Celio Calcagnini

Celio Calcagnini (Ferrara, 17 September 1479 – Ferrara, 24 April 1541), also known as Caelius Calcagninus, was an Italian humanist and scientist from Ferrara. His learning as displayed in his collected works is very broad.^[1]

Opere, 1544

He had a wide experience: as soldier, academic, diplomat and in the chancery of Ippolito d'Este. He was consulted by Richard Croke on behalf of Henry VIII of England in the question of the latter's divorce.^[2] He was a major influence on Rabelais's literary and linguistic ideas and is presumed to have met him in Italy, as well as being a teacher of Clément Marot^[3] and was praised by Erasmus.^[4]

He had a contemporary reputation as an astronomer, and wrote on the rotation of the Earth. He knew Copernicus in Ferrara at the beginning of the sixteenth century.^[5] His Quod Caelum Stet, Terra Moveatur is a precursor of the De Revolutionibus of Copernicus, though A. C. Crombie qualifies his rotational theory as "vague",^[6] and is often dated to about 1525.^[7]

Works

• Opera aliquot (1544)