Book Series Aristoteles Latinus, vol. XVII 1.III

Aristoteles

De motu animalium

Fragmenta translationis anonymae

P. De Leemans (ed)

  • Pages: 69 p.
  • Size:170 x 255 mm
  • Language(s):Latin, English
  • Publication Year:2011

  • € 70,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
  • ISBN: 978-2-503-54094-8
  • Hardback
  • Available


Review(s)

"(the author produces) the definitive critical texts of two apparently minor Aristotelian writings in their Medieval Latin version and offers a series of very useful thoughts regarding their context and textual evidence." (J. A. Tellkamp, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2012.02.45)

"Les deux oeuvres d’Aristote qui sont éditées dans les fascicules XVII 1.III et XVII 2.II-III de l’Aristoteles Latinus ne comptent certainement pas parmi les ouvrages les plus prestigieux du Stagirite, mais grâce à l’extraordinaire érudition de Pieter De Leemans cette édition révèle des aspects fascinants et captivants du travail intellectuel au Moyen Âge [...].
Il est à peine nécessaire d’insister sur l’apport scientifique extraordinaire de ce volume : non seulement Pieter De Leemans rend accessible une nouvelle traduction d’un texte aristotélicien, mais surtout, et cela me paraît capital, il nous permet d’assister à la genèse des textes albertiniens que l’on a l’habitude d’appeler des paraphrases. On voit – visu – et comprend – intellectu – comment le maître de Cologne ne commente pas le texte, mais littéralement tisse un nouveau texte (comme il l’a d’ailleurs très bien expliqué dans le prologue de la Physica). Ce volume nous ouvre donc une fenêtre qui permet d’assister de très près au travail intellectuel concret de Maître Albert."
(Ruedi Imbach dans: Revue des Sciences philosophiques et théologiques 96 (2012), p. 751-755).

"Among the merits of De Leemans' editions, we should note the clarity with which he guides the reader through his large and complex critical introductions. (...) The procedure developed by De Leemans for detecting the remains of the lost version is ingenious and flawless from a philological point of view (...)" (Pietro B. Rossi, in: Aestimatio, 11, 2014, p. 71-88. Reviewed together with De progressu animalium, De motu animalium. Translatio Guillelmi de Moerbeka.)

BIO

Pieter De Leemans (1973-2019) was Professor at the De Wulf-Mansion Centre for Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Philosophy (KU Leuven, Belgium) and academic secretary of the Aristoteles Latinus edition project.

Summary

It was in the translation by William of Moerbeke, made in the early sixties of the thirteenth century, that Aristotle's texts on the movement of animals (De motu animalium) and on the progression of animals (De progressu animalium) were known to medieval readers. They circulated at the University of Paris as a part of Aristotle's Books on Animals (Book XI and XII respectively), but also figured in a collection of short Aristotelian and pseudo-Aristotelian treatises (including the physiological Parva Naturalia).

This volume offers the first critical edition of another translation of De motu animalium which is only known indirectly, through Albert the Great's paraphrase De principiis motus processivi. Albert had based this paraphrase on a translation he had found during his travels "in Campania iuxta Greciam". This translation has since been lost. The edition attempts a reconstruction, based on a comparison of Albert's text to the Greek sources. The discovery of a Greek manuscript that is closely related to the model used by the anonymous translator appears to confirm the hypothesis that the translation was made in Southern Italy.