Telesio believed that sense is the only basis for specu-
lation about nature. His importance lies in his use of Aris-
totelian concepts to present an essentially physical
explanation of natural phenomena. His system depends
on two active natures, heat and cold, and an inert mass on
which the two natures react. Telesio also introduced ap-
proaches to space and time that in some ways foreshad-
owed Newtonian physics. He numbered CAMPANELLAand
Giordano BRUNOamong his followers.
Téllez, Gabriel See TIRSO DE MOLINA
Tempesta, Antonio (1555–1630) Italian engraver,
painter, and etcher
Tempesta trained in his native Florence under Jan van der
STRAETand also assisted VASARIon the decorative schemes
for the Palazzo Vecchio. For much of his life, however, he
was based in Rome, where he contributed to the decora-
tion of several palaces, including the Vatican, and of the
Villa Farnese at Caprarola. His prints, mainly of hunting
and battle scenes, were widely disseminated and copied by
other artists.
Tempio Malatestiano The “temple” of Sigismondo
MALATESTAat Rimini. Conceived by Sigismondo as a tem-
ple dedicated to the arts and philosophy and as a monu-
ment to himself and his third wife, Isotta degli Atti, the
Tempio is a remodeling of the 13th-century Gothic church
of San Francesco. The interior was begun in 1450 by Mat-
teo de’ PASTI, whose work obliterated earlier frescoes by
GIOTTO. Chapels were built for Sigismondo and Isotta,
with reliefs, notably, of the Arts and Sciences by AGOSTINO
DI DUCCIOand a fresco (1451) by PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA
that depicts Sigismondo kneeling before St. Sigismund.
The exterior is the work of ALBERTI, who designed a clas-
sical shell to encase the earlier building. The structure is
based on the motif of the Roman triumphal arch, inspired
by the arch of Augustus nearby, and was to be surmounted
by a dome. Because of his conflict with Pope Pius II, Sigis-
mondo abandoned work on the Tempio in 1460.
Templars See KNIGHTS TEMPLAR
Ten, Council of See COUNCIL OF TEN
Ten of War (Italian dieci di libertà et pace) The Floren-
tine council concerned with the conduct of diplomacy and
warfare. It was accountable to the signoria but had con-
siderable freedom in the way it arranged embassies and
ran the military establishment. MACHIAVELLIwas its secre-
tary for 14 years (1498–1512), and his correspondence
from this period gives a detailed picture of the Ten’s oper-
ations.
Terence (Publius Terentius Afer) (195/185–159 BCE)
Roman comic playwright
An African-born slave, Terence was received into the cul-
tivated Roman circle of Scipio Aemilianus, to whose taste
his plays catered. The plays number six, with four of them
being adaptations from the Greek comedy of Menander.
Terence was much admired by later Roman writers for the
purity of his style, and he similarly appealed to Renais-
sance pedagogues who recommended his plays for school
reading and acting. Although he used much the same ma-
terial as PLAUTUS, Terence’s sentiments are generally more
refined, affording, as Renaissance educationists saw it,
moral edification as well as stylistic benefit to students.Teresa of Ávila, St. (Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y
Ahumada) (1515–1582) Spanish Carmelite reformer and
mystic
She was born near Ávila and, already infused with a
heightened religious enthusiasm at the age of seven, set
off with her brother Rodrigo for Moorish territory to be
beheaded for Christ. Her uncle stopped them. After her
mother died she was placed in the Augustinian convent of
Sta. Maria de Gracia in 1531. Her spiritual ardour finally
compelled her to take up the religious habit and pursue an
ascetic life. She entered a Carmelite nunnery in Ávila in
1538 and later fell ill and was paralysed as a result of her
self-deprivations. In 1554 she recorded her first visions
and ecstatic union with God. She became an ardent re-
former and in 1562 founded the Convent of the Incarna-
tion of Discalced Carmelite nuns. In subsequent years she
wrote The Way of Perfection as a guide for the nuns of her
Ávila convent and Meditations on the Canticle. In 1567 she
and St. JOHN OF THE CROSSbegan founding other Discalced
Carmelite monasteries. Their opponents, the Calced
Carmelites, tried to deport her to New Spain but suc-
ceeded only in limiting her activities to Toledo. During
this difficult time she wrote her most famous work, The
Interior Castle. She died in Alba shortly after founding yet
another Discalced Carmelite house at Burgos. In 1617 the
Spanish cortes declared her “Patroness of Spain,” and she
was canonized in 1622, along with IGNATIUS LOYOLA,
FRANCIS XAVIER, and PHILIP NERI.
St. Teresa of Ávila represents, along with St. John of
the Cross, the most intense mysticism of the COUNTER-
REFORMATION. As a woman in 16th-century Spain, she was
not educated in a formal sense, and her writings display a
rustic style. Although historians commonly say that in her
writings her rapturous religious fantasies are mixed with
intense sensual and erotic sentiments, this assertion is ex-
aggerated; in this respect her writings are more moderate
than those of St. John of the Cross. The mystical enthusi-
asm of Teresa has been well captured by Gian Lorenzo
Bernini’s renowned sculpture St. Teresa in Ecstasy (1645–
52; Sta. Maria della Vittoria, Rome).TTeerreessaa ooff AAíívviillaa,, SStt.. 4 46611