Nicholas Leonicus Thomaeus

Venetian scholar

Nicholas Leonicus Thomaeus
Nicholas Leonicus Thomaeus
Born	1 February 1456
Died	28 March 1531 (aged 75)
Nationality	Venetian
Occupation(s)	Scholar, professor of philosophy at the University of Padua
Notable work	Opuscula

Nicholas Leonicus Thomaeus (Italian: Niccolò Leonico Tomeo, Albanian: Nikollë Leonik Tomeu, Greek: Νικόλαος Λεόνικος Θωμεύς; 1456–1531) was a Venetian scholar and professor of philosophy as well as of Greek and Latin at the University of Padua.

Biography

Thomaeus was born in Venice, Italy on February 1, 1456, to an Albanian or Greek family from Epirus or Albania. While in Florence, he studied Greek philosophy and literature under the tutelage of Demetrios Chalcondyles. In 1497, the University of Padua appointed Thomaeus as its first official lecturer on the Greek text of Aristotle. In 1504, he was elected to succeed Giorgio Valla as chair of Greek in Venice, but because Thomaeus failed to take the post seriously, he was succeeded in 1512 by Marcus Musurus. In 1524, Thomaeus published a collection of philosophical dialogues in Latin, the first of which was titled Trophonius, sive, De divinatione. He was admired by scholars such as Desiderius Erasmus for his philological capabilities. When the University of Padua was reopened after the wars of the League of Cambrai, Thomaeus taught at the university until his death on March 28, 1531.

Works

Aristotelis Parva quae vocant Naturalia, Bernardino Vitali, Venice 1523.
Trophonius, sive, De divinatione, 1524.
Bembo sive de immortalitate animae, 1524.
Opuscula. Ex Venetiis, Bernardino Vitali, Venice 1525.
Conversio in Latinum atque explanatio primi libri Aristotelis de partibus animalium… nunc primum ex authoris archetypo in lucem aeditus. G. Farri, Venice 1540.

