Two Sixteenth-Century Coimbra Commentaries on 'De anima': Pedro da Fonseca (attr.) and Cristóvão Gil. 'On the Soul' and 'On the Immortality of the Soul'
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Abstract
This paper analyses the questions on the science of the soul and on the immortality of the soul in two commentaries on Aristotle’s De anima that subsist in the manuscripts of the teaching of philosophy in Coimbra in the sixteenth-century. The paper shows that the positions of the two commentators – Petrus Fonsecae (attr.) and Christophorus Gilli – are in total opposition, concerning either the commentary tradition on Aristotle’s De anima or the theories on the soul they assume. Focused on unpublished and less studied sources this research brings to light some innovative aspects of the teaching of philosophy in Coimbra. We thus suggest that the manuscript sources of the period be reassessed and studied in comparison to the published works.
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Manuscripts
Anonymous (Petrus Fonsecae, attr.), In Primum Aristotelis de Anima Scholia, MS 2399 (Coimbra: Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra, 1559–1560), fol. 1r-82r.
Christophorus Gilli, Commentarii in libros de anima Aristotelis, MS 2518 (Lisboa: Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, 1591), fol. 104r-176r.
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Francisco de Toledo, In tertium librum Aristotelis De anima, Text. XX, q. 16 in Opera Omnia Philosophica, vol. 1 (Colongne: Herman Mill, 1615), 148r-156r.
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