The Expositio super I Aristotelis De anima et Commentatoris contains a reportatio of a series of Pomponatian lectures on Aristotle's De anima (1503-1504); the lessons take place in Padua.
The scribe is Antonio Surian, who takes his notes "cursim".
The Surianean reportatio stops on December 19th, 1503, at the beginning of Christmas holidays.
After Christmas, Surian decides to leave Pomponazzi's classes to follow the counter-classes of Antonio Fracanziano.
The document shows the expositio of book I of De anima, from the prologue to the textus commenti 16.
The expositio is enhanced by numerous dubia et quaestiones: about the order of the naturalistic texts; about the relevance of psychological research over the specific interests of philosophia naturalis and philosophus naturalis; about the methodus, the argumentative process and the degree of demonstrative certainty due from the researches about the anima intellectiva; about the relationship between metaphysics, mathematics and natural philosophy, etc.
The definition of the concept of anima is particularly important: it introduces a wide digression about the universal concepts.
Pietro Pomponazzi
Pietro Pomponazzi, said Peretto, was born in Mantua, on September 16th, 1462.
He studied at the University of Padua in 1484, and he graduated in artibus in 1487.
He taught at Padua from 1488 to 1496.
The composition of the Tractatus de maximo et minimo ad Laurentium Molinum, in manuscript form, is prior to 1496.
From 1496 to 1499, Pomponazzi, as teacher of logic, followed Alberto Pio of Carpi in his exile in Ferrara.
From 1499 to 1509, he returned to Padua to teach.
From 1510 to 1511, he was in retreat in Mantua.
From 1512 to 1524, he taught at the University of Bologna.
There are numerous handwritten reportationes of Pomponatian lectures written by his students and admirers.
In Bologna, Pomponazzi published all his treatises: Tractatus de intensione et remissione formarum (1514), Tractatus de reactione including Quaestio de actione reali (1515), Tractatus de immortalitate animae (1516), Apologia (1518), Defensorium (1519), Tractatus de nutritione et augmentatione (1521).
Two texts remained unpublished: De incantationibus and De fato, composed in 1520 circa and published posthumously, respectively, in 1556 and in 1567.
The Dubitationes in IV Meteorologicorum was published posthumously in 1563.
The collection of the Tractatus acutissimi, utillimi et mere peripatetici, including the six Bononian treatises and Quaestio de actione reali, was printed in Venice in 1525.
Pomponazzi died in Bologna, on May 18th, 1525.
