Piccolomini, Alessandro

The Sienese (1508–1579) was involved in various acade- mies and was active in such diverse fields as playwriting, logic, mathematics, natural phi- losophy, moral philosophy, rhetoric, and poet- ics. He promoted a cultural program, which aimed among other things to make philosophy accessible to women. Among his copious writ- ings are the Institutione, one of the most influ- ential Renaissance adaptations of Aristotle’s Ethics (1542; a revised edition appeared in 1560); a vernacular treatise on logic (L’instrumento de la filosofia, 1551); and a commentary on the Poetics of Aristotle, pre- ceded by a translation of this work (1572, 1575).