Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Piccolomini, Francesco

Born : 25 January 1523, Siena

Died : 22 April 1607, Siena

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy

Abstract

A professor of philosophy who spent most of his career at the University of Padua, Francesco Piccolomini was one of the most important and influential Italian interpreters of Aristotle in the second half of the sixteenth century. He was involved in a number of controversies, concerning the soul with Federico Pendasio and concerning the proper order of philosophical education with Jacopo Zabarella. His work on moral philosophy is possibly the most significant Italian treatment of that area of philosophy for the Renaissance period. Piccolomini is also important methodologically for his attempt to marry Aristotelianism and Platonism.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

Primary Literature

  • Manuscript Works

    Google Scholar 

  • Note: for Piccolomini’s numerous Latin lectures and other similar works that have remained in ms., see Lohr 1988, 332–342.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piccolomini, F. 1602. Instituzione del principe. Work completed and sent to Florence; dedicated to prince Cosimo (the future fourth Grand Duke of Tuscany). MSS: Florence, BRicc. 2589, ff. 1r–40r (presentation copy) and 7 further mss. Edited in Piccolomini 1858, 1–40; for the dedication only see also Battistini, M. 1915. Francesco Piccolomini e un suo scritto educativo per il Gran principe di Toscana. Bullettino senese di storia patria 22:334–338. Further comments in Lines 2015 (mss and further references in n. 15).

    Google Scholar 

  • Piccolomini, F. 1604. Compendio della scienza civile. Work completed and sent to Florence; dedicated to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Christina of Lorraine. MSS: Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. E.5.867, 110 folios (autograph presentation copy) and 8 further mss. Edited in Piccolomini 1858, pp 41–194. Further comments in Lines 2015 (mss and further references in n. 26 and n. 56).

    Google Scholar 

  • Printed Works

    Google Scholar 

  • Note: this listing is derived from Lohr 1988, 332–342, which in several cases provides further details.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duodo, P., (=Piccolomini, F.) 1575. Peripateticae de anima disputationes. Venice.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piccolomini, F. 1583. Universa philosophia de moribus. Venice (rev. ed. in 1594). Subsequently printed in 1596 (no place) and Frankfurt 1627 (see Lohr 1988, 342). Partial English translation in Kraye, J. 1997. Francesco Piccolomini. In Cambridge translations of Renaissance philosophical texts. Moral philosophy, vol 1, ed. Kraye, J., 68–88. Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piccolomini, F. 1594. Comes politicus pro recta ordinis ratione propugnator. Venice: Apud F. de Franciscis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piccolomini, F. 1596. Librorum ad scientiam de natura attinentes pars prima [−quinta]. Venice. Further eds. in Venice and Frankfurt as well; that of Frankfurt 1628 bears the title Naturae totius universi scientia perfecta atque philosophica (see Lohr 1988, 341; comments in Claessens 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  • Piccolomini, F. 1600. De rerum definitionibus liber unus. Venice (also Frankfurt 1600 and 1611, the latter with title De arte definiendi et eleganter discurrendi). Some comments in Lines 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piccolomini, F. 1602a. Librum Aristotelis De ortu et interitu lucidissima expositio, multiplici annotationum varietate amplificata. Venice. Further eds. in Frankfurt and Mainz under various titles (see Lohr 1988, 337–338).

    Google Scholar 

  • Piccolomini, F. 1602b. In III libros Aristotelis De anima lucidissima expositio, multiplici annotationum varietate amplificata. Venice. Further eds. in Frankfurt and Mainz under various titles (see Lohr 1988, p 340).

    Google Scholar 

  • Piccolomini, F. 1603. Discursus ad universam logicam attinens. Marburg: Egenolph.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piccolomini, F. 1606. Octavi libri naturalium auscultationum perspicua interpretatio, multiplici annotationum varietate illustrata, nunc primum in lucem edita. Venice: Apud Ioan. Antonium & Iacobum de Franciscis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piccolomini, F. 1607. In libros Aristotelis De caelo lucidissima expositio, multiplici annotationum varietate amplificata. Venice; rpt. Mainz 1608 with title Commentarii in libros Aristotelis De caelo, Ortu et interitu, adiuncta lucidissima expositione in III libros eiusdem De anima.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piccolomini, F. 1858. In Breve discorso della instituzione di un principe e Compendio della scienza civile di Francesco Piccolomini con otto lettere e nove disegni delle macchie solari di Galileo Galilei, ed. Pieralisi, S. Rome.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tiepolo, S., (=Piccolomini, F.) 1576. Academicarum contemplationum libri decem. Venice.

    Google Scholar 

Secondary Literature

  • Baldini, A.E. 1980a. La politica ‘etica’ di Francesco Piccolomini. Il Pensiero Politico 13: 161–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baldini, A.E. 1980b. Per la biografia di Francesco Piccolomini. Rinascimento, S II 20: 389–420.

    Google Scholar 

  • Claessens, G. 2012. Francesco Piccolomini on prime matter and extension. Vivarium 50(2): 225–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Claessens, G. 2014. A sixteenth-century Neoplatonic synthesis: Francesco Piccolomini’s theory of mathematics and imagination in the Academicae contemplationes. Br J Hist Sci 47(3): 421–431.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garin, E. 2008. History of Italian philosophy. Trans. Giorgio, Pinton, 437–441. Amsterdam, Rodopi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jardine, N. 1997. Keeping order in the school of Padua: Jacopo Zabarella and Francesco Piccolomini on the offices of philosophy. In Method and order in Renaissance philosophy of nature: the Aristotelian commentary tradition, ed. Di Liscia, D.A., E. Kessler, and C. Methuen, 183–209. Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kessler, E. 1987. Von der Psychologie zur Methodenlehre: Die Entwicklung des methodischen Wahrheitsbegriffes in der Renaissancepsychologie. Z Philos Forsch 41: 548–570 (esp. 559–562).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kessler, E. 1988. The intellective soul. In The Cambridge history of Renaissance philosophy, ed. Schmitt, C.B., et al., 485–534. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, (esp. 527–531, 533–534).

