Philosophy More, Henry. 1653. Conjectura Cabalistica. Or a conjec-
tural Essay of Interpreting the minde of Moses,
▶ Immanence: Renaissance Philosophy according to a Threefold Cabala. London: Printed by
▶ Immortality of the Soul James Flesher.
▶ Infinite More, Henry. 1655 [1652]. An antidote against atheism:
▶ Life or, an appeal to the natural faculties of the mind of man,
whether there be not a god. London: Printed for J.
▶ Materialism: Renaissance Philosophy Flesher.
▶ Matter: Renaissance Philosophy More, Henry. 1656. Enthusiasmus triumphatus: Or, a dis-
▶ Metaphysics: Renaissance Philosophy course of the nature, causes, kinds and cure of
▶ Motion enthusiasme. London: Printed by J. Flesher.
More, Herny. 1659. The immortality of the soul, so farre
▶ Mysticism: Renaissance Philosophy forth as it is demonstrable from the knowledge of nature
▶ Natural History: Renaissance Philosophy and the light of reason. London: printed by J. Flesher,
▶ Neoplatonism for William Morden.
▶ Origenes (in the Renaissance) More, Henry. 1660. An explanation of the grand mystery of
godliness; or a true and faithful representation of the
▶ Pampsychism everlasting Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
▶ Plato (in the Renaissance) Christ. London: printed by J. Flesher for W. Morden.
▶ Plotinus (in the Renaissance)
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More, Henry. 1662. A collection of severall philosophical Fouke, Daniel. 1997. The enthusiastical concerns of Dr
writings. London: printed by James Flesher, for Wil- Henry More: Religious meaning and the psychology of
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don/Cambridge: J. Flesher/W. Morden. Cartesianism, ed. N. Davis and T. Lennon, 171–250.
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disquisitions and instructions concerning the attributes Gabbey, Alan. 1990. Henry More and the limits of mech-
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The correspondence of Anne, Viscountess Conway, Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 49: 172–195.
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Agostini, Igor. 2011. Henry More e le fonti della dottrina fall2012/entries/henry-more/. Accessed 26 Mar 2016.
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cultura britannica, ed. P. Dessì and Brunello Lotti, tique of enthusiasm in the seventeenth and early eigh-
49–69. Florence: Le Lettere. teenth centuries. Leiden/New York/Köln: E.J. Brill.
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nary studies, ed. S. Hutton, 137–156. Dordrecht: nature in More, Cudworth, and Berkeley. In The uses of
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More, Henry 5
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Reid, Jasper. 2012. The metaphysics of Henry More. Dor- Webster, Charles. 1969. Henry More and descartes: Some
drecht: Springer. new sources. The British Journal for the History of
Science 4(4): 359–377.
O
Oughtred, William Oughtred’s most influential textbook was

Clavis Mathematicae (1631), published in Latin.
Born: 5 March 1575? Eton College It was one of the first mathematical books in
Died: 13 June 1660, Albury, Surrey England to incorporate the X sign for multiplica-
tion and also discussed the recently introduced
William Burns decimal fractions. Oughtred believed symbols
George Washington University, Washington, DC, were essential to mathematics and employed
USA many, including the X and four dots (::) to indicate
ratios. Clavis Mathematicae was extremely con-
cise, and the book’s small size made it relatively
Abstract inexpensive. Oughtred played an important role in
The Reverend William Oughtred was one of bringing modern algebra, principally developed
the foremost mathematical writers and instru- by French and Italian mathematicians, to England.
ment-makers in seventeenth-century England. Readers and admirers of Clavis Mathematicae
The mathematical library he built at his rectory included the young Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle,
of Albury in Surrey attracted visitors and Robert Hooke, and John Locke. Edmond Halley
pupils from far away and even the Continent. contributed a preface to an English translation that
It was particularly important given the limited appeared in 1694. Oughtred’s last major work was
circulation of Continental mathematical books Trigonometrie (1657). Like Clavis Mathematicae,
in England. He took mathematical pupils at the it was extremely short, reflecting Oughtred’s con-
rectory, and, like many seventeenth-century densed style and use of symbols and abbreviations
mathematicians, practiced astrology. rather than writing out operations.
Much of Oughtred’s reputation was based on
his invention of mathematical instruments.
Biography Oughtred was an inventor of the circular slide
rule, or “Circle of Proportion,” based on the
English mathematician William Oughtred was recently invented logarithmic scale and building
educated at Eton School and King’s College of on the work of Edmund Gunter. He was one of the
Cambridge University, although he was largely earliest mathematicians to be aware of John
self-taught in mathematics. He was ordained as a Napier’s work on logarithms. Oughtred described
minister in the Church of England in 1603. In the slide rule in The Circles of Proportion and the
1606, he married Christgift Caryll, who bore him Horizontal Instrument (1632). Historians have
either 12 or 13 children.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_528-1
2 Oughtred, William
dated Oughtred’s invention of the circular slide instruction. Oughtred believed that instruments
rule to 1622, long before he described it in print. should only be introduced once the student under-
Oughtred also developed a linear slide rule stood their theoretical basis.
with two moving rods, essentially two of the log- Oughtred took a royalist stance during the
arithmic rods devised by Gunter put together. He English Civil War, but received enough protection
described the device in An Addition unto the Use from patrons to keep his clerical position.
of the Instrument called the Circles of Proportion A legend spread after Oughtred’s death was that
(1633). Another instrument Oughtred invented it had been caused by excessive joy in celebration
was the planisphere, described in The Solution of of the Restoration of Charles II, although several
All Sphaerical Triangles by the Planisphere days intervened between when Oughtred would
(1651) although Oughtred had devised it about have learned of the Restoration and the day of
40 years earlier. The planisphere was a device his death.
for measuring triangles on the surface of a sphere,
saving the labor of trigonometric calculations.
Despite Oughtred’s own creativity in devising References
new mathematical instruments, he was suspicious
of the role of instruments in mathematical instruc- Primary
tion. He argued that there was too much emphasis Oughtred, William. 1647. The key of the mathematics new
placed on using instruments as opposed to under- forged and filed. London: T. Harper.
standing mathematics. Oughtred believed that stu-
dents should know the abstract and theoretical Secondary
part of mathematics before engaging with mathe- Cajori, Florian. 1916. William Oughtred: A great
matical instruments, when others, particularly seventeenth-century teacher of mathematics. Chicago:
Open Court.
among the professional mathematics teaching
Taylor, E. G. R.. 1954. The mathematical practitioners of
community of London, believed instruments Tudor and Stuart England. Cambridge: Cambridge
should be introduced early in mathematical University Press for the Institute of Navigation.
P
Parker, Henry was called as a barrister having entered Lincoln’s

Inn in 1630. From this date to his first pamphlet in
Born: 1640, Rutton (Sussex) 1640 (the Case of Shipmony), very little is known.
Died: 1652 Writing for private interests was among his activ-
ities during the 1640s, a period in which he was
Alessandro Arienzo also employed by William Fiennes, Viscount Saye
Department of Humanities, Università degli Studi and Sele, his uncle and patron, as a secretary.
di Napoli “Federico II”, Naples, Italy Between 1641 and 1642, he wrote a long apologia
on behalf of the Vintners’ Company, and in 1643
he was engaged by the Stationer’s Company. In
Abstract 1646 he was into the service of the Merchant
A political theorist and pamphleteer during the Adventurers in Hamburg, and on their request,
1640s, Henry Parker was the most influential he wrote in 1648 the book Of a Free Trade in
defender of Parliamentary case during the Civil which he attacked the ideas of unlimited compe-
Wars and the early years of the Long Parlia- tition and defended the privileges of incorporated
ment. His theories of popular sovereignty, merchants. Despite their occasional nature, in all
political representation, and Parliamentary his commissioned writings, Henry Parker linked
absolutism constitute an original and innova- the interests of private parties with the common
tive contribution to the early modern political interest of English nation showing an original
philosophy. vision of politics and economics.
Biography Political Theory
A political theorist and pamphleteer defending the His most important writing, the Case of Shipmony,
Parliamentary cause during the 1640s, Henry Par- is a defense of mixed constitution and of the role
ker was born in 1604 in Rutton, Sussex, fifth son of the Parliament in taxation, based on salus
of Sir Nicholas Parker, a respected gentleman of populi and necessity claims. This volume had a
country gentry family who served as deputy lieu- relevant impact in contemporary debates on
tenant, sheriff, and shire knight. Henry was edu- extraordinary taxation and the role of the Parlia-
cated in a Protestant family, far from religious or ment and is today regarded among the most
political radicalism. He got his BA in St. Edmund important pamphlets of the prerevolutionary
Hall in 1625 and his MA 3 years later. In 1638, he years. He also published several important
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_530-1
2 Parker, Henry
pamphlets on religious issue, such as The Ques- References

tion Concerning the Divine Right of Episcopacie
(1641), The Grounds of Ecclesiastical Regiment Primary Literature
(1641), and A Discourse Concerning Puritans, all Parker, Henzy. 1640. The case of shipmony. London.
Parker, Henzy. 1641a. A discourse concerning Puritans.
of which were printed in support of Lord Say
London.
against his enemies and in favor of the supremacy Parker, Henzy. 1641b. The grounds of ecclesiastical refine-
of the public magistrate in settling religious dis- ment. London.
agreements. In 1642 he published his Observa- Parker, Henzy. 1642. Observations upon some of his
majesty’s late answers and expresses.
tions upon His Majesties Late Answer and
Parker, Henzy. 1644. Jus Populi. London.
Expresses in which, responding to Charles’ dec-
larations, he rebutted godly monarchical power
and placed absolute power in the hands of Parlia- Secondary Literature
ment in all extraordinary cases. The relevance of Cromartie, Alan. 2016. Parliamentary sovereignty, popular
sovereignty, and Henry Parker’s adjudicative stand-
Parker treatise relies on its clear-cut expression of point. In Popular sovereignty in historical
a Parliamentary absolutism based on the represen- perspective, ed. Richard Bourke and Skinner Quentin,
tative nature of the Parliament. These principles 142–163. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
will be further expressed in his Jus Populi, Jordan, Wilbur Kitchener. 1967. Men of substance: A study
of the thought of two english revolutionaries: Henry
published in 1644, in which he developed his Parker e John Robinson. New York: Octagon.
theory of the representative nature of the English Judson, Margaret Atwood. 1936. Henry Parker and the
Parliament and its popular sovereignty. However, theory of parliamentary sovereignty. In Essays in his-
he was a fierce opponent of the Levellers and of tory and political theory in honour of C.H. Mc
Ilwain, ed. C. Wittke, 138–167. Cambridge, MA: Har-
any radical movement. In 1642 he was appointed vard University Press.
secretary to the Parliamentary Army and in 1645 Mendle, Michael. 1995. Henry Parker and the English
secretary to the House of Commons in 1645. He civil war. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
was also at the service, as secretary, of Robert Skinner, Quentin. 1998. Liberty before liberalism. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Devereux, third Earl of Essex, a prominent mili- Skinner, Quentin. 2005. Hobbes on representation. Euro-
tary leader for the Parliamentarians. In the follow- pean Journal of Philosophy 13(2): 155–184.
ing years, he served for Henry Ireton, and in 1649, Tuck, Richard. 1993. Philosophy and government
he was secretary to Oliver Cromwell’s army. 1572–1651. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zaller, Robert. 1991. Henry Parker and the regiment of true
Henry Parker died in 1652. government. Proceedings of the American Philosophi-
cal Society 135(2): 225–285.
W
Wilkins, John entered Magdalen Hall, which then had a reputa-

tion for Puritanism. Wilkins graduated B.A. in
Born: 1614, Fawsleys 1631 and M.A. in 1634 and tutored at Magdalen
Hall until 1637, in which year he was appointed a
Died: 19 November 1672, London vicar in his birthplace. He was ordained priest in
1638 and served some years as a private chaplain
Han Thomas Adriaenssen to, among others, George, eighth Lord Berkeley
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen, and Charles Louis, Prince Elector Palatine, the
Groningen, The Netherlands nephew of Charles I. In 1645, Wilkins was
appointed preacher at London’s Gray’s Inn. Dur-
ing his years in London, he began to meet with a
Abstract group of scientists often referred to as the
One of the founding fathers of the Royal Soci- Gresham College Group. This group brake up in
ety, Wilkins’ early natural philosophical works 1648, the year in which Wilkins became Warden
contain defenses of Galilean and Copernican of Wadham College, Oxford. There, Wilkins gath-
astronomy. Dissatisfied with the ambiguities of ered around him a group of scientists, including
natural languages, Wilkins in his 1668 Essay some of his former London acquaintances as well
Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical as men such as Robert Boyle and Christopher
Language developed an artificial language. In Wren. This Oxford Philosophical Club is often
his Principles and Duties of Natural Religion, regarded as a forerunner of the Royal Society. In
posthumously published in 1675, he argued 1659, Wilkins was appointed Master of
that in religion and science, absolute certainty Cambridge’s Trinity College by Cromwell, his
is beyond reach. Moral certainty or certainty brother-in-law, but lost this position 1 year later
beyond a reasonable doubt is all we have with the restoration of Charles II. After the resto-
and need. ration, Wilkins held various positions in the
Church. His return as a preacher to Gray’s Inn in
1660 brought him back to London, where he
Biography became a founding father of the Royal Society,
serving as one of its secretaries in 1663 and super-
John Wilkins was born in Fawsley in Northamp- vising Thomas Sprat’s 1667 History of the Royal
tonshire, in 1614. Having attended a private Society. In 1668, Wilkins was appointed Bishop of
school in Oxford, he was admitted to New Inn Chester. Suffering from kidney stones, Wilkins
Hall in 1627, but in October of that same year died in London on 19 November 1672 (for a
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_539-1
2 Wilkins, John
detailed account of Wilkins’ life and career, see Absolute certainty, he held, was not humanly
Shapiro 1969). attainable. The highest certainty humanly attain-
able was the certainty of sense perception or phys-
ical certainty. The next degree of certainty was the
Philosophy certainty of mathematical reasoning or mathemat-
ical certainty. Finally, the lowest degree was that
Wilkins’ earliest writings on natural philosophy of moral certainty. Moral certainty was certainty
are his 1638 Discovery of a New World and the beyond a reasonable doubt, and examples of
1640 Discourse Concerning a New World. These moral certainties are historical matters of fact
works do not contain new, but rather aim to pop- and the existence of far-away countries.
ularize Galilean and Copernican astronomy. The Explaining that different degrees of certainty
latter work was written in response to Alexander suffice in different sciences, Wilkins pointed out
Ross, a conservative Aristotelian who in his 1634 that in religious matters, we should not expect or
Commentum de terrae motu had rejected the look for more than moral certainty. The principles
motion of the earth. In 1648, Wilkins published of natural religion may not be beyond every pos-
a treatise on mechanics under the title Mathemat- sible doubt, but they are beyond a reasonable
ical Magic. doubt. And in religion as well as in history and
Wilkins’ philosophically most important cartography, such certainty was certainty enough.
works are the 1668 Essay Towards a Real Char- Wilkins here argues as a constructive skeptic:
acter and a Philosophical Language and his Of granting the skeptic that absolute certainty cannot
the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion, be had, he proceeds to claim that this fact is not
which was posthumously published in 1675. In much to be lamented. A similar strategy and
the first, Wilkins’ project was to develop an arti- emphasis on moral certainty can be found in the
ficial language that lacked the ambiguities and works of Joseph Glanvill and in natural scientists
redundancies of natural languages. In the first like Boyle, who saw that trial and experiment will
half of the Essay, he set out to enumerate all things never yield absolute certainty, but a certainty
that his artificial language must be able to denote, beyond reasonable doubt at best (on the concept
offering among others an extensive classification of moral certainty, see Van Leeuwen 1970).
of plants and animal species. The book’s second
half outlines a system of signs which Wilkins
hoped would not only name these things but also References
reflect their nature and the relations between them.
Wilkins’ attempt at developing an artificial lan- Primary Literature
guage may have been inspired by the work of the Wilkins, John. 1668. An essay towards a real character
and a philosophical language. London: Gellibrand.
Scottish scholar George Dalgarno, who in his
Wilkins, John. 1675. In Of the principles and duties of
1661 Ars signorum had set out to construct a natural religion, ed. John Tillotson. London: Maxwell.
universal language. The works of Wilkins and
Dalgarno were read with interest by Leibniz, Secondary Literature
who yet remained critical of the way in which Shapiro, Barbara. 1969. John Wilkins 1614–1672. An intel-
these men had executed their projects. lectual biography. Berkeley: University of California
Press.
In the Principles and Duties, Wilkins’ aim was
Van Leeuwen, Henry. 1970. The problem of certainty in
to defend the principles of natural religion against English thought 1630–1690. The Hague: Martinus
skepticism and infidelity. To do this, he first dis- Nijhoff.
tinguished between various degrees of certainty.
W
White, Thomas between 1625 and 1629 acted as a representative

of English Catholics in Rome. Having served as
Born: 1592 or 1593, Essex President of the English Catholic college in Lis-
bon between 1630 and 1633, White spent the
Died: 6 July 1676, London early 1640s in Paris, where he associated himself
with the so-called Mersenne circle, which
Han Thomas Adriaenssen acquainted him with such figures as Kenelm
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen, Digby, Gassendi, and Hobbes. By 1655, White
Groningen, The Netherlands had returned to England, where he was to become
leader of the Blackloist faction of English Cathol-
icism, which was so-called after one of his aliases,
Abstract Blacklo. Blackloism comprised both a broadly
Thomas White was an English priest. As leader Aristotelian philosophical program and the polit-
of the Blackloist faction in English Catholi- ical ambition of securing toleration for English
cism, he aimed to make Catholicism more Catholics by renouncing all worldly power. In
acceptable to Protestant authorities. In his nat- theology, White’s Blackloism entailed a critique
ural philosophical works, White combined of papal infallibility and the traditional doctrine of
Aristotelian philosophy with the findings of purgatory. During the 1650s White continued to
the new science. In his political work, he pursue his scientific interests, meeting and
argued that rulers owe their authority to the corresponding with such men as Ward, Wilkins,
people rather than to God and that states that and Fermat. In 1655, White in his Grounds of
fail to serve their subjects’ best interest lose Obedience and Government advised English
their legitimacy. Catholics to support the Cromwell regime. Just
before the restoration of Charles II in 1660, White
withdrew to Holland in 1659, returning to
Biography England in 1662. He died in London, on
6 July 1676.
Thomas White was born in 1592 or 1593 in Essex.
Receiving his education at the English Catholic
colleges of St Omer, Valladolid, and Seville, Philosophy
White graduated B.D. in Leuven in 1614.
Between 1618 and 1623, he taught philosophy In his early works on natural philosophy, White
and theology at the English college of Douai and combined traditional teaching with the new
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_543-1
2 White, Thomas
science. Thus, in his 1642 De Mundo, White function as a rule of faith. Only the unbroken
combined aspects of Galilean cosmology with oral tradition of the church could provide doc-
Aristotelian natural philosophy and the 1646 trinal certainty. Protestants such as John Tillotson
Institutionum Peripateticorum outlined a mecha- and John Wilkins would later argue that certainty
nistic account of bodies within a broadly Aristo- beyond a reasonable doubt, or moral certainty,
telian framework. Bodies were compounds of was enough in religious matters, but White
matter and substantial form. But at the same would not lower his standards in this way. In his
time, they were constellations of minute corpus- 1663 Scire, sive Sceptices et Scepticorum a jure
cles of the four elements, and their characteristics Disputationis Exclusio, he attacked Joseph
could be accounted for in terms of the constella- Glanvill, who had argued that absolute or infalli-
tion and motion of these corpuscles. White’s syn- ble certainty is not humanly attainable and that
thesis of Aristotelian philosophy and mechanism though we must aim to rule out reasonable doubts,
owed a lot to the work of his friend Kenelm we will never succeed in the elimination of every
Digby, who in his Two Treatises of 1644 had possible doubt. According to White, to settle for
claimed that bodies and their operations result moral certainty was to give in to the sceptic, and in
from the motion of elementary particles and that the second half of the seventeenth century,
this had been the thrust of Aristotle’s natural White’s friend, the Blackloist John Sergeant,
philosophy. would repeat and further develop this line of
In his Grounds of Obedience, White argued argument.
that although “the Nature of Man is to be free,”
man chooses to submit to government seeing that
this is in his own best interest (White 1655, 6). References
The subject of a state must see that “what was
ordered by the Government, was his owne truest Primary Literature
interest” and states that fail to make this clear will Coke, Roger. 1660. Justice indicated against the late writ-
in the long run lose their legitimacy (White 1655, ings of Thomas White, Thomas Hobbes and Hugo
Grotius. London: Thomas Newcomb.
3). Among the yielding Grounds most vocal White, Thomas. 1655. The grounds of obedience and gov-
critics was Roger Coke, who reproached Grotius, ernment. London: J. Flesher.
Hobbes, and White for holding that men are by
nature free and that the state derives its authority Secondary Literature
from the people. Instead, Coke argued that “Men Sgarbi, Marco. 2013. Thomas White, an Aristotelian
are by nature born into society and subordination” response to scepticism. Archive of the History of Phi-
losophy and Social Thought 58: 83–96.
and that the power to rule was divinely instituted
Southgate, Beverley. 1993. Covetous of truth. The life and
(Coke 1660, 53). works of Thomas White 1593–1676. Dordrecht:
As a Catholic, White believed that the text and Kluwer.
meaning of the Scripture were too uncertain to
A
Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius Christian reform of culture. The critique of philo-

sophical knowledge and of every science,
Born: 14 September 1486, Nettesheim (Cologne) presented in Agrippa’s De vanitate, and his cri-
tique to the subordination of woman typical of
Died: 18 February 1535, Grenoble Scholastic theology, contained in the De nobilitate
foeminei sexus, are functional to these ends.
Andrea Strazzoni
Dipartimento di Antichistica, Lingue, Educazione
e Filosofia (A.L.E.F.), Università degli Studi di Alternate Names
Parma, Parma, Italy
National Research University Higher School of ▶ Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim
Economics, Moscow, Russia
Biography
Abstract
Cornelius Agrippa was born in 1486 near
Agrippa was the main expounder of the occult Cologne, where he studied from 1499 and became
philosophy, which is the knowledge of the hidden magister artium in 1502. After his graduation, he
causes of things and is finalized to their manipu- joined the imperial army and traveled to Spain
lation by magic. Magic, in turn, is the highest form (1508) and to France, where he started his aca-
and the end of philosophy. According to his De demic activities in Dôle, teaching Johannes
occulta philosophia, magic is threefold: natural Reuchlin’s De verbo mirifico, and wrote his De
(concerning sublunar world), celestial nobilitate et praecellentia foeminae sexus. In the
(concerning stars and heavenly intelligences), same years, he completed the first version of his
and divine (concerning God and higher angels). De occulta philosophia (Agrippa 1992). In 1509
It consists of the manipulation of concrete objects or 1510, he left Dôle after having been accused of
and of the summoning of intelligences and God, “Judaizing heresy,” as Reuchlin’s De verbo
which is performed on the basis of the precepts of mirifico relies on a Cabalistic exegesis of the
the Kabbalah. Agrippa’s overall aim was to purify Jewish Bible and on Jewish scholarship to argue
magic from its necromantic and irrational compo- for the nature of Jesus as Messiah (Zika 1976;
nents: this would enable the restoration of the Lehrich 2003, 26; Perrone Compagni 2005, 16;
prelapsarian condition of man (in accordance Nauert 2011). Afterward, he traveled in Germany,
with the Hermetic ideal of deification) and a the Netherlands, and England, serving
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_547-1
2 Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius
Maximilian I as diplomat, and from 1511 in Italy. prelapsarian unity with God (Perrone Compagni
At the University of Pavia, Agrippa taught Plato’s 2000). Being interested in occult philosophy since
Symposium and the Pimander (part of the Corpus he had read Albertus Magnus’s Speculum
Hermeticum), and in Turin he taught theology. In astronomiae, containing a defense of the influence
1518, he moved again to France and became of stars on bodies (Zambelli 1992b), in his De
public advocatus in Metz, where he clashed with occulta philosophia, Agrippa divides magic into
the local inquisitor while defending a woman three kinds: natural, which is the manipulation of
accused of witchcraft and entered in a dispute concrete objects (Lehrich 2003, 44–97) and of the
with the Dominicans, as he denied a legend on world spirit that underpins their occult properties
the marriages of St. Anne (Agrippa 1534). He thus (Nauert 2011); celestial or mathematical magic,
left Metz and practiced medicine in Geneva, Fri- which concerns the powers of stars and the intel-
bourg (1521–1523), and at the French court in ligences (as lower angels) governing them, sum-
Lyon from 1524 on, where he held the position moned by numeric formulas and images (Lehrich
of physician of Louise, the mother of the King. In 2003, 97–113); and divine or ceremonial magic,
Lyon, Agrippa suffered financial and personal which consists of theurgical rites – such as the use
problems as he could not obtain support from his of the name of higher angels and God – based on
patroness Marguerite of Alençon. Eventually, he the contents of the Kabbalah, which Agrippa
left the French court and became, in 1528, impe- knew in the Christianized version of Giovanni
rial historiographer in Antwerp, but he lost this Pico, Reuchlin, and Francesco Giorgio Veneto
position after having published his De vanitate (Perrone Compagni 1982). In his De vanitate, on
(1530), containing an attack to the mendicant the other hand, Agrippa distinguishes between
orders which led the governor of the Netherlands, natural magic – which is natural philosophy
Margaret of Austria, to report it to the theological itself – and ritual magic, which has a demonic
faculty of Louvain. Finally, in 1532 he came into character (Zambelli 1992a, 2007, 13–34). The
service of the Archbishop of Bonn but was again apparent contradiction with his De occulta
attacked by the Dominicans, as he was about to philosophia can be explained in the light of his
publish the full version of his De occulta program of a Christian reform of culture
philosophia that they considered heretical. This (influenced by Erasmus, Zambelli 1970; Van der
edition was intended to provide a complete pre- Poel 1997), to which his purging of magic was
sentation and defense of his work, as only a man- functional. In his De vanitate, he uses skeptical
uscript version (1510) was circulating. arguments to criticize all sciences, only in order to
Eventually, this edition appeared in 1533. In show that these are less reliable than faith in
1534–1535, he moved again to France and died guiding man to the knowledge of God (Van der
in 1535 in Grenoble (Van der Poel 1997, 15–49; Poel 1997, 112–115) and to establish a prisca
Lehrich 2003, 25–42; Blum and M€ uller-Jahncke theologia where faith and reason are perfectly
2010; Nauert 2011). balanced and the original harmony with God is
restored (Perrone Compagni 1997, 2000, 2009).
Such ideal of harmony and deification was
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition inspired by Platonism and Hermetic philosophy,
underlying also his De homine and De triplici
Agrippa was the main expounder of occult philos- ratione cognoscendi Deum (Agrippa 1958,
ophy, i.e., the knowledge of the hidden properties 2005; Perrone Compagni 2005). Agrippa’s criti-
of things that makes possible their manipulation cisms are moreover directed against scholastic
by the techniques of magic, which is the highest philosophy and theology, which are the main tar-
form and the end of philosophy. His overall aim gets of his De nobilitate foeminei sexus, where the
was to purify magic from its necromantic and canonical interpretation of Eve’s sin is
irrational aspects, which would enable the deifi- disregarded as authoritarian and equality of
cation of man and the restoration of the sexes is devised as part of the reappropriation of
Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius 3
the prelapsarian condition (Agrippa 1529, 1990, Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. 1958. Dialogus de
1996; Perrone Compagni 2006). homine, ed. by Paola Zambelli. Rivista critica di storia
della filosofia 13: 47–71
Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. 1990. De nobilitate et
praecellentia foeminei sexus. Édition critique d’après
le texte d’Anvers 1529, ed. Roland Antonioli and
Cross-References Charles Béné. Geneva: Librairie Droz.
Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. 1992. De occulta
▶ Albertism philosophia libri tres, ed. Vittoria Perrone Compagni.
Leiden: Brill.
▶ Angels
Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. 1996. Declamation on the
▶ Daimon Nobility and Preeminence of the Female. ed. and Trans.
▶ Erasmus, Desiderius Albert Rabil Jr. Chicago: The University of Chicago
▶ Hermes Trismegistus and Hermeticism Press.
Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. 2005. De triplici ratione
▶ Manuscript
cognoscendi Deum. In Ermetismo e Cristianesimo in
▶ Natural Magic Agrippa Il ‘De triplici ratione cognoscendi
▶ Occult Properties Deum’, ed. Vittoria Perrone Compagni. Florence:
▶ Plato (in the Renaissance) Polistampa.
▶ Renaissance Jewish Philosophy
▶ Renaissance Kabbalah Secondary Literature
▶ Reuchlin, Johannes Blum, Paul Richard, and Wolf-Dieter M€ uller-Jahncke.
▶ Skepticism 2010. Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486–1535): Philo-
▶ Science and Religion sophical Magic, Empiricism, and Skepticism. In Phi-
losophers of the Renaissance, ed. P.R. Blum, 124–132.
▶ Spirit – Renaissance Philosophy Washington, DC: Catholic University of America
▶ Theology Press.
▶ Women Writing Lehrich, Christopher I. 2003. The language of demons and
▶ World Soul angels. Cornelius Agrippa’s occult philosophy. Leiden:
Brill.
Marc Poel, Van der. 1997. Cornelius Agrippa: The human-
ist theologian and his declamation. Leiden: Brill.
Nauert, Charles. 2011. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von
References Nettesheim. In Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/agrippa-nettesheim/.
Primary Literature Accessed 2 Mar 2016.
Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. 1529. De nobilitate et Perrone Compagni, Vittoria. 1982. Una fonte di Cornelio
praecellentia foeminei sexus. Expostulatio cum Joanne Agrippa: il ‘De harmonia mundi’ di Francesco Giorgio
Catilineti super expositione libri Joannis Capnionis de Veneto. Annali dell’Istituto di Filosofia – Università di
verbo mirifico. De sacramento matrimonii declamatio. Firenze 4: 45–74.
De triplici ratione cognoscendi Deum liber unus. Perrone Compagni, Vittoria. 1997. Riforma della magia e
Dehortatio gentilis theologiae. De originali peccato riforme della cultura in Agrippa. I castelli di Yale:
disputabilis opinionis declamatio. Regimen adversus Quaderni di filosofia 2: 115–140.
pestilentiam. Antwerp: Michael Hillenius Perrone Compagni, Vittoria. 2000. ‘Dispersa intentio’.
Hoochstratanus. Alchemy, Magic and Scepticism in Agrippa. Early
Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. 1530. De incertitudine et Science and Medicine 5(2): 160–177.
vanitate scientiarum et artium, atque excellentia verbi Perrone Compagni, Vittoria. 2005. Ermetismo e
Dei declamatio. Antwerp: Johannes Grapheus. cristianesimo nei primi scritti di Cornelio Agrippa. In
Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. 1533. De occulta Ermetismo e Cristianesimo in Agrippa. Il ‘De triplici
philosophia libri tres. s.l (Cologne), s.n. First complete ratione cognoscendi Deum’, ed. Vittoria Perrone
edition. Compagni, 5–77. Florence: Polistampa.
Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. 1534. De beatissimae Annae Perrone Compagni, Vittoria. 2006. L’innocenza di Eva.
monogamia, ac unico puerperio propositiones Retorica e teologia nel «De nobilitate foeminei sexus»
abbreviatae et articulatae. Defensio propositionum di Agrippa. Bruniana & Campanelliana 12(1): 59–80.
praenarratarum contra quondam Dominicastrum Perrone Compagni, Vittoria. 2009. Tutius Ignorare Quam
earundem impugnatorem. Quaedam epistolae super Scire: Cornelius Agrippa and Scepticism. In Renais-
eadem materia. S.l. (Cologne): s.n. sance scepticisms, ed. Gianni Paganini and José
R. Maia Neto. Dordrecht: Springer.
4 Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius
Zambelli, Paola. 1970. Cornelio Agrippa, Erasmo e la Zambelli, Paola. 1992b. The “Speculum Astronomiae” and
teologia umanistica. Rinascimento 10: 29–88. its enigma: Astrology, theology and science in Albertus
Zambelli, Paola. 1992a. Cornelius Agrippa, ein kritischer Magnus and his contemporaries. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Magus. In Die okkulten Wissenschaften in der Zambelli, Paola. 2007. White magic, black magic in the
Renaissance, ed. August Buck, 65–89. Wiesbaden: European Renaissance. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
Otto Harrassowitz. Zika, Charles. 1976. Reuchlin’s de verbo mirifico and the
magic debate of the late fifteenth century. Journal of the
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 39: 104–138.
A
Alsted, Johann Heinrich views on the imminent end of the world would
change to pessimistic as a consequence of the
Born: mid-March 1588, Ballersbach (Mittenaar) Thirty Years’ War.
Died: 9 November 1638, Alba Iulia

Alternate Names
Andrea Strazzoni
National Research University Higher School of ▶ Johann Heinrich Alsted
Economics, Moscow, Russia
Gotha Research Centre, University and Research
Library, Erfurt/Gotha, Germany Biography
Alsted was born in 1588 in Ballersbach, in the

Abstract county of Nassau-Dillenburg. After having stud-
ied from 1599 at the Herborn Paedagogium, in
Alsted was a foremost encyclopedist of the early 1602 he enrolled at the Herborn Academy, which
seventeenth century. He provided both a complete was founded by Johann VI of Nassau-Dillenburg
presentation of all the subjects of philosophy as part of a general reform of the state on a Cal-
(of which encyclopedia consisted) and a method vinist basis, for which Ramus’ logic served as
to learn them. This method was an original syn- pedagogical foundation (Menk 1981; Hotson
thesis of the dialectic of Petrus Ramus, the com- 2000a, 15–24). In Herborn, Alsted studied under
binatorial art of memory of Raimond Lull and Johannes Piscator (who introduced Ramism in the
Giordano Bruno, and the method of presentation Academy) and Mathias Martinius, another “semi-
of philosophical disciplines of Bartholom€aus Ramist” (Hotson 2000a, 15, b, 17, 157). In 1606,
Keckermann. Alsted’s encyclopedism was he moved to University of Marburg, where he
intended as a remedy to the postlapsarian condi- studied under Rudolph Goclenius the Elder and
tion of man and was functional to the pedagogical Gregor Schönfeld, by whom he was introduced to
reform pursued at the Academy of Herborn; this mnemotechnics (Hotson 2000a, 56–59), while in
was, in turn, an essential part of the Calvinist state 1607, he moved to Basle to study under Amandus
reform of the county of Nassau-Dillenburg. In Polanus (a Philippo-Ramist). In 1609, he became
theology, the importance of Alsted consists of a teacher at the Herborn Paedagogium, and in
having introduced millenarianism in the 1610, after a call from Martinius to the Academy
Reformed Europe, though his early, optimistic of Bremen, he could become extraordinary
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_548-1
2 Alsted, Johann Heinrich
professor of philosophy at the Academy of which explains the notions common to all sci-
Herborn, while a call from the University of ences and precedes ontology (Savini 2009); on
Frankfurt in 1615 allowed him to become ordi- the other hand, knowledge is made possible by
nary professor. In 1619, he was delegate of Johann canonica, which presents the general praecognita
VII of Nassau at the Synod of Dordrecht and of philosophy and explicates the method of expo-
could then assume the third chair of theology, sition of particular disciplines. This is inspired by
while in 1626, after the death of Piscator, he Keckermann’s logic and consists of lexica,
took the first chair. In these years he published praecognita, systemata, and gymnasia. Lexica
his Systema mnemonicum (1610a), Panacea and praecognita define the concepts and the
philosophica (1610b), and Cursus philosophici nature of a discipline, systemata explicate its con-
encyclopaedia (1620) and was teacher of Jan tents, and gymnasia are the exercise of the disci-
Amos Comenius (1611–1613). When the prosper- pline itself (Hotson 2000a, 31–32). This method
ity of Herborn was undermined by the events of underpins the Cursus philosophici encyclopaedia,
the Thirty Years’ War, in 1629 he accepted the where Alsted follows a Ramist explanation of the
offer of the Prince of Transylvania Gábor Bethlen contents of philosophy, providing general defini-
of a professorship at the Academy of Alba Julia tions and divisions by dichotomies (Hotson 2007,
(Hungarian: Gyulafehérvár, Latin: Apulum). In 149–273; Burton 2011, 53). In the Cursus, how-
Transylvania, Alsted had to establish the educa- ever, ars magna disappears (Savini 2009), as the
tional program of the local Calvinist ruling class whole encyclopedia is based on archelogia
(Keul 2009, 167–186). He died in Alba Julia in (concerning principles), technologia (on the prop-
1638, after having published his Encyclopaedia erties, order and division of disciplines), hexilogia
septem tomis distincta in 1630. (Hotson 2000a, (on mental habits), and canonica (described also
11–13). in Alsted 1612). Philosophical disciplines are
divided, in the Cursus, into theoretical
(on necessary things, including pneumatics, math-
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition ematics, and cosmology), practical (on contingent
things, i.e., the subject of ethics and politics), and
The main aim of Alsted was to provide a presen- poetic (concerning second notions, as rhetoric and
tation of all learning in philosophy, i.e., an ency- mnemonics) (Vasoli 1975; Hotson 2000a, 70–71).
clopedia (Vasoli 2005, 21–29). This aim was This partition of philosophy is kept in his 1630
theological in nature, since it served as remedy Encyclopaedia, which presents also a new com-
to the postlapsarian condition and to provide men binatorial art, based on Lull’s and Bruno’s
with a complete knowledge (Hotson 2000a, mnemotechnics (though deprived of their magi-
66–73). Moreover, it was functional to the reform cal, i.e., summoning, components (Yates 2001))
of knowledge pursued in Herborn and would and on the knowledge of praecognita, which
influence Comenius and Samuel Hartlib (Hotson makes possible the learning of the entire encyclo-
2011; Čižek 2012). For this aim, Alsted developed pedia (Hotson 2000a, 163–181).
first a method of teaching and learning, which In theology, Alsted maintained Trinitarian
consists of memorization itself (Alsted 1609, positions. His arguments in favor of Trinity, such
1610a). This method includes both the dialectic as that reality follows threefold structures, would
of Ramus (as a systematic ordering of notions) be used by Leibniz against the Socinians
and the visual techniques of Bruno and Lull (Antognazza and Hotson 1999; Hotson 2000b,
(Hotson 2000a, 39–46; Rossi 2006, 55–60, 66–69). Moreover, along with Joseph Mede he
97–138; Ong 2005, 163–165). Alsted’s encyclo- was the founder of Reformed Millenarianism
pedic project is outlined in the Panacea (Hotson 2000b, 1–30); in his Methodus
philosophica, in which the unification of knowl- ss. theologiae (1611) and in the Cursus, he pro-
edge is made possible, on the one hand, by the vides a calculation of the end of the millennium
discipline of ars magna (appropriated from Lull), (i.e., the time of the triumph of Christ) and of final
Alsted, Johann Heinrich 3
judgment for 1694. This position was probably discendi universam encyclopaediam [. . .]. Accessit
determined by the influence of the Hermetic tra- eiusdem criticus, de infinito harmonico philosophiae
Aristotelicae, Lullianae et Rameae. Herborn:
dition, envisaging a near regeneration of man. s.n. [Christoph Corvinus].
With the dramatic events of the Thirty Years’ Alsted, Johann Heinrich. 1611. Methodus ss. theologiae in
War, however, Alsted would foresee for this date sex libros tributa. Offenbach: Typis Michaelis Fabritii,
only the beginning of the millennium (Alsted Impensis Antonii Hummii.
Alsted, Johann Heinrich. 1612. Philosophia digne
1624, 1627; Hotson 2000b, 20–30, 94–120). restituta: libros quatuor praecognitorum
philosophicorum complectens. Herborn: Typis
G. Corvini.
Cross-References Alsted, Johann Heinrich. 1620. Cursus philosophici ency-
clopaedia libris XXVII complectens. Herborn: Typis
Christophori Corvini.
▶ Aristotelianism Alsted, Johann Heinrich. 1624. Thesaurus chronologiae.
▶ Bruno, Giordano Herborn: s.n. [Christoph Corvinus].
▶ Calvinism – Renaissance Philosophy Alsted, Johann Heinrich. 1627. Diatribe de mille annis
apocalypticis. Frankfurt am Main: Sumptibus Conradi
▶ Combinatorics – Renaissance Philosophy Eifridi.
▶ Education – Renaissance Philosophy Alsted, Johann Heinrich. 1630. Encyclopaedia septem
▶ Encyclopedia and Encyclopedism tomis distincta. Herborn: s.n. [G. Corvinus and J.-G.
▶ Goclenius, Rudolph Muderspach]. Facs. repr. 1989–1990. Stuttgart-Bad
Cannstatt: Fromann-Holzboog.
▶ Hartlib, Samuel
▶ Images in Science
▶ Keckermann, Bartholomaeus Secondary Literature
Antognazza, Maria Rosa, and Howard Hotson. 1999.
▶ Lullism
Alsted and Leibniz on God, the magistrate and the
▶ Melanchthon, Philipp millennium. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
▶ Metaphysics Burton, Simon. 2011. The Hallowing of Logic: The
▶ Ontology Trinitarian method of Richard Baxter’s Methodus
theologiae. Leiden: Brill.
▶ Pneumatics
Čižek, Jan. 2012. Johann Heinrich Alsted: A mediator
▶ Ramism between Francesco Patrizi and Jan Amos Comenius?
▶ Reformation Acta Comeniana 26: 69–87.
▶ Socinianism Clouse, Robert G. 1969. Johann Heinrich Alsted and
English Millennialism. The Harvard Theological
▶ System
Review 62(2): 189–207.
▶ Technology Hofmann, Franz. 1985. Der enzyklopadische Impuls
▶ Theology J. H. Alsteds und sein Gestaltwandel im Werke des
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Handeln, ed. Hans Schaller, 22–29. Sankt Augustin:
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Verlag Hans Richarz.
▶ Wars of Religion Hotson, Howard. 1994. Philosophical pedagogy in
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praeceptorum methodo, et commentariis scriptis ad 1588–1638: Between renaissance, reformation, and
praeceptorum illustrationem adornatum libri septem. universal reform. Oxford: Clarendon.
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Alsted, Johann Heinrich. 1610b. Panacea philosophica, id Heinrich Alsted and the birth of Calvinist millenarian-
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A
Arminius, Jacobus of the mass,” taught him Latin and Greek and paid
for his further schooling at Utrecht. After
Born: 1559 at Oudewater Aemilius’s death, he went with Rudolphus
Died: 19 October 1609 at Leiden Snellius (1546–1613), presumably another rela-
tive, to Marburg. Snellius, who at that time taught
Henri Krop biblical languages at that university, was an
Faculteit der Wijsbegeerte, Erasmus Universiteit admirer of Petrus Ramus and Arminius adopted
Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands his Ramism. In 1576, he enrolled at the newly
founded Reformed University of Leiden. In
1581, Arminius, funded by an Amsterdam
Abstract Guild, went to Geneva in order to study theology
Arminius was a Reformed minister and professor under Theodore Beza and Charles Perrot
of theology at Leiden. Unlike his predecessors at (1541–1608), who did not adopt Beza’s view of
this new University, he compiled a system of predestination. It is therefore unlikely that Armin-
theology. Adopting (neo)scholastic terminology, ius ever shared “supralapsarianism.” In Geneva,
he attempted to solve the “political-theological” his Ramism incurred the wrath of the authorities,
problem of predestination. and Arminius went to Basle where he defended
six disputations. However, in 1584, Arminius
returned to Geneva. In 1586, he visited Italy,
Synonyms provided “with a Greek New Testament and a
Hebrew Psalter.” He attended the teaching of
Harmansz(oon); Harminius; Hermansz(oon) Jacopo Zabarella. In Rome, Arminius learned the
“iniquity of the Roman court of the Antichrist.”
His enemies, however, accused him of “kissing
Biography the Pope’s slipper” and befriending the Jesuit
Robert Bellamine. In 1587, Arminius returned to
Arminius, an armorer’s son, was born around Amsterdam and was ordained a minister. In 1590,
1559, in Oudewater. 1560, the year mentioned in he married Lijsbert Reael. It linked him with the
Bertius’s funeral oration is incorrect. His father regent class. In 1591, the regular sermons Armin-
died while he was an infant. In 1575, after the ius delivered on Romans 7 started the controversy
siege of the small town, Spanish soldiers mur- on predestination in the Amsterdam church. In the
dered his mother. A local priest, Theodore dissertation based on these sermons, published
Aemilius, who detested “the abominable sacrifice after his death, he argued that according to the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_549-1
2 Arminius, Jacobus
Apostle, “regenerate man” is freed from “the law Catholicism. Controversy remained during
of sin” and by his Faith will be saved. Moreover, Arminius’s last year, in which his already weak
this position has always had defenders in the health further deteriorated. It intensified until the
church and it does not imply “Pelagianism” – the Synod of Dordt (1618–1619), which settled the
heresy that man will be saved by his own works. issue of the confession for years to come (Bangs
He was acquitted of “teaching Pelagianism,” and 1971).
the rest of his ministry passed peacefully.
In 1603, Arminius, provided with favorable
testimonies of the Amsterdam church – removed Theological System
from the consistorial acts after 1617 – was
appointed professor of theology at Leiden. The In 1603, Arminius began his lectures with an
opposition, lead by Franciscus Gomarus outline of the prolegomena of theology. He dealt
(1563–1641), was silenced for the time being. In with its object, author, and certainty. Using scho-
October 1604, his senior colleague resumed hos- lastic concepts, he argues for the excellence of
tilities, by almost openly attacking him in an ad theology and the subordination of the other sci-
hoc disputation on predestination. Arminius ences, since God is the cause of causes. Like Duns
answered with a detailed refutation. However, in Scotus and Ramus, Arminius maintains the prac-
August 1605, the faculty put the churches at ease tical nature of the divine science, since human
by declaring that its professors were in agreement blessedness is its goal. This implies that he taught
concerning “the fundaments of doctrine,” and in theology in an “analytical order,” because it
the same year, Arminius was elected Rector describes the means to a given end. Its practical
Magnificus. In the address he delivered after his nature makes religion its object. It consists of all
term, he outlined the means to end religious dis- our duties toward God. God prescribes these obli-
sent among Christians. As ultimate remedy, he gations both in the word inscribed in our minds
proposed a national synod, to be organized by and in scripture. Arminius continues with conven-
the magistrate. This was the practice among the tional Reformed themes, such as authority, cer-
Jews and the early church, and the magistrate as tainty, perfection, and perspicuity of the Bible.
layman is a better judge of the fundamentals of Since blessedness is only possible by knowing
religion. God, Arminius continues by dealing with God’s
By 1608, the magistrates of Holland could no existence and nature and His attributes. Although
longer ignore the enduring conflict on predestina- the existence of God is self-evident, Arminius
tion in its university, since it implicated the Belgic produces eight arguments of a – vaguely – Tho-
Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism, the mist inspiration. Following the order of his sys-
confessional documents of the Public Church, tem, he subsequently discussed creation, divine
which all its ministers had to subscribe. The providence, the first covenant with man, original
truce negations between the Republic and Spain sin, and the order of salvation, which requires
(1607–1609) divided the provinces anew, and the dealing with Christ and His offices, predestina-
political parties exploited existing theological and tion, faith, the church, and the sacraments
ecclesiastical antagonism in order to gain support. (Stanglin 2007).
The States of Holland in order to regain control of
the situation invited the opponents to present their
views. In October 1608, Arminius outlined his Predestination
sentiments on predestination. This basic text was
posthumously published. At the end, he daringly In the Declaration of Sentiments (1610), it is
called for a revision of the Belgic Confession and observed that the first article of religion is predes-
the Heidelberg Catechism. Gomarus responded tination. Arminius apparently realized the philo-
by accusing him of Pelagianism and Popery that sophical implications of the doctrine, but he
is in secretly endorsing the cause of Roman merely discussed the notion by means of biblical
Arminius, Jacobus 3
authorities. He dealt with four rival positions Arminius argued that God knows Himself and the
upheld in the Reformed churches. However, the essence of all things with strict necessity. The
most prominent alternative to his own position is contingent existence of creatures, however, He
supralapsarianism, which Calvin and Beza knows with hypothetical necessity only, since
seemed to teach “in order to avoid the grave they are produced into existence by a free act of
error of Pelagianism.” Their doctrine implies that the divine will. “The schoolmen” called God’s
God “eternally decreed to save some men and foreknowledge, he continues, “middle knowl-
damn others before he considers them as created, edge,” because it precedes the act of the will,
much less as fallen.” The divine decree pre- which grounds His free knowledge. If, for exam-
destining some men to salvation and others to ple, A will sin, he necessarily will be damned, but
damnation logically precedes the decree of God that A will sin is contingent, determined by free
determining the Fall, and hence the position attrib- will: God’s free will by permitting A to will to act
uted to Beza is called “supralapsarianism” (before sinfully and A by actually willing to do so (Muller
the Fall). According to Arminius, this doctrine 1991). It is highly probable that he took over this
implied the serious heresy of Manicheism, since concept from the Jesuit Luis de Molina. This is
it made God the direct cause of damnation and the why contemporaries saw a clear similarity
author of evil and sin. This doctrine was “new,” between the Jesuit and Arminian position, while
being neither heard in the ancient church, nor the contraremonstrants felt that the Dominicans
mentioned in the first Reformed confessions. anticipated their position.
Adopting the Aristotelian notion of the Golden
Mean, he observed that the “catholic” truth is to
be found between the falsehood of both extremes:
Impact and Legacy
Pelagianism, which denied the indispensable need
of divine grace, and supralapsarianism, which
Arminius’s reputation mainly rests on the 1610
denied free will restored by grace.
“remonstrantie” (remonstrance). This “dis-
According to Arminius, the divine attributes
course,” mainly compiled by Arminius’ lifelong
such as perfect goodness and omnipotence imply
friend Johannes Wtenbogaert (1557–1644) and
divine providence. However, there is the reality of
presented to the States of Holland, created Armin-
evil, which sin causes. If God is not its author, free
ianism. Signed by 46 ministers, it summarized
will is the proximate cause of sin. In order to
Arminius’ views of providence, predestination,
reconcile providence and free will, Arminius
and free will, in five main tenets. These five arti-
developed his own version of the sequence of
cles were rejected by the international Reformed
decrees that is determinations of the divine will.
Synod of Dordt in 1618–1619. The judgments of
Contrary to the supralapsarianism of Beza and
the Synod opposed the “remonstrance” with the
Gomarus, which made predestination the first in
so-called Five Heads of Doctrine. In the Anglo-
the logical order of the determinations of God,
Saxon world, this response has become known as
Arminius makes predestination the last one, pre-
the “Five Points of Calvinism.” So, indirectly,
ceded by the decrees to appoint Christ as savior
Arminius created the identity of Calvinism.
and to bestow grace on all men provided with
repentance and faith. Particular to Arminius’s
position is also the part the divine foreknowledge
has to play here (Stanglin and McCall 2012). Cross-Reference
Elsewhere he explains this foreknowledge by
means of the scholastic notion of “middle knowl- ▶ Molina
edge,” developed in order to reconcile divine pre-
science, which being science in the Aristotelian
sense refers to necessary objects, with the contin-
gency of future things, such as our free volitions.
4 Arminius, Jacobus
References concerning the principall points of religion, before the

