This list presents

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

philosophers A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, very broadly defined, classified chronologically by historical era.

Italics philosophers

* Ocellus Lucanus *

Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (; grc-gre, Παρμενίδης ὁ Ἐλεάτης; ) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Elea in Magna Graecia. Parmenides was born in the Greek colony of Elea, from a wealthy and illustrious family. His dates a ...

Zeno of Elea Zeno of Elea (; grc, Ζήνων ὁ Ἐλεᾱ́της; ) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of Magna Graecia and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic. He is best known fo ...

Corax of Syracuse Corax ( el, Κόραξ, ''Korax''; fl. 5th century BC) was one of the founders (along with Tisias) of ancient Greek rhetoric. Some scholars contend that both founders are merely legendary personages, others that Corax and Tisias were the same per ...

Tisias Tisias (; el, Τεισίας; fl. 5th century BC), along with Corax of Syracuse, was one of the founders of ancient Greek rhetoric. Tisias was reputed to have been the pupil of the lawyer Corax, who agreed to teach Tisias under the condition that ...

Onatas Onatas was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek sculpture, sculptor of the time of the Persian Wars and an exponent of the flourishing school of Aegina. Many of his works are mentioned by Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias; they included a Hermes carryi ...

Hippo The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extant ...

Hippasus Hippasus of Metapontum (; grc-gre, Ἵππασος ὁ Μεταποντῖνος, ''Híppasos''; c. 530 – c. 450 BC) was a Greek philosopher and early follower of Pythagoras. Little is known about his life or his beliefs, but he is sometimes c ...

Epicharmus of Kos Epicharmus of Kos or Epicharmus Comicus or Epicharmus Comicus Syracusanus ( grc-gre, Ἐπίχαρμος ὁ Κῷος), thought to have lived between c. 550 and c. 460 BC, was a Greek dramatist and philosopher who is often credited wit ...

Eurytus Eurytus, Eurytos (; Ancient Greek: Εὔρυτος) or Erytus (Ἔρυτος) is the name of several characters in Greek mythology, and of at least one historical figure. Mythological *Eurytus, one of the Giants, sons of Gaia, killed by Dionysus ...

* Acrion * Aesara *

Arignote Arignote or Arignota (; grc-gre, Ἀριγνώτη, ''Arignṓtē''; fl. c. ) was a Pythagorean philosopher from Croton or Samos. She was known as a student of Pythagoras and TheanoSuda, ''Arignote'' and, according to some traditions, their dau ...

Myia Myia (; grc-gre, Μυῖα, literally "Fly"; fl. c. 500 BC) was a Pythagorean philosopher and, according to later tradition, one of the daughters of Theano and Pythagoras. Life Myia was married to Milo of Croton, the famous athlete. She was a c ...

Theano In Greek mythology, Theano (; Ancient Greek: Θεανώ) may refer to the following personages: *Theano, wife of Metapontus, king of Icaria. Metapontus demanded that she bear him children, or leave the kingdom. She presented the children of Melan ...

* Aeschines of Neapolis *

Calliphon of Croton Calliphon of Croton ( grc, Καλλιφῶν) (fl. 6th century BC) was a Pythagorean physician. He was apparently the chief priest at Croton and a man of great importance in civic affairs. Hermippus reports that he was an associate of Pythagoras, a ...

Hicetas Hicetas ( grc, Ἱκέτας or ; c. 400 – c. 335 BC) was a Greek philosopher of the Pythagorean School. He was born in Syracuse. Like his fellow Pythagorean Ecphantus and the Academic Heraclides Ponticus, he believed that the daily moveme ...

Ecphantus the Pythagorean Ecphantus or Ecphantos ( grc, Ἔκφαντος) or Ephantus () is a shadowy Greek pre-Socratic philosopher. He may not have actually existed. He is identified as a Pythagorean of the 4th century BCE, and as a supporter of the heliocentric theory. ...

Cleinias of Tarentum Cleinias of Tarentum ( grc-gre, Κλεινίας; fl. 4th-century BCE) was a Pythagorean philosopher, and a contemporary and friend of Plato, as appears from the story (perhaps otherwise worthless) which Diogenes Laërtius gives on the authority of ...

Clinomachus Clinomachus ( el, Κλεινόμαχος; 4th-century BC), was a Megarian philosopher from Thurii. He is said by Diogenes Laërtius to have been the first who composed treatises on the fundamental principles of dialectics, and is described as the f ...

* Aresas * Brontinus *

Alcmaeon of Croton Alcmaeon of Croton (; el, Ἀλκμαίων ὁ Κροτωνιάτης, ''Alkmaiōn'', ''gen''.: Ἀλκμαίωνος; fl. 5th century BC) was an early Greek medical writer and philosopher-scientist. He has been described as one of the most e ...

