Diskussion:Niccolò Leoniceno

Wie konnte Leonicenus, 1524 gestorben, "1528 wieder in Paris taetig" sein ?

A case of mistaken identity

Excuse my use of the barbaric language from the other side of Oceanus Germanicus, but unfortunately my knowledge of the beautiful German language is somewhat limited (even though I understand it pretty well).

Anyway, what I wanted to point out is that in this version of this article we have the following:

Lehrer: Pelope, Rocabonella (1386-1459, Kroate, Pharmazeut, Liber de simplicibus)

after this edit this magically transformed into this:

Sein Lehrer war Rocabonella Pelope (1386 bis 1459), ein kroatischer Pharmazeut.

So, while before this edit Leoniceno appears to have 2 teachers, i.e. a 'Pelope' and a 'Rocabonella', he has now only one, namely "R. Pelope" Before this edit we didn't know anything at all about this "Pelope", but after this edit he has become a "ein kroatischer Pharmazeut". Since this edit took place (14. Februar 2006) this mistake has been transferred to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccolò_Leoniceno and propagated all over the internet, and it will be next to impossible to put the genie back in the bottle: Some bright-eyed youngster is going to surf the web, and put "Pelope, ein kroatischer Pharmazeut" right back in.
For the full story of what is going on, see Neurotree - Nicolo (Leoniceno) da Lonigo Details:

Two teachers are mentioned in the Italian sources: a Pelope, and Pietro Roccabonella. Little is known about Pelope. Pietro Roccabonella Veneziano on the other hand was a well known professor of Medicine in Padua. Pietro matriculated at Padua in 1449, MA in 1455, MD in 1459. Pietro's teachers were Gaetano da Thiene for philosophy, and Sigismondo da Polcastro for medicine. In 1465 Pietro took over the chair of medicine from his teacher Sigismondo da Polcastro. Pietro died in 1491. There is a large mausoleum to his honor in the San Francesco Church in Padua.

There appears to be a lot of confusion out there about the maestri of Leoniceno. The first one is the identity of 'Pelope', who is referred to by Leoniceno as 'meo praeceptore Pelope'. A possible explanation is that Leoniceno was referring to Galen of Pergamon when he wrote that: In 148 AD, when he was 19, Galen traveled to Smyrna where he studied under Pelope. This Pelope was a discipel of Numesiano, and teacher of Galen.

The other source of confusion is that between Pietro Roccabonella, and his grandfather, Niccolò Roccabonella di Conegliano (1386-1459). The sources mention specifically that Pietro Roccabonella was Leoniceno's 'maestro'. Somehow someone out there appears to have made the mistake to equate Pelope = Niccolò Roccabonella, a mistake that propagated all over the Internet. The claim found all over the internet that 'Pelope was a Croatian apothecary' appears to derive from that single mistake. Niccolò Roccabonella was a famous herbalist who published 'Liber de simplicibus', A Book on Medicinal Herbs. The dictionary is a result of 40 years of work (1415-1448). From 1449-1453 Niccolò lived and worked in Zadar, Croatia.

Anyway, this is a prime example of the dangers of Wikipedia: With all this un-refereed mis-information out there it becomes next to impossible to winnow out all the weeds. JdH 21:01, 27. Nov. 2010 (CET)