States of Holland and VVestfriezland, (London, 1657).
Works by Arminius
De libero arbitrio disputatio theologica de qua praeside
Iohanne Iacobo Grynaeo, respondebit, Iacobus Armin-
Anon. 1610. Catalogus librorum Jacobi Arminii. Leiden.:
ius, (Basle, 1583).
Reprint by C.O. Bangs, Utrecht, 1985.
De vero & genuino sensu cap. 7. Epistolae ad Romanos
Bangs, C. 1971. Arminius. A study in the Dutch reforma-
dissertatio, (Leiden, 1612).
tion. Nashville York: Abingdon Press. Definitive
Disputationes XXIV. de diversis christianæ religionis
biography.
capitibus, (Leiden, 1609).
Bertius, P. 1609. Liick-Oratie over de doot vanden
Disputationes, magnam partem s. theologiae
Eervveerdighen Jacobvs Arminivs ghedaen inde
complectentes, publicae et privatae. Praemittuntur
Latijnsche tale op den xxij. Octobris Anno 1609. Lei-
oratio de vita et obitu auctoris, recitata à Petro Bertio,
den: Jan Paedts Jacobszoon.
(Leiden, 1610).
Bertius, P. (trans). 1616. Scripta adversaria collationis
Examen modestum libelli quem Gui. Perkinsius edidit de
Hagiensis habitæ anno MDCXI. inter quosdam
praedestinationis modo et ordine, itemque de
ecclesiarum pastores, de divina prædestinatione &
amplitudine gratiae divinae; addita est analysis cap.
capitibus ei adnexis. Quæ ex Belgicis autoritate Ill.
IX ad Romanos (Leiden, 1612). Dutch: Zedich
Hollandiæ et VVest-Frisiæ ordinum jampridem editis,
ondersoeck op het boecxken, welck D. Guilhelmus
Latina fecit. Leiden: Ioannes Patius.
Perkinsius uytgegheven heeft Vande maniere ende
Brandt, H. (trans). 1615. Collatio scripto habita Hagae-
ordre der predestinatie. Mitsgaders oock Vande grootte
comitis, anno 1611, inter quodam ecclesiastas de divina
der goddelijcker ghenade, (Leiden, 1617).
praedestinatione. Huic est etiam subjecta: collatio inter
Examen thesium D. Francisci Gomari de prædestinatione,
sex ecclesiastas Dephis habita 1613. Zierikzee/Middel-
(Amsterdam, 1645).
burg/Amsterdam: Johannes Hellenius/Hadrianus
Opera theologica (Leiden, 1629, Frankfurt, 1631, 1635).
Vivarius/H. Laurentius.
English: The Works of James Arminius, 3 vol., (London
Corvinus, J.A. 1612. Schriftelicke conferentie, gehovden
1825–1878. Reprint 1986) and The Writings of James
in s’Gravenhaghe inden iare 1611. tusschen sommighe
Arminius, 3 vol., (Buffslo, 1853, reprint 1956. 1977).
kercken-dienaren aengaende de godlicke prædestinatie
Orationes, intemque tractactus insigniores aliquot. de
metten aencleven van dien. Ter ordonnatie vande Ed.
quamplurimis in S. theologia hoc tempore controversis
Mog. Heeren Staten van Hollandt ende West-Vrieslandt
quaestionibus, (Leiden, 1611, 1613).
ghedruckt. The Hague: Hillebrandt Jacobsz.
Syntagma disputationum theologicarum. In academia
Dekker, E. 1993. Rijker dan Midas. Vrijheid, genade en
Lugduno-Batavo quarto repetitatum Francisco
predestinatie in de theologie van Jacobus Arminius
Gomaro, Jacobo Arminio et Luca Trelcatio
(1559–1609). Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum.
praesidibus, (Rotterdam, 1615).
Dekker, E. 1996. Was Arminius a molinist? The Sixteenth
The Missing Public Disputations of Jacobus Arminius.
Century Journal 27: 337–352.
Introduction, text, and notes by Keith D. Stanglin,
den Boer, W. 2010. God’s twofold love. The theology of
(Leiden, 2011).
Jacob Arminius (1559–1609). Göttingen:
Theses theologicae de natura Dei pro publico docturae
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Dutch version 2008.
testimonio, (Leiden, 1603).
Muller, R.A. 1991. God, creation and providence in the
Twee disputatien vande goddeliicke predestinatie: d’eene
thought of Jacob Arminius. Grand Rapids: Baker.
by Franciscus Gomarus, d’ander by Iacobus Arminius
Stanglin, K.D. 2007. Arminius on the assurance of salva-
openbaerlijck voorghestelt int’ iaer 1604, (Leiden,
tion. The context and shape of the Leiden debate,
1609).
1603–1609. Leiden: Brill.
Verclaringhe aengaende zijn ghevoelen, so van de pre-
Stanglin, K.D., and Th.H. McCall. 2012. Jacob Arminius.
destinatie, als van eenige andere poincten der
Theologian of grace. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
christelicker religie. Wtghegheven, by de weduwe van
van Leeuwen, Theodoor Marius, K.D. Stanglin, and
den overleden ende haere broeders, (Leiden, 1610).
M. Tolsma. 2009. Arminius, Arminianism and Europe.
Reprint by G.J. Hoenderdaal, (Lochem, 1960). English:
Jacobus Arminius (1559/60–1609). Leiden: Brill. The
The just mans defence, or, The royal conques, being the
most complete bibliography.
declaration of the judgement of James Arminius,
B
Böhme, Jacob natural philosophy, giving shape to a compre-

hensive philosophical approach that aimed to
Born: 1575 explain the role and origin of evil within
the Divine and in the creation, the processes
Died: 1624 of growth, and decay in nature, as well
as the position of the human being in the
Cecilia Muratori universe, and the way to salvation. Böhme’s
University of Warwick, Coventry, UK philosophy enjoyed a remarkable international
reception, as several of his works were trans-
lated into English, Latin, French, and Dutch. In
Abstract Germany, he became a reference point for
Jacob Böhme was one of the most influential many eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
philosophers of post-Reformation Germany. readers, most notably F.W.J. Schelling and
During his lifetime, only one short book was G.W.F. Hegel.
published out of his vast body of works (Der
Weg zu Christo 1624). The unfinished manu-
script of his first book, Aurora, was confiscated Biography and Legacy
in 1613, due to accusations of fanaticism and
heresy. From 1619 to his death in 1624, he In his Lectures on the History of Philosophy,
wrote extensively, and the works circulated G.W.F. Hegel (1770–1831) named Böhme the
thanks to a growing network of followers. “first German philosopher,” a surprising statement
According to Böhme, all of his works derived for contemporary readers, since Jacob Böhme’s
from a revelation or insight that allowed him to place in the history of philosophy has been almost
understand the “whole Being in evil and forgotten since Hegel’s time. Born in 1575 in the
good.” The central idea in Böhme’s philosophy village of Alt-Seidenberg, in Upper Lusatia,
is the interaction of positivity and negativity, Böhme is the prolific author of around 30 works,
light and darkness, “yes” and “no,” in the ranging in topics from natural philosophy to the
Divine as well as in nature, in which the Divine question of religious salvation, and in format from
reflects itself. Böhme follows in the tradition of extensive theological discussions to short polem-
German mysticism in conceiving the Divine ical replies to his critics. Only one book,
both as abyssal depth (which he calls Ungrund) containing two short texts and titled Der Weg zu
and as God the creator. But he combines this Christo, was published during his lifetime, in the
theological approach with a strong interest in year of his death, 1624. All others circulated
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_550-1
2 Böhme, Jacob
merely in manuscript form, copied, and diffused often discusses political events as well as the
thanks to an extensive network of friends and genesis, circulation, and reception of his own
supporters (Penman 2014). Yet, Böhme played a works. The view of Böhme as a secluded mystic
major role in shaping post-Reformation German is misleading, but it is true that he is reticent about
philosophy, and his international reception was matters such as the sources and authors that might
remarkable: by the 1660s his complete works have inspired his writings. Böhme’s education
had been translated into English, and the first was most probably limited to attending the local
complete German edition followed 20 years school in his birthplace, Alt-Seidenberg, not far
later, in 1682. By 1741, the name of Böhme had from the nearby city of Görlitz, which was at the
become famous and the Church historian Johann time no provincial backwater and had had a Gym-
Lorenz Mosheim could declare that Böhme’s nasium since 1565. Böhme often remarks on his
works were “in everybody’s hands” (Mosheim lack of education as a way of emphasizing that the
1741, 611). By the time Hegel held his lectures source of his knowledge was not to be found in
on the history of philosophy, readers of Böhme books, thus portraying himself as a “philosopher
included Franz von Baader (1765–1841), of the simple people” (Aurora 18.80), close to
F.W.J. Schelling (1775–1854), and Arthur Scho- the tradition of the Old Testament prophets
penhauer (1788–1860), among others. (Benz 1959).
Despite the popularity of Böhme’s works, By 1592 he moved to Görlitz, where in 1599 he
information about his biography has long acquired a cobbler’s shop. In the same year, he
remained incomplete. This is one of many para- married Katharina Kuntzschmann, daughter of a
doxes in the reception of Böhme: he has been butcher, and their first son, Jacob, was born in
simultaneously well known and yet an almost 1600. The profession of shoemaker was to
mythical figure, often treated in ahistorical become a symbol of Böhme’s distance from the
terms. Indeed, his books might have been “in learned world, and his familiarity with the cob-
everybody’s hands,” and his name famous, yet bler’s tools the explanation for the lack of formal
the number of actual readers is likely to have elegance in his German prose. Given the fact that
been more limited than Mosheim implies. This is Jacob Böhme was a common name, “the cobbler
due to the fact that information about Böhme’s life Böhme” was often used in the city’s documents to
and writing career was transmitted largely by a distinguish him from namesakes (Lemper 1976,
biography composed by Abraham von 55). The “cobbler from Görlitz” has remained the
Franckenberg (1593–1652), which was published most popular label for Böhme, underlining
in the main editions of Böhme’s collected works his lack of formal training in philosophy and
(Gilly 2007). The biography narrates several mag- theology.
ical, prophetic, and visionary episodes, even if In 1612, Böhme wrote his first book,
Böhme never reports having experienced visions Morgenröte im Aufgang, also known as Aurora.
or presages (Koyré 1929, 17). The popular portrait As with all subsequent works, the Latin titles
of Böhme as a mystical cobbler – a profession he were not added by Böhme himself, even if, as in
practiced for some years – thus derives mostly the case of Morgenröte/Aurora, or the later Von
from the biography, rather than from Böhme’s der Geburt und Bezeichnung aller Wesen/De
work (Muratori 2012). signatura rerum, the Latinized version was
In the mid-nineteenth century, the historian often more successful than the original one. In a
Hermann Fechner claimed that the lack of infor- letter, Böhme explains that the writing of
mation about Böhme’s life derived from the fact Aurora was the result of an insight, or intuition,
that, like all mystics, he conducted a life removed he had experienced 12 years previously. He
from the events of the outer world (Fechner 1857, describes it as a “fiery drive,” “violent impulse
313). This view certainly does not stand up to of the spirit” (Sendbrief 10.3) that practically
textual scrutiny. One of the main sources for forced him to pen his intuition in his first book.
Böhme’s life is his correspondence, in which he In his biography, Franckenberg claimed that the
Böhme, Jacob 3
catalyst had been a glimpse of a metallic con- Elector Friedrich V of the Palatinate entering the
tainer, through which Böhme was “seized by city. From 1619 to the year of his death, Böhme
divine light” (Bericht, 10). Böhme himself rapidly composed an astonishing number of writ-
describes the intuition as the opening of a gate, ings. As he explains in a letter, with each of them
which allowed him to “see and know more in he felt that he moved closer to revealing the
a quarter of an hour” than if he had “at distin- secrets of which he had intuition, but which he
guished schools” (Sendbrief 12.7). He claims that could not clearly express at the beginning of his
he saw and understood the “whole Being in evil writing career. In fact, he admits that in Aurora
and good” (Sendbrief 12.8): indeed, the presence “the great mysteries” had been expounded in too
of opposites in everything – in nature as well as in simplistic a way, and with many faults (Sendbrief
the divine – is, as Hegel recognized, a founda- 10.4). Yet despite the differences in style and
tional idea of Böhme’s philosophy. content, he claims that all his books derive from
The following year, 1613, a copy of Aurora the initial impulse to bring to expression his fun-
came to the attention of the town’s magistrates. damental insight.
A key role was played by the primarius of Görlitz, The publication in Görlitz of Der Weg zu
Gregorius Richter (1560–1624), who soon after- Christo in 1624 triggered a second phase of accu-
wards preached a sermon in which he accused sations against Böhme. Once again, Gregor Rich-
Böhme of spreading fanatical ideas. The manu- ter was vocal in his opposition, which this time
script of Aurora was confiscated, and Böhme was included the publication of a pamphlet ridiculing
issued with a warning not to write anymore. From the “cobbler” for having stepped beyond the pro-
1612 until 1618, he obeyed this prohibition, even verbial limits of his profession: ne sutor ultra
if in the correspondence he clearly describes it as a crepidam! (Richter 1624). Yet Böhme succeeded
form of persecution (Sendbrief 10.5). It seems in defending himself by claiming authorship of
plausible that the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ the work, but dismissing insinuations that he
War in 1618 was a major event that prompted planned its publication, which instead had been
Böhme to start writing again, as the desire to arranged by the nobleman Hans Sigmund von
give voice to and spread the content of his insight Schweinichen. In 1624, Böhme was invited to
were made stronger by the sense of emergency Dresden, to discuss his views at court. The exact
caused by political and religious conflict. In 1619, nature of this meeting is uncertain: it may have
he completed his second book, which differs been more inquisitorial in nature than Böhme
greatly from the first: whereas Aurora had admits in his correspondence. While in Dresden,
remained incomplete (on the reasons see Koyré Böhme was hosted by Benedikt Hinckelmann
76, and the introduction to Böhme 2008), (1588–1659), who directed the local court labora-
Beschreibung der drey Principien Göttliches tory. Having returned to Görlitz, Böhme died of an
Wesens is a voluminous work whose title alludes unknown illness in November 1624. According to
to the three substances of Paracelsus–salt, mer- Franckenberg’s biography, he told one of his chil-
cury, and sulfur. Indeed it is likely that between dren that he heard music when death was near
1612 and 1618, Böhme increasingly came into (Bericht 21). He was buried in the churchyard of
contact with Paracelsian, or Paracelsian-inspired, the Nikolaikirche in Görlitz.
natural philosophy, especially through an increas- After his death, efforts were made by his
ing network of followers, including figures such friends and followers to collect existing manu-
as the physician Balthasar Walther (1558–1631). scripts and place them in the hands of the Dutch
The extant correspondence provides evidence merchant Abraham Willemsz van Beyerland in
for how Böhme’s life and writing career unfolded Amsterdam (1587–1648) (van Ingen 1984,
from 1619 onwards. Having sold his cobbler’s 12–16). The manuscripts served for van
shop, he turned to selling goods such as gloves, Beyerland’s own translations of Böhme into
an occupation that led him to travel as far as Dutch and also became the foundation for the
Prague. There, in 1619, Böhme witnessed the first edition of Böhme’s collected works
4 Böhme, Jacob
(Amsterdam 1682), under the direction of Johann Böhme’s Philosophy (Original Aspects;
Georg Gichtel (1638–1710). A second edition, in Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition)
two volumes, was printed in 1715, and a third,
edited under the direction of Johann Wilhelm “There is nothing in nature in which good and evil
Ueberfeld (1659–1732), in 1730. The latter is are not present” (Aurora 2.5): according to Böhme
still the standard edition today, but a few auto- everything that is alive must contain in itself a
graphs have since been rediscovered, including duality, because it is from the contrast of polar
the manuscript of Aurora that had been confis- opposites that all movement is generated, and life
cated in 1613 (see Böhme 1963/1966). consists essentially in movement. In Aurora,
Böhme’s reception was heavily influenced by Böhme introduces the concept of “quality” in
the way in which his manuscripts circulated, were order to account for the internal vitality of nature:
translated and published. The European diffusion a quality is the “mobility, springing, or urging of a
of Böhme was thus varied, involving in the years thing” (Aurora 1.3), a definition that relies on an
following Böhme’s death especially Holland and original interpretation of the word Qualität.
England. Thanks to the availability of transla- Böhme often uses the sound and spelling of a
tions, England became a main catalyst of Böhme’s word to convey a philosophical interpretation: in
thought: famous readers of Böhme included Wil- this case, a Qualität is something that springs
liam Blake (1757–1827), who considered Böhme (quellen/quallen), but also has within itself a root
“divinely inspired” (Foster Damon 1988, 39). of negativity, that is to say a “torment” (Qual)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote extensive margi- (Koyré 1929, 88; Weeks 1999, 65). The meaning
nalia to Böhme, in which he praised the shoe- of the word is thus inscribed in its letters, but it
maker’s “superior insight,” especially with requires a particular insight to understand what
regard to the conception of the Divine Böhme calls “the language of nature”
(Coleridge 1980, 597). In Germany, Böhme’s (Natursprache). At the level of the language of
ideas became shaping impulses for several doc- nature, words and essences are said to be in per-
trines within the religious current of German Pie- fect harmony, just as was the case with the lan-
tism (Martin 2014). Philosophical interest in guage spoken by Adam in the Garden of Eden.
Böhme increased in particular after the publica- But in post-Babel languages, the true meanings
tion of the 1715 and 1730 German editions of are hidden within the words and need to be
Böhme’s works. The Jena Romantics, and espe- expounded by someone, like Böhme, capable of
cially Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853) and Friedrich tapping into language of nature through a spoken
Schlegel (1772–1829), integrated Böhme language like German.
within the development of Romantic Poesie A “quality” is for Böhme a model of internal
(Mayer 1999). A more comprehensive interpreta- opposition that he applies, in various complex
tion of Böhme, based on the study of the texts, formulations, to the explanation of the entire cre-
was provided by Hegel and Schelling, though ation. Starting from two main qualities, a good
their readings emphasize different aspects of and an evil one, he develops throughout his work
Böhme’s philosophy (Muratori 2016; Brown several lists of qualities, whereby each gives rise
1977; Bianchi 2016). The reception in France to the next one in a cycle. In Aurora, the life cycle
had a more theosophical, mystical character, of growth and decay is explained by reference to
especially through Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin a bitter quality (the “heart in all life”), which
(1743–1803), known by the epithet of “Philo- prompts the opposition of the sweet quality, and
sophe inconnu,” who translated Böhme into from the sweet to the sour and the stringent one
French. Reception in areas such as Italy and (Aurora 1.19–24).
Spain was probably less significant, but this is a In parallel to the term “quality,” Böhme also
topic that still awaits research. refers to opposing “wills” (Willen), or also forms
(Gestalten). In De signatura rerum, he explains
Böhme, Jacob 5
for instance that there are “seven forms in nature, The metaphor of light and fire, in particular,
both in the eternal and in the external” nature (De recurs throughout Böhme’s work to explain how
signatura rerum 9.8). This means that the cycle of the dynamics of separation apply also to the case
forms, or qualities, is not restricted to the worldly of the divine itself. From the general point that
manifestation, that is, to say in visible nature, “there is no light without fire, and no fire without
but it also applies to “eternal nature,” since “the serious torment [Qual],” Böhme explains that “in
eternal has also got its nature” (Von der the fiery world” God is called “God’s anger, God’s
Menschwerdung Jesu Christi I, 13.11; see also wrath, since in this way God calls himself a
Koyré 1929, 354–356). Indeed, for Böhme nature devouring fire. But in the light world, that is to
and the divine are deeply connected, and under- say in the Son of God, he is the flame of love” (Von
standing creation is even a path to grasping the der Menschwerdung Jesu Christi I, 3.10–14). The
nature of God: for this reason, Böhme calls nature reference is to Deuteronomy 4:24 and 4:31, where
his teacher, “Lehrmeister,” guiding him in the God is called first a furious, devouring fire of God,
discovery of the mysteries of creation. Using a and then a compassionate God. For Böhme, both
common Renaissance metaphor, Böhme thus sides are not only present, but even necessary for
compares nature to a book, claiming that “you God to be alive in the generation of the Son. Yet in
won’t find any book in which you could better line with the tradition of German mysticism, and
discover and investigate the Divine wisdom than of Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328) in particular,
when you walk on a green and blooming meadow; Böhme distinguishes between the divine in the
there you will see, smell and taste the marvellous movement of generation, and as entirely separate
power of God, even if this is just a similitude” from the creation. The latter, which Eckhart had
(Beschreibung der drey Principien Göttliches called “divinity” (Gottheit), is in Böhme’s termi-
Wesens 8.12). God himself inhabits nature nology Ungrund that which lacks a ground, or
(Clavis 25), even if Böhme does not adhere to a foundation: “In the eternity, that is to say, in the
pantheistic view: rather, nature is God’s tool ungrounded beyond and without nature there is
(Clavis 24), and its mobility ultimately derives nothing but silence without being. [...] This same
from God’s will (Vierzig Fragen von der Seele ungrounded is like an eye, since it is its own
1.5–6). mirror. It doesn’t have a being, neither light not
The idea of an internal motion connects darkness” (Von der Menschwerdung Jesu Christi
Böhme’s views of nature and of God: “everything II, 1.8). But the Ungrund is “an ungrounded eye
exists in yes and no, be it divine, devilish or that does not stand in anything nor does it see
earthly” (Betrachtung Göttlicher Offenbarung anything” (De signatura rerum 3.2; see also
3.2). Within God, too, there is life-giving opposi- Koyré 1929, 280–281).
tion, and a cyclical movement, due to seven spirits A major philosophical issue for Böhme is that
that together engender the movement that gives of explaining how these two different conceptions
birth to the Son, rather than to natural things as in of the divine are at all combinable, since Ungrund
the outer manifestation of nature (Aurora 8.25). remains immobile in eternity, and yet God gener-
The number seven is of course redolent of Biblical ates his Son and creates the universe. He employs
references, but Böhme employs it to suggest that the metaphor of the mirror to explain what is not a
both in nature and in the divine there is a similar transition in time, but a theological process
life cycle, linked by the existence of the same (Koyré 1929, 288–290). In the mirror, the will of
number of stages. Indeed Böhme states that “the the Ungrund sees itself, and desire (Begehren) is
being of all beings is one being only, and yet in its generated through an act of contraction or pulling,
generation it divides itself two principles, that is in which Böhme also calls Scienz, derived according
light and darkness, in joy and pain, in evil to the language of nature from the verb ziehen,
and good, in love and anger, in fire and light” which means “to pull” (Sendbrief 41.6). In this
(De signatura rerum 16.11). way, a duality is created through the reflection in
the mirror, and the immobile will of the Ungrund
6 Böhme, Jacob
becomes internally separated and thus properly does not imply that the human being does not
willing, since to will something implies a have any power to choose between good and
subject-object distinction, and thus a separation evil. On the contrary, Böhme conceives human
akin to the one necessary for any movement or life as a battlefield between good and evil, God
life. The process of revelation of the immobile, and the Devil, and humans are called to side with
divine depth through this act of self-inspection one or the other. Ultimately, the aim is the rebirth
takes place through the “wisdom of God,” or of humankind (Wiedergeburt): “from God’s fire of
“Sophia,” which plays the role of the mirror (see anger the new human being must sprout anew
Benz 1937, 21–27; Koyré 1929, 212). The reve- [like a plant]” (Von der Menschwerdung Jesu
lation in the wisdom of God “happened in eternity Christi I, 12.22). Only at that stage will light
as in the figure of a virgin, who, however, does not prevail over darkness, but human beings must
give birth, but is a mirror of the divinity and work towards this aim even while caught in the
eternity of Grund (ground) and Ungrund cycle of growth and decay in this world, between
(ungrounded), an eye of the glory of God” (Von the opposing powers of light and darkness, God
der Menschwerdung Jesu Christi I, 5.2). and his Enemy, the Devil.
With this conception of the internal separation
of the divine, Böhme faces another difficulty: he Note: All translations are the author’s own.
must explain how it is possible that darkness is the
origin of life, even in God, and yet maintain, as he
does, that God is essentially love and light.
Bibliography
Indeed, Böhme goes as far as understanding the
personification of darkness, the fallen angel Luci-
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C
Cano, Melchor Biography
Born: 6 January 1509 (or 1506) in Tarancón, Melchor Cano was born in Tarancón in the dio-
Spain cese of Cuenca on 6 January 1509 (or 1506) as the
son of Fernando Cano, a lawyer, and his wife
Died: 30 September 1560 in Toledo, Spain Maria Delgado de Valle. In August 1524 he joined
the Dominican Order and started to study theol-
Boris Hogenm€ uller ogy and philosophy in Salamanca and Valladolid
University of W€
urzburg, W€
urzburg, Germany in 1527. His teachers were the famous Diego de
Astudillo and Francisco de Vitoria, whose succes-
sor Cano became as professor of theology at Sal-
amanca in 1546. His philosophical teaching
Abstract
activities had already started in 1533 at the Con-
vent San Gregorio in Valladolid; from 1536 he
Living during the sixteenth century, the Spanish
taught theology and was also appointed as profes-
Dominican Melchor Cano was the first in the
sor of philosophy at the University of Alcalá de
history of theology who attempted to write a the-
Henares in 1542. In the academic years 1546/
oretical treatise concerning theological topology
1547 and 1547/1548, Cano first held lectures
(loci theologici) by collecting unique theological
about the fourth book of Sentences of Peter
places (e.g., the authority of the Holy Bible) and
Lombard – the two Relectiones, de sacramentis
combining them with foreign ones (e.g., the
in genere (1548) and de sacramento pœnitentiæ
authority of History). His intention was to create
(1549), resulted from this. At the request of
a reliable manual to be used in theological dis-
Charles V, to whom Cano was advisor in theolog-
putes with heretics and pagans. Developing this
ical questions, he was nominated council advisor
system, Cano was laying the foundations of fun-
on 30 December 1550 and participated in the
damental theology.
second session of the Council of Trent (1551/
1552). Cano actively joined the discussion on
the Eucharist, penance, and the question of the
Alternate Name sacrificial character of the mass.
After his return from the Council, he was
▶ Melchior Canus appointed bishop of the Canary Islands by Pope
Julius III. Cano, however, did not take this posi-
tion and subsequently renounced both the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_551-1
2 Cano, Melchor
bishopric and also his professorship in Salamanca The conflict culminated in Cano’s drafting of two
(1554) and retired to the Convent at Piedrafita reports – one with 130 Latin and one with
near Avila. In the same year, he was elected rector 205 Spanish censored sentences – to Carranza’s
of the San Gregorio College in Valladolid Comentarios al Catechismo christiano (Carranza
(1557) and became Prior of St. Esteban in Sala- 1558) at the instigation of the Grand Inquisitor
manca. At the same time, he was also elected Fernando de Valdés y Salas, the archbishop of
Provincial Superior, but without being confirmed Seville, in 1558.
by the Pope; during a visit to Rome in 1560, Cano Cano’s Censura clearly reflects the practical
finally received the papal confirmation after his use of the theoretical concept of systematic theol-
reelection. On 30 September 1560, Melchor Cano ogy pointed out in De locis theologicis: using
died unexpectedly at the age of 51 in Toledo Cano’s concept, the theologian can refute the her-
(Caballero 1871; Belda Plans 2006). esies with the arguments taken out of the different
Despite his obvious genius in matters of theol- loci. Similarly, he is able to confirm his own
ogy, Cano is still classified as characteristically position (Ulrich 1989). The criticized and refuted
difficult in modern research (Sanz y Sanz 1959). sentences in Carranza’s Comentarios al
On the one hand, this is justified by Cano’s hostility Catechismo christiano are perfect examples of
to the Order of the Jesuits (founded in 1534), which Cano’s theoretical concept.
can clearly be seen from several documents, e.g., A few months after writing the Censura, how-
Carta de Melchor Cano al P. Fr. Miguel de Arcos, ever, Cano himself became the focus of the Inqui-
sobre los Jesuitas. Valladolid, 1556 (= nr. 32); sition. The reasons are not clearly defined in the
Carta de Melchor Cano al Venerable M. Venegas, sources. Nevertheless, it is possible to reconstruct
sobre los Jesuitas. Valladolid 28 de marzo de 1556 some of the charges and allegations brought
(= nr. 33); and Carta de Melchor Cano à Fr. Juan against Cano which probably provoked the inves-
de Regla, sobre los Jesuitas. Salamanca 21 de tigation of the Inquisition among others. Today, it
setiembre de 1557 (= nr. 44). Cano denounced seems clear that many of these accusations against
the Jesuits to be the pseudo-Sophistæ and pseudo- Cano and his theological work may have emerged
Prophetæ and compared the appearance and con- prior to the publication of the loci, but have just
duct of the Society of Jesus with the work of the been written down after the editio princeps – a fact
Lutherans in Germany and the resulting harm to the that prompted the French Dominican Francois-
Catholic Church. That the Dominican remained a Jacques-Hyacinthe Serry (1658/1659–1738) to
fanatical opponent of the Societas Iesu until the end publish a short paper entitled Melchioris Cani
of his life is a judgment that can be very clearly Vindicationes quibus nonnullorum in ejus libros
seen by the cited letters (Hogenm€ uller 2013a). de locis Theologicis accusationes refellentur
On the other hand, Cano’s rigorous behavior (Serry 1714), which he arranged as a preface in
toward his friar Bartolomé Carranza is often his edition of De locis theologicis. There Serry
quoted, which ended with the well-known listed the suspicious parts of the loci including the
Censura commissioned by the Inquisition accusations and tried to refute them. Though Serry
(Tellechea Idígoras 1992; Hogenm€ uller 2012). wrote the Vindicationes almost 150 years later, in
The origin of the confrontation of the two Domin- 1714, the mass of charges and suspicious parts is
icans arose in the private sector, probably at the still astonishing showing the explosive nature of
time of their studies: old rivalry mixed with pri- Cano’s writing – even in a time after the publica-
vate presumptions was the foundation, the differ- tion of the “expurgated” version of the loci.
ence in theological issues and ideas intensified the
conflict, so that hostility emerged out of suspicion.
It may also be possible that the application for the Works
position of the Provincial Superior of Castile,
which Carranza was finally awarded, was the During his lifetime Cano published the following
decisive reason for escalation (Caballero 1871). works: Relectio de sacramentis in genere und
Cano, Melchor 3
Relectio de sacramento pœnitentiæ (Salamanca which of those argumenta certa or argumenta

1550; Cano 1550a) Tradado de la Victoria de sí probabilia can be extracted.
mismo (Valladolid 1550; Cano 1550b) Cano’s Concerning his selection there are seven pecu-
votes at the Council of Trent in the conciliar liar theological places (proprii loci) – e.g., the
documents (1551) (= CT VII/1,124–127. authority of the Holy Bible, the authority of the
261–264. 387–390); Consulta de theologos, si Church Fathers, the authority of the
Su Magestad puede pedir á Su Santidad para Councils – which contain the written and spoken
vender los vasallos de las Iglesias de España y words of men who wrote or spoke in the presence
Respuesta de los Theologos (Valladolid 1553; or under the influence of the Holy Spirit (spiritu
Cano 1553) his expertises for the Emperor: sancto adspirante). These places include argu-
Parecer de Fr. Melchor Cano sobre la guerra ments of authority (auctoritas) which the theolo-
con el Papa Paulo IV (1556); La censura de gian has to use in disputations against heretics.
Melchor Cano y Domingo de Cuevas al But according to Cano, there are three more
Catacismo y otros escritos de Carranza (1559). places the theologian has to examine, although
In this list his magnum opus, De locis theologicis they are not common to theology: Philosophy,
(Cano 1563), is outstanding (Hogenm€ uller the authority of the Natural Philosophers – that
2013b). The composition of the loci was probably means the old pagan philosophers like Plato and
started during Cano’s time at the University of Aristotle – and the authority of the Secular His-
Alcalá de Henares around the year 1543, the tory. These are places which are foreign to theol-
year of its completion is uncertain. The editio ogy (loci alieni), but implicate certain (argumenta
princeps was published posthumous in 1563 at certa) or at least probable arguments (argumenta
Salamanca. Other prints were made in 1564 at probabilia) as well. For Cano this shows that they
Leuven, 1567 at Venice, 1569 at Leuven again, should also owe authority in the theological dis-
and 1585 at Cologne. cussion. Consequently, it is necessary to use both
sources of arguments, the peculiar and the foreign,
in order to succeed in every dispute concerning
Christianity.
Innovating and Original Aspects
In order to prove his method, Cano gives three
different practical examples in the twelfth book of
In Cano’s De locis theologicis, which consists of
the loci, entitled De locorum uso in scholastica
twelve books, the first attempt in the history of
disputatione. The third and last example relating
theology was made to select from the rich fund of
on the Immortality of the Soul (de immortalitate
so-called topoi those which are peculiar to theol-
animae) is of special quality. As the discussion
ogy and to arrange them by observing their inner
touches both types of places, Cano assumes it
strength and their power in discussion or dispute.
needs argumenta propria as well as argumenta
In doing so Cano directly relates on Rudolph
aliena to be entirely convincing (Hogenm€uller
Agricola’s famous treatise De inventione
2013c).
dialectica, which was first published in 1515.
By developing this kind of system, Cano cre-
There, Agricola considered the main purpose of
ated the foundations of systematic theology,
dialectic to be the invention of arguments and the
which dominated theology for centuries. During
structure of the argumentation according to the
the seventeenth and eighteenth century, Cano’s
rhetorical theory of the antiquity. Following
outstanding work gave influence to several cath-
these principles and applying them on the matters
olic writers (e.g., Gaspard Juénin, Girolamo Buzi,
of theology, Cano identifies ten “places of theol-
Johann Opstraet, and Benedict Stattler) who
ogy”; each of them he made subject of a single
equally wrote short compendiums about the pecu-
book. In every book, however, the intention is to
liar places of theology.
define the argumentative force (vis) of the
discussed locus and to determine finally from
4 Cano, Melchor
Cross-References Beltrán de Heredia, V. 1931. Colección de dictámenos

inéditos del maestro fray Francisco de Vitoria. Ciencia
Tomista 43: 169–180.
▶ Bartolomé Carranza Beltrán de Heredia, V. 1933. Melchor Cano en la
▶ Benedict Stattler Universidad de Salamanca. Ciencia Tomista 48:
▶ Diego de Astudillo 178–208.
▶ Fernando de Valdés y Salas Casado, F. 1972. En torno a la génesis del De locis
theologicis de M Cano. Revista Española de Teología
▶ Francisco de Vitoria 32: 55–81.
▶ Francois-Jacques-Hyacinthe Serry Caballero, F. 1871. Vida del Ilmo. Fray Melchor Cano.
▶ Gaspard Juénin Madrid/San Mateo.
▶ Girolamo Buzi Hogenm€ uller, B. 2012. Cano und Carranza. Studien zur
Authentizit€at von Melchior Canos Gutachten zu den
▶ Johann Opstraet Comentarios al Catechismo christiano (1558) des
Bartolomé Carranza. Zeitschrift f€ ur Theologie und
Philosophie 87: 18–24.
References Hogenm€ uller, B. 2013a. Enemigo de los
Jesuitas – Melchior Canos Verh€altnis zu den Jesuiten.
Zeitschrift f€
ur Theologie und Philosophie 88: 389–396.
Primary Literature Hogenm€ uller, B. 2013b. Melchior Cano ‚De locis
Cano, M. 1550a. Relectio de sacramentis in genere et theologicis’. Neue Überlegungen zur Entstehung.
Relectio de sacramento pœnitentiæ. Salamanca: Göttinger Forum f€ ur Altertumswissenschaft 16:
Andreas de Portenariis. 399–418.
Cano, M. 1550b. Tradado de la Victoria de sí mismo. Hogenm€ uller, B. 2013c. Das Konzept des dogmatischen
Valladolid: Sebastian Martínez. Beweises am Beispiel der Unsterblichkeit der Seele
Cano, M. 1551. Votes at the Council of Trent in the con- (Melchior Cano, De locis theologicis XII,15).
ciliar documents (= CT VII/1,124–127. 261–264. Perspektiven der Philosophie. Neues Jahrbuch 39:
387–390). 301–323.
Cano, M. 1553. Consulta de theologos, si Su Magestad Klinger, E. 1978. Ekklesiologie der Neuzeit. Grundlegung
puede pedir á Su Santidad para Vender los vasallos de bei Melchior Cano und Entwicklung bis zum
las Iglesias de España y Respuesta de los Theologos. 2. Vatikanischen Konzil. Freiburg: Herder.
Valladolid. Körner, B. 1994. Melchior Cano, De locis theologicis. Ein
Cano, M. 1556. Parecer de Fr. Melchor Cano sobre la Beitrag zur Theologischen Erkenntnislehre. Styria:
guerra con el Papa Paulo IV. Madrid 1736. Graz.
Cano, M. 1559. La censura de Melchor Cano y Domingo Körner, B. 2014. Orte des Glaubens – loci theologici:
de Cuevas al Catacismo y otrosescritos de Carranza. Studien zur theologischen Erkenntnislehre. W€ urzburg:
Salamanca. Echter.
Cano, M. 1563. De locis theologicis. Salamanca: Matthias Lang, A. 1925. Die Loci theologici des Melchior Cano und
Gastius. die Methode des dogmatischen Beweises. M€ unchner
Carranza, B. 1558. Comentarios sobre el cate-chismo Studien zur historischen Theologie, Heft 6. M€ unchen:
christiano. Antwerpen. Kösel.
Serry, F.-J.-H. 1714. Melchioris Cano de locis theologicis, Lang, A. 1958. Melchior Cano. Lexikon f€ ur Theologie und
therein: Melchioris Cani Vindicationes quibus Kirche II: 918.
nonnullorum in ejus libros de locis Theologicis Sanz y Sanz, J. 1959. Melchor Cano. Cuestiones
accusationes refellentur. Padua. fundamentales de crítica histórica sobre su vida y su
escritos. Madrid: Monachil.
Translation Tellechea Idígoras, J.I. 1992. Der Prozeß gegen Bartolomè
Belda Plans, J. 2006. Melchor Cano, De locis theologicis. Carranza, Erzbischof von Toledo. In Ketzerverfolgung
Madrid: BAC. im 16. u. 17. Jh. Wolfenb€ utteler Forschungen, vol.
51, ed. S. Seidel Menchi, 87–102. Wiesbaden:
Harrassowitz.
Secondary Literature Ulrich, H. 1989. Die Loci Theologici Melchior Canos und
Belda Plans, J. 1982. Los lugares teológicos de Melchor sein Gutachten zum Catechismo Christiano Bartolomé
Cano en los comentarios a la Suma. Pamplona: Carranzas. Zeitschrift f€
ur Philosophie und Theologie
EUNSA. 36: 47–92.
Belda Plans, J. 2000. La escuela de Salamanca y la
renovación de la teología en el siglo XVI. Madrid:
BAC.
F
Franck, Sebastian religious traditions and legitimize their faith

traditions.
Born: 20 January 1499 (Donauwörth, Germany)
Died: 1542 (Basel, Switzerland) Biography
Brugh Patrick Sebastian Franck was born in Donauwörth on

Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD, January 20, 1499. He frequently referred to him-
USA self in his writings as F. von Wörd or Francus
Wördensis to mark his city of birth, where his
parents were weavers. He studied in Ingolstadt
Abstract and Heidelberg starting in 1515. At the University
Sebastian Franck (1499–1542) was a writer of of Heidelberg, Franck studied the humanities and
moral and spiritual treatises and a Christian theology with the Dominican Collegium and took
theologian during the Reformation. He trained his vows for Catholic priesthood to serve in Augs-
to become a Catholic priest but ultimately burg around 1524. Two years later he changed
became involved in the Protestant movement confessions to become a preacher of strict Luther-
as an independent thinker and theologian. His anism. Soon he broke with Lutheranism as well
unique approach to the central doctrines of and found himself in conflict with Anabaptist
Christianity deviated from and criticized Cath- teachings. He published a short work while living
olic, Lutheran, Anabaptist, and Calvinist in Nuremberg called “On the Burden of Drunken-
teachings and brought him into frequent con- ness” (1528), in which he complained of a lack of
flict with religious and civil authorities in sev- religious communities that shared his perspective.
eral cities in which he lived. His most Franck married Ottilie Behaim, the widow of a
influential and controversial books were rich Nuremberger merchant with familial connec-
Chronica, Zeitbuch und Geschichtsbibel tions to Dürer’s studio, in 1528. The family
(Strassburg, 1531), Paradoxa (Ulm, 1534), moved to Strassburg in 1529, where Franck had
and Das Kriegsbüchlein des Friedens (1539). several likeminded colleagues and where he
Franck’s theological writing was marked by a believed he would find a freer religious society
radical, independent, and subjectivist perspec- for him to develop his ideas. In his new home, he
tive in which he attempted to draw universal published the Türkenchronik [Turkish Chronical]
connections between the believers of all in 1530 and the Chronica, Zeitbuch und
Geschichtsbibel [Chronical, Book of Time and
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_553-1
2 Franck, Sebastian
Biblical History] in 1531. In both books he began emperor, or the local religious authorities and
to formulate his belief that both the Bible and that he would refrain from publishing any danger-
nature can act as media for divine revelations. At ous books. Frecht and Bucer attempted to influ-
the same time, he started to teach his belief in the ence the city council to make Franck take an oath
“invisible word” and increasingly developed a of allegiance to central tenets of Lutheran faith,
spiritualist religious worldview. In the process of but the council, which itself declared not to abide
developing this theology, he criticized in harsh by those tenets, refused to force Franck to aban-
terms every major confession active in Strassburg don his own beliefs to smooth the Lutheran’s
and Germany. To Franck, the Catholics, Luther, ruffled feathers. They saw Franck’s pledge to
Zwingli, and the Anabaptists had all failed to respect the local religious policies as sufficient.
reveal the truth of God. Even revolutionary and Perhaps not surprisingly, Frecht continued to
disruptive theological thinkers clashed with harass Franck, and Franck simply could not
Franck’s claims. As a consequence of Franck’s refrain from publishing his radical ideas. Franck’s
depiction of him as a “good heretic,” for example, Germania appeared with permission from Frank-
Erasmus of Rotterdam personally denounced furt in 1538, his Guldin Arch [Golden Ark]
Franck and his Chronica. Erasmus wrote to the appeared in Augsburg in 1537, and the
Strassburg town council that they should confis- Kriegsbüchlein des Friedens [War Booklet of
cate his Chronica, which they did. The Strassburg Peace] and his Verschlossen Buch [Locked
government subsequently arrested and then Book] appeared without a city of publication in
evicted Franck and his family from the city in 1539. Fed up with his disobedience, and spurred
December of 1531, and he was forced to reside on by Frecht, the city council finally held him in
in the town of Esslingen and work as a soap maker contempt of their agreement. Despite his defense
until he convinced the city of Ulm to grant him that these books had been published outside of
first the right to live in the city and then eventually Ulm or had been granted the permission of exter-
citizenship. nal authorities or were published without his
In Ulm, where he had earned the friendship of knowledge, and without regard to his pleas to
the mayor and his son, he was preemptively have mercy on his four young children and his
banned from any form of religious public teaching wife who had been critically ill, the city council
such as preaching, but he was allowed to make a voted in January of 1539 to kick Franck and his
living as a writer and independent citizen. Franck, family out of Ulm. Franck and his family, now
who in addition to several influential allies in Ulm grown to five children with a newborn arrived in
also had a fervent enemy named Martin Frecht, May of 1539, moved to Basel on July 10, 1539,
pushed his luck with the local Lutheran authorities where he remained until his death from the plague
in the summer of 1534 and published the short in 1542. His first wife Ottilie died in 1540, and he
religious pamphlet Paradoxa (Ulm, 1534) and his married again in 1541, this time to Margarete
Weltbuch [World Book and Cosmography] Beck, the daughter of book printer. He published
(Tübingen, 1534). The Weltbuch described all of his last work in 1541, Die deutschen Sprichwörter
the known countries, cultures, religions, and [German Proverbs] in Frankfurt, and he released a
habits of the people around the world, including revised edition of Paradoxa in 1542.
the New World; and the Paradoxa was a Franck’s nemesis Frecht remained determined
280-sentence treatise on German theology and to ruin the man even after he had succeeded in
divine philosophy. Despite the efforts of Frecht, expelling Franck from Ulm; he secured a hand-
who was in close contact with Martin Bucer and written and signed condemnation of Franck from
Phillip Melanchthon, to block Franck from Melanchthon himself in March of 1540 and
gaining official rights of citizenship in Ulm, the brought it back to Ulm as a coup de grace for
city council granted citizenship in October of the town council. In a German paraphrase of the
1534 with the explicit warning that he should condemnation, Melanchthon called Franck a
not do anything to antagonize the king, the “crazed spiritual wreck,” and he continued to
Franck, Sebastian 3
mock Franck in his lectures as a “poisonous labeled as heretics. His historical works, which are
enemy of princes and learned men” and his stu- mostly compilations, provide a broad perspective
dents as “the apostles of Franck’s historical con- on faith and culture from around the world. He
fectionary” (Weinkauff 1878). Luther, for his part, portrays religious divisions and blind commit-
weighed in on Franck’s teachings and character ments to doctrine and ritual as destructive social
shortly after the radical thinker had died. He wrote conditions that lead to unnecessary war and
that Franck had privileged himself as a judge and violence.
master over the letter of the Bible, but he had also
strived to think and to be his own master as an
independent thinker and free spirit. Innovative and Original Aspects and
Impact and Legacy
Heritage and Rupture with Tradition Franck’s rabid individualistic approach to issues
of faith, social order, and even language were not
Sebastian Franck was an early prominent convert especially well received during his lifetime. Dog-
to Lutheranism, but he encountered several con- ged by hardline Reformers around Germany,
flicts within the Protestant movement because of Franck found himself constantly at odds with
his determination to critique aspects of all orga- theologians who preferred dogmatic approaches
nized religions. His staunch individualism, which to faith. Even creative and innovative theologians
grew out of the Lutheran commitment to the like Erasmus of Rotterdam and Martin Luther
believer’s responsibility for reading and under- found serious problems with Franck’s subjectivist
standing the Word of God, pushed beyond sola religious worldview.
scriptura to conceptualize the Word of God as Franck’s analysis of the written word served as
transcending the written scripture. For Franck, the foundation of his belief system. His claim that
the interaction of the believer with scripture, the scripture is not the word of God, but rather the
with nature, and with the teachings of the ancients product of men, and his belief that the Book of
allowed for the experience of the Word of God as a Nature and the wisdom of the ancients could serve
living revelation accessed by the individual in a as legitimate media for coming to know God
dynamic and ongoing way. Franck had trained to struck at the authority of all Christian faiths. How-
become a Dominican priest and also served as a ever, this questioning of the primacy of the written
Protestant preacher, and he came to see Luther’s word and his claim that there were many ways of
doctrine of scriptural primacy as a substitution of knowing resonated with secular debates that were
one kind of papacy with another. Belief, for taking place in humanism and natural philosophy,
Franck, was not something that one could institu- as well. The flaws of human writings suggested
tionalize but rather a radically subjective experi- that there might be another kind of text that could
ence of the divine. Although he was clearly reveal the truth. For Franck, as he explicates in the
entrenched in the Reformation movement, Franck Kronbüchlein (1534), God’s Word transcends the
portrayed his views as “unparteiisch” graphic and phonetic limitations of human lan-
(nonpartisan), and he felt that the true church guage; therefore, the expression of God also lies
was not one that could be seen or codified but beyond the realm of human speech. Yet, paradox-
rather was an imaginary and invisible collective of ically, the scripture – among other kinds of written
true believers that transcended man-made reli- and unwritten texts – is one of many ways humans
gious confessions. Franck’s training in Humanism come to believe, and it is their responsibility to
also gave him a unique perspective on the history interact with these texts in a way that reveals the
of the world, as found in his Chronica. Franck saw Word of God to them. The theological relevance
the history of the world as a tale of institutions that of Franck’s beliefs about how the written word,
suppressed the true believers who cropped up namely, scripture, operates cannot be understated.
throughout the ages: most often those who were His claim that the individual had sole authority
4 Franck, Sebastian
and responsibility over their encounter with the ▶ Martin Frecht

Divine Word aimed to strip both the Protestant ▶ Martin Luther
and Catholic Churches alike of their authority to ▶ Natural Philosophy
control the beliefs and behaviors of their fol- ▶ Phillip Melanchthon
lowers. Franck’s conflict with civil and religious ▶ Reformation
authorities in Ulm between 1534 and 1539, in ▶ Subjectivity
fact, demonstrated in real life exactly what was
at stake in his argument. Although he repeatedly
claimed to support both the religious and civil References
authorities of Ulm, and made no claim to his
ideological or moral superiority, Franck’s radical Primary Literature
ideas became the battlefield for a political proxy Franck, Sebastian. 1531a. Chronica, Zeitbuch vnnd
war between the authority of the secular town Geschichtsbibell. Strassburg: Balthasar Beck.
council (backed by the mayor Bernard Besserer) Franck, Sebastian. 1531b. Vonn dem grewlichen laster der
trunckenheit. Augsburg: Heinrich Steiner.
and the authority of the local Lutheran religious Franck, Sebastian. 1534. Paradoxa. n.p.
leaders (whose interest was pressed by Martin Franck, Sebastian. 1538a. Germaniae Chronicon. Frank-
Frecht). In addition to his impact on epistemology furt am Main: Christian Egenolff.
and theology, then, Franck was embroiled both Franck, Sebastian. 1538b. Die Guldin Arch. Augsburg:
Heinrich Steiner.
theoretically and practically in questions of Franck, Sebastian. 1539a. Krieg Büchlein des Friedes.
shifting social order. He frequently and vehe- Augsburg: Heinrich Steiner.
mently claimed to abhor rebellion and religious Franck, Sebastian. 1539b. Das verbüthschschiert mit siben
strife and did not comment as Luther did on the Sigeln verschlossen Buch. n.p. Augsburg: Heinrich
Steiner.
Peasants’ Revolt in 1525, but his writings – both Franck, Sebastian. 1541. Sprichwörter. Frankfurt am
historical and theological treatises – tolerate rather Main: Christian Egenolff.
than praise man-made institutions of authority, Franck, Sebastian. 1969. Chronica, Zeitbuch vnnd
both religious and secular alike. Geschichtsbibell. Ulm: Hans Varnier, 1536;
facsimile ed., Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Among contemporaries, Franck was fairly Buchgesellschaft.
alone in his subjectivist theology, although he Franck, Sebastian. 1975. Krieg Büchlein des Friedes.
had several friends and allies who encouraged Frankfurt am Main: Cyriacus Jacobs, 1550; repr., Hil-
and supported his work. After his death, leaving desheim: Georg Olm.
behind six children and his new bride Margarete,
Franck’s ideas gained some traction in Dutch Secondary Literature
speaking lands, and many of his notions about Bietenholz, Peter G. 2000. How Sebastian Franck taught
Erasmus to speak with his radical voice. Bibliothèque
the “invisible church” resonate in the religious
d’Humanisme et Renaissance 62 (2): 233–23].
treatises of Hugo Grotius in the seventeenth cen- Dilthey, Wilhelm. 1957. Weltanschauung und Analyse des
tury. But the most powerful praise and assessment Menschen seit Renaissance und Reformation.
of Franck’s legacy comes from Wilhelm Dilthey, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Dipple, Geoffrey L. 1999. Sebastian Franck and the
who notes that “Franck’s ideas have flown into the
Münster Anabaptist Kingdom. In Radical reformation
modern time through a hundred channels” and studies: Essays presented to James
depicts him as the “precursor and founder of mod- M. Stayer, ed. Werner O. Packull and Geoffrey
ern religious philosophy” (Dilthey 1957: 85). L. Dipple, 91–105. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Hayden-Roy, Patrick. 1994. The inner word and the outer
world: A biography of Sebastian Franck. New York:
Peter Lang.
Cross-References Hayden-Roy, Patrick. 2008. ‘The folly of the swinish,
brutish, mutinous, fickle, many-headed rabble’: Social
order in the theology of Sebastian Franck. The Six-
▶ Erasmus of Rotterdam
teenth Century Journal 39 (4): 947–971.
▶ Humanism Kaczerowsky, Klaus. 1976. Sebastian Franck:
▶ Martin Bucer Bibliographie. Wiesbaden: Guido Pressler.
Franck, Sebastian 5
Müller, Jan-Dirk. 1991. Buchstabe, Geist, Subjekt: Zu Weigelt, Horst. 1972. Sebastian Franck und die
einer frühneuzeitlichen Problemfigur bei Sebastian lutherische Reformation. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann.
Franck. MLN 106 (3): 648–674. Weinkauff, Franz. 1878. Franck, Sebastian In: Allgemeine
Müller, Jan-Dirk, ed. 1993. Sebastian Franck Deutsche Biographie. Online Edition. http://www.
(1499–1542). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. deutsche-biographie.de/pnd11853467X.html.
Stüpperich, Robert. 1961. Franck, Sebastian. In Neue Accessed 30 Dec 2016.
Deutsche Biographie 5, 320–321. Berlin: Duncker Wollgast, Siegfried, ed. 1999. Beiträge zum 500.
und Humblot. Geburtstag von Sebastian Franck (1499–1542). Berlin:
Weidler Buchverlag.
R
Reisch, Gregor Alternate Names
Born: 1467, Balingen (Schwarzwald) ▶ de Reyocho; ▶ Georgius Reysch; ▶ Reitschius;

Died: 9 May 1525, Freiburg (Breisgau) ▶ Reysch; ▶ Reyst; ▶ Rieschius; ▶ Rusch de
Balingen
Tomáš Nejeschleba
Centre for Renaissance Texts, Department of
Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Palacky University, Biography
Olomouc, Czech Republic
Gregor Reisch was born in Balingen and studied as
a clergyman of the Diocese of Constance at the
Abstract university in Freiburg. He obtained his bachelor
Gregor Reisch was a Carthusian prior and con- and master degree there and became a tutor at the
fessor to the emperor Maximilian I. In 1503, in university in Ingolstadt in 1494. In 1496, Reisch
Freiburg he published a book entitled Marga- entered the Carthusian order in Freiburg (Breisgau).
rita philosophica (Philosophical Pearl) which In 1501, he was nominated a prior in the monastery
provides an introduction to the liberal arts and of Buxheim and in 1502 was ordained a prior in
philosophy. Margarita philosophica follows Freiburg. In the same year, Reisch was appointed as
the Aristotelian pattern of philosophy as was a visitor of the Carthusian order for the Upper
typical for medieval textbooks and covers a Rhenish Province. As a member of the General
wide range of topics, not only the trivium and Chapter of the Carthusian Order, Reisch partici-
quadrivium but also the traditional branches of pated in the work on the new Rules of the Order,
philosophy, i.e., logic, metaphysics, natural which were published under his supervision in
philosophy, and moral philosophy. Reisch’s 1510. Reisch was also the editor of the Works of
Philosophical Pearl contains many instructive St. Jerome for Johan Amerbach’s printing shop, in
woodcuts and was often used as a textbook at which from 1513 was continued by Erasmus of
universities, in Northern Europe in particular. Rotterdam with great praise for his predecessor. In
It was reprinted many times during the six- 1510, Reisch became a confessor to the Emperor
teenth century and became one of the most Maximilian I (Srbik 1961). In 1523, a stroke left
influential books of that period. him partly paralyzed and he died in 1525, in the
middle of the German Peasants’ War during the
evacuation of the Freiburg monastery (Andreini
1997; Srbik 1941; Münzel 1938).
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_554-1
2 Reisch, Gregor
Margarita Philosophica helped the popularity of the book for teaching

purposes. In 1599, it was translated into Italian.
Margarita philosophica was written around 1496 In the 1583 edition and in the Italian edition, it was
and was published in 1503 (Reisch 2002). Reisch first titled as an encyclopedia (cyclopedia). From
uses ideas from many different sources, from the seventeenth century on, its influence
classical tradition, early Christian writers, medie- descended rapidly, but Margarita philosophica
val Arabic philosophers, and Latin writers of the was still positively assessed by Alexander von
thirteenth and fourteenth century; his work thus Humboldt for its significance for the expansion
reflects late medieval knowledge with a certain of mathematical and natural philosophical
influence from humanism and Renaissance phi- knowledge.
losophy. Philosophical pearl was later called the
first encyclopedia from the German-speaking
region (Becker 1970), but it is rather a compen- Cross-References
dium of philosophy, i.e., more of a reduction of
philosophy as taught at universities than an ency-
▶ Encyclopedia and Encyclopedism
clopedia in the modern sense (Cunningham and
Kusukawa 2010). Reisch follows the tradition of
the seven liberal arts and the Aristotelian division
of philosophy into theoretical and practical. He References
begins with the trivium of “rational philosophy”
(grammar, logic, rhetoric) and quadrivium of “real Primary Literature
Reisch, Gregorius. 2002. Margarita Philosophica Nova.
philosophy” (arithmetic, music, geometry, and
Ed. Lucia Andreini, 3 vols. Salzburg: Institut für
astronomy). Following that, four books on natural Anglistik und Amerikanistik.
philosophy are included involving psychology
(Park 2008), and Margarita philosophica is con-
cluded by a book on moral philosophy (Kraye Secondary Literature
Andreini, Lucia. 1997. Gregor Reisch e la sua Margarita
2008). Reisch’s philosophy was created in the Philosophica. Analecta C, vol. 138. Salzburg: Institut
context of a spiritual movement called “The Mod- für Anglistik und Amerikanistik.
ern Devotion” and is based on Aristotelian Becker, Udo. 1970. Die Erste Enzyklopädie aus Freiburg
um 1495. Die Bilder der „Margarita Philosophica“
grounds with a strong influence of pseudo-Diony-
Des Gregorius Reisch. Prior Der Kartause. Freiburg
sius’ light metaphysics and Augustinian thought im Breisgau: Herder.
in regard to the distinction between Creator and Cunningham, Andrew and Kusukawa, Sachiko. 2010. Nat-
creation (Cunningham and Kusukawa 2010). ural philosophy epitomised: Book 8–11 of Gregor
Reisch’s Philosophical pearl (1503). Trans. Sachiko
Kusukawa and Andrew Cunningham. Farnham/Bur-
lington: Ashgate.
Legacy Ferguson, John. 1929. The Margarita Philosophica of
Gregorius Reisch. A bibliography. London: The Bib-
liographical Society.
Gregor Reisch’s Margarita philosophica was
Kraye, Jill. 2008. Moral philosophy. In The Cambridge
republished during the sixteenth century at least history of Renaissance philosophy, ed. Charles
ten times (Ferguson 1929). Certain editions were B. Schmitt, Quentin Skinner, Eckhard Kessler, and Jill
not authorized, and some of them were Kraye, 301–386. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge
University Press.
supplemented by different appendices not origi-
Münzel, Gustav. 1938. Der Kartäuserprior Gregor Reisch
nating from Reisch. The Philosophical Pearl was und die Margarita Philosophica. Zeitschrift des
used as a textbook at universities in Northern Freiburger Geschichtsvereins 48: 1–87.
Europe in the time before Reformation and after- Park, Katharine. 2008. The organic soul. In The Cam-
bridge history of Renaissance philosophy, ed. Charles
ward particularly in Catholic regions. The allegor-
B. Schmitt, Quentin Skinner, Eckhard Kessler, and Jill
ical woodcuts and a number of detailed Kraye, 464–484. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge
illustrations which supplemented the text also University Press.
Reisch, Gregor 3
Srbik, Robert Ritter von. 1941. Die Margarita Philosophica Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Klasse 104:
des Gregor Reisch (gestorben 1525): Ein Beitrag zur 84–205.
Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften in Deutschland. Srbik, Robert Ritter von. 1961. Maximilian I. und Gregor
Denkschriften. Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien. Reisch. Archiv für Österreichische Geschichte 122 (2):
1–112.
G
Grote, Geert Biography
Born: October 1340 Geert Grote was born in Deventer, a city in the
present-day Netherlands, as the son of a wealthy
Died: 20 August 1384 and influential cloth merchant. At the age of 15, he
was sent for further study to the University of
Rijcklof Hofman Paris, where he was accorded the degree of
Titus Brandsma Instituut, Radboud University, magister artium in 1358. He spent several years
Nijmegen, The Netherlands in Paris thereafter, but eventually he returned, in
or around 1366, to his native city. His attempts to
secure a career in the church resulted in the assign-
Abstract ment of prebendaryships in Aachen (1368) and
Geert Grote was the founder of the late medi- Utrecht (1371) (cfr on his career before his con-
eval religious reform movement Devotio version Magnus 2016: 38–49). Traditionally, it is
moderna. He lived in the second half of the maintained on the authority of his biographers that
fourteenth century and was known especially he gave up his active life in the world after a grave
for his criticism of the higher clergy and his illness, probably in 1374, but perhaps somewhat
preaching activities which incited his audi- earlier, which led to a conversion to an ascetic and
ences to lead a more sincere religious life. spiritually oriented life, imitating Christ and his
Through the three branches of followers first followers. In order to interiorize this new
together forming the Devotio moderna, he attitude, Grote spent an unspecified period of
paved the way for a more critical approach to time (probably 3 years) between 1374 and 1379
practices in the church during the later Middle in Monnikhuizen, a Carthusian monastery near
Ages and beyond. Arnhem, as a commensal. Grote’s biographers
also maintain that he started to show a sincere
interest in spiritually oriented literature in
Monnikhuizen for the first time (Épiney 1970:
Alternate Names
36–50; Van Zijl 1963: 72–154), but in fact he
was leg. acquainted with this sort of literature
▶ Gerardus Magnus; ▶ Geert Groote
much earlier already (Hofman 2003). On the

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_555-1
2 Grote, Geert
advice of the Carthusians, however, he exchanged headstrong focarists joined forces with various
the secluded life in the charterhouse for a life of other groups of his antagonists. In the autumn of
preaching in the world, attested from c. 1379 until 1383, this group of combined opponents pre-
his death as a victim of the plague on sented a formal petition to Floris van
20 August 1384. Wevelinckhoven, the Bishop of Utrecht
(1379–1393) (Magnus 2011: 103–123; Van Zijl
1963: 297–302).
Innovative Aspects Until then Bishop Floris had supported Grote’s
efforts to reform abuses in the church, but under
In his sermons, but also in treatises and consilia, pressure he gave in to the opposition. Rather than
he summoned his contemporaries, apparently directly confronting Grote by warning him per-
with much success, to give up their secular life- sonally, he preferred a more roundabout course,
style and to start a devout life imitating Christ and which may reflect his embarrassment in thwarting
his first followers. In addition, he attempted to his former ally: he issued a decree reserving the
improve the moral standards of contemporary permission to preach for priests, taking it away
clergymen. His efforts in this field came down to from deacons. Effectively, Grote, who was a dea-
opposition against two forms of abuse in the con, was forbidden to preach as a result. Less than
world of the clergy, corruption and incontinence. a year later, on 20 August 1384, Grote died as a
His views on corrupt practices in ecclesiastical victim of the plague.
positions can be subdivided in a few closely
related topics: firstly, corrupt practices in connec-
tion with the acquisition of and functioning in Impact and Legacy
ecclesiastical offices, and, secondly, the wide-
spread custom to require an admission fee from Alternating with his preaching activities were
prospective residents in religious institutions. periods of study and isolation. The single most
Together with corrupt ordination, these evils important and lasting innovation which he carried
were in Grote’s days generally together referred out in this context is the composition of a book of
to as different forms of simony. Closely related to hours written in vernacular Middle Dutch (Van
simoniacal practices in relation with monastic Wijk 1940). This prayer book was immensely
entry is a tolerant attitude toward personal posses- influential since it enabled lay people, most of
sions belonging to individual residents in reli- them women, to develop and keep up their own
giously living communities, a custom known as spirituality without interference from church offi-
proprietarism (Magnus 2016). He aired his views cials. He spent these periods most often in two
on priests who shared their life and house with a rooms in his own house, which he had handed
member of the weaker vessel most convincingly over to the city government shortly after his con-
during a sermon delivered during a diocesan syn- version, in order to accommodate single or
odal assembly, held on 14 August 1383 in Utrecht, widowed women in it. Shortly afterward, this
the cathedral city of the medieval diocese of the community of women evolved into the Sisters of
northern Low Countries. He worked out the ser- the Common Life, leg. groups of women living a
mon after its delivery in several treatises varying religious life together without taking vows. In
in length (Magnus 2011). Reactions on the ser- close cooperation with his friend and ally Florens
mon were bound to be vehement. Many focarists Radewijns (1350–1400), a similar lifestyle for
(i.e., ordinated clerics living together with female men was established in the 1380s, the Brothers
partners), among them various high-placed secu- of the Common Life. Both forms of religious
lar canons and prelates who accommodated con- common life without vows soon spread over
cubines in their houses, were less than happy with Western Europe (Van Engen 2008; Klausmann
Grote’s sermon, as he must have realized in 2003), while at the same time two other forms of
advance. And yet he was taken by surprise when more traditionally monastic life also adopted the
Grote, Geert 3
principles of an observant, sincere religious life- Secondary Literature

style: Windesheim Regular Canons of St Augus- Van Dijk, R.Th.M. 2003. Prolegomena ad Gerardi Magni
Opera Omnia. Pars I,1. Die Forschungslage des
tine (Kohl et al. 1976–1984) and regular
gesamten Schrifttums (mit Ausnahme des
communities following the Rule of the Third Stundenbuches). In Gerardi Magni Opera Omnia,
Order of St. Francis (Van Engen 2006). vol. I, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis,
vol. 192. Turnhout: Brepols.
Van Engen, H. 2006. De derde orde van Sint-Franciscus in
het middeleeuwse bisdom Utrecht. Een bijdrage tot de
References institutionele geschiedenis van de Moderne Devotie.
Hilversum: Verloren.
Van Engen, J. 2008. Sisters and brothers of the common
Primary Literature life. The devotio moderna and the world of the later
A scientific edition of Grote’s literary legacy is currently middle ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
being prepared, of which four volumes have been Press.
published already; older editions are listed in the two Épiney-Burgard, G. 1970. Gérard Grote (1340–1384) et
biographies listed below (Épiney-Burgard 1970; Van les débuts de la dévotion moderne. Wiesbaden: Franz
Zijl 1963). Steiner Verlag.
Magnus, Gerardus. 2000. Ioannis Rusbrochii Ornatus Hofman, R. 2003. Geert Grote’s treatise contra turrim
spiritualis desponsationis Gerardo Magno interprete. Traiectensem and his conversion to a spiritually ori-
In Gerardi Magni Opera Omnia, Pars V.1, Corpus ented life. In Spirituality renewed, Studies in spiritual-
Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis, vol. 172, ed. ity supplements, vol. 10, ed. C. Caspers, R. Hofman,
R. Hofman. Turnhout: Brepols. H. Blommestijn, 41–55. Leuven: Peeters.
Magnus, Gerardus. 2003. Contra turrim Traiectensem. In Klausmann, Th. 2003. Consuetudo consuetudine vincitur.
Gerardi Magni Opera Omnia, Pars I, Corpus Die Hausordnungen der Brüder vom gemeinsamen
Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis, vol. 192, ed. Leben im Bildungs- und Sozialisationsprogramm der
R. Hofman, 745–814. Turnhout: Brepols. Devotio moderna. Frankfurt am Main etc.: Peter Lang.
Magnus, Gerardus. 2011. Sermo ad clerum Traiectensem Kohl, W., E. Persoons, and A.G. Weiler, ed. 1976–1984.
de focaristis – Opera minora contra focaristas. In Monasticon Windeshemense, Archives et
Gerardi Magni Opera Omnia, Pars II.1, Corpus Bibliothèques de Belgique, Extranummer, vol.
Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis, vol. 235, ed. 16, 1–4. Brussels: Archief- en Bibliotheekwezen.
R. Hofman. Turnhout: Brepols. Van Wijk, N. 1940. Het getijdenboek van Geert Grote.
Magnus, Gerardus. 2016. Scripta contra simoniam et pro- Naar het Haagse handschrift 133 E 21 uitgegeven.
prietarios. In Gerardi Magni Opera Omnia, Pars II.2, Leiden: Brill.
Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis, vol. Van Zijl, T.P. 1963. Gerard Groote, ascetic and reformer
235A, cura et studio Rijcklof Hofman adiuuante (1340–1384). Washington, DC: The Catholic Univer-
Marinus van den Berg. Turnhout: Brepols. sity of America Press.
G
Grotius, Hugo history. This article narrates Grotius’s life and

then examines some of his key interventions
Birth: 10 April 1583 and legacy in the disciplines of philology,
Death: 28 August 1645 international law, and theology.
Patrick Brugh
Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD, Alternate Names
USA
▶ Hugo de Groot
Abstract
Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) was a Dutch jurist, Biography
humanist, and theologian, whose work reso-
nated with and inspired the political and intel- Hugo Grotius (Hugo de Groot, 1583–1645) was
lectual issues of his time. Born to a family with born in Delft, Netherlands, to Johan de Groot and
a history of local governance and academic Alida van Overschie on April 10, 1583. He was
excellence, Grotius pushed beyond his the first-born son of a patrician family, whose
family’s local political influence to become a male heirs frequently occupied the mayoral office
diplomat, lawyer, and public intellectual of of that town. His great grandfather, Corneille de
international prominence. Against the back- Cornets, linked Hugo to a noble Burgundian
drop of escalating political tensions throughout bloodline, but Corneille surrendered his own
Europe between parties such as Spain and the namesake to the family name de Groot in a mar-
Netherlands, Sweden and the Holy Roman riage contract to the daughter of the Delft mayor
Empire, as well as France and England, Diederich de Groot at the turn of the century.
Grotius’s writings in law and theology engaged Hugo Grotius’s grandfather, the son of Corneille
with and broke new ground in debates that de Cornets and also named Hugo, was both an
would influence the outcome of several politi- exemplary scholar and notable mayor. His sons,
cal conflicts, from the Dutch Revolt against Corneille and Johann, followed their father’s leg-
Spain to the Thirty Years’ War. At the same acy of superior academic performance. Corneille
time, Grotius’s humanistic writings, especially de Groot (Hugo Grotius’s uncle) studied Greek
his translations and philological works, are not literature and philosophy and later pursued studies
to be overlooked for their scholarly and aes- in law and took a professorship in jurisprudence at
thetic contributions to European cultural the University of Leyden. Johann de Groot (Hugo
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_556-1
2 Grotius, Hugo
Grotius’s father) – like his brother and Frisia, based out of the Hague. The political situ-
father – excelled at the university. Johann studied ation in his home country, especially the ongoing
at Leyden under Justus Lipsius (1547–1606), conflict in the early 1600s between Spanish and
absolved a doctorate in law, and then returned to Dutch trade interests, drew his attention away
the family business of running the town of Delft from some of his academic projects to the more
while helping to manage the affairs of the Univer- practical concerns of diplomacy and law. He was
sity of Leyden, where his brother was a professor. appointed as a public prosecutor under the author-
In his academic training, Hugo Grotius (most ity of the Dutch Republic leader Johan van Olden-
often referred to by his Latin nom de plume) barnevelt (1547–1619) to the province of Holland
successfully upheld his family’s tradition of in 1607 and later as a pensionary, or legal officer,
exemplary performance in humanistic and in of Rotterdam in 1613. Grotius was a productive
legal studies. The oldest of four children, Grotius legal contributor during the peace talks between
attended the University of Leyden at the age of Spain and the United Provinces, which began in
12 where he studied under the famous scholar 1607. In 1608 these talks fell apart over the Span-
Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540–1609), who had ish demand, in return for a Spanish recognition of
succeeded Lipsius at the university. He soon Dutch independence, that the Netherlands cease
took an opportunity to travel abroad and continue trading in India. With the help of France and
his studies internationally. On this celebrated trip England, however, a fragile 12-year truce had
to France, he socialized among some of the most been reached in early April of 1609. By then,
powerful aristocrats and politicians of that coun- Grotius had written several important memo-
try, including – according to his randa, one of which was commissioned by the
letters – “touching” the hand of the king. Grotius United Dutch East India Company (VOC) and
completed his doctoral studies in civil and canon subsequently published as the source for two
law at the University of Orleans in 1598. anonymous pamphlets in support of the Dutch
Grotius had by this time already distinguished cause and in order to gain French and English
himself at home and abroad as a learned individ- support in the peace talks. Grotius was not directly
ual and gifted new Latin poet. Most of his poems, involved in the lobbying, but he seems to have
which are celebrated primarily for their themes been an important source of legal arguments. At
and his astonishing breadth of references to the request of Oldenbarnevelt, for example, who
Roman writers, were frequently dedicated in was the chief negotiator in peace talks on behalf of
deep gratitude to his father and often to important the Dutch, Grotius refrained from publishing the
noble houses, princes, diplomats, and military Mare liberum until after the conclusion of peace
commanders in Europe as well. Notably, his talks. This work, which became a foundational
poetic rendering of several psalms and his tragedy source of modern maritime law, grew out of a
Adamus exul (1601) became inspirational material project Grotius had begun much earlier on behalf
for John Milton (1608–1674). In 1617, his youn- of the VOC.
ger brother Wilhelm de Groot published a signif- Earlier, in 1604, following on the heels of the
icant collection of his poetry written between Dutch capture of the Portuguese merchant ship
1591 and 1617, but by that point his legal reputa- Santa Catarina in the Strait of Singapore in
tion had begun to overshadow his literary and 1603 and the auction of that vessel in the fall of
philological output. His works as a mature adult, 1604, the United Dutch East India Company
such as Christus patiens (1608) and his reworking (VOC) hired Grotius to pen a formal defense of
of the story of Joseph and his brothers the Captain Van Meeskerck’s capture of the Santa
Sophompaneas (1632, publ. 1635), won acclaim Catarina. Grotius’s lengthy tome that emerged
in addition to his many translations of Greek and from this contract with the VOC, De jure praedae
Roman authors. commentarius (Commentary on the Law of Prize
In 1601, at the age of 16, Grotius began his and Booty), defied the company’s expectations of
legal career as a lawyer for Holland, Zeeland, and brevity. The VOC’s interest in a speedy public
Grotius, Hugo 3
defense of their captain’s actions and their own Greek tragedies and comedies (1626), and in
financial benefit from the sale of the Santa 1625 – of tectonic consequences for
Catarina was echoed in a letter to Grotius by his seventeenth-century European politics – the De
friend Jan ten Grootenhuys, who was also the jure belli ac pacis (The Law of War and Peace).
VOC agent who hired him. Just a month after Despite his continuous requests and appeals that
soliciting Grotius’s services, Grootenhuys his conviction of treason be overturned, he was
beseeched that “your apology, begun so felici- officially banned for life from the United Prov-
tously, will be completed in a short while thanks inces by resolution of the Estates General in 1632.
to your attentiveness” (Briefwisseling, 1:45; trans. Grotius’s seminal work on military law came
Williams 2006, 547). De jure praedae was not against the backdrop of the Thirty Years’ War
published until three centuries after his death, (1618–1648), which was just ending the first
but Grotius capped the formal defense nearly phase and entering the period of Swedish inter-
5 years later with a twelfth chapter, published vention. This period of the war began with Gustav
independently of the others just weeks after the Adolf’s invasion of Stralsund in 1630 and contin-
Dutch and Spanish peace talks concluded. That ued long after the king’s death at the battle of
work, Mare liberum sive de jure quod Batavis Lützen in November of 1632. The so-called Lion
competit ad Indicana commercia dissertatio, was of the North, who notoriously carried Grotius’s
distributed in late April 1609, once again in the works with him wherever he went, vied with other
service of the VOC, which had commissioned its nations for Grotius to serve as a consultant and
publication in November 1608. agent for Swedish interests. Grotius accepted the
In his new position at Rotterdam, beginning in Swedish king’s offer, which he received in 1634,
1613, Grotius took up an equally daunting legal 2 years after Gustav Adolf’s death.
project to outline the laws of just war, which had At that point, the Swedish army in Germany
occupied a central position in his argument in De was under the command of Axel Oxenstierna, the
jure praedae. In this new position, Grotius also chancellor of Sweden, with whom Grotius met in
became embroiled in provincial governance as a Frankfurt in 1634. Oxenstierna soon dispatched
member of the Estates of Holland. In 1617, he Grotius as an envoy to France, where he served as
rose to the Estates General, which served as the a tireless, but not especially tactful, diplomat. He
governing body of the Dutch Republic. In a polit- laid the groundwork for France’s intervention in
ical power struggle in which Grotius sided with the Thirty Years’ War in 1636 – against
Oldenbarnevelt, Grotius fell into a trap during a expectations – on the side of Sweden and the
political visit to the Hague, and he was arrested for Protestant forces through a combination of diplo-
sedition in 1618, alongside Oldenbarnevelt and matic straight-talk and theological nuance.
some of his partisans, on the orders of stadtholder Grotius’s writings on the law of war had
Prince Maurice of Nassau. established the principles of “just war” between
Grotius was tried in 1619 and then placed Christians, but his theological writings during the
under guard at the castle of Loevenstein, until last 10 years of his life worked to align France’s
his wife, Maria von Reigersberch (1589–1653), religious and political concerns with those of the
helped him escape in a chest of books to Gorcum Protestant Swedes.
in 1621. After disguising himself as a mason in During this decade, Grotius produced his most
order to traverse the Netherlands unnoticed and innovative theological claims in a series of pam-
fleeing to Paris, he found himself in a position of phlets. His unique and unorthodox approach to
fame among fellow expatriates and scholars. The exegesis, which – like his poetic interpretations
French crown granted Grotius pension of 3,000 of Bible stories – employed an intensely detailed
livres, and he spent his time in Paris by making a philological-historical hermeneutic bolstered by
living from his writing and legal reputation. He an exceptional and multifaceted foundation in
penned his own legal defense, the Stobaeus classics and ancient history, both supported and
(1623), as well as lesser-known translations of limited Catholic powers and beliefs while also
4 Grotius, Hugo
defending and rejecting some Protestant claims, Via ad pacem ecclesiasticam (1642). Quistorp did
for example, in his writing on faith and good not try to sway him from this faith in his fellow
works, De fide et operibus (1640), and in his Christians as he passed.
claim in another pamphlet that the Pope was not
the Antichrist.
Important among his theological works are his Heritage and Rupture with Tradition
exegetical treatments of the New Testament,
Annotationes in Novum Testamentum (1641), As a Dutch intellectual and politician in the age of
and the Old Testament, Annotationes in Vestus the Reformation, Grotius was most heavily
Testamentum (1644), both of which met intense influenced – intellectually and spiritually – by
criticism in his own day. They only became obvi- the traditions of humanism and Protestantism,
ous for their relevance among scholars in the late broadly speaking. His training in classical lan-
eighteenth century. These works made clear his guages and literatures, as well as philosophy and
interest to serve not just one particular denomina- poetry, is evident in his literary, philological, and
tion but rather all Christians, whatever confession theological writings. Because of this combination
they may be. of humanist training and Protestant faith,
He requested to be recalled to Sweden, and he Grotius’s writings are founded upon references
traveled via Hamburg and Wismar to Stockholm to classical authors and biblical sources.
in 1645. In Stockholm, Queen Christina received Moreover, his political philosophy was tied
him warmly. Yet he felt unwelcome at the court tightly to his theological beliefs. Much of his
because of rival courtiers. Begging leave, he trav- legal and theological work, therefore, blends the
eled to Lübeck by ship but never made it. Just methods of these fields with those of humanism.
3 years before the end of the Thirty Years’ War, In De jure belli ac pacis, by one count alone, he
the great jurist of international maritime and mil- cited eight classical figures over a hundred times
itary law was shipwrecked in Pomerania during each while also drawing from legal cases and
his passage over the Baltic Sea. He eventually biblical passages (Geddert 2014, 560). His theo-
landed in Rostock, horribly sick and worn out. logical stance throughout his writings conveyed a
He died on August 28, 1645, 11 days after leaving thoroughly irenic and ecumenical position, which
Stockholm. joined smoothly to his political and legal discus-
At his death, questions remained as to whether sions regarding natural law, natural rights, and
Grotius was really Protestant or whether he was distinctions of justice, especially with regard to
rather a Catholic. The Protestant pastor Johann war. Thus, Grotius, as many scholars of his work
Quistorp, who tended him on his deathbed, pro- have sought to show, was constantly in conversa-
vided a simply written summary of their final tion with the Bible, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates,
conversation that clarified little on this point. Xenophon, Cicero, Tacitus, Strabo, Irenaeus, con-
Mid-seventeenth-century European partisan poli- temporary theologians, and political philosophers
tics in response to his passing, on the other hand, regardless of whether he was writing about reli-
divided along religious lines. Each side attempted gious or political issues.
to spin his death to their own advantage, including His theological works are unique to his time in
a story that claimed Grotius had been poisoned by their intensive application of a historical and
the Lutherans. Hugo Grotius’s religious confes- philological hermeneutic, one more consistent
sion, however, seems much simpler than the com- with the study of classical literature than with
plicated political world of his time made it out to theology of his day. His exegetical methodology
be; he died, writes one biographer, “a faithful was also compatible with his vision of a minimal
Christian.” His church was one of the future Christian religion, founded on historically veri-
(Zukunftskirche), a unification of all Christians, a fied and self-evident principles that could be
hope that he expressed in one of his final works, shared by all Christian (and, at times,
Grotius, Hugo 5
non-Christian) believers. He had hoped that, by Innovative and Original Aspects

