Paolo Antonio Foscarini

Paolo Antonio Foscarini (* 1565 in Montalto Uffugo in Calabria ; † June 10, 1616 ibid) was an Italian theologian and astronomer.

Foscarini's Defense of the Copernican Doctrine of 1615

Foscarini joined the Carmelite Order . He taught philosophy and theology at the University of Messina , had a reputation as a preacher and theologian and was Provincial of the Carmelite Order for Calabria.

In 1615 he published the book Letter on the view of the Pythagoreans and Copernicus about the mobility of the earth and the stability of the sun and the new Pythagorean world system , in which he defended the heliocentric doctrine of Copernicus and found it in accordance with the Bible. He defended his theses personally in Rome, but left the city again before Galileo Galilei arrived there. Galileo hoped to have found an ally in Foscarini in the struggle for the Copernican doctrine in the Church. However, the book by Foscarini was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum by the Sacra Congregatio Romanae et universalis Inquisitionis on March 5, 1616 .

Foscarini died soon afterwards in a monastery of his order that he had founded in his hometown.

Fonts

Theological writings:

• Ordinationes et exercitia quotidiana , 1607
• Institutionum omnis generis doctrinarum tomis VII comprehensarum syntaxis , 1613
• Tratato della divinatione naturale cosmologica , 1615

His defense of the Copernican system:

• Lettera sopra l'Opinione de ' Pittagorici , e del Copernico della Mobilità della Terra, e Stabilità del Sole, e del Nuove Pittagorica Systema del Mondo , Naples 1615
  • English translation in: Richard J. Blackwell: Galileo, Bellarmine, and the Bible , Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991, pp. 217-251.

literature

• Pamela Anastasio:  Foscarini, Paolo Antonio. In: Fiorella Bartoccini (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 49:  Forino – Francesco da Serino. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1997.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Foscarnio, Paolo Antonio. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Col. 74.

Web links

• Galileo Project