Albertus de Saxonia

Questiones subtilissime Alberti de saxonia in libros de celo et mundo

      Orinus de Luna,Papiensis Venice:: Orinus de Luna,Papiensis, 1497, 9 June.. 19th c. paste-paper boards, titling piece, some rubbing; foxing throughout, light marginal dampstain on last 4 leaves; last leaf restored in upper outer margin with some loss of text.. Folio.. Albert of Saxony (ca. 1316-1390), Master of Arts at Paris, then Rector of the University of Vienna, and finally Bishop of Halberstadt (Germany). As a logician, he was at the forefront of the movement that expanded the analysis of language based on the properties of terms, especially their reference (in Latin: suppositio), but also in the exploration of new fields of logic, especially the theory of consequences. As a natural philosopher, he worked in the tradition of John Buridan and contributed to the spread of Parisian natural philosophy throughout Italy and central Europe.#11;"Albert of Saxony's treatises on physics consist of a "Tractatus proportionum" and questions on Aristotle's "Physics", "De Coelo", and "De generatione et corruptione". These contain, in a clear, precise, and concise form, an explanation of numerous ideas which exercised great influence on the development of modern science, which ideas, however, were not wholly personal to Albert of Helmst!dt, many of the most important of them being derived from his master, Jean Buridan. He abandoned the old Peripatetic dynamics which ascribed the movement of projectiles to disturbed air. With Buridan he placed the cause of this movement in an impetus put into the projectile by the person who threw it; the part he assigned to this impetus is very like that which we now attribute to living force. With Buridan he considered that the heavens were not moved by intelligences, but, like projectiles, by the impetus which God gave them when He created them. With Buridan he saw in the increase of impetus the reason of the acceleration in the fall of a heavy body. He further taught that the velocity of a falling weight increased in proportion either to the space traversed from the beginning of the fall or to the time elapsed, but he did not decide between these two.#11;#11;The equilibrium of the earth and seas is the subject of a favourite theory of Albert's. The entire terrestrial element is in equilibrium when its centre of gravity coincides with the centre of the world. Moreover, the terrestrial mass has not everywhere the same density, so that its centre of gravity does not coincide with the centre of its figure. Thus the lightest part of the earth is more distant from the centre of gravity of the earth than the heaviest part. The erosion produced by rivers constantly draws terrestrial particles from the continents to the bosom of the sea. This erosion, which, by scooping out the valleys, has shaped the mountains, constantly displaces the centre of gravity of the terrestrial mass, and this mass is in motion to bring back the centre of gravity of the earth to the centre of its figure. Through this motion the submerged portions of the earth constantly push upwards the emerged parts, which are incessantly being eaten away and afterwards replaced by the submerged parts. At the beginning of the sixteenth century this theory of Albert's strongly attracted the attention of Leonardo da Vinci, and it was to confirm it that he devoted himself to numerous observations of fossils. Albert of Saxony, moreover, ascribed the precession of the equinoxes to the similar very slow movement of the terrestrial element." [CE]#11;The "Qu!stiones in Aristotelis libros de Coelo et Mundo" were published at Pavia in 1481, at Venice in 1492 and 1497. Goff A348. Hain 577*. Klebs 30.3. Pell 388. Arnoult 28. IGI 252. IBE 219. IBP 178.Saj!-Solt!sz 108. Voull(B) 4519. Ohly-Sack 73. Walsh 2708. Rhodes(Oxford Colleges) 45. Pr 5604. BMC V 569. BSB-Ink A-140. GW 797. ISTC ia00348000.