Livre de Politiques
The Livre de Politiques (commonly shortened to Politiques) is an extensively annotated Middle-French translation of Aristotle's Politics by 14th-century scientist and philosopher Nicole Oresme. It is the first extant translation of the Politics into a modern vernacular language.[1]
Historical background
There is no evidence for the
Before starting work on his own translation, Oresme was already a distinguished academic. Having probably studied the
In the turmoil following John II's capture at the
After this major crisis and after ascending the throne in 1364, Charles V started a
A printed version of the Politiques was published in 1489 by Antoine Vérard. Oresme's translation was later replaced by Louis Le Roy who in 1568 published his French translation from the Greek original.[9]
Methods of translation and annotation
Oresme justified his translation from Latin, the savant language of his time, to the more vulgar Middle French as part of the
Oresme makes use of earlier commentaries written by Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas and Peter of Auvergne, and also quotes Marsilius of Padua's Defensor pacis (1324). Oresme among others was accused of having written a French translation of this highly controversial work in 1375, but was acquitted of this charge.[12]
Content
Like his predecessors Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas and Peter of Auvergne (and quite unlike Aristotle), Oresme favours
Extant manuscripts
There are 18 known manuscripts of the Politiques in three redactions.
Reception
Oresme's Aristotelian translations may have had a major influence on
Bibliography
Primary literature
- Le Livre de Politiques d'Aristote, ed. by Antoine Vérard, Paris 1489 (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1510586w).
- Le Livre de Politiques d'Aristote. Published from the Text of the Avranches Manuscript 223, ed. by Albert Douglas Menut, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60,6 (1970), 1–392 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/1006105).
Secondary literature
- Mario Grignaschi: Nicolas Oresme et son commentaire à la «Politique» d'Aristote, in: Album Helen Maud Cam, Louvain 1960 (Studies Presented to the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions, 23), 95–151.
- Shulamith Shahar: Nicolas Oresme, un penseur politique indépendant de l'entourage du roi Charles V, in: L'information historique 32 (1970), 203–209.
- Susan M. Babbitt: Oresme's Livre de Politiques and the France of Charles V., in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 75,1 (1985), 1–158 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1006379).
- Pierre Souffrin; A. Ph. Segonds (eds.): Nicolas Oresme. Tradition et innovation chez un intellectuel du XIVe siècle, Paris 1988 (Science et humanisme).
- Jeannine Quillet (ed.): Autour de Nicole Oresme. Actes du Colloque Oresme organisé à l'Université de Paris XII, Paris 1990 (Bibliothèque d'histoire de la philosophie).
- Serge Lusignan: Lire, indexer et gloser. Nicole Oresme et la ›Politique‹ d'Aristote, in: Caroline Bourlet, Annie Dufour (eds.): L 'écrit dans la société medievale. Divers aspects de sa pratique du XIe au XVe siècle, Paris 1991, 167–181.
- James M. Blythe: Ideal Government and the Mixed Constitution in the Middle Ages, Princeton, New Jersey 1992, chapter 12: Nicole Oresme and the Synthesis of Aristotelian Political Thought.
- Jacques Krynen: Aristotélisme et réforme de l'Etat, en France, au XIVe siècle, in: Jürgen Miethke (ed.): Das Publikum politischer Theorie im 14. Jahrhundert, München 1992 (Schriften des Historischen Kollegs, 21), 225–236. (available at: http://www.historischeskolleg.de/fileadmin/pdf/kolloquien_pdf/Kolloquien21.pdf)
- Jacques Krynen: L'empire du roi. Ideés et croyances politiques en France. XIIIe–XVe siècle, Paris 1993 (Bibliothèque des histoires).
- Ulrich Meier: Mensch und Bürger. Die Stadt im Denken spätmittelalterlicher Theologen, Philosophen und Juristen, München 1994, chapter III.4: Citoyen oder bourgeois, Reichs- oder Stadtbürger? Themen und Tendenzen in den Politikkommentaren des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts:
- Ulrich Meier: Molte revoluzioni, molte novità. Gesellschaftlicher Wandel im Spiegel der politischen Philosophie und im Urteil von städtischen Chronisten des späten Mittelalters, in: Jürgen Miethke, Klaus Schreiner (eds.): Sozialer Wandel im Mittelalter. Wahrnehmungsformen, Erklärungsmuster, Regelungsmechanismen, Sigmaringen 1994, 119–176. (available at: http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/umeier/texte/Molte_rivoluzioni.pdf)
- Claire Richter Sherman: Imaging Aristotle. Verbal and Visual Representation in Fourteenth-Century France, Berkeley 1995.
- Joel Kaye: A History of Balance, 1250–1375. The Emergence of a New Model of Equilibrium and its Impact on Thought, Cambridge 2014, chapter 7: The new model of equilibrium in medieval political thought, part 2: The writings of Nicole Oresme.
- Vanina Kopp: Der König und die Bücher. Sammlung, Nutzung und Funktion der königlichen Bibliothek am spätmittelalterlichen Hof in Frankreich, Ostfildern 2016 (Beihefte der Fancia, 80).
External links
- http://jonas.irht.cnrs.fr/oeuvre/3747 (codicological information on the manuscripts, supplied by the Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes [fr])
See also
References
- ^ Albert Douglas Menut: Introduction, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60,6 (1970), 11.
- ^ Albert Douglas Menut: Introduction, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60,6 (1970), 23-24.
- ^ Albert Douglas Menut: Introduction, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60,6 (1970), 11.
- ^ The De Moneta of Nicholas Oresme and English Mint Documents, ed. by Charles Johnson, London 1956 (Medieval texts).
