Vitello

Short description: Polish scholar

Cover of Vitellonis Thuringopoloni opticae libri decem (Ten Books of Optics by the Thuringo-Pole Witelo)

Vitello (Polish: Witelon; German: Witelo; c. 1230 – 1280/1314) was a Polish friar, theologian, natural philosopher and an important figure in the history of philosophy in Poland.

## Contents

* 1 Name
* 2 Life
* 3 Perspectiva
* 4 Other works
* 5 Legacy
* 6 See also
* 7 Notes
* 8 References
* 9 External links

## Name

Vitello's name varies with some sources. In earlier publications he was quoted as Erazmus Ciolek Witelo, Erazm Ciołek, Vitellio and Vitulon. Today, he is usually referred to by his Latin name Vitello Thuringopolonis, often shortened to Vitello.

## Life

Vitello's exact birth-name and birthplace are uncertain. He was most likely born around 1230 in Silesia, in the vicinity of Legnica.[1] His mother came from a Polish knightly house, while his father was a German settler from Thuringia. He called himself, in Latin, "Thuringorum et Polonorum filius" — "a son of Thuringians and Poles." He studied at Padua University about 1260, then went on to Viterbo. He became friends with William of Moerbeke, the translator of Aristotle from Greek language into Latin. Vitello's major surviving work on optics, Perspectiva, completed in about 1270–78,[2] was dedicated to William. In 1284 he described the reflection and refraction of light.[3]

## Perspectiva

Page from a manuscript of De Perspectiva, with miniature of its author Vitello.

Vitello's Perspectiva was largely based on the work of the polymath Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham; d. ca. 1041) and in turn influenced later scientists, in particular Johannes Kepler. Vitello's treatise in optics was closely linked to the Latin version of Ibn al-Haytham's Arabic opus: Kitab al-Manazir (The Book of Optics; De Aspectibus or Perspectivae), and both were printed in the Friedrich Risner edition Opticae Thesaurus (Basel, 1572).[4]

Vitello's Perspectiva, which rested on Ibn al-Haytham's research in optics, influenced also the Renaissance theories of perspective. Lorenzo Ghiberti's Commentario terzo (Third Commentary) was based on an Italian translation of Vitello's Latin Perspectiva.[5]

Vitello's treatise also contains much material in psychology, outlining views that are close to modern notions on the association of ideas and on the subconscious.

Perspectiva also includes Platonic metaphysical discussions. Vitello argues that there are intellectual and corporeal bodies, connected by causality (corresponding to the Idealist doctrine of the universal and the actual), emanating from God in the form of Divine Light. Light itself is, for Vitello, the first of all sensible entities, and his views on light are similar to those held by Roger Bacon, though he is closer in this to Alhazen's legacy.[6]

## Other works

In Perspectiva, Vitello refers to other works that he had written. Most of these do not survive, but De Natura Daemonum and De Primaria Causa Paenitentiae have been recovered.

## Legacy

The lunar crater Vitello is named after him.

## See also

* History of philosophy in Poland
* List of Poles
* List of Catholic clergy scientists

## Notes

1. ↑ Haisig, Marian (1977) (in pl). Legnica, monografia historyczna miasta. Poland: Ossoliński. p. 77. https://books.google.com/books?id=catFAAAAIAAJ&q=witelon legnica.
2. ↑ CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
3. ↑ Joe Rosen; Lisa Quinn Gothard. Encyclopedia of Physical Science. Infobase Publishing; 2009. ISBN 978-0-8160-7011-4. p. 691.
4. ↑ Nader El-Bizri, "A Philosophical Perspective on Alhazen's Optics", Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, Vol. 15, Issue 2 (2005), pp. 189-218 (Cambridge University Press)
5. ↑ Graziela F. Vescovini, "Contributo per la storia della fortuna di Alhazen in Italia: II volgarizzamento del MS. Vat. 4595 e il Commentario terzo del Ghiberti, Rinascimento, V (1965), pp. 1749 -- Also (Ibid, El-Bizri, 2005)
6. ↑ Ibid, El-Bizri, 2005