crafting shared core beliefs for all Christians, the and Impact and Legacy
Church could be unified and the secondary dif-
ferences in faith could be relegated to “friendly International Law
debate” rather than lead to divisive politics and The consensus among scholars depicts Hugo Gro-
violent conflict (Nellen 2014, 445). Contempo- tius as one of the most important and influential
rary theologians criticized his views on some of political and legal theorists of the early modern
these “secondary” issues, such as the Trinity, period. In his age, Grotius’s thinking inspired
good works, and predestination, despite statesmen and intellectuals alike and acted as the
Grotius’s proclaimed intention to diminish rather inspiration, positively and negatively, for other
than inflame sectarian violence. At least partly, major political theoreticians, such as John Locke
the French Huguenot Isaac Casaubon’s (1632–1704), Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), and
Exercitationes (1614) – for which Grotius wrote John Selden (1584–1654). His contributions to
one of the dedicatory poems – provided the irenic political theory and international law culminated
inspiration for such a vision of the Church. in his two major works on just war, international
Politically, Grotius’s curriculum vitae relations, and natural right, Mare liberum (1609)
paralleled a series of national and European and De jure belli ac pacis (1625). While the polit-
political upheavals. These conflicts, such as the ical and biographical context of these works has
Dutch Revolt against Spain and the Thirty Years’ been discussed at length above, this section will
War, inspired his treatises on international law focus on the content and intellectual impact of
and theological issues. Indeed, the powerful these treatises.
United Dutch East India Company (VOC) spe- Grotius published Mare liberum as a finishing
cifically contracted him repeatedly to write nail for the stipulations of the truce hammered out
defenses or manuals on their behalf, and his late between the Netherlands and Spain in April 1609.
theological works were written in the political Its conclusions justified the concessions and terms
interest of the Swedish government. At the made by the Netherlands in the peace process and
same time, major actors – among them Olden- certified Dutch sovereignty on legal grounds. The
barnevelt and Gustav Adolf – in these conflicts three main points of Mare liberum consist of
were influenced, even driven to action, by the arguments in favor of the freedom of the seas,
arguments of his legal and theological writings. the freedom of trade, and the freedom, validity,
His De jure praedae (1604–1605,1609), for and enforceability of contracts between European
example, which was his first major legal work, and non-European powers. Grotius’s principal
intervened on behalf of the VOC in the ongoing argument declared the absolute neutrality of the
conflict between the rebelling northern Dutch seas and denied – via arguments derived from
states and the crown of Spain and Portugal. natural law theory – the legality of states to
Grotius’s De jure belli ac pacis (1625), on the declare sovereignty over the seas. This radical
other hand, which drew much of its argument position, which drew heavily on the precedence
regarding just war and the laws of war from his of Roman law and other classical texts, reaped
first major legal treatise, appeared during the first some equally fervent legal and philosophical
decade of the Thirty Years’ War, which – at its responses since early modern and medieval states
conclusion in 1648 – turned out to be one of the had long exercised sovereignty over their adjacent
most violent and disruptive wars in the history seas, especially Italy, England, Sweden, and Den-
of Europe. Later, he would directly intervene mark. Even the Netherlands, contemporaries like
as a political operative in this war as an agent John Selden pointed out, had a hypocritical rela-
of the Swedish government and envoy to tionship with the idea of Mare liberum, which
France from 1634 until shortly before his death they invoked when it supported their claims and
in 1645. denied when it worked to their disadvantage. The
6 Grotius, Hugo
question was not quickly resolved among Euro- belli ac pacis (1625) incorporated many of the
pean powers. Only in 1713, after the Treaties of unpublished arguments from the first books of
Utrecht, a tentative agreement held that immedi- De praedae (the foundational unpublished chap-
ately adjacent waters were within the sovereignty ters of Mare liberum). De jure belli ac pacis (On
of the coastal nation they abutted to about the the Law of War and Peace) consists of three books
distance of a gunshot. The second main argument, and a much-cited Prolegomena. The Prolegom-
the freedom of trade, had long been an accepted ena lays the foundational considerations – legal,
practice within Europe, but as European powers theological, and philosophical – for a consider-
and their corporations colonized countries outside ation of the nature of war and peace. Throughout
of the continent, they sought to monopolize trade this prologue, Grotius ponders the ideas of Aris-
within their spheres of influence. Grotius argued totle, Cicero, Plutarch, Plato, Horace, and other
“that freedom of navigation and trade was a uni- classical authors as they relate to the laws of war
versal fundamental right which could not be legit- and justice in general, not to mention the Bible
imately restrained” (Weindl 2009, 142). Because and diverse European Christian theologians. One
this claim, to some degree, worked against the especially important, but also frequently
interests of the VOC, Grotius also declared the misinterpreted, quotation regarding human rea-
supremacy of pacta sunt servanda (contracts must son’s relationship to law is the etiamus daremus
be honored) as a regulating device for the absolute clause in paragraph 11 of the Prolegomena, in
freedom of trade. The third and final argument of which Grotius claims, “What we have been saying
Mare liberum cemented the validity of the pacta would have a degree of validity even if we should
sunt servanda clause, even in pacts with concede that which cannot be conceded without
non-European peoples. Based in natural law and utmost wickedness, that there is no God, or that
concepts of sovereignty, Grotius’s argument the affairs of men are of no concern to Him.” His
stated that all humans and governments possess contemporary enemies pointed to this clause as
sovereignty so long as their rights within the scope evidence of a heretical vein, and many modern
of their sovereignty do not impinge upon the scholars have held the clause up as evidence of his
rights of others; thus, non-European people move to secularize law; recent scholarship,
could sign legal contracts with Europeans. At the though, has been more eager to show that the
extremes, Grotius’s declaration permitted people existence of God is not in doubt in the clause or
to sign their lives away into slavery, even if they in any of his works for that matter. In Book I, he
did not understand the contractual terms that led to then defines his terms carefully, distinguishing
their enslavement; furthermore, the illegal breach especially the meanings of “war” and “law” and
of a contract could, according to Grotius, be between “aptitudes” and “faculties,” “expletive
legally punished in brutal fashion. Mare liberum and attributive justice,” and “natural, divine, and
had a tremendous influence on debates and human law.” He then goes on to consider the
treaties surrounding maritime law for over a cen- legality of war, especially among Christians, and
tury after its publication. Within a few decades of he cites biblical and classical examples in order to
its composition, the work functioned as a domi- tease out evidence for the legality of war
nant text in trade talks involving the English, according to natural law, the law of nations,
Dutch, Swedish, French, Danish, and Spanish, pagan divine volitional law, and the law of the
and it was critiqued and debated by scholars Gospel. Next, in Chaps. 3 and 4, he evaluates
such as Scottish jurist William Welwood different kinds of war such as public wars and
(1578–1622) and the English jurist and philoso- private wars, civil wars, and “wars of subjects
pher John Selden (1584–1654) on both sides of against superiors” (rebellions). Book II, also a
the English channel on legal and philosophical frequently cited and studied portion of the work,
grounds. builds on the statement of two legal justifications
Following on the heels of the Mare liberum, for war: self-defense and punishment. Defensive
and completed while in exile in France, De jure war is undertaken to protect or restore any
Grotius, Hugo 7
territory or property that is captured or attacked by impact that his writings had on political pacts
another sovereign nation. Its justification relies, and international treaties of the seventeenth and
therefore, on the absolute right of a sovereign eighteenth centuries, Grotius’s writings also
nation over held territory, which must be a tangi- inspired the work of subsequent and contempo-
ble object. Justice can only be obtained, therefore, rary renowned political philosophers like Hobbes,
by the restoration of that territory to its original Locke, Smith, and Leibniz. As expected from a
status or the capture of territory equal to the vio- writer whose books, essays, and correspondence
lated territory. Justice is restitutional in this argu- touched on so many issues with such nuance and
ment because it is exactly equal to the harm breadth, Grotius’s political theory lent material to
inflicted. In that sense, it seeks to restore what the arguments of both absolutist and liberal phi-
once was. Punitive war, on the other hand, is a losophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
means of shaping the future of a space. It is under- turies. His legal works thus contributed to debates
taken not to restore a lost territory or to defend a about such issues as private property rights, the
territory which is being menaced but rather to social contract and civil liberties, as well as rights
punish criminals who are acting unjustly, against of resistance to state authority. Although he is
nature, or against God’s will. What is different frequently portrayed as a great secularizer of inter-
from defensive war, Grotius notes, is that punitive national law and political theory, it is also impor-
war does not seek to remedy a wrong but to satisfy tant to recognize the strictly Christian theological
future needs. Thus, the judge (such as a prince or a foundation of his political and legal positions.
government) of whether to wage a punitive war
must possess prudential reason and situational Theology
judgment and must weigh the expenses (both of In addition to his tremendous contributions to
human and financial resources) of such a war political philosophy, Grotius was famous for his
against the potential promise of peace and pros- unique approach to thorny theological issues.
perity that can be gained through military action. Grotius’s theological works are tied closely to
Book III handles what is commonly called jus in the spiritual debates of Reformation Europe with
bello, that is, what is permissible in warfare. This one major difference from most theologians.
book deals with issues such as the killing of ene- Rather than working to bolster a single confes-
mies and the destruction and looting of property, sional view, Grotius sought to create common
as well as the punishment suffered by civilians as spaces for Christians to agree and to cease fighting
a result of war. Founded upon hundreds of classi- one another. Time after time, Grotius’s theological
cal and biblical sources, Grotius’s rules treatises such as Meletius (1611, published post-
provide – both for modern and many early modern humously in 1988), De imperio summarum
readers – an incredibly brutal range of acceptable potestatum circa Sacra (1618), De veritate
practices in warfare. religionis Christianae (1627), and Via ad pacem
Not surprisingly, and in consideration of the ecclesiasticam (1642), not to mention in his per-
disastrous violence against civilians witnessed sonal correspondence and Annotationes of the Old
during the Thirty Years’ War, which was in a (1644) and New Testaments (1641) and his legal
nascent stage while Grotius wrote De jure belli treatises, reveal an interest in reaching an agree-
ac pacis, he has frequently been portrayed as a ment upon a set of central elements of faith in
villain in some scholarship of the twentieth cen- order to eradicate sectarian strife in the Christian
tury (cf. Michael Roberts, Essays in Swedish His- church. This principle of “minimal religion” also
tory, 1967) and even by Rousseau in the exposed Grotius and other religious optimists
eighteenth century. Yet Grotius’s legal scholarship such as Isaac Casaubon to claims of Socinianist
also became the foundation of the United Nations’ heresy, a rejection of the divinity of the Christ and
guidelines on just war, and scholars who have the Trinity founded on the claims of the theolo-
looked closely at his work tend to read his projects gian Fausto Sozzini (Faustus Socinus,
in a generous light. Besides the very concrete 1539–1604).
8 Grotius, Hugo
De veritate, another document hired by the undertakings, even the sciences of mathematics
VOC to serve as a guidebook for missionaries, is and medicine. Central to all Christians, he
meant to “benefit all of my countrymen . . . for the claimed, regardless of their beliefs was the
propagation of the true Christian religion” and as a endorsement of the Golden Rule. Less important
refutation of the errors of paganism, Judaism, and points of faith might lead to disagreements, but
Islam (Grotius, De veritate, 1–2). Writing while in all believers accepted this core tenet. In his final
exile in Paris, Grotius sought to prove the essen- book of De veritate, Grotius turns to the reason-
tial tenets of Christian faith in order to “help ableness of the Christian faith, pointing espe-
propagate the Christian faith among unbelievers, cially to the teachings of the New Testament
pagans, Jews and Muslims” (Nellen, “Minimal that are consistently and logically applied
Faith,” 36). De veritate opens with doctrines Gro- throughout: that there is one “perfect, powerful
tius believed to be shared by all religions and then God, who cared for his creatures and who would
proves both by common sense and argument the reward them for obeying his commands, espe-
existence of God. Moving from world religions, in cially those exhorting them to live modestly and
general, to the Christian faith, specifically, he then to love one another” (Nellen 2012, 39). It was
claimed the superiority of Christianity above other only when people imprudently claimed other
religions. doctrines beyond these very reasonable beliefs,
Grotius’s classical training was central to this which can be adduced from the New Testament,
section of the treatise because his argument for as fundamental that conflict and strife arose
the superiority of the Christian creed relied on among Christians. This belief that some doctrinal
Christianity’s ability to house the best elements statements were more important than others led
of pagan and Hebrew philosophy, from Aristotle to a great number of personal attacks and criti-
to Moses. He was also an apologist for pagan cism. Especially orthodox Calvinists like André
religious practices, and at various points in De Rivet and Claude Sarrau were convinced of his
veritate and in other writings, he drew compara- heretical Socinianism and dogged his writings
tively on religious customs among the Jews, with accusations of dubious and heretical beliefs.
Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, Guineans, and Despite these and other accusations of reli-
Egyptians as they connected with Christian ritual gious heresy, Grotius’s theological optimism has
practices, even ones which he considered super- been the central theme of modern scholarship
stitious but not contrary to divine law. For Gro- about his religious works. Having died a devout
tius, the perfection of Christianity that made it Christian and renowned international thinker,
superior to other religions was Christ’s succinct Grotius and his writings remain vibrantly
law, “that we love God above all things and our discussed in the journal Grotiana, as well as
neighbors as ourselves” (De vertitate, II, xvi). among political scientists, legal scholars, and
Ignoring other fairly commonly held Christian theologians.
beliefs, such as the Incarnation and the Trinity,
he held up the Golden Rule as the most essential
and minimal element of Christian belief. Both in
Cross-References
order to make the manual accessible to various
confessions and in order to make it less confus-
▶ Art of War (Revolution of)
ing to converts, Grotius sidestepped many dog-
▶ Calvinism
matic distinctions, especially those points most
▶ Heresy
contested by Christians in Europe. Next, he
▶ Isaac Casaubon
dismissed the notion that disagreements among
▶ Justus Lipsius
Christians weakened the value of its doctrines,
▶ Reformation
since such disagreements arise in many human
▶ Socinianism
Grotius, Hugo 9
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H
Hasištejnský z Lobkovic, Bohuslav Hasištejnský of Lobkowitz’ Library in his cas-

tle. This library was comparable with the best
Born: 1461 private libraries in Central Europe of that time.
Died: 1510
Katerina Solcova1 and Stanislav Sousedik2 Alternate Names

1
Department of Comenius Studies and Early
Modern Intellectual History, Institute of Bohuslaus Baro Hassensteinius a Lobkowitz,
Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Bohuslaus Lobkowicz von Hassenstein.
Czech Republic
2
Catholic Theological Faculty, Charles
University, Prague, Czech Republic Biography
A nobleman of the originally Hussite-oriented

Abstract Lobkowitz family, Bohuslav Hasištejnský studied
Bohuslav Hasištejnský of Lobkowitz was a in Bologna and Ferrara where he became a devout
Czech humanist, well known Latin poet, and Catholic. In 1482 he became a doctor of Canon
philosopher. He spent most of his life in his Law. Although not a priest, after his return home
castle Hasištejn (Hassenstein) in Northern Bohuslav applied for the position of Bishop of
Bohemia where he pursued humanist studies. Olomouc and later for the position of auxiliary
He wrote several philosophical works, among bishop in Wroclaw, although with no determined
which De miseria humana (VIRI ambition. He achieved neither position and held
Incomparabilis, ac D. D. BOHVSLAI no public function untill his death, with the excep-
HASSENSTEYNII LVCVBRATIONES tion of his short stay at King Vladislaus’s court in
Oratoriae, quarum indicem versa indicabit Buda. When not traveling (he visited Syria, Pal-
pagella. Pragae: excvdebant Thomas Mitis, et estine, Egypt), he spent time pursuing humanist
Iohan. Caper, 1563) is the most significant. Its studies; his Latin poetry was positively received,
focus on the immortality of the human soul even abroad, at that time. He also produced short
without reference to resurrection indicates the philosophical tractates dealing mostly with ethical
influence of contemporary Florentine Plato- issues. He assembled a collection of manuscripts
nism, specifically Marsilio Ficino’s thought. and books comparable with those held by signif-
He also assembled collection of manuscripts icant private libraries in the Central Europe of his
and books known as the Bohuslav time. Although the castle Hasištejn started turning
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_557-1
2 Hasištejnský z Lobkovic, Bohuslav
to ruins quite shortly after Bohuslav’s death, his J. A. Komenský, H. Hirnhaim) is not probable.
library collection remained preserved. Moreover, Vodňanský’s work Theatrum mundi (Prague,
it has been recently described and reconstructed 1605), e.g., relates to Pierre Boaistuau’s Le theatre
by K. Boldan and E. Urbánková so that it now du monde (Paris, 1558) rather than to Bohuslav’s
closely corresponds to its original state. De miseria humana.
Philosophy References
As many other humanists, Bohuslav Hasištejnský Primary Literature

was not specifically concerned with theoretical Hasištejnský z Lobkovic, Bohuslav; VIRI Incomparabilis,
ac D. D. BOHVSLAI HASSENSTEYNII
philosophy. When asked to give his opinion on LVCVBRATIONES Oratoriae, quarum indicem versa
the philosophical writing Microcosmos (now indicabit pagella. Pragae: excvdebant Thomas Mitis, et
lost), produced by his friend, the Czech nobleman Iohan. Caper, 1563; Truhlář, J (ed.), Listář Bohuslava
Jan Šlechta ze Všehrd, Bohuslav replied in his Hasištejnského z Lobkovic, Prague 1893; Ryba,
B. (ed.), Spisy Bohuslava Hasištejnského z Lobkovic,
letter of 8 May 1501 that theoretical philosophy Volume I, Spisy prosaické, Prague 1933; Ryba, B. (ed.)
is a subject inappropriate for a nobleman dealing Bohuslaus Hassensteinius baro a Lobkowicz, Scripta
with state affairs. Bohuslav was partly interested moralia. Oratio ad Argentinenses. Memoria Alexandri
in ethical issues that are included in several of his de Imola, Lipsiae 1937; Bohuslaus Hassensteinius a
Lobkowitz, Opera poetica (ed. Vaculínová, M.), Bib-
writings, among which the tractate De miseria liotheca srciptorum Graecorum et Latinorum
humana (ed. princeps: Prague, 1563) is the most Teubneriana, Monachii et Lipsiae, In aedibus
significant. Here, the author describes the hard- K. G. Saur, MMVI.
ships that a man of any status, age, or occupation Hasištejnský z Lobkovic, Bohuslav; Martínek, Jan, ed. and
Martínková, Dana, ed. Bohuslai Hassensteinii a
has to face. Only eternal life of the immortal soul Lobkowicz epistulae: Tomus 1, Epistulae de re publica
brings real beatitude, according to the author. scriptae. Leipzig: Teubner, 1969. xxxi, Bibliotheca
From the philosophical perspective, Bohuslav’s scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana.
specific focus on the immortality of the human Hasištejnský z Lobkovic, Bohuslav, Martínek, Jan; ed. and
Martínková, Dana, ed. Bohuslai Hassensteinii a
soul, as expressed briefly at the end of his De Lobkowicz epistulae: Tomus 2, Epistulae ad familiares.
miseria humana, seems to indicate the influence Leipzig: Teubner, 1980. XLVI, Bibliotheca scriptorum
of contemporary Florentine Platonism. Several Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana.
implicit quotations of Marsilio Ficino’s Latin
translation of Plato’s works also indicates Secondary Literature
Bohuslav’s inspiration by this Florentine Platonist Hejnic J., Martínek J., z Lobkovic, Bohuslav Hasištejnský,
in: Rukověť humanistického básnictví v Čechách a na
(whose writings are, after all, well represented in Moravě (Enchiridion renatae poeseos in Bohemia et
Bohuslav’s library). Similar to Ficino, Bohuslav Moravia, Vol.3, Praha 1966, pp. 170–203); Boldan,
pays no specific attention to resurrection (without K.-Urbánková, E., Rekonstrukce knihovny Bohuslava
denying it, of course). After its first edition (1563), Hasištejnského Z Lobkovic. Katalog inkunabulí
roudnické lobkovické knihovny, Prague, Národní
De miseria humana became an esteemed text; knihovna ČR, 2009; Karfík, F., Ficiniana v knihovně
nevertheless recognized by Latinists rather than Bohuslava Hasištejnského z Lobkovic, in: Bene
by philosophers or theologians. scripsisti. Filosofie od středověku k novověku, Sborník
Otherwise, De miseria humana develops the k sedmdesátinám Stanislava Sousedíka (ed. Beneš, J.,
Glombíček, P., Urbánek V.), Praha 2002, pp. 87–105.
old theme of human misery popular among Sousedík, S., Philosophie der fr€ uhen Neuzeit in den
numerous Renaissance authors. Bohuslav’s influ- böhmischen Ländern, Stuttgart-Bad Constatt 2009,
ence on later Czech writings dealing with similar pp. 37–43. Neue deutsche Biographie, Bd. 14, Berlin,
themes (N. Vodňanský of Uračov, 1985, f., s.v. Lobkowitz von Hassenstein, Bohuslaw.
H
Hilarius of Leitmeritz Biography
Born: ca 1422 As a young man Hilarius was a supporter of the

Died: 1468 Hussites. In 1451, he achieved a Master degree at
the University in Prague. In the first half of the
Katerina Solcova1 and Stanislav Sousedik2 1450s he was sent to study in Padua by Jan
1
Department of Comenius Studies and Early Rokycana, the head of Hussite clergy at that
Modern Intellectual History, Institute of time. However, under the Italian influence,
Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Hilarius converted and became a devout
Czech Republic Catholic. Since Hilarius had become one of the
2
Catholic Theological Faculty, Charles leading representatives of the Catholic position,
University, Prague, Czech Republic after his return to Prague he could not continue his
teaching at the Hussite university. Therefore, in
1461 he began work as the administrator of the
Abstract Prague Archbishopric which had been vacant for a
Hilarius of Litoměřice was a Czech humanist, long period of time, in which position he remained
philosopher, anti-Hussite theologian and one until his death in 1468.
of the rare supporters of Lullism at that time
in Central Europe. Originally a supporter of
Hussitism who spread Franciscus de Work
Mayronis’ views presuming that they were
close to those of Johann Wycliff’s, he was Before his conversion to Catholicism, Hilarius
rejected by the ecclesiastical authorities of had tried to provide Hussitism with a reliable
that time. During his stay in Padua he acquired philosophical grounding at the Prague University.
several of Raymond Lull’s works which he Since Johann Wycliff’s teaching, admired by the
brought to Bohemia. Under the influence of Hussites, had been rejected by ecclesiastical
his Padua stay, he became a devout Catholic authorities of that time, Hilarius – together with
and accepted the position of administrator of his colleague Václav of Křižanov – spread the
the Prague Archbishopric. Among his writ- teaching of Parisian doctor Franciscus de
ings, the history of the city Plzeň – Hystoria Mayronis (+ ca 1347), as contained chiefly in
civitatis Plznensis – is remarkable. Mayronis’ tractate De esse essentiae et
existentiae, presuming that Mayronis’ metaphys-
ical views of divine ideas and their relation to
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_558-1
2 Hilarius of Leitmeritz
divine essence were close to those of Johann References

Wycliff. In Padua, Hilarius became acquainted
with humanist erudition. There, partly through Primary Literature
purchasing, partly through making copies, he Hilarii Litomericensis S. Ecclesiae Pragensis Decani,
Disputatio coram rege Georgio rege Bohemiae per
acquired several of Raymond Lull’s quinque dies habita anno 1465, Pragae 1775;
works – preserved in Prague to this day Sousedík, S., Isagoge ad: Francisci Mayronis OFM,
(cf. Hejnic, Polívka, p. 38, n. 44) as unique evi- Tractatus De esse essentiae et existentiae, in: Studia
dence of a very early acceptance of Lullism in the Neoaristotelica, 2 (2005), No 2, 270–276; Hejnic, J.,
Polívka, M., Plzeň v husitské revoluci. Hilaria
Czech Lands. However, after his return from Italy, Litoměřického Historie města Plzně, její edice a
Hilarius had no possibility to develop the Lullistic historický rozbor, Ústav československých a světových
concepts due to his ecclesiastic-political activities. dějin ČSAV, Praha 1987 (including the critical edition
Therefore, the manuscripts brought from Italy of Hilarius’ work Hystoria civitatis Plznensis as well as
its historical analysis).
remained mostly unnoticed in his time and
Lullism only started to spread toward the end of
the sixteenth century in the Czech lands. Hilarius Secondary Literature
was involved in numerous church-political activ- Urbánek, R., Doba poděbradská I-IV, Praha (1915, 1918,
1930, 1962). Bělohlávek, M.: Nejstarší plzeňská
ities, as well as frequent theological controversies
kronika, 1975; Kalista, Z., Die katholische Reform
with Hussite theologians primarily concerning the von Hilarius von Leitmeritz bis zum Weissen Berg, in:
topic of the layman’s chalice; his main opponent Bohemia Sacra. Das Christentum in Böhmen 973–1973
being the head of Hussite party, Jan (ed. F. Seibt, D€
usseldorf, 1974, pp. 110ff.) Sousedík,
S.: Philosophie der fr€
uhen Neuzeit in den böhmischen
Rokycana – the archbishop recognized by Huss-
Ländern, Stuttgart-Bad Connstatt, 2009, pp. 30–43.
ites, yet never approved by the Roman Curia. Jordan, M., Das Königtum Georgs v. Podiebrad, Leip-
Thus far, modern research has paid little attention zig 1861, pp. 116–126.
to the theological content of Hilarius’ disputes
with Hussites (cf. Urbánek). He also wrote the
history of the city of Plzeň (Pilsen) in a humanist
manner (Hystoria civitatis Plznensis).
H
Holste, Lukas Biography
Born: 1596, Hamburg Born in Hamburg on September 27, 1596, into a

Died: 1661, Rome family of humble origins, he studied first in the
city of his birth, then in Rostock and, for around
Irene Fosi 6 years, in Leiden. At that university, he took an
Università “Gabriele D’Annunzio”, Chieti- interest in Platonic philosophy. In 1618 he had
Pescara, Italy traveled to Italy with Philipp Cl€uver, who had
published his five-volume Italia Antiqua in Lei-
den in 1622. This experience stimulated his inter-
Abstract est in geography and naturalistic studies.
Considered among the greatest scholars of the L. H. made numerous corrections to Cl€uver’s
seventeenth century, Lucas Holste (L. H.) (lat. work, which were published posthumously in
Holstenius, it. Luca Holstenio) distinguished 1666. In 1621 he accompanied the senator Kaspar
himself through his search for and study of Vosperg on a diplomatic mission to Denmark.
manuscript and printed texts during visits and Afterward, he spent more than 2 years in England;
periods of research in the greatest libraries of in London and Oxford, he frequented the most
Italy and Europe. After his conversion to famous libraries, which he appreciated not only
Catholicism, he came to Rome (1627) where for the richness of their collections but also for
he put himself at the service of the Barberini their openness to scholars. After arriving in Paris,
and, in particular, of Cardinal Francesco. He he entered the service of Henry de Mesmes as a
established himself in Baroque Europe with librarian. After converting to Catholicism on
scholarly studies in philology and antiquarian- December 15, 1624, he met Cardinal Francesco
ism but also through an extensive geographical Barberini, who was in Paris trying to reach a
knowledge and his interest in naturalism. diplomatic solution to the military and political
dispute between France and Spain over Valtellina.
Alternate Names L. H.’s conversion has been linked to the presence
of Francesco Barberini in Paris, which offered
▶ (lat.) Holstenius; ▶ Luca; ▶ Lucas; (it.) him the opportunity to access the Roman court,
Holstenio (or Olstenio) erudite culture, and Italian antiquarianism. He
arrived in Rome in 1627 and began an ecclesias-
tical career. He was nominated to the Accademia
dei Lincei (1629) and began to play a part in the
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_559-1
2 Holste, Lukas
famiglia of Francesco Barberini who appointed Porphyrii Dissertatio (1630 and 1650), he sought
him as his librarian (1636). His vast correspon- to combine the Neoplatonism inherited from
dence with figures of libertine erudition such as renaissance humanism with the culture of the
Nicolas-Claude de Peiresc, Gabriel Naudé, and Counter-Reformation, without its controversialist
Jacques and Pierre Dupuy, and with representa- overtones. In the biography of Porphyry, he
tives of the seventeenth-century Italian culture, presented the Neoplatonist as an independent phi-
shows that it was not easy for him to adapt himself losopher and, sometimes, as a critic of Plato. This
to the way of life at the Roman court, which he work contextualized Porphyry’s Contra
often criticized, even if he did so with cautious Christianos, the principal cause of the negative
prudence. Urban VIII appointed him protonotary reputation of the philosopher whom L. H. wanted
apostolic and Canon of St Peter’s and, for his to bring back to the attention of seventeenth-
cartographic expertise, entrusted him with the res- century literary culture (Varani 2014).
toration of the paintings in the Gallery of Maps at
the Vatican Library. L. H. corrected errors and
commissioned more precise representations of References
ancient and modern Italy (Morello 2007). Inno-
cent X made him the first keeper of the Vatican Primary Literature
Library (1653), a role that he retained under Alex- Allacci, Leone. 1633. Apes urbanae sive de viris
ander VII. Disappointed with the lack of organi- illustribus. . .. Romae: L. Grignanus.
Boissonade, Jean François (ed.). 1817. Lucae Holstenii
zation in Italian and Roman libraries, he sought to Epistulae ad diversos. Parisiis: Bibliopolio
remodel them as “open libraries,” experimenting Graeco – Latino – Germanico.
with this project at the Vatican Library (Vian Holstenius, Lucas. De Vita et scriptis Porphyrii philosophi.
2014). He carried out assignments and missions In Biblioteca graeca, ed. Johann Albert. Fabricius,
207–281.Lib. IV., Pars altera, Hamburgi: Ch. Liebezeit.
on behalf of the Barberini and Chigi popes: the Mirto, Alfonso. 1999. Lucas Holstenius e la corte
most famous and celebrated of these is his pres- Medicea. Carteggio (1629–1660). Firenze: Olschki.
ence in Innsbruck at the conversion of Queen
Christina of Sweden, whom he then accompanied Secondary Literature
to Rome (1656). He recommended that Alexander Almagià, Roberto. 1942. L’opera geografica di Luca
VII acquire the library of the Duke of Urbino, Holstenio. Città del Vaticano: BAV.
Morello, Giovani. 2007. Holstenio. In I Barberini e la
which he visited during this journey (Vian
cultura europea del Seicento, ed. Mochi Onori
2014). On the death of Gaudenzio Paganini, Lorenza, Sch€ utze Sebastian, and Solinas Francesco,
Leopoldo de’Medici offered him the Chair of 173–180. Roma: De Luca.
Humanities at the Studio di Pisa, but he declined Rietbergen, Peter J.A. 2006. Power and religion in
baroque Rome. Barberini cultural politics. Brill:
(1648). His activity as a librarian and the frequent
Leiden-Boston.
assignments entrusted to him by popes reduced Serrai, Alfredo. 2000. La biblioteca di Lucas Holstenius.
the production and, above all, the publication of Udine: Forum.
his works, which often remain incomplete and in Stork, Hans-Walter (ed.). 2008. Lucas Holstenius
(1596–1661). Ein Hamburger Humanist im Rom des
manuscript. He died in Rome on February
Barock. Material zur Geschichte seiner Handschrif-
2, 1666. He is buried in Rome in the Church of tenschenkung an die Stadtbibliothek Hamburg.
Santa Maria dell’Anima. In accordance with his Husum: Matthiesen Verl. I. Paulsen jr.
last will and testament, L. H.’s library was left to Varani, Giovanna. Lucas Holstenius: un intellettuale
europeo della prima età moderna. Studioso di
the Roman Biblioteca Angelica for “public use”
Altertumswissenschaft fra Umanesimo e
(Serrai 2000). Although L. H. did not claim to be a Controriforma. Note introduttive alla De Vita et scriptis
philosopher, thanks to his association with Daniel philosophi Porphyrii Dissertatio (1630). In Lexicon
Heinsius, he was interested in ancient philosophy Philosophicum 2 (2014) pre-print for open review:
http://scholarlysource.daphnet.org/index.php/LPP/arti
and Neoplatonism. This can be deduced from both
cle/view/350/273. Accessed 13 June 2016.
his library and his correspondence with erudite Vian, Paolo. 2014. Un bibliotecario al lavoro: Holste, la
friends. In the work De vita et scriptis philosophi Barberiniana, la Vaticana e la Biblioteca della regina
Holste, Lukas 3
Cristina di Svezia. In La Vaticana nel Seicento und die deutschen Konvertiten im Umkreis der Kurie.
(1590–1700). Una biblioteca di biblioteche, ed. di Quellen und Forschungen aus Italienischen Archiven
Claudia Montuschi, 205–240. BAV. und Bibliotheken 67: 221–281.
Völkel, Markus. 1987. Individuelle Konversion und die
Rolle der “Famiglia”: Lukas Holstenius (1596–1661)
J
Jessenius a Jessen, Johannes He taught anatomy and surgery in Wittenberg

starting in 1593. Jessenius hosted Tycho Brahe
Born: 27 December 1566, Wroclaw for 6 months in Wittenberg in 1599 and later
Died: 21 June 1621, Prague played the role of moderator in the conflict
between Brahe and his assistant Johannes Kepler.
Tomáš Nejeschleba Jessenius moved to Rudolfine Prague in 1602
Centre for Renaissance Texts, Department of where he performed the first public dissection as
Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Palacky University early as 1600. He entered into the services of
Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic King Matthias of Habsburg in Vienna in 1608.
He returned to Bohemia in 1617 and was elected
rector of the University in Prague; as such, he
Abstract undertook diplomatic missions in support of the
Bohemian Estates revolting against the Habs-
Johannes Jessenius was a physician, anatomist, burgs. Following the Battle of White Mountain,
philosopher, and politician. He introduced the where the revolt was suppressed, Jessenius was
anatomical concepts of the late Renaissance to arrested and eventually executed.
Central Europe and promoted Italian Renaissance
philosophy, in particular, that of Francesco
Piccolomini, Francesco Patrizi, and Girolamo Philosophical Works
Savonarola, in the Central-European region.
Apart from a number of medical treatises (Pick
1926), Jessenius was the author of several philo-
Alternate Name sophical books. His Leipzig dissertation
(Jessenius 1618) deals with the immortality of
Jan Jesenský the soul in the Aristotelian and Thomistic manner
(Sousedı́k 2009). In his Paduan philosophical
dissertation, Jessenius follows the Aristotelian-
Biography ism of his teacher Francesco Piccolomini and
made a distinction between metaphysics and nat-
Jessenius studied at universities in Wittenberg, ural philosophy and between their different sub-
Leipzig, and Padua where he was tutored by the jects and methods.
anatomist Girolamo Fabrici ab Aquapendente After his return from Padua to Silesia and
and the philosopher Francesco Piccolomini. Saxony, Jessenius published the book entitled
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_560-1
2 Jessenius a Jessen, Johannes
Zoroaster (Jessenius 1593) in Wittenberg which ▶ Patrizi, Francesco

is an excerpt from Francesco Patrizi’s work Nova ▶ Piccolomini, Francesco
de universis philosophia. Jessenius does not men- ▶ Savonarola, Girolamo
tion, however, the actual source of his book and ▶ Sennert, Daniel
recommends this anti-Aristotelian work to the
Saxonian Duke as consisting of Chaldean wis-
doms of Zoroaster. In contrast with Patrizi’s
References
work, Jessenius omitted Patrizi’s “Panaugia,”
shortened the remaining text, and changed the
Primary Literature
order of the books of “Panarchia,” “Pancosmia,” Jessenius, Johannes. 1591. De divina humanaque
and “Panpsychia.” philosophia progymnasma peripateticum. Venice:
Jessenius published an edition of Girolamo Joachimus Bruniolus.
Sanovarola’s Universae philosophiae epitome in Jessenius, Johannes. 1593. Zoroaster, Nova, brevis
veraque de Universo Philosophia. Wittenberg: Crato.
1596. In the dedication to the Saxonian Duke, he Jessenius, Johannes. 1599. De Sympathiae et Antipathiae
advocated a project derived from the works of his Rerum Naturalium Caussis. Wittenberg: Wolfgang
teacher Francesco Piccolomini involving Meissner.
establishing harmony between Plato and Aris- Jessenius, Johannes. 1605. De anima et corpore universi,
AKROASIS PERIPATETIKE. Prag: Heredes Daniel
totle with the help of Hermetic texts. Jessenius Adam Veleslavin.
consequently attempted to fulfill this program of Jessenius, Johannes. 1618. De resurrectione mortuorum
concord philosophy in the book On the Soul and absolutissima Concio. . . Dissertatio. Quod Animae
the Body of the Universe (Jessenius 1605) com- humanae immortalitatis sint, adnexa. Prag: Paulus
Sessius.
bining Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy in an Jessenius, Johannes. 1620. Pro Vindiciis, contra tyrannos,
eclectic way (Nejeschleba 2014). oratio. Prag: Paulus Sessius (First edition Frankfurt
Jessenius was partially influenced by Tycho a. M.: Bringer 1614).
Brahe’s thought in the treatise On the Causes of Savonarola, Girolamo. 1596. Universae Philosophiae
Epitome. Ed. Johannes Jessenius. Wittenberg: Simon
Sympathy and Antipathy (Jessenius 1599) which Gronenberg.
was a disquisition defended in Wittenberg by his
pupil Daniel Sennert. Despite Brahe’s
Paracelsian influence, Jessenius explained the Secondary Literature
Barnes, Robin B. 2009. The Prisca Theologia and
causes of sympathy and antipathy rather natural- Lutheran Confessional Identity c. 1600. Johannes
istically with a reference to Italian Aristotelian- Jessenius and his Zoroaster. In Spätrenaissance-
ism and by means of the similarities and Philosophie in Deutschland 1570–1650, ed. Mulsow
dissimilarities of manifest qualities. Martin, 43–56. T€ ubingen: Max Niemeyer.
Nejeschleba, Tomáš. 2014. Johannes Jessenius, between
As a political thinker, Jessenius published a Plagiarism and an adequate understanding of Patrizi’s
treatise entitled Pro vindiciis contra tyrannos in philosophy. In Francesco Patrizi. Philosopher of the
which he defended the people’s right to revolt Renaissance, ed. Blum Paul Richard and Nejeschleba
against a tyrant (Jessenius 1620). The treatise Tomáš, 360–371. Olomouc: UP Olomouc.
Pick, Friedel. 1926. Johannes Jessenius de Magna Jessen.
paraphrases older works of “monarchomachs,” Arzt und Rektor in Wittenberg und Prag hingerichtet
in particular Vindiciae contra tyrannos, and am 21. Juni 1621. Ein Lebensbild aus der Zeit des
made Jessenius the “ideologist of the Bohemian Dreissigjährigen Krieges. Leipzig: Barth.
revolt” (Sousedı́k 1995). Sousedı́k, Stanislav. 1995. Jan Jesenský as the ideologist
of the Bohemian Estates’ revolt. Acta comeniana
11(XXXV): 13–24.
Sousedı́k, Stanislav. 2009. Philosophie der fr€
uhen Neuzeit
Cross-References in den böhmischen Ländern. Stuttgart – Bad Cannstatt:
Frommann-holzboog.
▶ Brahe, Tycho
K
Kircher, Athanasius experiments and observations which were pro-

