Henry Bate of Malines

HENRY BATE OF MALINES. - Belgian philosopher and astronomer, b. 24 March 1246. He completed his philosophical studies presumably in Paris and was subject, it seems, to the influence of St. Albert the Great, of Ulrich of Strasbourg, as well as of the Averroist group led by Siger of Brabant. A manuscript of the Bibliothèque Royale in Brussels also calls him a master of theology. He was in contact with William of Moerbeke.

A translator of astrological writings from Arabic and Hebrew, H. is also the author of original astronomical works, such as the Tabulae Mechlinienses, the Magistralis expositio astrolabii, and the Nativitas magistri Henrici, an autobiographical horoscope. The De horis planetarum (Venice 1493) is doubtful. But his major work is the Speculum naturalium et quorumdam divinorum (ed., with a bibliographical note, of the 1st to 2nd part by G. Wallerand [Les philos. belges, 11], Louvain 1931), composed between 1303 and 1310, in 23 parts treating epistemological and physical problems, of natural science, of astronomy and of metaphysics. While the author often displays his disagreement with St. Thomas, he welcomes Averroist and Neoplatonic doctrines, with that broad eclectic spirit that characterizes the commentaries of Albert the Great on Aristotle and those of Berthold of Moosburg on Proclus's Elementatio theologica. Because of its attempt to reconcile Plato with Aristotle, the work attracted the attention of Pico della Mirandola, who procured a copy of it.

Bruno Nardi