Abstract
A major humanist physician and Hellenist, owner of a conspicuous library, translator of Galen, editor of Dioscorides in Greek, and promoter of a new scientific epistemology, Leoniceno was also a teacher at Ferrara university. He is most known for the so-called Pliniana controversio, which has traditionally been analyzed as a quarrel of Ancients and Moderns, the Ancients being the Latinists and scholars of Pliny, while the Moderns were the Hellenists and readers of Hippocrates, Dioscorides, and Galen. Leoniceno’s contribution went beyond as it transformed the early humanistic approach to classical Greek and Latin scientific literature to an espistemologically sound and scientific analysis of ancient medical texts. Though laying down the basis of a method for a deeply renewed appropriation of ancient scientific literature, his proposals provoked a stasis in Renaissance science and scientific literature which lasted a quarter of a century.
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References
Primary Literature
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Touwaide, A. (2018). Leoniceno, Nicolò. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_737-1
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