A Historical-Philosophical Controversy in the 16 th century Turin: Agostino Bucci Interpreter of Parmenides

Abstract

What was the level of philosophical discussion in the sixteenth-century Turin? The controversy conducted by Agostino Bucci in 1572 against the Neo-Platonic interpretation of Parmenides’ ontology in theological terms, in addition to being a little lesson in historical method, throws light (by reflex) on the presence in those years at the University of Turin of some important followers of a particular variant of Aristotelianism inspired by Simplicio and reprised in Padua by the teaching of Marco Antonio Genua. For Bucci the Being of which Parmenides speaks is not God, but it is a improper term to indicate the formal principle then clearly defined by Aristotle: but beyond this single issue, his very intent is to discredit the easy concordism underlying the Simplicius’ interpretation of Aristotle and common in Renaissance Neo-Platonism. All this suggests that Turin also participated in debates typical of the sixteenth-century Italian philosophy, though the history of his contribution is still largely to be written.

Keywords

Agostino Bucci; Simplicius; Parmenides; Renaissance Aristotelianism; Prisca Theologia.