“At this time (1303) died in Bologna Maestro Taddeo, surnamed the Bolognese, though he was a Florentine, and our fellow-citizen; he was the greatest physicist in all Christendom.”

The allusion here is to the pursuit of wordly things, instead of divine, the same as in the introduction to Canto XI :⁠—

“One after laws and one to aphorisms.”

“One after laws and one to aphorisms.”

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