## References

Vitello and his thoughts

* Witelonis Perspectivae Liber Primus: Book I of Vitello's Perspectiva, edition and English translation by Sabetai Unguru, with introduction and commentary, Warsaw, The Polish Academy of Science Press, Studia Copernicana, vol. XV, 1977.
* Witelonis Perspectivae Libri Duo - Liber Secundus et Liber Tertius: Books II and III of Vitello's Perspectiva, edition and English translation by Sabetai Unguru, with introduction and commentary, Warsaw, The Polish Academy of Science Press, Studia Copernicana, vol. XXVII, 1991.
* Witelonis Perspectivae Liber Quartus: Book IV of Vitello's Perspectiva, A Critical Edition and English Translation with Introduction, Notes and Commentary by Carl J. Kelso, University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003.
* Witelonis Perspectivae Liber Quintus: Books V of Vitello's Perspectiva, edition and English translation by Mark A. Smith of the First Catoptrical Book of Witelo's Perspectiva, with introduction and commentary, Warsaw, The Polish Academy of Science Press, 1983.

Studies

* Clemens Baeumker, "Witelo: Ein Philosoph und Naturforscher des dreizehnten Jahrhunderts," Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters, part 3, no. 2, Münster, Aschendorff, 1908.
* Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Historia filozofii (History of Philosophy), 3 vols., Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1978.
* Jerzy Burchardt, "The Discovery of the Rainbow in Crystal by Witelo"

## External links

* Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries[yes|permanent dead link|dead link}}] High resolution images of works by and/or portraits of Witelo in .jpg and .tiff format.
* Erasmus Ciołek Witelo monument in the Żórawina village, Wrocław County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, SW Poland. [1]

* v
* t
* e

Medieval philosophers

Islamic|

| Early|

* Al-Jahiz
* Alkindus
* Ibn al-Rawandi
* Al-Razi (Rhazes)
* Al-Farabi (Alpharabius)
* Ibn Masarra
* Al Amiri
* Ebn Meskavayh
* Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen)
* Abu Rayhan Biruni
* "Brethren of Purity"

|

High|

* Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna)
* Ibn Hazm
* Al-Ghazali (Algazel)
* Abu'l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī
* Ibn Bajjah (Avempace)
* Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani
* Ibn Tufail
* Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

Late|

* Ibn Sab'in
* Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi
* Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi
* Rashid al-Din
* Ibn Arabi
* Zachariah Kazwin
* Abd-el-latif
* Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī
* Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
* Ibn al-Nafis
* Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi
* Ibn Taymiyyah
* Ibn Khaldun

Jewish|

| Medieval|

* Isaac Israeli ben Solomon
* Saadia Gaon
* Solomon ibn Gabirol
* Judah Halevi
* Abraham ibn Daud
* Maimonides
* Nachmanides
* Gersonides
* Hasdai Crescas
* Joseph Albo

|

Christian|

| Early|

* "Church Fathers"
* Augustine of Hippo
* Boethius
* Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
* Isidore of Seville
* Johannes Scotus Eriugena
* Alcuin

|

11–12th
century|

* "Scholasticism"
* Anselm of Canterbury
* Peter Abelard
* Anselm of Laon
* Hugh of Saint Victor
* Richard of Saint Victor
* Roscelin
* Peter Lombard
* Alexander of Hales
* Bernard of Chartres
* Dominicus Gundissalinus
* Gilbert de la Porrée
* Alain de Lille

13–14th
century|

* Robert Grosseteste
* Albertus Magnus
* Bonaventure
* Thomas Aquinas
* Siger of Brabant
* Boetius of Dacia
* Henry of Ghent
* Roger Bacon
* John Peckham
* Ramon Llull
* Petrus Aureolus
* Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt
* Durandus
* Giles of Rome
* Godfrey of Fontaines
* Duns Scotus
* William of Ockham

Late|

* Jean Buridan
* Nicole Oresme
* Albert of Saxony
* Francesc Eiximenis
* Vincent Ferrer
* Paul of Venice
* Lambertus de Monte
* John Hennon

See also Renaissance philosophy

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