Witelo

Witelo - also known as Erazmus Ciolek Witelo, Witelon, Vitellio, Vitello, Vitello Thuringopolonis, Vitulon, Erazm Ciołek, (born ca. 1230 probably in the village of Borek in Lower Silesia; died after 1280, before 1314), was a Silesian and Polish friar, theologian and scientist: physicist, natural philosopher, mathematician, precursor of perception psychology.

Life

Witelo's mother was from a Polish knightly house, while his father was a German settler from Thuringia. He called himself, in Latin, "Turingorum et Polonorum filius"—"a son of Poland and Thuringia." He studied at Padua University around 1260, then went on to Viterbo. He became friends with William of Moerbeke, the translator of Aristotle. Witelo's major surviving work on optics, "Perspectiva", completed in approximately 1270-1278 [ [http://www.columbia.edu/dlc/garland/deweever/UV/vitulon.htm CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.] ] , was dedicated to William.

Works

"Perspectiva"

Witelo's "Perspectiva" was largely based on the work of the Arab polymath Alhacen (Ibn al-Haytham; d. ca. 1041) and in turn powerfully influenced later scientists, in particular Johannes Kepler. Witelo's treatise in optics was closely linked to the Latin version of Ibn al-Haytham's Arabic opus: "Kitab al-manazir" ("The Book of Optics"; "De aspectibus" or "Perspectivae"), and both were printed in the Friedrich Risner edition "Opticae Thesaurus" (Basel, 1572). [ Nader El-Bizri, "A Philosophical Perspective on Alhazen’s "Optics", "Arabic Sciences and Philosophy", Vol. 15, Issue 2 (2005), pp. 189-218 (Cambridge University Press)]

Witelo's "Perspectiva", which rested on Ibn al-Haytham's research in optics, influenced also the Renaissance theories of perspective. Lorenzo Ghiberti's "Commentario terzo" ("Third Commentary") was based on an Italian translation of Witelo's Latin tract: "Perspectiva". [ Graziela F. Vescovini, "Contributo per la storia della fortuna di Alhazen in Italia: II volgarizzamento del MS. Vat. 4595 e il Commentario terzo del Ghiberti, "Rinascimento", V (1965), pp. 1749 -- Also ("Ibid", El-Bizri, 2005)]

Witelo's treatise also contains much material in psychology, outlining views that are close to modern notions on the association of ideas and on the subconscious.

"Perspectiva" also includes Platonic metaphysical discussions. Witelo argues that there are intellectual and corporeal bodies, connected by causality (corresponding to the Idealist doctrine of the universal and the actual), emanating from God in the form of Divine Light. Light itself is, for Witelo, the first of all sensible entities, and his views on light are similar to those held by Roger Bacon, though he is closer in this to Alhazen's legacy. [ "Ibid", El-Bizri, 2005 ]

Other works

In "Perspectiva", Witelo refers to other works that he had written. Most of these do not survive, but "De Natura Daemonum" and "De Primaria Causa Paenitentiae" have been recovered.

Namesake

On the Moon there is a crater, Vitello, named after Witelo.

See also

* History of philosophy in Poland

Notes

References

* Clemens Baeumker, "Witelo: Ein Philosoph und Naturforscher des dreizehnten Jahrhunderts"," "Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters", part 3, no. 2, Münster, Aschendorff, 1908.
* Władysław Tatarkiewicz, "Historia filozofii" (History of Philosophy), 3 vols., Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1978.
* [http://www.ihnpan.waw.pl/redakcje/organon/33/BURCHARDT.pdf Burchardt J., The dispersion...]