Leonico Tomeo, Niccolò

Niccolò Leonico Tomeo was a Paduan humanist who devoted his long life to classical scholarship. Excellent connoisseur of Greek language, he studied and translated Plato and Aristotle directly from the original texts, refusing to resort to scholasticism and medieval annotators. He amassed a vast library of Greek philosophers and scientists and surrounded himself with young men who went to Padua from all over the Europe to follow his lessons. After lecturing on Aristotle in Padua and Venice until 1509, he privately taught Plato, because – as other humanists were – he was persuaded that Platonic and peripatetic theories had to be conciliated against the spreading Averroism. This perspective is well shown by his major philosophical work, the Dialogi