Foscarini, Paolo Antonio

FOSCARINI, PAOLO ANTONIO. - Carmelite theologian, of the noble Venetian family of the F., born in Montalto Uffugo (Calabria) ca. 1565, died there on 10 June 1616. A celebrated preacher, mathematician and professor of theology and philosophy in Naples and Messina, he also held the office of prior at Tropea (1607) and of provincial of Calabria (1608-12).

Principal works: Meditaciones, preces et exercitia quotidiana super orationem dominicam (Cosenza 1611); Institutionum omnis generis doctrinarum syntaxis (ibid. 1613); Trattato della divinazione naturale cosmologica (Naples 1615); famous is his Lettera sopra l'opinione de' Pittagorici e del Copernico della mobilità della terra e stabilità del Sole e del nuovo Pittagorico sistema del mondo (ibid. 1615), in which he strives to demonstrate how the doctrine of the immobility of the sun at the center of the world and of the mobility of the earth is in conformity with the truth and is not contrary to Holy Scripture, and declares, with prudence, that he does not wish to defend this system in an absolute manner, but as a hypothesis, and that he wishes to submit himself to the judgment of the Church. This letter was, by decree of 5 March 1616, condemned by the Sacred Congregation of the Index, together with the works of Galileo, but nevertheless was subsequently published repeatedly in Latin (Trevi 1635, Leiden 1636, Lyon 1641, London 1663 together with the works of Galileo).

Ambrosio di Santa Teresa