Also known as:
Italian: Agostino Nifo Suessano;
Latin: Augustinus Suessanus, Suessanus, Augustinus Niphus
NIFO, AGOSTINO. - Philosopher, b. at Sessa (Salerno) in 1469-70 (whence he is often called simply Suessanus), d. between 1539 and 1546.
He was a pupil of Nicoletto Vernia at Padua around 1490; then a rival of Pomponazzi and in 1496 his successor in the chair of natural philosophy. After Pomponazzi's return, he left Padua and, having returned to his homeland, taught at Salerno and Naples. At Padua he had professed in his early years the moderate Averroism of Siger. Later he turned to Thomism. In 1518 he wrote the De immortalitate animae against Pomponazzi, dedicating it to Leo X, from whom he obtained the title of count palatine with the privilege of bearing the name and arms of the Medici (15 June 1520). The year before he had been appointed professor at Pisa. It was certainly in these years that, having in his hands a manuscript of Machiavelli's Principe, he dared to plagiarize many pages of it clumsily in the De regnandi peritia, printed in 1523 and dedicated to Charles V. From this moment N.'s interest in philosophy declines, overwhelmed by the courtier spirit.
Bibliography4 worksHistoria e documenti originali della famiglia N. Sec. XV-XVII. Ms. owned by Benedetto Croce. Some documents must have been badly transcribed
BIBL.: Historia e documenti originali della famiglia N. Sec. XV-XVII. Ms. owned by Benedetto Croce. Some documents must have been badly transcribed; such, for example, is the epitaph on N.'s tomb in the sacristy of the Dominicans at Sessa. P. Tuozzi, A. N. e le sue opere, in Atti e Mem. d. R. Accad. di scienze, lett. ed. arti di Padova, 353 (1903-1904), pp. 63-86 (with many inaccuracies). On N.'s thought, see F. Fiorentino, Pietro Pomponazzi, Florence 1868, pp. 35-41, 50-57, 214-41, 263-70; id., Del « Principe » di Machiavelli e di un libro di A. N., in Giorn. napol. di filos. e letter., 1879, pp. 94-114; B. Nardi, Sigieri di Brabante nel pensiero del Rinascimento italiano, Rome 1945 (see onomastic index).
Nardi, Bruno. “Nifo, agostino.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VIII, coll. 1876–1877. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952. https://azioneromana.com/article/nifo-agostino.
MLA
Nardi, Bruno. “Nifo, agostino.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VIII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952, coll. 1876–1877. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/nifo-agostino.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec8_nifo_agostino,
author = {Nardi, Bruno},
title = {Nifo, agostino},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VIII},
pages = {1876--1877},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1952},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/nifo-agostino}
}
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