Nicolo (Leoniceno) da Lonigo

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(1428-1524)
http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/luna/servlet/view/search/what/Portraits?q=Leoniceno
Leoniceno was born in 1428 in Lonigo near Vicenza. At age 15 he went to school in his hometown, where he received instruction in Greek and Greek literature from Ognibene da Lonigo. In 1445 he enrolled in medicine and philosophy at Padua. His teachers in Padua were Pelope in Medicine and Roccabonella in Philosophy. He completed his studies in 1453, after which he made a 'grand tour' of upper Germany, Holland, and England. In 1462 he returned to Padua until 1464 when he was appointed in Ferrara, where he remained most of his career.
According to http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccolò_Leoniceno Leoniceno was a disciple of Ognibene Lonigo

Furthermore, we have the following snippets:
1. 'All'età di diciotto anni si trasferi a Padova per seguirvi i corsi universitari; di questo periodo della sua formazione sappiamo ben poco; egli ricorda soltanto due dei suoi maestri: un Pelope non meglio specificato e Pietro Roccabonella' (translation: At the age of eighteen he moved to Padua to follow university courses, about this period of his education we know little, and he remembers only two of his teachers: an unspecified Pelope and Pietro Roccabonella)
2. 'Nicolò ricorda, come maestro, soltanto Pietro Roccabonella, cfr. Vitaliani, op. cit. pp. 283-84, dove è pubblicato un frammento di un'orazione pronunciata da Leoniceno a Padova nel 1482 in onore appunto del Roccabonella, nella quale viene definito praeceptor meus. L'unica testimonianza in questo senso è fornita da NC Papadopoli, Historia Gymnasii Patavini, Venetiis, Coleti 1726, III, pp. 297-98.' ' (translation: Nicolò acknowledges, as a teacher, only Pietro Roccabonella, cf. Vitaliani, op. cit. pp. 283-84, where he published a fragment of a lecture delivered by Leoniceno in Padua in 1482 in honor of Roccabonella, whom he called 'praeceptor meus.' The only evidence of this is provided by NC Papadopoli, Historia Gymnasii Patavini, Venetiis, Coleti 1726, III, pp. 297-98.)
3. 'A Ferrara Leoniceno svolse quasi ininterrottamente la sua pluridecennale attività, dopo aver insegnato per un breve periodo a Padova, dove si era laureato. Non abbiamo nessuna notizia certa dei maestri padovani di Leoniceno. L'informazione riguardante Pietro Roccabonella come suo insegnante di filosofia è attestata soltanto da un frammento di una orazione letta forse a Padova in suo onore, nel 1482, ...' (translation: Leoniceno was almost uninterruptedly active in Ferrara for decades, having taught for a short period in Padua, where he graduated. We have no certain knowledge of the Paduan teachers of Leoniceno. The information on Pietro Roccabonella as his philosophy teacher is attested only by a fragment of a lecture that was read in his honor in Padua, in 1482, ...)

Two teachers are mentioned: a Pelope, and Pietro Roccabonella. "Pelope" is somewhat of an enigma, since none of the lists of contemporary Paduan faculty mention that name, c.f. http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personalit%C3%A0_legate_all%27Universit%C3%A0_degli_studi_di_Padova#XV_secolo and http://books.google.com/books?id=65e7Xd9a-PgC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA24#v=onepage&q&f=true . Pietro Roccabonella, on the other hand, is a well-known prof of Medicine in Padua. Roccabonella taught logic and philosophy in Padua in the 1450's, taught medicine from 1459, and succeeded his teacher Sigismondo Polcastro as professor of medicine in Padua in 1465, and died in 1491.

There appears to be a lot of confusion out there about the maestri of Leoniceno. The first one is the identity of 'Pelope', who is referred to by Leoniceno as 'meo praeceptore Pelope'. (c.f. http://books.google.com/books?id=7ExBAAAAcAAJ&dq=meo%20praeceptore%20Pelope&pg=PT247#v=onepage&f=true and http://books.google.com/books?id=RppQ5YkgRCQC&pg=PT290#v=onepage&q&f=false ) A possible explanation is that Leoniceno was referring to Galen of Pergamon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galen when he wrote that: In 148 AD, when he was 19, Galen traveled to Smyrna where he studied under Pelope (see http://books.google.com/books?id=FsA7AAAAcAAJ&vq=Smyrna%20Pelope&pg=PT312#v=onepage&q=Smyrna%20Pelope&f=true http://books.google.com/books?id=BsE7AAAAcAAJ&vq=Pelope%20Smyrna&pg=PA485#v=onepage&q=Pelope%20Smyrna&f=true ). This Pelope was a discipel of Numesiano, and teacher of Galen.
The other source of confusion is that between Pietro Roccabonella (c. 1427-1491), and his grandfather (or rather: uncle, see below), Niccolò Roccabonella di Conegliano (1386-1459). The Italian sources mention explicitly that Pietro Roccabonella was Leoniceno's 'praeceptor'. Somehow someone out there appears to have made the mistake to equate Pelope = Niccolò Roccabonella, a mistake that propagated all over the Internet. The claim found all over the internet that 'Pelope was a Croatian apothecary' appears to derive from that single mistake. (c.f. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diskussion:Niccol%C3%B2_Leoniceno)

Niccolò Roccabonella was a famous herbalist who compiled 'Liber de simplicibus', A Book on Medicinal Herbs. According to the foreword in the codex, Roccabonella worked on the dictionary from 1415 to 1448. From 1449-1453 Niccolò lived and worked in Zadar, Croatia, where he met Johannes Reinhardt. (see Journal of Croatian studies , Volumes 36-37 http://books.google.com/books?id=PQeQAAAAIAAJ)
Niccolò Roccabonella was married twice, the first time to Elisabetta, the second time to Pirincina di Gasparino Frigerio, from Venice, with whom he had two sons. The older son, Jacopo, born in Venice 1420 died in Venice 1479 married to Elisabetta de Brutis (died in 1452) became a doctor, while the second, Lodovico, became a merchant and developed with his father an active trade in industrial and medicinal herbs. Lodovico was born c. 1422, died in 1453 married to Elisabetta Carreto. They had a son, Marco who died young, and daughter Caterina. Lodovico's ship sank and he was drowned, leaving behind his wife from Zadar, Elizabeta Carrero, and a daughter, Caterina, who was raised in Zadar and was to live there her entire life. This information is based upon the Introduction from the Codex. (Croatia in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance: A Cultural Survey, http://books.google.com/books?id=6RM_AQAAIAAJ )
Pietro Roccabonella is referred to as "Petrus Roccabonella de Venetiis filius Ludovici Roccabonella de Coneglano Artium & Medicina Doctoris", meaning that Pietro was Ludovico's son, c.f. http://books.google.com/books?id=NPMEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA111#v=onepage&q&f=true However, the timeline indicates that Pietro was born ca. 1427, implicating that Lodovico, Niccolò's son (born c. 1422) cannot have been Pietro's father. Furthermore, according to Archivio veneto Pietro's father had a distinguished 40 year long career as a physician and was married to Agnese Bondina, while Lodovico, Niccolò's son was married to Elisabetta Carreto, and died at age 31. We therefore conclude that Pietro's father, Ludovico Roccabonella di Conegliano, must have been a different person than Lodovico, Niccolò's son, and was perhaps a brother of Niccolò Roccabonella di Conegliano instead. That would make Pietro Niccolò's nephew rather than his grandson, as is claimed in Archivio veneto, http://books.google.com/books?id=e3kKAAAAIAAJ .
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