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L'homme Et Son Univers Aumoyen Äge PHILOSOPHES MEDIEVAUX -------- TOME XXVII ----- _ L'HOMME ET SON UNIVERS AUMOYEN ÄGE Actes du septieme congres international de philosophie medievale (30 aoüt - 4 septembre 1982) edites par Christian WEN IN 11 LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE EDITIONS DE L'INSTITUT SUPERIEUR DE PHILOSOPHIE 1986 FREDERICK PURNELL, JR. HENRY OF GHENT AS MEDIEVAL PLATONIST IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF JACOPO MAZZONI The connections between Renaissance Platonism and medieval Scholasticism have been the object of ongoing scholarly interest for many years. Attention has focused, for example, upon the extent to which medieval Augustinianism provided a paradigm for the Christianized Neoplatonism expounded by Marsilio Ficino and his associates in the Florentine Academyt '). Less attention has been paid to the influence of medieval sources on later Renaissance Platonists, many of whom developed philosophical positions which differed quite notably from those of Ficino and his circle. The present paper will examine the way in which Jacopo Mazzoni of Cesena (1548-98), a philosopher who sought to combine elements of both Platonism and Aristotelianism in his own system, relied for his interpretation of several important Platonic doctrines on the writings of the thirteenth-century secular master of arts and theology at Paris, Henry of Ghent. Jacopo Mazzoni has largely escaped the attentions of modern his- torians of philosophy, although he was an important figure in his own day. His facility in philosophy, first demonstrated in his student days at the University of Padua under the celebrated Aristotelians Federigo Pendasio and Jacopo Zabarella, was augmented by an insatiable appetite for independent study and a capacious memory. At the height of his powers during the last decade of his life Mazzoni held chairs in philosophy successively at the Universities of Macerata, Pisa and Rome, commanding an unprecedented salary at the latter institution as the successor to Francesco Patrizi. Like Patrizi, Mazzoni enjoys the distinc- tion of having been one of the very few philosophers during the Renaissance to depart from the thoroughgoing Aristotelianism which dominated the curriculum in Italian universities by developing lecture (1) Cf. P. o. KRISTELLER, The Scholastic Background of Marsi/io Ficino, in Traditio, 11 (1944), pp. 257-318, reprinted in his Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters, Rome, 1956, pp. 35-97; IDEM, Floremine Platonism and Its Relations with Humanism and Scholasticism, in Church History, VIII (1939), pp. 201-211; IDEM, 11pensiero filosofico di Marsilio Ficino, Florence, 1953; R. KLlBANSKY, The Continuity of the Platonic Tradition in the Middle Ages, London, 1938. 566 FREDERICK PURNEll. JR. courses on Plato in addition to incorporating Platonic doctrines into his own philosophical works. In spite of this his writings have never aroused interest equal to those of Patrizi or his more notorious platonizing contemporary, Giordano Bruno. Indeed he has only been fortunate enough to receive some slight illumination from the spotlight which historians of science have focused on his young admirer and colleague at Pisa, Galileo Galilei. This is unfortunate, for his extant philosophical works reveal a thinker of broad interests, wide reading, and often acute critical insight e). .Mazzoni's employment of Henry of Ghent as a Platonic authority is of course not unique among Renaissance philosophers. Ficino himself had noted that Henry's philosophical teachings were redolent of Platonism, although he does not seem to have used him extensively as a sourcet '). Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, on the other hand, cited Henry frequently in his writings together with a great many other scholastic sources, while his nephew, Gianfrancesco Pico, was influenced by the skeptical implications of Henry's theory of illumination (4). To Mazzoni, however, the Doctor Solemnis came to occupy a level of particular importance as «the only one among all the Scholastics who merits the name of a true Platonistxt"). Mazzoni's heaviest dependence on Henry of Ghent is revealed in his principal philosophical work, In universam Platonis et Aristotelis philo- sophiam praeludia (1597). Intended as a general introduction to philo- sophy. the Praeludia takes the form of a comparison of the views of Plato (') Still essential for Mazzoni's life and works is P. SERASSI,La vit~ di Jacopo Ma:zoni: patrizio cesenate, Rome, 1790. See also my Jacopo Mazzoni as a Student of Philosophy at Padua, in Quaderni per la storia dell'Universitä di Padova, VII (1974), pp. 17-26, with fuller biographical references. On his philosophical influence, see G. ROSSI,Jacopo Mazzoni e l'eclettismo filosofico nel Rinascimento, in Rendiconti dell'Accademia dei Lincei, classe