Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
In the Spring of 1985, I visited the Bodleian Library in Oxford, to examine in situ Alfred of Sareshel's commentary on Aristotle's Metheora. Although they were listed in the Aristoteles latinus as anonymous, I had already identified the linear and marginal comments in manuscript Selden supra 24 ff. 84r-114r, as another, and to date, the oldest known version of Alfred's commentary on that Aristotelian treatise. That codex also contains a Graeco-Latin version of Aristotle's De generatione et corruptione which is also accompanied by an anonymous commentary (ff. 41r-63r). I decided at the time to transcribe the commentary, and to prepare it for an edition with the aim of publication, a process in which I am still involved.
1 Otte, J. K., ed., Alfred of Sareshel's Commentary on the Metheora of Aristotle (Diss. University of Southern California, 1969 ). The commentary has survived in four known manuscripts, the first of which was discovered by George Lacombe in 1935, ‘Alfredus in Metheora,’ Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters, Suppl. III (Münster 1935) 463–71. My edition was published as: Alfred of Sareshel's Commentary on the Metheora of Aristotle (Leiden-Cologne 1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 Grabmann, M., Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristotelesübersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts (Beiträge sur Geschichte der Philosophic des Mittelalters 17, Münster 1916) 177, gives the Arabic-Latin and Greek-Latin incipits of the De generatione et corruptione which in Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, Cod. lat. 2318, fols. 113r-136 v, appear in parallel columns, on the left the Arabic: ‘Oportet nos determinare …’ and on the right the Greek: ‘De generatione et corruptione… .’ The Arabic-Latin version is by Gerard of Cremona.Google Scholar
3 Lacombe, G., ed., Aristoteles latinus Codices I (Rome 1939) 237–38: ‘Liber Aristotilis translatus ab Henrico Aristippo de greco in latinum, correctus et per capitula distinctus a Magistro Alvredo de Sares<hel> secundum commentum Alkindi super eundem librum.’+secundum+commentum+Alkindi+super+eundem+librum.’>Google Scholar
4 Minio-Paluello, L., ‘Henri Aristippe, Guillaume de Moerbeke et les traductions latines médiévales des Météorologiques et du De generatione et corruptione d'Aristote,’ Revue philosophique de Louvain 45 (1947) 206–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 P. 225: ‘fin du xii e siècle, … les leçons … écrites de la měme main que le texte.’Google Scholar
6 Minio-Paluello, L., ‘Jacobus Veneticus Grecus: Canonist and Translator of Aristotle,' Traditio 8 (1952) 265–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7 P. 279, n. 28, Minio-Paluello promised to ‘show somewhere else that all these [i.e., Ethica vetus, Ethica nova, Ethica Borghesiana] are parts of one (complete?) translation of the Nicomachean Ethics made in the twelfth century by the same scholar who translated the De Generatione et Corruptione… .’ Google Scholar
8 Grabmann, M., Mittelalterliches Geistesleben (3 vols., Munich 1926-56) III 86.Google Scholar
9 Birkenmajer, A., ‘Le role joué par les médecins et les naturalistes dans la réception d 'Aristote aux xii e et xiii e siècles,’ La Pologne au Congrès international d'Oslo, 1929 (Warsaw 1930) 5.Google Scholar
10 Callus, D. A., ‘The Introduction of Aristotelian Learning at Oxford,' Proceedings of the British Academy 29 (1943) 234.Google Scholar
11 Madan, F. and Craster, H. H. E., A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford II/1 (Oxford 1922 ); Craster, H. H. E. and Lacombe, G., cited in Grabmann, Geistesleben III 86; Aristoteles latinus Codices III 398–99 no. 340; and of course, Minio-Paluello, art. cit.Google Scholar
12 There is one marginal note which appears to have been written at a later time and by a different hand; the letters are both larger and appear more cursive than the rest; see fol. 57 r.Google Scholar
13 James Shiel encountering similar reference signs in ‘Boethius’ Commentaries on Aristotle,’ in: Aristotle Transformed: The Ancient Commentators and Their Influence (ed. Sorabji, Sorabji, Ithaca NY 1990) 349–72 at 365 n. 57, writes: ‘All the indications are that the Aristotelian text, and its marginal scholia, and their reference signs, were all at once taken from the Greek, by the same translator… .’Google Scholar
14 Dales, R. C., ed. and tr., Marius: On the Elements (Los Angeles CA 1976) 99:24. Marius calls them diminutissimis particulis.Google Scholar
15 Thomas Aquinas, S., In Aristotelis libros De caelo et mundo, De generatione et corruptione, et Meteorologicorum Expositio (ed. Spiazzi, R. M., Turin-Rome 1952) passim.Google Scholar
16 Otte, , Metheora 54.7: ‘… patet quod quatuor tantum sunt elementa, ex libro De generatione et corruptione, ubi tantum quatuor esse elementa probavit, athomos nichil esse ostendens, et eorum sententiam qui litem et amicitiam numero elementorum adnumerabant, fucans.’Google Scholar
