DE FERRARIIS, ANTONIO. - A Catholic priest of the Greek rite, called il Galateo because he was born at Galatone (Otranto) in 1444. In Naples he frequented the Pontanian Academy, and from 1490 he was court physician to the Aragonese. He died at Gallipoli on 12 November 1517, leaving more than 60 short works on various subjects.
He made faith in transcendence the basis of his philosophical thought: metaphysics, logic and ethics he informed with that concept of Providence which he reaffirmed in the Esposizione del Pater Noster (1504), his only work in the vernacular. Besides the De educatione he wrote short medical works in which he aimed to rid medical culture of Arabic influence. Great clamor was raised by the publication of a harsh polemical pamphlet, the Heremita (1496), in which De F. failed to distinguish clearly between the Church as an institution and the conduct of some of its members. Of his moralistic writings mention may be made of: De gloria contemnenda and De inconstantia humani animi.
Bibliography10 works
PEDAGOGY - The treatise De educatione, written between 1504 and 1505, is addressed to the Pontanian academic Crisostomo Colonna, tutor of Ferdinand, firstborn son of Frederick, King of Naples.
De F. would wish that the education of the young prince be entirely marked by a high and sincere spirit of Italianness. Therefore he outlines an ideal program for the education of the prince in perfect accord with the best Italian tradition, classical and Christian together. There is in De F. some trait that brings him close to his great contemporary Machiavelli. The same aversion for the barbarian invaders of the homeland and the same need to see it free of them. The De educatione in its first part treats above all of education among the ancients, not without greatly admiring that of the Greeks and Romans, as well as that of the ancient Italians, sober, active, lovers of Latin and Greek letters, of music, of physical exercises, of hunting. The education of the young man, he continues, should be simple and should always be inspired by the truth, because «nihil homine indignus quam mentiri et simulare». Let him read the poets, the historians, the philosophers, the jurists, the theologians; let him also work and toil: work «cibum antecedat et mane et vespere», because «nemo est melior coquus quam labor». Frugality and exercise are the best path to holiness. The young man should also be religious; let him not have frequent dealings with women, in whom «non modo remittitur, sed extinguitur, igniculus animi adulescentium». Let him flee as though it were the plague the game of cards or of chess. Let him rather love the exercise of hunting, «quae imaginem quandam habet rei bellicae». Let him then read the deeds of heroes, follow the example of his elders, and with letters learn natural history and moral philosophy. De F. exalts, according to the humanistic conception, man as a being of reason; in fact in his De nobilitate et distinctione humani generis he says that the mind alone is what distinguishes us from the brutes; certainly the more we excel by it, the more we partake of true humanity. In the De dignitate disciplinarum he exalts the nobility and the study of letters. An Italian spirit, De F. is inspired by an entirely Italian education also because he believes he can through it and by it restore to Italy the ancient worth despised and violated by foreign domination. With regard to female education De F. shows a rather limited vision. In a letter to Bona Sforza he outlines a plan of education, good rather for the education of a man; it can serve Bona, who is a princess and was therefore born to command; but woman, ordinarily, «è nata a far la lana, a trattare conocchie e fusi». Woman, even if she must not be ignorant, must not experience «quanto è fuori la soglia di casa». In accord with the humanist educators, De F. wished that music too be cultivated, but the manly and robust kind, not the effeminate, languid and lugubrious kind.