Antonio Persio

Antonio Persio (1542 to 1612) was an Italian philosopher of the Platonic school, born at Matera, who defended the natural philosophy of Bernardino Telesio against the Aristotelianism that dominated the universities of his day. After taking minor orders he moved to Naples in 1560, became a presbyter and tutored the younger Orsini brothers, met Telesio there and became his follower, and later arranged the publication of Telesio's shorter writings as the Varii de rebus naturalibus libelli. He worked as a tutor and priest in Perugia, Venice and Padua, published a commentary on the Pandects in 1575 and the Trattato dell'ingegno dell'huomo in 1576, which developed Telesio's theories of the spirit, inspiration, movement, life and intelligence, and moved to Rome in 1590, where he knew Tommaso Campanella and Galileo Galilei. He belonged to the Accademia dei Lincei and died in Rome in 1612.