Dominis, Marko Antonije

1. Dates

Born: island of Rab (in what is now Jugoslavia), 1560

Died: Rome, 8 sept. 1624

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 64

2. Father

Occupation: Lawyer

Jerko de Dominis received his doctorate in law from Padua and worked as a lawyer in Venice.

3. Nationality

Birth: Yugoslavia

Career: Italy, Yugoslavia, England

Death: Italy

4. Education

Schooling: Padua; Religous Order, D.D.

He graduated from the Jesuit Collegium Illyricum in Loreto. He completed his studies in Padua (which sounds like a B.A. to me), where he entered the Jesuit order. Dominis later left the order (and ultimately became an apostate), but not before he completed the full training, which would have included a doctorate in theology. Later, as a bishop, he arranged to receive a doctorate in theology, I gather from a university as opposed to a Jesuit college.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic, Anglican

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Physics, Optics

He published two works in physics. The De radiis visus et lucis (Venice, 1611) deals with lenses, telescopes, and the rainbow, and the Enripus seu de et refluxu (Rome, 1624) [obviously something is wrong with this title] is concerned with the tides.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Church Life, Patronage

After finishing his studies in Padua, he lectured on mathematics, logic, and philosophy at Verona, Padua, and Brescia until 1596 (surely all in Jesuit colleges). In 1596 he taught mathematics at the Collegio Romano.

Jesuit discipline never sat well with de Dominis, and about this time he was discharged from the order.

In 1596 he became administrator of the bishopric of Senj and in 1600 was appointed bishop of Senj. (These appointments came through the Emperor Rudolf II. In that year (1600) he was promoted to Doctor of Theology in Padua. In 1602 he became archbishop of Split with the title "Primat of Dalmatia and Croatia." He arranged this thru the curia in Rome.

In 1615 he moved to Venice, and the following year he left Venice for London, publishing his blast against the Catholic Church and the Council of Trent for which he was excommunicated.

In 1617 he published De republica ecclesiastica, dedicated to James I, and in 1619 he was named Deacon of Windsor.

In 1622 he returned to Rome with a justification of his stay in England. He died in 1624 while in the hands of the Inquisition.

8. Patronage

Types: Court Official, Eccesiastic Official

9. Technological Involvement

Types: None

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Sources

1. Encyclopaedia moderna, 5-6, (1967), pp.84-140. AP56 .E56
2. Stanko Hondl, "Mirko Antonij de Dominis kao fizicar," Vienac, 36, no.2 (1944)pp.36-48. AP56 .V66
3. Dizionario biografico degli uomini illustri della Dalmatia, ed. Simeone Gliubich, (Vienna, 1856).

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.