Benedict Pereira

Benedict Pereira (Pereyra, Perera, Pererius) (March 4, 1535 – 6 March 1610) was a Spanish Jesuit philosopher, theologian, and exegete.

Life

Pereira was born at Ruzafa, near Valencia, in Spain. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1552 and taught successively literature, philosophy, theology, and sacred scripture in Rome, where he died.

Works

He published eight works, and left a vast deal of manuscript. (Sommervogel, infra, mentions twelve sets.)

His main philosophical work is "De communibus omnium rerum naturalium principiis et affectionibus libri quindecim" (Rome, 1576).

The main difficulties of the Book of Genesis are met in Commentariorum et disputationum in Genesim tomi quattuor (Rome, 1591–1599). This is a mine of information in regard to the Deluge, Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babel, etc., and was highly rated by Richard Simon (Histoire critique du Vieux Testament, III, xii).

The "Commentariorum in Danielem prophetam libri sexdecim" (Rome, 1587) are much less diffuse. Other writings published by Pereira were five volumes of exegetical dissertations on: "Exodus", 137 dissertations (Ingolstadt, 1601); "The Epistle to the Romans", 188 dissertations (Ingolstadt, 1603); "The Apocalypse", 183 dissertations (Lyons, 1606); "The Gospel of St. John", 214 dissertations on the first nine chapters (Lyons, 1608); 144 dissertations on five following chapters (Lyons, 1610). To the fourth volume of the dissertations is appended a work of twenty-three dissertations to show that Mohammed was not the Antichrist, of the Apocalypse and of Daniel.

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). "Benedict Pereira". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.  The entry cites:
  • Sommervogel, Bibl. de la Compagnie de Jesus, VI, 499-507; IX, 764;
  • Hugo von Hurter, Nomenclator, I (Innsbruck, 1892), 182.
  • C. Blackwell, The Vocabulary for Natural philosophy. The “De primo cognito” question – A preliminary Exploration: Zimara, Toletus, Pererius and Zabarella, in Lexiques et glossaires philosophiques de la Renaissance, Fédération Internationale des Instituts d’Etudes Médiévales, Louvain-la-neuve 2003 (Textes et études du Moyen Âge, 23), 287-308.
  • C. Blackwell, Thomas Aquinas against the Scotists and Platonists. The Definition of ens: Cajetano, Zimara, Pererio, Verbum Anaelecta Neolatina, 6/1 (2004), 179-188, in part. 185-188.
  • Paul Richard Blum, "Cognitio falsitatis vera est". Benedictus Pererius critico della magia e la cabala, in Fabrizio Meroi and Elisabetta Scapparone (eds.): La magia nell'Europa moderna: tra antica sapienza e filosofia naturale: atti del convegno, Firenze, 2-4 ottobre 2003, Firenze (Olschki) 2007, 345-362.
  • Paul Richard Blum, Benedictus Pererius: Renaissance Culture at the Origins of Jesuit Science, in Science & Education 15 (2006) 279-304.
  • Marco Lamanna, "De eo enim metaphysicus agit logice". Un confronto tra Pererius e Goclenius, in Medioveo 34 (2009) 315-360.

External links

• The Birth of Ontology. A selection of Ontologists from 1560 to 1770