ALBERT OF SAXONY (Albert of Helmstedt, Albertus, Albertus Parvus). - Ockhamist philosopher and student of the natural sciences, of the second half of the 14th century. Died in 1390. He studied at the University of Paris, taught there from 1351, and became its rector in 1353. When the University of Vienna was founded in 1365, A. was its first rector, until 1366, when he was elected bishop of Halberstadt.
His works are numerous and varied: Tractatus logicae; Sophismata; Quaestiones in logicam Guil. Occam; In Post. Analyt.; Quaestiones super octo Physicorum libros; In libros de coelo et mundo; De generatione et corruptione; Expositio decem librorum Ethicorum Aristotelis; De sensu et de sensato; Tractatus de proportionibus, etc.
Although the philosophical and scientific importance of A. is not of the first rank, since he generally links himself to the doctrines of predecessors and masters, nevertheless, through his many works, which were read, cited, transcribed, and subsequently printed several times, A. contributed not a little to that fervor of research, especially in the field of "physica," which constitutes the finest mark of the terminist school of the 14th century, and which preludes some of the great discoveries of the 16th century in the field of mechanics and celestial physics. A faithful disciple of Ockham in logic, in the natural sciences he follows mainly the master John Buridan (v.), from whom he takes up, among other things, the theory of "impetus" with its various applications, not without introducing into it the discordant views of Nicole Oresme. Also noteworthy are his researches and hypotheses (here too in dependence on Nicole Oresme) on the mathematical laws of accelerated motion - particularly of the fall of heavy bodies - in relation to time and to the space traversed. Also noteworthy are his somewhat original views on the center of gravity, placed at the center of the world: toward this point the center of gravity of the earth naturally tends, just as the center of gravity of bodies tends toward the center of the earth. Albert also enunciates, taking it up again from "one of his masters," the hypothesis, which had by no means been entirely forgotten in the Middle Ages, of the motion of the earth and the immobility of the heavens.