* Damo *

Empedocles Empedocles (; grc-gre, Ἐμπεδοκλῆς; , 444–443 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a native citizen of Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for originating the cosmogonic theory of the fo ...

Gorgias Gorgias (; grc-gre, Γοργίας; 483–375 BC) was an ancient Greek sophist, pre-Socratic philosopher, and rhetorician who was a native of Leontinoi in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophists. Several doxogr ...

Lycophron Lycophron (; grc-gre, Λυκόφρων ὁ Χαλκιδεύς; born about 330–325 BC) was a Hellenistic Greek tragic poet, grammarian, sophist, and commentator on comedy, to whom the poem ''Alexandra'' is attributed (perhaps falsely). Life and ...

Polus Polus (Greek: Πῶλος, "colt"; fl. c. 5th century BCE) was an ancient Greek philosophical figure best remembered for his depiction in the writing of Plato. He was a pupil of the famous orator Gorgias, and teacher of oratory from the city of ...

Timaeus of Locri Timaeus of Locri (; grc, Τίμαιος ὁ Λοκρός, Tímaios ho Lokrós; la, Timaeus Locrus) is a character in two of Plato's dialogues, ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias''. In both, he appears as a Ancient G ...

Aristoxenus Aristoxenus of Tarentum ( el, Ἀριστόξενος ὁ Ταραντῖνος; born 375, fl. 335 BC) was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher, and a pupil of Aristotle. Most of his writings, which dealt with philosophy, ethics and music, have been ...

Dicaearchus Dicaearchus of Messana (; grc-gre, Δικαίαρχος ''Dikaiarkhos''; ), also written Dikaiarchos (), was a Greek philosopher, geographer and author. Dicaearchus was a student of Aristotle in the Lyceum. Very little of his work remains extan ...

Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse (;; ) was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse in Sicily. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists ...

Archytas Archytas (; el, Ἀρχύτας; 435/410–360/350 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, music theorist, astronomer, statesman, and strategist. He was a scientist of the Pythagorean school and famous for being the reputed founder ...

Philolaus Philolaus (; grc, Φιλόλαος, ''Philólaos''; ) was a Greek Pythagorean and pre-Socratic philosopher. He was born in a Greek colony in Italy and migrated to Greece. Philolaus has been called one of three most prominent figures in the Pytha ...

Lysis of Taras Lysis of Taras (; el, Λῦσις; fl. c. 5th-century BC) was a Greek philosopher. His life is obscure. He was said to have been a friend and disciple of Pythagoras. After the persecution of the Pythagoreans at Croton and Metapontum he escaped an ...

Diodotus the Stoic Diodotus ( el, Διόδοτος; fl. 1st century BC) was a Stoic philosopher, and was a friend of Cicero. Biography Diodotus lived for most of his life in Rome in Cicero's house, where he instructed Cicero in Stoic philosophy and especially Logic. ...

Siro the Epicurean Siro (also Syro, Siron, or Syron; fl. c. 50 BC) was an Epicurean philosopher who lived in Naples. He was a teacher of Virgil, and taught at his school in Naples. There are two poems attributed to Virgil in the Appendix Vergiliana, which mention S ...

Aristocles of Messene Aristocles of Messene (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοκλῆς ὁ Μεσσήνιος), in Sicily,Suda, ''Aristokles'' was a Peripatetic philosopher, who probably lived in the 1st century AD. He may have been the teacher of Alexander of Aphrodisias. ...

Romans philosophers

* Rabirius *

Catius Catius ( fl. c. 50s–40s BC) was an Epicurean philosopher, identified ethnically as an Insubrian Celt from Gallia Transpadana. Epicurean works by Amafinius, Rabirius, and Catius were the earliest philosophical treatises written in Latin. Catiu ...

Amafinius Gaius Amafinius (or Amafanius) was one of the earliest Roman writers in favour of the Epicurean philosophy. He probably lived in the late 2nd and early 1st century BC. He wrote several works, which are censured by Cicero as deficient in arrangement ...

Gaius Blossius Gaius Blossius (; 2nd century BC) was, according to Plutarch, a philosopher and student of the Stoic philosopher Antipater of Tarsus, from the city of Cumae in Campania, Italy, who (along with the Greek rhetorician, Diophanes) instigated Roman ...

Papirius Fabianus Papirius Fabianus was an Ancient Roman rhetorician and philosopher from the ''gens'' Papirius in the time of Tiberius and Caligula, in the first half of the 1st century AD. Biography Fabianus was the pupil of Arellius Fuscus and of Blandus in rhet ...

Aulus Cornelius Celsus Aulus Cornelius Celsus ( 25 BC 50 AD) was a Roman encyclopaedist, known for his extant medical work, ''De Medicina'', which is believed to be the only surviving section of a much larger encyclopedia. The ''De Medicina'' is a primary source on d ...

