MAIGNAN, EMMANUEL. – Scientist, philosopher, and theologian, b. in Tolosa on 17 July 1601, d. there on 29 October 1676. At the age of eighteen he entered the Order of Minims; because of his pronounced aptitude for the mathematical sciences, he was sent to Rome to teach them. Returning to Tolosa in 1650, he continued teaching, acquiring fame and renown through his work in mathematics and physics.
He opposed the abstract theorizing of the Aristotelian physicists of his time and, appealing to experience, attempted to develop an encyclopedic philosophical system with a sensist-empiricist orientation. He extended its implications to theological and especially Eucharistic questions, which were particularly lively at that time owing to the influence of the new Cartesian philosophy, in attempts to elucidate the mystery of transubstantiation and the nature of the sacramental species. Concerning the latter, M. formulated his theory of the “intentional species,” which gave rise to lively controversies.
Principal works: Perspectiva horaria, sive de horologiographia tum theorica tum practica libri IV (Roma 1648); Cursus philosophicus (4 vols., Tolosa 1652; 2nd enlarged ed., Lione 1673); Sacra philosophia sive entis tum supernaturalis tum increati (2 vols., Tolosa 1662–72); Dissertatio theologica de usu licito pecuniae (Lione 1673), favorable to lending at interest; De sensibilitate S.mae Eucharistiae Sacramenti per species (Tolosa 1675).