Creation, the Trinity and Prisca Theologia in Julius Caesar Scaliger

Abstract

Among Renaissance, the various Platonism schools had of ancient the most philosophy decisive impact which on were the rediscovered intellectual scene. in the Renaissance, Platonism had the most decisive impact on the intellectual scene. After Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) translated all the Platonic dialogues into Latin, this philosophical current was disseminated widely among the intellectuals of the time. Although it never challenged the longstanding dominance of Aristotelianism, its impact was considerable enough to arouse debates between the followers of Plato and those of Aristotle. The Platonists claimed that Platonic philosophy was compatible with Christian faith, while the doctrines of Aristotle were irreconcilable with it. The Peripatetics, on the other hand, insisted on the superiority of Aristotle. There were also some thinkers who tried to reconcile the two great philosophers. These debates, which are now called the 'Plato-Aristotle controversy', began in the middle of the fifteenth century and continued over the course of the next century.1 Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484-1558) was one of the leading Aristotelians of this period.2 His philosophical masterpiece Exotericae exercitationes (Paris 1557), written as a critique of the Milanese physician Girolamo Cardano's (1501-76) De subtilitate (Nuremberg 1550), became a major textbook of metaphysics and natural philosophy in transalpine countries during the first half of the seventeenth century. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716), who was familiar with this tradition, used Scaliger's name as a synonym for a great philosopher.3 Historians have also pointed out that his unique interpretation of Aristotle was incorporated in the doctrine of early modern atomists such as Daniel Sennert (1572-1637) and David Gorlaeus (1591-1612).4 Yet,