Aristotle's Zoology & Its Renaissance Commentators (1521-1601 (Ancient & Medieval Philosophy, Series 1, 27) [Hardcover]

Stefano Perfetti (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 258 pages
• Publisher: Leuven Univ Pr (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9058670503
• ISBN-13: 978-9058670502
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,376,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

When he's not listening to Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf or Buddy Guy, and when he's not playing his Telecaster, Stefano Perfetti teaches History of Medieval Philosophy and Philosophy of Religions at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Pisa. He has published articles in English and Italian on Augustine, Peter Abelard, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas; on late-Medieval and Renaissance Aristotelianism, focussing on the the clash/encounter between scholastic commentary and humanistic philology, especially in the field of zoology. His books include Aristotle's Zoology and its Renaissance Commentators (1521-1601) (Leuven 2000) and the critical edition of Pietro Pomponazzi, Expositio super primo et secundo De partibus animalium (Florence 2004).

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3.0 out of 5 stars Aristotle' Animals and Renaissance university practices, May 3, 2002

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This review is from: Aristotle's Zoology & Its Renaissance Commentators (1521-1601 (Ancient & Medieval Philosophy, Series 1, 27) (Hardcover)

Almost neglected in the Middle Ages, Aristotle's zoological treatises received increasing attention in the Cinquecento, and were often commented on by several professional Aristotelians. Through close scrutiny of unpublished and rare texts, I reconstruct here this commentary tradition: a parabola that goes from Pomponazzi's lessons on the De partibus animalium (held in Bologna, 1521-23) up to the publication of Cristoforo Guarinoni's Commentaria in primum librum De historia animalium, Frankfurt 1601, and includes other bright lights of the Aristotelian scene, such as Niccolò Leonico Tomeo, Agostino Nifo, Julius Caesar Scaliger, Simone Porzio, Francesco Vimercato, and Cesare Cremonini (while a sort of paragraph zero is devoted to the Byzantine humanist Theodore Gaza, who had worked out the reference Latin translation of these treatises). Special attention is paid to the peculiar techniques of analysis employed by each commentator and to the balance between philology, erudition, and natural philosophy. This study also provides a reading key that explains the reasons of this renewed interest for philosophical zoology in the first half of the century and explains why commentators transformed their use of Aristotle's zoology throughout the second half of the century, to reach, eventually, the extinction of medieval commentary-technique.