Niccolò Comneno Papadopoli

For other people of the same name, see Nikolaos Papadopoulos (disambiguation).

Niccolò Comneno Papadopoli (Greek: Νικόλαος Κομνηνός Παπαδόπουλος, Nikólaos Komninós Papadópoulos; 6 January 1655 on Crete – 20 January 1740 in Padua) was an Italian lawyer and historian of Greek origin.

Life

He was born to Zuanne (Giovanni) Papadopoli, a Venetian administrator at Candia, present day Heraklion.[1]

Papadopoli studied Canon Law and became a librarian at the University of Padua. In 1726 he published on the history of the university.[2]

That work contains gross inaccuracies (if not lies), for example regarding the life of Oliver Cromwell[3] and Nicolaus Copernicus. Papadopoli had falsely claimed in 1726 that he had seen an entry of Copernicus in records of a "Polish nation" at the university. In the century that had passed since, this claim had been widely published and "found a place in all subsequent biographies of Copernicus, but the decorative particulars added by the historian of the Pavian university have been shown to be wholly incorrect"[4] and utterly baseless[5] as shown over 150 years by Carlo Malagola and Leopold Prowe.

Papadopoli's work was continued since 1739 by Jacopo Facciolati.

Literature

  1. ↑ Papadopoli, Zuanne (2007), L'occio (time of leisure). Memories of seventeenth century Crete; preface & comments by Alfred Vincent, Venice: Hellenic Institute of Byzantine studies in Venice, ISBN 978-9-60774-341-1
  2. ↑ Nicolai Comneni Papadopoli Historia gymnasii patavini post ea, quae hactenus de illo scripta sunt, ad haec nostra tempora plenius, & emendatius deducta. Cum actuario de claris professoribus tum alumnis eiusdem. .
  3. ↑ Sir James Burrow: A few anecdotes and observations relating to Oliver Cromwell and his family, London : printed for J. Worrall, 1763, Electronic reproduction. Farmington Hills, Mich. : Thomson Gale, 2003 (Google Books)
  4. ↑ The fact was asserted by Papadopoli in 1726, and found a place in all subsequent biographies of Copernicus ; but the decorative particulars added by the historian of the Pavian university having been shown wholly incorrect, it seemed unreasonable to rely on his discredited authority for the fundamental circumstance. - The Edinburgh Review: Or Critical Journal, By Sydney Smith et al., Published 1883, A. and C. Black,
  5. ↑ As for the assertion that Copernicus was registered as a Pole at Padua, that was investigated, at the instance of Prince Boncompagni, by Favaro, and found utterly baseless. On the other hand, Carlo Malagola, in his admirable work on Urceo Codro showed that "Niccolo Kopperlingk di Thorn" had registered as a law student at Bologna in the album of the "Nazione Alemanna". This may not prove much, but it is, at least, not an invention. – Charles Sanders Peirce in The Nation, 5. Oct. 1893 in a reply to Was Copernicus a German?. p. 185–186, in Charles Sanders Peirce, Kenneth Laine Ketner, James E. Cook: Contributions to the Nation, Published 1982, Texas Tech University Press, 202 pages ISBN 0-89672-154-X (ISBN 0-89672-069-1 paper ISBN 0-89672-070-5 hardbound)

External links

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