Albert of Saxony

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(Albert of Helmstädt)

Fourteenth-centuryphilosopher; nicknamed Albertus Parvus, Albertutius, and Albertilla by theItalianScholastics of theRenaissance. In 1351 he passed the first examination (determinatio) at theUniversity of Paris, where he figured as a member of the English Nation. In the same year he was electedprocurator of the English Nation; in 1353rector of theuniversity; in 1361, collector of dues of the English Nation; in 1358 he had been one of the representatives of this Nation in the concordat with the Picard Nation. In 1361 the English Nation suggested him for the suburbanparish of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, which depended on theuniversity. In 1368 he still belonged to thefaculty of arts at theUniversity of Paris, where he compiled his questions onAristotle's "De Cælo et Mundo". Owing to their common surname of Albert of Saxony, Albert of Helmstädt has often been confused with Albert, son of Bernard the Rich, of Ricmestorp (Diocese of Halberstädt). The latter's name occurs for the first time in 1362 among the masters of the English Nation at theUniversity of Paris; in 1363 he wasrector of theuniversity; in 1365 Rudolf, Duke ofAustria, sent him as ambassador toPope Urban V. In that same year theUniversity of Vienna was founded and through the influence of Rudolf, Albert of Ricmestorp was elected firstrector. He was consequently appointed a canon ofHildesheim and (21 Oct., 1366)Bishop of Halberstädt.

All the works which we possess under the name of Albert of Saxony belong to Albert of Helmstädt. Some were devoted tologic, others to physics. The study of these books is admirably calculated to inform us on the views current at theUniversity of Paris in the middle of the fourteenth century. The treatises onlogic written by Albert of Saxony are devoted to the detailed and subtle dialectic which at the end of the thirteenth century Petrus Hispanus had introduced into the teaching of theParisianScholasticism, but they present neither the disorder nor the multitude of empty quibbles which about the same time were introduced into the instruction at theUniversity of Oxford and which became predominant there under the influence of William Heytesbury. Albert of Saxony's treatises on physics consist of a "Tractatus proportionum" and questions onAristotle's "Physics", "De Coelo", and "De generatione et corruptione". These contain, in a clear, precise, and concise form, an explanation of numerousideas which exercised great influence on the development of modernscience, whichideas, however, were not wholly personal to Albert of Helmstädt, many of the most important of them being derived from his master,Jean Buridan. He abandoned the old Peripatetic dynamics which ascribed the movement of projectiles to disturbed air. WithBuridan he placed the cause of this movement in an impetus put into the projectile by theperson who threw it; the part he assigned to this impetus is very like that which we now attribute to living force. WithBuridan he considered that the heavens were not moved by intelligences, but, like projectiles, by the impetus whichGod gave them when He created them. WithBuridan he saw in the increase of impetus the reason of the acceleration in the fall of a heavy body. He further taught that the velocity of a falling weight increased in proportion either to the space traversed from the beginning of the fall or to the time elapsed, but he did not decide between these two.

The equilibrium of the earth and seas is the subject of a favourite theory of Albert's. The entire terrestrial element is in equilibrium when its centre of gravity coincides with the centre of the world. Moreover, the terrestrial mass has not everywhere the same density, so that its centre of gravity does not coincide with the centre of its figure. Thus the lightest part of the earth is more distant from the centre of gravity of the earth than the heaviest part. The erosion produced by rivers constantly draws terrestrial particles from the continents to the bosom of the sea. This erosion, which, by scooping out the valleys, has shaped the mountains, constantly displaces the centre of gravity of the terrestrial mass, and this mass is in motion to bring back the centre of gravity of the earth to the centre of its figure. Through this motion the submerged portions of the earth constantly push upwards the emerged parts, which are incessantly being eaten away and afterwards replaced by the submerged parts. At the beginning of the sixteenth century this theory of Albert's strongly attracted the attention ofLeonardo da Vinci, and it was to confirm it that he devoted himself to numerous observations of fossils. Albert of Saxony, moreover, ascribed the precession of the equinoxes to the similar very slow movement of the terrestrial element.

His "Tractatus proportionum" went through eleven editions; one bears no date or indication of its origin; three were issued at Padua in 1482, 1484, and 1487; four were printed atVenice in 1487, 1494, and twice in 1496; two were printed atVenice in 1502 and 1506; finally, an edition without date or printer's name was issued atParis. The "Subtilisimæ quæstiones super octo libros Physicorum" were printed at Padua in 1493, atVenice in 1504 and 1516. The "Quæstiones in Aristotelis libros de Coelo et Mundo" were published at Pavia in 1481, atVenice in 1492 and 1497. The "Quæstiones in libros de generatione et corruptione", with the commentaries and questions which Gilles ofRome and Marsilius of Inghen had compiled on the same subject, were printed atVenice in 1504, 1505, and 1518. Albert's "Quæstiones" on the Physics, the "De Coelo", and the "De generatione", followed by the questions of Thémon and ofBuridan on the "De anima", were printed inParis in 1516 and 1518. The "Quæstiones super libros posteriorum Aristotelis" were printed atVenice in 1497; the "Sophismata" atParis in 1489; the "Tractatus obligationum" atLyons in 1498; the two last-named works, joined with the "Insolubilia", were published atParis in 1490, 1495, and at an unknowndate. In 1496 was printed at Bologna the "Expositio aurea et admodum utilis super artem veterem, edita per venerabilem inceptorem fratrem Gulielmum de Ocham cum questionibus Alberti parvi de Saxonia". Finally, the "Logica Albertucii" was edited atVenice in 1522.

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