References

^ Holland, Nicholas (2020). "Niccolò Leonico Tomeo's Accounts of Veridical Dreams and the Idola of Synesius". In Rees, Valery; Corrias, Anna; Crasta, Francesca M.; Follesa, Laura; Giglioni, Guido (eds.). Platonism: Ficino to Foucault. Brill. p. 129. ISBN 978-90-04-35893-5.
Del Negro, Piero (2001). L'Università di Padova: otto secoli di storia. Signum. p. 199. ...per poi trasferirsi a Firenze e quindi a Milano, ed ebbe fra i suoi allievi Niccolò Leonico Tomeo (1456-1531), di padre albanese, che per primo avrebbe letto a Padova la filosofia naturale di Aristotele sul testo greco
Siraisi, Nancy G. (1985). "Antonino Poppi, ed. Scienza e filosofia all'Università di Padova nel Quattrocento. (Centro per la storia dell'Università di Padova.) Padua-Trieste: Edizioni Lint, 1983. 254 pp". Renaissance Quarterly. 38 (2): 309–312. doi:10.2307/2861668. ISSN 0034-4338. JSTOR 2861668. S2CID 163214637. Leonico Tomeo, d'origine albanese, detto anche Epirota, dal monte Tomarus, scrisse anche i Dialoghi decem (Venetiis 1524), composti « Academicorum more » di Cicerone, cioè dialoghi di contenuto filosofico e scientifico, in cui...
The Solar Mystery. An Inquiry Into the Temporal and the Eternal Background of the Rise of Modern Civilization, Oslo 2003. pg 207. quote " with the person of Niccolo Leonico Tomeo, that renowned Hellenist who had been constituted professor in Padua. ... Tomeo, although naturalized in Venice, was Albanese by birth ..." ISBN 978-82-56014071
Favaretto, Irene (2002). Arte antica e cultura antiquaria nelle collezioni venete al tempo della Serenissima (Riv. e corr. ed.). Roma: "L'Erma" di Bretschneider. p. 100. ISBN 8882652238. La collezione di Niccolò Leonico Tomeo Figura di rilievo nei circoli culturali padovani degli anni a cavallo tra XV e XVI secolo, Niccolò Leonico Tomeo, figlio di un rifugiato albanese, nacque a Venezia nel 1456.
Humfrey, P. (2008). The Cambridge Companion to Giovanni Bellini. Cambridge Companions to the History of Art. Cambridge University Press. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-521-72855-3. Retrieved 15 April 2019. Just as the Bellini maintained long - term relations with more than one generation of the noble Bembo they did likewise with the latter's plebeian friends, the learned Tomeo, a family of Albanian immigrants renowned for their study of Greek philosophy . The best known member was Niccolò Leonico who was heavily involved with the visual arts and whose studiolo style collection was viewed by Marcantonio Michiel in Padua .
Dr Evelyn Karet (28 March 2014). The Antonio II Badile Album of Drawings: The Origins of Collecting Drawings in Early Modern Northern Italy. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-7546-6571-7. The collection of Albanian philosopher and Greek scholar Niccolò Leonico Tomeo...
Elogii degli uomini illustri nelle lettere di M. Paulo Giouio. Tradotti da M. Ludovico Domenichi. Paolo Giovio. 1560. p. 200. LEONICO Tomeo figliulo di un Albanese naca que in Vinegia,...
Cronica di M. Marco Guazzo, ne la quale ordinatamente contiensi l'essere de gli huomini illustri antiqui e moderni, le cose e i fatti di eterna memoria degni occorsi dal principio del mondo sino a questi nostri tempi. Marco Guazzo. 1553. p. 373. Nascue in Venetia di padre Albanese Leonico Tomeo,...
Della letteratura veneziana. Marco Foscarini. p. 400. ISBN 978-88-271-1621-0. Egli nasque in Venezia di padre Albanese,...
The travels of Theodore Ducas, in various countries in Europe, at the revival of letters and art, Volume 90. Charles Mills. 1822. p. 276. He was a Venetian by birth, and an Albanian by extraction.
The Book of the Courtier. Baldesar Castiglione. 29 April 2004. p. 177. ISBN 978-0-14-191651-4. Niccolò Leonico Tomeo (1452–1531) was born in Venice of an Albanian father,...
Universal Biography: Containing Interesting Accounts, Critical and Historical, of the Lives and Characters, Labours and Actions, of Eminent Persons in All Ages and Countries, Conditions and Professions : Classed According to Their Various Talents and Pursuits : and Arranged in Chronological Order : Showing the Progress of Men and Things, from the Beginning of the World to the Present Time : to which is Added an Alphabetical Index for Reference, Volume 5. John Platts. 1826. p. 268. NICOLO LEONICO TOMEO , an eminent man of letters , born at Venice , of an Albanian family, in 1456.
The Greek Anthology in Italy to the Year 1800. James Hutton. 1935. p. 154. Leonico was born in Venice of Albanian parentage.
^ Copenhaver & Schmidt 1992, p. 104: "A few years later, cracks in the fortress of Latin Aristotelianism at Padua encouraged the hiring of Niccolò Leonico Tomeo, an Italian-born Greek, to lecture on the Greek Aristotle."
^ Ossa-Richardson 2013, p. 90: "Niccolò Leonico Tomeo (1456–1531), born in Venice to Greek parents, taught philosophy at Padua from 1497, and became known as a translator and interpreter of Aristotle. In 1524, he published a collection of philosophical dialogues, written in an elaborate Latin; the first of these is entitled 'Trophonius, sive, De divinatione'."
^ Bietenholz & Deutscher 1995, pp. 323–324: "Niccolò LEONICO TOMEO 1 February 1456–28 March 1531 Niccolò Leonico Tomeo (Leonicus Thomaeus) was born in Venice of Epirote Greek parentage and studied Greek in Florence under Demetrios *Chalcondyles. He had apparently been teaching at the University of Padua for some time when he was appointed its first official lecturer on the Greek text of Aristotle in 1497, since the Venetian senate's decree called him 'very popular and acceptable to the students'. Though elected to succeed Giorgio *Valla in the chair of Greek in Venice itself during 1504, he does not appear to have taken the post up seriously and was superseded by *Musurus in 1512. He returned to Padua as soon as the university reopened after the wars of the League of Cambrai, teaching there continuously until his death..."
^ Parkinson 2003, p. 40: "Pomponazzi's Paduan colleague Niccolò Leonico Tomeo (1456–1531) was the first professor to lecture on the Greek text of Aristotle. As a Venetian of Greek parentage, Leonico Tomeo inherited the mantle of Byzantine scholars such as Gaza and Argyropoulos along with that of Italian humanists like Poliziano and Barbaro."
^ Geanakoplos 1985, p. 358: "Born in Venice of Greek parents (wrongly termed Albania by some scholars), Tomaeus as a youth was sent to study in Florence, where at its stadium he read Greek literature and philosophy with his famed compatriot, Demetrius Chalcondyles."
Runciman 1985, p. 212: "The University of Padua was one of the first to encourage the study of Greek; and Greeks who could lecture on Greek texts were especially welcome. A Chair of Greek was founded there in 1463 and given to the Athenian Demetrius Chalcondylas. One of his successors, Nicholas Laonicus Thomaeus, an Epirot by birth, gave in 1497 a course of lectures on Aristotle, using only the Greek text and a few Alexandrian commentaries."

Sources

Bietenholz, Peter G.; Deutscher, Thomas Brian (1995) . Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation (Volumes 1–3). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-80-208577-1.
Copenhaver, Brian P.; Schmidt, Charles B. (1992). Renaissance Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-219203-5.
Geanakoplos, Deno J. (1985). "The Career of the Little-known Renaissance Greek Scholar Nicholas Leonicus Tomaeus and the Ascendancy of Greco-Byzantine Aristotelianism at Padua University (1497)". Byzantina. 13 (1): 355–372.
Ossa-Richardson, Anthony (2013). The Devil's Tabernacle: The Pagan Oracles in Early Modern Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-40-084659-7.
Parkinson, G.H.R. (2003) . Routledge History of Philosophy Volume IV: The Renaissance and Seventeenth Century Rationalism. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-41-505378-5.
Runciman, Steven (1985). The Great Church in Captivity: A Study of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Eve of the Turkish Conquest to the Greek War of Independence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-31310-4.

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Further reading