Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/298

 d'Abano, or Petrus Aponensis, who was born at Abano, a small village near Padua, 1250 A. D. Very little is known about his early youth, but from this little we are warranted in drawing the conclusion that his father, a notary, must have taken great pains to afford him every possible educational advantage. He gave his son, for example, the opportunity of studying Greek in Constantinople,—a thing of rare occurrence in those early days,—and allowed him to remain there until he had so far mastered the language that he was able to translate the "Problemata" of Aristotle from the original text. Then, upon his return home from Constantinople, he was sent to Paris for the purpose of perfecting his knowledge of philosophy, mathematics and medicine. After this thorough training for his life work, Pietro d'Abano began teaching philosophy in Padua, and almost immediately he gained such success that people spoke of him as "the great Lombard." However, like most of the men of that time who became conspicuous through their intellectual attainments, Pietro d'Abano was soon accused by the Dominicans of being a heretic and of cultivating the magician's art. He was able to parry this blow by making a journey to Rome and obtaining from Pope Boniface VIII. a decree of absolution. About the same time he began writing his two great works—the "Conciliator" and the "Commentaries on Aristotle's Problemata." He did not begin to teach medicine at the University of Padua until 1306, when he was already fifty-six years of age. But his lectures, reflecting as they did the depth and extent of his learning and the keenness of his powers of analysis, were a source of great astonishment to his contemporaries. It is reported by Neuburger, for example, that Gentile da Foligno, one of the most distinguished professors in the Medical School of Padua, happening to pass near the auditorium while Pietro d'Abano was delivering his lecture, listened for a short time and then exclaimed: "Salve o santo tempio"—"Hail to this time which has brought forth such wonders!" With the increase of Pietro's fame came also a decided increase in the bitterness of the persecution carried on against him