gressive and new in his time but also some
Born: 2 May 1601/1602? Geisa near Fulda theories that are considered false by today’s
Died: 27 November 1680, Rome science and were considered false already by
many of his contemporaries. In a search for
Iva Lelková universal knowledge leading back to prisca
Department of Comenius Studies and Early sapientia and hermetic writings, Kircher
Modern Intellectual History, Institute of believed that deciphering hieroglyphs and
Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, finding the basis of all languages and cultures
Czech Republic would prove the existence of only one original
universal religion and therefore support the
return of Protestant Churches to the Roman
Abstract Catholic Church. Kircher’s writings and theo-
Athanasius Kircher was a Jesuit, a Baroque ries were a mixture of Aristotelian natural phi-
polymath, and an author of more than losophy, Renaissance Platonism, and Corpus
30 works on various subjects ranging from Hermeticum with a specific addition of Lullian
hieroglyphics, time measurement, magnetism, combinatorial art (Leinkauf, Mundus
music, and optics through astronomy, history, combinatus, Studien zur Struktur der barocken
and the cultures of China and Egypt to univer- Universalwissenschaft am Beispiel Athanasius
sal language, Noah’s Ark, and the Tower of Kirchers SJ. Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 2009).
Babel. He is often described as “the last man Kircher also drew heavily from the work of
who knew everything” (Findlen, Athanasius Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 1464), especially in
Kircher. The last man who knew everything. his astronomical work, although without
New York/London: Routledge, 2004), as “the acknowledging it (Bauer, Willibald-
master of hundred arts” (Reilly, Athanasius Pirckheimer-Jahrbuch:69–107, 1989/1990;
Kircher S.J., Master of Hundred Arts Siebert, Große kosmologische Kontroverse:
1602–1680. Wiesbaden: Edizioni del Mondo, Rekonstruktionsversuche anhand des
1974), and as a Baroque polymath standing Itinerarium exstaticum von Athanasius
between Renaissance and modern episteme, Kircher SJ (1602–1680). Stuttgart: Franz
but also as a “man of misconceptions” Steiner Verlag, 2006). Kircher’s celebrated
(Glassie, A man of misconceptions: The life of museum attracted many visitors from across
an eccentric in an age of change. New York: Europe, and Kircher sustained a large corre-
Riverhead, 2012). He published not only spondence based not only on personal
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_561-2
2 Kircher, Athanasius
encounters but also on utilizing the Jesuit com- 1623. Soon afterward, however, he was sent to
munication network (Friedrich, Der lange Arm Heiligenstadt to teach Greek grammar. From there
Roms?: Globale Verwaltung und Kircher was called in by the Archbishop and Elec-
Kommunikation im Jesuitenorden tor of Mainz, Johann Schweikhard (1553 – 1626),
1540–1773. Frankfurt am Main: Campus to Aschaffenburg to measure a new hilly road to
Verlag, 2011). He was supported by emperors, Heidelberg in 1624. It was before Schweickhard’s
popes and a number of nobles, and leading death at the beginning of 1625, not afterward, as he
church figures and scholars, and his books himself asserted in his autobiography, that Kircher
were published in numerous editions and returned to Mainz to study theology (Wittstadt
print runs. However, he was generally either 2002). He was ordained a priest in 1629 and passed
forgotten or considered to be an eccentric fool the third probation year in Speyer, where he
for about 300 years. The new interest of encountered a book describing obelisks erected in
scholars in the borders of modern science and Rome by Pope Sixtus V (1521 – 1590). This book
its rise, as well as their interest in the commu- started Kircher’s lifelong interest in the hieroglyphs
nication strategies and practice of Early Mod- and culture of ancient Egypt. Kircher was called to
ern scholars, has now turned Athanasius W€urzburg to teach moral philosophy, mathematics,
Kircher into one of the most studied Early Syriac, and Hebrew, most likely in the year 1630
Modern figures of the last few decades. Atha- (Siebert 2008). There he met his student and life-
nasius Kircher also appears in popular culture, long friend and collaborator Kaspar Schott (1608 –
due to the similarities between his eclecticism 1666), and in 1631 published his first book Ars
and the postmodernist movement (Borges; magnesia (Vollrath 2007). Kircher fled from
Eco, L’Isola del giorno prima. Milano: Mainz to Speyer shortly before the troops of Gustav
Bompiani, 1994; Roblès, Là où les tigres sont Adolf (1594 – 1632) entered the city on 15th
chez eux. Paris: Zulma, 2008). December 1631. From there he was sent to France,
like many of his confréres (Siebert 2008). After a
short stop at colleges in Dôle and Lyon, he settled in
Biography Avignon where he is believed to have taught math-
ematics, philosophy, and oriental languages. There,
The most important (though biased) source for he became acquainted with the major figures of
Kircher’s biography is his autobiography published the Republic of Letters: Nicolas-Claude Fabri
by advocate in Augsburg, Hieronymus Ambrosius de Peiresc (1580 – 1637), Pierre Gassendi (1592 –
Langenmantel (1641 – 1718), toward the end of 1655), and Johannes Hevelius (1611 – 1687). At the
Kircher’s life (Langenmantel 1684; Seng 1901; same time, he entered into contact with the astron-
Totaro 2009; Louthan 1999; Fletcher 2011). omer Christoph Scheiner (1573 – 1650). His second
Kircher was born on 2 May 1602 in Geisa, near work, Primitiae gnomonicae catoptriace, was
Fulda, to the reeve Johann Kircher and his wife published in Avignon in 1635. Kircher left Avignon
Anna née Gansek as their ninth and youngest in the autumn of 1633 heading for Vienna; how-
child (Jäger 2002). The year of his birth is uncertain ever, he became a professor of mathematics and
and may be 1601 (Fletcher 1988). Kircher studied Oriental languages at Collegio Romano in Rome.
at the Jesuit gymnasium in Fulda from 1614 to 1618 Kircher was to continue work on the decipherment
and entered the Jesuit order in Paderborn in 1618. of hieroglyphs under the patronage of Peiresc’s
He studied philosophy and logic after the end of his friend Francesco Barberini (1597 – 1679) and his
2-year novitiate. The Jesuit college in Paderborn uncle Maffeo Barberini (1568 – 1644), who was
then had to be closed due to the 30-year war, and Pope Urban VIII at that time (Siebert 2008). With
Kircher fled Paderborn on 23 January 1622. He the exception of 2 years between 1637 and 1638,
finished his studies of philosophy and natural phi- when Kircher was traveling to Malta and Sicily as a
losophy in Cologne (Köln am Rhein) and was sent companion to the new convert Friedrich of Hesse-
to Koblenz to study mathematics and languages in Darmstadt (1616 – 1682), he never left Rome from
Kircher, Athanasius 3
November 1633 until the end of his life. On this trip 2011; Malcolm 2004). Kircher’s former student
Kircher experienced an earthquake in Calabria, the from W€urzburg, Kaspar Schott (1608 – 1677),
eruption of Etna and Stromboli, and even lowered was called to Rome in 1652 to help Kircher correct
himself to the crater of Vesuvius. Inspired by these and publish the work on the geography and history
experiences, he published work on geological proof Egypt: Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652–1654). In
cesses and the underground world Mundus subsequent years, Kircher also published an astro-
subterraneus later in 1664–1665. In the years fol- nomical work – the fictional journey of the angel
lowing his arrival in Rome, Kircher published the Comiel and Kircher’s alter ego Theodidactus to the
first Coptic grammar in a European language universe, introducing a semi-tychonic model of the
(Prodromus coptus sive aegyptiacus, 1636) and universe, Itinerarium extaticum (1656), and a con-
vocabulary of Coptic, Arabic, and Latin (Lingua tinuation Iter extaticum II (1657), which was the
aegyptiaca restituta, 1643). He continued to fictional journey of the angel Hydriel to the under-
explore the idea of universal magnetism in a work ground world and to the bottom of the oceans. This
titled Magnes sive de arte magnetica (1641). work served as a preview to Mundus subterraneus
Magnes was the first work dedicated to the emperor (1664–1665). His book on the cause of plague
Ferdinand III (1608 – 1657), who supported Scrutinium pestis (1658) was one of the first to
Kircher by paying him a yearly pension until the suggest the cause of plague to be microorganisms
end of his life in 1657. Kircher became a consultant and not astrological influence or moral depravation,
to a cardinal commission for the translation of the which were the usual explanations. He also refused
Bible into Arabic in 1644, and 2 years later was to accept supernatural causes in the case of crosses
released from his duties of mathematics professor at that appeared on people’s clothes after the eruption
the Collegio Romano so he could concentrate on his of Vesuvius and explained the phenomenon in his
scholarly activities and writing (Findlen 2004). He work Diatribe de prodigiosis crucibus (1661) as the
published a work dealing mostly with comets, special weaving of fabric. At this time Kircher’s
optics, sundials, and the nature of colors, titled Ars discovery of the dilapidated church of St. Eustace,
magna lucis et umbrae (1645). In 1650 he built by emperor Constantinus in Mentorella close
published the Musurgia universalis – a work on to Tivoli, had a major impact on his life. Kircher
the theory and history of music and also on musical raised money for the restoration of the church from
instruments and automata. The book was printed in his numerous supporters and through the publica-
1500 copies, which was a considerable number for tion of Historia Eustachio-Mariana (1665b). In the
that time. In 1651 Alfonso Donnini ( – 1651) same year Kircher published the work on mathe-
donated his vast collection of antiquities to the matics Arithmologia sive de abditis numerorum
Collegio Romano, and Kircher became custodian mysteriis (1665c) as well as the previously men-
of this collection. From this and his own private tioned Mundus subterraneus (1664–1665). How-
collection, Kircher created a museum which ever, his most translated work was China
became a popular stop for travelers to Rome, illustrata (1667a), where Kircher gathered informa-
including Christina, Queen of Sweden (1626 – tion on the geography, history, and culture of China
1689), Marin Mersenne (1588 – 1648), Leopoldo from Jesuit missionaries. Kircher published his
de’ Medici (1617 – 1675), Robert Southwell (1608 method for the creation of a basis for all sciences
– 1677), and many others (De Sepi 1678; Casciato in Ars magna sciendi in 1669. The last decade of
et al. 1986; Findlen 1994; Gorman 2001; Wadell Kircher’s life was marked by increased criticism of
2015). Among various exhibits were 12 volumes of his work, especially of his ignorance of the region
Kircher’s international correspondence, which is an after the publishing of Latium (1671). Kircher with-
invaluable source of information on Kircher’s work drew to Mentorella in 1674, trying to find an escape
and life, as well as on patronage strategies, distri- from the constant flow of correspondence and vis-
bution of books, collection of information for his itors. Before the end of his life in 1675, he published
books and communication practices (Gorman and Archa Noë dealing with the size and organization of
Wilding 2003; Gorman and Sutherland-Duchacek Noah’s Ark, as well as with possible crossbreeding
of animals (Breidbach and Ghiselin 2006). He con- There, their universalist claims resonated well
tinued this attack against skepticism with Turris with the educated Catholicism which was a dis-
Babel (1679b), a work discussing the population tinctive Central European amalgam (Evans 1979).
of the world after the deluge and the diversification As he never left Rome, he had to believe the news
of languages from the original Hebrew. In 1676 and observations from other parts of the world,
Kircher published an interpretation of inscriptions misrepresented as they often were. He considered
on the mummies imported to Europe around that Chinese, Mayan, or Inca culture to be the proof of
time titled, Sphynx mystagoga sive Diatribe an original unity of mankind and the perfect
hieroglyphica (1676). Kircher’s health slowly dete- knowledge before the deluge and confusion of
riorated. He took the last rites as early as the sum- languages. Kircher’s thesis seemed to be
mer of 1679 and died on 27 November 1680 on the supported by the similarity between the hiero-
same day as his friend, the sculptor Gian Lorenzo glyphic, Mayan, and Chinese scripts. News and
Bernini (1598 – 1680). According to his wishes, his observations from these parts of the world, origi-
body was buried in the church Il Gesú and his heart nating from traditional knowledge, were equal to a
in the church of St. Eustace in Mentorella. travel through time for him. What was remote in
Kircher’s autobiography describes his miracu- place was also remote in time. All this encouraged
lous escapes from dangers of various kinds. Kircher in his search for prisca sapientia, the
Kircher survived a fall under the hooves of racing perfect knowledge contained in hermetic treatises
horses, another through the ice of the frozen Rhine that was fundamental to all religions and philoso-
while crossing it, and another fall into a water mill, phy. He never doubted their authenticity and
an encounter with Protestant soldiers who forced antiquity, in spite of Isaac Casaubon’s (1559 –
him to take off his habit, and a plague in Rome. The 1614) early seventeenth century evidence to the
emphasis on these miraculous survivals in his auto- contrary. Kircher’s works, especially Oedipus
biography may be credited to Kircher’s self-styling Aegyptiacus, should have helped to find this
into the role of saint-scholar (Louthan 1999). ancient knowledge and the one and only true
Kircher managed to draw the attention of pow- religion, as this was according to him the key
erful patrons throughout his life. Among his sup- argument against Protestant Churches and should
porters were the emperors Ferdinand III and have led to their union with the Roman Catholic
Leopold I (1640 – 1705), Archduke Leopold Church (Stolzenberg 2013).
Wilhelm (1614 – 1662), the popes Innocent X Hence, Kircher and his work can be considered
(1574 – 1655), Alexander VII (1599 – 1667), interesting evidence of the importance of hermetic
and Clement X (1590 – 1676), and a number of and magic reasoning for the establishment of
major European nobles and church figures. While modern science. Mechanistic philosophy devel-
his contacts with Central Europe and Italy were oped partially from the attempt to explain occult
outstanding, as were those with some of the Prot- qualities such as acting at a distance (magnetism,
estant princes in the Empire such as Duke August gravitation). Athanasius Kircher used the interpre-
the Younger of Wolfenb€ uttel (1579 – 1666), he tative frame of Renaissance Platonism to account
did not create strong ties to the scholarship of the for these phenomena. Kircher also propounded
Royal Society with the exception of his corre- universal magnetism (Gorman 2004) and the
spondence with Robert Moray (1608 – 1683). spontaneous generation of plants and animals, as
he believed in panspermia rerum – an emanating
force filling the universe and giving life to every-
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition thing in it (Rowland 2004). Kircher believed in
palingenesis – the growth of plants from their
While striving for universal knowledge, Kircher ashes – as well as in astrological influence on
also strived for universality of Catholic religion. human health, mermaids, griffins, and dragons.
Kircher’s works gained special reception in Cath- While his works often collected up-to-date infor-
olic countries, especially in the Habsburg Empire. mation, they also contained superstition and
fables, which mirrored his naiveté as well as a religions and knowledge, Kircher stressed the
necessity to believe reports he was not able to presence of Nestorian Christians in Chinese his-
verify on his own. All knowledge was, according tory. The first description of Potala Palace in
to Kircher, unified in the idea of the mathesis Lhasa and the first Chinese dictionary and gram-
universalis, which is best described as universal mar of Sanskrit can also be found in China
magnetism integrating the organic as well as the illustrata.
inorganic world. Kircher described the attraction Kircher is sometimes considered to be the
between the sexes as well as the attractive force in founder of Egyptology by publishing the first
the universe by this universal magnetism. Magne- Coptic grammar in the European language and
tism as a principle of unity of contradictions the first vocabulary of Coptic, Arabic, and Latin
became an explanative model for phenomena in in parallel columns, which later helped Champol-
particular sciences – light and shadow in optics or lion (1790 – 1832) to decipher the Rosetta stone.
consonance and dissonance in music. Kircher, Kircher established the connection between
like many of his contemporaries, was interested Greek, Coptic, and Ancient Egyptian as well as
in mechanical instruments and toys of all kinds. the relationship between hieratic and hieroglyphic
He constructed, for example, a laterna magica, script. He also recognized the phonetic value of
Aeolian harp, speaking trumpet, sunflower clock hieroglyphs. However, he considered hieroglyphs
and talking statues. Among the mechanisms were to be occult symbols containing ancient knowl-
also the mathematical or musical organs – instru- edge of prisca sapientia and spoken by Hermes
ments which combinatorially generated mathe- Trismegistus or Moses, which caused his trans-
matical problems and their solutions or musical lations to be false (Stolzenberg 2013). His credit
themes (Vollrath 2002a, b). His universal lan- in this field is mainly in collecting and describing
guage, which would have been not only a tool the Egyptian monuments of his day.
for understanding but also for exact research, As a founder of geology (Mundus
was inspired by the work of Ramón Llull and his subterraneus) he was one of the first to study the
combinatorial art (Ars magna sciendi, 1669). As Earth as a whole and offered a theory of the
Kircher was considered to be an expert in stega- geological processes as being governed by a
nography and coding, in 1666 he received from self-regulating equilibrium of water and fire
his long-time correspondent physician Johannes (Okrusch and Kelber 2002). According to this
Marcus Marci (1595 – 1667) from Prague the theory, the oceanic waters fall through a gigantic
so-called Voynich manuscript – a medieval botan- maelstrom at the North Pole through the Earth’s
ical treatise written in an unknown cipher interior to emerge at the South Pole. The seas are
script – in the hope that Kircher would be able to connected through underground channels in the
decipher it. However, this has not been decoded same manner as the central fire travels through
up until today (Neal 2016; Zandbergen 2016). subterranean routes.
While he remained true to the theory of sym-
pathetic substances in explaining the effectiveness
Innovative and Original Aspects of snakestone for curing poisonings (Baldwin
1995), he suggested the cause of plague to be a
Thanks to his broad range of interests, Kircher is microorganism instead of astrological influence or
often regarded as a founder of newly established moral depravation. Even though he was using a
scientific disciplines. Kircher published in his microscope for his study, he could not see the true
China illustrata botanical, zoological, anthropo- plague agent but rather red and white blood cells
logical, and historical observations of Jesuit mis- (Baldwin 2004). Nevertheless, he suggested
sionaries in China (Kircher 1987; Hsia 2004). hygienic measures to prevent the spread of the
While drawing a link between Chinese script and disease. In case of the miraculous crosses that
hieroglyphs, which resulted from his thesis of appeared on the clothing of people after the erup-
prisca sapientia as a common source of all tion of Vesuvius, he offered as a natural
explanation the special weaving of the Pharaonicae, origo, aetas, vicissitudo, inclinatio; tum
fabric. Kircher often supported his arguments by hieroglyphicae literaturae instauratio, vti per varia
variarum eruditionum, interpretationumque
experiments that were later selected and published difficillimarum specimina, ita nova quoque & insolita
by Johann Stephan Kestler (Physiologia metodo exhibentur. Romae: Sacra Congregatio de Pro-
Kircheriana experimentalis, 1680). paganda Fide.
Kircher, Athanasius. 1641. Magnes sive De arte
magnetica opus tripartitum quo praeterquam quo
universa magnetis natura, eiusque in omnibus artibus
& scientijs usus nova methodo explicetur, e viribus
References quoque & prodigiosis effectibus magneticarum,
aliarumque abditarum naturae motionum in elementis,
Primary Literature (First Editions) lapidibus, plantis & animalibus elucescentium, multa
Imbroll, Salvatore (pseudonym of Athanasius Kircher). hucusque incognita naturae arcane per physica,
1638. Specula Melitensis encyclica, hoc est, Syntagma medica, chymica et mathematica omnis generis
novum instrumentorum physico-mathamaticorum; in experimenta recluduntur. Romae: H. Scheus.
quo Quicquid vel ad Astronomicas, aut Physicas ijs Kircher, Athanasius. 1643. Lingua Aegyptiaca Restituta
adnexas disciplinas, pertinet, novo ordine, metodo, et Opus tripartitum. Quo Linguae coptae sive Idiomatis
summa facilitate iuxta, atq. brevitate per rotas, ciclosq. illius primaeui Aegyptiorum Pharaonici, vetustate
artificiose dispositos, digestum, repraesentatumque temporum paene collapsi, ex abstrusis Arabum
spectator. In gratiam generosissimorum equitum monumentis, plena Instauratio continetur. Cui
Hierosolymitanorum explicate, & in 125 propositiones adnectitur Supplementum earum rerum, quae in
digesta ab illustrissimo, ac reverendissimo F. Salvatore prodromo Copto & opere hoc tripartito, vel omissa,
Imbroll, sacrae religionis Hierosolymitanae priore vel obscurius tradita sunt, nova, & peregrine erudition
generali. Neapoli: S. Roncaglioli. contextum ad instauratae linguae usum speciminis loco
Kestler, Joannes Stephanus (ed.). 1680. Physiologia declarandum. Romae: H. Scheus.
Kircheriana experimentalis, qua summa Kircher, Athanasius. 1645. Ars magna lucis et umbrae in
argumentorum multitudine & varietate naturalium decem libros digesta. Quibus admirandae lucis et
rerum scientia per experimenta physica, mathematica, umbrae in mundo, atque adeo universa natura, vires
medica, chymica, musica, magnetica, mechanica effectusq. uti nova, ita varia novrum reconditiorumque
comprobatur atque stabilitur quam ex vastis operibus speciminum exhibitione, ad varios mortalit usus,
Adm. Revdi. Kircheri extraxit & in hunc ordinem per panduntur, 2 vols. Romae: H. Scheus.
classes redegit Romae, anno M.DC. LXXV. Kircher, Athanasius. 1647. Rituale ecclesiae Aegyptiacae
Amstelodami: J. Jansson van Waesberghe. sive copthtitarum, quod, Iussu Cardinalium
Kircher, Athanasius. 1631. Ars magnesia, Hoc est S. Congregationis de propaganda fide, ex lingua
Disquisitio Bipartita empirica seu experimentalis, Copta et Arabica in Latinam transtulit Athanasius
Physico-Mathematica de Natura, Viribus et prodigiosis Kircherus, s.l..
effectibus magnetis, quam Cum theorematice, tum Kircher, Athanasius. 1650a. Musurgia universalis sive ars
problematice propositam, novaque metodo ac magna consoni et dissoni in X libros digesta. Qua
apodictica seu demonstrativa traditam, variisque universa sonorum doctrina & philosophia, musicaeque
usibus ac diuturna experientiam comprobatam, favete tam theoreticae, quam practicae scientia, summa
Deo, tuebitur. Herbipoli: E. M. Zinck. varietate traditur, 2. vols. Romae: Heirs of
Kircher, Athanasius. 1635. Primitiae gnomonicae F. Corbelleti.
catoptricae hoc est Horologiographiae nouae Kircher, Athanasius. 1650b. Obeliscus Pamphilius, h. e.
specularis, in qua breuiter noua, certa, exacta, et facilis Interpretatio nova & hucusque intentata obelisci
demonstratur horologiorum per reflexi luminis radium hieroglyphici, quem non ita pridem ex veteri
construendorum methodus; Item qua ratione praedicto hippodromo Antonini Caracallae Caesaris, in Agonale
reflexi luminis radio, in qualibet quantumuis irregulari forum transtulit, integritami restituit & in urbis
muri superficie, in interioribus domorum, aliisque locis aeternae ornamentum eremit Innocentius X Pontifex
obscuris, et vmbrosis, cum horologia omnis generis, Maximus in quo post varia aegyptiacae, chaldaicae,
tùm omnium circulorum, qui in primo mobili hebraicae, graecanicae antiquitatis doctrinaeque qua
considerari possunt, proiecturae, et curuae sectorum sacrae, qua profanae monumenta veterum tandem
conorum lineae, processus solis, & lunae in planis theologia, hieroglypicis evoluta symbolis detecta e
indices, aliàque plurima scitu digna repraesentari tenebris in lucem asseritur. Romae: L. Grignani.
possint, varie docentur. Avenione: J. Pilot. Kircher, Athanasius. 1652–1654. Oedipus aegyptiacus.
Kircher, Athanasius. 1636. Prodromus Coptus sive Hoc est Universalis Hieroglyphicae Veterum doctrinae
Aegyptiacus. Ad Eminentiss: Principem temporum iniuria abolice instauratio. Opus ex omni
S.R.E. Cardinalem Franciscum Barberinum in quo orientalium doctrina & sapientia conditum, nec non
Cum linguae Coptæ, siue Aegyptiacæ, quondam
viginti diversarum linguarum authoritate stabilitum, quandam artificiose dispositam; tertia, per
3 Vols., IV Tom. Romae: V. Mascardi. steganographiam impenetrabili scribendi genere
Kircher, Athanasius. 1656. Itinerarium exstaticum quo adoranatam, unius vernaculae lingua subsidio, omni-
mundi opificium id est coelestis expansi, siderumque bus populis & linguis clam, aperte; obscure, & dilucide
tam errantium, quam fixorum natura, vires, scribere & respondere posse docetur, & demonstrantur.
proprietares, singulorumque compositio & structura, In 3 syntagmata distribute in principum gratiam ac
ab infimo telluris globo, usque ad ultima mundi recreationem inventa & in lucem edita. Romae: Varesi.
confinia, per ficti raptus integumentum explorata, Kircher, Athanasius. 1664–1665. Mundus Subterraneus
nova hypothesi exponitur ad veritatem interlocutoribus In XII Libros digestus; Qvo Divinum Subterrestris
Cosmiele et Theodidacto. . .. Romae: V. Mascardi Sec- Mundi Opificium, mira Ergasteriorum Naturae in eo
ond part: 1657. Iter extaticum II. Qui et Mundi distributio, verbo pantamoB’on Protei Regnum,
Subterranei Prodromus dicitur. Quo Geocosmi Universae denique Naturae Majestas & divitiae
opificium sive terrestris globi Structura, una cum summa rerum varietate exponuntur. Abditorum
abditis in ea constitutis arcanioris Naturae effectuum causae acri indagine inquisitae
Reconditorijs, per ficti raptus integumentum exponitur demonstrantur; cognitae per Artis & Naturae
ad veritatem, In III Dialogos distinctum., Romae: conjugium ad humanae vitae necessarium usum vario
V. Mascardi. (Second edition:1660. Iter extaticum experimentorum apparatu, necnon novo modo, &
coeleste, quo mundi opificium, id est, coelestis expandi ratione applicatur, 2.vols. Amsterodami: J. Jansson
siderumque tam errantium quam fixorum natura, vires, van Waesberghe and E. Weyerstraet.
proprietates, singulorumque compositio & struktura, Kircher, Athanasius. 1665a. Iter cometae anni 1664 a
ab infimo telluris globo, usque ad ultima mundi 14 Decemb. usque ad 30 Romae observatum. Ad
confinia, per ficti raptus integumentum explorata, Serenissimum Principem Augustum, Ducem
nova hzpothesi exponitur ad veritatem, Brunsvic. Et Luneburg. Datum Romae 3. Januar 1665.
interlocutoribus Cosmiele et Theodidacto. . . Accessit Kircher, Athanasius. 1665b. Historia Eustachio Mariana,
ejusdem auctoris Iter extaticum terrestre, et Synopsis qua admiranda D. Eustachii, sociorumque vita ex
mundi subterranei. Hac secunda editione variis Authoribus collecta; locus in quo eidem in
praelusionibus & scholiis illustratum. . .ipso autore Monte Vulturello Christus inter cornua Cervi apparuit,
annuente, a P. Gaspare Schotto. . .. Herbipoli: noviter detectus; Ecclesia quoque B. M. Virginis, quam
J. A. Endter and W. Endter. eodem in loco a Constantino Magno conditam,
Kircher, Athanasius. 1658. Scrutinium physico-medicum S. Sylvester Papa I. solemni ritu consecrasse traditur,
contagiosae luis, quae pestis dicitur. Quo origo, summo studio inquiisita, necnon varijs Antiquitatum
causae, signa, prognostica Pestis, nec non insolentes Monumentis illustrata, e densis, quibus hucusque
malignantis Naturae effectus, qui statis temporibus, delituerunt, tenebris, in publicae lucis bonum
coelestium influxum virtute et efficacia, tum in educuntur. Romae: Varesi.
Elementis; tum in epidemijs hominum animatiumque Kircher, Athanasius. 1665c. Arithmologia sive De abditis
morbis elucescunt unà cum appropriatis remediorum numerorum mysteriis, qua Origo, Antiquitas et fabrica
antidotis nova doctrina in lucem eruuntur. Numerorum exponitur; abditae eorundem proprietates
Romae:V. Mascardi. demonstrantur; fontes superstitionum in Amuletorum
Kircher, Athanasius. 1661. Diatribe, De prodigiosis fabrica aperiuntur; denique post Cabalistarum,
crucibus quae tam supra vestes hominum, quam res Arabum, Gnosticorum, aliorumque magicas impietates
alias, non pridem post ultimo incendium Vesuvij montis detectas, vera et licita numerorum mystica significatio
Neapoli comparuerunt. Romae: B. Deversin. ostenditur. Romae: Varesi.
Kircher, Athanasius. 1662. Sententia de unguento Kircher, Athanasius. 1666. Ad Alexandrum VII. Pont. Max.
Armario, in: Sylvester Rattray, Theatrum Obelisci Aegyptiaci nuper inter Isaei Romani rudera
sympatheticum auctum, exhibens varios authores. De effosi interpretatio hieroglyphica. Romae: Varesi.
pulvere sympathetic quidem: Digbaeum, Straussium, Kircher, Athanasius. 1667a. China Monumentis, Qua
Papinium, et Mohyum. De ungento vero armario: Sacris qua Profanis, Nec non variis Naturae & Artis
Goclenium, Robertum, hermontium, Robertum Spectaculis, Aliarumque rerum memorabilium
Fluddum, Beckerum, Borellum, Bartholinum, Servium Argumentis Illustrata, auspiciis Leopold Primi,
Kircherum, Matthum Sennertum, Wechtlerum, Roman., Imper. semper Augusti, Munificentissimi
Nardium, Freitagium, Conringium, Burlinum, Mecaenatis. Amstelodami: J. Jansson van Waesberghe;
Fracastorium, et Weckerum. Praemittitur his Sylvestri Antwerpiae: J. de Meurs.
Rattray, Aditus ad sympatiam et antipathiam. Kircher, Athanasius. 1667b. Magneticum Naturae Reg-
Norimbergae: J. A. Endter and W. Endter. num sive Disceptatio physiologica de triplici in Natura
Kircher, Athanasius. 1663. Polygraphia nova et rerum Magnete juxta triplicem ejusdem Naturae
universalis, ex combinatoria arte detecta. Qua divis gradum digesto Inanimato, Animato, Sensitivo, qua
etiam liguarum quamtumvis imperitus triplici metodo occultae prodigiosarum quarundam motionum vires
prima, vera & reali, sine ulla latentis arcani et proprietates, quae in triplici Naturae Oeconomia
suspicione, manifeste; secunda, per technologiam nonnullis in corporibus noviter detectis observantur,
in apertam lucem eruuntur, et luculentis argumentis, combinata metodo, universálem geometriae, &
experientia duce, demonstrantur. Amstelodami: arithmetricae practiacae summam continens.
J. Jansson van Waesberghe and E. Weyerstraet; (Published together with: Tariffa Kircheriana sive
Romae: De Lazaris. mensa Pythagorica expansa; Ad Matheseos quaesita
Kircher, Athanasius. 1669. Ars magna sciendi in XII libros accommodata per quinque columnas, quarum numeri
digesta qua nova et universali methodo per in fronte sunt multiplicantes et in prima columna
artificiosum combinationum contextum de omni re dicuntur multiplicandi. R. Q. C. ubicumque occurrunt
proposita pluribus et prope infinitis rationibus signifiant Radices, Quadrata, et Cubes in traversa
disputari, omniumque summaria quaedam cognitio numerorum serie. Romae: N. A. Tinassi.
comparari potest. Amstelodami: J. Janssson van Kircher, Athanasius. 1679b. Turris Babel, sive
Waesberghe and widow of E. Weyerstraet. Archontologia qua primo Priscorum post diluvium
Kircher, Athanasius. 1671. Latium. Id Est, Nova & Parallela hominum vita, mores rerumque gestarum magnitudo,
Latii tum Veteris tum Novi Descriptio : qua Quaecunque secundo Turris fabrica civitatumque exstructio,
vel Natura, vel Veterum Romanorum Ingenium confusio linguarum, & inde gentium transmigrationis,
admiranda effecit, Geographico-Historico-Physico cum principalium inde enatorum idiomatum historia,
Ratiocinio; juxta rerum gestarum, Temporumque seriem multiplici eruditione describuntur & explicantur.
exponitur & enucleatur. Amstelodami: J. Jansson van Amstelodami: J. Jansson van Waesberghe.
Waesberghe and heirs of E. Weyerstraet. Kircher, Athanasius. 1684. Vita Admodum Reverendi
Kircher, Athanasius. 1672. Principis Christiani P. Athanasii Kircheri, Societ. Jesu, viri toto orbe
Archetypon politicum sive Sapientia regnatrix; quam celebratissimi. In Fasciculus epistolarum Adm.
Regiis instructam documentis ex antiquo Numismate R. P. Athanasii Kircheri Soc. Jesu, viri in Mathematicis
Honorati Joannii Caroli V imp. & Philippi II aulici et variorum Idiomatum Scientis Celebratissimi,
Caroli Hispaniarum principi magistri nec non Complectentium Materias Philosophico-Mathematico-
Oxonensi ecclesiae antistitis. Symbolicis obvelatam Medicas: Exaratae sunt ad Nobiles Eruditos atq.
integumentis, Amstelodami 1672. (Published together Excellentissimos viros d.D. Lucas Schökios, Seniorem
with: Splendor et Gloria domus Joanniae. & Juniorem, D. Hieronymum Velschium, Trigam
Amstelodami: J. Jansson van Waesberghe). Illustrem Medicorum, D. Ankelium, Theophilum
Kircher, Athanasius. 1673. Phonurgia nova sive Spitzelum, & ad Autorem ipsum. Nunc primo in
Conjugium Mechanico-physicum artis & naturae publicam lucem prodiere. . ., ed. Hieronymus
paranympha phonosophia concinnatum; qua universa Langenmantel. Augusta Vindelicorum: S. Utzschneider.
sonorum natura, proprietas, vires effecruumq Schott, Caspar (ed.). 1660. Pantometrum Kircherianum,
prodigiosorum causae, nova & multiplicit hoc est, instrumentum geometricum novum, a
experimentorum exhibitione enucleantur; celeberrimo viro P. Athanasio Kirchero ante hac
Instrumentorum Acusticorum, machinarumq. ad inventum, nunc decem libris, universam paene
naturae prototypon adaptandarum, tum ad sonos ad practicam geometriam complectentibus explicatum,
remotissima spatia propagandos, tum in abditis perspicuisque demonstrationibus illustratum.
domorum recessibus per occultioris ingenii A Gaspare Schotto. Hoc instrumento, quidquid alii
machinamenta clam palamve sermocinandi modus et variis organis, intricatissimis demonstrationibus,
ratio traditur, tum denique in bellorum tumultibus laboriosissimis calculationibus praestant ad
singularia hujusmodi organorum usus, & praxis per geometriam practicam spectans, summ^ a facilitate,
novam phonologiam describuntur. Campidonae: brevitate, ac certitudine perficitur. Herbipoli:
R. Dreherr. J. G. Schönwetter.
Kircher, Athanasius. 1675. Arca Noë, in tres libros digesta, Schott, Caspar (ed.). 1668. Organum mathematicum
quorum I. De rebus quae ante diluvium, II. De iis, quae Libris IX explicatum a P. Gaspare Schotto, soc. Jesu.
ipso diluvio ejusque duratione, III. De iis, quae post Quo per paucas lime parabios Tabellas, intra cistulam
diluvium a Noëmo gesta sunt. Quae omnia Nova ad modum Organi pneumatici constructam reconditas,
Methodo, nec non Summa Argumentorum varietate, pleraeque Mathematicae Disciplinae, modo novo ac
explicatur, et demonstrantur. Amstelodami: J. Jansson facili traduntur. . .Opus posthumum. Herbipoli:
van Waesberghe. J. A. Endter and W. Endter.
Kircher, Athanasius. 1676. Sphinx Mystagoga sive Dia-
tribe hieroglyphica, qua Mumiae ex Memphiticis
Pyramidum adytis erutae et non ita pridem in Galliam
transmissaejuxta veterum Hieromystarum mentem Translations of Kircher’s Works
intentionemque, plena fide et exacta exhibetur Kircher, Athanasius. 1662. Philosophischer Extract und
interpretatio. Amstelodami: J. Jansson van Auszug aus der Musurgia Universalis. Schwäbisch-
Waesberghe; Romae: V. Mascardi (according to Hall: Hans Reinh. Laidingen.
Sommervogel). Kircher, Athanasius. 1668. Toonneel van China. Amster-
Kircher, Athanasius. 1679a. Tariffa Kircheriana id est dam: J. Janssonius van Waesberghe and widow of
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navorsching der Peste. Rotterdam: Abraham van works of Athanasius Kircher, “Germanus
Waesberghe. incredibilis”“with a selection of his unpublished cor-
Kircher, Athanasius. 1670. La Chine illustrée. Amsterdam: respondence and an annotated translation of his
J. Janssonius van Waesberghe and heirs of autobiography, ed. Elisabeth Fletcher. Leiden/Boston:
E. Weyerstraet. Brill.
Kircher, Athanasius. 1672. Diatribe, Oder Bewei- Gorman, Michael John. 2001. Between demonic and the
ß-Schrifft/Von Wunder-seltsamen Creutzen. In Joco- miraculous: Athanasius Kircher and the baroque cul-
seriorum naturae et artis sive Magiae naturalis ture of machines. In The great art of knowing: The
centuriae tres, ed. Caspar Schott. Frankfurt am Mayn: baroque encyclopedia of Athanasius
Johann Arnold Cholin. Kircher, ed. Daniel Stolzenberg, 59–70. Stanford:
Kircher, Athanasius. 1680. Nat€urliche und Medicinalische Stanford University Libraries.
Durchgr€undung Der laidigen ansteckenden Sucht und Gorman, Michael John. 2004. The angel and the compass.
so genanten Pestilentz. Augspurg: Johann Caspar In Athanasius Kircher. The last man who knew
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L
Lubinus, Eilhard Alternate Names
Born: 24 March 1565, Westerstede (Oldenburg) ▶ Eilert; ▶ Eilhardus; ▶ Lübben; ▶ Lubin
Died: 2 June 1621, Rostock

Biography
Tomáš Nejeschleba
Centre for Renaissance Texts, Department of Lubinus started his university studies in Leipzig
Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Palacky University, and continued at Lutheran universities in Köln,
Olomouc, Czech Republic Helmstedt, Strasbourg, Jena, and Marburg. He
finished his education in Rostock, where he
obtained master degree in 1591. Lubinus spent
Abstract the rest of his academic career at the University
The classicist, cartographer, and Lutheran of Rostock. In 1595, Lubinus became a professor
theologian Eilhard Lubinus taught classical of poetry there and consequently as a classicist
poetry and theology at the University of Ros- published commentaries and paraphrases on Per-
tock. In his philosophical work Phosphorus sius, Juvenal, Horace, Latin translation of Anac-
(Phosphorus, sive de Prima Causa et natura reon, and an anthology of Greek letters. His
mali tractatus hypermetaphysicus. In quo dictionaries of Classical Greek Antiquarius sive
multorum gravissimae & dubitationes tolluntur, priscorum vocabularum interpretatio (Lubinus
& errores deteguntur. Rostochii: Ferberianus, 1594) and Clavis Graecae linguae (Lubinus
1596), Lubinus was influenced by Platonism 1609) became very popular and were republished
and Neoplatonism when he formulated a con- multiple times. In 1605, Lubinus was nominated
ception of theodicy based on the identification as a professor of theology at the University of
of evil with the nothing from which the world Rostock in spite of earlier accusations of Crypto-
was created. Lubinus’s theory was accused of Calvinism and Manicheism being formulated dur-
Manichean dualism considering being and the ing controversies around his philosophical book
nothing, and consequently good and evil, as two Phosphorus (1596, 1601), because of its depen-
primordial principles, although Lubinus refutes dence on the Calvinist theologian Duplessis-
this interpretation by means of a negative spec- Mornay. In Rostock, Lubinus also presided over
ification of evil. His conception forms a back- and later published a series of disputations on
ground for Leibniz’s theory of theodicy. Mornay’s De veritate religionis christianae
(1601–1602). In the realm of theology, Lubinus
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_562-1
2 Lubinus, Eilhard
published commentaries to the New Testament, Amos Comenius. In his textbook Orbis pictus,
especially to Epistles of Apostles, and an influen- Comenius adopted from the Lubinus’ edition the
tial trilingual edition of the New Testament. In the idea of multilingual presentation of topics for
first two decades of the seventeenth century, pedagogical purposes.
Lubinus was further elected a dean of the theolog- Lubinus’ philosophical work Phosphorus was
ical faculty and a chancellor of the University of attacked by a Lutheran theologian Albert Grauer,
Rostock. In this period, he also became known as who accused him of Crypto-Calvinism and
a cartographer due to his maps of the island Rügen Manicheistic heresy. Grauer warned against Pla-
and of Pomerania (Skrycki 2013). tonism, as well as against philosophy leading to
dualism, and advocated for Aristotelianism as a
philosophy in concord with Christianity. Lubinus’
Heritage and Rupture with Tradition, conception was positively accepted by the
Innovative Aspects reformed theologian Bartholomaeus Keckermann
but later was again refuted by Leibniz (Hübener
In the book entitled Phosphorus (Lubinus 1596, 1985) and in the eighteenth century by Jean Paul
1601), Lubinus follows St. Augustine, Plato, Pla- (Schmidt-Biggemann 1973).
tonism, and Neoplatonism in general (Leinkauf
2009). He was also influenced by Philippe de
Mornay’s critique of Aristotelian scholasticism Cross-References
(Schmidt-Biggemann 1973) and by his idea that
the Supreme Being is opposed by the nothing as a ▶ Comenius, Jan Amos
source of evil, in a concordance with the August- ▶ Duplessis-Mornay
inian conception of evil as the absence of good ▶ Evil – Renaissance Philosophy
(Schmidt-Biggemann 1987). ▶ Horace
Lubinus creates an ontological system in ▶ Keckermann, Bartholomaeus
which the Supreme Being as infinite power, iden- ▶ Neoplatonism
tified with good, resting on the highest level,
while the nothing and evil – as an infinite
deficiency – is posited on the lowest level. This References
conception can be called the “ontology of oppo-
site” for the nothing is considered as an absolute Primary Literature
opposite of the being. It has a substantial impact Lubinus, Eilhardus. 1594. Antiquarius sive priscorum et
on Lubinus’ theology and anthropology as well, minus usitatorum vocabularum, brevis ac dilucida
interpretatio ex optimis quibusque latinæ linguæ
since the nothing and evil can be viewed as the
auctoribus depromta, & ordine alphabetico digesta.
precognition of the existence, knowing, and sal- Amstelredami: Zachariam Heyns Bibliopolam.
vation (Leinkauf 2009). Lubinus, Eilhardus. 1595.
As a consequence of his critique on Aristote- Lubinus, Eilhardus. 1596. Phosphorus, sive de Prima
Causa et natura mali tractatus hypermetaphysicus. In
lianism, Lubinus held in the realm of natural phi-
quo multorum gravissimae & dubitationes tolluntur, &
losophy so-called metaphysical atomism errores deteguntur. Rostochii: Ferberianus.
considering space, time, and motion as consisting Lubinus, Eilhardus. 1601. Phosphorus, De Prima Causa &
of indivisible minima (Meier-Oeser 2001). Natura Mali : In quo multorum gravissimae &
dubitationes tolluntur, & errores deteguntur. Iterata
editio, auctior & perfectior. Rostochii: Reusnerus.
Lubinus, Eilhardus. 1601–1602. Disputationes de veritate
Impact and Legacy religionis christianae, ex. P. Mornaei, de eadem libro.
Rostochii.
Lubinus, Eilhardus. 1609. Clavis Graecae linguae, qua
Apart from influential maps of Pomerania, which
facilis, et expeditus ad nobilissimae illius linguae
were reprinted many times, Lubinus’ edition of adyta aditus panditur, iam de integro confecta et
the New Testament had a strong impact on Jan expolita. Rostochii: C. Reusner, L. Alberti haer.
Lubinus, Eilhard 3
Secondary Literature Römische Reich Deutscher Nation Nord- und

Hübener, Wolfgang. 1985. Scientia de aliquo et nihilo. Die Ostmitteleuropa, Grundriss der Geschichte der
historischen Voraussetzungen von Leibniz’ Philosophie, ed. Helmut Holzhey, Wilhelm Schmidt-
Ontologiebegriff. In Zum Geist der Prämoderne, Biggemann, and Vilem Mudroch, 24–26. Basel:
84–100. Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann. Schwabe.
Leinkauf, Thomas. 2009. Einheit und Gegensatz. Der Schmidt-Biggemann, Wilhelm. 1973. Eilhard Lubins
Traktat Phosphorus sive de prima causa et natura mali Begriff des nihil: Etwas zur Geschichte der
des Eilhard von Lubin als Dokument der Gegensatz- neuzeitlichen Theodizee vor Leibniz. Archiv für
Ontologie der Spätrenaissance. In Spätrenaissance- Begriffsgeschichte 17: 177–205.
Philosophie in Deutschland, 1570–1650. Entwürfe Schmidt-Biggemann, Wilhelm. 1987. Lubinus, Eilhard. In
zwischen Humanismus und Konfessionalisierung, Neue Deutsche Biographie, Bd. 15, 263–264. http://
okkulten Traditionen und Schlulmetaphysik, www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd100974325.html.
ed. Martin Mulsow, 87–122. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Accessed 1 Dec 2016.
Verlag. Skrycki, Radosław, ed. 2013. Eilharda Lubinusa podróż
Meier-Oeser, Stephan. 2001. Eilhardus Lubinus. In Die przez Pomorze = Eilhard Lubinus Reise durch Pom-
Philosophie des 17. Jahrhunderts. Bd. 4. Das Heilige mern. Szczecin: Zamek Książąt Pomorskich.
M
Marci, Johannes Marcus philosophy, due to his Prague scholastic oppo-

nent Arriaga, Marcus formulated and justified
Born: 1595 this teaching with greater conceptual accuracy
Died: 1667 than was usual among other hylozoists of
this time.
Katerina Solcova1 and Stanislav Sousedik2
1
Department of Comenius Studies and Early
Modern Intellectual History, Institute of Biography
Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague,
Czech Republic Marcus Marci studied philosophy and theology at
2
Catholic Theological Faculty, Charles Jesuit schools in Olomouc, and then medicine at
University, Prague, Czech Republic the Medical Faculty reestablished after 1620 by
Jesuits in Prague, becoming its first professor. He
was appointed the personal physician of the
Abstract emperor Ferdinand III who also made him an
Marcus Marci was a Czech physician (the per- honorary nobleman. Following his wife’s death
sonal physician of the emperor Ferdinand III) toward the very end of his life, Marcus entered
and polymath who significantly contributed to the Jesuit order, despite his earlier disagreement
medicine, mechanics, optics, and chiefly to with the Jesuit standpoints on several church-
philosophy. As a physician he supported political and mostly philosophical issues. As a
Paracelsian views; he contributed to medicine physician he supported Paracelsian views; he con-
through his studies on the nature of epilepsy tributed significantly to medicine through his
and its treatment. In mathematics, he was studies on the nature of epilepsy and its treatment.
attempting (without remarkable success) to In the field of mechanics, he was one of the first to
deal with the quadrature of a circle. More deal with the impact of elastic spheres. His optical
important are his two writings on natural phi- treatise on the nature of rainbows later attracted
losophy Idearum operatricium idea (Prague the attention of J. W. Goethe, who mentioned the
1635) and Philosophia vetus restituta Pán en work in his Farbenlehre (Goethes Werke, Vol-
pantón sive Philosophia vetus restituta (Prague ume. 14, C.H.Beck, M€unchen, 1989, p. 114ff.).
1662, 2. ed. Leipzig 1676) in which he In mathematics he was attempting (without
defended hylozoism against the Jesuit scholas- remarkable success) to deal with the quadrature
tics of his time. Although hylozoism was not of a circle. He remained in contact with significant
an exceptional conception in Renaissance scholars of his time; fragments of his
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_563-1
2 Marci, Johannes Marcus
correspondence with Juan Caramuel de ideas, the formal causality of which made the
Lobkowitz have been preserved as well as his world to gain quantity, to grow, and to differenti-
letter to Galileo Galilei. ate into various parts resulting in its current form.
The world is thus similar to a huge living organ-
ism, a massive plant. Since such a “plant” is
Philosophy provided as the sole specimen, its development
cannot be known by experience but solely from
In agreement with Peripatetics, in his treatise Scripture (from the Moses hexaemeron etc.). On
Idearum operatricium idea Marcus held that bod- these grounds, Marcus further developed his
ies consist of passive matter (which is, neverthe- astronomical (astrological) theories, his anthro-
less, able to exist separately, in his view) and the pology, as well as the principles of his medicine.
substantial form. To explain how the substantial Although hylozoism was not an exceptional
form can become the formal cause of living sub- conception in Renaissance philosophy, due to his
stances which are nonhomogenous, he presumed Prague scholastic opponent Arriaga who had
that various “ideas” emanate from the substantial declared this doctrine absurd, Marcus formulated
form to shape various parts of a living substance. and justified his teaching with greater accuracy
This disagrees with Peripatetic teaching, of than was usual among other hylozoists of this
course. Marcus’ “ideas” are sort of partial sub- time. The second posthumous edition of Marcus’
stantial forms emanating from the original sub- Philosophia vetus in Leipzig (1676) shows inter-
stantial form in living substance, and shaping its est for his work, even abroad. Dunin Borkowski
individual parts. (Der junge Spinoza, M€unchen 1910, p. 353)
The primary goal of Marcus’ other philosoph- stressed partial similarities between Marcus’ and
ical writing Philosophia vetus restituta was to Spinoza’s views. Nevertheless, in this respect it
defend his doctrine against objections raised by should be taken into account that Marcus, unlike
the Jesuit philosopher and theologian Rodrigo de Spinoza, was a dualist distinguishing between the
Arriaga, Marcus’ Prague University colleague. created world and its creator. Also, he was able to
A further aim was to correct the erroneous inter- incorporate into his conception the teaching of the
pretation of his views found (in Marcus’ opinion) immortal soul in the form of the human body and
in F. M. Van Helmont’s works (+1699). But in even of transubstantiation. Therefore, he
addition to this, Marcus’ original theory dealt with remained all his life in accordance with the eccle-
individual substances from which, in Marcus’ siastic authorities, and his thought was also posi-
former view, the material world consisted. Now, tively reflected by several of Prague’s monastic
in Philosophia vetus restituta, Marcus abandoned scholars.
this pluralistic conviction, asserting that the whole
world is only one sole living substance
(hylozoism). This substance consists of a contin-
References
ual matter and only one substantial form (named
“world soul” at times). Following the Christian
Primary Literature
form of creationism (as well as Hermetic books in Idearum operatricium idea (Prague 1635); Pán en pantón
part, specifically the so-called Poimandros), Mar- sive Philosophia vetus restituta (Prague 1662, 2. ed.
cus depicted the history of the world in a manner Leipzig 1676); Thaumantiae liber de arcu coelesti
(Prague 1648); De longitudie seu differentia inter
calling to mind the Big Bang Theory to a certain
duos meridianos (Prague 1650); Liturgia mentis seu
extent. In the beginning God created the “Chaos” de natura epilepsiae (Regensburg 1678); Othosophia
i.e., a dimensionless being, consisting of matter seu philosophia impulsus universalis (ed. Jakub
and form (soul), a sort of a “semen” which had Dobřensky, Prague 1683). Pokorný, Z., Dopis Jana
Marka Marci Galileimu, in: Sborník pro dějiny
become the starting point of the whole consequent
přírodních věd a techniky 9, Praha 1964, pp 7–19.
development of the cosmos. This development
happened through the gradual emanation of
Marci, Johannes Marcus 3
Secondary Literature Philosophien des Bernardus a s.Theresia, in: Studia

(P. Svobodný ed.), Joannes Marcus Marci. A Seventeeth Comeniana et Historica 16, 1986, Nr
Century Bohemian Polymath, Charles University 32, pp. 101–123; S. Sousedík, Philosophie der fr€
uhen
Press, Prague 1998 (collection containing contributions Neuzeit in den böhmischen Ländern, Stuttgart-Bad
to all branches of Marcus’ scholarly activities and a Constatt 2009, pp. 139–160.
complete bibliography); P. R. Blum, Die zwei
O
Osiander, Andreas instrumentalism in the philosophy of science.

