Blasius of Parma

Blasius of Parma (Biagio Pelacani da Parma) (c. 1350 – 1416) was an Italian philosopher, mathematician and astrologer.[1] He popularised English and French philosophical work in Italy, where he associated both with scholastics and with early Renaissance humanists.[2]

He was professor of mathematics at the University of Padua, where he taught from 1382 to 1388; he taught also at the University of Pavia (1374? to 1378, and again 1389 to 1407), and the University of Bologna (1389 to 1382).[3][4] His students included Vittorino da Feltre.[5]

Works

Blasius around 1390 wrote a work on perspective; it drew on Alhacen, John Pecham, and Witelo.[6] Filippo Brunelleschi may have known of the work of Blasius through Giovanni dell'Abbaco.[7]

His Tractatus de Ponderibus was based on Oxford theories on laws of motion taken up from the statics of Jordanus Nemorarius, and introduced them into Italy.[8] He disagreed with the views of Thomas Bradwardine on proportion, and gave a proof of the mean speed theorem. He also wrote on the natural philosophy of Aristotle.[9]

Modern editions

• Blaise de Parme, Questiones super tractatus logice magistri Petri Hispani, Paris: Vrin, 2001.
• Blaise de Parme, Quaestiones circa tractatum proportionum magistri Thome Braduardini, Paris: Vrin, 2006.
• Blaise de Parme, Questiones super perspectiva communi, Paris: Vrin, 2009.

References

• C. B. Schmitt; Quentin Skinner; Eckhard Kessler; Jill Kraye (1988). The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-39748-3.

Notes

1. Schmidt–Skinner, p. 809.
2. Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge. 2000. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-415-22364-5. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
3. David C. Lindberg (1980). Science in the Middle Ages. University of Chicago Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-226-48233-0.
4. Christopher Kleinhenz (2004). Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-415-93930-0.
5. Schmitt–Skinner p. 840; Google Books.
6. David C. Lindberg (31 October 1996). Roger Bacon and the Origins of Perspectiva in the Middle Ages: A Critical Edition and English Translation of Bacon's Perspectiva, with Introduction and Notes. Oxford University Press. p. xcviii. ISBN 978-0-19-823992-5. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
7. Mario Lucertini; Ana Millàn Gasca; Fernando Nicolò (22 January 2004). Technological Concepts and Mathematical Models in the Evolution of Modern Engineering Systems: Controlling, Managing, Organizing. Birkhäuser. p. 6. ISBN 978-3-7643-6940-8. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
8. A. C. Crombie, Medieval and Early Modern Science vol. II (1959), p. 101.
9. Brian Lawn (1993). Rise and Decline of the Scholastic Quaestio Disputata: With Special Emphasis on Its Use in the Teaching of Medicine and Science. BRILL. p. 59. ISBN 978-90-04-09740-7.