Pietro d'Abano
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Pietro d'Abano (1257?[1] ‑1315?), also known as Petrus de Apono or Aponensis, was an Italian physician, philosopher, and astrologer. He was born in 1257[2] the Italian town from which he takes his name, now Abano Terme.
After studying medicine and philosophy at Paris he settled at Padua, where he gained a reputation as a physician. His fees were high. Also an astrologer[3], he was charged with practising magic: the specific accusations being that he got back, by the aid of the devil, all the money he paid away, and that he possessed the philosopher's stone.
He was twice brought to trial by the Inquisition; on the first occasion he was acquitted, and he died before the second trial was completed. He was found guilty, however, and his body was ordered to be exhumed and burned; but a friend had secretly removed it, and the Inquisition had therefore to content itself with the public proclamation of its sentence and the burning of Abano in effigy.
In his writings he expounds and advocates the medical and philosophical systems of Averroes and other Arabian writers. His best known works are the Conciliator differentiarum quae inter philosophos et medicos versantur (Mantua, 1472; Venice, 1476), and De venenis eorumque remediis (1472), of which a French translation was published at Lyon in 1593.
It has been alleged that Abano also wrote a grimoire called the Heptameron, a concise book of ritual magical rites concerned with conjuring specific angels for the seven days of the week, hence the title. It should not be confused with the Heptameron of Marguerite of Navarre.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- ^ His date of birth is also given as 1250 and 1246
- ^ Premuda, Loris. "Abano, Pietro D'." in Dictionary of Scientific Biography. (1970). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Vol. 1: p.4-5.
- ^ An important text, Astrolabium planum in tabulis ascendens, was attributed to him.
[edit] Further reading
- Premuda, Loris. "Abano, Pietro D'." in Dictionary of Scientific Biography. (1970). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Vol. 1: p.4-5.
