DSC_0058In the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), founder of the Society, recommended that Jesuits follow the doctrines of Saint Thomas in theology and those of Aristotle in logic, natural philosophy, ethics, and metaphysics. After Loyola, the official position of the Society was further specified; Jesuits were supposed to teach “Aristotle and the true philosophy,” interpreted as Thomism. With the succession of Claudio Aquaviva as the fifth general of the Society (1581–1615), these issues took on a new vigor. The Society standardized its curriculum during this time. The Jesuits undertook extraordinary pedagogical discussions, ultimately leading to their ratio studiorum (uniform course of studies). The aim of this standardization was to enable Jesuits to propound a single philosophy that would maintain the Catholic faith; as Aquaviva said: “The primary goal in teaching should be to strengthen the faith and to develop piety. Therefore, no one shall teach anything not in conformity with the Church and received traditions, or that can diminish the vigor of the faith or the ardor of a solid piety.”

Aristotle, a 4th-century-BCE philosopher, port...
Aristotle, a 4th-century-BCE philosopher, portrayed in 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle as a 15th-century-CE scholar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Together with these pedagogical innovations there was an explosion of Scholastic manuals. Among the widely read textbook authors at the time were the Coimbrans and Francisco Toletus. The Coimbrans (the Conimbricenses) were professors at the Jesuit College at Coimbra (Portugal), who issued a series of encyclopedic commentaries on Aristotle’s works. Chief among them was Pedro da Fonseca, who wrote his own commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Toletus was a professor at the Jesuit Collegio Romano who also published commentaries on Aristotle’s works. The Coimbrans wrote volumes by committee, presenting the works of Aristotle that were taught in the curriculum; they followed the model of the great medieval commentaries, each volume treating a specific text (Physics, On the Soul, On the Heavens, etc.), but with an elaborate (post-Renaissance) scholarly apparatus, giving both Aristotle’s Greek text and its Latin translation, as well as Latin paraphrases and quaestiones, the resolution of questions relevant to the text under discussion.  (Gale Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World:

Aristotelianism  Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/aristotelian#ixzz2btlXC9jf)

358G    Pererius , Benedictus.      1535-1610

De Communibus omnium rerum naturalium principiis & affectionibus, libri quindecim. Qui plurimum conferunt ad eos octos libros Aristotelis, quam de physicu auditu inscribuntur, intelligendos.         

Lyon, Sib[ylla]. a Porta, 1588.      $3,800

Octavo, 7 X 4.75 inches .  Probably a  sixth edition.( see Lohr) a8,e4, a-z8, A-Z8, Aa-Ii8.

On the title page of an old ownership entry cut (1 cm x 2 cm). Some old underlining and marginalia on nearly every page but nothing too substantial. On the final page of the text before the index: “lectio prima /Finiebatur 6 Calen: Maij 1591”. Blind embossed pigskin time, the cover stained. On the front cover on the center panel, the letters which have been rubbed out I can make out C and K and T , in the bottom panel is the date ‘1590’

DSC_0055Benedict Pereira, Pererius philosopher, theologian, and exegete, born about 1535, at Ruzafa, near Valencia, in Spain; died 6 March, 1610, at Rome. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1552 and taught successively literature, philosophy, theology, and Sacred Scripture in Rome. He published eight works, and left a vast deal of manuscript. (Sommervogel, infra, mentions twelve sets.) Pereira’s `navigation of a path somewhere between Alchemy and Science by reading and apropriating Aristotle seems quite influential on Jesuit Science .

see also;

Paul Richard Blum, “Cognitio falsitatis vera est”. Benedictus Pererius critico della magia e della cabala, in Fabrizio Meroi and Elisabetta Scapparone (eds.): La magia nell’Europa moderna: tra antica sapienza e filosofia naturale: atti del convegno, Firenze, 2-4 ottobre 2003, Firenze: Olschki, 2007, 345-362.


Paul Richard Blum, Benedictus Pererius: Renaissance Culture at the Origins of Jesuit Science, in Science & Education 15 (2006) 279-304.


Paul Richard Blum, Studies on Early Modern Aristotelianism, Leiden: Brill, 2012 (Chapter Nine: Benedictus Pereirus: Renaissance Culture at the Origins of Jesuit Science, pp. 139-182).

Marco Lamanna, “De eo enim metaphysicus agit logice”. Un confronto tra Pererius e Goclenius, in Medioveo 34 (2009) 315-360. 
Adams P-665; Lohr, Latin Arist. Comm., S. 318#23 .: Sommervogel VI

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