Jeffrey Dirk Wilson, “Communities of Transmission: The Texts of Aristotle from Antiquity to the Renaissance,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 80, no. 1–2 (2024): 637–82, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2024_80_1_0637.
| Item Type | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Author | Jeffrey Dirk Wilson |
| Abstract | Only through a long series of accidents do we have “The Works of Aristotle” at all—the Corpus Aristotelicum. When Aristotle died in 322 B.C., he is said to have left behind a body of 156 “published” works (“exoteric,” namely, available for public consumption). They survive only in fragments, too short and too few to give much sense of them. That his esoteric works, the Corpus Aristotelicum, have survived at all has been called “miraculous.” This paper traces how those esoteric works of Aristotle were transmitted over the next eighteen hundred years. My claim is that this transmission depended upon communities that kept these works of Aristotle “in print.” Further, those communities can often only be inferred, like the description of the substantial object from what is known only by its shadow. The paper concludes with reflections on the tenuous existence of historic texts and how the digital age may further threaten transmission of knowledge from the past to communities in the future. I propose that the transmission history of Aristotle’s texts may provide signposts that guide us both in handing down knowledge to future generations as well as in finding models for promoting knowledge and for establishing communities of diversity. |
| Date | 2024 |
| Language | English |
| Rights | © 2024 Aletheia - Associação Científica e Cultural |
| Volume | 80 |
| Pages | 637-682 |
| Publication | Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia |
| DOI | 10.17990/RPF/2024_80_1_0637 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| ISSN | 0870-5283 ; 2183-461X |
| Date Added | 7/31/2024, 11:00:13 PM |
| Modified | 7/31/2024, 11:28:07 PM |
Aristotle. The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford translation. 2 volumes. Edited by Jonathan Barnes. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Augustine, Confessions. Volume 1, Loeb Classical Library 26. Translated by William Watts Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Augustine, Confessions. Translated with introduction and notes by Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Barnes, Jonathan. “Life and Work.” In The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle, edited by Jonathan Barnes, 1-26. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Barnes, Jonathan. “Roman Aristotle.” In Philosophia Togata II: Plato and Aristotle at Rome, edited by Jonathan Barnes and Miriam Griffin, 1-69. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Berschin, Walter. Greek Letters and the Latin Middle Ages. Revised and expanded. Translated by Jerold C. Frakes. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1988.
Barraclough, Geoffrey, ed. The Times Atlas of World History. Maplewood, NJ: Hammond, 1985.
Beullens, Pieter. The Friar and the Philosopher: William of Moerbeke and the Rise of Aristotle’s Science in Medieval Europe. London: Routledge, 2023.
Bianchi, Luca. “Continuity and change in the Aristotelian tradition.” In The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Philosophy, edited by James Hankins, 49-71. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Calzolari, Valentina. “The Transmission and Reception of the Greek Cultural Heritage in Late Antique Armenia: The Armenian Translations of the Greek Neoplatonic Works.” In Greek Texts and Armenian Traditions: An Interdisciplinary Approach, edited by Francesca Gazzano et alia, 47-70. Berlin: DeGruyter, 2016: file:///C:/Users/bclai/Desktop/Restored%20Docs%2020110721/My%20Documents/Philosophy/Scholarship%20Portfolio/Publication%20Submissions/Communities%20of%20Trasmission-Braga/Communities%20of%20Transmission-Articles/Calzolari-Phil%20Lit.pdf.
Copenhaver, Brian and Charles Schmitt. Renaissance Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Chroust, Anton-Hermann. “The Miraculous Disappearance and Recovery of the Corpus Aristotelicum,” Classica et Mediaevalia, 23 (1962): 50-67.
Dillon, John. “The Reception of Aristotle in Antiochus and Cicero.” In Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aristotle in Antiquity, edited by Andrea Falcon, 183-201. Leiden: Brill, 2016.
Dod, Bernard , “Aristoteles Latinus.” In The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Disintegration of Scholasticism, 1100-1600, edited by Norman Kretzmann, Anthony Kenny, Jan Pinborg, Eleonore Stump, 45-79. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Erismann, Christopher. “Aristoteles Latinus: The Reception of Aristotle in the Latin World.” In Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aristotle in Antiquity, edited by Andrea Falcon, 439-459. Leiden: Brill, 2016.
Düring, Ingemar. “Notes on the History of the Transmission of Aristotle’s Writings.” Aristotle and His Influence: Two Studies, edited by Leonardo Tarán. Greek and Roman Philosophy, vol. 24. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1987.
Ebbesen, Sten. “Jacobus Veneticus on the Posterior Analytics and Some Early Thirteenth-century Oxford Masters on the Elenchi.” Cahiers de l‘Institut du moyen âge grec et Latin 2 (1977): 1-9.
Eco, Umberto. “Best Invention; How the Bean Saved Civilization.” The New York Times, April 18, 1999: https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/18/magazine/best-invention-how-the-bean-saved-civilization.html .
Emilsson, Eyjólfur Kjalar. “Porphyry,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/porphyry/ .
Falcon, Andrea “Aristotelianism in the First Century B.C.” In Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aristotle in Antiquity, edited by Andrea Falcon, 101-119. Leiden: Brill, 2016.
