Piccolomini, Francesco

Piccolomini, Francesco an Italian philosopher, father of the preceding, was born in 1520 at Siena. At Padua, Where he pursued his studies, he was condisciple of Felix Peretti, who became pope under the name of Sixtus V, and who boasted of having worsted him in public disputation. He professed philosophy,at Siena, Macerata, Perugia (1550), and finally at Padua (1560). His advanced age compelled him, in 1601, to leave the latter city and retire to Siena. He strove both by his lessons and by his writings to restore the philosophy of Plato, and to show that it is compatible after all with the principles of Aristotle. He died at Siena in 1604. He left, Universa philosophia de moribus (Venice, 1583, fol.); the editions of Frankfort (1601,1611, 8vo) contain besides, under the title of Comes politicus, an answer to the attacks of Zabarella: — Libri de scientiae natura V puttibus (Frankf. 1597, 1627, 4to), which is a treatise on natural philosophy: — De arte definiendi et eleganter discurrendi (ibid. 1600, 4to): — Commentaria in Aristotelem De Ortu et Interitu, De anima et De Coelo (Mentz, 1608, 8vo); each of these commentaries was also published separately. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 40:67.