Cato the Younger Marcus Porcius Cato "Uticensis" ("of Utica"; ; 95 BC – April 46 BC), also known as Cato the Younger ( la, Cato Minor), was an influential conservative Roman senator during the late Republic. His conservative principles were focused on the pr ...

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

Helvidius Priscus Helvidius Priscus, Stoic philosopher and statesman, lived during the reigns of Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian. Biography Helvidius came from town of Cluviae, and his father had been the senior centurion of a legion. From early y ...

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into E ...

Marcus Junius Brutus Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Serv ...

Nigidius Figulus Publius Nigidius Figulus (c. 98 – 45 BC) was a scholar of the Late Roman Republic and one of the praetors for 58 BC. He was a friend of Cicero, to whom he gave his support at the time of the Catilinarian conspiracy. Nigidius sided with the Optim ...

Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born in ...

Arulenus Rusticus Quintus Junius Arulenus Rusticus (c. 35 – 93 AD) was a Roman Senator and a friend and follower of Thrasea Paetus, and like him an ardent admirer of Stoic philosophy. Arulenus Rusticus attained a suffect consulship in the '' nundinium'' of Septe ...

Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus (died AD 66), Roman senator, who lived in the 1st century AD. Notable for his principled opposition to the emperor Nero and his interest in Stoicism, he was the husband of Arria, who was the daughter of A. Caecina ...

Gaius Musonius Rufus Gaius Musonius Rufus (; grc-gre, Μουσώνιος Ῥοῦφος) was a Roman Stoic philosopher of the 1st century AD. He taught philosophy in Rome during the reign of Nero and so was sent into exile in 65 AD, returning to Rome only under Galba ...

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his t ...

Justin Martyr Justin Martyr ( el, Ἰουστῖνος ὁ μάρτυς, Ioustinos ho martys; c. AD 100 – c. AD 165), also known as Justin the Philosopher, was an early Christian apologist and philosopher. Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and ...

Apuleius Apuleius (; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis; c. 124 – after 170) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He lived in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern-day ...

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...

Tertullian Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...

Marcus Minucius Felix __NOTOC__ Marcus Minucius Felix (died c. 250 AD in Rome) was one of the earliest of the Latin Christian apologetics, apologists for Christianity. Nothing is known of his personal history, and even the date at which he wrote can be only approximate ...

Claudius Aelianus Claudius Aelianus ( grc, Κλαύδιος Αἰλιανός, Greek transliteration ''Kláudios Ailianós''; c. 175c. 235 AD), commonly Aelian (), born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus ...

Amelius Amelius (; grc-gre, Ἀμέλιος), whose family name was Gentilianus, was a Neoplatonist philosopher and writer of the second half of the 3rd century. Biography Amelius was a native of Tuscany.Porphyry, ''Vit. Plotin.'' 7 Originally a student ...

* Julian *

Gaius Marius Victorinus Gaius Marius Victorinus (also known as Victorinus Afer; fl. 4th century) was a Roman grammarian, rhetorician and Neoplatonic philosopher. Victorinus was African by birth and experienced the height of his career during the reign of Constantius II. H ...

Calcidius Calcidius (or Chalcidius) was a 4th-century philosopher (and possibly a Christian) who translated the first part (to 53c) of Plato's ''Timaeus'' from Greek into Latin around the year 321 and provided with it an extensive commentary. This was like ...

Tyrannius Rufinus Tyrannius Rufinus, also called Rufinus of Aquileia (''Rufinus Aquileiensis'') or Rufinus of Concordia (344/345–411), anglicized as Tyrann Rufine, was a monk, historian, and theologian. He is best known as a translator of Greek patristic materia ...

Medieval philosophers

Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, ''magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the tr ...

Cassiodorus Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Roman statesman, renowned scholar of antiquity, and writer serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senator'' w ...

James of Venice James of Venice was a Catholic cleric and significant translator of Aristotle of the twelfth century. He has been called "the first systematic translator of Aristotle since Boethius." Not much is otherwise known about him. He was active in particul ...

Joachim of Fiore Joachim of Fiore, also known as Joachim of Flora and in Italian Gioacchino da Fiore (c. 1135 – 30 March 1202), was an Italian Christian theologian, Catholic abbot, and the founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni in Fiore. According to the ...

Anselm of Besate Anselm of Besate (''Anselmus Peripateticus'', "Anselm the Peripatetic") was an 11th-century churchman and rhetorician. Anselm was born at Besate shortly after the year 1000 to a notable local family. He describes his genealogy in detail. He was re ...

Lanfranc Lanfranc, OSB (1005 1010 – 24 May 1089) was a celebrated Italian jurist who renounced his career to become a Benedictine monk at Bec in Normandy. He served successively as prior of Bec Abbey and abbot of St Stephen in Normandy and then ...

