JOANNES

PHILOPONUS (

See also:

• JOHN
• JOHN (1167–1216)
• JOHN (1290-c. 1320)
• JOHN (1296-1346)
• JOHN (1371–1419)
• JOHN (1468-1532)
• JOHN (1801-1873)
• JOHN (Heb. llni')
• JOHN (ZAPOLYA) (1487-1540)
• JOHN, 4TH MARQUESS OF TWEEDDALE (c. 1695-1762)
• JOHN, DON (1545-1578)
• JOHN, DON (1629–1679)
• JOHN, GOSPEL OF ST
• JOHN, THE APOSTLE
• JOHN, THE EPISTLES OF
• JOHN, or HAYS (1513–1571)

JOHN THE GRAMMARIAN)  , Greek philosopher of Alexandria, lived in the later part of the 5th and the beginning of the 6th century of our era . The surname Grammaticus he assumed in virtue of his lectures on language and literature; that of Philoponus owing to the large number of treatises he composed . He was a pupil of Ammonius Hermiae, and is supposed to have written the life of Aristotle sometimes attributed to his master . To Philoponus are attributed a large number of works on theology and philosophy . It is said that, though he was a pupil of Ammonius, he was at first a Christian, and he has been credited with the authorship of a commentary on the Mosaic Cosmogony in eight books, dedicated to Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, and edited by Balthasar Corderius in 163o . Other authorities maintain that this, as well as the Disputatio de paschale, was the work of another author, John the Tritheist . It was perhaps this Philoponus who tried to save the Alexandrian library from the caliph Omar after Amu's victory in 639 . 440 The more certain writings of Philoponus consist of commentaries on Aristotle . These include works on the Physica, the Prior and the Posterior Analytics, the Meteorologica, the De anima, the De generations' animalium, the De generatione et interitu and the Metaphysica . These have been frequently edited and are interesting in connexion with the adoption of Aristotelianism by the Christian Church . They seem to have embodied the lectures of Ammonius with additions by Philoponus, and are remarkable rather for elaborate care than for originality and insight . He wrote also an attack on Proclus (De aeternitate mundi) .

Two treatises on

mathematics are ascribed to him: A Commentary on the Mathematics of Nicomachus, edited by Hoche (1864 and 1867), and a Treatise on the Use of the Astrolabe, published by Hase . The latter is the most ancient work on this instrument, and its authenticity is rendered almost certain by its reference to Ammonius as the master of the author .