1,720,991 research outputs found
Può un uomo generarsi nell’utero di una capra o di una cagna? Una quaestio di Urbano da Bologna nel commento alla Physica di Averroè
Full text linkIn Latin Europe, the controversy over spontaneous generation of perfect animals – namely those whose breeding occurs through sexual reproduction – is received in different ways, varying from positions very close to Avicenna’s, as in the case of Pietro Pomponazzi, to interpretations that rather refer to Averroes’ perspective. To this ‘Averroist front’ undoubtedly belongs the figure of Urbano da Bologna, author of the Expositio commenti Averrois in VIII libros Physicorum – a work that can be defined a supercommentary to Averroes’ Physica – composed in Bologna around 1334. The present study aims to provide the complete transcription of a quaestio that is present in the work – but which was disputed according to its author also in public – as an example of the elaboration of the theme of spontaneous generation in the early 14th century. The text deals with many aspects of the problem, especially elaborating on the correspondence between each specific form and its appropriate matter, in the light of the lively debates of the time, and reveals a mature understanding of Aristotle’s natural philosophy and its Averroist interpretation
What Is It Like to Die for a Stone? Albert the Great and the Biologisation of Inorganic Nature
No full textIn the De mineralibus, Albert the Great clearly states that minerals do not possess life, since – following the Aristotelian path – life is always connected with the op-erations of the soul. Nevertheless, dealing with the virtues of stones, Albert speaks about a curious difference between “living” and “dead” stones: living stones are substances that possess virtues caused by their forms, while non-living stones are called stones only equivocally because their virtues have expired. Moreover, throughout his work, Albert often seeks help from the biological world to explain the nature and the processes of mineral substances: the coming-into-being of stones and metals is often compared to the generation of plants and animals; places where minerals are formed act as the mother’s womb for the embryo; sulphur and quicksilver are said to be the father and the mother of all metals; etc. The tendency to biologise inorganic nature is a key strategy that Albert uses to explain the processes and functions of the mineral world
Il libro VI della Catena aurea entium di Enrico di Herford: un adattamento trecentesco del De mineralibus di Alberto Magno
No full textIn the mid-14th century, Henry of Herford wrote the Catena aurea entium, a work of remarkable length and composed of ten books – in turn divided into ansae extending over some 5000 questions. The present study aims to analyse some aspects that the recent critical edition of Book VI of the Catena has brought to light: firstly, the dependence on Albert the Great’s De mineralibus and the compilative method used by Henry in the reworking of his sources; secondly, the main philosophical, medical and encyclopedic sources that structure the treatise on minerals (in which metals are also included); and lastly, the author’s personal contribution, especially highlighting the use of vernacular terms and the recounting of personal experiences, which became useful means in explaining certain natural phenomena such as the formation of fossils or the production of images and seals
Why Philosophers Father Foolish Children. Peter of Spain, Albert the Great and James of Viterbo on the Transmission of Intellectual Qualities
No full textFrequent failures in the transmission of intellectual virtues from parents to their offspring is a recurring topic in medieval medical and philosophical texts. Nonetheless, it represents a grey area within the emergent embryonic theory of the regular transfer of “hereditary traits,” a liminal phenomenon of a more general theory of generation. This study exemines early approaches to the generation of foolish children by wise men. Starting with the medical account in one of the Salernitan questions discovered in the Bodleian Manuscript (Auct. F.3. 10), the argument proceeds to Peter of Spain’s short digression on the topic in a commentary on Aristotle’s De animalibus and to Albert the Great’s dedicated question in the Quaestiones super libris “De animalibus”. The Salernitan question is the source of Albert’s physiological angle in attributing the failed intergenerational transmission of intellectual qualities to the inadequate digestion of philosophers’ semen. Albert’s position is considered against the background of his other works that address the generation of animals, the concept of digestio, and the role of melancholia adusta in the act of thinking. Additionally, the key points of James of Viterbo’s quodlibetal question are scrutinised
Accidia e malinconia. Le radici mediche nella descrizione degli accidiosi nel canto VII dell'Inferno dantesco