* Pierre Lombard * Ibn Zafar al-Siqilli *

Peter of Capua the Elder Peter of Capua ( it, Pietro Capuano; la, Petrus Capuanus; died 30 August 1214) was an Italian scholastic theologian and prelate. He served as cardinal-deacon of Santa Maria in Via Lata from 1193 until 1201 and cardinal-priest of San Marcello al ...

* Boncompagno da Signa *

Brunetto Latini Brunetto Latini (who signed his name ''Burnectus Latinus'' in Latin and ''Burnecto Latino'' in Italian; –1294) was an Italian philosopher, scholar, notary, politician and statesman. Life Brunetto Latini was born in Florence in 1220 to a Tuscan ...

Bonaventure Bonaventure ( ; it, Bonaventura ; la, Bonaventura de Balneoregio; 1221 – 15 July 1274), born Giovanni di Fidanza, was an Italian Catholic Franciscan, bishop, cardinal, scholastic theologian and philosopher. The seventh Minister G ...

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...

Matthew of Aquasparta Matthew of Aquasparta ( it, Matteo di Aquasparta; 1240 – 29 October 1302) was an Italian Friar Minor and scholastic philosopher. He was elected Minister General of the Order. Life Born in Acquasparta, Umbria, he was a member of the Bentivenghi ...

Giles of Rome Giles of Rome O.S.A. (Latin: ''Aegidius Romanus''; Italian: ''Egidio Colonna''; c. 1243 – 22 December 1316), was a Medieval philosopher and Scholastic theologian and a friar of the Order of St Augustine, who was also appointed to the pos ...

Pietro d'Abano Pietro d'Abano, also known as Petrus de Apono, Petrus Aponensis or Peter of Abano (Premuda, Loris. "Abano, Pietro D'." in ''Dictionary of Scientific Biography.'' (1970). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Vol. 1: p.4-5.1316), was an Italian philos ...

* Cavalcante Cavalcanti * John of Naples *

James of Viterbo James of Viterbo ( it, Giacomo da Viterbo; – ), born Giacomo Capocci (nicknamed ''Doctor speculativus''), was an Italian Roman Catholic Augustinian friar and Scholastic theologian, who later became Archbishop of Naples. Life James ...

Michael of Cesena Michael of Cesena (''Michele di Cesena'' or ''Michele Fuschi'') ( 1270 – 29 November 1342) was an Italian Franciscan, Minister General of that order, and theologian. His advocacy of evangelical poverty brought him into conflict with Pope ...

* Marsilio da Padova * Albertano da Brescia *

Menahem Recanati Menahem ben Benjamin Recanati ( he, מנחם בן בנימין ריקנטי; 1223–1290) was an Italian rabbi who was born and died in the city of Recanati, who devoted the chief part of his writings to the Kabbalah. Works In addition to the ha ...

* Isaac ben Mordecai *

Hillel ben Samuel Hillel ben Samuel (c. 1220 – Forlì, c. 1295) was an Italian physician, philosopher, and Talmudist. He was the grandson of the Talmudic scholar Eliezer ben Samuel of Verona. Life He spent his youth at Barcelona, where he studied the Talmud a ...

Eliezer ben Samuel of Verona Eliezer ben Samuel of Verona (lived about the beginning of the thirteenth century) was an Italian Jewish tosafist. He was a disciple of Rabbi Isaac the elder, of Dampierre, Aube, and grandfather of the philosopher and physician Hillel ben Samuel. ...

* Francis of Marchia *

Gregory of Rimini Gregory of Rimini (c. 1300 – November 1358), also called Gregorius de Arimino or Ariminensis, was one of the great scholastic philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages. He was the first scholastic writer to unite the Oxonian and Parisian ...

* Giovanni Dondi *

Blasius of Parma Blasius of Parma (Biagio Pelacani da Parma) (c. 13501416) was an Italian philosopher, mathematician and astrologer. He popularised English and French philosophical work in Italy, where he associated both with scholastics and with early Renaissance ...

Guarino of Verona Guarino Veronese or Guarino da Verona (1374 – 14 December 1460) was an Italian classical scholar, humanist, and translator of ancient Greek texts during the Renaissance. In the republics of Florence and Venice he studied under Manuel Chrysolor ...

Paul of Venice Paul of Venice (or Paulus Venetus; 1369–1429) was a Catholic philosopher, theologian, logician and metaphysician of the Order of Saint Augustine. Life Paul was born, according to the chroniclers of his order, at Udine, about 1369 and died at Ve ...

Leonardo Bruni Leonardo Bruni (or Leonardo Aretino; c. 1370 – March 9, 1444) was an Italian humanist, historian and statesman, often recognized as the most important humanist historian of the early Renaissance. He has been called the first modern historian. H ...