Falcon, Andrea “Introduction,” In Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aristotle in Antiquity, edited by Andrea Falcon, 1-9. Leiden: Brill, 2016.
Foucault, Michel. The Archeology of Knowledge. Translated by A. M. Sheridan Smith. New York: Pantheon Books, 1972.
Frede, Dorothea. “Alexander of Aphrodisias.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://www.mta.maryland.gov/schedule/timetable/marc-penn?schedule_date=06%2F04%2F2022 .
Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ‘Abbāsid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries. New York: Routledge, 2005.
Haskins, Charles Homer. The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927.
Hatzimichali, Myrto. “Andronicus of Rhodes and the Construction of the Aristotelian Corpus.” In Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aristotle in Antiquity, ed. Andrea Falcon, 81-100. Leiden: Brill, 2016.
Heckman, Christina M. “The Order of the World: Boethius’s Translation of Aristotle’s ‘Categoriae’ and the Old English ‘Solomon and Saturn’ Dialogues,” Carmina Philosophiae. 22 (2013): 35-64.
Ierodiakonou, Katerina. “Theophrastus” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2020.
Kirsteller, Paul Oskar. Renaissance Philosophy and the Mediaeval Tradition. Latrobe, PA: The Archabbey Press, 1966.
Lemerle, Paul. Byzantine Humanism: The First Phase. Translated by Helen Lindsay and Ann Moffatt. Canberra, AU: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, 1986.
Luczewski, Michal. “Philosophari in Amicitia. Granada as “Denkkollektiv.” Symposium Beyond Secular Faith: Diaspora, Community, and Solidarity. Granada, Spain, July 1, 2022.
Miller, Jr., Walter M. A Canticle for Leibowitz. Boston: Gregg Press, 1975.
Miłosz, Czesław. Native Realm: A Search for Self-Definition. Translated by Catherine S. Leach. London: Penguin Books, 2014.
Minio-Paluello, Lorenzo. “Iacobus Veneticus Grecus: Canonist and Translator of Aristotle.” Traditio 8 (1952), 265–304.
Moran, Dermot and Adrian Guiu. “John Scottus Eriugena,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2019: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scottus-eriugena/.
Nicolaidis, Efthymios. Science and Greek Orthodoxy: From the Greek Fathers to the Age of Globalization. Translated by Susan Emanuel. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.
Oehler, Klaus. “Aristotle in Byzantium,” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 5/2 (1964): 133-146.
Ogilvy, J. D. A. Books Known to the English, 597-1066. Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1967.
Reynolds, L. D. and N. G. Wilson. Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature. 2nd ed., rev. and enlarged. Oxford; Oxford University Press, 1974.
Ross, William David. Aristotle’s “Metaphysics”: A Revised Edition with Introduction and Commentary. Volume 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1924.
Sorabji, Richard. “Aristotle on the Rôle of Intellect in Virtue.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, Volume 74 (1973-1974): 107-129.
Southern, Richard. Saint Anselm: A portrait in a Landscape. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Southern, Richard. The Making of the Middle Ages. New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 1970.
Southern, Richard. Robert Grosseteste: The Growth of an English Mind in Mediaeval Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Spinrad, Norman. “Introduction.” In A Canticle of Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Boston: Gregg Press, 1975.
Tenner, Edward. “What a 400-Year Old Bean Reveals About the Renaissance.” The Atlantic, February 25, 2013: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/02/what-a-400-year-old-bean-reveals-about-the-renaissance/273452/ .
Terian, Abraham. The Life of Mashtots‘ by His disciple Koriwn: Translated from the Classical Armenian with Introduction and Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.
Torrell, Jean-Pierre. Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Person and His Work, volume 1. Revised. Translated by Robert Royal. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2005.
von Arnim, Hans. “Neleus von Skepsis.” Hermes, 63/4 (1928): 103-107.
West, Robert M. et alia. “Using the structure of social networks to map inter-agency relationships in public health services.” Social Science & Medicine, 145 (2015): 107-114.
Wilson, Jeffrey Dirk. “The Invention of Gothic Architecture as Epistemic Break.” In The Legacy of Neoplatonic Philosophy: From Ancient Aesthetics to 20th-Century Film, edited by Gina Zavota, 93-109. London: Bloomsbury, 2024.
Other Websites:
https://oll.libertyfund.org/page/king-alfred-s-translation-of-boethius.
https://www.abaa.org/blog/post/the-history-of-vellum-and-parchment.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/spread-papermaking-technology-europe#:~:text=As%20the%20Islamic%20culture%20spread%20throughout%20Europe%2C%20papermaking,as%20Spain%2C%20the%20technology%20was%20brought%20with%20them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recovery_of_Aristotle#:~:text=In%20the%204th%20century%2C%20the,On%20Interpretation%20(De%20Interpretatione)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_and_Methodius.
http://scihi.org/gutenberg-bible/#:~:text=A%20manually%20compiled%20bible%20required%20approximately%20three%20years,the%20required%20raw%20material%20did%20cost%20a%20fortune.
https://www.themorgan.org/incunables/133493.
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Matenadaran.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/.
“Strabo,” Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strabo.