17 Plato, , Timaeus (ed. Lee, H. D. P., Baltimore 1965) 73–78. Of these figures four are composed exclusively of triangles. Serving as Plato's ‘building blocks,’ they represent also the four elements — earth: hexahedron; water: icosahedron; air: octahedron; fire: tetrahedron. The dodecahedron cannot be constructed from the basic triangles, but its volume approaches the sphere most closely and Plato associated it in the Timaeus with the whole (spherical) heaven, while in the Phaedo (110b) it is associated with the spherical earth. Confer Plato, Timaeus (ed. Waszink, J. H., London-Leiden 1962).Google Scholar
18 Aristoteles latinus, Supplementa altera (Bruges-Paris 1961) 41–42.Google Scholar
19 Aristoteles latinus, IX 1 De generatione et corruptione, Translatio vetus (ed. Judycka, Judycka; Leiden 1986) xl note 33: ‘Certaines de ces notes se retrouvent en partie dans le commentaire de Jean Philopon.’ Cf. Joannis Philoponi In Aristotelis libros De generatione et corruptione commentaria (ed. Vitelli, H.; Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca 14, Berlin 1847): scholie de 320a8 cf. Philopon, p. 70, 27-29, p. 71, 3-22, p. 72, 15-18; scholie de 321b20-23 cf. Philopon, p. 112, 11-13, p. 113, 1; scholie de 325b28 cf. Philopon, p. 162, 18-19; scholie de 335a28 cf. Philopon, p. 283, 10-15.Google Scholar
20 Judycka, , De generatione et corruptione xli: ‘Mais le commentateur ajoute également le nom d'Anaximandre (par rapport aux passages 329a8 et 332a20-55 r, 57 v) et celui de Melissus (par rapport aux passages 325a2 et 6-51 v), à l'endroit où Aristote se réfère à leurs doctrines sans les nommer.’Google Scholar
21 Judycka, , De generatione et corruptione xli: ‘Le glossateur mentionne des ouvrages d'Aristote là où le Stagirite ne les cite pas expressément; il signale les traités auxquels le Stagirite renvoie, p. ex. 315b31 [ut in aliis diximus] in de celo (42r); 329a27 [in aliis] in primo acraseos [sic] (55r); 334a 15 [alterius opus est contemplationis] in de anima (59v); 336a13 [prius dictum est] in fisica acroasi (61 v).’Google Scholar
22 Judycka, , De generatione et corruptione xli, ‘Toutes ces références se lisent dans le commentaire de Philopon. Cf. Vitelli, ed., Joannis Philoponi (Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, 14): scholie de 315b31 Philoponus, p. 26, 5; scholie 329a27 Philoponus, p. 210, 24; scholie 334a15 Philoponus, p. 268, 30; scholie 336a13 Philoponus, p. 288, 15.’Google Scholar
23 Leff, G., Medieval Thought (Baltimore 1965) 145: ‘One of the first among those thinkers most influential upon the development of Aristotelian and Greek thought in Islam was Alkindi.’Google Scholar
24 Minio-Paluello, , ‘Iacobus Veneticus’ 292.Google Scholar
25 Leff, , Medieval Thought 174.Google Scholar
26 Minio-Paluello, , ‘Iacobus Veneticus’ 294.Google Scholar
27 Haskins, C. H., The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (6th ed., Cambridge MA 1976) 356: By 1159, John of Salisbury, whose humane philosophy, moderatrix omnium, is the ripe product of the older type of balanced culture, is protesting in vain against the neglect of classical learning in favor of the newer studies and against the ‘Cornifician’ masters who offer practical short cuts in education.Google Scholar
28 Avicenna, , De congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum, being sections of the Kitab al-Shifa (edd. Holmyard, E. J. and Mandeville, D., Paris 1927) 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29 Otte, , Metheora 31–3.Google Scholar
30 Omont, H., ‘Recherches sur la Bibliothèque de l 'église cathédrale de Beauvais,’ Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres 40 (Paris 1916) 48, no. 134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
31 Lacombe, G., ‘Alfredus in Metheora,’ (supra n. 1) 464. Cf. Aristoteles Latinus I 238: Liber Aristotelis translatus ab Henrico Aristippo de greco in latinum, correctus et per capitula distinctus a magistro Alvredo de Sares〈hel〉, secundum commentum Alkindi super eundem librum.Google Scholar
32 Otte, , Metheora 13, 49: 5: Quare autem vapor et calor invisibiles flammam visibilem producant, in libro De generatione et corruptione discussimus.Google Scholar
33 Ibid. Google Scholar
34 Judycka, , De generatione et corruptione 49 (328a20): ‘Hec quidem igitur convertuntur, quorum eadem materia est, et activa invicem et passiva ab invicem, hec autem faciunt impassibilia entia, quorum non eadem materia.’ The text is the same in the Oxford version, Bodleian Library, MS Selden supra 24 fol. 54 r: 17–18. The English text was taken from Aristotle, On Coming-to-be and Passing-away (ed. E. S. Forster; London 1965) 259 (328a20). Cf. The Works of Aristotle II (ed. Ross, W. D.; Oxford 1970): De generatione et corruptione 110 (328a20).Google Scholar
35 Hidden in the left margin of Oxford, Bodleian, Selden supra 24 folio 54 r at line 17, the following loss is found: ‘Hoc facet enim album in nigro et pacitur.’Google Scholar
36 Baeumker, C., ‘Die Stellung des Alfred von Sareshel (Alfredus Anglicus) und seiner Schrift De motu cordis in der Wissenschaft des beginnenden XIII. Jahrhunderts,’ Sb. Akad. München 9 (1913) 33.Google Scholar
OtteJames K.