* Palla di Onorio Strozzi *

Poggio Bracciolini Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (11 February 1380 – 30 October 1459), usually referred to simply as Poggio Bracciolini, was an Italian scholar and an early Renaissance humanist. He was responsible for rediscovering and recovering many classi ...

* Gaetano da Thiene

Philosophers born in the 15th century

Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di Tito

Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. H ...

Lorenzo Valla Lorenzo Valla (; also Latinized as Laurentius; 14071 August 1457) was an Italian Renaissance humanist, rhetorician, educator, scholar, and Catholic priest. He is best known for his historical-critical textual analysis that proved that the ''Don ...

Elia del Medigo Elia del Medigo, also called Elijah Delmedigo or Elias ben Moise del Medigo and sometimes known to his contemporaries as Helias Hebreus Cretensis or in Hebrew Elijah Mi-Qandia (c. 1458 – c. 1493). According to Jacob Joshua Ross, "whil ...

Judah Messer Leon Judah ben Jehiel, ( he, יהודה בן יחיאל, 1420 to 1425 – c. 1498), more usually called Judah Messer Leon ( he, יהודה מסר לאון), was an Italian rabbi, teacher, physician, and philosopher. Through his works, assimilating a ...

Cristoforo Landino Cristoforo Landino (1424 in Pratovecchio, Casentino, Florence – 24 September 1498 in Borgo alla Collina, Casentino) was an Italian humanist and an important figure of the Florentine Renaissance. Biography From a family with ties to the ...

Marsilio Ficino Marsilio Ficino (; Latin name: ; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver of ...

* Alessandro Braccesi *

Ludovico Lazzarelli Ludovico () is an Italian masculine given name. It is sometimes spelled Lodovico. The feminine equivalent is Ludovica. Persons with the name Ludovico Given name * Ludovico D'Aragona (1876–1961), Italian socialist politician * Ludovico Arios ...

* Pomponazzi *

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (24 February 1463 – 17 November 1494) was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, ...

Alessandro Achillini Alessandro Achillini (''Latin'' Alexander Achillinus; 20 or 29 October 1463 (or possibly 1461)2 August 1512) was an Italian philosopher and physician. He is known for the anatomic studies that he was able to publish, made possible by a 13th-centu ...

Francesco Cattani da Diacceto Francesco Cattani da Diacceto (16 November 1466 – 10 April 1522) was a Florentine Neoplatonist philosopher of the Italian Renaissance. Life Diacceto was born in Florence on 16 November 1466, the son of Zanobi Cattani da Diacceto and Lion ...

* Francesco Zorzi *

Thomas Cajetan Thomas Cajetan (; 20 February 14699 August 1534), also known as Gaetanus, commonly Tommaso de Vio or Thomas de Vio, was an Italian philosopher, theologian, cardinal (from 1517 until his death) and the Master of the Order of Preachers 1508 to 15 ...

Niccolò Machiavelli Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli ( , , ; 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527), occasionally rendered in English as Nicholas Machiavel ( , ; see below), was an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance. ...

Aulo Giano Parrasio Giovan Paolo Parisio (1470–1522), who used the classicised pseudonym Aulo Giano Parrasio or Aulus Janus Parrhasius, was a humanist scholar and grammarian from Cosenza, in Calabria in southern Italy. He was thus sometimes known as "Cosentius". H ...

* Petrus Egidius *

Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno Ovadia ben Jacob Sforno (Obadja Sforno, Hebrew: עובדיה ספורנו) was an Italian rabbi, Biblical commentator, philosopher and physician. A member of the Sforno family, he was born in Cesena about 1475 and died in Bologna in 1550. Bio ...

* Marcantonio Zimara *

Agostino Nifo Agostino Nifo ( Latinized as Augustinus Niphus; 1538 or 1545) was an Italian philosopher and commentator. Life He was born at Sessa Aurunca near Naples. He proceeded to Padua, where he studied philosophy. He lectured at Padua, Naples, Rome, and ...

Girolamo Fracastoro Girolamo Fracastoro ( la, Hieronymus Fracastorius; c. 1476/86 August 1553) was an Italian physician, poet, and scholar in mathematics, geography and astronomy. Fracastoro subscribed to the philosophy of atomism, and rejected appeals to hidden c ...

Leandro Alberti Leandro Alberti (1479–1552) was an Italian Dominican historian. Life Alberti was born and died at Bologna. In his early youth he attracted the attention of the Bolognese rhetorician, Giovanni Garzoni, who volunteered to act as his tutor. He e ...