di scienze morali, s. V, 11 (1893), pp. 163-183; F. PuRNEll, Jr., Jacopo Mazzoni and Galileo, in Physis, XIV (1972), pp. 273-294; P. ~AlLUZZI, 11«platonismo» del tardo Cinquecento e la filosofia di Galileo, in P. ZAMBElll, ed., Ricerche sulla cultura dell'Italia moderna, Bari, 1973, pp. 39-79. I am preparing a monograph on Mazzoni's philosophical works. e) « ... Henrici Gandavensis, Avicennae Scotique multa Platonem redolent». M. FICINO,Opera omnia, Basle, 1576, I, p. 899. Cf. P.O. KRISTEllER, Scholastic Background, in his Studies ... (op. Cil.), 40n. (4) On Giovanni Pico, cf. ibid.; also P. O. KRISTEllER, Giovanni Pico del/a Mirando/~ and His Sources, in L'opera e if pensiero di Giovanni Pico del/a Mirandola nella storia dell'umanesimo, Florence, 1965, I, pp. 35-133. On Gianfrancesco Pico, cf. C. B. SCHMITT" Henry of Ghent, Duns Scotus and Gianfrancesco Pico on Illumination. in Mediaeval Studies. XXV (1963), pp. 231-258.. , . ('). «Henricus ergo Gandavensis, qui inter omnes Scholasticos solus veri Platonici nomen meretur ... ». J. MAZZONI, In universam Platonis et Aristotelis philosophiam praeludia, sive de comparatione Platonis et Aristotelis liber primus, Venice, 1597, p.73. HENRY OF GHENT AND JACOPO MAZZONI 567 and Aristotle on a wide range of philosophical issues. It thus represents a contribution to a well-defined genre of philosophical writing with roots traceable .to classical antiquity, a genre which enjoyed a renewed popularity during the Renaissance. The problem of establishing the extent of agreement between the systems of the two greatest Greek thinkers exercised a fascination for Mazzoni throughout his career. His first major philosophical work, De trip/id hominum vita ... methodi tres, was a massive compilation of 5197 theses covering a host of philoso- phical, scientific and theological issues and drawing upon his extensive readings in ancient, medieval and early modern sourcesi"). Clearly patterned after the famous Conclusiones of Giovanni Pico, the work served as the basis for a public disputation at Bologna in 1577. And like Pico, Mazzoni in De trip/ici hominum vita strove to demonstrate that the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle were in fundamental agreement. In the course of discussing the active and contemplative «methods» of life, Mazzoni singled out 221 issues on which the views of Plato and Aristotle can be rendered concordant. ' The two decades which separate De triplici hominum vita from the Praeludia saw Mazzoni develop a more critical awareness of the irre- duceable differences between the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. When he returned to the topic in the later work, he expressed regret at the reconciling excesses of his youth. The outlook which dominates his approach in the Praeludia is that although there be not many issues concerning which the chiefs of the philoso- phers dissent, ... nonetheless they do disagree in some matters, and their disagreement is such that from it, as from an Empedoclean strife, there arises practically the entire universe of philosophic trutht"). (6) J. MAZZONI, De trip/ici hominum vita, activa nempe, contemp/ativa et religiosa methodi tres, quaestionibus quinque mil/ibus centum et nonaginta septem distinctae, in quibus omnes Platonis et Aristotelis, multae vera aliorum Graecorum, Arabum et Latinorum in universo scientiarum orbe discordiae componuntur. Quae omnia publice disputanda Romae proposuit anno salutis M DLXXVI, Cesena, 1576. Some copies were issued with a different title-page the following year, noting the change from Rome to Bologna for the public defense. (') «Et nos etiam in nostro aetatis flore, calore quodam iuvenili audaciores ac par esset, in nostris thesibus utriusque philosophi concordiam disputandum [read: disputandam] proposuimus. Sed nunc cum iam iIIe calor deferbuerit, quam cuperemus siluisse! Nam etsi non multa sint in quibus philosophorum coriphaei dissentiant .... discrepant tarnen in aliquibus, atque iIIorum dissidium est tale, ut ex eo, quasi ex discordia quad am Empedoclea, universus pene philosophicae veritatis orbis oriatur», MAZZONI, Praeludia, f.2. 568 FREDERICK PURI'ELL. JR. It is thus incumbent upon the philosopher to examine the teachings of Plato and Aristotle on different questions, and to compare, contrast and adjudicate between their positions when they disagree. It was in elucidat- ing the true teachings of Plato that Mazzoni found in Henry of Ghent a particularly valuable source. Let us examine briefly two important instances in the Praeludia in which Henry's influence is brought to bear. Mazzoni's initial employment of Henry in the Praeludia is as a source for skeptical arguments against the possibility of knowledge. In an attempt to simplify his presentation of the skeptical position, Mazzoni notes that Henry reduced skeptical arguments to three general
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