Osiander’s edition of Girolamo Cardano’s
Born: 19 December 1498, Gunzenhausen mathematical work Ars Magna (1545) also
(Bavaria) attracted particular attention.
Died: 17 October 1552, Königsberg (Prussia)

Biography
Tomáš Nejeschleba
Department of Philosophy, Centre for Andreas Osiander studied at the university in
Renaissance Texts, Faculty of Arts, Palacky Ingolstadt where he was influenced by the human-
University, Olomouc, Czech Republic istic principle of exegesis. He never finished his
university studies but did leave with an ongoing
interest in mathematics and Hebrew, including the
Abstract Kabbalah. In 1519 Osiander moved to Nuremberg
Andreas Osiander was a Lutheran theologian where he taught Hebrew and became an ardent
of the first generation of reformers. He was a proponent of Martin Luther’s reformation. As an
preacher and worked as a teacher of Hebrew in acclaimed preacher, he had a substantial influence
Nuremberg. He is renowned in theology due to on the city council. Osiander took part in impor-
his polemics with Martin Luther and tant theological negotiations of his time: at the
Philipp Melanchthon concerning the doctrine Marburg Colloquy in 1529 and at the Diet of
of justification, which seems to be influenced Augsburg in 1530. Due to his resistance to the
by Paracelsus and Renaissance Neoplatonism. Augsburg Interim in 1548, which reestablished
In his exegetical works, Osiander followed the the imperial and papal authority over certain
cabalistic techniques of Giovanni Pico della imperial cities, Osiander was forced to leave
Mirandola and Johannes Reuchlin. His edito- Nuremberg and settled in Prussian Königsberg.
rial works are the most famous. Osiander pre- He died in the midst of his sharp polemics with
pared the first edition of Nicolaus Copernicus’s Lutheran orthodoxy and Philipp Melanchthon.
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
(1543) which he anonymously introduced
with a preface suggesting that the work was Humanism and Christian Kabbalah
more of a mathematical model than a descrip-
tion of reality. Due to this he has been called Osiander adhered to the humanistic maxim “back
either the enemy of science or the founder of an to the sources” (ad fontes) and praised Erasmus of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_564-1
2 Osiander, Andreas
Rotterdam as the most important humanist of his a more accurate calendar which could help to
time. In order to facilitate the exegesis of Holy specify exact conjectures of future events
Scripture, he emphasized the importance of (Wrightsman 1975).
understanding Hebrew. Influenced by his Ingol- Osiander published Copernicus’ book together
stadt teacher of Hebrew, Johannes Böschenstein, with his own but anonymous introduction Ad
and partially also by the Christian cabalist Lectorem. Herein Osiander interprets Copernicus’
Johannes Reuchlin, Osiander used cabalistic tech- heliocentric model as a mathematical hypothesis
niques, such as tetragrammaton, gematria, and whose aim is only the prediction of phenomena.
notarikon in his theological work Harmonica This view is based on the understanding of math-
Evangelica (1537) (Schubert 2014). In this book ematical astronomy aiming to “save the appear-
Osiander applied a musical theoretical concept of ances” (Duhem 1969). A mathematical model can
harmony on exegetical problematic seeking of the be constructed freely since the goal of astronomy
harmony between gospels. is not the description of the world as real but only
Osiander followed Giovanni Pico della the prediction of future events. Osiander created a
Mirandola’s conception of the ancient wisdom hierarchy of sciences according to the certitude of
(prisca sapientia). He quotes Pico’s work knowledge. Astronomy (mathematics) occupied a
Conclusiones and his theses on Kabbalah in par- lower position as it was based on observations and
ticular. Osiander, however, did not develop Pico’s thought not to be able to attain knowledge of real
syncretic philosophy. Christian Kabbalah and causes. Natural philosophy was assigned to the
quotations from Pico helped him to improve the second level as a probable knowledge of its cause
exegesis of the Scripture and to determine events could be ascertained. Only theology stemming
in the future, so-called conjectures. In the book on from revelation was deemed to be able to provide
conjectures (Coniecturae de Ultimis Temporibus knowledge with an absolute degree of certitude.
ac de Fine Mundi, 1544), he may have been Following the “saving appearances” hypothe-
influenced by Pico and by Nicolaus of Cusa sis, Copernicus’ heliocentric theory therefore
concerning the title of the work. Unlike Pico’s should be put on the same level of credibility as
emphasis on anthropocentrism, Osiander the mathematical astronomy of Ptolemy. Coperni-
rethought the Cusanus’ notion of the “coincidence cus’ heliocentrism, however, seems to be more
of opposites” in a theocentric and Christocentric appropriate for astronomical predictions
way. He rejected a spatial center of the universe according to Osiander. This view on heliocentrism
and stressed its temporal center in the historical- provoked a disagreement with Johann Rheticus,
eschatological interpretation of Cusanus’ princi- who was initially asked to edit the book of Coper-
ple (Wrightsman 1975). nicus and held a realistic position concerning
heliocentrism. The debate around Osiander’s
short Ad Lectorem flamed up at the end of the
Editorial Work: Copernicus and Cardano sixteenth century and still continues today.
In 1545 Osiander edited Ars Magna, a mathe-
Entrusted by Nicolaus Copernicus and his pupil matical work by Girolamo Cardano, where the
Johannes Rheticus, Osiander edited in Nuremberg solution of cubic equant was formulated. Cardano
Copernicus’ fundamental work De revolutionibus held Osiander in high esteem as a mathematician
orbium caelestium (1543). According to an older and praised the emendations he made to his text.
interpretation, Osiander’s work on the edition was In addition, Osiander and Cardano allegedly
connected with his astrological interests (Hirsch exchanged horoscopes and astrological notions
1919). This interpretation was later denied (Hirsch 1919) although this is not evidenced in
(Seebass 1967), and his mathematical motivation Osiander’s correspondence (Osiander
with a theological goal is instead suggested as the 1975–1997).
reason for his involvement. A better mathematical
model as constructed by Copernicus could lead to
Osiander, Andreas 3
New Alchemistic Theology seventeenth century, Osiander was often viewed

as an enemy of heliocentrism and of science as
In theology Osiander was an unorthodox follower such. However, in the philosophy of science of the
of Martin Luther and often polemicized with the twentieth century, Osiander became a significant
central reformation figures. The biggest contro- figure due to his so-called instrumentalistic or
versy surrounding Osiander arose from his theory fictionalistic attitude to scientific theories oppos-
of justification. Osiander refuted the “forensic” ing the realistic position. According to instrumen-
justification of sinful man by means of grace and talists a theory provides only a device for
coined an “effective” justification by means of the computing and for predictions of phenomena,
indwelling of God’s word in man. The doctrine of while realists consider a theory as a statement
Christification and divinization of man is based on reflecting reality. In this sense Osiander was
the alchemistic ideas of transformation and perfec- included by Pierre Duhem into the movement of
tion of human nature and displays a similarity with the “savers of phenomena” (Duhem 1969). At the
Paracelsus (Goldammer 1972). It was probably same time, Duhem also considers Osiander’s
formulated by Osiander independently from Para- approach as being common in modern science
celsus although they did share some of the common (Gingerich 1973; Graubard 1964). Concerning
fundamentals present in Neoplatonic philosophy. the philosophy of science, Osiander’s initial role
One influence could have come from his positive in the birth of instrumentalism was emphasized by
attitude to the tradition of Prisca sapientia which Karl Raimund Popper, who advocates realism and
also shares universalistic tendencies with considers instrumentalism as a dogma stemming
Raymundus Lullus in the identity between God’s from Osiander, Bellarmin, and George Berkeley
power and God’s justice (Hirsch 1919). (Popper 1965). Instrumentalism was on the other
hand advocated by Paul Feyerabend with a refer-
ence to Osiander (Feyerabend 1999). Despite of the
Legacy importance of Copernicus and Osiander’s preface
to his work, the application of modern concepts of
Osiander’s theological views advocated by instrumentalism and realism to the sixteenth-
so-called Osiandrists were condemned by century philosophy and science is viewed as anach-
Lutheran orthodoxy after his death, and the author ronistic (Barker and Goldstein 1998).
and his follower were connected with Paracelsian
alchemistic theology and with Weigelianian
heresy.
Cross-References
His methodological approach to Copernicus
was initially accepted by Lutherans in the ▶ Cardano, Girolamo
so-called Melanchthon circle (Westman 1975).
▶ Copernicanism
Later, Giordano Bruno sharply denounced
▶ Copernicus, Nicolaus
Osiander’s view on Copernicus in his dialogue ▶ Paracelsus
Ash Wednesday Supper not knowing the author-
▶ Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni
ship of the preface. The identity of Osiander as the
▶ Rheticus Johann
author of Ad Lectorem was first uncovered by
Johannes Kepler who advocated the realistic
meaning of Copernicus’ heliocentrism. From the
correspondence between Osiander, Rheticus, and References
Copernicus quoted by Kepler (Jardine 1988), it
could be deduced that Osiander’s reason to intro- Primary Literature
Osiander, Andreas d. Ä. 1975–1997. Gesamtausgabe.
duce Copernicus using the preface was to prevent
Edited by Gerhard Müller and Gottfried Seebass.
condemnation by theologians and Aristotelians Vols. 1–10. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd
(Duhem 1969). From the beginning of the Mohn.
4 Osiander, Andreas
Secondary Literature Hirsch, Emanuel. 1919. Die Theologie des Andreas

Barker, Peter A., and Bernard R. Goldstein. 1998. Realism Osiander und ihre geschichtlichen Voraussetzungen.
and instrumentalism in sixteenth century astronomy: Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
A reappraisal. Perspectives on Science 6(3): 232–258. Jardine, Nicholas. 1988. The birth of history and philoso-
Duhem, Pierre Maurice Marie. 1969. To save the phenom- phy of Science: Kepler’s a defence of Tycho against
ena, an essay on the idea of physical theory from Plato Ursus with essays on its provenance and significance.
to Galileo. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Feyerabend, Paul K. 1999. On the limited validity of meth- Popper, Karl Raymund. 1965. Three views concerning
odological rules. In Knowledge, science and relativism, human knowledge. In Conjectures and refutations:
Philosophical papers, ed. John Preston, 137–180. Cam- The growth of scientific knowledge, 97–119. London:
bridge: Cambridge University Press. Routledge.
Gingerich, Owen. 1973. From Copernicus to Kepler: Schubert, Anselm. 2014. Andreas Osiander als Kabbalist.
Heliocentrism as model and as reality. Proceedings of Archiv Für Reformationsgeschichte – Archive for Ref-
the American Philosophical Society 117(6): 513–522. ormation History 105: 30–54.
Goldammer, Kurt. 1972. Paracelsus, Osiander and theo- Seebass, Gottfried. 1967. Das Reformatorische Werk des
logical paracelsism in the middle of the 16th century. In Andreas Osiander. Nürnberg: Verein für Bayerische
Science, medicine and society in the renaissance. Kirchengeschichte.
Essays to honor Walter Pagel, ed. Allen Debus, Westman, Robert S. 1975. The Melanchthon circle,
105–120. London: Heinemann. Rheticus, and the Wittenberg interpretation of the
Graubard, Mark. 1964. Andreas Osiander: Lover of sci- Copernican theory. Isis 66(2): 165–193.
ence or appeaser of its enemies. Science Education 48: Wrightsman, Bruce. 1975. Andreas Osiander’s contribu-
168–187. tion to the Copernican achievement. In The Copernican
achievement, ed. Robert S. Westman, 213–243. Berke-
ley: University of California Press.
P
Pázmány, Péter the Holy Roman Empire, the Hungarian

estates, the Protestants, and the Turks. More
Born: Oradea (Várad), 4 October 1570 than 1200 letters of his, written in Hungarian,
Died: Bratislava (Pozsony), 19 March 1637 Latin, German, and Italian, survived Pázmány
(1910–1911). He founded several ecclesiasti-
Emil Hargittay cal institutions, the most important among
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, them was the Jesuit university in Trnava
Department of Hungarian Literature, Pázmány (1635), which moved to Buda in 1777. Its
Péter Catholic University, Institute of Hungarian legal successors today are Eötvös Loránd Uni-
Language and Literature, Budapest, Hungary versity and Pázmány Péter Catholic University,
both in Budapest. Pázmány did significant
work in prozelytization; he personally
Abstract converted several noble families to Catholic
Péter Pázmány (Oradea, 4 October 1570–Bra- faith, thus Hungary, mostly Protestant in the
tislava, 19 March 1637) was a Jesuit, Arch- end of the sixteenth century, started to become
bishop of Esztergom, cardinal, Hungarian a country with Catholic majority. His literary
writer, theologian, politician, university foun- work is diverse and prolific, containing some
der, and church organizer. He studied in Tran- 40 works in Hungarian and Latin language,
sylvania (Cluj-Napoca, 1583–1588), Poland about 12,000 pages altogether Pázmány
(Krakow, Jaroslaw, 1588–1590), Austria (1894–1904a), Pázmány (1894–1904b). Most
(Vienna, 1590–1593), and Italy (Rome, of them are controversial writings against the
1593–1597). He was professor of philosophy Protestants. In 1605 he published the first Hun-
and theology at Graz University (1597–1607). garian text about the Islamic empire. He com-
His philosophy lectures survived in manu- posed the first surviving Catholic prayer book
scripts (published in the nineteenth century). in Hungarian language (it was printed four
He moved back to Hungary in 1607 and lived times in his life: 1606, 1610, 1625, 1631); he
in Trnava and Bratislava since the medieval translated De imitatione Christi by Thomas a
archbishopric of Esztergom was under Turkish Kempis (1624), and he published his collected
control. He visited Rome several times, in sermons (1636). His main work is Igazságra
1632 as Ferdinand II’s official ambassador to vezérlő Kalauz (Guide to Truth; 1613, 1623,
Pope Urban VIII. As Archbishop of Esztergom 1637), a synthesis of Catholic theology and
(from 1616), then cardinal (from 1629), he apologetics in more than 1000 pages.
played a mediating role between the papacy,

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_565-1
2 Pázmány, Péter
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition himself. In each case, he discusses and quotes
every important earlier standpoints in detail, and
Concerning tradition, Pázmány emphasized the he states his opinion about them based on rational
importance of continuity in his works. He stated arguments. He thinks philosophy important from
that he did not want to invent new things, but he the point of view of theology (philosophia est
would take after his predecessors (he used the ancilla theologiae). Sometimes he takes stands
example of the bee and the spider). This is why against Aristotle and even Saint Thomas Aquinas.
his Hungarian works contain thousands of Latin He refers to Saint Thomas many times in his
quotations, with precise source references. Vari- Dialectica, less in his Physica. He follows mostly
ous layers of earlier cultural tradition can be traced the Jesuit school of Coimbra, especially Fonseca,
in his philosophical and controversial writings, and he refers to his student, Molina, several times.
sermons, and great synthesis, the Kalauz: the In his Dialectica, Thomism is dominant (there are
Bible, ancient Greek and Roman erudition, the many references to Cajetanus), among the Sala-
Church Fathers, Saint Thomas Aquinas, all the manca theologians he prefers the works of Soto,
significant works of controversial literature from Canus, Báñez, and Medina. He mentions the
the sixteenth and seventeenth century as well as works of the Jesuit Toletus many times. However,
decrees of Catholic councils. He cited contempo- he never calls himself a Thomist. In his Physica he
rary Catholic theologians such as Martin pays attention to Renaissance philosophers, as
Azpilcueta, Luis Molina, Petrus Navarrus, well; he delineates their works mostly when
Domingo Soto, Francisco Suarez, Gregor Valen- discussing questions of natural sciences. He refers
cia, and Gabriel Vasquez frequently. Roberto to Zabarella, Cardanus, Fracastoro, Alessandro,
Bellarmino, with whom he corresponded, is an and Francesco Piccolomini many times. He
important referential basis in Kalauz, and two of knows the works of Giovanni Pico della
Pázmány’s controversial writings were connected Mirandola, Bessarion, and Marsilio Ficino. He
to Bellarmino’s controversies: De ecclesiastica presents the views of Copernicus in detail. Of
libertate circa causam Veneti interdicti (1606, later authors, he mentions Lipsius’s book about
Paolo Sarpi and the Venice conflict) and Diatriba Rome. He rarely refers to Plato, it cannot be
theologica (1605, against William Whitaker). In proved that he had a comprehensive knowledge
1627 he defended his Kalauz against Wittenberg of his works, obviously the Aristotelian thinking
theologian Fridericus Balduinus. His university is determining for him. Out of the Jesuit scholas-
lectures held in Graz, which survived because he tics, two works by Francisco Suárez are the most
planned to print them as a philosophy text book, important in Pázmány’s philosophical works, the
are typical works of Jesuit school philosophy. Disputationes Metaphysicae, which is one of the
Pázmány intended to be objective, e.g., he did most important references in Pázmány’s Physica,
not miss reviewing the theory by Copernicus. At and Suárez’s commentary on Aquinas’s Summa.
the beginning of the seventeenth century, he was All in all, Pázmány quotes about 200 authors and
reprimanded by the Jesuits because of his views 280 works. In philosophy, Pázmány seeks final
on the doctrine of grace. verification in rational acceptability, and not in
Pázmány taught for 3 years in Graz Pázmány authorities. He presents the different standpoints
(2003), and some of his lectures survived: exten- with strong critical sense; his decision about their
sive texts on dialectic and physics and a shorter acceptability is based on his personal consider-
one on metaphysics. These works meet the ation and the arguments and proofs brought
requirements of school philosophy and the Jesuit up. He is characterized by eclecticism and some
Ratio studiorum (1586, 1599). He quotes authors sort of voluntarism. His originality and individu-
from the antiquity to his own time, mostly from ality resides in his method of treating the subject
original editions, and not from florilegia. His cur- matter.
riculum is not just a reproduction of a contempo-
rary philosophy course book but is elaborated by
Pázmány, Péter 3
Innovative and Original Aspects Annamária Bretz, Judit Bogár, Emil Hargittay,
Universitas, Budapest.
Pázmány, P. 2003. Grazer philosophische Disputationen
Pázmány’s writings are best characterized as sci- von Péter Pázmány, Faksimile-Ausgabe, edition:
entifically well established. This applies to the Katholische Péter-Pázmány-Universität,
richness of sources used by him as well as the Philosophische Fakultät, Piliscsaba. Hrsg. von Paul
syllogistic way of thinking in his controversies. Richard Blum in Zusammenarbeit mit Emil Hargittay.
He synthetized his earlier works in Kalauz. He
was an outstanding philologist: in order to create a Secondary Literature
perfect text and also to insert his new writings, he Adonyi, J., and I. Maczák. 2005. Pázmány Péter-bibliogr-
áfia: 1598–2004. Piliscsaba.
constantly rewrote his works and published them
Bitskey, I. 2015. Hitvédelem, retorika, reprezentáció
in new editions. Primarily he used rational argu- Pázmány Péter életművében [Apologetics, Rhetoric,
ments, but he also took advantage of the devices Representation in the Works by Péter Pázmány]. Buda-
of emotional effects. He often quoted proverbs pest: Universitas.
Blum, Paul Richard. 1999. Péter Pázmány als Philosophie-
from live language in his Hungarian works.
professor. In Pázmány Péter és kora [P. P. and his
times], ed. Emil Hargittay, 35–49. Piliscsaba: Pázmány
Péter Katolikus Egyetem 2001. [Also in P.R. Blum,
Impact and Legacy Studies on Early Modern Aristotelianism (Leiden/Bos-
ton, 2012), 51–65.]
Blum, Paul Richard. 2013. Péter Pázmánys Seelenlehre. In
Pázmány’s first – schematic – biography was Pázmány Nyomában. Tanulmányok Hargittay Emil
written by a contemporary Jesuit in Munich, Jer- tiszteletére [Following Pázmány. Studies in honor of
emias Drexel. The Jesuit lexicon by Alegambe Emil Hargittay], ed. Alinka Ajkay and Rita Bajáki,
87–94. Vác: Mondat Kft.
(1643) contains his name and work. His influence
Gerencsér, István. 1937. A filozófus Pázmány [Pázmány as
on Hungarian literature is very significant. His the philosopher]. Budapest: Élet.
prayer book and his Kempis translation were Hargittay, E., and I. Maczák. 2011. Pótlások a Pázmány
published many times in the following centuries. Péter bibliográfiához. Acta Historia Litterarum
Hungaricanum 30(2011): 160–183.
The text of his sermons was quoted by lots of
Hargittay, E. 2009. Filológia, eszmetörténet és retorika
preachers in their own semons until the end of Pázmány Péter életművében [Philology, History of
the eighteenth century. Ideas and Rhetoric in the Works by Péter Pázmány].
Budapest: Universitas.
Petrescu, Lucian. 2014. Hylomorphism Versus the Theory
of Elements in Late Aristotelianism: Péter Pázmány
References and the Sixteenth-Century Exegesis of Meteorologica
IV. Vivarium 52(1–2): 147–172.
Primary Literature Szabó, FSJ. 1990. A teológus Pázmány. A grazi „theologia
Pázmány, P. 1894–1904a. Petri cardinalis Pázmány Opera scholastica” Pázmány műveiben [Pázmány, the Theo-
Omnia, I–VI, edition: Budapesti Királyi Magyar logian. The „Theologia Scholastica” of Graz in
Tudományegyetem Hittudományi Kara, Budapest. Pázmány’s Works]. Roma: Detti.
Pázmány, P. 1894–1904b. Pázmány Péter Összes Munkái Szabó, FSJ. 2012. Krisztus és egyháza Pázmány Péter
[Complete Works by Péter Pázmány], I–VII, edition: életművében [Christ and His Church in the Works by
Budapesti Királyi Magyar Tudományegyetem Péter Pázmány]. Budapest: Jézus Társasága
Hittudományi Kara, Budapest. Magyarországi Rendtartománya/L’ Harmattan.
Pázmány, P. 1910–1911. Pázmány Péter Összegyűjtött Tusor, P. 2016. Pázmány, a jezsuita érsek. Kinevezésének
levelei [Péter Pázmány’s Collected Letters], I–I- története 1615–1616 (Mikropolitikai tanulmány)
I. Ed. Hanuy Ferenc, Budapesti Királyi Magyar [Pázmány, the Jesuit Prelate. His Appointment as Pri-
Tudományegyetem Tanácsa, Budapest. mate of Hungary, 1615–1616 (A Micropolitical
Pázmány, P. 2000–. Pázmány Péter Művei [Péter Study)]. Budapest/Rome: Gondolat, Collectanea
Pázmány’s Works] (critical edition, 7 volumes until Vaticana Hungariae.
now). Eds: Alinka Ajkay, Rita Bajáki, Orsolya Báthory,
P
Piccart, Michael Biography
Born: 29. 9. 1574, Nuremberg Son of the pastor and rector of Altdorf University
Johann Piccart and his wife Anna, née
Died: 2. (?) 7. 1620, Altdorf Kirchberger. Piccart studied at Altdorf University
between 1586 and 1592. Doubts about his
Stefan Heßbrüggen-Walter Lutheran orthodoxy stood in the way of a career
School of Philosophy, National Research as pastor or theologian. Suspicions of Socinian-
University Higher School of Economics, ism could not be proven. In 1599, he succeeded
Moscow, Russian Federation his teacher Philipp Scherb (approx. 1555–1605)
as professor of logic at Altdorf University. In
1604, Piccart became professor of poetry, in
Abstract 1613 of metaphysics (Vollhardt 2016 with a com-
Michael Piccart (1574–1620), a student of plete bibliography of Piccart’s writings). He prob-
Philipp Scherb and Nicolaus Taurellus, taught ably taught history as well as politics in private
logic, metaphysics, and poetics at the Univer- lectures (Mährle 2000, 314).
sity of Altdorf since 1599. In logic and meta-
physics, he was mainly a follower of his
teacher Scherb while preparing the ground for Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition
hermeneutic as a part of logic and introducing
political philosophy as an independent sub- Piccart worked in a period in which Lutheran
discipline into the philosophical curriculum. school philosophy in Germany began to establish
His influence on the later evolution of philo- itself as an independent philosophical paradigm
sophical eclecticism is disputed. Kant was (Sparn 2001, 475). He stands in the tradition of his
apparently aware of his work. teachers Philipp Scherb and Nicolaus Taurellus.
His Isagoge in lectionem Aristotelis (Piccart
1605) is regarded by some as the most compre-
hensive summary of the philosophical tenets of
Alternate Names
Altdorf Aristotelianism that is characterized by
logical instrumentalism (Mährle 2000, 219) and
Pickart, Michael; Pickhard, Michael; Picardus,
an understanding of metaphysics as a discipline
Michael; Piccardus, Michael.
based on wisdom and aiming for natural knowl-
edge of God (Sparn 2001, 568–569). Besides
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_566-1
2 Piccart, Michael
metaphysics, Piccart made significant contribu- Cross-References

tions to political philosophy, philosophical meth-
odology, and logic. ▶ Bodin, Jean
▶ Lipsius, Justus
▶ Macchiavelli, Niccolo
▶ Scherb, Philipp
▶ Taurellus, Nicolaus
In logic, Piccart was among the first to distinguish
ancient and modern ways of disputing through
questions (Felipe 2010, 35). In metaphysics he References
further developed the notion of metaphysics as
natural theology, not a general science of being Primary Literature
Kant, Immanuel. 1966. Kant’s gesammelte Schriften,
(Sparn 2001, 568–570) and defended an Handschriftlicher Nachlass, Metaphysik. Vol. 17. Ber-
“ontotheological” conception of the discipline lin: Walter de Gruyter.
(Leinsle 1985, 295). His work on Aristotle’s Pol- Piccart, Michael. 1605. Isagoge in lectionem Aristotelis,
itics is regarded as one of the major contributions hoc est hypotyposis totius philosophiae Aristotelis
[. . .]. Nuremberg: S. Körber.
in the seventeenth century, on the same level of
sophistication as Heinsius and Conring (Dreitzel
1970, 137). In 1607, he presided over the first Secondary Literature
Albrecht, Michael. 1994. Eklektik : eine Begriffsgeschichte
German dissertation dedicated to Lipsius’s politi- mit Hinweisen auf die Philosophie- und Wissenschafts-
cal theory (Oestreich 1969, 130). He directed geschichte. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: fromman-
several dissertations in this area, at least in part holzboog.
on request of his students who often appear as Dreitzel, Horst. 1970. Protestantischer Aristotelismus und
absoluter Staat. Stuttgart: Frank Steiner Verlag.
both author and respondent (Philipp 2014, Felipe, Donald. 2010. Ways of disputing and principia in
214, 257). These texts discuss not only Lipsius, 17th century German disputation handbooks. In
but other contemporary thinkers like Macchiavelli Disputatio 1200–1800: Form, Funktion und Wirkung
and Bodin (Philipp 2014, 257–258). eines Leitmediums universitärer
Wissenskultur, ed. Marion Gindhart and Ursula
Kundert, 33–61. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Leinsle, Ulrich G. 1985. Das Ding und die Methode.
Methodische Konstitutionen und Gegenstand der
Impact and Legacy frühen prot. Metaphysik. Augsburg: Maro Verlag.
Marti, Hanspeter. 2014. Der Altdorfer Sozinianismusstreit
Piccart’s role in the prehistory of the seventeenth im Spiegel akademischer Kleinschriften. In Nürnbergs
Hochschule in Altdorf: Beiträge zur frühneuzeitlichen
and eighteenth century German eclecticism is dis-
Wissenschafts- und Bildungsgeschichte, ed. Hanspeter
puted (see Marti 2014, 183, for an optimistic Marti and Karin Marti-Weissenbach, 158–190.
assessment; Albrecht 1994, 149f, for a more skep- Cologne: Böhlau.
tical evaluation). His comments on hermeneutic Mährle, Wolfgang. 2000. Academia Norica: Wissenschaft
und Bildung an der Nürnberger Hohen Schule in Alt-
method had a significant impact on Dannhauer’s
dorf (1575–1623). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
hermeneutic (Sdzuj 2011, 595; Mährle 2000, Oestreich, Gerhard. 1969. Geist und Gestalt des
225–226, who claims that Piccart’s understanding frühmodernen Staates. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.
of interpretation was rooted in the didactic Philipp, Michael. 2014. auctor et respondens. Die
Entwicklung der Altdorfer Politikwissenschaft unter
methods of his teacher Scherb). Immanuel Kant
dem Philosophen Michael Piccart und ‘seinen’
quotes the title of Piccart’s Isagoge (1605) in a Schülern. In Nürnbergs Hochschule in
handwritten note (Kant 1966, R 4160, 439). This Altdorf, ed. Hanspeter Marti and Karin Marti-
may suggest that he used Piccart as an inspiration Weissenbach, 212–257. Cologne, Weimar: böhlau.
Pozzo, Riccardo. 1989. Kant und das Problem einer
for the distinction of analytic and dialectic (Pozzo
Einleitung in die Logik: ein Beitrag zur Rekonstruktion
1989, 23). der historischen Hintergründe von Kants Logik-Kolleg.
Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang.
Piccart, Michael 3
Sdzuj, Reimund B. 2011. Die allgemeine Hermeneutik der Geschichte der Philosophie, series 4, ed. Helmut
frühen Neuzeit. In Diskurse der Gelehrtenkultur in der Holzhey et al., Vol. 4, 475–587. Basle: Schwabe.
frühen Neuzeit: ein Handbuch, ed. Herbert Jaumann, Vollhardt, Friedrich. 2016. Piccart, Michael (1574–1620).
593–627. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. In: Frühe Neuzeit in Deutschland 1520–1620.
Sparn, Walter. 2001. Die Schulphilosophie in den Literaturwissenschaftliches Verfasserlexikon (vol. 5),
lutherischen Territorien. In Die Philosophie des 17. eds. Wilhelm Kühlmann et al., col. 57–71. Berlin:
Jahrhunderts: Das Heilige Römische Reich Deutscher Walter de Gruyter.
Nation, Nord- und Ostmitteleuropa, Grundriss der
R
Reuchlin, Johannes literature. Moreover, he had already published

a Hebrew grammar and a dictionary (1506), the
Born: 22 February 1455 first one of this scope in Latin in order to allow
Died: 30 June 1522 the Christians to get acquainted with the orig-
inal text of the Bible and with later Jewish
Saverio Campanini exegetical literature. The core of his intellec-
Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, tual interest, though, was the mystical literature
Bologna, Italy of the Kabbalah, which forms the focus of his
two most important works: De verbo mirifico
(1494) and De arte cabalistica (1517), both in
Abstract the form of Platonic dialogues showing that the
Johannes Reuchlin, German humanist, diplo- doctrines and the methods of Kabbalah were in
mat, and Hebraist, is one of the fathers of the best position to demonstrate the truth of
German humanism; he was also a pioneering Christian faith. His intellectual and religious
figure of Jewish studies in the Christian world endeavors, especially the fight against scholas-
and is remembered as the most prominent fig- ticism, the critique of the Vulgate, and the
ure of the intellectual and spiritual movement advocacy of the superior value of the Hebrew
known as Christian Kabbalah, founded by the original of the Old Testament, can be seen as
Italian humanist Giovanni Pico della leading to Protestant Reformation, but, since
Mirandola. The most momentous event of his he refused to adhere to Luther’s reform move-
career was his involvement in the “Battle of the ment, he is best described as a genuine human-
Books” from the year 1509 to his death. ist of the period preceding Reformation, whose
Reuchlin was consulted by the emperor in function as a precursor could be vindicated by
order to produce a legal advice to justify the different trends of the European intellectual
destruction of all the books in Jewish hands, panorama of the subsequent generations.
with the exception of the Bible. He took a
courageous stand opposing the campaign of
undifferentiated persecution of the Jewish lit-
Alternate Names
erature, suggesting that this literary corpus
should rather be studied before any censorship
Capnion
could take place. On the occasion, he pro-
duced, almost incidentally, the first history
and systematical outline of Jewish postbiblical
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_567-1
2 Reuchlin, Johannes
Biography final condemnation in 1520. Only after his death

Reuchlin was rehabilitated. In 1520, he was
Born to Georg and Elisabeth Eck in Pforzheim appointed as an instructor of Greek and Hebrew
(Baden) on 22 February 1455, Johannes Reuchlin at the University of Ingolstadt. He taught the same
studied in Freiburg, Basle, Orléans, and Poitiers subjects at the University of Tübingen in the win-
where he obtained his title of Magister Artium in ter (1521–1522). Reuchlin died in Stuttgart on
1481. Afterwards he was at the service of Duke 30 June 1522.
Eberhard of Württemberg with whom he visited Principal works: Vocabularius breviloquus
Italy in 1482. In Florence, he met Lorenzo de (1478), De verbo mirifico (1494), Scaenica pro-
Medici and some prominent humanists: Angelo gymnasmata (Henno, 1498), Oratio ad
Poliziano, Cristoforo Landino, and Giorgio Alexandrum VI pro Philippo Bavariae Duce
Merula. In Rome, he was instructed in Greek, (1498), Sergius vel Capitis caput (1504), Liber
after a first training in Paris with Hermonymos congestorum de arte praedicandi (1504), Tütsch
of Sparta and with Johannes Argyropulos. In Missive warumb die Juden in ellend sind (1505),
1490, he traveled again to Florence, meeting De rudimentis hebraicis (1506), Augenspiegel
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and to Rome, (1511), In septem psalmos poenitentiales
where he met his acquaintance Ermolao Barbaro. hebraicos interpretatio (1512), Defensio
In 1492, at the imperial court of Linz, he deepened Johannis Reuchlin Pforcensis LL. Doctoris contra
his knowledge of Hebrew under the guidance of calumniatores suos Colonienses (1513), De arte
the physician of the Emperor Maximilian of Habs- cabalistica (1517), and De accentibus et ortho-
burg, Jacob Yehiel Loans. Due to the protection of graphia linguae hebraicae (1518).
the bishop of Worms, Johannes von Dalberg, Translations: Hippocratis, De praeparatione
Reuchlin was introduced to the circle of the hominis (1510); Joseph Ezobi, Lanx argentea
humanists of Heidelberg: Johannes Tritheim, (1512); Athanasii, Epistula ad Marcellinum in
Willibald Pirckheimer, Ulrich Zasius, and Jacob interpretationem psalmorum (1515); and
Wimpfeling. In 1498, he accompanied the Elector Athanasii, De variis quaestionibus (1515).
Palatine, Count Philipp to Rome, where he Editions: Clarorum virorum Epistolae (1514);
pleaded before Pope Alexander VI. During his Illustrium virorum Epistolae (1519); Xenophontis
stay in Rome, which lasted a few months, he Apologia Socratis, Agesilaus, Hieron (1529); and
acquired many precious Hebrew books and stud- Greciae excellentium oratorum Aeschinis et
ied under the guidance of Obadiah Sforno, philos- Demosthenis orationes adversariae (1522).
opher and exegete. In 1500, he was appointed Johannes Reuchlin, though distinguished in
triumvir of the Swabian League and switched many fields, was not a philosopher in the profes-
from the diplomatic to the juridical career. As an sional meaning of the word nor in any metaphor-
expert on Hebrew literature, he was consulted in ical sense. Nonetheless, he deserves an enduring
1509 by the baptized Jew Johannes Pfefferkorn place in the hall of fame of Renaissance thought
who, with the support of the Dominicans of for at least three reasons: the rediscovery of
Cologne, was campaigning for the destruction of Hebrew, Jewish literature, and Kabbalah for a
all the books (with the sole exception of the Bible) Christian readership. Reuchlin was not merely a
in the possession of the Jews living in the imperial faithful pupil of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: in
territories. He was among the consultants of the his footsteps, he had the ambition to complete
emperor, who collected expert opinions in order to Pico’s only sketched project to win Jewish Kab-
proceed with the campaign initiated by balah for the humanist movement. His first essay
Pfefferkorn but his Gutachten was decidedly of considerable extent was the dialogue among
against the undifferentiated destruction of Jewish three interlocutors bearing the title De verbo
literature. This courageous decision (together mirifico (Basle 1494). It contains already,
with some imprudence in his polemical language) although in a less developed form, all the essential
brought to a long series of processes and to his themes of the literary production of the mature
Reuchlin, Johannes 3
Reuchlin, who had a considerable evolution but philosophical option, the lowest, but character-
maintained his fundamental attitude and the intu- ized by the curiosity which leads to unqualified
itions of his younger years. Deeply persuaded of “religion,” interpreted in the second book by the
the values and the stylistic paradigms of Italian Jew Baruchias, whose function is to interpret
Humanism, Reuchlin sought, already in this early Judaism, but in a new form, not structured
“kabbalistic” work, to fill with a tangible meaning according to the traditional stereotypes of stub-
the rapid allusions of the Conclusiones (1486) by bornness, obstinacy, and blindness, but as the heir
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. On the basis of a to a venerable tradition which potentially contains
still quite primitive knowledge of Hebrew, Reuch- the highest truth and can access ultimate salvation,
lin attempted the construction of a discursive provided that it accepts Jesus as the solution of
model which could explain some kabbalistic the- every enigma. The protagonist of the third book is
ses of the Mirandulan. He focused his discussion Capnion, bearing the humanist Latinized name of
on the typically humanistic persuasion of the cen- Johannes Reuchlin himself (imagined as derived
trality of the “word” (verbum), and he tried to from “Rauch,” smoke, through a diminutive of the
apply it to Christianity, explaining that the most Greek “kapnos” with the same meaning). He com-
powerful word, the wonder-working utterance, is bined the philosophical curiosity of the first inter-
the name of Jesus. One of the most contested locutor with the religious tradition of the second,
theses of the Mirandulan, pointed to magic, offering the definitive synthesis of Christianity,
together with Kabbalah, as the principal disci- understood as perfect realization and ultimate
plines which would prove the divinity of Christ. answer to the questions of the philosopher as
Reuchlin interprets this conclusion, avoiding the well as to the obscure intricacies of kabbalistic
theologically problematic black magic, as a refer- tradition. Reuchlin’s Christianity is the focus
ence to the efficiency of the Word, combining the toward which all sincere aspirations to truth con-
virtues of the evangelical Logos with the power of verge, in other words his is a pious philosophy,
the Hebrew biblical Name. Jesus’ name represents striving to achieve the confirmation of Christian-
thus a progress, granted by God’s mercifulness, in ity through kabbalistic methods. Shortly after Pico
comparison to the ineffable Tetragramm, toward had been rehabilitated from the accusations of
the redemption of the entire humanity. By heresy by Pope Alexander VI in 1493, Reuchlin
inserting an S into the Tetragramm, the name revives some suggestions of the theses, in partic-
IHSUH is obtained, which makes the divine ular the idea that the name of Jesus, which actually
name pronounceable, actualizing its power for was for Pico Yeshu, in accordance with the Jewish
the believers in Jesus, as if the real name of the tradition, containing a Shin (S), was in itself the
Savior would be revealed or rediscovered after kabbalistic proof of the Christian dogma of Jesus’
centuries of oblivion. It would be far from correct, humanity and divinity. Now, since the public
however, to reduce Reuchlin’s discovery to the discussion of the theses had been prohibited and
magical dimension of the knowledge of the true Pico had received a formal interdiction to explain
name of Jesus. His most original contribution was himself, Reuchlin advances his own conjectures,
rather, following Pico’s lead, to be sought in the creating a new blend of Christian Kabbalah, not
worship of the divine word and in the develop- only interpreting Pico but also presenting an inno-
ment of the exegetical methods allowing a Jewish vative and creative approach to Pico’s slogans,
confirmation of Christianity. The very structure of with a rather peculiar “German” bent, since
the De verbo mirifico, as well as in the later De Nicolaus Cusanus had suggested, in one of his
arte cabalistica, serves precisely the apologetic sermons, the idea that the letter S, peculiar of
function of letting truth emerge after and beyond Jesus’ name, could make pronounceable the inef-
the choices and the interests of the participating fable Tetragramm. The book, quoted with respect
voices: the Epicurean philosopher Sidonius, not to Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples, in his Psalterium
by chance at the center of the first book (of the Quincuplex, established Reuchlin, way beyond
three making up the work), represents the his real merits, as one of the foremost experts of
Hebrew literature, in particular of its most recon- of Hebrew literature promoted by the convert
dite meanders, which were becoming, at the Johannes Pfefferkorn found a benevolent ear in
beginning of the XVI century, object of a growing Emperor Maximilian I, who supported it under
curiosity among the Christians as a possible way certain conditions: he most certainly saw in it an
of neutralizing the neo-pagan inclination of the occasion to refill the imperial treasure,
humanist movement. Hebrew, as a language and impoverished by continuous military campaigns,
as a “forgotten” tradition to be rediscovered in the with the perspective of the fines which would
“ad fontes” humanistic race, remained at the cen- ensue from a generalized seizure of books in the
ter of Reuchlin’s interests and publishing activity, possession of the Jews in the Holy Roman terri-
becoming the cause of his glory but also of his tories. As a matter of course, his objective could
judiciary suffering. The reactions of the readers of not have been the undifferentiated destruction of
the De verbo mirifico, documented by the corre- the totality of these books, which was favored by
spondence, show clearly that his essay found a the convert and the watchdogs of the orthodoxy
largely benevolent and remarkably curious read- and would have led to their unmitigated triumph,
ership but the majority could not grasp thoroughly but which at the same time would have had no
his intentions, due to technical problems, since the significant “outcomes” from a more material,
Basle edition did not have Hebrew fonts, and also strictly fiscal point of view. Reuchlin’s expert
due to his intentional esotericism in tone. Reuch- opinion on this delicate matter could not have
lin gave only partial explanations of the divine been ignored and, as it is well known, it was
names hidden in the verses of the Psalms symbol- decidedly negative. Although favorable to the
izing the Shem ha-meforash, the explicit and censorship and control, especially of blasphemous
miraculous name of God, making prayer effective books and libels against Christianity, such as the
through the intercession of the angels. He under- notorious Sefer nitztzachon and Toledot Yeshu,
stood very well that, in order to realize his project Reuchlin was sternly opposed to an indiscriminate
of Christianizing the Kabbalah, two preliminary destruction of the Jewish books. He was rather
conditions had to be fulfilled. On the one hand, his inclined to consider them, with few exceptions,
knowledge of Hebrew and his Hebrew library and with different degrees, a most precious poten-
needed to be significantly enriched. Moreover, tial asset for the Christians, not only nor primarily
the knowledge of Hebrew of his readers had also as an apologetic tool for inducing conversion, but
to be improved since his kabbalistic reasoning in in order to retrieve the forgotten Jewish root of
Latin translation makes almost no sense at all. In Christianity and, in perspective, to complete with
order to achieve this ambitious double target, he Hebrew an ideal triad of humanistic languages
went first to Rome, where he took lessons of associating with the already established Latin
Hebrew at an advanced level from Obadiah and Greek. Reuchlin’s advice, although quite iso-
Sforno and he enriched enormously his Hebrew lated and bitterly opposed by the suspicious
library. Then, in 1506, he published the first Dominicans, happened to coincide with the impe-
(if one excepts the modest primer written by rial interests and prevailed, although only in the
Konrad Pellikan, which appeared two years ear- judicial matter of the seized Hebrew books. The
lier) systematic grammar of the Hebrew language quick formation of two parties the Reuchlinists
in Latin with a pioneering dictionary, the De and the so-called Obscurantists (the latter name,
rudimentis hebraicis, supplemented, twelve years derived from the pro-Reuchlin satire Epistulae
later, by the De accentibus et orthographia lin- obscurorum virorum) started to delineate the
guae Hebraicae (1518): the basic tools for teach- front lines which will soon divide the German
ing Hebrew at the university level were thus laid. lands on the much more explosive theme of the
The vicissitudes, on the other hand, were caused reformation of the church. The massive usage of
by the very same emergence of Reuchlin as the the press, with the publication and capillary diffu-
outstanding expert for Hebrew literature among sion of pamphlets, satires, flyers, etc., shows
the Christians. The vast campaign of persecution clearly the new dimensions of the debate, which,
Reuchlin, Johannes 5
such as in the case of Ulrich von Hutten, went methods, techniques, and contents of kabbalistic
quickly far beyond the original frame. The per- wisdom, he is delivering the key to discover and
sonal, decidedly slanderous confrontation with understand the true name of Jesus according to
Pfefferkorn was certainly the immediate cause Kabbalah. At odds with the De verbo mirifico,
for Reuchlin’s ultimate condemnation in 1520, anyway, the later dialogue presents a massive
but it is evident that the general context of unease usage of kabbalistic texts (or of medieval Jewish
in the church, the first breaks in Christianity, and texts, such as the Guide of the Perplexed which, in
the dangerous extension of the terms of the dis- accord with Pico della Mirandola who in turn
cussion convinced the Pope and the Cardinals of followed Abraham Abulafia, Reuchlin ascribed
the necessity of an exemplary punishment. One to the core of Kabbalah), in the original Hebrew
element deserves a special mention, since it forms and in Latin translation. The consistent practice of
the most important legacy of Reuchlin’s argu- analogy to establish vast resemblances between
ment, first in defense of the Jewish books and Christianity and Judaism, the delineation of the
then in self-defense, is his strictly juridical argu- contents of a “perennial philosophy,” and the
ment, even more solid (in principle) than the cul- sustained polemics against scholasticism in favor
tural appeal held in the most general terms, of a Platonic, Dionysian, and Cusanian hermeneu-
according to which Jewish books are an intellec- tics make Reuchlin the principal exponent of the
tual heritage of importance for the Christians too. transplantation of Florentine humanism with
Juridically, Reuchlin argues that since Emperor some corrections, inspired by Pico in the German
Caracalla’s edict, the Jews are fellow citizens intellectual climate. Reformation and the religious
(concives), and they share with the Christians, in struggles which will soon tear apart Germany and
front of the secular power, the same rights: among the Christian west will rapidly destroy his project
others the right to see their property respected, as of religious and intellectual renewal, whereas his
long as it is not demonstrated that they host in enthusiasm for Kabbalah, the key, in his concep-
their libraries libels or blasphemous books. tion, to reconstruct the lost Pythagorean
Within this frame, Christian-Jewish relations mysteriosophy, will wreck in the XVII century,
could find, in Reuchlin’s vision, a new dimension. under the attack of critical philology (showing
From a theological point of view, in fact, he did that the supposed antiquity of kabbalistic doc-
not differ very much from his Dominican oppo- trines was largely fictitious), a discipline he him-
nents, but on a juridical basis, Reuchlin identified self had contributed to establish with his
a possible common ground on which cultural bibliographic rigor and with his determination in
exchanges would be mutually beneficial. With reaching the authentic sources of the Christian
the publication of the De arte cabalistica (1517), synthesis, especially the Jewish ones. Neverthe-
Reuchlin reached the apex of his intellectual less, it was Reuchlin, far more than Pico, the true
development and could reap the fruits of his father of modern Jewish studies, who established
patient strategy which, almost incidentally, con- the knowledge of Hebrew as the precondition for
stituted the foundation of modern Jewish studies. any serious study of Judaism and as a peculiar
Once again a dialogue among three interlocutors, intellectual interest for Christians. Moreover, his
in this later work, there is no representative of the name will always be mentioned whenever there
author’s voice and not even a voice representing will be the need for a plaidoyer in favor of civil
explicitly Christianity. The three participants rep- coexistence between Jews and Christians and also
resent each a philosophical or religious position: whenever, as it is periodically the case, one will
from the Pythagorean Philolaos to the eclectic, want to understand Jewish esoteric tradition and
singular figure of baptized Moslem, bearing the the uncanny family resemblance it evokes among
curious name of Marranus, to the authentic pro- the Christians in an almost irresistible way, be it as
tagonist of the trialogue: Simon, the Jewish repulsion or as powerful fascination.
Kabbalist who, in the heat of the debate, appears
inadvertent of the fact that, while explaining
References christlichen Kabbala. In Reuchlins Freunde und Gegner.

