MARSILIO di INGHEN. — An Occamist, a disciple and successor of G. Buridano, in the second half of the 14th century he held positions in the Faculty of Arts at Paris and in the Faculty of Theology. In 1367 and 1371 he was rector of the same University. Around 1383 he moved to the University of Heidelberg, then newly founded, of which he was the first rector. M. died in 1396.
A nominalist, he nevertheless acknowledges that concepts correspond to some likeness among individuals of the same species. While the existence of God can be demonstrated by reason, the same cannot be said of the creation of matter. But his name, Buridano (v.) Sassonia (v.), is linked above all to the physical doctrine of the impetus, used to explain local motion, and to Bradwardine (v.) Nicola di Oresme (v.), which introduces into the study of physical phenomena the concept of mathematical «proportion», that is, of function; hence M. is also remembered among the precursors of Leonardo and Galileo.
Editions: Expositio sup. Anal. priora, Venice 1516; Textus dialectices de suppositionibus etc., Vienna 1512 and 1516; De generat. et corrupt., Venice 1518; Abbrev. libri Physicorum, ibid. 1521; Quaestiones subtilistiones super 8 II. Physicorum secundum nominalium viam (of doubtful authenticity), Lyon 1518; Quaestiones sup. quatuor II. Sententiarum, Strasbourg 1501.