¶Biography Pierre d' Ailly (b. Compiègne 1350 / d. August 09, 1420 Avignon)
* Variants: Petrus de Alliaco; Petrus de Alliaco
* French theologian, cardinal, and advocate of church reform whose chief aim was to heal the Great Schism of the Western church (1378-1417). He advocated the doctrine of conciliarism--the subordination of the pope to a general council--and in 1381 he sugge
sted convoking such a council in an effort to end the schism. (EB)
¶Works * Imago mundi (1410 (08/12)): D'Ailly's treatise Image of the World, supporting the idea that the East Indies could be reached by sailing west, was studied and annotated by Christopher Columbus before he made his epochal voyages. The book is a compilation, adding nothing new to the
knowledge of Ptolemy and Pomponius Mela. * Imago mundi (1410 (08/12)): knowledge of Ptolemy and Pomponius Mela.