Jacopo Zabarella

Jacopo Zabarella (1533 to 1589) was a philosopher of Padua, regarded as the leading representative of Renaissance Italian Aristotelianism and best known for his writings on logic and scientific method. Born into an old noble Paduan family, he received his doctorate at the University of Padua in 1553 and spent his entire teaching career there, first as professor of logic from 1564 and later in natural philosophy. His collected logical works, Opera logica, appeared in 1578, and his writings on nature, De rebus naturalibus, in 1590. He developed the regressus method, which Renaissance Aristotelians treated as the proper way to obtain knowledge in the theoretical sciences, and he defended the scientific standing of natural philosophy against the pressures of medicine and anatomy. His works were reprinted in Germany around 1600 and found a following among Protestant Aristotelians.