Article contents
Robert Grosseteste as Translator, Transmitter, and Commentator: The ‘Nicomachean Ethics’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Extract
Because Robert Grosseteste's translation of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is now seen as having provided the framework for a dynamic study of Aristotle's moral philosophy, more significance must be attached to what itself became the standard translation in the Middle Ages. That Grosseteste was responsible both for the full translation of Aristotle's text and for the translation of the Greek commentaries which accompany the Ethics in twenty-one known manuscripts modern scholars are now in agreement. Grosseteste's work on the Nicomachean Ethics has been dated confidently to the 1240s, arguably to 1246–47, and scholars have tended to stress the rapidity with which the Aristotelian ethics were assimilated in the thirteenth century, in contrast, for example, with the slow progress recorded by John of Salisbury on the Posterior Analytics in the twelfth. These results of recent research seem, it should be notd in passing, strangely at odds with the verdict of Roger Bacon, that there was comparatively little work on the Ethics in his period. He, Grosseteste's most ardent admirer, appears not to have known that this master translated the text and comments: ‘Tardius communicata est Ethica Aristotelis et nuper lecta a magistris et raro.’
- Type
- Miscellany
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Fordham University Press
References
1 Lists of the manuscripts and editions of Grosseteste's works on the Aristotelian Ethics are provided by Harrison Thomson, S., The Writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln 1235–1253 (Cambridge 1940) 65f. (Ethica), 68–70 (Greek comms.), 85f. (Notulae), 88 (Summa). Books I-II of the translation of the Ethics have been edited by H. P. F. Mercken, Aristoteles over de menselijke Volkomenheid (Brussels 1964), Books VIII-IX by W. Stinissen, Aristoteles over de Vriendschap (Brussels 1963). For citations of the text of these books these editions have been used; elsewhere I have used Oxford Balliol College MS 116, a late-thirteenth or early-fourteenth-century MS, in which the text of Grosseteste's work fills fols. 1r-266v. For the text of Grosseteste's Notulae I have used the following MSS: Eton College 122 (s. XIII) fols. 1r-221v; Oxford All Souls College 84 (s. XIII) fols. 10r-240v; Paris Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal 698 (s. XIII) fols. 3r-155v.Google Scholar
2 Jourdain, A., Recherches critiques sur l'ǎge et l'origine des traductions latines d'Aristote (nouv. éd.; Paris 1843) 59–63; V. Rose, ‘Über die griechischen Commentare zur Ethik des Aristoteles,’ Hermes 5 (1871) 61–113; C. Marchesi, L'Etica Nicomachea nella tradizione latina medievale (Messina 1904) 57f, 62–7; L. Baur, Die philosophischen Werke des Robert Grosseteste (Münster i. W. 1912) 24*-29*; M. Grabmann, Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristotelesübersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts (Münster i. W. 1916) 220–37, 251–6; P. Minges, ‘Robert Grosseteste Übersetzer der Ethica Nicomachea,’ Philosophisches Jahrbuch 32 (1919) 230–43; A. Pelzer, ‘Les Versions latines des ouvrages de morale conservés sous le nom d'Aristote en usage au XIIIe siècle,’ Revue Néo-Scolastique de Philosophie 23 (1921) 316–41, 378–400 (repr. in his: Études d'histoire littéraire sur la scolastique médiévale [Louvain-Paris 1964] 121–87); F. M. Powicke, ‘Robert Grosseteste and the Nicomachean Ethics,’ Proceedings of the British Academy 16 (1930) 22p.; E. Franceschini, ‘Roberto Grossatesta, vescovo di Lincoln, e la sua traduzioni latine,’ Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di scienze, lettere et arti 93, II (1933–34) 1–138; S. H. Thomson, ‘The “Notule” of Grosseteste on the “Nicomachean Ethics,”’ Proceedings of the British Academy 19 (1934); E. Franceschini, ‘Una nuova testimonianza su Roberto Grossatesta traduttore dell'Etica a Nicomaco,’ Aevum 27 (1953) 370–1.Google Scholar
