Alessandro Piccolomini

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Alessandro Piccolomini
Title page of Filosofia naturale

Alessandro Piccolomini (born June 13, 1508 in Siena ; † March 12, 1578 there ; Latin: Alexander Piccolomineus ) was a poet and philosopher , but gained fame especially as an astronomer .

Life

In his youth he wrote several comedies: Amor costante (1536), L'Alessandro (1544) and Ortensio . He translated Ovid's Metamorphoses , the Poetics and the Rhetoric of Aristotle . He wrote a hundred sonnets ( Cento Sonetti , published 1549) and other poems. In Siena he was a member of the Accademia degli Intronati .

In 1540 he became professor of philosophy in Padua . In his treatise Della grandezza della terra et dell'acqua (Venice, 1558) he fought against the opinion held by Aristotle and Ptolemy that the surface of water is larger than the land mass of the earth.

He also wrote about the improvement of the calendar (1578). Pope Gregory XIII appointed him titular archbishop of Patras in 1574 .

He died in Siena on March 12, 1578.

Scientific works

  • Della grandezza della terra et dell'acqua , 1558 ( digitized version of the Venice 1561 edition )
  • Della filosofia naturale , Venice 1560 ( digitized version )
  • In mechanicas quaestiones Aristotelis, paraphrasis paulo quidem plenior eivsdem commentarivm de certitudine mathematicarum disciplinarum , Venice 1565 ( digitized version )
  • Sfera Del Mondo (Area of ​​the World), 1540
  • Del le stelle fisse (Of the Fixed Stars), 1540
  • Speculazioni de 'pianeti (speculations about the planets - Piccolomini represented the view of Ptolemy)

Honors

The Piccolomini lunar crater was named after him.

literature

Web links

Commons : Alessandro Piccolomini  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Franco Tomasi: L'Accademia degli Intronati: strategy culturali e itinerari biografici.
  2. ↑ a b Enciclopedie on line
  3. ↑ a b Umberto Benigni: Alessandro Piccolomini. In: Catholic Encyclopedia.
personal data
SURNAME Piccolomini, Alessandro
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Piccolomineus, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian poet, philosopher and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1508
PLACE OF BIRTH Siena
DATE OF DEATH March 12, 1578
Place of death Siena