* Giulio Camillo Delminio *

Francesco Guicciardini Francesco Guicciardini (; 6 March 1483 – 22 May 1540) was an Italian historian and statesman. A friend and critic of Niccolò Machiavelli, he is considered one of the major political writers of the Italian Renaissance. In his masterpiece, ''The ...

* Mariangelo Accorso *

Matteo Tafuri Matteo Tafuri (8 August 149213 June 1582) was an Italian philosopher, astrologer and physician, who was famed for his divination, but also was reputed to be a magician who practiced demonic arts. Biography Matteo Tafuri was born in Soleto, a ...

Simone Porzio Simone Porzio (Simon Portius) (1496–1554) was an Italian philosopher, born and died in Naples. Life Like his greater contemporary, Pomponazzi, he was a lecturer on medicine at Pisa (1546–1552), and in later life gave up purely scientific st ...

* Vittore Trincavelli *

Agostino Steuco Agostino Steuco (in Latin Agostinus Steuchus or Eugubinus) (1497/1498–1548), Italian humanist, Old Testament scholar, Counter Reformation polemicist and antiquarian, was born at Gubbio in Umbria. He discoursed on the subject of perennial philo ...

* Giovan Battista Gelli * Mario Nizzoli *

Sperone Speroni Sperone Speroni degli Alvarotti (1500–1588) was an Italian Renaissance humanist, scholar and dramatist. He was one of the central members of Padua's literary academy ''Accademia degli Infiammati'' and wrote on both moral and literary matters. ...

Pier Angelo Manzolli Pier Angelo Manzolli was a name used for the author of the book ''Zodiacus vitae'', who is believed to be the Neapolitan poet Marcello Stellato, in Latin Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus (born ca. 1500 - died in Cesena before 1551). The persona of ...

Philosophers born in the 16th century

Justus Sustermans - Portrait of Galileo Galilei, 1636

Girolamo Cardano Gerolamo Cardano (; also Girolamo or Geronimo; french: link=no, Jérôme Cardan; la, Hieronymus Cardanus; 24 September 1501– 21 September 1576) was an Italian polymath, whose interests and proficiencies ranged through those of mathematician, ...

* Moshe Provençal *

Leon of Modena Leon de Modena or in Hebrew name Yehudah Aryeh Mi-Modena (1571–1648) was a Jewish scholar born in Venice to a family whose ancestors migrated to Italy after an expulsion of Jews from France. Life He was a precocious child and grew up to be a re ...

Alessandro Piccolomini Alessandro Piccolomini (13 June 1508 – 12 March 1579) was an Italian humanist, astronomer and philosopher from Siena, who promoted the popularization in the vernacular of Latin and Greek scientific and philosophical treatises. His early works ...

Bernardino Telesio Bernardino Telesio (; 7 November 1509 – 2 October 1588) was an Italian philosopher and natural scientist. While his natural theories were later disproven, his emphasis on observation made him the "first of the moderns" who eventually devel ...

Azariah dei Rossi Azariah ben Moses dei Rossi (Hebrew: עזריה מן האדומים) was an Italian-Jewish physician and scholar. He was born at Mantua in 1511; and died in 1578. He was descended from an old Jewish family which, according to a tradition, was b ...

Guglielmo Gratarolo Guglielmo Gratarolo or Grataroli or Guilelmus Gratarolus (16 May 1516, Bergamo – 16 April 1568, Basel) was an Italian doctor and alchemist. Biography Gratorolo studied in Padua and Venice. A Calvinist, Gratarolo sought refuge in Graubün ...

Andrea Cesalpino Andrea Cesalpino ( Latinized as Andreas Cæsalpinus) (6 June 1524 – 23 February 1603) was a Florentine physician, philosopher and botanist. In his works he classified plants according to their fruits and seeds, rather than alphabetically ...

Francesco Piccolomini Francesco Piccolomini may refer to: *Pope Pius III Pope Pius III ( it, Pio III; 9 May 1439 – 18 October 1503), born Francesco Todeschini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 September 1503 to his death ...

Francesco Patrizi Franciscus Patricius ( Croatian: ''Franjo Petriš'' or ''Frane Petrić'', Italian: ''Francesco Patrizi''; 25 April 1529 – 6 February 1597) was a philosopher and scientist from the Republic of Venice, originating from Cres. He was known as a ...

* Girolamo Mercuriale *

Marcello Capra Marcello Capra (born 1953 in Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first I ...

* Simone Simoni *

Jacopo Zabarella Giacomo (or Jacopo) Zabarella (5 September 1533 – 15 October 1589) was an Italian Aristotelian philosopher and logician. Life Zabarella was born into a noble Paduan family. He received a humanist education and entered the University of Padua, ...

* Francesco Buonamici *

Giambattista della Porta Giambattista della Porta (; 1535 – 4 February 1615), also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta, was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Renaissance, Scientific Revolution and Reformation. Giamba ...

