Nicola Antonio Stigliola

Nicola Antonio Stigliola (Also: Colantonio Stelliola) (1546 Nola – 1623 Naples) was an Italian philosopher, printer, architect, and medical doctor. He was a friend of Tommaso Campanella and Giordano Bruno and a member of the Accademia dei Lincei.

He was an adherent of Copernican heliocentrism and of Bruno's ideas on Hermeticism and magic. He believed in the complex Pythagorean and Brunian cosmologies, including the view that the planets and stars were like the earth, covered in plants and animals: "Stigliola said to me...that it seemed irrational to him that bodies so much larger than the earth and the space between the center of the earth to the moon should be composed simply of idle fire, and not instead of all manner of elements and plants and animals and men, just as our countryman Philolaus held." Indeed, Stigliola and Bruno were born just two years apart in the same region of southern Italy, Nola, and in the same town of Monte Cicala.

Early life Nicola Antonio Stigliola was born in the year 1546 in Nola of the Kingdom of Naples. He was the firstborn of six siblings born to his parents Federico and Giustina. He also developed new plans for the city's port and city wall, neither of which were implemented. Instead, he turned to teaching, perhaps medicine as well as architecture. He was said to have had, at one time, 400 students. He was tried for heresy and imprisoned in Naples in 1595, and released in 1597.

His epitaph, in part, reads: TO THE MEMBER OF THE LYNCEAN ACADEMY, NICOLA ANTONIO STIGLIOLA, NOT ONLY A PHILOSOPHER, BUT DISTINGUISHED IN ALL THE LIBERAL ARTS IN ADDITION TO THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES, POLITICS, ETHICS, ARCHITECTURE, MILITARY ARTS, AND ALL THAT PERTAINS TO THE PYTHAGOREAN SCIENCES ENDED HIS CAREER AS THE SUPREME MATHEMATICIAN IN THE CITY OF PARTHENOPE AT THE AGE OF NEARLY EIGHTY YEARS ON APRIL 11, 1623...

The following are works by Stigliola: Theriace et Mithridatia Libellus (1577) De gli elementi mechanici (1597) Telescopio, over ispecillo celeste (1627 posth.) Encyclopedia pythagorea (1616) [Only the index and section Delle apparenze celesti (1616) are believed to exist]

Work as a Printer

Printing Stigliola owned and operated a personal printing press by the name of Typographia Stelliolae

Cartography A map of the territory of Molise authored by Nicola Antonio Stigliola and Mario Cartaro - an example of work the two collaborated on together. In 1583, Stigliola was occupied with creating a new survey of the city of Naples to better represent the kingdom and protect against unnecessary danger due to outdated representations. Stigliola was later partnered with Mario Cartaro (who would be tasked with engraving) It also included dedicated tools for taxation and the institutional management of different areas - outlining a given province and then labeling the "hearth money" they owed.

Legal Encounters with the Inquisition Stigliola was made into an official with the charge of "engineer of the city of Naples and of the fortifications tribunal" in 1593. Two years later in 1595 he would be directly charged with the crimes of irreligious behavior and fear/disrespect of government officials/mandates by a Jesuit, Clauido Migliaresi. A friend of Stigliola also revealed his belief that Moses was a magician. He would be fully recognized for his Copernican philosophies and talents, and engaged in a fruitful relationship with other philosophers and scientists like Galileo for more than a decade. Fodio was a man of many talents like Stigliola, and practiced medicine, astronomy, and philosophy; he was recognized and recommended as a potential Lynceans, but it is unclear if he was ever admitted.

The Encyclopedia pythagorea and Fodio's Continuation In 1616 Stigliola started what he intended to be a gargantuan project, Encyclopedia Pythagorea, partly wherein the code observable in the infinite stars could be transcribed. It was one of the ways that Stigliola derived influence from Giordano Bruno, continuing the concept of using discovery and observation to decode the natural world and create a new perspective of nature. It was never finished, and Fodio would resume the responsibility of its completion. He claimed a work he wrote concerning gout, Il Camaleonte antipodagrico, discorso enciclopedico as a continuation of his previous mentor's work. He would express however, that he thought it was ultimately hopeless, as the proposed infinite nature of the problem meant it was impossible to ever complete.