Kommunikative Konstellationen eines frühneuzeitlichen
Medienereignisses, ed. W. Kühlmann, 69–88. Ostfildern:
Modern Editions and Translations Thorbecke.
J. Reuchlin. Sämtliche Werke, I,1: De verbo mirifico. Das Campanini, S. 2013. Johannes Reuchlin und die Anfänge
wundertätige Wort; II,1: De arte cabalistica libri tres. der christlichen Kabbala. In Johannes Reuchlin und der
Die Kabbalistik; IV,1: Schriften zum Bücherstreit, Judenbücherstreit, ed. S. Lorenz D. Mertens, 107–117.
Stuttgart – Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog Ostfildern: Thorbecke.
1996–2010; translations of the de arte cabalistica Campanini, S. 2015. Das Hebräische in Reuchlins Werk. In
(French: La Kabbale, F. Secret, Paris 1973, Aubier Transcending words. The language of religious contact
Montaigne, 19952, Archè - Edidit; English: On the Art between Buddhists, Christians, Jews and Muslims in
of Kabbalah, M. and S. Goodman, New York: Abaris premodern times, ed. G. Hasselhoff and K.M. Stunkel,
Books 1983, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln 207–215. Bochum: Verlag Dieter Winkler.
19932, Italian: L’arte cabbalistica, G. Busi – Geiger, L. 1871. Johannes Reuchlin, sein Leben und seine
S. Campanini, Firenze: Opus Libri 1995, 19962); edi- Werke. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot.
tion of the correspondence, edited by M. Dall’Asta, Posset, F. 2015. Johannes Reuchlin: A theological
G. Dörner, and S. Rhein: J. Reuchlin, Briefwechsel, biography. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.
I 1477–1505; II 1506–1513; III, 1514–1517; IV, Price, D.H. 2011. Johannes Reuchlin and the campaign to
1518–1522, Frommann - Holzboog. Stuttgart – Bad destroy Jewish books. Oxford: Oxford University
Cannstatt 1999–2013; German translation of the corre- Press.
spondence, edited by A. Weh, G. Burkard and Rummel, E. 2002. The case against Johannes Reuchlin.
M. Dall’Asta, voll. I–IV, Frommann - Holzboog. religious and social controversy in sixteenth century
Stuttgart – Bad Cannstatt 2000–2011. Germany. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
The series «Pforzheimer Reuchlinschriften» 1–12
Secondary Literature (Konstanz – Stuttgart – Sigmaringen – Ostfildern:
Brod, M. 1965. Johannes Reuchlin und sein Kampf. Stuttgart: Thorbecke. 1961–2010).
Kohlhammer. Zika, C. 2003. Exorcising our demons. Magic, witchcraft
Campanini, S. 2010. Quasi post vindemias racemos and visual culture in early modern Europe. Leiden/
colligens. Pietro Galatino und seine Verteidigung der Boston: Brill.
S
Sturm, Johann Alternate Names
Born: 1 October 1507, Schleiden ▶ Ioannes Sturmius; ▶ Jean Sturm; ▶ Johannes

Sturm
Died: 3 March 1589, Strasbourg
Andrea Strazzoni Biography

National Research University Higher School of
Economics, Moscow, Russia Johann Sturm was born in 1507 in Schleiden, in
Gotha Research Centre, University and Research the region of Eifel. After having received his first
Library, Erfurt/Gotha, Germany education in the house of the count Dietrich of
Manderscheid, in 1521 he moved to the Gymna-
sium of Saint Jerome of Liège, where he studied
Abstract Latin, Greek, the logic of Aristotle, mathematics,
and some elements of theology, in accordance
Johann Sturm was a Reformed pedagogic innova- with a division of subjects he will assume as a
tor, who established a teaching curriculum for model for his Gymnasium (Tinsley 1989, 24). In
gymnasia in order to provide an education based 1524 he moved to Leuven, where he attended the
on the humanist ideals and on evangelical piety. lectures of Latin of Conrad Goclenius and of
This model described the contents and the method Greek of Rutger Rescius (with whom Sturm asso-
of learning for boys from 7 to 16 years and ciated as bookseller) and obtained his M.A. In
consisted mainly of the study of grammar, rhe- 1528 he moved to Strasbourg and followed the
toric, and dialectic (based on Cicero and on classic lectures of Martin Bucer, while in 1529 he moved
literature). His method of learning was based on to Paris, starting to study medicine and lecturing at
memorization and imitation rather than on the the Collége Royal from 1534, under the protection
understanding of formal rules of reasoning. This of Guillaume Baudé. His lectures were on
model, rather than to introduce students to reli- Cicero’s Partitiones oratoriae (Sturm 1546) and
gion, was intended to prepare them to the auton- on the dialectic of Rudolf Agricola and were
omous understanding of Scripture. Sturm was attended by Petrus Ramus. Probably under the
important also as he contributed to the innovation influence of the Swiss physician Ludwig Carinus,
of biography as a genre, which he intended as he embraced the Reform. After the failure of the
more realistic than the typified premodern reconciliation between the French King Francis
biographies. I and the Protestants, Sturm left Paris in December
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_569-1
2 Sturm, Johann
1536 to Strasbourg, governed by the stettmeister Sallust, and the works of Cicero, whose civic
Jakob Sturm (not related with Johann). Jakob orientation makes him the foremost author to be
Sturm had supported the Reformation in Stras- studied (see Cicero 1540 and 1541). In the fifth
bourg since 1524, and in 1530 the town became they begin with Greek, and in the sixth they learn
part of the Tetrapolitan Confession, as well as of Aristotle’s logic and poetics, together with other
the Lutheran Confessio Augustana (1531) (Brady Greek authors as Homer and Demosthenes. In the
1995). Accordingly, an educational reform con- eight they study Hebrew, while in the ninth year
sistent with Reform had to be initiated: from 1524 they start with mathematics and astrology. To this
the Lutheran theologian and botanist Otto cycle, a 5-year-long series of lectures on law,
Brunfels assumed the direction the Strasbourg medicine, and theology, as well as on philosophy,
Latin school, while at the cathedral Bucer gave literature, and oratory follow, in order to complete
lectures on the New Testament. For the end of the education of boys until the age of 21 (Tinsley
providing an education to the younger, Johann 1989; Sturm 2009a; Mehl 2009). As to Sturm’s
Sturm was granted to found and direct the Gym- teaching method, it is based on memorization and
nasium Illustre (1538), whose pedagogic mani- on the imitation of models, disputations, and dec-
festo was his De literarum ludis aperiendis lamations, which replaced the teaching of the
(Sturm 1538a and 2007). Eventually, the Emperor deductive apparatus for logic. This approach is
Maximilian transformed the Gymnasium into an borrowed from the dialectic of Agricola (Sturm
Academy in 1566–1567. In 1564 Sturm set the 1539) and from Melanchthon’s use of rhetorical
program for a gymnasium in Lauingen, for which loci communes (Mesnard 1966; Tinsley 1989,
he wrote the Scholae Lauinganae (1565). How- 30–31). As to the relation of education and reli-
ever, since the 1560s, he suffered attacks from the gion, Sturm restricts religious education to the
Lutheran pastor Johannes Pappus, who addressed reading of the history of Christ and Moses, as
his supposed Calvinist theology (Kittelson 1977; the humanist education he was proposing had
Schindling 1977, 132–140) and led him to lose his only to enable students to read Scripture, thus
position in 1581. He then retired in Northeim and acquiring “literary piety” (Mesnard 1965). This
died in Strasbourg in 1589 (Schmidt 1855; model was refined in his further writings, as in his
Tinsley 1989, 23–26; Schröder 2009, 12–22). Scholae Luiningae, the program is accelerated
into five classes, although maintaining the con-
tents of the Strasbourg Gymnasium grades (Sturm
Innovative and Original Aspects 2009b; Schindling 2009), while, in the Classicae
Epistolae, (1565) a tenth grade is added to the
Sturm was a humanist – i.e., a scholar devoting program and the focus is given mostly to the
himself to the studia humanitatis (i.e., mainly to learning of Latin and classic literature (Sturm
grammar and rhetoric) (Tinsley 1989, 24; 1938; Tinsley 1989, 35–36; Spitz and Tinsley
Kristeller 1955, 9–11; Sturm 1538b, 1574, 1575, 1995; Schröder 2009, 371–375). The influence
1576) – and a pedagogical innovator. His main of the pedagogy of Sturm spread, from Germany
aim was to provide a reform of high education and Alsace – where it coexisted with the Jesuit
based on the humanist ideal and on Christian faith colleges (Negruzzo 2005) – to England, where
(Schröder 2009, 9–14), i.e., to pursue a “wise and Sturm’s pedagogy was praised in the Schoolmas-
eloquent piety.” In his De literarum ludis, he out- ter of Roger Ascham (Armytage 2012, 2–4), and
lines an educational program based on the study to Poland-Lithuania, Bohemia, and Riga (Pietrzyk
of the classics and covering the disciplines of the 2009; Holý 2009; Klöker 2009). Finally, Sturm is
trivium: grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic important as a founder of modern genre of biog-
(including logic). It is divided into nine grades, raphy, more realistic and less morally oriented and
for boys from 7 to 16 years. In the first year, typified than premodern biographies, signaled for
students study Cicero’s letters, while in the next the first time by Jakob Burckhardt (Burkhardt
ones Virgil, Horace, Terence, Plautus, Caesar, and 1990) and exemplified by Sturm’s Beati Rhenani
Sturm, Johann 3
Vita (1551). The life of Beatus Rhenanus Ed. and Trans. of various pedagogical texts of Sturm:
(1484–1547) is described in contrast with Sturm’s Advice on what organization to give to the Gymnasium
in Strasbourg (1538); The correct opening of elemen-
humanist ideal of man, devoted both to letters and tary schools of letters (1538); On the lost art of speak-
to civic life, which was neglected by Beatus ing (1538); Liberally educated nobility, for the Werter
(Weiss 1981; Backus 2009). Brothers (1549); On the education of princes (1551);
Concerning the english nobility, for Roger Ascham
(1551); The Lauingen school (1565); Classical letters
(1565); Academic letters (1569).
Cross-References Sturm, Johann. 1538a. De literarum ludis recte aperiendis.
Strasbourg: apud Vuendelinum Rihelium.
Sturm, Johann. 1538b. De amissa dicendi ratione. Stras-
▶ Academies bourg: apud Vuendelinum Rihelium.
▶ Ascham, Roger Sturm, Johann. 1539. Partitionum dialecticarum libri duo.
▶ Budé, Guillaume Strasbourg: in aedibus Wendelini Rihelii.
Sturm, Johann. 1546. In partitiones oratorias Ciceronis.
▶ Burckhardt, Jacob
Paris: excudebat Christianus Wechelus.
▶ Calvinism – Renaissance Philosophy Sturm, Johann. 1551. Beati Rhenani vita. In Beati Rhenani
▶ Ciceronianism Rerum Germanicarum libri tres, ed. J. Sturm, iv–xii
▶ Confessio Augustana (unnumbered). Basel: s.n.
Sturm, Johann. 1565. Scholae Lauinganae. Lauingen:
▶ Dialectic – Renaissance Philosophy
excudebat Emanuel Saltzer.
▶ Education – Renaissance Philosophy Sturm, Johann. 1574. De imitatione oratoria libri tres.
▶ Eloquence Strasbourg: imprimebat Bernhardus Iobinus.
▶ Horace (In the Renaissance) Sturm, Johann. 1575. De exercitationibus rhetoricis liber
academicus. Strasbourg: excudebat Nicolaus Vvyriot.
▶ Humanism – Renaissance Philosophy
Sturm, Johann. 1938. Classicae epistolae sive scholae
▶ Humanism, Civic argentinenses restitutae. Ed. and Trans. J. Ron. Paris/
▶ Latin Strasbourg: Rouz. 1st edition 1565. Strasbourg:
▶ Logic – Renaissance Philosophy excudebat I. Rihelius.
Sturm, Johann. 2007. De la bonne manière d’ouvrir des
▶ Melanchthon, Philipp
écoles de Lettres. In Facsimile reproduction and trans-
▶ Plato (In the Renaissance) lation of Sturm 1538, ed. G. Lagarrigue and M. Arnold.
▶ Poetics Strasbourg: Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg.
▶ Printing and Publishing Sturm, Johann. 2009a. De literarum ludis recte aperiendis/
Über die fachgerechte Eröffnung von Schulen f€ ur
▶ Reformation – Renaissance Philosophy
höhere Bildung. In Johannes Sturm (1507–-
▶ Rhetoric (In the Renaissance) 1589) – P€ adagoge der Reformation. Zwei
▶ Trivium Schulschriften aus Anlass seines 500.
▶ Virgil (In the Renaissance) Geburtstages, ed. B. Schröder, Trans. E. Eckel and
H.-C. Schröter, 71–229. Jena: IKS-Verlag. Based on
the 1557 edition. Strasbourg: apud Rihelios Fr.
Sturm, Johann. 2009b. Scholae lauinganae/Die Schule von
References Lauingen. In Johannes Sturm (1507–1589) – P€ adagoge
der Reformation. Zwei Schulschriften aus Anlass seines
500. Geburtstages, ed. B. Schröder, Trans. E. Eckel and
Primary Literature H.-C. Schröter, 231–369. Jena: IKS-Verlag.
Backus, Irena. 2009. Sturm's Life of Beatus Rhenanus. 1st ed. 1565. Lauingen: excudebat Emanuel Saltzer.
Between laudatio and history. In Johannes Sturm Sturm, Johann, and Christophorus Thretius. 1576. De
(1507–1589). Rhetor, P€adagoge und Diplomat, ed. M. universa ratione elocutionis rhetoricae libri quatuor.
Arnold, 61–76. T€ubingen: Mohr Siebeck. Strasbourg: per Bernhardum Iobinum.
Cicero, Marcus Tullius. 1540. Ciceronis orationum
volumina tria [. . .] emendata a Ioan. Sturmio. Stras-
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emendatum a Ioan. Sturmio. Strasbourg: s.n. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Spitz, Lewis W. and Tinsley, Barbara Sher. 1995. Johann Brady, Thomas Allan. 1995. Protestant politics: Jacob
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learning. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press.
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Burckhardt, Jacob. 1990. The civilization of the renais- Mesnard, Pierre. 1966. The Pedagogy of Johann Sturm
sance in Italy. New York: Penguin. Trans. (1507–1589) and its Evangelical Inspiration. Studies
S.G.C. Middlemore. 1st ed. 1860. Die Kultur der in the Renaissance 13: 200–219.
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T
Trithemius, Johannes Alternate Names
Born: 1 February 1462, Trittenheim ▶ Johannes von Heidenheim; ▶ Trithemius

Died: 16 December 1516, Würzburg
Tomáš Nejeschleba
Biography
Centre for Renaissance Texts, Department of
Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Palacky University,
Born in a village in the valley of the river Mosel,
Olomouc, Czech Republic
Trithemius became one of two celebrated thinkers
of this region – next to Nicholas of Cusa, as it was
emphasized by his contemporary Konrad Celtis
Abstract
(Arnold 1991). Trithemius studied in Trier, the
Johannes Trithemius was an abbot from the
Netherlands, and Heidelberg, where he was
Benedictine monastery of Sponheim, and
influenced by the humanistic movement. Together
later the monastery of Würzburg. During his
with Celtis, Jakob Wimpfeling, and Johannes
studies in Heidelberg, he was involved in
Reuchlin, he formed a Rhenish literary society
learned humanistic societies, and later he
there. In 1482, Trithemius entered a Benedictine
applied the ideal of humanistic eloquence in
monastery in Sponheim. In 1483, he was elected
his works. Trithemius built large libraries and
abbot, and in the following years, he reformed
wrote a number of mystical, monastic, historic,
monastic life and built a large and famous mon-
and biographic writings. He became famous
astery library containing manuscripts and printed
especially due to his book Steganographia
books from different areas of contemporary
which dealt with cryptography on the basis of
knowledge. In 1505, after being denounced by
natural magic and astrology working with
the monks, he had to leave Sponheim, and after
angelic mediations. Though Steganographia
traveling through Germany, visiting the court of
remained in manuscript form, it influenced
the emperor Maximilian I and other various
occult sciences in the sixteenth century and
courts, he accepted an offer to become abbot in
cryptography. Trithemius was also accused of
the Benedictine monastery in Würzburg, where he
necromancy and demonic magic.
spent the rest of his life, building a second library
and reforming monastic life there.

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_570-1
2 Trithemius, Johannes
Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition: Arnold Bostius, to whom Trithemius sent a part
Innovative and Original Aspects of his Steganography, and philosopher Carolus
Bovillus, another of Trithemius’ visitor, accused
Trithemius was the author of numerous mystical him of advocating and practicing demonic
and monastic writings, in which he follows Jean magic. Trithemius was then also accused of nec-
Gerson and Nicholas of Cusa in advocating the romancy and was later connected with Dr. Faustus
idea of learned piety in monastic life (Brann legend (Baron 1991).
1999). Trithemius also wrote a number of histor- In the seventeenth century, Trithemius’
ical writings, containing fantastic fictional stories, Steganographia and his cryptography still
and cultivated a genre of bibliographical literature remained popular. It was considered to be the
(Grafton 2006). In all his writings, the list of them discipline of language by the members of Royal
is given by Klaus Arnold (Arnold 1991), Tri- Academic Society in particular. The occult prin-
themius develops the humanistic ideal of elo- ciples, i.e., the angelic-astrological mediation
quence of text. lying under the cryptologic theory, were neglected
Influenced by humanism, Hermetic writings, in the favor of encoding and enciphering. As a
Neoplatonism, Pythagorean numerology, Renais- magician and mystical theologian, on the other
sance Platonism, medieval scholasticism (Albert hand, Trithemius was praised in modern theoso-
the Great), and Kabbalah, Trithemius created a phy (Brann 2006).
conception of mystical magic (Brann 1981,
1999; Zambelli 2007). He worked with alchemi-
cal and astrological precepts leading to mystical Cross-References
magical illumination, which was kept in secret. In
his unfinished and unpublished book Steganogra- ▶ Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius
phy (Trithemius 1605), the ascent to heaven is ▶ Bovelles, Charles de
realized on the basis of a hierarchical cosmologi- ▶ Celtis, Konrad
cal system, with the assistance of spiritual sub- ▶ Dee, John
stances. Provided that occult harmony binds all ▶ Della Porta, Giambattista
parts of reality, these substances are steganogra- ▶ Natural Magic
phically in a cryptic language invoked for the sake ▶ Neoplatonism
of the soul, to achieve the eternal bliss. In the book ▶ Nicholas of Cusa
Polygraphia (Trithemius 1518), Trithemius ▶ Paracelsus and Paracelsianism
defends himself against accusations of practicing ▶ Reuchlin, Johannes
black magic and creates another form of cryptog- ▶ Wimpfeling, Jacob
raphy not comprising angelic mediations.
References
Impact and Legacy
Primary Literature
Trithemius was visited in Sponheim by Agrippa Trithemius, Johannes. 1518. Polygraphiae Libri VI.
of Nettesheim, who was influenced by him in both Basileae: M. Furter.
his systematic book on occult philosophy, De Trithemius, Johannes. 1605. Steganographia, hoc est, ars
occulta philosophia, and his skeptical work, De per occultam scripturam animi sui voluntatem
absentibus aperiendi certa. Frankfurt am Main: ex
vanitate (Müller-Jahncke 1991). Trithemius thus officina typographica Matthiae Beckeri, sumptibus
became one of the important founders of Renais- Joannis Berneri.
sance magic and occult sciences (Walker 1975).
The cryptological aspects of his work had influ-
ence on Giambattista della Porta, Paracelsus, and Arnold, Klaus. 1991. Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516).
John Dee. On the other hand, the Carmelite Würzburg: Ferdinand Schöningh.
Trithemius, Johannes 3
Baron, Frank. 1991. Trithemius und Faustus: Vernunft, ed. Sebastian Lalla, Anja Hallacker, and Gün-
Begegnungen in Geschichte und Sage. In Johannes ter Frank. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
Trithemius: Humanismus und Magie im Vorreforma- Müller-Jahncke, Wolf-Dieter. 1991. Johannes Trithemius
torischen Deutschland, ed. Richard Auernheimer and und Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim. In
Frank Baron, 38–57. München: Profil. Johannes Trithemius: Humanismus und Magie im
Brann, Noel L. 1981. The Abbot Trithemius (1462–1516): Vorreformatorischen Deutschland, ed. Richard
The Renaissance of Monastic Humanism. Leiden: Brill. Auernheimer and Frank Baron, 29–37. München:
Brann, Noel L. 1999. Trithemius and Magical Theology: Profil.
A Chapter in the Controversy over Cccult Studies in Walker, D.P. 1975. Spiritual and Demonic Magic: From
Early Modern Europe. Albany: SUNY Press. Ficino to Campanella. Notre Dame: University of
Brann, Noel L. 2006. Trithemius, Johannes. In Dictionary Notre Dame Press.
of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, ed. Wouter Zambelli, Paola. 2007. White Magic, Black Magic in the
Hanegraaf, 1135–1139. Leiden/Boston: Brill. European Renaissance. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
Grafton, Anthony. 2006. Johannes Trithemius: Magie,
Geschichte und Phantasie. In Erzählende
M
Magni, Valerian monasteries in Vienna and Prague, he worked as

a diplomat, superior, and professor of philosophy
Born: 1586, Milan at the monasteries in Linz, Vienna, and Prague.
He later (from 1624) served as an advisor to the
Died: 29 July 1661, Salzburg Prague Archbishop Cardinal Harrach and as a
legate of the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide
Tomáš Nejeschleba (from 1629). He was involved in contemporary
Centre for Renaissance Texts, Department of polemics concerning the re-catholization of the
Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Palacky University Czech Lands, where he advocated nonviolent
Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic methods and controversies with regard to the
organization of Prague University. He was a
keen opponent of the Jesuits in both cases. Vale-
Abstract rian can often be found at the court of the Polish
King Vladislav IV as of 1633 where he worked at
Valerian Magni was a member of the Capuchin creating a union between Catholics and the
order, a diplomat and an ecclesiastical politician. Orthodox Church. His irenic efforts culminated
He was a keen opponent of Aristotelianism, with the preparation of the so-called Colloquium
Jesuit Scholasticism, and the Jesuits. In his phil- Charitativum which took place in Thorn in 1645
osophical writings, he followed the tradition of but at which Magni was eventually not actually
Augustinianism and the philosophy of present (Louthan 2004). After the condemnation
St. Bonaventure, which he attempted to elaborate of Galileo Galilei, Magni unsuccessfully
into a system with certain aspects of modern attempted to publish his Discorsi e dimostrazioni
subjectivist philosophy. He also advocated cer- matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze. He
tain elements of new Galilean science, first and conducted an experiment proving the existence
foremost the existence of the void, which he of vacuum, in all probability independently of
demonstrated experimentally. Torricelli and Pascal, in 1647 in Warsaw. The
publication of the description of the experiment
(Magni 1647), which was the first printed text
Biography describing an experiment with a vacuum, aroused
a polemic not only with the Aristotelians but also
As a young man, Magni entered the Capuchin with scholars who admitted to the existence of the
order in Prague where he received the order void but were concerned with the authorship of
name Valerian. After his studies at the Capuchin the experiment, such as Gilles de Roberval and
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_571-1
2 Magni, Valerian
Blaise Pascal. At the end of his life, Valerian philosophy of consciousness based on introspec-
continued with his polemics and confessional tion (Blum 1998), which seems to anticipate
disputations. He intensified his attacks on Aristo- Immanuel Kant’s a priori pure forms of intuition
telian scholasticism and on the Jesuits (Magni (Sousedı́k 1982, 2009).
1660), whom he considered the root of every Magni did not have any direct follower. Apart
falseness in the Catholic Church. He was arrested from contemporary debates and polemics, his
in Vienna and sent to see the Pope in 1661. He works were later read by N. Malebranche,
died in Salzburg on the way to Rome. G. W. Leibniz, and Ch. Wolf.
Magni’s Philosophy Cross-References

Magni published his first philosophical fruit at his ▶ Aristotelianism
age of 56 (Magni 1642). He continued with the ▶ Galilei, Galileo
intellectual tradition of the Capuchin order fol- ▶ Jesuits
lowing the philosophy and theology based on the ▶ Neoplatonism
authority of St. Augustine and St. Bonaventure, ▶ Vacuum
which he tried to elaborate into a scholastic sys-
tem. This elaboration, although professing a
dependence on medieval sources, has a tendency
References
toward a modern subjectivist approach, as philos-
ophy starting from the philosopher’s own mind,
Primary Literature
from “the ego,” but also revealing traces of Magni, Valerian. 1642. De luce mentium et eius imagine.
Renaissance Platonism. Roma: Francesco Cavallo. (then Antverpiae:
The concept of light plays a central point in Hieronymum Verdusium 1643; Viennae Austriae,
Magni’s philosophy. Light has a crucial episte- Matthaeus Rictius 1645).
Magni, Valerian. 1647. Demonstratio ocularis Loci sine
mological function as a condition of visual per- locato: corporis successive moti in Vacuo: Luminis
ception and analogically in rational cognition, nulli corpori inhaerentis. Warsaw: Petrus Elert.
which is not possible without the aid of mental (Succeded by other eight editions).
light. Light also has an ontological function, for Magni, Valerian. 1660. Apologia contra imposturas
Jesuitarum (unknown publisher).
every existing being in the realm of existing Magni, Valerian. 1661. Opus philosophicum. Litomysl:
objects is dependent upon being in the mental Joannes Arnold.
light, which is the perfect being and is identical
with God. Magni conducted his experiments with
vacuum within this context. These reveal that Bérubé, Camille. 1984. Valérien Magni, héritier de Bon-
light, which is visible in the void, is not depen- aventure, Henri de Gand et Jean Scot Erigène ou
dent on any material subject, thus the priority of précurseur de E. Kant. Cuadernos salmantinos de
filosofı́a 11: 129–157.
light is demonstrated (Magni 1647).
Blum, Paul Richard. 1998. Philosophenphilosophie und
Magni denounces Aristotelian scholasticism Schulphilosophie. Typen des Philosophierens in der
as atheistic philosophy which is not in concord Neuzeit. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.
with Christianity. He also criticizes its inner Cygan, Jerzy. 1969. Das Verhältnis Valerian Magnis zu
Galileo Galilei und seinen wissenschaftlichen
inconsistency from the philosophical point of
Ansichten. Collectanea Franciscana 38: 135–166.
view and its incompatibility with new science. Cygan, Jerzy. 1989. Valerianus Magni (1586–1661).
He later tended to accept Galileo’s heliocentric „Vita prima“, operum recensio et bibliographia.
cosmology (Cygan 1969). His last philosophical Roma: Istituto storico degli cappuccini.
Louthan, Howard. 2004. Mediatin confessions in Central
work (Magni 1661) began with a long description
Europe: The ecumenical activity of Valerian Magni,
of Aristotle’s philosophy and its refutation and 1586–1661. Journal for Ecclesiastical History 55(4):
proceeds with a presentation of Magni’s own 681–699.
Magni, Valerian 3
Sousedı́k, Stanislav. 1982. Valerian Magni 1586–1661. Vasoli, Cesare. 1980. Note sulle idee filosofiche di
Versuch einer Erneurung der christlichen Philosophie Valeriano Magni. In Italia Venezia e Polonia tra
im 17. Jahrhundert. Sankt Augustin: Richarz. medio evo età moderna, ed. Vittore Branca and Sante
Sousedı́k, Stanislav. 2009. Philosophie der fr€
uhen Neuzeit Graciotti, 79–112. Firenze: Leo S. Olschi.
in den böhmischen Ländern. Stuttgart – Bad Cannstatt:
Frommann-holzboog.
V
Versoris, Johannes University of Paris during the fifteenth century.

Although generally called “Versor” in the schol-
Christophe Geudens arly literature, there is some evidence that his
Faculty of Arts, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, actual name might have been “Versoris” (that is,
Leuven, Belgium “son of Versor” or Le Tourneur) – at least that is
how he is referred to in Parisian documents of the
Abstract time, and this spelling also appears on his
Johannes Versoris (probably died after 1482) (undated) epitaph. The name Versoris first crops
was a Master of Arts active at the University of up in 1435, when he is mentioned as a Master of
Paris in the fifteenth century. He wrote a num- Arts in a document pertaining to the Norman
ber of influential commentaries on the corpus nation (natio Normannorum) of the University
Aristotelicum, Peter of Spain’s Summulae of Paris. Since at Paris students were supposed
logicales, and Thomas Aquinas’s De ente et to have reached the age of twenty before the title
essentia which were frequently reprinted of magister artium could be conferred, it is rea-
between 1480 and 1500, especially in sonable to conjecture that Versoris was born
Cologne. Since Versoris’s commentary work around 1410. In 1449 the Arts Faculty proposed
bears traces of both Thomist and Albertist him as rector of the Paris studium, but he refused
thought, the question of his relation to the the post; when in 1458 his name was put forward
contemporary schools of thought is highly con- again, this time he accepted. Information on the
troversial and as yet unresolved. activities and whereabouts of Versoris after his
rectorate is scarce: it is only in 1478 that the
Paris documents again mention a certain Johannes
Alternate Names Versoris, who, however, is referred to as a Master
of Arts not in the natio Normannorum but in the
▶ Johannes Versor; ▶ Johannes Versorius; ▶ Jean natio Picardorum, the Picardian nation. It is not
Le Tourneur (flourished c. 1435–1458) impossible, nevertheless, that these notices con-
cern one and the same person – and scholars
generally assume that they do – although this
Biography cannot be proven. If this identification is correct,
Versoris probably spent his entire career teaching
Little is known about the life of Johannes at the Paris Arts Faculty and may have died after
Versoris, a realist philosopher and celebrated 1482, as the last reference to the Picardian
commentator on Aristotle who taught at the Versoris occurs in this year.
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_572-2
2 Versoris, Johannes
As part of his teaching activity at Paris, (Corsten 1981). It has also been suggested, more-
Versoris composed commentaries on nearly the over, that sometime during the heydays of his
entire Aristotelian corpus (although the attribution academic career, Versoris stayed in the Iberian
of some commentaries is problematic, pace peninsula. This hypothesis, though controversial,
Fl€ueler 1994: 80–84), the Summulae logicales could account for the fact that the aforementioned
by the thirteenth-century logician Peter of Spain Spaniard ‘Eli Habilio in the preface to his transla-
(Versoris 1981) and Thomas Aquinas’s De ente et tion of Versoris’s commentary on the Physics
essentia (Versoris 1486) – in total, his writings are refers to the Parisian scholar’s name in such a
preserved in some 180 manuscripts (Seńko 1958/ familiar wording that it suggests a personal
1959). Versoris is also said to have been the author acquaintance. Moreover, in the Hebrew chronic
of a commentary on the Ars minor by the ancient Shebet Yehudah (c. 1510), one finds the curious
grammarian Donatus, although this attribution reference to a certain king Alfonso (possibly
is probably spurious (Kneepkens 2004; Versoris Alfonso V, King of Portugal between 1438 and
1489). His expositions of Aristotle enjoyed a cer- 1481, or Alfonso V, King of Aragon between
tain popularity at the University in Paris, from 1416 and 1458) who addressed a series of ques-
where they spread to Cologne, Prague, and Cra- tions on the trustworthiness of Jews to a savant
cow during the second half of the fifteenth century called Weyrśōrīś. Given the present state of our
(Markowski 1968; Kuksewicz 1973; Šmahel knowledge on Versoris’s life, it is impossible to
1980). All of his commentaries were printed mul- determine whether this reference actually con-
tiple times before the turn of the century, mostly in cerns our Parisian philosopher or not. Whatever
Cologne (Rhodes 1970; Lohr 1971: 290–299). the case, Versoris’s commentaries were well
Risse (1965: 282) counted 23 editions of his com- known in this part of Europe, and the numerous
mentary on Peter of Spain between 1473 and manuscripts of Versoris’s works that are still pre-
1639, which makes Versoris “the most popular served in Spanish libraries today testify to this
commentator” on Peter’s Summulae of the era popularity (Rothschild 2013: 309–314).
(Ashworth 2008: 621). His questions on
Aristotle’s physical works and Thomas’s De ente
et essentia were even translated into Hebrew by Philosophy
the Spanish Jewish scholastic Eli Habillo in the
course of the 1470s (Rothschild 1994). A fifteenth-century Master of Arts, Versoris
It is unclear whether Versoris ever held a posi- taught during a period which was marked by the
tion at the University of Cologne. Despite lack of formation of the so-called schools of thought. In
proof, older studies generally assume that he did Versoris’s Parisian setting, Thomism flourished
(De Wulf 1925; Meersseman 1935; Weiler 1962). and Albertism was gaining influence under the
Yet his name does not appear in the acts or matric- impulse of Johannes de Nova Domo (†1418),
ulation lists of the university (Weijers 2003), and while nominalism was in decline (eventually to
contemporaries consistently refer to Versoris as a be banned by a royal decree in 1474). Given this
Parisian scholar (Parisiensis). It seems unlikely, predominantly realist milieu, it is hardly surpris-
therefore, that he was ever actively engaged in ing that Versoris set himself up as a proponent of
teaching at one of the Cologne bursae, although the via antiqua, the realist school of thought asso-
it has been suggested that he was on good terms ciated with followers of Thomas and Albert. Yet
with the Cologne Masters of Arts, especially those the question of which type of realist philosophy
affiliated to the Thomist Bursa Corneliana and Versoris adhered to (and especially his predilec-
Bursa Montana (Meuthen 1988: 185; Tewes tion for Thomism or Albertism) is a controversial
1993: 189–190). This could account for the fact one. Ever since Prantl (1870: 220–221), Versoris
that Versoris’s commentaries on Aristotle and has generally been regarded as a Thomist philos-
Peter of Spain were printed no fewer than thirty opher and logician, although it seems closer to the
times in Cologne during the 1480s and 1490s truth and more in accordance with contemporary
Versoris, Johannes 3
testimonies to characterize him as an eclectic particular form. Albert answered this question in
thinker – indeed, his pupil Dominique of Flanders the positive, Thomas in the negative. Versoris
may have listed him among the adherents of Tho- himself closely paraphrases Albert’s text and
mism, but he added that Versoris occasionally merely points out that Thomas held a different
embraced the teachings of Albert the Great (sed opinion. However, when discussing the same
Albertizabat - see Mahieu 1942: 22; Lohr 1971: issue in his commentary on the Physics, Versoris
290). Matters are further complicated by the fact rejects Albert’s view in favor of the opinion held
that Versoris himself, unlike many of his contem- by Thomas (see Rutten 2005: 304–312 for discus-
poraries (such as Heymeric de Campo or Arnold sion). The same pattern can be discerned in
of Tongeren, two convinced Albertists), never Versoris’s account of substance and being, as
explicitly expressed his loyalty to either Thomas expressed mainly in his commentaries on the
or Albert. As regards his ideas on physics and logica vetus and Thomas’s De ente et essentia.
moral philosophy (see Versoris 1484, 1967a), As regards the notion of substance, discussed in
there is consensus that Versoris was heavily his commentary on the Categories (Versoris
indebted to Thomas (Birkenmajer 1925; Sère 1967d: f. 30r), Versoris embraces the explanation
2007; Saarinen 2011; M€ uller 2016). This also of Albert that this term entails a threefold mean-
holds true for his interpretation of the Metaphysics ing: (a) the metaphysical notion of essence, (b) the
(Versoris 1967b; Bakker 2014). The situation is logical notion of the first thing predicable, and
less clear, however, in his commentaries on the (c) individual substance (Bos 2002: 71–73).
Organon (Versoris 1967c, 1967d). Bos (2002) Furthermore, in his commentary on the Isagoge,
emphasized Versoris’s Albertism in his questions he equally agrees with Albert when he claims that
on the Categories; Rutten (2005: 323), mainly on a universal should be understood in terms of the
the basis of Versoris’s explanations of the logica forma totius and has, moreover, a threefold mode
vetus, described his doctrinal profile as “indistinct of being: ante rem, in re, and post rem (Versoris
and at best a blurred form of Thomism” and 1967d: ff. 7v-14r; Rutten 2007: 129–132). How-
insisted that in his own time he was seen as an ever, when Versoris, in his commentary on De
authority in his own right rather than a represen- ente et essentia (Versoris 1486: sig. D5v), dis-
tative of either movement. This is in line with cusses the notion of being (esse) as composed of
the interpretation by Krause (1991: 520), who essence (esse essentiae) and existence (esse
suggested the possibility of “Versorism” as a existentiae), he aligns himself with the interpreta-
distinctive subcurrent of Thomism. tion of St. Thomas that actual existence really
It can easily be seen why the question of (realiter) differs from essence and merely notes
Versoris’s relation to Albert and Thomas causes that Albert holds the opposite opinion (Riesco
so many difficulties, since Versoris’s balancing of Terrero 1960; Krause 1991: 510). As regards the
the interpretations of both realist philosophers principle of individuation, which is also discussed
may be considered a guiding thread leading in the commentary on De ente et essentia
through his oeuvre, and at different occasions he (Versoris 1486: sig. D1v), Versoris agrees with
appears to align himself quite randomly with Thomas that signate matter accounts for the
either of them. The following examples may suf- numerical distinction of corporeal substances; he
fice to demonstrate this point. In his commentary rejects the opinions held by Giles of Rome and
on the Isagoge, Versoris (1967d: f. 21r-v) briefly Albert, who explained individuation in terms of
touches upon the problem of incipient forms quantity and matter respectively (Krause 1991:
(inchoatio formae), a question related to 514–515; Rutten 2005: 316–319).
Aristotle’s discussion of the principles of form, As a possible solution to the problem of
matter, and privation (see Physics I.9, 192a16-34). Versoris’s doctrinal inclination, Rutten (2005:
Briefly put, the problem of inchoatio formae con- 319–324) suggested that Versoris’s predilection
cerns the question of whether or not matter confor either Albert or Thomas is related to the spe-
tains some innate aptitude for receiving a cific work he was commenting on. In the case of
4 Versoris, Johannes
the Isagoge or Categories, for example, he had no ▶ University of Cologne

choice but to follow Albert, since Thomas never ▶ University of Paris
composed a commentary on these works. When
he did have a choice, however, it appears that he
decidedly embraced the interpretations of the doc- References
tor angelicus (see the examples from the Physics
or De ente et essentia explained above). This Primary Literature
could also account for the fact that, when Versoris Versoris, Johannes. 1484. Glossulae in Aristotelis
paraphrases the explanations of Albert and notes a philosophiae naturalis libros. Toulouse: Heinrich
difference of opinion between Albert and Mayer [commentary on Aristotle’s Physica, De coelo
et mundo, De generatione et corruptione, Meteora, De
Thomas, he never proves Thomas wrong – in anima and Parva naturalia].
some instances he even he even refers to the Versoris, Johannes. 1486. Quaestiones super De ente et
opinion held by the Albertistae, which implies essentia sancti Thomae de Aquino. Köln: Heinrich
that he did not consider himself as one of them Quentell.
*Versoris, Johannes. 1489. Commentum super Donatum
(Rutten 2005: 314). Minorem. Heidelberg: Friedrich Misch.
Since Versoris was a university teacher whose Versoris, Johannes. 1491. In libros Economicorum. Köln:
entire oeuvre consists of questions, paraphrases Heinrich Quentell [edition of the first book in Anna
and summaries of school authors, the question of Słomczyńska. 1986. Ab Henrico de Oyta usque ad
Georgium lignicensem quinque commentariorum in
the originality of his thought is perhaps not the Aristotelis Economica conscriptorum editio.
correct one to ask. Medieval or early modern Medievalia philosophica polonorum 28: 70–94].
school teachers were not supposed to be original. Versoris, Johannes. 1492. Libri Politicorum Aristotelis
Rather, they were supposed to explain the texts cum commento multum utili et compendioso magistri
Johannis Versoris. Köln: Heinrich Quentell [extracts of
prescribed by the university statutes and render third book edited by Martin Grabmann. 1941. Die
these texts intelligible by making use of a fixed set mittelalterlichen Kommentare zur Politik des
of commentators who were considered authorita- Aristoteles. Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen
tive. Versoris’s popularity, therefore, was not Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-
historische Abteilung 10: 5–78].
based on the fact that his commentaries contained Versoris, Johannes. 1967a. Quaestiones super libros
some original insights into, or elaborations on, the Ethicorum Aristotelis. Frankfurt am Main: Minerva
matter he explained (although in some cases they Verlag [reprint of 1494 Cologne edition].
do, see Bakker 2014: 611–612), but instead on his Versoris, Johannes. 1967b. Quaestiones super
Metaphysicam Aristotelis. Frankfurt am Main: Minerva
ability to present interpretations excerpted from Verlag [reprint of 1494 Cologne edition].
the great philosophers of previous ages in a syn- Versoris, Johannes. 1967c. Quaestiones super omnes libros
optic, lucid, and accessible way. As a compiler novae logicae. Frankfurt am Main: Minerva Verlag
and interpreter, Versoris was, together with the [reprint of 1494 Cologne edition].
Versoris, Johannes. 1967d. Quaestiones super totam
Scotist Petrus Tartaretus and the nominalist veterem artem Aristotelis. Frankfurt am Main: Minerva
George of Brussels, one of the most successful Verlag [reprint of 1494 Cologne edition].
of his time. Versoris, Johannes. 1981. Petri Hispani Summulae
logicales cum Versorii Parisiensis clarissima
expositione. Hildesheim/New York: Georg Olms
[reprint of 1572 Venice edition].
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Ashworth, Earline J. 2008. Developments in the fifteenth
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▶ Commentary logic. Volume 2: Mediaeval and renaissance
▶ Donatus logic, ed. Dov M. Gabbay and John Woods, 609–643.
Amsterdam: Elsevier.
▶ Peter of Spain
Bakker, Paul J.J.M. 2014. Fifteenth-century Parisian com-
▶ Realism mentaries on Aristotle’s Metaphysics. In A companion
▶ Thomism to the Latin medieval commentaries on Aristotle’s
Versoris, Johannes 5
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Galluzzo, 575–629. Leiden-Boston: Brill. Ethik von Johannes Versor (†1485). Ein Beitrag zur
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bibliotekshistoriska studier tillagnade Isak Collijn pa Strosetzki, 93–122. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.
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mentaries on Porphyry and the Categories. In Chemins Johannes Versor. Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 45: 89–96.
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Brepols. Risse, Wilhelm. 1965. Bibliographia logica. Verzeichnis der
Corsten, Severin. 1981. Universität und Buchdruck in Köln. Druckschriften zur Logik mit Angabe ihrer Fundorte,
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Buch und Text im 15. Jahrhundert. Arbeitsgespräch in Rothschild, Jean-Pierre. 1994. Questions de philosophie
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De Wulf, M. 1925. Histoire de la philosophie médiévale II: Rothschild, Jean-Pierre. 2013. Les deux portraits d’un
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W
Weigel, Valentin doctrinal disputes, the enforcement of the

Lutheran Formula of Concord (1577), and the
Born: 1533 Großenhain rising threat of religious war, all of which he
Died: 1588 Zschopau vehemently opposed.
The term commonly applied to Weigel’s orien-
Andrew Weeks tation is Spiritualism. In contrast to orthodox Prot-
Illinois State University, Normal, Il, USA estantism and Anabaptist dissent, the ideal type of
the individualistic Spiritualist disdains the exter-
nalities of formal doctrine, sacrament, and cere-
Abstract mony in favor of the divine inner authority of the
Valentin Weigel was a dissenting Lutheran Holy Spirit or inner word. By its very nature, the
pastor, whose work incorporates various medi- Spiritualist type is elusive in comparison with the
eval and Renaissance influences in an attempt confession or sect. By the same token, the Spiri-
to justify the freedom of conscience and tualist appears more modern and tolerant.
thought of the layman. Weigel’s absorption of the influences of mysti-
cism (Meister Eckhart, Tauler, and the Theologia
Germanica), medieval philosophy (Hugo of
Biography St. Victor and probably Saint Augustine and Nich-
olas Cusanus), the nature philosophy of Paracel-
Valentin Weigel was as limited in movement and sus, and the currents of Protestant dissent (notably
outward activity as he was bold in dissent and Sebastian Franck) contributed to an evolving syn-
speculative thought. After completing his univer- thesis aimed at arming the thinking lay person
sity studies in theology in Leipzig and Wittenberg, against clerical authoritarianism.
he served as Lutheran town pastor in the city of Weigel’s earliest writings after leaving the uni-
Zschopau. While serving with the apparent sym- versity tended toward the eclectic; however, the
pathy of his congregation, he quietly composed power of his critical intellect soon began to create
treatises and sermons of dissenting theology. something new and whole which, on the one
Published posthumously during the tension-filled hand, recovered the deeper impulses toward lay
decade preceding the 30 Years’ War, these writ- opposition and intuition in his sources and, on the
ings earned Weigel a long-standing infamy. His other, reformulated the received impulses in
reputation is perhaps best regarded as a measure response to the post-Reformation era. Already in
of the authoritarian petrification of Lutheran cul- his Gnothi seauton of 1571, the reorientation
ture in the wake of the mid-century internecine reveals his well-grounded originality. Restoring
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_573-1
2 Weigel, Valentin
a tendency of thought developed by Saint Augus- The mid-1570s saw Weigel’s most refined and
tine and Meister Eckhart, Weigel advises the radical theoretical treatises: On the Place of the
reader to look within to achieve a selfless self- World (Vom Ort der Welt) in 1576 and The
knowledge. Tantamount to a knowledge of God, Golden Grasp (Der güldene Griff) in 1578.
Weigel’s inner knowledge approaches union with Both works typically incorporated cosmological,
God, though this union is rather a daring leap of epistemological, exegetic, and devotional themes
logic than the outcome of ritual steps of purifica- and ideas. In On the Place of the World, the key
tion. Gnothi seauton can be read as an epistemo- symbol is that of a cosmos suspended in the
logical treatise on sense perception and intuition. infinite void of God: there are no objective coor-
It is closer to Augustine and the scholastic Hugh dinates of up or down. Intriguingly, this theme is
of St. Victor than to Kant and the Enlightenment. borne out by some rather concrete cosmological
Nevertheless, in any full survey of the history of reflections revealing Weigel’s interest in the sci-
epistemology, Weigel must stand among the entific activity of his day. The thrust of his argu-
adherents of the principle that knowledge is gen- ment is intended to deprive outer reality of its
erated in the knower and not derived from the overbearing solidity, thereby shifting the locus of
thing known. In his case, this position in effect knowledge and meaning inward. In The Golden
responds to the aporia of the Protestant principle Grasp, the author again covers a range of
of sola scriptura: if all truth of salvation derives themes, but his focal point is that all knowledge
from the Holy Scripture, how is it possible that occurs in the knower and does not reside in the
various advocates of the Reformation are embrac- external object of knowledge. The Bible is an
ing putatively Bible-based doctrines which are in external object whose meaning is only disclosed
violent opposition to one another? His response to within the divinely illuminated, therefore selfless
the religious quandary, more than deliberate bor- and nonauthoritarian, human intellect. The title
rowing from Platonism itself, drove Weigel to of the work may be an allusion to Matthias
look inward. Flacius Illyricus’ strict scripturalist anti-
Soon after writing Gnothi seauton, Weigel was spiritualist exegetic work known as the Aurea
denounced by a fellow Lutheran pastor for Clavis or “golden key.” The metaphor of the
questioning the authority of Luther. By carefully “key” was associated with the authority of the
defending his views and stressing their general church and its power to bind and unbind or to
conformity to the Lutheran spirit, Weigel was lock and unlock the gate of heaven. Unlike the
able to save his position. We can assume that metaphorically external “key,” our “grasp” of
during the standard visitations carried out in truth is intrinsic.
every Lutheran territory, his parishioners were Another work deserves to be singled out for its
asked about the propriety of their pastor. His clarity and originality: Weigel’s Dialogus de
retention of his position suggests that either his Christianismo of 1584. It stands out both because
opinions were well concealed or, perhaps more of its staunch opposition to spiritual tyranny and
likely, the congregation was on his side. Modern religious war and on account of its unusual dia-
research into the preserved notes from visitation logue form between a universalized Preacher and
inquiries reveals stubborn popular resistance to a layman Auditor. The figure of Death (Christ)
the supervisory demands for conformity. Indiffer- puts an end to the conversation, as both men pass
ent to doctrinal fine points, parishioners were through deathbed scenes declaring their convic-
inclined to close ranks and denounce a pastor for tions. Death finds in favor of the Auditor. The
authoritarian behavior or lack of sympathy for the Preacher is consigned to a kind of spirit-world
laity regardless of doctrinal considerations. It afterlife which is his just punishment, though
therefore seems rather likely that Weigel was hardly as grim as the orthodox visions of Hell.
protected by his congregation. It is certain that Here, too, most of Weigel’s themes are recapitu-
he defended them by validating the conscience lated, but the Dialogue on Christianity has in
of the individual. addition a certain literary drama to it. It can
Weigel, Valentin 3
stand alongside the Everyman dramas and Faust Primary literature: Beginning in the nine-
plays as one of the most powerful judgmental teenth century, Weigel’s writings were recovered
visions of the highly judgmental sixteenth and studied in order to restore a voice of early
century. modern dissent which, despite its posthumous
Though these writings are perhaps of greatest delay, still speaks out boldly with surprising clar-
interest in philosophy, they are only a portion of ity and conviction. In the twentieth century, Sieg-
his entire work. Weigel wrote cycles of sermons fried Wollgast, a historian of early modern
based on biblical texts. We do not know whether philosophy, strengthened the foundations of
they were delivered to his congregation or Weigel Studies by publishing in one volume the
whether the homiletic form was only a vehicle, chief writings with a first-rate commentary.
rather like the essay form for others. Even the Winfried Zeller had already undertaken a com-
chapters of his more theoretical works consist of plete edition. After Zeller’s death, his survey of
sermon-like tracts which sometimes conclude Weigelian materials undertaken in inauspicious
with a prayer or invocation. Weigel was of course times was deemed inadequate for completion of
by training and vocation a preacher. His criticism the project. Based on a more successful search for
of the pastorate was self-criticism, but this was by sources, Zeller’s erstwhile assistant Horst Pfefferl
no means unusual. Of the countless anticlerical began again and at last completed a comprehen-
voices of his century, the majority were almost sive edition.
certainly clergymen, just as the ranks of aca- The most substantial writings were edited by
demics today include many critics of the academy. Wollgast in Valentin Weigel, Ausgewählte Werke
It is also worth noting in consideration of his (Gnothi seauton, Vom Ort der Welt, Der güldene
seemingly modern clarity, tolerance, and Griff, Die Predigt vom armen Lazarus, Dialogus
antiauthoritarianism that Weigel was very much de Christianismo) (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer,
a man of the sixteenth century who appears to 1977). Available in English are Sermon on the
have believed in unobserved supernatural spirits Good Seed and the Weeds, On the Place of the
and elemental creatures in the tradition of Para- World, and The Golden Grasp in Valentin Weigel,
celsus. Upon the authority of the latter, he Selected Spiritual Writings, trans. and intro.
accepted an alchemical theory of nature which Andrew Weeks, pref. R. Emmet McLaughlin
posited a triune process at the core of created (New York, Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 2003).
being. Most important of all for the accuracy and scope
Among the tasks to be completed in Weigel of its sources and the breadth of its commentary
studies, one of the foremost is the evaluation of and bibliography is Valentin Weigel, Sämtliche
the writings attributed to him or published under Schriften (Neue Edition) (Stuttgart-Bad
his name. They can tell us much about his impact Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1996f.).
and early reception. Also of interest is the reso- Secondary literature: Historical and philo-
nance of his work with the thought of later figures sophical context can be found in Siegfried
such as Gottfried Arnold and Gotthold Ephraim Wollgast, Philosophie in Deutschland zwischen
Lessing, as well as the possible impact of early Reformation und Aufklärung, 1550–1650
Dutch and English translations of his writings. It (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1988). An overview
seems likely that such research will arrive at cred- in English of his life, times, and writings is offered
ible conclusions only by exploring his impact as by Andrew Weeks, Valentin Weigel (1533–1588):
part of larger currents. Looking backward, more German Religious Dissenter, Speculative Theo-
needs to be studied regarding his debt to Augus- rist, and Advocate of Tolerance (Albany: State
tine and Hugh of St. Victor. University of New York Press, 2000).
Z
Zwinger, Theodor Alternate Names
Born: 2 August 1533, Basel ▶ Theodor der Ältere; ▶ Zuingerus/Zvingerus/