- ^ Traictie de la première invention des monnoies, ed. by Louis Wolowski, Paris 1864 (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5585z)
- ^ Raymond Cazelles: Société politique, noblesse et couronne sous Jean Le Bon et Charles V, Genève 1982 (Mémoires et documents publiés par la Société de l'École des Chartes, 28).
- ^ Vanina Kopp: Der König und die Bücher. Sammlung, Nutzung und Funktion der königlichen Bibliothek am spätmittelalterlichen Hof in Frankreich, Ostfildern 2016 (Beihefte der Fancia, 80).
- ^ Albert Douglas Menut: Introduction, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60,6 (1970), 13-22.
- ^ Albert Douglas Menut: Introduction, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60,6 (1970), 30.
- ^ Serge Lusignan: Lire, indexer et gloser : Nicole Oresme et la ›Politique‹ d'Aristote, in: Caroline Bourlet, Annie Dufour (eds.): L 'écrit dans la société medievale. Divers aspects de sa pratique du XIe au XVe siècle, Paris 1991, 167–181.
- ^ Albert Douglas Menut: Introduction, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60,6 (1970), 28.
- ^ Albert Douglas Menut: Introduction, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60,6 (1970), 5-11.
- ^ Mario Grignaschi: Nicolas Oresme et son commentaire à la «Politique» d'Aristote, in: Album Helen Maud Cam, Louvain 1960 (Studies Presented to the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions, 23), 95–151, esp. 99–106.
- ^ Shulamith Shahar: Nicolas Oresme, un penseur politique indépendant de l'entourage du roi Charles V, in: L'information historique 32 (1970), 203–209.
- ^ Mario Grignaschi: Nicolas Oresme et son commentaire à la «Politique» d'Aristote, in: Album Helen Maud Cam, Louvain 1960 (Studies Presented to the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions, 23), 95–151, esp. 111–112; Jacques Krynen: Aristotélisme et réforme de l'Etat, en France, au XIVe siècle, in: Jürgen Miethke (ed.): Das Publikum politischer Theorie im 14. Jahrhundert, München 1992 (Schriften des Historischen Kollegs, 21), 225–236, esp. 231–232; James M. Blythe: Ideal Government and the Mixed Constitution in the Middle Ages, Princeton, New Jersey 1992, 221–225.
- ^ Susan M. Babbitt: Oresme's Livre de Politiques and the France of Charles V., in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 75,1 (1985), 1–158, esp. 83–84; Ulrich Meier: Molte revoluzioni, molte novità. Gesellschaftlicher Wandel im Spiegel der politischen Philosophie und im Urteil von städtischen Chronisten des späten Mittelalters, in: Jürgen Miethke, Klaus Schreiner (eds.): Sozialer Wandel im Mittelalter. Wahrnehmungsformen, Erklärungsmuster, Regelungsmechanismen, Sigmaringen 1994, 119–176, esp. 127–129.
- ^ James M. Blythe: Ideal Government and the Mixed Constitution in the Middle Ages, Princeton, New Jersey 1992, 211–212.
- ^ Jacques Krynen: L'empire du roi. Ideés et croyances politiques en France. XIIIe–XVe siècle, Paris 1993, 266–272.
- ^ James M. Blythe: Ideal Government and the Mixed Constitution in the Middle Ages, Princeton, New Jersey 1992, 203–242.
- ^ Jacques Krynen: L'empire du roi. Ideés et croyances politiques en France. XIIIe–XVe siècle, Paris 1993, 110–124, 343–456.
- ^ Shulamith Shahar: Nicolas Oresme, un penseur politique indépendant de l'entourage du roi Charles V, in: L'information historique 32 (1970), 203–209; Vanina Kopp: Der König und die Bücher. Sammlung, Nutzung und Funktion der königlichen Bibliothek am spätmittelalterlichen Hof in Frankreich, Ostfildern 2016 (Beihefte der Fancia, 80).
- ^ Susan M. Babbitt: Oresme's Livre de Politiques and the France of Charles V., in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 75,1 (1985), 1–158, esp. 98–146.
- ^ Albert Douglas Menut: Introduction, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60,6 (1970), 34-43. Cf. http://jonas.irht.cnrs.fr/consulter/oeuvre/detail_oeuvre.php?oeuvre=3747
- ^ Le Livre de Yconomique d'Aristote, ed. by Albert Douglas Menut, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 47,5 (1957), 783 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1005717).
- ^ Le livre de Éthiques d'Aristote. Published from the Text of MS. 2902, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, ed. by Albert Douglas Menut, New York 1940.
- ^ "Mirador Viewer".
- ^ Its corresponding copy of the Ethiques is kept at the Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Brussels, Ms. 09505-09506 (formerly Ms. 2902). Cf. http://jonas.irht.cnrs.fr/consulter/manuscrit/detail_manuscrit.php?projet=74195.
- ^ https://opac.kbr.be/Library/doc/SYRACUSE/17506453; its corresponding copy of the Ethiques is kept at The Hague, Rijksmuseum Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum, Ms. 10 D 1.
- ^ Albert Douglas Menut: Introduction, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60,6 (1970), 5–43, esp. 9.
- ^ Albert Douglas Menut: Introduction, in: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 60,6 (1970), 30; Cary J. Nederman: A Heretic Hiding in Plain Sight. The Secret History of Marsiglio of Padua's Defensor Pacis in the Thought of Nicole Oresme, in: John Christian Laursen u.a. (eds.): Heresy in Transition. Transforming Ideas of Heresy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, London 2005 (Catholic Christendom, 1300–1700), 71–88.