Survey of the editions and MSS—Inference from a citation of Avenzoar—Popes and poisons.
Appendix VIII. Peter and the Inquisition.
His own statement in the Conciliator—His professions of orthodoxy—Does his will show fear of the Inquisition?—Gloria’s inference—Did Peter’s sons inherit his property?—If so, how?—Burning of Peter’s bones for heresy—The account of Michael Savonarola—Scardeone’s account—Naudé’s statement.
“... he reconciled conflicts, a wonderful warrior!”
—Tomasini (1630) p. 22.
Plan of this chapter
Peter of Abano, or Peter of Padua, as he was often called from the larger city near his birthplace where he did much of his teaching, was one of the most influential men of learning during the last years of the thirteenth and the opening years of the fourteenth century. Of his writings in medicine, philosophy, and astronomy many are extant, and most of these in printed editions. Yet he has never been adequately or accurately treated in English. In our language there have merely been brief notices of or incidental references to him in histories of science and medicine, or of the inquisition and of rationalism in Europe, or in general encyclopedias. Such passages and parallel ones in foreign languages[2757] often give dates of Peter’s life or death incorrectly, or do injustice to his opinions from an insufficient or very indirect knowledge of his works, or represent him as a victim of the Inquisition and an example of the hostility of the medieval church to science to an extent which the sources do not justify. There are, however, in European languages, especially Italian, some secondary studies of importance concerning Peter. It is upon these and a direct examination of his works that the present chapter will be based. To avoid prolixity of text and footnotes, details of bibliography[2758] and a number of problems concerning his life which require to be discussed at some length have been transferred to appendices at the close of the chapter. In the present text, since most of Peter’s works can be dated rather exactly and since they were among the chief events of his life, we may combine biography and bibliography in large measure. We shall then treat somewhat, although by no means adequately, of his place in the history of science, and finally of his propensities toward astrology and other varieties of magic.
Birth and family.
Peter’s own statements in his chief work, the Conciliator,[2759] show that he wrote it in the year 1303, after having worked it over in class-room lectures and discussions for ten years previously, and that he was fifty-three years of age at that time. In other words, he was born in 1250. On one point of his biography more precise and scientific detail is forthcoming than is customary in the lives of the great men of the past, for he confides exactly how long a time elapsed before his birth, nine months and fourteen days, as he had learned by astrological scrutiny and from his “most careful mother.”[2760] In his will Peter gives his father’s name as Constantius of Abano,[2761] and he was probably the notary of that name whose tombstone inscription has been preserved.[2762] Scardeone stated that Peter had one son named Benvenuto,[2763] whose name also appears in a list of inhabitants of Padua in 1320[2764] and who took part in a street fight there in 1325.[2765] Gloria was the first to call attention to two other sons, named Pietro and Zuffredo, whose names appear together with their brother’s in deeds of sale and of inheritance of November 19, 1318, and February 2, 1321. Gloria was of the opinion that these sons were illegitimate, and Peter’s failure to make them his heirs in his will may perhaps be so interpreted, but they are not called natural sons in the documents.
Travels abroad.