PLACIDUS DE PLACIDO TITIS (1603-1668)


Physiomathematica sive coelestis philosophia ...

PLACIDUS DE PLACIDO TITIS (1603-1668)


Physiomathematica sive coelestis philosophia Naturalibus hucusq: desideratis ostenta principijs. Mediolani, A Io.Baptista Malatesta R. Cq; Typographo, no date (but 1650).


§ 4to; [8], [8], 323, [1] pp. (pp. 299-300 misbound), 9 (fold) plts, 15 large woodcut schematic ills. Cont. boards. Very fine copy.

Not much is known about the Benedictine monk Placido Titi; he wrote several works of astrological subject, that he was convinced can be studied scientifically. Titi styled himself “physiomathematicus”, meaning with the term an investigator ov earthly events under neither quantitative nor analysable astral influences. Few copies of the present work were originally printed in Milan in 1647 under the title Quaestionum physiomathematicarum libri tres but the author failed to obtain the imprimatur and the publication was supended. Titi then turned to the Sant’Ufficio (“Holy Office”) in Rome, that submitted the text to a physician (Silverstro Collicola) and a theologian (Raffaele Aversa); the permission was finally obtained in September 1650, subjected to the addition of a list of correction at the beginning of the work, and the publication was completed before the end of the year (Baldini).
Ref. Ugo Baldini Titi, Placido In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani.