Pomponazzi, Pietro (1462–1525)

Pomponazzi, Pietro(1462–1525)

Pietro Pomponazzi, the Italian Renaissance Aristotelian, was born in Mantua. He studied philosophy at the University of Padua, where, after obtaining his degree, he became extraordinary professor of philosophy in 1488 and ordinary professor in 1495. When war caused the university to close in 1509, he left Padua. After a short period at Ferrara he became a professor of philosophy at the University of Bologna, where he taught from 1512 until his death. He married three times and had two children.

Of Pomponazzi's writings only a few were published during his lifetime. Best known is the treatise De Immortalitate Animae (On the immortality of the soul, 1516), which immediately provoked a large controversy. It was publicly attacked by several philosophers and theologians and was followed by the author's two treatises in defense—the Apologia (1518) and the Defensorium (1519)—which were longer than the original work. Probably as a result of this experience Pomponazzi did not publish anything else except for a few short philosophical questions that he added to the 1525 reprint (Tractatus Acutissimi) of his three writings on immortality. Equally important are his treatises De Incantationibus (On incantations) and De Fato (On fate), both written about 1520, which were published posthumously in Basel by a Protestant exile in 1556 and 1567, respectively.

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