3 Callus, D. A., ‘The Date of Grosseteste's Translations and Commentaries on Pseudo-Dionysius and the Nicomachean Ethics,’ Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 14 (1947) 186–210. A convenient summary of all this research may be found in D. A. Callus, ‘Robert Grosseteste as Scholar,’ Robert Grosseteste, Scholar and Bishop (ed. Callus; Oxford 1955) 62–5.Google Scholar
4 Grabmann, M., ‘Das Studium der aristotelischen Ethik an der Artistenfakultät der Universität Paris in der ersten Hälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts,’ in his: Mittelalterliches Geistesleben III (Munich 1956) 128–41; O. Lottin, ‘Saint Albert le Grand et l'Éthique à Nicomaque,’ Aus der Geisteswelt des Mittelalters: Festschrift Grabmann (Münster i. W. 1935) 611–26; M. Grabmann, ‘Der lateinische Averroismus des 13. Jahrhunderts und seine Stellung zur christlichen Weltanschauung: Mitteilungen aus ungedruckten Ethikkommentaren,’ Sb. Akad. Munich (1931) Heft 2; R.-A. Gauthier, ‘Trois commentaires “averroïstes” sur l'Éthique à Nicomaque,’ AHDLMA 16 (1947–48) 187–336 at 244f, 203f. Cf. D. A. Callus, ‘Introduction of Aristotelian Learning to Oxford,’ Proceedings of the British Academy 29 (1943) 229–81 at 252–5; R.-A. Gauthier and J. Y. Jolif, L'Éthique à Nicomaque: Introduction, Traduction et Commentaire (3 vols.; Louvain-Paris 1958–59) I 78*-85*.Google Scholar
5 Metalogicon IV 6 (ed. Webb, C. C. J. [Oxford 1929] 170f.).Google Scholar
6 Compendium studii theologiae (ed. Rashdall, H. [Aberdeen 1911] 37). Cf. S. D. Wingate, The Mediaeval Latin Versions of the Aristotelian Scientific Corpus (London 1931) 112–17.Google Scholar
7 Opus tertium 25 (ed. Brewer, J. S., Opera quaedam hactenus inedita I [London 1859] 91). Cf. Franceschini, ‘Roberto Grossatesta’ 10f.Google Scholar
8 Callus, ‘Robert Grosseteste’ 65.Google Scholar
9 Ibid. 43.Google Scholar
10 These texts have been edited by Marchesi, C., L'Etica Nicomachea Appendice l-xxvi (Ethica vetus), xxvii-xl (Ethica nova). Cf. Aristoteles latinus Codices I (Rome 1939) 67–71; II (Cambridge 1955) 788; Supplementa altera (Bruges-Paris 1961) 21.Google Scholar
11 Pelzer, ‘Les Versions latines’ 329–35.Google Scholar
12 Aristoteles latinus Supplementa altera 21.Google Scholar
13 Opus maius III 5 (ed. Bridges, J. H., The Opus maius of Roger Bacon I [Oxford 1897] 67–9; revd. ed. [Oxford 1900] 82). Cf. Franceschini, ‘Roberto Grossatesta’ 10.Google Scholar
14 Franceschini, ‘Roberto Grossatesta.’Google Scholar
15 Ibid. 75.Google Scholar
16 Gauthier, R.-A. and Jolif, J. Y., L'Éthique à Nicomaque: Introduction, Traduction et Commentaire (3 vols.; Louvain-Paris 1958–59) I 77*-81*, 85*. Cf. also the literature cited by C. H. Lohr, ‘Medieval Latin Aristotle Commentaires, Authors: Johannes de Kanthi — Myngodus,’ Traditio 27 (1971) 251–351 at 316f. s. v. Leonardus Brunus.Google Scholar
17 Kübel, W., ‘Prolegomena,’ in: Alberti Magni Opera omnia: XIV, 1 Super Ethica (Münster i. W. 1968) vi.Google Scholar
18 Rose, ‘Über die griechischen Commentare.’Google Scholar
19 Gauthier, R.-A., ‘Praefatio,’ in: Sancti Thomae de Aquino Opera omnia XLVII, 1 Sententia libri Ethicorum (Rome 1969) 254 *.Google Scholar
20 Gauthier, ‘Trois commentaries’ 277.Google Scholar
21 Rose, ‘Über die griechischen Commentare’ 109–113.Google Scholar
22 Thomson, ‘The “Notule”’ 204f.Google Scholar
23 Franceschini, ‘Roberto Grossatesta’ 63–7.Google Scholar
24 Thomson, ‘The “Notule”’ 214.Google Scholar
25 Ibid. 204.Google Scholar
26 On the Florilegium see Franceschini, ‘Roberto Grossatesta’ 67 note 2.Google Scholar
27 E.g. Albertus Magnus, In I Ethicorum tr. VII cap. 8 (ed. Borgnet VII 118f.).Google Scholar
28 Callus, ‘Robert Grosseteste’ 21.Google Scholar
29 Lottin, O., Psychologie et morale aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles I (2. éd.; Gembloux 1957) 515–19.Google Scholar
30 Ibid. 521f.Google Scholar
- 3
- Cited by