Abstract
Niccolò Tignosi was a physician and professor of medicine active in Tuscany (especially Florence) in the second and third quarters of the fifteenth century. More or less at the same time in which Johannes Argyropoulos began his famous activity of interpreting Aristotle there, Tignosi published a commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, which received a rather hostile response from his contemporaries, prompting him to defend himself in a very interesting opusculum. He also wrote on Aristotelian logic and psychology and penned a series of historical and political treatises, displaying a desire to remain close to the Medici family. His works point to the numerous intersections between humanism and scholasticism in Renaissance Florence.
References
Primary Literature
Tignosi, N. Ad clarissimum virum Iohannem Medicem de laudibus Cosmi patris eius, seu desceptatio Perusiae an priscorum hominum mores et ingenia antecellant viventium. Two MSS: Florence, BLaur., Plut LIII, 11 (XV), ff. 42–60 and LIV, 10 (XV), ff. 60–73; datable shortly before 1460 (Rotondò 1958, 226, n. 6; Sensi 1971–72, 382–85; edition on 447–65).
Tignosi, N. Comentum utilissimum, sive opus sensus compositi et divisi compilatum a magistro Nicolao de Fulgineo artium ac medicine doctore excellentissimo. One MS: Padua, BCapitolare nella Curia vescovile, D.54 (XV), ff. 44v-48v. Undated, but possibly not much after the Posterior Analytics commentary (Sensi 1971–72, 374–75).
Tignosi, N. Commenta in Ethicorum libros. Four MSS: Florence, BLaur., Plut. LXXVI, 48 (XV), 233 ff.; Plut. LXXVI, 49 (XV), 198 ff. (dedication copy to Piero de’ Medici); Florence, BNC, Gino Capponi, 314 (XV), 205 ff. (now missing Books V and X); Perugia, BCom. Augustea, L, 79 (XV), 279 ff. On the basis of the dedication, Plut. LXXVI, 49 is datable c. 1461, but the work itself is almost certainly earlier (on the MSS see Sensi 1971–72, 385; Lohr 1972, 306; Barale Hennemann 1974, 218; Field 1988, 140–41; Lines 1999a, 144, n. 14; Lines 1999b, 273–74; Lines 2002, 490–91).
Tignosi, N. Commenta in libros De anima. One MS: Florence, BLaur., Plut. LXXXII, 17 (XV), 253 folios. Dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici; prepared 1474. Printed posthumously in Florence, 1551 (Lohr 1972, 306; Rotondò 1958, 244–55; Sensi 1971–72, 406–14).
Tignosi, N. Commentary (untitled and undated) on Aristotle’s Posterior analytics. One MS: Florence, BRicc., 110 (XV), 198 folios (Rotondò 1958, 221–25; Sensi 1971–72, 370–74; Field 1988, 139). From the late 1430s according to Rotondò.
Tignosi, N. De origine Fulginatum. Five MSS: Rome, BNC, 11 (XV); Foligno, Biblioteca Iacobilli, A.II.5, ff. 118–126; A.V.11, ff. 102–114; B.VI.3, ff. 39–62; Foligno, BCom. Fondo Faloci, ms. 136 (XVIII ex.), ff. 12–30v. Possibly datable to the 1460s (Sensi 1971–72, 369 and 395–400; edition on 483–95).
Tignosi, N. In illos qui mea in Aristotelis comentaria criminantur opusculum (dedicated to Cosimo de’ Medici; before August 1464). Two MSS: Florence, BLaur. Plut. XLVIII, 37 (XV), 27 folios; Florence, BNC Conv. Soppr. C.8.1800 (XV), ff. 2r–16v (see Lohr 1972, 306; Sensi 1971–72, 388–95; edition on 466–82).
Tignosi, N. Libellus ubi disputatum est quare nascentes octavo mense plurimum subito moriuntur (lost; Sensi 1971–72, 395, n. 36).
Tignosi, N. Opusculum de ideis. Two MSS: Florence, BLaur., Plut. LXXXII, 22 (XV), 42 folios; Pesaro, BOliveriana, ms. 606 (Thorndike 1929, edition on 332–63; Rotondò 1958, 218, n. 1 and 242–48; Berti 1967; Sensi 1971–72, 403–06).
Tignosi, N. Quod tarde bella suscipienda sint. Three MSS: Foligno, Biblioteca Iacobilli, A.II.5, ff. 126v–136v; A.V.11, ff. 119–136v; Foligno, BCom., F. 163, ff. 31–57v. The works follows the De origine fulginatum in the first ms.; possibly datable to the 1460s (Sensi 1971–72, 369 and edition on 432–46).
Tignosi, N. Untitled reply to a philosophical query to Tignosi from Perugia ‘Si ad generationem rerum naturalium hydeas concurrere, ut Plato sensit, absonum debeat reputari’. Tignosi’s reply, on 10 Jan. 1471, while he was in Todi, is directed to Nicola compater. One MS: Vatican City, BAV, fondo Vat. Lateran. 3896 (XV), ff. 79–86 (Thorndike 1929, edition on 308–31; Berti 1967; Sensi 1971–72, 400–03).
Tignosi, N. Expugnatio Constantinopolitana. One MS: Vatican City, BAV, Urb. Lat. 923 (XV), ff. 28v–41. Written c. 1455 (Sensi 1971–72, 378–82; edition on 423–31; selections with Italian translation in A. Pertusi (ed.), Testi inediti e poco noti sulla caduta di Costantinopoli (Bologna 1983), 102–21).
Secondary Literature
Barale Hennemann, I. 1974. Aspekte der aristotelischen Tradition in der Kultur der Toskana des XV. Jahrhunderts: Der philosophische Unterricht an der Universität Pisa von 1474–1502. Pisa: Editrice tecnico scientifica.
Berti, E. 1967. La dottrina platonica delle idee nel pensiero di Niccolò Tignosi da Foligno. In Filosofia e cultura in Umbria tra Medioevo e Rinascimento (Atti del IV Convegno di Studi Umbri), 533–565. Gubbio: Centro di studi umbri presso la Casa di Sant’Ubaldo in Gubbio.
Field, A. 1988. The origins of the Platonic academy of Florence. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Hasse, D.N. 2004. Aufstieg und Niedergang des Averroismus in der Renaissance: Niccolò Tignosi, Agostino Nifo, Francesco Vimercato. In “Herbst des Mittelalters?”: Fragen zur Bewertung des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts, ed. J.A. Aertsen and M. Pickavé, 131–147. Berlin: W. de Gruyter.
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Tertiary Literature
Cosenza, M.E. 1962–1967. Biographical and bibliographical dictionary of the Italian humanists and of the world of classical scholarship in Italy, 1300–1800, 6 vols., 3408 ff., V, 1756 ff. Boston: G.K. Hall.
Lohr, C.H. 1988. Commentateurs d’Aristote au moyen-âge latin: Bibliographie de la litterature sécondaire recente, 183. Fribourg/Paris: Éditions Universitaires/Éditions du Cerf.
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Lines, D.A. (2015). Tignosi, Niccolò. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_361-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_361-1