ENRICO BATE da MALINZE. - Belgian philosopher and astronomer, b. 24 March 1246. He probably completed his philosophical studies in Paris and seems to have been influenced by St. Alberto Magno, Ulrico di Strasburgo, and the Averroist group led by Sigieri di Brabante. A manuscript in the Bibliothèque Royale in Brussels also calls him master of theology. He was associated with Guglielmo di Moerbeke.
A translator of astrological writings from Arabic and Hebrew, E. was 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 principal work is the Speculum naturalium et quorumdam divinorum (ed., with bibliographical note, of Parts 1–2 by G. Wallerand [Les philos. belges, 11], Louvain, 1931), composed between 1303 and 1310, in 23 parts dealing with epistemological and physical problems, natural science, astronomy, and metaphysics. While the author often displays his dissent from St. Tommaso, he embraces Averroist and Neoplatonic doctrines, with that broad eclectic spirit which characterizes the commentaries of Alberto Magno on Aristotle and that of Bertoldo di Moosburg on Proclo’s Elementatio theologica. Because of its attempt to reconcile Plato with Aristotle, the work attracted the attention of Pico della Mirandola, who obtained a copy of II.
Hist. de la philos. med., II, Lovanio-Parigi 1936, pp. 325-368; B. Nardi, Sigieri di Brabante nel pensiero del Rinase, ital., Roma 1943, pp. 173-79. Bruno Nardi