Hannibal Calaber (Hannibal Rosselius/Annibale Rosselli/Rosiglio Calabrese, c. 1524-c. 1600/1610)

Hannibal Calaber (Hannibal Rosselius/Annibale Rosselli/Rosiglio Calabrese, c. 1524-c. 1600/1610) OFM. Italian friar. Born in Gimigliano (on August 6 1525?) as the son of Giovanni Battista and Caterina Rosselli. Received an education in the arts at Taverna, and then studied philosophy at Naples (starting his studies there in 1546). Somewhat later, he entered the Observant Franciscan order in the Umbria province. Studied in Paris and England (during the Mary interlude?) and in Louvain (between 1554 and 1560). He returned to Italy in 1560, first in Turin and later in Cuma, where he visited the alleged cave of the Sybil, possibly to come into contact with/have experience of arcane knowledge which increasingly became a central part of his philosophical interests. He spent some ten years in the Franciscan friary of Montesanto and worked in Rome between 1581 and 1585. He then was sent to Poland by the minister general Gonzaga to become professor of theology and philosophy at the Wroclaw studium. There he began to publish his multi-volume commentary on the Pimander and the Asclepius attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, which amounted to a large summa of philosophical and theological thinking. Six parts of this commentary were published in 1584-90. An additional four volumes were planned. Of this at least vol. 9 appeared in 1589. He wrote several other works as well. It is not completely clear when and where Annibale Rosselli died.

Works

• Pymander Mercurii Trismegisti, cum commento Fratris Hannibalis Rosseli Calabri, Ordinis Minorum Regularis obseruantiae, Theologiae & Philosophiae, ad S. Bernardinum Cracouiae Professoris , 10 [7] Vols. (Cracow: In Officina Typographica Lazari, 1584-1590). These works can be acessed electronically via the webportal of the Wroclaw library (http://www.dbc.wroc.pl/publication/9301). The first volume, entitled De Sanctissima Trinitate, deals with the creation of the world and its elements, the knowledge of God, his names and the divine attributes

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• The second volume, entitled De Spiritu Sancto et Angelis, focuses on the Trinity and the angelic intelligences

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• The third volume, entitled De ente, materia, forma et rebus metaphysicis, deals with ontological matters, matter, form, vacuum and space etc

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• The fourth volume, entitled De coelo, zooms in on the heavens, the distinction between lux and lumen and a variety of astronomical and astrological issues

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• The fifth volume, De elementis et descriptione totius orbis, not only deals with physical and geographical issues but also with theological matters, including the role of the church, human passions, historical and geographical elements and autobiographical matters connected with the author's own travels through Europe

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• The sixth, entitled, De immortalitate animae qui est primus Asclepij is properly a commentary on the Asclepius and deals with the human soul, reason, intellect and the anima mundi. Throughout the volumes we see a combination of traditional scholastic and more neoplatonist ficinian treatments of a wide range of topics, with allusions to hermeticism and with recourse to Plotinian concepts. Of the other four volumes, number seven (De voluntate humana et hominis libero arbitrio), eight (De sensibus et corpore humano) and ten (De mysterio incarnationis Christi) might not have been finished. Volume nine (De baptismo, de eucharistia, de sacerdotio, de purgatorio, de communione sub duplici specie, de adoratione sanctorum, de veneratione sanctarum imaginum, aliisque quae pertinent ad eucharistiae sacramentum, denique de aliis sacramentis was printed prior to the sixth volume in 1589 in Poznan, in the printshop of Johann Wolrab. This volume was printed around the election of Pope Sixtus V and was clearly also meant by the author to underline his orthodoxy, staying away from hermetic issues and using predominantly biblical, patristic and scholastic sources. This ninth volume, the full title of which is De Septem Sacramentis Ecclesiae Catholicae, Fratris Hannibalis Rosseli Calabri, Ordinis Minorum Regularis Observantiae, Theologiae & Philosophiae ad S. Bernardinum Cracoviae Professoris, Liber, in ordine Commentariorum in Mercurium Trismegistum, Nonus (Poznan: Ioannis Wolrab, 1589), is also accessible via Google Books

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• De Septem Sacramentis Ecclesiae Catholicae (Poznan: Johann Wolrab, 1589). This is in fact the ninth volume of the previous work. See there.

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• Oratio funebris Fratris Hannibalis Roselli, in sepultura Stephani I, Regis Poloniae Serenissimi, 1588 (Cracow: Ex Officina Lazari, 1590). Accessible via Google Books.

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Literature