Daniel Sennert and Padua: Personal, Scientific, and Philosophical Exchanges

This essay explores the ties between Daniel Sennert and the University of Padua. It first reconstructs personal ties due to the circulation of students, books and ideas between Wittenberg and Padua as mediated by the German Nation of Artists in Padua. Secondly, it examines debates in Padua on the origins of life, that Sennert followed and to which he reacted. As this essay shows, authors such as Fortunio Liceti were important references for Sennert. But he also adopted from radical Paduan thinkers such as Pietro Pomponazzi and Cesare Cremonini a rational attitude to questions of natural philosophy that informed his own approach to theologically controversial problems. Believing that there were different approaches to the truth, Sennert viewed rational inquiry and revelation as complementary, while embracing a naturalistic approach to questions of the origins of life and the operations of the soul, including the rational faculty. He excluded the separability of soul and body in the domain of natural philosophy, while not excluding this very possibility for God, who operates beyond the limits of physics. His naturalistic position alarmed the Inquisition, much to the displeasure of Italian authors who praised Sennert.