Further Reading
Painter, Sidney. The Scourge of the Clergy: Peter of Dreux, Duke
of Brittany. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1937.
William Chester Jordan
PIETRO ABANO (d. 1316)
Pietro Abano (Pietro d’Abano) was the most important
medical teacher in early fourteenth-century Padua. He
was a Lombard by birth, but little is known of his life.
In spite of his fame, and the fame he brought his uni-
versity, he seems never to have accumulated the wealth
of such successful teachers and practitioners as Taddeo
Alderotti. Pietro’s most famous book, Conciliator of
the Differences of the Philosophers and Especially the
Physicians, remained in use in universities well into the
early modern period.
Pietro received his medical training at the Univer-
sity of Paris, where he would have been indoctrinated
into the highest levels of scholarly debate surround-
ing the natural philosophy of Aristotle and Aristotle’s
interpreters. He returned to Italy from Paris c. 1306 to
teach medicine, philosophy, and astrology at Padua.
The Conciliator, which was completed sometime after
1310, shows his Parisian training. The book presents
more than 200 disputed questions on the subject of
medical philosophy and attempts to reconcile confl icts
between the physiological teachings of Aristotle and
the medical teachings of Galen. Pietro apparently was
deeply impressed by similar attempts by Averroës and
Avicenna, who adopted the Neoplatonic scheme of
the ultimate reconciliation of confl icting philosophical
viewpoints.
Pietro also distinguished himself as one of the early
translators of Galen’s works from the original Greek into
Latin. Much of his writing examines the importance of
medical astrology. This interest in astrology, as well as
his devotion to Averroist teaching, marred his reputation
in some circles.
See also Averroës, Abu ‘L-Wal ̄ı d Muhammad B.
Ahmad B. Rushd; Avicenna
Further Reading
Olivieri, Luigi. Pietro d’Abano e il pensiero neolatino: Filosofi a,
scienza, e ricerca dell’Aristotele greco tra i secoli XIII e XIV.
Padua: Antenore, 1988.
Paschetto, Eugenia. Pietro d’Abano, medico e fi losofo. Florence:
Vallecchi, 1984.
Siraisi, Nancy G. Arts and Sciences at Padua. Toronto: Pontifi cal
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1973.
——. Taddeo Alderotti and His Pupils: Two Generations of Ital-
ian Medical Learning. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1981.
Faye Marie Getz
PISANO, ANDREA
(c. 1295–c. 1348 or 1349)
Andrea Pisano (Andrea di Ugolino di Nino da Pont-
edera) is recorded as a sculptor, goldsmith, and capo-
maestro (master of works) of the cathedrals of Florence
and Orvieto. Andrea was the son of a notary and is
presumed to have been born in Pontedera, near Pisa. His
reputation rests principally on his designs for the doors
of the Baptistery in Florence (signed and dated 1330),
which are considered among the greatest achievements
of Tuscan Trecento sculpture. In this project, Andrea
demonstrated that the direct narrative style and effective
compositional principles of Giotto’s painting could be
successfully translated into the art of relief sculpture.
Though nothing is known for certain about Andrea’s
formative years, it is thought that he trained as a gold-
smith, since the reliefs for the bronze doors, his earliest
securely documented commission, exhibit attention to
miniature detail and ornament as well as a high degree
of competence in working with metal. Given the char-
acteristics of his securely identifi able oeuvre, it comes
as no surprise that Andrea was referred to as orefi ce
(goldsmith) in 1335.Andrea’s Reliefs for the Baptistery,
Florence (1330–1336)
In 1322, the Arte di Calimala (guild of importers and
exporters of cloth) of Florence, the institution in charge
of the decorative program of the Baptistery, had made
plans for wooden doors covered with gilded metal. By
1329, the project had been revised, and the offi cials
of the Calimala favored a more costly and technically
more challenging option: doors in solid bronze. Andrea
is fi rst recorded in connection with this project in 1330,
but his appointment almost certainly dates from 1329,
when the Calimala sent a Florentine goldsmith to Pisa
and Venice, which had a tradition of bronze casting, to
examine examples of bronze doors. Though Andrea’s
reliefs carry the date 1330, his work did not end until
late 1335: in 1330–1331 he worked on the wax models,
which were cast in bronze by Venetian craftsmen in
the cire perdu method; in 1333 the left door valve was
installed; and the right wing was not completed until
late 1335, owing to problems in the casting. The doors
were dedicated on the feast of John the Baptist (the pa-
tron saint of the building and of Florence) in 1336; they
originally adorned the east portal but were subsequently
removed to the south portal to make way for Lorenzo
Ghiberti’s work.
Each wing comprises ten reliefs on the life of John
the Baptist and four reliefs of virtues; all are set in qua-
trefoil frames that are, in turn, contained in rectangular
fi elds. The general confi guration of Andrea’s doors wasPISANO, ANDREA