XO03 [Compendiosa expositio in libros de Physico auditu] / Ioanne Cottunio ... auctore.

Johannes Cottunius, [Compendiosa expositio in libros de Physico auditu], [Padua], 1659

Penn Libraries, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Ms. Codex 34

This manuscript, penned in 1659 by Domenico Bertoia, contains notes reporting lectures delivered at the University of Padua by the Greek professor Johannes Cottunius (or Kottunios, 1577-1658) on Aristotle’s Physics. On the pasteboard cover of the text is an ink drawing of Aristotle captioned “Aristoteles" and below the image "perfici nequii" or "perfici nequit" (that is "I, Aristotle, could not be improved" or "Aristotle could not be improved"), suggesting the unparallel achievements of the Aristotelian philosophical enterprise. In the broader context of seventeenth-century Italy, Cottunius’s lectures meshed Aristotelian philosophical thought with a theological perspective, rooted in the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas. In addition to his scholarly and theological work, Cottunius is also notable for his founding of the Cottunian College, a theological college that later came under the jurisdiction of the University of Padua (a renowned Aristotelian stronghold).

Massimo Sassi