Phd in PHILOSOPHY

My interests concern the history of medieval philosophy and the status of knowledge such as alchemy and astrology within the medieval scientific system. My research aims to investigate the existence of a relationship between Peter of Abano and Peter Bonus, two physicians and philosophers who worked between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In their works, the Conciliator, the Lucidator, and the Pretiosa Margarita Novella, the two physici, attempt to justify astrology and alchemy according to the scientific paradigms of the time. My work will deal with the similarities that can be found in the two authors, including the subalternatio, the dependence of a science on a superior and more general, that the medieval scholars derived from Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics; the division into two parts, theoretical and practical, of astronomy and alchemy, following the model of medicine; the setting of the debate following university models; the importance given to experience to ascertain the truth of a science and the common use of Greek and Arab medical and alchemical sources. These themes will then be traced back to the university debate of their time and to the known students of Peter of Abano, particularly Marsilius of Padua, who, tracing the epistemological status of political science in the Defensor Pacis, presents some aspects attributable to Peter of Abano and recognizable in Bono.

keywords
Medieval philosophy, medicine, medieval university, alchemy, astrology, Abano, Bono, Aristotle, subalternatio