Blasius of Parma

Biagio Pelacani da Parma; c. 1350 – 1416), known in English as Blasius of Parma, was an Italian philosopher, mathematician and astrologer.^[1] He popularised English and French philosophical work in Italy, where he associated both with scholastics and with early Renaissance humanists.^[2]

He was professor of mathematics at the University of Padua, where he taught from 1382 to 1388; he taught also at the University of Pavia (1374? to 1378, and again 1389 to 1407), and the University of Bologna (1389 to 1382).^[3][4] His students included Vittorino da Feltre.^[5]

Works

Blasius around 1390 wrote a work on perspective; it drew on Alhacen, John Pecham, and Witelo.^[6] Filippo Brunelleschi may have known of the work of Blasius through Giovanni dell'Abbaco.^[7]

His Tractatus de Ponderibus was based on Oxford theories on laws of motion taken up from the statics of Jordanus Nemorarius, and introduced them into Italy.^[8] He disagreed with the views of Thomas Bradwardine on proportion, and gave a proof of the mean speed theorem. He also wrote on the natural philosophy of Aristotle.^[9]

Modern editions

• Questiones super tractatus logice magistri Petri Hispani, Paris: Vrin, 2001.
• Quaestiones circa tractatum proportionum magistri Thome Braduardini, Paris: Vrin, 2006.
• Questiones super perspectiva communi, Paris: Vrin, 2009.

References

• C. B. Schmitt; Quentin Skinner; Eckhard Kessler; Jill Kraye (1988). The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-39748-3.