Giacomo Zabarella, De rebus naturalibus (2 vols.)

Giacomo Zabarella (1533-1589) was a Renaissance Aristotelian who enjoyed extraordinary prestige in life, especially in the fields of logic and natural philosophy. The De rebus naturalibus libri XXX was completed by Zabarella at the very end of his life: the dedicatory letter to Pope Sixtus V is dated just a month before his death. This writing had great impact and a large influence, as its editorial success in Italy and abroad (especially in Germany) reflects. It represents a massive effort to collect all the issues that come under the heading of 'natural philosophy' and that had been taking shape from antiquity to the time of Zabarella within the vast and multifarious field of Aristotelianism: hence its encyclopedic character and extraordinary extension.