Niccolò Leonico Tomeo

Engraving with the portrait of Niccolò Leonico Tomeo

Niccolò Leonico Tomeo also Nicholas Leonicus Thomaeus ( Italian Niccolò Leonico Tomeo , Greek Νικόλαος Λεόνικος Θωμεύς ) (born February 1, 1456 in Venice ; † March 28, 1531 in Padua ) was an Italian professor of ancient Greek and philosophy at the University of Padua .

Live and act

Tomeo was born in Venice into a family from Epirus .

In Florence he studied Greek philosophy and literature under the teaching of Demetrios Chalkokondyles . In 1497, the University of Padua appointed Thomaeus as the first official professor of Aristotle's Greek texts . Under the influence of Marsilio Ficino but also of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, he tried to combine the Platonic conception of "innate ideas " with the Aristotelian doctrine. In 1504 he was elected to the chair of the ancient Greek language in Venice as successor to Giorgio Valla . Thomaeus was replaced by Marcus Musurus in 1512 . In 1524, Thomaeus published a collection of philosophical dialogues in Latin, the first of which was entitled "Trophonius, sive, De divinatione". Scholars like Desiderius Erasmus recognized him for his philological skills; with he was in contact by letters. When the University of Padua reopened after the Wars of the League of Cambrai , Thomaeus taught there until his death on March 28, 1531.

Works (selection)

Trophonius, sive, De divinatione. (1524)
Opuscula. Ex Venetiis, Bernardino Vitali, Venice 1525.

Opuscula nuper in lucem aedita [sic] quorum nomina proxima habentur pagella.

Aristotelis Parva quae vocant Naturalia. Bernardino Vitali, Venice 1523
Conversio in Latinum atque explanatio primi libri Aristotelis de partibus animalium… nunc primum ex authoris archetypo in lucem aeditus. G. Farri, Venice 1540
Bembo sive de immortalitate animae. 1524.

literature

Emilio Russo: Leonico Tomeo, Niccolò. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 64: Latilla – Levi Montalcini. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2005.

Individual evidence

↑ John Platts: A New Universal Biography: Forming the first volume of series III. Volume 4. A New Universal Biography: Containing Interesting Accounts, Critical and Historical of the Lives and Characters, Labor and Actions, of Eminent Persons. Arranged in Chronological Order, Showing the Progress of Men and Things. Sherwood, Jones, and Company, New York 1826, p. 268
↑ Deno J. Geanakoplos: The Career of the little-known Renaissance Greek Scholar Nicholas Leonicus Tomaeus and the Ascendancy of Greco-Byzantine Aristotelianism at Padua University (1497) . Byzantina. (1985), 13 (1): 355-372.
^ Anthony Ossa-Richardson: The Devil's Tabernacle: The Pagan Oracles in Early Modern Thought. Princeton University Press. Princeton NJ 2013, ISBN 978-1-4008-4659-7 , p. 90.
^ GHR Parkinson: History of Philosophy Volume IV: The Renaissance and Seventeenth Century Rationalism. Routledge, London / New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-415-05378-5 .

personal data
SURNAME	Tomeo, Niccolò Leonico
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Leonico Tomeo, Nicolò; Leoniceno, Niccolò; Leonicenus, Nicolaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian humanist, professor of ancient Greek
DATE OF BIRTH	February 1, 1456
PLACE OF BIRTH	Venice
DATE OF DEATH	March 28, 1531
Place of death	Padua

[1] John Platts: A New Universal Biography: Forming the first volume of series III. Volume 4. A New Universal Biography: Containing Interesting Accounts, Critical and Historical of the Lives and Characters, Labor and Actions, of Eminent Persons. Arranged in Chronological Order, Showing the Progress of Men and Things. Sherwood, Jones, and Company, New York 1826, p. 268

[2] Deno J. Geanakoplos: The Career of the little-known Renaissance Greek Scholar Nicholas Leonicus Tomaeus and the Ascendancy of Greco-Byzantine Aristotelianism at Padua University (1497) . Byzantina. (1985), 13 (1): 355-372.

[3] Anthony Ossa-Richardson: The Devil's Tabernacle: The Pagan Oracles in Early Modern Thought. Princeton University Press. Princeton NJ 2013, ISBN 978-1-4008-4659-7 , p. 90.

[4] GHR Parkinson: History of Philosophy Volume IV: The Renaissance and Seventeenth Century Rationalism. Routledge, London / New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-415-05378-5 .