Trattato contra Aristotele

Description

The Trattato is a summary of Aristotelian mistakes in the field of natural philosophy, with a special focus on cosmography and heavens. The author, Giovanni Maria Benedetti, refers to several Aristotelian passages as well as to more recent authors who followed the Greek philosopher (e.g. Alessandro Piccolomini). The first part of the treatise deals with the debate on the proportions of earth and water (interesting images of the sfera illustrating the previous positions alongside with the author's one, ff. 26r-30r); Benedetti goes then on with the discussion of the natural elements (mainly fire and air) as well as earthquakes. The text is very interesting for the many references to previous bibliography on the subject. The work opens with a preface which contains a strong criticism of the Aristotelian tradition of natural philosophy as a whole.

Eugenio Refini, ‘Trattato contra Aristotele’, in Vernacular Aristotelianism in Renaissance Italy Database (VARIDB)
  <https://vari.warwick.ac.uk/items/show/5074> [accessed 25 April 2024]