Died: 10 March 1588, Basel Zvinggerus/Zwinggerus Theodorus; ▶ Zwinger
Tomáš Nejeschleba
Centre for Renaissance Texts, Department of Biography
Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Palacky University,
Olomouc, Czech Republic Theodor Zwinger was born into a renowned Basel
humanist family as the nephew of the famous
Basel printer Oporinus. Theodor received a pri-
Abstract vate humanist education in his native city through
Humanist, physician, philosopher, and poly- his stepfather, the humanist Conrad Lycosthenes.
math, Theodor Zwinger first studied under the He continued in his studies in Lyon over the years
anti-Aristotelian Petrus Ramus in Paris and 1548–1651 where he simultaneously worked in a
later in the bastion of Aristotelianism in printing shop. He moved to Paris in 1551 where
Padua. He became one of the most influential he studied under Petrus Ramus. Zwinger studied
late humanists of Basel. He published com- medicine in Padua under Bassiano Landi as of
mentaries on Galen and Hippocrates and com- 1553 where he obtained his doctorate in 1559.
mentaries on Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics After his return from Italy, Theodor Zwinger
and Politics. He is also the author of books on opened up a private medical practice in Basel. In
ethics, history, and travel. Despite his earlier this period Zwinger edited in Basel the works of
dissent with Paracelsianism, he later accepted the Italian Platonist Francesco Cattani da Diacceto
certain Paracelsian concepts. His book entitled (Zwinger 1563) and also published commentaries
Theatrum humanae vitae, comprising thou- on Galen (Zwinger 1561). Here and in his later
sands of pages of “encyclopedical” contempo- works, Zwinger frequently employed the method
rary knowledge, was extremely influential up of division of a subject by means of tables, which
until the beginning of the eighteenth century. he derived either from his Paduan medical studies
(Fortuna 1993) or from Petrus Ramus (Gilly
1977, 1979).
Zwinger became professor of Greek at the Uni-
versity of Basel in 1565, professor of ethics in
1571, and professor of theoretical medicine as of
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_574-1
2 Zwinger, Theodor
1580. In the realm of practical philosophy, Cross-References

Zwinger commented on Aristotle’s
Nichomachean Ethics (Zwinger 1566) and Poli- ▶ Aristotelianism
tics (Zwinger 1582) and wrote works dealing with ▶ Cattani da Diacceto, Francesco
ethics (Zwinger 1575), which followed in the ▶ Hippocrates and Hippocratism
Aristotelian tradition. Zwinger combined both ▶ Khunrath, Heinrich
the use of tables as a method of presenting ethics ▶ Paracelsus and Paracelsianism
and enumerating examples of vice and virtues ▶ Ramus, Petrus
with the aim of connecting up ethical philosoph- ▶ Severinus, Petrus
ical theory and the practice of living (Lines 2007).
Zwinger, as a pupil of Paduan medicine, ini-
tially dissented from Paracelsus and Para- References
celsianism. After his edition of Hippocrates
(Zwinger 1579), however, Zwinger began to Primary Literature
appreciate certain parts of Paracelsian medicine Zwinger, Theodor. 1561. In Galeni Librum De
Constitutione Artis Medicae, Tabulae et Commentarii.
due to its emphasis on experience which was in
Basileae: Oporinus.
his view similar to Hippocrates (Gilly 1977, Zwinger, Theodor. 1563. Opera omnia Francisci Catanei
1979). Zwinger was intrigued by Paracelsus’ Diacetii Patricii Florentini, Philosophi Summi.
work, specifically by his efforts in healing by Basileae: Petri et Perna.
Zwinger, Theodor. 1565. Theatrum vitae humanae,
means of powers hidden in nature (Zwinger
omnium fere eorum, quae in hominem cadere possunt,
1610). He criticized, in contrast, Paracelsus’ lack bonorum atque malorum exempla historica, ethicae
of interest in anatomy (Portmann 1987). Theodor philosophiae praeceptis accomodata, et in XIX. libros
Zwinger was later in contact with the Paracelsian digesta [. . .]. Basileae: Frobenius.
Zwinger, Theodor. 1566. Aristotelis Stagiritae De Moribus
physician Petrus Severinus (Shackelford 2004)
ad Nicomachum Libri Decem. Basileae: Oporinus.
and may have been a teacher of Heinrich Zwinger, Theodor. 1575. Morum philosophia poetica.
Khunrath and Andreas Libavius (Forshaw 2008). Basileae: Episcopius.
The most renowned work by Theodor Zwinger Zwinger, Theodor. 1579. Hippocratis Coi Asclepiadeae
gentis sacrae coryphaei Viginti duo Commentarii
was the comprehensive compilation of contempo-
Tabulis illustrate. Basileae: Episcopius.
rary knowledge entitled Theatrum humanae vitae, Zwinger, Theodor. 1582. Aristotelis Politicorum libri octo,
first published in 1565 (Zedelmaier 2008). This scholiis, tabulis quinetiam in tres priores libros
systematically ordered knowledge, presented with illustrati. Basileae: Episcopius.
Zwinger, Theodor. 1586. Theatrum humanae vitae [. . .].
the help of tables, had a double goal: theoretical
Tertiatione nouem voluminibus locupletatum,
knowledge and a practical attitude to the world, interpolatum, renouatum. Basileae: Episcopius.
i.e., an ethical approach. Zwinger distinguishes Zwinger, Theodor. 1610. Physiologia Medica. Basileae:
between two equal sources of knowledge: theory Henricpetri.
on the one hand and experience and history on the
other, which deals with particulars and provides Secondary Literature
Blair, Ann. 2005. Historia in Zwinger’s Theatrum
exempla (Blair 2005). The first edition of the
Humanae Vitae. In Historia. Empiricism and erudition
Theatrum contained 1,400 pages (Zwinger 1565) in early Modern Europe, ed. Gianna Pomata and Nancy
and the third edition from 1586 as many as 4,500 G. Siraisi, 269–296. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
(Zwinger 1586). The Theatrum was reworked in Forshaw, Peter J. 2008. ‘Paradoxes, absurdities, and mad-
ness’: Conflict over alchemy, magic and medicine in
1631 by the Catholic Laurentius Beyerlinck into
the works of Andreas Libavius and Heinrich Khunrath.
eight volumes of 7,500 pages plus an index and Early Science and Medicine 13(1). Brill: 53–81.
was printed in this form five times up until 1707. Fortuna, Stefania. 1993. Galen’s De constitutione artis
medicae in the Renaissance. The Classical Quarterly
43(1). Cambridge University Press: 302–319.
Gilly, Carlos. 1977, 1979. Zwischen Erfahrung und
Spekulation: Theodor Zwinger und die religiöse und
kulturelle Krise seiner Zeit. Basler Zeitschrift für
Zwinger, Theodor 3
Geschichte und Altertumskunde 77,79: 57–137, Shackelford, Jole. 2004. A philosophical path for para-
125–233. celsian medicine: The ideas, intellectual context, and
Lines, David. 2007. Theodor Zwinger’s vision of ethics: influence of Petrus Severinus (1540/2–1602), Acta
Three unpublished writings. In Ethik – Wissenschaft Historica Scientiarum Naturalium et Medicinalium.
Oder Lebenskunst? Modelle Der Normenbegründung Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
von Der Antike Bis Zur Frühen Neuzeit, ed. Sabrina Zedelmaier, Helmut. 2008. Navigieren im Textuniversum.
Ebbersmeyer and Eckhard Kessler, 243–265. Berlin: Theodor Zwingers Theatrum vitae humanae. In
LIT. Dimensionen der Theatrum-Metapher in der Frühen
Portmann, Marie-Luise. 1987. Paracelsus Im Urteil von Neuzeit. Ordnung und Representation von
Theodor Zwinger. Nova Acta Paracelsica. Neue Wissen, ed. Flemming Schock, Oswald Bauer, and
Folge 2: 15–32. Ariane Koller, 113–135. Hannover: Wehrhahn.
B
Burckhardt, Jacob Alternate Names
Born: 25 May 1818, Basel (Switzerland) ▶ Jacob Christopher Burckhardt; ▶ Jakob

Christoph Burckhardt
Died: 8 August 1897, Basel (Switzerland)
Maria Vittoria Comacchi Biography and Works

Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage,
Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Venice, Italy Father of a new historiographical method named
Kulturgeschichte and author of the notorious book
Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien (1860; see
Abstract Burckhardt 1955–1959, vol. 3 or Burckhardt
Jacob Burckhardt was an art and cultural his- 2000–2014, vol. 4), Burckhardt was born in
torian, renowned for his historiographical Basel in a protestant evangelical family. The
method known as Kulturgeschichte. In the father was a clergyman of the Reformed Church
analysis of a historic moment, this method in Basel, and he prompted the young Burckhardt
focuses on the moment’s inner aspects, such to undertake theological studies. Thus, from 1837
as the contemporaneous art and literature, the to 1839 Burckhardt studied at the University of
religious and moral habits, and the economical Basel, where the theologians Karl Rudolf
and social developments. Burckhardt was the Hagenbach and Wilhelm De Wette taught. In par-
author of the notable Die Cultur der Renais- ticular, De Wette made use of the new-fangled
sance in Italien (1860; The Civilisation of the historical criticism in the exegesis of the Bible,
Renaissance in Italy), in which he declared that an approach which left a deep mark in
modernity was born in Italy in the fifteenth Burckhardt’s soul, engendering in him a substan-
century. This work has long remained – and it tial crisis of faith. In the end, the historical biblical
still remains, even if outdated in many criticism allowed Burckhardt to distance himself
aspects – a classic of the critical literature on from the pious community of Basel. However, in
the Renaissance and an excellent example of Basel he had also the opportunity to focus on
cultural historical studies. humanities, especially on ancient Greek, which
drew him near to philological and historical
research. For these reasons, he abandoned his
studies in theology, and he went to Berlin, where
he attended the lessons of the philologist August
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_577-1
2 Burckhardt, Jacob
Boeckh and of the historians Johann Gustav 2000–2014, vols. 2–3), in 1855 in which not only
Droysen and Leopold von Ranke at the Friedrich- he geographically explored the Italian art but he
Wilhelms-Universität. Burckhardt recognized in also judged the ruins of the ancient Roman art as
Ranke one of his mentors, sharing with him a the result of the overwhelming Christian para-
criticism of Hegel’s philosophy of history, but he digm over the pagan world, blaming Christianity
ended up developing a different historical for the loss of the principle of individuality and of
approach. Ranke, one of the most eminent pro- any aesthetic pursuit. In the same year, he was
ponents of the political history school, endorsed offered the chair of art history at the
the leading role of nations and states as individual Eidgenössisches Polytechnikum in Zurich, but in
political entities able to preserve order and cohe- 1858 he was obliged to return to Basel where he
sion. Instead, Burckhardt steered the analysis of taught history and, from 1874 until his retirement
history towards the inward conditions of society, in 1893, history of art as well.
highlighting the cultural transformations, which
had caused the evolution of people and nations. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
Their differences notwithstanding, Burckhardt In 1860 Burckhardt edited his masterpiece, Die
owe Ranke at least three aspects of his Cultur der Renaissance in Italien (see Burckhardt
Kulturgeschichte: first, the judgment that individ- 1955–1959, vol. 3 or Burckhardt 2000–2014,
uality is the foundation of every historical event; vol.4), an emblematic example of a cultural his-
secondly, the relevance of the contemporaneous tory book. Divided into six parts, it reports con-
sources; and thirdly, the adoption of an temporaneous records, and it dwells not only on
all-embracing perspective. In 1841 Burckhardt events but also on concepts, customs, and person-
headed towards Bonn, where he spent a summer alities. The Versuch, as Burckhardt calls his work,
term, joining the Gottfried Kinkel’s literary group, appears as a sort of painting, made of words, of the
the Maikäferbund. Thanks to Kinkel’s enquiry on Renaissance myth. The image of Italy as the cra-
paganism and the influence of his friend and cul- dle of modernity and as the cultural and social
tural historian Heinrich Schreiber, Burckhardt milieu where the bonds to progress first failed,
wrote Die Zeit Constantin’s des Grossen (1853; breaking with the medieval Weltanschauung, is
Burckhardt 1955–1959, vol. 1 or Burckhardt upheld by Burckhardt through three main issues:
2000–2014, vol. 1), in which he dealt with the the awakening of the ancient Greek-Latin spirit in
troubled passage from the classical world to the Italian minds, the new awareness of the individu-
Christian orthodoxy. Between 1843 and 1845, ality of both man and state, and the discovery of
Burckhardt was granted a PhD degree from the the exterior world. Even if Burckhardt gives spe-
University of Basel and was appointed first Pri- cial attention to art, literature, and to the evolution
vatdozent and later ausserordentlicher Professor of ideas, he also analyzes the political framework
in history. In addition, 1842 was the year of his in which the Renaissance cultural transformation
first publication, Die Kunstwerke der belgischen could have developed. However, his outlook on
Städte, dedicated to his art history teacher Franz the Renaissance, on those switching forces that he
Kugler, who was also an illustrious member of the considered dynamic, could appear fixed and
Prussian ministry of culture. The relevance static. Anyway, Burckhardt always preferred
Kugler attributed to the historical context in vital historical periods, during which entire
which the development of art should have been populations experienced dramatic turning points,
included and to the strong bond between art and were spectators of the collapse of a previous world
society represent the roots of Burckhardt’s cul- and bearers of a new culture. This appears clear in
tural history. Following the long-lasting friend- many of his early historical works, especially in
ship between him and Kugler and a first 1853 Die Zeit Constantin’s des Grossen
“Italienische Reise” in 1847–1848, the Swiss his- (Burckhardt 1955–1959, vol. 1 or Burckhardt
torian edited a second art book, Der Cicerone (see 2000–2014, vol. 1), a sort of antecedent of his
Burckhadt 1955–1959, vols. 9–10 or Burckhardt Renaissance book, and in his university essay on
Burckhardt, Jacob 3
Conrad of Hochstadt (see Burckhardt 2000–2014, Schweighauser. English edition: Burckhardt, Jacob.
vol. 8). 1979 (1st ed. 1918). The Cicerone: An Art Guide to
Painting in Italy (trans: Clough. A. H.). London: Gar-
land Publishing.
Burckhardt, Jacob. 1860. Die Cultur der Renaissance in
Impact and Legacy Italien: ein Versuch. Basel: Schweighauser. English
edition: Burckhardt, Jacob. 2010 (1st ed. 1878). The
civilisation of renaissance in Italy (trans: Middlemore,
Burckhardt’s Weltschmerz and his contemplative S. G. C.). Mineola: Dover Publications.
historical view, his Archimedean point, were in Burckhardt, Jacob. 1955–1959. Gesammelte Werke. Basel:
dissonance with the Comtean positive attitude on B. Schwabe.
history or with Marxist, Neo-Hegelian, and Nietz- Burckhardt, Jacob. 2000–2014. Burckhardt Werke.
Kritische Gesamtausgabe. In 29 Bänden.
schean historical paradigms, which focused on the Herausgegeben von der Jacob Burckhardt-Stiftung,
concept of action. Nonetheless, Burckhardt was Basel. München: C. H. Beck; Basel: Schwabe.
admired by Nietzsche, with whom he partakes of a
late Schopenhauerian anti-Hegelianism and a gen- Secondary Literature
eral criticism of the leveling of democratic ten- Bazzicalupo, Laura. 1990. Il potere e la cultura: sulle
dencies. His notoriety extended to nearly 40 years riflessioni storico-politiche di Jakob Burckhardt.
Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane.
after his death, when Karl Löwith wrote a well- Garin, Eugenio. 1952. Introduzione. La civiltà del
known essay about him. The Civilization of the Rinascimento in Italia, ed. Jacob Burckhardt (trans:
Renaissance in Italy has been one of the most Valbusa, D.), XV–XXXV. Firenze: Sansoni.
important and influential perspectives on the Gherardi, Maurizio. 1991. La scoperta del Rinascimento.
L’età di Raffaello di Jacob Burckhardt. Torino:
Renaissance for years, even if many aspects of it Einaudi.
were already criticized at the beginning of the Gilbert, Felix. 1986. Jacob Burckhardt’s Student Years:
twentieth century, such as the stressed hiatus The Road to Cultural History. Journal of the History
between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, of Ideas 47: 249–274.
Gilbert, Felix. 1990a. History: Politics or culture? Reflec-
denied by Burckhardt’s Kulturgeschichte spiritual tions on Ranke and Burckhardt. Princeton, NJ:
heir, Johan Huizinga. However, we should Princeton University Press.
remember that Burckhardt did not deny the impor- Gilbert, Felix. 1990b. Ranke as the Teacher of Jacob
tance of the Middle Ages, considering that he Burckhardt. Leopold von Ranke and the Shaping of
the Historical Discipline, ed. George G. Iggers and
studied the German medieval epoch, stressing, James M. Powell, 82–88. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Uni-
for example, the creative spirit enlivening in the versity Press.
thirteenth century Cologne Cathedral (see Hinde, John R. 2000. Jacob Burckhardt and the Crisis of
Burckhardt 2000–2014, vol. 8). Modernity. Montreal/Kingston/London/Itacha:
McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Howard, Thomas A. 2000. Religion and the Rise of His-
toricism: W. M. L. de Wette, Jacob Burckhardt and the
References Theological Origins of Nineteenth-Century Historical
Consciousness. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Primary Literature Kaegi, Werner. 1947–1982. Jacob Burckhardt: eine
Burckhardt, Jacob. 1853. Die Zeit Constantin’s des Biographie. Basel/Stuttgart: Schwabe.
Grossen. Basel: Schweighauser. English edition: Löwith, Karl. 1936. Jacob Burckhardt: der Mensch
Burckhardt, Jacob. 1983 (1st ed. 1949). The Age of inmitten der Geschichte. Luzern: Vita Nova.
Constantine the Great (trans: Hadas, M.). Berkeley: Pinotti, Andrea, and Roli, Maria Luisa (eds.). La
University of California Press. formazione del vedere: lo sguardo di Jacob
Burckhardt, Jacob. 1855. Der Cicerone: Eine Anleitung Burckhardt. Macerata: Quodlibet.
zum Genuss der Kunstwerke Italiens. Basel:
F
Filarete be achieved by a single design for an entire city,

anticipating Machiavelli and Descartes who also
Born: circa 1400 in Florence looked for a single source of order, which polit-
ically became manifest in absolute monarchies.
Died: circa 1469 in Rome The shift from the human head and body to the
human mind, from Filarete to Descartes, how-
Ali Madanipour ever, took two centuries to emerge. The utopian
School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, designs of alternative realities became common
Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK practice for centuries, and the paradoxical rela-
tions with the natural world, simultaneously imi-
tating and transforming it, which Sforzinda
Abstract displays, are still with us. Although Sforzinda
was never built, Filarete’s built projects survive
As a theorist of architecture, Filarete is well in Milan’s castle and university.
known for his Treatise on Architecture, which
he wrote between 1461 and 1464 in Milan. In
the Treatise, which is the first such book in Ital- Biography
ian, rather than the usual Latin, Filarete proposes
the first star-shaped, ideal city of the Renaissance, Antonio di Pietro Averlino, who adopted the
reflecting the era’s humanism, naturalism, and name Filarete (Greek for lover of virtue or excel-
utopianism. The ideal city of Sforzinda, named lence), was a sculptor, architect, and theorist,
after the duke of Milan, was a search for har- born circa 1400 in Florence. From 1433 to
mony, proportion, and order, which were to be 1447, he worked in Rome on the carved bronze
found in ancient history, nature, and geometry. doors of St. Peter’s and from 1451 to 1465 in
The laws of nature were reflected in the body and Milan at the Duke Francesco Sforza’s castle, the
expressed in mathematics. The human figure was cathedral, and the Ospedale Maggiore (now
the source of inspiration, the Greek orders were Milan University). Between 1461 and 1464, he
the best model to be followed, and perfect geo- composed his Treatise on Architecture, describ-
metrical shapes were the tools with which to ing in detail the design and construction of the
design the city. The human head was the primary first ideal city of the Renaissance, the city of
measure of the body, which was extended to Sforzinda, named after the duke, and its port
architecture, as the basis of harmonious relation- Plusiapolis. He died circa 1469 in Rome
ships between the parts. The desired order was to (Filarete 1965; Lazzaroni and Muñoz 1908).
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_580-1
2 Filarete
Key Ideas now taken up as a potent symbol of humanism.

The discovery of the laws of perspective in
Filarete searches for harmony, proportion, and around 1425 led to designing buildings that
order, which he finds in history, nature, and focused on a single center, where the human
geometry. The treatise was inspired by his con- body stood, a secular idea in contrast with the
temporary theorist Leon Battista Alberti (1988) medieval sacred architecture that aimed at bring-
and the ancient Roman theorist Vitruvius (1999), ing the faithful to the altar (Pevsner 1963).
but it was the first such work written in Italian
rather than Latin, with the explicit aim of making
it more accessible. History provided the tools to Legacy
break from the immediate past and the guidelines
for the construction of the future. Sforzinda’s geometrical plan prefigured similar
Nature was reflected in harmony and propor- designs and the search for a utopian alternative in
tion. Located in a fictional fertile valley, future centuries. The twentieth-century modern-
Sforzinda is shaped by a natural order in which ist movement in architecture was one of the latest
“every building [is] located in its place” (Filarete revivals of this celebration of geometry, order,
1965, p. 26). The natural harmony is also found in and utopian futures (Le Corbusier 1978).
the human body and its proportions. With its Filarete’s advocacy of designing an entire city
architecture based on the human figure, his city by a single architect anticipated modern philo-
will be “fine, beautiful, and perpetual according sophical rationalism and political absolutism
to the laws of nature” (Filarete 1965, p. 5). God (Madanipour 2007). A generation before Machi-
had formed humans in His image, and they were avelli (1950), who argued in favor of a single
now able to shape the world in their own godly source of legal and political design, and two
image. The head, as “the most noble and most centuries before Descartes (1968, p. 35), who
beautiful member,” was the measure of the body: advocated that a city should be designed by one
“if the arms are opened and the hands extended, designer, Filarete had already designed a
[the man] will be nine heads in either direction” completely new city on the basis of a geometrical
(Filarete 1965, p. 8). The body becomes the mea- order. Filarete and Descartes both searched for a
sure of everything in the construction of an new foundation, which they found in human
anthropomorphic world. As reflected in his fic- beings, albeit one focusing on the body and the
tional host’s concern about the future of his nat- other on the mind but both trying to uncover the
ural habitat after the construction of a new city, laws of nature and express them through mathe-
however, the new relations between the human matics, the language they shared with Galileo’s
body and the natural context create a paradox scientific worldview. Filarete’s sense of the pos-
which we still identify to this day: embracing sible tension between urban development and the
nature while trying to transform it at the natural environment was an early indicator of a
same time. major problem that is still with us today.
Geometry was the expression of natural pro-
portions and the rational order of space.
Sforzinda was the first star-shaped city of the
Renaissance, “the first wholly symmetrical town References
plan in Western history” (Pevsner 1963, p. 185).
Alberti, Leon Battista. 1988. On the art of building in ten
The basic form of the city is “two squares, one books. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
atop the other without the angles touching,” all Corbusier, Le. 1978. Towards a new architecture. Lon-
enclosed within a circle (Filarete 1965, p. 25). don: The Architectural Press.
Descartes, René. 1968. Discourse on method and the med-
Sforzinda’s radial pattern and its central tower
itations. London: Penguin.
and square reflected central planning, the design Filarete. 1965. Treatise on Architecture. Trans. Spencer,
of buildings with a central focus, a Roman idea John. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Filarete 3
Lazzaroni, Michele, and Antonio Muñoz. 1908. Filarete: Madanipour, Ali. 2007. Designing the city of reason.
scultore e architetto del secolo 15. Rome: W.Modes London: Routledge.
Publishers. Pevsner, Nikolaus. 1963. An outline of European archi-
Machiavelli, Niccolò. 1950. The discourses of Niccolò tecture, 7th ed. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Machiavelli. London: Routledge and Paul. Vitruvius. 1999. Ten books on architecture. Cambridge:
N
Nardi, Bruno graduated in 1911 with a thesis illustrating the

presence of philosopher Siger of Brabant in
Born: 24 June 1884, Spianate di Altopascio Dante’s Divine Comedy. Back in Italy, Nardi
(Lucca, Italy) faced an acute spiritual crisis and returned to
Died: 9 July 1968, Rome secular life in 1914. Two years later, he moved
to Mantua, where he worked as a high school
Lorenzo Sacchini teacher of history and philosophy. Thanks to
Fredericksburg, USA Giovanni Gentile, in 1938 Nardi was appointed
to teach medieval philosophy at the Sapienza Uni-
versity of Rome. His promotion to full professor
Abstract was once blocked by the Vatican in 1941 and was
Bruno Nardi was a distinguished and influen- eventually secured in 1955. In 1964, at the time of
tial scholar on Dante’s works and medieval and his eightieth birthday, Nardi received an honorary
Renaissance philosophy. Born in Tuscany in doctorate from Oxford University. He died in
1884, Nardi studied in Belgium (Leuven) and Rome in 1968.
Italy, where he taught in high school and uni- His intellectual endeavor, chiefly characterized
versity. In his extensive and often pioneering by polemic ardor, focused on Dante’s philosoph-
research, Nardi reevaluated Dante’s relation- ical thought. Even his later works on sixteenth-
ship with his philosophical sources century philosophy can be considered as further
(especially Siger of Brabant and Thomas developments of his original research on Dante’s
Aquinas), reassessed the development of Aris- works. His encounter with Dante took place at an
totelian tradition(s) between the Middle Ages early age. His thesis Siger de Brabant dans la
and the Renaissance, and revealed and care- ‘Divine Comédie’ et les sources de la philosophie
fully analyzed unknown manuscript sources. de Dante (published in 1912) challenged the pre-
vailing opinion that Dante welcomed Siger of
Brabant into the paradise because he was not
Biography informed of his thought. The dissertation showed
that Dante was not – as generally believed – a
Bruno Nardi was the first-born child in a large strict Thomist and that he admitted the philoso-
Tuscan family. He entered the seminary at Pescia pher into heaven precisely because of Siger’s
in 1902 and was ordained as a priest in March thinking. Nardi’s second related interest lay in
1907. The following year he went to the the development of Aristotelian philosophical tra-
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). He dition in medieval and Renaissance Europe (often
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_588-1
2 Nardi, Bruno
still in connection with Dante). This task took Impact and Legacy
place in a series of contributions (Dante e la
cultura medievale. Nuovi saggi di filosofia Nardi’s method implied a philological study of the
dantesca, Bari 1942: Sigieri di Brabante nel original, often unpublished, sources. His investi-
pensiero del Rinascimento italiano, Rome 1945; gation was complemented by a careful explora-
Studi di filosofia medievale, Rome 1960; Saggi tion of the historical and geographical factors of
sull’aristotelismo padovano dal secolo XIV al the philosophers and institutions that shaped their
XVI, Rome 1960), which claim the continuity of positions. His extensive research on Aristotelian-
some central themes between the medieval and ism led to a broader understanding of the meta-
Renaissance philosophy and shed new light on physical and ontological doctrines, which he
more obscure aspects of this tradition. In the last traced back to their medieval roots; his legacy
years, he devoted his attention on Pietro played, however, a less dominant role on themes,
Pomponazzi. In his monograph Studi su Pietro such as the evolution of logic and the humanistic
Pomponazzi (Florence 1965), where he collected analysis of texts, that Nardi felt more detached
many of his previous essays on Pomponazzi, from his interests.
Nardi revealed new biographical evidence and
concentrated on texts previously overlooked by
scholars.
References
Dronke, Peter. 1998. Introduction. In Etienne Gilson’s Let-

ters to Bruno Nardi, ed. Peter Dronke, IX–XXIV. Flor-
Innovative and Original Aspects ence: Sismel – Edizioni del Galluzzo.
Falzone, Paolo. 2012. Nardi, Bruno. In Dizionario
In addition to a profound reassessment of Dante’s biografico degli Italiani, LXXVII: 770-2. Rome:
philosophical position and political thought, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
Garin, Eugenio. 1969. Ricordo di Bruno Nardi
Nardi’s work dramatically contributed to the
(1884–1968). Studi Danteschi 65: 5–28.
rethinking of “the history . . . of thirteenth and Gregory, Tullio. 1968. Bruno Nardi. Giornale critico della
fourteenth century western philosophy” (Dronke filosofia italiana 17: 469–501.
1998, XVI). Against contemporary Gregory, Tullio, and Mazzatinti, Paolo. 1990. Gli scritti di
Bruno Nardi. In Nardi, Bruno. «Lecturae» e altri studi
Neo-Scholasticism, he refused the simplistic iden-
danteschi, ed. Abardo, Rudy, 286–312. Florence: Le
tification of Aquinas’s doctrine as the summit of lettere.
the whole Christian philosophy. This assumption Gregory, Tullio, and Giorgio Petrocchi. 1979. Ricordo di
compelled Nardi to carefully investigate hetero- Bruno Nardi con sue pagine autobiografiche. Quaderni
della casa di Dante 5: 5–28.
dox doctrines and reevaluate the individuality of
Schiaffini, Alfredo. 1968. Bruno Nardi filologo e scrittore.
other and less studied Aristotelian currents, such L’Alighieri 9 (2): 5–12.
as the Averroism. Stabile, Giorgio. 1969. In memoria di Bruno Nardi. Il
Veltro 12: 577–583.
Varanini, Laura Simoni, ed. 2010. Per ricordare Bruno
Nardi. Florence: Sismel – Edizioni del Galluzzo.
Vasoli, Cesare. 1982. Bruno Nardi studioso del
Rinascimento. L’Alighieri 23 (2): 29–43.
D
Doni, Anton Francesco Biography
Born: 16 May 1513, Florence Mostly renowned as a writer and a printer, Anton
Francesco Doni was born in 1513 in Florence, son
Died: September 1574, Monselice (Padua) of Bernardo d’Antonio, a humble scissors-maker.
Little is known of his youth, except that he prob-
Alessandro Arienzo ably served militarily under Giovanni Bandini in
Department of Humanities, Università degli Studi 1530 and Luigi Guicciardini in 1534 or 1535. Out
di Napoli “Federico II”, Naples, Italy of economic need, at an unknown date, he entered
the Servite Order in the Santissima Annunziata
Monastery of Firenze and was ordained under
Abstract the name of Fra’ Valerio. In 1538, he wrote a
Anton Francesco Doni was born in 1513 in laudatory letter to Pietro Aretino, showing a pro-
Florence. Writer, musician, painter, and found knowledge of his works and an interest in
printer, he is credited as being the first Italian literature and writing. Uncomfortable with reli-
bibliographer for his two collections, La gious life, in the early months of 1540, Doni left
libraria (1550) and La seconda libraria the monastery and Florence and moved to Genoa,
(1551), in which he lists and discusses contem- embracing the life of the “letterato” and started
porary volumes as well as imaginary texts. His living by his pen. During his journey, he also
most relevant works are I marmi and I mondi in visited Alessandria, Pavia, and Milan in search
which (in witty, malicious, and sometimes mel- of patronage, which he may have enjoyed for
ancholic tones) he laments the corruption of his some time from Duke Alessandro De Medici and
age and the decay of civil and religious senti- Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici. In January 1543, he
ments. While in his basic features Doni’s arrived in Piacenza where, having failed to read
humanism is the expression of courtier cultural law and having a greater interest for letters, he
world, he distinguishes himself for his moral- joined the Accademia Ortolana with the nickname
istic critique, and sometimes melancholic of “Semenza” (seed). The Accademia Ortolana
rejection, of the ideology of the court. was a literary circle of literati and nobles with an
interest in light forms of literature and worldly
pleasures. Its members also shared a strong anti-
clericalism. Within this context, Doni published
his first literary work, a long letter with an annex

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_604-1
2 Doni, Anton Francesco
of sonnets written by other members of the It was from the 1551 to 1553 that Doni enjoyed
Accademia. his most fruitful years of his literary life. In 1551,
In 1544, Doni moved to Venice where he he printed his La seconda libraria, a work that
printed a collection of Lettere (1544) and a also includes lists of imaginary authors and books
Dialogo della musica (1544). Doni had a lifelong filled with comments seldom related to the works
interest in music, and his Dialogo is, in fact, a in question. It also includes short stories, observa-
collection of madrigals, dialogues, and music of tions, and comments intermingled with mythol-
various authors, intermixed with his own dia- ogy, moral advice, ancient histories, novels, and
logues and verses. In venice he probably met his own observations on the contemporary world.
Aretino, to whom he offered the first book of his His next book published was La zucca, a collec-
Lettere. The following year, he published an tion of moral tales, witticisms, aphorisms, and
enlarged edition of his collection and his reputa- letters, printed in four parts in late 1551 and in
tion grew, but his earnings were not sufficient to 1552. In 1552, Doni also published La moral
live from his art. He struggled to find a position as filosophia (1552), a large edition of his Lettere,
a courtier and unsuccessfully offered his services and the Pistolotti amorosi (1552), a satire of
to a variety of nobles and prelates. Following the Petrarchism and love treatises. However, it was
split of the Accademia Ortolana, and having alien- in 1552 and 1553 that Doni wrote his most rele-
ated the nobility of Piacenza in search of patron- vant works: I marmi and I mondi, the latter with its
age from Duke Pier Luigi Farnese, Doni moved to accompanying Inferni. In 1553, he also gave in
Florence and reinvented himself as a printer for print a new treatise of moral philosophy,
Duke Cosimo de’ Medici. His first printing effort L’asinesca gloria, in which the humble and
was a new edition of his own Lettere. At the patient ass is contrasted with the cruelty and ambi-
beginning of 1546, he was chosen as secretary of tion of mankind.
the Accademia Fiorentina, and his printing shop The prosperity that the success of these works
began to prosper. He then broke with Lodovico gave Doni did not last. Because of a serious fever,
Dominici, a former friend and a member of the he was unable to write, and in 1555, he had to
Academia, whom he accused of being a heretic leave Venice in circumstances not completely
and a Calvinist. Having alienated the sympathy of understood due to an altercation with a Florentine
his former associates, in late 1547, he closed his priest. Despite the previous good relations with
printing shop and departed to Venice to work as an Aretino, in 1556, he published the Terremoto sub-
editor for the printer Aurelio Pincio. The follow- titled “with the ruin of a great Colossus, bestial
ing year, he edited Ortensio Lando’s translation of Anti-Christ of our age” (Grendler 1969: 62). The
Thomas More’s Utopia, to which he added a book is deemed to be “the finest example of
valuable introductory letter. Between 1548 and diffamatory writing in the sixteenth century, for
1550, he also benefited from the support of Pietro Doni hurled every imaginable insult against Are-
Aretino, which provided him with occasional tino in language worthy of the Scourge of Princes
work. In 1549, he wrote a treatise on sculpture himself” (Grendler 1969: 62). The quarrel, how-
and painting, the Disegno, and the following year, ever, did not last for long, as Doni had predicted
a historical work on the life of Caesar, La fortuna that Aretino would die in the year 1556, “and
di Cesare. In 1550, he then moved to Giolito’s Aretino obligingly expired in October of that
shop, at the beginning to work as an editor and year” (Grendler 1969: 62).
translator and then as an author. With Giolito he Little is known of Doni’s activities in 1556 and
published his La libraria (1550), the first Italian 1557; in 1558, he tried to open a printing press in
bibliography of Italian contemporary authors and Ancona but was forced to leave the city because of
classics. While in Venice, Doni helped to create Paul IV’s order that all vagant friars were to return
the Accademia Pellegrina of which he was the to their convents. From the middle of 1558 to
secretary from 1553 to 1563. August 1562, there is no trace of his activities.
Probably in 1559, he wrote a comedy, Lo
Doni, Anton Francesco 3
stufaiuolo, which was not printed until 1861. In complaints about the corruption of his age and
1562, three new works by Doni were published. the decay of civil and religious sentiments.
Of these the most significant is a cabalist numer- Doni’s religious ideas can be deduced from his
ology (an expansion of a section of I marmi), constant polemics against monasticism and from
which tried to prove that Luther was the great his desire for a Christian renewal that, while sym-
beast of the Apocalypse. In 1654, he wrote Le pathetic to the critical spirit of the Reformation,
pitture, a collection of allegorical word pictures, never questioned Catholicism. In this sense, Doni
and, after his retirement to Monselice (near Ven- participates in a very common aspiration toward
ice), he wrote La lumiera, a poem lamenting the Erasmian ideal of a Christian religion based on
man’s miserable fate and failings. In late July charity and modesty. He was certainly in contact
1574, Doni journeyed in Venice aiming to present with a few representatives of the Italian Reforma-
the French King Henri III a poem on the battle of tion, such as Francesco Linguardo and Lelio
Lepanto. In September of the same year, he died. Sozzini, and in an interesting letter to
B. Guerrieri, a well-known leader of the Reforma-
tion in Siena, dated 28 November 1546 (ed. by
Grendler 1969), he expressed his faith in a manner
Doni’s Literary Activity
not too distant from Lutheranism and Calvinism.
I marmi and the Mondi are probably Doni’s
Anton Francesco Doni is a very complex human-
two most notable literary and philosophical
ist intellectual. A writer, musician, painter, and
works. I marmi (The Marbles, 1552) gathers a
publisher, his works are rich in observations, wit,
series of dialogues, on various themes, by
and inventions, described in his Zucca as
Accademici pellegrini or by ordinary Florentines.
“chiacchiere, filastrocche, frappe, chimere,
They are set on the marble steps (i marmi) of the
castelli in aria, [. . .] novelle, cicalecci, parabole,
cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence.
baie, proverbi, motti, umori ed alter giravolte e
Through a very distinctive style, in his dialogues
storie” (chitchat, rhymes, fripperies, chimeras,
Doni expresses his literary inventiveness and his
castles in the air [. . .] tales, chatters, parables,
moral resentment of his contemporaries, as well as
jests, proverbs, jokes, humor, and other twists
an acute reading of human instability and of the
and stories) (soni 1656: c.72). This quotation is
restlessness of human dispositions. Doni is con-
representative of Doni’s prose, strongly
vinced that men are inevitably trapped between
influenced by the Florentine tradition established
their insatiable appetites and the vanities and
by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio and by the
frailties of their mortal being (Borrelli 2000). I
“regionalistic” belief in the superiority of the Flor-
mondi is probably Doni’s most successful and
entine tongue, clearly expressed in I marmi.
best-known work. In his huge volume, “seven
Doni is a very typical figure of a late Renais-
worlds” are imagined: the small, the large, the
sance literato, who struggled to live by his pen
greatest, the mixed, the imaginary, the laughable,
while at the margins of courtly society. In a letter
and the world of fools. It develops through these
of 7 February 1553 to the sculptor Giovan Angelo
imaginary worlds that are discussed by different
Fiorentino, Doni confessed that “io scrivo del
Members of the Accademia Pellegrina under
continuo, per non passar la vita malinconica più
pseudonyms. Social and moral criticism, together
tosto che cercar fama, con ciò sia di che di tutte le
with moral advice, witty observations, and cri-
cose che hanno fine terreno mi fo beffe, e
tique of man dominate a work that is significant
ridomene come sono le mie carte” (I restlessly
for its inventiveness and imaginative style. The
write, so that I will not spend my life in melan-
best-known dialogue is the one between two aca-
choly, rather than for seeking fame. I laugh at all
demicians named “Il Savio” (the wise man) and
earthly things, as I do in my writings) (soni 1994:
“Il Pazzo” (the madman), to whom Jove and
401). In all his works, the witty, malicious, and
Momus send the vision of a new utopian world.
sometimes melancholic tone depicts his
The ideal city they describe, in fact, is ruled by a
4 Doni, Anton Francesco
communitarian utopia, most likely influenced by Anton Francesco Doni’s humanism is thus the
More’s Utopia, and by the wise laws of expression of a specific cultural world centered on
Garamanti, the utopian people narrated in the the court and its artistic and social representation.
Relox de los Principes (1529) by Antonio de However, he distinguishes himself from the most
Guevara. The use of Pazzia (Folly) to praise sim- typical discursive world of courtly literature as he
plicity and authenticity is borrowed from Eras- constantly moves from acceptance to a melan-
mus. While always maintaining his light and cholic rejection of the court’s values and orders.
satiric tone, Doni gives voice to a critique of his In this sense, it may be argued that his anxieties
contemporary society and to the desire for peace about and acquiescence toward courtly society, in
and the greatest possible degree of social justice. their mutual interconnections, do express Doni’s
Doni’s utopian city follows the typical model of imbalance between the acceptance of a conven-
the radical ideal city of Italian renaissance being tional social order and the social critique that is
“fabricata in tondo perfettissimo a guisa d’una implied in his moral philosophy (Pissavino 1991).
stella” (fabricated in the perfect round shape of a
star). This is a rational utopia, in which conflicts
are repressed through a strict regulation of the References
passions, from love to greed and religion, in a
paradoxical order that converts itself into folly Primary Literature
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Manziana: Vecchiarelli.
having removed the occasions, there will be few Dialogo della musica. 1969. In A. M. Monterosso
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way). Doni. Cremona: Athenaeum.
Inferni. Libro secondo de’ Mondi. 1998. Ed. by F. Sberlati.
It is been argued that Doni’s view is profoundly
Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua.
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Mondi e gli Inferni (I). 1994. a cura di P. Pellizzari. Torino:
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Einaudi.
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Ed. by C. Cordié. Milano-Napoli: Ricciardi.
being “against the prince” (Simoncini 1974). Pitture del Doni Academico Pellegrino. 2004. Ed. by
However, if Doni’s utopia gives an answer to the S. Maffei. Napoli: La stanza delle scritture.
aspiration for a new well-ordered world as a reac- Scritti scelti di Pietro Aretino e di Anton Francesco Doni.
1951. Ed. by G. G. Ferrero. Torino: UTET.
tion to the decay of contemporary society, this
Spiriti folletti (Gli). 1976. A. Del Fante, “Note su Anton
new world reproduces the needs of social and Francesco Doni. ‘Gli spiriti folletti’ ”, Atti e Memorie
political control expressed by princely and courtly dell’Accademia toscana di scienze e lettere “La
literature. In his own ambiguous and contradic- Colombaria”, XLI (n.s.XXVII): 173–209.
Umori e sentenze. 1988. Eds. by V. Giri e G. Masi. Roma:
tory way, Doni participates in the court ideology
Salerno Editrice.
of his age. The political and social topographies of Ville (Le). 1969. In Le Ville di Anton Francesco
his utopia have the temple at their center and show Doni, ed. by

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