Odoardo Gualandi

Titlepage of De civili facultate, Gualandi's main philosophical work

Odoardo Gualandi^[1] descended from an old and famous patrician family from Pisa.^[2] At the University of Bologna he graduated summa cum laude in civil and canon law.^[3]

Career

Gualandi was the private secretary of Cardinal Alfonso Carafa, Archbishop of Naples. In 1557, Pope Paul IV named him a Canon of the collegiate churches of Saints Stephen and Saint Felix in Aquileia.^[4]

From 1557 till 1588 he was Bishop of Cesena in northern Italy.^[5] In that capacity Gualandi organized several synods. The synod in 1582 resulted in his first publication, Constitutiones, et decreta condita ab illustri...Adoardo Gualando...Caesenae. 1584. In 1588 Gualandi retired and was succeeded as Bishop of Cesena by his nephew Camillo Gualandi.

During his retirement he wrote his only known philosophical treatise, De civili facultate Libri XVI. It was published by his nephew in 1598, i.e. a year after his death in Rome, 17 March 1597.^[6] The treatise shows Gualandi as an eclectic Aristotelian who attracted attention not as an original thinker but for the way he organized the material in his explanation of ethics and politics. Gualandi had a reputation for clear explanation of moral philosophy in general, and that of Aristotle in particular.^[7] His reputation as a teacher lasted till the beginning of the eighteenth century. Since then his name and work have passed into forgetfulness.

Bibliography

• Braschio, J.B. - Memoriae Caesenates sacrae et profanae. Romae. 1728
• Gabrielis Naudaei Bibliographia politica. Venetiis. 1633
• Grassi, Rainieri Descrizione storica e artistica di Pisa. Parte storica. Pisa. 1836
• Gualandi, Adoardi De civili facultate libri XVI... In quibus doctissimè, ac luculenter universa de moribus Philosophia explicatur. Romae. apud Aloysium, Zannettum. 1598
• Prosperi, Ranieri Discorso Accademico Sull' Istoria Letteraria Pisana. Pisa. 1787

See also

• Renaissance philosophy
• Aristotelian ethics
• Gualandi
• Camillo Gualandi
• Gualandi

Notes

1. His first name is also written as Edoardo, Adoardo, Adoardus, Odoardus, Aduardus, Adouardus, Eduardus and Oduardus. As for his last name he is also referred to as Gualando, Gualandius and Gualandinus. See further Jan Prins 'Adoardo Gualandi (?-1597) A forgotten Renaissance philosopher' In: Journal of Italian philosophy. Volume 6 (2023). Neglected paths in Italian philosophy: 14-27.
2. In the Middle Ages the Gualandi family supported the Ghibellines and it was one of the families that the Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini incited against Ugolino della Gherardesca. The Gualandi family is also cited by Dante Alighieri in the Inferno (XXXIII, 33). (it:Gualandi) See also Grassi, Ranieri - Descrizione storica e artistica di Pisa. Parte storica. Pisa. 1836.
3. See Braschio, J.B. Memoriae Caesenates sacrae et profanae. Romae. 1728, pp. 375-378
4. Coleti, Nicola (1779). Series episcoporum Caesenatium a Ferdinando Ughellio contexta a Nicolao Coleto aliquantulum aucta, et emendata. Nunc a Francisco Antonio Zaccaria ut fieri potuit, restituta, atque ad nostrum tempus perducta. Caesenae: apug Gregorium Blasinium 1779, p. 70. note 1. (in Latin)
5. Eubel, Konrad; Gulik, Wilhelm (1923). Hierarchia catholica (in Latin). Vol. Tomus 3 (second ed.). Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana. p. 144.
6. Gualandi, Adoardi De civili facultate libri XVI... In quibus doctissimè, ac luculenter universa de moribus Philosophia explicatur. Romae. apud Aloysium Zannettum. 1598. In some sources Gualandi is said to have written also a Tractatus de philosophia. (See for example Discorso Accademico Sull' Istoria Letteraria Pisana. Ranieri Prosperi. Pisa. 1787, p. 119)
7. See Gabrielis Naudaei Bibliographia politica. Venetiis. 1633, p. 15