VERNIA, NICOLETTO. - Philosopher, b. in Chieti ca. 1420, d. in Padua in 1499. He taught in Padua from 1465.

Trained in the Venetian school of Ockhamism, he directed his research to nature independently of any metaphysical concern. Among his dissertations, mention should be made of: 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, which aims at the preservation of life, an invariable good, whereas laws change «secundum commoditatem et libitum hominum». He first accepted and taught the Averroist doctrine. But the threatened excommunication by Bishop P. Barozzi and a more thorough reading of the Aristotelian texts in Ermolao Barbaro's translations led him to abandon it, in order to adhere to the traditional doctrine of the immortality of the soul.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: P. Ragnisco, N. V., Studi storici sulla filos. padovana della 2ª metà del sec. XIV, Venezia 1891; B. Kiesagkowski, Averroismo e platonismo in Italia negli ultimi decenni del sec. XV, in Giornale crit. d. filos. it., 14 (1933), pp. 286-301; G. Satta, Il pensiero italiano nell'Umnesimo e nel Rinascimento, I, Bologna 1949, pp. 434-437.

Enrico Garulli

@incollection{ec12_vernia_nicoletto, author = {Garulli, Enrico}, title = {Vernia, nicoletto}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1287--1288}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/vernia-nicoletto} }

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Vernia, Nicoletto

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