Francesco Pucci Francesco Pucci (1543 – 5 July 1597) was an Italian philosopher and humanist. Life Pucci was born in Figline Valdarno. He was of the same family as the Cardinals Lorenzo Pucci, Roberto Pucci, and Antonio Pucci. He worked began in a mercanti ...

Giovanni Botero Giovanni Botero (c. 1544 – 1617) was an Italian thinker, priest, poet, and diplomat, author of '' Della ragion di Stato (The Reason of State)'',Botero, Giovanni, Pamela Waley, Daniel Philip Waley, and Robert Peterson. 1956. The Reason of St ...

Guidobaldo del Monte Guidobaldo del Monte (11 January 1545 – 6 January 1607, var. Guidobaldi or Guido Baldi), Marquis del Monte, was an Italian mathematician, philosopher and astronomer of the 16th century. Biography Del Monte was born in Pesaro. His father, ...

Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno (; ; la, Iordanus Brunus Nolanus; born Filippo Bruno, January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, and Hermetic occultist. He is known for his cosmologic ...

Jacopo Mazzoni Jacopo Mazzoni (Latinized as Jacobus Mazzonius) (27 November 1548 – 10 April 1598) was an Italian philosopher, a professor in Pisa, and friend of Galileo Galilei. His first name is sometimes reported as "Giacomo". Biography Giacopo (Jacopo) ...

* Cesare Cremonini *

Giulio Pace Giulio Pace de Beriga, also known as Giulio Pacio, or by his Latin name Julius Pacius of Beriga (9 April 1550 – 1635) was a well-known Italian Aristotelian scholar and jurist. Life He was born in Vicenza, Italy, and studied law and philosoph ...

Abraham Yagel Abraham Yagel (Monselice 1553 – 1623) was an Italian Jewish catechist, philosopher, and cabalist. He lived successively at Luzzara, Venice, Ferrara, and Sassuolo. Life and identity Giulio Bartolocci, followed by De Rossi, Wolf, and Julius ...

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

Lodovico delle Colombe Lodovico delle Colombe (1565(?) – after 1623) was an Italian Aristotelian scholar, famous for his battles with Galileo Galilei in a series of controversies in physics and astronomy. Early life Delle Colombe was born in Florence in the second ...

Tommaso Campanella Tommaso Campanella (; 5 September 1568 – 21 May 1639), baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet. He was prosecuted by the Roman Inquisition for heresy in 1594 and w ...

Antonio Serra Antonio Serra was a late 16th-century Italian philosopher and economist in the mercantilist tradition. Biography Little is known about Serra's life. He was born in Cosenza in the late 16th century (the dates of his birth and death are unknownA ...

Fortunio Liceti Fortunio Liceti (Latin: ''Fortunius Licetus''; October 3, 1577 – May 17, 1657), was an Italian physician and philosopher. Life and career He was born prematurely at Rapallo, near Genoa to Giuseppe Liceti and Maria Fini, while the family was m ...

* Mario Bettinus *

Valeriano Magni Valerianus Magnus or Valeriano Magni (October 11, 1586 – July 20, 1661) was an Italian Capuchin, missionary preacher in Central Europe, philosopher, polemicist and author. Biography He was born at Milan, presumably of the noble family of de ...

Antonio Rocco Antonio Rocco (1586–1653) was an Italian priest and philosophy teacher (he graduated under Cesare Cremonini), and a writer. Ever since 1888 when he was identified as its anonymous author, he is best known for his satirical homosexual text, ' ...

* Torquato Accetto *

Francesco Pona Francesco Pona (1595–1655) was an Italian medical doctor, philosopher, Marinist poet and writer from Verona, whose works ranged from scientific treatises and history to poetry and plays. Biography A Veronese medical doctor and member of man ...

Giacomo Accarisi Giacomo Accarisi (1599-1653) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Vieste (1644–1654). ''(in Latin)''

Philosophers born in the 17th century

Bartolomeo Mastri Bartholomew Mastrius (Bartholomaeus, Bartolomeo Mastri) (Meldola, near Forlì, 7 December 1602 – Meldola, 11 January 1673) was an Italian Conventual Franciscan philosopher and theologian. Life Born at Meldola, near Forlì, in 1602, he was a ...

Lemme Rossi Lemme Rossi (died 1673) was an Italian music theorist who was the first to publish a discussion of 31 equal temperament, the division of the octave into 31 equal parts, in his ''Sistema musico, ouero Musica speculativa doue SI spiegano i più celeb ...

Giovanni Alfonso Borelli Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (; 28 January 1608 – 31 December 1679) was a Renaissance Italian physiologist, physicist, and mathematician. He contributed to the modern principle of scientific investigation by continuing Galileo's practice of testi ...

