The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Abano, Pietro d’

ABANO, Pietro d’, ā′ba-nō, pēā′trō dē, known also as Petrus de Apono, one of the most celebrated physicians of the 13th century: b. in the Italian village from which he takes his name, in 1246 or 1250; d. 1316. He visited the East in order to acquire a thorough knowledge of Greek, and then completed his studies at the University of Paris. Returning to Italy he settled at Padua, where his reputation as a physician became so great that his rivals, envious of his fame, gave out that he was aided in his cures by evil spirits. It was known, too, that he practiced astrology, and he was twice summoned before the Inquisition. On the first occasion he was acquitted, and he died before his second trial came to an end. Besides the work, ‘Conciliator Differentiarum Philosophorum et Præcipue Medicorum’ (Mantua 1472), he wrote ‘De Venenis eorumque Remediis’ (1472), ‘Geomantia,’ ‘Quæstiones de Febribus,’ and other works.