Arnaldus de Villa Nova—Arnaldus Novicomensis—Arnaud de Villeneuve, dit de Bachuone (1235–1312), who assumed the name of Magrinus when on his way from France to Sicily, was an eminent physician, the master of Raymond Lully, who taught medicine as well as alchemy at Barcelona and whose numerous treatises upon the virtues of plants, etc., are analyzed in M. F. Hœfer’s “Histoire de la Chimie,” Vol. I. p. 385. The first edition of his works appeared at Lyons in 1504.
References.——Campegius (Laurentius), “Arnaldi Vita”; “Nouvelle Biographie Générale” (Hœfer), Vol. III. pp. 279–282; Boulay (H. de), “Hist. de l’Univ. de Padoue,” Vol. IV; Freind (John), “Hist. de la Médecine,” Vol. III; N. F. J. Eloy, “Dict. Hist. de la Médecine,” Mons, 1778, Tome III. p. 131; Astruc (Jean), “Hist, de la fac. de méd. de Montpellier”; “Journal des Savants” for June 1896, p. 342, “Testaments d’Amand de Villeneuve et de Raimond Lulle,” “L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes”; Figuier (Louis), Paris, 1860, p. 172; Gilbert, De Magnete, Book I. chap. i.
Barbarus, Hermolaus—Barbaro Ermoleo—(1454–1495)—(Barbari Hermolai, Aquileiensis Pontificis), whose name alone Gilbert mentions, was a well-known Italian savant, Professor of Philosophy at the Padua University, and the author of many works, of which the most popular are: (1) “Castigationes Plinianæ,” Rome, 1492, wherein he boasts of having made more than five thousand corrections in Pliny’s “Natural History”; (2) “Castigationes Secundæ,” Venice, 1480; (3) “Castigationes in Pomponium Melam,” Antwerp, 1582; (4) “Compendium scientiæ naturalis ex Aristotele,” Venice, 1545.
References.—Paul Jove, “Elogia”; Boissardus (Joannes Jacobus), “Icones ... virorum illustrium”; “Giornale de’ letterati d’ Italia,” Vol. XXXVIII; “Theosaurus Litteraturæ Botanicæ,” Lipsiæ, 1851, p. 333; “Biogr. Générale,” Vol. IV. pp. 418–419.
Becanus. See [Goropius].
Benedictus—Benedetti—Joannes Baptista (1530–1590), Italian mathematician, who was considered a prodigy at the age of eighteen, and who, five years later, published in Venice a remarkable work on the solution of most of Euclid’s problems. He is also the author of treatises on navigation, astronomy, music, etc., and can justly be placed in the first rank of savants of the sixteenth century.
References.—“La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. VI. pp. 132–133; “Biog. Générale,” Vol. V. pp. 340–342; Libri (Guillaume), “Hist. des Sciences Mathém.,” Vol. III. pp. 121–133; Montucla (J. F.), “Hist. des Mathém.,” Vol. I. pp. 572, 693, 729; Marie (J. F.), “Hist. des Sc. Math.,” Vol. II. p. 307; Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibliographie Générale,” Vol. II. p. 83; Gilbert, De Magnete, Chap. IX of book iv.
Brasavolus, Antonius Musæ (1500–1570), alluded to by Gilbert in Book I. chap. i., was a very eminent Italian physician and the author of “Examen omnium simplicium medicamentorum,” Rome, 1536, as well as of “In octo libros Aphorism. Hippocratis Comment. et Annot.,” Basle, 1541, and of several other works, including a very complete index of all the notable features of the works of Galen.
References.—Ginguené (Pierre Louis), “Histoire Litéraire d’Italie”; Baruffaldi (Girolamo), “Commentario istorico all’ inserizione ...,” Ferrara, 1704; “Biog. Générale,” Vol. VII. p. 269; “Storia della Medicina in Italia” (Salvatore de Renzi), Napoli, 1848, in Vol. III passim as per Index, Vol. V. p. 987; Pritzel (G. A.), “Thesaur. Lit. Botan.,” 1851, p. 31.
Calaber, Hannibal Rosetius. Of all the authors cited by Gilbert, this is the only one, who, thus far, cannot satisfactorily be identified, although exhaustive efforts to this end have been made by the authors of both the English translations of De Magnete. One interpretation (Hannibal, of Roseto in Calabria, shown on map at end of Vol. I. of “Briefe uber Kalabrien und Sizilien,” Göttingen, 1791), has as yet found no endorsement.