Tito Livio Burattini Tito Livio Burattini ( pl, Tytus Liwiusz Burattini, 8 March 1617 – 17 November 1681) was an inventor, architect, Egyptologist, scientist, instrument-maker, traveller, engineer, and nobleman, who spent his working life in Poland and Lithuania. ...

* Francesco D'Andrea *

Elena Cornaro Piscopia Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (, ; 5 June 1646 – 26 July 1684) or Elena Lucrezia Corner (), also known in English as Helen Cornaro, was a Venetian philosopher of noble descent who in 1678 became one of the first women to receive an academic ...

Michelangelo Fardella

Michelangelo Fardella (1650 – January 2, ...

Giovanni Battista Tolomei Giovanni Battista Tolomei, S.J., (3 December 1653 – 19 January 1726) was an Italian Jesuit priest, theologian, and cardinal. Life Tolomei was born of noble parentage at the ancestral castle of the Counts of Capraia ( la, Camberaia) in the ...

* Domenico Gagliardi * Francesco Bianchini * Tommaso Campailla * Giambattista Vico * Luigi Guido Grandi * Pietro Giannone * Giovanni Andrea Tria * Antonio Schinella Conti * Francesco Maria Zanotti * Alberto Radicati * Jacopo Stellini * Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola

Philosophers born in the 18th century

* Moshe Chaim Luzzatto * Giovanni Salvemini * Francesco Algarotti * Antonio Genovesi * Giovanni Maria Ortes * Appiano Buonafede * Cosimo Alessandro Collini * Giambattista Toderini * Pietro Verri * Filippo Mazzei * Ferrante de Gemmis * Cesare Beccaria * Giovanni Cristofano Amaduzzi * Nicola Spedalieri * Alessandro Verri * Melchiorre Delfico (economist), Melchiorre Delfico * Niccola Andria * Vittorio Alfieri * Vitangelo Bisceglia * Gaetano Filangieri * Joseph de Maistre * Gian Domenico Romagnosi * Marco Mastrofini * Pasquale Galluppi * Paolo Costa (poet), Paolo Costa * Monaldo Leopardi * Francesco Puccinotti * Antonio Rosmini * Giacomo Leopardi * Terenzio Mamiani, Terenzio Mamiani della Rovere

Philosophers born in the 19th century

* Carlo Cattaneo * Vincenzo Gioberti * Matteo Liberatore * Giuseppe Ferrari (philosopher), Giuseppe Ferrari * Gaetano Sanseverino * Augusto Vera * Francesco De Sanctis * Ausonio Franchi * Augusto Conti * Giorgio Politeo * Roberto Ardigò * Francesco Bonatelli * Francesco Acri * Francesco Fiorentino (philosopher), Francesco Fiorentino * Giovanni Bovio * Antonio Labriola * Gaetano Mosca * Vilfredo Pareto * Giuliano Kremmerz * Benedetto Croce * Enrico Ruta * Eugenio Rignano * Giuseppe Rensi * Giovanni Gentile * Francesco Saverio Merlino * Sergio Panunzio * Carlo Michelstaedter * Arturo Reghini * Antonio Gramsci * Julius Evola

Philosophers born in the 20th century

Italiaanse schrijver Umberto Eco, portret

* Nicola Abbagnano * Lanza del Vasto * Alexandre Passerin d'Entrèves * Ernesto Grassi * Vincenzo Bianchini * Ludovico Geymonat * Norberto Bobbio * Eugenio Garin * Augusto Del Noce * Cornelio Fabro * Bruno Leoni * Silvio Ceccato * Tommaso Palamidessi * Luigi Gui * Giorgio Colli * Luigi Pareyson * Mario Albertini * Marino Di Teana * Manlio Sgalambro * Emanuele Severino * Mario Tronti * Umberto Eco * Toni Negri * Gianni Vattimo * Remo Bodei * Domenico Losurdo * Mario Perniola * Giorgio Agamben * Costanzo Preve * Massimo Cacciari * Francesco D'Agostino * Franco Berardi * Roberto Esposito * Paolo Virno * Franco Volpi (philosopher), Franco Volpi * Giuseppe Zevola * Guido del Giudice * Nuccio Ordine * Bruno Osimo * Carlo Lottieri * Marcello Landi * Luciano Floridi * Massimo Pigliucci * Alberto Jori * Federico Ferrari * Michela Marzano * Paola Cavalieri * Nicla Vassallo * Aldo Gargani * Carlo Penco * Cristina Bicchieri * Maria Luisa Dalla Chiara * Achille Varzi * Gualtiero Piccinini * Eva Picardi * Franca D'Agostini * Pieranna Garavaso * Giulio Giorello * Gloria Origgi * Lorenzo Magnani * Evandro Agazzi * Gianni Vattimo * Maurizio Ferraris * Diego Bubbio