Robert Grosseteste and the Fluid History of the Latin 'Nicomachean Ethics'
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article presents the history of the medieval Latin translations of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. It features the names of some key figures of the period like Burgundio of Pisa, Robert Grosseteste, and William of Moerbeke. The main focus lies on the question whether Robert Grosseteste had access to a complete copy of the earlier translation by Burgundio of Pisa, or only to the fragmentary version that has come down to us.
To reach an answer, the Latin versions and their Greek models are studied as “fluid texts”, which indicates that all individual witnesses of the text and of its translations contain readings and variants that differentiate them from each other and from the translator’s ultimate intentions. In their turn, the fluid elements cause changes to persist throughout the transmission process and continue to exert mutual influence.
A detailed, though necessarily largely incomplete study of some of these aspects leads to unnoticed evidence and to an uncertain but optimistic conclusion.
Downloads
Article Details
References
Manuscripts
Avranches, Bibliothèque municipale, 232
Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Library, MS Typ 233
Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca apostolica Vaticana, Borgh. 108
Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 74.5
Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 81.18
Pisa, Biblioteca Cateriniana, 11
Venezia, Biblioteca nazionale Marciana Z. 212 (606)
Venezia, Biblioteca nazionale Marciana, Z. 213 (751)
Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, phil. gr. 100
Primary Sources
Aristoteles, Ethica Nicomachea, edited by R. A. Gauthier, 5 vol., Aristoteles Latinus XXVI, 1-3 (Leiden and Bruxelles: Brill-Desclée De Brouwer, 1972-1974).
Aristoteles, Metaphysica. Lib. I-XIV. Recensio et Translatio Guillelmi de Moerbeka, edited by G. Vuillemin-Diem, Praefatio, Aristoteles Latinus XXV, 1 (Leiden, New York, and Köln: Brill, 1995).
S. Bonaventurae Opera Omnia, vol. 11, edited by A. C. Peltier (Paris: Vives, 1867).
Burgundio of Pisa’s Translation of Galen’s ΠΕΡΙ ΚΡΑΣΕΩΝ “De complexionibus”, edited by R. J. Durling, Galenus Latinus I (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 1976).
Burgundio of Pisa’s Translation of Galen’s ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΠΕΠΟΝΘΟΤΩΝ ΤΟΠΩΝ “De interioribus”, edited by R. J. Durling, Galenus Latinus II, vol. A (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1992).
Chrysostomus Latinus in Iohannem Online (CLIO), edited by C. L. Nighman (clioproject.net).
Chrysostomus Latinus in Matthaeum Online (CLIMO), edited by C. L. Nighman (climo-project.wlu.ca).
Saint John Damascene. De Fide Orthodoxa. Versions of Burgundio and Cerbanus, edited by E. M. Buytaert (Saint Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute, 1955).
Galeni De sanitate tuenda libri VI, edited by K. Koch, Corpus Medicorum Graecorum V 4,2 (Lipsiae and Berolini: Teubner, 1923).
Galien. Thérique à Pamphilianos, edited by V. Boudon-Millot, Collection des Universités de France (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2021).
Némésius d’Émèse. De natura hominis. Traduction de Burgundio de Pise, edited by G. Verbeke and J. R. Moncho, Corpus Latinum Commentariorum in Aristotelem Graecorum, Suppl. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1975).
Georgios Pachymeres, Commentary on Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, edited by S. Xenophontos, Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca et Byzantina 7 (Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2022).
Salimbene de Adam. Cronica I a. 1168-1249, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis CXXV (Turnholti: Brepols, 1998).
Spicilegium SS. Patrum ut et Hæreticorum Seculi post Christum natum I. II. & III., edited by J. E. Grabius (Oxoniæ: E Theatro Sheldoniano, 1698).
Spicilegium SS. Patrum ut et Hæreticorum Seculi post Christum natum I. II. & III., Editio altera, edited by J. E. Grabius (Oxoniæ: E Theatro Sheldoniano, 1714).
Secondary Sources
Angold, Michael and Burnett, Charles, “Latin Translators from Greek in the Twelfth Century on Why and How They Translate”, in Why Translate Science? Documents from Antiquity to the 16th Century in the Historical West (Bactria to the Atlantic), edited by D. Gutas (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 488-524.
Berger, Friederike, Die Textgeschichte der Historia Animalium des Aristoteles, Serta Graeca 21 (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2005).
Bossier, Fernand, “L’élaboration du vocabulaire philosophique chez Burgundio de Pise”, in Aux origines du lexique philosophique européen. L’influence de la Latinitas, edited by J. Hamesse (Louvain-la-Neuve: Fédération Internationale des Instituts d’Études Médiévales, 1997), 81-116.
Bossier, Fernand, “Les ennuis d’un traducteur. Quatre annotations sur la première traduction latine de L’Éthique à Nicomaque par Burgundio de Pise”, Bijdragen 59/4 (1998): 406-427.
