Silvestri, Francesco, known as Il Ferrarese (Ferrariensis)

SILVESTRI, FRANCESCO, called the FERRARESE (Ferrariensis). — Dominican theologian and philosopher, b. at Ferrara in 1474, d. at Rennes on 19 Sept. 1528. At the age of fourteen he entered religious life in his native city. After completing his studies, he taught at Mantua (where he served as spiritual director to b. Oanna Andreassi), Milan, and Bologna. By 1516 he was already master in theology, and in 1518 vicar of the Lombard congregation.

A few years later, while he was prior, regent of studies, and inquisitor at Bologna, he was appointed by Clement VII vicar general of his Order (1524), and the following year he was unanimously elected master general in Rome. Having immediately devoted himself with great zeal to the governance of the Order and to the visitation of the convents, he died three years later from an illness contracted in a river accident.

Principal work: In libros s. Thomae Aquinatis contra Gentes commentaria. It was already completed in 1517, but

Michele Piò states that S. had also undertaken a commentary on the Summa Theologica, but abandoned it when he learned of Gaetano’s work. And this was a loss, because the Ferrarese, although inferior to Gaetano in speculative power, nevertheless remains an acute, intelligent Thomist, broad in outlook, but also original, to such an extent that he often openly disagrees with his illustrious confrere (e.g., on the nature of the intellect, analogy, individual signatio, and the possibility of several angels of the same species).

The Ferrarese also displays an individual mark in other less important questions, such as, for example, the natural desire for beatitude, how relations in divinis are distinguished from the essence, and what meaning should be given to Aquinas’s statement that Relatio (in divinis) non constituit personam in quantum est relatio.

All these details reveal in S. a refined scientific sensibility and a great love of objective truth. Posterity has assigned him second place in the noble ranks of the commentators on s. Thomas; a place which he holds with great honor, above all because of his fidelity to his master, his sound understanding of the doctrines, the clarity of his exposition, and the proper historical-critical method of his research.

lini, La b. Osanna Andreassi da Mantova, Firenze 1905, passim; G. Sestili, in Gli scienziati italiani, I, Roma 1923, pp. 128-37; M. M. Gorce, s. V. in DThC, XIV, 2085-87; A. Gazzana, La materia signata di s. Tommaso secondo la diversa interpretazione del Gaetano e del Ferrarese, in Gregorianum, 23 (1943), pp. 78-85; C. Giacon, La seconda Scolastica. I Grandi Commentatori di s. Tommaso, Milano 1944, pp. 37-157. Umberto Degl'Innocenti

was not printed immediately. In 1518 Cardinal Gaetano, passing through Bologna, saw the commentary, praised it most highly, and warmly urged his confrères to publish it (1st ed., Venice 1524 [not Paris 1552, as stated in DThC, XIV, col. 2087]); among the early editions, the principal one is the Piana, produced by order of s. Pius V (Opera omnia s. Thomae Aq., Rome 1570-71, I); among the modern editions, those edited by G. Sestili (4 vols., ibid. 1897-1901; but above all the one called Leonina, produced by order of Leo XIII [*Opera omnia s. Thomae Aq.*, XIII-XV, ibid. 1918-26-30]).

He wrote other predominantly philosophical works: Annotationes in libros Posteriorum Aristotelis et s. Thomae (Venice 1535); Quaestionum libri de anima quam subtilissimae et praeclarissimae decisiones (Venice 1535); Apologia de convenientia institutorum Romanae Ecclesiae cum evangelica libertate, tractatus adversus Lutherum (Rome 1525; 2nd ed. Rome 1900, edited by G. Sestili).