Aither is a double-blind peer review, Open Access online academic journal. It is indexed at ERIH+ and Scopus. It is published by the Faculty of Arts of the Palacký University in Olomouc in cooperation with the Philosophical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It comes out twice a year. Every second issue is international and contains foreign-language articles (mainly in English, but also in German and French). The journal is registered under the number ISSN 1803-7860.

Aither 24/2020 (International issue no. 8):190-215 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2020.011

The Epistemology of Vernacular Aristotelianism in Renaissance Italy: The Case of Alessandro Piccolomini

Marco Sgarbi
Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage

Until ten years ago, the existence of vernacular Aristotelianism as a philosophical movement in the Italian Renaissance was virtually ignored by scholarship. After a series of international research projects, we know much more about the Aristotelian vernacular tradition and of its impact on Renaissance and early modern thought, especially regarding its role in disseminating knowledge, in its settling into informal contexts like academies and artisanal workshops, and also in breaking the boundaries between high and low cultures. Vernacular Aristotelianism changed how Aristotle's works were read, understood and used, leading to a better grasp of specific disciplines usually ignored, like meteorology, biology, and mechanics, which promoted the transition from the old Aristotelian-Scholastic scientia to early modern science. This transition in a changing world reshaped the epistemology of intellectuals of the time. In this paper, I focus on one of the most brilliant exponents of vernacular Aristotelianism, that is Alessandro Piccolomini (1508-1579), examining the role he played in creating a new epistemology, which reflects on the most important issues that will come to dominate the discussion in the emergence of early modern science.

Published: September 30, 2020  Show citation

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Sgarbi, M. (2020). The Epistemology of Vernacular Aristotelianism in Renaissance Italy: The Case of Alessandro Piccolomini. Aither, 12(24), 190-215. doi: 10.5507/aither.2020.011
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