Brams, Jozef, “The Revised Version of Grosseteste’s Translation of the Nicomachean Ethics”, Bulletin de philosophie médiévale 36 (1994): 45-55.
Bryant, John, The Fluid Text. A Theory of Revision and Editing for Book and Screen (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002).
Buonamici, Francesco, “Liber de vindemiis a Domino Burgundione Pisano de Graeco in Latinum fideliter translatus”, Annali delle Università Toscane 28 (1908): memoria 3, 1-29 + tav. I-VI.
Cerquiglini, Bernard, Éloge de la variante. Histoire critique de la philologie (Paris: Seuil, 1989).
Classen, Peter, Burgundio von Pisa. Richter – Gesandter – Übersetzer (Heidelberg: Winter, 1974).
Desbordes, Françoise, Argonautica. Trois études sur l’imitation dans la littérature antique (Bruxelles: Latomus, 1979).
Dionisotti, Anna Carlotta, “On the Greek Studies of Robert Grosseteste”, in The Uses of Greek and Latin. Historical Essays, edited by A. C. Dionisotti, A. Grafton, and J. Kraye (London: Warburg Institute, 1988), 19-39.
Dunbabin, Jean, “Robert Grosseteste as Translator, Transmitter, and Commentator: The ‘Nicomachean Ethics’” Traditio 28 (1972): 460-472.
Fortuna, Stefania, “Il Corpus delle traduzioni di Niccolò da Reggio (fl. 1308-1345)”, in La medicina nel basso medioevo: tradizioni e conflitti (Spoleto: Centro Italiano di studi sull’ alto medioevo, 2019), 285-312.
Fortuna, Stefania and Urso, Anna Maria, “Burgundio da Pisa traduttore di Galeno: nuovi contribute e prospettive”, in Sulla tradizione indiretta dei testi medici greci, edited by I. Garofalo, A. Lami and A. Roselli (Pisa and Roma: Serra, 2009), 139-175.
Franceschini, Ezio, “La revisione Moerbekana della ‘Translatio Lincolniensis’ dell’Etica Nicomachea”, Rivista di Filosofie Neo-Scolastica 30/2 (1938): 150-162. Reprinted in Ezio Franceschini, Scritti di filologia latina medievale (Padova: Antenore, 1976), 637-653.
Gauthier, René Antoine and Jolif, Jean Yves, L’Ethique à Nicomaque. Introduction, Traduction et Commentaire, Second edition, 4 parts in 2 vol. (Louvain-la-Neuve, Paris and Sterling, VA: Peeters, 2002).
Jonge, Marinus de, “Robert Grosseteste and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs”, The Journal of Theological Studies 42/1 (1991): 115-125.
Mercken, H. Paul F., The Greek Commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle in the Latin Translation of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (†1253), vol. I, Corpus Latinum Commentariorum in Aristotelem Graecorum VI,1 (Leiden: Brill, 1973).
Mercken, H. Paul F., The Greek Commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle in the Latin Translation of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (†1253), vol. III, Corpus Latinum Commentariorum in Aristotelem Graecorum VI,3 (Leuven: University Press, 1991).
Miramon, Charles de, “Réception et oubli de l’Ethica vetus. Salerne et Bologne (1150-1180), in Mélanges en l’honneur d’Anne Lefebvre-Teillard, edited by B. d’Alteroche, F. Demoulin-Auzary, O. Descamps, and F. Roumy (Paris: Panthéon-Assas, 2009), 727-746.
Nichols, Stephen G., “Introduction: Philology in a Manuscript Culture”, Speculum 65/1 (1990): 1-10.
Panegyres, Konstantine, “The Text of Aristotle’s Ethica Nicomachea in Laurentianus 81.18”, Prometheus 46 (2020): 3-22
Pelster, Franz, “Die ersten beiden Kapitel der Erklärung Alberts des Großen zu De animalibus in ihrer ursprünglichen Fassung. Nach Cod. Vat. lat. 718”, Scholastik 10 (1935): 229-240.
Poblete, José A., “The Medieval Reception of Aristotle’s Passage on Natural Justice: The Role of Grosseteste’s Latin Translation of Ethica Nicomachea”, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 94/2 (2020): 211-238.
Radici Colace, Paola, “De theriaca ad Pamphilianum tradotto da Niccolò da Reggio: De tiriaca ad Pamphilum”, in Estudios sobre Galeno Latino y sus fuentes, edited by M. T. Santamaría Hernández (Cuenca: Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2021), 125-161.
Saccenti, Riccardo, Un nuovo lessico morale medievale. Il contributo di Burgundio da Pisa (Roma: Aracne, 2016).
Vuillemin-Diem, Gudrun and Rashed, Marwan, “Burgundio de Pise et ses manuscrits grecs d’Aristote: Laur. 87.7 et Laur. 81.18”, Recherches de théologie et philosophie médiévales 64/1 (1997): 136-198.