No full textThe relation between the moral account of the capital vices and the philosophical analysis of the passions of the human soul undergoes an important turning point from the 11th century onwards during the recovery of medical knowledge in the medieval West. In this wave of fervour towards a physiological approach in the investigation of the nature of man, the vice of acedia – as described by the Christian moral tradition – and the melancholic temperament – the result of a millenary reworking and technicalisation of medical knowledge – found a point of contact in the passion of sadness. If authors such as Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, following the Christian heritage, characterised acedia as an escalation of the passion of sadness, the medical tradition from Hippocrates and Galen to Avicenna and Constantine recognised sadness as one of the most distinctive manifestations of the melancholic temperament. The aim of this study is to demonstrate, by retracing some aspects of this interweaving of traditions after the year 1000, how Dante’s description of the sinners of acedia in Canto VII of the Inferno takes up the legacy of this hybridisation between the Christian description of acedia and the physiological description of melancholy
«Come virtude in pietra da corpo nobilissimo celestiale». La filosofia naturale di Alberto Magno nel Convivio dantesco
No full textIl presente contributo dimostra come alcuni elementi peculiari della filosofia naturale di Alberto Magno legati alla trattazione sulle sostanze minerali, alla funzione dei luoghi e alla generazione dei corpi misti siano accolti da Dante con una certa fedeltà e organicità nella stesura del Convivio. L’obiettivo della ricerca è dunque il chiarimento del rapporto tra alcuni testi filosofici di Alberto – in particolare il De animalibus, il De vegetabilibus, il De mineralibus e il De natura loci – e il prosimetro dantesco. Così, alla luce di una analisi dei temi specifici e del lessico utilizzato da Dante, appare evidente come la dottrina sulla generazione degli animali esposta dal poeta fiorentino nel Convivio sia modellata sulla terminologia propria del De animalibus del domenicano; allo stesso modo il processo di generazione dei minerali, descritto dal maestro di Colonia come quella complessa azione di più forze cooperanti tra loro – quali i cieli e i luoghi naturali – trova una sua precisa risonanza nel Convivio; inoltre, Dante pare condividere la teoria albertina sul ruolo del luogo come intermediario nei processi generativi e come condizione essenziale per la sussistenza delle sostanze
The Figure and Thought of Berthold of Moosburg. New Studies and Perspectives
No full textIn recent years, studies on Berthold of Moosburg have seen a significant growth, which has broadened the understanding of his philosophical thought. The Expositio super Elementationem theologicam Procli, as a comprehensive commentary on the Proclian work, is emerging in its full complexity as the project of glorification of Platonism and of Proclian sapiential perspective over Aristotelian intellectualism. In his philosophical programme, Berthold thus ascribes Avicenna to the party of the Peripatetics, places philosophers such as Avicebron as the main pillars of an autonomous Platonic current, takes up Eriugenian philosophy to solidify the link between Proclus’ paganism and Christian Neoplatonism, and uses Dietrich of Freiberg’s perspectives to clarify Aristotelian doctrines. The influence that these authors had on Berthold’s thought has been the subject of the latest research findings, which have also unveiled the significance of the relation with the authors of the school of Cologne, the impact of Oxford intellectual life – especially Thomas of York - and the relevance of Hermetic philosophy. Moreover, Berthold’s work is by no means lacking in independent reflection, as can be seen from the consideration of the extensive proemial part of the Expositio and from the insights into philosophical solutions which are peculiar to Berthold, such as the doctrine of the unum animae
Alchimicorum periti operantur sicut periti medicorum. Albert the Great’s Account on Alchemical Transmutation
Full text linkThis article deals with the most relevant philosophical side of Albert the Great’s analysis of alchemy, aimed at clarifying what alchemical transmutation consists in and whether this process can ultimately be accomplished by men. The Dominican master handles the problem differently in the earlier commentary on Lombardus’ Libri Sententiarum and in works like the De mineralibus, in which a more mature idea of the connection between art and nature is developed. In this respect, Albert’s interpretation intersects with Avicenna’s De congelatione, a fundamental text for the Latin medieval debate on alchemy, whose reception has shaped his understanding of the alchemical art. The Dominican master gradually assumes a more lenient position towards the claims of the alchemical process of transmutation, which he explains by resorting to the similitudes between alchemy and medicine and the comparison of artificial transmutation with natural processes such as the generatio ex putrefactione and the natural formation of minerals
Are prime numbers special? Insights from the life sciences
Full text linkPrime numbers have been attracting the interest of scientists since the first formulation of Euclid’s theorem in 300 B.C. Nowadays, physicists and mathematicians continue to formulate new theorems about prime numbers, trying to comprehensively explain their articulated properties. However, evidence from biology and experimental psychology suggest that prime numbers possess distinctive natural properties that pre-exist human grasping. The present work aims at reviewing the existing literature on prime numbers in the life sciences, including some recent experimental contributions employing newly hatched domestic chicks as animal model to test for spontaneous mechanisms allowing discrimination of primes from non-primes. Our overarching goal is that of discussing some instances of prime numbers in nature, with particular reference to their peculiar, non-mathematical, perceptual properties
- …
