Alessandro Piccolomini - Sources

Scholar and writer, born in Siena, Tuscany, C Italy. He lectured in moral philosophy in Padua, then took holy orders and was Archbishop of Patras from 1574. He wrote Annotazioni alla ‘Poetica’ di Aristotele (1575), the treatise La Raffaella, dialogo della bella creanza delle donne (1539), and licentious plays, such as L'amor costante (1536).

His early works include Il Dialogo della bella creanza delle donne, o Raffaella (1539) and the comedies Amor costante, and Alessandro, (other titles are erroneously attributed to him) which were sponsored and produced by the Sienese Accademia degl'Intronati, of which he was a member and an official. His poetry, in which he followed the Petrarchan tradition, appeared first in various contemporary collections, and in 1549 he published as a single volume one hundred sonnets titled Cento sonetti. Later in life, he translated Aristotle's Poetics on which he wrote a learned commentary issued in 1575. His interest in Aristotle included the publication of a paraphrase of Aristotle's Rhetoric with commentary. In his Trattato della grandezza della terra e dell' acqua (1558), he opposed the Aristotelean and Ptolemaic opinion that water was more extensive than land.

The treatises Sfera del mondo e Delle stelle fisse (The sphere of the world and The fixed stars) (1540), in which he adhered to Ptolemaic theories, were some of his major contributions to the field of astronomy.

The important lunar crater Piccolomini is named after him.

Sources

Alessandro Piccolomini at the Catholic Encyclopedia Piccolomini: Ursa Major and Ursa Minor