BALBI (Balbus, de Balbis), GIOVANNI. – Dominican scholar, famous as the author of the Catholicon, about whom we have only the scanty biographical details that he himself inserts in his writings. He is also called Giovanni da Genova (Ianuenis) from his birthplace. He died c. 1298.
Before entering the cloister he had already composed an Opus paschale, i.e., a computistical study for determining the day of Easter. In the Dominican convent at Genoa there is preserved a manuscript of his Postillae super evangelia. In 1272 he completed a summa of theology in dialogue form under the title Dialogus super quaestionibus animae ad spiritum, preserved in the Vatican Library (Vat. Lat. 1508 and 1309). Divided into seven books, the treatise often draws inspiration from St Thomas Aquinas. For this reason Grabmann ranks Balbi among the representatives of the Italian Thomist school.
His major work, the Summa grammaticalis quae vocatur Catholicon, or simply the Catholicon, dates from 1286. Its subject-matter extends and is confined to the “Trivium,” providing treatises on orthography, prosody, grammar, rhetoric and a lexicon of late and medieval Latinity. The work, still esteemed useful today, survives in several manuscripts and enjoyed the distinction of being one of the earliest printed books. Gutenberg himself printed this work in 1460 using special typefaces known as the Catholicon types, thereby concluding his last great typographical enterprise with the well-known D’Ion device (reproduced in LThK, I, col. 925). This first edition was followed by others in the 15th century.
Balbi also became renowned for his virtues.