VERNIA, NICOLETTO. - Philosopher, born at Chieti about 1420, died at Padova in 1499. He taught at Padova from 1465.
Trained in the Venetian school of Occamism, he directed his researches toward nature independently of any metaphysical concern. Among his dissertations should be recalled: De Unitate; An ens mobile sit totius philosophiae subiectum; An dentur universatia realia. In the Quaestio an medicina nobilior atque praestantior sit iure civili, he gives precedence to medicine, whose purpose is the preservation of life, an unchanging good, whereas laws change «secundum commoditatem et libitum hominum». He initially accepted and taught the Averroist doctrine. But
the threatened excommunication by Bishop P. Barozzi and a more thorough reading of the Aristotelian texts in the translations of Ermolao Barbaro induced him to abandon it and to adhere to the traditional doctrine of the immortality of the soul.