SLOVENE PHILOSOPHER MATIJA HVALE (MATHIAS QUALE, CA. 1470-1518) AND HIS WORK 'PARVULUS PHILOSOPHIAE NATURALIS'.

Matija Hvale (Mathias Quale or Qualle), born at Vače near Litija in present-day central Slovenia around 1470, is considered a major representative of the progressive intellectuals who sought at the turbulent turn of the 15^th and 16^th century, under Emperor Maximilian I's rule, to establish humanist ideas and to rid the University of Vienna of its conservatism and scholastic mentality. Hvale's example and work influenced his students as well: of these, the most important would have been Joachim von Watt - Vadianus (1484-1551), Rector of the University of Vienna in 1516-1517. Hvale's best known and most acclaimed work, based on the studies of his predecessors and contemporaries as well as on his own lectures, which sought to systematise natural philosophy and bring it closer to both scholars and students, was Parvulus Philosophiae Naturalis or Commentarii in Parvulum Philosophiae Naturalis. Published in 1513 in the Alsatian town of Haguenau (the reasons for this location are unclear: possibly to avoid his opponents from the University of Vienna), it was dedicated to his fellow countryman, later the Emperor's secretary and diplomat, Paul Oberstain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]