Bekker numbering
Bekker numbering or Bekker pagination is the standard form of citation to the
Bekker numbers consist of up to three ordered coordinates, or pieces of information: a number, the letter a or b, and another number, which refer respectively to the page number of Bekker's edition of the Greek text of Aristotle's works, the page column (a standard page of Bekker's edition has exactly two columns), and the line number (total lines typically ranging from 20 to 40 on a given column or page in Bekker's edition). For example, the Bekker number denoting the beginning of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is 1094a1, which corresponds to page 1094 of Bekker's edition, first column (column a), line 1.[2]
All modern editions or translations of Aristotle intended for scholarly readers use Bekker numbers, in addition to or instead of page numbers. Contemporary scholars writing on Aristotle use the Bekker number so that the author's citations can be checked by readers without having to use the same edition or translation that the author used.
While Bekker numbers are the dominant method used to refer to the works of Aristotle,
Aristotle's works by Bekker numbers
The following list is complete. The titles are given in accordance with the standard set by the Revised Oxford Translation.[3] Latin titles, still often used by scholars, are also given.
Key
| ||||||
Bekker
number |
Work | Latin name | ||||
Logic | ||||||
Organon | ||||||
1a | Categories | Categoriae | ||||
16a | On Interpretation | De Interpretatione | ||||
24a | Prior Analytics | Analytica Priora | ||||
71a | Posterior Analytics | Analytica Posteriora | ||||
100a | Topics | Topica | ||||
164a | On Sophistical Refutations
|
De Sophisticis Elenchis | ||||
Physics (natural philosophy) | ||||||
184a | Physics | Physica | ||||
268a | On the Heavens | De Caelo | ||||
314a | On Generation and Corruption | De Generatione et Corruptione | ||||
338a | Meteorology | Meteorologica | ||||
391a | [On the Universe] | [De Mundo] | ||||
402a | On the Soul | De Anima | ||||
Parva Naturalia ("Little Physical Treatises") | ||||||
436a | Sense and Sensibilia | De Sensu et Sensibilibus | ||||
449b | On Memory | De Memoria et Reminiscentia | ||||
453b | On Sleep | De Somno et Vigilia | ||||
458a | On Dreams | De Insomniis | ||||
462b | On Divination in Sleep | De Divinatione per Somnum | ||||
464b | On Length and Shortness of Life |
De Longitudine et Brevitate Vitae | ||||
467b | On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration |
De Juventute et Senectute, De Vita et Morte, De Respiratione | ||||
481a | [On Breath] | [De Spiritu] | ||||
486a | History of Animals | Historia Animalium | ||||
639a | Parts of Animals | De Partibus Animalium | ||||
698a | Movement of Animals | De Motu Animalium | ||||
704a | Progression of Animals | De Incessu Animalium | ||||
715a | Generation of Animals | De Generatione Animalium | ||||
791a | [On Colors] | [De Coloribus] | ||||
800a | [On Things Heard] | [De audibilibus] | ||||
805a | [Physiognomonics] | [Physiognomonica] | ||||
815a | [On Plants] | [De Plantis] | ||||
830a | [On Marvellous Things Heard] | [De mirabilibus auscultationibus] | ||||
847a | [Mechanics] | [Mechanica] | ||||
859a | Problems* | Problemata* | ||||
968a | [On Indivisible Lines] | [De Lineis Insecabilibus] | ||||
973a | [The Situations and Names of Winds] |
[Ventorum Situs] | ||||
974a | [On Melissus, Xenophanes, and Gorgias] |
[De Melisso, Xenophane, Gorgia] | ||||
Metaphysics | ||||||
980a | Metaphysics | Metaphysica | ||||
Ethics and politics | ||||||
1094a | Nicomachean Ethics | Ethica Nicomachea | ||||
1181a | Great Ethics* | Magna Moralia* | ||||
1214a | Eudemian Ethics | Ethica Eudemia | ||||
1249a | [On Virtues and Vices] | [De Virtutibus et Vitiis Libellus] | ||||
1252a | Politics | Politica | ||||
1343a | Economics* | Oeconomica* | ||||
Rhetoric and poetics | ||||||
1354a | Rhetoric | Ars Rhetorica | ||||
1420a | [Rhetoric to Alexander] | [Rhetorica ad Alexandrum] | ||||
1447a | Poetics | Ars Poetica |
Aristotelian works lacking Bekker numbers
Constitution of the Athenians
The Constitution of the Athenians (or Athenaiōn Politeia) was not included in Bekker's edition because it was first edited in 1891 from papyrus rolls acquired in 1890 by the British Museum. The standard reference to it is by section (and subsection) numbers.
Fragments
Surviving fragments of the many lost works of Aristotle were included in the fifth volume of Bekker's edition, edited by
For a selection of the fragments in English translation, see W.D. Ross, Select Fragments (Oxford 1952), and Jonathan Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, vol. 2, Princeton 1984, pp. 2384–2465.
The works surviving only in fragments include the dialogues On Philosophy (or On the Good), Eudemus (or On the Soul), On Justice, and On Good Birth. The possibly spurious work, On Ideas survives in quotations by Alexander of Aphrodisias in his commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics. For the dialogues, see also the editions of Richard Rudolf Walzer, Aristotelis Dialogorum fragmenta, in usum scholarum (Florence 1934), and Renato Laurenti, Aristotele: I frammenti dei dialoghi (2 vols.), Naples: Luigi Loffredo, 1987.
Use in citations
To cite a work of the Corpus Aristotelicum or part thereof, Bekker numbers may be combined with book, chapter, and line numbers to give a precise reference. By academic convention, and regardless of the
For example, a citation of (Metaphysics, 1.9,991b9-20) would refer to lines 9–20 on page 991b of chapter 9 in Book I of the Metaphysics.
See also
References
- ^ Aristotelis Opera edidit Academia Regia Borussica, ex recognitione Immanuelis Bekkeri, 5 voll. Berlin, Georgium Reimerum, 1831-1870 (the last volume contains the Index Aristotelicus by Hermann Bonitz)
- ^ Jonathan Barnes, The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle, Cambridge 1995 xxi
- ^ The Complete Works of Aristotle, edited by Jonathan Barnes, 2 vols., Princeton University Press, 1984.
- ^ "CU-Boulder Expert Wins $75,000 Award For Research On Aristotle," Archived 2016-04-18 at the Wayback Machine University of Colorado Office of News Services, December 14, 2005.
- ^ "Citing Plato and Aristotle: Stephanus and Bekker Numbers". Proofed. 2019-11-23. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
Visualization
The Bekker pagination method, similar to other conventional systems for numbering pages, exhibits a notable lack of visual representation. The existing data consists of handwritten annotations, unanalyzed tabular data, and visuals from published scholarly works. The visualization is known as the first attempt to visualize
[1] "The Art and Craft of Citing Aristotle: A Revisit to Bekker Pagination"
The data for visualization was obtained from the Persues website.