ARISTOTELES. iJngJad was for Asia. Tn Ragdiid the celebrated physician and philosopher, Aviccnna (1036"), and in the West Averrhoes ( 1 1 98), and his disciple, Moses Maimonides, did most to promote the study of the Aristotelian philosophy by means of trans- lations, or rather free paraphrases, of the philoso- pher's writings. Through the Spanish Christians and Jews, the knowledge of Aristotle was propa- gated to the other nations of the West, and trans- lations of the writings of Avicenna, who was looked upon as the representative of Aristotelism, spread over France, Italy, England, and Germany. The loijical writings of Aristotle were known to the schoolmen in western Christendom before the twelfth century, through the translations of Boe- thius ; but it was not till after the crusades (about 1270), that they possessed translations of all the writings of Aristotle, which were made either from Arabic copies from Spain, or from Greek originals which they had brought with them from Constan- tinople and other Greek cities. The first western writer who translated any of the works of Aristotle into Latin, was Hermannus Alemannus, at Toledo in Spain, who translated the Ethics. Other trans- lators, whose works are in part still preserved, were Robert, bishop of Lincoln (1253), John of Rasingstoke(1252), Wilhelm of Moerbecke(1281), Gerard of Cremona (1 187), Michael Scotus (1217), and Albertus Magnus. In the years 1260 — 1270 Thomas Aquinas, the most celebrated commen- tator on Aristotle in the middle ages, prepared, through the instrumentality of the monk Wilhelm of Moerbecke, a new Latin translation of the writ- ings of Aristotle after Greek originals.* He wrote commentaries on almost all the works of the Stagi- rite ; and, together with his teacher, the celebrated Albertus Magnus, rendered the same services to the Aristotelian philosophy in the West which Avicenna and Averrhoes had done for the East and the Arabians in Spain. For the West, Paris was the seat of science and of the Aristotelian phi- losophy in particular. Next to it stood Oxford and Cologne. Almost all the celebrated schoolmen of the middle ages owed their education to one or other of these cities. 3. History of the tcritings of Aristotle since the revival of classical studies. — After Thomas Aquinas, distinguished schoolmen, it is true, occupied them- selves with the writings of Aristotle ; but the old barljaric translation was read almost exclusively. With the revival of classical studies in Italy, at the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centurj', the writings of Aristotle and the mode of treating them experienced a revolution. The struggle between liberal studies and the rigi- dity and empty quibbling of the scholastic Aristo- telism, ended in the victory of the former. Among the first and most distinguished promoters of the study of Aristotle was the excellent Greek scholar, Joh. Argyropylus of Byzantium (a.d. 1486), from whom Lorenzo de Medici took lessons. With him should be mentioned Theodor. Gaza (1478), Francisc. Philelphus (1480), Georgius of Tra- pezus, Gennadms, Leonard. Aretinus (Bruni of Arezzo). The exertions of the last-named scholar were warmly seconded by the learned and accom- plished pope Nicolaus V. (1447 — 1455), who was
- This is the translation known to critics as the
retus translation the verbal accuracy of which places it on a level with the best MSS. ARISTOTELES. 325 himself attached to the Aristotelian philosophy. Tlieir scholars, Angelus Politianus, Hermolaus Barbaras, Donatus Acciajolus, Bessarion, Augus- tinus Niphus, Jacob Faber Stapulensis, Laurentius Valla, Joh. Reuchlin, and others, in like manner contributed a good deal, by means of translations and commentaries, towards stripping the writings of Aristotle of the barbarous garb of scholasticism. The spread of Aristotle's writings by means of printing, first in the Aldine edition of five volumes by Aid. Pius Manutius, in Venice, 1495 — 1498, was mainly instrumental in bringing this about. In Germany, Rudolph Agricola, as well as Reuchlin and Melanchthon, taught publicly the Aristotelian philosophy. In Spain, Genesius Sepulveda, by means of new translations of Aristotle and his Greek commentators made immediately from Greek originals, laboured with distinguished success against the scholastic barbarism and the Aristo- telism of Averrhoes. He was supported by the Jesuits at Coimbra, whose college composed com- mentaries on almost all the writings of the philoso- pher. In like manner, in France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, Jacob Faber, Ludwig Vives, Erasmus of Rotterdam, and Konrad Gesner, took an active part in promoting the study of the Aris- totelian philosophy ; and in spite of the counter- efforts of Franciscus Patritius and Petrus Ramus, who employed all the weapons of ingenuity against the writings, philosophy, and personal character of Aristotle, the study of his philosophy continued predominant in almost all the schools of Europe. Among the learned scholars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we find the most distin- guished busied with Aristotle. Their lectures, however, which gave rise to numerous commenta- ries and editions of Aristotle, are confined princi- pally to his rhetorical, ethical, political, and aesthe- tical works. The works on logic and natural his- tory were seldom regarded, the metaphysical trea- tises remained wholly unnoticed. In Italy we must here mention Petrus Victorius (1585), and his imitator M. Antonius Maioragius (Conti, 1555), Franc. Robortelli (1567), J. C. Scaliger (1558), Julius Pacius a Beriga (1635), Baptist. Camotius, Vincent Madius, and Barthol. Lombard us, Riccoboni, Accoramboni, Montecatinus, &c. : among the French, Muretus, Is. Casaubon, Ph. J. Maus- sac, Dionys. Lambinus (1572): among the Dutch, Swiss, and Germans, Obert. Giphanius (van Giffen, 1604), the physician Theod. Zwinger (a friend of and fellow-labourer with Lambinus, and a scholar of Konrad Gesner), Camerarius of Bamberg (1574), Wilh. Hilden of Beriin (1587), Joh. Sturm (1589), Fred. Sylburg (1596), &c. Within a period of eighty years in the sixteenth century, besides innumerable editions of single wiitings of Aristotle, there appeared, beginning with the Basle edition, which Erasmus of Rotterdam superintended, no fewer than seven Greek editions of the entire works of the philosopher, some of which were repeatedly reprinted. There was also published a large number of Latin translations. From facts of this kind we may come to some con- clusion as to the interest felt by the learned public in that age in the writings of the philosopher. In England we see no signs of such studies ; and it is only in Casaubon (in the preface to his edition of the works of Aristotle) that we meet with the no- tice, that at the beginning of the sixteenth century, under the guidance of the learned physician, Tho»
