Junior, or Modernus, a canonist who lived in the middle of the thirteenth century, called “Compostellanus” from the fact that he possessed an ecclesiastical benefice in Compostella. He was also known as Brignadius from his birthplace in Galicia, Spain. Bernard was chaplain to Innocent IV, who reigned 1243–54, and was himself a noted canonist. Bernard’s Commentaries on Canon law are very copius and very celebrated. He is termed Modernus to distinguish him from Bernard Antiquus, a canonist of the early thirteenth century, a native of Compostella, who became Professor of Canon law in the University of Bologna. ↩
This distinguished canonist was born at Mugello, near Florence, about 1275; died 1348. He was educated at the University of Bologna, where he afterwards became Professor of Canon law. He had previously taught at Padua and Pisa, and his career as a lecturer extended for nearly half a century. His works are Glossarium in VI decretalium librum, Venice and Lyons, 1472; Glossarium in Clementinas; Nouella, siue Commentarius in decretales epistolas Gregorii IX, Venice, 1581; Mercuriales, siue commentarius in regulas sexti; Liber de laudibus S. Hieronymi; Additamenta ad speculum Durand (1347). ↩
Nicholas V, 1397–1455, the great patron of learning. ↩
Born at Barcelona, Spain, towards the end of the fourteenth century; died 1432. From 1430 to his death he taught theology, philosophy, and medicine at the University of Toulouse. Of his many works only one remains, Theologia Naturalis. It was first written in Spanish, and translated into Latin at various times: December, 1487; Strasburg, 1496; Paris, 1509; Venice, 1581, etc. Montaigne, who translated the book into French, Paris, 1569, bears witness to the extraordinary popularity it enjoyed in his own day. ↩
“On désigne depuis le XVIe siècle sous le nom d’Ambrosiaster (= pseudo-Ambroise) l’auteur anonyme d’un commentair sur les Epîtres de saint Paul (à l’exclusion de Epître aux Hébreux), qui au moyenâge, peut-être même dès l’époque de Cassiodore, fut imputé inexactement à saint Ambroise. Cette paraphrase est tout à fait remarquable; c’est l’une des plus intéressantes que l’antiquité chrétienne nous ait léguées.” Labriolle, Histoire de la Litterérature Latine Chrétienne, c. III. ↩
Petrus a Tarentasia, born in Tarentaise, towards 1225, elected at Arezzo, 21 January, 1276; died at Rome, 22 June, 1276. At the age of sixteen he joined the Dominican Order, and he won great distinction as a Professor at the University of Paris, whence he is known as Doctor Famosissimus. He is the author of several works dealing with philosophy, theology, and Canon law, some of which are still unpublished. The principal of these is the Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. I have used the edition, Toulouse, 1652. ↩
This treatise on physical science may be found in Vol. IX of Abbé Bornet’s edition of the Opera omnia. ↩
The original Greek is Ὦ ἀνόητοι Γαλάται, τίς ὑμᾶς ἐβάσκανεν τῆ ἀληθείᾳ μὴ πείθεσθαι; Curtius doubts the etymological connection between βασκαίνω and Latin fascino as from a root ΦΑΣ. In classical times the charm was dissolved by spitting thrice. Cf. Theocritus, VI, 39: ὡς μὴ βασκανθῶ δέ, τρὶς εἰς ἐμὸν ἔπτυσα κόλπον. ↩
Abn Ali Al Hosian Ibn Addalah Ibn Sina, Arabian physician and philosopher, born at Kharmaithen, in the province of Bokhara, 980; died at Hamadan, in Northern Persia, 1037. It should be noted that the Schoolmen were aware of the pantheistic tendencies of Avicenna’s philosophical works, and accordingly were reluctant to trust to his exposition of Aristotle. ↩
Abu Hamid Mohammed Ibn Mohammed, the celebrated Arabian philosopher, born at Tous in Khorasan in 1038; died at Nissapour in 1111. He passed through complete scepticism to the mysticism of the Sufis. It is often said that Blessed Albertus Magnus wrote thus: “Non approbo dictum Avicennae et Algazel de fascinatione, quia credo quod non nocet fascinatio, nec nocere potest ars magica, nec facit aliquid ex his quae timentur de talibus.” But this passage is more than suspicious. ↩
The Dialogorum Libri IV is one of the most famous of S. Gregory’s works, and very many separate editions have appeared. ↩
Acts of the Apostles, 9:36–42; and 5:1–11. ↩
Little is known of the personal history of this celebrated encyclopaedist. The years of his birth and death are uncertain, but the dates most frequently assigned are 1190 and 1264 respectively. It is thought that he joined the Dominicans in Paris shortly after 1218, and that he passed practically his whole life in his monastery in Beauvais, where he occupied himself incessantly upon his enormous work, the general title of which is Speculum Maius, containing 80 books, divided into 9,885 chapters. The third part, “Speculum Historiale,” in 31 books and 3,793 chapters, bring the History of the World down to AD 1250. ↩
Pliny,