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kraye, J. 2002. Eclectic Aristotelianism in the moral philosophy of Francesco Piccolomini. In ed. Piaia, G., 57–82. 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, H.C. 2002. Chartaceous presence, material impact: works by Paduan Aristotelians in German Libraries (A Bibliometric Study). In ed. Piaia, G., 83–122. 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, C.J.T. 1978. Scotist influence on the natural philosophy of Francesco Piccolomini (1520–1604). In Regnum Hominis et Regnum Dei, Acta Quarti Congressus Scotistici Internationalis (Patavii, 24–29 septembris 1976). vol. II. Sectio specialis: La tradizione scotista veneto-padovana, ed. Bérubé, C., 291–296. Rome: Societas Internationalis Scotista.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, C.J.T. 1980. The Merton tradition and kinematics in late sixteenth and early seventeenth century Italy. Padua: Antenore.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lines, D.A. 2002a. Aristotle’s Ethics in the Italian Renaissance (ca. 1300–1650): the universities and the problem of moral education, 254–288. Leiden: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lines, D.A. 2002b. Il metodo dell’etica nella scuola padovana e la sua ricezione nei paesi d’oltralpe: M. Piccart e B. Keckermann. In ed. Piaia, G., 319–348. 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lines, D.A. 2015. Latin and Vernacular in Francesco Piccolomini’s moral philosophy. In “Aristotele fatto volgare”: Tradizione aristotelica e cultura volgare nel Rinascimento, ed. Lines, D.A., and E. Refini. Pisa, (ETS); vernacular 169–199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lohr, C.H. 1980. Renaissance Latin Aristotle commentaries. Authors Pi–Sm. Renaiss Q 33(4): 626–639.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lohr, C.H. 1988. Latin Aristotle commentaries: Renaissance authors, 331–342. Florence: Leo S. Olschki.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michael, E. 1993. The nature and influence of late Renaissance Paduan psychology. Hist Univ 12: 65–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mikkeli, H. 2002. Zabarella and Piccolomini in Scandinavian countries in the seventeenth century. In ed. Piaia, G., 257–272. 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nardi, B. 1958. Il commento di Simplicio al De anima nelle controversie della fine del secolo XV e del secolo XVI. In Saggi sull’aristotelismo padovano dal secolo XIV al XVI, 365–442 (esp. 424–441). Florence: G.C. Sansoni, (esp. 424–441).

    Google Scholar 

  • Piaia, G. 2002. La presenza dell’aristotelismo padovano nella filosofia della prima modernità. Atti del Colloquio internazionale in memoria di Charles B. Schmitt: Padova, 4–6 settembre 2000. Padua: Antenore.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plastina, S. 2002. Concordia discors: Aristotelismus und Platonismus in der Philosophie des Francesco Piccolomini. In Das Ende des Hermetismus: Historische Kritik und neue Naturphilosophie in der Spätrenaissance, ed. Mulsow, M., 213–234. Tübingen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poppi, A. 1976. Il problema della filosofia morale nella Scuola padovana del Rinascimento: Platonismo e aristotelismo nella definizione del metodo dell’Etica. In Platon et Aristote à la Renaissance, 105–146. Paris: Vrin, Reprint in Poppi A (1997) L’etica del Rinascimento tra Platone e Aristotele, Naples: La città del sole pp 11–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poppi, A. 2004. Zabarella, or Aristotelianism as a rigorous science. In The impact of Aristotelianism on modern philosophy, ed. Pozzo, R., 35–63. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ragnisco, P. 1885/1886. Giacomo Zabarella, il filosofo: La polemica tra Francesco Piccolomini e Giacomo Zabarella nella Università di Padova. Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di Sci, Lett ed Arti 4(S. 6): 1217–1252.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saitta, G. 1961. Il pensiero italiano nell’Umanesimo e Rinascimento, 2 vols., 2nd ed., II, 423–436. Florence: G.C. Sansoni.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scattola, M. 2002. Arnisaeus, Zabarella e Piccolomini: la discussione sul metodo della filosofia pratica alle origini della disciplina politica moderna. In ed. Piaia, G., 273–309. 2002.

    Google Scholar 

Tertiary Literature

  • Cosenza, M.E. 1962–67. Biographical and bibliographical dictionary of the Italian humanists and of the world of classical scholarship in Italy, 1300–1800, 6 vols., IV, 2756 ff. Boston: G.K. Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lohr, C.H. 1988. Latin Aristotle commentaries: Renaissance authors, 332. Florence: Leo S. Olschki.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, C.B. 1988. The Cambridge history of Renaissance philosophy, 831. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Italian Studies, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL, Coventry, UK

    David A. Lines

Authors
  1. David A. Lines
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David A. Lines .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Verona, Mantova, Italy

    Marco Sgarbi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of United Kingdom

About this entry

Cite this entry

Lines, D.A. (2015). Piccolomini, Francesco. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_354-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_354-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation