Daniel
Sennert
Hiro HIRAI
Atomes
vivants,
origine de l’âme et génération spontanée
chez Daniel Sennert
In his treatise De spontaneo viventium ortu, published at the end of his masterpiece Hypomnemata physica (Wittenberg, 1636), the professor of medicine at Wittenberg, Daniel Sennert (1572-1637), built his corpuscular interpretation of the origin of life upon a singular synthesis of Aristotelian hylomorphism and Democretean atomism. By this theory, he tired to explain among other things the spontaneous generation of lesser living beings. The present study examines Sennert’s theory of biological generation and in particular his ideas on the atoms of living beings and the souls conveyed by these atoms. It reveals that Sennert’s reading of the Paduan medical professor Fortunio Liceti’s (1577-1657) work De spontaneo viventium ortu (Vicenza, 1618) was a major factor by which his atomist conviction was especially reinforced after 1619. The present case-study of Sennert sheds light on the impact of biological speculations on the evolution of early modern matter theories.
1. Introduction
2. L’origine de l’âme dans la
génération normale
2-1. Le donateur des formes et la causalité
astrale
2-2. L’éduction des formes
2-3. Jacob Schegk et la force plastique
2-4. La nature de la semence et du spiritus séminal
3. La génération spontanée selon Sennert
3-1. L’âme, le principe séminal et les
corpuscules
3-2. Les atomes des vivants et leur âme
4. Conclusions
English version
Living Atoms, the Origin of Souls and Spontaneous Generation
in Daniel Sennert
(and Fortunio Liceti)